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Virtual Reality has been a thing for years now. Unfortunately, it either hasn’t been very good, or expensive, or more commonly both. That has seemed poised to change in recent years with the slow but steady development of the Oculus Rift, a head mounted VR display being developed for PC use. Unfortunately, the inventor of the Rift has long said that it will not be coming to consoles as they aren’t powerful enough to handle the technology.
Sony seems to disagree. yesterday at GDC 2014, the console giant unveiled what it calls Project Morpheus, a head mounted VR display for the Playstation 4. During the reveal, PlayStation head Shuhei Yoshida said that virtual reality “may well shape the future of games”. Citing the increasing immersion that comes with a VR headset, he then moved on to show the early prototypes of the headset, including a Playstation Move duct taped to one. He continued on to say “”We believe Morpheus will further enhance the world of PlayStation 4 with seamless integration with PlayStation Camera, DualShock 4, and PS Move.”
The Morpheus protoype includes a 1080p display, full 360 degree positional tracking and low latency. Sony has also apparently placed an emphasis on ergonomic design and says that Morpheus will allow the use of wireless audio headsets. As might be expected, software was a bit limited with Sony showing off an undersea demo titled “The Deep” as well as announcing compatibility for Thief and EVE Valkyrie. Interestingly, Sony stated that they were treating VR “as a medium, not a peripheral.”
Even more interesting, perhaps, is the fact that Sony is apparently working on a virtual space walk on the surface of Mars in partnership with NASA. It was also revealed that the ttacking for Morpheus can be handled not only by PlayStation Move technology, but also the PlayStation Camera. It will also take advantage of the DualShock 4’s sensors.
All in all, it was an interesting showing, but it remains to be seen what the final price point will be for Morpheus, or how much traction it will gain among gamers who already see, to be weary of gimmicky peripherals.
Titanfall is here. If you haven’t heard of this game, you’ve been under a rock for the past three months. But, just to be thorough, I’ll go ahead and break it down for you.
Titanfall is the first game by developer Respawn Entertainment. Founded by former members of Infinity Ward, the team responsible for the modern Call of Duty franchise, the team has been creating the first killer app for the XBOX One. The hype has been intense leading up to Titanfall’s release. But does the game live up to the colossal expectations or is it the victim of a hype train headshot?
Happily, Titanfall delivers in almost every way. Placing you in the shoes of agile pilots fighting in and around towering mechs called Titans, the game is a sheer joy to behold. Make no mistake, this IS a true next generation game. On XBOX One, it looks fantastic. Launch it on a high end gaming PC and it just gets prettier. Once you drop into a match, the sheer scope of the levels is breathtaking. Fleets of spaceships fight overhead, strange alien creatures swoop and dive in the skies and colossal beasts stride across the background. Couple this with the attractive, intricate level design and the slick animations of the pilots and Titans, and Titanfall is a graphical powerhouse with few rivals.
Thankfully, the game plays just as wonderfully. Controls are intuitive. The major readjustment to Titanfall comes from scrubbing the level traversal lessons of ten years of Halo, Call of Duty and Battlefield from your mind. Titanfall plays at a speed not seen in shooters since the days of Unreal Tournament. Your pilot is FAST. Add to that the freedom of movement your jump gear gives you, and Titanfall redefines the way you move through a FPS play space. Almost every surface you can see is a playable surface. Want to reach the top of a building? Run up the wall, double jump up to a ledge and continue on. See a handy zipline? Leap up and ride it across the level, firing as you go. Even Titans become stepping stones to loftier heights as you latch on, pull the cover off to blast at their insides and then leap away.
Herein lies the wonderful balancing act that Respawn has crafted in Titanfall. As fast and fluid as the pilots are, the lumbering Titans are slow and more cumbersome. Strap into one of these walking tanks and your paths through the levels are inherently more limited. Titans can move at speed, particularly the speedy Stryder class, but the don’t have the same vertical range as the squishier pilot. What Titans lack in mobility, they make up for in sheer power. Pilots are swatted like bugs when you are in command of a Titan. Shooting, punching or even stepping on a pilot gives you an immense feeling of power. The massive weapons and tactile recoil you get from firing them are wonderfully crafted. Titan battles are less about the free-running glee of a pilot and more about careful tactical decisions. Using a vortex shield to catch incoming enemy rounds and fire them back requires precision timing. And while Titans are powerful, the aren’t unstoppable juggernauts. A pilot with a anti-Titan rocket launcher can end your joyride very quickly, making you focus your attention on getting the most out of your Titan’s inevitably short lifespan. The constantly shifting flow of Titan and pilot fights give a hectic, raw feeling to matches in Titanfall, leaving you with little time to do anything but react to the sheer madness and spectacle taking place.
