Interview with the creators of pen-and-paper RPG Outbreak: Undead

It lives! Our interview with the creators of Outbreak: Undead! Please watch and you may learn a thing or two from these driven individuals who made their own game.

To learn more about the game go to their website and their Facebook page here. Enjoy!

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Multiplayer Beta Analysis

They're soldiers. In the future.

Another Tom Clancy game is upon us, my brothers and sisters. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is coming soon to a console near you, and if you've pre-ordered you might just be playing the multiplayer beta.

Those of you who are not playing it will be getting an analysis of what is being offered to us playing it. I have to say, right off the bat, that I am a little disappointed.

When you log in you only have access one multiplayer mode (with two variations of said mode) to play. The game shows you that there are other types of multipalyer, but you only get to try out the one mode in the beta. It's like seeing the dessert tray but only getting to choose chocolate or vanilla ice cream.

I have yet to actually be logged in to a successful version of anything but the Conflict mode of the game. The other is a Saboteur mode. Conflict is where the two teams compete to complete certain objectives on the map before the other team. Hold down a position, hack intel, that sort of thing. Saboteur is described as your standard demo mode where one team has a bomb and the other tries to stop it from detonating.

There are classes to choose from including Scout, Engineer, and Rifleman, which you can level up, and weapons are upgradable for each loadout. That is not what I am going to be talking about right now though - but it is really cool to be able to do that.

Futuristic cover-based combat.

I am going to be talking about the multiplayer mechanics as a whole and why they are really, really bad. I hope a lot of changes are made before the final release of the game, otherwise I will be sticking to the co-op modes and rarely ever setting foot in these.

Future Soldier focuses a lot on the "future" aspect of war. You have multiple ways of finding out where the other team is and using technology to your advantage. While I appreciate the occasional method of rewarding a team by showing them their enemy for a time, I feel there are way too many opportunities and methods of doing this.

You can throw sensor grenades to see if there are enemy soldiers there. You can stun an enemy soldier, hack his suit, and then see where his whole team is. You can even set up a tiny camera that will tell you when someone walks by it. Call of Duty rewarded you for doing a good job with this perk. In Ghost Recon, after you reach a certain level or have the gear, you can use it instantly and completely annihilate the other team.


I have been on both sides of this. I have seen my team crush another when we knew exactly where they were and ripped them apart. I have also seen five of my team get blown to bits by a single grenade because a sensor grenade showed them all holding a single position close together. It is a good mechanic, I just think it has the ability to be so overly used that it will become not as exciting as it is meant to be and a complete and total cheat.


This game is all about teamwork. If you don't have that, if you and your team are incapable of actually speaking to each other or knowing the basics of covering someone when they go to an objective, you are completely screwed. Just pack it in. Seriously.

Team up or get taken out.

Multiplayer here is not for the lone wolves. You will get hunted down and massacred that way. On the flip side, if you and your team can successfully coordinate your efforts you will do absolutely grand. 9 times out of 10 I have been on teams where I will go and try to complete an objective and will get shot from three different directions with my team nowhere near the target. However, the best games have been me trying to protect someone three other guys trying to complete the task at hand with a huge map-wide firefight occurring, which is incredible.


There is also a definite separation between characters who have very powerful weapons and those with low starter weapons. This is common in all shooters' multiplayer games that have a tiered weapon reward system. Ghost Recon just seems to be that the better the gun is, the less shots it takes to kill a person. Not to mention clothing upgrades and whatnot.


The absolute worst part of the game had to be the tactical spawning. This has been used in other games with widely varying degrees of success. Three times I spawned with a guy that was labeled "Out of Combat" and "Ready," and as soon as I spawned someone turned the corner and blew us away.


There is far too much going on in Ghost Recon to accurately assume it is safe for you to spawn with a teammate unless they are they are a few meters away from a spawn point or you know for a fact that the area is cleared. Otherwise, just stick to the spawn point.

It felt a little bit like mobile spawn camping. A sniper could, in theory, have someone in his sights and then see someone spawn behind that person and take both of them out. Or a person could see another player, wait for a person to spawn, and then shoot them for the double kill bonus. It's just a little ridiculous.


