Diablo III: Beta Preview

With Diablo III not to far from appearing in our store shelves, I manage to get some hands-on time with the Diablo III Beta. It’s been a long time since I have played Diablo II and jumping straight into Diablo III completely forgetting that Diablo relies strongly on the mouse movement instead of keys. A rookie mistake on my behalf. After I realised it isn’t Wow (Even though the macro bar looks similar) I headed into the depths of Diablo III and really didn’t know what to expect.

First thing I noticed was the graphical update that Diablo III has had over Diablo 2. Again I am not saying Diablo 2 looks terrible but to modern day consumers standards graphics sell a lot of the titles ignoring gameplay elements completely. As soon as I started moving and attacking I noticed they have upgraded a lot to what you can do in the realm of Diablo 3. It still remains as an exciting RPG with still many lurking enemies and dungeons awaiting for you to enter, but have been altered to the point that you would go “Wow, they really have focused on making this better” it’s like that for everything I noticed in playing the Beta.

Some fans however may feel a bit left out as Blizzard has basically removed all of Diablo’s previous appealing features and has adjusted or just completely replaced them. It isn’t bad in my opinion but some may miss it more than others. One of the noticeable features that have became a distant but lovable memory is the fact you are no longer placed on the spot to choose how to spend your skill points. They are no longer present and heroes have class based incentives. Players will be spending hours on end trying to unlock the dozen of class based features for there characters. Even in the Beta I wanted more.

Every time you level up you will unlock a new skill for your class. But you can’t have them all equipped at once so tactically choosing which ones to place in your two skill slots can change the way how you E.G Approach a group of enemies. However once you reach level 24 there will be 6 slots present which will alow you to have 6 skills at your disposal.

Another change is the fact you no longer upgrade skills by putting extra points into them. This has now be replaced with skills and each skill can be fitted with a Runestone, Runestones have different types and react differently with each skill. Ien you put one into a skill, it will become ‘attuned’ to that skill. You can still remove it freely at any time, but the Runestone won’t work in any other skills.

The beta takes place from the start and lets you go up until level 9, which leads you from a rebuilt town known as Tristram. Previous Diablo II fans will notice the change Tristram has had.  As soon as you get to Tristram a meteor hits it immdiatley, which brings the dead back to life. Expect much more undead slaying.

From what I have played so far of the beta,  it has made me want the game even more. I guess I will have to wait until the game launch’s to experience what Diablo III can offer as a full package, but from this small but exciting preview I can already tell it is one of the best, and possibly the best in the series.

Assassins Creed: Revelations 20 Minutes Opening Gameplay

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is just around the corner, launching worldwide on the 15th November for the Xbox 360, PS3, with the PC version following a few weeks later on the 2nd December. The game is literally days away, but if you can’t wait that long, we have managed to grab the first 20 minutes of the game for your viewing pleasure.

Watching the video, you will notice that a lot has certainly changed in Assassins Creed, including many of the Gameplay elements, details and the overall atmosphere. It certainly is a good time to be a fan of the series.

Expect our review to be live sometime this week., but for now, enjoy the gameplay and opening 20 minutes.

[EuroGamer] Final Fantasy XIII-2 Gameplay

With the sequel to one of 2010’s biggest games just around the corner, Square Enix are pulling out all the stops to make Final Fantasy XIII-2 one of the most dynamic and memorable titles in the legendary franchise for years to come.

As soon as we jumped into the game we were instantly plunged into a fantastical world filled with colour and unimaginable detail which did a great job of immersing us further into the story.

While not a great deal has changed in terms of gameplay there are still a number of improvements that have been made to provide a more fluent and realistic experience whilst roaming through the game as well as on the battleground. Additionally, the design and detail seems to look just as good as its predecessor but may still hold the upper hand being that it is the latest title and more importantly that Square are always working to make everyone of their newest projects as dynamic and enthralling as possible.

