On a very special ninety-first episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, it’s all ninja fighting, all the time. The guys step it up a notch with their chi powers and fireballing as they fight… I don’t know… let’s say Goku. He’s going down!

In our weekly segment about the games we’ve been playing, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is discussed by Jesse and Jonah. Jesse also fills us in on what’s new and awesome in the Split/Second: Quarry Onslaught DLC. Adam is still addicted to Minecraft and Jonah finally finished Fallout: New Vegas. There is also some talk of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow when we ponder whether or not it feels like Castlevania.

All this plus the new games hitting stores this week and the news on this, your Barrel Roll showpod.

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Hit up after the break for full show notes.

Show Notes

New Games This Week

Fling Smash (Wii)

Karaoke Revolution Glee (Wii)

Just Dance Kids (Wii)

SingStar: Dance (PS3)

Beyblade: Metal Fusion (DS)

Beyblade: Metal Fusion Battle Fortress (Wii)

Knights in the Nightmare (PSP)

Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon (DS)

Call of Duty: Black Ops (Wii, 360, PS3, PC, DS)

Tom Clancy’s HAWX 2 (Wii)

Monster Jam: Path of Destruction (Wii, 360, PS3, DS, PSP)

The Sly Collection (PS3)

Guwange (XBLA)

News

NBA Elite Cancelled (Which explain NBA Jam full versions on 360 & PS3)

Valkyria Chronicles 3 details

Team Meat considering going retail to avoid size constraints on Super Meat Boy for Wii

Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon has 4 player local and double the weapons

Japan-only Nintendo titles on DS now have some hope of localization

Music

Intro Music – “Fortuna (Star Fox)” by Main Finger

Middle Music – “Raiders” from Fallout

Outro Music – “Fortuna (Star Fox)” by The OneUps

I’m quite fond of Split/Second to put it lightly. If I had to make a complaint about the game, it would be that there simply isn’t more of it. Or rather, there wasn’t.

The very appropriately titled Quarry Onslaught DLC pack expands the explosive racer by adding one new track, the Quarry, and one new mode, Onslaught. This pack will run you 800 Space Bucks ($10).

Quarry: The Track That Keeps On Drifting

One thing you’ll find in the Quarry is split paths. I’m not talking about the normal alternate routes you expect to see (though those are also present). No. I’m talking about walls that briefly divide the road down the middle into two narrower roads.

It doesn’t seem like much, but there are two very notable situations that arise from this. If an explosion has just happened before you approach, it’s easy to not see the wall through the smoke. A head-on collision with these walls was not uncommon on my initial races. These narrow pathways can also get tricky if the racers are all clumped together and head down the same path.

My favorite parts of Quarry, though, are the large turns. In many regards, it is a drifting paradise. Some have the safety of walls, some have breakaway railing on cliffs, and others have you zigzagging through to the end.

Sadly, I was a bit disappointed by the Level 2 Power Plays. They’re certainly adequate, but not quite as exciting as the ones you’ll find in other tracks. The Level 1 Power Plays, however, are great. There’s some neat uses of construction equipment along with a lot of familiar staples.

Quarry is quite an enjoyable track. It has a nice sense of variety throughout that keeps out on your toes.

Onslaught: Missile Fury

In Onslaught mode, you can finally have a full, eight car race while the helicopter does what it does best: shoot missiles at the track. Much like the other modes involving helicopters, the missiles are shot in waves with markers indicating where they will hit.

Score is determined by what position you’re in at the end of each wave. If you’re in first place, you’ll rack up tons of points. The farther down you are, the lower the score added to your total. After 20 waves, the game ends.

But being in first place comes with its own set of dangers. The missiles are targeted at the current leader of the pack. One false move can get you blown sky high, leaving the other players to zoom past you and snag that sweet, sweet score.

You can’t use Power Plays during Onslaught. But considering how ridiculously chaotic it is when a helicopter constantly fires missiles at race car drivers, that’s to the mode’s benefit. There’s no shortage of insanity found in each race as it is.

