The demo begins with the cutscene between Captain Edward Kenway and his first mate Adewale, where they discuss their place in the world. They fight for the Jackdaw – their “country” – and desire the riches of one Governor Torres of Cuba. Firstly, being on the PlayStation 4, it looked fantastic, and the fact that I was holding the new Dualshock 4 didn’t even enter my mind… I’ve played more than a few titles with the controller now and it already feels natural. And after needing to use the triggers for shooting and running, it’s worth noting that they work splendidly – the one aspect of the Dualshock 3 that I had any major gripes with.
As gameplay begins, the objective becomes clear: destroy the fort defences. Our first experience with the naval mechanics is both familiar and foreign. As in Assassin’s Creed III, bracing and changing speeds by setting the sails return as key interactions, but there’s also a bit of new here. As we advance closer to the fort, a couple enemy ships come into sight. We brace as the red cone of light warns of an attack, and fire back. Using the left trigger to aim, we observe the newly represented cannon guides that project as you aim. They arc and show the specific point/angle of impact, also giving a more accurate sense of distance.
After shooting and damaging the enemy schooner with our cannons, we utilise the swivel guns to further dismantle the ship. The implementation of the weapon seems to have changed in Black Flag; not able to be used simply after waiting out a timer, the swivel gun is only effective once a ‘triangle’ prompt displays, acting as targets. Once these are visible, you can finally hold down the button to aim the shot. In the demo, they only seemed to appear after already doing substantial damage to the opposition. So it is apparent that the designers do not want you to be able to spam the use of the swivel gun for an easy battle and a quick victory, which I actually appreciated.
Seamlessly, looking back will automatically select the explosive barrels carried on the Jackdaw. So when you press the trigger to fire, you instead release them and can then blow them up by shooting them with the swivel guns (or, of course, time their release well and they’ll hit an enemy, exploding on impact). We sink the first and look to do the same to the larger brig, but find ourselves with the opportunity to board it instead. We initiate the boarding with the press of a button after sailing besides it. It’s not like parking a car in a tight spot – you don’t need precision. Once the prompt appears and you follow it, the ship automatically docks next to the helpless opposition.
You then have the option of jumping over and finishing the fight hand-to-hand, or softening the foes even further with some swivel gun shots. When they surrender, you can adopt the crew or use its resources to repair your ship. Turning our attention solely to the fort defences, we attempt to avoid falling into the line of sight for their mortar attacks – the range of which are signified by yellow cones of light to clarify the difference between them and regular ship attacks – while blasting away. Once they have been destroyed, we smoothly leap int the ocean, swim to shore and begin our assault on the commander of the fort and his forces. As the chaos ensues, Edward flips on his hoodie and we race through the battle to reach the commander in question.
Only truly forced to confront one soldier in the process, we quickly blow past him, effortlessly shooting others in the vicinity with the dual pistols functionality, which is easily achieved – almost with a semi-auto aim. Coming face to face with the commander, we brutally cut him down with our cutlass. The basics of hand-to-hand controls are largely untouched, but then again, we didn’t have much of an opportunity to try out Edward’s whole arsenal and link it together with the above-mentioned dual pistols. With the ultimate objective completed, we enter the war room, engaging a closing cutscene.
The demo may have been brief, but it was an especially effective slice of the naval combat. Having wanted a good pirate game for such a long time – and being a fan of the franchise – I can hardly wait until Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag releases for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U on October 31st; the Xbox One and PC on November 22nd, and the PlayStation 4 on November 29th, Australia-wide. You may also want to readour interview with Game Director Ashraf Ismail and Senior Game Designer Michael Hampton.
We previewed Ubisoft’sSouth Park: The Stick of Truth a little earlier this year, and we loved what we saw. The game managed to perfectly recreate the tone and feel of the show, while managing to provide an awesome turn-based arcade experience. The game was shown again at this year’s EB Games Expo, but taken from a different point in the story. With that in mind, I decided to check it out and see if the game is living up to the fans’ lofty expectations.
