Every year, TT Games and Warner Bros. release a new Lego videogame that utilises one of its many licensed properties. From the original Lego Star Wars games to last year’s Lego The Hobbit, each new game adds new features and tidies up the graphics and are pretty typically solid gaming experiences. One of the more prominent series that Lego puts out is without a doubt Lego Batman, and as a huge Bat-Fan, I was more than excited to get my hands on the upcoming Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham and see how it fared.
Firstly, I can say that I was… whelmed. Neither underwhelmed or overwhelmed but just whelmed. Every time I load up a new Lego game, I always know to expect the same fundamentals but with a twist. Unfortunately the small section of Lego Batman 3 that I played lacked any new twist or nuance to separate it from its predecessors (aside from the intergalactic setting) so I was left, yeah, whelmed.
For the demo I played, the stage opened up to a new take on the old-school Gradius-style shooter games. I was piloting the Bat-Wing (at least I think it was the Bat-Wing) left, right, up and down in an attempt to blast enemy ships out of the sky. This part of the game felt a lot like last-year’s Resogun, playing almost identical to the PS4 exclusive but with of course severely decreased difficulty to accommodate the younger audience. This part of the game was fun, but felt like it went on way too long and by the end of it, I was beginning to wonder if it was ever going to end.
After making my way through the Gradius/Resogun section, it was all smooth sailing and that traditional Lego gameplay that we have all come to love. Two characters are on screen at any given time, and the player(s) need to utilise their individual skills to combat enemies and solve the puzzles in their way. I couldn’t really find any differences in the way the game had controlled between this title and 2012’s Lego Batman 2. Granted this is to be expected considering the Lego games have pretty much stuck to the same control scheme for every game. The controls themselves are still really solid and easy to learn and grasp.
Every Lego videogame manages to bring something new to the table, be it the full voice acting and open world setting that Lego Batman 2 introduced or the light RPG elements that came as part of The Lego Hobbit. However the demo for Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham wasn’t long enough or comprehensive enough for me to figure out what made this game stand out from Lego Batman 2. The demo just felt like a continuation of that game, and while I’m sure the full game is rife with additional features, I just didn’t see them.
Over the past few months, Warner Bros. have been announcing new characters left, right and center including characters from the 1966 Batman TV series, Batman Beyond and at least one lantern from each of the DC Universe’s Lantern Corps, so we know that there will be a huge variety in the powers, abilities and gameplay when the final game launches so I guess it is a little disappointing that this demo was just “more of the same.” Regardless, my eyes are squarely set on November 26th when we will be able to check out Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham in its entirety.
For the rest of our 2014 EB Games Expo coverage including hands-on previews and interviews, click here.
The Brazil Game Show (BGS) is currently underway in São Paolo, and Brazilian “Soccer” fans should be ecstatic at the news that, not only will Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 feature 21 Brazilian Teams, but local announcers Silvio Luiz and Mauro Beting have once again recorded commentary in Portuguese for inclusion in the final release, this November.
Luiz, a radio and television host and soccer referee, and Beting, also on the radio, a journalist and book author, have lent their voices to the franchise since 2011. Tomohiro Uesugi, President of Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., commented;
PES captures the realism of soccer like no other video game on the market, and we continue to do this through signature elements like the legendary Brazilian commentary team for Portuguese PES players throughout the world. With our latest trailer, we’re giving Brazilian console game players, and those throughout the rest of the world, another reason to celebrate the incredible experience.
Check out the announcement trailer below. Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 releases on November 13 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (first time in the series’ history), as well as the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
Owners of Valiant Hearts: The Great Waron iOS devices are getting a special bonus on November 6th. Ubisoft announced they will be releasing an interactive comic book recounting Walt and his sister. The two are dogs of war who provide a vital line of communication in the trenches and rescue injured soldiers during World War I. The comic is packed with animated panes, music, and sound effects.
Valiant Hearts: The Great Waris an adventure game about four characters caught up in WWI. The game mixes an accurate historical world with a dramatic love story. It is available on iOS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Windows.
