Quickie: Grab Your Calenders!

...and a pen if you've 'one handy! Because the Mass Effect release date has been confirmed: November 20!

Unlike a few other game (development companies) I would expect this date to stick like a fridge magnet to a... erm, fridge.

This game will rock, mark my words...

Quickie: GTA IV - DELAYED!!!

"Ah-hu, they di'int!"

Yes folks, they did. GTA IV has been delayed to the 2Q (that's between Feb 1st and April 30th)* of 2008. I'm a little annoyed but as long as Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect don't get put back - touches wood - then I don't really mind...

Haha, "R* have stolen Christmas" - some people slay me..

E3 - Games I'm looking forward to seeing, but not as much as the other ones

There are 2 games that just missed out of my very exlusive list, they are as follows:

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GTA IV

On this outing you will play as Niko Bellic who has come to the good old US of A to start a-new. Hailing from an undisclosed Eastern European country, Niko has come to Liberty City (based on New York - which was met with a sea of New-yorkers screaming "It isn't that bad over here!") to hook up with his cousin, Roman. Who has previously been telling Niko of his high flying life style, needless to say he was lieing and now Niko seems like he's going to have to sort Roman out himself, while trying to turn his back on his past crimes...

Niko arives at Liberty City, with hopes of going straight. Ha!

Tell me more, tell me more!
Details are still a bit sketchy, but here's a few confirmed things that may (or may not) interest any gamers out there:

• Set in the year 2007 (aka nowadays)
• Much more control over what you do and how you do it, and allow, and I quote 'The player to create their own destiny'
• No planes due to there only being one city...
• ...but helicopters are still in!
• Stealing cars is made more realistic with more animations (breaking glass to get into locked cars etc.)
• Mobile phones and the Internet become essential tools, allowing you to talk to friends, increasing relationships (for reasons still unknow...) as well as some internet/phone based missions (e-mailing a CV to gain an interview - ringing a 'hits' phone to see where he is in a crowd)
• Old favourites: Ammu-Nation and Pay 'n Spray are gone. With the player having to call arms dealers to make specified deliveries or meeting locations and times.
• You can use taxi's as, well, a taxi... Jump into a cab, select somewhere on the map, sit back and relax. Or skip the traveling and arive there instantly.
• Release Date: October 19th (for Europe) 16th (Noth America)

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Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is the 3rd in the series of Fallout games (currently under development by Bethesda Softworks), which also spawned 2 spinoff games (Brotherhood of Steel and Fallout: Tactics). This is the first Fallout game, however, to use a first-person perspective; allowing players to view from their characters eyes, third person or a the original isometric perspective, as with the original games.
The game starts off with an interest idea (see below for a run down on the games opening). You begin as many of us do in real life; with your own birth. At this point your (character's) mother dies during labour, and so it is up to your father to bring you up.
When you turn 19 years old, one morning, you realise your father has disapeared, leaving The Vault (an underground area that keeps you and your community safe from the fallout which has occured above). Venturing out into the world above, you go in search of your father. From here, you'll be presented with a world much smaller than that of Oblivion, but much richer and more compressed; giving you more quality of Oblivions quantity.

Remember, someone always has to clean up your mess!

Tell me more, tell me more!
We're still a long ways off getting this game, it's penciled in for the final quatre of next year (2008) so I wouldn't hold your breath. Suprisingly enough, we did get a walkthrough of the game which is explained below:

