The more evil you are, the better. Any game that has that motive behind it is a good game in my book. Dungeons – The Dark Lord is Kalypso Media’s new offering, hot of the heels of the recently released Tropico 4. Dungeons – The Dark Lord is a stand-alone sequel to the critically acclaimed Dungeons, and challenges players to create dungeons that will entice and entrap heroes, helping the player capture soul energy to use when battling other Dungeon Lords in both single and multiplayer play.
Here is a quick look at the new box art:
Obviously as a sequel to the critically acclaimed Dungeons, the game will be hosting a bunch of new features along with some returning old ones.
Four multiplayer modes for up to four players: Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Survival and Piñata
Entirely new, fully scripted and voiced single-player campaign
New dungeon setting (ice crystal cave) with new graphics, unique prestige gimmicks and a new boss monster – The Yeti
Playable bosses in multiplayer modes (Minos, Zombie King, Calypso and Dungeon Lord)
Various dungeon graphics sets and inventories are now available
New set of skills specifically for multiplayer modes
Dungeons – The Dark Lord will be available both in retail stores and via digital distribution on 23rd September and does not require the original Dungeons to play.
In the heat of the moment in modern first-person shooters, being able to distinguish red from green can mean the difference between a game-winning kill and an unfortunate team frag. This usually simple distinction can be a frustrating muddle for about 9% to 12% of the population — the percentage born with colour vision deficiency or, more commonly, colour blindness.
While colour-blind gamers have always used personal workarounds to recognize the colour differences in their video games, it makes for a serious roadblock against the enjoyment of more fast-paced and unforgiving play styles. Apparently, the co-developers of the upcoming sure-to-be blockbuster Modern Warfare 3 have recognized this and are taking steps to rectify a situation perhaps more widespread than previously acknowledged the most recent Question of the Week on the Sledgehammer Games website, COO Michael Condrey states that Modern Warfare 3 will feature options that will allow players to tailor colour sets according to their visual needs. Answering the question of a colour-blind gamer, Condrey writes:
" I am happy to report that we are working on a colour blind assist option for Modern Warfare 3"
While Condrey does not share any details of what these Assist options will entail, his enthusiasm for the subject (even in a short blog post) is palpable. One gets the idea that it will be a more refined version of Call Of Duty: Black Ops basic colour change options, geared directly toward players with vision deficiency. Says Condrey (almost gleefully, one imagines)
"You won't be able to blame your red-green deficiency for all that friendly-fire come November 8th"
The announcement comes as an interesting side-chapter in Modern Warfare 3′s twisty development. Sledgehammer Games is one of three co-developers of the game, along with Infinity Ward (sporting an almost completely different staff roster than previous Call Of Duty iterations) and Raven Software.
Sledgehammer is said to be focusing largely on the multiplayer wing of the game (in addition to addressing Modern Warfare 3's competition),so it’s unknown whether the Colour Blind Assist option will be available for the single-player campaign. Then again, it’s not like people will really be signing on for the single-player Modern Warfare experience at this point, eh?
Do you have colour vision deficiency? If so, does this announcement affect your decision to purchase Modern Warfare 3? Share your thoughts on the matter — as well as any workarounds you’ve used in the past — in the comments!
Modern Warfare 3 will release for PC, PlayStation3, and Xbox 360 on November 9, 2011.
Electronic Arts and DICE have confirmed that Battlefield 3 is being designed for the PC first, consoles second, making today's news surprising for most PC gamers: Battlefield 3 will not include mod tools.
Speaking with GamerStar, EA Senior VP Patrick Soderlund broke the news. "As of now, we are not going to make any modding tools, no," Soderlund told GamerStar. "If you look at the Frostbite engine, and how complex it is, it's going to be very difficult for people to mod the game, because of the nature of the set up of levels, of the destruction and all those things… it's quite tricky. So we think it's going to be too big of a challenge for people to make a mod."
See the full interview below:
Previously, Battlefield 3 executive producer Patrick Bach told Game Informer that DICE is exploring other ways to appease the modding community.
"We will not deliver mod tools in the way that we delivered them for Battlefield 2," Bach said. "Creating mod tools today - dumbing them down - takes a lot of energy and what we are discussing more every day is, 'Where do we put our focus?'"
"Right now our focus is to create the best possible multiplayer, single-player, and co-op game -- the core game of Battlefield 3," he added. "We're still discussing how we handle modifications of any kind."
Bach made his comments in February, so in four months time, DICE evidently still hasn't decided how to handle the modding issue.
