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Evolve Hands-On Preview

October 7, 2014

After their huge success with Left 4 Dead, Turtle Rock Studios are back and teaming up with 2K Games to bring us Evolve; a squad based 4 v 1 multiplayer game that has four humans teaming up to take down one ever-evolving monster. The humans need to use teamwork and cooperation to take down the monster before it picks them off one by one.

The hunters have four different classes – Medic, Assault, Support and Trapper. The game revolves around a strong team dynamic between the four different classes, with each of their skills being vital to the end-goal of defeating one of the monsters. Although I only got to play as the monster, I did notice that the medic seemed to be the most pivotal member of the squad, and defeating them was a massive blow to the entire squad.

The way that the hunter’s different skills and abilities play off one another, and the teamwork that is required to win feels very reminiscent of Team Fortress. However, in no squad-based game have I ever seen it being so important that the team stick together. One person going off on his or her own will immediately spell danger for the entire team. When I played, I was against a group of four friends, so they had the teamwork and unity thing down pat but I’m not sure how well this will translate across into online matchmaking but honestly I’m a little concerned.

Playing as the monster is an entirely different experience all together, the asynchronous gameplay makes it feel as if Evolve is actually two games in one. While the hunters are all about teamwork, the monster is on his own and his goal is to destroy EVERYTHING in sight. As the monster kills the wildlife around them, they get stronger, more armour and eventually evolve to a new and stronger beast.

In addition to their bevy of special attacks, all monsters also have their unique scent. By sniffing around, a monster can sense where the hunters and the wildlife are located. This is translated to the player in the form of a highlighted outline around the potential targets. I can’t tell you how often I was using my scent to find prey and stay one step ahead of the hunters (at one point, even running them around a giant rock for a whole minute before sneaking up behind them for a surprise attack).

I only got a chance to play as the Kraken, whos skills and attack style are all about long-range. In addition to his short-range flight, the Kraken has access to four different special attacks, any one of which can decimate the hunters if they are caught unaware. Playing as the monster, you have to spend the first portion of the game running and hiding from the hunters. Staying far away until you have evolved is your best strategy, biding your time and waiting for the perfect time to strike.

Visually, the game is pretty impressive. I only got a chance on one map; a river that was surrounded with short cliff-faces and densely populated with trees. Not only did it look great with its high textures and the variable height in the landscape allowed me a lot of places to hide, as well as some great vantage points where I could observe and stalk my prey.

The controls are also really solid. Although I can’t speak to any of the shooting mechanics of the hunters, the third-person gameplay of the monster feels really intuitive. keyboard/mouse combo, or plug in a gamepad and off you go. I opted for the Xbox One controller, and it was really simple to use. It only took me a few minutes in the game before I had an understanding of what each of my four special attacks did and how I could best use them in combat. This is aided by the fact that the monster’s UI is little more than his health, armour and what skills he currently has available. The minimalistic approach allowed me to really get stuck into the game without feeling bogged down.

It looks like Asynchronous gameplay is becoming a standard of modern gaming, and I for one am thrilled. The ability to create two vastly different experiences in the one game is something that not only enhances the replayability of the game, but also allows it to stay fresh and exciting. Turtle Rock seem to have gotten the asynchronous part down pat, as even though I only had a brief time with Evolve, I loved every minute of it and can’t wait to play the full game on February 10th, 2015.

For more coverage from the 2014 EB Games Expo including hands-on previews and interviews, click here.

Super Smash Bros. Wii U Hands On Preview

Nathan Farrugia

October 7, 2014

Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS is finally out on store shelves and is a huge hit here at EB Games Expo 2014 with everyone and their dog whipping out their 3DS to collect as many StreetPass’ as possible and get into the 4 player Smash action. However I am one of the rare few who are not delving in early with the 3DS version and have always had my eyes on the HD prize with Super Smash Bros. 4, particularly as me and my brother like to break out Brawl and go a round of 5 stock, best of 5, can’t pick the same character twice to see who is doing the dishes and that just wouldn’t be the same on a smaller screen. Read on for my impressions of the Wii U version and find out who won between myself and fellow Capsule Computers writer Andrew Day. (Actually I’ll just tell you now, it was yours truly of course).

