Xbox One Tour Vienna - first hands impressions (Ryse, DR3, BF4, KI, CD,...)

[TrueBlueHero]

Probably you've already read my hands on impressions with Xbox One @GameCtiy Vienna - so I deem it an honor to share EVEN MORE impressions with you my fellow UVGF comrades

I visited Xbox One Tour Vienna on Saturday 2013-10-19 - over 300 gamers invited to play on more than 80 (!) Xbox One stations, that's how you do it, great job MS!
Plus: A free snack of your choice, three free-drinks, goodies, a DJ and this guy...

In the three hours (at least two hours actually playing myself) I basically saw the majority of the Xbox One's launch lineup. I played (lots of) Ryse, Dead Rising 3, Killer Instinct, Forza, Crimson Dragon, Kinect Sports Rivals - and saw (but not played) Fifa, LocoCycle, Just Dance and Peggle 2.
With a 5.1 headset I could even HEAR the games this time around which was a huge difference in comparison with my GameCity hands on.
So yeah - you guys probably get more than a normal hands on impression, I really had the time to dig deep into some games (Ryse especially - with a nice surprise).
I really wanted to get as much as possible on camera - however unfortunately I wasn't allowed to film the screens. A MS PR-guy told me that MS doesn't want the games to look bad and I have to concede, handy-cam pictures really don't do the games justice.

As last time I'll update my post because there's just too much to write at once.

Let's get started


Part I

~ Ryse ~​

For me the surprise of the show - this is what I had to say about the exact same portion of the game (colloseum multiplayer) just a couple of weeks ago:

Unfortunately it really is a bug-fest and I personally think it's a very bad idea to show such an obviously unfinished software to the public. I've seen an enemy freezing for about 5 seconds after defeat, clipping errors, stutter in the animation and disorientated AI

With a new build comes delight - nothing of the above plagued the new demo, the game felt WAY more polished and thus fun. All of a sudden what felt disconnected and rough before was now an immersive experience. The camera captured the action without much trouble, animation felt fluid even in the transitions and most important of all hits finally connected in a way that gave the game a good sense of impact and momentum.
Plus "easy demo mode" was off this time around. The game was much harder and I actually only managed to finish the stage with the help of a certain healing special ability (you choose your supporting god before the round starts). In my roughly 9 tries I died 7x. Side note - finished Metal Gear Rising the day before. So much for "Press X to win".

This is how the game is meant to be played:
X: your short range attack, when timed right it's also a counter to enemy attacks
Y: some enemys block a lot, the shield bash throws them out off balance so that you can break their defense
A: block - make your shield your best friend or it's game over, this is a core gamplay element and NOT optional - stunned enemies are open for a quick counter
B: roll - an alternative to blocking, quickly getting behind your foe - stronger enemies have an attack that can't be blocked, so this is essential too
Right trigger: Executions, optional but a real lifesaver (the better I performed the more health was regenerated thanks to my special ability)
Left trigger: Spear - hold RT to shoot. Kills lower foes with one shot.
Right bumper: Special power, especially helpfull when surrounded and/or outnumbered, consumes energy that slowly rebuilds with every hack you do, slows time or dazzles your foes

I fought:
* normal foot soldiers - easy but a real threat when in numbers
* archers - nasty when accompanied with other foes because it's quite hard to reach them and they don't stop shooting just because you have to deal with three other guys at the moment
* fat axt warriors with shield: slow but hard to overcome their defense, hit hard when you don't watch out
* sword double wielders: usually hit you with a combo of three strikes - be careful to not only block the first one otherwise they deal a lot of damage, have a special strike that can't be blocked
* chieftain with burning weapon(s): though enemy, special strike that can't be blocked, can cause a lot of hurt

Button smashing gets you nowhere. Actually you have to be very patient and focused. Not crazy combos are the challenge, the timing is - so again, this shares a lot of similarities with Batman NOT God of War, Devil May Cry etc. which I personally prefer. It's a more heavy, grounded, reaction-based experience and is a great fit for the setting.

Below is a short video of me playing (my first try - I'm still horrible at blocking - as you can see enemies surround me and give me a hard time, I cowardly use the special power as a last resort )



The game looked great and had an awesome sound - the recent build reassured me that this will definitely be a game I get day one

Thank's for reading for today, Update II with Dead Rising 3 coming tomorrow

 

[Intellivision]

Trueblue, that's an great write up. Thanks for detailing all the controls and such. Good to hear this game has improved a lot from earlier in the year!

