I still have a hard time believing Destiny is actually possible given the scope of the entire project. You're going to have multiple worlds to explore, so many guns to play with, tons of enemies to kill, and it all looks gorgeous in action.
I'm loving the way they're doing multiplayer too. I typically like to be a loner in games like this, but I'm looking forward to the multiplayer here thanks to how seamlessly others can join in.
Reminding me that the game even existed in the first place, IGN has gotten word from Ubisoft executive director Alain Corre that Rainbow 6: Patriots is "still cooking. It's an important franchise for Ubisoft. We want to make sure, on this one, like all the other games we're working on, that we bring it when we feel it's perfect."
Patriots, to refresh your memory, was first pitched as a game that would "capture the reality of modern-day terrorism." It's not entirely unclear if the original premise, which centered on a revolutionary group that intended to reclaim America from corruption and corporate special interests, is still in tact. "We can't say yet," said Corre. "We're iterating.
"What we want is to have a compelling story. We want people who play the next Rainbow 6 to be astonished, to be very pleased with what they see. You've seen that the improvement in games over the last few years has been exponential. We have to reflect that improvement in quality. That's what we're doing on all our games."
This was the first Rainbow 6 in some time to grab my attention -- even if it eventually waned -- so I'd like to see that original vision come to fruition. Sounded real interesting.
Gamescom: Rainbow 6: Patriots 'Still Cooking' [IGN]
There will be a wait for inFamous: Second Son , as expected. At least it's a relatively short one -- Sucker Punch Productions has confirmed a February launch window with Polygon.
I know this was among the PlayStation 4's most appealing early releases -- and I say that as someone who never really connected with prior games in the series -- but there should be enough hitting between the system launch in November and early 2014 to keep us all busy. There's also the whole "running out of money" thing that can crop up. Never much cared for that.
Infamous: Second Son launching in February 2014 [Polygon]
Edward Kenway is a pirate, but that doesn't mean that he needs to turn everything into an ostentatious affair. No, sometimes it's more efficient to move like a cat stalking its prey, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
That's exactly what he does in this trailer -- he uses the environments to his advantage to methodically dispose of his targets. He may be decked out in pirate garb, but that assassin blood runs deep through his veins.
What a nice surprise it was to see Everybody's Gone to the Rapture on stage at Sony's gamescom presser. A sign of exclusivity, perhaps? Yep. Rock, Paper, Shotgun followed up with creative director Dan Pinchbeck who confirmed that the title is only coming to PlayStation 4 -- and for about as good of reasons as one could hope for.
"We don't have enough money or production expertise to make this game without help," he said. "We don't think we can raise enough through Kickstarter or public alpha to make this happen. We could do with production support on a game this scale. We've always wanted to make a console game. Publishers have bad reputations all too often. Hey, Sony Santa Monica are great though. We've met them a few times and really like them and their attitude."
Pinchbeck went on to say that "Dear Esther fans were very much in our thoughts, but enough of us are multi-platform gamers to make this work for us. And we're in this for the long game, so I can't see us not returning to PC, or doing whatever we can to keep that fan base as we owe them a great deal. But part of that is following our instincts about how we develop and find stability as a studio and this is going to be part of the process. And without sounding like a bought man, the PS4 is genuinely a really, really cool platform, and if people have never bought into console gaming before, this is the time."
If this week was the first time you heard about Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, know that it revolves around multiple characters in an open world, with the hook being that you only get to play as them for a set amount of time -- the world's ending, after all.
Dear Esther Dev’s Rapture No Longer Coming To PC [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
Housemarque's latest, announced at this week's PlayStation press conference at gamescom, is PS4 title Resogun. Any fan of Super Stardust HD or Super Stardust Delta would be glad to hear that this game is a spiritual successor, though it adds some new ideas and some next-gen shine to the formula.
It's a shooter at heart, reminding of Defender, though it's not as space-y as you're fending off alien invaders in an attempt to save the last humans. Resogun plays cylindrically, with free back-and-forth movement. It's fast, but it's not so fast that you're overwhelmed. The left analog stick controls movement while the right one fires either forward or back. And aside from a few buttons for special attacks, that's all you really need to know to jump in and have fun.
