Tag Archives: Xbox 360

Trailer: Alan Wake’s American Nightmare

Posted on by Arleigh

One of my favorite video game titles of 2010 was the Remedy Entertainment and Microsoft Studios psychological thriller game Alan Wake. This title was a psychological thriller mashed up with survival horror that was influenced by Stephen King stories and David Lynch’s eccentric tv series, Twin Peaks. It was one of the few games which put a major scare to me whenever I played it which was usually at night. While the game didn’t sell copies in the Modern Warfare 3 level it did sell enough that it gained quite a huge fan following who clamored for more of Alan Wake and his fight against the malevolent Dark Presence. (Lisa Marie’s been trying the gaming thing lately and I must admit that Alan Wake is right up her dark sensibilities). Fans ended up getting two DLC chapters with “The Signal” and “The Writer”.

There had been rumors and talks about a proper sequel in the works within Remedy Entertainment, but such things continued to be unsubstantiated. While a rumor of sequel continued to persist the developers finally announced that there will be a new Alan Wake game, but it wasn’t going to be a sequel. It was to be a stand-alone Xbox Live Arcade title that should keep fans of the franchise happy while a sequel was being bandied about within the studio (I believe a sequel is already in development but still unconfirmed). This latest title was to be called Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.

The trailer for this title first premiered at Spike TV’s VGA 2011 and the game has tentative release date sometime around the Q1 of 2012.

Trailer: Mass Effect 3 “Against All Odds”

Posted on by Arleigh

Mass Effect 3 is one of the most-anticipated gaming titles for 2012. It will be the third and final title that chronicles the character of Cmdr. Shepard and his fight to save the galaxy against the extragalactic threat of the “Reapers”. It’s developer, BioWare, has been quite busy since the title was first announced with showing gaming fans some tidbits about the game’s development. Most of the trailer which has come out about this game has been a mix of pre-rendered CG animation and actual gameplay footage which at times seems to be quite indistinguishable from each other.

The latest trailer for this game first premiered at this weekend’s Spike TV’s Video Game Awards. To say that the reaction to the trailer was a near-unanimous geekgasm would be an understatement. If there was a game that will pull gamers from their near-obsessive playing of Bethesda’s Skyrim it would be BioWare’s Mass Effect 3. This trailer is all gameplay and shows some of the latest gameplay mechanics (such as the dodge roll moves) during one of the game’s many stages.

I, for one, have already preordered and fully paid my N7 Collector’s Edition copy of this game and will just  have to wait for it’s release date of March 6, 2012.

Trailer: Mass Effect 3 – N7 Collector’s Edition Details

Posted on by Arleigh

BioWare’s Mass Effect scifi rpg series has been a hit right from the start. The first two titles in the planned trilogy for the series (some have been calling it the Cmdr. Shepard Trilogy) have been received with a near universal acclaim for gameplay and it’s unique way of storytelling. In my opinion, this series has been one of the few which has begun to bridge the gap between gaming and storytelling where both have become integral part in making the series a success.

The third game has been one of the most-anticipated titles by gaming fans everywhere and just months away from release. The trailer above shows all the cool extras for those who pre-order the very limited N7 Collector’s Edition which will ship with the regular version of Mass Effect 3. Some of the extras mentioned seem more like fun fluff, but the classified extra character and the mission attached to them will be one of the highlights not to mention the robotic Geth-looking dog and the extra exclusive weapons.

Mass Effect 3: N7 Collector’s Edition is set for a March 9, 2012 release date with a price of $80.00.

You can be damned skippy sure that I’ve gotten my pre-order all confirmed and paid off.

Trailer: Modern Warfare 3 “The Vet and The n00b”

Posted on by Arleigh

Well, the time that seems to arrive once every year around November has finally arrived. The latest iteration of the Call of Duty first-person shooter franchise from Activision will see a midnight release starting 12:01 am on November 8, 2011. Already there are lines numbering in the hundreds in major cities. Parties being held at stores such as Best Buy and Gamestop as hundreds of thousands, if not, millions of gamers flock to get the game in their hands. This game is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and it’s one of those rare video games which actually lowers work productivity the week of it’s release. It will be safe to assume that the morning of November 8, 2011 will see a high amount of sick calls and last minute PTO requests.

