Keiji Inafune announcing a Red Ash Kickstarter before delivering on Mighty No. 9 tells us some nasty truths about the current games industry.
Keiji Inafune, the man behind the much-loved Mega Man franchise, has been a hot commodity of late. In addition to his involvement with the recently announced ReCore - a game for the Xbox One of which almost nothing has been disclosed (read: 60% of Last Year’s Microsoft E3 Conference Is Still Unreleased - Is That Good Enough?) - he has been furiously active in the crowd-funding scene. After years spent at Capcom listening to fans clamour for the return of the blue-suited robot boy, frustrated with the company's reluctance to green light a new game in the series, he decided to leave and start his own development studio.
Moving house is a great time for reflection. You’ll end up handling things that mean a lot to you, even though you haven’t seen those things for years. And while you may only see those artefacts every Olympiad or so, the reverence with which you touch them, and the smile they bring to your face will mean they will get placed in yet another box, labeled, and transported carefully to your next residence. Once there you’ll find another corner of another dark cupboard where these treasures will be safe.
The PSone and PS2 games pictured above are for me such treasures, and even though I no longer even own a PSone or a PS2, I can’t bring myself to get rid of them.
After the HoloLens' impressive E3 2015 display, and the coming onslaught of virtual reality hardware questions, what lies ahead for traditional gaming, and should fans be concerned?
Microsoft's presentation of HoloLens during its E3 press conference sparked a storm of excitement within the minds of watching gamers. The undeniably impressive demonstration of playing Minecraft using the augmented reality headset transformed the survival/crafting game into something more akin to a god game like Populous or The Sims. When the demonstrator moved the entire game from the two-dimensional projection on the wall to a three-dimensional model rising up out of a table on stage with a simple voice command, the audible amazement of the crowd was well justified.
If that wasn't remarkable enough, the presenter then proceeded to manipulate the blocky world with simple gestures while his fellow demonstrator played from the typical first-person perspective in co-op. Using his all-seeing HoloLens vantage, the demonstrator was able to locate rich mines below the ground and fire lightning bolts at his partner’s TNT to open access to the buried treasure.
At E3 2015 I was lucky enough to test out the HoloLens in a tech demo built around the new Warzone mode for Halo 5: Guardians’ multiplayer.
My first impression of the HoloLens? This product is a long, long way from being a consumer friendly device. Setting it up is a chore that involves measuring the distance between your eyes and balancing it on your melon. It’s heavy, ungainly and uncomfortable, sliding out of place after sudden movements and never feeling particularly secure. Which is perfectly fine for the purpose of an early E3 glimpse, but you couldn’t help but notice there is a few years of fine-tuning yet to be done.
My second impression? Wow! Once affixed, I look up and see deeper into the booth, floating in mid-air as it would in-game, the classic Halo objective marker. I follow it and when I reach the location, another marker appears yet further in again. The booth is dressed up like the inside of a Pelican – or likeminded Halo craft – and I notice a shut window while walking down a corridor. When I look at it, the window opens – I lean down to get a look through it and on the other side I see a fully realised military camp in preparation for war. Vehicles and troops busy at it underneath a vast alien landscape – it’s breathtaking.
The next marker sends me to a hexagon briefing table where I stand with other journos. In front of us on a raised platform the schematics of the multiplayer map we’re about to play are displayed and we’re briefed on what to expect. We get fully 3D insights into enemies and vehicles, and as I crouch and look around trying to break the effect, I can’t - it’s enough to make me forget the uncomfortable device strapped to my head. Alas, when the briefing ends, the HoloLens is removed and we’re escorted into a traditional multiplayer room to enjoy a round of Warzone (which is good fun by the way) with a controller and our own dumb eyes.
My third impression? As cool as it was and as much as I enjoyed it, I’d never pay for a device that doesn’t actually connect with gameplay. It was nice to get a deeper, more immersive pre-mission briefing than usual, but it was just a briefing. The demo seen on stage during the Microsoft press conference showcasing Minecraft certainly a lot more compelling in linking the tech to gameplay, but the world crafting phenomenon is a unique experience and not – to date at least – a system seller.
How will the HoloLens be used to gift the likes of Halo, Fable, Quantum Break, Gears of War, Forza and co. better gameplay experiences? The jury is very much out on whether that is actually possible. My hope is that Microsoft succeed where so many previous gimmicks have failed and make the HoloLens a truly compelling purchase. In my opinion, such success would mean remembering that technology is best when you have no idea it is even there. That requires subtlety, not blunt force trauma – I’m looking at you Kinect.
