EA to the rescue Part 2

By. UnderBreex's

  Welcome back, and thank you for loving Lord Whaley! I’m back to present you with the second and most important part of “EA to the Rescue.” Why should I continue? Easy—by the end of this article your wallet is going to be yearning for these games from EA.

  In all my years of experience in the gaming industry, I’ve never been as excited for a first-person adventure platform and a first-person shooter game as I am now. But enough stalling, I’m here to talk about the games not myself: Mirror's Edge 2 (the sequel to an already amazing and innovative title) and Battlefield: Hardline (a franchise that’s known for its camo-suits has taken a new direction with sleek cops-n-robbers gameplay).

  Originality is Mirror’s Edge’s canvas. Its brightly colored setting differs from most first-person shooters and its parkour fighting style allows a wide array of movements not seen in other video games. In previous trailers and gameplay demos of the sequel we’ve seen the focus shift to combat mechanics, unlike its predecessor. The developer promises more varied gameplay and a greater degree of experimentation. Mirror’s Edge 2 will create more routes and options for the player, while maintaining the same sense of agility. It has been hinted that the franchise is being treated as a trilogy, rumored to be in the works since mid-2009.

  However, Mirror’s Edge 2 has been confirmed as a prequel. Players will be able to dig into Faith’s origins in an open-world action adventure game. The original writer, Rhianna Pratchett, and most of the original staff will not be involved in this title. The game is scheduled to be release around April 2016.

  Visceral Games Battlefield: Hardline will feature new gameplay that breaks away from the traditional military setting to the “war on crime”. Players will play a police offer in the Special Response Unit or the criminals. Nevertheless, players are granted access to military-grade arsenals and vehicles, as well as being equipped with regular mandatory tools like handcuffs and tasers. Among these changes, new modes are added as well:

  -Heist: Criminals must steal packets of money from armored trucks

  -Blood Money: Both factions must retrieve money from an open crate in the center of the map, then  move it back to their respective armored truck

  -Hotwire Mode: High-speed chases across an expansive environment.

  -Rescue: Police officers or S.W.A.T. must try to save hostages from the criminals. 

 Battlefield: Hardline will feature a single player campaign that promises to be amazing while running on the Frostbite 3 engine. This game is scheduled to be released on March 2015, instead of October 2014, its prior date, due to beta testers’ requests. Both games will be available for previous and next generation consoles.

 

 That’s it for today! I hope you guys enjoyed this preview of EA’s line up. They finally made the right decisions and evolved into this video game cycle. Hail the Whale!

Microsoft Recap

By UnderBreex

Once again, it's that time of the year, when wake up really early, rush to the living room, and take a look at our favorite things while celebrating with our closest family and friends. No, it's not Christmas! It’s the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014! Once again, bringing exciting new video game titles and updates from our favorite companies in the industry. Let's recap!

Starting with Microsoft, the company needed to deliver something genuine for both hardcore and casual gamers, and exciting too, for the love of Lord Whaley! They needed to deliver convincing titles with mind-blowing content, not another cable box. Thankfully, Microsoft learned from their mistakes (asides not hiring a host like Ubisoft), and presented amazing possibilities that had me questioning the safety of my bank savings.

Some of the new announcements included exclusive and third party games, gameplay demos, and new trailers for games such as:

* - Multi-Consoles   ** - Exclusives

-Forza Horizon 2**

-Evolve*

-Crackdown 3**

-Dragon Age: Inquisition*

-Sunset Overdrive**

-Project Spark**

-Ori and the Blind Forest**

-Halo 5: Guardians**

-Scalebound**

-New character for Killer Instinct: Season 2**

-Phantom Dust reboot**

-Dance Central Spotlight**

-The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt*

-Halo: The Master Chief Collection**

These strong titles may be the key for the Xbox One to dethrone the PlayStation 4 in sales, and finally prove its potential, or at least it will by next year.

Starting with Forza Horizon 2, this title gives you the competitive driving thrill of your life. Not only does it have beautiful graphics, it also has a new driving mechanism which no other driving game dominates until now. The Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a big deal, including Halo 1, 2, 3 and 4 remastered for the Xbox One for only $60. It's well-suited for new Xbox owners looking to have one of the best gaming titles in the history. We also got some footage from Halo 5: Guardians, and it was amazing. We expect nothing less from a classic title going into the next generation. One of the biggest surprises was Crackdown 3. Even though extensive gameplay was previewed, they didn’t reveal many details. Finally, Sunset Overdrive has had me craving an Xbox One since last year and it’s not because it reminds me of InFamous a little bit. Sunset Overdrive looks insane as a Creepachu (look it up, thank me later), it's colorful, versatile, and overall very entertaining. More importantly, it’s also a much needed new franchise for this console. Who would’ve guessed that we could launch a teddy bear strapped with a stick of dynamite to destroy enemies?

Microsoft is playing it safe for now by finally showing up some promising titles and engaging what we all love, while also lowering the console’s price tag a $100 by removing the Kinect. The Xbox One is finally heading down a brighter path.

The Future of Star Wars: Death of the Extended Universe.

By BZork

A long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away… a trilogy of films marked a decisive turning point in the world of Hollywood and many other film genres as a whole, Star Wars. No one could’ve predicted the impact the films would have or the massive pop-culture domino-effect that would spread out from past to present. The original films’ success went on to spawn a trilogy of prequel films, and lo and behold, now we stand at the cusp of a further development, the Walt Disney Company has begun production of a new trilogy, “Episode VII-IX” after its acquisition of Lucasfilm. However, what stands out as the decisive turning point in the series’ long list of controversial moments isn’t the aforementioned announcement but one that carries even more ramifications in the greater scheme of everything Star Wars. The Expanded Universe (EU) has been canned. 

After thirty-five years of creating, fine-tuning, and fleshing out the enormous universe of the Star Wars mythos, Disney along with Lucasfilms have announced that future film developments will ignore whatever had already been created/established in the EU. Justly so, this has struck a nerve with many of the series’ older enthusiasts as well as avid fans of the comics, books, or video games which have given fans the opportunity to go beyond what Lucas’ films brought to the table. We let go of some of the most important plot-lines essential to the series: the Old Republic and the origins of the Jedi Order, as well as its development across hundreds of thousands of years; Grand Admiral Thrawn and his ascension to power after Emperor Palpatine’s death; Luke’s Jedi academy on Yavin IV and the Legacy era and the rise of Darth Krayt’s One Sith. 

From one standpoint, it makes sense; it’s much easier for Disney to let go of the massive monolith of plot-lines and continuities that is the EU, so it can give the writers of the new Star Wars trilogy the creative liberty they need to craft a new, equally amazing trilogy of its time. Lucasfilm has also gone on to state, that it will take elements from the EU and try and reincorporate them as “inspiration” for current plot-lines and world-crafting, but as to what it might use, we’ll have to wait and see. It has yet to be seen as to whether or not any new plot-lines will be explored within the EU, which will now be dubbed Legends, and as an ongoing series either resolve their stories in the coming months or continue to expand Legends' timeline. There are many fans who are skeptical of Disney’s approach to Star Wars, anticipating a similar response to when Episode I – The Phantom Menace aired in 1999. It is a period of fandom unrest, and as the wait for Episode VII begins we can only hope Disney makes good on its promise to bring new life to the world of Star Wars.