EuroGamer 2011: Exclusive Modern Warfare 3 Spec-Ops Gameplay

One of this year’s biggest titles is rapidly getting closer to the official release so a few of us at Push Start decided to give MW3 one last go before Activision pulled back into the shadows waiting for 8 of November to come.

Modern Warfare 3 put up some serious competition at this year’s EuroGamer giving us further insight into what Activision have been working on to make their best CoD game yet. Unfortunately there was no multiplayer on show but we did however play the popular Modern Warfare 2 Spec Ops mode  which has now been revamped and change and now drops the player in one of the many vast maps while unleashing waves of intelligent enemies utilizing any method of taking you down with deadly accuracy.

Catherine Readys Herself for Domination in Europe!

Catherine (キャサリン) is a horror, puzzle-platformer, adventure game, which was developed by Atlus for the PLaystation 3 and Xbox 360. This is the first game that Atlus will (has) be released for the seventh-generation consoles in high definition. This is described as Adult Oriented because of the themes and graphics that the game offers. This game has been released nation wide, aside from Europe, already. The european release date for this game falls in time for Halloween, which is dated for the 28th October 2011.

The story of this game focuses on a chap called Vincent. There have been a bizarre number of incidents around his neighbourhood where people have died in their sleep with a look of anguish over their face. All the victims are young men and then this could only really point into one direction, someone has done this to them. Vincent is contemplating marriage to Katherine, who he has known for five years, as she is pressuring him into marriage. However another mysterious and beautiful young women falls to his eyes and she goes by the name of Catherine. After meeting her Vincent then starts developing nightmares every night after the meeting and he then relates to this as the cause of the incidents around his neighbourhood. Not only does Vincent have to survive these horrible nightmares that are taking over his dreams, but he must also choose between Katherine and Catherine.

Depending on how things are answered within the game can determine what type of ending you will get. This game has a total of EIGHT endings, so choose wisely!

So far this game has received a fair amount of positive reviews and I for one am looking forward to playing a game such as this. It was aimed for Japanese audiences with the graphics and storyline but it seems that this is attracting audience further to the west of the world and, around the centre.

The main gameplay takes place in the nightmare stages. Vincent must climb up giant staircases that are slowly collapsing underneath him and to try and reach the top safely. Vincent must climb, push and pull blocks as quickly and as fast as possible. Vincent is dead or game over will appear if he runs out of retry pillows, gets killed by a trap, boss and falling to the bottom of the level.

Deathly Hallows Part 2 Premiers Tonight!

Already the first wave of critics have seen the movie, before the premier which is scheduled for today. The film has bee given the big thumbs up from those that have seen it and say that it ends well for one of the most successful film franchises in the world.

The line for this premier is massive. When you look at the images and videos that have been released for it you can see that this will be a night to remember for those hard core Harry Potter fans, as this is the last time they will get to see each other after the film has finished.

You can watch the premier over on many sites, with one such as Play.com.

Project Zomboid – Alpha Release Impressions

A few months ago Push Start interviewed the creators of the upcoming indie game ‘Project Zomboid’. Since then, the buzz generated around it has grown and the pressure to release a playable demo increased for Lemmy and Binky. They were a little late, but they’ve delivered a working, playable alpha version of the game. That’s a long way off a full release, but they do claim that the game will be updated and worked on as long as there’s interest, so it may never make it to a ‘finished’ edition anyway. With the blog, twitter and reddit hype, and the support of celebrity fan Graham Linehan (writer of Father Ted and The I.T. Crowd) the product certainly needs to be good to appease the thousands who donated to development, so… is it?

The Alpha build is essentially just a tech demo, and only released because it was pirated and released on torrent sites. This has led to the game being released in its basic state for free download, with future updated versions available to users who donate – which now involves buying some of the creators older games as an added bonus. With updates still being pirated the paid version is on hold, and the torrent has an .exe file which sets off over zealous anti-virus programs (I can confirm it’s perfectly safe). All of this is covered with plenty of humour and charm on the Project Zomboid site, which doubles as a wonderful insight into the ups and downs of game development. Anyway, enough plot-building, on to the game.

