With last week’s official launch of the Global Link, the competitive spirit is in the air yet again for Pokémon fans everywhere and now those worthy will be able to put their star players to good use with the upcoming 2011 Pokémon Video Game Championships. The Pokémon Company International released some new details for the events which will be hitting Europe and the U.S. starting in May and wrapping up this August.
Here is a complete rundown on what you need to know if you are an interested trainer wanting to participate:
The 2011 Pokémon Video Game National Championships kicks off in Europe on June 4 in Birmingham, UK before heading to Italy for the first time ever, Spain, France and finally Germany. The top eight finalists in each division from each of the five European locations will earn guaranteed competitor slots at the 2011 Pokémon World Championships. In addition to invitations to the World Championships in San Diego, top finishers in Europe and in the U.S. will receive travel allowances, special medals and Pokémon prizes.
The 2011 Pokémon Video Game Championship Series kicks off in the U.S. on May 14th in Seattle, Washington, before making five more stops in major cities across the country. At each location, the top 16 players from each division will earn invitations to compete at the 2011 Pokémon U.S. National Championships July 8th-10th in Indianapolis, Indiana. Players at the National Championships will battle to secure a top eight finish over the weekend, and in return, receive a guaranteed competitor slot at the 2011 Pokémon World Championships.
“We’re looking forward to a fun, competitive Pokémon Video Game Championships Series this year,” said J.C. Smith, director of Consumer Marketing for The Pokémon Company International. “The excitement generated from the recent launch of the Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version video games will make for a memorable and intriguing tournament season.”
For Europe, 2011 brings an increase in the overall number of competitor slots, along with a new age division and revised age brackets. The divisions now separate into three age categories: Junior (players born in 2000 or later), Senior (players born in 1996, 1997, 1998, or 1999), and Masters (players born in 1995 or earlier). Competitor slots have been increased this year to 256 for the Junior division, 256 for the Senior division, and 512 for the Masters division. All are based on a first come, first served basis. Players competing in Europe will need to play the European versions of Pokémon Black Version or Pokémon White Version video games, and can only use Pokémon from the Unova Pokédex to battle (from No. 001–148, and No.151).
Official Dates are as follows:
Europe
June 4th, Birmingham, United Kingdom— National Exhibition Centre, Hall 8
June 11th, Rome, Italy— Fiera Roma, Hall 12, Ingresso Nord
June 18th, Madrid, Spain— IFEMA, Hall 1, Feria de Madrid
June 25th, Paris, France— Espace Grande Arche, Parvis de La Défense
July 2nd , Cologne, Germany— EXPO XXI Köln GmbH, Gladbacher Wall 5
U.S.A.
May 14th, Seattle, WA— Washington State Convention Center, Hall 4B
May 21st, San Jose, CA — San Jose Convention Center, Exhibit Hall 2
May 28th, Dallas, TX— Arlington Convention Center, Grand Hall
June 4th, Atlanta, GA— Gwinnett Center, Hall A and B
June 11th, Washington, D.C.— Dulles Expo Center, South Hall
June 18th, Newark, NJ— Meadowlands Exposition Center
The official Championships will wrap up in San Diego, CA from August 12th-14th.
After all these years, it is great to see the Championships still running and if any Pokémon players out there are reading this, now is your chance to test your training skills and get in on some of the awesome prizes while your at it. For more information about the 2011 Pokémon Video Game Championships, check out the official site at www.pokemon.co.uk.
Developer: Futurlab
Publisher: EA
Platform: iPhone/iPod Touch
Genre: Puzzle
Release: 14th April 2011
Price: 99 cents US (BUY NOW)
Spring has just arrived here in the northern hemisphere which means the snow is melting and the temperature is rising. Then right before you know it Summer will be here which means everyone will want to head to the beach and have a good time. There are many dangers though you should be aware of and I’m not talking just about sunburns, shark attacks, and accidentely going to the nudie beach and seeing someone’s grandmother rocking out in her birthday suit. Oh the horror! However the most dangerous thing to look out for is coconuts, thats right coconuts while they may have delicious milk inside they will fall and crack you in the noggin.
