[Cross Platform] General Chat

Im surprised mordor is game of the year, decent game but a weak years overall i guess.

 

To be honest, the whole Game of the Year title is pretty much a joke anyway. As long as one random site or publication names your game as GotY then you can slap it on the re-release. That's pretty much why in any given year about 3 or 4 'Game of the Year' editions are released.


Anyway, I've got quite a few bits of news (including a possible Fallout 4 reveal next month), leaks, updates and so on



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Assassins Creed: Syndicate (formerly Victory)
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Ubisoft are set to to reveal the latest entry in the Assassins Creed franchise on Tuesday 12th May, at 5 p.m. UK time.

We already know that the game is set to take place in London during the Industrial Revolution, and via teaser material the main character is supposedly called Jacob Frye.

The official site is adding different images, teaser videos and so on in the build up to the reveal. Here's the two images from the site so far







Hopefully this is better than Unity, which was one of the most boring, pointless games I've ever played. The settings got potential, so hopefully it lives up to it.


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Batman: Arkham Knight
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Following last weeks announcement of the £35 Season Pass, Warner Bros. have revealed the first major story DLC for the upcoming game; an all new prequel campaign starring Batgirl (Barbra Gordon). The character Barbra Gordon (the daughter of Commissioner Gordon) has previously been featured in the series as Oracle.

Not much else has been revealed, but rumours are suggesting that the storyline for the DLC will be loosely inspired by the 'Killing Joke' graphic novel, which features the key moment in Batgirl's transition into the Oracle character.

Here's the promo image that was released

• Here's a run down of everything included in the Season Pass

• A video focusing on the voice actors of Arkham Knight has also been released

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t4zMxmMUQY[/ame]


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Destiny
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A Neogaf user has spotted a trademark listing for 'The Taken King', done by the by the attorney responsible for filing the trademarks of Destiny's previous DLC packs. The symbol in the image apparently bears resemblance to the symbols of 'The Hive' enemies from the game. Here's the image:



Previously a leak suggested that an upcoming expansion pack for Destiny entitled Comet: Plague of Darkness was due to release in September. Said expansion would offer new subclasses, weapon types, PvP maps, story missions and explorable areas (being large enough to also justify a physical release as well as a digital one).

Speculation/rumours currently suggest that 'The Taken King' trademark is the new title for this expansion, and will also be used as the subtitle for the Game of the Year edition. This edition will coincide with the release of the expansion pack and will include the two previously released DLC packs (The Dark Below & The House of Wolves) as well as the expansion itself.



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Disney Infinity 3.0
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One for people with kids.

This years edition has been revealed and will focus on Star Wars, but an Avengers: Age of Ultron playset (as well as some characters for Pixar's upcoming movie, Inside Out) will be available at release. Here's the trailer:


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWnA-yXUmJI[/ame]







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EA
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EA's fourth quarter earnings report has revealed that the new Mirrors Edge (and a new Plants vs Zombies) will be released between the 1st January & 31st March 2016.






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Fallout 4
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A German gaming site, PC Games, is reporting that Fallout 4 will be announced next month at E3. According to the site, a closed-doors (not show to the public) demo lasting between 20-30 minutes will be shown to the gaming press.

Speculation about Fallout 4 has been rampant since Bethesda announced in February that they're planning on holding there first ever E3 conference next month. Bethesda's invite to the event has added fuel to this





Of all of Bethesda's major series, Fallout is the only one not represented in the 'audience'. A theory on this absence is that Fallout isn't in the audience because they're up on the stage/part of the presentation.



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Far Cry 4: Complete Edition
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A Far Cry 4: Complete Edition has been announced and is due to release on the 19th June. This edition (which will not be available on Xbox, and won't be released in North America) contains the base game and all the DLC which is listed below

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Mortal Kombat X
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• Jason (from Friday the 13th) is now available to buy as DLC (he's included in the season pass). Here's a brief trailer showing off the character

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVLIgsf6qcs[/ame]

• Ed Boon, the co-creator of the series, has also hinted that the character Rain may be added as DLC in the future (as post season pass DLC)

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Sony
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• Sony have announced that they will not be holding a conference at Gamescom this year

• PlayStation 4 sales have surpassed 22.3 million (2 million have been sold in the UK)

• Sales of the PS4 are currently outpacing that of the PS2 (the highest selling console of all time) in comparison of first year sales, and is also challengin the Wii as the fastest selling console of all time

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Spark Unlimited
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Developers Spark Unlimited are closing their doors. The company who developed Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Lost Planet 3 and a few other games stated that their lack of desire to work in the mobile gaming market (which they've seemingly been forced into because there games were generally poorly received & didn't sell well) as being the main reason for their closure.



