Some tips from both our own play experience and from Gears of War 3's executive producer to give you a leg up when the multiplayer beta launches in April.
By Tina Sanchez, 02/24/2011 at 17:30 In just a couple of months (all Microsoft would commit to is "mid-April"), you too can jump into the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta. We've detailed some of the tweaks and changes that Gears 3 brings to multiplayer before -- what we have here is a basic guide to performing well once the beta is actually live.
We played a few matches on all six maps available; at the moment, the beta will have the maps Checkout and Thrashball, and as our news story states, you can go to the Gears of War Facebook page to vote on whether to which two of these other maps -- Overpass, Old Town, Mercy, or Trenches -- to play. We like Overpass because it has this crazy moment where the world geometry shifts around, and we have a soft spot for Old Town -- if only because it features roaming chickens and exploding pumpkins. But once you get into the beta, here are some quick tips:
Read the full Gears of War 3: Our Multiplayer Beta Guide
Triple-takedowns, new voice actors, and Batman's electrician skills are among the new things we learn from Rocksteady's presentation.
By Frank Cifaldi, 02/24/2011 at 16:46 Warner Bros. and Rocksteady are finally far enough along in development on Batman: Arkham City to start showing it off, and earlier today, we got our first look at the game in action. The demonstration we saw lasted about 25 minutes, and showed Batman saving a captive Catwoman from Two-Face, tossing Harley Quinn aside like a doll, riding around on a helicopter, and escaping from an exploding watchtower by crashing through a window. It was kind of awesome, and showed just how different of an experience this new game will provide compared to Batman: Arkham Asylum.
We learned a lot of new things during the demo, which we will now share with you, the hungry Batman-themed videogame consumer.
Read the full Batman: Arkham City: 20 Things We Just Learned
A much larger world awaits fans in this spiritual sequel.
By Kat Bailey, 02/23/2011 at 16:40 If there's one element that stands out from Demon's Souls (apart from its often maddening difficulty), it was its overwhelming sense of claustrophobia. Even the open-air environments felt like they were pressing in from all sides -- usually in the form of enemies looking for your head. It's a natural feeling to have when death is around every corner.
For its spiritual successor, Dark Souls, director Hidetaka Miyazaki and company plan to give players a much larger (and more open) world to explore, but it will doubtlessly be every bit as claustrophobic as before. In this quick email Q&A, he talks about some of his plans for that world, and drops a few hints on what kind of new weapons and online features fans can expect for the sequel.
Read the full Dark Souls Developer Q&A: Bigger maps, More Scythes, And More Mind Flayers
Our hands-on reveals the most radically different and refreshing Telltale game yet.
By Thierry Nguyen, 02/18/2011 at 16:03 Jurassic Park, even in its first few moments, already feels unlike most Telltale games. It's still fundamentally a story driven adventure where you guide characters around and alternate between puzzles and dialogue, but there're a lot of curveballs for Telltale fans. From what I play, I don't actually move a character around directly to go examine stuff and solve puzzles; instead, I move the camera around with the right analog stick and hit buttons that pop up in very specific spots. That is, when I look around the area, a big and obvious A button floats over the head of a triceratops, an equally obvious Right Bumper floats over the nearby plant said triceratops is munching on, and a big blue X pops up when I look over the triceratops' rear end.
A few minutes later, another significant change in the Telltale formula shows up: a quick-time event. Whether I'm hurriedly trying to hotwire a Jeep or get away from a rampaging Tyrannosaurus rex, I have to either rapidly tap a face button or quickly move an analog stick around. These action sequences also lead right into the biggest change that Jurassic Park brings to a Telltale game: you can die.
Read the full Jurassic Park: The First Telltale Game to Feature Action, Dinosaurs, and Death
Details from Game Informer, and empirical evidence of how close our speculation from last year is.
By Thierry Nguyen, 02/15/2011 at 18:45 Thanks to Game Informer, we finally have some concrete details on Battlefield 3. Quietly announced via a beta offer for people who snagged Medal of Honor last year, the fine fellows at DICE have just-as-quietly been banging on the title until Game Informer's cover story. While actual details are still a bit scant (since it's still a reveal/first look) there's enough for us to reflect on the predictions and speculations we made last year.
