There’s not a lot happening on the games front this week. Some Lips, I love the 80’s, Supreme Commander 2 and a new Rune factory (Harvest Moon) game on the Wii. Nothing to get overly excited about.

On PC, however, emerges the sequel (yes, it’s a sequel not an expansion) to Mount and Blade, subtitled Warband. The first game was just so loose and open, a true medieval sandbox.

I think I was a mercenary, or maybe a knight? Anyway, I had a horse, I remember that much. Then I remember talking with some king, asking his daughter to marry me (against his wishes) and having to enter a gladiatorial jousting match to ‘win’ her. The last thing I remember was trying to take over a village and extort the poor residents. They weren’t happy – and they had pitchforks. It didn’t end well. I honestly had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, but had a lot of fun doing it.

Controversial super-hero action comedy Kick-ass is out in cinemas this week. It’s about a guy who decides to become a super hero, only to discover that there are already a few real superheroes already operating in the city – including a father and foul-mouthed daughter double act.

I really did wonder if they could make a film adaptation of this. To put your mind at ease, I’d like to quote Jordan Farley. He describes Kick-ass as “simply the most successful comic adaptation to date, a flawless take on the rebellious punk sensibilities of the source.”

Stew (@Chicknstu)

]]> http://www.denki.co.uk/2010/03/29/release-chat-29-3-10/feed/ 0 http://www.denki.co.uk/2010/03/22/release-chat-22-3-10/ http://www.denki.co.uk/2010/03/22/release-chat-22-3-10/#comments Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:46:48 +0000 Stew H http://www.denki.co.uk/?p=2489

Hi all.  It’s that time again.

Lots of people have been banging on about the demo for Just Cause 2, the sequel to 2006’s, surprisingly good sandbox action game. Set on an island not too dissimilar from Hawaii, you could describe it as ‘Mercenaries on holiday’. A lovely tropical paradise where you’re free to blow up whatever you like, whilst swinging, rappelling or parachuting from great height.

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There’s another pair of Pokemon games out on DS. Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver versions are actually remakes of the ‘Gold’ and ‘Silver’ versions on the GameBoy Color, but this time they come with an… ahem… ‘Pokewalker’.

It’s a pedometer shaped like a Pokéball, which you can store one of your Pokémon in – so it can go for a wander around with you. Doing so will increase their strength and earn you in-game money.

Here’s a list of things you can do to trick a pedometer…

• Stick it in the tumble dryer with your washing
• Attach it to your cat/dog’s collar then let it out for the night.
• Attaching it to the centre of a fan seems to work a treat

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If you haven’t seen David Lynch’s Twin Peaks before, or even if you have, then you should check out the ultimate amazing uber-Definitive Gold edition on DVD. It’s got every episode ever made, plus loads of other rare clips. It’s the last version you’ll ever need to buy, ever ever ever!

Well… until they release it on Blu-Ray at least. You’ll need to buy it again then.

- Stew (@chicknstu)

The onslaught of must-play releases shows no signs of letting up this week, with yet another long-awaited offering finally hitting the shelves.

God of War 3 on PS3, is the third part in what can comfortably be referred to as one of Sony’s flagship exclusives. It’s about fast, yet intelligent combat, a brutal (re)interpretation of Greek mythology and boss battles, the scale of which have no real precedent.

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Metro 2033 is a post-apocalyptic RPG developed by a team in Ukraine, who splintered from GSC some time before the first STALKER game came out. It’s based upon a novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky, about a future where the human race has been driven underground after the surface gets reduced to rubble.

Much is being made of its ‘Hudless gaming’ experience. If you want to know how much ammo you have, look at your gun. If you want to know the time, look at your watch. The sort of thing that worked to great effect in Dead Space. If they can nail the atmosphere like the STALKER team did, yet couple that with a coherent story, they might be on to a winner.

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I’m not sure what’s going on with Survival of the Dead. We hear nothing for ages, then all of a sudden it gets a DVD release date. I guess that means it’s straight to video

Make no mistake though, this is the latest George A. Romero film. We’re huge zombie fans here at Denki and although his last two films haven’t been quite up to his earlier quality, we still have enough goodwill to give him one last chance (although painful memories of another famous George who made a second trilogy are still resonating).

If this movie ends with a Zombie shouting ‘Noooooooo!’, then all my heroes are indeed dead.

Stew (@chicknstu)

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is the sequel to the Battlefield spin off series. The first game, whether intentional or not, was a comically refreshing cowboy action game featuring over the top jingoism and some unsavoury, yet likeable lead characters – and was well worth ten hours of your time. Being a direct sequel, I’d expect more of the same from this second instalment, which promises a more advanced building damage model and a few expanded multiplayer features.