The interaction between other racers actually makes Onslaught even more fun than the other helicopter-based modes. It works especially well with tracks such as Storm Drain Speedway, where there are wide areas for everybody to weave through the missile indicators.

Final Thoughts

Whether or not the $10 is worth it for you is going to depend on a few factors. If you have friends to play it with, the Quarry Onslaught DLC is a no-brainer. Quarry is a great track and Onslaught mode is a blast.

If you’re playing alone, you won’t have the motivational carrot of new events within the single player mode to master. Instead, your motivation will simply be to have fun (crazy, I know) in Quickplay mode with no rewards dished out for finishing first.

The easiest way to look at it, though, is that it’s a great excuse to play more Split/Second. Do you really need any more reason than that?

This review is based on the Xbox 360 version of the Split/Second Quarry Onslaught DLC purchased by the reviewer. The Quarry track was played with every available mode and Onslaught was played using every available track.

"Poorly-Photoshopped Representation"

If you could put your ear to the tubes that make up this internet thing, you would hear thousands of people talking about digital distribution. There is no question that digital distribution is the future. You can already download your favorite songs, books, movies, and thousands of games. In the future, there might not even be discs or cartridges. Everything will just download out of the ether onto some crazy futuristic device.

I am a Steam weekend deal addict. My PSP memory sticks are full of PSP Minis and old PS1 games. I have so many Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, and Wii downloads that I am a little embarrassed. I have nothing against digital downloads, but it seems to me from looking into the muddy waters of the future that a war is coming between digital and physical goods.

The opening salvos in this war have already been fired.

As I write this, Valve’s Steam service has well over a million users online, downloading and playing games.

But does a digital copy have the same value as a physical disc? There are pros and cons to both. If I own a game, I can take it over to a friend’s house to play. I can even lend it to them. I can pretend it’s a Frisbee if I want, or use it to make my coffee table stop wobbling. I can even throw it in the microwave and watch the light show. The point is, it’s mine and I can do whatever the heck I want with it.

This is not always the case with a digital copy. Read the fine print. Go ahead, we’ll wait. In many cases you are not buying the game, but rather access to the game. There is a subtle but profound difference between the two. In one case, it is yours. In the other, it is someone else’s, and they are granting you access to it.

Amazon’s Kindle users have already had issues where books that users thought they had purchased once and forever were removed from their devices because of contract disputes. Amazon would need to send a SWAT team if they wanted to break into my house to take a physical copy of a book back. (My dog Buttons would annihilate any interlopers.) Can you imagine Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft deciding that the copy of Sonic that you purchased wasn’t really yours after all?

Should I have to pay as much for a physical copy that is mine (for good or ill) as a digital copy that I might own until some corporation decides that I really don’t? Is the convenience of a digital copy worth the loss of the physical copy? My digital copy of Serious Sam won’t ever get accidentally stepped on by my roommate, but at the same time I can’t loan him my digital copy to play in his room.

What gets really crazy is when you start getting into digital items like clothes for your Xbox Live avatar or themes for your dashboard. There are communities that have sprung up around customizing everything from digital cars, to people, to little Sackboys. Personally, I wouldn’t give a single real world penny for my Oprah to get a new digital sweatshirt (my Xbox Live avatar is Oprah. Don’t ask). Other people are happy to part with their money for things that differentiate their little digital representations. Is it worth pre-ordering a game so you can get a special set of armor? Gamestop sure hopes so.

The digital revolution is already upon us. The path the revolution takes is up to us. In the meantime I am going to go check out the latest Steam sale.

On a very special fifty-ninth episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, while shopping for some cans, the guys passed away, floated up towards heaven, but got lost along the way. Now, together, they form the Love-Matic Grandpa. They will fill your hearts with looooooove.

