We just had a chance to check out the Monk for Diablo III, a class just recently announced to fans of The Lord of Destruction and his love for arsony. The Monk has long robes and seems to be peaceful, but Monks are very dangerous and designed around inflicting damage on an enemy in a short amount of time.  The trade off to the Monk’s speed and power is that it is noticeably weaker than other classes, so if the monk gets swarmed  – he dies.  Luckily, the Monk’s skills and attacks can limit the impact of this weakness, making him a force to be reckoned with against even against dozens of enemies. In fact, many of his skills are designed to compensate with this by imparting explosive or area of effect strikes, all of which are controlled by the player.

Essentially, Monk’s abilities are governed by how quickly the player clicks the mouse in succession on a target. You have half a second to click on the same target again and start your combo. Each attack has three separate levels, each one with impressive effects imparted on the third level. The first attack is Crippling Wave, a debuffing attack that allows you to decrease the speed of your target on the first blow for a limited amount of time, reduce the damage your enemies cause for a limited amount of time on the second strike and finally refreshes these strikes and extends the effects on the third blow. Another attack that can be wielded by the Monk is the Seven Sided Strike, which allows the Monk to teleport between enemies and land up to nine strikes (when fully upgraded) on enemies. However, the most iconic attack of the Monk is the Exploding Palm attack, which allows players to inflict significant damage on the first and second strikes. The third attack of this character imparts a bleeding state on the target, causing it to lose health consistently, and if the enemy dies within this state, it explodes, causing damage on nearby enemies. Players can start with a Seven Sided Strike, switch to a Crippling Wave and finish with an Exploding Palm strike – leaving enemies immediately devastated around the area of attack.

Players can further select and boost the Force Without Thought skill, a passive counterattack ability that allows players to dodge incoming strikes and return a blow with incredible force. Players can also cast Inner Sanctuary (mentioned to me by someone near this booth), an ability that erects a magical barrier that enemies cannot pass through, and Impenetrable Defense, a temporary shield that reflects projectiles and allows you to dodge incoming melee attacks. There are also a couple of abilities and skills that can double as attacks against enemies. The first is Radiant Visage, a power that calls down holy light to blind enemies for three to five seconds and reduces their chance to hit, giving you free strikes before they know what hit them. Combine all of this with 
Way of the One Hundred Fists, a dashing move that imparts multiple hits that eventually culminates in an area of effect strike and enemies are definitely in for a surprise.

The Monk class is definitely an amazing class to have while fighting with demons, and this just gets us more excited about other classes yet to be revealed.

Starcraft II is irrefutably shaping up to be one of the best titles of 2010 in the RTS landscape, and this is all based on just what we have seen with one out of three faction campaigns.  Within this space opera adventure and sequel to perhaps one of the best RTS game of its time, Starcraft II lays a prominence which sways players into the nostalgic ruins of the lives of the terran, zertg, and protoss campaigns.

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty begins after the years of Brood War for the original Starcraft as the reprobate and vicious war placed between the iconic factions is still taking place: Terran space marines, Zerg maniacs, and Protosss aliens that are ready to slaughter anyone in their way. The heroic yet defiant human officer Jim Raynor finds himself in a dilemma with the human leader Arcturus Mengsk and his former stealth specialist lover that became the dominant Zerg hive queen Kerrigan. Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty shows Raynor is still trying to deal with the issues of the new threats and older rivalries. Considered a dangerous outlaw by Emperor Mengsk, Raynor is the symbol of freedom as he leads Raynor’s Fighters into battle against the totalitarian regime of Mengsk as first priority with almost all the hope and glory in the mindset. Suddenly, the TV monitor divulges details that the Zerg, having remained dormant for years, have resurfaced and launched a full-scale assault on sectors in the universe as the pernicious Kerrigan leads the onslaught.