Coconut Dodge for the iPhone puts you in a situation where your fighting for your life against some very evil coconuts who are out to kill you. While this game might seem quite simple and for some there is fun to be had however I believe its a training exercise in self defense. Is this game any good or is it just a wash? Find out in this review.
Story
The game takes place on a nice and sunny beach and your just a crab who seems to be minding his own business and coconuts just fall from the sky and you got to dodge them to save your life. So there really isn’t a story to speak of, which means if you want to know why all these coconuts want to crush our friendly crustacean then it would be up to you to make up your own story. I believe the crab’s name is Robert and after a horrific accident they had to replace his legs with bionic ones and he has to travel back in time to fight the evil coconut army and raise enough money to pay for his mother’s surgery for her life threatening illness by picking up random gold pieces and diamonds people drop. I hope if EA makes a sequel that they take this idea and make Coconut Dodge 2: Revenge of Robert. EA your welcome.
Graphics
If you love the beach and anything to do with it you will love the look of Coconut Dodge. The animation for the crab is really nice also the coconuts and collectible objects in the game look really cartoony and bright. One of the nicest things about looking at Coconut Dodge is the beach background that you play on is very dynamic and not some cheap static background slapped on. You can see a shark fin out in the ocean, clouds breezing by, and the ocean sparkling to name a few. For what it is Coconut Dodge looks great my only gripe is that there isn’t more backdrops to play on. Robert… I mean the crab can’t go on the boardwalk, or fight for his life in the kitchen, or even a different looking beach would have been nice. Games like Angry Birds had different backdrops as well as different characters to play as that added variety and keeps your interest. Coconut Dodge looks nice but you may get tired of looking at the same old background and same old objects over and over again.
Audio
Coconut Dodge in the audio department is kind of a mixed bag. As far as audio goes the sound effects in this game fit really well with the cartoon aesthetic but arn’t anything that amazing. Some of the better sound effects come from when you bust a beach ball and you hear the pop and then it makes a sparkle sound when you get points for it or when your crab gets hit in the head by the coconut you hear it crack and what sounds like a studio audience sigh in disappointment as if to say its your fault for hurting this poor animal. Most of these are in place just to make sure you know your grabbing the goodies and let you know when you make a bad move. What is really depressing is that there is only one song and it loops over and over again. The main menu though has a different song but thats the only time you get to hear it. I know this is a game that is only a dollar but even a couple of extra ones would have been nice. The song you hear isn’t bad it just gets tiresome, but there is always the volume button to turn it down if you get tired of it.
Gameplay
All is not lost for this game as the gameplay is its saving grace. You basically dodge coconuts that try to kill you while collecting anything valuable such as gold blocks, diamonds, and golden anchors to get points. Gaining more points is easy as you can bounce some beach balls and even get a viking helmet and get back at your evil coconut oppressors all the while gaining points. In Coconut Dodge you advance into various stages the further you go the more challenging it becomes. This can be the most addicting part to the game. These coconuts don’t just always randomly fall no they sometimes form maze like walls where you have to quickly weave in and out of harms way. Also the game has no problem with throwing the more tempting higher point value items in more dangerous spots in an attempt to lead you way from any safe patterns you devise.
All that shimmers on the beach isn’t gold though as if you lose all three of your lives you have to start all over and if you have nothing but spare time at home then its not a big deal however if your killing time on lunch or taking a ride to work you don’t want to have to go all the way though that again. It could have been split up in a separate mode for those who are hardcore about it but for the rest who rather not deal with doing that through out the many stages which kills any motivation to try to complete the game. Also there is some extra modes for you to play however I was unable to unlock any of the others and I’m not for sure how to do it. The game makes no mention on how to unlock them so I don’t know if I need a certain score or even a certain stage. There is one extra mode ready at the get go and that is Maze Master, in this mode you are trying to get as many points as possible before you make it to the end of the maze. Its basically a quick fix if you don’t want to hop into the main game. Now I know I have sounded really hard on the game but there is good in it however be warned it can be addicting to some or really repetitive for others.
