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Uncharted 3 Drake’s Deception :

The Uncharted franchise is simply one of the best things to come out of this generation and it’s also the core reason to why I purchased a Playstation 3 so coming into E3 I was already looking forward to Uncharted 3, seeing a live demo of Uncharted 3 sent me into over drive and reminded me of why I love E3 and most importantly why I love video games. The game looks utterly jaw dropping, the demo showcased the beautiful lighting and visuals and the frankly epic production value that helps make Uncharted the experience it is. A trailer followed the demo which further left me in a state of flux, Uncharted 3 looks utterly mind blowing and I’m extremely excited for the game release and looking forward to continuing my enjoyment in one of the finest video game franchises around today.

Far Cry 3:

I’ll admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of Far Cry 2 and i could never see myself looking forward to a third in the franchise however Ubisoft have managed to change my mind. The lush tropical island like environment shown in the demo of Far Cry 3 had me interested within seconds, the visuals looked top notch as did the animation with tree’s realistically moving in the wind. The demo didn’t give much away but what I did tell me is the game looks set to be an action packed adventure set in a beautiful world. One thing that did stand out for me in the demo was what seemed to be main antagonist, his facial animation was impressive and his speech about insanity was strangely creepy. Far Cry 3 caught me off guard and has left me wanting more.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword:

I’ve grown up with Nintendo and I have grown up playing The Legend of Zelda franchise. The games all have a strange charm which is instantly appealing to me; the stories are both charming and interesting and the characters all maintain a sense of quirkiness. All of these elements are present in Skyward Sword and for that reason alone the game has me hooked in. With the announcement of The Wii U I honestly see Skyward Sword as the Wii’s last hurrah and so far it seems to be a fitting end to the console. The game looks to be keeping the Zelda tradition of fantastic gameplay, great adventure and gorgeous visual style and this puts Skyward Sword on my list.

Star Wars: The Old Republic:

Ok I’ll admit I’m a big Star Wars fan and a big Bioware fan so when the two came together i was always going to be extremely excited to see the results. The trailers for the game have been nothing short than epic and from what I’ve seen the game looks like a solid MMORPG which could pose a serious challenge to the juggernaut that is World of Warcraft. The class choices all sound interesting and the game seems to creeping away from the usual pattern of grind grind dungeon which is much needed step.

Bioshock Infinite:

Some people say video games cannot be considered art…clearly they have no seen Bioshock Infinite. The game looks nothing short than a visual master piece with its breath taking skyline city and utterly jaw dropping visuals it’s hard to argue that this game doesn’t look like art. The interesting story adds the depth the beauty. The addition of Playstation move is an interesting one but I personally don’t   see any chance of it adding too much extra depth to the gameplay but I’d be more than happy to be proven wrong. There’s still plenty of time before Bioshock Infinite is released but it’s showing at E3 has me counting down the days.

Battlefield 3:

This title has been deploying a buzz all over the internet since it’s trailer hit not that long ago, since then we’ve been treated the gameplay videos and longer trailers. Since E3 we’ve had a look at a fantastic looking tank based single player level and footage of the multiplayer all of which looks stunning. Battlefield 3 is shaping up to be on intense experience using the brilliant Frost Bite 2 engine. Though a certain other modern day shooter is getting a lot of attention Battlefield 3 is more than looking likely to hold its own, if not take the market by storm.

Batman: Arkham City:

The follow up the critically acclaimed Arkham Asylum stands more than a good chance than bettering its predecessor. With a large and highly detailed city to play havoc in the game is looking brilliant. The cast of characters is also a key point as many a famous face from the Batman Universe is present. The ability to play as Catwoman is also a welcome addition.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Epic is a popular term these days but the term is perfect to describe what is shaping up to be one of the highlights of this generation. A highly immersive world rich with lore and story is the backdrop for what could become the definitive RPG experience.