Starcraft II gameplay interaction where players are able to choose missions through their choices and ultimately feel an emotional construct with Jim Raynor and how his character ends up, since multiple endings are part of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. The single-player campaign begins with a battlefield and a mission Raynor decides to choose. The mission types within Starcraft II: are designed to be varied and progressive, a more unique approach than the set pieces of Starcraft; early missions are concentrate on acquiring credits, munitions, and equipment while the rest focus on tactical advantages in the game. Rather than detailing the missions to an extreme, we will just generally detail two missions. The very first mission in the game acts as a tutorial and puts Raynor in the charge to head a small group of marines as they liberate a mining colony oppressed by Mengsk’s forces, and while the mechanics of the mission focus primarily on teaching you how to select, move, and attack with your units, the mission also serves to introduce the changed universe to Raynor. Raynor’s Raiders need to fight against other Terran marines in the Mengsk employ while avoiding the death of casualties of civilians who surround a holographic statue of the emperor. Another mission had an evacuation of a small medical facility dominated by the Zerg. Fighting across different outposts of survivors, we had to guard caravans as the Zerg attack ramped up and the medical officers contemplated the ferocity of the invaders this time around.

Starcraft II’s missions aim to have multiple objectives that can change over time and depending on the player choices throughout other missions. These missions are also supported with an incredible amount of in-game cinematic engine cutscenes along with picture briefings from various characters providing incentives and commentary face-to-face than COM-link to COM-link.

Starcraft II is necromantic from the gameplay aspects seen so far that are exhibited throughout every mission and choice, and to the core gameplay mechanics and storyline that is simply incredible at its inception in just a short glimpse. Starcraft II shows a lot of promise that seems to be in talented hands of Blizzard Entertainment.

The scene is titled “Mad Jack,” and rightly so as we soon had a chance to see. Cage described this scene to us as a “classic dark thriller” and then introduced us to one of the main stars, Norman Jayden, a young FBI agent who has been called in to investigate the case of the Origami Killer, a killer that leaves an Origami figure in the hands of his victims. Jayden is an organized, methodological, and simply mercurial character with degrees in psychology and forensics. His background is the reason he was assigned to the case, given that he spent the last two years talking to serial killers in prison. Cage makes clear that the character has a sense of tension to him from substance-abuse problem. Eventually Jayden approaches a bulky looking character named Mad Jack, a tough looking man with some possible traces to the killer. The investigation leads to a murder near a building that involves a blue car.

Jayden is one clever fellow. He is armed with ARI: (added reality interface) prototype, which consists of a pair of glasses and a black glove that can detect and analyze DNA, footprints, and other traces in the environment in real time, something that is simply incredible and vivifies the CSI scene.

The beginning scene takes place in an eerie and yet beautiful/clustered junkyard that Jayden decides to scope out because the man running it, Mad Jack, supposedly might have ties to the killer. As the rain pours down, Jayden pulls up in the ribald place as he opens the car door. The atmosphere is just simply incredible in Heavy Rain. While he is in the car, you can hear his angst from being stressed by the current situation. Top this all off with his drug abuse problem, and you get a simply interpretative character to the highest extent. Details in the environment such as the murky weather and the gloomy palette add to the incredible draw of the incredibly sound music that adheres to the mood. Every movement and detail in Heavy Rain is simply subtle and worthy of applause from just the demo alone, which says a lot whereas most demos do not reveal much. A box with a small white arrow is displayed on the side of the car to indicate that the door can be opened by pressing the right analog stick. Symbols will appear onscreen when there is an action available. Quite interestingly, this lends itself to making sure every single exploration technique is executed carefully. Being drenched from the rain, our Jayden asks Jack to come inside to talk, but surprisingly unlike the E3 Stage Demo, this Mad Jack denies. So we were left to go inside and explore with ARI, a simply revolutionary technology.

