EL33TONLINE Previews

Preview: Sleeping Dogs Hands-on (Xbox360)

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:30:00 +0000

Megarom, one of South Africa’s leading games distributors, recently invited press to attend a preview of a game ahead of its release in early August. Upon arrival at their offices, we were herded into a dark corner to have a first-hand look at the upcoming title by Square Enix aptly named Sleeping Dogs - will it be a sleeper hit or a break-out success?

Sleeping Dogs is the spiritual successor to True Crime: Hong Kong, a game that was canceled by Activision last year February. As Square Enix only picked up the game and not the rights to the name, the new Sleeping Dogs was born. Sleeping Dogs is an open-world game that leans heavily on Grand Theft Auto for its structure; the main narrative will take you through an open-world adventure, while various side missions take you into the back alleys of the world. You can expect multiple missions, sideshows, vehicles to hijack, pedestrians to interact with and many a triad criminal to bludgeon into a meaty pulp.

The biggest draw card that Sleeping Dogs offers is its setting - instead of your run-of-the-mill New York or Los Angeles clone, you will explore the streets of Hong Kong, a rather fresh, underutilised environment in which to wreak havoc. The story of Sleeping Dogs is your typical Hollywood undercover cop adventure, with your character starting at the bottom and working his way up in rank to get to the big guys. How that is achieved is by doing what criminals do best - creating chaos!

The most enjoyable aspect of this game has to be its combat, which takes pointers from the Batman series from Rocksteady - fist fights flow with combos and counters as you fight your way through a group of thugs in typical over-the-top kung fu action. Which brings us to the added bit of awesome for the combat. As expected with this style of fighting your environment becomes a weapon, with opportunities to smash guys’ heads through air conditioner vents, use power tools to maim a face, or perhaps drop an engine onto an unlucky henchmen’s chest. This helps extend the life of fighting flair as most games’ takedowns get boring after being recycled many times. These additional takedowns are all easily marked when in a fight - just grab a baddie and all useable objects glow red, then drag that enemy over to the object and watch the gruesome, somewhat satisfying takedown happen. My personnel favourite is with a phone booth… you’ll see why.

Square Enix and developer United Front Games have worked hard on giving a fresh lick of paint to the mission structures and have the sequences play out like a mini movie. For example, in one mission you get the number of a thug through your police connections, phone him using a fake ID, triangulate his position using cell towers and drive to where he is. After a few fist fights with the front area guards, you pick up a weapon and get into a gun fight before cornering your guy, only to have him flee in a car and have to chase him down using a bike that was nearby. By shooting out the tyres of his backup guards that were called in, you’ll then isolate him and have the chance to jump onto his car and effectively hijack him. This, fellow p33ps, was epic!
The game world of Sleeping Dogs has its on weather system, changing the world dynamically along with an integrated day/night cycle. It comes packed with 80 cars that resemble real life cars, while others are somewhat more conceptual. You can also change outfits to go with your mood, even offering the legendary yellow one piece suit that Bruce Lee wore. The driving of cars also feels solid and they handle like a car should, all thanks to working closely with guys that have had previous experience with racing titles such as Need for Speed. The world interacts with your character so if you’re wearing a nice white suit and get into a fight, expect it to be full of blood stains after the battle.
The gameplay that we were shown was still in ‘Alpha’ stage and already it looks gorgeous. Both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were available to play, but the 360 build did look and perform better. Let’s hope that the final product will have less variance between the two versions. Sleeping dogs has promise to be a really good open-world adventure and the generous amount of content offered within the game looks to keep you busy for a while. Let’s just hope it ends as well as it starts.
Sleeping Dogs is out on August 14th in the US and August 17th in European territories, across Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 - you can find El33tonline’s previous coverage of this exciting open-world action title over here for more screenshots and a collection of trailers.

Contributor: Jarrod

Preview: Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Hands-on (Xbox360)

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:00:00 +0000
Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor was one of the games on display at last week’s Capcom Captivate event held in Rome. It definitely had the cool factor going for it because of the military dressed demonstrator, that and no one can deny that tanks are just plain awesome! Watching from the sidelines at first, it sure looked liked everyone was having fun so I was eager to step in and learn the finer points of driving a tank.
The game is Capcom’s first Kinect title and, set in 2082, depicts a world without computers where new superpowers struggle for dominance as war is waged with rudimentary weapons. The US army is forced to begin major landing operations on what was once its own soil, but there is only one weapon class in this low-tech era that will shape the course of the war – the Vertical Tank. Although powerful, the VTs lack computer aided weapon and piloting systems so they rely heavily on the skills of the crew who man them.
Getting started I ran through the tutorial, pretty handy if you’ve never driven a tank before, which I hadn’t…until now that is! To calibrate the Kinect you need to first sit with your arms stretched out to your sides, then stand with your arms stretched out. After that you can get started on the mission as pilot Lt. Powers, a practice round that teaches you the ropes and shows you how to control the tank.
The Kinect controls are very responsive, in fact I’ll be the first to admit how surprised I was at just how responsive they were. It’s very intuitive so to look out from the front of the tank you simply push forward with both hands, to look right in the tank swipe right firmly with your right hand and then to look left swipe left. You’ll enter a first person shooter mode when you’ve moved to the view area of the front of the tank. To control the tank’s direction use the left analogue stick of the Xbox 360 controller, and then press the right button to fire. To use the periscope, which will give you a zoomed in view, lift your hand up and you’ll get the zoom to make it easier to target enemies who are far away, especially the infantry. I found the most comfortable way to play the game was to hold the controller with both hands, and keep it in hand when performing the various Kinect motions which are all upper-body gestures.

The tutorial mission saw us having to take out ‘enemy troops,’ first busses located on a hilltop, and then scouting for water tanks too. It taught me the basic control system of the game, but nothing prepared me for the horrors of war that I was about to face as I stepped into the first mission…explosions rocked the landscape, bodies went flying as they were blown to pieces by the enemies’ firepower, and the sounds of war were all around me.
Right from the start it was a truly immersive experience, with urgent radio instructions to land on the beach and then turn right to avoid landmines being issued. As our tank made its way slowly up the beach I targeted enemy tanks on the horizon and opened fire. Our next instructions came in, we were to support the infantry landing on the beach. As we headed to provide covering fire for our troops, the enemy tanks picked the easy to target ground troops off. We received a stern warning that the number of casualties was not acceptable, giving us extra incentive to hustle and get to our troops as quickly as possible.
Once with our infantry we made our way up towards the enemy line, having to use the periscope to identify their ground troops who were opening fire on us. We slowly whittled them down, but we were taking heavy fire from new tank support that had moved to flank us. So close to victory now, we moved to eliminate the last enemy threat, and even though we had taken back the beach it had come at a heavy cost in our troop’s lives. We took out our anger and frustration on the last tanks and savoured sweet victory as the last tank took too much damage and went up in flames at last.
The mission left me slightly breathless, after having been totally immersed in the battle thanks to the excellent sound and re-enactment of actions with Kinect which combine to deliver a realistic experience, to make you feel as if you’re on the frontlines of war. The control system for the most past was responsive, there were times when it was a tad bit challenging, firstly to remember all the actions required to operate the tank when explosions were rocking the ground and my men dying, and secondly there a few times when Kinect didn’t do exactly what I told it to do which definitely removed me from the immersion for a minute. Yet overall it worked well and I can’t wait to head back out onto the battlefield when the game launches.
Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor will be available exclusively for the Xbox 360 with Kinect on the 19th of June across North America and on the 22nd of June in Europe.

Contributor: Lisa

Preview: Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection Hands-on (PS3)

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:00:00 +0000
Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection gives players the chance to relive their early Resident Evil adventures or experience the horror for the first time. The collection includes Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, and will be available exclusively for the PlayStation 3 as a digital download from the PlayStation Store this June. You’ll also be able to purchase the two titles individually at a later stage, both have been remastered for the PS3 with HD graphics and PlayStation Move compatibility.
You’ll be able to revisit past plots from the series in The Umbrella Chronicles, and expose Umbrella Corporation’s actions as eight playable characters, including Rebecca Chambers, Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. It also features a new chapter in Resident Evil history, as previously seen in the Wii version of the game. The Darkside Chronicles will take you back in time as Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield try to escape Raccoon City, and we finally learn the truth behind Leon and Krauser’s feud. El33tonline recently had the opportunity to test Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection at Capcom’s Captivate event held in Rome last week. The game was set up with the PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter and proved to be a very fun arcade experience.
Playing the game with the Sharp Shooter is a very intuitive experience. It works fluidly and feels pretty natural to shoot zombies using the shooter’s trigger button, while using the D-pad of the navigator controller to change weapons (by pressing down) and use items (by pressing left). Since your left hand is holding the Sharp Shooter just where the navigator rests it’s easy to access the D-pad buttons, making weapon and item selection easy to use. It has to be since you need to be lightning quick when your health is low or you’re out of ammo otherwise a zombie will more than likely kill you. Your right hand is gripping the Sharp Shooter at the back so you can easily squeeze the trigger and unload a couple of rounds of lead into the zombies standing in your path.
It feels very natural to play Resident Evil this way, in a way it’s the perfect recreation of a great arcade experience. Because it’s on-rails you just never know what you’ll be facing around the corner, it could be a zombie dog or maybe even a large snake boss! The shotgun is great for up close and personal encounters, but it’s probably best to change to the machine gun to spray bullets into a crowd of zombies. To reload you can simply shake the Sharp Shooter, an action that will also be necessary to shake off the zombies that get too near to you. As you’re navigating the passageways of the train keep an eye out for herbs which will be essential to boost your health. You’ll need to move the on-screen cursor over the item and press the Move button to collect it. You can also collect weapons in the same way.
Once you’re prepared for this action you can anticipate it and it will make it easier to collect items, but it’ll still be a little challenging to quickly press the Move button on the Move controller, which is located at the top of the Sharp Shooter. In enemy fights you sometimes only have a split-second to dodge an enemy attack otherwise you’ll sustain some serious damage. Likewise with weapon and item collection, often you won’t have long to press the button and collect it before the chapter progresses. This is, however, a very small gripe and to be honest I think you’ll get more experienced with the controls as you spend more time with the game.
Like most games, Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection is definitely more fun when you play it co-op, there’s nothing that cements a friendship quite like fighting zombies together! In addition to being more fun, it’s also more tactical because you’ve got an ally to help cover you while you’re reloading, not to mention facing boss battles are far more exciting (and a little bit less scary!) when you’re fighting beside someone. Graphically the game is looking good, with the overhauled HD graphics making it worth your while to pick this title up, not to mention Trophies!
Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection is a great match for the PlayStation Move, and I’m definitely looking forward to playing these awesome titles again with a friend when it releases this June. Of course you can also play the game with the normal PlayStation controller, but if you have the PlayStation Move or a Sharp Shooter you should definitely give them a try.