The game opens with some rather excellent music, which adds a level of pathos to proceedings sadly lacking in most zombie games. This music plays over a series of screens which culminate by informing you that ‘this is how you died’. Ominous, but it sets the tone for what follows. This isn’t a game with clearly defined goals or levels. It’s about surviving for as long as possible. This might be a little overwhelming if it were not for an excellent tutorial, which ties neatly into the minimal plot. Our hero stands in a room with his wife severely wounded on a bed. Something has occurred which has left them stranded and lacking any food or other tools for survival. The game uses this premise to teach you how to scavenge for items, use them and eventually craft them into something more impressive, all while implementing the day/night cycle and teaching the basics of combat.

The game reveals itself to be quite simple to play, but with remarkable depth. Just the tutorial is brilliantly inventive, with you learning to make and cook soup, barricade doors and survive with meagre resources. As you venture further afield and begin to find more items things become even more interesting, as you have a choice between hiding and protecting Kate (the aforementioned wife) or going out and trying to be offensive. At first the number of zombies seems low, but as you run around the small town setting it becomes apparent that there are many more than can be reasonably dealt with. Hiding ceases to help and you become trapped, awaiting the inevitable. That’s just in playthrough one.

Subsequent attempts encourage alternate tactics to ensure a longer life. Soon you become adept at creating helpful items. It’s almost like a far more grown-up Dead Rising 2, as you make a nail bat, assume it will be enough to defend yourself as you scavenge for medicine and food, and valiantly die under a horde of slow-moving, moaning zombies. Yes, they’re slow, and thank goodness as the game exudes a ‘Dawn of the Dead’ feel. It’s classic zombie movie, small Americanised town with streets on a grid, overrun by the nightmarish hordes of the undead. We can only hope that the finished effort has a mall to hide out in for the full Romero experience. Each playthrough lasts in the region of an hour or two early on, but it becomes longer with each effort as you begin to understand the intricacies of survival. This isn’t a typical game by any stretch, it’s grounded in reality and readers of the ‘Zombie Survival Guide’ may even have a leg up from the off, such is the cleverness of what the player is allowed find and do. I’m yet to find a gun, but I’ve made a Molotov and the sense of satisfaction upon its use was immense.

While following the tutorial is helpful at first, Zomboid begins to shine brightest once you move off-script. On one playthrough, while attempting to make soup, I managed to set the house on fire, killing both Kate and myself in the process. The fact that the cooker needed to be watched was a revelation, most games would simply allow the soup to cook and make a friendly ‘ping’ when it was ready. Zomboid offered no hints, it just killed me ruthlessly and made me try again, intent on getting that little bit further. It’s a little bit like Demon’s Souls in that regard, punishing, but incredibly rewarding. It’s quite dark really with death coming quickly, a truly morbid experience. Death is inevitable, and often comes from player error with arbitrary objects such as the soup, or running into the wrong building and becoming trapped in a room with one exit. In fact, to fully realise just how dark the game is, try using the pillow you find with the bandages in Kate’s room on her. It’s quite an affecting moment, and wonderful to see such options appear in a game.

Zomboid may have a long way to go before it’s finished, but if this is what the developers can manage in an alpha release, the full version should be on every gamer’s radar. Don’t let the graphics fool you, this game is as contemporary as anything boasting HD visuals. Full of smartly executed player choice, and without the pointless false consequence of a karma system. This is a game where the player chooses their fate, their play style and their story, and that surpasses the majority of big-budget titles which attempt the same. It looks dated, granted, but beneath that simplicity is a fully realised game of survival, where it takes genuine thought and creativity to survive. It might not be for everyone, but if you’ve played Resident Evil or Dead Rising and wanted something a bit deeper, or just wanted a game in which you must survive the post-apocalyptic world, rather than conquer it then this is most definitely for you.

