Dan is a Canadian with a penchant for writing things, watching things, playing things and occasionally leaving the house. You can follow him on Twitter: http://bit.ly/WN6xMI
Oddly enough, Mad Max was one of the biggest surprises of E3 2013 – not so much in terms of impact, but just because so much of E3 was content we’d already known about. When Avalanche introduced the reveal trailer on the Sony stage back in early June, no one had any idea what they were watching until the iconic shoulder pads and sawed-off shotgun entered the frame.
As soon as the novelty wore off though (which was almost immediately), there wasn’t much to be excited about. The premise of Mad Max is one that games have explored over and over and over again: A post-apocalyptic desert wasteland where bandits and lawless savages fight for the last supplies. Hell, you could have replace the reveal trailer’s title card with Rage2 and no one would have batted an eye. However Avalanche are promising a pretty huge scope with this next-gen title. Here’s the breakdown from SuperHeroHype:
[box_dark]”Become the legendary lone warrior as you craft and upgrade his equipment and weapons in order to survive in a brutal post-apocalyptic world. Fight with savage moves and combos to brutalize the deranged bandits of the Wasteland. Engage in dynamic, physics-based vehicular combat, taking down enemy vehicles with a slew of deadly weapons and customizable parts. Choose from different car bodies and construct the ultimate war vehicle with dozens of upgrade combinations. Explore an immense post-apocalyptic open world full of unique missions and side quests. Scavenge every scrap you can find to build upgrades for your equipment and vehicles. Take down eccentric bandits & gangs that roam the Wasteland.“[/box_dark]
Avalanche released a gameplay trailer which offers another peek at the world of Mad Max:
I think the trailer makes a serious mistake by focusing on the story rather than the scope and mechanics involved in the game. Like I said, we all know what these dystopian-future settings are like, even if the current generation of gamers has mostly likely never heard of Mad Max until a month or two ago. By focusing on the premise (and vaguely, at that), all newcomers see is a re-hashed concept and all of us who know the films are just thinking “movie-game”, a term that often goes hand in hand with “shovel ware”.
It’s too bad, because Avalanche have had major success with Just Cause and they might be able to turn the old IP into something really fun and interesting. We will have to wait and see more of what Mad Max looks like as the game develops.
In 24 hours Guillermo del Toro might transition from lesser-known acclaim to household name, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to abandon pet projects like Pacific Rim in the future. In an interview with Collider, del Toro discussed the future of Justice League Dark (also known under the working title of Dark Universe) and Haunted Mansion, just two of the many movies on the hard-working director’s plate.
Coming off the success of Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney has put their Haunted Mansion ride forward as the next attraction-turned-movie experiment, but it’s already been three years in the making and it sounds like production is still far from finished:
[box_light]“…I’m a huge fan of Haunted Mansion and I would love to do it, but Disney at the same time wants to move really fast on it, and I’m busy for a year and a half or two so they don’t want to wait that long. But if we keep chasing writers that we don’t get, it’s getting to be difficult.”[/box_light]
In the same interview del Toro announced that he’ll be producing and not directing Haunted Mansion, but hopefully that still means he’ll be able to lend some creative attention to creature design – it’s what he does best after all. And if he has to drop directing control of Haunted Mansion, at least it means he has room to work on meatier projects like Justice League Dark.
For those who don’t know (I was one of ‘those’ until just recently) Justice League Dark is a team-up series featuring many of DC Comics’s supernatural/stranger characters, including the likes of Constantine, Frankenstein, Zatanna, and Deadman to name a few. In other words, it’s the Justice League… but dark. Guillermo del Toro has been attached to the film adaptation for some time now, and while the film is still in its preliminary stages, he has been working hard on the first steps already:
[box_light]“Justice League Dark is very active. I’m doing one more revision while we wait for the writer. It’s somebody big, [and] we’re patiently waiting for that writer. I think it’s worth it, I think it’s a guy we all admire. I’m doing my revisions on my sort of Bible, on my story for the film. I can tell you it’s the writing project I’ve enjoyed the most in English […] this was so much fun because it was character. It was a pretty easy plot, but the character interaction, Swamp Thing with Deadman and Demon, it’s so joyful for me to write that. Constantine is such a great character, so dry. I think it could be a great movie. I don’t want to do many changes until the proper writer comes onboard.”[/box_light]
I’m very curious to know who this mystery writer is, as it’s basically the only missing piece in what sounds like another hauntingly strange story for Guillermo to sink his teeth into. If he can build the same wonderfully weird atmosphere that he managed in the Hellboy series I’ll be front-row center on opening night, even if I barely know who any of the characters are.
