General gaming

General gaming

Monster Hunter 3G Smoothly Transitions the Franchise to a New Portable

Posted: 04 Jan 2012 04:30 PM PST

For all the success and mass-appeal that Monster Hunter has in Japan, the series never seems to catch on in the West -- but it should. Capcom's four-player cooperative action RPG series isn't as brutal, opaque, or as dark as From Software's Demon's Souls, but it's still equally as rewarding: demanding the same painstaking levels of observation and skill to topple massive monsters -- only to later turn them into weapons or accessories that match your trendy hunter's hat.

I've spent over 11 hours with an import copy of Monster Hunter 3G for the Nintendo 3DS and have only begun to scratch the surface; but I'm happy to report that the transition to 3DS looks admirable -- with advanced lighting systems and better controls in place. The Japan-only title includes enough improvements and gameplay to tide over fans until Monster Hunter 4, the next true sequel of the popular action RPG series that's bound for 3DS. The only downside of this portable installment is that you'll have to play through a majority of Tri again -- or at least you will in offline mode -- and even if you've spent considerable hours with the Wii version, there's no solution in place to help import your save file onto a 3DS.

Eight Trendy Game Features That Are Older Than You Think

Posted: 04 Jan 2012 03:21 PM PST

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Eight Trendy Game Features That Are Older Than You Think

Take a look at innovative ideas that arrived far before their time.

By: Steve Watts January 4, 2012

No tool is more important to PR than the almighty buzzword; and since the gaming industry enjoys the age-old practice of cannibalism, it's not uncommon for these hot topics to evolve into full-blown trends. As the Barenaked Ladies saying goes, though, it's all been done before. Even the latest features that may seem startlingly new and different owe their dues to trends dating back decades, or even centuries.

That's not to say that today's industry lacks innovation. In the cases of old trends making a comeback, new technologies can take the credit for creating shortcuts or improving the implementation of older ideas. That said, think about a few of these next time you relax with the latest and greatest the industry has to offer.

Brilliant Pushmo Deserves Better Than to Languish in eShop Obscurity

Posted: 04 Jan 2012 03:10 PM PST

I have exactly one complaint about Pushmo, the delectable puzzler that landed on Nintendo's 3DS eShop over the holidays with no fanfare whatsoever. Hmm, no, come to think of it, I have two complaints. The first is that its tutorial sequences are maddeningly hand-holdy. It's a simple game with simple rules, but Pushmo stretches them across more than a dozen levels of glacial progress interrupted by constant chatter. The first time I played the game, I nearly gave up on it in irritation before making my way through the initial stages; my patience for excessively didactic video game intros has diminished to a value rapidly approaching zero. But I came back to the game the next morning, powered through the tedium, and eventually found one of the finest puzzle platform games I've ever witnessed.

My other complaint? Like I said, Pushmo showed up on the eShop with no real warning of its incipient arrival or indication of its stunning quality. A game like this should be a highlight of the 3DS lineup: a cheap, fun, wonderfully designed piece of software offering dozens upon dozens of hours of addictive play and the ability to create and swap player creations at will. Pushmo is fantastic, but you'd never know it if your awareness of Nintendo's top-tier games is based on what the company bothers to promote. Pushmo has accumulated a fair amount of buzz in social media through simple word-of-mouth -- which is what caused me to take a second glance at the game -- but "cross your fingers and hope people like it enough to talk about it in glowing terms on Twitter" isn't really the most compelling promotional tactic Nintendo could have adopted.

Gary Oldman Shows What it's Like to Record Videogame Voiceovers

Posted: 04 Jan 2012 01:05 PM PST

Gary Oldman is a well-respected actor who has, for much of his career, been best known for playing the bad guy. In recent years he's taken on a number of roles that placed him on the other side, most notably that of James Gordon in Christopher Nolan's Batman movies. He's also assumed the role of "the good guy" in some videogames; while he's reprised the role of Ignitus in Spyro more often, the best-selling of the games he's appeared in are Treyarch's two most recent Call of Duty games.

Oldman was a guest on Conan last night, and during the interview O'Brien brought up Oldman's performance as Viktor Reznov in World at War and Black Ops. In addition to providing a small sampling of Reznov saying things such as, "Viktor Reznov! He talks a little like this," Oldman went on to demonstrate what it's like to record voiceovers for a videogame.

Microsoft Flight to be a Free-to-Play Title

Posted: 04 Jan 2012 10:00 AM PST

It won't cost you a penny to get a taste of Microsoft Flight once it's released on PC this year. Microsoft today announced plans to distribute its Flight Simulator successor in free-to-play fashion, allowing gamers to play a portion of the game for free before paying to unlock new content, if they so desire.

Releasing on PC sometime this spring as a downloadable game, the free version of Flight allows players to fly around Hawaii, completing missions, challenges, and finding secret aerocaches hidden around the island. From there you'll be able to receive an additional batch of content simply by signing into Games for Windows Live; anyone with an Xbox Live account will already have one, and those who do not can make an account for free. Doing so will unlock the Boeing Stearman plane, extra missions, and access to both Achievements and an Online Pilot Profile.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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