Gamer Horizon

Shades of Azeroth I may not be into Warcraft as much as the rest...

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:31:00 -0700

I may not be into Warcraft as much as the rest of Blizzard’s franchises, but damn does this piece by Sang Han (a.k.a. fluxen) look nice. It took second place at the art contest this past weekend at Blizzcon.

Your Hottest Fan King of Fighters XIII arrives in just under a...

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:27:00 -0700

Your Hottest Fan

King of Fighters XIII arrives in just under a month and Hector Sevilla Lujan (a.k.a. elsevilla) reminds us of the impending return of series staple Mai Shiranui with this red hot piece.

Cheer the Fear Away David.O (a.k.a. Sem) keeps the love going...

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:59:00 -0700

Cheer the Fear Away

David.O (a.k.a. Sem) keeps the love going for Grasshopper Manufacture with this illustration of Juliet Starling from the upcoming over the top horror romp, Lollipop Chainsaw.

Boo! Welcome the spooky month of October with this paper art of...

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:56:00 -0700

Boo!

Welcome the spooky month of October with this paper art of the various ghost type Pokémon by Botjira.

Battlefield 1942 Dogfighting Shenanigans Seen In Battlefield...

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:28:00 -0700

Battlefield 1942 Dogfighting Shenanigans Seen In Battlefield 3

Remember back in Battlefield 1942 when you could jump off of a plane, defeat your assailant with a rocket launcher, then jump back into the plane? No? Well, you missed out on some fun times!

The move, called a “loop zook”, is a totally insane move where you set your plane on a loop, eject out, use a rocket launcher on your attacker to kill them, and then jump back into the plane.

A recent video posted from the Battlefield 3 beta shows that, though EA and DICE have been touting that this is a “realistic” game, that you can still do almost the same, ahem, technique, during dogfighting! Whether this will be “fixed” or called “legacy” is uncertain, but I say keep it! It’ll make dogfighting a tad more interesting! Oh, and for the uninitiated, we do have a vid of the same thing being done in Battlefield 1942 as well.

Unwavering Convictions Alvin, Mira, and Jude from Tales of...

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 13:33:00 -0700

Unwavering Convictions

Alvin, Mira, and Jude from Tales of Xillia strike a pose in this illustration by You Kazakami. With the game’s critical and commercial success in Japan, there may be a possibility of localization if there’s enough fan interest in other markets. Come on, Namco Bandai. If Atlus can do it with their titles, you can too.

Rant: I Really Really Hate Boss Playable Boss Characters! I love my fighting games. There is no...

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 08:25:00 -0700

Rant: I Really Really Hate Boss Playable Boss Characters!

I love my fighting games. There is no doubt. And to be honest, I think I am pretty good at these type of games. I am not the best, nor am I anyone that would stand some sort of chance at the annual EVO. But there are a few things that bother me about this beloved genre to say the least.

The main thing for me is that there are at times, serious problems with balance in the fighting game. And often times I find that this problem is caused by a egregious error. That is often times there is a character who for some reason is more powerful than the other characters in one way or the other. And often times that said character is a boss character that in my humble opinion, should remain off the playable roster.

Why is this a problem? Well the boss character, is the final boss of the games so natural he/she is going to be more powerful than anyone else. Lets also add in that fighting game final bosses have reputation at not just being difficult, but cheap. An example of this is Gil, who basically went to the Final Fantasy spell book and stole every spell that game series has. So essentially you have a guy in a game that summons meteors and casts ice spells on your ass. And he also has a healing spell he casts. Ok ok, they are not spells but you get the point though. In a game with characters full of martial arts as their abilities, you have basically this super over powered scantily clad spell caster. Having this character playable online and offline in Street Fighter III: Third Strike greatly hurts the game.

Another example is in the latest Dead or Alive game. That is Dead or Alive: Dimensions for the Nintendo 3DS. Now while it is a great game and captures the feel of the console games very well. Another thing the game does as well is it captures the story and history of that franchise and brings it all together. It is a nice homage to this game series franchise. However there is a problem there as well.

