A More Complicated Morality System – The Witcher 2

As sacrilegious as it is to admit, I always preferred the original Dragon Age to the Mass Effect series (notice how I ignore Dragon Age 2 in this sentiment). The reason behind this preference is solely due to the choice systems in the two games. The circular dialogue system of ME is hugely streamlined and well designed, but it means the game always tells you what is objectively right and wrong within the game universe based on the orientation of each option, a fact further enforced by the points allocated to you based on your actions. I don’t care if they call it Renegade and Paragon, the fact of the matter is that it’s really frustrating when games tell you that your actions are evil or just. If a character has an issue with my methods, as they do in Dragon Age, that’s fine, but don’t tell me what’s right and wrong in a more objective sense Bioware, as it totally undermines the complexity seen in your games elsewhere. Just get rid of the moral points system altogether, as this ambiguous morality worked incredibly well in the recent Witcher 2. Now that game had some interesting choices.

Properly Interesting Weapons – Borderlands 2

Sci-fi games often offer a disappointing level of creativity when you consider they’re set in the future. Whilst Mass Effect features creative alien races and world lore, the actual weapons are as dull as dishwater. Even if your firearms shoot plasma, you’re still just wielding a normal pistol. Bioware ought to look no further than Borderlands 2 for its inspiration, as previews have already shown us crazy top-loading weapons, disposable guns that explode etc. Why can’t Mass Effect have more stuff like that?

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/mass-effect-4-five-influential-ideas-that-bioware-can-borrow-from-other-games/feed 5 110814 https://gamingbolt.com/battlefield-4-five-mistakes-that-ea-and-dice-need-to-avoid https://gamingbolt.com/battlefield-4-five-mistakes-that-ea-and-dice-need-to-avoid#respond Tue, 21 Aug 2012 17:09:27 +0000 http://gamingbolt.com/?p=102849 For the purposes of dispelling bias in the following article, it must be declared that I have a soft spot for the Battlefield series. The roll of tanks at your side and the hum of jets/helicopters above you as you find your way around your 16-32 man strong team; it gives an indescribable sense of scale that few games can muster. That said, some elements of Battlefield 3 just weren’t doing it for me. There was a lot of good in EA DICE’s most recent military romp, but there were a few things that just didn’t quite capture the usual Battlefield magic. Here are five of the big potential issues that could befall Battlefield 4 as well, potentials that we can only hope DICE will pick up on.

Sketchy servers at launch

Repeat ad infinitum for launch week.

First day online matches never really go smoothly for any game with a multiplayer focus. Launch day always seems to be reserved for single player while you wait patiently for the developer in question to sort their servers out. Of all multiplayer games I’ve experienced this with though, Battelfield 3 had some of the worst server issues ever during the launch weekend. Quick launch wouldn’t work on consoles, latency was off the charts and getting into a game was a lottery rather than a certainty. This didn’t just last for the launch weekend mind, as these issues persisted well into the weeks following BF3’s release for many users. Very few games get it completely right, but if BF4 could get a smooth launch in terms of server support, it would really play to the series’ strengths in the multiplayer department.

Naff single player

Having failed to get into a multiplayer game over the launch weekend of BF3, I reconciled myself with the joys of the single player campaign. That is until I realised it wasn’t actually very fun. Some of the narrative ideas were interesting, but the story as a whole wasn’t especially memorable and the set pieces were mediocre at best. The big killer though was the linearity of it all, a far cry from the unassuming, but pleasantly open ended, campaigns of the Bad Company series. If BF4 is going to have single player, make it a campaign that actually captures the essence of what the Battlefield series has always been about.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/battlefield-4-five-mistakes-that-ea-and-dice-need-to-avoid/feed 0 102849 https://gamingbolt.com/5-reasons-why-multiplayer-could-work-in-god-of-war-ascension https://gamingbolt.com/5-reasons-why-multiplayer-could-work-in-god-of-war-ascension#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 13:36:33 +0000 http://gamingbolt.com/?p=84915 The God of War franchise has always been known for its strong single player campaigns, with their excellent boss fights and engrossing storylines. But after Sony Santa Monica revealed yesterday that God of War: Ascension will have a multiplayer mode, people (understandably) freaked out. With franchises like Mass Effect and Dead Space recently having made the unthinkable jump to multiplayer, it wasn’t a big shock to find out that God of War was doing the same. But there was one tiny difference- when we came to think of it, multiplayer actually made sense in both those series (even though the online component of Dead Space is terrible). But how do you fit multiplayer in a series like God of War?

