As I said, I was able to install, activate and get into the game without a hitch, probably due to a dip in server load. I found the process very simple and straightforward, and quickly created a Demon Hunter. The menu interface is slick, and I quickly added a few friends using the social tool. I can’t have any complaints based on my limited experience so far, but I must say that I find it very strange to think that I will be kicked out of my singleplayer game if my internet connection drops, or the Blizzard servers buckle under the weight of expectation.

People rightly complain when Ubisoft pull similar tricks, and Blizzard should really consider the impact their decision will have on players without stable internet connections and those who might want to play the game on the move without any internet access at all. Their reasoning about the always-on requirement is to prevent cheats and exploits entering the co-operative mode, but surely it would’ve been better to ensure players create online characters when playing with strangers online. If you wanted to play just with friends, I wouldn’t see any problem with using an offline character.

It should be a similar situation with the Auction house, something I haven’t looked at beyond a cursory glance over, but again, if Blizzard were concerned about cheats and exploits, they should make it that only loot earned through online characters can be traded.

Just to clarify, when I talk about online characters, I mean ones which you can play on your own, with friends and with strangers, but you have to be connected to the Blizzard servers at all times. On the other side, you should be able to create an offline character with which you can still play with friends online, but don’t need to be connected to Blizzard to play the game on your own. I think that would have been an all around simpler system, satisfying the needs of the majority of people, rather than the current situation which is causing so much anger and frustration.

Anyway, my first hour? I really quite enjoyed it, I spent half my time playing on my own, and the other half playing with a friend and I can see the attraction in both approaches to play. When I played on my own, I took my time to explore everywhere I could in the early dungeons to gather as much loot and lore as possible. When I was playing co-operatively, I was more inclined to charge ahead with my friend and focus on having fun bashing monsters.

I hadn’t really read up on the different classes available, and I hadn’t played the Beta, so my choice of Demon Hunter was purely out of a desire to avoid my usual choice of a melee focused Barbarian class. I am really quite pleased with my choice so far, I quite like picking off the loot-bags from a distance with my crossbow, or by settings off various traps in the dungeons. It feels like a fun class to play with, but I look forward to seeing what the other classes play like, especially the Witch Doctor which seems quite interesting.

Playing around with skills so far seems fairly straightforward, though I am only around level 6 or 7 and therefore haven’t unlocked all the different options open to me. I can imagine that further down the line things can become more complicated with a vast array of skills on offer, but it does feel a bit strange not adding specific points to traditional traits such as strength and dexterity.

I’m not sure presently whether I will spend more time playing on my own, or with friends. I will probably try to complete the game on my own first so I can take things in at my own pace, but being able to quickly drop in and out of my friends games is appealing.

I may have only played an hour so far, but I can’t wait to get playing it again later this week. I just hope that Blizzard have sorted the servers out by then.

Note, I am away from my PC, so you will have to wait to see my character in action.

Hitman: Sniper Challenge is an innovative new pre-order bonus for Hitman: Absolution, it is its very own standalone singleplayer mini-game, and it is now available to play for anyone who has pre-ordered the game. There is a trailer after the break, but in brief, Sniper Challenge puts you in the shoes of Agent 47 with the task of eliminating a high roller and his bodyguards in a fifteen minute time frame. Leaderboards and bonus content in the final game are also promised. It is quite an innovative idea to let people play such a mini-game as a pre-order incentive, especially one this far away from the November launch of Absolution. Anyone taking a look at this, or are we all too busy playing Diablo III and the DayZ mod?

I won’t go too far into the specifics of the WMD method of development, (you can find details on this page and in this PDF.) but the basic premise is that it is a part-community funded project where people who buy into the game at various price points get different levels of developer interaction, game build access and a potential tangible financial reward based on the success of CARS.

For instance, I am a Full Member which costs €45, this gives me access to weekly builds of the game, the ability to make new threads on the forums and to read minutes of developer meetings. I will also get a free copy of the game, exclusive cars and an opponent named after me. At the lowest level, costing €10 to join, you get access to monthly builds and a €10 discount off the final game, along with one or two other levels of developer access. The highest level on WMD is a Senior Manager role which costs €25,000 and amongst a whole host of perks, gets two in-game advertising boards. It is a very innovative take on crowd-sourced funding, different to the recent trend for Kickstarter projects and the more traditional indie idea of letting people play the Beta if they pre-order.

As a Full Member, I have been playing the latest build (number 211) and I have come away very impressed. I haven’t delved into CARS for a couple of months, and in that time a hell of lot of new content has been added, with new tracks, types of races and cars all being new to me. No longer is the Alpha limited to traditional racing tracks like Le Mans and Spa (lovingly re-created, despite not being fully licensed and named), there is now an Oval track along with a 1990 era Stock Car. In addition, there are also a couple of point-to-point races, with one gorgeous event taking you along the Californian coast.

