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The Brothers Rapture Show Us Another Slice Of Rapture

It could be just me, but I'm pretty sure we would all love to see an amazing silver screen adaptation of BioShock. I'd like to think that we haven't yet because of worry that fans would not accept it unless it is top notch. So what do we get in the interim? Well if you haven't scrolled down yet, we get some pretty amazing short films produced by fans for the fans. The most recent one called The Brothers Rapture.

The following short film follows the dark tale of two brothers who have moved to Rapture to escape some of their past hardships and to create art without hindrance. Their first piece of course being a statue of Andrew Ryan. Then plasmids enter the scene and, as one could assume, everything devolves into a horror whirlwind for the two. Fitting with the franchise it also leads the brothers into similar hardships they talk about leaving up top.

After watching this 16 minute short I am still baffled why we don't have a full feature length film yet. This small team was able to was able to create a fun little side story for the franchise on what seems a low budget. Can we not get the gears in motion to get an amazing larger budget version? Hells, it doesn't even need to mirror the story of BioShock but just use the universe to make something decent as we can see. It is possible. Why hasn't it been done?

Enjoy the film below and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

Review: Metro: Last Light

The wait is over for the sequel to Metro 2033. Metro: Last Light is upon us and is continuing the saga of humanity's decimation and Artyom. Let's get down to brass tacks with how Last Light plays and feels.

Story

The story picks up with Artyom after following the "bad ending" of 2033. That would be allowing the Dark Ones to get blown to hell after they threatened the last safe haven of humanity in Russia. It turns out that one of these "Dark Ones" survived and has been spotted. Due to Artyom's past experience he is sent out to capture the creature, but this turns into a wild romp to get back home after being captured by the 4^th Reich and other militant groups trying to survive. Not to mention there are still horrors abundant trying to eat him along the way.

Hated

When I first started seeing video for Last Light it looked as if it was going to focus more on the survival against the Mutated creatures over humans. To me it was definitely more about how screwed up humans are compared to horribly disfigured creatures from a destroyed Earth. This theme is a bit saturated to me as of late and I was hoping for a good mix between the two. Don't get me wrong, this is by no means a game breaking issue, but I was expecting a bit more on the mutant killing and evading. I mean, their AI seemed to be leaps and bounds more evolved over the human NPCs.

Stealth was a huge option in the game, at least for the section that had humans patrolling. This is the path I took thinking that it would be a bit trickier to pull off, I was wrong though. As I stated above, the mutants could hone in on your location in a heartbeat, but the humans would not even notice you if you were right in front of them in the shadows. You would think that they would be use to low light vision by now or adapted, but it looks like that is not the case. I truly felt that the game was too easier, even on hardcore, during the stealth sections. All it really let me do is progress the game faster without a challenge.

Still on an anti-human kick, I have to say that the character models for the humans felt extremely un-polished. Given the hardware and time that the developers had at their disposal, they just seemed a bit thrown together and generic. Maybe they spent more time on the creatures this time around, even though they felt underutilized. Granted, this isn't game play breaking, but it adds to the overall immersion and experience.

Loved

Even though Last Light isn't listed as a survival horror game, I was instilled with more "panic" than in any of the latest titles in that genre. It's not just the claustrophobia inducing levels, but even some of the situations and areas you need to run through to proceed. I swear if I have to run into another "spider" nest again with my ever dimming head lamp again it will be too soon. Hells, even running in wide open spaces or on a moving rail car being swarmed by Watchers or Lurkers had a level anxiety that I have yet to feel since way back during the first Resident Evil days.

Mind you, the horror didn't end with just the main game missions as well. There is also a cornucopia of "side missions" that you can undertake even though they are not really given the title proper. Each of these mostly lead to wither an achievement, an in-game collectible, or just further down the rabbit hole of the decent of humanity in this post-apocalyptic world. One that comes to mind is during an area where bandits have taken over a section of the tunnels. You can easily travel past it, but that is if you are ok with hearing a woman effectively being raped and killed in a side tunnel. Not required, but it was more of a personal side mission I guess.

