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Brutal Legend review

Legendary game maker Tim Schafer, who’s known for taking some wild chances and coming out on top in terms of game design, brings his latest endeavor, Brutal Legend, and alongside it, a piece of Jack Black as well.

Brutal Legend can best be described as an adventure game with a lot of rock elements with the humor from Jack Black, who’s not only known as an actor, but also a rock enthusiast. The game is a third person adventure game where you control Eddie Riggs, a roadie who’s on a mission to save the heaven of heavy metal from an evil lord who’s holding the whole thing hostage. It even includes a great cameo from one of the best known heavy metal characters, Ozzy Osbourne. The feeling of heavy metal is present in every fiber of this game. And even if you’re not into heavy metal, the great story, the funny dialogue and the gameplay will draw you in. More »

Order Of War review

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a WW2 real time strategy game, so Order Of War is a highly welcomed addition to the RTS base. While most RTS games are either focused on the ancient times (Age of Empires) or the future (Command & Conquer, Supreme Commander), WW2 RTS titles are few and far between. While Order of War brings some decent and fun WW2 action, a few bugs and a lacking multiplayer prevent it from becoming a great game.

Order Of War lets players control either the US Army during the invasion of Normandy (and onwards. towards Berlin), or the German Army during the Russian campaign into Nazi Germany — yep, you can play as the Nazis and defend the “Fatherland” from zhe Russians. The game will instantly immerse you into the action, from the brief and snappy mission descriptions, to the polished action itself. You will control anywhere from a few troops going into a covert battle, to hundreds of soldiers and several divisions, when landing on the beaches of Normandy, for instance. More »

20 games to look forward to in 2010

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While 2009 is drawing to an end, and with all the great AAA titles only weeks away, keep in mind that 2010 is going to see more top-notch titles released than the last few years. Here are 20 games that should/will make an impact next year, and while a lot more games are coming out, we obviously couldn’t include them all — our list grew from ten games to twenty games simply because even we were surprised how many title are lined up for 2010. Here’s our 20 games for 2010, in no particular order.

Postal 3 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Running With Scissors, Q2, 2010)

The original Postal was both hailed and damned for its controversial content, and the sequel, Postal 2 only made it better (or worse, if you’re a politician looking for some media attention). Postal 3 will expand on the sandbox style gameplay, and will even feature director Uwe Boll (who made the 2008 Postal movie) in a cameo role.

APB (PC, Xbox 360, March 2010)

After developing Crackdown for the Xbox 360, which has since become a cult classic on the console, Realtime Worlds shifted all their manpower to APB (All Points Bulletin), a revolutionary MMO set in a huge city where players battle each other as either law enforcement agents, or criminals. A kind of GTA online, as creator David Jones (the man behind GTA) is noted saying APB is “the bastard child of everything we’ve been striving towards over the 15-20 years”.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, March 2, 2010)

Battlefield: Bad Company almost managed to perfect something no other FPS had done before: creating a fully destructible battlefield, where walls would no longer provide infinite cover — one tank shell and you better be looking to hide somewhere else. Coupled with a single player campaign and a solid multiplayer, Bad Company has been one of the most played FPS on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Bad Company 2 will bring “destruction 2.0″, taking destruction to a whole new level, this time, entire buildings and towns can be leveled to the ground.

Heavy Rain (PS3, February 2010)

Heavy Rain has been highly anticipated ever since it was first showcased at E3 2006 for the PlayStation 3, the film-noir, thriller-styled game will feature an intertwined storyline, with four playable characters, all looking for a serial killed going under the name “The Origami Killer”.

Halo Reach (Xbox 360, Q4 2010)

The next chapter in the Halo series and Master Chief’s battle against the Covenant was unveiled at E3 2009, without any further details other than the game would be the last Halo game to be developed by Bungie. Owners of Halo 3: ODST will have a chance to check out the game’s multiplayer beta in the middle of 2010, by then we should have more details on Reach.

Red Steel 2 (Wii, February 16, 2010)

The original Red Steel was the very first Wii game that was revealed, and rode a wave of anticipation until its release — as a Wii launch title — where it showed a flawed control scheme, dated visuals and uninspiring gameplay. Red Steel 2 is said to correct all those issues, and will require (and be bundled with) the Wii Motion Plus accessory, giving it a true 1:1 control input, paving the way for some great sword fights. We sure hope so.

