the hardest murder to solve is your own

When Ronan O’Connor, a detective with a chequered past, gets caught up in a burglary, his life is brought to an untimely end by a brutal and relentless killer.

Shocked to find himself in the afterlife, his only escape from the limbo world of ‘Dusk’ is to uncover the truth behind his killer, track him down and bring him to justice using new-found supernatural abilities.

As Ronan, you have freedom to explore the town of Salem: its wooden houses, narrow streets, gothic churches and mental asylum for clues. Battle demonic spirits to save your soul and uncover the shocking revelations about who is responsible for your death.

During the dev chat, the developer played the first “mission” and commented over the top of the gameplay

The game looks great, and the idea is amazing (I wish I’d had time to check out the booth at the expo)
Basically, you start off having to solve your own murder. Going through the evidence and crime scene as a ghost. Which has upsides and downsides of course. Downsides, you can’t pick up and touch evidence and actually get a sense of it, upside, you can possess people, see through their eyes, hear through their ears and generally get a sense of the world and things around you

The game is set in Salem, Massachusetts, so every building is warded against ghosts (as you do), so outside Ronan can walk through people and objects, however to get into buildings, a door or window needs to be open to allow entry/exit (useful for loading areas huh? very clever)
Being a Ghost, you have a number of talents that will be upgraded as the game progresses…
– You can see flashbacks of scenes that happened, playback the scene to get insight into what happened, these are called memory residue, to aid the investigation “Real World”, like turning on a cooker hob to distract people, this allows for puzzle elements later on in the game
– Possession can also be used as a tactic against the Demons, human spirits that are tormented and think that devouring other human spirits will turn them into regular spirits again so they can lay to rest, like possessing a cop so you can get close without being noticed and jumping into the demon to rip it apart
– Also ghost side quests and investigations will unlock new info and generally make you feel better about yourself, like helping a young lady who was murdered and buried by an old couple in the block

The game is shaping up very nicely, it looks great on current gen (it’s due for release early 2014 on PC, PS3 and XBox 360)

Garrett, the Master Thief, steps out of the shadows into the City. In this treacherous place, where the Baron’s Watch spreads a rising tide of fear and oppression, his skills are the only things he can trust. Even the most cautious citizens and their best-guarded possessions are not safe from his reach.
As an uprising emerges, Garrett finds himself entangled in growing layers of conflict. Lead by Orion, the voice of the people, the tyrannized citizens will do everything they can to claim back the City from the Baron’s grasp. The revolution is inevitable. If Garrett doesn’t get involved, the streets will run red with blood and the City will tear itself apart.

This is actually the most interactive of the Eurogamer dev chats so far, not only did we get a full on play through of the game, but the dev on stage actually took the time to speak to people there and asked their names for the Q&A, much respect to him on that one

Ok, onto the actual gameplay. The new Thief game is paying a LOT of homage to the original, while at the same time, making it more “realistic” and more technical, compared to games that have gone before (hopefully no undead this time)

First thing you notice, the game is polished, VERY polished, it looks smooth and beautiful, however it was mentioned the next gen versions will have better textures, quicker loading times, etc, but where the PC version will sit is unknown right now.

In a nutshell though, you play as Garret again, this time as a “silent partner” to Orion in his revolution against the Baron.

During the Demo-

Arrows aren’t just for killing, the examples shown were the water arrow for snuffing out torches and fire to remove light sources to stay in the dark, and obviously the rope/grappler arrow to make escapes
Lock picking and frame checking (running your hands round a painting frame for secret switches) is now a quicktime event, not only using the on screen indicator, but also the controllers rumble function for feedback (love that idea, very clever use of force feedback)
Maps are a clear reference tot eh original aswell and the map usage is smooth and simple UI improvement

It was asked in the Q&A if you could Ghost the game (basically doing as much as possible of the game without doing any kills or enemy takedowns and it was confirmed it is possible. Hopefully that will be a super hard, but worth getting achievement
Gameplay will change depending on how gun ho you play the game, if guards are after you, running into the dark won’t make them lose you, the AI will follow you (although this may also used as a fun trap, drag a guard into the dark for a take down)

Thief is out 25th feb 2014, but its already available to preorder on STEAM

Ubisoft Montreal’s trailer for Watch_Dogs, which has been viewed countless times in the last many months – indeed, even at the Eurogamer Developers Presentation today they admitted they’d “seen it way too many times now” (not seen it yourself? YouTube to the rescue!) – makes a big deal of how technology has evolved in ten years, talking about how in 2003, a computer virus blacked out a whole district for a day and led to four people dying; and now ten years later, everything is computerised and a whole town could be hacked by just one individual. Indeed, technology HAS moved fast, even in just half that time. Watch_Dogs is a game that’s been in development for over five years, originally under the codename “Nexus”. Even part of the game’s original logo appears on protagonist Aiden Pearce’s face covering.