When it was announced that Brit-developed Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on the Wii – a re-imagining of the original game – was to feature no combat, the usual knee-jerk response from gamers online was to freak out and declare that the developers are doing their jobs all wrong.

I, on the other hand, rejoiced, since a dodgy combat system is something which has plagued the series (and to some extent, the whole survival horror genre) from the start. Does combat even belong in a horror themed game? If the player can fight off any grotesquery by simply slapping it a few times with a rusty golf club, doesn’t that tend to understate the horror of the thing?

In Shattered Memories combat is instead replaced with an interactive ‘fleeing’ system. You don’t beat monsters up, you run the hell away from them, and they chase you. The idea reminds me of the Resident Evil 3 Nemesis chase sections, the best parts of the whole game and I can’t can’t wait to see how a whole game based on this premise feels.

Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland, in Cinemas this week, also looks pretty freaky, yet for different reasons. It’s actually a sequel to the books, set as Alice is entering adulthood and doesn’t require any previous knowledge (that old memory loss trick). The main draw with this one is the visuals, which employ some clever techniques to distort the characters into some bizarre shapes.

- Stew (@Chicknstu)

This week is all about Heavy Rain on PS3.

Its Quantic Dream’s third attempt to make you question everything you think you know about narrative in games – and it’s going to be massive. Being the final part of David Cage’s personal ‘Thriller’ trilogy, it could be the last game we see of its kind for a while.

The demo, in my opinion, was in equal measure the most progressive and the most regressive game I’ve played. Where it innovated in cinematography and storytelling, play was an orthodox series of very fiddly Quick Time Events (or QTEs) – including a memorable five button sequence to get your asthma inhaler out!?

The rain effects are spectacular. That matters!

It’s a very primitive form of gaming, but then by Cage’s own admission, he doesn’t consider Heavy Rain a ‘game’. It’s an interactive experience. Which makes me wonder if a console is really the right place for it? Certainly the people I sat play the demo with found the controller was a barrier between them and their participation. The mind was willing, but the hands couldn’t follow through.

Still, you’d be mad to miss this one.

If that doesn’t sound like your thing and you have a monster PC at your disposal, then you might consider Napoleon:Total War, the latest installment of Creative Assembly’s untouchable epic strategy franchise. This series has long defined our expectations of the strategy genre and this new episode is likely to raise the bar once more.

An IN-GAME Screenshot

In Cinemas this week is Micmacs, the long awaited new film from the visionary mind of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the creator of off-the-wall classics Delicatessen, City of Lost Children and Amélie. Micmacs tells the story of Bazil, a man who, after being hit by a stray bullet, teams up with a group of bizarre misfits to wage a war of vengeance against the arms company responsible for manufacturing it.

Stew (@chicknstu)

Here’s an abridged history of Aliens vs Predator series. The original Alien vs Predator appeared on the Jaguar, (created by Rebellion). It was very successful on that platform and was pioneering for its time, putting you in control of three very unique characters and demonstrating some interesting features (laying eggs inside humans to act as your ‘respawn’ point for example). Aliens versus Predator, by the same team, appeared in 1999. It took the action into full 3D, allowing the aliens to hang from ceilings, as well as introducing a strong multiplayer element. It’s a classic. The third game, AVP2, was handled by a different team (Monolith) yet was at least as good as the first one.

Then the films happened…

2007 saw Rebellion back on the scene with the very poorly received Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, although that shouldn’t really count… It was the first of the series to be directly based on a movie. A truly terrible movie (the first movie Denki’s own Mr. Kronberg has walked out of, in fact).

This Friday sees Rebellion return to the series proper, with the imaginatively titled Aliens vs. Predator. With all of the advances in network gaming, the multiplayer boom and a DirectX11 toybox at their fingertips, will they manage to recapture the flare of their original titles?

I really hope so.

Out on DVD and Blu Ray this week is Pixar’s Up, the off-the wall tale of an old man who tries to drag his house to south America, in order to fulfil his dead wife’s wish, by attaching thousands of helium balloons to it.

If you haven’t seen it yet, we can’t recommend it highly enough.

Finally, in cinemas this week is Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese’s latest project with long time collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s a psychological thriller about two agents investigating an escape from a lunatic asylum on a remote island, who start to doubt their own sanity.

- Stew (@Chicknstu)

BioShock 2, out Tuesday, is an essential purchase. Whilst there may be debate over whether the original’s plot was inspired or ridiculous (spoiler alert there) and – even if First Person Shooters are not really your thing – nobody can deny that it was an absolute triumph of atmosphere. The team created an amazing world which was creepy and convincing, despite the characters within being slightly less so.

