So I just got back from the Euro Gamer expo, where I went with a few mates. Thought I'd give some opinions on the games that were shown (and I played).
Call of Duty 5 (X360 version) - At the expo, we were able to play two FFA games, one game on castle, and another game on a map I can't remember. It was a 16 player LAN game. The maps were brilliantly designed with no spawn points having obvious (dis)advantages. The weapons were quite balanced, from what I can tell, though one of my mates complained about one of the rifles... too weak, plus bolt action = epic failure. The graphics were a slight upgrade from 4 in general, but with massive improvements with water and fire effects (the water is more than just a scrolling texture).
The game was a surprising refresh from CoD4... which is starting to feel a little stale. At the start of the event two of my friends were a little skeptical about going back to WWII after Modern Combat, but at the end, we all agreed that this game surpasses 4 in every way. A little side note - this game is far more arcadey than CoD4. Vehicles, flames throwers, and dog strikes make sure of that.
If you're interested, out of 16 I came 1st on the first game (30 kills 10 deaths)... alot of people looked bummed after that, because they were queing for quite some time... and I ended the game in about 4-5 minutes. The second game, however, my mate took the crown with 57 kills 13 deaths (this was the game on Castle)... they obviously changed to a timer instead of top kills for that round (The clerk was so impressed that he gave my mate one of their CoD5 hats).
Mirror's Edge (PS3 Version) - Easily one of the biggest surprises of the day. No body was expecting much from this game, and yet, it had some of the nicest presentation I have ever seen in a game. The design was simple, yet brilliant. The animations and graphics were surperb. The whole concept was unique and it worked really, really well. None of us suffer from any form of motion sickness, so we were able to play the game in full health. Though, if you have to play CoD in low sensitivity to keep your stomach from churning, your gut will explode on sight with this baby.
People who are worried about getting confused by it all... don't. The controls are simple (and are mainly focused on the L and R buttons, rather than the face ones - you can do all the actions without having to take your thumbs off the analogue sticks), and the game only goes as fast as you do. Whilst I was there, I saw people going through the level in 30 seconds (which looked confusing yet awesome), and people who took a good two-three minutes to make it through a section - the game adapted well, and it didn't break up when people had to look around (which was one of my main concerns prior to playing).
Killzone 2 - Wow. First impressions mean a lot, and this game has great first impressions. The textures are amazing, and the light engine stands above anything else on consoles atm. With that said, some of the scipted moments did look a little dodgey (like, in one scene, a guy carrying the rocket launcher gets gunned down by a turret - but the turret fires, and the guy doesn't die for a couple of seconds), but those will hopefully be cleaned up by release.
The sensitivity is a little... sticky. It feels like there's a slight delay between when you move the stick, and when the screen responds. The maximum sensitivity is also a bit low for me (which, is also, incenditally, my main gripe with the Resistance 2 BETA (that and the lack of a main weapon for competitive)). The game needs to pause for a split second after every 5-10 minutes of play, presumably to catch up on itself, I hope that this also will get cleaned up come final release.
That big scene in all the trailers, the one where you blow up that building with the turret... that would be one of the most awesome scenes ever in a game if it wasn't for the lag. The framerate seriously drops on that scene. And it's a shame, because it would be totally epic if it worked correctly. Again, this should be cleaned up by the final build (btw - anyone noticed a pattern with Guerilla games - they seem to want to push the consoles further then what they can do).
In terms of gameplay. The mission that we played was a blast. It was the first mission from the game (I believe), well, it's the mission that they show off in all of the latest videos. It's a brilliant mission in itself, lots of action, lots of blood... and lots of nice lighting. The only concern here, really, is whether or not the entire game is based upon the same premise. It would be nice to have a little breakdown in speed, like the Lugar levels in the first Killzone, or even some puzzles here and there would be great.
Comments from passing looks at games/let downs:
- We didn't get to play LBP, it had too much of a crowd and we couldn't get ago. Interestingly, it also had the second largest booth inside the main building (CoD5 have the biggest). From what we saw though, people we having a lot of fun, whilst playing the game, and even I couldn't help but giggle when I saw one person getting stuck underneith a barrage of, well... I think they were rocks.
- Resident Evil 5 basically just looks like 4 but in Africa, there has been very little changed between them. The numbers are huger, of course, and the graphics are nicer, but, still, it wasn't as impressive as when we first saw the fourth. Also, the secondary character has the stereotypical epic boobs that we are ever so used to in video games nowadays. This game would have been better on the Wii. There, I said it.
- Motorstorm 2. What a mistake. The game is essentially the first, but all of the tracks just have a moss effect over the top of them. What made it worse, however, it that, along the edge of all the playable screens, Sony had massive TVs showing the teaser trailer... why? It just made the actual game looks so much worse.
- Street Fighter IV was there. And it was awesome. I didn't get any playtime, though, as none of my friends are really into beat 'em ups. It was drawing a slight crowd. Though, it wasn't of any major size (same can be said for Bionic Commando).
- Left 4 Dead looked fucking awesome. Seriously, the numbers of zombies on the screen was epic. This game looks like it can be some serious fun, some co-op madness. I know this game is getting a bit of hype here, but it doesn't seem to be getting the full attention everywhere that it deserves. I'm also just giving it a paragraph, but, hey, whatcha gonna do?
- Didn't get to play Gears 2, I needed photo ID to prove that I was two years older than I actually was. We watched it a bit from a distance. It looked alright, I wasn't really a major fan of the first game, the rest of my friends there were fans. Apparantly, it just looked like more of the same. I can't really pass comment, myself.
- EndWar works. It just does.
- Legendary was mediocre, just as we were expecting. The AI wasn't as great as I anticipated.
