Archive for category Single Player
Metro 2034 announced and in 3D
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Shooter, Single Player on 29 June 2010
I’m more pleased by the actual announcement than the fact that this will be in 3D. A sequel to the popular Russian linear horror shooter wasn’t hard to guess, because the first was based on a book which also had a sequel called Metro 2034. The game is the fourth game from THQ to use 3D technology, the first being the original Metro 2033.
Metro 2033 was known mainly for it’s amazing visuals, probably the best looking game on the PC at this moment in time. It was a great linear horror shooter, though it suffered from having rather boring and generic enemies. It received unfairly average reviews in my opinion and I just hope that the developers can improve upon the ideas in the first and make a really defining horror game, which we haven’t had for a long time (except Penumbra).
Lets also hope that the 3D development doesn’t take precedence over making the game actually good. 3D games are just a gimmick and will never fully catch on, only being fueled by the popularity of 3D movies. From what I understand, not only do you need a special monitor to play 3D games, you also need twice as much processing power, making the game run slower or look worse, as the game is rendering two images, one for each eye.
E3: Even more E3 stuff
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Indie, Single Player on 19 June 2010
So E3 2010 has ended, no announcement of anything new from Valve *cough*Half Life*cough*, or Bethesda *cough*Elder Scrolls V*cough*, which was disappointing. The PC was generally overshadowed by console stick shaking technology from Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo. There were however a few interesting announcements on the second and third day of the event, which I will quickly mention below.
Trine 2
Trine was a beautiful game, a classic platformer with charm and style. We knew a sequel was coming, and this is the trailer that was shown. More enemies, more abilities, more settings, and co-op.
Project Dust
The spiritual successor to Populous, which I haven’t played. It’s a god game like Black & White (which I have played), and looks fairly interesting, at least it’s something different.
Rock Of Ages
Aka. Medieval Bowling. You roll rocks with faces down hills to destroy paper soldiers and towers. You can also build your own defenses, which I assume you have to dodge while rolling the boulder. It’s from the guys who made Zeno Clash, which was known for it’s craziness, and this game looks no different.
Swarm
I couldn’t find much information about this, but it looks like it could be a lemmings style puzzler. Worth keeping an eye on.
E3: Three post-apocalyptic shooters is better than one
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Preview, Shooter, Single Player on 17 June 2010
This post might get confusing, three very similar games have been shown at E3 called RAGE, Brink, and BulletStorm. All three are set in some sort of post-apocalypse setting and involve using guns to shoot people. Sounds good then.
RAGE
Let’s start with RAGE. RAGE was announced back in 2007, and is being developed by id Software (that’s pronounced ‘id’, not ‘eye dee’) and published by Bethesda Softworks. Details of the apocalypse is currently unknown, but the setting is similar to Borderlands, brown wasteland full of brown rocks, and towns constructed of corrugated sheet metal and neon signs. You fight against mutants, gangs, and ‘the authority’, presumably a sort of corrupted government attempting to control the wasteland. You can see more in the gameplay videos below, which is running on an Xbox 360. Release is 2011.
Screenshot 1 Screenshot 2 Screenshot 3 Screenshot 4
Brink
Brink is interesting. It can be played with up to 8 players in co-op, against another team of the opposite faction. The two faction are the Security and the Resistance, and there are two campaigns based around both stories. If, for example, you’re playing the campaign as Resistance, your Security enemies might be made up of actual humans. The game is based in a floating city after a world flood, and as population is increasing, citizens are on the ‘Brink’ of civil war. Build on the id Tech 4 engine, it’s easy to see why the game looks very similar to RAGE. It’s being developed by Spash Damage, and like RAGE, published by Bethesda Softworks, and is set for release in spring 2011.
Bulletstorm
Bulletstorm is all about the combat. Intense, bloody, visceral, over-the-top, hilarious, point increasing combat. Story takes a back seat here, this game is designed to be fun. It’s being developed by Epic Games and People Can Fly (yeah, I’ve never heard of them either), and published by EA. Build on the Unreal Engine, it takes place on what used to be a paradise world, a planet converted by humans to be a place for the wealthy to go on vacation, and now overrun by criminals and bandits. The E3 presentation will no doubt tell you more than I could in a paragraph. It’s due for release on the 22nd of February, 2011.
