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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.

Bethesda Releases an Impressive Creation Kit & Skyrim Workshop Preview Video

Garrett Hartman — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:00:04 +0000

Bethesda has released a new video preview to show off their upcoming Creation Kit and Workshop for the PC version of Skyrim. The video shows many of the Creation Kit’s features including an ability to build archives.

Check out the video below and read the accompanying message from Bethesda Softworks.

Watch our preview video for the Creation Kit and Skyrim Workshop!

The Creation Kit offers the same suite of tools that Bethesda Game Studios used to create The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and will be a free download via Steam. The Creation Kit has lots of new features, including the ability to build archives. Plus you’ll want to check out the Creation Kit Wiki, our online documentation and help file, for more details.

With Skyrim Workshop, you can browse and search for the latest or highest rated mods, subscribe to any that interest you, rate your favorites and post feedback. Once you’ve subscribed to some mods, start the Skyrim launcher and you’ll see your subscribed mods automatically download. The launcher will even check if a mod has been updated and grab the latest version.

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.

This Is The Only Old Republic Review You Will Ever Need To See

Dave Oshry — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:10:07 +0000

You guessed, it the Bro Team is back with another dead on video review.

This time it’s for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Wait… that’s not even out yet.

Whatever, just watch it:

NO SEWER LEVELS?! NO SALE!!

For an actual preview of the old republic, check out How and Why our MMO Champion Jensen Walker Played The Old Republic For 36 Hours

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…

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

Check Out The Battlefield 3 “Back To Karkand” Expansion Pack Trailer

Dave Oshry — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:00:47 +0000

This December, some of your favorite maps from Battlefield 2 are coming to Battlefield 3 with the power of DICE‘s Frostbite 2 engine.

Behold, the Back to Karkand Expansion Pack!

In this trailer, witness the very first ingame shots from Strike at Karkand, Sharqi Peninsula, Gulf of Oman, and Wake Island.

This expansion pack also features new weapons, vehicles, persistence, and the return of the classic Conquest Assault. Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand is out December 2011 at no extra charge with your pre-order, or available the same date at $14.99/1200 Microsoft Points.

For more on Battlefield 3, be sure to check out the RipTen Review.

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.

New Skyrim Screens Show off an Assassin Finisher, Draugr Lord and Aurora Borealis

Dave Oshry — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:00:04 +0000

As I sit here and work away tirelessly on my next hands-on preview of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the least I could do for you in the meantime is provide you with some new visual imagery to whet thine appetite.

Behold!!

What we have here are many things. First and foremost, that Assassin style slow mo stealth kill screenshot is amazing. Whoever capped that, you have my thanks. Next up we have a magnificent Aurora Borealis from the Northern Coast. We also have shots of the Marshlands and the Tundra as well as a lovely shot of an Orc guard… guarding something. There’s also a shot of a standing stone of Magicka and a rather intimidating looking screenshot of a Draugr Lord thrown in for good measure. I’ve also included that shot from last week of a bound bow being fired at a bear, because it’s quite awesome and I intend to find it ASAP when I finally have the full game in my hands.

Last but not least we have a shot of a guard standing in the southernmost town of Riften, which was clearly named after RipTen.

For more on Skyrim be sure to check out the last batch of screens and my last preview.

Stay tuned this week for my latest preview which will detail my adventure to the Northernmost reaches of Skyrim to the College of Winterhold.

RipTen Radio Episode 9000 – You Never Asked For This

Ripten Staff — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 02:30:23 +0000

A wild podcast appeared! It’s a level 600 RipTen podcast. Embark on a wild audio journey, with your hosts Dave, Stephanie and Aaron as they ramble furiously about the current hot topics in the gaming industry.

This week’s show includes discussion on the upcoming shooter Battlefield 3, our thoughts on the rather controversial Dead Island and we’ll even throw in some Deus Ex talk for good measure. That’s not all though, we take questions from you lovely readers, as well as making weird Yoshi sounds and talking far too much about Ubisoft’s fantastic mascot, Rayman. Stream the podcast below, or feel free to download it!

The intro track is “Who Do You Voodoo, Bitch!” from Dead Island.

Listen to RipTen Radio Episode 9000 here.

(Streaming from this link is only available to QuickTime users, WordPress streaming is having issues at the moment. Sorry for any inconvenience.)

Dave’s Skyrim Preview

Why John Carmack Thinks the PS3 is Second Best Console Ever Made

Steph’s Deus Ex Review

Ltitia the trash lady

Amazing Deus Ex Music

Adam Jensen Does The Safety Dance

I Never Asked For This

Adam Jensen Bitch Slaps People

That OKCupid/Gizmodo Thing Aaron Missed

Dave Met The Burger Town Guy

Steph’s Battlefield 3 Preview

Steph’s Firefall Preview

Dead Island Review

Fist of the Dead Star

Hard Reset Review

Serious Sam 3 Preview 1 and 2

A Picture of Rayman

Yoshi

See you for Episode 9001!

