Earlier this month COG had the opportunity to check out Sony’s annual PlayStation Holiday Preview Event, which included some first party titles as well as some additional titles from third party publishers. The location of the event was the beautiful Palais Royal in Toronto, Ontario, which is along the harbour front of the city, and it was certainly fitting for the first title I got my hands on.
Assassin’s Creed III
This title happens to be my most anticipated game of the holiday season and I was really excited to get my hands on it. For those who are unfamiliar with the upcoming release, Connor is the latest Assassin to have his story told in the series. When I first heard about the addition of naval battles I was hesitant as I, along with many other diehard Assassins Creed fans, wondered how this new concept would intertwine with the franchise’s already stalwart formula. Fans should put these worries to rest though as I found the controls work well and the using the ships various cannons and different ammunition added some variation to what could easily have been a very mundane new gameplay mechanic.
In the demo I had to chase down a ship that was leading me into an unknown ambush and I needed to destroy the two ships protecting my intended target. One ship was destroyed by lining up alongside it and ordering my men to fire all cannons sending it to the bottom of sea. In regards to the second ship, I got a few cannon shots into it, but couldn’t line up any more cannon shots so I decided to ram into it, which turned out to be a quick way to be rid of this nemesis.
Finally, it was down to my ship and my original target. Lining up along with my enemy I called out my final order of the day launching what seemed like dozens of cannon balls into the air. I made a direct hit, moved in and boarded the ship. Unfortunately, this was the end of the demo leaving fans such as myself eager to try some more of the title with my feet firmly placed on land.
Skylanders Giants
Kaos is back and he’s up to no good once again. This time he is trying to revive some “ancient evil” which leads the Skylanders to call on the Giants, the first Skylanders, to help save the Skylands once more. I could tell you that my oldest son is extremely excited to get his hands on Skylander Giant’s, but to be frankly honest I think I might just be a little bit more excited than him to get my hands on all the new figurines, get a chance to play through the new story, and have the ability to level up my existing Skylanders even higher. Shhhhhhh, please don’t tell my wife.
Skylanders took the gaming world my storm last year and it won’t be surprising to have the sequel capture the hearts of gamers young and old once again. Sitting down and playing the game for a bit with a rep from Activision I learned that all Skylanders, new and old, will be getting their own voice in the game along with returning non-Skylander characters like Flynn and Cali. All of the Giants will glow in some form when placed on the portal, along with the new Lightcore series of Skylanders, which will add to the enchantment of this title. Overall, fans will be getting what they loved about the first Skylanders, while having the opportunity to play with some cool looking Giants like Tree Wrex and Bouncer, or play some of the new Skylanders like Pop Fizz and Shroom. Skylanders Giants looks to be a larger and much more improved title to keep busy with for hours upon end.
For a more in depth look at this title, COG recently did a preview of the Skylanders Giants and you can check it out right HERE.
Injustice
I’ve heard rumblings of this title through different outlets and was interested to see this game in action. Injustice has an awesome cast of DC’s mightiest heroes and villains and like Batman, Nightwing, Wonder Woman, Superman, Solomon Grundy and the Flash brawling it out to see whom the best truly is. I got to play a few of the characters, first choosing Batman, as he is one of my favourites, providing a good balance of speed and offensive skills. Next I played as Wonder Woman, who uses a Sword and her Lasso as her weapons of choice, which provides a great melee and distance attack. Surprisingly I enjoyed my time playing her character too.
After putting some of the game through it’s paces I felt the game really was just the latest Mortal Kombat title, skinned with the DC Universe and finely tuned to create an optimal experience for fighting and comic books fans alike. Don’t get me wrong, I quite enjoyed the latest Mortal Kombat, and comparing Injustice to it is not an insult at all as it is truly going to satisfy gamers who are looking for a great fighter where you can have Batman dueling it out with Superman or any other combination that fans can come up with. You’ll also find some new gameplay aspects that separate it from the world of Mortal Kombat too. What I found strange was that this game was at the 2012 holiday preview event and it is not due out until sometime in 2013.
Lego: Lord of the Rings
This title has made my top 5 anticipated games for the holiday season due to the sheer love I have in my heart for all of the Lego video games. The Lego series provides great video games for all ages and now that my son is old enough to play these are games that we can sit down and play together without frustrating each other too much. Lego: LOTR will bring one of my favourite movie series to “Brick Life” and will introduce the story to my son in a much more family friendly way.
While trying out the Helm’s Deep level, I got to take control of Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas as I completed the puzzles throughout the level and battled the horde of orcs trying to breach Helm’s Deep. Aragorn doesn’t seem to have any unique ability but is handy to have in battle with his sword. Gimli stands out a bit with the ability to jump up with his axe and land on cracked boulders to destroy them and he can also be thrown towards cracked areas by other characters to finish the job. Legolas of course uses a bow and arrow, which comes in handy for hitting targets to open new paths within the level. Beyond some new character abilities the game plays like the other Lego franchises and was an absolute blast to play.
