Recently, I had the chance to talk with the legendary Stone Cold Steve Austin during the filming of his WWE 2K16 reveal trailer. What does the toughest man to ever step inside the squared circle have to say about being named the cover athlete? Hear what he told me in this behind-the-scenes video interview!
WWE 2K16 will be available on October 27 for Xbox One and PS4.
British actress Victoria Atkin reveals how she landed the role of Evie Frye in an interview she did with the LA Times at San Diego ComicCon.
Because Ubisoft always uses full performance capture and mocap suits, Victoria was expected to be able to show her physicality in her audition. It was the exact opposite, though, that seems to have won over the Ubisoft casting people.
“I’m a television and film actress predominantly, so the audition was kind of similar to that,” starts Atkin. “I did a tape from home, although there were instructions to run around the floor and do kicks and jumps and things like that, as well as the normal asides that you’d have for a character.
“The casting director told me that a lot of people followed these instructions and did everything. I looked at those instructions and kind of decided that I was just going to run in, do a kick and a jump, and then stop. So, I rebelled, which is not something that I’d normally do, but apparently the director and everybody loved it because it was the character of Evie from the very start.”
Being able to easily do a London accent sealed the deal and before Victoria knew it, she was off to Quebec to start recording lines.
You can see Victoria as Evie Frye in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate on October 23 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
Todd Howard recently revealed in an interview with the Telegraph that both the male and female protagonist in Fallout 4 read over 13,000 lines of dialogue for the game.
Fallout 4 marks the first time in the series where the protagonists will have speaking roles. In order to make sure players didn’t lose that sense of choice, Howard put his voice actors to work on this project.
“We had the same worry as everyone else. A lot of games have voiced characters, but what they don’t want to give up is all the dialogue options. So for us a lot of it was logistical. The voice actors have been recording for 2 years, they’ve each done over 13,000 lines of dialogue. So to be able to do that makes the difference; you still have choice.”
And even though many lines were repeated between the scripts, you can still get completely different scenes depending on if you’re playing as a man or a woman because each actor interpreted the script differently Howard continued.
“We were lucky to find two great voice actors and it’s interesting because she may read things or act things differently than he does. So scenes play out differently depending on whether you are playing the game as male or female.”
The voice actors who had to work those grueling hours delivering all those lines are Brian T. Delaney and Courtney Taylor. Brian is also playing Roland in Halo 5 and Mighty No. 5 in Mighty No. 9 this year. Courtney is probably best known for her work as Jack in Mass Effect 2 and 3 and Amanda Holliday in Destiny.
Fallout 4 will be out on November 10 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
WWE Legend Stone Cold Steve Austin is turning WWE 2K16 into WWE 2K 3:16.
Stone Cold Steve Austin, a six-time WWE Champion, three-time Royal Rumble winner, and 2009 inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame will officially grace the cover of WWE 2K16 this year. Looking to raise some hell in video game form, the official announcement came via trailer this morning showcasing Stone Cold digging up a key aspect of his past, the Smoking Skulls WWE Championship belt.
Austin was one of WWE’s most celebrated superstars during the Attitude Era of the late 90s, cementing his status as an icon with classic rivalries against Bret “The Hitman” Hart, The Rock, and especially WWE CEO Vince McMahon.
WWE 2K16 will be available for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, and PS3 on October 27.
Just Cause 3 may try to bring mods to consoles at some point according to an interview Avalanche Studios game director Roland Lesterlin had with GameSpot.
Just Cause as a franchise has some hardcore modding communities and it’s part of the reason why even though its first two games might not have shipped in the best of conditions, they still hold a strong place in people’s hearts. In fact, as many as 500,000 people still consistently play Just Cause 2 every month.
Because of this, when asked if Just Cause 3 would go the Fallout 4 route and also try to bring their mods to the new generation of consoles, Lesterlin didn’t rule out the possibility.
“We’ve been wanting to do that stuff for a while,” he responded. “We’re not announcing anything there yet, but… we would want to support [mods] as much as possible.”
Hard to say for sure as Lesterlin was intentionally vague, but it sounds like something may be in the works. For more on Just Cause 3, check out my hands-on preview of the game from E3.
Just Cause 3 will drop December 1 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
During E3 2015, I had a chance to talk to principal designer Francesco Antolini for Walmart Gamecenter about Avalanche Studios’ upcoming open-world game Just Cause 3!
