Ghost Recon Future Soldier Review

Wow. Honestly, wow. I'm very impressed with what Ubisoft has done with the latest installment of the Tom Clancy franchise, "Ghost Recon: Future Soldier." Set in the not-so-distant future (what a surprise considering the name), you and three other soldiers must track down the weapons dealers who tried to smuggle in a bomb to the United States, and get revenge on your predecessors'  killers.
It's not "Splinter Cell" and it's certainly not the most impressive story I've ever seen, but that doesn't matter because the real star is the gameplay itself.

The single-player campaign is the first taste of how good the game is on its own. You are slowly immersed in the different mechanics as the missions go on, but eventually, by the third or fourth one, you've got all the tools of the trade at your disposal. Of course, not all of the weapon unlocks are available (those come when you complete certain tasks in game), but you definitely can have fun with the weapon customization prior to a mission.

With your team, you're able to coordinate stealth strikes, use a small drone to spot targets up ahead and plan out your approach, disable and disarm electronics and foes and throw sensor grenades to reveal enemy positions all before you even begin a firefight. You may even avoid an altercation altogether if you use your tools correctly. It also doesn't overuse the tools to the point where they become too gimmicky. Though the Warhound mission does get repetitive, who doesn't love blowing up other soldiers with a robot and taking down helicopters with it too? It's also the only mission you use it in, so they really shove it in your face and then say "Okay, that's enough!"

If you're playing the campaign by yourself, you'll be relieved to know that your team AI is actually quite intelligent. They'll find the best routes to snipe from when you've marked a target for them and if you're in a firefight they will actually concentrate fire on the target you have called out. Most of the time, I find myself playing overwatch with the drone and just picking out targets for the AI teammates. Unlike most shooters, I didn't really feel like it was me against the entire army. I honestly felt comfortable that my team would help me out. I was even worried when one of them was taken down and had to be revived. We would almost get overrun at times.

Strategy is the key to success in "Future Soldier."

To be honest, I wasn't able to get a decent co-op campaign going because of the somewhat faulty Ubisoft/U-Play servers. Then again, it could have been Xbox Live or my own internet connection. However, from what I can gather, having a human team would greatly improve your communication between members and allow for even more creative strategies when trying to accomplish objectives. Again, this is only an assumption on the campaign. If we find differently, we'll let you know as we're trying to figure out a way to do an entire co-op campaign with the team.

Even playing on medium difficulty, I found the game to be quite a challenge, but not one where I got frustrated and had to stop playing. It was more that I was just in need of a reevaluation of my strategies. I think that's a good testament to the game itself not being annoying, bur rather intellectually stimulating as well as action packed.

Multiplayer is much better than the beta we posted about. I've been able to have several long sessions and teamed up with some pretty great squads to really get the full effect of human players working together to complete objectives. While the maps aren't as large as the campaign, you really do feel like you're doing the same thing just without the story. Every character moves the same speed and all teams have the same advantages and tech. I've never felt outmatched in firepower or weaponry, but if the other team has a better tech loadout you really need to coordinate with your team to figure out a plan. I honestly feel that if you're not working with your team in multiplayer, it will leave you utterly disappointed and angry. If you find a group you work well with or you all just seem to click, you're going to have a blast.

Guerrilla mode is pretty fun, though that's strictly for a group of players in a party. There is no online matchmaking for this mode, which is kind of sad. At least I haven't found a way to do that, but I'm fairly certain it's just for closed parties. In this mode, you have to infiltrate a specific location as quietly as possible, then stack up and hold out against as many of the 50 waves of enemies as you can. I tried it by my self and actually did fairly well, but it's definitely something you need a group for. Otherwise it's just a way to hone your skills with the game itself.

Weapon customization is fun. It's really nice to be able to play around with your builds a bit depending one what kind of game you like to play, be it ranged or spray and pray. Each attachment for the weapons has a specific boost or aid for you and it definitely comes into play during multiplayer and even the story.

Customizing weapon loadouts is very satisfying.

