Gaming Today |
- Ubisoft Stock Plummets
- Confirmed: APB Is Alive and Will Be Free-to-Play
- LucasArts Layoffs Totally Just Happened
- Stupid Phillies Guy Going on the Cover of MLB 2K11
- Big BioWare VGA Announcement Coming Tomorrow
- How To Install Left 4 Dead 2 Mods
- Fallout: New Vegas Quest Bugs
- Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Multiplayer Launch Trailer
- Rumor: Bizarre Creations Closes Down
- EA Announces Shift 2 Unleashed, Shows off Trailer
- Forsaken World Preview
- Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Review
- Your Shape Fitness Evolved Review
- The Witcher 2 Set to Launch May 17, 2011
| Posted: 16 Nov 2010 10:01 PM PST
But things will get better, probably. They’ve got a pile of weird Kinect games that should sell well, and they’ve got that thrilling Michael Jackson game coming next week on Wii and in the spring on Move and Kinect, and it might just be they moved Ghost Recon and Driver in fear that they would perform poorly and do more damage this FY. Oh, and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood just came out. Chin up, Ubi.
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| Confirmed: APB Is Alive and Will Be Free-to-Play Posted: 16 Nov 2010 09:18 PM PST So it looks like that thing I was talking about last week — that thing about a free-to-play company buying the rights to APB — was totally right. I say this because there is now a press release that says so. The game is now the property of K2 Network and GamersFirst, and they’ve renamed the thing APB: Reloaded, which is probably appropriate. So yeah, this means the game will be free to play, obviously, and they’re looking at an early 2011 relaunch. So, yeah, Press release!
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| LucasArts Layoffs Totally Just Happened Posted: 16 Nov 2010 08:34 PM PST
Meanwhile, LucasArts PR is sending around to anybody who asks a prepared statement intended to make this whole thing seem like not such a big deal: “LucasArts recently made a minor adjustment in staffing to help us better address the needs of the business. We remain committed to our internal studio — and to fostering relationships with trusted external partners — in order to deliver quality games that amaze and inspire fans.” Like The Force Unleashed II (negative review!), right? The other rumor du jour, courtesy of George Broussard, who also started the layoffs buzz today, is that the folks who have been let go were working on some other unannounced game, which is not terribly surprising; we’d heard before that Blackman was working on a new secret project before he fled the company, and that said project was put on hold (see: TFUIII link above).
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| Stupid Phillies Guy Going on the Cover of MLB 2K11 Posted: 16 Nov 2010 04:55 PM PST
Regardless, I’m pissed about 2K Games’ announcement that Halladay is the cover athlete for Major League Baseball 2K11, which’ll be out sometime this spring (the new cover with Halladay is at the bottom of this post). Is there an MLB 2K cover curse? I hope so, because f**k the Phillies. Seriously. I won’t wish for an injury, though, because I only do that if we’re talking about an Auburn player. I’m gonna make my own MLB 2K11 cover with this guy: I think I’m gonna cry. As promised, here is the Halladay cover.
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| Big BioWare VGA Announcement Coming Tomorrow Posted: 16 Nov 2010 04:12 PM PST I assume we can all agree that the VGAs are bulls**t, right? I mean, most of the awards are like “Best Game [in X genre/on X console], and they don’t even have a writing award! The Spike VGAs are not a legit award show, because they don’t even make an attempt to recognize excellence in all aspects of gaming. But whatever, man. The VGAs are newsworthy for one reason; because they’re on TV, publishers like to show off their upcoming s**t at the show. And tomorrow we’re gonna find out about some of the s**t we’re gonna get to see. Geoff Keighley tweeted this today: “We’ll share two world premiere announcements on Wednesday with many more to come..” Aight. And then Patrick Buechner, VP of marketing at EA and the guy who handles marketing for BioWare titles, added a little something to that in a tweet of his own. “Bioware fans pay attention.” Our first impulse is to probably guess he’s talking about Mass Effect 3, but there’s no way. It is entirely possible we’ll see some ME3 stuff at the VGAs themselves, but I’m having a very hard time imagining any sort of big ME3 announcement would come in a press release from Spike f**king TV. Remember, now, that BioWare has two other big titles coming early next year, and so I would expect what we’re going to get out of Keighley tomorrow is just that the VGAs will feature new footage from either Dragon Age 2 or The Old Republic, and SWTOR could certainly use some good PR these days for sure. On the other hand, he did say “world premiere announcement,” but who the hell knows what that means in respects to Spike f**king TV? I guess maybe Buechner was just hinting that Keighley would say they’re going to have a big BioWare announcement at the VGAs. Goddamn it, I’m tired of thinking about this. Go away, VGAs. We’ll tell you what’s up when we find out tomorrow, and I’m betting whatever it is won’t be as important as GOG releasing Baldur’s Gate II for $10.
