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GameSpot's PC Previews

  • Can Dying Light Freshen Up a Rotting Genre?

    The thrill of first-person parkour can be a game changer to zombie-killing action games, but developer Techland needs to work out its technical kinks.

     

    Dying Light is quite a surprise; it blends the first-person free-running mechanics of EA's Mirror's Edge with a zombie apocalypse open-world concept. Combining the two may seem unorthodox, but the game's day and night cycle gives it a good reason to do so.

    While your player character is out in the day, he performs a supply drop collection here and a stash-recovering objective there to get supplies and weapons, as well as gain skill points to bolster his current abilities. Melee options aren't in short supply, as you have access to a baseball bat, a machete, and a sledgehammer to take down zombies coming after you.

    Be it a big one that can dish it out as much as it can take it, or a green pus-filled one that explodes upon death and unleashes corrosive goo, swinging at enemies and knocking them down is satisfying thanks to responsive controls. However, you can't swing irresponsibly because doing a melee attack drains your stamina meter bit by bit. When it's empty, you can't even deal a full-brunt swing on even the slowest of walking corpses.

    Running, jumping, sliding while running, and dropkicking a zombie while doing a running jump feel great too, though the gamepad controls have taken us a while to get used to. You get access to handguns too, but their loud booming gunshots will alert nearby undead that will relentlessly pursue you.

    All of the above may remind you of Techland's other zombie game, Dead Island. When nighttime hits, however, that's when it differentiates itself from its cousin. Your free-running skills are put to the test; the zombies become more aggressive, slightly more intelligent, and tougher to kill.

    With ammo being scarce and weapons not having much of an effect, you don't have much of a choice but to run like hell. Fleeing from the undead horde to your safe house is really thrilling and tense, as zombies can pop up wherever and whenever, as well as pursue you to kingdom come. A couple of tricks come in handy: you can push away zombies by holding the X button while up close to an enemy and then flick the left analog stick to any direction, or you can use a zombie as a platform by double-jumping over its head.

    Even with the thrill of the chase, we had some trouble with the game's camera. While a game like Mirror's Edge reduced head-bobbing effects and had a white blip in the centre of the screen to minimize potential nausea from the free-running, there is no such luxury in Dying Light. We foresee players getting motion sickness easily with the constant motion your player character has to go through to survive and complete story objectives in the game.

    Dying Light's melding of gameplay ideas could make it a surprising success, thanks to its day and night open-world mechanic. This being the studio that did Dead Island: Riptide and Call of Juarez: The Cartel, however, it may be dealing with an uphill struggle. Zombie game fans can expect this undead genocidal concoction in 2014 for next-gen consoles, the Xbox 360, the PS3, and the PC.

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    "Can Dying Light Freshen Up a Rotting Genre? " was posted by Jonathan Toyad on Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:16:09 -0700


  • Five Things We Noticed About Call of Duty: Ghosts

    Guiding your dog, shooting at fish, and playing your part in Call of Duty: Ghosts.

     

    Activision has been showing off the first gameplay for its revamped Call of Duty game at E3 2013. The story in Call of Duty: Ghosts takes place more than a decade after an as-yet-unspecified event dethrones America as a world superpower. As a result of the incident, you and your brother grow up a product of this new age, taking up arms as part of a resistance force. While developer Infinity Ward says that this turning of the tables means you'll no longer have the juicy military gadgets you normally would at your disposal, the demo we saw definitely didn't have us fighting with pointy sticks. Read on for five things we noticed during our demo of Call of Duty: Ghosts.

    You will need to prepare your approach

    Plenty of jokes have already been made about the inclusion of a dog in this year's instalment, but after seeing the game in action, it's clear that the addition adds a stealth helper as much as it does a fighting sidekick. Riley, your canine companion, is fitted with its own tactical vest, which includes a periscope-style camera you can deploy in the field to scout ahead before wading into combat. There will still be plenty of time to go in with guns blazing, but in at least one section, it was useful to pull out a tablet controller, take control in pup view, and issue commands to mark targets before launching our attack.