Conclusion
Coconut Dodge is a fun and simple little game that is good to play on the go. The enjoyment you can get out of the game may vary. It just needs a little bit more to keep the attention of some because it lacks variety in most of the important areas. If Coconut Dodge just added a little more to the settings and made it easier for those short burst of gameplay then it would be a hit. I still recommend that everyone at least play this game and 99 cents isn’t that much and its worth it whether you play this for 30 min or you play it for the next few weeks.
I honestly don’t know why I am reminding any of you that Mortal Kombat is now available as of today (April 19th) in the states as I am sure many know by now, but just in case, this reminder cannot be pressed enough for those of you holding out on one of the best titles in the series to come along in many years. I attended the standard midnight event in my small town and ever since I hit the door home I have been knee deep in the game and I am really surprised of just how much “kontent” that is packed on the disc.
For long-time MK fans, the story is a true blast of fan service and should take many of you straight into the mythology that makes the series special. Of course the fatalities are awesome as well, even though I have been getting more used on myself than what I am actually using on my opponents. A jam packed roster and the stunning new X-ray moves as well as the King of the Hill online mode also add to the incentive of a purchase, so get out there if you are a fan and support this title all the way and even if you are new to the series by chance, this reboot of the series is a fine place to start as the simple control scheme makes it easy to pick up and play. Our review for Mortal Kombat is coming soon in which we will elaborate a lot more on everything in the game, so stay tuned for that.
I do want to say with all my excitement I should all now offer a bit of condolences to our Australian fans as they have been prohibited from even importing Mortal Kombat due to the completely ludicrous rating system in place that has banned the game from hitting shelves. Our petition is still available for signing and you voice can still be heard, no matter what country you live in. You can add you signature to the petition HERE.
Pilotwings Resort Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Price: $63AU (Fishpond) / $40 US (Amazon) Genre: Sports/Simulation
Overview
Pilotwings resort is a game that allows players to fly across an island, completing challenges and taking in a fair few amazing sights, all rendered in immersive 3D utilising the 3DS’ 3D capabilities.
Story
Pilotwings Resort takes place on Wahu island where players are tasked with completing various challenges across the resort island in pursuit of entertainment. Or at least, that’s what I would peg the storyline as, considering the game doesn’t actually have a storyline at all. Though, it isn’t the kind of game to require one. I feel as though it’s the kind of game where you make your own story as you’re gliding along and taking photos of the scenery.
“Hey there [playername], what’re you playing?”
“Oh Scarlette, it’s you. I’m playing Pilotwings Resort.”
“Sounds boring.”
“See that volcano there?”
“No not really…”
“I once flew a jet plane down it and into the lava.”
“I don’t think we should be friends any more.”
Gameplay
The gameplay in pilotwings resort is basic in its scheme, but also hard to master. You slide the circlepad to steer/veer and you use the corresponding buttons to do whatever is needed for that vehicle. For instance, an aeroplane will go forwards automatically, but by hitting A you can utilise the boost function.
When beginning a game in Pilotwings resort, you will be presented with a file select screen. Here you select an empty file and go on to be greeted to the resort by an administraotr at the ‘Wuhu Sky Club’. After being greeted, a player will select their Mii that will be their playable avatar, as well in put a signature for file associative purposes. A lot of this is done on the touch screen, which is a nice inclusion considering that this is one of the few titles to have touch-screen support at the moment.
All the game menu’s are accessed using the touch-screen and from the get-go you will have access to all game modes with the exception of ‘Dioramas”. Dioramas is unlocked as you go through the games “Mission Mode”. All up, the modes are: “Mission Mode”, “Free Flight Mode”, “Dioramas”, “Options” and “Member Card”.
