JOE’s Gaming Round Up

JOE's Gaming Round-up features the astounding Dead Island trailer that everyone's been talking about and some of the latest on the Uncharted movie.

JOE

By Emmet Purcell

Welcome to another week of JOE’s videogame round-up. As always, we’re looking to provide you with up-to-the-minute news, download reviews, weekly charts and forthcoming release dates on a weekly basis. So if there’s anything you think we’re leaving out, or would like us to shine a spotlight on, feel free to leave a comment below.

News

Dead Island stuns gamers, attracts filmmakers

With 2.6m views in the last week and top Hollywood execs waving their chequebooks, Dead Island is the perfect embodiment on just how much a powerful trailer can impact a game’s development.

Resurrected from development hell a few years ago, Techland’s late 2011 title is set on a tropical holiday island overrun with the undead. Sure we’ve seen plenty of zombie titles in recent years but Dead Island promises a first-person-shooter viewpoint, sandbox gameplay, RPG-levelling and a focus on melee combat. Not to mention the above trailer that caused many a shock reaction – we at JOE had something in our eye upon first viewing, that’s all it was…

Uncharted film director looks to reassure gamers

We want to see this on the big screen, perhaps in 3D

On paper, an Uncharted movie sounds like a great idea and the combination of The Fighter star and director Mark Wahlberg and David O. Russell should’ve caused gamers everywhere to breath a sigh of relief, with two Oscar-nominated artists helping lend the industry a little mainstream credibility.

Then we all remembered that Wahlberg’s last video game adaptation was Max Payne and O. Russell began talking about how he wanted his feature to be centred around a Soprano’s-like family of treasure hunters and worry began to set in. Speaking to SlashFilm, the director explained his vision:

To grow a game into a movie is an interesting proposition because a game is a very different experience than a movie. You guys are playing the game, and it’s about playing the game. It’s not about a narrative embracing you emotionally. You know what I’m saying? So, I want to create a world that is worthy of a really great film that people want to watch and rewatch, so that’s what I’m working on right now.”

We have no idea what he means but we’ll stick by him for now.

Purchase/Download of the Week

Deathsmiles (Xbox Live Arcade, 1600 MS Pts)

What’s going on? Seriously? Prizes for whoever can find the main character in this pic

Occasionally nothing satisfies greater than a crazily japanese side-scrolling shooter and that’s your bag, Deathsmiles is for you. Enter the ‘Gilverado, a kingdom plagued by hideous monsters and tortured souls’ and shoot, shoot, shoot everything into oblivion. If you love 2D shooters and melodramatic Japanese storytelling, this could be the best 1600 MS points you’ll spend all month.

Friday Releases 25/02/11

Possibly not as violent as Killzone 3 or Bulletstorm

Yes, this is an Irish men’s entertainment website and yes, Killzone 3 and Bulletstorm are both released this weekend, but for this the week’s hottest game is Kirby’s Epic Yarn, pictured above. For Wii owners Kirby’s latest is a good excuse to dust off the console and for Nintendo fans of any age the unique yarn-based art style will astound. Just to prove we haven’t forgot about the rest of you, here’s a link to our Bulletstorm review. It’s a huge blast from Epic Games and we think that many a gamer will be light of pocket after Friday’s selection.

Xbox 360

Bejeweled Blitz (XBLA)

Bulletstorm

de Blob 2

Gray Matter

Knights Contract

Rango: The Video Game

SEGA Dreamcast Collection

Playstation 3

Alien Breed 3 (PSN)

Bulletstorm

de Blob 2