Releases:

This month we’ve seen some interesting new IPs come out of the wood works.   The long awaited PS3 exclusive “Heavy Rain” brings adventure gaming to the next generation of consoles.  “The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom” for the Xbox 360 acts as this months “must get” indie game, with puzzle platforming to rival that of Jonathan Blow’s “Braid.”  “Star Trek Online” adds another frontier to MMORPG gallery.  And “Bioshock 2″ (a much talked about game on the site) brings us back to Rapture for another adventure; this time as a Big Daddy.

So it’s been another month that will be favorably looked upon throughout history, if history judges the past solely on monthly video game releases.

So what were we doing?:

This month Rob discussed his experiences with “Mass Effect 2” and “Bioshock 2.”  Speaking of “Bioshock 2,” Skizz also brings up his play through of the game and also talks about “WET.”

Chad plays some more of The People’s Games, this time featuring: “depict1,” “Cosmosa,”"Starfeld,” “Balloon in the Wasteland,” “Vatn Squid,” and “Nuclear Baby.”  He also reviews “Vanitas” and “Noby Noby Boy” for the iPhone and retrospectively looks at “Feel the Magic: XY/XX.”

And Tom plays for us another Battle Tunes.

Jason Rohrer’s latest game, “Sleep is Death,” is now available for pre-order!

Jason Rohrer the name behind indie gaming classics “Passage” and “Gravitation” has announced that his newest game, which was featured at the Art History of Games, can now be pre-ordered for 9 dollars (or you can wait and buy it for a 14 dollar price).  Pre-Ordering the game also gets you an early copy this April 9th.  Most of his games have been a pretty serious bunch, but this game seems to have an aura of light-heartedness about it.

Just imagine a game with an AI that reacts perfectly to your every statement and action.  Impossible with this technology you say.  Well, not now!  Find out why at the LINK to the game’s site (for an entertaining explanation).  It looks like a lot of fun, and I’m pretty excited to play.

PRE-ORDER “SLEEP IS DEATH” HERE.

“Nuclear Baby” is a browser game by Andrew Brophy playable HERE.  It’s a simple sort of shooter, press Z to shoot left, X to shoot right as hordes of mutants try to kill you.  Nothing in the way of depth, but some good fun while it lasts.

I’ve been exceptionally busy as of late, so you’ll notice that nothing’s been posted on the site for about four days.  There are at least 3 more People’s Games coming this weekend, so keep an eye out, and there has been some news recent worth mentioning when I get to it.  I’ll probably do that in the monthly summary we do now.

Anyway, “Vatn Squid” is a pretty fun shmup for your PC by Ted Lauterbach, consisting of nothing but boss fights where your little crab ship takes on an extremely dangerous underwater creature.  There are 8 bosses in all and veterans of the genre should breeze through.  I’m not exactly great at shooters, but I still managed to win after about four or five tries, so the difficulty isn’t too brutal and patterns are easily visible.  Not too hard, but plenty of fun.  Give it a try at this LINK.

Nifflas‘ classic freeware game, “Knytt Stories,” has been ported to the DS by RRC2Soft.  LINK HERE…

“Knytt Stories” is one of the best freeware games out there and I’m right now playing through this DS homebrew of the game, and it is a great port.  So if you have an r4 or some other flashcart this is one game definitely worth getting on it.  If not, then you can still always play the original.

Odd Glitch: I noticed an interesting/aggravating glitch which I don’t recall happening in my first runthrough. When using the “Scout” Plasmid to scope out an area to strategize an attack, I found myself unable to use Plasmids afterwards. I let mself die to so I could reset when I came back, but the same result came up after doing certain things (such as zooming with guns). I had to start the level over just to avoid using “Scout” so this wouldn’t happen again. At first, I figured it might be part of going the “Evil” route. But this game is really good at notifying you of such handicaps. I don’t know if that was just a colossal mistake or if it just comes with the territory of being bad.

Enemies: There seems to be quite a bit taken into account when it comes to the overall look at AI actions of Rapture’s spliced up population.

This time around, the “Spider Splicers” look the same and are all male. However, this look is definitely one that will make you flinch upon your first encounter. Psychotic and ugly to boot, these bastards will utilize the old “climb on ceilings and chuck hooks at you” tactic.

The “Big Daddies” pose the same threat they did before, but with the drill and and a hand full of electricity will take care of them. After softening them up with some frag grenades or heat-seeking rockets, of course.

The “Brute Splicers” are a bit of a pain if you find yourself low on the necessary ammo. They collapse (although don’t immediately die) if you hit ‘em with the Solid Buck for the Shotgun. Zap & repeat and you’ll find they aren’t much trouble. Just zap them before they throw debris at you.

The “Big Sisters” are troublesome, so gear up when you hear their ear-piercing screech. These bitches are quick, but manageable. Keep a step ahead of them, make sure when they gather debris to throw or grab a Splicer regenerate that you zap them immediately. Armor-piercing rounds are very efficient in taking them out.

The “Evil”: The ending for the evil plot is similar to that of the “Good,” only with a much darker tone (obviously). It makes it kind of difficult to tell what role Eleanor will play in the next Bioshock (if she even has one). I’ll avoid telling you what happens at the end, you’ll have to earn it. Just know the “Good” plot is feel good, and the “Evil” is cryptic. Pretty obvious.

