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Archive of "Preview" Category
Borderlands 2
Going live today on N4G are both my interview with Gearbox Art Director Jeramy Cooke and my preview of Borderlands 2. The PAX takeaway: the Gearbox team’s appreciation for their fans is off the charts.
Here’s a pretty picture of Salvador:
Skull Eating
In Skulls of the Shogun it’s important to ingest the skulls of your enemies. What more do you need to know?
Bioshockingly Infinite
Bioshock Infinite is worth getting excited about – especially if, like some other me-shaped people, you found the first games in the series too absolutely terrifying to play without full daylight in a brightly lit room while surrounded by puppies.
If you’re more afraid of preview content than splicers, then don’t read this.
Desktop Dungeons at E3
The IndieCade booth had lots on offer – like Desktop Dungeons! Read my preview, fall in love, then play the Alpha build for free. If that doesn’t have you clicking “pre-order”, you’re hopeless.
Photo evidence
G4′s Skyrim Todd Howard Interview
Also culled from the net today, this video of Sessler talking Skyrim with executive director Todd Howard:
Torchlight II – Hands-on at PAX
Did you play Torchlight? No? Then first things first, go play it.
Back? Now you can show the proper enthusiasm: I’m going to tell you about Torchlight II.
Developed by some of the same folks that worked on a little game called Diablo, you’re going to see a few of the same pleasing similarities – loot, potions, loot, portals and scrolls, loot. Of course this isn’t Diablo, this is Torchlight, and where the first game brought fun and addictive gameplay in fantastic style the sequel adds a generous helping of multiplayer and new environments. This is not an add-on, folks, this is a full sequel that makes a good game great. Or a great game greater. Whichever it is it’s good stuff.
In Torchlight II we venture beyond the town of Torchlight into the randomized expanse of the surface – though still finding plenty of entrances into the dungeons. The gratifying exploration of the first game is amplified in the sequel, with travel to additional towns, day-night cycles and weather effects, and loot drops that have you seeking out additional chests.
One of the biggest changes from the first game are the characters you go action-adventuring with – though you can bump into characters of yore as NPCs. Of the four newbies, two are revealed: The Railman and the Outlander. The former is a melee-centered blue collar brawler, while the Outlander fills the predominately range combat role of rogue with both a rifle and a magical glaive. Along with the new characters comes some additional customisation, like sex, hair, basic facial structure and even more armor. While I generally prefer a ranged class the Railman packs such a satisfying punch I ended up playing most with him. As he fights he acquires orbiting sparks that spin around his character until they’re channeled into an attack, so I guess what it comes down to is that I enjoy being orbited by sparklies.
Current pets are the familiar dog, cat and ferret – and as the ferret was only available with the boxed copy of the game this was my first time adventuring with him. While I’m definitely still a dog person, there’s whimsy to going adventuring with your battling ferret that I find appealing. Additional pets remain veiled in mystery for now.
Torchlight the second brings the one thing our reviewer mentioned he wished the first game had – multiplayer. Online multiplayer features LAN and a lobby server. It was easy to drop into the multiplayer and do a little solo adventuring before I ultimately chose to meet up with some friends. Getting crushed by a giant ogre-like creature reinforced how important the co-op in the multi-player is, these bosses are definitely scaled to be taken on by more than one person and their suddenly-looking-very-small fighting ferret. When you realize, as I did, that you need help there are icons on the map cuing you to where the other players are. No need to get loot greedy, either, the only items you’ll see onscreen are the ones you can pick up.
Accessibility is a big part of Torchlight’s charm and that is retained in the sequel, even with the addition of multiplayer (which would understandably complicate things). It’s still remarkably easy to drop into the game, which includes specific areas to pick up quests or teammates. The number of players able to party up is subject to change as they toy with the best combination, and right now they’re recommending groups of 2-4. Doesn’t seem like a crowd until you add n 2-4 pets, and 2-4 people that may have the ability to summon other creatures and suddenly you see how that dungeon could get mighty crowded, mighty quick. Should close quarters prompt infighting you’re out of luck, there are no current plans for PvP.
The menu bar is tweaked, pushing mana and health to the outside and a better focus on the action items. Of course, I need to improve my own focus since I was fond of perishing without regard for so much as a modicum of health potion while I gazed at my sparring ferret’s robust health bar. Yeah, that’s my ProTip: pet’s health is upper left, yours is down centerish.
