Tag Archive: ea


EGM Interview: The Secret World’s Martin Bruusgaard

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment
July 9, 2012

Set in a world just like ours, The Secret World asks what would be if all the monsters, myths, and legends we’ve told over the years were actually true…and gives you a chance to kick their butts. We sat down with Martin Bruusgaard, Lead Designer on The Secret World to pick his brain about it all as the game launches today.

EGM: Instead of your typical class or level systems, The Secret World touts being ‘highly customizable’ when it comes to your characters so there isn’t the standard level grind of a lot of other MMOs. How do you think this will affect the draw of your game to the more hardcore MMO player who is used to these systems and how does this customization feature work in powering up your character?

Martin Bruusgaard, Lead Designer: I think hardcore MMO-ers will find this as a very welcomed break from the norm. I think players have been waiting for a game where they’re not locked down to a class, but rather let the players forge their own play style. Remember that when you play a class, you are locked down to that class forever. If you want to try a new class you have to start a new character and then play through all the content you played before, while your friends are all in the endgame. In The Secret World you can swap out abilities whenever you want, except for when you’re in the middle of combat. This means that the different strategies to take down a difficult encounter multiplies thousand fold, and this has always been the design intent; To give players the freedom to make smart decisions, and reward them for it.

EGM: The game takes place all over the world in both real world locales and fictional settings. With the real world settings it is easy to draw inspiration from, but where did you get your designs for the mythical places your adventure in The Secret World will take you?

MB: What do you mean by fictional setting? Everything is true! Hehe, joke aside, we have a fantastic team who have investigated all types of myths and legends all around the world. We developed many different concepts for the different locations, and went with the ones that seemed most plausible in our real world setting. Since we are mimicking the real world, OUR real world, it’s very important that even the fictional locations are believable. We are trying hard to make it feel just like another place you can visit. What does El Dorado look like today? What is all this machinery doing in Hell? Play the game and find out!

EGM: Aside from these mythical locations, much of the game draws from various mythologies, local legends, and pop culture and even features time travel. How was it to try to strike a balance between these creative elements to make them still feel new and refreshing to players?

MB: As I mentioned, we have a great team that investigates all these different elements of our world, and a lot of the challenge are incorporating this into the game world in a believable fashion. I really hope players will appreciate the amount of research that has gotten into the game. Everything from NPC names, to item names to little snippets of information you can pick up through the lore system. Some players will probably enter our travel hub, and think “Cool, they have a travel hub”, but I hope most of our players will actually Google why it’s called Agartha…

EGM: A key to any MMO is PvP. Talk to us about how The Secret World‘s PvP works in a world without leveling and what makes it stand out from the competition. 

MB: First of all I should mention that we have 3 factions, The Templars, The Illuminati and The Dragon. Having three sides in PvP always creates more interesting gameplay. There’s never 2 sides just butting heads, but one always have to look out for that joker in the mix.

We have 3 different kinds of PvP. In each hub, we have a fight club, which is a free for all PvP arena. This is a perfect spot for players to practice dueling, or just to test out their builds. Players are also already making plans to host PvP tournaments there. In addition to that we have the Battlefields. These are legendary locations all over the world, which the secret societies fight over. The two locations we launched with are Stonehenge, and Eldorado. Stonehenge is a king of the hill type of match, where each of the three secret societies has sent a team of five players to battle over who gets to control the power of Stonehenge. In Eldorado, the secret societies have sent a team of 10 to battle over some ancient Mayan artifacts. This is a capture the flag type of gameplay, but the twist is that instead of bringing the flags back to your base, you have to pick a spot on the map and defend them with your life.

Finally we have the Warzones, which are persistent PvP playfields that can hold up to 275 players simultaneously. Players fight over control of different facilities, and the cool thing is that the bonus for controlling these facilities is distributed across the whole secret society, not just the ones fighting. So you can basically go in there, kick ass, and become the hero of your secret society, since they all benefit from your efforts.

EGM: Another thing that we noticed makes The Secret World stand out a bit is the audio. From the moans and groans of the undead to the citizens you try to help, it sounds like there is a voice actor for every character in the game! What went into the audio production in the game and how important do you think it is to setting the supernatural mood?