Lastly, to wrap it all up, I really thought the control scheme was well done here. I'm not talking about the basic FPS style of things, but all of the extra equipment and how to utilize it. It took time to swap and limited what you could use based on the fact that you have only to hands. Even with that, using the game models to show stuff that is normally in a HUD was a great addition to that. For instance, instead of seeing a batter bar in the corner of the screen to see how long you have until your flashlight dies you have to pull out the hand charger to see a real gauge. I love little additions like this.

Overall

I could probably go on and on about pros and cons for M: LL all day. Although I would have to state that there would be way more pros than cons. I enjoyed every minute of the game and if you are tired of the same old FPS titles, this is a great break from the monotony. I would probably have had fewer gripes here if I was expecting a more "human" experience than mutant killing, but I blame that on myself and not 4A Games in the least bit. Hopefully this review will help you before you go head into the Metro.

I completely recommend Metro: Last Light for a purchase. As I write this I want to dive back in and give it a try in Ranger Mode as well as go down a few more tunnels and paths I skipped or missed as I was running for my life. I am sure you will feel the same.

Metro: Last Light was developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver on May 14^th, 2013 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Review: Poker Night At The Inventory 2 (PSN)

It's been a while since we've had a good card game on the PSN. Now, after a little over 2 years, we have the sequel to Poker Night At The Inventory hitting the PSN. It is aptly named Poker Night At The Inventory 2 for those who can't seem to keep up. It was released on every other platform about a week earlier, but I had the opportunity to give it a go when it hit the PS3. Here's what I thought.

Hated

Oh my gods the loading LAG in the game. Almost every round of betting had a 15 to 20 second load just for my turn to bet, raise, check, or whatever. There were so many times I thought my PS3 was just locking up but then the game and dialog would continue after what seemed like forever. This also continued when the game needed to save for whatever reason. I get that the game needs to load but does it really have to halt everything, including the dialog, to do so? Why couldn't it do all this loading in the background?

Speaking about the game's dialog, isn't this supposed to be the biggest selling point for the game? Outside of playing poker it's supposed to be the witty banter going around the table that keeps us sucked into the game. All of it is fun and witty, the first time you hear it. After about the first hour of playing I heard the same stories, anecdotes, and jokes repeated over and over to the point where I muted the game so I could just listen to my own music and talk to everyone else in my house. All of the characters in the game are known to be talkative yet they seemed to have only 5 generated scripts to read from and maybe 10 "reaction" statements.

Loved

Now even though I heard the scripted dialog what seemed like a hundred times, the first time I heard everything it was damn enjoyable. Even though I have no clue who the "Wendy" Ash kept referencing was supposed to be, everything seemed spot on for the franchises and even melded perfectly together in the conversations. I particularly enjoyed when Brock tells Ash to take the Necronomicon to Dr. Orpheus to have it "handled." This kind of melding was what made things interesting and fun.

Overall

In all honesty, I can't recommend picking this up on the PS3. The LAG and unskippable repeated dialog just made this a chore to play. I have not heard of the same issues on the other platforms, but I would have rather just played a real world game of poker with my friends. After the first hour of playing there would be the guarantee that the banter and joking would be different and not the same things repeated. Or at least you'd be able to smack your buddy if they were repeating the same joke a hundred times over.

Poker Night At The Inventory 2 was developed and published by Telltale Games on April 30^th, 2013 for PS3. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Here Is The PAX East Saints Row IV Demo

A few months ago at PAX East I got a chance to see the crazy new features of Volition's Saints Row IV first hand and brought you the coverage here on Aggrogamer. Now is your chance to see it as Volition has released the tech demo to the public. So if you did not get to attend PAX East this year this is the perfect opportunity to catch up on all the superpower and dub step gun goodness.

Saints Row IV takes place right where Saints Row The Third left off. The Leader of the saints has been elected President Of The United States and continues his rise to fame. After being elected President the leader of the Saints is captured by aliens called the Zin and imprisoned in a virtual version of Steelport. If you are expecting a rehashed version of the last game’s city you are mistaken. This version of Steelport is filled with alien mother ships, new weapons and new enemies to face off with.

