Grand Theft Auto V game update

The pictures are out, the trailer's been playing on repeat on fans' computers since the minute it was released and boy are people excited about it. "Grand Theft Auto V" is causing some buzz after the extremely impressive in-game trailer was released some months ago and after the absolutely stunning screenshots of leisure activities and cityscapes have been thrust upon the internet.

There has been little to no information about what the game will be like when it's in the hands of gamers, how large the city is, who you will play as, what the story is and what changes have been made to improve upon the work done in "GTA IV" and it's expansions in "Liberty City Stories."

Now, beggars can't be choosers when it comes to what information is released by a company and depending on levels of development there may not be any information that Rockstar wants to give out for fear of it changing during stages of development. But if gamers like hunting for knowledge and investigating on their own, there are plenty of sites like igta5.com and gtav.net that have speculation and dissections of the trailer to guess at who might be in the game and who you might play as and what the story will be.

This looks like a scene from one of the "Fast and the Furious" movies.

One worry that's circulating is that Rockstar is focusing too much on the aesthetic and not on the quality of the game. The "GTA" series has always been one of the games that people can count on to bring some new graphical power to the industry and if not "GTA" then Rockstar will produce something else that will drastically change the graphic game for video games.

From "Red Dead Redemption's" beautifully hand-sculpted landscapes and environments to "L.A. Noire's" unbelievable facial tech brought to the table by the now defunct and somewhat disgraced Team Bondi.

"GTA IV" and the "Liberty City Stories" definitely needed some fine tuning. This is to be expected from games that are about large, open-world stories with tens of thousands of NPCs and variables working in tandem to create a believable urban atmosphere.

I can almost smell a Red Ring of Death on my Xbox 360 just looking at this picture.

There is no question that the game is allowed some bugs with the amount of work that is happening on a second by second basis. However, controls can be tightened, glitches can be fixed and if the game is going to be on current-gen consoles then they need to account for the processing power that is available to them to ensure no crashing occurs.

These may seem like common fears and cautions, but for a game like "Grand Theft Auto V," these minor annoyances can pile up over time and really make or break the game. The recent dark-horse hit "Sleeping Dogs" has people talking about how Rockstar can take a hint from Square Enix about a large-scale game with an open world. Maybe they will, maybe they won't, but people are definitely excited about "GTA V."

Star Wars 1313 lurks in the shadows

"Star Wars: 1313."  Don't bother going to the game's site right now, there's nothing there. That's just how under-wraps this game is. LucasArts, working closely with Industrial Light and Magic, is striving to bring fans the first M-rated expedition into the "Star Wars" universe.

Unfortunately the Vault was not able to get a look at this game during E3, but Adam Sessler did mention it when he met with us on the show floor. His take: "'Uncharted' and 'Star Wars' in a gritty M-Rated game? Yes, I'll take it if it's derivative, I'll take that derivation."

No one really knows anything about the game other than what we've seen as we creep through the internet, seeing an article here and picture there. If you do your homework though, you can see the trailer above compiled with some actual gameplay too. Oh, what's that? Don't want to do the work? Well that's why we're here, because we love you.

So what we see first off is the amazing graphics. It's as if they took the best of "Force Unleashed" and added the facial software from "L.A. Noire."

Well that might be exactly what they did, as reports have that LucasArts and ILM worked on using that technology to give a very realistic look to their newest project

Gameplay shows us a third-person shooting mechanic a la "Uncharted," or "Jedi Knight" if you were fond of the old school Kyle Katarn games where you could switch from first and third-person. However, the way the mechanic moves makes it look more like "Uncharted" and "Mafia 2" than anything else.

Thank heavens for a cover system too, because if this was another "Star Wars" game without a cover system a million voices would have cried out in pain and then would been suddenly silenced. I couldn't resist the Alderaan joke. I'm sorry.

The main character hiding in the shadows, just like the game he's in.

As for story, little has be revealed except the premise. You play as a bounty hunter traveling to one of the worst crime-ridden slums of the city-world Coruscant, level 1313. Other than that, we don't have much to go on, but when we do, you'll be the first to know.

LucasArts seems to be getting darker and darker as the years progress. From "Republic Commando" to "The Force Unleashed," their content has ranged from gritty warfare to wanton destruction. Even "The Old Republic," the MMO collaboration with Bioware, has some fairly intense choices that deal with torture and outright murder. Could it be that "Star Wars" might be growing up to fit it's older fan base? Does that mean we can expect gore and grit and well-scripted storylines? "1313" will hopefully deliver both and here's hoping it's not heavy-handed with either.

Eyes on Assassin's Creed 3

It is nearly impossible to describe how utterly excited I am for this game to be released. Of course, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't analyze the game thoroughly from what has been released to the public through demos, trailers, videos and interviews instead of succumbing to rabid fanboyism.  
 
"Assassin's Creed" has been a pivotal game series in the last decade due to its innovative gameplay, stunning graphics, unique storyline and constant evolution. "Assassin's Creed 3" takes place during the American Revolution as Desmond takes what Ubisoft has stated is probably his final look into his past and become the British/Native American Assassin Connor. Wielding a tomahawk, pistols, saber, knives and a hunting bow makes Connor look like the deadliest and most versatile Assassin we have seen to date in the series.   

