Author - Ripper71

Star Trek Infinite Space Hands On Preview (E3)

2011/06/20

For over 40 years, Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction universe Star Trek has been enthralling millions of fans all over the world. Names like James T. Kirk, Jen Luc Picard or Catherine Janeway are as familiar to us as the militant Klingons, the bargaining Ferengi or the imperialist Cardassians. Star Trek has influenced our every day culture so much that even Google or Facebook are available in the Klingon language. Gameforge has signed an extensive cooperation agreement with CBS to publish the first browser-based Star Trek game. ‘Star Trek-Infinite Space’ is currently under production in Frankfurt, in close collaboration with Star Trek screenwriter Lee Sheldon. The game will take place in the diverse Deep Space Nine universe and is scheduled for release in summer 2011. At the start of the game you can choose between two factions – the Federation or the Klingons and choose from a range of races including Human, Andorian, Klingon or Bajoran.

Features:

Once a team with differing skills has been assembled, there’s nothing to stop the voyage into hundreds of diverse individual missions, during which they will come across the occasional familiar face from the TV series. Additionally, players can use the special cooperative mode to explore space with up to five friends and they can meet with up to fifty other players in special player-versus-player sectors to battle it out in space conflicts.

Graphics:

Utilizing Unity3D technology, players will enjoy spectacular 3D action on an unprecedented graphics level has got Star Trek experts Michael and Denise Okuda, as well as screenwriter Lee Sheldon on board to offer fans a genuine Star Trek experience. And it is free, simply log on and play Star Trek: Infinite Space!

E3 Impressions:

First off I have to point out how enthusiastic the Gameforge team are about their project and how contagious that enthusiasm is. I was just starting my day full of appointments, the NOS energy drink hadn’t kicked in yet and the team of Gameforge greeted me warmly and immediately filled my hands with information about their title including a book on how to learn Klingon. After many warm handshakes we sat down, had a brief tutorial and before I knew it I was flying a Federation ship, checking out the lounge in Deep Space Nine and getting a quick feel for a universe I had watched far more than I had played.

Flying the ship was fun, my crew worked like a skill system, each one bringing their own abilities to the fight. The ship was easy to learn to handle but not so easy as to make it boring and the battles looked beautiful. Even though the game is still in fairly early development (not in Alpha yet) I was still able to get a feel for the game and I could understand the team’s excitement. 2D navigation will be available for more access to non-hardcore gamers so that if you are not a big gamer but love Star Trek you can still play the story. If you are just a hardcore gamer and want to feel the power of a Klingon war bird or a Federation star ship and don’t care much for dialogue you can ignore the boxes, skip the cut-scenes and start blasting away. They really are trying to make the game not just accessible to a wide audience but also make it tailored to a wide audience which, as any Trekkie or Trekker could tell you “does not sound logical”. But damnit reader, they are developers not just fans! Ok I’m sorry I’ll stop but I do have to elaborate just a touch more on the skill set. Your percentage of success at anything from scanning a planet for life to firing a successful torpedo depends on the skill level of your crew in that area and when you are about to attempt them it gives you a percentage so you can decide if you want to risk it. These decisions as well as where and how you choose your battles mean the difference between survival and your coffins being jettisoned by another ship.

Last Call:

This game is still in the early stages but has everything you could want for a successful game: great graphics, excellent engine, Star Trek experts on board and oh yeah, one more thing I forgot to mention: the music changes dynamically and was performed by a 67 musician orchestra. I know I will be giving this game a run at warp speed!

Editorial Question:

On this interview I was also asked to find out the answer to how they feel about BigPoint moving into the U.S. and starting to compete with Gameforge globally. Gunnar Lott, Gameforge Productions, let me know that they feel on equal footing in the U.S. and that they are actually stronger in Europe. Lott went on to say that there are no bad feelings between the two companies and they are both working to expand the niche. “And” Lott said, “we consider ourselves more than an MMO company.”

