Games for 2008

[Uriel]

So about the Xbox Keynote speech..

Ninja Gaiden 2, June 2008 -- cool. Fable 2 is a game that's being made by Peter Molyneux, release date? No news. Cliffy B shows up for roughly 30 seconds to announce Gears of War 2 -- the 100% expected "surprise announcement". After all of that I think that Sony is generating more hype -- even without hosting a keynotes speech themselves. I'm sure the DLC is where it'll be at this year. Apparently Alan Wake is being reserved for E3... apparently.

Finished the podcast and I'm looking forward to more!

 

[CnC]

yea so far I'm pretty bored with the conference. Not much news and the Gears 2 "surprise" wasn't much. The teaser is up on gamevideos.com. The only possible info that could be gleaned is that chainsaws can lock together.

 

[Oburi]

As for Amy...all I'll say is: WHERE IS MY LEGACY OF KAIN FINALE?!

Let us all send her some nasty e-mails that she deserves

 

[Uriel]

yea so far I'm pretty bored with the conference. Not much news and the Gears 2 "surprise" wasn't much. The teaser is up on gamevideos.com. The only possible info that could be gleaned is that chainsaws can lock together.

This WILL cheer you up. Sure as hell made my morning!

 

[Aazealh]

So, anybody excited about Portal 2? I wonder how it'll articulate itself with the main HL plot.

 

[CnC]

So, anybody excited about Portal 2? I wonder how it'll articulate itself with the main HL plot.

Well, of course! I loved me some portal puzzles. However as I understand it, it wasn't a formal announcement, was it? Can't say it's a completely unexpected move given Portal's popularity.

Also, in a somewhat related announcement, Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive" has been announced as DLC in Rock Band. So that could be cool :)

 

[Aazealh]

Well, of course! I loved me some portal puzzles. However as I understand it, it wasn't a formal announcement, was it? Can't say it's a completely unexpected move given Portal's popularity.

No, not a press release or anything, but since it was announced by Kimberly Swift (lead dev of Portal) in an interview I think we can take it as reliable.

 

[Oburi]

I didn't know where else to stick this so...https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7233
you can thank me later.

Also for any of you jrpg fans out there like me... http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/821/821710.html Infinite Undiscovery from square enix and tri-ace. Looks cool.

and Tales of Vesperia http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/142/14225689.html Can't wait for these.

 

[Aazealh]

I didn't know where else to stick this so...https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7233
you can thank me later.

That's cool, but it's nothing www.virtualnes.com can't do.

 

[Oburi]

That's cool, but it's nothing www.virtualnes.com can't do.

Ha ha. Nice! Any way about some upcoming video games. Ninja Gaiden II anyone. I can't freaking wait!! The first one was so hard I was never able to beat it. But this looks like its going to be lots of fun.

 

[Scorpio]

and Tales of Vesperia http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/142/14225689.html Can't wait for these.

The only Tales game I've played is Tales of Symphonia. I enjoyed it, but their use of every story cliche ever invented made me wince a few times. Still, Vesperia is looking pretty good, and I especially enjoy that graphics style- the cell shaded but not quite.

 

[Oburi]

yea the graphics look cool. Notice production i.g. is involved

 

[Oburi]

I recently played and beat Viking: the battle of Asgard and I must say me and my friend were very impressed. There were some huge battles that you get to fight in. The final boss was lots a fun too. Overall the game was surprisingly fun. I also bought Too Humane today. Fucking awsome. THe fighting is very unique and the upgrading...ahh yes, skill trees, weapon and armor customization and of course, runes. I'm not very far but it's soo addicting. I highly recommend it.

 

[Vaxillus]

Too Human good? Gametrailers shot it down in a fiery ball of 10 year old crap (6.5 out of 10, if you're curious). Having been looking at all the gameplay videos they've put out I'm not surprised, it's looked terrible to me ever since I first saw it. Nothing meshes together visually, the combat looks repeditive and totally untactical. Worst is that the entire thing tries to emulate the attacks and style from other action games and completely fails, looking like that unpupular kid who goes around in sunglasses and a turned around baseball cap trying to look cool. Is there something in there that redeems it? I could be wrong, I've been too disgusted to try the game.

 

[Walter]

It was either IGN or 1up that said "if you like random loot drops, then Too Human is your game." I lol'd

I think the company must have paid various game sites a bundle to keep its name on the top of the stack prior to its release, because I swear there was SO MUCH PRESS for what honestly looked like a mediocre RPG. Glad it finally got its due.

 

[Oburi]

Technically speaking it's not all that amazing, I'm just personally having a blast with it. I know the game has faults but withought being too picky and just playing it for fun is really making it rock hard. What Walter said about the loot dropping is dead accurate. I love it and it's very addicting. It's like diablo in the sense that I get addicted to playing through massive cyber dungeons for hours just to get new items and customize my character. Me and my friend are like obsessed with it right now. The art direction and gameplay is really unique and I just love the overall style and atmosphere, despite the games technical errors.

