Ok so before I go on I have a confession to make, back last year I was going quite mad over the release of Prototype. I was genuinely excited about the game and the sand box possibilities that the game had. I really couldn’t wait to play it. But as I was skint uni student at the time and then people saying it wasn’t that great. I never got to play Prototype and still haven’t to this day. I Know it is a bit pathetic and I do plan to get it as one of my next games even though it has been slated a bit.

The fantastic thing though is that I do have plenty of time to play the game. A week last saturday was the Spike TV Video Game Awards in the US (or VGA’s for short). and a couple of announcements were made at the ceremony. Prototype 2 was announced at the VGA’s meaning that despite the not so hot reviews of the first game Radical Entertainment are going forth with the second installment in the franchise.

Not much is know about the game thus far. We do know that we are going to have to wait till the year of the olympics to get our hands on Prototype 2. So about 2012 we will see the game come to home consoles. But don’t fret because a teaser trailer has been released, which tells us quite a lot about how the story is going to pan out.

What I already like about this game is the fact you are out to destroy the protagonist from the first game, that is a nice touch that games don’t really do lately. True Fist Of The North Star let you unlock the main bad guy Raoh and his story was just to destroy everyone. But this seems quite in-depth, and to have a whole game dedicated to ending the hero of the first game something I am liking a lot. But will he finish his mission? Or will he tem up with Alex? and will the game play improve? These questions will be answered and more as I get them.

Right I’m gonna see if I can get my mitts on the first game.

Garv.

]]> http://www.plusxp.com/2010/12/what-we-know-about-prototype-2/feed/ 1 http://www.plusxp.com/2010/07/my-sandbox-heaven/ http://www.plusxp.com/2010/07/my-sandbox-heaven/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:04:15 +0000 Leon http://www.plusxp.com/?p=4277

I can have quite high expectations when it comes to games, and Sandbox titles are one of the genres which I find hardest to be satisfied with. While most of my favourite elements within them have been done before, I often find that most sandbox titles will contain some of the elements that I enjoy, yet fail to meet my expectations elsewhere. Perhaps this is simply a matter of developers allocating their priorities to one area over another, or maybe they just think that their games will feel complete without them.

Regardless, I have seen all of the elements for my perfect sandbox titles done well in one game or another, so I believe that one day I may finally see them put together in a game that I cannot fault – but perhaps it’s little more than a dream.Assassin’s Creed II and Red Dead Redemption have done well, both keeping me entertained from start to finish, but there’s always that feeling that my desire for the ultimate sandbox title will ultimately keep me waiting forever. So, to at least give an idea of what I’d really like to see – I present, my own personal sandbox heaven. Prepare for a long one, this is something I’ve had on my mind for a while…

The World
Most similar to: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Just Cause 2

Obviously, the world of a sandbox title is one of the most important features – a dull city makes for uninteresting sights and tedious travelling – and landmarks are important for getting a general feel of the area without having to consult the map every other minute. I do think a sky-scraper filled city is a good area for an open world, giving a game some height for good platforming and variety – but I also think it’s important that the game should have varied locations to keep things interesting. GTA: San Andreas did this well, having three city-type areas, mixed in with plenty of open wilderness to explore – while Just Cause 2 is a prime example of how breathtaking the more natural environments can be when done right.

The Character
Most similar to:  Assassin’s Creed II

As much as I enjoy my own personal character (Crackdown 2), I do think that the lead character of a sandbox title should be a pre-defined protagonist, such as Ezio from Assassin’s Creed, John Marston from Red Dead Redemption. Why? Because a character that is integral to the plot means that their motives, personality and backstory are much deeper, and can be entwined with the story in a much more believable way. Although character creation is enjoyable, the character is then detached from the story, allowing the game to progress in much the same way regardless of your personal choice of character. However – as sandbox games often give you a feeling of “living” the life of the character, it’s nice to see a bit of customisation – such as clothing or armour choices, whilst keeping the character’s personality in tact.