Wargaming and Sony Pictures announced a partnership that will bring the Sherman tank featured in FURY to World of Tanks. The tank will be available as part of the “FURY Bundles” which will be made available for World of Tanks, World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition, and World of Tanks Blitz for iOS.
“With Wargaming’s intense dedication to historical and technical accuracy, it seemed a natural fit to associate World of Tanks with FURY, the most realistic cinematic portrayal of tank combat to date.” said Jasper Nicolas, General Manager, Asia Pacific at Wargaming.net. “We are extremely proud to team up with Sony Pictures to include this heroic version of the classic Sherman tank to our players.”
The “FURY Bundle” will be available on Xbox 360 from October 15, 2014 to December 11, 2014. No word on when they will be available for PC and iOS. FURY will hit theatres in the US on October 17th, 2014.
Immortal Empire is one of those great games that appear out of nowhere. How does an indie game that mixes elements of Diablo, DOTA, and X-COM stay under the radar? Well, because it’s a browser game. Developer Jesse Attard managed to cram the entire thing into 15 megabytes or the equivalent of two average 320 kbps MP3s, and the game handily scored an 8/10 score here at Capsule Computers. Now, Jesse and Tactic Studio are looking to take the game to Steam after they were successfully Greenlit. They are looking to raise $8,000 CAD (Roughly $7000 USD) to make that possible. Jesse was kind enough to sit down for an interview to talk about Immortal Empire, video game development, and cat-ronauts.
Why did you choose to make Immortal Empire for the browser instead of making a downloadable game right off the bat?
We originally launched a beta for Immortal Empire in early 2010. Back then, being featured on a downloadable service like Steam was virtually impossible for a game like ours given that we have no publisher. Also, there weren’t too many high quality multiplayer browser games out there – Runescape was the big one. Evony was currently flooding the internet with advertisements featuring scantily clad women saying “Come play, my lord”. So we figured we were filling a much needed market gap by launching a high quality game with substance in a browser. I certainly think we were right! Shortly thereafter we saw an explosion of browser games. Of course, now it is much easier to be featured on Steam without a publisher (due to Steam Greenlight) so we finally have a chance to launch on that service.
Are there any specific challenges associated with rebuilding the existing game to a downloadable format versus starting a brand new game?
Yes certainly. You have your existing playerbase to consider. They like the game and want to keep their accounts, but may want to “upgrade” to the downloadable copy on Steam. So we need to create a system to transfer their accounts from whatever service they use (such as Kongregate) over to Steam. Furthermore, it means that serious changes to the payment model (like making it pay once instead of free to play) are out of the question. Not that we want to change the payment model anyways (because we want the game to be free) but still, it’s something to consider.
What’s in the cards for the future of the browser game?
The browser game will stay largely as-is in terms of visuals and audio. We can’t put voice actors in the browser game or increase resolution (we’ve had many complaints that 800×600 is too big!!). We can’t put in higher res artwork. Too performance intensive, too much memory consumption and the download size would be enormous. People complain pretty regularly about downloading 15mb worth of data to run the game. When it comes to the browser market, you have to design to the lowest common denominator, and that denominator is currently very, very low.
Still, the browser game will connect to the same servers as the Steam version, so there will be another influx of new players to play with. Furthermore, any gameplay additions we make (like the new character skins and weapon skins, or any of our stretch goal features) will show up in the browser version as well. So there will still be benefits for the people who want to stick with their browser.
The Immortals really go past the traditional human warrior in tons of shiny armour. Where do you find inspirations for all these units?
There’s a few good reasons for this. We didn’t have the resources to do both male and female versions of characters. There’s no “Priest” – just “Priestess”. So right off the bat we wanted to make some of the characters fairly gender neutral. In doing that, we created characters like the Treant. Even characters like the Dryad were kept fairly androgynous for a while and only assumed a specific gender when we had it voiced.
Of course, we wanted to have a few “regular” characters for those people who just really, really want to play as a Paladin or Mage. But otherwise, we actively tried to come up with more wild ideas like the Ivory Sentinel or Inquisitor.