Crysis 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Q4 2010)

The original Crysis is still bringing even the most powerful PCs to their knees, and is still hailed as the best looking game available, at least if a tropical island is what you crave. Crysis 2 continues the story where the original left off, and will use the new CryEngine 3, creating an even more immersive world. There aren’t many details of the game yet, but one thing is for sure: start saving for a new PC rig.
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Command & Conquer Red Alert coming to the iPhone

One of my all time favorite RTS franchises is none other than Command & Conquer. Couple this with the fact that the iPhone (and iPod touch) is quickly becoming one of the premiere hand held gaming devices and you have yourself a match made in heaven.

Later this month EA will be putting Command & Conquer Red Alert up for sale on ther App Store which includes 12 different levels and two different sides; the Soviets and the Allies.are they dow

If the above screenshot is anything to go by, this game is sure to be a hit.

Defense Grid: The Awakening review

Tower Defense games have seen an explosion in popularity ever since the first Flash game was released. They’re now practically everywhere, from consoles to the Iphone, however, only one game based on the Tower Defense concept can be found on the Xbox 360, Crystal Defenders from Square Enix, which was never that good to begin with.

Defense Grid: The Awakening is the second Tower Defense game on the Xbox 360, and it’s one of the best tower defense games to date, not just on the Xbox 360, but on all platforms.  Defense Grid was originally released on the PC last year, and even though the XBLA edition includes bonus maps, it retails for half the price: $10. In case you’re new to Tower Defense games, the player must build defense towers of all kinds of towers — usually certain towers are best against certain enemies — and wait for the enemy to arrive. The enemies travel alongside paths, and must not reach their destination, as it’s up to you to take them out before they do. While there usually is no story to such games, at least Defense Grid tries; it’s a story of humans vs. aliens, and you need to stop them from reaching their goals. More »

Plants vs. Zombies free online version

Plants vs. Zombies was, like many other PopCap games, has been a hit ever since it was released earlier this summer (read our Plants vs. Zombies review), and now the developer is offering the game to play for free on the official website. While it’s only a “trial” version, it still offers lots of play time, and you owe it to yourself to at least give it a go.

Antic Entertainment emerges with Junk: Battles in tow

It seems that the guy who founded DICE, Fredrik Liljengren has moved onto bigger and better things with his latest game studio, Antic Entertainment. You may be familiar with DICE as the studio behind Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield: 1943.

Anyways, Antic Entertainment is to be a studio that specializes in free-to-play games with their first title being Junk: Battles. This browser based RTS will let players create their own ship and then duke it out against other players as they collect parts to upgrade said ship.

If you want to read more about Junk: Battles and Antic Entertainment, head over to the game’s official website here.

via gamasutra

Top 10 games to look forward to this holiday season

It’s almost that time of the year; the period of a two month interval where tons of highly anticipated video games are released. And even though lots of games this year have been pushed to early 2010 because it was simply too crowded, there’s still a ton of great, quality AAA titles which will be released in the upcoming months. Here are our ten picks:

10: Avatar (November 15)

James Cameron’s upcoming sci-fi epic Avatar has been in production for years and sci-fi fans around the world are looking forward to its December premiere. The game adaptation, developed by Ubisoft, uses the same technology as the film, and will be in 3D as well.Very little is known about the game, mostly because it follows the movie closely, which itself has been a tightly kept secret.

9: NBA 2K10/NBA Live 10 (October 6)

The rivalry between NBA basketball series NBA 2K and NBA Live has been ongoing for several years, and for the 2010 versions of the respective games — which will be released on the same day — the stakes are even higher. 2K Games and EA have added a ton of new features to their games, which will make this years line up even more compelling to basketball fans around the world.

8: Aion: The Tower of Eternity (September 22)

Korean developer/publisher NCsoft is known for creating lots of MMOs, from Lineage, to Guild Wars, to the failed Auto Assault. Aion is their latest creation, and unlike many other MMOs, the main attraction here is that combat will, for the most part be airborne. Unfortunately however, unlike Guild Wars, Aion will be subscription based, and will cost $15 a month to be a part of.

