This week serves up a double-dose of "pew pew", as two shooters arrive on XBLA this week; Metal Slug XX and Aqua.
First off, Metal Slug XX is actually a revamp of Metal Slug 7 and not Metal Slug 20 as you may have guessed at first. The game will release on XBLA on May 19th, for 1200MSP.
Aqua is a steam-punk styled, top-down, naval-based shmup, made by Slovak developers Games Distillery. It is set to release on May 19th, for the price of 800MSP.
Not being from the US, this one passed me by the first time, but I decided it was too good not to share. In sticking with the Lionel Richie theme, I present to you ... a Starburst commercial?!?
If you're completely psyched for Alan Wake, and can't wait until it arrives in May, (like, for example, me!), you'll likely be quite excited about Bright Falls, the six-part, live action prequel to the game. The series is due to release soon on Xbox Live, Xbox.com, and brightfalls.com, and is set to run right up until the games North American release. In even better news, The New York Times has been given exclusive access to the first two episodes, which are available to watch now on The New York Times' website.
In these first two episodes, the series introduces the prequels main protagonist, Jake Fisher, and starts setting the scene for the the game. Right from the start, the series is filled with enough intrigue, menace, and down-right quirkiness to draw more than its fair share of comparisons to cult classic TV show Twin Peaks, and is an entertaining watch for those desperate to get their hands on the game. We'll just have to hope that we don't have to wait long for the final four episodes.
In a strange turn of events, likely due to the fact that developers Remedy are based in Finland, Alan Wake is due to hit retail shelves on May 14th in Europe, and May 18th in North America.
As I write this, it's currently early morning, on Friday the 14th of May here in the UK -- which has been officially renamed here in Europe, as Alan Wake release day. So, all I have to do get my hands on all of this survival horror-y goodness, is survive work, manage a trip to whichever shop I decide to purchase the game from without getting over-excited and passing out, and hope that they don't sell out of copies before I get there. Suddenly today feels like it's going to be a really long day.
As a closing thought, I'd just like to point out that, from the above screenshot, we can clearly see that Mr. Wake is clearly looking for something. In the immortal words of everyone's friend, Lionel Richie (especially if you're a blind chick): "Hello? Is it me you're looking for?"
I'd just like to make one thing clear: I never played the original Little Big Planet. I always wanted to play it, but just never got round to it. So when Media Molecule released the trailer for the recently announced Little Big Planet 2, I couldn't help but notice that it looks... Oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Oh yeah, ABSOLUTELY FRICKIN' RAD!
I mean, did you see the sackboy mech? Or the mouse racing game? OR THE SACKBOY WITH THE 3-D GLASSES AND THE NEWSPAPER BEARD?!? AWESOME!!!
WAIT, WHY AM I SHOUTING? OH RIGHT, IT'S BECAUSE THERE'S JUST TOO MUCH RAD IN THAT TRAILER!
After establishing themselves as an instrumental post-rock band – albeit one with an predilection for electronica – on their debut album, The Fall Of Math back in 2004, 65daysofstatic have evolved, with respect to both their music, and their musical style, on each subsequent album. On previous albums, this evolution has largely been due to the band's willingness to experiment with the instrumentation and tone of their music, whilst staying within the realms of their own unique style. On We Were Exploding Anyway however, the band have focused less on progressing their style, and have focused on redefining it instead.
On 65daysofstatic's earlier albums, the band's aim was simple; to combine fuzzy, punk-inspired post-rock music, with Aphex Twin-style beats, drum-loops and samples. With each consecutive album, the rock aspect was gradually toned down, while a greater range of instrumentation produced a more measured sound. On We Were Exploding Anyway – 65daysofstatic's fourth studio album – the band have seemingly left their post-rock past behind them, and have instead produced an album that borders on electronica. In doing so, the band have removed – or at least toned down – the vast majority of the additional instrumentation which peppered their previous albums, as well as curbing much of the standard instrumentation too; conventional guitar and drums have been used sparingly on We Were Exploding Anyway, making way instead for keyboards and samples.
After repeat listens though, it becomes apparent that this paradigm shift isn't the result of the band reinventing their sound, but rather from taking the core idea of their music and turning it on its head; on previous albums, the band's focus has always been on emphasising the rock aspect of their sound whilst using electronic aspects to shape it. On We Were Exploding Anyway the band have taken the opposite strategy, and have used the electronic aspects as the base of their sound, and used rock elements to colour it. Whilst We Were Exploding Anyway is certainly a departure from the band's previous albums, as well as being arguably a more challenging listen to traditional rock fans, it is nevertheless a fantastic, varied album, and one which commands just as much praise as their previous efforts.
