Back to the Future: Get Tannen Review

Back to the Future: Episode 2 – Get Tannen
Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Telltale Games
Genre: Point-and-Click Adventure
ESRB Rating: T for Teen
Platforms: PC, Mac, and PlayStation 3

One of the things that made the Back to the Future series so memorable was the setting. The first film took us back to the 1955, when hamburgers were a nickel and soda shops were the hang out spot. In the second film, we were transported to the future, a world where 3D holograms came alive and cars (and skateboards) flew. In the final film, we took a trip to the old west, where Indians and cowboys were a common sight, and duels at high noon were someone’s final stand. In each of these backdrops we saw different versions of the same characters, jokes, and charm. Marty would get called a chicken, a fight would break out, and Biff would get a face-full of manure.

Battlefield 3 Declares War

Developer DICE and publisher EA are making their mark on the first-person shooter genre with Battlefield 3. Their first step in this goal was today’s release of the first gameplay trailer for the game. The trailer, as seen above, might be confused for a cinematic but DICE and EA said that the action seen in the trailer is gameplay footage. If you blinked and missed something, check out the screenshots from the trailer.

The Walking Dead Island of Nublar

Dead Island


If you’ve never heard of Dead Island before, you’re not alone. The game was first announced in 2007 by developer Techland, who also created the Call of Juarez series with Ubisoft. Now with publisher Deep Silver, a new trailer was released last week as an IGN exclusive that’s blown away audiences. The trailer is accompanied by soft piano music as a family is overrun by a zombie invasion on an island vacation. Variations of the trailer have already appeared featuring music from the televisions series LOST and the somber rendition of "Mad World" by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules.

Portal Guns Make Excellent Valentine's Day Gifts

Portal 2 is now available for pre-order and Valve created a video to let everyone celebrating Valentine's Day know know. While chocolates, flowers, and diamonds may be tranditional gifts, portal guns are the top choice this year. Watch the video below and be sure to give someone special the gift of portals. Portal 2 is now available for pre-order and will hit shelves on April 18 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

X-Men: First Class Trailer

The first official trailer for X-Men: First Class was released today. Initially, I thought the idea of going back to the roots of X-Men for a film sounded exciting, as the setting in which they formed was surrounded by a lot of American history, and portraying fictional characters reacting to that history was a new way of presenting the X-Men. However, the more I heard about what characters would be appearing in the film, the more I started to question design ideas and direction. After the recent official photos were released, I sincerely doubted how well the film might be received (the photo of Magneto with helmet on looks absolutely ridiculous). Now that the trailer is released, my faith is restored a little bit, but I still have doubts about choice of characters and their design. Check out the full trailer below. X-Men: First Class will be released in theaters on June 3rd, 2011.

Today in Gaming

The Worst Game in the World

Fox News posted an article yesterday asking, “Is Bulletstorm the Worst Video Game in the World?” They quoted several psychologists talking about the game’s violence and its effect on younger audiences, even though clinical studies have been inconclusive. One psychologist was even quoted as saying, “The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games.” However, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey, the per-capita victimization rate of rape has declined from about 2.4 per 1000 people in 1980 to about 0.4 per 1000 people, a decline of about 85%. Beyond the fact that their statements are false, Rock, Paper, Shotgun reached out to the three psychologists for follow-up statements, but only heard back from one. Billy Pidgeon, a video game analyst with M2 Research, was quoted as saying, “Games without sufficient quality of gameplay -- games that include highly objectionable violent or sexual content -- often pump up the level of this kind of content to gain media attention. This tactic typically fails, as can be seen in the poor sales performance of titles such as BMX XXX and Postal,” but that’s only about a quarter of what was actually said, check out the rest here. Bulletstorm follows all of the ESRB’s guidelines for both gameplay and marketing and to be labeled as worst game in the world by Fox will only help in its promotion. Keep up the good work Electronic Arts, Epic Games, and People Can Fly. Bulletstorm will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on February 22.

Battlefield 3 Officially Announced

In case you missed it, Battlefield 3 was officially revealed last Friday as Game Informer’s March cover. Battlefield 3 is the third proper release in the Battlefield series that started in 2002 with Battlefield 1942, and its sequel Battlefield 2, released in 2005.

Duty Calls: The Calm Before The Storm

Electronic Arts marketing did it again. Last month EA unveiled their ad campaign for Dead Space 2 called Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2. To promote their new title, Bulletstorm, the people at People Can Fly and Epic Games released a free downloadable game titled, Duty Calls. The game is a parody of modern military shooters, particularly the Activision series Call of Duty, and pokes fun the various first-person-shooter tropes which in the past were received by fans as taking themselves too serious.