Hitman 2: Bank DLC Impressions

~ James ~ Leave a comment
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IO Interactive released their first batch of DLC content today – the main focus being the new “New York City Bank” map. Since its release, I’ve finished one playthrough of the level and I’ve decided to share my initial impressions with the new content.

Hitman levels are typically meant to be completed multiple times, allowing the player to experience different options of carrying out objectives, as well as physically exploring the map itself. My only playthrough of the map clocked in at 26 minutes, and I was lucky enough to able to get a “Silent Assassin” rating without having to reload a save. I know, weird flex. Nevertheless, this is the first map in a long time that’s completely comprised of interior buildings. No gardens, no streets, no rooftops. For this reason, it’s a smaller map, but also considerably more focused compared to some of the more recent ones.

The map is littered with guards, civilians, and cameras – So making your way to the vault seems pretty intimidating at first. Working out the best way to avoid all these obstacles is definitely where this level shines the most. The narrow corridors limit your options considerably, meaning you need to plan every action you take carefully, or risk getting spotted by the next person to walk through the door. The accomplishment you feel as you finally reach the vault is the peak of the level. The high-tech design of the security makes you feel like some sort of James Bond-esque agent as you weave yourself through its weaknesses – I’d say it’s the main draw of the level.

Those familiar with Hitman 2 will know there’s a mechanic called “Mission Stories” in the game, where there are set paths put in by the developers, where you can follow semi-scripted events to help you carry out the objective. I didn’t follow any of these during my first playthrough – I don’t typically do, as they weren’t in the older Hitman titles. I did get a glimpse at a couple as I was wandering around, and they seem pretty interesting and very creative.

Overall, the map is rich with atmosphere and brimming with the Hitman charm that players have come to expect from IO Interactive and the Hitman Series. I hope that in future instalments of the franchise we get more of these smaller, condensed levels sprinkled in-between the larger ones we’ve gotten in the past 2 Hitman titles – I look forward to playing more in the next few days.

CTR Remake: Beenox Are Buzzing

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Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled (developed by Beenox) was released today to rave reviews from many prolific review sites. Beenox’s passion for the Crash Bandicoot franchise appears to have paid off as the remake seems to have pleased both casual fans and critics alike. Since it’s the announcement at The Game Awards in 2018 many of the people in the Crash Bandicoot community had several fears regarding the development of the remake which the team at Beenox promptly addressed.

The Beenox team had been taking the game to all sorts of different gaming events, showing off what they had developing. Many die-hard CTR fans attended these events and managed to get a chance to play various builds of the game – Every time constructive feedback was given to Beenox they always seemed to have rectified it by the time they showed off the next build; they were listening. More and more interviews were recorded with the developers and it soon became clear that this was a passion-project to them. They are fans of the series, just as we were, and they too also wanted the remake to be the best it can be – And sure enough, everyone’s fears were put to rest knowing that the remake was in good hands.

Beenox seem to have a mixed bag of developed games, mainly ports of existing games such as Call of Duty, or movie tie-in games such as The Bee Movie Game. It’s delightful to see them so openly excited about their latest title, adding their own charm to the remake that wasn’t possible in the original. Now… I’m not a betting man but I’d gamble that there’s gonna be cause for celebration this weekend at the Beenox offices – And I’d say, well earned!

Banjo & Kazooie in Smash: A Rare Opportunity

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Nintendo & Microsoft’s newest collaboration shocked everyone for the better last Tuesday, and it’s opening up more and more potential for the franchise. It’s been a week since Nintendo announced the addition of Banjo & Kazooie to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, something people didn’t think possible until now. There had been murmurs of his addition to Smash in the gaming community since 2015 when Phil Spencer openly tweeted that he’d be happy with Nintendo using their IP in the game.

Four years later, that murmur became a reality and everyone is raring to know what’s in store next for Banjo & Kazooie. It’s not the first time Microsoft and Nintendo have collaborated and given fans what they want; Earlier this year Microsoft announced that their previously Xbox exclusive “Cuphead” would be making its way to Switch, just a few months after Phil Spencer (Head of Xbox) shared the stage with Reggie Fils-Aimé (Nintendo) at the 2018 Game Awards and expressed their willingness to work together within the industry.

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From left to right: Shawn Layden (Sony), Phil Spencer (Xbox), and Reggie Fils-Aimé (Nintendo)

These events have gotten fans scouring for any hint of a possible revival of the Banjo-Kazooie franchise, and to their luck, they managed to find something slightly interesting: The German Amazon store has listed a game called “Banjo-Kazooie” for Nintendo switch. Could this mean that Banjo-Kazooie is getting a possible remake/remaster coming to Switch? Nobody knows just yet, but one thing is certain, and it’s that people are eager to find out what’s next in store from this continuous collaboration between Microsoft and Nintendo.

Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077: It Just Makes Sense

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Last week it was revealed by CD Projekt Red that Keanu Reeves is starring in Cyberpunk 2077 – Playing as Johnny Silverhand. It was reported in an interview afterwards that he has the most dialogue in the game, bar the main character – Clocking in at 15 days of voice acting being recorded. When watching the reveal, I had mixed feelings about a famous actor being attached to a game for seemingly no reason. However, after some discussion and thoughts I’ve come to realise it’s borderline genius, and here’s why.

My initial thoughts on the reveal were that CD Projekt Red were trying to pull a similar thing to Hideo Kojima’s “Death Stranding” – adding famous actors to their games just because they felt like it, or just trying to make it seem more “legitimate” or appealing to someone who doesn’t typically play videogames. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but to me, it just seemed unneeded. After watching some interviews, and learning about the lore of Cyberpunk I realised how wrong I was.

We learnt that Reeves is playing a character called Johnny Silverhand, who is (basically) a cross between a famous rockstar, and John Wick – but that isn’t why it’s genius. The reason I believe it’s a good design choice is that the connection between the character in the game, and the actor in real life, are the same. Johnny Silverhand and Keanu Reeves are both famous in their respective worlds. Why is this genius though? It solves an issue which plagues “MacGuffins” in films; When playing a game there’s sometimes a “famous” personality that’s introduced that the character you’re playing (among others) make a big deal about – But you, as a player, know nothing about them, so the whole situation comes somewhat disconnected. Grand Theft Auto has done this a few times, and it always feels awkward in my opinion, especially if the character you’re playing knows more about them than you do.

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V – The Protagonist

Johnny Silverhand being an established famous figure in the Cyberpunk universe makes picking a well-loved actor like Keanu Reeves make so much sense. Consequently, when you see Johnny in the game, and you (as a player) are making choices around his fame, and your character reacting to him, it will feel less forced and more natural to how you would react in real life. You know this character, and so does everyone else in Night City. I’m eager to see what else CD Projekt Red have to show off as we draw ever closer to the release in April 2020.

E3 2019 Review

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“You’re breathtaking!”

Another year, another E3. The press conferences wrapped up the other day, and the final day of the show floor is upon us – And as promised, here’s my follow-up to my previous post.

First off, we had Microsoft’s Press Conference which I felt was positive in many aspects; lots of games shown, lots of different options to play. The Xbox Game Pass (which they offered in most games) is an undeniably good bargain for those who play their games on both Xbox One and PC. It seems like a very consumer-friendly way to play games in the style of a Netflix-esque subscription. They didn’t have any big surprises up their sleeve, bar the “Keanu Reeves Cyberpunk reveal” – And no Banjo Remake/Smash trailer as I hoped. In my opinion, it was an above-average conference – not amazing, but I can commend the non-stop reveals.

A few hours later, we had the Bethesda Press Conference which was… interesting. Fallout 76 got a free trial, which is similar to what I predicted previously – we also got some game announcements. There was a heavy focus on mobile games and trying to make amends for poorly made games that should’ve been fixed before they were launched. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and I think it’s gonna be a while before Bethesda regains the faith from fans that they once had.

The next day we had the PC Gaming Show, which went as expected. We saw some new indie titles, some of which were on Steam and not Epic Store exclusive – which was surprising. I predicted there’d be some “boos” from the crowd when an epic store exclusive was announced. It didn’t happen, but we got the next best thing. Awkward pauses for applause and all.

I failed to mention the Ubisoft press conference previously, partly because I don’t have much interest in their games. The previously leaked Watch Dogs: Legion appeared to be very ambitious which surprised me. Being able to “play as anyone” sounds good on paper, and looked good in the demo, but because of Ubisoft’s history of downgrading the final product, I’m cautiously optimistic.

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Watch Dogs: Legion – Set in London

Square Enix’s press conference played out exactly as I thought it would. Final Fantasy VII was shown off extensively at the beginning, looking very flashy too. The rest of the conference was information regarding existing titles, with a small snippet of Avengers gameplay at the end. I wasn’t too impressed with what was shown of The Avengers, but I’ll need to see more before I can judge it properly.

