I come from a generation that remembers the light gun arcade games fondly, as I’m sure do many of you, my fellow Idlers. So, with those halcyon days in mind, allow me to introduce you to the glory that is Galgun!
With just 28 days left until Marvel vs Capcom 3 comes out (but hey, who’s counting?), there’s likely not too many more character announcements left. But, this week, we’ve seen a couple more faces added to the list.
First off is Akuma, who strangely enough makes the cast while Ryu’s training partner Ken remains absent. While his appearance may not be surprising, it looks like he’s packing a few new tricks as opposed to his Marvel vs Capcom 2 incarnation:
The Marvel side addition is the more obscure Taskmaster. While he might not be as well known as many other characters in the Marvel universe, he does bring the rather entertaining wrinkle of having many other characters’ moves incorporated into his arsenal, as detailed below:
We’re in the home stretch now, folks, so prepare yourself. Once the game hits the shelves, I’ll be sure to provide you with impressions and match videos for your reading and viewing pleasure.
It takes a lot to surprise me, so think what you may when I say I honestly wasn’t expecting this sort of announcement. I know you’re probably saying, “Seriously? Final Fantasy X-2, countless Kingdom Hearts one-offs, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, and you didn’t see this coming?” But think about it: Final Fantasy XIII already had a couple of announced spin-offs (notably the suspiciously quiet Final Fantasy XIII Versus and Agito projects that were announced in conjunction with the proper Final Fantasy XIII). The most surprising part about Final Fantasy XIII-2, however, is that, according to G4 and the leaked trailer I’ve supplied below, the game is scheduled for a release later this year in Japan, with G4 also stating that a U.S. release is planned for “Next Winter”, meaning we’ll likely see this game in the U.S. sometime close to the two-year anniversary of the game’s original release (barring any delays, which is always a possibility). Before clicking the trailer, be forewarned that there are HEAVY SPOILERS. If you just want to check out the new stuff, just go to the 0:37 mark of the clip. (Update: I’ve replaced the video with a HD, English language trailer from G4’s website. There’s still some spoilers here, so hit the other link to skip over them.)
While the trailer gives us little in the way of what to expect in terms of storyline or gameplay, it’s clear that Lightning will once again be taking the lead. After a few viewings, it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that I’m of two minds about the whole thing. Recalling my First Impressions post about the game, you’ll recall that my basic feeling about the cast was that I loved Lightning and saw everyone else as purely disposable. Final Fantasy XIII-2 has the potential to improve on the original by ditching Snow, Hope, and the rest of the dead weight Lightning was dragging around to focus exclusively on her, or at least a set of characters that have some remote chance to be interesting. The trailer, however, shows Lightning in a get-up that looks like it came from Bjork’s closet, so it may spell disaster for one of my favorite heroines in recent memory.
So, the question of the hour is this: Will the game end up being a welcome additional chapter to the story of a character I really wanted to know more about, or simply a sequel of Matrix-level convolutedness and disappointment? Time will tell.
With just over a month left before the game’s release, there’s still a lot about Marvel vs Capcom 3 that’s yet to be officially announced. That list just got a bit shorter today, however, with another round of character announcements.
Final Fight’s Mike Haggar has always managed to miss out on the fighting game crossover fun, unlike is co-stars Cody and Guy. A lot of this has to do with the fact that his moves are very similar to Street Fighter’s better-known wrestler, Zangief (despite the fact that Haggar, as a character, pre-dates Zangief by a couple of years). As the video below will show, however, he feels right at home in MvC3:
Next up is Phoenix (a.k.a. Jean Grey, or Marvel Girl if you’re old-school). Psylocke had, to this point, been the resident psionic powerhouse on the Marvel side of the Marvel vs Capcom conflicts of old, but now she and her thong give way to the X-Men’s more well-known psychic:
And yes, true believers, one of her Hyper Combos does in fact turn her into Dark Phoenix.
The MvC3 info should be getting hot and heavily leading up to release, so stay tuned.
