Doom is fast, thrilling, authentic, and deeply, hilariously gory
Added: 03.07.2015 15:41 | 31 views | 0 comments
So after all the excitable yelping coming out of last year's Quakecon, after that damnably exciting, damnably brief teaser trailer, we've now seen Doom 4 (or just plain Doom, as it's currently calling itself), by way of a couple of hefty E3 demos. And you know what? The Quakecon converts were right. The new Doom is incendiary.
Faster, harder, gorier, funnier, and altogether more brutal, Doom stands out from the swathe of its bullet-happy contemporaries with a fresh, unique, damnably satisfying-looking combat flow that nevertheless feels 100% authentically Doom. It also looks incredible, has a gloriously horrible sense of humour, and is bringing some seriously unexpected but very, very cool additions in its community-focused customisation tools. Click on, and we'll tell you all.
Shotguns. Super shotguns. Machine guns. Plasma rifles. Chainsaws. Chainsaws that carve up demons at a variety of interesting angles, often changing direction mid-hack in order maximise artistic expression. Rocket launchers. The goddamn BFG. Whatever weapon pops instinctively into your mind’s eye when you hear the word ‘Doom’, it’s in the new Doom. And when it fires, it fires like the end of days.
But there are a few new ones too. We’ve seen – in snatches – a new lightning rifle, and a couple of longer-ranged scoped weapons too. But don’t worry. Mid to close-range, rapid fire slaughter, with Doomguy sprinting through swathes of arterial spray, looks to be the order of the day, 100%. That’s because…
It’s fast, it’s ferocious, and it never, ever stops moving. From the industrial environs of Mars, to the wide, open-air killing fields of Hell, Doom’s combat is a whirling, ever-shifting carnival of weapon-changing, demon-mulching violence. On top of his expected speed (which sees him walking faster than some games let you sprint), Doomguy also has a neat new mantle move, which, alongside his double-jump, opens up a raft of verticality and on-the-fly strategic options.
You’ll never be hiding weakly behind cover, but you can duck behind a crate, climb swiftly over it, and then leap off to retaliate with a surprise shotgun burst as you hurtle through the air toward your previous attacker.
That’s how it looks right now. The combat is too fast and kinectic, and flows with too much momentum, to make static recovery any kind of an option. And the levels and multiplayer arenas we’ve seen are positively littered with health and armour pick-ups. Certain enemies will spew them out too, once you’ve burst said enemies satisfactorily all over the wall.
But that’s not to say Doom is too generous. In terms of game balance it looks more like a case of ‘keep moving, keep killing, keep healing, or die quickly’.
Taking the occasional hint from Doom 3’s more ‘realistic’ monsters, but swinging far closer to the early games’ more colourful, expressive take on biotech body-horror, the new Doom’s demons are a totally faithful, modern recreation of the same, line-up of enemies that have underpinned the series – and in fact FPS archytypes in general – for over 20 years.
Zombieman is in. Imps are in. Pinkie Demons are in (and returning as the chunky, bipedal melee-bastards we all know and love, rather than the wheel-assisted rhino-dog of Doom 3). Barons of Hell are back, as are Mancubi, Revenants, and Cacodemons, all fulfilling the same roles and behaviours they’re supposed to in Doom’s complex, quietly cerebral ecosystem. Oh, and there’s this really big demon guy too. He’s got a massive gun instead of an arm, so he’s cybernetic, as well as a demon. He’s… I don’t know, some kind of a Robodemon, I suppose you’d call him…
We’ve seen around 15 minutes of solid Doom gameplay so far. And you know what? Not a break in the action. Not a line of dialogue. Not a single pleading NPC or objective-dumping audio diary. Just Doomguy, a lot of monsters, and a lot of guns. All momentum, all the time, without a moment to look back at the trail of gore heaping up behind.
The one concession to ‘narrative’ we’ve seen comes when Doomguy fires up a data file and runs it through his mobile hologram drone, which projects a recording of previous events in the room he’s in, in a manner akin to Dark Souls’ phantoms of the fallen dead. The real-time, 3D playback shows a previous Marine dragged away by a Baron of Hell. Follow the unfortunate grunt’s final path, and you’ll find his body, and the soon-to-be-severed hand required to fire up a fingerprint lock. That’s it. No slowing of pace, no loss of control, and all information delivered in economical and gleefully brutal fashion. If Doom is going to have a story, that’s the way to deliver it.