TorchEd, the game’s editor, is still readily available for modders – with Runic’s blessing, of course – and while final pricing isn’t firmly announced the team still plans on a $20 price point for Torchlight II. Meanwhile, the Torchlight MMO is still in progress, and with enough new content and ideas for a sequel Torchlight II’s much asked-for multiplayer is a natural step. Action RPG lovers can expect to feel all new-quest tingly in Spring 2011.
Notes from my tour of Runic Games to follow…
BRINK – Hands-on at PAX
Going into the BRINK demo at PAX I can’t say I entertained more than an idle curiosity in the game. I didn’t even know much about it, really, and this was the first time I got to dive into actual gameplay. The demo opened with an intro video covering the four different classes and weapons, and gave a glimpse at the character customization – I lamented that I couldn’t wear a beret on top of my gas mask, but when it comes to accessorizing Brink is serious business. When it comes to gameplay, well then it’s just serious fun.
Sharing a lot with other squad-based shooters, classes and teamwork are key to success in the game. You can swap between each of the four classes (soldier, operative, engineer and medic) at a console station in the game environment, making the most of their unique abilities. It’s dead easy to change your class, and since everyone was trying out different things at the demo it was funny to look and see that once when I was injured there were six medics en route. If you’re thinking “Team Fortress 2” that’s OK, just add in additional customization and and a dash of darkness.
Character customisation is pretty detailed for a bunch of dudes, and that customised character will be playable in your game as well as your friend’s with a persistent leveling system. Since there are different classes and RPG elements in play here BRINK allows you to create and save multiple characters. Choosing and modding your weapon is also a big part of BRINK, though I didn’t spend too much time with the character customisation and even less with the weapons since we were all itching for a fight. Given the volume of assault rifles and SMGs I’m thinking there was a lot of nuance there.
After choosing what looked like a good catch-all assault rifle I spawned as a medic, and got shot. OK, some stuff happened in between, like me figuring out that I could bolster the health of an ally and successfully dispensing at least one syringe to a fallen teammate, but then I pretty much got shot. As a medic, however, this wasn’t quite as much of an obstacle to progress since I was soon able to stab myself with one of those healing juice syringes and hop back up. Leveling as a medic was pretty easy as points are awarded for actions like healing teammates, which you can do from a short distance with little downtime by chucking those aforementioned syringes at them while they lie writhing on the ground. There is a cost: if you heal an ally then get taken down, you won’t be able to immediately heal yourself and will likely have to wait for the next respawn, which is the primary choice for non-medic classes.
The weapons you wield are more dependent upon the character you develop than the class, though three of those four classes should plan on firing less than the average soldier. All classes can feel free to target enemies if they choose, they just won’t be rewarded for it like the soldier and the leader boards will likely surprise those that prefer to run and gun regardless of class, as score is determined by more than just KD ratio. An engineer, for example, is rewarded for buffing weapons and completing objectives like repairing the robot and an operatives for disguising as a downed enemy or interrogating them for intel.
There are two factions at war on Ark, one of those last bastions of humanity sort of places. When tasked with a mission it is comprised of smaller objectives that you can take on, like escort missions, or rescuing a fallen team member, and you can change those objectives at the same in-game station where you swap classes. The mission is timed, with extensions granted as you progress. At first there’s a temptation to just run out there and get tangled up in a firefight, and folks from the Splash Damage team were on hand to guide our focus when we played like naughty school children that just want to eat the paste. I set up a turret or two as the engineer, and otherwise I was trying to do things like buff weapons and get a robot tank working so the team could progress. After repairing the bot once and watching it crawl all of ten feet before being halted again by damage from enemy fire I realized what a united effort this needed to be.
A touted feature of Brink is SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain), a sort of enlightened sprint that allows you to move quickly through the environment with the AI handling vaulting obstacles. It’s like shooter Parkour, so far as I can tell. I got to use SMART a bit more after I respawned, as the spawn points aren’t right at the action all the time. With SMART I was able to skirt the outside of the battleground, climbing up to some new areas and finding a better (safer) way to flank the enemy. As you play with more gamers that are familiar with the maps, I strongly suspect that using the environments creatively will become a necessity.
