New game releases of May 20-26
Killzone: Mercenary shoots onto Vita on September 10
Trion Worlds hit with more layoffs, Defiance team impacted
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault defending Vita next week
Game & Wario was originally going to be pre-installed on Wii U
Evening Reading
by Jeff Mattas, Feb 07, 2011 5:00pm PSTThis past weekend, I cozied up with Stacking, a curious little puzzle-based adventure game from the folks over at Double Fine. While I'm only approaching the halfway point to completion, and will reserve judgment until I've finished, the overall experience has gotten me thinking. In addition to being a game whose presentational attributes are the very definition of the word "charming," the core gameplay seems quite adept at doing something I've been hoping to see for a while: reinvent the classic adventure game.
What's so impressive is that the core attributes that make an adventure game what it is (exploration and puzzle-solving) are still there, but they're presented in new ways that really encourage experimentation. The trial-and-error methodology that seems inescapable in puzzle-driven adventures is presented in a way that's far more entertaining than traditional adventures that simply encourage players to combine everything in their inventories until something works. Stacking still requires some of this puzzle-solving experimentation, but manages to make it much less annoying than usual. In fact, it's pretty fun.
Naturally, that gets me thinking about other tried-and-true genres and gameplay mechanics that are in desperate need of makeovers. Any ideas?
And, in other news:
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-Concept for BF3 has been in the works for years, waiting on proper tech to seamlessly come together
-Frosbite 2.0 is the culmination of this tech, entirely re-written
-Lighting sounds neat, one "probe" contains more lighting information than an entire BFBC2 level.
-Level destruction is going to be "believable" but basically everything is destructible.
-Character animations powered by ANT, what EA Sports uses.
-AI characters and multiplayer characters have different animation sets
-No more "gliding" animations that look off, animation realism is a focus
-Captured their own war audios (bullets, tanks, helicopters, etc) at different distances to ensure realism
-Better audio cues for certain actions, more easily able to listen for threats
-Plan on better, more immediate post release content
-More unlocks than BFBC2
-Dice trying to find a good balance between customization of your character and not having "pink rabbit hat(s)"
-4 classes
-Will talk about squads "later"
-Looking into a theater mode but can't talk about it
-Will have co-op
-There will be a kill-cam but it can be turned off
-BF3's team is almost twice as big as the team for BFBC2
-They want the pacing of the single player mode to be balanced, with highs and lows. Makes the comparison to a song vs a guitar solo.
-Part of the single player mode takes place in Sulaymaniyah - Iraqi Kurdistan.
-"Fuck" will be used often, so M rated for sure
-There will be an earthquake in a level. The destruction sounds very impressive. 7 story building collapses, looks very well done
-Significant narrative that goes with the SP mode
-More than one setting, you're not in the middle east for the whole game
-PC version is lead version
-Why 64 players for PC only? No complains from the console crowd.
-No mod tools at release. Maybe none down the line either. Frosbite 2.0 is complex and mods tools would have to be dumbed down, so does Dice really want to put their time to that or would it be better spent elsewhere?
-Original story, not based on Bad Company at all.
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