Archives « Gamesugar

August 19, 2011

X’11 – Hands On With Rise of Nightmares

Filed under: Features — Tags: 360, Kinect, Rise of Nightmares, Sega, Sega Am1, XBOX, Xbox 360 — Brad Johnson @ 5:09 pm

Among the wares Sega was showing at X’11 yesterday was Rise of Nightmares, the Kinect exclusive survival horror title that’s due out in a couple of weeks. That demo happened to be my first opportunity to play a Kinect game, and while the title may not have been on my radar beforehand, that I walked away feeling good about the experience speaks volumes.

The demo began with a brief rundown of the basic control movements. I found myself in a rather unpleasant prison-like setting, where I was able to walk forward by placing one foot ahead of me and back by doing the reverse. Interestingly, the further forward my foot was placed, the faster my character would move, while turning my shoulders to either side would steer me through the world.

Placing an open hand in front of me brought up a cursor used to interact with and pick up nearby items, while pushing with that hand would open doors—a task that could also be accomplished, to my infinite amusement, by kicking wildly.

(more…)

Comments (4)

The View From X’11

Filed under: Features — Tags: 2K Games, Batman: Arkham City, Darkness II, Media Event, Microsoft, Preview, Radiant Silvergun, Rayman Origins, Renegade Ops, Rise of Nightmares, Sega, Toronto, Treasure, Ubisoft, Warner Bros., X'11 — Jamie Love @ 2:23 pm

X11 Toronto
Microsoft’s annual Toronto holiday showcase of all things 360 took place yesterday, and I was fortunate enough to make the event with other members of Team Sugar to check in on upcoming releases for the system.

This year’s showing was undoubtedly the largest one in recent memory, with a slew of publishers showing so many titles that the mind boggled at how to break down and digest so much content. It’s not often companies like Square-Enix, Bethesda, 2K Games, and Sega come to town, and the result was a never-ending sea of screens that left me feeling a bit dizzy by the end of the day.

With that said, I’m going to stay true to form and simply tell you what caught my eye.

(more…)

Comments (0)

X’11 – Hands On with Binary Domain

Filed under: Features — Tags: 360, binary domain, PlayStation 3, PlayStation3, Sega, Sega Japan, X'11, XBOX, Xbox 360 — Brad Johnson @ 8:30 am

When Sugarhumans descended on X’11 yesterday, I had the opportunity to get my hands on futuristic robot shooter Binary Domain. I approached the game having seen only what the trailers provide—offerings that can feel a little generic, given the crowded third-person shooter market.

I suppose it’s the videogame equivalent of “Don’t judge a book by its cover” – that you don’t really know the nature of a game till it’s in your hands.

To my pleasant surprise, Binary Domain proved to be a sharp, limber shooter.

(more…)

Comments (3)

August 17, 2011

Hands on with Resistance 3

Filed under: Features,News Feed — Tags: Feature, Hands on, impressions, Insomniac Games, PlayStation 3, PlayStation3, Resistance 3, Sony Computer Entertainment — Brad Johnson @ 9:56 pm

Gamesugar had the opportunity to attend the Toronto media launch event for Resistance 3 today—an event filled with raging, violent game journos and also some snacks.

The gathering occurred in a darkened cellar that could have easily passed for a bomb shelter, well suited to the chapters of the game I played. These early stages see new protagonist Joseph Capelli battling the Chimera in basements, cellars, and abandoned towns—there has been a clear effort here to ring true to the name “Resistance.” Suburban America has been bled dry, and what few drops of life remain struggle to survive a war that’s seemingly already lost.

Indeed, a more visceral feel permeates the game, especially during combat, with several weapons having been adjusted to feel more weighty and satisfying to fire. Equally, enemies splotch nicely when obliterated, while the player character responds to heavy attacks and falls in a decidedly human fashion.

I happened to overhear Creative Director Marcus Smith explaining that the impetus in Resistance 3 was to create a less superheroic and more human game, which was certainly apparent in the chapters I played.

