ni no kuni is even more beautiful than it looks.

It wouldn’t be too big of a stretch to say that Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is this console generation’s most anticipated JRPG. The collaboration of Level 5 and Studio Ghibli is a match made in heaven the likes of which this industry has rarely seen. The visuals are undeniably gorgeous with the signature Ghibli touch, but having played the game for a significant amount of hours I can say that there’s much more to Ni no Kuni than pretty graphics.

The demo Namco Bandai had available was split into two portions; one that focused on exploring the world and the either mainly focusing on combat. Having played over 30 hours of the Japanese import version, I’ve been through both of these sections of the game, but I wanted to hear the voice work and see how they localized monster and town names. Simply put, everything about these two demos were stunning.

Walking around the town is like stepping foot into a Studio Ghibli film. Everything about it is so ridiculously gorgeous that you’ll have a hard time holding back tears of joy. I know I do every time I play it. The town has a very noticeable fish theme as the mayor and a number of its inhabitants are cat people. There are also plenty of fish murals on the cobble road and in the architecture. Town guards also have small metal fish as their spear tips. Not sure how effective those are in battle, but they sure fit the vibe of the town.

The second portion puts you into a town filled with pig people and has you do battle against this giant pig, tank boss. Battles in the game play out in real time, but also have a hint of strategy to them. You’re free to move around and issue commands, with some happening immediately and others requiring a few seconds to charge. I was a bit worried that the battle system might be a bit boring, but it’s rather deep with its mechanics and leveling system.

You have the option of using the characters themselves or small creatures called familiars. At any point you can switch between any party member or familiar on the fly by pressing the L1 button and making your choice. Ni no Kuni also touts a roster of 200+ familiars, so for the Pokemon fans out there this might be the closest thing to an HD, console Pokemon experience you’ll ever get. Personally, I find everything about the combat system enjoyable. I’ve done hours upon hours of grinding on my Japanese version simply for how much fun the battles are.

yup, the game has an open world map, and that there dragon is your airship.

JRPGs have been a bit of a dying breed this console cycle. In the past, there were so many high quality games in this genre that it puts the current FPS fad to shame. Outside of a Final Fantasy here and a handheld game there, it’s been rather slim pickings. Bringing everything you could possibly ever want in a JRPG, I’m certain that Ni no Kuni is going to be heralded as the greatest JRPG this console generation.

I’m not sure how to sum up my thoughts on Ni no Kuni other than it was one of the best things at E3. The demos available had a ten minute timer that forced you to stop and only gave a small offering of what’s in store. Having played a rather substantial amount of it at home and seen the English localization, I can confidently say that Ni no Kuni is one the best things you could spend $60 on. Go out and pre-order your copy right now because I promise it will delight you in every way possible.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch will be released on January 22, 2013 exclusively for the PlayStation 3.

The post Hands-On: Ni no Kuni is Pure Joy appeared first on Blistered Thumbs.

Yes. Yes! YEEESSS!!!

There is little question that 2010′s Transformers: War for Cybertron was both a genuinely good game and the best Transformers game ever made (not exactly the highest hurdle to cross of course, but still true all the same). This is not to say however that it was perfect and probably the biggest flaw the game possessed was a distinct lack of variety. Ranging from the overly same looking visuals level to level to missions that tended to not make enough use of the various characters unique abilities and transformations, War‘s main campaign rarely managed to rise above the level of decent. And while decent is better than many licensed video games have ever managed to achieve, it clearly is not good enough for the developers at High Moon Studios, who were responsible for both War and its upcoming sequel Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

More than anything, I walked away from my hands-on experience with Fall of Cybertron impressed by the level of variety High Moon has managed to bring to the game. I played through three complete levels, each of which put me in control one of three different bots: fan favorite good guys Grimlock and Bumblebee and the Decepticon helicopter (and member of the Combaticons combiner sub-group) Vortex. Right from the first very few moments of each level, the differences in both the style of play of each character and the in-level designs was apparent. I started with Bumblebee’s level, which ended up feeling the least changed (both in terms of level design and the character himself) from the first game but this made sense seeing as the bots with ground based transformations where already the strongest part of War. I will say that I noticed more of an effort to actually encourage and justify using Bumblebee’s vehicle mode this time around and he also served as a good primer for some of the overall tweaks to combat in Fall. These include the addition of an energy shield to the health system, with the shield regenerating over time while health does not, along with the ability to customize and upgrade each bot’s weapons in a variety of ways. The developers have also been more generous with the placement of recharge stations (which refill both health and ammo) this around, which helps to address one of the bigger design flaws of War that often left players struggling to have enough ammo to complete a level.

I am not normally one given to enjoying playing as bad guys (Paragon all the way baby) but man Vortex was hella fun to control.

While playing as Bumblebee was enjoyable enough, it was my time with Grimlock and Vortex that really showed off the most dramatic new additions to the game this around. Vortex’s level (which sees the Con helping to spearhead an attack on a truly massive bridge, with its own transformative capabilities even, alongside some of his fellow Combaticons and all in an effort to hijack a massive Autobot convoy of (increasingly rare) energon), for example, was built heavily around his flight abilities. Over the course of the level I participated in fast speed chases (Vortex has a boost mode that retracts his blades and dramatically increases speed at the sacrifice of finer control), intense aerial dogfights, and battles with ground forces in both wide open outdoor locales and more cramped and confined indoor settings.

It was these clashes with Autobot forces (which featured everything from standard Autobot troops to multiple large quadruped style mobile artillery platforms to the Omega Supreme-like level boss) in particular that showed off how Fall is making better use of vehicle modes for combat purposes this time around. Instead of feeling like the fairly pointless additions that they were in War, vehicle modes in Fall come across as far more vital by giving players a wider range of options in battle. During Vortex’s level, for example, I employed tactics ranging from bombing runs using powerful, but limited-in-quantity, missiles to relying on Vortex’s chain gun in midair for hit and move tactics to unleashing several of the characters powerful (and exclusive) ground moves in robot form in conjunction with a cover-based style. Additionally, the level itself also stood out far more than was often the case in War and it really did a nice job of bringing Cybertron to life in a way that showed, rather than just tell, why these characters are all fighting tooth and nail for control of the planet. To put it simply, Fall looks gorgeous and even after just three levels, the improvements to visual variety level to level, especially in comparison to War, was impressive.