South Park: The Stick of Truth is a love letter to the franchise. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have their fingers well and truly in the pie that is Stick of Truth, and it shines through brilliantly. Not only does the game LOOK like an episode of South Park, but it feels and even sounds like an episode. All of your favourite characters and their respective voices are back, and add a real authenticity to the game. Storyline-wise, the you fill the role of a new kid in the town, who has happened to arrive in the midst of the latest craze-gone-wild; LARPing. The LARPing storyline also pulls double duty in explaining the game’s RPG elements in a way that makes them a part of the story.
The game plays like a traditional turn-based RPG. You control the “New Kid,” and engage in a series of battles against other kids (there are other enemy types, but only kids were present in the demo). Using traditional RPG mechanics, you select your weapons and do battle, timing your hits for maximum damage. The best comparison to a modern game that I can think of would be the Paper Mario franchise. Timing your hits perfectly deals more damage, and blocking and deflecting are also time based, and keep you on your toes throughout the battle.
During the brief demo, I got to see a variety of different weapons in action. Things like the Vibro-blade (actually a vibrator), the “Staff of Major Boobage,” and the F***ing Ninja Stars all acted very differently to one another, and required different skills and timing to use effectively. This variety in the combat speaks favourably to the game, and should hopefully result in an experience that avoids repetition (which is a common problem in turn-based RPGs). Outside of battle, you have access to small spells to help you traverse the over-world, get to new areas, and even sneak up on enemies. It is surprising how well all of the elements in South Park work together in the RPG setting.
The demo I saw at the expo was quite brief, but from what I saw, combined with our previous experiences leads me to believe that this will be a solid entry for South Park fans and RPG gamers. South Park: The Stick of Truth will be hitting store shelves on December 12th on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, and fans of the series really shouldn’t miss this one. For all the South Park news as it becomes available, be sure to stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
inFAMOUS: Second Son is my most anticipated title announced for the PlayStation 4 to date, so I scrambled especially hard at the EB Games Expo 2013 to secure an interview with Sucker Punch Productions Brand Development Director Ken Schramm to speak with him about the game. We talked about Delsin’s Native American background, the difference between superheroes and superhumans, just what the heck you may be able to do with neon powers and a whole lot more. Be sure to read until the end as Ken gave us some extra nuggets of information after we stopped recording…
Something I’ve always wondered about is the fact that Delsin Rowe is of a Native American bloodline. What was the inspiration for giving him this heritage?
Well, the whole thing is he’s not just Native American, but the area that Seattle is in – the Pacific Northwest – there’s a big, big, big tribal culture and all that. I mean, look at Lake Sammamish… everything is named pretty much after Native American tribes. And there’s so many… that’s where Lewis and Clark were, in that area, so that’s where all the Native Americans were. Because they’re coming down from Alaska, and that’s where they first populated the United States. So we’ve got a lot of Native American culture in Seattle and it’s basically to pay tribute to those people – it’s their land! They’re a part of it, and what better way to pay tribute to them than by making our hero a representative.
And so did you find ways to integrate that culture into the story?I wonder if we might see a connection between his abilities and the spiritual realm in that culture?
Oh, we did. You start off the game in his village, and that transport vehicle that I talk about – it was on its way out of Seattle, but it just happened to be near his village when it wrecked. So Delsin goes in there and helps the first conduit out; he didn’t know what was gonna happen. So he absorbed that first power and he realised after the fact what happened, so he knows there’s a whole bunch of other conduits in that truck that went into Seattle… the DUP’s (Department of Unified Protection) trying to chase him and get him out of Seattle, so you’ve got your story right there.
So was that an early decision in the conceptual phrase to place the game in Seattle this time around?
Here’s the deal with Seattle; we made New Marais – an off-shoot of New Orleans, if you will, and Empire City everybody always makes it New York City – but, you know, how many development companies have an opportunity to make a game in their own home town? So instead of calling it Seaport or something like that, I mean we live there for goodness’ sake! If we can’t get this real city right, then we have no business making a real city, period! So, what better timing to go to a real city and to our home town. We were very fortunate to build our home town. Now, I’m not sitting here telling you that if you go on Google Maps you’re gonna take a tour of Seattle, right?