    Dogs can wear headphones too

    Like any good member of the team, Riley is equipped with an earpiece and is wired for sound. This allows you to whisper sweet nothings and orders during tense moments. These include commands to sneak in and scope out the scene, or go straight for the jugular, biting at opponents' arms and tearing out their throats. Just pretend every bad guy is the mail carrier.

    You will still need to do the bulk of the work for your team

    Another mission we saw had us as part of a three-man team, stealthily infiltrating a high-rise office block in Caracas, Venezuela. After firing bolts to secure ziplines, we slowly slid our way down the outer glass of the building, allowing us to pick off groups of guards. Some sat facing away, oblivious to our presence, making for easy targets, while others loitered around, playing poker in an adjacent room. It's clear the game wants you to be the one pulling the trigger, rather than simply being along for the ride, so expect to do the majority of the heavy lifting, even when shoulder-to-shoulder with a teammate with a clear shot.

    You will fire a gun underwater

    Yep, you read that right. While plenty of previous games in the series have seen you don a wetsuit and mask to go for a swim, it has typically been under the premise of simply getting behind enemy lines before ascending to the surface. COD: Ghosts will give you a chance to do full underwater warfare. In another mission that took place in the Caribbean, we began by navigating a coral and seaweed playground, while colourful fish darted around us. A warning from our partner said that while we could fire our rifle, we'd need to put twice as many bullets into our victims as we would on dry land--he was right.

    Underwater hand-launched guided missiles are a thing

    Spotted and targeted by a roving submarine, we pulled out a hand-launched guided missile. Just as was the case when shooting down the enemy helicopter early in the Black Ops II campaign, once out of the tube, we steered it in manually, homing in on the red targeting reticle. And no, before you ask, the dog was not paddling along with us in a fishbowl diving helmet; he'll only join you for certain missions from the looks of things.

    For more on Call of Duty: Ghosts, check out GameSpot's live stage demo.

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    "Five Things We Noticed About Call of Duty: Ghosts" was posted by Dan Chiappini on Tue, 11 Jun 2013 22:13:57 -0700


  • The Crew: Playing Matchmaker in a Massive Open-World Racer

    There's more to Ubisoft's new arcade racer than a giant sandbox.

         

    After releasing the wonderfully ridiculous Driver: San Francisco in 2011, Ubisoft is ready to take another shot at the open-world racing genre with The Crew. Developed by Test Drive Unlimited veterans Ivory Tower along with Ubisoft Reflections, The Crew is a PC and next-gen exclusive where your driving playground is a shrunken down version of the entire United States. With 10,000 kilometers of roadways and a map that will take players two hours to drive from coast to coast, The Crew's gargantuan sandbox is looking awfully impressive.

    But besides its sheer scale, one of the most interesting features about The Crew is the way it incorporates multiplayer into its open-world design. This is a game aiming to do away with discrete single-player and multiplayer modes; its goal is to act as a sort of invisible matchmaker--similar to what Bungie has stated it's planning to do with Destiny--by performing behind-the-scenes networking and grouping players together based on where they are in the world.

    Whether you're cruising downtown Manhattan or off-roading in the dusty hills outside Las Vegas, you'll always be connected to eight other players. Those are the people playing The Crew at the same time as you who happen to be closest in the game world. Head off in another direction and the game will swap in new players of a more appropriate geographical distance. The cool thing about all this is that you're never shown a "connecting to Player X" screen or anything of that nature; it's all done invisibly and seamlessly under the hood.

    How you engage--or don't engage--with those players is up to you. You can challenge them to various races and activities, or simply cruise by them in your highly customized licensed vehicle with the smug knowledge that their stock car hasn't been tuned to high heaven like yours has. At the most basic level, players are grouped together to add more human life and activity to these driving environments. From there, it's up to you what you do with these players.

    But no matter where you are in the world, you'll always be shown a map of where your friends are. If you're doing a street race in Miami and happen to grow suddenly grow incredibly lonely once you notice you're friends are all off-roading in the Rockies, you can simply pull open a map and fast travel right to them. In fact, you can fast travel anywhere you want at any time--so long as you've unlocked those portions of the map through the story mode.