However, speaking at Eurogamer, Ubisoft explain that despite the futuristic undertones, Watch_Dogs isn’t as made up as it seems, explaining that in five years technology has evolved from traditional computers to smartphones. “What was the next step up from Smartphones? Smart Cities. It sounds futuristic, but it’s already happening”, citing examples of certain Asian cities investing in city-wide computer networks ahead of the Olympics and other major events. But Watch_Dogs doesn’t take place in Asia – rather, it’s based in modern-day Chicago. Ubisoft cite the reason for this as because Chicago is a large town that’s always evolving; indeed, the Chicago that rose after the Great Fire of Chicago hardly resembles its predecessor. “Every time Chicago has rebuilt, they bring in something new that evolves the town. That was one part of choosing Chicago as the setting. … Another aspect is the density. You need to build chaos. Chicago has complete second layers on the ground, for example intersections where roads go under worlds. No flat world.”

Watch_Dogs tells the story of Aiden Pearce, a vigilante who fears the evolution of a city-wide computer network threatens him and his family. He finds ways to hack the computer network; and using his phone or computer terminals to control it, makes it work for him; uses it to get out of trouble; or gets information about criminals and bad activity around him. Described in Concept Art as “a hero by any means necessary”, Ubisoft explain they take “vigilante” to have a different meaning to the standard assumptions, explaining that when people think of vigilantes, there’s extremes: Many people think of characters like Batman, caped crusaders who deal justice alone; but it’s also true of less “good” characters like Dexter from the TV drama – a serial killer who targets the guilty, thus helping the law but not being part of the law and breaking the law himself with murder. “Aiden is in the middle between Dexter and Batman – Aiden is neither a good guy, nor a bad guy; he’s just taking justice into his own hands to protect him and his family.”

Essentially, Watch_Dogs makes a game of dynamic events and always thinking on your toes. Aiden is constantly aware of his surroundings. For example he always tries to keep his gun concealed; and walks in a relaxed manner, so he doesn’t draw attention. “There’s a lot of different ways to handle a situation. For example, say you have a reputation; and you walk into a shop and while you’re there, a police notice flashes up on screen with your face. One NPC who sees you might try to call the cops. You could shoot him, but then you might attract attention and suddenly there’s two other people calling the cops – then it’s four other people. You can ignore it, but then the cops know where you are and others might call in too as they notice. But if you jam the communications, no-one can make a call. And if you just flash your gun, you might intimidate the first person into thinking twice about making the call himself.”

“Everything is about dynamism. If you’re in an open world and you plan to give people control, everything has to be connected. … A living city has to be heavily pushed. You need to see people interacting, living. … You’re going to escalate matters based on the choices you make; and there’s nothing more satisfying than barely surviving a situation you create because of good, or sometimes bad, choices. So an emphasis is always on choices and consequences … meanings to things.” Later, Ubisoft added: “Nothing is separate elements. Everything is connected.”

This connected focus extends to the game’s multiplayer. Even when playing solo, you are never really alone. Others can potentially join your own games; and just like anyone on the street, you can hack them to get information on and connections from them; but they can do the same to you. As the crowd brought up concerns of griefing, however, Ubisoft explained this has been thought about and will be solved by a Firewall mechanic. All your technology will be protected by a firewall; but if you hack another player, you let down your own defences. When YOU get hacked, however, the firewall goes back on and you can’t be ganged up on by others. Ubisoft plan to adjust the Firewall mechanic based on player feedback. The people who enjoy the challenge may find themselves hacked more often, those who can’t cope will get stronger protection. You can turn it off completely too; but then you’re missing out on what they describe as “a cool additional gameplay experience.”

We’ll leave it to Ubisoft Montreal to have the final words (though these may be somewhat paraphrased):

“It’s absolutely possible to act all the time as you play; so you can think every two seconds. As you play more you’ll think more, and the game will feel fresher. You’ll start thinking more about escape routes as you’re just moving around; avoiding cops if you draw attention etc. – and the game will always feel like something new. That’s what makes our game something truly new.”

Watch_Dogs will hit Windows PCs, PlayStation 3 & 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Wii U, with release dates ranging from November 15 to November 29, 2013 depending on platform and region. Here in the UK, all releases except PS4 will be on November 22, 2013; with the PS4 a week later.

Kicking off the third day of Eurogamer action, CD Projekt Red took to the stage first to unveil some design facts about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the third game in its Witcher series of Role-playing video games loosely based on Polish books of the same name, which is planned to hit the PC, PS4 and XBox One next year.