Screenshots

Runes Of Magic: Lands Of Despair And The Challenge Hands On Preview(E3)

2011/06/20

Ripper71

E3, News, Previews

This week ‘Runes Of Magic Chapter IV – Lands of Despair,’ released telling the story of a mighty yet mysterious demon who is throwing the world of Taborea into turmoil. As part of his devious plan, he has released a horrifying contagion across the land, turning the inhabitants of entire villages into soulless zombies. Even Annelia, daughter of Lord Grafu, has joined his ranks as a young apprentice and has been consumed by the darkness inside her. Venture deep into two new, perilous, high-level zones, each bringing along a brand new instance for both groups and raiders, 6 and 12 player instances. Participate in the new Public Encounters and grab those new quests waiting for you, leveling all the way up to 67. Heroes that wish to ensure the safety of the old lands can help defend against the impending invasion in the World Battlefield. You also now get the option of choosing a third class for your character! Pick up the 3rd class quest in Varanas and teleport to the new starting area, the Coast of Opportunity, to level-up your new class. And it is still free to play!

E3 Impressions:

This game is really nice and hard to believe with the graphics quality and the complexity of the game platform that it is a free to play game. In this installment the world is basically being increased by 25% with 20 new areas. It is going from dual to triple class format but players should know only two of the classes can be active at a time. Bag space is being increased as is the size of the mount and pet bags which, let’s face it, for collectors you want as much room for as many of both of those as possible (if you collect mounts make sure to pick up the steelseries QcK Limited Edition mouse pad, it comes with a permanent mount!). Few things are more frustrating than running around and getting loot and having to pick and choose because of bag space. The game competes with subscription platforms for quality and earns it’s money through mini-transactions such as pets and mounts. It is possible though to play the core game and have a great experience without paying real life dough. That’s kinda important in these days where most “free” games are actually free to play, pay to win. The world design is also interesting since the game is made in Japan but the developers are based out of California so it has a Western game feel with an Asian blend making for a very interesting building style and game philosophy. The team was excited about their project and very gung-ho about getting it out into the public and getting word out that they may be on the fourth chapter, the game is not just alive and well but growing in great strides. Their passion and dedication shows.

Runes Of Magic: The Challenge:

Based off the same world discussed above, Runes Of Magic: The Challenge is a new Facebook app/game from the same developers as the Runes Of Magic series this is an independent game relying on Facebook technology. It is designed to be attractive to the casual gamer but prize cards can be won playing Challenge that can be redeemed in the full Runes of Magic game.

“Runes of Magic is the first free-to-play MMO game ever to expand into the social networks sphere with a rich, full, social gaming experience that will appeal to fantasy fans of all ages – independently of whether they play the full client game or not”, comments Lars Koschin, CEO of Frogster America, Inc. “With the success of Runes of Magic among core MMO players, it was a natural decision to build upon the franchise by taking it to a genre with mass market appeal and the powerful viral approach of the rapidly evolving social networks. The result is ’Runes of Magic – The Challenge’ for Facebook.”

E3 Impressions:

The graphics for this Facebook game look amazing, it is kinda hard to believe that browser technology has gotten so good that such nice looking games can pop out of Facebook apps. It is turn based and playable with friends and has only a 100mb download with an 8 gb client. I see players of the main game REALLY gravitating towards this side game simply for the codes that can be earned. Casual gamers and casual Facebook gamers will probably try this out, get their codes and give the main game a chance. It has a lot of the standard MMO elements that appeal to the casual player yet the hardcore grinder or raider will have plenty to keep them occupied working on Challenge to get codes and on Lands of Despair for game progression. This was an amazingly smart move that should have been thought of by more game developers sooner. Kudos Frogster.

Screenshots

Ninja Gaiden 3 Hands On Preview (E3)

2011/06/17

Ripper71

E3, News, Previews

I was greeted quickly at the check in and Team Ninja had me back in a discreetly tucked away booth by myself in seconds, seated before a PS 3 and Xbox 360 both ready to let me start running Hayabusa through his ninja paces. So I settled in with a grin on my face and started doing just that. Near the end a member of Tecmo Koei America made his way in and after I was done he showed how you did it after a whole lot of playthroughs. Even from the demo I could tell this game has chops.

