When you’re first dropped into the world of Mad Max’s E3 demo, Avalanche Studios don’t make any apologies for leaving you in a harsh and barren world that’s every bit as hostile as the one in the original films felt.
As Max, you’ve got only one objective in this game, survive. In order to do this you’ll need to build the ultimate apocalypse perseverance vehicle, the Magnum Opus. When you begin the game you’ll be rebuilding your version of the iconic car piece-by-piece as you defeat enemies, salvage scrap, and destroy marauder vehicles.
During our invited hands on session, we were given the option of testing the game’s on foot combat missions or what we really all came to see, vehicular mayhem. As the demo began a rusted halfway constructed vehicle begs to tear up the waterless surface of the the desolate planet. The only thing it needs is an engine. In this game there’s no vendors or shop to buy parts from. You will fight for everything! Five seconds into the demo I was fighting a gang of three marauders in brutal hand-to-hand combat that had me finish off one of these thugs by blowing a hole through one of them — barrel to chest–.
Once I picked up the engine they guarded and somehow magically lifted it into the car single handedly; my mechanic and I were off. For the demo our single mission objective was to acquire a better V8 engine for the car by destroying a boss vehicle in convoy, but before you can fight it you’ll have to catch up with it. Fortunately, your vehicle is equipped with boost and special weapons for combat.
After catching up to the convoy the real mayhem commences. If you took the vehicular combat of a Twisted Metal and poured it into the open world of GTA, you’d only begin to describe what went down in this battle. Once you begin the attack, the shield cars will pull out all the stops in order to keep you from your objective. The enemy AI in vehicle combat is relentless. Even when the cars managed to knock me off they continued a brutal tactical assault. Max isn’t defenseless, his car has different ways of taking down vehicles and even combining attacks yields different satisfying effects. He can hop in the back of the car and use a sniper rifle to shoot at the enemy vehicle or the driver. If controlling the car and aiming a gun prove to challenging there’s always good old fashion smashing. In addition to building a vehicle, you’ll be able to customize it with heavy armor, spiked grills, tires, and custom paint jobs to name a few things. Maybe he’ll get an iPod connection, who knows the possibilities feel vast.
The most satisfying part of vehicle combat was the ability to target specific parts of enemy cars with a harpoon. You can rip off a door or take out a tire with it. If you’ve got the targeting chops, you can even yank another driver out of their own car. Getting the hang of all this requires a bit of a learning curve so we took down the lead car by smashing it into a mountain.
Once that was over and we had five minutes in the open world, it was time to take in the beauty of this post-apocalyptic land. There’s no cities, no gorgeous landmarks; it’s drab, vast, and you’ll see familiar unfriendly compounds. In short it’s Mad Max!
Don’t expect this game to have connections to the recent Mad Max: Fury Road film. This game has been in production on its own path, one that resonates everything we love about the original movies. There could be room for Fury Road content later on but for now the group is focused on perfecting their own story that’s Avalanche Studios love letter to the original classics.
Mad Max the game releases on PS4, Xbox One, and PC this September. You can find more on the game’s official website here
.
A few days off, one day on, then we go back on the road for another show. Hope your Memorial Day was well spent. I’m Back from Punk Rock Bowling and now we get set for our next destination, Phoenix, for one of the best comic shows around. Let’s talk about the recent news in gaming and give away some more Secret Wars books. On the rundown today; Ashley Johnson reunites with Troy Baker, Resident Evil gets yet another remake, Arkham adds some new duds, Mad Max, and have you ever wanted to be a cat? Let’s Go!
Ashley Johnson grew up for a bit in front of our eyes on the tail end of the ABC sit com Growing Pains. (RIP Boner!) Little did we know back then Chrissy Seaver would grow up to be a pop culture darling when she loaned her voice to the iconic Ellie in Naughty Dog’s masterpiece The Last of Us. Recently, Telltale Games announced the actress would reunite with her TLOU co-star Troy Baker for the latest episode of the Tales From the Borderlands series. She is reportedly voicing a “core” character and from all of the indication of the developers on twitter; she’s stolen the show. Not much else is known at this time but episode three of this series is expected in Fall 2015.
You can catch up on the Tales From the Borderlands games so far digitally through PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, and Steam. Find more about the game on Telltale’s website.
