Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates, Video Games | Tagged: Bloodborne, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, EGX London, Eve: Valkyrie, Far Cry 4, Until Dawn, video games

EGX Previews: Call of Duty: Avanced Warfare, BloodBorne, Until Dawn, Far Cry 4 and Eve: Valkyrie

Patrick Dane writes for Bleeding Cool:

EGX is the biggest gaming event in the UK on a yearly basis. The Expo is just about the only place you will get to play all the major upcoming games before release in England. It is not as populated as GamesCom or as significant as E3, but it's carving itself into a worthwhile event on the international calender.

Last weekend, I attended EGX and got my hands on a bunch of games and here I am to report back.

I'm going to keep these as short as possible. In almost all cases I spent less than 5 minutes with each game. I'm going to try and keep it so each preview takes you no longer than that.

Now, here is just a selection of 5 games I got hands on with at EGX:

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

I haven't seriously played a Call of Duty since Modern Warfare debuted. I've dabbled in the series since, but it never hooked me in quite the same way since. That isn't to say I have the kind of irrational hate that the series has sometimes endured over the internet, but it's been lacking a real hook for me for several iterations.

At EGX I got to play two maps of multiplayer, one a normal team deathmatch, the other a new 'basketball with guns' mode 'Uplink'.

For all of its problems, Call of Duty has never had trouble with engaging gunplay and Advanced Warfare seems to have taken another step up. Shooting feels more weighty and satisfying than ever, with the kickpower and power of an automatic weapon being fairly impressive to weild. The game tweaks many old main stays too, but it is in the new additions the preview shined. The biggest innovation to play is the double jump. Using your exosuit, you'll be able to jump to higher ledges, get better angles and vary your movement. It adds a layer of verticality to gameplay and also breaks up the 'run and gun' pace that turned off some shooter fans from the series. This simple change had a profound effect on the gameplay for me.

I'm impressed with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare by everything I've seen so far. That is comprised from the trailers, the tone and now having played it. If you'd written off the Call of Duty series before, I'd say keep an open mind about this one.

BloodBorne

I never fully jumped on the Dark Souls train. That isn't out of any disrespect to the masterful game design, but more out of work, time and keeping up with current games and films. That is probably why I struggled to get too excited for Bloodborne, the new game from Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki. While it looked impressive, I never had that initial buy-in of being a huge fan of it's spiritual parent title.

Now having now played it, to my surprise, it's right near the top of my most anticipated games. BloodBorne looks and plays just like Dark Souls but with key differences. It's much pacier and more instantly rewarding compared to the the slower more methodical Dark Souls. While I did finally succumb to the difficulty of the demo, it was a long time before I took any damage because my dodging and attacking was being rewarded. That made me feel like an intelligent player.

The game plays much faster than Dark Souls and now you have a shotgun and your choice of transformable blade. The play feels faster and invites you to attack as much as possible, rather than stand off hiding behind a shield as was the norm in Dark Souls.

The Gothic setting doesn't hurt either, creating a unique vista and feeling compared to Dark Souls' fantasy trappings. This game, from the small snippet I played, is looking like the real deal.

Until Dawn

Essentially, Until Dawn is 'Play Through A Slasher Movie: The Game'. It's baffling that this concept hasn't ever been properly realised before, but Until Dawn is taking the idea and running with it in fun and inventive ways. In fact, it was one the smartest games I played at the Expo.

The section I played through had you play as Sam as you and a friend go looking for a girl who had run off into a scary old building in classic horror style. As you try and find her, you will run into all kinds of spooky goings on, a masked murder, ghosts and clues. The part I saw just showed a glimpse of what was going on behind thee mystery behind and it's clear, this is a game made by people who understand the genre inside out.

Sometimes the characters will stand around and talk about clues they found and reference others they missed in conversation which makes exploration feel encouraged and rewarded through dialogue. The way some of the clues were leading, this feels like it may be closer in concept to Cabin in the Woods rather than a straight faced slasher, but like that film, this feels like a smart and knowing horror, with a sprinkle of comedy.

Eve: Valkyrie

I had the chance to use the Oculus Rift back at E3 2013. I was quite impressed with the little indie game I played on it, but EGX was the first time I played a serious Rift title. That game was EVE: Valkyrie.

Set in the EVE universe, the is a cockpit fighting game which is perfect for a Rift game. It means you can control your ship with a controller and use your own head as camera control.

While the game has some smartly populated battle areas and really pretty vistas, there isn't much, in the small snippet I played, that makes the mechanics stand out against other cockpit fighters. That is except for the VR. This game has made me a true believer in the tech with its application of the Oculus Rift. My cockpit felt big. Space was vast. The massive asteroids floating around, colossal.

That was all until I was really quite ill. I got increasingly uneven as I tried to spin my starship around to focus on darting enemies. I was actually pretty close to having to take the headset off…but in a way, that is really cool. I had a physical reaction just like a jet pilot might in the situation. Despite wanting to throw up, I still had a massive smile on my face. The feeling did even out after about a minute or two and I'd learned to accommodate. Even if I felt a little queasy, I walked away really excitied for the future of VR.

Far Cry 4

Far Cry 3 was one of the best games first person games of 2012, rejuvenated the franchise in a way no one saw coming. It brought fun back to Far Cry and it's now responsible for one of the most memorable antagonists of the last five years in Vaas.

The thing about Far Cry though is that each games isn't connected to the next and they often feature completely different tones. Each feels fresh and an exploration of new ideas trapped in similar mechanics. That's why I am somewhat disappointed in what I played at EGX.

Despite being set in the fictional country of Kyrat, located somewhere in the Himalayas, the game looks remarkably similar to Far Cry 3, even though it should look and feel like a completely different climate and locale. It felt vibrant, exotic and wild. All words I'd use to describe Far Cry 3's Rook Island.

The demo didn't help to differentiate this iteration either considering it was the liberation of an outpost, a key activity in Far Cry 3 nailed. In Far Cry 4, it works in the exact same way. Use any means to clear out an outpost of enemies. To try and mix things up, you can now fly in with a little Helicopter or even go charging in on the back of an enraged elephant to achieve this goal. It does add variety that wasn't there in Far Cry 3, but it is never enough to make me feel like I'm experiencing something entirely different.

I am hoping to be proven wrong here. I want Far Cry 4 to carve out its own voice. I also recognise that the snippet that I did play is an older build from this years E3. The game may look better and have more variations once the final game hits this November. Although, I can only preview what I played, which just doesn't feel distinct enough from the previous installments.

Patrick Dane, once a would be filmmaker, has somewhat accidentally found himself as an entertainment journalist over the past two years. You may recognize him from around these parts, or you may not. Who's counting? From E3 to SDCC to the Top Gear track, Patrick has explored the world of entertainment wherever it has taken him. He is always happy to talk words at you. Hopefully the ones above will suffice your needs.

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