Consoles

Published on September 27th, 2013 | by Admin

XBOX ONE EVENT SYDNEY

Impulse Gamer was invited to an exclusive XBOX ONE event last night to check out the new Xbox and some new games coming from Capcom, Microsoft and Crytek. The event itself was held in the beautiful Potts Point in Sydney. Guests were welcome with a drink and belting tunes supplied by Video presenter turned DJ, Rubi Rose. The room was filled with international games producers, Xbox marketing heads and about 8 different consoles playing 4 unreleased games.

The new kid on the block the XBOX ONE, the console itself is basically a brick with lights. It reminds me of a VHS player from the 80s. The design is fat clunky and must be stationed flat so you’ll have to find a big enough area to store it. The control pads have been slightly adjusted this time with a Matte finish that will minimize slipping and sweating. The rumble feature has been moved into the bumpers of the pad so when you are shooting a gun you’ll feel the pumping action coming from the finger tips rather than your palms enough about the console. Let’s play some games…

First things first, let’s kick ass and chew bubble over at Capcom with…

Dead Rising 3

More zombies.

More guns.

More guts and glory.

From the quick preview I played, I jumped ramps and crushed on coming dead with my super taxi. I split zombies in half with a guitar that had an attached chainsaw on the end. I tore jaws and limbs off zombies as there corpse friends watched on in terror.

It was only a short preview so I can’t say too much about the storyline or characters but content wise there was plenty. Much much more then we have seen in previous instalments. You can now upgrade and combine weapons on the go. Up to 5 different combinations on the same weapon. No longer do you need to find a tool bench to complete the upgrade; you can just stop, access your weapons wheel, upgrade/combine and move on. All you need is the blue prints.

Graphics wise, nothing that astonishing for such a new console however what I did notice is the distance of the draw from the graphics engine. Zombies filled the screens hundreds upon hundreds, crowds of the dead stood yards away yet were clearly visible.

The game looks like it would be mighty fun. I chatted briefly with producer ‘John Airhart’ from Capcom and he assured me that this is by far the biggest edition to the series, the maps from the previous two games could fit into this 3 times over. He told me that the design and look of the zombies has gone from very cartoonish to more realistic like something out of the walking dead because with previous instalments the consoles couldn’t handle anything more so entire game has had a complete overhaul to coincide with the Xbox One.

Dead Rising 3 is slated for release on the launch day of the XBOX ONE on November 22, 2013

Excitement level 7/10

Forza 5

The exclusive driving sim from Microsoft.

Let me say this, I was horrible at this game. I’m much more of a Mario Kart racer then a driving simulator. So I found myself taking turns at full speed and ending up in a ditch hoping that my peers weren’t watching my path to failure. I’m sure these games appeal to others I’m just not one of them.

Graphically awesome at first glance but as always it’s the little things that bother me. Keep in mind this is an early build but the crowd watching the race are on par with the audience from N64’s WWE Raw. Gameplay wise from what I played it’s basically the same game from then Xbox 360 edition.

Forza 5 is slated for release on the launch day of the XBOX ONE on November 22, 2013

Excitement Level: 3/10

Ryse: Son of Rome

Giving Russel Crowe a run for his money.

Ryse: Son of Rome is a gladiator beat em up style game. Imagine the movie “Gladiator” and “God of War” being thrown into the “Royal Rumble”.

We sat down and played the multiplayer of Ryse, after a few technical difficulties caused by myself we jumped into the colosseum to take on hordes of gladiators.

The multiplayer in Ryse is Co-op, you band together with a friend to cut down enemies from limb to limb. This game is violent, of course in a good way. However the controls are clunky and not simple to pick up and play. Graphics aren’t great, they are ok at best. Compared to Dead Rising we only see 2 – 3 enemies on screen that can easily be taken down, for a horde match I would expect much more. The crowd can be heard in the stands but can barely be seen. there is a “crowd excitement level” bar that changes with how well you kill your enemies however, I feel like the crowd in this type of game could have been a big draw card, they could throw food at you if they are bored or help you out if they are cheering. When bored more enemies could be released or lions or anything. Here the bar from what I can see only gave you a better score.

The game play just inst here for me, the single player mode might be where the game shines but if that’s true why are we being shown the multiplayer. I truly feel like Ryse could become a crappier (if that’s possible) version of “Dystany Warriors”.

Ryse: Son of Rome is slated for release on the launch day of the XBOX ONE on November 22, 2013

Excitement level 2/10

KILLER INSTINCT

The Super Nintendo combo killer is back with an all new game

This is where my excitement level hit an all-time peak. Killer Instinct. A new game, man I haven’t played this since the early nineties. This time rather than a Nintendo game we have it on the Xbox.

Killer Instinct was like the underdog of the fighting games in the 90’s like Mortal Kombat it was gory and had less cartoonish characters compared to street fighter. But it was filled with over the top locations awesome power moves. Its main appeal for me was the awesome soundtrack CD that it came with and crazy fast paced fighting

This new incarnation plays just like it used to, except we get an insane graphics boost, flashier combos and a bunch of never before seen characters and plenty of old favourites like Sabrewulf and Glacius.  The gameplay is fun and off beat. You won’t find characters like these in other fighting games. Glacius for instance is a towering ice monster that freezes and crushes his enemies. I found the game a short learning curve before you found yourself settling down on the button bashing.

Graphics wise, it’s not great. You can see that most of the time was spent on gameplay rather than what the game actually looked like. But you have to consider that Killer Instinct will be free to play from launch of the console. You’ll have access to one playable character “Jago”; others will cost you a small fee per character.

Killer Instinct is slated for release on the launch day of the XBOX ONE on November 22, 2013

Excitement level 5/10

Final Thoughts – 

So all in all, Dead Rising 3 was the winner here. But does that game alone sell the console. Doubt it. There just wasn’t enough content at the event to truly sell me. I would have liked to see Watch Dogs or Titan Fall. I don’t believe the games they showed off are really the A1 Launch titles and inviting the industry to try out their system they really missed something that could of set them apart from the Playstation 4.

By Ryan Adams


About the Author

andrew@impulsegamer.com'



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