So what's up on the e-book front at Nintendo? E-books on the DS. Imagine, if nothing else, the literacy angle---old-fashioned.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Wii | Alice in Wonderland Impressions
We fell down the rabbit hole for a first look at Disney's latest adventure, Alice in Wonderland.
Creating a movie-based game is never an easy task, but when that movie is the new Tim Burton adaptation of the well-loved story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, that job is a serious undertaking. But with the project under the watchful eye of ex-SCEE producer Philip James and with the backing of director Tim Burton, Alice in Wonderland has the potential to be a cut above the usual movie tie-in. We invited James down to our London office for an extended look at the game and heard his thoughts on working on the adaptation.
Alice in Wonderland is a third-person adventure game that tells the story of Alice: a young girl who falls down a rabbit hole into a wonderful fantasy world populated with strange characters. The game loosely follows the plot of the film, visiting a range of key scenes while also adding new ones. Surprisingly, though, you don't play as Alice. Instead, you take on the role of the inhabitants of Wonderland, who have been tasked with protecting her. Most of the famous characters are playable in the game, including The White Rabbit, The Cheshire Cat, and The Mad Hatter. Each has a unique special ability and attack, which is used to solve puzzles or defeat enemies in battle. The abilities themselves are rather eccentric, but they fit in with the "anything goes" feel of Wonderland. The March Hare, for example, throws cups and saucers at enemies, while the Mad Hatter is able to use the power of perspective to crush enemies between his fingertips.
One of the unique features of the game is the ability to switch among characters at any time and use their combined powers to solve puzzles. We were shown one level set in castle, which required the use of different characters to proceed. We saw the Cheshire Cat come across a set of footpaths, each with a gap in the middle that was too far to jump across. On each side of the gap was a wooden platform on a rope, like a rudimentary set of scales, which had a number of sand bags piled upon it. Highlighting the sand bags with the Wii Remote caused them to change colour, with each colour corresponding to a particular character's ability. In this case, the bags lit up purple, which told us that we could use the March Hare's telekinesis ability to move them off the platform to the other side. This decreased the weight on one platform but added too much to the other. The solution was to switch to the Cheshire Cat and use his invisibility powers to make a larger set of sand bags on the opposite side disappear. This allowed the platform the cat stood on to rise up and give him enough clearance to jump the gap.
Many of the puzzles play off of the wacky characteristics in Wonderland, allowing you to bend the rules of the real world to come up with some interesting solutions. For example, we saw a variety of objects in the game that were split in half. One way of reassembling them was to drop them into a river. This caused a reflection to be cast on the surface of the water and give the appearance of a whole object, which could be pulled out in its entirety ready to use. The same trick was used with mirrors to rebuild entrances to rooms or open up new areas. The Mad Hatter's perspective ability was also used in a similar way. One puzzle we were shown required the Hatter to cross a large ravine, but the bridge across it had split in two. By aligning the camera just right, it gave the appearance that the bridge was one whole piece, which fixed it and allowed the Hatter to cross. The logic to these solutions makes little sense, but they don't feel out of place with Wonderland's magic doors, shrinking potions, and talking animals.
We were also treated to a demo of the combat in the game and saw several characters duke it out with the card soldiers of Wonderland. Enemies appear at special locations and materialize out of heart-shaped portals, which is similar to how enemies appear in the Zelda games. Attacking is confined to the A button alone, and repeated attacks trigger different moves or combos. You can switch among characters in battle, so you can use the March Hare's cups and saucers attack at long range before moving in with the Mouse's ninjalike attacks to take down enemies at close range. Destroying enemies gains you "impossible ideas," which are used to upgrade your character's abilities. Although your character cannot die, losing all your health strips you of any impossible ideas gained during the battle. Alice is left vulnerable during attacks, and enemies sometimes attempt to drag her away to a portal; if you lose her, it's game over. You're alerted when this happens, so you have to make a mad dash to pull her out again. The art style captures the fantastical nature of Wonderland, but not having seen the film, it's difficult to tell if the developer has its own look or if it was borrowed from the movie's style. The environments look detailed, and lots of lighting effects are used during combat to add to the eye candy. Some of the level designs also look good, with the Mad Hatter's upside-down house being a particular standout. Many of the actors from the film are lending their vocal talents to the game, and we recognised Steven Fry and Barbara Windsor in our demo. Although we didn't get to try it, the game will feature two-player co-op. You will be able to jump in and out of a game at any time, with the action taking place on a single screen rather than being split. Disney told us that there should be over eight hours of gameplay in the final version, and there are collectibles to find throughout.
Alice in Wonderland looks like an interesting take on the titular story. Based on what we've seen so far, the puzzle design is clever, and playing as Wonderland's inhabitants seems far more interesting than playing as Alice herself. We're looking forward to getting our hands on the game, which is due for release March 3 on the Wii.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
"Wii | Alice in Wonderland Impressions" was posted by Mark Walton on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:56:51 -0800
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Wii | Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands First Impression
We follow the prince on one of his many adventures after Sands of Time in Ubisoft's upcoming adventure game.
The prince has certainly kept himself busy during the seven year gap between the Sands of Time and Warrior Within. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the Wii recounts the story of just one of his many crazy adventures that is different from the events that are being told in the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC version. We met with lead game designer Yanick Piche who walked us through several levels of The Forgotten Sands, as well as showed us some of the prince's new moves, sand powers, and the introduction of cooperative play.
Ubisoft isn't willing to reveal much about the story because the game begins by throwing you in the midst of a crumbling city, and as you progress through the areas, you'll eventually learn how the prince got there. All we know for now is that he has lost his dagger, and with that, he has lost the ability to rewind time. But the prince has stumbled across a magical artifact, which now grants him special sand powers. A genie will accompany you on your adventure, but unlike Elika who will save you from certain death, the genie hovers around you like Tinkerbell and is most useful when you have a friend playing with you. At any time, a second player can jump in to take over the role of the genie to help you find the right path or highlight important things onscreen you may have missed while performing extensive acrobatic maneuvers.
As you progress through the game, you'll learn three types of sand powers that can be used in combat and to navigate through intricate levels. Instead of looking for the right path to find your way to the next room, this version of The Forgotten Sands is about creating your own path. At first, you'll be limited in terms of what path to take as the game brings you up to speed, but as time goes on, you'll eventually have the freedom to solve the platforming puzzles however you like. The first power you'll receive is the ability to create an anchor (or a ring) that you can put on the surface of any wall to help you scale it or provides a place to latch on and just hang out. In combat, this power will freeze enemies, and you can use it to slow traps, as well as other hazardous moving obstacles. To help you get to higher ground, the second power you'll receive is the ability to form a sand pillar. When enemies run into this pillar, it functions like a trap by bursting and tossing them in the air. The final sand power allows you to create a protective sphere that can suspend you in midair. You can use this to position yourself for another jump in a new direction or save yourself from a potentially disastrous fall. If an enemy runs into you when you're in this shield, it'll freeze him or her temporarily and give you the opportunity to counterattack.
You can only use one sand power at any given time, and there's a quick recharge time in between each use. An example of how to use the powers together was demonstrated when we were faced with a large chasm that had a horizontal pole on one end, making it impossible to reach with just a wall run. We watched as the prince called forth a spiraling sand pillar, wiggled his way to the top, and then created a ring on the wall. After jumping onto the ring, he bounded away from the wall and created a sphere that allowed him to hover in midair. This allowed the prince to turn toward the pole and then pounce safely in the direction of it. Collectibles strewn across the area will give you a hint as to the most ideal way to get across, and energy orbs that fill up a three-orb meter let you restart from the last platform in case you fall; otherwise, you'll be bumped back to the last fountain save point. Because you have the freedom to create your own way, there are plenty of secret areas to find if you decide to wander off the beaten path. So, it's worth it to explore areas that would otherwise be impossible to access without your powers.
