GAMERS HOOD

WATCH DOGS REVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Sat, 05 Jul 2014 13:40:00 +0000

In its opening scene, Watch Dogs refers to hackers as modern-day magicians. That’s a good analogy for the bag of powerful but mostly scripted tricks we get to use as we run amok in this huge and impressively detailed map of Chicago. With the push of a button, you can trigger environmental traps that smash pursuing cars, empty a citizen’s bank account, or even remotely activate a grenade in an enemy’s pocket. Hacking’s not as dynamic as it appears at first, but the illusion gives us a bit more to do than there is in most third-person action games, and it puts on a great show.

Our hero, Aiden Pearce, is an empty trenchcoat as far as personality goes. It’s remarked at one point that he’s suppressing his personality, so it must be intentional, but it doesn’t make him a strong character. Fortunately the supporting cast is much more interesting. An enthusiastic and cavalier fixer, a gang leader who I affectionately refer to as Avon Barksdale: Superhacker, and a soft-spoken mob boss steal the show and make it a likeable and well-acted group. Character animations are elegantly done, too.

Watch Dogs’ completely open map is another big strength: it’s huge, diverse, and intricately detailed. The rural area of Pawnee balances out Chicago’s urban sprawl, and it all looks great, especially at sunset or during a rainstorm. Everything runs at a smooth 30 frames per second, however, after playing for a few hours I did start to experience frequent slowdowns when new mission objectives were loading up. Fortunately they never happened when anything interesting was going on, but they’re definitely noticeable and get progressively worse as the story goes on.

This techno-thriller fiction is all about the power of information in a super-connected city, and one of its cleverest and most distinctive tweaks to the open world genre is how much information it gives you. Scanning a pedestrian or thug pops up a brief, randomly generated personal history – some fact about their hobbies or lifestyle, plus their age, occupation, and income. It’s a small thing, but it’s surprisingly effective at humanizing them. I actually felt a pang of guilt when I accidentally ran someone down and then saw that they were on the waiting list for a liver transplant, and as a result this is one of the few open-world action games where I rarely went on a violent rampage. And that had very little to do with the meaningless reputation meter, which appears to have no consequences whatsoever.

Over more than 20 hours, the straightforward revenge story becomes more and more complex until it’s bursting with intrigue... only to take a strange turn for the mundane when the motivations behind it all are revealed. For a game that deals with themes like surveillance society and media manipulation, Watch Dogs’ villains just aren’t thinking very big.

I admire Ubisoft’s restraint in including only one hacking puzzle minigame in a game about an uberhacker hero, and it’s both clever and used infrequently enough that it doesn’t become annoying. There’s also the ability to take over any surveillance camera you can see, even some worn by guards, and it’s put to good use in puzzles where you leap from camera to camera as you attempt to get line of sight on a terminal you want to hack.

Unless you opt out, you’re also regularly prompted to jump into multiplayer activities, like a simple race through the streets or a much more interesting cat-and-mouse game of tailing and hacking another random player. It’s a setup with a lot of room for creativity and hilarious experimentation as you try to hide or blend in with the civilians. There’s also the highly entertaining capture-the-flag style Decryption game, where one player desperately tries to evade the rest, and a challenging race where you have to evade traps and cops triggered by a player using the free iPad app.

When you get in a car and drive, Watch Dogs is some good arcadey fun. Cartoonish crash physics and roads littered with tons of breakable objects make smashing through shortcuts spectacular and hilarious. However, car chases gradually become more and more disappointing and tedious because of their lack of combat options. You can’t fire out the window as you drive, so all you can do is drive around hacking things to trigger hazards. Half the time you don’t even see the car or trap involved in the wreck. And enemy cars are so rubber-bandy that it’s impossible to simply outrun them even in the speediest of cars - you have to hack things to end the chase.

Xbox One Version

The slightly lower resolution is the only noticeable difference between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Watch Dogs, and I doubt I’d have picked up on it if I hadn’t just come from playing the PS4 version. I did quickly disable the trigger vibrations in the options menu -- they appear to happen when your car shifts gears (which is automatic), which I found to be useless and distracting feedback.

Xbox 360 Version

Naturally the Xbox 360 version doesn't look as nice as the newer generation consoles when it comes to texture resolution, physics objects like debris and smoke, and draw distance, but it does look respectable for a game on this platform in 2014. More importantly, it runs consistently, avoiding the major performance problems that drag down the PlayStation 3 version. The only notable differences content-wise are the disappointing lack of the Decryption multiplayer mode and the multiplayer free-roam mode, but those absences don't make me recommend it any less for those who don't own a PS4 or Xbox One.

PC Version

I had quite a rant written about how busted the PC version of Watch Dogs was at launch, with both Uplay issues that prevented me from playing at all for the first two days and massive stuttering problems even on low settings making it nearly unplayable on two different PCs once I did. I was mere hours from posting a review on Sunday with a greatly reduced score attached when a patch resolved most of my performance problems. [Note: I can only assume there was a stealth patch, since it simply started running well where it had not before.] Watch Dogs on PC still isn't a fantastically well optimized game, but my nearly four-year-old GTX 570 is able to deliver over 30fps (sometimes over 60) on medium settings. I do experience a few dropped frames here and there, but as of this writing it's otherwise just as good as the PS4 version (better, if you've got newer hardware) and just as easy to recommend. Naturally you do have to suffer through the inconvenience of Ubisoft's Uplay login nonsense, and Aiden's smartphone menu system is a pain to navigate with the mouse.

THE VERDICT

One-button hacking might be overly simplistic, but it does give you abilities that make playing through Aiden’s story feel powerful and fun. Doing side missions and multiplayer as you make your way through the dark and lengthy story makes it feel like a huge adventure, and stealth options let you play smart if you prefer. Car chases aside, Watch Dogs is fundamentally very well made, and has more than enough unique ideas to make it a great and memorable open-world action game.

TOM CLANCY'S THE DIVISION

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 14:20:00 +0000

Developed by Massive Entertainment, The Division is a new game in the Tom Clancy franchise. Using the Snowdrop engine, it is a open world, multiplayer RPG game set in a world devastated by a deadly pathogen. Players will fight enemies factions, loot abandoned buildings and level up their player as they explore a ravaged New York city.

Story
You're part of The Division, an organization developed around Operation Dark Winter. In reality, Dark Winter was just a simulation that took place in 2001; however, this game makes it real in their universe. In 2007, President George W. Bush signed Directive 51 into law, which is where The Division's Agents go into action.

About three weeks ago, many sleeper cell agents released a weaponized virus in the United State. The Division tried to stop it, but they failed. This day was known as Black Friday. The entire population was nearly wiped out in the process. The Division's goal is to save what remains and restore society.

