Crafted together with the award-winning visual effects studio Digital Domain, ‘Law of the Jungle’ gives players a taste of Destiny’s action-packed adventures through a live-action and CG interpretation of the epic game universe.

The video also announces the official worldwide gameplay reveal on June 10th during Sony’s E3 press conference.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It includes:

- A copy of GRID 2 for PlayStation 3 featuring bespoke packaging artwork

- BAC Mono supercar in exclusive GRID 2 livery

- A day at the BAC factory, which includes a factory tour and time spent with technicians, to customise the BAC Mono for size and specifications

- A GRID 2: Mono Edition branded Bell Racing helmet

- Race suit, boots & gloves all made to measure in BAC Mono and GRID 2 branding

- Plus a PlayStation 3 to play the game on.

If you have that sort of cash to splurge then head here to preorder the Mono Edition. But you better hurry as this package is only available for one lucky person!

All other editions of Grid 2 are still available to pre-order ahead of the 31st May release.

OK, let’s get this out of the way first: Donkey Kong Returns 3D is one of the best platformers on the 3DS, second only to the Mario series.  It’s an almost direct port of the 2010 Wii game with some minor, and one major, improvement.  It’s a new-school remake of an old-school classic, and looks and plays almost exactly the same as the SNES version did. Unlike the old version which just had 3D renders of complex polygon models, here the whole thing is rendered in 3D. You pound the ground, and the background shakes in time with your thumps. The 3D is used really well too, with waves crashing into the screen, Mario’s early nemesis shoots into the background, and there’s a sense of depth to the 2.5D platformer that shows off the 3D capabilities of the 3DS  In fact, it works so well that it’s surprising to learn that it wasn’t designed for the 3DS in the first place, and the closeness of the port actually makes the game more enjoyable than the Wii version, for the most part.

The 3DS has a few differences, a new set of levels after you finish the main game, which aren’t that amazing, and also a 3DS mode, which gives DK and Diddy three hearts each instead of two, and adds a couple more helpful items to Cranky Kong’s shop. The “Super Guide” feature also returns, which means that you won’t give up on the game as soon as you hit a level that you just can’t get past.  Because you will hit a level that you just can’t get past. Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is as frustrating and entertaining as the original Donkey Kong Country was.  You may have a rose-tinted memory of the first RARE developed game, but plug it back into your SNES and it won’t be too long before you remember how bastard hard it was.  Fan-fucking-tastic for a game that had to last you six months before you could afford another one back in the day.

You pound the ground, and the background shakes in time with your thumps.

There are a couple of niggles, one minor, one major. The minor niggle is that it doesn’t run at 60fps, it runs at 30fps on the much lower resolution 3DS screen. Usually that isn’t a huge problem, but it does occasionally have some slowdown issues that were absent on the Wii version. For the mine cart levels when your jumps have to be precise, having to compensate for slowdown can be a nightmare.  Still, it was a nightmare the original SNES version had as well, so you could argue it makes the game more authentic to its roots.

The other problem I had was bigger, and that’s to do with jumping. Like in the original game, the angle you started the jump at triggers an animation, so you don’t always jump at the angle you think you’re going to.  Also, some of the objects you have to collect can only be reached when you jump off an enemy.  Simple right, just hold down the jump button when you jump on an enemy like in Mario, right.  Well, if you have Diddy on your back (which you’ll want to as he doubles your health bar) holding down the A button triggers your hover, which means that you can’t get the height you need. The roll also sometimes carries on when you hit the button, and other times it just stops – usually right when an enemy is about to hit you.  It doesn’t make the game unplayable, but there were instances when I could blame the game rather than my own mistakes, and I found that frustrating. Actual proof that cock-ups can be the game’s fault!

as frustrating and entertaining as the original Donkey Kong Country was.

For me, it just doesn’t have that “one more go” factor that, for example, New Super Mario Brothers 2 did.  Then again, if the only game I can find to beat Donkey Kong Country Returns on the 3DS is a Mario title, then it means that Retro Studio’s update of the game has to be pretty bloody good.  Once you get through the main game, you will be buying parrots at Cranky Kong’s shop a lot to help find the hidden K-O-N-G letters and puzzle pieces, then you’ll spend even longer trying to work out how to get to the bastard things.  Usually, for a sequel to be compared favourably to the original, it has to be better in almost every way while staying true to the things that made the original great in the first place (Ace Ventura, When Nature Calls is a case in point, for me anyway). This sequel compares very well to the original. After the Metroid Prime series and this game, it looks like Retro Studios could be the new RARE.