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| How To Install Left 4 Dead 2 Mods Posted: 16 Nov 2010 04:12 PM PST So you want to know how to install Left 4 Dead 2 mods? Sure you do. The Sacrifice has been out for more than a month and we’re betting you’ve already beaten it many times. What’s more, hours and hours of zombie killing via standard campaigns is fun and all, but eventually you’re going to need to get your hands on something new, something you haven’t seen before. Well friend, you’ve come to the right place. Installing L4D2 mods can be a convoluted process at first, but once you get past the initial clunkiness, it’s actually quite easy. Below, we’ll get you started with the tools you’ll need, and we’ll top it off with a tasty dessert of some of the Left 4 Dead 2 mods we highly recommend. Ready? Great, let’s kill us some Z’s. Difficulty: Beginner Table Of Contents A Few Of Our Favorite L4D2 Mods RequirementsObviously, before you can even think about playing Left 4 Dead 2 Mods, you’ll need to get yourself a copy of Left 4 Dead 2. For best results, a Steam account is recommended, so if you’re not already using it, now is as good a time as any to change that oversight. Below, we’ll be assuming you’re on Steam, but the instructions should work ok for both. Additional links at the end will help if there’s any overlapping confusion. System Requirements Left 4 Dead 2 was released less than a year ago, so your Dell Inspirion from 2003 isn’t going to cut it. Below, here’s what you’ll need in the box just to be able to play: Windows: Operating system: It’s Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Vista64 or Windows 7 You’ll also need .Net Framwork 3.5. That comes standard with Windows 7. Everyone else can get it here. It’s free; just click to download and follow the very easy instructions. Mac: Operating system: Snow Leopard 10.6.4 (Snow Leopard Graphics Update required) ToolsThe first thing you need to decide on is whether you want to create custom campaigns or simply play them. Today we’re only going to focus on playing them, but we’ll go ahead and cover all three. If you want to make your own mods, you’ll need L4D2 authoring tools. The Add On Installer and Addon support tools are all you’ll need to actually play. Ladies and Germs, the tools: 1) WinRar 1) WinRar This one’s cut and dry. You’ll need WinRar to open most custom L4D2 maps. Get it here. 2) L4D2 Authoring Tools and Add on Support First, get the the L4D2 authoring tools and the add on support tools; they can be found in one helpful package here. As we’ve already said, for now, the Add On support tool is all you’ll need to actually play L4D2 mods. First, go ahead and download them normally and unzip. (The file is 308.8 MB, not gigantic, but best to check your available space anyway.) Next up, if you’re on steam, it’s super easy. Go into Steam and open up the Tools tab. In this section, look for the Left 4 Dead 2 tab, then look for add-on Support. Click to install it. Once installed, you’ll be able to run any L4D2 map, even those made for Left 4 Dead. The good news is that you only need to activate it once. After installation, it will always run with your copy of Left 4 Dead 2. Before we get any further, you’ll need to get .Net Framwork 3.5. (You Windows 7 users will have it installed already). Next up, it’s time to get the Addon Installer ah, installed, So download it here. It’ll save as l4d2aoi.zip. Just unzip it and run the installer; once it’s finished, you’ll find it under “left 4 dead 2 Add-On Installer” in the Windows start menu. When you run it, you’ll be asked to set the install folder. You’ll want to be sure it’s put into Install Left 4 Dead 2 ModsWith Addon Installer, you’re really going to have an nice go of installing Left 4 Dead 2 Mods. It’s really, really easy to use. How easy? Step 1: Find a Left 4 Dead 2 mod you want to use. Steps one and two will be covered below, so let’s skip to step 3. The add-ons you haven’t yet installed will be available from the “Available” tab.
