Xbox 360 | Five Ways SSX Reinvents Itself
SSX makes its return after a five-year vacation. We highlight what makes it different from previous games in the series.
The latest entry in EA’s snowboarding popular snowboarding series is available on February 28. We’ve compiled a small list of features to help get you caught up on just how different this SSX is from its predecessors.
RiderNet
As we’ve seen with Autolog and Battlelog before it, RiderNet is your way of connecting with friends, racing against them, and posting scores. It lets you go all out to prove that you’re the best SSX player around. RiderNet will appeal to you in the number of ways you can compete against friends and earn rewards. The longer you are better than your friends, the more rewards you get. You don’t even have to be playing, and if your friends can’t beat your score, you still earn credits.
RiderNet will give you the option of selecting which of your friends to focus on and letting you race only in the races where they have better scores than you. On top of that, with recommendations, you’ll get around a dozen course suggestions, so picking the next challenge to beat will never require you to do a lot of searching.
And just like Autolog, RiderNet will have an app that lets you not only track your friends’ progress on the various courses, but also send them messages outside of the game to really rub in your greatness over them. Who doesn’t love to intimidate while stuck in a boring meeting or on the bus?
Global Events
On top of racing and challenging friends, being able to compete in global events against hundreds of thousands of players around the world for snow supremacy should be quite a treat. In these events, you can go after the highest score on a particular peak, and if you think you can do better, you can try it as many times as you want before the event ends. Online is the focus in SSX, and the better you are, the more rewarding being that awesome is. Rewards for global events will be based on percentages. The top score, along with those within 3 percent of it, will get diamond status. But even if you’re not good enough to diamond an event, you can settle for platinum, gold, silver, or bronze. The rewards will work dynamically based on the number of people who take part. You’ll want a lot of people taking part, so when you win it, you have even more reason to gloat.
Deadly Descents
Want to experience the thrill of a squirrel suit? Perhaps you enjoy racing through areas filled with fallen trees and other debris. Well, the Survive It courses in SSX will have you riding through some extremely dangerous locations in the hopes of lasting as long as possible. A cool aspect of these courses is that even after you successfully reach the bottom, you get right back in the chopper, return to the peak of the mountain, and do it over again. Surviving a descent down a mountain once is nice, but doing it three times is super rewarding.
Geomods
Apparently geocaching is a popular thing, and SSX will have its own version of it online. You can buy and place geomods on courses and have your friends try to collect them. The rewards work the same way as being the best on a course; the longer your geomod is in a spot without someone collecting it, the more you earn. It’s up to you where you place them on a given mountain, so picking a spot you think others won’t be able to get to will be a game in itself.
Customization
Customization isn’t new to the SSX series, but customization goes further thanks to the number of race types, specifically the different Deadly Descents courses that you’ll encounter. Character progression goes up to level 10, so you’ll want to unlock the coolest gear to be successful down a mountain. You can unlock and purchase different snowsuits and boards, and items like armor, oxygen tanks, geomods, and other treats will help separate you from your competition. Leveling up a character won’t take long, especially if you’re a seasoned SSX player, so the only thing separating you from getting the coolest gear is the amount of free time you have available.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
Xbox 360 | Five Ways SSX Reinvents Itself
SSX makes its return after a five-year vacation. We highlight what makes it different from previous games in the series.
The latest entry in EA’s snowboarding popular snowboarding series is available on February 28. We’ve compiled a small list of features to help get you caught up on just how different this SSX is from its predecessors.
RiderNet
As we’ve seen with Autolog and Battlelog before it, RiderNet is your way of connecting with friends, racing against them, and posting scores. It lets you go all out to prove that you’re the best SSX player around. RiderNet will appeal to you in the number of ways you can compete against friends and earn rewards. The longer you are better than your friends, the more rewards you get. You don’t even have to be playing, and if your friends can’t beat your score, you still earn credits.
