Rock, Paper, Shotgun

CCP’s much vaunted console accompaniment to EVE, DUST 514, has now been officially confirmed as a PS3 exclusive. Apparently it’s because the PS3 is much better designed for online worlds and micro-payments. I’m a touch confused about what DUST 514 is all about, especially how it interacts with PC players of a separate game. (Hence our discussing it.) Confusion I’m going to clear up when I speak to CCP tomorrow (later today in RCT, but it’s still yesterday in America). So yes, this is sort of console news, but if you read on you’ll quite how PC news it really is.

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Yes, yes, there’s also a Tintin game, for some reason. I mean I know Ubisoft are French and everything, but come on now. Make a Metabarons game or something. Oh, it’s because there’s a movie. Ubi says: “Based on the highly anticipated feature film The Adventures of Tintin directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Steven Spielberg, [two people called Steven Spielberg! - ed] Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy, The Adventures of Tintin: The Game will provide Tintin fans, both young and old, the opportunity to dive into the world of Tintin and relive key adventures from the series.”

It actually looks rather… varied? That is a way I can describe it. It might be good. But it will still be a game about Tintin. Trailer down there. You know the drill. Man, I have DEFINITELY posted enough trailers for the rest of the time the Earth has left before it is engulfed by our dying sun.
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It sounds like the relatively austere Brothers In Arms series is moving away from its more realistic beginnings into a realm of CRAZY ACTION, with today’s announcement from Ubisoft: “Set in World War II, Brothers in Arms Furious 4 is a brutal first person shooter that offers an exciting campaign mode playable with up to four players in co-op, as well as an extensive competitive multiplayer mode. The story follows four fierce and fearless warriors tracking the Führer himself. As one of the Furious 4, players will use special weaponry and unexpected combat abilities to fight the greatest threat the world has ever faced: an experimental Nazi army conceived in secret by the Third Reich.” Experimental Nazi army? Could it have a… Robo-Hitler? Quite possibly, judging by the zany mutilation-happy bar-brawl in this CG trailer.

The game is being developed by Gearbox and released in the “first half” of 2012.
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Far Cry 3 has been confirmed for release in 2012. The game returns to the original Far Cry’s jungle island setting, but nevertheless producer Dan Hay promises “something new and unexpected” for the game. Ubisoft says: “With Far Cry 3, players step into the shoes of Jason Brody, a man alone at the edge of the world, stranded on a mysterious tropical island. In this savage paradise, where lawlessness and violence are the only sure thing, players dictate how the story unfolds, from the battles they choose to fight to the allies or enemies they make along the way. As Jason Brody, players will slash, sneak and shoot their way across the island in a world that has lost all sense of morality.”

JASON BRODY. He sounds like a man with nothing to lose. Or maybe someone I went to school with. Either way, there should be more on the Far Cry website any time now.

Ah, these beers are working a treat, which is great because I beginning to get brain qualms from all the game footage. Next: Batman: Arkham City. The first game was rather special in the RIGHT nature of its action, but the open world of this game is what is selling it to me. I mean just look at it. Rocksteady were saying earlier today that they are aiming for the open-world here to be detail over size, and that’s paying off. I can’t wait to do some fancy swooping.
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The new Need For Speed, The Run, game looks quite unusual: a mix of the expected chase-driven races with some scripted stuff, and some getting out of the car and running about. Hmm! Pretty intense, though, it might actually be worth keeping an eye on. (Says me, who pretty much gets bored of NFS games after a few minutes these days.) That seems like it something that should have happened earlier – dragging more traditional action events into racing games. And we’re overdue a truly linear kinda racing game in the manner that FPS games are linear, right? Trailer below, there.
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It’s below, in case you missed it. It shows off one of the dungeons, some of the scale of the environments, mammoths, and of course the dragon vs giant bit. Comedy falling giant. He doesn’t look happy. Ah, that’s videogames.

It’s worth watching this one.
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This ludicrously high-gloss CGI intro cinematic for Bioware’s Star Wars MMO goes to great lengths to stress that is very much a Star Wars game, despite the an even longer, long time ago era it’s set in. It’s like a Greatest Hits of Star Wars, but starring dudes you don’t recognise. It’s also a chance to admire the essential archetypes in the game, with the Han Solo type throwing all metaphor to the wind and actually being a bloody cowboy here. Jolly impressive stuff, but obviously it tells us Wookie-squat about what the game actually plays like. Forunately, we have a video for that too…

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Fuck! Last night I started writing something about my hopes for Battlefield 3, and one of the points in it was “they better have huge tank battles across massive plains”, and that’s precisely what they’re showing now. I should have finished it up and I’d have looked like the prescient games genius that I am.

It looks seriously good: huge maps, incredible destruction. Vehicular incredibleness. Not sure about those tank interior bits, though. It’s all on PC, of course, and it looks miraculous. There’s also a brief multiplayer trailer over here, showing some of the stuff from Paris multiplayer maps. Big built up urban maps for multiplayer: also in my unfinished articles. I mean I basically make these games happen by imagining them. (*Imagines infinite Stalker*)

The trailers just keep on coming. The footage from E3 showed some awesome cutscene-to-action moments. Bioware are getting good at that stuff. Well done them.

The game is out March 6th, 2012. It’ll mark the end of the trilogy, and presumably the start of some new way of combining guns and conversation for the Bioware teams.
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UPDATE: Finished! Ubisoft stuff at around 11:30UK time tonight, but I don’t think we’ll be liveblogging that bit. Tired now.

Right, so it looks like we have some sort of live blogging success. If you’d like to follow the events taking place at the EA conference – or at least the things I’m being distracted by – click below. If the page doesn’t load first time, hit refresh. That tends to get it working. And if you’re running Ad Block, turn it off you bastard.

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