Too Human is a strange beast. The futuristic Norse dungeon crawler is planned to have a massive story with trilogy spanning themes and complexities. In listening to Dennis Dyack talk at the event, he seemed genuinely enthusiastic as he discussed his favorite pop culture sci-fi and fantasy sagas (he's a big Battlestar Galactica fan).
While the game's potential quality without the vaunted four-player co-op is debatable, the underlying mechanics really aren't. Too Human's ability to feed the player with loot while keeping them engaged and responding to the battle conditions and leveling up is well-tuned and feels similar to the Dreamcast's Phantasy Star Online games.
The first Viva Piñata was a somewhat divisive game. The visual look turned off many initial players, but those who stayed found an engaging and deep sim. Unfortunately, those two things were usually at odds with one another and given that it was a new IP it perhaps wasn't best to turn away the player base that was most likely to get into the deeper side of the game. So for Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, Rare is looking to somehow split the bar, raising it for the hardcore and lowering it for those who are in fact pulled in by the game's look.
Like many sequels, VP2 isn't much different in its basic mechanics and most of its changes consist of refinements and streamlining that allows for the gameplay to pass much faster and in many new ways. Things like co-op, the camera support, and the UI refinement all make the rest of the game's additions that much easier to use.
Hit the Pinata after the break. Get it? We're a scream.
Alright fanboys, time to get the difficult news out of the way first. Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is not much like its predecessors at all. The main gameplay focus is still on platforming, only it's now platforming with vehicles too. Like most platformers, the specific objectives you have to complete are slightly varied, but are mostly different takes on collecting items.
To do so, you'll have a massive tool kit at your fingertips. The vehicles seen in the gallery can all be broken down into various pieces, and a large portion of the gameplay stems from mixing and matching vehicle parts to suit the task at hand. Or y'know, to just suit messing around with infinitely customizable vehicles in a physics playground. That playground can be taken online as well, and the game's multiplayer is very physics-focused and custom-content heavy.
While the visual look of the game has been well known for some time now, the details of the long winded Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness have been a bit sketchy. Admittedly, we are Penny Arcade fans, but we were skeptical of the game, mostly because we didn't know of what it consisted. Turns out the game is a meld of Japanese RPG and old-school adventure.
The exploration, battle setup, and nested menus are straight out of traditional RPGs, but the cutscenes (if they can be called such) consist of a partly animated Penny Arcade comic. Albeit a Penny Arcade comic set in (*checks press release*) the deranged 1920's universe of New Arcadia. While the RPG elements have been updated for the times and are designed not be be slow, there isn't much here to hold you if you don't enjoy the Penny Arcade style of writing and humor. If you like the writing and are looking for something a little deeper and more involved, but just as funny and wrapped in a good RPG, give this a shot.
At an event in which the majority of the games were continuing franchises, Ninja Gaiden 2 didn't appear at first glance to be the game which had changed the most from its predecessors. From afar and to an untrained eye, the game appears to be exactly the same as the first, but the closer you get (right up to and including sitting down and playing the game) the more you notice, and the more you see how crazy over the top that Tomonobu Itagaki and Team Ninja have gone with their latest game.
Upon picking up the controller the first thing we noticed was just how much faster the entire experience was. The increased responsiveness, the increased enemy speed, the replacement of the roll with the dash and many other little things all work together to make NG2 a much more fast paced, relentless game than the original.
Much, much, more after the break, and be sure to read the rest of our impressions from Microsoft's Spring Showcase as they go live over the course of the day.
More news regarding the sales of GTA IV! Apparently GameStop has exclusively given its sales figures to Newsweek's LevelUp blog. And the figures say that 64% of all copies of GTA IV sold in the first week of sales were sold on the 360. An even two thirds would've made two to one, but these are only the first week's sales, so who knows how things will pan out as time goes by.
We've heard rumors about the shipment sizes of the PS3 versions versus the 360 versions that (if true) could mean that initial shipment sales of the 360 version simply can'tever match the PS3 version until stocks are refilled. While the Gamestop sales are still good news, we'll have to wait for the April NPD for a more concrete take on the game's long term sales.
Well, they don't appeal to everyone under the sun, but there are those out there that care about 'em, so here we go with the niche sequels. EA obviously got wind of Tony's passing, and has now announced that they have a sequel to skate in the works, but haven't given any other details than that. Seems they felt the need to acknowledge the death of their rival in some small way.
The second game marks the return of the Formula 1 Racing franchise, with Codemasters using their expierience on DiRT and Race Driver: GRID to bring out an F1 game based on the 2009 season.
With Microsoft's Gamers' Day going on tomorrow, and some of their thunder already stolen, it's good to see that there is still much left to be seen. These new screens are accompanied by some new info as well, though the few new details will likely pale in comparison to tomorrow's news. For now the news is that the game is about 20-30 times larger than the first, it has dynamic weather and seasons, and it won't be the last Fable game. In fact, Lionhead apparently has three more titles left for future release. Whether or not the Fable 2 Arcade games are included in that count was not mentioned (though it seems likely).
