We received an invitation to get some hands on time with Spec Ops: The Line this past Thursday in a swanky hotel in mid-town Manhattan. Yup, that Spec Ops: The Line. The game we saw at E3 2010 behind closed doors then hadn’t really heard from since. I was excited by what I had seen a year and a half ago and really curious to see what the developers, Yager had done with the game over that time.

I was brought to a room to meet with Tarl Raney, a Producer at Yager. He gave me a quick overview of the game, much of which hadn’t changed since we saw it at E3. It’s set in near present day Dubai. A massive sandstorm has ravaged the city forcing the evacuation of much of the population. A U.S. Army squad, under the command of Colonel John Konrad was diverted from Afghanistan to Dubai to help with the evacuation under protest from the UAE Government. While in the middle of the evac an even larger series of storms hit, all contact was lost and all were presumed dead. About six months later,, a weak distress signal is picked up and the US Government decides to send in a three man Delta Force team to find out what happened and rescue any survivors if possible.

Spec Ops: The Line is a third person shooter and the action kicks right in with an intense helicopter battle over Dubai which ends in your team getting shot down. As you emerge from the wreckage and get your bearings, you’re introduced to the team through some really funny banter. What I really noticed over the hour plus of play time I had is that the humor went away as the situation got more tense and confused and the characters were reacting to and dealing with some really disturbing situations. It really gave the game a much more emotional impact as I played it.

I played through a number of levels spread across roughly the first third of the game. As I jumped from say, level 1 to level 4, a short video with voice over gave me the basics of what happened between the levels. I’m glad it was done this way, because I was able to get a pretty good sense of gameplay without too many spoilers.

The gameplay itself will feel familiar to veterans of shooters but there are some nice additions here. With the push of a button, you can give simple commands to your teammates. The commands are context sensitive and will appear onscreen as an option where appropriate. For instance, I was able to target a few enemies to be taken out which allowed me to focus on other enemies. I also had someone throw a flash grenade so I could quickly follow up with rifle fire to take everyone out.

The other big thing is the use of the environment which we saw briefly at E3. In the wake of these massive storms, sand is piled up all over the place. Early on, I was being attacked from higher ground, but my enemies had a bus filled with sand right behind them. Taking out the windows quickly buried them, ending the threat. I also got caught in a massive sand storm while being overrun and I was barely able to survive. It was pretty intense.

The combat itself felt good. There’s a pretty good cover mechanic which will allow you to make use of your environment but much of it is destructible so you usually won’t be able to stay in any one place for too long. Negotiating the area and flanking your enemies can be critical in battles but you really have to keep and eye out when moving up and around corners. I found that out the hard way and barely escaped twice. The context sensitive moves are still in place as well. For example, if you run up to and jump over a barrier that an enemy is hiding behind, your character will automatically drop kick them on the way over. As you move deeper into the game, your characters will also start to show the wear and tear of the mission. They’ll get bloodied and bruised and they’ll stay that way. Combined with the combat, it’s all very fluid and adds to the realism of the game.

The sense of foreboding is almost palpable as you make your way across the hazy landscape. You’ll make your way through the wreckage of cars and buses, over piles of dead bodies and into some truly horrible situations. I don’t want to give too much away, but you’ll quickly come to realize that there are several groups fighting for control of the city including armed locals, the CIA and more with quite a few civilians caught up in the middle of it all. When you come into the picture, you’ll initially get mistaken for one side or the other and you’ll have to fight some people you won’t want to and it all goes downhill for your squad from there. The choices you’ll be making in the game are entirely up to you. There’s no right or wrong answer and they’re not always obvious, much like on a real battlefield. There are also multiple endings to the game which you can arrive at in a number of ways.

Co-op, which was briefly mentioned at the E3 2010 session is now gone and it makes sense. In most co-op sessions I’ve played, I miss a lot of dialogue and I’m not paying too much attention to the story. This is the type of game where story and dialogue are critical. The darkness and intensity of it all really demands your full attention and talking to a co-op partner would take you out of the game. There will be multiplayer, but it’s being kept under wraps until a later date.

