There’s not a whole lot to see in this new trailer for Condemned 2, but it seems to be hitting on all the “scary game trailer” cylinders. Threatening, disembodied voice? Check. Annoying but creepy alarm-like sound effect? Check. Getting your head smashed in by a brick-wielding zombo? … Check.
The one thing we’re still questioning is the point in the clip where the hero appears to be wielding a prosthetic arm. Either that’s a weapon (sort of cool) or the damage in the game is so realistically modeled that injuries can result in infection, amputation, filing an insurance claim for a new limb and months of rehab (not as cool). We’re pulling for the first one.
Our lascivious masters at Joystiq reminded us, and we now find it our duty to remind you that tonight’s episode of South Parkcenters around Guitar Hero. Specificlaly, Stan and Kyle’s friendship is put to the test when it’s discovered that Stan is better at the game. The South Park Studios Production Blog has a writeup concerning the episode. Allow us to sum it up: think twice before you assume being good at Guitar Hero makes you cool. There’s also a little video preview available in which we see Stan and Kyle facing off on “Carry on Wayward Son.”
You can bet we’ll be watching it tonight. If you’d like a little extra dose of nerdiness and discussion, head over to Joystiq where they will be liveblogging the episode as it happens. Check in at 10pm Eastern if you’re interested.
Yesterday we spent some time at Harmonix playing Rock Band and tried to get those lingering questions answered a week before launch. We also got some clarification on certain issues about the game and an explanation of the Canadian delay.
If there is anything you walk away with after spending a day at Harmonix and talking about Rock Band, it’s the knowledge that downloadable content (DLC) will be a vital element. It was something Rock Band producer Helen McWilliams had mentioned at E3 to us as being “the big thing,” but when you actually see the scope of it … seriously, it’s the big thing.
Although Harmonix PR coordinator John Drake wouldn’t share the pricing of the downloadable songs, he did offer, “It’ll take your breath away — in a good way.” Gamers should be pleased to hear that they’ll be able to purchase songs in packs or as singles. The various members of the team we spoke to during our time at their offices know that DLC is where their financial bread will be smothered in Ben Franklin butter. During one interview, a member of the hardware development team wouldn’t discuss whether they’re actually taking a loss on the pricing of Rock Band with the expectation of making it up in the long run. Whatever money they may — or may not — be losing on selling the “music platform” (as they call Rock Band) in the short term, it appears the weekly DLC will be the thing bringing longevity to the product as opposed to yearly sequels.
These images just keep making me laugh. Over the weekend, we posted pictures of people having fun with the Beerfest goggles around famous Azerothian NPCs, and although my original request of Illidan never panned out (he’s not a humanoid, apparently, and thus not susceptible to the effects of beer goggles), you readers responded with tons of funny pictures featuring our fearless leaders as Gnomes and female Orcs.
So here they are all collected into a gallery, and if you have any more, feel free to drop us a note with links to them, and I’ll add them in. Thanks to all the commenters who posted links for these pics: Nate S., myrlin, Haaken, erin, and s02.
You know that moment at the end of the thriller when the main character realizes that their best friend has been the murderer the whole time, and they start flashing back to scenes that before might have seemed random but now all start making sense? That’s a little like the sensation we got reading MTV’s Stephen Totilo’s recent piece in which he puts forth the theory that Nintendo’s in the middle of leaving single-player behind completely in favor of multiplayer experiences.
Totilo has some solid backup too, pointing at everything from Super Mario Galaxy’s co-op play to Nintendo’s recent group-centric advertising. “Where I’m going with all of this is the idea that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess may be a relic of a previous era,” he writes. We’re not sure whether to be excited or terrified.
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them.
Lately I have been leveling a Shaman, and I was surprised to learn that Druids (my all-time favorite class) and Shamans (might become my second favorite) are quite similar. I know I am a Shammy noob, having never leveled one before, but am quickly learning to love them and hoping to suck in all the knowledge I can in coming days.
Not only with Shamans and Druids, I guess you could say that there is a lot of class crossover in many areas, for example, a Warlock functions much like a Hunter, being a long ranged fighter with a pet, or how druids double up on many of the Rogue’s trademarks, at least in feral form. The list is endless, and I could go on, but after all, this is a Druid column, so let’s get to it.
I don’t think crossover is all that uncommon, nor is it detrimental to any class, in fact, much of the time, the class crossover actually helps and can fill a void especially in instances when your (insert loser class here) bailed on you at the last second before a big fight. This is what makes druids the cream of the cat, um, crop. We druids can do almost everything, but with varying degrees of effectiveness depending on spec, motivation, and of course fun-ness index. Shammies are also quite versatile and varied in their skills, which makes me like them for sure, and thus our first class crossover comparison between Druids and Shammies today.
