Gaming Bros

It was great seeing Square Enix having a presence at GAMES 11. They have a lot of work to do to wash off the bad aftertaste they left us with the flaw of Final Fantasy XIII. We were lucky enough to get behind closed doors of this demo.

The demo of Final Fantasy XIII-2 takes place 2 hours into the game. You start off with Serah, Lightening’s younger sister, and Noel jumping out of a time portal. Tagging along the party is a Mogul that can transform into Serah’s weapon or be as a guide. We only got very little information about the story in the demo. The group encounters a huge monster called Atlas, the main enemy in the game. Through out the demo, you will be fighting Atlas in multiple battles and each time you are trying to make as much damage as possible so that he’ll be weaker in the end battle. For example, there is a sequence at the end of a fight, where multiple flying ships attack Atlas. The amount of damage they make depends on how rapidly you press a button. This brings us to the improved battle system. The game uses a polished version of the Paradigm Shift system. They have introduced cinematic action sequences that takes place in-battle and they put the player through quick time events. Another addition to the battle system is the allies. Every enemy you fight can be summoned in the next battle.

The demo continues with Serah, Noel and Mogul exploring the world. Yes, we can confirm that the game is not linear! There are many paths you can take and hidden secrets you can discover with the help of Mogul. You will find Spheres in these hidden places that earns you skill points. This encourages the player to explore the world of Gran Pulse. There is also an improved Mog Clock system that can make you take enemies by surprise and give you an advantage if you attack them fast. Heck, you can even ignore enemies and not fight them.

Going back to the demo, after meeting a person in the game, you are told about a “device” that you can activate to weaken Atlas. The interesting part is, it’s an option. You will get a choice, whether you want to fight Atlas or go look for the device before that. This adds more diversity to the game and makes it less linear. In this demo, we were shown what happens if you go for the device. After a lot of exploring, we finally reached the device and we were attacked by a red shadowy figure that took us to another dimension. This is a Temporal Rift, a new addition to the gameplay. It is basically a series of puzzles you have to solve in order to advance. The one we saw involved platforms that disappeared when you passed them as you are collecting crystals on the way. These puzzles are sort of a palate cleanser from the long hours you spent JRPGing. After finishing the puzzles, we were sent back next to the “device”. When the device is activated, a sequence shows Atlas’s power weakens and you are ready to take down that ugly beast. The demo ended just before the big boss fight so that we can try it ourselves.

Frankly speaking, I was not very impressed with the new mechanics. QTEs? Puzzles? This is how you make the game better? But I hope all of these addition don’t compromise the beauty and essence of Final Fantasy games. I’m glad the game is not linear anymore and you can actually interact with town folks and do side quests. The xbox 360 version will be on one disc only, does this mean the cinematic sequences will be compressed? We will have to wait and see.

Release Date: January 31, 2012 in North America and February 3, 2012 in Europe

Another day of gaming and shooting footage. We spent most of the time trying out the rest of the games and attending behind closed doors demos. And of course, more sweaty stinking gamers! Here are the pictures of Day 2

So glad the first day is over! We had a very eventful day 1. Here is a summary of what we did:

- Morning Press event with representatives from Sony, Microsoft, Red and Pluto

- PS Vita Hands-On with Uncharted: Golden Abyss

- Tomb Raider behind closed doors demo

- Interview with Robert Fisser, general manager for MENA at Sony Playstation

- We tried: Batman Arkham City, Asura’s Wrath, Dragon’s Dogma, Street Fighter x Tekken, Final Fantasy XII-2 and Uncharted 3.

- 3DS Street Pass gathering.

We will cover more games in the following days. Keep an eye on previews and hands-on on the website. Here some of the photos from Day 1:

This is the first game I jumped over 3 nerds to try. Asura’s Wrath is an over-the-top action game developed in collaboration between CyberConnect2 and Capcom. It tells the story of Asura, once a revered deity, he was betrayed by his fellow gods and stripped of all his powers and now vengeance  begins. I was really excited to try this Japanese craziness.

