Platinum Games Debuts Teaser Trailer for Anarchy Reigns

One of my favorite developers out there today is Platinum Games, makers of such titles as MadWorld, Bayonetta, and, most recently, Vanquish. Their games always have a masterful blend of action, style, and all-out fun. So, it should go without saying that I'm pumped for their next project, Anarchy Reigns. Check out the debut teaser trailer below:

More Anarchy Reigns Videos

Jack! In beautiful HD! In case you're unfamiliar with the game, Anarchy Reigns is being described by Platinum as a "Massively Multiplayer Melee Fighting Action" game (or, MMMFA, for those of you who like to make up acronyms). Here's a story that descibes the game in a little more detail. Frankly, it sounds awesome, and it should be another surefire hit for Platinum.

Anarchy Reigns is tentatively scheduled for release this Fall on the XBox 360 and PS3.

Be the First to Comment!

Three-Life Legends has been around for a little while now (since June 18, 2010, to be exact), and one thing that has thus far eluded this humble blog is a reader comment. Someone, somewhere, who read this blog and left their mark by leaving a comment/question/spam/flame/nonsense/exclamation/"first!"/whatever.

Well, I think it's about time 3LL got its first comment, and I intend to make that happen by, in true fledgling blog fashion, shamelessly pandering for one. If you are the first person to leave a comment on the site (on any post), then you win a prize! What do you win? Who knows, but it could include, although is certainly not limited to, my undying love and devotion.

So will you be the first to comment? Perhaps! But even if you aren't, be sure to leave a comment anyway. It would please me mightily.

North American 3DS Launch Date & Price Revealed

At long last, we have the launch info for the 3DS in North America. It'll arrive on March 27 and will retail for 249 US dollars (sorry, couldn't help myself).

We've known for a while that the 3DS would launch sometime in March, but it's nice to finally have a day to mark on our calendars. As for the price, I think most people were expecting a $250 price point, but it's still a little disappointing that it wasn't a bit lower. As for launch titles, all we learned was that there would be 30+ titles ready for the "launch window", which was defined as the time between when the 3DS launches and E3 in June.

Not much other new info was given at Nintendo's New York press event earlier today. We did learn that the dreaded friend code system would rear its ugly head once again, but now there's only one code per 3DS which will work for all games instead of a new code for each game. It still kind of sucks, but at least it's a step in the right direction. Also, titles you downloaded for your DSi will be transferable to the 3DS, so that's nice.

March 27. Prepare yourselves, game enthusiasts.

Awesome New Details About The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Oh my. Game Informer has an amazing new article revealing a bunch of new information about the technology that's being put into The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Do yourself a favor and read it in its entirety for yourself, it really is worth it. One of my favorite parts (among all of the awesome details) is this:

"Perhaps the most impressive use of the Behavior technology is how Bethesda is using it to create the dragon animations. Bethesda has worked meticulously to make sure the beasts look powerful and menacing when banking, flapping their wings, gaining altitude before making another strafing run, and breathing fire on their hapless victims. None of the dragons' actions are scripted, and Behavior helps make the movements look non-mechanical, even when the dragons are speaking/shouting."

Man, all I can say is that the wait for November is going to be unbearable. Skyrim was already #3, but I may have to bump it up a bit on my list of most anticpated games for 2011.

3D Video Recording a Possibility for 3DS

More 3DS news? Yessir. It is 3LL's most anticipated game (system) of 2011, after all.

In the most recent "Iwata Asks" feature, Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was interested in implementing 3D video recording into the 3DS. Here are the money quotes:

"Miyamoto: But Iwata-san also wants to include 3D video in the future! (laughs)

Iwata: I think it will be fun if we're able to include video recording capabilities with future updates.

Itoi: I have no idea, but when you take 3D photos and videos, is there some kind of capacity limit?

Iwata: An SD card goes in this slot.

Itoi: Oh, an SD card! Like two gigabytes?

Iwata: It comes with a 2-gigabyte card, but you can, for example, use a 32-gigabyte one as well.

