Giant Bomb Video Game News

It's that time again: time for you to summon up the answers to five obscure Zelda trivia questions for a chance to win a copy of Spirit Tracks and some other neat schwag courtesy of the folks at Nintendo. 
 
Just like last week, be the first to post all five correct answers in these here comments to win this week's package. Also, contest still open only to residents of the United States. Sorry, international folks! 
 
Here's them questions.
  

1. Who has appeared in more Zelda games, Ganondorf or Tingle? 
2. What is the only Zelda game to feature both friendly and unfriendly Zoras?
3. Who sits beneath the tree in Kakariko Village in Ocarina of Time?
4. What enemy does Link defeat in Stone Tower to get the Big Key?
5. What is the full name of the King of Hyrule in The Wind Waker?   

Don't forget, there will still be two more chances to get in on this excitement, one next Monday and the other the Monday after that. Meanwhile, for an extended look at Spirit Tracks, take a look at this new trailer, and give my latest hands-on a look-see while you're at it.  

 

The one good thing about layoffs is that it sometimes gives people the motivation to get out there and do something great, if only to spite their former employers. OK, that's probably not much of a silver lining, but it appears that a few "affected" guys from last week's deep cuts at Pandemic didn't wait too long to make something great.

So here's their tribute to Office Space, in which a printer is beaten into submission while tracks from the Geto Boys are played.
    

Hopefully the next thing they come up with will lead to a paycheck. Best of luck, fellas.  Meanwhile, the studio's final game, The Saboteur, is still on track to ship next month. 

OK, here at the top, let's break down what these lists actually mean. There's still some confusion out there. The top ten lists are purely traffic-based, using numbers I'm pulling out of Google Analytics. That's why games that aren't out yet occasionally appear on those lists, much like Dark Void did last week. Interestingly, there's been a real shift in how these pages are viewed. The game pages, which list all of a game's achievements and popular the first top ten list, used to be much bigger than the third list, which is based on traffic going to individual achievement pages. Lately, though, it's shifted. People are spending more time on the individual pages, which is cool, because the comment system we've placed on those pages hopefully means that people are able to find the help they're looking for when it comes to a specific achievement.

So if you've earned a particularly tricky achievement, I invite you to go to that achievement's page and offer up a bit of help for those who may by stuck.

Speaking of achievements, I reactivated my long-dormant GameFly account last week. With the year coming to a close, I've got a bit more free time on my hands, and what better way to totally waste that time than to get a steady stream of games I'm only playing for achievement points in here, right? First up is Backyard Football '10, which I'm told is a very easy thousand. I'm also getting the US version of Raiden IV, mostly because it's a pain to hook up my Japanese 360 every time I want to play it. The rest of my list of games is a murderer's row of easy points and bad-looking games that I want to see for one reason or another, like Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Hannah Montana: The Movie, and Monopoly.

I'm not sure what's worse, doing this or admitting that I'm doing this. Either way, points... and perhaps a Quick Look or two. I imagine a Hannah Montana Quick Look could be OK.

Here's the first list! 

Top 10 Sets

1. Modern Warfare 2
2. Borderlands
3. Dragon Age: Origins
4. Left 4 Dead 2
5. Assassin's Creed II
6. 1 vs. 100
7. Tony Hawk: RIDE
8. Grand Theft Auto IV
9. Garry's Mod
10. The Beatles: Rock Band

The top three on that list are way, way, way ahead of everything else, and I expect it'll stay that way for at least the rest of November.

Here's what's new. 

New Sets

• Star Trek D-A-C (Steam)
• Gyromancer
• Diner Dash
• Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen!
• Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper
• MX vs. ATV: Reflex
• James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
• DIRT 2 (GFWL)
• Karaoke Revolution

That Sherlock Holmes game was announced for US release, but I'm not seeing it on any retail sites. I'm guessing that must be a UK release or something.

And here's this week's list of individual achievements. It's much more varied than last week's. 