Upon booting up the the game and loading into your first match, you’d be forgiven for initially thinking you’re playing a prettier version of Killzone 2! The HUD has been carried over from the previous game, with a few adjustments, but it’s largely the same; if it aint broke don’t fix it eh? You’ll be happy to know that the controls have been tightened up a lot, many complained about the sluggish movement in Killzone 2 that sort of made it feel like you were running through treacle. Guerilla took heed of this and the controls are much more responsive, but the aiming still has weight behind it which is definitely a good thing. When aiming it really feels like you’re lugging around that big badass rifle that’s on screen and it all feels very satisfying. Coupled with this are the fantastic sound effects, every weapon actually sounds like it’s spewing forth lead right into the faces of your enemies. The standard issue ISA rifle packs a hell of a punch and its sound dwarfs that of its Killzone 2 counterpart, the sniper rifle has a bass filled echo that rings out across the map and every explosion rings your ears with a deafening rumble. Each weapon just feels perfect and it really drives you to try out everything that’s on offer.

New weapons are available such as a low zoom semi shot sniper rifle, a carbine variant of the M82 and silenced sub machine guns. Old favourites have made their way over to the sequel too such as the aforementioned ISA M82 assault rifle and the standard issue Helghast assault rifle. How these weapons are accessed however is much different to Killzone 2’s system. In Killzone 2 you gained xp by playing multiplayer games which led you to rank up and unlock classes and weapons in a set order as you progressed. In Killzone 3 however, each rank up provides you with a credit that you can use to unlock any number of weapons, with better weapons requiring previous weapons in the tree to be unlocked beforehand and costing more credits. On top of being able to unlock weapons, there is a variety of Call of Duty style perks on offer. These perks provide bonuses such as extra ammo, increased stealth time as a sniper and increased radar jamming as the infiltrator class. This allows you to customize the way you play much further and provides for a much more in depth experience.

Now this is all well and good as you can imagine, but how does the game actually play? As I mentioned the controls are much tighter which makes for a much smoother experience, but has it taken out a lot of the skill taken to score kills? Thankfully not, the weapons still have enough weight to require precision skills to hit your target and the amount of damage a person can take is enough to ward off people attempting to ‘spray and pray.’ On the whole, Killzone 3 plays a lot like a much more refined version of Killzone 2, albeit with a plethora of extras mentioned above. This is in no way a bad thing though; Killzone 2 was far from a bad multiplayer game and improving upon its winning formula has yielded excellent results! There are various game modes included such as team death match and other objective based game modes, but what really stands out is the Warzone game mode that was introduced in Killzone 2. How it works is that everyone loads into the map and is free to move around killing the enemy and scoring points, shortly after the game starts your team’s commander will come in over the radio and give you an objective e.g to capture and hold various points. Once a team has won that specific game mode, the game them immediately progresses onto another game mode for e.g team deathmatch. Players are kept in the same map and carry on playing seamlessly as the objectives change, scoring a point for there team with each game mode they win. This provides for a dynamic game experience with enough variation to be constantly entertaining.

All in all, I had a very pleasant experience playing Killzone 3. Some may say it’s too similar to its predecessor and feels more like Killzone 2.5, this is unfair though seeing as one doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel when creating a sequel. I for one feel that the changes are significant enough to warrant its title as a full sequel and the changes are most definitely for the better.

It was very hard to pick a top 10 this year. There have been some great games throughout 2010. I have managed to narrow down the list into those that I have most enjoyed.

10 – Final Fantasy XIII

Great story. Great graphics. Everything you want from a turn-based RPG. There are a few flaws here and there (lack of free roam!), but overall a solid game.

9 – Blur

Fantastic action-packed racing game. I would describe it as Mario Kart with real cars. Loads of power ups. Loads of challenges. Loads of cars. Loads of tracks. Loads of fun.

8 – Battlefield: Bad Company 2

One of the more realistic FPS’s of the year. It has a solid campaign and brilliant multiplayer which should be played by all lovers of shooters.

7 – Call of Duty: Black Ops

Good online play, though I don’t believe as good as Modern Warfare 2. It was let down by its maps and over speculation. The campaign is great and an improvement in the franchise. Still hours of fun to be had.