Grimlock prepares to show this unfortunate Insecticon just why his most beloved catchphrase is ‘Me, Grimlock — BADASS!‘

By the end of my time with Vortex (which came via a Metroid-esque escape sequence that saw Vortex fleeing through the interior of the bridge in helicopter mode even as it was exploding and collapsing around him), I was already convinced that High Moon had a much better handle on changing up gameplay and the feel of combat from level to level and bot to bot. However it was my experience getting to control one of the ultimate all-time Autobot warriors, Grimlock himself, that really showed me just how much more ambitious the developers have become with their design choices in Fall. In regards to those of you who might only know the character from his animated appearances, do not expect the same silly and goofy Grimlock that often showed up in the original cartoon. This is very much the Grimlock of the comics: a hard-bitten fighter whose rage and love of fighting would put even Kratos to shame (the fact that Grimlock also has far more personality in one finger than the Ghost of Sparta does in his entire one-dimensional and boring body does not hurt, but that is an editorial for another day). This is also the Grimlock who disagrees vehemently with Optimus Prime, on both a personal level and in the larger context of leadership of the Autobots. Grimlock and the other Dinobots apparently start out the game not in their classic dinosaur-based forms (even running under the pre-Earth moniker coined for them in the most recent comic book version of Transformers, the Dynobots) but by the time of the level I got to play, things had clearly changed.

Said level opens with Grimlock breaking free of confinement at the hands of Deception second-in-command Shockwave (who in Fall also makes use of comic devised persona of mad scientist supreme along with his long time comic rivalry (dating all the way back to the very first comic series from Marvel Comics) with the Dinobots), who has been performing assorted experiments on the Dinobots since capturing them earlier in the game. The results of these experiments have left Grimlock a character that controls wholly unlike any previously seen in the current series of games. For one thing, Grimlock has no built-in long range weaponry (though at various points in the level I was able to find explosive containers of unstable energon that I could hurl at both ground and air-based foes) and instead relies, in robot form at least, almost exclusively on his over-sized-to-the-point-it-would-make-a-Final-Fanasty-character-weep-with-joy sword for his combat needs. Grimlock also has a front facing shield, of the physical variety as opposed to the standard regenerating energy-shield (though Grimlock has that as well), that he can use to block attacks even while moving. In short, Grimlock is a big and bad bruiser who truly towers over his foes (which mostly consisted of Insecticons in the level I played, characters who in Fall also owe their animal-like alternate modes to the experiments of Shockwave) and almost at times felt like he stepped out of a completely different game altogether.

We’re sorry, your regularly scheduled caption cannot be completed at this time due to the sheer levels of awesome currently present.

While Grimmy did indeed have his classic Tyrannosaurus Rex inspired alternate mode by this point, he was not able to transform at will. Instead, the character made use of a unique rage meter that built with every attack made against enemies (with special, and gruesome, finishing moves such as impaling cons on his sword causing the meter to fill even faster) and that once full gives players the ability shift forms for limited time. Both modes control relativity similarly, which is to say slow and cumbersome in a way that really gets across the sheer size and power of Grimlock perfectly, but as a T-Rex, Grimlock’s strength and endurance grew to almost ridiculous levels, truly turning the taciturn warrior into a one-bot army of destruction.

And yet my time with Grimlock was not all brawn over brains, as at several points I had to solve a number of simple yet engaging environmental puzzles (of the kind one would expect from the kind of third-person melee focused action-adventure game such as God of War that clearly inspired High Moon’s take on Grimlock) in order to proceed. Again, this was an aspect of gameplay that made my time with Grimlock stand out from the pack and it points to how fully High Moon has embraced the idea of each bot having their own play style. Overall, Fall really did do an impressive job of getting across the sense of both rage and power driving Grimlock by this point in the game; with the glimpses of other story developments I got throughout the level (which unless I miss my guess was set on a prehistoric Earth) being equally intriguing. It also made me even more excited for High Moon’s much hyped opportunities to control the massive combiners that have long been a hallmark of the Transformers franchise or the literally city-sized Autobot Metroplex who has been among the chief components of Fall’s advertising campaign.

With a greater focus on story this time around (both Bumblebee and Vortex’s levels, for example, featured various hidden audio logs and Teletran-1 data files to find for even more backstory), the promise of a stronger overall single player campaign (which, unlike War, will be dived into three acts that have players in control of the Autobots in act one, then changing over to the Decepticons in act two, before returning to the Autobots in the final and third act) with greater attention to visual and gameplay variety, and a refined class-based online multiplayer mode that High Moon is promising will give players more customization options, both visually (according to developers there will be hundreds of pieces and thousands of paint jobs to select from) and gameplay wise, Fall of Cybertron certainly seems well set to be the Transformers game we have all dreamed of. If I was only mildly interested in the game before E3 (I liked, not loved, War while High Moon’s following game, the movie inspired Transformers: Dark of the Moon, left me completely cold), then my hands-on time with Fall left me genuinely pumped and excited to get play the full game once it hits later this summer. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is set for release August 28 on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of the game and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

The post Hands-On: Additions & Refinements Strengthens Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Over Predecessors appeared first on Blistered Thumbs.

this game is as fun as that thing is teal. or blue. or whatever color it is.

There were plenty of games at this year’s E3 that had questions surrounding them. Of the games actually at the show, there were few others that had as many question marks as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. With the game being in development hell and handed over to a new development team, how would it look? How would it play? Would it be in shambles? Would it ever release? Having played the game, I can confidently say that it’s in good hands with Platinum Games.

The demo I played through was more or less the tutorial level in which the game teaches you the various mechanics you’ll be using throughout. Revengeance has the typical Platinum Games’ action flair and fluid controls, but also introduces a few unique mechanics for the game. The first of these being Ninja Run. By holding the R1 button Raiden will start sprinting and have the ability to deflect incoming bullets and scale obstacles. You can use this to either jump up high walls or run over smaller objects like cars and boxes.

The second of these mechanics is called Blade Mode. If you’ve been following Revengeance you’ll know this free cutting mechanic is the main idea behind the game. Essentially you’re allowed to cut just about anything in the levels, including enemies and environmental objects. This is done by holding down the L1 button (which slows down time) and you can slice away by aiming with the left analog stick and cutting with the right. It may sound a bit odd, but it controls so beautifully once you try it out.

Being a fan of Platinum Games, I was fairly confident that they would do an awesome job with this game. That being said, I was not prepared for how much Revengeance blew me away. Your game can have awesome graphics, a great story, and nice music, but at the end of the day I play video games to have fun. As many great games as there were at E3, there was no other game I had more fun playing than Revengeance. The controls were silky smooth, the action was fluid, the new mechanics worked really well, and I didn’t want to stop playing. They literally had to make me leave because I wouldn’t stop playing.

