Another week, another awesome edition of VIDEO GAME MADNESS! This week, I finally get my hands on a copy of the awesome new Xbox 360 game Darksiders, give you the heads up on a Blood Bowl league that you need to join ASAP, and touch on some other awesome news bits, including news from Sega, THQ, and Cyberton!
Check out these stories after the jump!
Darksiders Review: I got my hands on a copy of Darksiders this week, one of the first games I’ve preordered in a long time, primarily because of my love for the art styles of comic book artist Joe Madureira, who did a ton of concept art for the title. Was it any good?
Well, I’ll start off by saying that yes, what everyone says about the game borrowing heavily from other games is true. You’ll see heavy influences from Legend of Zelda, God of War, and Portal. But, ya know, does it matter? At least it’s borrowing from the best!
You play as War, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. War’s been de-powered as a result of being framed for starting the apocalypse. However, he’s been given a chance to find the real culprit behind the false start, and he’ll kill a whole lotta demons and angels on the way.
A couple of hours into the game, and I’m enjoying the game immensely. Darksiders is absolutely beautiful – in fact, I’d say it’s probably one of the best looking games I’ve ever played on the Xbox 360 – buildings are destroyed all around you, and the cinematics are motion-picture worthy. It’s quite a treat to see the art stylings of Joe Madureira in moving, CG-imagery.
I will say that I was incredibly worried about the comparisons to Legend of Zelda, as I imagined that I’d spend a good portion of the game riding around on a horse, or talking to villagers and doing side quests. However, at least as of yet, the game seems to stay focused on its primary story, and doesn’t seem to involve a lot of roaming around asking villagers how their day is.
If you like any of the game I’ve mentioned previously, or just dig fantasy action gaming, I’d highly recommend you check out Darksiders – and if you’re lucky enough, you may get a War action figure (Best Buy or GameCrazy), or a graphic novel featuring art from World of Warcraft artist Ludo Lullabi (Gamestop).
News bites:
(click article headings for links to the source)
Blood Bowl: Remember The Wizard Sleeve? Our column from Luke, from The Podge Cast? Well, Luke is a big fan of Blood Bowl, and The Podge Cast has started up its own Blood Bowl League! It’s already started, but you can join at any time! Check out all the details on the Podge Cast Message Boards!
No more Wii Mature Titles from Sega: Despite being good games, sales on Madworld and House of the Dead: Overkill, as well as EA’s Dead Space: Extraction, all for the Wii, pretty much stunk. Sega has said that they probably won’t jump on any more M-Rated titles for the Wii since apparently if it doesn’t involve dancing around like an idiot in front of your TV screen, it doesn’t sell.
Metro 2033 – Russian Survival Horror: Though advertised as a survival horror game, the new game from THQ actually looks more like a FEAR-type first person shooter, with some horror thrown in for good measure. You get a good idea of the type of suspense you’re in for in the introductory trailer below, which hints at monsters and insane guys with hockey masks.
Tranformers: War for Cybertron Trailer: Not yet, but soon. IGN has some preview images from the trailer that looks pretty kick-ass. They’re excited about the title, but the trailer, at this point, only shows cinematic, rather than actual in-game imagery. Supposedly the game took it’s cue from Gears of War – fingers crossed we’ll finally get a good Transformers game.
Comments? Questions? Suggestions for future editions of Video Game Madness? Post ‘em in the comments section below!