Reading that last part back after finishing this post, to be honest, I’m lying. This was quite hard to compile!

Something I will try to avoid is including games just for the nostalgia I associate with them but I’m keeping no promises, sorry! Who knows, maybe it’ll make this post a more interesting read.

I’ll be writing a brief summary of what I like about each game, then that’ll be followed up by any criticisms I have.

So sit tight, this is a long one. Hope you enjoy reading it.

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Mirror’s Edge (2008) -

What better way to start it off than with Mirror’s Edge. Hinting at my #1, what makes this game so special is the ambience that it possesses. If you’ve played Mirror’s Edge then you’ll know what I’m talking about. Never has a game had both the relaxed feeling along with the sense of “Hurry the f*ck up before you get caught.” It’s such a deep game. Innovative is the word I’d use to describe Mirror’s Edge. It’s parkour/free-running is something only the Assassin’s Creed titles can execute as well. The soundtrack is there if you pay attention it’s atmospheric to say the least and one of my favourite musical scores. Huge replayability too. “Ok so now I kinda know the layout of the level I wonder how fast I can complete it” is something I had thought to myself on several occasions. Speaking of the level design, it’s near perfect. Even though the most obvious routes to take are highlighted in red or blue you’ll find yourself shying away from those. It shows you the way to go but encourages exploration. Exploration (in relatively small areas) is the key to Mirror’s Edge. It opens up doors to an array of different paths. Even if you don’t intend on playing the game that way you’ll still notice these things. After playing through the game over ten times I still haven’t found about 90% of the secret satchels!

Criticisms: The controls are a little buggy at times and it’s a short, short game. I’d say around 5 maybe 6 hours to complete it in a single sitting. Still one of my most cherished games though.

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Red Dead Redemption (2010) -

Most of you have had the pleasure of playing this. Most of you know how good it is. It’s fun multiplayer, it’s map which consists of mostly desert and trees and who could forget it’s long, detailed and emotional storyline. The exceptional soundtrack is engrained into my memory too.

This is where a few of you may not want to read on, here is where I talk about the story. Almost 3 years after release, I think it’s safe to. If you haven’t played Red Dead Redemption yet though, then I advise you to skip to #8.

[SPOILER WARNING]

Who else didn’t expect John Marston to die? Who else was wondering “How is he gonna get out of this barn?” Who else was shocked beyond belief when that fat, waistcoat wearing Sheriff that you had worked for and helped in the past had his small army riddle John Marston full of bullets? I’d be surprised if you didn’t agree with all of those things. Red Dead Redemption delivered one of the most satisfying moments in gaming for me too… killing that no good dirty coward. Wasn’t that great playing as his son in the end but who cares? Riding up to that Sheriff as he was fishing and then confronting him was gripping to say the least. If you have played RDR then tell me, how did you kill him? What weapon did you use?

Criticisms: There were some parts of this game that I didn’t like though. A couple of characters were pretty bland, John Marston’s partner didn’t suit him at all I mean I can’t even remember her name (Grace?), the Bonnie MacFarlane relationship should’ve been presented in a better way (I know I wasn’t the only one who was hoping Bonnie and John would end up having a good ol’ fling), John’s son, Jack, was pretty irritating and so was the cover system. The multiplayer? The only thing I didn’t like there was the way in which you could join your friends, it was a little confusing to me but that’s it.

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Halo: Combat Evolved (2001) -

I still have my copy of the original Halo. I acquired it when I swapped my copy of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin with my next door neighbour. Not a bad swap, eh? I had been playing the demo for about a year (back when demo’s were included with the magazines everyone’s mother used to buy them) and was hooked. The demo mission was ‘The Silent Cartographer’, the mission that features the well-known “Let’s hit it boys!” Having played the demo for about a year straight I was starting to get a bit bored with it, so that’s when we swapped the two. I’m glad that I did too, I’m a huge Halo fan, I’ve followed it since the original Combat Evolved. You can go here to see a breakdown of my love for the Halo series.

Criticisms: None.

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Battlefield 3 (2011) -

Battlefield 3 is a game I’ve spent over 400 hours playing. That’s a lot for me. Before I bought it back in October 2011, I hadn’t touched any FPS game since Men of Valor or maybe one of the old Medal of Honor‘s. I had been playing the Halo games since release but in my eyes, it’s an Arena game more than an FPS. I approached Battlefield 3 almost like “Let’s see what the draw to this genre is still, let’s see how it compares to the older FPS’s.” What was also a huge thing and which led me to actually go out and buy the game was the way DICE and EA advertised it. Having not played Bad Company 2 or any of the other Battlefield games, this was all new to me. The focus on tactics and the role each class played was something I had never seen. The realism in the campaign footage before release was also a massive incentive.

Before purchasing the full game though I was playing the public BETA. It was hard. I had literally no idea what I was doing. Shooting the moving billboards on Metro or charging forward into the enemy spawn, basically being the biggest noob in the world and a hinderance to my team. Now though, after a year and a bit and after 3 or 4 expansion packs, I can’t get enough. Battlefield 3 makes it into my list due to the ridiculous amount of hours I’ve put into it’s online multiplayer and continue to do so.

Criticisms: Oh look, another bug. Oh look, overpowered weapons. It feels like Battlefield 3 was pushed out of it’s virtual womb too fast. There’s bugs now that have been around since release and it’s just unacceptable. I still can’t play on Operation Metro, in any game mode, on a ticket count over 200% because I freeze right at the end of the round and I literally mean right at the end before my XP and unlocks can register. DICE can be blamed for some of those things (altering stats on weapons each patch and the whole AC-130 thing) but most of the blame falls to EA (financially restraining DICE in what they can and can’t do in each patch; each patch apparently costs £30,000 to put out). The campaign was also a bit unimpressive, not as bad as other people have said but at the end of the day it’s stopping you from jumping into the brilliant multiplayer.

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Colin McRae Rally (1998) - 

The very first Colin McRae game. Forget the ridiculous DiRT titles, this is what it’s all about. I remember my brother getting this Christmas morning. The excitement in the house was intense. Brought the PlayStation downstairs and sat playing this all day. In it’s time this was a game with the graphics of dreams. The sound effects as you go splashing through wet mud or the hatred you instantly had for those crippling ditches made this a massively enjoyable split-screen experience. The cars it included were among some of our favourites too, the Escort RS Cosworth always being our first choice. Each stage was a pleasure to play. You could be drifting through slippery mud roads on a rainy English day in a Lancia Delta Integrale then be going over absolutely insane, orange and dusty hill jumps in Indonesia in a MkII Ford Escort. The game was brilliant. The nighttime stages were actually challenging and each stage also held it’s own form of charm and replayability. One of my favourite PS1 games that’s for sure.

Criticisms: None.

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Enter the Matrix (2003) -

One you probably didn’t expect to see. Enter the Matrix is a marmite game to the people who played it – you either love it or you hate it. I loved it. Right here, is where I spent most of 2003. The story wasn’t too impressive, but the fight scenes and how the system performed was enough to cement this game as one of those I love. I must’ve replayed through the game at least thirty or so times. Going back to certain missions and toe-slapping an unlimited amount of guards out of the way was just so much fun. It’s no surprise though, the choreography for those fighting animations was done by the person who had worked in the actual Matrix film series.

Criticisms: Admittedly it was a rather bland game in terms of colour. They could’ve eased up on the green tint a little and could’ve made each level stand out from the last one. Those are little issues though and take next to nothing away from the game.

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Crash Team Racing (1999) -

Another one on my list mostly based on the nostalgia it brings back. Crash Team Racing on the original PlayStation was one of those games that could light up any room full of people. Playing this with family members back in the day is one of the best memories I have in gaming. Other than it’s brilliant gameplay and surprisingly well balanced characters, Crash Team Racing had one of the most fun character line-ups I’ve ever seen. Forget the “story mode”, it’s a split-screen multiplayer game and nothing else. If you ever feel like wasting an afternoon in the best way possible then grab a friend, sit down and have hours of fun.

Criticisms: Story mode is an afterthought (is that really a criticism in a game like this though?) They decided to put it in so I guess it is.

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Paperboy (1991) -

Ever wanted to play a game with challenging levels and harmless fun? Paperboy delivers those two things in bucket loads. The aim of the game is simple, throw papers at people’s houses… how hard can that be? Well, after the aptly named “Easy Street” level, sh*t gets real. There’s steroid infected dogs to contend with that’ll chase you a good amount of each level, clumsy builders, open manholes, cars not stopping and so many other things. Of course you’re able to speed up and slow down when you see fit but that’s not easy when delivering papers, especially when you throw in poor controls.

My parents used to play this game, that says it all really.

Here’s a short review of the game. It goes into greater detail and features the second level, “Middle Road” and also showcases some of the events I’ve mentioned.

Criticisms: Controls aren’t awful but they certainly aren’t great. Training course at the end of each route was a bit wearing and a chore after a while.