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!

Dungeon Masters Rejoice! Roleplaying in Mass Effect 3 Is Deeper Than Ever

Dave Oshry — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:00:48 +0000

The Mass Effect series has seen a constant evolution in terms of story, graphics and gameplay. While many would agree that the gameplay in Mass Effect 2 was superior to it’s predecessor, many roleplayers like myself felt that the role playing elements from the original game had been stripped down.

Well, recently I got hands on with Mass Effect 3 and was pleasantly surprised to see things like increased weapon customization and deeper and more varied skill trees within the game. Better yet, I was able to grab series executive producer Casey Hudson to talk about it:

As Casey said, in Mass Effect 3 you literally lay your weapon out in front of you to customize it, often times in the heat of battle, and can do things like add scopes, mods, barrels, different ammo types and so on. The way in which it’s done is entirely new to the series and also entirely one of the cooler new parts of the game.

This Is How You Will See Your Weapon Laid Out In Mass Effect 3

As you also may have heard Casey say, the game’s economy has been expanded to facilitate this. More good news considering how us roleplayers love to run around to every shop in the galaxy buying and selling rifle parts.

Likewise, the skill trees are now deeper and more involved than ever before. Sure, you can still set Shepard and his crew to “auto-level” but why would you when you have all new levels of custmization that really allow you to get lost in the “choices” that make the Mass Effect series so much fun for fans of shooters and RPGs alike.

It's Deeper, Baby

Stay tuned to RipTen for continued coverage of Mass Effect 3 and all things BioWare

Oh, and don’t forget whose cosplay is Casey’s favorite ^__^

Risen 2 Will Feature 35-50 Hours of Pirate Roleplay, Personal Ships, Killer Parrots, Wenches and Whores

Dave Oshry — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:30:33 +0000

Yes, all that and more!! Yarrrr.

Piranha Bytes is looking to create the world’s first open world pirate RPG with Risen 2 and they aren’t cutting any corners from what we’ve learned so far. Forget everything you know about Risen 1 (especially how it turned out on consoles) and focus on the fact that this game will let you roam around lush islands, plunder booty, recruit a crew of scallywags on your own ship, dual wield pistols, bang wenches and launch parrots at people. Polly wanna Get Some!? Yes, yes he does.

I got on a call with Deep Silver (the publishers of Risen 2) the other day on the way back from Quake Con and they were happy to answer some questions for myself and other inquisitive press scoundrels.

"Yarr, the isles be lush... aye"

Daniel Oberlerchner, brand manager for Deep Silver (also known as the guy who showed me Risen 2 at both GDC and E3) was happy to inform the OCD roleplayer in me that there will be lots of loot and gear customization in Risen 2. Being a rather hardcore PC RPGamer, I like it when every single piece of gear I buy and sell shows on my character. Ya know, so I can make myself look as badass and/or ridiculously mismatched as possible. Luckily, you can do that in Risen 2 and there will be plenty of gear options available from the outset of the game, as well as merchants galore to buy and sell new wares, huzzah. Better yet, you will be able to see how any piece of gear looks on your character before you buy it. Think of it like the World of Warcraft auction house.

I also asked about ships. Ships will play a major role in the game and as you journey on ye quest, you’ll have the option to buy bigger and better ships for your crew. The design of the ship mechanic was heavily influenced by the Normandy from the Mass Effect series. So, you can expect it to be a place where you can change gear, look at your quests, talk to your crewmates and plot your course. Just don’t expect to be able to free sail around ala Two Worlds 2, as travel between the lush islands in Risen 2 will occur via a cutscene every time you pick a new destination. However, I don’t think anyone will complain about Piranha adopting the ship mechanic from Mass Effect, people seem to dig how it works in that series, aye?

"Ahoy, Captain Dicktits!!"

Another interesting feature that was brought up was… parrots. What would a pirate game be without parrots?! Well, apparently in Risen 2 you can train parrots and use them to attack your enemies. For instance, you can launch “Polly Walnuts” (dibs on naming my parrot that) at an enemy to disorient him, and then use that time to… oh I dunno… pull out a blunderbuss and blast him to smithereens. Yarr!!! The whole parrot mechanic seems cool and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. Apparently you can also pick up a skill that allows you to possess monkeys ado things like rob people’s houses in the dead of night… but that sounds so fucking bizarre I didn’t dare ask any more about it. Freaky Germans are freaky…

Last, but certainly not least, I asked one very serious final question:

“Will Risen 2 have wenches and whores, and can you Get Some?!”

“What sort of Pirate game would it be if you couldn’t?!” Michael replied.

