Thus far, Beenox has proven their love of working on the Spider-Man franchise between Spider-Man: Edge of Time and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Between the alternate versions of Spider-Man and the original takes on some of his villains, Beenox has shown a deep understanding and respect for the character. Now, they face a new challenge with the tie-in to the Amazing Spider-Man movie. While some major points of their story are often dictated by the events of the movie, Beenox has chosen to open the world up to players much like the previous developer Treyarch had done but has taken steps to improve on their much beloved formula.

In previous titles when a player shot their web, players were forced to let the game instinctually choose an appropriate target for them to sling off of. This was also the case in combat where the foe most often closely centered in the screen became the default target for Spidey to aim at. Now, Beenox has decided to give this control to the player instead with the feature they call the Web Rush for the Amazing Spider-Man game.

Using the Web Rush, time slows down for players, presumably to represent Spider-Man’s hyper-fast reflexes like it was seen in Sam Rami’s Spider-Man film where Peter Parker dodged the bullying of Flash Thompson. During this slow down, players are given all possible targets on screen where they can aim themselves. This can be a great resource for strategically setting themselves into different combat situations.

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Since their inception, the LEGO licensed games have followed a pretty standard formula. Players start off in a central hub where they can select missions to enter, check their progress and buy more characters to play as. After years of this between Star Wars, Batman, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter, the franchise was due for a change.

Not only is LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes the first LEGO game to feature voice acting for the characters, but it will be an open world format. How this will impact gameplay will be interesting as this has never been attempted by any of the LEGO franchise games before. It may be a structure similar to a GTA game where players meet up with NPCs and receive missions or maybe even an Arkham City style where Batman receives updates from Alfred or Oracle, which would make sense using both the Batman franchise as well as the new voiceover being added to the game.

Take a peek below at the trailer and screen shots for LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes to see Batman, Superman, the Flash, the rest of the Justice League and all the villains in action. You even get a brief glimpse of the friendly antagonism between Batman and Superman as well. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is coming to all major consoles and handhelds on June 19th.

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With a game as hyped as Diablo III, there have been lots of stories circulating around the net since its launch last week. The first was someone who fought through the crashing servers and was able to complete the game in just 13 hours. The next tale came about someone who did a speed run and beat the entire game in six hours after an 11 year wait to get his hands on the game.

There were even reports of someone getting a character to level sixty within the first few days of launch, not to mention the thousands of people who took off work to play the game on launch. But with the crazed fandom, there also comes the possibility of tragedy as well.

Tech blog Buildstarted.com was the first to report the first real world Diabo III related death. Buildstarted reports the loss of his friend and coworker, 32 year old Russell Shirley. After not hearing from his friend for two days, the writer called Shirley’s landlady who found Russell in front of his computer, lost to an apparent heart attack which may have been caused by his gaming binge.

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This past twelve months has been marked by the return of long awaited franchises. Whether critical and commercial flops like Duke Nukem Forever or sensations like Diablo III, nostalgia has played a big role in gaming recently. Also returning after a eight and a half year hiatus is Max Payne 3. Despite a terrible movie, the franchise has returned to PC and consoles with one of the most surprisingly violent games so far in 2012.

Gameplay

Max Payne 3 can best be described as an evolution of the series. Instead of just spouting off a sequel with refined graphics and new locales, there is an evolution to the gameplay of this third person shooter. In the early Payne games, Max’s actions revolved around ducking out from behind corners and going into his signature bullet time dives. While bullet time still exists, it isn’t the main focus as it once was. Most firefights play out in a coverbased shooter format now. Bullet time becomes a more varied and tactical resource than the main repetitive component it was in Max Payne and Max Payne 2.

The game also has specific set pieces revolving around bullet time like when Max dives off a roof or grabs on to a chain and gets pulled into the air, allowing him to clear out a room full of enemies in the extended BT sequence.

Melee has been improved in Max Payne 3. When up close, Max can grab and enemy and pull off a violent kill shot instead of a generic pistol whip animation that is seen in most other third person shooters. Also improved are the bullet cams. In the second Max Payne, the only time the bullet cam engaged was with a sniper rifle. Now, these go into effect as Max kills off the final enemy in an area. Players can slow down the shot by holding a button and even unload further ammunition into them, which is a great feeling after clearing out a room that has taken multiple attempts to complete.

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Forget about it being AMC’s top rated series. Forget about Volume 1 being the number one selling graphic novel of April 2012 despite it being published more than eight years ago and seven other volumes filling up the top 10. And even forget about it being the title that made Robert Kirkman a superstar comic writer.