However, there’s sections like the Pacific Science Centre – which has the Space Needle, and the Monorail. If you go to Seattle, and you stand in there and you see all the dinosaurs, you’re gonna go ‘no way!’ because we got that right. We wanted to get certain sections… that Post Alley, we got the Elephant Car Wash in there, we got Lincoln’s Toe Truck in there. So you can start to understand the kind of businesses we went after – you’re not gonna see Starbucks, you’re not gonna see McDonald’s or anything like that…
Only the true identity of the city…
Yeah, we’re getting our Seattle, not the commercial Seattle. The Crocodile’s in there – which is a local bar – that’s where one of our boss battles happens. So, you know, the owner of the Crocodile was like ‘this is awesome! Yeah, go for it!’ It’s just exposure for them, it’s not like we’re making a terrible game or anything.
Did you feel more free to do all of that, and maybe feel a little easier with the option of creating a brand new protagonist?
Yeah, that’s certainly the case. Let me back up a little bit. Obviously it was the choice of the fans to whether we followed the canon – with the trophy data and all that, you’ve heard me say that spiel before – but it’s true, I mean they determined the outcome of how we were gonna make this game. And so, we knew we were gonna have a new hero now and were going to need new powers – we’re not gonna put him in the same playground, right? So, we thought of other cities; sure, Vegas pops up, right? Other cities pop up in the United States… Chicago, there’s a lot of cities that have a lot of flavour. Hey, we looked at international cities as well. But like I said, we got an opportunity to build a real city – let’s build ours!
How influenced are the power by the environments themselves? Because with inFAMOUS, we had electricity which is a very urban power, and then in the sequel we had fire and ice, which were more elemental. Now, it seems like a more industrial route…
I’m not sure whether it was/is the environment; the environment is definitely a part of it, and it weaves into those details. But, you get into most open world games, you’ve got guns and rifles and all that stuff, but we’re shooting things out of your hands, right? So we’re trying to find powers that… it’s our job as designers to be creative. We don’t want to do something that you guys all know. If you’re familiar with a power, say, from a superhero that’s been an IP forever or something like that, you’re expectations are almost to ‘okay, did it play better than that?’. But we’re trying to find powers that you’re not normally common with. When’s the last time you heard of a neon power?! Okay, you see what I’m saying? Smoke, fire – you can understand that a little bit – but even with smoke, you’re seeing the transitions and stuff, but neon?! ‘What the hell are you gonna do with neon?!’ Well it’s coming… wait ’til you see the other powers, you’re gonna go ‘what?!’
That actually ties into a thought I had, which is – with Delsin being an absorber of powers – you have license to explore so many abilities, but you also don’t want to ‘dry up the well’, so to speak. Because for future iterations, you guys will have to be even more creative to do something that hasn’t been seen before, and you’ll be competing against yourselves in that regard.
Oh yeah, well we only have two years to make the game too, right? So we can’t throw every power we can think of in our imaginative bank at ya, right? So we gotta be very due diligent in what we do for this title, and make sure that it plays well. The key thing is the power sets; you’ve seen smoke, we’ve teased neon… we’re gonna have other powers. And these power sets act differently. To get these power sets to begin with… you know our drain mechanisms; if you drain smoke from a car or whatever – you can think of all the ways you can drain smoke – you’re gonna have the smoke powers.
If you drain neon signs, or whatever has lights, you’re gonna get the neon powers. It’s all about the environments and sucking out of the environment, so if it doesn’t work well with the environment, it’s not gonna be a power! So you can probably predict a little bit, if you think about the environment and uses and how it can be a power – that’s the line of thought that you should be thinking about for what’s gonna be the other powers. It’s not gonna be elemental powers; you’re not gonna see water or something like that. That’s too common.
And how much the did the capabilities of the PlayStation 4 free you up to explore something so hard to nail down, in regards to physics, particles and such, as smoke? Is it something you couldn’t have done, realistically speaking, on the PlayStation 3?
Well, when you think about it, in inFAMOUS 1 and 2 we had electricity. You just got different variants of the power of electricity. That’s all we could do… not all we could do, but that’s the parameters we were set within that game. Here, we don’t have those same parameters. So, different power sets means what? Different particle effects, different explosions, different FX, different gameplay type. Traversal, parkour – a main staple in our game… can’t play an inFAMOUS game without climbing all over. But who’s to say with smoke and neon, you have to traverse in the same way?
