Added: 24.07.2015 18:41 | 15 views | 0 comments

Having grown up playing Doom back in the days of shareware and VGA monitors, I was looking forward to the reveal of the latest sequel at E3 as much as anybody. While the single player stuff definitely intrigued me (repetitive death animations aside), it was the multiplayer footage that got me really excited. I love a good arena shooter, with from E3, but now that I've experienced it first hand at QuakeCon, I'm happy to report that it doesn't disappoint. There was only one map and one game mode to play with, but I kept lining up to play it again and again.

The demo's single map was typical of the series: a heady mix of industrial structures and conveniently placed pits of lava. The arena was replete with tight corridors, typically dotted with health and ammo pickups, necessities if you hope to survive for an extended period of time. These hallways snake around a central chamber where the aforementioned lava awaited sloppy or anxious combatants, gulping them up in a matter of seconds. Counting the dangerous platforms that surround the lava, there are three levels on the map. Launch pads and double jumps will help you take the high ground, but if there's an enemy waiting for you, you may find yourself scrambling for safety only to land feet first in a boiling cauldron of death.

That's not to say that a crafty player can't find their way back to safety, even if they're falling towards the lava pit. One of the sub-weapons that you can choose in the demo is the teleporter, with the other being the traditional frag grenade. Tossing the teleporter and then hitting the same button again at a later time will instantly teleport you to wherever it was placed. While it may be too difficult to deploy the teleporter while you're falling, you can preemptively place one in a safe room, just in case you find yourself either falling into lava or stuck in a sticky situation where you're surrounded by enemies.

Choosing a loadout that suits your playstyle is paramount in Doom, but it's equally important to keep your eyes open for power ups that appear during matches as they can turn any player into a super powered killing machine. Quad damage and invisibility are back, but the new revenant power up is by far the most valuable asset that you can acquire.

When the revenant icon--a pentagram--appears on the map, it turns the tide of battle as everyone rushes to pick it up. Even if you don't get it, so long as someone on your team does, things quickly turn in your favor. Whoever picks it up becomes a flying, rocket-spewing demon with increased health, and it's nearly impossible for a single soldier to take it down. Where a match, pre-revenant, is about individual performance from moment-to-moment, once someone transforms, it's all about teamwork. With the revenant on your side, your team gains a wall of destruction that can be used to your advantage. But when the enemy gets this powerful demon on their side, coordination as a team becomes the most important thing. Becoming the revenant is also super empowering. Where you perhaps felt fragile on foot with standard weapons, transforming into the revenant grants you the freedom to let loose and throw caution to the wind. Yes, a team can take you down, but any time spent as the revenant typically results in multiple kills for your team, not to mention the rush of being the most powerful player in the match.

My experience playing Doom's multiplayer mode was everything I'd hoped for, but there's still so much to see in the future. New modes and maps will hopefully play to the game's strengths in different ways, but we'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, with an Alpha demo looming on the horizon, I can't wait to jump back into battle. In some ways, it feels like I've leapt back in time, but with things like the revenant and the teleporter on hand, Doom's multiplayer feels distinct. I may go back and try my hand at Quake Arena for the hell of it, but once the Doom Alpha goes live, it's time to say goodbye to the memories of old and embrace a new, if not slightly familiar, breed of demonic, multiplayer mayhem.

Added: 23.07.2015 5:18 | 12 views | 0 comments


Cyburn writes : "Me and HelenBaby had the opportunity to go to Hyper Japan 2015, which was located in Londons O2 Arena (formerly the Millennium Dome). The gaming section contained loads of games from Nintendo 3DS/Wii U, Bandai Namco and even the Heart of Gaming (HoG) had some of their arcade machines for play at the event. We had the opportunity to play these games, some of which were announced during E3 last month".

Added: 22.07.2015 18:19 | 13 views | 0 comments


AG from EGMR writes: "Superheroes are everywhere and while its beginning to feel almost oppressive, with Hollywoods release schedule chock full of wares from Marvel and DC for the next few years, we can at least confidently say this trend is not going away anytime soon. Another, entirely separate, practice that is on the rise is taking an intellectual property or creative work and blowing it up across multiple media. This is nothing new, not even remotely. Rather the breadth of media along which this can be applied is far wider than before."

Added: 21.07.2015 13:27 | 8 views | 0 comments

--has impacted the game's scope and subsequently its release date. As a result of the increased funding, Cloud Imperium has been able to develop new features that were never originally planned. Roberts admits to some level of "feature creep," and acknowledges that Star Citizen may take longer to develop than previously expected.

But he maintains this is in the best interest overall of the game.

"There are people out there who are going to tell you that this is all a BAD THING," Roberts said. "That it's 'feature creep' and we should make a smaller, less impressive game for the sake of having it out more quickly or in order to meet artificial deadlines. Now I'll answer those claims in one word: Bullsh**!

"Star Citizen matters BECAUSE it is big, because it is a bold dream," he added. "It is something everyone else is scared to try. You didn't back Star Citizen because you want what you've seen before. You're here and reading this because we are willing to go big, to do the things that terrify publishers. You've trusted us with your money so we can build a game, not line our pockets. And we sure as hell didn't run this campaign so we could put that money in the bank, guarantee ourselves a profit, and turn out some flimsy replica of a game I've made before. You went all in supporting us and we’ve gone all in making the game. Is Star Citizen today a bigger goal than I imagined in 2012? Absolutely. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not: it's the whole damn point."

"Is Star Citizen today a bigger goal than I imagined in 2012? Absolutely. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not: it's the whole damn point." -- Roberts

Will this vision for Star Citizen take longer to deliver? "Of course," Roberts said, pointing out that when the scope of a project expands, development time does as well. But it still presents potential problems.

"How do we balance the mutually conflicting wants of the community; to have this hugely ambitious game, but not wait forever for it?" he said. "Our answer is to embrace open development and share features and functionality that will go into the final game before everything is completed.

"In today’s 24/7 short attention-span world people don't have the patience to wait around for years," he added. "This is why we decided on multiple modules: the Hangar, so you could first see your ships and walk around them in the manner you would in the final game, then Arena Commander, to allow people to get a taste and give feedback on the basic dogfight and flight mechanics. Star Marine, which will be available shortly, is the module for backers to experience and give their feedback on the First-Person Shooting component of the game."

Roberts frankly acknowledged that "feature creep" is indeed a worry for a project like Star Citizen. But he also pointed out that Cloud Imperium games made the "hard choice" to stop stretch goals at the end of last year because it was necessary "for the better of the game."

"Today, we have a radical design that's like nothing else in the industry and we're building towards it every hour of every day," Roberts said. "We count on the community's continued support to build the game to the high level that we set out to accomplish. Allowing independent authors to do more is the point of crowd funding, and going beyond our limitations is the entire point of Star Citizen.

"We genuinely want people to be happy with their decision to back Star Citizen, because I and everyone else on the team passionately believe in Star Citizen," he added. "This is the dream game that all of us have wanted to build all our lives. And while I can’t promise you everything will always go smoothly or features or content won’t arrive later than we want them to, I can promise that we will never stop until we have achieved this dream."

What's your take on what Roberts had to say? Share your thoughts in the comments below.