E3 breakdown: Part 4 Assassins Creed Edition

Hi guys
 You may have noticed that my coverage of Assassins Creed IV has been some what lacking over the last few weeks. Well I am here to make up for that, at E3 we got a new look at the gameplay in AC IV. Here it is:

You may have seen this if you were watching the various live streams from E3, if you didn't then you really missed a treat. Also during the mad time that was E3 you may have missed the new feature being introduced to the multiplayer in Assassins Creed IV. That feature being the Game Lab, this is a feature which is quite frankly amazing, it will let you set the parameters for the match you are about to play! From there all players will be forced to use these rules, I am unsure as to whether this feature will only be usable when in a private match or not. I can't see how it would work if not. This was shown of at E3 and one of the examples they showed was a pistol only match. This kind of diversity in the multiplayer could be just what the game needs. For all previous AC games, I have played the multiplayer for about 15 hours each, but never really gone really high with it. This may be about to change when this game is released on October 29th.
 That's all for now, thanks for reading
Ed

Sony Media Briefing Breakdown: Part 3

Hi guys
 This will be the last post on a breakdown of the Sony media briefing, after that I will be doing a breakdown of E3 in general. Anyway, in this post I will be talking about, PS Plus, Used games and of course the price! Right let's get into it.

First up is Playstation Plus, this is a great feature which I have been a member of for well over a year, and have loved every single drop. I am so happy to see that it will be coming to PS4! Yes that is right, from the very beginning of the PS4s life cycle you will be able to pay £40 for one year and you will get 1 PS4 game every single month. On top of that, and some people see it as a bad thing, and I have to agree with them. Only when you have PS+ will you be able to play online games. Yes one of the biggest bad features from Xbox is making it's sweet way over to PS4. Although I don't think it was entirely necessary, I still don't see it as a bad deal. I was going to get PS+ anyway, so the fact that many more people will be getting it isn't a totally a bad thing. Also the first game which has been announced for PS4 PS+ is Drive Club PS Plus edition. Now the PS Plus edition may scare you a bit, but all it is a slight lack of content. Ie you will have to buy some of the cars though DLC. You will still have the full single player AND the full multiplayer. All the features are there, just not quite all the content. I am really glad that PS+ is coming to PS4 straight away.

There isn't really much to say on this other that PS4 WILL SUPPORT USED GAMES!!!!!!!!!!

The next and final thing is the price of the PS4, as you can see above the PS4 will cost £349 or $399, this is a stunning price in comparison to a certain other console. £349 is still an expensive amount but not so much that it will turn a lot of people away from the console. 

  I want to know what all your thoughts are on, PS+, used games and the price of the PS4, let me know in the comments below.

 Thanks for reading.

Ed

Interview: Decaying Logic

Hi guys
Today I am bringing you something rather special, my very first interview, it is with an Indie company who make games with bugs in, but have ideas for something bigger. I was very refreshing to talk to people who don't have the budgets that big games do these days. I hope you find it as eye opening and informative as I did. If you want to go to their website you can here. Without further ado here is the interview:

      

          What first made you decide to create your indie company?

Lampros: It all started as a small project idea between the two of us to make a game (I Will Survive) and we had to give ourselves a name to release it under.  I wouldn’t call DecayingLogic a company as such, more like the games industry’s equivalent of a small band.

             How many people work at DecayingLogic

Matt: Right now it’s basically me and Lampros. When it comes to things we can’t physically do ourselves we get other people in to help out. For instance, a friend of ours Rob, came and did the soundtrack for RADicalROACH. We’ll be getting another artist soon to help out with some stuff for I Will Survive. We’ll have to see how it all expands in the future.

What was your first inspiration to make RADicalROACH?

 Matt: The idea came about while thinking about I Will Survive and how the world came to be the way it is.  Random train of thought somehow went to roaches in a nuclear wasteland and so on. Not a very impressive story.

  

               How long has your team been together?

Lampros: I met Matt during my studies in UK, he would come over now and again as he knew one of my house mates. The bonding agent was our common interest in video games. We became friends pretty fast, and we thought we should start hating each other by working on a project together.

       What academic route did you take to have the talent to be able to make the games you make?

Lampros: Matt taught himself to do the programming and I always liked drawing. My tongue never caught up with what was going on in my mind, so I preferred to draw what I had in it. It was always a hobby for me, as well as a big medium to express myself. Studying illustration at the university pushed me to see the professional side of it, and I had a hard time doing so.

