Besthesda Announce New Survival Horror Title From Tango Gameworks

I find myself with 10 or so minutes to spare, so I thought I'd give you guys something interesting to read about!

It seems that Bethesda have announced a new Survival Horror game codenamed 'Zwei' from developers Tango Gameworks - The official announcement from Bethesda is here and the one from Tango here.

The above picture is the only artwork released so far, Survival horror fans what do you think?

It's likely fans of the Resident Evil & Silent Hill franchises will be looking forward to this and I will try to provide more info when there is more available.

I may even give this game a go although I haven't played a survival horror in years, I think the closest thing I've played to one recently is Bioshock - damn splicers making me jump. 

Aaanyways, as I said, I only had 10 minutes or so free, so that's that article done! Enjoy.

Brief Hiatus

Hey Guys,

As you've probably noticed, I haven't posted any updates for a while. This is primarily due to a heavy workload and a lot of stuff going on IRL (in real life - for those of you who aren't familiar with the acronym).

I hope to resume writing sometime soon, but for now I'm still on a bit of a break.

In the mean time, here are some of the larger news stories to break while I have been away:

• Mass Effect 3 Extended cut DLC announced
• Bethesda announce a new game - Dishonored
• Dark Souls confirmed for a PC port!

There are a few more, less important stories to break but I think the above three have gamers the most excited / interested. I wish I could find time to write an in depth article for each news story, but finding time is tricky.

Expect regular posts sometime soon guys, I will return!

Thanks,

Joe

News for Skyrim incoming?

As you may remember, back in mid march I found a possible Skyrim DLC leak that was posted on another website. While no dates of release were included, the site outlined the details of the 'leak' and summarised them for the internet to see.

Just looking at one of my old screenshots gets me wanting to play Skyrim again,
speculation about DLC adds to that tenfold

Now half a month later, Pete Hines (Vice president of Bethesda Softworks) has announced that April will be a time for news and surprises for their titles Skyrim and Rage (I never did get the chance to play Rage, maybe I'll buy it sometime). This definitely leads me to believe that this will be a DLC announcement for Skyrim, especially seeing as how the creation kit has been out for a while now, I can't really think what else would constitute as cool Skyrim news.

It seems that April is going to be an interesting month for us PC Gamers - Skyrim news, possible Mass Effect DLC news, WoW MoP Beta news and I'm sure that lots of other interesting stories will come to surface over the month, lets just hope that these aren't belated April fools jokes, because let's face it, the internet was a big pile of useless on the first.

But as always, I will do my best to keep you all posted as soon as I come across any more info! Fus Ro Dah! 

Feature Analysis - Easter Eggs & References

Hey guys, sorry about the delay in content. Had a busy few days. 

Today I want to talk to you about Easter Eggs. I know Easter is coming up, by try not to link what I'm saying to chocolatey treats. You all probably know what I'm talking about but for those who don't - Easter Eggs in Games are messages, features or jokes the fans can relate to intentionally left by developers and they can be in the form of pretty much anything. They can be in game Items, locations, NPC Dialogue the list goes on.

Finding things like this always brings a smile to my face.

Many people have different opinions on what they consider an Easter Egg, some people consider Glitches and Cheats to be Easter eggs. But I prefer to think of them as little notes, references and personal touches left behind by the developers that are very hard to find. For example if you look to the right, we have an Image that fans of Bioware games will understand. The Image from Mass Effect 2 shows an Ogre from another one of their successful games - Dragon Age: Origins. People who had not played that game would be none the wiser when stumbling upon this, even Kasumi (an in game character in ME2) states 'I don't know what this is'.

There are also brilliant references to pop culture in many games, I mean just look at this list containing the currently known easter eggs in Skyrim, I'll admit, some are so subtle you think the person who discovered it is clutching at straws but others make you think "now that you mention it...". Bethesda pack their games full of these references, both the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series are full of them.

Rockstar games, the developers of the Grand Theft Auto series tend to have a more obvious method of letting players know that they've found an Easter egg. In GTA:III there is a sign on a wall you shouldn't be able to access saying 'You shouldn't be able to get here!', In Vice City, you can find a room with a chocolate Easter egg in the middle with 'Happy Easter' engraved on it and below is my personal favourite from San Andreas.

D'oh Rockstar, you so silly...

Easter eggs for me are always a welcome find, more often than not they're something that will make you smile, and its always nice to see the developers put that tiny bit more of effort in to give the fans another thing to talk about in their game and a way to make their fans happy.

If you fancy having a browse and seeing what Easter eggs are out there, eeggs.com has a compiled list of thousands of video game Easter eggdiscoveries. So what Easter eggs have you guys discovered? 

Feature Analysis - Autosave

'Ohh this dungeon is creepy' *Clink* *SLAM* *SPLAT* - Dead.

