Plane Weaver Walkthrough Video

What? You haven't tried Plane Weaver yet? Er... well, my review is coming tomorrow, but I thought I'd post the walkthrough for this PAX 10 winner first, as the game can be a bit tricky in a few spots. Anyway, the game is a really cool platformer with puzzle and adventure elements, excellent graphics and sound all done by a small group of Danish students in a month. Go download it (click on the link above - it's free and only around 66MB), install and play it and when you get stuck (it'll happen eventually), watch this video and thank me later.

Yes, this does indeed contains spoilers (well, it IS a video of someone playing the game!).

Review: Plane Weaver

Platform: Windows PC

Developer: Blue Coral Studio

Publisher: DADIU

# of Players: 1

Official Site

ESRB Rating: None

Score: A-

Developed in one month (!) by a team of eleven students at The Danish Academy of Digital & Interactive Entertainment (DADIU), Plane Weaver is a marvelous mix of 3D platforming and puzzle elements that come off as more fresh and innovative than much of what constitutes "Game of the Year" material on consoles and PC. While it's not a supremely lengthy experience, it's visually striking, nicely challenging and genuinely rewarding as you're pulled into some excellently designed levels. The game lightly echoes elements of sleeper hits such as ICO and the upcoming Lost in Shadow, yet never feels too derivative or under-polished. At only 66MB and a free download (for now), it's an absolute must for anyone who craves originality and creativity in their games.

Test Drive Unlimited 2 Gallery: Atari & Eden Want To Keep You Indoors For A While...

If you've never had the chance to play the original Test Drive Unlimited on the Xbox 360*, you missed out on one of the more addictive pure driving games on current generation consoles. While you could in tons of events in offline or through the innovative M.O.O.R. (Massively Open Online Racing) system, the real thrill (for me at least) came in hitting the road in any car and just driving around Oahu for hours. Uncovering every inch of highway for one of the tougher Achievements was a blast and it was pretty cool to see lots of people played the game in the same way. With Test Drive Unlimited 2 hitting PS3, PC and Xbox 360 on February 8, 2011, here's a look at some of Eden Games' nicely rendered cars from a few angles. I'll add older screens to this gallery sometime next week.

TDU2 takes place in Ibiza and an upgraded version of Oahu from the first game (accessible once you've "leveled" enough), so it's going to be a must-play for me, as I'm insanely curious to see what's new, what's changed and how well the overall game experience has turned out.

Didn't Get The Game You Want? Grab Tyrian 2000 For FREE From GOG.com!

GOG.com is one of the greatest gamer gift-giving websites currently operating today thanks to their love for the PC classics and the means to get them up and running for sale as single or multiple pack deals at incredible prices. Part of their holiday promotion is releasing Tyrian 2000 (one of the best vertical scrolling arcade shooters ever made, I'd say) for FREE to any and all who have gog.com accounts (which are also FREE). All you need to do is drop on by, sign up and BOOM, the game is yours. the download is a tiny 10MB and you can also grab the soundtrack separately (an extra 128MB on your hard drive). I'm guessing that sound I hear is the gog.com servers collapsing thanks to the traffic I just sent there... or maybe not.

Hmmm... might have been Santa hitting the side of a building (oops)...

Random Holiday Greetings Roundup

Here's a few more of the e-cards or holiday-themed images that have ended up in my inbox (I don't drive, but thanks, Maserati!). I need to poke around and see what's ended up in the spam folder, as on occasion, a card or three turns up there as well. Click on that amusingly rustic card from CDProjeckt Red's The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for a trip to its pre-order page, as there's a rather spectacular bonus-packed deal on the upcoming title that's very hard to refuse. For some wonky reason, I can't even see the digital card Atlus USA sent out, but I'll try to upload and post it later.

Tecmo Koei's Q1 2011 Lineup: A Cast of Thousands In Three Games (Plus Two 3DS Titles)

Tecmo Koei is getting an early start on 2011 by announcing three upcoming console games for the first quarter of next year as well as two 3DS exclusives with release dates and more info on the portable games to be announced shortly - (at or around CES, I'm guessing). Here's what's on the way:

Trinity: Souls of Zill ‘Oll (PS3 Exclusive) – February 8, 2011
Warriors: Legends of Troy (PS3/Xbox 360) – March 8, 2011
Dynasty Warriors 7 (PS3 and Xbox 360) – March 22, 2011
Dead or Alive Dimensions (3DS)
Samurai Warriors Chronicles (3DS)

I'll run updated galleries for each game as new media comes in.

inFAMOUS 2 Behind the Scenes Video

SCEA and Sucker Punch's Holiday Cheer, part deux - check out this chunk of "making of" footage from inFAMOUS 2 and go kiss your PS3 for getting yet another great game in 2011. I'd say someone needs to build a time-stopping machine so we can all set aside enough of it to actually play ALL the great games coming next year for every system...

