Mushroom Men: Spore Wars is one of the few Wii games on the horizon that caught my eye when I was at PAX. In my hands-on time with the game it seemed like a pretty solid platformer with a good sense of humor.

What I have for you readers today is a closer look at the boss battles in this game. Like the title of this blog reads, simply bopping these guys on the head isn’t gonna cut it. Different puzzle and strategy elements are necessary to make it to the next level.

In the press release I received, there were three different types of boss battles outlined:

Bosses as Mechanic Reinforcement

Several of the bosses and mini-bosses reinforce a specific mechanic, such as the Telekinesis-Throw (whereby Pax uses his Telekinesis ability on an object and tosses it back at the enemy). Players have the option to use this ability during the game to get the upper hand on an opponent, or could let Player 2 perform this to help them out in the midst of battle, but it is never enforced (didn’t want to force the player if they didn’t want to).

However, Red Fly used the bosses as a chance to make a puzzle and encourage players to use different Spore Powers. Several of the bosses require this Telekinesis-Throw attack to beat. One of the mini-bosses actually acts as a tutorial for the Spore Punisher maneuver, flying out of the player’s reach until they can successfully execute it.

Boss as Action/Puzzle

Red Fly created action/puzzle battles with some stand-alone boss encounters. For example, the player will need to use the environment components and specific game mechanics to take out bosses they can’t reach directly or might just be too strong. This frames these specific boss fights as puzzles to be solved, not simply a skill exercise (although there is some of that, too!).

Bosses as the Level

In the Parking Lot, the player will face not one but FIVE bosses. The entire area is centered on these encounters and each of the bosses use their environment in interesting and unique ways closely tied to them.

Looks like the company is trying to mix it up a bit with the bosses. Puzzles and “mechanics reinforcement” aren’t exactly the newest of techniques, but the idea of “Bosses as the Level” intrigues me a bit. It is also reassuring to know that each boss will be a different experience. I’m looking forward to seeing what this quirky little platformer has to offer this coming November.

As any FPS fan can tell you, the game market these days is oversaturated with World War II games. With Call Of Duty: World at War on the horizon, it seems like it’s a trend that shows no sign of stopping any time soon.

However, there’s one WWII-themed game coming out that will bring you a different perspective on this tired-out subject: Velvet Assassin. Instead of being a soldier on the front lines, you play through the game as a female spy. Focused mainly on stealth, you might find this game breathes some new life into a war that has practically been beaten to death.

You’ve probably heard whisperings of this game from the viral marketing scheme, where participants have had to use their secret agent skills to follow a trail that eventually led them to real bars of gold. For those who haven’t heard anything about Velvet Assasin, it is based (loosely) on the true story of a woman named Violette Szabo who joined the British Special Operations Executive after the her husband died in the war. In real life, Violette was captured, tortured and killed by the Germans in the mid-1940s.

In Velvet Assassin you play as Violette Summer, who is not quite dead (it might be hard to play the game if she was). She’s laying on her deathbed in a hospital, and in the game you are actually playing through her life in memories. This allows for some interesting game mechanics to be added in, such as “morphine mode.” When you find a bit of morphine in the game, there are two parallel things that happen: In real life, it means that Violet is getting feverish and the nurses are giving her morphine to calm her down. In the memory you’re playing, the morphine alters the way you remember things happening; the movement of your enemies is slowed down, and the screen gets a bit foggy with some ghostly red blood cells floating around. This is pretty useful if you find yourself in a pinch.

The sneaky part is what makes this game fun. During the build playthrough at PAX, the woman controlling Violet showed us how you could sneak right up to the enemy and pull the pin out of his grenade without him noticing. There’s something about watching a guy wander away from you, knowing that he will soon explode for no reason he can name, that makes you want to giggle with childish glee. Sneaking around levels is fun and fairly simple. When you’re invisible to the enemy Violet will glow a bit purple, so there’s not a huge danger of accidentally getting caught. To me, it seemed like a slightly more fast-paced version of Metal Gear Solid.

A few of the levels were revealed in more detail today. One of them, entitled “The Lost,” I actually got the chance to see for myself. You start outside, and you have to sneak your way into the enemy bunker, being careful not to step on leaves or twigs that would give away your position. Sneaking around in an enclosed area is not so easy, so you’ll find yourself taking out the lights in some area to provide you with cover. There’s just this really authentic, tense mood as you creep through the dark halls of the bunker.

The second level that has been revealed is called “The Third Man,” and it is actually broken up into three different areas. You start out by making your way through the sewers, and end up in the middle of the Warsaw Ghetto. Even though the buildings around you offer cover, being in broad daylight will certainly put you at a disadvantage. As you wander the streets, you can hear the shots of SS officers as they search the buildings for hidden civilians. Though the press release isn’t specific, it can be safely assumed that the third area mentioned is inside one or more of the buildings. Either that or the area is crucial to the plot and they don’t want to ruin anything.

The more I see of this game, the more excited I get for it. I think the only thing that worried me about the build I saw was (and I know this sounds kind of odd) the size of Violette’s ass when she’s moving in a crouch. It was actually kind of distracting me from the game after a certain point. However I figure if that is the only thing that I’ve found wrong with the game so far, it’s a good sign.

For more information on the game, check out the official site. You can check out the trailer, screen shots, and a diary of Violette’s which provides a more detailed background story. The game should be hitting shelves for 360 and PC in March 2009.

Today, publisher SouthPeak Games announced that it has acquired Austin-based Gamecock Media Group. SouthPeak, the company behind Two Worlds and Dream Pinball 3D, certainly seems to be adding some good games to its repertoire with the addition of Gamecock’s Velvet Assassin and Legendary.

