Simulation fans have been pining for a new SimCity since the release of SimCity 4 in 2003. Sure, there’s been games between then and now, like SimCity Societies and SimCity Social, but they just aren’t the same. They aren’t what PC gamers want from the series, and it looks like Maxis and EA have finally acknowledged that with a new title in the series simply titled SimCity.
It looks good, too. Not another middling offering meant to make what money it can between major releases, but a proper SimCity that doesn’t mind being cutesy and somewhat cartoonish in exchange for quality gameplay. While SimCity has never been overtly serious in tone, this new direction highlights exactly what proper SimCity has always been about: having fun.
As I stepped up to the demo station at PAX 2012 to get some time with the game, I noticed just how massive the machine was that I’d be playing on. It towered over me as I played, glowing green and showcasing the Nvidia technology that SimCity ostensibly "runs best" on. However, as I moved around the simple starter town that the game provides, I realized that it doesn’t really matter what machine you run the game on; the art style allows it to look beautiful on any machine, as the highly stylized nature of the visuals make the game seem totally scalable across a variety of machines.
We’ve got a lovely little 3D puzzle platformer and another simulator game for you this week, but the big story in free games right now is that an entire MMO has been released for free. Not free to play with a lot of strings attached but actually free. It’s an odd move, but nothing about our first game has ever been normal.
Some bad headaches can occur when trying to keep up with all the content for big AAA games. Deals are made and release dates are scattered everywhere. That's just the case for the Battlefield 3 downloadable content, which has four release dates depending which platform you own and if you are a premium member. The third expansion, Armored Kill, drops today--for some.Armored Kill Release Dates
If you are a Battlefield 3 Premium Member with the Xbox 360 or PC, today is the day to grab that expansion (which you paid for in advance). If not, you're going to have to wait a couple weeks to pick it up.
If you were to walk the show floor at PAX Prime and survey any random passerby about the franchise they're most excited is making a return, you'd find that nearly every single one of those people would bring up XCOM. It was always a favorite in the eyes of PC gamers and revolutionized the turn-based strategy genre, but it fell off after a few sequels. Series fans should fret not, because XCOM is back and it's here with a vengeance.
As is typical for an XCOM title, aliens land on earth and things start going awry very quickly. We don't know much about them or even what they are, but we still need to figure out what's going on and how we can stop it. There are reports of alien sightings and we haven't heard from one of our teams in Germany. That's where our team from the PAX demo comes in.
We saddle up and make our way toward Germany. Soon after landing, the gameplay begins. This first level is just a simple tutorial area that takes quite a while to get going, but the core gameplay is worth the introduction. In XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you move each member of your squad around the map individually. They can only move a certain distance per turn, but they can also give up their action ability and sprint to reach further distances. This is a really cool tradeoff, because it allows you to move quickly across the map, but also leaves you somewhat vulnerable to enemy fire. You have to decide which route is better for you to take, so it all depends on your play style.
It’s been a good while since we’ve had a really good stealth action game, with Hitman: Blood Money still reigning supreme. That all changes with Dishonored though, as it looks like we're going to get not only a great stealth action game, but one that puts as much emphasis on the world as it does the action. It isn’t your generic “infiltrate the party and kill this person”-type game where you climb in a window, shoot them, and leave unchallenged. In the mission that I played at PAX, not only did a seemingly straightforward assassination require thought, planning, and lightning-fast thinking, but it was also brutally difficult, something I believe has been missing from the genre for years.
As I started the demo, I was presented with a mission in which I was tasked with finding a way into Lady Boyle’s manor during a masquerade ball and executing her without raising suspicion; that way I could still find my way out before anyone noticed that she was gone. Unfortunately, my play style isn’t to slow down and take my time, so this resulted in a rough start to the demo; once I adapted to playing differently than I normally would, the level worked brilliantly.
As I approached the entrance to the manor, I was stopped by a guard who asked for my invitation. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have one. I overheard some partygoers outside the gate talking about fancy rich-people things and saw this as a perfect opportunity. In Dishonored you play as a magical assassin, which meant I had access to many different types of magical powers, including Wind Gust, which I proceded to select from my radial menu. Using the gust of wind on the partygoers was just the right move, as an invitation flew out of the hand of one of them and right into the sewer. I climbed into the sewer and snatched up the invitation.
I approached the guard and handed him my invitation. He welcomed me and was shocked at just how scary my mask was, which was a funny nod to the fact that the protagonist in Dishonored seemingly always wears a scary metal mask. I walked inside and started my hunt for Lady Boyle; as I made my way around the party, talking to partygoers for any information that I could find, I ran across a mysterious man.
This man knew of my intentions at the party and begged me to spare Boyle's life, as he was in love with her. If I could somehow lure her into the basement, he would make sure that she was never heard from again. While this seemed like an extremely weird request, I figured that it might be a neat alternative to look into; it was only a secondary objective, after all. I continued to walk around the party, until I finally spotted Lady Boyle. I studied her movement as she went around talking to party guests and looking at the dozens of rare antiquities throughout her mansion. I finally saw my moment as she made her way toward a back room; I started to follow her but once I entered the room that she had gone in, I realized that she had somehow slipped back out with the crowd.
I pulled up my radial menu and looked at what weapons I had at my disposal. I could fell her with a poison dart, giving me enough time to escape before anyone realized that something was wrong with her. I could simple just shoot her with my pistol or crossbow as well, but I saw a great opportunity for a bit of showboating. I equipped the sticky grenade and took aim. She wandered back out into the main foyer and I aimed a few feet above her head. I threw the grenade perfectly onto the back of her head, allowing her to move out into the plain view of all her guests before the grenade went off and her head exploded in spectacular fashion.
Of course, this raised a bit more attention than just killing her stealthily and walking away, but it showed just how many choices you truly have and how they affect the NPCs and other characters around you. After finishing the demo, I went back to see what happens if you take Lady Boyle to the basement for the creepy guy. Turns out, he manages to be even more creepy, vowing to keep her locked in his basement for the rest of her life while he tortures her. It’s pretty dark. At this point, I’m glad that I killed her, rather than having her experience that. It’s shows how things can change based on one little choice and how it might seem like the right choice but ultimately turn out to be the wrong decision.
You’ll have a hard time trying to find two playthroughs alike in Dishonored, as the open-ended nature of the game allows things to play out differently for each person depending on their actions. During my demo, I looked at the screen next to me and realized that that player had taken a completely different path than I, but we both completed the objective, resulting in a successful mission. It’s that sort of small touch that makes Dishonored’s gameplay so refreshing, and it seems to be shaping up to be a promising October 2012 release.
We’ve only seen a small portion of Dishonored so far, but I’m thankful for that, as it allows us to go back and see how things might have been different if we had taken a different path. I can only imagine how much time I’ll spend seeking out all the different possibilities and establishing a play style once the full game releases on October 9th.
Kickstarter has gone ahead and declared what most gamers have already noticed: in terms of crowdfunding, this is the year of games. On Kickstarter alone game projects have raised over $50 million dollars, and there’s still four months left in the year. That number has rocketed games from the 8th most funded catagory of all time to the 2nd most funded; this year games have defeated all other crowdfunded projects, raising $8 million more than films, the second-highest funded category of projects.
Just one week of entries from the most recent Ludum Dare 48 hour game jam wasn’t enough. In fact, if you enjoyed the six we’ve profiled recently in Free Game Friday you’ll probably find more to enjoy in the 1,400 other free games available on the Ludum Dare site. For now though, we’ve got a few more of our hand-selected favorites.
