The post EA Publisher Sale gives old games new life appeared first on Game News.
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Ending next Monday, January 9, the promotion’s highlights include half-off DLC for the original Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2, and Dead Space 2; as well as equal savings on full XBLA releases like DeathSpank, Shank, and Gatling Gears. Newer content includes expansion packs for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 and NCAA Football 12. Check out the full list below:
Dragon Age: Origins: $14.99
Dragon Age: Origins – Witch Hunt: 320 MSP
Dragon Age 2 – Legacy: 400 MSP
Mass Effect 2 – Arrival: 280 MSP
Battlefield: Bad Company 2: $14.99
Battlefield: Bad Company 2:Vietnam: 600 MSP
Burnout Crash: 400 MSP
Dead Space 2 – Severed: 280 MSP
DeathSpank: 600 MSP
Gatling Gears: 400 MSP
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit: $22.49
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – Armed and Dangerous: 280 MSP
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – Lamborghini Untamed: 280 MSP
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – Porsche Unleashed: 280 MSP
Shank: 600 MSP
Risk Factions: 400 MSP
Monopoly Streets: $22.49
Zuma: 200 MSP
Heavy Weapon : 400 MSP
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 – Birdie Pack: 600 MSP
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 – Eagle Pack: 1200 MSP
NCAA Football 12 – All Dynasty Time Savers – 600 MSP
NCAA Football 12 – Power Pack: 1000 MSP
Granted, it’s not the biggest sale going, but it’s a good way to catch up on some of EA’s older fare. Further breakdowns of each offer are listed on the XBLA’s website here (opens in new tab) and here (opens in new tab).
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]]>The post The Top 7… enemies that scuttle and jump at your face appeared first on Game News.
]]>Look – a scientific diagram:
Here’s a list consisting of seven enemies that scuttle and jump at your face. (But deliberately not including Facehuggers because they were made in movie land. Not game land).
7. Pregnators | Duke Nukem Forever
For all of Duke Nukem Forever’s multiple faults, for all of its titular character’s lumpen-headed galootishness, there’s only one area in the game that’s really downright unpleasant. Crudeness, you see, cannot possibly be truly offensive if it’s executed with knowing intent. Things with an ‘offensive’ tone only really become a problem if they’re done callously or without self-awareness. Most of Duke Nukem Forever is a case of the former. During ‘The Hive’ however, it sadly becomes very much the latter. And that’s mostly down to these little f*ckers.
Where Alien’s Facehuggers, much like a lot of H.R. Giger designs, are creepy because of the subtly sexual connotations of their form and functionality, DNF’s Pregnators miss the point completely and go full-on genital-o-rama without a shadow of a hint of a soupcon of subtlety. Basically, they’re a cock-and-balls on legs. They even spit white goo at you as a missile attack. You know, just generic white goo. Could be anything.
Could be, but it’s probably spunk.
Above: Yeah, it’s an achievement of sorts, though one normally celebrated in the porn industry
Their narrative function? Filling Earth women with alien baby. Where Facehuggers hint at unpleasant sexual practices via allusion, Pregnators just get on with them. The actual impregnating process is never shown in the game, mercifully, but this concept art (opens in new tab) (which we’re not going to post on the site) makes it very clear what these fellas are all about.
Makes the tentacle-cock face-thrashing they sometimes give Duke seem rather tame in comparison, doesn’t it?
6. Leapers | Resistance
Man alive these things are ugly. We mean, generally speaking, collectively, as a species, the Chimera aren’t going to win any beauty contests. At least not in our Solar System. And Leapers are possibly the most butt-ugly of all the multi-eyed Chimerians. We doubt that even Disney with all its mastery in the arts of sugary cutefication could make a Leaper look lovable. Here’s what a Leaper might look like before and after being Disneyfied:
Above: It’s even singing a song. Regardless, it’s still less appealing than a Styrofoam cup full of day old tramp mucus
In addition to being scuttly and possessing a tendency to jump at your face, Leapers also have the dubious honour of being one of the few video game ‘characters’ that have officially offended God. When the big man in the clouds found out that Manchester Cathedral was used as a shooting gallery in the first Resistance, lo he was pissed and sent a memo to his underlings, who subsequently cast fire and brimstone and claims of copyright infringement in the direction of Sony. The following video shows Leapers desecrating Manchester Cathedral. Ugly and sacrilegious.
And there’s even more ungodliness. If a Leaper has a nibble on someone that hasn’t had the necessary vaccination, there’s a good chance they’ll turn into a Chimera. Just like vampires. Not soppy good-looking vampires for little girls to cry about. But proper evil vampires that want to eat your entire face off. Apparently, if you feel hot and have a craving for raw meat, you’re infected and will be imminently turning into a Chimera. Either that or you’re Jeffrey Dahmer burning in Hell.
Next page: Even more enemies that scuttle and jump at your face!
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]]>The post Good glitches, bad glitches, and why patches are really the gamers enemy appeared first on Game News.
]]>First of all, know that I’m not going into a rant about how glitches are an unforgivable rampaging evil that must be stomped out at all costs here. Games are big, complicated things these days, and I get that glitches are part and parcel of that. In modern, AAA video games releases, we’re talking about some insanely big, insanely complex feats of computer programming, with all kinds of inter-relating variables, nuances and potential pitfalls.
Take a step back from the latest large-scale 3D game you’re playing and think about what’s going on mechanically to make it all happen. You’ll find yourself staring wide-eyed at a mind-boggling feat of logistical engineering. It’s a miracle that a lot of them hold together at all, and a testament to the skill of their creators that they do. So a few pitfalls and unforeseen technical hiccups are going to happen. That’s understandable, and I’m sympathetic to that. Glitches happen. That’s fine. And moreover…
All glitches are not created equal
When glitches occur, they’re not necessarily the end of the world, by a long way. Looking at the case of my Dead Space 2 glitch, they can be (at least in terms of being the end of the game world), but overall, even serious glitches don’t always ruin a game. In fact sometimes they can even add to the experience.
Now I’m not the sort of person who blindly defends developer screw-ups in the name of “It’s funny, who cares?” No-one will lambast the frustrating, buggier failings of the likes of the modern Fallout games or Far Cry 2 more than myself. That shit is just inexcusable, particularly when there’s a brilliant game sitting snugly underneath the large blanket of technical failure. But at the same time, as long as they don’t negatively affect the gameplay, explicit glitches can add to the game.
Above: Acceptable
As great as it is anyway, Oblivion is an even greater cultural gem because of its comedic AI screw-ups. Without glitches, Big Rigs would simply be an unremarkable, long-forgotten racing also-ran, rather than the festival of hilarity it currently stands as. I’d never play it for more than a minute, but I’m glad that it exists. And while these sort of ‘benevolent’ non-lethal glitches can be an annoying narrative break when they occur in a delicately drawn, immersive game world, even the fourth-wall-breaking bird-men and donkey-women of Red Dead Redemption can’t be hated, because of the surreal, otherworldly oddness and inadvertent quirky humour they add to the already inherently off-kilter southern American old west wilderness.
Above: Also acceptable
When these things happen, they’re our b-movie moments. They’re the joyously wrong, messy delights that only the medium of games can throw up, and when they’re as funny and productive as Grand Theft Auto IV’s haunted catapult swing, they should be celebrated rather than lambasted.
Right, perspective clear and arse covered against accusations of sour-grapes knee-jerking following my not-insignificant Dead Space catastrophe, I will continue onto the real problems. And they’re more complicated than you may think.
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