Tag: Preview

Smite Has Officially Been Released

On By AnjelIn Game Videos, Games, Games, News, Online, PC, Videos, WebLeave a comment

SMITE_Splash

Previously available to the Public, but as an open beta, Smite has officially been released. Developed by High-Rez Studio’s, Smite is a new take on the existing MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) style game. Instead of the classic view (overhead birds-eye view) that you normally get in these kinds of games, Smite changes this to a 3rd person view. Now as small of a change as this seems, it makes a HUGE difference in the way the game plays, and I think this change makes the game much more friendly to new users. Because you are using WASD to move and your mouse to look around, the game has a much more action oriented feel to it.

SMITE - Nemesis Screenshot 2

There are a variety of game modes, but the classic 5 VS 5, three lane Conquest Mode is the meat and potatoes here. They have also taken deity’s from mythology around the globe and created champions out of them, from Greek, Egyptian and Norse Mythology, all the way up to Hindu and Chinese Mythology, there are at current count, 51 gods playable in the game. They are also slowly adding more gods as time goes on, they have not stated yet how many they plan to add to the game, but so far they have a great assortment that can fit to a variety of play styles.

SMITE - Scylla Screenshot 2

Smite is Free to Play, there is a weekly God rotation that cycles through the free gods available that week, as well as you can use in game currency or “Favour” as they call it, which you get by completing matches, or spend real money on Gems, which you can then use to buy gods, as well as skins for those gods. All in all not to uncommon for this kind of game, and it is a system that works well.

SMITE - Agni Screenshot 1

There are ranked games and Ladders in the game, and they are definitely aiming to get the game into e-sports with the built in Twitch Streaming as well as the fact that this weekend they are kicking things off with a rather large tournament in Atlanta, with more then $200k  in prize money up for grabs. for more information on the tournament, you can go here.

For the launch of Smite they also sent along this very cool Cinematic trailer showing off a few of the gods in Smite, you can take a look at that below.


All throughout the Beta I have been playing my fair share of Smite as well and you can see some matches and how the game plays at the links below.


So what else can I say really, this game is worth the download, and I have been playing the crap out of it recently, and this in spite of the fact that Titanfall has come out. It really is kind of like the MOBA for people who can’t/don’t like MOBA’s. At the very least it is free, and if you can’t get into it, well that is fine, no harm no foul, but I def urge you to take a look at it.

To download the game and get playing, head here to SMITE.

By Dayne “Anjel” Cody
@DayneCody

E3 Day 2 Recap – Nintendo and the Witching Hour

On By RicoIn Games, News, VideosLeave a comment

20130613-203217.jpg

Its a me, Rico! and here we are with day 2. If you couldn’t tell already I was at Nintendo’s booth for a good portion of the second day. My experience at Nintendo had me giddy as a child on Christmas morning and utterly disappointed when I realized that I didn’t get the presents I was asking for. Nintendo had some great games on display but they forgot the major franchises at home in Japan. I guess Nintendo is cool with showing up to a gun fight with a kitchen knife. That being said though I did play both of the new Mario titles, Super Mario 3D World and Mario Kart 8. I can easily say that these are must have games for the Nintendo fan. Super Mario 3D World is pretty much what you’d expect, its an HD version of the excellent 3DS title with a much larger scale. For starters Nintendo has added 4 player co-op like New Super Mario Bros and that each character has unique abilities, for example Peach’s floaty jump is back. Another new addition is the cat suit that allows characters to attack enemies with a scratch attack and the ability to climb walls, flag pole included. Nintendo was only demonstrating the new cat suit and co-op functionality but I’m sure there will be other abilities and power ups. Mario Kart 8 was the other major Nintendo title on hand that I spent a decent amount of time with. The new addition besides the beautiful HD graphics was the ability for the carts to transform into anti-gravity karts and literally drive up the walls changing the dynamic of the courses and adding new more course options. It wasn’t ground breaking but when I was playing Mario Kart in HD I couldn’t help but have a smile on my face.

Unfortunately though some huge games were missing, no Pokemon XY or Smash Bros. which quite honestly both games should have been showing and playable. A big problem the Wii U has is a lack of games and Nintendo didn’t do much to comfort Wii U owners, Mario Kart and Smash Bros don’t even come out until next year. As we all pretty much know the Wii U has just become another Nintendo box and I guess that’s OK but it would be nice if they could get some other major titles and fast. Another highlight of hanging out in Nintendo’s booth was a random Conan O’Brian sighting and he was super effective, at creating crowds.

DSC00812

With Nintendo and the kids games out of the way it was time for some adult action. (I kid, I kid or do I?) Anyways, Square was kind of a let down as I couldn’t get into their demos because they were super busy and shit the bed with organizing their press appointments. Not to be totally disappointed though most of what they were showing was at PAX East or simply a trailer that everyone at home could see, so I don’t feel like I really missed anything. The real highlight of their booth was Saints Row IV and of course it was off the hook. Imagine GTA plus crazy and you’re still not even close, now you have super powers and a fricken dub step gun, nuff said.

