Like fighting zombies with a variety of weapons and machines you’ve crafted? Then Dead Rising 3 might be the game you’re looking for.
An Xbox One exclusive, the third game in the Capcom series welcomes new protagonist Nick Ramos, who has to take on the zombie hordes in a game world said to be larger than those from the two previous games combined.
I loved the weapon crafting aspect of Dead Rising 1 and 2 and it seems in this new installment you don’t need a work bench to make wild and wacky zombie-killing implements – you can make them on the fly. Apparently the time limit from missions has been removed, too, which is nice, but there is a game mode that reinstates the time limit for those of you who like to slay zombies under pressure.
The Dead Rising series has always been known for the ability to craft just about everything to form a weapon, so I’m interested to see just what combinations gamers will come up with.
Sound like your cup of tea (or whatever hot beverage you prefer)? Here’s a story trailer on what to expect.
Looking good: a screen grab from Killzone Mercenary taken from my PS Vita.
Killzone: Mercenary, where have you been all my PS Vita’s life?
Mercenary is a shooter that you’ll actually want to play. It’s the shooter that my PS Vita has been crying out for. Oh, sure developers have tried FPS games on the Vita before but let’s face it: They sucked. Pure and simple (I’m looking at you Black Ops: Declassified and Resistance Burning Skies. You were shit).
Killzone Mercenary is the real deal. And if Mercenary had been available earlier, my Vita would have seen more action over the past few months rather than pretty much gathering dust, sitting unused.
Why, Sony, why has it taken it has taken so long for a great first-person shooter to appear on the Vita? Not through lack of talent as there are plenty of talented people in your development studios. There was really no excuse for it. I mean, the Vita has two analogue sticks: It’s made for the FPS, right?
Placing the player in the shoes of soldier-for-hire Arran Danner, Killzone Mercenary is set between the events of Killzone 2 and Killzone 3 and interestingly, in a first for the series, the player will fight alongside both the ISA and Helghan after a twist near the end. Danner is a, after all, a mercenary so he goes where the green is.
Let’s get the visuals out of the way first, though: they are stupendous. The two images with captions are screen captures I did during game play. Looks pretty good, right? It’s like the developer took the PlayStation 3’s Killzone and zapped it with a shrink ray: It really does look that good. Is is too much to say this is the best looking game the Vita because I think it is. It is jaw-droppingly beautiful and really is the best looking game on the Vita.
But good graphics does not a game make, it needs a solid story to back it up. Well, Mercenary’s story is nothing we haven’t seen in countless shooters before (filled with betrayal and backstabbing) and you can see what’s coming a mile off but it’s a shooter, after all: It’s not a Shakespearean play filled with enlightened exposition and wonderment. It’s a game where you shoot people to earn money and complete objectives. I also found the controls took a bit of time getting used to – crouch and sprint are mapped to the circle button which makes things interesting during an intense firefight – but things fell into place soon enough.
Mercenary uses the Vita’s touch screen cleverly, too, letting you melee kill foes by tapping the triangle button then following an on-screen prompt indicating which way to swipe.
Being able to do that means you’ll use it – and I used it a lot, against both normal Helghast grunts and heavily armed heavies. In fact, I probably used it too much (and handily, many of the Helghan turn their back on you when you melee them), but there’s just something satisfying about swiping the touch screen to kill a Helghan (although, does Danner really have to stab some of them in the balls before knifing them in the head? That just made me squirm)
The touch screen is also used to set mines (placing each thumb on the screen then rotating them charges the mine) and kills earn valour, or money, which can be used to buy new weapons, ammunition, better armour and other gadgets from black market weapons chest conveniently dotted about the game world. Every kill earns you money: headshots earning you more than a shot to the chest.
If there’s one thing frustrating about Mercenary’s game play, it’s its checkpoint system, which isn’t very good. I would have liked to have seen a more robust save system and while yes, the Vita has a good standby mode, if you quit a level mid-mission expect to have to start again from the beginning. It’s annoying.
I’ve only touched on the single player campaign here because, well, I haven’t had a chance to try any online yet. I got a code to do that but haven’t had the time. Perhaps when more people are playing it I’ll give it a whirl.
