The Witching Hour Approaches...

The Witcher 3 looks spectacular. Its definitely on Gamexentral's list of games to get. Check out the new trailer.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Categories: CD Projekt RED, witcher 3: wild hunt

Grand Theft Auto 5: Farewell My Vice City!

With the end of the Xbox 360 and the PS3 crawling slowly out the back of 2014, one can expect to see how 13 years would come to a close. Throughout the ages, each generation of video game console would flush the void of it bowels and find one or two gems that usually pushes the boundaries so far, one wonders how so many developers failed to put out something as good a lot sooner.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series has always been a crowd favorite. Every 10-12 year old GTA veteran would pour out of the wood work, frayed from life in Hong Kong's violent underground and spending unhealthy hours as the U.S. President taking on aliens who seem to be on a constant meth high.

Two years of waiting is over. The Pro Ice engine or whatever they call it now looks dynamite. Rockstar has also spent sometime delaying the products release by tweaking stuff and censoring their own work in lieu of the slew of growing gun crimes in the United States, knowing full well that the likes of crusading politicians with a burr up his/her ass will soon be training their sights on GTA V as the purveyor of all senseless nut jobs and child killers that walks on God's green earth. Nobody is safe.

Thankfully, we now can just ignore idiotic debates about games, TV, film, radio, cave drawing, runes and clay pot noodle readings spouting sayings of unholy doom descending into human minds. GTA V has already re-written gaming history with phenomenal sales beyond expectations. A billion dollars in 3 days is almost equal to the pharmaceutical strangle hold, minus the strong arm tactics. Boner pill makers like Pfizer take note, don't get your cocks up too often. The huge downturn in teen pregnancies, abortions and sex in general is all due to Grand Theft Auto 5.

So GTA V is about the day to day struggles of common people who are forced to act against their law abiding nature in order to put the food on the table or simply stay alive. While it tries very much to mimicking real life, GTA V, keeps the fairy tale fantasy in perspective. Cops don't rob people which is a dangerous idea to play with, owing to the fact that this game was made within the confines of the United States, a sprawling police state just like so many others around the world. In GTA V the cops are pros and will employ every trick in the book to take out the games protagonists.

Time to Rock and Roll

The story mode revolves around three men, Michael, Franklin and Trevor, who are inexorably intertwined into a fateful turn of events that will take each man through the Arena's 'circle of life' in a pair of wobbly heels on a hellacious journey through a looking glass. Dealing with deafening silence for ungodly hours eventually reassured that the bond of friendship doesn't come with conditions. Thank God! Women...

There's plenty to steal. Places to rob and people to kill. But now it's all done is a more sensible way. Sub mission are varied as the game progresses as more and more vehicles become accessible. Much of the old famous formulas are strong enough to hold up the massive world of Los Santos. And boy is it massive. Driving for hours without end. Flying around the city in awe of it's magnificence. Rockstar weren't kidding when they said thing were going to be big.

All the amenities are intact. Clothes stores to customize but characters can no longer lose or gain weight anymore. Too bad. There are houses to be bought and all that shit. Gun shops, chop shops, paint jobs all make a welcome return, although its now seemingly harder to evade the law and highly probably to result in a 'Wasted' screen.

Way to Go!

Grand Theft Auto 5, represents the pinnacle in video game development in the last 13 years. Rockstar have refined and squeezed out every ounce of processing power from 2 ageing machines and shown just how far they can push the debilitating boundaries without sacrificing quality and entertainment of their premiere flagship series with a balls deep presentation that will become a beacon for other developers and a sure sign of how to make a game the right way. The Rockstar way.

Grand Theft Auto 5
Rating 

Categories: grand theft auto 5, rockstar games, rockstar north, take two interactive

DUST 514: Another One Bites the ...?

Dust 514 from Icelandic developer, CCP Games is touted to be the future of MMOG because it is indirectly linked to the other MMOG, EVE Online. Not that I care, but that link could spell doom for Dust sooner than it settles.

Dust was suppose to be a game changer of sorts but even after it was launched, it became apparent that it is nothing more than cheap freemium masquerading as a MMOG.

Having played the mercenary events, I couldn't help but think how that would affect the Dust world as it was touted so by the incredible team behind EVE Online. This game was released online to PSN members in May, 2013. Powered by Unreal Engine, the graphics are surprisingly average, and if if kicking the dust was ever a protocol, then this feather weigh development should be at best forgotten.

Too Complex, Too Simple

Here is my beef on it. The damn game is just too complex to get to grips with and just too simple a shooter to qualify it as a deal breaker. Sure it is free to play but more importantly, it is Pay to Win.

First there are four in-game currencies, three of which are earned in-game while the fourth, Aurum, must be purchased on the PSN network. Each are disguised to mask the fact that you need it for a an upgrade. The skill point is an in-game currency as you can't upgrade stuff without it.

As a first person shooter, I am not sure what to make of it. It is not a bad game but then again, not entirely a good one either. The whole concept is based upon the old Capture the Flag scenario where you and your buddies go about capturing nodes or points in the game and hold them for as long as possible. Each Node represents a Weapon of Mass Destruction, where you mother-ship (MCC) gets pounded should the WMD nodes ever fall in the wrong hands.