The Member Card mode allows you to view your files membership card to Wuhu island. It keeps track of your Mii and other kinds of play data, such as flight time, stars awarded and your total points. Other than for the purposes of admiring your own work, or bragging to friends, I don’t really see much use for this feature. Though it is definitely something that I enjoy poking at from time to time, so it shouldn’t be removed or anything.
Options mode is your standard games option feature allows you to mess with the games audio as well as other options, such as inverted flight controls, rocket pack camera and the in-game map.
Floating through the air on a hang glider.
Dioramas in Diorama mode are unlocked through completing certain objectives in the free-flight mode of the game. These involve going through information rings, completing trick rings and the like.
Free Flight mode is a mode that allows you to fly freely over the island for a limited time. And by limited, I mean very limited as you only get two minutes to fly around the island and take in the sights. The main appeal of free flight mode is that it allows you to unlock dioramas in the diorama mode. Across the island are various points of interest that will have an information ring above them. There are also trick rings, which involve you completing a trick inside them in order to collect them. Both types of rings accumulate over each play through, so it isn’t necessary to collect them all once, which is a relief because at two minutes of flight time, it’d be quite difficult to accomplish.
Mission mode is the bulk of the game. This is where you have differing tiers of difficulty and you must advance from the lower tiers to gain access to the higher ones. Each tier has it’s own challenges for each vehicle type, so plane, rocket belt and hanglider. The challenges can vary from incredibly easy to as tough as nails. I mainly found this to be the case with the rocket belt as it’s physics seemed to be slighty wrong. It felt a bit too floaty, like, there was too much inertia and not enough friction, you would just float outwards and it always seemed to be a bit further than you intended… expecially when you were using the lighter thruster. The missions generally involve flying through rings (or do tricks through), collecting capsules and landing successfully on a landing platform or in a landing strip. With the rocket belt, there are also refuelling platforms in some of the challenges.
At the end of a challenge, players are rewarded with a score and are presented with stars depending on how well they completed the challenge. The stars are used in unlocking the next difficulty tier and the score is a measure of how many stars you will attain (you can check the score requirements in the mission menu). Though, for some reason, I’ve found that when I’ve done worse at the challenge I seem to get a better score then when I try to complete them properly. I think that time plays a fairly large role in the final score of some events. When I say that I did worse, I mean that I forgot a ring somewhere, not that I did abysmally, so maybe there was some kind of trade-off that worked in my favour?
Graphics
Pilotwings Resort boasts incredible graphics.
The visual style is very similar to Mii related games that Nintendo has released in the past on it’s other consoles (mainly the Wii), games such as Wii Sports Resort. This simplistic style allows for more colourful and clearer renderings of the Mii characters, as well as the island and the vehicles.
Graphically Pilotwings Resort is superior to all 3DS games on the market at the time of writing and it is also the most colourful. It’s hard to put into words how impressed I was with the game graphically; I hope that Nintendo continues to release games of this fidelity or higher in the future as it is just so pleasant on the eyes that it’s really hard to fault.
Do the pretty.
Though, there was one thing I was disappointed with slightly and that was the inclusion of Mii’s. I understand why they’re in the game, and of course it’s easier to connect with ones own Mii than it is to a whole new character, but as someone who has played the previous Pilotwings games, not having those previous characters feels a little strange. Though, it has no bearing on gameplay, it just would have been nice to see past characters rendered in this new graphical foundation.
Visually I am quite impressed by this title. I only wish that free-flight mode was longer than two minutes in length so that I could explore the island properly and take in all the pretty sights. For some reason, whenever I do a mission, I always try to complete the mission… but I could probably do it in one of those. The only thing that I can really fault graphically is the 3D. I’m not sure if it’s my eyes or the 3D rendering of the game, but at 100% 3D it was too difficult to create a fully 3D image, it would just become two slightly different images. Though any percentage below that worked fine.
Sound
Pilotwings resort is more relaxation than menace, and it shows in the games soundtrack and audio.