Lastly, we have the Nintendo Direct, and as predicted Erdrick (among others) was revealed straight away. At this point, some of the people I was watching it with were pretty gutted to not see the fan-favourite Banjo appear, but I never gave up hope. Throughout the Direct, we saw more Luigi’s Mansion 3, Animal Crossing, and the “debut” of the new CEO of Nintendo America, Doug Bowser. Just as it looked like it was wrapping up, Banjo was revealed for Smash – despite all odds. Incredible – But oh, wait. One more thing was revealed, the Zelda sequel that everyone was waiting for. No release date (or year) given, although it looks promising already with a different tone from the previous game. An impressive presentation.

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Banjo’s Reveal for Super Smash Bros.

E3 2019 was a different one from previous years with Sony’s absence – It felt like something was missing because of that. The best presentations tend to be the ones that focus on the reveals, gameplay, and none of the marketing “shpiel” in-between – which Sony excels in. The majority of titles from all companies were given a 2020 release date – Although 2019 seems to be a slow year for gaming overall (in terms of releases), at least we have next year to look forward to, which is already filled with top-tier games in the first half. For now though, that’s a wrap for E3 2019.

My Hopes & Expectations for E3 2019

~ James ~ Leave a comment

The main bulk of E3 press conferences are less than a day away and I’ve succumbed to the temptation to do a “casual” prediction-type post. It’s a smaller year for E3 this year due to the lack of Sony and EA, so the potential surprises from them are minimal – Let’s go through some of the main conferences and I’ll discuss what I hope and what I think will be shown.

Firstly we’ve got the Xbox E3 Briefing, which I usually have pretty “low to average” expectations for, however, this year I get the feeling it will be different. Microsoft has recently bought a bunch of studios to develop first-party exclusives for their system and I think this is the show where they’re gonna be going all out, guns blazing. I hope (and think) that we’ll be getting a reveal for Banjo in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a big surprise, as several leaks/sources have been pointing to it these past few weeks – As well as a remake/sequel. I’m also expecting a Cyberpunk 2077 trailer, as well as most title’s (such as Halo) being shown & announced for Steam. Honestly, I think they’ve got a lot of surprises up their sleeve, so I’m not entirely sure what else to expect – I hope I’m correct.

Next up we’ve got the Bethesda E3 Conference, which I predict will announce Fallout 76 going free-to-play and being released on Steam. Existing titles such as Doom: Eternal will be shown off – the usual stuff. Also, I predict an announcement for Prey 2, as well as The Evil Within 3. Bit of a shot in the dark, but I think those fill in the gaps of already announced/upcoming games.

The PC Gaming Show (Sponsored by Epic) will likely be underwhelming – A lot of announcements for Epic Exclusive games, and maybe some “boos” from the crowd. Wouldn’t be surprised if there was some Borderlands 3 gameplay, too.

Square Enix’s Conference is expected to show off the elusive “Avengers” game, and possibly have a heavy focus on the Final Fantasy 7 remake. There’s not much more to say about them other than that.

Finally, we have the Nintendo Direct, where I predict another Smash Roster reveal. Personally, I’m not sure who it will be, however, rumours suggest it will be Erdrick from Dragon Quest. Additionally, I’d also like to predict some (wild) game announcements: A new mainline Mario title, and a new mainline Zelda title. Other than those things I’ve got nothing else to predict other than gameplay from already announced titles such as Animal Crossing, Pokemon, and Luigi’s Mansion 3. As I said previously with Microsoft, I’m expecting some big things here – Especially since they’ve been doing dedicated “Directs” for Pokemon and Super Mario Maker that could’ve easily been put into this one; they wouldn’t have done that if they were lacking games to show.

In conclusion, I think we’re gonna see some big reveals here, even with Sony’s absence. I’ll probably make a follow-up post after E3 reviewing certain aspects of the event, as well as whether my predictions were dead-on or way off the mark. We’ll see!

Destroy All Humans: An Alien Development

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It was announced today that the Destroy All Humans franchise is making a comeback in the form of a remake; developed by Black Forest Games and published by THQNordic. This came to a surprise for some – but not for others, as the news was leaked a week before the announcement stating THQNordic would announce some new games on the run-up to E3, Destroy All Humans (DAH) being one of them.

The game is a remake of the original from 2005, originally developed by the now-defunct Pandemic Studios, who also went on to develop the sequel. The franchise had a rough development after Pandemic’s closure in 2009, with DAH getting 2 sequels that were developed by other studios. Destroy All Humans: Big Willy Unleashed (2008) was planned to be released for the PSP, and the Nintendo Wii, however ultimately only the Wii version was released to below-average reviews. Another sequel was released in 2009 titled Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon for the PS3 and Xbox 360, developed by Sandblast Games. The developers were closed down midway through the development, and as a result, the final game was released in an unfinished state – The generally unfavourable reviews reflect this, many of them highlighting the bugs and glitches they experienced during their playthrough.