Not much of the new city was shown but this new version looks very dark and twisted and should be fun to explore when the game drops. So do yourself a favor and check out the crazy new Steelport of Saints Row IV and tell us what you think. Saints Row IV comes out for the PS3 and Xbox 360 August 20^th.

PAX East Demo

Meet The President Trailer

Remember Me Is Sounding A Lot Like Inception Mixed With The Matrix

Admit it, the more you see on Remember Me, the more links that can be made to the title mentioned films. That is at least after checking out the new 'Memory Trailer' that hit the web recently. It touches upon pretty much one of the core aspects of the game, story and game play-wise. Memory if you somehow forgot about it by now. I'll let the video delve deeper into things, but here are a few interesting things I pulled out of.

So we all should know that Nilin has the ability to "rework" the memories of pretty much anyone in the game. For some reason she only chooses to do this to a select few for story purposes. In those instances though, she can change the core of a person's beliefs based on what they remember. These changes seem to go much further than "destroy my father's company" to "maybe I should kill myself because I remember killing my wife a few days ago." Kind of a stretch, but that is just based off what we've been shown so it might make sense overall.

Extending off of that, Nilin will also need to pull memories of events, like an NPC laying out mines, so she can have a HUD of where these mines are located so she can sneak by safely. Hopefully this is something that is not a required event but an optional thing. I say that because it would be nice to reward players who want to explore the game's world with a little bonus instead of just having everyone get the bonus.

Well that covers one of the titles, what about the second. That really comes in were they describe the combat as well as how "boss" combat seems to work. Seems that Nilin has forgotten all of her sweet combat training and needs to "regain" the memories and "download" them into her brain. If only it was that way in the real world.

As describe in the video, some "boss" fights will take place in a virtual memory world where you will need to accomplish "something" based on the particular NPC. The fight shown in the video looks more like a straight up brawl in a "loading" world more than anything, but instead of using her newly remembered sweet kicks in the real world, they will be virtually kicking ass and taking names apparently.

Also, way back in March when the story overview cropped up there were creatures that looked like zombies in the world for some reason. These have been better described as "memory junkies," or Leapers, now. Apparently stolen memories act like smoking meth and twist your physical form to something weird. They also grant the ability to track memory hunters hence the reason they don't like Nilin.

Anyway, watch the below clip and if you are feeling saucy comment below. Comment even if you are not feeling saucy.

Interview: Nathan Fouts From Mommy's Best Games

During PAX East I had the honor of meeting the President of Mommy’s Best Games, Nathan Fouts. A really cool guy, who is extremely passionate in what he does. We exchanged contact information and for the past couple months we have been emailing each other back and forth, talking about Mommy’s Best Games, Serious Sam, as well as some other things.

AggroGamer: When and why did you establish Mommy's Best Games Inc.?

Nathan Fouts: I started working at bigger companies, like Running With Scissors, back in 1998. I did programming and design for several other companies, most recently Insomniac Games on games such as Resistance Fall of Man for PS3 and Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction. I really learned a lot working on big teams and doing those 3D games. But I've always been drawn to side scrollers, strange 2D art, and tight game play. I wasn't getting my fill of side scrolling design at big companies focused on 3D. In 2007, I founded Mommy's Best Game and we launched our first game, Weapon of Choice. A year later on Xbox Live Community Games (now Indie Games).

AG: So how did you guys get your hands in the Serious Sam pot?

NF: Indeed! How did we? Well it is based on Mommy's Best having made some cool games previously! Basically back in 2011, the American publisher for Serious Sam, Devolver Digital, was working to promote Croteam's new Serious Sam 3 BFE game. Devolver came up with a very interesting idea to partner with three groovy, but different independent studios. The concept was they picked three established, places with a style that was different and one they liked. We had made several previous games on Xbox Live Indie Games that they liked a lot such as Weapon of Choice and Shoot 1UP. They asked if we could make a crazy, 2D Serious Sam in our Weapon of Choice style. After I woke up from fainting (I'm honestly a huge Sam fan), I may have fainted again… but at some point I realized they were serious (—eh… sorry), and went for it!

