Category Archives: GAMING

GAMING

‘The Last of Us’ Demo and Trailer Revealed

1 Comment

“The Last of Us is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing triple A titles to be announced in a long time.” There’s a sentence that, if you were to read to me just after the game’s announcement, would make me laugh and call you names (If you then explained you were quoting me from the future, I’d probably call the authorities and/or ask to use your time machine for some…uh…private matters). That’s because the undead/mutant/alien apocalypse thing is one of the most tired ideas in video games, maybe only drawing a close second to gritty military shooters. Leave it to Naughty Dog, though, to take a concept I couldn’t care less about and infuse it with character, atmosphere and a story that bears delving into.

The Last of Us centers around Joel and Ellie, two survivors making their way through the remains of Pittsburgh after a pandemic has decimated the general population. As far as we can tell from what’s been revealed so far, the plague has mutated or otherwise turned its victims into grotesque, mindless swarms, making the environment fraught with danger at every turn. Resource management is a must, with the city in ruins and survival tools hard to come by.

At E3 Judge’s Week just nine days ago journalists were shown the first demo of the game, and though no footage was provided, Shane Satterfield of Game Trailers transcribed the experience for all to see on Side Mission. The demo apparently coincides with the latest trailer to come out, which appears to be the opening cinematic to the gameplay Satterfield and others were exposed to last week:

http://youtu.be/ShP5xn9Tz90

From Satterfield:

“As it begins the pair is driving in a car and they pull up to an overgrown urban area. Joel has second thoughts and decides to keep going. As they drive along the player is shown the decay of a post-apocalyptic Pittsburgh until, eventually, a pair of staggering feet are shown. Joel draws his gun and tells Ellie to put on her seat belt. Ellie begins to panic as Joel barrels towards the injured man. She asks if they should help the injured man and he quickly states, “He’s not injured at all.”…“

And some highlights from what we didn’t see in the trailer:

“…Now the first guy who was feigning injury on the road comes in with a gun. Joel pulls out his own and the game goes into Uncharted’s cover-based gunplay as two more enemies appear. Eventually he runs out of ammo and Ellie tosses a brick, smashing the enemy in the head. Joel then rushes in and finishes him with a melee attack. He then drops another enemy with fisticuffs and finishes him off by bashing his head with a plank he finds on the ground.

…In a panic they climb out a window and begin hiding behind various vehicles. Joel has the plank he used earlier strapped to his back and eventually he creeps up behind one of the enemies and strangles him. He then scavenges his bullets utilizing the same exact interface and icons used in Uncharted.“

Most interesting of all, though, is what Naughty Dog reportedly said before showing off the demo:

“…Representatives from Naughty Dog took the stage to explain that the game is their take on the survival action genre. Set 20 years in the future after an outbreak has taken over the US, The Last of Us chronicles a cross-country journey shared by a middle-aged man named Joel and a young girl named Ellie. Naughty Dog stated that their main goal is to parallel the emotions of the player with Joel and Ellie and create a reality that you can invest in so that you believe that they exist. They want you to feel the same tension and survival instincts that they’re experiencing.

Lighting is paramount because there’s no electricity, so more ambient and soft lighting is used to make the environments feel richer. They also added that the music is not typical video game fodder. It does not parallel the action because they want it to foster some sort of emotional impact. They want the characters to feel real as they experience what Naughty Dog calls the balance of power. They explained that the pair will react differently based upon what resources they have and how many enemies they’re facing.“

The survival horror/action genres are heavily dependant on atmosphere and emotion. Anyone who has played a success like Amnesia: The Dark Descent or a failure like Silent Hill: Downpour can attest to that. Naughty Dog certainly seems to be taking that into account, and considering the Uncharted series is one of the industry’s best in those categories, The Last of Us has potential to be another massive hit.

GAMING

Harley Quinn Takes Revenge in ‘Arkham City’ DLC

Leave a comment

Gamers will soon have the opportunity to jump back into one of the best games of 2011 with Harley Quinn’s Revenge, a DLC mission that serves as a two-hour epilogue to the award-winning game Batman: Arkham City. As the title indicates, the DLC will focus on fan favourite villain Harley Quinn, and her retaliation for Batman’s actions at the end of the game’s original campaign. And here’s the kicker: You’re not playing as Bats. The Dark Knight has mysteriously gone missing, and it’s up to Robin to find out what’s going on.

The Boy Wonder was notably absent from the main game (minus a laughably brief cameo), but players will actually take control of him as the protagonist in this latest chapter. It makes sense given his recent addition to the challenge map roster, where he boasts a unique and robust move-set. He’s a character that begs to be used in the more expansive environments of Arkham City. For players like myself, who don’t care much for the challenge maps, the sheer badassery of Robin’s redesign and combat abilities was being squandered outside the main story.

IGN makes it seem as if Harley Quinn’s Revenge will be just as deep and character-rich as the full game, citing Batman’s psychological symptoms following the events of Arkham City as one example. If it can maintain the level of atmosphere they featured in their two full games, this could well be one of the best DLC opportunities yet.

Harley Quinn’s Revenge will be available for download May 29th (for $9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points), or, if for some reason you don’t already own Arkham City, the Game of the Year edition will feature the DLC, along with all previous ones, and comes out the same date in North America.