In terms of inspiration – no question Dota was a huge influence here.
In your ideal fantasy world, who would voice your six dialogue characters?
Awesome question!
The Elder – Keith David (David Anderson from Mass Effect)
Maielle – Lena Headey
Dazo – Kevin Michael Richardson (Sarevok from Baldur’s Gate)
Quistan – Viggo Mortensen
Jalia – Jennifer Hale (Mazzy, Dynaheir – Baldur’s Gate, Femshep – Mass Effect)
Vuldreth – Ralph Fiennes
What are some of the challenges of balancing monetization with a free to play game?
This is a tremendously difficult thing to get right. Pay-once games are immeasurably simpler to produce from this perspective. In a multiplayer game like Immortal Empire, you want the game to be as free as possible so that you have a large community of players. This means that we don’t have any areas in the game locked or unreachable by non-paying users. Unfortunately, this also means that there is very little incentive to spend any money. And if people don’t spend money, we cannot possibly generate enough revenue to cover the cost of development, not to mention ongoing maintenance costs.
So you have to come up with things that players may want to actually buy. Of course, the things that drive sales are all things that actually have an in-game benefit. And as soon as you offer any sort of in-game benefit in exchange for real money, players get upset because they feel that people are just paying their way to success rather than proving themselves through skill. You shouldn’t be at the top of the leaderboards just because you’re wealthy – a sentiment I completely agree with.
Despite this, almost every free to play game gives some sort of advantage to paying players. Only a few very popular games can survive on cosmetic changes alone (like Dota 2 – though they have lots of other revenue sources). Basically what we try to do, and what most morally sound F2P games try to do is minimize that advantage. So in League of Legends, a paying player gets more options, which is an advantage. But, strictly speaking, it’s not as though their character directly does more damage. So the competitive advantage is, overall, fairly small. We do this in Immortal Empire as well – paying players get more options for their character choices.
Another common theme is paying players can progress through the game quicker. Hearthstone does this – you can buy packs of cards which lets you build superior competitive decks much quicker. Or, you can go the “free” route and slowly grind away until you eventually amass all the cards. We also do this, but there is way, way less of a grind in Immortal Empire. I have been playing Hearthstone for months, free-only, just to see how many cards I can get without spending any money. I’ve played thousands of games, mostly arenas to maximize my gold & packs. I have most cards, and can build competitive decks now, but I’m still missing a bunch of rares, epics, and legendaries.
The progression in Immortal Empire is much more natural. You won’t be grinding. If you play through the game at a normal pace, you will have plenty of in-game currency to unlock whatever you want. Put another way – paying money is for people who want to rip through quickly, free play will get you there at a normal pace.
We’ve also made a number of design decisions to minimize the advantage for a paying player. Generally speaking, the benefits you get from paying are small in comparison to the benefits you get from playing. Your character level, the strategies you choose, how you equip your character and how you choose to level up, all of these things are far more important. And you cannot buy any specific items. It’s not like you can just add +10 damage to an item by paying $10 or something. You can buy a pack of items with random properties, but a free player could just as easily kill a few monsters and randomly find the best gear in the game.
There’s even more to say here! In Immortal Empire there is nothing that *requires* real money. (Except the cosmetic-only kickstarter exclusive things we have going in our campaign right now!) There are quite a few games where real money is required to unlock everything. Even games you wouldn’t think have this system! Take Dark Souls 2 for example. No one would accuse this game of being “pay to win” (and they shouldn’t – it is a fantastic game and the DLC is well worth it). But it features PvP prominently, and there are items that are clearlysuperior that you can only acquire by buying the DLC with real money. Life ring +3? Ring of Resistance +1? Pay only. We don’t do this – anything you get in the store can be earned through playing.
To sum up – I think we’ve struck a decent balance with Immortal Empire. We’ve tried very hard to still earn some revenue while minimizing advantages. We have ladder systems and run competitive tournaments – paying players do not perform unusually well, have never won a tournament, and aren’t unusually represented among the top players. We like to think our paying players *are* getting something for paying, but they aren’t automatically the strongest players in the game.
