Everyone gets a treat this week. We’re skipping my editorial introduction and jumping straight to the news:
As I mentioned a little while ago, Shank 2 is coming to your download service early next year. Over on the Shank Blog they’ve been supplying plenty of details about the sequel, along with some video and screen shots. Among the upgrades you’ll find in the franchise’s second title are a Survival Mode where you can team up with a friend to outlast hordes of enemies, more weapons in combat (plus the ability to use counter moves, forcing an opponents weapon against them), and more destructible environments.
As we get closer to the release of Hitman: Absolution, I’ve been slowly remembering all the things that made this such a fun series from beginning. But when it was first announced, all I could remember was the agonizing difficulty and the sheer insanity of trying to get the perfect kill, making it look like an accident and not harming anyone other than the intended target. In fact, my memory of the difficulty actually made me think twice about whether or not I would play this iteration. And it seems there is a contingent of gamers who think exactly the opposite. With the announcement of some of Agent 47’s new abilities and more options for run and gunning, many hardcore gamers were quite vocal about their disppointment. Square and IO have put their fears to rest. Hakan Abrak, Lead Producer, has explained there will be hardcore difficulty mode that really focuses on the precision of being a “Silent Assassin.” According to Abrak, “There’s a huge replayability value in it and we have some features in the game I cannot speak about that will enhance this and make this easier, and heighten the replayability value for the hardcore players as well.” Sounds like they’re working to cover all of their bases. If you like to collect Trophies and Achievements, you’ll need those hardcore assassin skills.
As mentioned last week, and multiple times over the last several months, rumors still abound over the possibility of multiplayer in Mass Effect 3. Casey Hudson of BioWare has officially confirmed that co-op multiplayer will be in the game. [And let me just express how far I think our world has fallen when “official” announcements take place on Facebook.] “Rest assured, it’s nothing of what you’ve feared,” explained Hudson. Yet the details look like exactly what I’ve feared. The main gist is four-player online co-op where you can choose from four classes to lead an elite squad to retake key galactic positions. Multiplayer progress will have a direct impact on your single player campaign. Sure, you can still get the “optimal, complete ending” without multiplayer, according to BioWare. But is that really believable? Multiplayer may not affect my story, but if I can see wide swaths of the galaxy that I haven’t protected, I’m not going to feel it’s complete. That’s like saying it won’t affect GTA IV‘s story if you don’t kill all those pigeons. It doesn’t, but have you really completed the game if you don’t kill them? Of course, my concern has never been that I would be forced to play co-op instead of single player. I’m more worried that they’ll put so much effort into the new modes that the core experience won’t get the development attention it deserves. BioWare has tried to reassure others with that concern by announcing they have two different development teams working separately (but together) on both the multiplayer and single player experiences, not one team for each project. How is that supposed to make me feel better? It’s quite obvious I’m skeptical and pessimistic. I encourage you to read the FAQ posted on the BioWare forums to get it all with their spin. Regardless of my trepidation, I’ll still be picking this game up on March 6, 2012.
The latest casualty in the wide world of video game delays is Silent Hill: Downpour. Originally planned for November 4th, no explanation has been made for the push to Second Quarter 2012. It’s very likely they’re just looking for that extra level of polish or cleaning up some minor glitches. Those are typical of late game delays. My guess? They actually looked at the market they were entering and made an economic decision to avoid some of the huge titles coming and move into the more open market of Spring.
The PlayStation Blog recently exposed a new addition to the PSN version of Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken, a couch co-op mode. I was expecting something along the lines of Contra, but their description takes it to a totally different place. The co-op characters, a group of parakeets (budgies) known as the Dirty Half-Dozen, are significantly smaller than the main game’s Coq of War. Meaning they’ll have to stand on each other’s shoulders to reach certain areas and combat some enemies. The bottom budgie will control movement, while the top one acts as a sort of turret. When they first started working on co-op, it was sort of designed as just a tacked on selling point. But once they got started, it expanded. This is now a fully featured separate mode with new levels, new puzzles, and its own back story. If you’re looking for that $10 rebate after spending $60 on PSN this month, this looks to be a good addition. It releases October 18th.
Now do you see why we skipped my editorial introduction? It’s because I had enough of a rant in the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer story. Come back Friday for more gaming news.