Look what I got yesterday! Courtesy of the lovely Stephanie Palermo of Triple Point PR, I got my kung fu grip on the Kinect sequel to a game I reviewed last year, the PS3 download title Kung Fu Live.
The trailer for the original used a quote from my review, a tidbit I shamelessly milked to get my copy of Kung Fu High Impact. And if any of the Virtual Air Guitar Company crew is reading this now, I’d just like to say…my quote for the sequel is thusly:
“Even my forearms are sore.”
Well, almost a hundred hours into Skyrim and I’m finally starting to find some bugs. Easily fixed, on a PC, but I gotta say, I feel bad for any Bethesda fans who play on console, period. Which is why I’m happy to note that update 1.2 for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is available now on Playstation 3, with PC and Xbox to follow soon on Wednesday. Fixed glitches include:
UPDATE 1.2 NOTES (all platforms unless specified)
- Improved occasional performance issues resulting from long term play (PlayStation 3)
- Fixed issue where textures would not properly upgrade when installed to drive (Xbox 360)
- Fixed crash on startup when audio is set to sample rate other than 44100Hz (PC)
- Fixed issue where projectiles did not properly fade away
- Fixed occasional issue where a guest would arrive to the player’s wedding dead
- Dragon corpses now clean up properly
- Fixed rare issue where dragons would not attack
- Fixed rare NPC sleeping animation bug
- Fixed rare issue with dead corpses being cleared up prematurely
- Skeleton Key will now work properly if player has no lockpicks in their inventory
- Fixed rare issue with renaming enchanted weapons and armor
- Fixed rare issue with dragons not properly giving souls after death
- ESC button can now be used to exit menus (PC)
- Fixed occasional mouse sensitivity issues (PC)
- General functionality fixes related to remapping buttons and controls (PC)
I’m relieved to hear about the dead bodies glitch fix, ‘cause that was causing marriage ceremonies to fail. Also, the renaming glitch with enchanted weapons and armor, as its helpful to be able to name your enchanted items to keep track of them.
BethBlog says they’ll continue to monitor forums and blogs, seeking out glitches to continue to fix in the next patch, so be sure to vocalize what’s been going wrong with your game so they can fix it! Me, I’d like to see them fix a bug I get sometimes when I enchant items—I get “stuck” when I try to exit, and have to reload from an older save file. Occasionally the enchantments simply refuse to work unless I juggle the order of the components, and sometimes I have to abandon the enchantment all together.
Look what came in the mail today! Actually, yesterday, but my building lobby didn’t tell me they were holding my packages hostage so I had to pick them up this morning. All the same, I expect to be a world wide singing dancing and song writing phenomenon in quick order now that these are here. Look for my album dropping 2014.
The inevitability of Alan Wake 2 is pretty much a given, anyone who played the game and DLC (or read the developer comments/artist resume leak) can tell you. But a new piece of information may now give us a clue on the “when”. According to Xbox World magazine, a number of titles are already in development for the next gen Xbox, including the sequel to Alan Wake:
“We hear a number of Microsoft-friendly developers are hard at work on prepping next gen games as we speak. Could this be the reason why Remedy are so quiet about Alan Wake 2? (Yes),” the magazine responded to itself. “Rare, Lionhead and Turn 10 all have teams in place too. Rare, we hear, are even prototyping ideas for a new ‘mature title,’” the mag adds.
Lionhead, as you may know, is responsible for Fable, another installment of which would make perfect sense. Turn 10 likely means more Forza. As for Rare…who knows…their only mature franchises are Perfect Dark and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Whatever the case, Xbox 720’s 2013-2015 release window is a ways off yet, meaning we’ll be waiting for Wake for some time.
With the horrors of PAX Prime 2011 fading into distant memory (YOU try lugging around camera equipment for 12+ hours a day, fueled only by limited sleep, 5 Hour Energy, stored beer fat, and beef jerky) it’s time to finally bust out with the previews! Up first is the endearing Battleblock Theater, a co-op/vs. beat ‘em up coming from the makers of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers, San Diego based indie studio The Behemoth.
I first played Battleblock Theater back at PAX 2010, when The Behemoth was only showcasing the game’s multiplayer mode. I was unaware there’d also be a story mode, which at a whopping 100+ levels and 100+ playable characters is arguably the bulk of the entire game. Fueled by Dan Paladin’s endless doodling, the amount of content is staggering; level designer Aaron Jungjohann says the development of Behemoth titles is constantly adapting to incorporate the whimsical new creatures showing up on scraps of paper and pages across the studio. In fact, Aaron tells me he entered Dan’s office only last week to find an amusing series of desserts drawn to look like ghosts; ice cream, pie, even cheesecake, all done up as transparent, sugary specters ready to unleash calorific doom. As Aaron puts it, “Who knows what’ll be in the game next! Maybe we’ll see a cheesecake ghost boss!” (I’d like to go on record right now saying I’d play the hell out of that).
