PC indie title Sanctum is getting a sequel and this time it’s coming to Microsoft and Sony’s consoles too.

There isn’t a lot of info about Sanctum 2 yet, other than it’s coming. That’s probably because the game isn’t going to be with us until 2013, so there’s plenty of time for them to get around to revealing it all.

The original Sanctum is a mixture of tower defense genre and first person shooter, where the player must tackle an incoming hoard of invading creatures. With fully-upgradeable weapons and the player taking a key role in the defense of their stuff, the original game has shifted quite a few copies, 300,000 units in fact, for the PC via Steam.

While details are scarce, we’re expecting the sequel to build on all this and we’ll have more news as we get it.

You certainly can’t fault the developers of Shoot Many Robots for making sure the game lives up to its name.

As this latest trailer shows, there’s quite a lot of them. In fact, there’s many of them. Which is kind of the point.

Still no firm date for the release of the game on PSN or XBLA, but it’s still scheduled for a 2012 release.

With the opening month of 2012 now behind us (did that go as quick for everyone else too?) we’re at that time of a new month when we have a look at the best of the content on offer from the other members of the Character Select Network.

Without further ado, here’s some of what the others were up to during January:-

Introspective Retrospective

2011 may be old news now, but that doesn’t mean there’s no scope for people to sit down and have a natter about what gaming treats they enjoyed. The Cane and Rinse podcast gets a few members on board to talk about their favorites.

To conclude our thoughts on the year in videogames that was 2011, Cane and Rinse contributors Karl Moon, Darren Gargette, James Carter, Joshua Garrity and Darren Foreman each offer their own personal perspectives on the previous twelve months of digital delights.

And while you’re there, and if you’re a fan of Halo, you might want to check out their podcast all about Halo:Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition

This week Leon and Tony are joined by Karl Moon and, making his Cane and Rinse podcast debut, Darren Gargette, to discuss 343 Industries Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

 

The Changing Demands of Gamers

Onyersix (possibly not his real name) ruminates over just how gamers tastes may be changing as the medium pushes ever onwards, including things like value for money and catering to everyone’s different play styles.

Although the character is an important aspect of the game, modern day RPGs have taught us that you can, to a certain degree, role-play and develop characters in your own styling.  You might choose to play Fallout 3 as a psychopath, homicidally murdering people in their sleep and insulting everyone you speak to.  (Telling a woman she was bats**t crazy was hilarious to me!)  If nothing else, it lets us mold the story to our own choosing, rather than dictating a linear path in the style of games like Uncharted 3.

Syndicate Preview

While the change into a First Person Shooter may not site well with some,  sci-fi title Syndicate is soon to be reborn. Tony Chandler has a look at how the game is shaping up with a hands on preview.

The new Syndicate takes the basics of this, and spins it into a very modern game. Gone is the old fashioned isometric viewpoint, replaced instead with a first person perspective. The characters look has been changed too, from the very 90s sunglasses and trench coats look of the original to a futuristic cross between a character from Mass Effect and Killzone. The demo we were given to play was the four-player online cooperative mode, on a mission to find and kill a rival Syndicate’s Colonel. There were three classes of agent to choose from, Offense, Defense and Support, so for the first game I picked Defense.

Meanwhile Dan Bendon takes a look at the latest in the series of Boobs and Battles…sorry, Swords and Souls with a review of Soul Calibur V

Once fully unlocked you’ll have a choice from a cast of around 28 characters made up of returning characters and newcomers in about equal measure with some of those newcomers being inspired by older characters, remade and revamped into younger bodies. All of the newcomers have entirely new move-sets and fighting styles so while it might look like Taki, Kilik and Sophitia have just undergone some plastic surgery and been given a new name it’s not the case. The cast feels very well rounded with very little overlap in styles, even the Alpha and Omega versions of Patroklos and Pyrrha play quite differently from their standard alter egos.

For what it’s worth, this latest Skullgirls trailer tries to suggest there’s a story to the seemingly random, over the top cartoon violence.

Pft! Like you’re going to be playing it to be regaled with the gaming equivalent of War and Peace.

Regardless they’ve lifted the proverbial lid off the different game modes and some features, which will include:-

- Story Mode
- Arcade Mode
- Practice Mode
- Ranked and Unranked Online Play
- Custom Soundtracks

They’re taking their sweet time in getting the game out, so expect the drip feed of info to continue for some time yet. Or at least until the game hits the still projected `early 2012` release date.

No, it isn’t Wednesday.

Yes, they’ve decided to shove a new XBLA release out on a Friday.

Seemingly irked by Sony proclaiming that PSN+ subscribers would get access to the game free, Microsoft have decided to fire out the release of The Simpsons Arcade game a whole five days ahead of the PS3 release. For 800 Points.

The game is there now for you to download and you can click here to add it to your Xbox’s download queue.

Exxcellent! [/Mr Burns]

If you’re getting bored of Marvel Pinball tables for Pinball FX2 (seriously? What’s wrong with you?!) then Zen Studios’ newly announced table will probably be music to your ears.