7: Halo 3: ODST (September 22)

Halo 3 ODST (”Orbital Drop Shock Troopers”), doesn’t follow the main protagonist Master Chief, instead, it centers around an unknown soldier, “The Rookie”, who crash lands on a hostile planet and must find his teammates. While it’s not a true sequel, rather something in between Halo 3 and the upcoming Halo Reach, it’ll most certainly satisfy hard core Halo fans this holiday season.
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Age of Empires III: Complete Collection on store shelves September 15th

When I was younger one of my favorite RTS franchises was undoubtedly Age of Empires. I remember you were able to enter a cheat and unlock a sports car carrying a guy with a rocket launcher. Well, here we are, years later and the game has definitely made some progress with the latest major release being Age of Empires III.

For those of you who missed out on 2005 release, Microsoft is giving you another chance to experience it with the forthcoming release of Age of Empires III: Complete Collection. The game will hit store shelves on September 15th for $49.95 and include Age of Empires III along with it’s two expansion; The Asian Dynasties and War Chiefs.

Order of War dated

Square Enix has set a North American release date for their first World War II game Order of War, which will be September 22nd. The game is being developed exclusively for the PC. Two campaign modes, multiplayer, Deathmatch and Skirmish are included in Wargaming.net’s upcoming RTS.

A single-player demo for the game has been released recently, titled “Road to Paris”. It’s available on the official website.

I’m looking forward to Order of War; it will be interesting to see how the Japanese RPG giant will handle a World War II game.

Heroes of Newerth debut trailer

I told myself I wouldn’t play this game because I would get addicted, but it looks too good to pass up. Anyways, it’s Defense of the Ancients except a whole lot better from what I’ve heard. Right now, the game is in a beta phase, but a few lucky people have been able to get their hands on a key through a Facebook promotion.

The game is currently being developed by S2 Games, the people behind Savage. No word on a release date, but pre-sale for the game has already started for beta members.

Fat Princess lag and connection failures to be fixed soon

Titan Studios recently posted on their blog addressing some of the key issues with their recent strategy game Fat Princess. Players were reporting instances of significant lag and connection failures, so like any developer should, they’re getting right on the problems. The reason behind the lag is due to a flawed matchmaking system, which may match you with a person with a very high ping to the servers.

The developer claims they already have a fix in testing for the lag issues. As for the connection failures, the patch is currently going through official Sony testings, so we can expect a fix for everything very soon.

Read (Titan Studios Dev Blog)

East India Company demo out

The North American retail release for the real-time-strategy East India Company was today, but Europe will have to wait until the 14th. If you can’t wait for that long, you can grab a demo recently released by the game’s publisher, Paradox Interactive.

The demo weighs in at ~790MB, which isn’t bad considering the game has some pretty intense graphics. You can download it over at FileFront.

A nice little video launch trailer was also released yesterday, so be sure to check that out to decide if the demo’s worth your time.

Demigod demo now available

Demigod has been out for months now and yet we still haven’t seen a demo version of the game. Luckily, Stardock has today announced just that, a demo version of Demigod.

Players will reportedly be able to play through all 4 of the game’s multiplayer modes using four demigods; Regulus, Rook, Sedna and Lord Erebus. However, the only map made available for play in the demo is Cataract.

If you’re a fan of the RTS genre, Demigod is definitely a game you should check out. Head here to snag the demo.

Pong creator turns to Battleswarm

It seems that Nolan Bushnell, the mastermind behind Pong and Atari, is returning to the game scene with his latest title, Battleswarm: Field of Honor.

Bushnell describes this game as a mash-up between StarCraft and Starship Troopers in which players will choose between playing the game as an RTS or an FPS.

Below are his comments on the game attributing its creation to wanting to game with his 5 sons:

They’re all avid gamers and like first-person shooters. The problem is, as you get older, you lose some reaction time, and as a result, I’m getting slaughtered by them. A real-time strategy [RTS] game, however, is more my [preference], a good resource game is what I love. Battleswarm is both an RTS and a shooter, a mash-up between StarCraft and Starship Troopers, if you will. You can switch sides, too, if you feel like an RTS instead of a shooter, or vice-versa.

Sounds pretty awesome, can we get a release date?

Read (USA Today)