MB: We are putting huge emphasis on the sound in our game. We have gotten some fantastic music composed that really sets the tone perfectly if you’re walking in a back alley in London, exploring the forest in Transylvania or traversing the desert in Egypt. We have also gotten some world class voice actors to give life and soul to the various characters the players will encounter. We give out quests or missions as we call them, a bit differently in our game. The characters the players will meet in the game world will never ask for anything specific from the player, but rather tell them a snippet of their own life and the situation they’re in. Therefore it’s very important that their voices are first class, and that the players believe and empathize with them.

EGM: The elephant in the room is obviously you guys have a subscription base going in. You’re starting to see a lot of MMOs move towards the Free-to-play route. Was this ever an option for you guys? Is there a possibility of that happening in the future? What made you stick to this route?

MB: We’ve obviously considered several business models, and we concluded that the subscription model was the right one for The Secret World. There is definitely still room for the subscription MMO provided you can supply the level of quality both in the launch version as well as in the ongoing updates after launch.

EGM: You’re wrapping up the beta here as the game prepares to drop July 3rd. How important has the beta been towards making the push to the final product and making those last tweaks to the game world, especially so close to launch?

MB: It’s been incredibly valuable. We have had some fantastic testers, which actually focused on testing, instead of just playing the game for a couple of hours to see if they will buy the game at launch. We have reacted to their feedback continuously, and have patched very frequently. We have also set up runs with the testers where the developers went in as observers to see what issues the players were facing, what they could potentially exploit, measure the difficulty rating, etc.  It has been a very successful beta in our views, and we are very grateful to all our testers.

EGM: The game’s story does come to an end after a long and winding road, but are there any plans in the future for add-ons possibly already in the works or a fourth faction maybe to play as aside from the Dragons, Illuminati, or Templars? 

MB: We have lots of plans for the coming years! The story does not end, but a chapter finishes. It will give the players some closure and more understanding of The Secret World universe, but there are still questions to be answered. As the players play the game, they will realize that there are definitely other factions at play here, but if the players get to play as them remains to be seen. We will release our post launch plans, and our content update info relatively shortly after launch.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Comment

EGM Preview: The Secret World

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment
March 16, 2012

The Truth is Out There

In December, we here at EGM previewed The Secret World in our MMORPG issue of EGMi (Issue 76 if you’re curious to go look) and the excitement we felt then only carried over into a new demo we were able to get at GDC last week. And although it may have been pushed back from an April to June release, The Secret World shows they are pulling out all the stops when it comes to trying to be competitive in the subscription based MMO world.

If you need a little refresher, The Secret World is shaping up to be a cross between The X-Files, Fringe, and some obscure Norse mythology where you play as an agent from one of three very distinct and different secret organizations. The Templars are based out of London and have that old world charm and are zealots when it comes to hording power and control. The New York based Illuminati believe that only the strong survive. And the Korea-based Dragons, who we finally saw in action at GDC, worship and all its causes, including lust, jealously, and other kinds of extreme emotion.

The mythology is really where the action comes from as while playing your part for your respective organization, you have to try to hold back demonic forces that are trying to cross over into the real world and help out folks who are clearly in over their heads. Part of what is breaking down the dimension doorways and what not is something called the Filth, which we saw what happens when there is a full-on infestation of this stuff. People are completely consumed and turned into walking monstrosities when they make contact with the stuff and it is up to you tapping into some crazy powers and weapons to help drive it back.

Something else we saw in our original demo was when you are first brought into the fold of your respective organization is that you live the last moments of a life, flashback style, that came into direct contact with the Filth. At GDC, we saw a level that took that a step further as we were transported back to pre-colonial America and had to fight off a monstrous dragon-like creature and much like the Cthulhu type creature we faced off against back in December, you need a full-team before taking on any dungeon master as these creatures do monumental amounts of damage.