(more…)

Comments (0)

August 11, 2011

Review – Red Faction: Armageddon

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: 360, Inc., PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation3, Red Faction: Armageddon, Review, Syfy Games, THQ, Volition, XBOX, Xbox 360 — Brad Johnson @ 12:17 am

Red Faction Armageddon
Red Faction: Armageddon—the latest in Volition’s series of destruction-centric shooters—picks up with Darius Mason, descendant of the previous entry’s protagonist, and the colonists of Mars trapped underneath the surface following the destruction of the planet’s terraformer.

To make matters worse, Darius has accidentally unleashed a horde of alien monsters that seek to… well, it’s not really clear what the aliens want. They do appear intelligent (intelligent enough to destroy machinery Darius is trying to use against them), but they possess no character or story to speak of, instead assuming the role of predictably mute monsters to turn into paste.

The story is soft and more than a little dumb at times, with a cast of bland characters that, though voice acted quite capably, don’t have a scrap of personality between them. One could argue that it’s refreshing not to be fighting yet another revolution in a Red Faction game, but I felt the title lost some of its identity by choosing to go the fairly standard alien invasion route.

Of course, the real cause for concern is the switch to the closed, scaled-down environments—moving away from what made Red Faction: Guerrilla such a success. With its new setting, Armageddon eschews the wide open expanses of Guerrilla for a series of tunnels and chambers. Darius will occasionally visit the surface, but always in closed environments.

(more…)

Comments (0)

July 29, 2011

Ascending the Metatron (Or Something) in El Shaddai

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: 360, Demo, Demo Report, El Shaddai, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, Ignition Entertainment, Konami, PlayStation 3, PlayStation3, UTV Ignition, XBOX, Xbox 360 — Brad Johnson @ 6:46 pm

The demo for El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron has been available on Xbox LIVE for a while now, though you may have overlooked its strange offering, as I initially did. In my capacity as an official Sugar Human, I recommend you reconsider.

The demo takes place in what might best be described as a bizarre drug induced hallucination; a world made of shadow and glass, laced together like a spider’s web. At one point, the perspective shifts to that of a side-scroller, where I leapt across rolling waves of clouds and flying rocks as the sun rose and fell, replaced by some ominous face in the background, again and again.

The demo is strange and dreamlike; sheathed in angelic armor that breaks away to reveal what appears to be some kind of surfer bro in jeans, the protagonist platforms through areas that seem only tangentially related, finding demons to fight in glassy arenas made of light and dark.

I challenged a boss, only to suddenly find myself somewhere else, platforming again, as in those strange dreams where you walk through a door to find the nature of the dream has completely changed.

It’s going to be a pretty thin summer for games this year, so it may be worth your time to check out this bizarre action entry; I played for half an hour, and though I’m not entirely sure what it is that I played, I can tell you that it was awesome. El Shaddai will arrive in North America on August 16 for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Comments (1)

July 19, 2011

Review – Call of Juarez: The Cartel

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: 360, Call of Juarez: The Cartel, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation3, Review, Techland, Ubisoft, XBOX, Xbox 360 — Brad Johnson @ 9:00 am

Call of Juarez The Cartel
Out today is Ubisoft’s latest entry in the Call of Juarez series, The Cartel. Following an inter-agency task force designed to bring down a rising drug cartel responsible for a recent terrorist attack (that’s right; it’s street crime plus terrorism), the game offers three playable characters; a DEA agent, FBI agent, and LAPD officer—all of whom are preposterously corrupt and ultimately grossly incompetent.

As the story progresses, the three (supposed) law enforcement agents concoct a series of deeply stupid and massively illegal (never mind immoral) strategies for bringing down the Cartel (and achieving a handful of additional goals), most of which fail miserably—which is not surprising, on account of their flawed and nonsensical nature.

Meanwhile, a complex story of cops and gangsters with multiple agendas and conflicting (and frequently changing) agendas is weaved. Now, for clarity: this is not a story that is complex in the engaging, labyrinthine way, but rather the messy and highly confusing way. It’s never entirely clear who’s doing what, and for what reason; the only absolute is that everybody is doing something you don’t know about, and it’s going to bite you in the ass.

(more…)

Comments (1)

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »