Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is a third-person action game in which you have to hack & slash your way through hordes of zombies. But while the game — which was made by Spark Unlimited for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC (via Steam) under the supervision of Team Ninja — has nothing to do with the Ninja Gaiden games, a myriad of serious problems will prevent even the most forgiving of action fans from enjoying this mess as well.
Never let it be said that the people at Respawn Entertainment aren’t loyal to their friends. In making their first game, Titanfall, they not only brought back their old pal Jesse Stern — who previously worked with them on 2007’s Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and 2009’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 — to help write the game, but they also reunited with composer Stephen Barton, who had the music for the first Modern Warfare.
Though in talking to Barton, composing the music for Titanfall wasn’t like working on a second Modern Warfare.
When Abbie Heppe was first hired by Respawn, it was to be their company’s Community Manager. But as so often happens in game design, one thing led to another, and now Heppe is also the voice of the Militia commander Sarah in Respawn’s new sci-fi shooter Titanfall, as well as the face model for pilots on both sides of the conflict in the game. Which means she’ll probably be running the place inside of six months. Though in talking to Heppe about her career path, it’s clear this isn’t all part of some carefully crafted master plan devised by a career-minded genius. Or so she says…
In the online-only, multiplayer-focused, first-person, overly-hyphenated, sci-fi shooter Titanfall, soldiers use futuristic weapons and giant robot suits to battle it out on alien worlds. And with the game being made for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC by Respawn — y’know, the people who, at their old jobs, made Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 — it’s not surprising that this game boasts smooth, intuitive controls and addictive multiplayer.
But what might surprise you is that, while Titanfall can only be played online and with other people, the game’s story-driven campaign is still as engaging as its competitive counterpart.
Warner Brothers Interactive have announced that Batman: Arkham Knight — “Rocksteady Studios conclusion to the series” — will be released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC later this year.
Like The Simpsons, Futurama, and a lot of American cartoons that are made for adults, South Park hasn’t always had the best luck being translated into a video game. But with South Park: The Stick Of Truth — a turn-based role-playing game made by Obsidian (Fallout: New Vegas) and published by Ubisoft on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC — we finally have a South Park game that’s as fun as it is funny.
At an event held at DC Comic’s offices in Burbank, California — fittingly, on a Wednesday — Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that the upcoming free-to-play, superhero MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena game) Infinite Crisis — which is being made by Turbine — will start its open beta (a.k.a., soft launch) on May 14th, and that there will also be a corresponding comic book series and line of action figures.
After a handful of failed attempts, the good people at MercurySteam — with a little help from Metal Gear Solid mastermind Hideo Kojima — finally figured out how to successfully adapt the 2D side-scroller Castlevania series into a 3D game with 2010’s Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow. Now M.S., sans Kojima, are hoping to replicate that game’s fun factor with Castlevania: Lords Of Shadows 2 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. But while it does misfire way more than its predecessor, it’s still a solid action game.
Stealing is wrong. Whether you shoplift a candy bar from the corner store, nick a handful of quarters off your dad’s bureau, or download a pirated copy of a new video game, being a thief is not cool. And if you don’t believe me, just play Thief, a deeply flawed and ultimately dull first-person stealth action game for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC in which you make your living by stealing anything that isn’t nailed down.