Shoryuken recently posted a video which introduced me to this endlessly entertaining and slickly produced series of videos documenting a player’s attempt to earn the notoriously difficult “C to Shining C” trophy in Super Street Fighter IV. Here’s a little taste to get you started:
We’ll be back to running at full steam again soon, now that the holidays are over, but in the meantime, be sure to check out the rest of these awesome videos.
Christmas is almost here, and The Idle still has some goodies in his sleigh to share with you, loyal readers. With this installment, we’re looking at the game I’ve affectionately dubbed “Need For Speed: Burnout”, a nod to Burnout developer Criterion taking the reigns of an even more venerable racing franchise.
In what may be the least surprising sentence you’ll ever read on this blog, Hot Pursuit plays very much like Criterion’s past offerings with the Burnout franchise. The titular Hot Pursuit multiplayer mode focuses on two teams, placing you in the role of either an “Officer” or a “Suspect”. Officers simply try to stop the Suspects in any manner possible, which usually means ramming another car into a wall, guard rail, or oncoming traffic. To keep things fresh, both sides are given limited uses of spike strips, EMPs, and other side-specific weapons. While the use of these items may immediately invoke repressed memories of races lost at the last possible moment due to a surprise Blue Shell, the weapons in Hot Pursuit are actually very balanced. Uses of each item are limited, and there’s a cooldown phase after every use, meaning that strategy and planning are rewarded over “random bullcrap”.
Other multiplayer offerings include “Interceptor”, which is a one-on-one race in which the Suspect tries to get far enough ahead of the Officer to escape, differing a bit from Hot Pursuit mode in that the Suspect can travel in any direction or even change directions mid race in an attempt to lose his pursuer. In both modes, patience and strategy often trump pure speed and thoughtless aggression, making the experience a refreshing change of pace from other racers in years past.
A simple “Race” mode is also available for online multiplayer play, but is barely worth mentioning. There are no police vehicles, no items, and players simply try to race from point A to B, making it almost indistinguishable from any of the previous Burnout games.
Herein lies the major flaw with Hot Pursuit: While Hot Pursuit and Interceptor modes are fun, after a few hours racing, the modes begin to lose their novelty. Compounding the sense of monotony is the fact that the different tracks are almost indistinguishable from one another. Forget about exotic locales like Tokyo or Venice, here comes “Law & Disorder”! With all the real-world vehicles that are available to drive (after tediously unlocking each one with the “Bounty” earned from every race), it would have been nice to have seen some real-world locations added to the game, rather than the non-descript scenery of “Seacrest County”.
Singleplayer mode adds some desperately needed variety, providing you with opportunities to race, participate in time trials, and even get a taste for some vehicles that you won’t unlock until much later on in the game, all the while adding to the Bounty and unlocked vehicles earned for use in multiplayer modes, meaning you can play through the singleplayer experience, get used to the game, and unlock the different cars and car classes before going online and trying your skills against other opponents. Even so, the singleplayer missions also become stale, and it’s hard not to feel as though unlocking the various cars is more “work” than “fun”.
Still, if you’re a fan of the racing genre, it’s hard to find a better title on the market this holiday season than the latest offering in the Need For Speed franchise. Assuming you aren’t already “burned out” by previous offerings in the genre, it’s definitely a fun, if derivative, experience.
We’re nearing the end of our holiday festival of first-impressions, and I’d be remiss not to mention Treyarch’s highly popular holiday offering. Truth be told, I’ve neglected the Call of Duty series in favor of fantasy/sci-fi FPS titles like Halo (the first FPS series I ever loved), Borderlands, and Left 4 Dead. Even so, I’m well aware of the impact that the series (and the Modern Warfare games, in particular) has had on modern multiplayer titles (such as the aforementioned Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Transformers: War For Cybertron), and while it remains to be seen how long-lasting the impact will be, I feel that those innovations are largely for the better.
“Innovative” isn’t exactly the word that comes to mind when describing the latest iteration of the perennial series. Black Ops developer Treyarch was charged with following both the sales success of Modern Warfare 2 as well as assuring fans that the series quality would remain high after the heads of Infinity Ward left to form Respawn Games earlier this year. After my time with the game, I’m willing to say that the team accomplished both of these things in Black Ops, doing so by playing it safe and cannibalizing much of what made the Modern Warfare entries so popular.
