Crispy Gamer

Crispy Gamer | Blogs

  • First Shot: Amnesia: The Dark Descent

    Building up in anticipation to Amnesia, I’d been hearing some pretty interesting things: the mood is just right, the atmosphere oozes creepiness, and most importantly, that the game is pants-shittingly scary. 

    While I’m pretty sure that my boxers will be clean by night’s end, I’ve got to hand it to Amnesia; the game definitely is spooky.  You control Daniel, a man suffering from amnesia while exploring a castle.  However, this isn’t your average case of forgetfulness; as Daniel discovers his old journal notes it becomes apparent that his amnesia is self-inflicted.  Daniel has charged... himself with the task of hunting down and killing an old man, and warns himself that there is a deadly evil following him.

    So far, Amnesia’s atmosphere is spot on.  The castle is dark an empty, but even though no one else is in sight, you get the feeling that Daniel...
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  • First Shot: Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep

    The PSP-only Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is actually three games in one, each weighing in between 10 and 15 hours depending on how much you level/ability grind. There is a short Prologue that shows us a curious relationship between Ventus, who looks remarkably like Kingdom Hearts II’s Roxas, and the infamous Xehanort on the familiar-looking setting of Destiny Islands. We flash to the present, where the young Ventus, the strong Terra, and the mage Aqua are honing their keyblade skills on the Land of Departure. You control Ventus (call him “Ven”, mainly because he tells everyone he meets that that’s what everyone calls him) as you chase Terra and Aqua through an obstacle course on the way to the sparring grounds. This is Square-Enix and Disney’s improved tutorial system that takes 15 minutes instead of the two-hour intro/tutorial grounds of past games that were spliced with plot cinematics before the game’s logo even appeared on the screen. It...
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  • APB’s shutting down after only 2 months or so (and yet Everquest 2 is still going somehow)

    After launching only a month and a half ago, Realtime Worlds’ cops and robbers MMO APB will be shutting down. For the moment the servers are still up and running, but that may change soon.

    In a rather impressive article over at the Guardian.co.uk, found here, writer Keith Stuart covers not only the collapse of developer Realtime Worlds as they go into administration (ie: going bust, chapter 11, stripping the copper wiring out of the walls for booze money), but the events that lead to this rather unpleasant event. It’s a great article and well worth reading as Mr. Stuart was able to interview some former Realtime Worlds employees about what’s going on (Realtime Worlds started firing off employees right after APB shipped but the real gutting just happened last month...
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  • First Shot: Shank

    Watching the trailer for Shank, I knew that I was in for something different from the norm. Shank is presented as a hyperviolent stylized old-school beat ‘em up, a Double Dragon-type side scroller where the constant use of bats and knives led to actual bloodshed. I’m truly a sucker for retro-type games, and one of the things I’m consistently impressed with by modern developers is the ways in which they are consistently changing the form that became a cliche long ago.

    The game even follows a tired storytelling device; left for dead after his girlfriend is kidnapped, you control Shank as he marches out to find his girlfriend’s abductors. In a not-so-subtle nod to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films, Shank discovers that his girlfriend’s capture was at the hands of his former comrades, an elite kill squad out for revenge when Shank tries to quit the team cold turkey.

    So far through Shank, I’ve managed to decimate, kill,...
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  • Team ICO Collection Listed By Walmart

    As seen here, Walmart is currently taking reserves for the unannounced ICO / Shadow of the Colossus bundle for the PS3. They list the game for $39.82 with an April 1, 2011 release date - possibly a placeholder spring release date, though it's too early to tell. 

    This title is expected to have the HD-upgraded treatment ala The God Of War Collection and the upcoming Sly Cooper Collection. Fans of the games have been waiting for this collection since Sony had first announced they were interested in doing HD rereleases of PS2 games, as ICO and Shadow of the Colossus are hailed as being great works of art within the gaming world, both visually and emotionally.
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  • The next Earth Defense Force game will bring us hordes of giant insects and some sort of armageddon appearantly.

    The newest game in the Earth Defense Force franchise has finally been announced, via a website placeholder. So far we know nothing more than the title, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon. So, yeah, there you go. No info on who’s making it, who’s producing it, what features it will include, when we can expect it, or even if the damned thing will be available here in the states (all these images are from the last game Earth Defense Force 2017). All we can really assume is that Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon will involve hordes of giant bugs, robots and Godzilla knock-offs.