First thing you notice right off the bat is the game is gorgeous and smooth as butter. That 60 FPS frame rate never dropped once during our five or so four player bouts I took part in. The bright and cheerful colours Nintendo is known for is on display in the best possible way in Super Smash Bros. Wii U and all this is presented clear as day with the High Definition resolution. (Apparently the true resolution of the game is still very much up in the air with no official confirmations from Nintendo as of yet.)

Behind all those bright colours and great animations is the same terrific gameplay you have come to expect from the Smash series. The basic controls have pretty much remain unchanged since Super Smash Bros. Melee and I felt right at home with the GameCube controls that were being used on the demo units. (Interestingly these were original GameCube controllers and not the re-branded Smash controllers). Gameplay felt a little faster than Brawl and reports floating around the Internet that the game is less ‘floaty’ is definitely true as characters seem to have a bit more weight to them this around. The demo version featured only 4 player, items on battles on about eight different stages with 16 characters to select from, indicating it was most likely the same demo from the E3 Smash Bros. Invitation Event.

Obviously Smash Bros. for Wii U is highly anticipated and there was always a long line to play the game but we managed to sneak in a few matches during the quieter moments of the expo. I got my hand at trying Greninja, Marth, Sonic and finally Rosalina and Luma. As a long time Pokemon fan Greninja was my most anticipated character to play as and I wasn’t dissapointed. He played basically as I expected, with quick, sharp attacks that all seemed to have good knock back. If you want to win with Greninja you will really have to move a lot around the stage and use a good mix of your ranged Water Shuriken and quick close up attacks. Charging up Water Shuriken with B and then watching it hit and go through every character on the stage was a highlight of my time with the game. His down aerial attack was very unique in that it sent you straight down and bounced off any enemy you landed on which I haven’t seen in the series before. Greninja is a great addition to the roster and will probably be one of my mains.

Marth is my main Smash Bros. Brawl and unfortunately he seems to have been nerfed slightly in Super Smash Bros. Wii U, especially in his aerial game as I found myself unable to pull off two forward aerial attacks in a single jump. Other than that he basically remains unchanged from Brawl so there isn’t much to talk about with him. Sonic has definitely gone through some changes in this version though and feels better for it. You can now hold A to perform multiple one hand jabs. His dash attack now ends in a kick which seems to have reduced lag and his down smash attack now has Sonic do a split kick to hit both sides instead of the spin ball like move he had in Brawl. His Final Smash Super Sonic felt slightly slower but easier to control and did not seem to have as great knock back or last as long as it did in Brawl (I would say it lasted approximately two thirds the time it used to). One last note on Sonic and it might just be me, but does he seem to have a little more Classic Sonic influence in his look than in Brawl?

The pair of Rosalina and Luma was definitely the strangest experience I had with the demo. I don’t have much interest in playing as this character but wanted to check her out for curiosities sake. If you want to be proficient with Rosalina and Luma you will definitely have to put in some time to learn her play style which is pretty much the polar opposite of a character like Greninja. She is a lot more floaty and you will have to pay close attention to both her and the Luma’s position on the stage. Her attacks are a bit slower to initiate compared to other characters but they are generally pretty powerful and you also have the advantage of the Luma being able to attack as well. The size of Rosalina was very jarring as she towered over the other characters. I knew Rosalina was tall but she doesn’t seem to have had her size refitted to mesh with the other characters in the game which was honestly my biggest gripe with the whole demo.

We always knew Smash Bros for Wii U was going to be a huge hit except now we know for sure this has the gameplay potential to live up to the hype. Its now up for the game to be fleshed out with characters, stages and game mode content to make it a complete package. For all our other coverage of this years EB Games Expo please follow the link.

