General gaming

General gaming

ZombiU Attempts to Cure an Undead Genre

Posted: 15 Aug 2012 06:28 AM PDT

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Like cocaine in the '80s, Tamagotchis in the '90s, and McMansions in the aughts, zombie fiction is this decade's go-to fad. Every medium has recently been inundated with sordid tales of the undead, and video games are certainly no exception. This past year alone has seen titles like Dead Island, The Walking Dead, Deadlight, and all manner of games including the word "dead." So how does a company like Ubisoft try to make their entry into the world of flesh-munchers stand out among the pack? The answer may seem foreign to some, but ZombiU (I really, really hate that name) has piqued my interest via a healthy dollop of simple originality. Yep, that's all it really takes.

At first glance, it might seem like you've walked down the path of this Wii U-exclusive many times before; ZombiU is a first person survival horror game set in the foggy confines of London. Nothing too unique about that, other than the chance to battle the undead amidst a sea of pubs, bowler hats, and Yeoman Wanders. Well, it's this simple, yet solid base that allows Ubisoft to toy with your expectations and utilize features wholly unique to Nintendo's upcoming console.

Tearaway, Cross Buy, and the Increasingly Attractive PlayStation Vita

Posted: 14 Aug 2012 04:20 PM PDT

To date, it's been a struggle to turn the Vita into a success for Sony. Sales have been weaker than expected for a variety of reasons, among them the lack of quality games that justify spending $250-plus on a piece of portable hardware which in turn expects you to spend $40-plus on games in an age when quality mobile games can be had for a few bucks a pop. Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida even admitted recently that it's been a struggle to attract third-party publishers to the platform. And while Sony remains stubborn about certain things that could be holding the system back -- its price, the cost of its proprietary memory cards, and so on -- there were a lot of new reasons to be excited about Vita following today's Gamescom showing.

A variety of original Vita games were shown during today's conference, including a brand-new title from LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule. Entitled Tearaway, the game is a sort of puzzle-platformer with a cutesy, papercraft art style. It makes use of several of the Vita's non-traditional control inputs, like the rear touch pad (allowing you to virtually insert your fingertips into the game world) and the microphone (blowing creates wind).

Sleeping Dogs Review: Foreign Cinema

Posted: 14 Aug 2012 03:54 PM PDT

Step away after a few hours of playing the Hong Kong action-thriller Sleeping Dogs, and you start to realize a few things. First, that developer United Front Games understands the importance of a world filled with detail that doesn't overburden the player with minutiae. When protagonist Wei Shen steals a cab, the player doesn't have an option to waste hours pretending to be a cab driver. Why would he? Wei's already an undercover cop pretending to be a triad foot solider. Secondly, that money plays a small and insignificant role in Sleeping Dogs. Players can use it to buy trendy clothes and fancy cars, but it's also an ancillary asset that they won't have to horde for a pretty mansion in the beautiful Hong Kong hills.

United Front trims away a lot of the excess found in open world games and tries to nail down the essentials that jive with their action movie premise. Inspired by films like Infernal Affairs, The Departed, and other gritty Hong Kong action cinema, the game strikes the delicate balance necessary to keep such adrenaline-fueled subject matter entertaining, and presents a unique case where less feels substantially more.

Super Star Stories

Posted: 14 Aug 2012 03:02 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF AUGUST 13 | THE SUPER MARIO BROS. LEGACY

Super Star Stories

Cover Story: How some Mario mainstays changed over the years.

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ario's rampant success in the '80s came from careful planning. Driven by shrewd controls and well-funded marketing, Nintendo built a world where children could play Mario games, watch a Mario cartoon, read about other Mario games in Nintendo Power, and then brush their teeth with a Mario toothbrush before falling asleep in Mario bedsheets.

Yet Nintendo didn't have a firm plan for Mario as a character. While he was more recognizable to children than Mickey Mouse, Mario went through a number of changes as Nintendo brought him outside the realm of video games, to places where he needed more than just a big nose and overalls. In his earlier years, Mario and his cohorts changed with the writers, artists, and designers who interpreted them. The results weren't always the Mario we know today.

LittleBigPlanet and Vita Take a Swipe at Nintendo With a Solid Wii U Impression

Posted: 14 Aug 2012 02:18 PM PDT

LittleBigPlanet 2

Like with the Wii, Nintendo is not attempting to have Wii U compete on graphics; based on what we've seen and heard, it's roughly on equal footing with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in terms of horsepower. It's the system's controller that sets it apart from the competition and, like the Wii remote, allows it to provide experiences that can't be had elsewhere. Or, at least, that is the idea; Microsoft showed off SmartGlass at E3 which was perceived as the company's version of the Wii U GamePad. Sony did the same with LittleBigPlanet 2 and Vita, something we got to see again at Gamescom as one demonstration of how Sony is indiscreetly going after Nintendo.