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Star Wars: Battlefront
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• It's been announced that the game will launch with 12 multiplayer maps, with 3 more to be added after release via DLC for free

• Some maps are tailored for large battles whilst others are designed for a more close quarter experience

• The game will not however feature ironsights (although some weapons have scopes), squads or classes

I've never really liked Star Wars, but I used to love Battlefront 2. This game however, isn't sounding too great at the moment. It looks nice, but it seems they're completely missing the mark when it comes to the actual gameplay side of things.



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The Elder a Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited
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A new trailer for the Elder Scrolls MMO has been released. The game is due out next month, and will no longer require a subscription fee

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYxYvQ8ieq4[/ame]




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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
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Ahead of the games release on the 19th, the developers have released a short video discussing some of the monsters that you'll come across.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yONdhPLOTH8[/ame]



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Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
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The standalone expansion to Wolfenstein: The New Order is now available to buy. Here's the launch trailer


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bsAooS-bxQ[/ame]

 

Shadow of Mordor was the highlight of the year for me, absolutely fantastic game. On the other hand, AC Unity was the biggest disappointment of perhaps any game I've played. Love the series and I really thought Unity would take it up a notch or two...but I still haven't completed the main campaign. I always get AC at Christmas and finish it within a week, but I don't think I've touched Unity since February.

Hopefully the new game is a big improvement, the setting really interests me.

Arkham Knight is going to be excellent, as is The Witcher 3. Can't wait for them.

 

Unity is just the culmination of everything wrong with the series post AC2. The lack of diversity in characters personality, the gradual move away from interesting villains, needless online integration in the singleplayer, absolutely dire modern day segments etc

In all honesty, unless you're concerned about not getting value from the game, I wouldn't even bother going back to finish it. I don't like being negative, but I've genuinely never played a more boring, meandering, ultimately pointless game than Unity. I appreciate that the non-numbered titles are meant to be to smaller, character driven stories, whilst the main entries are the games where the overall plot moves forward, but Unity couldn't even get that right.

• Arno was boring, and Ubisoft need to learn that not every single character needs to be Ezio. Connor was an interesting character, but got completely screwed over by the bad writing in AC3 (a game which challenges Mass Effect 3 for the biggest waste of potential I've ever seen)

• The Templar's are comically bad (although not quite the level of Revelations & Black Flag) and a far cry from the morally ambiguous group we saw in the original game, and the interesting (if a bit more generic evil) characters in 2

• Aimless, borderline cringey modern day segments (although in Unity there's barely any of this because they ran out of time)

• Potentially the biggest waste of an interesting historical setting in the series so far

• None of the side characters are even remotely likeable

I genuinely hope so. Victorian London has so much potential, and if they get it right it could easily be the best game in the series. I'm just hoping that someone somewhere has listened to the criticism from the last few games, and made an actual effort to address them.

I think it'll be a straight up fight between these two games, for Game of the Year. Unless Bethesda release Fallout 4 this year, I can't think of a single game that even looks in the same league as these two.

 

A lot of good points about Unity there. The first couple of hours in the game I was really excited, I liked the setting initially and the new mechanics were good. But for the size of the map and the number of areas, everywhere looks the same. There's no diversity. Agreed about the characters, they are far too boring to be interested in. The story was awful, from what I've played. Think I'm over halfway through and I don't even know what the story is, it just doesn't interest me at all.

Overall, it's been up and down for the series. AC2 was phenomenal, the two spin offs were also pretty good. Then AC3 was average at best, another boring protagonist. But Black Flag is probably my favourite out of them all. I know a lot of people think it isn't really an AC game, but just basically a pirate game with the AC brand attached. However, the setting was incredible. The sheer size of the map and the exploration was almost overwhelming. Plus it's stunning visually - and Edward Kenway is up there with Ezio in terms of the main characters.

Victorian London is a potentially great setting. Just hope they take time with the characters and plot. Now that they already have the new game mechanics, it should allow them more time and effort to work on those elements. Really hope Jack the Ripper is in the game in some way.

Agreed about the GOTY battle. Nothing so far this year is really going to challenge them - Bloodborne got great reviews but I doubt it will be up there. Fallout 4 getting released this year would be unreal, and not outwith the realms of possibility. Got a feeling Bethesda will pull something out of the bag this year.

 

Should make a new star wars bounty hunter would absolutely love a proper single player star wars
game



Also won't believe in fallout till I actually see it announced

 

The map was probably one of the worst parts of the game. It's big, but there's just nothing of interest going on. It's just filled to the brim with civilians who get in the way (which despite being a bit of a technical achievement, are only used to tried and fool people into thinking there's more going on in the map than they're actually is) and the occasional Parisian landmark; like you said the majority of areas are indistinguishable from each other.