The Plot
Most similar to: Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto IV

Going hand-in-hand with the character, the plot is another important aspect to me. Most sandbox games follow the ideal of exploring the world at your leisure, and then progressing the story as you take on the plot-based missions at your leisure. This is the best way to deal with storyline in these titles – so I don’t think it would need to change. However, I do think it’s important that although a good plot is important, there must be a feeling that you can do other things between missions – there’s nothing worse than a sandbox game that makes you feel as though every upcoming mission is urgent. I mean, give us time to explore and enjoy the world – allow some quiet times between our protagonist’s endeavours to relax. Ideally, a sandbox story should take place over at least a few weeks, if not more.

The Combat
Most similar to:  Devil May Cry

Now, this is the area in which I personally find most sandbox titles lacking to my tastes. If you look into these titles, the vast majority are ranged combat-based titles – Grand Theft Auto, Just Cause 2, Red Dead Redemption, Crackdown. Sure, there’s a melee button in most of these games, but who wants to repeatedly see the same punch or combo over and over? Even Prototype, which tried to incorporate melee combat disappointed me – although it had the amazing concept of being able to shape shift body parts into swords or clubs, the gameplay itself felt sloppy and not fine-tuned. Assassin’s Creed managed to have nice-looking swordplay, but in the end offered little challenge when you realise that almost every enemy can be one-hit killed with a fairly simple counter. While gunplay like GTAIV and RDR‘s could hold their own in comparison to other third person shooters, I’ve never seen a sandbox title with combat that could come close to titles such as Devil May Cry, God of War, Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta. There’s no logical reasoning for this, many of these titles involve battles in wide open spaces with hoardes of enemies – so why not in the streets of an open world? Surprisingly, the Spider-man games are probably one of the better titles when it comes to melee combat in this genre, with a mix of combos and attacks, but that’s not saying much. This is probably my biggest wish for a sandbox title – to give me combat on par with Devil May Cry.

The Enemies
Most similar to:  Prototype, Devil May Cry

Personally, I have no love for getting randomly shot at no matter where I run – so gun-weilding opponents aren’t my favourite. Whereas gun-based enemies are done well in some titles (i.e. RDR), other titles merely give the feeling that you’re constantly getting hailed by fairly annoying (and non-fatal) bullets, which wont stop until you mow each one down by pointing at them one by one and holding down the trigger. Now, I’m not saying it’s all bad, but when playing games like Crackdown I get absolutely no satisfaction from killing enemies whatsoever – it doesn’t feel like a challenge, and to be honest the AI is completely dull – as I watch each one of them stand still out in the open practically begging to be shot.

Obviously, as I stated that I’d like to see a more close-quarters based combat system, it would be important to have enemies to match. Now, this is one of the most important aspects, and again I think it would be best to take a page out of the book of games such as Devil May Cry and Bayonetta. The way this works is to roughly have a few different types of enemy.

The first is your basic cannon-fodder. These (a little like the Freaks in Crackdown), are relatively simple opponents that serve little threat and offer more in the way of combos, and stress relief. Generally, the main threat with this type of enemy is simply in number. These types of enemies aren’t the best, but when paired with stronger enemies will keep you on your toes.

The second are your threats. These are generally stronger, faster and smarted than your average enemy, but in fewer number. As these are able to kill you if you don’t act, they’re the type of enemy you’ll need to focus on, or run away from if you get low on health. Prototype had a few good enemies such as this, big beefy creatures that could seriously hurt you, and were also able to hunt you down as they were fast enough to chase you across the city.

Then we have bosses. These are generally huge creatures which you fight one-on-one. Although it could be cool to have one or two in the city itself, a better way of doing so would be to contain them in enclosed areas within buildings or underground. Good bosses often work well with the area in which they are fought, as enclosed spaces make them more of a threat and you won’t find yourself simply being able to keep your distance and pick them off with projectiles.

