Were you as surprised as we were by how great the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo was? Perhaps while you were slashing away at wolves and throwing fireballs at bears, your attention was grabbed by the game’s music. If so, you’ll be happy to know the release of the official soundtrack is imminent.

On February 7th (the same release day as the game itself), you can grab the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Original Soundtrack in physical or digital format. The “dark fantasy score” is composed by Grant Kirkhope (GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Viva Pinata) and performed by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Head over to Amazon to listen to sample clips. There’s also a full interview below with Kirkhope on the game’s music and sound. If you don’t have a full seven minutes free to watch it, at least check out the last twenty seconds. It’s practically guaranteed to make you crack a smile. (more…)

Raise your broom in victory. Dustforce released last week, picking up the torch from Roger Wilco in showing just how heroic janitors can be. You can grab the delightful speed platformer on Steam right now.

But it would be a shame to let the game’s music be swept under the rug. Instead, grab Lifeformed’s original Dustforce score, Fastfall. If you purchase the whole soundtrack (for $3.99), you’ll also get three additional bonus tracks. Even if you haven’t tried the game yet, it’s a nice, relaxing album of mellow electronica that’s easy to enjoy. You can hear a sample of the game’s music in the trailer below. (more…)

Last year, Sonic Colors showed me that 3D Sonic games could be fun again. Of course, this was the very same year that Sonic 4 dashed my hopes of a quality 2D Sonic experience. So when it was announced that the next game in the series would feature both styles of play, I was skeptical of SEGA’s ability to handle the classic stages.

It turns out they actually learned from their mistakes… well, most of them anyway. Sonic Generations, while not perfect, manages to be a rather successful blend of old and new Sonic gameplay that’s fun in spite of its shortcomings.

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Sometimes a game comes along that seems like it’s hitting all the right marks. You like the concept, the aesthetics and the music. All the still images and preview videos get you really amped up for the game’s release. But alas, once you’ve played it, it just doesn’t click with you.

I am sad to say that was my experience with Rock of Ages. A game that, on the surface, had enough elements that seemed interesting and unique to me that I thought for sure I would like the game. I was wrong.

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Gundemonium Collection may be over a year old, but it just released on Steam with a few new features. This package of doujin shmups contains Gundemonium Recollection, its sequel GundeadliGne, and their vastly different prequel Hitogata Happa.

The most obvious changes in the Steam version are the remixed soundtracks. They’re quite a step up from the originals thanks to the talent of DM Ashura and Woofle (Dance Dance Revolution, Beatmania IIDX). You’ll also find a new online co-op mode for GundeadliGne allowing you to play with your Steam friends.

But I’m sure many out there haven’t had a chance to check out these games in the first place since they are a niche within a niche.

Both Gundemonium Recollection and Gundeadline are horizontal shooters with unusually large sprites. This allows for a lot of personality to be put into each character and enemy design. They often approach Cute ‘em Up territory with their goofy pumpkin enemies, Parodius-like women in bunny suits, and other equally wacky things. Of course, it’s all fun and games until somebody gets cut in half. (more…)

You know that moment in gaming where you’re no longer making conscious decisions and instead find yourself relying on pure, razor fast instinct? This is how I felt for almost the entirety of the time I spent with SkyDrift. Much like the fantastic Split/Second, SkyDrift‘s brand of racing puts you on the verge of death constantly, and everytime you manage to narrowly escape certain doom at the hands of the track’s terrain or your opponent’s weapons it feels like a miracle.

It’s amazing how much the concept of flight changes how a racing game plays. The added verticality of racing in an airplane instead of a car allows for a sense of freedom that really makes every race play out differently. This is also helped by some really superb track design. There aren’t a ton of tracks, but the ones that are there are filled to the brim with branching pathways, a ton of variety, and plenty of extra dangerous obstacles that reward players willing to take risks.

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It seems I have reviewed quite a few pirate themed games during my time here on WingDamage, from ones that fought zombies to ones on monkey related islands. They are a recurring gaming mascot that lends itself well to interesting and colorful character designs.

In Paradox Interactive and Nitro Games’ Pirates of Black Cove, there is certainly not a shortage of wackiness or crazy characters. There is a level of cartoonishness in the writing that lets you know right out of the gate that they were there to have a good time with this RTS/RPG/Navel Combat hybrid (or as the game’s site calls it, “Light Strategy Adventure”).

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As an overall experience, the OnLive MicroConsole asks quite a bit out of me as a user. Not the service itself, I have no beefs with the service. The OnLive MicroConsole is a box roughly the size of a DSi. It is designed to bring PC gaming to your television or monitor without the need of a computer with reasonable specs, or a computer at all for that matter. There is a lot the OnLive MicroConsole has to offer the world in terms of a cheap and affordable PC gaming experience brought straight to your living room. It’s hard to imagine a world where they could even live up to a fraction of such lofty goals and promises

All it asks is that you have a TV or monitor with an HDMI port, an Ethernet port to plug into nearby, and at least 2 MBPS out of your ISP to experience their service. This is where I ran into some issues. I’ve got power sockets and death squids all over the place, so that’s no problem. My TV is HDMI ready, so no need to drop 30 bucks on a component adapter, and I can handle the MBPS needed. But I’m clearly not the person they had in mind for the MicroConsole. The service allows for computers to connect via WiFi, however the console does not. The console requires you to connect either with an Ethernet cable or through various bridge techniques.

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Hot off the heels of their Back to the Future game, Telltale is back with another license close to the heart of my youth: Jurassic Park. It takes risks, leaving behind the traditional point and click interface of their past games for something a little different.

The first of the two demos I played was exclusively an action scene. Several of the game’s protagonists were stuck on a roller coaster and I had to prevent them from being eaten by a pack of dinosaurs. The solution? Successfully complete a lot of quick time events including button presses and quick flips of the analogue stick. You could sum up the entire action demo simply by saying “Space Ace”.

But there was a weird layer of detachment added to this scene. The character whose actions were affected by my inputs constantly changed. This made me feel less involved with what was happening on screen since no singular character represented the player. Occasionally I’d fail and watch a death scene before snapping back to the last checkpoint. I watched my cart go on the wrong track into a pack of dinosaurs, a young girl falling out of the car to her death and more, all while my death counter rose.

If this was all the game was, I’d be pretty sad. Thankfully the second demo I played was far more interesting, though still different than Telltale’s previous games.

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How many airplane racing games can you think of off the top of your head? Any? Without resorting to Google, all I could come up with was one third of Diddy Kong Racing. This is exactly why I was instantly fascinated by Digital Reality’s SkyDrift. It’s in a sub-genre that’s rarely explored.

You could call it “Mario Kart in the sky”, but that really isn’t fair to the game. SkyDrift may be a weapons-based racer, but it’s far more deliberate and skill-based than any racing I’ve ever done in the Mushroom Kingdom. The fact that you need a second analogue stick to control your plane’s knife position is proof enough that the game is deeper than some of its contemporaries.

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