Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Review

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Review

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Destiny Preview: What We Know

Destiny has to be one of the best kept secrets in gaming today (other than the next-gen consoles) as well as one of the most ambitious games players have been apart of in recent memory. I say that because Bungie has confessed that Destiny will be the only thing they will concentrate on for the next ten years. That takes extreme dedication, confidence, and nerve to do in an age where IPs are a dangerous road to travel on when developing video games. Let us get to the juicy details of Destiny.

"We're doing something really ambitious, and I hope by the end you'll agree it's a little crazy"
Jason Jones

The Story

Destiny takes place far in Earth’s future, where forces bent on mankind’s ultimate destruction were stopped at the last minute by a mysterious object/being known as the Traveler. The Traveler is an enormous sphere hovering over the planet, and it wasn't made clear to us if that is just the name of the ship, or the being that may have piloted it.

The last remnants of mankind have built a sprawling city underneath the Traveler, and have only just begun moving back into the world when the game begins and throws you into the guardian position. Outside the desolate colony strange alien creatures prowl the ruins of mankind’s golden age, still intent on wiping them out.

"[This] is the kind of ass-kicking trek through the universe that only Bungie could create"Eric Hirshberg

The Player

You are a Guardian, a defender of mankind’s last safe city on Earth. As a Guardian, you are able to wield the technology and power of the Traveler.

Guardians have different classes, and while there will be more added later, we were shown brief glimpses of the Warlock, Hunter, and Titan classes. The Warlock has the power to wield magic, the Hunter has stealth abilities and the prowess to use ranged combat, and the Titan is a tank built to stand their ground in heavy weapon combat.

As Guardians, players will battle alien species with exotic names like Sandeaters, War Rhinos and Spider Pirates. They'll wage war with time-traveling robots and evil space zombies. They'll have shared, social experiences that complement a crafted, mythic science-fiction universe.

There is a social space near the Tower where the Guardians dwell called the Overwatch District; relax and gamble, trade and repair gear, or “Gaze out over the Twilight Gap.” There isn't much detail on the Twilight Gap, but apparently it represents a big chunk of mankind’s history in the game.

“Return to the City” is “Destiny’s third person social space” where you can “refuel, repair, and rearm before going out on your next adventure.” We aren't clear if this is part of the Overwatch District or not, but they sound similar. It could be another part of the province.

The Gameplay

Loot is a very important part of the game, with tiered gear and items, and rare and exotic weapons that tease players with unique names and enhancements. The weapons mentioned were that of a standard armory; pistols, shotguns, machine guns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers.

Players will have access to a hangar containing their own ship, which can be upgraded, or you can purchase a different ship as you gain experience.

The interesting thing about Destiny is that you can explore our very own solar System in your ship, visiting places like Luna; our moon, Mars, Saturn and more. Mass Effect allows you visit Luna and a futuristic Earth, but Bungie is going to allow the players curiosity to take over and encourage exploration. There is no confirmation on if space-battles will occur or "dog-fighting" will be apart of gameplay.

There should be no chance of players being bored with all the worlds, locations, and beings throughout the game. Destiny's artwork itself is mesmerizing at the scale and scope of what Bungie wants to achieve: a derelict fleet adrift in the rings of Saturn, a time-traveling robot, mile-long tomb ships and the secrets they contain, space zombies, and more.

Although there are no details on quests and the mission style, the game will feature bounties; "go here and retrieve this item," "travel there and kill X amount of creatures," "eliminate this character and bring back this item," etc.

"Let me just rip this bandaid off right here: We have absolutely no plans to charge a subscription fee for Destiny"
Eric Hirshberg

The Open World

Destiny is forged in an online, persistent world that requires a constant internet connection in order to play. This is definitely something gamers who are used to single-player gameplay offline will have to get used to. Destiny will follow many MMO rules and themes but ultimately Bungie is crafting something new and unique.

Bungie and Activision have made a large investment in back-end server technology in order to deliver a seamless, open world experience to the player. That means no lobbies, no load screens, no invite-to-party messages, and so on.

You will encounter other gamers as you play Destiny, like in Fable or Journey, and you can team up with them, or ignore them. This will happen constantly, as there is no standard single player campaign. Instead, the game is built around a cooperative experience, and also contains competitive multiplayer.

Bungie isn't trying to jam as many players into the same spaces and funnel them into playing a certain way. It will be server-based, although it isn't clear how that will happen just yet.

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg describes Destiny as a “shared shooter” that takes place inside an enormous open sandbox universe. While he doesn't want to label Destiny as a “MMO FPS,” the game definitely contains elements of both. But also according to Hirshberg, “We have absolutely no plans to charge a subscription fee for Destiny.”

