Diablo III ignites Blizzard Paris event
Posted on July 3, 2008 by SpiderfarmRadio in the Games, News category
PARIS–Blizzard fans have lined up around the block of the Porte de Versailles Exposition Center in Paris, hoping to become among the first in the world to see the newly announced game from the popular developer/publisher. The 2008 Blizzard Invitational marks the first time that the company has held a fan event in Europe; during the two-day event, fans were able to participate in tournaments, check out playable versions of two Blizzard works in progress: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Starcraft II, attend sessions dedicated to various Blizzard games, and, most importantly, find out all about the next game the company is working on.
The Blizzard event is taking up Hall 5 of the Porte de Versailles Exposition Center, with two levels of the hall devoted to all things Blizzard. Hundreds of fans poured into the center once the event opened at 9 a.m., looking to get hands on time with Starcraft II and the Lich King expansion. In addition to huge areas devoted entirely to those games, there was also a gaming area devoted to the latest WOW expansion, The Burning Crusade. In addition, there was two stages devoted to competitive tournaments, as well as a Blizzard store, where fans can stock up on all things Blizzard. Of course, the big news of the day is the announcement of Diablo III.
Since the initial showing, Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo III is being developed for PC and Mac only “for now,” with the aim being for it to run on a broad set of systems rather than just high-end hardware. When asked for a release window, all anyone from Blizzard is willing to say is simply: “When it’s ready.”
Diablo III has been in development for about four years, and now has a team of 50-55 developers dedicated to it, according to Jay Wilson, the game’s lead designer. The game will offer drop-in/drop-out co-op play over Battle.net throughout; though it will be doable as a solo player, gamers will be able to bring friends in at any stage.
Although the game is obviously not yet rated, Blizzard confirmed to GameSpot that it plans to stay true to the series’ M-rated roots. The company is aiming for an ESRB M rating, and a PEGI 16+ in Europe.
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit
Posted on July 3, 2008 by SpiderfarmRadio in the Games, News category
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit (DBZ: BL) is the latest in a long line of fighting games to be spawned from the famous TV show. Previous entries in the series have generally been solid fighting games, although they have never been able to compete with the big names such as Tekken and Virtua Fighter. Atari is hoping that this will all change with the debut of the first Dragon Ball game on the Xbox 360. So how does it stack up?
To jump straight into the action, DBZ: BL is fast. Really fast. This isn’t one of those slow paced fighting games where the fighters dance around each other and rarely connect with moves. In DBZ: BL, most fights are over within 90 seconds, which is really saying something considering the fact that the fighters have multiple health bars. However, just because it is fast, don’t think that this is a button-masher. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Whilst button mashing will get you through a couple of the easy fights, in order to excel at this game you need to be able to plan your moves and execute them with swift authority. Thankfully this is incredibly do-able, thanks to a great control system.
The controls are really easy to get used to, with the four face buttons controlling blocking, projectile attacks, and your two standard attacks. Combining these attacks with triggers and shoulder buttons unleashes all manner of crazy moves, which should be easily recognizable to fans of the TV show. Also, when your characters ‘Ki’ meter gets filled up, you get access to all kinds of powerful moves such as unleashing your devastating ultimate move, or even using your ‘Ki’ to unleash your ‘Aura Spark’, which is one of the new abilities introduced to the game. I don’t want to go into too much detail about all of the various moves, but rest assured that there are plenty of them to pull off.
As great as the control system may be, there are a lot of different moves to remember in the game, and so I am quite thankful that there is a training mode included in the game. This training mode consists of each move being explained by a mentor, then you get shown the buttons required to pull off the move, and then it’s just up to you to pull off said move, at which point you move on to the next training session. Whilst I do like having the training option there, the way in which it was laid out annoyed me somewhat. Basically, there are 3 different levels of training, with each level having multiple training sessions. The problem that I have is that you load up one training session, do the couple of button presses needed to complete it, and then it takes you back to the main menu, and you have to load up the next training session. This can get very frustrating, particularly as certain training sessions only require one or two button presses. There is thankfully a practice mode where you can go to check up on moves and hone your skills, so you don’t really ever need to go back to the training mode after your first time.
The game modes are a pretty standard affair for a fighting game. There is a versus mode which allows you to complete against the computer, a friend on the same console, or you can take the fight online. There is also a challenge mode which consists of almost ‘filler’ gameplay, such as survival mode, which just isn’t all that fun. Rounding out the gameplay modes is the Z Chronicles, which is the main story mode of the game.