A brief list of topics covered:

• The name
• The console itself and the new Kinect
• The controller
• TV and also TV
• Is it a games console, less than, more than?
• Specs, graphics and whether 5 billion transistors is important or not
• The mega-extended Live server estate and what it means
• The CoD Dog
• And also TV

The Big Question:

Did the new Xbox deliver, will it deliver in the future?

Things we talked about:

To just have a squint at the hardware :

Click here to view the embedded video.

The full reveal video is available :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Subscribe using iTunes or our Podcast RSS Feed

Ready Up Podcast theme music courtesy of Tommy Tallarico.

The titular dying light apparently references a central game mechanic: enemies become considerably more threatening at night, much like other survival games, such as Minecraft or Don’t Starve.

The game will also feature free-running elements as well, evoking DICE’s first-person platformer, Mirror’s Edge. Techland boss Pawel Marchewka said: “Inventive free running mechanics also allow for nearly unrestricted exploration and weapon-crafting to further enhance the action survival experience.”

Techland recently released Dead Island: Riptide, a stand-alone expansion to their original game, which debuted in 2011. Danny gave it 8/10, citing it as more of the same, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Dying Light is due out on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in 2014, with Warner Bros. handling publishing duties.

But if you’re feeling old-school, might I recommend Double Dragon Neon? A smart remake/tribute to its predecessors, it features a killer soundtrack by Jake “virt” Kaufman that’s worth the price of admission alone.

The following PlayStation 3 games are included, and offer a further 10% off for PS+ members:

• Double Dragon Neon – €3.99/£3.19
• Final Fight: Double Impact – €4.99/£3.99
• Golden Axe – €1.99/£1.59
• Lord of the Rings: War in the North – €9.99/£7.99
• Marvel vs. Capcom: Origins – €7.49/£5.99
• Mini Ninjas – €9.99/£7.99
• Mortal Kombat – €9.99/£7.99
• Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection – €4.99/£3.99
• Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix – €7.49/£5.99
• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition – €7.49/£5.99
• Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition – €7.49/£5.99
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 – €14.99/£11.99
• The King of Fighters XIII – €7.49/£5.99
• The King of Fighters XIII GOLD EDITION – €14.49/£11.59
• Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown – €6.49/£5.19
• Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown (Complete) – €11.99/£9.69

There is no additional discount for these, but they are still on sale:

• EA Sports MMA – €9.99/£7.99
• Fight Night Champion - €14.99/£11.99

The sale is now live and will last until 6th June. More information about the sale is available at the official PlayStation EU blog.

Podcast Plus is written by the co-host of the Ready Up podcast, and aims to further discuss big or little things that come up in the conversation. Check out the most recent podcast here.

In the last podcast, the group was divided over the topic of Far Cry: Blood Dragon. Ready Up’s own Scott, and special guest Lucy James really enjoyed it, but it left me and my co-host Laura a bit flat. If you’ve not played it, it’s a retro themed neon sci-fi blast ‘em up based on the Far Cry 3 engine. It’s also jam packed full of references to cheesy old action films and other 80s/90s staples.

You have twenty seconds to shove in as many retro references as possible…

I’ve come to realise since we recorded that that there is more at play here than just finding the perpetual darkness in the game a bit of a downer – I’m becoming a bit fed up with nostalgia. Nostalgia for sale! Roll up, roll up, relive your past, for mucho dinero! Games companies love to dole out remakes and reboots of old games, and who can blame them when gamers are crying out for it?

Bruce Lee, or is it Eric Cantona?

I’ve never understood this fascination that many gamers have with retro games. Sure, there’s a degree of fondness when I look back on games such as Elite, Paradroid or Laser Squad, but sadly, returning to those games is nothing but an exercise in frustration. People say that because the graphics were very blocky and simple, the gameplay had to make up for it. But the gameplay didn’t make up for it. It was almost universally terrible, but to our 10 year old eyes it was the most incredible thing. Many games from “back in the day” were so hard as to be practically impossible, and some were even completely broken or actually impossible at the end. A rare game that WAS possible to complete, Bruce Lee on the Commodore 64, had an incredibly memorable ending sequence. You finished the game, and were rewarded with the exact same “GAME OVER” that you saw when you ballsed it up and died. Still, I recalled it quite fondly, a sentiment that was rapidly killed dead by this YouTube video of it.

It was almost universally terrible, but to our 10 year old eyes it was the most incredible thing.