There’s very unique ways… you’re gonna traverse in smoke one way, but with neon there’s several other ways. Smoke, you’re gonna be able to go up a pipeline. You think you’re going to be able to do that with neon? Probably not! But that’s not to say there’s not a special thing we’re doing with neon too, right? Trust me, with each power set you’re going to be able to get around in our environment in a very unique way and a very fun way. Just because you can do it in different ways, it still has to have that underlying common denominator – fun!
I’m very intrigued to see more about neon, because on first consideration, some may think of it as a fairly passive power…
Yeah, neon… light. Light’s not so passive if you… there’s lots of things you could do with light; there’s speed, there’s power. I mean, you could imagine… you’re trying to get me to say more about what’s going on with neon! [Laughs] I get it. Good job, good job.
I’m just really intrigued is all! So you mentioned the draining mechanism; I assume it’s like a cycling of powers where only one can be equipped at any given time? So if I currently have smoke powers, but would really benefit from neon in a given situation, I need to find a source of light and once I’ve drained that, my smoke powers go away until I decide to do the same process?
That’s absolutely how the mechanism works. And you can pretty much bet that our level designers are gonna put you in situations when you probably have smoke, and you go ‘shit, I really wish I had neon right now’, and you go to find neon. You can definitely bet we’re gonna put you in situations where you’ll want to switch out your powers.
With the direction of the narrative being influenced by fan choice, what would have happened if the ‘bad ending’ was picked as canon in inFAMOUS 2?
Well, we’d have Cole!
So you would’ve had to find new ways to make him fresh too, and bring him into the next-gen…
Yeah, who knows what… we’re talking speculation because that’s obviously not the canon we went with, but, if the trophy data had said the bad canon, obviously Cole would be in this game. Now, would he still be an electrical superhuman? Ehh, we could always write things – I mean he probably would! But who’s to say he couldn’t take something else. We could always draw some canon… superhumans, I mean, c’mon! Don’t get me wrong though, everything in our game – and this is the key about inFAMOUS games – everything in our game is pretty much grounded in reality, except the powers. If you take that out of play, it’s just a city… it’s just environmental stuff. But he’s just able to draw from it and use the environment to his advantage. Key to the game, right? I mean, that’s what an inFAMOUS title is – it’s about an everyday guy who suddenly gets superhuman powers and he has to figure out what to do with them. That’s where Delsin’s at, and so was Cole.
Speaking of the pillars of inFAMOUS, I’m assuming we’ll be seeing the morality play and karma system make a return?
Yeah, I mean I haven’t talked about it much at all to be honest with you. But, it’s a staple of our game just like parkour is – karma is another pillar of our titles. So even though I haven’t talked about it, you can bet that it’s gonna be in our game some way, somehow. Now, whether that’s through progression of powers, through storyline, through gameplay… who knows how we’re gonna do it. We’re working on it right now. In our development processes, we’re building up all the stuff that’s going on in the missions and stuff like that and then we’ll decide how it flows from there. Gotta get that storyline, those missions, all that stuff correct and then we’ll worry about all the “fluff” if you will.
And then of course there’s the expected side missions and such…
You bet. It’s an open world, so yeah, you’ll have your collectibles – what they are right now, I can’t tell you – but yeah, you’ll have your collectibles. Will you have your side missions? Sure, of course.
And how big can we expect the map to be? Obviously it’s Seattle, but surely it’s scaled down…
Fair question. Well, we’ve got about 4 or 5 months left in development I think, so right now I couldn’t tell you exactly how big it is, but you can tell your fans and let them know that it’s gonna be similar in size to the first two games. I think inFAMOUS 2 was very similar to inFAMOUS 1 in size and scope – it’s gonna be along that scale, if not bigger.
As much as this is the third title in the series, Second Son does feel like a refresh or restart. Does it feel like that to you guys in the studio?
