The Mortal Kombat train continues to tease us from a far with the latest trailer comes in the form of the Cage Family Teaser.
The game releases 14 April. Hands up those who can’t wait.
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gaming
rAge 2014 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS with Western Digital South Africa and @Snoopeh
During the 2014 rAge expo, I had the chance to sit down and chat with Kalvin Subbadu, of WD technologies, and Stephen Ellis, AKA Snoopeh and professional League of Legends Player. I got to ask them about the future of gaming in South Africa and how WD plays into that. In case you don’t know, WD is a computer hardware manufacturer that specializes in hard drives. Snoopeh on the other hand, is a Scottish-born gamer, who plays League of Legends for a living now.
So do you think South Africa has limitations as a developing country, like high bandwidth and import costs?
Kalvin
“Well South Africa is an emerging market so the limitations ARE there, but they’re definitely temporary, I think S.A has the potential to be a big part of the gaming world.”
What role do video game consoles have to play for you? Are they big competition?
Kalvin
“To be honest, consoles aren’t really a big factor. We manufacture upgrades for them anyway, plus we want to focus on PCs for now, and the barrier to entry in that market helps us streamline the demographic.”
Snoopeh, how did you get into gaming?
Snoopeh
“”I started gaming casually as a child. I only discovered League of Legends much later on in life, I was good enough that I was noticed and sponsored quite quickly.”
And do you play any other games besides League of Legends?
“I used to, but with my career now, it’s hard to find the time to play anything else. It’s really only LOL for me”
And what genres did you play before LOL?
“I used to play all games. I liked first persons shooters a lot too. Like Battlefield.
And here’s some footage of Snoopeh showing he’s more than just an epic gamer, he’s quite the troll too
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Review
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the breath of fresh air that Call of Duty needed. After the somewhat disappointing Ghosts last year, Advanced Warfare feels like a true next-gen entry in the franchise, and it’s the best Call of Duty since Black Ops 2.
Advanced Warfare may be developer Sledgehammer Games’ first full foray into the franchise, but they have changed Call of Duty drastically and after playing through the game, it’s hard to go back. Every aspect of Call of Duty has been changed, and for the better, the leap into the future has allowed us to play with some cool guns and gadgets, and these are what keeps Advanced Warfare a cut above its counterparts.
If you’ve been following Advanced Warfare even a little bit up to its launch, you’ll have no doubt seen Kevin Spacey’s face plastered all over the marketing. Yes, Frank Underwood himself graces Call of Duty with his presence, and to my surprise, he’s actually well used and is one of the best villains the series has boasted for a long while.
While the story is far better than the series has had to offer in the past, it isn’t perfect. Spacey’s character Jonathan Irons goes from idealistic CEO to dictatorial villain a little too quickly, and ridiculous set-pieces still litter the campaign. But it feels like a new take on the formula, and that’s enough to get excited for. The biggest and best new feature in the game is the Exo-Suits, basically they’re robotic exo-skeletons that allow you to take more damage, double jump, dodge in the air and so many more features that I won’t spoil here.
The reason Call of Duty is so popular is its multiplayer, and Advanced Warfare brings the best to the table. The aforementioned Exo-Suits give combat a “verticality” that was unheard of in the series’ past, and every moment where I wasn’t dashing around the battlefield felt like a wasted opportunity. With that said, it still feels like Call of Duty at its core; levelling up will still unlock new weapons, perks and scorestreaks, and the pick 10 system from Black Ops 2 makes a return, where you can pick a certain amount of weapons and gear to take into battle, although you get 13 choices this time around.
The maps are all designed superbly, mixing up long rooftops for the Exo-Suits with sprawling corridors for series veterans. Unlike past CoD games, there are no maps that feel bad or that aren’t up to par. I never let out a groan when I found out where I would be playing next, although I still wish that there was a variety in the size of the maps. They range from large to medium, with no maps being designed for close quarters combat only; think: Rust from Modern Warfare 2 or Nuketown from Black Ops. I realise the Exo-Suits make close quarters boring, but it would be nice to have a more intimate battleground if I wanted to load a game up with just a friend or two.
The final big addition to the multiplayer is customisation. Playing for a certain amount of time or completing challenges will grant you Supply Drops, open these up after the match and you can unlock modded guns, different aesthetic gear, or even double XP for a certain time. This gave multiplayer more of an identity for me, as I felt like I had a character, not just a class. While there are far less guns to unlock, the fact that each gun has different versions with different stats and appearances actually gives Advanced Warfare more variety than before.