The Travelling
Most similar to: Prototype, Grand Theft Auto IV

Getting around the world is another important aspect, and there are many ways of doing so. Grand Theft Auto focuses on vehicles, Crackdown allows you to jump and run higher and faster as you grow, and Prototype and Spider-man allow you to scale walls at high speeds. Although it’s important to be able to move around quickly, having inhuman power like the Spider-man games can cause you to quickly lose scale of the world and it can lose depth. Prototype did a good job with this – allowing you to gradually become more fluid and agile, but still keeping the city feeling vast and realistic.

The Side Stuff:
Most similar to: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Red Dead Redemption

This is the last area I want to talk about, but to me it’s a biggie. Alongside the main plot and objectives of an open-world game, the world really needs to feel as though it’s alive and actually has stuff going on. Sure, Red Dead Redemption had shoot-outs and missions etc, but if you wander about the various towns you get a real sense that people are living rather than randomly walking around aimlessly – there are bars where you can buy a drink or play gambling games, you can spend your cash on weapons, items or property, and it really doesn’t feel as though there’s anything missing.

While games like Crackdown and Prototype feature full open cities, when you get to the detail it’s easy to realise that all the buildings are little more than lifeless blocks, and aside from the core gameplay the world has little to offer if you want to do something else. GTA: San Andreas offered the most side events that I’ve seen, with companies to take over, shops to browse, vehicles to unlock - enough to keep me entertained for hours without actually progressing in the story in any way. In GTAIV, however – I ended with a whole load of cash, yet Niko still lived the life of a pauper. If you’re going to let us make a lot of money – give us some ways to spend it!

So there you have it – all the aspects of my own personal sandbox heaven. Rockstar are particularly good at making such titles, with Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto being amongst my favourite titles. But really, I’d like to see some sort of Devil May Cry/sandbox hybrid – give me a demon hunter taking down devils in the streets, clearing out nests of monsters, taking on various missions whilst being hunted by dark creatures, taking an infested city and building up an empire out of the ruins, all whilst stopping some demonic conspiracy to end the world. That would be my sandbox heaven.

-Leon

For me they are my escapism from the world. But i know not all games are going to be perfect. I learnt this a while ago when i first played GTA 3. pure perfection i thought. But then there were the bugs that come with it as with any other game really, but i learnt to look past the bugs and what the game lacked and enjoyed the game for what it was.

When i review games i try to look past the bugs which other people get hung up on, look past the elements of the game which could have been and actually review the game for what it is. Time over time i see critics saying the game should have this that and the other and not actually seeing what they have in front of them. This is why to this day i still think GTA san andrease took what the fans and the critics said and took it too far. They said ok we will cram everything in. and to be honest for me at least, the game just seemed to cluttered.

Where am i going with this? Well for a couple of weeks/months now i have been following updates on prototype pretty much religiously, scanning IGN and gametrailers for the latest game play movies and stuff and to me this game look the dogs danglers. Over the top combat with wall running and insane bosses coupled with a three way war makes me go all giddy. I’ll let the videos show you what i mean:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V129-5QK86o]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1uzK1W_m8M]

How awesome does that look? I’ve showed these videos to a couple of people and they have picked holes….already! I’m like what the hell? how can you pick holes in that hasn’t you mind been blown away?

With things like this i just have to ask myself. Are people expecting the perfect game when it comes to games like this? Or am i just too easily excited by shiny things?

For me GTA 3 was the best game ever.

Then there was GTA Vice City, GTA San andrease and GTA IV, Also not forgetting vice city stories and liberty city stories. These were all well and good, letting you kill for fun if your board of the story line, giving you that sense of freedom to do pretty much what the heck you want.

Then you started to get the GTA clones. The getaway which i never played was apparently as good as GTA 3 if not better. But after doing some research that game failed due to its lack of open world sandbox game play.

Then there was true crime streets of LA. Which i did play, it was not bad to play but lacked what GTA had, and that was the griminess, the smoother graphics and the atmosphere of being able to do what you want. I dunno if people agree with me here but GTA 3 felt inviting as an open world where as true crime had an atmosphere as such that pretty much told you to do missions.

