The Gears of War 3 Multiplayer Beta is on for those who pre-ordered Bulletstorm Epic Edition. Week 1, reserved for those with Epic Edition, is almost up. There are to be 4 weeks of the Beta available.
So far, I'm loving the game. The game handles a bit nicer then Gears 2, the new weapons are nice, and all the new additional features are great.
The new weapons include:
the Sawed-off Shotgun, a shotgun with one shot and a long reload time and a shorter range but is even more powerful than the normal shotgun, the Gnasher.
the Retro Lancer, also known by some as the Pendulum Lancer, which is the most powerful of the three main rifles (the Lancer and the Hammerburst being the other two) but the least accurate and slowest firing, and allows the wielder to roadie run into an opponent with the bayonet leading to an instant kill.
Additionally, there are more new map-based weapons:
the Digger Launcher, which replaces a primary weapon, which fires a projectile than can arch over objects then digs into the ground burrowing below obstacles and can explode enemies behind cover.
Incendiary Grenades which kill an opponent on direct impact but also set fire to a small area within the radius of the explosion, dealing damage to any opponent standing in the flames over time.
and the Oneshot, a new heavy weapon that is a super high-powered sniper rifle that requires a charge-up time in the zoomed scope in order to fire which has a small red laser indicating it's target much like the Halo series' Spartan Laser but more versatile.
A new feature added are Weapon Skins, alternate skins for each of the primary starting weapons (the three rifles and the two shotguns). The Chrome Hammerburst skin is available if you have the "Rookie Gear" achievement from Gears of War 2. All three rifles and two shotguns have Urban skins which are unlocked through playing each of the gametypes a certain number of times. Flame skins are unlocked through playing during each week of the beta. The Golden Retro Lancer skin is available through playing 90 matches in the beta; the Golden Retro Lancer can be unlocked for Retail by getting 100 kills with it in the beta.
The stages are simple in concept but very well designed and are highly enjoyable. All the maps are symmetrical to an extent. The maps available so far are:
Thrashball, a devastated sports arena dome.
Checkout, a war-torn shopping mall.
Old Town, a decaying town square.
Trenches, an abandoned mining facility.
The characters available from the start are Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago for the Cogs, and a Drone and a Savage Grenadier for the Locust. Playing 10 games of TDM unlocks Anya, the first female character, for the Cog. Playing 40 games of TDM unlocks Savage Theron for Locust. 50 games unlocks Cole Train, which is Augustus Cole in football gear, and playing as Cole Train 10 times unlocks him for Retail.
There are more characters that are still unobtainable (except through modding/hacking): Flame Grenadier, play 10 matches of Capture the Leader (CTL); Damon Baird, play 20 CTL matches; Kantus, play 10 matches of King of the Hill (KOTH); and Augustus Cole, play 20 KOTH matches.
Yes, it's finally out, the sequel to one of the biggest puzzle game hits of all time. Valve was having people go for spcial achievements, related to a potato, in the indie game bundle, The Potato Sack, to help release the game sooner. Personally, I got the achievement in the game Killing Floor (which I bought individually) which took roughly 2 hours of straight grinding money with several other people online to pool enough money for a $70,000 Potato which served no other purpose than the achievement as far as I know. Whether or not this truly helped, I do not know. I believe Portal 2 was actually unlocked about a half hour before it was officially April 19th, the official date of release, so maybe it did.
Whatever the case, it's out now. I'd go play it, but I feel I should go play the first Portal before I do.
Steam has had amazing deals lately. I bought Borderlands along with ALL of the DLC add-ons for only $7.50! And Bioshock 2 for only $5.00! Additionally, as long as you buy one of the games on sale for this event you are entered for daily drawings to win an entire archive of games from the company involved! This is an amazing marketing deal because I know people who never wanted these games buying them simply because they're so cheap and can possibly get more games for free. Kudos for that.
The deals don't last long and change every day. The first series of deals were with 2K Games, and currently they are with Rockstar Games.
I have been participating in the open beta for the game Darkspore through Steam, the software developed by Valve that acts as a distribution and social network for over a thousand games. Darkspore is partially based on the hit game Spore, but it is a dungeon crawler, involving replaying levels over and over to gain experience and find more and better equipment, with 100 playable heroes of 25 different varieties. The beta was open a few weeks ago during the course of a weekend but closed that Monday. It has reopened again and is currently available to participate in.
More information about the beta can be found here.
Hard Corps: Uprising is a sidescrolling platformer game for the Xbox Live Arcade (Xbox 360) and PlayStation Network (Playstation 3). It is the latest addition to the popular Contra series being the sequel to Contra: Hard Corps, and is the first game of the series that does not include "Contra" in the title. The game was published by Konami and developed by Arc System Works which is known for its Guilty Gear and BlazBlue fighting game series.