I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed the Kinect functionality in the game. You get to play a little "Minority Report" as you stand in front of your TV and scroll through character customization and weapon customization using your hand to move through attachments and rotate the weapon to see it from all angles. This isn't the most streamlined program I've seen on the Kinect, it's definitely buggy and more than a little cumbersome, but it's fun all the same if you're really into the high tech theme the game is going for.

I ran into a couple bugs here and there that prevented mission advancement and every now and then the servers would drop everyone in my multiplayer game back to the start screen, but otherwise the game is really well done. My biggest praise has to be the AI and cooperative gameplay that is there. You really can try as many strategies as possible to see what works for you and how you want to complete what objective. Well done, Ubisoft, well done. I give the game a solid 9/10 based on the replayability and quality of the multiplayer and single player mode.

Prototype 2 Review: great power comes at a cost

“Prototype 2” is to video games what a movie like “The Expendables” is to film. It doesn't really have anything innovative or creative to offer, but people will pay for it because there are a lot of tough guys cussing at each other while innocent civilians get torn apart and cities get blown up in fiery explosions.

There's a story of revenge laying on top of this pile of carnage and destruction, but every scene can be skipped with a press of the back button and there's never really any reason to care anyway.

The gist of the plot, which is set in a quarantined New York City dubbed the “NYZ,” is that the main character, James Heller, wants to kill the main character from the previous “Prototype” game, Alex Mercer, because he appears to have killed Heller's wife and daughter. Heller has been infected with the “Mercer Virus,” which grants him the ability to absorb organisms (humans) in order to develop offensive powers and gain the memories of those he absorbs. Along the way, Heller meets a lot of big, angry guys and slim, attractive girls who shout expletives at one another and fight with giant, mutated weapons that protrude from their appendages.

Black and white scenes punctuate each mission in the game.

All significant story elements are delivered through prerendered cutscenes that look very impressive in their moody black-and-white-with-hints-of-red style, but pop up before and after every single mission. Every. Single. Mission. And they are not smoothly integrated into gameplay, so the player is taken out of the experience every time a mission is activated. Not to mention the flashback/memory flashes that feature live-action scenes to tell back story that Heller sees when he absorbs characters that are important to the plot.

The controls are shoddy at best, and Heller rarely goes where you want him to. The game is designed specifically to make players feel ultimately powerful, which sees Heller leaping tall buildings in a single bound and tossing cars like they were stuffed animals, but all that power makes him feel downright clumsy in the latter portion of the game.

The upside to a game designed around ultimate power is that players can absolutely destroy pretty much any enemy (or helpless civilian) they run into with little more than a minute or two of furious button mashing.

Unfortunately, the upside to the game design has a downside, which is the button mashing. There are a few moments where good timing can result in the quick dispatch of a foe, but those moments are few and far between, and simply hammering away at the baddies works wonders nearly all the time.

Explosion and giant, mutated monsters are commonplace in the NYZ.

The in-game camera leaves a lot to be desired. Much of the more action-packed battles end up being views from the inside of a building or underneath a behemoth baddie, which actually makes the effectiveness of button mashing a helpful feature.

There are several side missions that players can complete outside of the main storyline scattered across the NYZ in order to upgrade movement, defensive, offensive and power-specific skills as well as collectibles in the form of black boxes found on several dead soldiers lying about the game world. Players also receive upgrades for leveling up after completing missions and beating bad guys.

While “Prototype 2” brings virtually nothing new to the table in terms of gameplay or story, and camera controls and movement are pretty frustrating throughout the game, it does feel good to go nuts and destroy every moving thing in your immediate area every so often. At least until the camera gets stuck in a wall and you can't see what your doing. Then it becomes frustrating again.

If you have a spare $60 to spend and you can ignore a shallow story, janky controls and a finicky camera, then you should consider picking up this game simply for the satisfaction of being a super-powerful badass who can completely destroy everything in your path. Otherwise, maybe consider getting a copy of an older game like "Infamous" or "Crackdown" that has a similar style and might cost a little less money to satisfy your need for destruction.

GCV Spotlight: Greg Campbell

Vault fans, meet Greg Campbell. Greg’s been a fan and friend of ours for a long time, even when the Vault was just starting out. We talked with him months ago and we did this piece on him before we even had the blog going. Now that we’ve got an official place to put this article, we want to share it with you again!