Where on earth did this Cat-ronaut come from?
Haha – the infamous Catronaut and Dr. Pup!! When shooting our Kickstarter video, we originally started it with 2 solid minutes of in-game footage. But my wife pointed out that viewers might never know that our video is hilarious (we like to think so) because they may not get through the game footage. So I wanted to insert a bit of comedy at the start. Hence, Catronaut and her flying jet-engine-powered skateboard were born.
You’ve worked on some big name projects like Bioshock 2. How was the experience going from working with a large developer to a studio comprised of just you and some collaborators?
There are differences and similarities. It’s the same in the sense that you go through all the same phases of development, and many of the game systems you’re developing are really no more or less complicated in a big name project like Bioshock as compared to a small one. Coding a plasmid in Bioshock or a spell in Immortal Empire is actually remarkably similar.
One notable difference is the capacity to find talented collaborators. It was very difficult finding artists for Immortal Empire. Even trying to pay people to do artwork was hard, which I did not anticipate. I would post on game development forums offering a paid contract for artists, and I would have those posts deleted by board admins because they thought we were running a scam. Obviously, we weren’t, and suffice to say, those misunderstandings don’t happen if you’re making Bioshock, hahaha. It took about 1 solid year (!!) before I found some artists that were consistent enough workers to make the artwork in Immortal Empire. (David Baumgart, Mat Chambers, and Zenobia Homan most notably, there were some others) I had to do a lot of the art myself too, sadly, and my pixel art skills are not exactly fantastic.
Overall though, the biggest difference is unquestionably visibility. Only a few awesome websites (like Capsule Computers!) give us press coverage, for which we are eternally grateful. Many pretty hardcore gamers have never heard of Immortal Empire, and I can’t help but think there is a fairly large contingent of players who would enjoy the game if it even showed up on their radar. With a franchise like Bioshock, you have a tremendous amount of leverage to secure press coverage, not to mention plenty of money to run advertising campaigns – and Bioshock is actually considered a niche title compared to blockbusters like Call of Duty or Halo.
Any plans to return to working for big companies after Immortal Empire?
In the short term, no. We have made some enormous improvements to our game engine, including full 3D support, and are currently working on a 3d first person puzzle game. We still like to come back to Immortal and release new content though – something we have been doing for 4 years now.
With all your experience, you must have advice for aspiring video game developers. Any you’d like to share?
Hmm. So many gems of wisdom, which one to choose? Haha – I guess the main one would be this. Game development at a high level is pretty difficult. It can be stressful and downright unpleasant. In some ways, it will not live up to any expectations you might have. Leigh Alexander’s post about ethics in video game development is generally accurate in my experience (though I can’t comment on the arms manufacturing stuff). This list is far from complete (which she admits) and I will call out one utterly enormous thing she has omitted – that the abuse, bullying, harassment, and sometimes direct physical assault is absolutely not just limited to women. I have witnessed (and experienced) pretty astonishing levels of abuse levelled against men, including sexual harassment. These are illegal things that just would most likely end up in a (victorious) lawsuit outside of the games industry.
All that being said, when you’re actually deep in the midst of designing and developing a good quality video game, it is still the most satisfying, best job I could possibly imagine.
Thanks to Jesse Attard for participating in the interview. Check out Immortal Empire on browsers and back the project on Kickstarter.
20 DLC packs. That was a lot of money at the time of release, and a lot of DLC for one title. Sleeping Dogs wasn’t really an ordinary title however (read our original review here), and seemed to have done well enough to warrant a next-gen installment on the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
As previously mentioned, those who make the jump with Wei Shen and company will receive all of that DLC – which is a huge value, along with updated visuals and audio, and a 1080p presentation. Yes, its a nice package, but to prove its worth, Square Enix have released a shiny new trailer for Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition, which serves as a nice reminder of what to expect for fans everywhere. Check out the clip below, and get ready to get definitive October 10th in PAL territories, and October 14th for North America.
