Project X Zone: An Initial Look

So this is a bit of big news. There has been word circulating of a major crossover game between Namco Bandai Games, Capcom, and Sega but just recently, a title for it has been revealed.

It's titled Project X Zone (X standing for "Cross") and it is a strategy RPG game that will be coming out for the 3DS sometime this year. While there aren't many details on this title yet, the first set of screenshots gives us an interesting take on what the roster may look like. From the screens released, characters from Sakura Wars, Valkyria Chronicles, Super Robot Wars, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Tekken, Xenosaga, Mega Man X, Space Channel 5, Virtua Fighter, Darkstalkers, Devil May Cry, Tales of Vesperia, .hack, Rival Schools, Dead Rising and Shining Force are in this title. Below are a few screenshots of Project X Zone:

We will post up more information will be posted about this title as we come across it. However, if you want to check out all the screenshots of Project X Zone and read up on the title itself, you can click on this link right here: http://andriasang.com/con0mc/project_x_zone_screens/ 

Mortal Kombat review

Mortal Kombat

Developer: NetherRealms Studios

Publisher: Waner Bros. Interactive

Genre: Fighting game

Platform: Playstation, Xbox360

Release date: April 19, 2011 (North America) April 21, 2011 (Europe)

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Mortal Kombat (or Mortal Kombat 9 to fans) is a return to the basics. All the things that made you fall in love with the MK series is back and in true form!

“The story begins after the events of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, where almost all the fighters are dead, leaving only Raiden and Shao Kahn. Defeated and about to be dealt the final blow, Raiden uses his last attempt to cast a spell on his amulet, now shattered, to contact his past self and quote "He Must Win!" before he is killed.

During the events of the first game's tournament, hosted by Shang Tsung, the Raiden from that era possesses visions of the events from the future; he notices his amulet has cracked, signaling troubling times ahead.”

STORY MODE! What an amazing way to explain the plot in a fighting game! You have to play as different characters throughout a five-hour story that unveils the new and I’m guessing true story of Mortal Kombat. I don’t want to give away anything but I guarantee that what you remember of the MK storylines gets changed in some “HOLY CRAP” moments. This is a clever way to reboot the series and giving it a fresh (and solid) plotline.

Gameplay is so freakin’ awesome! Solidly balanced and loads of fun, with modes galore!

They added a cool new aspect to the game which is the X-ray bar, or Super bar. As you attack and get attacked your Super bar increases. With every level it goes up you can perform enhanced versions of your regular special moves by pressing the block button simultaneously with the last button input you use to perform the move in the first place. If you decide to hold off and not do that you can also use it as a counter move (or a Breaker as they call it in the game). When you seem to be getting the beating of a lifetime you can interrupt the melee with a move that knocks the opponent away from you giving you time to think things through. The final piece to the Super bar puzzle is the X-ray move. This move (if you let the meter fill up completely) will allow you to pull off a mid game fatality-like series of hits that actually shows an X-ray of your opponent’s body showing damage.

In single player mode you are given Story Mode (which you already know about), Arcade Ladder, Tag Team Ladder and Challenge Tower. Arcade Ladder mode is the arcade mode that when you beat the game with a character you get a personal “what if” ending. Tag Team Ladder is the same as Arcade Ladder except you get to use two characters in a swap out at any time style combat. Challenge Tower is a series of various tasks that you pull off to gain coins. These coins can be earned in just about every mode in the game. This leads to the Krypt where you use the coins and unlock art, costumes, and new fatalities.

The graphics and sound in this game is stunning especially since they seemed to have taken the Unreal Technology graphics they used for Mortal Kombat vs DC and added more detail. With the sound you can hear every single crack and crunch especially when you perform the X-ray specials! Lots of awesome in one fighting game!

A really impressive feature they added was the training and tutorials. You can practice the gameplay with the computer walking you through the basic moves carefully, all the way up to fatality practice so that you can learn how to really embarrass your friends.

In the multiplayer modes you are given the Arcade Ladder and the Tag Team Ladder whether you want to do a local two-player match or if you want to take it online. The online also has very little to almost no online lagging/slowdown in the game.

This game is everything that you would want in a Mortal Kombat game by taking all the great parts of Mortal Kombat 1, 2 and 3 while putting it in great 3D graphics and new interesting gimmicks with 2D gameplay.

My only gripe with the game is Shao Khan in Story mode. I promise you that you will want to throw your controller out of frustration after a few tries. Trust me. With that I can say I give this game a 5 out of 5, no matter how cheap Shao Khan is. If you don’t have it yet, and you call yourself a MK fan; do yourself a huge favor and get this game!!