This also shines a light on one of the only weaknesses of Titanfall. The game’s story is told through a multiplayer “campaign”. In reality, this boils down to scripted audio heard while waiting in match lobbies and video windows and radio chatter that pop up during matches. The main problem with this is that you don’t have much time to pay attention to the story being delivered in match. While a character may be explaining why it’s imperative that you get to this particular hardpoint and hold it for story reasons, you might be fleeing from an enemy pilot, dodging a Titan and trying desperately to reload. It’s a poor way to deliver a story and an odd choice on Respawn’s part. Add to this the fact that to unlock all the available Titans for your custom load outs you have to beat the campaign twice, and the story mode of Titanfall is probably one of the only things in the game that I found disappointing.
There are a few other nitpicks I could make with the game, such as the total lack of private match lobbies, no option to vote on map rotation, and the inexplicable choice not to allow custom names for custom loadouts. But really, all they are are nitpicks. The death match based Attrition, capture and hold Hardpoint Domination, Capture the flag and Last Titan Standing modes are all great fun. Loadouts are fully customizable to any situation for both your pilot and Titan. And, if you need an extra boost “Burn Cards” can be played on respawn to give you enhanced weapons or more XP for mowing down enemy AI. All in all, Titanfall is a stunning game and one that has incredible gameplay mechanics. It may just redefine online First Person Shooters.
Love it or loathe it, you can’t deny that as a franchise Angry Birds has been quite successful for company Rovio. Now a new spin-off game has been announced that removes the bird-flinging mechanic that the game is most famous for and replaces it with a story, quests, items and a customisable character build. That’s right – Angry Birds is getting an RPG.
The new game entitled ‘Angry Birds Epic’ will involve turn-based battle and a crafting system for armour, potions and weapons which can be made from resources picked up during the game or purchased for real money via micro transactions. There will be a story-driven campaign mode as well as endgame content to play after you’ve fought your way through the waves of Bad Piggie-based enemies to complete the main story.
A soft release of the game is coming to the Apple App Store this week in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as a way to introduce players to an early version of the game which Rovio say will be tweaked and refined before the full version is launched although no world-wide launch has been announced yet, although Rovio hope to make the game available soon. The game will also probably be available on Windows Phone, Android and iOS when the full launch goes ahead.
So, has the idea of an Angry Birds RPG gotten you fired up or do you just wish the franchise would vanish already? Let us know in the comments below!
Action! Kung Fu! Stickmen? If you want to play a game that makes you feel like a badass, I found the game for you. One Finger Death Punch.
One Finger Death Punch is an action brawler where you only use 2 buttons, the left and the right mouse button, to defeat hordes of enemies coming at you. Easy you think? Not really. The game is surprisingly challenging especially if you don’t get into the rhythm of it. And don’t think you can just button mash. The game strongly discourages it. Button mashing usually leads to you missing attacks and leaves you open to attacks from your enemies. But when you get into the feel of the game you can’t help but feel awesome; especially when you take out a Brawler, an enemy that requires you to hit him with a series of clicks in a certain order to kill him.
While you are mainly unarmed in the game, you are able to pick up weapons dropped by enemies you defeat. These include bows and daggers, which can be thrown at enemies far away as well as kill tougher enemies in one shot. You can also pick up a variety of melee weapons like swords, staves, and even a broom at one point, that allow you to have a further reach to take out more enemies faster.
The main game mode of the game is a Mob mode where you have to just straight up defeat all the enemies that come at you. To break it up a bit, they have other “game modes” scattered between,
including a Timed mode (kill everything before time runs out), a Defender mode (deflect knives being thrown at you), a Smash mode (toss enemies into buildings and items), a Light ‘Blade’ mode (fight with a light saber), and many more modes. There is even a Boss mode which puts you against a single tough enemy.
The aesthetic of the game is quite interesting. The general graphics make the game look like it is older than it is; kind of like an old arcade game or old console game. The general overall feel of the game feels inspired by old martial art films. They even have a game mode that is sort of homage to this where everything is grey with a film grain. Even the music and sound effects contribute to this. One of the things I enjoyed most about the aesthetic of the game is that even though your character is just a stickman, you can tell that he is actually doing various martial art moves. The game switches between a few different forms of martial arts: Flying Crane, Eagle Claw, and Shaolin Tiger. They even have a Drunken Master form which seems to only be used in the Boss mode.
All in all, One Finger Death Punch is an addicting, fun beat them up that makes you feel awesome for just pressing two buttons. And I can’t wait to try to get a perfect score on all levels. I definitely recommend it. It’s a fun game for an awesome price.