I was clamoring for more Bayonetta 2 after getting hands on with it at the EB Expo in Sydney last weekend, but now it seems everyone can experience the awesomeness that is Bayonetta 2 as Nintendo and Platinum Games have released a demo on the Wii U eShop that seems to be the same build that has been present at expos in the past.
The demo is available worldwide and weighs in at a decent 728mb with a maximum fifteen play limit. We strongly suggest checking it out as it is one of the few mature titles being released for the Wii U and contains some fantastic action gameplay that could land the title as a contender for Game of the Year. Nintendo have also released a brand new launch trailer to accompany the demo which you can check out below. Bayonetta 2 releases exclusively on the Wii U on the 25th and will include the supposed ‘definitive edition’ of the original Bayonetta as a bonus at no extra charge.
Do you love Adventure Time? How about old-school Zelda games? Then Adventure Time: Secret of the Nameless Kingdom is literally the perfect game for you. Combining elements of Pendleton Ward’s hugely popular animated series with the solid gameplay elements of the original Zelda games (that still stand the test of time) results in a fusion that is fun, exciting and enticing.
I admit I was a little hesitant when I picked up a controller and got my hands-on with the forthcoming Adventure Time game, as licensed video games can tend to be a little… shall we say cheaply made. Nevertheless from the moment I started playing, all of that worry and concern went out the window and I could tell that a lot of love and effort went into the production of Nameless Kingdom.
The Adventure Time games have always had a knack for drawing inspiration from the popular Legend of Zelda franchise (a tradition that started with Adventure Time: Hey Ice King Why’d You Steal Our Garbage being inspired by The Legend of Zelda II), and for being incredibly self-aware. These two trends continue with Secret of the Nameless Kingdom, as Finn and Jake travel to a new kingdom to help find its rightful princess. The game looks and plays like a remastered Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, with its top-down adventure style (which definitely helps separate it from last year’s dungeon crawlerIesq Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW).
You control Finn, and swing your sword against a variety of enemies while also traversing the Nameless Kingdom, getting new gear and becoming the strongest hero you can be. Finn is joined by his constant companion Jake, who in the short demo I played acted as the stalwart hero’s shield (literally, you pressed a button and Jake transformed into a shield. It was awesome). The controls were simple and responded really well. Although that might be because all I could do was walk around, swing my sword and use my Jake-Shield.
Visually, I was really taken aback by the game. The world itself and its many landmarks all looked like they were ripped straight out of a blu-ray copy of the show. Everything was brightly coloured and looked distinctively Adventure Time. The character models of Finn as well as the enemies and NPCs he would encounter were drawn in a much different style. While the surroundings looked HD and straight from the cartoon, Finn looked like he was ripped straight from the 160bit era of gaming. The divide between the two art styles was notable but surprisingly less jarring than I would have thought and in the end it still looked fantastic.
Earlier I mentioned that the game played a lot like A Link to the Past, and that wasn’t only because of its top-down gameplay style. A lot of the enemies have been ripped straight from ALttP and given an Adventure Time makeover. The most common enemy I encountered was one of the Worms (fans of the series will know what I’m talking about) but its movement pattern and method of attacking by using their loud call is very reminiscent of the old Buzz Blob/Chuchu enemy from the Zelda title. I am sure more than just the worms are inspired by old Zelda enemies, and the geek in me cannot wait to find all of the other connections.
As any Adventure Time fan can attest to, the story, the world and the characters are all brought to life with the amazing and talented voice actors behind them, and I can happily say that the game is fully voice acted with the original crew. Hearing John DiMaggio and Jeremy Shada banter as Jake and Finn really helped tie the whole package together.
Adventure Time: Secret of the Nameless Kingdom wears its heart on its sleeve and judging from the (admittedly small) sample that I had, looks like it will be a great experience for not only fans of the Adventure Time franchise, but for anybody who grew up playing Zelda on their SNES. My time with Secret of the Nameless Kingdom was brief, but it was just enough to let me know that I really, really want to play some more when the game launches on November 20th.