Itoi: Oh, okay, I see. So you seriously can take as many as you want.

Iwata: Yes. Long videos, lots of photos, they'll fit."

It isn't clear if the "future update" Iwata mentions is going to be a downloadable  firmware update or a new hardware iteration (a "3DSi", if you will), but it's cool to know that the brain trust at Nintendo are thinking about every possible way they can maximize the enjoyment people get out of the glasses-free 3D device.

New 3DS Details Emerge from Nintendo World

We're drawing ever-closer to the the launch of the 3DS (which, you'll remember, is 3LL's most anticipated game [system] for 2011). A few little bits of info have come out of the Nintendo World event in Japan, the most important of which concern the system's battery life and launch titles.

While playing 3DS games, you'll get 3 to 5 hours of battery life, and 5 to 8 hours if you're playing a regular old DS game. Seems kind of low, huh? Nintendo handhelds are usually renowned for their battery life, but it looks like the demands of advanced tech has finally caught up with them. A little disappointing, but I'll live with it.

As for the games themselves, the 3DS will launch in Japan on Feb 26 with these 8 games: Nintendogs & Cats, Winning Eleven Soccer 3D, Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition, Samurai Warriors: Chronicle, Puzzle Bobble 3D, Ridge Racer 3D, Battle of the Giants: Dinosaurs 3D, and Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle. A pretty decent lineup for day one, I'd say. The US launch lineup is obviously going to be a bit different, so we'll just have to wait and see what us Americans get come March (presumably).

Thanks to Kotaku for relaying the info (here and here).

Valve Experiments with Double Health in TF2

It looks like the Team Fortress 2 beta game is finally going to have a purpose beyond testing Natascha variants. Earlier today, an update was added to the beta version of TF2 that doubled the base health of all 9 classes (and sentry guns, too). Now the mighty Heavy roams Dustbowl with a robust 600 health, making backstabs and headshots all the more important to bring down the big Russian.

I played a little bit of the beta with the new health modifications, and I have to say, it doesn't dramatically affect the game as much as you'd think. It just takes a little bit longer to kill or be killed. In one instance, I rushed up to the side of an enemy Heavy as a Pyro, and it took me at least a full five seconds to bring him down at point-blank range with the flamethrower. If that guy wasn't a terrible player and didn't just stand there and let me kill him, he could have easily turned around and chased me off with his minigun.

I very much doubt that Valve would bring this into the true game, but it's an interesting experiment nonetheless.

3LL's 10 Most Anticipated Games of 2011

2011 is going to be an absolutely ridiculous year for gaming. Just taking a cursory glance at the release list makes my wallet silently weep within my pocket. So, in anticipation of the glory 2011 will surely bring, I put together a little list of the games I’m most excited about. In a testament to the amazing depth of titles coming next year, I had to leave off games like Crysis 2, Dragon Age 2, L.A. Noire, Gears of War 3, Batman: Arkham City… the list really goes on and on.  Of course, there’s always the ever-present threat that some of these games might get pushed back to 2012 (or beyond), but for now I’ll just assume everything will remain on track. Aaaaaand the survey says:

10) The Lord of the Rings: War in the North

An M-rated Lord of the Rings game exploring a little-told history of Middle Earth? Yes, please, with sprinkles. It even has 3 player co-op, so your friends can join in on the orc slaughtering.

9) Deus Ex: Human Revolution

If you ever need to get a PC gamer’s attention, just say “Deus Ex”. The 2000 original still holds its place as one of the greatest games of all time, so if Human Revolution can be more like that and less like Invisible War, then you’ve got a winner.

8) Marvel vs. Capcom 3

I wanna take you for a ride. Now that I’ve made that reference, I don’t know what else to say about this one. It’s Marvel vs. Capcom, it’s going to be awesome.

7) Portal 2

Spoiler: Gabe Newell ate the cake.

6) Rage

This game impresses me based on the tech alone. If id can really make that next quantum leap in FPS gameplay and enemy AI, then Rage will be a surefire hit.