E3 Impressions:

The game has a distinctly darker look than games in the past, with Ryu doing a very Ghost In The Shell dive from great heights into the fray. Everything looks gritty, dirty and war torn. This mood isn’t changed as you tear through enemy after enemy, listening to their incredulous cries and curses and death throes. While keeping Ryu’s signature moves it is obvious that the game designers were going for a more realistic damage system, less gore more war horror. Sure there are sprays of blood and you can spin up in the air slashing your enemy up then dumping them on their heads (I still get a great thrill out of this) but when you stab an enemy once they start staggering around cursing, dying slowly or giving one last attempt at stopping your grisly progress. The demo is set as a tutorial though so they never seem to quite succeed and you are free to move onto the next enemy and learn a new combo or new move for the game. It is nice to have the lessons available since there is no manual in front of you and to truly understand the scope of Ryu’s abilities you really need to be able to put him through his different skills and get the hang of them. To hardcore gamers who were trying this demo this might have actually seemed like a down point or even a complete weakness in the game but the developers were trying to allow access and understanding of the game to a wide variety of reviewers and so to me at least it made sense to show the damage system, show the skill system and show the graphics.

The graphics were excellent, already to the point beyond tearing or pixel issues and the loading screens were cleverly disguised by game features so it never seemed like a pause in the action. Also his new soul sucking arm is well rendered and as the soul meter rises Ryu is able to unleash a wicked combo attack, which for the time it lasts is actually out of your control, turning into a cinematic slaughtering. I would have liked to be able to control this part more than grouping up enemies to watch what combination of unearthly destruction he will wreck upon their bodies and sometimes I found myself passing on the special attack in favor of a speedier, self-controlled tear through the enemies. I enjoyed watching the disturbingly beautiful ways that Ryu could mince his foes with his new arm but I am expecting the new arm to play more of a story role somewhere down the line so I felt fairly comfortable leaving the killing to my own play. Besides as I said before, I love dumping them on their heads, even with the increased realism.

Another nice way the graphics worked with the play was in the special non-combat moves Ryu makes. He scales walls using daggers dug into the bricks, the sails down from great heights to bring death from above, he glides across puddles on the ground to slide under obstacles. It is all great and gritty eye candy that I look forward to so much more of.

When I was working on the final boss, Sean Corcoran from Tecmo Koei America came in and gave me a couple of pointers before, with a smile, I handed him the controls and asked him to show me how it was done. He showed me how to streamline combat and tear through the demo like it was tissue paper rather than the long worked on and developed demo it is (he had run through it over 80 times). He probably could have gone even faster but my laughter at Ryu’s special attack was contagious and soon we were laughing together and having a blast ignoring the “E3 is now closed for the day” announcement in favor of what video games are really all about when it comes right down to it: having fun. I can talk about graphics or Ryu’s growing angst throughout the series or the consequences of his new arm but what it all really comes down to is whether or not the game is going to be fun. I can honestly say that it was a blast to play but even more fun to watch as Sean had fun with it, even after so many plays, he was enjoying it as much as I was. I think that is a testament to what is in store as much as anything.

Dead Island Hands On Preview from E3 2011

2011/06/13

Ripper71

E3, News, Previews

The island of Banoi is a lush, tropical paradise in the South Pacific where its flagship Royal Palms Resort serves as the ultimate getaway for vacationers with money to burn. However, all good things must soon come to an end – and the picturesque resort falls into madness, carnage and chaos after a mysterious and contagious zombie outbreak claims its once peaceful atmosphere. Cut off from the rest of the world, only four individuals who strangely find themselves immune to zombification have the power to protect the remaining survivors from the horrors of the island, discover what’s really going on and find a way to escape before their own fatal ends.

Highlights:

In keeping with an atmosphere of desperation and survival by any means, Dead Island focuses on serious, first-person action gameplay with a close-quarter, immersive melee focus.
With an open-world setting on a massive tropical island, Banoi is filled to the brim with things to do and objectives to tackle, allowing a fresh way to advance both the characters and story at the same time and providing for endless replay value.
Dead Island’s seamless 4-player co-op multiplayer seeks to provide the most immersive multiplayer experience to date. Players can drop in and out of each other’s games at any time with no loss of progress as well as the ability to continue on alone or with others.
The ability to enhance and develop your character using RPG-like elements including four unique character/classes, an XP-based leveling system and un-lockable skill trees put the power in your hands to create and play a unique protagonist.
With thousands of weapons in-game, from simple wooden bats to fire-axes to heavy rifles, Dead Island is a collector’s dream. This in combination with Dead Island’s weapon customization system will enable the player to craft the ultimate weapon to ensure their survival.
Dead Island’s damage system gives an unprecedented visual detail of the effects of each attack
on enemies, pushing the boundaries of visualized gore.
The game’s damage system considers the type of weapon you have and they way you would strike with it as to whether or not you take off a limb or a head or nothing at all.

