Upon first hearing the title Blackspace, one is libel to think of one of three things:
1. A secret government research facility.
2. A blacksploitation Star Wars knock-off.
3. A mid-90s R & B group.
Despite how amazingly cool option 2 is, the Blackspace in question is, unfortunately, none of the above. It is, however, yet another entry in the indie game revolution happening on kickstarter.
Ever since Tim Schaeffer and Double Fine blew the doors off of crowdfunded gaming expectations, a certifiable flurry of developers have looked to the crowd to finance their development process. Pixel Foundry seeks to join the ranks of kickstarter success for their seriously-it's-not-an-R&B-group game Blackspace.
The game is something like a real-time strategy game merged with an in-game level editor. Using the exciting (and safe!) occupation of asteroid mining as a backdrop, Blackspace has you piloting a hovering-lander vehicle around spherical asteroids while building bases, fighting off waves of enemies and mining. With rockets!
I could go into some long-winded (and inelegantly overwrought, knowing me) description of the game's mechanics, but there's a great video on the kickstarter page that explains it much better than I could. Also: Why read when you watch rocket mining?
It seems like every year, another installment is made in the seemingly omnipresent anthropomorphism-based brawlers genre. Attempting to break into what is easily one of gaming's most over-saturated fields can be a mind-numbingly difficult task. With labels like, "copycat" and "clone" flying like shuriken, what chance does Overgrowth, the latest effort from ultra-small indie dev Wolfire, have of cracking the entrenched mold of the anthropomorphized characters with multiple classes competing in rich, physics-based hand-to-hand weapon combat in a gorgeously rendered world built from a proprietary engine genre?
Barely a week after the leak and subsequent reveal of the Assassin's Creed III cover art, Ubisoft has dropped the debut trailer for the third (but actually like the 17th) installment in the Assassin's Creed saga. The trailer merely confirms what was obvious after the cover art's release; that the "third" game in the series will finally eschew rooftop scrambling over Mediterranean architecture for the frosty wilderness of the American revolution.
If stabbing dudes in a supreme one-upping of the tomahawk massacre scene in The Patriot is your thing, this trailer probably looks pretty awesome.
Lost in the furor surrounding the initial wave of Grand Theft Auto clones was the fact that Luxoflex's True Crime: Streets of LA was actually a pretty decent game. It's varied gameplay and branching storyline were enough to forgive its obvious inspiration in Rockstar's opus. True Crime's unique contributions to the open-world genre may be minimal, but I will always appreciate it for its awesome brawling system, the ability to frisk pedestrians for drugs at will, and for bringing some desperately needed slow-mo dives to a sandbox style game.
Its sequel, True Crime: Streets of New York brought predictable advancements and changes to the model of its predecessor, but never cracked "noteworthy" status. The slated third game in the series, True Crime: Hong Kong was cancelled almost exactly a year ago when publisher Activision thought it wasn't up to snuff. They must have been on a significant amount of snuff to have thought that, because the game looked incredible. Square Enix obviously thought so, and copped the rights to the game a few months after its shelving.
Now, Square Enix is giving True Crime: Hong Kong a second chance under the new title Sleeping Dogs, a title originally thought to be reserved for a third Kane & Lynch game. While it's sad to see Kane & Lynch go, Sleeping Dogs' proof-of-concept short film looks promising.
Man, Joysitq got linked to like ten times above. Hit the jump for the short and a brief commentary on how racist everyone secretly is.
Mecha have entrenched themselves fairly deeply into sci-fi lore, and for good reason. Any potential future without giant robots that you can drive/do battle with isn't really a potential future worth imagining. Video games are a natural extension of anything involving giant robots, and the human-piloted aspect of mechs make them particularly susceptible to appearances in video games.
That said, video games have a fairly uneven history with giant battlesuits, with mech-based games ranging from simplistic but good to financially exclusive to just kinda meh. With Hawken, Adhesive Games have thrown their hat into the frenzied mech-combat arena, and from the looks of early gameplay, they may have a winner.
It would seem that Ultimate Salt only likes to belatedly review Third Party Xbox exclusives from spring 2010. But technically, as Alan Wake is PC bound, this counts as an advanced review! Booya.