I won’t describe the demo in detail, as you can watch the very demo I played above. However, I will share my one concern for the game, which is that I feel it’s going to be too short. I beat Vanquish in about 5 hours, and Bayonetta doesn’t take much longer at around 6-7 hours. While you can’t measure quality by hours played, I’d like to get at least 8 hours from the main campaign, if not also a few extra modes. This might sound odd for an action game, but I would actually really enjoy a horde mode. Endlessly slicing waves of enemies into pieces sounds like a blast to me.

this guy better wipe that stupid grin off his face…before i cut it off!

One other thing, I would take my opinion with a grain of salt. I’ve never played through any Metal Gear Solid game (blasphemy!), so I don’t really have any strong feelings one way or another concerning this being spin-off. However, as a huge fan of action games, I will say this game is a total blast and brings something new to the table. If you’re looking for a game with pure action, amazing controls, and a little something different, then you won’t be disappointed.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will release in early 2013 for Xbox 360 and PS3. What are your thoughts on the game? Are you excited? Is this a disgrace to the Metal Gear series? Share all your thoughts and comments with us below.

The post Hands-On: Metal Gear Rising Cut Away My Doubts appeared first on Blistered Thumbs.

Just to be clear, the Armored Edition will include all previously released downloadable content, including the various skin packs and the recently released Harley Quinn’s Revenge single player DLC.

I can already imagine what some of you some of you saying: “But Shaun, Batman: Arkham City came out like last October, why should we care about some new port of the game now?” My response? What makes Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition important and interesting, at least as far as those of us who have already played the game is concerned, is as much, if not significantly more, for what the game represents as for the title in and of itself. Look, I will be honest with all you: while I fully intend to purchase a Wii U upon or near its launch, I have no real intention to buy B:ACAE. Like many of you, I bought the original Arkham City back when it was first released and played the game to both completion and my own personal sanctification. Thus I have neither the inclination nor the time to go back and give it another playthrough, new additions and other changes or not. Even so, I still went out of my way to play the floor demo of Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition because I was incredibly curious to see this game in action. Why? Because here at last was the chance for me to get some tangible and hands-on proof of not only what the Wii U was capable in and of itself, but also in comparison to the other platforms currently available on the market.

So with that in mind, I am not going to bother going into much detail on the various ‘exclusive’ features of this version of the game. They are all functional enough to various degrees but they also all more or less feel like what they are: tacked on additions to an already established game design for the sake of some extra ticks on the final list of the game’s features. Again, changes like the new menu system and hacking mini-game all work but they hardly stand out much as exciting or even memorable additions to the title. Could I see the value in, for example, having access at all times to the AC‘s in-game map? Sure, but not to the point it creates a driving anticipation in me to run out and buy the game for a second time later this year. About the only gameplay change that really stood out for me was the ability to use motion controls to pilot the remote controlled batarangs. This was a change that took what was, for me at least, one of the most frustrating and cumbersome parts of the original Arkham City experience and transformed it into something far more palatable.

If I was inclined to play this version of the game I am sure I would find being able to look at the map at any time without having to pause the game a very useful addition.

Even the much vaunted new Battle Armored Tech Mode (B.A.T. Mode) from which this version of the game draws its new subtitle from left me mostly cold. Basically, its purpose is to make Batman stronger and tougher which translates to simply making combat in the game less challenging. The fact that it has its own separate energy meter that builds up each time Batman throws a punch, regardless of the success or failure of a player to build up the combo meter (unlike the rest of Batman’s in-combat special abilities), in practice lays bare exactly what this is: a new easy mode of sorts. No doubt this is intended largely for the vast casual audience that both Nintendo and Warner Bros. Interactive is hoping will choose to upgrade to the Wii U from the Wii and that may have never played the original Arkham City.

So with all that out of the way, lets get to down to what most of you who are reading this are likely really interested in: how did the Armored Edition look, especially in comparison to the other versions of the game out there? I would say damn near indistinguishable from the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game. Well kind of. In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that the first time I played the demo (on the second day of E3), a large portion of my time was plagued by frequent texture drops especially in regards to the environments such as the floors and the walls. It is worth keeping in mind that this was not a alpha build of the game (with the demo itself being a version of the ninja chase that first leads players below ground to meet a certain familiar madman; for what its worth the sequence had clearly been altered specifically for the sake of this demo) and that the title is being rebuilt from the ground up for the purposes of its Wii-U release. This is not just some quick and dirty port in other words. More importantly, after talking to other people about their experiences, I went back the next day and replayed the demo on one of the four other machines it was set up on. This time around I ended experiencing almost none of the texture problems I had previously encountered. This leads me to believe the problems I encountered the first time might have been attributable to technical problems or possibly some other vagaries arsing out of dealing with an admitted alpha build.

Either way, I now feel confident in predicting that the Armored Edition of Batman: Arkham City will ultimately indeed look and play at least as good as the other versions of the game already released. I consider this no mean feat either for a game that was a later generation release in the first place and is now being repurposed as a first generation release for new and untested hardware. Between this demo and my time with ZombieU (whose own hands-on article will be forthcoming soon I hope), I personally have had any doubts I might have had about the Wii U’s graphical capabilities well and truly settled once and for all. While I still have no interest in buying this version of the game personally, I consider my time with the demo well spent. Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition is due out this winter for the Wii U and is intended to be a launch title for the system. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of this and all other upcoming Wii U titles and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

The post Hands-On: Wii U’s Batman: ACAE Stands Tall Next to Other Versions appeared first on Blistered Thumbs.

I cannot be the only one who find themselves getting Earth Defense Force flashbacks triggered by this image, can I?

Namco Bandai lists the genre for their upcoming Wii U launch title Tank! Tank! Tank! as ‘Battle Party Game’, but upon spending some time with the game it quickly becomes apparent just how apt this rather unusual description really is. Certainly, at least, that was the case for me after I managed to play several rounds of Tank! Tank! Tank! on the show floor of E3 last week. To be sure, this is not the most complex of games ever produced but T!T!T! might just be of that rare breed of game that ends up being appealing to both the hardcore gaming set and the casual gaming population alike. Heck, they might even enjoy to playing it together with one another.

Originally released as an arcade title in Japan and the US back in 2009, Tank! Tank! Tank! is a one-to-four player action game which places players in the role of tank drivers in the middle of an invasion of various giant monsters and robots. Players will be able to team up to battle these opponents, go head to head directly in 4X4 and 2X2 competitive tank battles, and even have one player assume control of the enemy (giant bosses and all) while the other other three work together to take them down. The title’s overall gameplay is fairly straightforward, with the tanks driving essentially like cars (the demo I played at E3 had the three Wiimotes hooked up to the system alongside the Wii U GamePad ensconced in Wii Wheels) and aiming being a fairly painless process by way of the control sticks and/or motion controls. Those looking for anything resembling a sim-like experience should keep on looking because that is not what Tank! Tank! Tank! is interested in.