The game play is simple enough but the massive detail where you need to get into for upgrades is boringly complex. You have to spend hours earning points to upgrade your skill level. This means playing the game over and over in the Academy. You can ante up those skill points and head on to the Mercenary events. The gameplay is the same except that you group yourselves into squads of 32 people.

The Academy events are lonely affairs. Online players can jump in at any time and take a side. Sometimes you won't find a soul online willing to play with you. Yes, you earn lots of points here for playing here but this is not where the real action is. The Mercenary and Corp Events is where you should be.

The is where the EVE Online linked-in comes into play. Whenever the folks at EVE decide to invade or attack a planet, they hire the DUST players to decide its fate. So most of the time, if there is no invasion planned for the day, the Event roster is empty! You can spend an eternity waiting for something to happen and sometimes, it just doesn't happen.

For the instant play Academy events, there is always a battle going on where you can just jump in. Problem is, these are ongoing events so any number of people can hop into the action. Academy events are training grounds for you to earn points to redeem for weapon and vehicle upgrades and skills. You get to familiarize yourself with the tools of war and cash in those points to boost your skill level.

In a freemium model, everything has a life span. So if you bought a spiffy Drop ship with your hard earned points, and end up crashing it, then you lose that ship forever and have to buy a new one. You need more money in the kitty and that said it is never a good thing.

The same applies to your armour, weapons and whatever you care to spend your skill points on. Get killed and everything resets. You have to buy a new suit because each time you die, a new 'clone' of yourself is spawned. But this does not mean that the dead guy you killed can be robbed off all his gear. This isn't the case. The upgrades self destruct along with him.

Controls Suck Big Time

Online Latency is one big factor to bad controls but my broadband latency was 30ms but the controls still sucked. Sprinting seems like jogging while walking is more like strolling. The weapons you have with you are limited and ammo can only be found at Supply Dumps. Melee is hopeless, so don't bother rushing up to an enemy to give them the chop. There is no crawling down to level ground and this means you become easy target.

One of the things I hate about these games is that everyone does the Kangaroo hop just to avoid getting hit. So it is not really realistic to expect a kill except in the case where these folks are piloting a tank or a flying vehicle where your Swarm Missiles can lock on.

Sadly, I didn't find the game play any more enriching than say the other MMOPG, which means if you didn't have body armour and kick ass weapons upgrades, chances are you'd be cannon fodder for more elite players. In other words, you're the extra who gets greased in an action movie. Sucks doesn't it?

Drop Suit Loadouts

You can custom your load out in any of the drop suits so this really depends on you. Weapons by far are the most difficult to equip as you may not have the points required to redeem those upgrades and end up using puny sized weapons with very little stopping power.

Each drop suit can also be equipped with shields and armour. Not bad but not great. Those with higher skill points can of course have more sturdy armour which gets very frustrating. Try shooting some expert and you'd see that his armour will hold up to your puny bullets. You could try lobbing a grenade at them but they move so fast, it's like trying to spit gum at a passing Ferrari.


Why Dust is a Let Down

 At the present moment, about 30K players get online during none peak but I can't even find a game outside of Academy training that does the gameplay any justice.

Your puny weapons are no match for those who have upped their armour or shields so there is little reason to expect a quick kill if you are playing outside the Academy. Within the Academy, you are pitch with zero skilled morons like yourself, so those with a higher skill rating and better armour can easily drop in to slaughter the lot of you just to earn more skill points.

Dust to Dust

There are interesting moments, where you get to overwhelm your opponent by sheer tactical wit and luck but those times are very rare indeed. As with many MMOG, your best bet at winning is to team up with other godless killers to ensure your win. Playing with complete strangers is more comedic and is ill advised. But the whole problem with this game is that the playing levels from the very beginning is not engaging enough to excite players to make them  part with their money.

There isn't enough variety in the game to keep you going even though the play area is large enough for you to fly drop ships and take the scenic route should you ever with to drive on land. The Night and Day environments are nice distractions but in the end, my only fear is that I would get bored waiting for a battle to happen. And that seems to happen all the time when I am online. Enough Said.

Lastly, there is nothing pioneering about this sort of gameplay. I would have appreciated some kind of tactical training where Academy levels are places you train to shoot and bomb robotic enemies to get a feel on what it is like in controlling your online altered ego. But instead, you have an extremely boring take on an online game. There is no chance of you meeting a like minded player who might form a team since everyone is assigned a side to fight for. There is also no waiting room where you can associate with one another. This only happens in the Mercenary events so you only get to associate with more experienced players. In all, Dust just doesn't go far enough to appease the appetite for MMOPG just by going Freemium, it offers nothing new in terms of gameplay and challenges you by having you wrestle with the gamepad controls. Sad to say I won't be playing this any more.

Dust 514 @ Sony PSN

Rating 

Categories: DUST, Freemium, MMOG, MMOPG, PSN

Amalur Goes Under The Hammer

Rhode Island is preparing to sell the Kingdoms of Amalur IP, with a website offering its assets going live this month, 38 Studios' court-appointed receiver Richard Land tells WPRI. 38 Studios collapsed in 2012 after launching Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, taking $90 million of Rhode Island taxpayer money down with it.

