How Assassin's Creed III's New Co-Op Mode Cranks Up the Pace

By Shaun McInnis, Editor

Comic-Con 2012: Things move quickly in Assassin's Creed III's new co-op mulitplayer mode: Wolfpack.

Here at Comic-Con 2012, Ubisoft just unveiled a new co-op mode for Assassin's Creed III called Wolfpack. True to its name, Wolfpack sets a team of players wild on a map full of NPCs, taking out a series of targets in a race against the clock. In fact, it's that race that makes this new mode feel like an altogether unique chapter in the world of Assassin's Creed.
Wolfpack is, in a word, fast. You begin a round with a fixed amount of time, and once your team takes out its first target (or group of targets, in most cases), you get more time added to the clock. So right off the bat, there's a strong incentive to keep things moving and string your kills together as quickly as possible. It's similar to Manhunt mode, but much more focused on the rapid succession of targets.

On top of this, there's no need to be sly when taking care of your targets. The NPCs loitering around the map couldn't care less if you brutally murder someone within close proximity, so long as they don't get accidentally stabbed in the process. Just run up, kill who you need to kill, and move on. The game actually does a clever job of explaining this with a fictional snippet suggesting the Animus has been marketed as a consumer device for entertaining yourself in historical settings.
It's very easy to catch you and your teammates running totally wild in Wolfpack mode, going into a frenzy of one target assassination after another. But where this mode challenges you is in recognizing that point at which you've crossed the line from brutally efficient to downright reckless.
For one thing, you're mostly taking out groups of targets hanging out near each other. If one player rushes up and kills a target, it can spook the others and send them fleeing across the map, closing doors behind them in an attempt to escape their would-be killers (that is, you). So, the best approach is often coordinating kills with your teammates to make sure you're all perfectly in sync with one another.

Then you have situations where, instead of having you use your basic weapon, the game gives you the option to take out your targets in a more specialized manner (such as poison darts) for added points; it's the classic risk/reward scenario.
Overall, Wolfpack seems like a mode geared toward players who want to jump right into the game and have some quick and simple fun with their friends in a co-op setting. Ubisoft isn't trying to re-create the methodical pacing of the single-player game or the clever subterfuge of the competitive multiplayer mode. It's fast, it's violent, and it's its own beast.

Resonance Review

By Eric Neigher

Inconsistent writing and shallow characterizations keep this adventure game from fully resonating.

The Good

• Some clever puzzles  
• Innovative "memory" system  
• Good music.

The Bad

• Poorly conceived and written  
• Puzzles are often contrived or confusing.

Adventure game specialist Wadjet Eye burst onto the indie gaming scene last year with its engaging game Gemini Rue, which received rightful praise for its creative design. Unfortunately, Wadjet Eye's follow-up effort, Resonance, isn't in the same class in terms of writing, puzzles, and fun. This is a shame because Resonance includes some promising innovations to gameplay for graphic adventures.

Silly desk chair, get off the ceiling this instant!

For example, rather than simply having an inventory of physical items, characters (you play four different ones throughout the game) have an inventory of memories, too--both long- and short-term. Long-term memories are major plot points that each character has witnessed; these can be recalled for hints in-game (such as remembering a secret knock) or can be used as part of the game's conversation system to discuss memories from a given character's perspective.
Short-term memory is even more interesting, allowing you to make use of items in an area that you couldn't carry with you in somewhat the same way as you'd use inventory items or long-term memories. Want to ask someone about a giant slab of concrete blocking a door? Just drag the concrete into your short-term memory, and you can use it as a topic of discussion or as a way to ask someone for help with moving it. The memory system adds a new way that characters can interact with and make use of their environments and experiences, and such interaction feels much more natural than the usual "combine syrup with cat hair to make mustache"-type adventure game puzzles.

Tread lightly around cubicle workers. They've been known to bite.

Unfortunately, such puzzles do exist in Resonance, though at the beginning of the game they're no more than a minor annoyance. Once you get past the initial introductory stage and into the meat of the adventure, however, you find yourself controlling four separate individuals, switching back and forth between them to solve some fairly basic, combinatory puzzles. Sometimes you need your group to be together, sometimes you need it to be separated, and sometimes it doesn't matter. And that's confusing.
Solving puzzles is often a question of having the right couple of folks--out of a group of four--in the right place, with the right items on them (they can exchange items, but not memories, with each other). But it's hard to know which people to take with you before the fact. Sure, it makes sense that you should take the cop to the police station, but who else should come with him? Should you take the attractive girl to distract the front-desk guy, or the annoying hacker dude to break into the computers? Mostly you figure this out through trial and error, and lots of it, and that means the middle section of the game takes way longer than it should.

The flames around the graffiti signify hell, but he's got a halo around his head. Who knows what to believe?