6 – FIFA 11 / 2010 FIFA World Cup

The two FIFA games this year were yet again an improvement, and an easy triumph over it’s rival, Pro Evo. 2010 FIFA World Cup provided a brilliant selection in teams, and gave us a sneak preview of what we were to see when FIFA 11 released later in the year with improved game play from 2010.

5 – Dance Central

Whole-hearted fun for all the family. Provided us with so many laughs over the Christmas period, and really showed the true capabilities of Kinect. Definitely the best release title for the device, and best music game of the year.

4 – Fable III

Humor packed RPG, an improvement from the 2nd in the series. Fable III doesn’t let you down on action or adventure as you explore new places with new spells, weapons and characters. Most of the old features I loved remain, and more have been added.

3 – Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Brilliant sequel to my Game of the Year 2009. Just as action-packed, intense and vast. If you love action adventure games, you can’t miss this one.

2 – Red Dead Redemption

Wow what to say about this game? I can’t justify in words how much I enjoyed it. I actually expected nothing from this game until release when I started seeing some reviews and tweets showing just how good the game was. The setting is brilliant. The characters are entertaining. But best of all is the world around you. The animals and vegetation look great and the variety is truly terrific. The action is fun and exciting. There are a lot of hours to be had in the game as well. Rockstar really showed that they can do something other than Grand Theft Auto.

1 – Mass Effect 2

My game of the year for many reasons. The story is fantastic. The gameplay is an improvement from the first, and battles can actually get pretty intense at stages. The cycle of weapons, armor and upgrades is great. The paragon system works perfect and the exploration of the worlds is completely original. The game also has some entertaining downloadable content. 30+ hours of enjoyment. BioWare really have upped their game in the franchise, and have earned my game of the year award with this title.

The demo opens with cinematic giving some brief backdrop to Force Unleashed2 and surprise surprise Vader is present from the very start.   It’s over dramatic affair with some shaky voice acting but thankfully the cinematic is cut short by a basic tutorial.  Gameplay is just as fluid as its predecessor with combat being a simple affair, perhaps a bit too simple; the lack of combos within the demo doesn’t showcase the overall combat experience on offer.  Five minutes in and it becomes clear   that combing a spamming of the X (melee attack) button along with the occasional press of Y (force lighting) is enough to easily dispose of any enemies. After another brief cinematic the demo suddenly explodes into a frenzy of loud noises and action movie styled set pieces as Star Killer Version 2.0 free falls from the top of tower  while avoid obstacles and the odd Tie fighter. The set piece looks nice but does feel a little lifeless and repetitive; this kind of thing was present in the first Force Unleashed and to see the return of these set pieces doesn’t bode well as the fear of the game over using them could result in the games quality dipping.

After the set piece it’s onto the bulk of the demo as Star Killer bombs around a cloning facility slaying Storm troopers and the odd robot. Combat becomes quite tedious quite early on and the waves of repeating enemies’ don’t help matters.  Much like its predecessor The Force Unleashed 2 seems to suffer the same trait in terms of one combo being massively more effective perhaps even more powerful than all the others which puts me into a never ending cycle of using the same combo which seemingly takes out any foe regardless of size or indeed type. Even the enemies that seem to be presented as ‘special’ enemies fall victim as easily as the rest to the power of X X Y spam. Perhaps the full version of the game will correct this issue or offer a broad range of combos and if it doesn’t then prepare for a very repetitive experience.

During the demo Star Killer will stumble across a number of obstacles which will result in the player being prompted to try some new skills out such as Jedi mind tricks (which allow you to trick an enemy into committing suicide) and more familiar ones such as chucking boxes at control panels. The potential for force related puzzles is there but judging by the way the demo seems so action driven the chances are puzzles will be thin on the ground and very simple. The demo ends on a bit of bum note with Star Killer being required to enter a powerful Force phase which boosts damage and makes Star Killer invulnerable to damage and from here players take on three AT walkers and once again it’s all very  simple and not a very exciting battle.