Because when fighting giant multistory monstrosities, their is no such thing as overkill.

Instead, the game is all about a rollicking group experience designed to be accessible to as wide an audience as possible. Its a game that encourages equal parts teamwork and competition in and where earning points is almost as important as taking down enemies. Death is rarely a setback, unless all players buy it at once, and generally simply leads to a 30 sec respawn as part of the overall fast paced nature of the game. Destruction also looms large in Tank! Tank! Tank!, with players capable of causing as much damage to a level’s various destructible environments as the enemies are. Other elements include various power-ups that appear both at random and at key times during boss fights and which range from a powerful machine gun (a tank’s default weapon being the slow firing and cumbersome cannon for which the vehicle has become famous for in popular culture) to a 5 tiered missile launcher to a massive laser cannon clearly modeled after the kind used in a number of Godzilla movies over the years (in a nice little touch, picking up a power-up also changes the current look a tank to reflect said weapon). The weapons gained from these power-ups all have limited ammo (as opposed to a tank’s default main cannon) and differing rate of fire making them each suited better for different opponents.

At its core, Tank! Tank! Tank! is a delightfully chaotic and over-the-top affair that really comes to life when four players are available to play the game. I ended up playing through the demo three times, once with only one other person and twice with a different set of three other random people, and the difference in experience between these play sessions was stark. To be fair, I was unable to try out the game’s planned single player campaign mode (which, among other things, features unique enemies and bosses designed exclusively for this mode and will be the main way for players to unlock new tanks for use in other modes) but there is no question that in regards to T!T!T!‘s main co-op mode, everything is simply more enjoyable with more people present and involved in the action. My time with the title also demonstrated its party game chops fairly well thanks to the other people I ended up playing with had all never previously touched the title. Yet the game is so accessible that both times we were all quickly able to fall into an enjoyable grove of alternately helping and backstabbing one another in our joint quest to defeat the army of giant spiders and their boss, a robotic three-headed dragon of all things, that stood in our way. I can easily imagine T!T!T! becoming a perennial favorite for families on game night or at parties. I could also see how the Wii U Gamepad’s screen functionality (which in the main co-op mode is more or less just restricted to just being an alternate screen for playing the game on; the use of its other functionality being restricted to the 3 on 1 mode that sadly I was unable to play at the time) could help ease play in an otherwise crowded and noisy location.

Bosses in particular call for teamwork. Unless the other three players quickly concentrate their fire on the head holding this guy, for example, he will be toast in mere moments regardless of his current health levels.

On a surface level, Tank! Tank! Tank! is certainly not the most impressive example of the Wii U’s visual capabilities. Still, during my time with the game at least, dozens upon dozens of foes, a wide variety of weapons fire, and the frequent destruction of surrounding buildings and other objects all filled the screen regularly without even a drop of slowdown rearing its ugly head. Which, ultimately, I would argue is the most important aspect graphically speaking for a game like this in my opinion. I will say that I personally find the floating faces that hover over each player’s tank (a holdover from the arcade version where the four machines needed to play the game made the inclusion of such a feature more understandable) more distracting than anything else and hopefully the final version of T!T!T! will give players the ability to turn this feature off.

I was unable to get any kind of definitive answer regarding the crucial question of whether or not the game will feature online multiplayer from the Namco Bandai representatives I talked too. The various press materials I have access to conspicuously fail to mention the possibility of online play and that leads me to think it will likely not be a feature, which is unfortunate to say the least. Certainly this a game that would be greatly served by such an inclusion so hopefully I am either wrong or the developers at Namco Bandai can find a way to include such functionality as future DLC.

Even without online multiplayer however, Tank! Tank! Tank! remains a highly enjoyable game that is simple to play yet still possessing enough complexity and other elements to be an engaging and enjoyable experience. Some games simply feature that perfect mix that lets them be appealing to both hardcore and casual gamers and I think T!T!T! could be another example of just such a game. I already feel like all the ingredients are present and that was without even getting to play its dedicated competitive modes. At the very least, there have been far worse examples of both launch titles and party games released in the past and I would argue that the game’s years of success in arcades (particularly in Japan) should prove there is something to the game’s basic formula. Tank! Tank! Tank! is currently planned for a Winter 2012 release as one of the launch titles for the Wii U. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of the game and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comment section below.

The post Hands-On: Tank! Tank! Tank!’s Simple Gameplay Still Packs Enough Heat To Hit With Hardcore & Casual Alike appeared first on Blistered Thumbs.

No game, very little about this image is actually OK. For one thing, it shows a player throwing a punch in order to trigger a kick.

When we here at Blistered Thumbs first broke the story that the mega-popular anime/manga series Dragon Ball Z was getting its own Kinect title, I will admit that I was less than impressed by the thought of the game at that time. This was because I was already anticipating the same kind of messy and only barely functional affair that pretty much any attempt to create a non-dancing or pet Kinect game has ended up producing. The Kinect has to date repeatedly proven its lacks of functionality regarding any game that requires fast and smooth gameplay and when I think of the fights in Dragon Ball Z (disregarding the often pointless additions for the sake of filler of course) that is exactly what comes to mind. These are high impact, high speed, and high intensity affairs, with characters often moving so fast they seem to disappear into thin air. None of which seemed to lend itself to producing a prime candidate for a decent Kinect game. But after getting to spend some time with the game on the show floor at E3, I can honestly say that Dragon Ball Z for Kinect… pretty much lives down to my every initial expectation.

To give DBZ Kinect its fair due, the game is at least functional and far more responsive than many other Kinect titles have ever managed to be. I played through two fights, one against Raditz in the role of Piccolo and one against Vegeta in the role of Goku, and I was surprised at how good of a job the developers at Spike Chunsoft did in regards to translating each character’s moves into motions that players have to perform. Firing a classic Kamehameha or Piccolo’s signature Special Beam Cannon required motions from me that truly felt in line with the ones I have seen these characters make countless times before over the years. Additionally, the game had very little trouble recognizing and reading my motions, even when I did not exactly match what was exactly asked for on the screen. All of which meant that pulling off special moves was neither frustrating nor non-show appropriate.

If aspects of this image remind you more of a dance game than a high speed and fast paced fighter… Go with that feeling.