Yarrr!! Now, that’s what I’m talking about.

Here’s an even bigger tease:

So, there you go. Intrigued yet? Michael also said the game will feature 35-50 hours of gameplay, which is nice in a world where any RPG without the word scrolls in it seems to be painfully short.

Look for Risen 2 sometime in the first half of 2012, but until then, look at the rest of these screens matey!! … YARRRR!!

New Resistance 3 Multiplayer Gameplay is Notably Badass

Dave Oshry — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 03:38:54 +0000

Resistance 3 is less than a month away and with the beta underway, some noteably badass gameplay is pouring in.

Check out the latest from the Alice Springs map:

We’re all in the beta, Y U NO?!

Resistance 3 launches on September 6th exclusively for the PS3.

Dark Souls Is Pretty Much The Same Game with Better Graphics and Checkpoints, Sweet? (Hands On)

Chris Carlson — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:00:47 +0000

Is Dark Souls a true indirect sequel, or just a dumbed down version of the 2009 hit RPG, Demon’s Souls?

When From Software released Demon’s Souls on the Playstation 3, it hit gamers in many different ways. It was deep, challenging, and offered a vast amount of satisfaction upon completing just about anything in the game. Dark Souls is no different. It’s almost an exact replica of Demon’s Souls which in some ways is a bad thing, but also a good thing.

So before you ask, yes Dark Souls is hard. Yes, you will die a lot. The first thing you’ll notice about Dark Souls is the character models and environments. While some of the previous environments from Demon’s Souls are still present, they’ve been completely revamped. It has the Demon’s Souls look and feel, but the game is more colorful and vastly more detailed than ever. You’ll see miles of beautiful green forest over the castle walls, moss growing through each brick and it really makes the world of Dark Souls feel more alive and real.

Dark Souls does offer a few new classes to choose from but the core gameplay is still the same. You’ll need to time your attacks, roll and block when necessary and use health items accordingly. While this is great and all, not much has really changed in the demo I played. Every enemy type in the demo was present in Demon’s Souls just with a detailed make over, most of the armor and items looked much of the same, but it was still a blast to play.

One thing that is new to the series is the ability to light Bonfires. These Bonfires will be found throughout the level and essentially act as a checkpoint. Some may see this as “dumbing down” the game, but really it’s not. The game is just as hard as Demon’s Souls, if not harder, but instead of having to re-fight those same 20 enemies to get back were you where, you can save some time and get back to that boss or mini boss, or sub boss, or that random mob who one shot you for no reason. It’s pretty much Demon’s Souls – but now with less backtracking!

Without a doubt, Demon’s Souls was a very frustrating game for most players. While still offering the same amount of intense combat and difficultly, these checkpoints will give gamers more hope along their journey instead of calling it quits due to playing the same section a hundred times. It’s a very welcome addition If I do say so myself.

The demo wasn’t very long in terms of length, but due to timing my attacks and being careful with every step I took, I got a good 30 minutes or so out of the game. Most of that time spent, I felt like I was playing a prettier version of Demon’s Souls, and there ain’t nothing wrong with that. There were a few new items to play around with, but for the most part they became worthless as my massive 10 foot sword just obliterated enemies within a few short hits. However, as I made my way through the castle I did encounter a giant fucking dragon. Like the pussy I am, I ran like a little schoolgirl in hopes that I wouldn’t be burnt to a crisp.

If there’s one thing I learned with my time spent on Demon’s Souls, it’s not to fuck with dragons. They’re not nice, and they will completely destroy your ass without hesitation. Near the end of the demo I did end up on a roof with a Bell Tower Gargoyle boss. At first the fight wasn’t too bad -I was timing my attacks about right, only taking a few hits here and there. Then once I got this beast down to half health, his little girlfriend showed up and now I had to fight two fire breathing Gargoyle’s. From there, it was a short fight. I had no health potions left, half life, and there were erupting flames all around me. Within about 1 minute of the second Gargoyle showing up, I came face to face with the infamous “You Died” screen. From there, my demo had come to an end.

Luckily, our editor Dave Oshry was there to steal the controller from me as he proceeded to take down both Gargoyle’s on the first try. He then dropped the controller on the the ground like Chris Rock and walked out of the room… dick.

While I did enjoy my time with Dark Souls, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat disappointed. I felt as if I was playing the same game I did two years ago with better graphics and a few minor alterations. However, with Dark Souls heading to the Xbox 360 this fall, 360 gamers are in for a real surprise. I fear for my fellow Playstation fans -at least from what I saw- you’re in for nothing but a glorious copy and paste experience. Of course if you loved the first game and dying for more, this probably won’t be too much of a hassle for you. I mean, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – just add checkpoints.

Dark Souls will be released on October 14th for Xbox 360 and PS3.