Fighting

I wanted to be more excited about Capcom's Dead Rising 2, but I have to be honest—the first game just left me more aggravated than pleased. Sure, the core idea of the game is brilliant (zombies, mall, everything's a weapon…) but the stupid A.I. and faulty save system killed it for me.

I'm hoping Dead Rising 2 fixes those issues, but even if it doesn't, this trailer has upped my interest almost exponentially. If you jump to the 1:51 mark, you'll see hero Chuck sporting dual chainsaws on a wooden stick—and it may be the coolest thing ever. Not to be outdone, he then straps two chainsaws to his motorcycle, and the zombie slaughter kicks into high gear. I have to be honest, I'll put up with a lot of suck for the opportunity to run around as a dual-saber chainsaw slinging Darth Maul wannabe killing hordes of the undead. This, my friends, is why I love being a gamer.

News broke a few days ago that Dante's Inferno would be coming to the PlayStation Portable as well as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Details were pretty scarce (and still are), but thanks to the guys at Kotaku, we can now look at the first two screens of the portable version.

All in all, I think they look good. Anyone expecting the PSP screens to look like the console version ones is clearly delusional. Both of those shots look better than PS2 quality to me, so my hopes are still high.

Expect Dante's Inferno to send you to Hell sometime next year.

Electronic Arts' Dante's Inferno started a Hollywood bidding war before it was even announced. Now, it's not only being adapted as a live-action film for the big screen, it's getting an animated feature as well. That's pretty impressive for a brand new IP…

Variety is reporting that EA will once again team up with Starz Entertainment (the tandem was responsible for the animated Dead Space spinoff Dead Space: Downfall).

According to the article:

Dante's Inferno will mirror the game's plot and follow Dante's journey through the nine circles of Hell—limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery—in search of his true love, Beatrice.

"The animated feature will be a great companion piece to the game," said Jonathan Knight, executive producer and creative director for Dante's Inferno. "The feature will explore aspects of the poem that the game does not, and will provide more insight into the characters and the unique story adaptation that the game has established."

OSHA-Approved Kombat

HIGH People want to play a game as Batman. This game allows them to do that.

LOW The fatalities are universally terrible.

WTF Here's a memo, Midway. I own this game. I'm not standing in an arcade with people in line to play. So, if I want to pause the game so I can look up a website to find out how to do Batman's… ugh…"Heroic Brutality"… then I should damn well be able to pause the game.

Not the preciousss...

HIGH Finishing the game in two sessions and ending the agony ASAP.

LOW The entire project feels undercooked in every way.

WTF A bunch of f'ing hobbits take down the Balrog?!?

Am I the only person who's not completely bowled over by Street Fighter IV? I had a mad urge to run out and pick up a brand-new copy on the release day, but I held out in an effort to stick to my budget, and wow... I'm glad that I did. I finally got a chance to put some time into it and I've got to say, it left me a little cold.

For some reason, I thought the graphics would be better (and yes, I'm playing on an HD set). It's not just the resolution or whatever, it's that the actual art direction is just weird. The characters look kind of cartoony, kind of not… it's just odd. Besides that, the hit detection seems kind of wonky to me and I've got to be honest in saying that none of the characters really float my boat. Rufus, especially—I mean, how did that guy ever get off the drawing board at Capcom R&D?

Zombies, bikinis and swords, oh my!

 HIGH Going into "Rampage" mode and unleashing a serious can of whoop-ass on a horde of zombies while watching their blood and limbs splatter across the screen.

LOW Wasting too much time trying to execute a "Cool" 12-hit combo before realizing it's insanely impossible for gamers without super-human timing skills.

WTF Where does Aya find the time to wax between all the zombie slaying?