Review: Ubisoft turns ‘Rainbow 6′ into 5-vs.-5 war on terror

The world of online video games can be a nightmare, an every-man-for-himself, kill-or-be-killed wasteland that brings out our most nihilistic impulses. But big publishers are hoping to change that with more games that force us to work together—particularly as they try to invent multiplayer competitions that will appeal to the ever-expanding audience for “e-sports.”

“Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege” (Ubisoft, for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, $59.95) is a five-vs.-five contest with some similarity to one of the most popular e-sports titles, Valve’s “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.” It could be an audience hit—I found it almost as entertaining to watch as to play—but it need a bit more variety to stand out in the saturated multiplayer market.

You play as a member of a commando squad, attacking or defending against a second team of commandos. (Ubisoft says they’re both counter-terrorist units—which defies logic, but welcome to Clancy World.) In a typical scenario, the defenders have taken over a large building; the attackers need to bust in and “neutralize” (OK, kill) them. There are a few variables: The attackers may need to rescue a hostage or defuse a bomb, or the defenders may be trying to protect a human “asset” from assassination.

At the beginning of each mission, you and your teammates have 45 seconds to prepare. Defenders can erect obstacles and set traps, while attackers can send reconnaissance drones into the site. Then you get a few minutes of mayhem.

It sounds simple, but the large environments offer a wide variety of approaches to the task. As attackers, do you want to rappel up the walls and bust through the skylights, or sneak in through the garage and try to take your enemies by surprise? As defenders, do you want to hole up in one room or spread out and aggressively hunt down the invaders?

You can also choose to play as one of 20 different operatives, who bring different weapons, traps and skills (like healing or the ability to sense enemies through walls) to the mix. You can acquire those operatives by spending in-game currency, which you earn by completing matches or playing through the solo “situations.”

Even if you’re itching for multiplayer, it’s a good idea to run through the situations, which give you a solid grounding in the techniques you’ll need to win. There’s also a “terrorist hunt” mode where one to five operatives can fight off waves of computer-controlled bad guys. They aren’t as satisfying as the epic solo campaigns offered by previous “Rainbow Six” games, so if you’re a lone wolf, you’ll be disappointed.

Indeed, I’ve already heard from franchise fans who are angry that it has veered so dramatically into online multiplayer. You’ll get the most out of it if you can team up with four players you trust—which can be a tall order for even the most sociable gamer. Two-and-a-half stars out of four.

source: technology.inquirer.net

‘Zelda,’ ‘Batman’ among anticipated games due in 2015

LOS ANGELES — Link, Master Chief, Batman and Nathan Drake will be back in action.

The leading men are among the protagonists starring in totally new video game installments in 2015, joined by newcomers like a team of intergalactic monster hunters and their prey (“Evolve”), a band of high-tech criminals and their tails (“Battlefield Hardline”) and a battalion of explorers and their procedurally generated universe (“No Man’s Sky”).

The gaming line-up for 2015 also includes a pair of original Victorian-inspired tales (“Bloodborne,” ”The Order: 1886″), the return of two long-gone, out-of-this-world gaming franchises (“Star Wars: Battlefront,” ”Star Fox”) and an expedition into the open-world genre for a long-running stealth series (“Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain”).

Here’s a glimpse of some of 2015’s most anticipated games:

— “Batman: Arkham Knight” (for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC; June 2): After three editions of stomping, gliding and grappling through a virtual Gotham, Batman has keys to the Batmobile in Rocksteady Studios’ Dark Knight finale. This time, besides old-school baddies like Penguin and Scarecrow, Batman is facing off against a new menace called Arkham Knight.

— “Battlefield Hardline” (for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC; March 17): Visceral Games is dodging the military in favor of an interactive game of cops and robbers in the latest entry of the first-person “Battlefield” shooter series. The war-on-crime action will include bank heists, police chases and hostage rescue missions.

— “Bloodborne” (for PlayStation 4; March 24): “Dark Souls” mastermind Hidetaka Miyazaki takes a stab at the PlayStation 4 with this relentless role-playing title set in a gothic enclave that’s been overrun by infected monsters. “Bloodborne,” much like predecessors “Dark Souls” and “Demon’s Souls,” is expected to be quite the nightmare.

— “Evolve” (for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC; Feb. 10): After tackling team-based zombie slaying with “Left 4 Dead,” Turtle Rock Studios takes on monster hunting in this multiplayer shooter with a twist. Instead of equal squads aiming for each other online, “Evolve” pits a team of four against one player portraying an oversized, overpowered behemoth.

— “Halo 5: Guardians” (for Xbox One, fall 2015): For his latest interstellar adventure, hardened “Halo” hero Master Chief is joined by a new companion, fellow supersoldier Locke. Developer 343 Industries has injected a slew of fresh abilities into the game’s multiplayer mode, including thruster-boosted dodging and ground pounding.

— “The Legend of Zelda” (for Wii U, 2015): Link and his trusty steed Epona are set free in an expansive open realm in the first original “Legend of Zelda” adventure crafted for Nintendo’s high-definition, touchscreen-centric Wii U console. “Legend of Zelda” producer Eiji Aonuma has promised that Link’s actions will have the ability to reshape his fantasy world.

