When you think of videogames and sports, EA and 2K are usually the first publishers to come to mind. During the busiest week in gaming, Majesco have announced that they plan to change that as the publisher is teaming with the NBA to bring about an original basketball game in 2012.
“Majesco consumers are interested in branded gameplay, and we are excited to be teaming with a global brand like the NBA, to develop a unique and fun gaming experience,”said Jesse Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, Majesco.
Not a whole lot is known at the moment about Majesco’s new step in the genre except that the new NBA title will utilize “motion-based gaming technology” and will be “unlike most traditional sports video games”. In my opinion sports titles need something different, and even though we know nothing about what will come of this at the moment, Majesco’s final product will certainly be one to keep an eye on.
If you subscribe to the Atlus Newsletter you got some interesting news in your inbox. SNK’s King of Fighter series is back and is coming to a Xbox 360 or PS3 near you with King of Fighters XIII. This time it won’t be published by SNK it will be published by Atlus. KOFXIII promises to bring enhanced gameplay by having faster gameplay, new moves, and a “NEOMAX” supers. There will be over 30 characters to choose from including fan favorites such as K, Mai, Yuri, King, and so on.
Also according to the newsletter there will be a revamped online mode for KOFXIII that promises much more superior and smoother fights. Which in KOFXII was a huge issue also the game lacked in any real game modes. Hopefully with Atlus as a publisher maybe King of Fighters XIII can reclaim that title. King of Fighters XIII is set to be released this holiday season.
With an eleven year history between Nintendo and Tekken, it’s not a surprise that Namco Bandai have signed on to develop two new Tekken titles, one for the 3DS and one for the yet to be released Wii U. Tekken for the 3DS will continue the history of Tekken and Nintendo portable gaming that started with the Gameboy Advanced in 2001, bringing the famous King of Iron Fist to gamers in all it’s three-dimensional glory. Tekken for Wii U will be the first Tekken game ever release on a Nintendo home console. The game will take full advantage of the consoles cutting-edge technology to deliver a new and unique fighting game.
Join a plethora of Capsule Computers Editors and Contributors in a video journey across the Microsoft E3 Press Conference 2011.
Listen on as LinkageAX, Mick Irving, Dustin, Alexis, Kyle, Matt Vella, Michael Marr AKA Spike and Luke commentate on the epic event and give various insights and impressions on what is being shown. Join in on all the jokes, predictions as well as seeing the video of the conference for your enjoyment. The video does a much better job of explaining what is than what I can do in this article, so be sure to watch! Even if you watched the conference already, this is an amazing companion to the show.
Skip to 13mins if you want to get right into the conference. The first 12:59 is pre-show chatter.
PS! – Matt sounds like a preacher “I believe [..]”; Heh Heh.
At E3 today we were giving a VIP look into Battlefield 3 by EA. At first we were shown some new changes to the game’s online classes. Such as the fact that the game’s assault class is also the game’s medic class. As Karl-Magnus Troedsso, the CEO of D.I.C.E. said, the people who need medics the most are those fighting on the front lines. Also seeing a new change was the engineer as he has been given flashlight that helps players see in dark areas, and this was all the more prevalent in the demo we played shortly after. The scout class has also been changed, with more skill needed to perform sniper shots with ease, players will now be able to hold their breath to steady their aim and deal death from a distance. No class has seen more change than the support class however.
The support class can do much more than supply ammo. Now with their heavy machine gun they can place down the tripod on their gun which makes the accuracy improve greatly. Also their support can come in more than one way, as their heavy machine gunfire can now cause enemies to be suppressed. This causes the opposing players screen to become blurry and will remain this way as long as they are being fired upon. All classes can perform suppressing fire but support classes excel in this new ability.
After this short speech we were given our hands on demo of Battlefield 3 on the PC. I chose to play as the newly upgraded support class and the rest of the VIP members chose their own classes and we set forth against the opposing team. We were told that we were facing the QA team (quality assurance) and that we had to take down two objectives in four different areas, and once the fourth area was destroyed we would win.
The support class’ updates have definitely created a force to be reckoned with. I was able to mount the gun in a number of positions, either behind cover or on the ground itself and the accuracy of the deadly heavy machine gun tore apart the enemies that were trying to prevent the rest of the team from destroying our objectives.
After we made it past the first area, we entered the subway where we saw that the engineer’s flashlight was something that really wasn’t very necessary as the tunnel was not dark enough to need an extra source of light. I was given experience points for placing suppressing fire on enemies and this experience was called Suppressive Fire Support, which means that it is certainly a viable option to play as a support class most of the time and be able to level up regularly.