         What inspires you on a day to day basis in your job?

Matt: Job? I wasn’t aware we had jobs. That’s why we make games, it inspires us that we can work on something that we enjoy and not have to grow up and get real jobs.

         Which side of the fence are you on the Indie are better than AAA games?

Lampros: Indie games are certainly more daring and original than the newest of mainstream games.  Indies, since they have nowhere near the funds pumped into their projects as big name games do, have to try harder in other areas to make their games stand out. I appreciate a good storyline, original designs and music over high-end graphics, so huge worlds, 200 different bullet holes and 10.000 units on-screen don’t impress me very much.

Matt: If it’s a good game it’s a good game. I don’t see why everyone cares so much about how much was spent on the creation of a title or how many people worked on it.

              How have you funded RADical ROACH?

Matt: Out of our own pockets. RADicalROACH was made to help us fund our bigger project I Will Survive.

Lampros: I gave Matt £20 once.

         After RADicalROACH I know you are working on I Will Survive, are there any other game in the pipeline?

Matt: I Will Survive will be the main game we focus on now for the next few years. It’s going to be put out in volumes as making one huge game will take us a lifetime as we are an army of two. The first volume will be out at around Christmas time this year, followed by the next in mid 2014. You can see more on it here http://decayinglogic.com/i-will-survive-vol-1/. Other than that we are working on a few little games here and there, maybe we’ll have a few releases for the mobile platforms soon but nothing we can really go in depth about right now.

       Where do you see Decaying Logic in 5 years time?

Lampros: Me and Matt will keep working on quirky games.

Thanks for reading

Ed

E3 2013: Battlefield 4

Hi guys
 If you are new to my blog then you won't know just how big a fan on Battlefield I am, so I'm sure you can understand why I was so excited to see the first BF4 mulitplayer game play footage at E3(which you can watch at the bottom of the post). It was about 6 minutes long and totally blew me away. There was a massive skyscraper made of glass which collapsed, a tank which Italian Job style fell through into a car park. It looked to be the perfect game and I couldn't wait to get my hand on it. Then I tuned into the Battlefield livestream from their booth at E3. I was prepared to be totally blow away. Instead all I felt was a slight disappointment! We have been promised Levolution, revolution that effects the level. But so far the only destruction I have seen in the one shown map is one building collapsing. Now I understand that the game is in Pre-Alpha, so along way from  being finished, but I would have liked to have seen much more destruction. Battlefield is know for the big maps and it's destruction, and I am yet to see that this game is keeping up with the vibe of next gen. I am still very excited for the game, and can't wait for the beta "fall this year", so I will have to wait and see how that takes shape.
       In case you haven't watched the stream let me get you up to date with what has been revealed, a spectator mode, in which you can have a top down view, first person view, third person view, and a free camera in which you can go anywhere you want. Rest assured there will be loads of cinematic films on the Internet come the release on BF4. It has also been announced that you will be able to dive under water, to be able to have an even more stealthy approach on your traget. There is also, what is being called a "sprint swim", in which you obviously swim faster! I have seen some footage of a player swimming, and it looks so much more realistic than the stock still swimming of BF3. The camera now rocks from side to side whilst swimming, and water splashed onto your screen.
     That is all for now, I hope you can understand where I am coming from with my complaints.
Thanks for reading
Ed

Sony E3 Media Briefing Breakdown: Part 2

Hi guys

I am so very very excited for the launch of the PS4, I am sure that it will bring in a new age of gaming, with better graphics, better sound, bigger games, and generally better games. The games I will be covering in this post will be fine examples of all the those thing listed above. So without further ado let's get into the games!

This was one of the longer demos shown at the media briefing, it last around 12 minutes! Every single one of those minutes are amazing, you clearly have a large amount of guns to be getting on with. What is most interesting in this demo is the TDM style match in it. I have always thought that it would be an amazing feature to have your standard modes as well as you open world/pvp sections. It looks like it will have that. I wouldn't go as far as to say this is the CoD killer, but so far it is shaping up to be a true treat for any gamer.

Drive Club. A game which is going to be amazing. This game looks to be the nicest car graphics you can lay your eyes on, without actually leaving your house. However I do feel that this game is just another car game. A racing simulator that will have perfect physics, perfect suspension, perfect everything. I'm not having a go at this game particularly just driving simulators in general. For me I would rather take a NFS game any day over a game like this. I'm sure it will be very good, for some people. I doubt I will be one of those people. Either way I will be playing it, as it is going to be the first game which is free with PS+ for PS4!

