Daily Loaf

Saying Borderlands is my favorite combination of first person shooter and role-playing game is like saying Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are my favorite mass market peanut butter and chocolate candy – sure there’s not a lot of competition, but damn they’re both really good.

Set on the a sci-fi western/post apocalyptic planet called Pandora, Borderlands puts you behind the gun sights of one of four different mercenaries trying to find an ancient alien Vault and the presumed techno-treasures sealed therein. Each character has a different specialty: Roland the soldier, Lilith the elementalist siren, Mordecai the hunter, and Brick the berserker. Each has unique skill trees giving them special powers that define a large part of how they play. For example, the siren can turn invisible for short periods of time, the hunter has a helpful and deadly hawk companion, the soldier can deploy auto-turrets, and the berserker can pound people to a pulp with his bare hands. All the characters and the world they inhabit are rendered in a striking, almost painterly style that gives Borderlands a look that helps it stand out among virtual worlds.

One thing all these characters have in common, the unifying force that ties all of Borderlands together into a giant, violent, explosive ball of fun is the panoply of guns. There are pistols, revolvers, SMGs, assault rifles, shotguns, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, grenades, and even alien weaponry. Within each category weapons vary by damage, elemental effects, clip size, rate of fire, accuracy, and other special features. Although the some characters specialize in some weapons, all of them are useful and most characters routinely run around with at least one or two of each type. Enemies and monsters drop guns when you kill them, boxes scattered around the landscape hold guns, vending machines sell guns, piles of trash have guns in them. The game advertises “Bazillions of Guns!” and they ain’t lying. The constant quest for new weapons, something just a little better or a lot different or both drives you to keep playing, to keep shooting, to keep exploring It’s every bit as addictive as it’s meant to be. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve got mixed feelings writing this review, and not just because it means I have to figure out how to use umlauts. No, those mixed feelings are more primal, more basic than that – they are the painful discomfort associated with having something not live up to your expectations. And my expectations for Brütal Legend were as high as they get. Lead designer Tim Schafer made Psychonauts, my favorite game of the last console generation.

He’s been a consistently innovative, funny, and entertaining game developer with a unique sense of style. He always pushes the limits, always tries to give us something we haven’t seen before, and he does all those things with this game too. I firmly believe that reviewers should do everything they can to ignore their own expectations. Each game deserves to be taken on its own terms, judged according to what’s actually there, not what I wanted to be there. Judged on its own, Brütal Legend has all those Schafer hallmarks: an evocative, unique setting, a smart-yet-ridiculous sense of humor, and well-written, engaging characters. It’s also only kinda fun. Read the rest of this entry »

Video games allow us to simulate amazing feats and experience what it’s like to possess superhuman abilities, or to put it another way – to act like superheroes. Even games like Halo or Call of Duty owe as much to the super-heroic experience as they do to modern warfare. In real life, you can’t just shrug off a burst a machine gun fire by hiding behind a rock for five seconds. That’s a bona fide, Wolverine-style super power. It’s off then that there have been so many bad superhero games over the years. But we’re in a new golden age of such games, and if you read my Batman: Arkham Asylum review then you know it’s possible to make a superhero game that perfectly captures that comic book experience. Batman focused all its efforts on simulating one particular hero. The new Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 takes the opposite approach, offering a whole comic book universe of heroes to choose from in an attempt to recreate the world of Marvel Comics in one giant epic tale.

Ultimate Alliance’s story is drawn straight from two recent cross-over events in Marvel Comics – the Secret War and The Civil War. The Civil War in particular strove to achieve some really interesting political and social relevance with the legal and moral issues facing superheroes mirroring real world debates about freedom vs. security in the age of terror. With Marvel’s heroes split into two camps – Pro-Government led by Iron-Man and Pro-Freedom led by Captain America – the high drama of brother against brother that only comes from a civil war played out in dark, dramatic fashion across the pages of dozens of different comic book titles. This game offers a pretty close (but not by any means exact) version of that story, leaving it to the players as to which side they will support. And of course since it’s a video game, you can always go back and play it again from the other side. Read the rest of this entry »

Yarr, mateys! It be Talk like a pirate day, in case ye not be knowin’. To give ye some fun on this day o’ international piracy, LucasArts and Telltale Games be offerin’ up the first episode in their new restart of Tales of Monkey Island.

All you need to do to pick up your free copy of the game is to head on over to http://www.playlikeapirate.com, plug in your email address and a password (they mail an activation code to you, so don’t fake it – although do be sure to uncheck the “add me to your mailing list” option if you don’t want further emails) and enjoy some time adventuring on the high seas – for free!

