Lara Has Some Devious New Tools In Shadow Of The Tomb Raider
Added: 02.07.2018 19:38 | 1717 views | 0 comments
 The Tomb Raider reboot has been about building up Lara Croft from a determined but inexperienced explorer to the hero we know today. During our E3 demo of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we got to play her as a full-on predator, culminating in a chilling scene that shows her confronting – and dismissing – any remaining fears or lingering insecurities.
Unlike , which featured a gunfight that didn’t end until either Lara or her Trinity adversaries were dead, today’s demo was more flexible. It’s set in a Peruvian jungle, with multiple routes and paths to explore. Lara moves through a dirt trail, as a radio crackles to live with a warning that “Croft is heading to your location.” She climbs a tree, and sees a trio of enemies below her. Jumping down and taking them out with her knife would be a dangerously stupid thing to attempt, so I draw my bow and fire a new fear arrow into the neck of the closest goon.
The projectile hits its mark with a satisfying “Thwack!” and the victim looks around. He begins firing wildly at his comrades, clearly under its spell, taking them both out. A few seconds later, his panic turns to distress as he finally succumbs to the poison and hits the ground dead. It’s reminiscent of the berserk darts and similar toxins from the Assassin’s Creed games, but that familiarity doesn’t make the effects any less enjoyable. Ahead, I use the same tactic to eliminate a cluster of four enemies. The fear arrows are a limited resource, and they’re also not effective on armored enemies, so I take advantage while I can.
Lara is agile as ever, and climbing trees and getting the drop on enemies remains a solid approach. When a Trinity soldier gets too close to me on a patrol, I use a stealth kill that has Lara fire a rope arrow at him, drop from the tree, and string him up. I’m doing so well that I start to get a little cocky; I try to deactivate a generator while a guard is coming back, and he notices me – even though I stopped by a puddle a bit earlier and covered myself in mud.
The fighters are aggressive and relentless. I try to juke their attacks, but it’s hard to avoid bullets with fancy footwork alone. I do manage to scramble away and backtrack to a vine-covered wall, where I can hide in its greenery. It’s enough to fool the guards into thinking I’m gone for good. That was a mistake. I find a gas can in an elevated spot, and throw it on the ground near several guards. They react the same way they do when I chuck bottles at them: firing blindly at the sound. It’s a fatal error, as their shots detonate the container and the explosion clears out the stragglers.
Lara radios for her friend Jonah, and hears an unfamiliar voice. Jonah’s dead, the voice taunts, and his body can be found in the refinery. “I’m coming for you,” she replies.
Lara moves past a gate, and the jungle gives way to a dustrial setting. Steel drums and vehicles are scattered along the path, which leads to the refinery. She’s midway across a bridge when a spotlight blasts on face, mounted on a helicopter. Stealth is no longer an option. An army of Trinity thugs open fire, and an extended platforming sequence begins. We’ve all seen the basic elements here before – collapsing catwalks, rails that bend and swing when grabbed, and death-defying leaps – but the graphical fidelity and effects from the now-flaming refinery keep it exciting.
The demo ends with Lara falling into the water, and her body is limp as it sinks. A montage of audio memories plays; people from her past and Lara herself doubt her resolve. But she refuses to give in. Her eyes open, and she slowly rises from the water, standing tall as walls of flame flicker behind her. A wounded guard is on the dock, and Lara methodically bears down on him, knife ready. It’s a powerful moment, and the screen cuts to black before we see how it ends. I can only imagine it’s not going to be good for him, for Trinity, and possibly for Lara herself.
Look for Shadow of the Tomb Raider on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on Sept. 14.
| 5 Reasons Tetris Effect Might Be The Umpteenth Time You Buy Tetris
Added: 02.07.2018 19:38 | 1769 views | 0 comments
Tetris is one of the most readily available games in the world, and yet people keep making new versions of it. Most of them are generally unaltered, content to act as a quick and easy way to get the game on new platforms and services.
Tetsuya Mizuguchi's take on Tetris is a bit different. While the basic premise is still the same (I'm not going to explain Tetris to you), the way Tetris Effect alters the experience is more about altering the experience of playing Tetris than the game itself, and from my short demo at E3 this year, I think it really works.
I didn't think I'd come away excited about game I've played all my life at E3, but here are five reasons I'm excited to put on some headphones and play some damn Tetris in 2018.
Tetsuya Mizuguchi has good taste in music
Although his games are often carefully designed, fun, and hypnotic puzzlers, the biggest appeal of Tetsuya Mizuguchi games for me is having another chance to delve into his taste in music. After playing hours of Lumines: Electronic Symphony a few years ago, I made a Spotify playlist of all the songs from the game available on the service, and had it on regular rotation for about two years.