Top 10 Individual

1. Borderlands - You're on a boat!
2. Modern Warfare 2 - I'm the Juggernaut...
3. Left 4 Dead 2 - GUARDIN' GNOME
4. Modern Warfare 2 - Look Ma Two Hands
5. Modern Warfare 2 - Downed but Not Out
6. Left 4 Dead 2 - GONG SHOW
7. Modern Warfare 2 - Star 69
8. Assassin's Creed II - Myth Maker
9. Modern Warfare 2 - Drive By
10. Left 4 Dead 2 - STACHE WHACKER

For some reason, Valve decided to list all of the L4D2 achievements in ALL CAPS. That sure makes them STAND OUT in a LIST LIKE THIS ONE. Also, it's interesting to me that Assassin's Creed II isn't commanding more of a presence on this list. If you go to our rad new homepage and look at Yesterday's Biggest Achievements (which shows what achievements are actually being unlocked on a daily basis), you'll see that AC2 has the whole list locked down. That said, it's all the early game stuff that you get almost automatically--no one's going to need to look those up to figure out how to earn them. Maybe as people complete the game and start going back to squeeze some more points out of the game, we'll see it move up in raw popularity.

Of course, Borderlands will be getting some new achievements for the upcoming DLC pack, so that'll probably be a force to be reckoned with, as well.

Here are some weird stats for you.

You get the Assassin's Creed II achievement "The Birth of an Assassin" within the first, like, two minutes of playing the game. It's unavoidable. Yet of the 2,636 people who have played the 360 version of the game, the percentage of completion on that achievement is 98.94%. So... a little over one percent of the people who bought the game put the disc in, but didn't actually play it? There are two other achievements that you get automatically near the beginning of the game, and you can actually see a little drop-off between them. 98.75% escaped Abstergo, and 98.41% entered the game's new Animus. Again, this is all unavoidable stuff that comprises the first ten minutes of play. Who does that? Who turns it on, gets the birth achievement, then says "oh, man, I better come back to this later" instead of continuing on? If you are one of these people, pipe up and tell us what you've been doing.

Assassin's Creed II appears to be far more successful than the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead 2, which launched on the same day. L4D2 has pulled in 1,525 players so far. I wouldn't have immediately guessed that, but considering Left 4 Dead 2 has a PC counterpart that's better in just about every way, it's not exactly a surprise.

Tony Hawk: RIDE currently has 18 players. It shipped the same day as L4D2 and AC2 did, but at twice the price, it's not exactly bringing 'em in. I believe that's an ever slower start than Activision's last $120 release, DJ Hero, which is current at 940 players. Also, that's world's ahead of the other new "Hero" release for 2009. Band Hero has 165 players.

Meanwhile, Modern Warfare 2 will probably break 10,000 players over the next week or two. It currently stands at 9,425. Call of Duty 4, in case you were wondering, has 14,031. The other Activision shooter released this season, Jurassic: The Hunted, has 19 players.

All right, that's it and that's all. We've got a short week ahead of us due to the holidays, but we've still got some good stuff planned, so keep checking back and all that.

If you didn't notice the first installment of our Zelda trivia challenge earlier this week (still three chances to win!), you might not remember that there's a new Zelda game due out on the DS real soon now. It's Spirit Tracks, the direct successor to Phantom Hourglass, and hey, I just played it!

This new game directly follows the previous one. It's a hundred years later, and a new kingdom of Hyrule has been founded on the continent that the protagonists of Phantom Hourglass discovered sometime between that game and this one. Wait a minute, that would make Link and Zelda more than a century old, and--hmm, are we just assuming they're immortal at this point? Is there any sort of rationale at work in this timeline anymore?

You know, who cares? It's a Zelda game. The indigenous people of this new land tell of an ancient, legendary battle between the good spirits and the forces of the Demon King Maladus, whose soul was finally imprisoned in a centralized Tower of Spirits. Maladus is down but not completely out; the ethereal shackles that bind him are in fact stretched far and wide across the new land of Hyrule.