Contributor: Lisa

Preview: Confrontation Hands-on (PC)

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:00:00 +0000
Confrontation is an RPG very much in the mould of Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights. I did, however, get the feeling that this game was more science fiction than fantasy and, although I’m not really a scifi kind of guy, I enjoyed this different spin on a tried and tested genre. When I say scifi I mean that the characters and their weaponry are a bit more advanced - in fact, one of the characters that you play with uses pistols instead of the normal missile weapon. Interestingly enough, I noticed that Guild Wars 2 also used pistols and rifles although I decided not to use them.
Set in the war torn world called Aarklash, your mission in Confrontation is to use the various factions of Akkylannians to confront the threat currently offered by the evil Alchemists of Dirz. The PC game is an adaptation of Confrontation, the board game, and as such the story is very rich and the characters are well developed. I am always a bit wary of games based on board games and on movies but Confrontation seems to have done a very good job and has been developed into an exciting and interesting game. I especially like the various enemies that you confront and find them very imaginative and fun to engage.
There are four distinct factions in the game and these are: Griffin: These are the heroes that you fight with and could be referred to as the ‘good guys.’ I got the distinct impression though that some of the heroes that you play with are not very good at all. I am interested to play the full game to see if these characters develop and the possible contention between military might and religion is resolved. Scorpion: The Alchemists of Dirz used to be Griffin and they are the main enemies in the game. These are a very interesting group of people but they are decidedly easy to defeat. The Alchemists used to be part of the Griffin faction but they butted heads with the religion fanatics of the faction and had to flee before they were burned at the stake. These are definitely the bad guys and they use a very interesting combination of alchemy and science to fight. This includes the creation of various monsters that you are forced to fight through. In fact, the Alchemists are responsible for the next faction… Jackal: The Orcs of Bran-�-Kor were created by the Alchemists and were their warrior slaves until they escaped and built their own society. They are formidable opponents and it’s advisable to fight them with brains as well as brawn. Wolf: The Wolfen of Yllia are the protectors of nature and are the spawn of the union between the goddess Yllia and the leader of a wolf pack. They view you as a trespasser onto the land that they are sworn to protect and are also very difficult opponents to overcome.
Another thing that I enjoyed about Confrontation was the variety of heroes that you fight with. The demo starts with four very different characters but, as the game progresses, you get to choose more varied characters to use. This makes the game quite exciting as you can confront the same level in many different ways. The demo was released on the Steam client so downloading and accessing the game is quite simple. Unfortunately, my PC battled a bit so make sure you check the required minimum specifications before you buy the game. I played at quite low detail though so the game play was quite smooth and enjoyable.
The only negative about Confrontation (apart from the performance) was that I found the dungeons a bit confusing at first. After playing for a while this was resolved as I got my bearings, but I thought the developers could have made it a bit less confusing instead of hiding a switch for a door (which I only really found by accident) three or four rooms away. In this instance, however this was a pretty small thing and was quickly overcome. I would recommend Confrontation to those gamers who enjoy RPG games and I found the story very interesting and highly engaging. I’m quite looking forward to playing more of Confrontation and adding it to my collection of tactical role-playing games soon. If you enjoy a good story with some exciting action, this is definitely the game for you.

Contributor: Russell

Preview: Guild Wars 2 Hands-on (PC)

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:00:00 +0000
This past weekend, March 23rd to March 25th, I had the pleasure of ‘attending’ the Guild Wars 2 Beta event and let me tell you, it was awesome. The game is every bit as good as I anticipated but… let me not get ahead of myself. Let’s start at the very beginning (it’s a very good place to start).
The whole experience started off with an invite to create an account, register and sign a very strict (unsurprisingly so) non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Basically the NDA was pretty standard, outlining what I can and can’t talk about and when I can talk about things that I could talk about. This was a pretty smooth process and the communication between the staff at El33tonline, NCsoft, South African distributor Megarom and myself was very smooth and I’d like to thank all people involved - there’s nothing worse than having your anticipation undermined by frustration. I was then invited to download the Beta version of Guild Wars 2. Fortunately, this invite was sent very early and the download was made available early as well. I say fortunately because the game is huge – the developers say between seventeen and twenty gigabytes of data, but after all was said and done, it was approximately twelve GB. The downloading is also very smooth and the Guild Wars 2 client handles everything for you – even breakdowns of internet lines and interruptions of bandwidth are managed without having to restart the entire download (thank goodness). With over 122000 files to download, I didn’t have to do anything apart from double clicking on the client icon.
On Friday afternoon everything was in readiness. I had downloaded everything I needed (including the updated client specific to the beta test) and I logged on. It was then that I hit the biggest hurdle and one that might be the only reason the game might not be as popular as it could be: The PC system requirements to run Guild Wars 2 are quite high. My PC is quite an old one and, even setting the settings to the absolute minimum, I was lagging terribly and it was so bad that I couldn’t play the game. I was bitterly disappointed and I thought I might have to give up the opportunity. Fortunately my wife came to the rescue (thanks Jackie) and allowed me to try it on her laptop which is quite high spec (dual core, 2.2 GHz, 4 gigs ram). After copying everything over, I was very happy to discover that, although the settings were set very low again, the game was smooth, the graphics very good, the gameplay fun, interactive and intuitive and generally excellent on the higher spec machine. So this was when the fun really started (and when I sort of dropped off the face of the earth for a few hours… OK, OK – maybe a bit more than a few hours).
Guild Wars 2 is not a game. It’s a very serious commitment to awesomeness that requires a lot of time, a high tolerance for gaming excellence and the understanding of friends and loved ones who, unless they join in your game and ‘Party Up,’ will miss you in your absence from the real world. As per most role-playing games, Guild Wars 2 starts with character selection. One thing that I think that Guild Wars does well is that your character is a foundation that can be built and customised throughout the game so you aren’t stuck with bad decisions that you might make. The Guild Wars 2 Beta allowed the gamer to select between three races – Human, Charr and Norn. Noobs should always start out with a warrior in my opinion because they’re the easiest to play and the most fun to start out with because you can face most foes almost immediately.
Fighters are also generally tougher and harder to kill in the lower levels whereas Clerics, Mages and Thieves require a bit of character development and thought before simply entering the fray. So I started out with a Charr Fighter. This was very interesting for me because the Charr were the evil guys in the first Guild Wars and it was interesting to see how the developers would integrate the Charr gaming experience into the gaming world. This is something that I think ArenaNet did very well. The story of Guild Wars 2 is something that is very well thought out and this contributes enormously to the enjoyment of the game. I must congratulate the developers and writers for their story lines, the character development and the integration of the different playing races.
I played the Charr character for about six hours and I decided to play alone instead of getting into the multiplayer scenario and it was great fun. The skills and abilities of the Charr were very well integrated into the conception of the race I had when I played Guild Wars. After each ‘episode’ in the Guild Wars 2, I was asked to fill out a quick survey concerning the map, the story and the character and I am pleased to say that I never rated anything less than ‘4’ out of ‘5.’ After playing for six hours I had only completed 1% of the map so I decided that I was never going to get my character to a high enough level to enter into the real tough conflicts so I made the decision to explore the different races and maps. Each race starts on a different map and has different enemies to confront. There’s an excellent mix of new and old enemies arrayed against you and it was great fun confronting ‘Devourers’ and ‘Plain Worm Hatchlings’ again. Anyway, with this in mind, I started a new character (a human ‘Elementalist’) and started out again with a bit more knowledge.
Without sounding too confusing (I hope), a lot in Guild Wars 2 has changed from the first game but a lot has stayed the same. The game still allows for multiple characters to be stored (initially five but this may be upgradeable at some point). This is always fun because you can play multiple story lines at the same time. Instead of getting frustrated by not being able to complete a quest with one character, you can switch to your fighter and open various cans of violent tendencies upon the unsuspecting masses. You can also play a nice friendly, amiable, ‘good’ guy with one character and play an evil, underhanded, nefarious and generally not nice scallywag with another. The options are very broad and cater to all players. I played the majority of the original Guild Wars with a human elementalist and I was pleased to discover that I could start playing in what was a seamless transition from Guild Wars to Guild Wars 2. There have been some changes but these could be learned as the game progressed. The learning curve is not very steep at all and you can start playing well right from the very first minute.
I spent about eight hours on the human character and, unsurprisingly, I only managed to finish 1% of that map as well. This game is absolutely huge and will take up a lot of your time, but that’s fine with me and games that require investment in them are quite rare. I also joined a few parties and played along with some other characters, which was fun in its own right, but I think everyone was aware that this was a Beta test and we were therefore not really there to develop relationships and guilds. The potential is there, however, and it is massive and mouth watering to say the least. There are a few aspects of the game that I would like to discuss individually. These are things I have alluded to previously but they are things that I would like to pay specific attention to…
The graphics and performance of the game is very dependent on your PC. I played on a laptop that is quite decently spec’ed and I had a great time. The settings were adjusted to maximise performance, however, and this means that the shadows, textures, resolution and so forth were adjusted accordingly. Despite this, I was still impressed by the graphics and performance even at such a low level and the game was definitely playable and highly enjoyable. I would love to play it on a higher spec machine because I think that there is a lot more on offer than what I could play with, though. The storyline is something that sets Guild Wars 2 apart from other games. The plot is intricate, detailed and flowing. As I have mentioned before, this is a game that will require time and dedication and this includes immersing yourself in the plot. Of course you can ignore the plot and simply fight your way from one goal to the next but you can get a lot more enjoyment if you partake in the story lines. One can follow along with the story but there are many opportunities to leave the narrative for a bit and go on mini quests, or simply run around exploring and interacting with the environment. This is termed the PvE or Player vs. Environment. There is also a PvP (Player vs. Player) aspect to Guild Wars2 in which you can compete against other players and other guilds. I must confess that I didn’t investigate this in Guild Wars 2 and I hardly played it at all in the first game either.
The multiplay is something that is also incredible in Guild Wars 2. In my first post regarding this game I mentioned that I believe Guild Wars is the most complete online experience that I have ever had the pleasure of being a part of. From what I can see, not much has changed in the sequel and I highly recommend that gamers partake of this opportunity. Not only will you learn a lot from the other players but the gaming experience will be so much better. There are a lot of scenarios that are very tough and almost impossible without backup. The first game offered the ability to hire party members who were AI NPCs (artificial intelligence, non-playing characters) but sometimes they were un-inventive and pretty useless. Playing with other gamers allows you to strategise and make better decisions than just playing by yourself with some NPCs. You can also meet some pretty fun people.
I’ll be the first to admit that I only scratched the surface of Guild Wars 2 and there was simply too much to digest even if I had played the full 72 hours. I can, however, highly recommend this game and I suggest that it should be in your top five title to get for 2012, if not at the top. I know I will definitely spend a lot of time playing Guild Wars 2 and I hope to spend a lot of that with the El33t P33ps as well. Be careful though: Make sure that your PC can handle Guild Wars 2 before buying it, although it might just be worth upgrading for. I know I am thinking about it.