From the press release:

Melanie Mroz, CEO of SouthPeak, stated, “Gamecock brings us a solid slate of upcoming titles, including Legendary, Mushroom Men and Velvet Assassin and supports our strategy of working with independent developers. We are excited to give the Gamecock titles a bigger platform to succeed.”

“We are thrilled to be joining forces with SouthPeak to continue to bring great original titles from independent developers to market with a stronger sales and distribution reach,” said Mike Wilson, CEO of Gamecock. “We have followed each other’s progress closely over the last two years, and combining our team with theirs results in a very strong and well-rounded force in the market.”

SouthPeak Games, already one of the fastest growing videogame publishers, should be on the rise even more after the Gamecock acquisition, and the publisher said it expects to ship both Legendary and Mushroom Men in the current quarter.

We managed to nab a video of the newest Velvet Assassin trailer that was show at the Leipzig Games Convention today. Of course, when I say “we managed to nab” I mean that Gamecock provided it for us. Looks to me like “The Chronicles of Splinter Gear British Girl”. Could be interesting…

Gamecock gets faulted a lot for their outlandish publicity stunts, but after receiving a fresh new batch of screenshots from the unstoppable publisher we’re actually rather impressed by the scope and variety of their upcoming games.

Look at these screens– you have a downloadable Pirates vs Ninjas Dodgeball game (with Zombies and Aliens, too!), a first person shooter called Legendary with crazy werewolves and griffins, and a trippy Wii platformer called Mushroom Men. Hardly a bald space marine in sight!

So here is your credit where credit is due, Gamecock– thanks for the original ideas. Some of these haven’t proven to be entirely successful in the past, like Fury and Dementium, but we really can’t fault them for trying.

Somewhere in this pack of new games there’s bound to be something for everyone. Check out the screens in the gallery below and let us know what you think. Platforms and release dates are as follows:

Pirates vs Ninja Dodgeball, XBLA, available Sept 3.

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars, Wii, available Nov 11.

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Gamecock’s mythological first person shooter, Legendary, will officially be in stores October 1st. In the mean time, we were able to full the following items out of Pandora’s box before pissing our pants and running away like scared school girls.

Chapter one of Legendary’s behind-the-scenes video, headed up by the games producer, John Garcia Shelton, gives you a first look at some of the games in-game physics, character degradation, and environmental interaction. In addition, we have some final box art and a detailed list of items available only to those who pre-order the game from participating retailers.

As you can see below, the box art is very sexy…

Those who pre-order the game In the will get the spread show below, featuring a full color 30 page art book of work pieced together by the games Art Director, and a DVD containing videos and trailers.

If you are anything like me, you love behind-the-scenese stuff, and while the pre-order set will include a DVD full of the game’s trailers, you can get a jump on the action by watching chapter one of the six part behind-the-scenes video series below.

Last but not least, the boys at Spark Unlimited and Gamecock had one last piece of information dangling at the bottom of their email to us, and that is a 96-page graphic novel written by renowned scribe, Mark Waid, and illustrated by Martin Montiel. Word is that the novel will hit stores the same time as the game itself.

Gamecock Media Group are the crazy guys responsible for publishing a number of console and handheld games, ranging from the frightening and political to the frustrating and psychedelic.

While many of these games can be considered a mixed bag—often a good idea followed up with a flawed execution—you can judge Gamecock’s new games Legendary and Velvet Assassin for yourself on day one, as digital downloads through Gametap.

The nice thing about Gametap is that it’s a subscription based service with a free trial period, so you can always give it a shot and cancel before having to pay anything. Think of it as a free game rental—plus they’ve got some vintage classics (like Fallout!) that you’re not going to find on store shelves anymore.

A special Box arrived at Ripten HQ today– it was glowing a sickly yellow and from within we heard the wailing of the souls of the damned. But curiosity soon took hold, and I quickly ripped off the silver Christmas wrapping paper, only to be overcome by the suffering of a million years of human torment. “It’s beautiful!” I cried, as my face literally melted. This is the last time we open anything from Gamecock.

Once the last of the million-years-suffering flew out the window and I wrapped my bloody visage in gauze, we took a look at the bottom of the Box and found five trailers for the game now known as Legendary. When we last took a good look at this game, it was called Legendary: The Box, which I guess is one double entendre too dirty even for the filthy wordsmiths at “Gamecock”.

These videos focus on various aspects of gameplay. In order, they are: Three Way Fights, AI, Multiplayer, Weapons, and Creatures. Enjoy!

The game previously known as Sabotage, Velvet Assassin, has finally been given a release date of Fall 2008 for its outing on the Xbox 360 and PC platforms.
Developed by Replay Studios and published by Gamecock Media Group, Velvet Assassin puts the player in the shoes of Violette Summer, a woman going behind enemy lines in Nazi occupied Europe to help the fight against the Third Reich.

The story within the game is based around the real life experiences of Violette Szabo, an Allied secret agent who worked for the British Secret Service during World War II, eventually being captured and executed in 1944.

With missions based on real events from the time, the game isn’t going to take it easy on you. One mission shown to press at EIEIO in March had the player deliver cyanide capsules to captured British agents to allow them to kill themselves.

The press release touts “a ground-breaking stealth combat system and one of the most unique perspectives ever brought to gaming”, so Velvet Assassin is setting up high expectations for its release later this year.

Source: Replay Studios

Gamecock, well know for their hijinks and controversy, have announced that Mike Wilson, Grand Champion of Gamecock, will stand as a presidential candidate for the Entertainment Software Association, the body in charge of organising the E3 Media & Business Summit.

Several key members of the ESA, including Activision and Vivendi, have jumped ship in recent months and E3 has been under heavy criticism after it was made press-only a few years ago.

Wilson has vowed to bring the fun back to videogames and revive this seemingly dying organisation. Watch his mission statement below, filmed as he pees on a tombstone. Stay classy, Gamecock. You have my vote.