The guy knows how to curate a playlist and enhance it through gameplay. You could easily sell Tetris Effect by saying "It's Lumines, but you play Tetris instead." That sounds crazy, but you also know exactly what I mean; while the puzzling aspect is a key part the experience, it's how the music and visuals intertwine with that experience that make Mizuguchi's work stand out, and that's what Tetris Effect is.
The songs I listened to during my demo are still stuck in my head, as are the various sound effects you can make by rotating and dropping Tetrominoes. As much as Tetris Effect is another Tetris game, it's also another Mizuguchi game, and those trappings enhance the trance you enter while playing Tetris.
It's gorgeous
As in Lumines, Tetris Effect has you play through a series of songs rather than simply clear lines 'til you drop. When the music transitions from one song to the next, the backdrop and block aesthetic changes with it. During this transition, you get the kind of dense, colorful explosions you might want to test out a new 4K TV with, and it adds to the experience.
Some of the backdrops in my demo were especially trippy, including one themed after Egyptian pyramids, where all the blocks where cleverly made up of two triangles and a sea of enormous diagram-like shapes of spheres and pyramids approached the screen at high speed. Another involved a sort of tribal ritual, where part of the song and sound effects were the primal "huhs!" of a chant acted about the tribe on-screen. By default, the actual Tetris board is fairly small on the screen, placing a larger emphasis on the backdrop. It might a little distracting to your actual Tetris play, but it works.
Especially In VR
Strapping on a headset to play Tetris sounds like something out of a dystopian future, but doing so is worth it for a couple of reasons. For one, it sort of forces you to put on headphones, which should be a given for a Mizuguchi game. Second, the visual flair that occurs when you transition from one song to the next is heightened when the particle effects fly right at your face.
You can also zoom the view of the board in and out, and at its most zoomed in, you actually have to look up and down to see the entire board. It's weird and again probably won't make you a better Tetris player, but this is more about the experience of playing Tetris than getting high scores, and it's a pretty fun novelty.
The Zone mechanic adds to Tetris without ruining it
The only real change to gameplay Tetris Effect makes is the introduction of the Zone mechanic. As you play you build up a meter, and when you unleash it (preferably when your board starts filling up), time slows down, letting you stack up and clear lines more easily. Even better, every line you clear is instead moved to the bottom of the board, and when the Zone timer ends, all the lines you've cleared disappear at once, making for some easy points.
Tetris is as perfect as any game is ever going to be, but the Zone adds to it in a fun way. It doesn't meaningfully alter the way you play Tetris, but does add a fun pace of building meter and pulling off Zone maneuvers, which again serves to distinguish Tetris Effect from other versions of the game without adding a layer that ruins the whole thing.
It has a story mode
Okay, maybe not a story mode the way you're thinking. You don't play as the square Tetromino and recruit the other Tetrominoes to take down the malevolent Top of the Tetris Board or something. It's a little more like Rez, where there's a loose narrative between all the songs you're playing through, but nothing too overt. There's a plot and message in the Tetris Effect, but it'll be delivered through the music and game itself.
There's also a menu where you select different stages made up of three or four songs, each are which act as a short, tailor-made medley designed around a theme or feeling. The length of these medleys changes depending on what difficulty you play on, and you'll have to work your way up to the hardest difficulty in order to see the complete version of a given stage. It's a neat way to repackage Tetris, and I'm hoping it delivers the same sort of euphoric denouement Mizuguchi tends to go for in his games.
I'm still a little surprised by how excited the changes in Tetris Effect made me to play Tetris again. I'm still a bit on the fence about VR as a whole, but playing it with a headset on definitely pushed me closer towards one. But even if that doesn't appeal to you, can play the entire game without it. Just make sure you wear headphones.
Tetris effect is scheduled to release this fall on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR.
| Ori And The Will Of The Wisps Wisely Builds On Strong Foundations
Added: 02.07.2018 19:38 | 1767 views | 0 comments
 At a behind doors demonstration during E3, we got to see some more of the sequel to Ori and The Blind Forest in action. The original game with its Metroid-like gameplay and beautiful graphics. From what we saw Will Of The Wisps, a sequel due out on Xbox One in 2018, will give fans of the first game even more beauty to gawk over while also adding a surprisingly in-depth combat system to the mix.
