The Ride To Hell: Retribution DLC will be available as an additional mission pack as revealed by the trophy list below. The DLC will be available with all new copies of the title free.

 Eye of the Wolf
Kill 50 Devil’s Hand with the Sniper Rifle

 Fire in the Hole
Kill 50 Devil’s Hand with Grenades

 Spring Cleaning
Clear Old Moon Ranch of Devil’s Hand

 With Great Power …
Deliver the truck back to the Army Base

 Decoy?
Catch the decoy

 Egg Timer
Reach Cook and the A-bomb

 Co-Pilot
Kill 10 Devil’s Hand from Tyrell’s side-car

 Super Jump Men
Follow two of Tyrell’s men off a bike ramp

 Untouchable
Fight through the Refinery without dying

 The Final Countdown
Defeat Cook

Ride To Hell: Retribution is set to release June 25, 2013 in North America and June 28, 2013 in Europe on Xbox 360, PC and Playstation 3.

Trophy list via: PS3trophies.com

The four maps included are Ward, Checkout, Museum, and Lost City. The new Breakthrough mode is sort of like CTF except the defending team has unlimited resources as the offensive has to run with the flag to a set location to score before their lives run out. Below are some screenshots and flythroughs of each of the maps.

WARD

CHECKOUT

MUSEUM

LOST CITY

Screenshots:

Season Pass holders will be able to download the map pack once it becomes available on June 18th (now). Available for everyone else on June 25th.

Hannes Seifert, formerly Production Director for the past three years will now take over as the Studio Head at IO. Below is the official statement from IO.

The studio will focus resolutely on the future vision for the Hitman franchise and is in pre-production on a new AAA Hitman project. However we have taken the difficult decision to cancel other studio projects and initiatives at IO and reduce the workforce in this studio, which will impact almost half of the employees currently at IO, as we make internal adjustments to face the challenges of today’s market.

For those affected, we are extremely grateful for the hard work which they have contributed, and where it’s possible and appropriate to relocate staff to open positions at other studios within the group, we will try to do so.We are also reaching out to other companies for outplacement opportunities. We sincerely wish them well in their future careers. If you are part of a company that is looking for additional development talent, please contact us directly at info@ioi.dk

Having recently started my journey into the dangerous world of State of  Decay, it looks to bring a fresh look at the zombie-survival genre by making it a complete sandbox experience. Not only do you have to cull massive amounts of zombies, but also try to survive everyday life by setting up a safe house with survivors you’ve come across in your travels. There are not only missions that focus around running to gather supplies. But there’s also the wrinkle of having to switch out who goes on them, so no one becomes to tired and then is about as useful as a tube of toothpaste at fighting the horde off.

Your safehouse also has an opinion of you, and your influence is the new currency of the world. The better people like you, the more willing they’re going to be with helping at tasks. It all boils down to time management, as if you don’t kill zombies they can form massive hordes that may attack your safe-house while you are away on a mission. State of Decay really tries to bring a fresh look at the zombie apocalypse, and so far, I am loving it.

With just the first hour or so touched on State of Decay, I’m looking forward to getting to spend more time finding out just what in the hell happened while I was fishing, and  just try to live to the next day. State of Decay is definitely something fans of zombie games should at least check out, even if it’s only a demo, which is available now by the way. They may just find themselves sucked into a world where their way with the living will help protect them from people that once were.

Sometimes you want to just pound things mercilessly into submission and,  for when you have the urge, Sacred Citadel is there to feed that craving. Sacred Citadel seems to have come to life after a night of romance at a cheap hotel between side scrolling adventure brawler Streets of Rage and a level-grinding, collect-everything action RPG. What results is a game that tries to give co-op fans everything they could want from a beat-em-up, but falls a few EXP short of hitting the level cap.

Sacred Citadel is a three-person action game that has a cast of four classes to enjoy, with each one playing slightly different enough to keep them from being just a simple palate of exchangeable between models. Story wise, this is your basic “stop the bad guys from getting a powerful item that will let them rule the world!!” tale, and it does’t really add much to that classic formula either. It runs across four acts and, by the time you finish, you’ll be glad that the unfortunately bland journey is over.

