The first big game of the of the year due for release in 2010 is BioShock 2, which is out on February 9.
If you haven't played the first then you have missed out on a genre defining game. It didn't simply break the rules of how to make a compelling story and entertaining game, it ignored them and created its own! The FPS-RPG sci-fi shoot 'em up-come morality challenging game has had a change of staff, but the underwater utopia is kept, if a little run down. That’s because its 10 years after the break out of the first and things have hardly improved with Rapture's citizens.
This time you play the role of a proto-type Big Daddy, a more sentient and powerful version of the Big Daddy we battled first time round. Don't fret, you will still find plenty of the BD's to wrestle with, but don't get complacent as new foes are there to challenge you; Big Sisters. These are much more agile and powerful, only fitting since you are much stronger and able to wield both weapons and plasmids together, instead of having to switch between.
There have been a few other tweaks to aid you, one is that little sisters will now find Adam for you, instead of having a one-time payout, and the research camera is a video which captures your encounters instead of stopping them. PLus an added bonus of being able to walk out on the ocean floor to spice things up.
Lets not forget that the sequel has a multiplayer too. Its aimed to run along the single player story line from the first, giving background and depth to both games, but it has upset a few fans in being too ‘traditional’. Well, we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.
The following month of March brings us Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the 5th.
This game is set to take online gaming to another level.
Its game play heritage harks back to when online gaming was for the gamers and online meant paying through the nose by the minute. Battlefield prides itself on being the best online multiplayer experience you can get, and with Bad Company, they showed not only could they do the business on a console, they could also show you they could do single player too.
However, its not just the exceptional gameplay that will change you opinion of shooters forever, its the new Frostbite engine. If you have tried to keep up with gaming gossip at anytime after Doom you may have read how some such game or other has a fully destructible game world, where every shot or explosion effects the scenery around you. And Lowe, how disappointing it turned out to be; a smashed window here, and broken door there, the occasional small hole in the floor. Well its time to rejoice. Behold! where once was a building, there is now only rubble. That tree? Gone. If you played the mini version of the engine BF: 1943 you may have come across players creating foxholes with their C4, burrowing their way to heavens knows where.
The second hit of the month is Final Fantasy XIII, due for release on March 9th. Or last year if you are able to read Japanese.
I don’t need to say any more than that, so I won’t.
Just joking. I’ll stick to the game play since this would take forever to read.
The battle system is sticking to the latest version of encounters where the enemies are ‘live’ in the game world and encounters occur from getting too close or being spotted. This time, however, battles take place in the traditional way, away from the normal world where other enemies can attack, however, there is no cut scene to show the teleport and the battle takes place seamlessly, as if still on the map.
The battles themselves are getting more complex as the series progresses, but this one is making it hard to get my head round. Think of the core tactic of a battle like any good fighting game; it’s about getting combos. When you get enough combos going from player you control in the party of three on one of the enemies you fill a combo gauge. This causes a break state in the enemy, allowing you to deal huge damage and send it up into the air. The break ends when the chain bar empties.
The chains can only be performed by one character, as you control one at a time. Chains are built up by queuing up commands in the available slots, which increase as the character levels, so its not quite the same as the traditional way of picking an attack and then waiting for that character’s next turn to attack again.
This is all dependant on the cost and points available, a mechanic which replaces MP, so commands can only be used a limited number of times per turn.
If that doesn’t clear things up you can either check wiki (the main source for this) or buy the JP version and see it first hand.
The levelling up system has also changed slightly, it has returned to the same idea as FFX, where characters earn Crystal Points instead of Spheres to spend on abilities and attributes. FFXIII differs, once again, in how the character uses their learned abilities.
The characters are all assigned roles in the menu (not during a battle) in which certain abilities can be used during a fight. I won’t go into detail, but there are six roles. Now this goes one step further in strategies with what it called a Paradigm Shift, which changes the character’s role in the fight, but more importantly increases the ATB battle gauge when used correctly.
Phew! Well without a doubt the story is what is going to draw and keep the masses, and it will not diappoint. And this time I really will leave it at that.
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