Stay Dead Demo
Over the weekend, I checked out the demo for Stay Dead, a unique motion picture game by Brucefilm featuring round-based live action fighting with rhythm style controls.
Dead Space 3 Demo and N7 Armour
The Dead Space 3 Demo lands today for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3! The demo features a single-player segment as well as the new co-op play, hostile environment and weapon crafting.
Dead Space 3 Demo Preview
I got my early access key for the Dead Space 3 demo on Tuesday, for the Xbox 360, and finally got around to taking a look last night. As well as the usual single player missions, this demo includes a preview of the new Co-Op mode and the Weapon Crafting Arena.
The demo starts with Isaac Clarke leaving his crashed ship and wading through deep snow.. it’s a beautifully created world out here in the snow, such a harsh atmosphere and a whistling wind that made me feel cold just hearing it. You’re prompted to hurry along and find shelter before you die of exposure.. so through the snow, past a few enemies with horrible, sprouting appendages, onto shaky, collapsing platforms..
Halo 4 and Other Things
Halo 4 was released this morning, exclusively for the Xbox 360. The story picks up four years following the events of Halo 3, with Master Chief now shipwrecked and facing new enemies..
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-GzfNgUVHo] (more…)
Torchlight II Has A Demo
Action RPG Torchlight II released yesterday in the UK.. and for those who haven’t ordered, or made up their minds yet, there’s a demo available either through Runic Games’ official website, or on Steam!
Mass Effect 3: Take Earth Back
BioWare have released a cinematic trailer for Mass Effect 3, showing the beginning of the War for Earth..
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBktyyaV9LY]
The demo is available now, on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, with both singleplayer and multiplayer sections. The full game will be available on the 9th March.
Our impressions of the single-player demo can be found here.
Mass Effect 3 – Demo Availability
The demo for BioWare‘s highly-anticipated action RPG Mass Effect 3 is planned for launch on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on February 14th.
Single-player will be available to all, and features two sections from the game: the opening level featuring the Reaper attack on Earth, and a level from later on in the game, where Shepard travels to an alien home world to request assistance in the war effort.
The co-op multiplayer demo is only available to those who have a an activated Battlefield 3 Online pass: this part of the demo opens up to everyone else on February 17th. This demo features two maps: Slum and Noveria.
Xbox 360 players can win codes to get early access to the demo via a Facebook app, or via Twitter giveaways such as this one.
Our impressions of the single-player demo can be found here.
Mass Effect 3 Demo Impressions
We got hold of an early access demo key to BioWare‘s Mass Effect 3, so instead of getting on with one of the many games I’m part-way through, I fired up the 360 to play.
I’ve not played the previous games in the series, although friends have; so I’ve heard plenty about the various companions in the games.. either for their fighting abilities or lack of, or for the romance options which I think are optional. In fact, that was almost all I knew about the series, along with knowing about the dialogue choices that affect the storyline, and the ability to carry your character over from one game to the next.
I was surprised to see that players are given the option to choose the mode of the game: Action, Roleplaying or Story mode.
Action Mode means adjustable combat difficulty, and replaces dialogue options with cutscenes, whilst Story Mode enables character customisation and dialogue options during conversation. Roleplaying mode allows you to customise your character, choose dialogue options and still adjust combat difficulty: this is how the previous games worked, and sounded like a good balance to me.
The next choice was what class to be.. which came down to the mix of combat, tech or biotics I wanted to use. They all sounded interesting.. stealth, powerful close combat attacks, the ability to deploy combat drones.. but I picked Adept as the ability to fire micro singularities at my enemies sounded pretty awesome 🙂
After that, there were a few other choices for background, reputation and potential psychological issues.. whether you’re an orphan who manages to survive disasters while all around you die, or whether you’re an army kid prepared to risk yourself for your team mates and so on.. I suspect these choices come into play during the story, or influence your available dialogue options.
The first part of the demo sees Shepard being brought to the Defense Committee, who are worried as they have been receiving distress signals, and lost touch with colonies and so on. Shepard says it’s the Reapers, but the Committee are still unsure, until the Reapers actually arrive on the scene..
The Reapers destroy the building we’re in, killing the Committee, and when we get outside it’s obvious they’re destroying the rest of the city too.
Impressive, massive machines.. 🙂
I followed the Admiral out of the ruined buildings and across rooftops, heading for a landing zone and pickup from the Normandy.