The Walking Dead is now a video game too. And yes, we were just as hesitant when we heard about it as anyone else. As much as we appreciate a studio like Telltale with a pedigree of former Lucasarts employees and titles like Monkey Island franchise and Sam & Max, we know the dangers of a licensed franchise being brought to the gaming world. Luckily, Telltale showed us once again that the right team working with the right property can bring magic on screen.

Gameplay:

The Walking Dead comes to players as a newer style of point and click adventure game. Traditionally, the genre revolved around players sorting through an environment with trial and error until they found the proper combination of items and persons needed to solve a puzzle. Now, The Walking Dead steps up the ante with a faster paced and more natural feeling action oriented adventure.

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Since Oblivion, fans of the Elder Scroll series have asked for a multiplayer component to the game. Unlike linear experiences with tightly driven storylines which resulted in forced multiplayer arena experiences like that of Bioshock 2, the world of the Elder Scrolls lends itself to a more open multiplayer format. Players have already seen from their companions during quests that it sometimes helps to have someone watching your back when a dragon comes down from the sky or bandits surround you from both sides in a tight cave.

This past week, Bethesda Softworks announced that multiplayer is finally coming to the Elder Scrolls world, but not in the way many people expected. While there had been strong rumblings of a Fallout MMO, Bethesda has revealed that they have been working on an Elder Scrolls Online game. Instead of just focusing on individual regions like Skyrim or Cyrodiil, the entirety of Tamriel will be at players’ disposal. Players will have the option to join three warring factions, each vying for control of Tamriel and represented by either a lion, a dragon or a bird of prey.

In addition to the PvP focus of the Elder Scrolls Online, the game’s story will take place a thousand years before the events of Skyrim with one of the Daedric Princes, Molag Bal appearing as the main enemy for all factions to deal with.

Not much else has been revealed yet about the Elder Scrolls Online thus far but check out the trailer after the jump and, as always, stick to The Flickcast for all your gaming news.

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While [Prototype] had an insane world with an incredibly selfish and callous anti-hero protagonist, the title was hindered with some gripping gameplay problems. Many times, the player wasn’t given a fair opportunity in the game world. Rockets would come from off-screen opponents or as a player fled from an unwinnable conflict, they’d find themselves being chased by an ever spawning flock of Hunters appearing from water towers littered throughout the city.

It is a game notorious for many people not finishing because of a unfairly difficult final boss fight. But there was something that kept the franchise alive despite the more well received Infamous coming out at the same time. Three years later and Infamous 2 being on shelves for a year already, Radical Entertainment brings Prototype 2 with some pleasant and unexpected results.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Prototype 2 takes the concepts from the original and makes some minor tweaks to make the game more approachable and enjoyable. The open world of NYZ starts off with just initial conflict with Blackwatch military personnel. Slowly, the infected are thrown into the mix which gives players a much easier learning curve for their powers instead of just being launched into the middle of a battle royal in Times Square.

Combat has been changed up some since [Prototype] as players can now assign two different powers at the same time. With one to the X button and one to the Y, players can combine strategies depending on the opponents in front of them.

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Player created content. The land where the developer’s concepts are hopped up on a unique internet blend of creativity inspired by Red Bull, Jack Daniels and Ritalin. Whether in the form of Half-Life 2 mods, storylines in WWE 12 or levels in Little Big Planet 2, giving players a customizable aspect to their game has become a proven asset to developers to extend the life of their game. Portal 2 was lauded as having some of the most creative and inventive puzzles of 2011, taking game physics and concepts to the next level. Allowing for this kind of creative freedom to fans of the series is the logical next step.

Announced last October, the puzzle editor will be a part of the free DLC pack releasing to PCs and Macs on May 8th known as the Perpetual Testing Initiative. Using the Steam platform, players will be able to create, upload, download and rate creations from the player community. What could this mean? It means that you are giving PC gamers, the most “hardcore” gaming audience, free reign inside the most complicated but approachable world in gaming today.

While Portal focused mostly on creativity using gravity puzzles, Portal 2 took things to a whole new level using light bridges, propulsion gel and launching platforms. Now, players will be able to assemble their own Test Labs using these.

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For many of us gamers, MMORPGs can seem like a huge commitment. They can be time consuming and expensive, and other than World of Warcraft, none of them really seem to retain players for a long period of time.

That’s why many MMOs are choosing to move to a different model of pricing. League of Legends has proved that free to play MMOs with in-game transactions- extra weapons or characters or outfits that players can purchase with real world cash- not only maintain players, but maintain profits.

