Capcom revives a few more killer franchises. 

I remember as a kid playing Commando at the local Pizza Hut.  The controls were stiff and the bullets were tiny.  I don't think I ever made it past the first stage.  Then MERCS came along to the arcade just across the street, and it seemed like insane destruction and top down blasting action for me and two other Rambo-wannabes until we ran out of quarters.  Capcom has been on a trend of reviving their nearly forgotten gems to the delight of former arcade junkies, with the latest offering of Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 for XBLA and PSN.  Outside of the more cartoonish gleam, the latest footage shows a game that sticks surprisingly close to its roots, with a variety of scrolling, destructible environments for up to three players, both online and off.  The action is quick and furious, while the weapons are insane and highly destructive.  It's already looking better than the upcoming pretender to the throne, Assault Heroes 2, though both pale next to what else Capcom has up its sleeve.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix has been a long time in coming, but hey it takes a long time to draw all those frames at 1080p.  They must be close to release now, however, because coming with Commando 3 will be an online beta of SSF2THDR (on XBLA at least).  Yeah, it's only going to be Ken and Ryu, but outside of seeing how high Chun-li still kicks, they were going to be your first picks anyway.  This is a series that kicks in even more nostalgia, but these new visuals are a lot better than I remember, while the rebalanced mode should end cries of cheap among friends.  Maybe it'll even stop the droppers online.

A new year, a new spiky-haired lawyer.

Having completed Capcom's newest legal adventure, I offer a few impressions for you to nibble on with your evening brandy.

It has been seven years since the events in Trials and Tribulations transpired.  Phoenix Wright has been disgraced and disbarred (for reasons that you know I can't reveal here), and he now makes a living as a fifth-rate John Tesh in a Russian dive.   Enter the titular Apollo Justice, an oh-so-pure defense attorney who's about to be touched for the very first time.  So how is it?

Well, the gameplay is practically unchanged.  There are some investigation elements that take advantage of the console's touch screen and 3D capabilities, and some nifty FMV sequences have been thrown in.  Otherwise, it's standard Ace Attorney fare:  tap through menus, follow dialogue tree, progress to next section, repeat as desired.

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The most important tidbit of all is the street date, of course. 

Konami revealed new promotional initiatives related to the upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In other words, details that we actually care about like the online multiplayer, pre-order campaign and oh yeah, a street date too! In case you've been sleeping over the past few months, then you should already know that this installment marks the final chapter in the Metal Gear Solid series (though we've heard this tune before). Armed with new gadgets and abilities, Solid Snake must shift the tides of war into his favor, using the chaos of the battlefield to infiltrate deep into enemy territory. In his globetrotting final mission, Snake must sneak deep into enemy locations in the Middle East, South America, and other corners of the Earth to foil Liquid Ocelot's plans for total world domination.

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Frontlines: Fuel of War demo is releasd on Xbox Live.

The earlier single player demo of Frontlines was a bit rough around the technical edges, sporting stiff controls and a framerate that struggled to hit thirty.  That's all changed with the new multiplayer demo, equipped with greatly improved controls and a smooth framerate that's near identical to the PC version.  Now you can take to the Street in a sixteen player chaotic firefight or a massive thirty two player brawl on the Oilfield, the latter ruled by heavy firepower of tanks and helicopters.  All of this is run on dedicated servers, so there's no worrying about being spiked with massive lag or suffering host advantage domination, while Kaos promises to bring 50+ player warfare in the final retail release.

I'm not going to lie to you.  Frontlines has a pretty steep learning curve, and your first few times out you'll spend half that time kissing dirt.  Though once you start learning the roles, forming squads, using voice chat to coordinate your efforts, everything begins to fall into place, and you'll be waging war on a scale never seen before on the Xbox 360.

Gratuitous profanity included for your reading pleasure.

The infamously opinionated (and potty-mouthed) David Jaffe, of Twisted Metal and God of War fame, has managed to once again ignite an Internet brouhaha, this time due to his comments in a recent interview with Wired.  The discussion began as follows:

Wired:  Apparently when Miyamoto first went to Retro Studios, they were making a car combat game, he said, "Why would you make that? Why would you put a gun on a car?" And they stopped development on the game. So maybe you should answer that question. Why would you put a gun on a car?

Jaffe:  You know, honestly, I've been too busy recently trying to figure out why the fuck go-karts shoot banana peels.

Well, well, well.  He might be slamming one of the most celebrated and accomplished figures in gaming, and he might be flame-baiting the legions of overzealous Nintendo fanboys, but the man does have a point…

As could be expected, this little snippet made the rounds on gaming sites, including the ever-reliable Kotaku.  Comments ranged from utter indignation to hearty chuckles to reverent admiration for a man who has no problem calling things as he sees them.

Fast-forward a couple days, and Jaffe is now attempting to quell the tempest.  In a video posting on his personal page, he decisively puts the throngs of humorless, online-enabled crybabies in their place.  The best line of the video sums it up perfectly:

"The fact that anybody out there actually thinks that I put my design skills in the same league as Miyamoto's, or I'm insulting the father of video game design, it's like, 'Go fuck yourself, man.'  And to the people that think I use bad language because I think it's cool, I think that's your fucking problem."

Well, I'm glad that little clusterfuck is all sorted out.

This blog article should be recognized as the sole opinion of the editor and does not necessarily reflect GotNext's official opinion on the subject.