Gran Turismo 6 is nearly upon us, and I've been racing around classic tracks like High Speed Ring and new additions like Brands Hatch for a few days now. So far, I've been having a blast. But while I'd love to give you a full verdict on the game, GT6 has fallen pray to the dreaded day-one patch, meaning the multiplayer, online community features, and microtransaction features of the game aren't yet available, as well as other as-yet-unnamed tweaks. That said, I still want to give keen racers out there some idea of my experience so far with Polyphony Digital's latest simulation.
GT6 makes a highly polarizing first impression, offering excitement with one hand and taking it away again with the other. For the first time in a GT game, you're dropped into the action immediately with a single test lap at Brands Hatch in a swift Renault Clio RS to give you a feel for the handling. Unfortunately, this one lap is the most fun I had in the first 90 minutes.
After a positive start, GT6 immediately falls back into the series' bad habits by forcing you to drive the incredibly slow, incredibly dull Honda Fit for over an hour. You aren't given any choice over your first Career mode car, and credits are handed out dreadfully slowly at the beginning of the game. That means you can't afford to replace the Fit for some time, so you have to wait until the game gifts you a new car at the end of the first set of Career events--and when you are given the car, it's only a go-kart. This whole sequence leaves you crying out for better machinery and is only going to make newcomers to GT wonder what all the fuss is about when other racing games put you behind the wheel of a sports car within minutes.
Here's where I would talk about the touchy subject of microtransactions, but they aren't going to be enabled until launch. What I can say, though, is that while buying your way to the top certainly will be possible in GT6, at this stage it doesn't look like the ability to do so has had a detrimental effect on the way the the game works, nor are the microtransactions pushed upon you during play.
Once you're through the slog of the first 90 minutes, the credits and cars arrive much more quickly. Career mode also puts the new circuits up front, keeping returning GT fans entertained while repeating the usual pattern of having you drive slower cars to work your way up to pure racing machines. Silverstone, Goodwood Hill Climb, Bathurst, and Willow Springs are among the new real-world circuits, and there are a couple of returning fictional tracks from past Gran Turismo games that were absent from GT5. The sheer number of cars and tracks is one of the most impressive aspects of GT6. Polyphony Digital claims there are more than 1,200 cars and 100 track layouts, so there's plenty for drivers to dig into.
You can feel the body of your car roll as you change direction, making it natural and instinctive to correct tiny slides and massive oversteer moments.
Out on the track is where Gran Turismo excels. The handling model in GT6 is far and away the best, most detailed, and most engaging car simulation available on consoles. The suspension modeling is the most noticeable improvement. You can feel the body of your car roll as you change direction, making it natural and instinctive to correct tiny slides and massive oversteer moments, especially with a steering wheel. Stock road cars also feel much more lively now. In the past, they've been almost as stiff as the racing cars, but in GT6, you can sense much more movement through these less-high-end machines, especially when the nose dives forward under braking. You can also feel the limit of grip much more easily on standard street tires, meaning you can extract more performance than usual from some slower cars.
However, while the driving is executed beautifully, there are other areas of the GT6 experience that are pretty ugly. Gran Turismo has been around for a long time, but in all of those 15 years, it doesn't seem like the AI has ever improved. Computer-controlled cars still follow a rigid racing line that they are barely capable of deviating from. The AI shows little awareness of either you or the other AI cars, making most races play out like mobile obstacle courses with very little challenge.
There are some graphical problems as well. Wet weather looks really poor, particularly the effects of water hitting your windshield in the cockpit view. Environments look dated too, especially up close. Grandstands are full of cardboard fans, and some of the texture work leaves a lot to be desired, especially on trees and rock surfaces. Then there are the cars. For the most part, the car models are stunning, inside and out, but the distinction between premium and standard models is still an issue, and which cars fall into which category isn't clear.
GT6 no longer separates these cars in dealerships, and it doesn't distinctly label them. Though the developer has argued that there is no longer a visual difference between standard and premium cars, you can spend credits on a cool-looking ride only to get it on the track and discover that it looks jagged and blurry beside the other pristine machines. Many of the cars still sound like lawnmowers as well, but the day-one patch is supposedly going to sort this out.
