Diablo 3: Wrath finally unlocked

If you have been following the Darkness Falls, Heroes Rise, you probably know that it has finally reached 100% unlock. The last unlock is the reveal of the animated short titled "Wrath" - A 6-minute video of an endless battle between angels and demons. The short was directed by Peter Chung(Æon Flux ) and was created over at animation studio Titmouse. Gamer's waiting for Diablo 3 - This won't make the wait easier.

Pretty darn amazing. I have a feeling we get to fight one of the angels as a final boss in one of the acts of Diablo 3, wanna bet it's Archangel of Valor?

Just like everybody else - I can't wait for Diablo 3. Playing the beta and re-playing Diablo 2 made me realize how addicted I'll be when May 15 hits.

New Assassin's Creed III trailer asks you to "unite" in order to reveal gameplay

The new footage shows the protagonist Conner hunting a Red Coat in the woods. Its pretty short and reveals a different type of hidden blade. If you want to see more, Ubisoft is asking all the fans to "unite".

The whole "unite" thing is pretty much asking everybody to spread the word either in Facebook or Twitter. The goal is 1,776,000 posts/tweets and shares. If the goal is reached - We get to see the world premiere of gameplay footage for Assassin's Creed 3 early. Want to help out? Click here.

its pretty amazing though. It just started and already they are close to 50% to the goal.

Assassin's Creed 3 will be out for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on October 31, 2012.

Elder Scrolls Online - Not What I Expected

It was inevitable really, but the Elder Scrolls Online is now official. While I thought it would be cool to have an MMO of the Elder Scrolls world, first information about this game is what I had in mind. Down from the first images of the game to the game not being played in a first person perspective left me worried for the worse.

I bet Elder Scrolls fanboys are flaming the MMO as I type this. From what I'm reading so far and with the images leaked; This will come out as yet another generic MMO with just a famous franchise stamped in front of it to draw people in. ZeniMax Online is developing Elder Scrolls Online, and I hope they have something unique to show gamers in the next few months because all I see and read so far is not enough for this MMO to be the one to watch for 2013.

I still believe an online Elder Scrolls would work, but if only they stay true to why we love the Elder Scrolls. The fact that we are going to be playing Elder Scrolls Online in third person, not in real-time, and abilities accessible via the hotkeys makes it not Elder Scrolls at all.  When I heard about the changes in gameplay, I already lost all hope for the Elder Scrolls Online. Then I saw how the game will look like thanks to the leaked images, which makes it even worse.

I'm sorry, the graphics look a bit dumbed down to the level of MMO's like Lord of the Rings Online or EverQuest. A bit underwhelming and looks like a step backwards in terms of visuals. The first image above was the first image officially released. The rest are leaked images of the game which doesn't change what I think of how the game looks like.

Its 2012. MMO's have been around for years now and have been built on what is considered as a generic formula that makes a good MMO. They all look the same to me now. Its time for something revolutionary - A big step forward to get people excited for an online game again. With this planned for 2013, I can tell you already that this won't be it. Elder Scrolls Online will have the usual features of any MMO - PVP, questing, dungeons to explore with groups but nothing unique to keep it apart from the rest.

Together with the reveal, a teaser trailer was released. Which is pretty much the Skyrim teaser all over again that shows absolutely nothing. This is actually worse since it's just the game's logo in close up.

A unique feature is what MMO is going for nowadays. That's the only way to survive alongside  the behemoth that is World of Warcraft and millions of other MMO's trying to stay alive as well. What is Elder Scrolls Online's unique feature? I have no idea. GameInfomer's June issue is said to have a full coverage of the game and hopefully they can answer that question. Also, IGN has a great wiki that has all the information so far about Elder Scrolls Online. So if you want to educate yourself further about this game, click here now.

I was really hoping for Elder Scrolls Online to be Skyrim or Morrowind but with online features, but I guess that was too good to be true. Maybe its a bit too soon to judge this title, but like I said - Not what I expected at all. What do you guys think of this reveal? Excited? or do you feel the same way.

Weekend, What Are You Playing?

It's the first week of May! For me, I consider this Diablo month since Diablo 3 is literally days away from release. In preparation, I already know what I'll be playing before May 15. How about you guys? What are you playing?

Quash: Just 10 days left and Diablo 3 will be released to the public. So to keep the hype going, I'm playing Diablo 2 again for the 9th time. Well, I believe it's the 9th time. I've lost count on the number of times I've re-installed Diablo 2 just to have another go at acts 1 - 5. I still can't believe I was just in high school when I first played Diablo 2 for the first time. The gap between Diablo 2 and 3 is pretty big.

In celebration of the release of Diablo 3, Diablo 2 Battle.net ladders had a reset last May 2. Reset meaning all ladder characters created online will be brought back to level 1 with all your epic items erased. So with all those level 99 characters gone, I gave it a shot at rising up the ladder to make a high level character. I'm currently at level 43 as an Assassin character and nowhere near the top players in the asian realm. Don't get shocked,that only took two days thanks to some playing doing free runs through all the acts in normal difficulty. Now I'm going through Nightmare alone on act 2, hoping to get better gear.

With a player like me who has not played the game in a while, and was able to reach level 43 in just 2 days, you must be wondering how the hardcore players are doing. Well the overall highest character at the moment just hit level 93. So yea, I'm not that crazy after all. It looks like my aim to have my character as one of the top characters is looking pretty grim, but at this point - I just want to finish Hell again. This will be pretty much my game until the 15th. I have plans to play either an Amazon or Barbarian but this time on Hardcore.