It should be interesting to see how well The Secret World can do in the AAA MMORPG space to compete against titles like World of Warcraft and now even Star Wars: The Old Republic as the market continues to move towards a free-to-play stance for the most part. But one thing is for certain, the concept is definitely there and I can’t wait to go hands-on with a finished product.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Comment

EGM Review:Mass Effect 3

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment

Don’t fear the Reapers

Part of what’s made Mass Effect so amazing as a series is how much the direct choices you make as a player not only affect you in game, but beyond. And the concluding chapter in this tremendous trilogy doesn’t let up at all in that regard, as choices made in the first two games come back to reward or haunt you in unforeseen ways as you continue to fight against the Reapers.

Whereas the first Mass Effect was all about introducing us to the major players and ME2 was about building up relationships and your own personal task force, ME3 is all about cultivating the relationships from the first two games in order to best prepare the galaxy into forming a united front against the Reapers, who now even pester you in the galaxy map, which adds a new layer of danger to the previously mundane process of probing planets. Every task you complete and planet you successfully probe will affect how much military strength you can muster, and by crossing the wrong person or making the wrong choice on how to allocate available resources, you can strengthen or weaken the armada you’re trying to create.

The story’s also a bit more engrossing this time around, as there are a lot more cinematic, big-movie moments—and they all look amazing, as the visuals are probably the most impressive in the series to date. This more fluid story telling really helps the game flow, and fans of the series will appreciate a lot of throwback references that sometimes come from nowhere and will instantly put a smile on your face.

The weapons, armor, and RPG leveling-up system have also been streamlined so that players who want a more action-packed experience are doing less item hunting and navigating menus. Plus, there’s also a “narrative” difficulty option that really fleshes out conversations and the customization for those players who’d prefer the more traditional RPG experience.

The combat controls feel tighter and field tactics are also smoother this time around, but the cover mechanics introduced in Mass Effect 2 are still very delicate, and movement’s much more deliberate than you’d want in any type of a shooter. And that isn’t what you need in the heat of battle, as you’ll often accidentally roll away from cover when you’re trying to stick to it. Coupled with a flawed damage feedback mechanic that doesn’t properly inform players how much damage they are taking, and combat can still be irksome at times.

But Mass Effect 3’s greatest problem is its new multiplayer system. And it’s not the fact that it’s an amalgamation of Battlefield 3’s class system with Gears of War’s Horde mode, as I love both of those games’ multiplayer options. No, my problem lies in the fact that you’re pretty much forced into playing the multiplayer in order to unlock the best possible ending in the single-player mode. This aspect, called “Galaxy at War,” starts where the galaxy’s 50 percent ready to take on the Reaper threat as soon as you begin your single-player game. But instead of collecting more assets in single-player or completing side quests to improve on this number, you need to win multiplayer matches, which correlates to your armada readiness in single-player mode—this means players will be forced to play a mode they might not necessarily want to get into right away. Plus, there is no local split-screen options and a lot of times the best co-op multiplayers all allow you to have your buddy sitting right next to you while you play.

Mass Effect 3 is still an awesome game overall, of course, as the few negatives just happen to stand out against what is an otherwise mostly blemish free experience. Even the Kinect options are a lot more enjoyable than I had anticipated, although I found myself falling back into old game play patterns a few hours in as I’m just not used to screaming at my TV (when not watching a sporting event, anyway). The conclusion to the story is phenomenal, the action’s great with legions of new and old enemies alike, and the multiplayer’s fun and addictive, even if I don’t like how it affects your single-player campaign. Not to mention Mass Effect 3 has one of the more moving scores I’ve heard from a game in a while and fantastic voice acting for all our returning favorite characters, and a nice job by some new folks like Freddie Prinze Jr. as James Vega. Fans who invested in the first two games will know the wait for this third game was well worth it, and BioWare shows why they’re some of the best storytellers in the industry.

SUMMARY: Mass Effect’s brilliant story remains intact, and if you played the previous two games, the payoff’s more than satisfying. Some cover and combat issues remain unsolved, though, and the idea of participation in a completely separate multiplayer mode potentially influencing your single-player ending is mind-boggling.