They funded the Steam version, and after it did well, we looked at the XBLA version. The biggest request was coop but I also wanted to really beef up the Gunstacker. Thus in the Steam version (Just plain Serious Sam Double D), there were only 8 gun types, but in the new XBLA version there are 40 different guns! It really makes the Gunstacker interesting to tinker around with.

AG: What has been your favorite Serious Sam installment so far?

NF: Hmm… I would have to say The First Encounter, but I also really liked the Xbox 1 port, playing in co-op. It was kinda ugly, but really fun. Both were amazing experiences… well, shoot, let's just say TFE wins. Also liked how completely weird SS2 was.

AG: Who’s idea was it to add the "Yo Dawg, XZibit" Secret? I nearly died laughing when I found that.

NF: Thanks, mine! I figured he was a perfect complement to the insane, "you need a gun, on your gun" stacking theme in the game.

AG: Who was the creative genius behind the Cooperative Madness Trailer?

NF: That would be Devolver Digital. They passed things by me but the initial concepts were all theirs. Pretty great stuff, huh?

AG: Is there an old franchise/game that you would love to get your hands on? If so, why?

NF: The Ooze on the Sega Genesis. I think the idea was great, but the game is too darn frustrating. I'm not sure if there's a name behind it, but I think it'd be fun to try to make it again, and make it more fun.

We would like to thank Nathan Fouts for his time and be sure to check out Mommy’s Best Games on XBLA, as well as Steam for Serious Sam Double D XXL, Shoot 1UP, and Weapon of Choice.

Who Wants To See The Game Play Of Beyond: Two Souls?

Did you missed the Tribeca Film Festival, and in turn the new footage for Beyond: Two Souls? This is most likely the case if you clicked in here to see the new trailer and about 35 minutes of the actual game play. If the reports of Beyond only being an average of ten hours long, that's about 1/20 of the actual game. Isn't that lovely?

In the instance that you are one of those "don't want to spoil anything" people, I'll give you a run down on what is touched on in the longer video besides a bit of the story.

First, it looks like there is going to be quite a bit of Heavy Rain style QTEs to move about the basics of the game world. That covers opening doors, playing the guitar, and about anything else that you want Jodie to do. It is also not fully clear if Aiden, the other soul in the game, is also controlled in the same way, but there is no indication of it on the screen during the videos.

Also, it looks like when it comes down to actual combat in the game, there is a lot of "bullet time" used. This is for what seems like almost every attack that you perform or fail to perform. It's almost like they want emphasize the hits that connect and that is it. I can see this getting very old fast, unless it is part of the actual game play. But think of it like hitting an X-Ray move in MK9 for every hit.

Lastly, Aiden the 'ghost'. At least that is the name I hear Jodie call out to help or save her. The long clip shows that for the most part he is used for distractions, breaking things, and stopping Jodie from killing herself. I know other clips have shown other instances of use, but that is pretty much all that is covered here. I can't really go in on that more without breaking the promise of not spoiling things directly here.

Take a watch and leave your thoughts down below.

Game Trailer

Game Play

More Screen Shots For Batman: Arkham Origins To Show The World

Who wants a butt load of new screen shots for Batman: Arkham Origins? You do of course. This should be something to help tide us over until we get some actual in-game footage or at least an awesome CGI trailer. Hopefully that won't be too far off. I'm thinking at least a month, if not sooner. We'll have to see. Maybe they are still trying to work out the Voice Actors still.

Anyway, the following images do show off some cool action shots as well as a few villains. Black Mask and Deathstroke and quit a few 'mooks' really, but again, at least it is something for now. I'd love to know who the full eight best assassins in the world are for Origins, not to mention the obvious cameos, but I'm sure there will be some long drawn out campaign slowly revealing them as we get closer to launch. I just hope it's not right up near the end of the PR campaign and soon.

Who would be on your dream team of killers? How's the game looking based off the below screens? Let's hear some noise.

Call Of Duty: Ghosts Officially Revealed

Activision has confirmed that the rumored Call Of Duty: Ghosts will in fact be the next installment in the long running FPS franchise. Not many details on the game were revealed by Activision aside from a teaser trailer and a promise for a bigger reveal during the Xbox: The Next Generation Revealed Event on May 21^st. Activision also announced that the game will be released on November 5^th for the PS3, Xbox 360, PC, PS4 and the new Xbox.