Think you will be buying Modern Warfare 3 and keep the same online strategy you've been using for the last four iterations of Call Of Duty? Think again. MW3 will be getting a complete re-vamp of there killstreak system according to Creative Strategist Robert Bowling:
"We changed the entire way the killstreak system works. I can't go into detail yet, but I will share when I can"
Thousands of COD fan boys will now be hitting F5 constantly on Bowling Twitter to see just what Infinity Ward have in store for there next blockbuster.
What else would you like changed in Modern Warfare 3's Multiplayer?
When Dead Island was announced, I doubt anyone really cared that much at all. Another Zombie game? Well we got Left for Dead, Call Of Duty: Zombies and so on. Then came the now infamous trailer. Zooming out from the eye of a dead Zombie girl? Can't go wrong with that.
A hands on article of Dead Island's Multiplayer was released earlier from the boys over at The Sixth Axis giving the views on what to expect. Its a great read and sounds promising, so check it out.
All eyes have been on Dead Island ever since that one trailer was released. Could the game actually be that good? Based on the various screenshots I’ve seen, I was beginning to worry. To me, it seemed like it was being over hyped. After all, we were getting excited over a CG trailer with no gameplay footage whatsoever. Having played the multiplayer component for decent amount of time, I can easily say that many of my concerns have been put to rest. There’s just so much fun to be had.
The demo started off inside of a church. This is where you can accept quests, buy weapons, and make upgrades or repairs. We were given a ridiculous amount of money to buy whatever we desired. I purchased and upgraded several types of blades, a mace, a rifle, and even coated one weapon in fire. You can carry pretty much anything you buy, but you can only equip 9 items to your weapon wheel at a time.
Once a quest has been activated, a clear path to your destination is shown on your mini-map. We all left the church cautiously, not knowing what to expect. The first thing you’ll notice is that the environment is completely open to the player. You can go pretty much anywhere you want. And that’s exactly what I did.
The church serves as the central hub. Very little praying will be done.
I mindlessly ran around because I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t even know what the quest was. I kept trying to punch and kick random NPCs, but to no avail. They can’t be harmed. Apparently, we were putting up a bunch of posters for a missing person. The idea doesn’t really make any sense. Everyone is either dead, a zombie, or at the church. I highly doubt that any survivor would stop and look at one of the posters. Regardless of the mission, I just wanted to kill as many zombies as possible.
Not seeing the point of having a bunch of knives as a weapon, I opted to use my rifle first. I learned the hard way that guns need to be used sparingly. You won’t find ammo just laying on the ground, and it certainly won’t materialize after killing an enemy. There’s a bit of a survival horror element to weapon usage, so you actually need to think about what you’re doing at all times.
The enemies themselves are quite ferocious. As fun as it is to kill them, you actually need to put some effort into each enemy you take down. The combat is surprisingly more melee intensive than anything else. If you want to take down the undead, you need to go up to them and punch them in the face. Having three teammates certainly helped with that task. We fended off as many zombies as possible, all while our guide gave us insights to the gameplay.
There are four different characters in the game. Each of which have their own attributes and special abilities. Sam is the Tank class and is good with heavy weapons. Xian Mei is the Assassin and specializes with blades, Logan is the well rounded “jack of all trades”, and Purna is the Leader. I used Logan during the demo. His unique ability is being able to throw a barrage of knives at anything standing in his way. This required use of the Rage meter.
Building up your rage is as simple as killing zombies. You’ll also gain experience points in the process. That XP can then be used to upgrade your character’s skill tree. Even if your teammates were all the same character, they could be leveled up differently, ultimately making them more or less effective in various ways. For the purposes of the demo we were already leveled up quite a bit.
Whether you’re cutting a zombies arm off or chopping off their head, you’re going to have a lot of fun torturing enemies. There were many moments were we just beat on a zombie that was long dead. The most brutal attack was definitely the curb stomp. Despite the horrific setting and circumstances, the game was just hilarious to play. Coming up with different ways to incapacitate your enemies is disturbing, yet very satisfying. And it’s always fun blowing up your teammates by shooting gas tanks. It’s possible to revive fallen friends, but it’s not exactly a good idea to just waste all of your health items unless you need to. If you aren’t healed in time you can respawn nearby but you’ll also lose some XP in the process.
There was a nice variety of enemies always in our way. Some zombies were on fire, some were covered in poison mist, while others served as mini-bosses. One in particular, appropriately named The Ram, was wearing a straight jacket and would charge at us with full force. He has quite a bit of health, but he’s relatively easy to deal with. You just need to side step at the right moment to avoid getting hit. Even the common zombies were no joke. Unlike Resident Evil 5, they don’t just stand there waiting for you to attack them. They will run and you and eat your face at every chance they get. You’re not always alone either. Sometimes you’ll see random survivors out in the streets fighting for their lives.
