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Tag: VGX

  • VGX 2013 Gets The Parody It So Rightly Deserves

    On Saturday night, Spike TV and GameTrailers hosted VGX 2013 – a rebranded video games awards show born from the VGAs of years past. Hopes were high this year as the network promised a show that would focus on the games and developers instead of advertisements and celebrity appearances. We got just that, but it somehow ended up being worse than before.

    Over the span of three hours, we were treated to game reveals and new trailers for previously announced titles. The games that were announced ranged from boring (Tales from the Borderlands) to this is too good to announce at a show like this (No Man’s Sky). In between all that, gamers got to experience banter between a Joel McHale that obviously didn’t want to be there and a Geoff Keighley that was trying to keep it all together.

    As you might expect, such a show is rife for parody and that’s just what Matt Lees at VideoGamer has done. Just like his past E3 press conference parodies, he takes the worst from VGX 2013 and gives us a reason to legitimately laugh at the latest attempt to capitalize on a gamer audience that’s tired of being treated like shut ins who still live in their parents’ basement.

    If you didn’t get a chance to watch this year’s VGX show, you’re probably better off just watching the above video. The only thing I can recommend is that you check out the debut trailer for No Man’s Sky. It was quite literally the only redeeming moment from the entire show.

    [Image: VideoGamer]

  • South Park: The Stick Of Truth Gets A New Gameplay Trailer At VGX

    South Park: The Stick of Truth was supposed to be out in stores by now as evidenced by the TV series airing its Black Friday trilogy as a tie-in. It didn’t make its original launch date of December 10, however, and is now scheduled to launch in early 2014. To make up for it, Ubisoft has released a new trailer for the title.

    On Saturday night, Matt Stone and Trey Parker were at the VGX to announce the game of the year (Surprise: GTA V won) and to show off a new trailer for their game. While the latest trailer is nowhere near as funny or informative as past trailers, it does give us a peek at an early part of the game.

    In the below gameplay trailer, you get to see Cartman training the player character in the art of ranged attacks. As per South Park’s usual humor, these ranged attacks take the form of catching a fart in one’s hand and throwing it at the enemy.

    Check it out:

    South Park: The Stick of Truth is scheduled to launch on March 4 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

    [Image: gametrailers/YouTube]

  • VGX 2013: Tom Clancy’s The Division Will Be Very Pretty Thanks To Snowdrop

    At E3 2013, Ubisoft surprised all of us with a new game called Tom Clancy’s The Division. At the time, all we learned was that it was a multiplayer-focused class-based shooter set in a United States that’s been ravaged by a disease. There’s not been a lot said about it since, but it finally got a new trailer Saturday night at VGX.

    Instead of showing new gameplay or talking about the plot, Saturday’s trailer for The Division introduced us to the Snowdrop engine. This new game engine, built specifically with The Division in mind, is said to allow the developers to immerse players in more realistic environments than ever before.

    While it’s not exactly the kind of bombastic trailer that one would expect from VGX, it is nice to see a focus on the technology used in games instead of guns and dubstep. It’s impressive technology too, especially the dynamic material shaders that allow the world to react realistically to snowfall and other weather. With this kind of technology, we’re one step closer to a true next-gen reboot of snowboarding games.

    Tom Clancy’s The Division is currently planned for PS4, Xbox One and PC. The title will reportedly be released in Q4 2014, but Ubisoft is no stranger to delaying its next-gen games.

    [Image: gametrailers/YouTube]

  • Telltale Announces Games Based On Borderlands, Game Of Thrones At VGX

    Telltale Games, the studio behind 2012’s The Walking Dead and this year’s The Wolf Among Us, confirmed Saturday night at VGX that it will remain busy as it goes into 2014. Not only will it be working on season two of The Walking Dead as the studio announced two more games for 2014.

    At the start of the VGX, it was revealed that Telltale Games is working on Tales from the Borderlands. As the name implies, it will be an adventure game series set on Pandora – the world from Gearbox Software’s Borderlands franchise. It will star an entirely new cast of characters, but characters like Handsome Jack will return to make an appearance.

    While details are scarce at this time, the guys at Telltale Games said that Gearbox is actually being very hands off with their approach to the world of Pandora. In fact, Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software, said they had very little to say about Telltale’s proposal script because they all loved it so much.

    Here’s the debut trailer:

    As an added bonus, here’s the interview with Pitchford and Telltale’s Kevin Bruner:

    The other big reveal of the night was a Game of Thrones adventure game coming from Telltale Games. This is especially exciting for fans of the book and TV series as video games based on the franchise have yet to be any good. With Telltale making a story-focused game around it, fans should now be able to rest easy knowing that the world of Westeros will finally get the respect it deserves in video games.

    If you want more, here’s an interview with Kevin Bruner and Dan Connors about the Game of Thrones game:

    Both games will hit PC and consoles in 2014.

    [Image: gametrailers/YouTube]

  • Nintendo Shows Up At VGX, Awkwardness Ensues

    Ever since its inception, Nintendo has never had much of a presence at Spike TV’s VGAs. When it was announced this year that Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime would show up at the newly christened VGX, fans got a little too excited. In fact, that excitement may have led fans to being more crushed than usual at the rather timid announcement.

    On Saturday night, it was revealed that Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze will feature a fourth playable character – Cranky Kong. This will be the first time the character’s been playable since his first appearance in Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. He can use his cane a la Scrooge McDuck to pogo bounce his way across obstacles.

    While Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze looks excellent, most of the demo was devoted to Geoff Keighley trying to get more information out of Reggie. The subject soon turned to Metroid – a franchise that’s been dormant since Metroid: Other M – and Reggie revealed that he was wearing a Metroid-themed pin on his jacket. Of course, this led to more awkward conversations as Keighley tried to get more information out of Reggie while celebrity host Joel McHale made jokes about how much money Nintendo makes.

