E3 2012 - South Park: The Stick of Truth

I've been unexpectedly excited about the new South Park RPG since it was announced. Given how crappy most television tie-in games have been and how crappy of a track record South Park has with video games (one or two downloadable games aside), what made me excited about this?

Primarily, it's developer: Obsidian Entertainment. Obsidian is very much a "love it or hate it" developer and for understandable reasons. The RPGs they develop usually have a great amount of depth and great writing, but they're also known for being bugged up the ass and for feeling unfinished. I might talk more about Obsidian as the game comes closer to release but my overall opinion is that they're a developer that makes great titles that unfortunately don't meet their full potential.

Hopefully that will be broken here, but no matter what I'm thinking that we can expect a quality RPG with a good amount of depth to it.

Another reason I'm excited is that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are getting a lot of creative control. This really didn't happen with South Park games in the past which were probably a factor in their poor quality.

I'm posting two videos here. The first is Matt and Trey talking about the game briefly at the Microsoft press conference. The second is the trailer itself.

And now for the trailer.

WARNING: The trailer below has anti-semitic remarks and foul language...but if those trouble you then why the hell are you watching a trailer for a South Park game.

As has been stated before, the game will be a turn-based RPG. I don't know exactly why they went this route instead of real-time so don't ask me. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just curious why they took that style.

You'll also be able to choose between five opening classes: Fighter, Mage, Thief, Cleric and...Jew. The offensive humor is definitely there as seen by the trailer and the classes themselves. Definitely a plus.

I also laughed my ass off when I saw Professor Chaos. No not the small one, but the freakishly huge one with the anime art-style from the excellent episode, Good Times with Weapons.

Overall, I'm quite excited about this and can't wait for March 5 which will see the release of both this and Tomb Raider.

E3 2012: Gears of War Judgment Teaser

Hopefully, all of you know by now that I am not the biggest Gears of War fan. I've played the first two and enjoyed them but they just never grabbed. I still haven't played 3 (it's still on my list) so I didn't really care when a new Gears of War was announced.

But I got the teaser anyway and a bit of news caught my attention which I'll get into after the teaser.

Okay, not a bad teaser. But what really caught my attention that I didn't see in the teaser: the developer.

Gears of War Judgment is being developed by People Can Fly, the developers of Painkiller and the criminally underrated and overlooked Bulletstorm. While I'd rather they be developing a Bulletstorm sequel, especially given the cliffhanger that it ended on, I'll still look into what they do with the franchise. But after this, please make another Bulletstorm.

E3 2012: Tomb Raider - My Faith Restored

I feel like I was one of the few people who was unimpressed by Tomb Raider's showing at E3 last year. The cinematic trailer was great showing that it would primarily be more like a survival story than just a treasure hunt which, let's be honest, Uncharted has pretty much hijacked at this point.

However, the gameplay trailer did not impress me. All I saw were a bunch of quicktime events. Now I'm not one of those who hates all quicktime events but an enormous amount are not good. I should also clarify that it depends on the game and I don't like a lot of them in a game like Tomb Raider.

This recent trailer has restored my faith in this being the potentially strong reboot that this franchise really needs.

The emphasis on the survival continues showing brutal attempts by Lara to do so on a seemingly deserted island. I'm hoping there's a bigger emphasis on platforming in order to separate it from Uncharted. I know that Tomb Raider was first but at this point, Uncharted has such a foothold that Tomb Raider needs to distinguish itself from it.

From what I can hear, the voice acting is iffy in places and definitely needs some work, but giving Lara Croft a vulnerability looks like it might work great.

Some have stated that they're worried about this turning into Other M, but there are key differences between this and Other M which I know of even before the game is out. If I see any comparisons continue I might make a post about that but I really hope people can see the differences themselves so that won't be necessary.

Overall, still some worries, but this left a much better impression on me than last year's showing.

E3 2012: Dishonored Gameplay is Good and Bloody

Being described as a combination of Bioshock, Elder Scrolls, Thief, Assassin's Creed, and Deus Ex, all of those games' influences can be seen in the new gameplay trailer for Dishonored. Well, except Deus Ex but apparently that's supposed to be more in terms of the story.

The three minute trailer shows us a good amount of the first-person stealth-melee gameplay involved and shows the influences of the games mentioned above with atmosphere similar to Bioshock and Thief, a second hand using powers similar to Bioshock and Elder Scrolls, the kill animations look similar to Elder Scrolls and much of the scenery and art style look similar to the renaissance as used in Assassin's Creed II. And it looks bloody. Really, really bloody.

It does have me intrigued and looks like a really fun time. The sites that I go to, or the forums at least, have a lot of people hyping this game. Hopefully it lives up to it.

Blog Resuscitated: Updates, Trailers and News

I'm back. Yes it's been a long while since the last post but I've been swamped. The last semester was brutal and I've also been hunting for internships for a while now.

So what's the position of the blog now?

Well, as for the Mass Effect 3 review, it feels too late now. I'll sum it up though. The game is spectacular with a crappy last 10 minutes. You've probably heard that before and it's because it's true. I do highly recommend it, but just be wary of those last 10 minutes. Before that though, it's an incredibly emotionally-engaging storyline with moments that are almost guaranteed to move you to tears.

Now, as for the for the Metal Gear retrospective. I'm currently putting that on hold in favor of a Metroid retrospective. The Metal Gear one will also come but I want a good amount of time and planning to get that down. Metroid will be much easier to handle.

Retro reviews will be starting up again later this summer with Baldur's Gate series.

Finally, E3 starts tomorrow so get ready for a slew of posts to make up for the lack over the past month and a half.

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Harley Quinn's Revenge

First up, my thoughts on the Harley Quinn DLC for Batman: Arkham City.

For those of you who forgot my thoughts on the main game, I'll refresh. Arkham City was, simply put, the best game I played all year last year. It's gameplay was simply impeccable, it's open-world design well-executed, it had a twisting and solid storyline with excellent voice acting and some of the most sadistic portrayals of certain Batman villains ever.

Now as for Harley Quinn's Revenge, I was unsatisfied. As you would expect the gameplay is similar but the design is limited only to the Industrial Mill of Arkham City. It really comes down to the story though.

Following the events of the main game, Harley Quinn has become even more unhinged and psychotic than she already was. This is the part that was well-executed. The writing and voice acting from the incredibly talented Tara Strong really give off an even more deranged persona than there was in the main game.

The part that disappointed me was Batman. They say throughout the entire DLC that he's not been himself since the end of the main game. And that is never looked into beyond that. I suppose it's hinting at future DLC or the sequel (whenever that comes) but it left me wanting more from this.

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Metal Gear Rising Revengeance Trailer

I've been very mixed on the stuff that I've seen for the new Metal Gear game. The new trailer shown at Konami's pre-E3 press conference still has me mixed.

Okay, on the one hand, the gameplay looks excellent and really fun. I wouldn't expect any different from Platinum Games, the makers of freaking Bayonetta.

The problem is that it doesn't feel like Metal Gear. That for me is not a huge problem but it's still something that currently bothers me. Maybe the story will give it the Metal Gear feel but I'm just not quite getting it right now.



Well, that's it for now. Tomorrow E3 begins.

Compsoles is back!