The game played rather flawlessly on the PCs that EA had set up for us, though one time when I was entering a building in the final area, the game began to lag badly, though I was assured that this was a problem with the PC that I was playing on and not the game itself. After we managed to destroy the final objective we were given a congratulatory applause from Mr Troedsso and we were finished with our experience with Battlefield 3. Battlefield 3 will be released sometime in Fall of this year for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Aliens are the perfect video game enemy: numerous, terrifying, dangerous and satisfying to kill. After releasing a teaser trailer last week, Sega have finally revealed a few more details and some screenshots of the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines.
I remember hearing about the game a few years ago, and was disappointed to learn later that had been cancelled. Now thankfully it’s back on track, and it’s due on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in spring (March/April/May) 2012. It also featured heavily in Nintendo’s third-party lineup for their new console, but publisher Sega and developer Gearbox are yet to confirm.
Sega released a statement that says the game is “being prototyped and considered for the Nintendo Wii U,” so its appearance isn’t a sure thing just yet. But surely, if Nintendo were confident enough to give it so much airtime during their press conference, talks must be leaning towards a Wii U release.
Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox, said they were “honored to be a part of the earliest efforts for research and development on the platform, with the Aliens: Colonial Marines project that is so perfectly matched with the platform’s unique and exciting new capabilities.” It would be interesting to see what changes would be made to the game to take advantage of these capabilities.
Regardless, more details for the game on existing platforms have been announced. Colonial Marines will feature four-player co-op, allowing players to drop in and out, and appears to have a survival-horror slant. I’m picturing Left 4 Dead style gameplay, with aliens, and I’m excited.
The game is being likened to a sequel of the second film, with weapons, locations and themes reminiscent of that. Classic weapons like the pulse rifle and flamethrower will return, as will the iconic motion detector, with that rising beeping sound that strikes terror into your heart. The game will take place on LV-426, Hadley’s Hope and the USS Sulaco, from the first and second films.
The images are beautiful, the environments and objects are straight out of the films, and the aliens look more terrifying and powerful than ever.
F1 2011, the sequel to the BAFTA winning FORMULA ONE from Codemasters, is coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, PS Vita and 3DS. With a new focus on multiplayer gaming, including co-op Championships and split-screen mode F1 2011 features a range of innovations, improvements and enhancements on and off the track. Set during the 2011 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, F1 2011 features two new circuits in India and Germany, new drivers, rules, tyres as Sebastian Vettel seeks to defend his title.
F1 2011 builds on the multiplayer options from F1 2010. Split-screen racing is included for the first time in a high-definition FORMULA ONE title. Competitive online racing is extended with 16 players going head-to-head in GRAND PRIX™ with up to 8 AI drivers added to simulate the full grid of 24 drivers. A new co-op Championship enables two players to lead their favourite FORMULA ONE team to Driver and Constructor glory across the course of a FORMULA ONE season. These enhancements come with additional quick fire modes including Time Attack.
F1 2011 is due for release on September 22 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. Portable editions are to follow.
No longer will you need a memory unit to cart your profile or save games to a friends house to play. Buried in a recap email after their big E3 hooplah for some random, bizarre reason, Microsoft let us in on “Cloud Storage for Game Saves and LIVE Profiles”. Why they didn’t have this front and center during their press event is beyond me as it’s certainly pretty exciting. Xbox’s Marc Whitten stated, “We are making it easier for you to sign into your Xbox LIVE account from any console at any time to access your game saves and full profile, including items such as Microsoft Points to make purchases, Achievements and friends. Cloud storage will allow you to enjoy the same great Xbox LIVE gaming experience even when you’re not in your own living room by giving you the option to store your “game saves” securely in the Xbox LIVE cloud instead of on a portable memory unit or your console’s hard drive.”
No details whether this will be for Gold members or any finer details on the service were given.
Microsoft is making a new game announcement for Xbox LIVE every single day this week for E3. Today RedLynx and Microsoft Game Studios are letting us in on their upcoming title, Trials Evolution. A sequel to last years Xbox LIVE hit, Trials HD which was a huge success during Microsoft’s 2009 Xbox LIVE Summer of Arcade campaign, Trials Evolution will expand with all new challenges, huge outdoor environments, a level editor which lets you share your creations over LIVE for endless replay ability and four-player multiplayer via Xbox LIVE. Trials HD was tons of fun, and I’m really looking forward to hopping back into some motocross obstacle course action.
