June 2009 Archives

Platform: Wii and PC
Reviewed on Wii

In the future, racing is not something done in conventional airships nor in wheeled, terrestrial vehicles. Real racing involves "Xorbs" – customized racing spheres – cruising through tracks constructed on nine worlds involving high speeds and death-defying jumps. Speed alone, however, isn't enough to make it through Xorb Racing Corporation's top courses. They also require practice and puzzle-solving prowess to maneuver fast enough to outpace all competitors.

Platforms: Wii and PC
Reviewed on Wii

"Rise to stardom as you take on the Pool Halls' toughest opponents. Select and play a vast collection of different styles of Pool, Snooker and Billiards! Battle your way through tournaments set in exotic locations."

Platforms: Xbox 360 and PC
Reviewed on Xbox 360

Magic: The Gathering, the long-running collectible card game, has reached a variety of platforms, from early PC implementations to a strangely action-oriented game to Magic: The Gathering Online. In Duels of the Planeswalkers, Wizards of the Coast (part of Hasbro) is bringing the latest version of Magic: The Gathering to Xbox Live Arcade (and later to the PC).

Platform: PC Xbox 360
Reviewed on PC

Windows System Requirements: 2 GHz Processor, 512 MB RAM, DirectX 8.1 compatible video card and sound device, internet connection, Windows XP or more recent operating system

"When unrelenting rain ruins their holiday plans, Wallace & Gromit bring the beach to 62 West Wallaby with a makeshift resort – in their basement. Keeping customers satisfied is tricky business, especially when one of them is clocked on the head by an unknown assailant."

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC

Once the center of everyone's favorite stories, storybook characters such as Little Red Riding Hood no longer capture the popular imagination. Like any celebrity who has fallen out of the limelight, these storybook characters are desperate to take to the red carpet once more. And what's the best way to do so? Kill people. It's easiest to describe as celebrity boxing for the storybook set, with hundreds of weapons instead of padded gloves.

Platform: PC
Official Site: huxley.ijji.com

Radioactive pieces of Earth's moon have rained down onto the planet's surface, the irradiated fragments of Earth's only natural satellite destroying nearly all of humanity. A single city has survived, but the massive radiation has mutated the survivors, fragmenting the population along altered genetic lines. Now those groups are working to annihilate each other with the biggest guns available.

Platform: PC
Official Site: www.dtp-entertainment.com

Darren is a young student living in coastal Maine. His major is Physics, but his passion is for photography, explaining why he suffers the abuse of his boss Fuller, the man who runs the photography studio where Darren works. Shortly after Darren meets a stunningly attractive English woman in Fuller's photography studio, Fuller is killed. Everyone is a suspect in this mystery that leads Darren far across the Atlantic Ocean.

Koei has been a force to be reckoned with in Asia for a long time, but has been a slowly growing presence in North America. From its start here as a publisher of niche tactical action and strategy games, Koei has grown tremendously, and is now decidedly a big boy in the gaming space. Koei even has a game coming next year developed in North America. At E3, only two of Koei's games were playable (Monster Racers and Warriors Orochi 2 for the PSP) and both are due out shortly (August 25), so I'll give you an overview of Koei's upcoming offerings rather than extensively preview things that will be out shortly. Here's what Koei has on tap:

Platform: PC

A small, mining settlement named Torchlight was established to exploit the rich, nearby veins of "Ember." That rare ore is not only the source of Torchlight's riches, it's a magical substance with the power to transform and corrupt everything nearby. Only a handful of adventurers are brave enough to venture into the nearby mountains and below to discover how the Ember has already destroyed past civilizations.

Platforms: Xbox 360, Wii and PC

Video games are finally mainstream enough (and profitable enough) that everyone wants in. Bass Pro Shops is a huge retailer of fishing and hunting supplies, and what better way to build a brand with homebound gamers than to release hunting and fishing games in which progress depends on purchasing fancier gear from Bass Pro Shops? It may be a straightforward marketing ploy, but thanks to an incredibly clever controller, it looks like this marketing ploy might result in the best fishing game yet released.

Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC
Official Site: sega.com

A remote human colony has once again infringed on an alien battleground. By settling on a distant world with a Predator pyramid containing xenomorph eggs, the human colonists triggered an horrific xenomorph slaughter and alerted the alien hunters known as Predators. A call for help from the colony has summoned the Marines, once again bringing all three species into bloody conflict. But the blood from this battle can eat its way through steel plates.

Platform: PC
Official Site: nexon.net

Dungeon Fighter Online is popular in other territories, having launched in August of 2005 in South Korea. According to publisher Nexon, the game already has around 10 million users. Fortunately, you'll be able to experience the game yourself shortly – much less time than it would take you to learn Chinese or Korean and ask the game's many current players about Dungeon Fighter Online.

Platforms: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
Official Site: sega.com

Bayonetta is a witch who holds sway over demonic powers, but that's probably not the first thing you notice about her. The skin-tight body stocking might be. Perhaps the almost fetishistic focus on thick-rimmed glasses and piled-up hair that flows out to support Bayonetta's witchly powers would be the first thing to catch your attention. Of course, if you aren't distracted by the dramatically underdressed schoolmarmish sexpot who fills the titular role of Bayonetta, you'd notice that she's so well armed she even has guns strapped to the back of her platform heels.

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC
Official Site: brinkthegame.com

Humanity built the Ark as a self-sufficient habitat, made up of hundreds of floating islands, drifting in the middle of the ocean. In the mid-21st century, The Ark lost contact with the rest of the planet. Perhaps the rising ocean levels drowned everyone not fortunate enough to live in a floating city. Perhaps it was something more horrific. Whatever the cause, the Ark's inhabitants, their descendents and tens of thousands of refugees have been confined to the Ark for 25 years. In that time, population pressure and ideological disagreements have plagued the last refuge of humanity with a brewing civil war.

Platform: PC
Official Site: darkestofdays.com

Alexander Morris was part of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry fighting under General Custer, and had the distinct misfortune of being present at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. Morris was considerably more fortunate than many of his compatriots. Instead of dying, he went missing-in-action. Alexander was plucked from battle to travel through time and space.

The old Electronic Entertainment Expo is dead. A new E3 has been resurrected in its place, built from the ashes of the old Expo, but it's not really the same beast. When the Entertainment Software Association and the heavy hitters of the industry collaborated to kill the E3 of old, they simply didn't foresee where things were going. But, to be honest, neither did I.

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC
Reviewed on Xbox 360

Larry heads to Tinseltown to discover the employee trying to undermine the tasteless film studio that Larry's uncle runs. To do so, he'll jump around the studio, fall to his death hundreds of time, race the occasional kart and shout lewd comments at everyone and everything.

To open Sony's 2009 E3 Briefing, Jack Tretton (President and Chief Executive Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment America), declared that "2009 is going to be all about content on the PlayStation 3." Truly, Sony showed an impressive array of exciting software, but Sony also had the most interesting and exciting hardware announcements of the show.

Nintendo's briefing at this year's E3 was decidedly underwhelming. Like Sony's press conferences of old, there was an air of smugness to Nintendo's presentation, but Nintendo added little in the way of real content to the mix. After gloating about Nintendo's admittedly impressive hardware sales, much of the presentation was a tired retreading of previously announced software and hardware.

With its usual impressive stage set-up, multiple colossal screens and hundreds of dynamic lights, Microsoft launched its E3 2009 briefing with a trailer for Beatles Rock Band. Launching into a live play session of "Day Tripper," Beatles Rock Band became the keystone of the Microsoft's presentation, taking on the same kingly role that games like Halo, or the Xbox 360 console itself, have occupied in recent years. The emphasis on the Beatles was surprising given Microsoft's other important hardware and social networking announcements.