If you thought that the Australian International Motor Show 2012 couldn’t get any more exciting, it just has. Microsoft have announced that they will be holding a Forza Horizon launch event at the Motor Show.
The launch event for the game will take place on October 19th at the Motor Show which will be held at the Sydney Convention and Entertainment Centre. Attendees will be able to experience the excitement and intensity of Forza Horizon ahead of it’s October 20th release date.
Forza Horizon is the first open world racing game in the Forza franchise and will allow players to freely take to the open roads of Colorado, USA.
The Australian International Motor Show 2012 will run from October 19th to 28th and open daily at 10am. For more details you can check out the Motor Show’s official website here.
It has been revealed that 343 Industries will not show the face of the helmeted hero Master Chief. Frank O’ Connor revealed this earlier in an interview in which he said the following:
“The funny thing about the Chief is he’s actually really well described. If you went down into that line and found a nerd with a deep canon Halo t-shirt and said describe the Master Chief to this police sketch artist, that police sketch artist would then produce a perfectly accurate rendering of an older man, almost painfully pale, almost albino white, with pale blue eyes, reddish hair, close cropped to a skin head, and maybe the last remnants of freckles he had when he was a kid.”
Frank described the whole thing as wanting to keep the mystery alive and that he doesn’t want the fans to loose that sense of mystery that it gives the fans. He then went on to say:
“That’s a device to keep the player invested in the character and keep the player from constantly being reminded that they’re not a hero or that they have to be a boy or they have to be a girl, or whatever that is.”
You can pick up Halo 4 when it releases exclusively on the Xbox 360 on November 6, 2012.
Well, EA is at it again and this time they are doing something awesome. Battlefield: Bad Company the show is currently in the works at Fox. John Eisendrath of Alias fame is handling writer duties and will serve as executive producer alongside Doug Robinson from studio Happy Madison, and Patrick Bach and Patrick O’Brien from EA.
The adaptation of Battlefield: Bad Company will follow four soldiers transitioning from military life to the private sector. Their old commanding officer apparently used them to propel the agenda of a shadow unit within the government and now wants them dead to cover his own involvement. That sounds a little familiar right?
No air date or other information was given on the series so keep your eyes wide open and look for more information in the future.
Do you like dancing? Well how would you like to put your dancing abilities to use in a video game? Oh, that sounds intriguing to you doesn’t it? Introducing Just Dance 4, Ubisoft’s answer to those looking for yet another game in which you well… Just Dance!
During the EB Game Expo 2012, myself and Benjamin ‘LinkageAX’ Webb got to get our hands and feet on Just Dance 4 and we really had a lot of fun with it. We took to Ubisoft’s Just Dance 4 stage and got ready to dance our asses off to one of the songs available, we eventually decided upon a Skrillex track that a rogue child who took to the stage with us demanded it. He couldn’t stop saying that he loved Skrillex.
Any ways, we got right down to it and the game is pretty simple. You hold onto the Wii remote and attempt to perform the dance moves that appear on screen. The game doesn’t appear much different to previous incarnations in the Just Dance franchise other than track listing of course which features hits such as ‘Wild Wild West’ by Will Smith and the addictively slick ‘Livin La Vida Loca’ by Ricky Martin and of course the lesser known current releases like ‘Call Me Maybe’ and ‘Super Bass’.
In our demo of the game we of course played the Skrillex song ‘Rock n Roll’. You can see us dancing along to this dubstep track below this article. There isn’t much strategy to this game other than to just have fun with it really. It doesn’t seem to measure how accurate your dance moves were and seems to focus mostly on controller movement, something that is difficult to control when dancing any ways. But this game is really not about trying to get the best score or anything like that, it just about having some guilt-free silly fun. That is why these games are so popular afterall.
It’s just unbridled fun and not just for the people playing, there is also enjoyment to be had for those watching (maybe you’ll enjoy watching me, Ben and badass kid dancing to some Skrillex?). That is why Just Dance is such a global success and why it will most likely continue to be.
To wrap things up, Just Dance 4 doesn’t do much different than the 3 games that came before it and it quite honestly doesn’t even need to. The new track listing is filled with hits of yesterday and today that will excite both the youngins and the oldies. But most of all the best thing about Just Dance is right in the title, it’s a game that encourages you to release your inhibitions and Just Dance.