Hands On E3 Impressions:

When it was time for my turn at zombie beating I went to the media contact for Square Enix and asked where the Dead Island kiosk was. After a moment’s blank stare she turned to someone else and the other woman pointed me to a kiosk with another game playing. So I walked to the back side, not visible to anyone who wasn’t looking for it and tucked in a corner were three consoles set up with a mass of onlookers pushed tightly together, some waiting for a chance to play, others just gawking with amazement. I had really been looking forward to seeing this game, had followed it’s progress as best I could and now it was my turn to give it a shot.

The headset though amazing looking was drenched in sweat when I slid it on but I didn’t care. I was in the zone and the game had a 5 minute timer so I had to savor every second of it. After a little adjusting to the controls and some storyline development I was beating down zombies, watching their blood and gore fly all about and constantly picking up different items from a broken oar to a machete beating and hacking away to save other folks on the island. Five minutes goes by pretty quick and really doesn’t give you the greatest chance to actually get a feel for the game, but the play was smooth, the mechanics and controller response time were excellent and the gore was over the top and fun. I smashed zombies to a pulp and got attacked by burning zombies all while making my way along beautiful beaches and gorgeous seas. I’m pretty sure I saw the sun setting over the ocean just as my time ended and I wanted more. I was already invested in the story and wanted to be on the search for the next weapon to take down the next zombie.

Dead Island was one of the games I was looking forward to the most at this E3 and it did not disappoint. Well, maybe it did just a little bit in that I only got to play for such a short period of time. I easily could have played the same demo over a couple more times and still have been thoroughly entertained. This game is going to be huge when it comes out, taking the best of other zombie based games like Left4Dead and Dead Rising and bringing the genre to a whole new level.

E3 Preview of Gamigo’s New Lineup (PC)

2011/06/11

Ripper71

E3, News, Previews

Those of you who don’t play many free online games. particularly browser based ones, may not be familiar with the company Gamigo. The German based company has launched it’s first MMOG back in 2001 and has since built an impressive line-up of diverse free-to-play titles. They are currently the home to over 20 client or browser based video games with such names among them as Mytheon, Witcher VS and one of my personal favorites Black Prophecy. I think a lot of people discovered Black Prophecy at the show this year because the computers playing it were constantly busy with players. I was a beta tester on the game and was amazed at how nice the 3 dimensional ship maneuverability was. This is a problem that has plagued bigger names in gaming but Gamigo had it down so well that it was a pleasure to fly them and test the game. Which was probably why so many found themselves just checking out the game at the booth and then spending a long time at it.

This story isn’t so much about Black Prophecy, though it is definitely a fun game that should be going into open beta soon and is well worth the time, I simply brought it up as an example of the level of excellence you can expect from a company that you might not have expected great things from. Let’s face it, browser games don’t always have the best reputation but I think Gamigo will help change that.

So here are a couple of their offerings I got to look into at E3:

UFO Online: Fight For Earth

“We come in peace.” – The red flag should probably go up whenever extraterrestrial visitors use this phrase. In the tactical browser-based game UFO Online: Fight For Earth humanity has also made the mistake of trusting the aliens.

That was a terrible mistake, as it turns out. The supposedly-peaceful aliens soon turn out to be nasty invaders looking to exploit our planet’s resources. While a majority of the population still believes their lies, three factions of resistance fighters form to take up arms against the aliens.

In UFO Online, players choose a faction to join and build and expand a base that acts as a hub in the fight for freedom. This is where mercenaries are hired and trained and where technologies and weapons are researched and added to the arsenal. Then it’s time to take on the aliens in turn-based tactical battles. The player commands an team of specialists, each of which has their own class-specific skill tree. Only with the right combination of targeted research and carefully planned out tactics will the player come out of battle victoriously.