I'm saddened that Ubisoft didn't let us play any of the co-op modes in the beta, and equally saddened by the maddening meat-grinder that multiplayer seems to be. I will continue to play it as it is, and will test out the complete version when the game launches. Hopefully it will be better, but if it isn't that will definitely hurt the score.

Entire Uncharted series edited into feature-length films

The Uncharted games have always been some of the most cinematic experiences in gaming, but Reddit user Morphinapg has taken that idea to a new level by editing together feature-length film versions of each game in the series using cutscenes and carefully chosen gameplay sections to tell the stories in a completely non-interactive way.

"With these projects I was trying to make movies that would be viewable whether or not you had played the game, or even care about playing video games, so I wanted to make them as close to a real movie as possible," Morphinapg said in a post on Reddit.com.

It remains to be seen whether Naughty Dog or Sony Computer Entertainment condone this sort of manipulation and redistribution of their products, but as of posting, the videos are still up on Youtube.

You can watch "Uncharted 1: Drake's Fortune (The Movie)" above, and head over to Morphinapg's Youtube channel to see the rest of the series.

Dishonored Game Update

It's a long trailer but it's a fascinating one to say the least. Dishonored has finally shown its face in the trailer universe and we have gotten our first glimpse into a world where Bethesda has seemingly melded Victorian England and some City 17 from Half-Life 2. That's not very surprising as Viktor Antonov, the art director of Half-Life 2, is actually working on the game.

Here's how Bethesda describes Dishonored on the game's website:

"You are the once-trusted bodyguard of the beloved Empress. Framed for her murder, you become an infamous assassin, known only by the disturbing mask that has become your calling card. In a time of uncertainty, when the city is being besieged by plague and ruled by an oppressive government armed with neo-industrial technologies, dark forces conspire to bestow upon you, abilities beyond those of any common man – but at what cost? The truth behind your betrayal is as murky as the waters surrounding the city, and the life you once had is gone forever"

So you're an assassin, trying to get revenge for being wrongfully accused. Nothing special when it comes to story but I think the game really shines in the setting and gameplay. There seems to be a magic element and tech element to the game for you to combine and mix and match to get the kill of your dreams.

A first-person-techno-mystic-Assassin's Creed? Sounds like fun in theory but we'll wait for more to come out to pass further judgement. Bethesda is known for they're impressive open-world games and conversation heavy storylines, so it will also be interesting to see how that translates to what appears to be a very straightforward story.


As more is released, we'll get on top of it! Check back for more!

Medal of Honor Warfighter Update

So this is happening. As the time draws nearer and nearer and more information is released, Medal of Honor Warfighter is on the horizon with videos and trailers galore that you can see on their site as well as their YouTube channel.


That being said, we're going to take a look at the game and what's been shown so far:



The trailers have shown a marked improvement in graphics that are similar to that of Battlefield 3 which came out recently. One almost wonders why they would even be doing Medal of Honor anymore with it's less than stellar success a couple of years back.


Since EA is involved in both properties, it almost feels like the company is pitting two siblings against each other in some sadistic Hunger Games situation. Somehow both keep surviving despite one having better sales than the other.


Let's take a look at the gameplay trailer now:

Oh, what's that? Fighting all over the world as different teams representing the different nations? We just saw this in Modern Warfare 3 didn't we? Yeah, we did. Okay, I'll give them some slack. Making a fighting game not entirely about the U.S. is good because we're all a little sick of that. I love 'Merica as much as the next man, but we're not the only country that gets attacked and that things happen in.


Looking at the game in a different perspective, this is a good turn for the franchise. The graphics look better, but we haven't seen much actual gameplay yet and no hands on yet either. Hopefully at E3 we'll be able to get something to you and really give some good input.


As it stands right now, what we're seeing isn't anything new, but it's nice to see that Medal of Honor is giving it the old college try.

Sniper Elite V2 Demo Impressions

Do you like sniping things? How about WWII? Of course you do. What if the two of those things are blended together? Whoa now, don't get too excited! Let me tell you about a little game called Sniper Elite V2 coming out May 2012.