RiderNet will give you the option of selecting which of your friends to focus on and letting you race only in the races where they have better scores than you. On top of that, with recommendations, you’ll get around a dozen course suggestions, so picking the next challenge to beat will never require you to do a lot of searching.
And just like Autolog, RiderNet will have an app that lets you not only track your friends’ progress on the various courses, but also send them messages outside of the game to really rub in your greatness over them. Who doesn’t love to intimidate while stuck in a boring meeting or on the bus?
Global Events
On top of racing and challenging friends, being able to compete in global events against hundreds of thousands of players around the world for snow supremacy should be quite a treat. In these events, you can go after the highest score on a particular peak, and if you think you can do better, you can try it as many times as you want before the event ends. Online is the focus in SSX, and the better you are, the more rewarding being that awesome is. Rewards for global events will be based on percentages. The top score, along with those within 3 percent of it, will get diamond status. But even if you’re not good enough to diamond an event, you can settle for platinum, gold, silver, or bronze. The rewards will work dynamically based on the number of people who take part. You’ll want a lot of people taking part, so when you win it, you have even more reason to gloat.
Deadly Descents
Want to experience the thrill of a squirrel suit? Perhaps you enjoy racing through areas filled with fallen trees and other debris. Well, the Survive It courses in SSX will have you riding through some extremely dangerous locations in the hopes of lasting as long as possible. A cool aspect of these courses is that even after you successfully reach the bottom, you get right back in the chopper, return to the peak of the mountain, and do it over again. Surviving a descent down a mountain once is nice, but doing it three times is super rewarding.
Geomods
Apparently geocaching is a popular thing, and SSX will have its own version of it online. You can buy and place geomods on courses and have your friends try to collect them. The rewards work the same way as being the best on a course; the longer your geomod is in a spot without someone collecting it, the more you earn. It’s up to you where you place them on a given mountain, so picking a spot you think others won’t be able to get to will be a game in itself.
Customization
Customization isn’t new to the SSX series, but customization goes further thanks to the number of race types, specifically the different Deadly Descents courses that you’ll encounter. Character progression goes up to level 10, so you’ll want to unlock the coolest gear to be successful down a mountain. You can unlock and purchase different snowsuits and boards, and items like armor, oxygen tanks, geomods, and other treats will help separate you from your competition. Leveling up a character won’t take long, especially if you’re a seasoned SSX player, so the only thing separating you from getting the coolest gear is the amount of free time you have available.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
PC | Darksiders II Putting the Action into Action RPG
We pick up our scythe and get harvesting with a look at the role-playing elements in Darksiders II.
It would have been easy to dismiss the original Darksiders as the equivalent of a gaming pickpocket; liberally pilfering ideas from third-person action adventure titles such as God of War and The Legend of Zelda. But, for a game that borrowed so heavily, Darksiders carved out its own clear and fascinating identity. At the centre of the experience was War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who had been summoned to Earth believing the last of seven seals keeping the forces of heaven and hell at bay had been broken; in the process signalling the end war.
Darksiders II takes what the development team at Vigil confesses was originally a game of experimentation, and refines the formula by stripping back the ideas that failed to meet the grade, and expanding further on its strongest traits. We recently got an updated hands-off look at the sequel, and found that while much of the basic structure that made it such a solid first outing has remained intact, this isn’t the safe, cookie-cutter follow-up many may have expected.
The game takes place during the same time period as Darksiders, and runs concurrently to explore what older brother Death was doing while War sliced and diced his way through the armies of angels and demons. With the stage for battle set, the development team is using the sequel to branch out with more exotic locations than it did previously, and move away from the human planet setting to investigate events occurring above and below the surface.