Gameplay

The Division will break away from the common conception of RPGs. You will not talk to one person to get a mission, nor will there be acts. Instead, you will have a full map of New York with objectives you can choose to do at any time.

David Polfeldt, managing director at Massive, says “We wanted a lighter game than World of Warcraft. I’m not calling [The Division] an MMO,” although he’s aware of the similarities. The Division will not, however, feature classes. “We allow you to progress through the skill tree as you prefer,” Polfeldt explains. Plus you can do a mulligan on your skill tree progress at any time and switch to custom-built classes with the touch of a button.

Though it’s a role-playing game first and foremost, The Division also draws from the hardcore survivalism of Day Z or State of Decay. When your sleeper agent awakens, their belongings include just three days of food, water, and supplies.

After that, you must scour for resources like ammo and weapons. The whole point is to drive players to explore and discover.

A variety of factions will be in the game. Some factions will be helpful, some will be harmful, and the remainder of FEMA and those type of organizations will be the biggest help in the game.

The weaponized virus that nearly wiped out the population will still be in play in Tom Clancy's The Division. Details as to how it will affect gameplay have not yet been released.

A Companion App
The Division will feature a companion app that allows a tablet-user to become a guardian angel, a good samaritan, or a legendary troll.

In the E3 2013 demo, the tablet-user was privy to a suite of skills that each had their own specific cool-downs. From the vantage of an aerial view of the block currently being explored, the tablet-user could tap a skill to use it, then tap somewhere on the screen to engage the ability in that area.

Many of these skill types are recognizable to a massively multiplayer online (MMO) veteran, with such classic staples as an armor enhancement that boosted party stats, and a healing type drone that can revive injured allies.

The player using the tablet won't be limited to just these support abilities; they can recon and mark enemies so that enemy locations appear on the party's radar, and even summon powerful airstrikes.
Tablet play will be available to both Android and iOS. They will be able to support console gamers in real time anywhere in the world as long as they're connected to the internet.

E3 2013 Story Trailer

E3 2013 Gameplay Trailer

GTA5 REQUIRES INSTALLATION ON PS3, XBOX 360

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:18:00 +0000

Grand Theft Auto 5 has mandatory installation requirements on both PS3 and Xbox 360, Rockstar says in a Q&A post.

The Xbox 360 version comes with two discs: The first disc is a one-time, mandatory install and the second disc is used to play the game. After the initial installation there will be no need to swap out the discs. PS3 has one disc that starts an automatic installation process, and the game will be ready to roll after that's complete. The PS3 and Xbox 360 installs require 8GB of free space, and if using a flash drive with the Xbox 360 it needs to be a minimum of 16GB, with 8GB free. The flash drive must be, at minimum, USB 2.0 with 15 mb/s read speed, formatted for Xbox 360.

Speaking of swapping things, Rockstar provides more detail in the Q&A about the ability to switch between three playable characters at will in Grand Theft Auto 5, at least when not on a mission.
"And because they have their own schedules, you'll never know what they might be doing – you might drop in on Michael in the middle of a family dispute, interrupt Franklin chatting up some ladies, or Trevor on the run from the law – or whatever else these guys do in their free time," Rockstar says. "How and when you switch between characters when you're not on a mission is completely up to you."
Players won't have complete free will while switching between characters – it's not possible to kill other playable protagonists, Rockstar notes. Grand Theft Auto 5 is due out on September 17 for Xbox 360 and PS3.

GTA 4 IRON MAN MOD IS FLYING INTO BUILDINGS

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 28 May 2013 15:20:00 +0000

Grand Theft Auto 4 has been host to many excellent mods in the past, such as one in which R2-D2 destroys Liberty City. In this case, YouTube user taltigolt recently showed off a video that showcaes improvements made to a complete GTA 4 mod that places Iron Man in the heat of the action.

Not only does the video show Iron Man flying around the city and smashing into buildings, but he destroys police cars with ease by raising his arms. The modding crew also uploaded an album with Tony Stark in the game to their Facebook page. Unfortunately, the video features no sound at the request of another GTA 4 modder. Just imagine various crunch and explosion sound effects while you watch it.

CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS HAS KINECT VOICE COMMANDS ON XBOX ONE

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 28 May 2013 14:55:00 +0000

Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg has confirmed that the Xbox One version of Call of Duty: Ghosts will have some form of Kinect voice commands. Speaking to VentureBeat, Hirshberg said, "I made a passing comment that you're going to see voice integration, voice commands via Kinect, which is something that we haven't done in the past with Call of Duty." He added that the improvements made to Kinect for Xbox One "really excite" the publisher.

Hirshberg also reassured fans that Kinect support won't be careless. "We've always made sure that we don't just use new technology for novelty's sake, he said. "We always make sure that it makes the gameplay better. In this case, we think it will."

He didn't elaborate on what the voice commands might be, but we imagine they will be something along the lines of, "Come here! Who's a good boy? Are you a good boy? Yes, you are. Yes, you are!"

NEED FOR SPEED RIVALS: BUILDING ON CRITERION'S HERITAGE

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:21:00 +0000

It’s been an exciting week to be a video game revhead, with Gran Turismo 6, Forza Motorsport 5 and now Need for Speed Rivals all being announced within the last seven days or so.

Based on the west coast of Sweden, Ghost Games (formerly EA Gothenburg) has some work to do to follow Criterion’s well-received work on both 2010’s Hot Pursuit and 2012’s Most Wanted – but the studio is getting all the help it needs from the House that Burnout Built.

“We put together a new team to try to find some new energy and get some new thinking into it,” explains DICE and Battlefield veteran Marcus Nilsson, now heading up Ghost Games. “But Rivals is very much a product between Criterion and Ghost, which means that a lot of the details, a lot of the thinking, about how you create a racing game are going to be there.”

“When you start a new studio and you have Criterion as your sister studio, you’d be pretty foolish if you don’t take all the best parts and the thinking from those people.

“The first people we hired to Ghost were low level physics programmers because, as you know, how the car feels is where it starts and ends. If the car is not really awesome to drive, don’t bother doing the rest. The heritage here from Criterion is hugely helpful. In my opinion, Criterion has the best arcade handling cars, and especially the best cameras connected to those cars.”

But when it comes to what differentiates Rivals from the last pair of Criterion cops ’n racers games, Nilsson describes Rivals’ new AllDrive feature.

“We bring a feature called AllDrive, which is fundamentally a way for us to destroy the line between single-player, co-op and multiplayer,” he says.

“You can be in Australia, you boot it up, you’re playing the game alone, you’re going through the single-player progression, playing through the premise, and then I join the game. We’re friends, you and me, so I’ll automatically be put into your world. I can still be playing my single-player progression, through my premise, but at any time – obviously, we’re in same world – our worlds can meet.

