E3 2014: What To Expect

Hi guys,
 The time is nearly upon us, the time when all players unite under the banner of proud gamers. I'm sure you are aware that I am talking about E3, the global trade show where we are treated to an insight of what we will all be playing later this year in into the next! So I thought I would give all you internetians a run down of the games we know will be at E3, and the ones I suspect will be there. Without further ado let the predictions commence:

  Battlefield Hardline: If you have kept your eye on my site recently you will have read my thoughts on the announcement trailer for the next Battlefield game. If you haven't had a chance to watch the trailer then you can rectify your mistake at the EA conference(which is live at 8:00 PM on Monday the 9th of June) where the trailer will be officially released. Bearing in mind the trailer has already leaked I wouldn't be surprised to see some extra gameplay to be able to show something new for everyone who has already see the trailer.

  Destiny: This game is probably my highest anticipated game of the year(because we don't have many facts about BF Hardline), so I can't wait to see what new Destiny we will be receiving. I believe new Destiny gameplay will be shown off during the Playstation conference at 2:00 AM UK time on Tuesday the 10th of June. Bungie are absolute masters of feeding us enough information to stop us going insane but not enough to stop you coming back for more. I believe and hope that E3 will start the beginning of harder facts coming out the doors of Bungie, but for that, we will have to wait.

  Assassins Creed Unity: This year all Assassins Creed fans are being treated to 100% more Assassins games coming from Ubisoft, yes that is right we will be getting one AC game for last gen consoles, and then Unity will be gracing the walls of next generation owners. Last year at E3 Ubisoft dropped the non to small bomb shell of naval combat on us. That led on to be an integral part of the game, so what will they be treating us to this year? I wouldn't go in expecting as much of a game changer as the naval combat, but I would like to see the introduction of a new gameplay mechanic that we haven't seen before. What ever we see, it will be at 9:00 PM on Monday the 9th of this very month!

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare: As with every E3 for as many years that I have seen, Activision and this year Sledgehammer Games will show of 1-2 single player missions for us to watch in irritation that they haven't shown us the thing that everyone buys the game for, the multiplayer. I would really like to see Sledgehammer games burst out of the fence and show us a multiplayer match played directly from the show floor. No matter what we are show it will with a doubt be at the Xbox conference which is on at 5:30 PM Monday the 9th of June!

  The Division: Last E3 the crowds were stunned into silence when we got our first look at The Division at Ubisofts conference, ever since then the information scene has been desolate. This scene took a turn for the worst when it was announced that the game was being pushed to 2015, I suspect we will be seeing this game on our shelves around this time next year. Delays aside, E3 should signify the start of the trailer tirade that Ubisoft are known for, which isn't always a bad thing. We should be seeing a brand new demo at the Ubisoft conference(which is on at 11:00 PM Monday the 9th of June) and maybe get a solid release date, but I doubt that immensely!

  Batman Arkham Knight: This game was announced out of the blue only a few months ago, but within hours of it being announced it had shoe horned it's way into many people top games of the year list, mine included. I am fairly confident in saying that we will be seeing more of this game in less than 2 weeks let's hope Rocksteady have got some awesome battle arena gameplay to show us!

 The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt: Now that we know that this  beast of a game will be released on February the 24th of next year, it is unlikely we will be seeing any more of this game during the period of E3, however there is a possibility that we will get another trailer, or maybe even a gameplay walkthrough! This game probably won't be appearing at any of the conferences, so keep your eye of any videos coming from CD Projeckt RED's doors.

  Dragon Age Inquisition: I must admit to never having played a Dragon Age game, but ever since Mass Effect 3 changed my perspective on how a game can tell its story, I have been eager to play any other games from Bioware. I would really like to see some more gameplay for this game. When the game is being released in October it wouldn't be too much to expect to see a sizable chunk of gameplay shown off at EA's conference.

