zConnection News Feed

Game of Thrones RPG Dated For UK Launch

Fri, 18 May 2012 18:37:11 GMT

The official Game of Thrones RPG will be released on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 across the UK and Ireland on June 8th, distributor Koch Media announced yesterday, coinciding with the show’s second season finale on Sky Atlantic five days prior. The game sees players take control of two original characters in a story developed with input from author George R.R. Martin.

Based on the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, the game puts players in the shoes of Mors, Sworn Brother of the Night’s Watch, and Alester, a Red Priest in search of redemption. Over the course of the game, players visit locations such as King’s Landing and The Wall, and meet familiar characters like Cersei Lannister, Varys, and Mormont – voiced by their respective TV actors.

You can find out more about the game on our dedicated page here.

The Walking Dead Sells One Million In Two Weeks

Thu, 17 May 2012 18:56:33 GMT

Telltale Games’ episodic adventure series based on the hugely successful television programme “The Walking Dead” has sold over one million episodes since its “première” two weeks ago. Only the first of the five episodes, called “A New Day”, is available so far and it topped Xbox LIVE, PSN, and Steam charts on its release.

The second episode of the series, called “Starved for Help”, will launch on PC, Mac, and consoles sometime in June, while the first episode will make an iOS appearance later this Summer, much like Telltale’s previous games have. A complete season pass, which includes access to all five episodes once launched, is available now from Steam on PC and Mac for $24.99 USD.

“Premièring [the series] to record numbers across so many diverse platforms is a tremendous achievement that shows the value of bringing strong storytelling and game play together,” said Telltale CEO, Dan Connors. “The tailored narrative design puts gamers in control of their own story […] in a way that appeals equally to hardcore gamers and to more casual gamers.”

You can read our own review of the series’ first episode, “A New Day”, here. For more information about the game, you can also check out its official website here, and official Facebook and Twitter pages here and here respectively.

TERA (PC) Review

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:11:39 GMT

There’s been a lot of buzz about TERA in the MMO world recently; partly because it’s a beautiful looking game in a genre that relies on not scaring anybody away with high system requirements, and partly because it claims it’s a proper action game, allowing you to dodge attacks and find weak points as if you’re playing a game based on skill rather than superior levels and equipment. So sure are the developers that they’ve built a sturdy enough action game that they’ve gone as far as to add Xbox 360 controller support. Is TERA a chance for non-MMO gamers to take the plunge without playing something entirely different, or does it fail to live up to the hype?

The main thing worth mentioning is that TERA is an absolutely stunning looking game. MMOs, as I said earlier, tend to be nice looking, well designed, and colourful, but they don’t often make you stop and just look around. TERA, on the other hand, makes you say “wow!”. From the beautiful waterfalls to the rich foliage, TERA offers a world that’s shockingly nice to explore. The music as well is fantastically composed, and you can spend hours fighting monsters in the same area and not feel the grind fatigue you would in other titles. The music and visuals combine to create an excellent feeling that isn’t often found in gaming on the whole, not just in MMOs, and you feel you’re in a real world.

This is helped by the abundance of people actually playing. Now, it goes without saying that the TERA launch was only a few weeks ago, and we’re still really in that initial launch period; whether it’ll still be as popular in six months has yet to be seen, but for now, it’s fantastic. The game is presented in such a way that it’s easy to come across whole fields of monsters in battle with a whole range of players of different races and classes, something you don’t usually see in the early stages of an MMO unless it’s really popular or the world is really small. It’s nice and offers an instant feeling of community.

Fighting itself – the main hook of TERA for many, I’m sure – has been handled fairly well. It feels fluid enough that you can dodge enemy attacks, and you do feel that you’re far more a part of the battle than in other games. This results in the fighting being much more fun, but – and this is the key – don’t be fooled by the hype: this game is still very much using the general MMO skill system and you’ll still attack, dodge, and heal using shortcuts at the bottom of the screen (or mapped to your controller). It works well, but it’s not as open as perhaps you’ll have been led to believe.