Here, you can install any add-ons you’ve downloaded, either individually, or in a group. Highlight all the desired files, and select to install. Which brings us to step 4. At this point, you can simply kick back and enjoy that mimosa, because Addon Installer is going to do practically everything for you. Once the installation process is complete, close, then reopen and you’ll see the new Add-on helpfully listed under the “installed” tab for your convenience. One last thing to keep in mind before you start filling up your computer with delicious zombie-killing delights: If you don’t just LOVE market research, or enjoy tech support, you might want to avoid beta maps. They get a lot of updates, and you’re going to need to do frequent checks for new versions. This is a particular problem if you’re trying to play against someone with a newer version – incompatible versions aren’t able to even recognize each other, and you’ll feel lonely. Then again, Beta is great for seeing, and participating in, the process of making a great concept turn into a great mod. That aside, everything ready? Good, then the next time you bring up Left 4 Dead 2, you’ll find that you’re able to access the installed mod no sweat. So now that we know how to do it, let’s find some decent Left 4 Dead 2 Mods to install. A Few Of Our Favorite L4D2 ModsDiescraper Redux First, we bring you the winner for Best Horror Movie Title. Diescraper Redux is a 4 map campaign straight out of the second episode of The Walking Dead. You and your fellow players are stranded at the top of some very tall buildings, fighting off wave after wave of undead hordes until rescue arrives. Great premise, and a fun series of maps. Sadly you won’t get the chance to handcuff a skinhead to the roof of a department store, but this is the next best thing. RMS Titanic RMS Titanic is a still-beta campaign set on the world’s most famous doomed luxury liner. You and 4 friends battle your way deck by deck, slaughtering the undead remains of the poor sods forced to drown in the North Sea so Kate Winslet could survive to make Little Children. It’s still very much a work in progress – the battles are fun, but the graphics aren’t complete, so don’t expect perfection. Yet. Look, this is such a great idea it deserves to make it to final status. Go play and help them get there. The Quest to kill Billy Zane again can be downloaded here. Crash Bandicoot Course 2: Electric Wumpaloo Best. Idea. Ever. Crash Bandicoot Course 2: Electric Wumpaloo is a 4 map Left 4 Dead 2 mod set in the Crash Bandicoot universe. Using Crash Bandicoot characters. Pursuing Crash Bandicoot objectives. In first person. Pure, unadulterated win. Go back in time to the original Playstation by downloading it here. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Zombies This kind of thing justifies the existence of modding for all time. Indiana Jones and the Temples of Zombies turned the internet into giggling children a couple of months back. A crazy genius named “Dives” has made a complete, accurate, real-time and totally faithful recreation of the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye ride at Disneyland. Including the John Rhys-Davies parts. It’s so incredible, they made it so that you can play the campaign normally, battling zombies through the entirety of the classic ride, or remove the zombies and just ride it like any normal Disneyland patron. We love it, and strongly suggest you grab a copy for yourself. Additional Resources:Team SAO are the major King King bad-asses of L4D. They distributed the Addon Installer, and they’re the guys to visit for any and all questions you might ever have. Definitely bookmark them. Believe it or not, the Left 4 Dead Wikia is pretty amazing. If you have any trouble, here’s a handy guide for installing L4D2 mods without Steam. Finally, just in case you need help with that drink.
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| Posted: 16 Nov 2010 11:33 AM PST For all their masterful efforts in bringing the Mojave Wasteland to life, Obsidian shipped out Fallout: New Vegas with a number of bugs still extant. Some of these glitches will make it difficult to complete quests — always a frustrating experience. Below, we’ll be compiling information on buggy, glitchy quests, as well as providing all the solutions we can find. Feel free to chime in in the comments with more. Old School GhoulRaul’s loyalty mission, Old School Ghoul, requires you to talk to three aging NPC’s. Depending on the situation in your game, talking to these NPC’s might not properly trigger Raul’s dialogue. If you’re having troubl, try some of these fixes (they’ll only work on PC). Loyal: After completion of “Volare,” loyal will travel to vicinity of Black Mountain, and can get stuck on some terrain. Free him by activating the console (hit “~”)and entering ff26a.moveto player, then hitting enter. Ranger Andy: If you met Ranger Andy and learned his Ranger Takedown technique without Raul present, you will have missed the opportunity to complete Old School Ghoul. If you’re on the PC, use the console and type in set “000e61a5″.MetRangerAndy to 1 . It won’t work unless you’re indoors. Transition to an outdoor area and Raul should initiate conversation. If that console command doesn’t do the trick, try set “000e61a5″.MetRangerAndy to 2 and pick Raul’s dialogue option about Ranger Andy Corporal Sterling: Similar problems can arise with Sterling, and you can input a similar console command: set “000e61a5″.MetCorporalSterling to 1. Again, if the previous console command doesn’t help, try set “000e61a5″.MetCorporalSterling to 2 and select the dialogue line about Sterling. Still in the DarkThere is a known bug with the Still in the Dark quest. Depending (or not depending) on when in the quest chain you present evidence to Hardin about the Chain that Binds, a potential glitch arises that prevents Hardin from overthrowing McNamara and becoming head of the Brotherhood’s Mojave chapter. For best results, talk to Hardin about the Holotapes before turning the scout’s reports into McNamara.