The soundtrack / background music is not of a pacing that I would ever have considered myself to be into, but when coupled with the gameplay, it fits so perfectly that you can’t help but sit back and feel relaxed while enjoying the sounds projecting from your devices speakers. The background ambiance of birds chirping and waves crashing against the island only continue to add to the superb background score and help shape the feel of the island in the players mind.
The game sounds prettier than this scene looks. Which is incredibly hard to do.
Each vehicle has their own sounds which makes them even more unique. This is even true for the jet plane and the sea plane. The sounds are so fitting that I felt that I could actually maybe be piloting one of these vehicles myself, sometimes. However, the rocket belt is horrible and regardless of how well it sounded, in my personal opinion, it should have its physics reworked (it’s really not that bad, I just can’t get used to it… it’s more a case of the gamer than the game).
In summary; sounds = awesome.
Overall
Pilotwings Resort is an awesome title for an awesome device. It allows players to become a pilot of various flying devices and to complete a vast array of fun and challenging challenges around the Island of Wahu. The game is graphically solid and hard to fault. It also features a beautiful audio track that helps to immerse and also relax players (especially on those later challenges which can be a pain).
Nordic Games has announced the tracklist for We Dance, with 40 tracks available from launch day.
There’s hits from different time periods and genres, so there should be something to interest everyone. While some are difficult to picture yourself dancing to, hopefully the developers come up clean with well-organised routines that are fun to dance to using the three styles of play – using the Wii Remote, using the dance mat accessory such as Nordic Games’ “Star Mat” or a combination of both.
Supporting up to four players dancing simultaneously, the game also features warm-up sessions, mini-games, jukebox mode, tutorials and performance statistics and will release sometime later this year in the third quarter.
CD Projekt, the developers of the highly anticipated RPG ‘The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings’ recently held a keynote presentation at CD Projekt Spring Conference last Thursday. The event was live stremed via the internet and showcased many of the game’s new features and gameplay. Right now there are probably some people kicking themselves for missing it. Lucky, the full video presentation, complete with a gameplay demo of the The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings is now available from CD Projekt official website.
With the release of The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings now less than a month away, CD Projekt has also been kind enough to through up a FAQ to answer several questions that I’m sure many fan have bombarding them with.
The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings will be released exclusively for the PC on May 17th
THE WITCHER 2 FAQ UPDATE – APRIL 2011
WHAT DRM WILL THE WITCHER 2 HAVE?
The primary reason for including copy protection with internet activation is to address the biggest concern of our publishing and distribution partners, which is potential piracy before release. To do so, we must implement at least a minimal form of protection.
The Witcher 2 will be delivered to external manufacturing plants weeks before release. It is virtually impossible to guarantee absolute security for this entire time. Any leak of the code can gravely compromise the commercialization of the game, and we want to be sure that the first people to play it will be the fans and customers who are waiting for their official copies. That’s why, together with our publishing and distributing partners, we decided to use copy protection. The Digital Premium Edition available from GOG.com will be the sole exception. Since it is our sister company, located in the same building, we are completely confident the code will be absolutely secure.
As a company and also as gamers ourselves, we’d like to stress that we are against any kind of copy protection that might affect the game experience or limit the usability of legally purchased copies. For this reason, we decided to implement a custom version that is the lightest and least intrusive possible. During installation, it will be necessary to connect to the Internet one time – but NEVER while playing. Similarly, the only time you need to have the disks in your drive is during installation.
While we are aware of some players’ associations with the SecuROM technology, the server infrastructure of its provider, SONY, gives us the highest level of confidence that registering legal copies will be problem-free. Every legal copy can be played on up to five machines at a time. What’s more, registrations can be revoked at any time; in effect, The Witcher 2 can be installed on unlimited number of machines. It will also be possible to make backups. Furthermore, we will make every effort to cooperate with our publishing and distribution partners to remove the DRM in a postrelease update.