After the disappointment of the Square booth, EA surprisingly came to my rescue or my money I’m not sure. EA has at least two new IP’s with Garden Warfare and one of my favorite games of the show Titanfall. I mentioned Garden Warfare the other day and I got to see another demo of what looks to be a garden fresh take on the shooter genre.

DSC00829

Titanfall is definitely one of my favorites from the show, behind closed doors they showed us an extended multiplayer match. Between this and Destiny next year will see some awesome new shooters that do more than the genre is currently. If this game was available at launch the Xbox One would have a killer app but unfortunately it isn’t going to be available until March 2014 and I have my doubts about that.

IMG_0764

After I was done with EA I moved on to the Witcher 3 and got to see an extended behind the scenes demo. CD Projekt Red looks to deliver one of the largest and most dynamic open world RPG’s with the Witcher 3. Gone are the problematic boss battles from Witcher 2 in fact there are no bosses battles per say but giant monsters that can be randomly encountered in the world, or your quests. CD Projekt promises that there over 80 unique creatures in the world to hunt down and battle with their own strategies and abilities to make them very distinct. The dialogue system is also being reworked to add more character and life to the game. Another system added are dynamic side quests that can have world impacting repercussions that can come back to haunt you later depending on how you resolve them. All in all the Witcher 3 looks to be a wicked evolution to the franchise and will probably end up being next years best RPG from what I saw.

I also had a chance to check out the Nvidia Shield and Ouya but I’ll try to do a separate write up on those another time and with that we end day 2.

Check out my gallery below and follow me on on Twitter  @RicF, also check out our YouTube Channel for more videos.

By Ricardo “Rico” Ferreira
@RicF

E3 Day 1 Recap – Next Gen Sure is Pretty

On By RicoIn Game Videos, Games, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Tech, VITA, Xbox 360, Xbox One2 Comments

DSC00609

Hey guys and gals, sorry this update has taken so long but its been pretty crazy here on the show floor. Obviously both Sony and Microsoft booths are standing room only as everyone is eager to get a glimpse of the next generation of console gaming. I started my day by hanging out in the Sony booth and played most of the confirmed launch titles for the PlayStation 4. Unfortunately Watch Dogs, and Infamous Second were only theatre demos and no recording was allowed. However I did get a chance to play Killzone Shadow Fall behind the scenes with the Lead Designer of the game. I was impressed, obviously it looks stunning and learning from the competition Killzone has adopted new methods of traversal and enemy takedowns that break up the monotonous gameplay that has hampered many shooters lately. Also the environments have been opened right up with multiple side objectives that help alleviate the feeling of alway being in a corridor or shooting gallery. Killzone also introduces a new drone sidekick that you can use to setup up zip lines accross the environment, hack computer terminals or simply attack your enemies, just to name a few of its abilities. I can easily say that Killzone Shadow Fall will be a day one purchase for me. I also had a chance to try out the Vita version of Killzone Mercenary and I can say that Vita will finally be getting the quality shooter we’ve been looking for. Tearaway for Vita was another stand out title that I got to spend some time with and it looks to be a great little adventure platformer.

 

After spending a better part of 4 hours playing around in the Sony booth I moved onto Microsoft and the PR mess that is Xbox One. Honestly I’m pretty excited for Xbox One regardless of some terrible choices they’ve made in terms of DRM, I’m sure the Xbox will have some great features and of course exclusive software. Unfortunately Microsoft didn’t want to talk about anything but games so little was learned about the console itself that we don’l already know. In their booth I got play RYSE, Forza 5, and Killer Instinct. I had a blast playing Killer Instinct except that I couldn’t combo worth shit, but it was still great. I uploaded a video and you can for yourselves, a nice side effect of all the power in these new consoles can be seen in all the lighting and particle effects.

 

Forza 5 looked pretty impressive as well but I’m not much of a car guy so I can’t really speak to any of the improvements. A cool feature Forza demoed though were the new triggers in the Xbox One controller which have rumble built in. With this extra level of rumble added  things as simple as starting the engine or the skidding of the tires added a new dimension which was pretty neat. We also got to see the Mclaren P1 which was pretty sweet, now wheres that extra million I had hidden away?

 

Finally I ended my day with a pretty lengthy play through of the RYSE demo aka QTE the video game. All jokes aside, RYSE is still pretty sweet and had a real gritty feel. the combat system was very similar to the most recent Batman games with parrying attacks and building up chains. The graphics were unbelievable and I felt like I was killing with the best of the Spartans though it remains to see if much is added otherwise it could probably get pretty repetitive. So thats about it for my late day 2 recap, things have been pretty crazy and I”l be back with more soon.

 

By Ricardo “Rico” Ferreira
@RicF