Video Game Saga *

Portal 2 for Christmas With Co-Op, Bodycount Will Have Multiplayer, Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition Trailer, Ubisoft's New DRM Plan Turns Away Paying Players  

From GameInformer.com:

Portal 2 is set to drop this upcoming holiday season at full retail price. Even though the first game was just a few hours long, the sequel promises some extra content for your return through Aperture Science, most notably the inclusion of co-op.

While we won't reveal much more just know the original portal isn't the last time you'll see GLaDOS. There will also be surprising new characters and brand new areas of the Aperture Science Labs. The two-player co-op mode will feature its own campaign with two new playable characters. When it comes to these mind-bending puzzles, two brains are always better than one.

Good news for a great game, but I do have concerns though.  Portal was a mini-game, 3-4 hours in length, and due to it's popularity, it's now going to be its own retail game.  It's like taking a sketch from Saturday Night Live that was funny for 5 minutes, and trying to make it into a 90 minute comedy.  Sometimes you get the “Blues Brothers” or “Wayne's World” and we all live happily ever after.

Most of the time you get “The Ladies Man”, “Superstar”, or “It's Pat.”  Basically something that was genius in small doses, can become awful if it's not handled right.

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From 411Mania.com:

After announcing what Codemasters newest game was yesterday, new details have been announced today.

Titled Bodycount, players will work for the ‘Network' while they try to take down ‘Targets.' Unlike their last shooter, Black, both online multiplayer and co-op have already been promised.

"We're all massive FPS fans and believe that there's room for a refresh of the shooter experience," Creative Director Stuart Black said "Everything in Bodycount is absolutely centered on the bullet and its impact on the world. Our shredding tech enables us to create a different kind of gameplay, where players and AI can't hide behind indestructible cover and rely on whack-a-mole mechanics."

"Making a Next-Gen comback!"

They are taking a good game (Black), and improving it's biggest fault--the lack of multiplayer.  Don't get me wrong, Black was a great game.  It's nice to see the focus on ballistics will continue to Bodycount.  This one is definitely on my radar for games to watch.

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Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition

In the land of Zenozoik, the city of Halstedom is ruled by a powerful clan, one which Ghat has betrayed by killing Father-Mother, the clan's leader. As Ghat, you'll fight your way through your former brothers and sisters, crazed individualists, and worse in order to escape in this unique first-person puncher.

Get swept into a world all at once intense, grotesque, and utterly beautiful, and take advantage of new attacks, new weapons, and a new co-op mode that truly make this the ultimate edition of Zeno Clash.

The bare-knuckled brawl to reach the truth has just begun.

Available Spring 2010 on Xbox Live Arcade.

For more information, visit:

http://www.zenoclash.com

Atlus, bringing you the different, the weird, the fun.  The trailer looks cool.  Running around in 1st person beating people up with your bare hands?  Sounds like a blast!

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From IGN.com:

In an attempt to combat piracy, Ubisoft announced an extreme method of DRM whereby games required a constant internet connection.

Assassin's Creed II, released last week, was the one of the first games to support the policy, and its first weekend has been plagued by server issues with posters on the official forums telling of connection outages.

"Due to exceptional demand, we are currently experiencing difficulties with the Online Service Platform," said an official response on the forums, "This does not affect customers who are currently playing, but customers attempting to start a game may experience difficulty in accessing our servers. We are currently working to resolve this issue and apologize for any inconvenience."

Update--This down time was due to an attack on their servers, and not due to too many users as originally reported.

HA HA HA, oh my god that is hilarious.. I mean, not if it happened to you, but that is funny stuff.

Here's what I said when I posted info on this DRM:

01-29-10  “Ok, all that said?  Copy protection never hurts the thief as much as the honest paying customer.  I know most people have internet access, and most will feel like this is not a problem.  It just irritates me when I buy a game and have to jump through hoops to play it.”

What more can I say?  I was right then, and I'm right now.

See you next week!