Contributor: Russell

Preview: Diablo III Hands-on (PC)

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 09:00:00 +0000
It’s Diablo III. Not Diablo 3. Not D3. Not anything else. Diablo III. It is not often that a game has such a strong following and so many people get the name wrong. It is also not often that a single game can have such a massive level of expectation and criticism aimed at it at the same time. But then, Blizzard is not just any developer, and Diablo III is not just any game and I recently had the chance to play through the early levels of the game as part of its on-going beta. The town of Tristram in the land of Sanctuary has been cleansed of the demon hordes by the heroes of Diablo II more than twenty years before. In the process they have gone mad from their ordeal and it is now up to new heroes to take their place and, if you hadn’t guess by now, the foul demon undead creatures are back!
You can now choose any of five character classes and all of them can be chosen as either male or female, allowing a personal touch for all our lady gamers out there. Available for your choosing is a Witch Doctor, Barbarian, Monk, Wizard and Demon Hunter, each with different skills and abilities. I jumped right into the beta as a monk named Oltmonk (see what I did there?). The monk is a martial artist, using his speed to deflect damage and deal rapid damage to his foes. Being a melee only character it takes us right up close to all the enemies and the beta does not waste time in getting you face-to-face with your first evil creatures. Each character has a few skills to choose from when you start the game, so unlike slower role-playing games you do not start off with a complete weakling in Diablo III. The focus here is on the action!
Character progression still happens as before and you level up through combat and completing quests, but you can also change your character’s skills by using runes, which in turn will change specific skills. Oltmonk can for example equip the ‘Bounding Light’ rune to his standard ‘Fists of Thunder’ attack, thereby releasing chain lightning with every third blow. In addition, the monk does not use magic so he doesn’t have the familiar blue orb, but rather a golden white orb representing ‘Spirit.’ For all intents and purposes, this is the mana counter and is filled up by using different attacks. Originally, rune stones were dropped randomly by fallen enemies but this has now changed to be unlocked at certain levels. Since the beta is here for Blizzard to experiment and test different options and gameplay styles, major changes like these are expected.
A real-money auction house will be included in the full game, and the beta has this in place to test it properly. This will allow players to trade any items they find or simply sell them for real world cash. I expect a few items to reach really crazy amounts as people search for that special item to give them the edge. Not all game types will allow the auction house, though. Once you complete Diablo III you will gain access to the ‘Hardcore’ mode. When playing in this mode, you, your character and your items will not be permitted into the auction house, and when your Hardcore mode character dies, s/he will not be able to be resurrected, your items won’t be transferred or and none of your save games be loaded. If your Hardcore character dies, s/he remains dead for good! Yipes!
We can also expect player-versus-player combat arenas with both ranked and unranked matches where your singleplayer and co-operative characters can be used to duke it out. Yes, co-op will feature heavily and using the Battle.net online matchmaking service players can hop in and out of their friends’ campaign to assist or just to steal the loot (Delightful! – Ed) One of the most convenient features experienced was the fact that you no longer need to click on gold to pick it up! You simply walk over it and the gold will appear in your inventory. This will save the frustration of picking up all the obvious items like gold and still leaves you to be picky about what else you pick up. The game has come under fire by die-hard fans about the art style and how it looks a little bit too cartoony for such a dark game. Blizzard had a classic prank about a unicorn pooping rainbows for it’s April fool’s joke a few years back, but personally I feel they are hitting the nail on the head as far as atmosphere and colour schemes are concerned. The game feels dark and sinister and creatures seem adequately scary. Why anyone would want a darker game is beyond me. Even the sound is very good with the clatter of weapons and the creaking of bones adding to the overall immersion.
Add to that the fact that all dungeons and enemy encounters will be randomly created, so you will never be able to learn a level and know what to expect. Even some of the quests will be random and class specific, so there are even more surprises to be found. Surprises in the dark! Diablo III has a lot going for it. It’s the same action RPG that so many developers have based their games on, but with all the bells and whistles expected of a game launching in 2012. The game scales very well and runs on pretty old hardware and still manages to look rather good. The various classes, random dungeons, quests and the adult nature of the story and creatures combine into a fine game already. Considering this is the beta of the game I was amazed at how stable and well balanced it feels already.
Diablo III is coming to bring you mouse-breaking clicking with intense action-role-playing and the same addictive gameplay that you miss. This will be a great game. In fact it already is!

Contributor: Oltman

Preview: Binary Domain Hands-on (Xbox360)

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000
In my mind previewing a game demo must be very similar to what it would be like to go on a blind date. In either situation you’ve been privy to some pertinent information to pique your interest enough to agree to give it a go without really knowing what to expect. You will either have a great time and want to do it again or you’ll run away at first sight. Of course, there’s also a possibility you end up somewhere in between those two extremes and you tentatively decide to go on a second date to dig a bit deeper. The latter situation (somewhere in between) is more or less how my first encounter with Binary Domain panned out. The singleplayer demo isn’t the prettiest third-person shooter to hit the streets recently but it’s got a lot of character and I’d really like to get to know it better before I make up my mind whether or not to go steady.
The basic setting in Binary Domain, from what I could gather in the demo, is a futuristic Earth that relies extensively on robots to make life easier. Over time, these robots have been upgraded and improved and some were secretly given emotions which inspired robotic ambition and anger and all those human qualities that drive humanity’s success (and downfall, as it turns out). The end result is classic sci-fi apocalypse fare - robots rebel against humanity and an all out war for dominance ensues. Think Terminator in the year 2088, only with an ‘I, Robot’ futuristic utopia instead of a nuclear wasteland, and you’ve got a good idea of what the world of Binary Domain looks like. In the demo players are given the opportunity to try out two levels from the solo campaign. The first level requires you to select two squad members out of a possible four, giving you a sample of the squad management. Each member has a brief bio and offers unique skills which makes the team selection a little more complicated than simply picking the two beefy guys as your entourage. The impact of the trust element of the game becomes more apparent as the various characters interact differently with each other and with you.
In Binary Domain you aren’t tasked simply with blowing up enemy robots - you have to earn fellow squad mates’ trust to ensure they will follow your orders. If you insult them, act generally abrasive, or shoot them, then their trust for you drops and you may eventually find your squad in total disarray with insubordinate troops. The demo didn’t give enough time to sufficiently work on this dynamic but at least in principle it’s a nice idea which brings more human drama to an already edgy war with an uncertain future for humankind. Shooting enemies earns points which can be spent at upgrade stations in the levels. Upgrades range from weapon improvements to nanotech-styled enhancements which you can buy for any squad member. In terms of action, the game plays out like most third-person shooters with a lot of emphasis on what I like to call the ‘gun-and-cover’ game style. While you run from cars to boulders, always edging closer to the next objective, you can bark orders to your squad mates to cover you, attack, or hold back and depending on their level of trust for you and their personality they will either comply or just flat-out refuse. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem any way to issue individuals orders so it’s a ‘team, attack!’ and ‘team, hold back!’ approach which doesn’t often suit a sniper and heavy weapons combination.
The first level showcases a grand boss battle at the end which requires some impressive action to overcome and certainly adds to the ominous feeling that the odds are on the robots winning this war. Whereas the first level shows off a bit of the squad-mate dynamic and some urban street fighting, the second level brings the battle to a metro station with a different squad. In this stage one of your allies is another robot which indicates there’s more to this game’s story-line than initially meets the eye, and it’s this aspect of Binary Domain that intrigues me the most. The combat in the metro level is more frantic than the urban level and it showcases much more challenging robots and more deadly open area combat. The level ends rather abruptly when the second ‘boss’ appears meaning our brief encounter with the game gives us a basic understanding of Binary Domain gameplay and what to expect.
… And what is it we should expect? The game shows a lot of potential but given the purported depth of the character interactions, the demo felt more like a speed date than a blind date. The combat is a bit repetitive within each specific level but the levels differ from each other enough to make up for this through different combat styles and opponents. The game itself didn’t awe me but it certainly is entertaining for the short time the demo lasted. It supports multiplayer but this wasn’t available in the demo and as far as I can tell, there’s no co-op option which is a true shame. If you’re a fan of Gears of War and played it solo then Binary Domain should offer a similar degree of enjoyment, but if you enjoy the likes of Gears of War for the co-op then Binary Domain is going to be a lonely ride. I’m particularly curious about the voice commands system, the human drama and consequences of your decisions, and am eagerly awaiting the chance to discover more of the attractive storyline. If you’re needing a third person shooter fix and have had enough of Gears, then watch out for Binary Domain with its intriguing plot and Terminator-styled, near-indestructible robots that won’t stop until you’ve destroyed every last moving part.

Contributor: Bryan

Preview: Street Fighter X Tekken Hands-on (PS3)

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000
Street Fighter X Tekken isn’t out until March but I was lucky enough to get my hands on a preview build this past weekend. The game represents the first half of the collaboration between Street Fighter creators Capcom and Tekken creators Namco, with Capcom first out of the gate with Street Fighter X Tekken while Namco ramps up production on Tekken X Street Fighter. Naturally Capcom’s creation is in the style of recent Street Fighter titles, with Street Fighter IV’s gorgeous cel-shaded graphics making a return along with nineteen characters from the Street Fighter series. The rest of the line-up consists of nineteen Tekken fighters plus five PlayStation-exclusive characters (including Cole from the inFamous series).
I found Tekken 6’s graphics to be a little on the sterile side so it’s a real treat to see iconic Tekken characters such as King and Hwoarang rendered with far more pizazz using Capcom’s cel-shaded technique. Street Fighter X Tekken’s overall tone is very tongue-in-cheek so the cel-shaded look breathes life into the characters’ exaggerated expressions. There’s a lot of detail to be found in the game’s graphics, whether you choose to focus on all the background activity in each stage or pay attention to the way a character’s expression changes when they’re dealt a particularly heavy blow. Each stage has its own allure and the environments are definitely some of the most interesting and varied fighting arenas I’ve seen in a while. For example, there’s one stage where a couple of trucks decked out in LED lights pull up in the background as you fight. The new arrivals lend a carnival atmosphere to the battle and it’s hard not to smile at the sheer creativity of the background designers.
Street Fighter X Tekken boasts a number of modes which should please fighting game veterans. Joining the standard modes such as ‘Arcade,’ ‘Challenge’ and ‘Practice’ is an interesting new multiplayer mode called ‘Scramble.’ This allows four players to fight simultaneously in pairs of two, with all four characters being on-screen at once. This should be chaotic fun whether you play locally or online and is one of the modes I’m most looking forward to sinking some time into. Arcade mode sees you selecting two characters and taking part in tag battles similar to those seen in Tekken Tag Tournament. You lose the round as soon as one of your characters is knocked out so it’s important to summon your ally when your health is low. Of course, the tag mechanic in Street Fighter X Tekken is a lot more refined than it was in Tekken Tag Tournament so there are plenty of tag tactics to learn if you want your team to be unstoppable against similarly skilled human opponents.
One of the things that surprised me about the control scheme in Street Fighter X Tekken is that every button on the Dual Shock 3 is used during combat. ‘Quick Combos’ can be assigned to L3 and R3 and the shoulder buttons are used to pull off powerful punches and kicks. This gives the player easy access to a range of destructive moves which can quickly turn the tide of battle. Tekken is a 3D fighter while Street Fighter’s battles typically take place on a 2D plane. This game opts for 2D action so there’s no way to sidestep around opponents for players used to Tekken’s gameplay mechanics. That said, part of Street Fighter X Tekken’s charm is seeing how the Tekken characters have been adapted for the more range-orientated gameplay of the Street Fighter series. They all have a new arsenal of moves, some of which are fantastically potent.
A new addition to Street Fighter’s gameplay is the gem system. You can assign three gems to each character and these grant stat bonuses when certain conditions are met during battle. For example, you may need to perform a six-hit combo to activate a speed gem which allows you to move faster. Experienced players will no doubt relish the extra layer of strategy that the gem system introduces to bouts. Street Fighter X Tekken has a couple of great options hidden away in its menu system. Installing the game to your PS3’s hard drive will shave a good seven seconds or so off the loading time between each stage, and there’s also the option to select English or Japanese voice-overs on a per character basis.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how the finished game turns out, and can’t wait to see how Street Fighter X Tekken translates to the PS Vita’s hardware. I think the game will bring Street Fighter and Tekken players together in an unprecedented way, and both groups of gamers should find a lot to like about the other franchise after being exposed to many of its central characters and components.