The problem was that performing these moves lacked one key competent: fun. To be precise, while pulling off various attacks, blocks, and special moves in Dragon Ball Z for Kinect is a painless and simple process from a technical point of view, this very same process does not actually exist within the framework of a larger game that is compelling in any way. Taken as an overall whole, combat in Dragon Ball Z for Kinect (and ugh, what a title) is a stilted and overly simplistic affair which very quickly grows boring and uninteresting. The combat in the game lacks depth of any real kind, a complaint labeled against more than one Dragon Ball Z fighting game to be fair, but it also lacks the proper feel of the show.

Basically, fights in DBZ Kinect play out from a first-person perspective that is highly reminiscent of the original Super Punch-Out arcade game (right down to the displaying of the arms on screen of a player’s chosen fighter) but that is where any similarities between the two games end. Players can initiate melee combos by throwing a bunch of random punches in succession, fly further away from an opponent to launch small energy attacks (in a method that exactly duplicates melee combat and thus makes any difference between the two types of attacks non-existent), block by holding their arms in front of their faces, charge up their energy meter by clinching their fists (finger placement actually is very important overall in regards to any number of moves in the game and to the title’s credit, it rarely seems to have any difficulty reading individual fingers) and holding their arms away from their bodies, and using various motions to launch one of the two signature special moves a particular fighter will have at their disposal. I cannot stress how simplistic fights in Dragon Ball Z play out and even on the harder difficulty settings the challenge remains low.

Character movement also always plays out via cutscene but then again, what else can one expect from a Kinect game? The peripheral simply cannot handle fast paced gameplay which makes it a pretty poor choice to host a Dragon Ball Z game in the first place. I suppose it is a credit to the title’s developers that the game is as good as it is and I equally suppose that the super hardcore Dragon Ball Z fan with cash to burn and a Kinect already in their possession might find enough present in the game to make it worth a purchase. Similarly, I could see younger and less demanding fans of the series eating this one up as well and certainly there are far worse (and broken) Kinect titles out there. Even so, I cannot see anyone else finding anything of even the slightest interest present in this game.

I already mentioned how stilted fights in Dragon Ball Z for Kinect feel and this more than anything is what ruins the game. I honestly felt more like I was playing a dance game than a fighting game, a feeling not helped by how on rails fights end up being. And do I even need to explain why a dance game is the last thing a Dragon Ball Z title should be reminding me of? I suppose if the developers at Spike Chunsoft could manage to tighten up the gameplay and speed up the overall flow of action before release, this could possibly end up a decent game. But you will pardon me if I do not bother to hold my breath. Dragon Ball Z for Kinect is due out in October of this year for Xbox 360. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of the game and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

The post Hands-On: Dragon Ball Z for Kinect Fails to Ever Really Connect appeared first on Blistered Thumbs.

For many, this will be a sight for sore eyes.

Now of course Square Enix is no stranger to the iOS platform, having released any number of original titles (perhaps the most prominent of which being the Chaos Ring series) and classic titles (such as Final Fantasy Tactics and Chrono Trigger) in the past. With Final Fantasy Dimensions however the company has a game that is in some respects representative of both aspects of its mobile strategy. The game is wholly original, telling a new story set in an original world that has been split into darkness and light and featuring two separate groups of playable characters,the Warriors of Light and the Warriors of Darkness. The gameplay and graphics featured in the game however are clearly deliberate throwbacks to the classic 8-bit and 16-bit era Final Fantasy games. It’s an intriguing enough approach and while Square Enix has tried this kind of idea before (most notably with Final Fantasy IV: The After Years), my own experience with FFD at E3 this year made it clear just how much time and effort Square really has put forth this time around.

One of the most obvious and immediate examples of this can be seen via the game’s graphics. Whereas The After Years primarily reused old assets (at least in its original release, the game did get an upgrade when it was included in the Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection release), Dimensions features graphics that clearly have been created more or less from scratch. It is a subtle thing to determine at times I will admit and it can be easy to mistake otherwise (especially considering just how few images are currently officially available for the game) but once you see FFD in action this fact becomes inescapable. Everything from the game’s sprites to its backgrounds to its animations are all simply of a higher quality than that of the original games and even exceed the redone graphics employed for the re-releases of Final Fantasy I and II that have graced a variety of platforms over the last several years. Make no mistake, this is unquestionably a game meant to feature visuals that closely mirror the Final Fantasy games of yore but at the same time Square has put more effort into this game than simply digging out a bunch of old assets and slapping them together. Enemy sprites in particular show off some nicely done hand drawn art and include new versions of some much beloved faces to boot.

Since I was only able to play about thirty minutes of the game I will not go too much into story beyond to say that judged by the small snippets I got to view, this is the kind of stuff that will appeal to longtime fans (for example the demo picks up with one of the two groups of characters on the run from an evil empire and looking for some much needed crystals while other familiar elements include the presence of four divine generals, a mysterious masked man, and, in the Japanese version at least, the reuse of various names from the first three games)of the series while still feeling open enough to appeal to newcomers as well. Whether or not the game’s tale turns out to have strong enough writing to stand on its on feet or turns out to be little more than a mixture of pastiche and overly familiar tropes will remain to be seen. What I can speak about however is gameplay and controls and I have to say both of these came across very well to me in my time with the game.

Ah nothing like an old-school villian speech.

Starting with the controls, more than one iOS game has struggled with this aspect (including previous efforts from Square) but Dimensions seems to have this area about as well covered as can be reasonably expected. Essentially pretty much every major function in the game has been mapped to multiple options in order to achieve maximum smoothness and ease of control. Thus players can either simply tap the screen to move their character, place their finger on the character and drag, or place their finger anywhere else on the screen and activate a virtual d-pad. Similarly, interacting with characters and objects can be performed by tapping the character/object in question or by facing the desired direction and taping the center of the virtual d-pad before it disappears off the screen (which it will do about four seconds after a player lifts their fingers). Menu navigation operates in a similar fashion as does the control scheme Square has devised for in-battle.

Speaking of battle, the game allows players to bring up to five characters into battle at a time with the classic take on the job system making a return in a big way for Dimensions. In a setup highly reminiscent of Final Fantasy V, each character starts with a base job and will be able to switch between unlocked jobs freely, with each job retaining any abilities and skills so far earned. The Jobs available from the beginning for all eight of the game’s main characters are (using the Japanese naming conventions for the purposes of this article) Freelancer, Warrior, Monk, Thief, Red Mage, White Mage, Black Mage, and Summoner. Throughout the rest of the game, new jobs will then be unlocked as players complete key points in the game. As previously mentioned, the main characters make up two separate groups of warriors and so it is each group gets their own set of exclusive unlockable jobs. For the Warriors of Light, these jobs consist of Dragoon, Bard, Memorist, Knight, and Devout, while the jobs unlocked for the Warriors of Darkness are Ranger, Dark Knight, Dancer, Ninja, and Magus.