In our segment playing games, Jesse goes a bit more into Final Fantasy XIII and Adam gives us his rundown of the WiiWare version of Cave Story. Jonah has been spending time in the newly remodeled Rapture in Bioshock 2, and Wes has been playing a whole slew of games from the classic Westwood adventure, Blade Runner, to Tiger Woods PGA Online and Metro 2033.

In “Let’s Play Together”, we discuss the Resident Evil 5 DLC level, Lost in Nightmares, wherein you attempt to keep the master of unlocking from becoming a Jill Sandwich.

Then in the news we talk Mario Galaxy 2 and the successor to the Nintendo DS and what we hope to see from it. We also talk about the recent details on the future of the Kingdom Hearts franchise and much more.

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Mid Show Music – “Kraid Hoedown” by xoc

Outro Music – “Fortuna (Star Fox)” by The OneUps

Jonah’s New Video Card at Newegg.com

Monster Hunter Tri Split Screen Videos

We all have those games that we miss the first time around. With the busy release schedule of modern gaming, no one has time to play everything. That is why we at WingDamage present to you “Fashionably Late Reviews“. This is our series on games from the current generation of consoles that we may have missed on their initial release, but have gone back to experience now.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is one of those titles that I missed the first time around. I think a lot of it had to do with being burned out on Star Wars in general. There has certainly been an over-saturation of the franchise leading up to, and ever since, the prequel movies.

However, I am a long time fan of the original trilogy, as well as many of the “expanded universe” novels. It was always my plan to go back to The Force Unleashed and the Ultimate Sith Edition was the perfect excuse to do so.

The story of The Force Unleashed is exactly the kind of thing that gets my nerd juices flowing. Darth Vader is the evil and unpredictable menace that we all grew up loving. Instead of running around telling everyone how much he hates sand, he has enlisted a secret apprentice whom he found as a child, Starkiller. He is the son of a Jedi Knight and has an extremely strong connection to the force.

Under the leadership of Vader, he has become a formidable Sith warrior, and Vader plans to one day use him to kill the Emperor. This leads to some fun twists and turns in the plot that I will not spoil for you here. What I will say is that it takes you to some very fun and very fitting locales that any Star Wars geek will get a kick out of.

"Silly Stormtroopers and their turrets."

The Force Unleashed is a third person action game where you combine lightsaber combos with force powers to wreak havoc on your enemies. As you progress, you will level up, gaining points that can be spent on increasing your number of force powers, their potency, and unlocking new combos with your lightsaber. You can also use the right trigger to grab and throw objects from the environment as well as enemies.

As you can imagine, a lone Stormtrooper won’t do much against a trained Sith, so the game is good at throwing lots of enemies at you at a time. To make things more interesting, you will also face some of the best armed Stormtroopers in Emperor Palpatine’s army. Some have been given sniper rifles, some jetpacks, others shields that can block force attacks. If the ones in the movies had been this well equipped, the Rebel Alliance wouldn’t have stood a chance. Thank the force for budget cuts.

There are several types of mini-bosses that you will come across during the adventure, from AT-ST’s to Rancors. These are fought mostly with your normal moves, but can be finished off via QTE’s (Quick Time Events) that are used to give the game a cinematic feel. Bad QTE’s can ruin an otherwise good game. Thankfully the ones in Unleashed are fairly forgiving.

Since much of the game revolves around tracking down remnants of the Jedi, you will fight several of them as bosses throughout the story. While some of these battles can be pretty tough, they are a lot of fun. They often require using the environment and a variety of force powers to keep from being knocked on your ass by a well placed Force Push.

The biggest issue I had with the game was the jumping mechanic. While it does allow for a double jump and a dash forward on top of that, it is really hard to tell where you are going to land. It also seems a little too fast, making it feel rushed and awkward. I was very glad that there were no major platforming sections or the bad jumping could have ruined the experience.