Contributor: Tom

Preview: Mass Effect 3 Hands-on (Xbox360)

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000
Mass Effect 3 is by far one of the most anticipated games for me this year, hosting the conclusion of Shepard’s tale in the Mass Effect universe, and I recently had the chance to play the game’s upcoming demo before its release on February 14th. I knew the demo would be good. I knew the graphics would look better than before. I knew the action would be stellar. I also kind of assumed that none of the story would be given away. What I didn’t expect, however, was how much I underestimated the level of quality that would be present in the Mass Effect 3 demo - it blew me away and did nothing to help calm my expectations.
The Mass Effect 3 demo starts off with the Reapers arriving on Earth - don’t worry, this isn’t a spoiler, as we all knew this was going to happen. If you don’t know who or what the Reapers are, however, then you need to play Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 now - time is running out before the third instalment arrives! For now, however, it’s enough to know that the Reapers are (very basically) extremely powerful beings. You play as the Shepard of your choice, male or female. I have to say I feel the female Shepard I designed looks much better than the new default female. I had high hopes for her when I saw the drawing of ‘FemShep,’ but the actual model doesn’t look as good as I’d like.
The introduction level in the Mass Effect 3 demo really tugs at your heart with intimate moments of humanity on the brink of extinction. Explosions detonate all around you, utter chaos ensues and, before you know it, you’re already shouting at people, either to get moving or to take cover. The second part of the demo sees Shepard, Garrus and Liara take on some of Cerberus’ goons as they try and protect a female Krogan on a Solarian planet. This part of the demo illustrates the effectiveness of squad control and teaches you basic flanking and assaulting manoeuvres. Depending on your gameplay mode you also learn about upgrading your character’s skills and abilities. The demo doesn’t allow you to use your previously saved characters but instead asks you a few short questions before (depending on your gaming mode) you get to design your own Shepard.
Mass Effect 3 allows you to play the game in one of three ways, the first being in ‘Action’ mode which turns the game into an action shooter. Your character levels up automatically and the conversations all play out as cut-scenes requiring no interaction from you. Enemies tend to be tougher, but you can still adjust the difficulty. On the other end of the scale you can play the game in ‘Story’ mode, which gives you full access to all the conversation trees. It also makes the combat easier and allows you to breeze through it to see how the story will unfold. The middle-ground between these two modes is the ‘Role Playing’ mode. This is classic Mass Effect and you can customize your character, level them up and choose all options during conversations. This is the mode I will be playing the full game in. In my eyes there is no other way, although I tried both of the other methods for the demo.
Mass Effect 3’s sampler demonstrates a lot of the features that the full game has been advertising and the graphics feel remarkably fresh for a third game on the same platform. The male Shepard is starting to show some crow’s feet around his eyes and the stubble on his chin is more clearly visible. Even my non-gaming wife noted how much sharper the graphics look. Add to those visuals some great sound and the very familiar soundtrack and you know you’re onto something special. Combat in the demo is short and staggered, yet does a great job of letting you know what you will expect. It features the usual task wheels to help you choose abilities and weapons and even features a melee attack, which I found to be very inaccurate and I often found myself stabbing air.
One feature that really made the demo, and the game, stand out for me was the great Kinect integration. Luckily you’re not forced to use the Kinect at all, and even more importantly you won’t stand in front of your TV looking like a fool. The only feature used is the microphone and you’ll be issuing voice commands to choose your own weapons and abilities. These commands have a slight delay and when things get hot you will appreciate the chance to take a breath by using the controller to choose them. The game flows a lot better, however, if you’re using voice commands. Barking orders at your team-mates also becomes second nature very quickly, with Garrus actually going where I tell him to and also using his powers when I command him to.
The characters are all back, the Reapers are arriving and Shepard is out to kick some butt. With massive action set-pieces and brilliant storytelling, this demo wasn’t required to convince me that I want - no need - Mass Effect 3. It merely proved that I can’t wait any longer. The 9th of March simply cannot arrive soon enough!

Contributor: Oltman

Preview: Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City Hands-on (PS3)

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000
Everybody knows that it’s best to play Resident Evil in the dark with the sound turned up. It’s just one of those things that every gamer intrinsically understands. Kind of like how we understand that ammo crates will be few and far between, you’ll need to watch out for frightening zombie dogs around every corner and that deep down we all still miss the typewriter save option. And so it was with this knowledge that I set off on my newest adventure into a world of zombies and umbrellas…luckily for me I had a big gun, and the light switch was nearby in case I needed to switch it back on to calm my nerves for a moment.
Yes folks, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is a little bit different to the standard formula, but that doesn’t mean Capcom has packed any less survival horror into the package. Rest assured there’s still plenty of both survival and horror in Operation Raccoon City, and when you put this together with action, guns and lots of enemies you end up with an excellent co-operative gameplay experience. There’s been an outbreak of a deadly virus in Raccoon City, and the Umbrella Corporation will stop at nothing to destroy all the evidence and keep the government forces from discovering the truth behind the epidemic. You’ll step into the shoes of an Umbrella Security Soldier in this team based shooter, as you and three online friends embark on a mission to silence anyone who may disclose the truth and ultimately attempt to escape the city alive.
There are other forces at play, however, and soon you will discover that more than hordes of zombies stand in your way. In addition to the horrifying zombies you will face armed US Government forces and terrifying Bio-Organic Weapons (B.O.W’s). There is a constant rallying to achieve your objectives, defeat enemies and ultimately survive the onslaught, and escape. You’ll move through the city gathering intel, destroying evidence and generally trying to stay alive. Like all other Resident Evil games, ammo is not liberally strewn around but, apart from replenishing ammo whenever you can, you’ll be able to test out the generous range of weapons in the levels. If you’re looking for something reliable, the Assault Rifle is a safe option, but if you prefer running into the heat of the battle and picking pieces of zombie from out behind your ear then I would personally recommend the Pump Action Shotgun.
Grenades are also a very popular option for clearing a room full of zombies, be it incendiary, stun or frag grenades to help redecorate the surrounding walls. You can resort to your pistol if you do find yourself backed up against a corner with a ‘clicking’ sound emanating from your gun’s barrel…but then again why not just draw your knife and use the melee option to cut that zombie down to size. While facing the nimble-footed zombies (no shuffling here!) and persistent government troops you’re sure to take some damage. Never fear, you’ll be able to fill up that health meter with green herbs (ah, RESI, it’s been too long!) as well as collect health sprays scattered throughout the levels which come in handy during a battle. The anti-viral spray is also essential, because if you should become infected (cue blue slightly fuzzy screen) then you’ll need to use this anti-virus to cure yourself before you succumb to the virus too. Keep a wary eye on your teammates too, because if they become infected they can, and will, attack you! You’ll also find that if you are bleeding from a battle (cue red slightly fuzzy screen) the zombies will be drawn to you like bees to a hive so make sure you are equipped with health spray or that your teammate is ready to share the healing love with you before you become zombie bait.
The gameplay mechanics are very intuitive to a third person shooter and, while the automatic cover did take a little getting used to, I enjoyed mastering the slightly different control system, complete with brutal finishing moves. The variety offered by the six different character choices, as well as the option to unlock active or passive skills and different primary and secondary weapons through XP, helps to keep the gameplay fresh and interesting. Operation Raccoon City is like Resident Evil as you have never seen it before, the co-op team element and the size of the monsters you will face have taken this to the next level of a survival horror meets action third person shooter videogame. You’ll quickly learn that you have to watch your back, if it’s not a B.O.W chasing you down, trained Government forces will be blocking your escape route, while zombies create havoc in between. Its action that never stops, never lets up, and I love it!
Capcom have got the balance just right in Operation Raccoon City: the intensity of the chapters, the war being waged between the different forces, and the co-operative element combine well to deliver an action-packed Resident Evil experience that fans of the series will not want to miss (keycards, green herbs and all) and newcomers will want to experience for themselves.

Contributor: Lisa

Preview: Syndicate Hands-on (Xbox360)