Polyphony Digital seems to have carried on where it left off in Gran Turismo 5 and produced a sequel that's a natural progression of all things Gran Turismo, rather than a great reinvention of the franchise. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but there are parts of the game that are sorely in need of a makeover, things that a day-one patch is unlikely to solve. Look out for my full review of GT6 once I've spent some more time on the track and burnt some rubber online.
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The Road to GameSpot's Game of the Year continues. Yesterday, we looked at the best sequels 2013 had to offer. Today, we're diving deep into the year's brand new, original games. Will any of these feature heavily in our nominees for Game of the Year? You'll find out on December 9 when we unveil our official nominee lists. But for now, refresh your memory about 2013's original games by reading the list below!
Often the most exciting game experiences are the ones that are fresh and unexpected. And while it may seem that original games are becoming increasingly rare as the games industry focuses more heavily on its major franchises, there are still plenty of notable new experiences to be had, and not just in the indie games space. Below is a selection of the best original game IPs to be released in 2013. Which of these will become nominees for GameSpot's Game of the Year categories? And will one of these games make it all the way and be named our Game of the Year?
Beyond: Two Souls
Beyond: Two Souls so easily melds story and mechanics that you become enamored with this young woman and her extraordinary life.
GameSpot Editor Tom Mc Shea
Developer David Cage thinks that not enough games explore the breadth of human emotion, but for many, the two main feelings associated with a David Cage game are either love or hate. Beyond: Two Souls is no exception, with GameSpot firmly landing on the "love" side for this PlayStation 3 exclusive, for this game hit us right in the emotions. Beyond is moving and exciting, and we can all stand to be moved by our gaming experiences more often.
It's a story that's told with heart, elegance, and a lightness of touch that make exploring the vast vistas of its fairy-tale world utterly bewitching.
GameSpot Editor Mark Walton
If there were an award for the game that has reduced the most GameSpot staff to tears in 2013, it would be given to Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Very few games have the emotional impact that Brothers has, but this game isn't only about reducing hardened, cynical video game journalists to big crybabies. Brothers also has an interesting control scheme that lets you control its titular two brothers at the same time. So it hurts your mind and your heart.
The Last of Us is a singular adventure that looks the downfall of humanity in the eyes and doesn't blink.
GameSpot Editor Tom Mc Shea
If the PS3-exclusive The Last of Us has taught us anything, it's that fungal infections are serious business, and maybe that odd rash that keeps popping up is something you should see a doctor about. The Last of Us also shows us that mature games with serious themes have a place in the mainstream of video games and that the biggest games don't have to be military shooters. And it's not just a strong single-player campaign, but a unique and tense multiplayer that helps elevate The Last of Us into one of the year's must-play games.
If you're even vaguely interested in the Metal Gear series or intelligent hack-and-slash games, do not pass up a chance to play this exciting and addictive hybrid.
GameSpot Editor Peter Brown
In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, there's no problem big or small that can't be solved by sticking a sword in it. Subtlety is not in this game's nature. Where the legendary series it was spawned from celebrated the stealthy and strategic, Revengeance is the polar opposite, with cyborg Raiden slicing, dicing, and heavy guitar rock riffing his way through the game's ridiculously over-the-top gameplay.
Ni no Kuni is a stupendous game because there's so much to do in it, and because all of it is just so good.
GameSpot Editor Kevin VanOrd
With its cast of charming characters, deep creature-based combat, and hundreds of beasties to catch and train, Ni no Kuni is the modern Pokemon game on consoles many have been wishing for. The game also features art and designs from famed Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli, making Ni no Kuni one of the year's most visually distinctive games.
State of Decay serves up a near-constant barrage of suspense and immersion that leaves even the briefest jaunts away from your home base tinged with the threat of death.
GameSpot Reviewer Leif Johnson
When the zombie apocalypse does come, millions will look back and say, "Man, we should have played more State of Decay to prepare us for this." While zombie games are common nowadays, State of Decay amps up the atmosphere and pressure thanks to its permadeath and real-time elements, giving us all an open-world zombie survival game that feels harrowing and real.
This is an ambitious, funny, and inventive game that's keen to impress.
GameSpot Editor Martin Gaston
Amid all the hoopla of the recent PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launches, it's easy to forget that the next generation of consoles actually kicked off last year with the launch of the Wii U. Perhaps it's the lack of compelling games that has led many to dismiss the Wii U, but great games are slowly coming out for Nintendo's new console. Wonderful 101 is one such game, a hyperactive blend of Pikmin-like gameplay and crazy superheroes that is one of the standout games for Nintendo's home console.