Even better? Del Toro is all for blending his JLD franchise with the inevitable Justice League movie that will hopefully see the light of day, now that Man of Steel has got the ball rolling.
With July in full swing and The Last of Us behind us, Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA V) is arguably the most anticipated game for the remainder of this console generation. Developer Rockstar Games has been parcelling out information about the game in little chunks here and there, but today they released a whopping 5-minute gameplay trailer. This is the first time the new world of Los Santos has been expansively detailed and described for the player without pre-rendered cutscenes, and it looks gorgeous. Take a look:
Rather than leave the focal points and important features of GTA V up to the player to find and dissect as Rockstar is wont to do, this trailer is concisely narrated to make sure you’re noticing exactly how huge this game is going to be. No bombastic Stevie Wonder lead-ins or goofy asides here, they have five minutes to show you the largest world map the team has ever created. Eyes front and center kiddies, there’s a lot of content to introduce.
Just a few of the activities you’ll be able to enjoy include scuba diving, skydiving, shopping, yoga, golf, stock trading, hunting, bounty hunting, tennis and bike racing, but those are relatively simple distractions to enjoy amidst all the crime-sprees, missions and major heists that comprise the bulk of Grand Theft Auto V’s campaign. GTA V will also allow for a huge amount of customization for each of your players: cars, clothes, tattoos, guns and maybe more can be tailored to your personal liking.
The trailer finally shows us exactly how switching between the three main characters will work, and at least within the trailer, it looks extremely fluid and seamless. I wonder if it will play as organically when I’m shooting out the passenger window of my Escalade and realize my other me is about to drive headlong into a building, but there’s no way to know just how well it works until the game’s released.
Jumping from character to character looks fun and flashy outside of missions too, but again, I’m curious to see how it works with real player spontaneity. Each of the examples in the trailer shows characters midway through some interesting activity (Michael ending a bike ride with his son and Trevor in a chaotic car chase with the cops); will I always catch my partners in some kind of crazy situation or will I find Trevor asleep on the couch from time to time? Also I’m curious to know if that switch to satellite view, which admittedly looks cool in the video, will become tedious after 10-15 hours of playing the game.
Finally, the trailer boasts that all the mechanics, from shooting to driving, have been fine-tuned to be more responsive. I’m all for that. Despite all of GTA‘s untouchable achievements, for a game all about crime and underworld shenanigans, combat has always been a messy affair. The gunplay shown in this trailer looks far more immediate than GTA IV, though again, there’s no way to know without playing the game ourselves.
Only Rockstar can set the internet ablaze with a video (Okay, maybe Deep Silver did it once), and they seem to outdo themselves with every one they release. This reintroduction to Los Santos just makes the wait for September 17th that much more unbearable.
What do you think of the released gameplay footage? Has it amped up your excitement or cooled you off a bit? Sound off in the comments section below!
George R.R. Martin has reluctantly put forth 2014 as a potential deadline for the next book in A Song of Ice and Fire, according to an article from International Digital Times:
“…the sixth volume won’t be released in 2012 or in 2013. I really look forward to publishing it in 2014, but I am really bad for predictions… when I finish this saga I will be judged for the quality of the books, not for the speed of my writing.”
