Today at their pre-E3 press conference Bethesda revealed the rumored Quake reboot to the world and this re-introduction to id Software’s 1990s darling is probably not what a lot of people expected – an arena shooter.
Foregoing the series roots as a open ended corridor shooter Quake Champions aims re-live the glory days (or is that gorey days?) of Quake III arena with a focus on arena style combat. Bethesda says that the game will be accessible for players of all skill levels but will also offer options that cater to the series’ hardcore fans such as an unlocked frame-rate and 120hz monitor support.
A Shot From 1999’s Quake III Arena
After watching the debut trailer, which you can also enjoy in the embedded trailer below, I can’t help but wonder if Quake Champions can learn from last month’s DOOM. The single player of DOOM was absolutely excellent but the game’s multiplayer was not so well received. Featuring generic announcer voices, an odd lack of ambient music during key moments in firefights, a paltry selection of weapons and over powered demon summons – DOOM’s multiplayer pretty much has written the book on HOW NOT to make an arena shooter in 2016.
Bethesda’s pre-launch marketing for DOOM’s multiplayer hailed it as a return to the arena shooters of old and with the announcement of a season’s pass and a lukewarm reception to the game’s open beta it was a foregone conclusion that they would take another stab at building a lasting multiplayer shooter. They’re promising a focus on e-sports combined with character specific abilities abilities and certainly Blizzard’s Overwatch proves that there is a market for such a product, but with contenders like Paragon up and coming – is it took late for one of the FPS team arena champions to make a return?
We’ll find out more about Bethesda’s plans for Quake Champions at this August’s Quakecon. Until then we can just keep watching the debut trailer over and over….
Broken Joysticks’s staff are on location in Los Angeles for E3 2016. Follow us on Twitter for all of our latest articles & more, we will be attending both the Microsoft and Sony E3 press briefings later today.
Xbox seems to have been scooped. Despite there being a tight wrap on their supposed hardware announcements tomorrow at their press conference, at least one photo of a new Xbox Slim has leaked. The post first appeared on Neogaff but has since been verified by separate sources.
that’s about it, you get a 40% slimmer box, with a larger hard drive, the ability to push 4K video with HDR sound and a stand to make it vertical. Also announced with this apparent leak is the smaller slim controller, which is described as Sleeker, slimmer, sharper.
This box is not to be confused with the newer more powerful model of Xbox which is code-named “scorpio” and will presumably be announced tomorrow at the Microsoft E3 press conference.
It is official – Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts will unleash an assault upon both online & offline players in the form of Titanfall 2 on October 28th. Unlike the first title, which was released exclusively for Windows PC & Xbox One, Titanfall 2 will include both a single-player campaign and multiplayer component.
In the narrative driven portion players enter the shoes of Jack Cooper, a member of a paramilitary militia that links with a one of the titular Titans after its’ pilot is killed. It appears that this link between robot & pilot will be front & center in the single player portion of the game. In Titanfall 1 the link between the two wasn’t really emphasized save for the ability to have your titan defend you through an automated A.I if you ejected during combat.
On the multiplayer front things appeared to have evolved quite a bit since the last time pilot’s strapped on their uniforms. The parkour movement system that helped set the original apart from the pack of other sci-fi shooters has been upgraded with the ability to use a grappling hook and then slide into a safe space. EA will also launch a network test for the game’s multiplayer ahead of release but no solid information on that has been confirmed at this time.
Check out the two debut trailers below from EA’s E3 press conference.
It’s been a while since I’ve been excited for a national StreetPass weekend. Ever since McDonald’s dropped off as a Nintendo Zone location it’s been next to impossible to participate. The only Nintendo Zone locations left in Canada are Best Buy stores, which are pretty scarce.
But regardless, from June 10th thru June 19 Nintendo has another national StreetPass event going on for E3. Bring your Nintendo 3DS system to a Nintendo Zone location to collect up to six StreetPass tags from around North America!
UMV has announced a clothing line designed especially for e-sports players, streamers and broadcasters. This new line is called “Ult” and takes a minimalist approach to game focused fashion inspired by the Los Angeles streetwear aesthetic. Ult will not only feature conventional short sleeved tees but also long sleeved tees, hoodie, hats and jackets. UMV says that they are working alongside designers like The Seventh Letter.
Ult will be unveiled on their official website as well on the convention floor on June 13th, the first day of the E3 Expo. Alongside Ult UMV is also launching a line aimed squarely at broadcasters with wearable technology at the forefront of their design philosophy.