Overall the demo showcases some cinematic moments such as the free fall from the towers and the odd quick time execution but overall the demo does show that there is no significant improvement from the first Force Unleashed. To its credit the technical issues that plagued the first game seem to of been fixed (at least in the demo level no issues arise) the visuals for the most part are solid but nothing outstanding with some textures looking a bit worse for wear, but of course a level set in darkness isn’t the best way to display the games graphic finesse but one visual effect worth giving kudos too is the rain effect as it manages to look both natural and attractive. Fans of the first game will no doubt reveal in The Force Unleashed 2 and Star Wars fans missing their yearly fix will also enjoy the story but for everyone else The Force Unleashed 2 may struggle to find a place in the market, even more so when Enslaved and Castlevaina have both recently  been released.

So, as many of you gamers may know (particularly British gamers!), in London through the 1-3^rd of October, the EuroGamer exposition will be held in the earls court exhibition centre.

Many of us from GamerEuphoria will be there, representing us as a site, and having had several discussions with the crew, we all came to our own conclusions about what we’d love to have a go with.

Having had a look at what’s going to be there, I’m personally very hyped for some of the games – one in particular is the second in the series of dead space; Dead Space 2(PS3 & Xbox 360). The first game was absolutely revolutionary for survival horrors, giving the player a sense of being alienated from the rest of the world, and isolation – and when you’re surrounded by space aliens – it really gives the game a fantastic atmosphere.

However, many sequels don’t live up to there predecessors, so will Dead Space 2? – There’s only one way to find out, and soon, we will!

But I’m not the only one who’s interested in what’s going to be there, Andy, from the site says: Crysis 2 – as the original was such a benchmark for PC gaming, I wanna see how the second can get out of the originals shadow.

Personally, I think the original Crysis revolutionized PC gaming, and I’m hoping that the second will be as effective. – Graphically, Crysis was one of the most amazing games ever to be played, graphics being so realistic that the player was really immersed in the game itself, – again though, we can only hope that the second one follows suit, and doesn’t become another disappointing sequel.

Crysis 2 - as the original was such a benchmark for PC gaming, I wanna see how the second can get out of the originals shadow.

Another big release is Castlevania: Lord of shadows, which Sean, a writer for the site is particularly excited about: link says: “I will wank over it”.

I’m being very wary over the new Castlevania, since the last release, on the Nintendo 64, was extremely disappointing and it let down Castlevania fans everywhere. This is a chance for Castlevania to redeem its name which it lost, and perhaps even hold its name up against games like God of War or Bayonetta.

A game which hasn’t received as much publicity as we’d thought it, the new Medal of Honour game, which contains several controversial issues as players actually get to play as the Taliban. Hopefully we’ll get a first hand experience of this and see just how controversial this game really is, and see what the fuss is about. And hopefully, we can see past all the controversy and view the game for what it really is.

Now one game I’m really looking forward to is Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood! – Assassins Creed II was revolutionary, – Allowing players to do parkour, climb up buildings, and jump off of them from amazing heights. With a bizarre storyline, we expect to see more of the same from Brotherhood – but with something never seen in an Assassins Creed game – multiplayer. This is one game I am very eager to play, as I personally believe multiplayer can often ruin a game, but also make it expand into a world wide hit. There’s only one way to find out and that’s to play the game!

One of the biggest, and most recently announced draws for EuroGamer 2010 was announced by Tom Champion mere hours ago: Microsofts own Gears of War 3! Where a fully playable version will be available in the exhibition. Microsoft have a strong standing coming into Earls Court, where they will also be show casing the newly released Halo Reach – as well as Fable III along side Peter Molyneux himself!

A playable version of Gears Of War 3 will be at the Expo - So we'll try to hook you up!

With many other upcoming sequels & brand new releases, there are hundreds of games we’re looking forward to trying out, and hopefully we’ll be able to give each one a thorough run through and be sure to report back here during the Expo dates to check out our content, impressions, videos and even some Developer Interviews!

Also a great big thank you too Tom Champion who was humble enough to provide us with Press Passes for the event.

So, what are you looking forward to at EuroGamer?