And those bonds just happen to be... train tracks! Convenient, since a train replaces Phantom Hourglass' ship as your primary mode of transportation in Spirit Tracks. The game opens with Link training to become an engineer, during which time he realizes that these train tracks are beginning to disappear. There's also a shady chancellor named Cole involved who may in fact be trying to revive Maladus (there's always one bad apple in these games), so Link starts to explore the land to find out what's going on.

It looks like Spirit Tracks will use a similar framework to Phantom Hourglass, which had a central, recurring dungeon that you explored more and more of as you solved other, standalone dungeons and picked up new items and abilities. The recurring dungeon in this game is the Tower of Spirits itself. Every floor of the tower that you clear will yield a tablet that opens up a new set of tracks, which will lead you to a new area of Hyrule. You'll find a new dungeon in that area, and defeating it will arm you with a new item and send energy back up the newly laid tracks, which then opens up the next level of the tower, and... you probably see how this works.

I got to mess around a bit in the second dungeon of the game, which was--brace yourself--the Snow Temple! Yes, themed dungeons are back. I had an item here that let me unleash a targeted whirlwind that could stun enemies, flip some switches, and even propel me around when I was floating around on a block in pools of water. You'll play through these dungeons solo, but you'll be joined by a controllable phantom when you're playing the Tower of Spirits levels. (I wrote about playing with that guy back at E3.)

According to Nintendo, there will be plenty of things to do on the overworld in between dungeons. You can only hop off and run around at stations and towns, but there will be side activities and quests to undertake both at these larger population centers, and you'll run into some interesting characters as you ride the tracks as well. 

You know, it wouldn't be a latter-day DS game if it didn't make you blow into the microphone now and then. That was necessary not only to use that whirlwind weapon I mentioned in the Snow Temple, but also to play the Spirit Flute, this game's ocarina. You play the Spirit Flute by sliding its pipes back and forth across the screen and blowing, pretty much like a Pan flute. I just want to take the chance to thank whoever at Nintendo set the mic sensitivity on this game, because I barely had to breath on the thing to get it to activate. That means I can play this game on an airplane without looking like a loon.

Phantom Hourglass had a neat multiplayer mode that was sort of like Pac-Man, where one player controlled Link and the other directed some Phantoms around (like ghosts) to try to corner and take Link out. The multiplayer in Spirit Tracks is more of a four-player free-for-all where everyone is scrambling to pick up little Triforce gems and hang onto them till the end of the round. But roving Phantoms will chase you if they see you, unless you can get another player into their line of site. And other players can throw bombs at you or hit switches to drop you through trapdoors, as well as pick up some devilish power-ups to take most or all of your gems from you. The multiplayer seems like a neat diversion, and I'm glad it's not just a rehash of the mode from the last game.

The classic Zelda adventure is the thing that you ought to care about in Spirit Tracks, though. It's really just an iterative update to the core gameplay, controls, and graphics from Phantom Hourglass, but I have no problem at all with Nintendo iterating on a game that great.   
 
 

Uwe Boll and Paul W.S. Anderson better be sweating under their hacky collars right about now. Sure, they're currently the kings of game-to-film adaptations, but Jerry Bruckheimer's involvement in the upcoming Prince of Persia movie is raising both the visibility and the stakes--if not necessarily the quality--for the much-maligned sub-genre. And now a proper movie star is getting in on the action, as it was today announced that Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment has optioned the film rights for Dark Void.

If you're not already familiar with Dark Void--which wouldn't be too terribly odd, as the game hasn't actually come out yet--it's got a premise revolving around the Bermuda Triangle, alien abductions, an unlikely hero strapped with a jet pack, and Nikola Tesla that seems high-concept and bizarre enough to make for a decent popcorn companion. My sensationalist headline aside, this deal doesn't guarantee, or even necessarily suggest, Pitt's personal involvement in a Dark Void film project. I like Brad Pitt and the weirdo roles he chooses well enough, but I'm plenty intrigued by the fact that Plan B is producing, having previously had a hand in Martin Scorcese's undeniably excellent The Departed, as well as the promising-looking teen superhero comic adaptation Kick-Ass. Optioning rights is a long way from actually making a movie, but getting people who seem to know what the hell they're doing is a promising start.