In the original release of Dimensions in Japan back in 2010, went it went under the name of Final Fantasy Legends: Warriors of Light and Darkness, the game was dived into episodes that were released on a monthly schedule. Thus it was the end of each episode that lead to the unlocking of a new job; Square however has been conspicuously mum on the exact details of the release plan for Dimensions so it has yet to be seen if it will follow a similar release pattern or simply be put out in one large chunk. If all this sounds like a fairly rich and deep system, that is because it is and honestly there were so many options in battle during the demo that I hardly knew what choices to make at times. This should not be seen as a complaint and I strongly suspect the characters were deliberately overpowered/overleveled for the sake of the demo.

Overall I found the combat highly familiar but for me it was more akin to stepping back into a pair of familiar old shoes not worn in many years. Obviously your mileage may vary, but for those who bemoan how far astray from the old formula the console Final Fantasy games have moved of late, Dimensions will as likely as not feel like a return to form. I of course have (rather infamously for some of you) had no problem with the console Final Fantasy experiences of the last few years but that does not mean I am not looking any less forward to a chance to get to play through Final Fantasy Dimensions once it is released this July for iOS. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of this upcoming game and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

The post Hands-On: Square Enix Goes Forward in Reverse With Final Fantasy Dimensions appeared first on Blistered Thumbs.

Sure this little guy looks adorable, but this is a game from one of the lead designers of Portal. So maybe he is & maybe he is not…

It is certainly unfair to expect any game to achieve the level of success and fame that Portal did. After all, Portal was more than just a massive hit, it was a game that produced memes which have spread as far as to people who have never played or even heard of the game. And at least partially, the reasons this go beyond just the fact that it was a terrifically made game on every level. Certainly, it helped that Portal featured dead on and perfectly responsive controls, had simple yet lovely graphics, wonderful sound design backed by one hell of a vocal performance, an elegantly low key yet highly engaging story, and genuinely original gameplay that legitimately introduced new ideas into the medium in a way that few titles ever truly manage. All of that was certainly vital to the game’s ultimate success, but even so, Portal was also the right game in the right place at the right time.

And maybe even more importantly, it was a surprise. Portal was a game no one really saw coming and that is simply something that no follow up, be it a direct sequel or simply a completely new game from those who worked on the game, can hope to duplicate. We all know what Portal is now, just as we all know how skilled the people who really made it are. Which means no matter how good a game from them might end up being, it is unrealistic to expect it to achieve the level of success that Portal achieved. And yet, even with all of that being said, I still think Quantum Conundrum might just be able to pull it off. At the very least, based on my recent hands-on time with the game at E3 this year, I expect QC to be a massive hit that will be making more than one person’s list of the best games of 2012. Because everything I just said previously about the individual qualities that made up Portal? They all, every single one, could be applied to Quantum Conundrum as well.

A location in the regular dimension…

But let us back up a little first and establish context for those of you desperately in need of some. Quantum Conundrum is an upcoming downloadable only title from Airtight Games, the same studio responsible for 2010′s decidedly of mixed quality release Dark Void (published via Capcom). The company has apparently moved on since then seeing as Square Enix will be handling publishing of QC, but the really important addition this time around is Kim Swift. If that name is not immediately familiar, perhaps a little game that she served as a lead designer on will be: Portal. And honestly, even if you did not know that Kim Swift had worked on Portal before playing Quantum Conundrum, the very act of playing the game in question would quickly make such a fact apparent.

Quantum Conundrum is very much a direct descendant of Portal; meaning that the former possesses many traits that will instantly feel familiar to anyone who has played the latter. Yet this should not be taken as implying that QC is simply a Portal clone. Instead, it would perhaps be better to view the games as more akin to how the overall filmography of someone like Hayao Miyazaki. Certainly, each of his films have certain ideas and/or tropes that appear again and again even while each film still manages to stand as a distinct and unique entity in its own right.

…and the same location in the Fluffy Dimension. Note the changing painting on the back wall.

So yes, Quantum Conundrum is indeed a puzzle driven game with some focus on platforming elements as well, it does make use of a first-person perspective, and it features gameplay driven by a highly distinct set of physics-based elements. Additionally, the game’s player character appears to be of the silent protagonist variety, said character also wields a highly unusual but ultimately powerful tool that will be key to completing the game, and a seemingly disembodied voice interjects regularly throughout the action, offering both helpful (for a given value of ‘helpful’) advice and amusing side comments. Seen from a distance, all of this might make QC sound like a carbon copy of Portal but the devil, as they say, is in the details.

For one thing, that disembodied voice is not a sardonic and psychotic female computer bent on killing humans in one horrifying test after another, but instead all that remains of the brilliant scientist Professor Fitz. And he is only a voice due to an experiment of his going wrong that has in the process warped the insides of his house in a number of unlikely and seemingly impossible ways. And the player character who sets out to rescue the man is not some mute woman of a indeterminate past, but instead the good professor’s 12 year old nephew. Dropped off to spend a weekend with his uncle, the boy is confronted by an explosion resulting from the aforementioned experiment mere moments after his parent’s car pulls out of sight. With no one else to turn to, the young boy dons one of his uncle inventions and sets out to find a solution to this whole mess. Nor are the professor and his nephew the only major players in this affair, thanks to presence of the odd little creature known as Ike (see the header image for this article to get a glance at him) who was created by the Professor as part of the same set of experiments. Ike seems friendly enough but he also has odd powers of his own and maybe, just maybe, there is more to him than a first glance might imply…

What role Ike will actually play in the proceedings remains unclear, but no doubt it will be a vital one.

Getting back to the previously mentioned invention the boy must use, it is no portal gun, but instead an Interdimensional Shift Device (or IDS). As opposed to ripping holes in space, the IDS allows the user to shift the dimensionality of his current locale, changing the properties of the objects and the world around him. Shifting to the fluffy dimension, for example, makes everything lighter while changing to the heavy dimension (naturally) has the opposite effect. Also, and again unlike the portal gun, the IDS can only work when special batteries are collected and then placed into colored receptacles that help to create the necessary dimensional rift the glove-like device needs to function. This process must be repeated regularly from room to room, meaning that the player can never be entirely sure what set of tools they will have at their disposal at any given moment. It is just one more example of how Quantum Conundrum takes the now familiar Portal formula and turns it on its head to help make it feel fresh again.