Firefall is another one of those free-to-play MMOs, and I got a chance to check it out on the show floor at PAX East. During my time playing Firefall, I got a chance to create a character and complete a few quests. I chose a female Assault character.

You won’t have to play cooperatively in Firefall, as I was doing quests on my own, and you won’t have to participate in PvP either. I found the questing system really unique- I was sent on a quest to investigate a water shortage, which turned into me killing the monsters in the area who were causing the problem. A lot of other MMOs would have just sent me after the monsters in the first place, but Firefall gave me a chance to investigate and figure things out on my own. It was a nice touch that I can foresee making the level grinding in the beginning of the game a little less repetitive and more enjoyable.

I have to admit, my favorite part of the gameplay and controls of Firefall was my jetpack, which the entire environment seemed to be built around. The environments of Firefall are really open and well designed. I loved the cell shaded graphics in the game- it made it feel even more removed and unique from other MMOs out there.

If you played the game at PAX East you’ll be able to access the closed beta of Firefall, and the full game will be released later this year.

You’re a gopher, minding your own business, trying to enjoy a nice picnic, when all of a sudden dinosaurs crash the party and try to steal your delicious barbecued meats. So of course you have no choice to defend yourself, tower defense style, against the oncoming onslaught of giant reptiles. This is Go Home Dinosaurs, and I got a chance to check it out last weekend on the show floor at PAX East.

In Go Home Dinosaurs, you’ll start out with one lone gopher. By collecting trees you’ll earn enough coconuts to start building defenses around the board. Between harvesting trees, adding defenses, and keeping track of how far the dinosaurs are getting, the game board can get frantic, but if you reach the end of the level without letting any dinosaurs through to your barbequed meats, you win!

As you continue to play and collect coins, you can purchase equipable upgrades- some will increase how many or how strong a particular troop is, or start a level with coconuts already in hand. These upgrades come in the form of trading cards, and you can equip up to three upgrade cards and three types of troops at one time.

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To say when gamers find something they really care about, they take it to extremes can sadly sometimes be an understatement. Back in 2007, Mass Effect was released for the XBox 360 and PC to much critical acclaim and commercial success. The game’s follow up, Mass Effect 2, would release in January 2010 for the XBox 360 and PC and almost a full year later on the PlayStation 3. The final part of the Commander Shepard trilogy was released on March 6th of this year with, as you guessed it, Mass Effect 3.

One of the biggest draws for Mass Effect was the promise of an epic storyline that not only spanned three full games, but contained choices that would affect the rest of the player’s story throughout the remainder of the story. Destroy a race in Mass Effect and they would not appear in Mass Effect 2. Let a character die in Mass Effect 2 and don’t expect to see them in Mass Effect 3.

So in a series all about choice, many players were floored to learn that upon completion of Mass Effect 3 and whichever choices they ultimately made, the game presented them with one of six different endings. The “perfect” ending would feature an additional five seconds of footage. The six “different” endings however were merely palette swaps. No matter what choices were made through the entire story or even in the ultimate decision of the player, they just received a different color explosion, particle effect and small changes in animation, but essentially the same ending.

Look at the side by side comparisons in the video from Crosscade (obviously, spoiler warning).

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After the initial announcement of Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, there was mention of a mobile app in development alongside the proper console release. Just how the game’s plethora of characters and technology would tie between consoles, PC and Apple’s iOS was quickly debated by the toy and gaming communities. Once Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure was released, players were welcomed into two separate but interconnected worlds where their figures gained life both in a classic adventure style game on consoles and the minigame-centric PC community. Now, using those same unique character codes, players can import their Skylander into their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with Skylanders: Cloud Patrol.

Skylanders: Cloud Patrol is a shooting gallery style game with some inspirations from Fruit Ninja. Players take their Skylander, with the ability to unlock more through either gameplay or redeeming codes from purchased figures, and target the trolls that have escaped into the Skylands. Players group together shots to release combos while avoiding hitting bombs which end the game for them. At only 99 cents, Cloud Patrol is the cheapest addition to the Skylanders library for any player and provides a simple but fun burst of entertainment while utilizing characters players have already become familiar with.

“Skylanders is already a huge success both on consoles and the web with Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure and Skylanders Spyro’s Universe and we are excited to bring the franchise to the mobile platform,”said John Coyne, vice president, consumer marketing. “Now with Cloud Patrol, fans have a brand new way to interact with their favorite Skylanders characters on the go in fun a new form of gameplay.”

Check out the gallery of screen shots for Skylanders: Cloud Patrol for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad after the jump.

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