  • THE GOOD: Brilliantly concludes one of the most epic trilogies of this console generation
  • THE BAD: Multiplayer tie-in to single player, combat and control nitpicks
  • THE UGLY: Joker wanting to get it on with a robot

SCORE: 9.0

Mass Effect 3 is available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Comment

EGM Review: NFL Blitz

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — 1 Comment
January 15, 2012

Gridiron Grit or Grime?

Arcade sports games have been part of the gaming landscape for generations now, but have often taken a back seat to their full-on simulation brethren. Then in the late 90s, an arcade sports game unlike any other smashed onto the scene and redefined arcade football for a generation. This game was NFL Blitz. Unfortunately, as later iterations of the game were released and the NFL sank their hands deeper and deeper into the franchise, it became a watered down shell of its former self before finally shedding the NFL license in the hopes of keeping the franchise afloat. It did for a short time, but once Midway filed for Chapter 11, this beloved franchise was thought lost to the limbo of the once great franchises of yesteryear.

Flash-forward to the present day though where EA Sports has decided to resurrect this once great franchise in the hopes of catching fans ready for a return to arcade greatness. But is this new downloadable NFL Blitz even worthy of being mentioned in the same breath to those original smash mouth games of the late 90’s?

In some ways, yes it does. In other ways though, EA Sports’s version of NFL Blitz is very much the same watered down game that forced Midway to abandon the NFL license in the first place. The most glaring omission while playing the game is the infamous late hits that were allowed in the original version of the game. Elbow drops, suplexs, and various other maneuvers performed more by professional wrestlers than football players have been taken out, allowing those cocky players who we used to make pay for dancing in our end zones now plenty of time to work on their cha-chas.

The most frustrating aspect of the game though comes in the form of something I wish did not return: the rubberband A.I. At first, I thought most of my frustration came from the controls in that passing required you to look at your intended receiver, often resulting in misfires and interceptions. Although still a bit more sluggish that I would like for an arcade game, after changing the controls to the more traditional icon based passing (which is under Settings instead of Controls for some weird reason), I found that where I had placed much of my frustration in the controls came instead with the rubberband A.I.

I played against four human opponents and four computer opponents with the icon based passing after playing more than a dozen games with the look based mechanism, and no matter how big a lead I had, or how big a hole I had fallen into, the game never ended by more than a touchdown meaning the game had almost nothing to do with skill, like I had originally surmised, but more about what player could weather the storm of adversity the computer would throw its way better. The first game I played in Blitz Battles saw me to a 21-0 lead halfway through the 2nd quarter. My next three possessions saw me throw two near impossible interceptions (one was a deep ball picked off by a defensive lineman at the line of scrimmage…what the heck?!) and then fumble the kickoff after it was 21-14. It didn’t matter if I was looking at the receiver or pressing the B, X, or Y buttons. I would end up losing that game by a touchdown because once we were all caught up, the other player had the ball last and would have me swearing up a storm. I think I may have caused at least a few trips to therapy for that poor 10-year-old who was sick home from school.

On the flipside, a game I was losing 28-14 at the half, would cause the player on the other headset to start swearing up a storm, much to my chagrin, as I would inexorably break five tackles, without stiff arming or being on fire, on the opening half kickoff and sack him four times in a row and get the ball deep in his territory on his next possession. I didn’t have another sack for the rest of the game, but still won that one, also by a touchdown. And similar outcomes happened against the computer in the Blitz Gauntlet and Play Now modes.

I will say though in terms of positives, NFL Blitz may have the deepest online modes of any sports game out there, including simulation titles. If you can overcome the sometimes sluggish QB throwing animations and cheap A.I., competing in the online Elite Leagues and Battle Boards in order to earn Blitz Bucks is a deep experience full of team customization aspects that could make this a very addictive experience for some more enthusiastic players. Of course, the idea of having to play online with people in order to unlock many of the better aspects of the game like cheats and cheerleader load screens via Blitz Bucks seems like a clear way to bait players into playing in these leagues. Ahhhh…paying for cheerleaders…has shades of my prom night written all over it.

