2005/08/26

Street Fighter 4 at last?

It's being reported that Capcom will finally unveil Street Fighter 4 at the JAMMA arcade show in September. This rumour is just 80% accurate, but hopefully it's true as die hard Street Fighter fans like myself have been waiting patiently for Capcom to finally pull out the big no.4 in the series and stop with the mix-n-match fighters already.

Sega is also said to be unveiling Virtua Fighter 5 on the same show as well as a new Samurai Spirits/Showdown game.

Wild West + Vampires = Good Fun!

Darkwatch
I was highly anticipating this FPS game since first watching a preview video of it last year while it was still in production. You play the part of a vampire hunter in the wild wild west and lay waste to the undead hordes in your way! Full review coming soon!

2005/08/09

SNK Goodness

Two SNK games have just been released on PS2 and are available now. One new and one classic:

King of Fighters: NeoWave
The 2004 installment in the popular 2D fighting game series, which many around here didn't get into cause they didn't like the gameplay modes that would tone down certain characters a.k.a stop them from being cheap. But the game still feels and plays better than KOF2003 at least.

Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Currently the last chapter in the Fatal Fury series that was released several years back and has only now seen the light of day on a home console. Terry Bogard is the lone returning character from the original, as he takes it to a cast of new characters including Rock Howard, son of his arch rival, Geese Howard.

Reviews of these two games coming soon.

2005/08/03

Right Frame of Mind..

Fatal Frame 3 is now available, but onlu the Japanese version. Not sure when the english version will be released yet, so I'm still contemplating whether or not to get this one. It will most probably be a whole lot scarier with the original Japanese soundtrack I'll bet. So stay tuned for more.

Destroy All Humans

Imagine mixing a GTA type game with an alien b-movie storyline and Destroy All Humans will be the end result. Well, more or less. The Furon Empire is in desperate need of DNA to keep it’s planet from dying out, and Crypto has been sent to Earth to round up as much DNA as he can to help save his planet, and if required, he’ll single handedly conquer the world in the process!
You play as Crypto as he goes around various areas on Earth in search of DNA as well as taking on America’s government as well as the mysterious group known as The Majestics. This game is based on all those alien B-movies from the sixties and seventies, and is actually set within that time period. You move around the environments completing objectives like finding certain items, capturing/killing humans to obtain their brain stems for DNA, and fight off Earths defenses like the military.
Luckily for Crypto, he has a slew of alien weapons and abilities to help him on his missions, provided to him by Pox who watches him from the alien mothership. Crypto has a barrage of different weapon types from electric shocks to anal probes! And he also has telepathic powers where he can move things with his mind as well as assume a human disguise for a limited time period so that he won’t be easily detected by humans. He even has a trusty UFO he can board to cause havoc on a city’s populace! All his weapons and abilities can be upgraded with DNA points in the mothership between stages, and you’ll need these upgrades as the humans are also no strangers to upgrading their equipment.
The games graphics look great and detailed, with some very big environments that you can look around in complete freedom for hidden secret items and such. Just be on the lookout for humans, cause the more of them that see you, the higher the alert level goes up from having to deal with local police, to the military and ultimately the men in black known as The Majestics.
The audio is also really good, with a soundtrack reminiscent of those old black and white b-movies. The voice acting is also done quite well, with Crypto given a sort of Jack Nicholson type attitude. There’s a lot of comedy in this game, including the one liners you’ll hear from human’s as you read their minds or as you terrorize them in search of DNA.
The controls are easy to pick up, but I’ve found the only problem I’ve had is with the jumping, as it takes a long time for Crypto just to jump, and when in the air it’s also hard to control him when he uses his jet pack, which runs short on energy rather quickly and is more like just giving him a boost instead of a quicker way to get around the huge environments.
The only other problem I guess is that the game is pretty short. You get the feeling of easily beating most missions and all the while in the back of your head you fear the game is going to end soon. But you have complete freedom once you beat the main game to return to all the areas and search for hidden stuff or complete various mini-quests available in each area.
Overall: I definitely recommend giving this game a run as you get to play as the bad guys for once. There’s a lot of comedy in the main story and just a fun game overall. I’m hoping they’ll be a sequel of some sorts in the works.

Game Ratings:
Graphics – 8
Sound – 8
Gameplay – 7
Lifespan – 7
Overall – 7