The site speculates that, although the wait time between books has been excruciating in the past (up to a whopping five years for the last two), a 2014 completion for The Winds of Winter could be feasible, noting that “A Dance With Dragons came out on July 12, 2011 at the pleasant easy reading length of 1,510 pages. At that point, Martin supposedly had 200 pages for Winds of Winter already complete, chapters originally intended for Dance but pushed ahead for story and pacing reasons.” In addition to the 200 completed pages, Martin’s revealed that at least another 200 are written in some capacity. This would mean nearly a third of the book has at least been put to paper with TWOW’s predicted total count sitting at 1,500 pages. Personally I wouldn’t get too caught up in the specific dates or predictions – fans who have in the past have been burned repeatedly – but take some relief in the notion that 2014 is even being considered as a possibility; I’d add a two or three years to that just to be safe, and just know that by 2017 there’s a decent chance you’ll be able to read the next instalment.
The 2014 deadline would also serve as a buffer between the HBO series and the source material. The TV show is now hot on the heels of the novels despite the 15 year handicap and 1,500 new pages would prevent the show from overtaking the books for at least another year or two, but this is an issue Martin is very conscious about:
“I am aware of the TV series moving along behind me like a giant locomotive, and I know I need to lay the track more quickly, perhaps, because the locomotive is soon going to be bearing down on me. The last thing I want is for the TV series to catch up with me. I’ve got a considerable head start, but production is moving faster than I can write. I’m hoping that we’ll finish the story at about the same time … we’ll see.”
Martin has to be sick and tired of the constant poking and prodding about The Winds of Winter. I feel for the guy. If you are one of the many who have reached the end of book five and can’t take the wait anymore, there is an excerpt from TWOW available at The Winds of Winter Release (Spoiler warning inside. Duh.). Read that rather than bother the poor man with your insatiable demands. Aside from that there is a wonderful 25 minute interview HBO conducted with GRRM himself and the TV series’ executive producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. All that, and if the episode nine trailer is any indication, we’re up for one Hell of a finale to the third season.
David Cage’s new title Beyond: Two Souls is being shown off at the Tribeca Film Festival this weekend and yesterday Cage debuted 35 straight minutes of footage. The video focuses on a section of the game in which Jodie, the player-character, is living on the street.
The clip seems to jump to certain key points in the chapter in order to showcase the variety of gameplay Beyond will offer the player. It begins with Jodie trying to scrape together some cash, which appears to be almost entirely scripted cinema stuff interspersed with a bit of walking and some of the same button prompt mechanics from Heavy Rain. It then moves to a street brawl with some rowdy teenagers in order to show the new combat system. Again, a lot of this looks to be on rails save for the occasional button-prompt, but it’s hard to tell without seeing someone play it in real time. Skipping ahead, Jodie goes on to help a woman give birth and later escapes a burning building before the video ends. There’s a lot of content being shown here, with lots of dialogue and a couple of times in which the player takes control of Aiden, the mysterious entity tethered to Jodie throughout Beyond: Two Souls. If you’ve been wanting to see just how the game will play, this preview will give you a very good idea.
I have been ambivalent toward this game since its announcement. I have little love for Heavy Rain or David Cage, but I don’t want that to affect my judgement. For all of Cage’s pretentious and backwards ideas about video games, we do need more mature stories in this medium and if nothing else, Beyond is trying to tell a sincere, deliberate story.
It’s also impressive just how much the animation and acting have improved since Heavy Rain. The detail on the face models is breathtaking and the motion capture has led to very fluid character movement, but it’s the VO that has impressed me most. Not a hint of the same absurd accents and bad acting acting that ran rampant in Heavy Rain (Although some of the dialogue is still pretty terrible). Ellen Page is putting a quality performance into her role as Jodie, and you can see it in this half hour demo. It also helps that there is something about Beyond: Two Souls that feels reminiscent of two of her previous film roles, The Tracey Fragments and Hard Candy.
