2K Games has released a new gameplay trailer for their upcoming epic civilization-builder, Civilization V. Civ V is due out on September 21st for Windows PCs and promsies the most expansive and ambitious Civilization gameplay yet.
Archive - 2010
Realtime Worlds MMO, APB – which was based off of a classic coin-op title, just did not seem to hit it off with gamers. After a slew of negative reviews and bug reports, the game seemed to be finally coming together – alas, it looks to be too late as Realtime Worlds has announced that they are shutting the game down.
Official Statement:
APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end. Today we are sad to announce that despite everyone’s best efforts to keep the service running; APB is coming to a close. It’s been a pleasure working on APB and with all its players. Together we were building an absolutely amazing game, and for that, we thank you. You guys are awesome!
From all of the Realtime World staff we thank you for your continued support.
The servers are still up, so join the party and say goodbye!
– Ben ‘APBMonkey’ Bateman (Community Officer)
Read more on APB’s closure, After the Break!
After this official statement follows notes to fans, friends, and family from numerous game developers. Despite this statement, they have not mentioned when exactly the final shutdown will occur – seemingly leaving it open for a while to let gamers say goodbye.
You can checkout the full message thread over at the official APB website.
LucasArts has released a new trailer for their upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, featuring some of the game devs discussing how the game has evolved since the first title came out. Force Unleashed 2 is due out on October 26th, 2010.
505 Games has announced that a new DLC pack for its teddy bear-massacre epic, Naught Bear, will be released towards the end of this month on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PlayStation Network. ‘Episode 9’ will include new characters, costumes, and challenges. Episode 9 sees teddy bear pirates lay siege to the ‘Island of Perfection’, and it is up to the titular Naughty Bear to stop them.
Episode 9 will be available for 400 Microsoft Points (or $4.99).
Electronic Arts, MTV Games, and Harmonix have released a new gameplay vignette showing off the gameplay of Rock Band 3’s new keyboard controller. The game is due out October 26th and features 83 different tracks to rock out to.
Splash Damage and Bethesda Softworks have released the fifth dev diary for their upcoming shooter, BRINK. This video dev doc focuses on sound design and just how the Splash Damage team revs up their creative juices. BRINK is due out next Spring.
In Mafia II you are Vito Scarletta in 1940’s Empire Bay. Empire Bay is based on New York City and is filled with immigrants, working to eek out a living. As Vito is growing up, like any youngster, he walks the wrong path in life. Without spoiling too much of the story, Vito leads the life of any mobsters you would see in films like Goodfellas. The city of Empire Bay is filled with interesting characters and that is one thing that sets Mafia II apart from a lot of games. As you move through the story, Vito is accompanied by his best friend Joe and is in a constant battle to shield his mother from his lifestyle.Without the characters of Empire Bay, Mafia II would be just another sandbox game with no substance.
Some may say that the story in Mafia too is predictable. Sure, you may know what you are getting into but, just like every great mob movie ever made, it offers you what you want – action, drama, and some scary twists a long the way. The writing in Mafia II is top-notch and really makes the player feel like they are inside the game world. Kudos to the writing team for Mafia II as they clearly gave a nice transition from the original title and kudos for the awesome tie in to the original Mafia story.
GAMEPLAY:
Mafia II is your standard sandbox, third-person game a la Grand Theft Auto IV. The analog sticks control your movement/camera view and your triggers do the normal fire/zoom. In your arsenal are a variety of weapons, from handguns, machine guns, bombs, to even just your mark 1 fists. There are several events in the game where melee is a must and combos seem to be your best friend. As you wear down your opponent you are treated to a finishing quick time style combo attack that unleashes some hell on whoever is at the end of your fists. The control system in Mafia II is simple and there were no issues found with them.
The world of Mafia II doesn’t just take place on foot. As with any GTA-style sandbox game, driving is a major part of Mafia II. There are dozens of cars for you to collect a long the way and the cars handle well in character with their type. Depending on the car, you can have a very smooth ride or be driving a gas guzzler that hates corners. Weather comes into play when you drive and one snowy day can transform a police chase into your fiery death. The car portions of the game are standard fair for a game of this type and we encountered no problems when playing. Just be careful not to speed or the local police will attempt to pull you over.
As you go from mission to mission, you will find yourself hitting up the local chop shops to upgrade your cars or the local tailor to upgrade your duds. Both of these stops serve a dual purpose as they can also help you escape from the cops if you are wanted. The police force in Empire Bay is very much like the Keystone Cops. If you are wanted all you really need to do is drive real fast and they will crash into something or get lost. This theory was tested as we shot a citizen right in front of a cop and then put the peddle to the metal. The cops chasing us ended up killing about twenty more civilians when trying to capture us. If by chance you do get pulled out of the car all you really need to do is pay them off and you are good to go.
Other than the tons of missions available there is not much else to do in Mafia II. 2K Games signed a deal with Playboy to scatter Playboy magazines throughout the world. While this offers some collection side-work, there really isn’t much to it. With a world that is so alive like Empire Bay you should be able to explore it. Unfortunately Mafia II leaves you with little to no time to actually explore its many awesome locations. We would have loved it if the devs had included a free roam mode for the game. With the recent announcement of DLC for the game here’s to hoping that is included.
GRAPHICS AND SOUNDS:
Mafia II is a very nice to look at and the detail that went into such things like billboards is amazing. The world really is alive with changing weather cycles that build up grime on cars to the occasional traffic accident that the player will encounter. While the devs spent a ton of time on the visuals, we did encounter a lot of glitches in the world. These glitches mostly come from the NPCs, which get stuck in walls, endlessly walking into walls, and just exhibit odd behavior. While none of this was game-breaking, it occurred enough to note it. The cinematic sequences in Mafia II were a pleasure to watch and there were times where we felt like we were watching a movie!
