Despite the internet jokes of QTE’s and middling press, Ryse: Son of Rome remains the next-gen launch title I am most excited for. Maybe it is my need for more Spartacus episodes but that ship has sailed.
Here are two new trailers for Crytek’s [amazon_link id=”B00CMQTVMI” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Xbox One[/amazon_link] launch title. One tells the story of Ryse’s protagonist Marius Titus and the second tells of the legend of Damocles. Both involve a lot of blood and revenge.
[amazon_link id=”B00CMQTU74″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Ryse: Son of Rome[/amazon_link] releases on November 22nd.
The new TV commercial for Batman: Arkham Origins goes for the heart showing Bruce’s motivation for becoming Gotham’s savior. We all know what that motivation is but this ad is still very well made and only adds to my excitement.
[amazon_link id=”B00C7103DO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: Arkham Origins[/amazon_link] releases on October 25th.
*Note- this is a review of the single-player story only.*
As I made my way down the road, heading back from one of the bars I owned after a shootout with some unruly customers, I felt the urge to go play some tennis. After twenty minutes of me showing off my old school Top Spin skills, I decided to head to the airport and see if there were any jumbo jets about to leave the runway. Luckily, there was one and I hijacked it and took a short trip around the city before jumping out and parachuting to safety as the plane was left to…well you know.
This is only a small percentage of what is available to do in Grand Theft Auto V. Rockstar has spent the last five years creating the most living open-world game ever. Almost a decade into this console cycle, it is amazing how much they have been able to fit into this one title. The state of San Andreas is sprawling with not just the city of Los Santos, which is a world unto itself with so many different areas of urban life it is mind boggling to think of the development that went into it, but also the surrounding areas that hold a military installation, rural towns where city life is nothing but a story and wide open spaces with forests, beaches, rivers and deserts that each hold their own secrets.
Let’s start off by saying that I did not like GTA IV. At all. I tried multiple times to play it but always found it tedious, repetitive and could never care enough about main character Niko Bellic to try and finish the story. With GTA V, it is like Rockstar heard nearly every complaint I had about IV and addressed it. But we will get to that later.
Photo courtesy geekspodcast.com
The biggest departure for the GTA series to date, Grand Theft Auto V ditches the single protagonist for three separate characters and I can easily say that I do not believe I could ever go back to a single character GTA story again. When the game opens up you are in the middle of a bank heist almost a decade in the past that quickly goes bad which serves as the setup for the main story.
In present day, you begin to play as Franklin, an ex-gangbanger that is looking to make more of his life besides doing petty drug deals and boosting cars. He wants the big score and to spend his time with a more “reputable” brand of criminal. He gets plenty of grief from his friends in the hood about trying to forget where he came from. You will spend the first hour or two as Franklin as a reintroduction of sorts to the GTA universe. Taking on simple repo missions which get you back into the swing of things.
Soon though you cross paths with the games second character, Michael, who is an ex- bank robber that is living the high life in an upscale house and by high life I mean he has plenty of money, a wife that is sleeping around, two kids that absolutely hate him and is completely miserable while he drinks his days away. He is the dichotomy to Franklin, telling him that the life Franklin desires doesn’t always lead to good things. He nevertheless takes Franklin under his wing to try and impart his unique knowledge.
The third part of this trinity of recklessness is Trevor. Michael’s “best friend” who thought he died in the bank heist years ago and discovers he is alive and well in Los Santos. The best way to describe Trevor is to imagine everything horrible you have ever wanted to say to someone, all the vile, disgusting things life would not let anyone get away with and Trevor is all of that wrap in a meth covered bow. He is one of the most intriguing and unflinching characters in video game history. His early missions involve taking on a biker gang, Chinese drug lords and the sort while trying to get his meth business into the big time. There are a few nods to Breaking Bad along the way as you are left wondering who was the basis for this madness.