The immediate pull of Tearaway is the quality and charm of the visuals, sucking you in to what is a traditional 3D platformer at heart.
GameSpot Reviewer John Robertson
From the same studio that brought you the whimsical and charming Little Big Planet platforming series comes Tearaway, a whimsical and charming platformer for the PlayStation Vita. Not that the two share too many similarities apart from whimsy. Tearaway presents a unique world where you're controlling an envelope traversing though a paper landscape. And unlike Little Big Planet, which let you customise worlds, Tearway focuses on letting you decide and create the look of the game's various characters.
What original games caught your eye in 2013? Do you think a new IP has a chance against this year's sequels when it comes to GameSpot's Game of the Year deliberations? Sound off in the comments below! And join us tomorrow for part three of our Road to Game of the Year series, where we'll look at the top indie games of 2013.
GameSpot's Game of the Year series is set to kick off soon. Starting on December 9, we'll unveil all of this year's nominees. Then on December 10, we'll start awarding platform category winners daily, until we reach the big one--the Game of the Year--on December 18. But before we start naming nominees and crowning champions, we're taking a look back at 2013's top games to help refresh your memories (and ours) about what was great, what was worthwhile, and what could probably, maybe, possibly warrant inclusion in our Game of the Year deliberations. In this first installment of our Road to Game of the Year series, we look at the latest additions to some of gaming's most beloved franchises.
The games industry is built on the back of its megafranchises, and 2013 proved to be an outstanding year for some of gaming's best-known series. The last 12 months have seen the reinvigoration of some stagnant titles, impressive reboots of a few beloved characters, and the long-awaited return of some fan favorites. There were, of course, some serious missteps, but several of the latest installments in franchises both big and small are some of the best gaming experiences 2013 had to offer. So will a sequel or a series "reboot" end up taking GameSpot's prestigious Game of the Year award in 2013? There's plenty of precedent for this, with numbered sequels or the latest in a franchise winning GameSpot's top accolade several times in the award's 17-year history. It happened as recently as two years ago, when the last Elder Scrolls game--Skyrim--won Game of the Year, but other notable numbered game winners including Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008), Resident Evil 4 (2005), and Grand Theft Auto III (2001).
A great sequel needs to straddle the line between the new and the familiar, between nostalgia and innovation, and between giving us what we've already played and loved and giving us what we've never seen before. So which of this year's sequels or franchise entries deserve to be considered as potential platform category winners, or even as Game of the Year?
DmC: Devil May Cry
There's no point in looking back: Dante has got a brand-new future in front of him, and if DmC: Devil May Cry is anything to go by, it's going to be a great one.
GameSpot Editor - Mark Walton
2013 started with a lot of angst about a fictional character's haircut. To be sure, the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the rebooted DmC: Devil May Cry wasn't all about Dante's shorn locks. The moaners moaned that the new game had deviated too far from what made the series great, with some of the more passionate moanatees bombarding the game's Metacritic page with low user scores and even trying to get US President Barack Obama involved. Most critics, however, loved the game and praised the new direction developer Ninja Theory had taken.
Heart of the Swarm is a safe expansion, but it's also an excellent one.
GameSpot Editor - Daniel Shannon
With all the buzz around eSports, it's easy to forget that Starcraft isn't all about massive tournaments and how fast your APM is. It's also about a lady who becomes a human-alien hybrid and can control space bugs with her brain. Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm's single-player campaign focuses on the Queen of Blades herself--Kerrigan--while the multiplayer continues to refine the tight competitive gameplay that has made Starcraft II one of the leading eSports games to date. It may not be the real-time strategy revolution many were hoping for, but Heart of the Swarm has the polish and finesse very few other games can match.
The more you play, the more invested you become in the well-being of your city, and the more exciting each small success becomes.
GameSpot Editor : Tom McShea
Animal Crossing is one of those games whose appeal is almost impossible to describe to someone who hasn't played the series. "So you collect fossils, you say? And you get to write letters to animals? And I have to pay off debts? Sounds great!" But trust us: the unique New Leaf is loaded with charm, and the 3DS's online capabilities make Animal Crossing a much more social game than ever before.
