Game Informer154,566 likes · 1,512 talking about this
154,566 likes · 1,512 talking about this
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- The first Metal Gear Solid is responsible for far more than one memorable gaming moment. Tricking guards by sitting in a cardboard box. Silently snapping a neck as you sneak to your next objective. Switching your controller port to confuse Psycho Mantis. Hideo Kojima's 1998 classic is remembered by many as the first ga...me that featured production values and cinematics that put it on par with a Hollywood movie. One point in the game did a fantastic job of simultaneously filling the player with dread and making them wonder what was coming up next. By the time you enter the hallway prior to the Gray Fox fight, you've briefly encountered him after your battle with Revolver Ocelot. Stepping into the hall, Solid Snake sees several bloodied bodies strewn about on the floor. The level of violence on display isn't consistent with bullet wounds, so the cyborg ninja is the obvious culprit. While the Twin Snakes remake (seen above) shows the actual massacre, the PSone original leaves it to the player's imagination. Something terrible happened here, and odds are, you're going to have to face it head-on. Snake makes his way down the hall, and a bleeding guard crawls around the corner saying "It's...a ghost!". The camera pans around to reveal a body being suspended in mid-air by some unknown force. Turning off his optic camouflage, Gray Fox reveals himself as he holds the body up on the blade of his sword. He walks into the next room, and the player knows he's in for a fight. Take a look at the scene below, starting at 5:35. (Please visit the site to view this media)See MoreSource: The Feed
- One of the most rewarding things about having children is sitting with them and watching a bunch of dumb cartoons. Sometimes, these shows almost barely have something to do with video games. Barely. Case in point: Busytown Mysteries' "The Crazy Clock Mix-Up Mystery." Will Huckle and his crew determine the link between ...his handheld game system and a terrifying local phenomenon? We watched the episode so you don't have to. Here's the title card for this episode. I wasn't lying when I said that's what it was called. You can trust me. The episode starts with our pal Huckle Cat tooling around the streets of Busytown in his little car. He's supposed to be meeting his sister, Sally, so he checks his pocket watch. Huckle is a notoriously distracted driver. You can't really tell from this angle, but in addition to being able to drive a little car, Huckle also wears lederhosen. He's a pretty talented cat. Get a load of this monkey! He is driving a car that is shaped like a shoe. The video game part is coming up. Remember when I said you could trust me? That still applies. It's Sally! Her interests include scooters and tailgating. Why are they meeting up? Funny you should ask! Huckle's video game is acting up! The buttons don't work! That worm dude is Lowly Worm. He wears a funny hat, and if you were to combine his outfit with Huckle's you'd have a complete Bavarian. Let's take a closer look at that game. Try as he might, Huckle can't get his video game to respond. It's a shame, because that rabbit game looks super fun. Is that a tambourine? Suddenly, all the nearby clocks go completely crazy! Even the one in town hall! Busytown is immediately plunged into Lord of the Flies style anarchy. Pigs suddenly forget when it's time to eat. Cars inexplicably screech out of control. Zebras wear suits. You can't tell from this image, but that clock is totally out of control. Uh oh. Looks like Huckle and pals have an old-fashioned mystery on their hands! Huckle taps his head and everything! Suddenly, Goldbug appears out of nowhere. He's a reporter for Busytown Action Bug News. As you can guess from the show's name, there are a lot of mysteries goin' down in Busytown, which keeps Goldbug super busy. He's like Beetlejuice though, only you just say the word "mystery" once instead of "Beetlejuice" three times. OK, he's not at all like Beetlejuice. Now that we've established that we are in the midst of a mystery, it's time to sing the mystery song. I think those footprints are a callback to the episode where everyone thought a ghost was stealing pies or cookies or something and it was actually an ostrich who fell into some flour. I may be misremembering that episode, and I'm also probably giving the show a bit too much credit.See MoreSource: The Feed
- Over the course of my gaming career, I've bested towering bosses, gunned down entire platoons of enemy soldiers, and saved the galaxy more times than I can count. I've become so jaded that even the most bombastic setpiece moments elicit little more than a smile or a muttered praise of approval. Over the past few months... there have been a couple games that have gotten my heart pounding, and they aren't triple-A action games with million-dollar budgets. They are an 18-year-old strategy game, an indie platformer, and an open-world sandbox game. What makes these games so exciting? It's not what's on display. It's what's at stake. X-COMThe original X-COM is a revered turn-based strategy title that introduced gamers to a number of new ideas. For me, the most notable, terror-inducing facet of X-COM is the threat of losing a beloved soldier to permadeath X-COM grants players a small (and by today's