Electronic Arts has released some additional multiplayer screenshots taken from the Electronic Entertainment Expo showing of Medal of Honor, their upcoming shooter. Due out on October 12th across North America, MoH is a re-imaginging of the venerable series which started back in 1999. This new Medal of Honor is set in Afganistan and promises an emphasis on realism.
Checkout all the multiplayer screens, After the Break!
This Electronic Entertainment Expo trailer for Sony Online Entertainment’s upcoming spy-MMO, The Agency, shows off quite a bit of gunplay. The Agency pits two rival organizations against each other as players using all manner of weaponry and spy gear. The Agency is due out later this year on the PlayStation 3 and PC platforms.
During the 2010 E3 Expo we had a chance to go behind closed doors and check out 2K Games re-imagination of XCOM. One of the best things about attending a 2K Games preview at E3 is the outstanding way they theme their screening rooms. I made my way into the XCOM room and was transported into a 1950’s kitchen with everything that you would expect. I was seriously waiting for the milkman to knock on the door looking to drop off his daily delivery…(cont.)
Check out the rest of the story and some screenshots, after the break!
(cont.)…The group of journalists were greeted by some of the producers from 2K Marin and off we went into the presentation. Being known for creating the Bioshock world is nothing to scoff at and 2K Marin set their sights on taking the beloved XCOM series to a whole new level. We were given a back story on the XCOM series and how it will be changing with this title. The developers wanted to apply what they have learned with Bioshock and put it into the XCOM world. A compelling shooter that not only provides fast action but tells a deep story.
The demo in game demo started and we were transported to the 1950’s. A car pulls into an airplane hangar which we later learned serves as a front for the XCOM offices. Something unknown is happening in America and there is an ever growing need for a secret government agency to find out what is going on. You are one of the agents sent to unravel the mystery, you are William Carter. The hanger base for XCOM is very important as it provides everything a secret agent will need. As you head underground you find yourself in the war room where you can pick or choose which missions you would like to take. The war room is one of the most important areas of the game as the choices you make tell the story. If you choose not to handle that distress call that comes in then you may lose that one important piece of the puzzle. The devs stressed that some options will vanish forever if you choose the wrong direction to take. As a player you need to form a strategy and choose which missions make sense to get things done right.
The underground base also houses your armory which has traditional weapons and experimental technology. Where do you get those wonderful toys? Well Shogunites as you make your way through missions you can use a handy recorder on different evil that you come across. The more information you gather the more weapons are at your disposal, like the awesome fire inducing blob bomb that the devs were using in the demo. Each time you go on a mission you can pick your loadouts to ensure that they are tailored for what lies ahead of you. The best part is you never really know what you are going to be up against.
The demo continued as William Carter arrived to his destination. A distress call has been received from a suburban house and when you arrive no one is around. The neighborhood has an eerie quiet to it until a call for help is heard from another house. At this point it is your choice to either help that neighbor or move to your main objective. As the dev made his way to the main house more screams were heard until a blob of black death literally made a NPC dissolve. The dev whipped out his research camera to show off how the system works and then lobbed a blob bomb at it engulfing the whole area in fire. As the demo went on it was pretty apparent that these black blobs of death are pretty brutal and normal bullets will not stop them.
Thankfully you are not out there alone as William Carter has some field agents with him. These agents go in guns blazing to assist you with taking down the alien force. The devs ran their way through the different houses until every alien blob was destroyed. Just when we though the demo was over the devs wanted us to see one more thing. This is what I like to call the ‘crazy ring of death’. This ring floated into the air and formed into some weird alien symbol. Not only did it kill every one of William Carter’s field agents but it destroyed everything in its path. This is not the kind of enemy you take lightly.
The demo ended and the one thing the producer wanted us to take home with us was this thought. XCOM is based in the ideal world of the 1950’s ripped apart by an unknown alien corruption. I am excited for this to hit store shelves in 2011 and think it will be one hell of a ride.