The Order 1886, a game which could nothing but make you sit up and pay attention. The trailer, tells us that Santa Monica studio are behind the game, as well as the game being created and developed by Ready At Dawn studios. The trailer sees four characters in a horse and carriage, the characters and the world are what could be described as Steam Punk. The game looks relatively similar to Dishonoured, by the way the world and people look. Our characters then exit the carriage and begin to shoot some silhouetted figures, which I am sure will be the games main enemy! This game looks gorgeous and I can't wait to play it. Though something is telling me that we won't see this game quite some time. Just a hunch but there you go!

    That's all for part 2 of my breakdown of Sonys media briefing, I hope you have enjoyed your read.

As always thanks for reading.

Ed

Interview: Jrb Site Director at Battlefieldo

Hi guys
 This is an interview with Jrb, the site director at Battlefieldo, I am very excited to bring you this interview, it was a true pleasure to talk to someone just as passionate about Battlefield and gaming as me, maybe even more so!! Enjoy the interview, you can check out Battlefieldo here.

 What gave you the idea to create Battlefieldo?  

I'm actually not the original creator. I'll have to give credit to my good friend, Stadler, who started Battlefieldo as a Tumblr blog about a year before BF3's release date. However the original plan was to have an impartial place where people can discuss the franchise, all while maintaining important sources as the number one place for Battlefield news.

 What academic route did you take to have the knowledge to create Battlefieldo?

Going back to the first question, I'm not the original creator, but my academic background fits in quiet well with some of the things we do. I majored in computer science with a heavy focus on programming. Successfully running a community based site requires several different backgrounds. You'll need not only a design & development team, but also a set group of people that focus on bringing people into the site and posting news, which implements a marketing strategy. Thankfully, we have an amazing team which is highly dedicated to making sure we stay on top of our game.

 What inspires you in your day to day job?

My day to day job, as a programmer in real life, and as the director of Battlefieldo, both consist of doing things that I love. When you're as passionate as I am over your real life job and the Battlefield franchise, you never have to stop working, and never get burned out. I have the freedom in my real job to make sure I can always keep an eye out for the site.

 What do you think of the possibility of dynamic maps in BF4?

From the things I've seen around, both public & non-public data, there's no doubt that the maps in BF4 will be dynamic. You may have seen the recent marketing material for Battlefield 4, which tells us about a new feature for Frostbite 3 called "Levolution", which promises a high level of interaction with the map and its contents. I believe that Levolution will be a major factor in why people will really enjoy Frostbite 3 – Not only in Battlefield, but for other titles using the new engine.

 If you could put one single feature into BF4 what would it be and why?

I would definitely bring back commander with a simple interface but complex functionality. This was missing from Battlefield 3, and it let down a lot of people. The core of teamwork is to have a chain of command instead of having a number of squads or lone wolves run around with no intel, support, or communication from a higher authority. This will add a great sense of teamwork, and make the Battlefield even more intense.

 Do you feel much pressure in the up keep of Battlefieldo?

It can be tough being such a large site. When things aren't going so well in the community, all eyes are on you. Though we've been a little slow lately, we plan on going big once E3 comes along and the BF4 hype will be non-stop. We've been working hard on a large-scale side project called Overpwrd (www.overpwrd.com).

 How many people work on a day to day basis on Battlefieldo?

We have a team of about 10 people, though as I mentioned earlier, things have been slow as we work towards the release of Overpwrd. A healthy estimate would be about 3-5 people who do daily work on Battlefieldo, but we have the means to double that number at any given time.

 If you could work with any development team in the world, which would it be and why?

I've visited a number of different studios, most of which were under the EA umbrella, but the most fun interaction I've had was with the men & women at Rockstar Games. I have always enjoyed the content they put out, regardless of how controversial it is. The quality & level of fun in their products are a golden standard of the industry.

 Do you think Battlefield as a series will ever be the biggest selling FPS on the market, and if so when?

It has the potential to be, but I don't think it'll happen anytime soon. The marketing team at EA/DICE has been trying to topple Call of Duty for quite some time now. My opinion is they shouldn't focus on being number one in sales, but rather be number one in community and fun. Their attention should focus on the fan base that's already in place for Battlefield, instead of trying to bring in a different market of players.

