PAX East 2012 Far Cry 3 Impressions

Surprisingly, I spent most of my time at PAX East 2012 at the Far Cry 3 section. Every year, there’s one floor exhibit that “gets it right”. In 2011, it was THQ booth and Red Faction Armageddon. They had four or five stations setup, with exactly 60 seconds of play time with a goal of getting the highest score possible. The player with the highest score at the end of the day, won an iPad. The “60 seconds” aspect was key because it kept the line moving and gamers did not have to wait long to try the game. Plus it was addicting!  In 2010, the folks over at EA (look at that…something positive about EA!) and Skate 3 had a demo called “Wreck Yourself”; again, you have 60 seconds break as many bones in your body as possible, and if you get the highest score, you win some prize that I can’t remember.

                This year, Ubisoft had 16 stations setup where gamers could play a domination styled map, 8v8, for 10 minutes! The player with the highest score on the winning team, got to play in a tournament at the end of the day to play for a spot in an upcoming tournament and win some prizes. Getting 16 players in and out was seamless. The maximum amount of time you would be waiting is 20 minutes, which would put 32 people in front of you and the 10 minute play time was well worth the wait-to-play ratio. Compare this to the 2 hour wait to play Max Payne 3 or the 2 hour wait to watch an “exclusive trailer” to Assassins Creed 3 was a complete waste of time. At the Far Cry 3 booth they actually give you a place to sit down too; an extra bonus!

                Far Cry 3 multiplayer demo (which was a Pre Alpha Build) was fun. The domination mode separates players into two teams, the Pirates and Rebels, and they fight against controlling certain points on the map. The fact that you get to play against your fellow gamers was a treat and the fact that you are actually playing for a reward makes it competitive. There are seven classes to choose from, all having different advantages and disadvantages as well as different weapon config. Far Cry 3 was running on PC, but we were given Xbox 360 controller to play- so aiming wasn’t as accurate as it will be with a mouse and keyboard. The gamplay was pretty standard run and gun- like you would find in any Battlefield or Call of Duty multiplayer map. The map we played only had three capture points so it kept the play area small and action packed.  Like any multiplayer mode in today’s gaming market, there is also a leveling system built in for each class giving different bonuses the higher you climb.

                Ubisoft also built a revive system into the multiplayer modes where if a player dies, they have the option of pro-longing their incapacitated state by button mashing. Keeping yourself alive may be beneficial if your teammates are close to revive you and you’re trying to lock down a capture point. But if you’re fighting alone, it may be a better idea to choose death and respawn somewhere different on the map. Ubisoft also took a page out of the Call of Duty franchise and built in a team point system- the more points you acquire like reviving a teammate or capturing an objective, the more you can spend on air strikes and perks for your teammates. Overall this appears to be a solid multiplayer effort built into the attractive new storyline in the Far Cry series.

                To further promote Far Cry 3, Ubisoft hired a tattoo artist and hair dressers that were giving out free tribal themed tattoos from the game and free Mohawks in exchange for a copy of Far Cry 3 (to the first 100 volunteers). Maybe if this was Half-Life 3 or Diablo III I’d have considered it… 

PAX East 2012 Max Payne 3 Impressions

               This year’s PAX East I took a much different approach to the last two years I attended. This was going to be a much more casual visit to PAX than my previous visits. For starters, I was not going to arrive on day 1, five hours before the exhibit doors open to wait in line with the obnoxious  videos, fellow gamers and no place to sit. The only advantage in doing this is to get close to the front of the line for some highly anticipated games and I just did not feel like doing that this year. I was content waiting.

                Secondly, I wanted to buy a few PAX East 2012 shirts. The previous two years I waited too long and they were sold out before I could get them in my size. I wasn’t going to make this mistake for a third year in a row so getting shirts was number 1 on my TO-DO list this year.

                And lastly, the PAX guys didn’t send me my badge that I purchased back in January, so I had to wait in line at Will Call anyway, at entrance to the Boston Convention Center. PAX people totally dropped the ball on the badges this year. Went I got home on Friday, my badge was in my mailbox.

Max Payne 3 (Meh!)

                Rockstar, which has been known for having fantastic floor displays and demos; Last year we saw a live demo of L.A. Noire, the year before we got a playable demo of Red Dead Redemption. This year we got a playable demo of Max Payne 3.

                After waiting in line for around 2 hours, players got the choice of playing Max Payne 3 on PC, 360 or PS3, which I thought was a fantastic way to give fans what they want. We didn’t have a choice back at PAX 2010; we could only play Red Dead on 360. I tried to wait around for a PC to play on, but my legs were in pain by the end of the line and I folded and opted for a 360.

                Unlike previous Max Payne games, the new Max Payne is stripped of the Noire feel; no comic book styled framed narration. Instead this is replaced by the voice actor of Max Payne speaking over actual video. But the gloomy violin music makes its return and gives Max Payne a nostalgia feel.

                The demo that we were allowed to play was extreeeeeemely difficult even with the standard Max Payne bullet time. I’m not sure which difficulty was set on this demo, but I ended up dying quite a few times. It might have because I have never played Max Payne game on a console before but it was tough finding a comfort zone. GTA and Red Dead work well on a console because of the slower styled pacing of the action. Max Payne 3 is mostly run and gun, which I found difficult to adapt to.