The variety of cars is ever expanding, with everything from DTM styled touring cars, karts to Le Mans style LMP and GT racers and some stupendously fast open wheel Formula cars. There is still a wide mix of licensed and un-licensed cars, but vehicles like the Pagani Zonda R and Ariel Atom have been lovingly reproduced in the game with support from the manufacturers.

It is great to see the expanding tracks and vehicles, as the ultimate target for CARS is for a multi-layered, multi-disciplined career with karting, rallying, NASCAR and ultimately Le Mans Prototype championships all planned to feature in the final game. While there are no elements of the career mode present so far, the expanding rosters start to give you a taste for how the different championships will feel on the road.

The various vehicle classes all feel very different to race with, even using an Xbox 360 controller with a few driver assists turned on, it is easy to get a feeling for how the different machines handle. I will say that turning the realism settings to the full results in some cars which are quite tricky to handle, but it is clear that to handle the cars at those settings will require a wheel, not a gamepad. There is also an extremely in-depth tuning screen which purists will love.

It is important to note that the game is still technically in Alpha testing, so if you do take the plunge and take part, don’t be surprised to find the AI doing some really crazy stuff along with the odd graphical oddity. But, to be fair, this build feels a lot more stable for those aspects than when I played the game a couple of months ago. With the talent working on the game, I really believe CARS can really shake up the racing genre and provide an experience on the PC beyond anything we have seen so far.

Project CARS is still in development and doesn’t have any set release date. It will be released on the PC with possible console launches further down the line.

Diablo III, Blizzard’s monster dungeon-crawling RPG is launching at midnight tonight. Somehow we haven’t actually talked about Diablo at all yet. Better late than never though, as after the jump there is a new trailer which will introduce you briefly to the different classes in the game and the various Battle.net options that will be in the game. Personally, I am rather looking forward to Torchlight 2 a bit more, but I am sure Diablo won’t disappoint.

via VG24/7

Since it’s début on the PlayStation 1 the popularity of the series has been in steady decline. The manic drifting, thumping soundtracks and trailing beams of light that had made Ridge Racer iconic became routine and gamers started to drift to more visceral arcade racers such as Burnout and Need for Speed.

This trend may have been what led Namco to hiring former FlatOut developers, Bugbear, to create Unbounded. It certainly must have been in Bugbear’s minds because Unbounded seems like a pastiche made up of the best elements from Burnout, Need for Speed, FlatOut and Split/Second: Velocity.

The core of the game is almost directly lifted from FlatOut, with minor tweaks applied to make it just a little more drift-happy. Ridge Racer veterans wont be able to just start winning racers. Cars feel a lot weightier than in previous Ridge Racer games and kicking out the back-end and holding a drift takes immense skill and concentration.

Unbounded is an extremely difficult game to get the hang of, but once the first hurdle has been leapt there is a satisfying difficulty curve and the game manages to be one of the rare racing games that feels challenging without resorting to cheap AI. It’s intelligent, versatile and viciously aggressive.

Beating the computer requires thought and a tactical use of boost. Generated from drifting, smashing through objects and getting air, boost is a versatile weapon. It turns your car into a speeding wrecking ball, capable of destroying opposition with a touch and smashing through pre-determined short-cuts with ease. Choosing between using boost to take down an opponent or using it to craft a short-cut on the fly is often the line between winning and losing.

Destructible scenery can be another determining point in success or failure. Low walls, boxes and other light objects can be ploughed through with relative ease, slowing cars only slightly but there is a real random element to what else is destructible. It can be difficult to decide whether to attempt to crash through a wall or veer off and it’s not uncommon for a race to be lost because of a wall that turns out not be as weak as it seems.

This is most frustrating during the Shindo racing events, a simpler type of race where your boost is reduced from an offensive power-house to just an increase of speed. There are also three other race types that are available in Unbounded – Frag Attacks, where you have to take down as many cars as possible; Drift races, where points are scored for going sideways and Time attacks, which are either classic races against the clock or crazy stunt masterpieces.

The Shindo races, frag attacks and drift races feel fairly uninspired. Almost like they have only been thrown in because these are the types of modes that arcade racings seem required to include. One half of the time attack mode, the one where you have to complete a race in a certain amount of time, suffers from the same fate. However, the other type of time attack is inventive and downright fun. In this mode you have to take on a stunt course, which might include slaloms, chicanes and big jumps, while collecting tokens to reduce your time.

The single-player campaign benefits greatly from the variety of game modes. Mastering each event is key to achieving your goal of “Dominating” Shatter Bay, a fictional city in America. Shatter Bay is split into districts which are unlocked as you progress by winning races. Sadly, there is almost no unique features in any of the districts. They are all just part of another generic American town. There are no winding mountainside runs, or long drag races through the desert. This monotony is reflected in the tracks which are almost indistinguishable from one another. Each one is just built up of pieces from the last and re-arranged in a way that one could consider new.

The reason for this happens to be one of Unbounded strengths – the track editor. Many would suspect the track editor to be something just thrown in to capitalise on the content-creation craze that Halo 3 and LittleBigPlanet popularised. However, Unbounded‘s track creator is one of the most comprehensive pieces of kit seen in any game. Allowing to place jumps, obstacles and whatever chaos you can think of to create your perfect track. Even better, you can also create your own special events for your tracks so you get to choose how people enjoy your track.