Which if you get right down to it, is what I took away from my hand-on time with QC more than anything else: how familiar yet ultimately different the game really feels from its progenitor. This idea is applicable to game from the top down; whereas, for example, Portal was an often cold and moody game with visuals to match, QC features a far more cartoon like style, filled with bright and colorful design choices, to help reflect its more rollicking and free-wheeling tone. Quantum Conundrum feels more akin to one of those 80′s family films from people like Spielberg, the kind that took ordinary kids and thrust them into extraordinary adventures. This tone is further enhanced by the vocal performance of the one and only John de Lancie as Professor Fitz, who even in the fifteen minute or so demo I got to play already had plenty to say. There is a reason the man is beloved by so many Trekkies and Bronies alike after all and his participation instantly gives the entire game that extra layer of credibility.

I also greatly appreciated all the little gags peppered throughout the demo such as the portraits that change as you shift dimensions. It is these kind of small touches, ones that technically are not necessary for the game to function, that point to just how much effort the people at Airtight Games are putting into the game. Dark Void was a game whose potential was unfortunately ultimately brought down by its execution and so far at least, I am happy to report that the same does not appear to be the case with Quantum Conundrum.

So the world building, visuals, sound, and story are all present, but what about the gameplay? How does it come across? In a word: addicting. Much like Portal, Quantum Conundrum is a game that is easier to understand by simply playing it but I will try to describe its gameplay in the best manner I can manage. The key to the game is using the ability to shift dimensions to alter the properties of the world around you. Need to move a heavy safe somewhere? Shift to the fluffy dimension where it is now light as a feather. Need something heavy to hold down a switch but only have access to a light wooden box? Well the heavy dimension’s ability to raise the weight and durability of everything has the answer to what ails you. Need to get through a large and quickly spinning fan with razor sharp blades of death? Pop over to the slow motion dimension and you will be golden. Falling to your inevitable doom? Changing to the anti-gravity dimension will help keep you flying high.

This face like device on the wall is often called upon to spit out useful objects (such as furniture, boxes, safes, etc) in truly adorable fashion. Could they be they be the next Companion Cube?

And each of those examples are only the most basic puzzles presented in the demo. By the end of my time with QC‘s demo, I was solving puzzles such as needing to quickly switch between the fluffy and heavy dimensions in order to destroy specific boxes in a column of four in order to create a set of stairs. Or combining the anti-gravity dimension with the slow motion dimension so as to be able to ride a series of falling pieces of furniture across a vast bottomless pit. In the same way that Portal made rethinking spatial layouts second nature, so to does Quantum Conundrum feature gameplay that makes messing about with the nature-changing properties of dimension swapping both simple to comprehend and a joy to experiment with.

Combine this with rock solid controls (I played the 360 version of the game and the setup worked perfectly with that system’s controller) and you have a game that almost anyone can pick up and play. At the same time, challenge is definitely present in QC (especially via reaching optional collectibles) and I died more than a few times (triggering another of the games lovely smaller touches: the respawn screen that lists different experiences and mysteries to life you will never get to know or solve now that you are dead) before completing the demo for the first time.

While some areas in the game certainly feature a Portal-like aesthetic…

I say first time because I was so enchanted by the various elements of Quantum Conundrum that I immediately found myself repeating the demo from start to finish just so I get a little more time with the game (fortunately there was not a line of people waiting to play at that particular moment) and even felt the urge to complete it as fast as I could this time (for the record managed to complete it in seven minutes my second time around). I should add I am not someone who normally goes in for speed runs but there was just something about the way each aspect of QC came together that I found utterly irresistible. Additionally, I was playing the game on the last day of E3 while standing on feet that had long since exceeded their limit for such activities without pain. And yet it all dropped away while I had that controller in my hand, that was how engrossed the game left me.

From the primal joy that comes from solving a tricky puzzle to the laugh out loud dialogue that one of my favorite actors gets to perform to the enchanting and welcoming visuals, Quantum Conundrum simply worked for me and I know I will not be the only one who feels this way upon playing it. Lovers of games like Portal take note, if it has not been clear before now, let me just outright state it: your new fix is coming. Certainly QC already has its hooks in me and already the tantalizing possibilities inherent in its setup and gameplay are running through my head, especially keeping in mind the heights that Kim Swift helped reach with Portal and its gameplay hook. Even just writing this piece has been enough to reignite my ache to see what else the game has to offer.

…lots of other areas decidedly do not.

Fortunately, I will not have to wait that long thanks to the fact that Quantum Conundrum will be hitting Steam on June 21, with PSN and XBLA versions of the game to follow sometime later in the summer. The game is already available for pre-order on steam here as both a stand alone product for $14.99 and as a $19.99 version that will include the game’s soundtrack and, even more excitingly, two upcoming DLC releases. And considering this latter version of the game is titled a season pass, the promise of even more support to come for the game seems ripe. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of the game, including our full review, and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

The post Hands-On: A Familiar Formula Gets a Whole New Dimension of Fun With Quantum Conundrum appeared first on Blistered Thumbs.

Spock knew the crowds at E3 could be bad, but this was ridiculous.

Star Trek has a rich and storied history within the video game industry, with pretty much every major genre (save perhaps dance games, alas allowing perennial rival Star Wars to have the leg up in this department) getting at least one Trek game to call its own over the years. Some of these games have succeeded in doing the license proud. Others… less so. Regardless, the franchise is certainly no stranger to the world of video games. That being said, it has been a while since the series has seen a game released based on it that has been an unqualified success, either critically or financially. Even 2010′s Star Trek: Online, once seen as the great hope for the franchise, ended up receiving decidedly mixed reactions at best before eventually being forced to go free-to-play in order to stay online.

All of this means that a lot is riding on the upcoming action-adventure game, simply titled Star Trek, currently in development for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in early 2013. Set in the universe of the recently rebooted movie series (between the 2009 film and its upcoming sequel to be exact), just at that movie helped to restore the credibility of the Star Trek name vis-à-vis film, so too does the game hope to do the same regarding the medium of video games. As such, a great of interest and speculation naturally surrounds Star Trek and since at E3 this year I got a chance to see a thirteen-minute pre-alpha (i.e. very rough draft) live demo of the game, I can now address some of this.

After being given a pair of 3D glasses (and let me tell you, 3D always gives me a monster headache and this was no exception so I hope you people appreciate the sacrifices I make for you ) I was ushered into the demo theater where the presentation would held only to be greeted by an unexpected (but in retrospect logical (heh)) sight: two screens. For those not in the know, one of the major features that the game is being built around is co-op, with players filling the shoes of Kirk and Spock respectively. And in order to fully show off just this feature, the developers set up two screens for the demo, one for each character. As it turned out this was a smart decision because it really allowed the developer to demonstrate just how much thought they are putting into the co-op aspects of the game.

The demo did not have the most impressive visual selections ever but screens like this at least promise better things to come.