I’m not some awesome multiplayer shooter gamer that can drop in and destroy everyone in sight, but I wasn’t exactly rubbish at BRINK, either. There’s an accessibility that comes from the team-driven effort, the task-oriented classes. When you do get something right – that turret goes up, the robot is moving down the alley, you heal an ally – it’s rewarding, both to your score and to the team. BRINK is a hard game to dive into not because it’s unintuitive but because there are a lot of good things going on, too many good things to absorb and parse in so brief a time on a crowded show floor, with the PAX throngs looming behind you. What I got to play of BRINK left me wanting more, lots more.
Scheduled for a Spring 2011 release on 360, PS3 and PC.
Dragon Age II – Hands-On at PAX Prime
Before getting our hands on the game we were given our Dragon Age 2 lessons. Seated in a room at their booth a fresh batch of gamers were taught the three tenets of the game’s sequel, each of them things from Origins that the team said most needed fixing: story, combat and graphics.
Dragon Age 2 will cover roughly a decade, or ten times the fictional timeline than Origins. Making this possible is the use of framed narrative, better known as story-within-a-story, and it should do away with that lengthy text epilogue and instead show the effects of actions within the game. The core of the story is that you play as Hawke (or Hawkette?), a human refuge fleeing Lothering for Kirkwall. Ultimately you become the Champion of Kirkwall, how is up to you, and while Verick tells lofty tales of your exploits Cassandra is trying to get to the barest truth of the story (that would be the story framing the Hawke story). OK, school’s out.
Kicking off as Lothering is destroyed and apart from any initiation, that Grey Warden you came to know so well is off fighting their own battles while you struggle along refugee style. Who knows, maybe you’ll bump into them in Lothering. I wouldn’t pick a fight with them, that story is written.
Classes are supposed to work more distinctly, so that warriors won’t play like rogues and that (according to BioWare brand manager David Silverman) “when you press a button something awesome happens”. Furthermore, they wanted to eliminate those queued up attacks that made for a Dragon Age potty break. The crux of the combat in Dragon Age was the ability for the player to “think like a general” and in 2 they are striving to retain that – you can still pause, switch, queue up attacks – but now in addition to thinking like a general you’re going to be “fighting like a spartan.”
With those promises in mind I picked out my lovely lady rogue. With only a few special attacks available there was some dangerous button-mashing potential, especially because the rogue’s combat is looking so much livelier. Instead of hitting a button and watching your character shift into position you hit a button and the move is executed, creating a tighter and more action-savvy feeling. The rogue’s acrobatics are much more fun to watch in game, and since this is my preferred class it’s fair to say I’m pleased, very pleased. No more of feeling like a gimped warrior, the rogue is nimble, acrobatic and deadly. A flurried attack took down multiple weakened enemies, while an evasion move used a lovely leap to put some distance between me and the fray.
Much of this action will be occurring like flashbacks as the story unfolds between Cassandra and Verick. The cinematic trailer for Dragon Age 2 is an awesome, action-packed temptress created out of something purely visceral. Of course, that’s not quite what we get in-game. Here’s the thing: I skipped the cut-scenes. In part for efficiency’s sake – it was a long demo and I wanted to get to the combat – and in part, well, I was being selfish, wanting to save the story for when I play the game properly.
The team working on Dragon Age 2 is 90% the same as that from Origins, so fans can rest in that while critics might hold out hope for that remaining 10%. Dragon Age 2 does look better, yet it does so without looking markedly different. If you just couldn’t stand the Origins aesthetic, there’s not going to be much for you here. It’s improved, but it’s not amazing. What the team says they’ve done is create consistency, something they readily admit was a problem in Dragon Age: Origins, and while our playtime wasn’t long enough to see how the graphics are treated across the game it’s reassuring to hear that this shortcoming was a high priority fix.
Coming back from PAX and playing through Witch Hunt made me really appreciate the progress visible in the sequel. The frame rate is better, things are slightly crisper, but the colors and design are still the same Dragon Age you’ve come to know and hopefully, love. The sequel looks to be Origins done better, richer, and somehow more. Good on you, Warden.