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000
Despite a deluge of screenshots and trailers, I must admit that I haven’t known what to expect with EA and Starbreeze Studios’ upcoming Syndicate, a game that shares the name and universe of a classic PC strategy action game from the 90’s, but little else. Set in a neo-dystopian future where powerful conglomerates control and govern the world, industrial espionage is the order of the day, except in addition to stolen trade secrets and underhanded dealings these corporations make use of technologically enhanced agents to infiltrate their competing multinationals to carry out missions that could very well involve assassinating the CEO or president of a company. Business is war, indeed.
While we haven’t yet had a chance to go hands-on with Syndicate’s singleplayer campaign, thanks to the recently released co-operative multiplayer demo we’ve stolen a taste of what we can expect from this mode of the game once it’s released… and we certainly enjoyed the flavour! Playing as a member of a four-strong crack squad of agents, the co-operative multiplayer mode in Syndicate tasks players with completing set objectives across nine different locations and missions, each of which is inspired by memorable scenarios from 1993’s ‘Syndicate.’ The location on offer in the demo, Western Europe, has players take down a powerful colonel, but not before working your way through dozens of soldiers, a handful of sergeants and a couple well-armoured foes, all while working as a tight-knit team to survive. Fresh out of the gate, you’ll have limited options as far as customisation and equipment load-out goes, but as you play you’ll earn points that go towards improving your skills as well as researching new skills to increase the effectiveness of your weapons and abilities. How do you earn these points? By destroying enemies, helping team-mates and completing objectives, naturally.
Movement in Syndicate is weighty and (somehow simultaneously) fluid, with the option to run and slide out of harm’s way, vault over waist-high walls and intuitively lean over and around cover simply by moving up against it, all wonderfully portrayed in first-person. Aiming down the sights of the game’s assault rifles, SMGs, sniper rifles, pistols and shotguns is snappy and squeezing off rounds of gunfire is very satisfying indeed – all of the appropriate gameplay ‘feel’ boxes are checked and scraped as sound, visuals and feedback combine to make ripping into enemies all the more rewarding. Surprisingly, all of the weapons behave and feel quite differently to one another and you’ll soon learn the tricks of each to extract maximum effectiveness from them. Up-close-and-personal melee combat is also an option and it’s not impossible to surprise a soldier by running forward, sliding into him and snapping his neck in one smooth action. Surprise!
You are but one of four squad members, however, and while it may be tempting to perform run-and-gun heroics on your lonesome, you’re going to get cut down very quickly by enemy gunfire using this method. In Syndicate’s co-op mode, teamwork is vital to success and if you stray too far from your squad your mission is going to be compromised. This advice is made all the more salient with the knowledge that players are able to heal one another with the press (and hold) of the left bumper, but only at close range (simply aim and heal), so it’s important to stay with your squad. In addition, when it comes time to ‘Reboot’ a fellow squad member (because s/he ran off guns blazing and was shot down, but not out), it’s a bit of a chore to make your way to their position because half a dozen enemies stand between you and your flailing ally. Stick together and the process of ‘Rebooting’ is made much easier.
An important inclusion in Syndicate is the option to make use of abilities such as ‘Shielding’ and ‘Squad Heal’ (to protect yourself and heal everyone in your group, respectively), ‘Backfire’ (to cause your enemies’ weapons to malfunction) and ‘Damage Link’ (to temporarily increase the effectiveness of your squad’s weapons). Choosing from this selection (and more in the full game) allows you to effectively change your class on-the-fly, going from bruiser and tank to healer and support roles as you see fit. This is exciting because it means that you don’t necessary have to ‘choose’ a discrete class at the beginning of a match, and other than your weapon of choice (which can be swapped out during a mission), you’re not confined to one job at a time.
This is where those unlocked points come in. You can ‘purchase’ and upgrade abilities in the menus and set which skills and improvements you wish to research and unlock before diving back into a mission. The points accrued during a game will then go towards that research and after two games of earning points, for example, you’ll gain access to more stable guns, more explosive grenades, longer periods of ability use, shorter cool-down times for those abilities and much, much more. The range of upgrades and customisation options in Syndicate is vast so you’ll need to earn lots of points to work your way down the technology trees. In order to accomplish this goal, you can play each co-op mission as many times as you like in order to perfect your approach to each level’s challenges, which is very reminiscent of other co-operative focussed games such as Left 4 Dead. While not quite as punishing as Valve’s zombie-themed shooter, fans of that game will surely appreciate Syndicate’s methods of encouraging co-ordinated team play.
Despite the relatively simple levels and unremarkable enemy routines, a single mission of co-op Syndicate can become deliciously chaotic as players run, slide and leap about the screen, dishing out hundreds of rounds of bullets, lobbing frag grenades and using their abilities in unison. Skilled and levelled-up players, especially, provide enormous visual flair. You’ll need to take a deep breath before wading into the next firefight because the action goes from ‘relaxed’ to ‘white knuckle’ in split-seconds! As you drink in the battle unfolding before you, it’s easy to overlook Syndicate’s smart user interface as well as the slickly designed menu systems which both enforce your position as a technologically enhanced soldier whose only contact with its employers is through futuristic yet familiar digital briefings. The cyber punk visual aesthetic is also excellently realised and if someone told me that Syndicate took place in the same universe as the classic film Blade Runner, I wouldn’t even blink.
Even though the demo for Syndicate’s co-operative missions is but a slice of the full multiplayer offering (which in itself forms roughly half of the Syndicate experience), members of El33tonline can’t wait to dive into the rest of the missions and upgrades when the game launches in North America on February 21st and in Europe and other regions on February 24th.

Contributor: Oliver

Preview: The Settlers Online Hands-on (PC)

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:00:00 +0000
The Settlers Online starts out familiarly for anyone who’s played a Settlers PC game. You begin with an untouched, newly found piece of land. The Mayor’s House has already been built, presumably with resources brought across on the boats. The first thing you need is wood, so you build a fir wood cutter to start cutting down trees. Next you build a sawmill to convert the logs into planks that can be used to build with. You’ll also need to build a forester to ensure you don’t completely use up the forest without replanting. Each of these buildings takes a few minutes to build so you can do quite a bit of waiting around as they complete. If you want to you can pay 2 crystal to complete each building instantaneously. Crystal can be bought with real currency, so this is how the free-to-play game is intending to extract revenue from players.

Build, wait, explore, wait, build…
The next step in the tutorial map is to send a geologist to find a stone deposit. This takes 4 minutes. You can halve the time by paying 25 crystal (and again by paying another 25), but you can’t get that geologist to find anything instantaneously. Now that you have a stone deposit you can build a mason to make stone blocks out of the stone deposit. Then you build a fishery that catches fish from nearby water. A Provisions House will convert the fish into food parcels. These parcels are what are called ‘buffs’ in the game, and can be provided to any of your working buildings to speed them up for a length of time. For example, a Fish Plate will increase worker productivity in one building of yours or your friend’s for 30 minutes, producing twice as much as normal for that period. The Provisions House is a bigger building so it costs 6 crystal to build instantaneously, and you can’t speed up the creation of food parcels. Your next task is to send an explorer to explore a new sector. This takes 10 minutes, but can be sped up to 5 minutes by paying 10 crystals (and again to half that time again). Once a new sector is discovered it can be claimed for you by building a storehouse on it. This allows your settlement to expand further than just the sector you start in.
Now your geologist can search for a copper deposit, which takes another 10 minutes. Once it’s found you can build a copper mine over it and start producing copper ore. To convert the ore into a usable resource (bronze) you need a copper smelter. But the smelter needs something to burn, so you need a coking plant to make coal out of wood to provide your smelther with fuel. You can now also built a toolmaker, which converts bronze into tools. Now you’re asked to build a barracks, but I’m out of stone so I have to wait.
Persistent game world - your settlers work when you’re not watching
Time lapses are long. The details tab of a building gives you a breakdown of an entire production process of a building including transport. For example, one of my masons, with a buff on it of a plate of fish takes 6 minutes 16 seconds to produce two pieces of stone. To build the barracks costs 120 stone… Fortunately your settlers continue to work even when you’re not logged in, so the most efficient way of playing seems to be to do a few tweaks to your settlement and log off for the day. Then when you log in the next day you will have the resources to do a bit more building and recruiting. Spend that and log off to return the next day and do a bit more. Ubisoft even reward you for logging in on consecutive days: each day you log in you get a reward, and after 7 days you get 45 crystal.
Instead of waiting around for a few hours, you could also just buy the resources needed with crystals. But not all resources are available in the Trader. Bronze Swords, for example, aren’t, so you’re going to have to wait for those swords to be produced. Next up is trying to recruit a unit. The most basic is the Recruit, and he costs 5 beer mugs and 10 swords. You also need to ensure you have a settler available in your settlement to recruit. Why one guy needs so many swords is a mystery. What isn’t a mystery is the amount of work it is to produce a beer: build a wheat farm, build a wheat field, build a well and build a brewery. It’s all very sensible but very time consuming (or costs a few rand if you don’t want to wait). Fortunately getting swords is easy because we already have bronze so all we need is a bronze weaponsmith.
If you wait an age (or go to sleep to return tomorrow) you will have enough beer and swords to hire a bunch of guys. But now you need a general too. For this you will need to build a tavern, since that’s where generals are generally hired. With a general and a set of recruits you can send out a small army unit to attack nearby bandits and loot their towns (it sounds more like we’re the bandits, but oh well). At this point the tutorial stops guiding you and simply requires you to reach the next level by gaining more XP through attacking bandit camps. Levels are gained by completing quests, and each level you go up allows you to use more buildings. The buildings I’ve described so far are all the basic buildings and about half of the intermediate buildings. There are still the 20 advanced and 10 expert buildings to explore. And, being an online, free-to-play game, there are bound to be more and more gameplay options being added as you play. Already there are little features which show a little popup saying ‘coming soon.’
Free-to-play means paying if you want to, and making it hard not to
Buying crystals is clearly what Ubisoft want you to do. They don’t come cheap. It’s 2 Euros for 200, which is about enough for 100 Stone, 100 Planks and 100 Coal in the Resources market, or you can buy a Starter Pack which contains 400 planks, 400 stone, 100 tools and 20 settlers. You can also spend more to get more crystals. 10 Euros, for example, buys you 1700 crystals. When I was playing a ‘happy hour’ began which added a bonus 20% on to all crystal packs. There are many ways to spend these crystals. You can beautify your settlement with basic roads for free, but if you want to make it look really good you need to spend crystals. You can buy a stone bench for 35 crystals, for example, or a bed of roses for 35. You can also replenish your stone and copper deposits by buying a Steel Chisel for 35 or a Copper Diviner for 35.
I will admit, I am not a big fan of this style of free-to-play gaming which takes more than one leaf out of Zynga’s book. The Settlers Online has not convinced me otherwise. The game is arduous if you want to get anything done in one sitting and avoid paying any money. If you limit yourself to a little while every day then you’re probably playing how Ubisoft intend the game to be played given the semi-real time nature of everything, but even then there is a lot of waiting around and more then a little busywork in the form of creating buffs to last while you’re not playing, or hurrying up building by paying crystals, or buying crystals so you can replenish your deposits, or sending out geologists to find new deposits. I can’t see myself playing without paying as the waiting is highly frustrating - but I would say 10 Euros should get you quite a number of hours of enjoyment since 1700 crystals is a pretty large amount. If you continue to play on an ongoing basis you’ll probably spend quite a bit more than that, however. The Settlers Online is a very different experience to previous Settlers games, both in the graphics (which are nice 2D sprites but not as beautiful as recent Anno games or Settlers games), the density of play and the focus on playing with friends. I don’t think it will necessarily appeal to Settlers fans, but rather to those looking for a social, daily gaming experience.