    Combine all of this into an arcade racer with a 500 square-kilometer map full of events you can trigger at virtually every intersection and you've got--in our eyes at least--a very promising next-gen racer. Hopefully The Crew doesn't hide too much of its fun behind the overall story progression, because this looks the type of game that could be great for getting a few friends together and cruising the sandbox just goofing around.

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    "The Crew: Playing Matchmaker in a Massive Open-World Racer" was posted by Shaun McInnis on Mon, 10 Jun 2013 16:15:00 -0700


  • Changes That Seem All Too Familiar - Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

    Sweeping changes to Final Fantasy XIV may surprise and delight fans, but the new additions are old hat to those who have played other recent MMOs.

     

    In 2010, the release of Final Fantasy XIV Online was met with heavy criticism. Impressive presentation aside, the MMO was riddled with issues, so much so that Square Enix eventually apologized for the quality of the game. The company promised a complete revamp, and hired a new producer who worked on the online-focused Dragon Quest X to spearhead development.

    The result is Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. After our lengthy journey through the closed beta sessions of this new version of FFXIV Online using a Lalafell lancer, it's obvious that the producer and his team meant serious business in wiping the slate clean. A Realm Reborn is a completely different experience from the original Final Fantasy XIV. A new story, new gameplay, and a new graphics engine will make this title feel fresh to Final Fantasy fans, particularly those who were longtime players of Final Fantasy XI. However, the new additions to A Realm Reborn may not be eye-openers for MMO veterans, especially those who have played recent releases like Guild Wars 2 and Rift.

    While the concepts of random encounters and daily quests aren't new, they are fresh ideas if your experience with the genre is limited to the Final Fantasy MMOs. Take the FATE (Full Active Time Event) system, for example, which is similar to random quests found in games like Guild Wars 2. While players are wandering around the enchanted hollows of Gridania, random FATE events will occur, such as an outbreak of monkey-like Opo-opos stealing coffee beans from a village or a gargantuan horde of Ixali insurgents storming a nearby fort. Players in the game world can jump in and earn more experience or loot by joining in the slaughter of these mobs. To reap the benefits, however, players will need to be about the same level as the requirements stated on the FATE event. High-level adventurers who complete a low-level FATE will get absolutely nothing for their troubles.

    Another feature that's reworked is the Levequest system, which works exactly like daily quests in World of Warcraft. Once players have been to their first Guildleve club, they can start doing Levequests. These are entirely optional and do not come with a fatigue system like in the original FFXIV. The objectives for Levequests come in multiple consecutive forms; once a task in a Levequest is completed, players move on to the next until the entire mission is over or time runs out. Players can get bigger rewards if they complete these, though these quests can take up more time than usual and are meant for large groups.

    A Realm Reborn also introduces a system called the hunting log, a feature that's familiar to anyone who's played Ragnarok Online 2. Players go through a checklist of enemies they need to kill for the log. Killing a required set of enemies will net adventurers extra experience. Players can take their sweet time and wander around Gridania at their leisure while doing these logs, as they're meant to reward those who explore the sights of the game world.

    The new game play additions may be familiar, but they still make for an enjoyable experience. Our play session during the beta weekend was filled with similarly-leveled pugilists and spellcasters joining in unison as we beat down the aforementioned Opo-opos and Ixali birdmen until we had fulfilled the required amount of mob deaths. The up-close offensive capabilities of the lancer we used help complement the ranged attacks of our temporary partners during several FATE missions. Visually, Square Enix again show that they are masters of their craft. The sights of Gridania's huge forest areas and towns are easy on the eyes, while the background music that plays during exploration are relaxing to the ears.

    Players seeking for something new in an MMO may not find the FATE and Levequest systems groundbreaking. However, the developers promise that there are more changes to come, like Chocobo-back battles, new player-versus-player options, and other nostalgic additions like enemy Behemoths and Iron Giants (from past FF titles), as well as Magitek Armor mounts (from FFVI). The new additions have done a lot to raise A Realm Reborn closer to modern standards for MMOs, now the challenge remains to elevate it even further.

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    "Changes That Seem All Too Familiar - Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn " was posted by Jonathan Toyad on Fri, 03 May 2013 01:39:13 -0700


  • You May Not Marvel at Lego Super Heroes

    Why the latest entry in the block-building franchise engenders a serious case of deja vu.