Premise: You are a sniper, in World War 2. Go. No, but in all seriousness it's a demo out on the XBLA so there isn't much setup for you other than you're an American in what I can only assume is France and you're sniping Nazis to get to your target at the end of the demo. The target, of course, is a Nazi scientist that you have to kill. Bada bing bada boom. Easy peasy.



Think Splinter Cell wrapped in Call of Duty 2. You remember that one? The one set in WWII? Yeah, no one remembers that one. The mechanics in this game are fairly simple, cover system, 3rd-person over-the-shoulder camera. You have binoculars to mark targets in the field and a scope on your rifle to zoom.

What I was impressed with was the physics element of the game. Depending on the level of difficulty you choose, the game becomes more and more realistic. The most minimal physics the game throws at you is gravity. You have to compensate for the bullet's drop over time and distance. Hardest difficulty? You have to account for the wind and gravity. I mean, the game comes at you HARD when you fight with those two conditions on.

Something fun is that you can turn the enemy AI down so it's not on the hardest mode, but the physics difficulty up to max so you can have semi-dumb enemies in your physically realistic simulation. But the enemies are hit and miss with their AI anyway. You shoot one guy who is maybe 50 meters away from a group, and they do nothing. You shoot one guy 30m away and they go berserk.

I think what the game devs were trying to do is make sight and sound important. That being said, if I heard a sniper shot within a block radius, I'd duck and cover and start shouting. There is a lot of shelling and gunfire in the background so I suppose the devs are saying that "it's really loud out there and they can't place the sounds," and that would work if it just wasn't based off of distance from the last person shot.

I guess what I'm saying is that the AI is a little sound-depth-deaf. What is fun though is that you can mess with the soldiers by throwing rocks and making them investigate that sound, but not the rife shot that blew one of their comrade's head to pieces.

The idea of trying to manipulate the enemies and sneak around them or get them into your line of sight is actually a really genius idea. Unfortunately, the mechanic doesn't really work well in the demo.

Really though you can pretty much avoid the enemies and find a good place to snipe from at all times. It's just a matter of thinking about it. For those of you who are good at shooting and hitting the vitals on your Nazis, you're rewarded with an x-ray slow motion shot of where the bullet exactly goes into the hapless soldier. After the fifteenth time that this happens you begin to get jaded by it but it is still fun to watch.

This is the attempt to make the game feel really action packed when it's more suspenseful than anything. The constant breaks in action to follow the bullet to its home is sometimes tedious but honestly, who doesn't love seeing bones shatter and organs rip apart as a bullet slashes through them? The demo alone becomes a sort of morbid guilty pleasure.

The graphics are close to the new Mortal Kombat but the textures and body physics leave something to be desired. It is a war zone so the color palate isn't too diverse, but after a while the entire map begins to blend together. However those with good eyesight are rewarded by spotting enemies far away or lying down trying to counter-snipe you.

Weapons? Your trusty rifle, a small assault weapon (in the demo a Thompson or the looted MG from the Nazis) and a silenced pistol. You don't get to carry a lot of ammo for anything other than the rifle, so the game really does try to make you snipe than stand up and shoot. Though through your journey you will pick up mines and dynamite and grenades and the like to ambush, which is extremely satisfying to watch as people run over explosives to avoid your gunfire.

Based off the demo, I'm extremely hooked. I will definitely be reviewing the full version of this game. What concerns me most is that I think what I'm seeing in the demo is the whole game. Of course there will be a story and such and there is multiplayer mentioned as well, but I really feel like I've got the single-player down cold. Keep your eyes on the Vault for the full review when it comes out in May!

Open for Discussion: Freeflow Combat

Thinking of a fighting mechanic for your game? Why not freeflow combat? Check out this discussion video of John and Parker dissecting freeflow combat and what it does for a game!

The Next Console War

(This article can also be found on the site Talk Nerdy to Me Lover.)

