Tactical shooters and strategic combat are heavy hitters in the eSports realm. The new open world Ubisoft title that released earlier this year, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, is a haven for such gameplay experiences. So, with the announcement of the open beta for the upcoming PvP mode – Ghost War – for the futuristic shooter, we’ll take a look at some of the finer details that are headed our way.
The competition of video games arises from many different genres. Tactical shooters are among the top, and earlier this year Ubisoft Paris released a futuristic tactical shooter that gave online players a breath of fresh air with its unique take on military action.
So, following the events after the main campaign, Special Operations units have arrived and plan to take back the country of Bolivia. Making good use of skills, tech, various war tactics and strategy, as well as proper communications will lift your squad over opposing forces and give the ultimate tactical gameplay competition.
Taking two groups of players and forming teams of four to wage war against each other in tactical gunplay, Ghost War looks to up the ante for modern shooters. In traditional team deathmatch fashion, both squads use advanced military tech and skills to strategically take out the rival team. With a varied roster list of classes to choose from, each player has their own role to fill, providing a unique, one-of-a-kind battleground.
More player versus player action will be added to the successful Tom Clancy release, giving shooter fans a futuristic taste of strategy and tactics. Adding to the tactical mayhem, suppressing fire and sound markers are introduced, giving teammates a fitting team-based military experience not found in other eSport titles.
The open beta for Ghost War will become available later this summer, coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC. The free full update including the PvP mode, Ghost War, will be released this fall to all owners of Ghost Recon: Wildlands.
New sandbox RPG title from indie developers Blue Isle Studios (Slender: The Arrival, Valley), Citadel: Forged with Fire is coming to Steam Early Access, and it’s dropping in a week. The new title is also being published for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and is releasing at a later date, giving online fans a promising world full of spells and adventure.
The upcoming giant sandbox title is an online RPG world pitting players against other wizards, wild beasts and exploring the vast landscape filled with ancient history. Combining with the powers of other players, you can forge alliances to strengthen your party, explore uncharted territories and discover exciting secrets hidden within the world.
Blue Isle Studios’ managing director, Alex Tintor, expressed his excitement for the upcoming online RPG title, stating:
“Citadel is a completely new genre for us, our biggest goal with this title is to work closely with our community to build the ultimate fantasy sandbox game that is playable online with friends. This project has been a labor of love and we are excited for its launch onto Early Access this summer.”
With the freedom to explore a massive landscape stretching across expansive plains and rugged mountains, to congested forests and rotten swamps, Citadel has many features to intrigue any MMO player. Tame wild beasts like dragons and direwolves, prepare your household for war against rival houses and even build a castle. There’s also an impressive deconstruction system to destroy the opposing houses around you. Why not?
Traveling throughout the immense map is daunting on foot, so players can fly as wizards instead. This is performed through different methods, such as alchemy, climbing aboard dragons and eagles, or even the classic broomstick. Nevertheless, covering air and ground is sure to benefit all in Citadel.
On July 26th, Citadel: Forged with Fire hits Steam Early Access, as well as a closed beta testing where players are encouraged to sign up before launch. With deep character customization, exciting discoveries and spells, along with a substantial map and numerous travel options, Citadel: Forged with Fire looks to be an enticing adventure indeed.
Set on a fictional British island, Knights and Bikes, from developers Foam Sword – a small team made up of creative artists who’ve worked on titles such as LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway and Ratchet & Clank – takes the player back to the late 1980s. Venturing across the island on bikes, Nessa and Demelza scavenge the lands to discover treasure and mysteries covering the intriguing island, only to find themselves determined to save the lands from inevitable destruction.
Inspirations from ’80s classics like ET to the Goonies, the developers at Foam Sword look to give gamers everywhere a true taste of nostalgic childhood memories, letting the imaginative world around them take them on an unforgettable journey. Battle your way through enemies with charming child-like “weapons” including frisbees, water balloons and puddle/mud stomping – only to name a few viable battle tactics.
Making your way across the island, besting your foes and rescuing fellow islanders, the child-duo will learn new abilities, taking them further into the island, giving players a vast and wonderful land to explore. Using curiosity and friendship, you’ll journey across unknown lands and will make discoveries only touched by a child’s imagination.