standards, underwhelming) amount of personalization options for your crew of professional alien hunters. But it's not just the fact that you can name your soldiers or pick their weapons. It's each soldier's history that counts, which is forged in the missions he or she survives. When I play X-COM, I like giving my characters nicknames after a few missions, once I've gotten a sense of their "personalities." When three aliens took potshots at an unwitting soldier in a single turn, and all of them missed, I nicknamed him "Lucky." The sharpshooter who made a one in a million shot through a hole in the side of a ship to save a fellow soldier caught in the open earned the nickname "Deadeye." Each successful mission doesn't just grant your characters XP; it gives them back stories. When they eventually (or in my case, inevitably) die, their stories are over. That makes the simplistic, pixelated aliens in X-COM scarier than anything I've faced in Dead Space or Resident Evil. SpelunkySpelunky is the latest game I reviewed, and it is responsible for some of the tensest gaming experiences I've had in recent memory. Spelunky is a rogue-like game, which means that when you die, you have to start all over again. Each of the game's 16 levels is randomly generated, making every playthrough unique. You'll need quick reflexes, smart decision-making, and a little luck to reach the end. The further you make it through the 16 levels, the more the tension builds. Each close call adds to the feeling that "this might be the time!" Every death brings new knowledge that will hopefully save your life in a future playthrough. After struggling with the final boss for hours, I had a stroke of luck. I randomly found a pickaxe in a crate, which gives you the ability to easily carve your way through the stone levels. The coveted item should have made the final boss battle a cinch, but a stupid misjudgment left me burning in a pit of lava. I have never been more disappointed with myself over a game, not just because I lost the progress, but because I blew such a lucky opportunity. When would I ever get a pickaxe right before the final boss fight again? A few hours later, I beat the boss the old-fashioned way. I was more nervous in the last few seconds before my triumph than during any God of War boss battle, and the sense of accomplishment was greater, too. MinecraftOne day I was exploring a world in Minecraft, when I came across I giant rocky outcrop. The sun was still shining down, but the shade created by the mountain structure was dark enough that enemies could spawn underneath it. I wandered into the area, oblivious to the dangers that lurked within. When I heard the monstrous, distorted hiss of a spider, followed by the grunt of my character, I literally cringed in terror. Minecraft's enemies are laughably rudimentary in their appearance. But the threat they pose to you and your belongs makes them more frightening than even the most hideous necromorph. As I ran back towards the sunlight, I wasn't thinking about how dumb the spider's straight, blocky legs look. I was thinking about the items I had crafted and the resources I had collected that were now at stake. Creepers, Minecraft's most dreaded enemies, terrorize players not just by threatening their lives. They also explode your homes, the structures you've spent countless hours building up. The sense of loss they instill – that you won't be able to rebuild things exactly the way they were – makes even the most seasoned gamer flee in terror. I'm not advocating that all game developers should include such harsh gameplay mechanics. The classic example of Steel Battalion erasing your game save if you don't eject from your damaged mech in time just strikes me as stupid. Even in the case of X-COM, Spelunky, and Minecraft, the penalties you incur can be more frustrating than they are engaging. Those frustrations aside, if a game can make me feel a deeper emotional connection to my character, I'll choose it over whatever mundane shooter is currently raking in everyone else's cash.See MoreSource: The Feed
- Earlier this year we got a glimpse of an early build of Star Wars: Battlefront III, now there's an entire hour of gameplay. YouTube user Borman18 is back with more never-before-seen footage of the canceled project. He says it took him close to 10 hours to record and edit the footage. He also provides commentary through...out. Here is a summary of what you will be seeing: Galactic Conquest Cloud City Bespin map Desolation Station More Cloud City Crashing Xbox 360s Kashyyyk Mustafar More crashing Story Mission on Cloud City Challenge Mission : Speeder Race Challenge Mission : Classic Death Star [Source: ptoponline] (Please visit the site to view this media)See MoreSource: The Feed
