New Kirby’s Epic Yarn Commercial

It shows a handful of new abilities Kirby will be adding to his collection in his new adventure, such as a firetruck and a swimming dolphin; he even closes a volcano with his magical yarn! The trailer also provides a bit of background on how Kirby entered the world of yarn, though not much is known yet about the mysterious poncho-wearing figure.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn is due for release in Q3 2010.

The Brooklyn Inductive Power Station and more

While wandering around the business section at Gamescom, the team stumbled upon what appeared to be an interesting device for charging gaming controllers, and all of a sudden, we were invited into the booth for an impromptu interview with a representative from Vidis.

The charger is called the Inductive Power Station, and it only requires you to lie your controller (with rechargeable battery attached) on top of the device, which looks like a large iPhone, and it will immediately begin charging. A light on the bottom of the device will be red while the battery is not fully charged, and will turn to green when it is.

The nice thing about the power station is that it has three places where a battery can be placed, so you can charge three Wii remotes at the same time on one power station. What’s even better is that it can charge Wii, Xbox, PS3, iPhone, DS and Blackberry batteries all at the same time, so you can even toss your iPhone onto it next to your Wii remote and Xbox battery, and have all your devices charging at the same time.

The charger itself sells for about 30 euros, and each battery is 15, but a pack is going to be released soon which packages two Wii batteries and the charger for 50 euros; the price seems more than reasonable for what the device is capable of. Below is a short video demonstrating how the device works.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g175/nisute/Powerstation_english_mail.swf

Also shown was a pair of mini Wii remotes with nunchucks, which are perfect for children to hold comfortably, and even felt fine in an adult’s hands. It’s super light as well, so when playing with a mini Wii remote, you can pretend you’ve got no controller in hand and that you’re playing using Kinect (eat that, Microsoft). The remotes are compatible with the motion plus accessory, but there are plans to ship ones in the near future with motion plus built in.

Finally, we were shown an extender for your Playstation 3, which makes it about as big an an extra large pizza box, but houses two charging docks for two PS3 controllers to be hidden away in the device, and on the outside contains extra USB ports, SD card reader and more.

All these devices are definitely reassuring in an industry which has quickly become over saturated with plastic tennis rackets to put on your Wii remote and thousands of console-specific charging docks. Hopefully we can see more quality products like these in the future.

Jowood’s Arcania: A Few Interesting Features

At Gamescom, Nisute got the chance to take a look at Arcania: Gothic 4, an upcoming RPG from Jowood. To be totally honest, the game looked pretty much like any other RPG; the combat system is similar, the techtree for skills is similar, generic enemies… it’s “unique selling point” is its story of all things, and the story is pretty generic actually.

The reason I’m even writing an article about this game is because of a couple of intriguing features that the game actually has, one of which don’t even have anything to do with the game itself.

The first of these features is the fact that the players can turn off every piece of interface shown on screen, including the minimap and damage display when fighting monsters. This way, the player really has to experience the environment like the character does; they must remember where they came from, how to get to the nearest town, and fight an enemy blind until it falls to the floor defeated. This is definitely a fun and challenging approach to a fantasy RPG, and I would like to see the possibility to do the same in many of the larger RPG’s (unless they also have the feature, but most don’t as far as I know).

The second feature that actually got me to sit up straight in my seat and start to take an interest in the presentation was the fact that the game has a graphical setting for Europeans and Americans. If the player chooses to play in American mode, the colors are deeply saturated; the greens really pop and make the environment look vibrant, lush and interesting. If the player chooses European mode, however, the game looks desaturated, bland, and “more realistic” according to the PR representative that gave the presentation. Apparently, they have done studies which prove that Europeans prefer more desaturated colors in their games, and Americans find the saturated colors much more appealing, and they felt it had such an impact on the player’s experience that they had to include the feature.

Funnily enough, I did like the game a whole lot more when it was in American mode; I guess they did their research.

First Look at Rift: Planes of Telara

Rift: Planes of Telara is an MMO currently in development by Trion Worlds, and was playable in the public sector of Gamescom, held recently in Cologne, Germany. Nisute was invited to a behind closed doors presentation of the game, however, where a few of the developers were present to explain the game and their intentions for the final release.