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Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) -

Vice City. Everyone loves Vice City. The setting of Miami, the main protagonist Tommy Vercetti, the vibrant and unique characters everywhere you looked, just so many great things. Best Grand Theft Auto game for me, by far. The missions were brutal, the cars were epic. The atmosphere leading up to missions (and even in between) is on par with GTA IV‘s. Remember that this was before Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

San Andreas had the chance to improve on Vice City but just didn’t in my opinion. The main protagonist, CJ, was hard to stand for me. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas focused on the other side of crime, street crime, and I wasn’t too into it. Grand Theft Auto has always been about the more underground side of crime, the goings-on that people don’t see. That’s what makes GTA IV so good to me. San Andreas though was a lot more elaborate. More elaborate than Vice City? Of course not, but Vice City was in the only era that could support it, I mean it was set in the 80′s after all. Vice City could pull off the ludicrous K-CHAT radio station, it could get away with samurai swords and purple dildos. Sure, San Andreas was a fun game, no, a great game, but in my opinion it doesn’t match. Some of the missions go too far and they don’t match CJ’s personality. San Andreas has Vice City beat though when it comes to exploration post-story. That’s understandable though given the size of the map.

Vice City is a masterpiece. It’s such a polished and real game. Vercetti is as unpredictable and hard-nosed as any other GTA protagonist. The final mission is superb and the overall style and feel of the game is something I’ll never get enough of.

Criticisms: Map didn’t offer much after the story was complete but the fun cheats helped there. The RC races were a little boring.

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011) -

Some of my fellow forum members may have already guessed that this would be #1 or #2 on my list. This game near floored me at the main menu. The soundtrack is one of if not the best things I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Let me give you a quick backstory. I had never played the original Deus Ex (which is regarded as the best game of all time to some) and hadn’t even followed this game before release at all. The thing which sparked my interest in Deus Ex: Human Revolution was the advert that was played on my TV. That advert is just behind the 2007 Assassin’s Creed advert, that featured the song ‘Teardrops’ by Massive Attack, as the best advert for a game I’ve seen. Now I know the advertising and marketing isn’t really a factor when it comes to games, other things too, but those two just sucked me in for some reason. The songs used fit perfectly. So after seeing the DE:HR one, I instantly wanted to buy this game. I had also heard that it was a superb game anyway, I didn’t just go off the commercial don’t worry!

Back to what I love about it. As I said, the soundtrack is a killer. Other than that, the overall ambience of the game. The feeling of sadness that gradually builds up as you play, I like that. Not too many games have done that for me. Yeah sure you can have a brilliant story, soundtrack and amazing protagonist (like Red Dead Redemption did) but the setting has to be just right for it to truly hit. In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the setting is perfect. The human race has evolved into a semi-augmented science marvel. The story isn’t a full 10/10 and the boss battles are a little forceful (in my opinion people have been a bit too dramatic when criticising those) but it doesn’t matter. The level design is perfect, the colour palette is fitting to the environment as it’s a nighttime game and manages to not be overwhelming in the slightest and one of the most important things… it’s not an easy game.

To me, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is so strange. It’s almost a puzzle because I still haven’t worked out how a game can intrigue and inspire me so much so quickly. I’ve definitely played through it more than ten times, still haven’t worked it out. I really could go on for days when speaking of DE:HR. I hold it in such a high regard and I highly recommend it.

The only game that has a chance of comparing to it is Cyberpunk 2077, but that’s 2 years away!

Criticisms: Fast-travelling to the next area could’ve been a little better. Boss battles were a bit of a cop out and didn’t always fit your play style.

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Of course I couldn’t just end it here. Obviously as it’s a list of ten a plethora of games are pushed out and don’t get in so here are my honorable mentions:

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Speed Freaks pretty much sums up the Summertime to me. Me and my brother used to play the demo of this for hours each day. I said “demo” because I never actually owned the full version. Same as Crash Team Racing only with fewer characters and less detail. Sweet intro though.

Halo 2 was bound to be in here. The second best Halo game after Combat Evolved. Yet again another great story, brave good additions after the first Halo (dual-wielding weapons) and not nervous of following such an historic game. Solid title.

The original Worms on Sega Mega Drive. Ah the good ol’ days! Nel and Didge, the two hardest worms ever. The Worms titles these days are a far cry from this one.

Another game where I had no idea what to expect. Obviously the name ‘True Crime: Streets of L.A.‘ gives it away somewhat but still… who am I kidding? I knew what I would be getting and I wasn’t disappointed. Catching criminals while exploring was a bit of a nightmare though.

Midnight Club II and Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition… is there anything Rockstar can’t do? Both games had good soundtracks and a lot of city to explore. Although Midnight Club II didn’t feature too much car customisation (in fact I think it was only the HUD you could customise) it was still a sound game and so much fun. Next in line for the series was Midnight Club III: DUB Edition and they didn’t slack off when making this. Car customisation was there and was very deep. You could pretty much change everything and, providing you had the money, you could leave the garage with your ideal car. There were some interesting cheats in both games too!

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There we have it. Those are my personal favourites and yes, I’m positive I’ve missed out some absolute beauties but those are the ones that sprung to mind. Now that I think about it, I can’t believe I forgot to mention PaRappa the Rapper, Assassin’s Creed, Toejam & Earl III, Mortal Kombat 3, the original Need for Speed: Most Wanted and how I didn’t officially include GTA IV in all of that I don’t know!

So what are your personal favourites? Comment below and let me know, would love to hear them!

Ever since the releases of San Andreas for PSN and Vice City for iOS and Android, Rockstar have received more than a few requests from the community wondering when they’d be able to touch down at Escobar International and return to the neon-lit streets and sun-splashed shores of Ocean Beach on their PS3′s. Today, they can confirm that it won’t be long now…

The original Grand Theft Auto: Vice City will arrive for download on PlayStation Network next week as part of their PS2 Classics collection – on Tuesday, January 29th in North America and Wednesday January 30th in Europe, for $9.99 / €9.99 / £7.99.

Stay tuned for more classic Rockstar titles coming for download to PSN in the weeks and months ahead.

via Rockstar Games

Microsoft will reportedly replace it’s voice chat feature with Skype in the next Xbox console.

A person familiar with the matter said Microsoft will be “consolidating all their communications technology” around the Skype platform. This means that Skype will become the default chat service on the next generation Xbox console as well as on PC and tablets, the person said.

He added: “You might jump to the conclusion that we’ll see asynchronous voice and video messages in next-gen Xbox Live”.

Microsoft’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype in 2011 was marked as the software giant’s largest ever acquisition in its forty year history. The corporation has since opened its own Skype division within Microsoft, headed up by Skype’s former Chief executive Tony Bates.

In November, Microsoft announced it was preparing to close its instant message chat service MSN and replace it with Skype’s messaging tool.

A recent job advertisement revealed Microsoft was seeking a user interface designer for the “next gen Xbox”. The job location was said to be at Microsoft’s UK-based Skype offices.

“The team you’ll join is responsible for Skype in the living room (broadly the home), across various devices but with a focus on the large screen and the next generation of Xbox,” the job ad reads.

Source – CVG

The beautiful looking graphics (which although just being a pre-rendered video, are said to be promised in the final game), the striking scenes and landscape, the seemingly deep and bold story and… well… the girl.

The Teaser Trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 is down at the end of this article along with the full in-depth trailer analysis coming via GamingBolt so be sure to check that out. A few stills from the trailer you can check out are below too.

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Also, I recommend reading through this detailed behind the scenes feature of the process of making the trailer, via Behance.

Click on the pictures below to skim through a few of the concept arts from that article.

[[Show as slideshow]]

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So since the trailer’s release, I have been scouring the web searching for any slight bit of information. Eager, I know, seeing as the rumoured release year is 2015, but Cyberpunk 2077 promises to be one hell of a game. I’m on the Hype Train and sitting in First Class, I admit it.

Some of you fellow HBG forum members will probably know that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is probably the best game of all time to me, so of course I’m wetting myself with excitement for this.

What I loved about Deus Ex: Human Revolution was it’s overwhelming, epic and raw ambience. It wasn’t the best game in terms of story and it could’ve handled boss battles a bit better, but the soundtrack, the attention to detail, the sadness of the setting, the feeling of things around you having a short life span and the design of the game… my God they more than make up for it. If Cyberpunk 2077 has any of those, then it’ll definitely be comparable to HR. Maybe not better as it has to do a lot to reach them heights but sure, it’s possible.

You might think I’m being a teeny tiny bit presumptuous here as next to no amount of details have been released and I suppose you’re right, but so far things are pointing towards a game similar to Human Revolution. I want that gritty urban feel existing alongside the futuristic world of augmented humans that Deus Ex: Human Revolution did so well but in Cyberpunk 2077‘s own unique style.

Of course I don’t want it to be a carbon copy of Human Revolution but if it can borrow a few of the things that made HR such a great game then I wouldn’t complain. Every game has to be it’s own thing but with a great, ambient soundtrack and a polished and detailed design almost any game can be improved substantially and made a joy to play.

If it does indeed end up having those key qualities then that doesn’t mean it’ll feel too similar to HR, Dishonored (as a loose example) or any other futuristic game at all. If they can stamp their own style on it then they can make it a huge success.

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Now the details which have been released so far from CD Projekt Red are of course not that big or revealing as the game is so far away from releasing. It’s probably not even as far as 80% completed yet. However a few have been released and I’ll go over those now.