Sony announced today that Cross Controller support, the feature used to play LittleBigPlanet 2's upcoming Cross Controller DLC, will be included in a Vita firmware update coming later this month. The distinction between this and PSP Remote Play is that the Vita is recognized as what it is; asymmetric gameplay becomes a possibility, and the Vita's unique features can be harnessed -- the game doesn't play as if you are simply holding a PS3 controller with a screen that displays what would normally be seen on your TV. This firmware update will enable developers to make use of the functionality in their games going forward; the only thing that might stop them, really, is that the Vita install base is not especially large, and the number of people with both a PlayStation 3 and Vita is even smaller than that (though there is undoubtedly a fair amount of overlap between owners of the two).

Mario's Coins: From Necessity to Pyrite, then Back Again

Posted: 14 Aug 2012 12:50 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF AUGUST 13 | THE SUPER MARIO BROS. LEGACY

Mario's Coins: From Necessity to Pyrite, then Back Again

Cover Story: Once upon a time, Mario's golden coins were key to his survival.

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ou're walking through a shopping mall when you suddenly hear a sound that makes your ears prick up: The golden "ting!" of a coin being collected in a Super Mario game. Someone near you has set the sound as his or her text notification tone, and you have no problem recognizing it immediately. In fact, judging by the jingle's slightly wooden sound, you're able to identify it as a coin belonging to the post-NES era of Mario games, most likely from Super Mario World.

Offhand, it might seem a little silly to dissect a single sound from a video game, but Mario's coins carry a lot of significance, both symbolically and from a gameplay standpoint. Inspired by Mario, countless video games still challenge you to collect coins, currency, rings, fruit, and other tchotzkes that chill out in mid-air and dole out rewards if you manage to grab a certain number of their kind. Interestingly, though, the item that set off a million collectors -- Super Mario Bros.' iconic gold coin -- has lost significance over the years in its native series. In the earliest Mario games, coins meant an extra life, a reward that was not easily earned. In modern Mario games, however, lives are handed out like Star Bits at a Mushroom Kingdom festival, so picking up coins totally feels like yawn city.

Darksiders II Review: Ashes to Ashes, Loot to Loot

Posted: 14 Aug 2012 09:38 AM PDT

It's strange, really -- by all accounts, I should not want to spend time in the world of Darksiders II. While the visuals aren't bad by any means, the heavy-metal character designs and stereotypical level motifs don't scream inspiration. And the wet blanket of a story that takes itself far too seriously while never investing the time in making us care about the world around us can be a bit of a bore. And for the love of all that's holy, the opening 30 minutes of the game are an absolute chore. So why is it that I've gladly explored every single nook and cranny of Darksiders II's world, and craving more long past the credits screen? Well, the answer is simple: the game is an absolute blast to play and proves that pure fun has the ability to trump all.

A followup to Vigil Games' 2010 title, Darksiders II places you in the role of the Horsemen Death as you're tasked with clearing the name of your wrongfully accused brother, War. As you could probably guess, this mad-capped romp of redemption takes place throughout the Yggdrasil and various locales made famous through Norse mythology (huh?). To be perfectly blunt, none of the story elements of Darksiders II mattered to me. I could care less about Death's gruff monologues and the history of the world around him. What kept me absolutely hooked on the game was its perfect mixture of tried and true mechanics, scenarios, and systems.

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Darksiders II isn't a night out at an exotic new restaurant, but rather a hearty meal at ma's house. It's a simple, but undoubtedly delicious stew that leaves you warm, satisfied, and ultimately content with what you've just experienced. It doesn't use foreign spices and new tastes to liven up the meal, but that's alright with me; the recipe is perfectly proportioned and reminds us of why we love ma's cooking to begin with.

Papo & Yo Review: Daddie Dearest

Posted: 14 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT

I couldn't really blame anyone who considers Papo & Yo an unpolished mess -- the game certainly builds a case for it. In some areas, the puzzles feel unintuitive, even sloppy, with poorly telegraphed clues and seemingly random stretches that defy logic. The platforming sections hinge on specific timing, yet the controls make it easy to fumble these leaps. Also, the game suffers countless episodes of screen tearing, occasional fits of choppy animation, and instances of your protagonist slipping through level geometry into the uncoded video game abyss. As of this writing, a representative for the game told us a patch being issued at launch would correct some of these issues. Still, if this kind of thing typically scares you away from games, then you shouldn't play Papo & Yo... at least, not yet.

Still here? Good! Then let me tell you why Papo & Yo remains one of the most poignant and moving games I've ever played, despite its technical limitations, and why it deserves your time (and patience).
Posted by Shri Krishna

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