Interview with the Producer of Ubisoft’s The Crew

Nathan Farrugia

October 7, 2014

The Crew has a lot of competition within the driving genre and its time of release isn’t helping the situation with Forza Horizon 2 just launched and Driveclub right around the corner. However with its huge open world, social aspects, story and customisation The Crew is the racer I am most looking forward to when it releases later this year. We catch up with Ivory Tower Managing Director and The Crew producer Ahmed Boukhelifa to get into his head to find out more details on the story, soundtrack and the impressive map found in the game among other topics. Check out the full interview below.

Hi Ahmed, thank you for being here with us today. So when I played the beta I was surprised to learn you had a story in the game. Not many racing games these days have a story and it wasn’t advertised in any trailers that there would be a story in the game. I was happy to see this as I’ve always like story in my racers. Why did you decide to put a story in The Crew ?

Actually, The Crew is two main parts. There is the first part which is all the main progression that takes you throughout the world, throughout the whole country and take you about 30 – 50 hours while you get to level 50. This will introduce you to the gameplay, how tuning works etc. Then when you reach level 50 we are calling that the endgame, you will basically have mastered the world and have everything available to you and you will have to choose if you want to continue playing cooperatively with friends, PVP, keep on exploring the world whatever. For the first huge part, we wanted to have something to go along with the progression and keep players motivated beyond just ‘I want to be stronger, I want to own more cars, I want to be richer.’ That’s why we felt bringing in this action story to help take you along was perfect.

Was their film influence from action and racing movies like Fast and Furious ?

Definitely.

THECREW_screen_comp_app_DD2013_CHEVROLET_NISSAN_370Z(Z34)_STREET_01 — The Crew companion app also allows you to customise your car for us in game.

One of the biggest criticisms I had with the game given the strong social, multiplayer aspect was that the visual customisation was a bit lacking. If you’ve played Midnight Club L.A. the visual customisation there basically allowed you to create anything with a strong layering system. Does your team feel you have done enough with the visual customisation as people obviously want to stand out from the crowd.

Yes I have played that game along time ago. We have colours for exteriors and interiors, rims, body parts, spoilers, stickers and other car body parts you can customise. It brings lots of variety for your car. I think the customisation for a player begins even before that. When you play The Crew you will create your own unique car and it begins with which car you want to play and which spec and that’s where the customisation really starts.

Actually what we wanted to do, talking about variety, was give a fast route to accessing a large variety of very rich and detailed decals. So that’s why we created a lot of them and made them progressively unlockable to the player. It is very important to me to make sure you are unique. Creating your own decal from scratch is not something we have today but is definitely in the back of our minds.

The map is obviously one of the biggest features of The Crew. What goes into making a map that big, do you guys go and look at the locations?

Today with the Internet you can get tons of guides and photos so that is the first step. Then what we really wanted to do was to try and tap into the essence of American car culture and create the America we wanted to create. So we sent our artists and designers and put them in small crews (we both had a bit of a laugh at this) and sent them over for a week or two in different places in the U.S. with local fixers to introduce us to local scene and local places. In Detroit for example we went to all the incredible decaying places which we try to reproduce to give the special feeling you are in that city and the same for all the other major locations in the game.

the-crew-screen-8 — A lot of work went into creating one of the biggest maps in gaming history.

Did you guys have to obtain licenses for some venues such as the Staples Centre in L.A?

For the venues no. Of course there are legal constraints in regards to what we can do and can not do. But it is pretty open in terms of what you can reproduce.

How did you pick the soundtrack and what went into making that? Can you share how many songs are in the final game?

The soundtrack is one of the parts I love the most and was one of the most difficult things to create. It’s all about taste and your taste in music so you have to try to not be sensitive about it and think about what tracks we want. The way we worked was to try and feel the vibe of the American cities we were going to reproduce and lets try and feel what would be the music that comes from those cities and create those radio stations. As for the amount of songs I don’t remember the exact numbers but it’s not far from 100. (I later did some more research and found the game will have 7 local radio stations and 120 songs in addition to an original score composed by Joseph Trapanese, known for his work on films such as Oblivion, The Raid: Redemption, The Raid 2 and TRON: Legacy, full list here)

There is no doubt The Crew spans a wide variety of areas.

