Some choice cuts from the 1up Aliens infestation preview

Parish said:

The visuals straddle a perfect mix of brooding darkness and colorful detail. It looks like a great comic book come to life, with a muted yet varied color palette and sharp outlines defining the world.

The sprite animation, of course is spectacular. The aliens are powerful, fast, and dangerous.

Infestation isn't shy about wearing its Metroid influence on its sleeve, dropping the player's Marine squad in an open, non-linear world divided up by barriers that can be overcome through exploration. Doors are fused shut and require a welding torch to be opened again. Key cards lock off high-security areas. Jets of steam from broken pipes prevent access to some rooms.

The aliens can completely defeat you. In a bold move, WayForward has created a game that can be lost if you don't play well. That's "lost" as in "total game over." The player can control a squad of up to 19 marines, and if one is lost, he or she is gone forever. When all 19 are gone, there are no more continues. Losing to a xenomorph isn't always instant death, mind you; sometimes your current marine will be captured and cocooned, but they can be rescued by comrades.

In a way, it's a little like every classic Alien video game rip-off is coming together under a single glorious banner.

Cool, now I need to see it in motion.

edgecrusher said:

Don't dare forget Witcher 2. The game was amazing, definitely in the GOTY running.

I was speaking personally.

What's the opinion on Lollipop Chainsaw, Grasshoppers new game? If someone had told me that was a level or sequence in a No More Heroes game I wouldn't have bat an eye lid. It looks quite derivative of their own work sort of like how Shadows of the Damned - outwardly on the surface - looked derivative of RE4. I like these OTT girlish characters in the No More Heroes games but I don't think I want to play a whole game as one of them. It sort of reminds me of Onechanbara.

And the Last Flight

I guess I fear that it's just No More Heroes gameplay and combat with similar looks visuals and you play as a chick. I guess I want Grasshopper to be original like when they made Killer 7 or the first No More Heroes games. And what was that DS or gba game they made? That RPG?

Holy crap, I'm over 60 hours with DQIX. Unlocked the sage vocation and rerolled a new character for it. Now I'm power leveling my way through the Realm of the Mighty, just beat that pig...again.

gamingeek said:

SteelAttack said:

Holy crap, I'm over 60 hours with DQIX. Unlocked the sage vocation and rerolled a new character for it. Now I'm power leveling my way through the Realm of the Mighty, just beat that pig...again.

60 hrs is a long time. Has this experience changed your view of handheld gaming at all?

Yeah, I'm much more open to it now. Will definitely try out some more portable stuff after getting done with this.

SteelAttack said:

Holy crap, I'm over 60 hours with DQIX. Unlocked the sage vocation and rerolled a new character for it. Now I'm power leveling my way through the Realm of the Mighty, just beat that pig...again.

Why are you making a new character for it? Don't you think it's just better to do a class change of one of your existing characters? That's pretty much the way you're going to max out weapon skills and such.

robio said:

gamingeek said:

This was cool too^

I really liked the arcade game. Did they ever make a home/console version of it?

I never played that one.

travo said:

I never played that one.

It was a classic multi-player sidescrolling brawler like TMNT or the Simpsons. It was one of the last ones before the genre died out and they managed a couple cool innovations, though nothing truly spectacular. The big big draw was really just getting to play as some badass Predators (there were also 2 humans as selectable characters but no one ever picked them because they were lame ass humans).

travo said:

I never played that one.