Photo courtesy evilgmr.net
The sheer amount of things to do in Grand Theft Auto V will easily ensure you will lose at least 50 hours but the main part of the story revolves around pulling heists. You will case the location, decide which crew you want to bring along, decide your plan of attack and hopefully make off like bandits with a ton of cash. Some jobs are not all for your benefit. You will have to pull off death-defying kidnapping missions for the FIB (the game’s FBI) and infiltrating facilities in the name of “patriotism”. When things get hot and heavy you can quick swap between characters as needed. Believe me, you will need it. You can possibly get through the waves of cops using one character but the real fun and strategy comes in swapping on the fly. In one mission you will be Franklin holding down the cops with fire then you swap to Michael who has to find a new position and take on the cops that are flanking your rear. Swap to Trevor, who is waiting on a rooftop with a sniper rifle to bring down anyone that slips past Franklin or Michael and take on the incoming police helicopter. It is complete insanity in the best possible way.
Between missions you can swap to any of the characters on the fly. This leads to a lot of great random scenes which shows you that while you may be playing as Trevor; Michael and Franklin are off doing their own thing. Swapping to Franklin may find him leaving a strip club, Michael could be waking up from nightmares and Trevor…well let’s just say that swapping to Trevor is an experience. I would switch to Trevor just for the hell of it and I was never disappointed. Once, he was throwing a random person off of a bridge for some reason. Why? Hell if I know. That is between Trevor and the guy that is a stain on the pavement below.
As I mentioned before, Rockstar has fixed many issues that I have had with GTA games for a while. First off, the driving has been changed and feels much more natural. There is no random fishtailing unless you absolutely can not help it. Cars feel like they have weight to them and driving at fast speeds no longer feels like you are one wrong move away from utter destruction. It still can not match up with Sleeping Dogs in terms of almost flawless open-world car driving but it is leaps and bounds better than any other game in the series. Any car you own, buy or steal, can, of course, be upgraded at Los Santos Customs. Want a chrome paint job? Easy. New off-road tires or a Dukes of Hazzard horn? You got it. When you have the money, it is an easy way to waste time.
The cover system feels better also. You will still go to the wrong side of objects sometimes but not too much. Weapons are accessed through a weapon wheel instead of the archaic d-pad swapping. If you use the auto-aim feature it works very well though you may want to turn on the free-aim just to give you a challenge. Every weapon is fully upgradable and customizable including silencers, flashlights and different paint options. Body armor is also available at your local Ammu-Nation along with your complete lineup of weapons that range from rocket launchers to grenades and eve a parachute. You will use the parachute. If you are like me, you will use the parachute in many odd ways and the only explanation you need is that it is GTA.
Photo courtesy variety.com
How many times playing any GTA game have you died while almost completing a mission and been taken back to the very beginning, having to go back and watch the cutscene and do the entire…mission…over as your rage builds and you almost become as violent as the character you are playing? Enter mission checkpoints! It only took a decade but now you will not have to quell the monster within whenever you screw up. Hearty handshakes all around for progress!
Your cell phone will be your main hub for everything you need from your contacts you meet throughout the game to using the internet. Do not skip past searching on the internet. There are some side missions that are unlocked by searching certain words. Also, the game has a fully involved stock market which, if used smartly, can easily make you a billionaire so you can buy any of the property that your heart desires. Have an affinity for the cinema? Buy a movie theater as I did and enjoy free flicks. Every property will come with weekly income that is deposited into your bank account.
Rockstar has kept up with the times with their satirical humor also. They have always taken pop culture to task in every GTA game and this time is no different. You will see people whoring themselves out to get on the popular reality show Fame or Shame, a radio advertisement making fun of Fifty Shades of Grey (“I’ve always wanted a billionaire to piss on me.”) and, as usual, all of the sardonic radio DJ’s. There are 240 songs over 15 radio stations. That in itself is crazy. I can not tell you how many times I have had memorable moments while listening to Eddie Murphy’s Party All the Time or Don Johnson’s Heartbeat. Rock jumping while listening to Willie Nelson’s Whiskey River will never get old.
Photo courtesy playstationgang.com
The story is fun most of the time with Trevor, Michael and Franklin each having their own set of problems that intersect. Sometimes it can get a bit eye rolling when you try to look for logic in some of the story elements but it kind of like watching wrestling; if you are looking for logic, you won’t enjoy it.
