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Tecmo’s Dead or Alive 5 Kicks High, Crumbles Beautifully (Hands-On)

Michael Futter — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:00:59 +0000

Ninja Gaiden wasn’t the only thing that Tecmo Koei was showing off this week. As you may know, gamers are poised to get their hands on Dead or Alive 5 for the first time with pre-orders of Ryu Hayabusa’s third adventure, or in the Ninja Gaiden 3′s Collectors’ Edition.

The DoA 5 Alpha features two stages and four different fighters, and for fans of the series, it’s going to serve as confirmation that the fifth time is the charm. In the latest iteration, fighters move faster and battles aren’t over until one fighter is down. There are no foregone conclusions, with luck turning on a dime. A well-timed counter or whiffed punch could mean the difference between a comeback from near-death and an embarrassing defeat.

I’ve always had a hard time getting into the Dead or Alive series. It always moved to slow for me, weighted too heavily toward the technical. My experience with this iteration, though, was a pleasant surprise. I had the opportunity to use Hayabusa and Ayane, both sporting graceful animations and brutally powerful strikes. Each fighter continues to have his/her own fighting style and learning not only your own strengths, but that of your opponent, is key.

I was extremely impressed by the visual fidelity, especially when it came to Dead or Alive’s “third combatant,” the stages. Wall hits and dynamic stages return bringing the same level of strategy and jockeying that past entries featured. A single well-placed wall hit can turn the tide, blasting an opponent over your head, slamming them face-first into the ground. Instead of the fighters moving in front of a moving background, though, the stages bleed all the way to the front of the arena. You won’t be fighting in front of a crumbling building, you’re on top of it, contributing to it’s utter destruction. The world explodes around the action, creating gorgeous scenes as the two human fighters engage in their deadly dance, hurtling toward the ground only to dust themselves off and continue.

When I had finished playing five or six fights and put the controller down, only one question lingered, “How long do I need to wait for my next match?”

Why you should care about Dead or Alive 5:
- Stunning visuals with the most dynamic stages in series history
- Your favorite characters return with moves both new and old
- Quick matches that can turn on a dime require you to play like you’re at the end of your lifebar

Ninja Gaiden 3 and Sigma Plus PSVita Hands-On, Team Studio Head Interview

Michael Futter — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:30:18 +0000

In a small room in mid-town Manhattan yesterday, I joined up with several journalists to sample the best of what Tecmo Koei had to offer in the coming months. After getting comfortable on the couch with a Playstation Vita in my hand, I was introduced to Yosuke Hayashi, head of Team Ninja. He was generous enough to answer a few questions about the Vita launch title, Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus and the much-anticipated Ninja Gaiden 3.

The Vita update of the original Ninja Gaiden looks gorgeous. The controls are still as fluid as I remember, and with the power of the hardware and button configuration, it felt exactly like playing with a gamepad. The touchscreen is used for entering first-person mode quickly, which makes it useful but not intrusive into the experience.

Michael Futter: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. It’s great to be able to see both of these titles, Hayabusa’s beginning and his latest adventure, side-by-side. Can you tell me what prompted you to bring back the original Ninja Gaiden story for the Vita’s launch?

Yosuke Hayashi: Bringing Ninja Gaiden to the Vita in the form of Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus was a great fit. First, we had a very limited time frame to prepare a game for the Vita, so it made sense to bring Ninja Gaiden to a new audience. Also, this will help get people excited about the franchise with the release of Ninja Gaiden 3 coming so soon.

MF: What were some of the challenges and some of the joys in adapting the original Ninja Gaiden to the new hardware?

YH: For the development team, it is always fun to work on new hardware. The tight time frame made it challenging, but Team Ninja sees the challenge as part of the fun.

MF: Given how difficult the Ninja Gaiden series is, I can tell you take that to heart. Speaking of which, what can we expect in terms of challenge for both Sigma Plus and Ninja Gaiden 3?

YH: Handheld systems aren’t exactly like cell phones, but people now expect to be able to pick up a game and play for a short amount of time. Because of that, we wanted Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus to be accessible to casual players. We’ve added a “Hero Mode” for this audience. While the Normal and Hard modes will still provide the challenge that the series is known for, Hero mode gives a helping hand with auto-blocking and auto-evading when you are wounded. You can always switch down to this difficulty level, too, if you want to try the game out on the normal difficulty.

MF: Finally, what did you learn from working with the Vita hardware? What will you take with you to your next project on the system?

YH: Adapting the game for a broader audience was a challenge. We didn’t want to take anything away from the challenge that fans love, but we wanted as many people to feel comfortable experiencing it as possible. Hero mode solves both problems. We brought that sensibility to Ninja Gaiden 3, also. You can switch to Hero Mode at any time in that game.

I’m excited to give the full version a go when it arrives. I loved the original Ninja Gaiden, but hit a brick wall with the difficulty. I’m thrilled to finally be able to go back and finish it, with Hero Mode if necessary. It sounds and looks as good as you remember it, which is an impressive feat given the fog of nostalgia.

Spec Ops: The Line Will Mess With Your Head, Tear at Your Heart (Hands On)

Chris Carlson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:30:52 +0000

When it comes to military shooters, I find it’s very hard for consumers, like myself, to actually express interest in a genre that is so wildly overused. My first thoughts usually are, “What does this game do differently than other games? Why should I even care about this title?” However, this is where I come in and tell you that you should keep a very close eye on Spec Ops: The Line. If you’ve been dying for an extremely solid military shooter that has a story that is genuinely interesting and downright emotional, this may be what you’ve been waiting for.

One of my most common problems with military shooters is finding a way to give two shits about the story. Usually it’s just another story about America invading/being invaded and you’re the hero. You blow shit up and move on with your day. That isn’t the case here. In fact, during my two hours spent playing the demo version shown, I expressed more interest and emotion in the game’s story than I had with every military shooter in 2011. I’m looking at you Modern Battlefield 3.

What Yager Development does particularly well with The Line is offer up very memorable story moments. When you look back on franchises like Call of Duty or Battlefield, you think about the biggest explosion or some incredible sniping mission. (You know damn well where you learned about the Coriolis effect.) Now, while the gameplay in Spec Ops: The Line is indeed superb, the most memorable moments are the emotional events that happen, not just the big budget action sequences.

If you were one of the lucky few who was able to participate in Yager’s Spec Ops: The Line EPD (Exclusive Private Demo) way back when, let it be known that much has changed since then, in a damn good way. First and foremost, the game has actually been in development for nearly five years, now. The reason for the huge gap between the EPD and now is due to a complete rewrite of the game’s script. They’ve also increased graphical detail, fine tuned the controls and evolved their core gameplay elements since then. Think about playing a less gruesome, yet more realistic version, of Gears of War in a Modern Warfare setting and you’ve got the general idea of Spec Ops: The Line.

The cover system and animations have been tuned to perfection, and the gunplay is fast, fun and intuitive. During my time with the demo version, I played through various sections of the game, with subtitled cutscenes to fill in the parts that weren’t shown. With the game being set in Dubai, you’d expect nothing but sandy levels. However, while those do exist, Yager has done a great job with variety in their color palette, as well as level design. In one part of the demo, there was a beautiful underground aquarium with multicolored glass statues making for a gorgeous environment to walk in; so beautiful, in fact, that I was afraid of even shooting my gun. That beauty ended when a body came crashing down through the ceiling onto the glass walkway, nearly shattering it to a thousand pieces.

Aside from the beautiful environments, Yager also is going for a somewhat cinematic experience. It’s nothing too over the top, like you’d see in Uncharted, but, rather, realistic events portrayed in cinematic form. Trust me when I say, they work beautifully. They feel natural, look fantastic and really draw you into the moment. Other little cinematic touches, like slowing down time when you pull off a quick head shot, really add to the direction Yager is heading. One of the coolest gameplay elements actually lies in the sand itself. Throwing a grenade may not kill someone in its blast radius, but it will kick sand up into their eyes, temporarily blinding them. Don’t tell me that ain’t cool.

You can also use the sand and environments to your advantage in battle. For example, shooting out a glass window could send a mountain of sand down onto your enemies. Some of these actions are scripted, but others are purely optional, and sometimes you wont even be aware that they exist unless you look closely at your surroundings. Of course, if you feel like blasting away every enemy you see, that’s entirely up to you. The Line also features Gears of War like executions, in a more realistic way. You’ll often find yourself stepping on the chest of an enemy then putting a bullet between their eyes. This brings me to another interesting gameplay element: Choice, consequence and multiple endings.

The developer I spoke to confirmed that the game will indeed have multiple endings, and that you’ll also have to make game changing decisions throughout. A few of these choices will actually have impact on the outcome of the game, but others will be more “in the moment” types of choices. Halfway through the demo, I had one of these “in the moment” type of choices.

The person I was supposed to capture and interrogate was already being brutally tortured. However, nearby civilians where being slammed into the ground and having bullets shot next to their face while they squirmed in fear. I had to make a choice. Save the civilians and lose my target, or get to my target by any means necessary. Being the asshole that I am, I said fuck the civilians, popped the guys in the head and captured my target, which then lead to a giant battle scene. However, the developer then told me, that had I chosen to save the civilians, I would have avoided that battle entirely. These choices will surely add replay value to the single player.