Keep in mind, this is only good until midnight tonight (Saturday, September 19th) so don’t wait if you want a copy.

Sony’s ugly duckling PS3 Slim has toppled Wii Sports Resort from it’s #1 spot on Amazon’s video game bestseller list and has held its ground for 5 consecutive days. That’s a feat when you’re a Sony product going up against a Wii Sports title. The PS3 Slim would like you to forget the fact that Wii Sports Resort has been on Amazon’s top 100 for the past 130 days and that the PSP Go is nowhere to be found.

The Slim assures us it won’t meet the same fate as the PSP Go. Read the rest of this entry »

The GammaTesting.com guys dive deep into this ’90’s-era, comic-inspired, morally-devoid, open-world, super-dude action game and revel in the freedom of movement and wide range of epic combat options. Of course, no amount of car-throwing, copter-jacking or disease-tendrilizing can overcome brutal and blatantly manipulative boss fights, like the final one in Prototype.

Still, epic is good. Listen up! (Then check out all the other Gamma Testing episodes.)

Gamma Testing Podcast Ep15: Prototype

Can a game succeed solely because of pop-culture fandom? Thankfully, Ghostbusters manages to capture enough ghost-wranglin’ gameplay that we don’t have to answer that question. We love the plot, find some fault with the repetitive — occasionally brutal — gameplay, and appreciate the light hand with Ghostbusters 2 fan service.

So, does bustin’ make the GammaTesting.com guys feel good? Sure. Good, but not great.

Listen up! (Then check out all the other Gamma Testing episodes.)

Gamma Testing Podcast Ep14: Ghostbusters

This week, GammaTesting.com fails to forget to smash the state with Red Faction: Guerrilla. We love the entirely destructible environments, open world environment and varied gameplay. Almost as much as we love bashin’ stuff with our mining hammer. And, for the first time in a while, we actually felt like we were doing some good while playing a game. At least until Red Faction: Guerrilla 2 comes out, featuring us ruling Mars with an iron fist.

Listen up! (Then check out all the other Gamma Testing episodes.)

Gamma Testing Podcast Ep13 – Red Faction: Guerrilla

Sam Raimi, the director behind the Spider-Man trilogy, The Evil Dead series and Drag Me To Hell, is set to direct the upcoming live-action World of Warcraft movie announced by Activison-Blizzard last week. Not only is the director of Spider-Man behind the impending blockbuster, but the producer and production house behind The Dark Knight and Batman Begins, Charles Roven and Atlas Entertainment, will be at the helm of the Warcraft movie as well.

If you ignore Spider-Man 3 for just a moment, this team seems like it might do justice to a video game in movie form. Could it finally be?!

Press Release:

Blizzard Entertainment(R) and Legendary Pictures Sign Sam Raimi to Direct Upcoming Warcraft(R) Movie

Raimi, acclaimed director of the blockbuster Spider-Man series, will bring the forces of the Horde and the Alliance to life in epic live-action film. Charles Roven’s Atlas Entertainment will produce alongside Raimi’s Stars Road Entertainment.
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Brian’s busy, so Rick and Matt run down inFAMOUS without the help of his dulcet tones. Still, their take on this open-world-third-person-super-dude-sim-with-lightning Playstation 3 exclusive barely suffers without him. Surprisingly.

The Hermanos Dakanos love the inFAMOUS gameplay so much, the dozens of minor annoyances are barely noticeable. Although they do wonder at main character Cole’s twin vulnerabilities: water and chain-link fences. Give it a listen, then check out all the other GammaTesting.com episodes.

Listen up!

Gamma Testing Ep12 – inFAMOUS

Today, we get our first look at Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a new video-game-to-film adaptation starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Don’t let the fact its based on a video game fool you, though; the pictures, courtesy of Empire Online, look great.

Prince of Persia is about an adventurous prince named Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) who teams up with Tamina (Gemma Arterton), a feisty and exotic princess, to prevent a villainous nobleman from possessing the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that can reverse time.

The video game was incredible, so let’s hope some of that rubs off on the movie.

More pictures after the jump …

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This week we take a look at the re-do of 1980s cult classic Bionic Commando. Turns out that fun gameplay trumps terrible story and unlikeable characters, yet again. Even if that gameplay has a steep learning curve. Still, once you get it down, swinging on your extendable bionic appendage is damn fun — especially if you turn the sound down and blast Matt’s music suggestion.

We also send a challenge out to Grin – Bionic Commando’s developer — to hire us to write their next game. If BC is any indication, they could use some fine content-generators like the GammaTesting.com crew. And, we work cheap!