As for plot details none were revealed but the box art hints at a prequel to the Modern Warfare games. The character on the box and in the teaser trailer seems to be wearing the same mask as Ghost from Modern Warfare 2. Players who played Modern Warfare 2 would know that Ghost was killed in action near the ending of the single player campaign. Maybe this is just speculation or it could be about a new special ops unit. We will just have to wait for the Xbox event in a few weeks to know for sure. In the meantime check out the teaser trailer and the official box art below.

Three New Trailers For Grand Theft Auto V

Here we go. The three trailers that we were all promised for GTA V have just dropped online for all of our viewing pleasure. Each one covers a little bit on one of the protagonists from the game. It is also pretty safe to assume that the trailers are all rendered using the in-game engine and I'd be surprised if they weren't. But I digress.

The three protagonists are:

Michael — A wealthy man battling a midlife crisis.
Franklin — A gangbanger trying to get out of a "the life."
Trevor — A "red-neck" drug dealer

Outside of that, there is no other real news to cover with these trailers. Feel free to poke and prod at them for any and all details you might be able to glean.

Live Action Tease Declassifies The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

Last week we got an awesome announcement that the XCOM title we saw back in 2011 is still alive and has not been fully canceled. There was also the promise of new information to come "soon." Who would have thought that the information, not to mention release date, would have come so shortly after the re-announcement? I'm a bit surprised and excited.

Oh…wait…It's just a live action trailer and a few screen shots? At least there is the following snippet of the game's story.

The year is 1962, JFK is President and the Cold War has the nation gripped by fear — but a far more powerful and insidious enemy than communism is threatening America. Known only to a select few, a top-secret government unit called The Bureau begins investigating and concealing a series of mysterious attacks by an otherworldly enemy. As special agent William Carter, players call the shots, pull the trigger and lead their squad in a gripping third-person tactical shooter set within a high-stakes, covert war to protect humanity. The Bureau's mission is clear — survive, adapt and overcome the enemy threat. The Bureau has been erasing the truth for decades. The time will come for the truth to be revealed.

Well it also looks like it is no longer a FPS game either. Now that is exciting news in my opinion. Not only because I am getting tired of FPS games, but because this opens up quite in the visual department that would have been limited in a FPS. It will most likely lead to another "cover based" game, but when you are trying to show off some craziness that could have happened in the 60's, I'll take fashion over function. Unless the function is deployed horribly. Then I could care less what my character is wearing/holding.

We'll all find out soon for sure though. With E3 right around the corner and the release date of August 20^th, I'm sure we will be seeing loads more soon. Keep an eye here or on erasethetruth.com for details.

Two New Characters Revealed For Deadpool To Do Stuff With

If your eyes are wide enough, and your screen is too, you can already see that Psylocke and Mr. Sinister have been added to the roster of Marvel characters to have a role in Deadpool: The Game. What kind of role is still to be fully determined, but I think it is safe to assume that they will most likely be taking on the role they do in the comics. Or they might not. Who know when it comes to video game tie-ins? All we know is that they will be there.

When it comes to the look of the characters here, I totally have to say that I like the look of Mr. Sinister. Psylocke on the other hand could use a bit of an overhaul. She looks very generic with only the colors and basics to tie her back to the comic book counterpart. Look at the images on her info card and tell me that they don't really sync up. It's like they just wanted to add more bewbs to the game and that was it.

By all means if I am way off here let me know. Seeing as the game comes out on June 25^th I think it is safe to assume these are the final character models so I'll just have to deal with it… I guess…

Finally We Are Going To Get New Details On The FPS XCOM

Ah… I remember back in 2011. Sitting in a dark room at E3. Waiting to see what 2K had to show us for the new XCOM title they were bringing. Then I remember not seeing a gods damned thing about it for almost two years. It looked so amazing and then I was crushed thinking it was never going to see the light of day. At least that was until there was a blog posting on the 2K Blog. Here is a copy for you so you don't have to click out.

The XCOM universe is expanding.