Slam Bolt Scrappers Hands-On at PAX Prime
Super Smash Bros, Castle Crashers, Tower Defense and Tetris walk into a bar…
Hidden off on one of the Indie Alleys of PAX was Fire Hose Games’ Slam Bolt Scrappers, and like so many indie titles SBS packed all its unassuming charm into a fast and furious battle (and a couple of fireman hats). When you first snag a controller and enter a game it’s easy to crumble under the visual onslaught that nears Japanese advert levels. After a moment your eyes and brain adjust and you realize you’re on a two-person team battling another team, punching cloud-like demons that turn into Tetris-like blocks, and then dragging and combining those blocks to form turrets – and it makes a beautiful kind of sense.
At the core of SBS is punching and combining enough blocks of the same color to automatically form a turret . Candy-colored demon piggies, once pummeled into block form, can be dragged to the desired part of the tower where they combine on their own with nearby blocks of the same color. The different colored blocks correlate to the type of turret created (offensive or defensive), and the size of the block to the strength of that turret, with the ultimate goal of destroying every last block on the other team’s side. This leaves a lot of room for tug-of-war battles, ferocious trash talk and some dirty playing. Somehow my teammate and I managed to dominate, and the gameplay is so frenzied, so fun, that the whole time you’re going mad with frantic block snatching and turret construction.
In addition to this versus mode there is a four-player co-op battle against a boss – a giant robot, in fact. The combining blocks to form turrets tactic still applies, but now instead of getting into a punch fest with the other team you have to attack the robot’s weak point thereby deactivating his shields so the turrets can got to work. Of course, Mr. Giant Robot does more than stand around and wait for you to kill him – he’ll pile snow onto the board to keep blocks from forming turrets, or unleash some lasers. Yeah, he’s pretty resourceful as Giant Robots go.
This co-operative effort is markedly different from the versus mode, and while I only observed the volcano stage it’s also a distinct(though still co-op) experience. Controlling two different towers on a scale, too many blocks on one side plunges the tower into the lava. To complicate matters you are surround by two towers controlled by AI, with flying birds (mounted by enemies armed with swords) out to kill you. Does that sound a little crazy? It is. Does it make you want to laugh? It will.
Adding to the wacky are power-ups that you pick up from punching those lumpy flying demons into a useful pulp – like the Crowbar, a powerful thief power-up that lets you steal an enemy block but makes you vulnerable, the Comet (a dash attack), and the Shield (invincibility). Since you’re pretty vincible the rest of the time, death happens, and when it does there are QTE style button sequences that – when completed successfully – reduce respawn time. Since no matter what death takes you out of the fight for a spell it carries enough of a penalty to encourage some tactical gameplay – and discourage you from getting into a brawl with the opponent with the Shield power-up.
The game has four primary characters, two brawny builders and two more svelte characters – including a lady-shaped one that I got to play as. Fire Hose Games founder, Eitan, says there will even be a story mode and, get this, a Beverage Mode. Yes, an entire mode that allows you to play one-handed while you have a drink.
Slam Bolt Scrappers is all about building and brawling: what strategy and turrets can’t solve, punching does. Look for Slam Bolt Scrappers on PlayStation Network in early 2011. The game is just fun, and that’s just right.
Dead Runner Hands-On
Distinctive Developments brought me one of my favorite line drawing games, Heli Rescue, and the surprisingly mesmerizing Pool Ninja, among a handful of other app delights. Notably different from other Distinctive Developments apps on tap, Dead Runner is eerie, really eerie. There’s no cute hopping imperiled civilians in need of rescue, no austere Japanese pool room, instead you are dropped in the middle of the worst part of a horror film: the run from imminent peril.
Quick and Dirty at E3: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is going where no Lara Croft has gone before – downloadable. Due out mid-year on PC, XBLA and PSN, this adventure goes gameplay centric, for the win. Be advised: this isn’t your Tomb Raider. Abandoning the Lara blueprint, Guardian of Light takes the savvy archaeologist and gives her a game worthy of a fearless heroine.
Lara’s camera is stuck on isometric as you explore the platformer and its puzzles. One stick fires while the other moves, twin stick shooter style. The simple control scheme made jumping into the co-op demo on the show floor a breeze. Arsenal-wise, you’ve got Croft’s pistols as well as other heavy firepower – even spears. Getting into the game the weapon menu’s counter-intuitive screen prompts did give me pause, but after that it was smooth sailing.