Hey guys, I don't know if you know this, but this game is a psychological action thriller. Just in case you missed it, we put it under the freaking title.
Remedy Entertainment's long-awaited follow up to their stellar two-part Max Payne saga was a long time coming. Initially announced in 2005, the game didn't see release until the spring of 2010, at which point cautious skepticism was bubbling close to the boiling point of outright disregard. What could cause such a high profile game to be delayed for so long?
The answer is about as mysterious as the events that befall the game's titular character. As it would turn out in, Alan Wake, the character, has some problems. Not standard video game problems, though. No one is trying to shoot him, no ambiguously foreign villains have a dastardly scheme that needs foiling, and no flags need be captured. Alan Wake has real problems; problems you might classify as either "grown up" or "first world," depending on your disposition.
His writing career is at a dead end due to a serious case of writer's block and his marriage is on shaky ground; two individual problems that serve to exacerbate each other. In an attempt to alleviate both, Wake and his wife Alice have sought refuge in the relaxing solitude of the Bright Falls, Washington. Things take a sinister turn after a brief encounter with a demonic presence at a local diner, (don't you hate when that happens?) and pretty soon Wake is besieged by ghastly forces of darkness, both metaphorical and literal.
Despite the cries of blasphemy at the thought of turning an all-time great strategy game into a balls out first person shooter, there is something undeniably appealing about Starbreeze's upcoming remake/sequel/adaptation/whatever of Syndicate. With it's gun-laden tale of futuristic corporate espionage, Starbreeze's Syndicate looks a little like Deus Ex: Human Revolution for stupid people, but add in some crazy weapons and mind-hackingly cool augmentations, along with the involvement of Starbreeze, whose Chronicles of Riddick and The Darkness were both criminally under-appreciated, and you've got a stew going.
A co-op demo drops on Xbox Live and PSN today. Hit the jump for a trailer, and later, some thoughts on the demo.
A week after a Japanese tweeter noticed a suspicious-looking "Nintendo Network" logo on the box art for a game that anyone would be brave to tweet about, Nintendo confirms the existence (or future existence) of The Nintendo Network.
Those with a keen insight to the passage of time will note that a similar service has been offered by both of Nintendo's primary rivals for the better part of ten years, yet the legendary company sees fit to tout features like "Personal Accounts" and "Community Features" as things that make Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console worth purchasing. There are already plans for the network to interface with the already released 3DS handheld as well, allowing for wondrous volumes of downloadable content.
Obviously, Nintendo is pretty confident that the Network will at least turn enough of a profit to make up for any ill-will incurred any time someone sees an RSS icon.
Because, it's like... yeah. Awkward. This was there already, and, like, you took it, Nintendo. I mean, I guess you kinda put an "n" in there, which, it's like, yeah... that's you guys, that's your thing, your letter, but... couldn't you have at least gone with green or something?
Max Payne was a great game. Max Payne 2 was a great game. Max Payne 3 should be a great game, right?
Well, despite its pedigree, it's going up against some impressive odds. First of all, the original dev team at Remedy has moved on to a new series featuring another bluntly named protagonist, Alan Wake. A new team handling a storied franchise can always be slightly treacherous. Second, it has been eight years since Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, quadrupling the number of years between the series' first two installments. In a world where gamers are frothing at Activision's teat for yearly re-skins of Call of Duty, an eight year layaway can't say much about the demand for the under-appreciated Max Payne.
As more and more people become aware that the advent of a technological singularity is rapidly approaching, it's been fascinating to see the stream of narrative works dedicated to the usurpation of the human race by our own inventions as the dominant species on the planet.
Unfortunately, very few people telling these narratives seem to be able to view artificial intelligence as anything beyond the whole "killer robots" concept, leading to an endless stream of Terminator (I swear it's coincidence there has been so much Terminator stuff today) and The Matrix one-offs, instead of the in-depth explorations of artificial intelligence that literature has provided.