In the coming days the world will get a fresh look at the long-awaited squad-based tactical shooter in development at 2K Marin. Announced back in 2010, the game has undergone an evolution since we last showed it to you at E3 2011. Firaxis' critically acclaimed turn-based strategy title, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, has reignited the classic franchise and we feel that the time is right to deliver a new experience within the world of XCOM.

The creative development of this game has been a collaborative process of discovery and iteration. 2K's culture allows our studios the freedom to refine their visions, to explore new ideas, and to deliver the best possible experiences for players. Through this exploration, 2K Marin has refined their vision, and as a result the game has evolved into a high-stakes narrative experience imbued with core XCOM concepts.

The wait is nearly over and we can't wait to share more details with you about the game in only a matter of days.

After reading that, I fully admit my headline above is completely misleading… at least for now. I am a bit excited and a bit scared with what was stated above. What we saw at E3 oh so long ago looked like an amazing rekindling to the franchise. I wanted that XCOM to come out in 2011. Now there is mentioning of things changing to their original vision based on the RTS version? For the love of the gods don't let it be anything overly major.

The game world's aesthetic had me at hello. The team based FPS game play pulled me and swaddled me. The overall story had not been touched upon yet, so hopefully it is something in that arena. I'd even settle for a bit of character and enemy design changes. They weren't bad before, but changing those things up would still keep everything that engaged me on that fateful day back in 2011.

I guess we'll find out here in the coming days. I'm guessing sometime in May so 2K will get flooded with interview and booth tour requests for E3. Not that they really need a huge push for that. Keep an eye out and we'll update as we get new information.

Review: Dead Island: Riptide

Back in 2011 we were all introduced to the wonders that could be a Zombie RPG with Dead Island. Two years later now we get to see how everything has progressed story-wise and engine-wise with Dead Island: Riptide. Is it just another crappy sequel that seems to be all the rage, or does it stand out on its own? Continue on to see what I thought.

Story

We pick up with the "Immune Fab Four" directly after the events of Dead Island. They are on an aircraft carrier on their way to perceived safety when another nefarious plot is dropped right on them. In the mix of everything, the infection spread about the boat forcing it to beach itself; a zombie captain is not well suited for the high seas. Once they survivors come to again, they find themselves on yet another island paradise that has been overrun by the shambling hordes. Can they survive yet another paradise of the dead?

Hated

Let's get the ball rolling with something I was hoping to be fixed this time around, graphic and audio issue. For me they weren't as bad as I found them in the first game, but I still had to sit and wait after the loading screen for textures and audio to kick in for instances. I for one thought that is part of what the loading process was supposed to handle, but not in Riptide's case. For the most part it wasn't too big of annoyance but in certain instances you are thrust into a room that has infected ready to swarm right away without warning. There were quite a few times I found myself being attacked by a brown humanoid blob I couldn't hear coming just because everything wasn't finished loading.

Now I'd give this a pass a bit more if I was playing online, but this seemed to be the issue playing online or completely disconnected from the world. In fact sometimes it would happen by just running around the open world, but this mainly stuck to the audio side of things. Not overly game breaking, but still an issue that should have been ironed out a bit more before going gold.

Another thing that seemed to rub me the wrong way again, and it started from the very beginning of the game, is the fact that most of the NPCs in the world should really be put down. I understand that we are playing a RPG style game, but is greed really that rampant in the human condition that even in crisis you get charged currency to help the group survive? Even after you have saved groups of people, they show their gratitude by letting you buy things from them after you get your mission reward. Why could we not go a more barter system for this? Does that NPC who is malnourished really need $1400 for a baseball bat with nails in it or wouldn't they care more for the 80 snacks and energy drinks I am lugging around?

Loved

This was one of my original gripes in the first Dead Island but the driving this go around was exponentially better in Riptide, even the new boats. It is still essential to get around the island quickly and safely, but I found myself going on a driving rampage everywhere I could get my vehicle. It is easily one of my favorite ways to clear out most of the zombies in an area now. No more are the days of the car getting stuck or jerking around for little to no reason. Vehicles are now one of my favorite weapons in the game.

