In this week’s episode, we join host Jonathan Zungre, Dan Landis, and Beau Rosser as they discuss Ripten’s top three news stories of the previous week. During the break, be amused at a man’s tale about the capture of a polar bear.

This week’s playlist includes Resistance 2, Gears of War 2, Neverland Card Battles, Ninjatown, and Saint’s Row 2.

So sit back and enjoy Episode 6 and all its technical difficulties glory. If something sounds funny, don’t worry -– it was edited that way on purpose.

Everything happens for a reason.

Fall is fast approaching, and your bank balance will soon be dropping faster than the leaves on the tree outside your window. Naturally, you may not be able to decide for yourself which of the plethora of games to splurge your life’s savings on, and that’s where I come in.

Think of me as your personal assistant — ready to passively (and aggressively) project my thoughts and opinions onto you. Thank me later.

Dead Space (Microsoft Windows, Playstation 3, Xbox 360) 10/14 – It’s the future. We’ve made significant progressions in the space program. You’re Isaac Clarke, a space engineer, who’s answered a distress call from a ship that is, as far as he knows, only suffering from minor mechanical issue. Since we need antagonists to kill, the ship has been overrun by Necromorphs, a hostile polymorphic alien species dependant on necrotic flesh.

As lame as that sounds, all it does is confirm my suspicions that it is execution rather than conception that makes something intriguing.

EA Redwood has taken what I perceive and now know as the “Resident Evil 4 effect”: over-the-shoulder camera, controls that don’t make you want to burn a puppy, and something freak you out when you turn the corner. Comparisons to other great games continue; much like BioShock’s Rapture, a large portion, if not all, of Dead Space will be taking place in a self-contained location. What BioShock did right was make locations distinct enough to create a feeling of progression and keep things fresh with distinct differentiations in aesthetics.

Gameplay mechanics appear solid enough, and rightfully so, since they’re borrowing from the best. And let me be clear, that’s not a knock against it, I like that it borrows from games that I already know I love. Provided that they nail the gameplay, atmosphere has to be top notch, especially since they’re in the survival-horror genre, a genre that lives and dies by its ability to give you the screaming heebie-jeebies.

LittleBigPlanet (Playstation 3) 10/21 – “Play. Create. Share.” is the mantra that Media Molecule, developers of LittleBigPlanet, has lived by since they announced the title two years ago.

LBP is a 2D side-scrolling platformer that combines the Super Mario Bros paradigm of simply getting from one end of the screen to another and takes it to the next level with real-to-life physics calculations. Thow in an endearing star like Sackboy, and a pre-bundled level creator expansive enough to recreate just about anything your mind can think up, and you may begin to understand why people are clammering to reserve their copy.

If creating isn’t really your thing, you can expect a fully featured online catalog of levels created by others. Assuming that its release is met by a highly motivated and creative community focused on providing a constant stream of mind-blowing content, LBP will be surefire success.

Fable 2 (Xbox 360) 10/21 - Over promising and under delivering has very much been the theme of Peter Molyneux, the design mastermind behind Fable. I haven’t followed his hyperbolic propagand much throughout Fable II’s development, but I’m sure he’s spewed his fair share of it. The one thing I did hear is about the Han Solo factor.

The factor that has a player not being equally generous and forthcoming to everyone met, but a greedy, look-out-for-self, inward thinker that’s not exactly pure evil:

“With Han Solo, how good is good? Can you get as good as Luke Skywalker? Even he wasn’t truly good.” Molyneux said. Speaking with MTV Multiplayer blog.

He then went on t o hypothesize a potential situation in Fable II:

“If you saw a family there and had to kill these bandits to save the family, you’d kill the bandits to save the family. If I said to you, ‘okay, to save this family, you give up half your gold.’ Would you give up half your gold to save the family? Maybe you would, don’t know. The most interesting one is if I said ‘to save that family, you must be horribly, grotesquely scarred and there’s no way of ever removing the scar or the aging.’ What we found is that far, far fewer people were willing to sacrifice that.”

Would you sacrifice superficial features in a game to accomplish your good deed for the day? What about in the meatspace; fight or flight? Could an in-game situation make you stop for a second to contemplate the repercussions of your actions? Would you second guess your decision making? That seems to be the goal they are striving for here.

Fallout 3 (Microsoft Windows, Playstation 3, Xbox 360) 10/28 – Post-apocalyptic wastelands haven’t been done right since 1998, or so they say. Having only become a PC gamer recently, I missed out on both Fallout’s, and I’ve neglected to watch any of the Mad Max movies. As such, I’ve never been set in a Mad Max-esque setting – and I’m not quite sure what to expect. In other words, I have little insight into this cultural phenomenon.

