Tag Archives: Windows PC

E3 2011: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Gameplay Demo

Posted on by Arleigh

One of the titles which I look forward to losing several hundreds of hours playing is the fifth entry in Bethesda Game Studios The Elder Scrolls role-playing game franchise: Skyrim.

I’m proud to say that the previous game in the series I had spent nearly a total of 1500+ hours playing using several created characters over a span of 6 years. I would say that 3/5 of that total time was played within 6 months of buying Oblivion. The developers of Skyrim are promising fans of the series no less than 300+ hours of gameplay (though they didn’t specify if that means just the main storyline or also includes side quests and such) so that’s a comfort to hear.

This role-playing game series has always been known for it’s very expansive and complex world which allows it’s player to roam it’s confines however they want. It’s this open-world gameplay dynamic which makes this game and the series, in general, such a favorite with gamers worldwide.

Lead designer for Bethesda, Todd Howard, gave G4TV an in-depth look at Skyrim. The videos you’re about to watch has Howard showing the extreme and beautiful detail rendered by the game’s new graphics engine in the Creation Engine. He also shows just how some of the changes in combat, skill leveling and the type of creatures the player will end up fighting makes this latest entry in The Elder Scrolls series the best to date.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has a set release date of November 11, 2011.

E3 2011: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (E3 2011 Trailer)

Posted on by Arleigh

What can I say about this game other than….GODDAMN!!

Yes, I am beyond super-excited about THQ and Relic Entertainment’s latest Warhammer 40K title. The two have been doing a great job with the RTS Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War franchise so this third-person action game is a nice change of pace and quite a gamble.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine looks to be similar in tone to Epic Games’ Gears of War series except for two major differences: 1. this game won’t be using any cover game mechanics and 2. the game’s color palette looks to go beyond browns, grays, red and black. The trailers shown at this year’s E3 by THQ look to be using in-game graphics and little pre-rendered animations. Always a good sign when the trailers shows graphics of how the game will actually look when being played.

I’ve known about this game since it was first announced at last year’s E3 and have kept up with all new info that Relic and THQ have released since then. One piece of news that was quite a surprise but also awesome to learn is that British actor Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes, Kick-Ass, Green Lantern) will voice the main playable character.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine has a release date of somtime around September 2011.

PS: For those who have no idea what the Warhammer 40,000 fictional universe is all about the video below gives a quick idea of what some of it is.

E3 2011: Tomb Raider Trailer and Gameplay Demo

Posted on by Arleigh

One of gaming’s elder franchise which has seen some tough times the last couple years has been the Tomb Raider series. The franchise was one of the most popular ones during the late 90’s and early 2000’s but since the latter half of this new millenium’s first decade the games for the series has been lackluster at best and awful at they’re worst. Part of this downward could be blamed on the two films adapted from the game starring Angelina Jolie, but I like to believe that the series was already on it’s way down before those two films came out.

This latest entry to the Tomb Raider franchise looks to revive the series by rebooting the character and making the game an origin title which would put Lara Croft in her early 20’s and still quite new to the tomb raiding and worldwide adventuring game. Crystal Dynamics remains as the game’s developer with Japanese game publisher Square-Enix doing the releasing of the title.

From what was shown at Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference this latest Lara Croft looks to not just be younger but also design with realism in mind. While she still looks quite curvaceous there’s also a more athletic look to her physique which previous Lara Croft designs never truly had. Those past Lara Croft pretty much took the concept of a “teenage boy’s ideal woman” and gave it shape.

I have some hope that this latest title in the franchise will look towards Sony’s and Naughty Dog’s own action-adventure franchise, Uncharted, as a blueprint to bring Lara Croft back to prominence and relevancy in the gaming industry.

Tomb Raider has no definite release date other than sometime around Q3 2012.

E3 2011: Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Trailer and Gameplay Demo

Posted on by Arleigh

I’ve never been a big fan of Ubisoft’s tactical shooter franchise series. I know many who absolutely love the Ghost Recon franchise and I’m sure this latest entry in the series will be a hit with them as well. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier was first announced at last year’s E3 and some of the advanced tactical gameplay shown by Ubisoft were interesting enough that I was intrigued.