Grand Theft Auto V was, reportedly, the most expensive game ever made. It shows with the intricate detail given to every aspect of this game. When you drive through the city of Los Santos, you will notice how not just homes but cars and people change when you head to different neighborhoods with distinct class differences. My girlfriend, who grew up in Las Vegas and California, kept commenting on how realistic the roads were set up. It truly is a living, breathing embodiment of west coast living.
I could continue to type about how many random things can be done in Grand Theft Auto V. If you have read this far then I applaud you for not just scrolling to the score. With the next generation kicking into full swing this winter, GTA V has given notice that there is still plenty of life left in your aging Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. With Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us and now GTA V, we as gamers are in a renaissance of video gaming. While GTA V’s story is not on the same level as Infinite or TLOU, the sheer technical achievement that Rockstar has accomplished here can not be overlooked.
When we are desensitized to big games due to annual releases like Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed and the like, it makes GTA V all that much better. I am sure Rockstar could give us a watered down GTA every two years and rake in the money by the truckloads but that would cheapen the experience, both for us and them. GTA should be an experience. While I felt Rockstar tripped up a bit in IV, they have taken five years to craft and correct and the hours of your life you will lose to the game will be reward enough.
Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go and try to fist fight a mountain lion.
This week’s title should really be “Hey! Wait Till Next Week!”. There are some releases this week including the next entry in the huge gaping hole in parental wallets known as Skylanders and a new Cabela Hunting game which is actually not releasing on the same day as a Halo game. If you don’t know what I mean, keep scrolling.
Surprising news today from Ubisoft that their big new IP, Watch Dogs, would be delayed into the first fiscal year of 2014. That means the earliest the game could be released would be April 1st of next year. That definitely is disappointing to a lot of gamers who have been waiting on the game since it was announced at E3 2012.
In a statement by the Watch Dogs development team, they chose to delay the game to assure the games quality. No one can blame them for the reasoning even if it does come very close to the game’s release date of November 19th. Ubisoft will certainly still have a big holiday season with [amazon_link id=”B00BMFIXKQ” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Assassin’s Creed IV[/amazon_link]
Ubisoft also announced that their next-gen racing game, The Crew, would also be delayed to 2014, possibly not being released until next September.
Read the statement from the Watch Dogs development team below:
“Our ambition from the start with Watch Dogs has been to deliver something that embodies what we wanted to see in the next-generation of gaming. It is with this in mind that we’ve made the tough decision to delay the release until spring 2014.
We know a lot of you are probably wondering: Why now? We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune each detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you. We thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the way you respond on the web, at events, press conferences and other opportunities we have to interact. Your passion keeps us motivated.
We can’t wait to see you in Chicago next spring. We are confident you’ll love this game as much as we love working on it.”
Dammit, Assassin’s Creed. Stop making me want you! I said I was done! Then you come in all tempting with being a pirate and a large open world from the team that made Far Cry 3 (my GOTY in 2012). You know no one can say no to being a pirate, dammit! I want to punch you in your beautiful pirate face!
Anyway, here is another trailer for Assassin’s Creed IV that focuses on main character Edward Kenway and his reasoning for his life choices.
[amazon_link id=”B00BMFIXKQ” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Assassin’s Creed IV[/amazon_link] releases on October 29th for 360 and PS3 and November 21st on Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U.
Rule of thumb in the voice acting world: never doubt Troy Baker. That rule used to be “never doubt Nolan North” but Baker has taken that over with his insanely great performances in huge games like Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us. He is also no stranger to the Batman video game world having voiced The Dark Knight in Lego Batman 2 and Two-Face in Batman: Arkham City.
Now, he takes on the biggest possible role in the Batman universe as The Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins and with Mark Hamill “retiring” from the iconic role after twenty years, how can Baker possibly live up to the precedence set before him?
Here is footage from the Arkham Origins panel at New York Comic-Con where Baker reads a monologue as The Joker from Alan Moore’s classic, The Killing Joke. Before you hit play just remember the rule mentioned before.
