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June 17, 2012

Lazy Sunday – E3 Leftovers

E3 2012
Posting about all the games I spent time with at E3 has been an incredibe experience, which I remain entirely thankful for while winding down the task this weekend.

I hope you’ve dug our attempt at E3 coverage this year by the way, which owes a thankful shout-out to Shaun Hatton for providing some essential help during the typically crazy ride.

While it’s time to put E3 2012 to bed and get back to the business of more immediate releases, there were a few titles that warranted some words, and unfortunately many more that I haven’t caught up with as of yet.

In the spirit of lazy Sunday, I’ve rounded up a few more games I spent some time with at E3, which you can catch up with below.

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June 16, 2012

When Dirk the Daring Met Kinect

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , , — Jason Westhaver @ 2:34 pm

Dragons Lair Xbox LIVE Arcade Kinect
Since first releasing in 1983, Dragon’s Lair has seen a ridiculous number of ports and adaptations, for everything from the MSX2 to the PlayStation Network. But few, if any, of those releases have attempted to update the experience beyond visual restoration. In the last five years alone, we’ve seen no less than thirteen ports featuring the same mechanics, the same HD video transfer and the same QTE-styled hints.

While these present improvements over the original arcade LaserDisc, they do little to make the game appeal to modern players, and even less to excite fans for new releases. For a while it seemed like Digital Leisure had done all they could to squeeze money out of the property, but then they did something surprising – they added Kinect support.

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June 15, 2012

Review – Lollipop Chainsaw

Review Lollipop Chainsaw
Following in the Shakespearean tradition, Lollipop Chainsaw tells the tale of young love versus young angst, with a coming of age story featuring classic themes of satanic rock, zombie hordes, and one very peppy chainsaw wielding cheerleader.

Our heroine, Juliet Starling, refuses to let any of the unfolding chaos of the zombie apocalypse ruin her eighteenth birthday – from the decapitation of her high school sweetheart to the death of her perverted sensei, and certainly not the hordes of undead classmates tearing up the halls of San Romero High School.

Confident and true, Juliet isn’t interested in hearing from the villains responsible, because they suck.

Instead, she fires up her chainsaw and slices her way through six stages of the undead, with all roads leading to the bosses at the heart of the turmoil. That very little seems capable of darkening Juliet’s day could perhaps be read as commentary on the youth of today, except that there are easy parallels to the self-absorbed Buffy Summers from 1992’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a film that certainly provides plenty of foundation for Juliet’s adventure here.

With that in mind, it seems more apt to say that the kids are still alright, insofar as being partly crazed and entirely ready for zombies at the drop of a hat makes them right as rain in the pop culture stew Grasshopper Manufacture stirs and serves a heaping bowl of here.

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E3 2012 – Quantum Conundrum

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 9:11 pm

Quantum Conundrum E3 2012
Just for kicks, I’ve been trying to think of a way of discussing Quantum Conundrum without mentioning Portal, but that doesn’t seem to be happening today. Of course, referencing Portal to discuss Kim Swift and Airtight Games’ upcoming release is probably a good sign that we’re about to discuss a very solid title, which we are.

As with Portal, Quantum Conundrum features a series of puzzles that require the use of a rather strange device in order to solve them, and aside from the physicality of interacting with objects in this space, that’s probably where the similarities end – although there’s certainly a common thread that offers players a chance to see more in the minor details that merits mention.

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June 14, 2012

E3 2012 – Dishonored

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , — Jamie Love @ 9:19 am

E3 2012 Dishonored
Aside from creating a world where throat stabbings represent a leading cause of premature death, I really didn’t know much about Dishonored prior to E3. I suppose I assumed plenty about the title, primarily that it sought to create a parallel world where players were gifted with extraordinary powers, which left me imagining a Bioshock-type experience that didn’t make it the biggest priority on my list of must see titles.

Visiting with Bethesda last week has done wonders for my enthusiasm however. I’ve learned that Dishonored takes place in a steampunk world largely dependent on whale oil, which seems like a rather delightfully absurd resource to base an economy on, but perhaps this is why the atmosphere of the game feels so consistently grim and desperate.

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June 13, 2012

E3 2012 – Hands On with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance E3 2012
Despite being the only Metal Gear title without the word Solid since the original two MSX releases that gave birth to the franchise, Solid is the first word that came to mind after playing through the E3 demo for Platinum Games’ and Kojima Productions game with the strange name I’ve come to love.

The second word was relieved.

I was relieved to find that Platinum Games’ had found the means to balance their distinct brand of third-person action with the original premise of the Rising trailer first seen at E3 2010. No one is going to be accused of reinventing the wheel here, and as suspected, the spirit of Platinum’s Bayonetta and Vanquish shine strong in the offering, but said offering seems poised to deliver another solid action title from the developer, and fans of those previous efforts can expect the same level of chaotic polish they’ve grown accustomed to.

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June 12, 2012

E3 2012 – Hands On with Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 11:08 pm

E3 2012 Hell Yeah Wrath of the Dead Rabbit
Sega’s booth at E3 finally offered me a chance to catch up with Ash, the rabbit prince of hell who has his dignity compromised when an embarrassing photo surfaces online. Learning that one hundred monsters have seen the photo, Ash promptly sets out to accomplish the only reasonable course of action, killing everyone who saw said photo.

With brush strokes reminiscent of the works from inmates at a Guatemalan insane asylum, Arkedo has created the most vibrant digital offering shown on the floor of E3. Hell is a honeycomb maze where cartoonish gore constantly splashes the screen, shiny gems glisten in the muck, and one hundred beautifully drawn monsters wait for Ash to bring about their violent end by the most ridiculous means possible.

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