One of the better parts of  Sacred Citadel is the art style. Designed to look almost like a comic book-cum-reinvention of the 8-bit era, it helps to draw players deep into the environment and gameplay. The scenery in Scared Citadel won’t blow you away, but they also don’t look like they were thrown together in five minutes. There are a variety of locations, but they all just seem to all get lost in the mindless combat. The four different classes are are also created in such a way that no matter how much action is taking place onscreen you’ll never mistake one another, and each one fights in its own way. There’s an option for gore too, so if you have little eyes in the room, they won’t be scarred by the countless miners, wolf, and fish-people, alongside other baddies you bring to an untimely end.

One of the most disappointing things in Sacred Citadel is the sound, it becomes quite repetitive, fast. Conversely, the voice acting is fairly entertaining and is something that you shouldn’t skip through. But, the story is right out of a Saturday-morning cartoon from the 80′s, one that wasn’t on one of the major networks.

The gameplay in Sacred Citadel is where the game tries a few things. First, there’s the standard button-mashing combos that can wreck a perfectly good controller, and then there are the RPG elements: i.e. leveling, new gear, and even titles. While some might think this will add to the replay value, others will just not want to go through the grind again to get new stuff. Sacred Citadel would be best treated like the classic Goldeneye: played with friends and, if of age, with a few alcoholic beverages involved. That said, replay-ability will rely solely on the players ability to stomach the button mashing grind that it takes to get everything in the game.

While it does throw a few wrinkles in the mix of the traditional side scrolling action game, Sacred Citadel just seems to come up short. It’s like going up against a raid boss and, right before the kill, he hits the enrage timer and destroys you. The trick is, how many times are you willing to pick yourself back up?

Visual/Audio – 3/5: The art style is appealing, but points are  lost for repetitive combat sounds.

Gameplay – 4/5: Fun to play, to an extent, it’s just more entertaining  to play with friends.

Innovation – 2/5: Tries to add some variety to smashing everything, but it’s all been seen before.

Value – 2.5/5: You’ll definitely get more bang for your buck if you have some buddies to play with, otherwise it can be a grind.

-Garrett B. Reviewed Sacred Citadel on Xbox 360-

This is just a quick bit of writing on my thoughts and impressions of the beta release of Company of Heroes 2. Right now all you can do is play online or create a custom game against AI. This means no campaign, no challenges and only six maps to play on. That said, you can get a good idea about how things work and what kind of equipment and maps will make it through to the final release.

It’s been a long time since Company of Heroes released in 2006, but things really haven’t progressed much at all. Graphics are certainly better than before, but not substantially so as it runs on an improved version of the Essence engine, which was used for the last game. Granted, this is a beta so things could change. The maps, so far, are also of a similar scale as before, as are the numbers of infantry and tanks. While that’s not a bad thing at all, I have trouble keeping track of all my units already, it further illustrates how very similar this iteration is to its predecessor. The Nazi play very much the same as they did in the last game, and the Russians play like the US did seven years ago.

Nazi have smaller squads – typically four units – but they are better trained and have better equipment than their Soviet counterparts. Their armour, tanks etc., is generally superior to that of the Soviets, but cost more. Conversely, the soviets (you can see where this is going) have large squads – typically six units – but of poorer quality, the same goes for their vehicles. A T-34 will be outperformed by a Panzer IV, but the T-34 can be requisitioned for less and so can be gained earlier in a skirmish, which can be an incredible advantage if used correctly.

So far, I feel the two sides are quite well-balanced. I haven’t felt truly overpowered or under-powered playing as ether side, but then again I haven’t been playing for very long. I don’t think anyone has, so its not all that likely that I would have come up against an overpowering tactic or combination of units just yet. If you play right you can normally handle anything. For instance dealing with Nazi tanks as the USSR is difficult, but if you plant lots of mines and have AT guns around to finish the job, you should be fine. Or you could just use a T-34 to ram an enemy tank, disabling its main gun and damaging its engine (this immobilizes the T-34 completely and destroys its main gun too) then move up something else to finish the job.

Despite the similarities to its previous iteration, I’m still enjoying it immensely. Indeed, the fact it’s very similar isn’t bad considering how successful and enjoyable 2006′s title was and still is. But, calling it Company of Heroes 2 seems a little misleading as it’s really the same game set on the Eastern front.

That said, I’m still going to buy it.

