I was never fully invested in the Halo storyline having only joined the party with Halo 3 but I'm sure this could be explained better. Are we in prequel territory again? it seems unlikely with these previously unseen android chaps causing havoc. There's having mystery in a story and then there's just not knowing what the hell's going on, maybe it's replicating the chaos of war or something.
Overlooking the story, the gameplay appears to be intact, following the "if it's not broke don't fix it" strategy religiously...like religious fanatic religiously.
You have your regenerating health, assault rifle, military chatter, human and alien weaponry, overhead aircraft etc (see Halo 1-3 for the full list) The few new additions that sparked something in my cold, dying skull were enemies that catch your grenades and another that momentarily became ghost rider.
So it seems Halo 4 will be the perfectly adequate if unremarkable fps it has always been, bringing forth the bare minimum amount of innovation and variety to justify a new game, and yet we all know it will sell like molten hot cakes with tits for reasons i'm beginning to think i'll never understand.
So it seems Halo 4 will be the perfectly adequate if unremarkable fps it has always been, bringing forth the bare minimum amount of innovation and variety to justify a new game, and yet we all know it will sell like molten hot cakes with tits for reasons i'm beginning to think i'll never understand.
A brief introduction by Richard Madeley followed before getting straight into another demo. It's good to let the games do the talking, unless of course they're shit.
The next footage began with a presumably Arabic man carrying a wounded comrade into the camp of a war-torn, middle-eastern country. I thought they would save Call Of Duty for later but perhaps this means there's something truly exciting waiting in the wings.
As two little white arrows appeared over two of the character's heads i realised this was in fact the latest Splinter Cell instalment and the man carrying the wounded soldier was Sam Fisher about to murder everyone in the room, like the calculating, unrivalled super spy he is.
I embraced Splinter Cell's new direction since Double Agent. Three games spent in the dark is indeed enough and the initial previews of underhand smuggling and playing casual in plain sight of the prison guards looked new, interesting and most of all, fun. Unfortunately I've learned that Ubisoft have an infuriating habit of creating ambitious, innovative ideas and then bottling it half way through development. The same problem arose with Conviction and now here we are; so far removed from what Splinter Cell is, that it took a game mechanic that has been haunting me since it's conception to recognise this was a Splinter Cell game at all.
Sam brutally interrogated the last remaining soldier by slamming his head into a friend's crotch and stabbing him in the chest. Subtly of course. Two of the development team controlling the demo, fill us in on the plot for Splinter Cell Blacklist, which sounds suitably political espionage and as Sam flicks his goggles to a thermal vision and sneaks into a tent, my faith is slowly being restored in my favourite stealth-action franchise. Sadly the satisfaction is short lived because Sam stabs a guy and then in one fluid motion kills about six other armed guards, running and gunning in broad daylight without a care in the world. And the audience completely lap it up...maybe i'm in the wrong then, maybe government spies should be more like Neo.
Some cover based shooting later and we're onto another demo with the head of EA Sports; Mr Tom Cruise himself. I can't go into the details of the games because sports make me physically sick but to summarise, they pushed the Kinect as the big innovation with these otherwise identical, cloned copies of the last decade of football and rugby games. Now you can shout at your television to call the referee a prick and order your team about like you're a military general, which at least is realistic. Now all it needs is a feature where you call a hooker, cheat on your wife and beat up someone from a racial minority.
Some cover based shooting later and we're onto another demo with the head of EA Sports; Mr Tom Cruise himself. I can't go into the details of the games because sports make me physically sick but to summarise, they pushed the Kinect as the big innovation with these otherwise identical, cloned copies of the last decade of football and rugby games. Now you can shout at your television to call the referee a prick and order your team about like you're a military general, which at least is realistic. Now all it needs is a feature where you call a hooker, cheat on your wife and beat up someone from a racial minority.