File this one under ‘Don’t-you-dare-screw-with Doom’s-core-gameplay-Oh-actually-hang-on-yeah-let’s-have-that-new-bit-actually-because-oh-my-God-it’s-incredible’. While the new Doom looks entirely, spiritually authentic to the fast, furious, freewheeling open combat that Doom Just Is, the new melee execution mechanic is an incredibly exciting addition. It’s new, it’s fresh, it transforms things just enough to make Doom feel unique again, but crucially, it’s so well implemented that it feels like it was always there.
Do enough damage to an enemy without completely killing them, and they’ll start to glow. Get in close before they recover, and you can fire off a hilariously, triumphantly violent hand-to-hand takedown, the kind of thing that makes the earlier games’ Berserk power-up look like half a can of Redbull, watered down with camomile. Heads are twisted off. Jaws are wrenched away from heads. Entire limbs are snapped off and used to stove in any heads that may miraculously remain intact. And being delivered by Doomguy, these ‘little’ takedowns, however intricate, happen fast and furiously enough to never, ever slow down the pace of the combat. Seeing a theme here now?
This is no straightforward corridor shooter. Even the enclosed sections set in the, er, corridors of the Martian UAC base are wide, rangey, multi-levelled affairs, filled with a multitude of only semi-linear options and lines of attack at any given time. Yes, you’ll move loosely from A to B, as you always have in Doom, but when the fights break out in between, it’s going to be sandbox slaughter all the way. As it always is when Doom has been at its very best.
Beyond that, we’ve already seen some suitably twisty, turny, multi-layered level designs set in Hell, with a couple of Doom’s traditionally obtuse, explicitly teased,
‘hidden’ power-ups clearly on show.
Doom is going to have multiplayer. And it looks nuts. While the core mechanics of the campaign alone would have delivered the online game of ‘skill, fast, vertical movement, and awesome guns’ that Bethesda has promised, there’s much more than that going on here.
Domination and Clan Arena modes are joined by ‘90s classics like Freeze-Tag (a brilliant, off-kilter favourite from our Quake 3 days), and the claim of ‘very unique power-ups’ definitely seems to ring true. Grabbing a pentogram to transform into a flying, rocket-hurling Revenant, anyone? Yeah, thought so. Oh, and teleports are back, so we should probably take that to mean that telefrags are as well. Delicious.
Okay, it already looks brilliant, but this is the thing that pushes Doom over from ‘exciting’ to ‘potentially essential’. Doom has an immense history with the modding scene. Hell, the original game, and its easy-to-tweak file system, is pretty much responsible for modding being a thing in the first place. Only problem is that more recent id games, such as Doom 3 and Rage, lost the scope for all those customisable fun-times when they moved over to console. We know that Fallout 4 will have mod support on the Xbox One, by way of a natty deal between Bethesda and Microsoft, but Doom possibly has an even better solution, right across the board.
SnapMap is Doom’s in-built suite of level editing tools, and presents a dizzying number of things to build, modify, tweak, and model, all with a couple of clicks. Environmental layouts, hazards, enemy placements, game logic, event triggers… there are even a bunch of single and multi-player game mode presets, all of which can be adapted and reworked into any shape you see fit. See it as LittleBigPlanet, only in 3D, and pissing gore from every hole.
So far we only have a release window of Q1/Q2 2016, but that doesn’t mean things are going to go quiet any time soon. Quakecon at the end of July should throw up even more footage and details, and Bethesda always goes big for Gamescom in August. Expect more news throughout the summer, and probably something big around Hallowe’en. Because Hallowe’en. And Doom.
Tags: Evil, Onto, Daly, Jump, Xbox, Click, Heart, While, Help, Down, Fire, Machine, Arena, Because, Beyond, Jack, Bethesda, Club
From:
www.gamesradar.com
| First Wave of Steam Machine Pre-Orders Snapped Up
Added: 29.06.2015 23:01 | 7 views | 0 comments
You can still pre-order Steam hardware, but you'll have to wait to get your hands on it until November, like everyone else.
