BFG-2011
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Brink preview: Team Floatress
Brink, the frantic first-person shooter being brought to us by Splash Damage, has so much going on that at first I struggled to stay alive. During my hour-long playthrough I had a game developer over my shoulder helping me along the way and, by the end, I almost couldn't leave. For anyone who has played Team Fortress 2, Brink will feel very familiar. This isn't surprising as Paul Wedgwood -- the CEO of Splash Damage and the game's director -- ran a Team Fortress clan for years. Other Splash Damage games such as Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars have followed the same class-based combat of Team Fortress. Brink is set up much in the same manner with four classes: a soldier, medic, engineer and operative. But Brink takes that formula a step further than TF2. And then 10 more.%Gallery-121456%
Rage preview: Doomed down
Despite sporting the enhancements of id Tech 5, Rage seemed to be lagging behind at Bethesda's BFG 2011 media event last week. Its generic, post-apocalyptic wasteland setting has become a familiar one in recent years, but it's the simplistic and overly linear shootfest within that's the most dated element of the game. Nonetheless, the team at id Software seems to be aware that a glossy throwback shooter isn't going to cut it in today's over-saturated FPS market and has challenged itself to set Rage apart. The most obvious sign of id stepping out of its comfort zone is in the game's multiplayer design. Believe it or not, there's no deathmatch in the classic Doom sense. In its place is a fine-tuned vehicle-based mode, implementing the game's dune buggies. Multiplayer is expected to be a fairly compact experience, with up to six players able to take part in a few gametypes on a sparse offering of five maps. "If you add game variations just to add game variations it confuses people," said one of the designers during the hands-off multiplayer presentation. "People don't know what to play." %Gallery-121461%
Hunted preview: Co-opportunity knocks
Hunted: The Demon's Forge was plagued by a number of issues, both technical and fundamental, when Joystiq last saw it two months ago. At Bethesda's recent "BFG 2011" media event, developer inXile Entertainment brought a markedly improved build, if not a less generic game title. "Feedback has been a large part of the process," David Clayman, associate brand manager for inXile, told me at the event. Gone is the shoddy blocking animation Joystiq encountered in the last build that registered a block no matter if your shield was facing an enemy or not. (inXile has since added an auto-targeting mechanic that turns your character to face the nearest attacking enemy as you begin blocking.) And fixed is the indicator that now more clearly and immediately alerts you to your partner being down and in need of a healing potion. %Gallery-121458%
Prey 2 creative director sets the scene for an 'alien noir'
Prey 2 drew a lot of quick comparisons to games like Mirror's Edge and Mass Effect following Human Head's gameplay presentation at Bethesda's "BFG 2011" media event last week. Afterwards, I talked with Human Head co-founder Jim Sumwalt, creative director of Prey 2, about another big influence on the game -- film noir. Set in a futuristic, hyper-vertical alien city, Prey 2 features some essential nods to the kind of classic Hollywood film noir that was inspired by German Expressionism. "The obvious is the use of light to create dramatic, long shadows," Sumwalt pointed out. "There's a really awesome use of color and reflective surfaces and distorted images." He cited newer neo-noir films, such as Sin City, as the inspiration for Prey 2's use of shadows. In an alien city, with a confused protagonist (he's got amnesia!), this effect almost guarantees a frantic, stressful tone, which is exactly what Sumwalt and company hope to achieve.
Prey 2 producer on taking new direction, with 'capable' id Tech 4
Prey 2 raised eyebrows at Bethesda's "BFG 2011" media event last week for its almost total lack of resemblance to the original game. Following the gameplay presentation, I picked the brain of associate producer Matt Bisenius to find out more about this startling sequel. Because Prey 2 is such a clear departure from the first game, I wondered if the developers at Human Head were trying to fix some perceived problems. "We didn't look at Prey 1 and pick out mistakes as much as look at it and pick out the core themes of Prey," Bisenius clarified. "So we kept the alien abduction, 'Keepers' as the main race, one man versus many aliens, and then the predator/prey relationship." He made it clear that Prey 2's new direction is not an effort to address any flaws in Prey 1, but instead reflects the natural progression of the overarching Prey story. Whereas the first game was contained within The Sphere, an organic ship that sustained itself on species from across the galaxy, Prey 2 will open players up to the franchise's universe at-large, which, in a way, revolves around the still-mysterious Sphere.
Prey 2 preview: Alien sequel
Prey 2 is so radically different from the first game in terms of look, gameplay and feel that it should really be approached with entirely different expectations. Though the universe may be the same and is set to include an appearance from Prey's former protagonist, Tommy, this isn't the straightforward sequel you may have expected from Human Head Studios. The hands-off demonstration at Bethesda's BFG 2011 event emerged from a downed airplane on an alien world. From there, you -- playing as US Air Marshall Killian Samuels -- begin a frantic battle with strange aliens amid the wreckage of his plane, using only your standard issue pistol. After you're knocked out by one of the aliens, the preview jumps forward a few years to a point where Killian is a talented bounty hunter in an open, alien city. In an interesting turn of events, neither you nor Killian have any idea of what transpired during the interim. Killian is aware of his profession and has retained his skills, but beyond that it's up to you to piece together the missing years.%Gallery-121460%
Skyrim preview: Sky's the limit
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim looks superb. I don't think I'll be alone in saying so -- Skyrim was the only title presented at Bethesda's "BFG 2011" press event in Park City, Utah last week to elicit a round of applause. The hands-off demonstration began with the player character, Dovahkiin (Dragonborn) strolling down a detailed mountain path in Skyrim, the northernmost province of The Elder Scrolls' fictional continent of Tamriel. The game takes place some 200 years after the events of Oblivion, and dragons have mysteriously emerged in the world once again.%Gallery-121459%