As I mentioned before, an engaging and memorable story is hard to find in modern military games. However, thinking back on my time with Spec Ops: The Line, I vividly remember many moments I experienced, compared to other games in which I had a hard time even remembering my character’s name or even where the hell I was at.

There were two scenes, in particular, that really stood out to me and made for true “oh shit” moments. The first one came as I was walking through the dunes of Dubai, only to see dozens of bodies hung from telephone poles, swaying in the breeze. I found myself slowly walking through the area, just taking time to absorb what had happened and to understand what the player character and his team are going through.

Now, if you know what White Phosphorus is, you know just how much damage it can do. At the end of the demo, I was faced with 200+ “enemy” soldiers. My only option of survival was using the mortar turret armed with White Phosphorus. As my squad mates are yelling “Are you fucking crazy, don’t you know what that shit does?!”. I’m thinking “Fuck yeah, and I’m going to use the hell out of it”. So, after nearly five minutes of raining hell down upon hundreds of soldiers and vehicles, I was left with nothing but a giant cloud of fumes and dust.

After hopping down out of the turret, the game forced me to walk slowly through the wreckage I’d caused . This is where the emotional part kicked in. As I’m walking though hell, I see soldiers that are still alive, burning, crawling and begging for help. Through the dust particles, I see flames, fumes, charred bodies and hear sounds of desperation. It was a powerful scene to say the least. As I reached the end of the carnage, a soldier fell to his knees in front of me. He was still on fire. With his dying breath he said, “We we’re trying to help you.”

Then my demo ended.

Looking back at my time, I wish I could experience it all over again. Yager has made great progress with the game, and I believe re-writing the entire script was a very wise decision. Not only did the story keep my attention, but it was dark, mature, emotional and left me wanting more. Pile that on top of some great action, gun play, varied enemy types and weapons, and you have one hell of a game. Unfortunately, those looking for multiplayer details will be disappointed. While Yager did say they’ve made great progress and can’t wait to show it off, it’s just not the right time yet.

I did, however, notice an option for downloadable content at the main menu, which is pretty standard these days (especially for 2K). Whether it will expand upon the single player, or just be simple multiplayer map packs is yet to be revealed.

What you should know, is that it would be a mistake to write off Spec Ops: The Line as just another military shooter with a forgettable story and tacked on multiplayer. It’s much more than that, and Yager made damn well sure I saw it.

Twisted Metal Proves to be Twisted Fun (Hands On)

Todd Schlickbernd — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:00:12 +0000

Twisted Metal is the oldest Sony-exclusive franchise in all of Sony-exclusive franchise history and yet it hasn’t properly graced the cirsp Blu-ray diskiness of the PlayStation 3. Well clearly Eat Sleep Play has merely been biding its time until the climate was perfect for a new Twisted Metal because this one feels like the car combat game everyone has been waiting for. Vehicles defy reality, twisting and drifting to the player’s whim, combat is fast-paced and intense, and the destruction and mayhem is absolutely top notch. There are some minor hiccups, some of which are probably more of an issue to Twisted Metal fans than those who have never played a Twisted Metal game, but overall this is a game to keep your eye on.

Ever since humans first dreamt they could drive large blocks of metal, they wished they could smash them into other blocks of metal, or perhaps blow them up with all sorts of weaponry, but feared the social impact of having so many deaths on a daily basis. In comes video games, gateway to awesome things unattainable in real life, and with it, the car combat genre. Somehow this genre is one of the most difficult things to make work. You’d think it’d be super easy, like… cars + bombs = win, right? Not right. There’s a million ways to implement the idea of car combat, some use racing, some use deathmatch, some are top-down view, and some… are Twisted Metal. Twisted Metal has always been the epitome of a car combat game, the game other car combat games base themselves off of, and this iteration is no different.

Traditionally Twisted Metal has been an arena-style car combat game and it still is. However, in the past each car had a character attached to it (along with a car-unique special weapon) and everybody had to fight over which character they were going to play, though “everybody” only extended to four human players and bots. This time around, there’s a rather robust multiplayer mode which supports up to 16 players and the game has changed to accommodate this. Now, there are several factions to choose from, four of which are available in the demo, along with any vehicle and basic weapon combination when preparing to play a game of Twisted Metal. While each vehicle still has a unique special, multiple players can pick the same vehicle now, which is super cool. Last of the real big gameplay changes is the inclusion of the helicopter vehicle which freely flies about the sky wreaking mayhem and being generally difficult to target, but short to stay alive.

The demo itself has both a single player experience with bots and two online modes including Deathmatch, a timed kill-everybody-athon, and Nuke, a team based capture-the-flag plus sort of deal. Fearing my Twisted Metal skills were suspect after not having played since Twisted Metal: Black (like nine years ago), I opted to play some single player first. The initial controls completely eluded me, but thankfully there are plenty of control styles because just about every button on the controller is used in this game. After figuring out what button does what, I settled in and quickly started to enjoy myself.

Cars are fast, even slow cars are pretty fast, especially with turbo, and yet a sort of “break reality drift” button allows cars to take ridiculous turns and operate with the precision necessary to even dream of hitting anybody with the myriad of projectile death-causers in this game. That mechanic is really the anchor to this game that makes it playable, enjoyable and not the slightest bit frustrating or difficult to play. The gameplay strategy of weaving in and out of battles still exists, taking time to stock up on weapons and entering battles when it’s feasible. Demoltion derby or not, there’s still strategy to this game. The only time the core mechanics get in the way of themselves is targeting, without a way to manually target or switch targets (as far as I found) sometimes the game locks on to the wrong target and that Reaper (fragile motorcycle) gets away with no health while you target that Darkside (beefy semi) and she laughs at you. While that can be frustrating, those issues only exist with the homing weapons, and there are plenty of non-homing weapons to use.

On that subject, the available arsenal is pretty fantastic. The addition of passenger-used weapons like the sniper rifle and shotgun are awesome. Both are special-case weapons (polar opposites in range) but they can be very useful for securing kills both in and out of the mayhem. The traditional weapons return with the power missiles, swarmers, homing and fire missiles, and they’re all super fun to use and remain a staple in every combat situation. There are a couple items including a remote bomb and RC-C4 Car which use a pop-up cam when fired off into the distance to monitor if there are enemies in its blast radius. User interface-wise, weapons with areas of effect do different are qualified when the damage notification pops up, saying “Napalm Close: 30 Damage” versus “Napalm Far: 10 Damage”, same with shotguns etc. While not crucial to gameplay, it does help give the player an idea of how they need to lead their target and judge space within the universe.

Game mode wise, every mode was super awesome fun times, but each had a bit of a hiccup that was a tad frustrating. The single player mode in the demo is elimination style and, while totally fine in theory, can be frustrating because like most games with cars the AI makes a habit of making sure it’s around you at all times. Most every game I finished (after dying and losing) I have taken a significantly greater amount of damage than my AI opponents, having healed so much trying to evade their incredibly tenacious chases. That’s no fun. It’s no fun to be hunted down and forcibly removed from a demo experience. It’s one thing to be killed because, well, it’s a game about killing each other, but it’s annoying when consecutive matches end with receiving way too much AI attention.

The two online modes, Deathmatch and Nuke, were far less hiccupy. Deathmatch pits up to sixteen players against each other in a giant clusterfuck on a massive map (the same map available in all modes) and gives players points for kills and assists. Before hiccups, it should be noted that this game might be the only game to get freaking assists right. Why is it so hard to credit players for assists in first person shooters? No idea. But in Twisted Metal you get varying levels of points based on how much damage you contributed to the death of any player ranging from soft to hard assist. Hard assist is much like the Halo assist in that it is essentially a “kill steal”. Beyond that, gameplay is frenetic and filled with all sorts of explosions and people driving through and off of buildings, leading to immense satisfaction in victory and in loss. My only qualm is with the often-unobserved Twisted Metal powers including the mine, shield and freeze. While the first two are totally fine, freeze lasts way too long; with sixteen players blowing the shit out of each other constantly, getting frozen is pretty much guaranteed death unless you’re Darkside.

Nuke is a team mode where players alternate offensive and defensive roles, with the offense team attempting to capture faction leaders, sacrifice them to nuke firing devices, then guide a nuclear missile into the other team’s statue. Awesome in theory, awesome in practice. This take on capture the flag is really fun, and takes full advantage of the all of the game’s features, giving fast vehicles a dedicated role and tanky vehicles a dedicated role as well, allowing mid-ranged vehicles to play the field. The strategy here is really under-the-radar, but man can a good strategy just dominate. Unfortunately, the biggest strategy I’ve seen so far is to have the helicopter capture the faction leader, fly a million miles into the sky then go deliver it safely. The helicopters are far too difficult to target, but they’re not that fast or durable so it’s plenty easy to counter this strategy, but it is frustrating nonetheless.

Twisted Metal is absolutely back, though it has changed in more ways than one. Just about every change to the core mechanics of this game has been to accommodate the current generation and is ultimately welcome, this coming from a massive Twisted Metal fan. Combat was fast, frenetic, and even when hunting for weapons I couldn’t escape the violence for long. Destroying the level, finding weapon caches and entering and leaving combat at the right times remain the key to victory and fun, and no game with cars does it better. This game must be demo’d, everyone should try it, even if you’re not a racing fan because it’s more about using a car as a giant weapon than driving an actual car, and any lover of shooting things or BSU needs to play this.