A big draw for the completionists out there are all the hidden Jedi and Sith Holocrons, as well as secondary missions. Sith Holocrons give you temporary power-ups, while the ones of the Jedi variety give you bonus points to spend on your levels, new lightsaber colors, and lightsaber power-ups.

The Ultimate Sith Edition comes with all the currently available DLC. This includes a bunch of costumes for your character (including C3P0, which can lead to hilarious results), and three bonus levels.

The first level has Starkiller going to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, where he is looking for information on his father. This level was included on the Wii and PS2 and PSP versions of the game, but was originally cut from the 360 and PS3 editions. It has some interesting new areas to explore, but is slowed down by a section where you must undergo various Jedi trials. One has you using the force to move a ball along a line, and if you vary too far from that line, you have to start over. That really doesn’t do anything for me. Level design, guys!

Second is Tatooine in which Starkiller, now the Emporer’s right hand in an interesting “What If?” scenario, goes in search of R2D2 and C3p0 to find the missing Death Star plans. You will fight your way through Jaba’s palace, face Boba Fett, and a massively powered-up version of Ben Kenobi. The boss fights alone made this one my favorite of the three bonus stages.

The final bonus stage is the battle of Hoth, because it hasn’t quite been in enough video games. This time you are on the side of evil, trying to hunt down Luke Skywalker rather than flying around in a snow speeder trying to trip up AT-AT’s. Here you end up fighting a lot of Wampas, some automated defense, and most deadly of all, a platforming sequence. The platforming section in this bonus level solidified my opinion that if there had been any of these in the game proper, it would have really dragged down the over-all experience for me. The battle with Luke at the end was fun, though, even though they gave him a “farmboy Luke” level of whininess in his voice.

Star Wars the Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition is a good little package. The DLC levels and skins are fun, but had they not come packed in, I couldn’t see myself paying for them at their current price. This is coming from a guy that is in no way anti-DLC, as is the popular stance of many gamers. When it is worth it, I am all for it, but $10 a pop for those extra levels would not be worth it to me.

For the Star Wars or action fan in your life, Star Wars The Force Unleashed is an easy recommendation. While it is not without its flaws, it is a lot of fun. The fresh take on familiar set pieces from one of my favorite franchises is hard to beat. But honestly, I hope they do beat it with the upcoming sequel.

This review is based on a the Xbox 360 version of Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition, purchased by the reviewer.

"Because there's always room for more Valkyria Chronicles."

It’s hard to believe it has been almost a full year since the last Valkyria Chronicles DLC was released. By this point, I had almost forgotten that more was on the way. But when it finally came, I was eager as ever to return to my “Game of the Year” of 2008.

The “Challenge of the Edy Detachment” DLC pack will cost five of your earth dollars and contains six new skirmish battles. Unlike the last DLC involving Edy, you will not be locked into using a specific set of characters. Instead, you’re free to select your own characters from your squad, complete with the levels and equipment set you left them at last time.

Each mission focuses on the strengths of a specific job class. Before you start, you’ll be briefed by the character within the Edy Detachment of the corresponding job class. Because this DLC was localized such a long time after the game’s release, you won’t be able to select English voices. But let’s face it, the Japanese voices are better anyway.

Susie’s Challenge: The Wildwood I – Scout Trial

In the scout trial, you’ll need to protect your base while eliminating sneaky enemies. The map is littered with patches of grass and branching paths. This is probably the easiest mission in the pack. The only tricky part is the boss unit in the end. Get near his gun and you’re toast. But take him down and you can earn his weapon: a high powered, short range rifle.

Jann’s Challenge: Naggiar Plains North – Lancer Trial

Being a challenge for lancers, it should come as no surprise that the mission is littered with tanks. But it’ll take more than just lancers to clear the challenge effectively. You must defend your base in the center while eliminating a well placed sniper, hidden shocktroopers and scouts, a ridiculous amount of tanks, and whatever other reinforcements show up before you capture their three bases.