Tomb Raider fans really need to be reminded: this doesn’t look like a Tomb Raider game, this doesn’t play like a Tomb Raider game. Sure you will find some of the familiar, like Lara making use of her grappling hook, but overall this is a wholly refreshing and fundamentally gameplay centric re-imagining. If you’re thinking of complaining about the relative lack of pixels devoted to Lara’s bosom, bite your tongue and give the lady another shot at being part of a good game.
Gameplay focuses on crowd control, clever platforming, puzzling and, in the case of co-op, teamwork. Lara joins forces with Totec, a really old Mayan warrior dude – that means 2000 years of old. Totec can use his shield to boost Lara up, and it’s also a handy defense against enemy fire that can protect Lara while she interacts with the environment. In the demo Lara and I were deposited near a temple and the enemies started pouring in. Rapid mow-em-down gameplay is punctuated with teamwork platforming and some theatrics, like a collapsing bridge that Lara and Totec must cross in tandem.
If, however, Co-op isn’t your thing then there is a single player campaign. Absent from the single player is the option for co-op with AI which is, frankly, a great omission. The environment-based puzzling and gameplay in Guardian of Light just isn’t suited to AI teamwork. It would either frustrate or cheapen the experience, so kudos for not shoehorning that in.
For online types, headsets would be needed to properly enjoy this co-op. Lara and Totec can revive one another, if one of you dies then you respawn next to the other player and puzzles require coordinated teamwork. With no limit on lives, the only penalty is a return to checkpoint if both players die.
Despite its dungeon-crawler appeal, there’s no loot proper – but you do receive points for kills adding a competitive element to the co-op. There are health, ammo and gems to find, but Lara’s pistols never run dry. Mini-achievements add to the fun, and in the demo rewarded feats like crossing the river without touching the water, or collecting ten red skulls. The bounty for your efforts ranges from ammo and health to artifacts, and the significance of the last hasn’t been revealed yet.
The environments are alluring, and while the temple seemed to have some extraneous paths and areas the progression was pretty linear with all detours optional. Those are the nooks that hide the rewards like artifacts, and it seems that players disinterested in those bonuses can just plow through the primary puzzles, a deft handling of the downloadable format.
Guardian of Light puts a safe distance between Lara and less admirable forays. Stamp this one as a day one purchase, Guardian of Light is a fresh start for Lara – and her fans.
Quick and Dirty at E3: Rage
Go take your favorite post-apocalyptic open world game, pick up the crafted universe of Bioshock, make some smoochy sounds and out comes a beautiful screaming baby – with guns. We’ll name it Rage! At E3 we were taken through two different sections of the game, and both supported all the bold claims of the id Software staff on hand to show off the game. The environments are beautiful, the gameplay is badass, and I most fervently want to get my Rage on.
A meteor destroys the planet, and something called The Authority has buried people in arks so that the human race can rise again. When your personal ark goes faulty you escape to the surface to rejoin the mutated insanity that remains. The first section focused on an encounter with an old, slightly off-his-rocker guy in a shack and a combat-heavy ride in a makeshift vehicle, heavily outfitted with weaponry. Your vehicle has to be upgraded and outfitted, and the employees made it clear that our breezy trip from shanty to Wellspring was only the result of some hard work and modification.
The drive, fraught with gunfire, concludes in Wellspring, a major city in the game. Wellspring’s signature underwater fresh water spring makes it an oasis in the desert-y wilderness. It’s here that we dive into the well to stop the Ghost clan from poisoning the supply and get a real taste for the arsenal.
You’ll find familiar weapons like a sidearm and an AR, but I was most pleased when the id employee playing the demo pulled out a crossbow loaded with electric bolts and electrified some enemies in puddles. I was downright giggling when he used the spider turret (a bot that takes down enemies in range, Agents of Doom, anyone?) and then a remote control car loaded with explosives. For that back-to-nature feel use your wingstick, a boomerang barbed with knives. As you progress through the game you learn how to build different items, like the turrets or a gadget that picks locks. Once learned, all you need are the requisite parts for construction and you can build it on the spot.
The wasteland is littered with mutants for you to dispense with. The Ghost clan, just one of the game’s factions, are nimble. They like to adhere to the ceiling and pull of bullet-dodging acrobatics, so it was especially gratifying to see the effects the hits you do land have on them. Nailing the guy in the chest caused him to stagger just enough to slow down his speedy assault.