A devastating magical eruption has tattered the veil between Telara and other planar dimensions.  Treacherous and powerful rifts occur when two planes intersect, allowing passage between dimensions. Now no part of Telara is truly safe from invasion by otherworldly forces that lie beyond.

Just like every other MMO out there, Rift has two major warring factions: the Guardians and the Defiants. Both factions strive to save the world of Telara, but they each have their own methods and beliefs, which lead them to constantly butt heads and fight against one another instead of uniting for the greater good. The Guardians sport the friendly and comforting color blue (alliance, anyone?) and the Defiants fly a red banner (horde?). Though the names are different, the faction system is definitely what’s been seen numerous times in almost all MMOs. Rift tries to differentiate itself in a number of other areas, however, so why don’t we overlook some of the similarities and point out the key differences instead.

One of Rift’s major key features is the fact that the environment is dynamic and ever-changing; the developers pride themselves on the fact that the thrill of exploration carries on, even in areas which have been previously explored.

The ebb and flow of activity in Telara is always changing. Thousands of unexpected encounters are occurring at any moment, making every adventure unique — with more being added all the time. And just like in real life, you can revisit favorite haunts to see what’s different, adding a novel sense of exploration to even well-trodden ground.

The most important feature of the game, after which it is rightly named, the Rifts, are definitely responsible for much of the dynamic content taking place in the world of Telara. Six elemental planes are intersecting with the world and tearing it apart, and at these points of intersection, Rifts are created. These inter-dimensional tears act as doorways for monsters from other planes to march through and terrorize the world of Telara. When a Rift is opened, the surrounding fauna is scorched and infected, and the rift becomes a small enemy encampment.

If a rift is left open for too long, however, it will quickly become a foothold, which acts as a base for an army of troops from the plane, and boss enemies slip through to hold down the fort. These footholds will constantly besiege the world, and send out waves or troops to attack the cities and allied camps, and the players must band together with NPCs to wage war against the magical creatures. Players from opposing factions can even run through enemy territory opening rifts and creating footholds for the opposition to have to take care of.

The most impressive, and intriguing, feature of Rift is the unique class system which has been developed. There are only four main classes, or “Callings” as they are known in Rift: Warrior, Cleric, Mage and Rogue. This is not where the class system ends, however; each player then has three “souls” which can be customized from a wide selection of classes. The combination of souls is what ultimately forms a character, and this is where players can have some creative input on their avatar.

The devs from Trion Worlds made it very clear that it is not their intention to actually balance each and every class so that any combination is just as fit for all situations as any other, but rather they enjoy the idea of players finding very interesting combinations which tailor their character to a very specific purpose, and they even encourage the idea of overpowered combinations -- to a certain extent. What they want is for players to really delve deep into the system and understand what it means, and how to find a killer combination. In this way, they have no preset combinations, but ask the players to try out every possibility and make the game their own. Also, any of these souls can be changed at any time when outside of battle, so if a player dislikes one of their choices, they can just swap to another available class and see how they like it. This class system is definitely what sets Rift apart from other MMOs out on the market, and may be well worth playing the game just to experience. Never before has a player had such an amount of creative control over their character’s abilities and attributes -- at lease the ones that matter. A game may have an extensive character creation system, but in the end, aesthetics have no real impact on gameplay, and what a player really wants is the ability to make their character the superior avatar in the game world.

Rift: Planes of Telara is currently in Alpha stage, and has plans to go into closed Beta sometime in the near future. The Alpha testers are already giving the developers a run for their money, as every day they provide the devs with invaluable feedback, leading to quick iterations and vast improvements to the gameplay of Rift. In some cases, classes turned out to play exactly the way they were intended to, and in others, a class has been scrapped altogether. The team is very open to the testers and ultimately wants to make the best experience possible for their player base, so anything that they can do to make the game more fun they are willing to take into serious consideration. At the moment, the dev team is releasing two builds a week.