Honestly by the time you reach the end of the game, the story hasn't really developed from the initial premise. There's only one sort-of good moment in the entire game, but they never really develop it. Part of the ending goes unexplained, and they leave Arno's character development until the end monologue (and it's still incredibly weak).

The one major annoyance I had with the story however (aside from the fact it's awful and a waste of the setting), was the complete absence of an important plot-line. I won't get in to details, as its a little bit spoiler-y, but apparently this plot, which is quite important to Unity, was covered in Rogue instead (which I'll never play unless it's ported to PS4).

I've played every game that they've released on the main consoles, with the exception of Liberation (which I always forget to buy when it's on sale) and Rogue (which I won't buy unless it's ported to the PS4). But in all honesty, I can only truly say that I've enjoyed maybe half the series (and even that's a push). It's mostly the fact that I'm a bit of a history geek that's keeping me in the series.


Assassins Creed

• Very, very repetitive

• To this day it still has some of the best writing for the Templar's. A lot of them were quite subdued, and perhaps not as memorable as what came after, but it's the only time where I felt the series allowed them to be somewhat sympathetic

• The city/world design in this game was also pretty good

• The best modern day segments

Assassins Creed 2

• Probably the best game in the series

• Ezio was a great character, and a good contrast to Altair. He had an actual character arc, something that very few would get in later games.

• The Templar's were a little more moustache-twirling evil, but the conspiracy itself was interesting

• The game mechanics were massively improved, addressing pretty much every criticism from the original game

• The story was good up until the ending, which I honestly believe started the decline of the series and completely destroyed the modern day segments

• Speaking of the modern day segments, they were alright in this game. The only negative was that it introduced the characters of Shaun & Rebecca, who are truly awful and cringey

• Withholding two of the memory sequences for DLC, and pretty much advertising the fact in game was poor

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood

• Not a bad game, just very bland

• The beginning was good, but the story never really hit the same heights afterwards

• Cesare Borgia was an alright villain, although the Templars were generally quite bland

• Introduced the synchronisation challenges during missions, which I absolutely despise

• Introduced the very dull, and really quite unnecessary, competitive multiplayer to the series

Assassins Creed: Revelations

• This used to be the worst game in the series for me, before Unity claimed that title

• The story is just so inconsequential, and felt even more like an expansion pack than Brotherhood

• The modern day segment was poor, and the fact that they kept the only actual meaningful 'revelation' for DLC was a bit dodgy

• The Templar's were terrible in this game. The guy who's the main antagonist for 90% of the game literally had no discernible personality

• The den defence mini-game was incredibly stupid

• The setting was alright though, it felt like a true blend of the original game and 2

Assassins Creed 3

• Had the potential to be the best game in the series, but ultimately fell victim to poor writing

• Connor was a nice change from Ezio, but the writers forgot to develop his character after he became an Assassin

• The overly long prologue didn't help the games pacing

• The lack of nuance in dealing with the actual Revolution itself was disappointing. I know that the U.S. is pretty much their main market, but a bit of balance would've have been nice

• Outwith Haytham, pretty much every other Templar character was poor

• The cities weren't that great, although that's unfortunately just a consequence of the setting

• The Frontier area had the potential to be interesting but there just wasn't enough going on in it

• Hunting was boring. Whoever thought that number of Quick Time Events was a good thing needs to have their employment status reviewed

• The Homestead was great, and I hope they expand on the idea in the future (a similar thing would make sense in the Victorian London setting)

• The trading system was ridiculously convoluted, and thankfully they got rid of it in future games

• The modern day stuff was truly dire. Boring characters, stupid plot, everything was wrong

• Killing off a main character in a side mission was stupid

• The sailing segments were fun, and a nice way to break up the traditional gameplay

• Overall it was a decent game, and I wish Connor had got a second outing. Ubisoft completely bottled it, and pretty much admitted that they can't write anything but Ezio-ish characters after this game

Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag

• Fun game, and you pretty much summed up my feelings. I do think they made a few big mistakes when it came to the writing though

• It’s minor but I wouldn't have made the game a numbered entry, instead making it more of a direct spin-off to 3

• Edward should never have joined the Assassins, nor should he have had a wife back home in Wales

• Ideally the game would've tried to show what it's like for someone to be caught in the middle of the Assassin/Templar conflict. Ultimately Edward would've sided with the Assassins in the end, but only because the Templars are actively looking to subjugate people (but that doesn't mean that he buys into the Assassins ideology). What we got was a semi-attempt at this, but ultimately the Assassin part of the game felt tacked on