I’m not convinced by the constant aiming.. Shepard only lowered the gun when sprinting, so there was a point where I was running along aiming my empty gun at nothing in particular! The controls felt great with just one odd bit: running with the A button, then melee with B.. I think that would make running and hitting a bit awkward.. but maybe melee combat only really comes up in closer quarters. Playing as an Adept, I would probably be using the Singularity and then shooting the enemies trapped in it, and avoiding melee.
The dialogue options were fairly simple: at different points in the conversation, a few options appeared on a little circle at the bottom. You just pick the one you want, and Shepard says something with the same general meaning.. I think this has little effect on events in the demo, but it’s nice to feel involved.. and in the full game this should mean different reactions and endings depending on what you picked.
The second part of the demo is a mission to collect a female Krogan from a Solarian base.. there’s a bit of drama to start with because the Solarians don’t like Rex, the male Krogan on your team. Going to get the female, though, requires fighting through Cerberus forces on the way up through the building.
This action was good fun, moving from one area to the next, flanking enemies, hitting them with singularities and using cover. Cover has been improved from the previous games: you are able to move around the side of some objects while using them for cover, though the game has been designed so that you can’t just pop your head out and kill all the enemies without moving.
Just before we finally got to the female Krogan, a huge mech was dropped into the building..
He had shields and armour to get through, and though I used cover, it didn’t protect me complete from the rockets fired by him, or the grenades thrown by the Agents who appeared to back him up. One tough, but very satisfying fight.. I ended up moving around the whole map to get some distance and avoid the rockets, as well as dealing with the Agents.
I’m now looking forward to this game.. we’re probably going to get it on the 360 to share, rather than buying a copy each on Origin (yes, it does require Origin on PC).
Mass Effect 3 is due to be published by EA on the 6th March in the US, and the 9th March in the UK and Europe.
The Darkness – Completed!
After trying out the demo for The Darkness 2 last week, I was reminded that we have a copy of The Darkness for the 360..
Player-character Jackie Estacado is a mobster hitman, only just turning 21 and coming into a rather evil family inheritance: The Darkness! Following a botched job, a car chase and crash, and a rather fun shoot-out in a construction site, Jackie narrowly escapes his Uncle Paulie’s attempt to kill him in an explosion. The mobsters were still coming after Jackie though.. when the Darkness decided to show itself in spectacular gory fashion!
The cutscene showed some awesome powers, and though most of them were locked to start with, I did get a few to starting off with: the ability to summon Beserker Darklings, a huge demon arm, and my favourite for most of the game, Creeping Dark!
Creeping Dark is a snake-like projection able to climb walls and fit through narrow gaps.. good for scouting, or sneaking up on enemies and launching at them for a fantastic, sudden attack, as well as for finding hidden collectibles. Using this ability drains Jackie’s Darkness Energy, which means you can’t use it indefinitely.. though I still got a lot of use out of it by eating the hearts of those I killed as I went along! Aside from a few clipping issues, I really loved this power 😉
After clearing away the mobsters, I found myself in the subway. The different areas of town are all accessible via the subway, and there are quite a few people wandering around, some with quests, and some purely for ambience. To start with some of the exits were locked; later I was able to take the train and wander through areas at will, to complete side-quests or look for collectibles.
I went to visit Jenny, Jackie’s girlfriend.. she had no idea about Jackie’s mob connections, or the fact that he now has demonic abilities. Having just fought off some of Paulie’s men in the streets outside and eaten their hearts, sitting on the couch and watching TV felt a little surreal.
I soon left to meet the next NPC, Butcher, who was busy “cleaning up” at the back of a restaurant. Butcher pointed me in the direction of Dutch Oven Harry, a drug dealer, who could be removed to disrupt Paulie’s operation.
Dutch Oven Harry’s den proved to be somewhat frustrating, thanks to the checkpoint positioned at the top of the stairs leading down to the secure door. The henchman standing in for Harry had a rather powerful weapon.. if he didn’t kill me, his goons did. The Darkness shield didn’t seem to make much difference to the damage taken by the goons, and I resorted to waiting in the shadows for them to come one by one.
Even after the intercom chat with Harry.. which felt like a natural break from the action.. a death anywhere within the den or in the carpark outside, threw me back to the checkpoint, with the whole thing to do again, including running through dialogues which rapidly became annoying.
A little disappointment followed too: instead of allowing me to vent my frustrations onto Harry, I only got to watch him fall to his death.