Though of the same stock, Death and War are very different in their approach to movement and combat. War–s hard-hitting, lumbering way made taking care of business deliberate and brutal. Death is no less violent than his brother, but forgoes blocking and slower, more powerful strikes for zippier hit-and-run pokes and scrapes with scythes and fist weapons. That–s not to say that slower, higher damage-dealing weapons like hammers aren–t available in his arsenal, but that they act as secondary tools of the trade. New ethereal powers allow you to trade energy earned in combat to summon tombstones filled with zombies that act as crowd-control in multi-target fights. Alternatively, you can take a page out of the skunk playbook, dousing yourself in shadow and dealing hurt to anyone who invades your personal space.
Straight brawling has been tossed aside here to usher in combat that rests on two new skill trees. Spending points in Harbinger abilities increases Death–s agility, speed, and proficiency with melee strikes, while earning and unlocking those on the Necromancer side boost his magical prowess. The addition of these trees gives the game a much more role-playing game feel, while other changes include enemies receiving designated levels of difficulty, complete with visibly depleting health bar as you whittle them down with your attacks. Damage figures scroll across the screen as you land hits, and though Vigil is playing its cards close to its chest for the moment, we saw sporadically increased amounts of damage that suggests the new gear items that drop from bad guys may help raise your chance to perform critical strikes.
Before you go throwing your hands up to condemn this new attempt at a more cerebral experience, it–s worth noting that the platforming, puzzle-solving, and skull-splitting with big metal weapons that made the original so great are back in spades. In fact, in response to user feedback, Darksiders II will be more difficult than its predecessor, and giving less generous windows of timing when performing specific objectives. Quickly rising lava in one room showed an example where precise pillar jumps and Death–s wall running and Ghost Hand skills needed to be used to avoid being burnt to a crisp. The new Construct robot unit allows you to smash corruption crystals blocking access to new areas, like the gauntlet did previously. Firing chain-tethered arms from the machine as makeshift walkways help you retrieve items, while its raised control position from on top of its humanoid body keeps you safe as you coast across dangerous environmental hazards.
If you–re going to be traipsing across the newer, more open world, you–re going to want rewards for your troubles. Darksiders II hopes to provide both tailored gameplay and incentive to replay the campaign by offering multiple sets of armour to collect and wear. We were told about the Slayer, Necromancer, and Wanderer ensembles, but so far we don–t know where they all comes from, or what we’ll need to do to obtain them. Loot dropped frequently during our demo, and while we were impressed with having the simplicity of quickly equipping it on the spot, or tossing it in a bag for later with a single button press, new items seemed difficult to spot on the ground. Optional side quests and dungeons will now also be available, some of which may take several hours to complete outside of the main campaign. It’s worth pointing out, while this is a single-player game, Vigil has hinted at the possibility of allowing players to trade bind on equip items online with friends rather than vendor trash them.
Our demo ended with looks at two of the nastier foes players will encounter in their travels. The first, Ghorn, was a mini-boss who exploded and rebuilt himself at will. Carrying a huge clever, he spurted waves of lava through open grates on the floor of the arena. The second enemy was a mixture of organic and robotic, with giant black tendrils pulling together parts to build a kit-form monster who loved to pound the ground. Doing so sent out a huge shockwave, but in both cases, Death–s nimble movements allowed us to deftly jump to safety before returning fire.
Certainly not as pointy-headed as some of the other action RPG games already available, or soon to be released, Darksiders II appears to be cutting its own path. The addition of a more open world map, optional side content, and a more fluid and thoughtful combat system has us interested to see more of the game running. Look for more on it during 2012 ahead of its launch on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
PC | Darksiders II Putting the Action into Action RPG
We pick up our scythe and get harvesting with a look at the role-playing elements in Darksiders II.
It would have been easy to dismiss the original Darksiders as the equivalent of a gaming pickpocket; liberally pilfering ideas from third-person action adventure titles such as God of War and The Legend of Zelda. But, for a game that borrowed so heavily, Darksiders carved out its own clear and fascinating identity. At the centre of the experience was War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who had been summoned to Earth believing the last of seven seals keeping the forces of heaven and hell at bay had been broken; in the process signalling the end war.