Listen up! (And check out all the other Gamma Testing podcasts!)

Gamma Testing Podcast Ep11 – Bionic Commando

We reminisce about the early days of the UFC, and how incredibly dull it was compared to this game. Think of UFC: Undisputed as a typical fighter and you’ll have some fun. Delve into the combat system — which is vastly deeper than any other out there — and the game is a long-term keeper.

Better yet (at least for the UFC) it does a hell of a lot for promoting the franchise outside the sport’s usual fan base.

(Check out all the Gamma Testing podcasts. Or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or via the Gamma Testing podcast RSS feed.)

LISTEN TO Gamma Testing Ep10 – UFC: Undisputed

Some reviewers gave up on Velvet Assassin before they even made it past the first half. We fought our way to the end, then gave up after our 45th attempt at completing the final level. It’s an unforgiving stealth game, and we would like to return the favor by not forgiving its stupid AI, boring gameplay, and general lack of fun. Then we opine about the responsibilities of game reviewers.

It’s a tough job, especially when you have to play games like Velvet Assassin.
(Check out all the Gamma Testing podcasts. Or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or via the Gamma Testing podcast RSS feed.)

LISTEN TO Gamma Testing Ep09 – Velvet Assassin

Did you like the most recent X-Men movie? Neither did we. But never fear, the video game based on that horrendous cinematic debacle is considerably better. Mostly, thanks to the lunge tactic.

Sadly, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is saddled with the movie’s fundamentally flawed plot — and a few stupid boss fights — but it’s easy to forgive the cut scenes after a few minutes of repeatedly shivving dudes with your adamantium-sheathed bone claws. And don’t forget this month’s theme: Wolverine apparently hates helicopters almost as much as 50 Cent, and a little more than ninjas.

And somehow, we three former (or current, in Matt’s case) comic industry professionals manage to keep the geek quotient to a minimum. Well, when it comes to comics, at least.
(And check out all the Gamma Testing podcasts.)

LISTEN TO Gamma Testing Ep08 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Unlike the largely derided Bulletproof (bullet-absorbent?), Mr. Cent’s first video game outing, Blood on the Sand is more fun than it has any right to be. Which seems to say a lot about the appeal bigger-than-life hip hop stars hold for middle class white boys interested in living out violent adolescent fantasies (like us). It also says a lot for taking a tried and true third-person shooter engine and wrapping it in an absurdly hilarious “plot” instead of spending a lot of time trying to innovate.

And unlike seemingly all the other video game reviewers out there, we don’t ever feel the need to apologize for liking Blood on the Sand. (Checkout all the Gamma Testing podcasts.)

LISTEN TO Gamma Testing Ep07 – 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

Most of the time I like my fighting games fast, furious, and full of fireballs (like, say, Street Fighter 4). But when it comes to watching fights, I’ve lost some interest in the artfully choreographed wire work of kung fu flicks. These days I prefer my bloodsport to be less Bloodsport and more Mixed Martial Arts. I’ve been watching UFC fights since the first, dreadful, ridiculous pay per few events in the 90’s. The sport has come a long way for me since then, ruining my interest in boxing, wrestling, and even martial arts movies along the way. While a dull UFC fight can be as yawn inducing as Steven Seagal’s latest flick, a great, exciting, balls to the wall UFC is as exciting as exciting gets. In THQ’s new video game version of UFC, almost every fight is that exciting.

With its combination of punches, kicks, grappling, and joint locks, MMA is a complicated sport, and I was wary about how the game would be able to capture that kind of diversity, but UFC: Undisputed rises to the challenge, offering a complicated but intuitive game that matches the sport its emulating. Through combinations of button presses and analog stick movements, you can punch and kick with either leg at three different heights and with three different modifiers. When you’re in close your fighter throws knees and elbows. You can grapple the neck in a clinch or shoot for the legs for a take down. Once on the ground, button pressing and swings of the right analog stick make your fighter scramble for better position, rain down blows, or try and submit the opponent with a joint lock. All of this wears away at your fighter’s stamina, so it’s wise to take short breathers and pick your shots rather than just flail away.

So yeah, the game’s complicated. Or, if you prefer, it’s deep. (Video clip below the jump.)

Read the rest of this entry »

That’s two weeks in a row where I’ve spent a significant portion of my free time exploring a city that has recently suffered from a massive explosion. Last week it was Bionic Commando, and I was just the guy to traverse the urban wasteland because I had a bionic arm. This week, it’s inFamous, and I’m just the guy to explore the city because I’m the one who set off the bomb. Plus, it gave me super powers.

