At the San Diego Comic Con rumors were running rampant that Kojima was showing Metal Gear Solid 5 to certain individuals behind closed does. Then the above image appeared online, though it appears that this image is simply a giant fake.
After Konami was notified about these rumors, they responded on their Twitter account stating “Fake or real, we love a bit of speculation!” Considering this tweet was not an actual flat out denial, people soon grew even more excited until the company followed up with yet another tweet stating “Seriously, just in case the #pinch #salt hashtags weren’t enough – the chap who claims to have set up the fake rumours has been in touch.” So while these rumors are unfortunately false, would you love to see yet another Metal Gear Solid title?
Tour de France 2012 Developer: Cyanide Studio Publisher:Focus Home Interactive / Ubisoft Platform: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PS3 Release Date: 21st June Price: $69.99/£39.99 – Available Here
Overview:
In a year chockfull of sport, the Tour de France, one of the most gruelling tests of physical endurance around, is unlikely to get the coverage it deserves. Unless of course a British contender wins it, like Bradley Wiggins, at which point everyone in the UK will jump on the bandwagon and claim his personal triumph as a victory for England, pretending they were behind him the whole time. The Tour de France 2012 game was always going to be a relatively low-key release, but the actual event being sandwiched between Euro 2012 and the London 2012 Olympic Games hasn’t exactly helped its cause.
It’s no great shock that the game hasn’t penetrated a wider sphere of awareness, as it’s a low budget game that simply can’t afford to go all out on the advertising front. Most of the money would have been spent on improving the build of the previous game rather than starting over. The important thing is that cycling enthusiasts with a penchant for gaming know of its existence, as this is the group that will get the most out of it.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is mostly re-used from Tour de France 2011 – understandably so, as the 21 stage race itself doesn’t change that much from year to year and the developers can’t just add a new route to the race for the sake of there being something new. Just how similar it is, however, can evoke feelings of déjà vu if you played last year’s edition.
The control scheme remains more or less the same, apart from several very small additions which, despite their size, make all the difference. As before, it is a simulation of cycling, so there’s no pumping the triggers in time with the pedals, only a continued cycle in which you decide the pace at which to travel. You do this by pressing A regularly with if you want your rider to push on and build up some momentum, or occasionally/not at all if you want to give them a rest like if it’s a downhill section. You control the steering to a certain extent in that you can swerve to exploit gaps (though not to collide with others and cause accidents), but if you don’t steer the auto-assist is likely to keep you from going off the road.
The heads-up display has been refined, emerging less cluttered and a lot more workable. For a start, the pointless ‘danger’ meter from last time is gone, which is just as well because it was a struggle to your rider to crash and fall off back then too. The heart monitor telling you your rider’s exertion remains, as does an arrow wind direction and speed, and an ever changing number indicating the gradient of the current stretch of road (which the graphics often struggle to make clear). Even your energy bars are clearer now, with a yellow endurance gauge and a red sprint one, a press of B switching between the two cycling modes. In this game, you can now replenish these energy stocks with a mid-race snack when the pressure’s off.
If there could be any doubt of Tour de France 2012’s simulation credentials looking at the detail the racing mechanics go into, then the fact that there’s a voice communication network between your AI manager and squad mates surely settles it. While it’s still as meaningless as it was in the last game, (the mess of riders makes it hard to identify your team colours and then there’s the problem of working out who’s who amongst your team), it’s undergone some changes which make it easier to use. This means that although you’ll often get the response that they’re tied up and can’t kick away from the group as commanded, the shoulder button controls mean you can at least issue the command fluently.
Used properly and when you keep tabs on your squad and issue regular instruction, the system works, but it’s a lot of extra effort to go to in order to ride in a team when it doesn’t make all that much difference, so most players will probably end up utilising only the manager’s race-status updates from the voice comms system. To say the game isn’t interactive thanks to all these menus wouldn’t be right, but it’s definitely a different kind of interaction.
Like Tour de France 2011, gameplay switches between actively cycling and a simulation mode. 3400-odd kilometres is a long way to travel in practically real-time – and time-consuming at that – so to prevent the game being as gruelling an event as the real thing, you only play certain sections of the race. Most of the distance is covered by AI in a sim mode which acts according to your tactics and finishing position when you were racing. This is represented as a live-feed of a line graph which lasts a minute or so, with the game returning control to the player for 30km two or three times at the more interesting parts of a stage.