The crowd roars as LGD Gaming’s Alchemist shove their way through the Tier 4 towers, headed for Alliance’s Ancient. He’s aided by a Black King Bar to grant him magic immunity and a Divine Rapier to increase his damage to an absurd degree. Meanwhile, Alliance has brought the remains of their five-person team to the base of their opponent, pushing through rax and towers. Alchemist busts through the final towers, turning his dual cleavers on the Ancient. Simultaneously, Alliance’s Phantom Lancer’s illusions are doing serious damage to LGD’s Ancient. It’s a race to do the most damage, and it looks like LGD has a chance of winning it.
And then, it’s over. Phantom Lancer’s illusions simply do too much damage for Alchemist to keep up, leading to an Alliance victory. LGD slumps from the soundproof play room, knowing that they’ve come the closest to taking down the undefeated Alliance that anyone in The International has. It’s a crushing defeat.
To folks uninitiated in Valve’s recent free-to-play MOBA monster, the action onscreen is unintelligible. A mess of numbers, crazy looking abilities, and hundreds of items, it’s simultaneously one of the most popular online games in the world and one of the most inaccessible.
And yet, the world championship tournament The International, held in Seattle’s 2500-seat Benaroya Hall, sold out in less than an hour. Those attending are the most hardcore fans of one of the most hardcore games out there. They’re knowledgeable, dedicated, and passionate.
As for me, upon my arrival to the American Northwest city, I had logged less than 25 hours into Dota 2. For game that is considered to be one of the most complex and deep games out there, that’s a miniscule amount of time. Many consider one’s first couple of hundred hour-long matches to be not much more than a tutorial. After watching my first professional game, I found myself to be out of my element nearly entirely.
Now, I’m not unfamiliar with the MOBA genre entirely. I’m a halfway decent League of Legends player. But Dota 2 is a whole different animal. It’s much more complex and harrowing to get into. But that’s what makes the fans that were surrounding me at Benaroya so in love with it.
“I had never watched eSports prior to [last year’s International]. Frankly, I thought it was a load of shit,” said a fan who chose to be called John in between matches. “But when you see the level of mastery that people have over such a deep game, the teamwork that goes on, and the interactions that happen, it’s like watching an actual sport.”
I met John standing outside Benaroya Hall, where he was attempting to scalp a ticket off of anyone that had an extra. It was his third day waiting on the curb to find a ticket.
Nearly everyone I talked to had been playing Dota since its inception as a Warcraft 3 mod in 2005, then titled Defense of the Ancients. Often, when asked what brought them to Dota, many folks would go into long monologues taking in the history of the mod and how it came to be released by Valve. These are people that knew their stuff.
Valve knows this. Rather than focusing on drawing in new, casual players – as competitor Riot Games seems to be doing – the developer is directing their efforts to the faithful. Rather than hire and train in-house announcers for the tournament, established community commentators were brought in. These men and women, who go by their in-game aliases like TobiWan or 2GD, have come up through the ranks of the Dota 2 scene, and are often seen as mini celebrities. They’re just as excited to be involved in such a big event as those watching them.
During the final match, in which Team Alliance beat perennial crowd favorites Na’Vi, I saw John, arms raised, cheering along with everyone else on the floor of Benaroya. Finally, he was inside The International, and I understood.
Even for a relative neophyte, as the casters shout, celebrate and elaborate on what’s happening in each match, I realised that I didn’t need to know every last move, item or character. I just had to feel it out; it was less about learning the intricacies of the game, it’s about being swept up in a passionate community.
The post Base Races and Last Hits: Learning to love Dota 2 by way of The International appeared first on Edge Online.
In Dead Island: Epidemic -- which is inexplicably a MOBA, if you missed the news -- three teams of four players each have to fend off zombies while also worrying about one another.
And instead of base destruction being the win condition, it's all about capturing control points and completing other "dynamic gameplay objectives" like killing specific targets, some of which are said to require cooperation between the teams. Since this is Dead Island, there's an extensive crafting system in here as well. That aspect sounds like a decent-enough fit.
I'm glad that this isn't a cookie-cutter MOBA but, at the same time, there's an established formula for a reason. Epidemic sounds weird and not in an especially good way.
PlayStation Vita title Murisaki Baby looked to be pretty dark and twisted in its debut trailer at Sony's gamescom press conference earlier this week. Now that I've played it, I'd say that it isn't quite as dark as it first came off to be. There's actually a cute side to it.
Kind of.
The cuteness starts with the premise: the player uses the Vita's touchscreen to hold the hand of a baby carrying a balloon. You're to guide her on her journey to bring this balloon to her mother, as she is lost. This baby is kind of cute in an upside down head with huge eyes kind of way. Scary cute, if you will.