Watch the video here:

]]> http://thegamershub.net/2013/06/company-of-heroes-2-beta-preview/feed/ 0 http://thegamershub.net/2013/06/the-last-of-us-or-how-naughty-dog-can-craft-a-perfect-world/ http://thegamershub.net/2013/06/the-last-of-us-or-how-naughty-dog-can-craft-a-perfect-world/#comments Sun, 16 Jun 2013 15:30:10 +0000 Vaughn.H http://thegamershub.net/?p=70426 While I don’t plan on spewing forth any explicit spoilers, due to the nature of how you should play The Last of Us, I recommend you only read on if you’ve played the game. You should really start The Last of Us with a clean slate, but if you really don’t mind, then read on. Venturing beyond this point means ...]]>

While I don’t plan on spewing forth any explicit spoilers, due to the nature of how you should play The Last of Us, I recommend you only read on if you’ve played the game. You should really start The Last of Us with a clean slate, but if you really don’t mind, then read on.

Venturing beyond this point means it’s all on your head if things get spoilt for you.

It’s not often that I wear my heart on my sleeve and gush outwardly in an article about how I feel and what people mean to me. But after playing Naughty Dog’s latest epic I feel that I just have to say something about myself and why I found the relationship between Joel and Ellie – along with the raft of characters you cross paths with – just so damn enthralling, and touching.

Watching both of them journey across America in search of the Fireflies grew to become one of the most engaging tales I’ve had the pleasure of playing in any game of recent memory. It could have just been a paint-by-numbers affair on the part of Naughty Dog. After all, it already featured what people considered to be zombies, it was a third-person shooter from the action-heavy gameplay trailer that was released to the public, and it had that grubby post-apocalyptic vibe to all of the press releases. But thankfully that’s so far from what’s on the table here.

Instead you have a journey about the touching evolution of a relationship between partners as they struggle to survive in a gruelling dog-eat-dog world where threat lies around every corner. Due to the fungal parasitic spore that infects humans being easily carried by the wind, mankind can never be deemed truly safe.

It’s this looming threat that, albeit virtual – although surprisingly probable – feels like the continual worry in the back of my mind that I’ll just have a breakdown in one of the unlikeliest of places. It’s my apocalypse moment I suppose.

Despite this threat, people have formed bonds, come together, and helped one another survive. It’s not just Joel and Ellie that rely on one another. There are other groups that rely on one another to fight and find food, the bandits and hunters you encounter are just people trying to get by. It’s testament to Naughty Dog’s work that these relationships – no matter how inconsequential they are to the story – feel deep. Overhearing bandits talking shows camaraderie, killing one evokes a panic stricken and heartfelt cry of pain from others.

However, no relationship is bigger than that of Ellie and Joel. It would have been very simple to just make that 14-year-old redhead girl little more than an emotional vice for you to become attached to. Needless to say, many who are yet to play the game think this. But she isn’t. Sure she’s there to help form a bond between you and the characters, but she’s so fleshed out and independent that you never feel that she couldn’t handle herself – in fact she can and does handle herself in most situations. You don’t want to protect her because she’s vulnerable, you want to do it because she’s Joel’s only friend.

And here’s the interesting thing about their relationship in The Last of Us: they need each other. This is no more evident in the winter section of the game where Joel is rendered largely out of action – for reasons I shan’t spoil. Here you see Ellie worry about her friend and his health. You suddenly aren’t looking out to protect Ellie, you’re looking out for Joel and yourself. It’s a wonderful narrative choice that suddenly makes you realise that you can fight through even the most adverse of situations when you have someone to care for and worry about instead.

I found it strange, at first, how instead of projecting myself onto Joel I found myself as a passive observer of their interactions – my only input being the instigation of some contextual conversations and moving Joel around the level. I’m well aware that doesn’t sound overly interesting from a gameplay perspective, but it’s utterly enthralling. I fell in love with exploring the environment and seeing a truly human relationship unfurl.

It does also help that the gunplay is absolutely fantastic – bar the slightly absurd amount of people I’ve managed to wipe from the earth.

