The Rumble Pack

It’s a final 2009 hurrah! Kaz, Justin and Nick have essentially tethered some tin cans together to bring you this very “special” mini-installment, so please pardon the sound quality. The guys are ringing in the new year with more Left 4 Dead 2. Justin is swinging his trusty cricket bat and Kaz has some slick strategies, but will that be enough to make it through a single campaign? The undead are the least of Kaz’s problems though, as GameStop may have it out for him and the rest of its “valued” customers. On a lighter note, Nick and Justin are having fun riding the toon-shaded rails in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Plus, a juvenile action trifecta, the LittleBigPlanet water update and some disturbing Steam stats.

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 Episode 118.5: Three Men and a Zombie [40:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For the past few weeks, we’ve been talking behind the scenes about our obligatory “Game of the Year” lists, sifting through all of 2009’s big games to let you know just how good hits like Uncharted 2 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii are. For those of you who are seated on the game industry hype train, I have a feeling that our choices will end up being pretty obvious. But a blog entry on the “Cincies” from Time’s James Poniewozik had me reconsidering my process just a bit.

While I’m a sucker for Triple-A production values and a polished engine, I think we would be better serving our readers if we also took the time to highlight games that took risks and didn’t quite succeed. Just as David Milch’s otherworldly surfer drama, “John from Cincinnati,” couldn’t quite stick its landing, there were many games this year with interesting concepts but questionable execution. The name of this award was inspired by my first entry on the list. Here it goes, in no particular order…

Scribblenauts: That this game worked at all is a near-miracle. This was the ultimate visual dictionary - any written noun would become an in-game object. If you could imagine it, the developers probably drew a sprite for it. But while you could call upon the forces of jet-packs, pterodactyls, vampires, God and black holes to help you solve the game’s many puzzles, none of them could save you from the game’s broken controls. And while it was cool that you could put out fires with water or electrocute sharks with a toaster, other logical incongruities killed the illusion. Read more

If you’re wondering why iTunes isn’t downloading your latest Rumble Pack fix tonight, don’t fret. We’re running a little bit behind schedule thanks to some post-Christmas responsibilities, but we’ll be back to normal next week. We’ll try to get a few blog updates up in the interim.

When Mega Man 10 was announced a couple weeks back, the Rumble Pack crew rejoiced. MM9 was such a huge success, both creatively and financially, that it made total sense to go back the retro style once more. But Capcom didn’t stop with just a new game announcement. Alongside the titular Blue Bomber and Proto Man stood Sheep Man, a wool-covered baddie who would look more at home in Harvest Moon if he didn’t have two lightning rods sticking out of his back.

Not that Magma Man and Concrete Man were particularly inspired, but at least they were threatening. This robotic farm animal seems like a throwback to oddballs like Search Man and Dust Man, and we’re curious to see if the other Robot Masters follow suit. While we wait though, we’ve decided to beat Capcom to the punch. After the jump, we’ve included five of our best barrel-scrapers, ready to charge into baaaaah-ttle with their sheepish brother. Read more

Season’s Greetings from The Rumble Pack! After an adrenaline-pumping intro that is sure to scare off any nearby pizza boys or wet bandits*, the guys open their Secret Santa presents. We’ve got plenty of hidden gems, hoopties and homoerotic tension to go around - and the holiday cheer doesn’t stop there! For the PC crowd, Kaz straps on his rocket boots and talks up the Team Fortress 2 mod community, and Tom hacks off a few more percentage points towards completion of Dragon Age: Origins. Plus, Justin sneaks into the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker demo, Tony cracks the DaMario code and Nick looks back fondly on the eldest Smash Brother.

*2010 New Year’s Resolution: less “Home Alone” references

 

 Episode 118: Ho Ho Hooptie [79:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For the first few hours of Assassin’s Creed II, Ezio Auditore da Firenze shares much in common with his fearless ancestor from the first game, Altaïr. Both hide retractable blades under their sleeves and scale incredibly steep architecture in order to track down their targets. Like Altaïr, Ezio becomes hellbent on revenge, taking down an ever-growing conspiracy in order to avenge his family and restore order to the world. But while the shrouded assassin from the Holy Land was a bit of a loner, his Italian cousin has charisma and wit to spare. And like Ezio, the second installment of Assassin’s Creed is more dynamic and exciting than the first.

