I’ll admit it; I’m an MMORPG addict. The thought of getting new upgrades makes my blood pressure go up, and dreams about having the best character in town often keep my mind occupied while I wait for servers to come back up from maintenance. This why I took special interest in Need for Speed World, a new MMORPG built for the NFS franchise.
How does it work? Take a look at the video to find out more.
I didn’t play Red Steel. Early reviews of the title did not bode well for it and, frankly, I was already (foolishly) spending a lot of money on Wii launch day. So, if there’s any sort of context required to understand the above video, I don’t know what it is.
What I do know is that the game is visually appealing for something which appears on Nintendo’s console. This trailer shows off enemies that you’ll face in Red Steel 2, with a couple enemy types and some bosses revealed. If the MotionPlus functionality works as advertised, it could be a good bit of fun.
I’m still shrugging, though. I know very little about the world Red Steel takes place in as a series and nothing I’ve seen here is encouraging me to seek more information. Maybe one of you can tell me what I’m missing out on. Convince me, people!
Warner Bros. Interactive has announced The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, an “epic multiplayer action/RPG” in development for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. The game’s title was revealed last year, when a trademark was unearthed by sneaky Internet spies… nothing gets by us.
War in the North is being developed by Snowblind (Baldur’s Gate, Champions of Norrath), and will feature three player co-op, and is said to “break new ground as a mature RPG video game set in Middle-earth.” Obviously, Aragorn’s Quest and its baby troll wasn’t cutting it.
“This game is the natural evolution of the acclaimed RPG gameplay that Snowblind has consistently delivered over the past years,” says studio head and founder Ryan Geithman.
Sounds good to me. As a fan of the dungeon crawling hack and bash Champions games the studio released on the PlayStation 2, this is right up my alley. Can’t wait to see more. IGN has the exclusive on the teaser for the time being, so head on over and check it out.
Arcade-style sports titles bring out the worst in me. During the tail end of my 21st birthday, I threw a rather embarrassing hissy fit because I was too drunk to win at Mario Kart 64; I’ve said terrible things to some of my best friends over games of NFL Blitz or NBA Jam; I almost had a coronary playing Windjammers against Jonathan Ross last week.
It might not be a good idea for me to even post about River City Soccer Hooligans, much less think about buying it, but here we are.
Kunio-kun no Nekketsu! Soccer League Plus World Hyper Cup (phew!) is a re-make of the 1993 Famicom version, and isn’t really a River City game at all. It is, however, a Kunio-kun game, an umbrella term that encompasses twenty-odd games with the same distinctive character style.
Confused? Don’t worry about it — River City Ransom was the most successful Kunio game in the U.S., so the name stuck.
You might be feeling a little disappointed that Alex and Ryan have been relegated to sports games on the DS, but take solace in the fact that Million Corp. has been dropping these little guys into sports games for years now. (Although Soccer Hooligans would’ve be a good way to get back to River City’s 2D beat-’em-up roots.)
What does disappoint me, however, is that Kunio-kun’s transition into 3D hasn’t been particularly smooth or graceful. If I didn’t know already, there’s no way I’d be able to tell that Soccer Hooligans deserves the River City tag. I am kind of stoked, though, that there is what seems to be a playable puppy character! I can already feel that part of my brain that liked Mega Man Soccer warming up.
This is normally where I complain that this game won’t ever see the light of North American day, but Aksys Games are pulling publishing duty over here.
BARF!
Arc System Works Announces Kunio-Kun Remake for DS [AndriaSang via TinyCartridge]
What is it with all the videogame comic books lately? Gears of War, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Prototype, the list goes on and on. Now Square Enix has joined the party with NIER, yet another game to be turned into ink by the game-friendly chaps at DC Comics.
NIER is being turned into a three-issue backstory series that will delve deeper in the lives of Nier, Yonah, Kaine and Grimoire. It seems that the comics will be available in online format, as they are said to be available via Nier’s official Web site, Xbox Live and PSN.
The comics will run between “now” and April 27, when the game itself launches.
LOS ANGELES (March 17, 2010) – Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of Square Enix® interactive entertainment products in North America, is partnering with DC Comics imprint Wildstorm to create a custom comic series that will explore the rich and mysterious back story of the upcoming Action-RPG NIER™. NIER, whose unique content, characters and hidden, twisting storyline has transfixed gamers and media alike for months, will be available for PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft at North American retail outlets on April 27, 2010.