I still consider Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2 some of the finest multiplayer shooters in recent (read: after the year 2000) history, and as much as I like Battlefield: Bad Company 2, it's not quite the same. Sure, BC2 looks great and features awesome destructibility, but it also doesn't quite have the scale and sheer chaos that the original Battlefield games featured. So it's good to be hearing stuff like how in addition to the improved destruction, that the player count and the vehicles will be more like Battlefield 2 rather than Bad Company 2. Here's a quick rundown of what we have right and wrong.
Read the full Battlefield 3: New Details And What We Got Right And Wrong
Indie star Pixel teams up with NIS for his first retail product, but he hasn't given up on indie development.
By Jeremy Parish, 02/11/2011 at 19:59 Largely the work of a single man -- Daisuke Amaya, who operates under the alias Pixel -- 2004's Cave Story for PC still represents a high water mark for indie games. It reintroduced many gamers to the joys of pixel art, exploratory platforming, and white-knuckle challenge, and it contained all of these elements in a perfect balance, emulsified in a suspension of interesting story and likable characters. Cave Story is rightly regarded as a classic...yet until now, it's never actually been published on physical media.
That will change this summer, when the game finally sees release as a 3DS retail title courtesy of Nippon Ichi Software. This is no straight port, however, but a full remake of the game with polygonal 2.5D graphics and new content. While fans are already sputtering in disappointment about these changes, Amaya doesn't see the shift in visual style as a compromise.
Read the full Cave Story Creator's Next Project: Games for 3DS and iOS
What actually happens in the story when you're not using bullets to perforate someone's rear end.
By Taylor Cocke, 02/11/2011 at 18:14 What better way to deal with getting backstabbed by your commanding officer than slamming your ship -- kamikaze-style -- into his prized warship, followed by going through an ultra-violent (and occasionally drunken) rampage through a crumbling resort planet turned mutant nightmare? Bulletstorm's Grayson Hunt certainly can't think of one.
Sure, we could catch you up to speed about the backstory. We could tell you all about how General Serrano tricked Grayson and his crew into Skillshot-ing dozens of innocent citizens by telling them that they were enemies of the state and needed to be removed. We could also tell you about how Grayson found out he was being deceived and decided to become a renegade space pirate hell-bent on killing Serrano for all the evil he caused in the world. But that's not the reason why we play Bulletstorm. It's all an excuse to blast our way though a completely over-the-top campaign -- killing in as many ways as possible along the way.
Read the full Bulletstorm: What Happens When You're Not Shooting Someone in the Balls
Hands-on with DNF's first two hours reveal a game full of excessive attitude, old-school gunplay, titillation, and tons of not-shooting side activities.
By Thierry Nguyen, 02/09/2011 at 09:00 In Duke Nukem Forever's first couple of hours, I: take a piss in a urinal, turn on a bunch of showers, flush some toilets, spin some chairs, autograph a book, lift weights, curl some dumbbells, bench press some bigger weights, punch a speedbag, cook some microwave popcorn, play some pinball, drive an RC car, and shoot some aliens. While DNF does become a pretty straightforward action game with corridor shooting (with occasional turret firing bits), the amount of simple and mundane actions rivals that of Heavy Rain of all things. I mean, not only am I still surprised to be actually playing Duke Nukem Forever after all these years, I'm surprised to be doing so much random stuff within it.
For this hands-on session, which took place in the tastefully titled "Duke Nukem's Titty City" (which was, in actuality, a converted strip club -- despite the venue's normal purpose, the women who staffed the event were actually clothed the entire time, which reminds me of how clothed the women remain whenever the agents of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation visited such a place), I get to play the beginning. That is, I start with the same game-within-a-game-followed-by-virtual-double-fellatio demonstration that Jeremy played at PAX. But after Duke quips about how the game better be worth twelve years of waiting, it's time for him to ride down and make an appearance on a talk show.
Read the full Duke Nukem Forever is Full of Sex, Violence, Pinball, and Alien Nutpunching
Our latest hands-on reveals a faster, bloodier, yet no less complex, Dragon Age.