Twisted Metal is out on PS3 exclusively on Valentine’s day, February 14; blow up your significant other then hand them flowers. Then blow those up.

Gotham City Impostors Is Not Your Average FPS (Hands On)

Chris Carlson — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:00:06 +0000

The last thing that comes to your mind when thinking of Batman and The Joker is a FPS. So, Gotham City Impostors is a very interesting game to say the least. At first sight, Gotham City Impostors may looks like just another FPS, but rest assured, it’s far more than that. In fact, I was quite surprised at just how damn fun this game really was. Best part of it all, it’s an XBLA/PSN title and it packs some serious punch.

What sets Gotham City Impostors apart from every other FPS in the over crowded market, is how much variety and customization is offered. No matter how you choose to play a FPS, there’s something here for you. So let me break down just how much customization is packed into this massive downloadable title, which is known as your “Secret Identity”.

First off is editing your loadouts. You have your standard primary weapon, back up weapon, support item and what every super hero can’t do without; a gadget. You’re primary and back up weapons include; assault rifles, submachine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, etc. You also get a mod for each one.

The Dawn Patrol assault rifle for example has a wide selection of mods such as a silencer, red dot sight, extended mags, or even a body odor sniffer that reveals the positions of nearby enemies as wavy yellow “stink clouds”. Last but not least is your camo. FPS these days can’t have an awesome arsenal and no camo, that’s just crazy talk!

The support items and gadgets are what really make Gotham City Impostors stand out. Your support items would be your grenades or flashbangs in other games. In Gotham City, shit gets real. Who needs grenades when you can use bear traps, shurikens, or even a boomerang that can target multiple enemies and stun them all within a matter of a seconds.

The gadgets on the other hand, are where the real fun comes into play. Not only are these reusable, there’s also objects within the maps that benefit some gadgets. Equip a pair of roller skates to move quicker and you can jump off ramps sending you soaring through the air. If you’re more of a flying type of guy, just equip a glider rig and you’ll be flying like Batman in no time.

This isn’t useful on the ground, but it can be if you’re in the right place at the right time. Vents will blow air up sending you into the sky if you have the glider equiped. From here, you can perform “Dive Bombs” on unsuspecting enemies. Yeah, it’s bad ass.

If you’re like me though, you’ll enjoy the grapple gun which can hook on to virtually anything pulling you straight in. Feeling lazy and don’t want to walk to the other side of the map? No problem. Pull out your grapple gun, aim, fire, and before you know it, you’re behind the enemy.

All of these mentioned above can be selected in your loadout giving you whatever experience you choose to have. There are pre-sets for starting out, but once you level up you’re free to use what ever you like, when you like. It doesn’t stop there either. Even though this is an FPS, you can even customize your character. Based on your performance in game, you’ll earn “Costume Coins”. These can be used to purchase new: hats, logos, capes, shirts, pants, shoes, etc.

There’s also clan support which is called “Gangs” in-game, and two other customization options set as “Classified”. So prepare on spending quite some time perfecting your hero. While all this is great, it’s the gameplay that really matters right? Rest assured because Gotham City Impostors is a fucking blast. The beta currently supports two maps and two game modes. Psych Warfare is where you grab a battery and plug it in to demoralize your enemies with propaganda. Unfortunately, due to the lack of participants currently in the beta, I was unable to ever find a match in this game mode.

Fumigation is the other game mode which is essentially Domination from Call of Duty, except better. There’s three control points placed on the map in which you capture and defend. However, you’re not working to a set score. You’re working towards 100%. What this means is, you could be at 99% and the other team could start dominating you bringing you down to 10%. What’s great is if you start picking up your slack, you always have a chance to come back and win without worrying about the team having a higher “score” than you.

At the same time, this can be really bad for newcomers. I’ve been in games that lasted just a few minutes because my team was unable to overpower the enemy resulting in a very quick and unpleasant match. When you have two good teams and all these different weapons and gadgets being used at once, it creates a really chaotic, yet satisfying experience.

The controls are easy to pick up and jump straight into you, if you played just about any other arcade style FPS, you’ll feel right at home. The only real problem I’ve encountered with Gotham City Impostors is lag spikes. They don’t necessarily happen every few seconds, but they do happen often enough to make it somewhat annoying. I’ve also had a few instances where the countdown would reach 1 second, but the game would never start. Thankfully, this is a beta! So hopefully these minor issues will be ironed out before release.

From the mass amount of customization and variety, to the easy pick up and play controls, Gotham City Impostors brings one hell of a great time. I’m not going to lie, when I saw the trailers for the game, I thought it was going to be really lame. However, after playing multiple hours with my friends, this is definitely a game I’m going to be picking up once it’s released in January. Oh, and did I mention this was an arcade title? Yes, yes I did. But I feel as if I should remind you seeing how this could easily pass as a full downloadable title with a similar pricing model to games such as Resident Evil 4 HD.

Definitely keep your eyes on Gotham, my friends.

How and Why I Spent 36 Hours Playing Star Wars: The Old Republic

Jensen Walker — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 23:00:50 +0000

Like many, I recently spent a weekend exploring the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta. All of Fri/Sat and most of Sunday were devoted to the MMO I intend to play come December 20^th.

The official SWTOR forums have since exploded with multiple threads praising or criticizing the game, with many being particularly negative. Impressions are, of course subjective, and what one person finds to be an absolute mess is another’s paradise.

What many of these forum threads lack is the ability to present an opinion which isn’t argumentative, accusatory or downright hostile, and unfortunately they drown out the more measured criticisms of those who enjoyed the game, but found certain areas lacking. Today, I’m going to present my own critique of BioWare’s much hyped MMO in what is hopefully a considered and thoughtful manner. This also means this is going to be a long article, so you might want to get yourself a refreshing beverage before you continue.

To begin with, I should say I only leveled two characters, a Smuggler to 18 and a Consular to 11. I have no personal experience with mid, late, or end-game content, although I do know people who have been a part of the Game Testing Program for quite some time. Therefore, these impressions are largely based around pre-20 Republic content. With typical style and flair, I was so engrossed in the game that I forgot to take screenshots, so nearly all screens in this article come courtesy of Reddit user bic_lighter, who had more presence of mind than me.

Without further ado, let’s launch into the first point of discussion, that being:

Graphics and Visuals

If you read the official forums, the loudest contributors of the opinion that SWTOR’s graphics are awful for a game which is to all extents and purposes a 2012 MMO. The truth is, the visuals are fine for an MMO.

No, they’re not Skyrim standard, but they couldn’t possibly be to that standard without sacrificing hundreds of thousands of potential players. Skyrim is a beautiful game and my GTX 570 is capable of realising that beauty, but for every one of us with the latest generation graphics cards, there are ten more PC users who are still running on a card and processor that are much, much older.

Time for an upgrade, you might say! Unfortunately, your ‘average’ MMO player has little inclination to upgrade and in many cases also lacks the funds. MMO’s succeed because they can tap into a base that games like Battlefield 3 and Skyrim cannot. As much as they may be maligned by certain quarters, casual players provide the bulk of subscriptions for paid MMO’s, and the bulk of microtransactions for F2P’s.

That being said, SWTOR’s stylised graphics provide a significant upgrade on World of Warcraft’s. There are plenty of players who found their old rigs struggling to run the beta efficiently even given that SWTOR’s visuals aren’t cutting edge. For the most part, environments seemed to be rich enough, cutscenes were nicely rendered and the game certainly has a sense of scale which prior MMO’s have lacked.

Stormwind’s Cathedral seems positively mundane once you’ve wandered around inside the gigantic Jedi temple on Tython, or the halls of the senate on Coruscant. Comparably, Rift’s city hubs are more like tiny settlements compared to the Republic Fleet.

Anti-aliasing was also disabled for the beta, so users can expect some graphical improvements and smoothing of jagged edges come launch.

UPDATE - A bug in the graphical settings resulted in high resolution textures not being available during the beta. The game looks much better with those higher settings enabled. Observe the below screenshot.

If there is an area where the graphics are obviously lacking, it’s the textures. Some textures are fairly low resolution (pazaak tables, for example), and your PC’s armor and weapons aren’t always particularly crisp if you zoom in closely. Speaking of PC’s, that leads us nicely in to…

The Darkness II Has Co-Op and It’s Awesome (Hands On)

Dave Oshry — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:00:54 +0000

Guess what? They’re co-op modes in The Darkness II. Guess what else? I’ve played them and they’re fun as hell.

Let’s get right to it. It’s called Vendettas and if you’ve played any sort of Call of Duty Spec Ops you’ll feel right at home here.

Except this isn’t quite like CoD Spec Ops. Not only do you get to play as one of four very distinct and crazy characters with very distinct and crazy weapons, but each of these characters has their own backstory and they all tie into the main plot of The Darkness II. Thus making vendettas infinitely cooler than Spec Ops. It also supports up to four players. Word.

Before we go any further, check out this trailer to get a better idea of what I’m talking about:

Yes, I quite enjoyed that too.

Now let’s run down the cast courtesy of 2K, shall we?