The main focus of the Amalur auction will be Project Copernicus, the studio's incomplete MMO.

Categories: 38-studios, amalur, kingdoms-of-amalur, project-copernicus, rhode-island, taxpayers

How did Sleeping Dogs Bombed?

Critically acclaimed, Sleeping Dogs is going to sell about 3 million copies at retail in total for year end 2013. That's a real poor performer and you wonder why a game like that could bomb so badly when GTA games rake in billions in revenue.

Wait a minute, what the heck is Grand Theft Auto being brought into the picture? Didn't everyone say that Sleeping Dogs was highly original? Well now you know.

Sleeping Dogs is in essence a GTA rip off. From the open world mission based scenarios to the driving, and car stealing. It's the same. What people expected was that there would be more creativity in execution instead of being just another GTA clone. Truth is, Square Enix didn't try hard enough. I gotta give it to them for spending all that money on the Voice Talents for the cut scenes, which are fabulous. I love the Hong Kong atmosphere and the wonderful departure from the GTA nonsense which have seen done to death. But it just doesn't go far enough.

What Went Wrong??

From the onset, playing both sides wasn't going to cut it. You had Wei Shen, who is an undercover cop doing stuff for both the Law and Outlaws. Damn, that's confusing. This makes the whole gameplay outlandishly myopic as most of the Police Cases are often boring, you get to use a gun for most of these pursuits but using one in daytime just causes the game to kick up its heels and go belly up. I remember testing the AI to see if it could respond when a gun was fired on a desert island. It did send the Marine Police after me which I manage to dispatch with a few well aimed shots. Then you had the utter stupidity of seeing a street cop suddenly running up from the water's edge to arrest you. This is indeed damn silly.

The health bar makes no sense. If you ate or slept to rest, your health regenerative powers doesn't improve one bit. Did someone miss out on something here? In a fight, you have no idea on how your health is holding up as there are two health circles to take notice of. It was downright confusing as you didn't know you were too low in health to take on 9 dudes.

The gameplay failed me. I hated the stupidity of picking locks and installing bugs. If Square Enix made it less GTA and more like Far Cry, it would have been a better game. 

Where's my Car Dude?

As you progress, you'd realize that much of your missions are related to driving and racing. I love the way the environment of HK wraps around you as you drive about but that's about it. The racing? It's second rate. I think that it would have been a tad better if the cars could have been upgraded to give better performance but that took too much time to develop and was omitted. And you can't steal a car to race either. This could have been fun but the game designers just didn't allow you to do it. It could have been a great racing game if you had to steal your ride and you had a fixed time frame to find the correct spec car just for it.

I do like the touches where you could race around with the flares in place to show your route but it could have been made better if the circuit was fixed by route with the customary arrow showing the way. Instead of running into humans along pedestrian walks, the route could have been better designed. For example, the racing on bikes could have taken you round to mainly alleyways instead of the main streets and pedestrian walk ways, where street furniture is placed to confuse you.

Turkey Shooting

I love my guns but there is no way to store them. Fuck. I think as a crook or a cop, you should be given a chance to own a weapon even after it runs of bullets. Instead you get to pick up weapons at places where some fool drops them and shoot them until you run out of ammo.

The shooting experience is good. You get rewarded for head shots. But this is something that the games gives very little to you. Gun play is kept just for mission that are related to it. You can't use a gun in a knife fight, the cops will come after you. This is very stupid. There are missions where I came into with a gun but are not allowed to use it for fear of arrest as this causes you to lose your gun.

There are no gun shops. You cannot bring a machine gun back to your hotel, drop it onto the floor and hope it stays there. You cannot keep ammo. You cannot buy ammo. You have no access to the types of guns to your liking. This is all very stupid.

I remember that I had to kill a cop to get access to a shotgun. Once it ran out of ammo, you are left to use your fist. There is no way for you to  holster your machine gun or shotgun. WTF? The moment you run around with it, it is in plain sight and people will flee and cops will come get you.

Brawling is Boring

It is true. After a while, you get really bored with it. It is fine that you need to learn moves, some of which are too complicated for the gamepad to handle. I realize that the responsiveness of the controls is a problem. It just doesn't quite register the button hits fast enough.

To ante up on your brawling skills you get to collect 12 Zodiac idols. Fine. That I can take. But the game revolves around brawling for most of the police and triad work. Finding stuff and fighting enemies is based on how much skill you have accumulated on this. There are some pretty insipid moments. Like when you get confronted in a 12 to one fight and the moment you step away to catch a breather, all the dudes are gone! And there are also invisible enemies that suddenly become visible out of thin air. One moment you are shooting in front of you and someone pops up behind you from nowhere.

For those of you who love the hand to hand fighting, it is generally acceptable. It is probably a lot better than GTA in that respect but you have to learn and remember those moves in order to use it.

