We have a very clear memory of watching the video we've linked to during Captivate 08 and wishing only that we could bring it to you, the masses. Why? Well, for starters, it's lifted from Street Fighter IV, which we hear you, the masses, are pretty excited about. Second? It's absolutely gorgeous. Today we're able to share the clip with you, so you may now "feel the drama," as they say, between Ryu and Akuma.
What's better is that we heard that the home version of the game would be chock-full of anime clips like these, one for each character, which may be enough to pique the interest of even the non-fighting faithful.
Christopher is off the grid this week, so you're going to have to put up with young Griffin McElroy in his stead. Luckily, we've got plenty of entertainment in store with impressions and hands-ons of Bionic Commando, Resident Evil 5, Dark Void and a lot more. We also receive some of our best emails ever.
Oh, and we would be remiss if we didn't thank the JPAG's Wesley Johnson for his incredible photochoppin' work this week.
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Interested to see all the eye candy that came from Capcom's Captivate 08 event? From jet packs, zombies and bionic arms to Neopets and banjo-playing fish-cyborgs, check out all the new screenshots below (also after the break):
First off, let us congratulate you for making it past the headline. We know that it takes a pretty special sort of person to read on in the face of a title like Neopets Puzzle Adventure, but believe us when we say that you will be rewarded for your perseverance.
As you may already know, NPA is the non-Galactrix follow-up to Puzzle Quest: Something Something Warlords by Australian developer Infinite Interactive. And even though the setting may not be our cup of tea, the game itself looks to be equally addictive.
We didn't learn much about Bionic Commando's multiplayer modes at last week's Captivate 08 event, aside from the fact that you can expect deathmatches, capture the flag and some other modes that more specifically take advantage of the game's verticality. Also, there's extensive stat tracking through something called "The Swingers' Club."
In fact, pretty much everything we know can be encapsulated in this trailer, which actually makes swing-filled deathmatches look kind of fun, even though it sounds like a total clusteryuck. What say you?
"Most of the stuff on the Wii is ports or micro-game stuff and I think most gamers are getting pretty sick of it. I don't want to mince words: We actually wanted to make a game."
It was with those fightin' words that Bionic Games designer Mike Stout started his Captivate 08 presentation of Spyborgsin Las Vegas this week. Though we've seen a couple of early stages and the same debut trailer as you, we're still not sure if the game's living up to the gauntlet being thrown down.
We've got a Street Fighter IV media dump from Captivate 08 and it's coming in two delicious flavors. For those who like your promotional materials a little bit artier, we've got the above trailer featuring a battle between Guile and Abel captured in moving, painted sand.
If you like things to be a bit more "you are there," we've got some shaky-cam videos of real people really playing real SF IV cabinets just after the break. Check both of them totally out.
Tell you what: Let's just pretend you all know that this is an updated version of the classic Bionic Commando, the latest salvo in Capcom's continuing effort to reach out to the North American audience. Let's just skip all of that and skip to what you want to hear: Let's talk about swinging.
It's the first thing we were introduced to in our time with the game, so it feels right to get it out of the way first. So how is it? Fun. Really, really fun. There's a great sense of speed and it makes wandering through the desolate and dynamic Ascension City a real joy.
But that glowing praise comes with a caveat: It's also not easy. In fact, we didn't feel like we really "got it" until about 20 minutes in. Some of the difficulty is derived from the amount of control you have. You have to know what you're swinging from, unlike in the Spider-Man series (the closest swinging competitor) where your webs will automatically find the nearest surface. No, you have to aim your arm. But once you get it, it's really satisfying.
Sadly for everyone attending, Resident Evil 5 wasn't able to be played by commoners at Capcom's Captivate 08 event, but we were some of the first on the globe to see a playable version, so we're not complaining.