So I’m not sure how I feel about the new consoles looming on the horizon. Of course at this point everyone knows about the Wii U and its imminent release, and then there are the new Xbox and Sony systems that have begun to surface like sharks in bloodied water. Oh yeah, I just compared them to giant sea predators, because really, that’s what they are. Why do I feel that way? Because from what I have seen, this is what happens in the industry:

Nintendo makes a system, let’s call it the Nintendo Revolution (get it?). It has a revolutionary new peripheral and game mechanic, so revolutionary in fact that it gets a lot of people to want it. Microsoft and Sony, with their systems that have very fancy games and huge names in development, see the gimmick. They make new systems with better graphics and hardware, including a way to perfect on the new thing that Nintendo has done. And repeat.

Don’t think I’m right? Well that’s okay, let’s look at some of the history. The Wii comes out and about a year or so later, Microsoft Kinect and Playstation Move are announced. While that’s happening, Nintendo continues work on their handhelds and owns that department in the industry.

 

While the Kinect and Move are released and do moderately well because the gimmick has died but their systems work better than the Wii’s, Nintendo has announced a 3D version of their already prosperous handheld. Microsoft, owning the computer gaming market, does nothing. But Sony, feels threatened as it is now losing both the consoles and the handheld, and begins making the PS Vita.

While Nintendo is riding off the sales of their handheld, they announce the Wii U. And good lord does that cause a buzz. And now we’re caught up ladies and germs.

I feel like the industry is running out of ideas, sometimes. Our systems are all the same now: great graphics, good hardware, just different company. This whole last year felt like “The Year of Continuation.” Sequel after threequel after prequel. It was almost as if there really wasn’t enough original games coming out and if they were they weren’t brought to light or couldn’t outshine the obvious mainstream titles.

I’m a fan of a lot of the games that came out this past year. I mean, I’m not saying that it’s bad to continue stories or for franchises to continue, but it definitely makes the ice cream bar seem filled with quite a lot of vanilla. That’s why I was so excited for the Kickstarter projects that were successful and what that might mean for the industry and indie game developers.

Of course this doesn’t mean that Kickstarter will save the industry. Absolutely not. What I think is that we need more companies like the ones that made Little Big Planet and Limbo to come into their own and have room to play. We need more ideas in this industry, more risks need to be taken, and people’s minds need to be open.

This is an industry of creativity, of imagination! We should be using that at all times to make things that are new and exciting all the time! Just because the words “new” and “imagination” are used, that doesn’t mean that you just update the graphics. I love lifelike graphics or stylized graphics. I love them. But if the game is crap, it won’t save it for me. Any of the Call of Duty games could have had the graphics from Call of Duty 2 if their gameplay was improved each time.

I know people will disagree with me. People love seeing better graphics each time and if the game ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s a common idea and if you like that, then that works for you. But this is a consumer market and because of that, you have to realize that not everyone will be happy with the same old in a different package.

I love the products that are coming out. They’re fun, but this formula can’t stay. The industry will suffer if something new doesn’t come out. And new does not mean more motion controls or 3D. I mean, changes in gameplay, changes in franchises, new ideas, new everything. Let’s give this industry a cleansing, people. I think it’s time to call the doctor in.

-@JohnSollitto

Industry Interview with Nao Higo of Ubisoft

So, we went to Ubisoft when we were making our Rocksmith experiment with the burning questions you submitted to us, and Nao Higo, one of the producers of the game, was kind enough to talk to us about the experiment and working on the game! And he was even kinder by letting us know some very important information about an upcoming expansion! Hankering to learn bass guitar though? NEVER FEAR! Higo confirmed that it is true that Ubisoft is indeed making a bass guitar portion for the game so look out for that in the future!

When we asked Higo what he thought of the experiment itself, he said, "I thought it was really great! In terms of you guys really taking the time and trying to do it as scientific as you can achieve with the people that you have available...I thought that was a great thing."

Nao Higo himself!

So not only was I feeling really good about our team, I felt even better that one of the professionals behind this game even said that he liked our experiment. Well done, GCV, well done. But enough of that! Let's get down to the nitty gritty.

We began to talk about the game itself, and really what the goal was behind making a game like this that was so outside the realm of Ubisoft's usual fare.

"I think the key thing that really started it off is that our president here in the San Francisco office, Laurent Detoc, he is actually a guitarist," said Higo. "But he's really into games with benefits. So games that actually have something you can take away from the game...So when he came across this piece of technology made by the guys over at GameTank, he was really excited about it when he first saw it."