“Did you know that I approve of this message? Well, I do.” No doubt the candidate would also approve of our enthusiasm for the new game from Wideload that he stars in: Hail to the Chimp.

When the lion is dethroned, the animal kingdom goes animal republic with it’s first presidential election. GRR news covers the campaigns with cute speeches, political ads, and goofy commercial parodies (for Orcah’s talk show and a new drug called Vertebrexstracil, among others) as players party brawl their way to national office.

From the ten different characters, each with their own backstory that comes out in their speeches and ads, I played as Daisy the Platypus, the host of a popular Australian kid’s TV show. Our session started with a game mode about bashing broken polling machines–something we’d all like to do!

Another mode we tried involved dodging bombs long enough to outlast all the other candidates. Often winning depends on who collects the most clams (literally), which determine who the front-runner is. After each individual event, GRR news has some commentary, and then of course there are concession and victory speeches at the end of the process.

Basically, you’re just running, jumping, and whacking each other, but each of the ten stages has different triggered events that mix things up. One we played took place on a dock with cranes players could activate via switches, plus a platform that would sink if everyone stood on it at once.

With these extra details, the sixteen different game modes, and Wideload’s brand of poltical humor we’re hoping to find Hail to the Chimp well worth the $40 price tag when it’s released for 360 and PS3 on May 27.

When Gamecock stormed the stage at the Video Game Awards earlier this month, they prevented Ken Levine, lead designer of BioShock, from giving his acceptance speech after winning the award for Game of the Year. For the first time since the event, Levine has given a short interview on the matter.

When asked about what was going through his head during the incident Levine responded:

All I really gave a crap about was that the judges (who were all top journalists) chose us from the field. The rest is kind of gravy.

When asked what he was hoping to have a chance to say, before he was so rudely interrupted, Levine said:

I had a tireless, amazing team who was on a mission to make BioShock great. We didn’t have 300 people or five years. We had an insane amount of passion. I’d like to thank the people who made it with me, the families that patiently waited while we did our thing, the publisher with the guts not to make us change it, and the fans who showed that gamers have a much broader range of interest and intellect than anybody in certain parts of the media or the political space is comfortable giving them credit for.

Read the full interview by 1UP here.

With mega-company Take 2 taking home top honors at the Spike Video Game Awards, indie publisher Gamecock was desperately vying for attention. But what’s sadder than “Game of the Year” body art? How about crashing Ken Levine’s acceptance speech in red capes and masks?

Check out the video– the surprised and subdued crowd reaction says it all. Gamecock has since apologized for the stunt, saying that they’d rather have crashed the Fueled By Mountain Dew category instead.

We know these guys want to stand out from the crowd, but upstaging one of gaming’s greatest designers was maybe not the smartest move. Gamecock will rise someday, perhaps, but it might take a bit longer thanks to this stunt.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Via: Joystiq

Charles Deckard opened the original can of worms when he stole Pandora’s Box. The Box even knows he’s the won who did the deed, and the brand it leaves on his hand connects him to the “animus” magic inside. Of course, all hell literally breaks loose and whether it’s the Council, the Black Order, or Deckard himself, it’s going to be a hard time trying to coop it all back up.

You’ve probably seen the immediate aftermath already in our EiEiO preview: huge gryphons swooping down on the city, biting people’s heads off, grabbing cars in their talons and hurling them down the street. It’s complete and utter chaos as the museum evacuates during those first few minutes after the box is unsealed. Recently, though, we got the chance to go hands-on with some bits from later on in the game.

First off, there are werewolves, but not exactly your typical breed. Developer Spark describes their angle on mythology as “a game of telephone” where what we’ve heard down through the ages isn’t necessarily what happened. Even then, what people were getting superstitious about wasn’t unshakably proven, but rather an idea.

There’s wiggle room in there– for example, the wiggle room to make a golem out of slabs of busted avenues and bits of concrete buildings. The main idea stays the same, but the interpretation can vary.

The wolf dudes keep their distance at first. Spark thinks about their creatures in terms of the effect they have on the environment and, “chucking stuff at you definitely makes them feel real.” So chuck they do. As you continue to assault them, however, they’ll move in for melee and bare their fangs pretty quickly. All the creatures have phases like this, which along with variable AI behavior, makes fights much more dynamic and interesting.

Whether an enemy runs along the wall or chooses to vault over a piece of debris doesn’t seem like it would make a huge difference, but it does. When creatures start attacking Black Order soldiers instead of focusing their attention on you, that behavior also makes a big difference. Then you can start choosing who to focus your attention on: the soldiers for their ammo, or the creatures for their health recovery?

We also got to check out the first minotaur fight. The minotaur is just another baddie, albeit in the fresh “telephone game” style (I did end up asking to make sure that’s what I was fighting). To show off his behaviors and let you really experience what an encounter will feel like, the introductory showdown takes place in a graveyard arena-like setting.

It’s not the easiest fight, considering his rage culminates in a series of charges that you’ll have to step pretty lightly to avoid. Taking him down only brings you one step closer to a nasty tentacle monster sprouting arms out of graves, ready to grab hold and never…let…go…

Which is where our demo ended! With all the high-tech engines people are coding on these days, frantic energy with stuff flying all over the screen is completely possible, and it’s got me really excited. This first taste of Legendary: The Box has me eager to experience more of Spark’s particular flavor of chaos, so we’ll see what the coming months bring before the June release.

This game is buggy. That’s the obvious psuedo-pun to make, considering I don’t mean “riddled with coding errors,” but it’s true — there are lots of bugs. Hard boiled ones, at that! Developer Crackpot Entertainment’s Insecticide takes place in a world where insects have evolved beyond humans (who now need to wear oxygen helmets to live), so when death and his friend foul play strike the Nectarola soda co it’s up to partners Roachy Caruthers and Chrys Liszt to crack the case.