The thing about gaming is that by its very nature, it is a highly technical field. As consoles and PCs get more and more powerful, the level of effects, detail and in-game intelligence can rise and rise, and this (generally) leads to better and better games. As much as I like to mock PC gamers for their “my frame rate is higher than your frame rate” attitude, at least they are moving in the right direction with newer, more powerful technology on a regular basis.

As it stands, will there ever be another Mario? Or will Nintendo keep flogging us the same old moustachioed plumber until he is old, grey, and so very very tired? Why make a new character for the future when a large portion of your audience is looking backwards? I’m not saying new technology is the answer to all of gaming’s problems, but staring into the past like a wistful old man, gently touching his gramophone, is definitely not helping.

• An eight-core, x86-based CPU
• 800MHz custom GPU
• 8GB of DDR3 RAM
• Slot-loading Blu-ray drive
• 500GB internal hard-drive
• 802.11n WiFi and Gigabit Ethernet
• HDMI-in port (for TV services pass-through)
• HDMI-out port
• Second-generation Kinect sensor
• An updated controller, featuring rumble-enabled triggers

Early reports from the tech-gurus at Digital Foundry estimate that, at a purely theoretical level, the graphics processing unit in Sony’s PlayStation 4 is stronger. However, this advantage may be off-set by the way developers utilise Xbox One’s unique RAM layout and data encoding engines – a design Microsoft chose to presumably enable speedy transitions between TV and gaming content.

At a base level, the Xbox One seems to be about as a powerful as a mid to upper-range gaming PC, though it should be remembered that with no bloated operating system, developers will likely make more efficient use of the One’s resources over time. The x86-architecture, used by many PC applications, should make porting games between the two platforms easier.

One area the Xbox One may trump its competition is in its power usage. At a technical round-table held after the main conference yesterday, Microsoft’s engineers spoke at length about how “green” the new system is. A low-power design was likely chosen for the One to enable it to be always running, facilitating its use at an all-in-one entertainment setup device.

The new Kinect sensor, which ships with every unit, now supports 1080p video at 30FPS and includes enhanced sensory hardware for tracking body temperature. Like its predecessor, it will likely function on Windows 8 and allow PC developers to experiment with the hardware.

Conflicting reports from Microsoft’s Phil Harrison have yet to clarify the controversial issue of used-game usage. An article from Kotaku suggests that every game purchased will be uniquely tied to each user account at the point of install, with play on different system accounts requiring a fee to be paid to enable the game. As for the “always online” concern, the system should function without a constant Internet connection, but may need to authenticate with Microsoft every 24 hours. This may be problematic for gamers without access to a reliable Internet connection.

It’s also interesting to note is that the Xbox One appears to have ditched analog A/V outputs completely. This might not be a big deal for most people, but may be an issue for gamers with older televisions or who like to stream games, as HDMI video is normally copy-protected. It’s true that the Xbox One will include video-sharing functionality as part of its dashboard feature-set (briefly demonstrated yesterday), but it’s unlikely to offer as much control as, say, an X-Split feed through Twitch.tv.

We’ll have more concrete information on the Xbox One and how it really performs as we approach the release of the system, estimated to launch later this year. The Xbox One does not currently have a price-tag.

Internal Xbox One picture courtesy of Wired.com

Not to be confused with the original Xbox, released way back in 2001, the name is supposed to represent Microsoft’s vision for its console being the “One” device you’ll need hooked up in your living-room. To this end, a significant part of the presentation focused on the ways that the Xbox One will deal with content outside of gaming, going as far to say “You and your TV are going to have a relationship.”

This was best shown with a speedy tech-demo, where the Xbox One was able to switch between a game, Internet Explorer and a live-feed of American sports network ESPN, all through the use of simple voice commands. It was unclear how these subscription services will function (if at all) outside of the United States, however.

But as gamers, you’re probably more interested in the console itself. Thankfully, Microsoft saw fit to gave us an extended look at the Xbox One hardware. With sleek, hard-edges, it’s immediately reminiscent of the Windows 8 Metro interface, though the console looks to be significantly bulkier than the Xbox 360.

Apart from major increase in graphical power, the console will also feature a slot-loading Blu-ray disc drive, a large internal hard-drive, standard networking connections (such as WiFi) and a HDMI pass-through for television services. Every Xbox One will also ship with the new version of Kinect, which is now so precise it can apparently track a user’s heart-rate.