Thanks to the newest issue of Game Informer there is now even more news about Rare's newest 360 outings. Regarding Viva Pinata 2, the article says that the game now sports two player local drop-in/drop-out co-op, a massively expanded trading card system, over thirty new pinatas, a photo mode, and more. Now as for Banjo, there's going to be over 1600 parts to find and use, note finding is back and is the game's currency, and Rare says that they really wanted to avoid making a hi-res old Banjo game. Hit the break for more info.
In a follow up to the news that the 360's internal hardware will be changed to the "Jasper" setup, there is now the news that the "Valhalla" update mentioned in that story is more than just a CPU and GPU on the same chip. TG Daily thinks that the Valhalla chip will be the heart of a complete hardware revision in Fall 2009, ala the slimline PS2. While that would seem the logical course of action, all that we know for sure is that the Valhalla chip will indeed be used in the "mid-cycle refresh" of the hardware, and that it is in fact an "all-in-one" chip. Whether or not Microsoft will actually change the outer shell or not is unknown, and the Valhalla hardware update could come and go without changing the outer look of the console at all.
According to the latest issue of Game Informer, the supposed innovation of Guitar Hero 4 is going to be the creation of custom tracks, among many other things. Coming to us courtesy NeoGAF is the news that the game will include three instruments (but no lyrics), drums, bass, and vocals guitar. Not only that, but GH4 is also going to include a form of file sharing allowing you to share up to 5 different songs (more if you're rated higher) to "GH Tunes" for anyone to download. Included in the download would also be the custom title, creator name, and custom album art. And allowing for even more personalization, the game will also have customizable rockers and instruments.
And that's not all either, Neversoft has also confirmed that Van Halen, The Eagles, Linkin Park and Sublime will be making appearances, and that the GH4 controller sports some sort of new input device. With so much change coming to the franchise, and so much emphasis on custom content, is it possible that Guitar Hero can survive in the world of Rock Band?
It's been a looong time since the first 360 Laptop, and console modder extraordinaire, Ben Heckendorn, has been busy. His newest project is designed to allow users to use their Guitar Hero controllers with a single hand. The controller plugs into a modified Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul wireless controller, and operates the strumming and whammy. Placing ones foot into the pedal depresses the heel and inserts ones toes into the metal trough. Tapping your toes and foot up and down is the equivalent of strumming, and raising your heel is the equivalent of the whammy bar. Plus, they look cool. From laptops to controllers, you're doing some pretty unique things Ben, keep up the great work!
Oh Acti-Blizi-Viveni-vision, oh how you have changed. In your lean years you proudly rode your Tony Hawk cash cow. Then came franchise fatigue, skate, and your dark times. Abandoned you have, the money-maker of yesteryear. You have cast him now into the pit of portable gaming, possibly never to return. Cursed he now is, with a two year dev cycle and raised money-making expectations. Upon his return from exile in fiscal year 2010, how will his rivals have taken advantage of his absence? Will the evil kingdom of EA own the extreme sports mindshare by that time? The rest readers, is silence.
More rumors folks! This time it's in regards to that unannounced Rare game that's going to be hitting before year's end. According to a poster on NeoGAF who claims to be under NDA (a claim backed up by other posters' reactions to the info), the title is a sequel to a game of Rare's that has already been released on the 360. Logically, that narrows things down quite a bit. Is it Kameo? With Banjo Kazooie on the way? No. A Perfect Dark game? With Gears 2 on the way? No. Jetpac Re-Refueled? HellNo.
Given that this is a rumor, we could still be way off base, but we're gonna call this one as a Viva Pinata sequel. If it is, hopefully Microsoft will actually market it this time around, so people know about it and it actually sells.
Ah, sharp-eyed forums posters. Thank you all. Without your tireless efforts the internet's tubes would be quite empty. One of them over on the GTA Forums was messing around with the Rockstar Social Club and found an interesting item, a plane ticket. For Niko. To San Andreas.
While this of course means nothing concrete (it could simply be an homage) it could refer to the DLC, which mas been rumored to resemble entirely new cities. Unfortunately, unlike real-world airplane tickets, there is no departure date for us to pine over. So, San Andreas DLC? Maybe.
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In a follow up to the news that the 360's internal hardware will be changed to the "Jasper" setup, there is now the news that the "Valhalla" update mentioned in that story is more than just a CPU and GPU on the same chip. TG Daily thinks that the Valhalla chip will be the heart of a complete hardware revision in Fall 2009, ala the slimline PS2. While that would seem the logical course of action, all that we know for sure is that the Valhalla chip will indeed be used in the "mid-cycle refresh" of the hardware, and that it is in fact an "all-in-one" chip. Whether or not Microsoft will actually change the outer shell or not is unknown, and the Valhalla hardware update could come and go without changing the outer look of the console at all.