When a game is built specifically for the Wii, it generally means that motion control is involved in some form or another. This is definitely the case with The Forgotten Sands. Most of the time, you're using the remote to point and activate plates with your sand power. But in combat, swinging the remote correlates to slashing while using the nunchuk correlates to punching monsters in the face. Foes in groups of up to six will come in waves, with an enemy leader highlighted by a beam of light so that if you take him or her out first, which forces the others to flee. You gain experience as you clear enemies, so it's up to you to determine how much time you want to spend in combat. As you fill up your experience meter, you'll also gain new combat skills like an area tornado attack or a charge attack.
To make the game more accessible, a hint system is in place where you can hit up on the D pad to receive a clue as to where you need to go. When making difficult jumps, a blue line will appear at times to let you know whether that route is even possible to attempt. The developer explained that Ubisoft wanted this to be a social experience and an accessible one. You can coordinate with a friend by passing off your sand abilities to the genie while your friend then helps you freeze traps as you focus on fighting enemies or tricky platforming sections.
Similar to the other next generation Prince of Persia games coming out, this one has a distinct Sands of Time feel and look to it. You'll hear Yuri Lowenthal's familiar voice as he banters with his genie companion while you effortlessly make your way through once splendid-looking castles that are now decorated with overgrown vines or run along the decaying walls in deserted city streets. We look forward to bringing you more of the Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands as we approach its May 18 release date.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
"Wii | Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands First Impression" was posted by Sophia Tong on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:01:15 -0800
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Xbox 360 | Splinter Cell: Conviction Updated Impressions - The First Twenty Minutes
Twenty minutes into Sam Fisher's latest adventure and we've already smashed a man's face through a piano. Want to know more?
On the run from the government that trained him and searching for the men who killed his daughter, it's not easy being Sam Fisher. Fortunately, playing as Sam Fisher is not nearly as hard, as we found out during our hands-on time with Splinter Cell: Conviction at Microsoft's X10 event. The first 20 minutes of the game not only offer a slick tutorial of Sam's potent abilities, but they let you flex those muscles in all sorts of creatively deadly ways. Human shields, clever misdirection, and brutal interrogation techniques are all in a day's work for Fisher, and we discovered how Conviction makes these things simple to learn and satisfying to execute.
Splinter Cell: Conviction starts off with some dramatic cutscene moments. A redheaded woman with a gun to Fisher's head, an interrogation inside a secure facility, and ghostly images of Sam's daughter all flashed by while the cacophony of the event drowned out any expository audio. When the game proper began, we found ourselves in a street-side cafe, populated by a bustling crowd of people. There is a vividness to the characters and the environments that feels like a refreshing break for the shadowy series. When loud noises caused the idle citizenry to panic and run from the scene, the rush of activity and the stillness they left behind was like a sensory palette cleanser, letting you know this isn't the same gloomy Splinter Cell you've played before.
This strong visual impression continued as we made our way into the area where fruit vendors had set up stalls. It soon became clear that the market was our first training ground, and with the help of unobtrusive onscreen prompts, we soon became comfortable with moving in and out of cover. If you pull the left trigger, you'll stick behind cover in a manner similar to Gears of War. Move to the edge of cover and small white indicators will appear on other cover positions, indicating where you will move to if you tap the A button. This simple system is consistent with the game's slick interface. If you've seen coverage of Conviction before, you're probably familiar with the text objectives that appear on the ground, on the sides of buildings, and on other in-game surfaces. The cover indicators are similarly placed. They are visible enough to catch your eye, but not big enough to intrude on the environments.
The overall effect of this style is to draw your attention to the environments. It essentially trains your eye what to look for, so pretty soon you are sliding between cover positions without even noticing the indicators. This same philosophy extends to story exposition and character developments. When Sam is interrogating someone or having a relevant memory, a black and white projection will appear on whatever surface Sam is looking at. These filmstrip-quality videos move with Sam's gaze, allowing you a glimpse into the narrative without yanking you out of the moment. All these elements combine to create an engrossing visual style that impresses straight from the get-go.
Just as we were getting the hang of movement, Sam had a very vivid flashback that took us back in time to his daughter's bedroom. Young Sarah (approximately five years old) is scared of the dark, so Dad sits on her bed and explains how the dark is nothing to be frightened of. Though it was hard to hear the actual conversation because of the noisy event venue, the scene still conveyed a touching sense of fatherly devotion. It also served to demonstrate the visual filters that Conviction uses to indicate how stealthy Sam is being. When the world around you turns black and white, you are hidden from enemy sight. When you are spotted or exposed, the screen is once again flushed with vivid color. A quick jump back to the marketplace showed this in action, but soon it was back to the bedroom. This time, the quiet evening at home turned dangerous, as breaking noises in the other room heralded the arrival of intruders. Sam leaves Sarah in her room and deals with the armed invaders in classic Fisher style. A quick takedown (press B near an enemy) leveled and disarmed the first one, and then the other two were quickly marked for death. Whenever Sam performs a melee takedown, he earns the power to tag (aim and hit the right bumper) and quickly execute (Y button) enemies.
It's a powerful ability and one that is clearly integral to Sam's survival. How many enemies you can shoot in one takedown depends on the gun you are using and how upgraded it is. Splinter Cell: Conviction has a Persistent Elite Creation (PEC) system similar to that found in the Rainbow Six series. This system allows you to upgrade your arsenal in single-player, as well as tweak your guns and outfits in Conviction's cooperative modes. Fisher's single-player loadouts are determined by his progress to an extent, but there is definitely room to increase your gun damage, magazine size, or even the number of targets you can quickly execute.
PEC points are granted for fulfilling a wide variety of in-game challenges. Some are single- or multiplayer specific, but the points are persistent no matter what mode you are in. Many of these reward actions are what you would normally perform in the course of battle, like performing silent takedowns or quick executions. However, there are a lot that encourage you to use Sam's abilities to their fullest extent. During our time with the game, we earned some points for taking an enemy as a human shield and then using his head to bash through a door. We garnered another reward (also door-related) for using our busted rearview-window mirror to check under a door and then busting it in and knocking down an enemy on the other side. We also progressed toward a third reward by popping out of cover and grabbing our enemy's attention. When we dove back into cover, a silhouette remained of our last known position. Flanking and killing an enemy who was investigating our silhouette brought us one notch closer to the "cat and mouse" reward. Finally, we scored some points for shooting a large chandelier and bringing it crashing down on our enemies' heads. Good times.
Splinter Cell: Conviction is dedicated to making it easy to be the deadly Sam Fisher that we all know and love. The slick interface makes maneuvering through the environment feel natural and intuitive. Onscreen prompts and streamlined controls make your formidable array of abilities easily accessible. And a robust rewards system encourages you to make the most of your skills. As if we needed any encouragement to grab our daughter's murderer by the throat and smash his face into a grand piano.
Of course, this is all based on the first 20 minutes of the game. How Fisher's abilities evolve and where his adventure will take him remain a mystery. To read more about Splinter Cell: Conviction, check out our latest hands-on with the cooperative Deniable Ops mode. Splinter Cell: Conviction is looking sharp and is on track for an April 13 release on the Xbox 360 and PC.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
"Xbox 360 | Splinter Cell: Conviction Updated Impressions - The First Twenty Minutes" was posted by Chris Watters on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:42:34 -0800
Monday, March 1, 2010
PlayStation 3 | Super Street Fighter IV QA
Capcom's Seth Killian gives us the latest on Capcom's new entry in its acclaimed fighting series.