Suddenly, a curve arrow by Jayden’s shoulder indicates that he can put his ARI specs on by pushing the right analog stick in a half-circle motion. Color faded as contrast became heightened from his vision until everything was tinged with a green hue. Data appears on screen dynamically with the press of the R1 button to indicate points of interest such as footprints, blood, and orchid pollen related to the Origami Killer himself. Speckled clues eventually led Jayden to the acid bath with a body in it, unfortunately Mad Jack appears out of nowhere with a gun pressed to the back of his head. A series of intense quick-time events allows Jayden to steadfastly evade harm’s way, using surroundings to distract Mad Jack long enough to disarm him. A series of well-choreographed punches were exchanged, and while the fast-paced action unfolded onscreen, the intensiveness translated to the controllers directly.

After the encounter, Jayden faints from substance-abuse blurredness and is shown appearing in a car that is about to be compiled by metallic compacters. From here, Quantic Dream sets up the traditional Indigo Prophecy-esque camera angle showing a side view of the car and an inside view as Jayden struggles while figuring out what to do. The character’s moods themselves also act to the intense action in which players carry out their moves. The players do not solely affect the characters, but the characters also affect the players and their actions –simply marvelous.

With more than 12 hours of confirmed gameplay, Quantic Dream is shaping out to make a title that is fit for simply none other than a positive reception come review time from us, that is if they can stick to their roots long enough and be as meticulous as they already are with Heavy Rain, so far one of our most anticipated PlayStation 3 titles this year.

Mass Effect Commander Shepard is back again in Mass Effect 2. All the rumors of his death have been greatly exaggerated. First off, BioWare intends to make Mass Effect 2 accessible to those new to the series. If you played the original and had the save games left over, you can continue the character from where you left off. All the choices you made, everything still had an effect. This fact alone had our staff simply drooling: the prospect of the sequel directly linking itself to the first half was simply incredible. Gameplay choices and moral standing will carry over into Mass Effect 2, giving a full and continuous experience.

At the E3 2009 Electronic Arts press demo, Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk showed us more about Shepard, a commander we so longed for since our Mass Effect 1 Review ‘back in the day.’ Commander Shepard is going to take on the task of handling the Cerberus Corporation and many fallacious plans they have in store for the star sectors of the Mass Effect universe. Colonies are disappearing all over the galaxy, and an investigation is struck up by Shepard himself. Initially, the other characters such as Rex, and Nihlus included are shocked to find out that Shepard lived after the fatal incident in Mass Effect 1. Furthermore, the Geck are not the only enemies to fear — the Reapers are still at a large and are a venerable threat. Within the game, Shepard searches for powerful individuals to recruit to his team, including an assassin that belongs to an uncovered race called the Drell. Thane, the mysterious assassin from the demo, is revealed to have some connection to the instances of Mass Effect 1 and the beacon itself. This entire cast selection remains a mystery in the origins of the plot as BioWare explains to us later on towards the end of the demo.

The exclusive demo starts off where we saw a cutscene in which flying vehicles speed through the vivacious metropolis as Shepard and an Asari partner are in a speeder. The dialogue options are certainly much more improved. Aside from the brilliant voice acting, the amount of urgency is projected much better and becomes more equivocal. The camera angle pulls out dynamically, something which the first game made us slightly irritated. Dynamic camera angles add to the livelihood of the scene and the constant activity on the screen becomes something players can relate to rather than simply watch. There was more interactivity this time around, and BioWare makes sure to underscore this tweaked feature. Once the car landed, Shepard and his companion entered a daunting tower. Once inside, Shepard meets a security officer. Or so he thought, but eventually a conflict ensued where Shepard throws the man over a balcony to his own death. The focus of this was to show that unlike Mass Effect 1, conversations can be changed and modified through “interruptions” that will prompt during interactions as they progress.

Mass Effect 2 also gets combat options amazingly right as well. Commander Shepard will now be able to issue move and attack orders to each squadmate individually. The pause-and-play action still remains, but BioWare stressed real-time action would be made more viable than ever before. Shepard continued to fight his way across the space station. BioWare showed off multiple physics-based attacks that sent Shepard’s exigent enemies to their deaths. Mass Effect 2 also comes with nine new classes of weapons, which include heavy weapons, such as a missile launcher and light weapons.