Those of you who are curious about what the full skill tree for Borderlands 2’s upcoming DLC character, Gaige the Mechromancer, will look like will be glad to hear that Gearbox has revealed her full skill tree complete with details about all of her various skills.
As before, players can pre-emptively plan their skill point usage via the interactive skill tree found here. Gaige features quite a large number of skills including plenty of skills that add special bonuses to her robotic buddy Deathtrap. At the moment Gaige is still set to be released next week on October 16th for 800 MSP/$9.99 or for free if you pre-ordered Borderlands 2 and redeemed your premiere membership code.
Borderlands 2 Developer: Gearbox Software Publisher: 2K Games Platforms: PC (Reviewed), PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Release Date: Out Now! Price:$59.99 (Buy Here)
Overview
The amazing Borderlands from Gearbox Software and published by 2k Games has a sequel, Borderlands 2. You’ve probably heard of it. The FPS-RPG hybrid taking place on Pandora is a game that has garnered much attention from both the gaming public and media. Does it live up to expectations? Is it a game worth your money? Find out in our review below.
For the Console version review, please refer to this link. Players planning on picking up the PC version might also want to check it out for comparative purposes.
Story
Borderlands 2 is the sequel to the original Borderlands that was released a few years ago. In this sequels story, we follow the adventure of a vault hunter a few years after the vault in the first game was cleared. What makes this games storyline more interesting though, is that there is more of an actual storyline arc to the games narrative than the first game had.
The storyline of Borderlands 2 has some amazingly epic moments as well, which makes this game superior to the first from a story perspective. For instance, there is a character known as the Firehawk (who is a returning character from the first game) and almost every part of the story that involves her in some way is either absolutely epic or absolutely hilarious. I think that she is easily one of the most fun characters in the game.
Speaking of the characters in the game, many of them are incredibly well designed and scripted. They all give out amazingly hilarious dialogue but it never seems out of character or just for laughs. You’re giggling at what they’re saying because it absolutely fits the scenario. This is good for the story because it’s keeping you engaged the entire time instead of just directing you to the next plot point to kill more mooks.
I don’t think there are any characters in the game that will fail to entertain on some level. However, some characters are clearly way more entertaining than others throughout the story. My favourite character would have to be Tiny Tina – the little girl who loves her explosives, talks like a gangsta wanna-be and has such amazingly hilarious quest lines and dialogue. Please have a DLC spin-off that has a really long quest line focused around her. Please.
Overall the story in Borderlands 2 is hilariously awesome. It is so awesome that enters badass territory, which is always a massive plus (especially for a game that strives to be just that). Fans of fun and story will definitely love this game.
Gameplay
Do you know what the first Borderlands didn’t have enough of? Guns. I think there was only something like three million different combinations of stats and attributes in that game. So what have Gearbox done to alleviate this issue? They’ve added a couple of more attributes to the mix, meaning that there are now even more guns than before.
Seriously though, the gameplay in Borderlands 2 is incredibly similar to the gameplay in Borderlands. This is definitely not a bad thing. Complaining that Borderlands 2 plays like Borderlands is like complaining that steak tastes like steak. Sure you might not like steak, but there really isn’t anything else that it could taste like.
So anyway, for people who have yet to actually play a Borderlands title, this is how it rolls. You choose a character from four different classes, customise your appearance and then drop into the world. From there you have to complete quests, much like in a role-playing game for experience, loot and cash.
What makes this game interesting though, is that not only do you have to shoot enemies to damage them, but the amount of damage you do is entirely dependent on the stats of your weapon. This means that you could be the best shot in the world, but if you’ve been really unlucky with loot drops or have not been switching to weapons with superior stats, you can and will get owned quite bad. This need for better loot gives the game a kind of Diablo feel to it, where all the loot is randomly generated and finding the best piece of equipment is almost completely luck dependent. The best example of this is how lucky I got at the start of the game with a gold item drop. I’ve had it since I was around level 4-5 and was still using it well into my 20s.
On the PC, players are able to integrate into the Steam network to host and join games with friends and random weirdo’s. This is a good option for PC gamers as most of us are already connected through steam and it makes inviting players so much more easy. Not only that, but Steam makes sure that your game is always at the correct version, meaning that you won’t accidentally miss an update and no longer be able to connect through servers.