Anyway, when all is said and done, EA Sports’ version of NFL Blitz is a well put together game in terms of look and sound (the announcer from NBA Jam does the play-by-play and is just as hysterical in Blitz), but it feels like the watered down versions of the game from the early 2000s that got too far away from what made the original NFL Blitz really great. Horrible rubberband A.I. and clear influence from the No Fun League removes a lot of the potential fun of the game and makes me long more for the steroid inducing mini-games and good ol’ crazy Lawrence Taylor from the Blitz: The League spin-offs than anything else, even with just a $15 (1200 MSP) price-tag.

SUMMARY: Strong online modes and a crisp look and sound for the game can’t hide the fact that this is a watered down version similar to what caused many fans to leave the series in the first place.

  • THE GOOD: More online depth than most sports sims, never mind an arcade game
  • THE BAD: NFL influence waters down arcade greatness of original
  • THE UGLY: Zombies in football pads

SCORE: 6.5


NFL Blitz is available on Xbox 360 (XBLA) and PS3 (PSN). Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Comment

Star Wars: The Old Republic Collector’s Editions Lacking Product Keys

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment

Originally Published: December 20, 2011, on EGMNOW.com

THE BUZZ: One of the most highly anticipated MMOs of the year, Star Wars: The Old Republic is set in a time period rarely explored in the fiction of this darling sci-fi universe. And Star Wars fans have always been some of the most diehard no matter what galaxy they may be from. So it wasn’t a surprise that when a Collector’s Edition of SW: TOR was announced that pre-orders came in by the bucketful. But now that players are starting to receive their Collector’s Editions, they are finding a starting mistake made on the part of EA and Bioware.

Many of the product keys are missing from the boxes and therefore players are being denied access to the game they have for so long been waiting to be a part of. As seen on a thread dedicated to the issue on the Bioware forums, this problem is happening all over the world as you can see for yourself here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=37565

This was originally brought to our attention by consumer Dan Fabrizio, who had bought two of the Collector’s Editions, one for himself and one for his girlfriend (lucky gal), but only received one product code. He had this to say on the subject after waiting on hold from customer service for nearly three and a half hours and only receiving several automated responses from a Bioware bot: “I am very frustrated by the lack of customer support we’ve received from Bioware and EA. I am still a huge fan of Bioware, but you can’t help but lose a little faith after something like this happens followed by the subsequent treatment we have received as fans.”

EGM’s TAKE: It’s one thing if this was an isolated incident, but considering that it seems to be happening to dozens of these Collector’s Editions, someone clearly messed up and the consumers are suffering for it. And the fact that Bioware has been slow to respond, if at all, to many of these consumers is just poor business practice and surprising from someone like Bioware who are typically so fan-oriented and friendly. It could just be an issue falling through the cracks, but for those affected by this debacle, it’s like as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I guess this is what happens when you focus more on cosplaying at the stock exchange than customer service, though.

What do you guys and gals think of this? Have you had problems with the collector’s edition of Star Wars: The Old Republic? Do you think it should be a top priority for BioWare to fix this? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Comment

Hands-On: Need for Speed: The Run

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment
October 14, 2011

Baby we were born to run

Your body violently jerks into the side paneling as no seatbelt known to man could hold you down from the G-forces you generate as you whip around hairpin corners while flying down a two-lane mountain road somewhere between Denver and Detroit. All the while you’re trying to control a 750 horsepower monster engine and keep all four tires pinned to the gravel as you try to split the difference between an oncoming tractor-trailer and the Porsche 911 Carrera S that is just ahead of you and weaving back and forth to keep you from passing in your Ford Shelby GT Super Snake. You think you get the timing right. You shift into a higher gear. And then you floor it. As horns blare, sparks fly, and paint is lost forever to the road behind you and the driver side door of your competition, you finally move into 78th place in the race for you life.