-Jason R

Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition Review

Game: Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition
Genre: Survival Horror, 3rd Person Action
Release Date: March 9, 2010
Rating: M
System: XBOX 360, Playstation 3, PC


For Capcom's first year anniversary with their blockbuster hit Resident Evil 5 they decided to release the "Gold Edition" Resident Evil 5 with added scenarios, mercenary mode, and versus mode. All of these modes will be made available as a download before the Gold Edition comes out, so this is where I come in. I'm gonna let you know if these added features will actually be worth the fifty dollar price tag that's on the gold edition. So far three out of four of these downloadable content has been released and I have some mixed feelings about everyone of them.
Versus mode was released shortly after the release of Resident Evil 5 and delivers with simple gameplay with Survivors (Who can kill the most Majini), Team Survivors (Team up with a partner to see which team can kill the most Majini), Slayers (Who can rack up the most points by killing each other and the Majini),and of course Team Slayers (Which team of two can rack up the most points killing the opposing team and once again the Majini). A simple formula that keeps you returning the RE5 with this competitive mode. To unlock more characters you must keep playing either the story, mercenaries, or versus to build up your points to ingame purchase them.
The Mercenaries Reunion comes with the DLC "Lost in Nightmares" or by purchasing the Costume Pack 1 for two dollars. For those who don't know Mercenaries Mode is a timed survival match against a nonstop horde of enemies. What differs in Reunion is just a few added characters/costumes. The characters you unlock will be Warrior Chris, Metal Chris, Fairy Tale Sheva, Business Sheva, Excella (Tricells President), and Josh Stone. But the highly most anticipated characters are the original Resident Evil's Rebbecca Chambers and Barry Burton. So the thing is if you like the original mercenary mode then you'll just love the reunion. Even though you can't use the older characters from the regular reunion which does make sense for the fact that the regular one comes on the disc and reunion is strictly DLC (for the 360 only, PS3 owners get the satisfaction of having all content on their BluRay disc and being able to play with the new Gem controller). But the one thing that bugs me is how come Capcom didn't take the time to let your new characters and costumes in Versus mode. You are paying for them and versus needs new content added to it anyway since its been out for the past 10 months.
Now for the better DLC we will look at the added scenario "Lost in Nightmares" which players who already beat RE5 would know that this scenario is the flashback Chris has when he explains to Sheva how he and Jill Valentine broke in to the mansion of Oswald Spencer (Head of Umbrella). To not give any spoilers away I wont go into full storyline details for those who haven't played RE5 yet and is looking forward to the Gold Edition. The Lost in Nightmare scenario take around 45 minutes to beat in on your first try. So the question is "Is Lost in Nightmare worth the five dollar price?". The answer is a definite yes. The first twenty minutes playing this chapter will be nothing but puzzles and ammo hoarding. The puzzles are very simple and the last one will have you scrambling around panicking trying to figure out what to do before time runs out which does get your blood pumping and starting to get you excited. Then when you thought you were safe you run into the one of the two enemies known as the guardians (Who eat up most of your bullets and have you running around trying not to get caught in their grasp since if you get caught by one its instant death unless your team comes to your rescue before the deed is done. Then before you know it you lose all your weapons and your completing one more puzzle before you reach your final encounter. So the thrill that capcom has given you with this franchise is still there and since this is a flashback your weapons and infinite ammo do not carry over, which gives RE5 that survival horror feeling that it lacks in this game but surely has in its older games.
And last but not least the final hidden chapter in Resident Evil 5 is the chapter "Desperate Escape" where you play as Jill Valentine and Josh Stone off to picked up by a helicopter to retrieve Chris and Sheva. When way better than Lost in Nightmares,Desperate Escape sticks with the classic RE5 gameplay with taking on the Majini.Since your no longer Chris and Sheva once again infinite ammo does not carry over giving you that classic horror feeling once again taking on endless hordes whole trying to conserve ammo. There's not much to talk about this chapter since it offers any new challenges but gives it more of the mercenaries mode gameplay.
So now the big question is "Is the gold edition worth purchasing?" and the answer is yes and no. If your a playstation 3 owner then purchasing the gold edition will be the best choice for you considering all the added features come built into the disc saving some memory. But for the Xbox 360 all these added features come as a downloadable token, so your better off buying a preowned copy of Resident Evil 5 and downloading all the extra content separately saving you around eight bucks in your pocket.

Resident Evil 5 itself gets a 4/5 since its one of the best co-op games out there, but with the added content giving you around two more hours of storyline the score stays the same with a 4/5 since the content wasn't anything short of spectacular.

Video courtesy of VisoGames