The co-op experience in Knights and Bikes allows you to experience the game with another player controlling the other party member. Played locally or online, teaming up with friends (or AI) while you explore on your bikes is sure to leave a sense of wonder and mystery comfortably in your imagination.
While exploring the island you’ll be looting for treasure, then trading your items in to upgrade your bike and learn game-changing abilities. Freely roaming the land or solving mysteries and saving loved ones and islanders are other important options to help gather more info and explore the island.
With the cutesy hand-painted graphics, to the charming characters, weapons and battle system, Knights and Bikes looks to bring ’80s fans and gamers everywhere a solid and wonderful dose of nostalgic adventure. Being developed for PS4 and Steam users, Foam Sword is keeping the release date tightly sealed for now. Be sure to stay tuned for more on the exciting new indie game, Knights and Bikes.
Die Young, developed by IndieGala, is one of those rare titles that manages to hit all the right notes, creating an exciting symphony of survival, adventure, and mystery. You take on the role of an affluent and adventurous young woman who sets out with her friends for what she thinks will be a new thrill and a good time on an island in the Mediterranean sea. She then awakens at the bottom of a well, bruised and bloodied, with no memory of how she arrived there, and with no clues aside from a map lying on the floor in front of her. You emerge from the well onto a picturesque island and it is then up to you to discover what happened to your friends and why you were seemingly left for dead.
I was able to try the alpha build of the game, and I knew as soon as I opened the start menu that Die Young was going to be something different than your average survival title. I was greeted by the sounds of a steel guitar contrasted against an image of what appeared to be a quaint landscape, complete with country roads hedged with old wooden fences. After I escaped from the well using the game’s climbing mechanic (more on that in a bit), I was struck with just how gorgeous the game is, particularly when crossing the countryside. I was surrounded by rolling hills covered in flowers, green grasses, and fields of golden wheat that waved gracefully in the wind. Stunning beams of bright sunlight will stream through breaks in the trees or rocks, or through windows and cracks in the buildings and ruins you will explore. Even the dilapidated structures you discover have a silent magnificence.
Many of the plants littering the island have medicinal properties and can be gathered for crafting into various healing balms and medicines. The crafting system is simple to learn, and expands during the game as you locate more materials (such as wood, cloth, and metal) and other recipes. The menu is simple to maneuver with a list of crafting materials on the right, and a grid full of possible recipes or items you can create in the center. You can easily switch between crafting menus by type, select the item you would like to craft, see if you have the necessary components, and then simply hold down “E” (if you are playing with a keyboard) to create the item (which will include medicines, wound care items, weapons, and so forth). This makes it simple to not only create what you need, but to plan out which components you must gather.
The finely tuned crafting system is not only a fun component of the game, but a welcomed one because you will need all the help you can get to make it off the island alive. The tranquility of the blue sky and surrounding water is enough to lull you into a false sense of serenity, but a little exploration will shatter any sense of comfort fairly quickly. Enemies are always stalking around the island, some more easily avoidable than others. As I was going about the pleasant business of gathering herbs (I needed to create a salve), I heard a disgruntled growl and a bark and turned to see a feral hound travelling my way at a great speed. I had no weapons and so all I could do was run, hoping the beast would relent. Thankfully, I was able to avoid death by outrunning him, but only just.
You have a stamina meter that appears on the lower left corner of the screen that lowers with exertion such as running or climbing. If the meter runs out, you will slow down to a walk or, if you are holding on to a handhold, you will lose your grip (an event that lead to my death more than once). I soon found out that if I squatted, I could avoid being detected by these hounds if I was in tall grass or weeds. In fact, one area I explored on the farm/villa required me to maneuver from one grouping of plants to another, like a ninja, in order to avoid the ravenous vengeance of these rather angry canines.
Other enemies that were a bit more difficult to avoid were rats and snakes. Often, I was forced to risk certain injury in order to make it through a room full of the hateful rodents, but thankfully their bites didn’t do major damage. This did mean I needed to make certain I stay stocked up on medicinal components, if I was planning on entering a structure that I might not easily be able to leave if I ran out of healing items. It is important to listen carefully because sometimes enemies will approach quietly. I once noticed a faint rustling sound only to realize I was being chased by a snake moving though the grass like an Olympic swimmer. It is possible to be poisoned in the game (and to craft items that will help counteract it), but thankfully I noticed the sinister serpent in time to run away poison-free.