Read the below testemonies of the hardware, ranging from Aaron Greenberg (Xbox Product Director) to John Drake (Harmonix):

I’m looking for things that don’t exist today that we could not do with a controller. It’s like, now I have a new interface, of you being the controller – how does that allow developers to bring to life a whole new set of art?”
Aaron Greenberg, Xbox Product Director

“I’m sure that someone like Molyneux or someone is going to come along with an insane idea. Like for instance, something where you’re actually casting spells. I’d like to see something using sign language. There’s a lot of things we use our hands for.”
Denby Grace, 2K Games

“There are definitely some crazy, wacky ideas that people have back in the studios about what experiences this technology can unlock. Some of them will work, some of them won’t work, that’s part of the fun about being in this business, but there’s no lack of innovative ideas.”
Phil Spencer, Vice President, Microsoft Game Studios

“There’s a lot of potential there. I think it’s more the opportunity for hybrid gaming with a controller and Kinect, where you’re playing and you can swap weapons, throw grenades, interact with the world with your hands in more natural ways. I’m a big believer in it. Any game that allows you to navigate around a world just by standing in one spot and it happens around you is fun.”
Andy Lang, Relic

“I feel the great, big possibility. There’s a huge, huge future. Maybe in connecting people, like as a social concept.”
Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Q Entertainment

“The Kinect experience, no matter what kind of game it is, is getting back to what I feel is the old arcade style of game. If you were going to play a car game, you’d just grab a big wheel and start driving. People were putting money into the machine, so if they didn’t understand how to play it within the first 15 seconds, they would get really angry. It doesn’t mean that the games don’t need to have skill or depth or all the things that you think about games… they just have to start with “I know how to get in and play”.
Kudo Tsunoda, General Manager, Kinect

“The dev kits we’ve had to work on have been exponentially improving over the period we’ve had them. My guess is when we’re at E3 next year, more of the features of Kinect will be in use by developers. I think you’ll find more clever and sophisticated applications then.”
Mike Hayes, President, Sega West

“We’re going to deliver the experiences that we can this year and then let the developers and the really clever people figure out how it’s going to be taken forward in the future. But I think it’s fairly boundless to be honest; once you take the controller away and the human body is, in essence, the tool you’re working with, that’s going to be an amazing set of experiences that people can have in the future.”
Neil Thompson, Senior Regional Director, Xbox

There are a couple of genres I think are especially well-suited. Racing games, I think, will be amazing, and obviously things like the Force apply well to a technology like that. Hopefully we’ll be able to support it in a really big way in the future.”
Haden Blackman, Franchise Director, LucasArts

“A game where as you move in the room, the other characters follow you, like their eyes track you. So you can really engage with a conversation from a first-person perspective. Like a mystery or adventure game when you engage with other characters in a plot-driven way. Like Milo plus crime.”
John Drake, Harmonix

“There are a lot of different ideas we’ve come up with that break the conventions of gaming at this point. These ideas keep popping into my head. There’s definitely a lot of ideas that are still games in the broadest sense, but are very different from the games that we play today.”
Kenjiro Morimoto, Design Director, Sonic TEAM

In fact, I went ahead and imported a Japanese copy, just so I could get a head start. I still fully well intend to get the English version in March – but until then I will happily frollock in my Japanese world with Cyndaquil hot on my heels.

My inability to read Japanese makes it hard to talk about the story, though it didn’t prove to be a problem during gameplay as I remember the majority of the game from Gold & Silver version – and so should you! The main point to make is that the story is directly adopted from Gold & Silver versions – which takes place shortly after the events of Fire-Red & Leaf-Green, but in a different region.

Having been defeated by a 10-year-old boy in Kanto, has moved to Johto to cut off Slowpoke tails and piss off Gyrados.

Visually there are a few changes, both minor and significant. As many of you can see from the image above, the player’s first-slot Pokemon follows the character around, much like in Pokemon Yellow. It’s also worth mentioning, players can switch any Pokemon to that slot and they’ll appear in the game. At my current progress through the game it seems to be a purely aesthetic thing, though players can turn around and talk to the Pokemon to get a quick readout of the monster’s mood. While the world looks pretty much the same, there are a few differences. Longtime fans will immediately notice that tall grass looks significantly different, actually looking like, well, tall grass. There is a bit more visual flair in the towns too, like the rotating lamppost sign outside of every Pokemart, or the wisp of leaves caught in the breeze.