We recently checked out the first two levels in the DS version. These are a decent representation of the split gameplay, which goes part third-person shooter, part investigation. The shootery levels are heavy on the platforming, making use of Chrys’s double jump — “You have two sets of legs! Use’em!” — as you chase down a perp. You’ll also have to have good reflexes to win the firefights. Character handling is a little weird right now as you can’t seem to move and turn at the same time, but hopefully that will be tweaked out between now and release.

On the investigation side of things, we were tasked with completing a set of documents on the case. Each member of the office was in charge of a specific part, but it seemed like they were all either lazy or absentminded, so we had to coax them into it by playing a mad-libs mini-game, serving coffee, etc. It played out like a point and click except when you needed to move with the D-pad.

So far it seems like just the opening cinematic is in. Others (and we imagine at least the ending sequence) will be added as space on the DS cart allows, and that’s a good thing because they really add a lot. Probably the best reason to be psyched about this game, though, is the goofy writing. Puns abound from the word “somebuggy” to Roachy’s “It’s only an exoskeleton wound,” quip. We’ll see if the bug joke to actual word ration can be kept this high throughout the whole game, but considering the creators would like to possibly expand into cartoons, they must have quite a bit up their sleeves. Insecticide skitters it’s way onto DS and PC this January.

For more information visit www.insecticidethegame.com.

The boys and girls over at Gamecock have announced that they are endorsing Stephen Colbert for President. The Texas-based Gamecocks refuse to accept his South Carolina setback, and urge Colbert to begin his campaign in Texas.

In fact, they are willing to allow Colbert to use their Austin location as his campaign headquarters, and will be using their upcoming political party game “Hail to the Chimp” to help raise political awareness among gamers.

Sport one of these lovely Gamecock virtual buttons, and show your support for Colbert. Press release after the jump.

GAMECOCK ENDORSES STEPHEN COLBERT FOR PRESIDENT
Videogame Publisher Refuses To Accept “South Carolina Setback”, Pushes for Texas Run

COCKPIT, Austin, Texas – November 7, 2007 – Gamecock Media Group, an Austin, TX based publisher of videogames, announced today the company’s endorsement of Stephen Colbert for President of the United States of America and is encouraging him to begin his campaign in Texas.

“After conducting extensive polling and scrutinizing all the candidates’ stances on various issues, we came to the conclusion that Stephen Colbert has shown strong leadership and best represents the interests of the videogame playing community,” said Gamecock CEO and Grand Champeen Mike Wilson. “Stephen Colbert had Will Wright on his show and he pummeled Nancy Pelosi’s Mii in Wii Boxing. These decisive actions have earned our vote.”

“Politicians have long demonized videogames for short term gain,” added Wilson. “This has, of course, been hilarious to watch. But Stephen Colbert will definitely be funnier than anything Hillary Clinton or Mitt Romney can come up with.”

South Carolina Democrats’ decision to keep Colbert off the ballot will not stop Colbert’s campaign, pledges Gamecock. “While the South Carolina Gamecocks are standing in the way of greatness, the Texas Gamecocks are fully behind Colbert. We encourage him to come to the elite state of Texas to launch his campaign, where ‘his people’ will undoubtedly support him. He can use the Gamecock office as campaign headquarters,” stated Harry Miller, El Presidente of Gamecock.

In addition to this bold offer of help, Gamecock said it would get into the Colbert campaign’s spirit of commercialism by encouraging gamers to check out its upcoming politically-charged party game, Hail to the Chimp, where animals duke it out to be president of the animal kingdom (www.chimplove.com). No other efforts will be made on the part of Gamecock to mobilize the tens of millions of voting-age gamers. “I wish the best for Mr. Colbert, but what do we look like, political strategists?” Miller concluded.

Dementium is a horror title, and I was afraid of a lot of things while playing through this game, unfortunately none of them were intentional. For instance, I was afraid that I would soon suffer from carpal tunnel due to the game’s control scheme. If you’ve ever played a first person shooter on the DS you’ll know exactly what I mean. You have to keep your left thumb on the D-pad while tapping the shoulder button with your middle finger to fire. Hand fatigue sets in faster than those lonely nights playing with your waggle wand.

The controls are frightful, but what had me completely terrified were the graphics. Now, this is purely subjective, and I know the DS can’t put out decent 3d graphics. But that’s just it– the DS can’t put out decent 3d graphics. Why would they shoehorn in a 3d FPS on a console that lends itself more to a stylized art deco?

Like the art direction, the story is another source of mystery for Dementium. Just what the hell is going on? The argument could be made that any good horror story has an element of the unexplained, but the narrative is damn near inexplicable.

On the plus side, Dementium runs at sixty frames per second, which is something you have to see to believe on the DS. The thing runs very smooth. Granted, there isn’t much to render, but the feel of controlling the cursor with the stylus is spot on, and should be shamelessly copied by any other prospective DS developers.

Equally suave are the puzzle elements incorporated into Dementium. Playing a tune on a piano using the touch screen to unlock a key resonates as one of the most intuitive usages of the DS functionality to date.

Renegade Kid’s DS debut was an ambitious one to say the least, and I for one will continue to hold out hope for their next installment. That said, if you’re looking for a survival horror game on par with PSP’s Silent Hill Origins, Dementium: The Ward is not it.

Shrouded in darkness, as black as the sanitarium’s corridors without a flashlight, is the game’s potential. It’s there; it’s just hiding in a gimmicky monster closet along with every other enemy in this game.

What does this score mean? Read our review scoring breakdown here.

"Pretty sure the big flaming "F" on the box stands for failure."

