We’ll never forget how awesome it was seeing Batman and Gandalf in the same room during the Lego Movie. Ever since then, we’ve been waiting for the opportunity to truly explore that concept in a video game. Travellers Tales has just delivered.
Lego Dimensions is like Skylanders: you buy figurines, use an attachment to put them into the game, and do whatever you want. The best part is that you can mash up any series you want.
Lego Dimensions plays just like the Lego games before it: break blocks to build new structures, with some cartoon-y action peppered in. The game features an open world that you are free to explore, but the difference comes in the way you can do that. With so many characters, you have options. You can roam the skies as Superman, tear down the streets as Marty McFly in the Delorean, or even drive the Simpsons family sedan.
The story is simple, but it’s not the point of the game. The villain Lord Vortek, has mashed up the various Lego worlds and that’s pretty much it. It’s up to Gandalf, Batman and Wildstyle to stop him. While we imagine there will be more going on in the game, it’s all Travellers Tales has announced so far, so it proves the point that story is playing second fiddle to game play.
The pro of having all these characters comes at a cost though, and just like with Skylanders, you’ll have to fork out extra cash for different characters. The starter pack that comes with Batman, Gandalf and Wildstyle will set you back about R1 200, while if you wanted to buy everything on offer at launch, you’ll have to spend about R4000. It’s a lot of cash, but you obviously don’t have to buy everything, so if you just want some Scooby Doo characters, you’ll only be set back about R280.
Lego Dimensions is set to launch on September 27th. The packs announced so far include DC, Lord of the Rings, Lego Ninjago and more.
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.
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.
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
