Video Games

Mortal Kombat Preview

With so
many fighting games out there throughout the years of the industry; It’s safe
to say that Mortal Kombat is arguably the most iconic in the genre, for many
reasons; Unique and iconic immortal/mortal characters, the combination of
weapons with physically impossible special moves, a dark and almost hellish
universe that is unrivalled by any other Beat-em’-up, Sonya Blade (mmmmm), and,
of course, the Fatalities, ALWAYS the Fatalities. It’s these aspects that have
led Mortal Kombat to be the genre-defining franchise it is known to be now. So
knowing that Mortal Kombat is making a mighty comeback, a lot hangs in the
balance.

2008’s
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was surprisingly… decent. But it was the lack of
ultra-violence within the game that prevented it from receiving any more
respect, particularly from hardcore MK fans that will see the violence being
just as important as the gameplay itself. Well, fans can rejoice. 2011’s Mortal
Kombat returns to what it does best, overly-unnecessary and gruesome ways of
disposing your rival, even after you have beaten them into a great big bloody
pulp.

SCEA Settles Lawsuit Against Geohot

The controversial court battle between Sony Computer
Entertainment America and George Hotz has reached a somewhat conclusion, after
both parties reached a settlement in a lawsuit that was filed against Hotz
earlier this year.

SCEA filed the lawsuit against Hotz back in January, after
it was alleged that he hacked the Playstation 3’s security system, before
releasing the information online, which allowed anyone to install homebrew
applications to their own Playstation 3’s, including the ability to play pirate
copies of video games. Sony stated that the lawsuit was made against
21-year-old Hotz, as his actions were under violation of numerous copyright
infringements, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

A Day At iFest

Independent games development is a big thing right now and it’s no bigger than when it’s being shown at indie festivals like IGF or the recent iFest in Sydney.  iFest was a festival that featured some of the biggest Australian independent games developers.

Boss Health Bars

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been working through my backlog that builds up every now and then. Nearly all of them involve boss battles in one way or another and I think it’s time boss health bars became standard across the board. They’re one of the few mechanics that can be included in a game that have no real downside; conveying clear information to the player is never a bad thing. Allow me to elaborate a little more.

Ideally, a boss should be the highlight of a particular level or section of the game you happen to be playing through and there are various things that determine whether a boss fight is great or not. The first one is that they are fair — nobody likes a boss with haywire attack patterns and moves that cripple you instantly. The second is a clear strategy that is obvious to the player relatively early on in the fight. It’s no good being at death’s door when you finally figure out what you should have been doing. The most important thing a boss encounter should be is consistent. Once you have figured out a strategy it should work every time. There are few things more irritating than thinking you have a boss fight figured out only to get destroyed on another run.

The Delayed Gaming Grammy Goes To…

Despite their high quality and genre-crossing sounds, it took until last month’s Grammy Award ceremony for any kind of video game music to be recognized for an award: a six year old song from Civilization IV. Now the Grammys are doing some trimming and 30 categories from their previously long list of 109 categories are going away. This means four new categories have been created to consolidate what has gone, each of which consider “Video Game Music” as a genre, and will be eligible for nomination.

“Resistance 3” Beta Coming Soon to PlayStation Plus

For all of you PlayStation Plus users out there, you will be happy that you signed up as it has just been announced that early access to a multiplayer beta of the upcoming alien shooter, Resistance 3, is coming exclusively to PlayStation Plus.

For US gamers, however, they can also get in on the action at exactly the same time as EU PS+ users via the purchase of specially marked standard copies of SOCOM 4: Special Forces, as well as copies of the Full Deployment Edition, which comes out in North America on April 19^th 2011.

Deus Ex Human Revolution Preview

Eidos’ Deus Ex was an amazingly
innovative experience, one of the first titles to attempt providing multiple
solutions to a given problem. It took this core design feature and applied it
to a world-spanning, conspiracy-laden near-future dripping with character and
lore. Its sequel, Invisible War, was less than stellar,
with a great amount of simplification crippling the complexity of problems and
storyline. All was thought lost, until a light appeared upon the dawn in the
form of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. A prequel that
explores the beginnings of how human augmentation began, HR
is gunning for a total quality reboot and a return to its grittier and complex
roots.