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• Screen Test: Blood of Bahamut

  Since its launch in 2004, Square-Enix has developed over thirty games for the Nintendo DS. Thirty. They haven’t made that many games for the Playstation 2, a system that’s existed for almost twice as long. Damn. Want to know the worst part? Approximately one tenth of their total output on the Nintendo DS is original IP. This would be troubling if it weren’t for the fact that one of those original games, namely The World Ends With You, is one of the best games made in the history of the publisher. I mean across Square, Enix, and Taito. TWEWY is that good. Blood of Bahamut, the forthcoming Nintendo DS original IP from S-E, is worth taking a look at solely because it’s something new. Convenient then that it also looks awesome. Read More... Posted Mar 24 2009, 04:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, the world ends with you, nintendo ds, screen test, taito, square-enix, blood of bahamut

• Screen Test: Mars

  Videogames teach you lots of things. For example, after renting Dragon Warrior as a tot, I realized that I needed to read every word that was in front of me. At five years old, I understood that dragons and warriors were totally sweet, but I did not intuit that the word “stairs” would actually assist me in using stairs in the game. Games have also taught me important lessons about our solar system and astronomy in general. For example, I know that manned expeditions to Mars are a bad idea. Mars is filled with gateways to hell and is overrun with demons, you see. It would be bad to go there. Thank you, games.  Mars, from French developer Spiders Games, serves as a helpful reminder for anyone who forgot the enlightening tutorials provided by Doom and its sequels. Mars is an action RPG for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC featuring exciting action combat and QTEs! The world of Mars “is unprecedented, not at all like normal mythological or fantasy worlds, offering a journey in a credible futuristic world where survival and the ability to adapt are keys to be able to withstand a hostile, desperate and decadent environment.” A credible futuristic world full of… demons. It also happens to look like a Dreamcast game. Read More... Posted Mar 11 2009, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, screen test, doom, dragon warrior, mars, spiders games

• Screen Test: Brütal Legend

  It's getting close. The release of 61FPS Grade-A Highly Anticipated Title Brütal Legend is almost here. According to designer-god Tim Schafer, all of the game's concept art was created to resemble a heavy metal album cover. Each piece had to amp up the testosterone, grit and thunder for which the genre is known. Here are some wonderful screens that prove his team succeeded in his goal.  Read More... Posted Feb 11 2009, 10:30 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: screen test, cole stryker, tim schafer, brutal legend

• Screen Test: Battle Rage

  I miss you, Virtual On. We used to have some good times together. Whenever I see a giant robot blowing up another giant robot, I think of your shimmering façade and the delightful competitions we engaged in, oh so long ago. Do you think of me too, Virtual On? Do you imagine us, twin-sticks in hand, trading shots across sun-drenched battlegrounds, strafing about one another with our hearts on our sleeves? Or have you forgotten our love, drowned beneath a thousand closed arcades and forgotten console ports? When I look at Battle Rage, I think of you, and wonder if I can find comfort in the arms of another. *ahem* Up until a few hours ago, I had never even heard of Battle Rage. If the screens don’t make it clear, Battle Rage is a Wii game about giant robots beating the crap out of each other. It’s made by Polish studio Destan and it reminds me a lot of Virtual On, almost entirely because of the similarity between the robot in the following shot and Temjin. Read More... Posted Feb 05 2009, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, screen test, sega, virtual on, battle rage

• Screen Test: Ghostbusters

  Ghostbusters: The Videogame is a videogame based on Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters is a movie. Or a documentary shot in real-time, depending on who you ask. Ghostbusters: The Videogame, had it been a movie/documentary, would have been called Ghostbusters 3 as it follows the events of Ghostbusters 2 and the adventures of beloved characters like Ray, Winston, Egon, and Venkman. Yeah, that’s right. I’m on a first name basis with the ‘Busters. We hang out on weekends. We go to Coney Island and swim together. It’s awesome. Their videogame is going to be awesome. You’ll see! *runs away crying* Anyway *sniff* these new shots of Ghostbusters: The Videogame are exciting. Read More... Posted Jan 22 2009, 05:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, screen test, Ghostbusters, dan ackroyd, atari, bill murray, william Atherton, walter peck, ghostbusters 3, stay puft