Mass Effect 2′s visuals are simply more regnant of a darker and grittier tone than before, as well as a lot smoother. The new character models speak smoothly. As Shepard moved closer to his target recruit, the environment’s details poured forward with red and blue and all the pretty colors giving incredible contrast and aspect. Shephard encounters an Asari that is shocked to see Shepard. She turns to Shepard in shock, pronouncing “Shepard?! But…you’re dead.” A conversation ensues, and it is extremely noticeable how lifelike the characters are in the mannerisms in which they present their dialogue and emotions.

Mass Effect 2 is refining everything about Mass Effect: from combat to graphics and simple emotion, bringing the best of Mass Effect 1 and making it even more glorious than it ever was. Mass Effect 2 is dated for 2010, and we cannot wait to preview it some more.

Alan Wake has been at the epicenter of attention at Remedy Games and Microsoft Games Studios ever since it was announced. Heralded as another notable DirectX 10 game, Alan Wake describes the story of a critically acclaimed author Alan Wake and his tense and dark world that contributes to the atmosphere of this survival horror genre. While the game is primarily about mystery and looking for clues, the overall facilitation lies with exploration and horror. We were given yet another exclusive look at Microsoft’s Meeting Room this year at E3 2009 for a one on one look at Alan Wake after the Microsoft Conference E3 Stage Demo, the primary reason we held off writing impressions. We wanted to bring everyone the real thing, and here it is.

Open the scene to Alan Wake in a book store. Slowly and realistically, he moves a chair back and stands over the self-titled book created by him, imagining it finished. Outside, trees and a river can be heard as the landscape moves believably. Alan Wake and his wife, Alice, have decided to take a vacation to take a break from his writing of the supernatural book, according to the developers. His wife ends up being kidnapped at a time unknown to the players and it is up to Alan Wake to track her down by hunting down pages of his novel. Essentially, Alan Wake is one entirely interesting piece of work. Spoiler Alert: The interesting notion that Alan wake is a story in a story is not revealed according to Remedy until nearly the end of the game, when the players will have an “awe-inspiring” sense of déjà vu. Essentially, all the action sequences are taking place to the players’ unknown confusion either in a pseudo-reality: where dreams and reality intertwine on the border, where the beauty of the entire game comes into play.

A cutscene lends itself to Alan Wake consoling with Barry Wheeler about his wife’s disappearance. As a neurotic but interesting character in Bright Falls, he simply thinks Wake is crazy about assuming his wife is missing. Barry gives Wake information about Rusty, the local cop, saying he found some missing pages from Wake’s manuscript. Wake’s mission is to meet up with Rusty. The next scene is a very dark night near the cabin where the two were staying. Alan Wake seems to be having a bad dream and arises from the sounds of his wife, clearly in his own mind. “Alan…Save Me Alan,” can be heard which raises Goosebumps. He decides now is the time to head out to Rusty’s. The night atmosphere is tense and extremely eerie. Owls can be heard, and if the players do not move at all to hear their own footsteps, there is a level of cold dead in the night. Alan Wake slowly walks through the darkened forest, a flashlight in his left hand providing the only source of light. Inanimate objects suddenly spring to life in this forest and Alan has to start swinging at the boxes with his flashlight. The controls are interestingly inverted for Alan Wake. The right analog sticks control the actual player movement while the left analogs provide a steady support for the physical view of the head, an interesting concept that surprisingly works well to place players in the tension of always progressing forward and using their opposite writing hand to exaggerate a closeness to auxiliary view.

On the path down towards Rusty’s place, Wake comes across a page of his manuscript. A narration follows where Wake is shocked, “He screamed,’They’re here!’ and then he pulled the trigger.” And that’s when things get weird. The lights along the trail blow out and a scream is heard from Rusty’s place, followed by a bullet sound. Rusty is in serious trouble. Alan slowly lit his flashlight, when suddenly, a group of infected townsfolk surrounded him in a dead pan stare. The sparks from the light sends them to a screeching agony, and Wake is shocked.

