Wow. At some point this month, we hit 1,000,000 pageviews on the site. But who’s counting? Us. We are. We want to thank you all for making this momentous occasion possible. There’s no way we could have hit this milestone without each and every one of you wonderful Twinfiknights. We definitely have big plans for the future and we hope we can count on your continued support. Here’s to 1 million more, you beautiful people!

The post We Did It! Twinfinite Hits 1,000,000 Views! Thank you all! appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

Greetings wonderful Twinfiknights! Like a lot of the staff, my summer vacation has officially started and hot damn am I pumped. No more stressing over finals, papers, or staring at words like “occasion” or “conscientious” at 5 in the morning convinced that they’re spelled wrong. They’re not. I’m going to enjoy using my new-found freedom to go back and tackle my insane backlog and taking a second look at games I had fun with but haven’t touched in a while. One game that I’m definitely going back to is Awesomenauts, the 80s cartoon-y MOBA from Ronimo Games. I reviewed it when it first came out and loved it. We’ll be streaming Awesomenauts on our Twitch page this Saturday at 3:30pm EST and you should join us! We want to hear what you guys are planning to do to enjoy this wonderful time of the year (Christmas can go kick a can). Leave a comment, or better yet, come join us on the stream. The best plans will win a free Steam copy of the game! How do you say no to a free game? That has a Soviet space monkey?? That has a jetpack and drops mines on people???

The post Twinfinite’s Summer Giveaway! appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

Super Metroid is one of those Nintendo games that is timeless and is widely considered one of the best games ever. With the lackluster pickings on the Wii U’s virtual console, it even has the distinction of being one of the best games available on the Wii U. In recognition of the 30th anniversary of the original Famicom, Super Metroid is on sale for 30 cents starting today and continuing for 30 days. This is the perfect chance for all Wii U owners to experience this gaming classic.

[Source: GameInformer]

The post Super Metroid On Sale On Wii U Virtual Console appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

On paper, Payday: The Heist seemed like it would be the perfect opportunity for gamers to get a chance to live the Ocean’s 11 lifestyle and had us master criminal types at the Twinfinite office foaming at the mouth. Unfortunately (or fortunately for real life banks), we make the worst crack team of thieves ever.  Even more unfortunate were the confusing controls, extremely long missions, and the bland gameplay that plagued the finished product and left much to be desired. The sequel is slated to fix all of these complaints from the first Payday and was just announced to also be releasing via physical copies by publisher 505 Games. Payday 2 releases on all major consoles and Steam August 2013.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The post Payday 2 Releasing On Physical Copies In August appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

We have no idea what this crazy bastard is up to pretty much 100% of the time

Hi everybody! I hope you all have been enjoying the new Twinfinite site in all its prettiness. I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself as your new Community Manager. What this means exactly, I have no idea but I assume that I’ll be managing the underground fight club and our monthly shark knife hunt…

That shark should have never killed Batman’s parents…

…So I’ve just been told that we DON’T have a fight club and we’re not allowed to have a shark hunt. What’s the point then? I’m pretty sure my contract stipulates at least one shark hunt…

Anyways, back to the business at hand. I’ll be in charge of restarting our weekly Twinfinite Discusses! feature. We’ll have a topic that will be up for discussion and we definitely want to hear what you guys have to say. As a site, Twinfinite will definitely try to get a more defined streaming schedule so you guys can tune in and catch our capers and antics, but there is a strict no shenanigans rule because of the time a grizzly bear got loose in the office. We still can’t get the clown out of the ventilation system and every time the A/C is on it smells like cotton candy in the lobby. I will also be accepting submissions for guest contribution posts; if you have an idea for a guest post just email me at muaz@twinfinite.net and I’ll work with you to polish it up and get it ready for the front page.

If you guys have any questions/comments/concerns/want to sign my petition for more shark hunts feel free to get in touch with me. I can’t wait to get started with you guys!

The post Important Twinfinite Community Announcement appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

With the recent news of the hire of John Needham as Lionhead Studios’ new head, and the upcoming announcement of the next generation Xbox, this is the perfect opportunity to take a look at the history of the Fable series, one of the few remaining Xbox exclusives. While the games weren’t the revolutionary masterpieces that the bombastic Peter Molyneux kept promising his fans, they all had at least some new features that helped the series stand out.