Marina’s Challenge: The Wildwood II – Sniper Trial

This is quite possibly the trickiest challenge in the pack. At the start of the mission, you’ll have only two slots to deploy units. The goal is to prevent enemies from reaching their own base for several turns. If so much as a single unit reaches the base, it’s Game Over. The problem is that your base is isolated on the opposite side of a ravine as the enemy. And since snipers won’t reactively attack on the enemy’s turn, you’ll need to be extra discerning in who you choose to shoot.

Homer’s Challenge: The Warehouse District – Engineer Trial

Ah, my favorite challenge. This is the only challenge that takes place in the city instead of the wilderness. The objective is to get your tank from the south east corner to the north west corner. The problem is that your treads are broken and your engineer (and whoever else you deployed) is already at the north west corner. You have to get an engineer to fix the treads and send the tank back home. Visibility is low thanks to all the tall buildings and danger is waiting around every corner. It’s very well put together.

Edy’s Challenge: The Arboreal Wastes – Shocktrooper Trial

In the shocktrooper trial, Rosie is stuck on the left while your other units are on the right. You’ll each need to eliminate the enemies while making sure none of them get past your line. But if you finished the last DLC like me, you’ll have already unlocked Ruhm, a high power machine gun with near sniper-level range and accuracy, leaving Rosie with little to no problem fending for herself.

Edy Detachment Challenge: Barious Ruins – Tank Trial

Remember the map in the main game where you had to slow down a giant tank by knocking over walls of ancient ruins? Well, now they’re in the way of YOUR tank! You’ll have to blast them away while avoiding enemy fire as you attempt to get your tank to the destination on the opposite side of the map.

Final Thoughts

I found the lack of difficulty settings a bit disappointing, but the motivation to replay the missions is still strong since you’ll want to achieve the highest rank on each one. The addition of several new weapons to acquire from enemy units is a nice, unexpected touch.

While many, if not all of the missions use maps from the main story, the objectives, enemy and base locations, and other special circumstances make them so radically different that they are practically unrecognizable. Since each mission focuses on the strengths of a single class, they all have a very unique flavor giving the battles a great sense of variety. At less than a dollar per mission, I’d highly recommend the “Challenge of the Edy Detachment” pack to anybody hungering for more Valkyria Chronicles content before the sequel drops on our shores.

"How awesome is Wipeout HD? So awesome!"

Anybody who has kept up with our podcast knows that we here at WingDamage really enjoy Wipeout HD. Before the Fury pack was announced, Jonah and I often discussed how great it would be if Wipeout HD were to get DLC, especially if it included more tracks. Thankfully, Studio Liverpool had hidden mics listening to our conversations and decided to grant our wishes at a ten dollar price point.

Though ten dollars might seem steep at first glance for a single DLC pack, a quick look at what Fury brings to the table will help put your mind at ease. The pack adds eight new tracks on top of the previous eight (not including reverse versions), thirteen new ship models, three new game modes, a new eighty-event campaign (the original campaign had eighty-seven events), revamped menus, and new trophies. This effectively doubles the content of what was originally a twenty-dollar game. To put it simply, you get a lot of bang for your buck.

The three new game modes are a great addition to the game and could very well have been their own DLC pack. I’ll start with my favorite. In my discussions with Jonah, I often talked about how cool it would be if they somehow turned Zone Mode into a multiplayer mode. I didn’t have a good idea of how it should work, but I knew it needed to happen. Studio Liverpool created an incredible innovation in the racing genre with Zone Battle.

"Zone Battle is everything I've ever wanted in a game mode."

The original Zone Mode had players racing on a track by themselves for an infinite number of laps, constantly reaching faster speeds with each new “zone” until they finally died from crashing too much. It was brilliant, but lonely.

Zone Battle supports eight simultaneous players. The mode ends when one player reaches a set number of zones. There are no conventional weapons, only boost pads. Besides getting a slight boost, riding over them will fill up a bar. The more pads you run over, the more of the bar you will fill. Pushing “square” will use the bar to not only perform an additional boost, but skip zones allowing you to travel faster and be closer to your goal. You’ll skip more zones if your bar is more full.