• Main character creation is implemented by specifying the character's childhood. The character's mother dies in labor in a Vault hospital, after which the player chooses the character's Traits and general appearance during the father's DNA analysis. Afterwards, the father removes his surgeon's mask to reveal a face much like the one chosen by the player for the character.
• As a child in the Vault, the character receives a book titled "You're Special", whereupon you'll set the character's 7 primary aptitudes. The character receives training weapons and a PIP-boy during childhood, and the player's performance in various tests determines the rest of the attributes. Additionally, there will be quests inside the Vault that influence the pc's relationship with his or her father.
• Skills and Perks are similar to those in previous games: the player chooses 3 Tag Skills out of 14 to be the character's specialties, and the character will gain a Perk every other level.
• Max level will be 20.
• There will be a definite end to the game, with many possible endings based on good/evil/neutral events you trigger.
• The Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System, or V.A.T.S. will be implemented. Various actions cost action points, and both the player and enemies can target specific body areas for attacks, inflicting specific injuries. While using V.A.T.S., real-time combat is paused creating a combat system that the Bethesda developers have described as a hybrid between turn-based and real-time combat.
• The game will maintain the same level of gore. All gory deaths in the game will be shown in slow motion. One of the featured screenshots is of a super-mutant's head exploding in great detail.
• The game will feature a new health and radiation system. The player can measure an object's radioactivity and gauge the effect it will have on the character.
• Karma titles, similar to those from previous games, will grant Xbox Live Achievements on that platform.
• The number '101' can be seen on the back of several characters' Vault suits. This signifies the characters home of origin, Vault 101 in Washington, D.C.
• Characters will be able to create small blasts by targeting nuclear generators and using nuclear catapults.

E3 - Games I'm looking forward to seeing

#1

Overview.

Just pipping Mass Effect to the number 1 spot, Assassin's Creed, somewhat totally opposite to Mass Effect, is set during the end of the 12th century during the Third Crusade in 3 cities; Damascus, Jerusalem and Acre, as well as the locations inbetween. You play as Altair, a member of the very real Hashshashin (believed to be the original Assassins). As the game begins you begin as a, for want of a better word, Pro; you have all of the abilities, weapon and moves of a great Assassin. However, you soon lose many of those abilities and weapons and have to start from scratch - here is where the player will begin. Your task, to win back to respect of your piers, is to assassinate 9 key individuals, on either side of the Third Crusade, to prove your worth. How you do this is up to you...

What's so good?

Bottle. It took some unbelievable bottle and creative vision to attempt something on the scale of Assassin's Creed.

Parkour like you've never parkour'd before!

(You probably never have!)

First and foremost, Free Running has never been so Free; where as in the past you have been able to climb walls (Spiderman, anyone?) or the odd fence (GTA SA, huh?) it was all scripted, and very repetitive. Now, instead of a wall, fence or building being interactive - the environment and, as Jade Raymond (producer and total hottie) says "Any architectural detail that sticks out more then 2 inches can be used as a hold for your hands or feet."* Reading that description doesn't do the visuals justice however, and seeing it in action is something beautiful to behold. Altair does not just climb up; if there is nothing for him to grab with his hand or stick his big size nines into then he won't, he'll look for something close and within reach to do so - and thus why this game is amazing: realism.

You'll actually grab 'sticky-outty' bits when you climb.

Fight like a freakin' Ninja!!

Although this is perhaps the first game when running away like a big girls blouse actually looks cool, there will be occasions when you need and/or just feel like kickin' some guards' ass. The fighting style isn't a button masher, nor does it seem particularly difficult to use (perhaps, to master though...). It seems as though there will 3 different types of ways to attack an opponent: grapple and to then stab or push/throw, block and then counter-attack, or simply swing for them. There also seems to be 4 types of weapons; the uber cool Assassin switch blade (used for assassinations), a short and long sword and throwing knives. All of these weapons are interchangeable and make for some beautiful combinations.

Take the target out head on without a second thought.

Variety is the spice of life!?

So, you've got your uber cool climbing, jumping and basically spiderman-like moves and you've also got your somewhat ninja-like cut throat abilities for when things get up close and personal, but what else? Well, games like to give us gamers things in 3's and this is no different. The final and perhaps most original idea (although I think IO Interactive may have something to say about that) is the new social stealth concept which seems to be the coders new toy; next gen has given programmers the ability to program multiple A.I for each NPC (non-playing character) and thus the birth of social stealth). Social stealth is a pretty simple idea; to avoid looking suspicious you perform tasks or mimic actions of others to remain inconspicuous: think "that" peeping tom who pretends to attend to his garden every time you catch his eye!

