PlayStation 4:

-Tell me Gaikai and the share features will work at launch

-Show me the system and tell me the price

-Don’t push the PSEye too much

Xbox One:

-Now that we’ve seen some capabilities of the console’s UI, show me games. Games, games, games, games games.

-I want to know what those two buttons do on the controller.

-Don’t push Kinect too hard. While it may be a selling point, just build off of what was already said at the press conference.

Wii U:

-Give me everything you’ve got. I want Zelda, Mario, Pikmin, Luigi’s Mansion.

-A price drop, or a bundle with a 3DS.

Dying Light boasts a full and dynamic day-night cycle. By day survivors will explore a sprawling urban environment that has been destroyed by the attacks. Scouring and scavenging the world for any supplies they can manage to find. After the sun goes down however the infected become violently aggressive and additional predators come out to hunt the player, sounds like something similar to the set up to the movie I AM Legend.

“The hunter becomes the hunted” at night says Warner Bros. Techland CEO has had some statement as well about the overall vision for the game. Stating that the day-night cycle is dynamic and game changing due to the next generation consoles. One very interesting note of the game however is the ability to free-run, which “allows for nearly unrestricted exploration” and “weapon-crafting to further add to the action survival experience.”

Looks like in 2014 we can all look forward to Mirror’s Edge meeting Dead Island in a game that could end up being one of a kind.

Today was a big day for Xbox fans everywhere, as Microsoft unveiled their newest console, Xbox One.  The Xbox One is designed to be simple, instant, and complete.  It is a powerhouse of a console with 8 gigabytes of RAM, contains USB 3.0, and includes a Blu-ray disk drive.

The console uses an upgraded form of Kinect, which during console boot-up, will recognize the player, and instantly take them to their personal home screen.  The Kinect also features a 1080p camera that is perfect for Skype which was also announced for the new system. This version of Skype will also feature group calls, which are exclusive to Xbox One.

One of the core fundamentals at today’s reveal was speed and efficiency.  The new feature known as “snap mode” allows users to run multiple programs alongside one another.  The Xbox team also emphasized the new ability to switch between functions on the spot.  The example was given of switching between movies, music, and games; all with an incredible quick load speed, and fast as switching channels on a TV remote.

Another focus of the reveal was the new function of TV for the Xbox.  With live TV, Xbox will have the goal of immersing the viewer.  TV on the Xbox One will be personalized to the individuals taste and needs, all while being able to see what is “trending” with your friends and the Xbox community as a whole.  You can also use Kinect to search for specific channels on Xbox’s guide menu.  All this is made to function with snap mode.  One example given was if someone was watching a live sports event, their fantasy team would be updated alongside the game, keeping track of an individual’s score, and their rank amongst their friends.

Xbox One is also built upon three operating systems.  With the Xbox operating system, a kernel of Windows operating system, and a final system that combines the two, Xbox One is aiming for the most immersed console on the market.  No price was announced, but we can expect to see the Xbox One on store shelves this year.  The conference ended with a countdown to E3 which is less than 20 days away, where we will certainly have more information on the new Xbox One.

Over the years there has been some great stealth games, we all know of Metal Gear Solid which took tactical stealth espionage to a new level and made it a genre that a lot of people suddenly had interest in. We then got similar style games like Syphon Filter on the PS1, which had various run and gun moments but a whole heap of stealth too. We’ve had Manhunt, which added stealth to horror games, and Hitman which was probably the most pure stealth game available.

One other series of stealth games, just so happens to be one of my favourites. I’m not just talking about Stealth genre games either, Splinter Cell ranks amongst my favourite series of any games and is always a sure fire pick up for me. To me, it was always a friendlier version of Metal Gear. There wasn’t the intrusive overly long cut scenes, the bosses weren’t insane battles that test your patience as much as your skill, the game was just smooth and slick. It may not have the polish of Metal Gear, but it had a little extra style. You never saw Solid Snake do jump splits between two walls and then hang upside down to pop someone in the skull.

I’ve enjoyed the majority of the Splinter Cell games so far, the most recent game being Conviction which I found engrossing throughout. But I was left worried that we may not get a new one before the next generation of consoles hit, despite an announcement of a new title in 2010 things had gone quiet for 2 years. Thankfully at E3 2012 I was proven wrong, and Black List got announced.

The plot for Black List follows on immediately from what happened at the end of Conviction, The US President, orders the termination of the now corrupt Third Echelon ground. President Caldwell then forms Fourth Echelon, a new team of operatives gathered from different agencies, who perform missions assigned by the President. Series regular, and former Third Echelon operative Sam Fisher becomes the commander for Fourth Echelon.