It doesn’t end there, though. Using your boost will place a barrier behind you that causes devastating damage when hit. Fortunately, if a player passes through the barrier at the very start of a boost, they can pass through it unharmed. Hitting “circle” will use your bar to regain some of your health as well as generate a temporary shield.

If you die in this mode, you will simply be set back to a previous zone, thus making you slower and farther away from your target. This mode is fantastic. I’ve never played anything quite like it. Even though you are directly competing, your position on the track means absolutely nothing. The entire concept is quite mind bending in an absolutely positive way.

"Detonator Mode is not nearly as exciting as this screen shot would have you believe."

In an effort to not leave you on a downer, I will get my least favorite mode out of the way now. Detonator involves racing fourteen laps on a track while shooting as many targets as possible. You are equipped with a rapid fire cannon that reloads and has ricocheting bullets. Driving over pads will fill a bar that can be used to perform a shockwave attack. This is the only mode in Wipeout HD (regular or DLC) that I have voluntarily killed myself in after getting a gold medal. I found this mode extremely boring and was disappointed every time the new campaign forced me to play it.

The final mode is Eliminator. Despite normally not liking weapons in racing games, I actually enjoy Eliminator quite a bit. Though the mode’s purpose is to destroy your opponents, the mode still takes place on the game’s normal tracks. Hitting the “L1″ button will allow you to perform an instant u-turn, though you will be at a stop. This makes following behind somebody nerve-wracking, since they could flip around and shoot you with missiles at any point (assuming they have them).

One of the things that makes this mode shine is that health is awarded only upon completing a lap. Absorbing weapons will only grant a temporary shield. This forces people to make sure they still make enough forward progress to live and also helps the mode to stay balanced. Points are awarded when you damage your opponent, but you’ll get the greatest amount if you get the kill. Unsurprisingly, dying will cause you to lose a portion of your points. The first player to reach the point quota wins.

"I was pleasantly surprised with how fun Eliminator turned out to be."

I was a little disappointed by the new ships. I was under the impression they would be thirteen completely new ships. Instead, they are thirteen new versions of the existing ships. The new models give all the ships much more complex shapes. They’re also much cleaner looking, making the old models look like “junkers” by comparison. They have some minor stat adjustments, too. They really do look nice, they just aren’t as much of a change as I thought they would be.

The tracks, though new to Wipeout HD, are actually taken from the PSP entries. Four of them are “Zone only” while the other four are available for all modes. The Zone tracks are more spacious since they’re designed for high speeds and honestly not that interesting. However, the other four tracks were a great addition and I’d love to see them port more tracks from their back catalog in the future.

All in all, if you liked Wipeout HD and want more content, there should be nothing holding you back from buying the Fury DLC. It is essentially a sequel in DLC form for half the price of the original product. I would love to see more companies handle DLC this way. For ten dollars, Fury is a steal hands down.

This may come off as grumpy old man complaining that “Back in my day, we only had Combat on Atari, and we liked it!”, but it is something that has been on my mind a lot lately. I’m warning you now this is a full on opinion piece.

Do we, as gamers, complain too much? Do we take into consideration everything that goes into making the games we play in the first place? And do we, or should we, care?

As we know, most modern games take huge teams and millions of dollars to produce. Even smaller games have ever increasing budgets these days. It only makes sense that many companies go for the safe bet, churning out franchise titles year after year. So we complain that no one comes out with anything new. Then, when companies like EA finally do decide to take risks on new IP’s (particularly evident in 2008′s releases), they are, more often than not, met with less than stellar sales. Meanwhile, the latest Madden continues to be an unstoppable juggernaut.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from Wii owners is that there is no third party support for the system. “The only good games are Nintendo first party titles”, many still claim. Capcom released “Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure” almost exactly one year from the consoles’ launch to much critical praise. It was fun, original, and best of all the controls worked. There wasn’t even any gimmicky waggle! Sadly, it sold very poorly it’s first several months on the console. Even though it has since gone on to sell a decent number of copies, this killed plans for a sequel. Where were these complainers then?