The primary reason these things are here is because of one thing: Darkness. “A darkness grows in the world of bright falls,” says a Remedy rep. At least, that is what Alan Wake believes. His wife goes missing, taken by something or someone that wants the missing pages of Wake’s new manuscript. A large focus of the missions involves hunting down these pages, which foreshadow coming events. While there are many pages that you are required to find to progress the story, many more can be collected that add to the detail of the atmosphere. WhatIfGaming is a smart media site with an even smarter audience (considering most of our staff went to Ivy League’s) so we figured out quite quickly that this darkness is actually the key villain in Alan Wake’s supernatural novel, where the darkness infects the locals thereby providing a sense of irony in the whole fictional yet realistic realm of Wake. To kill these bad people, you must first expose them to the light which can be done either with your trusty flashlight, any other light-based weapon, or lights in the environment. Once exposed to the light, these enemies are vulnerable to physical attacks and can be defeated.

While this Alan Wake exclusive hands-on preview ended here, it was definitely worth the wait. Alan Wake presented a simply creepy environment while providing subtle details that will certainly relate much better once the full game is released. With the good 20-30 minutes we had with it, we can see that Remedy is clearly geared to making a game that is simply worthwhile and shows it at the same time too.

Our demo started with Sam breaking off a rear-view mirror of his own SUV to make a improvisional snake cam to see through the reflected light of doors. Along the way, Sam will have tons more plenty items that have been cleverly integrated by Ubisoft. As Fisher continues, the mission text revolves at the side of a building: ‘Infiltrate The Mansion,” in a very plausible yet elegant etching. There is an arms dealer known as Andriy Kobin, who is believed to be Sarah’s killer and located in Malta. As soon as we get inside, we are introduced to another combat mechanism that might seem familiar but is revolutionary to the Splinter Cell franchise: mark-and-execute.

The “mark and execute” feature allows Sam to identify targets before storming a room and eliminating them. By marking targets prior to entry, Sam will auto-aim and fire once the command is issued as soon as the level is entered into. Interactive objects, lights, and other traps can also be chosen for very clever strategic planning, which adds to the overall foundation of gameplay.

Players seeking an actual immersible experience should be elated to know that Splinter Cell: Conviction eliminates load screens. Finally, everything is presented through the game’s engine. Ubisoft has finally taken a step towards the more cinematic approach, with video updates that will also be projected in front of Sam. These videos, according to the developers, represent a mental projection of Sam’s thoughts, including information on suspects and flashbacks of Sarah’s death. Conviction’s visuals are simply stunning, and WhatIfGaming is very excited to see more before the game’s launch.

We were there to get hands on gameplay at the showcase floor. The menu screen greeted us with a snarling angry Kratos, simply huffing and puffing his lungs out in his hatred. Eventually pressing start delved right into the action. Winged beasts on fire and soldiers can be seen fleeing for their lives. Eventually, Kratos is left to discover why all of this is happening. The quick-action prompts have been desultory to the action at the center back from the February event, and have been moved to the prospective sides of the screen. Circle appears to the left, X on the bottom, and the rest follow.

Kratos executes his moves almost identically like he did in God of War I and II, but there was definitely more weight to his shoulders. As a result of increased physics and motion capture graphics, the response of Kratos felt more realistic. The lighting and shading have also vastly improved to the effulgence of players – highlighting every stroke of Kratos’ shiny new details.

God of War III looks exceptionally promising, and we cannot wait to have a review for it come this March, 2010.

It was shocking to imagine a world of a simple lad called ‘Milo,’ letting us interact with all its surroundings and what not. We were contacted a while ago by Lionhead Studios to have a chance to “play an unannounced title” that we remained very skeptical about: Fable III – Black & White III? Could it be? Nope. The result was even better: Natal. Project Natal is the code name for the new controller-free gaming and entertainment experience led by Microsoft. If that was not innovation aside, Alex Kipman, who started the project from his origins in Brazil, chose Natal, a city along the northeastern coast of Brazil, as a tribute to his country. Latin-wise, Natal means “to be born.” This is exactly what Microsoft Corporation did yesterday: they allowed people to be born for the first time in a new groundbreaking genre.