The Seventh Letter founder, Corey Zoltan had this to say about their partnership:
“Many of our streetwear fans also love competitive video games so getting to collaborate with ULT esports makes perfect sense, and we are excited to offer that to the community,”
Do you think that a line of e-sports specific clothing makes sense? Let us know in the comments section! Broken Joystick’s staff are in California and will be covering everything breaking from E3 2016 all next week.
Parkour wunderkind Faith Connors returns in this reboot of the 2008 classic, Mirror’s Edge which is out today on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. I got the chance to sit down with the game for six hours this past weekend and jump into Faith‘s shoes as she runs, runs, zip lines and slides around the City of Glass. DICE’s latest entry in the franchise not only tinkers with the narrative but also opens up the gameplay with a gigantic open world environment that players of the last game could have only dreamed of on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Here are my initial impressions.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is not a straight retelling of the original title, DICE has decided to tinker with key elements of the game’s narrative – when things kick off we meet the defiant young Faith as she is about to be released from juvenile prison. This technologically advanced prison features futuristic neon displays that advocate for the various corporations around the City of Glass and reminds prisoners that they “should reform and consider employment with any corporation of their choosing.” Once Faith is released from prison she is informed that she was two weeks from release to find employment with one of these corporations or she will be locked back up for an extended period. This version of Faith is very different from the one we saw in 2008, In the 2008 game she was driven by the need to clear her sister’s name for framed murder the plot of Catalyst centers more on corporate espionage than the bond between sisters. This lack of a key motivator and a change in voice actress makes Faith less of a compelling protagonist based upon the time I spent with the game.
Once released from prison the bulk of Faith‘s early story in Mirror’s Edge centers around her reconnecting with the group of runners that she was once acquainted with. In the world of Mirror’s Edge runners are an anti-corporate movement that believe that the average citizenry have been become complacent thanks in part to advanced augmented reality technology that provides the user with a constant stream of corporate approved information. Runners try to subvert this system of iron fisted control on the citizenry visa hacking billboards with anti-corporate messages, trafficing prohibited information to the lower class citizens of the City of Glass and partaking in the more than occasional corporate espionage adventure. Ideologically it is very clear where the runners are and how the player is supposed to react to the presence of these large corporations. While the game stays on point when it comes to underlying political messaging and themes, unfortunately, the cast of side characters don’t convey a lot of personality to the player. Faith’s former contacts serve as Mirror’s Edge Catalyst’s method for providing new story missions and none of these side characters feel like fully developed human beings and could probably be swapped out for one another if it wasn’t for the fact that certain NPCs deliver certain types of activities.
The City of Glass is a gleaming white futuristic monolith to the advancements of technologies that have been produced by the various corporations in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. Tall, seemingly never-ending skyscrapers shimmer as their glass reflect the in-world light sources while yellow accents adorn the area’s that Faith is able to traverse when running from rooftop to rooftop. Top this very pleasing visual aesthetic is topped off with colorful cars and pedestrians which can sometimes be tiny specks below from some of the higher vantage of points available in the game. Combine this with a slightly punk look for some of Faith‘s fellow runners, and her initial outfit at the beginning of the story, and you have a game that knows how to visually define itself.
Traversing around the City of Glass is accomplished through the series’ signature first-person parkour. Unlike the last game, which gave Faith access to all of her abilities from the onset, Catalyst opts to give our heroine a basic set of movement, combat and defensive abilities from the get-go and locks the rest behind a progression system that is tied to an experience level. I could see why players who enjoyed the openness of the 2008 title would be disappointed with progression based unlocks, considering the fact that a number of abilities that were once standard are now locked behind the XP grind. However, I can also see how this would extend the life of the game and slowly teach players about their parkour maneuvers and allow them to master them before moving onto to more advanced skills.
So what abilities did Faith have access too over the course of the six hours that I played? The left bumper allows Faith to climb up objects, contextually jump off of nearby objects and climb up pipes or ladders. Left trigger allows Faith to kick descend ladders, jump down from ledges and slide along the ground. Like in the 2008 version running forward and then tapping the left trigger will launch Faith into a sliding forward dive that allows her to fit under narrow spaces and avoid combat with NPCs. More advanced techniques like rolling from tall heights by pressing the left trigger upon impact and using a wrist-mounted retractable rope become key to completing some of the side objectives and can be woven into Faith’s cityscape acrobatics as needed.