Still, using the 360 remote does work well, although you’ll have to get used to controls that perhaps you wouldn’t find on a console game. Moving around is obviously a little more fluid on a controller than whilst using a keyboard, but you get less access to your various skills. In the opening portions of the game this isn’t a huge problem, but I imagine as time goes by and your character becomes more powerful, you’ll start to struggle to keep on top of everything you want to use. It’s not really a big problem, though, and the developers should be congratulated for even trying to make it controller-compatible.

And that’s where TERA’s originality ends: you’ll still find yourself performing endless, slightly meaningless quests, you’ll fight lots of monsters to level up (which will allow you to fight other monsters), and you’ll still need to play with equipment and skills if you want to survive. None of these are bad things – if they were the MMO genre would have died a long time ago – but for those who thought they were getting into something completely different, you may want to set your sights a little bit lower. TERA is an MMO first; the original features come second.

Thankfully, along with its graphics, the character and enemy design is top notch, and everything around you looks believable. Even the monsters, from giant walking trees to packs of fluffy little animals, look and move in a way that helps to make you believe in the world you’re in. The trees move heavily and attack by trying to crush you; they’re slow, and taking advantage of that is key to beating them. The horse-like creatures gallop quickly at you and try to attack with their head and front paws, meaning you have to adopt another strategy. It seems a simple feature but it’s something that can’t always be taken for granted in MMOs.

There are several races and classes to choose from, meaning that in terms of longevity, you’ll be playing for quite some time to come. There are lots of quests, probably which you’ll get bored of in hours rather than days, but for people that find themselves happily moving through the game for a short time every week, there’s an awful lot to keep you playing. At a tenner a month, that’s a lot of game, but only if you can see your way past endless quests and occasionally repetitive gameplay.

The most important thing in an MMO has to be the multiplayer features and naturally, they’re there in abundance. As well as the communal feeling I wrote of earlier (something that isn’t to be underestimated in an online game), there are PvP areas in which to try your skills against other players, and a constant chatbox with which to spy on younger, more opinionated people. There’s enough to allow you to converse with others if you need or wish to, and I don’t suppose you can ask for more.

TERA is a fantastic game, a quality entry in a genre that doesn’t often do very much different. It’s subscription-based and has an initial fee to get into the game, which will probably put off some people straight away; with that said, I don’t think there’s anything on the free-to-play scene doing what TERA is doing, although its popularity means that somebody somewhere has inevitably started to work on it. For now, I’d say your entry fee and monthly subscription is money well spent – TERA might be one of the best MMO games on the market right now.

Tales of Graces F Launch Dated and Detailed

Wed, 16 May 2012 17:28:23 GMT

Acclaimed role-playing game Tales of Graces f will be released on PlayStation 3 in EMEA and Asia Pacific regions on August 31st, publisher Namco Bandai confirmed today. The existence of a “day one edition” was also confirmed, including the game’s official soundtrack, Behind the Scenes videos, a hardback art book, a custom PS3 theme, and exclusive DLC adding original costumes from Tales of Destiny 2.

The latest instalment in the renowned Tales of series, Tales of Graces f is set against the backdrop of three kingdoms, Windor, Strata, and Fendel, struggling for dominances of the world. Players control protagonist Asbel Lhant as he fights for his ideals with a group of comrades, introducing an all-new combat system to the franchise, letting players freely change attack styles and swap weapons.

You can check out a larger image of the day one edition and a batch of new screenshots from the game by clicking on the thumbnails below, or read more about the game on the official Namco Bandai website here.

Naughty Dog Release New Last of Us Trailer

Wed, 16 May 2012 01:00:02 GMT

In a move that’s caught a lot of us off-guard, Naughty Dog have released a new teaser trailer for their upcoming horror-action game The Last of Us ahead of its appearance at E3 next month. The trailer shows hunters ambushing main characters Joel and Elle in a truck, which was previously described as part of a privately demonstrated gameplay demo.