Fans should know that the voices used in the game are straight from the motion pictures, but of course the animations in the cut scenes will offer their own comedic twist. The title will also tell the story of Lord of the Rings from key portions of the story and doesn’t offer a very detailed ‘start to finish’ narrative of every single thing that happened in the movies. For those who know how long the story is this is probably a good idea because who really wants to be walking for hours to leave the Shire to get to the next city. Although it doesn’t tell every single part of the trilogy the game is quite large, even larger than the recently released Lego Batman 2. In the end Lego fans will get exactly what they are looking for with the perfected gameplay and a whole new amazing story to play through.
Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale
In all fairness, since the announcement of PlayStation All-Stars, this title has automatically drawn comparisons to Super Mario Smash Bros. This in some ways is unfair, but as it nears launch can be considered quite the compliment. All-Stars in its own right is a fun brawler with a cast supported by many of Sony’s franchises along with some third party developers throwing in some of their characters too. You’ll find some first party characters such as Parappa the Rappa, Nathan Drake, Sackboy, Kratos, Sly Cooper and Sweet Tooth, as well as some third party characters such as Big Daddy (Bioshock), Raiden (Metal Gear Solid) and Heihachi (Tekken) to name a few.
Although not a horrible title from the demo I played I did feel a bit underwhelmed at the fact it doesn’t provide anything new to the genre or evoked that feeling of, “Oh man! I can’t wait to play this!” Hopefully this game is exactly what Sony Fans are craving though, but from my perspective it just might be too little too late. I also find that the release date in the latter half of November is a risky move given the number of high profile titles that will be hitting then such as Halo 4, COD: Black Ops 2, Epic Mickey 2, Assassins Creed II and Hitman: Absolution to name a few. I hope that the PlayStation faithful can show Sony that they did the right thing by moving the launch date to November 20th.
LittleBigPlanet Karting
I was intrigued by this new kart racer from Sony, but wondered why they just didn’t do another ModNation Racers, as that kart racer is quite superb. Perhaps, it is more to do with the fact that I am not a LittleBigPlanet (LBP) fan and don’t see the charm about it. That being said, LBP as a kart racer is a lot of fun and brings the same great feeling I got from ModNation fused with the LBP Universe to give fans of both series a good experience.
The gameplay is similar to ModNation, or really just about any art racer you have played in the past. What really separates this title from the rest is the customization. Of course there is the typical stuff like design your kart, customize your racer, make tracks and so forth, but what I found amazing was that you can create brand new games within the creator itself. Now, I didn’t get to personally play around with the customizations but I did play a game that was customized by the creator, which I will call Godzilla Smash. The setting is a top down city view; there are a bunch of trucks that are running away from you as you take on the role of a Godzilla-esque monster on wheels going around smashing the trucks. The game has a countdown timer and the only way to add time to it is to smash trucks. Once you run out of time and its game over. Sure, it sounds simple but it was a whole lot of fun and shows the power of customization that truly is Little Big Planet.
God of War Ascension
Blood, gore, and hack n’ slashing is what makes God of War the series it is, and this prequel is no different in its formula. Keeping true to the same gameplay mechanics from the previous titles the main draw for fans are the new enemies, new story and of course there is a multiplayer component in this title. There is not a whole lot I can say about God of War: Ascension except that it’s beautiful and will give fans exactly what they have become accustomed to when it comes to the campaign of the game.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a hands on for the multiplayer, but personally I think adding this to the game is a waste and ultimately fans may have wished for a better/longer single player campaign instead. From what I have heard from the fans of the series they are not overly interested in having Kratos versus Kratos battles as they can have those battles in PlayStation All-Stars if they really want to.
Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified
Finally, I tested out the handheld version of the upcoming Call of Duty for the PlayStation Vita. Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified I am sure has some semblance of a story, but instead of being told about the game I was thrust into a death match against some people who obviously have a lot more experience with shooters on the Vita than I do. The controls felt completely wrong, almost like I had a few drinks too many and everything slowed down to where my reaction was 2-3 seconds slower than it should be (side note, I did not have too much to drink). After being one shot killed several times as I figured out the controls I became depressed playing this title and started wondering how this is fun? Mind you there are millions of COD fans out there so I am sure it has its audience but this title is definitely not for me. Of course the title has beautiful graphics and uses the power of the Vita quite well, but the controls don’t seem to cut it and in this state will ultimately break the game.
Like many of these holiday preview events, there are often too many games for one person to check out for a good amount of time to get a feel for each title, but there were some great titles that have already been published on display that COG has had the chance to review. You can check out the following for our reviews of:
- Borderlands 2 – https://cogconnected.com/review/borderlands-2-xbox-360-review/
- FIFA 13 – https://cogconnected.com/review/fifa-soccer-13-xbox-360-review/
- Sleeping Dogs – https://cogconnected.com/review/sleeping-dogs-xbox-360-review/
- Resident Evil 6 – https://cogconnected.com/review/resident-evil-6-xbox-360-review/
Sony looks like it should have some great games this holiday season. Do any of these interest you? If so, feel free to comment in the comments section below. We hope to have reviews of many of the games shown at the holiday preview event, so keep checking our front page, as you just never know what you may find.
