Wednesday, 24 July 2013

A Preview 'The Year for Gamers' - Part 2

We are onto Part 2 of our daily (ish) feature about the game announcements that everyone should be excited about. This year is certainly looking like a strong one for us Video Gamers.

Zelda: A Link Between World
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: Holiday 2013
Platforms: 3DS

It’s a rare sight to see a modern sequel to one of the greatest games of all time – but that’s exactly what Nintendo has done with its 3DS follow-up to the SNES classic The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Part. It’s a game that has been garnering worldwide cheers since 1992 and one that deserves only the sweetest of touches to ensure its sequel matches the masterpiece of its father figure.

The game was originally revealed in April’s Nintendo Direct conference and has since been showcased with videos and short demo’s (including Dungeon one). The sequel is certainly being given a lot of love to keep the magic from our most beloved adventure with Link alive. The 2D sprites have been reworked into full 3D models, which keep with the distinctive ALttP design style, and bring with it a game-world of bright colours.

The main feature shown off so far is Link’s ability to turn into a painting of sorts and slide along the surface of a wall. This allows him to explore dungeons in a whole new way and will hopefully bring with it some unique puzzles.

I’m still drawing on the hope that we get another version of the Dark World; especially as the over-world mirrors that of the original. It also wouldn’t be out of the question for Nintendo to spin in some sort of multiplayer. They seem especially keen on this concept and pushed the online capabilities as a big selling point for the 3DS system.




Battlefield 4
Publisher: EA
Developer: DICE
Release Date: October 29, 2013 (Next-Gen TBD)
Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One

As the first game to use the Frostbite 3 Engine, we’re most curious to just see what Battlefield 4 is going to look like from start to finish. The impressive tech video’s shown at E3 prompted huge pre-order sales and gives us the impression, and rightly so, that the multiplayer portion is going to be even larger than ever before. Have you ever seen a whole building disappear ‘in game’?

DICE have shown us the most impressive shooter on the next-gen so far and with the rumours of the Commander feature returning (the best thing about Battlefield 2’s strategic, team-centric competition) then I’m even more excited.

It’s become a trend for this franchise to boost their multiplayer portions without really coming into their own on the single player campaign which is sure to still be the case. Single player isn’t the go to portion of FPS’s anymore so DICE are looking on track to close the sale gap on COD even further this year. Even so let’s just hope the campaign is better than last time.

With any luck, the next-generation hardware and future of Frostbite will enable even more destruction, too.




Dragon Age 3: Inquisition
Publisher: EA
Developer: BioWare
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Probably Next-Gen
Release Date: TBA

BioWare are fully aware of the slump they had after Dragon Age II was rushed into our stores a few years ago and they are pulling out all the stops to win us back. Dragon Age III: Inquisition has been touted to have a massive world with sections bigger than the entirety of Dragon Age II (although that can’t be hard with the dungeon repetition).

Again we can expect a number of party characters to choose from and more customisation than ever, you can even have your own castle to call ‘home’. All of the game will be built on DICE’s Frostbite 2 engine too which will, obviously, make the game wonderful to look at.

If the rumours are true then this may be the first RPG out the door that could compare with The Witcher 3. BioWare are known for their great storytelling and it looks like the developers are letting their creative designers a free reign.


Comments are welcome below…. Feel free to drop in some of your own suggestions for future previews too!

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