• Screen Test: Duke Nukem Forever

  Sigh. I know, guys. I know. We have absolutely no reason to believe that these screens are anything other than an elaborate cosmic joke, crafted by some demigod for his own amusement. We humans grasp at futile hopes, we ascribe spiritual value to mere trinkets in a vain search for meaning in a cold, terrifying world. We pen novels, canonizing the playthings of our collective childhoods, failing to bring a shred of order to the screaming chaos that defines our existence. High-res tits... after the jump! Read More... Posted Dec 19 2008, 04:30 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: screen test, cole stryker, duke nukem

• Screen Test: Uncharted 2 – Among Thieves

  Awwww yeah, it’s a double dose of Screen Test to go with your double dip of Trailer Reviews here at 61FPS. You know how we do. These screens made me ridiculously excited for two reasons. One, they’ve given me yet another excuse to talk about the unfettered delights of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted. Uncharted is awesome. Two, these screens are gorgeous. The teaser and full trailer shown at the Spike Videogame Awards for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves were wonderful looking, but devoid of gameplay. They also seemed to imply that, like the original, the Uncharted sequel would be bound to a fairly one-note setting, trading lush jungles for frozen mountains. These screens, however, are all gameplay, showing off Uncharted’s trademark shoot-outs and limber platforming. They also imply that Uncharted 2 will be more diverse in its settings, considering all of these shots take place in a crunchy, dilapidated urban sprawl with nary a snowflake in sight. Read More... Posted Dec 15 2008, 07:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, screen test, naughty dog, Uncharted 2, among thieves

• Screen Test: Takahashi's Nobi Nobi Boy

  Wait, a second. Is that Pedobear? Eccentric Katamari mastermind Keisha Takahashi has announced that his new game, Nobi Nobi Boy will hit the west sometime in early 2009 at around $9(USD). We're all a little bit confused as to how this game is going to work, and these new screens do little to shed light on the game's core mechanics.  More Takashi Murakami-esque screens and a few very different videos after the jump: Read More... Posted Dec 15 2008, 01:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: screen test, katamari damacy, cole stryker, playstation network, nobi nobi boy, keisha takahashi

• Screen Test: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

  Okay, okay. Look. I am, in spite of myself, pretty interested in MK vs. DCU. The positive impressions coming out of E3, the neat fight-ninjas-whilst-plummeting-from-a-cliff play, hell, even the Joker’s fatality have all made the game sound like it might be fun. I can imagine Mortal Kombat being fun again. Not great, but fun, certainly. Here’s the thing, though. You do not put a screenshot of your game on the internet that has Wonder Woman looking like she’s the one who both smelt and dealt it. You do not have the word “RAGE!” appear above her in that screenshot. Read More... Posted Oct 23 2008, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, screen test, mortal kombat, midway, wonder woman, joker, mk vs dcu, dc comics

• Screen Test: Oboro Muramasa

  NTBUMMYAB*, I was one of those goons who spent the late ‘90s ogling issues of Gamefan like they were hardcore pornography. Dave Halverson’s unhinged hyperbole describing the latest 2D treasure (typically made by Treasure) to hit the Japanese Sega Saturn was intoxicating, and the sprite art for these games was downright titillating. These were games that I would never get to play, unattainable ideals perpetually out of reach, a full continent, ocean, and language away from me. What? Yes, I had a girlfriend at the time. She was real. Anyway, I eventually did get to play many of the games I lusted after, though one of them I’ve never been able to fully enjoy. Vanillaware’s Princess Crown was and still is a sight to behold, its giant, graceful sprites one of gaming’s finest hand drawn achievements. Even though I’ve played it a number of times, I still have no clue what the story is about since it’s never received an English translation (and never will, since the code’s been lost.) Fortunately, Vanillaware has re-emerged in the past two years and their most recent games, Princess Crown’s pseudo-sequel Odin Sphere and SRPG GrimGrimoire, are just as beautiful as their forebear and fully available in the one language I’ve managed to partially learn. Their next sidescrolling tour-de-force, Oboro Muramasa for Wii, well, it doesn’t even look real. Look at these screens? This is like some kind of ridiculous fever dream about what 2D games might look like in the awesome-future. Read More... Posted Oct 02 2008, 06:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, screen test, sega saturn, grim grimoire, princess crown, treasure, Vanillaware, oboro muramasa