 

Poor UI and Navigation

There is a lack of finesse in the UI design and UX you get from it. The lock picking is probably the most stupid. The rest, well, it feels like a 1980s game. Trusted that the gamepad has limited potential in creating a gratifying response, too little attention has been paid to the overall quality of the game. The user experience (UX) is pretty fucked up. You don't get to ante up on health as you are totally oblivious to it and you can only see it once you buy and eat food.

I had hoped that Sleeping Dogs would not be a copy of GTA, but because it is, it becomes quite a messy affair when it comes to navigating vehicles. The camera spins all over the place when you are driving round corners instead of focusing on the road ahead. It gets very annoying as you try to out speed your opponents in racing and have the camera spin all over when you turn into a corner. This is very bad. The driving experience should be top notch since you spend most of the time going from one place to another. Why not put in the MTR if you don't want people to drive around? The taxi is pretty lame way to get around.

Conclusion

UFG have taken a safe route by copying GTA in the hope to piggy back on a successful franchise. To be fair, GTA 5 is going to produced at a cost over US$200 million. Wow. Now I have no idea what Blizzard/Activision pumped into the game before it got canned and later picked up by Square Enix. But I can assure you that it is no where near the US$200 million mark.

The concept was good to go but the game execution on how it dealt with UX was very poor. The progression is stuck on rails. If you don't complete one particular mission, you can't go on to the next. You can of course spend your time doing stuff like looking for idols and health shrines to boost your mojo but beyond that, the open world exploration gets a tad boring.

The weakest elements is the looting mechanism. It should be made in a way where each sector of HK was off limits to you until you complete all the levels required in one sector. The reason for this is simple. There is a finite amount of RAM memory on consoles and to flesh out a sector or region of gameplay, you have to restrict it to loading the next region. To get cash, you get to run over parking meters to get a few bucks. Right...like there was a lot of thought that went into that.

Gambling, a favorite with the Chinese is no where evident besides the racing and cock fighting. They should have added an element where you can go to wager bets in Macau, the Las Vegas of the East.

I love the concept. The voice acting is superb, the urban design and idea of a game based in Hong Kong but unfortunately, it just didn't go deep enough as it plays too much like GTA. If this was their intention, then they have done themselves a huge disservice.

Categories: open world, PC, PS3, rpg, sleeping dogs, true crime, Xbox 360

Splinter Cell Blacklist: A final farewell to Sam?

Sam Shepard makes his final appearance on the current generation of video game consoles, as well as the PC, as part of a slew of farewell gifts from the old stalwarts of the heady 80s who have silently evolved into the most prominent publishing and software development company the finicky yet deadly world of video games.

As the story goes, Shepard has a brand new voice which doesn't differ that much from the old one. Naturally, the gamers of today who are considerably more knowledgeable but surprisingly quite clueless were cajoled by wicked gaming sites into making a huge outcry about the whole voice acting thing. A new big ass Hollywood star was roped for the voice acting and has truly done a fine job of portraying the cold and murderous protagonist. The subject is now officially closed and the idiocy of it all has been quickly forgotten.

But as the games story goes, bad old Sam has been given a new lease of life. Some big wigs have decided to put Sam in charge of an unconstitutional group consisting of highly specialized agents in the hopes of finding and smoking out an organization hellbent on subverting the very foundation of the good old USA. That's bad news. Its also a bad situation that requires the wrong man for the right job. Enter Sam and his team of misfits, crazy enough to follow the ex-Third Echelon super agent over the cliff if they have to. Such a team has merits, but if this team should get their asses in a sling, the US Government will disavow any knowledge of them without batting an eyelid. What the government doesn't know is that if they give Shepard enough rope, he will hang them all.

So off we go one Shepard's most perilous mission that takes him and his new team to exotic locations as diverse as Uptown Afghanistan, the Iraqi Boardwalk and Downtown Chicago just to name a few. There's absolutely no time for sight seeing or looking up whorehouses here. Such a shame, I always wanted to take a picture with a $10 hooker in Iraq.

The action moves at the players pace. This time around Ubisoft have added a new element to the old hide and shank game play. Players may opt three different play styles that gives the game a lot more depth and replayability. Choosing to be a Ghost is basically the old 'No Alerts, No Kills' challenge from the Metal Gear Solid games. Then there is the Panther, striking from the darkness all the while remaining hidden from view. Finally, my favorite, Assault, which is the no holds barred, kill em all and blow em up style. The choice of play styles is highly dependent on the gear and weapons a player must choose before committing to a mission. Pick the right toys for your style and off you go.

The graphics are a step up especially on an old SD TV where the degree of darkness is as cruel as some of the locations in Dark Souls. Playing this game on it highest difficulty with a shitty SD TV is actually unlocking the hardest level of all. Unfortunately, Ubisoft will not be giving out prizes for unveiling that secret. Of course, with expert use of Sam's goggles things get a little brighter and a little more bearable. There's nothing worse than hearing some mangy mutt growling close by and then end up getting your nuts bitten off without warning. Unlike Game Fuhrer's old hound from hell, Brutus, these stinking dogs do not respond to treats, imitating the masters voice or the old stone throw fake out move.

