Feeling an itch for a good horror title? Well if so then there is some great news coming your way in a few words. At tonight’s VGA Guillermo Del Toro, director of Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth, announced that he has joined together with THQ to create a new game titled Insane. Danny Bilson from THQ released on his twitter the following regarding the game: “Finally announced inSane! Been workin with GDT for 6 months. Just finished the story beats yesterday. An Horrific Adventure for 2013”
Not much else was released about the game other than a teaser trailer which shows pretty much nothing about the game beyond try to give us a taste of what type of scares we will be seeing in a very vague way. Oh and also the fact that the game will be released in 2013. So while many of the games announced tonight are coming our way in under a year, this one is at least two years away still.
So it looks like all of those different teasers that have been released over the past few weeks all lead up to the announcement tonight at the VGA. BioWare and EA announced that their next blockbuster game will be Mass Effect 3. They also debuted a nice little trailer of Earth being under heavy attack. Wait did I say nice trailer?
As far as the trailer shows the Reapers have made their way to Earth and in little under a week they have decimated most of the defenses and are tearing apart the last of Earth’s defenders. But who is left that can save the world? Well Shepard of course. The narrator himself says “If Shepard doesn’t bring help soon, there won’t be an Earth left to save,” as the trailer pulls out to show Shepard watching the Earth burn.
Mass Effect 3 is set to launch sometime in the holiday season in 2011 so we have around a year to wait for the conclusion to BioWare’s Mass Effect trilogy. Catch the trailer itself below.
Tired of announcement trailers yet? Of course you’re not. Sega were also at the Video Game awards this year and after recenlty revealing more information about their new title, Thor: God of Thunder, the company also debuted the title’s first big trailer. The first bit of good news with this is that the game will NOT use the same story as the movie so playing the game is going to be a completely different experience. The other bit of good news? As of now the game looks like it could make Ironman 2 run home crying to his comic book. The gameplay is looking to be a GOW-esqe type game, but honestly I can’t complain about that as it looks to be a fast paced, action-packed title all the way through based on the trailer.
Thor: God of Thunder also is now slated to release May 3rd, 2011 putting it on store shelves just a few days before the movie hits theaters. So watch the new trailer below and get ready as Thor is ready to slam into consoles in 2011…
They say a large secret is hard to keep under wraps but surprisingly enough Bethesda has managed to keep this one under wraps until they were ready enough to announce it. What a venue they chose too, because at the VGA Bethesda’s Todd Howard announced that the next game they are developing will also be the next addition to the Elder Scrolls series.
Called the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim it looks like it will take place some time after the events of Oblivion, but still be a sequel to that wonderful game. Also can you say dragons? If that isn’t enough to peak your interest how about the fact that the narrator Max Von Sydow delivers an amazing introduction. Plus the game itself has already been set for a release date of November 11th 2011, not even a year away. Don’t take my word for it check out the teaser below!
The VGA’s are honestly becoming almost as interesting as E3 anymore as many developers are using the award show to hype their games for the next year’s release. Prototype 2 has been buzzing for a week or so now since the mysterious “Murder Your Maker” teaser was released, and now Activision officially confirmed the game for 2012 with an awesome new trailer.
While the trailer is only roughly a minute and a half, but it does a somewhat good job of filling everyone in on the story. Prototype 2 puts Sergeant James Allen in pursuit of the first title’s Alex Mercer. Two years may sound like quite a wait, but I am sure there will be plenty of more information leading up until then, so check back for certain as we will bring any more information as it comes out. You can check out the trailer for yourself below.
Unlike the amazingly excellent Arkham Asylum, the teaser trailer from Rocksteady about Arkham City was… um… underwhelming to say the least. Well, as turns out, the best was saved for the Spike Video Game Awards show. This trailer explores the bigger enemy in Batman Arkham City and what happens when a pack of highly trained and heavily armored soldiers try to take down a better trained badass who happens to be very good at taking down said enemies. Look out for the game to hit in 2011. In the meantime, we will be sharing with you more announcements and trailers for next years blockbusters.