Of course, antagonistic animals aren’t your only concern. You will notice while exploring that something has gone terribly wrong on the island, and something or someone far more sinister is still stalking about, (as if awakening at the bottom of a well with a map wasn’t enough to clue you in). In fact, at one point I heard footsteps behind me. I ran until I was no longer being chased, only to turn around and see in the distance a distinctly human enemy, who I immediately realized I didn’t want to run into again if I could help it. Strange goat-like images can be found draped across structures. Notes from former habitants or visitors are scattered throughout the buildings and ruins, describing how things went south. Gruesome discoveries serve as a warning and evidence that some sort of violent event occurred on the Island, disrupting what appears to at one time have been a peaceful experiment.
What exactly happened, though, must be pieced together bit-by-bit. The game does give you tasks to accomplish such as locating water or exploring certain structures around the island, but the game is non-linear which gives you the freedom to take on tasks as you see fit and put together the story at your own pace. This adds an intriguing element to your exploration that makes you want to dig deeper, especially the further down the rabbit hole you go (and you have no choice but to follow it through because, after all, your life depends on it).
Exploration is a blast, not only because you clearly have an ever-broadening mystery to solve, but because maneuvering through the various locations requires platforming puzzles that are just as well designed as the crafting system. Jumping and climbing are as simple as aiming in the right direction and hitting the jump button. However, you have limited stamina, so climbing takes not only skill, but planning. The only issue I had with jumping wasn’t mechanical, but rather that I often felt the distance between ledges seemed rather far for any human (even a virtual one) to make. However, once I got used to the fact I was Wonder Woman (or, rather, I had a seemingly superhuman jumping ability) it became one of my favorite parts of the game, as well as one of the most challenging.
Die Young is only in it’s beginning stages with just a portion of the Island currently available and it is already a well-oiled machine. Lovers of survival, adventure, and intriguing thrillers will all find something to keep them interested. The welcoming and simple to learn crafting system, the refined jumping and climbing elements, and the picturesque beauty of the environment will pull you in and beckon you back for more. The developers have promised extra enemies, more missions, death machines (seriously) and other additions. After playing the alpha, however, I would simply be happy just to spend more time on the island delving into it’s mysteries. The death machines do sound interesting, though, and I can’t wait to see what terror and intrigue the full game will entail.
The alpha build of Die Young, developed and published by IndieGala, is currently available on Steam Early Access.
Ubisoft has been known to push out action titles left and right, giving players an adventure through Renaissance Italy, a hacker-filled San Fransisco Bay area or even the primal ages of the Mesolithic era. But stepping in another direction, developers at the busy studio(s) have continued to build a franchise combining racing with deep MMO elements. In 2014 The Crew was released and gave racing fans everywhere a massive open world racer with the map stretching from east coast to west coast in a stunning, condensed version of the United States. Later, a stand-alone release gave racers the ability to speed across the vast lands on powerful motorcycles, wetting the appetite of even more racing fans. Announced at this year’s E3, The Crew 2 will not only give fans more of what they loved from the first entry but will greatly expand the diverse and broad racing series.
With the primary focus on Motorsports of all varieties, The Crew 2 adds much more depth to the already massive racing game. Keeping what fans loved about the first entry like the huge map stretching across the US – including famous landmarks and cities all along the stretching highways – a large selection of purchasable cars and deep customization options, The Crew 2 will now feature aerial stunt plane racing and wave-ripping boat races. What’s more, is you’ll be equipped with the ability to smoothly transition between any of these vehicles on the go, giving players an immense racing experience like no other.
The overall goal of playing through the campaign in The Crew 2 is to become the champion of all Motorsports in Motornation. At the core of the racing experience sits the street racing scene. Familiar in most other racing franchises, taking to the streets in sprint races, cutting sharp corners and dodging oncoming traffic returns from the first entry of the game. Racing in all regions of the enormous map from windy country roads to long desert stretches, to high mountain passes in any automotive form including the return of motorcycles, there’s plenty of adrenaline filled street races to feed your speed addiction.