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| Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Multiplayer Launch Trailer Posted: 16 Nov 2010 10:40 AM PST Ubisoft has rolled out a launch trailer for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood showing off some of the multiplayer in the game. If you haven’t already picked it up, or if you’re stuck at work and can’t play it yet, this should whet your appetite a tiny bit. Watch it below, or download it here!
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| Rumor: Bizarre Creations Closes Down Posted: 16 Nov 2010 10:11 AM PST Our friends over at VG247 are reporting that they have been told by multiple sources that racing game developer Bizarre Creations has been shut down, resulting in the loss of 200 staff. Bizarre is the team behind Blur, Activision’s competition based racer, as well as games like Project Gotham Racing and The Club. The also developed the recently released James Bond title, 007 Blood Stone. Details are a little scarce at the moment, but as soon as we get more, we’ll get it to you immediately. UPDATE: GiantBomb has just posted a quote to their website, saying “Bizzarre Creations will be going through a ’90-day consultation period, statutory redundancy.’” It appears a press release may be forthcoming. If so, we’ll post it here. UPDATE 2: From the good folks over at Evil Avatar, this is the statement they received from Activision:
Sounds like this is nearly confirmed. Hopefully someone can swoop in at the last minute and buy the company, saving those jobs and a damn fine developer. Hey, it worked for us!
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| EA Announces Shift 2 Unleashed, Shows off Trailer Posted: 16 Nov 2010 09:51 AM PST On the day that Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit hits stores, EA has let us know that the next game in the Need for Speed family will be coming next year. In a press release, EA has announced Shift 2 Unleashed for a Spring 2011 release. Yes, they took Need for Speed out of the title, but if you watch the trailer below you’ll see that it’s still definitely a Need for Speed game. The original Shift released in September of 2009, and was considered the most realistic of all the Need for Speed games. Now, they’ve added the next generation of Hot Pursuit’s Autolog, the network that manages stats and player matching, to the game. As for other additions, the press release mentions the following:
The sequel is still in the hands of Slightly Mad Studios, so igf you liked the first game, the second one may be right in your wheelhouse. Enjoy the trailer below, or head over to download it yourself.
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| Posted: 16 Nov 2010 09:47 AM PST
Forsaken World is a bit of a different move for the developer/publisher, the game is not an Asian impost. Over 3000 developers are spending multiple years building a large world with rich back story and lots of ready locations for a worldwide launch. It’s also changing up the pre-release formula from the short, hectic Beta test the company usually employs when re-launching a game for Europe and America. Instead, opting for a more traditional multi-phased closed beta approach. Forsaken World’s planned testing period will span a few months; behavior usually associated with a major subscription MMO launch. I’ve had several hours to play during Forsaken World’s first closed beta phase and came away wondering why I bother paying for MMORPGs any more. Since the recent conversion of Turbine’s two big MMO’s – Dungeons & Dragons Online and The Lord of the Rings Online to a hybrid free-to-play model, it’s clear that subscription-based games are not the only choice for good MMO gameplay. Forsaken World looks like your traditional fantasy RPG. It features the normal fantastic races – Dwarves, Humans and Elves alongside some interesting additions like Kindred and Stonemen. There are some typical classes featured in the game but a few of the races sport unique options. For instance only Dwarves are gun-wielding Marksmen, the Stonemen are the game’s Protectors, the fae Elves have a Bardic option and only Kindred can become Vampires. The game takes place in the world of Eyrda, a planet once ruled by passionate gods who got into a great conflict and eventually abandoned the mortal races of the world. Players begin with characters who know the gods of Eyrda are dead. You work to uncover your destiny and seek the essence of the fallen gods and gain their powers to stand against the game’s greatest evil: a great dragon named Strom Lord. (No seriously that is not a typo, nor is it a handy nickname for an undead South Carolina politician)
Visually, Forsaken World is an attractive game. Its graphics are not bleeding edge, but they do appear comparable to games like Lord of the Rings and Aion. The character designs feature a fairly Asian-influenced design with “anime” or “manga” styled pseudo-real figures. The game also offers equipment with ornate flair like unearthly armor and weapon designs that are visually interesting. I tend to play most MMORPGs as a PvE player since I find cooperative questing and environment more challenging than personal combat against another human player. Forsaken World includes both forms of gameplay and doesn’t force players down any one path.