Contributor: Peter

Preview: UFC Undisputed 3 Hands-on (Xbox360)

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000
In an effort to keep the series fresh and avoid a cycle of so-so annualised sequels, THQ made the salient decision to hold back the extremely popular UFC Undisputed series of mixed martial arts fighting games in 2011 following the release of two successful franchise entries in 2009 and 2010. The hope for THQ was that its development partners would be able to introduce truly useful and groundbreaking features in the 2012 edition of the series, while the publisher itself went about the important business of gathering fan feedback in order to improve and evolve different features of UFC Undisputed 3 to deliver the best game possible.
From what we’ve seen of UFC Undisputed 3 so far, changes have indeed been made, improvements have been massaged into the gameplay and those useful features are definitely present and accounted for. Will UFC fans love or hate the changes made to the series? The biggest complaint I levied against UFC 2009 Undisputed and UFC Undisputed 2010 were the laborious load times between the menu selections and actual gameplay. In those games, it takes an age to navigate around the menus and simply get into a fight, for example – a fight that may only last a minute before you’re kicked back into the menus to start again. Thankfully, it seems as though UFC Undisputed 3 has largely addressed this issue. Menus are much snappier and easy to navigate while load times are minimal. Still, I could always do with less waiting for a 30 second fight, but the developers have done a fantastic job in reducing inactivity time.
While previous UFC games boasted very satisfying and technical fighting mechanics, the responsiveness of your fighter always seemed a few split-seconds too slow with actions being carried out just too sluggishly for my tastes. Again, UFC Undisputed 3 is improved in this regard and response time between button press and your on-screen actions is faster, contributing to that all important combat ‘feel.’ Punches and kicks are fluidly performed by your fighter of choice and impact your opponent’s head, face and stomach with tremendous weight – the subsequent animated reactions to your attacks are tight and only slightly exaggerated to once again add force and ‘feel’ to combinations of high kicks, uppercuts, wide and lumbering hooks, flurries of quick jabs and backhand pirouettes. These fighters can be pretty elegant when they need to be!
As in the 2009 and 2010 editions of UFC, the controller’s face buttons will carry out punches and kicks, while your left shoulder and bumper buttons will act as modifiers, allowing you to either change the height of your attack or perform special moves. The right trigger and bumper is dedicated to upper and lower defence, but it’s still a bit of a guessing game as to which part of your body you’ll need to protect as opponents rain down high and low attacks. It’s a safe bet to simply protect your head for most of the fight. In keeping with UFC Undisputed 3’s focus on player accessibility, the developers have included a ‘Pro’ and ‘Amateur’ control set, used for transitions between clinches and grapples, as well as during the intense ground or submission portion of fights. This is where the sticks come in, and depending on your chosen control scheme, you’ll be furiously twiddling, flicking and rotating the right stick to move into advantageous fighting positions standing up or on the ground.
If you find yourself on the ground, a quick click of the left stick gets you back up again. This is very important and a vast improvement over previous UFC where guessing games over which direction to twiddle the stick could have resulted in many a lost fight. Similarly, if you’ve pinned your opponent on the ground, a simple click of the right stick will transition you into a submission manoeuvre – also an important improvement. Once you’re in a submission (and attempting to twist and pull the other fighter’s limbs into places they’re not meant to go i.e. backwards), you’ll enter into a little mini-game where you essentially ‘chase’ your opponent’s icon (either red or blue) around a 2D octagon shape, the objective being to ‘cover’ the other icon with your own. Success depends on your reaction times and stick rotation abilities, but things like fighter energy, skill and position will also determine whether or not you ‘pull’ off a successful submission. While it can’t be denied that this is a much more effective approach to submissions in UFC, it is a little silly and your focus completely switches to the little red and blue dots running around and around the 2D octagon, rather than your own fighter. Couldn’t the developer have come up with something that made greater use of their meticulously created 3D models rather than switch the player’s attention to a 2D mini-game?
UFC Undisputed 3 is visually much more impressive than previous series entries and it may just be me, but fighter animations also appear more fluid with a greater range of movements. Presentation-wise, it’s just as bombastic as before with great pomp and circumstance surrounding every fight as a commentary team discuss the combatants, fighters enter the stage to lights, music and applause and mainstay announcer Bruce Buffer elongates vowel and consonant pronunciation like nobody’s business. There also seems to be greater variety in the sorts of comments the commentator’s will utter, with entire anecdotes related to players. Hopefully these don’t get too long in the tooth in the full game.
UFC Undisputed 3 is destined to once again reign supreme in the realm of technical MMA-based fighting games, especially with no real competition to speak of (except for 2009 and 2010’s UFC titles). With 150 fighters spread across seven weight divisions, the inclusion of the brutal Pride fighting rule-set, loads of training camps, an entire career mode and character customisation options, this game is improved and enhanced in just about every way that matters, and because it’s such a technical game with dozens and dozens of moves to learn and chain together, the real challenge will begin as players head online to do battle in The Octagon. Will UFC fans love or hate the changes made to the series? I’m going to bet on the former.
We’ll dig into the full range of features included in UFC Undisputed 3 in our review of the game once it’s released on February 14th in the US and February 17th around the rest of the world For now, you can sample the game for yourself with the demo on Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network, read El33tonline’s previous hands-on preview of the game from our time at gamescom, and browse through our past coverage for more screenshots and a collection of videos.

Contributor: Oliver

Preview: The Darkness II Hands-on (Xbox360)

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000
Before I start this preview of The Darkness II, I would like to make the point clear that this game is for mature audiences only. Do not buy it for anyone under the age of 18, do not let anyone under the age of 18 borrow it and do not play it in the same room where there is anyone under the age of 18 present. The Darkness II features bad language, themes of an adult nature, violence, gore and all that other stuff and it is rated accordingly. OK, so now the responsible gamer in me has had his say, here we go…
I didn’t play The Darkness so I was a bit unprepared for what I was about to experience in The Darkness II. Suffice to say I was creeped out pretty much immediately and it’s not often I can say something like that. After playing mostly kids games with my children I wasn’t mentally prepared for the violence and gore that The Darkness II displays. And, of course, one must not forget the evil undertone that the game has either. For those of you who didn’t play the first episode, The Darkness basically follows the story of Jackie Estacado who is possessed by a demonic presence (called ‘The Darkness’) that manifests itself in powers such as two huge ‘arms’ (serpents? snakes? demons?) that project from his shoulders, as well as regeneration, enhanced strength and a dark minion that does naughty things to people and in general makes a nuisance of himself (he passes wind frequently).
This ‘4 armed’ entity is great fun to play as you can fire weapons with your human hands and use the demon arms to club, grab, throw, maim, destroy and generally cause mischief to anyone or anything that happens to be in the general vicinity. Since the first game, Jackie has learned to control and contain The Darkness and, of course, The Darkness is unhappy with this situation and wants to get out in the world and do bad stuff. I didn’t think Jackie was going to be able to contain The Darkness for very long and, lo and behold, out it popped in the third scene. And that… as they say… was that. Game on!
This game has some very evil undertones. In fact, the demon possessing you keeps telling you to “Stay out of the light” and “Embrace the Darkness” and you keep getting hints such as “Eat hearts to regain health” and “You can regenerate in the Darkness.” Of course, mature gamers will ignore this and just accept the game for what it is: a fun romp through the city where you can be the badass and destroy things with impunity. Of course, this is the reason the game is age restricted and quite rightly so. I mean, any game where you get points depending on how you kill someone isn’t generally intended to compete for the ‘My Little Pony’ demographic. My personal favourite kill move is called ‘The Wishbone,’ where one demon arm grabs one leg of your victim and the other arm grabs the other leg and… well, I’m sure you can imagine. Don’t forget to make a wish!
From what I can tell from my time in The Darkness II, in the previous game the main character was unable to save the life of a loved one and this may have been as a result of the intervention of the demonic possession. In this game, however, there is a baddie trying to get you to give up The Darkness so that he can use it for his own nefarious intentions. Of course, you say ‘hell no’ and then you have to go save your Aunt Sarah. Let’s hope you have better luck this time. The demo plays through three major scenes and all scenes were well put together, well thought out and flowed very well. I am lucky in that I don’t take any game too seriously (except for Tetris) and I can laugh at the carnage and blood and gore because I know it’s just part of the game. If you can’t then I suggest you play something else.
The Darkness II seems easy to play but difficult to master and I am really looking forward to playing the full game. Darkness II also gets the heart pumping and the adrenaline racing due to the excitement and the scary bits so I like to call this game a first-person horror shooter. Fun and exciting but, in the end, just a really cool game.
A demo for The Darkness II is now available on Xbox LIVE, PlayStation Network and Steam. The Darkness II releases across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on February 7th in North America and February 10th everywhere else.

Contributor: Russell

Preview: Asura's Wrath Hands-on (PS3)

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000
Asura’s Wrath is a game unlike any other I have played. In this time of sequels upon sequels upon clones of sequels, that sure is saying something. But will this originality mean success or failure in a world where the familiar often wins out over the new? Asura is angry. The gods killed his wife, kidnapped his daughter and assassinated the emperor. Asura is banished from Earth and then awakened from a 12 millennia hibernation. And now it is time for payback.
Admittedly I had no idea of the backstory when I started playing the Asura’s Wrath demo. I just knew he was angry and I had to open a can. And boy oh boy, does he pack a can! The first thing that makes the game stand out is the sheer scale of things. The demo contains 2 levels, both playing out like an anime television series. The first level sees Asura fight a massively fat guy, who kind of looks like a samurai sumo wrestler. And when I say massive I mean this guys stands about 20 stories tall. And once he is defeated, he also gets angry at Asura and grows to the size of a planet. When he then proceeds to punch Asura from space his finger actually burns as it enters the atmosphere!
The variety and insanely bonkers nature of the game will excite any fans of classic anime. Think of the craziness of Akira and you are getting close. In the conversations between characters you also detect a hint of attempted depth, but it is quickly lost when a sword is driven right though Asura and plunges so deep it comes out the other side of the earth. Gameplay consists mostly of quick time events, but rather than the simplistic QTE’s found in games like God of War or Uncharted, these ones are more akin to Heavy Rain, with the use of dual sticks, buttons, shoulder buttons, rolls, twists, turns and more. This creates a sense of watching a show rather than playing a game.
You also have action shooter and action fighting sequences. The fighting involves massive combos and lots of noise and explosions. It can be very disorienting, but you keep doing the same thing until you fill your ‘Burst’ bar. This allows a bit of a cut-scene which then progresses the story. The shooter parts are equally frenetic, and using a variety of buttons you shoot parts of an enemy until again your Burst bar is filled up. Asura himself has some godly attributes. When his wrath gets too much for him (this guy has a LOT of anger issues) he grows six arms which allow him to block punches from guys the size of earth. He seem to lose those arms often too, as they either get destroyed, blown up or cut off.
The game’s style feels like an ancient Japanese painting, with big brush strokes over the characters and finely penned details. It feels like a living painting. In contrast to the ancient Japanese style, you also have a very science-fiction feel to it with spaceships and lasers coming in to play. If you ever feel tired of beating the fluff in a game and just want to get to the boss fights, then Asura’s Wrath is what you need. The whole game will feature mostly boss battles of an insane scale. Action junkies and anime fans will find equal measure of fun in this title when it launches at the end of February. Colour me intrigued!