That’s how i felt anyway

Then the next gen games kicked in bringing GTA IV which was outstanding and still is. And saints row and saints row 2. Again, not my cup of tea. The saints row games were to ‘ghetto’ and ‘in da hood ‘for me (this is why i wasn’t really a big fan of GTA san andrease) and to me the colour choice for the game was too bright for the subject matter. In some ways Saints row was trying too much to be like the original 3d sandbox that is GTA 3. With the mute for a lead character and the simple game play which lets you run a muck every now and then. But trying to improve it as well which for me at least just failed.

What am i getting at with this? Well the bottom line really is if i wanna great sandbox game to do hat i want i stay loyal to GTA and GTA only… Well until now.

Last week i picked up a copy of Crackdown for no money at all and until now i never thought a game could equal GTA as a great addictive sandbox game. But crackdown has it. Best way to describe it is it has all the charm of GTA3 but on acid! 

You can level up your character in ares of skill shooting, strength, driving, agility and explosives and the greater these get the more powerful and damn right crazier your character gets, before long you can jump buildings and throw lorries at people. Its truly a different kettle of fish! even though it is a cell shaded game using bright colours. It suits that game because it is so over the top.

After plaything crackdown it got me thinking yet again about Prototype. Leon kindly gave Plus XP an up date about the game and i haven’t stopped thinking about it. The souped up powers you get with your character much like crackdown. But at the same time there is a war going on with a virus that takes over people, the army and your character. The 3 way war between these 3 elements really almost makes me salivate. 

So will Prototype live up to my expectations? or will i just stick to crackdown for my over the top open world fun? We will probably find out in a month or so.

Garv!

The concept – you are some kind of lab experiment gone AWOL, named Alex, and you don’t know what’s going on – only that you have some godly powers and people want to catch you. Add in the fact that the city is getting overrun with zombie-like infected creatures and we have good basis. The idea is that you can shape shift in various ways, and absorb DNA from anyone in the city to gain powers and memories, shaping your character into an unstoppable beast with superhuman powers.

Sounds awesome doesnt it? I’ve always thought – I’d love a free roaming 3rd person action game and here it is, staring me in the face, so why am I not more excited? Its a fear of disappointment. The reasons for this arent totally unfounded, as I have seen, time and again, games companies making claims they cannot live up to.  So, here are my major concerns:

• Taking DNA from *anyone*. From a gamers point of view, this gives the impression of limitless customisation and powers – I see myself absorbing person after person getting power after power, allowing me to create a wolverine-tpye character whose near invincible with claws, an Iceman-esque character surfing around on pillars of ice, or blasting through enemies with laser eyes. But we have two possible issues here, Either:1) There wont be such a big range as they make out – often “limitless” combinations are more along the lines of “limitless, but theyre all virtually the same” – would you like green claws or red ones, sir? Or getting different length claws, or simply different powers that all do the same thing, just with different appearance.or

  2) There will be a huge range of powers, but they will be very clunky and programmed badly, since the company cant possibly have had the ability to program hundreds of different powers effectively and with a lot of attention to detail.

  Now, apparently there will be at least 750 unique combinations, but when you realise how quickly combinations build up, thats not necessarily as much as it sounds. Say you have 10 abilities, and 4 ability slots. Combining those ten abilities  into different combinations of four could actually amount to a LOT of combinations – I cant say I’ve worked out the exact figures but 10 abilities could account for more than 40 combinations. Not necessarily as much as it sounds, in perspective.

• The open world gameplay – sure, I’m sure itll be a nice big area, but will there be anything to do? People who have played games such as Spiderman 3 will know that even though a map is big, its not necessarily interesting – what will there be to do? What will there be to find? Personally, as much as I like the idea of free roaming, the world needs to be more than a static open arena with nothing to do but fight – for as with real life, theres more to do in the streets than attack people and steal their DNA. You can supposedly shapeshift into civilian disguises, so what can we do whilst acting “normal” other than walk around without getting attacked?
• Open ended story – now this we don’t know much about. This could be the make or break of the game – apparently as you absorb abilities you find things out, supposedly some sort of conspiracy behind everything. I cant say much about it – but all I can say is that open ended stories often suffer from loss of detail, and missions that are impersonal to your game as to incorporate it into the story no matter which path you take.