For the grand finale, we were treated to the ruins of Dead City. Since Dead City is largely abandoned and apparently more deep in the apocalyptic wasteland, the mutant types were very different from those previously encountered. They looked, well, further gone. After a few mutated nasties migrated up from the sewers for an attack, a giant, enormous, gargantuan hulking baddie lumbered out into – no, over – the space. As the id guide began to unload all the firepower he had on him, the Rage logo appeared. If that conclusion isn’t testament enough to the cruel genius of id Software, just wait until you see the game.
Quick and Dirty at E3: Vanquish Preview
Some games just aren’t attention grabbers. They exist in the background, somewhere outside the blinding glow of words like “Halo” and “Motion control”. Games like Vanquish whose creator, Shinji Mikami, had something entirely other in mind while he was crafting this Western shooter through an Eastern lens.
In this imagined future, Russia and the US are superpowers duking it out over the energy of the sun. Story goes that Russia has laid waste to San Francisco with a US-built space station, originally made to harvest solar energy. You play as Sam, an agent with a cybernetic battle suit and a team of soldiers. It’s all a bit Flash Gordon era with a retro style, Russian enemy, and our hero, Sam Gideon, who was the star football player. Dreamy!
The demonstration highlights a furious battle with the Russian robotic force. There is a lot – a lot – going on onscreen, and Vanquish doesn’t flinch (the engine is a modified version of the one used in Bayonetta). As you progress across the surface taking out emplacements and enemy forces, the environment is coming to pieces around you. While the environment attacks, you can use the environment, exploding barrels around the station to take out enemies.
The controls are almost as intense as the graphics. Heavy Rain style, you’ll be pulling off finger Twister holding down both bumpers, face button while moving a stick. The control scheme is probably best suited to someone that has never played a shooter before: Square controls cover, X is evade, O is melee, Triangle for grenade, L1 is boost (a power slide), L2 aims/slow motion, R2 fires and R1 reloads.
Cover is critical, and so Vanquish makes use of a boost element to speed up gameplay and significantly shorten the time getting from cover to cover. Cover-based paired with fast-paced, it seems you’re only supposed to take shelter for mere seconds. The speed has some Gears of War style (roadie run), but this is more nimble, more satisfying.
Weapons have great variety. While Sam is only equipped to carry three firearms at a time, he gets a number of options across the game and the weapon you carry is swapped out through a sort of onscreen morphing. Basically, as you encounter weapons throughout the game, Sam learns how to create them and you can change your weapon on the fly, like during your approach to an enemy.
Weapon variety takes a back seat to Sam’s duds, however, as his super-suit allows him to perform some impressive slides and flips as well as speed up his perception. Special moves like sliding, slow-mo bullet-time, evasion and even melee require energy and using them too much causes Sam’s super suit to overheat and then it’s back to cover.
Sam is part of a squad and being a man of many talents can heal his teammates, which is advisable as they seem to be genuinely useful. Because your suit’s primary powers are related to speed, not armor, things like cover and keeping your team healthy are a huge part of gameplay.
The action is consistent with Bayonetta and MadWorld, and what I saw and played at the show made Vanquish one of the more memorable titles of the week. I hope Sam uses his perception-altering powers to launch himself nearer the forefront of gamers’ minds this winter.
Quick and Dirty Hands-On at E3: Rock Band 3
Rock Band 2 was a fun game. It found a place in my home for a week or so, and I may have even played all of the songs – but that was it for me and the sequel that had little of the magic of the first game. My bandmates and I weren’t showing up to work on Monday hoarse from singing all weekend, tapping out drum beats on our keyboards, and so it was with that same ambivalence that I went to my Rock Band 3 appointment at E3.
The nitty gritty: you can import your songs from Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Green Day, downloads and track packs. Keyboard and vocal harmonies will be limited to the disc tracks and future DLC pending any possible, but unconfirmed, future updates. Where previously there wasn’t a clear-cut way to “win” at Rock Band, this edition includes over 700 challenges and positions your band at the bottom of the musical cesspool with the task of rising to the top.
Another new feature is the ability to filter – extensively – by anything from song length to rating to genre, even attaching labels to songs you don’t want to hear during a party or creating track lists at work for when you get home. Also helping eliminate party fouls is the ability to choose a band leader. This member is in charge of things like picking tracks, which means that when a friend gets overly enthusiastic on the drums while you’re getting ready to rock the bass you won’t be bounced back through the menus. Also party-friendly is the ability to drop-in and out of a song, but since you still have to pause for this to happen it’s not quite seamless.
