Archive for category Gaming
E3: Portal 2 in-depth
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Preview, Single Player on 17 June 2010
Valve announced Portal 2 for the PS3 on during the Sony Press Conference at E3 this year, and to my disappointment it seemed to be Valve’s ‘surprise’, leaving us all hanging on information about what’s going on with the Half Life series. While I hope for some sort of announcement from them on the third and final day of E3, lets take a look at some of Portal 2′s new gameplay features and story, because it does look fantastic.
The game itself is split into two parts, firstly you have the singleplayer mode. This will carry on from the first game, with GlaDOS dead (or as dead as a sentient AI can be), and Chell returning for an unknown reason to find the ruins of the Aperture Science laboratories overgrown with vegetation, and GlaDOS attempting to rebuild it. The single player mode will, according to an interview with Erik Wolpaw and Doug Lombardi, be twice as long as the original Portal’s singleplayer, so an estimated 5-6 hours of gameplay. Valve will no doubt flesh this out with challenge modes of the different rooms, with leaderboards and achievements to encourage replayability.
On top of the singleplayer mode, there will be a co-operative mode of similar length, but instead of the same puzzles as in singleplayer, there will be whole new puzzles specifically designed for two players (or more?), which could turn out to be incredibly challenging. Imagine the possibilities of having two players attempting to solve the same puzzle, one player laying portals for the other to fly through, I really hope Valve make the best of this.
It’s also good to see in the videos that Valve has retained the humor of the first game, and now not only does it come from GlaDOS, but from the different personality cubes you will meet as you progress through the story. The first character you meet wants to help you escape, and for you to take him with you. He accidentally wakes up GlaDOS, which you can see in the first of the video below.
Valve have fleshed out the original Portal with a whole host of new gameplay mechanics and objects you can use to keep the puzzles fresh and entertaining. Probably the most important new mechanic is gel. Gel is, as it’s name suggests, a liquid, which is dispensed in the typical Portal fashion, and can be moved around using portals. Two ‘gels’ have been shown so far, a blue one that lets you jump further and a red one which speeds you up, both demonstrated in the videos below. In addition to gels, there are a number of new objects you can interact with, including Tractor Beams, which can be moved around with portals and used to levitate yourself, companion cubes, turrets, anything that can move. Aerial Faith Plates are similar to jump pads you find in games such as Quake and Unreal Tournament, which propel you and other objects in a certain direction when you jump on them. There are more in the videos below.
Finally, I’d just like to mention how incredible the game looks. Portal 2 is obviously using an advanced version of the Source Engine, and the art team has done a fantastic job recreating the look and feel of a destroyed and overgrown laboratory. Natural light pours in from the top of the levels, opened up by the explosions at the end of the first game, now overgrown with vegetation creating beautiful shadows and ‘god rays’ all over the levels.
This was a triumph.
E3: Day 1 rundown
Posted by Sam in Gaming, MMO, Multiplayer, Preview, RTS, Shooter, Single Player on 16 June 2010
In addition to Dead Space 2 and Medal Of Honor, some other games have made an appearance at this years E3. Here’s a brief rundown on what’s happened so far.
Portal 2
This has the potential to be the most disappointing announcement during E3. During Sony’s Press Conference yesterday, Valve announced that Portal 2 would be coming to the PS3, along with steam services such as automatic updates and steam cloud technology which will make it the best console version of the game (better than the Xbox360 version, essentially). How a game so dexterous as Portal is supposed to work well with an analogue stick I don’t know, and I don’t really care. They also showed a decent trailer for the game, though it was lacking in the humor of the first one, which is a great shame, I hope they don’t decide to drop the humor from that actual game.
The potentially disappointing part of this announcement is that if this is Valve’s E3 ‘Surprise’, that means no Episode 3, or Half Life 3 at this year’s E3. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what else Valve has in store for us, and personally I doubt that is all they’ve come to show.
Shogun 2: Total War
New screenshots of the latest in the Total War series, Shogun 2, have been released, showing how beautiful the game is. I’ve never really been into the series, I only owned Medieval 2 Total War, but this may rekindle my interest.
Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium Online
Two years ago, Mythic Entertainment released Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning. It was a good game, but ultimately flawed and failed financially. Vigil Games are now having a crack at the franchise with a 40K MMO, which should be a breath of fresh air for the MMO genre. From first impressions, it looks like players will have Space Marines, Chaos, and Orkz available to them, which brings up some interesting problems such as how do you balance the races, as lore-wise, Space Marines typically fight in small squads of 4-5, while Orkz rely on massive numbers. Screenshots are here here here and here.