Capcom also used this announcement to casually mention that Dark Void would be coming out on January 19th, 2010, which is a week later than the previously announced date of January 12th. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and it does nothing to mitigate what is shaping up to be an intense first quarter for new games.

You know what I'd actually like to play more of? Resident Evil 5. Despite having gone through the single-player story three times--something I never, ever do anymore--I would gladly sit down and blow away a few more big weird-looking bugs in that game, and not just because I'm still lacking a few easy achievements.

Well, forget about achievements. Capcom's got some honest-to-goodness new content on the way for RE5, and it isn't more half-assed, bolted-on multiplayer modes. It's a couple of all-new single-player episodes, and some new costumes in which to swaddle your characters while you play through the new action. The first of the new episodes, called "Lost in Nightmares," is due on the Xbox 360 on February 17 next year, with the PS3 version following a day later. Here's the official description.

Previously only seen during cut scenes of the original RESIDENT EVIL 5, the first new episode titled “LOST IN NIGHTMARES”, finds BSAA agent, Chris Redfield, working with his partner, Jill Valentine, as they investigate Ozwell E. Spencer’s hideaway.  Spencer, the evil mastermind and co-founder of Umbrella Corporation, has been hiding a new evil deep within the basement of his mansion. Chris and Jill discover this grotesque evil standing in their way as the two enter deeper into the catacombs beneath the mansion.

Chris and Jill, together again! In a big, sinister mansion! It's 1996 all over!
 

But wait, there's more! The first round of new costumes for Chris and Sheva is due on the same day. The second, as-yet-untitled episode and costume pack will follow on March 3, along with a "refresh" of the Mercenaries mode called "Mercenaries Reunion" that, from what I can tell in the vague press release, will pack two new playable characters and two new weapon loadouts into each of these four

No pricing is listed for any of this DLC, but it's worth noting that if you don't have RE5 at all yet, Capcom will happily sell you a Gold Edition starting March 9 (or 12 in Europe) for $49.99 that includes the original game and all of this DLC action in one tidy package. While the PS3 version of the Gold Edition will pack the whole shebang onto a single Blu-ray, the 360 release will oddly consist of the original RE5 disc and a voucher for all of the new DLC. I wonder if all that content plus the base game is too much to cram into one DVD?

Anyway, here are some more screens of all the business. Who else is ready to play more RE5? 
 

Man, it's Tuesday! I usually write this on Sunday morning, but my weekend was squarely focused on getting our New Super Mario Bros. Wii review finished and on the site. Now, it's onto my next two assignments, Buzz: Quiz World and Tony Hawk: RIDE, both of which require the use of peripherals that don't really work with many other games. Buzz, at least, is a series with other releases in it. Actually, Robomodo has gone on the record as saying that they've got another game in the works with Activision, so we'll probably see something else that takes advantage of the RIDE skateboard.

Achievementally speaking, this data covers the release week of Modern Warfare 2. Unsurprisingly, it's taken the top spot on the most popular achievements list, snatching the top spot away from the still-rolling Borderlands. 

Top Sets

1. Modern Warfare 2
2. Borderlands
3. Dragon Age: Origins
4. Football Manager 2010
5. Grand Theft Auto IV
6. Dark Void
7. Forza Motorsport 3
8. Assassin's Creed II
9. Brutal Legend
10. Halo 3: ODST

I hope the upcoming Borderlands DLC adds some more achievements. That's actually coming out really soon, which is nice, because I'm just about ready for some more Borderlands, even if I'm not the world's biggest zombie aficionado.

The new sets this week are all new releases, including the Steam version of Modern Warfare 2. 

New Sets

• LEGO Indiana Jones 2
• Modern Warfare 2 (Steam)
• NBA Unrivaled
• 0D Beat Drop
• 1 vs 100

Quick tip for you: don't buy NBA Unrivaled. It's $15 and it's terrible. As soon as I clear out some of the bigger stuff on my plate, I want to go back and review some of the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade releases we've had to skip this season. 0D Beat Drop is kind of neat and deserves a bit of attention.

