The summer heat continues to beat down on us in the North East, but relief is in site. June was a particularly busy month for gamers and most of the staff is still playing catch up with the likes of Transformers, LEGO Harry Potter, and others. Of course with Crackdown 2 being a recent release you can bet we'll be collecting those little glowing green orbs.
Everyone's favorite worm is back in HD in Earthworm Jim HD for XBLA. We take the colorful remake for a spin and check out the brand new cooperative mode and levels. Is this game full of that awesome plasma, or should we launch it into space along with some cows?
My irresponsibility knows no bounds. There are actually four downloadable packs to announce here, but I've titled this post based on my excitement for the last one, titled the "Undead Nightmare Pack". There is some really good content preceding it, and it's not fair to you all that I promote my own personal hype here on this news page. But, tarnation - it's zombies, okay? That warrants a crafty, biased title.
Monday Night Combat was recently announced as part of Microsoft's Summer of Arcade promotion with an August 11th launch date. We looked at the game during PAX East back in March and enjoyed the game's Crossfire versus mode - but didn't get a chance to play the Blitz co-op mode. The four player co-op Blitz mode has players taking on a series of challenges defending the Moneyball against wave after wave of various robots. Money earned from destroying the robots is used to upgrade your character or to build different turrets around the base for additional defense. It's a mix of tower defense and a survival mode from something like Gears of War.
When Blizzard announced its Real ID system months ago - it didn't seem like that big of a deal. You'd be able to friend people in one Blizzard game and then all future games in which they own you'd see the same person under the same name - that name being their real name. The goal of the system was to create more meaningful online relationships for all kinds of gaming while giving Battle.net a social networking flair. Most agreed it sounded like a decent decision, but the latest decision involving Real ID has people in a bit of an uproar.
Konami has just announced a release date for Castlevania Harmony of Despair on Xbox Live Arcade. The six player co-op game will launch on August 4th and feature online co-op play through a brand new Castlevania story utilizing assets and enemies from all previous games. The levels themselves are inspired by Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia.
Capcom has just unveiled the official box art for Dead Rising 2, the upcoming two player co-op zombie slaying game set to hit the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this September. As you can see the customizable weapon system is front and center with a chainsaw boat oar kind of thing that's sure to make a mess of some poor zombies head. There's also a guy in a tuxedo wearing a Servbot helmet. So awesome.
You know it's a good time to be a gamer when really quirky, niche titles make it over to American shores. Deathsmiles is one such title; it's a tough shoot-em-up of the bullet hell variety, which is pretty scarce these days. Instead of muscled up soldiers or sleek, swift spaceships, though, Deathsmiles features cute little angels with demonic familiars as the primary characters. Topping it all off, the game is only available in a limited edition, with a custom Xbox 360 faceplate, a soundtrack CD, and special sideways packaging. Sound odd? You bet. But this game is from Cave, a company with a pretty great shmup pedigree. So it might just be worth checking out. We've got a small gallery of screens for you to peruse, all full of happy fun angel destruction.
We love hearing about new things being added to the games we love, and Transformers: War for Cybertron is just one of those things. Recently, Xbox Live had a listing for new Transformers DLC that no one had heard of. The reason? It hasn't really been announced yet, but it sounds pretty cool.
Crackdown 2 took 2009's E3 by surprise storm, and was even playable at PAX East, 2010. How does something turn from announcement, to release in almost one year? Loads of hectic crunch time. Kind of like facing a horde of Freaks by yourself. Good thing Ruffian had a good team together, because they really hit the nail on the head with Crackdown 2.
If there is any one thing this site is familiar with, it’s the challenge of coordinating two or more people to play together. That is, after all, the focus. Sometimes even careful planning can go astray when time zones get in the way. This week in co-op Kat and Sam discover just how interesting, and worth while a cross continental exchange can be.