Bad Company 2: Vietnam
An odd departure for the incredibly successful modern combat FPS, an expansion taking it back 40 years to Vietnam. Expect a new singleplayer campaign, new multiplayer maps along with new guns and unlocks. Sounds good to me! Along with this announcement was a short teaser.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
I don’t have much information about Bioware’s upcoming Star Wars based MMORPG, but it is Bioware so my hopes are high. Lucas Arts have managed to pull together a fantastic CGI short movie for the game, which you can see below.
Crysis 2
I don’t hold much hope for the sequel to the graphics card melting original Crysis. From what I’ve seen, it’s suffered from the transition from PC exclusive to console, gone are the beautiful vistas and tropical scenery, and in are the common and dreary urban rubble settings you see from many B list console shooters. It still looks spectacular of course, and it may well run a lot better than the original, which would be a good thing, as Crysis is still one of the most graphically intensive games out there.
Also
This post is already long enough, so I’ll just give a brief mention to Brink, a group based multiplayer FPS set in a post-apocalyptic flooded world, and Rage, a FPS and racing game also set in a post-apocalyptic world. I did say brief.
E3: Medal Of Honor
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Multiplayer, Preview, Shooter, Single Player on 16 June 2010
We’ve known this has been coming for a while now, and two videos have been shown during EA’s Press Conference at E3. The first is a sneak peak at the singleplayer side of the game, being developed by EA LA. The trailer introduces us to some of the characters you will probably be playing, including an Apache pilot and a covert squad called ‘Wolfpack’. It’s short but sweet, take a look below.
Also shown was a multiplayer trailer which has me very excited, the multiplayer portion of the game is being developed by EA DICE, the developers behind the Battlefield series, and you can tell. The trailer shows off two very different maps, the first could easily be mistaken for a Modern Warfare 2 video, with close quarter, high paced action in an urban environment. The second is a lot more akin to Bad Company 2, with a larger, more open map and a Bradley APC, though DICE have been keen to say that we should not expect a clone.
The game is set for release on the 15th October in the EU, but the beta can be had as soon as tomorrow (the 17th) if you pre-order the game and also have Bad Company 2.
Steam’s EA Week
In case you haven’t seen this on ATK or somewhere else, Valve have named the images used in this week’s EA Sale (do I need to explain?), allowing you to see what offers are coming up and plan accordingly. Here is the rundown for the week…
You’re too late for this one, it wasn’t a great deal £10 each for Crysis and Warhead.
Bad Company 2 for £20 is well worth it if you haven’t got it already. Pre-order Medal Of Honor and get access to the beta. If you already have BC2, then you get to play on the 17th (4 days earlier).
C&C4 is meant to be a poor end to the series, though some previous games may be on offer if you’re interested. Red Alert 3 isn’t a bad game.
Need For Speed Shift and Burnout Paradise are both great games. NFS:S is the first game to take the series in a realistic, track racing direction. If you like racing games, these could be well worth £10.
Mirror’s Edge is a great freestyle running game, shame the combat is so awful and unnecessary. Dead Space is a must if you like your scary games. I expect both of these to be less than £5.
Mass Effect will most probably be less than £5, while the sequel will be 50% off at £15. Both well worth picking up. Play the first one before the sequel if you can.
The pick of the crop, Dragon Age is the best RPG in decades. If you don’t have this, pick it up for most likely £15. Awakenings, the expansion to Dragon Age, is also worth picking up for £10, it provides an additional 15 excellent hours of gameplay.
Electronic Entertainment Expo: Dead Space 2
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Preview, Shooter, Single Player on 15 June 2010
Yes, it’s been a long time since my last post. University work and yada yada excuses, but hopefully I’m back and I’ll be posting regular blog entries on the world of gaming and technology! What a week to start blogging again though (this wasn’t my reason, honest), with E3 getting into full swing and lots of hot new gaming news being delivered by the biggest names in the industry, including EA, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft.
The first game that’s got me really excited is Dead Space 2, which was announced a good few months ago on consoles, but only recently has it been confirmed on PC, after months of uncertainty. During EA’s Press Conference, new gameplay footage was shown which includes Isaac shooting limbs off mutated babies in a setting that rather reminds me of Bioshock, which can only be a good thing. Possibly Isaac has got himself trapped inside a galactic leisure cruiser this time. See the video below.
There was also a shorter more action packed gameplay section in Son’y Press Conference, which I managed to record and upload to YouTube, which you can see below provided it doesn’t get removed (I got an email from YouTube about the content being licensed to E3 broadcasters *gulp*). This footage seems to open with the last scene of the above video, and features more bright flashy lights, more long limbed Necromorphs with handily placed pussy joints to shoot, and more glass smashing and sucking Isaac into oblivion.
