But not in the way you’re thinkin’, bub. But maybe so. I can appreciate AM2’s use of the double entendre, but its title definitely leans towards the wetwork connotation. I say this because of the righteous amounts of violence and bloodletting its lead character, Rubi, displays.
The Tomb Traider games have been trying to recreate Lara Croft’s image to recover her waning appeal. AM2 may have beaten them to the punch because Rubi seems to have all the action Tomb Raider wishes it could have as well as Lara’s sex appeal without becoming a caricature of herself. She’s 007 cool and Ninja Gaiden deadly with a little Prince of Persia style.
But to say that WET is 100% derivative would be unfair. Its visuals seem to be very unique in itself. With grunge and dust-scratched film filters alongside high contrast killing blows, it looks to be a visual feast. While easy to compare it to Max Payne, the game takes the best of all worlds much like the heroine herself. Combine acrobatics with hyper-stylized gun and swordplay and you may just have a product greater than the titles it’s influenced by. For instance, Rubi can trigger her slow-mo, wallrun while pegging unfortunates, walljump then penetrate the neck of an even more unfortunate with her sword. But don’t just take my word for it, check out the gameplay video below and her website here.
WET is looking at a TBA release date somewhere in 2009.
For someone who’s not really into downloadable content, I’ve talked quite a bit about DLC the past couple of days. On the heels of the RE5 DLC, comes the announcement of Killzone 2’s first DLC package. Not surprising, it will be a couple of new multiplayer maps.
The DLC pack is called Steel & Titanium. The two maps are called Wasteland Bullet, and Vekta Cruiser. The first map sounds quite intriguing as it will take place on a couple of fast moving trains. It provides some interesting environment interaction. The Vekta Cruiser sounds like a fan induced inclusion which is never a bad thing. Click the link below for more details.
Killzone 2 DLC Details
We now live in this crazy world of ‘micro-transactions’, where money spent doesn’t seem like so much. Keep a track record of how much you spend, and you’ll be surprised how fast it can add up. It’s becoming the preffered model for MMORPGs. You can play for free but if you want the +1000 virgin slaying bastard sword, it’s going to cost you $15. It’s easy to get suckered into buying things we don’t need. How about the always classic: Armor for your horse that’s useless, but costs you $1.99 (Elder Scrolls: Oblivion). Hey, it’s just two bucks though…right?
Atleast the horse armor can say something that the recent Resident Evil 5 DLC can’t. It’s actual content that is ‘downloaded’, and not unlocked. Oh, Capcom is the mighty value dollar worth that much? That you would risk losing trust from your fanbase.
Ok, I should probably elaborate on the situation a bit.
A few days ago, Capcom released the first DLC for Resident Evil 5. It included two competitive multiplayer modes aptly named, Slayer’s Rule and Survivor’s Rule. The prior being a challenge to see which character can kill the most Majinis (zombie like folk), and the latter pitting you against each other. These two modes set you back $3.99, which isn’t too bad right?
It wouldn’t be bad if the content wasn’t already on your disk. That’s right, when you pay that extra $3.99 you’re actually just downloading a small piece of code to complete the VS. mode code. So, that you can play it. *Sigh*
Capcom has responded to the criticisms of their decision, stating that the VS. mode was an element added in towards the end of developent. Meaning, that it wasn’t originally part of the game. Yet, they worked on it enough to put most of the code on the disk. It seems like someone in the company would have been smart enough to suggest just leaving the entire code off the disk. Foresight is something to look for in employees.
There’s a ton of gamers out there boycotting the pseudo-DLC, and raising pitchforks against Capcom. I’m not going to go that far, and I say if you want the content then just get it. It’s only $3.99 right……doh!
Power Man, (Luke Cage) and and Iron Fist (Danny Rand) were a 70’s super-hero duo, The Heroes for Hire. While a bit hokey for today’s standards, Cage and Iron Fist have been updated for modern comics and they’re the real deal. Nick Cage actually chose his stage name from Power Man for a little funfact. The current Iron Fist comic run is heavily entrenched in Far East mythology and magic-based power paced like a wushu martial arts movie with a Western superhero twist.
Kotaku’s posted a video showing some in-game action of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. While not the original developers of M:UA, Vicarious Visions have been responsible for porting the the original to the DS and PSP. And no stranger to comic book action, they’ve had their fingerprints on Ultimate Spider-Man, X-Men :Legends 2 and Batman Begins for the portable systems.
Looks like they’re in the big leagues now and have a tough act follow because the original Ultimate Alliance had some out of the park fun-factor. If this video is any indication, it appears they might actually have that covered.