In place of zombies, this year we got Exo-survival. Basically waves and waves of enemies will spawn until you die. While the Exo-Suits make the mode a touch more fun, it’s mostly forgettable, even when playing with friends.
Advanced Warfare feels like an evolution for Call of Duty. Not only is it a step up from its predecessors, but it also gives a good roadmap of where the series is going to go this console generation. If you’re a fan, you’ve probably picked it up already, if you feel burnt out on the series, I would recommend giving Advanced Warfare a fair chance, because it certainly deserves your time and money.
Mortal Kombat X PREVIEW….FIGHT! by @Lubeness
Mortal Kombat X had the best presentation at rAge by far. A roughly 10 meter long stand with over 10 screens to play, it was the most noticeable and the most recognizable. Especially with Scorpion covering half of the exterior and the best part; a Mortal Kombat logo right in the middle that emitted smoke periodically.
Luckily, the game itself matched the cool factor of the stand. Combat Kombat will be a breeze to sink back into for those who played the previous game in the series, and enough additions have been implemented to make the series feel fresh, such as a run button and being able to play characters in three different styles.
The only returning characters in the demo were series mainstays Scorpion and Sub-Zero, with four newcomers being D’vorah(a completely new character), Kotal Kahn (son of main villain Shao Kahn), Kassie Cage (Daughter of Sonia Blade and Johnny Cage) and Ferra/Tor( a pair-up of two new characters). As mentioned before, all six characters can be played in three different ways, for example, Scorpion can be played in the “Ninjutsu” style, where he uses his dual blades, in the “Inferno” style, where he can summon hellspawn demons to help him in the fight, or the “Hellfire” style, where he uses fire based attacks primarily. This means that the game has the most variety in the entirety of the series.
Fighting felt great. While the combos are new, the same system has been carried over to next gen with some new features such as being able to interact with your environment or being able to run full speed across the screen using the aforementioned run button. I quickly fell into my old groove, juggling my friends around the screen with ease, and we can’t talk about Mortal Kombat if we don’t talk about X-ray moves and Fatalities.
If any parts of the game have benefited from the jump to next gen, its bone breaking X-rays and the cringe-inducing fatalities. Be warned, the following is not for the weak of heart! Scorpion’s fatality involves him kicking his opponent in the air and piercing his skull, before pulling him headfirst into the ground, snapping his neck. Sub Zero finishes his opponents off by punching their stomach out, snapping their spine, and splitting them in half. These are easily the most gruesome moves we’ve seen in the series and I can’t wait to see the rest.
Mortal Kombat X is shaping up to be one of the best games of the year when it launches in April next year. The gameplay alone made me more excited to play the full game than any other game at the expo, never mind the great presentation Warner Brothers showed with their stand. Oh, and did I mention that the awesome song from the first trailer was blasting throughout the stand?
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Review
By Aaron Luboff
Review done on PS3
Blood. Sucks.
There’s nothing worse than a disappointing game. Most of the time, by looking at trailers and previews, it’s relatively easy to know when a game will come out and just be awful. That’s what makes Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 so frustrating to play. The first game in the series, was a pleasant surprise for Castlevania fans and action game fans in general, thus setting expectations pretty high up for its sequel; a bar that Lords of Shadow 2 fails to reach sadly. But is there anything worse in life than letting the younger sibling be compared to his stronger, better looking, more intelligent older brother? No. So we’ll give it a fair go.
Lords of Shadow 2 again stars protagonist Gabriel Belmont, who now has taken the identity of Dracula and must prevent Satan from returning in modern times so that he can be freed of his immortality. There are 2 problems with this premise; firstly, it means that the designers had to design a modern day city and castle sections for when Dracula has to travel back in time. The former completely lacking in comparison to the latter. While the modern city comes across as mundane and square, the castles design is beautiful and intricate.
Second problem, if Dracula is immortal, why can he be killed by any what’s-his-face with a sword? Bit of a big one this one, so suspend reality, I guess.
Lords of Shadow 2 may have some disappointing gameplay, but it does feature a new engine that is quite pretty; even though the designs are not always intricate, they are always a pleasure to look at. As stated before, the castle sections are absolutely gorgeous and truly unique.
The game’s soundtrack is also spectacular, setting a dark atmosphere right from the get-go. Unfortunately, the game suffers from some dodgy voice acting and corny dialogue, a standard in games these days. Have you found that too? Comments…
Lords of Shadow 2 isn’t the best game I’ve played in a while. If you’re in to the series already, you’ll probably give it a go and enjoy it. If you’re not, you won’t kick yourself for missing it.