As an avid MMO player with three level 70s in World of Warcraft, I always hated the idea of grinding for experience. It seems so archaic. There is little fun to be had in killing the same thing over and over just to increase your numerical value by one digit. Fury appeals to the idea that grinding is for suckers. So when I heard that a company was claiming they had a game that would redefine PvP, I jumped at the chance to review it.

Auran, the games developer, is attempting to cater to the gamers who tried titles like WoW and Guild Wars only to be disappointed due to boredom, or did not want to invest the time it takes to get a high level character. In fact the city chat in Fury is filled almost exclusively with people bashing WoW.

It is this type of gamer that Fury seems to be catering to, as the game offers absolutely no leveling in terms of character progression. The idea behind this is that the characters in Fury are all legendary figures brought back to fight and collect essence to power their respective sanctuary. However, I felt that this message was poorly conveyed and felt more like an excuse than a fleshed out storyline.

The first thing you must tackle after installing the game is the account set up process. After reading on the box that the game was "free", I was very surprised to find out they offer an optional subscription service. There is a somewhat long list of features that are only offered in the subscription plan.

The pricing structure is very similar to Hellgate London, in that players can opt to get a few extra perks, and a little bit more content each month if they elect to pay a small monthly fee. In other words, while the game can be played for free, you won't get the full experience that way. Fury Costs $9.99 a month, and for fans of the game, it seems like a pretty fair deal.

After downloading and installing the necessary patches, you'll be prompted to create your first character. Make sure you like the name, because there are no extra character slots. Additionally you can never delete your character. When asked to comment on this, Lead Developer Adam Carpenter went on to say, "Really at the end of the day there's no reason to have a second character, since your avatar can have as many as a dozen items, and you can learn every single ability in the game. So having a second character doesn't really afford you any opportunities." Additionally, players can also modify the appearance of their characters anytime during gameplay.

The first thing you'll notice upon starting the tutorial and walking around the game world is the graphics. It really looks like the engine could have used a few more months in development. Running on a high end system that can play Bioshock with settings turned on high, Fury brought framerates to a grinding halt. The visuals just don't seem proportionate to the performance. In addition the overall aesthetics could have used some work. There really isn't anything unique in the art direction for Fury. It looks boring and drab, there is nothing here to differentiate it from any other Fantasy RPG.

While wrapping up the tutorial portion of the game, one thought seared through my mind like the flames surrounding the games four letter logo: "I know these guys are from Australia, but did they really need to hire Nicole Kidman to do the voice over?" Now, I am pretty sure the VO was not Nicole Kidman, but my point is that it was dry, repetitive, and at times excruciatingly annoying as it stated "Please choose your archetype....Please choose your archetype...Please choose your archetype" over and over again. You could say that this aspect of the game left me FURY-ious (Yeah, I said it). Thinking of this woman being mauled by a bear was probably the single highest moment I experienced while playing this game.

After the tutorial you are asked to choose your archetype (sound familiar?), and your choices are as follows: life, growth, death, decay, as well as melee, or spiritual. Choose quickly, though, because in case you forget, you will be prodded relentlessly to do so by Nicole's evil twin.

You gain new skills as well as essence as you perform your chosen archetype's attacks in combat. For instance, if you kill three people with a death spell, you will then gain death essence to spend on new skills. Each new skill requires that you go through a trial in order to obtain it. Don't worry though, you won't actually have to do anything complicated in these trials. Simply click through the cliché fantasy dialogue and bam, you have a new fireball spell!

This brings me to one of the most promising features in Fury-- the ability to switch your incarnation (character class) on the fly. For instance, say your group needs a life archetype, all you need to do is spend some equipment points, and throw a few healing spells onto your "hotbar".

Players have 1,000 equipment points at their disposal, and each piece of armor, as well as every weapon in the game will cost you a certain amount of equipment points to add on. This mechanic works well, as it gives you the option to change your class, but also makes sure you don't load up your characters hotbar with every Archetype specific spell available in the game at once.

Actual image of me playing in the game

Considering the difficulty of getting a healing class in almost any other MMO, Fury's approach to this aspect of gameplay is refreshing. Sadly though, very few players that I came across were actually using the life archetype. After all, who wants to run around healing, when they could be killing instead?

The game's PvP arenas are set in epic landscapes, with Unreal Tournament style powerups strewn throughout. All character progression is earned in these battlefields, spanning from Icy Villages to Ancient Ruins. This is the bread and butter of Fury.

If they nailed one thing about Fury, it would hands-down be the environments. It's a shame however, that the combat system makes for confrontations that are nowhere near as interesting as the surroundings they take place in.

About one third of the attack animations never seemed to materialize on screen. It often ended up looking like you were running around staring at your enemies, waiting to get slaughtered. When they did work, it felt very similar to the new style of combat regurgitated onto Star Wars Galaxies. This is NOT a good system to model your game after.

Auran tried to make actions feel fast, and twitch based. However it turned into a button mashing bout, as the poor use of on-screen cues meant to highlight "cooldown" periods often left you unsure about which attacks were available. The idea was for you to look at the bar on the bottom of the screen, but doing so in a fast paced battle type environment just doesn't work. A better approach may have been to apply a thin border to the screen edges that changed color based on what attacks you had available.

When it comes to options, the inclusion of only three types of PvP modes, Vortex (Capture the Flag), Elimination (Team Deathmatch), and Bloodbath (Deathmatch) is simply inexcusable. They get old very quickly, and not being able to implement different objectives for each warzone, something that you think would be a no-brainer, was very disappointing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Actual footage of me playing in the game

Getting slaughtered seems to be the theme of combat in Fury. The customer service rep assured me that the matchmaking feature was in place and working properly, however, it seemed to match up players at random. Every warzone I went into had people with far better gear than I did, which meant three or four hits would constantly put me out of commission. I discussed this with Adam, and he stated, "You can get decent matches right now, but they're harder to come by because populations are low."