I had some of the same doubts, but after Sony revealed some multiplayer screenshots and we even got to see it in action, my doubts vanished. I can now safely say that I think multiplayer will work very well in the upcoming GoW prequel. Why, you say? Here’s why-

Santa Monica is doing it in a way that fits with the nature of the series

If you’ve read the details and seen the video (both linked above), both of which shed some light on what the multiplayer in God of War: Ascension will be like, then you probably know that Santa Monica Studios won’t just be giving us a typical team deathmatch or capture the flag affair (they couldn’t even if they wanted to… I mean, how do you do that in God of War?). The gameplay seems to be keeping true to the nature and spirit of the series, and it doesn’t seem like the devs are deviating too much from what makes the action so good.

If anyone can do something so crazy, it’s Sony Santa Monica

Sure, BioWare managed to implement multiplayer in Mass Effect in a way that made sense, and sure, 343 Industries might be radically overhauling the multiplayer of Halo, but none of those tasks are anywhere near as crazy as implementing competitive multiplayer in a God of War game. I mean, co-op would have made a ton of sense, especially if the game focusses on Kratos and his brother, but since that isn’t the case, this seems like an especially monumental task. But it’s Sony Santa Monica! They’ve proven over the years that they have what it takes to do the impossible and defy all conventions. So let’s wait and watch.

The multiplayer bosses are going to be awesome

God of War is known, first and foremost, for its brutality and the super-angry Kratos, of course. But something else it’s particularly popular because of are the epic, mind blowing, large scale boss battles. From the Minotaur and Hydra in God of War 1 to the Colossus and Kraken in God of War 2 to Cronos and Posiedon in God of War 3 and the Scylla and the Persian king in Ghost of Sparta and Chains of Olympus respectively, every boss battle in the God of War series is something exceptional. Learning the fact that the multiplayer in GoW: Ascension will be centred around similar awesome boss battles made me giddy as a schoolboy. Who doesn’t love boss battles in GoW games?

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/5-reasons-why-multiplayer-could-work-in-god-of-war-ascension/feed 1 84915 https://gamingbolt.com/5-insane-glitches-in-mass-effect-3 https://gamingbolt.com/5-insane-glitches-in-mass-effect-3#comments Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:54:49 +0000 http://gamingbolt.com/?p=75336 Games as vast and expansive as Mass Effect 3 often tend to have several glitches. We’ve seen some of the best and most hilarious glitches ever with the likes of Fable 2, GTA 4 and Skyrim, but we came across some pretty interesting videos of glitches in Mass Effect 3, and below, we’ve compiled a list of the 5 best videos. So have fun, and leave your comments in the comments section below.

Super-bloody headshot

Mass Effect 3 is a pretty brutal and gory game, and taking out enemies with headshots is always oh-so-satisfying. But this particular headshot in the multiplayer mode of the game here puts all other headshots to shame. It might be a glitch, but it’s actually a pretty good spectacle, worthy of the likes of Ninja Gaiden. If the enemy’s head gets so much blood, imagine what he’d be like in bed.

Floating Shepard

This is a pretty funny glitch. We’ve seen the likes of it before, with the player floating in mid-air, but I guess it never gets old. Shepard is walking one moment, and suddenly, he starts floating away. It’s a hilarious glitch, especially when you watch it.

“What kind of distraction?”

The entire time during this conversation, Shepard and Liara are talking to each other, but for some reason, they’re not looking at each other. maybe Glyph’s turned into a hot, naked asari, because Shepard and Liara both seemed to be very focussed on what they’re looking at.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/5-insane-glitches-in-mass-effect-3/feed 4 75336 https://gamingbolt.com/five-of-the-strangest-skyrim-quests-you-will-come-across https://gamingbolt.com/five-of-the-strangest-skyrim-quests-you-will-come-across#comments Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:33:53 +0000 http://gamingbolt.com/?p=72024 It’s a crazy world out there, so you’d expect the realms of Skyrim to be equally rife with oddities. If the inhabitants and land topography aren’t bizarre enough, then there are plenty of strange tasks for you to jump into in the fifth Elder Scrolls epic. Read on dear readers for five quests in Skyrim that are true oddities. Naturally, this list is likely to contain huge spoilers.

