First Impressions: Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

The demo went online recently, and i had the (dis)pleasure of trying it out.

What i found was much of what i expected, seeing how the first game was critically received. The basic game play is horrible, plain and simple. It feels way to loose and clunky for a 3rd person shooter. At least by today's standards. Getting into cover is way to hard, and running feels wonky. Enemies often see you far before you have any idea where they are, and they added a feature that knocks you down when you get hit with sufficient force. Sadly that "sufficient force" is apparently getting hit by a paint ball. You'll find you're self getting knocked down all the time, and it ends up being way more annoying than interesting.

This is all made worse by the horrible camera. It's pulled in way to close, and has this weird gritty filter. I appreciate the kind of art direction they were going for. It's a decent idea to try to make it feel like raw footage from a low grade camera. In theory I can see it feeling really raw and more realistic. The problem though is that it gets in the way of game play way to much. The Grainy pictures make it too hard to see enemies, and the shaky cam only exacerbates that.

The level design is the one thing I actually tend to like. Environments break down in a very realistic fashion, and they look much like actual places. Sadly it's still not set up very well game play wise. Cover isn't set up right enough, and it can be hard to line up good shots.

This game seems to have some good ideas, but is executed rather poorly as far as i can tell. We won't know absolutely until it comes out, but I'm not holding my breath.

Preview: Fable III

New Transformations, bigger choices, the ability to touch, the ability to rule the land, and a new unique GUI system. Basically this game just looks awesome. Lets just slow down now, and look at a few individual things.


















New Transformations

The main difference now is that changes are no longer based on you're skill choices but instead out how you play. So no more looking like the hulk just cause you like melee, and no more will lines. They've also added many different things that change. One that stands out is you're weapons, including the new gauntlets that we'll get too later. You're weapons change depending on how you use them. For example you will get spikes for killing Hobbes, or if you kill innocents it will begin to drip with blood. This supposedly makes for a extremely large range of possibility's. So much so that lionhead is actually allowing you to trade and sell you're weapons online. Lastly you get something called Ethereal Wings. Which are said to show you're true self. Basically you have the option to make wings appear on you're back, that change depending on you're good/evil levels. You can't fly with them or anything, but Lionhead says people will react to them so still pretty cool.

Improved Combat

For the most part the combat is the same. The different types of attacks Melee, ranged, and magic are still mapped to the X, Y, and B buttons respectively, and you still have the ability to quickly and smoothly switch between the three. The main difference in the basics is that the animations look much smoother, and there seems to be a wider range of finishers. The biggest thing I've noticed is how magic is handled now. Instead of having a list of magic you charge and use. Magic is handled through the gauntlets I mentioned earlier. This seems to limit you as you're only able to equip two gauntlets at one time. The thing that might save the two magic limitation is the magic combo system. One example given in an interview was to combine a inferno spell with a tornado spell, and while they didn't go into specifics, and there was no video evidence. The possibility are pretty interesting if it's as dynamic as they say.



Touch

This feature actually seems to have a lot of potential. It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like (not in a dirty way.....perverts). It allows you to directly interact with the NPC's, letting you walk hand in hand with you're wife, or pick up you're daughter. It's something that so far looks like it could add a lot of depth to the interactions, which is a big thing in the fable games. It also has the potential to fall right on it's face, and be something that no one but the really big fans ever really use. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Being King/Queen

The first half of the game is about you're rise to power. After you overthrow you're tyrant brother you actually have to rule Albion.
Not too much is known about the specifics on ruling Albion. Lionhead has stated that you will be able to control the land much like any leader, and that you'll have promises to keep (or not keep) and how you treat you're citizens changes how many followers you have, which works as experience in the game.

New GUI

A GUI, or Graphical User Interface. Is how users interact and change the game, and is better known as a pause screen. Now Fable III is approaching their GUI in a very interesting way, as in they threw out the whole thing as we know it. Now instead of going into a stiff menu, when you hit the start button you go into something called "The Sanctuary" where you can change you're clothes, you're weapons and best of all talk to you're butler (voiced by John Cleese!!!). The one thing I was afraid of was that going in and out of this GUI would be very slow and clunky, but as far as I've seen it's extremely smooth, and takes seconds to get in and out. We'll have to see if this is as true as it seems, but I'm hopeful.

Overlook

So far this game looks extremely smooth. Everything looks like it's been done flawlessly, and Fable III is looking like it could be one of the best games on the year.



All pictures found at Gamefaqs.com

Just an opening.

It's honestly unnecessary.....

But just thought i would say that i'm gonna be posting some cool stuff i find, and things i'm excited about. Nothing super special, but i hope you'll be amused at least.