 

[Vaxillus]

Well, I certainly can't fault you for your opinion. God knows I'm playing Monster Hunter for the PS2 right now, and that's gotten plenty of bad reviews. I think Walter has a point though, it got too much press for such a flawed game. It would be one thing if it was a unique concept, but it wasn't really aiming to break any ground. Having such a mediocre looking product shoved in my face really hasn't done much for my opinion of the game.

 

[Guts intestines]

Technically speaking it's not all that amazing, I'm just personally having a blast with it. I know the game has faults but withought being too picky and just playing it for fun is really making it rock hard. What Walter said about the loot dropping is dead accurate. I love it and it's very addicting. It's like diablo in the sense that I get addicted to playing through massive cyber dungeons for hours just to get new items and customize my character. Me and my friend are like obsessed with it right now. The art direction and gameplay is really unique and I just love the overall style and atmosphere, despite the games technical errors.

I think Gameinformer had said that it was exactly like the original Diablo, and it was IGN that said its a random loot dropper, overall it sounds like its below average to mediocre. The only problem with that is that it was hyped up to be revolutionary.

 

[Oburi]

I just bought Tales of Vesperia. It's really cool and I'm very addicted right now. Very similar to Eternal Sonata. The in-game graphics aren't as beautiful as Eternal Sonata but at least the characters don't all look like their 12 years old. The cutscenes are all in anime style and so far the story is decent. I usually like old school turn based fighting but this new system is cool too. You and all your party members fight in reall time and you can do all sorts of combos and magic. This makes the battles look very fast and real. So far I'm loving it. Between this and Too Human and even Soul Calibur 4 I've been feeling like a little kid again. Also the demo for Star Wars THe Force Unleashed which came out last week is completely stunning. I've played it like 5 times because it's so much fun. I think one reason I really enjoy it is because it has very little to do with the new episodes. It's all based on the older movies. Storm Troopers, Tie fighters, bounty hunters etc. The gameplay is really great.

 

[Walter]

Also the demo for Star Wars THe Force Unleashed which came out last week is completely stunning. I've played it like 5 times because it's so much fun. I think one reason I really enjoy it is because it has very little to do with the new episodes. It's all based on the older movies. Storm Troopers, Tie fighters, bounty hunters etc. The gameplay is really great.

I just watched a playthrough of the demo on YouTube, and while it looks cool to be the ULTIMATE JEDI BADASS, tearing through Storm Troopers like butter, it looks like it would get tiring after 1 hour or so. I know I got bored with the 15 minutes I saw of it. The level design is really poor, just from what's in the demo. Lots of HUGE rooms that make you do a lot of walking to and from each enemy. It's a lot like watching a Roger Corman movie.

 

[SimplyEd]

I just watched a playthrough of the demo on YouTube, and while it looks cool to be the ULTIMATE JEDI BADASS, tearing through Storm Troopers like butter, it looks like it would get tiring after 1 hour or so. I know I got bored with the 15 minutes I saw of it. The level design is really poor, just from what's in the demo. Lots of HUGE rooms that make you do a lot of walking to and from each enemy. Like a Roger Corman movie.

I just hope it's nothing like Episode 1-3...lots of flash,no real substance.
Then again, should this one play out anything like Jedi Academy i'll gladly purchase it right away. I should probably wait for the first few reliable reviews of that game.

 

[Oburi]

I just hope it's nothing like Episode 1-3...lots of flash,no real substance.
Then again, should this one play out anything like Jedi Academy i'll gladly purchase it right away. I should probably wait for the first few reliable reviews of that game.

THat was what I was trying to say. It's not like episode 1-3. I felt like I was playing through the old movies. NOt one thing even reminded me that the new movies even exist. Thats what was so cool about it.

 

[Oburi]

I recently picked up the square enix title Infinite Undiscovery and I think this might be my new favorite game. I'm so addicted I played this for about 10 hours strait. Despite the average reviews it got I must say it's really, really great. It's your typical jrpg that graphically looks like FFVI crisis core for the psp but the battles play in real time. I wasn't looking forward to the new style since I like old school turn based fighting but this is by far the most fun. The music, the environments, the characters...everything is top notch. Granted I'm not finished yet so I won't say anything about the story but so far so good. It reminds me of a Japanese Oblivion... but it's deff a square enix title.

 

[Xem]

Not getting my hopes up, but the new Sonic Unleashed looks like it could possibly be the Sonic game some of us have been wanting ever since the originals.

http://wii.kombo.com/article.php?artid=11846

Regarding gameplay, Hashimoto confirms that the stages of Unleashed will feature both traditional 3D gameplay and sidescrolling in a 3D environment, with transitions occuring seamlessly, with the ratio of the two being about half and half. "We understand Sonic fans truly love classic sidescrolling Sonic gameplay. Sonic Unleashed should be the Sonic game that finally fills that void."

Apparently this is not another Sonic Adventure, so that's good, but I'm a bit wary of the transforming into a Werewolfhog-thing. One major plus, aside from the side-scrolling feature, is Sonic will actually be fast in this game... like 6 times faster than he was in Sonic Adventures in some areas.

 

[Aazealh]

I've stopped hoping as far as Sonic goes. I'll believe it when I see it. But since we're on the topic, has anyone been looking into Sonic Chronicles for the NDS?