Dead Island - E3 Trailer

The latest trailer for Dead Island is out, and it sure as hell has worked to get me excited. It starts off with what seems to be one of the protagonists stumbling around the resort drunk, before the zombie outbreak suddenly hits. He then wakes up, hungover, to discover chaos. The trailer then goes on to show several clips of gameplay, showing off some of the weapons you can use. With it's incredible announcement trailer and now the two further ones showing off gameplay, I will be very shocked if this game does not sell well, and extremely disappointed if it turns out not to be very good.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 E3 2011 Trailer

The third trailer for Final Fantasy XIII-2 has been released at E3, featuring even more gameplay and cinematics, and showing some more of the battle system, which appears to be basically the same but with the inclusion of quick-time events. It also hints further towards the idea that Serah is going to play a very big part in the game, which makes me very happy.

Mass Effect 3 - E3 2011 - Fall of Earth Trailer

One of the most exciting moments of E3 for me was the latest trailer of possibly my all-time favourite franchise: Mass Effect, along with a couple of gameplay demos showcasing Kinect integration and a mission in a Reaper base. These have all worked to get me even more excited for the game, which has unfortunately been pushed back from it's original release date to March 6, 2012. Although I'd rather play this game as early as possible, I guess it gives me time to play the piles of brilliant games set for release later this year.

Halo 4 and Halo: Anniversary - E3 2011 Trailers

This year's Microsoft conference saw not one, but two big Halo announcements! The biggest of this is the start of a new trilogy developed by 343 Industries, formed when Bungie left Microsoft to become an independent company. Part of me is pissed off with the blatant dragging out and milking of the franchise (and that it's not even being made by Bungie), however, another part of me is FUCK YEAH HALO 4!!!!! There's still a long way to go though, as it's set for a 2012 Winter release.

The other announcement was a complete HD remastering of the original Halo, Halo: Combat Evolved, with a new co-op feature and multiplayer online. There's a shorter wait for this, set for release on November 15th 2011, exactly 10 years after the release of the original. As Halo: CE remains to be the only Halo I haven't played, I'll definitely be getting this so I can round off my Halo experience. This is also being released by 343 Industries.

There's also an exclusive video with interviews with 343 Industries:

Assassin's Creed Revelations - E3 Trailer

The first trailer for the next instalment in the Assassin's Creed franchise, and the last to feature Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Despite the lack of gameplay footage, it's certainly worked to get me excited and I definitely can't wait until November 15th.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Reveal Trailer

2 weeks after the release of the teaser trailers, here comes the first proper trailer of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with in-game footage. Although I'm not too much of a fan of Call of Duty I may get this, because it's my dislike of Treyarch that stopped me getting Black Ops and World at War, and Infinity Ward seem to make good enough games. There's also the fact that my friends have much different opinions of this franchise, and if I actually want to play games online with them the next two or three months after release I'll probably have to get this.

Dead Island Teaser Trailer - Tragedy Hits Paradise

The latest Dead Island trailer has arrived, and unlike the announcement trailer, this teaser shows some in-game footage and environments, however, it doesn't show any actual gameplay. They appear to have gone with a similar method as the announcement trailer, in that they've tried to make it emotional. Whilst it can't equal the emotion of the first trailer, my heart certainly did twinge when the music from the first started playing at the end.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Teaser Trailers

I saw a link to this by absolute chance, but on May 13th four new teaser trailers were released concerning Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (which has apparently been in production since two weeks after the release of Modern Warfare 2), each centred around a different country (England, Germany, France and America), providing possible settings for the game. I personally don't particularly care for the Call of Duty franchise after the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, but for many people this is a big announcement, so I suppose I better post about it.

LITERAL Dead Island Announcement Trailer

I haven't posted in a few days because I've been kinda busy, but I just watched this again and thought I may as well share it so there's at least one post this week.

If you have any interest in games whatsoever the odds are that you've seen the emotional announcement trailer for the upcoming zombie game Dead Island. My all-time favourite youtuber Toby Turner/Tobuscus/TobyGames does literal trailers for many various film and video game trailers, and despite the humorous lyrics the music to the trailer manages to just make it sad.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Official Trailer

Yesterday, Bethesda released the first official trailer for Skyrim after December's announcement trailer, this time with plenty of footage of the in-game world. Although I never actually finished Oblivion and am infinitely more excited for Mass Effect 3 than for Skyrim, I have to admit this trailer got me pretty fired up and I look forward to seeing some gameplay footage in the future. I can only hope BioWare hurry up and release some footage of Mass Effect 3 some time soon.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

A few minutes ago my choice YouTube game reviewer posted a video containing the trailer for the recently announced Final Fantasy XIII-2.