— “Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” (for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC; 2015): “Metal Gear” one-man army Snake is dispatched to Afghanistan during the Cold War to take down Soviet forces. “Phantom Pain” seeks to be the most liberating “Metal Gear” yet with sandstorms and daylight affecting the mercenary’s stealthy tasks.

— “No Man’s Sky” (for PlayStation 4, PC, 2015): While most game makers precisely position every polygon within their creations, the developers at Hello Games are dispatching players to virtual worlds with randomly generated landscapes, meaning plants, animals and atmospheres will look different for each person who picks up this ambitious exploration title.

— “The Order: 1886″ (for PlayStation 4, Feb. 20): In this third-person alternate history romp, the Knights of the Round Table battle supernatural forces with steampunk gear across London. “The Order” creators Ready at Dawn are harnessing the PS4’s souped-up processing power to transport gamers to an intricate and moody rendition of the foggy city.

— “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End” (for PlayStation 4; 2015): After surviving a trek through a sprawling desert and a jaunt through an ancient crumbling city, “Uncharted” champion Nathan Drake returns for his first quest on the PS4. This time, the smart-alecky treasure hunter will be joined by his brother, portrayed by omnipresent video game actor Troy Baker.

Other anticipated titles include: role-playing sequel “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt”; online-only shooter “Tom Clancy’s The Division”; time-bending action title “Quantum Break”; a next-gen rendition of “Star Wars: Battlefront”; Lara Croft follow-up “Rise of the Tomb Raider”; and “Star Fox” for the Wii U.

source: technology.inquirer.net

E3 unleashes next generation of gruesomeness

LOS ANGELES — Game makers at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo went for the jugular.

That’s not just a metaphor about the competitive spirit of the video game industry at its annual trade show this past week. There were also actual depictions of throats being ripped out — as well as spleens, spines, hearts and testicles — in some of the goriest scenes ever shown off at E3.

Developers of such titles as “Bloodborne,” ”Let It Die,” ”Mortal Kombat X,” ”Dead Island 2″ and “Dying Light” weren’t shy about harnessing the high-powered graphical capabilities of the latest generation of consoles to portray more realistic decapitations, dismemberments and other grisliness.

Why the apparent boost in high-definition gross-outs?

“I think in the early years of a console launch, you have the so-called early adopters and hardcore fan base,” said Shawn Layden, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, which launched the PlayStation 4 last November. “I think they look for the latest gaming experience that takes them to another level from where they’ve been before, and a lot of our publishing partners are pursuing the new, most impactful experience for gamers.”

The parade of carnage kicked off Monday at Microsoft’s presentation when the creators of “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare” demonstrated a level in which a character’s arm is ripped off while attempting to sabotage an enemy aircraft in South Korea. Michael Condrey, co-founder of “Advanced Warfare” developer Sledgehammer Games, later maintained the amputation wasn’t only intended to shock.

“We know that war is terrifying,” said Condrey. “The military advisers that we work with talk about the horrors of war. ‘Call of Duty’ isn’t just about gratuitous violence. The scene that you saw in Seoul at the Microsoft press conference, that’s an impactful story moment. The loss of the arm is really part of the narrative. We showed that for a particular storytelling reason.”

Other slaughter on display at E3 included a first-person perspective of a decapitation in a demo of the French Revolution-set “Assassin’s Creed: Unity” and several bone-crushing new moves in “Mortal Kombat X,” like extreme close-ups of characters snapping their opponents’ spines and manhandling their genitals.

“It seems, as time goes on, video games continue to become more violent, realistic and graphic,” said Brad J. Bushman, a communication and psychology professor at Ohio State University. “This is a disturbing trend. Unfortunately, I see no signs that it will stop. The research evidence clearly indicates that violent video games increase aggression in players, and can make them numb to the pain and suffering of others.”

But it wasn’t merely blood and guts on display at E3 this year. The virtual horse that players will mount in the open-world action sequel “Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” has been programmed to spontaneously defecate. And in a creepy abandoned mental institution from the Victorian-era thriller “The Order: 1886,” there’s not just blood smeared across the walls.

Game makers defend that gore aids the narrative, yet many believe a little goes a long way.

“For us, it’s more impactful if it’s done tastefully,” said “The Order” game director Dana Jan. “If you just throw blood all over the place, it’s meaningless. … We have to look at what we think is disturbing or scary and figure out how to do that masterfully without going too over the top.”

E3 wasn’t completely consumed with bloodshed. This year’s show featured a plethora of non-bloody, artsy games that attracted an unprecedented amount of attention. Still, the biggest games at E3 are usually the most hardcore

While violence has long been part of gaming history, and these gory titles are destined to be restricted to adult buyers by the industry’s rating board, such footage received visceral reactions from even the most seasoned gamers this year.

“E3 2014, taken as a whole, doesn’t feel as obsessed with violence as past shows,” wrote Chris Plante, co-founder at the gaming site Polygon. That was before he cut the show’s most graphic violence into a one-minute video. “The supercut is dense with blood, organs and unrecognizable viscera,” Plante wrote. “It’s strange how these things can wash over you but make an impact when taken together. These conferences can be a bit desensitizing.”

source: technology.inquirer.net