Australians looking for quick slap of a stamp on the bill to finally bring R18+ ratings to video games may be disappointed to hear that it will take longer than expected. Don’t give up all hope yet though!
The Australian federal Cabinet did pass a bill that would authorize the sale of R18+ games to adults. According to them, this bill would actually make it so that violent games rated at the MA15+ level would be reclassified for adults only, thus saving the country’s youth from the potential effects that zombie slaying may have on them. We, of course, are more interested in the fact that the R18+ rating would enable gamers that are also FREAKIN’ ADULTS the ability to make their own decisions regarding what really violent game they want to play.
Regardless of how it passes though, the point is that the bill has stalled in the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General meeting. Not all the members could decide on the issue and Federal Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor is looking to bring the vote up again at the next meeting. So, Australia did not get the bill passed. It is still in the works though. No word on when or how the bill will pass. All in all, a bittersweet decision that will hopefully have a good ending.
And so concludes this week’s proceedings. This week’s major release is probably Cave Story, a platformer which people have already drawn links with titles like Mario and the Legend of Zelda. It could be worth checking out. Also arriving this week is Super Bonk, which I can recommend. Althoguh I haven’t played this particular version, I have played one of the Bonk games on GameBoy and it was a decent side-scrolling adventure game. Anyone looking to get an old-school blast from the past may be interested in this.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 Platforms: Xbox 360 (PC,PS3) Publisher: Konami Developer: Konami Genre: Sports Released: Out Now Price: $59.99 US, £39.99 UK, $99.99 AUS
The football console war is one that has been raging on for many years. Just when one game asserts its authority, its opposite number bites back with an innovative new feature or two. I am of course talking about FIFA versus PES. The battle for supremacy favoured PES in the past, although in recent years it has been EA with FIFA who have been leading the way, leaving PES with no option but to follow suit, rather than revolutionise the genre. PES used to be the more realistic game of football, and subsequently was the football-sim of choice for the more dedicated player, but partly due to FIFA’s game coming on leaps and bounds and partly due to the formula of PES becoming stale, PES has come in at a sorry second-place for the past couple of years. That said, after last year’s dramatic improvements, FIFA didn’t bring much new to the table this year, presenting a prime opportunity for PES to catch up and maybe even overtake, but how did it fare?
Although at a glance it would be a fair assumption, it would be unfair to say PES 2011 is indifferent to previous iterations of recent years. Despite the fairly standard proposed developments for this year’s game (little more than a new passing system and a ‘motion-blur’ effect for a viewing experience just like that of a real-life game of football) in actual fact, the game’s progression has been much more substantial this year. Where the last couple of titles disappointed, the developers have taken note and created a better game of football as a result.
Konami has finally taken a sizeable step in the right direction here. Take for example the pacing of the matches, an instantly noticeable improvement. It seems someone was listening to the complaints of players of the series, as the match action has been slowed to a much more realistic pace, providing enough energy to let aspects like momentum come into play, while still allowing you to be more tactical in your approach at other times. Not only can you launch a relentless attack and have the opposing defence on the ropes for an age until you finally slot one in, but also you can decide, at times, to slow the play down and approach victory from a different direction if your original strategy isn’t working quite as well as you might have planned.
Other changes on the pitch further improve on the nuances of the past, sorting out little niggles. While graphics-wise it is still behind its rival, there is no doubt about it that the presentation of the game has been glossed up, with menu screens looking a bit more polished and less of a gimmick, and player character models looking more realistic, albeit only slightly. The character animation is still a little robotic in nature, with repetitive, and also occasionally buggy, sequences re-enacted in response to events that just happened in the game. The aforementioned passing system isn’t as shallow as it might sound. On the contrary, it mixes the game up having a power bar for passing as well as shooting, meaning that no longer can you aimlessly press A, safe in the knowledge that the ball will flow fluidly through each players feet. Manual passing control means that you have to know where you are trying to pass the ball to, instead of just hoping for the best but secretly knowing it will end up at your team-mate’s feet. If you do this in PES 2011 you will find yourself giving away possession very cheaply, and it is this new addition which adds an unprecedented level of depth to passing in a football game.