I quite simply adored the original, but for some reason I just don't know how to feel about this. I have heard the Final Fantasy X-2 horror stories, and I can't help but feel this is just milking it. The ending to Final Fantasy XIII was pretty conclusive, so this would seem like nothing more than making up some random crap to drag the story on for the sake of it. I'm probably going to buy this anyway because I'm just a fanboy like that but at the moment I'm not too sure about how good the game will be.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

In a surprisingly quiet Christmas game-wise I only really wanted Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. My only experience of Assassin's Creed beforehand was the first 20 or so minutes of Assassin's Creed 2 so I spent a few minutes on Christmas Eve reading up on the plot of the previous two, which gave me some idea what was going on when I started.

I immediately got into the game, both story and game-play. Free running+Sandbox world is definitely a winning combination. The graphics are also a significant improvement from what I saw in that 20 minutes of the second game. The game's version of Rome is rather accurate from what I can tell of my visit there 2 years ago and is made much easier to explore thanks to the ability to call horses (which seem to appear from thin air, rivers or even walls) and ride from one side to the other with relative speed. The new aspect of recruiting civilians and training them until they become fully fledged Assassins is also a great idea. You can send them off on missions throughout Europe, earning you money and items whilst also levelling them up and they can be extremely useful to call upon when you're in a sticky situation. Although I did find myself calling upon them for almost everything to the point I barely did any work myself.

The only real complaint I have story-wise is the execution of Sequence's 8 and 9. I found myself being thrown from mission to mission with no connecting cinematic and then I simply had no idea how I got to the situation in Sequence 9. The final mission at the end as Desmond seemed to be nothing but bouts of platforming between cinematics and story telling but I found it enjoyable enough.

Disappointed with the lack of Engineer or Blacksmith

Of course, there is Brotherhood's biggest new feature: Online Mutliplayer. I have been playing this daily with my friends (as either the Engineer or Blacksmith whenever we have the chance) and we all love it. The basics consist of players choosing a character (with many NPC's as the same character) and either hiding from other Assassins or trying to hunt out others amidst the dozens of identical NPCs. You get a certain amount of points depending on how you take out your target, so sneaking up or jumping from a rooftop will get you much more points than if you sprint around like an idiot. The current game modes consist of Wanted - a free-for-all where you are both the hunter and the hunted (along with an 'advanced' variant which apparently makes it harder to find targets), Manhunt - Two teams of four takes turns hunting and hiding, and Alliance - Similar to Wanted but with three teams of two. There are also various abilities, perks and kill/loss streaks (along with different costumes colours and extra characters) you unlock as you progress through the levels with each being very useful, especially in certain combinations. There are only about 5 maps (with one more apparently coming out along with Advanced Alliance) but you probably won't seem to mind as you'll be having too much fun.

I completed this game yesterday, and yet I have no intention of stopping playing it any time soon. I still have plenty of things to do in 16th Century Rome - renovating buildings and shops, completing various other missions and achieving 100% synch (another new feature) on missions I failed to achieve it on. Along with this I also have Virtual Training (which I'm not too bothered with) and the ever-so-enjoyable Multiplayer. I haven't had a desire to 100% complete a game this much since Mass Effect 2 earlier this year and this is easily one of the best games I have played, being a welcome breath of fresh air among the hordes of First Person Shooters, Racing and Sports games coming out these days, and I think it's even more of an achievement due to the fact I haven't even played the first two games and I was still completely immersed.

I know that more or less all the 'review' kind of things I've done so far have been extremely positive, but I suppose I just always choose thins that I will undoubtedly love. If you've played and enjoyed the first two games I strongly recommend this as you will undoubtedly love it and if, like me, you haven't even played the first two I still recommend you buy this, although you may be better off playing at least the second game first (which I plan to do eventually) so you have a bit more of an idea of what's going on.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Debut Trailer

Not as exciting (in my eyes) as Mass Effect 3, but exciting nonetheless, is the debut trailer of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a direct sequel to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I played a bit of Oblivion before giving up when I was stuck on some puzzle near the end of Shivering Isles (which I shouldn't have went to straight away in hindsight) but I'm still pretty pumped for Skyrim. But still, Mass Effect 3 is much more exciting in my eyes, time to buy it again and buy a truckload of Microsoft Points for the DLC.

Mass Effect 3 Debut Trailer

Oh My God!!!!!! There are simply no words to portray my excitement. Looks awesome even if it's just a video trailer, 'tis just a shame we have to wait a year for it. I think I need to buy Mass Effect 2 again (sold it to fund Final Fantasy XIII) and buy all the DLC when I can so I can have one final playthrough. It's a shame my Mass Effect one save files were lost...