The first Fable was, to me, the most fascinating RPG I had ever played. Starting as a kid and seeing your character grow into adulthood was so different from any other game. It gave you the feeling that you were crafting your own character from childhood through adulthood. The game even made changes to your character model according to your morality alignment in addition to changes that depended on the weight of your weapon/armor combination. The aspect that most impressed me was how if you put all your points into melee focused attributes, your character bulked up and got muscular, focusing on ranged abilities made you taller, and magic users had glowing tattoos spread all over their bodies. If you took a lot of damage in combat you even developed scars!

The sequel introduced a mechanic that helped players take a more active hand in deciding the condition of the world around them. You could buy property and set rent prices which was an additional way to affect your morality scale and get discounts on merchandise. Setting rent low raised your good alignment and made your tenants love you. Raising it made you as hated as Molyneux was when he talked up the series to near impossible levels and having most of the features he promised be absent from the final product. Without a shadow of a doubt, the best aspect of Fable 2 was the introduction of the character, Reaver. Voiced by the ever-charming Stephen Fry, Reaver was one of the characters you recruited over the course of the game and was the most arrogant, selfish, vain, and wonderful characters to ever populate the series. he was so well-received that Lionhead brought him back and gave him and equally prominent role in Fable 3. His dry wit and general disdain for everyone and everything other than himself had you constantly chuckling.

The weapons of Fable 3 were the first thing that stood out as you played the game. Depending on how you used them and what you killed, the weapons would morph and evolve to look different and take on different stat attributes. By the end of my playthrough, my sword had a clockwork handle and golden glow while my pistol had a bone handle and some other crazy tomfoolery that looked great. This meant that everyone’s weapons had the potential to be one of a kind. Another point of originality was that your character was fully leveled up at the halfway point in the game. This was one of the few Molyneux promises that lived up to the hype. Characters are always fully powered versions of themselves either near or at the end of the game and this feature allowed players to enjoy the fruits of their early grinding and equipment scavenging. This ties into the next great aspect of the game; once you become king, you have to make some difficult choices like any king would. Do you keep an orphanage open even though it is a drain on your resources or do you close it down to use that money to protect your borders later on? Tough choices like that add grey areas to a game that, up to this point, had been more black and white. Fable 3 also went a step further with its voiceover cast. Whereas the first two games had only a few well known voices, the third game includes some big names such as Stephen Fry reprising his role as Reaver, Ben Kingsley, Simon Pegg, John Cleese and more. Their extraordinary work helped make the characters they played more memorable (and entertaining) than they would have otherwise been.

While each entry in the series had its own points of success, the second and third games each had their share of missteps. The second game had no final confrontation and just ended while the third game had some arbitrary number point you had to reach to get the best ending and gave you no clear indication of what that number was. In my opinion, the original Fable had the best combination of tried and true gameplay mechanics and innovative features to make it the most enjoyable. Ignoring the abomination that was Fable: The Journey, we haven’t had a new entry in the series in almost three years. This could mean that Lionhead has been developing the newest game for the next-gen Xbox console. As one of the few remaining Xbox exclusives, hopefully we’ll hear some news during the May 21st Microsoft conference or at E3 this year. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to jump back into Fable 3 to fart in people’s faces while wearing a chicken suit and a crown and shooting fireballs at people.

I was being 100% serious about the chicken suit

The post Fable: Molyneux And Molyold appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

We here at Twinfinite LOVED XCOM: Enemy Unknown. There was the playthrough of the game with the soldiers named after people on staff and it had a place on many of our GOTY lists. A first person shooter version was announced years ago but shelved by 2K Games after unsuccessful reboots of Shadowrun and Syndicate, until now. The success of XCOM: EU has to figure in their decision to revisit this interpretation of the series. With a third person perspective and a setting similar to that of the hit TV series Mad Men, The Bureau seems to be a depiction of the first iteration of the XCOM project. If the gameplay is as tight and interesting as last year’s strategy game, 2K Games will have another hit on their hands. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified releases on all major consoles August 20th.