What is the future for The Crew? Do you have any DLC planned or additional content coming?

For us the launch is just the beginning. We have huge content but we are already working on what will come next. You played the beta so you got a look at the skills and mission progression etc. In the first area you don’t gain access to all the missions and all the skills and you don’t get access to faction missions. Faction missions are endgame content that are unlocked after you reach level 10 which is when you can start getting into it. There are PvP missions and solo missions and these missions allow us to expand much, much more on everything The Crew has to offer. Progression missions last on average about 2 – 4 minutes, they are fast paced and you go straight to the next race.

With faction missions, as they are optional, we decided to make them longer. As you join the faction and want to help them win, by playing faction missions you will make your faction stronger and rise within the faction. Those missions we can do some pretty insane stuff, 30 person faction missions can last 45 minutes. We have some that will take 2 – 3 hours like going around all the U.S. There is definitely some cool and wicked stuff. This kind of content we are really looking forward to putting it onto the players. Looking at what people like, what they want, we can put that content into the game as well.

Alright, thank you very much Ahmed. Cheers.

Thank you.

We thank Ahmed and the Ubisoft team for giving us their time throughout the Expo. I played The Crew twice at the show and it was probably the most fun time I had there as I sat in the racing chair, headphones on fully immersed in the world of The Crew as I participated in a co-op mission with three other guys to take down a utility vehicle then raced against those same guys that had just helped me, coming in first place at the end of a close race. It was exhilarating and goes to show that the game will best be enjoyed when you are getting involved with other players. The Crew comes out on December 2nd for PS4, Xbox One and PC and you can check out my impressions from the Beta here. For all our other coverage of this years EB Games Expo including plenty of hands on impressions of upcoming games, please follow the link.

Follow Arno’s Trail of Vengeance in New Assassin’s Creed Unity Trailer

Jamie Laike Tsui

October 7, 2014

Ubisoft released a new trailer for Assassin’s Creed Unity today. The new trailer follows protagonist Arno Dorian as he comes of age and discovers that he is an Assassin all the way to the madness of the French Revolution, where Assassin’s Creed Unity takes place. Although light on gameplay footage, gamers will get a sneak peak of Arno completing his training to become a fully fledged member of the Assassin Brotherhood. A few historical figures make short cameos in the trailer, including Napoleon.

Assassin’s Creed Unity will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows on November 11, 2014 in North America and November 13th in Europe.

The Crew Release Date Pushed Back for Second Console Beta

Nathan Farrugia

October 7, 2014

Ubisoft’s upcoming Racing MMO The Crew was originally set for a November 11th release date in the States but that date has now been pushed back to December 2nd. The new release date now applies worldwide so all regions will be receiving the game on the same day as opposed to before when the U.S. was getting the game three days early.

The reason given for the delay was so a second console beta could be hosted on the PS4 and Xbox One. The second beta will be used to gather more feedback and further improve the experience and will take place in November with no specific dates or instructions on how to join the beta being released yet. Creative Director Julian Gerighty had this to say on the delay.

“Our philosophy remains to deliver the best game possible. We’re all committed to delivering a revolutionary experience in the driving genre and we can’t wait for The Crew to be in the hands of the players.”

So looks like you will have to wait one more month before forming your crew and taking to the streets. If you have played The Crew either at an expo or in its beta form, let us know what you thought in the comments below. You can check out our thoughts on the beta here.

Indie Gala Every Monday Bundle #28 Now Available

Jamie Laike Tsui

October 7, 2014

Indie Gala Every Monday Bundle #28 Now Available

Indie Gala and Capsule Computers released the 28th Every Monday Bundle today. The indie bundle contains six games, five Steam titles and one Desura title.

Toxic Bunny HD – A retro styled action-platformer inspired by Looney Toons and Monty Python.

Obludia – Mix classic games like Smash TV with RPG mechanics and you get Obludia. The game features 50 levels, 5 bosses, and 8 weapons to conquer it all.