From:
www.ign.com
| Orc Assault, Tower Defense Game Alpha Version Released
Added: 27.06.2015 12:15 | 13 views | 0 comments
One Angry Gamer "You can play-test the new isometric tower-defense game from Ghost Machine VR Studios called Orc Assault. The alpha version of the game is available for those who purchase the title during its pre-release phase. Its like pre-Early Access if thats even a possibility. Almost like playing a game while its still the sperm in the developers sack as opposed to being a fetus in Early Access."
From:
n4g.com
| Absolutely Real Science Every Terminator Fan Should Know
Added: 26.06.2015 23:49 | 14 views | 0 comments
Killer AIs Mean Business
The Terminator franchise is overflowing with fun science fiction ideas. But that nasty, red-tinted cyborg-ocracy may be closer to reality than you think. How close? Hey, glad you asked. (Photo by: Paramount Pictures) Bipedal Humanoid Robots Walk The Earth
Real-world engineering Company Boston Dynamics currently has the lead in scaring the world with ambulatory robots, including the bipedal machine featured here. The bot can perform natural movements including calisthenics and dynamic walking. The increased prevalence of robot workers even prompted the New York Times to publish an article entitled, "As Robotics Advances, Worries of Killer Robots Rise." (Photo by: Corbis) Stephen Hawking Warns Humanity
Killer robots seemed like a cinematic fantasy in 1984 when The Terminator premiered, but now prominent scientists, including Stephen Hawking, warn of a grim future for humanity if safeguards against strong AI aren't taken now. He told the BBC recently, "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." Thanks for the pep talk, professor. (Photo by: Corbis) Human Flesh and Machine Can Become One
When Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator first sliced into his arm to reveal a cybernetic skeleton, he not only proved he was a robot from the future, but also pointed a way forward for human advancement. How close are we to blending synthetic human parts with mechanical enhancements? (Photo by: TriStar Pictures) A Physics Lab Revolutionizes Prosthetics
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has made radical advancements in prosthetics technology, including a surgery that reassigns nerves that used to control arms and hands. Literally, we now have people who can control prosthetic limbs by simply thinking about actions they want to perform. An innovation that carried a lot of doom and portent in the Terminator films actually has delivered tremendous benefit for real-life people. (Photo by: Corbis) Scientists Create Lab-Grown Flesh
Dutch scientist Mark Post displays samples of his lab grown flesh at the University of Maastricht. In-vitro meat has become a popular venture as scientists seek solutions to world hunger. Human organs also have been grown independently for transplant patients. A terminator's synthetic fleshy exterior is much closer to reality than ever before. (Photo by: Corbis) There's No Stopping Shape-Shifting Metal
Watching T-1000 effortlessly glide through a row of steel bars evoked a feeling of sublime horror. A technology that advanced seemed alien when Terminator 2 came out. It isn't quite 2029, when the fictional machines developed the tech, but how far along are we toward building our own liquid metal in the real world? (Photo by: TriStar Pictures) Gallium Might Hold the Key to Liquid Metal
The chemical element gallium, found in trace amounts in zinc oxide, has shown promising leads. Researchers in Beijing recently created an aluminum-fueled, liquid-metal motor made largely out of gallium. Its inherent properties allow the metal alloy to shift to fit whatever space it occupies, particularly when electricity is applied. (Photo by: Corbis) Time Travel Requires A Lot of Energy
When a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger traveled back in time, arriving in a blinding flash of light at a truck stop, he sliced off the edges of a few big rigs in the process. The Terminator films seem to understand that the energy created during time travel would constitute a massive force. But is time travel even theoretically possible? (Photo by: TriStar Pictures) Atomic Clocks Helps Demonstrate Relativity
It's hard to believe, but time travel actually happens every day. Beginning in the mid-50s, scientists have used precise atomic clocks on airplanes and satellites to demonstrate an aspect of Einstein's relativity theory: Two matching clocks can report different times, depending on the impact of velocity or gravity. The "time travel," or dilation that occurs, usually accounts for fractions of seconds, but it proves that time is truly relative. Even your phone's GPS contains equations that factor in the bending of spacetime! (Photo by: Corbis) Small Comfort: We're Nowhere Near the Genisys of Time Travel