The post Third-Person XCOM Shooter Rebranded As The Bureau: XCOM Declassified appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

After Lionhead Studios released Fable: The Journey in October 2012, Peter Molyneux announced that he would be leaving the company he helped found, to work at 22Cans. Since then, the company famous for making one of the few remaining Xbox exclusive franchises has remained quiet about future games and plans for his replacement.  That silence ended today when Microsoft announced that John Needham, the former CEO of Cryptic Studios and Gazillion Entertainment, would attempt to fill the ambitious and bombastic Molyneux’s shoes as head of the England-based studio.  On the Lionhead website John writes:

“This is a historic time in our industry and I’m excited, and honoured, to be joining Lionhead and Microsoft Studios,’ John says of his appointment. “Our vision is focused on building innovative gaming services and AAA experiences at Lionhead, and the rest of Microsoft Studios, which take advantage of Microsoft’s incredible hardware and software platforms. Personally, I can’t wait to get started.”

Hopefully with this announcement, we’re one step closer to hearing something about the future of the Fable franchise and the next generation Xbox.

[Source: GameInformer]

The post Microsoft Appoints New Head Of Lionhead Studios appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

The anxious wait for a Pikmin 3 release date has finally come to an end. Out of the deluge of news coming from yesterday’s Nintendo Direct conference came the announcement that fans can hurl around their cute little flower people starting August 4th. With the charming world now in HD and the addition of new Pikmin types, such as the rock and flying Pikmin, this third installment in the series seems geared to make a big splash this summer.

The post Nintendo Reveals Pikmin 3 Release Date appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

Earlier today, developer Deep Silver released the newest Ride To Hell: Retribution trailer and boy oh boy does it look devilishly glorious. There’s fisticuffs, gun fights, more fisticuffs, motorcycle gun fights, even more fisticuffs, grateful damsels, and the most fisticuffs. Did I mention the fist-fighting? There’s a lot of it. The vibe the trailer is giving off is Red Dead Redemption meets the FX TV series, Sons of Anarchy if the had a lot of punching in them. The game releases June 2013 and looks to be a stupid amount of fun.

The post Deep Silver Releases New Ride To Hell Trailer appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

Capcom has revised their earning forecast for the last fiscal year, announcing that they will be posting a “special loss” of 7.2 billion yen (over $73 million). They are attributing this loss to a combination of factors, namely: failing to properly market their recent games, a “decline in quality due to excessive outsourcing”, and cancelling games that were outsourced to overseas companies. In the future, they will be developing more games in-house. Despite the loss, Capcom is reporting a net income of 2.9 billion yen (about $29.5 million) due to the respectable sales of Resident Evil 6 and DmC: Devil May Cry.

[Source: Joystiq]

The post Capcom To Focus On Developing Internally After Posting “Special Loss” appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

Today, Twisted Pixel is releasing a bundle of four of their games on Xbox Live. The bundle includes The Maw, Splosion Man, Ms. Splosion Man, and Comic Jumper. For a limited time, this bundle will be available for 800 Microsoft points ($10). Since each of these games still costs about that much individually, this is a steal. If you haven’t a couple or any of these games yet, go grab this bundle now.

(Header image from Destructoid)

The post Twisted Pixel Bundle Available Today appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

An exclusive gameplay reveal video was released on IGN earlier today and game director Yui Tanimura explained a few of the improvements and focuses of Dark Souls II. The main improvement he elaborated on through a  translator was the graphical quality.

One of the things we thought was critical to that was the graphical improvements for more reality, more realistic expressions of everything we want to show in the game.

The game looks great and seems just as jam-packed full of insane enemies and tons of new ways to die as the first Dark Souls. With so many of my Twinfinite coworkers avid players of the original, you can be sure that we’ll be eagerly waiting for any additional news.

The post Dark Souls II Trailer And Gameplay Video appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

With the recent closing of LucasArts, we at Twinfinite wanted to take a look back and reminice about our favorite games from that studio. The wide range of games chosen prove how successful LucasArts was for the 30+ years they were in business. While the studio is closed, we all hope that their successful franchises (and their former employees) find new homes and give future gamers a chance to experience their incredibly fun and diverse library. Keep reading for our favorite LucasArts games!

I’ve got a long, sharp lesson for you to learn today…

Look, all I really need to say is that there is a reason Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer are legends in this industry and it leads back to The Secret of Monkey Island. You get the opportunity, nay, the privilege of playing as Guybrush Threepwood, the hapless pirate wannabe. This is your relatively standard point and click adventure game which was so popular in the late 80s and early 90s, but like all of Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer’s early games, the humor was incredible and the references were plentiful. This is a game that I still have installed on a computer and play at least 1 time a year. Now get out there and practice because you fight like a dairy farmer.