Our Thought:
If there’s one thing Telltale is the best at, it’s telling a story. If there’s two things they’re the best at, it’s working with the most talented voice actors in the industry. With Telltale’s biggest endeavor still a head of them, it’s almost a sure bet we’ll hear Ashley, Troy, Dave Fennoy, Melissa Hutchison, and most of the previous talent the studio has worked with again soon. Maybe it’s their Marvel project, maybe it’s their “supershow”, but expect news on this soon.
Capcom dropped news over the holiday weekend of a remaster to the Gamecube classic Resident Evil Zero. Earlier today at an event in Japan, Capcom confirmed Resident Evil 0, a remastered version of the popular prequel to the original title in the Resident Evilseries, is currently in development. The game is planned for release on PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC in early 2016.
Here’s a video message from Director Koji Oda and Producer Tsukasa Takenaka about the project:
(If you don’t enable your subtitles, then it’s probably just a message about Japanese pot to you)
Our Thought:
Remaster! Remaster! Remasters!
Enough with the remasters already. At the very least, Capcom, for the most part, have done them based on older games in their library versus other publishers who’ve brought back PS3 games probably still stuck in our disc drives. It’s the same angst I have towards local LA radio station Alt 98.7 about calling Weezer’s “Island in the Sun” a throwback song. Apparently human history didn’t exist before 1999 when Skynet took over. All mostly kidding aside, Resident Evil Zero was one of those things I bought a Gamecube for but never finished. There’s hope this will one will A) be a noticeable visual upgrade and B) be priced at a point that makes it appealing to pick up an old game with a new paint job. We won’t have to wait long to see something about this as it’s sure to be one of Capcom’s offerings on the E3 floor.
We’re less than a month away from FINALLY getting to play Batman: Arkham Knight. Rocksteady, the studio behind the game, are determined to keep dropping surprises along the way. A few days ago a new live action trailer for the game was released. It’s common to have such videos produced to hype a game. However what’s not typical is having one of the most influential voices in the music industry be a part of it. Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor is credited as a music consultant for the video below:
As if that wasn’t enough, a new set of Bat-suits were announced as pre-order bonuses for he game. The Batman’s future theme skins include a hefty version of Batman Beyond and a nod to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns with the –built like a tank– old Batman. These come in addition other previous announced skins and appear to be part of most retailers offerings along with the Harley Quinn pack.
Batman: Arkham Knight releases on June 23, 2015 for PS4, Xbox One and PC. Pre orders are available through the game’s website.
Our Thought:
Come on. Is there anyone out there not getting or excited for this game?
Shockingly the internet managed to, for the most part, agree on its love of the new Mad Max: Fury Road film. In a move that shocked no one, the Mad Max game long in development is back on everyone’s radar.
Avalanche Studios, the developer behind the action packed Just Cause games are behind this open world Mad Max game. You can see by the trailer much of the over-the-top blockbuster badassness is here. In the non-concrete timeline of Mad Max the game takes place before Fury Road. We only have to wait a few short months when the game is released in September for the PS4, Xbox One, and Steam. Find out more about Mad Max at the game’s website.
Our Thought:
With the heat from the astonishing response to Fury Road, it only makes sense WB would want to capitalize with both green lighting a film sequel and the release of the video game. Where most games based on movies fail is in not giving developers a proper cycle to make the game. It doesn’t have to mirror the film at all, but something that lives in that universe should speak to it as a whole. Most games never achieve this because they’re rushed to coincide with their counterpart movie. Avalanche have been at work on Mad Max for more than two years with next-gen hardware. They’ve got a great chance at being more a Riddick than a Bad Boys: Miami Takedown (I could barely type that without vomiting)
Finally to wrap things up something came into my inbox that just had to be shared with the world. It doesn’t have to do with games based on comics or vice versa, but it’s importance is no less diminished. Some time ago a game let you step into the hooves of being a goat. Chewing up everything insight, head butting objects out of spite, it was all there. Now cat lovers can rejoice!
Catlateral Damage is a first-person destructive cat simulator where you play as a cat on a rampage, knocking as much stuff onto the ground as possible. That’s the F**king description!
The game is available on PC download platforms. You can find out more about Catlateral Damage on the game’s website.
Our Thought:
Haven’t you ever wanted to wreck everything and blame it on the dog? As a society what’s left to conquer?
