General Video Game GABBIN'

[Thurbo]

Rayman Origins can now be pre-ordered on Steam. And if you do so, you get a free copy of Rayman 2 to play instantly!

There's no online multiplayer but that was to be expected. There's also a demo available you can try now.

I'm really surprised about the similarities between New Super Mario Bros. and this game :O

[philby4000]

Originally Posted by Thurbo

Rayman Origins can now be pre-ordered on Steam. And if you do so, you get a free copy of Rayman 2 to play instantly!

There's no online multiplayer but that was to be expected. There's also a demo available you can try now.

I'm really surprised about the similarities between New Super Mario Bros. and this game :O

I really enjoyed MSBWii as a party game, but I felt the lives and unforgiving checkpoint system really held it back. In a game where you're given 5 lives every time you run out, you shouldn't have to wait for the end of the level to play again.

And you certainly shouldn't lose all your progress in a world because all four players hit 0 lives at the same time. Especially as you get kicked out of the level and given more lives if the last player remaining has any lives left at all. The way we played the lives counters essensially became set of random numbers between 0 and 5.

Ironically when I played the single player I had 40 lives at all times.

Rayman's forgiving checkpoints and infinite retries make it a much better party game, and the timetrials provide plenty of single-player back to the begining challenge without wasting your time.

Also it looks well lush and I was never a fan of MSMB's lazy pre-rendered look.

[Thurbo]

Agreed, also the multiplayer mode of New Super Mario Bros. Wii doesn't work very well as players would keep killing each other in a mix of intentionality and accidents. Plus losing a life when one player is off-screen. I really wish the DS had a co-op multiplayer for NSMB giving each player an own screen.

From what I've seen in the demo on Steam the checkpoints seem very well placed, there's a lot less frustration in multiplayer mode yet it's still fun and challenging. I was only surprised by the huge level of similarity. When you die, you turn into a bubble, you can carry other players, you can wall jump, slide etc. The combat system is a little different though.

[MtlAngelus]

I think the countless, needless mp deaths were the most fun part of NSMBWii. There's nothing funnier than having only one guy left close to the end of a difficult level only to have him die from something stupid and forcing everyone to start over from the checkpoint. :3

[philby4000]

Arg I'm just bitter that we got a multiplayer gameover and had to replay half of world 5 (the worst world). I bet most people don't even realise that's a thing that can happen.

A few times those cool moments with one guy left ended prematurely because they had zero lives land it was time to bubble.

[Thurbo]

Maybe I should have played the game with different people then. It was usually one of my friends and both his and my brother. He got really annoyed each time we failed at a difficult level because of "pvp" kills. Of course I did understand him but it really killed the fun. And actually I got bored after trying the same level five times in a row anyway. Single player was a lot more fun.

Also... Rayman's simply cooler.

[Respuh]

I found Rayman Origins pretty easy, although 100% on it was a challenge, especially speed running the levels at the end. Not too hard though, and it was fun to do too.

[franpa]

Originally Posted by philby4000

Rayman's forgiving checkpoints and infinite retries make it a much better party game, and the timetrials provide plenty of single-player back to the begining challenge without wasting your time.

What? 3rd level of the demo you start off, dive into water, swim to the right, get chased by 2 giant Lagiacrus that tear the level up behind you, spend 30 to 60 seconds constantly dodging them while making progress to the right through chaos and carnage the monsters create and if you make any mistake at all then you get sent back to the very beginning of the level. Not fair at all imo, though from what I hear the multiplayer (Local only, unfortunately) makes the game significantly more fair.

And NSMB Wii multiplayer is fun simply because of the carnage and it's pretty hard to lose at a level unless you all end up trying to murder each other in hilarious ways... ahhh wonderful memories I love watching people JUST miss the flag pole, as in the time for them to reach it after you've reached it runs out.

[philby4000]

Originally Posted by franpa

What? 3rd level of the demo you start off, dive into water, swim to the right, get chased by 2 giant Lagiacrus that tear the level up behind you, spend 30 to 60 seconds constantly dodging them while making progress to the right through chaos and carnage the monsters create and if you make any mistake at all then you get sent back to the very beginning of the level. Not fair at all imo, though from what I hear the multiplayer (Local only, unfortunately) makes the game significantly more fair.

1) That's a section from late in the game.
2) A checkpoint during a short chase sequence is a dumb idea.
3) There's a checkpoint at the end, just before the boss battle.

A minute of gameplay between checkpoints isn't exactly unforgiving.

(Netplay just doesn't work for platformers. LBP had horrible floaty controls to make up for the fact that the game only had a lose idea of where you were meant to be on screen. It's also nice when online multiplayer doesn't ruin a game's local multiplayer for once.)

[super_frea]

Apparently Game has two weeks to turn around it's fortunes otherwise it faces administration. Yet another blow to the company after EAs refusal to supply them with Mass Effect 3. Would be a shame to see them go as I have grown up with their extortionate prices and... wait a minute I have Amazon and Ebay now... SCREW GAME!

Also in other news Mass Effect 3 rocks my socks. I know a lot of people are complaining about ME3's day 1 DLC and how much EA sucks, but the gameplay more than make up for it so far.