'I can kill this boss... oh f*** he's tough' *Boom* - Dead

'Oh damn it, game froze, I'll have to crash it'

These situations are annoying enough without ending up half an hours worth of game time backwards purely because you forgot to save or because the game offers no decent auto-save feature. It's likely something every gamer has experienced at least once or twice and many gamers probably have this happen to them more times than they'd like to admit and it's a hell of a pain.

After playing a few different games recently I've noticed the multiple different methods games implement auto-save features. Some are a pain, some are brilliant and some don't even have it! so I'm going to have a look at those I prefer and why.

Firstly Bethesda's system in their RPG's. This system saves the game when entering a new area, it doesn't matter how far in the area you are it will just save at the start of it. While this is a nice method on an easy difficulty, when playing on a harder setting this can be a huge pain. You can spend a good half hour progressing through a cave/vault/barrow barely surviving and then something you aren't prepared for hops out and kills you,  effectively wiping the last 30 minutes of progress. Like I said on an easy setting this is great (because to be honest it's quite tricky to die on easy in both Fallout & Skyrim in my opinion), but when playing on Very hard/Master you need to get in the habit of quicksaving... like every couple of minutes. Fun eh?

Shepard's Game just crashed. He hasn't been quicksaving.

The second system that bugged the hell out of me was Mass Effect 1's auto-save system. To me the points where this would save seemed completely random. Sometimes it would save at certain defining points in the story and at others it wouldn't. Occasionally it would save when entering a new area, but again, other times it wouldn't. I probably lost around 2 hours on my first playthrough purely because I wasn't quicksaving as often as I could and didn't realise how far back the previous auto-save was. However in Mass effect 2 & 3 this issue was resolved with frequent autosaves which was a very pleasant surprise. 

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning also includes a nice and frequent autosave system similar to the frequency in Mass Effect 2, however due to dying rarely in that game (I only played it on normal so far) it's hard to tell if the saves were frequent or I just didn't notice a bad disparity due to a lack of deaths.

One of these was always
a welcome sight in FFVII

Many older games don't even bother with auto-saves and even go as far as only having designated save points... that's right final fantasy, I'm looking at you. Now I'm not sure if this is still the cas in FFXIII and FFXIII-2, but in all the older titles, you are required to visit a save point to save. This isn't as annoying as you would think, purely because it is such an established mechanic in Final Fantasy, and your play eventually compensates for it, e.g. making sure you are stocked up on potions and your group is healed, taking breaks when you get to save points etc.

Many genres of games don't implement autosave whatsoever, RTS games such as Battle for Middle Earth rarely include such a feature in their single player campaigns however death isn't as sudden in these types of games and you can predict when saving is necessary, I guess it would also be hard to define when a good point to save would be in these types of games. Some RTS games do include it but to me it seems like an unnecessary feature in this genre.

In my opinion Autosaves should be included in Action RPG's and FPS games, and they should be frequent. they are only really needed in games where death can be sudden an unexpected, Turn based and many Japanese RPG's will usually put a save point before dangerous bosses anyway. It's good to get into the habit of quicksaving frequently or just saving but with many games I could go without the tedium.

Skyrim DLC Leaked?

Well well, after a weekend of a mix of beer and intense play of Mass Effect 3 I hadn't had time to keep up to date with the breaking news of the gaming world. So today in my usual Internet trawl I stumbled upon this:

A post showing possible DLC details provided by an ex-Bethesda employee.
(Click to enlarge)

The source of this image was here, the post on that link has a nice summary of key points at the bottom for you all to read. Personally I think it seems legit, but as usual, with most of the stuff flying around the internet, I am going to remain calm and see this as a possibility rather than confirmed content. But if this is what is going to happen... wow! Damn it Bethesda, I've already clocked 200 hours on Skyrim, are you trying to make sure I have no time for anything else!

I will be sure to keep up to date when more info about this appears!

Bitter After Taste - Unexpected endings.

BEFORE YOU READ, BE ADVISED MAJOR SPOILERS WILL BE IN THIS POST. YOU WERE WARNED.

So as most  people who keep an eye on the gaming community know, a lot of people were really disappointed with Mass Effect 3's ending. So much so that there has been a massive outcry from the community calling for a change in the ending, even raising $66,548 (£41,998) so far for charity in a petition for Alternate endings to be added. So what makes some game endings so hated?

Shepard's last adventure is a pretty entertaining ride.

For Mass Effect 3 at least it seems that fans were annoyed by a number of different things. And rather than write a garbled summary of what the majority of fans think - A player has compiled a good, easy to read list of what many think are wrong with the ending which you can find here.

