Report
5 CommentsMagical dinosaur adventures are a VR treat at E3
One of E3's best demos this year was shown, not on a glitzy mega-booth, but in a quiet back room, without fuss or fanfare."Back to Dinosaur Island 2" is a proof of concept virtual reality demo from Crytek, for its forthcoming game Robinson: The Journey. Shown on an Oculus Rift Crescent Bay prototype, it's the follow-up to a demo shown earlier this year.
Crytek rented a room in a quiet corner of the Los Angeles Convention Center to show a short demo to anyone who happened to pass and fancied spending ten minutes in the early Tithonian period.
That earlier GDC demo featured a terrifying T-Rex, sniffing around a player who had unwisely decided to camp in the vicinity of some giant eggs. While impressive, it was fairly static and kind of monotone blue-ish. By contrast, this new demo is a...
Report
23 CommentsYooka-Laylee isn't going to be a Banjo-Kazooie copy
Yooka-Laylee's entire reason-to-be is based on a desire to resurrect the spirit of 17-year-old 3D adventure Banjo-Kazooie. The game's successful Kickstarter campaign was almost entirely about Rare's classic platformer, and the Playtonic team's connection with that venerable game.So it's interesting to hear Yooka-Laylee's makers now going to some lengths to explain the many ways in which their game is not like Banjo.
"We're trying to make something fresh," says Grant Kirkhope, the BAFTA-winning composer of the game, who also created Banjo's superb soundtrack and audio effects. "It's not just a retro remake."
Obviously, Playtonic is made up of people who worked on Banjo and who loved making that game. The company is home to many former Rare creatives who are seeking to bring back some...
Report
16 CommentsWhat's going on with Fullbright's Gone Home follow-up Tacoma?
At E3 this week, Gone Home developer Fullbright announced that its next game, Tacoma, will debut on Xbox One and PC.Like Gone Home, the game takes place in an enclosed space, this time a near-future space station, rather than a 1990s family home. Tacoma — the name of the Earth-orbiting facility — was originally unveiled during The Game Awards 2014. A new trailer was released this week (below).
Gone Home was Polygon's Game of the Year in 2013, so we were glad to catch up with Fullbright co-founder and Tacoma story-editor Karla Zimonja at the bar during a recent E3 event, to find out how the project is coming along.
She said this game is a lot more challenging to make than Gone Home, due to the amount of research needed to understand the workings of space stations, while imagining a...
Report
17 CommentsAgent 47 is a sociopath with absolute power over a beautiful world
Agent 47 is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, a dead-eyed sociopath devoted entirely to the perfect execution of assassination, which is another word for murder.While you and I are sitting together in cozy armchairs, enjoying a nice glass of wine and a chat about football or the weather, Agent 47 is watching us, hiding behind the curtains, silent, patient, garrote in hand. This dude is an out-and-out nutcase.
Thankfully, when we encounter him in Hitman games, he is generally kept in front of us. If you absolutely must be in the general vicinity of this deranged serial killer, walking directly behind him is the safest place to be.
Were the camera to swing alarmingly across an arc of 180 degrees and point back towards us, Agent 47 might stop and slowly turn his head. He might appoint...
Report
6 CommentsHalo veterans form new studio to tackle 'new gaming technology'
Halo composer Marty O'Donnell and veteran Bungie designer Jaime Griesemer are teaming up to launch a new games studio.
Both O'Donnell and Griesemer were key personnel on the Halo series throughout the last decade. O'Donnell was fired from Bungie in 2014, prior to the release of Destiny. He subsequently filed a lawsuit against the company, which was recently settled. Griesemer departed Bungie in 2010 and has since worked at Sucker Punch as lead designer on Infamous: Second Son.
The new company is called Highwire, which O'Donnell said will focus on "new gaming technology." He said more announcements will be made later in the year.
Also joining Highwire as technical director is former Microsoft and Airtight Games man Jared Noftle.
After working for so many years at Bungie, O'Donnell...
Report
25 CommentsNeed for Speed lets you drive how you want, and future NFS games probably will too
Creating a new Need for Speed game presents an interesting challenge in that the franchise has never really been just one thing. Across 21 years and 22 games, Need for Speed has covered a lot of mileage, appealing to different kinds of gamers with different kinds of racing. The high-speed, arcade antics of Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit are barely even comparable to the more simulation-centered Need for Speed: Shift, for example.
With the 2015 approach to the series, simply titled Need for Speed, developer Ghost Games has found an interesting solution to solidifying the disparate goals the series has raced after in its lifetime. Instead of forcing players to drive one way or another, it's going to let you make the choice.
"We're going deeper into customization than we ever have...
Report
0 CommentsStarbreeze's Walking Dead VR experience is a stand-alone game and will support SteamVR
Though we got hands-on time with Overkill's surprise Walking Dead virtual reality experience earlier this week, we still had a lot of questions. Chief among them: How much does this demo actually represent the previously-announced Overkill's The Walking Dead?
Now we have the answer to that question, but it's still a little complicated.
"These two things are two completely separate things," says Starbreeze global brand director Almir Listo. "You have Overkill's The Walking Dead for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam, which is one game. Then you have this demo that is made for E3 that is its own game. These are two different entities. They will, however, share the same universe and the same storyline. However, one thing you'll experience in one of them, and you might not be able to...
Report
27 CommentsDICE has a third mystery game that it's not showing at E3
With the excellent-looking Mirror's Edge Catalyst and the long-awaited Star Wars Battlefront on display, DICE is one of the busiest developers at this year's E3. But that's not all the company has in the works.
