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E3 Hands-on: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing off to a solid action-RPG start
12 years ago

E3 Hands-on: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing off to a solid action-RPG start

The traditional action-RPG experience and what is sacred to it is, for the most part, set in stone. The isometric camera, stat increases on level up, new skills, tons of loot with each miniscule bonus making one item infinitely more worthwhile than another, all of that good stuff. Games like Diablo and Torchlight embody that experience, and The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing endeavors to join the diagonally-skewed club. You play as the great Van Helsing’s son, Van Helsing, in a world overflowing with the occult surrounded by the marriage of science and magic that could be considered fantasy steam punk.

As a bit of a disclaimer, developer Neocore Games is still rather early in the development process, so our hands-on is of pre-alpha gameplay. In fact, not only did we have to use a keyboard and mouse to play, they still haven’t decided on how to map the controls to the controller. This puts a shimmering asterisk on all of our experience with it seeing as the way a game controls is of grievous importance. That said, what we experienced hinted at something solid and enjoyable, albeit at the moment not particularly unique. Read More

Shoot Many Robots review (XBLA)
12 years ago

Shoot Many Robots review (XBLA)

Shoot Many Robots was developed by Demiurge and produced by Ubisoft. It was released on March 14, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Shoot Many Robots joins the realm of this recent genre deemed “shoot and loot” wherein players mow down enemies for stuff ad nauseum, laughing all the way (ha ha ha!). The premise is incredibly simple (as the title indicates) but the gameplay is solid, replayable and so magnificently supported by its features that this game’s simple concept becomes the key to its brilliance.

A sad sad day when robots destroy P. Walter Tugnut’s truck takes a turn for the worse when he finds out they also destroyed his house. Walter is able to escape in his RV where he must thenceforth embrace the best of both worlds on his crusade to eliminate the robot outbreak. Him and his three brothers (all named P. Walter Tugnut) travel through farmland, destroyed urban environments and through dark ominous factories to bring the fight to the mechanical menace.

This 2D sidescrolling shooter embraces simple platformer gameplay complete with hovering, slides and ground-pounds. Up to four players can play offline, online or any combination thereof. Each player collects loot in boxes dropped in crates and from robots which they can then purchase from the store with nuts they collect throughout each level. Equipment ranges from regular and special weapons to hats, backpacks and “pants” which alter the player’s stats and abilities.

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Iron Brigade Rise of the Martian Bear DLC guide
12 years ago

Iron Brigade Rise of the Martian Bear DLC guide

Welcome back to the regiment, marine! That’s right, our very first big guide is back for the DLC nearly a year since the original release. Five new levels, two new survival levels, and over 50 pieces of loot and we’ve got the how-to to all of it. Big thanks to our Andrew Crews, Ryan Reynolds, Shawn Saris and his friend Tyler for helping us get through this challenging installment of Iron Brigade DLC. The DLC is currently available for 400 MSP and you can check out our review if you’re not sure you whether or not you should be jumping back into this game after it’s been so long.

For those of you who are diving back in or already have, we’ve got level guides to each of the five levels including what loot is acquired on those levels (so you don’t have to check the loot-specific guide) and strategies for getting gold medals (though they aren’t necessary for achievements this time around) and of course a wave breakdown for each. On top of that we’ve got the traditional loot guide complete with images for all the weapons, chassis and emplacements including all the stats and unlock locations. Lastly we have our guides to both survival maps, both of which provide quite a bit of a challenge. On top of that, each level and survival level have videos accompanying them, so do feel free to check those out if reading is too much work for you (the link can be found in the actual page if you want both). Without further a do, enjoy your guide to the Rise of the Martian Bear! Read More