First up:

Inugami (The Samurai)

Inugami is a very dark character, mentally unstable and driven only by his need for revenge. He names himself after a dog god of Japan that legends say was created from extreme suffering, trained to exact revenge upon the enemies of its master.

Inugami has the power of Swarm. His Swarm power resembles an attack of miniature Yokai demons of all kinds.

He wields Kusanagi – a mystical weapon that was said to have destructive properties. Historical documents dating from the 7^th Century tell of how the Emperor Temmu fell ill as a result of wielding the sword, and how Kusanagi was then removed and placed in a shrine. But even at that time, Kusanagi was already hundreds of years old. Its origins remain unknown.

Here’s my take: Inugami is the stereotypical Samurai Warrior. Silent but deadly and very skilled. Kusunagi controls like one of Jackie’s demon arms, meaning that you can swing the sword around with the thumbstick in any direction you choose while you spray bullets with whatever’s in your other hand.

Each character has brutal execution move that can be used on a stunned or nearly dead opponent. Inugami’s excution is a rather satisfying disemboweling. He pairs well with just about any other character, preferably a ranged character since he will have to get up close and personal to use Kusunagi.

Next we have:

Shoshanna (The Hebrew Hammer)

Shoshanna is an ultra-efficient agent for Mossad, a woman with the highest degree of training. She is highly unimaginative and utterly receptive to the orders of her superiors with the agency. She does not question her mission, nor does she question the existence of the magic she sees all around her. This makes her the perfect operative in New York.

Shoshanna wields the Arm of the Night, a powerful weapon fused with Dark essence. It’s been in her family for over 75 years, though everyone who has carried it before hasn’t lived to see their 30^th birthday. However, for her, the legacy of hunting and destroying evil wherever it hides in the world is worth the price.

She possesses the power of Gun Channeling. Interestingly, the Darkness has become entranced with technology – it knows that the newest weapons are capable of more efficient death and destruction.

Here’s my take: Shoshanna is a ranged character who works best if you fight with reckless abandon. I’ve spent some time with the IDF and I’ve known many a Shoshanna in my day but I’ve never met one as badass as this. Her Arm of the Night is a sawed off shotgun that actually feels quite similar to an 1887 in Modern Warfare 2. And yes, by that I mean it is uber powerful and has far too much range.

Your gameplay with Shoshanna will consist mostly of using an Uzi in one hand then using your Arm of the Night to finish enemies off with the other. You’ll literally hear all sorts of click click boom. As a ranged character who can make her firearms extra powerful via gun channeling, she pairs well with almost any other character. Her execution move involves shooting an enemy in the groin then shoving her shotgun down their throat and blowing their brains out. I want to marry her.

Next up is:

Serious Sam 3 Is So F**king Old School It Hurts (Hands On)

Dave Oshry — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:33:36 +0000

Whoever said, “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” was right about nine times out of ten. That tenth time was reserved for Serious Sam 3.

In case for some reason you’ve been counting, yes, this our third hands on preview of Serious Sam 3. Why? Because the game still isn’t out despite PC gamer cries for an old school FPS in the wake of whatever it is you’d call the on-rails phenomenon that is Call of Duty 5-8.

But let’s not talk about that. Let’s not talk about Battlefield 3, let’s not talk about Bulletstorm and let’s certainly not talk about Duke Nukem Forever. Let’s talk old school.

This Is Not Battlefield 3

There once was a time in the FPS genre when the only thing you did more than shoot was strafe. When you pinned your pinky to the shift key, sprayed and prayed. A time when you could inexplicably carry 16 weapons at a time and tiny bits of health and armor were scattered all over the world for no apparent reason. A time when level design meant something other than going in a straight line and shooting whatever generic enemy was right in front of you. These were good times. ”Serious” Sam Stone wasn’t around back then, but somebody in Croatia obviously was. Croteam’s Serious Sam first burst onto the scene back in 2001, and old school FPS gamers the world over rejoiced while they spilled blood and bullet casings.

Fast forward 10 years and Sam is finally back in a major way. A new engine, new features, but that same old school attitude. How old school is Serious Sam? He makes Prince jokes. Yet to be fair, Prince just got big in Croatia… so it’s understandable. Serious Sam 3 is what it sounds like when doves (and Duke Nukem) cry.

This Preview Is Now Officially NSFW

So fucking old school it hurts? Yes. Both my character and my physical self. My eyes are bleeding, my fingers are numb, I have no health, no armor and I’m being chased by a pack of angry Headless Kamikaze’s through the streets of a soon to be post apocalyptic Egypt. I love this game.

Serious Sam 3 has a multitude of multiplayer modes, 16 player campaign co-op, a survival mode and more PC settings than you can shake a boomstick at… but all I got was the single player build to mess around with for a month. Luckily, it’s long, it’s strong, and it’s down to get the friction on. I was given 11 out of the game’s 12 chapters and I played them back and forth, front to back, over and over again, on every difficuly from Tourist to Serious. On tourist, even a console CoD gamer has a chance to clear the level. On Serious… you will die. Dark Souls has nothing on 500 Kleer Skeletons, Kamikazes and Gnaar all coming at you at once. Seriously.

It’s hard to explain just how insane Serious Sam 3 can get if you’re not familiar with the franchise, and even harder to explain if I told you that there was an in-game option to turn all the blood into candy. Luckily, I’ve made this short video presentation for your amusement:

Yep. that’s pretty much Serious Sam 3 in a nutshell. Now, imagine scenarios like that with up to 16 player co-op. My frame rate hurts just thinking about it.

As you may have noticed, the game also looks pretty damn good. That’s thanks to Croteam’s new and aptly named “Serious Engine 3.” What this engine does (besides pump out fantasticly detailed visuals) is allow for hundreds of enemies to be on screen at once with minimal frame rate loss. I don’t know how it does it, it just does. However, even my mammoth gaming rig slowed at bits during certain boss battles where I was literally in an acre wide open space being chased by roughly over 9000 screaming meanies. Sure, they could have scaled it down, but that ain’t what Serious Sam is about.

For those who are interested, the game takes place in some sort of destroyed semi-futuristic Egypt and is apparently a prequel to whenever the evil armies of Lord Mental took over the Earth in 20XX. However, if you play Serious Sam for the story you should probably start calling yourself Lord Mental.

Meanwhile, Egypt itself looks marvelous, and here’s some screens I took to prove it:

Lovely

Scary

Egypty

Three Hours With Skyrim, Two Brave Bosmers and One Lying Khajiit

Dave Oshry — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 01:45:18 +0000

No, I didn’t find any Werewolves.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I’d like to tell you a story. A story of might and magic, choice and consequence, romance, adventure, camaraderie and intrigue. If I could think of any other awesome nouns I’d throw them in there as well, but alas – on with the show.

If you haven’t already, please read my last hands-on preview of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which details the very first encounter with Vampires and much more.

But where to begin? How about in the real world.

As I walked into a posh hotel suite in midtown Manhattan I was greeted by what has become a common sight for me. Roughly eight Xbox 360 developer consoles hooked up to 27ish inch flatscreen TV’s all running the latest press build of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As usual, there wasn’t a PC in sight. I had expected as much, yet I was still slightly disappointed. But I digress…

On the far side of the room, a PR representative was apologizing profusely to Kotaku’s Biran Crecente who had apparently found some glitches durng his playthrough. But I had no time for such drama, I was on a mission. So, I grabbed what I recall was a turkey and brie sandwich and a bottle of sparkling water (they feed us well) and sat down in the corner of the suite in front of one of consoles. As I gazed upon a familiar screen that said little more than ‘Skyrim’, I noticed most of the other writers who were scheduled in my time slot had yet to arrive, so I figured I had at least a small head start. Huzzah.

Where to Even Begin...

Once again, I wasted no time in the character creator (unless you count the 10 minutes I spent tryng to make an albino Argonian at a reader’s request) and quickly selected my usual traits. Bosmer… tattoos… mohawk… good enough… let’s go!

Now having had hands on time with Skyrim before, and having already seen Riverwood and the surrounding areas before, I knew that this time around I had to go where no member of the press had gone before. I had a laundry list of questions from readers, but how could I possibly answer them all in just three hours?! Should I head to the Bards College in the far Northwest? To the College of Winterhold in the far Northeast? All the way down to Riften, which was clearly named after RipTen? I knew one thing was sure, I was not going to dick around in Riverwood or go on that bloody Golden Claw quest! Oh no, this playthrough was going to be different!

However, there was a problem. I was level one and I had nearly no gear. How on earth would I survive anywhere in the vast lands of Skyrim if I ventured off alone into the wilderness? I wouldn’t, I’d surely be killed! So, with the most epic fucking sigh you’ve ever heard, I begrudgingly trudged toward Riverwood. I assure you, I cursed the divines the entire way.

I Don't Even Own The Game and I've Already Seen This Over 9000 Times...

As I arrived in Riverwood, I knew I needed to get myself leveled and geared up fast if I was to have enough time to explore beyond what had already been seen and done by my brothers and sisters in the gaming press. I quickly came upon a Nord named Sven and his mother, arguing about dragons as they always seem to do. Except instead of passing them by, this time I decided to talk to Sven, to see what he was all about. Maybe he had a quest for me?