Capcom's upcoming Super Street Fighter IV is set to deliver fans of the series a meaty helping of new content to master. The robust offering of new characters, new moves, and new ultra combos should give anyone who mastered last year's Street Fighter IV something to study. Today's new trailer shed some light on the bulk of the game's new cast, which includes a surprising array of familiar faces drawn from Street Fighter history. We checked in with SSFIV's special advisor Seth Killian to talk about the upcoming game, the new characters, and what the deal is with the raccoon.
GameSpot: How did the team go about selecting these extra characters?
Seth Killian: The 10 new SSFIV characters were based on post-SFIV fan feedback, which we then filtered according to which characters we felt would be a good fit for the game in terms of fighting style. I'm happy to say we were able to include almost all of the most popular requests.
GS: How many of the characters added this time out were characters that didn't make the cut for SFIV and how many are driven by the user feedback once all the characters in SFIV were revealed to fans?
SK: Development on Dee Jay and T. Hawk was started during the original SFIV, but the rest of the newcomers were basically all driven by the players' feedback after SFIV was completed.
GS: Super Street Fighter IV is bringing characters together from three separate "worlds" of Street Fighter (SSFII, SFIII, SF Alpha). What has it been like to balance and refine these characters to fit them within the SFIV universe?
SK: The SFII and SF Alpha characters both come from games with fundamentally compatible background systems, so integrating them together with the world of SFIV wasn't too intimidating. I was actually really worried about the SFIII characters, however. That game was built with parrying as the core background system, so in a game like SFIV without parries, would they be too weak? I'm happy to say they are definitely not too weak, and I was actually surprised how naturally the SFIII crew made the transition to Super SFIV.
GS: What can you tell fans of the new characters about how they're going to handle? Will they "feel" like their 2D counterparts like the characters did in SFIV or will there be some tweaks?
SK: There are, of course, a lot of tweaks, but I think any fans of these characters in their SFIII incarnations will pick them up very easily in Super SFIV. Everything you loved about them from SFIII is still there, as well as a bunch of new tricks. They're actually among the most highly developed characters in the entire game; they have really large and flexible move sets to draw from.
GS: What kind of changes will the returning cast be undergoing in SSFIV? Can you give any specific examples?
SK: The philosophy behind the rest of the changes was to "balance up." This means rather than "nerfing" people, the aim was to make everyone stronger, though to varying degrees. Basically we don't want any fans of a certain character to pick up Super SFIV and find that all their favorite stuff doesn't work anymore, so we've actually worked to enrich every single character in terms of moves and overall possibilities. In terms of specific changes, there are a lot, ranging from the subtle, like Ryu's fierce shoryuken going from one hit to two hits, on to the more significant, like Guile's attacks having some increased priority’and even a brand new technique for Sagat. The number one change is, of course, the addition of a second ultra combo for everyone. These will change the dynamic of many fights.
GS: How important was the feedback the team received from the fighting game community on the original Street Fighter IV and what aspects of that feedback have been integrated into SSFIV?
SK: It was critical. Everything from the characters to including the online modes is pretty much a direct response to feedback from fans. Although we weren't able to do every single thing that was requested--from the big stuff like characters and online modes down to even very specific items, like having your character select cursor start on the same character you picked the last time (rather than having to move it each time from a default position)-- we've tried very hard to marry the best ideas from SF fans with our own thinking about how to create a great game. I think it's safe to say this is the most fan-influenced project in Capcom's history’maybe even in all of gaming history, at least as far as fighters are concerned.
GS: In terms of structure, will SSFIV feature the same progression and unlock system to get all the new characters or will they be available from the outset?
SK: We're going to have everyone unlocked right away. I understand the idea behind unlocks to some degree--you want to encourage people to play in different styles and experience more of the game. But I personally do not like them and want to have all my tools right from the start. "Everybody unlocked from the start" is another feature we can credit directly to fan feedback. Their voices really let me drive this point home with the traditionalists on the team.
GS: Constant iteration seems to be something that goes hand-in-hand with the Street Fighter series--obviously, Super Street Fighter IV is a new product--but has the team ever considered using downloadable content as a delivery method for future iterations of Street Fighter IV before moving onto Street Fighter V?
SK: DLC has been discussed, but frankly, the schedule for Super SFIV was so tight that we haven't been able to think much beyond this project. We did try and create more hooks in the architecture this time around to keep at least the possibility open, though the future for the series remains wide open at this point.
GS: Finally, what's up with the raccoon?
SK: That would be Ibuki's pet tanooki, Don. Do not mess with Don.
GS: Thanks for your time.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
"PlayStation 3 | Super Street Fighter IV Q&A" was posted by Staff on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:30:57 -0800
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Xbox 360 | Super Street Fighter IV QA
Capcom's Seth Killian gives us the latest on Capcom's new entry in its acclaimed fighting series.
Capcom's upcoming Super Street Fighter IV is set to deliver fans of the series a meaty helping of new content to master. The robust offering of new characters, new moves, and new ultra combos should give anyone who mastered last year's Street Fighter IV something to study. Today's new trailer shed some light on the bulk of the game's new cast, which includes a surprising array of familiar faces drawn from Street Fighter history. We checked in with SSFIV's special advisor Seth Killian to talk about the upcoming game, the new characters, and what the deal is with the raccoon.
GameSpot: How did the team go about selecting these extra characters?
Seth Killian: The 10 new SSFIV characters were based on post-SFIV fan feedback, which we then filtered according to which characters we felt would be a good fit for the game in terms of fighting style. I'm happy to say we were able to include almost all of the most popular requests.
GS: How many of the characters added this time out were characters that didn't make the cut for SFIV and how many are driven by the user feedback once all the characters in SFIV were revealed to fans?
SK: Development on Dee Jay and T. Hawk was started during the original SFIV, but the rest of the newcomers were basically all driven by the players' feedback after SFIV was completed.
GS: Super Street Fighter IV is bringing characters together from three separate "worlds" of Street Fighter (SSFII, SFIII, SF Alpha). What has it been like to balance and refine these characters to fit them within the SFIV universe?
SK: The SFII and SF Alpha characters both come from games with fundamentally compatible background systems, so integrating them together with the world of SFIV wasn't too intimidating. I was actually really worried about the SFIII characters, however. That game was built with parrying as the core background system, so in a game like SFIV without parries, would they be too weak? I'm happy to say they are definitely not too weak, and I was actually surprised how naturally the SFIII crew made the transition to Super SFIV.
GS: What can you tell fans of the new characters about how they're going to handle? Will they "feel" like their 2D counterparts like the characters did in SFIV or will there be some tweaks?
SK: There are, of course, a lot of tweaks, but I think any fans of these characters in their SFIII incarnations will pick them up very easily in Super SFIV. Everything you loved about them from SFIII is still there, as well as a bunch of new tricks. They're actually among the most highly developed characters in the entire game; they have really large and flexible move sets to draw from.
GS: What kind of changes will the returning cast be undergoing in SSFIV? Can you give any specific examples?
SK: The philosophy behind the rest of the changes was to "balance up." This means rather than "nerfing" people, the aim was to make everyone stronger, though to varying degrees. Basically we don't want any fans of a certain character to pick up Super SFIV and find that all their favorite stuff doesn't work anymore, so we've actually worked to enrich every single character in terms of moves and overall possibilities. In terms of specific changes, there are a lot, ranging from the subtle, like Ryu's fierce shoryuken going from one hit to two hits, on to the more significant, like Guile's attacks having some increased priority…and even a brand new technique for Sagat. The number one change is, of course, the addition of a second ultra combo for everyone. These will change the dynamic of many fights.