While paying homage to this series history, the game also brings in every single final boss character from the Franchises history. And of course they are playable online and of course, they are broken. Sure the game is great when you have a Kasumi versus Jann Lee fight, but it gets problematic when you have her fight say Genra.

Genra is the worst offender of this. This guy first has to get distance from you, and after he does that, the bastard fires fireballs at you like he was Marcus Fenix using his lancer against a horder of Locust. Also he has a whirl wind attack that is pretty much unblockable. a magical two bladed lightning sword he summons out of no where, and a massive fire ball that takes more than quarter of your life. And of course when fighting Genra players online they spam this.

Now mind you I am in the camp of if a attack or combo is effective keep using it. However the big difference is that Genra’s attacks are on characters that do not have abilities. Sure Ryu Hayabusa has a fire ball, but its a charge fire ball and takes a while to fire it.

In the end, I feel that these characters, the boss characters for the most part should stay off the playable roster. They should stay as final bosses and that’s that. No unlocking them or anything of that sort. Sure I am not against hidden characters, but boss characters are a whole other matter.

Keiji Inafune Turns Liu Bei Into A Penguin In His New Game No,...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:48:00 -0700

Keiji Inafune Turns Liu Bei Into A Penguin In His New Game

No, you’re not reading this wrong. Keiji Inafune, widely credited as the man responsible for Megaman, has unveiled his newest game… and it’s a return to mascot based games. Titled Kaio: King of Pirates, the game is loosely based off of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story (not the game which had a spin off called Dynasty Warriors which was in turn based on the story) but has anthropomortphic characters instead. And yes, Liu Bei is the penguin, Zhang Fei is the big Yeti looking dude, and Guan Yu is the Walrus with the sword. Oh and Lu Bu is the dragon. We’ll see if the game’s cutesiness translates well to the gameplay since this CG trailer is just here to whet our appetites.

Pikapew Poop Chu Adventure Time’s Pendleton Ward and...

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:50:00 -0700

Pikapew Poop Chu

Adventure Time’s Pendleton Ward and Natasha Allegri made this animated short on how to handle gas attack in the Pokémon universe. It’s SUPER EFFECTIVE!

Sony Shows Us What We All Have In Common As Gamers Sony teased...

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:16:00 -0700

Sony Shows Us What We All Have In Common As Gamers

Sony teased about well, something, several days ago and they’ve finally revealed what it is. As part of their “Long Live Play” marketing campaign, they created this incredible video that shows the relationship of the roles we take when we play and the gamer in all of us. In a way, it reminds me of Toy Story where the toys show their loyalty and play with their friend, Andy. It’s touching, and it’s definitely something that we all have in common as gamers. Long live play indeed.

Playstation 2 games returning to Playstation 3 That title is not...

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:08:00 -0700

Playstation 2 games returning to Playstation 3

That title is not a typo. Tomorrow on the Playstation Store, the following titles are coming out:

God Hand
GrimGrimoire
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory
Odin Sphere
Ring of Red

That’s a great list of somewhat rare titles. The bigger news is that these are ps2 titles on your ps3, whether or not it is one of the older models. There will be no trophies, but these are the ps2 games in their original form.

Edit: Destructoid reports that each title will be priced at $9.99.

Nintendo 3DS Analysis: The E-Shop When the Nintendo Wii was launched back in 2006, it came with a...

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:11:00 -0700

Nintendo 3DS Analysis: The E-Shop

When the Nintendo Wii was launched back in 2006, it came with a electronic download shop. Since that time the Wii has built a library of both classic and new games available for download. Of course as time went on, Nintendo would start to incorporate these features into the newer DSI models of the Nintendo DS. And than of course with it’s successor, the Nintendo 3DS, it would do the same.

Now of course it is important to talk about the 3DS E-Shop as in many ways it is truly a step up from previous incarnations of other Nintendo Download stores. There are of course some issues with the new E-Shop, but there are also things that it gets right that other Nintendo online shops have failed at.

One of the most notable features of the E-Shop is the use of video. Instead of having a seperate Nintendo Channel or program to watch previews of games, you can access these videos in the E-Shop. The videos apply to both downloadable games and retail games. This allows one to not have to access any other software to preview any thing they wish to purchase.