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If you haven’t seen it, here is Cyberpunk 2077‘s actual announcement from CDPR’s Summer Conference last September, which also includes a few details as well as the title reveal does here. Also, the last link I’ll be throwing at you for today, check back at the cyberpunk.net blog every now and then for little hints and possibly a bit more information over time.

Co-creator Mike Pondsmith was recently quoted as saying Cyberpunk 2077 is a “combination of dystopian society, a lot of technology with this really great over layer of almost film noire.” 

The teaser trailer was of course all pre-rendered and not representative of the final game but apparently CDPR are looking at it in a ‘target’ sort of way. They’re aiming to make the final game have that amount of detail and will try to get as close as possible to that level of graphics. Maybe “Not representative of final product” is a thing of the past? Cyberpunk 2077 will almost certainly be a next-gen release so that could be possible.

And finally, CD Projekt Red Managing Director, Adam Badowski, has said this on the game:

“In 2077 as we imagine it, technology will be so advanced that implants will fit in the tip of a needle, making modification easy. The decision to change will therefore be largely aesthetic and ostensibly harmless. Realskin synthetic skin looks real but is better than real. It’s soft, it has pores that subtly release sweat, but it is so much more. It’s amazing, those who adopt it look like pumped, modified dolls, because they are perfect, or some version of it. When people choose modification, they’re making a statement, they’re expressing a preference.”

“When somebody walks around with a chrome hand, it’s not because there’s some underlying technology that makes their hand look like that. It’s because they think chrome hands look cool. When somebody has a leg with servomotors, it’s because they choose to look extreme (like the best new carbon fiber bike). And their choice is completely based on style, it extends and enriches their style. You’ll get access to a rich arsenal of firearms, but if you want to have blades because they look cool, go for it. All these elements will make it into Cyberpunk 2077. ‘Style Over Substance’ is our core theme, after all.

[UPDATE #1] - After reading Andrew’s comment I did a quick search and stumbled upon what he mentioned. Click the picture below to see it full size. In this screenshot you will learn of new details and possibly a teaser for The Witcher 3?

[UPDATE #2] – Mike Pondsmith talks about Cyberpunk 2077′s setting and gives a few more details in the video below.

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It all sounds very, very promising indeed. I’m so excited for this game and I hope you are too.

So, what are you hoping to see in Cyberpunk 2077? Let me know your thoughts by commenting below and as I promised earlier here’s the gorgeous teaser trailer in all it’s glory along with the trailer breakdown.

Full trailer breakdown here and remember to Subscribe to the CyberpunkGame YouTube Channel.

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Well, as the fireworks die down and the New Year celebrations come to a close, through the fog of last year 2013 starts to come into clear view. 2012 was a great year for gaming, we all know it was. In truth, as 2011 (one of the best years for gaming I’ve ever, ever had) drew to a close, 2012 looked to be a pretty poor year, for gaming at least.

How we were all proven wrong.

Alongside the several huge sporting events of 2012, we had the pleasure of playing games like Max Payne 3, Journey, Trials Evolution, The Walking Dead episodes, Dragon’s Dogma, Diablo III, Spec Ops: The Line, Sleeping Dogs, Planetside 2 and many, many others. Looks like it wasn’t a slow year after-all.

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But now it’s 2013. A very promising year indeed.

Gamers around the world are counting down the days to their most anticipated games this year. Whatever your preferred genre, 2013 looks to be a good year for gaming. Rumours of next-gen consoles of course plague the front pages of many websites, maybe the next Xbox or PlayStation is a possibility this year, who knows?

There’s a whole host of titles set for release this year too. Here’s an incredibly brief overview of what 2013 has to offer:

There’s Square Enix’s bold new take on the whole Tomb Raider name coming March the 5th, then there’s the much anticipated release of GTA V, which is arguably the stand-out point for most gamers, coming this Spring. Others include Terraria coming to 360 and PS3 in the next month or two, Dead Space 3 releasing in February, the semi-loose sequel to Dead Island, Dead Island: Riptide, The Last of Us a month later in May along with the South Park RPG and towards the end of 2013 (feels like a long way away, I know) Battlefield 4. A few unscheduled release dates aside from GTA V‘s include the beautiful looking Watch_Dogs, The Elder Scrolls Online, Deadpool and last but not least… Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS. Erm, you can switch that last one out with the Rambo game if you want.

It really does look to be an insane year. The best one yet? We can’t say yet but if we get next-gen consoles this year then it will probably surpass 2011.

So the question remains, what do you want to see out of 2013 for gaming? The next-gen consoles make an appearance? Let us know in the comments section below.

Hey HBG, long time no see! How you doing? I hope you’re all well. I thought I’d write up a little top 5 list of my favourite games this year, and I encourage you all to do the same! 2012 has been an interesting year for our medium, sure they may have been no earth shattering release like a GTA V, but the year was littered with interesting, fun titles. Keep in mind, I’ve probably missed out on a few larger releases such as Far Cry 3, so if something amazing is missing, please don’t assume I hate it!

But hey, let’s get down to business. Here’s my personal top 5 games of 2012!

Number 5: Syndicate (2012 remake)

I’d be surprised if this made anyone’s list other than my own, hell – I’d be surprised if anyone on the planet other than myself bought the game. When you’re remaking a cult classic such as Syndicate, the last thing fans want to hear is “it’s a first person shooter”. Combine that fact with a Skrillex remix of the theme song, and you have people frothing at the mouth with absolute hate. Fortunately I was never a fan of the original game, and admittedly I’ve been known to bob my head back and fourth to a wub wub beat now and then, so naturally this game was right up my alley.

I felt the game played wonderfully. Sure, the shooting mechanics could be compared to its contemporaries like a Call of Duty or Battlefield – but those games are successful for a reason, they play very well. Combine solid shooting mechanics with hacking powers, like the ability to overheat an opponents weapon, or FORCE HIM TO COMMIT SUICIDE, and you have an enjoyable single player romp littered with dubstep. Oh, it doesn’t hurt that the multiplayer is basically Left 4 Dead with suicide powers, either. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever see a sequel, but I’m extremely glad that I got to experience this game.

Number 4: Journey

If you told me a year ago that a game developed by the same guys who made Flower would be on my top 5 list, I’d probably tip my coke all over your head and call you a lemon. I’m usually quite a snob when it comes to “artsy-indie” titles, but Journey is a game that everyone should experience. The beauty of Journey isn’t just its amazing graphics (which are absolutely mind-blowing in motion) but rather the way its online play is implemented. You’ll be randomly matched up with people on the fly, but here’s the kicker – there’s little to no form of communication, with the exception of small audio cues triggered by a button.

Over the course of the game I grew attached to my random buddy. If I may recite a popular internet saying, we had seen some shit. The person I was playing with could have been the worlds most ruthless racist, or an obnoxious kid who does nothing but scream in his headset – but in the moment it didn’t matter. We experienced a Journey start to finish together, and it was one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had, not just in 2012.

Number 3: XCOM

XCOM is a motherfucker, plain and simple. You create a squad, rename them so they’re your buddies and them watch them all be mercilessly murdered by invading bastards. It’s amazing that 2K would put out a rather hardcore turn based strategy game in 2012, but I for one am absolutely grateful. We haven’t had a triple A complex strategy game like this in a long time (at least to my knowledge). It’s refreshing to play a game that doesn’t hold your hand. If you make one wrong move, expect to see a soldier that you’ve carefully cultivated just be annihilated right in front of you.

Even if you’re quite good at strategy titles, there’s an Ironman option in there. It’s essentially hardcore mode – forget loading if you made a mistake, you’re going to have to live with the consequences. If you’re a fan of games like Final Fantasy Tactics, or even the original XCOM, you really do owe it to yourself to play this. It’s definitely one of those “just one more turn!” type of games. The multiplayer is hilariously entertaining too! Many nights were spent clashing with friend of the site Dave Oshry in an all out battle  for supremacy. (side note: fuck you Dave, I’m better than you at this game)

Number 2: The Walking Dead

Alright fine, I’ll admit it – I CRIED A LITTLE. It’s hard to explain why this is one of my favourite games without going into spoiler territory, but the way the Walking Dead handles player choice is absolutely fantastic. I’m bored to tears of the typical good &  evil choices. It’s a played out mechanic. If you pick good early on, chances are you’re going to confine yourself to only selecting those options all the way through a game, lest you rob yourself of achievements and certain powers. The Walking Dead encourages experimentation. You’re always cast into the middle of extremely fucked situations, and more often than not, your choices don’t make anything better – they only make things slightly less bad.

It’s a game that isn’t afraid to punch you right in the stomach, I’ll just say it – expect to grow fond of certain characters, only to watch them die later on. It’s the zombie apocalypse after all. Eventually the game wraps up a little too neatly, and everyone will end up sharing common narrative threads, but the Walking Dead does a good job of disguising this fact. You feel as if this is your story. You feel as if you’re the reason someone just died. You feel as if your choices matter, and in the end, that’s what we want from games. I’m looking at you Mass Effect 3, you lemon head.