Adventuring solo or in groups felt easy and organic during my first forays in Eyrda. Enemies in the various zones respawned very quickly and I never felt I was spending a lot of dead time waiting or competing with other players for quest kills. Quest design follows predictable formulas. There are questlines and a pretty useful quest log, but a lot of the quests follow the “Seek out Bob and do what he asks,” or “Kill 19 Flibbermaggots and bring me their hides!” approach. Players interested in pursuing the metagame plot will gather experience with factions and gang up to face boss encounters and dive into instanced dungeons along the way. I did not get a chance to try the included raid content and I’ve not had the opportunity to experience any fixed world events, but one of Perfect World’s selling points for Forsaken World is that each server will offer a different play experience over the life of the game. Depending on the behaviors and choices of the server population, some events or features may differ. If the company can make this system work, I’ll be interested to revisit this game in six months or a year to see if anything really is different. Phase 1 of the Closed Beta wraps up on November 23rd and the 2nd phase will go live the following day with a raised level cap for early participants. Those interested in finding out more about Forsaken World should check out the game’s website. Beta signups are still open and the company promises those who apply have a good chance of making it into one of the Beta rounds or in the Open Beta before the final game goes live in a few months.
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| Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Review Posted: 16 Nov 2010 09:00 AM PST It’s almost a year to the day since the release of Assassin’s Creed 2, and to be honest, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood had all the makings of an unnecessary, half-baked but full-priced Assassin’s Creed 2.5. It’s a new game in the franchise but not a true sequel, with a short development period and a brand new multiplayer mode — sounds like the makings of a cash-in entry to AC’s lineage if ever there was one. Lucky for us, Brotherhood isn’t a cash-in expansion game at all. Instead, Ubisoft Montreal has put together the best game to date in the series, capturing all the great elements of Assassin’s Creed 2 but tossing out the boring and frustrating elements in another huge, expansive sandbox game. And we even get a multiplayer, tough to break into though it may be. Continuing pretty much from the moment Assassin’s Creed 2 left off, Brotherhood centers again on the adventures of Desmond Miles, a modern-day member of an ancient clan of assassins who are at war with the Knights Templar, an Illuminati-esque organization that has its fingers in everything in order to control the world. The majority of the gameplay still centers around Desmond’s time in a machine called the Animus, which allows him to relive the experiences of his ancestors — specifically, Ezio de Auditore, the leader of the Assassins in Renaissance Italy. Taking a page from the Metroid manual of sequels, Brotherhood starts players out with all the great armor and weapons they gathered for Ezio during AC 2, only for him to lose it during the course of the game’s early story. So by the time Ezio gets to Rome, the city in which the entire game takes place, he’s down to his street clothes without a dime to his name. So Ezio meets up with Niccolo Machiavelli (seen mostly in the AC 2 downloadable content packs) and sets about striking at the vastly powerful Templars in Rome. The city is a corrupted ruin, with buildings and infrastructure in disrepair, and in order to do anything, you’ll need to remove the influence of the Pope and his family and restore hope to the people. Brotherhood’s core gameplay remains largely unchanged from Assassin’s Creed 2, and potentially, that means all the same problems that made AC 2 an extremely annoying game made it through here, as well. However, for some reason I can’t quite determine, Brotherhood is actually quite fun, while AC 2 made me want to throw my Xbox from one of the many buildings the game’s poorly conceived controls had me accidentally diving off every few minutes. I think it has to do with Ubisoft Montreal finding ways to streamline the experience. Yes, Ezio still spends most of his time climbing buildings and free running around Rome, just as he has always done, in order to get close to assassination targets and then kill them. All of the mechanics from AC 2 make it back here — from the controls for blending into crowds, running away and performing kills, to the ability to hire small groups of people from various factions, such as courtesans, to follow you around and distract guards. You still walk with the analog stick, run by holding the trigger, and run faster by holding a face button in addition to the other controls. And these are still the same controls for climbing and jumping, as well. One of my big complaints about the series up to now is that these controls encourage speed, while AC 2 was usually too dumb to predict accurately where exactly you were trying to jump — so whenever you were on the run and up high, which was all the time, you would continually accidentally just leap to your death with the “hold it down, aim where you’re going” control scheme. Brotherhood, however, feels like it has fewer distractions and just works better, even though all the controls are technically the same. Climbing puzzles, long a big part of the series but feeling like a repeated bludgeoning of head on wall in the last game, are much better designed this time around. Ubisoft has instituted