PvE mode is all about destroying the extraterrestrial invaders while PvP battles are between players. Here they need to demonstrate their tactical skills and the firepower of their troops against other human opponents. Thanks to Flash and the Unity engine, UFO Online has highly-detailed modern 3D graphics on par with those found in most client games.

E3 Impressions:

Still very much in the Alpha stage of development stage the AI is rather simplified but will no doubt develop nicely. The graphics are similar to a Command and Conquer title but the play is turn based and movement and attacks are based on energy levels. There are two ways to move, normal or stealth and though stealth is a lot slower it does decrease the chance of you being spotted. This game takes into account sound as much as sight so that if you walk too close to a door or fire an unsilenced gun there is a good chance you will get caught. To help with this issue there are multiple classes to use, specialists, designed to help in various scenarios. You get scouts who can quietly find the enemy, tanks who have better armor to handle taking the gunfire and damage units such as the sniper who stays at the back of the pack and picks off the enemy. The sound system is a lot of fun since it works both ways so that either both of you sneak around or one of you get the edge. I can’t wait to play with this game when it gets further along in development. This is one of the games that they are testing the Unity engine on and I for one am excited to see what they can do with it.

Jagged Alliance Online:

Jagged Alliance Online is built around the same mixture of turn-based battles and real-time action which made the long-running Jagged Alliance franchise a real cult classic. Players take control of a group of soldiers, commanding them from an isometric perspective to complete tasks in order to earn cash and fame. If a player wants to stay on top, mercenaries will need to be trained and equipped with better weapons and gear. If that’s not quite enough, then mercenaries can be borrowed from friends or alliances can be formed with other players.

In their base, players have full control of all their military operations. Here they set up strike forces, equip and train mercenaries and plan their next missions. They can also communicate with other players to ask for help or send some of their mercenaries out to assist friends in some of the hardest missions of the game. But the base is not invincible to enemy attacks, so players will have to invest their resources in fortification of their defenses or go out to raid their enemies’ bases.

In the actual missions, players will need to prove their tactical skill by interacting directly with the mercenaries on the battlefield to make the best use of every soldier‘s “Action Points” in the turn-based skirmishes. Action Points are required to perform each activity, from simply running to a new position or breaking down a door to shooting at targets. Because these points are not unlimited, players will need to make clever decisions each turn if they want to earn the reward waiting at the end of each successfully completed mission.

E3 Impressions:

Jagged Alliance stays true to is origins and is very similar in many ways to UFO Online but with a different setting and iconic characters from the Jagged Alliance franchise. The AI is currently in the works but if you like a good turn based strategy or are a fan of the previous games this will be worth your time, especially since it is free. Much like UFO Online I look forward to when it hits the Beta phase and hope I can see that it delivers what it promises. Right now it looks good and demonstrates the sound presence/alert system very well, just time to teach the AI how to think. They will probably be thinking pretty well too, since this game uses the Unity engine also.

Grimlands:

Twenty years after devastating earthquakes lay everything to waste on Earth, what remains of humanity is fighting hard for its survival. Those cities that did not crumble in the quakes have been flattened in the bitter struggles for power that have ensued. Roving bands of marauders, mutants and psychopathic robbers wander the streets, looking for trouble. In this inhospitable post-apocalyptic scenario there’s only one goal: survival!

Not only does the MMORPG Grimlands have an interesting setting, it also has intuitive and innovative gameplay. Players take aim at their enemies with a variety of weapons, primarily firearms, from a classic shooter-game-style third-person perspective. Using a gunsight will make accurate shooting easier though aiming manually will increase the chances of causing more damage. Linear character development and non-flexible class systems are a thing of the past in Grimlands. Skills are improved simply by using them. Grimlands is all about “learning by doing”. Skills that aren’t used often are forgotten after a while. The southwest United States is waiting to be explored in highly modifiable vehicles. The incredibly comprehensive crafting system plays a very important role in the overall gameplay. Clans can control cities and build up new islands of civilization in these. Arenas and battlegrounds set the stage for rough-and-tumble PvP combat.