………damn.
Whatever deal Baker made with the devil to sound so much like Hamill was well worth it.
[amazon_link id=”B00C7103DO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: Arkham Origins[/amazon_link] releases on October 25th.
The other night, my brother Tillman and I dove into the Battlefield 4 beta for the first time since it launched. To give you a little background, he has been playing the series since the first Bad Company, and I jumped in – or was pushed, really, by Beth – with Bad Co 2. We played the single-map beta for BC2 almost every night from the time it went up to when they closed the servers; our total time logged in the full game is measured in weeks. When BF3 came along, I took the steps to actually get in the PC alpha, though it didn’t run all that well; the 360 beta saw a fair amount of play from the entire group, and we were very excited for the full launch.
That game ended up letting us all down, in one way or another, and Tillman was the only one who continued playing it consistently, though even he skipped out on the last few expansions. Tillman makes a habit of buying me a game for Christmas every year that we can enjoy together, and shooters tend to be the trend. We tried Medal of Honor: Warfighter last year, and were suitably impressed with it, but again found that the spark just wasn’t enough to keep us engaged. The BF4 beta offered us an opportunity to test out the assumed front-runner for this year’s holiday brothers-in-arms game.
The beta front-end system wasn’t great – there seemed to be no way to join each other before actually getting into a game – but we don’t play this kind of demo for the menus. Once we were in-game, the first thing we noticed were the textures; more specifically, the lack thereof. From the guns to the buildings to random bits of road, any sort of detail seemed to be either bland or missing completely. Now, I know that this is a beta, not the finished product, but the video shown at E3 was supposedly of people playing this very demo; you know, the one that looked shit-hot and featured a skyscraper falling down in majestic Frostbite glory. For more on the graphics, I’ll let the guys over at video gamer talk in their wonderful accents:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfid4FhL654
To that end, I have personally witnessed that building falling, and while it isn’t quite the spectacle from that E3 video, it was really cool to experience. Tillman and I were on a separate part of the map, and the entire area shakes and fills with an exceptionally robust sound of destruction; it was fun to watch every player stop in their tracks and sprint for the nearest viewpoint to watch. After the smoke clears, that entire area of the map is different, something which a few FPSs have tried over the years, but none have every solidly pulled off as more than a gimmick. The last few Battlefields have at least offered some cool manipulation via building destruction, so I guess it remains to be seen if this large-scale demolition will be part of every map.
The absolute best part of the game, for me, was a series of little events that fell into the category of “Battlefield Moments,” as DICE and EA have dubbed them. Tillman was sniping from the top of a skyscraper, and I spawned in on him and another squad mate. To our back was another, smaller building housing one of the Conquest capture points. We started losing it, so I ran and jumped off our building; about halfway down I popped my parachute, cooked a frag, and tossed it through the skylight above the objective. I was lucky, and it caught the attacker in the blast right as I hopped down into the area.
As this happened, Tillman let me know that there was at least a full squad heading my way from the street; I stuck my head out from a side stairwell in time to see a few drop from his sniper fire, but I was still overrun. I fired for suppression and fell back, but found myself out of SMG ammo. As the radar indicators entered the stairwell, I hit the roof with an RPG; the resulting wall collapse took out another opponent. I was desperately watching my soldier reload the tube when my screen spun to face an enemy player; I was getting knifed. At the last moment, a prompt appeared for me to hit the melee button myself, and suddenly I kicked the other guy’s feet out from under him and turned the blade back on its owner! This was, of course, met with jubilant swearing as I attempted to describe the events to Tillman. He calmed me down enough to let me know a tank had rolled up, and we took it out with a mixture of RPGs and airborne C4.
That entire five minutes was great, and reminded me exactly why we fell in love with the series in the first place. Unfortunately, it was the only five minutes out of the half hour or so we played that captured the “Battlefield Moment” magic. The rest of the match was dull, and that ended up being the biggest issue. There were a few other complaints that I genuinely don’t feel were because the game is “in beta” as well: Several buttons have been remapped with no explanation as to why; the level of small-scale destruction seems to have been greatly reduced; and the few small touches like deployed bridge pylons to stop vehicles, or water shooting up from destroyed hydrants, couldn’t stave off the feeling that the map was… Empty.
