Summary: Indie title with artistic pretensions in ‘actually rather good’ shocker!

Setting: Some kind of weird planet where the people have all disappeared and an intelligent species of slime is in the process of rising to ascendancy. Probably Walthamstow then, I guess.

Systems: PC (reviewed), Wii

Genre: Puzzle/Goo-based games.

Mood: Upbeat yet poignant gooeyness. Is gooeyness even a word?

Read the full review by Meirion.

So this one, while being totally awesome, still comes with a bit of confusion. According to a press release and news on 1up.com - the former online partner of Electronic Gaming Monthly before the latter was unceremoniously canned earlier this year - Steve Harris, the founder of EGM, has purchased the rights to the name and properties from Ziff Davis Media. Harris now has the ability to reinstate EGM as a website, a print publication, or *GASP* both!

The cover of what was supposed to be the final EGM, before it got canned earlier this year. The Wolverine issue turned out to be the last.

Several former subscribers are already pining for the continuation/fulfillment of the issues that they had already paid for. I’m just happy that EGM may be coming back in any form. In a time when many of the gaming mags tend to have the same type of advertisements content, EGM was usually a refreshing read from cover to cover. Plus, maybe I’m just showing my old-school tendencies here, but there’s just something awesome about holding a game magazine. Makes the time in the bathroom pass that much quicker.

Apparently more information will be provided next week during E3 as to the future status of the publication. We’ll keep you posted.

Any reaction from fans/naysayers out there?

Edit: P.S. Here’s more info and links from Bitmob, which is helmed by one of the former Editors-in-Chief of EGM, Dan Hsu.

The following was unceremoniously ripped from the RESET blog. Make sure to check out this week’s comic!


Anyway, lots of big (not really) videogame news this week. Capcom announced, much to my surprise and glee, that they will in fact be localizing Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Man, I was really becoming pretty convinced this wasn’t going to happen. Thank God I’m constantly wrong about everything! I guess since none of Tatsunoko’s programs were ever particularly popular in the U.S., it didn’t end up being too difficult to get the licensing sorted out. So now the Wii will be getting another awesome and bizarre third party exclusive that probably no one will ever play. No one but me, that is! I’ve been a big fan of the Capcom VS. fighting games since the days of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on the Dreamcast, and while I always hesitate at paying full price for non-Smash Bros. fighting games, I think I may make an exception for this one. Capcom vs. SNK was a title that made perfect sense, and while Marvel vs. Capcom was a little strange, considering that Capcom had already made tons of Marvel fighting games, it worked if you knew the history. But a game where Capcom characters fight characters from an anime company known primarily for creating popular shows in the ’70s? It’s just such a weird, out-of-left-field concept (not unlike Chaos Wars) that I feel like I need to endorse it just on principle. Plus I always prefer fighting games that are crazy and kind of sloppy, as they allow me to hide my lack of any real technical skills. So now that this “never-going-to-happen” title is finally coming over to the U.S., does that mean Mother 3 will be along soon enough too? Answer: Yeah right.


Also, two new downloadable expansion packs were announced for Fallout 3 (as well as something about all of them being ported to the PS3, but who really cares about that, huh?). This works out great for me since, having completed Broken Steel as well as most of the game’s regular quests, I’ve been looking for other interesting things to do as I make my way to level 30. The first, Point Lookout, is supposed to be some kind of swamp area. Whatever. The second and much more interesting, Mothership Zeta, revolves around the hero being abducted by aliens. Now we’re talking! Without giving away any real spoilers, I had kind of hoped the narrative of Broken Steel was progressing towards some kind of final showdown with the Enclave in outer space, and while the ending was very good, I was still kind of disappointed I didn’t get my big battle amongst the stars. Mothership Zeta sounds like it will be remedying that. All I can say is hot damn.

If you are twiddling your thumbs waiting for this year’s E3 to finally kick off and start feeding gaming news to your information-starved brain, consider checking out episode 304 of the Bonus Round podcast. Host Geoff Keighley is joined by Andy McNamara, Editor-in-Chief of Game Informer, Brian Crecente, Managing Editor of Kotaku, and N’Gai Croal, Game Consultant at Hit Detection to talk about what might be coming up at this year’s show. The episode is split into several pieces, the first dedicated to third party publishers (as well as a discussion of this year’s rejuvenated E3 format), the second to Microsoft, and the third to Sony. (Part 4, Nintendo, will be coming later this week).