In Assassin's Creed, the idea is the same. Perhaps you want to get close to your target but have no buildings near by, or perhaps there are just too many guards. Well, with social stealth you will be able to blend into a crowd, or small group of people (say, a bunch of monks) and make your way towards the target within said crowd. This will allow you to get as close as possible without your target or his bodyguards becoming suspicious of the guy in the hood with the multiple weapons on his back. It can also be used when splegging it (see "running away, fast") to lose the guards; perhaps there's a group of individuals sitting on a bench? Sit next to them and watch as the guards go running on past you!

Feeling sneaky? Use crowds of monks to approach the target without being seen

It's the next stage of gaming-evolution!

We're at the stage now where next-gen games are now, finally making an appearance. Sure, Gears of War introduced us to what could be achieved and even the game play was pretty darn good too. But it didn't really push the boundaries game play wise, it didn't introduce us to any new ideas or innovative game play techniques. It was, if we're being fair, a very beautiful looking 3rd person shooter!

Assassin's Creed (and Mass Effect) are pushing the envelope to the extreme, offering players as much freedom and high quality of content that games such as Oblivion (lots of space, lacking on quality), GOW (again, looks nice - but a rehash of old ideas and very short), and so on, failed to do. It's clear to see that the final quarter of 2007 will see the rise of the true next gen games.

So...?

So?! You need more? Well, let me take this opportunity to turn into the hormone driven guy that I truly am and present to you Jade Raymond...

We love you Jade..!!!!! <3

Ahem, quite..

Pencil your calenders folks. November has been announced as the release date for Assassin's Creed - it's gunna' be one helluva month!

E3 Game Play Video

Newest Trailer

PS. The song from the new trailer is Lonely Souls by Unkle with vocals from Mr Richard Ashcroft himself. I promptly downloaded that song, as it's so damned good!

R. U

E3 - Games I'm looking forward to seeing

#3

Overview.

Alan Wake, is a psychological action-adventure thriller featuring, you guessed it, Alan Wake: a popular novelist who is currently having a huge amount of writers block. This he puts down, in part, to the loss of his wife as well as an uncomfortable dose of insomnia. Following this, Alan retreats to the East Coast town of Bright Falls; where his darkest nightmares seem to be living and breathing in reality. Taking control of Alan, players will explore Bright Falls, and the mysterious herein, attempting to unravel who or what it is that is lurking behind the shadows.

Structured in a similar style as a TV series, Alan Wake is divided into segments, each segment representing a TV episode; with similar plot twists, character arcing and so on and so forth. However, this is far from a linear story - Bright Falls will be open for exploration where one gamers actions could be diversely different to another’s. Although during Remedy Entertainments previous series Max Payne, this time the players most effective weapon may actually be his flashlight. It's believed that there will be both day-time and night-time elements. With the day-time focusing on gather clues and conversing with individuals, and the night-time focusing on exploring the shadows and following up on leads.

What's so great?

There's something about the structure that's very interesting about the structure; the day and night time segments, the promised TV series-style and the freedom to explore and change the progression of the story depending on, for instance, which lead you follow up on first, or whether or not, while driving to your destination, you decide to check out that vacant light that just switched on as you drove past.

The atmosphere is spot on, during the demonstration trailer we were shown how Bright Falls can be changed from a beautiful countryside-esc town into a creepier-than-creep, dark, spooky, almost ghost-like town. And the great thing is, it's the same place. It's not two different maps, one with more visuals and another with sharper looking shapes and shadows. Just like reality, what can initially seem like a beautiful landscape during the day, can become a terrifying twist on perspective. Like other games such as Silent Hill, many of the scares will most likely come from within oneself; constantly on the edge of your seat you will be expecting something or someone to jump out at you, only for it to happen when you least expect.Coupled with this Remedy Entertainment have also focused on environmental factors. Although details are sketchy, from the demonstration you could see a full cycle from day to night to day again. This almost seems like there will be full day cycles, as well as various weather effects; including rainstorms and even tornados which rip up buildings, cars and other scattered debris.