• Instead of having a wife at home, who we only see in flashback, I would've had Edward’s love interest be one of the South American assassins (provides the link to the Assassins for Haytham, and adds a character with an actual significant presence in the game). It would also have avoided that random, pointless twist at the end of the game

• This changes Edward's motivation for going to the Caribbean, from somewhat noble to something more selfish. This means that instead of being the rogue with the heart of gold from beginning to end, we get something slightly different. Edward could have started as someone less likeable (someone who's selfish, ruthless, perhaps untrustworthy) who develops into a more honourable/nice person by the end of the game. He was a decent enough character, but I never really felt like he got any development.

• The Templar's in this game were really bad, and largely without character. The Governor guy was so lacking in any sort of personality that it made the ending fall flat

• The modern day segments were actually alright until that stupid twist at the end (a recurring theme in the series)

Assassins Creed: Unity

• I've already said a lot about what’s wrong with this game

• It honestly should have been a Haytham Kenway game (thus making a Kenway trilogy of 3, Black Flag and this game) showing how he came to leave the Assassins and join the Templars (instead of making it a book (as as side-note, Ubisoft are really bad a wasting interesting stories/settings on non-game media))

• We got to go to colonial Africa briefly during Black Flag, I maybe would have set this game there

• This Kenway trilogy would have been something different for the franchise in that not only would it have seen us play a grandfather, father and son, but also (if they had made the changes to Black Flag I mentioned above) an Assassin, a Templar and a guy caught in the middle

• Maybe have Haytham kill Edward at the end,
  Spoiler

  creating some sort of mirror to the events of AC3

• Basically, they should have made a completely different game and not have butchered the French Revolution setting

There’s so much potential in this setting. I think Jack the Ripper is pretty much guaranteed to make an appearance in this game. I just hope it isn't in some stupid CSI side quest like they had in Unity, but actually woven into the plot.

It’s actually quite sad how excited I am for Fallout 4. Fallout 3 is my favourite game of all time, and I don’t even want to think about the amount of hours I've put into it.

I think at this point in time Fallout 4 is pretty much a certainty for E3. If I had to take a guess Dishonored 2, the DOOM reboot, BattleCry, (more) Wolfenstein and maybe an expansion pack for The Elder Scrolls Online will all make an appearance at Bethesda's conference. The fact that this is their first ever E3 conference, I think they'll want to come out all guns blazing and make it as memorable as possible.

 

Hard to disagree with anything you said.

The AC series is a bit of a mixed bag, on the whole though it's been pretty good. The core gameplay mechanics i.e. free running and the assassinations are very enjoyable - usually. You're spot on about the templars. They went from quite a multi-layered enemy to the bog standard - here's a bad guy, go and kill him. Haytham is really the only memorable villain from the last few games.

I wouldn't say I'm a history buff, but I do enjoy seeing different historical periods. As you said, the best modern day segments were in the first game but then it just started getting ridiculous and hard to follow. Now, they are just a total waste of time. I want them just to get rid of them and stick with the historical segments. I know that in the first few games the modern day part are quite important but they serve no purpose anymore without Desmond.

I wouldn't mind if Ubisoft decided to make a new AC game every two years and put in more content and made the story as good as they possibly can. That won't happen though. They need to take a leaf out of Rockstar's book in terms of world building. Or dare I say, Bethesda. I know that's a big ask but those worlds that they create feel alive and full of exploration.

You know, Fallout 3 never did much for me. I just couldn't get into it for whatever reason, tried it a few times but wasn't for me. Loved New Vegas though, put in plenty of hours into that. Can't wait for Fallout 4.

 

For all that I dislike the modern day segments, they are sort of necessary. There needs to be some sort of overarching plot that explains why we do the historical bit, and to link the games together. I agree with you though about how poorly done it is. The moment they started with the weird, pseudo scientific/magic stuff I just stopped caring.

I honestly think they should keep the actual fully fledged modern day segments for numbered titles only. For the spinoff's it should either be fully historical, or do the sort of meta thing introduced in Black Flag where we're meant to be doing research for a movie, game, book etc.

The AC series suffers really badly from franchise fatigue. Despite the fact we're getting a new setting every year, it's still fundamentally the same game year in, year out. The fact that they've burned through so many popular settings in such a short space of time (French Revolution, Victorian London, WW1 Russia etc.) is also a worrying sign for the future. Once upon a time that would've lasted them an entire console cycle, possibly two, now you're lucky if they don't use them up in half that time.