Trials Evolution is due for arrival on Xbox LIVE later this year.
Today at E3 I was invited backstage at Bethesda’s booth for an in-depth demo of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The demo lasted for forty minutes and it showcased many new features that the teams at Bethesda have implemented in the latest entry to the Elder Scrolls series. Read below for my summary and analysis of the title.
The demo was shown on the Xbox 360 and the developer walking through the demo told us that Skyrim has been in development for three years. Skyrim will be using the creation gameplay engine and Havok. The developer used a Nord class that was level 34 and had maximized health so unfortunately actual damage received by enemies wasn’t shown during the demo.
We were shown the various visual improvements that Bethesda has made in Skyrim, this includes fully textured rock faces that look as realistic as actual cliff faces, various plants and ingredients that can be harvested look much more impressive, players can often view mountains in the distance that will not appear as simple gray blobs in the shape of mountains, but will be able to see all the details of the mountain even at a greater distance. This was further emphasized when we were shown a river that had fish swimming along the water and jumping up a small waterfall.
Rather than being born under a sign in Skyrim, players will be able to choose a Birthstone which will provide various statistical enhancements to their character. Combat has also evolved with a kill cam feature which will slow down the world around the player as they finish off an enemy in third person view through an elaborate finishing move.
Other than the finishing moves, players now have the ability to equip two one handed weapons at the same time, or mix and match with various combinations of magic, magic and weapons, or a sword and shield. If the player uses the same magic spell in both hands however they will be able to create a stronger version of the spell by holding down both triggers at the same time, and releasing towards their enemy in a wave of devastation.
The visual enhancements of Skyrim show themselves again when it comes to magic, as the developer showed me that certain spells will allow players to shoot a continuous fire or frost stream. Further magical enhancements were shown in the game’s Glyph system which allows players to create Glyphs on the ground which act as traps to enemies, causing the spell’s effect to go off only when an enemy steps on them.
After fighting a few enemies we found ourselves in one of the towns of Skyrim and we were introduced to the new way players will be interacting with characters. No longer will time freeze the instant you talk to a character in game, instead everything in the world will continue on as usual and time will pass as if you were walking around normally.
After we were shown the new dialogue system we were shown the enhancements to the inventory system. All items in the players inventory will be able to be viewed as complete 3D models, allowing full examination from every angle that you would like. Also mentioned is that cooking has been implemented as we were shown raw salmon meat, and then cooked salmon meat that had better values. Exactly how cooking will be done was not shown, but it was mentioned that players will be able to do so.
After leaving town the developer showed that players’ skill menu will show them looking up into the heavens as they view their skill levels. There will be no minor or major skills this time around, as the developer stated that all skill growth will count towards leveling up. Players can customize their character’s skills further by selecting a skill such as “Blocking” and unlocking further skills inside of the Blocking skill tree, such as a shield bash and more.
The Shout system was also demonstrated throughout the demo. These shouts will provide players an ability that is unique only to their playable character and can be unlocked through various ways. Players can find word walls hidden in any of the game’s 150 dungeons and these word walls can unlock new Dragon Shouts that the player can use. Many of these Shouts are used for destructive purposes, such as Dragon Breath that spews out a flaming ball fire, a storm shout which summons a powerful storm that causes lightning bolts to strike your foes. There are also shouts which allow the player to dash through traps or closer to far away enemies and shouts that can freeze time that were shown through demo gameplay.
The other way to unlock shouts is defeating dragons and absorbing their souls. Defeating a dragon won’t be as easy as fighting any other opponent however because, according to the developer, the dragons in Sykrim have a separate AI designed especially for them. Dragons will react differently to various attacks each time you face them, and they are completely non-scripted meaning at any time you can come under attack from one of them, even if it means that the dragon will your current opponent just to take you on.
The developer was in combat with a Giant and was enduring a losing battle to its club when a dragon swooped out of nowhere and grabbed the giant in its claws, throwing it into the air and killing it. These dragons aren’t invulnerable however and once you do enough damage to them they will no longer be able to fly. They will crash down into the ground in a spectacular scene leaving a dirt trail as well as an impression in the ground where they came to a stop. Then once they are on the ground, players will be able to finish them off however they like; or in the developers case, an axe to the back of the skull.
Many new features were shown off in today’s demo and each of these new additions is certainly welcome to the series. Attacking a dragon in mid-air seemed to be a bit sketchy still however, as attacks that looked like they had hit cleanly, sailed right through the dragon without causing much damage. We’ll be having more coverage of Skyrim and many more E3 impressions in the days ahead!