Along with video as well, is that the 3DS can also stream 3D videos of games that allow the prominent 3D feature of the 3DS. This is nice because previews of games not utilizing 3D are not found anywhere else, and gives one a very good feel of how these games look in 3D prior to purchase.

Another feature is the backwards compatiblity for DS ware games that were initially available for the DSI ware. It is also helpful that one can transfer DS Ware games between the 3DS and DSI.

Now of course there is the Virtual Console. At this moment the title selection is decent at best. There are some notable titles out there, particularly Legend of Zelda:Links Aweakening, and Gargoyle’s quest. The game selection is not bad to be sure, but there could be more. And it is at this moment only Gameboy/gameboy color games available. Though in the future, that Game Gear, NES, and Turbo Grafx 16/PC-E games will at some point be available for the 3DS virtual console.

Now to the worst aspect of the E-Shop. While there are some good features, there is one feature that is crucial to making an online store extremely good. That is organization, and sadly, the 3DS is sorely lacking in that department. Yes, the E-Shop is poorly organized, or should I say, strangely organized. Instead of having sections for DSI ware games, and the such, Nintendo has some strange sections. Sure they have a virtual console section, and downloadable 3D game sections, but the DSI ware games are a completely all over the place. The categories range from what we are playing, to Gamers Mark, to best game ever, to other strange categories that do nothing to organize the games available in a cohesive matter. Also complicating the matter is that games are often repeated in these sections and some sections repeat complete lists.

In the end, the E-Shop boasts some wonderful features, but is held back by its poor organization. Perhaps in the future there will be better organization, but for now one can appreciate the fact that Nintendo has done better in making a store that can offer more to entice one to but from it.

Former Silent Hill 2 Voice Actors Sign Waivers To Allow For...

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:35:00 -0700

Former Silent Hill 2 Voice Actors Sign Waivers To Allow For Classic Voice Option In HD Collection

silenthaven:

“Dave Schaufele and Guy Cihi sign the SH2 rights waivers - Sept. 29, 2011
Very special thanks to Monica Taylor Horgan and Donna Burke for signing their waivers! Fans, you need to understand that this simply wouldn’t have been possible without the cooperation and support of Tomm Hulett, Devin Shatsky and Michael Ranja of Konami USA. Plus, I would like to issue a special note of gratitude to Michael Patrick Arnold of Silent Haven who worked selflessly behind the scenes to get everyone together on this, and make the Win-Win ending possible. I don’t think we could have done it without you, Mike!”

-Guy Cihi

Whatever It Takes The Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Dual Pack...

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:05:00 -0700

Whatever It Takes

The Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Dual Pack is now available on PS3. Have you gotten your copy yet? Perhaps this commissioned piece by MetalHanzo will help convince you to own two of the greatest games from the previous console generation.

Play Uncharted 3 In 3D On A Huge Movie Screen And Get The Game...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:18:00 -0700

Play Uncharted 3 In 3D On A Huge Movie Screen And Get The Game Early

I don’t know about any of you, but I’ve never played any of the Uncharted games on a big screen… and when I say big screen, I mean the size of a movie theatre screen. They held a similar promotion for Uncharted 2 years ago, but this will be the first time Uncharted will be playable in 3D.

There are two types of tickets available: The regular ticket will let you play Uncharted 3, in 3D, on a giant movie theatre screen. The other premium ticket, which costs the same as the game, will let you do the former AND get you an early copy of the game to be sent to you on October 25th. In case you’re keeping tabs, that’s two weeks before the actual launch! You’ll also meet members of the dev team, but come on… we know you really want to just play the game.

Interested? Then head on over to http://amctheatres.com/uncharted3 and find the nearest AMC theatre that’s doing this! Hurry… because tickets are limited!

Won’t Someone Please Think of the Children? This collage...

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:31:00 -0700

Won’t Someone Please Think of the Children?

This collage of Loz, Yuffie, Reno, Cloud, and Tifa from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children comes from Vhazic. Following Square Enix’s announcement of the Final Fantasy X HD remake, I’m sure there were plenty of groans complaining about how they picked the wrong game in the series to give that treatment. Don’t stop believing!