Pro racing circuits and off-road events also come equipped in the giant racing package of The Crew 2. Tuning your racing machine, adding off-road tires for more tread or racing slicks to navigate around closed circuits as quickly as possible are just a few more options to keep the player engaged in this diverse Motorsports title. Acting as a less organized checkpoint race, Rally Raid puts players in off-road buggies for hill-hopping action, with all sorts of terrains at your disposal, making your way from start to finish in whichever way you find the fastest.
New racing sports added include the all new powerboat and nimble stunt plane racing. The powerboat competitions feature fast, agile machines designed to zip their way through rivers and other waterways. Obstacles like boat ramps and powerful waves – created either from natural occurrences or other racers – keep the high-rush water races full of adrenaline fueled moments. While the stunt planes offer a completely different perspective in the world of The Crew 2, there’s just as much full throttle moments as land or sea events. Barrel rolls and gliding past the smoke trails of competing airborne racers, the new aerial racing will give you beautiful views of legendary landmarks like the Rocky Mountains or the Grand Canyon, all across the vast land of the United States.
The Crew 2 utilizes the massive open world that Ubisoft developers created in the first entry, as well as the addictive “arcade” racing style gameplay. Taking this formula and adding almost every type of major Motorsports possible, giving players the freedom to transition between land, air and sea races at anytime, is sure to make the sequel feel fresh and exciting.
Expect to see The Crew 2 in early 2018 on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC systems. For early access check out the “Open Beta” sign up page from Ubisoft.
At this year’s E3, BioWare teased gamers on day one. It was during the EA Play conference that they showed us what they had been working on for five years. After the initial tease, a message stated that more would be revealed at Microsoft’s E3 Conference. So finally, at the end of the two-hour press event held by Microsoft, the last game featured was BioWare’s new online “Destiny-killer”: Anthem.
A full-out online adventure, pitting the human race at the bottom of the barrel, you explore the vast lands in your ‘Javelin’, an exosuit designed to keep you alive when leaving the safety of the settlement’s walls. The main settlement, which acts as a ‘hub’, allows the player to customize Javelin suits and take on more missions and quests.
Stunning graphics, visuals and lighting, the gameplay footage seen at E3 2017 looked as smooth as any game to date. Taking the role of a freelancer, you explore outside the barrier of the walls of Fort Tarsis, to protect humanity and make new discoveries to further aid the human race. The gorgeous, expandable, open world full of unknown mysteries and surprises, along with what the Lead Designer of the project, Corey Gaspur calls “an amazing BioWare story”, is enough to hype plenty of fans looking forward to expanding their online expeditions.
Though previewed with online play and a large focus surrounding online co-op quests, BioWare states that Anthem is completely playable as a solo campaign, reaching out to those not interested in sharing the experience with other players. With deadly threats and ambushes throughout the world of Anthem though, online co-op might be what saves your life in dicey situations.
The upgradable Javelin suit gives your player personality in and out of battle. Different variations of the suits, like the quick and nimble Ranger, or the mega strength Colossus model – good for taking out dangerous enemies – as well as other models not yet mentioned, leave a strong sense of uniqueness to each exosuit. Said to be “heavily customizable”, these suits give you the creative controls to make your Javelin look and play as you wish. In the demo footage from E3, the Javelin is also shown submerging underwater with a continuous thrust from the jet-pack, making traversing the vast world as exciting as it is impressive.
The combat system in Anthem looks similar to BioWare’s Mass Effect, with cover and shoot gameplay, along with special abilities equipped on the Javelin – like the mortar bomb attached to the colossus or the missile barrage on the ranger displayed in the demo. With talk of various additions to add to the Javelin exosuits, you can expect more options and weapons to make their way into the world of Anthem.
Dangerous foes and giant beasts are not the only threatening disturbance in the dynamic realm. Shaper Storms and other world events will see you fighting through furious winds and lightning, and upon completion of these, more events will be unlocked. At the end of the E3 demo footage, the player is shown, purposely, flying directly into the heart of the storm where other players wait.
Not many details were released about Anthem’s overall playability. The healthy dose of gameplay was more than enough to get fans excited for the new IP however. We also know that Anthem is set to release on the PlayStation 4/Pro, Xbox One/One X and PC, sometime in 2018. Be sure to check back with D-pad Joy for more updates on BioWare’s exciting new game.
It was the return of Reggie Fils-Aimé at Nintendo’s E3 Spotlight show, who quite magically entered the stage, that hyped our anticipation of what to expect this year.