Airborne assault: Flying in a Helghast ship to assault an ISA cruiser.
OK, to round up. Yes, Killzone Mercenary shows little innovation when it comes to game play (and Killzone is a stupid name for a game) and yes, the story is cliched and yes, if you hate the Killzone series then this portable version isn’t going to change your mind, but it’s a freaking console quality shooter on a handheld and it’s a good one – and that should be celebrated as far as I’m concerned (and if it was shit, I would tell you as much).
Not so long ago I was thinking Sony had forgotten about the Vita completely and hoped no-one would notice. Well, we did notice but if Mercenary is Sony’s way of saying, “Sorry about the previous shit Vita FPS games. Try this for size” then I forgive you, Sony. I forgive you.
With this one video, Rockstar did enough to get me to sit up and take notice of GTAV, a game that I was interested in but now, woah, I’m seeing it as perhaps the best entrant in the series and one of the year’s best AAA titles.
Watch the video and you’ll see how Rockstar have taken what was good about San Andreas – in my opinion the best game in the series so far – and put it into a narrative involving three separate characters – Michael, Franklin and Trevor – that looks like it’ll be one helluva ride. My favourite Rockstar game is Red Dead Redemption (I’m still bummed that it’s not available on PC) but will GTAV be better than RDR? Time will tell, time will tell …
It’s Friday now but I really should have posted this up on Tuesday as, you know, seeing as that’s the day I chat to Glenn “Wammo” Williams about gaming on Kiwi FM. That’s might slack of me, to be honest. Oh, well, sorry about that.
Anyway, with Glenn we chatted about Kinect Star Wars and, sorry, but I didn’t like it that much. It’s a great idea – let’s pretend we’re real life jedis waving our lightsabres about the place – but unfortunately it’s just a very average game – even my 12-year-old son who likes Star Wars (a bit) didn’t like the game much at all. Most of the issues I had, apart from the lacklustre story and the average visuals, was that Kinect didn’t seem to be able to keep up with all my movements all of the time.
I actually found – maybe subconsciously – that holding something in my hand, such as a TV remote, actually worked better than just holding thin air or a fist in front of Kinect. I still think, and I’ve said this many, many times, that for certain games I still think Kinect needs some sort of peripheral to help with the motion tracking. Just a thought.
Anyway, watch the video and let me know what you think in the comments section. One thing I did notice was that I shouldn’t stretch like I did at the beginning: It made me look like a fat bastard. And I’m not.
OK, I finished the single player campaign of Uncharted 3 this afternoon (I haven’t tried any of the multiplayer or co-op) and I have to say it’s probably the best PlayStation exclusive that I’ve ever played. Yes, even better than inFamous 2 which I really, really enjoyed (I tell you, Naughty Dog and Insomniac have to be the best PS3 developers out there). I enjoyed the story from start to finish and it’s a visually stunning game, too. That said, there are some niggles and situations that prompted a few “WTF?” along the way.
Now, there will probably be spoilers in this write-up, so perhaps you shouldn’t read it if you don’t want your Uncharted 3 experience spoiled before you finish it.
What I liked
The story: While the original Uncharted might have had a better story, Uncharted 3 really captured my attention with its narrative involving Nathan Drake’s hunt for “the Atlantis of the Sands”, a mythical buried city. The game starts in London, with Drake and long-time friend Victor Sullivan in a pub hoping to trade a ring said to have belonged to explorer Sir Francis Drake for a large case of cash. As you’d expect, things turn pear shaped, the deal goes sour and what follows is a game of cat and mouse between Drake and Sully and the two key baddies, each wanting to find the hidden city and its secrets.
The story has flashbacks to when Nathan Drake was a boy, growing up in Cartegena, in Colombia, and Elena and Chole from the previous two games make appearances. Uncharted 3 really does span the globe, too, visiting the aforementioned London and Colombia, Syria and Yemen. I really liked the dialogue exchanges between Sully and Elena – it really personalised the story and gave the character’s personality – and the writing is the sort of stuff you’d find right at home in a top-rating TV show.
