To celebrate today’s release of Yakuza 4, Sega sent over one final launch trailer for your viewing pleasure. Yakuza 4 is available only on the Playstation 3. Hit the jump to check out the video. READ MORE
March 2011
For those who want more mature action-RPG, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is coming your way on May 17 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. What is generally expected, though extremely disliked, is the fact that the PC version will likely have some sort of DRM that could make playing it difficult and/or miserable, possibly even requiring an always active internet connection in order to play it. READ MORE
On the day of the release of Parasite Eve on PSN, Square Enix has released another trailer for Parasite Eve: The 3rd Birthday, this time a cinematic one that appears to be part of the opening of the game. The trailer is posted after the break. READ MORE
When you think Team17, you think of the Worms series, plain and simple. However, back in 2009, they released the first game in a planned downloadable trilogy reviving the early-’90s Alien Breed series. And here we are today with the PlayStation Network release of the third and final game, Alien Breed 3: Descent. It tries to emulate the most popular action/horror games but ultimately fails to do so.
The game does have some things going for it. There is a myriad of modes and options available to the player, including multiplayer and the ability to play through the entire campaign in co-op (both online and off). While the multiplayer is hit or miss, the co-op is the best part of the experience; playing through the entirety of the campaign with a friend can make up for its dull and repetitive nature.
It’s a shame that the actual core of the experience is such a letdown. You can tell that the developers tried really hard to emulate the experience found in a series like Dead Space, but they can’t quite pull it off. The campaign features a nice variety of aliens to kill and weapons to kill them with, but it mostly relies on things we’ve seen before. There are sections where you’re outside, in space, relying on oxygen tanks and with minimalist sound design. Sound familiar?
The camera doesn’t help either. Instead of offering direct control of it with the right analog stick, you instead use that to aim your weapon. Not shoot your weapon, mind you, just aim it. If they were going to go that route, they might as well have made it a duel joystick shooter. Instead, there is a separate fire button and separate camera buttons, making controlling the camera a bit wonky when surrounded by enemies. Combine that with a selection of technical glitches and you have a somewhat buggy experience.
On top of that, the campaign is just not that fun. Getting from place to place isn’t confusing, just tedious, as the objectives are a bit of a pain. Most of them involve hitting a switch to hit another switch to go through a door to hit one final switch. And sometimes you get to the switch just to find out you need to hit one more switch you passed before you can hit that switch. Sounds fun, right?
The basic design of Alien Breed 3 seems to be fine and with a friend the campaign can be fun, but trying to play this game solo will test your patience. It’s a shame, because you often see glimmers of a great game in here, they are just covered up by some poor design choices and campaign structured less like an exciting top-down alien shooter and more like one giant fetch quest.
Pros: Nice variety of modes; multiplayer and co-op are fun; good enemy and weapon variety
Cons: Campaign is full of tedious objectives and backtracking; camera can be troublesome at times; some technical issues and hiccups
We spent a lot of time with the original Double Dragon back in the day, guiding Billy and Jimmy through hordes of bad guys and, whenever possible, getting in some quality face-punching. We’ve never been big fans of iOS action games with virtual buttons, but for Double Dragon we had to give it a shot.
The game features updated graphics that somehow manage to retain the spirit of the originals, which is basically the best of both worlds. It still feels like Double Dragon, and though the D-pad is rather finicky, it’s a virtual control scheme and we’ve conceded we’re swallowing the bitter pill. The game features six levels, with four approximating the originals and two unique creations.
The important thing, though? You can totally punch people in the face. Or torso, or side, or what have you. If you get tired of punching, you can kick or jump, but we think that just takes time away that you could use for punching.
Double Dragon supports two control schemes: one that combines the kick and punch buttons and makes combos a bit simpler, and one classic mode that gives you the full complement of moves. Those who are a bit more hardcore will want the extra control, but the simple mode will have its fans.
Clearly the best way to play is with a friend, and Double Dragon supports local multiplayer over Bluetooth. If you have no iFriends or are just playing alone, the game has leaderboards for highest score and best time for each of the levels.
Where Double Dragon for iPhone really shines is with the breadth of unlockable bonus characters. There are 24 of them. (For those counting at home, that’s 1200% more characters.) These are versions of the game’s enemies, and each has its own (somewhat limited) set of moves. They’re not better, but they’re a fun change of pace.
Now for the caveats: at a launch price of $3.99 and a permanent price of $6.99, Double Dragon isn’t the cheapest app in the world. Also, virtual buttons. They’re not a good thing. Finally, this isn’t universal, and it probably won’t be, so iPad users won’t want crazy-big controls. Ultimately, it’s worth a look for those who want to punch some faces.
Pros: Slick graphics, many unlockable characters
Cons: Virtual buttons and the general concept that they are a bad idea
