Last year AMC hinted that a video game license had been negotiated. Telltale Games was the group working on it, and that truthfully was the last we had heard about it. Jokingly in “Playing Dead” the video series that Telltale is releasing during the development process, they even take time to joke that the staff is “mute”. Watching their video series has me extremely interested in what they’re doing with the game. Telltale is big on releasing Episodic content, and The Walking Dead will be no different. You pick up the game through Steam, Xbox LIve Arcade, The SEN, iOS Appstore, or their website. And then you can grind on through it.

Key point wise I’m super excited that they aren’t making another hack-and-slash zombie game. It is going to follow the most important aspect of Walking Dead, discussing the human condition. What would our society do if the apocalypse hit, would it turn into a Left 4 Dead style shoot ’em up. No, it would be a fight for survival person to person, we would form groups, alliances, hoard food. We would be real, honest people.

The artwork looks incredible, the content looks good, and judging by Kirkman’s quote, “I want people crying, and hugging and sh!t.” We have a lot to look forward to.

The crew at Irrational Games announced proudly this morning via the the BioShock Infinite websitethat the game will be launching on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC October 16, 2012. The game will then launch internationally on October 19.To this date BioShock is one of my favorite game series, if not my favorite. Naturally I am all aflutter at the announcement. If you haven’t seen the announcement trailer from last years Video Game Awards, the video is below for your viewing pleasure, I cannot wait. How about you internet folk, reserved your copies yet?

Earlier today Dark Side of Gaming posted assets to Doom 4 given to them by an ex artist on the project. DSO went further into detail in a follow post discussing what the game would entail, and how they came across the assets. The interesting things pointed out was the speculation that Doom 4 is in fact a remake of Doom II : Hell On Earth. Many of the images are of models of different in game objects, and there are also fully color images of city streets and some awesome looking character models. DSO didn’t post all 170 items, but they did link to the download which you can find here. Seeing as nothing is labeled, this could just be unused models from Rage… or it could legitimately be from Doom 4, it looks good either way.  I remember my entire play through RAGE, and although, some of the environment could definitely carry over stylistically, this does have a different vibe, the cities for example aren’t completely demolished.  This looks to me like our first look at Doom 4.   Thoughts?

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This year’s Xbox Live Arcade: House Party was kicked off by a quirky little game called Warp. Created by Trapdoor Inc, and published by E.A. the game has a simple play style. Warp is a top down, stealth, puzzler. Yes, sounds strange, but imagine if you took the controls of Smash TV or the first Legend of Zelda and mixed it with the stylish puzzles from the Portal games.
In Warp, you play as Zero, an alien who’s been brought to a secret government facility where they experiment on…you guessed it, ALIENS! During your battery of tests you hear a voice, another alien is communicating with you through telepathy. After talking with your new acquaintance, you realize escape is the only option. This is your primary objective in Warp.
Zero has the ability to warp from place to place, like Nightcrawler from the X-Men. You can warp yourself into barrels, turrets, a ball, or even people. Once inside any of these objects, you can shake yourself to cause whatever you are in to explode. My new hobby is blowing up scientists and security officers. Upon escaping, you will absorb other captured aliens, and gain their powers Mega Man style. Their powers help you to escape. Some of what you will learn from them is how to throw echoes of yourself, swap places with your echo, and launch the objects that you are inside of.

As you explore the underwater lab you will discover grubs which power up your abilities. You can upgrade the speed of his warp, the pace at which he walks, his health, stealth and many other abilities. By making Zero’s footsteps quieter, or his warping quieter, there will be a lesser chance for detection by security guards or anyone else who might want to stop you from leaving. The film canisters unlock concept art in the options menu.
The biggest obstacle to your survival in Warp is the commander of the facility. His goal is to protect the world by making sure you are dead. There are plenty of checkpoints throughout the game to save your progress which is good because you will die, it’s unavoidable, but it’s okay because you usually, at most, only go back a minute or so from where you died. Challenge levels are unlocked as you find them in story mode. You can do them as you find them or from the start menu, but beware, challenge levels are not easy. The leader boards are nice because they let you see how you compare to the rest of the world and your friends. Much like a Metal Gear game, you can let everyone live if you so choose, or kill anyone you come across, the choice is yours. The voice acting is not bad, almost comical at times as to the 50’s nature of the game. The look is nothing to write home about either, but that’s not what makes this game appealing; the appeal is in its puzzles. The variety of puzzles and the way they are delivered makes them addicting because you find yourself wanting to solve them in order to move into the next hall or lab.

Trapdoor has done a great job delivering a puzzle based game to the masses. Kudos to Microsoft for choosing Warp to lead off the house party as it is everything it should be, fun and challenging at the same time. It’s well worth the price of admission. If you don’t believe me then download the demo and give it a whirl.

For fans of: puzzle games, especially the Portal games.

