Aug 24

Quest for Booty is Sony and Insomniac game’s first foray into episodic-type content for PSN, but at a premium price of $15, should you add it to your download queue?

In QfB, Ratchet & Clank Future’s forgiveable controls remain the same, the graphics still have that almost-Pixar quality to them, but it’s now shrunken down to a quick adventure that loosely follows the main story.

For those of you who haven’t followed the series, its charm and simple story wont be lost on you as Insomniac brought out the A-team for the team’s latest game and it shows. A healthy amount of hilarious moments are littered throughout the adventure — you’ll actually “lol” more than a few times.

Probably the main difference being that the length and overall progression of the game isn’t as deep as the full, retail game but the same fun you’ve come to expect from the series is retained. Effectively making it feel like the game proper.

Right off the bat, you’ll notice that you don’t have your full range of weapons and skill set as your tiny robot pal is still lost. This, in turn, makes the game more of a puzzle-platformer affair; the trademark funky weapons take a backseat in this installment of the series.

The use of weapons, for the most part, is substituted by fun, new game play additions such as the “Kinetic Thether” that makes the environments interactive. The point being that you have to find ways to manipulate it and get through the game’s clever puzzles. The formula is tweaked enough to make it more conducive for a game like this.

If you really enjoyed the shooter aspect of past Ratchet’s, you might be disappointed, but otherwise it’s a great game. The progression goes smoothly and there are even a few pleasant surprises. And like the case with any great game (or movie, for that matter) it ends with a conclusion of epic proportions. Well, maybe not as dramatic, but close enough.

About the only drawbacks to the game is that it does lack some of the deep aspects of weapon customization and has some odd mechanical ommissions that made Future fun. Besides the “tornado launcher’s” motion controls, there is little else to take advantage of a the Sixaxis controller — something Future did well. Also, it would’ve been cool to support the aforementioned game’s save file and have it tie into Quest for Booty.

The Good Stuff:

More of a puzzle-platforming outing, but with enough shooting to keep newcomers happy and fans nicely teased.

The Bad Stuff:

It lacks some of the depth and replayability of its big brother, Ratchet & Clank: Future.

The Neutral:

The series’ forgiving controls, humor, and graphics remain intact for this piece of downloadable goodness.

In the End…

Quest for Booty’s short sampling will resonant the most with non-believers of the series and fans will walk away still salivating after a sweet, if brief, episode that runs along R&C:F’s storyline. Despite being a short little game (most will finish it in 3-4 hrs), it still has its share of memorable moments — more than justifying the $15 asking price.

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aug 19

The first episode of Behind The Bad: The Making of ‘Strongbad’s Cool Game for Attractive People is finally here. G4 is hosting the exclusive video and it’s something I am sure all gamers will want to watch. The topics included in this episode are Homestar Ruiner, PC, Adventure, Wii, XPlayFeature and more… Check it out:

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Aug 15

Kalypso Media today released the first Making Of Video of the upcoming adventure CEVILLE. We’ve certainly been looking forward to the game and it looks like things are coming along nicely. In the thirteen minute video, the developers talk about the story and how they financed the production of the game. CEVILLE looks like it’s shaping up to be a very weird adventure title. Fortunately, weird is good in a world where too many games have standard stories. What’s really interesting about this video is the fact that they show us how the developers and publisher first met and how the deal came to be.

More “making of” videos will be released by Kalypso Media in the near future. Some of the topics include characters, game development, voice recording and music composing.

For some reason, YouTube isn’t cooperating with us today, but the video in .ZIP format can be downloaded HERE.

 

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aug 12

A new video from ‘Too Human’ has surfaced showing off some seriously insane combos.  The first part of the third-person action adventure game trilogy looks sweet so far.  ’Too Human’ is produced by Canadian developer Silicon Knights for the Xbox 360. Its current release date is set for August 19, 2008.  Who said nothing cool comes out of Canada?

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aug 06

Johnny Rico is back after an eleven year hiatus from his first alien gorefest adventure in Starship Troopers 3: Marauder. Is his latest adventure worth a watch?

Well, you’d think in a movie that’s based around fighting bugs, it’d have more of them in it — but no. Aside from a couple of scenes where aliens come in and destroy a handful of soldiers, you’ll likely come out of Marauder highly disappointed as it switches its giant-ant shooting with religious preaching and weak one-liners; oh, yes, worse than in the first couple of movies.

The Starship Troopers series has never been a triple-A franchise right from the start but its loss of bugs and gibs give way to a simple story made worse by an overacting, underwhelming cast.

Jolene Blalock, who plays Lola Beck, is clearly placed in Marauder as an Angelina Jolie lookalike brought in to attract the young, male demographic; cleverly avoiding to dish out the money for the real deal.

The rest of the cast is just as bad as they belch out every line as if they’re going into an epic battle. Clearly, they’re not as they run around in cut-and-paste environments throughout the entirety of the film.