Exploring the world of The Last of Us also resonated with me – as I’m sure it will with many others. Having found many things rather dull and trite as of late, in both life and video games, the macabre world left behind is utterly enthralling. Here the smallest of details about the fall of civilisation and the heartbreak felt by those involved is so carefully crafted. Instead of treating the fall of mankind as just a statistic like many other post-apocalyptic titles do, it creates an incredibly personal world to be in.

Stumbling upon a makeshift children’s classroom, complete with alphabet pads on the floor, drawings on the wall and educational materials on the board, you see a survivor society that’s tried to find normalcy within the chaos. That’s then completely torn away when around the corner you spy small shapes piled underneath bloody sheets, nearby a decomposing corpse rests with an apologetic note in its hand. It’s clear this is a man pushed to the brink of desperation in a bid to save those, who’ve never known anything other than surviving, from a fate worse than death.

Exploring houses or university dorm rooms to find diaries on tables, personal letters to loved ones or remnants of a life that’s just fallen apart at the drop of a hat. Posters remain on walls of pop icons and favourite films, while shelves are lined with framed photos and well-worn books. You’ll even see snapshots into other’s lives through photographs of better times tacked onto walls. It’s all incredibly powerful stuff and serves as somewhat of a reminder to me that no matter what I do, I’ll always be powerless to stop some things from happening.

It also doesn’t take long to put one and one together when you’re soon faced with a swarm of infected; infected families and friends that were once just like Joel and Ellie. In some respects many of them still are, they’re just powerless to stop themselves.

The Last of Us is incredibly brutal, but honesty always is. However, despite the dismemberment at the hands of melee weapons or the breaking of limbs with shotguns, nothing is more horrifying than the look in the eyes of someone who’s infected.

It doesn’t always happen, but killing a crazed Runner – as later forms of infected people don’t have faces anymore – gives you a chilling insight into just how human they really are.

Due to the nature of the Cordyceps virus, the parasitical fungus takes over the brain and controls the body against the users will. Occasionally you’ll hear a muffled yelp of “help” or “kill me” from the mouths of crazed Runner, but nothing is as harrowing as seeing their faces as you slice into them or blow their head off with a gun. Their eyes show a mix of panic and relief as you end their lives, after all, these aren’t the faceless undead hoards found in other survival horror titles: these definitely aren’t zombies. These truly helpless people don’t want to be attacking others or tearing their flesh in a feast, but they’re compelled to by the parasite. It’s a fate worse than death – hence why so many kill themselves rather than turn.

While some may have chastised it for not breaking the genre conventions it never promised to subvert, there isn’t another title out there that has had such a profound effect on me purely through its storytelling and character development. Despite loving the Final Fantasy series and Persona 4 Golden – which are easily five times longer – I’ve never felt so connected to a set of characters before.

To me, Naughty Dog’s adventure isn’t about the infected – they honestly only have a bit part in the grand scheme of things. It’s about the people and pushing through adversity. It’s about finding yourself and coming out on the other side of the woods a better person for it.

The Last of Us certainly isn’t for everyone (but what is really?), those who find themselves lost within Joel and Ellie’s beautifully depressing adventure will never feel the same way about characters in a video game – or probably any other media – again.

There are a great deal of games, movies, comics and novels set within the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic world, but what does The Last Of Us offer that not only sets it apart, but makes it completely unlike anything before it? Is it the rich narrative, the emotionally driven soundtrack or the edge-of-your-seat gameplay that occurs within?

The Last Of Us is very vague when it starts. You play as Joel, a hard working everyman who knows a world before the apocalypse. Hardened by post-pandemic society he’s taken to being a black-market runner. This new world of 2033 is one world where the military have quarantine zones across America, seemingly at each and every major city. Joel’s ‘career’ of stealing, bartering and getting by however he can to gather weapons, ration cards or even supplies sees him cross paths with Ellie as they journey out to meet the Fireflies.

Soon after their pairing, things snowball into an unrelenting bullet train of emotions as the two take on groups of scavengers, militia, and of course the infected. Their journey sees them learn from one another and slowly form an unbreakable bond that carries itself throughout their cross-country trek.

As you progresses through each of the seasons the game takes place over, each area has a set amount of enemies, be it humans or otherwise. These situations are always tipped in their favour, not yours. You’ll have to use your brain to tackle these situations with as little fuss as possible as you’ll rarely have enough ammo to take them all down. In fact, any ammo you do have you’ll want to conserve to get some beautiful headshots in.