Even with so much already on its plate, Grab It Magazine picks four franchises that Telltale Games definitely needs to work on in the near future.
I think it’s fair to say that Telltale Game’s fortunes are riding rather high at the moment. Ever since its excellent adaptation of The Walking Dead, Telltale can (almost) do no wrong. A pretty telling mark of Telltale’s confidence is its expansion into other, potentially very risky, franchises. Seriously, no one could have possibly guessed that Telltale would team up with Microsoft/Mojang to make a Minecraft-inspired game. Or what about the announcement of its new hybrid TV/video games series called Super Shows?
So in the spirit of picking somewhat obscure ideas (like Minecraft,) we’ve picked four franchises that Telltale should definitely consider sprinkling its magic dust over. We’re only half joking too...
Virtual Reality is not far away from hitting the consumer market, with Project Morpheus, Vive and Oculus Rift heading to PC, PS4 and (it's rumoured) XBO. But after experiencing it for myself, I’m not sure if gamers are prepared for its impact.
At E3 2015 I was lucky enough to spend some time playing the Project Morpheus, the upcoming virtual reality headset being made for Sony and connected to the PlayStation 4. It was awesome; comfortable, immersive, fun and far more visually dynamic than what I have experienced on the Oculus Rift – Q1 2016 cannot come soon enough! One tech demo called Kitchen, however, has made me wonder how risky the experience - across all VR headsets - could prove for some people.
Kitchen is a horror title by horror maestros Capcom (Resident Evil). When the tech demo starts you’re sitting on a seat, tied up. You’re in the titular Kitchen, but it could easily be one of the torture chambers from a SAW movie, or one of the chop shops from The Evil Within. A colleague lying on the ground suddenly wakes up. “What happened?” he wonders. He picks up a knife and begins cutting through the tie bounding your hands. Meanwhile you’re exploring the world, looking every way you can and seeing nothing but the grizzled detailed of this dilapidated kitchen.
Suddenly another body rises from the ground, looking like a cross between the little girl from The Ring and the one in The Exorcist. She sneaks up behind your friend and thrusts a knife right through him, blood spurting in your face. She then drags the body around a corner and after some disgusting noises, the severed head of your mate rolls around to your feet.
Bloody hell. You start frantically looking around the room trying to find your out. This is a game right, I must have to do something. But instinctively your eyes dart back to the corner where the sound of a chain dragging on the ground can be heard. All of a sudden, silence. Then a few heartbeats later, four bloodied fingers come down over your eyes and yank your head back. She’s behind you! You see the little witch’s evil face for a split second before the knife in her hand slits your throat.
Heavy.
I enjoyed Kitchen, wide-eyed as I was lapping up the possibilities of virtual reality gaming for the first time. But I had an intense physical reaction to these final moments. When the girl/devil/thing yanked my head back, I felt truly frozen. In real-life my head was probably slamming forward, but in my brain’s reality I could not move my head as hard as tried. The strain in my neck and the sheer uncomfortable feeling of it wasn’t fake. It was real. For a fleeting moment my body panicked.
This was just a demo. When an actual horror auteur gets into virtual reality and starts pulling the strings I can see people really getting screwed up. In fact, I can very much see people dying.
People will die playing virtual reality, of this I have no doubt. It’s that good.
If you’d like to read more on virtual reality titles, Episode 8 of Grab It – our digital magazine for iPad – includes a number of exclusive interviews and features on some of the hottest virtual reality indie games on the horizon. Watch the trailer below...
If you are wondering who we are, we're primarily a digital magazine for the iPad focused on the coverage of indie video games. Run by the former editor of Game Informer, you'll find worldwide exclusives, but also an interactive media experience unlike any you have seen before. If you have an iPad, you should check out the free sample issue at the very least, or enjoy one of our other episodes as listed below. There is also a trailer below.
Australia, Germany and many other countries around the world have a long and difficult history with video game classification. And after playing Kitchen, I’m wondering home many of the upcoming virtual reality games will receive the ban hammer?
If you haven’t yet caught it, check out my impressions of the tech demo Kitchen – it’s designed to show off the potential of horror in virtual reality. It wasn’t the only virtual reality game I played, but it’s the one that most highlights the physical and psychological investment one feels when interacting with and experiencing media in this way.
One of my big takeaways from playing Kitchen was that the current classification system, at least here in Australia, is going to break under the strain of VR gaming. By its very nature, it is high impact everything as there is no dissociation between one reality and the other; your body is but a passenger as your mind takes the full brunt of it all. In my opinion, someone will die playing virtual reality because their body will check out while the mind loses control.