Ahoy Girls The fighting femme fatales of Street Fighter set sail...

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:04:00 -0700

Ahoy Girls

The fighting femme fatales of Street Fighter set sail for adventure in this illustration by Mignon (a.k.a. Mo0nlit). It includes all of the selectable characters with the exception of the Street Fighter EX characters.

"It’s a huge investment for us to do something like that, and also a bit complicated, and to some..."

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 08:38:54 -0700

“

It’s a huge investment for us to do something like that, and also a bit complicated, and to some degree there’s also [a concern] security-wise. It’s a bit scary to take an investment like Battlefield 3 and just let people dig into that engine and do whatever they want. We’re dedicated to try and really limit the amount of hacks and exploits that come out there, but as soon as you let something like that out, people have all the tools in the world that they need to sit there and try to create cheats that actually would destroy the experience for a lot of other people.

I’m not blaming mod tools for hacks and exploits in any way, but there’s a lot of things we need to consider.

”

- GM Karl Magnus Troedsson from DICE on why Battlefield 3 PC won’t have mod support at launch

Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena Round 2 Here’s...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:49:00 -0700

Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena Round 2

Here’s the second trailer for Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena. The more I see this game, the more I wish Atlus and Arc System Works create a full on crossover title with characters from the ENTIRETY of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, and not just Persona 3 and Persona 4. Who knows? It’s not like the full roster has been announced yet.

[Via Siliconera]

A Look At 3D Classics: Excite Bike! This past weekend on a personal note, I celebrated my seven...

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 18:46:00 -0700

A Look At 3D Classics: Excite Bike!

This past weekend on a personal note, I celebrated my seven year anniversary with my wife. Of course with that annual celebration comes the ritual of gift exchange. So thus while she got a brand new Mixer, she gave me a Nintendo 3DS. A gift that I am excited to have with of course a few reservations. None the less, I have enjoyed the 3DS thus far, and in later weeks will go into more detail about my experience with the Handheld. However I do want to talk about one game in particular about it, and its a game that has not made much head way to say the least.

As we know with the 3DS thus far we have gotten games that are well, enhanced 3D ports of classics. The most notable of these two are Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Star Fox 64. Though let us note that there have been other games that received this treatment. Another classic game includes a 3D Version of Xevious from Namco, as well as a 3D version of Urban Champion. Last, but certainly not least is Excite Bike, the classic motorcycle racing game.

Now these titles are under the 3D Classics banner and sell in the Nintendo eShop for the 3DS. With that said and done are these titles worth buying? Well I can tell you that Excite Bike certainly is.

I think these titles, in particular Excite Bike for the sheer fact that they alter the graphics of the game with out losing the integrity of those games. Also at the same time lets keep in mind that you can still play Excite Bike with the original graphics in mind. So how does it work?

Well first if you want to play this version of Excite Bike in it’s original glory, you can. Turn the 3D slider off on the 3DS and there you go, original graphics. If you want to play it in 3D than the game changes a little. First and foremost the game still retains its pixelated look, however the ramps and hills are become polygonal, the seating where the audience watches you changes as well. The pixelated box seats become blocky.

Though the graphics change, it still has that eight bit look, and the game play remains unaltered. You can still race against other racers, go against the clock or build your tracks. This new version of the game allows you to save up to 30 tracks that you create as well. So all in all, it is the definitive version of the original Excite Bike.

Aside from that, this is really interesting to note because it shows how a game can be altered graphically, but also keep its integrity in tack. Also lets keep in mind that this 3D shift in the game can keep the game in it’s original form, or you can add a 3D lair to an old 2D game. While Excite bike remains the same in gameplay, it makes one think how shifting to 3D could change a game’s gameplay, such as adding an additional plane for a character to shift back and forth.

Now while I have alot to say about the 3DS both positive and Negative, I have to say if you are an owner of the 3DS pick up this title. Its a great new way to play Excite Bike.

There will be more articles with my experience and feelings about the 3DS as I spend more time with it. Keep an eye open for more 3DS articles.