You can see the trailer embedded above, or click here to go straight to the video on YouTube. You can read more about the game on our dedicated page here, which is sure to fill up with some more revelations after E3, which will take place in Los Angeles’ Anaheim Convention Centre between June 5th and June 7th.

Kristen Stewart Found “Snow White” Role “Hard”

Wed, 16 May 2012 00:19:21 GMT

In comments made to MTV’s website, Kristen Stewart revealed that she struggled to handle action scenes in “Snow White and the Huntsman”, which premièred earlier this week in Los Angeles. While it came out last October that she had indeed been injured during an action sequence, the actress said she originally felt confident about the scenes.

“It’s funny too because I became such a baby on the movie,” she told MTV.co.uk. “I was scared of so much that I didn’t think that I was going to be. I tasted little bits of action in other movies, and I thought that I was such a huge badass. I was like, ‘I love it’. […] It was hard. I hurt myself, but it was fun.”

Stewart’s co-star, Charlize Theron, added: “By day two, [Kristen and I] kind of looked at each other and were like, ‘We don’t need to start this scene from the beginning to get into it. What’s the shot? Oh, we’re already on the ground? No, no, no, we’ll just be here on the ground.’”

“Snow White and the Huntsman”, début feature of director Rupert Sanders, hits cinemas in the United Kingdom on 30th May, starring Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, and Thor actor Chris Hemsworth.

ASDA To Stock Hideous Jubilee Xbox 360

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:27:58 GMT

For only £249.99, you’ll be able to join “the Great British celebrations this summer” and score a special edition Xbox 360 emblazoned with the Union Jack from ASDA. You heard that right – ASDA are apparently proud to offer the Microsoft Xbox 360 Special Edition 4GB Kinect Celebration Pack in stores and online from Friday, 25th May.

Disregarding the Union Jack mouse that came out on 3rd May, have you seen the Xbox 360 pack? It includes “free commemorative Union Jack skins to decorate your console, sensor and controller”, and the result is something quite tasteless. It does, however, include Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, and three months of Xbox LIVE Gold.

You can find out more about the “stylish limited edition console” or pre-order it from the ASDA Direct website here.

Second Beta Weekend For The Secret World Confirmed

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:16:15 GMT

Players will be able to pick up their progress from upcoming MMO The Secret World’s last beta weekend between May 18th to May 21st, developer Funcom have confirmed. The second beta weekend will allow players to meet all-new characters in the MMO’s Kingsmouth location, each with their own unique missions and storylines.

“The results from the first Beta Weekend are very encouraging,” said Funcom CEO, Trond Arne Aas. “The majority of the feedback we have received from players is very positive, and also looking at it from a development perspective the Beta Weekend was undoubtedly a major success for the company.”

Access to the beta can be acquired by either pre-ordering the game, or grabbing a key from a number of partnered websites. You can find out more about the beta weekend and how to do either of those things on the game’s official website here. The MMO is slated for an official launch of 19th June.

Mandatory Mario Kart 7 Patch Fixes Glitch

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:07:42 GMT

A glitch in Mario Kart 7 giving players the ability to exploit a shortcut in the “Wuhu Island Loop”, “Wuhu Mountain Loop”, and “GBA Bowser Castle 1” courses has been fixed through a mandatory patch, which became available from the Nintendo 3DS’ eShop earlier today. Gamers will have to update their 3DS firmware and download the patch from eShop manually.

Until they’ve patched the game, gamers will not be able to continue playing online multiplayer in Mario Kart 7, but they will be able to continue playing single-player and local multiplayer. It’s not the slickest patching experience, but from Nintendo, it’s better than nothing. More details on how to download the patch are available from the Nintendo website here.

