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Archive for the ‘Adventure’ Category
Original IPs have been quite the rage with EA these days and it’s hard not to get misty-eyed upon seeing Dead Space, a third-person action/adventure horror escapade developed by EA Redwood Shores, in action for the first-time. Reggie and I were invited to EA India’s office in Gurgaon today to have ourselves an intensive hands-on session with a near final-build.
In the beginning of the game, we’re treated with an in-game cinematic of lead protagonist Isaac Clarke with a space crew heading towards the USG Ishimura, a giant orbital ship that suffered a huge communications blackout for whatever reason unbeknownst to its curious approachers. Eventually, stinky poop hits the fan when your crew’s vessel gets pulled into the Ishimura’s magnetic field and you’re forced to make a landing inside its hull. Voodoo vibes are in full effect, and this is pretty much were you come in.
Imagine a calm, relaxing little town, away from the noise and the pollution of the big city… perfect for a weekend getaway. Spend a relaxing evening at the Toluca Lake, grab a couple of drinks at Heaven’s Night or visit the Historical Society. Meet strange new people, visit alternate dimensions, solve interesting puzzles and did we mention the monsters?
Welcome to Silent Hill…
Unarguably the pinnacle of survival horror, the Silent Hill series has been continuously scaring and captivating gamers since the release of the original Silent Hill in 1999. The fifth installment is set to release just a few days from now and so we decided to take a look back at the franchise before we brave the twisted little foggy town again.
Too Human… ah… the game that was once supposed to be the Xbox 360’s big launch title, the game that was once supposed to come out on the Playstation on four discs, the game that was supposed to change the way we look at action games. Yes, there are a lot of things Too Human was supposed to be, and that’s where the problem lies because Too Human is not a bad game by any means, it’s just not the legendary title that most people expected it to be.
Let’s get some of the misunderstandings out of the way first. Contrary to what you may have heard, Too Human was not in development for ten years. Yes it was supposed to come out ten years ago but the Too Human we are playing today is not the same game. The project was put on hold while Silicon Knights churned out great games like Eternal Darkness, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes and Legacy Of Kain. This Too Human has been in development for a maximum of three years. Silicon Knights also had to build a new engine from ground up because of the whole debacle with Epic Games forcing them to abandon the Unreal 3 Engine and start from the scratch.
With the history behind us, let’s get down to the actual review.
After years of hiding away in Shanghai and delivering beyond-terrible gaming with Bad Day L.A., the veteran behind Doom, Quake and Alice - American McGee - has emerged back into the land of the living with his uniquely twisted take on the already-twisted Grimm Brothers’ Tales. The first of 24 tales in the series, A Boy Learns What Fear Is, is out today on GameTap, with the others set to release consecutively with each passing week.
All the games will be free to play for the first 24 hours, after which players will be required to fork out $3.99 per episode. A Boy Learns What Fear Is, like all the other tales that are set to follow, should offer around an hour’s worth of play and is loosely based around a cruel, sadistic and blood-chilling version of Katamari Damacy’s gameplay style – according to the official website, a boy who wants to learn the true meaning of fear goes around “hanging gallows, a haunted house and even a wedding, but doesn’t truly encounter fear until Grimm decides to enter the story.” After all the terrifying nursery rhymes and the sheer violence and terror of having gone through the original stories once, I am most definitely staying away from these games. But then again, it’s not like I really have a choice – GameTap still refuses to serve gamers outside the United States. Thanks a lot, guys.
“Porridge today, Gromit!” Or rather, an omelette, we guess - one flying out of Wallace’s cranky contraption in all the wrong ways. After their great success with the truly episodic (and 100% brilliant) Sam & Max Seasons 01 and 02, the cartoon-3D geniuses at Telltale Games have announced that they are indeed hard at work on Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventure. Unveiling the game with a whole bunch of screenshots and a teaser video at Comic-Con 2008, Telltale has said that that while they are looking at multiple platforms for launching the game, the game is confirmed only for the PC, leaving Wii and Mac fans hoping for nirvana yet again.
According to the official press release, gamers will be able to play as both Wallace and Gromit, presumably alternating between the two at various stages of the game, as they get themselves in various predicaments and come up with outlandish contraptions to escape trouble. Although we’re not exactly sure if Peter Sallis will be returning to voice Wallace, we’re more than happy to see the naked dog as we wait for the dog-in-a-blue-suit to return to his possessed Desoto and his zany adventures early next year.
And if all that wasn’t enough for the fans, Wallace & Gromit will even be returning to television with an all-new short called “A Matter of Loaf and Death”, along with DVD compilations of the uniquely British duo’s shorts. Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures is expected to be out sometime later this year on PC via the Telltale Store and presumably, Steam.
While Niko Bellic has been out and about Liberty City, busy mopping up the 10/10 reviews, another fan favorite sandbox game has slipped in quietly, unnoticed on our radars. After an understated but brilliant debut on the PC followed by PS2 and Xbox, Mafia is set to make a comeback with another gritty tale based in the 1950’s underworld of the fictional Empire City. Just one trailer is what it took for the fans of the original Mafia to start rubbing their hands in glee in anticipation of another chance at exploring the post-WWII underworld of America. Since then, we have seen a constant trickle of screenshots that have kept the anticipation high while avoiding overexposure.
Maybe, just maybe, we made a huge mistake by going in for the Iron Man on the PSP right after having finished playing the excellent God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (GoW:CoO). While GoW:CoO embodies everything that a perfect game on the PSP should be, Iron Man sadly, turns out to be the exact opposite. The game seems to be a dismal failure right from the word go. A2M, the developers of the game seem to have got everything wrong as far as Iron Man for the PSP is concerned. So much so that it becomes quite clear right from the moment you pop in the disk that this is one game you won’t be playing for long, unless you happen to be an unfortunate reviewer like us who have to clench their teeth and bear through the 13 odd missions that the game throws at you.