FIFA 14 official GamePlay trailer NEW GAME
Here’s a teaser of what to expect from the next installment of the MIGHTY FIFA franchise. Looking complicated and intricate, just like we like it!
Kinvestix. A terribly named Xbox Kinect workout kit
OK, granted it’s not the best name in the world, but the Kinvestix fitness equipment certainly makes the best out of the games on the Microsoft Kinect gaming gear.
Used in conjunction with the games and made possible thanks to a system or resistance pullies on the vest and belt, the Kinvestix works you out in front of your TV using a padded ergonomic waist strap and vest.
The pullies are customizable and offer resistance between ½ and 5kgs. Swap them around in the slots on the vest and belt to target different muscle groups.
Get it: www.prime-do.com/#projects-1344234379179
Nintendo 3DS XL arrives in SA…the biggest Nintendo screen ever
Portable gaming gets a boost with news that the new Nintendo 3DS XL is now available in SA for R2350.
Available in Silver + Black, Red + Black and Blue + Black the XL screen grows in size by 90% from the previous 3D version. The surface though only gets 46% bigger so it still fits neatly in your hand.
I’ve had a brief play on the 3DS XL at the launch of the Wii U, and the glasses free upper screen is pretty huge at 4.8-inches and is easy to play on. As with any 3D device though, if you’re not sold by the 3D gimmick, stop reading now.
The bigger size means there is space for a bigger battery and in portable gaming, battery is everything. 6 and half hours is quoted, up from just 5 in the previous model.
They’ve also doubled the SD card size, from 2 to 4GB.
Review coming soon.
Get it: www.nintendo.co.za
For: R2350
Nintendo Wii U and their new Kidney remote – Who’s getting one? Comments!
I’ve just got done playing with the new Wii U, Nintendo’s next generation console. It’s the first console to uncover itself in time for the upcoming Christmas season, and it’s probably the most important thing Nintendo’s done in a long while.
Since the explosive success of their first Wii console in 2006, sales have slowly dropped off, and those Wii’s out in the market have fallen into disuse. Why? Lack of games. They had min support from 3rd party developers, and their own titles kept you interested for a week at best. No real competition for the Xbox and PS3 generation.
The Wii U though looks promising. Essentially it’s made up of an 854 x 480 resolution, 6.2-inch portable screen that compliments and adds to what’s going on in the main screen. Think of it as a convergence between your traditional kidney remote and a portable touchscreen tablet.
It’s quite comfortable to hold thanks to finger clasps in the back and it weighs about the same as a 10-inch tablet.
The Gamepad is backward compatible with all of your past Wii accessories like the Wii Fit and the Nunchuck.
The second screen is constantly connected to the Wii console, and adds new elements to the game you’re playing. For example in group games, one person will take on the Gamepad and play a role only he can see and control on the Wii U Gamepad, while the other players compete against him/her on the divided big screen. Here’s an example inside Luigi’s castle where the ghost is only visible on the Gamepad but must be caught by the other players staring at the main screen. Nintendo call it ‘asymmetric gaming’.
Another intriguing application of the Gamepad can be seen in Wii’s new Sing game. Same concept as SingStar and the like, except this time you don’t have to look at the big screen, you can turn around and sing to your audience while reading the lyrics off the Gamepad and the big screen telling your audience when and how to dance and clap. It’s a potential cringe machine, I know, but it definitely opens up the experience.
With the Wii U Gamepad you’re able to walk out the room while continuing your game on the Gamepad in a similar way that you can port your current PS3 game on to your PS Vita and carry on playing. (Important to note is that you can’t play disc reliant games like Zombie U as a wireless game only on the Gamepad. What is Zombie U?)
However, if the Wii U is going to be the saviour of Nintendo, and tease those Christmas bucks to roll through the gaming giant’s door, they’re going to have to look far past the “social gamer” that the Wii caters to. They’ve got to get some serious titles launched and start impressing the couch-jockey ghoof balls that enjoy 24 hour marathons of Call of Duty and Gears of War.
Nintendo’s answer is the launch of this new kidney remote control.
I had a brief play with it and the good news is you’ll already know how it functions because it’s exactly the same as the Xbox or PS3 remote.
This remote control you would use for more serious, single player games and Nintendo have quite a few on the horizon including Batman Arkham City, Zombie U, Trine 2 and Ninja Gaiden.
I had a brief play on the demo version of Zombie U, and it shows real promise. Pity there was no story-line and little experience of how the long hours at the console will be spent, but if they get it right, this could be big.
And it’s not just the kidney remote you use for these games, the Gamepad also comes into the gameplay of these adult games by letting you scan your environment, access your inventory and even aim and shoot at characters on the screen. Inbuilt gyroscopes and accelerometers take care of letting the Wii U know where you are in space and time and in relation to the console. Check it out.