While the single player missions offer a lot of fun and laughter in the many ways of murder, the story about Sam and the bad guys is a rather gritty one. Fraught with treachery, brutality and some pretty dramatic moments that alter the course of the game quite drastically. For instance, during rescue missions, if the guards are some how alerted, the scenario is altered to include a fire fight that has Sam worrying about the encroaching enemy and the fragile life of the rescued prisoner which is constantly at risk during a shoot out.

Apart from the solo missions, there are a variety of co-op tasks to perform where Sam and a fellow agent must work together as a team. One bad foul up can lead to a mission going bad in an instant. With the variety of play styles; players can experiment with different tactics and maneuvering to out smart the overwhelming enemy force. Not all the baddies are smart but eventually they will use pincer and flanking maneuvers or overlapping fields of fire to either surprise or pin down the two agents and finish them off with a few well cooked grenades. Death is cheap in co-op mode. Only smart play will see the missions through. Lowering the difficulty works too.

Finally, there's the Spies Vs Mercs online multiplayer co-op that guarantees hours of fun with 4 vs 4 match ups and a variety of game modes that not too dissimilar from ones found in a host of other multiplayer shooters. Death Match, Capture the Flag etc done in a Splinter Cell sort of way. To be honest, this is one mode that has not been fully explored due to our horrendous "fraudband" connection speeds. Unfortunately, the extremely expensive broadband pricing we are forced to pay acts as a deterrent to the lower income groups from the smaller towns and villages from having access to the internet. This is the most effective type of censorship, and boy, I wish Sam was here to do something about this.

Conclusion

For good old Sam, its business as usual. With a bold new story and a pretty innovative level up system, Splinter Cell Blacklist stands out as one of my favorite Sam Shepard adventures. Hopefully, this will not be his last. If you are a fan, then buy this game at all costs, for those new to the series, don't worry, with the huge amount of 'Tenchu' inspired stealth games that have been released this past year alone, it is unlikely that you won't be familiar with this one.

Splinter Cell Blacklist 

Rating

Categories: Blacklist, Co-op, PC, PS3, Spies Vs Mercs, Splinter Cell, Stealth, Ubisoft, Xbox 360

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn gets an early launch. This so-called rebirth sees a complete revamp of the game, with a focus on retro style RPG game play.

The early launch offers plenty of challenges coupled with the fact that this is SquareEnix's flagship title.

According to early reports the game suffered major server problems which will hopefully be ironed out pronto.

While things start slowly, the class system allows a great deal of variety, although the game seems rather easy to begin with, things tend to heat up with players hit the mid-30s level.  This title also incorporates many modern features – Dungeon group finder, daily quests, and public quests in the form of FATES.

Stay tuned for a full review coming soon.

Categories: early launch, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, mmorpg, square enix, subscription

Black Desert 22 Minute Walkthrough

Largely touted as a 'next gen' MMORPG, Black Desert developers, Pearl Abyss shows off their 'large scale sandbox oriented' game with a 22 minute walk through that displays some pretty good next gen graphics but nothing new that we haven't seen in every standard MMORPG. But who cares about game play when you've got nice graphics, right?

Video courtesy of F2P

Categories: black-desert, black-desert-consoles, cologne, con, Console, console-mmos, consoles, convention, fantasy, gamescom, gamescom-2013, germany, housing, korea, korean-mmo, pearl-abyss, sandbox

Retro Shoot 'em Up!: Sine Mora

Do you like Hungarian? I bet you do once you tried Sine Mora. It's one of those tribute side to side scrolling shoot'em ups which were all the rage in 1980s arcade parlors.

There has always been a demand for a good shooting game but of late, the varieties that seem to be popping up seem rather pale. Where are the R-types and Side Arms look alike when you need them? Hell, where are heroes who would push the envelop of style and playability?

Big Story, Great Graphics

Sine Mora upped the ante when it landed and you don't have to look very far to see how and why. The concept of it is brilliant. Steam Punk ships and airplanes, retro style bosses and awesome gameplay.

I'm never one to follow on those cut scenes but the the ones in Sine Mora is something else. It is gorgeous. The steam-punk style graphics is an excellent angle to get people hooked onto the game and the cut scenes is just what you need to give your fingers and wrist a rest before the next level of fighting.

Each level has been painstakingly designed and you will astounded by it. Side scrollers normally employ 2D style depth but with Sine Mora, you also get a 3D depth of play which is just fantastic.

You will find the same graphics in the iOS and Android versions of the game but the mobile devices don't play well with shooters like these  as you need minute precision to navigate the hordes of enemies. There is a hint of lag every time you have too many elements on screen and controls are difficult. That said, the game plays well on my PS3 so there is no issues there.

Conclusion

Sine Mora rocks. Even though Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture have put their best coders in place to make the transition from one platform to another, the sad part of it is that that the original cutscenes are all voiced in Hungarian, with accompanying English or Japanese subtitles. That said, it doesn't really spoil the game in anyway since the story isn't exactly compelling to begin with.