During E3 2015, I had a chance to talk to Madden NFL 16 creative director Rex Dickson for Walmart Game Center about the game’s new modes, and new passing system!
Editor’s Note: Because of the issues I had with the story, I will be referencing several major reveals from the game, as well as the prior game’s ending. If you wish to remain spoiler free, consider yourself warned.
Whenever a modern, story-driven action game transforms into a successful series, particularly a trilogy, it starts to suffer from Star Wars syndrome. The middle game is always the best, and all the prequels aren’t nearly as good as the originals. We’ve seen this with Gears of War, God of War, and even Uncharted. Well, we can now add one more trilogy to that list: the Batman: Arkham games.
That’s not to say that Batman: Arkham Knight is an awful game. It’s just inferior to its predecessors (except for prequel Arkham Origins). Instead of bringing everything to a natural conclusion and tying up all the loose ends it left open from previous games, it tries to cram too many new conflicts into this final title in an attempt to needlessly raise the stakes—which were plenty high enough as they were. The results feel like a narrative mess, and I think a large part of this is the result of developer Rocksteady writing the script in-house instead of having it done by a veteran Batman scribe like Paul Dini, who also happened to pen both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City.
Taking elements from some of the more epic Batman stories over the past three decades from various forms of media—including Death of the Family, Death in the Family, Under the Red Hood, and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker—Batman: Arkham Knight sees the Scarecrow filling the criminal void left by the Joker nearly a year after his demise in Arkham City. With his most potent Fear Toxin formula yet, Scarecrow threatens to detonate a bomb that would blanket the entire Eastern Seaboard in the stuff, sending every man, woman, and child into a state or perpetual terror.
This, in and of itself, would’ve been a fine conclusion for the Arkham series, revolving around Batman having to constantly overcome his fears. Also along for the ride, however, is the Arkham Knight—a “new” character whose identity Batman fans should easily be able to deduce based on his taunting dialogue and how well he knows the Dark Knight. But even those who don’t immediately uncover the Arkham Knight’s identity will surely notice the cavalcade of clues, because Rocksteady wanted to make sure they really spelled it out before the big reveal.
Easily the worst narrative decision stems from the fact that Rocksteady and/or Warner Bros. wasn’t brave enough to make a Batman game that didn’t feature the Joker as a major player, though. For some reason, the Joker’s spirit lives on inside of Batman and several other of Gotham’s less fortunate citizens through his contaminated blood (I guess that cure in Arkham City wasn’t good enough), and Joker’s personality is trying to assert itself over those bodies in an attempt to cheat death. As time goes on and they become weaker, the Joker’s personality emerges more and more.
At that point, even as a comic book fan, it was too much. To have three major villains vying for attention in your main story—one in an incorporeal form—left a bad taste in my mouth. At the very least, the game’s ending felt like a fitting conclusion to the series, but I just wish it weren’t such a mess of an adventure getting to that point.
Instead of trying to shoehorn so many foes into the main story, maybe Rocksteady could’ve just added more side villains to allow the primary plot a chance to breathe. Those that are included—referred to as “Gotham’s Most Wanted” in-game, since you have to actually drag them back to GCPD after defeating them—provide a nice respite from the muck that is the main narrative. I could’ve easily done with more, especially Hush, Man-Bat, and Deacon Blackfire—or at least some longer missions involving them. The game does feature more than a dozen side missions in total built around a double-digit amount of classic Batman rivals, which helps to take some of the focus off of Scarecrow, Joker, and Arkham Knight. It’s a testament to the size of the world that it never felt like any of Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery encroached on each other’s turf, and I still had to search long and hard at times to uncover my next set of clues.
That’s definitely one of Rocksteady’s most impressive achievements with Arkham Knight. Gotham City is absolutely massive and comes alive like never before. Whether it’s ACE Chemicals, Port Adams, the GCPD, or Wayne Tower, the game includes every building and street that Bat-fans want to see, and you can seamlessly explore them all with no loading times while you hunt down your enemies as Batman.
Plus, Detective Mode has been expanded to help you on those hunts. With new elements like deep-tissue analysis on murder victims, security camera footage reviews, and fingerprint reconstruction, along with the addition of crime scene reconstruction from Arkham Origins, prowling Gotham for clues is as rewarding as ever.