Since this is a remake game, don’t expect a lot of new features or anything. There aren’t any new Pokemon to catch, and has all the same features that was in Gold & Silver, such as the day-care service and the cell-phone. That said, there are some minor changes and features that keep the game fresh enough to warrant a play. So far I like what I see, even if it all feels very familiar and formulaic at this point – but that is exactly what I wanted out of this game, so no complaints on my behalf.

The main new feature seems to be the PokeWalker, a pedometer device that allows players to transfer a Pokemon to it and earn experience outside of the game. A good idea in theory, but it seemed too much work in practice. Transferring your Pokemon to the device, walking, transferring back, only to receive about 100xp towards your next level. Not very time efficient, when you are training lvl20+ Pokemon – as you can earn 100xp from defeating the average wild Pokemon. I could imagine it would work well with newly caught Pokemon which you are too ashamed to manually train – like Metapod – still, is it more embarrassing than openly wearing a PokeWalker to work everyday?

My main gripe with the game thus far is that they’ve taken away the Poketch. For those who don’t remember this was the little device that appeared on the bottom DS screen in Diamond/Pearl. It would do simple things such as tell the time, to more helpful things such as show the progress of your unhatched egg. Which would be useful in the game which introduced us to breeding. Through all my sorrow, they did re-instate the Cell-Phone, which can be used to call your Mom, or have random trainers call you for a re-match. Which was, in all honesty – irritating!

Scratch that, I want my Poketch, dammit!

There also isn’t a restriction for trading with previous games, so if you want to bring a Buizel over from your old game you can do that really early on. Or gain full access to the Union Room, and the Wi-Fi Plaza, allowing you to play mini-games with people all over the world.

For the long time Pokemon fans, Gold and Silver was a pretty revolutionary entry. It introduced a lot of new features that became staples of the series, and was a significant boost in both graphics and size. I’m not sure that HeartGold and SoulSilver will be able to mirror the impact that Gold & Silver brought to the table. Neither do I think that was the intention – Heart-Gold & Soul-Silver serves it’s purpose of taking Pokemon from the Gameboy, then re-telling the tale of Johto in the next generation. In that sense, it seems they do more than justice.

Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver hit shelves March 14th (North America) and 26th March (Europe) on the Nintendo DS.

The demo for surprise sequel Left 4 Dead 2 was recently released and I spent about two hours of my gaming life today enjoying it (a rare occurrence these days, if I do say so myself). The game features a hefty amount of pseudo-zombies (real zombies do not run) for you to dismember and smack with the underbelly of a frying pan for pure amusement while the story appears to be there just to give reason as to why you are committing the aforementioned acts on these so called “zombies” (although, having said that, I have read that L4D2 will in fact feature a story arc). Having skipped the original L4D due to assuming it wouldn’t be my kind of game, I had only my vague thoughts of “typical zombie shooter” at the ready as I launched the demo and, as a result of this, I was very pleasantly surprised.

After kicking things off with a very attractive intro cinematic, I stumbled into a pre-made lobby hosted by a friend and chose my character from the list of what I like to jokingly refer to as the “Class of Ethnic Stereotypes 2009”. As soon as the game had finished the loading process, the first thing I noticed was the water. The water looked so good that it managed to hold my attention long enough for me to be left behind by my team mates and subsequently almost dying at the hands of the undead. The zombies themselves were very entertaining; running and jumping at you from almost all directions, vomiting on you, strangling you and being deceivingly smart all at the same time, they niche themselves perfectly in-between infuriating and impossibly fun to fight.

It seems that everything in the demo is as near to perfection as a first person shooter can get; refined controls and fluid movement made this demo a dream to play. The balance between sneaking around to avoid attracting the horde of zombies to trying your hardest to kill that very horde is very fragile and either side can tip the scales at any moment. All of this coupled with the quite stunning visuals and intense/ambient (depending on the situation you are in) sound design really do cast away any thoughts that a sequel is too soon. Although there were a few minor technical hitches here and there (a few bouts of lag and sound deficiency), this game just bludgeoned its way onto my list of “Must Buy” games.