GS: How important was the feedback the team received from the fighting game community on the original Street Fighter IV and what aspects of that feedback have been integrated into SSFIV?
SK: It was critical. Everything from the characters to including the online modes is pretty much a direct response to feedback from fans. Although we weren't able to do every single thing that was requested--from the big stuff like characters and online modes down to even very specific items, like having your character select cursor start on the same character you picked the last time (rather than having to move it each time from a default position)-- we've tried very hard to marry the best ideas from SF fans with our own thinking about how to create a great game. I think it's safe to say this is the most fan-influenced project in Capcom's history…maybe even in all of gaming history, at least as far as fighters are concerned.
GS: In terms of structure, will SSFIV feature the same progression and unlock system to get all the new characters or will they be available from the outset?
SK: We're going to have everyone unlocked right away. I understand the idea behind unlocks to some degree--you want to encourage people to play in different styles and experience more of the game. But I personally do not like them and want to have all my tools right from the start. "Everybody unlocked from the start" is another feature we can credit directly to fan feedback. Their voices really let me drive this point home with the traditionalists on the team.
GS: Constant iteration seems to be something that goes hand-in-hand with the Street Fighter series--obviously, Super Street Fighter IV is a new product--but has the team ever considered using downloadable content as a delivery method for future iterations of Street Fighter IV before moving onto Street Fighter V?
SK: DLC has been discussed, but frankly, the schedule for Super SFIV was so tight that we haven't been able to think much beyond this project. We did try and create more hooks in the architecture this time around to keep at least the possibility open, though the future for the series remains wide open at this point.
GS: Finally, what's up with the raccoon?
SK: That would be Ibuki's pet tanooki, Don. Do not mess with Don.
GS: Thanks for your time.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
"Xbox 360 | Super Street Fighter IV Q&A" was posted by Staff on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:30:57 -0800
Saturday, February 27, 2010
PlayStation 3 | Transformers: War for Cybertron First Look
We get a look at Activision and High Moon Studios' surprising new Transformers game.
At this point just about everyone knows who the Transformers are. The robots that made children across the world wonder about cars, jets, trains, insects, and dinosaurs got reinserted into pop culture thanks to Michael Bay and his two explosive films that reimagined the mighty bots for the modern day. Unfortunately, more than a few purists were torn by the films because of some unsettling departures from canon, such as a mute Bumblebee, an Optimus Prime with lips, a genital-sporting Devastator, Ebonics-speaking bots, and Shia LaBeouf (although Megan Fox gets a pass) to name just a few. Thankfully the movie's popularity has led Activision and developer High Moon Studios to try their hand at a Transformers game that aims to give fans of the robots in disguise a fun and less unsettling experience rooted in the past. Transformers: War for Cybertron drops you into the Transformers universe as the conflict between the Autobots and Decepticon escalates into the events that led the dueling bots to leave their homeworld of Cybertron to come to Earth. We recently met with Activision and High Moon, who gave us a demo of the game on the Xbox 360, which showed off the Autobots and Decepticon campaigns and showed more promise than we would have expected.
The game's story is split into two narratives that follow the two bot factions as they take shape, with the Decepticon story set before the Autobot story. The Autobot story is set before Optimus Prime assumed the mantle of prime and follows the unassuming Optimus as events unfold and he becomes the greatest leader the Autobots ever had. The Decepticon story follows Megatron, who, unlike Optimus, is well on his way to becoming a robo jerk. The narrative follows Megatron as he sets out to restore Cybertron to what he feels is its former glory, which, not too surprisingly, involves a whole lot of mayhem and destruction. The interesting wrinkle to Megatron's tale is how he gathers together his crew: one of his first recruiting missions has him meeting a promising young bot named Starcream. The Decepticon campaign also shows Megatron clash with Autobot leader Zeta Prime (one guess how that goes).
The demo we were shown highlighted excerpts from the Autobot and Decepticon campaigns. It gave us an idea of what to expect from the third-person action game and made a great first impression. Before we dive into specifics, we'll offer up some general bits of info: the game features a single-player mode, split into two campaigns as we mentioned, as well as an online multiplayer mode that supports competitive and cooperative play. We're especially intrigued by the game's cooperative mode, which supports drop-in, drop-out gameplay for up to two other players so that you can go through the campaign story with two other friends.
The Autobot segment of the demo focused on an early part of the story that set the action up. You will be able to choose one bot to actively control and two others to join your party of three. The segment we saw focused on Optimus, Ratchet, and Bumblebee--all meeting for the first time. One key thing to note about the game, which is a very cool bit, is that the bots have been reimagined in their native Iacon forms, well before they began mimicking cars. High Moon worked closely with Hasbro to settle on a look that is close to the iconic Transformers look but is unique. The result is a very smart, futuristic look for the vehicles that everyone transforms into. The sequence followed the trio as they set out to escort Bumblebee to deliver bad news on the state of the leading bodies of the Autobots. Basically, things are pretty bleak: Zeta Prime has been taken out, and the high council has disappeared. All the three bots can do is head out and try to marshal their forces to deal with the Decepticon threat and help where they can. In the demo, the trio had to reactivate several turrets to help fend off an assault from Megatron's crew.
The race to get to the turrets showed off the stunning metropolis of Iacon, which, despite being under siege, looked fantastic. The journey to the turrets showed off the very cool art direction in the game, which is big on small details, such as showing how the Autobots physically plug into terminals, or even turrets, in order to interact with them. More importantly, the sequence showed off how fluidly the bots switch from vehicle form to robot form, as well as the game's combat mechanics. Basically you'll be able to transform at any time by clicking in the left analog stick, which frees you up to use the robots' other abilities in combat. War for Cybertron plays around with the standard Transformers action formula by mixing up each robot's abilities. Besides the expected melee combat and transforming, you'll be able to use two types of special attacks. One is dependent on resources, namely orbs that you'll collect off of defeated enemies, and the other has a cooldown period you just need to wait out. From what we saw, the resource-dependent attacks are basically different weapons you can pick up (the bots can carry two at a given time and swap them out whenever they find something new). The cooldown attacks were an interesting mix of active and passive abilities. For example, Optimus has a war cry that essentially serves as a damage increase to those near him, while Ratchet has a ray he can use to heal himself or others. The system looks suitably spectacular when you're watching the game, so we're anxious to see how it will play and how you'll combo all the different abilities. The Autobot portion of our demo ended with the massive turrets being reactivated and a Decepticon warship being taken out. The subsequent story cinematic showed off Jetfire, whose history is being tweaked some for the game in order to better fit the story. From what we could see, it's nothing too drastic, just a slightly more logical setup for his joining the Autobots.
The Decepticon sequence showed off Starcream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp in a mission that showed off how jet gameplay will work in the game. The High Moon reps noted that the strafing, hovering, and boosting mechanics were inspired by old-school gem Crimson Skies. The flight action looked sharp and was a smart showcase for the game's variety. The level featured a mix of open spaces that were conducive to proper flying and more cramped areas that required a bot change or hovering and sniping (both of which seemed to be easy to transition to). We were also able to check out the jet barrel roll special ability, which looks exactly like you'd expect. The sequence also showed off an underground area on Cybertron. The second Decepticon bit we saw showcased a boss fight that pit Megatron, Soundwave, and Breakdown against Omega Supreme. As intimidating as the massive Autobot min city looked, the trio was able to take it out in a lengthy multipart boss fight.
