Gamescom has been and gone and with it came lots of new trailers, new announcements and, well just loads of new gaming content to digest.
Gamescom
Last week we were lucky enough to get to go to Gamescom – only for one day, but it was still a lot of fun.
We will be doing some individual posts on what we got to play at Gamescom and what caught our eyes whilst we were there. But we couldn’t not mention it here.
We only managed to nab tickets for one day. During that day we got to play a good number of indie games and the new Need for Speed.
Need for Speed Heat
It’s been a while since I’ve played a Need for Speed game, in fact I think the last one I played was at EGX way back in 2015… damn was it actually that long ago, where is the time going.
Anyway, a new Need for Speed – ‘Heat’, is coming and both Murr and I managed to get a quick pass for Need for Speed as they were handing them out to random people. It allowed us to skip to the front of the queue which was pretty awesome.
Whilst I enjoyed the demo we got to try out, it didn’t actually seem any different to the last one I played and I’m not sure if it’s a game that I’d considered spending £40+ on. However, if you’re a Need for Speed fan, I’d say keep an eye on it as I’m sure you’d enjoy it.
Need for Speed Heat was really the only big game we got to play, I simply didn’t want to wait 4 hours to play anything else. Thankfully the indie games don’t have queues anywhere near as big and we got our hands on a few decent looking titles.
Metro Exodus
Outside of Gamescom I’ve been back playing Metro Exodus. I figure I should probably complete it at some point, right?
I’m up to the Caspian sea level – is it a level, more an area really I guess. Anyway I’m there and loving it.
What I like about Exodus is that whilst there is a lot to see and do, there isn’t an overwhelming amount of stuff. There is pretty much one main mission through-out (so far) with only a few little secret objectives to find should you go searching.
They seem to have struck a really good balance between giving you freedom to roam and customise your weapons without giving you so much that you don’t know where to begin.
What Metro Exodus does make me want is a modern AAA style survival game. Metro as a survival game would be awesome, hopefully STALKER 2 will fill that hole.
-Will
Concrete Genie At Gamescom
As Will eluded to above we were simply not prepared for the sheer busyness of Gamescom. And the 1 day was not enough, although we did have a great day around Cologne on the Friday. But the sheer size of the crowds limited what we fancied playing. I did take one plunge though while Will had a sit down and queued up for about 30 minutes for Concrete Genie.
I’d been keeping an eye on this beaut from PixelOpus for some time and was really glad I could get an opportunity to play it. It makes great use of the motion control and light bar on the Dualshock 4 as you graffiti the walls of run down and bleak looking areas with lovely vibrant art in which your created graffiti genie can traverse along. This is all to help re-light burnt out light bulbs around the area.
Strange concept, but the result is quite beautiful. As mentioned on the use of the light bar to paint the walls took me back to the days of Infamous Second Son, and our protagonist in Concrete Genie is also fetching a familiar beanie to Delsins.
Really charming game from PixelOpus that I’ll be dipping to get come the end of the year.
Singularity
As I tend to do, I picked up a random PS3 purchase just before Gamescom. Singularity from Activision. I’d heard reasonably good things about it and for £1.50, it’s worth the punt.
The premise of the game is that US satellites have picked up some bizarre nuclear readings over a Soviet Island named Katorga. You are dispatched to the island to investigate the phenomenons. As you draw near your chopper crashes (of course) and you have to find your way off the island as well as investigate and discover the mysteries of substance E99 which is the source of the radiation levels and the cause of the remaining inhabitants of the island.
From what I’ve played so far the game is incredibly atmospheric and in quite a few parts, simply terrifying. The open stages navigating solo through abandoned decaying buildings with notices and documents about the damage E99 can cause, and the odd noises and bumps on route. It all results in a rather tense game.
Very enjoyable thus far, and I was so relived upon progressing to a certain point to find a survivor of the crash who seemingly then takes things to his own hands and you follow. Works for me on this kind of level thank you very much.
Seems Activision just shoved this game out in 2010 with no marketing or celebration, which is a shame. Its one of the more interesting FPS stories to come from the Call of Duty factory that seemingly struggle for decent campaigns occasionally in their yearly titles.
– Murr