At this year’s 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo I was invited to check out 505 Games and Kung Fu Factory’s newest title Supremacy MMA. The developers focus was on making a brand new type of MMA game then what is currently or coming out on the market. The devs at Kung Fu Factory definitely have the chops as they were part of the design for UFC Undisputed 2009. We were loaded into a small room and first shown a trailer for the game. It didn’t have any in game footage or noticeable real world fighters. When the video ended the developers leading the presentation when into all about Supremacy MMA…(cont.)
Check out the rest of the story and a screenshot, after the break!
(cont.)…Supremacy MMA focuses on the dark side of MMA fighting
like the illegal cage fights held in shady bars across the country.
This is the world of no holds barred fighting where men fight to feed
their families. The one thing the devs wanted us to focus on was that
Supremacy MMA is all about story. The story of the game is what will
keep the players hooked and while no details were dropped the developers
promised that they will be doing something that has not been seen in an
MMA game.
As the devs giving the demo scrolled through the menu screen I noticed
that Supremacy offered tons of modes. Story, versus, tourny, and online
modes were on the menu. The mode they did show us was exhibition and
off we went to the underground. Two unknown fighters were selected and
then a choice came up to choose which arena they wanted to play in. The
devs pointed out that those arenas will play a huge part in the game unlike
other games which just have a crowd filled arena. The arena we saw was
based on the underground fight clubs of Mexico complete with a cockfight
ring. IT pretty much looked like even if you won you were going out
tied up.
The devs started up the fight and wanted us to take note that what we
were seeing was only 50% done. As the two fighters went toe to two what
I noticed was that the game was far more about striking then about
submissions. I fully expected Butterbean to barge his way in and start
throwing blows. What concerns me about a game focused on striking is
the potential for this being just another button masher. The devs then
showed us something new to a MMA game and that is the art of feinting
your strikes. The characters on screen threw realistic looking feints
that could easily be used to set up several different combos. While the
takedowns were fluid looking what impressed me was the realistic
looking grappling.
Fighters used true to form karate style grapples and muy tai clinches to
lock up their opponent. Supremacy MMA is a mixture of fast action
striking and slow strategic moves. We were also shown a small glimpse
of a parry system which looked like it could add some more deep
strategy to the fights. One of the interesting things we were shown was
the violence system. When you perform a finishing move on your
opponent a tally is shown of what you actually did to them. It was
refreshing to know that you actually did some damage to the person that
you are squared up against. The demo ended with a brutal knockout and
we had a short Q&A session.
One of the questions asked was in regards to the character creation
system. The developers wanted us to know that they are not focusing so
much on a character creation system as they really want to hone in on
gameplay. They believe that spending too much time on character
creation can distract from the fun a player can have. They want the
game to be easily accessible to all levels of players. The one question
I got in was if they had secured a roster or are going with made up
fighters. While they were not able to answer my question they did
assure me that they will be doing something very different.
Supremacy MMA has a lot of ground to cover and some stiff opposition in
the genre. If they can truly pull out something different then it
might just stay out of the rental bin. Supremacy MMA will be available
in 2011 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 gaming systems.
CCP Games has released a new trailer touting the final weekend (June 19th and 20th) of their 8th annual EVE Online Alliance Tournament. For those of you who don’t know, EVE Online a sci-fi, space-based MMO where players engage in spaceship combat while also interacting in a very complex political and economic system.
You can tune in LIVE to the Alliance Tournament starting at 1500 GMT/UTC here.
Activision has announced that the Alice Cooper Track Pack has gone live for download for both Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero. We previewed the Alice Cooper Track Pack last week in The Weekly Setlist, so you can take an in depth look at my thoughts on the tracks that are available. The Alice Cooper Track Pack is now available via Xbox LIVE Marketplace for 440 Microsoft Points, from the PlayStation Store for $5.49 and the Wii Shop Channel for 550 Wii Points.
Konami Digital Entertainment announced the very first trailer of the new Metal Gear Solid game called Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Metal Gear Solid: Rising is a third person action game that will use an entirely new engine and will feature an updated look for one of the franchises main heroes, Raiden. Raiden, who was last seen in 2001’s Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty, will be completely re-imagined with upgraded cyborg components resulting in a new fluid style of game play called ‘Lightning Bolt Action’.