I managed to play through ME3 this weekend and personally, I didn't think the ending was terrible. I Just thought it lacked substance, and left me with far too many questions as to what happens next, I like detailed epilogues at the end of games and Mass Effect 3's was all too brief, there was no description or anything showing what happened to everyone else after the war. Also, it seems the choices you make throughout the game have very little to no effect on the ending which seems rather different from the previous two titles. That being said, ME3 for me was a very enjoyable game, sure the ending was a bit of a let down but the journey to it was amazing.

I definitely felt a tad less manly after playing through
FFX-2, at lest there was a bit of virtual eye-candy.

There have been other games that have also let me down in terms of an ending, Final Fantasy 10 being one that springs to mind. However I think this let me down because I was expecting a happier ending for Tidus (main character). After the effort he puts in throughout the storyling to save not only Yuna (love interest) but Spira (the planet he's on) as well, I would have thought there would be a chance he wouldn't dissapear. I wouldn't call it a bad ending. I think it just took me by surprise.

However a couple of years after a sequel was released giving players a chance to continue Yuna's story in Spira. Personally I bought it and played through purely for the story. The game itself was no where near as entertaining as it's predecessor and had a 'Teen Girl' feel to it as your levelling system was pretty much dressing up the 3 female (and only available) characters for different abilities, with a happy and colorful world and cutesy cut-scenes. I only powered through to see if it was possible to change Tidus' fate (and you could for an 100% clear or 'perfect' ending). While it was nice to see that ending, I felt that FFX-2 was a very disappointing sequel.

Fallout 3 was another one that had a peculiar finish to it. Resulting in your player (apparently) dying from radiation or sacrificing another to do it in his stead. However, during the storyline you acquire a super mutant follower which could have done the task without death but it wasn't an available option. Many fans were rather disappointed by the death of their player, so Bethesda released DLC that gave closure to what happened after your character after this scene. That's right, they bought your player back from the dead. And many fans happily paid for the DLC.

Broken Steel allowed you to continue the story after that which was released with the vanilla version.

So this made me think that DLC's and unexpected sequels are a great (albeit somewhat underhanded) way for gaming companies to squeeze some extra cash from you, and with games that you invested a lot of time in, many players won't even think twice about spending £10 to find out if their beloved character has a future. To be honest I won't be surprised at all if extra ending related DLC is released for Mass Effect 3 - and personally, I'd probably buy it in the vein hope Shepard is ok. It seems that most players tend to want their characters to survive, and it's only really in games with endings that your character dies or disappears that gamers seem to get their feathers ruffled about.

I don't get that annoyed about sad endings, but I honestly much prefer the scenario where my hero saves the world and gets to see the fruits of his labours in a new happy future. So what about you guys? Do you get annoyed when your character dies a hero? or are you happy he managed to complete his task? what is your Ideal ending?

Elder Scrolls MMO?

Well, after a bit of browsing on the usual information sources on the net, I found out that something awesomely amazing is possibly in the works for Bethesda and Zenimax.

The article I found about it is Here, It's all very vague and I would advise fans not to go off the rails with this one.  A summary of the article:

• The game would take place a full millennium before The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and likely take place during the “Second Era,” hundred years before any of the other Elder Scrolls games. 
• Elder Scrolls Online will have three playable factions 
• Expect an announcement in May 2012, more info at E3 possible
• MMO  related job postings have been on ZeniMax’s website for quite some time
• Bethesda and Zenimax refused to comment on the above linked article

I tend to remain sceptical when it's 'Anonymous industry sources' handing out the info. Until I see an official statement from Bethesda or Zenimax, I am going to keep this as just a rumour in my head, so I won't be massively disappointed if this doesn't go ahead.

Would definitely play a stealthy archer class I think. My favourite style of play in Skyrim was this.

But if anyone can get me back into MMO's it would definitely be Bethesda, they are one of my favourite companies, and it would be interesting to see what they would bring into an MMO. This is definitely something I'm going to be keeping up to date with, and be sure to see more info when I can find it.

The link for the article again.

Screenshot of the Week - Clowning around in Fallout

'Oh don't mind me, I'm just here to give you nightmares...'

What am I playing? - Fallout 3 Vs New Vegas

Hey guys, What am I playing is going to be a column that delves into the games I am currently enjoying, be them 1 or 10 year(s) old.

So recently I have been playing through both of the more recent Fallout titles from Bethesda. With Steam offering the ultimate editions complete with all DLC for reasonable prices, I thought 'why not'.

The House always wins...

Today I want to objectively look into the points that make a game good for me and see what each game has to offer and which I prefer, so ready your Pip boys it's time to leave the vault.