The new controller, meanwhile, is an evolutionary take on the standard 360 controller, with a re-designed D-pad and a thicker casing. Promising reports from the show-floor say that the recessed D-pad is far more comfortable and accurate than its predecessor, which was commonly criticised for being stiff. One impressive new feature comes in the form of rumble-enabled trigger buttons, enabling developers to explore new ways of delivering force-feedback.

Microsoft didn’t announce a price or date for the Xbox One, though they promised it would arrived before the end of this year, presumably during the holiday period. Stay tuned to Ready Up for a follow-up news post highlighting the technical specification of the new hardware.

Let’s say, let’s just say that we like the games. We like the technological advances announced for the Xbox One and PS4. A more intuitive ability to connect with others quickly while playing, without interruption, is welcome. Let’s all agree now that being able to start playing a game we didn’t own a minute ago, on a whim, is something we expect to be able to do going forward. Processing power, graphics; yes please. None of this stuff has ever been in question. In fact core gamers and our more casual brethren have been very satisfied with the quality of console hardware and software for decades and will continue to be so in the eighth generation. So what is our problem? We gamers do have a problem with the industry. That’s just a fact. We’re extremely belligerent. We’ve developed a siege mentality. There is one reason and one reason alone. Others may cite a variety of factors but they, my friends, are tripping balls. It is solely, solely about money.

The industry is now filled with snake oil salesman and for no good reason because they are not selling snake oil. The product you are being sold is a good one. You want it. You want them to sell it to you. So why are our games consoles and the games made for them coming with lies and embellishments all the time? We are on the defence with every announcement made and have to pick through the slick smarm for the truth. Why? It’s because of the price point. Gamers are being up-sold and we don’t like it.

Let’s look at some examples where the reality of gamers’ very basic issues get clouded by grinning salesman, babbling on about shoe care protector spray and volcano insurance. The outspoken Hideki Kamiya tells us on Twitter that The Wonderful 101 focuses on fun, not length, and that if you don’t want to finish a game the day after you bought it then don’t buy his game. An online philosophical debate about the relevance of length to a game is hurriedly initiated by the game’s producer swerving away from the bald reality which is this: Platinum Games can make the game as short as they like, they just can’t charge full price for it, which is what they intend to do. Gamers love short and sweet gaming experiences, just not for 40 quid, that’s all.

Another example is the ‘always on’ issue, whether it’s the need for an internet connection for games like Diablo 3 or SimCity in order to have any meaningful experience with it, or to get reasonable functionality from a console. We are faced with a barrage of nonsensical doublespeak about it being ‘critical to the integrity of the experience’ or offline play not fitting with ‘the vision’. Microsoft Creative Director, Adam Orth was silenced by the company after he showed just how disconnected their staff are from their customers. He tweeted about his bemusement of  ’the drama’ gamers are making about a console always needing to have an internet connection. We’ve to ‘get with the times’. We’ve got to #dealwithit. How about if you lived somewhere with a poor broadband connection, Adam? “Why on earth would I live there?” he tweeted before being promptly shown the door by his employers. The problem again is a starkly simple one. EA would not refund any customer for SimCity whether they could play it or not. Microsoft want you to pay them a subscription fee whether you can use their service consistently or not. If the cost to the consumer reflected the functionality of the product then gamers would have no issues with the industry. We are being up-sold and we don’t like it. That is our problem.

It’s not just the principle of the thing either. The world is in a massive economic slump. You probably noticed this when your local vegan delicatessen became a branch of Value Bastard or when you lost your job. Does the industry think we want to buy a grubby, fingerprint-smeared copy of the sequel to our favourite game, three weeks after it came out, with the plastic on the cover gone all cloudy? Those are the clouds of poverty, not greed. So how should games be priced then? Go look at the front page of Steam right now. Like that, okay? If games are going to be supplied in a digital format, so be it, but that means a dynamic and reactive economy needs to be implemented in those digital storefronts where flash sales, bundles and competing innovative business models can be tried out. PC games are flourishing, mobile is a boom industry, PlayStation Plus has become a real success story. Why? Because they are cheap and times are hard. The coming console generation can bring an end to our problem and dispel the siege mentality gamers now have against the industry. Stop selling us snake oil and start selling us games.

Kirsten Kearney
Editor

Will it be always online?  Does it block used games?  Will you need to hold on to your 360 to continue playing the games of the current gen?  All will be revealed tonight.

You can watch the stream at 6pm tonight, UK time, on Xbox.co.uk (or.com) right here.  If you’d rather your backside was on your sofa you can watch it through the Live Event Player on your Xbox console, but you’ll need to update before you can watch so open it in advance.