He excitedly began:
Fun and battle always lock together
Reggie talked about gaming as a journey and a ‘passport to new worlds’. This nicely tied into some stunning footage from Monolith Soft’s epic new game Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
This writer instantly recognised the distinct, beautiful and ethereal sound from Xenoblade Chronicle’s composers: Yasnori Mitsuda, ACE (Tomori Kudo and Hiroyo ‘Chico’ Yamanaka), Kenji Hiramatsu, and Manami Kiyota who have returned to compose the game’s soundtrack. Yasnori Matisuda has stated that, upon completing the soundtrack, it brought him to tears. We can hope that there’s a deluxe version of Xenoblade 2 which includes the music, fingers crossed…
From the trailer we can hear that the voice actors are British (again!) and Australian, which is always nice to see in a massive Japanese sci-fi RPG (and given that D-pad Joy is a UK site, it feels closer to home).
Xenoblade 2 follows the main character Rex on a quest to find Elysium. Here’s Nintendo’s blurb:
Explore an endless ocean of clouds, where the last remnants of civilization live on the backs of colossal beasts called Titans. Experience the story of Rex and his new friend, Pyra, a mysterious being known as a Blade who grants him tremendous power. Together, search for Pyra’s long lost home Elysium, the ultimate paradise for all of humanity.
The visuals look clean with the change to a more Chibi art style (in manga and anime, these are child-like cutesy versions of characters).
Narrative wise, we can expect that they’ll follow on in this game with some humorous moments, contrasting heavily with very serious emotional scenes that drive the characters forward. No doubt they’ll throw in a lot of unexpected twists into the story too!
We’ll be able to play in many different ways: with the Joy-Cons or with the Pro controller, away and at home – so this will be very unique when experiencing a huge RPG like Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Unexpectedly announced for Holiday 2017 (which is sooner than we anticipated and just in time for Christmas), Xenoblade 2 will no doubt provide hundreds of hours of gameplay.
Are you surprised about the announcement and the release date? Will you be buying Xenoblade Chronicles 2?
The merging of a serious puzzle game and a 2D side-scrolling action title isn’t exactly an easy combo to muster. But, the universe is a vast and mysterious place and out of it has come just such an amalgamation recently greenlit by the Steam community. Imagine Asteroids on uppers with top-down puzzles and you’ll start to get a good idea of ORB’s basic gameplay. That might sound like a far out idea, but a short time with the alpha demo for the game plants the mechanics solidly on terra firma, with clever in-game incentives tying the two worlds together.
You play as the titular space entity Orb as you fly, dodge and blast your way through to various constellations. Each constellation leads Orb to what is called the “Puzzleverse” where, as you might have guessed, the player will be faced with top-down block-based challenges testing your ability to not only figure out what goes where, but how the overall puzzle is interconnected. For example, one early puzzle I played through gave Orb temporary X-ray vision that allows the player to see what section will be activated if a certain block is placed in a particular space. From there, I had to then solve how to move each block to the proper area and in what order.
Another required me to use a conveyor belt-like system to get each block to it’s proper destination without sending a block in the wrong direction and thus requiring me to start over (which did happen a couple of times). Each puzzle adds a level of complexity using a combination of in-puzzle elements and abilities Orb will acquire both in the wormholes and Puzzlesverse in order to solve them. This is ultimately what binds the two sections together.
During my first wormhole fly-through I obtained a dash ability that allowed me to outrun rogue comets bent on shooting me out of the stars. I also obtained a blast ability that allowed me to shoot enemies and obstacles out of my way. Within the Puzzleverse, my blast ability was later utilized to push blocks into place that I otherwise could not reach. The way these elements play within each section is clever and feeds well into not only the enjoyment of the fast-paced, run-and-gun wormhole sections, but adds yet another layer of difficulty to the puzzles.
Along with the 12 unlockable abilities (including Time Stop, Translocate, Bash and Harpoon), I was able to unlock upgrades to Orb that made me more of a force to be reckoned with within the wormhole sections. After completing my first puzzle I unlocked a health upgrade that extended my life bar. You will also unlock upgrades that will increase your strength and make your blasts a destructive sight to behold and might elicit an evil cackle. I was personally tempted to shout Ozymandias quotes to the universe (“Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!”), but a simple “Kamehameha!” or other guttural shout of victory will do.