“I can be a cop, you’re a racer; you’re in a race, I’m in a pursuit. If we happen to be on the same road, I can start going after you. There’s obviously point bonuses and stuff involved in that, in the details, but the idea with this is that you seamlessly, through player action, go from a single-player experience to [a multiplayer one.]”

There’s been a real migration to connectivity in racing games; it’s been a long generation and there was quite a bit of discussion about where racing games could go during these final few years and beyond. Is something like AllDrive the next logical step?

“I’m obviously from Battlefield, worked on most of the Battlefield games, the last one being Battlefield 3, and, as you know, that has a real multiplayer focus,” says Nilsson. “It has a really connected focus with the Battlelog stuff and those are obviously things that I bring with me.”

“Need for Speed, traditionally, is played by people that play through the single-player part; they play alone. This game is going to be as rewarding, or even more rewarding, as the previous Need for Speed if you’re playing through alone, but with the layer of playing with others I believe we can take it to a Need for Speed experience they’ve never experienced before.”

Nilsson feels it’s a natural step. There are no lobbies with AllDrive.

“Rather I show up in your world and the game is presenting new options for us to play the game rather than playing it alone,” he says.

Like many games arriving at the end of the year, Need for Speed Rivals is straddling two generations. AllDrive will feature across both current gen and next gen versions but, regarding the latter, what specifically does all this extra power allow Ghost Games to do that wasn’t possible before? Nilsson explains.

“Next generation to me is much more about a mindset; how you think about games,” he says. “How you think about games being connected. How you think about games being convenient.”

“Visuals is going to be the starting point; triple A games will look fantastic. You can do that with all that with this extra power, especially power focused on getting great stuff on screen. But I think we need to pick where we do it.

“I think from a visual standpoint we will be able to make worlds that are far more alive than before; the sterile look of racing games is probably something of the past. I’m not talking about having pedestrians in Need for Speed games; I’m talking about a world that feels a lot more alive, with things moving, using weather and really create a world that, quite honestly, could not be delivered on current gen.

“It also comes back to feel. With extra CPU power you can actually have a lot more surfaces that the car can react to – not something that we’re going to go ‘sim’ on for that matter, but it is something that we now can differentiate a little bit more.

“But as I said, this is about a mindset; it’s about how you play games differently and how we can get you, in a smart way, to stay connected to the game – whether you’re inside a game or outside a game. Even getting into your game once you’re back; there’s a big extension to Autolog that I’m not going to talk about today but that is definitely a big part of what is making Need for Speed next generation this time around. How it’s evolved from simply a sofa experience with the controller in your hand to something bigger.”

From a development standpoint, Nilsson describes the step from this generation to the next has been similarly tough, but the challenges haven’t been the same.

“Thinking back to the old transition, we certainly had a lot of problems,” he says. “Xbox and PlayStation were not similar at that point in time. What we’re finding now is that both architectures are more alike.”

“But it was more complicated this time around, I think. It’s more than just a box. It’s about layers, it’s about clouds. It’s about data being transferred and matchmaked, not locally in your room but somewhere else.

“The technology is easier to work with; there are better tools, absolutely. Obviously we have Frostbite 3 engine which has gone through a few iterations now and truly, truly is powerful and really next gen ready.

“It is hard. Probably as hard as last time, but it’s just that the problems are a little different.”

On the topic of this year’s schedule of heavy-hitting first-party racing juggernauts, however, Nilsson is positive.

“I know for a fact that in transition years, racing games are important,” he says. “They were used last generation to show off the graphical fidelity of what the boxes could do, similar to now.”

“I think more racing games is good. I think that we can benefit from having more racing games. I think we need great racing games. We need innovation in racing games. And it cannot only be about details of car seats and seams and similar features; they need to be about gameplay. We need to change the enjoyment of playing games alone and together with others.”

GRAND THEFT AUTO V SPECIAL EDITIONS UNVEILED

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:04:00 +0000

Rockstar has unveiled the Special and Collector's Editions of Grand Theft Auto V.

A post on the Rockstar Newswire explains just what each one contains, as well as details pre-order bonuses for the game.

First up, the Special Edition of the game will come with a steelbook featuring new artwork of the game's three leads, a blueprint map of Los Santos, a boost to your characters' in-game special ability bars, additional Stunt Plane challenges in the game, as well as bonus outfits and weapons. Finally, additional weapons will be available for free: the Pistol .50, Bullpup Shotgun, and melee Hammer.

Special Edition

The Collector's Edition, meanwhile, comes with all of the Special Edition's content along with a 10.75" x 8.5" security deposit bag, a New Era 9FIFTY snapback cap with embroidered Los Santos, Rockstar and V logos on, and the ability to use classic Grand Theft Auto characters when playing Grand Theft Auto Online. Additionally, you'll also get the 1930’s style Hotknife hotrod and the CarbonRS sports bike for use in single player, and the Khamelion electric car for use online.

Collector's Edition

Finally, anyone who pre-orders any version of the game, whether it's the Special Edition, Collector's Edition or just normal retail, will be able to pilot the Atomic Blimp vehicle in-game.

So there you have it! Be sure to let us know what items tickle your fancy in the comments below.

CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS ANNOUNCED; NEXT-GEN POWERED BY NEW ENGINE

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:54:00 +0000

Confirming rumors, Activision has revealed the next game in its billion-dollar shooter franchise, titled Call of Duty: Ghosts. The military-based FPS will arrive on the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 5, and on "next-generation platforms" on an unspecified date. No Wii U version was announced.

A press release reveals the next-gen version of Ghosts will sport an all-new engine "from the developer that started it all, Infinity Ward." The series has been using the same engine, with numerous annual modifications, since 2005.

Saying it would have been "safe" for Infinity Ward to develop a fourth entry in the Modern Warfare series, Mark Rubin, executive producer of developer Infinity Ward, noted his team saw the next generation of consoles as the "perfect opportunity" to start a new chapter for the franchise. "So we're building a new sub-brand, a new engine, and a lot of new ideas and experiences for our players," he added.

Activision will debut the next-gen version of Call of Duty: Ghosts – and revealing its new engine to the world – during Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 'Next Generation' event on May 21.
Ghosts features an "all-new gameplay experience built on an entirely new story, setting and cast of characters," the press release further detailed.

An onslaught of additional info and explosion-filled marketing is expected closer to E3 2013.

Update: The website theghostsarereal.com – designed to look like an official Activision site – lists Wii U as a platform for the next Call of Duty title. Activision tells Joystiq the website is not owned or operated by the publisher. No Wii U version has been announced.

BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS FIRST IMPRESSIONS

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:55:00 +0000

We finally got on our hands on Batman: Arkham Origins. Here's what we think. [video by IGN]

EXPLORING COMBAT, UPGRADES, AND GOTHAM IN BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:39:00 +0000

Batman: Arkham Origins’ creative director Eric Holmes doesn’t believe “the Arkham franchise is a lot of stuff done 'okay.' It’s about certain things done to a great level of quality.” As such, Holmes’ team at Warner Bros. Montreal isn’t phoning in their Arkham Asylum prequel. “We went through a bunch of ideas,” he tells IGN, “and we picked a small number of the best ones that we felt would give the game its own identity, give it a meaning to exist.”

To that end, tweaks to Batman’s personal progression and combat systems were not made lightly – and anything that didn’t make Warner’s demanding grade was cut without prejudice.

“We had a weather system that was dynamic in the city,” says Holmes. Gotham City’s snowy Christmas Eve isn’t the aggressive visual obstacle it once was. Breezy weather could escalate into low-visibility, leaving marksmen completely vulnerable to Batman’s stealth. “That’s something we tried and we didn’t go ahead with because it didn’t seem up to Arkham quality when we executed on it,” Holmes says. “We didn’t think that we would be able to pull it off with great quality in the time we had for it. So the best thing to do, rather than ship a half-done feature, is to pull it.”

On the other hand, Warner’s adjusted combat system, influenced by previous games’ challenge rooms, is an example of a new idea that’s paying dividends. As Holmes explains it, brawls end with ratings that dictate the experience points you earn, while the moment-to-moment action constantly explains how you achieved your given grade with visual feedback. “Did you use a gadget? Did you do a takedown? Did you do a big combo? Did you not get hit?” are all factors in helping players gain “that sense of mastery” over Arkham Origins’ familiar free-flow combat.

This XP system – which rewards skilled fighters without punishing poorer ones – feeds into Batman’s personal progression, naturally. “It’s more of a Borderlands tree-type structure,” Holmes says of Origins. “If you want to be really good at one thing, you can tunnel your way through the upgrade system and get to that. If you want to ignore one area, you don’t have to go there. It’s got a bit more of a hierarchy and building towards that mastery.”

Completionists as well as perfectionists will find themselves earning huge – taking down the “Most Wanted” DC villains unlocks improvements, too, but Holmes isn’t specifying what, precisely, Batman earns for putting Anarky on ice.

The other major change in Arkham Origins is its open-world, now larger and taller than either Asylum or City. “In Origins, one thing you’ll notice is that the south island, [New Gotham], has much taller structures” than the northern Gotham island. “It has catwalks between the buildings, and pipes and cables…The city looks a lot more vertical,” Holmes explains. What excites him most is that the grapple-glide-grapple-glide rhythm of exploration gives players “a new way to express themselves in that space…It’s a very organic experience, to try and figure out what size that should be.” Holmes makes no apologies to those who miss the smaller scale of Arkham Asylum – Origins is absolutely bigger and broader than Arkham City.

Holmes and Warner still aren't speaking much about Arkham Origins' multiplayer, but it'll be interesting to see how the cut-the-fat philosophy applies to the competitive side of Batman's new beginnings.

METRO: LAST LIGHT SHINES IN THIS WEEK'S UK CHARTS

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:16:00 +0000

It's another familiar week of UK cha-... oh wait, it isn't.

After Dead Island: Riptide sliced through its competition for three weeks, this time it's dethroned by another follow-up in the form of Metro: Last Light. By debuting in top spot, it does what Metro 2033 failed to do when it placed fifth in 2010.

Chart-Track says Metro 2033 sold stronger than Last Light in its launch week. Back then, Metro 2033 was fighting March megatons like Final Fantasy 13, God of War 3, and Battlefield Bad Company 2. In contrast, May 2013 has been dead quiet - emphasis on dead.

Having said that, this week sees another new release in the top ten via Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity. The spinoff charts fourth this week. We expect the next 3DS Poke-game to do slightly better.

In other movers and shakers, Last Light only nudged Riptide into second place, making this week a 1-2 for Deep Silver and Koch Media. Tomb Raider drops out of the top five for the first time in its 11th week, slipping down to sixth. Meanwhile, Injustice: Gods Among Us and The Walking Dead (packaged retail edition) shuffle into eighth and seventh.

Top 10 UK Software Sales (All Formats); week ending May 18:

Metro: Last Light
Dead Island Riptide
FIFA 13
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Tomb Raider
The Walking Dead
Injustice: Gods Among Us
Assassin's Creed 3
BioShock Infinite

ARKHAM ORIGINS GETS A CINEMATIC TRAILER

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:09:00 +0000

A brand new cinematic trailer has been unveiled to the world. It's full of non-stop action as the Dark Knight and Deathstroke battle it out in a container yard before being interrupted mid fight. I strongly suggest you take five minutes out of your day to watch this trailer and see for yourself how truly amazing it is.

At the end of the video they also point out that as a pre-order bonus when Batman Arkham Origins launches this October that players will be able to play as Deathstroke. Not much is known about how Deathstroke will be featured as a playable character whether it’s as a skin for batman or as his own standalone mini campaign but I’m sure as we get closer to release more info will be unveiled. Until then we'll just have to enjoy the video and sit tight.

FIFA 14 GOES NEXT-GEN IN TOMORROW'S XBOX REVEAL EVENT

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:54:00 +0000

The FIFA franchise will have a next-gen something to show off during Microsoft's Xbox reveal event tomorrow, according to the series' new Facebook cover image and event.

"RSVP if you're ready to hear about the next generation of FIFA," the event description reads. "Tune in to hear news on FIFA 14 during the worldwide livestream of Xbox: A New Generation Revealed."

FIFA 14 comes out on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC – and not Wii U – this fall. Microsoft is gearing up for a large next-gen Xbox event tomorrow, May 21, at 10 a.m. PT. We'll have live coverage from the event in Redmond, Washington, and we'll also be reporting remotely – here's hoping things don't get too Messi.

BATMAN ARKHAM ORIGINS VILLAINS SPOTTED

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:12:00 +0000

A Batman: Arkham Origins promotional standee has revealed new villains expected to appear in the game.

BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS NEWS: RELEASE DATE, GAMEPLAY, TRAILERS

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:08:00 +0000

Batman Arkham City and Batman Arkham Asylum are two of the best video games ever made for this generation of consoles. Not only did both games receive oodles of critical acclaim and sell like the clappers, they made the best use of DC's Dark Knight in a video game.

Arkham City was larger in size and scope than its predecessor and it contained a nifty gliding mechanic allowing players to explore its Gothic urban landscape, but the series' key draw was nailed in Arkham Asylum. Here was a game where players seamlessley sequed from brutal combat, to atmospheric stealth play, to platforming and puzzle solving. The entire stealth genre of video game is still reeling from Arkham Asylum's impact.