Lone Survivor (PC) Review

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:53:33 GMT

It has often been debated that you don’t need top-of-the-line graphics in order to tell a compelling video game story. If there is one genre to give credence to such a concept, it’s horror. From paperback books to orally-spoken ghost stories, a good horror tale can come to life regardless of the medium used, and that also applies to video games. The recent disappointment that was Silent Hill: Downpour is proof enough that a sizeable gaming budget and soundtrack couldn’t mask the developer’s failure in recreating the same sense of dread that once defined the spooktacular series.

That’s all the more reason why Lone Survivor deserves our attention; an indie 2D title by Superflat Games, this simplistic sprite-based adventure game manages to bring back much of the same tension and atmosphere of the original Silent Hill games, despite being technically inferior to even the PS1 original. Instead, Jasper Byrne’s self-designed project focuses on establishing the appropriate tone and setting through the use of ominous dialogue, survival-based mechanics, and a few nightmarish designs that unapologetically borrow themselves from Konami’s once-classic franchise.

Players take the role of a nameless main character (classified as “You” on-screen) trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland… at least, that’s the way he tells it. Huddled up in a run-down apartment complex with little rations and even less rationality, the main character’s sanity comes into question almost immediately. Examining the nearby objects in his apartment room bring up feelings of denial and regret, while drug-fuelled dream sequences see him interact with oddly-garbed characters such as a man wearing a box on his head. Even the flesh-and-blood human survivors you meet seem rather relaxed over the apparent “end of the world”, constantly questioning the main character’s actions.

But real or otherwise, there are perceived threats within the apartment complex, and in typical survival horror fashion, your weapons and supplies are limited. As always, the stealth approach is the best way to sneak past the shambling horrors, though not every hallway has a convenient gap in the background to hide under. Certain strategies work better than others depending on the situation, including dropping chunks of rotten flesh on the ground to divert enemies’ attention elsewhere, or lighting up a flare to momentarily blind all surrounding creatures. For moments where confrontation is inevitable, your character can equip a handgun with reloadable ammunition, but the slow firing and reloading speed coupled with the inability to turn around when aiming makes this shooting up creatures more of a last resort.

There is also a bigger emphasis on the “survival” portion of “survival horror”. Though the game features no life bars or status screens, the main character will often complain about being hungry or tired. Neglecting these on-screen cues can result in a deteriorating character that will eventually pass out from exhaustion or hunger, making it important to keep him fully functional at all times. Food can be found all over the place, though the longest-lasting meals require additional components (a can opener for canned food, a working stove for cooking meat, etc). Sleeping is also required to save your game, though it can only be done at the main character’s bedroom. Fortunately, the game features numerous mirrors that serve as checkpoints, which create an instant two-way transportation to your room and the last examined mirror.

Unfortunately, your character also has a phobia of the dark, which means having to keep a steady supply of flashlight batteries on hand. The only way to obtain more batteries is to take a specific pill, go to sleep, and meet your otherworldly alter-ego to give you a new batch. The pills themselves will also run out eventually, requiring repeat visits to a certain place at the apartment. These constant back-and-forth procurements can get somewhat tedious, but they also open up further conversations with the dream world denizens that slowly unravel the protagonist’s tortured psyche.

As necessary as it is to stay alive, the real goal of Lone Survivor is to find a way out of the dilapidated apartment complex and search outside for any signs of civilization. To do so requires searching around every available nook and cranny, with specific points of interest marked by the collectable maps. While the game follows a strict 2D left-and-right perspective, the area layouts spread across multiple floors, requiring exiting through doors placed on the background and foreground. While the areas are of a reasonable size and filled with plenty of checkpoints, it can be occasionally difficult to read the 3D-designed maps; had they chosen to use a map layout closer to that in Metroid or Castlevania, it would have been simpler to get your bearings straight.

In typical horror game tradition, the way forward is often blocked with a locked door. Obtaining the necessary keys usually require some macabre methods, such as using a pair of scissors to cut through a layer of flesh, or sticking your hand through a gaping maw on the wall. Other clichéd moments include restoring power to a generator, escaping from an indestructible creature, and fitting one small item into a larger item. As far as puzzles go, nothing in Lone Survivor will impress long-time fans of adventure games.