If I needed any more reason to dislike Paulie, I got it next as he kidnapped and killed Jenny! The Darkness prevented Jackie from doing anything but watch, and soon after, Jackie shot himself.
The next part of the game was set in some kind of hell, with World War trenches, bombings and blood red sky.. I fought my way out of the hostile German trenches and eventually found my way to the British trench, which felt horribly depressing as I’m sure it was intended to.
Wandering through the British trenches, I eventually came across Jackie’s great great grandfather, who admitted he had been the one who let The Darkness inside him, for it to then manifest in the males in the family as they reach their 21st birthdays. He did give some clues on how to defeat it though, and told me where to find the Darkness Guns, meant to be able to control The Darkness.
While the guns seemed fairly good, I still preferred my Creeping Dark and went back to using that as soon as I was back in the “real” world.. which is where I ended up after going through preparations for an attack on the enemy German bunker.
Back in New York, there were some side quests to do; handling a few thugs, finding a lost brother, and playing chicken with a train for the amusement of a crazy old lady!
The main story, however, involved tracking down a briefcase full of evidence.. and then going after Eddie Shrote. I learned the Black Hole power while going for the briefcase, and despite my love for the Creeping Dark, I switched to the new power as it was much more effective against multiple enemies.
I went to meet Shrote in the church back in Trinity Cemetary.. bringing the briefcase plus bomb.. and walked into a rather tough but fun fight with SWAT members and floodlights, before finding out how much of a psychopath Shrote is! Demon arms plus briefcase bomb made an end of Shrote and myself.. again!
Back to the creepy hell world to finish off the bombardment of the German bunker.. though I was rather uneasy in this world, this time there was an on-rails tank ride, which was good fun as well as a break from the “make Black Hole; devour hearts” that the game had started to slip into.
I also confronted The Darkness, in what turned out to be a slightly confusing non-fight.. that is, until I figured out that I was supposed to not fire on him, despite the two attacking Darklings making it feel like I was supposed to fight. Fighting him makes him stronger.. but accepting him was to control him.
Back to the real world, and this time for even bigger fights, one on a boat where I was to kill the Captain, and the second to go and help Aunt Sarah and a few of the other friendlies in a shoot-out with Paulie’s goons.
I approached both of the fights in the same way.. Creeping Darkness as far in as I could, and then Black Hole for those I couldn’t easily reach.. but once I got to the door of Aunt Sarah’s house, I was no longer able to use The Darkness. Normal weapons just don’t feel as powerful as using The Darkness.. 🙁
Finally, I headed out to deal with Paulie.. in his mansion over on a little island.
I was joined by two Darklings.. and then many more as I got closer to the mansion and Paulie’s thugs.
Unlike anywhere else in the game, Paulie’s men were constantly spawning, though it took me a while to realise as I was approaching carefully, shooting out the lights and wanting to pick off all the men before going into the mansion. My black holes made awesome piles of bodies here though..
Once I reached the doors of the mansion, I was frustrated to find myself relegated to spectator, as The Darkness took over and obliterated the front of the building, the men and even a helicopter.
I was given control back long enough to chase Paulie up into the lighthouse, and to shoot at him to injure him. I would have liked the choice to leave him once he begged for his life, as each kill was another step towards being The Darkness’ puppet.. but the door was shut preventing me from leaving, and he eventually found a pistol and started shooting at me, which forced my hand somewhat. For story purposes, though, it probably makes sense for Jackie to kill Paulie.. as he killed Jenny.
Having found a number of collectibles in the game, there were some cool bits of extra content available afterwards, including concept art and comics. I like getting to see stuff like this 🙂
Indie Gala 2 – Quick Overview
I grabbed my bundle of shiny new indie games from the Indie Gala 2 yesterday, adding Greed Corp, Roboblitz, Critical Mass, Fortix 2 and Bunch of Heroes to my Steam library, and to my ever-expanding backlog! So on to trying them out, in no particular order..
Fortix 2 is a reverse turret defense game by Nemesys Games, an indie developer from Hungary. The aim of the game is to capture the castle by capturing the land bit by bit, while avoiding the dragons, cannons, and other monsters..
I tried out the Fortix 2 demo a while ago, and found the gameplay rather easy.. maybe too easy. At the time I resisted buying the game in part due to that, but also because of the backlog.. so I was rather glad to see it in the bundle and have a bit more of an excuse to get it 😉
I’m happy to note that the full game includes more difficult enemies, including Blood Bats which travel along the base line, meaning nowhere is safe! Maps start to contain hazards such as bat caves, which when captured release more bats to plague you.. the added challenge was certainly appreciated!