Marauder wouldn’t be so bad if it knew what it wanted to do. Some scenes point you towards a spoof on action movies but those type of movies strive from its friendly banter amongst the cast. Here, every moment is boring and filled with references to the previous films which will be all but lost on the general viewer.

If it wanted to be a legit action movie the serious tones touched on and acted out are severely undercut by the overall easiness of the plot. For example, how do you take it serious when soldiers are asking for autographed helmets by a singing superstar “sky marshall” one moment and getting shot up the next?

Production values are noticeably absent as the special effects present would not be out of place in a mid-90s PC video game cut scene with plain graphics and incredibly limited animations. The giant ants never convincingly interact with the actors and when they do, it’s to the same effect as when a kid plays with plastic GI Joes and mashes them together.

Marauder also makes a point to guarantee the viewer sees decapitations and body parts flying around, but are so cheaply produced that you’re quickly taken out of those short moments when they appear.

About the only bright blemish in this otherwise forgettable film are the “Citizen” mock propoganda ads. They are spliced in with enough satire and humor to effectively break up the overall blandness of the story. Had the director chosen to run with the theme presented in these clips, ST3 might’ve been an average experience, but as it stands it’s a failed experiment.

All things considered, the movie is too serious at times and doesn’t exploit the ridiculous angle of it all well enough, the rest of the time, to even passively watch. Most of the movie is spent on religious “who’s right, who’s wrong” rantings which never gel together and play out like a last minute write-up to add some substance to the lame premise. The bad, and sometimes comical, acting might give you a couple of chuckles, but you’re better off staying far and away from this one…it reeks of “generic brand.”

DVD/Bluray/UMD Release: August 5, 2008

[Editor’s Note: Walking down the aisles of your favorite retailer you’ll see movies that you’ve never heard of. Even if you’d like to know how they fare no one cares enough to review them! That’s where “Movie Watch” comes in…oh, and we’ll try to cover movies on Xbox Live from time to time. Because if you’re gonna spend those confusing Microsoft points on something other than games, it better be worth it, right?]

More Movie Watch:

Batman - Gotham Knight
Like a Dragon (Ryu Ga Gotoku)
Raising Jeffrey Dahmer

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aug 01

Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty, Insomniac Games’s bite-sized $14.99 adventure, will be hitting the PlayStation Network on August 21 in North America and Europe — Japanese gamers get the game a day later.

We’re big fans of the team’s first Ratchet outing on the PS3 and are excited to be getting our fix of mascot action along with Resistance 2 this year. While the game may be released in digestible form (it will likely be 3-4 hours long), it further cements Sony’s drive to create compelling DLC on its system.

The game starts right after the events of the PS3 game, do you guys plan on quest-in’ for booty?

Via PlayStation Blog

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 25

Hamburg/Germany: July 25, 2008.

German developer and publisher Daedalic Entertainment today launched the official web home for upcoming fantasy adventure game The Whispered World. The picturesque website offers details and new looks at the gorgeous 2D point & click tale.

Visitors to www.the-whispered-world.com will find story details, character overviews and a selection of press voices. Screenshots, exclusive making-of artwork and new wallpapers give a taste of the PC adventure game’s gorgeous graphics. The website will be continuously updated with additional content.

Continue reading »

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 13

It’s incredible that this Nintendo classic has hit the 21 year anniversary. Not to be confused with the latter side scrolling adventure game ‘Battle of Olympus’ Zelda II was released in 1988 in North America and 1987 in Japan. Many Zelda fans did not accept The Adventure of Link even being called ‘the black sheep” of the Zelda series. Sales were still high, as expected, possibly due to this Japanese commercial.

I think the little girl said, “Haha, we got the game first! You filthy American’s get it next year.”

Enjoy your OSS!

written by Juan Perez \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 10
Gaming Today’s PR / Marketing Manager Daniel Perez, wrote an article almost a year ago interviewing Bill Tiller on his upcoming point and click adventure game for the PC called A Vampyre Story.  In the article, it’s mentioned the game would see an early 2008 release.  Well, were past the halfway mark in 2008 and no Vampyre Story yet.  Since Daniel interviewed Bill Tiller, we figured we’d squeeze some more info out of him.  We sent our 4 eyed, Ellio’s Pizza lover a detailed questionnaire demanding answers, and what we got were.. well.. answers.

Juan Perez: “Hola Daniel, after reading your great interview with Bill Tiller we here at Kezins.com would like to know “When can we see Vampyre Story?”
“Bill stated early 2008, and our index fingers can’t wait any longer to point-n-click our way through A Vampyre Story”

Daniel Perez: “You’re telling me it isn’t early 2008 any more?” Continue reading »

written by Juan Perez \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jun 16

When you mix Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts and God of War what do you get? Well, I’m putting myself out on a limb here, but I’m very excited about this mythological adventure game ‘Rise of the Argonauts’. Coming to PC, X360 and PS3 this Fall, why not take a chance on this one?  The trailer alone has me sold. I know many God of War fans, myself included, are antsy for their upcoming title, but I think Rise of the Argonauts will hold its own.

Via Gametrailers

written by Juan Perez \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,