More concept art was created for Destiny than all of Bungie’s other games put together. The world is so large, that Bungie created a new piece of tech that they call Grognok: The World Creator in order to build large-scale environments quickly.

The game will feature changing weather cycles, and a day/night cycle with real-time lighting just as we were teased with Alan Wake's engine.

"Activision's approach has been to try to do a few things exceptionally well"
Eric Hirshberg

You

Destiny is all about building your own story, and no two players will have the same story. This creates an element of diversity in games that can work in both FPS and RPG genres.

No two players should look the same thanks to tiered gear and numerous weapons that can be researched on Bungie.net. This adds a tone of customization and freedom with player choice and preference.



Deep iOS integration that is shown in the Developers Video Documentary above, promises more than just the ability to check your stats on a mobile device. In-game messages were being pushed to the device, encouraging you to get back into the game. This, if done correctly, can be a major step in how we play games and how we perceive and embrace the games we play.

Bungie promises that Destiny will be appealing to all skill levels of players, and that there will always be something to do, either by yourself, or with other players. This may become a challenge with gamers who have a lack of charisma or knowledge of Destiny, but Bungie plans to create a realm that can fit everyone.

As much information as Bungie has released there are still unanswered questions and an overwhelming since of excitement with this game's development. I cannot wait to experience this saga.

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-Daniel, Jedi Editor
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iOS 6 VS. Android ICS

It’s been a couple of weeks since Apple announced the updates to their iOS operating system, and there’s been time to digest the info and work out what this means for the future of the device. It also means we’ve had a couple of weeks of fanboy baiting online between the Apple and Google camps, with plenty of jibes heading in each direction. But which one is actually better, and should we be excited about the new software heading our way?

A couple of quick stats, Android currently services about half of the smartphone market based on device activations logged by Google, and has the highest number of app store downloads per day (more than double any of the other software providers). Apple however brings in the most money from app store transactions at around 9 times the value of Google’s sales, and doesn’t have a fragmented user base across multiple device manufacturers. What this shows is that despite the end use being the same, we’re really looking at two different business models, one as an open system software provider (Google, though they are starting to change this with the Nexus range of phones), and one as a closed system designer and manufacturer (Apple).

Let’s have a look at the major new/changed features of iOS 6 and compare these with what’s available on the latest Android release (Ice Cream Sandwich):

From the list there’s only one feature that iOS 6 has over ICS, the Passbook, though at this point it’s not really clear if this is a competitor to Google Wallet or if it will just be something that aggregates the current individual apps available for managing tickets, loyalty cards and payments. I’ll also point out that Maps is on the list because Apple is dumping Google Maps and going with their own proprietary software, though how this stacks up against the competition is yet to be seen. The flyover function mentioned in the press releases sounds interesting, but when I’m using any map I like to know where my journey takes me on the streets and not what it looks like to passing pigeons, so I’m not convinced that’s really useful.

There were numerous other features announced that make the iOS experience a little more fluid, and we also heard about the expected updates to Siri, though there’s still a large language barrier there that prevents most people (i.e., anyone with a strong accent) from using it. Google is set to release its Siri competitor later this year with deeper integration with phone functions and apps than currently available on any handset, and let’s hope they’ve figured out how to recognise regional dialects. Also, Rich and Dex talked a fair amount about the geo-fencing options in TechFixation episode 37, this was intriguing, and looks like it’s an update to the Find My Friends app. Again, it turns out this has been in use on Android for the 18 months or so in the Neer app, and is also already available for the iPhone 4 on the App Store.

Ultimately, whilst there were supposedly 200 new features announced for iOS 6, it’s looking like in reality it’s only going to pull it in line with the other smartphones out there by just adding the Apple spin on some existing ideas. The advantage Apple has is that they will be able to roll out to every device in the world on the same day, unlike Google that has been rolling out ICS for several months and is only just getting to the point where it’s on every compatible device.

It’s always good to get a shiny new firmware update, but is iOS 6 really worth the hype it’s receiving? From Apple’s perspective it has to help sell the iPhone 5 in the Autumn. They want people to upgrade to the latest model, but is there enough substance there to convince the iPhone 4 and 4S owners to make that switch? Possibly not. ICS has had a lot of attention as it’s the first unifying operating system for Android phones and tablets, Apple is already at this stage. The next Android update (Jellybean) is rumoured to be due for announcement through the summer, and it will inevitably get compared to iOS 6, but will that deliver any real innovation either? We’ll see, but I suspect not. The new Windows phone software was unveiled this week as well, and that is really underwhelming, Microsoft has a lot of work to do. After some time with a Nokia Lumia running WP7 earlier this year I swore (literally) I would never touch another Windows phone, and WP8 isn’t doing anything to convince me otherwise.