Lionhead Studios simply exuded confidence and a spectra that was worth noting to the presentation this year than last. They took up a revolutionary project titled ‘Milo’ that lets players interact creatively with a young boy as he transitions in his childhood. Asking Peter Molyneux if adulthood would encompass simply led to the following:

It would be hard to imagine Milo as an adult. We want players, kids and adults alike, to feel like like they are a part of a creative and imaginative world of Milo. Go fishing with him, or simply talk about your day – and he will listen.

-Peter Molyneux, Lionhead Studios

We had to test this out for ourselves to really believe it. The gameplay consisted primarily of a scene where Milo was swinging on a set. I was confused as to what to say to this boy, so we simply started with an introduction: ‘Hi…my name is Usman.’ And of course, our other unruly correspondents jumped in to say: ‘Hey Milo! My name is Jeanne.’ Milo actually stopped as if interrupted to say ‘Hi’ back and said: “Pleased to meet everyone.”

Now it is clear that Milo is not for a group for specific things, and it is solely a single-player experience, but Project Natal actually recognized everyones voice in the room and their faces. It was definitely a moment to see. So, suddenly, Milo took us to a river like the E3 stage demo at the Microsoft Conference. He told us to put on goggles and then eventually told us to try and catch some fish. The objective was to catch fish so that he could finish his homework – to draw pictures of fishes in his diary. Once we caught a few fishes, he put them in a bucket and told us he needed help in drawing them. This is where our demo was cut off. Or so we thought…Molyneux would not let us go on! But we pleaded to just do one drawing and we would not report on whatever the outcome, so he said give it a shot but reminded us that this was all still in the works. We made a completely awful drawing. We are talking a bad looking Pikachu. Milo took it, and we could actually see our drawing rendered on the piece of paper Milo held. Confirmation success! That was a beautiful detail. Milo said, “That’s not a bad drawing, but I can’t tell if it is a fish or not!” and he continued to laugh a little bit while putting the drawing down.

This was where we were dragged from the room. We could only make out that Milo further said “here take this and lets go back around…muff muff muffle.” We are assuming he will let us hold something and walk back to his house with him. Either way, Milo & Kate (considering you also have a female child character as part of the storyline) was simply stunning. We were not about to leave the room at all, and wanted to have a lot of time with it. Unfortunately our time was limited as the Milo demo had to be packed up since there were only 5 press members allowed to preview it. Even in that short time, we felt a connection to Milo, a strange and eerie draw.

]]> http://whatifgaming.com/whatifgaming-e3-2009-xbox-360-milo-exclusive-preview-peter-molyneux-steven-spielberg-let-us-experience-milo/feed 0 http://whatifgaming.com/sony-gamers-day-2009-infamous-uncharted-2-white-knight-chronicles-and-mag http://whatifgaming.com/sony-gamers-day-2009-infamous-uncharted-2-white-knight-chronicles-and-mag#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:45:20 +0000 Usman Ihtsham http://whatifgaming.com/?p=4044

Sony invited our staff to the Sony Gamer’s Day Event in Los Angeles for April 20th and we got a hands on look at some of the hot Sony titles indicated above. All in all, we will not be previewing each of these as the hands on we received were not extensive enough to truly write a decent preview for (except inFamous for which five levels were shown) but we will let everyone in on this much: Sony Computer Entertainment is showing a lot of promise for their 2009 titles, with many still yet to be seen and some confirmed still not be shown at E3: Heavy Rain being one of them.

An inFamous preview will not follow in light of the easy accessibility to the demo. We played inFamous before only twice already, excluding Gamer’s Day for the third time. Yet, each time, there is not enough coverage for a preview (which we still keep in-depth). 1 hour is decent time to preview this game,  but not enough for our standards.