February 2011

Marvel vs. Capcom 3

February 21, 2011

Reviews / Xbox 360 / by Andrew Passafiume /

It only took eleven years, but Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is finally out. The core mechanics have remained as solid as ever, despite some major changes. Here you’ll find some of the craziest combo-heavy three on three fights you’ll ever see, featuring some of the best characters both Capcom and Marvel have to offer.

If you’re at all familiar with the Wii-exclusive fighter Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, you’ll feel right at home here. MvC3 is a more refined version of TvC, with a lot of tweaks and improvements that put it a step above most versus fighters. Even new players will be able to jump into MvC3 pretty quickly, making this the most user-friendly versus game to date.

Visually, MvC3 is quite the looker. All of the character models look just right. While some of the characters feel a bit out of place, it really never deters from the slick presentation. The animations are brilliant, and even when the screen is filled with absolute chaos there isn’t a hint of slowdown.

The controls are pretty simple to pick up. You have three attack buttons (light, medium, and heavy), which can create a basic combo and lead into the multitude of other combo-heavy attacks. And then there are your partner buttons, allowing you to call them out to attack or switch characters on the fly. Finally, you have one button that is dedicated to your launch attack, allowing you start pulling off an air combo, something most MvC fans should be familiar with. MvC3 has simplified it a bit, but it still requires some precise timing.

And that’s what MvC3 is all about: timing. Being able to pull off the right combos at the right time can lead to success, as well as being able to defend or counter just when your opponent is trying to do the same. MvC3 has several modes that allow you to brush up on your skills, including your basic training mode. There is also a “mission mode” which allows you to practice and perform certain attacks for every character. This mode can be tricky to get the hang of, but it allows you to learn the basics or practice some more advanced techniques.

And then there’s the online, which is both the strongest and weakest part of the game. You have ranked and player matches, plus lobbies, all of which work splendidly without the least bit of lag. You can set it up easily to battle your friends, or fight random opponents based on many different factors, including your rank/skill level. There are plenty of ways to tweak the online to suit your needs.

The major problem I encountered was not being able to search for matches and actually connect. Out of ten matches I searched for, I was lucky if I was able to play in one. If you play Arcade mode, you can enable online so you’ll be challenged by random opponents, which never has any problems. But actually finding a match seemed practically impossible for me.

Another big problem is the lack of a spectator mode. If you’re in a full lobby of eight players, you can’t actually view the current match going on, meaning you’ll have to stare at the lobby screen until it’s your turn to fight. These are major problems that hold MvC3 back and will hopefully be fixed in the future.

Multiplayer issues aside, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is one of Capcom’s best fighters to date, offering something for both fans and newcomers alike. It may look intimidating at first, but give it some time and soon enough you’ll be pulling off air combos with the best of them.

Pros: Intense and incredibly fast-paced fighting; easy to learn controls; diverse cast of fighters; great visual style and animations

Cons: Multiplayer lacking some key features, such as a spectator mode for online lobbies, and also having problems connecting to games

Telltale reveals new game details

February 18, 2011

News / by Shawn Vermette /

Telltale Games hosted a press event last night where they revealed a host of information that nearly any gamer will want to know. A few new game series were revealed, along with the first real details on the Jurassic Park series that Telltale is creating. READ MORE

Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll

February 18, 2011

PS3 / Reviews / by Graham Russell /

Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll is an RPG where you play as Areus, a half-elf swordsman, as he gathers a party and ventures across the land of Vyashion to take down evil King Balor.

Wait, let me try that again. Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll is an action-adventure title where players take the role of burly Dagda as he uses his bare hands and the environment around him to take on larger and larger bosses on the path to redemption.

Okay, I think I messed up. One more time. Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll is a mission-based hack-and-slash game from Omega Force, the makers of the Dynasty Warriors games, starring the vampire assassin Selene taking down hordes of enemies and building up meters for super attacks.

Actually, all three of those are true.

In the game, you can switch between the three characters as they take on quests and find enemy weak spots. There are good times to use each one, and while most will find a favorite and stick to it in the early game, the developers did a good job of forcing players to use everyone. Need to bust through walls or take down armored foes? That’s what Dagda’s for. Need to get to high ledges or just get anywhere fast? Switch over to the speedy Selene. Areus’ elemental attacks are needed for taking down certain enemies.