Now, by saying these things I’m not saying the game is doomed – I’m simply saying that the game claims it can do a lot, but taking on the sheer amount of things they say it can could likely mean that other aspects of the gameplay have taken a back seat, and we could be left with an open world killing generic enemies and doing nothing else.

Now, that was the “worst case scenario” view. But now let’s look at the positives. Believe it or not, I’m actually getting a bit excited for this game.

I love the idea of free roaming and running amok – as much as the Spiderman games managed to get boring, there was something satisfying about traversing a city with superhuman powers.  I believe at one point I even saw a clip where you could fly – sounds pretty cool to me, the possibilities are amazing – you could swoop down, grab an unsuspecting enemy and take him to the skies, forcing him to give you information or threaten to let him plummet to his death – or use stealth to break into the enemy base, assassinate their leader and watch them all go into disarray as their organised system collapses – perhaps assume the identity of the army general yourself and command the army to do your bidding. But at the moment thats all just me dreaming.

One aspect that does sound good is the fact that it has coop mode. Full 2 player coop mode allowing two prototypes to do everything together – personally this is something that really does appeal to me, this seems to be the kind of game that would incorporate this rather well, especially if you can customise yourselves to be essentially two unique entities with different powers – have one player wielding bladed hands, assaulting soldiers from the sky, whilst the other uses his powers to bludgeon tanks to death with his bare hands.

Hopefully we’ll see some decent missions in here – killing things is all well and good, but I’d like to see some variation. Perhaps chasing a helicopter through the city, or saving people from near death situations (if you so choose). The stealth aspect intrigues me greatly – I’ve seen plenty of clips of all out assaults, but I would love to see some missions where you can take down a squad in stealh, picking them off one at a time whilst remaining completely unseen, as they go about their business – not knowing you are there at all.

Apparently you *can* take the form of a higher ranked officer in order to access restricted areas, order soldiers to kill other soldiers (on grounds of blaming them to be Alex), or order some kind of airstrike – so this is a ray of hope, that hopefully will expand into a host of other special abilities depending on whose form you take. I have yet to see whether or not Alex has any type of gunplay skills when taking the form of a soldier or other armed characters, but that could be a nice touch.

So there you have it. Prototype looks interesting, and I’m actually rather looking forward to it, in the end if I can fly around a city, leaping from building to building and absorbing people for more powers it cant be a bad thing. Doubly so in two player co-op. I just hope that the game has some depth, and that the gaming gods havent handed this task to men who are not up to the challenge of building something so monumental.

-Leon

OUT NOW:

Ninja Blade: As i am a hack and slash nut this one will come to no surprise. After playing the demo. I was quite impressed with it. I was initially thinking it was gonna be a ninja Gaiden knock off but i was pleasantly surprised. The use of weapons, quick time events and platforming did impress me.

Gears Of War 1 and 2: I was a fool. I had gears of war 1 once it was amazing but i got rid of it so i could get y greasy mitts on another game, which i cant remember off the top of my head. Everyone is playing Horde made on GOW 2 and GOW 2 does look amazing. 3rd person shooter aren’t really my thing but GOW does them justice!

Left 4 Dead: Just for on-line really. One of those game i would rather ind in a bargin bin somewhere so i can play my mates on live with it. Played it once, thought it was a good game for what it was, but i can assure you i want be buying i for the single player experience

Fear 1 and 2: This may sound peculiar to some of you but my Girlfriend likes watching me play games. We both went though bioshock together. And now we have both seen odds and ends of FEAR we want to put the 2 games trough their paces. Dont you jut love relationships

COMING OUT THIS YEAR: (this is where the good bit is :p)