I think the combination of those two feelings – “dull” and “empty” – is what I ultimately took away from the experience. I know the larger maps in BC2 and BF3 could generate that feeling when there weren’t enough players, but we were playing on a full server, so it a lack of something for those players to do; other than the previously described moment, I never got the feeling that I was contributing, a feeling which Tillman echoed. Regardless of how many capture points I help take, or the kills I scored doing so, there was never a sense of urgency; I never got the simulation of being on a battle field.
The end result was a strange one, but one that has already paid off over the last few nights: Instead of getting us Battlefield 4, Tillman purchased us each a Battlefield 3 Premium package, which grants us access to all of the existing content. Our thought process was that we did enjoy BF3 for a time, and mostly stopped playing because of the attitude of other players and the exhaustion of what content was available at the time. We were also hoping that the upcoming releases of BF4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts would eliminate certain… unsavory elements from the BF3 playing field.
The plan has worked great so far, with us having a bunch of new maps to explore, and encountering only minimal spawn-camping douchebags with handles like xXn00bzlickerzXx. The Endgame maps especially have caught our interest; the new dirt bikes are the most fun, ever, period, for eternity. I spend most conquest matches performing “patrols” around to each capture point just to ride them. Also, last night I shot down a helicopter, which isn’t unusual in these games, but it is my favorite thing in the entire game. One of these days I’m going to shoot down a helicopter from the bike of a dirt bike, and immediately my spirit will arrive at the Pearly Gates, having accomplished the work it was sent down here to complete.
So there you have it, I guess: I played the Battlefield 4 open beta, and the end result was that I spent less money to buy expansion packs for a game I already own, instead of spending more money on a game that’s not out for 2 ½ weeks. On a side note, the campaign was in no way a draw for me, as I despised the story mode in BF3, and the story trailers for BF4 have either offended or bored me in equal measure. I guess there’s a part where a ship sinks, and Bonnie Tyler is there giving orders, or something? Anyways, I have to go see if I can headshot someone on an approaching dirt bike just right and hop on it as their corpse falls off at full speed.
[amazon_link id=”B0098QPPL6″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Battlefield 3 Premium Edition is currently available on multiple platforms.[/amazon_link]
[amazon_link id=”B00BXE4KYE” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Battlefield 4 will be available on October 29 on slightly more platforms.[/amazon_link]
The Xbox One may be releasing this November but Microsoft is not resting on its 8 year old workhorse, the Xbox 360. Three new bundles will be available this year for you holiday shoppers. Two will include the Kinect and all three come with the Xbox 350 E console.
Bundle 1- Xbox 360 250GB console, Kinect, Kinect Sports: Season 2, Kinect Adventures, Forza Horizon and one month of Xbox Live Gold- $399.99
Bundle 2- Xbox 360 4GB console, Kinect, Kinect Sports: Season 2, Kinect Adventures and one month of Xbox Live Gold- $299.99
Bundle 3- Xbox 250GB console, Tomb Raider, Halo 4 and one month of Xbox Live Gold- $299.99
If you purchase one of these bundles between October 13th and January 4, 2014, the bundles will come with a $50 discount.
Unless you really want a disappointing experience, I would skip the first two bundles with the Kinect. The Tomb Raider/Halo 4 bundle looks like a great buy for someone who is needing a replacement console or if you have waited 8 years to jump on the 360 train.
Thing I am excited about with the launch of the Xbox One: Killer Instinct. It is my favorite fighter ever and I am praying that it doesn’t get screwed up.
Thing I want that would make it better: This Killer Instinct FightStick by Mad Catz to complete my teenage years arcade experience.
Why it will not happen: $209.99.
I am pretty sure I could find a KI1 or KI2 arcade cabinet for $500. Screw that.
Killer Instinct releases on November 22nd with the Xbox One. It will be available as a download only title for free with Jago playable to everyone. Characters can be purchased individually or in a package.