It’s important that your fans should know – and I hope they know this – yes, this is a brand new game, and yes, inFAMOUS is in the title and yes, it’s the third game in a franchise. However, by no stretch of the imagination do you need to have played inFAMOUS 1 and 2 to play this game. The canon that we’re talking about, yes, that’s from past players determining how this game was built, but just because of that the people who are buying new PS4’s and new gamers who are coming into the fold are not gonna sit there and say ‘what the hell is happening here? Why am I jumping into a story that is half-baked already?’. We can’t do that – that would be suicide!
I think that might be it for us, thank you so much for your time! We can’t wait to see more.
Oh, no worries. I can’t wait to show you more.
So, as alluded to in the opening paragraph of this article, the conversation continued after we shook hands. We didn’t want to keep Ken from his busy schedule as he literally had minutes before he had to go on stage and present the game over at the EB Live! Arena, but he was just so enthusiastic about speaking on it. He proceeded to clarify that Delsin does not steal powers from other conduits in the traditional sense, as they themselves do not lose their abilities.
He also stated that – using the DUP agents you may have witnessed in the E3 demo, who could manifest concrete platforms, as examples – just because you encounter a conduit who utilises their ability in a particular fashion, that doesn’t mean when you eventually absorb them, Delsin will use them in the same way. He has a special, individual interpretation of each power he comes across. And that woman who is seemingly in charge of the DUP, who featured in the first reveal trailer and then whose silhouette was seen again in the Fetch trailer… Ken hinted that she is the source of the concrete ability and may just be the boss whom Delsin absorbs said power from.
So, thanks again to Ken Schramm for making the time and to Sony PlayStation Australia for allowing us the opportunity. inFAMOUS: Second Son has a tentative release date of February, 2014.
This past weekend at Ubisoft’s EB Expo 2013 booth, we got to go hands on with the hottest commodity in PC gaming with Mighty Quest for Epic Loot. The action RPG tower defense game was undoubtedly a fan-favourite at Ubisoft’s booth with the game garnering quite a crowd of players ready to quest for the titular ‘epic loot’.
Immediately upon getting hands on with the game, I found myself amazed at how approachable the game’s control system was. It was remarkably user-friendly and quite inviting to those who aren’t exactly hardcore PC gamers. It utilizes a simple control layout that is easy to learn, opening up the game to all walks of gamer skill.
While the game is still in beta at the moment, there wasn’t any real bugs to be seen in our time with the game. It was well polished and the gameplay experience was fun and intuitive.
The game itself is relatively simple, challenging you to take on enemy castles to try and defeat their defenses and gain that epic loot. On the flip side of that you can also build up your own defenses to protect your castle from devastating damage.
On show at the EB Expo 2013 demo of the game was two different yet distinct classes of characters. We had the Knight and Archer, both of whom play completely differently. The Knight is a more melee based character that attacks head on. The Archer however prefers to stand back and attack from afar, never coming into the line of fire. Both classes have their advantages and disadvantages. For example the Knight takes a large amount of damage during his head to head clashes, the Archer doesn’t do as much damage with his weaker long range attacks but he takes less damage.
The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot hits the right balance between simple and fun, becoming a glorious mix of the two. It may not be the most complex game out there but its certainly one of the more entertaining ones. It has a Diablo-esque vibe, but not at all serious. It is the sense of humour underneath Might Quest for Epic Loot that makes it so endearing.
The game’s detailed castle creator tool and simple yet addictively fun battles make for a solid mix of complexity and simplicity. While the game is still in beta, it is hard to tell due to the sheer polished veneer that Might Quest for Epic Loot has.
We previously did a CC Impact! live-stream playthrough of the game which you can see here. You can also enter into the closed-beta for the game on the official Mighty Quest for Epic Loot website.
At EB Expo 2013, Ubisoft showcased their upcoming PlayStation 4 and Xbox One racing title The Crew. We were able to go hands-on with the open-world racer and get a glimpse at what looks to be the future of racing games.
The first thing that becomes apparent when playing The Crew is just how immense and dense the world of the game truly is. There didn’t seem to be any end in site. If you are to go by Ubisoft’s claims, the game features the entire United States of America in digital form. Unfortunately due to time-restrictions we didn’t have the opportunity to journey the immense world in its entirety, but we can confirm that it is huge in every sense of the term.
