This is the real wild hunt
We have little doubt in our mind that Monster Hunter World is going to be one of the biggest games of 2018 – and we mean that in every conceivable sense. While fans have been patiently awaiting the series’ leap to current generation hardware, Capcom has been hard at work making what looks to be the ultimate distillation of its core ideals: the maps are larger, as too are the monsters, and you won’t find any pesky loading times breaking up the fields this time. With the introduction of open terrain comes a dynamic ecosystem, with monsters living autonomously in the world – fighting each other and trying to survive in accordance with the pre-established food chain – meaning the tracking and hunting mechanics have seen a suitable upgrade and refresh, too. Other changes include the addition of actual, visible damage numbers, giving you a better indication as to your impact on creatures. There's a more player-friendly method of item acquisition and consumption, and some fairly intuitive multiplayer opportunities should you want to go hunting with friends mid-mission. Honestly, once you see this beast in action, you’ll wonder how you ever managed with anything else.
Skull & Bones
Born out of Black Flag
“Skull & Bones is the game that our team has dreamed of building ever since we first set sail singing along to sea shanties and we are excited to finally share our vision,” said Justin Arden Farren, creative director on Ubisoft’s latest attempt to inject new life into the online multiplayer sphere. Farren is excited for good reason – it’s taken nearly four years to make this game a reality. Ubisoft Singapore, perhaps best known for specialising in the ocean and water technology that can be seen across many of the Assassin’s Creed games, first put this experimental experience into gestation right
after the launch of 2013’s Black Flag; it wanted to take its beloved naval combat and see what it would be like with two player captains running riot across the Indian ocean. The result is Skull & Bones, a ship-to-ship combat game that takes the most celebrated aspect of Black Flag and doubles down on it. You take command of your own ships, customise them, and take them out onto the
open seas to do battle with both AI and realplayer fleets for treasures and loot. The rules of engagement are essentially those of Black Flag, albeit with a heavier focus of positioning and navigation. Wind is the tactical layer here, forcing you to change tactics and lines of sight on the fly, readjusting your position to better suit the conditions flowing through the reactive open world that is the playground for these vast multiplayer engagements. In action, Skull & Bones plays like a
refined, simplified, World Of Warships, albeit one viewed through a highly cinematic lens. Ubisoft may never give us the full pirate game experience we’ve spent years dreaming of, but Skull & Bones may be the next best thing
A Way Out
This tale of two crooks is a game to watch
Hazelight, a small 35-person studio created by the core team responsible for Starbreeze Studios’ Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, might be punching above its weight here, working on what seems to be the very definition of a passion project. But that doesn’t seem to bother this group of hyperpassionate developers – the company wants to change gaming and the way we interact with
our friends. “After I finished [making] Brothers, I wanted to make another game that pushed the boundaries on how to tell stories without compromising on gameplay,” says game director, writer and studio head Josef Fares. A Way Out is that game; a high fidelity, high-concept release that looks like a Quantic Dream project viewed through the lens of Prison Break.
Where A Way Out demonstrates some serious ambition is in its demand that the entire game be played in co-op. “The game is designed for split-screen co-op only… and I mean only!” says Fares, who notes that while it will be playable online, the team has designed for the game to be played in one particular way. “For you to get the full experience, we want you and your friend to play it on your couch.” Controlling either Vincent or Leo, A Way Out follows the duo as they attempt to break out
of prison and head out on a journey across the country, with emotional story twists and unique gameplay opportunities around every corner. The split-screen balance will shift depending on who has prominence in a particular story or gameplay moment, one player can have complete autonomy over a scene while the other is in a cut-scene and, interestingly, Fares is promising that no two moments in the game will ever reuse the same gameplay mechanics. It’s a wildly ambitious idea, and one we really hope the studio is able to pull off.
To make A Way Out happen, the team is going all out. Fares cancelled a feature film he was directing to devote more time to the project; going as far as to cast himself as one of the two leads, Vincent, motion-capturing the character himself on his weekends off. The other starring character, Leo, is actually played by Josef Fares’ older brother, actor Fares Fares. Cinematic, smartly constructed and groundbreaking for its presentation and its twist of co-op convention, A Way Out is already one of 2018’s most anticipated titles. Whether Hazelight has the resources and personnel to actually pull it
all off is another question entirely.
Days Gone
Bend Studios reveals the chaos unravelling in the wilds
While it may be struggling to find an identity to call its own, sitting somewhere between The Last Of Us and World War Z in its execution, we’re still immensely impressed by what we’ve seen of Days Gone. After taking a year out of the spotlight, Bend Studios has taken recent opportunities to cast attention onto the incredible tools and technology powering its upcoming, unapologetically gruff, open world survival game. The entire world is designed to be reactive – to your presence, progression and equipment; to the unpredictability of the Pacific Northwest; and to the litany of marauding survivors and infected creatures roaming the wilds. This is where Days Gone shows its true colours; in its world and the systems that power it – although we’re still waiting to see how this combines with its cinematically driven storyline.
With so much land to traverse, and with so many dangers out in the wilds, you’ll need to pay special attention to the upkeep of protagonist Deacon St. John’s motorbike. “It isn’t a disposable tool to be replaced; it’s an intrinsic part to the game experience, and a part of what makes Deacon who he is,”
said Bend Studios’ Darren Chisum. After all, what kind of biker would ever be caught out in a catastrophe without their bike? “The motorbike is a huge part of the game. We’re treating it as a part of Deacon. A lot of open world games have you get in a car, drive it for a bit, then leave it. The bike is a really important part of Deacon’s personality, though,” teases Chisum, noting how maintenance and fuel could be a constant concern for players as they look to expand their reach into the wilds. “He’s crafted it himself over the past two years, and because it’s a survival-based game, you’ll have to keep it maintained, think about fuel and all that kind of thing.”
Far Cry 5
Ubisoft Montreal brings its open-world shooter home on the range
Ubisoft has finally unveiled Far Cry 5’s gameplay and it looks… just like you would expect, really. It’s a double-edged sword for Ubisoft’s other big franchise – on the one hand, the series does what it does very well, but after so many games, a shift to a drastically different setting and a politically-reactive story might not be enough to justify its place in the gaming world of today. Thankfully, what is new in FC5 does leave us with a glimmer of hope. You’re no longer fighting the good fight alone (which now sees you taking on a bunch of religious fundamentalists), with the option to choose one of three new NPC companions: the sniper prowess of Grace, the explosive air support of Nick Rye, and the scouting smarts of Boomer the dog. Obviously, we’re all going to pick the dog, but we appreciate the option to tailor an NPC to suit a given playstyle. Co-op shenanigans also return. Ubisoft Montreal has gone to great pains to capture the idyllic atmosphere of Montana, from swaying plains of grass to snow-tipped mountains, and the greater emphasis on destructible scenery and a more robust AI means firefights will offer a far greater unpredictability than previous entries.
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