PLOT
"In 2613, the world is now ruled by an empire known as the Commonwealth under the reign of Tiberius. Neighboring nations have suffered under the Commonwealth's oppression and Resistance Forces rise across the land. However, so many Resistance Fighters have fallen to the overwhelming might of the empire, that their strength is now severely diminished. A group of elite soldiers rise through the ranks of the Resistance and band together to execute a desperate plan." - from Wikipedia.
Hard Corps: Uprising's opening movie shows Arc System Works' skill with the anime artsyle and character design, and composer Daisuke Ishiwatari's great music and identifiable style.
CHARACTERS
Left to right - Krystal, Harley, Sayuri
There are two playable characters to start with: Bahamut and Krystal. There are currently three additional characters available for purchase as Downloadable Content (DLC): Harley, Sayuri, and Leviathan.
The main male protagonist Bahamut (top image, left) was once a soldier of the Commonwealth. However, after witnessing a squad of imperial soldiers execute innocent people he turned his back on the empire and joined the Resistance.
The main female protagonist Krystal (top image, right) was a regular civilian girl until imperial troops attacked her home, killing her parents and shooting her right eye. She became a solider and joined Bahamut after that to try to help end the war so no one else would have to suffer through what she went through.
The characters Bahamut, Krystal, and Harley play similarly. Bahamut is good all around both offensively, defensively and has good maneuverability. Krystal is slightly weaker both offensively and defensively, but she has much greater maneuverability.
Harley is strong offensively and the strongest defensively, but has the worst maneuverability, making the levels towards the end of the game exceedingly difficult as his jumps often end up falling short resulting in an instant death.
Harley Daniels
Sayuri is completely different. She uses a katana as opposed to a gun like all the others; her attacks are short range but she can charge her slash to make a projectiles that pierces through all enemies and obstacles. Additionally, her attacks after upgrading are insanely fast and ridiculously powerful, making her beyond the strongest offensively. She also has the unique ability to launch an enemy into the air with a dashing punch, then can follow up by jumping up to them and slamming them to the ground at a forward-down angle.
Sayuri (without her hat)
A video made by me showing off a fully upgraded Sayuri in action.
Leviathan is a mix of Krystal and Sayuri; he only has one weapon slot and poor defenses but is the most maneuverable and has the unique abilities to slide kick, back-flip, and throw grenades. On another note, Leviathan plays through the game just like all the others but his presence as a playable character does not happen canonically (it occurs as a dream or something). This results with Leviathan fighting himself as a boss.
GAMEPLAY
Like all Contra games, the player walks back and forth across the side-scrolling screen while platforming, shooting, and dodging enemies and other hazards. The player can aim and shoot in eight directions: up, down, left, right, and at each 45 degree angle in between. There are eight stages in total, including, in order, a desert, a jungle, ruins, a city highway, a laboratory, an underground cargo train, a towering building, and on top of flying battleships. Most of these stages involve occasional platforming while mostly focusing on combat; however, towards the last few stages, platforming becomes life-or-death while the combat is still intense with enemies and projectiles coming at you from all directions. Each stage features multitudes of enemies in large variety and throw up to several mini-bosses at you throughout leading up to the final bosses. Everything in this game follows a pattern and learning these patterns is the key to success at the game.
There are two game modes: Arcade Mode and Rising Mode; there is also Online Mode which allows players to join another play over the internet to play either Arcade or Rising Mode cooperatively. Arcade Mode is a single-shot run through all eight stages in order; this mode gives your character minimal health and lives with no weapon or movement upgrades but grants access to all character skills. Rising Mode gives your character only one skill and nothing else but uses a Shop system where points you earn from playing Rising Mode can be used to purchase all of the upgrades; the points you earn with one character do not carry over to the others. Additionally, Rising Mode allows the player to choose which stage they wish to play and continues to the end from there.
MUSIC
The music in this game was composed by Daisuke Ishiwatari. He is well known for his work composing songs for Arc System Works' fighting game series Guilty Gear and Blazblue. For those familiar with those games, the songs in this game will have a very familiar vibe. Ishiwatari's style really shines through here.
MYTHOUGHTS
I love this game. The art design, the characters, the story, the gameplay, the music - all of it is just fantastic. I'm hoping for more from this game in the future. I hope to see Arc System Works continue to work with Konami and make bigger games like this.
SCORE
10/10
A 10/10 may seem a bit generous, but a 10 in my book doesn't necessarily mean a perfect game, just a seriously awesome one.