After showing a new trailer for the game, Jun Takeuchi began walking us through one of the early stages, the African village you've likely become familiar with in recent months. We're told that it's four times larger than Resident Evil 4's starting town, and we can believe it. You can see almost to the edge of the town -- it's sprawling, decrepit and totally imposing. We were impressed that the team has managed to create an environment that's frightening, even without the dark creepiness of earlier games in the series.
There was a lot of excitement around the booths at Captivate 08, but you could tell there was something different about Dark Void. It was the one game you could bring up and everyone present was quick to agree: They wanted to play it. Like, now. What could engender this sort of enthusiasm? Read on.
You've probably picked up a few nuggets about the game already, in spite of its criminally forgettable title. It's developed by Airtight Games, made up of some of the team who brought you Crimson Skies. If your memory still hasn't been jogged: It's the one with the jet pack.
It's that pack that is the key to the game's appeal, but it's far from a one-trick pony. More than a gimmick, the jet pack is a prism through which Airtight has looked through and found a new way of seeing the third-person action game.
We were hopeful that we'd see Capcom's new jet-packed shooter Dark Void sooner rather than later, but those hopes were dashed last week at Captivate 08 when we learned that the game was still "about a year" from completion.
It was a surprise because it was being shown so early, but mainly because of how darn good it looked. If you're as hungry for Dark Void as we are, check back later in the day for our impressions of the demo we saw.
Like all thinking people, we're anxiously awaiting the release of Resident Evil 5, if only to learn more of the back story of coat-opening shop guy. Though we don't know when we'll finally get our hands on it, after last week's Captivate 08, we at least know that things are progressing.
"Right now, in the development process we're about 60 percent of the way through," producer Jun Takeuchi said through a translator. "We're figuring that the total play time in the game will be over 20 hours. As you can probably see from the trailer there's a lot of different content and materials in the game for you to enjoy." How's that 60 percent looking? Look for our impressions later in the day.
Considering how beloved Crimson Skies' multiplayer was and how much of that team made the leap to Airtight Games and Dark Void, you'd think multiplayer in that game would be a total lock. Not so, as we learned at last week's Capcom event, Captivate 08.
"We explored it, but there are so many huge features in this game, we really wanted to focus on making the most kick-ass, single-player features possible," said Capcom US director of design, Kraig Kujawa. As designer Jose Perez told us later, it was no easy choice.
"We had multiplayer up and going, it was fun, and to be honest, we just could tell we weren't going to be able to make the multiplayer game the way we wanted and the single-player game the way we wanted, so it was a really hard decision," Perez said. "For this version, we have a million innovative things that we're doing that haven't been done before and we have to get those right in the single-player experience."
So, will single player be enough to satisfy you? Check back in later in the day for our Dark Void impressions and judge for yourself.
In the midst of promoting returning favorites like Resident Evil, Bionic Commando and Street Fighter, Capcom also took a little time for some new properties during last week's Captivate 08 event in Las Vegas. Perhaps the biggest unveiled was Spyborgs, a Wii-exclusive title coming in 2009.
The action title is being created by Bionic Games, an offshoot of sorts of High Impact Games that's chock-full of former Insomniac staffers, and helmed by Mike Stout, Lead Multiplayer Designer for Resistance: Fall of Man. It's early days yet, but what we've seen looks like a sci-fi brawler crossed with an episode of Ren and Stimpy. If that makes zero sense to you (and why should it?), you may just want to come back for our impressions later today.
So, let's say you're a company called Infinite Interactive. You're riding on a wave a fanboy love for your brilliant game Puzzle Quest: Forgettable Fantasy Subtitle, and you need two projects to follow it up. How do you do it? Well, you could go with a sci-fi re-imagining of the series, but what else? ... What's that, peanut gallery? Did we hear "a game based on Neopets"? ... No? Well, tough noogies, because that's what you're getting during this year's holiday season on DS, Wii and PC.
You know the scariest thing? We played Neopets Puzzle Adventure at Capcom's Captivate 08 in Las Vegas last week -- and we liked it. Like, a lot. Check back for our hands-on preview later today and understand the full extent of our shame.
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