InFamous is a super-hero game, or a super-villain  game, depending on your personal preference. You play as Cole, a bike messenger who sets off a bomb that screws up Empire City and gives you the power to control electricity. Why did you set off the bomb? You have no idea, but given the cadres of villains, FBI agents and shadowy figures who immediately start pulling your strings, maybe you were set up. The only way to find out for sure is to explore Empire City open world, Grand Theft Auto-style, do a bunch of missions and shoot lightning at anything that gets in your way. And when you’ve done all that then yes, inFamous delivers a satisfying conclusion to a solid story full of twists and turns, but really it’s all about the lightning powers that get you from here to there.

Well, lightning and parkour. Because Cole can scale buildings like a monkey, leap with ease from ledge to wire to light post, and generally navigate the city via sidewalk or rooftop with equal ease.

Read on for more info and video below the jump:

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In this episode, the GammaTesting.com guys make their bones while you’re still going out with cheerleaders and see if this new Godfather game makes us an offer we can’t refuse.

Turns out, we could refuse it, but this GTA-knockoff/Mafia sim game is just fun enough to keep us taking over businesses and knockin’ off made men. And unlike this blog entry, we avoid overusing the massive pun potential of Godfather movie quotes.

Listen up!

Gamma Testing Ep06 – Godfather 2

Gamma Testing is a podcast that goes in-depth in a single game each week to let you get more fun out of the games you play. Check out out other episodes.

The GammaTesting.com guys slash their way through Ninja Blade, with mixed results.

Do you like absurd cinematic action? How about quick-time events? Repetitive actions during boss fights? Am I losing you? Kind of like how Ninja Blade lost us. Rick’s just lucky he didn’t hate the game enough to throw a controller through his big TV.

Listen up!

Gamma Testing Ep05 – Ninja Blade

Gamma Testing is a podcast that goes in-depth in a single game each week to let you get more fun out of the games you play. Check out out other episodes.

GammaTesting.com’s fourth episode is a classic romance: boy loses donkey, meets girl, fights demons, releases evil god. All for love. We also love – mostly — Prince of Persia’s seamless gameplay, capable writing and gorgeous Disney atmosphere. Almost enough to marry it. But is there enough going on to resurrect the game after the first play through? Hmmm.

Gamma Testing Ep04 – Prince of Persia

Gamma Testing is a podcast that goes in-depth in a single game each week to let you get more fun out of the games you play. Check out out other episodes.

There’s a place for experiences like the one Ninja Blade has to offer. It’s the kind of thing you can really only do with a video game these days: surf a missile into a zombie helicopter, fight a giant lightning bolt spitting crab in a subway tunnel, run down the side of a skyscraper while chopping giant bats in half with a sward that’s as big as you are. Hit the X Button not to die. Ninja Blade gives you all that, and a lot more that’s pretty similar. But is it worth the price of entry? Maybe not, but it’s definitely worth watching the video trailer below. Read the rest of this entry »

The GammaTesting.com guys talk about how amazingly beautiful a war-torn African town filled with zombies can be when rendered by the Xbox 360. The zombies are kinda pretty, too, until you shoot them in the head with your pistol. But does shooting uncountable numbers of infected undead make you a racist, thanks to RE5’s japanese developers? Listen up and see:

The GammaTesting.com guys reminisce about the stacks of quarters they spent playing Street Fighter II at the arcade, then declare their undying love for this latest incarnation of the SF franchise. You see, it’s the same as Street Fighter II, but better looking, better playing (as long as you dump the Xbox controller) and the online system is like taking a trip back to 1999 to take challengers at the arcade. Except you’re in your underpants, on your couch. Better!

There are simply not enough full-grown men dressed as unicorns doing video game reviews these days. Here are the Action Pals from Gamedaily.com, doing their best to fill the void in their review of Resident Evil 5:

Not only did Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360, Playstation 3) top the UK game sales charts last weekend, it also outsold all music singles, albums, and box office receipts.

Capcom’s UK public relations company Monument PR issued a press release with the details that should send a shiver through Hollywood and the music industry’s spines:

- The game outsold every item in the UK Singles Chart (Based on physical and digital sales of UK Top 200) for the weekend.

- The game outsold U2’s chart-topping new album’s total sales since release in one weekend (in the UK).

- Resident Evil 5 grossed more than the top 5 movies in the UK this weekend (Source: IMDB.com).