    The last game of the franchise, Earth Defense Force 2017, was the first of the franchise to actually be released in North America. In it, players wandered across 53 levels...
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  • First Shot: Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

    The Kane & Lynch series always seemed to fascinate me. It seemed to be a game prime for success, with a gritty cinematic presentation and a dual comic book and movie series in development. Released back in 2007, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men was a big name title for Eidos Interactive that met with, well, what one could call “bad press” after the firing of a Gamespot editor for writing a negative review. Despite the potential for franchising the Kane & Lynch series, I never actually knew anybody who loved the game. I remember seeing consistent price drops for Dead Men whenever I’d be at a Gamestop and wondering how a game with such a perversely violent aesthetic could do so poorly. After popping in the disc for Dog Days, I asked myself whether developer iO Interactive spent the time righting the wrongs of the series before.

    You start the game as Lynch, the schizophrenic murderer now heavily medicated and living a stable life with a girlfriend...
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  • Castle Crashers Still Great On PS3

    When my XBOX 360 bricked two years ago I thought I'd never get the opportunity to play the full version of Castle Crashers. Once it was fixed, I wanted to finish Fallout 3 (the system had to be repaired 30 hours into the game) and with so many new and old games to play I never got around to the delightful flash game-like side-scroller slash-em-up, especially after my 360 died again last Winter out of warranty - almost exactly one year after it was fixed. 

    I refused to pay half the price of the system for the repair, and was not about to lay out my scarce extra money for a new system that may break again. Instead, I set my sights on the PS3 release date of Castle Crashers, which for a long time was shrouded in mystery.

    I was overjoyed when it finally came out this past Tuesday, though I quickly realized I could only...
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  • The New Labyrinth Zone! (Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Trailer)

    This is what Sonic should be. I could never get the hang of the 3D games, and especially didn't like having a 3D plane on which to miss all the rings because of not being able to anticipate what direction they would come from while moving at a high speed. With a 2D platformer the player can focus on the speed and the jumps, which is what Sonic was originally made popular for.
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  • Mega Man Universe Gameplay Teaser

     

    Wait... I'm so confused. Is this a 2.5D remake of Mega Man 1 with other Capcom influences or something...? What? Reminds me of that PSP Mega Man remake with the big head, Mega Man Powered Up. Weird. I need more information! How could you play as Ryu? Hadukens instead of the mega buster?
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  • First Shot: Madden 11

     

                In a summer where Madden saw its first legitimate challenger in what feels like half a decade, it was my expectation that EA Sports would go all out when it came to this year’s football sim. 

                So far, Madden 11 has been incredibly hit or miss.  On the plus side, I really must give credit for the improved run game.  In Madden’s very recent past, running felt very much like a chore; rushes would generally go nowhere as blockers would routinely miss their assignments, generating tackles for loss as if it was their jobs.  Madden 11 doesn’t seem to have this issue, blockers get their man, and wide receivers make good blocking decisions downfield.  Beyond the running game, this helps out immensely on screen passes (something that felt downright broken in 09).  Not since Madden 07 have I enjoyed running...
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  • Anamanaguchi's Scott Pilgrim Soundtrack on Amazon

    The songs that have been stuck in your head for the last few weeks since Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game was released, can now be stuck in your iPod.  Bleep-bloop your way on over to Amazon where you can now pick up Anamanaguchi's complete chip-tune soundtrack from the game.

    Perfect for getting it together, defeating evil exes, and surviving a zombie onslaught.
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  • Tesla Tunes

    Not just for defending your alt-history Soviet base anymore!  Arc Attack gives Tesla coils their musical debut with a variety of gamer friendly selections.  The arcs of electricity themselves are the source of the sound waves that comprise that famous 8-bit theme.

    Check out their full site here for more.
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  • Mafia 2 - First Shot

    It's clear from the outset that developer 2k Czech** wanted to make this a "cinematic" game. The first 15 minutes of the game is almost entirely pre-rendered movies. They spend a great deal of time talking about your (Vito's) life as a child immigrant, your father's  alcoholism and dirty dealings, your views on the wealth disparity within the city, etc. It certainly does a good job of drawing you into the world and the characters, but there is one huge problem: This is a game, not a movie.

    Back in the days of Grand Theft Auto 3 (the original), your character didn't even talk. He just nodded when people told him to do horrific and sociopathic things. In a way, this was a smart move because there was no context to dispute the man's character. Maybe he just was a sociopath.

    Young Vito,...
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  • First Shot: Monday Night Combat

    If there’s one thing you can always depend on, it’s a downloadable release during Xbox Live’s annual Summer of Arcade. In a summer that already brought us the artful puzzle-platformer Limbo, the arcade boat racing sequel Hydro Thunder Hurricane, and the multiplayer 2D retro frenzy in Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, needless to say Monday Night Combat was another highly anticipated title for the XBLA library. I first remember spotting a booth from developer Uber Entertainment during PAX East and while I didn’t get a chance to play the game, the booth still managed to attract a massive crowd. The game had an overtly familiar tone, clearly taking a page from the cartoonish graphics and gameplay style from Team Fortress 2. I usually look down upon games that clearly crib an art style from a more successful franchise, so my expectations going into the game were pretty low.

    So what were my initial impressions? Well Thursday night I told myself I would only...
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  • Neverwinter's going both MMORPG and 4th Ed. next year, and I'm realizing just how cuttable my wrists are these days.

    Atari and Cryptic Studios recently announced that they are currently working on a new MMORPG called Neverwinter, based on the Dungeons and Dragons based Neverwinter Nights games. However unlike earlier games, this new MMO will be based upon the new Forgotten Realms; the 4th Edition D&D Forgotten Realms. If you are unfamiliar with the 4th edition version of Forgotten Realms, it’s the one that gutted the setting and threw away everything that made it interesting.

    (Warning, the following will be me bitching about this and far more D&D info than any sane person really needs to know. Short story, it is due Q4 2011 and no one responsible for making Neverwinter Nights 1 or 2 is even scarcely involved on the development side.)

    This version of Neverwinter is based roughly 100 years after the events in earlier games. Basically, Mystra the goddess of magic was assassinated by...
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  • Hands-On: Hunted The Demon's Forge

    I got the chance to sit down with inXile Entertainment president, Matthew Findley, at this year’s QuakeCon and he introduced me to inXile’s upcoming title, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge. I was able to play a bit of the game while Matthew explained things and guided me through the different areas, ensuring that I experienced everything it had to offer so far.

    Aesthetically, Hunted looks quite nice, though it’s a bit dark and shiny. While describing the setting to me, Matthew jokingly mentions that Hunted has been given the nickname “Gear of Warcraft” and I could kind of see why. The world of Hunted looks a bit like a fantasy prequel to Epic Games’ Gears of War. The same sort of slightly shiny, dirty, ruined wasteland look that dominated Gears of War is present here in Hunted, and personally I don’t think that’s a great thing. The main enemies I ran into in my playthrough of the game were goblins, or orcs or something like...
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  • Own Your Own R2-D2

    First, they licensed "Droid."  Now, they've gone all in and licensed R2-efffin'-D2!

    That's right folks, a new limited edition R2-D2-themed Droid is dropping from Motorola on September 30th.  A white base, with a full R2 back, and a standard Droid 2 running Android 2.2 under the hood.

    If you didn't have enough reason to buy a Droid, you sure do now.  Get news as soon as it breaks at Verizon's official site.
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  • Android Trans-Reality Game - Zombie, Run!

    Just the thing to spice up your late-night snack run.  

    Grab Zombie, Run! for FREE from the Android Market, set your zombie density (Controlled, Early Local, Late Local, or Total Pandemic), zombie speed (Night of the Living Dead, Resident Evil, or 28 Days Later, and destination, and in the time it takes to GPS your location, you Google map is filled with a swarm of undead roamers.  

    Better get moving!  Zombies wander until you get too close, then actively chase you.  Win by reaching your destination without getting caught.  

    The game also promises a Multiplayer mode (currently in beta).

    Find out more here and get it for FREE from the Android Market.
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  • Hands-On: Fallout New Vegas

    The darkness fades and my vision begins to clear. As the echoes of Ron Pearlman’s voice fade from my ears, the first things I see are my bound wrists, followed by the open grave that spoils the dessert earth. Before me stands a man who could easily blend into any image of the Rat Pack. His black and white checkered jacket makes him stand out from the 2 bandit thugs on either side of him. As they argue back and forth, he stops them, telling them that unlike a convict, a real man looks someone in the eyes when he kills him. This man, Benny voiced by Matthew Perry, apologizes for having to kill me and informs me that it’s not that I’m unlucky, but that I was set up from the start. As he says this he pulls a silver-white poker chip from his pocket while leveling the pistol. Then he shoot’s me in the head and darkness engulfs me once again.

    At QuakeCon 2010 the event that I was anticipating more than anything else was the opportunity to get my hands on...
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