Pick 5: Remembering the best of LucasArts
With the recent announcement of LucasArts closing down thanks to Disney being the new owners, I think it was only right to pay tribute to great games that came out of that studio. This pick 5 is mostly Star Wars of course, but these games will never be the same in my book. It's the end of a great era.
Jedi Outcast
Jedi Outcast had the weirdest controls and gameplay with a lightsaber, but I can't deny how much fun I had when this game came out. This game had a mix of FPS and third person perspective, which was quite unusual during its time. It was set after the events of the original Star Wars trilogy and to be honest, the StarWars fan in me enjoyed the story that took after the films. Jedi Outcast was also the first game to give me a dose of lightsaber multiplayer action, which was quite chaotic looking back. We had players literally flailing their lightsabers everywhere, it was amazing. This game wasn't developed by LucasArts Studios directly, but they were one of the publishers and they still gave the greenlight on this project since this is a licensed title.
Star Wars: KOTOR 1 and 2
Star Wars: KOTOR 1 and 2 are games I'll never seem to forget. It was the perfect game to make an RPG out of the Star Wars universe. if you're familiar with Bioware's previous and recent works, then you'll be familiar with the game's mechanics. The turn-based D&D style combat is never a bad thing. I can still recall the shocking ending in the first game when you find out the truth about the protagonist, such a classic.
Star Wars battlefront 1 and 2
To sum up Battlefront for the people that have never heard of this game, it's pretty much Battlefield in a nut shell, but in the Star Wars world. There are classes, vehicles, big maps, and iconic characters from the Star Wars universe, it's a multiplayer game everybody loved. It was great and it's sad that a sequel to Star Wars Battlefront 2 never came to light.Thanks to the online leaks, it was confirmed a third game was in development, but was cancelled. Who knows why it never pushed through. With LucasArts now closed, any hope of getting a game like this again is gone. Just imagine Star Wars Battlefront in the graphics today? Mind blown.
Monkey island series
A LucasArts game that isn't a Star Wars game!? Believe it, and it even turned out to be one of the best point and click adventures out there today. Monkey Island was entertaining to play and even fun to watch for people spectating the game. Curse of Monkey Island was personal favorite and was actually my official introduction to point and click adventures. I've been exposed to games such as Phantasmagoria and the Gabriel Knight series, but this one I really played and finished. These types of games are quite rare and the you'll hardly see anything like this again. Hopefully a publisher or a studio picks this series up because it would be such a waste. Actually, I wish Telltale games does some magic and gets the go signal to work on another Monkey Island. They were actually the developers of one Monkey Island game, and I'd like them to do another. That my friends, is a match made in heaven.
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
This is probably a personal favorite. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is set after the Battle of Hoth, and it tells a backstory placed during episodes V and VI. It's a third person shooter at heart and it was one of my first games on my N64. It was a console launch game and I still remember playing this game over and over, especially the Battle of Hoth stage, that lets you participate in the battle itself. Looking back, it did look like crap, but I clearly remember me getting all those floating logo symbols and playing for hours even when I was done with the game. Good times.
It's sad to see LucasArts go. I was really anticipating Star Wars 1313 since it was bringing Uncharted-like style into the Star Wars universe, which looked amazing to me. But of course Disney still needs to think as a company, so hopefully it won't be years until we see studios or publishers make use of the Star Wars franchise.
What about you? Was there any game you loved that came out of LucasArts?
Metal Gear Rising: Jetstream Sam DLC should be available today
Don't let go of you Revengeance copy just yet! A mini-campaign DLC that lets you play as the samurai with a red katana should be available for purchase in PSN and Xbox Live.
Confirmation came from Konami's official Twitter page. No word on how much content was placed on this DLC, but hey, we get to slice up more dudes, that should be enough incentive.
The DLC is rumored to cost around $6.99 by Destructoid. If you have no idea what Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is all about, have a quick look at our video review on the game.
Injustice: Gods Among Us TV Spot with Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes
NetherRealm Studios(Mortal Kombat) just released the first TV Spot for their latest fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us. It's a hilarious bit featuring Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes, or Jay and Silent Bob for some, debating which DC super hero would win in a fight.
Aquaman, we love you deep inside. Injustice Gods Among Us comes out on April 16 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the Wii U.
Monday Impressions: StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm(Zerg campaign)
Two weeks ago, way before the long weekend thanks to holy week and way before BioShock Infinite blew my mind, I was playing a game on my PC. A game that just went live with it's expansion. Thanks to it updating your game client to the most recent version of the game, all I needed was an account that had already activated that expansion. Thankfully a friend graciously offered me to try it out when he's not online, so I took the chance and started playing Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm's Zerg campaign.
I'm pretty grateful a friend of mine Moe, gave me this opportunity since with the crazy 1st quarter line up of games coming out, I wanted the expansion but it wasn't my priority. Heart of the Swarm expands the Starcraft 2 game with a continuation of the game's story and added units for both campaign and the crazy famous multiplayer that is all over E-Sports right now. My focus is the campaign mode. I enjoyed what Blizzard did in the Terran campaign, so I was quite curious how the Zerg would play out.