Combat remains the high point of the Arkham series here, though. The smooth, free-flowing battles return, meaning that you’ll pull off 50-hit combos with regularity, but the game also adds new throw counters that help with crowd control, and instant environmental takedowns that can immediately remove the toughest thugs from a fight. Arkham Knight even offers special missions where you’ll team up with Robin, Nightwing, or Catwoman and can take control of them mid-fight instead of Batman as seamlessly as you do a counter, or perform team-up moves for some truly epic action. With these added nuances to combat, no encounter ever plays out the same way twice.
Predator Room combat has also seen a drastic improvement. The new Fear Takedowns allow you to remove as many as five enemies from the field at once when you’re fully upgraded. This will have you planning out your knockouts well in advance in an attempt to get enemies to bunch up together so you can swoop in and wipe them out in a single flourish. New devices like the Disruptor also lend a hand in planning strategy before jumping into the fray, since its special bolts will jam any gun—and, when upgraded, it can even short out enemy drones.
I wish that every element of Arkham Knight’s gameplay were so stellar. On the whole, all of these additions and improvements almost make you forget about the muddled plot. Then you get in the Batmobile. This was one of Rocksteady’s most touted features leading up to the game’s launch, and at times, the Batmobile is everything it was supposed to be: a dual threat fast enough to chase down fleeing enemies that still packs enough firepower in combat mode to take on dozens of Arkham Knight drones. The Batmobile even helps with ground combat by unleashing rubber bullets that incapacitate enemies in the streets.
But Arkham Knight relies on Batman’s ride far too often—and in far too many missions. The car’s deficiencies easily become evident, and it’s revealed to be one of the least enjoyable aspects of the game. I get that it’s supposed to be this monstrous vehicle, but trying to control the Batmobile in pursuit mode is a chore; it pinballs all over the road. Even after putting 30 hours into the game, with more than half of them in that damn car, I still never felt like I was in complete control.
And the Batmobile’s tank mode is even worse. While it features a strafe ability, I still felt like I was a sitting duck most of the time during an enemy missile lock-on, since the strafe only moves you a short distance in a particular direction. Then you have to try to dance between the two Batmobile forms to sneak up on certain tanks. They wanted me to be stealthy? In the Batmobile?! I just wanted to hang up the cape and cowl at that point.
The problems don’t stop with the Batmobile gameplay, though: Arkham Knight includes its fair share of bugs. I played on Xbox One and didn’t experience all the glitches that make the PC version unplayable, but the Batmobile still fell through the world in several instances where I had to drive up walls. And the bugs weren’t limited to the car, either. Several times I had to restart checkpoints when necessary button prompts wouldn’t appear, and I couldn’t advance unless I reloaded.
As much as I loved Arkham City and Arkham Asylum, Arkham Knight is nothing short of a disappointment. Two things are clear: Sefton Hill and his team of writers pale in comparison to Paul Dini, and Rocksteady should stay as far away from car combat as possible in the future. The excellent gameplay foundations, however, still shine. The fighting, side content, and stealth are as polished as ever, and considering the massive world fans have to explore here, they should still find something to enjoy with Arkham Knight, even if it’s not the conclusion we all hoped for.
| Developer: Rocksteady Studio • Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment • ESRB: M – Mature • Release Date: 06.23.15 | |
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6.5
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The main story is a convoluted mess, and the Batmobile gameplay is a serious detractor on the fun factor—especially since the Dark Knight is forced to use this clunky vehicle far too often. The combat outside of the car is better than ever, though, so exploring the game’s bountiful side content remains a bright spot in an overall disappointing conclusion to the Arkham franchise.
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| The Good | The combat might be better than ever, the world is absolutely massive, and the story provides a fitting end to the Batman of the Arkhamverse. |
| The Bad | There’s too much reliance on the Batmobile, the Joker aspects are unnecessary, and the game has a fair amount of glitches. |
| The Ugly | Every Batman fan will be able to guess the identity of the Arkham Knight from his dialogue long before the big reveal. |
| Batman: Arkham Knight is available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Primary version reviewed was for Xbox One. Review code was provided by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the benefit of this review. | |
The Just Cause series is known for its over-the-top, insane action sequences that see protagonist Rico Rodriguez wreak havoc across lands plagued by despotic regimes. Rocket launchers, C4, machine guns and other weapons are often perfectly suitable means for Rico to go about his business causing mayhem, but in Just Cause 3 his classic grappling hook might trump them all.
