by IGN Staff
Basic combat and paradigm role strategies in FFXIII.
Daily Fix Video Podcast: 3.10.10
by IGN Staff
OnLive is fully unveiled, new Modern Warfare 2 map-packs are set to hit the 360, a new Battlestar MMO, and Street Fighter comes to iPhone.
Scrap Metal Review
by Eric Neigher
Banging things into other things has been a major form of entertainment since the pilot episode of "Caveman Jackass" back in 20,000 B.C. There's just something endlessly appealing about controlled destruction. So, if you're stupefied by slaughter, dumbfounded by demolition, and enthralled by evisceration, you're sure to be tickled by Slick Entertainment's new XBLA title, Scrap Metal. Sitting somewhere between a straight-up arcade action title and a lightweight racing sim, Scrap Metal has drawn comparisons to Rare's R.C. Pro-Am -- but the similarity to that old classic is mostly skin deep. Really, Scrap Metal's casual-game veneer hides a robust (if somewhat overly sensitive) physics engine, more levels than a Byzantine ziggurat, and a grip of imaginative set pieces. Both multiplayer (Scrap Metal offers local and online) and single-player are challenging without being too intense, offer plenty of tweaking without being overly detailed, and feature charmingly over-the-top graphics.
Daily Fix Video Podcast: 3.09.10
by IGN Staff
Final Fantasy XIII is finally here, Harmonix announces Rock Band 3, learn to play REAL instruments in a new music game, and we debut the final new fighter in Super Street Fighter 4.
Command Prompt Podcast, Episode 78
by IGN Staff
Everything we know about Civilization V.
Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast Episode 68
by IGN Staff
Sexy Levi Buchanan lends his voice for this week's episode.
God of War 3 Review
by Matt Leone
Debates over its final boss fight aside, God of War 2's ending made for good theater: Greek Kratos rode on the titan Gaia's back as she scaled Mount Olympus in pursuit of a gods vs. titans face-off with Zeus and friends. It served as a big cliffhanger -- literally or not, depending on your taste for puns -- which set up God of War 3 as the final game in the trilogy. Looking back on that ending now, it seems clear that the developers knew what they had in mind for the third game all along, but at the time it left a lot open to interpretation. Would it be an entire game on the side of the mountain? Or might Kratos participate in some kind of War of the Monsters-style spin-off?
Game Scoop! Podcast, Episode 155
by IGN Staff
A Super Fan joins us to chat about the Activision/Infinity Ward debacle and GDC.
Daily Fix Video Podcast: 3.05.10
by IGN Staff
Portal 2 confirmed by Valve, the iPad hits stores this April, a possible Sony iPad killer, and enter for a chance to win C&C4 for PC.
Lunar: Silver Star Harmony Review
by Justin Haywald
Lunar: The Silver Star has seen several remakes over the years, but the last time the series went portable, in Lunar: Dragon Song, it flopped commercially and critically. Regardless, Game Arts had remade the original Lunar again, and this time for PSP, as Lunar: Silver Star Harmony; as it should, this version hews closely to the PlayStation's Silver Star Story Complete, with all of that game's excellent, animated cut-scenes. But other than that, from the overworld maps to the backgrounds, the game has been remade, effectively recapturing all the things that made the original so good (and also retaining a few of the things that made it so frustrating). The writing is more subdued, though it still tries to be funny -- you'll read the occasional anachronistic line about a character using a phone or something else ridiculous to try and get a laugh. But the team at XSeed excised most of the pop-culture references for a more straightforward translation.