While Third Echelon is shutting down and Fourth Echelon is starting up, a group of twelve terrorists initiate a terror plot called “The Blacklist”, which is a deadly countdown of terrorist attacks escalating in size and destruction, on United States assets. Fisher and the Fourth Echelon team must hunt these terrorists down and stop the Blacklist countdown before it reaches zero.

The story is very much what you’d expect, it’s not really breaking new ground, it’s comfortable. Hopefully, it will be just as comfortable for me to put my night vision goggles on and slip back in to the role of Sam too, but there has been a big change here. For years, Michael Ironside has played Sam Fisher. It’s a recognisable voice, one that lets you immediately know what you’re playing and who you are. But no more. Ironside has been replaced by Eric Johnson, and early reports have been critical of the new voice. Whilst I’m happy to wait until the game releases and I get to play it myself before passing judgement, the change of a principal cast member isn’t something I’m looking forward too. Thankfully the gameplay appears to have remained largely familiar.

One thing I am looking forward to that is different this year, is Co-Op mode. It’s not that this mode is brand new, we’ve had multiplayer modes in Splinter Cell before, but to me they’ve always been a bit of an extra to pad things out. This time it looks to be more detailed, taking on the roles of Sam Fisher and one of his Fourth Echelon friends you will have to engage in 14 missions, across 4 different types of mission. One style will require the pair of you to remain at your very stealthiest, as if either of you are seen then the game ends immediately and you fail the mission. Playing stealth online with other people can be a true test of patience, do you really want to sneak around playing it like you taught Sam everything he knows, whilst your co-op partner is shooting everyone he sees and causing multiple failures? With the wrong players it could be a disaster, but with a good friend who understands how to play, it could be truly great as you pop around a corner and straight into a guards field of vision, fretting over the mission failure for mere miliseconds before the guard drops dead in front of you and see the friendly face of your partner down the hall and smoke coming from the barrel of his gun. It could be glorious.

Time will tell on that, and when I have our review copy, I too will tell. Until then, we will have to wait.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist release on PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Wii U in America on August 20, and in Europe on the 23rd.

ALL VIDEO corutesy OF UBISOFT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxnx3W-HA18

Along with the announcement of the story, Activision also showed off the new engine for Call of Duty Ghost.  The goal is to give a sense of immersion with several different elements, one example being good animation where players maintain momentum when running and jumping over obstacles.

Finally, multiplayer will be completely revamped.  With consoles being able to handle more, the maps will be larger and more dynamic.  Players will experience big earthquakes and floods which will interfere with the map and even some player interactions will be used in a dynamic sense.

Alongside this reveal at the Xbox One event, Activision also announced that, like previous Call of Duty games, there will be exclusive content for Xbox One.

Microsoft has confirmed that all games will be need to be installed on the 500 GB HDD in order to be played, weather this is going to happen automatically is yet to be confirmed.

The 500 GB HDD has also been confirmed as to be un-replaceable by a larger model when they inevitably become available. However with every bit of bad news comes some good, and vice versa it seems, for the Xbox One. Microsoft has also confirmed that the shiny 3.0 USB Ports can be used to attach an external hard drive at a later time for increased storage.

More interestingly about the ability to use an external HDD is that Microsoft has stated it will give all the same benefits as the on-board HDD will for the Xbox One. This has led to speculation that Microsoft will introduce a new line of external hard drives specifically for the next-gen console.  No confirmation as of yet that third party products can be used.

On the flip side, and at this moment no up side appears to come with this news, the Xbox One does indeed allow for secondhand game purchases and use. However there will be an unspecified fee that goes along with this. So if you plan on buying used in the next generation there will be a fee associated with all purchases made in order to play the full games. They have not shared how much this fee will cost but radical claims and sources have stated it will be the full price of the game itself.  More on that and the HDD as the news breaks over the coming weeks.

Other updates include Skype, a tab on the menu telling what is trending, and even a dedicated game DVR so you can record your gameplay.  Achievements were also mentioned today as they are dynamically changing, and focus more on the individual and their accomplishments.

Another astonishing announcement was the ability to search for the perfect game match that meets your satisfaction, all while you play another game.  With this idea of expanded Xbox live we can see a lot of potential for the service.  It was also said that there will be bigger matches with more players.  We can look forward to this update hopefully later this year alongside the Xbox One release.

This Happy Hour is Surgeon Simulator 2013,

Surgeon Simulator 2013 is a surgical simulation game created in a 48-hour period for the 2013 Global Game Jam and released in January 2013 by Bossa Studios.[2] The full version was released via Steam on 19 April 2013. Game play consists of the player attempting to perform a heart transplant using the A, W, E, and R keys and spacebar on the keyboard to control the player’s fingers, and the mouse to control the movement of the player’s hand.

