Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Yep, it's coming out tomorrow. Gamers around the world are praying that it's better than the first, and so far, it looks like it actually might be. Every self-respecting gamer knows how so many movie based games suck, but every once in a while, there is that jewel.

Tomorrow, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is released for just about every console in the form of a third person shooter. Luxoflux, the developer of the game, has supposedly taken all of the criticism from the first game, and used it to make the sequel better. In the game, you decide to play as either the good Autobots, or the evil Decepticons, I of course will choose the evil. Revenge of the fallen will feature hub-like, non-linnear mission progression, which will allow the player to choose which missions to complete.

Also, it will support multiplayer between, guess who....yep, the Autobots and Decepticons. The multiplayer will feature deathmatch, team-deathmatch, control points, and capture-the-flag, along with some other modes.

Jon Black

If you listen to the Joystiq podcast, you may know who the new indie artist, Jon Black, is. For those of you who don't know him, go here. Jon Black is an extremely good indie artist who loves video games and tours around with his band. Jon made the into song for the Joystiq podcast, which is called Gravity Don't let me go. Jon Black was inspired to write this song from Justin (podcast member for the joystiq podcast) and Halo Wars. Gravity Don't Let Me Go is about an experience form an ODST. Jon Black also has a variety of different songs that you can listen to on his website. He is really good, give his music a try, if you like it, contribute to his funds.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars coming to PSP This fall

The critically acclaimed DS GTA game, GTA: Chinatown Wars, has been announced for the PSP and is scheduled for release this fall. The game will be available for both UMD and digitally distribution. The game "will take full advantage of the power of the PSP system." Such things are; enhanced widescreen graphics, better lighting affects, and additional story missions. No new information has been released on this game, even the Official Gta:Chinatown Wars website says that the game is still exclusive to the DS. We should be looking forward to this great new addition to the psp line-up this fall.

Weekly Recap

Part of my duties as the News Director for Games In A Nutshell is to recap everything that all my fellow writers and I have talked about this past week, so here goes nothing.

Last Monday was a big day, with a lot happening on the site. We kicked off the day with our very first giveaway winner. The contest was the first person to make Josh laugh wins and EvenK93 accomplished that goal and won himself an Uncharted 2 beta key. Brian then reviewed Red Faction: Guerilla, giving it a stellar score of 9 out of 10. After that, we welcomed Nuclear Ninja to our family where he continued on to write about the possible new console coming out in unison with Project Natal.

A couple days later, Brian educated us about the downloadable content coming out for Fallout 3 entitled Point Lookout. Shortly after that three of our writers discussed their favorite game and announcement of E3. Next, Josh informed us about the exclusive pre-order only playable character, Sergeant Johnson, in the upcoming Halo 3: ODST. I then continued on the write about all of the new changes in Assassin’s Creed II and the hype surrounding the game. We then announced our Official G.I.N. Grifball Tournament where you can battle it out against none other than our staff (If you are interested in signing up email gamesinanutshell@gmail.com with the gamertags of the people participating). Subsequently, Josh released some info on Hitman: Blood Money being free on Gametap. I then previewed Bioshock 2 with it’s new gameplay involving Big Daddies, Little Sisters, and the all-new infamous Big Sister. After that, I reported on the more less-known game Singularity, where you can control the personal timelines of the things around you. Finally Brian wrapped up the week with his article about how music can basically make or break and games and then subsequently followed up with an article about the new Brutal Legend game from the mind of Tim Schafer.

All in all this was an exciting and news-packed week for all of us here at Games In A Nutshell and we hope you’ve enjoyed everything that you’ve read. Either way, we’d love to here from you with any comments, suggestions, complements, or even, dare I say it, complaints. You can contact me at JoeyDeeee@gmail.com, Josh at corgon67@gmail.com, Jordan at jordanthehobo@gmail.com, or Brian at Thatchilldudewiththehair@gmail.com. Until next week, remember, anything worth taking seriously is worth making fun of.

The land of ROCK!!!