I won’t be one of them but I will still get this game in a week or two. Until then I’ll just continue to watch this funny and creative trailer for the game starring Jonah Hill, Sam Worthington and Dwight Howard.

Trailer: Battlefield 3 “Above and Beyond the Call w/ Jay-Z”

Posted on by Arleigh

(All video footage ACTUAL GAMEPLAY)

The time for the final push to hype up the upcoming first-person shooter from EA and DICE has begun.

Battlefield 3 gets a brand-new TV ad spot which touts the title’s actual gameplay and the strength of it’s new graphics engine with Frostbite 2.0. To better give the ad a particular hook it uses Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” track to some great effect. The video shows the three different gameplay choices a player can have during single-player and multiplayer gaming: foot soldier, helicopter gunship and fighter pilot and tank driver.

As the tv spot has pointed out — plus the video below showing some multiplayer gameplay — Battlefield 3 has been the consensus best shooter to be seen by industry people at all the gaming shows and conventions this year. Whether the title will knock Activision’s Call of Duty franchise off it’s lofty perch still has to be seen, but if there’s a game that could begin the process of doing it then Battlefield 3 may just be it.

Battlefield 3 slated for an October 25, 2011 release date for the Xbox 360, Windows PC and PS3.

Song of the Day: Small Recollections (by Uematsu Nobuo from Lost Odyssey)

Posted on by Arleigh

We’re now two-thirds into the 33-day Shigematsu Kiyoshi short story marathon and for the last third I decided to kick it off with my third favorite track from the Lost Odyssey soundtrack. The latest “Song of the Day” is the simple and playful tune “Small Recollections”.

This track gets used a lot in the game’s collected dream-memories. It’s usually used in concert with other music when the dream involves children Kaim has met through his 1000-year and more journey as the eternal warrior. I like this song for it’s simplicity. It’s a solo piece done on a calliope and made to sound like it’s coming from a child’s music box. It’s really quite a great use of this instrument and one I’ve rarely heard used in a soundtrack for a film or game.

It’s hard not to listen to this song and not think of the simpler times when one was a kid and the biggest worry in our mind’s was whether we’d get to eat ice cream, cake or both at a birthday party. “Small Recollections” is definitely something one can hear at a fair or a carnival and always something that would make one smile like a kid again.

Song of the Day: Eclipse of Time (by Uematsu Nobuo from Lost Odyssey)

Posted on by Arleigh

The latest “Song of the Day” is another favorite music track from the Lost Odyssey soundtrack by Uematsu Nobuo. The title of this particular track is “Eclipse of Time” and one of the most beautiful pieces in the game’s soundtrack.

“Eclipse of Time” becomes a sort of motif for one of the game’s characters, Queen Ming Numara who also happens to be another immortal like the game’s main protagonist, Kaim. We first hear this music playing when we enter her Ming’s room and it creates an ethereal musical backdrop which accentuates the Queen Numara’s eternal beauty. The track is quite simply played as a harp solo and it’s a rare thing to hear the harp as the main instrument in most game soundtracks. It’s Uematsu’s inclusion of such an instrument which raises the Lost Odyssey soundtrack to classic status.

This particular track reappears time and time again in different version and tempo throughout the game. It usually means that Queen Numara is either the focus of the scene or something she’s involved in a way. Unlike “A Return, Indeed…” this song doesn’t really appear in any of Kaim’s 33 dream-memories which is a shame, but understandable since the piece doesn’t really match the tone of Kaim’s dreams.

Of all the pieces of music in the Lost Odyssey soundtrack this is the one I can listen to over and over and not get tired of it.

Song of the Day: A Return, Indeed…(by Uematsu Nobuo from Lost Odyssey)

Posted on by Arleigh

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One of the best gaming experiences I’ve had in the past ten years was from a title that was the creation of the man (Sakaguchi Hironobu) who made the wildly-popular Japanese role-playing game franchise, Final Fantasy, before he left to start up his own company. This company would be called Mistwalker and they would release two rpgs for the Xbox 360 between 2008 and 2009. The second of these two titles was Lost Odyssey and this was the title of which I spoke of above.