• Screen Test: Fable 2

  For all of the hate the original Fable got for not living up to Peter Molyneux’s wild claims about how the game’s role-playing would provide a nigh on life changing level of depth and complexity, I adored it. It was a perfectly paced little nugget of fun, about fifteen hours of content, satisfying combat, and some neat (for its time) character customization. Even if it didn’t quite let you live the full hero’s life it originally promised to, it still offered some impressive opportunity for moral choice in a game world, choices whose consequences are far more interesting than the ones found in similar games five years later. I’m still not too sure what to expect from Fable 2. I feel as though its been flying under the press radar since it was announced. Even though its all but done right now, no preview or interview has given a sense of what the full game experience is going to be like. Right now, it just sounds like Fable but bigger. These screens certainly bear that out. As always, Lionhead bangs out some pleasantly exaggerated human caricatures, homey looking fantasy villages and forests, and some nice and spooky enemies. Maybe that’s why Fable 2 is still flying under the radar. Instead of being billed as a paradigm-altering juggernaut, it’s being sold as what it looks like: videogame comfort food. Catch the rest after the jump. Read More... Posted Sep 15 2008, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, microsoft, xbox 360, screen test, peter molyneux, fable

• Screen Test: Dissidia – Final Fantasy

  Soulcalibur IV is hilarious. It isn’t just the character-creation tool's astounding capacity for spreading mirth or the fact that you can watch a bi-pedal lizard beat a gimp unconscious with an enormous leg of lam. It’s the detailed story behind every character in the game that’s so funny. Darth Vader, in a feat of fan-fictioneering to make even the most base deviantART dweller blush, has a discernable reason for lightsabering folks in the 16th century. You can’t help but laugh. This is why the existence of Dissidia: Final Fantasy concerns me. We have, given recent events, been discussing how Final Fantasy affects gamers’ minds at length here at 61FPS. If the discussion has proven anything, it’s that folks take their Final Fantasy very, very seriously. Since Dissidia’s narrative leaps of logic have the potential to be even more comical than Soulcalibur’s, what is going to happen in the aftermath of its release? The answer is internet riots. Trashcans will be thrown through digital windows. Funny pictures of cars will be turned over in the streets. Forum moderators will distribute ban-beatings across the land. Now that DKS3713 has come and gone, people have finally gotten to play Dissidia and it sounds, well, strange. An odd mix of Power Stone and Star Ocean in play, wanton Nomura-fetishism in presentation. These fresh screens, from Gamespot Japan, show that, yes, Dissidia is a good looking PSP title but, at the same time, Square-Enix has managed to make its characters look even more ridiculous. Read More... Posted Aug 06 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, final fantasy, screen test, square-enix, star ocean, soulcalibur, power stone

• Screen Test: Fragile

  I’m as bad as every other slavering fanboy on the internet when it comes to Wii software, ranting about the garbage publishers have vomited onto the system, games that would have been visual embarrassments on the Dreamcast with gameplay that makes Tamagotchis seem like the most sophisticated machines on earth. Instead of a new 2D adventure, Konami makes a Castlevania fighting game. Instead of a brand new Rygar game, Tecmo ports over a six year-old PS2 title. Instead of a fresh Resident Evil, Capcom makes a glorified light gun game. The worst part is that some people are making very promising titles for the Wii, yet no one knows about them. Case in point: Namco’s Fragile. Read More... Posted Jul 22 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, capcom, screen test, konami, castlevania, resident evil 2, tri-crescendo, fragile, tecmo, namco