Sound pretty exhilarating? Well, that description above is hopefully going to describe nearly every moment of Need for Speed: The Run when it drops in November and from the several stages we got our hands on at an EA event in Vegas, it was all that and more. The Run marks the 18th game in the Need for Speed franchise’s history, but is the first to take place in the real world and the stakes have never been higher. You play as Jack, a street racer down on his luck and who owes a lot of money to a lot of the wrong people. Jack’s last chance to pay everyone off and come out on top is to win “The Run”, an unofficial, illicit, underground street-race that spans the entire length of the USA, starting in San Francisco and ending in New York City, with the winner being awarded 25 million dollars. More than enough to make Jack’s problems go away and maybe enough left over for him to start new. But there are a lot of people who don’t want to see Jack win. From law enforcement in various cities Jack will have to drive through along the way to a bevy of rival drivers including some lovely ladies whose physical appearance were based of Sports Illustrated swimsuit models, Jack will have his work cut out from him.

As in traditional Need for Speed fashion, events will force Jack into many different cars including some classic American muscle cars, refined exotics, and high-tuned street racers. Unlike in previous games though, for the first time you can actually step out of the car for short quicktime segments that bridge the narrative gap of how Jack gets from car to car and continues the race. We did not actually get to play one of these events and remained in our car for our particular demo, but we’ve seen them in action before and as we are constantly reassured that they take up less than 10% of the game, we feel we can live with this device for the sake of what is shaping up to be the deepest and most compelling plot Need for Speed has ever put out there.

Aside from the overall race where you will try to overtake dozens of opponents, there is also some race variety dropped in at various points to try to keep the game fresh, like pitting you one on one against a rival as you try to avoid an avalanche caused by an unknown faction firing a grenade launcher into the mountain you’re driving along, or racing between toll booths in a checkpoint like fashion. Mind you, the overall objective is still to end up in first by the time you reach New York, but the only way you’ll do that is if you pass every race and traverse easily the largest series of tracks a Need for Speed game has ever featured.

And rivals and checkpoints aren’t the only challenge you’ll face as I found out in my demo. My biggest challenge came in oncoming traffic on smaller country roads. Trying to pass a series of exotics while big rigs, mini-vans, and other vehicles are roaring down in the opposite lane provides a challenge of timing that needs to be seen to be believed and may have you racing a bit dirtier than you’d expect as sometimes bumping an opponent out of the way is a lot safer than trying to shoot past them through a gap barely big enough to get a bicycle through never mind your Pagani Huayra.

The overall most satisfying aspect I came away with from our demo of The Run though may be the controls. Although they have less of an arcade feel than Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, they’re still very responsive and easy to pick up and just jump into a race with. And with a “rewind” feature that allows you to pick up at various checkpoints throughout the race should you find yourself more of an expert at crashing and burning than handling tight corners, the game is forgiving enough to make it appeal to even the most casual of race game fans.

But what about replay-ability? Once you finish this massive looking race campaign, what would make you want to do it again if you do fall into that more casual category? Well, one thing that did transition over from Hot Pursuit has been Autolog, the social competition functionality for the Need for Speed franchise. You may finish the campaign first amongst your friends, but by participating in Autolog and uploading your best section times, you can see where your friends smoked you and vice versa and maybe even why they had a better overall time. You can even upload race ghosts so that you can actually see how your friends did it and you can feel like you’re racing directly against them even if you’re in a different time zone, work a different schedule, or just are plain never on when they are.

So, if you like supermodels, fast cars, and you’re looking to get behind the wheel of a super car but are a few hundred thousand dollars short, you might want to look into Need for Speed: The Run and get ready for the race of your life when it drops in mid-November.

PARTING SHOTS: It has been a long time since I’ve been this excited for a racing game and with all these new features, a compelling original story, and a whole new twist on the idea of underground street racing, Need for Speed: The Run looks like it could easily be the most exciting game in the franchise to date.

So what do you guys think? Are you pumped up for The Run or is it just another racing game? Do you think the quicktime events will take away from the game even though they are such a small part of it? And what about Autolog? Will this make you want to come back to this more and compete against your friends’ times, or is it a waste of time? Let us know with comments below!