The Terminator films don't just include a few seconds of time travel, though. Their characters travel decades into into the past, a feat that would, scientists believe, require the energy equivalent of the sun's nuclear power. As of now, NASA scientists think we're centuries away from even being able to explore the idea. (Photo by: Paramount Pictures) Judgment Day is a Real Threat
In the Terminator franchise, the artificial intelligence system Skynet becomes self-aware and instigates nuclear strikes across the world: an event known as Judgment Day. One of the most striking images from the films includes a fiery ruin of Los Angeles. Do these nightmare scenarios hold any weight? (Photo by: TriStar Pictures) Nuclear Threat Motivates Scientists to Update "Doomsday Clock"
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists runs a real-world doomsday clock: a symbolic countdown to the "midnight" of global catastrophe. Currently, nine countries have a total stockpile of 16,300 nuclear weapons, enough to blow up the world several times over. In early 2015, the nuclear arms race prompted scientists to move the clock to three minutes until midnight. While we don't have a menacing artificial intelligence threatening nuclear war, the danger of computer-controlled systems sparking an apocalypse is considered very real. (Photo by: Corbis) Bullets Cannot Make Bodies Fly Through The Air
For all the cool ideas the Terminator movies bring to the table, there's one important area they get comedically wrong. When the T-800 walks into a room and sprays a round of bullets, you'll notice bodies flying backwards, as if the victims have been shot out of a cannon. Unless the robots have circumvented physical laws we've known about since Newton, this simply isn't possible. (Photo by: Orion Pictures) The Conservation of Momentum Ruins The Terminator Movies
If you've ever seen one of these cool Newton's cradle toys, you'll understand the basic principle of momentum conservation: momentum is neither created nor destroyed. It remains constant. Momentum is literally the mass of an object multiplied by its velocity. Bullets are very, very tiny, so even when traveling at a high speed, they'll never get a ton of shoving power. A human (or robot) will get pushed back a fraction of an inch when shot, but causing them to fly through an office is highly unlikely. When it comes to the shootouts in Terminator movies, you'll just have to turn off your brain and enjoy. (Photo by: Corbis)
Tags: Evil, Mask, Star, Wake, When, Every, There, Time, While, Create, Phone, Hold, Mega, Judgment, Machine, Reef, Travis, Update, Killed, University, Company, Human, Dynamics, Pool, York, Smart
From:
www.gamespot.com
| Absolutely Real Science Every Terminator Fan Should Know
Added: 26.06.2015 23:49 | 9 views | 0 comments
Killer AIs Mean Business
The Terminator franchise is overflowing with fun science fiction ideas. But that nasty, red-tinted cyborg-ocracy may be closer to reality than you think. How close? Hey, glad you asked. (Photo by: Paramount Pictures) Bipedal Humanoid Robots Walk The Earth
Real-world engineering Company Boston Dynamics currently has the lead in scaring the world with ambulatory robots, including the bipedal machine featured here. The bot can perform natural movements including calisthenics and dynamic walking. The increased prevalence of robot workers even prompted the New York Times to publish an article entitled, "As Robotics Advances, Worries of Killer Robots Rise." (Photo by: Corbis) Stephen Hawking Warns Humanity
Killer robots seemed like a cinematic fantasy in 1984 when The Terminator premiered, but now prominent scientists, including Stephen Hawking, warn of a grim future for humanity if safeguards against strong AI aren't taken now. He told the BBC recently, "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." Thanks for the pep talk, professor. (Photo by: Corbis) Human Flesh and Machine Can Become One
When Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator first sliced into his arm to reveal a cybernetic skeleton, he not only proved he was a robot from the future, but also pointed a way forward for human advancement. How close are we to blending synthetic human parts with mechanical enhancements? (Photo by: TriStar Pictures) A Physics Lab Revolutionizes Prosthetics
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has made radical advancements in prosthetics technology, including a surgery that reassigns nerves that used to control arms and hands. Literally, we now have people who can control prosthetic limbs by simply thinking about actions they want to perform. An innovation that carried a lot of doom and portent in the Terminator films actually has delivered tremendous benefit for real-life people. (Photo by: Corbis) Scientists Create Lab-Grown Flesh