Darksiders II takes what the development team at Vigil confesses was originally a game of experimentation, and refines the formula by stripping back the ideas that failed to meet the grade, and expanding further on its strongest traits. We recently got an updated hands-off look at the sequel, and found that while much of the basic structure that made it such a solid first outing has remained intact, this isn’t the safe, cookie-cutter follow-up many may have expected.
The game takes place during the same time period as Darksiders, and runs concurrently to explore what older brother Death was doing while War sliced and diced his way through the armies of angels and demons. With the stage for battle set, the development team is using the sequel to branch out with more exotic locations than it did previously, and move away from the human planet setting to investigate events occurring above and below the surface.
Though of the same stock, Death and War are very different in their approach to movement and combat. War–s hard-hitting, lumbering way made taking care of business deliberate and brutal. Death is no less violent than his brother, but forgoes blocking and slower, more powerful strikes for zippier hit-and-run pokes and scrapes with scythes and fist weapons. That–s not to say that slower, higher damage-dealing weapons like hammers aren–t available in his arsenal, but that they act as secondary tools of the trade. New ethereal powers allow you to trade energy earned in combat to summon tombstones filled with zombies that act as crowd-control in multi-target fights. Alternatively, you can take a page out of the skunk playbook, dousing yourself in shadow and dealing hurt to anyone who invades your personal space.
Straight brawling has been tossed aside here to usher in combat that rests on two new skill trees. Spending points in Harbinger abilities increases Death–s agility, speed, and proficiency with melee strikes, while earning and unlocking those on the Necromancer side boost his magical prowess. The addition of these trees gives the game a much more role-playing game feel, while other changes include enemies receiving designated levels of difficulty, complete with visibly depleting health bar as you whittle them down with your attacks. Damage figures scroll across the screen as you land hits, and though Vigil is playing its cards close to its chest for the moment, we saw sporadically increased amounts of damage that suggests the new gear items that drop from bad guys may help raise your chance to perform critical strikes.
Before you go throwing your hands up to condemn this new attempt at a more cerebral experience, it–s worth noting that the platforming, puzzle-solving, and skull-splitting with big metal weapons that made the original so great are back in spades. In fact, in response to user feedback, Darksiders II will be more difficult than its predecessor, and giving less generous windows of timing when performing specific objectives. Quickly rising lava in one room showed an example where precise pillar jumps and Death–s wall running and Ghost Hand skills needed to be used to avoid being burnt to a crisp. The new Construct robot unit allows you to smash corruption crystals blocking access to new areas, like the gauntlet did previously. Firing chain-tethered arms from the machine as makeshift walkways help you retrieve items, while its raised control position from on top of its humanoid body keeps you safe as you coast across dangerous environmental hazards.
If you–re going to be traipsing across the newer, more open world, you–re going to want rewards for your troubles. Darksiders II hopes to provide both tailored gameplay and incentive to replay the campaign by offering multiple sets of armour to collect and wear. We were told about the Slayer, Necromancer, and Wanderer ensembles, but so far we don–t know where they all comes from, or what we’ll need to do to obtain them. Loot dropped frequently during our demo, and while we were impressed with having the simplicity of quickly equipping it on the spot, or tossing it in a bag for later with a single button press, new items seemed difficult to spot on the ground. Optional side quests and dungeons will now also be available, some of which may take several hours to complete outside of the main campaign. It’s worth pointing out, while this is a single-player game, Vigil has hinted at the possibility of allowing players to trade bind on equip items online with friends rather than vendor trash them.
Our demo ended with looks at two of the nastier foes players will encounter in their travels. The first, Ghorn, was a mini-boss who exploded and rebuilt himself at will. Carrying a huge clever, he spurted waves of lava through open grates on the floor of the arena. The second enemy was a mixture of organic and robotic, with giant black tendrils pulling together parts to build a kit-form monster who loved to pound the ground. Doing so sent out a huge shockwave, but in both cases, Death–s nimble movements allowed us to deftly jump to safety before returning fire.