This isn’t a review of course, due to the unfinished status of the game, and there are some bugs and occasional difficulties with certain elements. Figuring out how to eat something took a little effort, bizarrely (click on it, then click on the heart/health icon) and some of the combat and movement could be awkward at times, but these are issues that can be ironed out easily, and are really not much of a problem as it stands. If you’re interested in Project Zomboid you can play it here for free, and a small donation secures future updates – it looks like they’ll be well worth it as this is gearing up to be one of the best indie games of the year.

Believe It! (Anime Film Preview)

I know that there are alot of anime fans out there and looking back at the website, I see that we lack the promotion of anime in the film department!

I therefore shall fix this little glitch!. Every week I shall try and upload one review of a movie from a certain anime. As I have watched the first three Bleach movies, I shall try and get all the reviews for that done during the weekend. They will be published somewhere during the week obviously being spaced out. After that I shall start on Naruto. And from then on it will be whatever I get my hands on! (Bare In mine there are alot of Naruto movies so beware!)

Get ready

and

BELIEVE IT!

Modern Warfare 3 : “It’s not just about London or Manhattan”

On Monday the 23rd I was lucky enough to attend a Pre-E3 event for Modern Warfare 3. I headed in with expecting low expectations as the bar was set so high in Modern Warfare 2 and I couldn’t think how they could improve an already polished title.

Now watching the pre-trailer before the actual gameplay footage I took down a few notes.

The trailer mainly was a montage of flashbacks to the previous Modern Warfare titles.

Once the trailer finished probably the god of Call of duty presented the Modern Warfare 3 gameplay Robert Bowling @FourZeroTwo on twitter. He also presented it along side Glen Schofield from Sledgehammer Games. Glen mentioned during the presentation that  “The single player campaign is just one aspect of the much, much larger game of Modern Warfare 3.”

Please note: The below content will contain spoilers.

Manhattan:
They showed us some exhilarating gameplay from the American side of things. The mission took place in Manhattan with the objective of getting to the Stock Market roof to take out a satellite uplink which I believe was leaking US Intel to the Russians. During the fight you see a lot of different added gameplay elements. AK47, P90’s and MP5’s make a return along with Red dot sights and holographic sights. Not only will the sights make a return but also an extra sight for more focus it seems. During the gameplay when using an AK47 and an MP5 it seemed that you could equip and extra sight on it to focus on the aiming. It is a great feature for those who are not very accurate.

The gameplay was brilliant and very fast paced, I was constantly on edge looking at the gameplay wondering what was going to happen next as it seems to play slightly different from previous Modern Warfare titles. The gameplay continued into a few buildings where Russians try to infiltrate the American forces as you push through to get to the Stock Market.

Once thing I noticed straight away was how much detail has gone into the scenery, weapons and characters. They look more realistic and suited and booted compared to Modern Warfare 2.

London

The next part of the presentation they should us was and English mission this time taking place in London. As soon as I heard London my excitement grew. The London mission was very different compared to the Manhattan mission we watched, other than the obvious reasons that it’s in a different location both of the forces fight differently.

Bravo 6 (the name of the squad) infiltrated a dock where the enemy (not sure who) was importing weaponry and other goods to help support there fight against the English forces.

The start of the mission see’s your squad which I assume is apart of the S.A.S  breach buildings containing enemy occupants.  The mission started of to be very stealthy, silencers on during the breach of the building. It was great and felt like I was watching a movie.

Once the buildings have been infiltrated all hell breaks loose as the enemy’s notice that they are under attack. After fighting your way through with SGT Pearce you chase after what it seems to be a leader or someone who is important. During the chase you will head to the London Underground perusing the hijacked train which is a constant on-edge scene plays very well. With the sudden end of seeing the train derail and take down almost the whole of London with it… Well a lot of the underground any who the mission fades to white and that was it.