At this year’s E3, I had the chance to spend some time playing DCUO. I walked in with hesitations, I’m not going to lie. I had many concerns before getting some hands on time. I was unsure about making a game in this universe, it seemed too limiting. So many giant boots are already filled up – I would say to capacity. I suppose Metropolis and Gotham are large enough that the big boys can’t be everywhere at once. I also had issues with the combat, especially when I heard it was going to the PS3. Is it going to become a button smasher? What about the end-game?
Find out about this and more, After the Break!
(cont.) I started my E3 journey, this year, with a demonstration of a hero smashing his way through a story to get to Harley Quinn. She seems to have kidnapped Robin, my first reaction was to let her keep him… but Batman asked for your help, can’t really say no to him. The hero was a gadget-based, sword-wielding, bad ass with a cape. He was thrown instantly into action jumping right into a group of thugs. The entire level was designed like a demented toyland with giant presents everywhere. The hero’s movement specialty was acrobatics, you can use this as a weapon, but the only thing I witnessed was jumping down on a group of guys to knock them down.
Some of the things that impressed me with this demonstration was the pace of the action, and the fluidity of the combat. You can quickly move from target to target and unleash a ton of special abilities that refresh before you know it. They have a, I believe, proprietary physics engine that is quite impressive for not being GPU-based and they take full advantage of it. One of the weapons this hero had was a freeze-like ray that turned the bad guys into a giant ball of ice. They would roll down stairs and you can even pick them up to throw them or slam them down on some poor sap nearby. One small thing was the way gear works when looted. If you come across something with great stats, but it doesn’t go with your outfit, you can ‘hide it’ leaving your previous piece of armor keeping the stats of the new loot.
SOE reps claim to be ready for the end-game. Players can get into PVP battles to help build up their notoriety and fame once they are at the max level. I played PVP on the PS3 and I had some fun once I got used to it. There will be plenty of raid-like encounters for those that enjoy PVE gaming. I will be curious to see more about this game, especially the stuff revolving around the story of your hero. I left the presentation wanting to see more, so I suppose this is a good thing. That said, my hesitations really haven’t gone away. I hope they can pull it off, this one has potential.
I had a chance to talk to the folks at Sony Online Entertainment about Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, an upcoming free-to-play MMO set in the Clone Wars time period of the Star Wars universe. Sony has learned a thing or two about free-to-play, micro-transaction based MMOs and it looks like they are gaining steam with this one.
Checkout my full impressions of this upcoming title, After the Break!
(cont.) The game is aimed at the same audience as the Star Wars: Clone Wars TV show – boys of around 10 to 12 years of age. It’s made up of various mini-games, ranging from full screen 3D arcade games to even 2D casual games. There is a port you start in where you can customize your avatar by purchasing some cool outfits or pets. You can either explore to find each mini-game, or you can just skip right to whichever one you want. This make it easy for anyone to hop into the game and play for a few minutes to a few hours trying to beat that last score.
During the demonstration, I was shown the space battle from the beginning of Episode III. It reminded me of the original Star Wars arcade game (only with full 3D graphics). Imagine the art direction of the Clone Wars TV show, and you can imagine the graphics. I was also shown one of many 2D games that were based on popular games we all know and love. They even have a tower defense game that looked really cool. One of the main game goals of that mini-game was to collect power-ups like thermal grenades, or even orbital bombardment.
Each of the games takes place in some situation seen in the movies or TV show and was really polished for being a free-to-play title. Parents, don’t worry, SOE has plenty of parental controls to make sure your kid doesn’t go nuts with your credit card or play the game at all hours of the day or night. I look forward to sharing this game with my nephews to see what they think of it, maybe we can have them write up a review – put those little whippersnappers to work!
Microsoft and Epic Games have released a couple new screenshots for Gears Of War 3. The screenshots were taken from the demo shown on the show floor and the Microsoft press conference. The screens show off the new female COG’s and Marcus staring them down. Gears Of War 3 is set to be released in 2011 for the Xbox 360 console.
Check out the screenshots, after the break!
