Well, an unofficial one anyway. According to an article at Shoot the Core it will be hitting XBLA on April 9th.
Still a bit obscure due to it’s only previous U.S. release being a limited print run on the Gamecube a few years ago, it’s good to see this game getting some attention. It’s one of the best, and hardest, arcade shooters I’ve ever played.
Here’s a video of the first level being played on the Gamecube version.
Super Dodgeball Brawlers is coming out for the DS! Sure, they announced it a while back, but there are finally some gameplay trailers up.
Here’s the Japanese trailer for the game.
It looks great. I’m just mad that I’ll finally have to shell out for a DS. That’s right, not New Super Mario Bros., not Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Super Dodgeball Brawlers.
I love the NES version, and I actually bought my Gameboy Advance for Super Dodgeball Advance, so this is the game release I’m most looking forward too. I realize that not everyone has played the older games in the series (or even heard of them), so here is some footage from the NES version, and yes, it is suppesed to look like that.
If you have the means, go out and buy this game.
NOW.
I cannot recommend this game highly enough. Seriously, it is one of the most amazing, intense, enjoyable games I’ve ever played. And I say “enjoyable” instead of “fun” for a reason. I had a great time playing the game, but it’s hard to call one of the most accurate depictions of combat in any medium “fun.”
The multiplayer aspect on the other hand is one of the better team based FPSs I’ve played in a while, but more on that later.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, available on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC (I played it on PC), was developed by Infinity Ward, the developers of the first two Call of Duty games. Other installments in the series (Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Call of Duty 3, etc.) were developed by other teams at Activision to a lesser degree of success. Not bad games, just not up to the standard of the “real” Call of Duty series.
Anyway, back to the game itself.
The game, as the name implies, attempts to give players some kind of idea what modern warfare is like. It’s a lot less two-hundred guys charging a hill and more five guys trying to find cover in the middle of a firefight. Without giving too much away, you play through related conflicts as two different soldiers, one a member of the British S.A.S. special forces, and the other a U.S. Marine. Although not based exactly on any specific events, the Marine’s missions take place in a Middle Eastern country and deal with the U.S. moving in to overthrow a dictator. It’s not exactly hard to see what they were going for. The S.A.S. soldier’s missions mainly take place in the former Soviet Bloc, and foreshadow future conflicts that could arise due to political instability in the region.
The missions are strung together by briefings and news broadcasts, usually of events that have already happened in the game, displaying how military operations, especially covert ones, aren’t always show exactly as the happened, even if the general idea is right.
Anyway, this game is intense. Even on the easiest difficulty you end up seeing the tastefully done, and sometimes thought provoking, death screens quite often. They just have the screen fade to gray and display either a quote about war, like “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.” -Winston Churchill, or some interesting fact, like that a single B-2 Bomber costs $2.2 billion. It’s much better than just some tacked on “GAME OVER” screen, and helps add context to your actions. Higher difficulties make the game even more difficult, increasing realism. As in, one shot and you’re dead realism.
Beating the single player game also unlocks an Arcade mode, with a running score and set lives for each mission, so that adds a little replay value, but the multiplayer really is good enough to stand on its own.
Call of Duty 4’s multiplayer is amazing. Great weapons, good balance between side for team games (on most maps anyway) and RPG elements to keep it interesting for a long time. By getting kills, capturing points, or completing other tasks you gain experience which progresses you through the ranks, unlocking new weapons and abilities called perks. Between the different weapon layouts and perks, you can customize your character to fit your play style.
Again, I cannot recommend this game highly enough. Whatever system you play it on, it is an amazing experience and should not be missed by any gamer.
This is just amazing. Made my running 1000 replays of a Trackmaina Sunrise track on top of each other.
Despite my best efforts, I’m somehow still president of the Gamers of OSU and we’re having a LAN party!
Saturday, March 15 in the Student Union, Exhibit Room 2 (4th floor) starting at 10:00 a.m. and running until 6:00 p.m. $5 at the door.