By Thierry Nguyen, 02/08/2011 at 17:00 Like anyone else who's been following Dragon Age 2, I've been hearing the same quips about, "hit a button and something awesome happens" or how "visceral" the combat is. While I don't adopt the "they're pulling a Mass Effect 2 on Dragon Age: Origins" stance, I still usually sort of roll my eyes and think, "whatever" when I hear those phrases; but after playing about an hour-and-a-half of Dragon Age 2, I have to admit that those sorts of phrases aren't entirely inaccurate. Playing on both the PC and the Xbox360, it's safe to say that Dragon Age 2 isn't a Mass Effect 2-style "strip down the RPG elements and turn it into an action game with RPG touches" endeavor -- it's more of "take Dragon Age, and make it a bit better, prettier, and faster."
That last point stands out the most for me. Make no mistake: Dragon Age 2 isn't suddenly an action game with stats -- you still issue commands to your party members, and you can still pause during combat (easily done on PC by hitting the spacebar, and using radial menus a la like the previous game) to figure out the situation. Though, in DAO, there was a sort of lackadaisical attitude in your characters when it came to combat. The simple act of issuing an attack order usually translated into the directed character sort of lollygagging their way to their target, and then enacting a slow attack animation. Getting a rogue to the proper position for a backstab attack was a pain-and-a-half due to the lack of walking speed. Not so with Dragon Age 2 anymore.
Read the full Dragon Age 2 Feels like a Blend of World of Warcraft, Dragon Age, and Kill Bill
As odd as it sounds, our hands-on reveals how a linear opening to a non-linear game can still be an improvement.
By Thierry Nguyen, 02/03/2011 at 16:05 You can tell that the original Deus Ex was designed for a different era of gamer -- the kind that was content with actually fiddling around and experimenting with game mechanics. Sure, you could sit through a lengthy tutorial, but most people don't remember that; they instead fondly recall the game's proper beginning: After watching the intro cinematic, you start at the dock of Liberty Island (with a view of the busted-up-Deus-Ex-universe's Statue of Liberty), listen to a terse briefing about how some bad dudes are holding some co-workers hostage, and are then left to your own devices.
Some people simply took a gun from a nearby crate and then blasted their way through the front door and up the stairs of the Statue of Liberty. Other people might have picked up some stealth equipment and some tranquilizer darts to then sneak around and make all the terrorists fall asleep. Me, I simply got a sniper rifle, circled around to pick people off from far away, and (after working my way inside) then proceeded to hack all the computers and turrets to shoot the bad guys for me. Sure, the hacking minigame was a bit dumb, the gunplay felt floaty and imprecise, and the enemy A.I. was occasionally laughable -- but those were concessions to making an open-ended experience. In short, this first mission showed players how Deus Ex embraced multiple playstyles, and continued to do so for every mission. With that in mind, that's not how Deus Ex: Human Revolution begins.
Read the full Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Opening Is Both Weaker And Better Than The Original Deus Ex's Intro
Our first look at Demon's Souls' spiritual successor reveals an even more brutal and relentlessly difficult game.
By Thierry Nguyen, 02/02/2011 at 18:11 A slight confession: I haven't made it further than a couple of hours into Demon's Souls. To be specific, I've never ventured further than the boss of 1-1 (the giant slime covered in spears and shields). It's not because I hate the game or think it's unfairly hard, as most non-fans tend to say -- it's mostly because extrapolating the skill and time it took for me to get past the first area meant that I would basically have to dedicate my life to the game to finish it.
I fear that the same sentiment might preclude me from getting into Dark Souls, the "spiritual successor" (which must be a legal thing, because based on the look and gameplay mechanics, this is for all intents and purposes a straightforward follow-up) to Demon's Souls. If even director Hidetaka Miyazaki talks about how he plans to make Dark Souls "better and more difficult," and to have your experience filled with "tens of thousands, or millions, of deaths," then I already have an inclination that Dark Souls might be a bit too merciless for me.
Read the full Dark Souls Looks Like a Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Demon's Souls
We talk localization, the Dream World, giveaway plans and more as we check out the new Pok�mon games.
By Kat Bailey, 01/31/2011 at 15:01 Dragon Quest IX was an interesting test for Nintendo of America -- it was a chance to prove that a game with online features geared toward a densely populated commuter culture could work in North America; and after several GameStop giveaways and one massive showing at PAX, its efforts can be tentatively judged a success.
Now Nintendo has a chance to build on that approach with its own massively popular franchise: Pok�mon.
