USgamer.net

The American counterpart to Eurogamer. We're younger. Sassier. More bellicose.

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You blew it up! You maniacs!

Now that Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is gone, we mourn the casualties — the games that tragically will never be the same again. Shed a tear, will you?

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Like Harvest Moon but wish you could kill stuff between farming sessions? According to reviewer Bob Mackey, Rune Factory IV for 3DS is destined to be your jam.

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Pokémon finally enters the world of 3D, but what other new features does the sixth generation bring, if any? Dustin Quillen and Jeremy Parish weigh in on X and Y.

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Speaking of 3DS, SteamWorld Dig managed to be this week's most easily overlooked gem. Get it? Gem? Because you're mining? Bah, whatever. You have no sense of humor at all, you know that?

Anyway, reviewers Jeremy Parish and Jaz Rignall are both over the moon about it. Perhaps not coincidentally, they're both really old and seem to be in love with how it reminds of them of classic favorites like Metroid and Manic Miner.

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The USgamer team has listed out its favorite 3DS games. Somehow, we managed to miss all the obvious picks, like Super Mario 3D Land or Ocarina of Time 3D. Alas, that's just how it goes when a system's library is so rich and diverse: Something's gotta give.

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Nadia Oxford has spoken to a bunch of Animal Crossing: New Leaf lifers to explore why they continue sinking so much time in the game. Weirdly, "teaching your villagers risqué catchphrases then sending them into other people's games" wasn't on the list, but I know it lives in her heart.

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"The way you behave as Harry influences the game in subtle ways, too -- the game is constantly watching how you behave, and gradually building up a hidden "personality inventory" that tracks your attitude towards sexuality, friendship, family and alcohol as well as how honest you've been. These stats have various impacts on gameplay to varying degrees, ranging from changing the appearance of characters to the way Harry interacts with them in cutscenes."

-- Pete Davison in praise of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which evidently features gaming's most suggestive frog vivisection.

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"With its lack of player agency, Spec Ops: The Line tries to make you feel crappy for "just following orders." But Pikmin 3 makes you feel crappy for giving them. I'm 25 days into the campaign now, and I have the nectar of hundreds of dead Pikmin on my hands. I feel terrible about my actions, but I have not changed them."

— Brendan Sinclair slides down the slippery slope to becoming history's greatest monster with Pikmin 3

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Reviewer Jeremy Parish really didn't dig Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. Like, at all. But we can still be friends, right?

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"Considering appropriate matchmaking is such a fundamentally important thing for multiplayer games, I'm consistently surprised that more effort isn't put into creating a variety of multiplayer options to more effectively smooth new players' transition from bot-practice to human play. DOTA 2's ability to rate players and give feedback is good – but why not have a few more options that perhaps let lower level players play together, let veterans be leaders of teams of newbies, or have a more effective mentoring system."

-- Jaz Rignall's main beef with DOTA 2 is that it adds new heft to the phrase "hell is other people."

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Hey guys, I’m going to tell you about a game you should all know about today. It’s a game in development called Brave Earth: Prologue. It’s being made by Kayinnasaki, a good friend of mine and the creator of I Wanna Be The Guy and I Wanna Be The Guy: Gaiden! No, the game is not going to be balls-hard like those games, before you start asking.

BE:P is going to be an 8-bit platformer that plays in the style of a classic Castlevania title, and uses the cinematic style of Ninja Gaiden. It follows the story of Naomi vos Cruz in her first and unplanned combat mission. Additionally, it will also feature characters such as Sinlen Rosthchild, a state-sanctioned scorceress, and Trevor vos Cruz, the older brother of Naomi and fellow soldier in the Holy Order of Saint Alistair, both of whom are also playable and feature mostly different areas

The games will also feature a combat system with basic attacks from a characters, with extra special attacks that work similarly to those in Super Smash Bros. The game’s focus is also not on fast-paced action, but less frequent and slow, careful encounters to allow players to take their time in levels.

Also, some music has been released so far and the tracks are here. Give them a listen; they’re pretty cool.

The game, when released (there is no set release date yet), will be offered for $10 on Steam and and possibly other distribution services. Please reblog this and keep it in mind, as this is a really neat-looking game that I feel more people should be aware of!

By the way, before you ask Kayin any questions on his blog, please look at the Q&A here. Also, some gifs of the game that he’s released.

[usgamernet]

id's John Carmack has joined Oculus Rift as CTO, which seems like a good sign for Oculus. Carmack has a tendency to be ahead of the curve on gaming trends, having ushered in the FPS revolution with DOOM and being one of the first people to truly take iOS gaming seriously. And, honestly, there's probably not a lot for him to do at id right now; no doubt his technical work on Doom 4 is done and he has time off while the rest of the company tries to come up with an interesting game to fit the engine.

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"In fact, the whole design of the game is refreshing. Although it makes use of Unreal Engine 3 and actually looks very good -- not to mention moving faster than any shooter I've played since Quake III -- its levels are pulled straight from the 1990s, with branching paths, locked doors that require keys, plenty of opportunities to get lost, secret areas, hidden powerups, devious traps and all manner of other goodness. If you've been growing tired of the 'kill corridors' offered by titles like Call of Duty in recent years, this game is an excellent antidote to that sense of fatigue."

-- Pete Davison on Rise of the Triad

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Sick of high definition graphics? Why not spend a while reliving the days when portable games were only barely games?

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Sample pages of an upcoming COD:MW doujinshi

Courtesy of 珍飯@3日目・東カ-38a

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This is fuckin real Call of Duty doujin where they dress soldiers in maid outfits.

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Yes good

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Hey, someone get Activision on the horn and tell them that this needs to be included as bonus content in Ghosts!

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Today on Retronauts Pocket, Ray leads once more as we talk about NES accessories. Yes, even that one. Oh yeah, that one too. Um, no, not that one, I don’t think. But definitely the others.

Check the link to also find the episode on SoundCloud, and take a look at our iTunes listing, where your adoration will lift us higher. In other words, give us some reviews.

[usgamernet]

"Like Rooney's slapstick insensitivity, Dragon's Crown was forged in a cultural crucible not quite identical to our own. In the movie's case, you have to remember the Hollywood of 50 years ago reflected different standards and different sensitivities than modern movies. Similarly, Dragon's Crown reflects Western fantasy clichés run through the blender of Japanese culture and regurgitated in a familiar but decidedly changed form."

Jeremy Parish on the controversy surrounding Dragon's Crown