Any quest involving Cicero

That weird guy who stalked you in the arena quest line of Oblivion is back, this time as a weird guy involved with the dark brotherhood. Though encountering him outside of Whiterun may make him seem like a helpless jester (albeit one who is apparently carrying his mother’s remains around in a cart), he is in fact the keeper of the elusive assassin order. Either way, he’s a little bit on the odd side, and any quest involving him is likely to be full of awkward moments.

A Night to Remember

What starts off as a friendly drinking contest over a staff soon turns ugly. An inebriated blackout later and the quest begins to discover exactly what the hell happened the night before. Between goats, a giant’s toe and a trashed temple, the whole quest plays out like a high fantasy version of the Hangover, and it’s just about weird enough to be awkward and enjoyable in equal amounts.

Innocence Lost

Joining the Dark Brotherhood was never going to be a particularly enjoyable task, but really? I was kind of expecting some demonic overlord to speak to me or a satanic cult ritual being the spark for this one, but I instead found myself conspiring with a little boy to kill his matron. Uncomfortable flashbacks to my own upbringing aside, the act of killing the leader of an orphanage at the whims of a kid is weird on a number of levels. I don’t care how mean she supposedly is, she’s called Grelod the Kind after all!

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/five-of-the-strangest-skyrim-quests-you-will-come-across/feed 17 72024 https://gamingbolt.com/5-ways-the-creation-kit-will-change-skyrim-forever https://gamingbolt.com/5-ways-the-creation-kit-will-change-skyrim-forever#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:47:11 +0000 http://gamingbolt.com/?p=66905 If PC gaming needed to be defined by one word only, it would have to be modding. It is the life and soul of the PC gaming community, and is usually the main argument that favours the age old desktop in favour of console gaming experiences. The Elder Scrolls series has always been a popular ground for modding, so the recent release of the Skyrim Creation Kit should change the trends in the modding community for good. Here’s five ways it will do this.

More mods

The obvious and all important feature of official mod tools, the increased simplicity and utility of the Skyrim Creation Tools should allow more people than ever to get their mods finished and ready for us to enjoy. Better file management features and funky little gizmos that allow you to move and rotate objects with ease will allow more novice modders to enter the fray as well. It isn’t without its flaws, and the various complexities of the Creation Kit are still likely to put off complete beginners, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. The greater depth and usability of the Creation Kits mean Skyrim mods are going to get more frequent, more intricate and more creative more quickly than ever before. That can only be a good thing for a game that is already making our heads spin on account of its huge amount of content.

Steam integration

Mods are a beautiful thing indeed, but they can be a daunting prospect for those who don’t know what they’re looking for. Scrolling through independent sites for a particular mod can be a real mission, and it’s even worse trying to get your mods out there and promoted if you’re a creator rather than a consumer. As one of the earlier titles to use the new Steam Workshop, the Skyrim Creation kit allows you to release your mods on everyone’s favourite digital distribution platform. With community rating features, and the sheer ease of having everyone’s mods in one place, it should be easier than ever to access the best mods. The fact that Steam Workshop is directly integrated in to the Creation Kit also means that you won’t even have to deal with separately uploading your files. A quick trip to the file menu is all you need.

Hi-res textures

There are already plenty of mods out there that enhance the graphics of Skyrim. Installing all of them would probably require a PC the size of a small bungalow, but the option is there if you want it. Bethesda have offered us a more legitimate visual enhancement though in the form of the high resolution texture pack they released alongside the Creation Kit. It will still hog your resources like nobody’s business, but at least it’s the official versions. Expect this to get incorporated into a lot of mods now, making unofficial adventures in Skyrim more beautiful than ever.

