Esta semana se celebró la Gamescom 2010 en Colonia, y ha resultado ser mi primera experiencia en una feria del sector de los Videojuegos. Fue una visita relámpago, en plan “Blitzkrieg”. Tan solo permanecí en el recinto unas 5 horas y media, pero me dió tiempo a ver todo lo que tenía ganas de ver. Incluso atendí un par de presentaciones y conseguí algo de merchandising (La camiseta del Portal 2 me la llevo a la tumba…). En el siguiente vídeo veréis como fueron dichas 5 horas y media para mi: cómo las viví, cómo las disfruté y qué opiniones me crearon. ¡Disfrutadlo!

ENGLISH: For my non-spanish followers: the following video sums up my experience at Gamescom 2010. Unfortunately, it is in Spanish only, but if I get at least 10 requests, I will gladly subtitle it into English. Promised.

More information about Spec Ops: The Line provided by GameTrailers! This time, a brief  but illustrative interview to Cory Davis, Lead Designer of Spec Ops: The Line and an old friend of mine, featuring some in-game scenes never seen before. Enjoy!

As one of the devs involved in the “Spec Ops: The Line” production, I’m proud to share with you the newest trailer of our awesome game. Do not hesitate of giving us your opinion and expectations about our game. You can join Yager’s Facebook Group or write a comment here to do so. Enjoy!

If the video is not displayed correctly, you can use the following LINK.

You can also download it from HERE.

Back in 2007, when the PS3 was about to be released, a few games were chosen by SONY to show off the amazing technical possibilities that this new console was bringing to the customers. Heavenly Sword was conceived to be one of these games, and it was one of the first games released for Playstation 3. This could only mean two things:  they didn’t have any problem with the budget, since they were supported by SONY, and second, they were constantly stressed by SONY’s demands. Did the game have enough time to be properly finished and polished? Did it turn to be a good representation of the Playstation 3’s possibilities? Here is my opinion:

LIKED:

A cinematic experience: 3 years have passed since this game was released and its cut scenes are still looking amazingly well done. This is one of those games that you play just to watch the following cutscene. It feels like a rewarding experience after completing a level. Just drop the controller and enjoy another awesome cinematic.

Characters with souls: There are many characters appearing in this game, but the story only spins around 3 of them: Nariko, Kai and Boham. These characters are perfectly designed. They are simply perfect: how they look, how they act, how they talk, their motivations, their weaknesses. Is not an easy job to conceive a believable character from zero in a game, and the people from Ninja Theory were able to create, not only one, but 3 of them. This may not look like an important point, but think how many good games don’t have a believable main character, offering just a plain generic excuse for a character instead.

Is not just about hacking and slashing: The game is short, actually shorter than expected, but at least they often try to entertain the player with a variety of gameplay styles, from the shooting range with the crossbow as a gimmicky excuse for the Sixaxis, to the unnecessary QTEs that often pop up on screen when you least expect them. However, the game is not just an endless gallery of combats in different locations thanks to this variety of gameplay situations. Could they be better… yes, I think so. But still, is a good point.

DISLIKED:

Performance issues: At first, I thought that this issue was only noticeable when fighting with hundreds of enemies at the same time (which happens a couple of times in the game), but then I realized that the whole game moves slow most of the time. In a fast paced action game like this, the frame rate must be higher than 30FPS all the time. I had the feeling that the game was moving at 20FPS (or less) continuously.

An excuse for the Sixaxis: SONY was proud of their new invention, and they forced developers to include set pieces in their games where the usage of the Sixaxis was required to progress in the adventure. Everybody knows about LAIR, and why it sucked. So, Heavenly Sword also forces the player to use the Sixaxis in a bunch of shooting range minigames in order to progress in some levels, not giving the possibility to choose between the standard analog control and the motion controlled one. I liked these minigames, but I hated that I couldn’t choose how I wanted to play them.

Without replayability values: The only reason why you could play this game a second time is because you don’t have any other to play with. The only reward you can get by playing it again is a bunch of pictures (good ones, I must say) that you cannot even export to your PS3 HDD and a couple of videos of the Making Off. Why not alternative costumes? Why not an arena mode? And… fucking hell… where are the trophies?