  Evolve: This is one of the few games that I have gone from very little excitement to one of my top 3 games coming this year. The scope of the game is truely asstonishing, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. I have never played games similar to Left for Dead so this game will be an introduction into a new genre of games, and I am waiting with baited breath for the game to hit our shelves. No matter how good the game will be I expect to see this game making an appearance at E3, maybe we will see it at one of the 2 main conferences(Microsoft and Playstation) but we may just get some over the shoulder gameplay taken from a demo on the show floor, though we don't even know if we will be getting our hands on that!
  So that brings me to the end of my run up to E3 2014, as always the star of the show will be the games that we haven't yet seen at all, so no matter your console preference you really should tune into all of the conferences, I know I will be!
 On one last note, I would like to list the games that I hope will be at E3, but we don't know a single damn thing about them, Mass Effect 4, Bioshock 4, Elder Scrolls VI, Fallout 4 and The Next XCOM Game.
Thank you very much for reading if you are planning to be vocal about your thought through out E3 please bear in mind that this expo is for gamers all together, not just fanboys and fangirls of one console.
Ed
What games are you looking forward to seeing? Let me know if the comments!

Battlefield Hardline

Hi guys,
 Unless you have had your head stuck in the sand the last couple of days, you will know that a lot of Battlefiled Hardline details have been leaked. If you didn't know Battlefield Hardline is the next instalment in the Battlefield franchise, and will be coming to PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC later this year. The game is based around the principle of cops v robbers, but I assure you, this game will take that theory further than any other game has done before! The game is being made by Visceral, a developer owned by EA, and this game will mark the first in the franchise not to be made by DICE. There are rumours circulating at the moment that only the single player is being made by Visceral whilst the multiplayer is being made by DICE, this is unconfirmed and personally I  find it hard to belive, especially as DICE should still be hard at work on BF4s DLC and working of the CTE(Community Test Environment). There has been a 7 minute trailer that has been leaked which was supposed to be shown at E3(and still will) at EA's conference, EA are doing their best to keep the leak at bay, but all you have to do is search Battlefield Hardline Gameplay in You Tube and you should find it pretty quickly.
     Some of the things mentioned in the trailer are: Stun guns, batons, grappling guns, various new game modes and more!

You really should go and check it out, in one of the briefer scenes we get a look at some of the guns that are in the current build of the game and they are: Famas, AEK, M416, CZ-805, SAR-21, AUG-A3 and the QBZ-95-1, they are some of the guns listed, but the images for the weapons aren't where they should be. So we have the MP7 and the P90 is pictures, these are all popular guns in BF4 so it wasn't a long shot to say they would be in Hardline, but it is nice to get confirmation! Stats in the game will be shown on a wheel, where the more the bar is filled the higher that stat. We can see stats for fire rate, accuracy and damage, each of which has green and red bars for if it is affected by an attachment! It is unclear what attachment is causing this but something is increasing the fire rate dramatically, could we see the introduction of a rapid fire attachment?
     The trailer also says that we will be seeing an episodic style campaign, you will still get all of the episodes on the disk, but the story will be broken down into episode style segments, complete with cliff hangers and anything else you might expect from a hit detective programme!
     I am very excited for Hardline, not least because it is very different from BF4, so you won't have 2 games that are clashing for the same style of game! I am really looking forward to officially seeing this trailer at E3 in a couple of weeks, and I hope there will be more coverage of the game during E3!
  That's all for now, thank you all for reading
Ed
Don't forget to also check out my website to keep up to date with all my new posts:
www.thegamescritic,com

Battlefield 4 Diary: Aqua Domination

Hi guys Rick here reporting to you from inside the battlefield,

 07:00: The time that we all wake up every day, I nearly always train in the morning and then go out and shed blood for which every country I am serving now, and this day was no different. We usually do 10 laps of the Aircraft Carrier we live on and also serves as a mobile deployment station for where ever we are needed.

 

09:00: At  this time a couple of us have usually been deployed but most of us are sat around twiddling our thumbs until the afternoon. 

 

 13:06: My lunch was cut short when I was told that I was being deployed, my orders from up high were to scout a plane crash in an attack boat. Thinking back that was one of the best tuna sandwiches I had eaten in quite a while!

 

 13:12: That was one of the quickest times that I had got from the mess to the lower deck in a long time, but this was a special day, I am usually deployed on foot, so to be entrusted with a huge boat with even bigger guns was quite a spectacle.