The demo we watched was short, focusing on Original explore a desert area called The Windswept Wastes. A new burrowing mechanic let Ori dive in and out of sandpits to tangle with nasty, fanged worm enemies. While on the surface, Ori had a whole suite of abilities to take on baddies, including a magical spear, bow & arrow, hammer, and self-healing ability.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Will of the Wisps, like the original game, is the fluidity of movement. Ori's movements recall an almost 90s Disney-like animation style, with the little fella zipping back and forth, launching volleys of arrows before bouncing out of a pit with two well-placed jumps. The speed and beauty of Ori's attacks and evasive maneuvers is lovely to behold and, just as it did with the platforming in the original game, gives Will Of The Wisps' combat its own unique identity.
We came away impressed with Will Of The Wisps. Though the game's release window is still a bit away, the offerings that Moon Studios showcased are a promising sign of where this platforming-action series will go.
| Victory Royale! The Very Best Fortnite Cosplays
Added: 02.07.2018 19:33 | 899 views | 0 comments
 Especially following Epic Games' Fortnite Pro-Am tournament at E3, there has never been a time like this for checking out all the best cosplays!
| Xbox Game Pass gets some crackers in July
Added: 02.07.2018 19:05 | 1720 views | 0 comments
 Microsoft has announced some more games coming to Xbox Game Pass - and it's a tidy list of titles. At E3, Microsoft announced Fallout 4, The Division and The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited would come to Microsoft's Netflix-style subscription service. Also coming in July are Warhammer: Vermintide 2, DiRT 4 and Zombie Army Trilogy.
| Tunic hides instruction manual pages for the game you're playing in the game you're playing
Added: 02.07.2018 19:05 | 1553 views | 0 comments
 You'd be forgiven for missing Tunic's appearance during Microsoft's E3 2018 media briefing, sandwiched as it was between reveals for mega blockbusters such as Halo and Gears of War. But this indie game, which one developer has spent over three years crafting, is certainly worth a closer look - and it's got one unique mechanic in particular I think is super cool. At first glance, Tunic looks like Zelda viewed from an isometric perspective, except instead of playing as a young elf-like boy you play as a fox. There's more to the game than that, of course, but the influence of Nintendo's early Zelda games cannot be denied here. I mean, it's called Tunic, after all.
| We think we've figured out The Elder Scrolls 6's location
Added: 02.07.2018 19:05 | 1186 views | 0 comments
 The Elder Scrolls 6 location possibilities are... pretty vast. Or at least they are on first inspection of that super brief E3 2018 teaser trailer we saw - but we actually think it might be possible to narrow them down. Below, we're going to run through a series of potential locations and settings for the Elder Scrolls 6. We'll rule some out - at least in principle - and highlight some others that we think are particularly likely, and then finally, further below, we'll go through a quick rundown of everything else we know about The Elder Scrolls 6 - like its platforms and potential release date - so you've got all the information in one place. Do bear in mind though that, really, this is a bit of fun - even if we do start to get quite into it as we go...
| Eurogamer's best of E3 2018
Added: 02.07.2018 19:05 | 1143 views | 0 comments
 In all honesty, we weren't expecting much from E3 this year. Ahead of time, it bore all the hallmarks of an E3 the year before people start talking about new consoles. With the platform holders manoeuvring behind the scenes and the biggest games in development quietly readjusting their schedules as production managers try to suss out the logistics of going cross-gen or even fully next-gen, the big press conferences become exercises in misdirection. We knew Sony would have nothing new, we suspected Microsoft would have little and we knew Nintendo was focused on Smash Bros. and Pokémon. And yet still, E3 2018 delivered. We can partly in owning up to the next generation of consoles, and its brisk showcase stuffed to bursting with colourful and enticing games. It certainly set the tone, and the reliably straight-talking CD Projekt followed up with a cheeky admission that Cyberpunk 2077 was due out on the current-gen consoles "", which was refreshing, even if it did take the fun of out the old "which of these games is actually next-gen" guessing game. (It was that one.) Perhaps we had also forgotten the great thing about the late period of a console generation - it usually means lots of good games. Most of the big publishers turned up with something genuinely and uncynically great in their line-up, there was hardly a loot box in sight, and there were only a couple of hastily tacked-on battle royale modes. Well done everyone.
| DualShockers WeebCast Episode 12: Japanese Games Missing at E3 2018
Added: 02.07.2018 19:03 | 1564 views | 0 comments
 E3 2018 was full of relevant Japanese games, but there were quite a few that were expected to appear, and didn't: DualShockers is looking at you, Square Enix.
| Nintendo Has Sad News For Virtual Console - IGN Daily Fix
Added: 02.07.2018 19:02 | 1566 views | 0 comments
 The Nintendo Switch Online news brings sad news for Virtual console, Square Enix will have a lot to show off at E3 and the director of Jurassic World 3 has an interesting tidbit about the sequel.
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