Spore Goes Dark

Another one of EA's announcements made today was a surprising twist to the Spore Series.

Darkspore is an action adventure RPG title brought out by Maxis, akin to most dungeon looting titles including the masterful Diablo series. Players assume the role of hand-crafted Spore creatures as they fight off the mutated foes known as the Darkspore.

Darkspore will feature three unique classes of five different genetic hero types, with a limitless number of upgrades and customizations available through the parts players collect on each planet level. As players progress, Darkspore builds in intensity, with new planets and enemy forces requiring players to strategically select the right squad and ability combinations to succeed in their missions.

Lucy Bradshaw, General Manager of Maxis Studio went on to explain that the company's developers decided to work on an Action RPG genre title, as a means to expand the creation aspects of the Spore franchise.

The game was demonstrated at EA's press event, and a few more details emerged. For one, DNA is the game's currency, used to boost player's abilities. The game always has three creatures at once on your side, so you can change between who you want to play as on the fly. The game apparently has a Dungeon AI Director, but the levels do not appear randomly generated.

Darkspore is set for a PC release in February 2011.

TEASER

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Alice is Going Crazy All Over Again

EA and Spicy Horse Games are bringing Alice to Wonderland, but this time, things are falling apart.

Among a collection of other game announcements Electronic Arts held at their press meeting today, Alice: Madness Returns has been formally announced and explained.

Gaming visionary American McGee returns to Wonderland as Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) and Spicy Horse Games announce Alice: Madness Returns™, the dark and deranged sequel to the year 2000 PC hit, American McGee’s Alice™. Designed with the same dark style of the original, but now featuring entirely new visuals, story and game design, Alice: Madness Returns is a fun and addictive action adventure set to release on PC, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system. The game follows Alice on a journey through a wildly corrupted and shattered Wonderland to uncover the truth behind her haunted past and tortured psyche. In this journey, players will romp through highly-detailed elaborate worlds, encounter a cast of off-beat characters and engage in epic battles with deadly weapons and sinister villains.

“We can’t wait to share our vision with Alice in Wonderland fans and gamers around the world.”

“Alice is a classic fiction, infinitely rich with memorable characters, places and experiences. Our approach to Alice: Madness Returns takes this colorful world and reinvents it with psychotic personalities and pervasive insanity,” said American McGee, Spicy Horse Games Co-Founder and Senior Creative Director. “We can’t wait to share our vision with Alice in Wonderland fans and gamers around the world.”

Alice: Madness Returns takes place 10 years after the conclusion of the original game, with Alice struggling to recover from the emotional trauma of losing her entire family in a fatal fire. After spending a decade institutionalized in an insane asylum, she is finally released to the care of a psychiatrist who just may be able to help her conquer the nightmarish hallucinations that still haunt her. Alice embarks on a mission to root out the true cause of her family’s mysterious death, jumping from a gloomy and stark London to a rich and provocative Wonderland.

“In 2000, we launched a cult hit on the PC with American McGee’s Alice. Ten years later, I’m pleased to announce American is back on board leading the top-rate talent at Spicy Horse Games to create this sequel,” said David DeMartini, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Partners. “The Alice in Wonderland fiction continues to be a fan favorite all over the world. We can’t wait for them to experience the next chapter with Alice: Madness Returns.”

If this Press Release is anything to go by, do not expect the game to get any less creepy than the original American McGee's Alice nor Tim Burton's more recent attempt at the series.

The game is slated for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in 2011.

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The Unboxening: Speed (Wii)

Presenting the first video in our series of Unboxening, a segment in which we remove games from their packaging or press kits. There is some humor involved, but when isn't there humor involved?

The Unboxening
Game: Speed
System: Wii
Developer: Team 6 Game Studios
Publisher: Zoo Publishing
Release Date: April 29th, 2010

If you are a developer interested in providing 3RM with a game to review or press kit to submit, please do not hesitate to leave us a message. You can leave a message via Twitter, Youtube, or even directly at alex at thirdrateminion.com

Hope we can do some more of these soon!

Weekly Releases: 7/17/10

This week we continue with the summer duldrums, but thankfully we are starting off with the biggest event in the year for Xbox Live Arcade: Summer of Arcade.

Significant Releases

LIMBO (XBLA)
Developer: PLAYDEAD Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

LIMBO is perhaps one of the most talked about games coming up for this year's Summer of Arcade. In it, you assume the role of a young boy investigating the whereabouts and fate of his sister. In doing so, he embarks into Limbo, and the story becomes what players make of it afterward. The game is a platformer puzzler where HUD has no name and atmosphere is everything. In development for six years, this game is lined up to be the Braid of 2010. High hopes and impressions all around.

{EDIT: It seems Trackmania for the Wii has been delayed until Christmas. This puts a new spin on "Christmas in July," and not in a good way :< }

Other Releases
Darkstar One: Broken Alliance (XB360)
Trackmania Turbo (DS)
Fuzzy Legends (WiiWare)
Gravity Crash Portable (PSN-PSP)

Previous Weeks:
7/11/10 - Dragon Quest IX
7/04/10 - Crackdown 2
6/27/10 - Sin and Punishment: Star Successor / Singularity

SOURCE

Mega Man Universe Announced

Unfortunately, the title pretty much explains most of what Capcom unveiled today.

Oh, wait. MEGA MAN SQUEEEEEEEE!

Keiji Inafune, the Producer behind Mega Man for the last fifteen years, announced that he is working on a new Mega Man game titled Mega Man Universe for Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.

For the next chapter in this legacy of excellence, Capcom aims to deliver the most creative Mega Man experience yet. In Mega Man Universe, imagination is the star of the game.

“We are thrilled to finally be able to announce Mega Man Universe,” said Kenji Inafune, Head of Research and Development Management for Capcom Entertainment. “This game will break the mold and challenge the conventional wisdom of what a Mega Man game can be. When fans finally get to see it, I believe they’ll envision their most far-out Mega Man dreams coming true.”

Inafune is committed to helping craft a Mega Manexperience that meets the highest expectations of Capcom fans. Most recently Mega Man™ 10echoed this fact when its classic design and compelling gameplay made it one of the most sought after digital downloads of the year. Gamers can expect Mega Man Universeto bring the core experience fans want while delivering on the promise of innovation that Capcom is known for. Its official: classic gaming will never be same again.

The game was not shown in any way, shape, or form, other than through a teaser trailer, seen at the end of this post. Apparently, the teaser has a few hints about what the game is about.

Here is 3RM's expectations: the arcade systems are the game's worlds, and players, rather than play as Mega Man strictly, will build customized characters in which to venture through the game. On top of it, we believe it to focused primarily on level editing as well, thus one of the reasons the game will not be on Wii. It sounds like a Capcom USA idea, but Inafune is working on it, so we might be wrong. Above all else, the game appears to be LittleBigMegaMan, which could be awesome or not-so-much.

The game will be playable at Comicon next week in San Diego, along with perhaps a couple more game announcements on the horizon. No release date has been announced.

TEASER TRAILER

SOURCE