The bottom line of the whole video for me is that this still looks like a mostly passive experience. Quantic Dream say that Beyond has a lot more active gameplay than Heavy Rain did but this footage really only shows the same kind of button-prompt nonsense we’ve seen from them before. True, Aiden’s new possession mechanics are thrown in as well, but it doesn’t really seem to be all that dynamic. It’s basically just another layer of very rigid point-and-clicking. Truth be told, this preview has me more convinced that I won’t be buying Beyond: Two Souls. I prefer to play games and watch movies, not the other way around.
What are your thoughts of this preview? Will you be picking up Beyond: Two Souls? Sound off in the comments section below!
For the past several days the internet has been aflutter with anticipation for Sony’s press conference, which promised an announcement to excite the masses. Sony had been pretty outspoken about letting Microsoft take the first step in announcing a next-gen console so when they dropped word that they’d be leading the race, hosting a major reveal event tonight, it came as a happy surprise. I’ve frequented the PS4/Xbox 720 rumor mills over the past couple months and considering they’re slated to hit stores in an estimated 8 – 10 months, I feel like we’re entitled to some cold hard facts and previews to drool over. At 6:00 PM this evening (EST), Sony was kind enough to acquiesce. Here is a recap of the Sony Meeting 2013.
Defying all expectation, the meeting actually began right on time kicking off with the typical video montage fanfare before our emcee, Sony President Andrew House, took the stage. Taking no time at all for formalities, House immediately began talking about the PS Vita and its mobility and flexibility. He went on to stress the importance of cross-play and being always connected. Following a brief recap of Playstation’s success and failures leading up to present, House indicated that the current state of connectivity and cross-platform interaction demanded a new console. This new console, of course, is the PS4.
At this point I’m feeling a little anxious – talk of mobile gaming and ‘always-on’ systems typically means Facebook integration and the sort of added features that become more irksome peripheral ideas than anything else. Being able to post my new platinum trophy on a friend’s wall is a nice little gimmick, sure, but I don’t want this to be the focus of my Playstation 4. My first impression is one of tentative concern. This could be a positive way of telling us all use of their games requires online connectivity – a verification process that could cause whole experiences to be ruined by a lapsing internet connection.
House then introduced Mark Cerny, the ‘lead system architect’ of the PS4, to talk about the Playstation 4’s inner workings. The Playstation 4 is very definitely a powerful machine, what Cerny described as a ‘super-charged PC’. The specs listed exactly as spoken:
CPU: x86
8GB RAM
CPU almost 2 Teraflops
System memory GDDR5
Highly enhanced PC GPU
Shortly after going over the innards of the next Sony console, Cerny revealed the brand new Dualshock controller, which closely matched some concepts that have been floating around the internet recently.
Photo: playstationgang.com
This is purely an aesthetic nitpicky thing, but I’m not a fan of the new controller. The raised edges on the analog sticks are ugly, as is the touchpad, and anyway I’ve always loved the consistent model for the Dualshock. I’m sure after 4 months of owning one the Dualshock 3 will look like a sad piece of archaic technology, but to fresh eyes this is a visual step down.
Cerny then gave a superficial demonstration of the tech by showing off a real-time demo of the new Unreal engine, which featured two immense demons causing large-scale destruction in a snowy environment. The visuals don’t immediately stand out as a leap forward, but if you know where to look you can tell the graphics are definitely improved.
And shortly after he revealed his next title, a new IP called Knack which, despite its cartoonish, simple visual style showcased an impressive amount of fluid, moving objects (The protagonist himself is made up of several dozen of these).
Cerny continued to talk about the power behind the PS4, mentioning there will be virtually zero time between boot-up and game start. Similarly, downloads, streaming and sharing content will supposedly be nearly instant on the PS4’s system. In fact, Cerney stated demos can be started even before the download is complete.
The kind of speed and power indicated seems far beyond anything I’d expect from a console gaming platform. Beyond what I’m willing to believe as well, until I can see it in action (at least this is what I’m trying to tell myself between squee-ing).