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The newly announced remake is slated for release in 2020, being developed by the previously mentioned Black Forest Games – Who do not appear to have a good track record; developing the infamous “Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back”. While I am cautiously optimistic for the title, I hope that the Germany-based developer can prove their talent through the reimagining of the original DAH, making Bubsy a simple misstep in their development history.

Death Stranding: Kojima Unchained

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It’s been a week since the “Death Stranding Release Date” trailer was revealed and it’s already amassed almost 7 million views on YouTube. It appears with every trailer that gets released we get no answers and more questions – and everyone is loving it. The reaction to the trailer demonstrates how the mystery surrounding the title is pulling people in, making them want to learn more about the game. It’s comparable to an unfinished jigsaw puzzle but in the form of a narrative spread across several trailers – Everybody wants to see the “full picture” when the game finally releases in November.

Hideo Kojima tweeted shortly after the release of the trailer stating how the Decima engine (created by Guerilla Games) has allowed him to make his vision a reality, including that he’s had the game envisioned in his mind since January 2016 – just a few months after the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Many of the landscapes shown in the trailers are similar to those found in Iceland which Kojima visited in 2014, leading us to believe that this is where a lot of the inspiration for the main setting of Death Stranding originated.

One of the many tweets of Iceland which can be compared to Death Stranding

Those who have been following Kojima’s work closely will be aware of the troubles that the aforementioned Metal Gear title faced. In early 2015, rumours began to circulate that there was an ongoing feud between Kojima and Konami. During this time Konami removed Kojima’s name from the box art as well as limiting the team who were working on the game. This caused rumours to surface that the previously released Metal Gear HD Remasters & Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance were only produced to help fill the budget Kojima was quickly tearing through, which greatly displeased Konami. Although it was never confirmed first hand by either Konami or Kojima, insiders leaked the information regarding the dispute – including the working conditions of Konami employees. Soon after MGSV released many players realised that the game was unfinished in many aspects as a result of the Konami-Kojima breakup, leading many players to feel unsatisfied with the game they waited 3 years for.

3 months after the release of MGSV, Konami allegedly forbid Kojima from attending The 2015 Game Awards which brought more public attention to Konami’s unethical decisions regarding (now previous) employees. 12 days later on December 15th, Playstation announced a new partnership with the newly reformed Kojima Productions including a new console exclusive title for the Playstation 4 – This would later turn out to be Death Stranding.

Hideo Kojima & Andy House (Playstation) in the announcement video

Playstation has a history of taking risks which usually pay off and it seems Kojima Productions is no exception as their talent is easy to see. At the 2017 Game Awards, Norman Reedus who had previously worked with Kojima on the Konami owned (and cancelled) Silent Hills took the stage with Kojima enthusiastically stating “We’re Back… and nothing is gonna stop us this time!” to the crowd’s delight. This is what people want out of a game from Kojima Productions. A game with a vision, no obstacles, no strings attached – and it seems that’s exactly what we’re going to get.

Ape Escape 4: No More?

~ James ~ 2 Comments
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It’s been a year since the publication of my “Where is Ape Escape 4?” video, and unsurprisingly there’s been little to no new information regarding the elusive Ape Escape 4.

The Ape Escape (Saru Getchu in Japan) franchise was the golden goose of the Playstation 1, Playstation 2, and Playstation 2 era – Especially in Japan. Being the first franchise to make dedicated use of the PS1 Dualshock controller it built a name for itself through several console generations using charming humour, and intriguing level design. Western countries received significantly fewer titles than Japanese consumers, with many titles being released exclusively in that region – Despite the franchise being relatively popular in all regions.

Ape Escape 3 was the last mainline title released worldwide, with a few spinoffs being released on PSP and PS2. Since 2005 there have always been rumours of the elusive fourth entry to the series, spanning the entire PS3 lifecycle – The one exception being a Playstation Move title, with a large focus on motion controls. It’s not what fans wanted, and it received generally below average reviews.

Since covering the topic last year, there’s been one development which could indicate a possible return of the franchise. In early April 2019, the Japanese website for Ape Escape was updated with a slightly more modern look – revealing no new information, unfortunately. The 20th anniversary for the franchise just passed in May, additionally Sony is not attending E3 this year, so it doesn’t look promising for our beloved Simian series.

The optimists among the community may hope for a Playstation “State of Play” to be broadcast around E3, possibly revealing a new title. While possible, I wouldn’t put all my bananas in one basket. Fingers crossed.