The Z Chronicles take place across 3 different Dragon Ball Z sagas, and fans of the TV show will no doubt recognize all the famous fights within the story. Unfortunately, people who have never seen the Dragon Ball Z TV show will probably have no idea what is going on. However, even if you don’t know what’s happening, the story mode is still a blast to play as it pits you in various different fights with a multitude of characters, as both the good and bad sides. Completing the various battles will unlock new characters and arenas to fight in, as well as new ‘Drama Pieces’ for use in versus matches.
‘Drama Pieces’ are basically assists that can help you out during a fight. Before you enter any versus match you will choose a partner, and three different ‘Drama Pieces’ which will help you out in battle. These range from defense and attack boosts, to healing abilities. These ‘Drama Pieces’ then get activated at certain points in the battle. For example, if you are low on health, you may have your partner jump out and throw you a Senzu Bean, which gives you some health back. All of these ‘Drama Pieces’ play out in a great little cut scene, and there is absolutely no delay in jumping from the action to the cut scene, and back again, which is really nice to see.
The versus matches are pretty self explanatory to anyone who has ever played a fighting game. Basically you just select your fighter (and their ultimate move), select their ‘Drama Pieces’ as detailed above, and jump into battle. All of the fights are sadly 1v1, which is a bit disappointing. Seeing as the Dragon Ball series has been a 1v1 fighter for so long, it would have been nice to see some tag matches in there. On the plus side, the online play works flawlessly, and I didn’t encounter a single bit of lag when playing, which is incredibly important when playing a game as fast paced as this.
The graphics in the game are top notch. It is one of the best looking anime games that I have ever seen, with exquisite detail on the character models. Everything looks just the way it should, and it is the best looking Dragon Ball game by a clear mile. The numerous animations for all of the moves simply look incredible, all while keeping a solid frame rate. This truly is a game that needs to be seen, because it is the benchmark for all other anime games to come. The only thing that is left slightly lacking graphically are the environments, which look somewhat bland in comparison to the character models.
Keeping with the positives, the audio in the game is just as good, with all the voices and sound effects you would expect from the Dragon Ball universe. The music is spot on, with a fast and frantic feel which suits the game perfectly. Overall, it is quite simply a great sounding game.
If you are looking for a great fighting game, stop looking–you’ve just found it. Whether you are a fan of the TV show, or have never even heard of it, DBZ: BL is quite simply brilliant. Whilst fans of the previous games may be unhappy that there are only 21 characters in the game compared to around 200 in the previous Dragon Ball Z game (Dragon Ball Z: Budokia Tenkaichi 3 for the Wii), they should be incredibly happy with just how well the whole package comes together, and how faithful it is to the TV show. Even if you are generally not a fan of fighting games I strongly recommend that you give this game a try. Fans of Dragon Ball Z, why are you still reading? Go buy this game now!
In brief.
Posted on July 2, 2008 by Girrable in the News category
Just a couple of quick things. You may have noticed we recently added a gaming section to the site. Thanks to the brilliant work of SpiderfarmRadio we expect this area of the site will thrive with his input.
Also in news is that Tickets for Octobers Whitby Goth Weekend are already on sale. They are currently available for £45 from Vags.
Hidden bubbles of info are sprouting up all over the clubs page; Go ahead! Click on your favorite club. there may be a flier or news of a band night in there! If not, there will be over the coming weeks! And if clubs aren’t your thing, Theres also the ever expanding gigs listing page. Necromag is working to be as comprehensive as possible. If we don’t have it, tell us you want it!
More and more little bits to come. A big heads up coming in a few days and a hand full of reviews too!
See you next time! Same Necro-Channel
Age of Conan Review
Posted on July 2, 2008 by SpiderfarmRadio in the Games, News category
Ok so the AOC foundation is there and quite strong. But it so far fails to pass another hurdle which is Longevity, Addictive Hooks, Competition, and a real RPG sense of reward/accomplishment.
They are busting their ass to improve the game though and are regularly taking feedback and fixing things. I think they will do their best to keep improving the game and even redesign parts of it in time to fix its failures. But for now, it just isn’t near as fun as it should be. Ill explain.
Unlike most RPGs that use an easily identifiable system of Percentile increments that you can Quantify and judge how you are increasing in a variety of ways. AOC uses mostly a Decimal system that makes no Sense whatsoever. A level 10 Quiver of arrows for instance will have a .02 bonus, (what does that mean?) and a Level 20 Quiver will also have a .02 bonus and the only difference is how much you can sell it for. There is no Quality in items, they don’t break or decay. So you don’t often feel higher level items are much at all better than lower level. Its very hard to tell if any of your abilities, stats are getting any better using this archaic decimal system. The slope of improvement to most abilities is so slight that if you were to put a marble on it after 10 levels, the marble would not move. At Lv 20 the marble might start to wobble a little and at Level 30 it might barely start rolling.