 13:17: By this time I had reached the crashed plane, but I could feel that something wasn't right, it was too quiet, there was no body any where near the crashed plane, the whole place was totally deserted. Just as I was about to radio back to the Carrier to report, I saw them. I saw the enemy, and they were plentiful, I managed to take down one of their attack boats and a couple of infantry before I my self was killed. 

 13:19: Expecting to go into the nether, I was very surprised when I suddenly woke up in an identical attack boat! This time before I left the Carrier I made a few upgrades to the boat, this time I would be going out with a new kind of ammo which I was assured by my quarter master would deal with enemy boats with greater ease. He was right.

 13: 25: This day was turning out to be a very, very good one I had already dispatched 2 enemy boats and I was bearing down on my third. Every thing was going brilliantly, but it would seem with hindsight that the enemy saw what I was doing and dispatched a jet to take care of me. As you may be able to imagine, it didn't take long before I was waiting to wake up again.

 13: 33: I felt like I was within spitting distance of something very important, I just couldn't put my finger of what! This time when I woke up there was someone else driving the big boat and I was precariously stood on the back of it with a rather large chain gun. 

 13:37: This was going brilliantly, it turned out that the guns on the side of the boat were highly affective against most things that floated. Alas my reign of aqua dominance could only last so long. This time it was someone from the shore line who was pointing a rather large gun at me which he rested on his shoulder.

 13:54: After several more escapades in the attack boat I got a radio buzz from my quarter master, who told me that I was now a good enough boat driver to be entrusted with a very new gadget which had been nicknamed "TV Missiles", as soon as I used one for the first time I could see why, using a screen in my boat no bigger than a laptop, I could wirelessly control very explosive missiles, and send them all the way across the map!

 14:35: After a little while longer experimenting with this new gadget I was told that I had played my part for the day and that I was being brought back to the Carrier. I was quite disappointed because I was having more fun in the boats that I undoubtedly would doing laps of the Carrier. Alas I would be able to take to the seas once more tommorow!

Thanks for reading,

Ed

Just as a quick note on the end, Rick is a totally fictional character and the diary is written from his perspective of one of the players in Battlefield 4.

Battlefield 4: ACE-23 Gun Review

Hi guys,
 I decided that seeing as I am loving Battlefield 4 so much, I would bring you a review of one of the guns/classes I like to use! If you already have BF4 you have doubtlessly heard of or used the ACE-23, despite BF4 being a much more balanced game(gun wise) there are still guns that the masses will crowd towards. In BF4 the ACE-23 is just such a weapon. The biggest problem with this weapon is actually unlocking it, it is unlike most other Assault Rifles as you need to complete 3 assignments to be able to unlock it! Let's break down the three assignments:

     First you will have to complete Assault Basic, which will require 7 kills with any Assault Rifle and 11 heals, but most importantly you will need to be at least rank 10 which shouldn't take you to long to do. I believe this is to keep this very powerful weapon out of the hands of people who have just picked up the game. The heals can be obtained either with the Med Kit or the Med Bag. You will then be awarded with the Assault Basic dog tag.
     Next there will be the Assault Veteran assignment, you will needed to have completed Assault Basic to unlock Assault Veteran, for this you will need to get 8 kills with any Assault Rifle an 12 total heals. Much like Assault Basic this will be very easy to complete, though if you are having trouble with the heals play some Operation Locker pop one down and the heals will come quickly! The nice thing about this assignment is that you get a new camo for all weapons and vehicles for completing it.

     So far the assignments have been a walk in the park and you should get them within a few matches, the biggest problem is Assault Expert, which firstly requires you to have competed the two above assignments and then you will need 50 Medkit Ribbons, 200 kills with any AR and 10 AR Ribbons. Despite it sounding quite daunting this one assignment only took me about 4 hours to complete. The 50 Medkit ribbons: to earn one Medkit ribbon you have to earn 8 heals in one round. For this I would recommend you having the Medbag but it isn't essential, this will also mean that you will get a Medkit medal. The 200 AR kills and the 10 AR Ribbons both will be earned together, the ribbon requires you to earn 6 AR kills in one round, you will earn this before you get your 200 AR kills. As for the 200 AR kills it isn't that hard, just quite time consuming. Once you have completed all of this you will earn yourself the ACE-23.

