Pixel Count: What Enemy Needs To Retire?

I’ve played a lot of games in my time. And in those games I’ve stomped on, shot at and slashed my way through millions of different enemies. Some were cute, like the Goombas and Koopa Troopas. Some were ugly like Abobo in Double Dragon and the Flood in Halo. But it didn’t matter: adorable or hideous, I slew them all and moved on to the next one.

But lately I’ve been feeling a bit of fatigue in games, specifically the ones that don’t seem to try anything new and just throw the same tired tropes at us in the hopes that we’ve become too numb to care. Zombies when they want gore, robots when they don’t. Ninjas when it’s time for stealth and Nazis when they want a clear delineation between good and evil. Terrorists when they want a modern game and aliens when its time to go back to the future. I am weary of it all.

But I shook myself from this apathy and decided to poll our esteemed readers on what common video game enemy you would love to never have to face again:

What Enemy Do Want To Retire?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
Continue reading Pixel Count: What Enemy Needs To Retire?

Telltale Games: The Perfect Host for Aliens

Aliens

The Alien franchise is one of those properties that seems like a natural fit for video games. Between a scary, nigh-unstoppable semi-parasitic freak from outer space and ladies (and sometimes dudes) toting big guns in an attempt to eradicate them, you think they’d take to each other like a facehugger and a mushy, warm host body. The recent release of the critically panned Aliens: Colonial Marines by Gearbox and Friends is just another entry into a relatively disappointing list of attempts to bring a worthwhile Aliens game to life.

While part of the problem is obviously due to the choices that publishers and developers have made with Aliens — seriously, the pot luck development of Colonial Marines sounds like a steaming pile of the hottest mess — I’m starting to wonder if part of the problem is also the interpretation of the series as an FPS. Sure, it makes sense — add lots of aliens, give the player big guns, and throw in some jump scares. But what will that accomplish that hasn’t already been done arguably better before by other developers? Continue reading Telltale Games: The Perfect Host for Aliens

Aliens: Colonial Marines Trailer is in the Pipe, Five by Five

So last year’s Aliens vs. Predator wasn’t as great as people were hoping it would be, but behind the scenes Gearbox Software (the folks responsible for Borderlands) were working on a different game related to one of those franchises. This game is Aliens: Colonial Marines and its making a comeback after disappearing off the grid for a few years.

Gearbox just put out a trailer for this game and it’s full of enough iconic sounds and images to get any Aliens fans’ blood pumping.

The trailer basically makes this game look like the Aliens title that we’ve always wanted and hopefully it has the chops to back it up. Nothing against Gearbox, but the last game they brought out of development hell wasn’t exactly a critical darling. If you throw in campaign co-op though, I’m willing to give it a shot. Do we have any Aliens fans in the audience, and what do you guys think of the trailer?

Your DS Has An Aliens: Infestation

If there’s one game that was heavily influenced by the Aliens franchise, it’s Halo. But if there are two games that were influenced, one of them would be Metroid. And somehow, we’ve come all this way in video game history without anyone trying to merge the two…until now.

Way Forward has been working on a Metroidvania-style Aliens game called Aliens: Infestation which will be released on October 11 and judging from the gameplay footage seen at Comic-Con, it looks pretty awesome. Take a look:

[youtube width=”500″ height=”331″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_GnVE10SYE&playnext=1&list=PL24D880CACFB6D62F[/youtube]

Pretty cool, eh? One of the neatest things I’ve read about this is that you have a squad of 19 different marines and if one dies, he’s gone forever. But if one is captured and you save them before they are infected with a chestburster, you get them back. A neat twist on 1-ups, I think.

Does this interest anyone at all? The DS is pretty barren these days, so I am glad to have anything at all coming out that looks this good. GO!