Three interesting titles, all set for release at similar times. I’m predicting RAGE to be a very good game. It’s been in development for over three years by id Software, who are known for great games such as Wolfenstein (the original) and Quake. Brink could be great, it depends how the multiplayer component turns out, as the actual combat at the moment doesn’t look all too fun. Bulletstorm just looks fantastic, the multiplayer has the potential to be the next Unreal.
Fire in the hole!
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.
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.
Zombilicious
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Indie, Single Player on 22 January 2010
The title of this post is a double entendre. I’d first like to announce the rebirth (or the rise from the dead if you will) of this blog, it’s been almost half a month since I last posted which just feels way too long. I could argue that it’s because I’ve been working almost solidly on my coursework for the last two weeks (which would be true) and any free time had been spent playing Heroes Of Newerth. Alas, I digress.
Two demos for some somewhat indie zombie games (there’s the double entendre) have been released which could keep you occupied for a couple of hours if you really tried, in reality you’ll probably last at maximum thirty minutes and that includes installation and download time, which is obviously dependant on your internet connection, wait… where was I?
You play a survivor who starts out in a taxi cab, ferrying people from the wakes of zombie apocalypse back to some sort of abandoned military fortress, while on the way squishing, burning, and generally tearing up countless undead in the hope that you’ll be rewarded with bigger guns and faster vehicles in the next mission.
The demo is available on Steam and also as a regular download. I’d recommend trying it out as it is quite satisfying when you powerslide through mobs of zombies, accompanied by the pleasant squelching noise. Unfortunately, the demo ends before you can adorn your taxi with flamethrowers and spikes, and the meatiest car you’ll aquire is a piffling sports car, which, in when you want to be plowing through as many as twenty at at time is hardly ideal.
Zombilution
You play as a master-zombie who’s goal is to gather up other zombies and create a massive zombie horde to destroy the gun toting humans. Buildings can be assaulted, civilians can be mutilated, and apparently nukes can be dropped?
It is quite evident that this game lacks a LOT of polish. The control scheme is dire, you use your mouse pointer to direct your zombies and the WASD keys move yourself relative the the direction your mouse is pointing, which takes some getting used to. I lasted about five minutes on arcade difficulty on the first level, aimlessly wondering around killing off lone survivors and turning them into undead before having them assault an occupied building only to kill two or three survivors and wipe themselves out.
Mod: Half Life 2 Cinematic Mod 10 Final
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Mods, Shooter, Single Player on 22 December 2009
If there was one Half Life 2 mod I had to recommend to somebody it would be this. The amount of work achieved by FakeFactory (Juergen Vierheilig) is simply staggering. A personal project of sorts, it has taken him 4 years and over $15,000 but the end was finally reached earlier this year with the final patch for Cinematic Mod 10. The premise is to unify Half Life 2 with Episodes One and Two, using the latest Source engine and enhancing the original’s graphics and giving the game a more gritty, uncomfortable look.
- Unified Engine; play the game (HL2 / EP1 / EP2) with the latest Orangebox engine / Advanced HDR / Dynamic Shadows
- Enhance the old HL2 maps with HDR, blooming, color-correction, new props
- Eliminate all blurry / Lowres textures with new Highres textures and/or Hires-Detail-Overlays
- Give the HL2 trilogy a more stressed, darker and uncomfortable look
- Enhance the soundtrack with a semi-dynamic new hollywood-style music
- Add optional HD characters
- Add more replay-value
You can download the full, final version from here (torrent) and here (http). It’s important to know before downloading that you need a 64-bit operating system and installed copies of Episode One and Two, and the original Half Life 2 to use the mod. More information, including recommended system specifications can be found on FakeFactory’s website. The mod also includes a model picker, so you can get rid of the god-awful Adriana Lima version of Alyx and restore the high resolution original version.
They say a picture speaks more than a thousand words, so here are some screenshots taken directly from the mod (click to enlarge), with no editing at all. Find more in AltTabbed’s gallery.
Official trailer
Recent Comments