Crimson Relic

How does AC: Revelations stack up against the other games in the series? Find out in my review.

          Where to begin? How about the beginning? So I pop this baby in and get treated to a pretty killer CG scene.  After playing for about 30 mins, I get through the introduction and into the city of Constantinople. Some things I notice right off is that they have changed the way your health bar looks, as well as the map. Also Eagle Vision(if you don't know what this is, play an AC game) has been mapped to the right analog button instead of Y or Triangle(depending on what console you're playing on) and that button is now how you use shooting weapons such as the throwing knives or hand gun.  Why the devs decided to change all this in the third part of the Ezio trilogy is beyond me, but I get accustomed to it anyway.

     I start playing the game proper and it's the usual AC stuff. New things that are added are a Hookblade to make traversing the buildings a little faster and allows you to utilize various "ziplines" around the city. Also, they added a bomb-making mechanic which was touted as having "hundreds of combinations" for different bombs. I'm sure this is true, but I only used a select few and not very often in the game at all. It was easier for me to just take out my enemies in all of the usual ways - Crossbow, Swords, Hidden Blade, Throwing Knives and Handgun.

Has Bungie made Halo multiplayer even better? Is it even possible? Yes...yes it is.

     After a solid 5-hour session last night with the Halo: Reach Beta, I just gotta say, wow this is fun!  Bungie is the king of multiplayer.  So far only two maps are available, Swordbase and Powerhouse. Both of these maps work well with all of the gametypes, which include Slayer, Covie Slayer, King of the Hill, Headhunter, Capture the Flag, Juggernaut, Oddball, S.W.A.T. and Stockpile. I really didn't think I was going to enjoy Headhunter(collect skulls and take them to goal areas) or Stockpile(collect flags and take them to goal areas), but they were surprisingly a blast to play!  Each map is littered with tons of cool weapons, many of them new. Powerhouse is well-rounded with open and close-quarter areas, plus multiple tiers. Speaking of multiple tiers, Swordbase has tiers like crazy. At first it's a bit confusing, but in no time you'll be taking the flag up the lift to the 2nd story for a nice shortcut.

     I don't know how to explain the feel of the game, except that it just feels tighter. You know how H2 felt "tighter" than H3? Well it seems to be back to that. The armor abilities are a blast and I love being able to pick a different load-out each time I spawn to respond to the current situation.  The new armor lock ability is cool. You become invincible and if you hold the button down long enough, you send out an EMP blast that disables shields.  There were many times last night I would be waiting for someone's armor lock to run out so I could blast them, only to have my shields blown away and the guy run up and melee me. Whenever I pick the ability to sprint, I'm loving it. Halo has needed some sprinting for a while, and while it's unfortunate that it is an armor ability instead of just a default move, it's still really cool. You jump further and smack harder when you are sprinting. The jetpacks are fun to use as well and in some gametypes seems almost necessary to get to where you need to be quickly. I tried flying up out of the level onto a ledge and despite Bungie saying you could leave the field of play, I was was stopped by the dreaded invisible walls. That would be the only minor gripe I have about it so far, which is nothing when outshone by the awesomeness of this game.

     More info to come as the Beta continues!

Who could have seen this coming?

     Early this morning, Halo developer Bungie announced on their website that they are entering into a 10-year partnership agreement with Publisher/Developer Activision.

"Today, we’re poised to open a new chapter in Bungie’s history—one that begins with a partnership between Bungie and Activision and ends where we always knew it would, with World Domination. Our Next Big Thing now has a concrete path, leading from our studio to the platforms of our choosing. The business formalities are behind us. Our Constitution remains unchanged. We are still Bungie, still independent, and now we are free to bring our stories to an ever bigger audience."

     Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard stated this about the partnership:

“Bungie is one of the premier studios in our industry and we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with their talented team over the next decade,” stated Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard. “Bungie has developed some of the most compelling and successful games, multiplayer experiences and thriving fan communities, and this alliance underscores our long-standing commitment to foster the industry’s best creative talent. Our unprecedented partnership with Bungie will enable us to broaden our pipeline of exciting new games as we continue to strengthen our industry position and pursue long-term growth opportunities.”

     With what happened between Activision and Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward earlier this month, it will be interesting to see just how freely Bungie will be able to create the games they want to make. I will be happy to see Bungie finally get to make a game other than Halo and also have the opportunity to make games on other consoles. This union will shape the future of what we see from Bungie after Halo: Reach later this year.

Devs of SSFIV tell us what balance changes have occurred for Cammy, Fei Long, Sakura, Rose, Gen and Dan!

Devs:

Hello everyone! This is Tsukamoto.

I got to go with producer Ono to an event in Hawaii! Sorry I got to kick back in a nice warm country. Even though the nice wide beach was right before me, with the pre-sale presentation overseas I didn't get to go... No, the most important thing is that everyone knows more about Super Street Fighter IV, so forget the beach, we gave it our all for SSFIV promos!

This week, together with the battle planner we'll be talking about the adjustments to Cammy, Fei Long, Sakura, Rose, Gen, and Dan!

Well then, first off tell us about the adjustments to Cammy.

A trailer has hit the internet that confirms the rumor that Marvel vs Capcom 3 is in production.

So here it is. We see Iron Man, The Hulk, Wolverine, Ryu, Morrigan and Chris Redfield. It's all just a scripted sequence, but right at the end we see the only snippet of actual gameplay as Ryu throws out a huge hadoken. Looks like the graphics are going to look a bit better than TvC, but not quite SFIV level.

This was the info that Capcom gave out to the public:

• The game is set for a spring 2011 release date on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

• Right now the development team is looking at having about 30 characters — or so — in the roster.

• Seth Killian said that fans can expect "a healthy dose of new blood" when it comes to fighter selection.

• It's a 3-on-3 tag team fighting game, players build their own squads and uses Assists as well. Very similar to MvC2.

• The title uses an advanced version of Capcom's MT Framework, which powered Resident Evil 5 and Lost Planet 2.

• MvC3 has aerial combos, hyper combos and other original gameplay systems.

• The game is officially titled Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds.

• The goal is to get 100 pieces of music in the game, that includes old favorites, new tracks and remixes. The 'Take You For A Ride' song won't be returning, at least, it's not planned right now.

• There are no plans for an arcade, PC or Wii version.

• The team behind this wants this game to have a strong storyline.

• Development started on MvC3 in the summer of 2008.