One small niggle, though.. the game takes your name from your Steam profile, with no option for renaming. Ordinarily I wouldn’t care, but with a character limit in place, it trimmed my name to “Sir CoffeeScam”!
Vanguard Games‘ Greed Corp is a turn based strategy, where you need to find the balance between harvesting the land for resources and preserving it. Each hexagon of terrain has a number of layers which collapse as you harvest the land.. these can also be strategically destroyed to throw enemy units and buildings into the abyss!
Combat between walkers is simple.. the larger force on each hexagon wins.. but when it comes to the buildings, you need to look at the layout of the map before doing anything! Harvesters can be built on any land you own, then on each turn they generate resources out of the terrain they are on, as well as those around them. However, this erodes a layer as well..
You can use these to sabotage your enemy by destroying the land under them; when a hexagon falls, any buildings or units on it fall too!
I only took a quick look at this game, playing through the tutorial to see how it all works.. I’ll be coming back to this one later, and maybe trying out the multiplayer: you can take on up to three other players across a range of maps 🙂
Bunch of Heroes was next: a four-player co-op shooter by NGD Studios. Aliens are invading Earth, and summoning a Zombie army to assist them.. and the Bunch of Heroes are our last line of defense! 🙂
There are four playable characters in the Bunch, each with a different special attack: El Comandante, the Cuban Commander, throws exploding cigars, while Jared Joe, the Quarterback, can make a touchdown for his special move. Captain Smith, the Duke, can call in a bombing run to assist him, and Agent Liu, the spy, can set enemies on fire! To use the special attack, you need to kill enemies and pick up the energy they drop.
There are three modes: Campaign, Survival and Timed Mode, with a few different scenarios. Campaign mode consists of simple missions such as clearing enemies from an area, defending a point for a short time, and rescuing cheerleaders. I found the cheerleader rescue rather funny, as you have to sling her over your shoulder and carry her..
Aside from screaming when you pick her up or put her down, the cheerleader dances at intermittent points while not being carried. At one point I died while carrying her, and found it rather funny when she almost instantly started dancing at my corpse’s feet! 😀
The game is designed for four players, and as there are no AI bots, playing by yourself means being somewhat swamped. After trying the first Campaign, I tried out Survival.. my first attempt was rather brief.. 😉
Roboblitz, by Naked Sky Entertainment, is a puzzle platform shooter featuring a little robot technician who lives aboard a Space Cannon Facility. The Facility comes under attack from pirate robots led by the MegaNOAD, and Blitz has to get all systems up and running in order to fire the Space Cannon while fending off attacks from the various invading pirate robots.
You start off with only your grabby arms and a spin attack, which is fine for dealing with the Pirate Scouts, but ineffective on larger enemies. Blitz can also gather collectible Upgradium, which can be used to purchase new weapons: the first of these is the EMP gun, which stuns enemies for a short time, but other weapons are able to destroy them.
I liked the variety of puzzles, spread across different areas which you can access at will, but I found the controls and movement occasionally quite poor.
Blitz’s item handling wasn’t as accurate as I’d have liked, and in getting close enough to pick some items up, I found myself bumping them away instead. More frustrating was the jumping: in particular, I found jumping into one certain pipe in the Coolant Tower was more miss than hit, with a miss causing Blitz to get stuck on the edge, holding on by the arms. After a few misses in the fan room, and having to go back to try again, this annoyed me enough that I decided to move on to the final game in the bundle..
Critical Mass, a 3d action puzzler by Manic Games Studios! There are four modes: Classic, Survival, Meditation and Rush, but the core gameplay is the same in each.. destroy the mass by creating colour combos of four or more blocks. Simple to understand, but difficult to master! 🙂
I tried Classic first, and quickly realised that this has the makings of an addictive game.. winning a level means proceeding to the next, slightly more difficult level, while defeat means retrying the level. In this mode, the camera zooms in during play until the whole structure shakes and destroys itself.. producing a combo pushes the camera back and gives you just a little more time, while Survival ‘rewards’ a combo by throwing more blocks into the fray. Rush mode times your efforts, with the object to clear the mass as quickly as possible, and Meditation is the calm, thoughtful mode where you can aim for the biggest combos on the board, without distraction.
The bundle came with music as well, and I have to note I don’t really listen to game music outside of the games themselves. However, games without music wouldn’t be the same, so it’s good to see some support for indie music too 🙂