There was once a time when LucasArts was a company that signaled an onset of change and quality. A time when it wasn’t just about frequent Star Wars games. LucasArts was responsible for a lot of great quality games, especially during the console generation of the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox.

With games like the obscure but impressive board game/3D fighter Wrath Unleashed, or the hilarious, violently excessive third person shooter Armed and Dangerous, it felt like the gaming industry had a developer and publisher that wasn’t afraid to try new things that they honestly believed in.

Then there was a little shooter called Mercenaries, where you took jobs for obscene amounts of money to blow everything up.

Mercenaries was released in 2005 and iterated on the open world genre perfected by the Grand Theft Auto by giving you the tools to demolish almost everything your heat seeking rocket launcher could reach. The destructible environments really made you feel like a complete and total badass by accepting contracts from different nations in war with one another. After choosing one of three mercenaries, you begin your mission. One moment, you work for the North Koreans and the next, you could be pulling a hit on someone for the Mafia. It’s the variety and how you choose to do what needs to be done that makes this game feel like one giant, interactive blockbuster action flick.

There are quite a few games I more than like in a way that LucasArts is responsible for, but when I think of the sheer amount of games they had a hand in bringing to our consoles and computers, I think of Mercenaries and its wonderful playground of destruction.

Real talk: My favorite movie of all time is Raiders of the Lost Ark. I dragged my parents to see it in the theater at least eight times, and receiving it on VHS still remains one of my all-time favorite gifts I received.

With the benefit of a bit of hindsight, the third one is still really good and the second is…actually kind of crappy and racist. Raiders however is the perfect adventure film. It’s a film series that deserved the perfect adventure game…

…and it got one: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.

This LucasArts classic from 1992 uses the SCUMM engine and takes place shortly after The Last Crusade. Indiana Jones once again travels the globe just before the start of World War II in search of the lost city of Atlantis. One of the most impressive tools of this game is that you can choose to play it following one of three ‘paths’; Team, Wits, or Fists. Each path leads to unique gameplay experiences, but let’s be honest — Fists is the only way to go for the true Indy experience.

There was talk at the time that Fate of Atlantis was going to be the fourth Indiana Jones movie. It’s too bad it never panned out that way because the story and characterization in this game is easily right up there with the best this series had to offer. Oh well, I guess it could have been worse. At least Spielberg and Lucas didn’t do something stupid like make another movie with tons of CGI and aliens and stuff…

Though I could easily say that The Secret of Monkey Island is my favorite game of all time, my love for LucasArts adventure games goes much deeper. Back in the 90s when most of my gaming experiences involved the usual big-name franchises like Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, I simply enjoyed games. When I discovered The Secret of Monkey Island, and thus, adventure games, I came to absolutely love them. It changed my life, so to speak. My gaming life.

There was this charm and hilarity to playing SoMI that was beyond comparison with any other game I’d played. From one random and insane circumstance to another, with puzzles, puns, and Alice in Wonderland-style logic stringing them together, I fell in love with the genre. It’s also the reason why I have to think twice when writing the word “scum” to consider whether it’s really spelled “SCUMM.” And, of course, Michael Land’s tunes added this great dimension to the game that was the impetus to seek out more gaming soundtracks and actually pay attention to the background music more often. Playing that game was such a positive turn for my nerd life, I even bonded with new nerd friends because of it. I didn’t happen upon the game on my own; someone I knew at school had played and loved it enough to recommend it to me, and even lend me her copy. Since I was new to the logic, I didn’t understand some of the puzzles, so we ended up chatting on the phone often thereafter.

I went on to play other LucasArts titles afterward, like LOOM, Grim Fandango, and the rest of the Monkey Island series, including the last title that was developed by Telltale Games. I love them all, and to this day the kind of game that excites me most is always going to be an adventure game. And my love for The Secret of Monkey Island (thanks, LucasArts, for hiring Ron Gilbert and aiding in making that happen!) is what started it all.

I’ll always remember my first really great LucasArts that really got me hooked. It had everything I wanted in a Star Wars game, lightsaber swinging, Force power using, Jawa killing, and much much more. That game was Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. The Force power customization was a blast to upgrade and made you feel like you were actually getting stronger instead of small stat percentage increases like in other games. Unfortunately, like in every other Star Wars game with Force powers, the light side powers were the same boring choices like Force Push or Mind Control, while the dark side powers were all the fun, offensive ones like Force Lightning or Choke. This was extremely tricky for me because I always wanted (and will always want) to play as a Jedi not a Sith. After a few levels of choking and zapping enemies to death, I figured I would be a Jedi that just happened to use Sith powers…

Going back to the Jawa killing, my favorite memory of the game was a level on Tatooine where I was using my patented Force run/lightning/lightsaber throw move, sprinting from one end of the level to the other accidentally killing the Jawas I was supposed to be saving from the Tuskan Raiders. It was funnier than it should have been, but their little squeals and screams were ridiculous.