    In short, Nintendo’s appearance at the VGX was one of awkwardness and disappointment. None of this is to say that they showed off a bad game, but many viewed this as a chance for Nintendo to win back the core gamer. A character reveal for Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze might not do that.

    You can check out the full 11-minute demo and mini-interview below:

    Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze launches February 21 exclusively for Wii U.

    [Image: gametrailers/YouTube]

  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Gets A New Trailer At VGX

    This year’s VGX awards show featured a lot less new titles and a lot more trailers for previously announced games. While that certainly led to more than a few complaints, it was nice to get a new look at some of 2014’s most promising titles.

    One such promising title is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – the final game in CD Projekt RED’s trilogy that follows the tale of Geralt of Rivia. In the newest trailer for the title, we’re treated to a few more teases of where the story will go with this final game and what will become of Geralt as he tracks down the Wild Hunt.

    As for gameplay, there’s still not a lot being shown. In fact, we get to see about as much as we saw back in E3. Still, what’s there is looking really impressive. The environments are absolutely stunning, and the towns look even livelier than they did in The Witcher 2.

    The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be out in 2014 on the PS4, Xbox One and PC.

    [Image: gametrailers/YouTube]

  • Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Revealed At VGX

    Sony kicked off the next generation of gaming with a selection of games that I referred to as super HD remakes. They were ports of PS3 games upscaled to 1080p and made to run at 60 FPS. I predicted that more studios would take last gen games and port them to next-gen hardware, and it looks to be already happening.

    On Saturday night at VGX, Crystal Dynamics announced that this year’s excellent Tomb Raider reboot will be coming to Xbox One and PS4 next year as Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition. This version of the game will be the exact same game you played earlier this year on Xbox 360 and PS3, but with some added visual flourishes.

    First and foremost, this new version of the game will employ AMD’s new TressFX technology that simulates realistic hair movement and flow. The technology was introduced in the PC version of the game earlier this year, but now console gamers will get to experience hair that realistically flops all over the place. The PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game will also sport increased texture resolutions and special effects, but none of this is new to those who played it on the PC.

    While the game comes with no extra content, it does come with all the multiplayer DLC that was released separately for the other versions of the game earlier this year. It doesn’t really seem like that much of a bonus, however, when you consider how few cared about the title’s multiplayer.

    Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition will launch on January 28 for PS4 and Xbox One.

    [Image: gametrailers/YouTube]

  • Broken Age Revealed To Have All-Star Cast At VGX

    At VGX 2013, Tim Schafer showed up to give us a better look at his Kickstarter-funded adventure game Broken Age. While showing us some new gameplay from the title, Schafer also revealed that the game will have a cast of characters voiced by some of the best talent around.

    As you may already know, Broken Age stars two characters – a young boy living on a spaceship and a young girl living in a tribal village. At VGX, it was revealed that the young boy, named Shay, will be voiced by Elijah Wood. He’s a fan of classic PC point-and-click adventure games and was asked to be a part of the project after he expressed interest in Broken Age during its Kickstarter campaign.

    Aside from Elijah Wood, it was revealed at VGX that Jack Black and Wil Wheaton will also be voicing side characters in the game. Jack Black had previously worked with Double Fine on Brutal Legend, voicing the protagonist Eddie Riggs.

    The first part of Broken Age will be released in January 2014 on Steam Early Access. Double Fine will use the funds raised from these sales to finish development of the game.

    [Image: gametrailers/YouTube]

  • No Man’s Sky Was The Biggest Surprise At VGX

    To many, this year’s VGX was a disappointment on many levels. For some, it was a lack of respect for gamers and the medium. For others, it was a lack of new game reveals. The former will hopefully be fixed next year, but the latter got some help in the form of a new game from Hello Games.

    On Saturday night, Hello Games, makers of Joe Danger and Joe Danger 2: The Movie, revealed their next project – No Man’s Sky. Whereas Joe Danger was a platformer/racing hybrid in the vein of Excitebike, No Man’s Sky is an ambitious procedurally generated universe where every planet and space encounter is unique. It’s a game entirely focused on exploration where the player can travel to wherever they want.

    In the debut trailer, we’re treated to some very beautiful environments as well as some of the exploration-based gameplay that gamers can expect. It also seems that player will get caught up in massive space conflicts between space cruisers.

    There’s no release date set for No Man’s Sky, but the developers say it should be out in 2014. There were no platforms mentioned, but I’m going to wager it’s coming to next-gen consoles and PC.

    [Image: gametrailers/YouTube]

  • Dying Light Gets New Gameplay Trailer At VGX

    On Saturday night, Spike TV hosted its annual video game awards show with a new title – the VGX. It was a smaller, scaled down event that focused more on the games than the celebrities. Whether or not this new format was successful is up to gamers, but we can at least enjoy the new gameplay reveals that came from the show.

    Dying Light, one of the most anticipated games of 2014, received a new live gameplay demo at the event. In past gameplay videos, it’s been reiterated that Dying Light is a parkour game with zombies. While that remains the case in this latest video, we’re treated to a new few new features.

    For starters, the game takes place in an open world. While you’re encouraged to take on missions, players can do whatever they want. Past trailers have shown players taking on missions from saving survivors to picking up supply drops, but this latest gameplay demo was all about the freedom offered to players.

    It was previously stated that Dying Light would be out in early 2014, but the date is now set to just sometime in 2014. The game will be out on PS4, Xbox One, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

    [Image: gametrailers/YouTube]