Red vs Blue? It's like they WANT their own machinima series

EA has released a new trailer for Army of Two: The 40th Day, showing off the variety of co-op moves open to Rios and Salem.  I’ve linked you to the YouTube version, as the original version doesn’t seem capable of playing correctly for me (even on ADSL2+).

While there are several old favourites from the first game (step-jump, back-to-back, etc.), the lads also have a couple of new tricks up their sleeves, including a “mock surrender” ploy used to flank your enemies, and some good old fashioned body shields.

They’ve also released a selection of new screenshots showing off their multiplayer component, which you can check out here.

Most importantly, however, the Army of Two twitter feed has been abuzz about the announcement of a Custom Mask and Armour Creator, which is supposedly in private beta at the moment.  No other details appear to be forthcoming, but it sounds as if we’ll be making our own pretty looking face-protectors this time around (I bags the tux print armour!).

Now for those of you with weak stomachs, please be advised that neither these new screenshots or video includes any bro-fists (although at the end of the video there’s something in the “bro-elbow” department).  Viewer discretion is advised.

I enjoy playing games on a higher difficulty modes, it’s one of my many flaws. I say flaws because it’s this self-same trait in my gaming that has me hurling abuse at the TV screen while my wife shakes her head and quietly facepalms.

It can be quite frustrating in many games, being pinged twice then killed by someone you never noticed who seems to have pinpoint accuracy across amazing range. And there are many titles that you can be justified in feeling that the the game doesn’t offer you enough reason to go through that frustration. But I think I’ve finally discovered the game that deserves this kind of playthrough the most.

The Halo series, to an extent, popularised the health-bar free first-person shooter. And while the mechanic works well, allowing a player unlimited health as long as they can use cover to catch their breath, it does lend itself to a certain kind of gameplay. Tanking.

I did it myself in almost every previous Halo incarnation. If you played on a regular difficulty setting, there wasn’t much to stop you to just bum-rushing every group of enemies, then melee-bashing them into submission the moment you got close enough. This is fantastic fun, undoubtably, but it does remove the sense of caution and tactics that you’d exercise in a game like, say, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.

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Did Winona use Ryder-Gate as a cover for her mercenary work?

EA Montreal have posted up images of the box art for Army of Two: The 40th Day on their Facebook feed for everyone to gawk at.  To tell the truth, it doesn’t look like they’re departing very far from the original box art, other than to face Salem and Rios to camera and put their “nasty” face on.

I’ll say one thing however, what’s with Rios’ eyes being twice the size of Salem’s?  I mean I know he’s the soulful one, but ca’maaan!  It’s like Winona Ryder was his stand in glamour model or something.

Actually, when you think about it, that’s not as crazy as it sounds.  Winona did take a big hiatus earlier this decade after Ryder Gate.  And the original Army of Two did have early levels take place in 2001 and 2003.  If she’d piled on the weight and gotten a cool facial scar, could she have bee one of the founding fathers of Trans World Operations?  I’m still waiting on more conclusive evidence, but it seems fairly obvious to me that it’s highly plausible.

Of course she would have taken time off between the aircraft carrier and Li-Jiang river missions to go and play Spock’s mum.

… it probably wasn’t a very long shoot anyway, this story still holds water.  If you still don’t believe me, however, feel free to judge for yourself!

Frequent readers will already recognise the fact that both me and Mark are avid fans of co-op games, and that we just LOVE pushing our interests onto anyone who’ll listen!

With that in mind, I highly suggest that everyone check out the new trailer for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising over on Giant Bomb.  It shows off a lot of the neat co-op features the game will offer, and best of all, IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IT WILL SUPPORT SPLIT-SCREEN!

So it’s already a hit in our books.

No footage of any dragons actually being shot yet, but I’m sure there’ll be a trailer for that part soon.