To say that the expectations heaped on the newest addition to this franchise - the recently announced Batman Arkham Origins - are huge, is an understatment. Here, we delve into what has been made public about Batman's latest adventure.

Batman Arkham Origins: Story

The plot for Arkham Origins is set before the events of both Arkham City and Arkham Asylum. According to the developers, Batman is an experienced crime fighter, but has yet to meet many of the iconic villains in his rogue’s gallery.

According to a piece on Eurogamer, the main antagonist in this adventure will be Black Mask – who fans may remember was the villain featured in the DLC map packs.

The cover feature from Game Informer also revealed that Deathstroke – a mercenary and assassin in the DC universe – will feature in the game. For those prepared to put their trust in Wikipedia, the game's page states that both The Penguin and Gotham mob boss Albert Falcone will make appearances.

Batman Arkham Origins: Gameplay

From the sounds of things, the new Batman game will have the same overall structure as Batman: Arkham City, in which players have a large, open-world sandbox to move about in. The game's world is reportedly twice the size of that in Arkham City, and parts of it will be based on the map contained in that game - although it wont' be ring-fenced by a massive prison wall.

Players will navigate the environment using Batman's cape and grappling claw device, but as the map opens up and the space they can move in becomes larger, they'll gain access to Batman's jet - the Batwing - allowing them to fast-travel to their destinations.

At its core, though, Batman Arkham Origins will feature the same cocktail of gameplay as its predecessors; players will be able to engage in free-flowing combat, scenarios in which stealth is key and the odd section that involves puzzle solving and detective work.

Batman Arkham Origins: Release Date

Batman Arkham Origins is set for release later this year on October 25^th. No mention has yet been made about whether it will appear on next-generation platforms, but it has been confirmed for Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and Wii U.

A spin-off title, Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate has also been announced for the Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita handheld consoles.

BATMAN ARKHAM ORIGINS VILLAINS SPOTTED

ASSASSIN'S CREED III: THE TYRANNY OF KING WASHINGTON REVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:49:00 +0000

The Tyranny of King Washington’s premise is one of the more interesting alternate-history interpretations that games have attempted. (Certainly more interesting than “what if Hitler had a mech suit?” at least.) Corrupted by a powerful Apple of Eden artefact, General George Washington has claimed the new nation for himself and continues to wage war on the native population and his political opponents. Ratonhnhaké:ton – who never became Connor in this double-alternate timeline – is determined to overthrow him, motivated by a sense of personal vengeance that later mixes with democratic ideology.

It’s a fast-paced tale, running its course in around six hours over three episodes. The opening episode mines Ratonhnhaké:ton’s native American heritage for a new approach to AC3’s well-trodden frontier; the second leaves that behind and returns you to Boston for a slow couple of hours that build curiosity for the final act but doesn’t offer much in the way of new experiences. The third opens with a naval battle – easily one of the best things about AC3, and a timely tease for the upcoming Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – as the final showdown in New York approaches.

If you were left feeling ambiguous about this DLC after the first two episodes – as I was – then the third does much to redeem things. Having spent those first four hours longing to see more of what the nascent America might have been like as a despotic dictatorship, I was pleasantly surprised to arrive in New York to see unrest on the streets, food shortages leaving the citizenship demoralised and desperate, and Washington giving chillingly fascist balcony speeches to crowds of his people atop a pyramid he’s had constructed as a monument to himself, an eagle-adorned crown resting atop his head.

New York looks and feels significantly different in this DLC, in a way that the second episode’s Boston and the first episode’s frontier simply didn’t. There might not be much more to actually do, besides stringing Bluecoats up from washing lines as opposed to Redcoats, but there is an atmosphere of panic and oppression. The Betrayal is the only episode of this DLC that has a specially-made new area, too: Washington’s pyramid, an excellent playground for the wolf, hawk, and bear abilities that Ratonhnhaké:ton acquires by drinking the sacred tea of his tribe.

The resulting futuristically trippy spirit-communion dream sequences and the powers that they bestow upon you are the most enjoyable parts of The Tyranny of King Washington. Outside of that, too many of the actual missions feel copy-pasted from Assassin’s Creed III’s main storyline, especially in the second episode. The wolf grants Ratonhnhaké:ton that famous lupine trait of, um, invisibility, letting you move unseen between hiding places. The hawk bestows upon him the power of flight, letting you flit Batman-esque across the rooftops of Boston and, later, New York, negating the need for climbing.

Both of these abilities redraw the boundaries of AC3’s gameplay, significantly altering the way you can approach its challenges. On the third spirit journey, though, Connor meets with the bear, which essentially gives him a ground-pound. Admittedly it’s a very powerful attack, sending enemies flying and vulnerable structures toppling, but it’s hardly a game-changer.

It’s not too much of a disappointment, though. Where the first two episodes are heavily centred around their own particular new powers, the third necessitates that you use all of them together. It sends this DLC out on a high note, and perhaps inevitably, the third episode is by far the most narratively satisfying. The ending is a decent enough payoff to justify the time spent wondering what’s going on in the first two episodes. But I still feel like it could have done more with this fascinating concept of a young, idealistically founded nation gone horribly wrong. If you take the Apple of Eden to be a metaphor for the corrupting influence of power rather than a sci-fi doodad, then The Tyranny of King Washington does have the basis of something interesting to say, but it’s still thematically shallow.

The Tyranny of King Washington’s production values may well set new standards for DLC. As evidenced by the literally 20 minutes’ worth of credits that roll at the end, this wasn’t dashed off in someone’s lunch hour; it has more than an hour of new cutscenes and significant new gameplay woven around AC3’s familiar locations and characters. But the price you pay for that is £24/$30 for around six hours of play, which will be unjustifiably steep for most. Even the season pass, which also includes pre-order bonus missions for the main game and multiplayer bonuses, hardly offers stunning value.

It’s also impossible to overlook that not every hour of this short series is enjoyable. Episode 2 sometimes feels like AC3 at its worst: walking between cutscenes and completing tasks in which you have no real investment. It also doesn’t do anything thematically interesting with the alternate-history setting until the final episode – this is the best use of Animus technology I can think of, and it’s saddening that The Tyranny of King Washington does relatively little with it.

The Verdict

The Tyranny of King Washington is made to the highest standards, but also overpriced for what it is. Though the new powers refresh and reshape Assassin’s Creed III’s gameplay, most of the locations and missions here are overly reminiscent of what we’ve seen time and time again in the main campaign, and only towards the end does the story really come into its own. It would be a much easier recommendation at half the price.

UBISOFT: GAMERS WANT ASSASSIN'S CREED EVERY YEAR

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:27:00 +0000

Ubisoft Montreal boss Yannis Mallat does not think gamers are turned off by the idea of a new Assassin's Creed game every year.