We all want to know how to start making our own game.  What programs should I use?  What do I need to learn first?  Should I start with the levels first or the story?  Many beginners, and even veterans, can feel overwhelmed by the large size of this task. They quit before they ever know where to begin

Enter Greg Campbell, Cal State Fullerton graduate and avid gamer. Campbell has completed a game and is very familiar with his game-making technique. He discussed his method with some of the Vault staff and wanted to share it with you all.

While we chatted, Campbell told us about his own project that he’d been working on for some years now, a role-playing game called "Fate and Destiny."

 We asked him what programs he used, to which he replied with a smile, “The StarCraft 1 engine!"

Greg was inspired by the original "StarCraft."

Campbell explained that it was easier to use a toolset that was already available and one you didn’t have to pay for. This wasn’t a cheap excuse, more a smart move, especially since there were years of tutorials on the Internet. The same goes for many free game-development toolsets.

Campbell was an avid fan of "StarCraft," so it seemed logical for him to use the engine since he was so familiar with it. "StarCraft" had a large audience and a free, built-in multiplayer service.  Also, "Fate and Destiny" was a turn-based RPG in a real-time strategy game. Even in "StarCraft," few had tried to make turn-based RPGs, and previous attempts were of relatively low quality.

In his mind, when tackling a project like this, you need two things.

1: Knowledge of your chosen system.
2: Desire.

“If you’re more knowledgeable about the system, the more you have the second one. Knowledge breeds desire,” he said.

Campbell’s words ring very true.  The more people find out about the Unreal Development Kit or the "Dragon Age" toolset, the more people want to do with them. (These toolsets are free to the public, but the "Dragon Age" toolset requires a registered version of "Dragon Age: Origins" for PC.) 

The Unreal Development Kit is free to the public.

         

Speaking of ideas, people usually call things good ideas or bad ideas. Many bad ideas, however, are simply good ideas executed badly. Greg said that this is one reason having strangers test your games is so important. Strangers notice things in ways the development team doesn’t see. The "Portal" games were thoroughly tested by many strangers who questioned Valve’s game design technique. Valve listened to many suggestions which made for better games.

Ideas for fan projects and independent games are usually based on doing something different, not something new. "Portal" did something new via the portal Gun. The game was centered around use of the portal Gun for platforming and puzzle solving.

"World of Warcraft" started as Blizzard making the best "EverQuest" it could. "EverQuest" was a well-established and well-loved game, but had enough flaws to inspire the Blizzard designers to want to do it right.

Greg's "StarCraft" maps were usually heavy modifications of existing ones. Many times, the original authors had good ideas that were bogged down by bad grammar and spelling, awkward interfaces, or ideas that needed a lot more work to work.

Campbell stressed that whatever game you plan to make, make a game that you want to play!  You probably know a lot about the genre and setting of this game. If you don’t, then you better do research! Play similar games! You also know that you want to play it, and there are probably lots more people who want to play it too. You’ll be more motivated to work on this game and release it if it's something you can wait to play. Ultimately, if it isn’t fun, why’s it called a game?

Before you begin, Campbell explained that you must have a solid idea of what your game is and what makes it fun!  Without this, you can expect your game to fail!  This can be all in your head, or in a game design document. The more people involved, the more helpful it is to write out a design document so everyone understands what to do.

What about your art, sound effects, music, and code?  Games need these assets. Usually, game authors assemble teams and share duties for all these. Sometimes, lone authors use existing assets from the Internet. Campbell said that it was crucial to credit the people involved with their names and contact info. It's not just good manners, it's good business.

Also, keep in constant contact with your teammates! Everyone involved needs to know what’s going on. Often, people part of a team will only do something if they know they’re meant to do it. Many problems occur from bad communication!

Many games fail because people try to do too much at once. Do what Campbell did and start with a small level that has many the game’s most important features. Find out what’s fun. Keep whatever works well and scrap the rest. Build new characters, levels and features from there.

Let’s say you've worked on a game for a long time. When do you know it's ready to be released to the public?

