The Rest of PAX East 2012 Stuff and Other Awesome Things

But first, the not so awesome things….

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

               The title of this game should be; “Ghost Recon; Exactly Like We’ve Done Before”. How can this be a “future soldier” game when in every iteration of Ghost Recon, players had the ability to wallhack? Why is it fun to know where your enemies are?

Assassins Creed 3

                What a waste of time! I should have known better than to wait in line for this pile of crap from Ubisoft. If you’re expecting anything drastically new from the last five iterations over the same number of years, (which I’m not sure anyone is) then you probably already have decided on whether or not you will be buying Assassins Creed 3.  Assassins vs Templars taking place around the 18^th century when America was first being colonized. Another year, another Assassins Creed game. It will also most likely be $60 on PC and most likely be another pass from me. 

Mass Effect 3 Panel

                Another waste of time. Bioware went out of their way to declare they would not be addressing the ending to Mass Effect 3. The good news is the audience was allowed to ask questions after the panel speakers were done talking. What a perfect time to confront Bioware! The panel included a producer of Mass Effect, Level designer, two writers and a QA guy. The first topic? DLC. Ok. Then some talk about Tali and how she’s a racist. OK. Then questions…  And the audience elects to ask about; the Citadel, video game relationships to art, shooting Mordin, WHAT KIND OF TOOLS WERE USED FOR TESTING THE GAME, “If you could throw one character into the synthesis ending, who would it be?”and some lame question about Garrus.  My fellow video gamers disappointed me.

Borderlands 2;

 Another sequel, another game you probably have already decided whether or not you re buying this. Me? I’m not. The first one is a giant mundane repetitive piece of shit. As much as I want to kill dogs for the first 30 levels I think I'll spend my time doing something more fun. 

The Things That Were Cool…

Aliens: Colonial Marines; While waiting in line, we got to speak to the marines, who were not part of Sega marketing or any other contract marketing company, but were rather fans of the Alien franchise and had constructed their own Marine outfits. Sega found these guys online, and hired them to hang out at PAX, which was a nice touch to the authenticity around the Aliens Colonial Marines booth.

The game itself looks OK, definitely not what you would expect from 6 years in the making, but as we learned recently, the game was announced before production had even started. We saw "Pre-Alpha" footage of a live demo of the game. After the live demo, we got to play 5v5 multiplayer against the developers where we were the Marines and the devs were aliens. It was essentially Left 5 Dead only in the Alien Universe. The Aliens even had an equivalent of an tank.

What got me the most excited was this game is actually going to be the canon "sequel" to Aliens. So it follows the events after the movie. You board the Sulaco and see Bishop cut in half, two pods were jettisoned into space alluding to Ripley surviving.... later in the game you apparently get toland on the planet LV-426. One of my questions after the demo was whether the Space Jockey would be making an appearance. And the response I got was; "Well you can't land on LV-426 without bumping into the Space Jockey can you?"

Diablo III Beta Keys;  ( I still haven’t received mine yet but the Blizzard dude said it would take 7-10 days… I’m still hopeful)

Primal Carnage; A multiplayer game that is Left 4 Dead, only putting dinosaurs against humans. The game we played was extremely buggy, but it was also extremely fun in the early pre-alpha development stages. Playing as a T-Rex, velociraptor or pterodactyl you can attack humans in exactly the ways you are envisioning as you read this.  I have high expectations that future demos will be more complete and even more satisfying as this demo was.

Air Mech; The surprise of PAX for me. It’s a multiplayer RTS that can run in your browser. You can even play right now if you’d like; https://www.carbongames.com/chrome.html When you hear RTS you immediately think of Command and Conquer, but this RTS is less about placing/building buildings and more about using your super jet/robot transformer to fly over predetermined bases, build your army and attack your opponents in 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3 co-op play. The devs claim it’s also coming to steam later in the year but you can play the demo right now through your browser.

Super Monday Night Combat; Another wicked fun multiplayer game. Yes it’s a lot like TF2, but it’s more like TF2 on steroids... for free. It was actually released on steam yesterday before I post post this. Seriously, go there right now and you’ll start downloading it. 

PAX East Summary: So yes, I hit up all the major titles and not one of them really sparked any  huge interest. The two places I had the most fun were at the Air Mech booth and Far Cry 3, and the only reason Far Cry 3 seemed so fun was because I got to sit down and rest while I played. Overall I feel 2012 is a weak year for games and I'm surprised more gamers are not bored with the over hyped beaten to death franchises. My only hope is Valve can get me another release soon…

Good Movie’s I’ve Seen Lately

I meant to write full reviews for these but I haven’t had time, so very quickly people should go see, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance if it’s still around in your area. Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, also known as the Crank guys (and Gamer), have put their own spin on the Ghost Rider franchise and it really paid off. It’s light-years better than the first movie that also stars Nicholas Cage. This is what Ghost Rider should look and feel like. Johnny Blaze (and Cage) come off as crazy lunatics. Now we need Neveldine and Taylor to tackle the Punisher.

Another great movie out right now is The Cabin in the Woods, written and directed by Drew Goddard, the dude who wrote Cloverfield and a bunch of Lost episodes and co-written by Joss Whedon, the dude who directed awesome movies like Serenity, Thor and the upcoming soon to break every movie record; The Avengers. It’s much better for me not to say why The Cabin in the Woods is so great, because it’s greatness is hidden in a bunch of misdirection in the way the movie was promoted. You just need to trust me that it should be experienced. Don’t ask anyone if they have seen it, don’t Google the synopsis, just go to the movie theater, see the movie and return here and comment on your reaction. 

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.