My first playthrough was an utter disaster, I died. I died enough times that if the Cordyceps infection didn’t require a host to be alive to take over their body, I could have had my own Joel army. That being said, brute force is definitely not how you take on any situation presented to you. Scavenging drawers, shelves, and cabinets for supplies; learning how to make shivs, molotovs, smoke grenades, medical kits and more are all essential to surviving in this gritty nature-ridden world.

You can also upgrade your weapons through metal scraps at workbenches  scattered few and far between. You can also improve other aspects of Joel, such as aiming and effectiveness of medical kits, through popping pills that you’ll find on your travels. In fact, there are so many things to collect you’ll always been looking out to find something on a surface in the dark. Luckily these aren’t just throwaway trinkets, they delve deeper into the world of The Last of Us, painting the struggle families went through in this new world.

This works well because instead of being the third-person shooter many may have expected, it’s a far more frantic story-driven escapade that prides itself on quality gameplay and ‘holy s**t’ moments. A slow pace is the way to go as making noise will usually get you spotted and swarmed by Rushers and Clickers or riddled with bullets in seconds. It’s actually quite easy to do this too as there’s no ‘cover mechanic’ as such, instead Joel and Ellie slide behind an object or up against a wall as you approach it. You won’t be snapping between waist-high cover, after all Joel isn’t a military-trained hero, he’s just a man. Joel does have one trick up his sleeve, that is unless you’re playing on Survivor difficulty, his keen sense of hearing allows. This essentially allows him to ‘see’ through walls by hearing the footsteps, groans or shuffling of enemies.

Overall, the AI does feel somewhat unbalanced. Sneaking and being quiet may well keep you out of the way, but when you get things wrong the enemy is only alerted by you. If Ellie runs out and starts flagging them down like air traffic control, nothing happens. Yet, if you breathe wrong infront of the blind Clicker you’re toast as they’ll kill you in one incredibly gory bite. You can counter this with a sneaky stealth kill or warding them off with any melee weapon, but you’re always better off avoiding them entirely. Still, doesn’t make sense that in a room full of Clickers that Joel & Ellie can have a conversation while sneaking around, but that’s something we’ll just have to ignore.

Human enemies require a different approach, although remaining quiet is still rather important. Once they’re aware of your location they’ll begin to flank your position and do their best to take you down. It’s here you’ll need to work your way behind them, throw off their attention with a good distraction, and then sneak up and take them out one by one. It’s always best to take out everybody you come across in a silent way, but once the bullets start flying – and it seems enemies always have bullets – it’s best to grab a hostage and make your escape or deal with them from a distance. The moment they realise you’ve got some form of weapon they’ll react differently to you, trundling around with a block of wood is thoroughly less intimidating than a hand cannon.

The multiplayer, which is aptly named Factions, takes a lot of cues from the single-player and puts a twist on it all. You begin your journey by choosing whether to be a hunter or a Firefly. You then have 12 weeks to survive until a shipment of arms comes through enemy territory. Here, each match payed acts as a day and every in-game week you’ll pick a mission to fulfil – which is usually a set amount of kills with a specific weapon. The more kills you make, the more survivors are saved, but you’ll also certainly not be able to save all of them. Each match begins to become a struggle as difficulty increases as your survivors struggle through each day. It’s a strange feeling for a multiplayer component, but it really just sucks you right in.

The Last Of Us is a great journey, one unlike any other game. The story builds and you can’t help but feel for all those you cross paths with. Graphically the game is a glorious achievement for Naughty Dog and video games as a whole. Environments come alive and cutscenes glimmer with cinematic flair. If you allow yourself to be taken to the world that Naughty Dog has created, you’ll be in for one heart pounding journey. Despite some AI issues, you’ll grow to love Joel and care for Ellie.

Audio/Visual – 5/5:  One of the most, if not the most beautiful game this generation. Music is superbly fitting.

Gameplay – 5/5:  Unmatched combat fluidity and a sense of danger with every confrontation.

Innovation - 5/5: Edge of your seat survival throughout the game will give you goosebumps.

Value – 5/5: Lengthy adventure that is longer than the average and the multiplayer is truly unique.

-Anthony D. Reviewed The Last Of Us On Playstation 3-