Flower Shop: Summer In Fairbrook – A farming and dating sim that’s perfect for the fans of the Harvest Moon series.

Exodus of Sol – An action packed flight sim that will put players in the cockpit of a fighter in the middle of epic space battles filled with capital ships.

Crystals of Time – Ashley Ford is a professional thief. After her father disappears while attempting to break into Three Oak Mansion, Ashley now must break into the mansion to discover her father’s fate.

SanctuaryRPG – A rogue-like RPG done completely in ASCII art of early video games with more than 160 race/class combos. The game is currently on Steam Greenlight.

For the first 48 hors of the sale, the bundle is only $1.89 for all six titles. Be sure to snag your copy at Indie Gala before the price rises.

NBA 2K15 Hands-on Impressions

Mateja Simovic

October 7, 2014

Dear readers, you may have noticed from some (/all) of my previous articles covering the EB Expo that I am not really a console gamer by any stretch of the imagination. I am noticing that this is turning out to be quite a problem when providing coverage at this expo as most of the games being showcased are only playable on gaming consoles. For my ignorance, I apologise as I do my best to provide analysis which is both informative and entertaining. To that end, I tried my hand at playing NBA 2K15 which, unfortunately for me, was only playable on the Playstation 4. Regardless, I powered through and below are some of my thoughts…

The first thing I noticed playing the game is that there is certainly a lot of polish which has been given to nearly every aspect of its design. The menus are slick and easy to use, the graphics are pretty darn good (even with the camera zoomed out), and the loading screen is a pre-game sports show with analysis provided by digital commentators. I particularly liked the last one as I enjoy it when games provide some manner of interactivity during lulls in the gameplay to keep the player engaged and I found this particular idea to be entertaining as well as thematically appropriate (as well as featuring in the game’s trailer).

The demo had a number of teams that you could select to play as, predominantly the teams from the United States of America but also some from the European leagues as well. Unfortunately I can’t remember which team I ended up playing as I had no understanding of the reputations of any of the teams so I just chose whichever came up first… once again, my ignorance of all things sports is showing.

There was no tutorial available in the demo, as far as I could tell, and the only explanation of the controls I could find was a two sided print-out with controls for attacking and defending. After learning as much as of the controls as I could for the ‘defending’ side, I saddled myself for some good old-fashioned ‘b-ball’.

As you can imagine, I had quite some difficulty in grasping the controls to begin with and had my team fouled quite a few times over the course of the match as I either held buttons down too long or not enough. I was playing a dirty game, largely out of ineptitude, but by the end of the match I had largely figured out the controls which turned out to be surprisingly intuitive. I scored a dozen points, but they were not enough to overcome the other team’s significant advantage which they had rightly gained in the first three quarters.

The gameplay was tense and largely comes down to movement across the court and correctly timing your shots in accordance with said movement. This is perfectly expressed with one of the mini-games you play during the match. During penalty a penalty shot, the player has to time the shot with a heartbeat vibration coming through their controller. If you press it too soon or too late, you will miss the shot. This seemed to be an interesting use of the PS4 controller’s capabilities, although I was never quite able to time the shot correctly.

Ultimately I had more fun with the twenty minutes or so I had with this game than I did with some other titles as I felt that I actually had some measure of control in the game as I fumbled my way through. The demo would have done well to have included at least a tutorial of some manner beyond a map of the controls, but I have a feeling that the aim of the demo was not to draw new fans in to the series.

Overall, there was a tremendous amount of polish that was given to this title which shows in nearly every aspect. Although I did have fun, I don’t feel particularly compelled to go out and acquire this game for myself. For fans of the series, I have no doubt it will have more of what they know and love but as for the rest of us; I can’t recommend this as a sports game to get you into the genre…

Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 Hands-on Impressions

Mateja Simovic

October 7, 2014

This game is perhaps the hardest I have ever had to play. It might not be because the gameplay is particularly difficult, although I have read that Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) 2015 does pride itself on being a very technical game which players can gain mastery over slowly. My main problem was simply that I am not a console gamer and playing this on a Playstation 4 in a limited space of time within which to learn the controls meant that my analysis of the gameplay will be limited. From what I’ve read, the difficulty curve in the series is quite steep and is considered a feature amongst the fanbase for its level of detail in control and gameplay. Rest assured that I believe all this complexity is still present in droves in the newest iteration.