The title was a nice throwback to the classic Final Fantasy titles Sakaguchi was responsible for while dressed up in nextgen visuals. But what made this game so memorable an experience for me wasn’t just the visuals but the great storytelling and music it also had in great abundance. The music itself was the product of one (if not the greatest) of the greatest video game music composer in the industry, Uematsu Nobuo. It’s from Uematsu’s soundtrack for Lost Odyssey that I pick the latest “Song of the Day”.

“A Return, Indeed…” (“Kaette kuru, kitto…” in Japanese) is part of the game’s soundtrack which makes several appearances throughout the game, but it was during the first found dream sequence (the game’s greatest highlight and reason to play it) which really sold the song and the whole soundtrack as whole as being great. This version is the piano solo one which is really the best version which appears in the game. This piano solo version was arranged by Satoshi Henmi from Uematsu’s original composition and it fully convey’s the song’s sorrow melody in the beginning but gradually transitions into a sound full of hope before finally ending in a simple few notes. Those few notes giving a hint that hope is always a possibility but in the end always fleeting.

What better way to inaugurate 33 days of “A Thousand Years of Dreams” than the song which kicks it off in the game.

Gamescom 2011: Battlefield 3 “Caspian Border” Multiplayer Gameplay

Posted on by Arleigh

I’ve been hyped and itching to get my hands on Battlefield 3 for months now, but still have a little over 2 months to go before I get that chance. Until then EA and DICE (Digital Illusions CE) have come up with another way to tease it’s fans by using Gamescom 2011 over at Germany a new video footage of actual gameplay (using an earlier alpha build of the game). This time around it’s not in-game footage of the single-player campaign. What we get instead is two whole minutes of wargasmic in-game footage showing the game’s multiplayer mode (64-players playing at once over on the PC while the Xbox 360 and the PS3 get 24-player limit for ground fighting).

The footage is of the mulitplayer map simply called “Caspian Border” and it’s a multiplayer game being fought not just between players as foot-soldiers, but also driving armored vehicles, jeeps, tanks and helicopter gunships. But what got me really going is the fact that air-to-air combat with jets. I don’t mean those white-and-green wearing, following the fat, blowhard who has no rings to kiss Jets, but jet fighters performing deadly aerial ballet with their opposing number.

I think if there is ever one reason to pick up Battlefield 3 over Activision’s upcoming title to their juggernaut of a FPS franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, then this gameplay footage with the jets will be one major reason. I may just practice flying those jets for multiplayer and shout “Tally Ho!” over the mike when ambushing another player in their jet.

Battlefield 3 is still set for an October 25, 2011 release date in North America with Europe and the rest of the world getting it the following days.

E3 2011: Asura’s Wrath (E3 Trailer)

Posted on by Arleigh

Asura’s Wrath is a title by Capcom and developer CyberConnect2 and first made it’s appearance at E3 2010. It’s actually a title that has flown way below my radar when it comes to interesting games coming up in the forseeable future. It’s a good thing that Capcom brought it to this year’s E3 once more and showed more details about what the g ame is really about and some of it’s core gameplay.

Let’s just say that from the trailer this game looks to be one over-the-top of an action game that reminds me of the SEGA/Platinum Games title Bayonetta. More people seem to compare this game both aesthetically and spiritually to the Sony God of War franchise and they wouldn’t be wrong. Asura’s Wrath really ends up being a mash-up of both those series with a sci-fi helping from Too Human.

The art design for the game looks beautiful. Looks like developer CyberConnect2 decided to go for the 3D cel-shading that looks quite similar to Capcom’s own look for the recent Street Fighter IV. The game is not flat and actually has depth to all the scenes, but the flat-look of the cel-shading really gives this game a unique look that’s quite uncommon in gaming of this latest generation.

Asura’s Wrath doesn’t have a set release date, but all points to sometime around 2012 (hopefully)