When you're not getting your ass kicked in the warzones, you will be taken to a sanctuary, Sanctarum, the game's one and only city. Here you can meet up with other players to buy and sell items won on the battlefield, and to make pre-made PvP groups. Sadly there is very little positive interaction here, as most of the chat boils down to how WoW is for babies. However, I did manage to pin down a well-geared, high-ranked player for a short interview. Meet Merr!

Me: Can you please state your title and incarnation (character class) for our readers?

Merr: My name is Merr and I am an Overlord.

Me: What games, specifically MMOs, have you played in the past?

Merr: I have played WoW and Guild Wars.

Me: What aspects of Fury interested you before you bought the game, then to follow up, have your expectations been met?

Merr: I expected a PvP game and maybe a little more, but mostly my expectations have been met. It's a casual in-between game.(Between two big games)

Me: Fury as a whole wasn't on a lot of gamers' radar, do you think this title has the potential to be a sleeper hit? Or do you see it fizzling out after a few months?

Merr: I think it will be an under the radar hit, but might fizzle out in about a year.

Me: Have you experienced any technical problems? Such as rubber banding, or frame rate issues?

Merr: Not so far, however I think this game will experience some problems, because there's probably going to be a lot of patches.

Me: If you could change one thing about the game, what would it be?

Merr: I would add more PvP types, because if its based on PvP there should be more than three types of gameplay.

My hats goes off to Merr, as the Overlord was clearly able to stomach much more than I could in regards to this game.

So what happened to Fury? Was it doomed since they announced the price point was going to be 50$? Especially seeing as how most other MMOs in the same price range have PVE content to go along with the PvP experience. I asked Adam what factors they considered when deciding on a price. "Primarily so that the box price point is competitive with WoW and Guild Wars, and also with FPS games and other things from that genre. So we figured that it would be appropriate to charge that much at retail since we're offering the same value you would get from your typical FPS, with the additional value of persistence from an MMO."

How can a game like Fury compete in an extremely competitive market? What makes this game different from WoW and Guild Wars, Fury's main competition? Mr. Carpenter went on to state, "Primarily that we are one hundred percent pure PvP. Where as those two are hybrid games, and many times I think of them as bi-polar games. Because the developers are constantly having to focus on whether some aspect of PvP is impacting PvE and vice versa. How we're planning on competing is just too keep ourselves distinct, and now we can focus on making things as fun as possible for PvP without having to make sacrifices for PvE."

Can any game hope to compete against the 9 million strong cultural Phenomenon that is World of Warcraft? Not if they turn out like Fury. I couldn't even recommend this game to those who don't enjoy the traditional MMO. There simply isn't enough game here to sink your teeth into. I could run around most MMORPGs for weeks and not come close to seeing all the content implemented. Alternatively, you could play Fury for about three days, and see all the content the game has to offer.

The games box features a quote stating "This is PvP Reborn", well if that's the case, safe sex would have been a better way to go. One can only hope the Australian-based development company learns from the mistakes they made this time around, and improves upon what, in theory, has the potential to be a nice addition for fans of this genre.

Anticipating high demand for the Nintendo DS title, Dementium the Ward, publisher, Gamecock, will be taking pre-orders via the games official website, www.dementium.com. Excerpts from the press release in typical Gamecock fashion below.

“Due to the fact that we believe the consumer demand for Dementium: The Ward on Halloween will outweigh the inventory available at retail that first day, we are accepting pre-orders directly through Gamecock at www.dementium.com. This way, all gamers who have told us they are dying to get their hands on this game for Halloween can be assured of having a copy in their mailbox, hand stuffed by the gang at the CockPit.”

“We would also like to state for the record, that it is wrong to steal your child or younger sibling’s DS. But surely no one can be faulted for borrowing it just for Halloween week.”

If you are looking for the perfect game to play while you rip through bags of candy this Halloween, look no further, this is it.

Ahead in the darkness you can hear the groaning of a chest maw, a zombie-like creature with a gaping mouth in the middle. You can hear your heartbeat quicken as the cockroaches buzzing around your feet take tiny bites out of your health. You rev up the bone saw and charge headfirst into the gore-spattered hallway…

It doesn’t sound like a typical Nintendo DS game, but ever since Metroid Prime Hunters proved that the handheld could power a first person shooter, developer Renegade Kid has made an honest to goodness survival horror game for the DS. Playing as a mysterious stranger who awakens in a bloody and deserted hospital, in Dementium: The Ward you have to solve puzzles, fight monsters, and try to gain insight into what caused the medical mayhem.

Demetium is an M-rated shooter, but unlike the arcade action of Touch The Dead, Dementium has a lot more exploration and puzzle solving. The puzzles are in the typical Resident Evil or Silent Hill style–they don’t always make complete sense but they are often unsettling and have a sort of internal logic. The puzzles often unlock new sections of the hospital like the children’s ward and an eerily silent chapel.

Besides the atmosphere and exploration, which seem nicely done for a DS game, there is a ton of combat in Dementium. Besides cockroaches, chest maws, and ugly slugs called mollusca, there are a few really intimidating boss fights. These fights are tough, and there’s no extra ammo or health around to make them any easier.

If there’s any concern to be had, it’s that the hospital setting can get a bit repetitive, especially for a lengthy game like Dementium. Some of the sound effects, like the heart monitor that constantly reminds you of your health level, could be muted without losing too much atmosphere. And while some of the controls work well, like using just the touch screen for aiming and accessing your inventory, it can be a bit hard to run and gun like in a console FPS. Hitting up twice and holding it to run, for example, is unwieldy when you’re trying to aim at enemies with the stylus at the same time.

