After waiting and waiting for a simple release window just for the Beta for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, we finally have it.  What would we ever do without Twitter as that is where it was announced that the Beta for Future Soldier will be available in January of 2012.  After getting my hands on the game I cannot wait for this game to be released and that is coming from someone who is not a huge fan of the previous Ghost Recon games.  The game has changed a lot from its previous titles while still keeping the aspects that makes the franchise so good.  You can check out my Hands On Preview and Interview of the game here.  So with the beta coming in 2012, this obviously means the game is coming in 2012… I just hope I get to play it before the world ends.

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Unlike the vast majority of tie-in games, Megamind: Ultimate Showdown is set after the film’s events. The narrative consists of a sudden crimewave led by The Doom Syndicate and their Doom Goons hitting the city which the hero of the day, Megamind, must stop, using his arsenal of weapons. Basically, your typical superhero story.

The game’s weapons are limited to three. In total. The De-Gun can be used to de-stroy and de-hydrate enemies and obstacles, the Blower Glove can be used to blow enemies and obstacles away and the Tesla Glove can be used as a close-range weapon, as well as to control electrical devices. Each weapon can be upgradaded by collecting B.I.N.K.E.Y.s – orbs scattered around levels and gained by breaking things – there are no real advantages to doing so. Players will spend most of the game mashing the attack button to fend off enemies, whilst the game’s auto-aim system removes any challenge.

Co-op seems as though it was added as an after-thought, as none of the enemies acknowledge the second player.

Enemies in Megamind: Ultimate Showdown come in the form of builders, rock band members, and cooks/chefs who use their appropriate weapons (i.e. guitars, rolling pins, etc) to prevent Megamind from progressing. Also spread throughout the game are a series of boss levels, but none of these are particularly difficult to overcome.

As players progress through story mode, mini-games are unlocked. There are four mini-games in total. Rampage sees players scoring as many destruction points as possible while in the special battle suit within the time limit. B.I.N.K.E.Y. Slalom consists of players collecting B.I.N.K.E.Ys. Sticky Boots consists of climbing a building in the midtown area, available on the easy, medium and hard difficulties. Lastly, Mega-Pod is a race through the streets of Downtown in the Mega-Pod with three tracks available all-in-all.

Controls are limited to mashing attack and moving.

As a package, the mini-games are quite poor. While they do provide a slight variation and increase the game’s length by half an hour at a push, they are more than likely to grab the player’s attention once and never again due to their lack of depth and replayability. The lack of depth and replayability is also evident in the single player adventure. The gameplay sees the player often repeating the same goals (such as placing a weight on a plank of wood and jumping on boxes) and even repeating identical parts of the level, with many portions of the game looking as if they were simply copied and pasted to expand the already short playtime.

Graphically, Megamind has not been made to a good standard. With the exception of the pre-rendered opening and ending sequence which are fantastic quality, matching what you’d see at the cinema, the remainder of the game’s graphics are quite poor, especially the lack of detail. As for the audio, the inclusion of Jonah Hill as a voice actor (from the film itself) makes up for the weak soundtrack.

Not only was this a bad game, but it was a bad movie too. Despicable Me was better, imho.

Multiplayer comes in the form of co-operative action in which the second player takes control of a robot that has the same abilities as Megamind. Oddly, enemies don’t take notice of the second player who can walk through every level untouched. While the implementation of multiplayer could have been a lot better, it’s still a welcome feature within the game.

It’s probably also worth mentioning the game’s achievements which, as you would expect, are easily obtainable. Arguably the hardest to unlock is for defeating the bosses without losing any health but even that isn’t difficult. The remaining achievements come with story progression and the collection of B.I.N.K.E.Y.

Graphics are bad. Multiplayer is bad. Game is bad.

Overall, Megamind: Ultimate Showdown is a poor game. The lack of anything innovative makes it just like all the other throw-away movie-based games currently on the market. This is only one to purchase if you’re an achievement junkie, or for your kid brother, and even then you should think twice.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Nintendo has dropped some sales figures for both the DS and Wii in US and boy, are they impressive.