For the rest of our 2014 EB Games Expo Coverage including hands-on previews and interviews, click here.
EB Expo 2014 has increased in size and scale every year since it became open to the public in 2011 and this year was no exception. With playable demos of games yet to be released anywhere in the world, massive stage shows, Q&A’s, cosplay contest, retro lounges, movie props, booth babes, the largest EB Games swag store ever and Mexican food stalls selling questionable meats which may have lead to food poisoning. It was a huge few days for the presenters, media and the attendees alike but a fun time was had by all.
Starting off our recap, every big publisher had a presence with the show each having their own booths and playable/non-playable demonstrations of their upcoming or just released titles. The 2K booth was clad in red glass and some sort of weird dome thing to show off Evolve alongside other popular titles like WWE 2k15, NBA 2k15 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. The Ubisoft booth probably impressed the most with all its props. There was a car with The Crew logo plastered on it’s side, a model elephant which got gradually more painted as the show went on alongside, a lifesize statue of Assassin’s Creed:Unity protagonist Arno and the Just Dance 2015 stage show which went on the entirety of the show (those poor dancers must have been tired but managed to keep a smile on their face the whole time).
Bethesda was showing off its upcoming horror title The Evil Within with a playable demo and a creepy mini version of the upcoming Horror Maze which will be at Movie World in the near future. This maze was legitimately a nightmare for non-fans of the horror genre, with dead bodies hanging from the ceiling, creepy scientists who chased you and tried to grab you as soon as you got too close and another creepy guy who escapes from his seemingly inescapable cell to chase you out of the maze.
Other booths such as Nintendo and Microsoft’s weren’t as creative but had an excellent section of games people could try out from Super Smash Bros. Wii U and the surprisingly fun and engaging Splatoon to more maturely rated titles such as Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive and the upcoming Halo: Master Chief Collection which was behind curtains. Sony’s booth was full of PlayStation 4 and Vita titles and also showed off the new Xperia Z3 smartphone which will allow you to play your PS4 games remotely with a cool controller attachment. The Driveclub car out the front was nice to look at as were the two gorgeous girls who were happy to take photos with those not too shy to approach them.
The new Battlefield and Call of Duty shooters proved popular as ever, maintaining long lines throughout the day, with a giant Battlefield 4 tank parked inside the outdoor pavilion which was host to the League of Legends Oceanic Regionals and retro sections featuring tons of timeless classics such Super Mario Bros. All Stars, Donkey Kong, Crazy Taxi and GoldenEye 007 just to name a few. The arcade was another trip down memory lane, featuring pinball machines, Daytona and one of my favourite arcade games of all time, Dragon Punch, where I impressed everyone with my stylish punching technique and score of over 9000.
All five of us at the show struggled to get down to the Robot Wars stage throughout the day but we finally made it down at the end of the second day and man were we glad we didn’t miss it. It was Ripper, a robot with a pressure flipper at the front for rolling its opponents similar to Chaos 2 from back in the days versus Thor, a robot with a giant axe that could swing down with awesomely brutal force. The match ended in a rather amusing way with Rippers low front designed for getting under robots got trapped under a floor panel and when the flipper opened it lifted up the floor trapping the robot underneath. But that wasn’t before some awesome swings form Thor hammer caused sparks flying after coming down on Flipper and some great moments where both robots were getting fried by the flamethrower stage hazard on the side of the stage. Poor Ripper never stood a chance as Thor’s hammer also acted as a spring back to launch the robot back to the correct orientation whenever Flipper would turn it over.
There were also plenty of giveaways, prizes and swag for everyone to collect. From Evil Within boxes, to an infinite supply of posters from Ubisoft, lanyards and even an exclusive Skylanders figure called Gearshift who won;t be available to purchase until 2015! The EB Games Mega Store lived up to its name with plenty of pop culture and video game merch up for purchase like Mario Kart racers, Finn cookie jars, Game of Thrones figures and lots, lots more. Fans of cards games could learn how to play upcoming game Vanguard or get a sample pack from the Pokemon Trading Card Game if you played a match with one of the seasoned demonstrators (who i managed to defeat using some great strategy and a high damage move even though I hadn’t played the game in a while!)