WHY SHOULD I REGISTER MY COPY?
Registration of legally purchased copies is completely optional. To make the process as user-friendly as possible, the same key is used for both installation and registration. Anyone who chooses to register will receive various bonuses (English and Polish language packs, free future DLC and more), and additional promotional materials such as bonus songs. Registered users will also receive automatic notifications of updates via the game launcher. In addition, this will be the only way to update the product – patches will not be available as separate files, making it impossible to update illegal copies of the game in this manner.
WHY AND HOW SHOULD I USE MY SAVEGAMES FROM THE WITCHER?
The Witcher 2 will provide a complete story and game experience. It is not necessary to have played the original. As a bonus, those who did will have the option of importing their saved games. The opening of The Witcher 2 is, however, the same for everyone. Events and decisions from imported saves may be reflected later on, but only in ways that can happen anyway. If The Witcher is still installed on your hard drive, The Witcher 2 will automatically detect all saves after the last critical choice point, and either suggest the file to import, or allow you to choose from all the possible ones.
Note: The preview build sent at the beginning of April 2011 did not include the full save game system. The release version will let players save at any time PC gamers expect.
WHAT KIND OF PERFORMANCE AND HARDWARE ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
The Witcher 2 is being developed for one platform, the PC. What this basically means, especially together with our proprietary REDengine, is that we take advantage of the most advanced performance hardware. Our game doesn’t compromise its performance, gameplay, the interface or anything else to accommodate other platforms.
The REDengine is built so players with two-core processors and min-spec machines will receive a fully enjoyable experience. Even more importantly, anyone with the recommended 4 cores and/or hyperthreading will see a visible improvement. 6 cores? 8? Cool! The Witcher 2 will make good use of them all. The game will also scale exceptionally well. It has not only low, medium and high graphical settings, but also an ultra detail level… and even an “uber sampling” mode.
Note: The release version of the game will have an advanced graphical settings menu. It will also support the 16:9 aspect ratio and be playable in 16:10 (non-native) as well as 4:3 (letterbox).
WILL THERE BE DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE WITCHER 2?
The Witcher 2 will have the same content worldwide. There will be no regional differences aside from the languages. And no censored versions – so no wondering about importing the game, nudity patches, etc.
Attention: Microsoft is calling all couch dwellers to emerge from your cacoon and work up a sweat in their 100m dash Guinness World Record attempt. Join potentially millions of players on April 28th as they login to Xbox Live and help Microsoft achieve this amazing feat.
To participate just follow these 3 very simple steps
1. Logon to your account and locate the Xbox Nations Dash. Download the Guinness gamer pic
2. Load up Kinect Sports, the choose 100m dash from the mini games and select your players
3. At 18:00 run the race as usual with up to 4 other competitors
For their participation, players will receive an exclusive Xbox LIVE and Guinness World record t-shirt
Microsoft have managed to get infamous (I’m Australian) English cricketer Graeme Swann, Olympic medallists Amy Williams and Louis Smith as well as table tennis legend Darius Knight who holds the record, on board hoping for a large response from Xbox Live players. During the week leading up to the race, a multitude of other “Play and Win” Prizes will be up for grabs including the chance to meet and train with boxer Amir Khan, 2 tickets to a premier league soccer game, clothes, Microsoft points and Zune passes.
The event is part of part of Xbox Nations, a free Live weekend offering those who don’t have a Gold membership a chance to try out its features for free from the 21st through to 25th April. Players will be offered free access to gaming and social networks as well as massive discounts (50%), on many games and add-ons. Apparently Sega’s range of classic games will be made available at a very low price to those who participate.
So jump online, be part of something big and take advantage of all that’s on offer.
Hunted: The Demon’s Forge looks to be one of the best dungeon crawling experiences that you can look for in today’s Western RPG market and with the revealing of The Crucible it certainly is going to make a mark. inXile Entertainment and Bethesda have released a new trailer which shows how The Crucible system works and how the player can unlock things to use in The Crucible.