GameTank, as you can already guess, is the company that developed the software the Ubisoft utilized in Rocksmith. GameTank is now a part of Ubisoft, as Rolling Stone explains in their article about the development of the game.

"But then when the project came around our way...we said 'Okay, well, where are we going to take this game and what are we going to do with it? Is it going to be a hardcore guitar game...or are we going to try and make it a guitar game for everyone?' I think the reason why we picked our approach was simply because Paul [Paul Cross - Creative director for the game] and I didn't know how to play the guitar whatsoever. I hadn't even held a guitar in my hands till getting involved in this project." Higo explained.

So the team was now faced with the challenge of getting guys like Higo and Cross to play the guitar and what it would take to get that done, shaking the screen and the audience sometimes booing. The first barrier they had to get over was getting the player comfortable with just "making noise" Higo talked about how other music games let you know when you get things wrong right away. The biggest fear of musicians is making a fool of themselves when they screw up, and the team had to find a way to make sure the player didn't fall into the trap while learning.

As far as the music is concerned, we noticed and you can too if you research the game and the set list, that there is a broad range of types of artists and guitarists. It felt like the creators were trying to reach every kind of taste with the game. 

"We actually wanted to cover a range of genres and relative difficulty of playing so that people who are newbies at playing the guitar can have songs that are immensely fun for beginners to play while we offer songs that are for people who are familiar with playing the guitar...there's still enough of a challenge," Higo said.

While other games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero sold well in America, Ubisoft noticed that their foreign sales and feedback were lacking as the markets there felt the songs were a little too "US centric." 

Higo went on to explain that "We looked at some of the competing products out on the market as far as rhythm games and what they've done as far as their music lineup, and we thought about it from a worldwide appeal standpoint."

Switching gears for a second,  I want to ask you a question: Did you see a lot of advertisement for Rocksmith about? No? Well, neither did I. I assumed it was because the game itself required, a system and an actual electric guitar. The amount of gamers that have something as expensive as an instrument is probably not as high as you think, so that being said, mass advertising might have reached people who didn't really understand that they needed a real guitar to play it.

What's scary was that I was right. Higo explained that they didn't want people to feel robbed by the game if they bought it and didn't have all the necessary equipment needed to enjoy it. So from their first press announcement, they tried to get the message across that you needed a real guitar. If you saw that announcement, you would have seen a bunch of people just plugging in electric guitars to systems and jamming away, no game screen, no gameplay, nothing but people with actual instruments.

And now, something for you educational buffs. I asked about the decisions in regards to what notes and information to give the player as the difficulty increased, and Higo said that they had a team of people breaking down each song and the technique challenges working on the game. So, naturally, they went to that team and their teaching experience to help make the decisions on where the player would be in learning a song and how they would teach the player.

Playing video games and guitar at the same time. For science.

Higo also talked about how they've seen people progress much further by playing the other songs the game recommends and the technique challenges along with specific songs. We have to agree with him because if we hadn't done the technique challenges we wouldn't have gotten as far as we did with the game.

After we stopped joking about "introducing the pinky" when you play, I asked Higo what one of the biggest challenges was when working on the game.

"From a development standpoint I think the biggest challenge was trying to convey all the necessary information to the player in a way where it's still coherent, in a way that people can still process." With all that is being thrown at the player, Ubisoft didn't want to clutter the screen with information or make the player feel overwhelmed when looking at the screen. So, of course, the decision was to make the game as streamlined as possible for the player's benefit.

One of the things that they didn't expect while working on the project was having to build a game with such a small team as the project itself was a gamble. Higo talked about how they couldn't ramp up the team size and had to take their time with production because they didn't know how the game would go over. Every day was a new challenge that they overcame.

Well there you have it folks! We're so thankful to Nao Higo and his team for making this game and for taking the time to talk to us. 

The videos detailing out experiment with Rocksmith can be viewed right here:

Rocksmith Experiment: Week 1 -


Rocksmith Experiment: Week 2 -

Rock on Vault fans!

Gaming Cliches Through the Ages

How many castles do you people have?

