While Grand Theft Auto may be the biggest name in crime games, you don’t get more gangster then the mob. Mafia first debuted way back in 2002, and it is time for a sequel. Mafia 2 tells the story or Vito Scaletta, an Italian immigrant and US soldier on leave after getting wounded in World [...]
This may be the sexiest collection of images we’ve seen lately. And nary a swimsuit to be found. Does it get any better? Yes it does. Check this one out, and note the two face tease in the background: According to PushSquare, the sequel will be written by Paul Dini (again – yay!) and comes [...]
DJ Hero 2 plays it pretty safe. But this sequel to last year’s surprisingly successful study in turntablism (who would’ve thought people would want another plastic peripheral?) will allow you to get at least a little more use out of your faux-DJ skills. At a recent Activision event showing off the upcoming Guitar Hero and DJ Hero 2, I tried spinning my own beats to see what’s changed — beyond the new artists and tracks — in this year’s version of the game.
While Activision’s big talking points revolved around the specifics of the added multiplayer modes (new ways to battle against friends, and prove who’s the superior scratcher), I was much more interested in the gameplay itself. See, my biggest problem with the first DJ Hero was that it didn’t give you any creative freedom, but in DJ Hero you’re playing one of the most creative and individualistic instruments out there. To a degree, DJ Hero 2 tries to remedy that problem. Like the drum fills in Rock Band and Guitar Hero, short sections in each song give you almost total control over the beat, allowing you to alternate freely between tracks and scratch to your heart’s content. They’re agonizingly short interludes, but they give you that burst of freedom you need, while not violating the integrity of the original DJ’s work.
We’ve more or less known BioWare would be releasing Dragon Age 2 some time early next year — Electronic Arts practically announced as much a few months ago, and Awakening teased a new Dragon Age title for February 1, 2011. But today, EA has officially confirmed the existence of Dragon Age 2, and Game Informer has the first few details on the title as well.
The confirmation came nestled in a press release concerning EA taking over control of Warhammer Online in Europe (via VG247), which lists “Dragon Age 2, the highly anticipated sequel to 2009’s ‘RPG of the Year’ Dragon Age: Origins,” as one of the titles that BioWare currently has in development. Furthermore, Game Informer’s website is teasing an upcoming cover story for Dragon Age 2, with the tease revealing the new game will feature a “new hero, a different part of the world, and a ton of surprising improvements.”
That’s about all Game Informer is revealing right now, but the promise of a “new hero” already seems to suggests players won’t transfer their character from Dragon Age: Origins into Dragon Age 2, the way players could transfer their version of Commander Shepard from Mass Effect into Mass Effect 2. Still, that’s not entirely certain yet, so we’ll see what BioWare has to say when more details are revealed.
I’m sure anyone reading this text has already glanced over to the right and seen that I graded this game a C. Let me clarify this immediately: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge is among the greatest games ever made. It is one of the most tightly-designed, brilliantly written, timeless adventure games out there, and just might be my favorite sequel to anything, ever. If you depend on arbitrary scores to make your purchasing decisions, know that Monkey Island 2, as a game, is easily an A+. If you enjoyed the first one, I heartily recommend picking up its sequel.
The game itself is irrelevant to this review. I am instead approaching this as a review of Monkey Island 2: Special Edition as a package. Think of it as a DVD versus a movie, if that helps — rather than focus on the original work, I am going to focus on the presentation, the new features, and the overall “specialness” of this Special Edition, which is a much more valuable use of our time.
After ten years, two cancellations and a whole lot of sweat and tears, fan-made King’s Quest sequel The Silver Lining will finally see release next month.
According to an email received by 1UP minutes ago, developer Phoenix Online finally received the blessing of King’s Quest rights holder Activision to release the game.
Back when I was way, way too young to see R-rated movies — before the ESRB brought its particular brand of hateration to kids’ gaming experience — there was Doom. Not the first, not the best, but nevertheless the undisputed O.G. of first-person shooters. Doom rocked my pre-pubescent socks with its demon-blasting, space-marine-grunting, 16-bit slices of killin’.
Now, its sequel, Doom II, was really more of what would be considered an expansion pack today — some new enemies, a couple new weapons, new maps, and a little engine tweaking. Gameplay was the same. And it remains the same in its latest incarnation/revisitation on Xbox Live Arcade. If you’ve never played the series before, have no fear, it’s not so different from what you know already — but it is extremely…ancient, for lack of a better term. In fact, playing Doom II for the first time in maybe 15 years, I was struck by just how incredibly dated it felt. Like going from typing to shorthand, or from Windows to DOS.
Do you love Scribblenauts? Of course you do, what are you, stupid? Well, how would you feel about a sequel to Scribblenauts? Well, prepare to feel however you would feel about it (which we hope is some positive feeling), as Super Scribblenauts was announced today by 5th Cell and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the DS. One of the big new features of the game is the ability to use adjectives to modify the objects you create. The game will be available this fall, and we’re excited like a green snake in a sugar cane tree.
Sharing: It’s Win/Win
What was the biggest problem with Dead Space? Isaac Clarke. The silent star of the sci-fi survival horror FPS did what needed to be done, but while he had a deep backstory and his own agenda, none of that personality came through in the game.
But Dead Space 2 hopes to change all that, according to executive director, Steve Papoutsis. He brought an early build of the game by the office, and while the bulk of the demo focused on a couple of the weapons and enemies new to the sequel (which you’ll no doubt be able to read about in great detail on the game’s official website), I was a lot more interested in Isaac and the changes that he’ll be going through. “He just went through this nasty situation on the Ishimura, you’d expect him to have something to say about it,” says Papoutsis. “In Dead Space 2, you’ll get to hear a little bit more of his thoughts on what’s going on [...] When we sat down to do this game, that’s one of the first things we decided we were going to do: give Isaac a voice, to see his face a bit more.”
Check out the latest LittleBigPlanet 2 Trailer. No really, watch it. Not only do gamers get to take the 2+ million levels with them to the sequel, they can now make their own games. Check out that Popit as well. Can you say hot damn? Stoked hardly covers the excitement we have to see what becomes of this sequel. Now get to clicking that play button.
The official website for LBP2 is now active as well. Check it out here.
Sharing: It’s Win/Win