Tags: , , , ,
Comment

NHL 12 Cover Boy Announced

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment
July 15, 2011

Originally Published: July 12, 2011, on EGMNOW.com

Lightning Strikes: Stamkos Broke Face in Playoffs, EA Using Better Picture

THE BUZZ: Steven Stamkos is an up and coming superstar, so it makes a lot of sense for him to be NHL 12’s official cover boy. The grit and determination he showed in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals when he literally had his face broken by a puck off a slapshot and then came back in the same game and you can see that this kid is a perfect snapshot of “hockey”.

WHAT WE KNOW: Stamkos is quickly becoming a player to watch for hockey fans. After a slow start to his career, Stamkos exploded in his sophomore and junior campaigns for a combined 96 goals, averaging a goal every 1.7 games. Along with this, he shared the “Rocket” Richard award (most goals in the NHL) with Sidney Crosby in the 2009-2010 campaign, was the third youngest player to have 50+ goals in a season behind Wayne Gretzky and Jimmy Carson, and led his team to a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals this year. Hockey has a new face and it resides in Tampa Bay.

WHAT IT MEANS: The boys from EA Canada, which is located conveniently a stone’s throw from Vancouver, may be holding a grudge in not putting Boston goalie Tim Thomas on the cover. Considering that EA’s big new feature for NHL 12 is being able to hit the goalies and have them fight each other, not putting the one who won the Cup, the Cup MVP, and the Vezina (best goalie in the NHL) on the cover doesn’t make a whole lot of sense otherwise.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Comment

SSX EGM Preview

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment
July 7, 2011

Originally Published: June 28, 2011, on EGMNOW.COM

TRY CONQUERING A MOUNTAIN WHEN THE MOUNTAIN FIGHTS BACK

From the second you start playing SSX, you know you’re in for a wild ride. Using Google Earth and various other mapping technology, SSX paints a 3D globe while highlighting some of the world’s biggest peaks like Mt. Everest or K2. After selecting your mountain, you then enter into one of three game modes that revolve around the game’s theme of “Race It, Trick It, Survive It”.

The first two games modes are standard to a SSX game and deal with racing to the bottom of the mountain or getting the highest score possible by pulling off insane stunts. With some crisp graphics and the fact that you can perform a trick or grind anywhere leaves these modes with so much new potential. “It really speaks to our physics system that allows you to trick off anything, ride anything, and do things you’ve never been able to do before,” said SSX Producer Connor Dougan in regards to pulling off stunts in the game.

But the third mode, titled “Deadly Descent”, offered so much more in terms of testing your ingenuity and boarding skills. Likened to a boss battle where the mountain took center stage with each battle revolving around a particular element of being up in the mountains. The one we saw featured a beautifully rendered avalanche, that almost seemed alive as it kept reaching out to swallow our boarder whole, which we of course had to outrace to the bottom in order to win. This mode provided a completely new twist on not only the franchise, but snowboarding games in general. I’m looking forward to catching some fresh powder when SSX drops in January 2012.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Comment

From My Mom’s Basement – Vol. 2 Ep. 4 – Going Medieval

Filed under: From My Mom's Basement — 1 Comment
March 23, 2011

Originally Published: March 22, 2011, on youtube.com/Rcars4885

I come to you once again with your weekly geek fix from my mother’s basement! This week’s episode sees me review Generation Hope #5 from Marvel and Dragon Age II for Xbox 360 from EA and Bioware. My hot chick pick of the week is Carol Zara from DigitallyBlonde.com and this week’s theme is the end credits theme from Dragon Age II, “I’m Not Calling You a Liar” by Florence + The Machine.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comment

From My Mom’s Basement – Vol. 2 Ep. 3 – Islands Breed Evil

Filed under: From My Mom's Basement — Leave a comment
March 16, 2011

Originally Published: March 15, 2011, on youtube.com/Rcars4885

I come to you once again with your weekly geek fix from my mother’s basement! This week’s episode sees me review two comics since I’m still working on Dragon Age II. Ghostbusters: Infestation #1 (of 2) and Venom #1 are reviewed. My hot chick pick of the week is Francine Dee and this week’s theme is the main theme from Separation Anxiety starring Venom and Spider-Man back for the SNES and Sega Genesis.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comment