    Right now you have unlocked it let's talk about how it handles, this is a very good overall weapon, it can handle itself up close and further away(though you will need to tap fire for long range shots) and that is the main reason it is good. Anyone can pick it up and do well, you don't need to chose a compromise you just have to pick up the weapon. Let's talk about the attachments:

To be honest the optic is really down you how you want to play with this gun, but if you are going to be close to medium range then I would recommend either the Coyote RDS or the Kobra RDS. I find the laser sight is invaluable as you will be running into people unexpectedly so you want to be able to hip fire and still have a fighting chance. I haven't unlocked it yet but I would recommend the green laser sight as it is the hardest see at a distance.

     If you didn't know, in BF4 you can equip a suppressor with out it effecting you damage stats, as it did in BF3. Instead it only slows the flight of your bullets, this makes it an essential for any guy(when you unlock it).

Finally you have you under barrel attachment, I have gone for the potato grip as it decreases your bullet spread when you shoot!

    

     Thank brings me to the end of this review for the ACE-23 in Battlefield 4, all in all I would give it 10/10, a flawless gun that can be used at nearly all ranges with few guns to out shoot it. I know this has been a bit of a weird post but I am playing very little else at the moment, so I wanted to post about it. Please do tell me if you want to see more of these BF4 gun reviews either by Tweeting me, or leaving a comment down bellow!

    As always thanks for reading,

Ed

Don't forget you can read this and much more on my new Website!

Battlefield 4 First Impressions

Hi guys,
 You may have seen in most gaming news outlets that people are saying that Battlefield 4 is a broken game and you shouldn't buy/play it. Now to some extent this is true, there are quite a lot of things in the game that need to be fixed. However that doesn't mean it isn't worth playing, so far I have only played for about 13 hours, but I can assure you that time will increase dramatically.
     This is a game that I can get lost in, a game that is worthy of many accolades, then the game crashes and you lose all your match progress(in my 13 hour play time my game has crashed about 12 times). This gets very irritating, though it takes about 30-60 seconds to get back into a match. From what I have played there hasn't been too much lag and when there has been it has been because I have been downloading a game in the background. To say that I only have 1.8 MB/s internet speed it is remarkable that I have had as little lag as I have!
     My one problem with the game(when it works) is the levelling system, every time you level up you don't get anything, every 2-3 level ups you get what is called a battlepack. With a battlepack you get a certain number of random things, they could be XP boosts, attachments, camos, knives and more! Now the problem is when you only get these every 2-3 levels you begin to feel that they are quite a low incentive for levelling up.
      The flip side to the poor levelling system is that everything is unlocked using it's own levelling system. So if you want to get a specific gun, say an assault rifle, then you have to get a certain amount of points with that section. I personally think this is a brilliant idea, as it is making me use my pistol and grenades more(to unlock more pistols and grenades). I feel this gives the game more diversity and the game is better because of it!
     They are my initial thoughts on the games Multiplayer, I haven't played all that much of the single player but that will be included in my final review. Over all I am beyond loving this game, and I can't wait for the day when it preforms as it should. Unlike most of the gaming community I have faith in EA and DICE to fix Battlefield 4, and get it to the standard it so desperately deserves. The last thing I will say on this game is, if you are a Battlefield fan then you should pick this game as you will appreciate where it has come from. However if you are thinking of picking this game up from the point of view of someone who hasn't played any previous BF games, I would advise waiting for a few months until it is in a better state to be played.
That's all for now check back soon for more exciting PS4 content!
Ed

The War of Games Will Go On

Hi guys,
 You may have hear of the rivalry between Call of Duty and Battlefield, well this rivalry has been showcased in the last few days. Both games have released story trailers, which show us what will be in store for us if and when we play the respective campaigns. You can watch both below!