It seems strange that the track designers haven’t taken full advantage of the track editor throughout the single-player campaign. And it’s a shame because the monotony of the track design is one of the only flaws in what is otherwise a remarkable game. It may be more Burnout, FlatOut and Split/Second: Velocity than Ridge Racer but Unbounded, once the steep learning curve is overcome, manages to be one of the best games in it’s genre.

Verdict – On Target

Platforms Available – PC, PS3, 360
Platform Reviewed – PS3

I have just come back from spending twenty minutes with the just released Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition and I am pleased that I tried it. You see, I haven’t tried anything beyond the old browser based version of the game on the PC and I wasn’t overly keen on Terraria last Summer either. So to come away from a brief 20 minute play around with the tutorial, and to feel quite happy with what I played is a positive.

Everything looks like I expected it to, all blocky and…well blocky is about all you need to know with the visuals. Some people love them, some hate them. Personally I am indifferent, they make the game standout from the crowd, I’ll give it that. Starting the tutorial level, I was presented with a nice little pop up box which guided me through the basics of chopping down wood, building a crafting table and digging for stone amongst other assorted bits and pieces.

Crafting seems to be fairly straightforward, you mine your various items and either start crafting from scratch or use an enhancer like a workbench or furnace to help you create more elaborate items. When you start crafting you are shown what items you can make and what materials you require. I get the feeling that die-hard PC fans will cry that this is an outrage and that it ruins the very soul of a game where you are left completely on your own to get with it without any hand holding. For me? As a newcomer to the game, I quite like the fact that I can instantly see what items I can make, and what materials I may need to build that door to secure my home from the monsters of the night.

In short, my initial impressions from my twenty minutes with the game are positive, I will certainly be playing around in the blocky world a bit more to see what lies around the corner. My first task is going to be finishing my home then crafting some weapons. That should be a bit of fun.

When we announced the release date of BioShock Infinite in March, we felt pretty good about the timing.

Since then, we’ve come to realize that some specific tweaks and improvements will make Infinite into something even more extraordinary. Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need, we’ve decided to move the game’s release to February 26, 2013. We wanted to let our loyal (and very patient!) fans know this as soon as possible.

I won’t kid you: BioShock Infinite is a very big game, and we’re doing things that no one has ever done in a first-person shooter. We had a similar experience with the original BioShock, which was delayed several months as our original ship date drew near. Why? Because the Big Daddies weren’t the Big Daddies you’ve since come to know and love. Because Andrew Ryan’s golf club didn’t have exactly the right swing. Because Rapture needed one more coat of grimy Art Deco.

The same principle now applies to BioShock Infinite.

What does this mean for you? It means a bit more waiting, but more importantly, it means an even better BioShock Infinite. The great can be made greater, and we owe it to both ourselves and to you, our fans, to take this opportunity. Irrational Games is one of those rare developers lucky enough to ask the people who sign the checks: “Hey, can we have a few more of those checks?”

We are also going to hold off on showing BioShock Infinite at the big events of the summer, like E3 and GamesCom. That way, the next time you see our game, it will be essentially the product we intend to put in the box. Preparing for these events takes time away from development, time we’re going to use instead to get the best version of Infinite into your hands in February.

I am often one to praise the success of digital distribution and wonder whether there will be much room for traditional retail in the games industry in the coming few years, but Excalibur Publishing continue to push against my beliefs with an expanding range of PC titles in the retail network. The British Publisher launched their Extra Play budget range of simulation titles earlier this year which put games like UK Truck Simulator and Falcon 4.0 back on shelves at the £9.99 price point.

Not content with their traditional simulation range, Excalibur have bolstered their Extra Play range with a range of titles from Russian group 1C Publishing. Amongst the new titles to be released are shooter NecroVisioN: Lost Company and racer Death Track: Resurrection.

Excalibur’s Managing Director, Robert Stallibrass had this to say: “Already featuring a strong line-up of titles from our back catalogue and a selection of debut titles, this is PC gaming at a great budget price. In 2012 we are planning to release around 50 – 60 titles of a fully diversified range, many of which are previously unreleased boxed products.”

It is definitely pleasing to see Excalibur trying to keep some life in the PC retail market, clearly there is still life out there despite the ever shrinking displays of PC titles in bricks and mortar establishments.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane has been released today, and it comes along with the above, rather bizarre launch trailer. I’ve had a little dabble in the game, and I must say it is quite enjoyable, it is a high fantasy take on the Civilisation style of turn-based strategy.

It is very quick and easy to get into, within ten minutes of playing I was busy building up an army of skeletons to attack the goblin armies led by one of my opposing Warlocks, raining down fireballs and other spells on his units and cities. I may not actually play much of Warlock myself, but it seems quite a well polished and amusing game. You can grab a demo from its Steam page.