Most all skills you gain are just slightly more powerful versions of the skills you start the game with. Some animations may be different, but the effects mostly the same. Many of your talents you wont see any effect difference at all.
Items are terrible. You rarely care about completing quests because your rewards will be so minimal that you don’t really care about the items. Random drops are 99% useless or again very minimal.
Overall it just lacks the addiction commonly found in MMOs that push you forward by offering another carrot to lead you forward, while engrossing you in Lore. Oh and Items have 0 lore in AOC.. Not even a minor description. You can’t even find letters or books that are readable. There is no description of scrolls, maps, letters, books, artifacts, nothing. They are just generic little icons to fedex to someone or sell to a vendor. Most everything feels very generic, there is no Charm or mystery. But a lot of cliches to bore you. No cursed items, or things that make Conan Comics mysterious and foreboding. Sometimes a quest does some surprising thing, but its very rare. And again their is hardly ever a decent reward or anything to find exploring on your own.
The game needs work, and Funcom are constantly improving the game, but It’ll be a good 6 months I think till the game is really interesting enough to play through to about Level 40 and above. Even below that you will get really bored pretty fast as you hope to find things to draw you back to playing your character. The game definitely needs more Cowbell, as they say, and I don’t mean Graphics quality. WOW has a ton more “Cowbell” pushing 1/4 the pixels.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Review
Posted on July 1, 2008 by SpiderfarmRadio in the Games, News category
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (SSBB) makes its long await return on the Wii. This is one of the big games for the console and gamer’s palms have been sweating in anticipation to get their hands on this updated franchise fighter. In basics, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a simple fighting game that lends itself to the multiplayer party game genre. With friends hanging around or even online with the Wii, SSBB is a fun excuse to burn away a number of hours fighting classic Nintendo characters against each other. If you want a more deep experience surprisingly SSBB can play that role as well. Even as basic as Brawl looks and feels, this simple and easy game can be a tough nail-biting experienced with or without experienced players.
And the contestants are…
The roster in Super Smash Bros. hasn’t changed too much in its three alliterations. This year Nintendo increases the number of characters from the Nintendo Universe and then adds a few special appearances from other games outside of Nintendo. Since, SSBB attention is focused on its combatants lets take a look at 2008s roster of brawlers in SSBB. Characters who have been featured in all three Smash Brothers games include Captain Falcon (F-Zero), Fox (Star Fox), Jigglypuff & Pikachu (Pokemon), Kirby (Kirby), Link (Legend of Zelda), Luigi, Mario & Yoshi (Mario), Ness (Earthbound) and Samus (Metroid).
The newcomers this year include Diddy Kong, Ike (Fire Emblem), King Dedede and Metal Knight (Kirby), Lucario (Pokemon), Lucas (Earthbound), Olimar (Pikmin), Pit (Kid Icarus), the robot toy R.O.B., Snake (Metal Gear), Toon Link (Zelda), Wario (Wario Ware), Wolf (Star Fox), Zero Suit Samus (Metroid) and Nintendo’s long time rival, Sonic the Hedgehog. Along with the old cast, long timers and new entries your dream matches can happen in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The thought of Sonic vs. Mario is an interesting match up along with others classic showdowns like Wario vs. Mario, or the provocative dream match of Samus vs. Snake. In total there are 35 characters to do battle with, 14 of them that are unlockables.
From One to Four
Unlike other some other fighting games, Smash Bros. is accessible to all levels of gamers. Battles take place with two to four players fighting in a themed stage. You can win the match by knocking your enemies out of bounds or dealing enough damage to them that they instantly cruise off the board. The more damage you do to your enemies the farther they move when hit. This makes each fight totally different taking into account the unique stages and the out-of-bounds formula. Battles can go from more methodical move/counter move actions to all out frantic button mashing episodes.
Besides the main “Brawl” mode you can do battle in a Group Mode with more than one player or start up a Special Melee game which allows players to customize the rules of a match. There is a standard tournament mode renamed as Tourney and a spin-off mode called Rotation that lets up to 16 players fight against each others with the fighters going in a rotation. If you want some solo time with SSBB there is a solo mode that can be played in a Classic mode or the Adventure mode. The solo mode puts you in a number of randomly generated matches with different difficulties with over sixty events in total. If you want the action without the drama, you will want to explore this option before the adventure mode.