It is obvious that the devs spent a lot of time on making the sounds of Mafia II a focal point in the game. The radio stations are by far one of the best features in the driving experience. You have your choice of three stations and, depending on where you are at in the game, you will hear music for that time period. We did note that some of the songs were not by the original artists but regardless we loved the radio feature. The voice acting in the game is hands-down great. The voice cast really hooked in the player and gave it that Hollywood feel. With a story as well-written as Mafia II it only makes sense to have a great voice cast.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
If you played the original Mafia go out and buy this game right now. While not perfect, it is a great follow up to the original game. If you are new to the series you can still start with this game as only one small portion will not make sense to you.
This new trailer for the upcoming Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, shows off some of the background action which takes place during a playthrough of a Megadeth favorite. Warriors of Rock will feature 93 tracks of epic metalness for your playing enjoyment, and is due out on September 28th.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios have released a new trailer for their reboot of the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, Mortal Kombat. This new trailer doesn’t show off any gameplay but does get our geeky hearts pumped up with silhouettes of your favorite fatalities in action. Also features in this trailer is rock band Disturbed’s new track, ‘Another way to die’.
STORY
Kane and Lynch 2 takes place a few years after the original game and Lynch has set up shop in his new home of Shanghai. The seedy underboss ‘Glazer’ has tipped off Lynch to a gun smuggling deal and Kane makes his way to Shangai at the request of his dear friend. This is where things go South as they do in any violent, buddy flick and, without going into the story too much, these two guys have both seen better days to say the least.
The story in Dog Days falls flat on several different occasions in the game. The writers focused too heavily on where the game needs to go after this game is finished rather than focusing on the meat of this story. The player can find themselves lost several times throughout the plot with no real direction or read on what is happening. The filler for the story seems to be in the ‘buffering’ screens but, even with those, it is still really hard to figure out what is going on.
The characters in Dog Days are deep and have the potential to be standout stars for video game players everywhere. Unfortunately, the writing team behind the game does not do them justice and the ending of this game was one of the worst I have seen and really drove home the fact that IO Interactive needs a new writing team for future Kane & Lynch titles.
GAMEPLAY
Dog Days plays like your normal third-person shooter. The left stick operates your movement and the right stick your camera view. Unfortunately, the camera is your worst enemy as it can get stuck in places you don’t want it to be. The right trigger controls your shooting and the left is your normal zoom options. This game is pretty simple and boils down to taking cover behind objects and popping out to shoot your foes. The cover system is, at times, wonky as it glitched out several times when trying to hide behind an object. There is nothing like attempting to hide behind a barricade when instead it vaults you over into their gunfire. Additionally, one of the shoulder buttons can initiate a vomit-inducing shaky cam run. Thankfully, there were very few areas in the game where you needed to do a sprint thus it is better to stay away from it altogether.
The gameplay in Dog Days is pretty simple: Run to cover, pop up, shoot. The only problem is that the people you are going up against take about thirty bullets to kill. These Shanghai gangsters must have been shooting up some sort of super hormones because they can take some serious bullet-riddling. Of course one wrong bullet and Lynch can be killed in an instant right? Whatever drugs these guys are taking need to be passed down to our boys too. This was a very frustrating part of play as it makes some levels become quite boring as you attempt to kill the same people over an over again.
Dog Days can be described as ‘Warehouse: the game’. Every single level seemed to take place in a warehouse or stockyard. I have never been to Shanghai but, after playing this one, I can only imagine that they have a huge industrial network. It would have been nice to see some varied locations to spice things up. While the singleplayer was very short and left a lot to be desired, Dog Days has a pretty good multiplayer experience. The number of included maps is a bit low but the cops and robbers mode is aces. There is nothing like deciding to turn traitor against your mates just to take home the cash.
GRAPHICS and SOUND
The developers behind Dog Days set out to totally change the art style in the series/ Kane & Lynch 2 is delivered to the player as if they were watching a snuff film that as found on the ground. Loading screens are replaced with ‘buffering’ segments like a streaming movie and everything is filmed from a shaky cam point of view. While this can produce some vomit inducing moments, the take on the genre is really unique. It was refreshing to see developers taking a risk with their art style that paid off. The art direction is the best part of the game, although there is one complaint: Whoever decided to ‘pixelate out’ the ultra gory scenes in the game should have been bonked in the back of the head. When you are touting your game as a one filled with such violence and seediness there is no reason to pixel it out. You are already taking risks, so why leave that part out? It really looked poor in the presentation and doesn’t keep the player hooked to the art direction. The visual art of the world was really well done despite the lack of level locations. After playing this game i am not sure I ever want to visit that part of the world.
The sound in Dog Days was average but that could be blamed mostly on the dialogue writing. How many times did Kane and Lynch have to be surprised that they were in a sticky situation? Every single time a wave of enemies came after them the player will get a ‘Where the hell did they come from?’ type of line. This got really old after awhile and spoke to how bad the writing on the game is. The ambient sound effects were fantastic as gunshots rang out and explosions melted the screen.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you played the original game then it is worth buying Dog Days just to round out the story. If this is your first experience with the franchise I would hold off on running out to buy this. However, while I can’t recommend you run out and buy this game right away, Shogunites, it does deserve a rental just for the art style alone.