Star Wars: The Old Republic
Thanks to an early entry I finally got the chance to try out the new Star Wars MMO without having to waste one's life (Not that I have one) in an hour-long queue. For those unaware, KOR is an mmo being developed by Bioware and is firmly etched on the company's previous award-winning Star Wars game.
It was Bioware's intention to make an mmo with strong writing and RPG-based conversation options inside an engrossing story. The expectations of the game are then quite high although recent footage does not seem hopeful. So how was the demo?
As a Sith I started in Korriban, and after a little cutscene it starts well. You are greeted and instead of the usual "go kil x amount of creatures" I was met with several dialogue options. Unfortunately one area later, the aforementioned quest doomed up, and even later still, I was told of creatures that laid waste on the imperial army, who were supposed to be smart creatures. But nope, they were still the usual cannonfodder that are just numbers in my quest screen. Dissapointing
Honestly, it was so bad, had Chewbacca witnessed this travesty, he'd have shaven his entire body and admit himself into a cloister. Now, it's hard to base an mmo on 15 minutes. But good story and writing will never make up ancient graphics combined with dated gameplay in an MMO.
Perhaps instead of putting money in marketing, and cosplayed stormtroopers, the company should have taken a year to brainstorm on what a future MMO should have.
Playstation Vita
The Playstation Vita is Sony's newest handheld device I got my hands on to have a small test session with. What struck me first is how light the device is, and how intuitive and userfriendly the controls are, exactly at the right place. I have little experience with handhelds, but I was sucked in extremely fast.
The device has a touchscreen at front, a second touchpad at the back with which for example you could raise terrain, and motion sensors.
From the game I played: Little Deviants, these elements were utilized well, and the level design was cute and fun.
Its only downside is most likely the cost at 230£, and the fact its batterylife is only at around 3 hours.
End of Nations
Not many RTS games were to be found this year at the expo but End of Nations is certainly a promising and very ambitious project from Trion and Petroglyph. If that latter studio doesn't seem very familiar to you, they are a new studio comprising some of the dev team of Command and Conquer.
End of Nations is quite unique in that it is actually a free-to-play MMO-RTS. Instead of harvesting resources to amass your army, you can choose a team of units at the beginning of the battlle, who can resurrect if you have the tactical resources to afford. This latter element is more akin to DOTA gameplay such as the now famous League of legends, but when you think about it, in an MMO this makes much sense.
Another strong MMO element is the character progression in the line of a skill-tree which branches out between crowd control, straightforward combat, and a more sneaking style of play.
What is very interesting, is that the world map plays much like the board game Risk. Two factions will vattle for domination of land sectors. Although how exactly this will play out we were not told.
The game itself is quite beautiful and has a very distinct AAA quality to it. Especially as the map offers scale, so you can choose with the tactically superior isometric view, or if you prefer a third-person view. The simple choice between both, kind of touches upon what is the ground developing principle of this game. It is open to any type of player, from the hardcore RTS fanatic, to a more casual that will only use his mouse.
This is also found in the fact that the game is highly customizable, with aesthetic skins you can buy for cash.
But also the fact the game offers a stand-alone single player campaign or co-op.
Unfortunately this wide customization and openess could prove to be the game's Achilles heel. For the time I had to play it seemed fun and of a very high quality. But if it will hold up against games such as Star Craft, that are geared towards hardcore RTS gameplay, is not entirely clear.
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
It is a shame the Dark Souls session was cancelled, but luckily instead I got to watch Assassin's Creed Revelations, which I would otherwise have missed.
This game is the last instalment in the series, and we were told it would tie in the game's loose ends, especially in regards to the characters of Altair and Ezio.
We got to see many concept art pictures, and it shows a very rich and detailed city of Constantinopel, where much of the game will take place. A nice touch is that the districts in the city will each have a distinct artstyle. Especially the game's particles and lighting effects were showcased, with a dramatic change as a result. I was pleasantly surprised with how a place from dusk till dawn, almost seemed like two different areas.
The game also gives you the chance to craft small explosives, ranging from lethal bombs that you can toss at groups of soldiers, to a small distraction bomb, to even caltrop bombs, giving the game a much more tactical range of choice when you are met with a group of enemies chasing you.
And speaking of, absolutely stunning was a scene of a cart chase in the game.
Guild Wars 2
In a recent article I wrote how I tried the demo and had mixed feelings about the game. Well after the developer session and seeing some live footage you can now go all Prague defenestration on my opinions in there, heck, throw me out into the trash at the same time. Because believe me, that footage was jaw-droppingly sweeeeeeeet.
We were shown how the game's public event system works. It's pretty much like serverwide quests that are open to anyone to participate it. But absolutely amazing is how these events can branch out to new events, or even other events if the former was unsuccessful.
Say you need to attack a fort of Charr. If you are successful you'll proceed to pushing the enemy back, but if not, then the Charr will quickly proceed to dominate the entire area, repopulating it with their own minions. This gives it a very refreshing dynamic life to it.
Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham Asylum was a revelation of a game. It stands as the best superhero game ever made. It's not only uncanny as how natural it feels to play as Batman, but using the original voice-over actors Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy mixed with original writing is a cocktail of pure awesome.
You could see the passion from the developers as they're giving their session as well, constantly gesturing and talking. It's obviously there's much love going into the Batman franchise.
The only downside to the first game was a widely recongnized fizzle of an end-bossfight, and the game's relatively slow campaign.
Arkham City definitely seems to address that last part, taking place is in an open part of the city itself, populated by criminal scum and villainous masterminds.
The combat is again extremely smooth and fluent, using combo points to perform take-downs. And from what I saw it's nearly the same as the previous game. But why change something if it's not broke of course.
The best part was a catwoman sequence, they really did outperform themselves in giving Catwoman a very sneaky playstyle and animation. You are even able to scale the ceilings if it is lined with a grid, and you can use your whip to navigate from gargoyle to gargoyle much as batman is able to. Best part, whipping people off a corridor from right beneath them.
Unfortunately although the game has gone gold, the PC version has had a month's delay. So here's to hoping this will not be affecting the PC version of the game.