Instead, the real draw is in its atmosphere, which, for all intents and purposes, is a flawless recreation of Silent Hill in 2D. From the industrial noise signifying a rampaging monster to the film grain effects to the mentally unstable protagonist itself, it’s impossible to argue that the developer didn’t use the flagship horror franchise as a key point of inspiration; if you still aren’t convinced, there are also some direct shout-outs including a man-sized hole in a bathroom and a room that fills up with dangerous amounts of psychedelic red.

The 2D sprite work is serviceable, and is effective at conveying a sense of mystery and sadness with each of the (seemingly) human characters. The main character’s surgical mask does give off the impression that he possesses a wide grin, though whether that is considered humorous or apropos is up to the player. There is also a fair amount of text that does a sufficient job of conveying the main character’s tormented thoughts in both deliberate and subtle ways (examining a nearby shoe rack, for instance, reveals a surprisingly hostile reaction). The music is also well composed, and is also derivative of former Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka’s works.

While it may not earn points for originality, there is no arguing the merit in successfully recreating the tension and atmosphere to one of the most hailed Horror games of all time into a 2D format. What Lone Survivor lacks in genuine scares it makes up for with an interesting and well-written premise and a main character that is easy to sympathize with, even without learning the truth behind his back-story. After several months starving over the meagre scraps masquerading as tasty horror, Lone Survivor is an easily affordable dish that will leave you satisfied, but also hungry for more.

Three Reasons We’re Excited For Dishonored

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:31:28 GMT

Bethesda announced last week that Arkane Studios’ first-person action game Dishonored would be released on October 12th in Europe, and quite frankly, we’re looking forward to it, especially with BioShock Infinite having been delayed until next February. From what we’ve seen so far, it’s shaping up to be really quite something – which is why we’ve compiled this helpful three-point list of why we’re excited about Dishonored, and why you should be too. Read on.

1. It Gives Real Freedom

We don’t know how big Dunwall, the industrial whaling city that provides the setting of Dishonored, will be. We do know one thing about the game though: that the outcome of each choice made by the player will permanently influence the game world. The way you handle a mission (or fail to handle a mission) will drastically change the environment around you – or so we’ve been led to believe. Done properly, this could prove much more immersive than competing games, because it adds more depth than a simple success/failure to each objective.

The game’s lead designers, Harvey Smith and Raf Colantonio, kindly provided an example as to what this means: if a player runs into a couple of thugs and spares their lives, they might later see those exact same thugs mugging an individual on the street. If the player kills the thugs beforehand, that victim will instead walk by undisturbed. It’s more of a live simulation of the city and its inhabitants than it is a typical computer game with pre-programmed events triggered by the player’s presence, something I’m not sure exists on the market today.

2. It’s Gorgeous

You might already be protesting “you’re not supposed to judge games by their graphics”, but I’m actually talking about the art direction here. Taking cues from steampunk architecture and Neo-Victorian fashion, the people and places of Dishonored have a distinct, impressive visual quality, somewhat reminiscent of 2007’s BioShock. In a day and age where games tend to adopt either a desaturated “realistic” look or a grungy post-apocalyptic fuzz, it’s refreshing to see a more uncommon aesthetic.

That’s partly thanks to the experience of the art team on the game: there’s Colantonio, a founding member of Arkane Studios (which assisted with design work for BioShock 2), joined by Deus Ex lead designer Harvey Smith and Half-Life 2 designer Viktor Antonov, the latter of whom was responsible for City 17 and its infamous Citadel. Combined, their background in video game art is something formidable; in a game together, who knows what could happen? The latest batch of screenshots released by Bethesda already seems to show the influence of Smith and Antonov, and it bodes well.