The demo opened as most great (and not-so-great if it comes to that) Star Trek stories do: on the bridge of the Enterprise. We soon find out that the ship is currently in orbit over the planet of New Vulcan, the original of course being destroyed in the 2009 film (no cries of ‘Spoilers!’ please; it has been over three years since the film came out and as such the expiration date for such claims have well and truly expired by now) and that all communication from the planet has ceased. Kirk decides he and Spock need to head down to the planet to check out what is wrong and quickly set out for the transporter room in order to do so. The demo even takes time to feature a nice little lampshading moment during the turbolift lift ride to the transporter room where Spock comments that sending down an away team instead would be wiser only for Kirk to retort to the effect of “Yes but not as much fun.” It is just one example of the dead on character interplay that occurred throughout the demo that really helped to sell the setting and characters involved.

Also, it is worth noting that all of this played out in real-time gameplay as opposed to a simple cutscene, which the developer leading the demo stated was meant to help build a sense of immersion for players. We were also promised that there would be multiple opportunities in-game to explore parts of the ship (including never before glimpsed areas) but for the purposes of this demo such exploration was not in the cards. Upon reaching the transporter room, a fun little scene played out between Kirk, Spock, and Scotty revolving around what weapons the two should bring with them down to the planet below. While Kirk ultimately decided that simply arming themselves with standard phasers would do; the promise of more diverse and… intense weapon via Scotty’s description of said weaponry was a tantalizing tease of what we can expect later on down the line in the game. This is also probably a good time to affirm that yes all of the film’s actors are returning to voice their characters in the game, including Chris Pine as Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, and (squee!) Simon Pegg as Scotty.

Kirk and Spock then teleport down to the planet but upon entering the building that appeared to serve as the main entrance to the colony, it quickly became clear something was indeed wrong. Mainly because said Vulcans had weird growths on their skin and immediately began shooting at the pair with nary a word (such occurrences being a good sign in general that a situation has well and truly gone FUBAR). With this we were given our first glimpse of Star Trek’s combat, which played out more or less as one would expect from a cover-based third-person shooter these days. Kirk has greater agility than Spock and was able to make some snazzy rolls to get into the perfect position for the pair to catch their clearly deranged opponents in a cross fire (using the stun setting of course). The two quickly made short work of the Vulcans with final opponent being brought down via Spock’s classic nerve pinch technique.

Co-Op is unquestionably one of the driving forces behind this game. How well this will translate for the single player experience remains to be seen.

This was when the developer playing as Spock gave us our first demonstration of one of the character’s other major unique abilities: the tricorder. Players who assume the role of Spock will frequently need to use this classic piece of Trek tech in order to scan the environment for clues, access important information, and discover enemy weak points (more on that later). In this case, Spock ended up scanning the fallen Vulcans (which plays out using the kind of standard QTE-esque mini-game that have often accompanied such activities in other similar games) only to discover them infected with some unknown variety of pathogen that was, among other things, causing them to be overly hostile and delusional. A quick mind meld (also playing via brief min-game) did little to reveal more details.

With no further clues present, the two set off further into the colony which also leads to communication with the ship becoming jammed. After opening a locked door via a joint tuning mini-game, the two find themselves facing a walkway over a large chasm that was missing a rather significant section in its middle. Kirk suggested they simply jump the gap and even as Spock protested that the distance was too great, the developer controlling Kirk put thought into deed and leapt for the other side. He ends ups missing his goal by mere inches however and is left dangling precariously from the edge of the other side of the walkway as a result.

The funny thing is, in the demo this position was reversed. Repeatedly.

Spock’s tricorder then once again came into play as a quick scan of the environment revealed that the gap could easily be closed using a retractable portion of the walkway. Spock’s player quickly did just that and then helped Kirk back up with a quick admonishment from the former to the latter about not acting so impatiently next time. Again, it is worth noting that this entire event and exchange played out without taking control from the players and it raises the interesting question (not addressed either way at the time by the developers) of whether or not player choice (such as Kirk’s player deciding not to make the foolhardy jump) might alter the sequence of this and other events.

The post E3 2012: Star Trek (2013) Hands-Off Gameplay Demo Impressions appeared first on Blistered Thumbs.

Non-specific action figure approves this post.

Life’s too short to see every last piece of information that came out of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. While we made individual posts for the big news, we know you don’t have time to sift through a billion articles just to see the minute of footage that you’re interested in. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of all the major videos that you need to see to stay in the know.

Bethesda Softworks:
Skyrim: Dawnguard
The Elder Scrolls Online
Dishonored

Atlus:
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
Persona 4 Golden
Persona 4 Arena
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes
Zeno Clash II

SEGA:
Virtua Figher 5: Final Showdown
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Alexandria Bloodshow

Namco Bandai:
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
One Piece: Pirate Warriors
Tank! Tank! Tank!

Tecmo Koei:
Dead or Alive 5
Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2
Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires

Konami:
Zone of the Enders HD
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
Castlevania: Mirror of Fate
Silent Hill: Book of Memories

Square Enix:
Tomb Raider
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Sleeping Dogs
Quantum Conundrum
Kingdom Hearts 3D
Hitman: Absolution

Microsoft:
Halo 4
Gears of War: Judgement
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Ascend: The New Gods
Fable: The Journey
Matter
Loco Cycle
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Forza Horizon

Capcom:
DMC: Devil May Cry
Resident Evil 6
Lost Planet 3

Electronic Arts:
Battlefield 3 Premium
Medal of Honor: Warfighter
Dead Space 3
Crysis 3
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Star Wars: The Old Republic

Ubisoft:
Watch Dogs (Trailer)
Watch Dogs (Gameplay)
Assassin’s Creed III (Trailer)
Assassin’s Creed III (Gameplay)
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Far Cry 3
Rayman Legends
Zombi U
Avengers: Battle for Earth

Sony:
The Last of Us
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation
Retro City Rampage
Beyond: Two Souls
Darksiders 2
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Dust 514
Soul Sacrifice
LEGO Batman 2
Papo Y Yo
Sunflowers
Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit
The Amazing Spider-Man
Jet Set Radio
Little Kings
WonderBook
LittleBigPlanet Karting
When Vikings Attack!

Nintendo:
New Super Mario Bros. U
New Super Mario Bros. 2
Pikmin 3
Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Two
Scribblenauts Unlimited
ZombiU
Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition
Project P-100
Lego City: Undercover
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon

So, that’s it for E3 videos from the companies themselves. However, stay tuned for dozens of hands-on impressions articles, video logs, and developer interviews from BT’s E3 team, as well as Channel Awesome affiliated personalities.

The post Here They Are: Every E3 Trailer appeared first on Blistered Thumbs.