Here is a small sampling of some of the activities that await players in the brand new Mirror’s Edge:
Main Story Missions – These missions are delivered by Faith’s comrades in the Runner’s hideout, which also serves as the main safe zone, or by various NPCs located through the rooftops of the City of Glass. For the most part of the time I spent with these missions they typically revolve around corporate espionage or teaching Faith new game-play mechanics.
Package Delivery – Faith is able to pick up packages at automated drop-off points and then deliver them to a designated location with the time-limit. Really the package delivery missions are timed obstacle courses with various paths, failing the course will give the player the option to retry.
Hackable Billboards – Located throughout the City of Glass are billboards displaying corporate messages. Faith is able to hack these billboards to display messages for the runners in exchange for XP points.
User Created Trials – Using Faith’s augmented reality contacts users are able to create custom trials using up to 4 droppable checkpoints. These courses will then be populated randomly into other players games it seems. Once you’ve completed a user generated trial your score is placed on a leaderboard that is specific for that trial.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst tries valiantly to take the parkour formula that was so well received with the original game and extend that 6 – 8 hour length into an open world experience that players could potentially lose 100s of hours in. There are dozens upon dozens of collectibles for Faith to collect and exchange for more moves, skills and pieces of gear. Longtime fans who enjoyed the first game might find the addition of an XP system and seemingly pointless collectibles to be padding used to lengthen the time spent with the game but honestly it feels like a fair tradeoff given the open world nature of the City of Glass..
Broken Joystick’s staff will be heading to E3 for the next 8 days but expect a full review of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst after our return!
It looks like the cat is out of the bag for one of Capcom’s big reveals at Microsoft’s E3 press briefing. The infected shall rise again, facing off against longtime Zombie slayer Frank West in a Xbox One / Windows Store exclusive Dead Rising 4 according to leaked screenshots and promotional material that appeared online yesterday.
Despite its’ title Dead Rising 4 will reportedly be a reboot/alternate telling of the Willamette Incident that introduced us to the world of Phenotrans, Zombrex and those pesky wasps that cause necrotic flesh to come back to life. Reportedly the game will also shift the time period of the Willamette Incident from late Summer to Christmas time. Unlike the other games in the franchise, DR4 will run on Epic’s Unreal Engine 4, ditching the proprietary engine that has powered the series since Capcom Vancouver’s Dead Rising 2.
Dead Rising 4is expected to be revealed next week and now confirmed information has been released just yet. Check out te quite convincing leaked assets below:
The Entertainment Software Association in partnership with major hardware vendors like Alienware, Oculus and HTC and with support from major developers like Nintendo, Ubisoft and Warner Bros Interactive will bring a slice of the E3 excitement to the public with the recently announced E3 Live event.
Attendees can purchase tickets on the E3 Live official website. This public event will be open the evenings of Tuesday June 14th and will run through the evening of the 16th – which are the same dates that the E3 industry only show floor is open.
Attractions include the Pokemon Symphonic Evolutions experience (separate tickets required) , a large demo truck from Alienware andgame stations from major industry players like Oculus, Alienware, Monster and Twitch. It will also be a chance for the public to mingle with some of their favorite developers and industry personnel!
Red Dead Redemption 2 will be released on Xbox One, PS4 and PC in the fourth quarter of 2016 and gamers will have the chance to view the upcoming game at this year’s E3, according to a new rumor going around. This rumor comes right after Red Dead Redemption was temporarily playable on Xbox One via backwards compatibility. The ability to do that has since been removed, but clearly it’s on it’s way soon.
“I pretty much know the ones that I can assure you are permanent. It’s obvious that GTA is a permanent franchise as long as we keep delivering this incredible quality; it seems quite obvious that ‘Red Dead’ is a permanent franchise, again with the same caveat, or Borderlands, for example, and NBA and others,” Take Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a 2014 interview.
Zelnick was also asked why the the game is not annualized. The CEO explained that non-sport titles are best served not on an annual basis because it creates higher demand and anticipation from gamers. It’s extremely refreshing to hear that from a high-level game executive and gives me hope that Rockstar’s various studious will continue to produce quality games like the GTA franchise.
There are also a few details on the setting of the new game included in this rumor: many fans had speculated that the franchise would move to Japan in the EDO period when much of Japan was rapidly modernizing and guns were becoming common. However this would move the game from it roots as a Western and many fans have expressed discontent with that setting. Personally I hope we see a return to the frontier of the US. Other rumored locations include more states in the U.S., including Utah, Arizona, Denver, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico, South Dakota and Louisiana. Whatever ends up happening, I hope we get to see a first look at the game at E3. Be sure to stay tuned as yours truly will indeed be at E3 reporting from the floor!