The initial promise of the game in 2010 was that you’d be dealing with a mature storyline which we saw briefly with the decomposing bodies hung from light posts. Raney said that after E3, they went back in and focused much more on the narrative , keeping the general story arc the same but really working hard to make the moment to moment elements more cohesive and dark. From what I saw, which was roughly 20-30% of the game, they really nailed it. Several times during the session I could see that things were going to get really bad, really quick and it made me very uncomfortable. I had choices to make that I wasn’t ready to deal with and even though I felt sick to my stomach, I loved it. It made me feel like I was in a real situation, dealing with the fog of war, having to make a choice based on what limited information I had and then having to live with the consequences of my actions.

If you’ve listened to the podcast for a while, you’ll know that this is exactly the type of game I’ve been looking for. I’ve been waiting for a developer to take that next step with realistic and uncomfortable situations, forcing the player to make choices that aren’t always black and white. Yager was able to keep me on the edge of my seat with action and discomfort and a gripping storyline throughout my entire session. if they can keep it up for the entire game, and all indications are that they can, I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll have an early Game of the Year candidate when Spec Ops: The Line is released.

Listen to Episode 254 of the podcast releasing this Wednesday for more coverage along with an audio interview.

Video Interview With Tarl Raney, Producer at Yager.

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I blame the PSNation podcast for my new addiction.  I was an innocent RPG fan.  I occasionally visited the FPS realm with games like Killzone and Resistance.  And when Torgo and Co. would talk about Zen Pinball I’d recall me old opinion of pinball games.  “How can you enjoy a game where you look at the same environment all the time?”

Then Zen Studios released Zen Pinball free for Plus members, so I shrugged and gave it a shot. Yeah, I am now an official pinball convert.  I purchased some of the Marvel tables (because I am a huge Moon Knight fan and I had to try his table).

But word had it that Zen Studios was releasing a new table that would be right up my alley.  Torgo mentioned it a few shows ago, and I went frantically-looking for it, but it was nowhere to be found.  Finally, the official announcement came today.  A Role-Playing Pinball table.  It lampoons my favorite genre in a goofy and clever way (reminiscent of Monty Python).

But poking fun at the genre isn’t the only thing that makes Epic Quest an RPG/Table.  The main character Max is looking to defend the realm from injustice, rescue wealthy maidens, and earn as much loot as possible in order to build up his arsenal of weapons and armor.

But get this…Max levels up.  Even if your game is over and you lose all of your balls (TWSS) Max will continue with all his possessions and levels into the next game, so you will be rewarded for continuous sessions.  Max’s armor will also visually change as you acquire new pieces.

Zen Studios continues to impress with their new tables, and this is no exception.  They have added a level of depth and humor into the pinball genre, and I’m excited to give this a shot when it’s released to the PlayStation Store this month.  Check out the trailer below.

MLB 12 The Show: Day 3 – PlayStation Move Controls and PlayStation Vita

This year the team has decided to make The Show completely playable by using only the Move controllers, and what they have come up with is surprisingly well done. Check out this video of Lead Designer Eddy Cramm explaining how these controls work.

Honestly, the controls work very well, and the fact that this series has always been about “choice” this is a perfect opportunity to play The Show with your kids. While you may have your controls set to Pulse Pitching, Analog Zone Hitting, and Classic Fielding, the simplified Move controls can be set for the other player. The Move controls are quite intuitive and are very easy to pick-up and play with. There’s a bit of a hesitation in the hitting at first, but once you get used to the timing, it works very well.

PlayStation Vita:
When they say the the Vita version is feature-identical to the PS3 version, they’re not kidding. The only exclusions from the PlayStation Vita version of MLB 12 The Show are Diamond Dynasty (full details coming in February) and that some of the Presentation elements like the lengthier cutscenes etc have been removed or cut-down. The removal of these Presentation elements was a decision they made in the interest of timeliness on a handheld. They believe that on a portable system, the player isn’t interested in playing a full game that lasts 3 hours because every player movement, hold-up at the plate, and pitcher scratching himself, and to me, that decision makes total sense.

The game itself looks virtually identical to the PS3 version, but “only” at 30FPS instead of 60. During development, any change to the PS3 version was automatically included in the Vita build. So when we saw that the strikeout K’s in Miller Park weren’t correct, the changes to correct them were in both versions the next day, which was pretty sweet to see. All of the control options from the PS3 version (barring the Move controls of course) are present in the Vita game, and even with the smaller buttons and sticks, all work very well on the handheld. Honestly, I’m surprised at how well the game plays, and I was quickly hooked.