Bethesda Valve relations

The texture pack was a nice gift from Bethesda, but the real surprise of the Creation Kit goodies was the inclusion of Portal 2’s Wheatley. His presence alone isn’t likely to revolutionise the way we play Skyrim (even if he is a pretty awesome inclusion), but the potential for a greater level of collaboration between Bethesda and Valve could be a real boon for PC gaming in general. Valve and Bethesda are two of the most influential developers around at the moment and, should they start working together more regularly, it could bring PC gaming back up to its former level of glory.

Rights of content

Every silver lining has a cloud it would seem as, for all the good the Creation Kit will do for Skyrim’s longevity, the pesky issue of rights of content has reared its ugly head. It doesn’t seem any more stringent that any of the other hundreds of terms and conditions we willingly agree to day after day, but it still brings up some issues. The terms and conditions for the Creation Kit have a rather pesky clause that claims that any mod created using it will be the property of Bethesda by default, a far cry from the freedoms offered to those who create mods via unofficial means. It’s unlikely that Bethesda will ever take advantage of their loyal fans with this clause, but it may be enough to put people off all the same. As far as side effects go for an otherwise impressive tool set, it isn’t all that bad, but it should be remembered as a potential threat to the rights of modders all the same.

Remember, this list isn’t about five crappy developers or five developers who have sucked lately, so please don’t take it in that spirit.

So enjoy, and leave behind your feedback in the comments section below.

BioWare

Why they need to vindicate themselves

Let’s be honest- Dragon Age II was a sore disappointing. We all know it, and we’re not too quiet about it. Ever since DA2 was released earlier in 2011, fans have been bad mouthing BioWare for allegedly becoming too “casualized” and “consolized”, for having become bad developers. Frankly, that’s just stupid. Dragon Age II is just one bad game, and BioWare has proven over the years that they’re one of the best developers around.

How they can vindicate themselves

The Old Republic is awesome as it is, and that game alone might be able to earn BioWare some points in the eyes of their haters, but you know will really help them? If Mass Effect 3 turns out to be as awesome as it looks, if not better. That’ll shut the naysayers up and show everybody they’re not “mediocre” developers. Add a proper, deep Dragon Age game that is more like Origins than 2, and that might just seal the deal.

Gearbox

Why they need to vindicate themselves

Gearbox hasn’t really done anything wrong- they’re awesome developers, and the last game they actually developed- Borderlands- was brilliant. But Duke Nukem Forever… well, there’s no polite way to say this- it sucked. It bombed. It was a horrible, horrible game and an insult to anyone who played it. But Gearbox didn’t really developed it. They just put it together and released it, so it being so bad wasn’t really there fault. A lot of people don’t get that, sadly, and they’ve been blaming Gearbox.

How they can vindicate themselves

Borderlands 2 comes out this year, and it’s looking great so far. If it turns out to be as good as everyone’s expecting, Gearbox will be vindicated for sure. Announce a new Duke Nukem game that looks freaking awesome, and they’ll be gold.

343 Industries

Why they need to vindicate themselves

Bungie, the developers that created Halo, have left Microsoft, and now the franchise is being handled by an entirely new development team- 343 Industries. People have been doubting them for a long time now, saying they will mess up the entire franchise and that Halo 4 won’t be half as good as any of the other Halo games, and that they won’t be able to handle the legendary series well. To be fair, their fears are not irrational.

How they can vindicate themselves

If Halo 4 turns out to be as good as everyone wants it to be, and if it remains true to the heart and soul of the Halo franchise, and if it doesn’t ruin the characters of Master Chief and Cortana, then people might hold 343 Industries very highly in their eyes, maybe even as high as Bungie themselves.

Treyarch

Why they need to vindicate themselves

Well, come on. It’s Call of Duty. It’s Activision. It’s Treyarch. If anyone needs to vindicate themselves, it’s these guys. They’ve received a lot of hate. Not just by the virtue of being Call of Duty developers, but they’re also considered inferior to the other Call of Duty developers, Infinity Ward. And a lot of people thought that Treyarch’s last game, Black Ops, was bad (which it really was not).