At current there are no solid pieces of information on the next Xbox out there, so just like the PS4 reveal we’ll all be going into this as blind as each other.

So what features would you like to see in the next generation’s Xbox console?

You can assume it’ll let you beef up the resolution if your computer can handle it, and the PC elite will no doubt be licking their lips at the idea of forcing advanced anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering and the likes (those words mean something I swear).

Now to silently hope and pray that it won’t be crippled by the hallmarks of the bad console to PC port: fixed framerate and resolution, mouse acceleration, no actual video options to speak of.

Be cautiously optimistic.

Su-per stumble upon store time!

I was in Amsterdam recently. Luckily, I was staying in a fairly decent hotel very near Centraal Station, which meant that traversing the most interesting places by foot was easy and pretty fun. I did the usual in Amsterdam (no, not that kind of usual, quiet in the back over there, stop snickering) of losing count of canal bridges, narrowly avoiding bicycles, trams and other vehicles like an insane Dutch game of Frogger and experimenting with just how many Febo crispy cheese pocket things I could eat without vomiting.

One afternoon of wandering took us up and down a large shopping street where we stumbled across a gem of a store. Game Over? is a retro video game store, one of the most fascinating kinds that acts as a curiosity, a museum and a shop all in one. The window display of old consoles caught my eye – dusty Gameboys, joysticks and battered paraphernalia that were enough to pique my interest.

My hands ached, my fingers itched to be wrapped around a pad and my eyes were nearly watering at the vague thought of spending so long in front of a TV playing, that my eyeballs felt like they were going to fall out.

Inside, the store was one of the tiny ones with barely enough room to swing a nyan cat. In the center of the store was a glass cabinet with shelves filled with Gameboy cartridges (good God, that Star Wars racing game looks familiar). There was just about enough space to walk around the central cabinet and the other shelves that lined the store. Every available space was taken up by sets of carefully labelled drawers, display cabinets and shelves, all of them crammed with enough stuff to make the collective Ready Up team weep with joy.

On the left hand side though was the display that was the most eye-catching. It was lined with CRT TVs, hooked up to consoles. The most recent one on display was the Gamecube, which was showing Pikmin. The rest were… well, there was the Gameboy camera which caught my surprised-looking face in all its pixel glory, a Commodore 64 displaying pixels I couldn’t identify and Sonic on the Sega Megadrive – remember those days? Next to all of these consoles were gaming peripherals from fighting sticks to rhythm action controllers, their colourful buttons rather striking in a store that was relatively dim because of the sheer amount of stuff in it, blocking outside light.

Even though I was up to my eyeballs in culture the next day at the Rijksmuseum seeing some very cool things (guns! model ships! dollhouses!) I think seeing the stuff at this store captured my imagination in a more distinctive way. It was a gaming museum of sorts, and I kept thinking, “oh man, that game!” every time I spotted something that tugged at my memory. My hands ached, my fingers itched to be wrapped around a pad and my eyes were nearly watering at the vague thought of spending so long in front of a TV playing, that my eyeballs felt like they were going to fall out. It’s strange because there are some things I never got to experience, but now I’m slowly becoming that person who gets nostalgic over a chunky Gameboy while a younger person laughs at the clunky piece of machinery. Someone with better knowledge and appreciation of retro gaming is sure to find something in this store. In a way, I felt a little at a loss because there was a lot of things in there that I didn’t fully understand or appreciate the importance of. Age is a funny thing. One day I’ll be trying to educate people about why everyone thought the next-gen Xbox was going to be called Xbox720, or the rumours that were flying around about the Playstation 4. One day, I’ll be trying to explain why it was so weird to a lot of people that Sonic was a Nintendo exclusive.

And not only that, but Mario can run just as fast as Sonic at the Olympics.

If you’re in Amsterdam and not too hungover or feeling too much like a rock, go and have a look. It was too dark for me to grab any decent pictures on my camera phone, but check out their website; it’s in Dutch but what they have available is still on display. If you’re in the area, definitely drop by for a slice of retro heaven.

The trailer itself shows a barely discernible series of flashing images, which are presumably of the soon-to-be revealed console itself, presented by the black monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This trailer release comes a mere 24 or so hours before Microsoft is set to reveal their next Xbox console to the world. A potentially smart move by Sony.

The PlayStation 4′s console design will be reveal at E3, on June 10th, at 18:00 PDT. That, for our British readers, is 02:00 in the morning on June 11th for us.