The touchscreen is used in interesting ways if you so choose. The back touchpad can be used for picking runners off as the pitcher, and can be used for throwing the ball as a fielder. The front touchscreen can also be used in ways such as choosing which pitch to use and to aim where you’d like that pitch to go. Again, you can play the game exactly s you would on the PS3 if you choose to do so.

In terms of transferring your Franchise or Road to the Show between the Vita and PS3, the process is incredibly simple, and as we’ve said before, this “cloud save” does NOT require PlayStation Plus and is available to anyone that owns the game. The “cloud” in this case is on the MLB 12 The Show servers, and not on the main PSN environment. We couldn’t verify if you can transfer any save files via the PSN PS+ cloud, but I will try to find out as soon as they activate Vita PSN services here in the US. Multiplayer is available both online and in Ad-Hoc mode. We didn’t get to try any multiplayer though, so I can’t really speak to it.

I’m definitely getting both versions this year, as the opportunity to take my Road to the Show actualy ON the road is too good to pass-up. The Vita version is quite impressive, especially how close it s to the PS3 game. This will make trips out f town a lot easier from now on.

While we’re all waiting for the inevitable announcement for Barbie’s Horse Adventure HD Collection (complete with Trophy support, Vita integration, and optional Move and 3D support), some folks are pretty content with getting Jak and Daxter in HD next month.  So with this in mind, Sony was kind enough to tease us with a few more screenshots of the HD release of the trilogy.

I’ve said it once, and I’m going to say it again whenever I post another story on the series: those of you who are new to Jak and Daxter, do not mistake this for a “platformer kiddie game.”  While the original Jak and Daxter is a colorful and child-friendly game, Jak 2 and 3 are strong open-world, free-roaming adventure games.  And they are merciless (in a good way).  Don’t miss out on experiencing these amazing titles next month.

Quietly and slowly the year begins to stretch its limbs as it welcomes in snippets of news or information trickling in from developers of our favorite hobby.   Max Payne doesn’t celebrate the holidays, not since tragedy struck his family over a decade ago.  Instead he reminds us that the injustice doesn’t celebrate holidays, nor does it care if you are or are not.  It just wants to get you!

Rockstar shared with us some screenshots of the multiplayer mode in their upcoming Max Payne sequel.  If not for the little names bouncing atop the players’ heads, one could easily mistake these for single-player screenshots, as they indicate some dynamic movement in the deathmatch arena (diving, rolling, etc. etc.).  This opens up the possibility of some intense matches, not to mention cinematic.  Check them out below.

Last week at the Sony 2011 Holiday Media Showcase in New York City, I was able to meet with Brian Upton, Senior Designer for Sony’s upcoming Move based title, Sorcery. A lot has changed since the E3 reveal back in 2010 and the game is really shaping up to be a model for how to make a motion control title.

You’ll play as a seventeen year old sorcerer’s apprentice with a know-it-all attitude. As the game starts, you’ve been an apprentice for about three months and the magical cat companion that follows you around dares you to enter The Land of the Dead. Of course you do, and of course, you accidentally unleash a nasty evil on the world. It’s then up to you and your companion to set things right.

You’ll travel across the world together but you and your companion cat aren’t all buddy buddy from the start. Early on, she’s pretty antagonistic towards you and quite sarcastic. As you move through the game however, she’ll give you hints and advice and eventually you’ll form a mutual respect for each other and a stronger bond. It’s a nice touch that should add more to the narrative and keep it from being a mindless action game.

Two different levels were on display showing off different areas of the game. Essentially a third person action-adventure, the disc based game will have three difficulty levels and roughly six hours of gameplay. While that may seem a bit short at first glance, remember that this is a Move only title and you probably don’t want to be swinging your arms around in combat for 20-30 hours. Controls require a combination of a Move controller and a Nav or DualShock 3 for movement. Because it’s Move only, the developers have worked to change up gameplay often enough so you won’t get tired. The game gets broken up into action scenes, narrative scenes and puzzles much like any good action title, but obviously more critical here to keep the player from getting fatigued.

When designing the game, the developers looked at action titles as their basis for the core gameplay, and it shows. Many motion based titles nowadays tend to be on rails which severely limits the gameplay, ahem, Star Wars Kinect, but the developers wanted Sorcery to play like a standard action game and from what I’ve seen, they succeeded.