Visuals & Audio:
For anyone who played the previous game, the introductory video to your Tour de France campaign is just as likely to have you saying “have I been here before” as it is to get you tapping your foot saying “this music’s kind of funky”. Everything from the game’s menu music to the game’s visual design is confusingly similar or the same. As the cycling is unerringly similar to 2011’s, it only makes sense for the main menu and accompanying soundtrack to be similar or even exactly the same.
The in-game graphics haven’t improved since last time and stand as a poor example of what the Xbox 360 is capable of. Rolling through the French countryside should be idyllic – and is on Tour de France 2012 if you focus on the race and see your surroundings through the corner of your eye. Look too closely though and you’ll notice the unconvincing character models standing by the side of the road, many of whom are the same person, and even the same parked cars as last year. The draw distances are so low that hedges, or worse still, railings, are literally forming alongside you as you ride.
Do these visual shortcomings affect the overall experience? Not really. It’s a simulation, a genre known for being a little rough around the edges, but better graphics would certainly be an improvement and make it easier on the eyes. Still, the sight of a massive field of cyclists on the starting line is something to behold.
Overall:
Tour de France 2012 will provoke a range of feelings in the different people that play it. For those used to the modern pace of games hoping to realise their fantasy of a 50 bike pile-up – boredom. For those who played Tour de France 2011 – déjà vu. And for keen or competitive cyclists or cycling enthusiasts, I can only assume a similar sense of satisfaction to it that they get from the real thing. There’s no racing ahead because you can press the button faster than the CPU players; although it is possible to take the lead by quite a way, it requires careful measure and application of your effort bars, as well as the acknowledgement of factors like the wind and gradient of the slope.
It’s a testament to the level of involvement when you’re able to fiddle around with a number of menus mid-race and are even encouraged to do so. Many will misinterpret the game as boring, when actually it’s just good at what it does. What it happens to do though, is be a cycling game, something difficult to pull off and, ultimately, something of a specialist interest.
With the exception of simulations, RPGs are often the most in-depth games on the market. Space RPGs even more so as each component on the ship can be changed out for better versions. Well, there is a new space action RPG hitting the market called Drox Operative and Capsule Computers has a preview for its special features. A different kind of space RPG the main goal isn’t to forward the player’s own Drox race to rule as king, but instead take the role as king maker whittling the galaxy down to one race who is hopefully allied with the player.
The first thing you notice when you load up the game is that there a lot of options from the get go, with 10 different ships to choose from. Because of this, it’d be really good to have an idea of how players are going to go about the game. But, besides just having different stats, the ships in the game do a very good job at looking drastically different and keeping the looks with how each race is personified. Needless to say the game is designed to accommodate plenty of different play types right from the get go. For advanced players, when they eventually get there anyway, there are other options as well to try and give a bigger challenge, from Poverty with finding less money and components, to Semi-Hardcore where every death costs some of the ships most basic health, to Unlucky so that there are no rare components, to Hardcore which is one ship one death even being locked until reaching a higher level. These provide even more variety of play, so that players can really test themselves.
After getting the ship all set up, it’s simply a matter of setting up the galaxy. How many races? How many systems in the galaxy? These can all be set up, so that players can find just the right challenge for themselves. Pick plenty of races and there are most sides to play against each other, pick a few and enjoy a more focused game. Pick a small galaxy and limit the planets for the races to colonize, pick a huge galaxy and give them space to grow before turning them against each other. Between just these two options there are plenty of ways for the game to play out, not to mention that which races are randomly picked to be present will impact it as well.
So the Drox operative has a ship and is now set loose on a galaxy to shape how they want. Now comes the toughest challenge yet, learning to play the actual game. There’s a decent learning curve as there are plenty of aspects to running a ship, plus combat, plus leveling, plus cargo, but that’s really to be expected. The unique parts of the actual gameplay is in the relations between other races. Sure there are quests that let players get on the good side of a race, but the true depth is in the Propaganda, Espionage, Sabotage, and Rumors the Drox operative can create. Each can be either Quick, Planned, or Well Crafted with each having a better chance at being better effective as well as costing more money, though it would be nice to see just what the percentages of success for each option would be. These are really where the true power is, anyone can go in and blast a race into dust, but a true master can undermine the race as a whole and tear them apart while seeming friendly.