E3 Impressions:

Scheduled to be demoed this game is so early still in the Alpha stage that stability issues caused it not to be able to be shown. It is kind of a shame since a few of us on the team wanted to know most about this one (there is an apocalypse/wasteland contingency on our team that scouts out zombie/mutant refuges when we travel) but it just wasn’t meant to be for E3. But trust me when I say when they have the game ready for me to check out I will make sure to pass the news on to you.

Overall:

Gamigo’s new offerings at the show were not quite ready for prime-time but that’s fine, they were a taste of things to come from a company that has already proved it can do the job well. Just check out the 20 other games they have running for free.

E3 Preview of White Knight Chronicles 2 (PS3)

2011/06/11

Ripper71

E3, News, Previews

Created exclusively for the PS3 White Knight Chronicles 2 from D3Publisher features a very nice variety of customization, excellent cutscenes and in play graphics. In the game you battle evil forces while taking characters from your single player campaign into a expansive multiplayer gaming experience with up to six other players online. The developers improved gameplay mechanics from the first game based on fan requests such as the ability to create and customize your very own Incorruptus (a unique knight) and an enhanced battle system that makes battles faster paced and dynamic. Players can create their own unique combat style with more than 400 new armor and weapon choices and new abilities such as charge attacks, dash attacks and dual wielding weapons. The game also feature a massive online mode extending the gameplay beyond the story of the game with up to six players on new quests and challenges. If that isn’t enough the game comes with a remaster of the original game with the ability to transfer your character from the first to the sequel giving you a total of over 100 hours of playtime.

E3 Impressions:

The game was demo’d for me one on one so that I was able to get a really good look at it but didn’t get a chance to feel the response of the controls. The story is told really well through some excellent looking cutscenes (the cutscenes were assigned to a whole different company to make them as amazing as possible). Classes are pretty standard for a fantasy RPG: tank, melee and healer styles for groups and though very nice looking, the game did look quite a bit like some of the more famous titles of the genre. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if a game looks and plays like the best of the genre then you are doing something right but it also means it is a little harder to stand out from the pack. What helps that a bit is the strategy in battle is greatly determined by damage being based primarily on distance affecting accuracy and discovering the strategic weakness of the enemy. One of the improvements from the previous title’s original system is respawning at quest check points instead of death location to help avoid spawn camping. I really like the ability to customize armor and your knight, it is a simple thing but really helps make the adventure feel like your own. Another thing to help with that is the ability for you to build your own town and invite friends online to hang out in it with you. I remember in a very similar game a while back that I was able to own my own house and it is things like that that make it so that you feel that much more tied to the game.

The Last Call:

This is a really good looking game with promises of over 100 hours of play time plus a good amount of customization and online play giving a really nice value. I’m not sure if it stands out enough from other games of the same genre to bring in new players but fans of the first game should flock to it. Their requests were heard and this is a chance to not just play your favorite creation from the first game but to also bring your knight into brand new adventures.

E3 Preview of Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (XBLA, PS3)

2011/06/11

Ripper71

E3, News, Previews

This arcade shooter is one that probably flew under a lot of people’s radar but definitely deserves a look at. Set in the not too distant future it is the job of you and your teammates to defend Earth from giant insects and alien ships. At your disposal is over 300 different weapons and vehicles to take on thousands of swarming enemies in a fully destroyable city. There are four different classes to choose from, two more than the previous game in the series and three campaigns with five missions each. Campaign mode allows up to four players and Survival mode allows up to six. Split screen local play and multiple difficulty levels including “Inferno” combine with the class and weapon choices to make the game replayable over and over. At a value price of $39.99 and with a release date of July 5th you can be defending New Detroit in no time.

E3 Hands-on Impressions:

This game got addictive fast. I was playing Co-Op with one other person on the XBLA version, I was “Tactical” and he was “Battle” with AI filling out the other two positions as “Jetpack” and “Trooper.” “Tactical” was the more “new to the series” class and it showed as I started racking up a massive score and destroying everything in sight. The specialty of my class was the ability to drop turrets to aid me and homing missiles. One of the aspects I really liked was how much you relied on your teammates. If you died a teammate could come over and revive you and if any teammate hit a health cube then the whole team benefited from it. They learned early in development that players would fight over who hit the health cubes so they just made it so that it helped everyone. With each teammate having a specialty staying together and covering each other not only increased survivability it also allowed for quicker revivals. My teammate found and jumped into a mech which did beautiful damage and helped tear through the level and demonstrated some nice and easy to learn vehicle play.

