Eurogamer Expo 2011: Most wanted
We highlight the titles that we're excited about come this Christmas
The sound of sleigh bells, artificial snow and jingling tills draws ever closer as we slip towards the darkest part of the year and its associated orgy of consumerism. On the plus side, that means we have plenty of new games to look forward to (and badger our nearest and dearest into buying for us). At this year’s Eurogamer Expo, we’ve had the opportunity to get some quality hands-on time with the most anticipated new titles from all the biggest publishers. Here’s our Most Wanted list.
We’ve already waxed lyrical about how much we’re looking forward to Bethesda’s Skyrim, but we’re very happy to report that our time with the preview code has only made us more excited about its impending release.
Very obviously following in the footsteps of Oblivion, the previous installment in the series, Skyrim has the same open world, deep character customisation and immediate sense of immersion as its predecessor. Combat feels more visceral, though, with gory set-pieces that are triggered, Fallout 3 style, by particularly effective kills.
Even using the modest graphical capabilities of the Xbox360 that we played the demo on, the effect of the improved game engine is immediately apparent, with an even more lush and realistic landscape than ever before. The attention to detail and sense of a world that could happily carry on with or without our protagonist was also strongly in evidence, particularly in details such as notes left by a bandit chief for his minions. Although we’re trying to keep a lid on our expectations, this brief time wandering the icy forests of Skyrim has left us even more excited than we started.
Skyrim hits the shelves on 11th November. We don’t expect to be getting out much until well after Christmas.
In this follow-up to Arkham Asylum, the asylum’s former warden has been made mayor of Gotham and has had part of the city’s slums walled off to become a mega-prison, known as Arkham City, where the inmates are free to do whatever they desire as long as they say within its confines. Needless to say, this turns out to be a less than brilliant plan and there’s only one man to pick up the pieces.
Arkham City takes everything the development team liked about Arkham Asylum and builds upon it, creating more space to explore and developing the fluid and dramatic motion of the combat system. Above all else, the game is designed to make you feel like Batman, whether it’s the gadgets, the combat skills or his ability to leap and glide across the city’s rooftops.
The world itself is significantly larger – about five times the size of the one we explored in Arkham Asylum. The world’s more open and events don’t necessarily have to happen in a strictly linear order, although the Rocksteady team is keen to emphasise that all your available actions and decisions are in keeping with their vision of allowing the player to become Batman.
For those who don’t necessarily feel that Batman is the be-all and end-all of Gotham’s night life, you also get to be Catwoman for a while. Described as “faster, sneakier and not [as] morally correct”, she certainly wasn’t averse to fighting extremely dirty in the sequences we played, with a couple of finishing moves that’ll make any man watching wince.
Batman: Arkham City is due out on PC on 21st October.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… there was a massively popular and culturally ubiquitous series of sci-fi movies which has gone on to spawn countless sequels, merchandising opportunities and, of course, video games.
The latest of these is Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic. An MMO set 3,000 years before the events of the films, The Old Republic’s scope is massive, detailed and incredibly ambitious. You can choose from eight different classes, including bounty hunters, Sith inquisitors and Jedi knights, as well as a wide variety of species. Each class has its own dedicated storyline and mission structure, complete with full NPC voice acting throughout – the first time this has been attempted in an MMO (although we’ll note that last year’s DC Universe had a fair bit of it).
A large part of the game’s experience hinges on its combat system, which is designed to be fast-paced and cinematic. However, Bioware hasn’t opted for the frantic button-bashing called for by some recent action-MMOs, but instead allows you to trigger attacks that are then quickly and seamlessly integrated into the rest of the action, whether you’re fighting NPCs or other players in PvP mode. The results are immediately gratifying and movement during combat is particularly fluid, although getting true finesse clearly requires rather more practice than we got.
The universe is by necessity both massive and detailed, with an estimate of well over 200 hours for a single-class play-through as well as dozens of planets. Despite the presence of arcing plots for each character class, you’ll have freedom to role play against type, drawing a Jedi character towards the dark side or redeeming your Sith. Other characters will also remember your actions, so cheating the wrong trader could easily cost you your reputation or your hide.
The Old Republic is set to open its servers to the public on 22nd December: just in time for the holidays.
Post-apocalyptic wastelands strewn with the tattered remnants of once-great humanity appear set to be pretty desirable real estate in the future. Adding to the already large number of random adventurers wandering the wastes is Rage.
Made by id – the people responsible for Doom, Quake and the general existence of the First Person Shooter as we know it – Rage combines traditional FPS action with vehicular combat, racing and a bit more of a plot than is absolutely required by your average action shooter. Although the wasteland feels open and there are a number of adventure and plot-driven elements, all reports indicate that the game’s designed to keep your mind on the action and on the task at hand, rather than encouraging you to go wandering around at random.
There are some spectacular set-pieces among the levels we got to play. We were particularly taken by the BASH TV area, which pits you against giant clown-headed mutants in an improbable, gory and remarkably distasteful futuristic game show. It might be all that passes for entertainment after the death of civilisation, but it’s already a big improvement on your average Saturday night on terrestrial telly. We also spent some time exploring other, less overtly outrageous areas, but there’s a consistent sense of very dark humour running through the game.
Rage is due out on 7th October.
Bioware’s Mass Effect series is everyone’s favourite example of how to combine sci-fi plotting, action and role-playing. However, although Mass Effect 2 improved on its predecessor’s combat system, it still drew its fair share of complaints, particularly when it came to ease of movement and accurate ranged weapon hits while in the midst of a firefight.
This is clearly something Bioware has gone to some pains to improve on. We got a look at the latest evolution of the combat system, which gives more flexibility to the action when it comes to sprinting, ducking, and rolling for cover. It’s possible to keep up a fast pace of movement while sending a volley of fire towards enemy targets, too.
We didn’t get much insight into the overreaching plot of the latest instalment, although the developer has already indicated that that Mass Effect 3 will continue its predecessors’ tradition of deep character interaction. We can confirm that several of your old teammates have definitely made it into the third instalment.
Mass Effect 3 is due out in March 2012.
That’s it for our highlights of Eurogamer Expo 2011, but you can also check out our round-up of the best up-and-coming indie titles from the show.