Annualised releases completely stifle game design. A development studio can't turn around and ask their publisher for an extension, because it screws up the cycle; ultimately meaning that they can't really afford to be particulary ambitious. Your examples of Rockstar and Bethesda are spot on. We usually have to wait about 4-5 years for a new GTA game, and for a Fallout /TES game it's usally about 5-6. Neither studio rushes their games out, they're more ambitious than AC, and both are in a class of their own.

I'm always worried about sounding like a broken record where New Vegas is concerned, but it was quite disappointing. The story was interesting, they improved the gameplay mechanics and the DLC was very good. Unfortunately my game was borderline broken, and I could barely play it. Obsidian despite having some of the best writers in the gaming industry, cannot code a game to save themselves (on consoles at least). Every single game of theirs that I've played have some sort of fundamental problem with the game, that can't be fixed with a patch.

Fallout 3 on the other hand is one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. I actually didn't like the game at first and I left it for a while before coming back to it, eventually something just clicked. I could spend hours in that game just wondering about not really doing anything. The side quests were amazing and in many instances better than the main plots of some games I've played. The DLC was a mixed bag, but when they got it right, it was amazing. The Pitt is one of the best examples of grey morality in gaming, and Point Lookout was a fantastic blend of horror & comedy.

I know the next game is rumoured to be Boston, but after hearing Obsidian's lead writer say he wants to do a Fallout game based in New Orleans, I wished that was next.

 

Same with me.

I'm going to cry when another fallout game comes along, I literally find zero time for gaming these days whether it on the pc or xbone.

I will maybe take 1 or 2 weeks of work for it though. :smiley-laughing002:

 

Pre ordered Batman yesterday, cannot wait for this game!! I just hope it's as as good as the first two.

 

Anyone ever play a game called Broken Sword?

I want to play it again because I don't think I ever got round to finishing it on PS1.. anyone played it on PC or that?

 

Is that the puzzle one with a french woman and an american guy?

 

Aye, George Stobbart.. think it starts off in Paris yeah.. a bombing.

 

Yeah, played through it on the PC. Decent story but the game is a little bit dated imo, which is to be expected I suppose. I'm sure nostalgia will be able to get you through it though.

They brought out a 5th one not long ago as well i'm sure, not got around to playing that though.

 

Broken Sword was a great point and click puzzle game, got nothing on Grim Fandango though

 

I know the feeling; it's pretty much been non-stop essays and exams for me since about November last year. I'm lucky if I can get an hour in every couple of weeks at this point.

When Fallout 4 comes out though, everything will be getting dropped :smiley-laughing002:

A new one definetly got released on the App Store recently, and I think there's a couple of remastered editions of the older games on there as well.

 

I bought a remastered one (Broken Sword) a while ago on Steam, I am sure. They are brilliant games.

 

Don't want to steal Moustache's thunder but got a couple of bits of gaming news.

ARK: Survival Evolved

New game coming to PS4. It's an open world game where you explore a world filled with dinosaurs and other players (PVP) and even a dragon that you can see at the end of this trailer.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQM8yWoiy5s[/ame]

The game will be compatible the the VR headset, Project Morpheus. Here is some more info.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015...ing-to-ps4-project-morpheus/?short_code=2yuz3


Fallout 4

Rumours flying about that Guillermo Del Toro is creating a trailer for the game which is in turn rumoured to be getting revealed at this years E3. This leaked photo is what the speculation has risen from.

 

I've never actually played any of the games, but they look alright. I used to quite enjoy point and click games, but I haven't played one in years.

I wouldn't ever worry about that mate, it's good to see other people getting involved with the thread (and it saves me some typing :smiley-laughing002

Ark looks like it could be quite fun, although I'd imagine it'll probably be competing with No Man's Sky & Wild which seem quite similar.


Got a few more bits of news


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Alien Isolation
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Apparently Sega aren't happy with the sales of this game. It's managed to sell 2.1 million copies, but apparently this is 'weak' in Sega's eyes.

This combined with Sega's move towards mobile and PC development perhaps suggests that a sequel isn't in the pipeline.



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Dishonored: Definitive Edition
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The Brazilian Ratings Board has seemingly outed the existence of a Dishonored Definitive Edition. A Game of the Year edition is already available on last gen consoles, so current speculation is that it's a current gen remaster. It's supposedly due to release at some point later this year.

This follows rumours that a Dishonored sequel will be announced at E3.



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Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
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The same Brazilian Ratings Board has also seemingly confirmed the previously rumoured remake of the original Gears of War. It was previously suggested that Microsoft were planning a 'Marcus Fenix Collection' (like the recent Master Chief Collection) containing the first three games.