Normally we run until about 11:00, but it’s the start of spring break and the Union closes early. We thought about moving, then remembered that we’re about broke.
The informal title of this LAN is “There will be Brawl!” As the name suggests, we’re having a Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament. Make sure you show up by 2:00 if you want in. We’re still doing PC stuff, mainly Call of Duty 4 and Team Fortress 2, but we’ll play whatever.
So come on out and have a good time!
If you haven’t heard of Penny Arcade I’m going to cut you some slack, but if you’re even remotely interested in anything I’ve written about on this site you should be reading it. One warning though, “four-letter words” are quite common, but I really don’t think the strip would work as well without it.
Seriously, Penny Arcade has some of the best analysis of video games, the industry, and geek culture in general that I’ve ever seen. Gabe’s (Mike Krahulic) artwork has steadily been getting better over the now almost ten year history of the site. He pretty consistently great now.
It’s really quite amazing how far he’s come as an artist from the first strip back in 1998.
Also, Tycho’s (Jerry Holkins) writing is amazing. He is one of my favorite writers, regardless of medium.
A great example was his description of their friend’s obsession with Pokemon:
I mean, there are profundities here. It’s like looking into a twisting hole in reality that has another hole inside it, snaking through the universe, and in this second hole a third hole is visible. In this third hole - should you look long enough - you can see your own death.
Also, this strip is another great example:
I really don’t know of too many other people who write like that.
Also, I love plays on words, and PA delivers.
But back to why they tie into gaming. Despite being just a webcomic that comes out three times a week and a “news” post detailing whatever Tycho (and sometimes Gabe) have been playing lately, they have some of the best commentary around. They don’t give games a score, letter grade, or anything like that. They just say what they think about it, good, bad, or ugly. Even their ads are somewhat personal. In the past they would take ads from just about any game that looked decent, but after there was a bit of an argument between them and Ubisoft over their harsh criticism of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. They agreed to run the ads based on liking the first game, but weren’t fans of changes made in the sequel and made that known on the site. Ubisoft wasn’t pleased, but they explained that the reason ads on their site (apparently) correlate highly with sales is that they only allow ads for games they actually really liked. After that, they started making sure they could actually play at least some of the game before agreeing to any advertising deal.
This is an even bigger deal after “Gerstmann-gate.” For those that don’t know, Jeff Gerstmann was an editor at Gamespot, one of the bigger gaming websites, and had been for several years. Eidos, the publishers of Kane & Lynch, were pumping tons of advertising dollars into the site. As in, allowing users to skin the site with Kane & Lynch themes, ads all over the site, etc. Big time promotion. Jeff wasn’t a fan of the game, giving it a 6.0 out of 10, which within the context of that site’s reviews, is mediocre at best and implies that the game is not good. Shortly thereafter, Jeff was fired. Now, there has never been an admission that this was the reason for it, but anonymous tips from other Gamespot employees has suggested that he wasn’t fired for the score, but for the overall “tone” of his review. This outraged many in the gaming community and press, but not much was ever officially resolved. Several other editors and writers left the site, either in protest or fear of being fired for one of their future reviews, and Gerstmann has recently started a new site, Giant Bomb.
It’s not even just big news that gets great coverage from them. Often, it’s just some weird quirk a game has.
So seriously, if you’re into gaming, or just geeky humor, Penny Arcade is a great read.
I got Rock Band a few weeks ago, and at least for the band my roommates made, I’ve been the drummer. I’m not great, but I’ve never played drums before, so being able to pass stuff consistently on medium seems like a good start to me.
Then I saw this video of The Perfect Drug on expert from the recent Nine Inch Nails DLC pack:
I already know Trent Reznor is a bad ass, why does he have to rub it it?
I guess the person playing in that clip is an actual drummer of sorts and did some minor mods on the drum kit to make it play a little more realistically, so I don’t feel quite as bad.
Still though, not even they got it perfect. I wonder if it’s even possible.