Campbell gave a knowing smile and said, “perfection through iteration.” Keep playing and testing your game until you, the game’s author, are satisfied. That means no bugs, lots of fun, and a confidence that the game. This process can take a long time, but the success of "Portal" and Blizzard's games is thanks in part to the quality that comes from from constant polishing.

One polished mechanic can really make the game.

There is no substitute for experience! Making games lets you make better games! Even games you make that you never release to the public teach you something. If you wait until the perfect idea comes along to start making your first game, you can expect to be overwhelmed.

 Many successful developers make small games to test their skills and experiment with what’s fun and possible before trying to make something epic in scale.

Similarly, there’s no substitute for playing games! The more games you play, the more you can understand what works, what doesn’t and why.

In Summary

1: Start with a solid idea for a game and what makes it fun.

2: Find a toolset to suit your needs. Free toolsets are usually best on a tight budget.

3: Assemble your needed team. Sometimes, this is just you.

4: Keep in constant contact with your teammates.
5: Start with something small and build from there. Ensure it’s fun before you invest a lot of effort.
6: Keep testing. Bring in outsiders (those not part of the game’s development) for testing.
7: Have fun! The more you enjoy working on the game, the more you'll want to work, and (ideally) the more others will enjoy playing it.

Handy Links

Extra Credits: This Escapist video series focuses on elements of game design, gaming trends, and what’s involved in being a professional game developer or reviewer.

Greg Campbell’s Portfolio: Greg Campbell’s games are available to download.

Industry Profile: CEO Brian Fargo on "Wasteland 2" and Kickstarter

Kickstarter's popularity since the recent gaming boom has become a topic for a lot of media outlets. It hasn't died out yet and, presumably, won't die out until some large budget project flops horribly, effectively pushing the entire situation to the back of everyone's mind. Of course the flip side is that this might actually be a shift in the industry for the better, and many developers like Double Fine Productions and InXile Entertainment are hoping that this is the case.

Speaking of InXile, do you know Brian Fargo, "Leader in Exile" of InXile Entertainment? No? He only worked on games like "The Bard's Tale"  and "Wasteland." He even worked at Interplay, which puts him in the company of other big names like Chris Avellone (of "Baldur's Gate," "Planescape: Torment," and "Fallout: New Vegas" fame, and whom we got the chance to interview).

Brian Fargo, CEO of InXile Entertainment.

His development studio, located in Southern California, had itself a successful Kickstarter campaign and they are now on their way to creating the sequel to the classic game "Wasteland." 

Fargo said he is excited since the funding of his studio's campaign gives them creative freedom to do everything their way, and he feels that this particular model may be perfect for small or medium-sized companies like his. 

Fargo said production for "Wasteland 2" started the minute the project reached it's funding goal on Kickstarter. From design choices about the combat interface to choosing the engine, InXile has been hard at work to ensure that they delivered.

 Fargo said he is really excited about giving fans the experience they've been waiting for for so long. "I get to come in every day now and just worry about how to make the game better," said Fargo. "It's fantastic." 

Even with the fun, he mentioned that he's feeling a tremendous amount of pressure to deliver.

The team-up with Obsidian Entertainment on the project has also caused a lot of buzz. Fargo says that working alongside Chris Avellone and his team will help with the integration of assets and that Avellone is a large part of much of the creative process.

On a more personal level, Fargo was able to talk about his position at InXile.

In previous years, Fargo had to wear many hats when working. Creative types thought he was a businessman while business types thought he was a creative. However, that was never a problem for him as said that he feels that his biggest contribution is his management abilities. He said he has the ability to communicate well with all members of the development team because of his background in both sides of the industry. That helps him find team members that he feels are the best in their fields. 

 "I've always made a point of hiring people smarter than me in each category," he said.

Fargo mentioned that it's not necessary to know everything about everything if you're just going to be a programmer, but if you're going to be a producer you should know enough to be an interpreter between the different fields, which is what he tries to be for his teams. He mentioned that he even reads books on psychology, film and music to help him better understand how to marry all the different aspects together for a project. 

"Information is always power," said Fargo. "You could be an AI programmer and just be the best of the best in that and not have to worry about those other things," he said. "But the more you know that helps you communicate with your team members, the better."