With EpicQuest, their fantasy themed table, Zen are definitely showing they weren’t kidding about continued support for the title.

XP, Loot, Monsters and an Acquisitive Knight Create a New Pinball Experience from Zen Studios

It is the sworn duty of every knight to seek out evil, defeat it, and take its stuff. One such knight is Max, whose enthusiasm for combat is surpassed only by his love of rare and valuable loot. Join Max as he battles hordes of evil (or just evil-looking) monsters, rescues a wealthy princess, and accumulates the loot and XP that make good worth doing. If Max suffers a defeat, never fear! He will return in the next game with all of his hard-won loot and experience levels intact.

As players complete missions and table objectives, Max earns loot, which is essential for defeating monsters and impressing n00bs. Put together a set of “epic” gear and become the envy of all your frenemies! Supposedly, it helps you fight better, too. And if a game ends, experience and loot carry over to the next game.

Expect the table to arrive later this month.

A rather stifled week again for the Nintendo downloads. Punch-Out with swords, Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword is probably your best bet in North America if you have a 3DS.

Nintendo users in Europe fair little better with TNT Racers on WiiWare and the original Kid Icarus on the 3DS (if you didn’t qualify to get it free a few weeks ago).

As usual the full list of notable releases can be found below:-

3DS Download Software – Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword ($6.99)
DSiWare – GO Series: Undead Storm (200 Points)

3DS Download Software – 3D Classics: Kid Icarus (€6/£5.40)
3DS Download Software – Pinball Pulse: The Ancients Beckon (€5/£4.50)
DSiWare – Castle Conqueror — Against (200 Points)
WiiWare – TNT Racers (1000 Points)

It’s a dire week this week for PSN users expecting original gaming content. Sadly there’s no other way to describe today’s releases.

After getting everyone a tad bit excited that The Simpsons Arcade Game was coming, they then turned around last minute and said it’ll be next week instead. What does that mean for releases this week? Pretty much just Puddle in the US for $9.99.

Europe gets naff all, except for opening up the Gotham City Imposters Beta. That is unless you want to download the Kane & Lynch games or Mini Ninja’s for an exorbitant price, when you can buy the disc based releases in the shops for mere pennies…

Just be strong everyone and remember, Sony loves you!

It’s a veritable Kinectfest with today’s releases on Xbox Live Arcade.

First up is Double Fine’s dubious foray into the world of party games (cos they’re always great right?) with  Happy Action Theater for 800 Points.

Then there’s Rhythm Party, also for 800 Points.

Developed by the people behind Dance Masters, as you’d expect, it’s lots of arm waving and booty shaking. Although with more J-pop styled tunes, dancing spacemen and bears on unicycles, it seems a bit more off the wall…

Deal of the week for this week is Bastion for half price (600 Points), something of an odd choice given it was on sale just the other side of the New Year.

Next weeks releases should be Shank 2 and The Simpsons Arcade game, providing the schedule doesn’t change.

It’s been a little while since 5th Cell, the Scribblenauts people, showed off their upcoming XBLA shooter, Hybrid.

Apparently they went back to the drawing board following its reveal at GDC in March last year and now they seem ready to show it off again.

In its time away the game has been given an all new art style and is promised to run at a full 60FPS (something which really shows in the video).

Expect a few twists on the current shooter genre, as the video shows the player shooting and taking cover in all sort of directions – the game seems to switch up for down, and vice versa, at the drop of a hat, which should make for some interesting skirmishes.

Hybird is currently scheduled for a summer 2012 launch.

Today Capcom made a little announcement that we’re finally getting Phoenix Wright: Ace Attourney 5.

No more messing about playing Miles Edgeworth.

No messing about with wannabe Apollo Justice.

And no special guest starring from Professor Layton.

They’re actually releasing an honest to goodness new adventure featuring everyone’s favourite shouty lawyer, Phoenix Wright. Hooray!

But alongside this news, they announced that the first three Phoenix Wright titles (so that’s the original Phoenix Wright, Justice for All, and finally the excellent Trials and Tribulations) would be getting a HD release for the iPhone 4 and iPad.

So the burning question right now for me is, if you’re going to do a HD release, why not spread your net as wide as possible and include as many platforms as you can? After all, I know I’d love to play through the games again if they’d been giving a loving spruce up and some HD visuals. I bet there are lots of other people who would too – throw in some decent Kinect / Move integration and you’re half way there.

It wouldn’t be the first time the Phoenix Wright titles have been given a downloadable release on the consoles either – after all, they were released bit by bit on WiiWare in 2009 – 2010. But we’re guessing they didn’t exactly sell like hotcakes due to Nintendo’s terrible behind the times approach to downloads.

So you have to question why Capcom would pass over the consoles for this sort of release? Sure, almost everyone and their dog has access to an iDevice but then they’ve already released at least one of the Ace Attorney games on the platforms less than a year ago.

