|  |  |  | | | | | Gamezone: Game Reviews and More! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | VVVVVV | | | March 5, 2011 at 5:05 PM | | | | VVVVVV is designed around one really simple mechanic: zero gravity jumping. Whenever you jump, you take off into the air and don’t stop until you hit a ceiling. Then you can walk around a bit, and jump back down. In VVVVVV, it’s not a gimmick; it’s the basic mechanic - every single jump reverses your gravity. It’s the starting point. The game is set in a big open world, with lots to explore. As well as that, the game has a number of smaller, linear levels set in this - the idea is that they contain gameplay elements not found anywhere else. As a result, you can tackle these ‘dungeons’ in any order you find them in.  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In The Hive you play as Alex Rig, a reporter who was investigating a missing persons case when he discovers a heavily-fortified research facility while snooping around for clues. Similar to Iji, Prince of Persia and Flashback, Alex will be doing a lot of climbing up platforms and crawling through air vents to find ammunition or health-replenishing items that he can keep in his inventory for later use. The taser he carries is effective enough against guards at close range, but only rifles and shotguns can protect him from being overwhelmed by chasing mutants that are more resilient to bullet damage. Both the protagonist’s health and his weapons can be upgraded in small increments, provided that you manage to locate the special items required to level up their stats.  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Frenzy Defense is a tower defense game that mixes simplicity with hectic gameplay, created by Jan Willem Nijman in under two hours for a friendly Poppenkast game development competition. The objective here is to protect the four cores located in the middle of the screen from onrushing enemies appearing out of everywhere. You do this by building one of the two types of towers available to the player, using the money that you’ve earned from eliminating the enemies that are coming at you. The simple blaster is cheap yet effective, but a launcher is automatically purchased if you allow your credit count to reach 100 at any time.  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Bulletstorm’s first DLC comes under the banner of “Gun Sonata” and is headlined by three new maps for Anarchy mode: Hotel Elysium, Sewers of Stygia, and Villa. An additional two Echo maps, Crash Site and Guns of Stygia, are also included in the pack. Lastly, two new Leash enhancements are bundled with the DLC: the Flamingo and the Pulp. No date has been specified for the pack’s release besides “this spring.” It’ll cost 800 Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360 and $9.99 on the PC and PlayStation 3.  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Streemerz 2: Godspeed Towards Oblivion is a direct sequel to Arthur Lee’s Streemerz remake, created for the Indie Kombat game development challenge that includes developers Chevy Ray (who dropped out) and Sophie Houlden (with her submission UnderPogo). This time around Superb Joe is called upon to answer a distress signal from Streemerz Command, which means he has to revisit the original location where Master Y was last defeated by our flamboyant neon-coloured hero. To sum it up, Streemerz 2 is a very short game that combines elements from Sophie, Arthur and Chevy’s most popular works, with an extra helping of crude humor that Mr. Podunkian is notoriously famous for.  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Steam has a nice gift for you this weekend. They’re offering what’s been labeled the Ubisoft Weekend Deal Pack: containing Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut Edition, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Far Cry 2: Fortune’s Edition, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2—for $13. That’s 80% off the standard package price. It’s quite a saving, and the deal is only available this weekend. Grab what’s arguably the best deal of the month here.  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Just yesterday we shared the news that Bungie had confirmed their next game would be an MMO. David Aldridge, the studio's lead network engineer, reportedly revealed the news at his GDC panel. Now we’ve learned that the revealing powerpoint slide that started the excitement was meant as a joke. Bungie’s rumor-busting follows, via their always entertaining weekly update: "Tired of pretending that he's not a -blam!-in' rock star from Mars, David Aldridge inhaled a huge hit of David Aldridge at GDC yesterday. Subsequently, his face melted off and children wept over his exploded body. After the childish tears, gelatinous gibs, and acrid smoke cleared, an industrious journalist noticed the final slide from David's GDC deck which apparently proclaimed that we were hiring for a ‘massively…multiplayer action game.’ Ruh oh. Now, in rehearsal Aldridge was convinced that everybody got the joke. It was all in the delivery, he assured us, and he was certain it was clear that he was playfully riffing off of the recent rumors. Unfortunately, most people can't figure David out—they can't process him. And we don't expect them to. You can't process David Aldridge with a normal brain. You'd need tiger blood and Adonis DNA." Now of course, this could all be elaborate damage control on Bungie’s part—publishers like Activision aren’t always thrilled when their secrets are revealed—but for now it seems Bungie’s next game is a mystery. Move on, ladies and gentlemen. Nothing to see here. [Source]  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Back in February, Clint Mansell revealed he would be creating the soundtrack to Mass Effect 3, despite previous composer Jack Wall’s huge influence on both the first and second Mass Effect games. When asked why Wall departed from the series before completing the trilogy, he replied, "Well, I’ve had a great relationship with BioWare for five years, and I think, you know, as with any important relationship it’s complicated. Now I’m working with other clients and it feels fresh to me and I think they feel the same way, so I think it’s just time to move on. I have nothing but love for those people. I’m sure I’ll see them again. It’s just time for a break, maybe." Wall was questioned during a GDC session, in which he spoke about the methods he and the team employed to create Mass Effect 2’s interactive soundtrack. Wall brought a particular set of skills to the table, combining his musical composition abilities with technological know-how. The concern now is that Clint Mansell, a Hollywood composer, will lack the skills necessary for working on Mass Effect 3. Wall doesn’t seem too concerned, though: "As long as you have someone doing what we did on the game development side, you can get away with that, and have just somebody write great music and direct them how to do it.” "[It] doesn’t necessarily make me more suited to a particular project, unless the developer feels it is," Wall explained. "I hope Clint Mansell can get up to speed on that quick and doesn’t feel too overwhelmed. He’s a very talented guy, so I’m sure it’ll be great." I’m not so sure, but Mansell is no doubt a talented man, having scored some of the best soundtracks in film, including Requiem for a Dream and Moon. Here’s hoping he can evoke the same mood that made Mass Effect so much more than a typical sci-fi adventure. [Source]  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A San Francisco judge has given Sony permission to access the IP addresses of anyone who visited the PlayStation 3 hack site of George Hotz, who’s been in hot water ever since his recent hacking of the home console. This ruling directly affects individuals living in the San Francisco area who visited the hack website, and Sony has acquired subpoenas from Google, YouTube, Twitter, and Bluehost (the site that hosts geohot.com). These subpoenas will allow Sony to seize any files containing registration history, account records, and IP address information. Sony has stated that the reason for requiring this information is twofold. By accessing the history of these sites, the PlayStation 3 manufacturer hopes to confirm that Hotz was in fact distributing the hack. Second, by viewing the IP addresses of the different site visitors, Sony intends to prove that most of the users reside in the San Francisco area, where the company plans on holding the case. Not everyone agrees with Sony’s tactics. Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Corynne McSherry stated that Sony was going too far with their “overly broad” subpoenas: “I think these subpoenas, the information they seek, is inappropriate.” We’ll know next month whether Hotz will be tried in San Francisco or his home of New Jersey. [Source]  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | You’d have to be pretty disconnected from the many happenings of the gaming industry to not have heard of the Angry Birds phenomenon. The 2D puzzler from developer Rovio Mobile took the gaming medium by storm, initially offering smartphone users an addictive gaming experience and ultimately porting over to the PlayStation Network. Aside from the imminent releases for Xbox Live Arcade and WiiWare, Rovio also has plans of bringing the franchise to the social networking site Facebook later this year. Rovio studio boss Mikael Hed stated that aside from all the the ports, expansions, merchandise, and inevitable movie and television iterations of the franchise, Facebook users can expect a fairly different version of the game. “There will be completely new aspects to it that just haven’t been experienced in any other platform,” stated Hed. “The pigs will have a more prominent role [in terms of the collaboration among users provided within Facebook].” In addition to the upcoming release, Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka said the franchise may see a series of racing and sports spin-offs. It should be interesting to watch the franchise evolve and to see how Rovio will expand on their “Disney 2.0” business model. [Source]  | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
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