multiple checkpoints when they want you to scale a huge building, which help keep you moving in the right direction. Better designed climbing portions of the game mean you’re killing yourself or restarting the whole puzzle a lot less. Despite only a year of lead time, it feels like Ubisoft thought Brotherhood through better than they have any other game in the series. The addition of the assassin recruitment system, for example, is really very simple, and yet it changes things just enough to add a great strategy element to the game. After a while, Ezio determines he needs additional help fighting the Templars in Rome, so you set about saving citizens from groups of guards and recruiting them to your newly formed Assassins Guild. Once you’ve started recruiting, you gain the ability to mark targets and sick other assassins on them, or call for aid when you’re in a tough fight. Both these abilities are great in and of themselves, giving you additional options for approaching each situation. All the assassins you recruit have their own level and experience, and in order to make them stronger and capable of handling better equipment, you have to put them in situations in order to learn. That means using them in combat and also sending them throughout the world on contracts, which you can assign assassins to go complete in other cities throughout Europe. Each contract comes with a bar that measures how successful one or more assassins will be in completing the mission, which changes based on which, and how many assassins are assigned to a task. Making assignments requires a strategy trade-off: for one, you need to determine which missions to send each assassin on, and the more recruits you send to complete a task, the less experience each receives. And whenever you send an assassin on a contract, you’re also giving up having that assassin at your beck and call for a set amount of time until the contracts is completed. So as things get more difficult, you may want to wait on certain missions until after contracts are completed, or hold certain assassins back so you have them as you need them. It’s actually a great system, and something that the series sorely needed. You still have options like hiring groups of NPCs to distract guards as before, so often, having your recruits available will mean you can use a combination of methods to finish a mission. The simple fact that you’re thinking about each situation beyond AC 2′s default position of “kill target enemy without being seen” makes this a much more interesting game. Brotherhood has focus. That’s key to this game. Ubisoft Montreal has seen fit to remove a lot of the things about the last game that weren’t very fun, and it’s clear that the developer finally has come to value a player’s time. Rome is huge, but one of the first things you do as a player is liberate a horse stable. Boom — suddenly, you can call a horse anytime, from anywhere, with one button, dramatically increasing the speed with which you can get from place to place in the vast city. There’s also a district-by-district fast-travel system, which makes things easier. And Ubisoft has even recognized that sometimes, climbing walls in its games can be really boring. There seem to be a lot more ladders in this game, as well as a new system of lifts that let you instantly scale a wall without any fuss at all. Combat, too, has gotten a slight tweak that suddenly takes it light-years ahead of AC 2. Ezio now has the ability to start “execution streaks,” which basically let you catch enemies by surprise while in battle. The series has always had a lone assassin dealing with a crowd of guards, and not much has changed there. You still fight in the same basic way — slash with a face button, block with a trigger button, and usually wait for an enemy to attack in order to counter for a one-hit kill. Now, however, getting that one kill allows you to use timing and reflexes to quickly turn your attention to another guard, and get a one-hit kill on him; then turn to another and kill him; and so on, all while the enemies are caught unawares. So instead of big, irritating fights, Brotherhood adds an ability based on player skill that lets you quickly gain an upper hand. It adds a dimension to combat that picks up the pace a lot, and removes the frustration of getting manhandled by whole platoons of enemies at once. Back is AC 2′s economy system, but this time the whole thing is much more reasonable. In the previous game, money was invested into the Auditore family’s villa and the town surrounding it — this time, you spend the money you earn on rebuilding Rome, helping to liberate the people there on an economic front, not just a political one. Each district of the city is under the influence of a nearby Borgia Tower, from which the local corrupt official rules. Before you can invest in shops or rebuild monuments (and earn a return on your investment for doing so), you have to infiltrate the area around the tower, kill the leader, and burn the tower to the ground. Once you’ve done that, you can buy properties in the district, allowing you to invest in and reopen shops, repair monuments, and purchase buildings for the game’s various ally factions. All the improvements you make go toward your completion of the game, but rather than feeling like completionist work, opening up shops is useful and convenient. The money you earn from your investments is nice as well, but it doesn’t become a flood until late in the game, and therefore you never feel like you have more money than you could ever need. Ubisoft has included a multiplayer mode in Brotherhood, because apparently the thinking in the industry today is that every game needs one, and that