Game Informer Scans = New info on GOW3

Boasting a bevy of exclusive content, the March issue of Game Informer magazine divulges new info on Sony’s next entry in its epic blockbuster franchise, God of War III. And, as always, teh interwebs have provided this info before hand with some physical scans, which can be found over at PS3Chat.

To be honest, while the scans are nice, reading it for comprehension requires straining my eyes to the nth degree. . . which is why it’s nice to see that the people over at Shacknews were able to decipher it! A few selections on their post:

• Players begin the game with many abilities from previous God of War games unlocked.
• New weapons will provide more contrast to the standard Blades of Chaos. The Cestus gauntlets, seen in the first trailer (below), were given as an example.
• Up to 50 enemies on screen–an increase over God of War 2’s 12-15 limit.
• Enemies will now coordinate attacks, arrange themselves in formations, and jump on Kratos to weigh him down.
• Titans–the massive god-like creatures from previous games–are now dynamic, “living, breathing characters,” rather than background setpieces.

While leaked scans are fun, I think I’ll just wait ’till the next time I roll into my local bookstore to read the stuff for myself.

New DLC for “World At War”

It seems the zombie goodness is just flowing in today: Activision has recently announced that an upcoming map pack for Call of Duty: World at War is due to hit in March for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. 

While the map pack will contain the usual addition of new multiplayer maps – Knee Deep, Nightfire, and Station – there will also be one new map for the game’s popular Nazi Zombie mode. Dubbed “Verruckt”, the map will also add in more weapons, perks, and defenses to utilize against the endless shambling horde. No price point just yet, but I’d hardly be surprised if it weren’t at least $9.99, just like every other map pack out there for download.

Source: Shacknews

L4D’s Survival Pack is Free, so sayeth Valve

You can rest easy now, folks: Valve has confirmed that Left 4 Dead’s upcoming “Survival Pack” DLC will indeed be free for both PC and Xbox 360. And before you exclaim “wtf this is news?” in the comments, note that while Valve has always released free content updates for the PC, Microsoft/Xbox Live has had a history of forcing devs to charge for some updates that would otherwise be free – including Valve, concerning the Team Fortress 2 patches for the 360. So yes, this is great news.

Previously announced last week, the upcoming update will contain two additional campaigns for the game’s Versus mode – tweaked-for-balance versions of the Death Toll and Dead Air single player campaigns – along with a brand new multiplayer option called Survival Mode. In Survival, players will work together to see who can last the longest against wave after wave of those pesky zombies (similar to Horde in Gears of War). 

For PC users, the update will also contain L4D’s SDK, which will allow custom campaign creation for all those ambitious modders out there. As Valve notes on Steam, the update will hit both platforms sometime in the spring.

On EDGE’s K2 Review…

Don’t know if you’ve taken notice of the eruption of arguments across gaming forums in the last few days, but EDGE magazine’s recent review of Guerilla Game’s Killzone 2 ranks very high on top of those threads. For purely informational purposes, the link to the review is here.

Done reading? OK, let’s get on with it:

The dispute, contrary to popular belief, is not because EDGE simply gave an “against the grain” score of 7 out of 10 (amid a sea of upper 9’s, mind you), but rather because the reviewer utterly failed to justify their reasoning behind it. For all intents and purposes, it seems EDGE had given the “lower” score in order to intentionally separate itself from the pack just to seem “cool” or “better” than everyone out there. Not that there is ANYTHING wrong with dissenting opinions, but when there is a clear lack of evidence to back up those opinions, than it must be questioned. 

Sharing my beliefs is the folks over at PSXExtreme, which, while mainly a Playstation-centric site, make some very valid points in Ben’s article here. Since I’ve already ranted over in the comments section over there, I thought I’d repaste my thoughts here in this post:

“Jesus christ here, people… how many times do Ben and others here need to repeat it for you? Forget any of that fanboy non-sense, either 360/PS3/Wii/Dreamcast/Genesis, what have you, and realize from the get go that Edge’s review is a poorly worded article filled with ambiguities masked in poetical jibber jabber. Please just TRY to defend that review after reading it… I think you’ll find it quite the challenge.

