Ubisoft drops their tower formula for Watchdogs 2

Watch Dogs 2's creative director has revealed that the game won't be utilizing Ubisoft's trademark tower design. The mechanic had become a trope for open world design ever since it was used in the original Assassins Creed game. By climbing a tower you would unlock content in that area, such as story and side missions. It was somewhat of a contrivance, that whilst an effective formula, it became a cookie cutter for open world design.

It's welcome news then that Ubisoft will be employing something more organic in  Watch Dogs 2, whereby you'll discover content by exploration and build your influence and power by recruiting people to your cause (to the hacker group DeadSec).

I think natural discoverability is a better way to  handle open world content. Populating an area with tasks each time you climbed a tower, ultimately bogged down games. I think Rockstars open world design has always been superior in that they don't rely so much on generic tasks in each area for content. They simply create a world that's fun to be in and lots of missions that serve the story.

As someone who enjoyed the first Watch Dogs, Watch Dogs 2 sounds promising. I quite enjoyed maxmising use of hackable objects in combat, which felt like the most thematic way to play and it looks like Ubisoft will be enhancing this for the sequel.

Watch Dogs 2 will be released on November 15th this year.

Polygon Fails at Playing Doom

Plenty of people have their doubts about whether the folks
over at Polygon even like videogames. This video both affirms those doubts and
leaves you scratching your head at the same time.

Why did Polygon upload a gameplay video featuring someone
who was so hilariously bad at the game? What service does that do the audience
or the game?

It wasn’t just someone getting to grips with the game, it
was someone struggling with the basic FPS mechanics of moving and shooting.
Which makes you wonder who on Polgyon’s staff can’t play FPS? Why were they
assigned to play Doom? and why did they not come to grips with the controls
before recording footage?

Do Polgyon not have quality control?

Maybe this is why Polgon love walking simulators? 

Stella Glow - Impressions

What is it: Stella glow is an SRPG from developer Imageepoch and published by Atlus. It was released in the US and Japan last year and recently made it to Australian shores.


What do I need to know: The premise of the game is that an evil witch is attempting to crystallize the world using a cursed song. The only way to stop it is to find and unite four 'good' witches, to counter the evil witches song. The game takes place in areans reminiscent of Final Fantasy tactics. 

The gameplay is centred around battles in these arenas and interspersed with plentiful story sequences and character development. On the battlefield you need to coordinate the various strengths and weaknesses of your squad to succeed. You'll have characters that can move and strike quickly, ranged characters, witches who can use powerful spells, but are vulnerable to enemy attacks. Other characters can serve as protectors for the group, through the guardian ability which stops enemies from passing through adjacent spaces. These characters typically have plenty of hitpoints and are good in close quarters.

Being able to flank the enemy and get in behind is important, but you must also be careful to not leave your own fighters too exposed. 


What do I think: The game has a pretty typical JRPG setup - kid with amnesia etc... But its setting and the background of the world is actually interesting. The game has a great art style, which is complemented by an excellent soundtrack and voice acting.

There's plenty of dialogue between characters and the the overall tone of the story is quite reminiscent of a Saturday morning cartoon (in a good way).

The battle system is easy to pick up, but has enough strategy to be enjoyable. Between battles you'll spend your time at the capital  where you split your time between support conversations with your squad, doing jobs for money or exploring for items.

After 10 hours I'm really enjoying the game and can recommend it to SRPG fans.