I've not much to say about the Fable trailer that followed, as i've never gotten into the series, but it did seem surprisingly more Crash Bandicoot in it's appearance than i remember. Another Head appeared on stage to briefly gloat about all the great games the Xbox 360 has and the studios behind them. To prove his point we were treated to a short trailer for Gears Of War Judgement, the latest in the Gears Of War "Saga", funny how they've stopped calling it a trilogy all of a sudden. Another trailer for a glossy car racing game came and went with it's only difference to every other racing game footage i've seen over the past 5 years being the dubstep soundtrack ruining any chance i had at catching up on sleep during the trailer.
The conference then went Kinect crazy, showcasing the voice recognition for those too lazy to flick their thumbs an inch, a new digital fitness scheme for those too lazy to flick their thumbs an inch and Xbox Smartarse. This new feature basically makes your ipad or smartphone, tablet thing a mini Xbox so you can have game features in three different places at once, ensuring confusion as you accidentally answer a phone call from your Xbox and try to get a headshot on your phone.
"People have got browsers on their television before, but no one is using them, because they're painfully slow".
With this in mind it was revealed that Internet Explorer was coming to Xbox360. This coupled with Bing put me under the impression that this was a new technology-themed mini game where you have to upgrade your search engine and browser starting from the very bottom rung of the ladder. The player uses Bing to search for increasingly abstract philosophical articles until the system breaks and they unlock Google.
Sadly they were serious and wasted another five minutes demonstrating a feature no one will use.
With this in mind it was revealed that Internet Explorer was coming to Xbox360. This coupled with Bing put me under the impression that this was a new technology-themed mini game where you have to upgrade your search engine and browser starting from the very bottom rung of the ladder. The player uses Bing to search for increasingly abstract philosophical articles until the system breaks and they unlock Google.
Sadly they were serious and wasted another five minutes demonstrating a feature no one will use.
Once this had finished some new chaps showed a rather lovely looking Tomb Raider demo, in keeping with their "new mature take on the franchise". The first disappointing glimpse of cover-based shooting was livened up by enemies quickly demolishing the environment, the kind of game-mechanic that keeps things suitably tense for a shoot-out instead of letting you take a nap behind a rock for a minute until your health bar fills up again. The environment played quite a big role in the demo, as Miss Raider shot lamps down into gasoline, unleashed barrels down a hill and flailed her way down rubber dingy rapids. The sequence was surprisingly fluid and varied; one minute you're dodging gunfire in mountain ruins, next you're falling through a precariously balanced plane, then you're parachuting around forest treetops. The concern now is how much control you have over these sequences and whether that kind of variety can be kept up throughout the game.
It's also worth mentioning that whilst Miss Raider is now in possession of more reasonably sized airbags, she does a great deal of groaning throughout the demo. Granted she just fell off waterfalls and such but even so it was a little distracting/annoying/arousing (delete as appropriate).
It's also worth mentioning that whilst Miss Raider is now in possession of more reasonably sized airbags, she does a great deal of groaning throughout the demo. Granted she just fell off waterfalls and such but even so it was a little distracting/annoying/arousing (delete as appropriate).
A quaintly gruesome monster game, a slightly too bombastic Resident Evil 6 and a chirpy demonstration for a medieval demolition thing filled me with indifference, depression and irritation respectively. The South Park creators then took the stage and after ridiculing the Smartglass they briefly explained their equally ridiculous South Park game. I was actually fairly interested in this game but needed a piss at this point and when i came back Usher was on stage struggling to wail to his own backing track...
Several minutes of cringeworthy dancing to the most un-trendy collection of people this side of comic con eventually passed and Richard Madeley reappeared to conclude the show. Claiming Xbox would take over every screen in your house sounded more like a threat than a inspirational promise, i mean i like my Xbox but i wouldn't want it on my oven. Oh and then to properly finish the conference they showed a demo for Call Of Duty: Brown Ops 2.
Overall a fairly mediocre conference with some clumsy innovations and routine, conventional sequels with the odd glimmer of hope. The most worrying thing i heard throughout the show was the term "blockbuster games". Now I'm rarely a fan of blockbuster films, so the idea of a cheap thrill, style-over-substance, throwaway game is not something i like the sound of...
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