It’s a nice, long, laid back conversation, perfect for listening to in the background while you do whatever it is you like to do most with your eyes (I like to keep mine closed just to keep myself out of trouble). There is obviously no breaking news here, but its a nice round-up of all the rumors and game announcements of the past 6 months, which will get you pumped and ready for what’s coming on June 2nd.

Metroid Prime 3 remains one of the Wii’s shining stars when it comes to first-person shooters. Since its release though, fans have been hoping for one of two things: a new Metroid title, or the re-release of the original Prime games with motion controls. Well, in their grand tradition of re-working what’s already been done, Nintendo has opted for the latter at the moment, presenting us with Metroid Prime Trilogy, set to release August 24, which combines the original Prime, Prime 2: Echoes, and Prime 3: Corruption.

Still, the details sound pretty cool. Motion-controls, flipping the remote for morph ball jumping, widescreen presentation, and unlockables that can be obtained by completing challenges in all three games. Oh, and it’s only gonna cost $50. Considering MP 3 by itself is still that price, that’s pretty damn cool.

More info from Wired’s Game|Life blog and 1up.com.

After strictly grounding myself from downloading any more random Wii Ware games (My Aquarium? What was I thinking?), I snuck into the Wii shop a few weeks ago and downloaded Wonder Boy and immediately put myself back on lock-down. Sure, Wonder Boy was a hilarious game…20 years ago., and if I had the time, I’d totally play it, but truth be told, I have books–honest to god BOOKS–that I have more time for than Wonder Boy.

Then, yesterday, I went back in…you know, just to look. It was, after all, Wii Ware’s first birthday, and it would be rude to ignore a birthday.  Right? Once in, I saw something that nearly made me drop my Wiimote. Cocoto Platform Jumping Master?! F You, Cocoto! I hope you fall off one of your stupid platforms and drown in the watery grave that should have been your final fate after your last crapfest, Cocoto Fishing Master. I loathe you, Cocoto.

And then I saw something that almost made me forget all about my deadly vendetta against Cocoto…Majora’s Mask. Wha? I can play Majora’s Mask? On my Wii? For ten bucks? I quickly took myself off lock-down, downloaded it, and then immediately put myself back on lock-down. (It’s best not to take any chances, what with Bonzai Barber and Dr Mario floating around there…tantalizingly.)

The story of  Majora’s Mask  begins where Ocarina of Time ends (…hint: you’ve just kicked the crap out of a dude who’s name rhymes with “Canon”).  It was meant as a sequel, but, to me, MM felt more like OOT’s creepy little brother. And, joy of joys, it is STILL creepy. Super creepy. Even creepier, maybe, on my big 2008 tv. (That’s right, Cocoto. My tv is so 2008. You, sir, are so 2000 and late! Burn!)

What game would you take yourself off lock-down to download? (Please don’t say Cocoto Platform Jumper.)

Summary: A jRPG that jettisons swords and dragons to keep a fresher, more modern setting on board.

Setting: The fictional town of Inaba, Japan 2011.

Systems: PS2

Genre: RPG

Mood: To name only one would paint the game one-dimensionally. The mood can be bright, dark, tense, leisurely, humorous, or romantic.

Read the full review by Eric Venezia.

I’m surprised Max didn’t catch on to this before me, or anyone else on the internet for that matter, but here it is.

According to GameInformer online, a new, minute-long video has surfaced that shows off some footage of what may in fact be Beyond Good and Evil 2. Yes, that’s a lot of supposing going on there, but the fact is, the woman in the video does not entirely look like Jade from the first game (as seen below), but she does look an awful lot like the Jade we saw in the first teaser trailer that debuted last year.

No one is quite sure if this is gameplay or cut-scene footage, or if it’s in-game engine or pre-rendered. We can only hope that, with E3 only a few weeks away, our questions will be answered soon.

Direct link to the YouTube footage here.