Read the full Pokemon Black/White: How a Pokemon Comes to America
New engine, refined gameplay, and the tease of a great story already make this feel less janky than previous Obsidian titles.
By Thierry Nguyen, 01/28/2011 at 20:52 As much as I like games from Obsidian Entertainment, they have enough of a reputation that I usually have to give a caveat when discussing them. "Knights of the Old Republic 2 is great, but incomplete." "Fallout: New Vegas is great, but buggy." "Alpha Protocol is snazzy, but janky." But even after just a short play-session of Dungeon Siege 3's opening, I think that it might end up being the title that could finally be caveat-free.
One consistent issue that comes up a lot when looking at Obsidian's games is that, since the company tends to use other developers' tools and intellectual property, you run into a lot of technical glitches and quirks. Sure, they do their best, and it's always good to build on an existing foundation, but weird bugs manage to show up anyway. For Alpha Protocol, the problem went a little deeper; that aspects of the fundamental gameplay were, at times, either counterintuitive or simply broken. These issues lead to a lot of salt grains being taken when someone talks about their next game being better.
Read the full Dungeon Siege 3 Might Be The Game That Boosts Obsidian's Reputation
Need for Speed's shift to real driving simulation looks promising the second time around thanks to social racing and hardcore data-mining.
By Jose Otero, 01/28/2011 at 13:05 In its 16 year history, the Need for Speed brand has always been closely associated with arcade/action racing experiences -- typically story-based affairs set in underground competitions with the type of driving that would probably land you a night in jail. But ask Jesse Abney, producer at EA for Shift 2: Unleashed, and he'll tell you Need For Speed: Shift changed all that. Abney admits that while fun arcade style racing has always suited the brand, Shift's focus on realism gave NFS players something they never expected. Back in 2009 we agreed; Shift was a competent entry in the simulation genre and the sequel promises to build on that success with more than the usual "bigger/better" approach, based on some hands-on time at a recent preview event
Autolog, a feature which debuted in last fall's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, crosses-over into Shift 2: Unleashed, and Abney hopes this "social network for racers" will continue to cultivate competition. As a refresher, Autolog tracks you and your friends' progress over the course of play and updates track records, top speeds, and even includes a wall for the complete bragging rights package. At the end of a competitive race, players can recommend the course to a friend, and fuel the trash-talk at the push of a button. You can also share replays, or photos of your worst wreck. Abney tells me that there are elements of Autolog embedded into every portion of Shift 2: Unleashed; from best times nestled in the track loading screens to simply pressing the back button (presumably select for PS3 users) in the main menu to access the feature. He hopes it'll continue to push players to stay competitive, since nothing beats competing against friends. And for the more obsessive types, there'll be an iPhone app released (similar to Hot Pursuit) at some point to update you when you're not repeatedly checking needforspeed.com.
Read the full Shift 2: Unleashed Turns a Hardcore Racing Sim Into a Social Experience
SOCOM 4 blends classic SOCOM gameplay with newbie-friendly tweaks to make this the SOCOM for rookies and veterans alike.
By Joe Leonard, 01/27/2011 at 20:55 I have a confession: before yesterday, I had never played a SOCOM game in my life. That's not to say I was never interested in the franchise, but for one reason or another I never got around to checking the series out. Perhaps that will change with the release of SOCOM 4, which according to developer Zipper Interactive, "redefines" the SOCOM experience -- but what exactly does that mean to a newcomer?
The SOCOM franchise is best known for its multiplayer, and that's still the case with SOCOM 4. There are nine maps available -- ranging from jungle bases to destroyed city highways-- that allow up to 32 players apiece. Some of the different gameplay types include Uplink (SOCOM's take on the Capture The Flag formula), Last Defense (which sees both sides fighting over three control points), and Suppression (your more typical team deathmatch), as well as a fourth mode that Zipper was not announcing at this time.
Read the full SOCOM 4: How It's Both Newbie-Friendly and Faithful to the Veteran
Video games, when you think about it, are still pretty crap. Oh yes, we have visually stunning worlds realised down to the last tiny, billion-polygon�detail. Oh yes, we have epic sweeping narratives that could make a�mountain cry until it turned to mud. But games still cling onto a load of tired old crap that really is unjustifiable in the modern age. And they cling onto it because we as gamers keep accepting it. We shouldn't.