 Which next gen console do you think is looking the best right now, and why?

I've always liked XBOX better than the Playstation console, but the PS4 is definitely shaping up to give Microsoft a run for its money. There are some controversial decisions being made for the XBOX One, which will ultimately give the PS4 an advantage on the initial release.

I hope you have enjoyed this interview, there are more to come soon, so stay tuned.
Thanks for reading
Ed

Sony E3 Media Briefing Breakdown: Part 1

Hi guys
 There are two type of games this morning, the ones who are you ecstatic that Playstation scored a home run last night, then there are the Xbox fans who are trying to distance themselves from the train wreck that is Xbox One. You would never think that I was a Playstation fan boy would you?
     Right as the title suggests over the next few weeks I will be breaking down the amazing(READ not train wreck) experience that was the Sony Media briefing at E3 2013.
 

I'm going to be honest with you, the first third or so of the briefing was pretty dull. They talked about a Vita which I don't have, and some TV(blissfully not a lot) which I watch else were, the highlight of that section was seeing the beast that is the PS4 in the metal flesh.

It was after that that thing started to get going, for real, the games started to be brought out in force, I can't remember them in chronological order so I will just talk about them as I remember them! What struck me most, was a little franchise called The Elder Scrolls. Yes that is right; a game which was only supposed to be making its way to PC will be making its way to the PS4 and Xbox One. This game is the 6th instalment in the Elder Scrolls franchise, and a game that I will definitely be getting upon it's release in 2014, there will also be a exclusive console beta for the PS4!

The next amazing game is inFamous Second Son, for this game we got a new trailer that showed Delsin(The new protagonist) being basically a total bad ass. It appears that as Cole's special ability was to do with electricity, Delsin looks to be able to command some form of fire. This game will see you taking the reigns of Delsin and trying to free your new city from tyranny. During the trailer we see Delsin in a car driving to some slightly forested areas, this may mean that the world may be more than just the city! 

    

I know that I have only covered two games in this post, but I want to talk about each game to their fullest extent. Is there a specific game you want me to talk about in part 2? Leave it down in the comments. Also how did you find the E3 press conferences?

One last note, you can now subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when ever I upload a post! Just enter your email address in the box on the right of your screen.
Thanks for reading

Ed

Run up to E3 2013: Part 3

Hi guys
This is the third and final part of my run up to E3, as this will be going live on the first day of E3. The three games I will be covering this time are, Call of Duty Ghosts, Drive Club and Killzone: Shadow Fall. Right, let's get into it.
   

First up under the spot light is Call of Duty Ghosts, this game is the 10th instalment in the franchise and one which I think this could be a defining moment in CoD history. The main reason why is the fact that it will be available to buy on the next generation of consoles(PS4 and Xbox One). This is a massive step forward in terms of the graphics we will be experiencing, we have already been told that the game is set in the near future with futuristic tech. Non of which you will be able to use. No you will be forced(for some unknown reason) to use modern day(2013) weapons. There is the possibility though that the game will be the same rinse and repeat formula from previous games. I can understand that to a point, but I think that infinity ward have been given an opportunity to make the first CoD for Next Gen consoles, and I really hope the don't pass up on it, by making the game the same as previous years.

This is Drive Club, a game which has every possibility of stealing the title of Best Driving Simulator straight from the head of Gran Tursimo. Yes this is a game that looks better than any car game currently available. Which you would expect from a game working for a console like the PS4. Since its announcement at the PS4 announcement, we have heard very little about this game. All we know is that it had hyper cool graphics, and there will be a heavy social feature in built. Other than that we know nothing! I am pretty comfortable in saying that this game will be shown of at Sony E3 media briefing.

Last but very much not least Killzone Shadow Fall, this game looks beautiful. End of. There is no doubting the graphical qualities of this game. Every since it was first announced at the PS4  reveal, I have been waiting for E3, for many reasons. One of which is this game, it was probably the longest demo for a game at the reveal, and by god did it make an impression. There have been 3 killzones before this one in the main series and all of them have got very good write ups from critics. I have never had the pleasure of playing one of these games, but this may well be my first! This game will also be in all lightly hood featured at Sonys E3 media briefing, and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us.

      As I am writing this the Microsoft media briefing is about to start. Well I say good luck to Microsoft, because I really think they are going to need it.

Thanks for reading

Ed