As with most quest-based games, there are many hours of gameplay in Trinity. It can get a bit tedious at times, but the signature Omega Force combat system works much better in this context than it does in the Dynasty Warriors games. It makes much more sense to grind and search for better versions of items in a quest-based adventure than it does to replay historical battles to do the same thing. Focusing on three characters also works well, as the team made each have its own range of potential play styles.

Everything is presented in a visual style that hasn’t really been seen in games. The screen has some sort of filter on it to make everything have a texture that, while not hand-drawn like Valkyria Chronicles, feel somehow fantasy-based and foreign. The voice acting? It’s signature Koei, which means when people speak, the focus on making mouth movements line up means no one sounds natural. Luckily, this isn’t Heavy Rain, and the story is a means to giving you new quests, special items and bigger bosses to defeat.

You’ll spend a lot of your time buying and selling items, upgrading stats and abilities and talking to random people in taverns. All of this is menu-based, with action only taking place in certain zones. The game’s not immersive, and it doesn’t try to be. The process of honing your characters’ abilities and boosting the aspects you use most, though, is an engrossing task, and one worth experiencing.

Our biggest disappointment? It’s a squad-based game, and there’s no cooperative mode. Being able to have three players control all characters at once would have made things much more interesting.

Trinity scratches a very specific itch, and it does it about as well as anything on the market. If you’ve ever enjoyed an Omega Force game and don’t mind a little grinding in your RPGs, pick this up and say goodbye to a few dozen hours of your life.

Win My Copy: You Don’t Know Jack for Wii

February 17, 2011

News / by Chris Rasco /

This week we posted a pair of reviews (Wii and Xbox 360) for the new release of You Don’t Know Jack. Since we gave both versions a 5/5 rating, it’s safe to say this is a solid title and you definitely want to enter this contest.

Up for grabs this time: a copy of You Don’t Know Jack (Wii).

The rules are simple:

You must live in the US or Canada (Sorry, but overseas shipping is a killer.)
Make a comment on this post for one entry
Retweet the link back to this post for another entry
Contest ends at noon Eastern on February 23.

I’ll draw a random winner from all the entries on the 23rd and post it here. Good luck!

Bionic Commando Rearmed 2

February 17, 2011

PS3 / Reviews / by Gerry Pagan /

Bionic Commando Rearmed was well-received by critics and fans everywhere for remaining true to the source material while still updating it enough to feel like a new game. While it sold better than the flop that was Bionic Commando (2009), it was still quite a surprise when Capcom announced a sequel to what was basically a remake of an NES title. With an updated look and new abilities, Rearmed 2 ties in the gap between Rearmed and the 2009 3D game and does so with flying colors.

The game’s major feature includes the ability to jump, something that a lot of purists found blasphemous. Regardless of this, the level design has been done with jumping in mind, and while it does aid in maneuvering through some stages, the game still allows you the freedom of swinging with your arm and not relying on jumping, which actually makes the game that much more challenging. Situations that could easily be solved by hopping onto a ledge require some precise arm swinging, akin to the tougher, more intense segments from the first game. (The game rewards players who insist on doing it the hard way.) Jumping is only one of Spencer’s new abilities though, as he can now slowly slide down walls as well as jump off them, and borrows some moves from the 2009 title like the “Death from Above” where he slams onto the ground after falling from a certain height.

While the stage design itself is top-notch, the soundtrack isn’t quite as memorable as Rearmed’s. Passable, but they really could have done a much better job with remixing most of the original game’s tracks, though there are a few original ones that shine. Rearmed 2 has more than twice the stages of the original, and while it’s nice for the game to be much longer, a lot of the levels feel a lot like filler content without any real purpose other than adding more places to place hidden collectibles.

Ultimately, Rearmed 2 appeals the most to fans of platformer titles and people who were let down on Bionic Commando (2009). The game’s level design is top-notch, and it has oodles of collectibles and challenges that add to the game’s replayability. Free of the constraints of previous games, the team at Fatshark had a lot more freedom when it came to how to craft the game, and it really shows.

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