Bout Interrupted
For more substance, or what substance Super Smash can offer there is the Adventure Mode called The Subspace Emissary. This mode follows a loose storyline that incorporates the multiple levels in SSBB along with a few captivating boss battles. Take it or leave it, The Subspace Emissary only way to pull a storyline out of SSBB. To help convince players that this is real flushed out single player campaign its filled with stunning cut scenes to push along the plot. The story goes like this, a new faction lead by the Ancient Minister called the Subspace Army invade a match taking place staring Mario and Kirby. The army drops an incapacitating bomb that pulls part of the world into subspace. This leads the worlds’ greatest heroes to step up and fight the army head-on. The storyline has a few surprises, but overall it is nothing too shocking. At best it provides another way to enjoy the action within Smash Bros. with a few beautifully put together movies to watch in-between bouts. Even better then going solo, you can play this mode with a friend picking which character to use as you track down the latest threat in the Nintendo Universe.
It’s a brave new ONLINE world
For the first time in the games history, Super Smash Bros. heads online with Brawl. Quick matching into the action you can participate in team or solo vs. matches to test your skills against the world. Hooking up online with friends takes a little more time because Nintendo uses the friend code system, but once you get friends involved you’ll have can customize things just how you like them and even invite other local players into battle. One important factor in the success of an online fighting game is lag, or lack of lag, and I’m happy to report, SSBB lag is very minimal. Besides the fighting you can also save replays and screenshots and send them to anyone on your friends list. This is a nice option to include so you can saviour that perfect win against a rivaled friend.
Pick Your Controller
The controls in Super Smash Bros. Brawl are dumbed down with only two attack buttons. This gives the gamer one dedicated button for normal attacks and the other to use a special move. Also factored into the equation is the Nunchuck and Wii-mote that can accent attacks when moved a certain way when pressed with the button. If you’re not into the Wii-mote/Nunchuck deal you can plug in your Classic Controller, old Gamecube controller, or just use the Wii-mote to game in SSBB. Using any of the different controls are more of a personal preference deal, although I was surprised that Nintendo didn’t try and capitalize in the unique functionality of the motion capabilities of the Wii.
One good point towards the idea of a basic control scheme is that new fighters can take down veteran brawls with a little luck. You can be in a room with a bunch of gamers with varied skill levels and have fun without being ashamed of being beaten down to often, or taking it easy on a new gamer. In the battles a quick mind doesn’t have the advantage over quick reflexes. Smash Bros. and its combatants are all on an equal playing ground with slight advantages and disadvantages, but in the end everything comes out perfectly balanced.
Boxers, Pixels and Moles
Slightly unbalancing these perfect bouts are items that spawn around the levels that can be used to get an advantage over your opponents. These include health items and weapons such as the rare Golden Hammer or the Beam Sword or Home-run Bat from previous games. There are also power alternating items like Mario’s Super-sizing Mushroom, Super Spicy Curry, or the Franklin Badge that makes you invulnerable to projectiles. There are also assist trophies that can call in help from non-playable characters. In the case of the trophies you won’t know who will arrive to help until you use it. Appearing in all shapes and sizes from the Nintendo Universe you might see Little Mac from Punch Out! Mr. Resetti the mole miner from Animal Crossings or even more odd the pixelated motorcycle that could from Excite Bike.
More… More… More…
There is definitely a lot to Brawl then you would expect. Along with all the above mentioned details the outstanding ability to create customized battle zones with the stage-editor tool. From scratch this intuitive interface lets you put together a suitable stadium to jump online and share with friends in battle. They have also included a number of mini-games that diversify the action even more. After you’ve completed the Subspace adventure, SSBB validates itself than more than a rental with all the gaming it provides.
Death Emiting Diode Goes Live. 23rd May
Posted on June 20, 2008 by Girrable in the Events, Music, News category
An impromptu gig at local goth and rock, and occasionally booze establishment the Falcion sees the first steps of cyborg inspired act Death Emiting Diode into the touring circuit. Despite the lack of bassist ‘Mecha Lycan’ their self described “Machine Gun Guitars” still pack quite a punch. The solid goth style lyrics of ‘Sex Machine’ sounding close to a demonic Dave Gahan croon over the meshing of metal and synth that are the source of the D.E.D sound.
Given that many bands fall in to stereotypical gothfoolery of overloading their songs with film clips, cliquey injokes and references to horror and sci-fi it is refreshing that although D.E.D is inspired by these that there are more traces of their scores than scripts in the finished product. The pounding guitars follow the anvil striking drums of the Terminator, and the synth blends in the sound of Blade Runner’s epic soundscapes to form a good unique, robotic sound for the band.
While the vocals are not quite at forefront of the performance they show potential and given that this is their debut gig, issues of stage presence are not particularly in focus. Personally I wouldn’t judge D.E.D’s progress and crystallize into what could easily be one of the leading bands in a resurgence in northern rock.
A demo version of Password is available for download on their Myspace.
[words - G.I.R]