Belwa Does Games

Mass Effect has traditionally been a single player action RPG experience, but now Bioware is expanding the third installments gameplay by also including a very fun, and addictive multiplayer element. Although the demo is limited to just 2 maps, and only one enemy type (I hope you like killing Cerberus operatives over and over!) I’ve managed to sink a serious amount of time into the cooperative horde-mode inspired mayhem.

The demo allows you to play as any of the six available classes, as a human at level 1. As you progress through waves of enemies in each match, you earn experience points for shooting enemies and completing various objectives. Points are primarily awarded based on how much damage you deal, rather than how many killing shots you earn, and are distributed at the end of each match, where you can, if you have earned enough XP to leveled up, put talent points into your class abilities, just like in the single player experience.

In general the upgrades to your abilities provide passive bonuses such as health and shield upgrades. But the further into a given ability you invest points, the more impressive they become. If you’re playing as an engineer for instance, you can upgrade your standard drone from a weak little bot that zaps one or two enemies before being blown away, into a beefed up version with tougher shields, and electric shocks that not only chain from one enemy to another, but also stun them. Additionally, you can invest in abilities that make them stronger when used in unison with other players, such as upgrading the Biotic ability Warp, to have a larger impact radius and force when it hits an enemy floating in a black hole-like Singularity.

In addition earning experience points and leveling up, the best way to advance your character is by buying supply crates with the cash that you earn throughout missions. The supply crates are filled with a random assortment of useful items such as one time use health packs, additional weapons, special ammunition, and even character pack unlocks that allow you to play as different races. Did I mention that you can play as different races by the way? If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to live out your fantasy of smashing through dozens of enemies as an enraged Krogan, this is about the closest you’ll get to it without going on a real life rampage.

Curious about the demo? It’s live on PC, PSN, and Xbox Live (and the demo doesn’t require Xbox Live Gold to play online!)

Non-fluff starts about 60 seconds in.
(Cooperative) Games or Death

Double Fine Studios, the production team behind Psychonauts, Stacking, Brutal Legend, and several other creative and hilarious games is in the news **AGAIN** thanks to the announcement that they will be returning to Double Fine founder Tim Schafer’s roots- the point and click adventure game.

The most interesting aspect of the San Francisco based studio’s new project is not that they’re trying revive the adventure genre for the modern day, but that they are also forgoing the traditional route that many studios take to receive funding for their game. Instead of relying on a publishers, Double Fine is inviting their fans to kickstart the funding of their new project with the goal of reaching $400,000 by mid March, beyond that, they’re also documenting the entire thing with the help of 2 Player Productions, the company behind Reformat The Planet, and, more recently a documentary on Notch and Minecraft.

Regarding the documentary process, Shafer has said “You know how they say you don’t want to know how sausage gets made? Well we’re going to show you how the sausage gets made. We’re going to take our sausage and shove it right in your face.” Furthermore, Schafer promises that fans will be able to contribute to the direction that the project takes by submitting input on the concept art and music that is shared throughout the documentary process.

Tim Schafer has contributed his fair share of point and click adventure games such as The Secret of Monkey Island 1 & 2, and Full Throttle, but the last time he worked on an adventure game was over a decade ago (Grim Fandango). Personally, I think this new enterprise has the potential to be one of the best adventure games ever made.

For those of you interested in learning more about the Kickstart project, Double Fine has an article describing more of the details, and a very funny video with Tim Schafer explaining everything right here.

Link to the press release

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/66710809/double-fine-adventure

(Adventure) Games or Death

Just when I was getting tired of zombies invading everything, someone had to go and make the most amazing trailer in the history of ever. http://ps3.ign.com/articles/115/1150440p1.html

The idea of co-op blended with truly terrifying horror sounds pretty appealing to me. Did I mention the trailer is awesome?

Games or a tropical island filled with Death

Tags zombies video games survival horror

Yet another. beautifully well done Halo live action short has been made. It’s awesome. You should check it out. Courtesy of G4

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/707128/Halo-Reach-Deliver-Hope-Live-Action-Trailer.html

Games or Death (or a kick-ass full length Halo movie)

What more do I need to say?

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/706872/BioShock-Infinite-Trailer-Pretentious-Analysis-Time.htm

…Why are you still reading this?

-Games or (Infinite) Death

Seriously. Why aren’t you playing Limbo right now? Did you already purchase it and beat it? Do you not have an Xbox? Are you gonna make friends with someone who DOES have an Xbox? I have an Xbox! We should hang out sometime! Wanna see Inception? We should REALLY see Inception. But really, If you have one goal this summer (other than seeing Inception) it should be to play Limbo.

The first thing you’ll notice when your download for Limbo finishes is that the game appears to be in only black and white. Rest easy friend, it comes with several shades of gray too. Besides the game’s cartoonish stylization, you’ll notice that it has absolutely no dialogue… or cutscenes… or, say, a character with a face. But Limbo manages to pull it all off. Your character, let’s call him the boy, wakes up in a forest and doesn’t have too many overwhelming choices about which way to go considering right and left are your only options. Since going left will net you a cool achievement trophy right off the bat declaring “Wrong Way,”  choosing right is the preferable way of setting the game off to a smooth start.

Shortly following your smooth start you’ll probably encounter a gruesome death at the hands of a bear trap, thus setting the theme for the rest of your journey throughout Limbo- death. Lots and lots of death. You’ll watch the little boy fall to his death, be crushed, be impaled by spikes, get imapled by an enormous spider, and be shot to death by the games mysterious inhabitants.  You’ll watch the boy’s head get lopped off by bear traps and watch his other limbs get lopped off by the various spinning saws of death. You’ll see him get electrocuted. You’ll watch the boy stumble around controlled by a brain slug, until he dies.

Rest assured, staying alive will be a constant challenge on your journey through Limbo’s exciting world. Death will find you, and you’ll love every minute of it, because even though you’ll die every  70 seconds, each death will only set you back about 10. The game will lead you from forestry to industrial scenery and everywhere in between while challenging your reflexes with tight platforming, and testing your brain with well-integrated and extremely satisfying, mind-bending puzzles that feature incredibly realistic-looking unrealistic physics.

What does that mean you ask? It means the ropes react like real ones would. It means the slant of the floor actually makes objects slide. And it means that when gravity decides to flip left, right, or upside down, Limbo will have you believing that you’re actually falling towards the ceiling.

At the end of the day, Limbo will set you back 1200 Microsoft points, or about 15 bucks. Unless you’re buying an xbox to boot, (highly encouraged) which’ll probably set you back another 200. But don’t worry about the money man! Worry about your goals for the summer! (No really, not kidding. See Inception.)

Games or Death (or brain slug)

Yes It’s a blog. And yes, it’s going to be about video games.

Games or Death