Legendary is a first person shooter with a strong concept but a weak execution. The mystic Pandora’s Box at the center of the plot unleashes hellish versions of mythological creatures like werewolves and griffons– a cool idea, but there’s not a decent game to back it up. I feel that Legendary’s horrendous one-track level design deserves much of the blame.

Much of the game’s feeling of chaos is conveyed through scripted scenes that take place just as you happen to walk by. Your character, a professional thief named Deckard, seems to be the videogame version of William H. Macy’s The Cooler, as everyone he encounters is immediately struck by horrible luck. Don’t get too attached to any of the random, nameless police officers and soldiers that you’ll meet along the course of the game. You’ll never hear more than a few seconds of pointless banter before they’re dragged away screaming by some random monster.

These scripted sequences were amazing back in the days of Half Life 1, but the game ignores completely the wide-open locations, compelling characters, and feelings of immersion created by later Half Life games. Even the pacing is screwy—you start out Legendary in a scene of utter chaos, with people screaming continually for the next few hours. Later, a few slower moments in the underground segments (mostly sewers and subways) provide the give-and-take of quality FPS games, but instead of gradually building suspense, the early parts of the game come across with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

One of the few successful sequences, a scene that actually builds over time, starts with you trying to turn a crank to open a doorway in a sewer, only to watch as mischievous nymphs steal the crank and place it in a cramped compartment below. When you go back for the crank, the nymphs seal the doors around you and start up a giant fan that sucks you into it unless you shoot out some planks around it. This was one rare moment that captured my interest—the rest of the sewer crawl was forgettable.

A quality videogame, especially the best first person shooters, thrive on an increasing expectation of tension and payoff, but the rushed pace of Legendary leaves no room for suspense. An objective marker that pops up when you press the L3 button always points you to the next door or shootable environmental “puzzle”, which limits the frustration and aimless wandering but also cuts any feeling of exploration out of the game.

The lazy, straightforward design of this game is a shame, because the visuals are generally attractive, with some exceptions. The monsters are well animated, but the human characters act choppy. Also, all the CG cutscenes are of PS2/Xbox quality, which is well below what we’ve come to expect from the current generation.

While this game may sound like a relentless bore, there were brief moments when I enjoyed myself, so maybe Legendary is best designed for a slow weekend. This is not a game you’ll replay more than once, so it’s not worth adding to your collection, but shooting the heads off of werewolves and absorbing their energy to charge strange machines is a passable distraction.

You can even cut straight to this core gameplay in the multiplayer mode, but good luck trying to find anyone else to play against online. With so many far superior games coming out this season, Legendary doesn’t even come close to worth your money—unless you have your Blockbuster card handy and everything else has already been checked out.

Collector’s Editions of games are becoming more and more popular as video games slowly gain ground in today’s pop culture. Some embrace the higher prices and extra swag, while others are not so happy with some of the ridiculous price hikes. For example: the original Gears of War Collector’s Edition only jacked the price up $10, GTA IV’s crazy bundle cost $30 more, and Halo 3’s Legendary Edition was a staggering $70 over the regular edition.

So, how do we judge whether a special edition of a game is worth the dough? The items themselves really only have value to the die-hard fans and collectors, so only time and possibly online auction prices will tell how valuable these items will become. The only other measure is how well the special edition versions of the game retain their value compared to the regular versions. Some helpful charts from VGPC.com after the jump might surprise you.

Video Games Price Chart’s recent blog did some research comparing the launch prices of regular and limited/collector’s edition games to the current (as of Oct. 18, 2008) prices. They included mostly games launched within the last three years, which makes sense since the “collector’s edition” phenomenon is one that has very recently exploded in popularity among game companies.

As you can see, regular editions of games had an average of a $40 price drop. Compared to the drop of $37 for limited/collectors editions, it doesn’t seem like a huge difference. But we are talking about new games here; stores buy collector’s editions of games at a higher price than the regular editions. In turn, they can’t sustain as much of a price drop on these special editions — if they don’t drop the price enough, however, these games will only gather dust over time since most of the hardcore fans of a particular game will make sure to order and buy the special edition of the game as soon as possible after its launch. Look at Halo 3’s Legendary Edition for a good example of this: at launch it was priced at $130, and stores are now forced to slash the price down to $80 due to the slowing of sales.

