Chris and Stephen play Battlefield 3
Chris and Stephen get out of Battlefield retirement and have a squad reunion in Battlefield 3. This is the first time we’ve done something like this, what do you think?
Continue →Battlefield 3 Beta Walkthrough
Chris Slack takes you through Operation Metro while demonstrating destruction physics and accidentally winning.
Continue →
Chronic Interview: Richard Lemarchand, Co-Lead Game Designer for Uncharted 3
Sand Physics are the New Snow Physics
In a special Chronic Interview Stephen talks to Naughty Dog’s Richard Lemarchand on the soon to be released Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Richard delightfully talks about everything from story telling techniques to train and boat physics. He is a lovely, lovely man and anyone who cares about their games should listen to his thoughts on making a great one. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception will be released in Ireland on November 2nd, as always exclusive to Playstation 3.
The Chronic Reload Podcast is our podcast for Irish Gaming News and is released every two weeks. In the weeks between these we talk about everything and anything in The Chronic Rant Podcast. Don’t forget you can subscribe to both podcasts in iTunes here.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (12.0MB)
Continue →Nintendo 3DS – Hands On in Dublin
3D without glasses.
BELIEVE YOUR EYES
The only way to believe it is to experience it.
The was the marketing that I was presented with when I attended the special Nintendo event being held in Dublin last week. Yes it is 3D without glasses & absolutely yes you need to experience it to believe it.
This is the problem that the console will face, getting it out there to the larger public to show it off. Pictures simply do not do the system justice. You can see the dimensions of the 3DS, its games, shape etc, but the 3D needs to be tried with you own two eyes.
Continue →Preview: Microbots
Microbot vs STI! FIGHT!
Microbots is an upcoming DLC 2-D game for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and I really like it. Think the first stage of Spore, the one were you play a microrganism and before Spore gets silly. Here’s the plot, you play a Microbot, in the first stage you are injected into the bloodstreem and begin to work your way deeper inside the body, fighting evil robotic infections on the way. As you progress you’ll come across upgrade stations which add new weapons and defenses, like the oh so fun grappling hook.
Left stick controls movement, right stick controls weapons, second player can pop in and out at any time. The upgrades introduce new play styles, for example grapple hook into a spikey thing and then swing the spikey thing into your enemies. You can even swing Player Two into enemies, though it helps if player two has equipped himself with spikey things. Or even swing a spikey thing equipped Player Two, who is in turn swinging a spikey thing, into your enemies.
Visually the game is lovely to look at. The earlier blood stages feature lovely realistically flowing bold liquids while later on the bone based levels are jagged and cold. Microbots is looking like a relaxing game with plenty of depth and varying visuals.
Will the final boss be AIDs? No, responded the develepers. No.
Microbots is penciled in for Winter 2011 and will be avavilable via Xbox Live and Playstation Network
Continue →Preview: Crysis 2 Multiplayer
Bathroom Combat, unchanged since Goldeneye
Saying “Crysis 2 Multiplayer” doesn’t raise any eyebrows but that’s before you hear its been developed by Crytek UK. “CRYTEK UK!” You scream back at me, “You mean the same CRYTEK UK who were formally known as FREE RADICAL, not only famous for TIMESPLITTERS TWO but the same FREE RADICAL who separated from RARE after their main staff created GOLDENEYE and PERFECT DARK!” Yes I reply, thanks for explaining that for me.
I had a chance to play one map in standard team deathmatch mode and so far, its quite fun. In designing the multiplayer rather than focusing on gun play the emphasis is instead placed in the Nano Suit. The Nano Suit from the first game has been swapped around a little, it still does everything it could but its easier to access. There are three basic modes, standard (quick and agile) strength (slow but strong) and stealth (PREDETOR MODE!) which you’ll be constantly switching between, sometimes only spending seconds using one before quickly turning to another.
The Suit also allows walls to be quickly scaled be simply running up against them meaning the combat quickly starts to take place on rooftops from which you can jump and pound down onto clueless enemies.
Correct use of the Nano suit will easily allow you to win in a simple two guys running at each other situation but using it to constantly move, change height and sneak adds a huge element of tactics not present in other games. Its a relief to see Crytek UK focusing on what makes Crysis unique rather than chugging out bog standard multiplayer support, here’s hoping the other map design and weapon options don’t suffer because of this.
Continue →Kinect Launches to Mixed Reviews
The European launch of the Xbox 360 Kinect is nearly here. Next Wednesday, Irish gamers will finally get their hands on Microsoft’s “revolutionary” new hardware, with its makers anxiously looking on hoping for high early adoption rates. With a marketing budget exceeding that of the Xbox 360 itself, Kinect represents Microsoft’s biggest and boldest move since it launched the original Xbox all those years ago.
So is it any good? Right now the answer depends entirely upon who you ask. More and more reviews have begun to trickle out from gaming’s most trusted sources, with verdicts tending to vary greatly from source to source. Kinect’s best reviews have labeled the device as revolutionary, magical and “a joy to use”. The worst: “limited”, with “plenty of growing up to do”.