Number 1: Max Payne 3

Yeah, it’s not an Aaron list without some Rockstar love up in here. I’m not nominating this just to appease the Rockstar overlords, though. This game really hit home with me. Without writing an emo diary entry, I had a rough patch this year. Sure I didn’t witness my family be murdered right in front of me like Max did, but let’s just say Max and I were very cynical people. Throughout the game, Rockstar really explored the psyche of someone who’s seen some shit, someone who’s lost everything he holds dear, someone who really doesn’t give a shit any more. Max is cast into a set of situations that he really doesn’t care about, he’s only shooting bad guys to take his mind off the real problem – he’s a very sad, hopeless man, clinging to the past, attempting to wash it all away with alcohol and pills.

Throughout the game you’re gunning people down in slow motion, watching the Euphoria physics craft a dynamic battleground for you to play around in. Even without the carefully crafted narrative Max Payne 3 offers, it’d still be an immensely satisfying shooter. The fact that it does have an extremely interesting and dark story to pull from really does set Max apart from the pack. That being said, there really is no way I can authoritatively say “this is the ultimate game of 2012″, because at the end of the day someone could look at it objectively and state “oh, you’re just shooting guys”. It really comes down to the absolute care and precision Rockstar is known for – they could develop a Bus Simulator that blows everyone’s minds.

The music, the story, the game play and visuals - they aren’t separate pieces, they’re all equal parts of a truly complete and satisfying package. When I hit the moment of Max shaving his hair, picking himself up, and gunning through an airport listening to TEARS, it was a moment of reflection – Everyone wants to move on from the dark chapter in their life and become the ultimate badass they know they can be. When a game inspires you to further yourself in real life, you know it’s something special.

Honourable mentions:

Guilty pleasure: War Z

Mindfuck of the year: Spec Ops: The Line

Disappointment of the year: NBA2K13

Best game of all time: GTAIV

So there it is! Thank you for taking the time to read my list, and thanks for a great year, HBG. I’m immensely looking forward to Kreyg’s streams, and hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to sit in on a few of them. Until then, take it easy. Oh, and (obligatory shill) BUY RISE OF THE TRIAD!

The UK government has released a list of criteria game developers will need to meet in order qualify for tax relief, via a cultural test attached to a legislation draft submitted today.

Games developed in the UK will earn points awarded on factors ranging from whether it contains a British storyline, to where the game takes place and where it was created.

How the game contributes to British culture will also be a factor.

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The tax break, outlined by Chancellor George Osborne last week, will offer a payable tax credit worth up to 25% of qualifying expenditure, and is to be introduced in April 2013 with a relief schedule of £15 million divvied out in 2013-14, and £35 million in 2014-15.

Back in October, UKIE provided a list of guidelines to the British Government, suggesting ways in which it could assess the cultural relevance of games when developers and publishers applied for tax relief.

(1) A video game may be certified as a British video game under section 1217CB(1) of the Act only if it passes the following cultural test.

(2) A video game passes the cultural test if it is awarded at least 16 points in total under paragraphs (3) to (6).

(3) Up to 16 points shall be awarded in respect of the content of the video game as follows—

(A) Up to 4 points depending on the percentage of the video game that is set in the following locations

(i) 4 points if at least 75% is set in the United Kingdom or another EEA state;
(ii) 3 points if at least 66% is set in the United Kingdom or another EEA state or set in an undetermined location;
(iii) 2 points if at least 50% is set in the United Kingdom or another EEA state or set in an undetermined location;
(iv) 1 point if at least 25% is set in the United Kingdom or another EEA state or set in an undetermined location;

(B) Up to 4 points depending on the number of the characters depicted in the video game with the following characteristics

(i) if there are more than three characters depicted in the video game, 4 points if two or three of the three lead characters are from the United Kingdom or another EEA state or from an undetermined location or, if only one of the three lead characters is from the United Kingdom or another EEA state or from an undetermined location, 2 points if that character is the first or second lead, 1 point if that character is the third lead;
(ii) if there are only three characters depicted in the video game, 4 points if two or three of them are from the United Kingdom or another EEA state or from an undetermined location or, if only one of them is from the United Kingdom or another EEA state or from an undetermined location, 2 points if that character is the first or second lead, 1 point if that character is the third lead;
(iii) if there are only two characters depicted in the video game, 4 points if both of them are from the United Kingdom or another EEA state or from an undetermined location, 2 points if one of them is;
(iv) if there is only one character depicted in the video game, 4 points if that character is from the United Kingdom or another EEA state or from an undetermined location;

(C) 4 points if the video game depicts a British story or a story which relates to an EEA state;

(D) up to 4 points depending on the percentage of the original dialogue that is recorded in the English language or in a recognised regional or minority language as follows

(i) 4 points for at least 75%; (ii) 3 points for at least 66%; (iii) 2 points for at least 50%;
(iv) 1 point for at least 25%.
(4) Up to 4 points may be awarded in respect of the contribution of the video game to the promotion, development and enhancement of British culture.

(5) Up to 3 points shall be awarded in respect of work carried out in the making of the video game as follows

(a) 2 points if at least 50% of the work carried out on any of the following is carried out in the United Kingdom

(i) conceptual development; (ii) layout and storyboarding;
(iii) programming;
(iv) visual design;
(b) 1 point if at least 50% of the work carried out on any of the following is carried out in the United Kingdom
(i) performing and recording the music score created for the video game;
(ii) voice recording;
(iii) audio production;
(iv) picture production.

(6) Up to 8 points shall be awarded in respect of the personnel involved in the making of the video game as follows

(a) 1 point if the project leader (or, if there is more than one, the main project leader) is a qualifying person;
(b) 1 point if at least one of the scriptwriters (or, if there are more than three, one of the three lead scriptwriters) is a qualifying person;
(c) 1 point if the composer (or, if there is more than one, the lead composer) is a qualifying person;
(d) 1 point if the artist (or, if there is more than one, the lead artist) is a qualifying person;
(e) 1 point if the programmer (or, if there is more than one, the lead programmer) is a qualifying person;
(f) 1 point if the designer (or, if there is more than one, the lead designer) is a qualifying person;
(g) 1 point if at least one of the heads of department is a qualifying person;
(h) 1 point if at least 50% of the development team are qualifying persons.

–

Source: Develop

No matter the case, there are always some moments that stick out when it comes to gaming. Each year, we have a few of those a-ha moments that just make you glad you chose the hobby over just watching TV and movies or listening to music (no disrespect to those that do but… come on, gaming is king). This week, we want your input on what exactly makes YOUR 2012 in gaming memorable. It doesn’t have to be just one moment, it could be your experience with an entire game’s campaign like Dishonored or even a DLC like Skyrim’s newest Dragonborn offering. Hell, it could even be something about the industry like that now infamous photo of Geoff Keighley sitting in front of a near pile of Doritos and Mountain Dew, or Max Scoville’s decision to eat those very two things like milk and cereal.

But enough giving you options. In the time you’ve taken to read this, you’ve probably already thought up a great moment. So let’s hear it. What is your favorite gaming moment of 2012? As always, we’ll show you ours, so the only fair option is for you to show us yours afterwards.

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Christian:

This coming week, hopefully Monday, I’ll have a big post ready that details all of my absolute favorite moments of 2012, but I had to pinpoint one in particular that really showed off the potential of a certain video game that I believe is being overlooked this year because of its early release. That game would be Trials Evolution. Now, normally, you think Trials, and especially with RedLynx, you think riding your dirtbike of varied sizes over some of the most arduous territories the dirtbike has ever known in its existences as a transportation and recreational vehicle. My favorite moment with Trials Evolution, however, came when I was absolutely tickled to find the user-generated content was absolutely fantastic. Of course there were exciting levels where I’d fight things like various Batman enemies, but the breadth of the content still surprises me even today. For example, the other day, I was playing Paper Toss on Trials Evolution. If you’re familiar with the quite popular free iOS game, then you know what I mean. It was a full-on Paper Toss game, cleverly titled “Paper Throw.” I also have about four fully functional pinball tables as well as a Tetris clone. Hell, I even WALKED through a small fair, playing mini-games and riding the rides for points, as well as finding hidden objects for bonus points, all of which with full leaderboard support for my high scores. My discovery of the beautifully developed mini-games and popular game clones on Trials Evolution is easily one of my favorite gaming moments of 2012.

Davekraft: 

It’s a tough one for me to answer as gaming this year hasn’t really been that great for me. I suppose the stand-out games for me this year have been Dragon’s Dogma, The Act (on iOS), Max Payne 3 and the release of Minecraft on the Xbox 360. For me it’s more of an optimistic viewpoint on how things will be, or how I hope they’ll be, when the next generation comes.

Dragon’s Dogma for it’s raw approach to the whole RPG adventure genre that big blockbusters such as Skyrim didn’t deliver on. Dragon’s Dogma was quite refreshing to me. The huge, Shadow of the Colossus type monsters that you stumbled across while out roaming were brilliant. The difficulty in the first 10 or so hours as you were forced to venture out into the pitch black darkness (literally pitch black) pleased me, games these days are just so easy. Hopefully more games come out in the next few years that are like that, it’s what gaming needs.

The Act for iOS is a stand-out moment for me as it was the first game in a long time that I truly felt did something different. It was brilliant. You may often criticize games for being cutscene heavy or too scripted but The Act used those cutscene to it’s advantage, by actually letting you fully control them. It was an interactive movie I guess, maybe just a one-off, fun experiment but I hope to see more of that for sure. Max Payne 3 was a game that was cutscene heavy as we all know, but the production value in those cutscenes made it stand out from anything Rockstar had previously done. There was nothing you could do during the cutscenes of course, but the fact that watching hours of them was pleasurable is something to be admirable of.