1. Storyline (PLOT SPOILERS BELOW)
Bethesda are very good at making open RPG's and keeping away from having a set in stone path for your character follow. Whilst there are some constraints, you have a lot of freedom in how you wish for your character to act, be it a slick talking, stealthy scourge of the wastes or a righteous, all guns blazing warrior you have the freedom to be what you would like. In this aspect, Fallout New Vegas offers a lot more freedom - this is down to the multiple factions you change your standing with throughout your gameplay. New Vegas offered multiple completely different outcomes to completing the standard game, and surpassed Fallout 3 in that aspect, where you were confined to a few different speech options or choices in the final moments of the game.

Vault 101

That being said, the storyline of 3 gripped me a lot more than New Vegas - A lone vault dweller seeing the wasteland for the first time in an effort to find his lost father. As for New Vegas, the storyline definitely worsened after you get hold of the platinum chip, your epic quest for vengeance is kinda stopped short, not to say it doesn't have its moments afterward, but I definitely reached a peak in mystery and intrigue before you approach Benny.


NV does offer a very interesting story throughout the available DLC's however, which all have minor links to eachother, which was nice and kind of made up for the lack-lustre main storyline.

So NV offered more open ended gameplay and choices and had nice storylines within the DLC but 3 had a gripping storyline throughout and for that the victory of this section goes to Fallout 3


2. Gameplay

'SHIT!SHIT!SHIT!SHIT!SHIT!' were my exact words I think.

With Fallout, my preference is to play on Very Hard Difficulty. Before I invested in the games myself, I played with a friend for many hours on Normal. The problem with normal is there's only really the risk of death in the first few levels while you adjust and you tend to just stockpile Stimpaks and food without much need to use them. Very Hard difficulty offers much more of a challenge, nothing gets the blood pumping more than meeting a Deathclaw or Super Mutant Behemoth on this difficulty.

New Vegas bought something I loved to the table, Hardcore mode. Activating this just added to the challenge and you can spend a good half hour trying to get past a certain group of enemies over and over, you can't just instant heal up with a few spammed stimpaks. You actually had to live like a wastelander - keeping hunger at bay and feeding yourself whenever you could. New Vegas also added a couple of mini-games to the table, being casino orientated, so you get the option to kick back in post-apocalyptic Vegas and play some card games or slots which was a nice feature.

For both games on PC I did have the issue that the vanilla games crashed - a hell of a lot. Sometimes I'd go a couple of hours with no crashes and sometimes I would have 3 in 15 minutes. Didn't experience any issues with the DLC on either game but I had to make sure I was constantly pressing F5 (quicksave) as not to lose my progress. Very annoying, but I guess it built up a good habit.

Anyway, I digress. In terms of gameplay New Vegas is the clear winner, a forseeable outcome as it was built on the foundations of Fallout 3.

3. Atmosphere
This is one of the key points for me, as this attributed to or detracted from my enjoyment of both titles. The overall feel of the games. Fallout for me has always enticed me due to the feeling of mystery and exploration into the unknown whilst walking the wastes, finding places untouched by humans for many years, and the sense of wilderness and lonliness.

I found the Capital Wasteland in fallout three was amazing. Be it walking the Super mutant infested streets of DC or finding an abandoned vault in the wastes the sense of adventure was always present.

What I also liked about the Capital Wasteland, is that you could eventually stumble on a place that has had no contact from anyone since the war, be it just a house where the inhabitants perished when the bombs dropped. Or the underground remnants of a factory basement - now full of nasty creatures.

New Vegas, on the other hand, doesn't seem as barren at all. One of my major gripes with the game was the fact I wasn't so much as wandering a lonley wasteland anymore, I was just moving from settlement to settlement and it seemed humans were everywhere. Sure the Mojave had its share of abandoned buildings and facilities, but nowhere near the amount as 3. This annoyed me. I lost that feeling of imminent danger and it didn't feel so much as a wasteland as it did in 3.

Yeah it did have big barren areas, but there was -never- the thought that you could have been the first in 'x' place since the bombs stopped dropping and people hopped out their Vaults. This gave the game a completely different feel to 3, which in some ways is good, keeping it fresh and new, but in other ways it was a little disappointing.

So with that being said I'd say the winner here would be Fallout 3


Conclusion?
While both games are awesome in their own right and both have good and negative aspects, I will have to side with Fallout 3. This is mainly because of my third point, and the fact that it kept me playing a lot more than New Vegas. Once I had completed the main story and DLC in New Vegas, I never got the urge to trawl through the Mojave and Explore every single nook and cranny, but with Fallout 3 I did. Fallout three has definitely consumed many more hours of my time than new Vegas also, and even with a smaller amount of guns and armour and extra features, it managed to grip my attention much more than its successor.

Screenshot of the Week - Skyrim Face Follies

Found a forsworn being friendly in Skyrim
Full Size: Here