Halloween is just around the corner, and Rockstar GAMES is ready to help you celebrate the most awesome holiday of the year(What? It's a fact. Look it up) with it's latest DLC for RedDead Redemption aptly titled UNDEAD NIGHTMARE.
What's this? You got zombies in my western?
Like chocolate and peanut butter, zombies in a spaghetti western make PERFECT sense to me.
The new DLC, slated for a late October release, will feature a host of new, standalone, single player story missions. These missions include cleansing towns of hordes of the risen undead, Missing Persons bounties, and most awesome of all, a chance to hunt down and tame the Four Horses of the Apocalypse. Seriously, War is the most awesome mount ever, ever. The pack will also include two new multiplayer modes, Undead Overrun and Land Grab for you people who actually have friends.
Christie Golden, whose previous novels include Arthas: Rise of the Lich King and Lord of the Clans, has hit it big once again with her newest book set in the World of Warcraft universe, the Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm. The book, released on October 19th, has reached number 21 on the New York Times Best Sellers list for Hardcover Fiction.
As one might imagine from the title, the book bridges the gap between the game's current state of Azeroth to it's decidedly less intact version post Cataclysm. What you might not gather from the title though, is that the book almost exclusively follows the major faction leaders of the Horde and Alliance as they deal with the dwindling resources of Azeroth and the looming threat of total war. This is Blizzard's second book to land on the NYT Best Sellers list, the first being Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, also by the talented Golden.
Many congratulations go out to Blizzard and Christie Golden for their success and hopefully Blizz will give Christie many, many bags to sleep on with dollar signs from their massive Scrooge McDuck money bin.
The new Mortal Kombat(as always, spelled with a K, because that's just how we rolled in the 90's) has consistently generated much contention between gamers. One camp, the camp old enough to have actually played the original series trilogy, near unanimously welcomes this iteration with open arms. The other side, the gamers raised solely on the teet of 3D hardware and graphics not featuring digitized actors, remains largely unimpressed with what the trailers have thus offered.
Having a trailer highlighted with music by Disturbed has probably not helped.
Anyway! New Mortal Kombat! A return to the fabled two dimensions of yore. Developers NetherRealm have managed to push the already brutal visuals of the Mortal Kombat franchise to the next level with an X-Ray specs effect, so you can see just what sort of punishment these fighters are taking internally. Watch in giddy, childish glee as bones break, muscles tear, and organs rupture under the force of your assault. It may be a cheap gimmick, but in a gaming market already drenched in blood and gore, it definitely grabs your attention(and then brutalizes it).
Is this is a return to greatness for the franchise that Midway built? Or is this just another feeble attempt to grasp the fleeting glory days? Judge for yourself and watch this new trailer featuring everyone's favorite undead ninja from Hell; Scorpion!
As some of you savvy internet peoples might already know, Red Shirt Guy is awesome. Those of you who aren't already familiar with this knowledgeable gentlemen, shame on you for having a life.
During the Quests and Lore panel at the recent Blizzcon 2010, Blizzard's own Chris Metzen and Alex Afrasiabi were schooled in their very own lore by a mysterious red shirted gentleman. This man, dubbed Red Shirt Guy, quickly became an internet celebrity thanks to A. Having the balls to call Blizzard out face to face, and B. Doing said call out in such an awkward manner. The internet was soon ablaze with news and video of his exploits, and a lot of it was certainly not very nice.
So, instead of retaliating in the same way these assholes had, Red Shirt Guy fought back with calm and class.
Thankfully, this first class reply to all the haters seems to have made most of his detractors shut the fuck up. I for one applaud this man for having the balls to stand up in front of so many people, call out Metzen and Afrasiabi, and then calmly defend himself against the inevitable internet backlash.
Bravo Red Shirt Guy. Bravo.
And apparently Blizzard was equally impressed with his staunch determination to maintaining the intricate lore Blizzard has built for the World of Warcraft. In a recent patch to the beta for Warcraft's next expansion, Cataclysm, a new NPC(non player character for all you normal people out there) has arrived next to the Ironforge seat of power.
"The fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh." -Silent Hill
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." - Douglas Adams
Today was the terrifying second day of the Electronics Entertainment Expo, or E3 for all you hip youngsters, with the convention continuing it's Godzilla like rampage across the US west coast. Fortunately, I live on the opposite end of the continent and can therefore sit back, touch myself, and watch the carnage from the relative safety of my Fortress of Squalitude.
Of all of the information bleeding out of the borefest that is E3's second day, there was one game in particular that caught my attention like a D-cup on a trampoline, and that game was a new Silent Hill. According to the game's trailer, JUST Silent Hill, though most websites are reporting it as the cleverly named Silent Hill 8(or 6, depends on where you look). If that is the case, I didnt realize a series could begin with numbered entries, switch to subtitled releases, and then bounce back to numbers again, but who am I to argue with boobs on a trampoline? Hopefully "8" will get a subtitle eventually 'cause "Silent Hill 8" does nothing to tickle my testicles in the least. But before I move on to more pointless banter, let's have a look at that trailer.