After going through some dialogue options about how crazy his mother surely was, it turned out he did indeed have a quest for me. You see, Sven had been dating Camilla, whose brother Lucan owns the general store in town. However, Sven knows Camilla is in love with a Bosmer named Faendal. Sven wanted me to bring Camilla a forged letter that would convince her that Faendal was no good. For this, he would pay me some paltry sum. I agreed to his task, knowing full well I’d never take the side of a Nord against a fellow Bosmer, but he was none the wiser.

Did Sven not realize I was Bosmer? And why would he task a complete stranger with the future of his relationship? No matter. Videogames, amirite? I walked further into town to find Camilla in her brother’s store. As I suspected, one of the dialogue options presented was to tell her that Sven had forged the letter and that Faendal was in fact a stand up guy… or elf in this case. I chose said option and Camilla was noticeably upset that Sven would attempt to do such a thing. She instructed me to find Faendal and tell him at once… so I did.

I easily found Faendal by the lumber mill. He looked a lot like me. Tall, thin, handsome and Elven. I liked him immediately.

Hands on Mass Effect 3 Co-Op, Why it’s a Good Thing

Dave Oshry — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:00:57 +0000

When the world finally learned that the Mass Effect series was in fact getting multiplayer, just as many people were concerned as were elated.

“Get yer Call of Duty outta my Mass Effect!!” The roleplayers cried.

However, when Commander Shepard himself (in the form of series producer Casey Hudson) explained that the game would only be getting co-op and not some CoDified competitive multiplayer, people clammed down a bit.

“Co-op? Oh, well that’s cool, everyone likes co-op”

Indeed. Pretty much everyone does like co-op, and thanks to the wonders of wi-fi, even people without friends can enjoy the co-op in Mass Effect 3.

I recently sat down and got to enjoy some ME3 co-op and I’m going to tell you why I think it’s a good thing and why you’ll probably like it as well… or hate it… or be indifferent.

Come With Me If You Want To Live.

In this new “Galaxy at War” mode you and three friends will push onward to victory as you fight off the Geth and other intergalactic bad things that want to kill you. First up you’ll pick your race and class. All the notable races and classes are present here so yes, you can be an Asari Biotic and finally feel what it’s like to play as Liara… woo…

Anyhow, I decided to go in as a human soldier becuase when youve only got a 40 minute press demo, it helps to go with what you know. Hooyah!

Once everyone is locked and loaded we’re tasked with objectives to push, the only problem is there’s baddies who want to push back. Capture objectives, kill things, that’s the jist of it. Waves of enemies will come at you while you try to push for said objectives and yes, it feels a bit like Gears of War’s Horde mode – which isn’t a bad thing. In fact, if you’re familiar with Horde mode, you’ll feel right at home here. It didn’t feel quite as polished as Gears, but the game obviously isn’t finished and something something alpha, beta, omega builds are not the final product something something grain of salt.

Come At Me Bro

That’s not to say it’s easy. Even with my Soldier’s concussive shot leveled rather high I was having my ass handed to me by hard to avoid snipers and footsoldiers alike. I was constantly being revived by and having to revive my teammates until we eventually all died and failed on what was one of the final waves. We did eventually make it past said wave on a second playthrough, only to be killed by a giant mecha-boss which totally wasn’t my fault for running in and trying to stab it with my omni-blade. Such is the life of an interstellar spec ops group NOT led by commander Shepard. But I digress…

Even when you die, your experience will be carried over. This means that every time you play, your life will be a bit easier. The gameplay feels just as it does in single player, except that in single player your NPC teammates won’t go and try to stab the boss with their omni blade or accidentally throw a grenade at you. But that’s what co-op is all about really, yelling at your friends because they suck and are single-handedly causing the galaxy to implode.

As Usual, the Salarians Are No Help...

Now, what people seem to be the most worried about is that the co-op will detract from the single player experience or that since you can increase your “Galactic Readiness” level by participating in the co-op, that you have to play it. Well, you don’t. You can, and it will help get your galatic troops ready for the final battle with the reapers sooner, but you can also completely ignore the co-op and get the exact same end game results just by playing the single player. Think of it like a paid transaction in a F2P MMO… that you don’t have to pay for. Sure, you can buy your way (or in this case fight your way) to better unlocks, but you could also just grind them out. You can take the donkey to the top of the rim, or you can take the tram. It is the same price.

Think about it, would you rather play some Horde mode to help increase Shepard’s “Galactic Readiness” levels or would you rather scan and probe planets for hours on end? If you said scan and probe planets I hate you by the way…

People also seem to be irriatated by the thought that this mode is what delayed Mass Effect 3 and that it’s taking valuable resources and manpower away from the single player game. I hope these people know that two different studios are working on the game at this point. The main team (led by Commander Hudson) is at BioWare Edmonton and a completely separate team is developing the multiplayer at BioWare Montreal. There’s actually another team developing Mass Effect 4 at BioWare Mordor, but they’re not talking about that yet.

We're All Gonna Die...

What it all boils down to is this:

If you like this sort of thing, it’s there for you and your friends and it will add to your single player experience.

If this just isn’t your bag, you can completely ignore it and you will be no worse for wear.

However, this one believes the Hanar should be a playable race… just sayin.

Mass Effect 3 brings the war home on March 6th, 2012.

For more, check out our interview with series producer Casey Hudson.

Battlefield 3 is Not Broken, The (Almost) Final Build is Magnificent

Dave Oshry — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 02:47:25 +0000

For the last three days, I’ve been playing Battlefield 3 on a decommissioned aircraft carrier floating in the San Francisco Bay.

If that fact wasn’t surreal enough, I was playing with hundreds of other PC gamers on top-of-the-line gaming rigs custom built by Nvidia to provide us with the “ultimate” BF3 experience. This event shall forever be known as the GeForce LAN 6.

However, the Battlefield 3 beta was anything but the “ultimate” BF3 experience.

That Ain't Right...

This glitchy, buggy, unfinished mess that was released as a public trial only a month before the game was to go on sale left us with many questions and legions of gamers were ready to give up on Battlefield 3 all together and cancel their pre-orders right there and then.

Many of us old time testers shouted, “Hey, it’s a BETA, it’s supposed to have issues, this is an old build!” But the masses cried foul. ”There’s no way they can fix this mess in one month, I don’t care how old the build is! How dare they release this to the public, don’t they know any better?!”

Fair enough.

However, the build I’ve been playing for the past few days is literally light years ahead of the beta. While not the final product, Nvidia and DICE confirmed to me that what we were playing was “damn close” to final build and if this is any indication of the final product… I’m sold.

That's More Like It.

There were no bugs, no glitches, and the Ultra quality visual settings actually looked “Ultra”. Being a high end PC gamer and a member of the press who gets to test damn near every PC game, I’m as jaded as they come. Yet everything about this build was downright beautiful. I played on new maps like “Operation Firestorm”, “Damavand Peak” and and “Grand Bazaar” and the first time I deployed on each – I did nothing but stare. The first time you see each of these landscapes laid out before you on PC, you will be in awe. Wether it be the burning oil fields of Operation Firestorm or the magnificently detailed snow capped mountains of Damavand Peak, I’ve never seen anything quite like it, especially in a first person shooter, and that’s certainly saying something.

Operation Firestorm

Damavand Peak

Hell, I even noticed little things like the fact that the UMP-45 had been nerfed a bit. DICE had clearly been listening to the player feedback, even at this late stage of the game. The entire experience felt balanced, focused and rock solid. It’s a testament to DICE’s commitment to PC game development and pushing the envelope with their Frostbite 2 engine.

Their developer commitment is also evidenced by the fact that I saw no vehicles flipping over, nobody falling through the map, no flying corpses hitting me in the face and no crazy giraffe neck dubstep.

I am proud to report that Battlefield 3 (on PC at least) is finally ready for action.

Are you?

Want to know more about the GeForce LAN or my experience with the latest build of Battlefield 3? Find me anytime on Twitter @DaveOshry or shoot an email over to Dave@RipTen.com

What We Love (And Hate) So Far About Battlefield 3

Aaron Alexander — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:00:45 +0000

(Please note, these impressions are specifically for the PC version of the Battlefield 3 Beta)

Now that the beta is finally open to everyone, Battlefield 3 is among the most discussed video games. We’ve seen new features such as the Battlelog, and experienced the refined gameplay. However, some newer features are better than others in the grand scheme of things, so let’s take a look.

Loved

The game is satisfyingly fun

It's fun popping people who attempt to disarm MCOM's.

Perhaps the most important aspect of Battlefield 3 is the amount of fun it has to offer. If you’re lucky enough to join one of the smarter teams, you’ll enjoy some of the most dynamic combat a videogame can provide. Each class fulfills a specific role and when properly played, they all compliment each other vastly. Support gunners can lay down ammo for team-mates while suppressing the enemy (causing their vision to completely blur), Assault’s can quickly take out targets with their rifles as well as reviving their own men, whilst Engineers and Recon’s can take care of vehicles and pop heads respectively. Minor changes like the ability to go prone, or suppress enemies really change up the game, especially when compared to the Bad Company series. It adds a new depth to the combat, and makes formation and positioning especially important. So long as you and your team are doing their respective jobs and attacking (or defending) the MCOM stations, Battlefield 3 is an absolute blast.