Opening mission walkthrough.
I stumbled across this during my research, it's a descriptive of the opening mission and objective of Alan Wake:

On with the playable mission, and as Alan drives to the cabin, he reveals through voice-over that his new book is about a writer, who, after a tragic loss, goes to live in a secluded cabin where he creates a horror story about creatures of darkness disguised as men. However, when the writer leaves the cabin he discovers the world has turned into the nightmare he's written. Alan's story begins with the writer picking up a hitch-hiker on the way to the cabin - and right on cue, the spooky piano music strikes up again and a real hitchhiker is spotted on the road ahead. "That's creepy..." says Alan.

Of course, Wake picks up the shabby hitcher and begins telling him about the fact he's a writer, and that his story has a hitch-hiker in it. "The hitch-hiker's a killer of course," says the creepy guy in a gruff drawl. "No," replies Alan. "The hitch-hiker gets killed. Then he comes back, or something, a creature of darkness that haunts the writer." Alan drives on, but then is stopped in his tracks - ahead, on the road, a car has overturned, the result of an accident.

Alan pulls up, and gets out of his vehicle to examine the wreckage - there are bloodstains on the road, but no-one around. Suddenly, a lorry hurtles round the corner and smashes into his car with the hitcher still inside, as Alan has to frantically dive to safety, losing consciousness. He starts to hear voices, then wakes up - it's now dark and he has a gun and torch in his hands, and the hitch-hiker is nowhere to be seen. Alan still has to reach the cabin, now on foot, which is up on a nearby hill and across a rickety wooden bridge, which he bravely skips across.

The camera cuts to a first-person shimmering view of the bridge, as we hear a horrific whispered voice: "Waaaaaake!" The enemy zooms Evil Dead-style towards the other side of the bridge, causing a streetlight to shatter. Alan starts to run on the path up towards the cabin, pursued by the unseen enemy, as each street lamp that he passes explodes and plunges the area into more darkness. Wake turns around and shines the torch at the creature, allowing him to shoot at
a shadowy human form that recoils in agony.

Back to the heart-stopping demo, and as the chaotic music rises to a crescendo, Wake runs the rest of the way, more lights smashing as he moves past them on the path to the cabin. Finally, he reaches the hideaway, but we can see from outside that all the bulbs in the rooms are exploding, creating more darkness. Trapped, Alan turns around, and as the screen fades to black we hear a voice say: "Wake, we have a common destination..."

- The full article can be found here

What's not so great?
There's a lot of information yet to come on this title; the amount and diversity of combat, investigation methods, npc interaction, freedom and so on have far from been explained.
Day and night cycles will be interesting to experience; how will they be done? Apparently, as the story progresses, day shorterns and night icnreases in length. That's an interesting concept, but again, without detailed information on how exactly this will work we're left with concepts without substance. Will the day and night segments be split up? Or will their be a natural progression from morning to noon and then finally to night? I'm not even sure which method would work best, the former being very unnatural and will most likely remove the gamer from his or her experience. And the later being rather constrictive; with the promise of freedom, if the game is split up into day and night segments, will there be certain interactions and places to explore that is exclusive to one or the other?
Also, a release date originally rumoured to be end of this year, seems to be more likely to be penned in for 2008.

Alan Wake - Trailer

What to expect at E3.
I'd like to think we'd get a 2007 released date confirmed at this years E3 and I'm afraid that if we don't get that then the rumoured 2008 release may actually have some substance. Alan Wake should be at E3 this year, although whether Remedy will be their or if Microsoft will just be showing off some new footage is all guess work.
Cross your fingers and hope for a release date. I'm pretty sure we'll get some new game play, maybe even some hands-on, as well as some information on the structure and character interaction.