We've all encountered them at least a few times throughout our adventures in the myriad digital worlds we explore on a daily basis, and there are certainly many more than we could list here, but this is a list compiled by Jesus of his (least?) favorite cliches in video games.

1) Press Start to start!
Just started up that new game, huh? Well, after seeing who made this game, you get to see the logo of the game just in case you forgot what you were playing! Now that your reminded of what you're doing, you'll probably wanna play! Just push Start to....erm...start!

2) Push any button to start!
Can't figure out how to push Start? Well, sometimes you don't have to follow the rules and any button works fine even when it says to push start! Oh, mass effect 3 tells me to push start? I'll be a Renegade and push A, and it still let's me play! Renegade for Life!

3) The princess is in another castle!
Just beat that level or mission huh? Expecting to find your prize waiting for you? Nope! Someone has moved that item or person to another location! Wanna guess who? The game developers. That's who! Possibly in an effort to increase the amount of gameplay and frustration. Feel free to chuck your controllers at the wall.

It'll cure what ails you.

4) The good ol' health bar!
You got about this much [++++___] health left. So, unless you find a health pack, food, or some sort of thing with a big red + on it, your gonna take a dirt nap pretty damn soon!

5) Regenerating health!
Because before you joined the military, you were apparently injected with Wolverine's mutant DNA, gaining his healing abilities! Go get that terrorist, son!

6) Double Jump!
Jump! Then Jump again! Simple right? Never mind the fact that you just defied the laws of gravity. At least you got up to where you need to go.

7) Floating Items!
Speaking of defying gravity, why in the hell is that Wumpa Fruit just floating in the air? Even more importantly, is it safe to eat? Oh, who cares. *Nom Nom*

8) Invisible Walls!
I wonder what's on that hill just over ther.....OW! My nose! What the hell?! I can't seem to move any further in this direction, but there's nothing in my way and no viable way of stopping me! I call shenanigans!

9) Jog in Place!
Eventually you'll hit that wall but you'll continue to run in place. Hey, even heroes need to work out sometimes ya know?

10) No Lifeguard on Duty!
Died when you touched the water, huh? Stupid fool! Don't you know you can't swim until the sequel? Unless you're Cole from Infamous. Sorry, man.

11) Nice Assets!

Nathan Drake ain't got nothing on her.

Game developers sometimes like to exaggerate when it comes to character models. Female characters shown off in tight clothing with ample bosoms have been a gaming staple for years. Prime example: Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series.

12) Mini-games!
Because running around and jumping will tire you out fast. Why don't you take a break and play a quick game of cards!

13) The Strong, Silent type!
For some unexplained reason the hero doesn't talk. Even after a giant dragon has just dropped right in front of him and is ready to kill. Either he just crapped his pants or the voice module on his helmet won't work. Either way, he really livens up a party.

14) Awesome Trailer! Crappy Game!
Oh, wow! That game looks so epic! I must have it! A couple weeks later you're selling it for $5. Can you smell the disappointment?

15) In-Game Generosity!
Oh look, some ammo! Oh look, more ammo! Oh, even more ammo! Gasp! Some herbs and health packets! And a save point! Hot damn it's my lucky day! I'm pretty much set for the rest of the game! *walks into next room with giant snake boss*
Aw crap I knew it was too good to be true.

Feel free to comment with your own gaming cliches in the comments and we will compile them into a user-generated list.

Kid Icarus: Uprising Review

It's been an outstanding 25 years since the original Kid Icarus came out on the NES and fans have been longing for a true heir to the throne. I'm proud to say that Kid Icarus: Uprising takes on the legacy very well.

The story revolves around the main character, an angel named Pit, fighting off Medusa and her hordes of underworld minions. It takes place 25 years after the original game to humor the fact that so much time has passed between the two games, and that same 4th-wall breaking humor can be found throughout the game, which makes it more enjoyable. The story has some interesting twists and turns and just when you think it's over, it turns out its not! The saying "it's not over until the credits roll" does not apply to this game. The story runs for a good 10 hours, which is great for a handheld game and you'll enjoy every minute of it.

Air Assault mode lets players take to the skies for a few minutes.