An odd one maybe but Minecraft: 360 Edition is also a big moment in gaming for me. It paves the way for more PC games making their way over to consoles. Hopefully games like DayZ follow suit and embark on the console journey. Personally, I would love to see that.

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Alright, enough short-term nostalgia from us. How about you? What is YOUR favorite gaming moment of 2012? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll be back next week to discuss what games or experiences you loved most and ask you what you’re most looking forward to this new year.

In today’s episode of “What’s going on with Nintendo?” we look at some gameplay footage and get a few release dates for big titles on the horizon for Wii U and 3DS among some other more… interesting things (like Lego Iwata, pictured above).

Embedded will be the full-length video, with details (as well as time stamps for each segment) in text below. Hopefully my notes on each section can help clear up whether you think they’re worth a look or not.

The video fires up, after an introduction by Reggie, with Lego Iwata (at the 2:47 mark) introduces the footage of Lego City Undercover with Erik Peterson, most of which being functionality of the gamepad to scan environments, work as a smartphone-esque peripheral to organize GPS and video call functions when on missions, and calling in vehicles at special call-in stations. The call-in stations will be made by super bricks, the newest and most powerful addition to the Lego games, allowing the environment to be completely changed by different elements like large bridges to new areas. Included in the segment were details on the story of Chase McCain, and how he must discover how exactly Rex Fury escaped from prison. Also, there will be a likely arduous tie-in with real life Lego toys, allowing you to unlock exclusive vehicles in-game.

Wasting no time, they immediately dive into details on Pikmin 3 at the 6:02 mark. For the first time since E3 2012, we see the game in action and it honestly looks quite beautiful. The HD graphics of the Wii U certainly pay Pikmin a favor as they played several minutes of different gameplay scenarios showing off some exotic enemies and classic Pikmin situations requiring some strategy. At the end of the segment they announced that Pikmin 3 would be coming Q2 2013, pushing it past the original expected Wii U launch window. It wasn’t alone in its delay as Animal Crossing: New Leaf was confirmed to be pushed back to Q2 2013 for at least Europe.

At 9:27, Corey Olcsvary drops some details on Game and Wario. The first was a game mode called Gamer, in which minigames a la Wario Ware played on the Gamepad while your character on the television lies in bed. Of course, if your mother catches you playing past your bedtime, you’re in some trouble. You must pause the game when your mother appears on the TV so as not to arouse her suspicions. In another mode, you can play with others that watch the screen while you try to steal fruit in a small town on the gamepad. It’s made clear that others can catch you in the act, but without many other controllers involved, I have no idea how you could enforce such a thing with precision. They also mention a video on their Facebook page in which Mr. Iwata plays Fruit and you can try your hand at figuring out which character he used.

At 11:51, we find ourselves talking about Wii Fit U. The activity meter is shown off, allowing you to track your fitness while away from the Wii U with a pedometer of sorts. It’s also said that Wii Fit has “proven to be a compliment or supplement to a healthy lifestyle.” I have no idea what that means, to be perfectly honest. I think anything can be proven as such, and they don’t seem to want to provide any empirical evidence for the claim. No idea why they said such a thing. Semantics aside, they dove into the 77 activities on Wii Fit U, including a bunch that return for Wii Fit Plus and some new, like dance routines. The segment finishes with the Wii Fit U being still on track for a first quarter release in 2013.

At 13:20, we return to Erik Peterson for new details regarding Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge. Most of the segment is spent with Yosuke Hayashi, producer on the game, detailing two new playable characters. Both female ninjas, Ayane will have her own unique levels as well as playability throughout the rest of the game and Momiji will be available through a patch for free on day one. There’s mention of it being quite high difficulty, as well as having some gamepad functionality for things like move lists and changing weapons. There will be a 2-player co-op mode as well as an 8-player competitive side, though modes, if any more than one, weren’t detailed. Finally, a third female ninja will be made available in Kasumi, of Dead or Alive fame, as a playable character for free.

At 17:00, Erik switches gears from games and starts talking features. Wii U Panorama View will be available as a paid eShop item in spring, with a free demo available as well. Next, at 18:00, Iwata detailed some interesting Google Maps Street View technology as he showed us around Nintendo’s surroundings in both Kyoto in Japan and Redmond in Washington. He also filmed the software live with a helmet cam of himself touring Hawaii. While I’m not sure this entirely gels with the idea that people should take breaks from their game consoles (as their now famous “Why Not Take a Break?” screens ask us) if you’re telling us to explore the world from our living room but it does seem like an interesting use of the technology, and it’s coming Q1 to the eShop.

At 21:35, Corey Olcsvary returns to give us details on some 3Ds games. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon was detailed, but without much substance aside from an Alan Wake-esque flashing method to suck in ghosts and the classic Luigi’s Mansion puzzling situations. It’s still set to launch Spring 2013.

At 22:50, Brain Age Concentration Training gets some more attention as it tries to remedy the ails of information overload in the 21st century. The game will scale in difficulty to help keep the challenge going, and more details are apparently coming.

At 24:40, we come back to Erik Peterson again for more 3Ds game info. Fire Emblem: Awakening gets more story and relationship-building details as the February 4th release date nears. You can place characters near one another to help boost, as well as engage in support conversations. At 26:50, he addresses the limited-time free DLC for New Super Mario Bros. 2, where you can play some classic levels for free as long as you download before January 31st. Also today, two new packs appropriately titled Coin Rush and Platform Panic, where you can take on new levels on some coin-heavy adventures and high-speed moving platform courses, will be released worldwide.

At 28:00, two eShop games are detailed. Rivaling the most confusing founding concept of any game, Tokyo Crash Mobs looks to be a Zuma-style puzzle game in which you toss pedestrians at other pedestrians with similarly-colored suits in hops of connecting three or more and making them disappear. While it seems quite simple, there looks to be some variation in how you exactly… throw people at people. Second was HarmoKnight, a rhythm platformer from Game Freak, yes THAT Game Freak, in which you battle enemies and traverse landscapes to the tune. This will be the first non-Pokemon game Game Freak has worked on since Drill Dozer was brought to North America on GBA in 2006.

Naturally, at the end, Reggie comes in to wrap up and give us that patented smile. We’ll bring you more details from the wacky world of Nintendo as we get them.

In a postmortem by Edmund McMillen today in Gamasutra, he essentially announced the intent and confirmation of a remake of the PC indie hit Binding of Isaac for consoles and even possibly handhelds.

In the article, he goes through a beautiful look at the road to Isaac, the decisions made that may have cost the game its widespread popularity, yet shined through as its most endearing qualities of asking more of players than its contemporaries, and pulling not a single punch doing so.

In the final section, titled simply Isaac Reborn, he mentions that he was contacted by Tyrone Rodriguez of Nicalis (publishers of Cave Story and VVVVVV) a few months ago to bring Isaac to consoles in a remake. His response?

“I told him yes, but I had a few strict guidelines to make sure an Isaac remake was perfect. I wanted the game to feature the second planned expansion that I couldn’t do in the Flash version, I wanted it to feature local co-op, I wanted the graphics to be totally remade in 16-bit but still look and feel like the Flash version, and finally, I didn’t want to deal with anything when it came to business. Nicalis has agreed to these terms, and development has started on The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.”

As a fan of Isaac, I can seriously not be more thrilled about a remake of the game, and hopefully a port can be made for PC that lets the local co-op go online with a few shrewd ideas.

There’s a reason I’ve spent over 800 hours on a game that, including the expansion, has never asked for more than $8 in return for the experience. It certainly wasn’t to get my money’s worth, though I’d love to find anyone who can get 6,000 hours of honest game experience with a new $60 title. I’ll take a dollar for 100 hours of gameplay. That’s a trade I’ll make any day.

Again, this was by no means the only part of the article. Gamasutra has four pages of Edmund going on about his experience surrounding the game. It really is a beautiful read. Check out “Postmortem: McMillen and Himsl’s The Binding of Isaac” here.

UPDATE: Not long after the news came along, Edmund himself compiled a list of further details to help answer any questions left. He says he received “80+ questions via formspring and many via email” and wanted to make sure these had an answer from a definitive source. He talks about when and how it will be developed further, including more music from Danny B. and mentions a port to Steam as well as the other major platforms. Glad to hear PC will get Rebirth as well. For the full lowdown, check out the blog post here.

“With first day sales of over half a billion dollars worldwide, we believe Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row,” said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. “Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for Harry Potter and Star Wars, the two most successful movie franchises of all time.”

While Activision hasn’t revealed the specific number of copies sold, we know that at least 1 million copies were sold at GameStop midnight launches when it launched on Tuesday. Black Ops II will be released on Wii U on November 18th.

via IGN UK

Not incredibly long ago, I sat down and had one of the best, most ridiculously loose interviews I’ve ever had with some friends of mine who have jumped ship from doing the games WRITING, and more games MAKING.

Great guys, great team seeming to be working on the ROTT remake over at Interceptor.