Contributor: Oltman

Preview: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (Xbox360)

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000
When big names collaborate it often turns out to be more hype than it’s worth, but when one of the world’s best comic book artists, Todd McFarlane, comes together with one of the world’s best fantasy writers in the form of R.A. Salvatore and one of the world’s best RPG game designers, Ken Rolston (the man behind The Elder Scrolls III and IV), then you better sit up and take notice. The result of this amazing get-together is more than just a few embarrassing photos on Facebook. These guys have all contributed their strongest work to make the best game they can possibly make. This game is Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
Starting off dead, your character is soon revived thanks to a ‘Well of Souls.’ As it turns out you are the first successful patient of the Well, and this is a rather big deal. Regrettably it gives you life, and not memory, so you cannot remember anything. You are also unfortunately the last revival as some cloaked bad guys soon try to take over the Well. It’s up to you to find out who you are and what is going on. At its core Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an RPG. You play a character with an open skill-set that you can then progress into certain skills and abilities, but unlike RPG’s of the past, these are not restricted to your class. As you practice using your daggers, so you level up your skill with that weapon, and so your character levels up as well. Being a fantasy RPG, magic is obviously present as well. You can choose from various spells to either attack or protect, and the same principles apply that you find elsewhere, including how some enemies are immune to certain magic, and that if use too much magic and you run out of mana.
It may sound pretty basic to begin with, but where the kicker comes in is in the combat itself. It’s not a button masher where you hope your character hits something, nor is it a slow turn-based combat game. What we have here is possibly the best RPG combat system ever - there is more in common with God of War here than other RPGs. The combat is smooth, beautiful and takes skill to master. Timing attacks just right will give you sweet combos to maximize damage. Now throw in the ability to mix a primary weapon, a secondary weapon and magic into the fray with the greatest of ease, and your battles become spectacular bouts of action and fun. Slice an enemy with a great sword and then electrocute him before sticking an arrow in his face before he even touches the floor again - easily done. Combine different combos and you soon feel untouchable. The world of Amalur is more than just mindless action, although it is the primary focus. From the demo I played it was clear that a lot of love and effort went into the levels. The layout, colours and even ambient sound all add to the feel that you are in a real place, fighting real fights. It almost feels like it could be a new Fable game, yet it clearly is not.
Quests still need to be acquired and completed, so conversations also play a vital role. The conversations feel a little flat, and even though you have range of responses for different situations, it is not nearly as deep as Mass Effect. Though, when the game is about the action, the conversations never feel like they get in the way. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the best parts of God of War, Fable and even a bit of Dragon Age. With great monsters, great atmosphere and the best combat system in any RPG to date, this will rock when it releases on February 10th across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Contributor: Oltman

Preview: Resident Evil: Revelations (3DS)

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0000
I’ve wanted to play a proper, portable Resident Evil game for a long time. I was understandably disappointed when Resident Evil Portable for PSP never materialised into anything, and later looked forward to playing Resident Evil: Revelations on 3DS once it was announced. A demo for Resident Evil: Revelations recently went live on the North American and European 3DS eShop. This sample is different to the one which was included with Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D last year, although you’ll still play as Jill Valentine. The demo takes just a couple of minutes to download on a decent connection and can be played up to thirty times, after which it expires.
Although the demo only takes about twenty minutes to complete, you unlock a harder difficulty mode which can be accessed on your next playthrough. There are also tons of control options and game settings to experiment with, giving you a reason to return to the demo multiple times. The sample begins with Jill waking up on an abandoned cruise liner and telling her partner Parker that the interior resembles that of a mansion (thus eliciting a chuckle from Resident Evil fans). You’re soon exploring the ship’s luxurious rooms and corridors and discovering plenty of familiar items such as a shotgun and green herbs in the process. It’s also not long before you run into some seriously mutated enemies. They look nothing like the zombies from previous games, but more akin to the slimy bags of flesh you encounter in the Silent Hill series. I really hope you’ll meet some traditional Resident Evil enemies during the game, because there’s nothing quite like the moan of a horde of zombies behind you to get you reaching for the most potent weapon in your arsenal.
An interesting thing I noticed in the demo is that enemies won’t follow you when you enter a new room via a door. This breaks the sense of immersion slightly as those of us who played Resident Evil 5 are used to doors being bashed down by rampant zombies who want to chew on your neck. By comparison, Resident Evil: Revelations’ enemies seem a little too content to let you continue on your merry may. These gripes aside, the rest of the demo is nothing short of spectacular. Resident Evil: Revelations feels like a worthy entry in the main series and makes excellent use of the 3DS’ hardware capabilities to deliver an experience you won’t soon forget. I mentioned before that the demo offers options galore, so let me break these down for you. You can choose between a number of European languages, including some that have never been featured in the Resident Evil series before. This is because the developers felt that forcing non-English speakers to have subtitles on their 3DS’ small screen would break their sense of immersion (subtitles are still an option though).
The demo supports the 3DS’ ‘Circle Pad Pro’ peripheral as well as three different control layouts using a standard 3DS. I’ve heard that the Circle Pad Pro is the optimal way to play the game as it allows you to control the camera with the right stick, but unfortunately this peripheral is not available in most European territories yet. With the add-on out of the picture for now, you can opt for the tank-like controls from previous Resident Evil games or choose a more modern setup where your character can strafe left or right and where the face buttons control the camera. I tried all three control schemes and found Type C (modern setup) to be the best of the bunch. You can also choose if you want your aiming view to be third-person or first-person, and can even opt for gyroscope aiming if you don’t mind moving your 3DS around like a camera’s viewfinder during confrontations. Thankfully Resident Evil: Revelations allows you to move at walking speed while you’re aiming so you can back away as you pump an enemy full of lead.
There are three levels of 3D to choose from: normal, strong and very strong. I found ‘strong’ to be the best fit for my sensibilities, since you have to hold the 3DS incredibly still to avoid ghosting if you put the setting on ‘very strong.’ One of the most impressive moments in Resident Evil: Revelations from a 3D standpoint is when you aim your shotgun in first-person view – it really feels like you’re looking down the barrel of the gun. The 3D effect seems a little toned down during cut-scenes but the effect is excellent during gameplay, especially when you’re aiming at enemies shuffling towards you from a distance. One negative effect of 3D is that jaggies become more apparent in this mode – as soon as you turn down the slider the environments receive a healthy dose of anti-aliasing (although the frame rate remains unchanged).
The 3D in Resident Evil: Revelations isn’t the only trick up its sleeve. The game also makes brilliant use of the bottom touch screen to enhance the classic Resident Evil experience. All the typical HUD elements are displayed on this screen, as well as a dynamic map which shows you which doors are locked and which ones you haven’t tried yet. You can switch between weapons or reload them simply by tapping on the desired icon, and choose which of your sub-weapons (such as a knife or grenades) you want to equip. You can also use a thin vertical bar on the bottom screen to quickly switch to a menu where you can examine your inventory in more detail. There’s a new item in Resident Evil: Revelations called a ‘supply scanner.’ You pick it up early on in the demo and can use it to scan environments for hidden enemies and items, or scan dead enemies to receive a bonus (which isn’t available in the demo). This is a great option to have when you’re running low on ammo or herbs and don’t mind sparing the time to scan your environment thoroughly. What’s interesting is that you’re not even given the option to pick up an item which you know is hidden in a certain location – you have to first scan that area to make it appear.
The audio aspect of the demo is phenomenal. Plug in headphones and turn up the volume and you’ll be immersed in the game’s creepy atmosphere in no time. The music and sound effects have always been a stellar element of Resident Evil titles and Capcom doesn’t disappoint with their latest offering. The 3DS supports virtual surround sound and you can definitely identify the separate channels when you plug in a decent pair of headphones. That’s pretty much all I have to say about the Resident Evil: Revelations demo for now. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get back to you. Also, be sure to look out for El33tonline’s review of the final code in the coming weeks – the game is out next Friday (January 27th) in PAL territories and February 7th in the US. You can also visit the just-launched official Resident Evil: Revelations microsite for more information, found over here.

Contributor: Tom

Preview: Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3)

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000
The recent demo for Final Fantasy XIII-2 proves that Square Enix is more adaptable than many people give it credit for. The game went on sale last month in Japan and hasn’t been the runaway hit the publisher was hoping for. It’s sold around 739k in roughly two weeks, placing it well below the brisk sales achieved by previous Final Fantasy games.
There was no demo for Final Fantasy XIII-2 on the Japanese PlayStation Store and Square Enix has a history of only releasing demos for Final Fantasy games if they form part of a bundle. For example, a demo for Final Fantasy XIII was bundled with the Blu-ray for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children in Japan. Therefore the release of a demo for Final Fantasy XIII-2 in the US and Europe indicates to me that Square Enix is a little concerned about how well the game will sell in the West. I played through the demo on both PS3 and Xbox 360 and can confirm that the content is exactly the same across both platforms. As far as I know, this demo contains one of the two levels that were playable at E3 2011 – you take control of Noel and Serah as they explore the Bresha Ruins and search for a way to defeat a giant boss called Atlas. People with a keen interest in Final Fantasy XIII-2 will definitely want to play the sample through to its conclusion as doing so will reward you with a spectacular new trailer for the game, where some of the epic boss battles can be glimpsed.
The demo begins with a short cut-scene where you learn that it represents Episode 2 from the final game. The opening area in the Bresha Ruins has plenty of fully voiced non-playable characters (NPCs) to interact with, and of course there are some floating orbs containing items hidden away in some of the dark corners of the map. It’s not long before you’re thrust into your first battle and are presented with an optional tutorial explaining how the Active Time Battle (ATB) system in Final Fantasy XIII-2 works. The menu-driven combat will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s played a turn-based RPG before, with the novel paradigm switching mechanic (essentially selecting a new combination of jobs or classes for your party) returning from Final Fantasy XIII.
Directly following this battle you’re introduced to one of Final Fantasy XIII-2’s new features – welcoming defeated monsters into your party. You’re now given the ability to edit ‘paradigm packs’ – essentially choosing three monsters that will be available to you during combat. Unlike Serah and Noel, your monsters’ class/job/role is permanent, so if you want your new acquisition to function as a ‘Commando’ when its role is a ‘Medic’ then… tough tackie. There may be a way to change a monster’s role later in the game but for now you’re stuck with what you get. The rest of the demo comprises battling randomly appearing enemies (that you can run away from) and having a couple of run-ins with Atlas. There’s also a short puzzle section which you need to complete in order to weaken Atlas before the demo’s final showdown. I found this puzzle element reminiscent of Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 where the ‘Cloister of Trials’ sections added some much-needed variety to the gameplay.
Another surprising new feature in Final Fantasy XIII-2 is something called ‘Cinematic Action.’ These are essentially Quick Time Events (QTEs ) during boss battles that net you added rewards at the end of the encounter if you’re successful with your button presses. The QTEs are fairly short and simple to pull off (at least during the early parts of the game) and they definitely add an element of spectacle to the boss battles which make those found in previous Final Fantasy games seem a little flat in comparison. Final Fantasy XIII-2’s presentation is top-notch during the demo, featuring attractive menu designs, flashy effects during combat, great graphics and skilful use of the camera during cut-scenes. The character design won’t be to everyone’s taste, however, with most of the cast sporting an unnatural number of adornments and elaborate hairstyles that look like they’ve been ripped straight out of an avant-garde fashion magazine.
One thing you’ll realise while playing the demo is the combat system in Final Fantasy XIII-2 is very dependent on your pre-battle setup. The paradigms and equipment you take into battle are incredibly important to your success, rather than your command selection during the encounter. For instance, when I played the demo on PS3 I didn’t focus enough on the ‘Ravager’ role, which is essential for staggering an opponent and thus opening up the door for your attacks to deal maximum damage. As a result, I couldn’t stagger Atlas during the final battle, and Commando attacks did nothing to deplete his health bar. I put this right when I played the demo on Xbox 360 by pumping all my XP into the Ravager class and editing my Paradigms so I could stagger Atlas as quickly as possible, heal when needed, and then move in for the kill. I came away from the demo with the firm belief that Final Fantasy XIII-2 will be a better RPG than Final Fantasy XIII. There seems to be more player choice and freedom to explore this time around, and the tweaked combat system seems to lend itself more to customisation.
I’ve had plenty of exposure to the Final Fantasy franchise over the last fourteen years, having finished eight games in the series during this period, and can confidently say that the last couple of Final Fantasy titles are better games than their predecessors in some ways, and worse games in others. I think the plot and characters in the Final Fantasy XIII series aren’t as interesting, complex or appealing as previous entries such as Final Fantasy VII, and I certainly miss the dozens of beautifully-realised towns that were such a joy to explore in Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX and X. On the other hand, the battle system in the latest titles is vastly improved over the older games. Being able to avoid confrontation with enemies is a huge bonus, and the new battle mechanics such as Paradigm Shift have added an extra layer of strategy and challenge to battles, which make for some very tense and mentally taxing encounters. Hopefully Final Fantasy XIII-2 will offer a successful amalgamation of both old and new Final Fantasy elements to make it the definitive JRPG of this generation. Be sure to check out the demo for yourself and keep an eye out for the full game when it releases on January 31st in the US and February 3rd in Europe.