Nintendo came out with their new version of “Punch-Out!!” recently. I personally loved it, party because it was just like the old one, but with lots of cool new features. Many of the reviews I both read and heard on podcasts went along these lines: “It is great, but it’s too similar to the original.” This would often contradict what they were just saying about why they liked it.

Then there is the recent debacle about “Left 4 Dead 2″. DLC (downloadable content) has always been a point of contention among gamers. We even had an article about it. A lot of people are complaining that all the content in the new game could have been DLC for the first game. Why they assume it would be free, just because Valve has been generous about their DLC in the past, has me baffled. PC gamers seem to still be spoiled on the fact that “back in the day” that kind of stuff was always free. I got news for you, kids. Multi-million dollar games need a way to continue to be profitable to stay in business these days.

So let’s say all the new stuff was released as DLC. Payed DLC, because it is likely most, if not all of it would be. You are already talking new characters, new AI director, new weapons, new levels, new super zombies, etc. That could easily add up to more than the cost of a full priced sequel.

There is currently a boycott going on the official Valve forums due the release of the Left 4 Dead sequel being scheduled for release only a year after the original game. If this were an EA or an Activision, no one would bat an eye. But this is Valve. Episode 3 doesn’t even have a release date yet.

Many of their so-called fans have banded together to send them a message, “We want your hard work to be given to us for free! You have done so on many of your other games, so why not do that again? That was pretty cool.” I can only assume they feel that Valve owes them since they bought the game. Personally, when I buy a game, the only guarantee I’m expecting is that it will run properly on my machine. Anything not on the disc that works along with it is just gravy. Maybe that’s from being a life-long console gamer. I play games on my PC and mods are fun, but I never expect them.

I think we do complain too much as gamers. Sure it’s justified sometimes, when a company really is doing something ridiculous or a game is poorly made. But when a quality product that we enjoy hits the market, do we vote with our dollar?

It’s the only real way to have an effect. I mean, all we are, is dust in the wind. Dust. Wind. Dude.

"Good thing this machine-gun/sniper rifle has a flamethrower on the end of it!"

It’s no secret that I love Valkyria Chronicles. Not only was it my favorite game of 2008, it was also my very first review here at Wing Damage. Long have I awaited for the promised downloadable content. Was it worth the wait and, more importantly, the price of admission?

Read on and decide for yourself!

3 separate packs of DLC were released simultaneously for $4.99 (US) a pop. I find it a bit strange that they are all equally priced when at least 2 of the packs have vastly differing amounts of content.

The shortest of the packs is the Edy’s Detachment mission. This mission was very obviously made to promote the new Valkyria Chronicles anime series that made it’s debut in Japan recently. The mission focuses completely on characters that are not part of the main plot, but have a larger role in the show. Interestingly, you don’t get to choose your units from a larger squad. You are stuck with the units you are given. In addition to this, if one of your units dies, you have no medics to bring them back. The units you start with must last you until the operation’s completion.

This map looked awfully familiar.  I’m nearly positive it was used in one of the side missions within the normal game. Even still, it is a unique mission with split objectives. At the start, you are simply trying to hold down a small area for 3 turns. The objective isn’t particularly hard, but is kept interesting since there is a variety of units wanting to take you down including multiple tanks and snipers. Once 3 turns have passed, you then have to make a specific character reach a destination while still protecting the original spot. I was happy to see the mission expand this way.

Edy’s Detachment wasn’t particularly difficult, but it still managed to keep me on my toes. Honestly, I think $5 is a bit steep for this mission, especially considering I don’t think the map was new, but it was still fun and I don’t regret my purchase.