As if they couldn’t get in your favor any more, they’ve decided to have their CEO Frederik Schreiber take on a classic game from 1999 in Outcast and recruit some viewer help along the way in the decisions. They’ll also be getting you another peek at some ROTT, of course.

Not only that, they’ll be raising money for Child’s Play, a perennially worthy cause, and giving out prizes as they meet milestones. The prizes include, but aren’t limited to, some ROTT 95 GoG codes, random assorted games like Deus Ex and Bulletstorm, and of course Frederik’s hacked Apple TV… Yeah. There remains one milestone not yet revealed. To find out what it is, I guess you’ll just have to donate. As always, be sure to support charity and check out their livestream today, starting at 12PM PST.

All details on the marathon and the video/chat embed are already in place on their website. Charity? Video games? What’s not to like? I’m sure I’ll be hanging around the chat at some point today and I’m sure you HBG peeps would love to help support a great cause and watch some video games while you do so.

While we already knew that Skyrim’s Dragonborn DLC would be made available for download via Xbox LIVE on December 4 for for 1600 Microsoft Points, today Bethesda has released new information and a slew of new screenshots detailing what fans can expect.

Per Bethesda’s email this morning, the Dragonborn DLC is described as follows:

With this official add-on for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, journey off the coast of Morrowind, to the island of Solstheim. Encounter new towns, dungeons, and quests, as you traverse the ash wastes and glacial valleys of this new land. Become more powerful with shouts that bend the will of your enemies and even tame dragons. Your fate, and the fate of Solstheim, hangs in the balance as you face off against your deadliest adversary – the first Dragonborn.

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And here’s a listing of key features from the content:

• Explore Beyond Skyrim – Leave the province of Skyrim and travel to the coastal island of Solstheim. Encounter the Dark Elven settlers of Raven Rock and the native Skaal, as you unravel the mystery of a Dragonborn’s return.

• Become the Ultimate Dragonborn – Harness the power of the Voice as you face off against the first Dragonborn. Wield new shouts and spells including Dragon Aspect – allowing you to summon the inner power of a dragon to deliver colossal blows and strengthen other shouts.

• New Powers – Discover dark powers as you journey into a new Daedric realm. Collect books of forbidden knowledge and choose new paths for your skills and abilities.

• New dungeons, creatures, weapons, and more – Suit up in Bonemold and Chitin armors and wield Stalhrim weapons as you navigate through a myriad of dungeons. Battle formidable foes like Ash Spawn, Rieklings, and more.

The third expansion, Dragonborn, releases first on Xbox 360 on December 4. Check out Dragonborn’s screenshots and the official trailer below and in related news Bethesda still haven’t produced the Dawnguard DLC for the PS3. Coming via GameInformer, Bethesda are close to giving the go ahead on Dawnguard’s PS3 release.

Main source – GameTrailers

In a post made to the Bioware blog, Bioware Montreal studio director Yanick Roy made a brief introduction for himself before getting on to some interesting news regarding the studio’s previous work on the Mass Effect series and the big undertaking about to take place.

Roy made it clear that the Montreal studio was no stranger to the Mass Effect series, being key parts of growing and growing parts of the game series, many cinematics in ME2 and the tall task of the entire multiplayer for ME3 among them. They contributed more and more and as Shepard’s story concluded in Mass Effect 3 and now look prepared to oversee the main development of Mass Effect 4.

Not many details were shared on just what that entails, but they made it clear that the studio in charge will be his crew in Montreal with the lesser contributions coming from Edmonton, the previous leaders. Of course, that doesn’t mean key pieces like Casey Hudson won’t return. In the post, Roy makes sure to assure fans of the original trilogy won’t find a wildly different direction for the game.

“To ensure a proper and effective transition, we’ll continue to be supported by the Edmonton studio through the game’s development, working with and learning from them on some critical initiatives. On top of that, Casey remains the Executive Producer, but he will have a Project Director under him, working in Montreal, leading our development team and making day-to-day decisions for the game. We all care very much about Mass Effect and make our decisions based on what’s best for the game.”

Since the game is still early in production, not much could be said about the details of the game aside from the inclusion of the Frostbite engine and many elements from Dragon Age III coming over to help broaden the experience.

Roy makes sure to reassure those feverish Mass Effect fans that while there is a lot of new direction, they can hopefully still bring everything that makes Mass Effect great back.

“The other thing I can tell you is that, while it will be very respectful of the heritage built over the course of the first three games, with the original trilogy now concluded and the switch over to a new engine, we are exploring new directions, both on the gameplay and story fronts. You can still expect the pillars the franchise is known for to be fully intact though, including diverse alien races, a huge galaxy to explore, and of course rich, cinematic storytelling.”

So hopefully the Mass Effect loving among us can take some solace in what should be some changes that add, not subtract, from the experience.

That said, it should be interesting to see how a fourth Mass Effect fairs when given a new studio, new engine, and most uniquely a new protagonist. They’ve already made it clear in a statement with VG24/7 that the new guy will most definitely not be a case of “meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” and we can only hope that doesn’t harm the series.

Of course, we’ll keep you abreast of any Mass Effect 4 news that comes our way and we hope to hear more details as development continues.

Last week, we asked if you boarded the hype trains. A lot of you guys seem to be in the reasonable consumer camp. About half of you said that you’d either avoid coverage of games you want, not get your hopes up, or even be pessimistic about each game so as not to be disappointed once you get your hands on it.

PsychoNerd tells us he’s “been burned by the hype train before” and Takarow makes an interesting parallel between hype trains between video games and other media saying he’s “golden ticket” on the hype train for TV shows.

It’s an interesting comparison. I don’t think there has ever been an equivalent to pre-orders in the television and movies, at least not made with any sort of incentive involved aside from watching it (like webisodes of a series that are freely made independent of the series and released at any time).

Of course, we here at HBG love our Grand Theft Auto series and it was pretty clear by some of your comments about the GTA V hype train that you’re pretty interested as well.

In light of yesterday’s premiere of loads of information via Game Informer, we decided we’ll tackle the game head-on.

We would love to know if, after seeing the boatload of information coming out and claims visualized by Kotaku that  GTA V is bigger than entire previous R* games like GTA IV, GTA: San Andreas, and Red Dead Redemption COMBINED, if you think this is the right direction for GTA V.

The days of lifting weights to gain muscle, pigging out on some Pizza Factory, or finding the right lady for some hot coffee aren’t coming back when we revisit Los Santos, but there’s still plenty to be pleased about this time around. With Spring 2013 just around the corner, is GTA V going in the right direction?

We’ll let you know what we think, then you let us know how you feel in the comments below.

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Christian: I’ll be honest, I was a little bummed that we don’t seem to be getting the RPG-style San Andreas customization back, but I understand that they really seemed to prefer the serious and honestly a bit somber tone of GTA IV going forward. It’s never been a point of contention that Rockstar can make some of the most compelling characters we’ve known in the industry, but it feels a bit curious not having the fun and wacky tone now and again of going out to meet The Truth in the desert to mess with jetpacks in the desert. In a lot of ways, Saints Row is picking up where that has been left off, but it’s hard to replicate it on the scale and downright fun tone that seemed to accompany Rockstar’s approach. All the mild disappointment aside, I absolutely loved going through the stories of Johnny, Luis, and Niko with GTA IV and I can really see myself loving the stories of Michael, Trevor, and Franklin. Hopefully, this time around we see equal time with all three because I preferred the Ballad of Gay Tony characters and interactions to the original GTA IV or Lost and Damned. It gave off a feeling of lost experience with the BoGT universe, not dissimilar from the claims of lost sales by publishers. We all know that if there were more story to be told, it would have been told, but we can’t help but want more. This time around, we can apparently switch between the three at nearly any time. All in all, I’m still as glued to the series as ever and consider a GTA V a point of incredibly high interest with the news that’s been out and can’t wait until next week’s trailer.

Davekraft: With a series I have loved from day one, speaking on the three protagonists you’ll switch to whenever you fancy, I see this as an incredibly risky move for GTA. The one thing I’ve always loved about GTA is that you can connect with the main character in ways you didn’t think were possible for a game, a virtual world that doesn’t exist. I know I wasn’t the only one in GTA IV to rock up to Roman’s wedding in a white Cognoscenti. With THREE playable characters though, I don’t see the connection being as strong. With Michael, the stylish and sharp middle-aged man featured in trailer #1, you can approach things in a certain way as you obviously can with Franklin and Trevor, but will it feel like a unique experience/path for said character if you’re juggling two other storylines? With one protagonist you can progress through contrasting situations and emotions all in one go. Niko had hopped off a boat not too long ago, now he’s celebrating his cousin’s wedding in a crisp suit. My worry is that the characters you run in to as each protagonist (i.e. Michael’s 20 y.o pot-smoking son) will fade into separate worlds from Trevor’s and seem a little too independent. Of course, that all depends on the story which I know very little about. As you can see, my big draw with the GTA games is the story, but when focusing on the other details released I’m nothing but excited. Having a huge, sprawling city with “it’s own ecosystem” and unique activities is great news. Some small issues I have with the driving mechanics being compared to a racing-game style will undoubtedly wear off as more is revealed. All this aside, I can’t wait to mess around with Trevor in particular and rally around dusty the trailer park on my ATV while the sun is setting. The GTA V experience will certainly be different, but you have to trust Rockstar. I mean, it IS Rockstar.

