Written by IVG Staff in Features
Despite Splinter Cell Conviction being pushed back (again) from it’s February release date, there are still plenty of great games this month to make things harder on the wallet. First up is Bioshock 2, the sequel to one of the best games of 2007. Indian release date for Bioshock 2 is February 9 and it will be available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Sharing the same release date is one of the most anticipated games of the month - Dante’s Inferno.
Dante’s Inferno will be available in two versions on the PS3, with only the collector’s edition (Death Edition) available for Xbox 360. The Divine Edition (PS3 only), in addition to the game, includes a digital artbook, the game’s soundtrack, and a complete Longfellow translation of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, the poem the game is based on. The Death Edition is available on PS3 and Xbox 360 (check image below for contents) and it comes with special packaging and a host of collectibles and unlockables.
Click here for a list of Feb releases
Written by Pratik Luharuka in Features
“Games are hobbies, not a profession,” mother yelled theatrically on hearing my ‘audacious’ plan of enrolling in a game design school as part of my education. This should have surprised me, but surprisingly, it didn’t. What actually astonished me was how little time it took to convince her that making games is a real business; a multi-billion dollar industry flourishing in all its glory.
As to what made my mother change her mind, your guess is as good as mine. Maybe it was my innocent face pleading with her or maybe she likes her son being different from others. If I had to choose, I’d say that the times we are living in proved to be the biggest contributor to her decision. The global nature of today’s society ensures that everyone’s on the same page, albeit not literally. My mother must have researched on the internet or called up a student counsellor, which resulted in her realising that my audacious plan was not so audacious after all.
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Written by IVG Staff in Game of the Year 2009
In case you haven’t noticed, we recently announced the IVG Game of the Year 2009 (click here to be read all about it), and now it’s time to name the three winners of the Game of the Year Lucky Draw. Three winners were picked from all those who voted in the IVG Game of the Year. Winners were picked at random, irrespective of which games they voted for, so it really was a lucky draw. And here are the three lucky IVG members:
Click here to find out who won
Written by IVG Staff in Game of the Year 2009
After a month of voting and deliberations, we’re finally now able to announce IVG’s Game of the Year for 2009. Below are the IVG Community’s top 10 games of 2009 as voted by our members on the forums throughout December. To see the list of games that made up the rest of the top 20, head over to the discussion thread here. Before we announce the top 10, here’s a quick round up of the winners of the various other categories in the IVG GOTY 2009:
Best New IP - Batman: Arkham Asylum
Best Use of Co-op - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Best Sports Game - FIFA 10
Best Racing Game - Colin McRae: DiRT 2
Best Fighting Game - Street Fighter IV
Best Strategy Game - Warhammer 40000: Dawn Of War II
Best Multi-player Game - Killzone 2
Best Downloadable Game - Flower
Best Platformer - Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
Best Action-Adventure Game - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Best Multi-platform Game - Batman: Arkham Asylum
Best RPG - Dragon Age: Origins
Best Shooter - Killzone 2
Best Handheld Game - Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Best Franchise/Series Title - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Best Game No One Played - Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
Most Disappointing Game - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Best Character - Nathan Drake - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Best Story - Assassin’s Creed 2
Best PC Game - Dragon Age: Origins
Most Epic Gaming Moment - Nepal chopper chase/building collapse - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
One To Watch In 2010 - Heavy Rain
Click here for IVG's top 10 games of 2009
Written by IVG Staff in Game of the Year 2009
Multi-player gaming is being given more importance today than ever before. So much so that many people now see single player-only games as less value for money. While a negative side effect to the popularity of multi-payer gaming is that many games now come with tacked on multi-player modes just for the sake of it, a few stand out of the crowd as masters of the art, and here is a select bunch that made our list of nominees for Best Multi-player Game of 2009.
Street Fighter 4 did many things right. It remained faithful to the series’ past, it looked brilliant, and it played extremely well offline and online. But just as importantly, it led the revival of competitive gaming in a multi-player genre that was on a steady decline. DICE released the multi-player-only Battlefield 1943 to a thundering response, shattering day one and week one sales records for download-only games on Xbox LIVE and PSN. The game brought back the large scale multi-player battles that the Battlefield series is known for; something that was missing from Battlefield: Bad Company.
Click here for the IVG Staff Pick
Written by IVG Staff in Game of the Year 2009
Last year was without a shadow of a doubt the Year of the Fighting Games with almost every legendary franchise churning in a contender for the crown. While games like King of Fighters XII deserved to go into the garbage bin straight out of the factory, most of the others were solid heavyweights who put up a quite tough fight in the ring.