Somewhat predictably, mainstream media have been blown away by the new system. USA Today drew that old Minority Report comparison we’ve been hearing since Kinect was first announced, heralding the device as both “surreal” and “marvellous”. Perhaps the most enthusiastic comments were made by the New York Times, which promised a “crazy, magical, omigosh rush the first time you try the Kinect”.
With a launch line-up aimed at a very specific (read: casual) market, it’s easy not to get too excited by Microsoft’s latest effort. This coupled with the device’s prohibitively high price will lead many gamers to ignore Kinect entirely, at least for the time being. However, with Christmas just around the corner it’s hard to imagine Kinect’s initial sales as being anything other than perfectly healthy.
Kinect’s weak launch line-up does little to convey just how much Microsoft’s new motio-tracking camera is truly capable of. From here on it’s up to both first and third-party publishers to release games that live up to and exceed all expectations. Though the reviews vary greatly, virtually all arrive at the same conclusion: Kinect has enormous potential, and only time will tell just how “revolutionary” this new hardware will prove to be.
Chronic Reload will eventually review Kinect… maybe if there’s a pricedrop or if we visit a beautiful family who have one… and a white house with lots of space
Continue →Patrick Liu Interview, Medal of Honor Multiplayer Producer
Patrick Liu
While on a quick trip to show off Medal of Honor’s Multiplayer to Ireland, I had a chance to sit down with its Producer Patrick Liu from Dice. here’s what he had to say concerning Medal of Honor’s Game modes, harking back to the old school and truely balanced gameplay. Check back soon for our own hands on impression of the game.
Chronic Reload: Was the community feedback from the Beta what you were expected or did it take things in a different direction?
Patrick Liu: Most of the stuff was expected, the cry for more recoil thing was not so much, at first we wanted to make a game that was more accessible but obviously people wanted something more of a hardcore game and we’re fine with that! We love that and we did that!
CR: You’ve mentioned how your basic deathmatch mode, Team Assult harks back to old school level design, what aspects do you think have been lost now that maps have become more objective based?
Patrick Liu: Its a lot of different aspects but the flow of the map, you know, the pacing and balance between the different teams. Where they spawn, how they spawn and when they spawn. And the whole vertical gameplay, just looking at some of the stuff we have, the vertical gameplay has been lost in many ways, maybe you have a tower or a ledge that you can grab onto but its not like your navigating complex geometry in a virtual space. Map knowledge, knowing your map, anticipating where your enemies are going to be, you know, being able to shoot a few shoots around a corner where your enemies going to pop up, stuff like that.
Chronic Reload: Being based around games that are 4/5 minutes long is Object Raid is there more of a demand for games that can be quickly played?
Patrick Liu: With the game modes we want to make sure there is something for everyone in terms of how quick it is to get into it, how quick it is to get out of it, how much it plays on skill or how tactical it is. I would say that Object Raid is one end of the scale while Combat Mission is on the other.
Chronic Reload: Speaking of Combat Mission, in terms of telling a story where one team has to win and the other has to loose how do you find a balance in that?
Patrick Liu: I think if you look at other games with asymmetric game modes I think its somethings people accept that you have to be the opposing force. We have story telling for both teams, there’s voice over, what they’re telling each other, there’s a context to what they’re referring to.ts very specific, go take that helicopter to the left of the hill or whatever, so its not generic voice over. There’s the whole environment, whats happening and there’s actually different end scenes for the map depending on who wins, hold off the attackers and you get your own cut scene.
Chronic Reload: Moving on to Hard Core Mode do you think there’s more of a call these days for a less is more approach, taking away the HUD ext?
Patrick Liu: I think so! I think that myself and I think we are seeing a lot of other games going in the other direction still but I’m an old school gamer myself and I prefer the old ways. (Laughs)
Chronic Reload: Last Question, with a lot of games these days being similer in tone and style what makes Medal of Honor different from Bang Bang Shooty Shooty 7?
Patrick Liu: That’s a good way of putting it… That’s another thing I’ve mentioned, going back to be more old school and more scaled back, really to have truly balanced weapons, that no one weapon is over powered while more importantly no weapon is underpowered either. Everything matters, everyone is on the same playing field, its you and your skill and your gun that matters, its not the gear that you have unlocked, of course the variety in the game modes. We are very confident in our studio that we have awesome multiplayer games.
Continue →Preview: Dance Central
There’s just no way to talk about Dance Central without mentioning a certain E3 demo, so lets just get that out of the way now.
Dance Central, the new game from Harmonix, creators of the original Guitar Hero and Rock Band is really the only Kinect Game that has enough depth and features to really show Kinect fully implemented in a proper game rather than a collection of mini games. It’s goal? As shown in the video above, to teach ANYONE to dance.
Continue →// Chronic Authors
Stephen Colfer (143)
Neil Fitzpatrick (13)
Chris Slack (10)
Ruairi Burns (6)
Paddy Dunne (6)
// Latest Comments