Namco Bandai Preview Event

It's a busy few months coming up for Namco Bandai. They have four titles out during this month, and yesterday I got to play the most recent builds of all four. And on the whole it was quite an impressive line-up.


Armored Core V


On first boot up, this game was confusing as hell. Without the aid of a manual, it took a little while to figure out exactly what I was supposed to be doing and how. After a few missions though, the game mehanics started to become clear and it was a lot of fun. Maybe its the big kid in me but darting around ruined cities, blowing up giant mechs is a pretty awesome way to enjoy yourself.

There's also a lot of customisation for your mech. You can change almost everything about it and it all has an affect on the performance of your mech in battle. Improve your legs to increase your load allowing you to carry more weapons or heavier but more damaging artillery, improve your generator to allow you to glide around the battlefield quicker making you a lot harder to hit and you can also choose which backup weapons to carry if two isn't enough for you (which can easily be swapped out with a quick button combo), as well as an large assortment of other adjustments available for your mech




I managed to get a few story missions and a few non-story missions done in the time I had, though there were dozens of missions on offer with more unlocked as I finished other missions. The non-story missions were very much a destroy everything in sight job and were quick and simple little missions, handy for raising funds. The story missions were a good deal longer though with changing objectives as you progress through the areas. This really showed off the depth of the game. Strategy kicks in as you don't have enough ammo to get through the entire mission and certain weapons won't work on the bigger mechs. Thankfully there are open spaces in which a mobile workshop can land to restock ammo, do any repairs on your mech's armor and also allow you to swap out weapons if you wish.

Although the controls are quite complex, they are easy enough to pick up and there are tutorial levels to run you through the basics. I found myself rapidly changing between the Scan mode which showed my route and picked up any enemies instantly and Combat mode to blow them away (you use up less energy in the Scan mode from your boosted movement but you can't use weapons, hence the swap around). Against some huge powerful mechs, I had to run and hide amongst the ruined buildings but it was great fun to run through the tight streets never knowing if I was going to turn a corner and be faced with an enemy mech to blow up.

On top of this there is also a large online section of the game. You can hire friends to help out as mercenaries on missions, plus there is a competitive mode where people can invade your territories even when your not online. Although I didn't get a chance to explore these modes, within the mech shooter fanbase this could be just what the game needs to keep it alive after people finish the main story line.


Inversion


The MP version from E3 was on offer today but it was still an interesting time. Playing out like a crazy version of Gears of War spliced with the wall climbing antics of Prey it was a good chuckle. Sampling just the Deathmatch mode it showed off the unique gravity powers to great effect.

The gameplay itself is similar to that of Gears with a 3rd person view complete with cover based actions. However the extra dose of fun comes with the gravity based powers. They come in two forms blue for low gravity and red for high gravity. When you hit your opponent with these they either get suspended in the air or slammed into the ground depending on blue or red power respectively. This is a great laugh as there is nothing like throwing your opponent in the air and suspending them while picking them off. They've nicely balanced it though as you can shoot back when suspended in the air so if your quick enough you can blast your attacker away before they kill you.




It gets even more hectic on some of the maps as you can end up on different surfaces to your opponents. One map had a large semi circular area to fight on and when you were standing on the centre section you could see opponents on the walls who you could pick off. In the end this means you are always keeping an eye out on all sides for bad guys.

Although I think this will get a lot of call for being a clone of Gears (even the default weapon looks similar to a retro lancer), I have a feeling if the gravity based elements are properly implemented it could certainly stand on its own shoulders as an enjoyable shooter at least from the multiplayer aspect I played.


Naruto Shippuden Ninja Storm Generations


Now I'm a bit of a Manga fan, but I'm more of a One Piece guy than Naruto (come on pirates are way cooler than ninjas), but I have a basic knowledge of Naruto, at least the early canon. So I can safely say that the huge amount of Naruto fans will probably lap this up.

Essentially a traditional 3D fighter, it plays like a much simplified version of its peers. And I do mean simplified, as in there is one button to attack!! The other buttons have functions but your basic attack is just one button. In fact the combo list on the pause screen confirmed this with a long row of B's with the occasional stick direction thrown in.

However this is far from a simple fighter. On top of attack there are buttons for jumping, throwing shuriken and blocking. You also have a secondary block which escapes from attacks and pops you behind the enemy so you can wail on them from behind. This has limited uses though and relying on it too much will lead you to fail later battles. In certain battles you could also call in allies to attack your opponent briefly as an aid. The final element of the system is your Chakra. Essentially a Super bar similar to Street Fighter, you can charge this by holding down the Y button and then combine with another button press to unleash a special attack. If you manage to fully charge your bar you'll pull off a super attack dealing extensive damage to your opponent.

I mainly sampled the story mode in my playtime and from the start up you had a choice of three fighters stories to go through (Young Naruto, older Naruto and I believe it was Sasuke as the third). There were a great deal of other characters behind these but they were shaded out so I assume they unlock as the story progresses. Obviously the Naruto based story modes will be quite extensive but if the other charaters story modes are just as lengthy there will be a lot of mileage in just the story mode itself.




The story mode consists of you playing through the story of Naruto and fighting out the main fight scenes of the tales. They start off simple but after a few battles the difficulty increases and you'll have to start getting more tactical with your opponents. As such it seems the game will not only be fun for novices like myself but also offer challenges to more experiences fighters as each opponent has very different fighting styles and as the story dictates who you fight with you'll not only get a chance to sample all the different fighters, but it means you'll have to master a variety of different characters to finish off the story modes rather than rely on just your favourite character.