What makes the game work is the great graphics and excellent gameplay. The weapon combinations and upgrades you have at you disposal is just too damn useful to ignore. And like some of the old arcade shooters, the Big Bosses at each level require some brains to defeat and dexterity alone isn't going to save you. In other words, it is a throwback to the good old retro days of arcade gaming. Wicked indeed.

Sine Mora on PS3rating 

Categories: action, arcade, scroller, shoot'em up

Elder Scrolls Online QuakeCon 2013

QuakeCon, hailed as the largest LAN party in North America, kicked off recently, and since MMO fans have been clamoring for some uninterrupted Elder Scrolls Online gameplay, ZeniMax chose QuakeCon as the venue to show off its latest addition to the Elder Scrolls franchise. Those present at the show were, Peter Hines, Vice President of marketing, Paul Sage, creative director and Nick Konkle, gameplay lead.

20 minutes of Elder Scrolls Online gameplay at QuakeCon 2013.

Notes from Livestream courtesy of Joystiq

Mouselook is always on.
Left click to attack; hold down for heavy attack. Right click to block.The compass sits at the top of the UI, showing POIs.
When you join a guild, you gain skill lines. Each class has three skill lines. Paul Sage: "You can make skills behave the way you want it to behave."
Game is fully-voiced.
Crouch/stealth mechanics and easy weapon swapping demonstrated. Any class can use any armor or any weapon.
Paul Sage: "When you discover new things, you get experience for that."
Easy travel to group in a safe location near your groupmates.
Three skyshards grant you a new ability.
It looked as if you could use a bow and magic at the same time. Weapon swapping really easy.
Game gives the player a heroic feel by fighting multiple enemies at one time.
No fighting over loot because it's instanced to each player.
Nick Konkle plays a Templar. Roles can be switched by switching weapons. "You play the role you want to play," reiterates Paul Sage.
NPCs work together. If one NPC drops blue oil, another might set it on fire. They work together against your party.
Soul gems allows you to rez your teammates or rez yourself. Every time you die, your armor degrades.
NPCs can work with your group.
Mudcrabs confirmed!

The game is due to release in Spring 2014 on PC, Mac, XboxOne, and PlayStation 4. Sign up for beta. And that's it!

Categories: Bethesda, Elder Scrolls Online, QuakeCon 2013, ZeniMax

Are You Ready For A War!?

 "That's war. Trading real estate for men." - Sands Of Iwo Jima.

Men of War developers Digital Mind Soft have announced Men of War: Assault Squad 2, a follow-up to their infantry-heavy standalone expansion.

Assault Squad 2 features new scenarios, factions, maps, and an 8 vs 8 multiplayer mode. Digital Mind Soft also claims that the game will have "multiple upgrades, improved graphics engine and sound, to specific fan requests, such as multi-core support and advanced shader technology and season/map dependant camouflage."

War will also be waged with the inclusion of Steam Cloud, Steam Workshop and multiplayer match making functionality.

Men of War: Assault Squad is due out sometime between October and December, 2013.

Categories: 1C Company, Digitalmindsoft, Men of War: Assault Squad 2, Real time strategy, RTS

Xbox One Can Self Publish Games

In a recent article on the Shacknews website, Microsoft had announced that the Xbox One console has the capability to self-publish games, making it the most accessible console platform.

According to Shacknews, Marc Whitten, corporate VP Xbox , part of why Microsoft originally required publishers for content on Xbox Live Arcade was the way Live was built on Xbox 360. Pointing to dev kits and the PartnerNet developer environment, publishing on Live Arcade was inherently "low-scale." But those bottlenecks are gone with Microsoft's next console. "It's one of the foundational things we're working with Xbox One," he told us. "With Xbox One, all development is done against production network.".

Read more at Shacknews.

Categories: Indie Dev, Indie Games, Open System, Self Publish, Xbox One

Hitman Absolution: How Agent 47 failed at the Boxoffice

Back in November 2012, the eagerly anticipated Hitman series was jump started by Square Enix to compensate for it's lack of mojo over the years—giving credence that Agent 47 may have contracted cancer and had to get a dose of Chemotherapy. That said, it wasn't entirely a good idea as the new team that developed it took too much creative license to make a turgid and long winded game which tested the nerve of players. 

Now the game isn't that bad. It's just that it isn't that good. First, let's pick out the good points. The Glacier 2 graphics engine is pretty cool. Gives you that film like 24 frame look and it is buttery smooth. The playing environments are beautiful, and there are lots of things to admire besides the scenery. Much more has been given to flesh out the characters, along with a in-depth story line, making this third person shooter feel almost like a RPG game. 

Therein lies the problem. Hitman is a shooter and by turning it on its toes, the developers lost it. 

WTF Gameplay

There is nothing really new about the game. Pick out weapons, kill the targets and hopefully stay saintly as Karma will come back to haunt you....but it doesn't. 

The new "instinct" capability is similar to that of the "sonar" or "tracking" ability of other well known games and thanks to its slow pace of play the problem is further compounded with long cutscenes in between levels. These developers were thinking of making it more like a movie, but the dialogue isn't one bit interesting to listen to. There are no witty clips or characters to begin with and even though the story is strong, the effort to create character depth just fails. Game designers got carried away with making a holier Hitman with a heart of Gold. 

