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June Gaming Sees Host of Releases

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Thu Jun 05, 2008 01:03 PM
from the rush-and-flush dept.
Entertainment Games
June gaming is certainly off with a loud roaring noise that should leave your wallet empty and your thumbs tired. Seeing titles like Ninja Gaiden II, Grid, Bourne Conspiracy, Lego Indiana Jones, Kung Fu Panda, The Incredible Hulk, and a whole host of games for handhelds and download is bound to make game reviewers weep with exhaustion.
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Related Stories

[+] News: Early Review Calls New Indiana Jones Film Dreadful 643 comments
bowman9991 writes "Hope this one isn't true! An early negative review calls the upcoming "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" movie predictable, lacking in tension, and a fan's worst nightmare. SFFMedia believes this new Indiana Jones movie could create a similar reaction a lot of people experienced after watching the first of the last three Star Wars movies, 'The Phantom Menace': you wait for years and years, the anticipation building, and then it's so awful it taints your view of the original movies. Of course George Lucas was involved with Star Wars too." The SFFMedia piece refers to this review on Ain't it Cool News. The trailer I saw (before Iron Man) actually looked great to me, so I'm taking this with a grain of salt.
[+] Ninja Gaiden II Needs to Level Up the Camera Work 48 comments
The team that brought you one of the more difficult games of all time (according to some) has come back for another round. According to one review Ninja Gaiden II serves up what looks to be an amazing addition to the franchise, at least what you can see of it through the very counter-intuitive camera work. "The hybrid aesthetic - high-tech Technicolor Japan mixed with muted feudalist Japan - might sound dissonant but looks sharply coherent. In fact, in the hands of a skilled player NGII looks nothing less than exhilarating, and occasionally surpasses any martial arts movie you might care to name. And this is why the camera is such a surprisingly big issue. This isn't a problem with it getting caught on a corner occasionally, nor the odd confusing switch of perspective. It is a constant problem: obscuring foes, breaking up combos, losing track of Ryu, and flicking back and forth between positions."
[+] Ninja Gaiden's Itagaki Leaves Tecmo, Sues for Damages 12 comments
Gamasutra is reporting that Ninja Gaiden developer Tomonobu Itagaki has resigned from Tecmo and is suing for damages in the neighborhood of 148 million yen ($1.42M USD). "In recent press interviews for the just released Xbox 360 exclusive Ninja Gaiden II, Itagaki had repeatedly stated that it would be the last game in the series he would work on, while also disparaging Ninja Gaiden Sigma on the PlayStation 3 - with which he was not directly involved. At the same time he began to make reference to work beginning on a new action title unrelated to Ninja Gaiden. It now seems likely that these comments were made with the knowledge that the title would not be created at Tecmo, although Itagaki has given no indication of what his future plans might entail."
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  • Lego Indian Jones? (Score:3, Funny)

    by QUILz (1043102) <quilzhunter931@gmail.com> on Thursday June 05 2008, @01:06PM (#23671357) Homepage
    Just stick with 'Indy' if it will help...

    • Just stick with 'Indy' if it will help...

      Yeah, then someone else will wondering when the Lego racing game will be out.

      • Yeah, then someone else will wondering when the Lego racing game will be out.
        Nearly nine years ago [wikipedia.org].
        • At first, I read that as "Ninety nine (99) years ago" and had a major "What the huh?" moment.

          I need to lower the dosage of coffee... 10 days of students left... I can't wait for the little ankle biters to go home for the summer.
    • The other day I drove by a Burger King that had a sign saying "TRY OUR NEW INDY BURGER", confused as to what exactly an independent burger would be.
  • On how many products they can fit into a single slashvertisement.
    • We suddenly seem to have an endless stream of non-stories about random events in the gaming world.

      Do we really need endless stories like "So-and-so designer leaves Company A", "Company B says new game will be good", "Game you loved in 1986 possibly maybe to be remade"?

      And I would be very happy to never hear about any game based on a set of Lego pieces based on a fictional franchise ever again. It has too many levels of nerdiness rolled together, even by Slashdot standards...
  • The linked article is retarded.

