When one thinks of games on the Wii, “creepy” perhaps isn’t the first word that comes to mind. But, It is the first that comes to mind once you lay your hands on Deadly Creatures. Taking some inspiration from Bad Mojo, (the cockroach game) Deadly Creatures puts the player in the role of a spider and a scorpion (at different times depending on the level) who must make their way through a punishing landscape. Along the way they are challenged by their surroundings as well as other creepy insect who don’t cotton to foreigners invading their precious homesteads.
One thing the Red Faction series was known for (if you remember it that is) was its destructible environments. Aside from that though, the series was a pretty typical linear shooter with not a whole lot to make it truly memorable. The developers of the newest game in the series, Red Faction Guerrilla, have taken the game’s original concept and turned it on it’s ear, creating an open world environment that feels more like GTA type game than either of its predecessors. If you like plenty of explosions and running around in large environments wreaking havoc on everything you see, this is definitely the game for you.
It was with great trepidation that I checked out Battle of the bands for Wii. The logo alone left me feeling like it was going to be a cheap Guitar Hero knock off with it’s heavy Metal pointy-ness. What I was shown when I actually played was a somewhat convoluted rock band/battle game that seemed to miss its mark.
I’ve never been a huge racing game aficionado, probably stemming from the fact that I didn’t learn to drive until I was in my mid thirties. I’ve always been more of a kart racing type of guy. But there is one kind of racing game I love and that’s a super immersive one.
My first look at Baja was truly impressive. Of course the set up they had it on had a lot to do with it. It was like an arcade set up with the 360 driving wheel and pedal plus three huge screens that were angled to give you a feeling of being surrounded. While the set up was certainly a plus, the game itself left me feeling pretty good about off-road racing.
The story of De Blob is fairly simple. A race of evil aliens come to a friendly planet and suck all the colour out of it, leaving it all white and shades of grey. As one of the remaining unaffected blob-like denizens of the planet, it is up to you to restore the world to its full colour capacity. This goal is achieved by rolling your little blob around the world and picking up colour bottles. Once you have picked up a colour, simply touching an object will turn it that colour and give you some points. You can also mix your colours for some different effects. For instance, say you are yellow and want to change to orange. Simply roll over a red bottle and, voila, you are now orange. Rolling over the red bottle again will revert you to red.
The folks from Pixar were on hand to show off the video game adaptation of their animated movie, Wall-E. In Wall-E, the world has been taken over by a benevolent corporation and in a little switch, it’s the consumers who are the enemies rather than the big corporate menace. Players can either take on the role of Wall-E (a trash compactor robot that looks like a cross between R.O.B. and Johnny 5) or the sleek and “iPod inspired” Eve, a flying female robot with a killer laser, both of whom are trying to save the universe from its own twisted remains.
It’s many years in the future and the great Apocalypse has come upon the Earth. Angels are fighting demons on what remains and those left behind wander the world as soulless zombies. This sets the stage for THQs new IP, Darksiders: Wrath of War. In Darksiders, you take on the role of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, making your way down to wreak havoc on the charred remains of the Earth.
I kicked off last night’s THQ Gamer’s Day with a look at Saints Row 2 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. As we reported earlier today, the release date has been set for August 26th and, from the looks of it, THQ and Volition have packed it full of new features.
Last night saw a swanky soirée that was otherwise known as THQ’s Gamer’s Day ’08. After being held in a room and plied with top shelf booze and fancy finger foods for an hour, we were finally treated to what we came there for, the games! They had quite a few games showing including Saint’s Row 2, Red Faction: Guerrilla, Darksiders and Deadly Creatures. Also on hand were Battle of the Bands, De Blob, Wall-E, Baja and a new Destroy all Humans game. Despite being talked about at the beginning of the presentation, Dawn of War 2 was no where to be found amongst the demo stations. Keep an eye out this evening for all of my coverage of this rather large event and tons of hands-on impressions when the embargo lifts.