The demo I played was basically a huge boss fight. You are fighting a God 100 times your size. After a cutscene, Asura starts hurling towards the boss and the game becomes a rail shooter with fireballs thrown at marked ares on the god as you are dodging projectiles. Once you are close to the boss, the game switches to a series of quick time events (QTEs) and if executed successfully you move to another sequence of shooting but this time in mid-air. Afterwards, The god calls down a huge flying ship that you have to take down, and once you do, you go into an awesome fighting scene. Both you and the boss are be running side by side firing fireballs and missiles at each other in a side-scrolling mode. The amount of stuff happening in the screen is tremendous! Once you finish the next QTE sequence, the 1000 ton god knocks you to the ground and butt-stomps you. Asura is not pleased with this! Mashing buttons in anger will make Asura grow 4 extra limbs and with a series of punching by flaming limbs, Asura sends the god out of earth and into space. Now the god is not happy, so he summons one of the 7 deities to destroy you. And of course keeping up with the game’s over-the-top ridiculousness, the deity is about 5 times the size of the earth!! Yes indeed! The huge deity is floating in space surrounding earth and promises Asura’s death. With one holy finger going through earth’s atmosphere like a flaming meteor, Asura is pretty much screwed if this was normal game. But this is Asura’s Wrath of course, so what happens?  Why asura will smash the huge deity’s finger with his 6punching limbs and brings the deity’s end!

I was really impressed with the game. I’m a big fun of quirky games and gigantic boss fights. The graphics and music are not the best in this game but the action in the cut scenes are really beyond anything I’ve ever seen. The gameplay is fun but I can see myself getting bored with it if they did not throw in other mechanics. To be fair, I only played a boss fight so there must be some other parts in the game I haven’t tried. Controls are not as tight as I hoped they’d be, moving the curser during the shooting part feels too sensitive. I hope the game will be more polish when released and I’m looking forward for it.

Release: Early 2012

Tomb Raider is a well known series that started back in the 90′s. But with the years, the game stopped being original and fun. So Crystal Dynamics decided to take a different direction with the series. We were lucky enough to see this 25 mins demo of the new game. This title is a re-imagining of the tomb raider we all know. The demo was a portion of a vertical slice of the game that tells us where the game is headed.

The story of the game is a prequel to the previous titles. It take’s you through the first adventure Lara Croft ever took during which her plane crashes on a mysterious Island. When she wakes up, she finds herself  held captive by the natives of the island. In the new game, we see a smart and resourceful Lara but also afraid and vulnerable unlike the Lara we know. The experiences she will go through in this game will shape her into the Lara we all know.The first part of the demo is the same one that was shown in E3 2011. It was sort of a tutorial level teaching you the game mechanics as Lara makes her way out of captivity. We will focus more on the second demo.

The demo is set in a part of the island during a rain storm. In this part, Lara meets Roth who was with her on the airplane. Roth was badly injured during an attack by wolves and Lara needs to get a first aid kit to help him. This is where the gameplay begins. You make your way to a cave up on a mountain by climbing and traversing the world in a very similar fashion to Uncharted games. The objects in the levels are very dynamic and some platforms you get to can collapse and change your approach to the same place. You can use “Survival Instinct” view to see objects that can be manipulated in the environment highlighted much like the Eagle Vision in Assassin’s Creed series. This view will also show you a location beacon and foot tracks to where you are suppose to go. After you get the first aid kit, you make your way out of the cave and encounter some wolves and this is where the game switches to quick time events. After finishing the object, we saw a little bit of the UI. in each area there will be a basecamp  where you can access the UI. the UI is divided to 3 parts: Fast Track where you can travel from one basecamp to another, Survival Skills where you use experience points to upgrade skill, and finally the Salvage where you can craft new weapons and equipments.

Tomb Raider looks very promising and has a lot of potential. The sound design and music are both amazing and creates an astonishing atmosphere in this bleak island. The great graphics and lighting also adds to the great atmosphere.  Unfortunately, there was no playable demo and we did not see any combat. But we trust Crystal Dynamics to make this game everything we hope for and not just another Uncharted clone.

Release: Fall 2012

The biggest and most highly anticipated video game event in the Middle East is back!

Like last year, GamingBros will be covering the event bringing you the latest updates from the convention. We will be interviewing people from the gaming industry as well as gamers from the showfloor. We will also bring you gameplay footage from upcoming games like Uncharted 3, Batman Arkham City, Mass Effect 3 and much more. And don’t miss our coverage on the brand new PS Vita.

The Games Alliance Middle East Show (GAMES) has come to life through a strategic partnership between the top gaming companies in the region: Microsoft, Pluto Derinton Games, Red Entertainment and Sony PlayStation. With over 50,000 visitors last year, GAMES 11 is expected to have a bigger and better gaming festival.