Even within the first few missions of ACII, we get to really know Ezio - not the cunning swordsman or the stealthy assassin, but the loyal son and the carefree playboy. In other words, we’re introduced to the man under the hood long before he begins to wield his sword. Though much of the protagonist’s motivation is well-trodden territory, spending time with Ezio is much more enjoyable. He’s a swashbuckler that feels much more in line with the Sands of Time Prince of Persia. Read more

If you’re living in the New York City area and you enjoy 8-bit music (or our interview with Jeremy Kolosine from a few months back), you should do yourself a favor and head to The Bell House for the 2009 Blip Festival. For fans of the genre or classic game tunes, this is one of the biggest events of the year. The festival opened last night, but you can still purchase tickets for tonight and tomorrow here.

If you do attend, keep an eye out for the Gaijin Games team, the guys behind the Bit.trip WiiWare series. While I didn’t see them yesterday, supposedly they were working on an game inspired by the show that they’ll be releasing to the public. No clue if it will be in playable shape, but I admire the effort.

Though I wasn’t able to stay the entire evening - the last musician was supposed to go on around 1 a.m. - I was there long enough for “minusbaby” to blow away the audience with a 3D extravaganza. He literally passed out the old-school red/blue glasses before he performed. These guys are the best at what they do, and the audience was truly loving it. This awesome celebration gets the full Rumble endorsement, so take the train into Brooklyn and let us know about the experience on our message board later on.

Why do military shooters so consistently fail to deliver in the story department? Ever since I posted my Modern Warfare 2 review last week, I’ve been asking myself this question. War, as it has been depicted in literary classics such as “For Whom the Bell Tolls” or the incredible HBO television miniseries “Band of Brothers,” can be gut-wrenching and tragic, but at the same time, inspiring - battles are won, heroes emerge and tyrants fall. Developers have been mining these moments for dramatic gold for years, with sweeping orchestral scores and the bloodiest battlefields money can buy. But while I’m sure developers like Infinity Ward and EA Los Angeles are staffed with history buffs and guys who want nothing more than to pay proper homage to American troops, their games often feel soulless.

This is the goal…

There’s a severe disconnect to what game developers want to achieve - interactive “Saving Private Ryan” or “Black Hawk Down”- and what we actually get - sanitized shooting galleries in which progress is all about tactics and ammo conservation instead of ideals and sacrifice. Enemy combatants, from the Nazis all the way up to (mostly) Middle Eastern insurgents, have been caricatured to the point in which I just don’t care anymore why I’m fighting them. Read more

Welcome back to my little hovel of a weekly blog known as the World of Flash. So at the end of last week, I told you I was going to inform you about where to find these flash games in nature. Well, I lied. I know, I’m horrible. I’m a monster. Get over it. I only do this for you. The world of Flash games is a big and scary place, and I’m not ready to let go of you just yet. Instead, this week I’m going to take you on a journey to a small but really intriguing niche of Flash game, perspective-based puzzlers. There are only a handful of games that fill this genre, but what they do is so unique and interesting that I feel they warrant a little more attention. So open your mind and get ready to adapt a whole new point of view.

Coign of Vantage

Well, it takes a while to put a million pieces back together!

Made by two guys named Markus and Philipp based out of Vienna, Coign of Vantage has the player adjusting his or her mouse to line up pixels in such a way that a 2D image is formed. The twist is that the pixels are scattered in 3D space, and the only thing you can control is the camera. Did I mention the time limit? Time begins to count down from thirty seconds as soon as the first pixels appear. However, with each image you complete, you gain more time to complete further images. Still, as the clock winds down, your mouse starts flailing more and more as you try to find just where the hell you need to put the camera. What’s the goal? Points, baby, points! Finish as many as you can to earn the high score and gloat to your friends about your more worldly perspective. Or don’t and just enjoy the game and the soothing piano accompaniment. Read more

Perhaps it’s the string of amazing fall games to have hit consoles recently. Maybe it’s the lofty and often outspoken ambition of recent developers such as Quantum Dream’s David Cage or Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux to raise the bar in terms of thought-provoking, interactive entertainment. Or perhaps it’s a sign that my personal tastes are changing. Any way you look at it, I’m not too excited for Dante’s Inferno.

After playing the PS3 demo last weekend, it’s clear to me that EA has put a fair share of effort into their Q1-release brawler. First unveiled during last year’s VGAs, it’s hard to describe the graphics and play mechanics of DI as anything less than a God of War clone. Make no mistake - I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. It doesn’t hurt that the constant bone-crunching, blood-gushing action is aided by a silky smooth 60 fps. If you squint really hard, you’ll swear that Kratos has leaped his way into another fighting epic to take on as many demons as will quench his blood-lust. However, in a rare stroke of irony, although several games this year have suffered from a great-concept, poor-execution syndrome, EA’s first 2010 effort seems be exhibiting exactly the opposite problem - great execution, awful premise.

Look into my eyes…

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