                They added a new feature to Max Payne 3 which players will either hate or love. If you die, the game will immediately enter a bullet time state in which you have a last chance to kill the guy that shot you. If you succeed, you will stay alive and continue the game. This feature is fun when combined with the newly added effects such as enemies with flashlights which will blind Max and their exact location. If you are killed by one of these enemies, the player will need to blindly shoot into the giant lens flare on the screen and hopefully hit the enemy that shot Max. This can be a very rewarding or frustrating gameplay element.

                Another new feature they added that never existed in a Max Payne game before is a cover mechanic. This is not a pop and gun mechanic that exists in Gears of War or Uncharted. It’s more of a cover mechanic that helps Max recover for a bit when there’s a ton of enemies on screen. Max Payne 3 is definitely an ‘always moving’ action game and I think that’s what Rockstar wanted to achieve. They didn’t want a player to hiding behind cover for 90% of the game. This keeps the players constantly on their feet.

                Although I liked the previous Max Payne games, I don’t think I’m too attached to this franchise to be overly excited about even after having played the demo, especially since it is coming from a different developer. Rockstar is known for open world sandbox games and it’s interesting to see them take on new genre game but I don’t see many improvements, aside from technically, that will make me run out and buy Max Payne 3. It’s nice to see the franchise back, and I probably will be buying Max Payne 3 on steam eventually, the question is whether or not I will be buying it at launch. 

Pax East 2011 - Duke Nukem Forever Impressions

I’m not sure why I didn’t write about Duke Nukem Forever first, considering: A) I’ve been waiting 12 years for this game to be released, B) my handle for everything is “Dukefrukem” and C) I quote this game(and Army of Darkness) close to 37 times a day. But I was lucky enough to wait 2 hours in line to play the 20 minute demo of Duke Nukem Forever at Pax East on Sunday, the follow up of the 1996 critically acclaimed release Duke Nukem 3D. What did I think?

History

Well if you’re not familiar with DNF let me brush up on the history. It was announced back in 1997 that a new Duke Nukem game was in the works and a trailer was even released during E8 in 2008 (see below). The game used the “Quake II engine” and was even close to being completed. A few months later, Epic unveiled their new “Unreal engine” which was more realistic and could feature better open areas in game, so in late 1998 it was decided to scrap the game and start over using Epic’s “Unreal engine”.

Three years later another trailer was released during E3 2001 showcasing the changes that were made to the game’s gameplay and graphics. (see below) It was considered the most impressive showing at E3 at the time. In 2004, the website gamespot reported that the development team and switched the engine a 2^nd time, moving to the Doom 3 engine. By 2009, most of the funding at dried up at 3D Realms and the development team asked their publisher (Take-Two ) for an extra $6 million to finish the game. Take-Two countered with $2.5 million now and $2.5 million after the game was completed. The development team refused and all development on Duke Nukem Forever was put on hold.

Luckily, some fans of the Duke Nukem series at Gearbox (a large developer of the popular game Borderlands) offered to buy the Intellectual Property and finish the game. After the Gearbox acquisition, it was confirmed by a Gearbox developer DNF was using an heavily modified Unreal 3 engine and mentioned that 3D Realms had “rewrote, replaced, rewrote again, replaced again, iterated, modified, rewrote yet again”. Fast forward to present time and the game is completed and will be released on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC on May 3^rd 3011. (Final Trailer is below)

It’s great finally getting to play it, but let me start off by saying Duke Nukem Forever is nowhere near worth the 15 year wait… and I don’t think people expect it to be. Don’t get me wrong, I’m buying it the day it’s released, but you can tell by the gameplay DNF tries to many things aside from being a first person shooter.

Impressions

The demo starts with Duke taking a leak in the bathroom. Yeh you literally need to hold the right trigger on the controller for the pee stream to be shown. (see trailer if you don’t believe me) Once Duke is done, he goes into a briefing room where soldiers are getting prepared for something. There’s a whiteboard setup with a drawing of a large alien. Duke can pick up pens and erasers and draw on the whiteboard and whatever you decide to draw, one of the soldiers will proclaim, “Oh man! Great plan Duke!”

When you’re done mapping out your strategy you find out you were actually in the locker-room of a football stadium. Outside on the field, there’s a 100 foot alien Duke needs to fight. (sound familiar Duke fans?) Duke grabs the nearest gun and the game throws you head to head with the 100 foot alien. After a long battle, the alien falls to the ground and Duke proceeds to kick the alien’s eyeball through the uprights. Immediately after this happens, the screen pans outward from a TV screen and you realize you have been playing Duke, playing Duke. Duke is holding a controller and there are two women (dressed in school girl outfits, as seen below) on their knees in front of Duke. One of them stands up, wipes her mouth and asks, “but what about the game Duke, was it any good?” Duke responds: “yeh but after 12 fuckin years it should be.”

The demo fast forwards to a driving level and you find yourself in a desert like environment, with all the guns from the first game; shotgun, chain gun, RPG, pipe bombs (which are detonated using Duke’s monster truck car remote) and of course, the shrink ray. Duke is fighting the enemies from the first game as well, Pig Cops and other mutants as he makes his way down a desert valley in his Monster Truck and makes his way into a mine shaft.

The game has no rhyme or reason for some of the environments Duke encounters. Why would Duke need to enter a mine shaft? Maybe this is explained in the full version of the game? And it does not look like much thought was put into an immersive story but rather someone listed a bunch of neat places Duke could be thrown into. In the game’s defense, it does feel like a Duke Nukem game, Crude, corky and plenty of T&A. Nothing innovative will be featured in Duke Nukem Forever but the real question is, will the game end up play like REAL sequel and a parody of itself? Or will it play like unfinished cash grab?