In a break from the usual style of Eurogamer, CD Projekt Red decided to not to send any of their design or programming team to conduct the presentation. Instead, Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz – Lead Quest Designer – came all the way from Poland to discuss it; and during the Q&A made obvious his unusual position by stating that many questions being asked would have been better answered had a member of the Design Team accompanied him or he had more details on the technical side of things.

Still, the show must go on. Witcher 3, he explains, builds upon the high level of storytelling and detail kept up on previous titles in the series: “We always put a lot of effort into our storylines in our games to make them mature, to make them interesting and to make the characters interesting. And we focus on properly introducing characters to make good connections and to make them convincing. But we felt something was missing.”

That missing thing is described best in one word: “Immersion”. With Witcher 3, the aim of the game is to get the players more hooked into the game world and the events going on around them. “We really felt the need to allow players explore more and immerse themselves in the game world. We feel open-world game play does this best”, explained Mateusz.

What this means is Witcher 3 is the first title in the series to use a large-scale, open-world which players will be able to explore at their will, giving them total freedom to explore the land. “[However,] we’ve tried to avoid sending you a different side of the map or different landscape just for a single dialogue or task.” Instead, Witcher 3 utilises the concept of Quest Clusters: Quest chains will be kept in a small area. So while in a town or village, for example, you will find a chain of events to do there; when you move further out to another part of the game world like another town, forest or whatever, they will have their own cluster of quests. As you travel between clusters however, you will find side-games and wider-area quests to allow you to continue to perform tasks and keep you interested as you travel from cluster to cluster.

Another focus of Witcher 3 is accessibility. “We are working hard to introduce the story to new players as well, so if you haven’t played Witcher 1 and Witcher 2, you will still understand Witcher 3. It was actually an issue reported of Witcher 2 that people who hadn’t played Witcher 1 weren’t catching up with previous events; which we realised was a problem and we’re working to fix in Witcher 3.” Mateusz went on to explain that the team recognises that those who’ve played previous games – and/or read the books Witcher is based on – will always have a heads-up; the aim with Witcher 3 is to ensure the new players don’t feel disadvantaged by not knowing what veterans will and keep the game fun for both camps.

Not that Veterans will find the game easy, since enemies will become smarter just like they have. “We aim to have more opponent types and have the opponents interacting with each other, so [they will work together] in battle – fighting will feel more natural than our previous games.” Also, while many enemies will stay within their own quest clusters or defined territory, this is not guaranteed. “Some enemies, if you try to run, will chase you even going outside of their own area. It’s very divided.”

Opening the floor to a Q&A session, Mateusz finished with a final note to those worried that a game hitting three platforms at the same time will play differently on each. “We are working hard right now to work on keeping the game even on all three platforms and our developers are working hard to create a like experience for all of them.” They added that while the team were looking into achievement structures and taking advantage of specific console-exclusive features, it was important for them that the game plays and feels as similar as possible regardless of your choice of platform – which is good news for everyone.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will launch in 2014.

Sony today put on a presentation talking about why the PS4 and the company’s other consoles are becoming fond of supporting indie developers and their games.

Playstation’s Indie Showcase, given by Shahid Ahmad of Sony Computer Entertainment, was put on to replace the cancelled DriveClub session and was a talk on what indie gaming is, what it means to be an indie game developer and contained many little stories that are a good representation of how the indie gaming market is changing how the gaming scene is being shaped right now.

It began with an acknowledgement that thinking outside the box and going it alone is a risky and sometimes seemingly unpopular choice and on why people would want to go into Indie Game development if this was the case. Explanation of how self-publishing had paid off for people in other formats (Amazon’s Kindle and Youtube were mentioned) were then brought up and a question on whether publishing was dead. Ahmad gave his opinion that while publishing and AAA gaming titles were not dead, there was increasing competition for the best recruits to big game studios and a restriction on what they could do in the name of improvisation within the big franchises. He said that a passion and drive to make something that is truly what you want it to be is at the core of most indie developer’s ideas and that was why it was a growing market. People have ideas and drive and now some of the tools and know-how to make the games a reality.

There was talk about marketing and how important word-of-mouth and face-to-face meetings were in getting games known out there, how good relationships with other people leads to good business. Out of the many stories told to us, about games such as Starbound, Samurai Gunn and Rogue Legacy, what was noticeable was the mostly informal ways we were told meetings went from contracts being signed on the top deck of a bus to meetings held entirely over Skype. Again, it’s example of how different indie game developing can be to those of the big name studios.

It’s this that gives rise to the indie game ideas that come out, and because so much time is spent on developing an idea that is exactly what the developer wanted to make, Playstation is beginning to look upon the smaller studios and begin to work with them to bring these smaller games to the console market and even wider audiences.