These options add a considerable depth to the game and give even more options for players truly trying to role-play the game. Maybe their Drox doesn’t sabotage, or only spreads rumors, or even only gains technology through espionage, the ability is all there for players though will have a considerably bigger impact on their Drox pocketbook. The first time through it is very easy to mess it up, so it’s nice that even though winning would be a hard uphill battle, there’s fun to be had messing up all the races. Up until they all just get mad and try to to kill you.
At selected retailers, JB Hi-Fi and EBGames, players will be able to receive one of three pre-order bonuses to come with the upcoming game Need for Speed Most Wanted. The pack bonuses are specific kinds of vehicles with specific kinds of modifications that give players a style that fits their form of play.
The packs make use of the kinds of different kinds of strengths. The packs are each as follows, Strike Pack, Power Pack and Speed Pack. Players who also pre-order now, or soon to now, will also recieve the Limited Edition pack which includes a couple of cars for multiplayer use, as well as four hours of double speed points during the first few hours of multiplayer.
The full Limited Edition pack with Pre-Order bonuses is as follows –
Multiplayer bonuses included in the Need for Speed Most Wanted Limited Edition include:
· Four hours of Double Speed Points: Players earn double speed points throughout the first four hours of multiplayer
· 2012 Porsche 911 Carerra S: Optimized Aerodynamic Body that reduces drag for maximum speed and Nitrous Burn, delivering efficient and sustained speed boosts
· Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale: A Race Pack Powertrain tuned for increased power and the impact protection modification to provide increased stability and strength when driving at breakneck speeds
Pre-order packs now available at select retailers will include early access to multiplayer cars with unique modifications that fit different play styles:
· Speed Pack at EB GAMES Australia & New Zealand: The Caterham Superlight R500 in the exclusive Satin Black livery, featuring the Track Tyres Modification for improved road handling, and the Lightweight Chassis Modification allowing players to reach mesmerizing speeds
· Power Pack at EB GAMES Australia & New Zealand: The Ford F-150 SVT Raptor in the exclusive Satin Black livery, featuring the Reinforced Chassis Modification for taking increased damage, and the powerful and violent Nitrous Dump Modification for making tight jumps and powered up takedowns
· Strike Pack at JB HI-FI Australia & New Zealand and at Mighty Ape New Zealand: The Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG Black Series in the exclusive Satin Black livery, featuring the Power Pack Powertrain Modification for an engine tuned for torque, acceleration and the ability to reach breakneck speeds, and the Re-inflating Tyres Modification making it easier to survive and counter rivals’ attempts to slow players down
Be sure to head down to the store that deals in the corresponding package that you wish to receive now. The game is releasing on November 1st on all major platforms. Be sure to check out the official website for more info.
Great news for fans of the character Sherlock Holmes – CBS is set to release a new show called Elementary that will be a modern take on the old classic in the fall. However, not everyone is taking the news well, with fans of the BBC Sherlock show criticising it even before its release. Americans tend to have a habit of ‘ruining’ shows, which is where a lot of the criticism is coming from, even though Elementary isn’t based on the BBC version, but rather the original Sherlock Holmes series. Another source of the criticism is the casting of Lucy Liu as Dr Watson.
In an interesting move by the creators of Elementary instead of casting the usual white male in the role of John Watson they have changed it to Joan Watson and cast a ‘woman of colour’. Lucy Liu spoke about the role at the San Diego Comic Con Round Table:
“This will be interesting, because there’s a lot of history behind Sherlock Holmes and Watson, and I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of opinions about the idea that we’re remaking it, and that we named the characters Holmes and Watson, and I’m playing a female Watson and, what’s the deal with that?! So some people are going to be excited that we’re turning it on its head, and some people are going to be kind of shaking their heads, like, ‘This is a bad idea.’
“I mean the thing is, when you go into anything everyone has an opinion. And when we did Charlie’s Angels, everyone was like ‘This is going to be a huge flop, this is a disaster, this is a mistake.’ And all I could think about was, ‘Wow this is amazing,’ because they’ve cast an Asian person as one of the Angels, and when I was growing up it was the idea that it was all Caucasian. So that was, for me, like, ‘who cares about anything else’? And for me this time it’s about that Watson is a female. And a lot of people who are of ethnic background have come up to me and said, ‘It’s so great that you’re playing Watson and you’re representing a big, you know, minority section of actors and people in the world’.”
But don’t worry, just because Watson is a female doesn’t mean that the two main characters get together, Doherty reassured fans that there won’t be a romantic story line between Holmes and Watson.
“When this opportunity arose, I did a lot of research — psychological assessments of original characters by actual doctors — and Holmes struggled a bit with women, He struggled with people in general, but there are moments when he doesn’t quite get the fairer sex,” creator Doherty said. “It made me laugh: the idea of what would be more trying than Sherlock Holmes living with a Watson who’s also a woman. It really shouldn’t make a difference; it’s a challenge of the series to not turn it into a will-they-or-won’t-they. It’s not about that, it’s about honoring the source material and … the bond.”
Check out the fall preview behind the scenes of Elementary below. What do you think? Will Elementary fill the shoes of the famous detective? Are you in support or doubtful of the gender swap for Watson?
The Last of Us made an appearance at Comic Con over the weekend. Naughty Dog held a panel discussing the use of motion capture for the title, bringing in experience from the use of the technology in the Uncharted series. They had also revealed some new content, culminating to a screening of a new cutscene, which can be seen below. The cutscene shows off a new character named Bill. Apparently, Bill and Joel actually know each other from the past, to the point that Bill actually owes Joel a favour.
It is an excellent cutscene to help move the story forward. The interactions between the three characters (Bill, Joel and Ellie) captures the apocalyptic world quite well. It bodes well for the rest of the narrative. The Last of Us is shaping up to be an excellent game. Hopefully, all of the hype building up for it does pay off. The Last of Us will be released in 2013.
Pocket Heroes Developer: F5 Games Publisher: Ayopa Games Platform: iPhone (reviewed), iPad, iPod Touch Release Date:12th July, 2012 Price: 99c – Available Here
Overview I’m sure the graphics race isn’t exciting to anybody any more, and while rendering power will obviously continue to grow, it’s nice to see games use other means of attracting attention. Increasingly popular are casual turn-based games featuring asynchronous gameplay, where players in the same game don’t have to be online at the same time. They can have their turn when it suits them, sync it to their opponents, and check back later to see what the other players have done in response.
Pocket Heroes employs that system, and being a turn-based RPG, it makes sense. But how well does it work
Gameplay
Far as I can tell, casual game juggernaut Zynga popularized the idea of asynchronous gameplay, applying the structure to virtual versions of classic board games, like Words With Friends (Scrabble) and Draw Something (Pictionary). Soon other classic turn-based games started using it: in a recent update Team 17 applied it to Worms 2: Armageddon.
Async is currently doing the rounds of games that can use it, so really, it was only a matter of time before someone applied to the beloved genre of turn-based fantasy RPGs.
Pocket Heroes uses the async model to differentiate itself from others in its genre, but beyond that structure, it is largely what you’d expect: it’s a turn-based RPG, where up to four players wander round a generic fantasy world from a top-down perspective, slaying goblins and whatnot with swords and bows and magic.
Async play aside, Pocket Heroes is solid and serviceable, but hardly outstanding. Playing with friends, it can be fun to strategise, attack together and defend each other. Your choice of player character includes the usual races and class types: a human Paladin, an elf Rogue, a dwarf Mech, and a High Elf Lunar Sorceress. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, based on their stats. Defeating enemies rewards you with loot drops, which can be shared among the party members, and include items that boost stats, replenish health, increase weapon damage, etc etc.
So far, it’s pretty stock standard, but there’s nothing wrong with that, when it’s done well. If this sounds like your cup of tea, then go for it. The experience may be the best of its kind on the iOS. Unfortunately, there are a few major drawbacks, mostly due to the double-edged sword of asynchronous play.
As far as it’s been applied, async works well with the standard RPG mechanics, but it also somewhat messes up the pacing of the game. Ideally, iOS games are designed as time-fillers: the best-selling ones, like Bejewelled or Angry Birds, are so popular because the play sessions are quick to start and scalable. You can have a satisfying session for two minutes in the waiting room at the dentist, or two hours on a train.
The problem is that, by design, Pocket Heroes (like many asynchronous games) simply won’t let you get into a comfortable flow of play. You can’t sit down for an hour-long session: you play for a few seconds at most, then end your turn and wait for other players to make a move. The game breaks your engagement with it by forcing you to put it away every thirty seconds.
