Look here for a collection of the main PSN stories from last week, including things to look out for in the coming days. This week we have an extra long version ready for the Easter holidays!
Battlefield 3
Last Tuesday Battlefield 3 opened players up to the opportunity to rent-a-server.
This allows players to play games the way they want, so as PlayStation.Blog put it, ‘Want to enable friendly fire? Done. Want to only allow spawning on your squad leader? Make it happen. Like health regeneration, but not 3D spotting? You get the idea. Your server, your rules. And if you want to keep things exclusive put a “bouncer” out front; give your friends VIP status so they can cut to the front of the queue when joining, or keep unwanted players out by banning them.’
But it will cost you. Its £1.24 for one day, £5.82 for seven days, £20.82 for 30 days and £49.99 for 90 days.
EA have been increasing the amount of these servers to match demand so if you couldn’t get one earlier, keep trying!
EA have also released shortcuts for each and every kit, allowing you to buy weapons and kit only Battlefield Veterans were able to use. Check out the PlayStation Store for a full list of all the shortcuts available.
Another addition to Battlefield 3 is a variant for Conquest Assault (like Conquest but with smaller groups) on Wake Island (in the Back to Karkand map pack). ‘This new mode offers a more tactical experience including a mobile anti-air spawn at the Beach base.’
EVE Online
The EVE Online Fanfest at Iceland recently has revealed some interesting details about the universe’s’ latest game Dust 514. Click here to see the details including how the game will interact with the PlayStation Vita.
Shuhei Yoshida on the PS Vita
The president of SCE Worldwide Studios answers gamers questions on the future, past and present of the PS Vita. Questions include:
‘Augmented reality offers many creative possibilities – how do you see this being integrated into future games? (Squanto666, from the Netherlands)’
Click here for the QA session.
Assassin’s Creed III
Some more juicy info has been revealed recently concerning Ubisoft’s next entry in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Assassin’s Creed III. Over the last week screenshots have been released of the game and these can be seen at the bottom of the post.
Ubisoft has recently announced that the game will be the most pre-ordered Ubisoft ever. Assassin’s Creed III has over 10 times the U.S. pre-order total Assassin’s Creed Revelations had after the same 3 weeks in which it has been available for pre-order.
PlayStation.Blog had an interview with Creative Director Alex Hutchinson called Assassin’s Creed III Q&A: Revolution (And Evolution) and a few notable points arose in the interview:
- Around 80% of the speaking characters are real giving players an accurate insight into the true historical events of the American Revolution.
- The protagonist, Connor Kenway or Ratohnhakéton(?!) in Native American is not fighting for either side of the American Revolution, Redcoat or Patriot. The traditional conflict between Assassins and Templars continues.
- Films like The Last of the Mohicans can give fans clues as to which weapons the assassin will be using.
- ‘The core combat system has been rebuilt completely. What the buttons do, how they do it, the enemy types, the strategy, and so forth.’
- The climbing mechanics have also been changed meaning only one button needs to be held down to free-run, R1. When R1 is held down the character will stick to ‘safe’ paths and will not jump off cliffs or where the fall could injure him. If players hold down X as well, the free-running becomes ‘unsafe’. Connor will take more vertical paths, and if a player reaches a cliff or a big fall, he will jump it. This allows gamers to choose whether to run safely through the environment or trade safety for speed.
- Players no longer have to lock on to enemies to fight them, so if you want to exit a fight, you simply hold down R1 and run.
- Players can assassinate on the run, giving the combat part of the game more motion. ‘So we have ways to run past a guard, snatch his musket, shoot his buddy, kill the next guy, and keep on moving.’
You can also read the full interview here.
The Assassin’s Creed engine, Anvil has also been fully reworked for Assassin’s Creed III. Since the completion of Assassin’s Creed II, an engineering team split off and committed it’s time completely creating a better engine while the rest of the studio worked on Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and AC Revelations.
The new version of the engine allows deferred lighting, ambient occlusion, a new camera mode, improved animations and better crowd AI that interacts more frequently with the player to create a ‘real’ living environment.
Assassin’s Creed III is also ramping up the scale of the game. The area is 1.5 times bigger than previous Assassin’s Creed games and the new engine allows many more characters to be on the screen at any one time, ‘We now have a couple thousand guys on screen, whereas before it was capped at around 100,’ says Alex Hutchinson. This allows players to stumble across large scale battles as they are played out in the world.
The improved graphics engine also allows characters to interact securely with the environment. When running or fighting across sloped or uneven ground Connor keeps both feet firmly on the turf. The designers are trying hard not to emulate the weird ‘floaty feet’ as seen in games such as Skyrim, as Hutchinson says, ‘Animation fidelity is such a big part of the Assassins brand that if we were going to do it we wanted to do it right.’
New PS3 Content
Full games to arrive on the PSN:
- Burgertime World Tour – £6.49
- Metal Slug 2 – £7.29
- Shock Troopers – £7.29
- The King of Fighters ’96 – £7.29
- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2013 – £49.99
- Wrecked Revenge Revisited – £9.49
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