While playing the new build of Battleblock Theater with Aaron, now on a dual player arcade box instead of last year’s Xbox and TV stations, I was immediately struck by the fluidity of the gameplay. Battleblock Theater‘s biggest triumph is its flow: fans of side scrolling dash classics like Mario and Sonic will feel right at home with the speed and ease with which they fly through each level. Like Castle Crashers, the story mode isn’t limited to one player, however, Battleblock Theater‘s levels will actually adjust and incorporate co-op puzzles based on the number of players, boosting the game’s replayability value.
Those who are already familiar with the Behemoth brand of mischievious charm will be pleased to know that the fun only continues in Battleblock Theater. While I’ve yet to see any poop (damn, Paladin loves him some poop), I will say that even the premise of Battleblock Theater is an enchanting bit of dark humor:
“Having shipwrecked on a mysterious island you find yourself both betrayed by your best friend Hatty and captured by the locals. All of this is happening while being forced into deadly performances. This however, is just the start of your problems.”
giving rise to an end screen where your characters are thrown on a rack and stretched according to how well they did in the level. There’s not much I can tell you about the direction of the story in the…um, story mode… and describing specifically all the mechanisms (like exploding blocks that clear paths, or wings that boost you to higher platforms) would certainly spoil the fun. But I can say they’ve managed to use the platform genre in a way that’s both completely fresh and signature Behemoth, encouraging vertical level exploration, alternate puzzle solutions, and tricky time based maneuvering. Combined with the inventive minigames of Battleblock Theater‘s competitive multiplayer mode, this title stands out as a shining example of its kind, breathing new life into an exhausted game standard.
So now the big question, the question I knew better than to ask during my visit: When’s the release date? Other outlets have listed Battleblock Theater as a 2011 title, but when I spoke with Aaron, he sounded less confident. When I asked about the percentage completed of the game, he told me that he didn’t think they would be able to make the 2011 date, but that at this point in the game’s development, all they needed was “content”. Judging by the build I played, and Aaron’s remarks, I’d be very surprised if the game did not come out by April 2012. Don’t hold me to that. It’s what they call an educated guess. Or in my case, a limited education guess.
Battleblock Theater has so far been announced for XBLA, with no official word on PSN release. And if you’re wondering about DLC, the answer is a resounding yes, though no word on if any will cross over from Alien Hominid or Castle Crashers.
Shall we go back to Greenvale, Zack? Deadly Premonition, the budget 2010 underground title that polarized the games community with its sub par visuals, poor editing, and heavy borrowing from TV show Twin Peaks, may be in store for more. Speaking with GamesCentral while at Gamescom, Swery said not only that he he has plans for a special edition of the cult horror hit, featuring a graphics update, but also a prequel and sequel. None of the plans are solid, but given the success of such a quirky and imperfect game such as Deadly Premonition, I do not doubt Swery when he says his current game is generating interest in Western circles due to its surprise popularity. The big question is where the series will go from here. More Greenvale? More Agent York? And more importantly, more ripping off of David Lynch?
I am now regretting my decision to skip the Nyko booth at E3 this year: I only heard about the Zoom second hand (from The Amazing Society’s Jason Robar, holla!), once I was already on my way back to Seattle. All the same, I’m excited about the Nyko Zoom, which improves your Kinect peripherals by a purported 40%. As Destructoid points out, its release date of August 23 will be well before the debut of Dance Central 2, whose improved two player mode is now more like Kinect Adventures and could well use the added space.
The Nyo Zoom will retail for $29.99.
Before you start yelling FAKE!, this leaked Mass Effect 3 cover art is currently sitting on the EA server. And notice it has the Kinect’s standard purple bar confirmed Kinect compatibility. It’s a small picture, but it does read “Better With Kinect Sensor”, which sounds to me like the game won’t be solely Kinect controlled, but will be in some respect.
Now exactly what would that Kinect compatibility entail?
With these LA Noire screen shots come a reminder about Gamestop pre-order bonuses. Those who stake out a copy in advance with not only receive the “Naked City” Vice Case, but also get access to The Badge Pursuit Challenge (details here).
LA Noire releases May 17, 2011.
Apparently, the patch that just went live on Xbox 360 needs to be patched, so decline any requests for now. That is all!
· Fatboy Slim – “Weapon of Choice”
· Gwen Stefani – “Hollaback Girl”
· Keri Hilson – “Turnin Me On”
· Paula Abdul – “Straight Up”