The biggest issue I have so far is the AI engagement. It is plain stupid. The AI will for instance catch you unaware or ignores you totally even if you are fully armed and standing within 20 feet of Agent 47. Myopic characters? You bet. 

Then there is the sneaking around. Apparently, you are encouraged NOT to face up to danger and be a Gandhi like Hitman, scoring only points for people you are suppose to kill. If you get blasted by a bodyguard with a gun, you are suppose to sneak away and hide like a mouse. Killing him will earn you negative points. 

Then there are times when you just want to go in and take them out. But the game resets your ammo stash to the number of digits on your hands and even prevents you from choosing guns which you have picked up on a previous level. WTF? All a sudden, the game is to be played on rails  judging from the melee option. You have to follow a fixed set of buttons to melee instead of a one swipe whack. This slows the gameplay down with slo-mo sequences which could be best used in a documentary about life on Mars. 

The next WTF moment is that you have no control over the arms you have in your stash. You are only allowed to pick up pistols for pistols and can't swap a pistol for a machine gun. What is the point of picking up small funny pistol when the gameplay could be enjoyed with a sub-machine gun?

The lack of signature weapons is also another problem. Agent 47's Silver Ball silenced shooter is only available to you at a gun shop. I got so frustrated playing Gandhi (nice guy) to get it that I blew my top and KILLED everyone there just to progress to the next level—earning myself enough negative points that would be the hallmark of my world score. 

On other levels, when the Cops are alerted, they seem to be able to shoot through crowds of people and hitting you while you can't hit them unless you kill the bystanders. Since when do cops fire with bystanders as human shields? And to make matters worst, there are numerous levels where you end up killing more cops than bad guys once your cover is blown. WTF? Are they thinking along the lines of GTA now??

Throughout the game, you are given loads of places to hide in like Garbage Bins, trunks and closets. God sakes, this is not Agent 47's guide to Hide & Seek you're creating. But somehow the developers got carried away and added useless and inane stuff. And what about picking up objects, which at best could be flung at people. What good is that beyond trying to mislead the AI of your true intentions?

Conclusion

The real weakness of the game is that too much has been added to the story without paying sufficient notice to the gameplay. Even though it is a massive game spanning hours if you had the time to sit through it all and play the Contracts level, you don't get a new high with every accomplishment, like for example the ability to unlock some cool new weapons instead of picking up the standard fare—pistols made for pigeon shooting. The lack of firepower is what hampers this game and that's not what you want in a shooter like the Hitman. 

There is also no real difference between stalking and staying stealth versus taking out the entire troupe before they discover your unholy intentions. The game is actually much easier to play if you did the latter. If you loved snucking around, dangling from rooftops and hiding dead corpses, you're better off with a copy of Splinter Cell than Hitman. 

People play shooters because they want to have a fun time doing stuff that they can't do in real life but the game gets off on the wrong foot by allowing so many levels to be played via killing Cops. Then you have the storyline that is suppose to make him take an almost apologetic stand on a teenage girl.  

Hitman in all essence is a cold hearted killer. There is no two ways around it. If you made him anymore human, he won't be known simply as Agent 47. Gautama 47 perhaps?

Hitman Absolution

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Categories: agent 47, hitman, PS3, square enix, third person shooter, Xbox 360

Soul Calibur 2 HD

Namco Bandai has just announced Soul Calibur 2 HD Online at San Diego Comic Con, Shoryuken reports. The fighter is headed to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this fall, and as the name suggests is a high-definition, presumably online-enabled remake of the 2003 PlayStation 2 version of the game. As such, it will include the PS2 version's console-specific character, Heihachi of Tekken infamy.

No word on whether Spawn (the Xbox version's exclusive character) will ever be available, though we feel safe in assuming that Link won't be repeating his cameo from the GameCube port. We're keeping an eye out for the inevitable trailer and screenshots, but for now let's re-enter the stage of history with the game's original cinematic intro sequence.

Source: Shoryuken

Categories: Namco Bandai, PS3, PSN, Soul Calibur 2 HD, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

EA Updates Real Racing 3, they WANT your Money!

Game Updates are suppose to make it more playable, but it doesn't seem to be the case with Real Racing 3.

The newest update saw a slew of changes which has angered fans. The biggest overhaul was on the scoring system which has been switch to a rating system to allow continued play. This game overhaul is sure to kill the interest of new fans.

First on the chopping block is the locked racing tiers. In the past, you can unlock different tiers with the payment of coins but this time round, the whole routine has been eschewed to be as worthwhile as a duck in still water. EA, hungry for new money, decided that instead of allowing you the liberty to open up as many tiers, now ask you to complete the lower tiers with a basic car before upgrading (you need more R$ for this) to a faster one while in the past, you could essentially buy a faster car of your choice and compete freely on all tiers as long as you have the in-game coins handy.

This means you have to spend double the amount of money to get to the higher tiers. This is all fine and well but the R$ rewards for podium finishes have also been reduced slightly to make it more difficult for you to earn enough credits to buy new cars.