• Screen Test: Fallout 3

  When the Ink Spots' "Maybe" was used as the opening theme to Fallout, players knew they in for something interesting (Pro Tip: They had originally wanted to use "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire", but couldn't due to copyright issues). There are lots of things to like about Fallout, but my personal go-to accolade is its sense of place. From the moment we load the game, Fallout's post-apocalyptic world greets us a totally unexpected soundtrack, insane characters, all leadened with a peculiar deadness. Sure, there were post-apocalypic touchstones before, but Fallout stood (and stands) above the rest due to its retro-futurist aesthetic and gallows humor. Those who think Bioshock did it first better recognize. More after the jump. Read More... Posted Jun 26 2008, 12:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: screen test, fallout 3, cole stryker, bethesda, oblivion

• Screen Test: Final Fantasy Versus XIII

  Fine, Square-Enix. Your CG cinemas are gorgeous. After eleven years, I think you’ve proved your point. High-five. And you, Tetsuya Nomura, I get that you like zippers. I also get that you like Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s style. But both of you need to stop showing off images of games that may or may not even exist. Final Fantasy Versus XIII, one of the three games that Nomura says “are all XIII”, was announced over two years ago now and no one even knows how it plays. In fact, no trailer has even officially been shown to the public, only leaks. These screens? They’re gorgeous images made using a computer. But why show us these at all? The game isn’t even going to come out for another two or three years! Square-Enix, Mr. Nomura, you guys are jerks. Gigantic jerks. Read More... Posted Jun 19 2008, 05:30 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, screen test, square-enix, tetsuya nomura, final fantast XIII

• Screen Test: Star Wars – The Force Unleashed

  I’m not sure if you’ve realized this, but the entire crew here at 61 Frames Per Second are gigantic nerds. We’re geeks. Dweebs. Dorkwads, if you will. Yes, we’re the coolest nerds around, but that doesn’t change the facts. I might be worse than the rest of the team though. At risk of remaining a bachelor for the rest of my twenties, I’ll let you in on a little secret, dear reader. There are Star Wars dolls in my living room. That’s right. DOLLS. That might imply some kind of bias towards media related to Star Wars, but I’ll tell you right now, I can be objective about Star Wars. Indeed, I’m downright distrustful of anything bearing the name. Six years of god awful movies will do that to a person. That’s why I’m hesitant to say that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is looking downright fantastic. But just look at these screens. Somehow, LucasArts’ designers have taken the garish neon worlds of George Lucas’ prequels and made them beautiful, capturing a legitimate otherworldliness that’s appealing instead of repulsive. Who knows? Maybe Star Wars will be cool again. Nah. More screens after the jump. Read More... Posted Jun 10 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, star wars, screen test, george lucas

• Screen Test: Alone in the Dark

  As a youth, conceptual horror was enough to scare me into insomnia. Violence was one thing - I could process that as fantasy - but lurking terror was too much. If someone said that they were going to watch a horror movie or tell a scary story, I would freak out. It was right around pubescence, when my capacity for abstraction was growing exponentially, that I developed a taste for fear. Like any other extreme emotion, fear can be delightfully narcotic. After watching It (yes, it scared me. You look at Tim Curry in a clown suit without shitting yourself, I dare you,) I was finally clued into what everyone else seemed to know: being scared is fun. It wasn’t until the late ‘90s, with early Resident Evil and Silent Hill entries, that I started getting my fix from videogames. So those games’ shared ancestor, Alone in the Dark, is an unknown quantity for me outside of reputation. The new Alone in the Dark from Atari, after a couple of years of development purgatory (not quite hell), is looking like it will live up to that reputation. Read More... Posted May 29 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, resident evil, silent hill, screen test, atari, alone in the dark

• Screen Test: Silent Hill Homecoming

  The recent announcement of a Richard Kelly-less Donnie Darko sequel reminded me of a universal truth: just because something’s good, just because that something’s profitable, does not mean there should be more of it. The original Donnie Darko was a deeply personal work and it was that creator’s touch that made it such a wonderful artifact. S. Darko may be end up being a fine film but what’s the point without Kelly’s voice? Silent Hill without Team Silent has already proven to be just as questionable a proposition. Read More... Posted May 15 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, neogaf, silent hill, silent hill homecoming, screen test, jeux-france, donnie darko, climax group, konami, richard kelly, double helix, silent hill origins