For more info on Rift: Planes of Telara, head to their website which is constantly updated with news and new releases.

Portal 2 Co-Op

Nintendo’s Post E3 Event in Zaandam

On the 29th of July, NiSuTe reporter and columnist Chi Wong and myself had the opportunity to travel to Zaandam in the Netherlands to visit the Nintendo Post E3 Event. This was the first time that Nintendo’s E3 demos and hardware had been shown in all of Europe, so we were quite lucky to have had the chance to check it out.

The obvious focus of the event was showing off Nintendo’s recently unveiled 3DS handheld which has the ability to provide a 3D effect similar to that seen in recent films, but without the use of any 3D glasses. Though it may sound farfetched, I can guarantee you that it works, and it looks amazing.

The event was held in a beautiful building, and looked as professional as ever. There were staff members to guide the groups around to all the different rooms, and there was coffee, brownies, muffins and other assorted goodies to enjoy while taking a look at all the awesome demos. The staff was friendly, the atmosphere was lovely and all in all the event was an awesome experience.

A lot of games were played, and the Nindendo 3DS was thoroughly investigated and enjoyed.

Below you will find a list of all the hands-on articles that have been written about everything seen at the event.

. . . . .

The Nindendo 3DS

Metroid: Other M

The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword

Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Donkey Kong Country Returns

Wii Party

GoldenEye

Golden Sun Dark Dawn

Assorted DS and DSi titles

. . . . .

IGAD Gamelab Roundup 2010

What is IGAD?

The International Game Architecture and Design course is one of the many courses available at the nearby Breda University of Applied Sciences, and specializes in the production of video games from either a visual art perspective or a programming perspective. The course spans four years, and the students go through a variety of different classes all relevant to the design, creation and production of video games.

What is Gamelab?

Gamelab is a class in which the IGAD students must work together in groups of both artists and programmers, and create a game from scratch, making use of the knowledge they gain in their other classes.
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Wii Party: Hands on

At the post E3 event in Zaandam, I had the chance to play Nintendo’s upcoming title Wii Party.

I have to admit, when the title wasannounced at E3, I rolled my eyes and urged Nintendo to move on to the next game. Another wagglefest of a game did not interest me one bit.

While walking around the event in Zaandam I thought, what the heck, I’m here to play the games after all, so I guess I can give it a go. And I’m really glad I did.
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GoldenEye: Hands off

I was one of many who found the announcement this E3 of a GoldenEye remake on the Wii an awsome and exciting turn of events. That is, until I got the chance to play the game at the post E3 event in Zandaam.

For a game which is a remake of an older title, you would expect the graphics to be overhauled. This is not the case for GoldenEye. The original didn’t look very good (at its time it did, though), we must admit, but for a game made in 2010, the new GoldenEye looks very outdated. Even on the Gamecube, this game would be old looking. If the original game were to have been simply ported onto the Wii with the Wii controls, the old graphics would have been acceptable because they’re the old graphics we all knew and loved. This feels more like a middle finger to all the fans, saying, “We’re going to remake your favorite game, but we’re gonna be sloppy about it and not really try to make it something spectacular. We know you’ll buy it anyway.”

Now, graphics aside, who decided it was a good idea to make Daniel Craig Bond in this? The original was Brosnan, we know Brosnan and we want Brosnan.
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Donkey Kong Country Returns: Hands on

Back when we were covering E3 2010, we gave you our first impressions of the new Donkey Kong Country game coming to the Nintendo Wii later this year. Now, at the post E3 event in Zandaam, Chi and I had a chance to play the game and give you a more informed impression of the game.

We were allowed to play co-op – as the game should be played. There were four levels for us to test out: two standard levels, one rollercoaster minecart level, and one boss battle. The two characters, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong have different strengths and abilities, which do take a bit of time to figure out and understand. In comparison to Kirby’s Epic Yarn, this game isn’t necessarily the easiest to get the hang of straight from the get-go, but, also in comparison to Kirby, Donkey Kong Country Returns actually does pose a challenge; a pretty heavy challenge at that.
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