Even the games I played that were pure joys free of scares - including a title by Rebellion where I fought from the seat of a fast-moving tank in a futuristic arena, and another akin to a Rabbids minigame where I smashed through buildings and dodged projectiles as a giant worm (see above) – were more immersive than anything current traditional gaming can offer. And immersion equals impact.
Virtual reality is great fun, but it definitely will not be for everyone and their classification will need to make that clear. I suspect that many games that would get a G or PG rating in traditional form will deserve an MA15+ if not R18+ in virtual reality simply because the impact of the experience is so high. But I believe even more titles, like Kitchen, will be refused classification straight up. It’s not something I would like to see, but unless the wording of the classification tiers can find some way to communicate the impact of an experience so different from anything currently available in entertainment, then it risks under-preparing consumers and putting them in harm’s way.
I wonder, if the Classification Board has indeed considered what it plans to do when the Vive, Oculus and Morpheus plunge into Australian stores over the next 12 months.
If you’d like to read more on virtual reality titles, Episode 8 of Grab It – our digital magazine for iPad – includes a number of exclusive interviews and features on some of the hottest virtual reality indie games on the horizon.
Are epic bargains like those of the Steam Summer Sale really a boon for gamers, or are they in truth undermining the pleasure we get from the games we already own.
The Steam Summer Sale is here, and it's as if a million of inner voices cautioning restraint were suddenly silenced. PC gamers are well-versed in the dangers of the digital distributor's unparalleled discounts, though mobile and console gamers are fast becoming no strangers to slashed prices either. Who can say no to four games for a measly dollar? How is anyone supposed to turn down hours of entertainment for less than the cost of cappuccino? So what if the game received mixed reviews, or is part of a genre that you don't typically play; the price is just too good to pass up!
Inevitably, you succumb to the fear of missing out on a golden opportunity and reach for your wallet. Maybe the game will be a dud and maybe you'll only play it for ten minutes before getting bored, but can you afford to risk the regret of not knowing when the price of peace of mind is so low?
How on Earth did the security ninjas at Bethesda keep Fallout Shelter a secret? That in itself would make for an interesting tale, but whatever the answer I'm sure glad they did, as it made the whole experience just that little bit sweeter. The surprise of the announcement at E3 that the iOS base-builder would be available at the end of the conference sent Fallout starved fans rushing to the App Store. Once downloaded, those same fans discovered a very nicely fleshed out and benevolently monetised package, with plenty of fan service trimmings to tide them over until the release of Fallout 4.
Getting your Vault off to a healthy start is not easy though, and so we've put together some very basic tips that should at the very least set you off on the right path to wasteland survival. If you've got any insights you'd like to share, hit us up in the comments below or on our Facebook page, letting us know how you survived your first few hours. Good luck!
The internet fell over, exploded then somehow imploded with the news out of E3 that Square Enix is remaking Final Fantasy VII. You can check out the trailer below. I can’t begin to describe how excited I am as Final Fantasy VII is my favourite game of all time. In other words, don’t mess with my nostalgia Square Enix!
Details are rather scarce at this stage with no specific release window being given. What we do know is that it will be available first on the PS4, although this certainly doesn’t confirm exclusivity.
But the question should be asked, why now? Fans have been clamouring for a remake for years and have been rebuffed at every turn. The closest thing we received was a re-release on Steam and the Gold Saucer bike mini-game coming to iOS.
If you cast your mind back a few years ago, CEO Yoichi Wada laid down a number of conditions during the company's annual shareholder meeting were a remake of Final Fantasy VII ever to take place. In his words, he said that Square Enix would not remake Final Fantasy VII until it made a brand new Final Fantasy game that “exceeded the quality of Final Fantasy VII.” The legendary Tetsuya Nomura also mentioned around the same time that a remake of the game was not a priority for the company, being more focused on improving the quality of its other games in development.
Presuming that this remake is not a pure cash grab or that Wada's comments have been forgotten, it must mean Square Enix is finally satisfied that it has created a game that surpasses the quality of Final Fantasy VII. Given the timing of Wada’s comments (in 2012,) this can only point to Final Fantasy XV. I sincerely doubt Square Enix considers Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII or the various mobile spin-offs to be better than Final Fantasy VII.
If true, this is a win-win for gamers. Not only do we get a remake of Final Fantasy VII, it also means we have so much to look forward to in Final Fantasy XV. I can vouch for that too, having played Episode Duscae and being thoroughly impressed by what was on offer.
Square Enix, you have frustrated us for years. But the future is looking bright for us Final Fantasy fans.