I know about the barren stretches of land, the different factions, your dog, the vaults, the open-ended consequence-filled nature of the world, the VAT combat system and the Pip-Boy. All that knowledge taking up real-estate in my head, but even so, I can’t begin to understand the hype machine surrounding this games pending release. Despite my not having any comprehension as to how the game will actually “work”, it’s piqued enough of my interest that I will definitely be playing it on day one.

Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360) 11/4 - “Bigger, better, and more badass.” Was the phrase Lead Designer Cliff Bleszenski chose to introduce the world to Gears of War 2, although it was scrapped shortly thereafter. Setting aside the idiotic catch phrase, my initial fears were that little to no advancement had happened in the two year gap between the first and the second Gears of War’s.

Epic could’ve released what would ostensibly be the original Gears with a new single-player campaign and, by and large, be met with success, both critically and commercially. Marginally upgraded graphics, new enemy types, and new weapons would have likely been sold as more than enough reason to come back for round two.

Thankfully though, they didn’t phone Gears of War 2 in. A new campaign, 5 player co-op, and what seems like a vastly improved multiplayer mode have me at attention and ready for battle. The 5 player co-op has a bit of a twist, as it pits you and your friends in something more analogous to Geometry Wars: Waves. You fight through waves of Locusts with each subsequent wave being more difficult than the previous. It’s chances of being Game of the Forever are slim to none, but what it does have is a great foundation to work from, if taken in the right directions it will prove to be a success in most aspects.

Resistance 2 (Playstation 3) 11/7 – Ever since its announcement, you’ve heard about Resistance 2 and it’s scale. In fact, Insomniac Games made sure that one was never mentioned without the other. A prime example being the skyscraping 300 ft. tall Leviathan shown off at the Sony E3 Press Conference months ago. It ravaged through a 1950’s war-torn Chicago and smashed buildings with little remorse.

For those that missed the original, it’s an alternate historical take on World War II, where instead of the war progressing as it should with the Allies vs. Axis, it’s become Humans on Chimeras, a mysterious alien species life form that’s decided to invade Earth.

The first takes places through European cities. With the second, the war comes stateside and it’s up to hero of the European invasion, Nathan Hale, to play his part. Apart from repeating the word “scale” until it ceases to have meaning, they’ve also been playing the numbers game like it’s nobody’s business, unleashing an 8 player class-based co-op campaign, and 64 player squad-based competitive multiplayer.

In addition to the numbers game, they’ve also been building a new website behind-the-scenes. One that’s meant to foster a community. MyResistance.net is slated to be to Resistance 2, as Bungie.net is to Halo 3. Those are big shoes to fill, but Insomniac readily boasts the “scale” to do it.

Mirror’s Edge (Microsoft Windows, Playstation 3, Xbox 360) 11/11 - We got our first taste of the evolved paradigm of platforming courtesy of last year’s release of Assassin’s Creed. The craze is called Parkour, which is a French developed sport involving running, jumping, and otherwise traversing urban areas with complete grace and shocking fluidity. When directly translated from French to English it means “The art of movement”. The definition and translation of Parkour is easily transferable and a perfectly acceptable for Mirror’s Edge, as it takes Parkour, and translates it into a first-person action game.

Mirror’s Edge takes place in a not-so-distant dystopian future, run by a totalitarian government. I don’t know how much you know about totalitarian governments with Orwellian traits, but they like to control things, and one of their favorite things to control is information. That’s where the “Runners” come in. They take information in various forms and get it from point A to point B.

You play Faith, an extremely agile and graceful runner. As such, she can move through her environment with relative ease and fluidity. Much of Mirror’s Edge involves forward movement, you can expect to, more often than not, be in situations where you’re being shot at, chased, or otherwise incentivized to — you guessed it, move forward.

The only downfall I can think of is the game’s lack of interaction with civilians in the dystopian city. There’s just a picture perfect scene in my mind’s eye, where Faith is going from a rooftop, through a door, down a stairwell, and finally arriving in an office, ultimately interrupting a regular work-day, turning workers into obstacles that become part of the stage.

Those are the games that will keep your wallet (or purse, if you’re into that sort of thing) lighter than it has been all year.

Make sure you come back within the next few days, as I’ll be pushing the games of Fall that may slip under your radar, but shouldn’t. Save your pocket change — you’re going to need it.

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.

A Resistance spin-off has been announced for the PSP, developed by Sony’s Bend Studio (who?).

Even with Resistance 2 making a great showing, Sony has decided to go beyond with the series by including it’s portable system in the Resistance universe.

Resistance Retribution will take place within the Resistance 1 time-line, having you investigate what actually happened to the world during World War II. The game looks fantastic and is a great addition to the PSP.

We have the first off-screen capture of Resistance 2 gameplay from Sony’s Playstation Day.  The shot shows off the new Redwood Forest level.

More images are of course to come, and official ones at that.  But this off-screen capture of one of the multiplayer levels shows off Insomniac’s Work In Progress.