Battlefield 3 is simply beautiful (at least on the PC)

Don't Stop To Smell The Roses Soldier!!

If you have a capable rig, Battlefield 3 is one of the most beautiful and visceral games on the market to date. The destruction (while not as outrageous as Bad Company 2′s) is realistic, scary and mind-blowing to see in motion. The environments look convincing and react to the battle in lifelike ways – Tree’s will shake from the impact of nearby explosions, concrete will chip from random flak and dark hallways will be blown out by the shine of a flash-light. It’s poetry in motion provided you’re up to spec, and even running on a mid-class GPU like the GTX460, playing on “High” settings at 50-60 FPS isn’t as far-fetched as you’d think.

The Battlelog is the be-all, end-all for Battlefield statistic tracking

Stat-tracking for everybody!

Bad Company 2′s stat menu was boring, bland and not very helpful or informative. The Battlelog however, serves as your Battlefield Facebook (quite literally). Your news feed will encompass all of your recent endeavors, as well as your friends, and you can “Hooah” each status, which serves the same purpose as a Facebook “like”.

Not only does it display recent events, but you can also click on the “stats” tab to bring up a fully featured recollection of everything you’ve done. From score-per-minute, to your most used weapon, this really has it all. Gone are the days of 3rd party tracking sites, Battlelog is absolutely the pinnacle of this stuff – it’s comparable to that of bungie.net’s services for Halo games. The community is also a central part of the battlelog, forums are at your fingertips as well as the ability to create and join platoons. The platoon section will also display your best members for each class, and various little statistics that really make Battlefield feel like an always connected experience. However, the battlelog also leads us to our next point..

Hated

The Battlelog is absolutely atrocious if you like playing with friends

Forever Alone...

Yes, it’s a beta. However, if you’re going to launch a game out of an internet browser, you should probably make sure it works. For the most part, applying server filters and finding a game whether it be Caspian Border or Operation Metro, then joining a game by yourself works just fine. This is Battlefield however, and with the rampant amount of little shits running around with Sniper rifles not helping at all, you want some knowledgeable friends by your side to even the score. Having played about 12 hours now with various friends around the world, it’s nothing short of an absolute pain in the ass to join a game with them. The party system always leaves someone out of the server, or other times, people won’t get the invite at all. If you do manage to get into a game, joining the same squad as your buddies is as likely as winning the lotto. You literally have to sit at a menu clicking “leave squad/join squad” until the fateful day when you actually join the desired squad. Compared to that of Bad Company 2′s squad system, it’s a huge step back.

Not enough incentives presented for people to play properly

The Four Classes of Battlefield 3... That Nobody Uses Properly

I can count the times I’ve been revived in game on one hand. I’m not kidding.

Whether it be brain-dead players, or the game is not presenting enough information, most of the classes in Battlefield 3 aren’t played to their full extent.

Assault’s won’t heal themselves (or anyone else for that matter), Recon’s won’t place mobile respawn points and even some support players will shoot until their empty, and opt for their handgun instead of you know – dropping an ammo box and continuing to suppress enemy troops.

I’m not going to sit here and call everyone shit (even though I’d like to), but instead I put the Onus on Dice. Present players with tool tips depending on the situation. If an Assault player is standing near a dead body, tell the player “REVIVE YOUR HOMIE”, or if a Support is near players with low ammo, they could be told “RESTOCK YOUR G”. Simple tool-tips like this would be a great reminder, and teacher of how to play the damn game correctly. (In the mean time, educate yourself here)

These are the five most outstanding features about Battlefield 3 so far, for better or worse. No doubt DICE will address some of the listed issues here, as it’s only a Beta, but as it stands Battlefield 3 is an intense combat game (perhaps one of the best), only held back by uneducated players, several technical bugs and a less than ideal social experience on PC.

Bad Company fans will feel right at home in Rush mode, whilst the people who preferred the original Battlefield series will revel in the conquest game type. It’s a new beast, taking the best features from both series and combining them into something truly worthy of you time.

For more on the BF3 beta, be sure to check out this video from DICE and stay tuned to RipTen for our continued coverage of Battlefield 3.

Diablo III Closed Beta Full Video Playthrough With Commentary

Dave Oshry — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 02:00:26 +0000

It’s been nearly one week since Dave and Aaron dove head first into the Diablo III beta. Somehow, they’ve managed to come out somewhat clean on the other side.

Along the way they even managed to hit the ‘record’ buttons on their respective PC’s and are now proud to present to you:

THE ADVENTURES OF TIM LAMBESIS AND TRIPLE H IN THE REALM OF DIABLO III

In this first video Dave and Aaron take on some early quests and stomp on some mobs with newfound abilities after they have already saved the legendary Deckard Cain from a deep and dark fate:

After grinding about, the boys head off in search of the crown of the Skeleton King and answers to the mysteries surround the eternally doomed town of Tristram:

Now, after a short break, our heroes have gained some new abilities and gear and are finally ready for the final challenge of the Diablo III beta:

So, there you have it. Despite their personal of professional shortcomings, Dave and Aaron managed to make it through the Beta with hardly a scratch.

Could they ever have been anything but heroes? Of course not… they were born this way.

Stay tuned for the final bit of our hands on coverage of the Diablo III beta as the guys max out every class in the game and give you a rundown of how each one works and plays.

Good, Clean Baseball Fun with Kinect Sports: Season Two (Hands On)

Stephanie Gutowski — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:30:05 +0000

In the world of motion games, sports reign supreme and Microsoft has decided to add one of your favorite pastimes to it’s repertoire. If track and field in Kinect Sports didn’t float your boat, perhaps baseball will better suit your refined palette. If you’re like me and harbor a deep, perhaps unusual love of the game (and apple pie), then you’ll be ecstatic to know that baseball in Kinect Sports: Season Two does the opposite of suck.

I experience this for my self at this year’s PAX in Seattle. If you’ve played Wii Sports, the layout won’t blow your mind on Kinect. The screen is split between batter and pitcher. Players choose their preferred hand and assume the proper stance. I was up to bat first and was certain that my two and a half years spent playing softball in elementary school would pay off. I’d hit a ball once. That had to count for something. Then the pitcher pitched and I, the batter, failed to bat.

One swing-and-a-miss later, I re-adjusted my stance and finally knocked it right down the foul line. I was surprised by how much of a difference maintaining a proper batting stance made on the success of my hits. Once I figured that out, it pretty much boiled down to timing. Hitting early results in balls flying through left field, late turns into right, but if you want to drive it through center field or knock it out of the park, you’ll have to wait for that sweet spot. If it’s a close call, the screen wills shift and you’ll be forced to physically run to your base. As expected, the faster you run in real life, the faster your little avatar flails. Stand still and the player will jog at a leisurely pace and you’ll most likely end up with an out on the board. Extend a leg as you approach and you’ll slide on in. This isn’t usually necessary; a dead sprint is just fine. The fielders will also have a chance to catch pop flies and will have to line their glove up with a spot on screen that flashes very quickly. This was perhaps the most challenging aspect of the game. Difficult, but not impossible to master.

Pitching proved to be a little more rewarding to me as I found that the efforts I made to exaggerate my throw paid off. I attempted a serious pitch right off the bat (hurr hurr), knee in the air, long follow through, and discovered that my Cy Young impression turned into ten consecutive fastballs. If you want this to feel like real baseball, then go right ahead. All those years of honing your technique will payoff, much unlike the Wii Sports incarnation we knew once upon a time. You can’t get away with a flick of the wrist home run. This is serious baseball business.

Each game in Kinect Sports: Season Two will have voice support. While the function was disabled in the PAX demo, Microsoft wants players to call out for their star pitcher or batter. The star pitcher/batter will temporarily grant players boosted skills, making home runs and strike outs more likely, respectively.

PAX was all about the big baseball reveal and frankly, I can understand the excitement. Well-made sports games are must-haves on the Kinect and Season Two is shaping up to be a wonderful addition to the motion sports library. Besides, it’s baseball. You know you want some baseball.

I Want Firefall and I Want it Now (Hands-On)

Stephanie Gutowski — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 03:00:41 +0000

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about Firefall’s dominance at this year’s PAX Prime. It’s not every day that a free to play MMO steamrolls the competition with a massive booth and a killer hands-on experience out of left field. The hype surrounding this game is palpable. I meandered through the exhibitors hall as a deer in headlights and was swiftly rendered immobile when the cinematic trailer played out before me. I wasn’t alone. One by one, wanderers stopped in their tracks with eyes locked on the screen, fascinated and wondering: What the hell is this?

Firefall is the first game out of Red 5 Studios, whose CEO and Chief Creative Officer, Mark Kern, also led the World of Warcraft development team. Heck, most of Red 5 is comprised of former Tribes devs. Firefall was announced at last year’s PAX, but this was the first time a demo had been made playable to the public in Seattle. It didn’t disappoint.

This is a skill-based shooter. It’s a little bit of Tribes, Starship Troopers, and a dash of that Borderlands visual style. The over-sized armor and bug-like enemies combine to create a sci-fi world that feels familiar, yet new enough to warrant curious enthusiasm. This is Earth in a distant future, after a terrible event known as the Firefall, which left only fragments of civilization intact. Now, a race known as The Chosen have descended to overwhelm what remains of humanity.