However, the actual resale value of the products have more dramatic differences. This means that if you ever plan on selling your copy of a game (either to a store for credit or on eBay) then the collector’s edition of the game will retain its value much better.

In fact, collector’s editions actually have a chance of rising in value (which is the hope one always has when buying such things). VGPC reported that while all of the regular editions of games decreased in price, 3.4% of collector’s editions actually increased in value.

So, are collector’s editions worth the extra cash? The numbers here say yes. However, one last factor to consider is the individual. How much do you love a certain game or series? I am personally in love with the Persona series, so I made sure to pre-order the game for the limited edition art book and soundtrack CD, as well as the $30 Social Links Expansion pack for the game. However, I’ve never played any of the previous Fallout games (a crime, I’ve been told) so I didn’t run out and pre-order the super-extra-toys-and-stuff edition of the game.

So numbers aside, what do you readers think about this recent trend? Are you happy for the chance to get some extra swag, or do you think collector’s editions are merely a ploy for companies to get better unit sales?

Source (for information and charts): VGPC.com

The word on the Locust infested streets of Sera is that Legendary Pictures is looking to purchase Epic Games. No clue as to whether or not the companies would change their name, but they might as well go for “Uber,” I can’t really think of any thing else that tops Epic or Legendary (Artifact perhaps?)

The two studios have been working closely with each other on the film adaptation of Gears of War, and apparently have bonded over a love of Chainsaw Bayonets, leading to speculation that the purchase is at the very least being discussed seriously.

Legendary Pictures’ chairman Thomas Tull has shown interest in video games before, as he was co-founder of publisher Brass Entertainment, but subsequently left, as the company was focused on Hollywood licensed productions, and we all know how those tend to go.

So perhaps Tull has gotten a taste for gaming and is looking for a real company to get involved with. He could certainly do much worse than Epic, which owns the Gears of War franchise and the Unreal Engine.

Legendary offered no comment but Epic had some nice things to say about Legendary, which at least indicates they play well together, so getting hitched isn’t totally out of the question.

“We have publicly announced that Epic and Legendary are partnering on the “Gears of War” movie. We’re very excited about that project and have the highest regard for Thomas Tull and his organization,” said a spokesperson for Epic.

The pairing would provide Epic with whole helluva lotta money, and Legendary would get an epic game studio (sorry, couldn’t resist.)

Stay tuned for more info as it comes.

Source: Variety

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.

PAX is all about games, and the massive show floor had plenty of them on display. Here are the impressions from the show floor demos. Keep in mind, many of these are at different stages of production, so things could change. Read on for impressions of Starcraft 2, Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead, Resistance: Retribution, and more.

StarCraft II

The long awaited sequel to arguably the best real time strategy game ever was open for public testing in Blizzard’s booth. The lines were long for a chance to get 15 minutes with the game, but well worth it. Everything about the original has been built upon and improved. The graphics look perfect and the controls are familiar. Everything has been improved, often with subtle changes that leave an impact as big as a siege tank barrage.

The Zerg look organic and slimy, in a very Aliens sort of way (the creep actually glistens menacingly) the Protoss fields are shiny, with powerful units brimming with lasers and teleportation, and the Terrans have upped their arsenal with big guns and good ol’ fashioned attitude. The game feels faster as well. Maybe I haven’t played the original recently, but it felt like I was able to advance the tech tree much faster than I remember, and by the end of my 15 minutes I had battle cruisers and a Thor (walking death!) up and running.

The game is familiar enough that I was able to use hotkeys right off the bat. It’s everything you’d expect from a Blizzard sequel, and no heroes in sight. It’s going to be a difficult wait for this one, but after 10 years, what’s another couple of months?

Left 4 Dead

Zombies, zombies zombies. Gotta love it. Its easy to see why people were waiting upwards of 90 minutes just for a few precious moments with the game. Left 4 Dead is basically Counter Strike meets 28 Days later, as swarms of angry zombies come screeching out of dark corners to bash the characters to death. Shotgun usage is mandatory, and cooperation is imperative, as any member of the four-person team who wanders off will die a swift death, and players can revive fallen teammates. At one point, our team set off a car alarm, and “alerted the swarm.” Within seconds, half my team was dead, and I was desperately trying to fight off a dozen infected and raise my one remaining team mate. I did manage to get him up, but we were both so low on health that we died moments later.

