Videogames highlights - June 2010, E3 special
In the days between the 14th and 17th of June Los Angeles hosted the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the most important yearly exhibition of interactive entertainment where big names and small publishers showed an almost endless cornucopia of video games coming for the next months (and years). The E3 2010 edition was marked by publishers optimism for a market that suffers the economic crisis but hopes to return soon to make the same money they were used to. Many, too many sequels were showed, while the final result suggests a noticeable revival compared to the past editions. What follows is a personal survey of the stuff appeared during and around the video gaming show, where highly appealing games and underdogs with no big names behind them alternate as usual.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Developed by MercurySteam in collaboration with Kojima Productions, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is the shameless God of War clone the game to which Japanese publisher Konami entrusts its hopes to make the Castlevania saga fashionable again with a complete reboot for the events involving the game characters. The long trailer presented at the E3 shows off some of the title’s features: an outstanding voice acting cast, God of War alike third-person action, giant bosses, vampires, werewolves and (hopefully) so much blood. To be published by the next fall on PS3 and Xbox 360.
Dead Space 2
And after the prequel for Wii, the action survival horror developed by Visceral Games in 2008 earns itself a true sequel designed for the major gaming platforms out there. Dead Space 2 will be out within the end of January 2011 on PC Windows, Xbox 360 and PS3, EA announced during the E3 2010, and will feature the mining engineer Isaac Clarke again while fighting with his own madness and the disgusting (and spewing) Necromorphs infecting the space station known as “Sprawl”. The game release will be anticipated (apparently on Xbox 360 and PS3 only) by a series of mini-games made to tell the events before Dead Space 2.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
The many game reboots showed in Los Angeles include this Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the third episode of the famed sci-fi FPS saga created by Warren Spector (Wing Commander, Ultima Underworld, System Shock and many more). Human Revolution once again dips the player into a distopian cyberpunk scenario where the megacorporations rule the world and you are no one if you don’t have a couple of bionic full-optional arms at least. The game will once again guarantee many selection and customization options in the nth marriage between first person shooter and role-playing game that in 2000 was a rare thing, but nowadays is almost the standard. To be released during the first part of 2011 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage
Following the Japanese release during the past March, the game previously known as Hokuto Musou gets a Western release and a title that is comprehensible by who doesn’t understand kanji too. So Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage will be shipped to North America and Europe during this fall, and how the following trailer (unveiled a few days after the E3) illustrates Kenshiro fans will have a broad chance to slaughter the enemies thanks to their mastery of Divine Hokuto School deathblows. And of the Nanto School, it seems.
Lost In Shadow
Lost in Shadow is likely one of the few original gaming products showed at the E3. Developed by Hudson Soft exclusively for Nintendo Wii, this unusual puzzle-platformer follows the adventures of a shadow forced to interact with the settings background to solve the various puzzles centered around manipulation of light (therefore of its opposite). The shadow, which is searching for its owner, will be able to only count on the help from a sylph to activate particular spots useful to change levels structure. To be released within the upcoming fall in the USA and on the 22nd of July in Japan.
Metal Gear Solid: Rising
If MGS 4: Guns of the Patriot ended a cycle, Metal Gear Solid: Rising has to open another one with radically changed protagonist and gameplay. The genre is always the stealth-action popularized by the endless Metal Gear saga, just this time the hero doesn’t use fire weapons but his sword to cut, cut, cut everything he wants, from concrete pillars to human beings going through vehicles and watermelons. Yes, it’s no joke, the (first?) game official trailer shows it all. Solid Snake retired? Raiden seems more than ready to take his place within the series.
Mortal Kombat
The recent bankruptcy of the famed Midway Games brought to a new studio (NetherRealm Studios), a new ownership (Warner Bros.) and a new chapter of the Mortal Kombat bloody saga. The game, simply named Mortal Kombat like the original, is being developed by Ed Boon cares - the series historical designer - and represents the “return to roots” of the violent beat’em up gone through every kind of technology, platform and game perspective. In 2011 (on Xbox 360 and PS3) Mortal Kombat will return to be a a one-on-one 2D beat’em up while showing off advanced 3D graphics, mature contents, new features (tag team and on-line fights above all) and the usual, brutalizing Fatalities.
Necromachina
Strider is about to come back, at least in spirit: directed by the creator of the aforementioned classic Kouichi Yotsui, Necromachina seems to be nothing more than the rendition from a modern standpoint of one of the most beloved arcades from Capcom (by myself and many others as well). Action, explosions, giant bosses and fights by the plasma sword will drive the player (or four players in on-line multiplayer mode) for 12 levels to go through in a strictly 2D perspective. To be released on the Xbox Live Arcade network at an unknown date in the upcoming future.
Portal 2
A widely predictable fact for who played, loved, and replayed again and again (and again) the superb Portal from Valve, that GLaDOS cyber-bitch is still alive. And she will once again hunt the player with the most convoluted and ingenious environmental puzzles ever conceived by designers in Portal 2, the sequel to be published in 2011 for PC, Xbox, PS3 and Mac OS X. A dimensional gun, two interconnected portals and misanthropic humour will return to populate the nightmares of first person games fans in the title that won two Game Critics Awards at the E3 2010 (”Best PC Game” and “Best Action/Adventure Game”).