[philby4000]

Although Mass effect made the headlines, they also stopped stocking Nintendo, Ubisoft (and probably more publisher's) titles. Also all their Sony games have massive 'property of sony until purchase' stickers on them.

GAME's only hope of survival at this point is being bought out by GameStop, a comapny that's pulled out of the UK like 3 times now.

Also GameStation is owned by GAME too, so say goodbye to pretty much every dedicated videogame retailer in Britan's highstreets.

Although given their current 'spring sale' (read: emergency fire sale) now's actually a really good time to shop at GAME.

[bonz]

Their website is down though...

[franpa]

None of this affects the Australian GAME shop right?

[SupSuper]

Originally Posted by bonz

Their website is down though...

Works for me: http://www.game.co.uk/en/games/xbox-...s-_-mint-_-360

Originally Posted by franpa

None of this affects the Australian GAME shop right?

It depends, while the international branches operate independently, the UK branch is the main HQ, so if it collapses it will probably have ramifications everywhere.

[philby4000]

In other news, the Double Fine Kickstarter hit $3,000,000 earlier today!

That's near enough the budget Grim Fandango had (not accounting for inflation).

It's sort of mad to think that evey copy sold once the game is released will be pure profit. This has to be the most exciting thing to happen to videogames in a long time! Crowdsourcing come save us from the the AAA blockbuster mentality!

[SupSuper]

Originally Posted by philby4000

In other news, the Double Fine Kickstarter hit $3,000,000 earlier today!

That's near enough the budget Grim Fandango had (not accounting for inflation).

It's sort of mad to think that evey copy sold once the game is released will be pure profit. This has to be the most exciting thing to happen to videogames in a long time! Crowdsourcing come save us from the the AAA blockbuster mentality!

It's over with $3,335,325 + $120,000 from external backers, so in the end they got $3m more than they asked for.

Their celebration live stream was amazing.

[bonz]

I wonder when the likes of EA Games or Activision suddenly want to pull of something like that.
Million-dollar rich CEOs live streaming from their penthouse offices, asking to pay them money in advance for the next Sims or Call Of Duty...

[SupSuper]

On that note, there is now a kickstarter for a new Wasteland RPG (the predecessor of Fallout) by the original developers: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2

[Roboslob]

That is what I like to see! I'll add my support for that.

[Akuryou13]

I'm gunna LAUGH when the CoD-type CEOs try to kickstart their projects. That would be just about right....

But for now, I'm glad to see some actually interesting games being tossed up on the service. an old-school RPG game to add to the adventure title from Double Fine? abso-freakin-lutely!

[philby4000]

Originally Posted by akuryou

I'm gunna LAUGH when the CoD-type CEOs try to kickstart their projects. That would be just about right....

It's quite that bad, but there's this HARDCORE TACTICAL SHOOTER kickstarter that's been going since the start of the month.

It's pretty vague on what exactly seperates a potental 'hardcore CQB tactical shooter' from the latest Ghost Recon or Ranbow Six titles, and it's run by a guy who 'worked on Tom Clancy titles and Halo Reach'.

The goal is to gather enough money to impress investors, rather than fund the game itself. There's also a lot of guff about 'crowdsourcing development', even inviting 'gold level suporters' to submit game content.

It's not doing so hot, with only $40k of it's $200K target and 17 days left.


But yeah, it really didn't take long for someone to try and fund what is essensially a AAA military shooting game.

[MtlAngelus]

It's far from your average AAA military shooting game tho. His description actually reminds me a lot of the original Rainbow Six, that game was ****ing awesome and is definitely something you don't see this days.

[franpa]

Dick Smith in Australia has a massive game clearance sale that started today, I ended up getting nothing though due to bad luck and that there was strictly extremely limited stock. Several good games are/were being sold for PSP, Wii, DSi, Xbox 360 and PS3 for $15 or less and they were selling DSi for $20, PSP 3002 for $40 and a 320GB PS3 for $200 (Included Fifa 12).

The sale lasts multiple days and the company can't advertise it due to extremely limited stock being available (Some consumer law or something). They can't advertise it in-store or magazines/catalogs etc.

If you can't access there website due to heavy traffic, try there mobile website here http://m.dicksmith.com.au/, only games and consoles are part of the sale.

[MtlAngelus]

Dark Souls officially announced for PC. Will use Games For Windows Live.

[SupSuper]

I didn't even know Dark Souls had multiplayer.

[philby4000]

Originally Posted by SupSuper

I didn't even know Dark Souls had multiplayer.

It's the sort of multiplayer that involves being randomly lied to or murdered by ghosts.

[MtlAngelus]

Co-op is fun too.

I just hope people still buy this game. Them porting the game to pc and even going so far as to add extra content, just because fans asked for it is pretty amazing, even if they completely screwed up their choice for online platform.

[Phantom]

Am I the only one who has nothing against GFWL?

[MtlAngelus]

Originally Posted by Phantom

Am I the only one who has nothing against GFWL?

Pretty much.

[Plasma]

Originally Posted by Phantom

Am I the only one who has nothing against GFWL?

Microsoft themselves have been trying to slowly fade out the thing for a while now. At this point, not only does it not have its own site (now it's a part of xbox.com), but it doesn't even have its own troubleshooting FAQ anymore!


I'm gonna go ahead and guess that this port isn't going to be so good. Just a guess, though.