The demo copy that I was able to play did not have a tutorial (except for a two sided sheet which had a controls map) which meant that I was lost with what exactly to do with most of the session. Nonetheless, I persevered and I did my best to try and stack the odds in my favour in such a way to overcome my severe, non-console gaming handicap.

The game allows you to choose teams from a variety of football (soccer) leagues, including the English Premier League. These teams are all accurate to their predicted line-up in the coming year with the correct players, numbers, and uniforms. Unfortunately, I am largely ignorant of the state of European soccer (or any sport which takes place in meat space, in fact) so I can’t report on the purported accuracy of the players as they have been recreated in the game. The graphics look good close-up with only a minor uncanny valley effect present with the models. Luckily, the camera will spend most of its time zoomed out to give you an overview of the action.

In order to stack things in my favour, I chose to play as Real Madrid (they had a high rating according to the game) and chose to start a match. Before play started, I was able to plan out my team line-up and determine starting players. The screen showed me a lot varying stats for all the players as I cycled through each of their profiles, but since I could not make an informed decision; I simply chose to play with the default starting line-up. At this stage I was also able to determine the team’s formation and play on the field. I opted for a play which favoured ‘possession’. I chose this play because if there’s one thing I’ve learnt about soccer from all those years in little league teams it’s this; as long as you’ve got the ball, the other team (probably) can’t score.

So the match started with my team kicking off after I spent a good minute trying to figure out how to pass the ball. As you may have anticipated; things didn’t go well for me and by the end of the first half I was losing 4 to nil. Needless to say, I did not win that game in way which even the pre-recorded AI commentators could not believe happened.

The AI was largely solid and proved to be far more capable than I, while I ran whichever player I was in control of around the field. My AI team mates were able to defend fairly effectively and blocked a number of the plays that the opposing team did. This effectively meant that the computer was playing against itself, but since I still had not figured out how to sprint/swap players; I was happy to have something come out in my favour. I was at least decent when it came to corner/goal/penalty kicks where the game takes a bit of a slower turn and I actually had time to read the control map. I also tackled someone successfully near the end of the second half… unfortunately it was my own team.

Overall, I have no idea what to think of this game. I could see that this game certainly has a certain appeal to players of very technical sports titles, but without a tutorial you would be completely out of your depth… thereby stopping it from being a party game with pick-up-and-play appeal.

For more of our EB Expo coverage, click here.

New Senran Kagura: Estival Versus screenshots show off new characters

Travis Bruno

October 6, 2014

New Senran Kagura: Estival Versus screenshots show off new characters

A number of new screenshots for Senran Kagura: Estival Versus have been released courtesy of Famitsu and in these images not only are we given a glimpse at how the combat will look, but also a chance to check out the in-game models for three of the four playable characters.

As revealed last month, the above characters are Renka, Hanabi, and Kafuru though the fourth playable character Sayuri is not shown. You can check out the new screenshots for the game below and die-hard Senran Kagura fans will want to keep an eye out for Senran Kagura: Estival Versus when it is released in Japan on March 26th for the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita.

Rune Factory 4 to finally be released in Europe as a digital download

Travis Bruno

October 6, 2014

Although Rune Factory 4 was released in North America back in 2013 and was one of my favorite 3DS titles from that year, the European release for the game just never came to fruition. Although a release was planned, it was eventually cancelled entirely, leaving fans without any chance to play the game outside of importing not only the game but a North American 3DS.

Well, it looks like XSEED is going to try and bring the game over once more. Speaking with Siliconera, XSEED’s executive vice-president, Ken Berry, stated that the company is trying to get the title released in PAL regions. However until they passed certification with Nintendo of Europe, they didn’t want to make any official announcements. When Rune Factory 4 is released, it appears that it will only be available through the eShop as a digital download.

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