Posts Tagged ‘Sequel’

Of course they’ll make another game in the Red Dead series. The thing’s coming up on selling 7 million units! You don’t just let that sit around. So with the first game being Red Dead Revolver, and this one ending in Redemption, it’s always fun to guess what a subtitle might be called when the ol’ numbering system isn’t used. Not a crucial detail, no, but one of those fun speculations that it certainly doesn’t hurt to wonder about.

If a drunken fellow who’s “a services provider currently working on some early technical work” for the next game is to be trusted, the next game may well be called Red Dead Revolution. It’s not the first the title’s been heard, as it was the initial name for the now-beloved Redemption. On that note, it could well be a project name and nothing more. Odds are we won’t learn anything for a good while, so let the guessing continue.

Also, between this and the whole leaked iPhone 4 debacle, it’s hard to hope that my next bar visit leads me to a drunken employee from Valve who’s been hard at work on Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

That VideoGame Blog

The idea of North Korea invading the US and killing most of the population is terrible, sure, but if it leads to me getting to control a drone equipped with a rocket launcher, I’d probably leave the door open for ‘em.

Of course I’m joking, but only because Homefront has beaten me to the punch, but we’ll get to that. You’ve probably heard from developer Kaos Studios by now that this is an FPS with a heart, or rather one that wants to break yours. Homefront draws up the scenario where the Koreans have indeed invaded the US seventeen years from now, and what’s left of American life (at least from what we can see) has been forced into a small housing area, hiding away from the Korean iron grip.

This is where our Gamescom demo (played by the PC SKU team) starts. Our character, Jacob, wakes up to the warm welcome of his Captain, the father figure kind; it’s clear that Homefront wants you to care for its characters so you shed that tear when they inevitably die in a bit. On his feet and ready to roll, Jacob walks outside to discover the American dream… not quite. A small suburban area has been taken over by resistance fights and refugees, creating a safe haven according to the Cap’. Of course we’re willing to bet this place is ‘safe’ until the penultimate level of the game, but for now we’re at ease.

The developer takes his time to look around a surprisingly positive scene. For the situation they’re in, people sure are happy, and children’s laughter can be heard in the background as they play. For a second, we thought we might have stepped into the wrong booth and were looking at a revolutionary sequel to The Sims, but the stark contrast of the next scene is soon to prove we’re in the right place.

Having seen everything there is in this paradise, we meet a few of our comrades before we’re handed a rifle and led down a secret passage. It’s time to leave the good life behind and get shooty.

The game cuts to a scene overlooking a car park outside a super market. We’re armed with a scoped rifle, aiming at a squad of troops from the Great Korean Republic who calmly patrol the area. Much to their (and admittedly our) surprise, a van bursts through the park gates and collides with a parked vehicle. Music blares from within, and flames seep out of the sides. We’re as confused as the Koreans for a second, until the Napalm comes in, drenching our enemy in flames. We almost begin to smile before we realise we really shouldn’t; the men caught in the flames are screaming in pain, and the female soldier next to us begs us to use the rifle to put them out of their misery.

One of the tougher soldiers on the radio orders us to let them burn, but the dev shows them mercy anyway, taking them out with his rifle. We’re already engrossed in the action; competent graphics and incredible sound make sure of that, so it throws us off a bit when a misfire flings Jacob from his position. He gets up (even though we’re fairly sure he shouldn’t be able to) and begins to make his way through the flames to the other side, accompanied by the female soldier from before.

Kaos throw a lot at you here, keeping a very cinematic feel as cars explode and throw you back to the floor. Eventually we make it to the tower on the other side, but it isn’t long before that’s toppled over too. We’re now absolutely certain that Jacob should be dead, but we forget all about that when he starts using the Goliath. What’s the only thing better than a weapon that fires lots missiles? A remote controlled drone that fires lots of missiles of course, and that’s exactly what the Goliath is.

The battle has turned all the way up to eleven now; as we throw down rockets, bullets whizz past our head and explosions flicker in the background. We find ourselves surprised when the demo ends as it’s hard to pull yourself out from the killer atmosphere and return to sounds that don’t deafen your ears, and look at people that aren’t trying to kill you.

Of all the games that were on show in Germany, Homefront was one that stood out. It might be for the focus on story, it might be for the production values, or it could just be because we love a good shooter, but we’ll definitely be keeping tabs on this one until release next year.

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Next year’s The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is set to outdo its 2007 predecessor in a number of quite noteworthy ways; as explained during developer CD Project RED’s Gamescom gameplay demonstration last week, the second game has been improved and added to in pretty much every way possible, one of those being how it ends.

According to CD Project, players of the choice and consequence-focused RPG will be able to wrap up their journey in a number of different ways, as the game sports 16 different conclusions; quite jump from the first’s 3.

In addition, the game will have 3 openings and double the cut-scenes with triple the length.

Another number of interest, this time for its much smaller value, is the amount of loading screens players will be presented with. While the first game did so approximately 700 times, the sequel will interrupt gameplay with a loading screen a mere 4 times. This thanks to TSOOD — The Witcher 2‘s game engine that took 20 programmers and 3 years to create — which the developer considers to be “the best RPG engine in the world.”

“There are not too many RPG engines on the market, and we know that our one the best one so far, definitely,” a company rep said during the demo.

“We have tools for each one of the members of our team. Even the guy that puts plants on the locations has his own tool. We don’t want people to struggle with tools that are not for them, we want them to have their own. And our engine has dozens of tools, which is really RPG ready because it is an RPG engine.”

Added a second presenter: “We want to focus on making the game. We don’t want to play with the tools too much. We just want to make a good RPG.”

The Witcher 2, aka “the best-looking RPG you’ve ever seen,” is scheduled to ship early next year for PC, with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions expected to follow at a later time.

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Star Wars fans won’t have to wait until The Force Unleashed II‘s October 26 release to get a taste of the sequel. That’s because LucasArts will be releasing a pre-launch demo that will give a similar hands-on preview to the one attendees of Gamescom in Germany got.

The demo will let players control Starkiller and his multitude of force powers as he escapes clone headquarters on Kamino via a TIE Fighter hijacking. If you’ve seen Attack of the Clones, you know that an escape from Kamino would likely give Starkiller quite a few Jango Fett clones to battle. Let’s hope they’re not fully trained by the time the demo is released in the near future.

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Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and creative man Michael Ancel are on the same page: Beyond Good & Evil 2 must be one helluva good game.

Speaking at Gamescom in Germany today, Guillemot reassured that the MIA sequel to the much loved 2003 fantasy action-adventurer is still very much in development, and echoed creator Ancel’s words from July; the sequel is to be “perfect”.

“What is very important with this next product is that it will be perfect,” the executive told Kotaku, adding that Ancel’s “intention is to come [out] with something really exciting.”

“But everybody needs a little bit of patience.”

And so we wait.

That VideoGame Blog