While playing Grand Theft Auto IV, I've often remarked, as I slowly march into a squadron of SWAT teams, absorbing hundreds of bullets directly to the dome, that Grand Theft Auto is the best Terminator game ever made. Someone with significantly more programming/design expertise clearly agrees with me, and has modded GTA IV to reskin the player as the iconic T-101.
Added bonus: The game's stilted, mechanical animations now make so much more sense!
Deviant Artist Joker-Laugh has sculpted up a fantastically cool Alien vs. Predator themed chess set, that manages to improve on the overall quality of both Alien vs. Predator films combined.
The game that invented rubber band difficulty and transformed cheat codes from "funny" to "necessary" is back.
Well, kinda.
There is a game called NFL Blitz available to download on Xbox Live and the PSN, but it doesn't look too much like the video above. While the new Blitz takes great strides to recreate what made the original Blitz so awesomely fun, it all feels very artificial. Sure, you've got spin moves, stiff arms and all the classic plays (Noob-Cannons like UTB Deep and Da Bomb are wisely relocated to the first two play choices - while the Player's Choice Turmoil is relegated to the second screen) but it just doesn't feel like Blitz.
Maybe that's because I don't know the new code for infinite turbo.
Hit the jump to check some gameplay of the new Blitz.
Unlike it's treatment of the cinema, 2011 was particularly kind to the world of interactive entertainment. As stated in declaration of candidates, video games are unique as a medium in that sequels frequently surpass their predecessors in overall quality. Given this penchant for improvement coupled with the fact that the medium is barely out of its infancy, video games, almost annually, continue to see genre-defining works.
2011 was no exception. That an incredible achievement like Skyrim could only crack the Honorable Mentions is telling.
"I'm about to pirate this helicopter, ifyaknowwhatImean."
Paying for things is kinda whack, yo. It's, like, capitalism and stuff, and I get that, but it's just like, "man, I want that shit fo free." Apparently, the people agree with me, as TorrentFreak's list of 2011's most pirated games dropped today, and it confirms suspicions that paying for things is highly overrated.
Crysis 2 earns top honors with 3,920,000 illegal downloads, but is almost matched by execution-simulator Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Shoot Stuff Again: Colon, which racked up 3,650,000 frags in a considerably shorter release window. (CoD:MW3:SSA:C came out in November, Crysis 2 in March)
But those are just the PC stats! It would seem DRM protection doesn't really dissuade people from copying games, so good luck with that, SOPA. Check out the rest of the list to see which what 360 and Wii games had the most downloads.
Honestly though, downloading console games illegally is a freaking pain in the ass. You've got to get emulators or burn discs that can forge all kinds of standards and licensing gatechecks... ugh. I can't believe this many people do that. It would honestly be less work to just get a job and earn $60 to buy the game.
Wait. People illegally download games for the Wii?
The Splinter Cell franchise has a long history of excellence. At it's best (2005's Chaos Theory) it has set the bar for the stealth game genre. At it's worst, (Chaos Theory's follow-up, Double Agent) it's still a damn good stealth game. All the games in the series have been built on a solid foundation of stealth gameplay that goes a little something like this: Hide in shadows, silently take out ambiguously foreign bad guys, don't be seen.
As you might have gleaned from the main character's decision to not affix a silencer to his rather large rifle in the above trailer, Splinter Cell: Conviction does away with some pretty key parts of the past games' formula; notably "don't be seen" and "silently." While the game still wholeheartedly encourages stealth, the penalties for being detected have been severely lessened. Drawing on heavy inspiration from the Bourne trilogy, Ubisoft Montreal has turned Sam Fisher from a methodical, patient ninja master to a blindly driven, furiously paced takedown machine. The game's story, before delving into relentlessly over-the-top Tom Clancy gobbldigook, actually provides a perfect narrative explanation for Fisher's newfound aggression; a fact that comes as something of a surprise for a series that has repeatedly supplanted a plot with militaristic-techno-jargon.