Overall the game looked pretty fantastic thanks to its unique art direction. The reimagined transformers look great and shine because of a host of little touches. Whether it's the hovercars the Autobots turn into, the way the turrets and consoles they interface with change to match their color, or the new look for energon cubes, Cybertron looks to be brimming with activity. Besides the impressive detail and effects, the game's performance is impressive. The hectic action, explosions, and transformations look stellar and zip along at a brisk pace regardless of the onscreen mayhem. The audio was pretty much you'd expect for the special effects and musical score. As far as voice goes, Peter Cullen, geek national treasure of the highest order, is back to bring Optimus to life. Sadly, Cullen is the only classic cast member we recognized, so anyone hoping for some old-school Megatron action is out of luck.
While some of this may sound too good to be true, the game is looking like it just might be the real deal. High Moon's approach is benefiting from no movie to tie in with and a respectable dose of geek love. The results we've seen so far seem to be paying off in the most promising Transformers game we've played in years. We're anxious to get our hands on it, especially the online multiplayer, to see if it plays as good as it looks. Look for more on Transformers: War for Cybertron in the weeks to come. The game is scheduled to ship on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 later this year, with Wii and DS versions of the game, from Next Level and Vicarious Visions, respectively, hitting at the same time.
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"PlayStation 3 | Transformers: War for Cybertron First Look" was posted by Ricardo Torres on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:26:24 -0800
Friday, February 26, 2010
Xbox 360 | Transformers: War for Cybertron First Look
We get a look at Activision and High Moon Studios' surprising new Transformers game.
At this point just about everyone knows who the Transformers are. The robots that made children across the world wonder about cars, jets, trains, insects, and dinosaurs got reinserted into pop culture thanks to Michael Bay and his two explosive films that reimagined the mighty bots for the modern day. Unfortunately, more than a few purists were torn by the films because of some unsettling departures from canon, such as a mute Bumblebee, an Optimus Prime with lips, a genital-sporting Devastator, Ebonics-speaking bots, and Shia LaBeouf (although Megan Fox gets a pass) to name just a few. Thankfully the movie's popularity has led Activision and developer High Moon Studios to try their hand at a Transformers game that aims to give fans of the robots in disguise a fun and less unsettling experience rooted in the past. Transformers: War for Cybertron drops you into the Transformers universe as the conflict between the Autobots and Decepticon escalates into the events that led the dueling bots to leave their homeworld of Cybertron to come to Earth. We recently met with Activision and High Moon, who gave us a demo of the game on the Xbox 360, which showed off the Autobots and Decepticon campaigns and showed more promise than we would have expected.
The game's story is split into two narratives that follow the two bot factions as they take shape, with the Decepticon story set before the Autobot story. The Autobot story is set before Optimus Prime assumed the mantle of prime and follows the unassuming Optimus as events unfold and he becomes the greatest leader the Autobots ever had. The Decepticon story follows Megatron, who, unlike Optimus, is well on his way to becoming a robo jerk. The narrative follows Megatron as he sets out to restore Cybertron to what he feels is its former glory, which, not too surprisingly, involves a whole lot of mayhem and destruction. The interesting wrinkle to Megatron's tale is how he gathers together his crew: one of his first recruiting missions has him meeting a promising young bot named Starcream. The Decepticon campaign also shows Megatron clash with Autobot leader Zeta Prime (one guess how that goes).
The demo we were shown highlighted excerpts from the Autobot and Decepticon campaigns. It gave us an idea of what to expect from the third-person action game and made a great first impression. Before we dive into specifics, we'll offer up some general bits of info: the game features a single-player mode, split into two campaigns as we mentioned, as well as an online multiplayer mode that supports competitive and cooperative play. We're especially intrigued by the game's cooperative mode, which supports drop-in, drop-out gameplay for up to two other players so that you can go through the campaign story with two other friends.
The Autobot segment of the demo focused on an early part of the story that set the action up. You will be able to choose one bot to actively control and two others to join your party of three. The segment we saw focused on Optimus, Ratchet, and Bumblebee--all meeting for the first time. One key thing to note about the game, which is a very cool bit, is that the bots have been reimagined in their native Iacon forms, well before they began mimicking cars. High Moon worked closely with Hasbro to settle on a look that is close to the iconic Transformers look but is unique. The result is a very smart, futuristic look for the vehicles that everyone transforms into. The sequence followed the trio as they set out to escort Bumblebee to deliver bad news on the state of the leading bodies of the Autobots. Basically, things are pretty bleak: Zeta Prime has been taken out, and the high council has disappeared. All the three bots can do is head out and try to marshal their forces to deal with the Decepticon threat and help where they can. In the demo, the trio had to reactivate several turrets to help fend off an assault from Megatron's crew.
The race to get to the turrets showed off the stunning metropolis of Iacon, which, despite being under siege, looked fantastic. The journey to the turrets showed off the very cool art direction in the game, which is big on small details, such as showing how the Autobots physically plug into terminals, or even turrets, in order to interact with them. More importantly, the sequence showed off how fluidly the bots switch from vehicle form to robot form, as well as the game's combat mechanics. Basically you'll be able to transform at any time by clicking in the left analog stick, which frees you up to use the robots' other abilities in combat. War for Cybertron plays around with the standard Transformers action formula by mixing up each robot's abilities. Besides the expected melee combat and transforming, you'll be able to use two types of special attacks. One is dependent on resources, namely orbs that you'll collect off of defeated enemies, and the other has a cooldown period you just need to wait out. From what we saw, the resource-dependent attacks are basically different weapons you can pick up (the bots can carry two at a given time and swap them out whenever they find something new). The cooldown attacks were an interesting mix of active and passive abilities. For example, Optimus has a war cry that essentially serves as a damage increase to those near him, while Ratchet has a ray he can use to heal himself or others. The system looks suitably spectacular when you're watching the game, so we're anxious to see how it will play and how you'll combo all the different abilities. The Autobot portion of our demo ended with the massive turrets being reactivated and a Decepticon warship being taken out. The subsequent story cinematic showed off Jetfire, whose history is being tweaked some for the game in order to better fit the story. From what we could see, it's nothing too drastic, just a slightly more logical setup for his joining the Autobots.
The Decepticon sequence showed off Starcream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp in a mission that showed off how jet gameplay will work in the game. The High Moon reps noted that the strafing, hovering, and boosting mechanics were inspired by old-school gem Crimson Skies. The flight action looked sharp and was a smart showcase for the game's variety. The level featured a mix of open spaces that were conducive to proper flying and more cramped areas that required a bot change or hovering and sniping (both of which seemed to be easy to transition to). We were also able to check out the jet barrel roll special ability, which looks exactly like you'd expect. The sequence also showed off an underground area on Cybertron. The second Decepticon bit we saw showcased a boss fight that pit Megatron, Soundwave, and Breakdown against Omega Supreme. As intimidating as the massive Autobot min city looked, the trio was able to take it out in a lengthy multipart boss fight.
Overall the game looked pretty fantastic thanks to its unique art direction. The reimagined transformers look great and shine because of a host of little touches. Whether it's the hovercars the Autobots turn into, the way the turrets and consoles they interface with change to match their color, or the new look for energon cubes, Cybertron looks to be brimming with activity. Besides the impressive detail and effects, the game's performance is impressive. The hectic action, explosions, and transformations look stellar and zip along at a brisk pace regardless of the onscreen mayhem. The audio was pretty much you'd expect for the special effects and musical score. As far as voice goes, Peter Cullen, geek national treasure of the highest order, is back to bring Optimus to life. Sadly, Cullen is the only classic cast member we recognized, so anyone hoping for some old-school Megatron action is out of luck.