The gameplay is nothing new. Everything is quite familiar and that's a good thing. Minor visual aids are added into the game such as showing the number of harvesters you have in a given hatchery, but aside from that, same game, just different skin.
If you haven't finished the Terran campaign, then playing the Zerg campaign will be an instant spoiler for you right off the bat. Heck, the new menu screen is spoiler enough. So if you have no idea about the story, skip the paragraph below, or simple read at your own risk.
With Kerrigan no longer the Queen of Blades, she regains her memories and actually has no recollection of her ever being the Zerg queen. It's as if that part of her was ripped out of her when you activated the Protoss device. Apparently her ability to control Zerg is still there, but nowhere near as her old self. Through the course of the game, you slowly see Kerrigan regain her control as the Zerg queen, placing all her focus in getting revenge from Mengsk, the Dominion leader.
From what I'm told, I am halfway through the story and its pretty much straightforward really. A bit of Kerrigan romance with Jim Raynor here and there, and her getting a grip of the Zerg swarm once again. The story has nothing fancy or anything that would make your head hurt. It's a personal vendetta for Kerrigan to kill Mengsk, and that's mostly the main angle. The real overall threat introduced in the Terran campaign still lingers in the story's background, which made me to believe that part in the story will conclude during the Protoss campaign, or Blizzard says otherwise and adds more expansions to extend the game's lifespan.
The missions in the game play out very similar to the Terran campaign. you are usually given two planets with different variety of missions, each having a new unit introduced and unlocked for the player to use. A bit of player choice was given there but its more of what you prefer doing first than anything else. One planet and mission introduces the Mutalisk unit, while the other unlocks the banelings.
Just like the Terran's upgrade feature, which allows you to add a certain upgrade to improve or add an added effect to the unit, the Zerg has evolution and strains that change certain zerg units to your liking. each unit in the game has three abilities you can pick from which can be changed at any time outside of a mission, like giving zerglings increased movement speed, or more health regeneration to roaches. But since you have to pick one out of the three available, it boils down to how you want to play that unit.
Customization becomes a bit deeper with evolution. As you progress through the campaign, you are given two choices to evolve that given unit permanently. The choice you make on this one disregards the other evolution. Some are pretty hard decisions since both come out strong, while some are just a no brainer. It's a good addition and encourages an additional playthrough to try different evolutions.
Hero leveling is something new in this campaign. With Kerrigan slowly getting her powers back, doing side objectives or moving forward into the campaign gives kerrigan levels which improve her damage and health. Reaching a certain threshold like level 10 for example, allows you to pick a new ability . There's always two choices when you reach a certain point, and you can only pick one at a time. But there's room to experiment since you can change her abilities anytime outside a mission.
Missions in the game is quite similar to most RTS. Some are full on base against base, while some are limited unit missions with Kerrigan, or survival missions that require you to hold off for a given amount of time, the usual seen in RTS games. I'm playing on brutal difficulty because I like giving myself a hard time, and I'm definitely getting the challenge. It felt like a refresher course for me since I'm originally a Zerg player and playing on that level kept me at the edge or my seat. The computer is relentless.
The added evolutions and the mix of old and new units make the campaign worth playing. As you upgrade and evolve your units, you might feel a bit overpowered, but it's really just another angle on how you play that certain unit. I still think the drop pods of the Terran in the first campaign is one of the strongest upgrades, and I'm still on the lookout for something as strong.
I don't plan on touching the multplayer exclusively anytime soon though, sad to say. I was completely addicted to the MP when Starcraft 2 first went live and I just don't have time to get used to the meta all over again. Starcraft 2 can be complex, and believe it or not, it involves a lot of practice and skill to rise up. I've done it, and again, I just don't have time. Maybe ill do a few rounds just for fun, to try out the new units on each side, but my reaching the top division days are over.
The campaign is fun but nothing groundbreaking is seen here. But one thing is for sure though - As much as Starcraft 2 is the same game way back when the first game came out, the game is still so much fun for any RTS fan. It's formula is so simple that a casual or new player can pick it up and have fun, but at the same time complex and deep that it can also satisfy the professional and hardcore. Blizzard really struck gold with Stacraft, and they maintained it so well that the sequel and its expansions will have the same, or even longer lifespan as the original. be it campaign or multiplayer, Starcraft 2 is still the king of the RTS genre. It's that simple
Remember Me trailer wants you to remember the enemies in the game
A new trailer was released by Capcom for their latest IP coming this June. The trailer introduces the enemies that the player will go against as Nilin, a memory hunter who ironically lost her memory. Check out the trailer below.
The combat in Remember Me has nothing special from what's shown so far. it's the typical beat em up games, and I'm just hoping it has some crazy combinations to break any repetitive feeling. But combat is not what caught my interest. It's more about the game's futuristic setting, with memory now compromised, easily manipulated, stored, or stolen by people like memory hunters. It's a cool concept and hopefully Capcom does a good at executing a concept like this in Remember Me.
Oh, and another thing - I hate dubstep.....that is all.
Remember Me will be out June 4, 2013 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.