I stumbled on this trailer sometime last month, and it struck me as something really strange. Check it out:



First of all, this is the first bug sim game I've seen since I played Sim Ant as a kid. Well, maybe less of a sim and more like a third person tarantula/scorpion action/adventure. But whatever, it's close enough.



So, what do you do in this game? From what I can tell, you scurry around the desert violently destroying all forms of horrifying, ugly, likley-to-have-a-phobia-named-after-them creatures. This list includes rats, flies, spiders, and among other things, snakes.

Now, the part that struck me as really odd was the voice acting. Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper have signed on board, and provide the voices for two non-bug, very-human characters (If only it was the other way around... maybe for the sequel. Are you listening developers?). So Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper will provide the narrative for a game in which you play as bugs and kill things. I guess it's not that far fetched, just a peculiar choice is all. Would anyone have really cared if it was two no-name voice actors? Or, for that matter, would anyone really care about this game if it didn't have Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper in it? Well I probably would have, I enjoy insects and the like. Plus, as previously mentioned, I love Sim Ant.

So, there you have it. Will this game suck? I'm going to go with yes, but who knows? We will find out in February of 2009.




Oh and one last thing. This cover art is so lame, it hurts my eyes everytime I come upon it. It really screams "shovelware" to me. But maybe I'm just going crazy from the lack of Wii games lately.

A release date for the Resident Evil 5 demo has finally been announced, although it's currently set for Xbox 360 only. Those waiting for a Playstation 3 demo will have to do just that: wait.

Either way, come January 26th, the demo will hit Xbox Live. Due to RE5's coop gameplay, the demo will feature 3 ways to play: with the computer, a local friend, or a friend over Xbox live.

This is welcome news for US players, since Japan got their demo much earlier than everyone else, back in early December. For some totally rad RE5 footage, check out Matt's post from last month.

The anticipation is killing me... I decided to browse around the interwebz looking for Starcraft II screenshots. I collected a handful of decent ones from various sources (credit goes, respectively, to them). Naturally, I thought I'd share with you. There's still no definite release date for the game (sometime in 2009), but for the time being I can fantasize about the game's awesomeness from online screens such as these:

The adorable little blobs are returning! The release of Rolando on the iPhone has only gotten me more hyped for the upcoming sequel to one of my favorite games on the PSP. LocoRoco 2 will be released on February 10th. Most of the gameplay mechanics from the first game seem to be carried over into the sequel along with some intriguing new features. Below is IGN's video preview of the game's demo.




On the topic of PSP platformers, development team Pyramid, creators of the unique title Patapon, has confirmed that they too will be releasing a sequel. The release date for this title is still unconfirmed.

That's right. Today marks the one year anniversary of the best gaming blog on the internet, Cats of Thondor. Seriously, we are the best. Fine.. we're one step lower than the best. There's a nice handful of sequels coming out in the near future, including: F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin, Skate 2, and Killzone 2. Will they suck? Let's hope not.

Anyways, here's to another year of great gaming; we look forward to keeping you informed on some of the coolest releases in gaming and technology.

Max found this Mirror's Edge video on Vimeo a few days ago. Apparently Electronic Arts is going to be releasing new abstract maps for the game. As seen in the video they've taken Faith outside of the normal game's city and put her on floating platform areas. Honestly, this this was a good choice. Max and I agree that the inside levels of Mirror's Edge were bland and not all that intriguing; we much preferred the outside levels.

Needless to say that we think the maps look incredibly fun. They're due to release for download sometime this January.


Nuevos mapas para Mirror´s Edge from Electronic Arts on Vimeo.

Here a few of IGN's latest video clips of the hugely anticipated 5th installment of the Resident Evil series. The puzzles look like the standard affair... but that's not the reason I play Resident Evil. However, I'm lovin' the look of the game; the graphics look amazing. The chainsaw guys look horrifying They're definitely going to kick my butt.

The game is scheduled for release on March 13th, 2009, so we only have a few more months before we get to piss our pants again.

Before its release, we stalked Mirror's Edge on online forums and game sites like a creepy high school student stalks his crush. Now that it has been released we have to say that it fulfills almost all of our hopes and hype. Mirror's Edge is a first person shoo...runner. Yes, even though you can disarm enemies and shoot crap, the main intent of the game is to escape from your assailants, not fight them.

The story of the game revolves around a modern world where all information is monitored and the only way to get anything around privately are through people called runners. You are Faith, one of these select few. Your character gets into beef with the authorities when Faith's sister is framed for the murder of one of the top people in the city. Not the most unique story, but I suppose it suffices. The main story mode isn't very difficult if you decide that you are going to disarm and shoot enemies, but if you're looking for a challenge put the game on the harder difficulty and try to complete the game without shooting any enemies (much, much harder). And I'm going to have to say it; the ending of the game is weak sauce. Compared to other portions of the game, it's so easy my semi-blind grandfather (God bless him) could beat it.


The graphics of the game are nice, but could be better. All the buildings look the same and objects are reused all over the place. The cut scenes are illustrated, giving it a very cool style and diversity from the gameplay graphics. The coolest part of the game is how the environments were crafted so that there are multiple possible routes to take from one place to another. This leads me into the best part of the entire game. The time trials.

Once you've played the time trials, you'll find that they are more fun than the actual story mode. Granted you'll need to beat certain portions of the story chapters to unlock the time trials, but it's worth it. These trials test your ability to run through select parts of each chapter as quickly as possible. Remember that momentum and timing are key, so you can easily find yourself beating your previous time simply because you might have soft-rolled earlier at a certain point, or decided to jump instead of wallrun at another point. The time trials cover all nine levels of the game along with some playground courses from the tutorial lesson. For each course there is a star rating, a quota of time you need to get to get one, two, or three stars (three stars meaning you've practically found the best possible path through the course and execute it with minimal mistakes). Furthermore, your best times for each trial are uploaded and ranked online against the rest of the Mirror's Edge community. Additionally, you can look up the top ranked person for a specific trial and download their ghost to see what types of techniques and paths they used to achieve their time. These time trials are definitely the biggest highlight of the game.


There are also speedruns of the chapters, but we've found them to be more frustrating than anything. Ultimately, they are the same thing as time trials, but instead of being quick one minutes stretches, they traverse entire chapters of the game. They allow for minimal mistakes and have pre-designated times to complete them in, in place of star ratings. Note, playing these are like you're actually playing the story mode, so you'll have to cope with enemies, unlike in the time trials. I don't mean to sound so pessimistic about them, but in all truth, time trials are much more fun. Making a few mistake at the end of one of these speedruns means you'll have to restart the entire chapter, negating the ten minutes of work you've just done.

If you're looking for fun game, you'll find it here. As much as I put down the main story mode, it really isn't terrible. The voice acting of the game is about average, but definitely could use some work. Together, the game's nine chapters will encompass about seven to eight hours of gameplay on your first playthrough, so it's quite short. Max actually beat it in a single sitting. I suppose that simply goes to show how fun it is though, right? Right. The first person shooter genre is a very crowded category, but Mirror's Edge has uniqueness to it with an added appreciation to finesse and timing to make it more of a puzzle pertaining to how you can get from point A to point B in the shortest amount of time. If you're skeptical about this game, rent it and play the time trials... you'll buy it then.