After LucasArts’ doors were closed, the developer of the game, Raven Software, released the source code of the game. Hopefully, the will let people who haven’t gotten a chance to play the game yet will give it a chance now. Since it was so well received when it first released a decade ago, I’m confident that it will be enjoyed today and hopefully convince The Walt Disney Company to release a new game in the series.

I laughed way too hard at this when Mike suggested it…

The post Twinfinite’s Favorite LucasArts Games appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

GameInformer is reporting Disney has closed their publisher LucasArts. The official statement from Disney (which recently acquired LucasFilm and LucasArts) reads as follows:

“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”

The fate of the upcoming Star Wars 1313 game is up in the air, even though the demo was well received at E3 last year. A representative at Disney has said that they are considering options of external development and publishing for ongoing projects. The future for previously successful series such as Knights Of The Old Republic, the Jedi Knight/Dark Forces games, and Rogue Squadron is likewise murky. Our sympathies are with all the LucasArts employees that lost their jobs.

The post Disney Closes Publisher LucasArts appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

Unfortunately, most superhero games fall between horrible and meh. There’s something about capturing the diverse powersets and abilities of heroes and villains that development teams can’t quite get right. The earliest game I can recall that bucked this trend was Raven Software’s Marvel Ultimate Alliance. While the sequel trended more towards the meh end of the scale, it still had its charms. With the recent success of the Marvel Studios films and the Marvel NOW! initiative, now is definitely the time for a new entry in the series.

Team Sucktards

One of the most appealing aspects of the series was how it explored every almost every corner of the Marvel universe. The huge roster of heroes, antiheroes, and villains that populated the game gets a bit overwhelming at times. The first game in particular threw character after character at you in levels based on numerous Marvel locations, including Atlantis, the Skrull homeworld, and even Hell (at least Mephisto’s realm in Hell). It was awesome seeing lesser known characters like the Shi’ar Imperial Guard or Arcade getting screen time and even being the focus of certain missions.

The huge roster of MUA1 minus 8 DLC characters

The first game was an original story that spanned the Marvel U and doubled as a good introduction to the greater universe, including characters and locations. The sequel was based on the massive Civil War crossover event which was an excellent and brilliant way to introduce that specific story to gamers who didn’t have prior knowledge of the comics. As one of the longer events, its length translated well into a full game without being as unnecessarily long as the original game. Civil War’s status as one of the better events plotwise couldn’t hurt either. At hub worlds in between missions, players could even play a trivia game that, over time, will make you as knowledgeable of the canon as somebody who has read Marvel for years.

The Asgard level were crazy fun

Another appeal of the game was playing co-op with friends. Even the servers are still up! Getting together with my Twinfinite coworkers and blasting through levels with our favorite characters entertained us for weeks. As a beat em up, the Marvel Ultimate Alliance series works better than most because of the wide variety of moves and power sets that you can choose from. Figuring out different combinations of special attacks and discovering the most powerful ones is a game in and of itself. The one tip I’d have for anyone who wants to play the game with friends, don’t let the Trey Highland of your group play as Storm. He’ll fly around the entire game blowing things around with his tornado powers and just be a big ol’ pain in the ass.

The equally large roster of MUA2 again without some DLC characters

With all the success of the Marvel Studios movies and the explosion in popularity of the superhero genre, I’m surprised that Marvel hasn’t started developing the third game yet. Obviously there are kinks that need to be worked out but if they can find a developer that can iron out the kinks from the first two games. The main problem I’d like them to focus on is figuring out a way to decrease the repetitive aspects of the game. With any beat em up there is some repetition to be expected but storytelling and gameplay has grown a lot since the first two games were released. The ideal Marvel Ultimate Alliance game would have the depth and customization options of the first game while having a plot that mirrors the comics and focused storytelling of the second game.

