came back from gamescom a couple hours ago; impressions (please excuse any misspellings):
Titanfall - yes, that game that won all these awards at last E3 and everyone couldn't stop talking about it. me rolling my eyes everytime i heard Titanfall. So i had to check it out - also a gaffer recommended it to me. Also fyi am not a fps guy, let alone play CoDs. But there is not much to say about this game besides: OH SHIT IT'S AMAZING! I HAVE SEEN IT! NOW I KNOW WHY! No, seriously - game of the show without a doubt.
First they showed us a short trailer to let us understand the basics and then we could finally try it out. What makes Titanfall so great? Being able to run through an area for 10-15secs jumping and running from one wall to another while gaining more momentum and speed and not hitting ground even once and killing everything along the way. It's so fucking intuitive and lets you play in ways that is not possible in current first person shooters. There is now another layer of depth introduced. Everything in this game seems so fluid - the animations, the way you control yourself and your mech - fluid as fuck. I left impressed. Calling titans and using them is sooo badass; i had a stupid grin on my face the whole time.
Also one time i was on top of a building and a enemy titan was below me - i right jumped onto it; my char held on to it and i started shooting at some fast rotating engines and jumping off it right before the explosion and seeing it getting destroyed and the pilot flying out of it was a thing of beauty.
Maybe the new Battlefield 4 or the new Killzone are better looking games - but from a clear gameplay standpoint Titanfall is in a league of its own. Outstanding - i am now a believer.
Ryse - As a 3rd person action game fan (i love Bayonetta, original DMC, Ninja Gaiden) i had to try this out. Yeah, after playing it you really can't compare it to the aforementioned games. Actually there is nothing quite like this on the market - there are no combos to pull - it's basically parrying at the right time with the A button and then hitting the enemy with either X (light attack) or Y (heavy attack) till a skull appears flashing above the enemy. Then you press B and you do a quick QTE where you finish him off. You can't block but you can roll. I played coop with another player and it's pretty cool if you and your friend press B at the same time on the same enemy doing a combo finish off which looked awesome. You have special attacks pressing RT which dazes every opponent surronding you.
I thought it was kinda good. I sure had my fair share of fun with it. Game was ridiculously easy though - little to no challenge at all. i blazed through the demo killing everything left and right. Another problem was whenever the finishing QTE appeared and the camera moved closer to highlight the killing animation there were sometimes clipping errors or bugs and you either couldn't see yourself or the enemy while killing him. I am not sure if they can correct that till launch.
At the end from what i have played there seems little to no real depth in the fighting mechanics. But to say the game plays itself is also wrong. You have to master parrying more than one enemy at the same time while they attack you from all directions. For me it seems like mindless fun. I saw a lot of people really enjoying this game and its crazy finishing moves. Oh and btw. it looked really good but the SP campaign looked graphically a lot better than the MP part.
Tearaway - i have no PSVita - so maybe this delightful little game could change my mind about purchasing one. Best thing about this game? Its charming world with its beautiful graphics and clean and luscious colors. It's very creative and you can do a lot of little funny things like design a hat for an NPC and then make a photo of it. From a clear gameplay standpoint there is not much challenge in this game. Keep in mind that it was really early into the game. I don't think the aim of the game is having a nice challenge but rather to enjoy the scenery while listening to the music - but i couldn't listen to any of it because it was too loud and they blocked the audio out on the PSVita so i could not even put my earphones into it. Did i have fun? Sure i did. Is it a must-buy as a PSVita owner? Yup. But will it convert me to a PSVita owner? No. But please more of this and eventually i will get a PSVita.
DKC-Tropical Freeze - played level 2-6 with my brother; hardest level in the demo and oh boy i was happy when we made out of the demo alive. We died 3 times. Game is really hard and very challenging - and there are secrets and shit literally everywhere. Beautiful game with lovely animations - it is pretty much what you would expect.
Mario Kart 8 - graphically the most impressive WiiU game. Texture work is a thing of beauty. gameplay-wise the same old good shit. But i can't believe my brother beat me using that stupid steering wheel. i felt like a piece of crap
Oculus Rift - last thing i checked out. There were two lines - one for iRacing, the other (and longer one) for Hawken - probably because it was a longer demo and you could actually play it. I went to check out iRacing with a group of 4 people in total - after demoing it two didn't like it - one of them could not really see the 3D (wtf?) the other one said it was nauseating the whole time. My brother said it was ok and i thought it was STUNNING. I loved it big time
- i am a huge 3D fan mind you. This right here is the future of gaming. You could really feel a sense of speed which felt purely amazing.The only problem we all had and agreed on was that it was cleary not in 1080p with the consequence that it wasn't very sharp and the whole picture looked a bit unclean and 'fuzzy'. I thought they had the new 1080p models there? I don't get it. Nevertheless i was amazed - you really have to experience this. I want one asap - just imagining playing Titanfall with this already gives me a seizure lol
XboxOne controller - first thing i noticed were the smaller analog sticks. I don't know how i feel about this. Also LB and RB are imho harder to reach. I did not like this at all. The rest was fine and the dpad really clicks when pressing it - it was so much more responsive. so yeah, mixed feelings.
Sony - PS4 - i had some time left so i wanted to check out the PS4. But neither the new Killzone nor Infamous were playable; and i really didn't wanted to wait 1-2hours in a line to play AssCreed4 or Driveclub or Knack. Yeah, no way to check out the new controller.
Also Hideki Kamiya and Suda51 were there. It was awesome meeting them.