One of the most important qualities Fargo mentioned that people need to have is persistence. He demonstrated his persistence when he went all the way to Sweden to snag the right concept artist. After only seeing his work on deviantArt, he contacted the artist numerous times, not taking no for an answer, and finally go him on board. 

"To me, that's how I work. I see something, I know it's good, I get very passionate about it and I pursue it," Fargo said.

To have a background and a context for game making is critical according to him as well. He mentioned that he used to go out and see dozens of movies, read tons of books and comic books, and look at what games were in the stores and why there were selling. He said having the knowledge of what has been done before and why it worked or didn't helped him a lot in the beginning his career and still works to his advantage today.

Knowledge of all facets of culture is a necessity for a producer, according to Fargo

"I think the most important thing is knowing a category cold," said Fargo. "If you're going to be doing role-playing games, then you better know everything that's come before you." 

Something interesting he said was that people trying to be developers and designers were just playing games for fun, and not really sitting down and analyzing games and studying them to understand why they're fun and why they work.

For Fargo, the thing that makes people valuable to a team is if they can teach him things he didn't know before. 

"I can't know everything," he said. "To me, the young guys that are tapped in and understand - that's what we need." 

His biggest piece of advice for students is to utilize the talent pool available to them at their colleges or universities. Gathering a group of people and actually making something tangible is supremely important.

You can follow Brian Fargo on Twitter here.

Sniper Elite V2 Review

Sniper Elite V2 lets players get creative.

War is hell, and in Sniper Elite V2, you're Hell with a gun.

The story of Sniper Elite V2 isn't anything special. You're a sniper in Europe during World War II, and you're killing people to stop the Nazis from winning the war. Simple and uncomplicated. It's not crazy, it's not going to win any awards, and I appreciate that about the game. It doesn't try to be anything more than it is - a game where you shoot people from far away and sneak around trying to get to your objectives.

It's like Mortal Sniper Kombat Elite V2 or something.

That being said, you kind of have to laugh at how grizzled and badass sounding the main character is. He sounds like Solid Snake and it's a little silly. The graphics aren't anything impressive until you get to the X-Ray-zoom-in-shots of your bullet slicing through someone's trachea and, by God, that is gloriously morbid. It's the WWII shooter version of Mortal Kombat.

The real trial of the game is attempting to do it the way it wants you to. There's not a lot of room for fire-fights and standing your ground with the enemy being less than 50m from you. Your best bet is to keep them at 100m or more to still pick them off.

It's intensely satisfying to play mind-games with the AI though. You're able to booby-trap and confuse them to no end. My personal favorite is putting a landmine on a dead body and watching someone investigate it and then blow themselves to kingdom come.

In the demo you're able to set traps on the sidewalks of a bombed out street and stop an armored convoy as it rolls down the road. When they stop and begin to take cover from you, it's like a horrendous fireworks display watching the plumes of smoke and fire erupt as their safe positions become their graves.

Reading that entire paragraph back to myself right now makes me feel like some crazed sociopath, but honestly this entire game is just one big guilty pleasure. You're able to use rocks to throw the Nazis off with sound and they'll play right into your traps.

The power of this game is in the multiplayer. There's three different versions of it and each one is just as fun as the next. Overwatch has to be the most well made mode, however. You and a friend can take up positions in an area from the main campaign, and fend off wave after wave of enemies for as long as possible. You would think that would get boring, but it keeps you on your toes and if you have a good team, you and your friend will have a blast.

Set some traps and watch the show.

Co-oping the campaign is very satisfying too. I mean, it's just playing the game with a friend. Same story, same levels, just more enemies and no explanation as to why there are now two snipers instead of one. WHO CARES?! THIS GAME IS HILARIOUSLY FUN!!

Looking at the composition of the game and whether or not it is innovative or ground-breaking, the score for this is probably a  7 or so. But based purely on the fun factor, this game is probably a 9 or a 10. It's the oddest thing. The game isn't beautiful, it's nothing new, but it's executed spectacularly. It will most definitely stay under the radar, but if you ever pick it up you will likely never part with it. And if you get a friend and play this? Fuggetaboutit. You'll never stop. This is a prime game to represents the idea that some of the best games aren't blockbusters - some aren't even terribly innovative - they're fun.