Team stand back and let Thor fuck shit up with his OP ass

The stars seem to be aligning perfectly for Marvel with the continued success of their movie studio and the highly successful quasi-reboot of their comic books under the Marvel NOW! banner. An RPG/beat em up with the story from a story-arc from one of the big two comic publishers and a roster filled with Earth’s mightiest heroes and villains sounds like the perfect combination to me. If nothing else, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 can revitalize the beat em up game landscape.

The post Why I Love The Marvel Ultimate Alliance Games (And What I Want In A Sequel) appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

Hey there dudes and dudettes! We’re all finally back home and have all our glorious PAX coverage done. If you were at PAX and you came and said hi, give yourself a nice round of applause because you’re awesome. If you didn’t, you’ll have your chance at PAX Prime this summer and I suggest you take it. If you weren’t lucky enough to attend this year’s PAX East, worry not friend. We have all the coverage you could ever want or need, AND to make it easier for you to get to it, I put all the links in this handy dandy post. Keep on keepin’ on after the jump for Twinfinite’s full coverage from PAX East 2013.

[Hands-On/Previews]

Hands-On Preview: Divekick – Dumb But Delicious

Hands-On Preview: Daylight – Random Horror Picture Show

Hands-On Preview: Super T.I.M.E. Force – Anachronistic Acronyms!

Hands-On (The Air) Preview: Dropchord

Hands-On Preview: Guncraft – Build It Up, Shoot It Down

Hands-On Preview: Remember Me – Trying to Forget

Hands-On Preview: MechKnight Chronicles – Quite the Treasure

Hands-on Preview: Contrast – Shady Business

Preview: Saints Row IV – Obama with a Dubstep Gun

Hands-On Preview: Drop That Beat Like An Ugly Baby

Hands-On Preview: The Last of Us

Hands-On Preview: Beatbuddy

Preview: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

Hands-On Preview: The Elder Scrolls Online – Don’t Roll Your Eyes, Mister!

Hands-On Preview: Transistor – Yay Talking Swords!

Preview: Watch_Dogs

[Interviews]

The Last of Us Interview with Eric Monacelli

MechKnight Chronicles Interview with Jesse Sosa

Transistor Interview with Greg Kasavin

[Twinfinite Originals]

The Verdict: PAX from the Eyes of the Attendees

Ian Bretchford’s Adventure on the PAX Show Floor

Positive Gamers Episode 3: PAX East Edition

Twinfinite’s PAX East 2013 Impressions

Skills No One Told Me I Needed to Cover a Convention

PAX East Pictures And Showfloor Walkthrough!

[TSFT Live!]

Episode #61: PAX East 2013 Special!

The post PAX East 2013 Round-Up appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

At the end of our final day at PAX, myself and my charming coworkers got together to record our final PAX East 2013 impressions on everything the convention had to offer. We cover the games that impressed us the most, tips for conventions, and provide some good-old fashioned goof-offery. If we seem wonky or out of it, it’s because we were. 3-5 hours of sleep a night is NOT how you want to be covering a convention of this size and scope. If you like the video, just search for the “PAX East 2013” tag and it will bring up all the goodies we worked on over the past couple of days.

The post Twinfinite’s PAX East 2013 Impressions appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

Some developers try to pull you in with realistic graphics, compelling storylines, or enthralling music. Dejobaan Games went in a completely different route. Before you ask, yes that is the actual name and yes I’m serious. Keep reading for details on 1, 2, 3…Kick It! Drop That Beat Like An Ugly Baby, AKA: The best named game ever.

The tracks in each level are built after the game analyzes and processes MP3s from your music library. The playable demo had 3 different tracks to choose from. Lighter music like classical and jazz result in easier track with wide open gaps that you can easily fit through. Heavy music like dubstep or death metal result in more difficult courses with minute gaps that are the closest any of us will get to piloting the Millennium Falcon through the Death Star trench run. After the track is built, you take a first-person vantage point and fly along the different colored obstacles the game has designed for you. The closer you fly to those obstacles, the higher your score and multipliers get. If you get close to an obstacle for a second, it is counted as a “Buzz” and flying near one for longer is counted as a “Groove”. Crashing into blocks doesn’t carry any penalty other than resetting the multipliers and leeching the color from the obstacles.