So the question I have to ask is why are the titles being overlooked for Xbox and PlayStation users? Are Microsoft and Sony not interested in having the titles on their machines? Or is it just that Capcom have yet to break the news?

Let us know what you think.

Quarrel has finally arrived on Xbox LIVE Arcade after a brief detour to iOS (as Quarrel Deluxe) and is a game to settle old scores. Ninjas (20 points) destroy pirates (9 points) thanks to that valuable letter J. The arcade (10 points) beats the console (9 points) and a Siamese Tyrannosaurus rex and Godzilla (78 points) will beat basically whatever you put in front of it, except perhaps if the individual members of ZZ Top took it on separately – now there’s a film. Are you listening, Hollywood?

Quarrel is about dominating people with words. That doesn’t mean dressing up in leather and demeaning someone while they grovel at your feet (that’s how that works, right?) but instead, you have to come up with better words than them from the same rack of letters. To back up slightly; the game begins with elements of Risk. A map is divided into a number of territories and split between each player, with a random number of troops is placed on each one. Players take it in turns and can either attack an adjacent territory to capture it, move troops between adjacent territories that they already hold, or end their turn and receive reinforcements – one troop goes to every territory they hold. The goal is to capture the whole board.

Where the words come in is when an attack takes place. The owners of each territory go head to head and are given the same eight letters, the person that makes the best word out of those letters wins and the territory will be captured, or successfully defended. Where it becomes interesting, however, is that the player is limited by the amount of troops on a territory. If there are five troops, a five letter word is the best a player can make. While this means that attacking weaker spaces is advantageous, it’s never a guarantee of victory, as those poor defeated pirates will tell you. Damn ninjas. It’s about the score of the word, not it’s length, and so using high-value letters when you can is key.

Various other techniques are available to help your way to victory. Backup troops are earned by constantly making strong words, and trailblazing across a map – winning many battles in succession with one team – can earn loads of bonus troops in that team’s wake.

It’s an excellent, balanced, fast-paced and fiercely strategic game. Going first has its advantages and being the last of four players to take a turn leaves you vulnerable, but rather it changes the way you have to play rather than reducing your chance of winning. Rather than play conservatively as you would have to do at the start where everyone’s strong, you can trailblaze through units weakened by other players and find yourself in the driving seat – or you could be wiped out before you even get a turn; nothing is guaranteed in Quarrel. Winning a match from what should have been an unwinnable position is an incredible feeling – helped in no small part by the personality Denki have filled the game with.

From the cast of miniature characters beaming at a victory or looking distraught at a loss, to the tremendous use of sound, everything here is dripping with Denki charm. Words are shouted out (in a garbled manner) by your troops as each battle’s results are revealed, and the bigger the score, the more excited those little guys are, yelling speech bubbles that fill almost the whole screen. When you’re proud of a word, the game knows it, and knows how to make you feel awesome about it. Making a pathetic two-letter word will result in a whimper from the troops, and you can never feel too bad about losing because it’s just too funny.

All the single-player modes are based upon the same rules. Domination is the traditional mode. Elsewhere you can take on an increasingly clever range of opponents one-on-one, or compete in a series of challenges such as starting a map with one territory and having to trailblaze over as much of the map as you can, with only your vocabulary to support you. Or an online anagram solver, if you’re one of those odd people that buys word games but doesn’t really like the “word” parts.

Unfortunately this is one Quarrel you won’t be having with your other half though, unless it comes after a quarrel about something else which resulted in one of you being kicked out of the house and forced to live somewhere else that happens to have an Xbox with a copy of Quarrel on it. Which is to say, there’s no local multiplayer. The game revolves entirely around making better words than your opponent and it’s one that simply couldn’t work if you could see what the other player has come up with.

Multiplayer over Xbox LIVE is present though, which makes this the ultimate version of Quarrel. Quarrel Deluxe Deluxe, if you will. Gameplay over Xbox LIVE works exactly as it does in the single player, with all the options you’d expect. It works brilliantly, save for a bizarre and secret list of words that Microsoft doesn’t allow to be transmitted over Xbox LIVE. While this list includes things you might expect like ****, ******, and the utterly despicable **** (which is this reviewer’s personal favourite) it also bans the use of harmless words such as help and train. This means if you ever find yourself tied to a railroad track and you’ve got nothing but Quarrel on XBLA to alert someone to your peril, you’re basically shafted (16 points, offline only). It’s absurd and it’s restrictive, but every player is bound by the same word list and so it offers little advantage to any player, instead making it just a minor annoyance in what would otherwise be a perfect online experience.

Quarrel had a troubled development, but it’s finally here now and was more than worth the wait. It’s the best word game on the service, a great twist on the Risk formula, and should really be challenging Uno as the casual gamer’s multiplayer title of choice. That it’s been released at only 400 points means there’s no excuse not to buy it, if only to show your support for that sort of pricing structure and for a developer whose love for the medium couldn’t be more obvious from the game they’ve created.

Instabuy (18 points).