In an interview with Polygon at E3, DICE general manager Patrick Bach let the news slip: "We have three projects in the works right now."
When questioned about that number, he laughed and asked, "Did I say that?"
There have been some rumors floating around about DICE's Los Angeles studio working on a secret project, possibly Battlefield: Bad Company 3. According to EA itself, the next Battlefield game will be released next year, between October and December — more or less a year after the Nov. 17, 2015 release date for Star Wars Battlefront.
The most recent Battlefield game, B...
News
6 CommentsJust Cause 3 goes nuts in Mediterranean; massive damage
Just Cause 3 has moments when all seems serene and beautiful, when it soars above sparkling seas with the wind in its hair. And then it floats gently towards the earth and turns into an absolute headcase. Like a ferocious animal in a tin box, Just Cause 3 bangs with all manner of violence. There's a part of you that wants to leave the beast well alone, but you know, sooner or later, you're going to unlatch the box and step well back.
What sets it apart from all those other deathly open-world maim-and-kill fantasies is that the whole spectacle is handled with a deft touch of humor and self-mockery. This is not a game that takes itself seriously at all.
It asks that you enjoy the slapstick of breaking things and people. Such a notion may seem contradictory, but there is a kinetic energy...
Report
157 CommentsSo, what exactly happens in No Man's Sky?
"People are asking, what the game is all about, what do you do," says Hello Games' Sean Murray.He perches on the edge of a leather chair, leaning into a TV screen where No Man's Sky's unmistakable hues are glowing. He is about to demo the game to me.
"Yes," I reply. "They are."
I've been wanting to play this game for a long time. I'm excited and I'm curious, but I'm also aware that this is a game that has revealed very little of itself to the world.
By virtue of appearing to be something that is highly original, from a developer that is outside the mainstream, No Man's Sky has accrued a following, as well as expectations. Since its first appearance back in 2013, it has presented itself as an entire universe of possibilities, an endless array of worlds, waiting to be discovered and...
Report
11 CommentsGuitar Hero Live wants to immerse you in music with always-on Guitar Hero TV
To hear Activision and FreeStyleGames tell it, everything in Guitar Hero Live — which launches Oct. 20 on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, as well as unspecified mobile devices — is designed with an eye toward the present and the future.Guitar Hero Live is built to take advantage of modern internet-connected gaming hardware; built to capitalize on new monetization methods; built for the way people consume music in 2015, as opposed to when the series debuted a decade ago. During a pre-E3 demo of the game in New York earlier this month, it became clear that that's a double-edged sword.
This demo focused on Guitar Hero TV, the half of Guitar Hero Live that isn't the standard campaign. GHTV is a live service with a full schedule of music "programming," and...
Report
3 CommentsSuperhot is a whirling ballet of bullets
A lot of people are looking forward to Superhot, which is due to launch later this year, not least the 12,000 Kickstarter backers who funded this curiously appealing game to the tune of $250K.Originally planned for Windows PC, Mac and Linux, the time-stop shooter will also simultaneously launch on Xbox One: this version is playable at E3 via the Microsoft booth.
The game is a minimalist shooter that offers 40 short and elegant action sequences, during which AI assailants attack the player with firearms.
Always in first-person, the player is armed, and not just with a gun. The central twist in Superhot is that the player stops time by ceasing to move. During this standing-still time, it is possible to aim weapons. With an Xbox One controller, aiming can take some getting used to, as a...
News
0 CommentsFIFA 16 is getting significant design upgrades
Late last month, Electronic Arts heralded the arrival of women's soccer as a big change coming to FIFA 16. But there are also many significant design tweaks and improvements coming to this year's game.The company announced at E3 today that it has significantly upgraded defensive AI, so that strikers will find it more difficult to game the system. Chief among these is a much smarter system for intercepting through-balls from the midfield.
I played a demo at a recent media event and found the alertness of AI players much enhanced and the overall experience greatly improved as a result. Players are less likely to stand around gawping as balls are played into open spaces, and are more likely to anticipate the sort of passes that we see in professional soccer all the time. They...
News
10 CommentsBig changes arrive on EA Sports' golf course with Rory McIlroy PGA Tour
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is, for all intents and purposes, a golfing reboot, an acknowledgement that this 25-year old series is ready for something new."We've started from scratch," said producer Ryan Ferwerda at a recent press event. "There's nothing left in here from the older games in the series."
It's the first time EA Tiburon has brought its golfing game to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and so, as you would hope, there are technological and visual improvements. Primary among these is that, when a player selects a course to play, the entire course loads, not just a single hole. This significantly reduces wait time between holes.
Players are offered three different ways to control their swing. The first is an arcade mode in which you flick the left stick back and forth to vaguely...
News
14 CommentsUnravel strings players along in a pretty 2D world of stone and water
Unravel is a 2D platformer featuring a cute character. Created by a small outfit based on the northeastern coast of Sweden, it's being published by Electronic Arts.There are three noteworthy aspects to Unravel, the first being a basic mechanic of guiding a central character whose body carries both the means to progress and a potentially fatal flaw. Yarny is made of twine and unravels as it moves, creating lines that players must use cleverly in order to solve the physical puzzles that impede progression. Loss of too much twine leads to an ultimate unraveling.
Secondly, this is a platformer with a big, mushy story that seeks to tug at those heartstrings. It is a game that seeks meaning in the physicality of its own setup.
Finally, it is a game about place. Northern Sweden is a land of...