But overall, Dementium is surprising in that it manages to capture some of the best parts of a Silent Hill game, like the creepy crawl through monster-filled buildings, with limited ammo and weird puzzles. For a survival horror experience on the DS, Dementium manages to get the tone just right. Now that we’ve seen what can be done, don’t be surprised if other companies try to match Dementium’s scary style. Dementium: The Ward will be available on October 31.

The MC of the event was Lil’ Miss Rebecca Havemeyer, who did a really great job of introducing each act, and even sang and danced a bit herself:

Texas doesn’t allow nipples, among other anatomical items, but amid the audience’s lamentation of the pasties we saw bathing girl, suspender girl, biker girl, cutie goth girl, girls in chaps, girls shakin’ it…

Many girls from Kitty Kitty Bang Bang:

Incidentally, these photos are all pretty blurry and horrible, so just imagine them as your drunk goggles for the evening. Seemed to be mandatory apparel.

After abstaining from a tequila shot with a pair of costumed company poster fellows, I watched as they hopped up on stage for a musical encore:

The refrain escapes me for the moment, but rest assured, it was about cocks. From there the evening descended further into drunken haze with the appearance of Magnifico!, whose lead singer rocked out in his body sock until something like 1 am, at which point it was past my bedtime. GameCock definitely knows how to keep us occupied until their games come out.

The Internet has put in some long hard hours on the issue, but Blazing Lizard’s first game promises to solve it once and for all—Pirates or Ninjas? Yes, Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball should do the trick. But how exciting can dodgeball get?

Well, instead of being stuck on one side of a gym like in elementary school, players will be free to run all over each of the six arenas. This leaves lots of fighting room, and each character will have a special move. While the Singleplayer exhibition, story, and challenge modes could be nifty, the real draw will most certainly be multiplayer, with up to four local and eight online.

The game will be up to download for undisclosed consoles (but honestly, there are only three…so how difficult do you think it is to guess?) early next year. In the meantime, let us speculate as to who the remaining three of five teams are– my money’s on Monkeys, Robots, and Zombies.

Your parents may have told you that the countless hours you spent gaming in front of your monitor would amount to nothing, well here is your chance to at least try to prove them wrong.

Australia based Auran Games and Gamecock Media Group in association with Codemasters Online have announced the world’s first open beta event for their upcoming PVP MMO — FURY.

The event dubbed “Fury Challenge” will be awarding an excess of $1,000,000 in prizes and is being billed as the richest prize pool ever for an online role-playing event.

“We believe that FURY will be the start of a PVP revolution, so why not create a revolutionary Open Beta event to show the world that we have arrived,” stated Tony Hilliam, Auran CEO.

The event will kick off on September 14th and be available over the course of three consecutive weekends. The first will be dedicated to practice, leveling up, unlocking abilities, and experimentation — not the kind you did in your parents basement.

In weeks two and three, the gloves come off and players will compete for real. There will be three game types in all on seven different ladders. The ladders will be based on a specific game types and each gamer will receive a cumulative score based on the ten best games they played that given weekend.

“We’ve lined up a huge array of prizes from our sponsors including NVidia, Dell, IGN, GameStop, Harvey Norman, FHM, Logitech and ZBoard,” said Brian Cooke, Auran Marketing Director.

The list of sponsors and prizes is still growing and will be continually updated via the www.furychallenge.com.

For the full rules and conditions of entry, visit www.FuryChallenge.com/Rules.

Fury will be hitting retail stores in USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand on October 9th and throughout Europe on October 12th.

Gamecock and the London based Firefly Studios are developing a title called Dungeon Hero to be released on the Xbox 360 and PC. It is being described as the first authentic dungeon crawler, and from what we have seen of the game it seems extremely well thought out and unlike any other dungeon crawler we have seen to date. If that wasn’t enough, we stumbled upon some very interesting information during our chat with Firefly Studios.

In an interview we conducted with Lead Designer Simon Bradbury of Firefly Studios at this years EiEiO Conference in Santa Monica CA, they revealed to us that they are experimenting with NaturalMotion technology in their upcoming game Dungeon Hero.

Our ears perked when we hear this and they quickly realized that they said something that we were about to follow up on for some more information. All they would say is that they are experimenting with the technology, and that was all we really needed to hear.

Games such as Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Indiana Jones, and GTA IV will all be using NaturalMotion. After seeing an example of what NaturalMotion is doing for of Lucas Arts and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed we were very eager to learn about other companies that may be using the technology. Check out the Endorphin Tech Demo of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed below.

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With euphoria, canned animation is replaced by a full simulation of the 3D character, thus producing unprecedented interactivity and unique game moments. If you are not familiar with NaturalMotion we suggest you check them out at www.naturalmotion.com.

Dungeon Hero Game Summary / E3 Trailer
Dungeon Hero takes you into a real dungeon, one where a shadowy evil has come to feed on despair. This is a dungeon at war – not a place with bags of gold just lying around!

The action RPG uses Firefly’s dazzling HD engine, allowing the player to storm heroically through underground halls while taking in the detail and complexity of a world previously unseen.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We were completely blown away by what we saw at Gamecock’s EiEiO Conference this year. One of the games that stood out the most to us was a title called “Legendary The Box” being developed by Spark Unlimited.

If you have not heard of this game, now is the time to start reading up on it. Set in modern times with backdrops that range from New York City to London, Legendary The Box is the story of an art thief by the name of Charles Deckard, who unwittingly opens the mythical Pandora’s Box unleashing evil creatures into the world and setting a war in motion that only he can end.

The visuals are amazing and the team at Spark utilizes the Unreal Engine to its fullest potential. The amount of stuff you see on screen in real time is utterly amazing. For more information please visit www.legendarythebox.com.