Assassin's Creed needed something ambitious to get the series back on track; Black Flag is that game and then some.
GameSpot Editor : Shaun McInnis
After many were underwhelmed by Assassin's Creed III, there was a real danger that Ubisoft's flagship franchise would either sink under the weight of expectations or get becalmed in a sea of familiarity. But Black Flag sailed in on a stiff breeze, and its focus on pirating in the Caribbean propelled the franchise into exciting new waters. It is, to jam in just one more nautical term in this paragraph, sea shanty-rrific.
It's immensely fun to stir up trouble, and even more engaging to see how boldly BioShock Infinite portrays a society torn asunder.
GameSpot Editor - Kevin VanOrd
BioShock Infinite is a game that invites discussion, with the answers to its many narrative mysteries still being debated months after the game's release. What's not in question is that BioShock Infinite is one of 2013's best-reviewed games, with an astounding 94 average on Metacritic. But perhaps the greatest mystery still lies unsolved: Where did Elizabeth find all those coins? Was she holding a purse Booker didn't know about? Or did she keep creating tears to some mysterious coin vault?
The experience of playing Dota changes day by day--some evenings will be exhilarating, while others will kick your morale to the curb--but there are few games as worthy of your time investment as this.
GameSpot Editor - Martin Gaston
Though it has been a fixture of the eSports scene for close to two years, Dota 2 is still technically a 2013 game, being officially released in July this year after many months in beta. The game can be staggeringly complex, but the full release comes with comprehensive tools and tips aimed at helping newcomers ease in and perhaps think that maybe, just maybe, they have a shot at turning pro. Which, of course, is impossible. Everyone else is far too good.
Your time in Los Santos may leave you with a few psychological scars, but you shouldn't let that stop you from visiting.
GameSpot Editor - Carolyn Petit
Let's face it: the behemoth that is Rockstar's latest open-world crime epic is sure to be featured as a nominee for several Game of the Year awards, and not just GameSpot's. Grand Theft Auto V received almost unanimous critical acclaim and sales that dwarfed the biggest Hollywood blockbusters, making it one of those rare games that absolutely everyone--self-confessed gamer or not--talked about. But does it have what it takes to go all the way and take our top award of Game of the Year?
Though it can be bizarre to think that something so occasionally familiar can still be so fresh and engaging, A Link Between Worlds is itself a unique experience.
GameSpot Editor - Martin Gaston
Nintendo did it. It actually went ahead and did it. After almost two decades, Nintendo finally had the temerity to--gasp--change how a Legend of Zelda game plays. A Link Between Worlds shakes up the traditional Zelda formula by letting you rent items and tackle dungeons in almost any order, and it introduces a new ability that impacts your moment-to-moment play. The result is pure, uncut Zelda goodness, and it's the best the series has been in years.
Whether you're a pokefreak or a trainer who hasn't played since the days of Red and Blue, Pokemon X/Y is easily the most enticing entry in the franchise in years.
GameSpot Editor - Randolph Ramsay
Nintendo did it. It actually went ahead and did it. After almost two decades, Nintendo finally had the temerity to...oh wait, this is Pokemon X/Y we're talking about, right? OK, so the core experience of playing a Pokemon game may not have changed that much in X/Y, but the first Pokemon on the 3DS adds subtle refinements (such as faster ways to level up your team) and extensive multiplayer modes, making this one of the most accessible Pokemon games ever made.
It doesn't try to rewrite the book on third-person action adventure games. But with its excellent controls, engaging heroine, thrilling combat, and fascinating setting, it doesn't need to.
GameSpot Editor - Carolyn Petit
It's hard to believe that at one time, Lara Croft and Sonic the Hedgehog were the biggest, most popular video game characters out there. Both iconic game icons had a new game this year, but only one was in a game deserving of consideration as a contender for our end-of-year awards. Here's a hint: it's the game that doesn't have hedgehogs in it. The Tomb Raider reboot this year--smart, sometimes harrowing, and always exciting--builds on Lara's legacy as one of gaming's most beloved characters.
Everything that you can see and do within its enchanting levels is so bright, colorful, and full of wonder that it's impossible not to be taken in by its charms.