In order to imbue the player with the brutality and efficiency displayed by Matt Damon's Jason Bourne, the game plays host to a bevy of new features. While the new cover mechanic is definitely worth mentioning, the "mark and execute" feature is clearly the game's centerpiece. It allows the player to silently tag multiple enemies before taking them all down with a single button press, and is responsible for some of the coolest moments in the game. Initially, it may seem cheap, but when you take down a room of eight guards in two seconds, all complaints will be overpowered either by amorous feelings of badassery, or by the volume at which you are telling the nearest person to you what a badass you are.
Complimenting the single player campaign are a single player challenge mode and a co-operative mode that may be the best any game has to offer; a fact that should come as no surprise to anyone who played through Chaos Theory's outstanding co-op campaign. It also really must be noted that end of the co-op campaign, to refrain from spoilers, is absolutely perfect and will through players for a loop and a half.
While not without the same frustrations that plague any trial and error based game, Splinter Cell: Conviction is the definitive example of how to revive a franchise bordering on stagnation. Nearly all of the chances taken pay off, and make this one of the most innovative games of the generation.
Although I will always wonder what would have happened if the game's initial version hadn't been scratched...
We're starting things off here at Ultimate Salt with the first annual Salty awards. Now, we fully understand the wariness that may be incurred by some random dudes giving out awards with absolutely no precedent set for their tastes, credibility, or reputability; but we feel that this will be the best first step toward setting that precedent.
With that, I give you our Game of the Year Candidates.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PS3/360/PC)
In a world where Indiana Jones and John McClane can be brought back from the dead after more than a decade, eight years seems an inadequately short amount of time to necessitate the tag of "revival" on any franchise. But eight years is, like, forever in video game time. That said, Eidos Montreal's "revival" of the Deus Ex franchise was a tricky one.
Deus Ex, (one of the pillars of modern gaming)and its under-appreciated sequel Invisible War, cast a long shadow. Luckily, Human Revolution lives in the shadows. With a silenced pistol. And retractable blades in its arms ready to stab you in the face.
Or in the neck. Wherever, really.
That is, if that's how you want to play. The game is all about choice, and it does an excellent job of letting players answer the game's myriad of societal quandaries however they choose. While there are some stumbles along the way, most notably the narrative urgency taking a backseat to the aforementioned choice; Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an incredible game that deserves every one of the hundred-odd hours that will be put into its replaying.
Portal 2 (PS3/360/PC)
Portal was a special game. What could have been a highly conceptual, but otherwise bland puzzle game was brought vividly to life by a tremendous vocal performance by Ellen McLain and some of the decade's best writing in any medium, courtesy of Eric Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek. Following it up was a daunting task, but Valve stuck to the tried and true sequel formula of: MORE.
Portal 2 is bigger, longer, and, in many respects, better than its predecessor. Instead of featuring the best video game vocal performance of the year, it features the three best video game vocal performances of the year, with Messieurs Steven Merchant and J.K. Simmons joining Ms. McLain in the cast. Instead of two writers, they got three, with the original game's duo becoming a trio with the addition of Jay Pinkerton.
(Although no amount of writers could top Jonathon Coulton's theme song from Portal.)
The gameplay in Portal 2 is expanded from what the first game offered, adding co-operative play (worth the game's price tag alone) and expanded contraptions and puzzle mechanics. Portal 2's singular misstep is that, in an effort to streamline the experience, concessions to player freedom were made. While the puzzles can still be tricky and every one of them is wildly creative, there is no getting around the fact that they have been made easier and that alternative solutions have been eliminated. The game is still an absolute blast, and anything that induces this much laughter automatically gets a nod for a Salty.
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3)
By now, you're surely noticing a trend. There be sequels up ins. Video games are unique as a medium in that, thanks to advances in technology and community feedback, sequels regularly outshine their originators. A perfect example is Naughty Dog's Uncharted series. The first game, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, was an excellent game, but due to its being Naughty Dog's first foray into a game of its kind, it was largely imperfect. Through refining and extrapolating the first game's core concepts, they were able to release the best game of the current console generation with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Now they get to follow that up. Sequels, baby!
