Videogames highlights - June 2010, E3 special
Portal 2
A widely predictable fact for who played, loved, and replayed again and again (and again) the superb Portal from Valve, that GLaDOS cyber-bitch is still alive. And she will once again hunt the player with the most convoluted and ingenious environmental puzzles ever conceived by designers in Portal 2, the sequel to be published in 2011 for PC, Xbox, PS3 and Mac OS X. A dimensional gun, two interconnected portals and misanthropic humour will return to populate the nightmares of first person games fans in the title that won two Game Critics Awards at the E3 2010 (”Best PC Game” and “Best Action/Adventure Game”).
Project DUST
Eric Chahi will soon have to update his ludography/chronology, it seems. The clever French game designer, creator of Heart of Darkness, Future Wars and the unforgotten masterpiece Another World (known as Out of This World in the USA), is currently partnering with Ubisoft Montpellier to develop Project DUST. Chahi is back to active gaming development after years of absence, and this is a truly wonderful news for me: expected for spring 2011 as digital download on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, Project DUST will feature an hybrid gameplay between Populous and Black & White where the player must manipulate the surrounding environment to defend his/her tribe and make it grow. Unfortunately it isn’t a new cinematic platform, but we will try to enjoy it anyway…
Rage
Six years have passed since the “cultural” shock of real-time light sources in Doom 3, but the id Software ability to amaze with its graphic engines seems to be unchanged. Rage, the shooter/driving game to come out in 2011 on PC (Win/Linux/Mac), Xbox 360 and PS3, will run atop the new id Tech 5 engine giving life to a post-apocalyptic, Mad Max alike set in which there will be plenty of mutants to blast off, spare parts for the car to steal and weapons to unload against any kind of living or non living target. The id game also won the E3 by getting three Game Critics Awards (”Best Console Game”, “Best Action Game” and “Special Commendation for Graphics”).
Splatterhouse
More good news about Namco’s Splatterhouse. This 3D remake of the bidimensional arcade with the same name from 1988 will arrive in fall on Xbox 360 and PS3, will feature many of the elements present in the original game - including the Terror Mask which turns the protagonist in a bloodthirsty death machine - and will supposedly include an unusual level of sadistic violence and sexual references (?). Splatterhouse 2010 will also contain the original arcade version of the game, clearly a “bonus” to unlock by going forward through the main game.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
A sequel to the much praised role-playing game developed by Polish publisher CD Projekt RED, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will once again immerse the player in a fantasy world where every choice affects the future events and the protagonist’s moral conduct isn’t something to be settled by choosing a good, evil or neutral alignment at the beginning of the adventure. Based as usual on the work by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher 2 will feature a faster fighting system than the first title and will shine of a rich and suggestive graphics thanks to a new engine entirely developed in-house. Who is the titular Witcher? A monster hunter gifted with supernatural powers. A fair reason, I say, to rediscover the original game and await with interest this second chapter - to be released in the first quarter of 2011 on PC.
Transformers: War for Cybertron
Disappointed by how Michael “Boom!” Bay reworked the classic franchise of “robots in disguise” aka Transformers thus far? The new game devoted to the Eighties megarobots feats should calm down your dissatisfaction, at least if you are long-time videogamers and won’t repel the idea of playing a third-person shooter set on Cybertron. Developed by High Moon Studios for publisher Activision, Transformers: War for Cybertron is set on the robots’ native world and lets the player experience the war to control the planet from both the Decepticons and Autobots perspectives. The game has been released at the end of June on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, and considering that Transformers 3 (the movie) is still far away War for Cybertron should be the best gaming choice for those on withdrawal of energon and clashes between metal giants.
Trine 2
The brilliant puzzle-platformer made by the Finnish software house Frozenbyte will soon earn a sequel. Announced by publisher Atlus during the E3, Trine 2 will tell once again the deeds of the Wizard, the Thief and the Warrior united by the sorcery of an ancient artifact. Expected for spring 2011 on PC and (maybe) other platforms, the game will feature a multiplayer co-op mode, new puzzles, fairy backgrounds, giant monsters and 500% more rainbows (no joke here).
Tron: Evolution
All right, Disney commissioned a new Tron game to launch ahead of the new film Tron Legacy. It’s a well known fact, and Tron: Evolution looks good considering the technology available nowadays to creators of cyber-spaces inhabited by cyber-warriors fighting cyber-battles till the last bit. What I still can’t understand is how heck Brazilian capoeira can mix with Light-Cycles, a world recreated inside the computer and all the rest of Tron mythology. And yet it really seems that capoeira is at the base of the fighting system featured by the game. Not good, imho…
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