The next speaker brought on stage was Dave Perry, one of the founders of Gaikai. Perry began by saying that Gaikai will be the catalyst for Sony’s new all-encompassing social structure. Facebook and Ustream will be integrated into this system, and additional features will include spectating or even taking control of a friend’s games. Reinforcing the idea of always-on and persistent play, Perry talked about reducing latency between the system and controller, and furthermore between the console and the Vita – that’s right, there will be remote play between the PS4 and the Sony handheld. Perry also revealed that in the future Gaikai will hopefully be used to stream older games, all the way back to the PS1, effectively serving as all backwards compatibility for the PS4.
Some of these social features are actually very cool. The Dualshock 4’s ‘share’ button makes it very easy to record video and share it with the friends, and spectating/joining games is something that has always been looming somewhere in the future of online play. I doubt I’ll ever do much with this stuff, but I think it’s neat, and hopefully it’ll do a lot to strengthen the PS community and brand.
After Cerny left the stage, the game demos began. The first official debutwas Killzone: Shadowfall and I think I summarized it pretty well on Facebook while watching it live:
Killzone is one of the titles we always see at Playstation announcements and while each game does a fantastic job showcasing the power of the console, the franchise is unavoidably boring. I’ve tried on multiple occasions to try to get into the series and never once enjoyed myself. That being said, despite immense levels of indifference coursing through every fiber of my being, the trailer looks gorgeous.
Next up was Evolution Studios who announced a new driving game called Drive Club. The game looks like it will take full advantage of PS4’s social features to take Need For Speed’s Autolog to a much higher level. Additionally, the amount of detail and care that has supposedly gone into the car models is near Peter-Jackson-Lord-of-the-Rings level stuff. All in all, though I’m not a racing game fan, this looks like a great direction to take the genre.
Following that, Sucker Punch showed the trailer for Infamous: Second Son. Infamous is another series that, for the life of me, I can’t get into. Friends of mine and critics I respect all like this series but I found the first game very generic and never could convince myself to play (Admittedly, I hear it’s far superior to the first one). The intro from Sucker Punch’s speaker sounded intriguing and actually reminded me a lot of Watch Dogs, however the teaser was just a lot of super powered fighting and douchebaggy protagonist mugging in front of the camera. Like Killzone: Shadowfall, the trailer looked great and I’ll probably never play it.
For the sake of length here, I’m going to list some of the other announcements and move on:
Jonathan Blow’s new game following Braid. The Witness.
David Cage came on stage (My cue to take a break) and showed a tech demo from Quantic Dream.
Media Molecule showed off something with PS Move and puppets?
Capcom announced they’re working on a new engine and showcased a work in progress, tentatively titled Deep Down. Looks insane.
Square Enix showedAgni’s Philosophy and announced a new Final Fantasy game is under development.
Following all of that, Ubisoft took the stage and showed a new trailer for the much anticipated Watch Dogs. This was not explicitly focused on any kind of narrative aspect, as we saw in the initial gameplay reveal in 2012 which featured a shootout outside a nightclub, but rather seemed to be a much smaller, more incidental interaction with some NPCs in the open world. And while I’d say this demo isn’t as exciting as that other one, I think it reveals a lot more about the potential this game has to blow the doors down on the limits we’ve grown accustomed to in video games.
Next, Blizzard made an appearance to announceDiablo III will be ported to PS3 and PS4 in the future, and finally Bungie rounded out the night with a brief look at Destiny, making it clear that now that they’ve achieved their independence from Microsoft, they will support Sony just as strongly as their previous overlords.
With that, we got a closing and a holiday 2013 release and that’s all for the Sony Meeting 2013!
I went into this press conference expecting long-winded PR nonsense interspersed with some mind blowing game previews, and instead I got pretty much the opposite – some really amazing tech was described and shown, Sony made very clear they’ve made a conscious effort to make it easy to develop games on the PS4 (The PS3 was notoriously difficult to work with for developers) and they are still dedicated to making real games rather than peripherals. Meanwhile the games revealed, for the most part, met expectations on the level. Still a mystery? Pricing and what the goddamn thing even looks like.
Grizzly Bomb 