5) Duke Nukem Forever

Any other year and this would be a joke, but this time it actually seems like Duke Nukem Forever is, in fact, nearing the end of its 13 year odyssey. Thanks to new developer Gearbox, it looks like we’re finally going to get to play The Duke’s latest endeavor into ass-kicking and bubblegum-running-out-of in 2011. Hail to the king, baby.

4) Shadows of the Damned

Suda 51? Awesome. Shinji Mikami? Just as awesome. So the two of them collaborating on a new game? That’s, like, double-awesome, isn’t it? Shadows of the Damned: double-awesome, as proven mathematically just now.

3) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Is there anything better than a game that sucks over 100 hours of your life away, but you love every minute of it? Perhaps, in fact I’m sure there are a lot of things that are better, but the point I’m trying to make is that Oblivion was awesome, and now the next game in the venerable Elder Scrolls series is on its way. All we’ve seen so far is a short teaser trailer, but all I need to know is that it exists and I’m pumped. Dragons!

2) The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Anytime a new Zelda game is on the horizon, it instantly becomes one of my most-anticipated games, and Skyward Sword is certainly no exception. This is perhaps the biggest leap in game design the series has seen since Ocarina of Time, with the Wii MotionPlus being heavily relied upon for precise swordplay and actions. Buggy E3 2010 demo aside, I can’t wait to experience how this game plays. And as a last thought, I love the graphic style. It’s like what A Link to the Past would look like if it were a 3D game.

1) 3DS

Wow, what a cop-out by me, picking an entire system instead of a single game. Nonetheless, my most anticipated game (system) for 2011 is the 3DS. Why? Because it offers a completely new gaming experience that actually has the potential to enhance games by providing players with a sense a depth to better estimate distance. Also, no stupid glasses. Also also, the games: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Super Street Fighter IV, Kid Icarus, Star Fox, Mario Kart, et al. Who knows if all the games we saw at E3 last year are going to see the light of say this year, but it’s still an impressive list. DS, you’ve had a great run, but 2011 belongs to the mighty 3DS.

3LL: The Return

It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? Six months without a post… I’d be more remorseful about abandoning the site if I had, you know, readers, but I still feel kind of bad. There needs to be a blog before there can be readers, so not posting for half a year certainly didn’t help matters. However, with the dawn of a new year (2011 AD, for those of you keeping score at home), I think it’s time to make a comeback!

My New Year’s resolution this year is to redouble my efforts here on 3LL. That means, at the very least, one post a week. Hopefully I’ll be doing more than that, but I’m going to try for sure to never go too long without an update. My hope for this new year is that I can carve myself a niche into this world wide web of ours, however small. The goal is simple: get 11 people to become regular or semi-regular readers of the site. 11 for ’11. That’s less than one a month! Certainly within reach, wouldn’t you think? If I can get 11 people to read my blog on any semblance of a consistent basis, then I’ll be thrilled.

With this new beginning, I feel I should restate the mission statement of this blog: At its core, Three-Life Legends is a video game blog that chronicles video games and gaming culture from the past, present, and future. I know there are a ton of video game blogs out there, but I try to separate myself from them by making each post unique, thoughtful, personal, and most of all, fun to read. I’m not going to just dump a bunch of links or dully copy-and-paste a bunch of banal video game news without thought. I aim to put my passion as a gamer into every post I make. There’s no real format to 3LL, so I can post anything at all, from news to rumors to reviews to videos to pictures to opinion pieces to retro articles and so on. Whatever it is, I’m going to try to make it worth your time.

TL;DR? 3LL is back and going to be better than ever. The goal this year is going to be “11 for ‘11”, 11 regular readers by the end of 2011. I’m sure if you give this blog a chance, you’ll become one of the 11 in time. Oh, and if you’re the first person to leave a comment on 3LL, I’ll love you until the end of time, so there’s that. And if you do become a fan, spread the good word and link to 3LL on your forum or social media network of choice. That would also win you my undying love.

Video games!