This game is played with just a mouse and the mouse buttons rotate the camera and allow you to whiz by corners and around blocks. The best part about this game is how little you have to think about playing. Each track is only as long as the song and you can easily find yourself zoning out while just enjoying the music and zipping through gaps and around obstacles. The dev team has already implemented most, if not all, of the suggestions they’ve received from the community on their message boards and that kind of dev/player interaction only bodes well for the game. Keep an eye out for Ugly Baby which has been on Steam Early Access since it started up a week ago and should release sometime time this year.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The post [PAX] Hands-On Preview: Drop That Beat Like An Ugly Baby appeared first on Twinfinite: Video game news, reviews, opinions, and community..

Some of the best parts of any PAX convention are stumbling onto little indie gems you otherwise might not have heard about. Beatbuddy is one such game. Executive editor Yamilia Avendano and I were aimlessly wandering the expo hall, trying to kill a few minutes before an appointment with a big studio about a big AAA release when we walked by dev team Threaks’ unassuming little booth. Read on for our time with this great little game, and to check out some exclusive gameplay.

Beatbuddy doesn’t cleanly fit into any genre of game. If I had to try, I would say that it was a rhythm based puzzle/platformer/music/action game. The game has you controlling this cute headphone wearing amoeba creature that dances along to the music playing in the background and navigates his treacherous underwater world. The demo was only one level, but we were assured that the were multiple music types including chiptunes and electronica. The music plays an important function by setting cues that help you solve puzzles and progress through the game, while enemies move along in time with the beat. As you take damage, the beat gets washed out and fades back. If you can chain together movements properly, you find the beat getting amplified and getting more exciting.

The dev team at Threaks have done a great job adding new playing mechanics frequently but yet keeping them simple enough to where you can figure it out and implement it quickly. Within minutes of starting I was zooming along underwater tunnels, fighting past crab-like enemies and adjusting mirrors to burst through obstacles using a bubble launchpad that pulsates along to the beat in the background. Certain parts of the demo had us piloting a vehicle which looks like a coconut with engines and chrome exhausts strapped to it. The vehicle shares the enemies’ limitation on only moving with the beat but helps you traverse through otherwise impossible areas.

The demo that was on the showfloor is available right now on Steam and the full game is slated for a summer 2013 release. This is honestly one of the best games at PAX and you should definitely check it out.

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If you were at PAX East this weekend, it was impossible to miss Ubisoft’s giant Assassin’s Creed IV booth. Inside Ubisoft was showing off two videos. The first was a couple of devs talking about their inspirations and goals for the game. Hit the jump for details on the second video.

The second video was a video made from pre-alpha footage. People that I talked to after the preview were torn about this. Half were excited because, for pre-alpha stuff, it was pretty well polished and looked great. The “glass half empty” crowd were skeptical because of how great Assassin’s Creed III looked at PAX East last year and that we were only shown pre-alpha footage when the release date is already announced.

Not so Free Willy

A main focus of the presentation was everything the pirate side of Captain Edward Kenway could do. I was instantly reminded of Wind Waker with all the activities that you can do on your ship. You can land on any island that you come across and search Mayan temples for treasure.  Hunting returns from Assassin’s Creed III, this time with the added challenge of hunting creatures from the briny deep. Naval battles look tense and rewarding if you can pull them off. A major part of that success is assembling a tough-as-nails crew. They’re important because your crew are the ones who help you board other ships and take out enemy ships. As helpful as they are to you, they can and will die if you’re anything less than capable as a captain in battle or navigating the high seas during storms.

I’m one of the few people on staff that is very excited by every entry in this series and I can’t wait to dive into it. It releases October 29th for all major consoles.

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Writer Brian Vaughn and artist Fiona Staples, have created something interesting with SAGA. A familiar background story mixed with familiar elements of another story but with a new coat of paint is how I would describe it. I stumbled upon the first issue a few days after it came out and I was intrigued; after reading the second issue, I was hooked. Recently, I suggested it to my esteemed coworker, Matthew Kim, and after he read an issue, he was hooked too. Hit the jump to see why this is definitely a comic you should be reading.

If you were to take Romeo and Juliet and throw it in a blender with two different alien races, robot men, anthropomorphic animals, wizards, and an intergalactic war, SAGA would come out of the other side. That explanation doesn’t really do it justice but that’s the only way I can explain it. Two of the main characters, Marko and Alana aren’t officially introduced to the reader until midway through the issue. The third main character of the story is their daughter Hazel, narrating from sometime in the future. Marko and Alana’s people have been at war for as long as anybody can remember and the fact that they deserted their respective armies to marry each other and have a child together has painted a target on their backs from their respective governments and from mercenaries hired to retrieve their baby, Hazel. You can’t help but root for the couple especially when you see how much hardship and danger they have to go through to protect their little family, which seems to continue to grow as the story progresses.