In conclusion, Heavenly Sword, still, is a good game. It has some flaws, although the overall experience is very satisfactory. Probably the game needed a few more months to be properly polished, but all games do anyways. It’s a fun game, short but intense with a respectable plot. Worth trying.

My veredict: 7/10

I’ve been waiting for this moment for a looong time, guys. SPEC OPS: The Line has been finally revealed in the SPIKE TV VGA 2009 as a World Premiere, and gamers from all around the world are receiving the new teaser very positively! Enjoy with the new footage!

As you may know, I’m working here at Yager Development as Level Designer… and now I can proudly say, IN THIS AWESOME GAME!

Before coming to Germany and joining Yager Development, I worked for 1 year and 3 months at Pyro Studios, in Madrid. We worked in a next-gen project titled COPS: The Police Experience, which supposed to be the next Holy Grail in Spanish videogame history. Sadly, and after 5 years of development, the project was cancelled one week before  last year’s Christmas. However, by the time that happened, I was already freezing my balls in Berlin (And happy about that, I must say…)

Since then, this project was abandoned and forgotten in time… until this week, because a website called Unseen64 has leaked some info and media about the game. Of course, I already had all this stuff at home, but I couldn’t publish it due to a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) which forbids me to do it so. Probably some pissed-off ex-employee from Pyro Studio leaked this media, and I’m glad he did it. Now I can talk freely about it!

So, this was the first project I worked on when I joined the industry 2 years ago. I must say that the idea behind was pretty cool, although the execution was bland and boring. This could have been a big hit, and it looked amazing from outside, but inside, the team was rotten, tired, pissed and skeptical. Most of us felt relieved when we heard that the project was finally cancelled, although I felt sorry for many of my ex-colleagues being fired in Christmas season.

Anyway, watch the video and comment what do you think about it. Some bits of the video shows a few of my ideas, like the shootout in the catwalk, the player shooting the glass to find a better sheltered path to progress, the robber shooting with an Uzi through the window and then falling through it and the shooting range (Yep, shoot-shoot-shoot). Enjoy!

More media at Unseen64

I’ve been waiting for this moment for quite some time… time that I can finally declare worth waiting.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is, although many people are always afraid of saying it, a perfect game. And by perfect I don’t mean it has no bug, glitches or problems whatsoever, what I really mean is that the whole experience is so rich, so overwhelmingly beautiful and so intense that you just don’t care about problems that in any other game would be a big deal.

However, this game deserves to be analyzed in two very different ways: first, as someone that never played Uncharted before and, of course, as a fan of this game.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for First-Timers:

Uncharted 2 is not directly connected to the first game. It just shares some characters, some not important spoken references to the first game and, obviously, most of the mechanics. So, new players will find Uncharted 2 very welcoming and easy to catch. If you really want to know what I mean with this, just read my Halo 3 review, and you will understand why a sequel shouldn’t depend directly of its prequel.

The technical evolution is very noticeable, even if the first game already featured beautiful and believable graphics back then. It’s hard to spot an environment which looks bland or boring. Every single location is delightfully enjoyable for the player’s eyes, and this is specially important when we talk about an adventure game where exploration is one of the most important keys.

Also, Uncharted 2 brings possibly the most believable cast of fictional characters ever created in a videogame, thanks to the perfectly acted cutscenes and the best facial animation technology to date.

The wonderful soundtrack is back again, bringing some very well known pieces from the first Uncharted and featuring new orchestrated songs that are going to be remembered for quite some time. All the compositions are remarkably beautiful and very well studied, fitting most of the times with the environment that you are exploring.

My GOD! Is there something wrong with this game? Nope, absolutely not… at least, for first timers.

My veredict: 10/10

But… wait a minute… is that so? Is this game really that perfect?

Well, no. But you shouldn’t care about this stuff unless you’re picky or you just love to analyze the shit out of everything. Let’s take both reasons as a starting point.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for treasure hunters:

I remember Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune as a perfect game in many ways: the level design was clean, interesting and specially, very readable. The balance between action and exploration was superb and the game mechanics were pretty good. This is why I was surprised when I found some problems in its sequel that Uncharted didn’t have in the first place.