Now I know that both the companies behind both games will have had these trailers made for quite some time now. It seems a bit of a coincidence that Battlefield release their trailer the very next day after the Ghosts equivalent was released! Anyway both trailers of action packed and as I will be getting both on the PS4, I can't wait to see what they will have in store for me! Tell me what you think of the trailers below, and which game you prefer the look of.
You can now like my Facebook page to stay up to date with all my posts, I will also be posting smaller news articles exclusively on Facebook, so you won't want to miss out on that! Of course you can also follow me on Twitter.
As always thanks for reading,
Ed

Battlefield 3 Diary: Too many assignments!

Hi guys
 One day, I woke from my slumber to find my self in a very long quite thin area of my world. It was one of the few times I had been to this particular section of world, so I was quite befuddled, and confused. Then the Computer popped up on my Hud and told me that there were certain things I had to achieve to unlock a very special prize at the end. Destroying 5 helicopters with a very weak car style thing. Another thing the Computer told me to do was, jump out of a very big plane in a not so big tank type thing! When it first told me this, I thought it couldn't be done. However I did come to enjoy all of the challenges the Computer threw at me. After I had done 3 sets of what the Computer called "Assignments", it deemed that I was aloud to know what the end prize was. It was a side arm called the M1911 S-TAC! Then the bad news came, there were still 2 more of these Assignments things left between me and this S-TAC, which together comprised of, blow up 20 vehicles, run someone over with a bike and hit 20 people in the head with a side arm bullet! The first 2 of those 3 things, I did with few problems. However it was what came after that which proved to be the problem.
     Those 20 headshots with a side arm proved to be the post irritating of all of those Assignment things, I was plonked into a map with a load of shipping containers strewn across the floor! I then took me just under 2 hours to get all these headshots. I played it in a version the Computer liked to call Hard Core. After playing this version for just half an hour I realised why, you needed real skill to be competent with this version of the game!
      After many hours spent fretting over how the Computer would punish me if I failed these Assignments, something suddenly popped up on my Hud, it took a moment to work out what it was, but then I realised. I had it, it was over, I had done as the Computer had asked, my life could go back to how it was before the Computer woke up on the side of it's virtual bed. The S-TAC was mine. Join me soon for more of my; Battlefield Diarys.

Rick

If you would like to be featured in the next in my series of Battlefield Diarys, send a PSN message to DrakeThief90, and we can play in the battlefield together!
Thanks for reading
Ed
Oh and if this post made very little sense, read the first diary here which should explain what everything means!

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

Run up to E3 2013: Part 2

Hi guys
 I as I promised in the last E3 post I will be talking about an Xbox game. I was going to talk about more than just one game, but after the abysmal Xbox One announcement I though that I would only talk about one. Anyway the three games I will be talking about are Halo 5, Battlefield 4, and Batman Origins.
   

Halo
First up is Halo 5, this is a series which I have never personally played but I have obviously heard of it, this game will probably see you reprising your role as Master Cheif, I say probably because we have heard very little about this game other than its announcement at the Xbone reveal. I'm sure we will hear more about this game at Microsofts E3 conference.

Battlefield 4
As you can see the next game I will be talking about is Battlefield 4, if you follow me on twitter you will know just how much I have played, if you want to see my stats for BF3 you can on Battlelog. I really can't wait for more details on this game, as I'm sure you remember there was a 17 minute game play released a few months ago. Which was taken from the single player side of the game I was very impressed by the looks of the game but was slightly concerned about their focus on Single player, well that should be dispelled at E3. DICE have confirmed that there will be a live demo for the multiplayer of BF4. I am very excited for the release of this game later this year.

Batman Arkam Origins

This is a game which will precede all of the current Arkam games, this game is set on a Christmas eve on an unknown year in Batman's early life. We have had only one trailer for this game which was a CGI trailer, so you can't think of that as the final graphics, but I think it looks like a totally epic game and can't wait to see some actual game play at E3 this year. If you haven't seen the trailer then you can below: 

As you can see in this game our main enemy will be Black Mask, a villain which we have never seen before in a Batman game, I think it is safe to say that this game is looking really good already.

     So that brings us to the end of this road to E3, if there are any game you would like to hear me talk about leave it down in the comments below.

Thanks for reading 

Ed