     

    "Sand for brain," Abomination mutters angrily under his breath when his partner in crime commits an evildoer's faux pas. The duality of that comment elicits quiet chuckles in the demonstration room. The hulking bad guy insulted Sandman's cognitive abilities and made a factual statement about the makeup of his cerebellum. A delightful pun. Such humor made frequent appearances in the brief demo of the Lego-themed Marvel adventure. Sandman growls, "I've already won, hands down," while trying to smash Spider-Man with his giant, sand-crafted hands. "He threw that car like a toy," Iron Man quips after having a Lego car tossed his way. It's this simple humor that stood out in Lego Marvel Super Heroes, mostly because the action was all too familiar.

    The Marvel universe is overflowing with superheroes, evil villains, and innocent bystanders continually scanning the housing markets of cities not overrun with battling bullies. Lego Marvel borrows from comic books (and popular movies) to build its cast of recognizable characters. In the only stage shown thus far, Abomination and Sandman have formed an uneven duo as they hold unfortunate passersby hostage. The police department is obviously no match for the ruffians who rule the roost, which means any disciplinary action falls on the shoulders of those blessed with not only superpowers, but a tendency to stop evil in its tracks.

    Hulk and Iron Man team up to smash minifigs, and they make jokes along the way. Later, Spider-Man joins the team, and he is also more than happy to provide some levity while he slings his webbing around. The developers said that combat has been thrust to the forefront in Lego Marvel in an attempt to show what these enhanced people can do, though the focus on bashing doesn't seem radically different from how Lego games are normally structured. Nameless henchmen run toward your powered-up team, and Hulk easily tosses a car or block of pavement their way, or Iron Man unleashes a swarm of homing missiles. Spider-Man likes his criminals sticky, so he wraps them in a tight cocoon before kicking them in their Lego noggins.

    Once the good guys' progress is halted, it's time to solve puzzles. In the level shown, sand is everywhere, so you often have to figure out how to pass beach-based barriers. Spray some water toward a wall, and it solidifies, and then you can just bash through it with Hulk. The huge green guy was the focal point of the presentation. He represents a class of giant character called bigfig. These characters are stronger than the average superhero, but lack dexterity. When you need to build a Lego structure, you have to switch to someone with more nimble hands. This could be Spider-Man or Iron Man, or you could just say "Serenity now," become less angry, and turn Hulk into Bruce Banner. What Banner lacks in might he more than makes up for in smarts.

    The hands-off demo certainly looked fun, but it also seemed very familiar. The Lego series has existed for eight years (starting with 2005's Lego Star Wars) and hasn't changed much in that time. The action combines platforming, puzzle solving, and combat in colorful worlds. Dozens of characters are available, most of which are squirreled away behind unlock requirements. Building is a side activity: you simply hold a button over dancing pieces that magically form into a predetermined structure. And a lighthearted tone keeps things feeling silly, frequently poking fun at the source material.

    Of course, don't forget about the source material. One of the cornerstones of the Lego games is that, aside from Lego City Undercover, they are always based on a popular license. You might be aiding droids in Star Wars, or running from boulders in Indiana Jones. Maybe you're solving the Riddler's puzzles in Batman, or pining for giant eagle rides in Lord of the Rings. Possessing the Boy Who Lived in Harry Potter was fun for a spell, and now you can play around in the Marvel universe. Accessibility meshed with likable portrayals of beloved franchises leads to a winning combination. But how long can that formula be entertaining? Is there a point when bashing enemies and climbing ropes in a familiar world lose their appeal?

    Witnessing the single level on display, it appears Lego Marvel doesn't veer from the established formula of its predecessors. However, it does seem to tap into the core appeal that has made the Lego franchise so popular. The humorous take on well-known characters is instantly endearing, and seeing how deep the developers will dive into the expansive cast of heroes and villains is certainly intriguing. The developers said that Wolverine would make an appearance, and would even square off against his (unnamed) nemesis. That Sabertooth might appear in the game created a mild stir in the demo room. And, maybe, those character cameos are just enough to ensure the same formula doesn't get too tiresome.

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    "You May Not Marvel at Lego Super Heroes" was posted by Tom Mc Shea on Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:06:29 -0700