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Just a quick update from E-Xpress regarding the Indian pricing of Aliens vs Predator for the three platforms. The PC Games for Windows version understandably is the cheapest of the lot at Rs. 699 only while the Xbox 360 and the PS3 versions are priced at Rs. 2499 each. So if you have a fairly good PC, the Games for Windows version would turn out to be the best deal or else, just pick up a console copy based on your preference of your console.
After being in development for close to 15 long years, Avatar, the movie finally saw the light of the day a couple of weeks back. After having smashed all box-office records with Titanic, Avatar happens to be James Cameron’s next movie which all but guaranteed that the hype-wagon will steam-in, full blast. As it goes for any new high-profile Hollywood release nowadays, it is almost mandatory to have a video-game tie-in and so did Avatar, except that, this time around, the game was released earlier than the movie hit the theaters. Did letting gamers scour the make-believe world of Pandora on their PCs and consoles actually work in favor of the movie by generating an even greater buzz? Or the decision to craft a parallel story-line rather than following the one in the movie resulted in Avatar, the game falling flat on its face? Let’s find out.
With 2010 just around the corner, our mailboxes have started recieving press-releases of games that we will be getting to see in the early months of the new year. Leading the pack will be Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Conviction. E-xpress Interactive have sent this press-release indicating that the game will be in India in February 2010. Though no concrete Indian release date has been mentioned, we are hoping that we get to play this game on our PCs and Xbox 360s on the same day as rest of the world i.e. Feb 20th, 2010.
E-xpress Interactive already has it its kitty full with some sweet AAA titles all set to launch over the course of next few weeks, Assassin’s Creed being one of them. This hasn’t stopped them from going all out and bagging the distribution rights for couple of other titles that will set the adrenaline pumping for some and for others, a great way to live the movie they just watched.
December 2009 will be seeing the release of Avataar, the official videogame based on the movie by the same name by Academy Award winning director, James Cameron. Avataar is his first movie after the runaway success of Titanic.
Those who prefer living in the fast lane will have their thirst for speed quenched with the release of F1 2009 for the PSP and the Wii. There are no concrete Indian release date revealed yet for F1 2009 but trust us to keep you posted.
Picking up a game based on a an animated movie to review may not seem like a terribly smart thing to do, especially with so many movie-based games having bit the dust in recent times. Examples of such atrocities always seem to leap up at you and having endured a few ourselves, we tend to agree with them to some extent. Videogame adaptation of movies has never really managed to get the cash register jingling. But in a world where anything and everything comes in with a million and one tie-ins, merchandise and what not, a videogame adaptation of a movie is almost a foregone conclusion. We have studiously ignored them in the past but this time we decided to take a plunge. Helping us build our resolve was the fact that the game is based on the movie by same name from the wizards at Pixar. Could the sheer brilliance of a Pixar movie translate into a fun game as well?
Here is the classical chicken and egg puzzle, but with a twist. What came first, the name or the idea? By naming a game, “Plants vs. Zombies” (PvZ from hereon), Popcap Games got us wondering. Did the name crop up in one of their brainstorming sessions and then they decided to go ahead and make a game around it? Or was it the other way round? No matter what the answer might be, Popcap games sure have sprung a surprise upon us with PvZ. Tower defense games have been here for ages now but we never expected one to look like this, pitting the unlikeliest of the enemies against each other. The result is just the right combination of cuteness and addictiveness, all hallmarks of Popcap games.
I really enjoyed the first Call of Juarez game when it was released in 2006. The game was set in 19th century Wild West, a setting rarely used in shooters which seem to be content with sticking to generic themes where you are either fighting aliens or shooting Nazi’s for the umpteenth time or gunning down mutants and zombies. Call of Juarez on the contrary, was a refreshing change. It helped that it was my first foray in this type of a genre as well. Needless to say, I was impressed.
I remember my childhood obsession with airplanes very well – spending hours in a large wardrobe where I’d painstakingly “recreated” the cockpit of a fighter aircraft as realistically as I could at the age of 12 – exquisitely detailed HB-pencil and Crayola renditions of flight instruments, avionics and multiple bogeys, twelve o’clock high – where I’d sit for hours with a motorcycle helmet and a cricket bat serving as my HUD and my control stick, engaged in vivid imaginations of life-and-death dogfights at twenty five thousand feet. My poor parents assumed their kid was probably going to grow up to become an ace fighter pilot (or at the least, fly for an international carrier), that is, until television, videogames and an insatiable lust for pastry made sure my vision nosedived while my midriff went in the opposite direction.
With my flying career aborted before take-off, I found my lust for taking to the skies satisfied by the likes of Dale Brown’s tales of aerial derring-do and games such as Falcon 4.0, Jane’s Combat Simulations, Crimson Skies and Blazing Angels before being welcomed into the experienced embrace of Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator, IL-2 Sturmovik, Ace Combat and the unparalleled Lock On: Modern Air Combat, incidentally another Ubisoft IP. After having suckled at these teats for the better part of a decade now, Ubisoft dangles a brand new pacifier in the form of Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. – a game that challenges Ace Combat to a 1:1 dogfight in its own airspace – toting an all new graphics engine, pick-up-and-play mechanics and a roster of aircraft that puts Fires of Liberation out to pasture. The real question is – can it deliver?
When it released, Braid blew the entire world away with its art and some of the most amazing, innovative gameplay mechanics anyone had ever seen. And the fact that it snuggled comfortably into the Microsoft Xbox 360 exclusive stable all this time didn’t make the PC gamers all too happy, especially considering the PC version kept getting pushed back with each passing day.
Not anymore. According to Stardock software, the PC version of Braid is coming to their Impulse digital distribution platform come March 31, 2009! According to the pre-orders page on the ImpulseDriven site, the game will cost $19.95, almost $5 more than the Xbox LIVE Arcade version does, which should probably start another rant from the PC camp, but hey, at least you didn’t have to invest in a console, right?
A game that could have saved the SixAxis! With a title like AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! — A Reckless Disregard for Gravity or Aaaaa! for short, you just know you want to try it. Unfortunately, the title isn’t very eloquent, but the basic premise involves BASE jumping off buildings that reach up into the stratosphere and score points by avoiding girders and performing crazy aerial stuff (one of which also involves flipping off all those adoring fans on the 132nd floor that just zipped past you at 70 mph) before “parachuting into the arms of your cheering fans”. And the welcoming arms of the cops too, I guess. Obviously, making a splotchy mess on the pavement won’t net you a decent score!
We’re not sure if Aaaaa!, made by the same guys that gave us The Wonderful End of the World is geared towards wannabe BASE jumpers suffering from a serious case of vertigo and sanity or the PAIN crowd that just wants to turn Homo Sapiens into tomato ketchup. Either which way, this is surely the cheapest way of toying with death. Maybe someone will now make a game where we can play chicken on the train tracks…
Screenshots and prototype videos after the jump.