The two surprise hits of the year would definitely be the spiritual sequel to the popular Guilty Gear series – BlazBlue, as well as the dark horse, UFC 2009: Undisputed, both packing excellent gameplay elements. The sixth iteration of the Tekken series, going by the tried and tested formula of ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’, managed to blend in perfectly into the 15 years-old franchise, but perhaps lost its fizzle due to lack of new moves.
Click here for the IVG Staff Pick
Written by IVG Staff in Game of the Year 2009
Getting nominated for the Best Multi-platform Game of 2009 is a tough gig. Not only does the game have to be excellent, but it has to be excellent across all platforms. And that is no easy feat. It has to look good, control right and, if possible, build upon the strengths of each platform as well. Let’s take a look at our nominees and find out why they got the nod over other equally good games.
Borderlands was a bit of a dark horse. Not many people were following it before release, but once word of mouth got around, a lot of people ended up picking up (and loving) the game. Built upon the already successful UE3, it looked absolutely stunning across all the three platforms, thanks to its cel shaded visual style. It ran smoothly as well without any noticeable tearing or slowdowns. Modern warfare 2 was always going to be a nominee. It not only managed to look stunning across both the consoles, but ran at a dreamlike 60 FPS. On the PC side of things, it might have fallen out of favour because of its lack of dedicated servers, but its excellent Steam integration managed to bring back a lot of faithful fans.
Click here for the IVG Staff Pick
Written by IVG Staff in Game of the Year 2009
The handhelds are often shunned as kiddie or commuter devices. But truth be told, both the DS and the PSP sell by the droves and millions around the world can spend their time better in the train/bus/school/office/plane. It’s not just the portability though; both come with a line-up of fantastic games - some good enough to give their console counterparts a run for their money.
First up is Scribblenauts, with one of the most innovative gameplay designs in a long time. It breaks free from the shackles of linearity and set pieces and truly sets the player’s imagination free. You think of it, and it’s drawn on the screen. Not just that - but it behaves the way you think it would. Where else could you summon a Large Hadron Collider, which creates a black hole, or a biker who goes up against a raptor to save the model? It’s a shame that the controls were finicky and seemed to have a life of their own. Controls are not an issue for The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks though. Everything you expect in a Zelda game is there - fiendish puzzles, dungeons, and a certain hero with the stupidest costume since Peter Pan. Spirit Tracks improves on Phantom Hourglass by leaps and bounds, a tough task in itself, and presents one of the best Zelda adventures in years.
Click here for the IVG Staff Pick
Written by IVG Staff in Game of the Year 2009
Choosing a winner for this year’s action-adventure category turned out to be an action-adventure game in itself; and a pretty tough one at that. Imagine going up to a deadly assassin or the Dark Knight himself and telling them that their respective entries, while being awesome beyond words, didn’t quite make the cut. Apart from the imminent health hazard that such a (thankfully) hypothetical situation presents, picking out a winner for this category in 2009 truly felt like a grave injustice to the other nominees.
But the fat lady has to sing, and so we must choose a winner. This year’s nominees included Rocksteady’s brilliantly crafted debut in the Batman universe. The game is not only an excellent superhero game, but would have easily topped this category had it been released in another year. In the same space, we also had inFamous, the open-world superhero (or villain) saga whose gameplay was arguably the most accessible and addictive this year. Assassin’s Creed 2 capped off the year by making an already tough choice infinitely tougher by weeding out all the issues that the original had, and brought all its elements at par or exceed what they were supposed to be - Legendary.
Click here for the IVG Staff Pick
Written by IVG Staff in Game of the Year 2009
Deep within the office of Sony Computer Entertainment, there were pitches for the latest PSN project.
Interviewer: So how should we go about this one?
Iffy Bee: It should be bigger, better, and more bad a*s!
Interviewer: Oh…sorry.
*presses a button under the desk. A trap door beneath Iffy Bee opens, sending him down a lava pit *
Iffy Bee: Arrgghhh!
Interviewer: Next!
Krazy Cazz: RIIIIDDDGGGEEE RAAAACCCERRRR!
Interviewer: *facepalm* This will hurt.
*presses another button, an anvil falls on Cazz*
Krazy Cazz: Giant enemy anvil…for maximum damage. *groans*
Interviewer: Next!
Jenova Chen: It should be about Flowers. And stuff. Yo.
Interviewer: Hmm…go on.
Jenova Chen: Human emotion through nature. And stuff. Yo.
Interviewer: Perfect. You guys, from thatgamecompany, are hired!
Click here for the IVG Staff Pick
