Shank 2 announced, coming 2012

EA recently held a press conference in Vegas we're Klei Entertainment, the makers of Shank said they were going to announce a new ip, and surprisingly enough, it was Shank 2, the sequel to the 2D side-scrolling with a unique comic book look.

Klei Entertainment is a fairly new company. Aside from Shank, they also created Eets which they self-published and recieved positive reviews. With the success of Shank, and now currently collaborating with EA partners, they have been working on Shank 2 for a year now. Aside from improving visuals, combat, etc for the sequel, they will also include an arcade-style co-op survival mode. Add a friend and survive as long as you came against hordes of enemies.

The official shank website is updated with a Shank 2 blog. Shank 2 will be out for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC in 2012.

Star Wars: The Old Republic gets a release date

One of the most anticipated MMO's has finally received a release date. Was expecting a longer wait sometime next year, but looks like there will be a new big MMO to try out before the end of the year.  Bioware has been patient with the development of their first MMORPG, which is great, so I'm really hoping that this triple A MMO will be as ground breaking as they say. 

Update your calendars, Star Wars: The Old Republic comes out on December 20 and December 22 for Europe. They also announced the payment fees:

• 1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
• 3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
• 6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94

Each copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic will have a 30 day free subscription, just like any other MMO. After that, you'll have to go with either one of the 3 options after the free month.

The game looks pretty sweet, but the fact that the gameplay feels a bit similar to other big MMO out now leaves me worried. Is the solid story telling enough to give Bioware a successful MMO title? well, we got only months left to find out.

[Source: Gameinformer]

All Kamen Rider - Rider Generation Impressions

Henshin! Now it may not look right for a grown man to be watching a kids show of a Grasshopper man fighting costumed badguys but it's what makes part of the world go round. I recently got All kamen Rider - Rider Generation for the Nintendo DS and if you're a Kamen Rider fan or love super hero cross-overs then maybe you should check this game out.

Rider Generation is a simple beat 'em' up action game similar to Double Dragon or Streets of Rage but instead of controlling unrelated brothers or a a bunch of ex-cops you control bug-themed super heroes called Kamen Riders. The roster comprises of every main Kamen Rider hero from every show up until Kamen Rider 000. You can choose 2 Riders, with the 1st being your controlled character and the 2nd being an AI controlled character as you punch, slash, shoot and Rider kick your way through waves of bad guys. It's a simple concept with some cute little sprites to go along with it.

I haven't gotten far in the game but it looks like something I will enjoy playing for a bit and I haven't found any use of the touchscreen yet. I also haven't found an option to switch control between you and your partner either. However these are just things that I might have missed since I can't read any Japanese.

Duke Nukem: Critical Mass

Never heard of this Duke Nukem game? I'm not surprised. I had never heard of this game too up until one of my trips to Datablitz. When I saw it on the shelf I went "wtf?" and as soon as I got home, I did some research on the game.

There were two of these Duke Nukem games in development, one for the Nintendo DS and the other for the Sony PSP. Trailers of these games exist on the internet and while the PSP one looked like a fun little budget 3rd person shooter, it never made it out to the market. The DS one got released and I gotta say after playing the little sucker I'd tell anyone to steer clear from this game, even if it's just for shits and giggles.

The DS version is a mix of many types of shooters. For the most part it's a really bad side scroller then it goes into these sniper segments. After that you find Duke wearing a jet pack and it becomes a top down space ship shooter style and to finish it all, the game becomes a 3rd person shooter similar to the PS1 Duke Nukem games.

Now if the developers just focused on one of these aspects then I think the game would have been decent or at the most part playable. But since it's split up into all of these game types, it just becomes a cluster fuck or bad controls, half-assed gameplay, and just downright utter confusion.

I had intially planned to beat the game and then review it just to be able to show the world how bad this is but I can't even work up the nerve to pop the game back in my poor DS Lite.

Weekend, what are you playing?

You know the drill. It's the weekend and you gotta tell us and the world what you are up to in gaming.

Migoy: Well my analog stick is still on the fritz so any PSP games I have are on hold for the moment. I'd play them on Phats but the buttons on the PSP-1000 aren't up to the task most of the time so my DS is getting some love at the moment. Still on the DBKai/DBZ craze and I got Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butoden on there. Beat the DBZ story mode in 4 hours but after doing the movie fights, alternate stories, and most of the challenge missions, the game time has racked up to 12 hours which is quite hefty for an anime fighting game, especially one that has gone under my radar for a few months after it was first released.

Quash: Actually not playing anything right now. Currently in the province visiting family, and with all the activities planned the whole week, all i got was 2 hours of Duels of Planeswalker in my PC just to kill time. Before I left though i was able to do 2 hours of Gears of War 3. Still at the start of the campaign and only able to do at least 2 horde games in multiplayer. I already notice that it takes awhile to find a game. North America seems to have no problems with matchmaking but Asia seems to have a deeply lower pool of players. Hopefully that picks up in the following weeks or maybe its my NAT settings?