One of the best things about the book is how seamlessly and fluidly Brian Vaughn switches focus between character groups and timeframes. There are points in the comic where Marko and Alana are shown before they were married  and on the run, followed by them dealing with all the craziness in their lives during the present. Then, within the span of a few pages, perspectives switch and there is a mercenary talking to his boss who is a giant seahorse, a discussion on the flavor of breast milk, a spiderwoman with a shotgun, and a bunch of ghost kids. This constant flipping between past and present and the different characters’ points of view keeps readers hooked by making you constantly want to know what happens next.

The other reason this book is so compelling is the humor. I’m constantly finding myself chuckling at panels like the one above. That’s not to say that there aren’t moments of seriousness or tenderness, but even those moments have some sort of humor in them. Vaughn is skilled in writing in clever jokes that you have to think about for a bit but isn’t above throwing in a groin shot or two. Most of the humor comes from the interaction between Marko and Alana but also from Hazel’s spectral babysitter, Izabel. The wide variety of characters inhabiting the universe each have their own little funny quirks, like the Lying Cat, which is a giant space cat that can tell when someone is lying to it, or Prince Robot IV, who has a television for a head that broadcasts whatever he is thinking. Each of the characters have some sort of humorous flaw that makes you invested in their story.

The artwork is interesting because of how easily it switches from looking solid and tangible to ethereal and cel-shaded. With as many elements as it throws together this flip-flopping seems to be the only way to capture the full range of familiarity and strangeness within the overall story. I could have lived my whole life without seeing what a space ogre’s…junk…looked like but the ensuing nutshot made up for it…a bit.

If you’re still on the fence about it, do what my friend Matt did and download the first issue from HERE for free. I can guarantee that you will have an EXTREMELY hard time finding a more interesting, charming, funnier comic out right now.

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Update: Since this story broke, Comixology’s site has been flooded with people trying to download the free issues. For the most part, people haven’t been successful because of the immense strain the servers have been under. In response, Comixology’s CEO, David Steinberger, released this statement earlier today: “…we’re pausing the Marvel Comics #1 promotion for the time being. For those of you that want to take advantage of the offer – you will get your comics! Until we are able to reinstate this program in our systems, please click here and fill out this simple form, so you can be informed as soon as there is an update.”

(Source: ComiXology Blog)

Original Story: After launching a “Marvel First” teaser campaign, Marvel announced at the recent South by Southwest Interactive conference that they will be giving away 700 FREE first issues via the digital comic download site, Comixology. This includes everything from first issues of events, mini-series, and old volumes, to first issues of the newer Marvel NOW! releases. This is a perfect opportunity for people interested in comic books to try reading an issue or two and for people who have been out of the comic book rotation for a while to have an entry point back into the newer story arcs. The one catch is that this offer expires on Tuesday so act fast. Are there any comics you’re interested in trying out or being reintroduced to?

(Source: IGN)

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Recently, during a panel at the South by Southwest Interactive conference, Gearbox revealed that along with some new upcoming DLC, we’ll also be getting a new character. Polygon has a copy of the trailer on their site, which doesn’t show much but drops hints that this new Vault Hunter might be more of a melee specialist, like Brick from the first Borderlands game. I know myself and the other Twinfiknights that played Borderlands 2 liked it until we didn’t, but how about you guys? Will this new character be enough for you to step back onto Pandora? Or have you moved on to other releases?

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Everyone on the Twinfinite Staff LOVED Season 1 of The Walking Dead game. I’m sure we’re not the only ones, especially since the game just won a Best Story BAFTA Game Award. At the event, Telltale CEO Dan Connors was asked about the release date, and according to Eurogamer his response was, “We’re aiming for fall of next year.” A lot of people assumed this meant that it would release Fall 2014. Our friends over at GameInformer decided to get in touch with Telltale to confirm this and were told, “The current estimated release window for Season Two of The Walking Dead is for fall of ‘this’ year (2013), and not ‘next’ year (2014) as has been reported after a recent interview. We apologize for any confusion and thank you and all of our fans for your continued excitement for Telltale’s series.” Much jubilation and cheering happened at Twinfinite HQ after the clarification and we can’t wait to jump back into the series.

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