Multiplayer remains largely unchanged from the Infinity Ward-developed Modern Warfare 2, changing only the maps, some of the weapons, and adding a gameplay mode where you can gamble your in-game currency on the outcome. If, like me, Black Ops is your first foray into the Call of Duty scene, there’s a lot to love about multiplayer, with lots of ways to customize your weapons and customize profiles with different weapon and ability sets. The action has a much faster pace compared to Halo or Left 4 Dead, as very few shots with any weapon are needed to kill you or your opponent, and character respawns are very, very fast. There’s also a zombie survival mode in which you fight undead Nazi’s either alone or with friends, for those of you who feel like there has to be zombies in each and every game in existence.
Despite the series’ popularity, however, the multiplayer does have some significant flaws. The first one of note comes in the online matchmaking system. In my very first sortie, I was thrown to the proverbial wolves, having to face level 50 opponents on my very first time out. While giving better weapons and equipment as you level up in multiplayer is fun and addicting, some of the fun is lost when everyone in a multiplayer match not only has the benefit of being more experienced, but also has better gear than you do.
Secondly, as the videos seen here will attest to, newcomers can expect to die a lot, and when they do, they would be wise not to assume that they will be relatively safe when they respawn. More than once, I was able to respawn as my own body was still falling down on the ground, with my killer still standing nearby, ready to take me down once again. For a series that’s as highly praised for its multiplayer as Call of Duty is, finding flaws like these in the newest entry in the series is more than a little strange.
Singleplayer, while not the first thing that comes to mind when mentioning Black Ops, shouldn’t be ignored, if for no other reason than the rather unexpected twists and turns the player will experience as you visit various points of interest during the Cold War period of history, starting out with the Bay of Pigs, and progressing onward in history. The payoff at the end is very surprising, and while I won’t spoil anything here, it’s definitely worth a playthrough for anyone who picks up the game.
While far from perfect or groundbreaking, gamers can do much worse than receive a copy of Black Ops for Christmas. It’s fun, fast paced, addicting, and chances are high that you have a friend who’s already playing and can show you the ropes.
Stay tuned, as we’ve still got a little bit of Christmas spirit (and egg nog) left!
With just over two months left before the official release of Marvel vs Capcom 3, it’s getting harder and harder to contain my excitement for the game. Lucky for me (and everyone else), Capcom is on the case with another pair of sexy (yet unsurprising) character reveals. First off, making her Versus series debut, is C. Viper:
Next, making her triumphant return, is the X-Men’s Storm:
As always, The Idle’s got it’s finger on the pulse of all your Marvel vs Capcom 3 news, so stay tuned.
The Idle’s parade of this holiday season’s games continues with our first lump of coal. Before going into the impressions, however, I think it’s important to understand the rather unusual circumstances surrounding the game’s release.
NBA Jam was originally announced as a Wii-exclusive reboot to the arcade classic originally belonging to the now-defunct Midway games. Whispers of the game’s release as DLC for PS3 and 360 were heard throughout the game’s development, and were later proven true, as EA announced that those who purchased NBA Elite 11 would receive a voucher to download NBA Jam (with other game modes and features to be added after Jam’s initial release and sold as separate DLC items).
Fast forward to shortly before the planned release of NBA Elite 11, and a demo makes its way onto Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Almost immediately afterwards, the following video surfaced:
The now-infamous glitch caused the game to be delayed “indefinitely” before EA finally pulled the plug on the beleaguered title. With no basketball game in the EA Sports lineup, the company hastily announced NBA Jam as a full retail release for PS3 and 360 for a “holiday release”. The developers were apparently surprised by the announcement, and were forced to scramble to add features from the Wii version of the game, saying “We’re trying to throw it all in there”. The end result? EA released a $15 downloadable game (or somewhere thereabouts) as a full-retail release (with a full-retail price tag of $50).
