Even after 23 years it never gets boring to see merchandise from gamings most loved franchise. How cool is this money bank in the form of a 1UP and Super Mushroom.
Want? Then read on, mushroom lovers.
Tag: games
First impressions: Conflict: Denied Ops for PS3/Xbox360
Yesterday I was invited to a plush London bar for a preview of the latest first-person shooter to enter the already crowded shooty genre. After sampling the deliciously free canapés and drinks on offer it was time for the serious business of guns, tanks and explosions, co-op style.
If you didn’t already figure it out, Conflict: Denied Ops is all about team-working with your army buddy. The buddies in question are the stealthy Lang and fast paced action-man, Graves trying to stop a dictatorship from getting hold of nukes.
Gamers can choose to switch between each soldier to get through the game. Lang is equipped with a sniper, while Graves the more trigger-happy of the two carries a machine gun.
Upon playing, the cut-scenes were impressive enough but it was the in-game action I was more eager to witness.
The first level has you trying to liberate a monastery from opposing militia, who like in Call of Duty 4 resemble the present stereotypical image of a terrorist. Also featuring was a face-off with a helicopter and a brief jaunt in a tank blowing up buildings and sniping enemy soldiers.
The option to switch soldiers does provide some element of team-working. At times I was unable to pick out far away soldiers, which was when Lang and his sniper came in handy.
When killed pressing the L2 button would make the soldier I wasn’t taking control of come and replenish my health with a boost of adrenalin.My major gripe with the co-op system was that on occasions my partner kept getting left behind and it was up to me to switch character and move him along with me.
Most of what was on offer was pretty standard war-based shooter fare, interlaced with a bit of co-op. At the moment it’s nothing special. The PS3 version did at times look a bit ps2-ish. Not a great start.
However the Xbox360 version looked much better. It just looked so much more crisp and moved more fluidly than its PS3 counterpart, which was playing alongside it. Even the controls felt smoother.
Pivotal, the developers were keen to point out the new ‘puncture technology- allowing gamers to blow holes in the scenery to create their own passages in the levels. The destruction didn’t seem too different from anything I’d previously seen in Red Faction on the PS2 or indeed the likes of Stranglehold.
Perhaps playing through just one level does not give a true indication of the game. What I can confirm is that Conflict: Denied Ops is a relatively solid shooter for those in love with the genre.
But during this first play provided very little, besides co-op that hasn’t been done by many others.
The game itself will be out on 12th February.
Major League Gaming, now on ESPN
That means you’ll be seeing player interviews, the 2008 MLG Pro Circuit Competitions, streamed matches, scores, statistics and so on. We’re definitely not talking about an oddly-timed half-hour show talking about how gaming tournaments are so weird. We’re talking a full-fledged sports deal that puts the MLG actually into the major league.
Check out ESPN’s flashy new site for the newfound affiliation, where they’ve already got the show going, with fresh MLG news and Pro Circuit stuff. Those not in the know might also be interested in ESPN’s Video Games site, where they try to be real cool and pretend they are good at covering video games like other major sites we won’t mention here. Just kidding.
This event has a profound impact on gaming, perhaps the largest since Halo 3’s humongous sales. With nerdy gaming tournaments getting showtime on ESPN, you know that the mainstream-gaming gap is being filled slowly. And while some might be annoyed by that, the more optimistic among us will tell you that this can only mean more people play games, more people make games and hopefully, games become cheaper and better!
So much for Utopia.
Myst to hit the DS!
In gaming’s Hall of Fame stands out one title – Myst, an adventure game that left a huge impact on the games industry and also became the highest-selling game of its time, later beaten by the gay The Sims. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve never even heard of the game, because it was released in 1993 and you started getting serious in games in like what, 2003?
This classic adventure title that a whole lot of people have fond memories of, is now making its way to North American Nintendo DSs, where it will do the same magic it did 15 years ago. And if you haven’t played the original, and own a DS, we see no reason why you shouldn’t get this game other than the fact that you have a gay pink DS. Okay.
The DS version features brand new graphics, with a lot more information to aid your quest. The lower screen functions as the game itself (which you now gloriously control with your phallic stylus), while the upper screen gives you all sorts of information. Myst, while being an adventure game that puts you into stunningly immersive environments, still focuses on puzzles and logic games. And hell, I don’t see “immersive” coming anywhere when you’re staring into a tiny DS screen in the middle of a crowded subway station.
Myst DS is scheduled to release in North America in March 2008. Buy it and let’s see if we can make it the best-selling DS game on the planet.
CES 2008: Wii Wireless Nunchuk from Nyko
While we love our gadgets we hate wires. They are the bane of technology; always getting tangled up as if by magic. So it’s a good thing Nyko has unveiled a wireless Nunchuk for the Wii.
There’s just one little problem. After stories of Wiimote related accidents in the home doesn’t this make the Wii’s controls even more deadly?
Indie Watch- Advance Wars Meets Pool? I’m in Love.
You will not sell a publisher on a title unless the marketing weasels know how to pitch it to the retail channel. If it fits into an existing, established game category – an RTS, an FPS, an RPG, action adventure, driving, sports – then they know how to sell it. But if you’re doing something novel – forget it.
An industry that was once the most innovative and exciting artistic field on the planet has become a morass of drudgery and imitation
Thus saith Greg Costikyan, founder of Manifesto Games and one of the foremost advocates of independent game development. According to its proponents, indie games present a haven from the stultifying pressures of risk-averse publishers more interested in games-as-commodity than games-as-art. Free from corporate suits, marketing execs, and the epidemic of sequelitis that has afflicted the gaming industry for far too long, they claim that developers can realize their visions and lead the gaming industry into a new golden age of innovation and compelling new content.
That’s if you believe the hype.
But even if indie games frequently fall short of these lofty aspirations, they can usually be counted on to produce a quality product. Most of the time, they operate like PC’s Xbox Live Arcade or PlayStation Network- offering smaller, less technically accomplished games with free demos and cheap prices, and low system requirements to boot. In addition to the wildly experimental games, these outlets also serve traditional markets now all but abandoned by the big corporations. Here, the 4X and Turn-Based Strategy genres never died; here, point-and-click adventure games flourish; here resides many throwbacks to the days of 16-bit RPGs.
Despite producing some compelling, if fairly niche, products, this platform has been almost completely ignored by the gaming media. We here at StuffWeLike.com hope to fill this void in a new, hopefully regular feature called Indie Watch, where we point you towards some of the best games the field has to offer.
Today’s featured game, called Ballistic Wars, is an odd amalgam of turn-based strategy, pool, and puzzle gameplay. So odd, in fact, that I’m not even going to try to describe it; it’s best that you experience it for yourself. While it’s not the best game in the world, it’s worth the download for the novelty alone. Check it out here.