Multiplayer: Multiplayer on this game is actually not too bad. It starts out with a room you can walk through and customize “Load Outs” (What guns, Plasmids and Tonics you can use) and change your character’s appearance. You can only use two Plasmids and two guns. But, guess what, THAT’S TWO PLASMIDS. Thus, sweetening the deal and obliterating any negative aspects of that statement. Can CoDMod2 do that? Neg. Granted, it’s not nearly on the level CoDMod 1 or 2 resides on, but it’s actually pretty fun when you get the hang of it. It sucks a bit having to go back to just two plasmids, but it’s either that or choppy gameplay (which is never fun online). The more you play, the more ADAM you acquire, giving you new Plasmids, new weaponry and, eventually, Tonics.

“Noby Noby Boy” for the Playstation 3 is was a damn hard game to describe, and the iPhone port might be even harder.  The original game was “kind of” a 3D platforming, exploration game where you play Boy who goes around a small panel of earth with lots of strange objects and cute caricature of people and cows, or what-not.  You stretch, and eat any object, growing bigger to eat bigger things.  When you eat too much you poot it out your back end…you can fly, kind of… And why do you do all this?  Well, there’s one vague goal: Help girl grow bigger, so she can stretch out across the universe.  The only other goals are to experiment, have fun, and play around.  It was actually a lot of fun, and worth the 5 dollar cover.

“Noby Noby Boy” for the iPhone is even more abstract and aimless.  Instead of being in a section of the world, Boy is a black void and you can play with him by stretching him around and having him grab onto the random objects you can pop up on the screen.  The goal of growing Girl is still there, and it’s actually the same girl as the one on PS3 (right now she’s reached Jupiter).  It’s a fun little time waster, but there’s no “deep” story or far reaching goal to compliment the gameplay.  It’s just an interesting little toy you can play with when bored.

The graphics of the original “Noby Noby Boy” are still pretty much all there.  It’s cute and brightly colored, complimented by charming music.  But unlike the Katamari port that came to iPhone, “Noby Noby Boy” doesn’t try to be the same game.  It’s an iPhone exclusive through and through.  You don’t control Boy, you play with him.  You can use your fingers to flail him around and see how he interacts with the environment.  You can create a giant robot on screen that will play the music on your iPod.  You can update your facebook or twitter with how much you stretched girl.  And there are a lot more little fun things you can do in game, instead of doing something progressive with your time.

So this is a recommendation for the app.  I’m not sure if everyone will like it, but it’s a fun little toy and well worth buying for the 2 dollar asking price.  Also consider this an endorsement for the original game.  They might not be the most sensible games out their, but you will never play anything like them.  That even goes for their sister games.  They share a name, but they’re both wonderful bizarre in their own special way.

“Balloon in a Wasteland” is a defense browser game by Armor Games, where you play a tiny man with a gun who crash lands his hot air balloon in a dark and stormy wasteland (hence the title) and has to repair while hordes of flesh rending monsters try to kill him.  It’s a fairly simple concept, and not very hard to beat, but it’s a lot of fun.  The goal is not to outlast the waves of creatures; it’s to repair your balloon as quickly as possible.  The creatures come in numbered waves like in most defense games and you can buy new weapons, traps, or fortifications to help defend yourself.

The core problem I had with the game was that I always would get the balloon up and go before getting any of the coolest items.  That’s not a bad problem to have.  So I just wasted time instead of fixing the balloon.  Each run felt pretty fun, and it’s just a good waste of time.

Give the game a try.  It has a unique art style and some fun gameplay.  You can play it: HERE.

WET puts you in the boots of Rubi, a gun-for-hire who is duped into bringing the son of one Mr. Ackers to who she thinks is Mr. Ackers. Bamboozled by a doppleganger, she seeks revenge when they aim to take her out of the picture. This results in a Kill Bill-esque rampage full of bloody revenge.

Your weapons include dual pistols, dual shotguns, dual SMGs, and dual crossbows. The weapons in Rubi’s arsenal come in twos to utilize the “Split Targeting” system. It’s what it sounds like. While you’re in slow-mo (triggered by jumping and shooting or sliding and shooting), you automatically target one enemy while manually targeting another. Making for a fun and efficient way to bring cronies to the other side.

The car chase scenes remind me of The Matrix: Reloaded, full of far-fetched jumps and improbable dodges. But this is all a part of WET’s over-the-top antics, which get old quickly for some. I played this game all the way through in two sittings I was so entertained. It’s by all means a rental unless you get a good deal on it. It goes by quickly and you find yourself doing similar things from time to time, but they find ways to change up skill use throughout.

“Rage Mode” is triggered by the same cutscene in different levels. You’re minding your own business, all of the sudden a lacky will run at you like they have a chance against Rubi’s brutal fury. She guns him down in a single shot, blood splatters on her face and BOOM… Rage Mode. The level turns red and the enemies turn into faceless black and white clones which become fodder for your guns/sword.

The formula of every level is the same, with an occasional surprise car chase scene. All tied together by a grindhouse feel, grainy film which becomes increasingly more grainy as you take more and more damage. This can be a little distracting when you find yourself in a pickle. But this is one of those occasions where you have to man up.

Again, WET is a rental if you have other games you want to buy. The acrobatics are quite impressive especially when combined with the combat of split-targeting. Health comes in the form of increasing your combo-multiplier in “Arena Mode” or chugging a bottle of whiskey, tossing it in the air and shooting it. Rubi is a badass voiced by Eliza Dushku, the dialogue is nothing to write home about, but if you’re looking for a revenge tale that you can complete quickly, give WET a try.

It’s a slow day for me.