Most asynchronous games overcome this fatal flaw by allowing you to partake in multiple matches simultaneously. Whip out your iPhone for a two-minute session and chances are, one of the matches you’re currently playing is waiting for your input. For longer sessions, by the time you’ve made your move in several matches, it’s probably your turn again in one of them.
Indeed, Pocket Heroes utilizes this feature, but its usefulness is crippled by two fundamental factors. First, players can only start games with friends, either through email or Game Center. That’s fine in theory: it’s always more fun to play against people you know than randoms, anyway. But it assumes that enough of your friends are into Pocket Heroes that you’ll always have someone to play with. That may be true for some, but many will not be able to nag their friends into playing. Random match-making is fundamental for async games, and while it has been promised in an unspecified future update, that essential feature should have been present from launch. Failing that, a single player mode might have been an adequate substitute, to let the Forever Alones stay engaged with the game.
The second problem is one that even random matchmaking wouldn’t solve. The asynchronous system clashes heavily with another element that Pocket Heroes proudly uses to promote itself: a focus on level design. The App Store description demands that players “don’t settle for random dungeon crawls”: the game’s environments are carefully designed to create a satisfying experience. Valuing engaging level design is usually a strong point, but even the best levels become somewhat dull after you go through the same motions four or five times. With every new game comes all the familiar environments, enemy placements, etc, and it soon discourages you from bothering to start over with new teammates.
Randomly-generated environments work in this play style because they offer variety: Words With Friends would be exceedingly dull if you started with the exact same letters every time. Pocket Heroes assumes that randomly-generated levels won’t offer the same satisfaction as developer-designed ones, but the elegance of level design isn’t absent in randomized environment generation, it’s simply transferred: there’s an equally-enjoyable elegance in a system designed to allow randomization to create engaging levels.
Visuals & Audio
Visually, Pocket Heroes is a treat. It captures the spirit of retro 8-bit RPGs perfectly, with detailed pixel representations of characters and environments. Nostalgia is the winning factor here, and there’s really no other visual style that would suit the game quite as well.
This, along with a catchy (albeit repetitive) chiptune-ish soundtrack, gives Pocket Heroes a distinctly classic personality.
Final Comments
Asynchronous gameplay is still a novelty, but it holds promise. The implementation in Pocket Heroes is decent, but plagued with some fundamental issues.
But when you can get into a nice back-and-forth flow with friends, the game works really well. Despite its flaws, Pocket Heroes may capture the hearts of those yearning for an old-school-styled RPG on their iDevice.
This week in history, we travelled to SMASH! Con 2012 and raised all manner of hell. As Nigel Thornberry would say, it was ‘SMASHING!’ That’s not all though, there was also the San Deigo Comic-Con on and we have a bunch of podcasts for you to feed your ears with.
Sony Computer Entertainment came to Comic Con in San Diego with a few upcoming games to show to those who attended. One of these game happens to be Beyond: Two Souls, first announced at E3 last month. First up, Quantic Dream had announced that they have snapped up two more experienced actors in the movie and television industry. These are Kadeem Hardison (known for his role as Dwayne Wayne on A Different World) and Eric Winter (known for his role as Rex Brady on Days Of Our Lives).
Second, there was a panel hosted at the event. David Cage was joined by the star of the game Ellen Page and newly announced actor Kadeen Hardison. Hardison revealed that his role in the game is Cole Freeman, a government agent presumably after Jodie. The panel was recorded and posted on Youtube. You can check out a ten minute recap of the panel below. Beyond: Two Souls will see a release in 2013.
As we’ve previously reported, Gameloft is releasing an open-world Batman game inspired by the highly anticipated film, The Dark Knight Rises on iOS and Android on July 20th. Now, a second teaser trailer has been released, showing off much more gameplay and Christopher Nolan’s trademark presentation. Gameplay appears slightly reminiscent of the recently released The Amazing Spider-Man game, with perhaps some Arkham City influence? One interesting thing to point out is the game appears it will feature the Batcycle as a playable feature. However, no footage of Catwoman or Bane is to be seen. Will they be in the game? Let’s hope so!
The Dark Knight Rises will be available on iOS and Android July 20th.