My whole basis for judging value in an entertainment product comes from Street Fighter. Back in my late high school/early college days, my friends and I played a heluva lota Street Fighter 2 at the arcade. It’s a quick game, and at a quarter a pop, you could spend a lot of money fast if you die too fast, too often (which I did at first). But eventually we all got better. I remember one regular at the arcade was so good he’d actually pay for other people to play against him because no one would throw away their quarters with him at the joystick. He would even give lessons on how to pull off a special move or time the perfect throw. I never got great at the game, but I got decent, and could pretty much count on $5 in quarters lasting me a solid hour in the arcade. I decided that $5 was therefore just about the right amount of money for an hour’s entertainment. Weirdly enough, almost two decades later I still think that’s the right price, although I’ve sure as hell spent lots more money for much shorter entertainments since then. At $60 though, Street Fighter IV is a bargain.

Read the full review, including in-game video below the jump:

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Based on the first season of the Spike TV modern ‘anime’ series (which is in turn based on the manga) by the same name, Afro Samurai has just about everything you would expect from something with Samuel L. Jackson’s name on it. There’s violence; blood; (cartoon) gore; revenge; and half-naked women. Just add in the word ‘fuck’ liberally, stir to taste, and you get the general idea. That’s okay, because the core demographic this game (and indeed the Spike TV channel itself) is geared towards will likely eat this game up with a spoon.

With a cel-shaded style that is becoming more and more common in games these days, the look of Afro Samurai doesn’t disappoint. Backgrounds are lush in the earlier levels, becoming starker as Afro makes his way through the dark revenge story-line. The voice acting by Samuel L. Jackson, and soundtrack partly performed by RZA (the rest is “inspired by”) is nothing short of awesome. I definitely couldn’t say playing wasn’t a hell of a lot of fun – at first.

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Not content to rest on their hot-frying-pan-to-the-face laurels, Capcom has announced today that brains, blood, guts, and more are coming to the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC with an all-new sequel to their 2006 zombie-stomping favorite, Dead Rising with Dead Rising 2. Now it may just be because I’m reading through World War Z at the moment, but I await the slaughter of a new zombie horde with gleeful anticipation.

For those not familiar with the original Dead Rising, the government was meddling with genetics, thereby causing a rather nasty breakout of zombies. In the first game, the ending leaves some doubt as to whether or not the infestation has been contained. This time, the story is set several years after the Williamette shopping mall invasion, and sure enough – the zombies were not wiped out at the end. Set in an adult casino haven called Fortune Falls, players can expect “a host of new in-game objects that can all be used as deadly weapons to stave off the zombie assault” in Dead Rising 2 – and apparently a giant human sized light-up hamster ball to travel in.  Another interesting bit is that Keiji Inafune returns as the producer for DR2, although the game is being developed in partnership with Blue Castle Games from Canada this time around as opposed to an all in-house Capcom team.

Curious to see a taste of the braaaaaaains to come? Check behind the cut for the tasty Dead Rising 2 trailer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, so maybe heading out for all the craziness going on at Gasparilla isn’t really your cup of tea. Or perhaps you’d just like to relive our yearly invasion from the comfort of your own home – you know, once that rum-soaked hangover wears off. Whatever your reason may be, if you’re in the mood for some adventure on the high seas without a high price tag, here’s five pirate games that won’t leave yer wallet walkin’ the plank, mateys.

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In one of my many never-to-be-realized daydreams, I start training really hard, hours a day, and become a parkour expert. I run around Southwest Florida rooftops, leaping from building roof to palm tree, doing flips and skipping up walls, defying gravity.

The truth is, I never quite make it to the running, let alone all the jumping and grabbing and sliding. This lack of follow-through on my part is of course why we have video games. And while running, jumping, and generally defying gravity in interesting ways have been a staple of great games since Super Mario Brothers, Mirror’s Edge is the first video game to focus entirely on the parkour (or free running) experience from a first person perspective. And if you love, or even just kind of like games, then it’s a game you have to play. But there are some caveats… Read the rest of this entry »

In 1995, Sega CD planned to release Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors, a video game featuring a slew of mini-games invovling P&T’s distinctive brand of humor and magic. Sadly, the developer went under before release and the game never made it to market.

Thankfully, the source code was released years later, allowing folks to use all the mini-games to fool and amaze their friends. All except for Desert Bus, that is.

Now the most well-known of the mini-games, Desert Bus is simple: all you have to do is drive a bus from Tucson to Las Vegas, with little scenery and few controls. In real time. At the max speed of 45 mph, it takes about 8 hours to make the trip. That’ll earn you one point. Read the rest of this entry »