Now I have to admit my expectations before the event were low, due to the fact that Modern Warfare 2 was a great title and Black Op’s didn’t match up to my expectations. Now after seeing this preview event I am going to have to change my doubt as I am now excited for the title. It’s going to be a competitive winter this year it seems with Battlefield 3 on the horizon.

Now after all that War we headed into the open bar and I grabbed myself a Japanese Beer. Very tasty. I then came across the man himself Robert Bowling, me being a bit stupid not recognizing it was the famous FourZeroTwo I asked him a few questions after I realised how much of a fool I was.

Where will the War be taking place?
Robert: You won’t just be fighting in New york or London but you will be fighting everywhere across Europe.

With the English mission will the fight only take place in London or will it happen all over England?

Robert: I’m not sure what I can say really but London will play a huge role in the story line, but you will fight in other locations in England as well.

Will any previous Call of Duty characters appear in the title… Like the beloved Captain Price?

Robert: Haha I really can’t say.

Will Modern Warfare 3 have a complete new engine compared to Modern Warfare 2?

Robert: It won’t  be a complete new engine but it’s an improved one that will continue to keep the competitive solid 60FPS in the campaign and multiplayer.

How long have Infinity Ward, Activision and Sledgehammer been working on Modern Warfare 3 for?
Robert: A solid 2 years.

Any scenes like the previous ‘No Russian’ mission in Modern Warfare 2 will cause the Media to be in shock?

Robert: Well we didn’t aim to do that with the game but there are many things that will shock players.

During the interview with Robert he also mentioned about how Modern Warfare 3 will have a new co-op player experience in Spec-Ops. Even though Spec-Ops has been seen before he stated that the Co-Op experience will be more focused on it’s own storyline.

After the interview and a beer I headed back home and looked up some of the weapons I noticed in the gameplay. I don’t know much about guns/ weapons so I had to do some research.

During the Manhatton gameplay we also got to see a new flash bang which is known as a 9-bang grenade.

There was also another type of Rocket launcher that I don’t think I i have name correct. I thought it was an X11 but I can’t seem to find it on the internet. I then came across an XM25., which look’s like the gun that was shooting the crap out of Russians.   I will keep looking however and post the audio I recorded to the site shortly after this post and see what you guys come up with.

Previous Modern Warfare 2 guns will also be present along with duel scopes on certain guns.

I came across the MP5K and the AK47and the P90. No other guns were on show sadly.

Gears of War 3: Beta: First Impressions

It’s time to grab your lancer and head back into the gears universe and battle the locust… or battle as the locusts of course. The first thing I noticed about the Beta was how quick it loads into a multiplayer match, already a dramatic difference over Gears 2. The core feel and gameplay elements from Gears of War 2 are present in Gears of War 3 but have been vastly improved for the greater of the good. An addition execution/beat down kills are now implemented with the Y button.

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Within the beta, there are three playable game modes: Team Deathmatch, Capture the Leader, and King of the Hill. I don’t think I need to explain Team Deathmatch as its pretty self explanatory and just consists of you killing the enemy team as a team. Capture the Leader which was also present in Gears of War 2, and lastly King of the Hill which also appeared in Gears of War 2 and requires you keep a part of the map under your teams control for as long as possible to score points. During the Beta I played all of the modes averaging around 3-4 hours each, and I still continue to play.

There are a total of four playable maps in the game: Oldtown, Trenches, Trashball, and Checkout.  All the maps are expected to be in the final build of the game. I need to point out how beautiful the maps look and the details gone into the maps is great. The team of 5 aside works much better in these maps compared to previous as there is a bit more depth to them. The spawns are also fairly balanced and came across no spawn camping issues.

After playing the game for about 3-4 hours I didn’t come accross any major bugs, so at the moment I can only report a few minor ‘server issues’ that cause’s the game to lag.  I will do a complete final impressions piece with any issues I have come across towards the end of the beta, along with a short video.