3. It’s a Supernatural Playground

BioShock proved with Plasmids that supernatural powers are a blast, at some times more literally than others. There’s a being called “The Outsider” in Dishonored, who grants the main character, Corvo, with supernatural powers – and unleashing those powers in the city of Dunwall, which we’ve previously established facilitates direct interference with its inhabitants, sounds fantastic. Imagine Oblivion’s Imperial City with a modern game’s graphical fidelity and its Magicka on steroids.

We don’t know absolutely everything about these supernatural abilities yet, and even less about the so-called “Outsider”, but all the elements of a great game are starting to mesh together here. It could be screwed up as badly as Infamous, true, but let’s consider that a worst-case scenario and exercise some optimism. The designers of BioShock, Deus Ex, and Half-Life are coming together to work on a project together, in response to which I can surely be excused for being excited. At the very least, this will be a notable moment in this year’s release history – for better or worse remains to be seen.

Update: Bethesda have contacted us to point out that Dishonored won’t be open world; it’s “a linear, mission-based game, but you have multiple options as to how you want to approach each mission”. We’ve corrected parts of this article today (May 15th) to reflect that.

Cardiff’s Doctor Who Experience Opens July 20th

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:47:29 GMT

Cardiff’s Doctor Who Experience will officially open on July 20th, BBC Worldwide announced today. The award-winning attraction invites visitors to take part in their own “Doctor Who”-themed adventure; it’s the very first interactive Doctor Who exhibition, originally opening in London last year, and now it will make its permanent home not far from the show’s set.

“[The exhibition] is going to be just minutes away from where the BBC Wales television series is made, which I’m incredibly excited about,” said Philip Murphy from BBC Worldwide. “The Experience sets out to engage visitors’ imaginations from the outset, immersing them in the world of Doctor Who, and what better place to do this than in Cardiff, the home of the show.”

The exhibition is regularly updated, and on its opening in Cardiff, attendees will be presented for the first time with the Doctor’s cradle from “A Good Man Goes to War”, and the Silence spaceship and Matt Smith’s sonic cane from “Let’s Kill Hitler”. More are promised, but are being kept firmly under wraps until the opening date.

Tickets for the Cardiff exhibition will become available from 10 AM on June 14th. You can find out more on the official Doctor Who Experience website, which is currently being updated, here.

Witcher Developer Hiring For Two New Projects

Sun, 13 May 2012 17:23:42 GMT

CD Projekt Red, the Polish developer behind both of the award-winning Witcher games, is hiring staff for a “brand new” role-playing game. The positions are being advertised on the developer’s official blog, on which they’re encouraging artists, designers, and programmers to submit portfolios and CVs – and even some internships are available for over-18s.

“Our mature dark-fantasy world is well known around the world, though if you can’t stomach dwarves, elves or sorceresses who put their ample charms on display in Playboy magazine, we’ve got also something special that might be right up your alley,” reads the blog post. “We’re looking for people who would rather work on an entirely new and different IP – a vast RPG for which we want to assemble the best possible staff.”

That said, the blog post goes on to mention the team’s “two ongoing projects”, so even if one of these isn’t a third game in the Witcher franchise, the other one might well be. With the Xbox 360 version of The Witcher 2 having received critical acclaim and topped sales charts internationally for a number of consecutive weeks, all bodes well for the developer’s immediate future.

Awesomenauts (XBLA) Review

Fri, 11 May 2012 23:32:23 GMT

Awesomenauts does something that so few games manage to do, and it does it so well that you probably won’t even notice at first. It manages to evolve a genre, bringing in a whole list of new and exciting features, without ever straying too far from the initial quality that made the genre special. I’ll be honest: upon reading what the game actually was, I didn’t think it was possible to maintain a high quality and deliver what they promised, but they have and you shouldn’t hesitate to try it out. Awesomenauts is a member of the Defence of the Ancients genre; you just wouldn’t know it from looking at it.