While some of this may sound too good to be true, the game is looking like it just might be the real deal. High Moon's approach is benefiting from no movie to tie in with and a respectable dose of geek love. The results we've seen so far seem to be paying off in the most promising Transformers game we've played in years. We're anxious to get our hands on it, especially the online multiplayer, to see if it plays as good as it looks. Look for more on Transformers: War for Cybertron in the weeks to come. The game is scheduled to ship on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 later this year, with Wii and DS versions of the game, from Next Level and Vicarious Visions, respectively, hitting at the same time.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
"Xbox 360 | Transformers: War for Cybertron First Look" was posted by Ricardo Torres on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:26:24 -0800
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wii | Metroid: Other M Hands-On
Samus has a case of the baby blues in this sequel to Super Metroid.
Metroid: Other M--codeveloped by Nintendo and Team Ninja (of Ninja Gaiden fame)--is best described as a culmination of all the Metroid games that came before it. It interweaves plot points and gameplay mechanics from those games into a sequel that takes place after events of Super Metroid, but despite bringing all of these familiar characteristics together, Other M feels anything but familiar. The game forges its own identity that rests somewhere between Super Metroid and the Metroid Prime series, with the end results amounting to something that most fans will probably find surprising. A warning: This write-up includes some minor story set-up spoilers.
Our demo begins with a brief CG cinematic where the camera pans to the depths of space to find a person--bounty hunter Samus Aran--curled in the fetal position (like the scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey). After uttering the question, "Why am I still alive?" Samus awakens to find herself in the ending sequence of Super Metroid. An appropriately disgusting and angry Mother Brain stomps around as the baby Metroid (that originally appeared in Metroid II) holds Samus above ground within its maw. Just seconds before Mother Brain releases a devastating beam of energy from her massive eyeball, the baby Metroid drops Samus and takes the brunt of the blast. Its gooey remains drip down onto Samus as she readies her arm cannon and says, "It's time to go." Mother Brain is defeated.
In the following scene, Samus (shown in her Zero Suit form) awakens in a quarantine room and later remarks that she constantly dreams about her confrontation with Mother Brain, as well as the fate of the baby Metroid. In fact, a large part of developing and growing Samus as a character for Metroid: Other M seemingly stems from the loss of the baby Metroid to the extent that it's a focal point of her remaining monologue in the introduction--a suggestion of her growing motherly instincts, perhaps?
As the scene ends, Samus transforms back into her Varia suit and the tutorial begins. In it, we learn about some of her basic movements and abilities--most of which are controlled by holding the Wii Remote sideways so the layout resembles the NES controller setup. The action in Metroid: Other M takes place in 3D space from a third-person perspective, so Samus can move around much as she did in Metroid Prime by using the D pad. You can fire her arm cannon using the button 1 (button 2 performs jumps) and hold it down to perform a stronger, charged shot. By throwing a few enemies at us, the tutorial revealed that there's seemingly no manual way to target enemies, so where you shoot is a combination of where you're facing and which enemy has priority over another for the auto-aiming system. Samus also has some evasive skills--by pressing left or right on the D pad just before a projectile hits, she quickly leaps to the left or right. Lastly, changing into the morph ball is as simple as pressing A on the Wii Remote, and like previous games, Samus can plant regular or superbombs while in this state. Also of note, you can recharge missiles by simply holding the Wii Remote vertically and simultaneously holding down the B button (a similar functions works for recharging health when it gets dangerously low, but it doesn't appear to refill all of your health).
The tutorial also included a section explaining Samus's search mode, which should be immediately familiar to fans of Metroid Prime. By pointing the Wii Remote at the screen, the camera automatically transitions to a first-person, in-the-visor mode that lets you look around by holding the B button. Not only can you use this mode to investigate your surroundings, but you can also use it to lock onto and combat enemies either by using Samus's default arm cannon attack or her missiles. It's worth pointing out that when you search a room and happen to come across a special item (such as an energy tank or missile capacity upgrades), it will be marked on the map shown at the top-right portion of the screen.
With the tutorial over, we got another cutscene where a quarantine officer tells Samus to head to a meeting where news that Mother Brain has been defeated and Planet Zebes has been completely destroyed is met with a round of cheering from others in the room. Time passes and we fast forward to a scene with Samus sitting inside her ship when she suddenly receives what she refers to as a, "baby's cry," which is an SOS coming from a distant part of the galaxy. She eventually reaches the source of the SOS and what appears to be a derelict space station called the Bottle Ship, where the main portion of our gameplay session took place.
Upon arrival, we're told to take a look around using Samus's search mode--a quick inspection of the area reveals that a Galactic Federation Army ship is also docked. We take a few minutes to run and jump around (to test out the controls a little more when the camera's in a side-scrolling perspective) before going through the first door on the ship. Inside, Samus encounters the Galactic Federation group that arrived at the station earlier as it tried to get through a seemingly impenetrable door. As luck would have it, a member of this crew is none other than Adam Malkovich--Samus's former commanding officer in the Galactic Federation Army (and later, the AI construct from Metroid Fusion) before she took up the reigns of a freelance bounty hunter. Samus briefly references tension that exists between the two of them because of her previous career choices, but it's something that will more than likely expand further as the game progresses.
After helping the team get through the door via a missile from Samus's weapon, the team moves forward and Samus is left behind to make her way to the control room on her own. Along the way, we encounter some of the familiar, weaker enemies of Metroid's past, such as zoomers and skree. We take out these enemies using Samus's regular attack and continue to explore before coming upon an empty bathroom area. Normally, such a room wouldn't be a big deal, but it is in this case because we get a glimpse of a new perspective that places that camera closely behind Samus (similar to the camera perspective found in the Resident Evil 4 and 5) and forces her to walk at a slower pace. Whether this camera perspective has any kind of significance over just accommodating the tight space remains to be seen, but it was quite a surprise when we came upon it for the first time.
We continue to go from room to room, putting Samus's acrobatic abilities to good use as she wall jumps and clings to ledges before pulling herself up to make her way to the control room where she meets up with the rest of the Galactic Federation crew, as well as the first boss encounter. This giant, purple monster flings its tentacles about, making it difficult to find enough time to jump into the first-person mode and take shots at its eye using missiles. When we do get a solid shot in, the Galactic Federation soldiers manage to freeze parts of its limbs, which you then have to target and fire upon with missiles in first person. After doing this a few times, the creature is defeated. Adam takes up a position in the main portion of the control room where he tells the rest of his crew to infiltrate other parts of the ship and asks Samus to restore power to the system management area. This requires a bit of backtracking to an earlier part of the level (where we get some more time to snoop around for extra items, some of which can only be accessed via the morph ball), but it only takes a few minutes before we find the designated area, clear out the enemies that were preventing power from reaching other parts of the ship, and head back to the control room where the demo ends.
At this point, Metroid: Other M seems to succeed in creating a new type of Metroid experience, but it's really hard to explain just how different it feels until you get your hands on it. The mixture of old Metroid and Metroid Prime elements seems like it's not an amazing fit initially, but as time goes on, changing from third to first person feels more natural. We'll have more on Metroid: Other M before its release on June 27.
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"Wii | Metroid: Other M Hands-On" was posted by Giancarlo Varanini on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:04:29 -0800
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
PlayStation 3 | Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands First Impression
The prince from the Sands of Time trilogy is back, and we find out what he was up to before his adventures in Warrior Within.