Source: Kotaku
Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden gets another lovely companion in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. Ayana, best known as the purple-haired ninja from the Tecmo Dead or Alive fighting game series, takes a place beside the buxom blonde warrior Rachel and another raven-haired warrior with a glaive. She’s a likely candidate for an appearance since she and Hayabusa are both in Tecmo franchises and they’re both rockass ninja. Believe it or not, they’ve used Ayane’s classic costume that’s got that 6 foot red bow strapped to her backside. Not a bad present if you ask me.
Source: Famitsu
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Yeah this is totally an excuse to post drawings of girls in bikini’s but an objection to this is like an objection to art. In fact it may very well be an objection to awesomeness. Kicking off our
Spring Break Edition is artist Greg Horn of Marvel Comics who did this PSM magazine of Cassandra from Soul Calibur. Click her for the rest of the pictorials.
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And that’s wear blue jeans and a t-shirt. I think I have more interesting superhero costumes than this. Ah well it is an origin story that’s a video game based on a movie based on a comic book. That mouthful said, the game actually looks better than the movie. So far, it looks to be God of War violent which any solo Wolverine property should be. when X-Men aren’t around to keep him in check he’s usually running around dicing fools. Like blood-buckets spilling from a frenzied maniac killer violent. The trailer here shows more of the stylish action to be expected but the game might be the first adaptation to actually be the bloodbath it should be.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Time will tell whether or not the gameplay is solid. And for a movie adaptation, that’s a tall order. But from the looks of things we can at least be optimistic.
Check out these pics of Nina and Jin Kazama! Granted they look like they were taken by a crew member’s phone camera but it puts many of my fears to rest. Tekken has never even really had a much of a storyline to stay true to: A bunch of badass lookin’ people get together for some sort of “Iron Fist Tournament” thing to get whipped by an 80 year old man and his demon son. From the looks at those cell phone pics the character costumes look like they pulled every stitch straight out of the video game.
There’s absolutely no reason visual faithfulness and serious storytelling have to be mutually exclusive when it comes to adapting properties like video games and comic books. My unending gratitude to the costume designers of Spider-Man, Iron Man, Watchmen, Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat and now Tekken.
Bryan Fury, Anna Williams and Marshall Law
Tekken Force!
I’m a long time Nina Williams and Bryan Fury fan. Here’s a bonus pic from a Maxim pictorial of Candice Hillebrand who’s playing my girl. (more…)
The Street Fighter series has been all but stagnant for the better part of 15 years and finally after countless iterations and 3D attempts Street Fighter II’s true successor has hit the streets. For some reason Capcom always had trouble marrying the fast and furious nature of the series and the flexibility of the camera of their 3D forays. Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha and Star Gladiator, while fun, always felt a bit floaty. It wasn’t until they made Viewtiful Joe soon after the advent of cell-shaded graphics did I see the potential of someday experiencing swooping camera animations during 3D specials.
Today is that day.
Street Fighter IV is everything a fan has dreamed of from the series. Tight control, balanced gameplay, flashy finishers, gorgeous character models, stages and online play. HD Remix gave us a taste of what could be in a current online Street Fighter and it’s all here. In fact it’s just about more than anyone could ask for.
They even incorporated anime intros and endings and in-game mini-cutscene character interactions. Died. In Heaven. I understand most these types of games are all about the fight but those kinds of things are what encourage a player to try out different characters and rewards them for beating it with everyone.
I do wish they hadn’t made grapples’ input commands as simultaneous light kick/punch. I assign those to shoulder buttons and that’s just weird. You can assign throw to R1 or R2 but those might be bettter suited for 3x punches/kicks. Ah the conundrum. Oh well I can forgive them. I can also forgive them for putting some crazy Justin Timberlake sounding pop song peppered throughout the game but whatev. This game is the supreme dopeness regardless.
Go buy it. Play it. See me online and let me flash kick you into oblivion and love it.
Score: 10/10
So booth babes are coming back to the Electronic Entertainment Expo. I long pondered E3’s Hitlerian Booth Babe Prohibition Act of 2006. I mean, why? This was a pathetic attempt at making the convention more professional and businesslike. What they forgot is that it was a party to celebrate that which was fun: video games! It’s OK to not have to take it too seriously. They took away all the glitz and glamour and left a husk of an event now a completely sterile environment.
Who wants that in a video game expo? Bring the fireworks, fog machines, laser lights, skimpy shorts and celebrity appearances.
The whole time I was disappointed in the booth babe ban I thought that it was just me being a perv. But that’s not the case. Well, I am a perv, but the point is that they took away the hype that we Westerners have that can anywhere near compare to the Tokyo Game Show. It wasn’t just girlies they took away, it was the spectacle of it.
A once hot hype machine reduced to a cold turkey that used to serve as a launching pad for so many developers now just foldout table with coffee and doughnuts. Something tells me the massive hit the gaming industry took last year has convinced the E3 overlords to possibly bring back some fun to the event. To bring back every bit of promotion back to the gaming biz and forget these foolish notions of professionalism. Integrity’s overrated anyway.