- Two games are at the starting line, set to race off into the open frontier. We take a look at Criterion's Need for Speed Most Wanted and Playground Games' Forza Horizon and size up these two contenders. Back in 2010, two racing games, Black Rock Studio's Split/Second and Bizarre Creations' Blur, went head-to-head on st...ore shelves. Although the titles weren't completely similar, they defined the racing genre at the moment. This October, Forza Horizon (above) and Need for Speed Most Wanted will go up against each other and present their own visions of open-world racing. Coming off of E3, where I got a chance to see and get some hands-on time with both games, I thought it would be useful to compare them in a few key categories. Of course, a lot of development time remains before October and I don't know every detail about either title, but this might give you a better look at both and help you determine if one is more up your alley. FORZA HORIZON NFS MOST WANTED The World The game is set in Colorado, and Playground Games says that the real-world location was chosen for its variety of roads, from mountain passes to wide-open straightaways and offloading opportunities. Most Wanted's world is fictional, and therefore, intentionally filled with a variety of environment types. It features urban streets, country roads, and other distinct districts. Events You'll get race events through the Horizon Festival, but there is plenty to do in the world itself such as finding new roads, breaking gates, and challenging other racers in the environment. Playground didn't talk about all the event types in Horizon, but it's expected that it will have the usual complement of race types from the racing genre. You'll accrue Speed Points for everything you do in the world. Criterion hasn't gone into great detail on all the racing events you'll encounter. However, I expect it'll contain the usual suspects. That being said, Burnout Paradise was chock full of stuff to do, and so should Most Wanted. The Cars We don't know the full car lineups of either title at this point, but both will have licensed cars. Horizons' rides won't feel exactly like their counterpoints in the Forza series, but they won't go totally arcade either. In the time I had with the game, I could feel the power of my racing machine, and I kept control of it with steady steering, careful use of the gas, and judicious breaking. I'm curious if car upgrades in the game will be handled in a granular, Forza-like fashion or if they'll be more package-based. Criterion takes great pride in their racing gameplay, and what they've crafted for Most Wanted is pure Criterion. It encourages you to go full throttle, but it's not a brainless arcade racer. Evading the cops and navigating the environment at the same time will surely test your driving skills. As for car upgrades, I expect these to be more package-based or to encourage the switching of cars wholesale, but that's strictly a hunch. Multiplayer The game has two-player offline racing, but the exact multiplayer numbers are TBA. While you won't be able to directly challenge friends as you see them in the game world, the Forza series has always had great multiplayer events, and Horizon features some of the favorites from Forza 4. NFS has offline split-screen and online events like standard multiplayer races (12 cars), team races, and stuff like a longest jump contest. Between events you race to event starting points and free roam in the world instead of going to a menu. Visuals It looks great like other Forza titles, and the Colorado scenery certainly adds to Horizon's visual delight. Most Wanted's world and cars look good, but the sense of speed is more noteworthy. Intangibles Apart from Kinect voice integration for a GPS map tool, perhaps the most intriguing X-factor for the game is its Horizon Festival setting. Developer Playground has worked hard on this, and even hired a festival DJ to help construct the proper vibe. The Festival serves as the game's hub, where you can customize your car, buy new ones, and more. If done right, this could be a very cool place to hang out. The game feels similar to Burnout Paradise, but there might be more to it than that. Autolog erases the difference between playing online or off, and the police in Most Wanted are key to the franchise. I'm excited to discover crazy activities in the world, and I expect the game's crashes to live up to Criterion's standards. Need for Speed Most Wanted (click either title to look at their E3 trailers) comes out for PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and Vita on October 30. Forza Horizon hits the Xbox 360 on October 23.See MoreSource: The Feed
- Square Enix announced a new PC release of Final Fantasy VII with several new features, including 36 achievements. Additionally, the game supports cloud saves and offers players to increase their HP, MP and Gil levels to their maximum with this "Character Booster" if they run into a difficult section. Final Fantasy VII... PC also supports English, French, German, and Spanish. Here are the system requirements: Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 (32/64-bit) 2 GHz Processor or faster 1 GB RAM DirectX 9-compatible graphic card A release date and price were not announced at this time. According to the official website, the game is only available to download on the Square Enix store. Final Fantasy VII was first released on PC back in 1998. [Source: Square Enix] (Please visit the site to view this media)See MoreSource: The Feed