Contributor: Tom

Preview: Grand Slam Tennis 2 (PS3)

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0000
The first Grand Slam Tennis title appeared on the Wii back in 2009 and was the first game in Europe to be bundled with the Wii MotionPlus. Unfortunately the planned PS3 and Xbox 360 versions never materialised and so the sequel represents a welcome competitor to Top Spin and Virtua Tennis on HD consoles.
I recently downloaded the 1.14GB demo for Grand Slam Tennis 2 from the PlayStation Store and put it through its paces. The sample lets you play as Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic, and you can choose to practice against a ball machine or face off on Wimbledon’s Centre Court. The first thing you’ll notice is the natural, atmospheric commentary by American John McEnroe and Australian Pat Cash. Tennis games rarely have a commentary track and once you play Grand Slam Tennis 2 for a couple of hours you’re likely to miss the omission of a commentary option in most other tennis titles.
Another thing you’ll notice is that the player likenesses are right up there with Top Spin 4. The players also move very realistically and there are plenty of impressive animations like Nadal and Djokovic going to their seats for a water break. I didn’t notice any player-specific animations like Nadal’s trademark forehand but was impressed by the number of shots each player can pull off. For instance, I saw more dives and over-the-shoulder returns during my time with the demo than I’ve witnessed in other tennis games. You can view an ESPN-sponsored slow-mo replay after any point and these look great. I did notice, however, that the animation transition between a point being scored and the player’s subsequent reaction is a little jarring. Another graphical blemish is the crowd, which looks disappointingly stilted. Unfortunately the audio effects in the stadium and on the court are also no match for Top Spin 4.
A cool feature of the demo is that you can adjust the difficulty level of the AI to make for some very challenging encounters. The player AI seems spot on and your opponent mixes up his shot selection nicely. I couldn’t find a clear strategy to defeating the opposition on the harder difficulty levels, so you really just have to play each shot on its merits. Unlike some tennis games, the speed at which you run is determined by a combination of how much you tilt the left analog stick and how far away you are from the ball. This makes reaching the ball a bit easier than you would expect, although naturally there are still some shots which are played well beyond your reach. Grand Slam Tennis 2 really shines when it comes to controls. You can use the right analog stick to serve and play a range of shots at the desired angle, or you can use the face buttons for a more traditional setup. You can switch between the two input methods on the fly, and you’ll soon find that some shots (such as the drop shot) feel more comfortable and work better using a certain control scheme. The benefit of using the right analog stick for shots is that is frees up the left stick for player movement for a few extra split seconds, whereas with the traditional face button setup you would need to use the left stick to angle your shot just before striking the ball.
The demo also supports the PlayStation Move and navigation controller. If you only play using the Move then your player will follow the ball automatically, although you can press buttons to approach the net or fall back to the baseline. You’ll probably want to play Grand Slam Tennis 2 using both the Move and navigation controller for the most precise experience, though. You can make your player right-handed or left-handed depending on which hand you feel most comfortable holding the Move in. The game does a great job of explaining how to pull off the complete range of shots using the Move, and your player generally plays the shot you want him to. We’re not talking 1-to-1 tracking here by any means, but rather an advanced gesture-driven control scheme that retains much of the finesse of using the right analog stick to select and angle shots. I’d definitely go so far as to say that Grand Slam Tennis 2 makes better use of the Move than any other Move-enabled sports game I’ve played thus far.
For those of you considering picking up Grand Slam Tennis 2 next month, I’d heartily recommend taking the demo for a spin. Even if you have no plans to purchase the game, the demo makes for an additive slice of interactive sport and is an awesome showcase of the PlayStation Move’s potential. It remains to be seen if Grand Slam Tennis 2 can topple Top Spin 4 from the tennis throne, but judging by what I’ve seen in the demo I reckon it’ll offer tennis fans stand-out features that were missing from 2K Czech’s offering.

Contributor: Tom

Preview: Hitman: Absolution (PS3)

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:00:00 +0000
With the announcement of IO Interactive’s Hitman Absolution earlier this year, and subsequent teaserly trailers and reveals, the gaming world has been waiting for its first glimpse of in-game action from the studio’s next stealth-action title, and during an El33tonline-attended presentation of the game, we got this sneak peek, and more!
Representatives of Square Enix London and IO Interactive were in South Africa recently to show off a level of the game in which the predatory (series protagonist) Agent 47 is the subject of a citywide manhunt in the metropolis of Chicago. The police have corned Agent 47 in an abandoned, derelict and considerably large city library made up of a sequence of multi-levelled halls and passageways bathed in shadow, currently succumbing to the elements with fallen bookcases, piles of detritus, aging pillars, broken banisters and numerous dark corners in every direction – in short, the perfect playground for Agent 47 and his brand of neck-breaking, sneaking action. The demo began with a close-up on Agent 47, which portrayed him in an almost villainous light. On the outside, this man is a cold-blooded killer and nothing shown during gameplay made us believe otherwise. The two-dozen policeman scurrying around the murky hallways of the library are constantly (and audibly) muttering to themselves, and to each other, to remind you how dangerous you are, and there’s definitely good reason to be scared of you. At its core, and gameplay-wise, Hitman Absolution is a third-person cover-based action game, and in the same vein as similar games like Uncharted, you’ll have further movement and traversal options at your disposal, with the ability to climb up walls and shimmy along ledges. To avoid the ire of your pursuers and stay in the shadows, you’ll need to stay crouched and sneaking from bookshelf to fallen desk to waist-high wall, with a snappy cover-to-cover switch ability available, too. When enemies are blocking your progression path and you have no option other than ‘remove’ them, as Agent 47 you’ll naturally have access to a deadly array of takedown manoeuvres allowing you to silently (and humanely) put people to sleep (by choking them) or very quickly snap their necks, before dragging limp and lifeless bodies out of sight.
Agent 47 is a pretty resourceful guy and can make use of any old thing in order to more efficiently remove enemies from his path, including power cords (perfect for strangling), statuettes (great for busting skulls open in stylish slow-motion), police batons (good for cracking necks in a pinch) and bong pipes (for a literal smack to the head). Items carried are shown on the heads-up display (HUD) on the lower right of the screen, and for the purposes of the demo Agent 47 could only carry one item at a time. Environment traversal seems quite effortless and clambering up onto a doorframe to evade detection or mantling across a ledge and wrenching an enemy down to the ground below looks very fluid and easy to perform – but what else would you expect from Agent 47? You’ll also be able to use your environment to your advantage in order to clear your path. In one section of the demo, Agent 47 was able to sabotage the fuse box powering the faulty lighting system in the library, returning the already dimly lit hallways to darkness, further increasing your chances of escaping unseen. The lighting effects in Hitman Absolution, in particular, so far seem extremely well implemented, put to good use to further set the apprehensive mood. Small visual touches like cobwebs, flashes of lightning through the high ceiling windows, general grit and scattered objects add to the richness of the world and make it a very believable place to be in – immersive, one could even say – which is so important in enhancing the game’s atmosphere and keeping that tension high.
Agent 47 seems to have picked up a trick or two since his last outing, and by burning down a special ability meter, players will be able to sense (or predict) the movement paths of enemies through the world with visual identifiers showing up on screen. If an enemy is going to walk down a hall, turn left and then stop, you’ll be able to know this information using this ability, but the meter is limited so you’ll need to use it sparingly. The developers weren’t ready to reveal how you fill the meter and continue to gain access to this sensing ability. Enemies will also mutter to themselves and talk to one another to give players even more clues about their next actions, so using the sense ability and these audio clues together will help you inform your future movements. Additionally, if you get too close to an enemy, a cone in the middle of the screen will grow to reveal your proximity to a potential threat, and even though I was told that the art depicting this extra sense is temporary, it looks like it does a great job of warning you of impending threats. Like other Hitman games, however, Hitman Absolution isn’t all about sneaking, silence and sabotage – it’s also about all-out action, powerful set-pieces and audacious brazenness! Action like an intense stand-off with a dozen police officers as you hold one of their number hostage as a human shield before running for your life in a rooftop chase. Set-pieces like a rocking encounter with a helicopter intent on your destruction, that rains down rounds of gunfire while ripping tumbling boxes (and frantically flapping birds) to shreds all around you. And brazenness like dressing up as a police officer and walking straight past dozens of other officers, and an entire squad of special forces, hiding in plain sight.
A rollercoaster of emotions is promised in Hitman Absolution, to be sure, helped along by the perfectly timed and selected musical accompaniments, ranging from booming chord strikes and raucous rock music to moody background melodies. The demo concluded as Agent 47 successfully evaded his uniformed pursuers and merged into a crowd of hundreds of commuters impatiently waiting on a train platform. As the camera pulled out on the gloomy, soaked city scene and the final echoes of foreboding brass blasted through the speakers, it was made clear that Agent 47 is an extremely dangerous force to be reckoned with… and the police have just set him loose in the city. Even in its pre-alpha state, IO Interactive’s proprietary Glacier 2 engine is doing amazing things graphically, while gameplay already looks very responsive and well paced. If this single showpiece level is anything to go by, Hitman Absolution is going to hit big in 2012.

Contributor: Oliver