I’m not sure if I’ll be buying this title on it’s release date, but the gameplay demo shown during Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference really built on some of what interested me in the first place. The game looks to make use of the Xbox 360’s Kinect motion controller and it’s voice recognition capability. The important thing is that the player doesn’t have to stop using the regular controller, but just use the Kinect as a nice option and complement to the regular 360 game controller.

With the game still months from being released there’s still ample time for Ubisoft to continue to try and win over non-fans of this series such as myself and from the past year since they first announced this title they’ve done a good job. The only problem this title may run into is the glut of war shooters (first-person, third-person and tactical) that will be flooding the market from now til early next year that it may not find a place for itself. There’s only so much money a gamer has to spend at any given time and with the economy the way it is even gamers like myself with jobs may still have to forgo titles like this to get those were more fans of.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier has a tentative release date around the Q1 2012.

E3 2011: BioShock Infinite Gameplay Trailer

Posted on by Arleigh

Ken Levine, head of 2K Games’ Irrational Games development studio, was on-stage during Sony’s E3 Press Conference to hype up his latest title to the acclaimed BioShock franchise. The third game in the series looks to take the series from it’s failed undersea utopian city of Rapture and into the skies. Like Rapture, BioShock Infinite will have a setting that will be a full-blown city but floating skyward attached to giant balloons and zeppelin-like structures with rails that act almost like rollercoaster tracks for players to move from place to place.

The trailer Levine showed at the Sony Presser looks to be one using all gameplay footage which is always a welcome sight since in year’s past too many games promised too much based on cinematic, pre-rendered trailers. I’m all for CG-animated trailers, but it’s always how the gameplay looks and plays that counts in the end.

One thing that was also announced by Levine during this press conference was how the Sony version of BioShock Infinite will have the option for players to use the Playstation Move motion controller to play through the game.

BioShock Infinite only has an approximate release date around 2012.

E3 2011: Star Wars: The Old Republic Intro Cinematic Trailer

Posted on by Arleigh

For the last half decade or so video game publishers have been trying to find a way to either topple Blizzard’s World of Warcraft from the top of the MMORPG mountain, but each and every attempt has failed on one level or another. Some rival MMORPGs have succeeded in slicing a small piece of the MMORPG market while others just failed utterly. EA tried in the last couple years with their Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, but that game failed in that it was rushed into the market broken in one way or another. It looks like EA will continue to try another attempt at WoW by using another iconic franchise and partnering that with one of the best rpg developers in the industry. The game that’s been hyping itself up at E3 for the past couple years is BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic.

This MMORPG looks to continue the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic franchise from BioWare into this MMORPG iteration. The game has been in development for over two years now and as of this week’s E3 there’s still no definite date for it’s release on Windows PC other than sometime next year. Here’s to hoping that the long development time is BioWare and EA looking to not make the same mistake that occurred with the rush to market with Warhammer: Age of Reckoning.

Oh, BioWare did release a beautiful trailer of the game’s Intro Cinematic.

Dragon Age II: Launch Trailer

Posted on by Arleigh

If there’s one thing that BioWare seems to be doing quite well the last couple years it’s been how to hype up their rpg franchises whenever a new game is set for a release.

In early 2010 they premiered what I could only call a very cinematic launch trailer for Mass Effect 2 and during the Super Bowl halftime. This year we have another launch trailer but this time for Dragon Age II. This is a sequel to the very popular and acclaimed fantasy-rpg, Dragon Age: Origins, from BioWare and EA.

I’ve been playing the game now for the past three days and I will say that the trailer captures the game’s action quite well. The look of the game itself is only a step away from looking like the trailer animation. Maybe the third game will finally look like it’s own launch trailer in every way imaginable.

This launch trailer is the sort of marketing blitz which definitely has a chance to interest those not into such games. I know that if I had seen it and known nothing of the game itself I would be quite tempted to buy it and play it.