means that the single-player campaign is smaller than it was in AC 2. You wouldn’t know it from playing, though — there’s never a shortage of things to do in Brotherhood. In addition to story quests, there are challenges to complete for each of the various factions (mercenaries, courtesans and thieves), as well as towers to destroy and, later, missions to complete for Leonardo Da Vinci. And don’t forget the mess of collectibles to find. There may be fewer missions overall, but the game world still feels expansive and fully engaging. The only discernible difference in size between Brotherhood and AC 2 is the fact that the former takes place in only one huge city, where AC 2 was spread across several smaller ones. Brotherhood has a full-fledged story, plus all kinds of little side quests that have you running errands for various factions or helping people in distress. If Brotherhood has less to do, it’s certainly not obvious. You get plenty of content for your gaming dollar here, additional game modes or not. The trade-off for what one assumes is a smaller game is Brotherhood’s competitive multiplayer system, which is certainly ambitious. If you’re wondering how you can turn assassinations into a competitive sport with multiple people, you’re not alone — but Ubisoft has actually found a pretty interesting and elegant way to do so. When you fire up the multiplayer mode, you’ll pick one of a few character models, and load into a Renaissance city that’s populated with crowds of people, just like in the single-player game. All the NPCs populating the city, however, carry one of the set character models you were able to choose from. Somewhere in the city are six or seven other players like you, and as you go on, you’ll be assigned to assassinate one of them, receiving information about which character model you’re looking for, and a compass that directs you in the general direction and altitude of your target. Once you get your target in sight (the game notifies you of that fact), it’s up to you to pick the target out from the crowd of similar-looking people, get in close and kill him or her. Killing an NPC instead of the person you’re looking for costs you the “contract,” as well as any points for the kill, and causes you to start over. You’ll need to watch for players to give themselves away as such, and you’re awarded more points if you can kill them sneakily or without being identified than if you just ran up and hit them in the face. Brotherhood’s multiplayer isn’t necessarily about who kills the most, but rather, who kills the best. So you’re hunting a single other assassin through the streets of, say, Florence, but there are six other people unaccounted for. They’re doing the same thing as you — hunting one another — so at the same time you’re the predator, you’re also the prey. This means you need to think about blending in not only to get the drop on your target, but also so that your assassin can’t figure out who you are. For example, if you move around in the open too much, you’ll be easy to identify as the person’s target, so trying to stay anonymous in crowds is key. Doing other player-only things, such as climbing buildings or running, also is a surefire way to be pegged and murdered. It makes for a tense experience. On the one hand, you’re trying to get the drop on someone else, but you also know you’re being hunted all the time. The higher your score, the more pursuers you’ll have after you. But you’re not powerless, either — identify your pursuer and you’ll enter a chase mode, in which you can give them the slip by breaking their sight line, then hide until they lose you. That results in the opponent losing his contract, which means some momentary relief, and it also rewards you with some points. While Brotherhood’s multiplayer mode is a pretty cool idea, seeing it find widespread appeal is doubtful. Especially early on, the free-for-all mode gets frustrating in a hurry. You spend a lot of time being totally outsmarted by people who have learned that discretion is the better part of valor here, and that’s pretty much exactly contrary to almost everything we’ve ever learned about multiplayer in the history of games up to this point. Multiplayer requires you to level up by earning experience points in order to do anything — including play on a team, rather than alone — and it makes the learning curve feel all the more steep, even though it wouldn’t be with a slightly better tutorial system. The game teaches you a little about how to kill people, but nothing about how to avoid being killed. The knowledge of being able to jump on certain platforms or run under certain gates in order to automatically close them off to a pursuer is just something you come by on your own, probably when someone totally screws you by doing it to you first. Similar to games like Call of Duty, Brotherhood lets you save player classes for later, so you can load out with a specific set of abilities and perks at the outset of a match. You don’t have access to any of these at the outset, and they come out slowly as you level up. The whole system is meant to feel rewarding, but instead, it comes of as a barrier. Players will have to stick around for at least the first 10 levels in order to start feeling like they’re true competitors, and that might be asking too much. Multiplayer is enjoyable, it just takes some getting used to, and like anything, it’ll require an hour or two of being totally frustrated in order for players to earn the ability to be any good. It has potential, even if there don’t seem to be a lot of modes, but it might too complex and slow-moving to attract a large audience. Much more likely, Brotherhood multiplayer will create a small group of dedicated players who are really, really good, just like the Splinter Cell series has in its similar spy-vs.