Even though Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will be released roughly around the same time as the Jerry Bruckheimer Hollywood blockbuster, there is no relation to the movie at all, so don't expect a Jake Gyllenhaal-look alike or voice actor. The story does take place in the Sands of Time universe, though, during the seven-year gap between the Sands of Time and Warrior Within. The Forgotten Sands will focus on just one of the prince's many wild adventures and explains his drastic transformation from the once naive, cheerful young man in Sands of Time to the jaded, brooding character seen in Warrior Within.
The game starts off with an impressive, sweeping view of a city that is under attack as we see scores of sword-wielding men fighting along the battlements and fortress grounds. This besieged kingdom belongs to the prince's older brother, whom the prince has decided to visit, but it seems that he has come at a bad time--or perhaps just at the right time. With the ongoing chaotic battle unfolding in the background, we quickly made our way down along the stone steps, leapt gracefully from one crumbling ledge to the next, and deftly darted along walls to join the fight. The prince's acrobatic movements looked very familiar as he shimmied carefully across narrow ledges and somersaulted effortlessly from one pole to the next. The flow of combat was just as smooth, but one of the big changes will have you facing larger groups of enemies, ranging from a small group of three to a big group of 50. You won't be able to block anymore, so evasive maneuvers involve rolling and being quick on your feet. You'll still be able to perform some stylish finishing moves, like vaulting over enemies to stab them in the back, and you also have the ability to kick opponents down to stun them, then finish them with a quick jab. When facing a decent-sized group, you can crowd surf and hop on the heads of your enemies, then dance out of the way. This particular section of the demo was incredibly cinematic as the camera panned across the vast terrain to give you a sense of scale, and while we were fighting our way through the crowds, we could see the battle raging on in the background.
Next, we explored the sewers beneath the palace, which actually looked quite nice and sanitary with cascading waterfalls pouring out of several openings. The prince already had a solid skill set when it came to wielding his sword, but now, he can gain the ability to control the elements of nature. One of the first powers that he'll acquire is the ability to freeze water. Using the left trigger at any time, all the water in the area will freeze for as long as you hold the button. In this particular area, it will grant you access to wall run on ice to get to another platform. A yellow energy bar under your health bar depletes as you hold the left trigger, so you can't freeze water indefinitely, but it regenerates quickly as soon as you let go. Sometimes you'll be faced with some trickier platforming situations where you'll need to time your powers to get to where you need to go. As our prince made his way above ground and into the luxurious, cavernous palace, we saw water used to create some elaborate platforming puzzles. Timed water spouts along the palace interior were conveniently placed so that when we timed it correctly, we could show off our trapeze artist skills by flinging the prince from one frozen pole to the next. This was the only magical skill that we got to see, but we were told that you can also control the other elements like earth, air, and fire.
The prince will once again be able to rewind time as he did in the trilogy, so you can always go back a few seconds if you missed a tough jump or took too much damage. It costs energy orbs to do so, but your meter can be replenished by collecting more orbs from enemies or breakable items nearby. These orbs can also be used to execute more powerful and advanced skills. Another added feature is the ability to customize and upgrade the prince's combat skills from the experience that you gain while fighting. For example, your shield ability unleashes a burst of energy, which knocks surrounding opponents to the ground. But when it gets upgraded to a tornado, you can call forth a swirling wind that can easily round up and decimate anyone that gets too close. Another advanced move that we got to see was a dash skill that lets the prince dart from one side of a room into the next. This allowed him to plow through any unfortunate individual that happened to get in the way and provided a convenient alternative cross-wide chasm when there were no walls on which to scurry.
Our demo wrapped up with a miniboss fight in a section of an underground ruined city, where we saw the prince fight against a decent-sized horde of skeletal warriors. The story behind these wraiths is that the prince's brother decided to raise a magical army of sand warriors to defend his kingdom from intruders at the beginning of the game, but this could only be accomplished at a huge cost. All the citizens have now turned into sand statues, and it looks like the undead don't intend to leave anytime soon. The miniboss we faced was a large charger that wasted no time trying to run us over. Fortunately, it wasn't very bright, so by carefully positioning the prince, you can lure the miniboss to trample the swarm of warriors in the way, which will save you the trouble of having to dispose of them yourself.
The Forgotten Sands looks and feels like a next-generation Sands of Time. It is full of rich and colorful art direction, as well as clever level designs. The prince represented a cross between the character models of the prince in Sands of Time and Warrior Within. He looks more mature than in the first game and maintains that mysterious air about him, but he looks less menacing than he did in the second game. The voice actor for the prince in Sands of Time, Yuri Lowenthal, returns so it'll feel very much like you're continuing the adventure immediately after the events of the first game. We were shown an incredibly beautiful area--which you'll come across multiple times in the game to meet a woman named Razia--that was reminiscent of the Fountain of Time seen in the first game. As we approached the empty gazebo bathed in moonlight, it was hard not to be taken with the soft silver glow of the moon that covered the artfully crafted landscape.
We're quite eager to see more of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, which is set to be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC sometime in May. The Wii and DS versions will be entirely different games built specifically for their respective platforms. We'll update you with more information as soon as it becomes available.
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"PlayStation 3 | Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands First Impression" was posted by Sophia Tong on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:00:54 -0800
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
PC | Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening Hands-On - First Details, Combat, and Dragons
We get our hands on this expansion for Dragon Age: Origins.
Some days, you just can't get rid of a monster invasion. In Dragon Age: Origins, your character tried to do just that by joining the Grey Wardens, an ancient society dedicated to hunting down the monstrous darkspawn, a race of murderous subterranean creatures with a mysterious resemblance to the uruk-hai of the Lord of the Rings motion pictures. And hunt the darkspawn you did, eventually confronting the hordes and ending their invasion, known as the Blight. Or, so you thought.
In Awakening, the first expansion for Dragon Age, you'll play as the leader of the Grey Wardens in pursuit of a new enemy, a mysterious darkspawn general who can think, talk, and raise armies of new darkspawn, who appear to be breeding underground. Interestingly, you can import your character directly from Dragon Age and be the hero that game made you--the uniter of the scattered Wardens and enemy of the Blight. Or, you can start a new game with an entirely new character, a Grey Warden emissary from a neighboring country that was once at war with Ferelden, in which case you'll be met with suspicion and distrust even as you try to save the land.
BioWare suggests that Awakening isn't about one new whiz-bang feature that totally changes the gameplay, but rather it's about offering more of what fans seem to care about most--a deep story with memorable characters and real consequences for the choices you make. The expansion is being developed by the same team of writers, designers, and artists who created the original game, but it will offer plenty of new stuff to play with, including six new characters to join your party, new elite character classes, tons of new high-level skills, an expanded level cap up to level 35, and more than 500 new items, including new, higher tiers of weapons and armor for your adventuring party.
We recently had an opportunity to play through two different areas of the game and get a peek at what's in store. The first area put us in the boots of a warrior Warden hero allied with two of the expansion's new characters, both spirit healer mages: Velanna, a sharp-tongued elf, and Anders, a human wizard with a smart mouth not unlike that of Origins' Alastair. Our party began its journey into the ruins of a captured city, which had been fully assimilated by a new brood of darkspawn to the extent that even the walls and floors were covered with pulsating pink flesh.