The game is also controlled through the Keyboard and Mouse as well as a Gamepad, which means that players will be able to play the game in a manner that is most comfortable to them. This is unlike the console versions that force a controller on you, meaning that people like me that absolutely suck at FPS’ on a controller will be able to use the superior control scheme of the PC, making the experience all that much more enjoyable.
One thing that I really liked about the gameplay in this game was that falling from long distances does not hurt you. This actually makes traveling a lot easier. It’s a bit unrealistic, but so is the rest of this game.
Overall, from a gameplay perspective, players that love games with a plethora of loot and most importantly, gamers that love showing off their phat loots to their friends are gamers that will absolutely love this game. Gamers like me.
Visuals
Borderlands 2 features an amazingly cartoony look and feel that mixes well with the kind of carnage that both the players and the world bring with it. Even better about the PC version of the game is that it is clearly the superior version visually, as it has a multitude of amazing graphical options and the ability to output at true levels of HD. None of this upscaled 720p nonsense. True 1080p.
What I really liked about the visuals though, was that they haven’t really been altered from the original aesthetically. However, some of the characters introduced in this game are far more creative than the characters introduced in the first.
Audio
As I mentioned in the Story section of this review, this game has an amazingly well written storyline and dialogue components. I think that the dialogue is half of what makes Borderlands such an appealing series. If it wasn’t for the writing, this would definitely be just another generic shooter with RPG elements tacked on top.
The music in this game is also pretty cool as well. It adds to the intensity of some battles, whilst also giving some areas a feel of size and scope. The weapons also sound quite amazing.
Overall
Borderlands 2 is a must have game on any platform that it appears on. However, due the increased performance behind the PC, I would highly recommend purchasing it on this platform over any other. The game also controls much better on the PC. You should definitely pick this game up if you have not done so already.
In anticipation of the releases of both Assassin’s Creed 3 and Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation, Ubisoft have released a number of developer diaries for the games in order give gamers an inside look at what they can expect from Assassin’s Creed 3. The latest developer diary focuses solely on Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation.
We previously wrote up a hands-on preview for Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation to which we gave considerable praise. You can check out that preview article here. Liberation is of course exclusive to the PS Vita.
Be sure to check out the Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation developer diary video below and let us know what you think in the comments section.
If you are someone who has ever been interested in screen acting but wanted to combine that with your passion for gaming then International Screen Academy (ISA) Sydney is the right place for you!
ISA is trying something new that hasn’t been experienced anywhere else, by not only offering film and TV subjects in their syllabus but also CG, green screen, gaming, 3D, voice over and animation. So, not only will you receive training in the more traditional medias, but you get to be trained up in how to act for games and other new technological media.
The ISA campus is in Waterloo, but it is open to people all around Australia! So don’t worry, even if you’re all the way over in Western Australia and are thinking that WAPA isn’t quite modern enough for you, we’ll welcome you over here and give you a totally unique learning experience.
The auditions for ISA are starting in six weeks, so what are you waiting for – head over to the ISA website HERE for more information! And make sure to check out their Facebook page and LIKE it for regular updates on the courses and audition periods.
SEGA have released a new trailer for the upcoming heart-pumping super fast racing game Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. The new trailer focuses on the variety of different ways that you can play the game itself.
We actually got a chance to get our hands on the game during the EB Games Expo 2012 and wrote up a hands-on preview for the game which you can check out here. That’s not all though, we also interviewed a developer of the game Steve Lycett which you can see here.
Be sure to check out the new Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed trailer below and let us know what you think in the comments section.
007 Legends will be launching later this month, and of course is set to bring together some of the most legendary plotlines from the franchise into one action-packed title. Today, a new trailer was released, but don’t go in expecting to see too much.
This clip is simply an opening cinematic, which shows off your standard Bond-ish themes and visuals, as well as the main cast as credits. You can check out the clip below, and prepare yourselves for the much more fulfilling main game when it launches in the U.S. on October 16th and Australia on October 27th.
Do you like dancing? Well how would you like to put your dancing abilities to use in a video game? Oh, that sounds intriguing to you doesn’t it? Introducing Just Dance 4, Ubisoft’s answer to those looking for yet another game in which you well… Just Dance!