How they can vindicate themselves

Just release an awesome, awesome game with balanced multiplayer that is not broken, a great single player campaign with a great story, and actually make some changes to the formula- something we haven’t seen in the series in a long time. Chances are people will still hate Treyarch, the franchise and the game itself, but, well, what’s the harm in trying?

id Software

Why they need to vindicate themselves

id Software was once the king of the first person shooter genre- heck they created the genre. The likes of Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein have all come from under the id banner. Rage was supposed to be their grand comeback, their return to glory. And while Rage was a great game, according to many people, it was a disappointment, and it just wasn’t as good a game as everyone expected it to be. It wasn’t a game worthy enough of the id Software banner. People have started doubting id Software now, and if they’re as good as they were back in the day.

How they can vindicate themselves

Doom 4 is rumoured to be released this year, and obviously, a lot is expected of it. If id can make an awesome Doom game that is not just brilliant by today’s standards, but also stays true to the franchise’s nature, most of their haters will be ready to “forgive” them for everything they seem to have done wrong over the past few years.

Feedback

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

So here’s a list of the five most hilarious and enjoyable ways to get yourself killed in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.

Have fun with the list, and give us your feedback via your comments below.

Throw bombs on yourself

Bomb crafting is one of the several new features in Revelations, and it’s as useful when you want to kill yourself as it is when you want to inflict damage to your enemies. Like so many of us have done in games like Halo and Call of Duty, all you have to do is aim the bomb at the ground right in front of your feet or a wall very close to you. It’ll explode, and you’ll lose a lot of health. Keep doing it, and BAM, you’ll explode into tiny little pieces.

Walk up to Janissaries and keep standing there

The Janissaries are a bunch of assholes in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations- they’re the most intelligent, strong and ferocious guards you’ll ever see in an Assassin’s Creed game, more so even than the Templars in the first game. Not only are they hard to fool, they wear armour that makes them hard to kill in one blow. Also, they’re highly suspicious of everyone. So if you’re feeling particularly suicidal, all you have to do is go stand in front of them until the meter on top of their heads turns read, and they’ll start attacking you. Keep standing there, and you’ll be dead in a few moments.

Fall of a Viewpoint

Who loves scaling tall buildings, synchronizing with their viewpoints and then performing a “lea of faith”? I’ll tell you who- everyone who plays Assassin’s Creed. AC games are basically all about scaling buildings, and it’s probably the most fun part of the game. But you know what’s even more fun? Scaling the tallest building in the vicinity and jumping- not into a haystack, just jump randomly. You’ll fall onto the street, get squashed like a bug and die. Isn’t that what you wanted?

Get into a fight and stand and drool

Ezio’s a badass- throw a group of twenty warriors armed to the teeth at him, and he’ll have dealt with all of them in a minute. Yes, it’s that simple to kill people in Assassin’s Creed game. It’s even easier to get into a fight, stand there and do nothing. Get hit by your enemies, but do not hit back. Be a Gandhian. You’ll be dead in a minute.

Pickpocket a lot of people and get beaten to death by the crowd

Walk into a crowded area, hold down A/X (Xbox 360/PS3) and keep walking into people. Everybody you come near, you’ll pickpocket. It’ll only be a matter of a few seconds before they realize they’ve been robbed, and only a few more seconds before they realize it was you who did it. The whole crowd will jump you, and even if you try to fight, there won’t be much you could do, because “Ezio did not kill civilians.” So your only choice is to run or die. But why would you run when you can have the sadistic satisfaction of knowing that even someone as strong and badass as Ezio can be killed by random civilians?

So here’s five tips for all you CoD newbies that might help you get more kills in Modern Warfare 3 than usual and less deaths.

Enjoy the feature, and tell us if you find it helpful via your comments below.

Throw lots of grenades

Modern Warfare 3 has a lot of close quarter, not-so-large maps. Chances are, if you throw a grenade towards your enemies’ territory, you will land a hit. But throw a grenade only when you’re sure the area you’re targeting is full of enemies, because you usually only have one grenade. This usually works, and you may even get multiple kills.

Don’t sneak up on anyone

Whenever people see someone standing with their back to them in MW3 multiplayer, their first thought is to sneak up on them and stab them in the back. But newbies- don’t do this. MW3’s MP is a very fast moving affair, so your enemy won’t stay in the same position for a long while. Chances are, while you’re trying to sneak up on them, they’ll turn around and snipe/shoot you. Stealth kill only those you’re sure are camping.

