Eurogamer Expo 2012: A Glimpse of Things to Come – Part 2

It’s yet another Wednesday on Planet Earth which means it’s time for, yes you guessed it, another article from yours truly! It’s times like this that make me wish an orchestra of trumpets would follow me around like a bonnie, young Prince or one of the medal winners at the end of Star Wars IV: A New Hope. Until that day arrives, and I shall live in hope that it does, I will just ask you to imagine the trumpets in your head whenever you begin to read the silk-woven words on the screen right in front of you. Sit back, relax and prepare your mind once again for Part 2 of my Eurogamer Expo 2012 summary. As in Part 1, expect ratings along the lines of ‘Must Buy‘ and ‘My Balls are Tingling with Excitement!‘

Far Cry 3 – Definitely Worth a Try

My only hope for Far Cry 3 is that they release a demo of the game before/after release. It’s never been a big hitter on consoles and I think that they need to realise why. If people can experience everything that I did in just 10 minutes then they’ll be far more inclined to part with their money. I managed to drive a quadbike, fly a hang glider, shoot some people in the face and avenge an elderly couple who had been mauled to death by feral dogs. All in all it was a pretty fucking good 10 minutes. The graphics were superb and the island was truly beautiful. Gameplay is what you’d expect from a free roam, first-person shooter and if the story matches the ambition then we’ll have a top 5 entry at the very least.

Aliens: Colonial Marines – My Balls are Tingling with Excitement!

I’m not sure if it was just the vibe of the Expo that made this game seem so appealing, but in truth my testicles still haven’t recovered. I still wake up at night with that familiar sensation down below. It’s been happening for over 2 weeks now. When will the tingling stop? (Well next year, it seems…) I hope I’ve got my point across that this game is bloody impressive. As I was queuing up for it I was faced with the dilemma of picking Xenomorph or Marine for the 8 vs. 8 team deathmatch that lay ahead of me. Whilst watching the other dumplings play, I observed how agile and lethal the Xenomorphs could be in combat, yet I felt a strange attachment to the Marines. Before I could make my mind up on my own, the choice was made for me and I was plonked at a seat with a headset and a controller. I had been given the role of a Marine and I couldn’t be happier, but the shine wore off when I realised the terror of what was about to begin. I was against real people and I didn’t know what the controls were. There were only instructions for the people playing as Xenomorphs? Anyway I ploughed on and began to love the adrenaline that came hand in hand with being one of the Marines. The Xenomorphs were quicker, stronger and ridiculously acrobatic whilst me and my gang of merry men just had each other as our main strength. The motion tracker, after 5 frustrating minutes of not knowing which button triggered it, only added to the suspense of the fight as it couldn’t be used at the same time as a weapon. After the dust settled, the Marines had won and I had the second highest score out of the merry men! Enough about me anyway. My point that I’ve tried getting across in the sentences of this paragraph is that Aliens: Colonial Marines is going to be brilliant. The multiplayer should be one of the long lasting elements of the game and will hopefully leave a legacy for other Alien games to follow.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – Mixed Feelings

It’s a big, bold move from Hideo Kojima. He’s taking the Metal Gear franchise and making a game that’s all about action rather than espionage, with a character that is seemingly unliked by large parts of the Metal Gear fan-base. The main big positive about this game for me is that you can finally play through a full game like Frank Jaeger (a.k.a. Gray Fox and Cyborg Ninja) from previous Metal Gear games. This move is a massive fan pleaser but also begs the question; isn’t it just a little too late? The Cyborg Ninja’s first appearance was in Metal Gear Solid, some 14 years ago, and it seems that they are just a little bit late to the party if you ask me. Also making a game like this after the franchise became very well known during it’s Solid Snake prime just seems like they’ve run out of ideas and have started from scratch. Aside from the negatives, I do think this game played very well. It was really difficult, due largely to my lack of control instructions and tutorial, and also fun at the same time. It was frenetic and the action looked good too, which isn’t easy when a game is running at that speed. I advise people to keep a very close eye on this game whilst I go out and buy a PS3 and Metal Gear Solid 4 between now and the release date!

Fable: The Journey (Kinect Only) – It’s the end of this story for Molyneux and Co…

I hate to have such a negative view of a video game, franchise and person. Unfortunately Fable: The Journey has struck a bum note with all three as the game, the Fable franchise and Peter Molyneux have now been crossed off my Christmas card list. After being a fan of Lionhead Studios’ games since the first Fable, I have now reached a point where I won’t be buying one of their games because of my disappointment. The main problem is that I don’t own Kinect, mainly because there is not enough space between my TV and my recliner to allow for Kinect to even be considered. Releasing a game for an ailing franchise, yet restricting your target market in the same move is a tragic play from Lionhead and should spell the end in my opinion. The kind of fans who loved the previous games will not return to Albion on goodwill alone. By changing it they’ve lost it’s genre and charm along the way, resulting in it not being the British RPG that it once was. I won’t even discuss gameplay because I’m not really interested in helping this game shift a few more copies.

So this is the end of my Eurogamer Expo 2012 summary! I thought I’d just leave you with a lovely picture of myself and the nVIDIA ladies to end on a high note. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them and if you’ve got any questions then feel free to ask either on here or on Twitter (@Ciaran_Allen).

Toodle pip!