Sony Drops Some inFAMOUS 2 Holiday Cheer On Us All (BOOM!)

Yikes. Not one, not two, but three videos went up for inFAMOUS 2 a few hours ago, showing off gameplay, a behind the scenes peek and parts of the 2D comic cut scenes from Sucker Punch's 2011 action game. Here are the gameplay footage and 2D comic movies - the behind the scenes video gets a separate post just so i can ramble about it a bit more (if I want to). Yup, with all these first party exclusives coming left and right, it's going to be a REALLY good year for the PS3 (and you don't need a crystal ball to see that fact)...

Ys I & II Chronicles "Hair Metal" Trailer + Soundtrack Bonus Prove A Point...

Ys I & II Chronicles is coming on February 15, 2011, but Xseed Games wants you to start the party NOW. Dig the rockin' trailer above and pre-order the limited edition "Hair Metal Pack" and get your head-bangin' on while those classic game tunes (you may or may not remember depending on your age) are wailing away. Awe-some! Yup, Xseed is adding a CD soundtrack packed full of classic Ys tunes to the RETAIL version of the game ONLY. Oh, SNAP. Take that, digital downloads! Go Xseed!! (and nope, I'm not being sarcastic... some things are just better in a big ol' box and CD case).

Stuff I'm Just Getting To Looking At: The Thor Trailer

Actually, I got to see a tiny bit of the game an some excellent concept art at this year's New York Comic-Con, but no pictures of the tiny sliver of game footage could be photographed or filmed. Yeah, yeah, you can make all the God of War jokes you care to, but hey, at least Thor isn't going the Superman game route. The God of Thunder has his powers intact and it looks like players won't be forced through hoops or rescuing kitties in what's looking to be a mighty fun experience. The game is definitely coming along nicely in my book (with a May 2011 launch planned) and between this and Captain America: Super Soldier, shows Sega is back on the right track as far as their Marvel Comics games go. Speaking of Cap, I actually DID write up a preview of THAT game, but it was one of the ones that vanished along with that USB drive I'm on the hunt for. Must have been the Red Skull at work, grrrr...

WIN FREE STUFF!!! Little Big Planet 2 Beta Code Giveaway (It's Baaaaaaack!)

EDIT: GIVEAWAY CLOSED! Thanks to all who signed up - MORE cool stuff to come (stick around)!

How to Save Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark? Turn On the Camera, Julie...

While I haven't been to a Broadway show in decades, you can't go twenty minutes or so here in NYC without hearing or reading some more awful news about the show's numerous problems. Forget my own opinions about bringing such a risky project to life at such a huge expense during tough economic times and the hugely inflated but highly creative egos behind the show's development. I'm more concerned about stopping this overblown train wreck before there's a death on stage or off. Given the history accidents in some preview performances and the fact that this is a live show of such length and scope with never-before seen wire effects taking place every night means it's only a matter of when and how a fatal incident occurs.

However, I think there's a way to "save" the show and possibly recoup some of the production costs while turning an actual profit... eventually.

Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle Coming to PSP

I still have ringing in my ears and a mild headache from all that Hyperdimension Neptunia(aaa*cough!*) stuff yesterday, so I missed running this nice cover art and screens from NISA's upcoming PSP strategy RPG. According to Amazon's listing, the game will feature "new story chapters, characters, items, better graphics, and a revamped user interface". In addition, the game is now "more user-friendly and packs more content for over 100 hours of game play". March 18, 2011 is the release date (unless something changes). With UMD games looking as if they're on the way out after next year, folks like me will be grabbing what great games we can, that's for sure.

While the official website for the game is still in the works, the cover art and four screens are here for your approval. There are a bunch more shots from the game over at Amazon (in case you didn't click that link above already), so go peek at those if this one's up your alley... Back in a bit - the post office is calling me...

Hyperdimension Neptunia (aaaaaaaaaaaaa!) Official Trailer: Nippon Ichi Is At It Again...

Say it with me, folks (big voice, now): HYPERDIMENSION NEPTUNIA(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!)

Yes, that name absolutely demands the echo chamber effect at the end. Grrrrrr... Why does Nippon Ichi continue to tempt me so? Yet another too cute for words RPG, this time on the PS3 from a whopping what, five studios? Lots of flashy battle effects, that snazzy Gust 2D artwork (I expect my usual ten layers of parallax scrolling backgrounds, thank you) mixed with 3D characters, randomly generated dungeon maps, eyeball-rolling town names (Gameindustri? ha bloody ha), ESRB T (Teen)-rated "partial nudity" and "sexual themes" should make this one a nicely niche hit. That is of course, provided the gameplay is solid and the story has the highs and lows genre fans expect plus whatever bells and whistles those random dungeons offer. Oh, and ALEX KIDD??? Holy cats, that's an instant buy just for the Janken mini-game flashback I had while typing this. The other Sega characters in the game will keep me playing just to see who else is hidden on the disc.