Don’t camp

As I said before, MW3 is a fast moving game, so when you camp, you probably won’t get many hits because of two reasons. The first is that the odds of a lot of your enemies walking past the same area where you’re camping are not a lot, unless you decide to camp in enemy territory, which you shouldn’t do unless you’re a pro and know how to handle yourself. The second reason is that they’ll be gone in a flash, and you won’t even get a chance to shoot them. If you do shoot, you’ll probably hit the wall. So there’s no use in camping.

Run around and shoot people in their faces

Since camping’s no use for the newbies and the not-so-experienced players, what you should do is run/walk around the map and shoot people randomly. It’s not really a tactic, I know, but it’s what comes in really handy when you’re beginning with the multiplayer. But don’t sprint a lot, since you won’t be able to shoot nimbly. Sprint only if you’re being shot at. Oh, and take tons of cover.

Crouch/go prone a lot

Every time you get shot at, go prone, since that makes you a tougher target to aim for. Every time you have low health, crouch behind a box or a wall, or go prone behind raised structure. Going prone and crouching will come in really handy. But be careful- don’t try to go prone in tight areas, since chances are you won’t have enough space to do so. So be alert of your surroundings.

This holiday season is going to be hard on our wallets as gamers- with so many awesome games releasing in the short span of two months, it’ll be hard to keep up with all the releases as they swiftly flood the retail marketplace. And while many gamers will typically whine about a packed release schedule that demands a great investment of both time and money, the objective optimist will in fact realize one utterly simple, glaringly obvious fact: there has never been a better time to be a gamer.

Whereas trying to keep a track of quality releases may be hard, we at GamingBolt have already tried to make it easier for you. This article is not discussing the potential quality and critical reception of these upcoming games. This article will, instead, try to identify those games that will potentially sell the most, come holiday 2011. With so many games releasing, limiting ourselves to just five games was slightly hard, but we managed in the end.

Presenting to you, a list of five games that will sell the most come Holiday 2011.

5. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (Xbox 360)

There are very few games that are guaranteed success with each installment in the series, and Halo is one of those lucky few. Starting Halo 2, every single Halo game has broken some or the sales record upon release (yes, even Halo Wars, which managed to become the fastest selling console RTS of all time), and every single game has managed to be a multi million seller. The highest selling game on the original Xbox was Halo 2, and the highest selling exclusive on the Xbox 360 right now is Halo 3.

Needless to say, then, the series has a proven track record of selling a shitload of units with every major release, so there should be no reason for the upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the ten year celebratory remake of the Xbox classic, should buck that trend. Sales should be helped if Microsoft market it right (sort of like how Nintendo advertised the Ocarina of Time remake as ‘the greatest game ever!’); considering the fact that most of Halo’s modern fanbase probably hasn’t played Combat Evolved (the series only achieved mainstream popularity with Halo 2) should also spur sales, as should the sales from those who did play the original game, and are keen to play a modern reimagining.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is therefore bound to sell. It’s pretty much a sure shot thing by now. It will certainly emerge as one of the holidays’ biggest sellers, once the dust has settled.

4. Battlefield 3 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Okay, including this one feels a bit like cheating, since Battlefield 3 won’t technically be released during the holiday season. However, it’s being released incredibly close to it, and there can be no doubt that the major chunk of its sales will come from the holidays rush.

Unlike the other games included on this list, Battlefield does not come from a record setting, retail dominating series. The one time that Battlefield really set some ripples at retail was with last year’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which has sold a total of 9 million units worldwide. Although the other Battlefield games always sold well, the series was never a major player in the marketplace.

Until now, with Battlefield 3, and with EA pulling all stops to position this as the major shooter to get this holiday season, marketing the game as an alternative to Modern Warfare 3, a game that does everything better. Of course, EA will be unsuccessful in luring away a large part of Call of Duty’s fanbase in spite of their increased marketing efforts, but quite a few people should bite and buy the game, if only to see what the hype is all about.

Certainly, don’t expect Battlefield 3 to set the charts ablaze like Call of Duty does. However, do expect the game to sell a sizeable number of units over the coming months.