“We are extremely excited to partner with the storytellers at DC Comics to further explore the complex tale of NIER; to explore its unusual characters; and, to introduce new fans to a storyline that will challenge what they know from beginning to end,” said John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix, Inc. “NIER is a game that paints a sophisticated and graphic picture of the despair resulting from an apocalyptic plague and the triumph of a father’s will to protect his most prized possession, his daughter. DC Comics’ ability to create colorful and engaging comics will help deliver NIER’s unusual story to gamers and prepare them for what lies ahead in the game. By exploring the comics, gamers will understand the basis of Nier’s world before they even pick up a sword or cast a spell.”
The NIER comics will be available on the game’s official Web site at http://www.NIERGame.com, on Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and on PlayStation®Store for PlayStation3 between now and April 27. The comics will reveal tantalizing clues about key characters from the game, including the title-character Nier; his disease-stricken daughter, Yonah; a conflicted and foul-mouthed fighting companion, Kainé; and, the talking book with an attitude, Grimoire Weiss. In addition, the NIER comics will address questions that have yet to be answered, namely, what sequence of events led to the fall of humanity? How was the deadly disease, The Black Scrawl, introduced to the earth? And, where did the terrifying Shades come from and why do they torment the few remaining survivors?
There will be three NIER comics in all, each telling a unique, yet overlapping story. The comics are being created by some of DC Comics’ most renowned creators and illustrators, including Emmy-winning creator and executive producer Ricardo Sanchez; Pop Mhan, whose work has appeared on everything from Spider-Man and Ghost Rider at Marvel Comics to Batgirl and The Flash at DC Comics; Eddie Nuñez, who works on the soon-to-be released DC Universe MMO; and, Carlos D’Anda, who has worked on notable comic book titles such as Justice League of America, Deathblow, and Lego’s Bionice, was the lead Character Designer on the bestselling Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Arkham Asylum and is the Lead concept Artist on the DC Universe MMO from Sony Online Entertainment.
While we weren’t able to attend Amusement Expo 2010 in Las Vegas, the boys at Arcade Heroes were all about the convention — and they even captured footage of the new Pac-Man game. Heck yes!
Pac-Man Battle Royale, as its properly called, is a four-player versus game with slight elements of cooperativeness. Aesthetically, it’s much like Pac-Man Championship Edition. Mechanically, you eat up dots as always, and can turn into Super Pac-Man to kill other players.
Again, I say: heck yes! I’m not sure what Namco Bandai is planning for distribution; all I know is that this is a game I must play at some point.
Amusement Expo 2010: Pac-Man Battle Royale Hands-on [Arcade Heroes via The Tanooki]
Not even the almighty shark can stand a chance against Batman with a Light Saber. [Via ToplessRobot]
A new Dtoid feature is born, God of War III is out OMG, Ben checked out Frobot, ‘Splosion Man’s theme song is up on Rock Band Network, Sword & Sworcery is beautiful and more happened on 03/15/10.
Destructoid Originals:
Destructoid Top Ten
New releases: God of War III, Pokemon Gold/Silver & moreSend us your questions for the 142nd episode of PodtoidGet me results: How to solve the JRPG GrindWe are locked in an eternal food eating contest with 2K
Community:
Community blogs of 03/15/10Forum of the day: What Are Your Favorite Destructoid Memories? (Happy 4th Anniversary Destructoid!)
Previews:A disco dungeon crawl: hands-on with Frobot
GDC 10: Grabbing a bomb in Star Wars: The Old Republic
Contests:Here’s who won our PS3 God of War III contest!F .. K in the coffee to win a copy of Deadly Premonition
News:Gran Turismo 5 may work with PS3 Move
Cut God of War III ending could come back as free DLCNintendo DLC: Gladiator’s rage, Dracula is screwed
UK Charts: Final Fantasy XIII wins, obviously
Codemasters: PSP is a ‘bollocking waste of space’
2K confirms on-disc DLC, tries to justify itCrytek UK files ‘Self Defense’ trademark
Tony Hawk reveals Tony Hawk Pro Skater coming to iPhone
Alpha Protocol player choices will be reflected in potential sequels
360 Deals of the Week: San Andreas, Max Payne 2, Fable‘Splosion Man’s theme song now up on Rock Band Network
Attack of the Movies 3D coming to 360, lets you shoot shark in the mouth…in 3DAlan Wake getting at least two add-on episodes this yearPSN game Wakeboarding HD looks better than it soundsGDC 2010 sees record attendance, over 18,000 attend
First two Borderlands DLC packs hit retail next monthMortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks almost got the sequel it deservedModNation Racers dated, pre-order bonuses announced
Achievement unlocked: First Windows Phone 7 games impressSony regrets not publishing Demon’s Souls itself
Offbeat:God of War’s Kratos gets all smooth R&B on your assLatest Lady Gaga video makes Command & Conquer reference
Media:Nexuiz still looks greatHuh, so this is what Sword & Sworcery EP looks likeinXile-developed, Bethesda-published Hunted announcedHere’s an extended Medal of Honor trailerBrace yourselves agents, Crackdown 2 hits July 6NBA Jam debut trailer makes me giggle like a child
More info on Bit.Trip Runner emerges!