Coming March 13, 2012 to the Playstation Network

Today I’m evaluating the Circle Pad Pro attachment from Nintendo, the game I’m using it to test it out,
Resident Evil Revelations. It is currently one of only two games supporting the attachment. The other Metal Gear Solid 3D, and in the future Kid Icarus and reportedly Kingdom Hearts. The CPP is a simple attachment that the 3DS sits in, giving you a second analog stick, a left trigger (LZ) and a right trigger (RZ). It’s battery powered and connects to the 3DS through the I.R. port. Once you connect the CPP the game recognizes the connection and offers the different control scheme. Awkward looks aside the Circle Pad feels surprisingly fluid. It makes the new RE handle similar to RE5, but you can walk and shoot at the same time! (It’s about damned time.) When you hold
LZ it zooms into a first person shooter type view and you pull the right trigger to shoot.

The CPP offers a few upgrades to game play. For example: when you zoom in to shoot you can only look
side to side. With the CPP, zoom in and you have the total control. The CPP makes walking and panning much easier, similar to controlling a consoles 3rd person shooter.

For games supporting the CPP it’s a must have accessory. The explains why it’s sold out every, that and the lack of manufacturing.

The wonders of this attachment aside, I wonder why Nintendo didn’t just build the system with dual analog sticks in the first place? It’s become a universal standard that many games are better with two thumbsticks. The Vita Did it, all other consoles did it, I suppose Nintendo needed to rebel? There’s a chance that some of the 3DS titles that struggled such as Jaws: Ultimate Predator would have done better with dual stick support. Another question then arises, why didn’t
Nintendo have a better supply of them in the U.S.? GameStop is currently the exclusive retailer in
America, but CPPs are currently sold out company-wide, aside from mild popularity the inventory isn’t available for the retailer. To make up for the shortage, GameStop is allowing people to reserve the next shipment due
to arrive on or before April fourth. If you don’t have one which I highly recommend spending the $19.99 and having the additional play.

Sony reported today that their handheld, which has been out for technically 1 week. In the United States they have sold 600,000 units. It is important to note that they have sold the units not just shipped them to retail. Their current world-wide sales are coming in at 1.2 million. They may have struggled in Japan, but they are doing much better stateside. It’s handheld competitor the 3DS is sitting at about 15 million units with just about a year under it’s belt. Sony mentioned in it’s announcement that they plan to continue to drive momentum but involving third party developers heavily in their console. So far the releases seem endless and the future looks bright. If everything continues on track this handheld and gamers can have a bright future ahead.

Did you pick one up? What are you playing? We’d love to know in the comments below.

Can you believe we’re two months into 2012 already? Seems like the holiday games rush wasn’t that long ago. Maybe because I still haven’t caught up on all the games they released at the time. Considering Mass Effect 3 is out in only a week, I may never be caught up again. Have I mentioned how excited I’m getting for Betch Shepard to start brutalizing every Reaper in sight and rip a new asshole into anyone who complains about her methods? Well, if not, I have now. On to the news.

While I’m on the subject of Mass Effect 3, the full trophy/achievement list has been announced for game. If you’re not a hunter or whore for those things then you probably don’t care. But if you do enjoy your virtual pats on the back you might like to know how they’ve handled the multiplayer trophies. Online only trophies or achievements are a genuine gripe for many players who either don’t care for online play or can’t really use it due to slow connections. Let’s not forget they require a Gold subscription on XBox as well. For those players, the announcement of online multiplayer in this third game was very disapopinting. But it seems Bioware and EA don’t want to alienate them. There are several trophies on the list that can apparently be unlocked in either single or multiplayer modes. For instance, the “Enlisted” achievement requires you simply start a character in multiplayer or customize one in single player. At a rough count, it appears there are eight T/As with these multiple options. But don’t think that means this will be an easy 1000 points or platinum. “Unwavering,” a gold trophy, requires you to finish all multiplayer maps on Gold or every single player mission (including sidequests) on Insanity difficulty. As in the prior two games, you’ll also need to beat the game on Insanity if you plan to max your rewards. And trust me on this one, Mass Effect 2‘s Insanity was very well-named.

Saints’ Row: The Third has yet another DLC pack on the way. THQ has definitely done a good job with continued support for the game, and with making good value for the Season Pass. Although the bonuses offered with the Bloodsucker Pack seem a little strange for release this far into the life of the game. A 25% cash boost, $2,500 hourly income, and the ability to scavenge four times the cash from drops all seem like they would have been more useful in the first couple of weeks of release. Obviously that’s not the only addition. As the title would suggest, this add-on also introduces the ability to regain health by drinking someone’s blood with the right stick. The pack is available starting today for $1.99 or free with the Season Pass.

A few more details have surfaced on Medal of Honor: Warfighter. As expected, this is a return to the Tier 1 Operators and will be running on Frostbite 2.0. Regarding the single-player campaign, expect to see some familair faces. Preacher, Voodoo, and Mother are confirmed and other “major characters” are promised. The story will be loosely based on actual terstimonials from real-life Tier 1 Operators being credited as co-writers. I’m not sure how Danger Close defines words like “simulation” and “authentic” but apparently this will be the latter, and regenerating health is back. A one-shot kill “hardcore” mode is planned for veteran players. There are also plans for co-op , most likely a campaign a la Battlefield 3. If this all sounds like your kind of fix, it’s scheduled for October 2012.