The writer basically eschews clarity for, it seems, the sake of sensationalistic headlines. Aside from citing a “weak” plot point and the game’s lack of innovation – which is a whole ‘nother point of contention entirely – the reviewer fails to give any other concrete evidence for their 7/10 score. Ben is calling him (and others like it) out on the validity of their journalistic integrity: as others have already said, there is a FINE line between fact and opinion when it comes to game reviews, and this review has simply chosen to cloud their review with more opinion than fact. God forbid that a review actually INFORMS readers on the merits of whether a game should be purchased or not…

We’re not denying his opinion, no; opinion does indeed play a role in reviews no matter what anyone says. The problem comes when that opinion practically overwhelms the FACTUAL evidence needed to give consumers proper information… for instance, while I may not enjoy Halo 3 as much as many other people do, I still can RESPECT its technical achievement and contribution to the industry at large. Opinion should have little effect on an overall score for a game, which should be judged by its technical merits and not what the reviewer just happens to think off the top of his head. In this regard, Edge has failed spectacularly…”

Hopefully you see that the problem has nothing to do with having a different opinion, but rather using that opinion to try and wrongly persuade others to your reasoning, without much evidence to back it up. The job of a reviewer is to properly inform readers about the technical merits of a product, and while subjectivity does indeed play a role in this process, it should not be an overwhelming factor in deciding a “score” – see why I write scoreless reviews now? ; )

It’s important to be able to distinguish between opinion and fact in video game reviews, and to avoid such cases as EDGE has done here in trying to pass the former for the latter. The industry is growing at an exponential amount these days, but it’s disappointing to see that gaming journalism itself must witness enormous setbacks detrimental to its survival.

Dead Rising 2 Confirmed

Give rise, thou zombie fanatics, for Dead Rising 2 has been officially announced by Capcom! The sequel to the much-loved/hated – depending on who you talk to – Xbox 360 game of the same name, DR2 takes place a couple of years after Frank West’s bloody adventure in Colorado. According to Kotaku, the zombie outbreak has now spread throughout the country, with players taking control of an as-of-yet unidentified character in Fortune City.

As you can probably tell by its name, Fortune City is Dead Rising’s fictional recreation of Las Vegas, seemingly complete with casinos and all. It remains to be seen whether or not DR2 will take a more open-world approach to the zombie fun, or retain the somewhat linear path that the original game had. No release window has been given, but I’m just pretty damn happy to know that it’s actually on its way here. And yes, true to Capcom’s word on its “multi-platform philosophy”, Dead Rising 2 is slated to hit the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.

Fallout 3 DLC Delay

Phew, that was a lot of L’s there eh? Anyway, somewhat sad news regarding the future DLC of Bethesda’s massive award-winner: the two upcoming downloadable packs, titled “The Pitt” and “Broken Steel”, respectively, are each delayed by a month. Instead of its original release date of sometime later in February, “The Pitt” is due for a March release, with the last pack coming out in April.

As Gamespot notes, “The Pitt” will place the player in the ruins of Pittsburgh, while “Broken Steel” will contain something much more significant beyond a new sidequest – the level cap will be raised beyond 20, and will also allow players to continue exploring the Wasteland even after the game’s ending (one of the more major complaints on the game). The first DLC pack, “Operation Anchorage”, came out about a week and a half ago.

Source: GameSpot

Killzone 2 Demo Impressions

By now, you’ve probably heard a lot about Killzone 2’s controversial past since its grand announcement back in E3 2005 – yes, I’m talking about that beautiful CG trailer – so I won’t repeat it here. Fast forward nearly four years later, and we finally have a frickin’ demo for the general public to try… It may have taken some fancy maneuvering to create a European PSN account to download it  (actually, creating a fake account is easy as pie), which in the US is exclusive to GameStop preorders until the 26th, but sweet zombie jesus was it worth it. 

Production values withstanding – which are top notch BTW, a style which personally I’m growing to love – the gameplay has a definite “heft” to it, in a way. For me, coming from a COD4 frame of reference, which is hard not to considering that game’s impact on the FPS world, the action movies a bit slower than what I’m used to, but it fits the style of the game. Unlike other first-person games, K2 mechanics are simply not suited for a run-and-gun methodology, so you will die if you try to pull a Rambo on all their asses. 

This where the new cover system comes in: it’s particularly fluid after getting used to it for the first few times, and is practically invaluable to your survival. The demo showcases this during a massive shootout in a sort of warehouse section; it’s fun to see the Helghans constantly trying to outflank you or bait you out with grenades and gunfire. Another thing that the game pulls off well is the simple satisfaction of your kills: as terrible as it sounds, you can’t help but smile when the Helghans scream bloody murder and flail all over the place after you pump bullet after bullet into their bodies; a different sort of visceral thrill from, say, the over-the-top limb chopping of Gears of War. 

If you look at the slew of reviews out there, Killzone 2 has had an overwhelming response from critics already, which is definitely a good sign for this PS3 exclusive shooter. I’m itching to get my hands on the with the game’s multiplayer, but we still have until the 27th to see that for ourselves.

theFunkList: 2 months later Edition

Been a while since I been around these parts, but I’m hoping to jump back on the bandwagon once things with school settle down a bit… currently playing through Fallout 3 on the 360 (about 20 hours in), Dead Space on the PS3, and just started Resistance 2. 

Big month for games though: Street Fighter IV drops in a few weeks, as well as Sony’s coveted Killzone 2, which has been getting a lot of positive reviews lately. Impressions from the demo to come.