Those are all nice additions, and certainly improve the Rock Band experience, but none of them is revolutionary enough to really transform those feelings of music peripheral apathy. No, that is where Pro Mode comes in. Honestly, it wasn’t until after the presentation when we got to talk to the guys behind the hardware that my icy feelings were globally warmed. The instruments are there, some work in the same way, but now they are something new and entirely game-changing.
For starters a keyboard, with keys – though you can use the five colored sections for a simpler approach. In Pro Mode however, users will have to play the keys as the instrument is a MIDI controller. What that also means is that if you have a MIDI-capable keyboard you can buy an adapter and hook that up. Just like in traditional Rock Band, the easy mode is a pared down version of a song with Expert getting you to play the songs note-for-note. On keys, the difficulty increases as you use more of the peripheral/instrument, even moving across the note scale in-game. The keyboard is available on its own for $79.99 or bundled for $129.99. Pro-Mode is also compatible with drums, which always seemed brutally true to life to me, only now they incorporate cymbals.
Squire in the foreground, Mustang in red
The guitars, oh the guitars! Stay with me, because this gets really good: On the Mustang Pro guitar from MadCatz (sold separately for $149.99) every string of 17 frets is a button, with six strings over the strum bar. The notes coming at you onscreen will have a color as well as a number to tell you which string and which fret. Later on, like when you aren’t rubbish, there will be chords. It is connected directly to the console as a wireless controller, and is some sort of mutant hybrid between the Rock Band controller and the Fender Squier.
Originally I assumed the Squier (pricing still unannounced) was merely a MIDI and, therefore, lame. How wrong I was. The Squier does use a MIDI translator to connect to the console, but each fret is divided across the six strings so that the strings complete circuits, allowing the game to know the notes and chords you are playing. The game software does not require direct tuning, and a perfectly tuned guitar is not needed for success – but since the Squier can be plugged into an amp and be used as a real electric guitar, you’ll probably want to give some attention to the tuning.
Previous MIDI instruments have used pitch detection, which doesn’t track quickly enough for the purposes of playing Rock Band (which needs to be very precise). Neither the Mustang nor the Squier uses pitch detection, which theoretically means that you don’t have to be playing the right notes, just the right strings on the right frets. Thanks to Todd Baker, Director of Hardware Development at Harmonix, for this concise explanation:
Success in the game requires that you fret the correct fret and strum the correct string (as communicated thru the game interface). Because of the technology we use in the Mustang and the Squier, we detect your fret hand and your strum string independently. This allows us to give more effective real time information about your fret hand positions as you change fret positions up and down the string.
Oh, think of the children! If you don’t believe that having a game to learn an instrument will get more kids playing music, then you’re crazy.
Guitarists may find it interesting, or they might wonder why they aren’t just playing the real thing, but for someone like me (with novice musical skill at best) this is a game-changing opportunity. Now I can play, with the potential to truly rock. Think of it: the next time someone obnoxiously asks you why you don’t just play real guitar you can now retort, “I fracking am!”
At the Sony Booth: Hands-On Move, Eyes-On 3D
Much to my eyes’ chagrin, Sony’s conference focused heavily on 3D offerings and things upstairs at the booth weren’t much different. With statements from Kaz Hirai like, “What PlayStation did for Bluray we’re now ready to do for 3D as well”, I shouldn’t have been surprised that while I stewed in my dislike for 3D Sony emphasized that with twenty titles created natively in 3D by March 2011 it would be remembered as “the year PlayStation brought authentic 3D to the industry.”
I recognize that my dislike of 3D is largely a personal preference and that plenty of people think it’s cool – but will they think it’s cool enough to warrant the purchase of a new, top of the line television and glasses to boot? The cost of a 3D television plus glasses is prohibitive, but Sony needs the software to sell the hardware, and that is what we saw at E3: first party developers investing resources into using 3D technology. That I think the technology is unpleasant and impractical makes the scene at E3 a little frustrating.