The official PlayStation 4 teaser/reveal/teaser-reveal trailer in all its flashing glory can be seen below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This release is a little more than a straight port. The visuals have been polished up and some additional content has been added here and there. Despite the 3DS release reviewing well I wasn’t expecting great things. I expected the gameplay and environmental limitations of the platform to remain in this port and they have. As it turns out those limitations were just what the Resident Evil series needed.

For the entire game Revelations feels more like a Resident Evil game than the last two numbered releases managed in their best moments. Where Resident Evil 5 pushed the shooting too far and 6 tried to be all things to every player Revelations keeps things simple. There are no pointless mechanics, very few quick time events and a huge, sparse, genuinely creepy environment to explore. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the simplicity would lead to a bland experience but in practice that is just not in the case.

For the most part you will be controlling Jill and exploring an abandoned cruise ship that is more than a little reminiscent of the classic mansion. The story feels a little disconnected from the overall series and ties up into it’s own neat little package that explains why it’s never referenced but that’s to be expected in what is essentially a spin off. Albeit a spin off that perfectly captures the essence of the series.

I found myself bulletless and near death on several occasions

The game is full amusing of loading screen tips about avoiding things that will hurt you and conserving ammo, remember when you had to do things like that? Well you better because the concessions to the modern games are few and far between. You will run out of ammo and you will die if you’re not careful about when and where you fight. I found myself bulletless and near death on several occasions that left me backtracking through the ship scavenging for items while a particularly persistent recurring boss waited in a room for me to return. It was waiting right behind the door as well so I actually needed to work my way round the ship in a huge loop to get a better approach. Sure, I could have let myself die and drop back to a checkpoint but that just didn’t seem like the right thing to do, even the concessions that have been made, such as checkpoints, seem like cheating.

Scavenging for items is actually a huge part of the game. You are equipped with a scanning device that locates hidden objects in the environment and analyses enemies for bonus healing items. It sounds like an awful idea but actually works really well, given that you can scan the area while moving and that minimal accuracy is required so it never really becomes a chore. The gamble of getting more data from a living enemy over a dead body can lead to some excessive risk taking when you’re out of herbs.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Alongside the 10+ hour campaign is the cooperative Raid Mode in which two players work their way through the campaign environments but without the context of the story. Points are earned along the way that unlock content and allow you to purchase upgrades from the store. It’s a little mindless but a great way to play and chat with a friend. Just make sure you enter doors at the same time or they’ll slam shit in your face.

While the game is not without it’s issues they do all seem to be focused on one element of play, oddly enough that element, as mentioned above, is doors. Loading times at doors can take a while when moving between major sections of the ship and passing through any door seems to cause a slight visual stutter. Keeping with that theme the slight shake of moving lifts is dis-joined as it seem like the doors are about to fall off.

Faster Than Light is a sort of spaceship strategy/dying whilst on fire simulator. I tried it for the first time just now. It didn’t go well.

I’ve watched a fair bit of Star Trek in my time, so after taking one look at FTL I assumed I’d breeze through it. I know what shields are. I know what coolant leaks are. I know what it is to make love to green alien things.

I was wrong. I should have at least played through the tutorial first. Game is HARD. Here are the bad decisions I made in my first and only four minutes with FTL.

New High Score!

3. Let’s go through that nebula!

What?! The cheeky blighter!

My first decision upon starting a new game was which star sector to make my first jump to. I picked the one with the nebula, because I figured it’d be nice and quiet and no-one would be able to see me. Of course, my enemies already knew I’d make that decision, and had positioned one of their scouts in the nebula. He spotted me and made a run for it.

You might think I’m being harsh on myself, but someone who knows Star Trek so well should also know that nothing good ever happens in a nebula.

Level of Idiocy: 7/10 e.g. Picard and that bloody flute

2. Don’t waste missiles on enemy ships!

THE CHEEKY BLIGHTER!

My ship (which I’ve posthumously named the USS Why) was fitted with lasers and missiles. I’d heard that FTL is a hard game in which resources are sparse, so I decided not to waste precious missiles on this small, automated scout. I targeted it with lasers, and did a bit of damage, but not enough. The enemy scout flew off, to tell my foes where I am. I should have used my missiles.

Level of Idiocy: 9/10 e.g. being friends with Neelix

1. That fire will probably go out on its own!

Captain, there are several red flashing lights and exploding things on-screen.