Now let’s giveaway a bunch of Secret Wars books (digitally)
I won’t tell you what’s what because I’m an awful human being; but here’s a few of codes for last week’s Secret Wars offerings including Battleworld, Secret Secret Wars, Loki, Planet Hulk, and more… (First Come First Served) Marvel.com/redeem
FMC6RDN62A6P
FMC19QSFR5LU
FMCTHKXQBTPL
FMCSI3LPWUSA
FMC53APWGV7W
FMCG8V9PYIHN
FMDQL3E9RUJX
As if we didn’t have enough games to get excited over this year, now we can add one more over the top action title to that list. Also, how much is too much for DLC? With May 4th quickly approaching, Star Wars is dropping prices of its old games on new multiple platforms. Indie gaming fans can enjoy a new documentary chronicling its punk rock like rise. Let’s Go!
Game developer Avalanche Studios previously announced in December that their comic book game was 100% canceled. It was rumored to have been a Superman game, but we may never actually know what it was. As the old saying goes, ‘the show must go on” and today the developer dropped an action packed trailer on the PlayStation blog for their new game Just Cause 3 published by Square Enix. The trailer also announced the game would have a “holiday 2015″ release date.
Our Thought:
Look at it! He’s skydiving onto another plane! He took out a parking garage with the jet. No clue what the hell it’s about, but I know I want to play it now. With E3 around the corner we’re sure to find out more information about the game. Since the trailer debuted on a PlayStation operated news source, it’s pretty safe to say the platform is going to get some exclusive features. It’s also hard to say what the exact release date would be since the Star Wars and Call of Duty games are taking the November window. Unless it lands the week between the two games, an early December release is likely.
The studio behind Just Cause is also simultaneously developing the open world Mad Max game that was announced in 2013 and promoted with some sweet Shane Davis art. Sadly the piece didn’t make it onto the final box art :(
We had Star Wars Celebration in April, now May the 4th be with you is coming. To celebrate, a ton of LucasArts Star Wars games are on sale on digital platforms such as Xbox Live, PSN, and Steam. For the first time on PlayStation classic Star Wars games come to PSN for PS3: Star Wars Starfighter, Star Wars Bounty Hunter, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and Star Wars: Racer Revenge.
As if that weren’t enough, PlayStation owners can download free themes for their PS3/PS4. Also if you follow @heyplaystation on twitter you have a chance to win one of those fancy Storm Trooper PS4 boxes along with a few other things from Star Wars Celebration.
Our thought:
There’s a generation of gamers who became Star Wars fans without getting to enjoy some of these classic games. Opportunities to rectify that don’t come this cheap. I’ll also say that I’m probably one of the few people I know who actually liked Racer Revenge.
Even more details are surfacing about Batman:Arkham Knight. This time WB Interactive and Rocksteady announced via twitter that a season pass option for the game would be available for $40. The pass will offer up new content for six months after the game’s release in June, meaning through the end of the year. What is the content you ask? A press release from Warner Bros. reveals that new Batmobile skins, “advanced” challenge maps, alternate character skins, story missions, new villains, and additional drivable race tracks are also included with the Arkham Knight Season Pass.
A special Arkham Knight Premium Edition will also be available that comes with the game and DLC pass. This special edition will only be available digitally through PSN, Xbox, and PC digital.
Our thought:
While I’ve never been disappointed with Rocksteady’s Arkham games out of the box, their subsequent DLC such as Harley’s Revenge and Catwoman left a little to be desired. Those story bits felt like unnecessary dead stops to the narrative. $40 isn’t the most expensive season pass option in gaming but that brings up the cost of the game to $100, just to get the complete experience. That bill is even more depending on what edition of the game you’re buying. While I understand the need to save spoilers from the main story by not giving more details about the content, it’s a price tag that warrants more information for consumers.
A recently released documentary chronicling the groundswell of independent game makers is getting a lot of talk around the Internet. GameLoading: Rise of the Indies shows the struggles of creating a game without the backing or confinement of big corporate publishers. There’s tons of in-depth interviews with popular game creators and the icons that founded id Software. The documentary even touches a bit on the #gamergate controversy that surrounds Zoe Quinn. The film is available digitally on its website and on PSN, Xbox Live, Steam, and iTunes.
Our thought:
It’s a great snapshot of the indie gaming scene. Anyone whose habitually stuck to the big triple A games may find themselves looking through a giant catalogue of small games to find their next enjoyable video game experience.
So what about you, how much is too much for DLC? Would you have liked another Superman game? What were some of your favorite Star Wars games?
