You may have heard by now that Rocksteady Studios and Eidos are co-developing a new Batman game, “Arkham Asylum” for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The game is not related in any way to the film series, is being written by official DC writers and chronicles Batman’s struggle to quell an uprising at the legendary Arkham Asylum (home to all of Batman’s major criminals) being orchestrated by the Joker. The game is rumored to run on the Unreal Engine, and has a very dark and gritty feel to it. Not much more is known about the game at this point, but after seeing the amazing screenshots that have been leaked on the Internet this week, it has definitely piqued my interest!
It’s hard not to be excited about all things Batman with the Dark Knight coming out this weekend. Well Here’s something else to get excited about: We played Lego Batman at the E3 and it was rad!
Check out these new pics from Lego batman, showing off a number of new playable characters. More to come as additional characters are revealed!
Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe probably doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of coming even close to the level of excellence set by Marvel Vs. Capcom 2…
HOWEVER! The game looks and plays 1000 times better than you remember Mortal Kombat being, and may just signal a return to greatness for the series. We’ve got our hands on a few new screens that show a couple of new characters in addition to the already announced roster of Batman, Superman, The Flash, Sonya Blade, Scorpion and Sub Zero…
This year at the E3, it has become clear that gaming is undertaking an evolutionary leap forward in terms of how games are played, what kind of stories they tell, and how users can interact with them.
After playing dozens, maybe even a hundred or more games, it was hard to pick just a few that represented the very best.Instead of picking the obvious ones, we selected the games that had the most impact in style, mechanics or unique features. Check out our picks for the top games of the show that we would totally buy:
Battlestations: Pacific
I normally find myself averse to playing WWII shooters as a general rule. There are just so goddamn many of them, and the genre is as confining as it is overcrowded. So it came as a very pleasant surprise that Battlestations: Pacific was unlike any other WWII game that I’ve ever experienced, and a hell of a lot of fun to play. First of all, it’s not really a FPS at all; in fact all of the battles are pretty much by sea or air. You command an entire fleet of US or Japanese ships and planes, and can take the wheel of any vehicle in your command at any time for a fully immersive action experience. You rarely see action and tactical elements combined as successfully as they have been here. The planes handle amazingly well, and even the giant sea destroyers and carriers are a snap to control. The story for the Japanese side is noteworthy for being sort of a “what if” scenario in which the tide is turned midway through the war. It also bears mention that previously classified specifications regarding Japanese sea craft and planes were provided to the developers, lending the game an unmatched level of realism and historical accuracy. Read the rest of this entry →
If Sega was still in the console game today, I’d consider it safe to say that they would rule 2009 on the strength of their upcoming game catalogue alone. They had no fewer than 8 games on the floor (and behind closed doors) that are sure to be monster hits, some of which were even totally brand new IPs!
We’ll start with Bayonetta, an action game with a sense of theatrics so extreme that it makes Devil May Cry look like Connect Four. You play as a witch in 7-inch stilettos (that also double as machine pistols) with magic hair that can conjure up torture devices to destroy invading angels. Sounds crazy, is crazy, and looks all the more rad for it. Next up was Mad World, a black and white (and red) action game that looks kind of like Sin City but plays out more like “The Running Man”, only with 100 times more violence than any anything, ever. Surprisingly, Mad World is a Wii exclusive, much like the similarly violent but totally unrelated No More Heroes that quenched Wii gamers bloodlust this year.
Also showing at Sega was Sonic Unleashed, which features both a night and day play environment, one that has you running around as Sonic at speeds that made me want to take Dramamine, and one that has you playing more of a combat/exploration type game as “Sonic the Were-Hog”. Stormrise brings large scale tactical RTS combat to consoles, and Alpha Protocol looks like the spy version of Mass Effect. This last one in particular was one of the best of the whole show, a cool idea executed very nicely. James Bond can suck it!
Lastly we had Samba De Amigo for the Wii, Valkyria Chronlcles, a tactical RPG with a very unique looking cel-shaded graphical style, and Golden Axe: Beast Riders. I had heard that Golden Axe was cancelled a couple of months back so I was surprised to see it here in playable form, but it was a fun action title nevertheless, despite having nothing on Bayonetta. In total, an awesome showing from a veteran company in their finest form.
Square Enix was showing a new RPG called Infinite Indiscovery that looks to be the next big thing for the company (if it doesn’t fall too deep into the shadow of Final Fantasy XII), but it’s Nintendo DS gamers who are in for a real treat this fall season. In addition to the soon to be released Final Fantasy IV remake, there’s also Dragon Quest IV and the ever so long awaited Chrono Trigger port on the way as well. Read the rest of this entry →