Speaking on weapons, just as in the last game there was a myriad of weapon combinations; this is the case again and in some cases I found the list a bit better. It seems like such a small thing for a game, but giving me more customization over my weapons then my avatar is a huge plus. Not to mention seeing how they were put together in the 3D model has inspired me to ignore the "don't try at home" warning. A blade surrounded by four blow torches, hells yes. Time to try and not blow myself up. That is just one of amazing combinations and you will be kept busy trying to find all the crazy ways to kill the zombie hordes.

This brings me to my last in the 'loved' list, the killing of zombies. In an industry where the mentality usually ends up "We need to fill some time, throw zombies in," it could easily be seen as another shoveled out zombie game. Somehow though Techland has made the constant waves and roaming zombies fun to slaughter and get out some personal aggression. If you need only one reason to pick up Riptide this could easily be said reason. It was fun the first go around and it still is fun to the point where I enjoyed ignoring the main story just to go on personal rampages.

Overall

At the end of the day, is Riptide worth you money and time? I'd have to say that it completely worth it. Yes it does still carry over a few of the faults from the original title, but there have been some great improvements. There is still room to grow for sure, but Riptide doesn't feel like a sequel just pumped out but it could be its own stand alone title. I fully recommend picking it up and you'll want to not rent it. Even if you aren't into the multiplayer here, it's worth it just to have an updated zombie slaying RPG to pop in whenever you need to kill some zombies.

Dead Island: Riptide was developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver on April 23^th, 2013 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes. I carried over my Logan character from Dead Island and played both online and offline.

PAX East: First Look: Magic: Duels Of The Planeswalkers 2014

I was insanely excited to go to the Wizards of the Coast Booth at PAX East this year. Last year I skipped it because I thought they were only showing off expansions for Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012. I learned shortly after that they were actually showing off alpha stages of Magic: DOTP 2013. I was not going to make that mistake again this year. I did by a bag last year from their booth thought, and this year I bought a shirt. I love me some MTG merch.

Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers first released in 2009 for consoles and was quickly picked up by long standing Magic The Gathering fans and TCG lovers who did not know of the game. It stands as a great way to get new players introduced to the game without having to play against decks that people have been building and tweaking for years. It also gave them a chance to understand how vast the strategic possibilities you can use with card combinations thanks to a puzzle mode that players can complete. The puzzle mode places players in a situation where the next turn will determine whether or not the player would win or lose. It was up to the player to figure out the combination of cards to play in order to turn the seemingly bleak scenario around and win. With the Release of Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012, players got a first look at the Trading Card Game’s 2012 Core Set expansion months before its physical release. It also introduced a new game mode which could be played in real life table top games, provided you had the required special cards, along with a slew of new challenges. Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 did the same with the 2013 Core Set, challenge list, and released another new game mode. Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014 will follow suit and give players a first look at the 2014 Core Set, and introduce a new game mode as well.

Magic: DotP 2014's campaign will have players partnering with Planeswalker Chandra Nalaar in her quest to find a dangerous and manipulative planeswalker. The game has received an overhaul visually, completely changing the UI that has been used in the previous games. The interface is still easy to navigate, but far prettier in my honest opinion. From the opening menus, to the campaign selection screen, even to the deck selection screen, the visual quality and presentation have been significantly upgraded. I could be seriously geeking out though. I am a little biased when it comes to Magic the Gathering, just like I am with Square Enix. I don’t think I could handle it if they worked together on something. But that is far from the point.

Like previous installments of the game, Magic: DotP 2014 will introduce 10 new starting decks, showcasing the 2014 Core Set, and will release more decks as DLC to coincide with expansions sets as they release in real life. It will also feature new challenges, and a new game mode, of which I was not able to receive any info for, other than “There will be a new game mode.” What a surprise that I’m kept right on the edge of my chair waiting for that juicy piece of news.

Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014 does not have a set release date yet, but will release on XBLA, PSN, PC, iPad, and for the first time ever, on Android tablets. Android tablets will support ad-hoc for local multiplayer on release with online multiplayer being worked in at a later time. But for now I’m going to jump into a game of Planechase on Magic: DotP 2013 and hope that keeps me sane until 2014 releases.