    June 12, 2008 MGS4

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Neither the heading or the summary help indicate that the linked article is only for the Xbox 360.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The linked article is actually only about June 2-6! The title of the slashdot post is slightly misleading.
    • I was about to say the same thing. Thats what Im waiting on not Bourne or Hulk.

  • June Sees Crappy Movie Tie-Ins... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by morari (1080535) on Thursday June 05 2008, @01:18PM (#23671519) Journal
    Most of the movies sucked, so why should a cheap promotional videogame even be worth mentioning?
    • Can't speak for the others, but I would exempt LEGO Indy from criticism even though it sports not one, but two high-profile licenses. If you're any kind of gamer at all, do yourself a favor and play it.
      • To be fair, I did find that the LEGO Star Wars games were fairly amusing. I just wish that there were a little more depth to the gameplay.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by vux984 (928602)
        Yeah, if the Lego StarWars stuff was anything to judge by, the Indy lego game will be great light-hearted fun, and amusing. The devs really have a sense of humor, and from the indy trailer it looks like that sense of humor has been preserved.

        I'm looking forward to more lego tie-ins in this series. In addition to the Indy, there's also a lego-batman game coming out too -- apparently its based more on the animated series/comics rather than being a direct movie tie-in. (So much the better if you ask me...)
  • The articles title: "Shippin' Out June 2-6..."

    Did I miss a memo where June has been reduced to a week?

  • Why are... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by AKAImBatman (238306) <akaimbatman@ g m a i l . com> on Thursday June 05 2008, @01:18PM (#23671531) Homepage Journal
    ...only movie-based games mentioned in the summary? Those are the games most likely to suck! The actual Gamespot page has titles like "Toki Tori" in its summary, which is a game that I was far more excited about than any movie rip-off. (It's a great game, BTW! Has a very Amiga-ish feel to it, too.)

    That being said, the Kung-Fu Panda game does look interesting. The real questions are if the Wii controls really work as well as the previews suggest, and if the developers really put the time and effort into making the game interesting rather than a quick cash-in.

    (Anyone remember back when Capcom used to NAIL Disney properties? Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers & Duck Tales are some of the best games ever made for the NES.)
    • Ninja Gaiden II is based on a movie?
    • Yeah, really. Movie games almost always suck. But I hear there's some other game about metal or something that is garnering a slight bit of interest.

      Though personally I'm more excited about downloading the demo for Civ: Revolution tonight.

    • [Movie-based games] are the games most likely to suck!

      Yeah, a lot of movie-spawned games are pretty banal. On the other hand, one of my favorite console games was the PS2 Ghost In The Shell game -- jumping and skimming around as fast as you can in a fuchikoma. Sweet! The whole game felt well thought-out, from basic controls and game play, to level design, and niceties such as being able to replay any cut-scene you've already seen in the game(*). Even the practice mode was essentially a great little sub-game.

      (*) It boggles the mind that publishers ever don

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by p0tat03 (985078)

        and niceties such as being able to replay any cut-scene you've already seen in the game

        Most Japanese games have this, particularly RPGs. For them gaming is a means to a story, whereas storylines in Western games tend to be there for the sake of gameplay.

    • My wife played the Xbox 360 demo of Kung Fu Panda. It was rental quality at best. Same with Bourne Conspiracy.

  • Racedriver GRID (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Aranykai (1053846) <slgonser@@@gmail...com> on Thursday June 05 2008, @01:19PM (#23671551)
    I for one am really looking forward to this title. If the demo is anything to go by, this will be one of the best non-rally racing titles ever to hit the PC.
    Codemasters might redeem themselves with this one.

  • Just say no to slashvertisements (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jor-Al (1298017) on Thursday June 05 2008, @01:22PM (#23671591)
    What a shitty list of games in the summary. I can't really see anything in that list emptying out my wallet or making my thumbs sore.