As you can see, despite this entry being developed by an entirely new team, again, the game still appears to have that eternal Silent Hill vibe. Fog, gear shifts in reality, poor visibility, and, of course, hot women in cop outfits. All VITAL components to the series. Really it seems like the team developing this new game are hitting all the right notes, atleast in keeping with the series modus operandi. Unfortunately, Silent Hill Homecoming looked that way when it was in development as well so I find myself almost afraid to get my hopes up.
One final note I feel should be brought to attention though, is that despite my caution on getting too excited, I still find myself eager at the prospect of returning to our "special place", Silent Hill. Alternatively, as I read through the comments on the trailer and press release, I find that there is seemingly no way to please the vast majority of Silent Hill fans. There seems to be little middle ground for fans of this series, as most comments say that any new entry will never be as good as the first 3 games, as well as being angry that this game seems to offer nothing new to move the series forward. Make up your fucking mind you twats. Do you want a game that tries to be like the first trilogy of games in the series, like Origins and Homecoming, or do you want a fresh take like Shattered Memories? How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?
Warning. The following blog-a-ma-jig contains spoilers for Alan Wake and it's collected universe. If you do not wish to have certain in game events spoiled, such as when Alan realizes that the Predator is hunting them for sport, then you should have stopped reading already. Go you.
So E3 is currently upon us. And, like the ravenous hydra of myth that it has become, before the convention even begins we are cast adrift in an ocean of pre-event press releases and teasers. This seems to get worse and worse each year as scientist(s) predict that by the year 2015 pre E3 press releases will begin sometime roughly around Christmas of the previous year. Not one to look a gift-hydra in the mouth(s?), I have been diligently sifting through the steaming mess left on the carpet for news about anything other than fucking motion controls. Really the first thing to catch my eye in all of this pooey press "goodness" is the teaser for the first round of Alan Wake DLC: The Signal.
Can I get a spooky "OoOoOoOoOoOoOoH" for the title? Maybe some wavey hand gestures? Awesome.
Before we get into the DLC, I want to take a moment to talk about the Alan Wake already available to us. For those of you who don't sit at the cool kids table, the central story of Alan Wake is simple, but the way the story plays out is what make it so interesting. The game begins with you playing Stephen King as he and his wife travel to the hole in the wall town of Bright Falls for a spot of vacation. Faster than you can say "psychological action thriller", H.P. Lovecraft's wife disappears and you are dumped into a world of trees and nightmares.
Mostly just trees though.
Clive Barker must then try to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of his wife, and the many other spooooooooky things surrounding Bright Falls. This includes, but not limited to, talking lights in the sky, senile Norse gods, living darkness that can possess and animate anyone or anything, a hilarious Twilight Zone TV show parody, and most importantly, the search for coffee. Sure the kidnapped wife of Richard Bachman is center stage throughout the game, but the mystery of just WHO would leave this many coffee thermoses lying around kept me glued to the edge of my seat from start to finish.
The game itself is gorgeous, with amazingly lighting(or lack thereof) and beautiful landscapes that are brilliantly crafted to feel organic and lived in. If you dont feel like you are trapped in the woods at night with a banjo hauntingly playing in the distance, then obviously you have never been raped by hillbillies. Lucky you. It is a shame however that as amazing as the setting looks, the characters inhabiting it look absolutely ridiculous. It isn't that they aren't constructed or rendered well, the models themselves look fantastic, it's mostly just that they have the expressive range of Mr. Potato Head. The characters have some of the worst lip sync and facial expressions I have seen in years. It ruins the immersion slightly when you feel as if you are watching sock puppets spouting serious dialogue.
Despite these gripes, the game has a wonderfully atmospheric mystery to solve that made it nearly impossible to put the controller down for bathroom breaks, eating, sleeping, or funerals. If you don't mind a few aesthetic flaws and programming hiccups here and there, the good far outweighs the bad and makes this a solid rental or purchase. Fans of Twin Peaks will feel right at home here, but if you want a good story and love coffee, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Alan Wake. Four and a half coffee thermoses out of five.
Oh, right. I was supposed to get to The Signal wasn't I? That was a bit of a tangent above wasn't it? Why the hell have you kept reading this far into mindless babbling anyway?
A very short teaser was shown for The Signal, with a whopping 1:07 of balls to the wall Alan Wake...........Alan Wakeness. The first thing I noticed was that you are still playing Alan Wake, which is a pleasant surprise for me as I was sure we would be in the shoes of another character, perhaps the mysterious Clay Steward finally. Depending on if you love psychological torture or not, you will notice that Barry Wheeler is back for more "I'll sue your ass!" shenanigans, but that is fine in my book because I fucking loved this character. Probably the most interesting addition to how the DLC will play out is the return of the eerie floating text from the final portion of the original game. This time it looks like you will be able to use it to your advantage in solving puzzles and even in combat as in the video Alan shines upon the word "Blast" to attack a possessed Taken enemy. Cool beans.
I was really not sure where the DLC would be going story wise considering the open ended finale of the initial game, but now all I know for sure is that I am excited once again to take the plunge back into the cold black waters surrounding the mystery of Bright Falls.
"It's not a lake, it's an ocean"
Alan Wake DLC; The Signal: the Search for More Money releases Tuesday, July 27th.
-Maxwell Strange
P.S. Thanks to PLAYhorror2010 for hosting the teaser trailer on youtube. Gametrailers is all kinds of hammer fucked right now since E3 started.
There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die. -Raoul Duke