Much like the first game, Zeno Clash II offers a slew of wacky level, character, and gameplay designs that turn it into one big fever dream that you can’t seem to get out of. ACE Team, developer of Zeno Clash II, implements the same beat-’em-up mechanics that were found in the original title, however, odd design choices and story beats keep this game from becoming more than a Saturday afternoon time filler.

Zeno Clash 2 provides new players, as well as ones already acquainted with the unique first-person melee combat, with a well done tutorial that acts as a recap of the first games story. The tutorial is similar the ones found in traditional fighting games; tasking the player with certain objectives in order to learn a new move or mechanic. The drawback, however, is that the one on one battles that you will undertake in the tutorial don’t accurately reflect the ease, or lack thereof, of pulling off more complicated combos; in a group scenario I found that, instead of doing the more elaborate combos, I was sticking to the same group of moves that were easy for me to accomplish.

This really undercuts the whole experience in Zeno Clash, as the main draw of the game is its combat; and the fact that some of the big group scenarios have little room for error, it seemed unnecessary to risk my life for the more extravagant combos.

The combat in Zeno Clash is one of the most unique gameplay mechanics I have seen; the controls are easy to pick up and there’s a large number combos available to the more skilled players. While there is still the usual amount of button mashing, being able to pull off extravagant and interesting attacks to better finish off your opponents is very satisfying.

The combos rely heavily on the way you move your character as your punching or kicking.  While in most situations I found it easier to just wail on dudes with the standard array of punches and kicks, the times I was able to pull off one of the many combos was exciting. Unlike in other first-person adventure games (The Elder Scrolls or Fallout), where the combat can become boring and sluggish, Zeno Clash provides a fun and entertaining way to fight the numerous enemies in the game.

Numerous is the key word here; going through Zeno Clash 2’s wacky environments never seemed to disappoint me with generic enemies that I had fought many times. Instead, almost every enemy seemed to be unique in terms of design and looks. This little touch on the characters helped to make Zenozoik, the world in which Zeno Clash 1 and 2 is set, feel like a big world filled with many kinds of people and creatures.

The story in Zeno Clash wasn’t what you played Zeno Clash for; in Zeno Clash 2 that is largely the same case. While toward the end of the game you get some very interesting story beats about what is actually going on in this universe, the story largely fails. The voice acting isn’t great either; instead I found myself skipping anything that wasn’t story specific, and even then I was speeding through the dialogue via subtitles. But even though the story was sub-par and the voice acting not at all great, what ends up occurring by the end of the game was worth the journey.

As you continue through the story of Zeno Clash 2, you’ll run into characters that can be recruited into your party. Your party members won’t follow you around while you’re off on your adventures, though, so you won’t have to worry about bad pathing or getting into any fights you didn’t intend to. You can, however, choose to bring them into specific fights to help you out. Bringing party members into fights helped to clear out some of the larger group battles that I mentioned earlier, however, that doesn’t mean they are good fighters. I found that the party members were more useful as a distraction than actual fighters; they ended getting in the way, running away, or just standing in one spot while I fought everyone. Party members in a game like Zeno Clash is a good idea, it just isn’t one that is implemented well.

A problem that kept on occurring throughout the game for me was the lack of communication. The tutorial sets up the story as well as the combat mechanics, but aside from those two things, I was left largely to my own devices. Things like level ups and skill points didn’t become part of my game until later on when I finally understood how to acquire them.

Moving around the environments to my next objective or side quest was a hassle as well. The world of Zeno Clash 2 is very open; with the exception of loading screens in between each section of the map, the environments function as an open world similar to other open world games. This ended up becoming more of a hassle than anything else, as the map doesn’t work as well as it should; instead of showing you how to get to one place from another, it acts mostly as a means of telling you where your character is, and the general direction you should be heading in.

Although Zeno Clash 2 is has side quests, it isn’t filled with them. Unlike in a game like The Elder Scrolls, Zeno Clash 2 only has so many optional quest available at one time. This lead to me running through deserted areas toward my next destination — which is very stupid and tedious, as these open environments feel like they should have areas available for the player to explore, as opposed to just running through them to progress the story.

Zeno Clash was a unique game set in a unique world, and its sequel is no exception. Zeno Clash 2 is filled with wacky environments, characters, and a fantastic combat system that is fun to play. Even though some of the story beats don’t quite hit their mark, and odd design choices leave much to be desired, Zeno Clash 2 provides a fun way to spend your Saturday afternoon.

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