ORB is a unique title for sure, but one that manages to pull together in a compelling way what might otherwise have felt like two incongrous gameplay sections. The alpha demo demonstrates great potential for an Action/Puzzle game that requires players to engage all of their cognitive abilities in order to conquer it. Leaderboards will also incentivize players to complete puzzles in the fewest moves and blast through wormholes in the fastest time.
Developer Devil’s Peek Games has promised co-op puzzles and challenges along with additional puzzle elements which will serve as an even stronger incentive for players who like to make their way through as a team. We personally hope to see even more abilities integration between the Puzzleverse and wormhole areas. For now, though, the demo makes us want more. Enjoyable and difficult puzzles coupled with fast and furious flights through the dangerous and yet often beautiful depths of space makes ORB a puzzle title for arcade game lovers, and vice versa.
Devil’s Peek Games recently made a publishing deal with Keystone Games and the game will now be released for PC, PS4 and Xbox One as well.
Standing amongst the brigade of brawling titans that are Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, the Tekken franchise has stood tall and proud now for 20 years – and soon enough its seventh numbered title and tenth major installment will hit consoles everywhere. Not much has been released on the combo fighter thus far, but a stylish trailer released by Bandai Namco has given us quite the tease. There’s plenty of new qualities and upgrades being shown off, so let’s break it down and see what we’re getting when Tekken 7 finally hits store shelves.
Since the release of the wildly successful Injustice 2, fighting fans everywhere have been getting their fix of excellent content. Not too far behind, making a grand entrance on the current gen era of consoles and PC, Tekken 7 is adding more combo stringing action to the growing realm of fighting legends. As the original 3D fighter, Tekken has held a strong fan base throughout its long twenty year tenure and helped revolutionize the genre – Tekken 7 is looking to remind fans and gamers everywhere why it’s still around and fighting strong.
Flashy moves, punchy soundtrack and combos, the Tekken 7 trailer swings into full effect highlighting the new features that comes equipped with the new fighter. The all-new ‘Rage Art’ battle system acts as powerful moves to shift the ever-flowing tide of battle. Tactical unique skills known as ‘Rage Drive’ provide special combo moves specific to each fighter. Turning the fight in your favor just got a little easier with ‘Power Crush’, an armored move allowing a momentum shift, blasting through enemy moves.
Enhancing the fighting experience also makes an impressive introduction to the series with slow motion ending battle scenes, showcasing tight matches ending in a single, decisive attack. With lively fighting stages, the blistering combat isn’t the only thing keeping the action full throttle. Day changes, weather shifts, music and stage transfers – all of which add more direct and immersive action, giving players a true, dramatic fighting brawler.
The story mode takes you through the series’ famous storyline of the Mishima saga. With beautiful cinematic detail and cut scenes, matches will seamlessly blend all along the story, keeping the player thoroughly engaged from start to finish. Furthermore, guest characters will make their appearance; the trailer showing off an epic battle between Street Fighter mega bruiser Akuma squaring off against the Tekken hero himself, Kazuya Mishima. Other guest character have not yet been announced but we know of at least two more spots on the roster will be added in a later DLC.
Lastly, the online features are covered, and proudly presenting a first in the Tekken franchise, 8-player tournament mode, as well as ranked matches. High risks playing online also come with high rewards, earning large amounts of in-game money, which can be spent on customization items, player profiles and health bars, not only changing the appearance of the fighter, but adding a personalized look to your most dedicated players.
So far, the fighting genre has been struck by greatness already once this year with the recent release of Injustice 2. Tekken 7 is hoping to show us greatness can strike possibly twice, and only weeks apart. Whether it’s the climactic fight scenes, unique roster of fighters or the fluid combo based gameplay that draws you to Tekken, the next installment looks to deliver fast-paced, heart-pounding action, leaving players breathless along the way.
PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC owners will have their chance to see what the newest title in the series has to offer when Tekken 7 releases Friday, June 2nd, while Switch owners are still clinging to the hope that one day, they too, will have their opportunity.