The games I saw in 3D are Sly Cooper, EyePet, Gran Turismo 5 and Killzone 3. Of the bunch, EyePet and Sly Cooper were the least successful to view. EyePet in 3D made the pet float above the floor, versus appearing on the floor. EyePet is an adorable game with cheery and crystal clear graphics in 2D, I can’t say that trying it in 3D makes it any more immersive. Your kids will get a kick out of playing with the little furball as is, without the 3D investment. It is worth noting that the delayed release in order to incorporate the Move controller was a wise move, it makes far more sense and works better than the card demoed with the game last year. It’s a great title, and I look forward to picking it up on release.
GT5 and Killzone 3 pack more graphical oomph to begin with, and in the case of Killzone 3 I was impressed by how great the game looks this far out from launch. Still, it was difficult to fully appreciate the gameplay, the destructible environments, and the combat when I was trying to wrap my eyes around the 3D presentation. Judging depth in game is improved in 3D, as is the ability to pinpoint a target, but the Helghast have bright glowing lightbulbs on their faces – picking them out has never been much of a struggle. 3D or no, it’s easy to be wowed by how much the team at Guerrilla Games are doing with their engine.
Killzone 3 picks up at the end of Killzone 2. Visari is dead, but now there is infighting among his generals. The demo focuses on the fourth level in the arctic north and features a lot of Helghast tech. Very industrial, the level shows off the game’s fierce aesthetic and destructible environments. These environments are much more expansive, and this one showed snow blowing around and impressive water crashing against rocks effects. Presentational polish and tight gameplay this far from launch is incredible.The addition of the “brutal melee system” adds a visceral touch to those close combat encounters, but can be difficult to pull off. Punch the Helghast down (or kick, or nail with the butt of your rifle) and once they’re on the ground use another strike with your rifle to finish them off. It’s hardcore, it’s intense, it’s beautiful in its relentless brutality.
1000. There will be more than 1000 cars in Gran Turismo when it hits store shelves November 2 (yes, that’s November 2, 2010), and since GT5 includes rollovers you will get to see Polyphony Digital’s attention to detail all the way through to the underside. 800 some of those cars are Standard and will show physics-based damage modeling. The cars falling into the Premium category will feature true damage modeling in addition to fully rendered interiors. Nine of the cars are NASCAR, though you’ll be able to race them on the non-NASCAR tracks. Of course, being a huge Top Gear fan I was most excited to check out the Top Gear test track, though the Toscana rally track also made it into the mix.
The addition of high and low beam settings make the day/night shifts in game even more realistic. Additionally you can use the PSEye and 3D for some head tracking that alters your view in the car, which is really cool. Incidentally, the 3D glasses in conjunction with the camera position and booth lighting interfered with the head tracking. The 3D didn’t introduce any serious graphical issues, but it didn’t really enhance the game either. When I asked the GT5 rep what his favorite feature was for GT5, he couldn’t tell me. That’s right, the man’s favorite feature for the game had yet to be announced, and I’m placing my bets on it being the track editor.
Titles like EyePet and Killzone 3 will not only be available in 3D, they will be compatible with PlayStation Move, the motion control system Sony is debuting this September. During the conference the game Sorcery, built natively for Move, showed off the motion controls to great effect. However, it was in the Sony booth that the most telling Move experiences went down. The casual games played with Move have been seen and played before on the Wii, and are essentially rehashes featuring sports and swordplay. What is wholly unexpected is the precision and effectiveness of Move, particularly in core games.
Heavy Rain uses Move to great effect. Already immersive the addition of Move controls (available to pre-existing owners via patch) amplifies the game’s intensity. Similarly, the demonstration of SOCOM 4 with Move controls was not only fun, it was precise, something I didn’t think was possible in motion control. Additionally, I was able to play all of the Move offerings while seated, which is critical for the extended gameplay preferred by, well, me (and I’m guessing most of you, too).
SOCOM 4 may well be the first core game that players play with motion control of their own volition. The title looks fantastic, and you are dropped into the middle of a ravaged Shenghai. The responsiveness of the controls, the ease of aiming the reticle and taking out enemies, it’s like we have a motion controller that finally works how core gamers want – no, need – motion control to work. It’s simple, it feels natural, and the precision will make your head explode like a headshot. Essentially, the controller gives you the feel of firepower in your hands without forcing you to even lean forward on your couch. This is technology that improves the gameplay experience, and it is those tangible steps forward that will engage the core consumer, and their dollar.
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