Album opener “Mountainhead”, with its combination of keyboards and guitar, sounds like the soundtrack to a 16-bit era side-scrolling beat 'em up, and sets a suitably high-energy tone for the rest of the album. “Dance Dance Dance” starts slowly, and evolves into a throbbing, bass-heavy, dance music-inspired groove, before blowing up in a mushroom cloud of guitar; this is ironically juxtaposed next to the relative serenity of the layered, competing piano of track “Piano Fights”. Elsewhere, The Cure's Robert Smith provides vocals which accompany the hyperactive music box that is the loop-centric “Come To Me”. In typical fashion though, the band have saved the best for last, and final track “Tiger Girl” is a suitably epic ten-minute excursion to close the album out in style. Whilst this is another heavily dance music-inspired track, it remains possibly the truest to the post-rock ideal, and the song doesn't so much build over the course of its ten minute duration, but rather evolves slowly until it is virtually unrecognisable from that which it started from.
Whilst it may seem that 65daysofstatic have taken their music off in somewhat of a tangent on We Were Exploding Anyway, on closer examination it's clear to see that the band are still making brilliant music, and still hold true to the post-rock ideal which they started from – they've just found a new way to convey it. In taking the emphasis away from the more traditional rock elements, these suddenly become much more dramatic; much more relevant. Whilst it may be different, We Were Exploding Anyway is a refreshing and vital album. So much so, in fact, that you can't help but wonder what the band will do next.
You can listen to almost all of the tracks from We Were Exploding Anyway right now on the band's Myspace page, and an MP3 of the track "Tiger Girl" can be downloaded free from the band's Website.
Back to Gamefly goes Batman: Arkham Asylum, and in comes Super Street Fighter 4.
For the most part, I really liked B:AA, and I feel the demo that came out last year didn't do it justice. What I absolutely hated was the way that Joker taunts you over the loudspeaker throughout the entire game. God, that was annoying. Equally annoying was finding one of those Riddler things and every time the Riddler would say some variation of, "That was an easy one..." Ugh, that made me cringe every time. I didn't finish Arkham Asylum, but I got what I imagine to be about halfway through it, so I really feel I got the gist of the game.
Speaking of gist, does anyone else think Harley Quinn and Poisn Ivy were strangely super-sexy? They make me want to gist all over the place.
I just wrote a much longer and more awesome post, but Firefox crashed and I lost the whole thing. But like ol' Bill Shakespeare said, "Brevity is the sould of wit," so here's the gist.
My wife Jess spends more time playing games than I do, but since it's not teh Haloz and teh Mawdurhn Kombatz, I'm still considered the more hardcore gamer (discrimination, anyone?). She's great at puzzle games, probably because she's Korean. She beat every puzzle in Picross DS (300+ puzzles), so I bought her Picross 3D. She likes it, I have no idea what the hell she's doing (again, Korean).
It's an interesting collection of arcade titles this week, which sees the release of Things On Wheels on XBLA, and the HD update of 16-bit classic, Rocket Knight on PSN and XBLA.
Things On Wheels is exclusive to XBLA, and is a racing title in which you race around tracks in miniature remote-controlled cars. The game is set to retail on May 12th for 800MSP. In addition to the single-player campaign, the game features split-screen co-op, and up-to 4 player online play over Xbox Live, and looks like it could be a lot of fun.
Rocket Knight on the other hand, is a a 2.5D revival of the original Rocket Knight series, and has been developed by Climax Entertainment (the developers behind Silent Hill: Shattered Memories), and the game is said to combine the best features from the original series, alongside some fresh new ideas.
Rocket Knight is set to release on the North American PSN store for $15 on May 11th, and will land on the European PSN store on May 12th for the price of €12.99 (£10 UK). As ever, XBLA will be keeping things simple, and the game will release globally on May 12th, for the price of 1200MSP.
As usual, videos for both titles can be found after the break. Enjoy!
I got chills watching this trailer. It reminds me of the Halo 3 ad campaign (and the ODST and Reach ones as well, actually) that was took the subject matter ot combat so deadly seriously. Almost half the video is without images and just voice-over. No ice pick climbing, no AC-130s. No "Ramirez! Go take out that tank with this bayonet and save America!".
Mark Hill Editor, Podcast Host Tyler Miller Editor, Artistic Director Steve McKay Contributor, United Kingdom Giang Cao Contributor, Australia Russ Crandall Contributor
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Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!