“Codemasters: Birmingham” really doesn’t have the same ring to it as “Eidos: Montreal” or “2K Czech” does it? But despite its inauspicious origins, their F1 2011 is looking pretty snazzy. Also, from my non-F1-caring-about perspective, massively daunting. It reminds me of when F1GP2 came out in 1734, and my tiny brain couldn’t understand why you’d play a game where touching gravel once in three hours was a game over. But that’s because I’m an idiot of the highest order. Check out the launch trailer for the game below.
It’s almost climbed out of the uncanny value and onto the other side of photo-realism. It’s freaky. I would say the only weakness is the sense of contact between the tyres and the tarmac.
Coo lummee. The game is out on the 23rd. i.e. Friday.
Indie dev Arthur ‘Mr. Pondukian’ Lee was so wrapped up in mashing together Portal and Snapshot for this physics- and time-warping tech demo that he forgot to even give it a name! Silly boy. That’s breaking one of the golden rules of self-promotion. In every other respect, Lee is very clearly not silly: this is a flat-out astonishing proof of concept. What if… instead of simply opening a doorway to another area, entering a portal you created also rewound time to the point where you created its exit, which was itself done by taking a screenshot of your desired destination point/time? Ack, my clumsy words plum don’t sum this up at all satisfactorily. I’m going to have to ask you to watch this video. It’s worth it, trust me.
That’s a real, working tech demo, made in Unity 3D, by the way, doubters.
Proper clever, proper bonkers stuff. And, as every other bugger on the internet has already observed: get this in Portal 3, Mister Valve.
If I had access to that technology, I would use it to portal to my kitchen, at a time when I still had milk in the house, thus saving me from a beyond-agonising, uncaffeinated trip to the shop.
Coming next: a game about portals in which puzzles revolve around creating a world in which Portal never existed, and thus cannot be referenced in any discussion of games containing space-time manipulation.
X-Men: Destiny has you playing a new recruit amongst comic’s motley mutant band and promises a branching storyline that features a deep element of choice.
The first thing you’ll need to keep in mind about X-Men Destiny is that you won’t be playing as the most famous of mutants. Nope, you’re not going to be tearing people apart with Wolverine, nor will you be taking down enemies using Beast’s overwhelming powers of science and math. In this game, you start as a green recruit and use a little help from friends to get your journey rolling.
Destiny plays like an accessible beat-’em-up with some overarching role-playing elements to add extra substance to the action. We managed to tear our way through the demolished streets of San Francisco with ease, thanks to the game’s fairly simple control scheme, which used two face buttons to mix up Aimi’s light and heavy electrical attacks.
It’s a very easy game to pick up and play, but there are a number of flourishes that add some flair to the action. Our favorites were the times when a text prompt on the screen told us there was one enemy left to take down; we then shattered the text prompt with a ground pound, along with the enemy. Yes, you can destroy both enemies and interface text with the same attack. Pretty cool.
Direct from this weekend’s Tokyo Game Show, the bullet-time heavy, completely gameplay-free trailer for Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3.
Why no gameplay? Well hell, you’ve already seen what Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 looked and played like, and you’ve seen videos of the new combatants in action. Let Capcom’s random CG department have some fun for once. Oh look, we can see inside Spider-Man’s web and right down Morrigan’s cleavage! You can’t buy that kind of sleepy slo-mo excitement. I might have to take a nap.
New video footage and photographs from the Guild Wars 2 tourist board have arrived. This time it’s details on the creepy Asura race. I don’t trust those little goblin things. You could say I’m an… Asuracist! Gosh, I’m funny. Take a look at the new footage, and some new screenshots, below.
Radiant Silvergun proves that great core mechanics stand the test of time, though its severe difficulty could derail the unprepared.
The Good:
Interesting weapon upgrade system
Persistent stats offer rewarding growth
Solid controls give you complete command of your ship
Seven weapons offer lots of strategic diversity.
The Bad:
Incredibly difficult for newcomers
Grinding to become more powerful is tedious.
It’s been a long time since we last shed any light on Closure. Originally a flash game, after three years in development the full downloadable version is still some way off, coming to PSN early in 2012 and landing on PC afterwards. Boo! However, a new trailer was released at PAX 2011 and while it doesn’t show much that I haven’t seen before, it did manage to remind me that the game exists. And that’s good because it looks like a rather interesting puzzle adventure type thing. The design looks suitably atmospheric and if there’s enough depth and variety to the environments and challenges, it could be worth getting lost in. See the trailer below.
It takes place entirely in the dark, you see. That’s why I said ‘shed any light’ at the beginning there. So now you know.
The flash version remains very enjoyable, and you won’t have to go hunting for it with a flashlight. It’s here.
So, there’s a new Syndicate game. Still not quite sure what to think about that. Anyway, here are the first official screenshots from the title.
EA just sent through a press release confirming the game’s existence, as well as all the information contained in the leaked info we posted over the weekend.
Tiny versions of some of these screens were included in that leak, but here they are in a size where you can actually see what’s going on.
“Our goal with Syndicate is to provide a challenging action shooter for today’s gamers as well as fans of the original. I’m sure they will enjoy and recognize the legacy that made it such a classic,” EA’s Jeff Gamon says in the press release. “Fans of the franchise will recognize many weapons and environments in the game, but in a whole new way. The game also provides a separate and deep 4-player co-op mode featuring missions from the original cult classic, which adds another layer of depth to the overall experience.”
It’s coming for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, and is expected sometime in “early 2012″.