I've been interested in Brutal Legends ever since it was announced. The game looks really cool. The ideas are new and funny and I am incredibly pumped for this game. One of the things that really made me excited was the fact that Tim Schafer and his studio Double Fine are making this game. If you're unaware they made the ps2/xbox game Pshychonauts. Which was critcally acclaimed to be one of the best games of the generation. Also one of my favorite actors/comedians is the voice of the main character *drum line please* Jack Black. He is going to be the character Eddie Riggs whom is the main charater of the story. The narritive of this game is about rock mythology and the history of metal, Basically a Riggs somehow finds himself in the land of Rock (due to a magic belt buckle) and becomes a rock legend.

This game appears even at its early stage to be extremely funny. It looks like it will have good gameplay and will be quite enjoyable. Personally I can't wait because it's been years since a game has made me laugh a deep belly laugh like Psychonauts.

Another thing that makes me want to play this game is that it's all about the rock/metal genre and that's my favorite genre of music so they can't go wrong there. If I had to compare this game to something other than the essence of awesome I'd say it'd be the video game for the movie Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny because it's about rock awesomeness and Jack Black two wins in a row.

The art style looks amazing like like it'll be one of those games where you enjoy just walking around and enjoying the scenery. Most people agree that gameplay can make up for graphics but I'll take it a step farther and say that in my opinion graphics can make up for gameplay. My reasoning is that this is looking to be a fun as hell game experience combining gameplay,story and an intriguing world together into one metal showing.



Here's some gameplay

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Time Manipulation and Babies

• Release date: September 15, 2009 on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC



• Singularity is game that you’ve probably not really heard that much about. I’m really excited but I have a tendency to draw things out, so I’m going to try to keep this short, sweet, and simple. The gameplay video will basically show off mostly everything that I’m explaining.



• Singularity is game in which you control the time of other objects and people. You have four different actions that you can perform with the TMD or Time Manipulation Device:
  1. Age – Causes objects and people to move along their own timeline, making materials rust or crumble and people to become piles of ashes and bones.
  2. Revert – Causes objects and people move backwards along their own timeline, repairing equipment and reconstructing passageways. You may be thinking well I’m going to turn those pesky soldier into tiny little babies and then kill them; well for one that’s terrible and second, that won’t ever occur in the game. Instead, when revert is used on a person, they are changed in to a “placental revert”. In this stage they squirm around screeching in their tortured state until they perish a few minutes later.
  3. Stasis – Pulls an object out of time, freezing its personal timeline, to be thrown similar to Half Life’s gravity gun.
  4. Impulse – Violently pushes an object or person away from you, stunning them.



• Some ways that time bending is utilized in the game are:
  1. Aging oil cans, pulling them through a small space, and then reverting them back to normal size to throw at a wall to destroy it.
  2. Standing on tree stumps and then reverting time to raise yourself to new heights. You get it new heights; you see what I did there? Haha?
  3. Age an enemy’s cover to make it crumble and expose them.
  4. Revert an empty can of soup, making it full, to regain health.
  5. Revert your own cover after enemies has caused it to crumble.
  6. Revert a chalkboard to read everything that has been written on it in the past.
  7. Throw back an enemy’s grenade with the stasis power, holding it in its current state, so it won’t explode until you want it to.



• So there you go, as short and simple as I could make it. Now that you’re saying wow this game really sounds good, watch the gameplay below.

Music in games.

For a while in my gaming career I never noticed music and it didn't bother me. But as of late I've taken a liking to the music in many games like castle crashers, prototype, and a few other games. Most of the time music in games makes the setting, for instance in Call of Duty the music is mostly shots being fired and noises of warfare. Some games however Castle Crashers being my focus at the moment have excellent music, I'll find myself at times just stopping to listen to the soundtrack playing at the time. But I also find that music enhances the experience of the game like the music in prototype which enhances the intense feeling of the game.

Whilst relistening to music in many of my games I find that the music really complements the situation at hand, enhancing the feelings associated with whatever is going on. For instance while replaying the darkness I was running from the undead nazis and the music was a spine tingling tune and I was genuinely afraid of them catching up to me. My conclusion is that music in games really helps to make the game either a success or and utter failure and I'm sure everyone can agree with that.