Taking sufficient damage doesn’t kill you right away– your character gets knocked down and you can continue to shoot with your hand gun, similar to the CoD4 last stand perk, except that a teammate can pull you back up. Unfortunately, if you and your teammate are both down, it’s only a matter of time. Even if there are no zombies around, you cannot heal yourself from the prone position, as I found out.

This one is destined for greatness, and when it hits shelves, the hungry moans from the hordes of gamers banging on the doors of their local game store will be heard throughout the land.

You can also read our E3 preview here.

Darksiders

Darksiders starts with a promising idea: As the fourth horseman of the apocalypse, War, you are out to kill things, a la God of War. Throw some Zelda elements of puzzle solving and item collecting in and you should have a nicely blended game stew. However, the demo failed to impress. The camera was buggy, the level (and puzzles) felt like a cheap copy of a Zelda dungeon, and the combat was bland. THQ better inject some serious badassery into this game before it releases, or it’s going to be just another clone.

Gears of War II Multiplayer

New executions and easier chainsaw usage were on display with the Gears of War II multiplayer demo, and they looked slick (and violent). The other thing I learned while playing the demo? I suck at it. Other than that, it feels the same as the first.

Red Faction: Guerrilla

Taking destructible environments to new heights (or razing them to new lows), Red Faction: Guerrilla was a surprise hit. Using a space sledge hammer to destroy anything standing (including opponents’ skulls) was fun, but dropping an entire building on a camping sniper should prove to be even more satisfying in the final build. Throw in 10 different back packs (five were available in the demo) which can make you fly like the rocketman or beef up your damage output, amongst other things, and you’ve got a recipe for an intriguing new multiplayer. The graphics were nothing special, but I have a feeling the map is going to look like a pile of rubble at the end of the match anyway.

Check out our in-depth PAX 08 preview here.

Ecocism

A fun little game from a pair of guys who’ve done all the work themselves. You speed around in a hovercraft planting trees and gun turrets while shooting giant metal spiders. It’s still in development, but the early build showed some definite potential. Look for this one on the Xbox Live Arcade in the future.

Legendary

Taking on mythical beasts unleashed by Pandora’s box in the streets of New York city sounds like more fun than another first-person shooter full of Nazis. After all, variety is the spice of life. However, the demo was only “decent,” despite plenty of action going on during the hectic first moments of the game.

Legendary also felt way too linear. At one point I stood in the street and waited for something to happen and move some cars so I could move to the next part of the level –which ended up being a series of cleverly disguised corridors. The gun play was nothing remarkable, and I found that using a fire axe was much more effective than wielding a pistol.

In addition to taking on Gryphons and little fire dragons, a private military force made an appearance just in time for target practice with a machine gun. Despite the cool concept, the game felt underwhelming.

Resistance: Retribution

A Resistance title for the PSP, set as a side story to Nathan Hale and the first Resistance, the Retribution demo takes place in a Chimera Conversion factory as a human resistance fighter and sabotage expert makes his way deep into enemy territory. The graphics were sharp, but combat was a bit unwieldy. The use of auto targeting and auto cover (just stand behind anything short enough and the character automatically ducks down) made things a bit easier, but it was tough to move and aim simultaneously.

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.

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!

Publisher Gamecock and developer Spark Unlimited have announced today that “Legendary”, formerly known as “Legendary the Box”, is on schedule and set to hit the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC this summer.

Legendary is a fast paced first person shooter, set in a modern world, with a mythical twist. It tells the story of an art thief by the name of Charles Deckard, who is tricked into a stealing and ultimately unleashing Pandora’s Box.

According to Craig Allen, CEO of Spark Unlimited, Legendary is the type of project the company wants to be working on and they believe it is shaping up to be “something amazing”. He also made it clear that they are taking the time necessary to ensure an optimal experience across all systems, which should come as good news to gamers.

“I’m happy to report that the team on Legendary is well on target for a simultaneous multi-platform launch this summer,” said Rick Stults, Console Chief for Gamecock Media Group. “It’s no easy feat to pull this off on a game of this caliber, but Spark Unlimited is a talented group.”

We got our first glimpse of this game at Gamecock’s EiEiO Conference last year, and our own Emily Balistrieri had a chance to preview the title in November as well.