Guitar Hero Metallica 29/05/2009 : It still annoys me that a load of Americans are playing this game right now probably as i type seeing as they got it in march. But us EU fans are still twiddeling our thumbs for this gem of a game. We have already had a taste when we downloaded the GH metallica demo. But i want more. Me being an avid metallica and GH fan this is the music game of my dreams so far, a host of great metallica songs coupled with the option t play as the band makes me happy

Prototype 12/06/2009 : I love GTA, Zombies are great too. super powers are awesome and generally causing destruction around the city of new york is my cup of tea. When i first heard of prototype i was a bit sceptical. But as i have been looking at news and videos my expectations of the game have grown. the ability to mould Alex how you ant him looks great. I really cannot wait for this one.

Batman: Arkham Asylum 19/06/2009 : As far as comic book games go. None have really stood out to me. I was a tad excited about spider man web of shadows but that didn’t last long. So what is Arkham Asylum different? Well for me it how grimy, dark and deliciously evil it looks. It also has the joker. This game is definitely targeted at an older audience just highlighting the fact that batman isn’t just for kids. I have high hopes, reminds me a little of manhunt so should be fun.

Tales of Vesperia 03/07/2009 : One of the few games i enjoyed on the Game cube was tales of symphonia. Ok i didn’t play the game all th way through but when i did play it on coop round my mates house i was impressed. The 360 is still in need of a decent long RPG. Granted fable was good i wont knock that but we need a game with a party and 50 hours of game play. :p Blue dragon got boring after a while. So why is TOV on my wanted list? well if its anything like the cube game i will be plenty happy!

Wolfenstien 28/08/2009 : Yay! was my first reaction when the classic wolfenstien series was announced a come back to the 360. First FPS I played. Surprisingly enjoyed the return to castle wolfenstien on the original Xbox so i have high hopes for this game. It will be lik horde mode on call of duty WAW but better seeing as its got a whole game around it. Even thinking about the game makes me happy.

Halo 3 – ODST 25/09/2009 : Me being a huge Halo 3 nut! (Even my xbox ix covered in cammo Green with halo scrawled on it) This is one of my must haves of the year. Its pitting you against he covernant as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) so you wont have your spartan armour. This is going to be a great game because it will focus’s more on survival and tactics. Cannot wait! And with new multi player to the halo 3 universe i think i may explode with excitement!

Bayonetta 25/09/2009 : Still a little sceptical. A game by sega and one of the brains behind devil may cry. Another hack and slash where you play as a witch who has magic hair and looks like a secretary combined with a dominatrix. Add some stilettos with gun attachments and nakedness when you perform uber attacks and you have a game…Will it flop? Will it be a pervs paradise? or will it be a greatly challenging and compelling game. Well one way to find out. Gonna have to wait though.

Bisoshock 2 30/10/2009 : Well if you haven’t been reading this blog let me point you here, here and here. Bioshock, one of the best FPS games ever made In my opinion and i greet the sequel with open arms. Playing as a big daddy 10 years after the events of bioshock 1? yes please

Max Payne 3 30/10/2009 : When this was announced I jumped for joy, The first gaming series to use bullet time and its coming back for this generation. I am stoked another 3rd person shooter game that does the genre justice. Great story and great game play from the firs 2 games lets see hat the 3rd installment has to offer.

2010:

Final Fantasy XIII : A must have RPG for any RPG fan out there with new improvements to game play and it being a part of square enix’s greatest RPG franchise. I simply cannot wait. As i aid before the 360 needs a good RPG

Dante’s Inferno : Hack ad slash, 7 circles of hell and a great poem i think  make a good game. From one of the makers of God Of War i am remaining positive that this game will be good. Take a look!

Well hopefully that’s given you a glimpse of whats to come. The release dates are subject to change and are a rough estimation.

Now i need cash and a job.

Anyone?

No?

Garv!

The game is based in newyork and is yet another sandbox game that is going to hit the market. How i see this game is a mixture of GTA IV with the huge potential Crack Down had.

I suggest you take a look for yourself:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/44140.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/44142.html

I am looking forward to this summe

Garv!