Battlefield 3: GDC 11 “Fault Line” Gameplay Trailer

Posted on by Arleigh

This week has been quite the busy couple days over here in San Francisco. The Games Developers Conference (GDC for short) for 2011 is in town and being held over at the Moscone Convention Center. This conference is one of the biggest for industry insiders and games developers. While most of the stuff talked about in the conference are stuff that really only developers and publishers would understand and find interesting, the conference has also become a sort of launching point for announcing future titles for the different gaming platforms.

One such game which just had it’s first gameplay trailer introduced to much acclaim is the first-person shooter title from EA and DICE: Battlefield 3. This series has been one of the more popular games on the PC and has made major in-roads into console gaming. 2010’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2 received universal acclaim and some had even seen it as a title that could possibly dethrone Activision’s juggernaut franchise: Call of Duty. While said dethroning didn’t happen gamers and pundits still saw the Battlefield franchise as the one to finally take on that Activision jugger and actually win. It just may take the next title, Battlefield 3, to do it.

This trailer is all gameplay and has no prerendered scenes. What people see in the trailer is exactly how the game will look (at least for the PC. Whether the 360 or the PS3 will look just as good only this summer’s E3 can answer). The game will be using DICE’s latest graphics engine, the Frostbite 2.0 which will allow for a more realistic and fluid motion for all the people in the game. This title will also be the first one to utilize Frostbite 2.0.

As much as I enjoy playing the Call of Duty titles I do see how some have started to see how stale it’s starting to get. Activision hasn’t been challenged in so long that they really haven’t improved much on how the franchise plays. Maybe EA and DICE releasing Battlefield 3 and delivering on all they’ve promised will give Activision the kick in the ass it needs to keep the Call of Duty from becoming the Guitar Hero of military first-person shooters.

Dead Island: Official Announcement Trailer

Posted on by Arleigh

The zombie fps survival game that seem to be blowing up the interwebs with it’s “official announcement” trailer was a title that was initially talked about several years ago when Valve’s Left 4 Dead first came out and become a massive hit. Zombies were back in force in gaming (not that it really left) and every no-name studio was announcing a zombie title to try and take advantage of the sudden craze for the walking dead in games.

Techland was one such studio and their title was to be called, Dead Island. It was to be a first-person shooter for the Xbox 360 and PC. Set in an unnamed resort island, the game was received by the gaming community who followed such news with some interest. That interest soon waned when nothing new and concrete about the game came out in the last couple years. It’s now 2011 and, after a couple brief tidbits about the title in 2010, it looks like the game is going to be a reality (fingers crossed).

The trailer has been getting major praises since IGN first premiered it. People were soon hyped to see the game become a reality. Those who still were guarded with their reactions still thought the trailer was well-done and, some even said, it was artfully done. One thing that seem to have everyone in agreement is how heartbreaking the trailer ends up being once the whole sequence plays out. It’s true what some have said. Children always seem to be taboo as zombie chow in films and most games (novels have been more ahead of the game when it comes to children becoming zombie food) and it looks like Techland decided no one will be safe in this game.

I, for one, have been one of those who have been following this title since it was first talked about years back and if this announcement trailer really means the game will be made then my faith in the title has been rewarded.

I sure hop it doesn’t suck….

Source: IGN

Bulletstorm E3 2010 Demo

Posted on by Arleigh

Of all the shooters profiled at E3 2010 the one which stood out the most and looked to be most fun was Epic Games and People Can Fly Studio’s upcoming arcade-like shooter Bulletstorm. The game is developed by Polish game developer People Can Fly headed by Adrian Chmielarz. The game looks to follow in the footsteps of another arcade-like shooter which came out in 2009: Borderlands.

Bulletstorm takes a different approach from the more realistic shooters like Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2. The game goes the way of over-the-top action similar to past classic shooters like Duke Nuke ‘Em and Serious Sam. They marry this with the XP mechanics of an rpg which helps levels up the abilities of the player and allow them to upgrade/buy better weapons and gear.

From the demo trailer shown above the game also looks to add some very Rated-R comedic dialogue in addition to the gory action. The game definitely looks fun and looks great. Like all Epic Games published titles it looks like Bulletstorm will be using Epic’s proprietary Unreal Engine 3.

The game has a tentative release date of February 22, 2011 for the platforms Xbox 360, PS3 and Windows PC.