In the very next star sector I jumped to, I ran into another enemy ship. I used missiles this time. Almost all of them. The enemy’s hull eventually cracked and fell apart under the sheer weight of missiles, but not before they severely spronged-up my ship. If you look closely at the above screenshot, you can see that the little “O2″ icon in the bottom-left appears to be on fire. It can’t be good when the status indicator itself bursts into flames.

Happily, though, the little flame icon disappeared after 10 seconds or so. Then my crew started suffocating. I think what probably happened is that the O2 Production System had burned away completely, and so was no longer showing as on fire.

I probably should have tried to fix it.

Level of Idiocy: 10/10 e.g. Worf in Sherwood Forest

You can follow Simon (@MrCuddleswick) on Twitter here and also slowly by car if you want.

Last time on Star Trek: Listing Life Dangerously we learned all about three things to love about BioShock Infinite…

The PS3 exclusive collection will include:

• Metal Gear Solid + VR missions
• Metal Gear Solid 2 (HD edition)
• Metal Gear Solid 3 (HD edition, comes with the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2)
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Trophy Edition
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (HD edition)

Also in the package is a couple of digital graphic novels which see their first release outside of Japan in this collection.

Strike Suit Infinity is quite simply a sort of separate Horde mode.  The gameplay is functionally identical to Strike Suit Zero, with the only changes being to the way you earn ships and the upgrades for those ships.

The basis of Strike Suit Infinity is to survive 18 waves of various flavours of enemy.  Once you’ve stood strong against the tides you can use credits you’ve earned from nailing kills to hire new AI units to join you for the fights, or to upgrade the units you’ll be hiring.  Enemy transports will also appear during waves and hunting them down will grant you upgrades for your ships.

As you progress through waves of enemies the game starts throwing larger enemy ships at you, ranging from smaller corvettes to large cruisers and other capital ships. This is where it comes in handy being able to hire friendly ships, because you can get your very own brand of capital ship alongside squads of torpedo firing bombers to take down the enemy monstrosities of the later waves.

In between waves you’re thrown into bonus waves that pit you against a vast amount of enemies, perfect for exercising your strike suit’s lock-on missiles.

Like I say the actual bread and butter of the experience (flying about and shooting things) is exactly the same as it was on the original game, on the surface at least.  You zip around the battle… spaces firing lasers and rockets at foolish colonials while dodging enemy fire and trying your hardest not to be smeared by an enemy capital ship turning unexpectedly.

As with the original game the titular Strike Suit is the basis of what makes the combat awesome.  The gameplay is tight and responsive, fun and cathartic without it, but with the Strike Suit it’s a special experience.  You gather up flux energy through killing enemies and taking damage before using it to transform your ship and begin dealing ridiculous amounts of damage upon your hapless colonial foes.

The system for hiring AI adds an interesting little twist to the formula as now you must look at what enemy types will be coming to ruin your day in the next round and select buddies accordingly. It’s hardly an astounding level of depth but it is fairly important that you don’t try to set 5 squads of bombers against a wave of light fighters for example.  That would be dumb.

Following my review and to an extent my article My Favourite Dimension, Darkstalkers is a series that has always captured my imagination and has been very influential in my own personal art. In my review I hinted that part of the game’s strength is the fact that it isn’t tethered to real-world logic, moreover, I think it works so well because it takes influence from the folklore of different cultures but shuns their context in favour of its own world. This is a popular approach in anime, where shows like Soul Eater do the exact same; that show takes Medusa, Frankenstein and Excalibur and mixes them all up together. When done well this borrowing can be utterly brilliant and it exudes a certain authority by having familiar monsters and demons, but takes them into a whole new world.

On a simple level, having Red Riding Hood fighting Dracula is a hilarious and appealing proposition, but what Capcom did with this “dear little girl,” (B.B Hood) was to give her an Uzi and a disturbingly playful demeanor. Her bright, childish song smashes against the subdued music, making it incredibly eerie. Similarly, her colourful red cloak is childish yet alarming and contrasts against the murky, tertiary tones of the backgrounds. This isn’t exceptionally crazy or inspired, she came from the mind of the Brothers Grimm after all, but in this context it is fairly bonkers.

Unlike characters such as; Talbain (Werewolf), Hsien-Ko (Chinese Hopping Ghost) and Demitri (Vampire), there are a few characters who seem wholly unique. One of my favourites is Q-Bee whose moveset is just amazing to watch and really visceral (which I’ll talk about later), another is the alien Pyron whose standing animation is just brimming with movement and tangible energy, however, the one I want to talk about first is Jedah because his moveset and animations are just so bloody cool, with emphasis on bloody.