GameSpot Editor - Mark Walton
Here's a thought that may stir some heated debate: the only next-gen game worth playing this holiday season is Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U. Sure, it may not have the looks of a Killzone or Forza, and you can't use the Wii U to, say, search Bing for pizza delivery using voice commands, but Super Mario 3D World does have the most diverse, addictive, and downright charming gameplay seen in a Mario game since the Galaxy heydays.
Last Light is notably superior to its predecessor, merging storytelling, shooting, and sneaking into a remarkable and cohesive whole.
GameSpot Editor - Kevin VanOrd
Apparently the budget on the hugely impressive Metro: Last Light was a 10th of some of its AAA counterparts. And apparently the Ukrainian devs had to work in freezing temperatures in their offices in Kiev, and had to "smuggle" in high-end PCs to get past corrupt Ukrainian customs officers. Yet despite those development challenges, Metro: Last Light became one of the most compelling shooters of the past year, and compares more than favorably to some of the huge AAA titles Western game companies have produced.
The above games are just a few of the high-quality sequels released in 2013. Did we miss some obvious choices? Do you think any of the above will make it as a nominee, or even as GameSpot's Game of the Year? Sound off in the comments below! And come back tomorrow when our Road to Game of the Year feature continues with a look back at 2013's brand-new titles and gaming experiences.
With a fuselage chewed up by bullet holes, an injured pilot who's bleeding out, and smoke trailing out of your engine, few things are more gratifying than ramming your doomed fighter headlong into the jerk who put you in such dire straights to begin with. World of Warplanes makes as much room for tactical sneakery as it does fancy flying, which gives your likelihood of surviving an exciting air of uncertainty. When the skies are swarming with fighters, dogfights spill into one another as you rocket through waves of antiaircraft fire and near misses. Layer on top of this an exhaustive list of unlockable planes and part upgrades to tinker with, and you have a game that is far more enjoyable than its repetitive nature might suggest.
World of Warplanes is a streamlined arcade-style experience built for easy accessibility. It takes only a minute or two to come to grips with the simple controls, and after a quick piloting tutorial, you're booted right to the battlefield with minimal handholding. It's a whirlwind introduction to be sure, but the flow of battle quickly becomes a familiar groove once you get a few missions under your belt. The fact that there's only one competitive player-versus-player mode to dive into helps you get acclimated quickly, though that limitation is ultimately to the game's detriment.
Hang in the hangar for tinkering fun.
Matches pit opposing squadrons in 15-on-15 battles for air supremacy over massive square maps. Victory is achieved by dealing enough damage to your opponents' base or by blowing every enemy bird out of the sky. The latter tends to be the deciding factor in nearly every battle simply because aggressive players are always on the hunt for the next potential kill. This doesn't make bombing and air-to-ground strafing runs any less useful, since you still gain experience for them, but it does keep matches short. Most games rarely bump up against the 15-minute time limit because there's no one else left in the air at that point.
Given the flight speed of the zippier fighter craft, it isn't long before squads clash in explosions of gunfire and chaos. Whether they unfold high in the clouds or closer to the ground, the inevitable dogfights that erupt are a thrilling highlight. Jockeying for position as you dive and climb or circle around to flank a foe--contending with antiaircraft flak and dangerous mountain terrain all the while--makes for some exhilarating moments. Taking damage to key areas of your plane and getting your pilot injured can severely impact handling too. That usually draws enemy fighters to you like hungry buzzards eager for scraps, but it's pretty awesome to land those last few kills when you're limping along.
World of Warplanes' maps are packed with beautiful scenery both at ground level and in the skies.
Things are just as exciting near the ground.
Speaking of explosions, your time on the battlefield is often short-lived, at least until you sharpen your piloting skills and unlock better gear for your planes. The experience and cash rewards for making it through a match intact give you a big boost, although death is only a minor bummer thanks to the way missions are handled. Get blown up, and you can still stick around as a spectator to see how things play out, though hopping instantly back to your hangar lets you grab a different ride and start a new game. At first, it's a nuisance that planes are tied to each match you initiate, forcing you to wait until a match is completed before you can free up the plane again. But the upside is that this encourages you to try lots of different craft and gradually improve your whole fleet rather than rely too heavily on one favorite.
The depth that World of Warplanes lacks in its sparsity of modes and short-lived air battles pops up in the huge number of craft you can unlock. With hundreds of planes arranged in class tiers across five different countries--USA, USSR, Germany, Japan, and the UK--there's a lot of sweet military hardware to dig through. You'll find everything from old biplanes and burly bombers to more modern jets, and each craft looks outstanding. Gaining access to them is a slow but satisfying process that makes each match you play, no matter how short or long, feel like it's contributing to your overall progress.
