Welcome to the Thursday edition of the UFie Gaming Corner! Below the block, Ubisoft's upcoming Wii shoot-em/slash-em Red Steel, the new Tony Hawk racing title on the DS, and whatever else I can think of.
Discussion of any and all types of gaming are welcome here - console games, PC games, pen and paper games, board games, it's all on the table.
If you mention or link to a game that other people might like to find later, please toss it in the Online Games or Download Games diary as appropriate. (And of course, head over there periodically to check out what's new!)
Daily news links and an archive can be found in the diary, and if you want to manually browse recent Gaming Corners, this link to the UF Toolbox will allow you to do so - just use the "previous cartoon" and "next cartoon" buttons to switch days.
If you have a topic you'd like to see covered in the Gaming Corner, or an article I ought to check out, feel free to email me at Ravenlock (put the little at symbol thingy here) inbox (put the little dot symbol thingy here) com. Time permitting, this will be posted daily, but anyone who wishes to cover it on a day when I'm being slow is of course welcome to do so - just copy the TLP from the previous day. :-)
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Well, we're 22 days from the launch of the Nintendo Wii. Not that I'm counting. ;-) Actually, I won't be able to get one at launch anyhow, which is just as well since I've got plenty of DS games left to play, but it's still exciting.
One of the launch titles that's generated the most buzz so far has been Red Steel, Ubisoft's FPS (first-person shooter and first-person swordplay) title in which you infiltrate the Yakuza with bullets and blades. It's also probably generated some of the most negative buzz, because early reports indicated that neither the gunplay nor the swordplay controlled particularly well with the "Wiimote", and the sword control, rather than being 1-to-1 like everyone was hoping, consisted instead of just making gestures to indicate which slash you wanted to do.
Well, unfortunately it looks like the sword control is still not 1-to-1, but Wired has played it, and tells us the control problems have largely been resolved and the writer had a blast playing the game. That's good news, though I still want a game with 1-to-1 sword control. If Rockstar can make Table Tennis successful, just think of the possibilities for an online tournament fencing game. It would be amazing. :-D
Also out this week on the DS is Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, a racing trick game in the style of the SSX series in which getting to the end of the track and getting there in style are equally important. IGN's review is very flattering, and makes me want to pick this up even though I suck at Tony Hawk games. Voice chat during gameplay is something I expect to really improve the multiplayer experience, and I hope more DS games pick that up as a feature.
In other news, Contact for the DS is every bit as good as these reviews say it is, and if you still aren't interested, go check out the box art and I think you will be. ;-)
Finally, the next DS Castlevania title, Portrait of Ruin, is on the way, and Gamespy really, really likes what they've seen of it. Dawn of Sorrow, the last title in the series, was pretty amazing, so if you're into good side-scrolling action games, keep an eye out for this one.
My wallet doesn't like Nintendo very much this year, but I'm more and more glad I picked up a DS every time another great title comes out for it. :-D |