Project DUST
Eric Chahi will soon have to update his ludography/chronology, it seems. The clever French game designer, creator of Heart of Darkness, Future Wars and the unforgotten masterpiece Another World (known as Out of This World in the USA), is currently partnering with Ubisoft Montpellier to develop Project DUST. Chahi is back to active gaming development after years of absence, and this is a truly wonderful news for me: expected for spring 2011 as digital download on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, Project DUST will feature an hybrid gameplay between Populous and Black & White where the player must manipulate the surrounding environment to defend his/her tribe and make it grow. Unfortunately it isn’t a new cinematic platform, but we will try to enjoy it anyway…
Rage
Six years have passed since the “cultural” shock of real-time light sources in Doom 3, but the id Software ability to amaze with its graphic engines seems to be unchanged. Rage, the shooter/driving game to come out in 2011 on PC (Win/Linux/Mac), Xbox 360 and PS3, will run atop the new id Tech 5 engine giving life to a post-apocalyptic, Mad Max alike set in which there will be plenty of mutants to blast off, spare parts for the car to steal and weapons to unload against any kind of living or non living target. The id game also won the E3 by getting three Game Critics Awards (”Best Console Game”, “Best Action Game” and “Special Commendation for Graphics”).
Splatterhouse
More good news about Namco’s Splatterhouse. This 3D remake of the bidimensional arcade with the same name from 1988 will arrive in fall on Xbox 360 and PS3, will feature many of the elements present in the original game - including the Terror Mask which turns the protagonist in a bloodthirsty death machine - and will supposedly include an unusual level of sadistic violence and sexual references (?). Splatterhouse 2010 will also contain the original arcade version of the game, clearly a “bonus” to unlock by going forward through the main game.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
A sequel to the much praised role-playing game developed by Polish publisher CD Projekt RED, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will once again immerse the player in a fantasy world where every choice affects the future events and the protagonist’s moral conduct isn’t something to be settled by choosing a good, evil or neutral alignment at the beginning of the adventure. Based as usual on the work by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher 2 will feature a faster fighting system than the first title and will shine of a rich and suggestive graphics thanks to a new engine entirely developed in-house. Who is the titular Witcher? A monster hunter gifted with supernatural powers. A fair reason, I say, to rediscover the original game and await with interest this second chapter - to be released in the first quarter of 2011 on PC.
Transformers: War for Cybertron
Disappointed by how Michael “Boom!” Bay reworked the classic franchise of “robots in disguise” aka Transformers thus far? The new game devoted to the Eighties megarobots feats should calm down your dissatisfaction, at least if you are long-time videogamers and won’t repel the idea of playing a third-person shooter set on Cybertron. Developed by High Moon Studios for publisher Activision, Transformers: War for Cybertron is set on the robots’ native world and lets the player experience the war to control the planet from both the Decepticons and Autobots perspectives. The game has been released at the end of June on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, and considering that Transformers 3 (the movie) is still far away War for Cybertron should be the best gaming choice for those on withdrawal of energon and clashes between metal giants.
Trine 2
The brilliant puzzle-platformer made by the Finnish software house Frozenbyte will soon earn a sequel. Announced by publisher Atlus during the E3, Trine 2 will tell once again the deeds of the Wizard, the Thief and the Warrior united by the sorcery of an ancient artifact. Expected for spring 2011 on PC and (maybe) other platforms, the game will feature a multiplayer co-op mode, new puzzles, fairy backgrounds, giant monsters and 500% more rainbows (no joke here).
Tron: Evolution
All right, Disney commissioned a new Tron game to launch ahead of the new film Tron Legacy. It’s a well known fact, and Tron: Evolution looks good considering the technology available nowadays to creators of cyber-spaces inhabited by cyber-warriors fighting cyber-battles till the last bit. What I still can’t understand is how heck Brazilian capoeira can mix with Light-Cycles, a world recreated inside the computer and all the rest of Tron mythology. And yet it really seems that capoeira is at the base of the fighting system featured by the game. Not good, imho…
Related posts
- Videogames highlights - June-December 2011 special (part 2)
- Videogames highlights - June-December 2011 special (part 1)
- Videogames highlights - May 2011
- Videogames highlights - October 2010-April 2011 part 2
- Videogames highlights - October 2010-April 2011 part 1
- Videogames highlights - September 2010
- Videogames highlights - August 2010
- Videogames highlights - July 2010, Underdogs Edition
- Videogames highlights - January 2010
- Videogames highlights - June 2009
Comments
Leave a Reply
-
· Subscribe to Sir Arthur's Den ·
-
· © Some Rights Reserved ·
The exclusive contents of Sir Arthur's Den are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License, and must be ascribed to Alfonso Maruccia as the sole owner of the related copyrights.