Certainly not as pointy-headed as some of the other action RPG games already available, or soon to be released, Darksiders II appears to be cutting its own path. The addition of a more open world map, optional side content, and a more fluid and thoughtful combat system has us interested to see more of the game running. Look for more on it during 2012 ahead of its launch on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
PC | Darksiders II Putting the Action into Action RPG
We pick up our scythe and get harvesting with a look at the role-playing elements in Darksiders II.
It would have been easy to dismiss the original Darksiders as the equivalent of a gaming pickpocket; liberally pilfering ideas from third-person action adventure titles such as God of War and The Legend of Zelda. But, for a game that borrowed so heavily, Darksiders carved out its own clear and fascinating identity. At the centre of the experience was War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who had been summoned to Earth believing the last of seven seals keeping the forces of heaven and hell at bay had been broken; in the process signalling the end war.
Darksiders II takes what the development team at Vigil confesses was originally a game of experimentation, and refines the formula by stripping back the ideas that failed to meet the grade, and expanding further on its strongest traits. We recently got an updated hands-off look at the sequel, and found that while much of the basic structure that made it such a solid first outing has remained intact, this isn’t the safe, cookie-cutter follow-up many may have expected.
The game takes place during the same time period as Darksiders, and runs concurrently to explore what older brother Death was doing while War sliced and diced his way through the armies of angels and demons. With the stage for battle set, the development team is using the sequel to branch out with more exotic locations than it did previously, and move away from the human planet setting to investigate events occurring above and below the surface.
Though of the same stock, Death and War are very different in their approach to movement and combat. War–s hard-hitting, lumbering way made taking care of business deliberate and brutal. Death is no less violent than his brother, but forgoes blocking and slower, more powerful strikes for zippier hit-and-run pokes and scrapes with scythes and fist weapons. That–s not to say that slower, higher damage-dealing weapons like hammers aren–t available in his arsenal, but that they act as secondary tools of the trade. New ethereal powers allow you to trade energy earned in combat to summon tombstones filled with zombies that act as crowd-control in multi-target fights. Alternatively, you can take a page out of the skunk playbook, dousing yourself in shadow and dealing hurt to anyone who invades your personal space.
Straight brawling has been tossed aside here to usher in combat that rests on two new skill trees. Spending points in Harbinger abilities increases Death–s agility, speed, and proficiency with melee strikes, while earning and unlocking those on the Necromancer side boost his magical prowess. The addition of these trees gives the game a much more role-playing game feel, while other changes include enemies receiving designated levels of difficulty, complete with visibly depleting health bar as you whittle them down with your attacks. Damage figures scroll across the screen as you land hits, and though Vigil is playing its cards close to its chest for the moment, we saw sporadically increased amounts of damage that suggests the new gear items that drop from bad guys may help raise your chance to perform critical strikes.
Before you go throwing your hands up to condemn this new attempt at a more cerebral experience, it–s worth noting that the platforming, puzzle-solving, and skull-splitting with big metal weapons that made the original so great are back in spades. In fact, in response to user feedback, Darksiders II will be more difficult than its predecessor, and giving less generous windows of timing when performing specific objectives. Quickly rising lava in one room showed an example where precise pillar jumps and Death–s wall running and Ghost Hand skills needed to be used to avoid being burnt to a crisp. The new Construct robot unit allows you to smash corruption crystals blocking access to new areas, like the gauntlet did previously. Firing chain-tethered arms from the machine as makeshift walkways help you retrieve items, while its raised control position from on top of its humanoid body keeps you safe as you coast across dangerous environmental hazards.