OK, this brings us to the individual achievements. Modern Warfare 2 made some heavy inroads into our individual list, taking half of the spots away from Borderlands, which was running the show for the past couple of weeks. But Borderlands has held onto the top spot. It makes sense, really, that people would frequent the page of a secret achievement that isn't immediately obvious, rather than sink too deeply into the fairly plain achievements of Modern Warfare 2. 

Top Individual Achievements

1. Borderlands - You're on a boat!
2. Borderlands - 12 Days of Pandora
3. Modern Warfare 2 - Drive By
4. Borderlands - Made in New Haven
5. Borderlands - My Brother Is An Italian Plumber
6. Modern Warfare 2 - Ghost
7. Modern Warfare 2 - Danger Close
8. Modern Warfare 2 - Look Ma Two Hands
9. Modern Warfare 2 - Pit Boss
10. Borderlands - Speedy McSpeederton

So, before I close things out, I've got some exciting news. This weekly article is probably going to change pretty dramatically before next week, because we'll have a new homepage on the site by then. That homepage is going to have some new gadgets and information on it, including some more-useful achievement data. This stuff I'm showing is purely traffic-based. But those dudes upstairs have been building stuff based on, like, the most played game for a given day or the most-unlocked achievement. Dave actually just IM'ed me a few things based on a 100-day old version of the database he's using for development purposes...

100 days ago fallout 3 was the most popular game played

then halo 3

splosion man had the top achievement

...did you play Fallout 3 100 days ago? Odds are you did, I guess. Anyway, we'll have to see if my most popular lists are still useful after the new page goes up. If not, well, then I guess I'll have to find a different set of information to use as a jumping-off point for what's essentially become a weekly column. No sense in stopping it now.

Atlus has announced plans to bring the incredibly cool-looking 3D Dot Game Heroes to North America. The From Software action-RPG has been out in Japan for a bit, but Atlus will be bringing it here on May 11.

As the game features all sorts of sly winks to gaming's pixelated past, it's drummed up a fair amount of online interest. Here's how Atlus is describing it:

About 3D Dot Game Heroes
A long, long time ago, the Dark King Onyx brought an age of darkness upon Dotnia Kingdom.  Only by the bravery of a hero with a legendary sword was Onyx sealed in an orb, restoring peace to the world.  But Fuelle, a powerful Dark Bishop, has stolen the orb, and with it, peace.  Dotnia requires a hero once more!  Can you live up to the legend?
 
Key Features

• Ultimate retro love letter -- Seamlessly fusing new and old, the golden era of gaming is felt in every detail of this lovingly-crafted adventure. Eye-popping visuals capture the nostalgic charm of pixel graphics in cutting edge 3D. Simple, but deep action-adventure gameplay is a throwback to the 8-bit era. Veterans will find references and jokes that pay homage to the great games of yore.
• Awe and adventure live again -- Embark on the next generation of classic exploration and discovery in a grand story-based quest. A hero sets out to gain the power of the six sages and the six orbs that protected the kingdom of Dotnia, which now stands on the verge of destruction.
• Customize your hero -- When pixels are your building blocks, the possibilities are unlimited. Freely edit the look of your character, or design one completely from scratch, and then trade designs with friends via a compatible USB storage device. Your hero's blade is also upgradeable, letting you add length and width to create a sword that fills the whole screen!

 The game will hit shelves at a discounted price of $39.99, which sure sounds reasonable. Here, look at some screenshots of this thing! 

One month from today, the newest Legend of Zelda game, Spirit Tracks, will hit the DS. Choo-choo? Yeah, OK, I've got nothing (but I'm sincerely excited to play the game when it comes out).
 
And I hope a few of you are too, because Nintendo will be providing us four extra copies of Spirit Tracks to send your way, provided you live in the United States. We'll give away one copy per week for the next four weeks until the game's release, along with a few other goodies like a train whistle, T-shirt, and DSiWare points card.
 
