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
Fans of Assassins Creed 2 may be aware of the missing 12th and 13th sequences in the game. While leaving the game incomplete is bizarre and frustrating, Ubisoft’s official statement blamed shortage of time for the missing sequences, adding that they would be released as future DLC. Now, almost two months later, the first instalment or sequence 12, named The Battle of Forli, is out. So is it really worth the extra money?
The Battle of Forli picks up right after Ezio joins the Order of the Assassins. Remember Caterina Sforza, the flirtatious woman you met at the docks outside Forli just before leaving for Venice? Teaming up with Machiavelli, Ezio must protect Caterina and the town of Forli from an assault. The Orsi brothers are leading the attack and it is up to you to stop them. Things heat up even more when Ezio realises that the attack may have been a decoy set up by the Spaniard in order to get his hands on the Piece of Eden.
Click here for the full review
“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.
Click here for the rest of this feature
War is AWESOME! Don’t give me that look; you know it’s true. As a video gamer, we know that better than anyone else. Sure there are games like Armed Assault and Operation Flashpoint, which try to show that the battlefield is a brutal and unforgiving place, but thanks to the efforts of games like Call of Duty and Army of Two, we know the truth. War is awesome. You get to kill foreigners (preferably of a different skin colour or at least of a different ethnicity) with tons of cool weapons, you get to go to all of these picturesque locations (and blow them up) and you get to watch huge explosions as the laws of nature bend to slow down time so you can fully appreciate them. There is the slight inconvenience of getting shot, but if you hide behind a table or a rock, your body regenerates and heals itself. What’s not to like about war?
Yes, in case it isn’t obvious, Army of Two: The 40th Day is from the school of stupid when it comes to war. And it seems to be aware of it and remains blissfully uncaring. I guess the developers realised that it isn’t possible to yank the subtlety chain after you have destroyed the entire city of Shanghai in the opening cutscene and decided to just roll with it from there on. And it works, in a way. So we have the two protagonists - Salem and Rios (whose names I had to Google to find out even after finishing the game twice. Yes, the writing and characters are that forgettable), who land in Shanghai on some sort of a mission and some bad guys just happen to start bombing the hell out of the city soon after that. And that’s pretty much it.
Click here for the full review
Written by IVG Staff in News
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, which includes the two expansions to GTA4, will release in India for PS3 and PC on March 30, along with the worldwide release. The two episodes - The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony – will be available on one disc and, unlike the downloadable versions, will not require you to own a copy of GTA4 to play.
Episodes from Liberty City is already available on Xbox 360 at Rs 1,999, so expect the PS3 version to be priced the same. And considering that the PC version of GTA4 is priced at Rs 499, it would be very surprising if the episodes are priced higher. The two episodes are detached from the story of GTA4 and the main characters in both episodes are also different, although Niko, as well as other characters from GTA4, do make appearances. So in essence, these are two new games altogether, and even if you haven’t played GTA4, you can play and enjoy these episodes without missing anything.
Join the discussion at the IVG Community forums
It feels like it’s been ages since the last IVG Podcast. So Nash and I finally decided to get on Skype and see if we still remembered how it was done. As it turns out, we never knew how it was done in the first place, but regardless, we finally have IVG Podcast #12 after a gap of six months.
We’ve tried to keep the podcast as short and crisp as possible. Hit the jump for a round-up of what we talked about this time and to listen to the podcast.
Click here to listen to IVG Podcast #12
Written by IVG Staff in News
Put this one down as a rumour. A mysterious Twitter persona has spilled the beans on the internal goings-on at Australian studio Team Bondi, the developer behind the infinitely delayed LA Noire. If postings on Twitter account Veracious Shit are to be believed, LA Noire may well be responsible for Rockstar’s new IP – Agent, being exclusive to the PS3.
According to the source, Sony initially funded and was slated to publish the then untitled project by Team Bondi. The studio is headed by Brendan McNamara, the creative force behind PS2 runaway success The Getaway, and Sony wanted in on McNamara’s next project. But after having sunk $20 million and many years into the project with no substantial result, Sony decided to dump the property in 2005, even as Team Bondi started to see a mass exodus of employees, leaving the studio in disarray, the Twitter posts recount.
Click here for more
Darksiders isn’t a very original game. Take, for example, the Zelda-like dungeons and equipment, the God of War style finishers, the Soul Reaver-like wings, or the most blatant example a Portal gun that creates, well, portals… I could go on. But that’s really not the point of this review. Sure, the game borrows a lot from other titles, but it does so rather well. It won’t have you screaming “bloody rip-off!” every time you come across a familiar gameplay mechanic, instead it will have you thinking “how do I cross that bloody chasm over there so I can get to that treasure chest?”. Darksiders is the perfect example of why there is nothing wrong with borrowing ideas as long as you make a great game to go along with it. This first effort from developer Vigil Games is surely a promising one and is guaranteed to leave an impression.
Click here for the full review
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
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