I did say wholly unique, I think it’s clear to see him as a bat-informed-grim-reaper of sorts. He differs from the rest of the cast in a very sanguine way, every move he does feels utterly vile, sharp and dripping with blood. Most of his moves involve some degree of self-harm and mutilation, with blood spatter being thrown around and one where he pumps his blood into the opponent, causing them to explode. The sharp edges along his headress and bladed wings give a strong scythe feel (they actually turn into a scythe during certain attacks) and have long, downward plunging blades which impart a feeling of negativity; almost as if they are pointing down to hell. Funnily enough, the second of his Specials, Finale Rosso involves a mass of hands pulling the opponent down into a blood pit whilst he stands and laughs at them struggling, submerged in blood. It’s his first Special though that is my favourite move in any fighting game ever; Prova di Servo.

With my absolute beginner, restaurant-ordering-level-Italian, I translate this as Proof of Servitude. Here, Jedah bloodlets via his slit wrist, spilling out a blood sprite on to the floor. This sprite then forms a massive red, bendy arm, grabs the opponent, batters them about the stage then smashes them against a giant contract, forming a shape of the opponent in their own blood thus creating a blood-contract. It’s utterly beautiful in its concept and execution; it’s fast, brutal, creative, unique and basically I love watching it; it’s a move that stays with me and is so sumptuous and engaging that I would pick him, learn him and play as him just in order to do those moves – just to see them again.

This a big reason why I keep coming back to the game; I want to see it again, I want to play the game not just for the mechanics, but for the art of it all, for the music, aesthetics, moves, glorious animations, special moves and endings. Everything outwith the actual fighting itself is something that makes it special and deeply rewarding. This is what a great fighting game is to me, it’s a range of unique characters who are interesting in their visuals as well as their story. It’s backgrounds that are varied, atmospheric and stimulating – it’s the whole aesthetic experience of the world and feel of the characters. Darkstalkers is the best fighting game to date in this regard and should, at least, be experienced for the art alone.

Players take control of the titular hero who, outside of comic-reading circles, was probably most famously brought into the mainstream by Ryan Reynolds in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The game seems to eschew that representation in favour of something closer to the original comics, an approach which is aided immensely by having an ex-writer of the comic series, Daniel Way, on-board.

Those unfamiliar with the comics will likely be struck by the irreverent approach of the fiction, with Deadpool himself a source of constant wise-cracks and fourth-wall breaking asides to the audience. This transfers to the game, with Nolan North voicing Deadpool, and from what we’ve seen it transfers well. The character is surprisingly well-rounded, and both cutscenes and in-engine narrative elements carry a welcome charm and enthusiasm that ends up feeling quite fresh in the current full-release market despite the odd gag falling flat. Sometimes it’s nice when a game knows it’s a game.

The Deadpool gameplay we’ve got our hands on focused heavily on melee combat with multiple foes at once. Basic combos and counter moves (with Deadpool’s handy ability to teleport included) are at the player’s disposal as they dispatch groups of enemies of varying type. Weapons and abilities can be upgraded with experience, or new weapons can be purchased if you want to mix things up, for example you can switch out your standard dual-swords for dual hammers if you’re feeling like you’d rather clobber than slash for a while.

The game’s sense of humour bleeds through into the combat, which happily leads to people occasionally getting kicked in the balls. The playful sense of humour doesn’t contrast too sharply with the violence (this will be an 18-rated title), partly because it’s all part of the identity of the source material and partly because the dialogue and narrative skips past at a quick pace regardless.

Alongside, and occasionally during the melee battles you’ll also need to whip Deadpool’s pistols out and take on enemies at range. That melee/gunplay balancing act calls to mind the classic Devil May Cry games, although what is likely to pull players through Deadpool isn’t so much the drive to master the combat, but more the expectation of the next outlandish sight-gag or ironic jab at the games industry. Beyond the standard fighting and shooting, there are stealth sections with genuinely entertaining execution moves which frequently lead to bits flying off of enemies.

A challenge mode (think along the lines of the Batman Arkham games’ Riddler’s Revenge mode) will be included, and should add some longevity for those with a hankering for more action once they’re done with the core campaign mode. The indication is that we’ll see map packs for the challenge mode available as DLC following release.

Deadpool isn’t going to change the world, but it might make it laugh. It’s currently slated for release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC (via Steam) 28th June, and it will be a full-price release.