According to their internal sales figures, the DS has sold more than 47 million units in the US since the original model was launched back in Nov 2004, making the portable console the best selling video-game system of all time in the States.

They also revealed that the Wii has sold a whooping 7 million units in US in 2010 and 34 million in its lifetime sales, a feat that no other home console can boast of.

Nintendo will be releasing the 3DS in March, 2011 in the US. The portable system lets players see 3D visuals without the need for special glasses. More details about the system will be announced in the future. We will keep you updated.

DreamCatcher Games have announced the release of Learn Science for Nintendo’s handheld platform, DS. The game is priced at $19.99 and is available at retail stores throughout North America.

Here’s some info on the game:

Learn Science let‘s kids learn while having fun. Learn the basic principles of: Light and Sound, Physics, The human body, Biology and Geography while playing a variety of engaging mini-games. Unlock new mini-games by scoring high marks in Career Mode and then perfect your skills by mastering unlocked mini-games in Game Mode on one of 3 difficulty levels. Kids can challenge their friends in multiplayer mini-games, or they can co-operate and challenge the AI.

Features:

• Learn the basic principles of: Light and Sound, Physics, The human body, Biology and Geography
• Integrated age check with traffic light system offers gaming fun for every level of knowledge
• Two different in game guides to help with explanations and examples
• Multiplayer mode: Hot seat, Single card and Multi card for common learning with parents and friends through mini games

THE TAINT WILL NEVER RUB OFF

That said, there is certainly enough material to keep the questions fresh for an extended period of time. There are 500+ multiple choice questions based on the movie. There are two modes of play: Flex Play allows the gamer to choose how many questions they will be required to answer, and Standard Play which gives the Twilight fan three rounds of questions plus a “Twilightning” *vomits* round where points can be lost for incorrect answers. The questions range from being simple-enough that even I could hazard a reasonable guess, to those which require an in-depth knowledge of the movie.

The game isn’t just multiple choice text questions though. There are parts of the game that show clips from the movie and the gamer is then asked a question about the viewed clip. At least this gives the non-Twilight fan a chance to get answer some questions correctly and score some points. Points are awarded depending on the time taken to answer the questions. Answering quickly and accurately will score the most points. Scoring above a certain amount of points unlocks bonus material: picture stills from the movie. Fans of the movie will no doubt find this an incentive to try to better their score – I didn’t.

I answered most questions using the Scientific Method of eeny meeny miney mo.

Visually, Scene It? Twilight does an admirable job for the game it is. The backgrounds are probably similar to what you’d see on the desktop of a Twilight fan (i.e. trash), but the movie clips are of a decent quality. The font that the questions are written in is easily readable, which is always important in a quiz game. The audio is also good: The voiceover is credited as the Twilight character Dr. Carlisle Cullen (it meant nothing to me). The music is quite good too as it matches the mood of the game/movie. The video clip audio isn’t too bad, but I did find that I needed to turn up my speakers to hear some of the dialogue.

But, the game does have a huge downside. The length of each play is alarmingly-short. A typical ‘three round + lightning round’ game lasts around five minutes. And that includes time taken to watch the clips before answering the question. For a retail movie based game, I would have certainly expected plays to last much longer than that.

CAPTAIN! The crappy pun detector is off the scale!

Personally, I would rather eat red-hot chillies than purchase this game (and not just because I am a chilli-fiend). As an English student I loathe the Twilight books for their poor writing and ludicrous plot. As an avid reader I detest Stephanie Meyer for ruining vampires by giving them more sparkle than an explosion in a craft shop. As far as the game goes, I’m fairly sure I’ve played trivia games on quiz machines in bars which lasted longer – and were more enjoyable DESPITE paying £3 for each go. But if you are a ‘Twihard’ fan of the series (and most fans are) you will probably enjoy the game and the outlet it provides for showing off your in-depth knowledge.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo DS.