After hacking our way through several alpha genlocks and hurlocks, we managed to rescue Sigurd, a bitter dwarf burglar who had been part of a previous war party sent to curtail the darkspawn threat. Apparently, her comrades were overwhelmed and she fled. As the only survivor, she was captured and was in the process of being dragged away--as she suggested, perhaps as part of a sinister plot to seize women to breed more darkspawn--when we cut down her captors. Despite her earlier act of cowardice, she was eager to join our party and seek revenge. We were given the chance to change our party by adding her, but we declined in favor of using both mages to blast our foes to bits, and we descended further into the city. A dying dwarf warned us about the "children," one of the expansion's new types of enemy--slimy creatures that spawn from darkspawn brood mothers--though sadly we weren't able to tangle with them, since we had another engagement with the Queen of the Blackmarsh.
The queen, as it turns out, doesn't hold a court. She's an ancient spectral dragon who can be summoned only by reassembling the fragments of a shattered dragon's skull in the midst of a dank, forbidding swamp blocked off by a tear in the Fade--a barrier created by the netherworld from which all magic originates. Once we clicked on the skull to reassemble it, the tear disappeared and we were free to enter the Queen's court, a small, flat clearing paved with a circular panel of stones. The queen herself swooped down on our party of a warrior and two spirit healers, along with Sigurd. Like with the dragon battles of Origins (and other previous BioWare games), special preparation and strategy will clearly be needed to conquer the queen.
Among other things, the queen can knock back one or more of your party with a sweep of her wings and take one of your comrades out of play by clutching her victim with her talons before tossing her victim aside. Interestingly, when she takes enough damage (whether that be from repeated backstabs, whatever feeble melee attacks you can deliver from the front, or all those magic spells she keeps resisting), she'll change forms to a giant sizzling orb of spirit energy locked into the center of the stone circle, while a group of electrified wisps spawn at the edges of the circle and drift inward toward the queen, presumably to recharge her energy. We managed to have our party chop down most of these wisp creatures, but the last one met with the queen in orb form. The orb then faded away and the queen made her triumphant reentrance from the sky, just in time to utterly crush our exhausted party, though to be fair, this was the first time we'd ever fought that battle, and we're assured by the BioWare team that this sort of thing happens to Dragon Age players all the time and doesn't make us any less of a video game player.
In any case, it's clear that Awakening will have a great deal to offer for Dragon Age fans. The expansion will be available in March both as a retail in-box product and as downloadable content.
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"PC | Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening Hands-On - First Details, Combat, and Dragons" was posted by Andrew Park on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:29:47 -0800
Monday, February 22, 2010
Xbox 360 | Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands First Impression
The prince from the Sands of Time trilogy is back, and we find out what he was up to before his adventures in Warrior Within.
Even though Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will be released roughly around the same time as the Jerry Bruckheimer Hollywood blockbuster, there is no relation to the movie at all, so don't expect a Jake Gyllenhaal-look alike or voice actor. The story does take place in the Sands of Time universe, though, during the seven-year gap between the Sands of Time and Warrior Within. The Forgotten Sands will focus on just one of the prince's many wild adventures and explains his drastic transformation from the once naive, cheerful young man in Sands of Time to the jaded, brooding character seen in Warrior Within.
The game starts off with an impressive, sweeping view of a city that is under attack as we see scores of sword-wielding men fighting along the battlements and fortress grounds. This besieged kingdom belongs to the prince's older brother, whom the prince has decided to visit, but it seems that he has come at a bad time--or perhaps just at the right time. With the ongoing chaotic battle unfolding in the background, we quickly made our way down along the stone steps, leapt gracefully from one crumbling ledge to the next, and deftly darted along walls to join the fight. The prince's acrobatic movements looked very familiar as he shimmied carefully across narrow ledges and somersaulted effortlessly from one pole to the next. The flow of combat was just as smooth, but one of the big changes will have you facing larger groups of enemies, ranging from a small group of three to a big group of 50. You won't be able to block anymore, so evasive maneuvers involve rolling and being quick on your feet. You'll still be able to perform some stylish finishing moves, like vaulting over enemies to stab them in the back, and you also have the ability to kick opponents down to stun them, then finish them with a quick jab. When facing a decent-sized group, you can crowd surf and hop on the heads of your enemies, then dance out of the way. This particular section of the demo was incredibly cinematic as the camera panned across the vast terrain to give you a sense of scale, and while we were fighting our way through the crowds, we could see the battle raging on in the background.
Next, we explored the sewers beneath the palace, which actually looked quite nice and sanitary with cascading waterfalls pouring out of several openings. The prince already had a solid skill set when it came to wielding his sword, but now, he can gain the ability to control the elements of nature. One of the first powers that he'll acquire is the ability to freeze water. Using the left trigger at any time, all the water in the area will freeze for as long as you hold the button. In this particular area, it will grant you access to wall run on ice to get to another platform. A yellow energy bar under your health bar depletes as you hold the left trigger, so you can't freeze water indefinitely, but it regenerates quickly as soon as you let go. Sometimes you'll be faced with some trickier platforming situations where you'll need to time your powers to get to where you need to go. As our prince made his way above ground and into the luxurious, cavernous palace, we saw water used to create some elaborate platforming puzzles. Timed water spouts along the palace interior were conveniently placed so that when we timed it correctly, we could show off our trapeze artist skills by flinging the prince from one frozen pole to the next. This was the only magical skill that we got to see, but we were told that you can also control the other elements like earth, air, and fire.
The prince will once again be able to rewind time as he did in the trilogy, so you can always go back a few seconds if you missed a tough jump or took too much damage. It costs energy orbs to do so, but your meter can be replenished by collecting more orbs from enemies or breakable items nearby. These orbs can also be used to execute more powerful and advanced skills. Another added feature is the ability to customize and upgrade the prince's combat skills from the experience that you gain while fighting. For example, your shield ability unleashes a burst of energy, which knocks surrounding opponents to the ground. But when it gets upgraded to a tornado, you can call forth a swirling wind that can easily round up and decimate anyone that gets too close. Another advanced move that we got to see was a dash skill that lets the prince dart from one side of a room into the next. This allowed him to plow through any unfortunate individual that happened to get in the way and provided a convenient alternative cross-wide chasm when there were no walls on which to scurry.
Our demo wrapped up with a miniboss fight in a section of an underground ruined city, where we saw the prince fight against a decent-sized horde of skeletal warriors. The story behind these wraiths is that the prince's brother decided to raise a magical army of sand warriors to defend his kingdom from intruders at the beginning of the game, but this could only be accomplished at a huge cost. All the citizens have now turned into sand statues, and it looks like the undead don't intend to leave anytime soon. The miniboss we faced was a large charger that wasted no time trying to run us over. Fortunately, it wasn't very bright, so by carefully positioning the prince, you can lure the miniboss to trample the swarm of warriors in the way, which will save you the trouble of having to dispose of them yourself.
The Forgotten Sands looks and feels like a next-generation Sands of Time. It is full of rich and colorful art direction, as well as clever level designs. The prince represented a cross between the character models of the prince in Sands of Time and Warrior Within. He looks more mature than in the first game and maintains that mysterious air about him, but he looks less menacing than he did in the second game. The voice actor for the prince in Sands of Time, Yuri Lowenthal, returns so it'll feel very much like you're continuing the adventure immediately after the events of the first game. We were shown an incredibly beautiful area--which you'll come across multiple times in the game to meet a Djinn who gives you your newfound powers named Razia--that was reminiscent of the Fountain of Time seen in the first game. As we approached the empty gazebo bathed in moonlight, it was hard not to be taken with the soft silver glow of the moon that covered the artfully crafted landscape.
We're quite eager to see more of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, which is set to be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC sometime in May. The Wii and DS versions will be entirely different games built specifically for their respective platforms. We'll update you with more information as soon as it becomes available.
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"Xbox 360 | Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands First Impression" was posted by Sophia Tong on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:00:54 -0800
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