The mix of healing and damage dealing abilities, a delightful cocktail enhanced by talents trees created to cater to one or more of those abilities are common to both Druids and Shammies. Both make great backup healers, if your primary mode of transit is to deal damage like an ice cream truck in a crowded neighborhood.
When the main healer is out of mana, and with a Druid’s Innervate, you can have poor old lu over there in the corner guzzling down the Mountain Dew back in action fast. I have been pretty shocked of late at the number of peeps I group with at high levels who don’t have a clue that Druids have that ability. Merry Christmas! Once they find out, they love it. Want to be a mana-user’s best friend? Throw up your Innervate on them and add a cherry on top, there you go!
A great thing common to both is the ability to selectively pull and hold aggro, even though that may not be your primary job in an instance. Druids do this, as you know through the bear’s Growl ability, and Shammies have their Earthbind Totem for this as well. Another great thing that makes us animals (cat, cat2, bear, butt-ugly mongoose) love the other animals (ghost wolf) too. I still don’t like Murlocs, no matter what form I take.
One thing that is different about Druids and Shammies is definitely the armor specs. Druids wear only leather or cloth, and Shammies can wear mail and use shields, adding to a Shammy’s survivability when pulling aggro right off the bat. You might say “well geez, who doesn’t know that,” but let me tell you, as a lifelong druid who is starting to love the Shammy, mail and shield armor is a breath of fresh air. Wow, never thought I would hear that particular sentence ringing in my head. Don’t mind me, I’m just sticking my head out the window on the freeway to get that breath of fresh mail!
Has anyone else seen the extent of the symbiotic relationship these two classes have? Do you like playing them both? Do you think playing one makes you naturally gravitate toward the other? For me at least, loving the one makes me appreciate the other. That, and I love playing the “hard” classes which require much focus to handle all the forms and abilities. I guess I am just a versatile kind of guy.
Which is where most modern music comes from, rite? Harmonix and MTV Games have announced that multi-peripheral musicfest Rock Band has gone gold and is now rocking and rolling off assembly lines in order to meet the November 20th release date. The game, which is expected to be in short supply at first, will be soldin a $169.99 bundle only until 2008. Once the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions are out, a PlayStation 2 version priced at $159.99 will follow on December 18th.
That gives you three different versions to choose from this holiday season — all of them sure to leave a mess of wires running across your living room floor. We’ve also asked Harmonix to confirm whether or not Rock Band utilizes a USB dongle for the PS3’s wireless guitar (a la Guitar Hero III). If that’s the case, owners of the 40GB PS3 will also require a USB hub to make up for the system’s halved number of ports. Nobody said starting a fake band was easy!
Amanda M. had a tiny mention of this in her big Engineering post earlier, but I felt it deserved another mention. Our friend Boubouille at MMO Champion has discovered that there are new toy models coming for Engineers in 2.3: a rocket chicken (yes, really), a paper gyrocopter and a paper zepplin, and this crazy model above, a dragon kite.
Now, I don’t mean to rain on Engineers’ parades– they definitely deserve all the love they’re getting, and I can’t wait to see all the cool stuff they’re making out there on the realms. But here’s the thing: wasn’t the whole problem with Engineering that they were stuck making toys instead of useful items? The Epic Mount is awesome, but is anyone else surprised to see that an “Engineering revamp” includes papercraft toys? This is just more Mechanical Squirrels, which is what Engineers were disappointed with in the first place.
An unweighted Companion Cube would be hilarious (Portal has my game of the year vote right now, until I get to check out Mass Effect). But I thought the whole point of beefing up Engineering was to get past these pets. Will letting them do some papercraft really bring the profession up to speed?
Update: Or maybe they’re not all for Engineers. The Rocket Chicken certain seems like Engineering, but there’s speculation floating around, according to our illustrious commenter Kyle, that these are rewards from the new Upper Deck loot cards.
This year, Mario trumps “Madden.” Maybe not in overall revenues, but according to the top 20 publisher’s list, put out annually by Game Developer Magazine, Nintendo leveled up on Electronic Arts this year.
Variety reports that mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer has offered director duties for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time to Mike Newell. Although Newell directed Four Weddings and a Funeral and Donnie Brasco, we’re guessing Bruckheimer is tapping Newell because of his work with Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. Newell is currently meeting with Disney studio execs this week and an announcement will probably be made shortly thereafter.
The script for Prince of Persia was written by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow) and PoP creator Jordan Mechner. All we can say at this point is this movie is sounding like a popcorn munching friendly theater experience.
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