Sometimes it’s not all about the kids, so when they’ve finished playing LEGO Batman or Skylanders and are safely tucked up in bed, I like to do a bit of gaming, like I used to BC (Before Children). With this in mind, when I was invited along to Sony’s autumn/winter showcase to have a go at some of the big releases out soon, I jumped at the chance…
Sony had loads of games on display and the biggie for most will have been Destiny. That’s been available in beta now, so I’ve not put my thoughts down on that as most people who will be interested have probably already played it. I did play some Far Cry 4 but the game really needs more time and attention than I could give it in a brief play (and I should mention I quite liked playing Drive Club).
Drive Club– they had three tracks and three cars available to play with, an Aston Martin, a Merc and a Ferrari. The handling on the Ferrari was massively different to the other two; turning circle of a bus and felt very heavy, making it by far the hardest one to get the hang of but after about two hours of play I managed a 3:14 on the circuit and from listening, the best anyone had managed was a 3:09, so I was fairly happy given that the last time I properly got into a racer was probably the Japanese import of Gran Turismo.
Graphically it’s very pretty, with some great lighting effects and leaves and stuff blowing over the tracks. I didn’t discern much pop in and there was only a couple of instances of slow down. I played mostly on the bumper cam because that’s my fave but the cockpit view worked pretty well and the animations for gear change were great, varying depending on what angle the wheel was at. I don’t know if many of you have driven flappy paddle gear boxed cars but when I did, I was initially surprised that the flappy paddles are fixed and don’t turn with the wheel. Well, if you’re turning in Drive Club and changing gears, the driver flicks out his last two fingers to flip the paddle, which I thought was nice. The handling is definitely on the arcadey side, with lots of in game point scoring for drafting, drifting and overtaking. It was definitely a lot more fun than I expected it to be.
The Order 1886– this is a game that looks great and plays pretty well too. I went through the demo twice, admiring the moustaches in this steampunk third person shooter. There are plenty of nice graphical touches and it’s definitely a game I’d like to play more of, should I get the chance- it’s out next year so maybe by that point I’ll have managed to get my hands on a PS4.
BroForce– every single second I was playing this indie game I had an enormously stupid grin on my face. It’s a retro style scrolling shooter that’s as mad as a brush. I particularly liked the way when you rescue prisoners you get an extra character. They’re all modelled on 80’s action heroes although you do get Blade at one point. I loved this so much, I bought it on Steam for PC on the way home, although I can see me picking it up on Vita when it’s available.
Other than that I played some GT6, which made me realise I can’t go back to last gen for racing games as it looked terrible compared to Drive Club. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t look terrible, just compared to what is probably the best looking racing game I’ve ever seen. I even played some Lego Batman 3, which was fun but I realised that I can play that with the kids, so went back to Drive Club (have I mentioned how good it is?) and a bit of the new Singstar until too many people complained.