Next up, we have the beefier pack entitled “Behind Her Blue Flame”. What surprised me is that this pack contains 4 missions. Your actions during the first mission determine whether you progress to one of two other missions. If you receive an “A” rank on all three of these missions, you are awarded a fourth mission as a bonus.

This pack puts you in control of the Empire. In each of the missions contained within, you will fight the Gallian Army (in the main story, you control the Gallian Militia). Most importantly, you can take full control of Selvaria Bles. For anybody that didn’t get far enough in the game to know this, she uses a gun called “Ruhm”. This can be described as a machine-gun with amazing accuracy and range. To make matters more ridiculous, Selvaria is considered a scout class, allowing her to cover an enormous distance. If you didn’t get your power fix enough from Ruhm, the bonus mission allows you take control of Selvaria in her Valkyrur form. This means you get to shoot lasers out of your space lance and blow through tanks and any unfortunate souls who happen to stand in a line with a single shot.

Though this pack isn’t particularly hard, beating 2 of the missions contained within unlocks Ruhm for use with one of your shock-troopers in the game’s normal campaign. Since all my shock-troopers are elite by this point, a flamethrower is also fashioned on to the end of it. This makes for one ridiculously amazing gun. I was able to take down 2 soldiers with full health in the same turn with this gun. However, even Ruhm couldn’t save me from the new “Expert” difficulty.

I can’t fully review the extra difficulty DLC because, frankly, I can’t get anywhere in it. When you start a New Game + on Valkyria Chronicles, a Hard mode becomes available. The Hard mode introduces new deployment locations as well as new mission objectives for all the skirmish battles. Expert mode takes those new missions, gets rid of both of your tanks, and then dumps a bucket of new enemies on top of the existing ones. When I started the first mission, I was in the center of the map with several mortars pointed at my cluster of soldiers and a sniper aiming at me from high atop a tower. There was also a bridge full of gatling turrets and a gobs of other enemies. My units dropped like flies.

The DLC description boasts the introduction of new weapons as well as mentioning something about new melee combat. Unfortunately, I just can’t survive very long. I don’t recommend skipping the Hard mode and going straight to Expert unless maybe you’re over-leveled. It did not work well for me.

I think “Behind Her Blue Flame” is the strongest of the packs. Not only do you get 4 missions out of it, but you are actually awarded an amazing gun for completing it. Though I don’t understand the pricing structure, I encourage giving more money to such an amazing game. After all, you wouldn’t want a sequel to be Japan-only, would you?

"Mario Tractors"

On a very special tenth episode of “Barrel Roll! – A Video Game Podcast”, we are once again joined by our good friend Wesley Johnson from InsulinFunk.net

We are also having a contest, the details of which are found at the end of the episode. More info is located after the break.

What we’ve been playing this week includes “Dragon Quest 4″, “Scene It? Box Office Smash!”, “HAWX”, the Wipeout HD patch, The Pitt (Fallout 3) and more.

Our NEWS section is very Wii focused, with discussion of the Wii Motion Plus on Virtua Tennis, Giga Mac in the new Punch-Out! and Konami’s new Wii-Ware racing game.

In “Let’s Talk About Stuff”, Patapon 2 and the future of the disc-less game system is pondered. Jesse also relates his experience at Sakuracon.

Finally, in “Movie Time”, several of us subjected ourselves to “Dragonball: Evolution”.

Download

RSS

iTunes

Show Links:
Jesse’s Sakuracon Pics
That Sakuracon Commercial
Insulin Funk Interview with Kieron Gillon
Space Quest Retrospective Outline

GIVEAWAY!

We put together a bunch of stuff we picked up from Emerald City ComiCon, including some posters, comics, pins, and more! At the end of episode 10, we tell you what to post in the comments section of this post. We will randomly pick a winner from all those that correctly post in regards to the contest in the comment section below. One entry per person, please.

Questions? Email us at podcast [at] wingdamage.com.