Note: You might also have noticed that the site design has changed, well I’ll be playing around with that over the next few days so expect things to change randomly.
Bad Company 2: Shotguns
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Guides, Multiplayer, Shooter on 25 March 2010
I’ve been playing a lot of Bad Company 2 lately, for obvious reasons. It’s an incredibly good multiplayer game, with some of the best sound and visuals in any recent FPS. More specifically, I’ve been getting to grips with the shotguns in the game, which when you have the right perks can be utterly devastating.
I put together a short video guide slash frag video showing off what the shotgun can do, have a watch. Put the video in 720p mode for best quality.
Screenshot competition at ATK Community
I have three £10 EA Store voucher codes to give away, giving you any free game from this list, including Battlefield 1943, Battlefield 2142, and Medal Of Honor Airborne. However, I’ve decided to make you work for them instead of just giving them away, so sign up on http://www.atkcommunity.com and get snapping. The rules and categories for screenshots are all on this thread. Winners are decided by public poll next week!
Starcraft 2 beta arrives
Most of you are probably aware that Blizzard’s sequel to the massively popular Starcraft (in North Korea anyway) has been in development for some time, and is finally due for release sometime this year. A closed beta for the game was opened some time last week and keys were handed out randomly to anyone who had enabled the beta opt-in for their Battle.net account. Initial reactions of the actual beta seem to be very positive, as you’d expect. You can check out livestreams of gamers playing the beta and also discuss it over at the GameReplays.org Starcraft 2 section.
For the lucky few who did get beta keys, they had a choice of either activating the key and playing the beta, or selling the key for up to $300. Yes, you read that correctly. Starcarft 2 beta keys are selling for exorbitant figures of over £200 on ebay. I guess this is the price some people are willing to pay to play the game a few months before everyone else. Myself, I’d rather have the cash.
A thought then… Presuming Diablo III will have the same beta service, and a new Battle.net account only requires one Blizzard game activated on it. You could probably pick up a budget copy of Warcaft 3 for less than £5, and every Battle.net account can potentially get a beta key… Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Steam client beta: UI upgrade
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Technology on 24 February 2010
This was unexpected. It was something that Steam users have been crying out for for a while, and last night the opt-in beta for this redesigned UI popped onto our Steam accounts. Taking part in the beta and trying out the new UI is simple, just go to your settings and in the beta dropdown select ‘UI Update’ (if for some reason Steam now doesn’t load for you, add ‘-clearbeta’ to your Steam shortcut).
Almost every feature of the client has been changed for the better. The store now runs on a WebKit based rendering system which replaces the slow cumbersome IE integration of the previous version. The library now shows a lot more information on your games, for example who on your friends list have the game and who are playing it, as well as your achievements. Strangely, the community tab remains unchanged, which to me was one of the clunkier parts of the old client so it seems strange Valve have decided not to update it.
Not everything is hunky-dory though. It seems the new UI suffers from a bad strain of consolitis. Icons are bigger, fonts are bigger, and in general it feels like a lot of space has been wasted. Take the store for example, I keep my Steam window quite small and with the previous UI the store page generally took up twice the vertical space available in my window (e.g. not much scrolling). The new store however is at least five times as big as the window, causing a lot more scrolling. This isn’t the only case, two of the three new library views consist of huge icons which make it a nightmare for users with many games (admittedly, you can now organize your games into categories, but the interface for doing so is less than optimal at the moment).
Watch this space because no doubt Valve will be improving the UI based on user feedback.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 beta unleashed
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Multiplayer, Preview, Shooter on 29 January 2010
The Battlefield Bad Company 2 PC beta was released at 5pm, which will officially be known as the day the internet almost died. The combined might of Fileplay and FilePlanet ground to a halt as thousands upon thousands of pre-orderers attempted to download a single 1.5GB file. Perhaps somebody should tell EA about a little thing called preloading.
Gameplay wise, the game is classic Battlefield (minus the planes, woo), which shouldn’t need explaining. It is very apparent that this is a beta, with high levels of lag on almost all servers, countless people complaining about crashes, and a friend system that just plain doesn’t work. Console origins show through, the game falls short of my expectations for aesthetics and it runs choppier than one might wish for, even on my GTX280. Bloated interfaces that ask you to login, chose your soldier (profile), and then proceeds to spend minutes retrieving your online statistics from EA’s master servers every time you launch the game.
But that’s what betas are for right? Here are my first 10 minutes.
UPDATE! If you want to increase your performance in the beta, put level of detail on low. It reduces the distance you see some objects (noticeably trees), but can REALLY reduce stuttering, at least it did for me.
Recent Comments