The graphics looked nice, modeling was excellent and there were no issues with graphic quality or breaking even when getting heavily swarmed by giant ants or laser blasts from above. The graphics aren’t groundbreaking but they are really nicely detailed and it is always fun to have a destroyable environment. The enemies were fairly diverse, though I took a certain extra pleasure from taking out the giant ants since they reminded me of the old school monster movies when you would see giant insects fighting the Army. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the game and testing out the mech and running through all the different weapons available and finding the strengths and weaknesses of each class more.

Last Call:

This game is a fun addictive arcade shooter that you can play with your friends or alone and still have a really good time. The price is right and the game play is clean and solid and includes multiplayer. I’m looking forward to this game coming out and getting a chance to run the whole game through the paces. And I want to blow up more giant ants.

Ben 10 Races Through E3

2011/06/10

Ripper71

E3, News, Previews

There is so much to see at E3 that some very good and not so flashy booths of games get lost in the shadow of giants. One such booth was D3 Publishing that has brought out some nicely polished fun games this year, one of which is BEN 10 Galactic Racing. This game has a pretty wide appeal since it is based off Cartoon Network’s popular BEN 10 Universe putting characters and their abilities to the test in a kart racing game.

This idea may throw some folks for a moment, kart racing and iconic characters not known for kart racing can be a recipe for disaster (Star Wars Super Bombad Racing anyone?). Luckily this is not one of those cases, just as the Mario universe kart games before it. You get to race as Ben, Kevin or one of 13 aliens in high speed kart racing trips across 5 planets on 25 different tracks. Your main offensive and defensive powers are based off of your chosen character’s abilities in the Ben 10 universe but slightly modified to work in a kart racing environment. Ben changes into his different forms and he does different trademark attacks while still fitting into his kart seat and all participants can do drifts and jump tricks to improve their powerups The game can accommodate up to 4 players and can be great fun to play for fans of the BEN 10 franchise and kart racing in general. It will be available across platforms, with a special exclusive hero Diamondhead on the Nintendo DS, later this fall.

E3 Impressions:

Having gotten a chance to go hands on with this game during E3 I found it to be a whole lot of fun. Some of the karts and some of the gameplay may remind you of another kart game with iconic characters shooting shells at each other and that is just fine. To be compared to the best kart games is a compliment and means that you are keeping good company. Breaking down the game will sound a lot like a review from that most successful kart racing game because what made it good is what makes this one good. The controllers are intuitive, I picked it up and away I went tearing my way through the level. There are multiple race styles that can be implemented and the kart’s game play and mechanics allow for all of them. Are you a really good drifter? You can drift and rack up power that way. Are you one of those people who love to do aerial tricks? Bust them right and get yourself some powerups! Prefer to bump your opponents and blast the ones who make it past you or maybe you like to throw up a shield and go full throttle? The game allows for all of these and every one is smoothly achievable. The game makes picking up the controller and busting your way through the course lots of fun, so much so that while I was demo’ing it a small group started watching and going ” get him get him!” and “nice move!” Admittedly I am no stranger to kart racing, it is my wife’s favorite type of console game and I WILL get this game for her so we can play together, laugh our butts off and have her kick my ass. It is a game that screams “play me!” with a friend.

Back to discussing it though the tracks are also a lot of fun. Based off the BEN 10 universe fans get a chance to see some of the planets and places in a different way. One of the really fun and more difficult tracks was the one that runs around a desolate prison planet with lots of hills and jumps with missing guard rails while high in the air so that a wrong turn, or not noticing you have to turn, will send you flying to your respawn. Respawn is quick and puts you right back into the action and you still have a chance at finishing the game not too badly. The design of the background planets that don’t necessarily effect the play are really good and some tracks even have see through sections so you get a chance to check them out while not losing your lead.