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Alright, we’ve given you our thoughts. Now what’s yours? With all the news we’ve been given in the past day, are you ready for GTA V? Are there things you wish were included that didn’t make it? Are they game-changers? Tell us if you think GTA V is going in the right direction.

Check back next week when we try to pry some more answers out of you with another HBG Asks. Find any previous questions we’ve asked here.

And, as always, check back here for more GTA V news and info as we come closer to the Spring 2013 release date on PS3 and 360. (We promise we won’t just be talking about GTA V… we just really like the series.)

Rockstar has just announced trailer #2′s arrival date 3 days before GameInformer’s huge 18 page GTA V featurette is released. Also, GTA V is now available for pre-order. For more information on this head over to this Rockstar article.

See the trailer blog post for yourself here and keep a keen eye out on the HBG front page for more information as things are quickly unfolding.

To get info on all things GTA V check out the GTA V Round-up forum thread.

But we have yet to know what exactly these hype trains are running on. Surely, we’d love that they all run on hydrogen fuel and don’t do a thing wrong to our industry’s environment, but is it possible we’re ignoring the smoke pouring from the stack? Hype trains are great for moving units, but are we risking something by letting these go unchecked by getting mostly good answers and less of the truth until we have a copy in our hands?

Today, in HBG Asks, this time on a nice Friday to spice things up, we’re asking you about these very tools of mass consumption. Do you board the hype trains? Can a certain franchise not be resisted? Are there games you can’t wait to get your hands on so badly you pre-order? Are pre-order incentives working on you? Or are you one of the proud few with the clairvoyance to see past the PR campaigns and wait until reviews come in, prices drop, or recommendations are made?

There are plenty of hype trains to board these days, and they only get easier to board when the rumor mill starts up well around six months before launch, with details and gameplay leaking and releasing along the way.

As always, any available writers or contributors will toss in their response to the question which, we’ll remind you in case you’ve gotten lost somehow, is “Are you boarding the hype trains?”

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Christian: I have to admit, I’m a bit polarized on things. I’m incredibly timid of new stuff. Whether that’s IPs, hardware, or otherwise, I almost always need some sort of comfort level with the developers or opinions among people I trust before I give something a shot. Maybe I’ve really fallen into their trap doing so, but I really trust franchises that have done right by me in the past. That said, you can ruin a franchise for me with a bad game or even bad direction with a game. I loved Halo 3, but by Halo: Reach, I wasn’t looking forward to any future Halos, let alone a Halo 4 that I find incredibly unnecessary. Meanwhile, I’m as ready for GTA V as ever after enjoying GTA IV and basically every previous iteration. My aversion to new things comes back with WiiU, especially with Microsoft/Sony’s next-gen coming so likely next year. Meanwhile, I’ll be looking into Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 simply because they seem to be redeeming the franchise from MW3 and the technical issues of Black Ops. It’s a mixed bag, but when I like a game, I’m definitely opting for that overnight shipping from Amazon and following it intensely the whole way to release. Most of my decisions are made without the aid of the PR machine, but when I like what’s going on, I’m looking for the first seat on that hype train. And for that, I’m certain I’m a sucker.

Dave: I guess I’m also shy of new titles, especially when it comes to games like Assassin’s Creed III; games that are in an established franchise. In some aspects they are the weakest and easiest games to not like all of a sudden. As they evolve over the years they bring in a sometimes sizeable amount of new features and or mechanics that don’t necessarily work or gel with players. I almost view the game’s progression as release date nears and try to pick out things I don’t think I’ll like as gameplay videos/dev walkthroughs are released. But, with that said, I know this year’s Assassin’s Creed will deliver. Its core is what made the title what it is today and a few bad features won’t overshadow that. My point can be made clear when looking at Medal of Honor: Warfighter, great, old franchise which has sadly been wrecked by this year’s release. New features (such as the breaching system) are just plain heartbreaking. On the flip side, with games that are brand new, generally one-off indie games, e.g. South Park’s The Stick of Truth out next year, I’ve been a passenger on the hype train since this past E3. All of these things affect my excitement for a game, thus deciding whether I commit to buying it in whatever way that may be. Talking about pre-orders, I hardly ever find myself pre-ordering a game. I did pre-order Max Payne 3, but in hindsight I gained nothing from it. It even arrived 2 days late. With GTA V though, rather than pre-ordering, you’ll probably find me camped outside on it’s midnight release. The advertising and PR talk do in some ways sway me. If what they choose to show off is something I like, or even if I like the art style on the billboard, it’ll interest me somewhat. A last example is Driver: San Francisco. Again, massive series for me which was buried as soon as the first gameplay was released. Some things just aren’t for everyone.

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So, how about you? Is there anything that came to your mind the moment we thought of hype? Was it good or bad? Are you susceptible to the snares of the hype train, for better or worse?

Let us know in the comments below and we’ll be back next week (I promise, this time) with a new question and some great answers from the previous week.

Developed by series creator Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto V takes place in a re-imagined, present-day Southern California in the largest and most thriving game-world we have ever created set in the sprawling city of Los Santos and for miles beyond – from the tops of the mountains to the depths of the ocean.

Starting next week November 5, 2012, Grand Theft Auto V will become available for pre-order everywhere and fans can expect a host of new information to become available in November.

Look for downloadable desktop versions of the brand new artwork above coming very soon.”

via Rockstar

IT’S HERE YOU GUY’S.

The date on which we do this Community Spotlight is no coincidence, as the HD remake of the game is hitting store shelves today for PS3. Obviously there are differences to be found with the HD remake, but let’s not forget where it all started:

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For all you people still in the discussion about females in video games, here’s a question for you: how many female protagonists are not human girls or women? Just for comparison, male protagonists can be, in addition to Captain Bland sub-variants and wisecracking white tossers, small dragons, bandicoots, wads of meat, robots (and I mean actual robots, not any of that bull where a human is called a robot and they spend most of the story wondering what a “heart” is) and short, fat Italian men with low-paying jobs. Female protagonists, on the other hand, come in the varieties of meek young girl, attractive woman, realistic woman, airheaded young girl, airheaded older girl, airheaded young girl numero dos, revenge of the meek young girl and, in the case of games that have two protagonists that are male and female, foil to emotional male character. Is there a game in which I play as a female that does not into the above categories as well as the category of “fetish fuel” that doesn’t have character customisation like Skyrim? Fortunately, there is: Ōkami, a PS2 game that just got a HD re-release today, wherein you play as Amaterasu, a god that takes the form of a wolf.

I imagine that you’re probably wondering what, exactly, I like in games. Well, it depends but one way a game can definitely win me over is with a great sense of adventure, an EPIC FANTASY REBORN if you will, which is provided in games like Ōkami. I love running around the open areas with the lively oriental music playing, beating up bad guys that I in no way feel guilt over killing and helping the downtrodden. As far as having a sense of adventure goes, Ōkami hits all the right notes: the levels are huge and expansive for running around at full speed to feel the wind in my fur- I mean, hair, the music is just the kind that you’d expect to find in the first episode of what you anticipate to be a really awesome cartoon, the people you meet are very varied and unique, the combat… well, it’s not really impressive to me and kind of disconnects me from the experience. Point is, Ōkami has a really lively and unique atmosphere straight out of a piece of Japanese mythology.

The game goes with a very old-fashioned aesthetic of a scroll drawing. The menus and HUD use scrolls a lot, cutscenes commence with the rolling out of a scroll and everything in the game world looks like it was drawn with an ink brush. While the black lines are rather thick at times and some shapes tend to blend together to be a bit hard to see, the game overall looks fantastic and I found myself getting really absorbed in this Japanese tale. What really gets to me is that there are people out there that I know will look at this game and go “Aw man, the graphics suck. The people don’t even have mouths and they talk by shaping their heads like dough muscles. This game completely suxxorz” if they haven’t done so already. Well, Mister Game Graphics Connoisseur, I’d like to disagree. In fact, I’d say you’re a completely ignorant tosspot. Do your next-generation ultra-realistic graphics games have truly majestic sequences where you revive massive trees and make plants grow and rush out from the ground around the tree with a beautiful crescendo, chasing away the plaguing darkness and purifying the land once more? No? Well, SHUT UP!

Goodness gracious, I haven’t even talked about the gameplay yet. Well, if you were asking somebody else, you’d probably get an answer starting with “It’s like a Legend of Zelda game but”. Myself, I like to go with “It’s like a Legend of Zelda game but it’s not. Where the hell did you get that impression?” Well, they probably got it from the vast overworld, the way side missions are designed and the obligatory annoying fairy creature that follows you around everywhere. However, that is essentially where the similarities end. I’m not going to bring up how the aesthetic and setting are different because those are superficial and it’s the kind of argument used by people who say that Sleeping Dogs is very different from Grand Theft Auto because it’s set in Hong Kong. Ōkami, general presentation aside, is very different from The Legend of Zelda, right down to the level design. While the dungeons of Legend of Zelda titles tend to be progressed more slowly (at least, as far as I can tell, having only played Ocarina of Time), Amaterasu can jump and run very quickly so the levels are designed in such a way as to accommodate Amaterasu’s advanced mobility.