There was also a mini stage which held debates such as the classic Console Vs. PC debate (PC Master Race won this one just) as well as holding talks on topics such as how to make it in the games industry and aspects of level design. An enormous theater down the back of a show with giant projector screens was reserved for the larger presentations, such as Ubisoft’s hour long presentation which included gameplay of Assassin’s Creed Unity, The Crew, Far Cry 4 and Tom Clancy’s: The Division.
Check out what each of the five Capsule Computers writers that attended the expo had to say about their EB Expo experience.
Nathan Farrugia – Editor
I love all things Nintendo so heading down to their stage and trying out games like Splatoon, Bayonetta 2 and of course, Super Smash Bros. Wii U was a big highlight for me with all those games living up to their expectations and Splatoon being surprisingly fun. Also sitting down in a racing chair at Ubisoft’s booth to play The Crew with 3 others was really fun as we took out a mini truck and then raced each other in a very close race. Robot Wars, getting back into Pokemon Cards and The Arcade and Retro Sections were also an awesome trip down memory lane and brought heaps of nostalgia along with it. Also those Driveclub and Razer girls, simply stunning. A great expo with great people, had an absolute blast.
Zac Elawar – Senior Editor
This year’s EB Games Expo was so much more spacious, well laid out, and brought some heavy hitters to the show floor. I acknowledge that there was very little on offer for the “PC master race”, but for us console gamers, it was an extremely impressive selection of hands-on demos and live presentations. As a personal treat, being amongst the first people in the world to play as Quan Chi in Mortal Kombat X, a mere nine hours after he was revealed made me mark out like the true MK fanatic I am. And the lite version of Movie World’s The Evil Within Maze was a nice, terrifying surprise. Girls’ screams could be heard from way across the grounds. They almost drowned out my interview recordings! And finally, thanks to 2K for having an open floor plan for their booth…I got to play WWE 2K15 6 times, 6 times, 6 times, 6 times, 6 times, 6 times!
Andrew Day – Senior Editor
After last year’s EB Expo where we got to try out the then-upcoming Xbox One and PS4, I wasn’t sure if this year’s expo would be able to even come close to matching the quality and level of content. Boy was I wrong! There were more games than I could shake a stick at, and I felt like a kid in a candy store. After sampling everything that was on offer I would have to say that both Evolve and Bloodborne caught my eye (but for very different reasons). Evolve’s new take on multiplayer already has me hooked while Bloodborne fills my need for fast-paced action RPG’s. Although, as great as the games were, the star of the show was without a doubt Warner Bros. The Evil Within Maze Teaser. Even though it was only a short few corridors I was on edge the entire time! The thrills and the scares were so good that I’m already planning my trip to Queensland to experience the full thing!
Vicky Martin – Editor
Being my first time at EB Games Expo, I was surprised at the huge amount of people who turned up on each day. The best aspect of the event for me, was being able to try out the upcoming games, particularly Sunset Overdrive, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Splatoon and Dead Island 2. I particularly enjoyed watching the demo gameplay for Alien: Isolation and Assassins Creed: Unity and cannot wait to get my hands on all of those new games.
Mateja Simovic – Contributor
Well dang. As a non-console gamer I felt completely out of my element at this expo as there was not a PC rig anywhere in sight. I felt a bit outraged by this at first (I honestly couldn’t tell you why) but got over myself very quickly. Instead I decided I would jump in head-first and try as many games as I could that were new to me. This might go some way to explain why the games I covered this expo were so eclectic (for those of you at home keeping track). I am still a bit disappointed by the lack of PC games at the Expo, but I am glad I decided to take a chance and play games I would otherwise have not tried. If you find yourself at a gaming convention, perhaps even next year’s EB Expo, I would definitely recommend trying as many games as you can. Who knows, you could very well end up finding a new genre of games that you didn’t know you liked before.