Your first few aircraft are flimsy and get torn apart quickly in direct fire. Spending accumulated experience earned with each craft lets you access new planes and upgraded parts for each one, ranging from engines and guns to armor and special bullets. That's when they become a lot more formidable and fun to fly. It's a two-stage process, however. Once you spend experience to gain access to each additional ride and extra parts, you have to shell out accumulated in-game cash to actually buy and equip them. It's a grindy system, albeit one that lets you get a lot of cool stuff without having to pay actual cash.
Bombing runs are a nice break from dogfighting.
Spending real money on gold currency is needed if you want to expand your hangar to hold a larger number of planes at once, or to speed the whole process up, but you have a good amount of starting space to work with. A small handful of souped-up planes can only be obtained with gold. Aside from being a bit more powerful than their non-premium counterparts within the same class, these craft are not necessarily the absolute best you can fly, but they don't require research and they give you a boost in earned credits and experience. Elsewhere in the shop, you can purchase gold, credits, and temporary packages that boost your experience gain. These purchases range from reasonable to extreme in price, but they give you a solid advantage by providing quicker access to upper-tier crafts and powerful ammo.
Taking down a tough adversary is tops.
World of Warplanes' maps are packed with beautiful scenery both at ground level and in the skies. Diving close for bombing runs gives you a closer look at ships, buildings, and infrastructure, while the sun and cloud lighting effects are beautifully captivating. Flying high gives you a strategic advantage to divebomb planes below you, and cloud cover can obscure the view, allowing you to spring a sneaky surprise. The map topography and ground-level designs make a much bigger impact on combat when you drop down to hug mountain peaks, buzz past AA guns, and rocket through deep canyons to try to shake someone on your tail. Despite the game's good looks, it stinks that the map rotation is so limited. Each setting is impressively rednered, but you can't pick which map you play on in a given match. This leads to lots of matches where you fly over the same few vistas, adding to the repetitiousness of the experience.
Taking to the skies in a seemingly endless string of short and intense matches proves to be a lot of fun in World of Warplanes, even when you feel caught in a time loop playing the same maps ad nauseam. Every encounter is pleasantly unpredictable, and the crazy kills and near misses keep the steady grind for cash and experience interesting. Ultimately, it's the variety of planes and unlockable goodies available for each aircraft that keep you pushing through the more limited, recycled stretches of this airborne assault freebie. There's room to grow here, but World of Warplanes leaves the runway with a sound foundation intact.
For the PC and PS4 at least, some of those issues should get fixed tomorrow with yet another patch. Developer DICE posted on the official Battlefield forums to let players know that: "This update was scheduled to go live as quickly as possible to fix the so-called 'one-shot kill bug,' where bullets were sometimes applying damage multiple times to a character. We are simultaneously working hard on a number of top issues that we will address as soon as possible in the next update that we will be able to detail later."
The update for Xbox One and PS3 is slated to go live sometime later this week.
The specific list of PS4 fixes include:
Fixed the "one-hit kill" bug where bullets were sometimes applying their damage multiple times to a character. This could lead to firefights where normal rifles sometimes dealt one-shot kills, which is not as designed.
Fixed a crash that could occur when having a very large amounts of Friends
Enabled audio in PS4 video captures
Here is the list of PC fixes:
Removed the blur effect on soldiers that appeared when Commanders were using EMP attacks
Fixed the audio bug where audio sometimes randomly dropped out while playing on certain multiplayer maps (typically Golmud Railway and Hainan Resort)
Fixed the "one-hit kill bug" where occasionally damage from a single bullet was applied multiple times
Fixed a common crash that would occur when exiting from the Single Player Campaign to Main Menu
Tweaked the network and computer performance screen to show proper values. Players can now test their computer and network connection and get recommendations if they need to adjust something to improve their gameplay experience
If you're a Battlefield 4 player, how has your experience been so far? Let us know in the comments below.