The game succeeds at recreating the feel of the arcade classic, maintaining the same gameplay, the same visual style, and even bringing on the original game’s announcer. There’s also a “Remix Mode”, where players can pick up power-ups suck as super speed, power, or shrinking the other team. Although it sounds interesting on paper, when playing against the computer, it turns games into incredibly frustrating affairs, not unlike running a “perfect” race in Mario Kart. The AI in NBA Jam is just a cheap as its predecessor, with the computer overcoming double-digit leads in mere seconds. Add in a computer-controlled character with super speed or that can knock you halfway across the court with impunity, and you have a recipe for “Controller-in-TV” syndrome. Throw in other gameplay modes like “21” and “Domination”, and you have some decent options to change things up a bit should you get bored with the classic style of play.
While capturing the old-school arcade experience is an extremely important element of the game, where NBA Jam fails is in its implementation of the “little things”. When deciding which version of the game to play, I ultimately decided on the PlayStation 3 version, for the sole reason that my Fightstick only works on PS3. This brings me to my first complaint: The control settings are locked. This would be acceptable (though no less annoying) in an online-only offering, but for a full-retail release, not being able to customize your controls feels like a serious oversight.
The next thing that makes you feel like the price tag is too high is the complete absence of any presentation. While the original NBA Jam wasn’t known for detailed pre-game cutscenes, something besides bare-bones menus would have been appreciated. As it stands, the games have a hollow, meaningless feel to them.
Online play is … hard to come by. In the two days I’ve been playing the game, I’ve only been able to find a couple of games. While no one would presume this game to be as popular as, for instance, Call of Duty: Black Ops, you would have to imagine that there’s at least one other person playing the game at any given time. The most elegant solution here might have been something akin to Super Street Fighter IV’s “Fight Request” feature, where you can play offline while waiting for the game’s matchmaking system to find a game for you online. Also, the lack of a way to quickly search all game types for other players turns the already-difficult task of finding someone to play against into a guessing game.
With luck, those of you who read this post will do so before giving this game to someone you care about. While not a terrible game, it is a terribly overpriced game.
Stay tuned for more holiday cheers and jeers.
With the holiday season in full swing, it’s past time to talk about some of the games on every gamer’s wish list, and to start us off, I decided to go with perhaps the most surprising title of the season.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is, on its face, a tough sell. A non-numbered sequel adding a multiplayer element to a series that has been exclusively a single-player experience, coming out only a year after the previous entry in the series. Sounds like a recipe for disaster (or at least mediocrity), right? I thought so, too, but the more I saw of the game’s multiplayer, the more intrigued I became. So, after a few sessions of both the campaign and multiplayer, what do I think?
Well, it’s a mixed bag. The campaign, while still excellent in terms of gameplay, offers very few surprises. The story picks up immediately after the events of the second game, and while the story is interesting, there’s not much new to talk about. Ezio still picks up missions, kills targets, advances the story, and repeats the process until you get to the credits. In the campaign’s early hours, there is an interesting part of the game where you get to play as Desmond, the near-present day descendant of Altair and Ezio, doing some light platforming near the game’s beginning as the modern-day assassin and his compatriots set up shop in Ezio’s renovated mansion. Though largely disposable, the sequence may provide a glimpse into what Assassin’s Creed III may have in store (since the modern-day events take place in 2012, likely the year in which the third and presumably final game will launch).
Multiplayer, unsurprisingly, is where most gamers will get the most bang for their buck in Brotherhood. The multiplayer mechanics are simple, yet surprisingly effective. Each player chooses an avatar (the differences are purely cosmetic), and begins a ten minute match in which you try to hunt down your target while evading your own pursuer(s). As you move up the leaderboards, you’ll have more and more pursuers, and you’ll also have to deal with other players hunting down your target.
Despite how hectic that all sounds, the game rewards patience and stealth, as wins are determined by the total number of points scored, not the number of kills recorded. You gain points for streaks, killing a target while not being detected, killing a target from above, and various other feats. The result is a multiplayer experience that feels fresh and unique. Even so, it’s easy to get frustrated, as you’ll often be killed by an undetected assailant or have all of your patient pursuit of a target go for naught as another assassin kills your would-be victim.
Despite numerous temptations to throw the controller into the wall, however, I highly recommend Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. The multiplayer alone is worth the price of admission, but the solid singleplayer campaign that’s included should help vault the title to the top of your wish list.