Let the hype begin: Behind the scenes of Transformers
GameStop and Destructoid teamed up these last three weeks to bring you some delicious God of War III freebies. While GameStop was hosting their big contests, Destructoid was giving away copies of God of War III, GameStop gift cards and this past week saw us giving away a PlayStation 3!
In order to win the console and copy of the game, we wanted you to create a picture of Kratos fighting any MMA fighter. Congratulations to Monte! Your submission was the best of the bunch and sees you getting a brand new console and one of the year’s most anticipated games!
Thanks to everyone that entered! We’re always giving stuff away on Destructoid and be sure to check back later today as we’ll be launching a brand new contest!
Despite the fact that the platform hasn’t quite taken off like Sony was hoping it would the company is still asserting that UMDs are going strong. In the face of the medium not becoming a hot spot for movies as originally planned, the PSP running a distant second in the handheld market, and the fact that Sony itself has released a form of the PSP that doesn’t need to use a UMD at all the company says that UMDs are still where it is at.
At a session for independent developers at GDC the company described the format as “alive and well.” Further elaborating, they said that they had absolutely no plans to stop supporting the strangely shaped disc/cartridge hybrids and will of course be continuing to ship the physical UMDs to retailers as well as distribute games digitally.
I suppose as long as the platform is there to support it UMDs will always be “alive and well,” and with Sony saying that there are 17 million PSPs in North America and 60 million worldwide it doesn’t look like it will be “dying” any time soon. Can we really think that this is where Sony wanted the UMD to be when they launched the PSP, though? Maybe “alive and slightly disappointing” might be a more apt description.
Four years. Four years this site will have existed when March 16 arrives, if you can believe that. Personally, it still feels like a lucid dream, even after all this time has passed. I don’t think I have ever really taken the time to talk about what it’s like to work here on a deeper level.
Knowing full well how much this Web site means to me, that’s a crying shame, which is why I’m eager to make amends. I wanted to give y’all a closer look at what my time here has been like, as well as some behind-the-scenes coverage, including some “new” photos you likely haven’t seen before.
Think of this as the warm-up for Niero’s post next Tuesday. If you read last year’s article, you know to expect incredible things from our robot-in-chief.
Yes, this is a total lovefest
This month marks four years of Destructoid, three and a half of which I’ve been a part of the dream team. As the youngest person on staff, I get to thinking that I’m probably not the best person to be dishing out the life lessons.
But then I punch myself in the face, remember that I’m getting paid to do something I adore, and snap out of it. Something I actively think about all day and late into the night. Something I get to do with my second family on a daily basis. Something I feel extremely lucky to belong to.
“Single geek meets group of Internet strangers. Copious amounts of rape ensue.” How’s that for an E-Harmony commercial?
All that, and it didn’t take me twenty years of actively searching to find. Truly I am blessed, or was one helluva saint in my past life and am now reincarnated as some dude with a red beard. The dude most certainly abides, my friends.
With literally no idea how to organize this or what to specifically talk about, this is going to come off as a mix of everything I think you might give a damn about. But that’s okay, right? For the older site members, this is a chance to reminisce about the good ol’ times. For the new guys, it’s a fantastic opportunity to see why we are the way we are nowadays.
Destructoid didn’t become a massive hit overnight, y’know. We’ve made plenty of mistakes, no question; I like to think we go out of our way to correct them whenever possible. Live and learn, as they tend to say. “How to start a successful Internet business” isn’t exactly a college course you can take, and even if you could, there’s simply no way it would properly prepare you for what lies ahead.
I want to steal your job, yo
It seems the number-one question people have for fancy Internet types is, “How did you land the gig?” I’m so not the person to answer that. Because for me, everything happened by chance. Random luck, you could say. During high school, I talked videogames with my friends constantly. I wasn’t passionate about writing — quite the opposite, actually — but I was passionate enough about videogames to start up a crummy Blogspot blog.