No it’s not clear, but we’ll update the article with new images as soon as we can.

Playstation Day. Tomorrow. London.  Be there or be round.  Sadly we weren’t invited, but much of the top tier European press will be getting a lucky look at Playstation’s exclusive 2008 titles.  Resistance 2 is confirmed, and the slight promise of a new Killzone 2 demo should make tomorrow a day to remember.

The potential was always there for a storm, with Sony’s new worldwide president Kaz Hirai flying into the capital to give a keynote speech.  Appearances of Playstation Home, Play TV and even LittleBigPlanet are expected, but further surprises might be waiting. 

Insomniac have confirmed the first playable demo of Resistance 2, but only excited press previews and screenshots will exit closed doors.  The first gameplay footage will have to wait until June 13th. However, everything appears to be set for Resistance 2 to impress tomorrow, as expressed by Insomniac’s James Stevenson on Neogaf:

We are off to dinner, but rehearsals went well, Resistance 2 is up and running on its three kiosks and we had a nice game going with the boys in Burbank.

It’s Insomniac’s podcast host who also lifts the curtains on a possible Killzone 2 showing.  In response to a pessimistic neogaffer who said Killzone 2 won’t make an appearance tomorrow, James Stevenson simply says:

Wrong.

Consider us intrigued. So what do we get out of all this?  Well, tomorrow will see an early European Playstation Store update, with a HAZE demo at top billing.  That’s not all.  Two more demo’s, The Bourne Conspiracy and Race Driver: GRid, will take their place on the store this Thursday, along with footage from tomorrow’s event. Interest rising…

*Update* - Here’s the list of content to be shown at Sony’s Playstation day held in London’s O2 venue (the failed Millennium Dome to you and me):

Music:
* Guitar Hero 3
* SingStar PS3 Vol. 2
* SingStar Summer Party
* Dancing Stage Supernova 2
* Movement

Film and Art:
* Blu-ray / BD Live – Sphe
* Lego Batman
* Wall-E
* Kung Fu Panda
* Ghostbusters
* Siren: Blood Curse
* Photo Application
* Movement
* Sponsorships – FWIC Video

Travel:
* Go! Explore
* PlayTV – PSP
* Buzz!: The Master Quiz
* Everybody’s Golf 2
* Secret Agent Clank
* Echochrome
* Crisis Core
* Space Invaders Extreme

Sports:
* MotorStorm Pacific Rift
* Everybody’s Golf: World Tour
* GT5 Prologue
* Euro 2008
* Beijing Olympics
* High Velocity Bowling
* WipEout HD

Friends and Family:
* Buzz!: Quiz TV
* Buzz!: Master Quiz
* EyeToy: Pom Pom Party
* EyeToy: Heroes
* PlayTV
* Echochrome
* Go! Messenger / Skype
* Buzz! Junior Jungle Party
* Elefunk
* PixelJunk Eden
* PlayStation Network
* Folding@Home

Creation:
* LittleBigPlanet
* My SingStar Online
* PlayStation Eye

Intense Action:
* Killzone 2
* Mirror’s Edge
* Super Stardust HD Team

Clan:
* Resistance 2
* SOCOM Confrontation
* Haze
* Warhawk Operation: Broken Mirror
* PlayStation Home

Source: Eurogamer

Geoff Keighley of Gametrailers promised “something special” from Insomniac and Sony in this Friday’s GT:TV episode, along with a number of other exclusives (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed being the stand-out.) Many hoped it would be the first trailer of Resistance 2, and those hopes have not been dashed.

A Resistance 2 teaser trailer is on its way this Friday, as confirmed in the below ad for GT:TV. In it we hope to see the first in-game footage of Insomniac’s upcoming shooter, since this developer rarely releases CG footage.

The trailer reveal adds to the increasing reliability of this leaked release schedule, which penned the Resistance 2 trailer for April 15th – which we’ll re-pen onto the relaunch of the Playstation Store – the 17th.

Wouldn’t you like to work at Insomniac Games? Their own Jack Black sings about working for the studio and why you should apply. Even though you might be distracted by the hilarious singing from the whole studio, there are some Resistance 2 Easter Eggs…

The first of which being “12 new Chimerian enemies”! Now that is a lot of new enemies to add to the franchise. Another exciting easter egg is the supposed date “0708″. Could Resistance 2 be coming out in July of this year? Or is this the date for a big Resistance 2 reveal? A public multiplayer beta? Or the demo?

To watch the guys sing and find out that they consume 2,600 muffins per year, along with less obvious Resistance 2 details, enjoy the video.

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Pleasing to the eye, these screenshots are looking very impressive, epic, and unlike its predecessor, actually quite colourful. Please click on the images to enlarge them.

First High-Res Resistance 2 Screenshots

7 Photos