If you–re going to be traipsing across the newer, more open world, you–re going to want rewards for your troubles. Darksiders II hopes to provide both tailored gameplay and incentive to replay the campaign by offering multiple sets of armour to collect and wear. We were told about the Slayer, Necromancer, and Wanderer ensembles, but so far we don–t know where they all comes from, or what we’ll need to do to obtain them. Loot dropped frequently during our demo, and while we were impressed with having the simplicity of quickly equipping it on the spot, or tossing it in a bag for later with a single button press, new items seemed difficult to spot on the ground. Optional side quests and dungeons will now also be available, some of which may take several hours to complete outside of the main campaign. It’s worth pointing out, while this is a single-player game, Vigil has hinted at the possibility of allowing players to trade bind on equip items online with friends rather than vendor trash them.
Our demo ended with looks at two of the nastier foes players will encounter in their travels. The first, Ghorn, was a mini-boss who exploded and rebuilt himself at will. Carrying a huge clever, he spurted waves of lava through open grates on the floor of the arena. The second enemy was a mixture of organic and robotic, with giant black tendrils pulling together parts to build a kit-form monster who loved to pound the ground. Doing so sent out a huge shockwave, but in both cases, Death–s nimble movements allowed us to deftly jump to safety before returning fire.
Certainly not as pointy-headed as some of the other action RPG games already available, or soon to be released, Darksiders II appears to be cutting its own path. The addition of a more open world map, optional side content, and a more fluid and thoughtful combat system has us interested to see more of the game running. Look for more on it during 2012 ahead of its launch on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
PlayStation 3 | Sniper Elite V2 – I Can Wait All Day
By incorporating sandbox level designs, varied weapons, and other tricks, Rebellion looks to deliver a different action experience with Sniper Elite V2
The number of military action games based on the events of World War II has tapered away during the past several years, with the setting focusing on either current or futuristic storylines. Bucking this trend, Rebellion Games is going back to the tail end of WWII with its upcoming third-person action game. Sniper Elite V2 is the follow-up to the 2005 game Sniper Elite. The developers are hoping that the game’s open-ended nature and “kill cam” camera mechanic will set it apart from other games.
Sniper Elite V2 puts you in control of Karl Fairburne, a US sniper. He has been sent to Berlin in the midst of post-WWII conflicts between Nazi and Russian forces with the mission of trying to eliminate, capture, or rescue those involved in the famous V2 rocket program.
The story is spread across 11 missions, but how you approach each mission is where the game’s open-ended nature comes into play. Like so many other action games, you can customize your arsenal to best suit your play style. Fairburne is equipped with a primary sniper rifle, a machine gun, and a sidearm, as well as a number of different supplementary items. These include explosive mines and trip mines, which can be set up in locations to serve various functions, such as defense mechanisms or traps.
Even though Fairburne is a sniper, you won’t be restricted to playing as stealthy soldiers.
The different weapons and items let you approach an area in various ways. With your silenced sidearm, you can slowly creep behind enemies and eliminate them. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys running and gunning, then your machine gun will let you play with no regard for your safety.
Still, the primary focus is to snipe enemies and use the terrain to your advantage. Enemies will often be far away, so you can eliminate entire squads before they can react. When sniping, the game features both a heart-rate monitor and breathing bar, which factors into shooting. Holding your breath will allow for a more precise shot, but if you’re being fired upon and under a lot of pressure, Fairburne’s high heart rate makes shooting more difficult.
Kills with your rifle also showcase the game’s kill-cam mechanic. When you pull off incredible kill shots, the game momentarily stops the action and goes into a bullet animation that slowly highlights the bullet’s trek from the muzzle of your rifle to its target. Based on where the bullet goes, you are treated to an X-ray animation that points out exactly what internal damage has been done, such as shattering skulls and exploding livers. During our presentation, these animations were shown a lot, but we were promised that the frequency of these moments–which can take you out of the experience–will only happen at key moments.
Sniper Elite V2 is scheduled to hit the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 this May.
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