GAMING

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Announced! Where My Nazi Zombies at?

Leave a comment

November 13th, 2012 – You will probably not see Dr. Kronner and I for a week after that date. Via Gamespot, the announcement that came to the surprise of exactly no one was released and it is that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is announced to come out in November, just in the usual CoD launch window that Activision always delivers on to make sure their Q4 numbers are spiked.

So what can we expect from this game? Probably more of the same. Let’s be honest, Call of Duty is becoming the Madden of first person shooters. The differences are pretty miniscule between each individual series. By that, I mean the Modern Warfare series and the Black Ops/World at War series. Both are developed by Infinity Ward and Treyarch respectively, and I honestly prefer the single player of the MW series over Black Ops. However, I will say the multiplayer of Black Ops and the Treyarch team is superior. That and it has nazi zombies which is simply the best party game amongst our group of friends since Goldeneye and WCW/NWO Revenge or Smash Bros or Mario Kart. So with this game, what I’m looking forward to is seeing what improvements they have done to multiplayer, new modes, guns, all that jazz. Of course the maps. As long as I don’t get more maps like Cracked or Hanoi, I will be a happy dude. I almost said happy camper, but that would just make me be a dick.

Anyways, on CallofDuty.com, the reveal shows that it will be tonight on TNT for the NBA Playoffs so I’m sure I’ll update this article tonight once the trailers hit YouTube and the such. Activision in the UK actually jumped the gun before taking down the splash page for the new game by apparently showing the Los Angeles in ruin, not unlike NYC in the last MW game. Other places like China, Japan, and Afghanistan were shown too so like always, this will be a global affair. Again, we await more details to come out so stay tuned to this post once we get more info.

So it’s basically Terminator and Skynet. That’s cool. Maybe some Cowboys and Aliens. Maybe not that cool. Am I playing it? Child please.

GAMING

‘Game of Thrones’ RPG? Yeah, Why Not…

1 Comment

With all the twists and turns that Game of Thrones delivers us on a weekly basis, you would think that ‘Man, this has video game potential written all over it’. Actually, the massive of amounts of money and publicity should be the tip off that this has video game potential all over it. But more on my thoughts later in this article. Atlus is publishing the Game of Thrones RPG that which actually follow the GoT timeline and history. Now, whether the game is good…well, let’s show the trailer first.

Yeah, I don’t know but I am always skeptical of any video game adaptation from movies or games. I cannot even remember the last video game adaptation game I played and actually enjoyed. Goldeneye maybe? Riddick? And even then, those were movies. This is not only a television adaptation, but a book series adaptation. There is a lot riding on this and the right move was to make it an RPG. The way it seems, an extremely linear RPG is the best way of the go. You should not be able to deviate from the path other than different storylines to follow because again, you don’t want to mess with the GoT universe and change history like say, a Skyrim would or a Mass Effect. So we’ll see in June how this all goes down. Although, is it just me or does this look like a iPad game or the next Infinity Blade game. I feel if you were putting some dollars behind this game, it’d look a bit better than something I can download in 3 minutes. Or worse, maybe the budget isn’t there because they want the quick money grab. Something to ponder…

GAMING

Sony Reveals new ‘God of War: Ascension’ Trailer

Leave a comment

Thanks to an Amazon page that jumped the gun revealing possible box art, and a tentative release date, Sony has been forced to show its hand and publicly announce God of War Ascension, the fourth game in the GoW series. Sony broke the news officially with a brief and vague teaser that revealed PlayStation’s iconic God-killer suspended in chains.

All signs point to the upcoming game serving as a prequel to the first game, which makes some sense considering Kratos has already systematically murdered his way through Olympus and razed the Earth in the process — there clearly isn’t much story left to tell after that. However, fans of the series are already familiar with Kratos’s history in the Spartan army and the misguided deal with Ares that sealed his fate as the Ghost of Sparta. Admittedly the backstory was only alluded to in short sprinklings throughout the three games, but the origins of Kratos seem very tame compared to the epic scale of the original trilogy. Nevertheless Sony is claiming this will be “the most ambitious God of War adventure in the series yet.”

God of War Ascension reportedly has a release date of Spring 2013.

GAMING

Resident Evil 6 Trailer, Now with Earlier Release Date?

Leave a comment

Resident Evil has been around forever, I still remember the awkward controls and being freaked out by a dog crashing though the window in the first one on the Playstation (as well as the horrible, HORRIBLE acting in the cutscene sequences)

And while most of the spin-offs have crashed and burned (with the exception of the underrated Code: Veronica), the series manages to keep staying relevant despite almost having as many sequels as a Madden or Final Fantasy game. So with the big movie coming out (ugh, another article, another day…) in September, Capcom has moved up the release date of the game with the announcement of this new trailer so now the big day is October 2nd, 2012. It will be for the Xbox 360 and PS3 but NOT the Wii U – which is disappointing but not unexpected. But you want me to stop talking and show you the video, so here it is:

Soooo yeah. Thoughts, comments? I dug RE4 with the change in gameplay mechanics, and the co-op in RE5. I would have liked a few game play shots, but otherwise, the story will look good bringing back Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy with a few new people like Wesker’s son, taking us to new places like China as well. So we shall see. Capcom better make up for the debacle that was Operation Raccoon City. From the look of things, they will.