I have the cash! why don't you let me buy this car?

The next big change is that you can't buy car packs like in the past. Technically speaking, there is no way to avoid the lower 'stock' cars as you have to buy into them before you are allowed to progress upwards to higher spec cars. The choices of cars are therefore limited in the faster GT and Supercar category as you have to buy a lower spec car to compete in the lower tiers and make another purchase of a faster car to compete in the higher tiers.

The inclusion of the TT (time trial mode) is by no means a bonus. These new events completes the the tier line up events but in order to progress, you need to buy all the cars.

To add insult to injury, the RR3 store still sells you R$, which is completely useless if you can't use it to buy any car of your choice. Instead you have to upgrade and buy at least two cars in one Championship level.

Where this is headed is simple. The EA dudes want you to spend more time playing on the lower tiers of each Championship level.

Repair Cost has Doubled

Another note worthy overhaul is the repair mode. There is now a Clean Race bonus which is awarded to players who do not use their cars as wrecking balls on the track. This unwelcome change is both stupid and silly as there is no way to drive a clean race if you start way back on the grid in the first place. Instead, the Clean Race bonus is used to offset the damages you sustain in a race as a way of compensating you for the meagre prize revenue you get for podium finishes.

And unlike the previous incarnation (pun intended), repair times have doubled with lower durability. Each car needs to be fully repaired after just only two or three events—with Supercars and GT cars taking close to 2 hours for a complete repair job. There are no selective repair options like before as everything has been grouped into one no frills window.

How much is Too Much?

I preferred the older system of upgrades and yes, it would have been a great addition if all the game changes didn't come with their new faults. Right now, EA wants to play by their new rules and that sucks big time.

Is there a way around it? Sure there is. Junk it.

Categories: EA, mobile, Real Racing

Last Of Us

Naughty Dog has been responsible for some of the very best games on the PS3 and their last effort happens to be a tale of strife, desolation and horror as man fights for survival against and antagonistic world that has decided to rub out natures biggest mistake with a frightful disease that turns humans into murderous beings called clickers.

This allows Naughty Dog to trip the light fantastic with a graphically stunning world featuring post apocalyptic devastation with grotty buildings covered in fauna and streets strewn with junked vehicles with marvellous lighting and environmental effects that absorbs the player into its ugly yet beautiful embrace.

While the game is yet another linear offering it coaxes the player into a lull and deviously controls the pace of the journey. As one would expect from Naughty Dog, Last of Us is brilliantly directed much like a film.

The plot surrounds a teenaged girl, Ellie whose puts her life in the hands of Joel, a hardened survivor of the plague. Their relationship is laconic to say the least but forms the centre of the story.

Last of Us is essentially a stealth game where learning the behaviour of the enemies is tantamount to survival. The clickers and human protagonists react differently when alerted. The degree of violence in the game is extremely high. The mastery in the various arts of murder is essential in order to respond and survive combat where the stress level feels all too real. Its literally a thrilling rush.

The RPG-esque element are in the form of upgrading weapons or fashioning new ones out of salvaged materials. The use of vitamin supplements helps boost health and stamina abilities. These do not detract from the immersive story too much. One can imagine if this game had something similar to the survival component of MGS3: Snake Eater, it would be the closest thing to perfection.

The areas in the game are small but burgeoning with detailed imagery from the claustrophobic interior of buildings to the empty streets covered in vegetation.

Last of Us is not a technical ground breaking extravaganza. There’s absolutely nothing outstanding about it, but it is incredibly furbished and addictive in every sense of the word which guarantees a form of enjoyment for video games that has been lacking over the last decade. Every feature in the game is superbly integrated and only promises and immersive adventure that players are not likely to forget for a long time.

Last of Us
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Categories: Last Of Us, Naughty Dog, Playstation 3, Sony Computer Entertainment

Nobody Gets Outta Here Alive!

Behold! The official game play trailer for the up coming Mad Max game from Warner Bros Interactive. The open world action game is slated for an early 2014 release on the PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Video courtesy of Gamespot
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Categories: Avalanche Studios, Mad Max, Road Warrior, Video Game, Warner Bros Interactive

Fallout Live Action Series Returns

The old Fallout series has made a much anticipated come back featuring a grittier hardcore story.

Fallout: Nuka-Break - Red Star tells the tale of Ranger tracking down a girl who was sold into slavery featuring some pretty solid acting and great sets.

Machinima plans to make a series of live action movies based on games games such as League of Legends, Skyrim, Minecraft, Half-Life, Assassin's Creed, and Dead Island.

Categories: Fallout: Nuka-Break, Machinima, Red Star

Elite Dangerous - First Images Surface

Michael Brookes, the producer of Elite: Dangerous, has revealed the first screenshots of the million pound Kickstarter project showing the Cobra class MK. 3 blasting through the infamous trench of the Death Star from the movie Star Wars.

 

Its enough to make fans of the game (like me) piss their pants. Frontier Development plans to release the game in March of 2014 for the PC and the Mac version will be performing Torus jumps in June, 2014.

Categories: David Braben, Elite: Dangerous, First Screenshots, Frontier Development