Also, while Link or whatever you call him navigates the world and solves puzzles by using the various tools he finds on his journey, Amaterasu uses the Celestial Brush. Throughout the game, you will pick up special brush techniques that you can use by holding down R1 (for the PS2) which pauses the game, allowing you to draw a certain shape for various effects like lighting something on fire by drawing a line from a fire source to the target, cutting something with a straight line or making a gust of wind with a loop. They’re quite versatile and fun to use. However, the game sometimes has difficulty reading your brush strokes. I remember the first time I was playing this game and I was trying to draw a circle to bring a tree back to life by drawing a circle around it and it took me about fifty tries. Apparently, the game’s definition of a “circle” varies depending on some invisible counter operated by that spider I tried to squash not long ago. Also, some of the powers are a bit ridiculous. Summoning a bomb that explodes into fireworks is useful if a bit strange for a god to use but I have no why any god would want to trace a line from a cat statue along a wall to turn it into a climbable surface. You’d think they’d prefer something a bit more practical and godly like, say, flying.

In Ōkami, it’s also possible to level up your health, drawing ink, wallet and something called the Astral Pouch which revives you if you die. However, you only get money from winning fights, not XP. You see, faith is kind of running low in the land of Nippon and Amaterasu’s a bit weak in the knees for it so she has to restore it by various means including feeding animals, rejuvenating trees and completing side missions. I like how the side missions are done in Ōkami; they’re not put on some sort of shopping list, you don’t have to go really out of your way for the majority of them, there’s actually a reason to do them and, best of all, monster grinding is at a minimum. But, even though I love how the side missions are done, I don’t love the side missions themselves. Some of them are okay, like the races, but the digging minigames are nuisances even if they are severely outmatched in annoyance by the missions where you have to very cautiously roll around hazards a ball that is very prone to flying away from you. Fortunately, this is why the side missions shine; you don’t have to do them.

As for the combat, I may be a bit biased against it. After you come into contact with one of the many demon scrolls floating around the field, a big wall will surround the area that will be where you fight whatever enemies the scroll had in it. Starting out, the only thing you can do is attack in combos with your primary weapon. However, by visiting a dojo and paying a fee much to the surprise of the dojo manager, you can unlock new abilities including extended combos, enhanced digging so you can dig out treasure chests and faith-bucket clovers from stone, dodging, double-jumping, taunting in the form of urinating on your enemies to get Demon Fangs that you can trade in for special charms and flinging explosive poo that does the same thing. I don’t mind this (well, except for the dog waste attacks) as I quite like Onigiri-sensei but it’s the walls that are stopping me from liking the combat even though it is satisfactory. I have the same problem with it as the flash-transition garbage that JRPGs insist on using that I feel a fight in a game should be about an enemy being in front of you and you just being able to beat it up and move on rather than stay in a confined area after you won so that the game can tell you how much you didn’t suck.

Also, the game is too forgiving as it gives you way too many safety nets. Had I actually died at any point in the game, my Astral Pouch would have just revived me in the middle of battle. The Astral Pouch can only be filled by finding and eating food but that’s not a problem because food is absolutely everywhere and trees give it away for free upon being healed. Dying is also much harder than you think because, if you make combos that are large enough, you will increase your “godhood”, which is a one-time barrier that will protect against an enemy attack and it is indicated at the bottom left of the screen. It’s possible to have three layers of godhood and replacing a broken one is a simple task. With the exception of bosses, enemies don’t even attack all that often and their patterns are rather predictable, meaning you’ll probably finish them off before they even attack. If you’re good at this game, it’s quite possible to play through all of it without taking any damage whatsoever. None of this, however, makes the gameplay bad. In fact, the gameplay is still very good.

It’s the story where you’d find the game’s big glowing weak spot. Let’s go over this: the opening cutscene explains with pictures and narration how, a hundred years ago, a village named Kamiki was being annoyed by Orochi but was felled by the swordsman Nagi as well as the mysterious white wolf Shiranui (that is, you). Shiranui “died”, Nagi became the hero and they both have shrines made for them. However, a hundred years after, some stupid moron accidentally releases Orochi, plaguing the land with darkness and having chaos run amok everywhere. To reverse this, Kamiki’s tree spirit Sakuya revives you. However, a hundred years have passed so faith in you has weakened, not to mention your brush powers have been divided amongst the thirteen Celestial Brush Gods that are now scattered across Nippon, so you must restore your powers as well as the people’s faith in you. In essence, you spend the first twelve hours of this forty hour game doing what the narrator said you already did in the opening cutscene. If I may ask, what is the barking point of the opening cutscene in that case? It’s not like it’s necessary; a few changes in dialogue throughout the game would have rendered it pointless and easily removable, and I’d be thankful for that because, even by the standards of every other cutscene, it goes for so Amaterasu damn long that I nearly fell asleep.

Not that I ever expect Shakespeare-level writing from a Capcom game but, as soon as I saw “Story by Hideki Kamiya” in the opening credits, all optimism in the black hole that is my heart immediately jumped out the window and landed straight on the power lines. One of my problems with the writing is that all it does is tell and rarely if ever show, which is not how you do things in Visual-Mediaopolis. Every single thing in this game is said, not shown, and in excruciatingly lengthy detail to boot. For some stupid reason, the game insists on having, after every major boss fight, a picture cutscene and the narrator narrating that Amaterasu defeated the bad guy. It also talks about what happened next which is pointless because that still cutscene is almost always immediately followed by another cutscene showing what happened next. If I may ask again, what is the barking point? In fact, if you took out all the godforsaken dialogue, the game would probably only be thirty hours long.

This highly verbal approach probably explains why Issun exists. Oh good God, Issun. You see, Amaterasu is a silent protagonist so Clover introduced her fairy sidekick Issun as they probably couldn’t conceive a way to make Amaterasu interesting without her speaking. Thus, while Amaterasu does all the work, Issun is the one who talks to others. He’ll also talk when no one’s around. He never shuts up. You know what? I never thought Navi of Ocarina of Time was that annoying, or even annoying at all. Sure, the “advice” she gave was obvious but at least she only gave it to you when prompted to do so and, best of all, she only talked in cutscenes twice in the entire game! Issun is much more verbose. When you read a sign for directions, he will say “You got that, furball?” He will always call you “furball”, apparently forgetting that you are a Japanese god that can bend the world around her with but a mere thought and some fourth-dimensional ink, especially when provoked by annoying, disrespectful bugs. He will always tell you what to do and how to do it. He also has some backstory but, with a character more annoying than anything I’ve ever seen, I don’t give an Amaterasu’s taunt follow-up.

Speaking of backstory, that’s something quite a few characters have in this game. In fact, the story’s a lot more complicated than you’d expect. Unfortunately, the quality of the writing just makes it all embarrassing to listen to. For any other game, I’d be preaching that the game didn’t try hard enough. However, for this game, I’m of the opinion that too much effort was put in. You see, as far as I can tell, there are two types of stories in the world: what I call Beta Stories that are generally uncomplicated with messages, moral ambiguity and the like being left in the bin and are generally about fun (like Fortune Summoners), and what I call Alpha Stories that are much more complicated with moral ambiguity, plenty of questions to be asked and shocking revelations to be had generally everywhere for the sake of making the viewer think deeply about the plot rather than just have fun (Spec Ops: The Line). Both of these are fine but, when you have a Beta try to be an Alpha (for the record, the trailers seem to indicate that Ōkami has a character-driven story and it buggering well isn’t), it’s only going to result in a massive crash with an equally massive burn.

Story aside, I love Ōkami. It’s atmospheric, original and fun and, playing this game, I felt like I was on a genuine adventure. Best of all, I was playing as a female white wolf that could make trees spontaneously grow and you’re not going to find something like that in many other games. Still, had the story lost the backstory and complexity baggage, that would have been much better because we have absolutely no ridiculously complex plans to keep track of and the only question we have to ask is “What power is Amaterasu going to get next?”. A fun adventure is best kept simple, I believe. Also, they’d have to get rid of Issun, that infuriating little bouncing piece of green lint. I don’t know why anyone would think that Amaterasu wouldn’t be very well-loved due to her not being able to speak the human language. In fact, Amaterasu is my favourite character in the game because she keeps her trap shut so that no horribly written garbage comes out. Good thing, too; I would have thrown my PS2 right out the window if Amaterasu ever said “Adam”.

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As always, anyone in the community can contact me about being part of the Community Spotlight where we’ll try and get your work out to  wider audience! You can try me or Davekraft on Twitter, or even send us a private message on the forums. We thank Porecomesis as we have several times before for letting us bring his work to you all and allowing us to consider him a member of our community. For those looking to pick up the HD version of Okami, it’s now in stores as of October 30th for PS3. For those looking to see more of Porecomesis’ work, check out his reviews blog.

A short and to the point bit of news here. Rockstar have officially announced via their blog that we should all get ready for some long-awaited GTA V info next month. 8 days till November? Well, that WOULD be next month, but we’ll have to wait and see.

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There’s now even some nice and most importantly OFFICIAL GTA V artwork released -

Lots of info coming next month. Get ready.

See the blog post for yourself here.