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New Zealandiablo: hands-on with Path of Exile
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Yesterday, three New Zealanders came to our office with a dungeon-crawler. This doesn’t usually happen. They let me play it. I liked it. Peer inside for impressions, screenshots and an exclusive classes and combat trailer that no one else on the internet has.
Hobo shaman puppeteers in The Secret World
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Imagine your Sims had secret powers and battled horrors in the subway station. Imagine an MMO without levels or classes – instead, you get to pick a handful of cards from a hundreds-strong deck of powers and spells. Imagine it was as gorgeous as this:
My hopes for a peaceful life in Final Fantasy XIV
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I don’t want to battle giant dragons or animated skeletons in the upcoming Final Fantasy MMO. I don’t want to slash throats. I don’t want to cast spells. All I want is to find a quiet corner of the countryside to relax and pass my days in Hydaelyn catching fish.
Fishing in video games has always enraptured me. I spent countless hours on the dock in Stormwind’s moat watching waves of players blur by on their way to trainers or vendors, before sprinting back out to chase down adventure while I watched a little cork bob up and down in the water. I watched my sim’s family fall apart and the bill collectors bang down the door while I fished in the park’s pond for weeks on end in Sims 3. And that’s why I’m so excited about FFXIV’s flexible class design–the design that let me choose “fisherman” as my starting class when I recently got a chance to play it at a demo.
Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2 screens released
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Stormtroopers have it pretty bad, all told. Imperial rations, uncomfortable outfits and having to work at the behest of an evil overlord, and that’s before some jerk of a Jedi comes sweeping through to throw you off a building, or chop you into pieces. The following screens act as both extremely pretty images from Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2, and a catalogue of reasons to never, ever join the Empire.
Portal 2 screenshots from Gamescom
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The latest Portal 2 screens have been unleashed, fresh from Gamescom. They show bucketloads of the crazy new goo stuff and some great shots of the behind the scenes factory areas, in which Glados sets about rebuilding the ruined Aperture testing facility.
Aion 2.0: Silentera Canyon survival guide
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Here it is, the final installment to our guide through Assault on Balaurea, Aion’s upcoming free expansion. Within this tome, we’ll reveal the ins-and-outs of Silentera Canyon with selfless devotion to your survival; many Shugo died to bring us this information. Behold–the future.
Interview: Valve reveal their new Left 4 Dead DLC
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On October 5th, Valve will release a new campaign for both Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2. It’s The Sacrifice, a story which bridges the gap between the two games, and explains the mysterious events of previous downloadable campaign The Passing.
As a special treat for Left 4 Dead 2 owners, they’ve also carried the original game’s No Mercy campaign across to Left 4 Dead 2. And everyone will get a huge 190 page comic beforehand, leading up to the events of The Sacrifice. I spoke to producer Chet Faliszek about, like, what the hell.
Crysis 2 multiplayer Gamescom impressions
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I am such a dick. The first thing I did in Crysis 2’s multiplayer Gamescom demo was turn invisible, hide in a corner and melee an unsuspecting player. I was rewarded with a brutal neck-snap move. Here’s a video of someone trying to be as stealthy as me:
Red Orchestra 2 delivers multiplayer campaign
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The problem with Stalingrad is that you don’t control it. Luckily, I just saw Red Orchestra 2 at Gamescom, and the World War 2 shooter is going to let you change that with its Stalingrad campaign multiplayer mode. Players will choose between Axis or Allies, and then be faced with an overview map of the city of Stalingrad. The city has been split into ten sections, which players on each team can then vote to attack or defend.
Guild Wars 2 Gamescom impressions: Big Wow
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My MMO history is kind of embarrassing: a past of abandoned, mid-level characters, lost in server limbo, untouched for aeons, unloved, abused by my insistence on visiting high-level areas no matter the physical toll. I just haven’t ever clicked with the genre. Guild Wars 2 seems to understand that there are players who don’t want to focus on levelling, or raids, or alts, and wants them to come in and see what all the fuss is about.