In Just Cause 2, Rico could tether two objects together and cause them to snap into one another, like explosive barrels to soldiers, to help Rico achieve his objectives, especially if running low on traditional ammo. Just Cause 3 has enhanced Rico’s grappling hook to a degree that explosive barrels and soldiers is thinking far too small.
While I played the game, I discovered two new attributes to the grappling hook. First, Rico can fire up to three grappling hooks at one time., allowing him to manipulate larger objects in the environment. Second, the grappling hooks start off with slack, but you can control the tension with the right stick of your controller. Thus, you can properly place your hooks before trying to take down a large object, or set traps in areas where you know enemies might soon arrive.
At first, I used these mechanics to take down statues of Medici’s dictator, General Di Ravello. Statues are just one of many destructible objects in the environment, and they must be destroyed to free Medici from Di Ravello’s rule. I fired my three hooks at Ravello’s face, which was as large as Rico’s torso, and connected them to the ground below. As I cranked up the wires, the full body statue began to crack around its kneecaps. Then it started to twist and turn. Finally, when the crack expanded, the statue broke off its base and smashed onto the ground with a gloriously satisfying crash.
Soon after, I moved onto propaganda towers, then to large projectors playing Ravello’s greatest hits in piazzas. But my crowning achievement came with a large, round oil container and a police station at the bottom of a hill.
The oil container, itself was the size of a small building, was propped up off the ground by six key supports. Using a rifle, I carefully blasted out three supports. I then fired the grappling hooks into the container and latched them onto the ground about halfway down the hill. Slowly, I cranked up the tension.
In mere moments, the container broke free of the other three supports and began sliding towards the other end of the hooks. Once it reached a certain point, however, gravity did the rest of the work. While the container began sliding down the hill, Raiders of the Lost Ark-style, toward the police station, I fired several more rounds into its side, setting off a stream of white-hot flame. The container collided with the station wall, exploding in a blast that nearly took up my entire screen and leaving nothing but charred bodies and rubble in its wake. It was beautiful.
This was not an in-game objective. This was the freedom Just Cause 3 and the tools, specifically the new grappling hook, afforded me. I wondered if I could do something, tried it, and it worked out beautifully in my favor. I was limited only by my imagination and desire to cause wanton destruction. And I get the sense that there are a lot more insane explosion opportunities around Medici, waiting for players to discover them. I, for one, cannot wait.
Just Cause 3 will drop this holiday season for Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC.
The Just Cause series has always tried its best to make getting around in its world just as fun as blowing it up. Rico’s iconic grappling hook allows him to get to places cars and copters can’t easily reach. Using the parachute with the hook lets you gain altitude while covering distance. At the same time, the combination makes Rico a harder target to hit and gives him a unique angle from which he can take out his enemies.
The new wingsuit adds a new wrinkle to how Rico will get around in his home country of Medici. Once Rico reaches certain heights, whether using the parachute or via the numerous flying vehicles in the game, the wingsuit allows Rico to get to almost anywhere on the island quickly without losing elevation. In some ways, I’m reminded of how Batman gets around in the Arkham games; Rico can dive at great speeds, then pull up at the last instance to increase his time and speed. However, Rico can go farther than Batman can in the Arkham games. Here, it’s closer to actually being able to fly without a vehicle.
The speed and ease with which you can use the wingsuit to get around, though, would’ve made the parachute almost useless. So the parachute and how it works has been completely revamped. While you can still use the parachute to gain some height, it also slows Rico’s descent.
With these new tools, Rico can pull his chute above an area he wants to infiltrate or blow up, tether his grappling hook to the ground and slowly circle above his targets. During my time playing the game, I tried this technique while staging a prison break on top of one of Medici’s hills. Rico lost only minimal height while I shot at the guards and every red cylinder I could see, causing as much chaos and havoc as possible. The parachute slowed by descent so much that I almost become a mid-air mobile weapons platform. I happily had the height advantage, but didn’t have to worry about losing it until enemy choppers scrambled, at least.
These movement options and changes are just a sample of what designers have done with Just Cause 3. They want to give players as much freedom as possible in Avalanche Studios’ sandbox, all in the name of causing as much destruction as possible. During my extended hands-on, flying through the air and firing rockets at enemies never got old. I can’t wait to do it all again when the game hits store shelves.
Just Cause 3 will drop December 1 for Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC.
RayCarsilloWrites.com 