But you'll have to work for this stuff! There's no such thing as a free lunch, or a free Spirit Tracks, either. Instead of our usual random-drawing format, this time you'll have to be the first one to answer these five obscure Zelda trivia questions in the comments on this story to win. And I warn you, these questions are not kind. Put on your thinking (Minish) caps, find the answers to these questions, and be the first to drop them in the comments to win this week's game. Of course, if you just want to discuss the game or talk about how hard these questions are, that's fine too.
 

1. What is the only Zelda game that Octoroks have not appeared in?
2. Which piece of the Triforce does Link earn in the original Legend of Zelda?
3. In what game besides Link’s Awakening did the Ballad of the Windfish appear?
4. At the beginning of A Link to the Past, where are all three pieces of the Triforce?
5. Who is the Oracle of Ages?

 

That's it. I suspect some of these will take a little digging, so I'll let you get to work. The winner will be contacted via private message, so keep an eye on your inboxes here in the site once you enter.

 

And don't forget, you'll have three more chances to win, so come back next week for the next round of questions. 

 
UPDATE: We have a winner! And that winner will be contacted via private message.  
 
An important note: The three subsequent trivia challenges will post at 1pm Pacific Standard Time on the next three Mondays, so you won't have to worry about missing your next chance to win. Just make sure you've got your eyes on the forums or news feed at that time so you can take a stab at being the first with the correct answers.

It's not going to hit shelves until next year, but it looks like work on Super Street Fighter IV is progressing nicely. I recently got the chance to head down to Capcom and take a look at the three characters who have been confirmed to appear in this SFIV update, and though it's still a little early to tell how the whole package is going to come together, Juri feels like an interesting addition, and the returning duo of Dee Jay and T.Hawk feel about how you'd expect.

Right off the bat, Juri feels like a more exciting character than any of the four that were introduced in Street Fighter IV. That's probably just my personal style talking, but I never found myself too interested in C.Viper, Rufus, Abel, or El Fuerte. Well, maybe a little Abel here and there. Anyway, Juri's a fast-moving character with a built-in counter move, as well as a delayed fireball that starts with a little kick animation, but the projectile doesn't actually appear until you release the kick button. Like some of the other projectiles in SFIV, Juri's comes at you differently depending on which kick button is used to perform the attack. This lets her throw them low, high, or at an upward angle. The projectiles don't live long enough to make it across the entire screen, but they don't move very quickly, making them a bit of a lingering threat. Juri also has a spin kick, and a mid-air dive kick, both of which can be spotted in the gameplay footage Capcom has released. Here's a look at Juri and Dee Jay.
    
Yes, that's a new announcer. He sounds like some kind of out-of-control robot that just says crazier and crazier things as the fight goes on.

Dee Jay, of course, first appeared in Super Street Fighter II, where I did my best to basically pretend he didn't exist. Let's be honest here: Fei Long and Cammy were the real stars out of the "New Challengers" added back then. But most of his action remains intact here. Dee Jay continues to be a charge character, throwing projectiles and offering a couple of charge kicks. The machine gun upper is currently done by pounding on punch buttons, much like Honda's slap, and the EX version of it absorbs fireballs. T. Hawk returns with the same moves, including the devastating typhoon, his version of the spinning pile-driver. I was left with the impression that a lot of the gameplay specifics and properties of the different moves was still up in the air, so it seems like any of this stuff is still subject to change before release.

There will, of course, be more characters in the final product, but those three are all that anyone's talking about right now. The full roster of SFIV characters will also be available in some sort of updated and/or rebalanced form, and the publisher is currently committing to "about eight" new characters. There will also be an "enhanced Ultra Combo system."

All of this will come with a redesigned online mode that will offer some additional options, like a team battle mode that matches up to eight players together for a group throwdown, a quarter match-style mode where the winner stays on while other players rotate through, and a "replay channel" that lets players watch and discuss other matches. Bonus stages, where players bash apart a car or beat up barrels will also be added.

All told, this sounds like a really substantial update to the original Street Fighter IV, but a lot of that will depend on the quality of the characters that have yet to be announced and the specifics of whatever changes are made to the existing characters. With plenty of those left to announce, you can probably count on a very slow drip of information out of Capcom between now and the game's release this Spring.