As usual with these style of games there is still a mode to fight with your favourite characters against CPU opponents if you need a break from the story mode. They also have a huge range of different styles of online battles too, but they weren't on offer to explore. The game is also offering a tie-in with the Collectible Card Game too. A new set of cars will be released soon with codes attached on each allowing you to unlock more artwork in-game as well as compete in a mini-battle to unlock more skills and advantages in your normal fights.

As usual this will be a must for Naruto fans and looks like an enjoyable fighter for those guys. Although it may not offer the complexity of your Streetfighters, there may still be enough tactical play to hopefully entice them to it too.


Ridge Racer Unbounded


Ridge Racer has been Namco's flagship racer for three generations of consoles now and although it's gone a bit quiet for the last few years, it seems they're bringing it back with quite literally a bang.

I should hold my hand up here and say I haven't played a Ridge Racer game since the old PSOne, but Ridge Racer Unbounded has made me genuinely excited to play a racing game and I haven't felt like that for awhile.

The game mechanics maintain the arcade feel of Ridge Racer with plenty of high speed cars and tight drifting will be needed to get you round most corners without crashing against a wall. Speaking of crashing, however, brings us neatly to the new approach in RR. Most of the street furniture you'll find is destructible, everything from lampposts to concrete support pillars. Not only does this give an incredibly satisfying feeling when you crash through a brick wall to help get the best line, but it also increases your Power bar.

The Power bar is essentially a souped up turbo boost but with some differences. It's charged up by drifting, tailgating opponents and wrecking both the environment and your rivals. Once it is fully charged you can use it super charge your vehicle for a few seconds, but use it in the correct places and it can open helpful shortcuts through destructible itemas as well as wreck your rivals in one hit. This may sound familiar and to be fair it is an idea similar to Split/Second but having played both, Ridge Racer feels more comfortable with its idea and the OTT feeling of bursting through a brick wall to overtake a rival is superb.




Concentrating on the single player mode to being with, you are given 9 different areas to race in all situated in the city of Shattered Bay, the home of Ridge Racer this time around. Each area has 7 events to compete in and can you unlock further areas be placing first in the events.

There are four event types in the game – Domination, Frag, Shindo and Time Attack. Domination is the main event type and requires you to beat all your opponents through a mixture of racing and smashing through scenery and opponents to win, Frag mode gives you a set time and a constantly refilling Power bar to take out as many opponents as you can, Time Attack is a variation of the tracks you've raced on but with more ramps and jumps making it a stunt version of the normal tracks in which you can collect bonuses to help obtain the best time and Shindo is a stripped down version of the game. No power bar in this mode just a boost option and you only get to drive the special Shindo type vehicles. These vehicles can't smash through the scenery like the other classes and so the only way to win is through pure racing skill and will probably appeal to older fans of the series.

A handy feature in this game is that all the essential information you need like how many seconds you are behind your next opponent or how many frags you currently have are displayed on the sides of the building as you drive by allowing you to fully concentrate on driving without worrying too much about your HUD.

However one of the most interesting modes and one which may well put RR: Unbounded ahead of some of its competitors is the detailed Create a City mode. In this you can create your very own city in which to race in. Each city can have up to 5 different events held on your very own custom built tracks.





This Track Editor starts with a basic mode where you are given an 8x8 block area in which you can place set track pieces to create your own course. All the usual options are here such as splitting the track, including shortcuts as well as the usual varying degrees of sharpness corners and long straights. However once you've laid out your basic outline of your track you can then change to the advanced editor where you can add more intricate detail in the form of street furniture, ramps, and half pipes to make the course your very own. I didn't play with this too much but the controls and system seemed very simple and easy to use and I did catch some guys making some interesting tracks with their time. But best of all you can then upload these tracks and compete against your friends with them, essentially making this the RR equivalent of Halo's Forge mode.

Speaking of online, as well as your own tailored made cities, all the tracks from the main game are available to play in various events against other online players so there will be plenty of online fun to be had as well as the single player items. One more thing to note is also the soundtrack. Maybe its my secret love of rave and techno, but I always find when your going to be hurtling round corners in fast cars dance is always by far the best music to listen to and RR:Unbounded does not fail in that aspect. It all fitted nicely into one neat package which made the whole experience really enjoyable.

However if I had to find one fault with the game is that at times I was absolutely trouncing the CPU opposition. Once I'd figured out the best way to win was opening all the shortcuts as quickly as possible I soon found myself just racing against myself with little competition. I did try to find a difficulty option to see if that could be changed but with little luck, however that doesn't mean there isn't one there, which I hope for long term life expectancy it does have.

Overall it was certainly the most fun I've had in a racing game for awhile so for probably the first time ever I'll actually be looking forward to the final version of this to be released so I can get back to playing it!!





And that's the lot. Although I was expecting the quality of Ridge Racer: Unbounded and was pleased to say it lived up to my expectations, I was actually most surprised at how much I enjoyed playing Armored Core V. It seems Namco have got a strong line-up this month and I urge you all to keep an eye on these titles as they are released as you may miss out on some quality gems!

Good stuff mate. Sounds like you had a blast!

Aye it makes the 4 hours put into writing that worth it!!!

Good work on representing GSA at the Namco event mate.

don't forget too send a link too this article too Namco

Already done mate! Cor I'm almost professional looking now!!

nice work mate and ridge racer unbounded looks mint

Nice work mate. No Witcher 2 preview though? :/

Great article Tenlo!

I do like Namco. Good to see a strong lineup from them!

You lucky sod, I'm happy Inversion is looking alright though. Had an eye on it because its from the devs of Timeshift which I thought was a very underrated game.