It's impossible to look cool playing Fighter Within. I'm not talking about a high standard of cool either, like Arthur Fonzarelli banging on a jukebox. No, while playing Fighter's Within, you will look less cool than some pantless schlub who barely resembles a functional member of society. Frankly, any activity that involves flailing your arms and legs around like an apathetic Steven Seagal impersonator is going to draw some prolonged stares and titters (or in my case, howling laughter from supposedly supportive colleagues). This isn't a problem in of itself; after all, you can look just as foolish playing the likes of Just Dance. The problem is that the flailing is in service to an awful fighting game that lends no joy to your embarrassment.
Unlike in Fighter Within's predecessor, Fighters Uncaged, the motion tracking is not entirely hopeless this time around, even if its menu system is. I take a weedy swing at the screen, and my character punches; I do a little hop, and my character kicks; I hug thin air, and my character goes in for a throw. No, the greatest problem with Fighter Within isn't its ability to sense your simplistic moves, but the incomprehensible banality of the game itself. A great fighting game is about speed, depth, and maybe some outlandish moves and combos. But in Fighter Within, none of that exists, because of its physical dependence on the bags of meat attempting to play it.
A fun game would be a good start.
Character movement is limited to sluggish hops backwards and forwards as you awkwardly lean your body; there's only one type of kick; and combos are automated after you land five successive punches. Every drop of fun has been viciously squeezed out of the game, and the action is slowed down to a lifeless crawl. Some attempt has been made to add depth to the combat with counters and dodges and special moves charged by holding your arms up in the air. But these all fall prey to a lack of precision and a delayed response time, and the game soon devolves into a mess of flapping limbs.
Hugging it out doesn't make Fighter Within any better.
A Fighter Within match goes down as follows: pick from a list of dull or--in the case of the overweight, angry kilt-wearing Scottish guy--offensive stereotypes; choose one of the bland, barely there arenas; stand like a lemon in front of the TV for what seems like an eternity as you feel your life ebb away during the excruciatingly long loading times; punch at thin air as fast as humanly possible until you trigger a combo; watch the lifeless combo animation; repeat these steps until your opponent is defeated; quickly realise that you'll never get those 10 minutes of your life back; and question life choices.
You can rope some poor soul in for some local multiplayer this time around, which may let you stretch those 10 minutes out to 20. Any more than that, though, and you're pushing the boundaries of friendship, patience, and sanity more than most people are willing to. A fun party game Fighter Within is not.
Combos are barely a challenge to perform, and barely worth watching either.
If you're playing solo, then it's worth noting that you have to subject yourself to one of the most laughable storylines to have ever graced a video game. It's not just bad; it's really, really bad, and the sort of thing you'd hear in a poorly dubbed kung fu movie, only without any of the kitsch charm. It meanders from coming-of-age adventure to fantasy gibberish with little explanation, but it's the dialogue--delivered with all the enthusiasm of a wet sock--that really takes it to the next level of awful. In one exchange, a character exclaims "I've gotta run, someone's waiting for me." The reply? "Yeah, my knuckles!" Lines make so little sense that they swing right back from being bad to being so bad they're hilarious. Case in point: "The only freedom is the fight to conquer for freedom." I don't know how to begin trying to explain that one.
Yes, the motion tracking isn't as bad as in Fighters Uncaged, and yes, at least there's two-player combat this time. But that's pretty much like applying lipstick to an ugly pig. This is a totally flawed game that offers little more than a slow, barely competent combat system and a laughable storyline. And hey, if you're that desperate to experience Fighter Within, get a friend to repeatedly kick you in the shins. It's free, a nearly spot-on representation of the game, and far less painful.
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Although it wasn't delayed (since PopCap says it was never meant to be a launch title), a contingent of fans have been eagerly waiting to play the follow-up to Peggle since it was announced at E3 2013. As long as you have an Xbox One, that wait is almost over.
A preview of Peggle 2 at VentureBeat revealed a December 9 release date for the downloadable game as well as the price: $12. While gameplay stays relatively the same as the previous title, some of the new features for Peggle 2 will include a fresh slate of helpers (with requisite new powers) and bumpers that will allow you to keep your ball in play longer.
The preview does not discuss whether the game will be changed for release on other consoles or release dates outside of the Xbox One.
This week in New Releases we talk about how Gran Turismo 6 is on PS3, how Tiny Brains starts fights with your friends and how Savant: Ascent is worth buying! We also check out an old favorite Speedball 2 and the notorious Super Mario 3D World.
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