Just to get it out of the way, it should be noted that with the release of Uncarted 3, the crown of "Best Game of the Console Generation" still rests comfortably on the head of Uncharted 2. That said: WOW. Drake's Deception is unbelievably good, and it is a testament to Among Thieves that the third installment is unable usurp the throne. The animation, the writing, the action, the explosions, the crumbling buildings... I don't even know where to start. The single player campaign is a stunning achievement in narrative gaming. As I have no desire to be shot in the back of the head by 12-year-olds, the multiplayer is of little consequence to me, but is technically quite proficient. It just saddens me to think of the development hours that went into it that could have been spent making the single player even more grand.
Long story short: Play this game. Or did you not see the trailer above? You get to do the stuff in it!
Minecraft (PC)
Luckily for Minecraft, there is no statute of limitations concerning a game's gestation period and its subsequent nomination for The Salties. Publicly available in alpha and beta versions since 2009, Markus Perrson's (who is clearly either a robot or alien posing as a human under a false name that translates to "Mark Person") Minecraft is the video game world's greatest indie success story. Built on an incredibly simple premise and sporting a pixel count that makes Pong look sexy, Minecraft's homebrewed aesthetic might fool passerbys into thinking it's nothing special.
But it is exactly that. Minecraft is a special game; the likes of which we would be lucky to see again soon. Remember how cool Legos used to be before they sold out? Minecraft takes the principle of block-based construction into the digital realm. It's like Legos, if you had to mine for every brick yourself, and then use those bricks to build defenses against ghastly creatures that attack you as soon as night falls. It sounds slightly tedious, and it certainly can be, but it captures the excitement of exploration and creation in a way that no other open world game has before.
Plus: You can build a giant digital reproduction of you genitals, which is hugely appealing to a certain subset of the internet community.
FIFA 12 (PS3/360/Other platforms but who even plays sports games on those)
Yes. A sports game. Right there, next to regular games, on a year's best list. Deal with it. The criteria for appraising sports games is slightly different than those by which other games are judged. The aim of a sports game is not necessarily to provide a sweeping narrative or an immersive experience. They are intended, with the exception of arcade sports titles, to be as accurate a replication as possible of their sport in a digital medium. By that criterion, FIFA 12 fits right into any year's best list because of one key word: best.
FIFA 12 is the best facsimile of football/soccer ever seen in a video game. It might even be the most accurate replica of any sport in a game, ever. The NBA 2k series put up a reasonable case for that distinction with this year's 2k12, but there are still too many idiosyncrasies that pull the player out of the game for it to properly challenge FIFA 12. It took EA Sports the better part of a console generation, but they finally figured out how to make dribbling a legitimate offensive weapon, and while that took hampering players' defensive capabilities, it is a more than welcome trade.
You're going to want to go ahead an mute this video before you play it.
In FIFA 12, games finally flow and build like an actual match. Defenders are forced to back off, giving good dribblers space, lest they be embarrassed by a quick skirt to the side. With the ability to blindly charge attacking players by mashing down on the pressure button taken away, the rhythm of games is preserved and what unfolds actually ends up looking like a game of professional football. Built on top of the core gameplay are an insane amount of modes and options that could keep players busy for years to come.
Honorable Mentions
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (PS3/360/PC)
I liked it better when it was called Oblivion, which I liked better when it was called Morrowind. It's a great game, there just isn't enough evolution in this series to earn a Salty nod.
Batman: Arkham City (PS3/360/PC)
It's telling that everyone mistakenly calls this game Arkham Asylum, the name of its predecessor. It looks nearly identical. Tons of fun, with a great combat system, but it loses a lot of its luster if the shine from the fan service isn't blinding you.
Mass Effect 2 (PS3/360/PC)
Talk about getting slept on. Released in January for some reason, it just couldn't survive long enough in the collective unconscious of everyone who called it Game of the Year upon it's release. Honestly though, it just wasn't my thing.
NBA 2k12 (PS3/360)
The best basketball game ever made. The problem? It had the previous best basketball game ever made as a foundation to build upon.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
Reliable sources inform us that this was an excellent game, but, to use a turn of phrase from my idol over at Big Ghost Chronicles, "I can't really fucks wit tha Wii yo."
Conclusion?
I don't even know yet.
Stay tuned for the official awarding of The Salties on January 1st to find out which game wins.