Dutch scientist Mark Post displays samples of his lab grown flesh at the University of Maastricht. In-vitro meat has become a popular venture as scientists seek solutions to world hunger. Human organs also have been grown independently for transplant patients. A terminator's synthetic fleshy exterior is much closer to reality than ever before. (Photo by: Corbis) There's No Stopping Shape-Shifting Metal
Watching T-1000 effortlessly glide through a row of steel bars evoked a feeling of sublime horror. A technology that advanced seemed alien when Terminator 2 came out. It isn't quite 2029, when the fictional machines developed the tech, but how far along are we toward building our own liquid metal in the real world? (Photo by: TriStar Pictures) Gallium Might Hold the Key to Liquid Metal
The chemical element gallium, found in trace amounts in zinc oxide, has shown promising leads. Researchers in Beijing recently created an aluminum-fueled, liquid-metal motor made largely out of gallium. Its inherent properties allow the metal alloy to shift to fit whatever space it occupies, particularly when electricity is applied. (Photo by: Corbis) Time Travel Requires A Lot of Energy
When a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger traveled back in time, arriving in a blinding flash of light at a truck stop, he sliced off the edges of a few big rigs in the process. The Terminator films seem to understand that the energy created during time travel would constitute a massive force. But is time travel even theoretically possible? (Photo by: TriStar Pictures) Atomic Clocks Helps Demonstrate Relativity
It's hard to believe, but time travel actually happens every day. Beginning in the mid-50s, scientists have used precise atomic clocks on airplanes and satellites to demonstrate an aspect of Einstein's relativity theory: Two matching clocks can report different times, depending on the impact of velocity or gravity. The "time travel," or dilation that occurs, usually accounts for fractions of seconds, but it proves that time is truly relative. Even your phone's GPS contains equations that factor in the bending of spacetime! (Photo by: Corbis) Small Comfort: We're Nowhere Near the Genisys of Time Travel
The Terminator films don't just include a few seconds of time travel, though. Their characters travel decades into into the past, a feat that would, scientists believe, require the energy equivalent of the sun's nuclear power. As of now, NASA scientists think we're centuries away from even being able to explore the idea. (Photo by: Paramount Pictures) Judgment Day is a Real Threat
In the Terminator franchise, the artificial intelligence system Skynet becomes self-aware and instigates nuclear strikes across the world: an event known as Judgment Day. One of the most striking images from the films includes a fiery ruin of Los Angeles. Do these nightmare scenarios hold any weight? (Photo by: TriStar Pictures) Nuclear Threat Motivates Scientists to Update "Doomsday Clock"
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists runs a real-world doomsday clock: a symbolic countdown to the "midnight" of global catastrophe. Currently, nine countries have a total stockpile of 16,300 nuclear weapons, enough to blow up the world several times over. In early 2015, the nuclear arms race prompted scientists to move the clock to three minutes until midnight. While we don't have a menacing artificial intelligence threatening nuclear war, the danger of computer-controlled systems sparking an apocalypse is considered very real. (Photo by: Corbis) Bullets Cannot Make Bodies Fly Through The Air
For all the cool ideas the Terminator movies bring to the table, there's one important area they get comedically wrong. When the T-800 walks into a room and sprays a round of bullets, you'll notice bodies flying backwards, as if the victims have been shot out of a cannon. Unless the robots have circumvented physical laws we've known about since Newton, this simply isn't possible. (Photo by: Orion Pictures) The Conservation of Momentum Ruins The Terminator Movies
If you've ever seen one of these cool Newton's cradle toys, you'll understand the basic principle of momentum conservation: momentum is neither created nor destroyed. It remains constant. Momentum is literally the mass of an object multiplied by its velocity. Bullets are very, very tiny, so even when traveling at a high speed, they'll never get a ton of shoving power. A human (or robot) will get pushed back a fraction of an inch when shot, but causing them to fly through an office is highly unlikely. When it comes to the shootouts in Terminator movies, you'll just have to turn off your brain and enjoy. (Photo by: Corbis)
Tags: Evil, Mask, Star, Wake, When, Every, There, Time, While, Create, Phone, Hold, Mega, Judgment, Machine, Reef, Travis, Update, Killed, University, Company, Human, Dynamics, Pool, York, Smart
From:
www.gamespot.com
| « Newer articles Older articles »
|
|
|
Copyright © 2008-2024 Game news at Chat Place - all rights reserved
Contact us
|