The set pieces: Remember the train sequences in Uncharted 2? Well, that was topped several times in Uncharted 3 with some set pieces that frankly left me speechless. Top of that list is the latter part of a chapter set in a ship graveyard and takes place on a sinking cruise ship, the base for a ruthless sea pirate. The sequence flips your perspective around dramatically and it truly is a wonderful achievement. Another sequence that was short but just as memorable is one set mid-air aboard a cargo plane that involves Drake having to fight for his life. Another memorable sequence is set in a blazing chateau. I’ve got “epic set pieces” written down several times in my notes – and I’m not kidding: sometimes I had to pick my jaw off the floor things were so epic. Sometimes, too, the camera will pull back and Drake becomes a tiny figure with the game world around him. It’s then that you really see how big in scale Uncharted 3 is.
The melee combat: sometimes, even when I was outnumbered, I would take on enemies in melee combat and punch them senseless. Other times I’d creep up behind them and silently take them out. The combat felt visceral and solid, with Drake often flipping an enemy over his shoulder, acrobatically grabbing their gun as it sailed through the air.
The visuals: Uncharted 3 is the best looking game on the PlayStation 3 without a doubt. It really is a stunning game to look at and Naughty Dog must really have pushed the PS3 to the limit. The game is just stunning to look at. I can’t say anymore than that.
What I didn’t like so much
The difficulty spike: I played the game in normal difficulty – as I tend to play most games. I reckon it’s the difficulty level that most people will play a game on, but some of the WTF moments came near the end of the game – in the last three chapters – when the difficulty level seemed to spike dramatically. In one situation, where I had to guide Nathan Drake through a blinding sandstorm, I had to take care of not only two armoured vehicles with top-mounted guns, but several guys with laser-sight on their pistols, and a couple of heavies touting shotguns and wearing plate armour. The aim was to blow up the armoured trucks with explosives (rocket launchers, mainly) that were strategically placed around the location (there seemed to be three). I lost count about how many times I died in this sequence and I don’t think I suck as a game player (maybe I do?) but I died a lot. And this was just on normal difficulty – I hate to see what this sequences is like on the highest difficulty level.
The melee combat: Well, some aspects of it. It seemed that sometimes the combat turned into almost a rhythm game: punch a foe, press triangle to duck his punch, pound circle to break out of a hold, punch him again, press triangle again, punch him again then knock them out. It was like a mini-game for fighting. I was also surprised to have to fight the same “big” guy several times throughout the game. Wasn’t beating him in a punch up once enough?
That’s it. Look, as I said the niggles I had with Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception are small but I think worth noting. They didn’t ruin my overall enjoyment of Uncharted 3 but did cause me to curse a few times. Uncharted 3 isn’t the perfect game but it’s one that I had a good time playing. It’ll be interesting to see where the franchise goes from here. Does Nathan Drake have any more adventures in him?
Tuesday means my regular gaming segment with Glenn “Wammo” Williams on the Radio Wammo breakfast on Kiwi FM (although sometimes when I’m away or Glenn is away we do the segment on a Wednesday or sometimes a Thursday. We like to mix it up).
Although I’ve strongly argued that I don’t have a face for TV or a voice for radio, which is part of the reason why I love working for print and online (plus I’ve heard myself during playback of interviews and it ain’t pretty), Wammo has, for a while, streamed all his content online using Skype. So, unfortunately, not only do you have to put up with my voice when you listen to the Radio Wammo segment with me, you also have to see my mug in action.
Today, we chatted about the Gears of War 3 beta, which finished up yesterday. I played a bit of it. I sucked pretty much but it was fun. When I wasn’t dying or being beaten to death with my own arm, that is.
Mercenary uses the Vita’s touch screen cleverly, too, letting you melee kill foes by tapping the triangle button then following an on-screen prompt indicating which way to swipe.
OK, I finished the single player campaign of Uncharted 3 this afternoon (I haven’t tried any of the multiplayer or co-op) and I have to say it’s probably the best PlayStation exclusive that I’ve ever played. Yes, even better than inFamous 2 which I really, really enjoyed (I tell you, Naughty Dog and Insomniac have to be the best PS3 developers out there). I enjoyed the story from start to finish and it’s a visually stunning game, too. That said, there are some niggles and situations that prompted a few “WTF?” along the way.