The play system is exceptionally done in the game and the track designs are very creative. The fact is though there are a lot of racing games out there, there doesn’t seem to a whole lot of good kart racing games being produced. But I found BEN 10 Galactic Racing to be one of the good ones. If you like to get the advantage by taking out an enemy in front of you with a blast or slow down the kart drafting off you with some sticky track while still having your drifts and doing kart tricks off of ramps this game is definitely work picking up. All it takes is liking kart racing or the BEN 10 universe to want this game.

Snoop Dogg Helps Announce Yoostar On MTV

2011/06/09

Ripper71

Articles, E3, News

Snoop Dogg made a guest appearance at E3 to help Yoostar announce they are joining forces with MTV to fulfill the dreams of pop culture fans and gamers alike by giving them the opportunity to star in some of the most iconic scenes to ever hit the cable TV station. Additionally, some of the best music videos of the last several decades will be playable in Yoostar on MTV. This includes videos from the visiting Snoop Dogg who gave a brief endorsement before greeting some of the media.
Features included in Yoostar On MTV:
o    Developed in conjunction with MTV Networks
o    80 clips on the disk from the following areas:
o    TV – Classics, Reality, Original Programming, Previews of new shows
o    Music Videos
o    Video Backgrounds – News, Award Shows, Interview Sets
o    VGS 2.0, which introduces the next revolution in virtual green screen:
o    Extensive improvement in the users’ image quality in low, medium and optimal lighting conditions.
o    New blending, smoothing and color correction techniques make the player feel and look like they’re really embedded into the scene!
o    Improved masking techniques provide a more solid image, minimizing pixilation and hair “dropout”.
o    Full support of the Xbox 360 4GB Console, giving players the ability to watch replays, save and upload their scenes.
o 50 awesome challenges designed around MTV programs.
o    Weekly DLC (downloadable content) focused on scenes, sets, and scene packs.
o    Upload performances directly to Yoostar Playground, Facebook, and Twitter.
o    Be a part of the Yoostar Playground online community, rate and award your fellow Yoostars’ uploaded clips, all while earning fame, boosts, and Yoobucks. Add comments, enter contests and rise up the leaderboard ladder.

There will also be an update to Yoostar 2 coming in about a month to improve the virtual green screen technology. Before long anyone with a XBox and a Kinect will be able to fist pump on Jersey Shore or enjoy the Dogg’s video life.

E3 Impressions: Snoop’s arrival at the booth caused a bit of a media mini riot, so he understandably was mostly kept in a booth with a glass window then left pretty quickly afterwards. The Yoostar folks are very happy about their product, which they should be. The first Yoostar game was a nice accomplishment bringing green screen technology, which was mostly the game of networks and higher end companies, into a home kit at an affordable rate. They did not have a whole lot of time to get all of the compatibility issues worked out on the Kinect system but were able to make very good use of the newest technology. Though it doesn’t quite look like you have stepped into the movie due to “halo” issues on the current version of Yoostar 2, the next patch promises to make improvements so that eventually you can truly be proud when you post your images on the Yoostar Playground for friends and strangers to rate and berate.

Unreal Engine 3 Used For ‘Fable: The Journey’

2011/06/06

Ripper71

E3, News

Microsoft Studios, Lionhead Studios and Epic Games, Inc. announced that Lionhead is developing “Fable: The Journey” using Epic’s award-winning Unreal Engine 3. Revealed during the Xbox 360 E3 2011 Media Briefing, “Fable: The Journey” is poised to take the action-adventure series to Kinect for Xbox 360.

“In using the Unreal Engine with its excellent tools for crafting cinematic in-game experiences, it allows our developers to focus on the quality and uniqueness of ‘Fable: The Journey,'” said Peter Molyneux, creative director of Lionhead Studios and Microsoft Game Studios Europe. “Already we are seeing a more beautiful, vivid and unique world full of dramatic moments and have crafted new, never seen before gameplay experiences.”

“The world of Albion has always been a beautiful place, and Lionhead embellishing it using the bells and whistles of Unreal Engine 3 makes it even more magical,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “Furthermore, Lionhead truly impresses with their proficiency for Kinect, with intuitive and natural feeling player interactions using voice and gesture controls in demonstrations we have seen firsthand. That gripping experience combined with stunning UE3 visuals truly make this is a world-class union of imagination and technology.”