As all of this is going on, you need to keep track of your various meters. In addition to your health bar, you have to pay attention to your stamina. If you swing your weapon too frequently, your stamina will decrease and your attacks will become less effective. There’s also a meter attached to the weapons themselves. If it depletes, the weapon becomes less effective. You either need to repair it or toss it away. I opted to throw many of my knives at unsuspecting zombies. What’s neat is that you can actually recover them from their dead bodies.
Situations like this happen quite often.
The environment was relatively expansive. Even though this was only one small portion of the game, but there were so many paths one could take. You could even drop down to the sewers if you wanted. If the main quest isn’t enough for you, there’s also a bunch of sidequests to go on. There’s also tons of precious loot to be found, which can then be used to modify weapons. For a game like this, there’s a surprising amount of freedom given to the player.
Perhaps the best part about the multiplayer mode is just how seamless it is. You can easily drop in and out of games whenever you want. Unlike some co-op based games, Dead Island’s entire campaign mode is at your disposal and anything you earned offline or online will carry on to both modes.
Even if you’re not into first person shooters, you’ll definitely want to keep Dead Island on your radar. Imagine a zombie game with elements from Borderlands, Dead Rising, and Left 4 Dead. It certainly has the potential to be a great game. We’ll see how it goes once it hits store shelves in September.
1.It would be embarrassing if she were better at video games than you. Here you envisioned long co-op jaunts crusading against alien invasions, teaching her to play Portal by romantically holding her hands over the controller, and getting cozy while sniping from a bunker in Call of Duty, but here she is, curb-stomping your face over and over in Gears of War multiplayer. You don't even have to wait to wear that pink sweater she bought you for your birthday to be emasculated.
2. If you are better at video games than her, you will fight every time you give in to her pleas to play together. There are plenty of girls out there that play games. But playing does not imply winning. Ever. Even girls that identify themselves as gamers can be totally inept at video games. She may love playing the easy level campaigns at a nice slow pace, but when you catch her at every spawn point on the multiplayer board and snipe her before she even moves, she'll start to cry. For some reason.
3. You will never, ever get to play single player campaign again. It'll always be "oh, we never get to do anything together, let's play co-op" and then she'll insist on using Convenant weapons because "they are purple and pretty."
4. She will always be misled by beginner's luck on beat-em-ups. Girls don't understand the relationship of button-mashing with beat-em-ups; that is, if you do it, you win. A few button-mash wins will cause them to think they're skilled players, but once she starts trying to learn the moves, you'll crush her every time, and she'll cry again (see #2).
5. She does it for the dudes. Maybe this girl actually likes to play video games. And maybe someday I'll live in a bouncy castle and eat hamburgers for every meal. But she does it mainly because guys think it's cool, and is actually terrible at video games (see #2 and #4). This girl probably also "likes" football, baseball, basketball, paintball, beer, violent movies involving zombies, and firearms, but knows absolutely nothing about them.
6. She says she's a gamer, but what she means is about ten years ago, she used to make a Sim of herself WooHoo with a Sim of her crush, and then set his Sim house on fire. This girl is not actually a gamer, and is, in all likelihood, insane.
7. She says she's a gamer, but the only games she plays are on PopCap and other websites.Not only will she waste your time by getting you addicted to some niblet of a game like Kitten Cannon, she actually thinks this is gaming, which means she's just a terribly confused human being.
8. She'll really put the RPG in MMORPG. Running around as a naked night elf damsel-in-distress who's had her armor stolen and getting attention from the Stormwind sausagefest will be all well and good in the game, but ask her to do it in the bedroom and then there's just something WRONG with you.
9. If your girlfriend is playing video games with you, there is no one to bring you sandwiches and energy drinks. And if she stays the night and you both are awake until 3 AM playing Call of Duty, there is no one to wake up and make pancakes. Already you're out two meals. Do you want to starve to death?
10. If your girl gamer fits none of these descriptions, that means she is probably also a supermodel and a rocket scientist, and is therefore a perfect human being. You do not deserve her and will eventually break up, but video games and sex will be inextricably linked in your mind forever after all those games of Strip TF2, and you won't be able to turn on your console without getting a boner. Happy gaming!
The church serves as the central hub. Very little praying will be done.
Situations like this happen quite often.