The game also features a noticeable differentiation between difficulty settings, which is great. You can feel your gradual skill progression until eventually you realise you are beating opposition you were struggling on before, signalling it is probably time to put the difficulty settings up a notch. The AI is still iffy in places, although the CPU opponents capabilities are sufficient for a tough match. The main weaknesses in the AI are just when it comes to your own players decision making. For instance, if the ball is right next to one of your players and moving very slowly, but it is intended for another player, he will leave it to be intercepted, no doubt, instead of collecting it so the ball doesn’t go to the opposition. The other downfall of the AI is the goalkeepers, and while I can empathise as this is a difficult position to program, simply because the decisions a real football ‘keeper on a match-by-match basis are the most important and the most frequent of all positions on the pitch, it really isn’t up to scratch. Luckily for Konami, this is something FIFA has yet to sort out either, but unluckily for us, this means, as the AI controls the goalkeeper for the most part, a lot of awful decision making that can lead to the gifting of cheap goals.
From the menu screen there is a fruitful and varied selection of modes, from the well respected ‘Master League’, to various other cups and leagues, online functions, and the unsubtle mimic of FIFA’s ‘Be a Pro’ mode named ‘Become a Legend’. Firstly, ‘Become a Legend’ mode – although it will probably be a mode you play the least due to its disengaging nature (similarly to FIFA’s version) of playing as a lone player as opposed to the whole team. It puzzles me why anyone would favour this over playing as the entire squad; it fails to involve the player and is uneventful on the whole. Also, this copycat gesture comes across as a little desperate, because despite both modes in their respective games being poor, FIFA’s possesses slightly more polish. Conversely, the developers should have tried something more innovative to set it aside from FIFA instead of just resorting to mirroring the opposition’s movements.
Maybe it is the fact that EA holds the lucrative license, which, as a consequence, leaves Konami with the dilemma of having to give teams ridiculous names like ‘West London Whites’ and ‘West Midlands Stripes’, but in a lot of ways FIFA 2011 is a more gripping experience. Granted, the Master League is engrossing to play, and the range of game modes means the game can literally last as long as you need (presumably until next years edition) but FIFA has a greater sense of authenticity and as a result, is more compelling to play. Along with the official team names, kits and leagues, certain aspects of the game make it feel more “real”. Where its rival visually presents an injury, PES is content to pop up a picture of a physio telling you a player is out injured; it just feels a bit prototype-like.
In conclusion, Konami has come up trumps and offered up a great game of football. It has to be the best PES for a few years, and it is nice to see the franchise has made it out of the divot it has been stuck in for a few years. Niggles have been fixed and pacing issues have been addressed, and on the whole it is much improved from last year. Although there were welcome gambles this year such as a new passing system, there is a lack of new ideas coming in, so next year it would be better to see some fresh features rather than rehashed versions of others. FIFA ever-so-slightly edges it, but PES has certainly closed the gap this year. An entertaining game of football, it’s just FIFA 2011 is a bit better.
SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED is the next title in the Need for Speed series and it will continue the innovations that were present in the first SHIFT. Coming from Slightly Mad Studios, the game will feature all-new rendering engine, a helmet camera view, night racing and authentic degradation of tracks and cars. SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED will also incorporate the next generation of Need for Speed Autolog, the social network like stat sharing experience in Hot Pursuit. SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED will launch in the Spring 2011 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Based on the 5 million sales mark of the first game, it seems that EA is thinking this sequel will perform rather well. So get ready for a racing game that will combine realism and arcade racing into one.