-mercenary multiplayer. That will likely have the effect of making Brotherhood’s online mode prohibitive to new players. But multiplayer doesn’t feel tacked on — in fact, none of the new systems do. To the contrary and to Ubisoft Montreal’s credit, Brotherhood finally feels like an Assassin’s Creed that has hit its proper stride. All the things that have been introduced in the series before now have finally been tuned to the point of being very solid and enjoyable, from the free running and combat, to the economy and faction systems. Finally, everything works so well that playing Assassin’s Creed doesn’t feel like a chore. Plus, Ubisoft tossed in a creative multiplayer mode that actually pushes the envelope. Story-wise, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood might not make a great entry point into the series, but it definitely is the most fun experience the franchise has yet offered. Here’s a recommendation from a guy who kind of hates the Assassin’s Creed series — buy this game. Pros:
Cons:
Final Score: 93/100
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| Your Shape Fitness Evolved Review Posted: 16 Nov 2010 08:08 AM PST
Thanks to technology, Ubisoft’s first exercise game for Microsoft’s new Kinect hardware removes one of those obstacles, but does it really replace the value of a healthy does of verbal abuse or is it just a gimmick to show off that $150 investment? Your Shape Fitness Evolved’s approach to exercise lets gamers break free from the glorified scale of Wii Fit. You gain the ability to be measured for compliance to ideal form while performing exercises. Ever wonder why hours spent with other exercise programs never got you the payoff you expected? Chances are you were doing things wrong all along. While your heart was beating and the blood was flowing, you were not getting the best workout if you weren’t using the correct form. Achieving proper form doesn’t mean just burning calories, its about actually targeting the correct muscle groups at the same time. Measuring your form accuracy is a core benefit of Kinect and Your Shape Fitness Evolved. Like most exercise games on the market now, it offers a mix of fun and fitness activities including cardio routines, personal training, exercise games and Zen Yoga. Where Your Shape excels is gender specific workout routines and the personal trainer process. It’s a good choice if you’re looking to start an exercise program when you don’t have the resources or time to visit a gym. The personal trainer functions start with a basic fitness test, and then challenge users to pick a workout and set fitness goals. The estimation isn’t too brutal. Once you’ve set up a personal profile and had your fitness evaluated, you’ll find that the game features some well-designed basic workouts. Where the workout functions are lacking, it’s less a flaw in the Your Shape game itself, and more in the nature of the Kinect technology. Since the Kinect cannot read motions associated with floor exercises like push ups or sit ups, don’t expect to be doing those as a core of your workout plan. Your Shape also suffers from the Kinect’s need for space. To execute the moves requires a fixed amount of free space and some workout discipline. Since the game maps its workout analysis to the user’s joints, you’ll notice your workout attire has little impact on the game. Your Shape does a reasonably good job of judging and encouraging you when needed, although some of the feedback is frustrating when you don’t match what the game expects.
Your Shape Fitness Evolved offers a nice mix of exercises but over time they are guaranteed to get stale. The game supports downloadable content, so chances are good that Ubisoft will add new routines and options as time goes on. Also, a number of exercises need dumbbells or a resistance band (neither is included with the game) for best effect. Gamers looking for some active exercise while playing games should enjoy Your Shape’s choices. My favorite is Brickbreaker which encompasses punching and kneeing colored blocks in rapid succession. The visuals and rapid fire challenges make Brickbreaker really fun. There are also other choices, like the psychedelic Loop-a-hoop mode or the combat classes to spice things up.
Two weeks into the challenging workout program I’ve not grown tired of the exercise routines, which is something Wii Fit never managed. That alone makes Your Shape Fitness a worthy buy. Undoubtedly as the Kinect technology is better understood by developers like Ubisoft and EA, there will be better fitness games with a larger game component, but as a Kinect launch game it is a passable effort with some nice features. Pros
Cons
The Verdict: 79/100
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| The Witcher 2 Set to Launch May 17, 2011 Posted: 16 Nov 2010 06:42 AM PST CD Projekt RED has just confirmed in a press release that their much-anticipated RPG, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will be releasing on May 17, 2011. This is a general launch date, and likely will not apply to all territories. Adam Badowski, project lead at CD Projekt RED, said of the announcement,
This Thursday is CD Projekt’s fall conference, and it’s expected that we’ll hear more information on the release, including details of the Collector’s Edition and pre-orders, at that time. As usual, we’ll keep an ear to the ground for any new info. If you aren’t up on The Witcher 2, might I invite you to check out our E3 preview? In case you didn’t know, The Witcher 2 made into our Best of E3.
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