The sequel puts you in control of a rogue ‘Big Daddy’ from the start and introduces the player to ‘Big Sister’, a seemingly enhanced version of the Daddy. I don’t want to postulate further on the plot, because if I go looking for information I’m bound to stumble across a big fat spoiler and I want to play this one myself!

In cinemas this week, The Wolfman is apparently very good. Werewolves have, in my opinion, had a bit of a raw deal when it comes to movies. Whilst other monsters (such as vampires and zombies) have large collections of iconic movies covering the whole spectrum of genres, Werewolves have just a few stand out films, most of them comedies (Michael J. Fox, we’re looking at you). Early reports and the fantastic trailer, suggest that The Wolfman is a brilliant, human tale. It may well be the werewolf equivalent of Let the Right one In.

Also out at the cinema is Ponyo, the latest animation from director Hayao Miyazaki. Based loosely on The Little Mermaid, it’s about a young boy who befriends a ‘Fish Girl’, who has designs on becoming a human being. It looks spectacular, as always…

- Stew (@chicknstu)

Dante’s Inferno is the new game from Visceral Games, the team behind the much acclaimed Dead Space. It’s loosely, and I use the word loosely in the widest imaginable sense here, based on the ‘Hell’ section of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, with the titular Dante being transformed from a meek scholar into a badass knight with a massive axe. Whilst some may see this as an abomination, remember that it was a liberal interpretation of greek mythology which brought us God of War, and if the team can create such memorable moments on an abandoned space station, imagine what they’ll be able to do within the nine circles of hell!

When Endless Ocean came first out on Wii, it polarised reviewers. Whilst some were impressed by the game’s serene composition and relaxing pace, others, frightened and alarmed by new things, decided that if there was no ‘danger’, then it didn’t qualify as a game, immaturely awarding it no score. While I could go on about everything that’s wrong with that point of view, I’m going to take the high ground and not mention it, because this series is supposed to be a CURE for stress and frustration! If a relaxing exploration under the waves in an idyllic tropical paradise, taking photos and basically just enjoying the atmosphere sounds like your cup of tea, then you should definitely check out Endless Ocean 2, because there’s no other game like it.

- Stew (@chicknstu)

Mass Effect 2 has been hotly anticipated since the credits rolled on the 2007 original.  They’ve done all the usual sequel things – tweaking and improving everything that wasn’t quite right the first time round.  In particular, it seems the combat system (the weakest aspect of the first game) has had the most obvious rework.  The developer is also taking the concept of using your original character within the sequel, to brave new heights.  Not only will your statistics be transferred across to Mass Effect 2, but you’ll see the consequences of conversations and decisions you made in the original, resonating throughout the sequel too.

Information regarding the shape, gender and consistency of the species you will be able to snuggle up with in the sequel were unavailable at the time of writing.

MAG, which stands unashamedly for ‘Massive Action Game’, is exactly that. It’s a standard multiplayer FPS which uses some very clever jiggery-pokery to pitch battles between 256 players at a time.  Which is quite a step up from the 16 – 32 players we currently see as ’standard’.

Exclusive to PS3, it’s a lofty and ambitious statement which I really hope pays off.

At the cinema this week, there are two notable new releases.  One is being panned by critics and the other is apparently very good.  I’ll leave you to fingure out which is which all on your own.  The Lovely Bones is Peter Jackson’s interpretation of Alice Sebold’s bestselling novel about a girl who watches her family deal with the aftermath of her murder.  Which, however you paint it, sounds unalterably bleak. 

The Princess and the Frog is the new Walt Disney animation.  The big deal here seems to be that it’s 2D.  What an age we live in, when the main selling point of a movie is that they’ve scaled back their animation style in favour of a classic hand-drawn approach!  It looks absolutely gorgeous in its own right, and aims to recapture the spirit of the ‘Disney of old’.  Will it succeed?  Find out on Friday.

-Stew (@chicknstu)

There’s only one blip on the gaming radar this week. Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil Zero is a Wii port of the Gamecube game with support for the new controller. There’s not really much more to say than that. The original was your typical Resi game and they haven’t added anything new for this version.

Dorian Gray, out on DVD this week, is a movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. It’s a warning about the effects of a hedonistic lifestyle on a person’s soul.  This is manifested by grotesque deformations which begin to distort the subject in the titular picture, while the man himself lives (seemingly) consequence free. The book has Wilde just dripping from every page, possibly revealing some of his deeply held fears. I haven’t seen the film, so I can’t comment on how well it recreates this.

Also on DVD is Creation, which caused a needless furore in certain states of America upon release, despite having almost nothing to do with evolution. It’s an exploration of how Darwin felt upon discovering that we didn’t get here by design – and how this affected his relationship with his family.

- Stew (@chicknstu)