"No," Yannis Mallat told Eurogamer this week. "The players will tell us. Right now there are more and more coming into the franchise, so I don't see that day."

Mallat explained that as long as each new entry is a quality product, gamers will continue to come back every year for more.

"It's our breakthrough. When you have quality content, the frequency of coming out with the game is not an issue at all. On the contrary, people expect more and more of that content," Mallat added. "So it's natural to be able to provide that content. The gamers are happy and it's our job to make them happy."

Ubisoft has released a new core Assassin's Creed game every year since 2009. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag launches October 29 and a follow-up is already in the works.

UBISOFT TORONTO WORKING WITH UBI MONTREAL ON ANOTHER ASSASSIN'S CREED

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:17:00 +0000

Ubisoft Toronto is collaborating with Ubisoft Montreal on an

Assassin's Creed game coming after AC4: Black Flag. and has plans to be involved with the development of four other unannounced games. Speaking with Polygon, managing director Jade Raymond said the studio, involved with Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Rainbow Six: Patriots, has plans set for five further games in total.

"We have two big collaborations coming that we're not talking about, on two of the biggest franchises at Ubisoft. We also have two new IP," Raymond told Polygon, noting that the fifth project is a Splinter Cell game.

Raymond's comments follow on from the intentions she laid out in 2010 to eventually have five triple-A projects going on at Ubisoft Toronto at the same time, with a staff of some 800 people involved.

In other words, Ubi Toronto's plans for world domination are beginning to surface, and we should call the authorities immediately.

TOMB RAIDER HAD BEST WEEK ONE SALES IN FRANCHISE HISTORY

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:56:00 +0000

Tomb Raider has achieved the highest week one sales in the franchise's history, according to Crystal Dynamics studio head Darrell Gallagher. Speaking at a GDC panel alongside creative director Noah Hughes, Gallagher also revealed that Tomb Raider had the most successful launch of any game this year.

"It's been the biggest week one sales in franchise history, and we're only a few weeks into that launch right now, and it's been the biggest opening so far in 2013," said Gallagher. "So, we're happy with the outcome. It's certainly in a place where we feel like we're on the road to achieving everything we wanted to."

The claim seems to be at odds with the feelings of Tomb Raider's publisher, Square Enix, which recently cited "weak sales" of its major titles, including Tomb Raider, as a reason for the company undergoing restructure. When asked about the apparent disconnect between Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics regarding Tomb Raider's performance, Hughes told us, "Certainly we're proud of what we achieved, and I think for the most part, the whole organization is happy with what we did." And for Gallagher, "Actuals and expectations, I guess, are two slightly different things. What I'm telling you is the actuals, and they're communicating expectations."

That raises the question of just what Square Enix was expecting. To put things in perspective, Tomb Raider had higher initial sales than the 1996 original, a game that went on to sell over 6 million units in its lifetime. And yet, despite receiving critical acclaim and breaking franchise records, it would appear that Tomb Raider just isn't number one enough.

TRIALS EVOLUTION: GOLD EDITION POPS WHEELIES ON PC TODAY [REVIEW]

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:52:00 +0000

Ubisoft has launched Trials Evolution: Gold Edition on PC today, exposing a whole new segment of sadists to annoying rap-rock intro songs. You can pick up Gold Edition through Steam or other major games retailers for $19.99.

Trials Evolution: Gold Edition is a collection of the XBLA success Trials Evolution and all of the levels from its predecessor, Trials HD. Rounding out the package is the in-game level editor, which was used to recreate the Trials HD levels found in this very package. Not included: A way to stop playing Trials once you start.

REVIEW:

I made a huge mistake. "So help me, Richard, if I don't review Trials Evolution," I said back in March, "I'll start walking to Oklahoma right now."

That was when I was younger, more foolish and willing to march to someone's house to get a downloadable game. The Ben of mid-April, however? He knows better. He knows that a sequel to 2009's Trials HD, expanding greatly on the finely tuned physics masterpiece of the first game, would be a dangerous game to review. Not because it isn't good – sweet lord, it's glorious – but because reviews are things that happen quickly after release.

What I want to do with Trials Evolution is play it for another decade. Maybe then – maybe! – I could speak to all the content RedLynx added this time around.

But here we are, and this is a review. So here it is: Trials Evolution is excellent.

Where to even begin? Let's start with what hasn't changed. The physics system from the first game remains largely untouched, if at all, making racing just as frenetic as the last entry. Riders are still angling their body and bike in order to snag more velocity on downhill runs, and tracks are still built with close attention paid to flow. You could just go as fast as possible, but you probably shouldn't if you want to consistently dominate leaderboards.

My love for the Trials series spawns from that simple formula: precision over speed, and intelligence over brute force. Trials Evolution riffs on that formula more than ever before, constantly reminding me to drive more carefully if I want to stay ahead of the bastard on-screen dots representing my Xbox Live "friends." Moreover, the huge selection of tracks ramp in difficulty more gradually than the last game. Yes, there are levels that are seemingly impossible on the first try, but this time they're not dropped in the middle of the "medium" difficulty level set.

A limited selection of motorbikes is once again available, each corresponding to varying levels of track difficulty, though locked away until various license tests have been passed. As an experienced player, I would've liked to jump right to the fastest bike possible, but RedLynx is apparently set on its license-locked meting out of said bikes. A variety of license tests require certain skills be displayed before faster bikes unlock, slowly introducing newcomers to each bike's power level. That's fine, but replaying older levels with newer, faster bikes loses some of its luster with such a huge amount of available tracks.

The first game's hokey faux-metal soundtrack is replaced with ... yet another hokey faux-metal soundtrack. I'm told it's meant as a joke, but to me it's still the game's only real fault. Thankfully, it's a fault easily remedied (I promptly switched the in-game music off).

Now, for additions. A full level creation suite is included in Trials Evolution, which takes the first game's editing tools and blows them out to LittleBigPlanet proportions. Which is to say that the editor can be applied to concepts beyond 2.5D racing, such as, say, first-person shooters. Yes, really. Said tools aren't given quite the same loving tutorial that they are in LBP2, but a variety of skill courses help to demonstrate what can be created. If you're willing to commit to the trial-and-error process required to learn it, good for you.

There are also these seven tutorial videos, if that's your kind of thing. If, like me, you can't be bothered to create your own levels, the game counters with a robust level sharing functionality (also making a return from the first game), and RedLynx thankfully loaded the store with some concepts of its own to get folks started. Like LBP, the experimental levels are a bit rough, but impressive nonetheless. Given that Trials Evolution hasn't been out for very long (just over 24 hours as of this writing), the fruits of the community's labor have yet to be seen, unfortunately. In the meantime, however, there's the unending multiplayer mode. Isn't that terrifying? It's endless trials. For a series that relies on a "just one more try" mentality, multiplayer trials is a legitimately frightening concept. With the last Trials entry, I hit a point where I'd wrung the game's content for all it was worth.