If you’re a PSN user and want to get a discount on some top games Sony given you the perfect opportunity to undermine their voting system for the Gamers’ Choice Awards. Based on PSN user ratings, Sony has put together a list of ten categories, three games per category, and are asking us to vote on the best of 2011. Except they’ve already promised a 30% discount on the winners (50% for Plus subscribers). Does anyone else see why that’s a problem? I definitely think inFamous: Festival of Blood was the best PSN exclusive of last year. But it was also one of their bestselling title (possibly even number one). Considering the number of people who already bought it, why would they vote now to give it a 30% discount. Wouldn’t they do better to vote for one they don’t have, like PixelJunk Shooter 2? It seems like the only honest votes will come from people who have either played the entire category, or don’t care about the ones they haven’t played. You’ll be able to begin casting votes from the store with today’s update for nine of the categories and will get a free theme as a thank you. The tenth category, Best Indie Game, will have online voting that gets you a voucher for another theme.

Sometimes you hear a game announcement and just can’t help but get excited. Other times you hear and just think, “why?” Guess which one of those happened when I heard that Critical Mass is developing a game based on The Boondock Saints, a twelve-year old movie. As an entertaining film, it accomplished its goal. As a co-op shooter that comes way too late? It will probably be about as good as any other movie-based game.

It seems I can’t get through a single week of VGQH without having to address more rumors about “next-gen” consoles. We have no data at this point that can really get us excited or build any expectations for the next XBox or PS4, but it doesn’t seem to stop developers from dropping hints that they’re coming. Over on the Zenimax website they’ve got a job listing for a Future Generation Console Programmer. According to the listing, “Bethesda Game Studios is looking for experienced programmers to work on cutting-edge technology for an unannounced game on future-generation consoles.” Is this The Elder Scrolls VI? Fallout 4? The Fallout MMO? A new IP? The bigger question is when is it coming? The job could be listed to fill a needed position for a project already underway, or it could be looking to fill a new team that hasn’t started production. The difference is a big indicator for the remaining development cycle, which could still have years to go.

A few days ago, Pokemon Black Version 2 and White Version 2 was announced to release in Japan this June. A few days later, the U.S. Pokemon website placed their announcement images up for our release, and gave a little more insight into the 2 characters that would adorn the covers. Initially thought to be a combination of Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem it turned out to be a much simpler solution. It’s a black Kyurem or a white Kyurem depending on which version you purchase. In even better news the tentative date is shown to be “THIS FALL”, less waiting time for me, more Pokemon for us. Keep checking back and we’ll keep you updated on game play changes and any other pieces of the puzzle we find. More excited? I know I am. The release from their site is below:

Pokémon fans, get excited for two incredible new adventures! Announcing Pokémon Black Version 2 and Pokémon White Version 2, coming to the Nintendo DS™ family of systems this fall. The games can also be played in 2D on the Nintendo 3DS™ system.

Get a first look at new character art of Black Kyurem and White Kyurem in the character art gallery. And keep checking Pokemon.com for details, including news, images, and videos, which will be revealed throughout the year.

 
The studio that has paved the way to what I believe to be a new gaming phenomon has released it’s first video snapshot. If you haven’t seen the news yet I’ll get you up to speed. Deep breath………..GO! Tim Schaffer set up a Kickstart page to fund his companies next game which is modeled around the classic point-and-click adventures they so love. The studio needed $400,000 dollars to make the game and film a documentary on the process. In 8 short hours they raised their $400,000. In 24 hours they hit 1.2 million, and with just over a week behind them they have broken the 2 million dollar mark. Their first major update came last week with them announcing the addition of voiceovers and translation into E.F.I.G.S. Two days ago on February 23 the next update was released as a 35 minute conversation video between Mr. Schaffer and Ron Gilbert discussing everything you can imagine about adventure games. If you’ve played the games through the years it is a nostalgic and insightful romp through development. If you’ve missed those titles it is simply incredibly insightful. Full video below, comment away after!

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In exciting news today Junichi Masuda went on the Japanese tv show “Pokemon Smash” and announced that the 3rd installment in the 5th generation of Pokemon will be releasing in Japan this June. The United States web site simply says “coming soon”, but we’ll get ours eventually. I’m hoping we see the game in time for the holiday season, but if memory serves me right I’m used to spring Pokemon launches. One would hope that localization wouldn’t take 8 months, but I’m betting on that being the case.

The cover art shown above shows the new rumored “mysterious” legendaries which some sites such as IGN believe to be a variation of the original Reshiram and Zekrom maybe mixed with Kyurem. The biggest excitement for me is the opportunity to put this title into my collection and hopefully be able to move everything between the four titles.

The biggest shocker to me is the lack of 3DS exclusivity. Sure the sales numbers weren’t equivalent to the other DS handhelds, but if any title will sell a console you’d think it’d be Pokemon. There’s a bright side in all this for many of us, but I think 3DS owners deserve a major exclusive that is a bit better than Mario Tennis. Thoughts?