As for the driving itself, it comes off as somewhat loose, leaving the player feeling not so heavily in control of the vehicle more so overseeing its journey. It was an odd feeling to say the very least. Large motions on the controller only result in small responses and speed is somewhat difficult to temper.
The multiplayer components of the game were quite impressive. We were fast-tracked from our various destinations across the United States all the way to Miami, Florida. At Miami we engaged in a game of cat and mouse with an enemy vehicle. The goal given to us was to take out that driver. Doing so proved to be quite challenging as the AI was actually very intelligent, taking shortcuts and side streets to avoid capture.
Visually the game was utterly gorgeous and bursting with detail. Everything about the game’s aesthetics was absolutely astonishing and it is truly a showcase of the power of the next generation of video-game consoles.
All in all, The Crew looks to be an interesting next gen racing game, if only for its grand scale open world that is just begging to be explored. The controls could be a little tighter but they were good enough that it didn’t negatively influence the experience. The real take away from The Crew is the incredible possibilities that are available in regards to open worlds on next gen consoles. I for one eagerly await to see what else these new machines can do.
The Crew is slated for release on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in early 2014. This is one game that racing fans should keep on their radar, The Crew may very well be the next big thing in racing games.
A brand new trailer for the hotly anticipated WWE 2K14 video-game has been released. This time the trailer focuses in on the gameplay elements of WWE 2K14.
This is the first WWE game to be published by 2K Games and as such there is a great deal of hype surrounding its release. We recently got to go hands-on with the game at EB Expo 2013, you can see what we thought of the game in our preview here.
Be sure to check out the gameplay trailer for WWE 2K14 in all its glorious slamming beauty below. WWE 2K14 hits stores on November 1st, 2013.
Considering the fact that Sentai Filmworks originally licensed and released the first season of Infinite Stratos in North America with an English dub, it should come as no surprise that the company has announced that they are also picking up Infinite Stratos 2.
Currently the company is planning for a home video release sometime in 2014 and while the first episode was less than promising when it debuted last week on October 3rd, this second season looks to introduce two more characters from the original light novel series as well as further the storyline while, of course, putting the cast through your standard harem antics.
This means that Freezing Vibration, the second season of the anime, and Unbreakable Machine-Doll are currently available on FUNimation’s website while the other two will debut when they premiere in Japan. All four of these anime are ones that I have been looking forward to this season and to learn a bit more about each anime you can read about it on my Fall 2013 Anime Picks.
Today it has been discovered that a trademark for Lily Bergamo has been filed in the United States by GungHo Online Entertainment. You may recall that Lily Bergamo was announced as a PlayStation 4 action title back at Tokyo Game Show and while details for the game are still pretty scarce, it was still up in the air about whether or not Grasshopper Manufacture’s latest game would be released in the West.
While this is far from an announcement, the trademarkwas filed a few weeks ago so it is possible that GungHo is looking to give the game a worldwide release, or at least a North American release if nothing else.
‘Swords and Spells’ is a new high-quality mobile fantasy-RPG which will be launched on iOS in a few weeks time. Xyrality, the creator of the game has featured several times in “Best of Apple’s App Store” in 2012. For their new game, they have provided an early insight into “Abion”, the fantastic game-world of ”Swords and Spells” to ease the wait for RPG fans.
The developer has released a series of conceptual artworks this week to offer insight to the great atmosphere of the game as well as its amazingly designed landscapes. Players will be able to catch a first glimpse at key landmarks of the game including the icy “Horn of Targant”, the mythical “Nixie Swamp”, the sinister “Gray Fortress” as well as several other legendary locations.
RPG players can choose a hero to embark on a captivating journey through ‘Abion’ and complete over 100 missions and defeat over 90 different monsters on the way. There is also a wide range of carefully designed weapons, pieces of armour and other special items on offer in ‘Swords and Spells’.
The developers and writers has tried to create strategic game-play and heavy tactical challenges with versatile battle and skill systems. Not only does this innovative mobile RPG high-quality graphics, but it also utilised the Unity3D-Engine to allow for 3D character display, this allows players to experience the development of their character in real time and set up certain attributes and gear for the next battle.