If you’ve never heard of Defence of the Ancients, the rules are simple: destroy the enemy’s tower while defending your own. It’s like a two-way tower defence game, with a healthy dose of RPG added for good measure. As you play and destroy NPC (and other players), you gain points and experience, the former you can use to buy new skills and faster attributes while the latter levels up your general attributes. It’s a fine line between being reckless and being a key member of a team, and the PC versions of this genre – DotA (after which the genre is named), League of Legends, and Heroes of Newerth – are infamous for their unforgiving and harsh communities.

What Awesomenauts does differently is that it places the game on a 2D plane. It’s a platformer, a multiplayer platformer, and it never loses sight of the things that makes either genre really shine, while merging features flawlessly. It’s an impressive achievement and, to be fair, Awesomenauts is worth checking out just to see how everything goes together so well (and I’m not just saying that so that so that there are more people to play with). What this results in is a game in a notoriously difficult genre that manages to be fun and easily accessible. If that’s what the developers were aiming for, and something tells me this it isn’t the sort of thing that happens by accident, they’ve managed to pull it off perfectly.

Let’s run through a typical game. You’ll have picked characters and, if you’ve reached a certain level, skills (each characters have different skills to choose from, giving them different advantages and weaknesses over other characters) and then the game will begin. You and your allies must fight your way through a series of giant enemy turrets and make it to their core, destroying that to win the match. Meanwhile, the enemy is trying to do exactly the same thing, so the key to winning – oh, for it to be this simple – is to make as much progress as you can while hindering the progress of your opponents.

First, you have to take into account the development of your playable characters. There are countless players offering tips online for how to fully take advantage of heroes in other DotA games – when it’s best to attack, when it’s best to run away, and how best to level your skills so you’re an unstoppable killing machine – and I can’t see the Awesomenauts community being any different. Your “hero” might be incredibly powerful in the opening stages of a match, but will be harder to level up as time goes on; on the flip-side of that, choosing a weaker character may pay off in the long run and part of the fun in the game is finding a character that best represents your playing style.

It’ll take a little while to get into the swing of things, but that’s not a problem: you’ll end up playing game after game after game. Each match can take anything from 15 minutes to almost no limit, depending on the skill level of your opponents and of those on your own team, but it’ll never feel like a drag though and you’ll end most games surprised that you’ve been playing so long. Despite the games being fun, you’re likely to find you lose a great number of times to begin with – there are already some very good players out there, and I’ve found myself humiliated more than once.

In fact, this is probably going to be the biggest issue for the game. Being this close to launch, you’re likely to have a good game without being destroyed too quickly; it’s touch-and-go most of the time, but at least you look like you’re capable of defending for some length of time. As people get more used to the characters, they’ll expect others to be doing the same thing and that’s where potential nastiness will come in (it’s a genre staple, after all). On top of that, you’re going to start struggling to get into a game in which you stand any sort of chance, and a few months down the line it’ll be horrible to be a beginner.

Still, I think Awesomenauts is a decent enough game that that won’t matter. It’ll be worth losing a few matches because, in short, it really is taking part that counts. When you always feel so close to turning the tide of battle, where the graphics are so enduring and the characters so entertaining, it always feels like you’re enjoying yourself. And if you lose, well, it’s as simple as shrugging it off and trying again. It’s brilliant and it’s completely counter to almost anything on the market: multiplayer games usually promote winning, not having a good time.

It’s this, along with the innovative use of genres, that makes Awesomenauts one of the must-play digital titles available today. Like all digital online titles, you’re making something of a risky decision in regards to how long people will bother playing it and how well the community will support it, but it’s a risk well worth taking. You’ll fall almost instantly for the game’s subtle charms; if you can get ten hours of gameplay, and all it will take is a handful of games, then you’ll you’ve got your money’s worth. Hell, you might even manage to get an achievement or two.

Velocity (PS Mini) Review

Fri, 11 May 2012 16:21:03 GMT

Sometimes, as a writer in the gaming industry, you are forced to play a game that you would never choose to play otherwise. What people new to the business expect is AAA title after AAA title, Grand Theft Auto and Metal Gear Solid every single day. The reality is different, and you sometimes find yourself playing something that you decide nobody else is likely to ever play by choice. It’s your job to review something fairly and knowledgeably without bias as to where it came from or who made it. So long ago, when I was given a review code (as a joke) from my then editor-in-chief for a game called Coconut Dodge, I went in with an open mind and found myself met with one of the best games on the PSP.