Players can create any dungeon of their liking and will have complete control of everything inside of it. If you want to change what enemies will spawn and how many will? That is all at your fingertips. There is even the option tochange how much gravity is in an area. You can then enter your created dungeon with a computer partner, a friend online or even a friend on the same TV. Or of course if you don’t feel like creating a dungeon from scratch you can just have it create one for you. Hunted: The Demon’s Forge comes out on May 31st for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC and is definitely going to be worth a look.
In celebration of the iconic hedgehogs 20th Anniversary ( yes I said 20 and I feel soooo old), Sega America and Europe have released some much anticipated information about their upcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 title, Sonic Generations. The game will appeal to both old school gamers who grew up with 2D classic side scrollers as well as fans of the new 3D Sonic games by melding together both styles of gameplay. Players will be able to relive the feel of the original titles as they take control of the classic 1991 character as well as the faster paced modern day hero he has transformed into, each coming with their own traditional trademark spins and moves. Complete with a new interactive menu, players will unlock their favourite characters and hidden treasures throughout the game.
David Corless, the Global Brand Director for Sonic, comments that “Sonic Generations will certainly be a fitting celebration for Sonic’s 20th Anniversary”, and goes on to say that “By having the classic 1991 Sonic that many fans know and love team up with his modern day incarnation, we are bringing back the nostalgia of the early days of Sonic and combining it with the innovation and stunning HD technology of the modern gaming era. Sonic Generations will bring to life the last twenty years of Sonic’s universe in a truly unique and imaginative way.”
The games premise sees Sonic and his friends battle against an evil mysterious new power that is creating time holes in his universe, pulling him and his allies through into unknown territory.
Just days after a the first showcasing Uncharted 3 multiplayer to only a select group of editors, Naughty Dog have released a flurry of information to the public via the official Playstation blog claiming that the “leap forward in gameplay and technology………….is nothing short of astounding”. A bold claim, but check out the trailer below for a full low down and I’m sure you will also agree that it looks spectacular
On main showcase were the multiplayer levels chateau and airstrip, highlighting the games diverse map design and dynamic ever changing environments. While chateau is a more traditional map, Airstrip actually changes mid-level, as players battle whilst on moving trucks and a cargo plane as well more conventional land base fighting.
Arne Meyer the community strategist for Naughty Dog tells of 2 new competitive modes that have been added to the classic deathmatch. These include Three team deathmatch where 3 teams of 2 battle it out, as well as the much asked for Free for all. Some other key features include Late Join, allowing players to enter tournaments with free slots before they finish, and same console split screen as well as the ability to sign in with multiple PSN accounts.
There is a heavy emphasis on team play, and as such each player will be teamed up with a Buddy with whom they can share progress and collect information and items for each other. Players can also spawn to their buddies location should they be within a safe zone. Another welcome addition is extensive customer and emblem customisation as well as weapon mods that go beyond just being visually appeasing and actually add functionality to the item.
Those familiar with Uncharted 2 will remember the Booster system, which has been modified based on feedback and selection patterns, and extended to include special paid boosters. Players can also choose from multiple kickbacks which are activated by collecting enough relevant medals. There are thousands of customisable options which have been broken down into 4 slots making it easier to configure for each match. Level gain and cash also don’t have as much of an influence in Uncharted 3, as players can now collect treasures throughout the levels and unlock many more items and modifiers through instant and long term mission play. Instant missions pop up during gameplay and are short lived with small rewards. Comparatively longer missions can take days and come with large bonuses.
Meyer explains how a new Power Play system has been implemented adding incentive for both competing teams. The team on top will be given the opportunity to maximise their cash for the round whilst the odds will be evened for the losing team allowing them a chance to come back into the match. Games that are too close to call will go into overtime, and then Sudden Death where only one player will remain standing. There is also a strong social media presence on the game with direct links to YouTube and face book.
Uncharted 3 BETA starts 28th June worldwide or sooner for selected players