Shoot 1UP Review
by Andrew Hayward
Shoot 1UP is described by Mommy's Best Games as a shoot-em-up for "normal gamers," but "normal" is not a term I'd quickly associate with the developer's output. After all, its first Xbox Live Indie release was Weapon of Choice, an over-the-top, Contra-like shooter pumped full of gore, outlandish weaponry, and heavy metal music. And Shoot 1UP, with hand-drawn tapestries populated by pies, beached whales, and a large robotic woman with metallic, projectile breasts that fire waves of glowing bullets, strays just as far from the ordinary. In a genre notoriously targeted at the hardest of hardcore, Shoot 1UP is an anomaly. Sure, you can recreate the traditional "bullet hell" experience -- just select Serious difficulty, kick the game speed up to 200%, and go hog wild. But for those of us without the patience or skill set to endure even relatively mild shmups, Shoot 1UP presents something fresh -- a more action-packed entry that scales wonderfully between casual observers and aficionados.
Game Scoop! TV Video Podcast: IGNSolved Mysteries: Activision vs. Infinity Ward
by IGN Staff
IGNSolved Mysteries: WTF is going on at Activision & Infinity Ward?
Final Fantasy XIII Review
by Jeremy Parish
Final Fantasy XIII is a game at a crossroads. It's stranded at the intersection between the desires of an existing fanbase, the fading popularity of a genre, a legacy of cutting-edge visuals, and the rising cost of game development. It's a creation that displays the compromises of its development process at every turn, yet to its credit, it doesn't feel compromised. It's defined by creative tradeoffs, yet it embraces those potential shortcomings and transforms them into integral components of its design. FFXIII is ambitious and daring, not to mention gorgeous and energetic. It approaches the concept of "role-playing games" with ruthless pragmatism, lopping off hunks of RPG tradition like a doctor operating on a terminally gangrenous patient. Traditional towns are too difficult to manage in light of the demands of current technology and art design? Whack -- they're gone. Free-roaming exploration too difficult to implement properly? Chop -- there goes the nonlinearity. Micromanaging turn-based combat bogs down the pacing of battles? Snip -- let the AI handle it.
IGN UK Podcast #24
by IGN Staff
The last throes of youth.
Daily Fix Video Podcast: 3.04.10
by IGN Staff
Ex-Infinity Ward founders sue Activision, SOCOM 4 is announced, and expect to see a new Lara Croft game later this year.
Podcast Beyond, Episode 128
by IGN Staff
Clements is lost, but that can't stop the news.
Battlefield Bad Company 2: IGN Strategize Video Podcast
by IGN Staff
Advanced squad tactics in Bad Company 2.
Daily Fix Video Podcast: 3.03.10
by IGN Staff
A new Halo: Reach trailer awes fans, Portal 2 may be coming soon, & Itigaki is back!
Toy Soldiers Review
by Steve Watts
Tower defense games can be frustrating. No matter how well the game's defensive structures perform, I find it hard not to feel that they could do better -- fire faster or aim more accurately. Toy Soldiers is ostensibly a tower defense game, but it solves this genre-entrenched problem by allowing you to jump directly into any of your defensive units at any time. What a difference this small addition makes; it changes Toy Soldiers from another, simple tower defense title to a strategy/action hybrid. And manning the guns personally always feels rewarding. The titular Toy Soldiers are of the Great War -- World War I. It recalls the broad strokes from the heady days of history class, without the oversaturated familiarity that comes with a World War II theme. The story itself is kept simple, using slide show vignettes to recount important battles. But as the name implies, these are toys through and through. The game doesn't recreate actual battles; instead, it's presents the war from a child's perspective: a youngster racing home from school to play with his tin, fighting forces in a diorama-style set. The result is a nostalgic motif that recalls how kids may have played war games before words like "headshot" entered the vernacular.
