Here's a hint.
It was like finding the holy grail. Only useful.
After arriving at our wonderful hotel and getting a good, though not quite as long as I would have liked, night's rest we commenced with the merriment. The first day was spent at a theme park, which was wonderful. However, I'm not a fan of outside and I'm here to talk about the recluse's hobby of video gaming. So, that night we were invited to the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Multiplayer reveal. Now, I haven't bought a CoD game in a couple of years, not since Modern Warfare 3. I am one of those rare CoD fans, you see. I enjoy the campaign. I had considered buying this game for the campaign alone. I mean, the player character is voiced by Troy Baker. Reason enough, really. The multiplayer I've never really felt in sync with. Maybe it was the pacing, or the ineptitude in fine tuning load outs, or perhaps it was just because I suck at CoD multiplayer. So, getting invited to play this game was a little odd.
Now, we had some drinks and some food at this event, before the show which was livestreamed across the globe. The real fun, however, started after that. Once Glen Schofield and Michael Condry had finished their playful banter I got to go hands on with the game. Now, one of the major features in AW is the new exo-suit, which allows you to double jump and dash. This speeds up the gameplay considerably. Everyone is constantly moving, jumping, boosting and I like it. We were given access to four game modes and four maps in a set playlist. Map 1 always corresponded to game mode A and so forth. They had clearly chosen these four maps for those game modes as they were optimal. I don't want to see optimal, I want to see adaptable. Now, the game modes were fun and the maps were exciting. I enjoyed biolab and they're vats of toxic gas which could be used to kill players. I liked Riot, it had a cool layout and I think it would make a good map for their new game mode uplink. The defender map, meanwhile, set in San Francisco was the weakest of the four in my opinion. The layout was good, multiple paths. It had a good mix of open air and enclosed space but it just didn't flow right for me. Perhaps that was only because of the game mode I played there not utilising the map fully. Besides this, it is one of the maps with the gimmick of environment change midway through. At some point a so called tsunami will hit and put a small part of the map underwater. I never really noticed any difference as it was a section you never went to in uplink. They also made it clear that it always happens at a set moment. It's not a dynamic event triggered by players, or even randomly occurring at some point. No, it always happens at this moment.
No waiting to join a game here
Moving away from CoD and onto the next night which was, perhaps, my favourite night. It was a Microsoft event with drink and a bunch of games to demo. I also bumped into the team at Bevel studios who are making a fantastic puzzle game called pneuma: breath of life which will be coming to xbox one. It's a fun title, where you have to work out how to advance through rooms. The real charm, however, lies in it's narration. As a God you walk around marveling at your own creations, and you're a little too proud of yourself. It's funny, it's a game that goes against the silent protagonist, by having your character being the only one to talk and only to himself.
As well as numerous indie games, I got the chance to play two of my most anticipated games this year. First and foremost I had a chance to play Far Cry 4. It was the same press demo I had seen gameplay footage of; the seizing of an outpost. You chose one of three starter loadouts and got to work. Unfortunately, the screen where you chose the loadouts was in German, and it wasn't until after I realised that's what it was. Having said that, by sheer luck I chose the loadout i wanted. Or maybe it was statistics as there were only three loadouts. At any rate, I started with a bow and a silenced sniper rifle. They didn't stand a chance. It felt very like far cry 3 in the best way possible. Sneaking up and stabbing people, scoping an area out and tagging enemies to keep track of them. It was great. During a second playthrough that was cut short i chose a different set of weapons and tried a frontal assault. I got injured a couple of times and each time was prompted to heal myself. They had the little actions like in FC3 though I didn't see Ajay digging a bullet out of his arm to heal himself. Which is good, because when you crash your car and dig a bullet from your arm to heal afterwards I worry about what you're on. I didn't get a chance to see FC4's crazy villain Pagan Min, but if he's anywhere close to Vaas then we're in for a good time.
And who voice him? Troy Baker, of course.
The other game I got more hands on time with, and probably the game I played most at gamescom besides Advanced Warfare was Sunset Overdrive. I had been excited about this game since the e3 trailer snippets of it last year. It's fun, it's goofy, it's bright. I got a chance to play a little bit of single player, where I got to skate around a theme park ride whilst shooting OD'd and crazed survivors. The weapons are wacky and it's reminiscent of the Dead Rising series in this way. Now, as far as I'm aware you don't craft weapons in this game, though I wouldn't mind if you did. But, unlike dead rising 3, you're never stationary in this game. You can jump, wallrun, then use a crowbar to cruise along a power line before jumping and grinding along a rail. You are always moving and you're rewarded for always moving.
This aspect was especially noticeable when I played the co-op multiplayer. There were seven of us in a tower defense style game, protecting two vats of overcharge from the OD'd. You got points for killing OD'd with a multiplier for multi-kills and grinding whilst you perform your mayhem. While it is a team game and you are working together, you are also ranked individually at the end of each game. This competitive aspect of the co-op was reinforced at the Sunset Overdrive booth at Gamescom as they offered up a Sunset City hat to whichever player finished first during that game. Armed with a little experience of playing the game from the night before, and fueled by the desire for free stuff I valiantly launched myself into the game and attempted to kill everything before anyone else got the chance. Sadly, I was not skilled enough, nor fast enough, nor even well armed enough, to kill every OD'd before other members of my team got a shot at them. So, the race was on. Maybe there was a box on the screen that informed you how well you were doing, but I took no notice. I couldn't let anything distract me from my mission. I froze OD'd a half dozen at a time. I sliced clean through them with well placed records and harpoon shots. I blew them up with explosive teddy bears and fireworks. And yes, my friends, I won that hat.
Sunset Overdrive is an incredible game that I encourage you all to give a go. It is the anti-gears of war. Gears of war is a drab, serious cover-based shooter full of manly men and intense scenes. Sunset overdrive is all about bright colours, avoiding cover at all costs, not taking anything seriously and allowing you to look how you want to look. Now, I love the gears of war franchise, but it's refreshing to find a triple-A title that's so bright and fun and aimed at a more mature (or immature) audience.
So, that was my time at Gamescom. It was phenomenal and I hope I have the pleasure to go next year. I doubt if Activision will invite me back on their happy happy fun times battle bus, but if they do I won't say no.
Knew I should have packed the pink suit.