I’ve spent countless hours lost in the free MMO’s, a slave to uninspired grindfests and a plebeian compared to the committed who take advantage of the micro transaction program. The devs at Red 5 assured me that this wasn’t another Perfect World. This would redefine “free to play.”

The production value on this game just looks so high that I can barely fathom not paying for it. I was lucky enough to have the lead class designer guide me through my first experience with Firefall during a PvE scenario, whose advice came in quite handy when the enemy drop ship appeared overhead mere seconds after I arrived at Copacabana. The battle exploded before me and I was sucked into combat. In addition to meeting your personal objectives, this skill-based shooter boasts some mighty devastating dynamic events. My starting town was overtaken by the bugs, the drop ship looming in the sky above as it spit enemy pods at us. We unleashed hell, guns ablaze as we fired up our jetpacks in defense of our home. Yes, jetpacks. Albeit, they don’t have unlimited fuel reserves and you’ll be forced to descend and let your energy replenish, but it’s easy enough to manage. You fly around, shoot things, and unleash cataclysmic attacks from mid-air. I was instructed to activate one of my jet pack abilities, which allowed me to shoot up in the air with a simple click. Once I was in flight, I waited until the enemies clustered beneath me. Then I activated my second attack, which sent me hurtling towards the ground, creating a massive shock wave a I touched down. The bugs took heavy damage and staggered back, leaving me with a window of opportunity and wonderful sense of satisfaction.

The sheer level of action in Firefall is astounding and there’s no auto-attack to save you when things get tough. You better focus up and make every shot count, because the enemy can and will overwhelm you. If the defense points fall to the aliens, you lose the city’s resources and will be forced to wage war if you expect to take it back. Defeating enemy drop ships during these engagements results in sweet loot for everyone, so there’s a damn good reason to do your best. Eventually, and with great dismay, I pried my hand off the mouse and surrendered the computer. My objective had been met, but I needed more. I needed all of it.

I only experienced the tip of the Firefall iceberg. Players will choose “battle frames,” which determine their dynamic classes. We know of the Assault, Recon, and Medic, and Engineer frames. The Engineer class was particular intriguing, as engineers can summon guardian turrets to help fend off enemies. Players move with the every-familiar WASD keys and weapon fire is controlled by the mouse. Left and right click offer two different attack types. Left click for me unleashed a concentrated shot while right click resulted in several burst rounds. It works. It all just works.

There’s so much to talk about in Firefall that my head spins as I try to gather up all the reasons why I like this game so much. It will be completely free to play with a micro transaction module offering extra gear, but Red 5 assures players that this equipment will not provide any unfair advantages. There will be no items that otherwise give these contributors an upper hand. There will be PvP scenarios in addition to PvE, pitting players against each other in extreme jet pack combat. The game looks fantastic, but players should be able to minimize settings and enjoy it just as well if they don’t possess top-of-the-line gaming rigs. Music to my ears.

This game is fun and borderline addictive. If what I experienced at PAX is any indication of things to come, we’re in for an MMO revolution. Hopefully, we’ll see Firefall go live by the end of December, 2011.

Revelations Returns the Resident Evil Franchise to its Roots (Hands On)

Kimberly Correa — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:30:38 +0000

I’m a big fan of the Resident Evil games. I used to be too afraid to play the first game by myself, and instead had my brother play for me while I watched from under a blanket (I’m a wuss). As the games progressed and turned more shooter-y than survival horror, they started feeling like they had lost that creepy, “don’t blink” vibe. This made it an entirely different sort of game, at least for me. Not to knock the newer games because Resident Evil 4 is undoubtedly one of my favorites of the series – it just felt different.

I had a chance to play Resident Evil: Revelations on the 3DS this weekend at PAX, and combining the playing experience with the footage we’ve already seen makes me feel like a kid again, hiding under that blanket.

The demo started me off as Jill in a room by myself with a handgun. The game offers you a choice of third person or first person perspective, and I stuck with third person as it feels more Resident Evil-esque to me. Upon exploring the room, you find some ammo, wander into the bathroom, you find a tub filled with water. Uh oh. Do you pull the plug and let the water out? Of course you do. After fully expecting something to come charging out at me, I was a little disappointed to just find a screwdriver to open the locked door to the rest of the house. On the way to the door from the bathroom though, the locked closet on the side of the room swings open and out bursts your very first zombie, which goes down with a few shots to the head from a pistol.

To get out the door, you have to solve a puzzle – an easy puzzle, but still a puzzle, which makes me excited and adds to the evidence that Revelations is hearkening back to the older games. You explore the rest of the house, occasionally running into zombies and locked doors that you can’t open yet, finding ammo and herbs, and my favorite weapon ever, the shotgun. Sweet. I met my untimely demise after creeping through an unexplained hazy ballroom and wandering up winding stairs to the second floor, where I opened a door and two zombies launched themselves at me. I wasn’t savvy enough to escape them, and only took down one before the other ripped me apart (whoops).

Aiming was accurate thanks to the bumpers, the menu was easily accessible via the touchscreen, and switching weapons was extremely easy by using the D-pad. The music was appropriately Resident Evil and creepy to the max, and the graphics looked great. I didn’t use the 3D function for long since I’m not a fan of it, but I tried it out as I was creeping through the hazy ballroom; the effect was immersing and realistic.

If the rest of the game plays this way, and keeps the puzzles and horror elements at the forefront, the franchise will have added a very sweet addition to its lineup. Resident Evil: Revelations is expected to launch on 3DS sometime in early 2012.

Playing Battlefield 3 on PS3 at PAX Was Just as Glorious as on PC

Stephanie Gutowski — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 01:16:55 +0000

WARNING: The following content may induce fits of violent jealousy and an insatiable need to play Battlefield 3.

I was extracted from Seattle-Tacoma airport on August 25 at approximately 1800 hours. I then rendezvoused with the rest of my unit at the barracks, dubbed the “Seattle Westin.” We got some rack time and regrouped in the Grand Hyatt at o800 hours for a mission briefing. Operation: Battlefield 3 Community Event would take place later that night…

After a full day of appointments, PR, game-playing, and fan-girling, I returned to the designated meeting point and entered a room full of top-of-the-line gaming PCs, PS3′s, and tables laden with food. After stuffing my face and commiserating with the other chosen few, Seeson Mahathavorn, Battlefield 3‘s community manager, announced that we would not only be playing a two player co-op campaign mission on PlayStatyion 3, but that we’d finally get to experience the multiplayer Deathmatch and Rush mode on freakin’ PC. I wasn’t sure whether or not to explode into stars, or shut up and frag some derps.

Special thanks to Off Duty Gamers, Razer, ASTRO Gaming, and Gunnar for being swag-tastic and making this Battlefest possible. You guys. Seriously.

I went with the latter and took my place at the last console. I teamed up with my roommate for that weekend, Shanay Ross, a founding member of the Legion of Honor and a veteran of the Battlefield series. We donned our Astro headsets and began. Our objective was to rescue a hostage held within an apartment building and escort him from point A to point B further down the street, with several humvees in tow. This was the same portion of the game PAX attendees were playing at the Battlefield 3 booth. It was a night mission, but the cover of darkness would be no use to us. This part of our BF3 experience took place on PS3 and the controls were comfortably familiar to me. Shanay took point while I brought up the rear. I eventually grew accustomed to the feeling of not running and gunning like an idiot, and wielding my M4 with something akin to respect. It was a stealthier experience then I’d anticipated as we took turns opening doors and clearing out rooms on our way to the objective. We escaped the apartment complex fairly quickly, but ran into trouble once we took to the streets. With the hostage secure in the humvee, we pushed down the street in an attempt to suppress the terrorists trying to bomb our brains out. This is where we ran into problems. It wasn’t until Shanay started calling out targets and coordinating hits that we were finally able to push through the flaming barricades. There were explosions, loud pockets of gunfire, and more explosions. I found myself jumping in my seat a few times from the shock, forgetting momentarily that I need not fear the flying shrapnel, this war zone existed only on my screen. It felt real enough. Man, did it feel real.

We were eager to keep going when the EA/DICE crew announced that it was time to set aside our Dualshock 3 controllers and prepare for the PC Push portion, the highlight of our evening. We mingled and helped ourselves to a few ~~beers and mixed drinks~~ sprites and lemonades, then took our places once the PC demos were initiated. That’s when we hit the ground running and never looked back. What unfolded before me was one of the most intense, irreverent, and riotous matches I’d ever been apart of.

Oh god, I'm gonna die.

We began in an unassuming park, presented with point A, B, and C in the Rush objective. The three locations needed to be taken and we moved in as a unit to do just that. Easier said than done. The map just felt massive with large, terrifyingly open spaces. This was more so my struggling period. While other PC veterans took to the streets, I was desperately trying to learn how to move, crouch, aim, throw a grenade, defibrillate a man, tie my shoe, chew some gum, and win the damn game. Meanwhile, bullets. All up in my face. Needless to say, I ran into a few snags during this portion of the demo, but every issue I encountered was attributed to my own lack of skill. Otherwise, the equipment and game itself ran beautifully. The controls were responsive, uncluttered, and uncomplicated.