- Developer Nimblebit first won me over with Tiny Tower, and then cemented my opinion with its hilarious response when Zynga copied its game. That lingering goodwill made me eager to try out Pocket Planes, Nimblebit’s airline empire simulator. This title continues the studio’s streak of addictive mobile gaming, but the a...ppeal doesn’t last; Pocket Planes hits its peak early, but loses altitude the more you play. Getting invested in Pocket Planes is easy. When your fledgling airline starts up, results are quick and satisfying. You earn money by loading your customizable fleet of planes with passengers and cargo and then flying to other cities. These trips happen in real time, so you can turn the game off and come back later to reap the rewards (similar to Tiny Tower). You can eventually leave the game unattended for a few hours while waiting for your flights to reach their destinations, but the flights are shorter in the early levels. This gives you a steady stream of experience points, currency, and new planes to use in the expansion of your business. The thrill of opening new airports and earning higher capacity vehicles fuels the opening hours, but the gameplay scales poorly as you advance. Around level 14, upgrading to the “better” planes is a questionable step up; they hold more (and therefore make more money), but filling them to capacity becomes a chore since most airports won’t have enough jobs heading to the same location. Even worse, acquiring more airports just pollutes your finite job list with more potential locations, making it even more difficult to group shipments together. Personally, I had more fun limiting my fleet to the four-seater Birchcraft, since it can still make trans-Atlantic flights while costing less to operate than the larger options. It also limits your need to delve into the poorly explained layover system. Being satisfied with the smaller operation bothers me, though; in a game about building an awesome airline from nothing, I shouldn’t have to intentionally avoid supposed improvements to optimize my operation. But the more your empire grows in Pocket Planes, the harder it becomes to enjoy it, which seems like a backward way to make a game. Pocket Planes is a free game with the option to purchase in-game currency, and creating this kind of gameplay bottleneck is how developers like Nimblebit make money. However, Pocket Planes’ problems aren’t the kind that buying extra currency solves. As frustrating as that is, it also works to the game’s credit: It never requires a monetary investment, nor does it employ any insidious means to persuade you to purchase anything. You can enjoy the best of Pocket Planes free of charge. Another point in the game’s favor is its interesting multiplayer concept. By creating a flight crew with other players, you can compete with other crews by participating in global events like delivering shipments to specific locations. You play individually, but your crew’s overall performance determines your standing and what rewards you receive. It’s a clever approach, but people who are only interested in the payoff are better off ditching their friends and searching online for the biggest and most successful crews. I may be slightly disappointed by Pocket Planes, but that feeling only set in after a solid week of compulsively checking my planes, sending them out on jobs, and amassing an in-game fortune. Though it doesn’t have the depth of a full-fledged simulation, the accessible mechanics and tempting rewards make Pocket Planes worth some short-term attention. (Please visit the site to view this media) (This review is based on version 1.0.3 of Pocket Planes)See MoreSource: The Feed
- Update: We've added new games and new entries to our list of cancelled games. The new items on the list below have an orange star next to them (*), or you can click here to read all the new entries at once. Enjoy! Or don't, because these games will likely never release, so we will probably never get to enjoy them. ----...------------------------------
----- Sometimes games don't make it to the finish line. Sometimes a game's cancellation is a huge disappointment. Sometimes, we don't even know a game exists until it gets canceled. Other times a game gets canceled so early in development that we never even hear about it (these obviously won't be included on the list). This is our evolving database of all the known games that have been canceled for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, ans Wii. Many of the games on this list haven't received official cancellations, but the evidence points to their disappearance. If they suddenly surface we will be more than happy to remove them from this list. If a game is suddenly canceled, however, you can bet it will show up here. We want to keep adding to this list as much as possible, so check back time to time. Maybe the the sequel you are most excited about will make the list soon! 2 Days to Vegas The Agency: Covert Ops Alhambra AionGuard Avengers* Axiom: Overdrive Bonk: Brink of Extinction Brutal Legend 2* Cipher Complex Coded Arms Assault The Dark Knight Dead or Alive: Code Chronos Dirty Harry Duke Nukem Forever Elveon Ender’s Game: Battle Room Endless Saga MMO Eyedentify Faith and .45 Factor 5 Superman Game* Frame City Killer* Gears of War: Exile Gotham by Gaslight Gun Loco* Halo: Chronicles Halo MMO Harker Heavenly Sword 2 Hei$t Huxley Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings Killing Day* The Lord of the Rings: The White Council Mega Man Universe Metalocalypse: Dethgame Milo The Office Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned Rendition: Guantanamo Bumpy Trot 2 (Steambot Chronicles 2) Sadness* Scivelation Severity ShadowClan Six Days in Fallujah Star Wars: Battlefront 3 Sundown Survivor Theseis* This is Vegas Tiberium Totems/Urban Race Ugo Volt Voodoo Nights Wardevil Xbox 360 MMOs: Final Fantasy XIV, Age of Conan, Star Trek Online, APB: All Points BulletinSee More Source: The Feed