Deadly Premonition Review
by Frank Cifaldi
Let's cut to the chase: you, the average 1UP reader, probably wouldn't like Deadly Premonition. The controls are clunky, the combat is tedious, it's full of those dreaded "fetch quests" we all like to complain about, the occasionally nonsensical cut-scenes often last too long, and a lot of the graphics would look right at home on the Dreamcast. The game is flawed in many ways, and if you're already turned off, I would advise you to move on and never look back. Don't worry, I won't be offended. We'll hang out some other time. Now, then. For the rest of you -- those champions of innovation and good taste who won't let a few blemishes stop you from having a good time -- I want to tell you about the most fun I've had playing a videogame in a good long while. Deadly Premonition is the kind of experience that reminds you of why you fell in love with this medium in the first place. Once you look past its flaws, you'll find a game that is completely engrossing for far longer than it ought to be, is refreshingly self-aware that it is, in fact, a videogame and not a movie, and in many ways, is one of the best examples of game writing I've ever seen. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
MLB 2K10 PS3 Review
by Mike Nelson
In retrospect, I think the biggest issue I had with MLB 2K9 wasn't that it was a broken product, but 2K Sports as a company felt it was strong enough to ask people to spend money on it. In turn they lost the faith of their fans and their product has since become the butt of many YouTube videos showcasing the game's abundant bugs. MLB 2K10 manages to right the ship and get the franchise going in a more progressive direction. Yes, it still needs some work and it's hard to say right now if it can restore the faith of the baseball videogame community. But this much is certain: when you put the game in and start playing, you'll actually be able to play a game of baseball. That alone is a huge improvement over last year's title. Part of this improvement comes from a new mode called My Player, one that directly copies MLB The Show's Road to the Show feature in more ways than one. The core goal is the same: guide a created player through the minors into the big leagues by completing a series of objectives. If anything, it's a much more streamlined version than The Show's -- I was able to guide my AA pitcher all the way to the big leagues in only five starts (I guess the Giants are really hurting on pitching prospects). As such, a lot of that sense of "finally, I made it," or any feeling of accomplishment, was lost on me. It's a mode that seems designed for the casual baseball fan who wants to break into the majors as quickly as possible. That's probably fine for most, but I want to feel like I earned it. Just like Road to the Show, playing a position player instead of a pitcher turns this experience into a dull and repetitious job.
MLB 2K10 Xbox 360 Review
by Mike Nelson
In retrospect, I think the biggest issue I had with MLB 2K9 wasn't that it was a broken product, but 2K Sports as a company felt it was strong enough to ask people to spend money on it. In turn they lost the faith of their fans and their product has since become the butt of many YouTube videos showcasing the game's abundant bugs. MLB 2K10 manages to right the ship and get the franchise going in a more progressive direction. Yes, it still needs some work and it's hard to say right now if it can restore the faith of the baseball videogame community. But this much is certain: when you put the game in and start playing, you'll actually be able to play a game of baseball. That alone is a huge improvement over last year's title. Part of this improvement comes from a new mode called My Player, one that directly copies MLB The Show's Road to the Show feature in more ways than one. The core goal is the same: guide a created player through the minors into the big leagues by completing a series of objectives. If anything, it's a much more streamlined version than The Show's -- I was able to guide my AA pitcher all the way to the big leagues in only five starts (I guess the Giants are really hurting on pitching prospects). As such, a lot of that sense of "finally, I made it," or any feeling of accomplishment, was lost on me. It's a mode that seems designed for the casual baseball fan who wants to break into the majors as quickly as possible. That's probably fine for most, but I want to feel like I earned it. Just like Road to the Show, playing a position player instead of a pitcher turns this experience into a dull and repetitious job.
Daily Fix Video Podcast: 3.02.10
by IGN Staff
Infinity Ward in chaos, Sony acquires Media Molecule, & Apple sues HTC over iPhone patents.
Daily Fix Video Podcast: 3.01.10
by IGN Staff
PSN Errors cause panic across the globe, but there is good news: Mega Man 10 is now out on WiiWare.
Daily Fix Video Podcast: 2.26.10
by IGN Staff
More Mass Effect 2 DLC is on the way, Just Cause 2 Demo coming next week, Lara Croft honored in the UK, and our weekly giveaway.
Game Scoop! Podcast, Episode 154
by IGN Staff
We're gonna bring home the gold at the Podcast Olympics.
IGN UK Podcast #23
by IGN Staff
Something for your weak end.
Podcast Beyond, Episode 127
by IGN Staff
It's a special birthday Beyond. Go eat cake!