I eventually switched to more familiar territory: a team Deathmatch. This was the collective moment of glory. This was what I’d been waiting for. The Frostbite 2 visuals looked fantastic on PlayStation 3, but so damn good on that computer that I wished I could transcend my own glaring inadequacies and master the keyboard controls instantaneously, rather than do battle with my pinkie as I stared down the wrong end of a rifle barrel.

Borderlands 2 Explodes in Our Face (In a Good Way) at PAX

Stephanie Gutowski — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:00:41 +0000

My memories of Borderlands are lackluster, muddled by a haze of repetition- live skags, dead skags, big skags and bigger skags. Perhaps I’d been distracted at the time, but the original game never truly captured my attention. Borderlands 2 looks like it might just track me down, wait for me on my doorstep, and punch me out in retaliation for not persevering. What I saw in that guided demo at PAX Prime not only intrigued me, it had me earnestly excited for a sequel to a game that I thought I loathed.

I left my demo feeling a bit sheepish, uncertain whether or not I had the right to express my enthusiasm for Borderlands 2 after I’d just spent months ragging on it. The demo was narrated by Steve Gibson of Gearbox, whose contagious enthusiasm was greatly appreciated. We jumped about a third of the way into the game to rescue Roland, where we were introduced to the new blue-haired, playable siren, Maya. While we saw very little of her, we did, in fact, see plenty of new enemies, weapons, and what Gibson claimed was a “full, true sequel.” Five years have passed since the end of Borderlands and Handsome Jack has taken over the moon. That’s just not going to fly.

The core systems were either re-touched, or replaced, giving Borderlands 2 a whole new feel. The AI is smarter, learning about its environment. If you frustrate a bullymong, it’ll hurl a car at you. Shoot something and it’s going to do everything it can to take cover. With improved AI comes an even larger selection of weapons. Manufacturers have more themes, more weapons and throw-aways. Quests will change as you move, enemies will adapt and learn from you, and the co-op mode is much-improved. Missions will also now sync regardless of each player’s plot progression. Finally. Team up and go.

Dozens of psychos later, we came upon a boss fight. Nomad plus Midget, a goofy but effective means to display the gunzerker’s battle prowess. We saw some serious dual-wielding and watched as our hero was unceremoniously thrown off the cliff, flipping off the bastards as he plummeted to the ground. A fitting end.

Borderlands 2 looks like Borderlands on crack with more guns, blue-haired ladies, angrier bad guys, and I want some right now. It looks awesome and much more intriguing than the first. Enemies are smarter, more diverse, and there are a gajillion guns to keep the killing fresh. What more could you ask for?

Borderlands 2 will be rampaging its way onto store shelves sometime in 2012. Are you ready?

Serious Hands On Serious Sam 3: BFE

Sam Naylor — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 15:41:06 +0000

It could only be me that previewed this game, right? I’m serious.

Serious Sam 3 : BFE was introduced to the gaming world as “a glorious throwback to the golden age of first-person shooters where men were men, cover was for amateurs and pulling the trigger made things go boom”- and right now, it’s certainly looking that way.

I’ve been having a go at a preview build of the game, Croatian developer Croteam’s first offering since 2005. Though six years have passed since then, you wouldn’t be able to tell on the gameplay alone. The action starts slow in the demo I played, first pulling the eye out of a monster then one or two baddies to off with a sledgehammer, but quickly ramps up straight back into the manic action fans of ’90s FPS games will love.

The sledgehammer doesn’t particularly remind me of the older Serious Sam games, but it fits into the genre as perfectly as any other mad weapon. It mashes the faces of your foes with a satisfying crunch and a splatter of blood. It’s often an overlooked area of games like this, but the satisfaction of a well-timed melee strike can be a very important factor. God of War, Bayonetta, Street Fighter, and even Killing Floor are all great games made better by simply turning a defeated enemy into a shot of endorphins.

It’s good then, that Serious Sam 3: BFE makes each kill fun, because there are a staggering amount of opportunities to do just that. One sequence saw what felt like hundreds of the infamous man-running-with-bombs-for-hands enemy charging over a hill at me. The best part about that was the noise, though. I couldn’t help but laugh when I heard an almighty trademark roar from behind the hill. I knew what was coming.

In fact, the only enemies in the demo I played were familiar faces from the series. The headless kamikaze’s are iconic, but don’t forget monster-thing-with-one-eye, guy-in-purple-who-shoots-you and skeleton-bull-thing-that-messes-you-up. Those are definitely not their official names- but you know what I am talking about if you’ve played Serious Sam before.

The gameplay might be old (in a good way) but the visuals definitely aren’t. The game looks stunning, up there with the best looking games on the market. It’s only an early build but Croteam will have to really drop the ball for this to be released looking ropey. Don’t assume the impressive media screenshots are all fiddled with; the game really does look superb.

The location for the events is Egypt again- although this time it’s much more modern day. You’ve got American voices radioing you to get to the crashed ‘chopper, and smashed up buildings everywhere (perhaps that’s a bit too topical?). It’s a completely linear path, as is usual for Serious Sam, but I always maintain linear games are generally much better unless the open world is particularly good.

Serious Sam 3: BFE, then, is really shaping up to be a worthy successor to the first few games. There’s a lot of charm in a game as simple and fun as this, and I can’t wait to play the rest of the game when it comes out on the 18th of October.

Oh, and make sure you pre-order here, here, here or here, too.

Fork Parker, Devolver Digital CFO, said:

“I pledge to take one dollar from each Serious Sam 3: BFE preorder and put it towards my wife’s outrageously expensive tit job. So get to pre-ordering nerds, I want these babies to block out the sun when I’m done with them.”

For more on Serious Sam 3 check out our last hands on preview.

One Hour With Skyrim Finally Made Me a True Believer (Hands On)

Dave Oshry — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:15:02 +0000

Sheogorath, my lord and protector… why did I ever doubt your madness? Had I lost my own mind? Did I truly think that the unimpressive demo I’d witnessed at this year’s E3 expo would be indicative of your final product? Oh, how I was wrong!!… Can you ever forgive me?

As many of you know, I was rather “unimpressed” with Skyrim at E3 this year. In fact, Stephiroth Gutowski and I were so mind numbingly disappointed by the demo we were shown that we gave it an award for the, “Most Heart Shattering Disappointment”

We were so wrong.

Yes, I still think that the E3 demo of Skyrim which we were shown was disappointing, and I would still not have given it best RPG over Reckoning, but after being given the chance to play Skyrim for an hour behind closed doors, I am exuberantly happy to report that I am now a true believer in the 5th iteration of Bethesda‘s flagship series, and you should be too.

You see, I’m a harsher critic than most when it comes to this sort of thing. As many of you know, I’m a PC RPGamer and an old school Elder Scrolls fan.

I’m the guy who kept the Mantella all to myself in Daggerfall. I’m the guy who retrieved every item for the Museum of Artifacts in Morrowind… only to steal them back later. I’m the guy who closed every Oblivion gate and collected every treasure in Cyrodiil, only to have to mod extra display cases into my house in Skingrad just to hold it all! And for what?! Nobody else in the world will ever venture inside the confines of my Elder Scrolls homes, see all of my priceless in-game artifacts and collections, and yet I do it anyway! Yet, you know I’m not alone.

I ... Need More Display Cases...

Perhaps you too have the “Pelvis of Elvis” adorning the fireplace of one of your many Oblivion homes… but I digress. That’s simply the sort of Elder Scrolls player I am. I live for the immersion, the escape, the beauty of a world completely original and unlike anything we could ever hope to see in our own. The freedom, the choice, and often the consequence.

So, jaded as I am, I mocked many of my detractors who said I was crazy after E3. I said that they were simply johnny-come-lately Elder Scrolls fans who wouldn’t know their lore if a Dremora lopped their head off with a Daedric Crescent! I figured they were blinded fanboys whose Elder Scrolls adventures began with Oblivion. These kids clearly know nothing of Daggerfall or Morrowind! They’ve never modded a damn thing, they’ve never even heard of Nehrim! They’re wrong, I’m right, BAH humbug!

But they weren’t wrong, I just failed to believe.

Dave... I am Disappoint.

So, after playing Skyrim for an hour straight, being allowed to do whatever the hell I want and loving every single minute of it… I am here to apologize.

I want to apologize to our readers, I want to apologize to my friends, I want to apologize to Bethesda and I even want to apologize to all those johnny-come-latelys who believed in the scrolls when I had lost faith. I’m sorry.

Yet, that’s not why you’ve come here today, is it? You want to hear all about my adventures in Skyrim, don’t you?! Very well, so be it.

As I walked into a lush hotel suite populated by several other members of the gaming press and a sea of Xbox 360 consoles and flatscreen TV’s, I was told by Pete Hines and Todd Howard of Bethesda that we would be starting off our adventure as a prisoner in a cave, and could go anywhere we wanted from there on out. That was all the instructioin we got and that was all the instruction I needed.

The character creation in Skyrim is just as deep as you remember from Oblivion, if not more so. I mean just look at all these possible combinations you can make! But there was no time for me to mess around with such a deep system, I only had an hour.

So I quickly selected a few traits… Bosmer… tattoos… mohawk… good enough… let’s go!