Below is some edited video we shot of the game at Gamecock’s EiEiO. Please note that this is video that was displayed on screen and not a direct feed, so the actual quality is much much better.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The kind folks over at Gamecock just sent us a new back story video for “Insecticide” which will be available for the DS, PSP, and PC. Enjoy.

Game Summary
Insecticide is a hard-boiled, fast-shooting detective game set in a festering future city where bugs have evolved as the planet’s dominant race. A murder at the powerful Nectarola soft drink company leads police from the Insecticide Squad on a bug hunt through the city’s seedy underbelly, and into a mystery of epic proportions.

Join Detective Chrys Liszt and partner Roachy Cartuther on the case as they become entangled in a web crime in the 3rd-person shooter/detective game. It’s an action-adventure in the truest sense of the word, immersing players in cinematic combat levels, as well as a story-based detective investigation.

Use Chry’s unique insect abilities, a range of creative bug weaponry, and old-fashioned street smarts to solve the case and undercover a shocking secret, ultimately bringing the mighty boot of justice down hard on the city’s infestation of crime.

Never before has one letter and one number brought one so much pain to so many, but one company is trying to change all that … Gamecock Media Group presents the E3 Funeral and Wake (celebration) of Originality, 4:20pm Friday the 13th.

Join your friends, colleagues, and unemployed booth babes in mourning, for a final goodbye to the magical beast that was E3, and a wholehearted welcoming for the resurgence of independence, originality, and creativity to come.

Meet at 4:20 at the EIEIO World Headquarters, Hotel California (1670 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica). Marching procession to begin shortly thereafter…

Very special guest eulogies, music, and good times, flavored with Gamecock’s own secret sauce.

Everyone was upset when E3 said goodbye, especially the giant statues.

When the E3 we all know and love closed its doors for good, many of us needed to have our frowns surgically removed from our collective faces. So when we got word that Gamecock Media Group was going to be offering up a convention of their own this year we were interested in learning more.

Today Gamecock Media Group gave us the final details for their “Expo for Interactive Entertainment, Independent and Original” or E.I.E.I.O for short. The event will be a three day “festival of fun” taking place on July 11th through the 13th right smack in the middle of all the E3 hotels at the Hotel California in Santa Monica California. The event includes playable games for most every current gaming system, accessible developers, Gamecock suckers, and plenty of food and drink.

“EIEIO is going to be a celebration of the amazing lineup of independent developers that Gamecock has been lucky enough to sign on, and I’m thrilled to say that every one of them will be in attendance to give personal demos of their works in progress,” said Mike Wilson, Grand Champeen and CEO of Gamecock. He added “We’ve hit the ground running with wildly creative games on all next-gen platforms and PCs,” said Harry Miller, President and Head of Development for Gamecock Media Group. “E.I.E.I.O. will be a great opportunity for the world to get their eyes on these products and see, first-hand, what these talented developers have in store.”

Featured games include:

• Fury (PC)
• Insecticide (PC, DS)
• Dementium: The Ward (DS)
• Hail to the Chimp (Next-Gen Platforms)
• Mushroom Men (DS, Wii)
• Dungeon Hero (PC, Xbox 360)
• Two Unannounced Next-Gen Titles (Some things you just have to see to believe)

E.I.E.I.O. Details:
Location: Hotel California
Address: 1670 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, CA
Times: July 11th 12pm-6pm; July 12th 10am-6pm; July 13th 12pm-4pm

For any press interested in attending, please rsvp to press@gamecockmedia.com.

About Gamecock Media Group:
Based in Austin, Texas, Gamecock Media Group offers a welcome solution to the bloated and originality-starved video game industry. A well-funded, independent, artist-driven company, Gamecock favors the most innovative and original video game developers in the industry. Publishing games for all platforms, Gamecock offers its developers a high degree of participation, freedom and financial incentives, allowing them to perform and create to their utmost ability. For more, please visit www.gamecockmedia.com.

You like spending hours at a time in damp dark areas (Don’t go there). You enjoy the thrill of killing what you eat. You think that wearing a skirt is ok as long as you are carrying a big sword. Well, if you own a PC or Xbox 360 and answered yes to all of the above, dust off your shield and sharpen that blade because where you’re headed, your pretty little iPhone can’t help you … unless of course you use it to call your mommy.

Today Gamecock Media Group announced that Firefly Studios’, creators of the worlds first authentic dungeon crawler “Dungeon Hero”, will be slashing their way on to the PC and Xbox 360 in the early part of 2009.

As the first dungeon-based game to realistically depict underground life, Dungeon Hero promises all the danger, intrigue and daily routine of an actual subterranean community. Stunning HD graphics bring the environments to life with incredible detail. Get ready to be transported to a world complete with goblin cheese merchants, jailed troll miners, and helpful imps who ask “why can’t we all just get along?”

“Dungeon Hero sets itself apart from every dungeon game that has come before it,” said Rick Stults, Console Chief for Gamecock Media Group. “We love the realism that the game portrays, the living breathing dungeon aspect is something unique that hasn’t been done anywhere before and that’s the key to the innovation we’re looking to promote.”

Dungeon Hero is a fully functional and fresh take on the classic dungeon based game. So pick up that bottle of ale, rest your head for the night, socialize with the town folk, or roam the land freely trading items and gathering riches. Engage in adrenaline pumping close quarters combat against a multitude of enemies. Decimate your would be foes with an intense battle system that you control, putting an arsenal of savage attacks and bone crushing counter moves right at your fingertips. Dark times call for one to stand against many. When the time comes, will you answer that call and lay claim to the title “Dungeon Hero”? If not you can always pick up that iPhone again and call your mom. We hear she makes a mean fruitcake.

Stay tuned as we plan to follow this title closely.

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