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Puddle game review

February 13, 2012February 16, 2012 Doug Groves Konami, Neko, PS3, PSN, Puddle, review, Xbox 360, Xbox Live0 comment

Back in 2010, six French students won the GDC Student Showcase award for the liquid physics puzzle game Puddle. Konami later picked up the title, and after development by Neko Entertainment, Puddle was released on both the Xbox Live Arcade and PSN a couple of weeks back. The premise of the game is straight forward. The player guides liquids through hazardous environments, while trying not to lose so much volume that you have to start over. In the early levels, this means navigating water through pipes filled with fire and heated…

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Mass Effect 3 with Kinect

January 23, 2012January 31, 2012 Doug Groves Bioware, Kinect, Mass Effect 3, ME3, Xbox 3604 Comments

YouTube video link Last week, a promotional video showing the Kinect integration in Mass Effect 3 was release. action. The Kinect integration actually appears pretty useful, especially in the issuing of commands to the non-player teammates. They do mention that while there is almost a second of lag while the Kinect interprets the command, it ultimately does pay off. Joystiq had some hands on time with it, and has some good things to say about it. For example, you can point to a location and issue a move command via…

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Zune Music coming to Canada

September 29, 2011October 5, 2011 Doug Groves Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Dashboard update, Xbox Live, Xbox Live TV, Zune, Zune Insider, Zune Pass1 Comment

Microsoft’s Zune Music services have always been a very US centric brand, with rumours that it would come to Canada swirling for a couple of years. The last we heard, it was originally going to show up here back in the spring of this year. While the Zune video marketplace has been available in Canada for some time, allowing users to rent and buy TV and film content via their PCs or Xbox 360s, the iTunes competitor has been bereft of, well… tunes, until now.

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Gears of War 3 is an epic swan song

September 20, 2011September 23, 2011 Doug Groves epic games, Gears Of War 3, review, Xbox 360, Xbox Live2 Comments

Epic Games had to pull off a hat trick with the concluding chapter of Gears of War. First is to bring new visual and gameplay tweaks that are prerequisite for a sequel to be a hit with the fans. Second, they needed a way to recap the story for newcomers. Finally, they needed to wrap up the story in a way that is satisfying for a trilogy that was designed to end with the third installment.

Epic pulled it off with style and grace, as Gears of War 3 exemplifies exactly what a sequel should be.

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MGS HD coming soon

September 16, 2011September 26, 2011 Doug Groves Konami, Metal Gear Solid, MGS HD, Peace Walker, press release, PS3, screenshots, Snake Eater, Sons Of Liberty, Xbox 3600 comment

While Konami has yet to peg down a definite North American release date for Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, there’s news floating around (via Joystiq) that it will land in Japan on November 23th. This suggests that international dates can’t be far behind.

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The Gunstringer review – this duck hunts

September 14, 2011September 15, 2011 Doug Groves Kinect, review, The Gunstringer, Twisted Pixel, Xbox 360, Xbox Live1 Comment

As I do recall, the first time I set eyes on Twisted Pixel’s Kinect based game The Gunstringer I wasn’t rightly sure what to make of it. The odd little feller looked like a goofy western on-rails shooter aimed for the new-fangled Kinect. On first blush I reckoned I’d steer clear of it, but like my kin done told me, don’t judge a book by it’s cover.

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Rocksmith Overview at Fan Expo 2011

September 12, 2011September 14, 2011 Doug Groves Fan Expo, Fan Expo 2011, hands-on, interview, PC gaming, PS3, Rocksmith, Show, Ubisoft, video, Xbox 36049 Comments

Ubisoft had quite a bit going on at Fan Expo in Toronto this year. One of the upcoming titles that caught our eye was Rocksmith, which puts a new spin on the rhythm guitar game. It’s specfically designed to work with any electric guitar, which plugs into your Xbox 360, PS3 or PC via a USB adapter, and uses the chords you strum to keep track. In the video above, you can catch Ryan’s talk with Adam from Ubisoft, who also demos the game using an Epiphone Les Paul plugged in…

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution – review

September 8, 2011September 12, 2011 Peter Brunton Deus Ex, Deus Ex Human Revolution, FPR, PC gaming, PS3, review, RPG, Square Enix, Xbox 3607 Comments

Before we get into the meat of this game, I’d like to start with the lesson I most sincerely hope every other studio takes away from Deus Ex: Human Revolution. How to handle morality systems. Straight, DX:HR has the best morality system ever implemented in a game. It handles player choices in a way that is meaningful, powerful, and allows you to genuinely effect the way the game plays out. How does it do that?

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Gears Of War 3 launch party challenge

September 1, 2011September 2, 2011 Doug Groves alternate reality game, ARG, epic games, Gears Of War, Gears Of War 3, launch, locust meat, Microsoft Game Studios, trailer, VIP, Xbox 360, Xbox Live0 comment

With Gears Of War 3 less than three weeks away from launching, a new trailer tracing the story of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad has been released. Gears 3 has already seen an unprecedented 1.3 million preorders, making it the fastest pre-sold exclusive for the Xbox 360 platform, and the same number of players spent more the 20 million hours fragging the enemy in the multiplayer beta a few months back.

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Dancing Assassins – a random moment from Fan Expo

August 29, 2011August 30, 2011 Doug Groves Altair, Assassin's Creed, comic con, comic convention, contest, cool, dance, Dancing Assassins, Ezio, Fan Expo, Fan Expo 2011, funny, Just Dance 3, rgbfilter, shuffling, Toronto, Ubisoft, video, Xbox 3603 Comments

Some of the best things to happen at conventions are totally random, and you don’t expect to have your camera running at the time. At Fan Expo this year, we all happened to be in the right place at the right time. The above video is the result of a bunch of random cosplay Ezios and Altairs milling around the Ubisoft booth when they’re starting a Just Dance 3 contest.

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Hydrophobia Prophecy: Into The Deep End

July 12, 2011July 12, 2011 Wesley Fok Dark Energy Digital, Dear Game Diary, Hydrophobia, PC gaming, review, Steam, Xbox 3601 Comment

Spoiler warning: Spoilers for Hydrophobia—both the Pure and Prophecy versions. Yes, they have slightly different stories!

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Child of Eden review: Fleeting Genius

June 15, 2011June 17, 2011 Doug Groves Child Of Eden, Child of Eden review, Microsoft, Q Entertainment, review, Rez, synesthesia, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Ubisoft, video, Xbox 3601 Comment

If I had to categorize Child of Eden, it would be a “first person J-pop electronica visualizer science fiction dance rail shooter”. While that sounds like a disjointed mouthful, everything flows together seamlessly. Taking place in the same universe as Q Entertainment’s earlier Rez, Child of Eden ups the ante in all respects, making it a singular experience, that all but achieves designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s goal of inducing synesthesia in the player, delightfully crossing the wires between sound and vision.