In the world of gaming there’s enough instances of games being pushed back for later release dates to keep us used to the idea, and somewhat expecting, for certain titles. Gran Turismo Sport was initially set to release all the way back in the holiday of 2016 but has since been put on hold for an un-announced date. That being said, there has been a release of a closed beta offering a look at what the folks at Polyphony Digital have to offer for the seventh installment (not including 2007’s Prologue) of the long running racing sim series.
Thanks to the folks at Eurogamer, a detailed video of the closed beta in action has provided us with answers to a few unanswered questions. A closer look at the game’s frame-rate shows off polished looks on the cars and courses bringing the game to life in spectacular detail. Vivid colors showcase the game’s finely tuned graphics and pristine imaging across the three different courses throughout the beta test, including the new course Dragon Tail. Check out the guys at Digital Foundry’s run-through below of the beta below:
Beautiful detail embraces the racer in extraordinary fashion with impressive car models and the familiar realism that comes as an anchor in the Gran Turismo series. The lighting, shading, color tones and wonderful materials and textures gives the 4K experience a sense of gratification beyond the previous releases in the franchise. With a much smaller list of cars rounding somewhere near the 140 mark, the game will focus more on the racing, both online and offline, giving the player the feel of a true racing sim.
One big addition to the customization side of the game is the livery editor. Finally. Now racers have the ability to create and design their own unique livery and graphics for their vehicles giving a bit more personality to your racing machine. Additionally, you’re capable of sharing your favorite designs online with friends and other racers, showing off your creative side to the world.
There’s still much about the new title we’re not very clear on. How much different is Sport compared to other numbered games in the series, if at all? Is Sport acting as more of a half-way point to Gran Turismo 7 or taking the roll as a major release in the series? And, most importantly, will it deliver new, fresh and, at this point, crucial enhancements to various aspects of the game to keep it from declining further into staleness of the franchise? With no official release date on paper and E3 right around the corner, keep your eyes peeled for more on this title in the near future.
Highly anticipated, reworked and reimagined, Prey hits stores at the end of this week, but not before the combined forces of Arkane Studios and Bethesda Softworks has a chance to lay an hour or so’s worth of gameplay on you first.
The sci-fi/horror game has you in the grips of an alien species known as the Typhon while trapped aboard the US space station and former Typhon prison, Talos I. Creating your own path to play the game by finding new solutions to various encounters, Prey pops you with a few interesting elements and a lot of violent, sudden alien attacks coordinating with a vigorous soundtrack.
Your apartment room in the not too distant future. You awake from your bed to a phone call from a man by the name of Alex Yu, eager to get you started working and thanking you for taking the job. Free to explore the confines of your studio, there’s a few articles and clippings to read for extra story before putting on your work outfit and heading up to the rooftop where your helicopter ride awaits. Flying over the gorgeous city and near-by bay, Arkane Studios shows off its impressive graphics and scenery.
Arriving at a testing facility atop a towering skyscraper, you’re required to complete several simple tasks in various rooms while doctor’s observe you, followed by a short questionnaire, all of which determine your style of play through your campaign. Doctor’s clambering about unknowing issues, you, not entirely sure what’s going on, witness a sudden alien attack, abruptly ending your visual examination. Left unconscious, you awake back in what seems to be your apartment, on the same day as before.
Starting with a wrench, you mercilessly smash quick-moving four-legged, spider-like Typhon’s now roaming the abandoned testing facility, which in a strange turn of events turns out to be where your apartment is located. Smashing through windows making your way to hopefully some answers, eventually you stumble upon a goo gun. Helping to freeze the agile aliens in place, you then pull out the trusty wrench and smash away.
Along with standard weapons such as pistols and shotguns and unique weapons like the goo gun, there’s also the Neuromods. Re-wiring your brain to give you enhanced abilities and new medical upgrades, Neuromods are found throughout the game in random scavenging and often as rewards for various quests. Working as the game’s skill tree, Neuromods gives you a good list of abilities to improve skills later in the game.
All through the demo, you’ll find yourself up against plenty of crawling Typhons and a short glimpse of a much more threatening enemy. Unlocking the secrets of this dreaded space station and the story that unfolds before you is sure to be filled with tense moments and thrilling encounters.
The hour-long experience leaves you empty-handed with a lot of questions unanswered but with the full release right around the corner, Prey is gearing up to reveal everything you’ve been anxious to learn about the 2006 reboot.