The folks over at Bioware prepared this trailer as, well, a teaser of the teaser that they are going to show at E3. Blowing right past the obvious hilarity of that statement, the video (as you will see for yourself) gives some sneak peeks at what’s about to come to us Mass Effect fans in the next installment of the game. The major changes that the team seems to be stressing are the beefed up combat system, which is supposed be much more intense and dynamic, more powerful weapons and a darker tone to the overall story.

For me personally, this is exciting even if ME2 turns out to be just more of ME1. Sure, improvements are always nice, but there are just not that many stellar Western-style RPGs out there, and I get button-happy whenever I know that something as great as Mass Effect is coming back for another pass.

We’ll keep you posted on the E3 progress of Mass Effect 2. Meanwhile, make sure to keep drinking and smoking, and get some sex if you can. It’s good for the stress.

Ripped from the RESET blog. Make sure to check out this week’s comic!

So, as you may or may not know, the third Fallout 3 expansion, Broken Steel, was released this past Tuesday. While I took a pass on the other two expansions as they frankly looked pretty skimpy, the fact that Broken Steel not only offered what sounded like a fairly robust amount of content, but also upped the level cap from 20 to 30 firmly convinced me to part with 800 Microsoft points. Fallout 3’s level cap was (apart from its possessing the standard western RPG glitchiness) really the only thing I could hold against the game. The problem, though, wasn’t that the game set the cap at twenty. By the time you’ve reached level twenty you’re more than capable of obliterating pretty much anything in your path. No, the real issue is how easy it is to reach level twenty. When I hit twenty huge sections of the game’s map were still relatively unexplored and I had a number of incomplete quests, including the main storyline quest of which there was about a third left to go. Hitting the level cap kind of took away the incentive to finish these things. Sure, I could always dig around for better equipment or items, but with few exceptions gear isn’t nearly as important as stats. Plus, since equipment detereorates so quickly, unless I was pretty sure there was going to be a substantive payoff for my scrounging, without the promise of an experience boost, it usually wasn’t worth exploring. They really should have just slowed down the rate at which the player’s character accumulated XP, as that way there’d actually have been a definitive reason for scouring every corner of the map. Well Broken Steel has handily fixed this problem by giving the player ten more levels they can grind through, each of which seems to require substantively more experience than earlier levels. I hit twenty one over the weekend, which gave gave me a chance to scan over the list of new perks the game has to offer. While there are certainly a few that grant the player even more apocalyptic abilities than before (which is frankly pretty surprising considering how deadly a level twenty character was already) a lot of the new perks seem designed to be more quirky than game breaking. One allows the player to turn ten Nuka Cola’s into one Nuka Cola Quantum. Another causes a Dogmeat puppy to generate at Vault 101 every time Dogmeat is killed, thus essentially making him immortal. A third causes the hero to generate a nuclear blast that incinerates all nearby enemies and allies every time his health drops below 20%. Like I said, unusual stuff. I haven’t had a chance to really delve into the actual new quests and scenarios since I’ve so far just been mopping up the older quests I’d left unfinished, but when I do I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how that goes. I have run into a couple of the advertised Enclave Hellfire Troopers who do, indeed, make more substantive foes than their lower-level brethren. They’re certainly not overwhelmingly difficult, but they feel more like the Enclave soldiers in Fallout 2, in that they represent an actual threat.

In other news, I’ve also started up Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, for the DS. Way back in the day I played through a decent chunk of Dragon Warrior IV on the NES and enjoyed it quite a bit, so I’m expecting good things from this remake. Dragon Quest games are great no-nonsense RPGs. You grind levels. You go to towns. You buy equipment. You go to dungeons. You fight bosses. You grind levels. That’s it. It’s awesome! No irritating melodrama. No strange combat system you have to learn. Sure there’s a high random encounter rate and you have to do tons of grinding for experience and money, but battles fly by so quickly it’s not frustrating at all. I would urge anyone who is feeling disenchanted with modern JRPGs to pick up any of the Dragon Quest/Warrior games, particularly VIII or either of the two DS remakes to remind themselves of what rock-solid JRPG game design feels like.

In sad news, according to an interview over at RPGamer it appears XSEED won’t be localizing the sequel to Retro Game Challenge. That’s too bad, because it really looks like it’s a fantastic game. Maybe someone else will pick it up, though.