Flash forward nearly two years and Coconout Dodge developer FuturLab are releasing their second PlayStation Mini: Velocity. Velocity, like Coconut Dodge, is very simple on first look – and just like Coconut Dodge, that simple outlook is a mask, hiding just how much depth the developers have managed to pack away. Looking at screenshots, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s just another space shooter: these are ten a pound, especially if you come from a PC background. There’s a twist however, and that twist changes the entire way the game is played. You goal doesn’t only consist of making it to the end of the level, killing enemies and rescuing survivors (although there’s a healthy dose of each), but Velocity goes one step further: teleportation.

Let’s touch on the basics first. Graphically, Velocity is a throw-back to gaming in the late eighties, early nineties. The music, lovingly provided by Killzone alumni Joris de Man, could be straight from the Atari days and, while it looks anything but dated, the world you explore is made up of tiles that could almost be directly out of R-Type or something similar. It’s especially worth checking it out on a Vita screen, where you definitely get a feel for how crisp and colourful the game is. Obviously, it’s best seen on a Vita (or at a push, the PSP) but the image on a TV still looks pretty good, if a little stretched.

There are three types of level in the game: action levels consist of destroying as much of the enemy as possible – be it stationary tanks or bug-like ships – while saving as many survivors as you can; speed levels are a test of dexterity and muscle memory, requiring you to quickly move around a map; and exploration levels, which have you using long-range teleportation in order to find your way to the exit. The speed levels in particular demand skill with local teleportation and quick reactions. Each are different enough that you never feel things are too same-y, while they’re similar enough that you don’t ever feel you need extra skills to complete one sort of stage over another.

Teleportation is simple to use but quite difficult to do justice in writing. You have two options: you can teleport wherever you want on the screen simply by pressing the square button and moving the reticule, or you can drop a beacon to which you can return at any time. The former will help you look cool while dodging enemy fire, and may even come in handy while traversing past pipes and walls (and you may even come across some hidden items only accessible with crafty use of local teleportation), while the latter can be a life-saver if you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, or if you have a large area to explore and lots of optional people to rescue.

None of this innovative use of motion really means anything if the level design doesn’t back it up, and more than a few indie titles have become boring quickly because they’ve focussed on doing something different but forgotten to make it fun. Velocity manages to deftly dodge this problem by being an awesome game in its own right, and probably would be even without the ability to zip around the place whenever you fancy it. The levels are fun, the gameplay is addictive, and you’ll find yourself hooked before long. Add the teleport mechanic, however, and you’ve got yourself something completely unexpected: a title that’s as impressive to think of technically as it is fun to play.

“not only the best
PlayStation Mini …
also one of the best
games available
on the Vita”

And FuturLab have been sure not to limit the fun by creating only a small amount of levels or having it all come to an end after a certain point. There are a huge number of levels from which to choose, harder levels being unlocked as you improve your cumulative score. Each score you get on each level can be improved upon, and part of the fun is getting top marks. As you explore, you can unlock further levels and mini-missions, and if you get bored of space flight and battle, there’s an included game on Minesweeper and a calculator for writing 5138008 on – the fun never ends. There are some great surprises in Velocity and no doubt getting them all will keep you playing for hours and hours.

Velocity is not only the best PlayStation Mini available, but it’s also one of the best games available on the Vita. Currently downloadable for free through PlayStation Plus and available to regular users over coming weeks, Velocity is a game more than worth your time and money. While some may be put off by its release under the Minis brand and its retro feel, even the naysayers would have to admit this is a pretty important game and, I think, something that may end up as an important stepping stone for both FuturLab and for future entries in the shoot-‘em-up genre.