Of course, what "AC" game would be complete without historical figures for the player to interact with? None other than George Washington and Benjamin Franklin have been confirmed to appear in the game. This fits the trend of major historical figures such as Richard the Lionheart and Leonardo da Vinci appearing in past games.  

While a pre-rendered, CGI trailer from Blur Studios is nice, and quite frequently better than a major film trailer, they don't quite do games justice when it comes to the actual gameplay. Thankfully, attendees of E3 and San Diego Comic Con were treated to live demos to sate their curiosity. Haven't seen them? Don't fret:  
 

Fans of "Assassin's Creed" will note subtle differences to the gameplay this time around just from this snippet of gameplay. Obviously there was much focus on the tomahawk and bow and arrow usage. Likely because they're new and Ubisoft wanted to show off. That's just what you do when you've got a new game. Oddly enough, the tomahawk is so visceral and violent it seems to work with the somewhat cold and dirty look of the game. 

Connor's guerrilla tactics allow him to take no prisoners and show no mercy in his drive to get to his target. Plus, hanging that guy from the tree was pretty awesome. The bow and arrow replaces the crossbow from previous installments in the franchise, or at least it appears to do so, and really that doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. The crossbow was an excellent long distance stealth weapon for the player to utilize, and if your main character doesn't have access to that type of technology, then the next logical thing would be a basic bow. Although he does have pistols, but let's not split hairs when the entire basis of the game is science fiction anyway.   

Something else to take note of in the very beginning of the demo was the cover system in the tall grass. This mechanic is clever since there might be a shortage of hay bales in the deep woods and in fields. If Connor is supposed to be a hunter and tracker, then he would use such tactics to stalk his prey and pounce without warning. Speaking of prey, PETA might be a little upset at the large amount of animal killing. *audience laugh*  

The character animations and details are of a level we have come to expect from this franchise, having evolved from "AC: Revelations" accordingly and looking beautiful. From the way the deer limped and staggered after being shot, to the conversation Connor has and the way he fights, everything looks superb and seems to flow effortlessly.  
  

Free-flow combat returns in "Assassin's Creed 3."

Now that combat's been mentioned there's the little matter of multiple takedown moves and grabbing weapons on the run. "AC" is known for it's innovative free-flow combat and was one of the first games to perfect it from the style that was "Dynasty Warriors" and "God of War." Few games successfully emulate it now. To see it now you'd not blink twice, but it's good to see the company still providing something that works. 

The crowd at E3 cheered pretty loud when Connor snagged that rifle at the end and jumped to kill his target with it.  Free-running and climbing seems to be the same as in past games, but adding trees into the mix is a sigh of relief after fans constantly complained about not being able to climb trees with past heroes Ezio and Altair when they were easily able to scale the Vatican and other huge buildings.

What you don't see in this demo is the naval combat that was displayed on the show floor of E3. Looking vaguely like the system in "Empire: Total War" and "Napoleon: Total War", the player is able to steer the ship, target the enemy vessel and command the crew to fire at their pleasure. Unfortunately, the demo faded to white when the boarding of the enemy ship began, but hopefully there will be ship to ship combat to go with the cannon fire.
 

Assassins at sea.

Also on the show floor of E3 was a live demo of an in-game Boston, Mass. in which the development team took attendees on a tour through the streets of the city to show what urban gameplay would be like. It didn't seem much different from past games - sneaking through crowds, running on rooftops and assassinating soldiers in alleyways. What was impressive and fun to see was the ability to run through certain windows and come out the other side of buildings to evade capture. This was a little funny and I'm pretty sure I heard a woman scream in surprise as Connor trampled through her bedroom.

There are a few issues that should be addressed from previous games in the series that I hope the developers of "AC3" address. Enemy AI needs tweaking. Always always always. Sometimes it's downright stupid, only one man attacking at a time in a group of soldiers ten strong. Other times it's almost as if the guards are clairvoyant and can sense trouble from three blocks away, making things far more difficult than one would think they'd be. There never seems to be a happy medium. Perhaps this is Ubisoft's way at telling the player he needs to try a different approach, or maybe it's just one of those things that slips through the cracks. Who knows?  
 

Connor must have inherited his fashion sense from Ezio.

Also, for the love of all that is holy, can someone please fix the jelly-body bug? Yes, everyone loves ragdoll physics. They're creative and very life like. But after four games, you're still able to walk over a corpse and watch the body roll across the ground as if it's made of helium or watch it bounce as it falls from a death blow in a horrifically unrealistic fashion. Either the bodies aren't weighted correctly or there's just something wrong with the coding, I'm not sure. I'm not a programmer. But you'd think that after this many years someone could figure that out and fix it.  

 The repetitive nature of "AC" has been addressed in the past, and often times in games it seems fixed, while at other times it's just plain annoying to fetch this, look at that, deliver this and kill four of these guards.  Will there be more command of the Assassin's Order in this game? If not, that's a whole game mechanic removed that took a lot of time up for players and there should be something to replace it, or at least use players' time more effectively to ensure they don't miss leveling up their students.

Bugs, glitches, annoying pedestrian AI that blocks your path when you're trying to move stealthily through a crowd - there are numerous things that have popped up in their last four games that should hopefully be addressed and dealt with. "AC3" might be a perfect game if the rest of it is as good as it looks. If not, well, it will be enjoyable, but it might be a little disappointing compared to the other fan favorites in the franchise.