Since the old thread went dead, I thought I'd get it up and running again!

Reading this months OXM UK, I got reading their Binary Domain preview, A game that had before this been noteworthy only for this picture that had been singularly and relentlessly showed off. But further screenshots they also had included encouraged me to read on, and afterwards, was... intrigued.

In short, It's Blade Runner meets Gears of War. In the near future, global warming actually happens, sea levels rise and as a result, all human cities are now made on stilts. But only the rich can live in them, and the working classes that built them drowned and as a consequence, the rich snobs don't know how to build and repair their cities, and so they build robots, and from here, it's pretty much Blade Runner story, Gears of War gameplay.

If it's really as good as it sounds, it could be a stunner.

Albeit I despise the Japanese obsession with third-person 3-D, I love their obsession with future dystopias. And if the game blows, there'll still be the inevitable artbook. Any word about a PC release?

Here's a piece of concept art:

Well, it isn't listed on the official BD website along with the usual PS3 and 360 logos.

International release date for Windows: April 6, 2012.

There's a demo on the japanese PSN right now (won't be on the japanese XBLA until the 16th, no date for a western demo yet). It's actually really fun to play too!

The standout part of the combat are the damage models for the robots. Since they are robots they don't flinch from pain, but they can also be whittled down and broken apart part by part. BD is the first game I've seen since Bushido Blade to have an alternative to the binary alive/dead health bar. The physicality for melee hits isn't there though, which is really weird coming from the Ryu ga Gotoku team.

I'd have to play the full game to see what the level design is like for the full game, but if there are more segments like that train station in the second demo mission then BD might get a place next to Dog Days on my list of top TPS games.

What do you think about the characters so far? After peeking into a couple of videos I came away with the impression that they're rather bland, saying lots of dumb shit. The consequence system seems to be interesting, but poorly executed as they took it too far; I don't think outright refusing orders in a fuckin' combat situation makes you look good in front of a military tribunal, et cetera.

Well they're an international cast written by a Japanese developer. Sooooooo, yeah, there's going to be nothing there.

I get the feeling that the cast was designed to appeal to westerners (Binary Domain is almost assuredly the RgG team's game designed for western audiences that they announced about a year before BD and then never said anything else about again). Then SEGA decided that they should sell it to Japan as well and Big Bo happened (I'm really disappointed that Big Bo's english VA isn't Bob Sapp). Japanese depictions of the military and of soldiers has never been even remotely realistic, and BD isn't going to be making any changes to that.

I guess everyone and their dog already knows by now, but a wild second X-Com-related project appeared at the 2K HQ recently, and this time it happens to be a turn-based strategy game. Made by Firaxis. You can start the dancing and celebration now.

It's called XCOM: Enemy Unknown and it's sort of a remake of the first one.







Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a pretty cool three part interview with Jake Solomon, the guy behind the whole thing. I'm one of the three people that are actually excited about the shooter reimagining that's supposed to come out this year, but as a fan of the originals this one made my top most-anticipated games list right away in a very privileged position; and that Solomon guy seems to have his heart in the right place.


Other than that, still eagerly anticipating BioShock: Infinite and Mass Effect 3, and cautiously observing The Darkness II (at least the demo is pretty fun) and Syndicate (though apparently it's gonna be a lot less Deus Ex-y than I expected, which sort of cooled off my enthusiasm a bit).

Also, Alan Wake is finally making it to the PC in a matter of days, which is pretty cool too I guess. Especially since it's gonna be quite reasonably priced. Also, no GFWL, so yay.

Shooty XCOM got delayed, again, actually. Now it's expected in fiscal year 2013, which probably means January/February next year. I would find it very funny, and also completely unsurprising, if the strategy X-COM came out first.

Oh, and for Mass Effect 3, remember when Bioware said you wouldn't have to play multiplayer in order to get your galaxy preparedness high enough for the good ending? Well what they meant was that you could make up for not playing MP by playing their new facebook game instead. Playing only single player content will max out your preparedness at 52%, and that number decays over time. I wish Bioware would just drop all their other projects and focus entirely on Old Republic because A) They can't drop Old Republic and B) They clearly can't make anything else worth a damn while still working on Old Republic.

A friend of mine has been raving about the syndicate demo, so evidently even if the single player is meh the 4-player co-op levels at least are very good. Based on the demo of Darkness II I'm expecting that game to be mediocre and forgettable.

Oh hey, Dragon's Dogma is coming out soon, isn't it? That should be interesting. I've always wanted to see what it would look like if an entire country worked on a single game, and Dragon's Dogma is very nearly that game!

Shenmue?

Shenmue was just like 60% of SEGA and the usual suspects (TOSE), though, right? From what I've heard Dragon's Dogma has had contract work from basically every mid and low tier developer in Japan along with most of CAPCOM.

Do you happen to have a link with someone from BW saying that? I find the idea so mind-numbingly retarded I just can't believe it.

So can someone explain what makes Infinite any different from the other two? It's dev keep yapping away at how different it is to the first two, but I don't see the difference. And given that when Bioshock 2 came out, it was just the same as the original, but with dual wield and multiplayer (which I don't play, as I don't have XBL) bolted on, I'm expecting nothing new, except a new setting.

Expect.... infinite wield. Hecatonchires and Kartavirya Arjuna are already announced as playable characters ;-).

I'm curious, after playing the Mass Effect 3 demo is anyone else convinced that the game is going to be another Dragon Age 2 style bomb? Is it just me?

The MP was fun, I'll give it that, but if it's just Horde mode then it's kind of limited for the time sink it will be. I'm also really not happy with the MtG style booster packs for items.

As long as it stays close enough to the styling of the franchise (which it looks like it will), I couldn't be that bothered.

So you're in it for the architecture? That's respectable. I'll fault a lot of things about ME, but I do like its architecture.

I haven't played the demo, but I must admit that the inclusion of multiplayer, the overwhelming abundance of DLC items, and the presence of iPhone Apps that can be used to advance in the game have me more than a little worried. It makes me uncomfortable to see such a massive marketing push aimed directly at people who aren't me. I'm still trying to be cautiously optimistic, though.

Funny. I've been thinking recently myself that I'm going to pass on ME3. Everything I've heard and seen so far has been utterly unattractive.

Gamespot put up a comparison video for the new Silent Hill 2&3 HD releases. 2 looks OK aside from the cropping and stretching of FMV. 3 though, jesus. That is a trainwreck on the scale of Turner colorizing. If Konami had any respect for their properties they'd cancel the disc release, throw 3HD down a well, and release 2HD digitally for $20.

Well that's funny, both games look way better on PC, and they're third-party ports that are like a million years old. What do these guys understand by "HD" anyway? o_O And they couldn't even render the fog in SH3?

Good news (in a way)! Now you don't have to be conflicted about buying the collection for a good SH2HD while also being forced to own a shitty SH3HD, because SH2HD is just as bad! The PS3 version stutters, drops frames, and freezes so often you'd think it was a beta version they accidentally sent off to be mastered. The color schemes of both games have been butchered as well, so much that the art director for SH1-3, when shown images of the "HD" collection on twitter, could not believe they came from a released product.

I feel sorry for all the poor saps to bought it, and for whoever's going to end up buying a copy to scan the cover in for moby.

Anyone heard anything new on overstrike, according to Wikipedia (quoting GameMaster magazine) it's due for release in summer this year, but that's all I've been able to find since it's stunning debut trailer, which I recommend watching if you haven't.