All up it was a fantastic experience and we can’t wait to see what EB cooks up for the 2015 expo (hopefully some more PC presence for Mateja)! For all of our EB Expo 2014 coverage including hands on impressions, demonstrations and interviews with developers, please follow the link.
From one psychopath to another, the Far Cry universe has gotten a lot more eclectic over the past few years. Now, self-proclaimed king Pagan Min (who is named after a real-life Burmese king, who reigned in the mid 1800’s) is primed to make Vaas look like chopped liver by comparison. Kyrat is his domain, and though it may be dangerous and teeming with trigger-happy Nepali warriors, the player – as native and protagonist Ajay Ghale – will have some allies at his side. One of those is the intelligent and destructive elephant…
Elephants seem more than happy to allow you on their backs and fight for your cause, aggressively and without reprieve. What’d the locals put in their water hole?! Case-in-point, the demo we played at the EB Games Expo 2014, which only lasted maybe five minutes, tasking us with clearing out a ‘Fortress’. The player is given three options for how they want to approach the task: “Sneak”, “Elephant” and “Air”. The first is easily understandable, while the latter would provide a helicopter for the attack. But I chose to ride in, guns-blazing, on the back of my good ol’ grey giant, hoping the foes inside the fortress walls didn’t have a mouse in their back pocket. Fortresses work the same as ‘Outposts’ in Far Cry 3; there are alarms placed at different locations in the compounds that, when triggered, will call reinforcements. The problem with jumping on an elephant as it bathes itself with water, taking charge, and barging into the place, the animal violently head-butting the wooden gate to create an entry point, is that stealth is impossible and reinforcements will get called immediately! And you may feel invincible brandishing a machine gun on an elephant’s back, but you’d be mistaken.
In my first attempt to clear the enemy camp, I threw caution to the wind, which failed. On my second try, I tried to take advantage of the elephant’s abilities, flinging enemies into the air with his trunk and running roughshod throughout the ground, bowling over anyone who stood in our was as the elephant stampeded, achieved by clicking in L3 as you would to sprint on foot. But, it wasn’t long before a helicopter was called in to do major damage and killed me. My final endeavour was more methodical; I busted inside, killed the foes in my immediate vicinity quite efficiently, and then hopped off to get around on foot. Wielding my secondary weapon – the sawn-off shotgun – I sought out the alarms with an aim to disable them. I was unsure how the elephant would react once I had done so, but like a loyal companion, he continued to support my siege without any explicit orders, taking out any and all guards/Nepali fighters in his sight. I proceeded to shoot down the enemy attack chopper, but not without taking serious damage in the battle. Thankfully, whether on-elephant or on-foot, you can still heal yourself by snapping fingers into place, removing bullets, etc., by holding “Triangle” for a short period. Unfortunately, before I claimed redemption for my previously abysmal efforts, our time with the demo was over.
All things considered, this demo is an extremely minuscule slice of the total experience that is Far Cry 4. The game plays and feels like Far Cry 3, as expected, which is a good thing. In terms of other new features, given the brevity of what was on offer, I did not have a chance to sample them. The good thing is that we won’t have to wait much longer to play the finished product ourselves, as Far Cry 4 releases for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PC on November 20 in Australia and November 18 in the rest of the world. If you enjoyed the last instalment, there’s no doubt you’ll love Far Cry 4.
Earlier I mentioned that the game played a lot like A Link to the Past, and that wasn’t only because of its top-down gameplay style. A lot of the enemies have been ripped straight from ALttP and given an Adventure Time makeover. The most common enemy I encountered was one of the Worms (fans of the series will know what I’m talking about) but its movement pattern and method of attacking by using their loud call is very reminiscent of the old Buzz Blob/Chuchu enemy from the Zelda title. I am sure more than just the worms are inspired by old Zelda enemies, and the geek in me cannot wait to find all of the other connections.