It seems like we’re at the point where the software is reaching its development threshold and only small incremental changes will be made just to keep the systems looking fresh. The real selling points for phones have moved to the hardware, and this is where Android has a significant edge. The restrictions imposed by Apple make it great for some users, but extremely limiting for others. With no file system access, iTunes only software management (no MTP access), and no external or upgradeable storage, the iPhone isn’t a device that’s easy to integrate with the other non-Apple devices you might have at home. Couple this with a smaller screen size, lower spec camera technology than most other manufacturers equivalent models, no on-screen widgets and lower customisation, and it isn’t surprising that Apple hasn’t maintained their majority market share.

So which is better? At the moment they’re pretty much the same with some give and take on the way features are integrated into the different software. A better question would be which one would you buy or upgrade to next? For me it will be dictated by the phone hardware and its connectivity capabilities, and I’m sorry to say Apple isn’t looking like they will get my money anytime soon.

This article was written by @SyphiloidMonkey.
Longtime listener and editor for podcast @TechFixation.

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New Playstation 3

Late last night at it's TGS press conference, Sony annouced it's brand new lineup of PlayStation 3's . Available in black, and white (Japan only), the new models are "Approxmately 20% smaller and 25% lighter than the current PS3.” They come in 250 and 500 GB Sku’s. The 250 GB console will retail for $270 USD and will be bundled exclusively with Uncharted 3 GOTY and DUST 514.

The 500 GB redesign will be available in a limited bundle with Assassin’s Creed 3 on October 30^th. The 250 GB will come to store shelves next week on September 25^th  here in the states. For our European friends, a 12 Gb console will retail for 230 Euros on October 12^th. And the 500 GB model will be ready much sooner, September 28^th for 299 Euros.

For more on the latest in Tech and Video Games, check back atTheTechfixation.com.

By Mitchell Morgan

@Mdawg2438

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HD Remasters

@SyphiloidMonkey

To kick this article off, and rant slightly about some things I’ve read that bug me, playing an HD remastered game is not retro gaming.  I am not a fan of retro gaming, particularly when it seems to only consist of sidescrolling shooters, basic jump and climb platform games, and anything that’s a Ricochet clone.  I grew up avoiding patterns of flashing bullets on the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amiga, and whilst they were great at the time things have moved on since then.  Being really pedantic, the retro tag should only be applied to something over 15 - 20 years old (thanks Wikipedia for that one!), and on the current generation, a lot of PSOne games on the PS Vita will be retro games.  It’s got an HD display, multi-touch screen, online capable software, dual analogue sticks, and most of this will not be used by the PSOne games.  I’d rather have the money spent developing PSOne emulation moved to enhancing remote play, or even marketing how great the Vita is.  Alright, I’m done moaning.  For now.

HD remasters have been coming out steadily for the last couple of years, mainly on the PS3 but are now starting to appear in larger numbers on the Xbox 360, and in most cases have been selling well.  The gaming community seems quite divided on them, are they a good or bad thing?  There’s one side that bemoans the soulless-ness of games companies cynically cashing in on their old IPs and not having to bother with investing in new game development (though they seem happy to buy into the CoD, Madden, Fifa and Tiger Woods franchises every year); and the other side that praises the efforts of developers to bring their franchises to new generations so that classic games are never forgotten (and maybe don’t always see how moving a game in a new direction isn’t always bad).  Whichever camp you fall in is not going to affect whether they’re released or not, and the chances are (I hope) you’ve played at least one of the remasters to give you the opinion you have.

I lean towards the positive side of having these remasters, mainly because I’ve been able to play games I never got round to during the PS2 and Xbox years.  Maybe it’s my dislike of retro gaming going into overdrive, but whenever I’ve traded up to the next generation of console I’ve not gone back to playing older games, even if the backwards compatibility is there, and this has meant with the move to the current generation I missed a couple of high profile releases from the end of the last console era.  There’s also the fact I am a PlayStation fanboy who won’t defile my apartment with an Xbox, so gaming experiences have been written off before they had a chance to even suggest how good they’d be.

Have a think, how many of the following did you play on PS2 or Xbox? 

• Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Warrior Within, The Two Thrones
• God of War: 1, 2, Chains of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta
• Splinter Cell: 1, Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory
• Ico, Shadow of the Colussus
• Sly Cooper: Thievius Raccoonus, Band of Thieves, Honour Among Thieves
• Ratchet & Clank: 1, Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal (the US titles were so much better than the EU numbering!)
• Silent Hill: 2, 3
• Metal Gear Solid: 2, 3, Peace Walker
• Halo
• Oddworld: Strangers Wrath
• Medal of Honor: Frontline
• Tomb Raider: Legend, Anniversary
• Resident Evil: 4, Code: Veronica X
• Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Renegade, 3
• Beyond Good & Evil
• Devil May Cry: 1, 2, Dante’s Awakening

I think I played about half, but that didn’t include the God of War franchise, Sly Cooper, or the Splinter Cell sequels.  And this is unforgivable, but I’d never played the full game of Shadow of the Colossus.  All the titles in the list are available to buy or download right now, and there are more planned for release in the coming months, with some being games I’ve yet to have a go at like Zone of the Enders, or ones I can’t wait to play again like the Hitman Collection.  

What I like about this current run of HD remasters is that the games being done don’t vary too much from the gameplay style we get from the current triple A titles.  Some show their age a bit, Ratchet & Clank 1 doesn’t have a strafe option that’s in all the other games, and Sly Cooper has a lives system that I don’t think I’ve seen in a game for about 5 years, but the majority are great to play and look fantastic with the reworked visuals.  In particular God of War 2 is stunning, and it’s amazing how the developers have brought the PSP games detail out so that they can be played on much larger TV screens.

This leads us nicely to the technical side of the remasters and the studios that have done the work to get these up to scratch.  Probably the best ones are the MGS, God of War and Ico Collections, all of them done by Bluepoint Games who seem to spend a lot of time and care getting the best out of the original assets.  Next up would be Just Add Water who are doing the Oddworld updates, followed by Idol Minds who handled the Ratchet & Clank collection (as well as being the studio behind Pain).  What stands out with these studios is not just the HD overhaul, but the smoothness of the games, lack of screen tear and slickness of the revamped presentation.  Shadow of the Colussus has really benefitted, according to people who played the original there was a lot of slowdown whilst battling the Colussi, this has been completely eliminated. And it’s worth remembering that it’s not just the graphics that are done, audio is overhauled and re-recorded in some instances (MGS HD on the Vita), the source code is optimised, and new engines developed so that the older games will work with the newer hardware.  It might sound obvious, but it’s not just a case of picking a game and burning it to a blu-ray for sale, there’s a lot of detailed work needed.

MGS2 SD on Bottom, MGS2 HD on Top

However, and this is where I understand the cynical, money-grabbing side of the argument, not all developers lavish the care and attention these games deserve.  Most high profile in its failure is Konami/Hijinx Studios and the Silent Hill Collection with Silent Hill 2 missing the fog from the town.  The very thing that gives the game the atmosphere is gone, caused by the updated coding, but passed through QA anyway. This has been patched on the PS3 but took nearly 2 months to arrive and is unlikely to fix the loss in sales.  The Xbox version is still waiting to get this patched.  Although not a glaring error this time, Resident Evil 4 came in for some bad reviews.  The gameplay was still there but the graphics were pretty poor.  This could have something to do with the fact that the PS2 game was an inferior port from the GameCube version (according to the developers), and that version was the one used for the remaster.  And lastly combining bad graphics with poor gameplay comes the Prince of Persia Trilogy.  I have genuinely never been so happy to trade a game in, Ubisoft made a mess of these and I could not force myself to even finish the third game.



Silent Hill 2 SD Right: Silent Hill 2 HD Left

That said I’m glad that we’re getting the chance to play these games again in an updated format.  There are plenty of people out there, usually trolling forums, that think we should all break out the old consoles and just play the originals as they should be experienced.  But that’s missing what’s great about the remasters, I don’t have dig out and setup my PS2 and drop the resolution on my TV to sub-HD.  I can enjoy the games I’ve played before and see them looking better than I remember (so often not the case with memories of games), and trophies add the incentive of doing things differently to how I’ve done them before, or finding all the secrets and collectibles.  For the ones I’ve not played before I get to appreciate how good some of these games were for their time, and in the case of God of War, experience the full story arc without having to manage different pieces of hardware and track down second hand discs and UMDs.

It’s a matter of preference on whether you want to play an original or remaster, much the same as whether you prefer vinyl, CD or MP3.  But if the developers didn’t give the go ahead and work on remasters then there would be no choice for gamers, and it’s sad to say that some of these great games would be consigned to words and pictures in articles instead of being played and experienced.

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