I'll take a dozen to go, please... with a copy of Prinny 2 on the side.

Unique Console Patron Units... Engage! sometime in Spring 2011, by the way.

SSX: Deadly Descents Divides (The Fanbase) and Conquers (Much of Their Sanity)...

Nice trailer... but, Holy Belfry, Batman! You'd think that EA drove over a an entire block full of little kids carrying baskets of newborn puppies while on the way to a church bake sale after visiting Grandma. Twice. Some of the responses I've seen to the SSX: Deadly Descents game trailer and new direction the formerly goofy and always exuberant fan fave are probably arrest-worthy and yes, completely unnecessary. Game History 105: Radical Entertainment (Prototype 2, among other cool games) and THQ tried out a mix of action movie and snowboarding on consumers "way" back in 2001 with a little game called Dark Summit. While it didn't exactly blow any sales doors off (or gain a huge enough following to warrant a sequel, for that matter), it received mixed (but mainly positive) reviews, was fun to play and manged to get in a bit of humor during the story. Hell, the whole game idea was pretty funny in a "Hey you kids, get off my secret government test area snow-covered lawn!" kinda way.

Lost & Found (And More Work, Too!)

Whee. After a big hard drive crash a few years back, I'd been storing articles in progress, reviews and a few interesting game or story ideas on either portable USB drives or SD cards, but of course, I managed to screw that otherwise reliable storage method up somehow. A few months back, one of the cards I was using for a LOT of DAF stuff suddenly failed to read (nooooo!) and I misplaced one of the USB sticks while traveling around (well, I couldn't find the darn thing no matter where I looked). Anyway, I'd kept that old card around a few days back, happened to pop it into my camera to see if there were any photos that could be recovered. *Boom!* no decent pics (well, some ebay items I'd sold off last year) but I DID see a load of text files now free from their digital prison. Looks like I'll be spending the holidays polishing up and posting some old to recent reviews. I'm still on the hunt for that USB drive as it has even MORE articles and ideas plus some PC game data I wasn't planning on losing (ha ha)...

Prototype 2 Xmas Card Is Mildly Creepy (Yet Also Subtly Hilarious)

While it's indeed a quiet holiday scene, there's a nicely lurking sense of impending dread in this card from Activision's PR department. I wonder what Alex Mercer's card looks like (er, provided he's even sending one out this year)... Prototype 2 is in development at Radical Entertainment and should hit stores sometime next year, barring incident.

MLB 11 The Show Announce Trailer (It's A Hit, For Sure)

As much as a non sports game fan as I am these days (a bit of personal burnout from the general overkill of 24-hour sports), I'll still have to give it up for SCEA's upcoming baseball game in terms of how spectacular it looks. Sony Santa Monica just may have a huge home run (without the steroids) when the game ships in 2011. Will it get me to pick up a controller again and swing for the fences? I guess we'll have to see, huh?

P.S. It's nice to see that a PS2 version is also on the way, Sony! Even though the bigger games are PS3 exclusive, it's great to see that the company STILL recognizes that not every single PlayStation owner has made the jump to the PS3.

Why Killzone 3 Will Be A Blast, No Matter HOW You Play It

Let's see now: so far, I've played demos of Killzone 3 in 3D with a Dual Shock 3, in regular HD with a Dual Shock 3, in HD with the Move/NaviCon combo and in HD with the upcoming Move Sharp Shooter peripheral and each time I'm floored by what Guerrilla can do with the PS3. Alright, Sony, you can stop now. I'm sold...AGAIN. Hell, I was sold months ago when I saw the E3 demo running in not quite fully optimized 3D because I "got" what the team at Guerrilla were trying to accomplish with the narrative (as well as all that wonderful tech they're wisely hoarding to themselves).

An updated demo of the game along with Sony's new Move Sharp Shooter attachment were drawing lots of attention at Sony's Holiday 2010 event last week and after watching a few editor types fumble away with the peripheral, I was wondering if this was yet another game that was going to be sunk by a well-intentioned but flawed one-use controller. Then I got the chance to try the thing out for myself and found out it's actually quite remarkable once you get a feel for the peripheral.

Mass Effect 2 PS3 Hands-On: BioWare, Beautiful & Brilliant

PS3 owners may have missed out on the original Mass Effect, but the stellar sequel plus four DLC chapters and a little something extra (plus a LOT of something extra under the hood) is headed your way in a great standard edition pack that's bound to fly off store shelves faster than the new Normandy hits light speed. I had the opportunity to play a demo version of Mass Effect 2 and was immediately floored by the visual upgrade (thanks to what was recently revealed as the Mass Effect 3 engine), the tweaked puzzles and a few other niceties BioWare has seen fit to add. I'd have to safely say this is going to be the definitive console version of the game and even if you've played the Xbox 360 version, you might want to snap up a copy of this one, provided you also have a PS3 in the house.