The gameplay has changed considerably since the NES days. The original was a mixture of Metroid and Super Mario, while Uprising is more of a Star Fox-style space shooter combined with a third-person  shoot'em up.

 Every chapter is broken up into two sections - the first being an "Air Assault" in which Pit takes to the skies and fights the underworld horde. Pit, sadly, can't fly by himself and requires goddess Palutena to grant him the power of flight. The power of flight only lasts 5 minutes before Pits wings burn up so at most your flying around for five minutes. As mentioned before, the Air Assault parts play out like a Star Fox game in which players are on rails shooting anything that moves. This is the more fun part of the game and hooks you in - and the 3D helps a lot. The shoot'em up parts are fun, but can be a bit strenuous. The later levels drag on and can get annoying, but, overall, you'll still have a hell of a time.

The controls are the biggest gripe. The game comes packaged with a stand that can be used to prop up the 3DS to help feel more comfortable while playing it, but I haven't used it. The control breakdown is like this: the thumb stick is used for movement and the shoulder buttons are used to fire. Simple yes? But to aim you have to use the touch screen, and that's where it can hurt. Supporting the system without the stand and playing can lead to some serious arm/wrist strain. The game even warns you after two levels to take a break. You'd think that the developers would have found a different control scheme to help save the pain instead of adding a stand to the game.

The soundtrack to the game is damn good and has the player feeling incredibly immersed. The epic space battles feel like something straight out of Star Wars, and I'll be damned if that ain't adding to it. The environments are gorgeous and are always different from the ones before. Levels vary from outer space to ancient Grecian-inspired locals. There are also many different types of weapons and powers to acquire. Each weapon/power has its own feel and style, so different players can be happy with there own style of play. All these little things add up to a carefully constructed game for players.

Multiplayer allows players to duke it out against rival angels.

There is multiplayer too, but it is forgettable. There's only two multiplayer modes: free for all, which is pretty self explanatory, and a "Light VS Dark" mode which is basically team deathmatch in which the two teams have a health bar that whittles down until its empty. After depleting the enemy team's bar,  the last player on the winning team to die is turned into his team's angel - either Pit or Dark Pit (Pittoo if you play the game) - and then the match shifts into a assassination-type game in which the lead angel must be taken out to win. Fun, but, like I said, forgettable.

Kid Icarus: Uprising is an amazing game and strong recommendation for any 3DS player. This feels like a strong rebirth in what could be an amazing series if Nintendo chooses to explore the franchise further. The only things that really needs to be worked on are the controls. I just want a game that doesn't cause me physical pain when I play it. We at the Vault give Kid Icarus: Uprising get an 8/10. A damn near perfect game, but hurtful controls and forgettable multiplayer hurt the overall score.

Open for Discussion: Downloadable Games

With the demand for digital versions of games now at a record high, Parker and Anders discuss their feelings about downloadable games. How do you feel about the Live Marketplace and the PSN Store? Do you like them? Do you miss physical copies of games? Tell us what you think!

Open for Discussion: Free-to-Play Games

How do you feel about free-to-play games? With so many massively multiplayer online (MMO) and browser-based games coming out, we think this question is definitely relevant to today's gaming industry. Tell us what you think after watching this Open for Discussion video!

Obsidian and Wayside Creations Interview

Do you like Fallout? How about Fallout: New Vegas? If you said yes, then take some time and look at this two-part video interview we did with the creators of the fan-made webseries Nuka Break and some big names like Chris Avellone and Tim Cain. John talks about developers working with fans and how they feel about their works in the hands of the consumers while Mark delves into the creative process of making a game as well as a series. Part 1 is above and Part 2 is below! Come watch and let us know what you think!

Videojuegos y Consolas On Air – Dossier MegaDrive, Debate PS Vita VS Nintendo 3DS.

No te pierdas el último Podcast de VyC On Air en el que podrás disfrutar de grandes temas de la actualidad como un debate sobre PS Vita VS Nintendo 3DS así como un Dossier especial sobre nuestra querida MegaDrive.

¡Un abrazo y échense un vicio!

PODCAST VYC ON AIR 01x03