Event Timings:

Thursday 22nd Sep: 2pm – Midnight

Friday 23rd Sep: 10am – Midnight

Saturday 24th Sep: 10am – Midnight

Venue: Dubai Mall Ice Rink

For live updates, follow us on Twitter on @gamingbros

We know, it’s been a while since GAMES 10 wrapped up but we are here to continue the report. We faced some technical/family/laziness issues the past month but now we are back to blogging. Its better late than never, right?

Here are impressions of some of the games that were showcased on the GAMES 10 show floor:

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

I wasn’t looking forward to Assassins Creed: Brotherhood but my opinion quickly changed when I tried the multiplayer with its fresh concept. The idea of trying to assassinate a target and at the same time being chased around by another assassin is exciting. In the game, you need to blend with the crowds and choose the right time to assassinate your target. After the public assassination your cover will be exposed and the thrill starts. You must use your skills to runaway from the assassin behind you and disappear again between the crowd until your next target.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

After Street Fighter 4, the bar for fighting games was raised and Capcom was facing a difficult task, making  Marvel vs. Capcom 3 a worthy successor to Street Fighter 4. We can confirm that this game is up to the task! The game brings a unique visual style and the classic fighting system we are used to from the series. Pulling off a special attack that covers the whole screen brings great satisfaction. I can’t wait for the reveal of all the playable characters in the game.

Tron: Evolution

Fans of the Tron series are getting their load of Tron with the release of the movie and the game soon. The game has a unique set-up inside the world of tron but the combat and action in the game are nothing new. You make your way through the world with acrobatic jumps and Tron version of parkour. I didn’t get to try the light cycle segment in the game but from what i’ve seen, it looks promising.

Gears of War 3

It was great to see a title that is not coming out any time soon but unfortunately they only showed off the new multiplayer mode, Beast mode. In this mode, you will be fighting against COG members with different classes of the Locust. Each class has its own weapon/speed/purpose and you will be able to earn tokens and upgrade your character. Come on, who didn’t want to play as a boomer and shout “Boom!” just before firing a rocket launcher?

Fable III

Microsoft booth showcased 3 different sections of Fable III and we were only able to try one of them. We really can’t say much about the game because it was very “buggy” and we could hardly enjoy the game. But from what we’ve seen, it’s pretty similar to the previous games with some modified combat. We will have to wait for the full game to come out.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

We got the chance to try the newest game in the Castlevania franchise, and this time the game is being supervised but non other than the legendary video game developer Hideo Kojima. The gameplay is similar to God of War games and the combat is entertaining. The game also had a lot of platforming, which is very unusual for a Castlevania game. Could this be the end of the curse  of the 3D Castlevania games ? We are not sure but we are certainly looking forward to Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

Medal of Honor

Our experience with Medal of Honor wasn’t exactly pleasant. The demo took place in a desert which didn’t look very good and the game was very foggy.  The shooting didn’t feel that great either especially when you compare it to the Call of duty series. Our hopes were high for Medal of Honor but we were greatly disappointed. Lets hope the final product will be more polished and “playable”.

And last but not least. Here is a Gaming Bros video coverage of GAMES 10 show floor. Hope you enjoy it

We are starting off our GAMES 10 coverage by presenting to you the general layout of the exhibition and how was the show floor divided. Unlike last year’s GAMES, the show floor was not held in one area. It was divided into different zones each showcasing different products. The zones were:

XBox Kinect Zone

This zone was totally dedicated to show Microsoft’s new controller-free hardware Kinect. A big stage was step up to put on live demos of Kinect games and attracts the general audience to the zone. The games that were shown included: Dance Central, Kincetimals, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Joyride, Kinect Sports and Your Shape.

Sony Move Zone

Similar to Kinect, Sony had a booth for their new motion controller, PS Move. Unlike the controller-free Kinect, PS Move utilizes a wand to detect the players motion is similar fashion to Nintendo Wii but with more accuracy and better graphics. The games that were shown included: Kung Fu Rider, Sports Champion, The Shoot, SingStar Dance and many more.

Family Zone

This section had a mixture of games from many 3rd party developers including Capcom, EA, Ubisoft and Activision. Amongst the games that were shown: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Marvel vs. Capcom, PES 2011, Fifa 2011, Tron Legacy, EA Active 2 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

Driving Zone

Just like the name suggests, this zone displayed driving and racing games. The games were: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, Gran Turismo 5, and F1 2010

Xtreme Zone

Finally we come to the big guns, the games that the hardcore gamers come for. This is where some of the AAA titles were shown. Games like Halo: Reach, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Medal of Honor, Gears of Wars 3, Fable 3 and Vanquish made this zone the best one there.