I had a very brief play with the Gamepad and their new kidney remote and I was quite impressed. There’s no lag, it’s a relatively comfortable experience and quite a lot of fun if you don’t mind childishness at your friends 30th birthday party.
Nintendo haven’t said much at all about the specs of the machine. We know it runs an IBM CPU and has multi-cores but that’s about it. The loading speed on Zombie U was less than “now” so it’ll be interesting to see how the console handles when graphic heavy and more importantly multi-player games are attempted.
Obviously the tripping point for Nintendo is going to be if their 3rd party games like those mentioned above don’t deliver. I know some people who take their gaming pretty damn seriously, and they’re not going to be won over by cheap gimmicks like a map popping up in front of you or 360 degree scanning of an environment. The reason Halo and Gears of War did so well was because it had likeable characters, a great storyline and cliff-hangers at the end of the games. Package that with eye-incinerating graphics and a good storyline and Nintendo could be on to a winner.
Making it easier for developers to port their games over from the Xbox and PS3 is the first step here BTW.
Although I didn’t play it for long, Zombie U looks like it’s on the right track. It’s gritty, violent and graphic and it looks challenging.
Nintendo think the Zombie U is going to be a good franchise for them and if it is, there could be a whole new army in the console game wars. I’m reserving judgement until we get to play a whole game.
Get it: Don’t know how much
From: www.nintendo.co.za
When: Christmas 2012
Battlefield 3 GAME REVIEW
Been a while since I sank my teeth into a good war genre video game, so long in fact that I’m more used to blowing aliens apart than fellow humans, but it’s great to be back. And what a welcome from Battlefield 3, a full six years since number 2 wowed me.
This time around B3 isn’t just doing battle on screen; it’s also fighting hard for your Xmas cash as it’s come into a market almost saturated with First Person Shooters like Gears of War 3 and Call of Duty 3. But it holds its own in my opinion.
The Frostbite 2 game engine is quite something when it comes to the shooting scenes, although I have to admit that things were quite dark on the default setting. The engine pushes the boundaries of animation and lighting and you can see the results best in the cut scenes. And cut scenes there are with a pretty gripping story line that sees you taking on multiple roles, Blackburn your primary but also a jet pilot named Hawkins and later a Spetsnaz agent too.
Take a look:
In the spirit of the times they’ve also found space in the storyline for a natural disaster which makes things even more true to life. Aside from this making us humans feel at home, things like earthquakes also add to the game play and your interaction with the environment and buildings which you can destroy to kill enemies or cleverly manipulate to gain cover and affect the storyline.
As with most FPS war games there are a few gripes like the unnecessary amount of guns at some points, most of which seem to do the same thing as each other or even bothering to include some guns like a shotgun which up until now I’ve yet to get close enough to an enemy to use.
Without a doubt one of the best and most realistic war games I’ve ever played, and that’s not just thanks to the graphics. The action is hot and the missions are tough. Don’t expect a walk through.
Battlefield 3 REVIEW
Been a while since I sank my teeth into a good war genre video game, so long in fact that I’m more used to blowing aliens apart than fellow humans, but it’s great to be back. And what a welcome from Battlefield 3, a full six years since number 2 wowed me.
This time around B3 isn’t just doing battle on screen; it’s also fighting hard for your Xmas cash as it’s come into a market almost saturated with First Person Shooters like Gears of War 3 and Call of Duty 3. But it holds its own in my opinion.
The Frostbite 2 game engine is quite something when it comes to the shooting scenes, although I have to admit that things were quite dark on the default setting. The engine pushes the boundaries of animation and lighting and you can see the results best in the cut scenes. And cut scenes there are with a pretty gripping story line that sees you taking on multiple roles, Blackburn your primary but also a jet pilot named Hawkins and later a Spetsnaz agent too.
In the spirit of the times they’ve also found space in the storyline for a natural disaster which makes things even more true to life. Aside from this making us humans feel at home, things like earthquakes also add to the game play and your interaction with the environment and buildings which you can destroy to kill enemies or cleverly manipulate to gain cover and affect the storyline.
As with most FPS war games there are a few gripes like the unnecessary amount of guns at some points, most of which seem to do the same thing as each other or even bothering to include some guns like a shotgun which up until now I’ve yet to get close enough to an enemy to use.
Without a doubt one of the best and most realistic war games I’ve ever played, and that’s not just thanks to the graphics. The action is hot and the missions are tough. Don’t expect a walk through.