Migoy: And yet another late entry for me though I hope that will be remedied very very soon. For this weekend I spent a crap ton of time playing 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. I got 2 endings earlier in the week and spent most of my Saturday getting the other 4 and oh man was it a wild ride. This is by far the best game I've played all year, sure we're only half way through 2012 but out of the games I've played so far I haven't enjoyed nearly as much as this. If you ever get to play 999, I suggest play it the first time around with absolutely no help/guides. Just enjoy your first playthrough then if possible do the same for your 2nd and 3rd only then will I allow you to look up the Safe and True endings (pro tip; do the True ending last).

After that I finally started Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I gotta say that I did not enjoy the first Uncharted game but the 2nd is easily enjoyable. It's not one of those "hard to put down" games, at least for me, but  it's definitely one of those games that makes you think "I wonder what happens next?" which makes it easy to keep on going.

Review: The Walking Dead - Episode One

Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead: With the graphic novels’ huge success and the TV Series gearing up for its 3^rd season on AMC, a video game adaptation of the Walking Dead world was bound to happen. When I heard that Telltale Games (Back to the Future: The Game, Tales of Monkey Island) was developing the property, they sounded like a perfect fit. However, their past games have been decent at best, leaving me a bit worried on how The Walking Dead would come out. As a fan of both the comics and the TV series, I bought the first episode on the Playstation 3 anyways.  After playing through the first episode of the game in one sitting, I was instantly hooked and left with a strong impression, reminding me why I loved The Walking Dead in the first place. This is Telltale’s best work yet.

The game follows a completely different group of survivors in the Walking Dead world than we’ve seen before. You play as Lee Everett, a man convicted for murder. The game starts with Lee leaving the city in a cop car to go to prison, only to have the trip cancelled thanks to his first encounter with a zombie. He then meets this little girl called Clementine; she is an 8-year-old who has been forced to survive by herself while waiting for her parents to arrive home from a trip. Lee takes Clementine with him, and makes it his goal to keep this child safe at all times. This is where this five-part series starts.

The Power of Choice

This game is all about choices. The choices you’re given create a big impact on the game’s story. The most powerful choices are character-based conversations that can alter an NPC’s impression of you – as you meet new characters in the game, you are given the choice to act as the father of Clementine, but soon find characters seeing through your lie, leading to a sense of distrust towards Lee. This is where the game shines. Your dialogue choices influence the story and the characters’ perception on you, Lee Everett. How you have Lee act during conversations or crucial moments when big choices need to be made defines Lee as a character. Be loyal and honest all throughout, or simply be on guard and not trust the people around you, it’s all up to you. Either way, there will be consequences.

In a game filled with choices, it’s good to see that the player does not have all the time in the world to decide. Each big choice or conversation puts a time limit on the player to make a decision. If a choice is left unanswered, things can get a lot worse.  Play your cards wrong and each choice will be loaded with nerve-wracking pressure.

There are also decisions that lead you to choose one character over the other – Your choice will result in one character’s demise and again you have only a small window to make a choice. These moments happened out of nowhere during my first play-through and caught me off-guard. I actually regret one of these choices because I acted too quickly on it. I felt like I had to make a choice fast. This is why this game works, because it places you in situations like that, and whichever path you choose, you’re stuck with it.

This also brings some replay value to the game. After going through this first episode the first time, I went back at it and picked different choices to see how the story shapes up. But truth be told, this game is best appreciated the first time around.

The controls are quick and easy to grasp. The first part of the game is considered a tutorial that helps the player grow accustomed to the controls. The left analog stick is used to move Lee around while the right analog stick controls the cursor that is used to interact with the environment.

It’s an adventure game at heart. You go around interacting with objects, gathering items, and solving issues within the group. It reminded me of games such as… well past Telltale games, and games like LucasArts’ Monkey Island plus those classic Sierra games – Such as Phantasmagoria and the Gabriel Knight series. But what The Walking Dead really lacks that most adventure games have in spades are puzzles. I believe a few puzzles here and there would have given the game another layer of quality.

Character interaction and molding the story are what this game is all about. You do get to kill some zombies, but it’s quite rare. You will spend most of your time interacting, rather than bashing heads. If you prefer a zombie game that gives you a gun and lets you go all-out, guns blazing instead of talking to survivors and uncovering their stories, this might not be the game for you.

The game does have those intense moments, but again, they are rare. The balance works well since between all the talking and interacting, the sudden moments of action act as wake-up calls to the player.

This game is also a real treat for fans of the TV series or the graphic novel, since it tells a different story set in the same world. Characters like Glenn and Hershel from the original series make appearances; needless to say, that got the fan in me excited to interact with them. Even if you’re not familiar with the series, Telltale’s The Walking Dead could make you a fan, if you give the game a chance.

The game’s visuals are a perfect fit since this game is essentially based on a comic book. It has a cel-shaded look similar to the visuals of Borderlands that brings this post-apocalyptic world to life. Not only that, the audio complements those intense moments in the game and also gives a special kind of eerie atmosphere, one that you’d expect from a doomed world. A few frame-rate issues happened during my play-through, which surprised me, since this game isn’t big on file size or heavy on the graphics.

Overall

This is definitely Telltale’s best work yet, but that’s just the beginning. As the first episode of a five-part series, The Walking Dead is off to a great start. The game is priced at $5 a piece and is quite a good deal since the first episode is worth three hours of your time. Just like any series, you are left to anxiously wait for the next episode to come out. The problem is, there is no announced release date for the next episode. I’m definitely hooked and ready to go for another episode, but the hype can only last for so long and hopefully Telltale won’t take their sweet time releasing Episode 2.

Score: 89/100

Pros:

-          Likeable and believable cast of characters

-          Visuals are a perfect fit for the game

-          Choices you make shape your story

Cons:

-          You have to wait for until the next episode

-          Surprisingly heavy frame-rate drops

-          A lot more talking than action