In Trials Evolution, that content is seemingly without end. This is quite worrying for my free time, not to mention any personal relationships I'm interested in continuing. As my girlfriend can attest, I've been doing a lot of swearing this week. More than usual, even. Between the crushing difficulty of certain levels, and the urge to perfect others, Evolution has its grip on me. That grip was only galvanized when I started in on multiplayer.

Despite the potentially confusing image above, rest assured that multiplayer doesn't mean you'll constantly bump into other racers. Whether you're racing against other people or against ghost data, the most interaction you'll have with other players will be seeing them race along in the fore or background. That can be a bit difficult to deal with if you're depth-perception challenged (I am, apparently), but not so irritating as to ruin the mode.

The same draw of outclassing my XBL friends in the campaign transfers easily to multiplayer, whether I'm playing total strangers or the aforementioned XBL buddies. If anything, seeing the ghosts of said players speeding ahead of me (or floating to the back of the pack) adds another level of panic to an already tense experience. What I'm saying, essentially, is that multiplayer Trials is probably bad for my heart.

But perhaps the addition of multiplayer doesn't do it for you, and you simply want more maps? There are many, many more maps in Trials Evolution. Compared with the DLC released following Trials HD, the $15 asking fee for Evolution is a pittance for the incredible amount of content on offer. Levels like the ominous sounding "Giga Track" extend well beyond the usual three-minute fare (around 10 minutes in my best run, sadly), and there are plenty oflower level tracks to keep the less hardcore sticking around.

In short, every addition RedLynx has made to Evolution serves to bolster the offerings of Trials HD, while continuing to highlight the game's base: a fantastic physics engine that drives a flow that is simultaneously simple, addictive and frantic. Now if you'll excuse me, I have another nine years of mastering Trials Evolution ahead of me.

PRESS RELEASE :

COMPETITION BEGINS AGAIN WITH THE RELEASE OF TRIALS EVOLUTION: GOLD EDITION

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – March 20, 2013 – Trials has finally returned home with the release of Trials Evolution: Gold Edition exclusively on PC.

RedLynx's signature franchise, the Trials series first made its mark in gaming with the 2008 release of Trials 2 SE for the PC. That breakout indie hit led to further success on the Xbox, and ever since, PC gamers have been clamouring for more Trials.

That wait is now over, as the competition begins all over again in Trials Evolution: Gold Edition, the biggest Trials game ever released with 129 tracks and mini games from Trials Evolution and Trials HD.

The game also includes all of the features of its forerunners, from the in-game editor which brought more than 300,000 tracks to the Xbox LIVE version of Trials Evolution, to the global Leader Boards and four-player Multiplayer, in both local and online modes.

For more information about Trials Evolution: Gold Edition and the Trials franchise visit the brand new Trials portal at http://www.trialsgame.com

TOMB RAIDER TRESSFX SHAMPOO

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 06:50:00 +0000

How does Lara keep that silky smooth hair looking gorgeous all day long? The secret is TressFX Max Graphics Shampoo.

TRESSFX

BAD HAIR DAYS

Since the dawn of the 3D era, characters in your favorite games have largely featured totally unrealistic hair: blocky and jagged, often without animation that matches your character’s movements. Many games have attempted to disguise the problem with short haircuts, updos, or even unremovable helmets. But why? Simply: realistic hair is one of the most complex and challenging materials to accurately reproduce in real-time. Convincingly recreating a head of lively hair involves drawing tens of thousands of tiny and individual semi-transparent strands, each of which casts complex shadows and requires anti-aliasing. Even more challengingly, these calculations must be updated dozens of times per second to synchronize with the motion of a character.

A NEW FRONTIER OF REALISM

Lara Croft is an iconic character with an equally iconic ponytail. Re-imagining Lara (and her haircut) for the 2013 release of Tomb Raider wasn’t just an opportunity to modernize the character, it was an opportunity to substantially advance in-game realism by tackling the long-standing challenge of unrealistic hair. Through painstaking collaboration between software developers at AMD and Crystal Dynamics, Tomb Raider proudly features the world’s first real-time hair rendering technology in a playable game: TressFX Hair.

TRESSFX IN ACTION

THE SCIENCE OF TRESSFX HAIR

TressFX Hair revolutionizes Lara Croft’s locks by using the DirectCompute programming language to unlock the massively-parallel processing capabilities of the Graphics Core Next architecture, enabling image quality previously restricted to pre-rendered images. Building on AMD’s previous work on Order Independent Transparency (OIT), this method makes use of Per-Pixel Linked-List (PPLL) data structures to manage rendering complexity and memory usage.

DirectCompute is additionally utilized to perform the real-time physics simulations for TressFX Hair. This physics system treats each strand of hair as a chain with dozens of links, permitting for forces like gravity, wind and movement of the head to move and curl Lara’s hair in a realistic fashion. Further, collision detection is performed to ensure that strands do not pass through one another, or other solid surfaces such as Lara’s head, clothing and body. Finally, hair styles are simulated by gradually pulling the strands back towards their original shape after they have moved in response to an external force. Graphics cards featuring the Graphics Core Next architecture, like select AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series, are particularly well-equipped to handle these types of tasks, with their combination of fast on-chip shared memory and massive processing throughput on the order of trillions of operations per second.

WINDY ENVIRONMENTS

Wind tears through a perilous chasm, whipping Lara’s ponytail to the side. With TressFX Hair, each one of her thousands of individualized strands of hair are constantly changing with the windspeed.

RAINY ENVIRONMENTS

Stranded on a beach in driving rain, Lara’s hair hangs heavy and matted with TressFX Hair; the real-time physics calculation accounts for both moisture and wind.

DRY ENVIRONMENTS

Reading over the ruins of an old map, TressFX Hair allows every movement of Lara’s head to be reflected in thousands of strands of hair—all in real time.

'EA GOES NUTS' : THEY’LL GIVE A FREE PC GAME TO ANYONE WHO BOUGHT SIMCITY

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:56:00 +0000

Anyone who bought SimCity will get a free video game, publisher EA said tonight. Apologizing for the crippling server issues that have rendered the new simulation game near-unplayable for the past week, Maxis boss Lucy Bradshaw wrote in a blog post that anyone with a copy of SimCity activated before March 18 will get a free PC game from EA's catalog.

Here's the full blog post:

Here's a quick update on the problems we were experiencing with SimCity – and a little something extra for people who bought the game.

The server issues which began at launch have improved significantly as we added more capacity. But some people are still experiencing response and stability problems that we're working fast to address.

So what went wrong? The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta.

OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it. In the last 48 hours we increased server capacity by 120 percent. It's working – the number of people who have gotten in and built cities has improved dramatically. The number of disrupted experiences has dropped by roughly 80 percent.

So we're close to fixed, but not quite there. I'm hoping to post another update this weekend to let everyone know that the launch issues are behind us.

Something Special for Your Trouble:

The good news is that SimCity is a solid hit in all major markets. The consensus among critics and players is that this is fundamentally a great game. But this SimCity is made to be played online, and if you can't get a stable connection, you're NOT having a good experience. So we're not going to rest until we've fixed the remaining server issues.

And to get us back in your good graces, we're going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio. On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an email telling them how to redeem their free game.

I know that's a little contrived – kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy. But we feel bad about what happened. We're hoping you won't stay mad and that we'll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent.

SimCity is a GREAT game and the people who made it are incredibly proud. Hang in there – we'll be providing more updates throughout the weekend.

While we're not yet sure which games will be given away, you can view EA's PC catalog here.

AC4 DIRECTOR: ANOTHER LEADING LADY 'WOULDN'T BE SURPRISING' IN THE FUTURE

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:09:00 +0000

The Assassin's Creed team at Ubisoft never imagined placing a woman in the lead role during the era of the Kenways, which spans Assassin's Creed 3 and Black Flag, director Ashraf Ismail told IGN.

"Really early on, we decided to tell the story of the Kenways," Ismail said. "So we already had in place the idea to tell Edward, Haytham and Connor. This was actually years ago, we had this." He continued, "We actually never thought, 'Could this be a woman?'"

Historically, there weren't many famous female pirates, Ismail said, and he didn't want players to fixate on that detail. Still, there's a lot of history between pirates and now, and Assassin's Creed may explore a leading lady in another, main game. The lead character of Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation for Vita was a woman, and that story fed into directly the prime Assassin's Creed 3 narrative. Ubisoft may continue this trend with future games.

"I would say it wouldn't be surprising to see a female assassin coming up in a mainline Assassin's Creed," Ismail said. "But for us, for AC4, it was always Edward."

If choosing the gender of protagonists was a business decision, it would fall to Ubisoft's brand team, and Ismail said he didn't know what they were cooking up for the "next few games."

"But the concept of a female assassin, I can tell you it's not a no-no; it's not something we're trying to avoid at all."

Epic Games art director Chris Perna, recently sounded off about selling a female protagonist, saying "it's tough to justify something like that," at least from a business standpoint.

ASSASSIN'S CREED 4: BLACK FLAG 'PUSHING HARD' FOR MORE ASSASSINATIONS

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:05:00 +0000

It has become necessary to ask about the prevalence of assassination in a series called Assassin's Creed. Ubisoft's massive franchise has grown to encompass different developers, protagonists, historical contexts, and design ideals. The central thrust of the hidden blade has been obscured by an ever-growing stack of systems, plots and economies, some of which suit the business of killing – and some that allow you to manufacture and sell barrels.

"Yes, we are a pirate game, and we advertise ourselves as a pirate game. It's even in our title," says Ashraf Ismail, Game Director at Ubisoft Montreal for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. "But it's an Assassin's Creed game, and this is very important, because this is how we're able to build a pirate game. We have this really solid foundation that is the core and the heart of the experience. The story is about a guy who is an assassin and the conflict he goes through to become this guy. We actually have more assassinations than AC1 had."

Following a presentation at Ubi's offices in San Francisco, Ismail explains the "older philosophy" of Assassin's Creed as an important consideration for Black Flag, even if appearances suggest otherwise. "This is something we did learn, we do listen to our fans a lot," Ismail says. "We know that in AC3 there was a lot more handholding done, and we do want to go back to an older philosophy where we just present you with a simple objective and we let you choose the gameplay you want."

Ubisoft's intentions don't always come through: Assassin's Creed 3 was pitched as a fresh, focused sequel, but was criticized for its superfluous systems and obviously manufactured missions. There was a disconnect between the rich fiction and your presumed agency in the world, and it was clearly felt during the game's slow-burn opening. Assassin's Creed 4 addresses the issue of hand-holding in a few ways, Ismail says, starting with new anti-hero Edward Kenway – yes, the father of Haytham Kenway, the surly pre-protagonist in AC3's ambitious, barely elastic prologue.

"At some point, people were asking us – do pirates in Assassin's [Creed] make sense?" says Ismail. "They're very different fantasies. But, actually, the gameplay mechanics of being an assassin completely fit in line with being a pirate. For example, navigation: well, pirates were sailors, and they climbed masts, and they were actually really great climbers, so that makes sense. Fighting? Well, they were melee fighters and used guns, and this is why Edward has four pistols.

"And the stealth itself, they were outlaws, they needed to be hidden, even when they plundered certain ships."

Confident in a pirate's suitability as assassin, Ismail considers the entire context as the crux in making Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag a better, more dynamic action game. There are three major cities to infiltrate (Nassau, Havana and Kingston), augmented stealth mechanisms and stern encouragement to use them, and an emphasis on elevating Edward's abilities alongside his ship, the Jackdaw. And though naval combat is an important component (and more complex than it was in AC3), Ismail sees it as a scenario modifier. If it all works properly, the ocean, the storms, the ships and your ability to board them all will coalesce into the kind of player-controlled stories we've seen from the likes of Far Cry 3. Some Far Cry 3 folks at Ubisoft Montreal are in charge of how combat and optional tasks feed back into upgrading your ship, which sounds like bad news for sharks.

Though development of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag started in earnest during Summer 2011, Ubisoft Montreal claims there's been enough time to consider the critical and fan discussion around Assassin's Creed 3. "We don't tell you 'go here, touch this thing, interact with this thing, push this guy' to accomplish the goal. It's really just where you need to be, get there as you wish."

The process of eliminating major targets, Ismail says, will be more open to planning and improvisation; less reliant on scripted events and big battles. "This is a philosophy we're really pushing hard in the missions and the assassinations."

With that point made, look for more coverage of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag on Joystiq later today.

ASSASSIN'S CREED 4: BLACK FLAG CONFIRMED FOR PS4

noreply@blogger.com (Shinu Francis) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:00:00 +0000

As the prior week's leaks suggested, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag will boast next-generation ports ... rendered by the PlayStation 4. (Here you go.)

Speaking to Joystiq in San Francisco last month, Assassin's Creed 4 game director Ashraf Ismail said the AnvilNext engine, which powers Ubisoft's pirate game and debuted with Assassin's Creed 3 in 2012, was built for platforms beyond the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U.

Ubisoft hasn't confirmed a launch date for the PS4 version yet, since the exact timing is entwined with Sony's guarded launch plans. All other versions of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag (that we know of) are due on October 29 in North America.