That lasted for a good year or so, and then, I stumbled across Destructoid. The site was only a few months old, and people were only just discovering its offbeat, often hilarious stories that couldn’t be seen anywhere else on the ‘net; no other sites were willing to brave the dark trenches of the Web to find the super-obscure stories. It was love at first sight. Really, it was.
Flash-forward a couple of months later to September 2006. I had commented enough on the site to be recognizable by name, and somehow worked up just enough confidence to send in a “hey, you guys are swell and I’d love to help out” email. Make no mistake, I had only the most basic understanding of grammar and little to no rhythm at the time. I sucked … but everyone has to start somewhere.
Apparently, potential was found in me (hah, the fools!), although you have to understand that back in those days, we were paid in <3s. Back then, we did it for the thrill of having total strangers hear what we had to say about games. Back then, we were all learning as we went, and even today, we’re still very much learning as we go. So no, simply sending an email saying how much you would love to work for an established Web site probably won’t fly these days.
The lesson here is this: it never hurts to try. You’ll never know when luck, faith, or whatever you want to call it happens to be on your side until after the fact, so go for it like it’s your last day alive and you’ve got literally nothing to lose.
That said, please have semi-realistic expectations, otherwise you’re setting yourself up for regularly scheduled disappointment. Be willing to start somewhere small, and then work your way up to much loftier goals.
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3
As someone who spends a ridiculous amount of time online, I’m always wondering what my favorite Web sites are like in person, on a daily basis. Assuming you too think about these things late at night, I thought I’d return the favor. Here’s an inside look at what it’s like to work for team Destructoid: a collection of memories brought to you by the fine archiving skills of Gmail and Campfire.
First, a typical email from Chad to brighten your day:
I love you guys!
I am at the Jeep dealership right now getting my oil changed and I just thought it was a good time to tell you all how much I love you.Also, they just played “Caribbean Queen” over the speakers here and it made me think of Nick and Dale.
<3
Only one <3? That’s not the Chad I know. Here’s a more accurate email:
My stuff:
<3Future stuff:
Gay stuff:
8=========D D========8Attachment: “I’m a horse, bitches!.jpg”
Now that’s more like it. Never change. Ever.
Living the dream. Almost
I strongly believe that a company is only as good as its corporate culture, something I think we represent out the wazoo, hence me having enough content to write this article in the first place.
We are not only allowed to be our crazy selves one hundred percent of the time — we’re actively encouraged to do exactly that. This is an integral part of turning an otherwise fun job into something so much more memorable. We aren’t “co-workers,” we’re “family.” We all take a creepy level of interest in each other’s personal lives like only a tightly-knit family can.
Since most of us at Destructoid don’t work under the same roof, we use an Internet chat program to correspond throughout the day — frankly, I can’t believe any work gets done around here. More than anything else, it’s just an excuse to post funny pics that would get most people fired on the spot.
If we ever do get to the point where we can have a fancy-ass office in which we can all work together, then we’ll know we’ve really made it — at least, that’s how I see it. That’s my motivation. On the flip side, if such a thing were to occur, part of me thinks the people in the next building over would call the police on us for having way too much fun.
The following is representative of an average work day around here, minus the honest-to-goodness porn and scary NSFW pictures we inadvertently find while Google image searching for potential header images:
I like how anyone not familiar with Electro Lemon won’t get this; actually, no one will get this. Period.
Brad is all about getting it on in Dragon Age.
Ever wonder what we do when nothing interesting is happening news-wise? There you go.
We’ve only just recently stopped quoting the critically-acclaimed masterpiece Jurassic: The Hunted.
Other notable moments in Destructoid history
This is the part where I run out of things to gush about, but still want to continue writing. Honestly, this is by no means a comprehensive list or anything. It’s more like a list of stories I stumbled across at 2 AM that made me smile like a smug idiot:
Chad Punches Old Ladies, the videogame
Homage to Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
A recap of PAX 2009, including Chad’s Dtoid panel song
Necros literally gets set on fire
There are hundreds more like these, but I’m running out of time. Please, by all means, post your own favorite memories in the comments. I’ll promise to love you forever and ever if you do.
And finally, if the overwhelmingly awesome nature of these great memories hasn’t melted your face off Raiders of the Lost Ark-style, and I didn’t scare you off with my admittedly personal tales, please hit up the gallery below.
It’s a seemingly random collection of pictures I’ve obtained via email, chat, and from the community that sum up what this fine establishment is about.
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