But even in Resonance's better-paced sequences (the multi-character deal is abandoned about three-quarters of the way through the game), there are so many outright nonsensical things that happen that you just can't get involved in the story. Half-baked writing abounds in Resonance, with plot point after plot point relying on silly contrivances (and several outright unexplained occurrences) materializing out of nowhere to move the story along--and then being dropped entirely from discussion.
In one scene, for example, the main characters come upon a note that throws suspicion on one of them, specifically naming him as someone not to trust. This causes the other three to knock him out and tie him up. Later the characters' mistrust is shown to be a misunderstanding, but who left the implicating note, how that person knew this character's name (or even that he existed), and how the note showed up just at the critical moment are never addressed.

Fray Review

By Nathan Meunier

A limited online community and a myriad of bugs hurt Fray, a turn-based strategy game.

The Good

• Rare well-balanced matches can be a lot of fun  
• Lots of gear and perks to unlock.

The Bad

• Frequent visual and gameplay glitches  
• Interface is awkward and inconsistent  
• Matchmaking is problematic  
• Weak player community.

It's always disappointing when cool concepts are killed by sloppy execution. The meticulously orchestrated chaos that erupts on the battlefield as squads of well-armed future soldiers duke it out in Fray's asynchronous turn-based encounters certainly appeals on a strategic level. But this multiplayer-only affair rapidly bleeds out its potential with only the lightest prodding. A sparse player community and an abundance of technical glitches spoil the satisfaction that comes from a match well played against a balanced opponent. Sadly, that scenario is such a rarity that it's tough to stick around long enough to reach those sporadic moments when everything feels like it's starting to click.

Overpowered opponents crush you quickly.

It's the year 2098, and three corporate factions vie for control of the planet. Rather than slaughtering each other in the real world, each side wages war in a holographic virtual realm by skirmishing with opposing groups of robotic sci-fi combatants that look like casting-call rejects for the nanosuit in Crysis. That's about as deep as the story goes, unfortunately, and while the gameplay itself is slightly more nuanced, it feels equally flimsy at times. The one inventive twist tied directly to the plot setup plays out in your choice of faction to support. Each corporation grants its troops a different perk, like bonus hit points or extra speed for your entire squad, and rallying behind your company of choice in battle after battle earns cumulative loyalty points that can be spent to unlock special upgrades for each class.
Selecting your patron corporation is a less tricky decision than picking your squad before every match. With only four slots available for your group and six character classes to pick from, expect to agonize a little over who makes the cut, since the precious experience points needed to access better gear and perks can be hard-earned. Units are decently balanced between the offensive-minded assault and tank classes, the sneakier sniper and shadow classes, and the backup support and medic classes. The inability to double up on any class is a shame, but it keeps matches from spiraling out of control. While they're so similar looking that their class icon is the only way to tell them apart sometimes, the warriors' distinct roles are clear-cut, and purchasing additional unlocked abilities and weaponry as you level up further differentiates and expands their usefulness.

Enough. Yellow.

It's not until you finally hit the virtual battlefield that things both heat up and fall apart. Matches begin with opposing sides deploying their troops across maps ranging from sprawling cityscapes to cramped laboratories. During the planning phase of each round, both sides queue up moves for individual squad members until all their action points are used up. When the preset timer ticks down or both sides are ready, the resolution phase kicks in, and all hell breaks loose. Bullets fly, strategies unfurl, bodies drop, fallen units respawn, and the next round kicks in. This repeats until the body count hits the designated quota or the round limit runs out and a victor is declared. There is indeed a certain thrill that comes with trying to strategize while anticipating your opponent's next move, particularly when your plans unfold in exciting, unexpected ways. Fray pulls off simultaneous tactical strategy decently enough, but it's rarely as smooth an experience as you find in other games that cover similar terrain.

Gears of War: Judgement release date confirmed

Epic slaps a precise date on the next skull-stomping quest

Epic Games has confirmed that Gears of War: Judgement will be released on March 19, 2013.

That's a Tuesday, and so likely only to apply to US (where games usually release on Tuesdays). The announcement was made today at the San Diego Comic Con.

[ Source: Via Gamespot ]

Comic-Con: Resident Evil 6 to Have Nudity

Zombies gone wild!

by Daemon Hatfield

July 14, 2012

According to its ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) rating, Resident Evil 6 will be the first Resident Evil to have nudity. It will be rated M for Mature, as all previous games in the series, but now there is a little skin to go along with the blood, gore, and intense violence.
The ESRB's description of the mature content reads: "One female boss character (a human-spider hybrid) is depicted nude—though without any discernible details (i.e., no nipples or genitalia); during one attack move, she briefly caresses her breasts while straddling on players' character."
Fans of the series may remember similar monster nudity in Codename Veronica, but the ESRB does not recognize that instance.
Resident Evil 6 is set to be released on October 2. Check out our impressions of the most recent demo from