I found the biggest problem in the readability of the levels, and this has nothing to do with its design, which is most of the times very well done and fun to navigate. The levels have a clear conflict between design and art. Everything is so beautifully detailed that most of the times is confusing. Half of the times I found myself moving in the opposite direction just because that path lured me more to go that way than the main path, and the other half trying to jump and grab ledges that looked like the obvious path, which turned to be just a nice decoration in the environment, inviting me to meet my maker. Of course, after you beat the game for the first time, you totally forget about this issue, because you already know where you have to go at anytime.

My second concern is about the balance between combat and exploration. Maybe I’m wrong, but I noticed that Uncharted 2 focuses more on the combat than in the exploration factor. This is the way I feel it, but actually I cannot prove nothing.

Third, I noticed some similarities between the plot in this game and the plot in its prequel. Beware of the spoilers!

When I talk about similarities, I talk specially about moments or places that have the same purpose in both games. For instance, in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune you get into the cathedral looking for the room with the stained glasses, and Nate opens one of them revealing the next clue to El Dorado. In Uncharted 2 happens the same with a window that opens just to show the pathway to Shambala. Another example can be found in the Shambala Guards. Is it really a coincidence finding supernatural creatures in the last stages of both games? I don’t think so. Like that, I found some examples, but who cares about them? The final result is completely different than in the prequel. Nothing to worry about then.

BUT, talking about similarities, I found even more when I compared Uncharted 2 with Tomb Raider 2. Check this out:

• Both games feature a mythical dagger: the Tibetan Phurba and the Xian Dagger
• Both games feature similar locations:
  • Tibetan mountains – Tomb Raider 2 VS Uncharted 2
  • Tibetan Monastery – Tomb Raider 2 VS Uncharted 2
  • Sunk ships (Well, this is a long shot… not quite a good comparison)
  • Ice palace
  • Lost City (In the end, you get into a location completely unknown by civilization)
• In both games, the bad guy is looking for eternal life and more power.
• All this similarities happen in their sequels.

So, does this affect somehow the whole experience that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves brings to your console? Nope, absolutely not. This game is just perfect, in every single way.

I’m tired of looking for its flaws. It’s obvious that I cannot beat this game with arguments… so, I’ll go back to my living room and I will beat it again in Hard mode. It gets better everytime you play it. I don’t know how the hell they did it.

So, whatever…

My veredict: 10/10

Now it’s time for the Playstation 3. After getting a RROD in my 360, I spent more time than ever playing my PS3, and I rediscovered some of its awesome titles, but let’s start with another downloadable game:

I heard about this game long ago, specially about it’s controversial gameplay. Allow me to say that I cannot see any controversy at all in this game, but tons and tons of funny ideas brilliantly implemented. Fat Princess’ main mode is basically a Capture the Fat… Flag mode *ehem*, which turned to be challenging, strategic and also pretty fun. The only problem that I can see is that most of the noob players focus only on killing enemies and don’t bother on collecting resources for the team, creating frequent frustrating moments. In the other hand, the most skilled and experienced players know pretty well that the first minute is crucial to capture the enemy’s princess, because most of the players are outside their castle collecting resources or fighting and sometimes they even forget to build their own main gates. So, it would be nice if they implement some kind of communication system for the players to give some extra information to the team, although the english native narrator who is commenting the game works pretty well in that subject. There are also many annoying bugs, such as princesses dissapearing under the world, lagging problems, stupid AI and a really unbalanced Gladiate mode (Is not a bug, but MAN I hate it!).

My veredict: 7/10

Last but not least, one of my new favourites franchises… EVER! Uncharted is everything a game should be. The fun gameplay, outstanding graphics, memorable music, believable characters, interesting dialogues and very smart level design turns this game in an instant classic, a must have that rises Naughty Dog to the top list of the most respectable game companies in the industry. This is the only Single Player game I’ve played 3 times in a row, having the same fun over and over again. I’m looking forward for the sequel and surely it will be as good as this one. If you own a PS3 and you haven’t played this finest piece of digital art yet, go and buy it NOW. Seriously, do it.

My veredict: 10/10