What you’ll see on screen is a fantasy world that borrows from a number of different styles and cultures creating it’s own look along the way. There’s a health bar on the left with a Heroic Strike meter above it and Manna on the right. The Heroic Strike meter will charge as you cast spells while fighting and when it’s unleashed it can have a devastating effect on nearby enemies. Refilling your health is actually a fun and clever use of the motion controls. You’ll need to pull out a potion and shake it up, then drink it making all the movements intuitively with the Move controller. I had a huge smile on my face while playing the game and this part just made me laugh.

Combat tends to be just as intuitive. You can fire basic bolts along with using wind, fire and ice and everything has an alt fire mode, as in any good action game. To fire off a simple bolt, you’ll hold your wand straight up and flick your wrist forward, you can also hold it to either side and swing it across you body to curve shots around obstacles. This comes in handy as the enemy AI is good at hiding behind things and firing at you. If you point down and sweep your arm across your body, you can lay down a barrier with your elemental spells like a wall of fire. Firing bolts through the fire turns them into fire bolts causing greater damage, the same with ice. Wind can be used to create a mini maelstrom to throw enemies around. You’ve also got a shield and can use a shield bash to push enemies back if you get surrounded.

All in all, you have seven base spells with eight combos and the combos become essential to progress in later levels. It all works really well and it feels great when playing. I can see this being the inspiration for a proper Harry Potter action game somewhere down the line.

Littered around the levels are chests where you can find treasure, gold or alchemy ingredients. You’ll use those ingredients in a light RPG-like alchemy system. You’ll have the ability to research up to 56 different potions which will determine your upgrades throughout the game. For example, drinking all the fire potions will make your fire spells more powerful. There are about a dozen upgrade opportunities during the game and you’ll need to decide what you want to focus on as only about a quarter of the full upgrade tree can be explored in a single game. The nice thing is that you have the option to keep all your upgrades for subsequent playthroughs.

While it’s not an on-rails experience, it’s also not a massive open world like a Just Cause or Grand Theft Auto. The game is fairly linear but there are plenty of side paths and hidden areas which contain a lot of the alchemy elements making exploration essential. Sorcery is making a push to show developers and players what can be done with motion controls. It’s a really good step forward and hopefully will be looked at as a turning point in the development of Move titles. Overall I came away very impressed with the game and I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on the full version when it releases this Spring exclusively for the PS3.

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With the imminent release of EyePet and Friends upon us, we thought we’d give you a little taste of what’s coming. PS Nation spoke with Tom Gillo, Franchise Producer for the EyePet series as we got a live demo from a few of the developers. One of the most requested features, two pets on screen at once has been addressed along with better customization and more. Check it out:

Having already covered Play and Create, EyePet and Friends looks to move into the Share part of the “Play, Create, Share” mantra with the Online Community space. Sort of a Facebook for your pets, there’s an automatic News Feed, video and photo sharing, challenges and more. EyePet and Friends is scheduled to release on November 15 in North America and November 18 in the UK.

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Yeah, Uncharted 3 comes out next week, and yes, this is only a slight update to the Wii version of the GoldenEye.  But anyone who is excited about this release coming to PS3 knows exactly what they are looking for, and the above facts won’t matter.  After all, for a lot of us, this is where it all began.  Not with Halo, not with Killzone.

Those of us who didn’t play Doom or Wolfenstein on the PC might have had their first FPS death-match experience on the ol’ N64.  You spent hours upon hours chasing your friends down and planting remote mines in the restroom stall (you know, the one that hid the golden gun).  You had a code of honor, and you didn’t look at your buddy’s quadrant (in split screen).

Those folks don’t care that better-looking games are coming out this month.  Those gamers will watch this launch trailer and remember good times, and expect to relive them again.  The silky-smooth framerate and sharper textures promise a better experience than the one that we were oblivious to as kids (we didn’t care about framerate or blurry textures back then).  So grab your buddies, a pizza, and get ready to enjoy the game that introduced console gamers to competitive FPSs

With only a few weeks until the role-playing epic hits your PlayStation 3, the ads for Skyrim are getting more and more impressive.  But this one came out of left field.  With the current interest in the Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire), this trailer definitely strikes a few familiar chords and invites folks who are getting into darker fantasy to peak into the world of Skyrim.