Sneak a peek (and fuck you, I’m a dragon)

I downloaded the Lost Planet 2 demo on the basis of one little hyphenated word: co-op.  Of course, as usual, I’ve managed to grab myself an online co-op game as opposed to a split-screen one.

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Oh, "Army of Two", I get it

OK, so here’s the thing, for all those who need to catch up on the action: Salem and Rios are two mercenaries, who worked together for the private military. They worked together, thus making them an army of two. Two people.

With me so far?

OK, good. Now at the end of the first Army Of Two, Salem and Rios had uncovered the corruption of the private military that was hiring them, and decided to start their own PMC: Trans-World Operations. Which now makes them … wait for it … the army of TWO.

In related news, it turns out that One Piece is actually the name of the treasure, and can be found on the Grand Line.

More to the point, true to their Twitter’d word, the Army of Two site has confirmed a release date of January 12, 2010, for Army of Two: The 40th Day (or Jan 8th for the EU!). It joins the likes of … well, almost every game we were looking forward to this year, being released the first quarter of next year.

As a little bit of a bonus, people who pre-order the game will be rewarded with that game’s multiplayer “Extraction” mode before all the regular schmucks get it (which will be around a month later, if I understand it correctly). Apparently …

‘Extraction’ mode pits a team of four players against a series of unique enemy waves as they move from point to point in the ruined city.

… or so says almighty Twitter, anyhow. I’m not certain what difference a month makes to anyone’s decision to pre-order, but if you’re probably going to pre-order anyway (like I am), well you might as well get something for it.

Check out the announcement on the Ao2 blog.

My mind was inexplicably drawn to this image

Saw this one over on GamerLimit and couldn’t help but repost.

So when EA Montreal made the original Army of Two, they comissioned a weapons design contest from the fans to include in the game itself.  The winning designs, the SAL-86 and the BST-V1 were included as unlockable content with the original game.

Well now that the sequel is coming closer and closer to release, they’ve announced they’ll be running the very same contest this time around two.  The challenge?  Design EA a weapon that they can include into Army of Two: the 40th Day.  The site includes the usual set of rules and regulations: the weapon must be at least feasible to the current era, be able to be implemented into the game and not include any trademark material.

The parameters are kind of wide open, but if the last game’s winners are anything to go by, they’re not going to be looking for tactical innovations like the double-barrel broadsword launcher.  Which is a pity, I could see Rios taking to one of those.

Peruse the details.  If I could imagine any new weapon that didn’t somehow have a medieval one attached, I’d probably totally enter.  Oooh, I know, the Gunblade!  Wait a second … curse you Final Fantasy!

After a couchbound day today playing Armored Core For Answer I’ve decided that not all games translate well from Japanese (and no, I’m not just talking about the odd title).  I’ll toss up a review shortly, but here’s something that has been bothering me lately.

The actual reason that I’ve been playing AC4A today is because it’s one in a long line of games that either Mark or myself has purchased because the box advertised co-op.  Then, once purchased and in the machine, we’re let down when it turns out it means Live co-op or system link.  It happens far too often.  Microsoft’s box indicators are unfathomable too.  For instance, here are the specs for two games WITH splitscreen co-op, and two games without:

Simple, eh?

Makes perfect sense, see? Thank the heavens that we have these easily deciphered coloured boxes on the back to let us know how a game can be played!  It’s getting to the point that you shouldn’t go to a game store without a next-gen phone to research the titles you browse online.  Tell the truth, they whack so much other crap on there, why NOT just add a box that tells you if you can play the “co-op” split screen.  For crying out loud, they tell you when a game has “Dolby Digital” sound (a feature that maybe 0.0002% may actually not support), why not splitscreen? About the only sensible indicators are for the games that only offer online co-op, in which case it’s (most of the time) written in orange so you know it’s a Live feature.

Oh well, luckily I finished AC4A the day after Mark bought it, so unless he’s keen on having a go, he can probably return it for the $60 he paid (he picked it up “half price” at EB, with a curiously inflated “original price”).