    • Yeah, I don't know why any of these games were worth a front-page story... Let's see:

      Ninja Gaiden II - Mediocre reviews, sequel to a franchise that wasn't even much on the radar the first time around... Probably worth a rent, but nothing so ridiculously anticipated that it's worth front-page...

      Grid - same. Codemasters makes good racing sims, but this game doesn't look like it offers anything exciting.

      Bourne Conspiracy - mediocre reviews, the game is one big cinematic sequels with quick-time "MASH THAT

  • This is idiotic... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 7Prime (871679) on Thursday June 05 2008, @01:23PM (#23671613) Homepage Journal
    Third biggest release OF THE YEAR, in June: "Metal Gear Solid 4"

    And you spout a bunch of movie spinnoffs? And Ninja Gaiden II, which has been totally pwned by critics and in which the creator immediately resigned from the company in disgrace.

    You just showed your lack of knowledge on the subject, prepare for a barage of hate mail.

    • And you spout a bunch of movie spinnoffs? And Ninja Gaiden II
      Grid's a movie?
      • Not sure what Grid is, can't comment on it... but I haven't heard much buzz about it, so I don't know why it's reliavant.
        • Grid is the third racing game of the TOCA street-racing series from Codemasters. To compare, DiRT was originally to be Colin McRae Rally.

          I actually was not sure; I haven't kept up with all the movie releases lately. (I had to RTFA.)
    • While I'll agree that there is a good chance most of the games on that list will be pure shit.

      The only issue with NG2 that I have seen is the camera. Its typically been give reviews in the 80 to 90 range. Besides being a bit of a retread of all the other 3d NG games, it a fun game.

      I'm also fairly certain you have no idea why Igitaki left that company.
      • For a major series with the weight and respect of Ninja Gaiden, 81 is about the lowest you'd ever expect to see. Main installments of large series get just about an automatic pass into the 80+ percentile range, so an 81 for a large series game is pretty bad. For a smaller series or a non-series game, an 81% is not bad at all, however.
        • What's wrong with an 81 for any game? To me an 81 says that the game is good, if not great. Just because a game doesn't score a 95 doesn't mean it's not worth playing. Plus your double standard of whether a game is part of a "large series" or not is one of the big problems with game reviews these days.

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by 7Prime (871679)
            You're too trusting of video game reviewers to be non-biased, and non-paid-off. The bigger the game, the more weight is put on game reviewers to review them favorably. There's both financial pressure from game companies, and psychological pressure from outside the industry. When was the last time that a Final Fantasy scored a meta-review of below 90%... how many of them deserve that? I'm a huge FF fan, but even I'll admit that some (particularly FFX and FF12 IMO) didn't warrent that high a score.

            All I'm say
            • Actually I don't trust video game reviewers at all. I just think that the concept of inflated game reviews is horrible. To me, an 81 says: "this is a good solid game, not perfect, but it's good." However, to the industry it's nearly the opposite. Why have a scale of 100 points when people only respect 10 of them.

  • Lego Indian Jones? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Kingrames (858416) on Thursday June 05 2008, @01:34PM (#23671785)
    Does he answer tech support calls?
  • Metal Gear Solid 4 [konami.jp] is also an important June release.
  • However, that's a good thing! I have many old games that I need to finish (a few to start!) and play online, but not enough free time (0-2 hours a week). Ugh!

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Altus (1034)

      But man... goldeneye was a damn good game.

      All of the lego starwars games I have played have been very good. I wouldn't be surprised if the Indiana Jones game was as well. Even if it is based on a movie.

      • I wouldn't be surprised if the Indiana Jones game was as well.
        I'm sorry, but the summary clearly says Indian Jones. Get your facts straight next time please.
      • There are definitely exceptions, I can name a few here and there, but for the most part, the chances of a movie-based game being good are very low. Sure, Duck Tales was a great game for the NES, Cool Spot was lots of fun on the Genesis and SNES, Golden Eye was unbelievably good for the N64 (probably the most successful movie spinoff game of all time), and I've heard that some of the Naruto games for the PS2 and 360 are quite well done. I'm sure there are quite a few that I haven't mentioned or played, but a

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