I had a feeling this was going to be a GoW or DMC 30 hit combo mashfest, but good to hear it's not so mindless.

 

[Mcmasters]

RYSE will surprise a lot of people! I'm calling reviews around 8.7 - 9.0 for this game. Lets see how close I am when the time comes.

Thanks mate for the impressions too! Great work!

 

[Z A C K]

Sounds like the combat is going to be pretty deep and that it's going to take some time to get good at it. I like that. Not just a typical hack n' slash but a game that is going to take skill. Getting really pumped for Ryse.

Also, nice write up. Really looking forward to tomorrow as DR3 is the only game that I know for certain I'm getting launch day as of right now.

 

[Holic]

Thanks for the impressions! Can tomorrow, come today?! Look forward to reading more impressions.

 

[Intellivision]

RYSE will surprise a lot of people! I'm calling reviews around 8.7 - 9.0 for this game. Lets see how close I am when the time comes.

Thanks mate for the impressions too! Great work!

Earlier in the year, I'd say Ryse was a 7-ish game. Now I'll go 8.0 or more. If the Gladiator mode is good, make it 8.5 or more.

 

[Kuu2]

Thanks for your critique.

How much of an open environment is in Ryse?

 

[jimmyD]

RYSE will surprise a lot of people! I'm calling reviews around 8.7 - 9.0 for this game. Lets see how close I am when the time comes.

Thanks mate for the impressions too! Great work!

When do reviews normally start coming out before system launches? I'm thinking rise will review very well also.

 

[Flight School]

Calling 83%

 

[Sheep Shagger]

Nice write up, thanks man! So glad to hear that Ryse is shaping up so well, I had high hopes from the beginning. Looking forward to more of your impressions... Fora 5 soon maybe?

 

[Two Pennys Worth]

Some nice finishing moves there mate. Really excited for Ryse, would buy it anyway just as a graphical showpiece butnice to know it plays great too.
Am I right in thinking that the mp was developed by a different studio to Crytec.
Look forward to part 2, 3 and 4.

 

[BDaddyK]

Great write up, nice to have more of an in depth review from a hands on impression. Looks, and sounds as if Ryse is shaping up nicely. It'll be nice to have a bright spot at launch w/all of the delays that are popping up.

 

[TrueBlueHero]

Part II

~ Dead Rising 3 ~​

I was so pumped to finally play this game.

First reaction: Holy s***! You start out in front of a howling and groaning horde of zombies (same confined demo stage we've all seen) which is a sight to behold as they approach you like one hell of an ugly wave.
This is a next-gen game no doubt. Seeing so many zombies at once automatically makes you prepare for that unavoidable framerate stutter... that it doesn't happen no matter the chaos you cause is a really irritating feeling at first, but needless to say, it's a great one. In a very odd way and despite Ryse being the obvious graphics champ on the surface, DR3 more often reminded me of the fact that this is running on brand new hardware. There's just so much going on at once: Lots and lots of zombies (way more detailed), blood and body parts flying around (blood/bodies don't disappear after a small amount of time), particle effects and other effects, objects moving around (great physics engine) - and again, all of that with a stable framerate. This is an impressive game technically and not given enough credit for what it's achieving.
I was positively surprised regarding the sound department too: Zombies really sound menacing this time, music (yeah there's music this time!) adjusts to the gameplay (dramatic score kicking in in the heat of the action) and your character comments on the situation (panic when facing horde, relief when safe again).

Probably the in-game night time added to the impression but all in all DR3 felt grittier and more threatening. While a lot of old and "funny" elements (costumes,...) return (I stumbled into a ladies' wear shop and put on that fine skirt on for that epic looks) the over the top goofiness is somewhat reduced. It's not that you can't choose to kid around it's that you have to make that decision otherwise the game won't stimulate such a behavior as much as it's predecessors.
DR3 on the other hand really gets your adrenalin flowing and into a blood frenzy. This is a gory game, no wonder it has been banned in Germany. Anatomically correct dismemberment, bodies and limbs lying around, sprays of blood (effects on the character, on the environment), brutal special moves (electro-hammer + zombie = torso gone) and hundreds of ways to pursue your bloody business. I threw a stick of dynamite into a horde of zombies just to see it explode in a cloud of blood.

X is your typical melee attack directed at one zombie while Y is your roundhouse-kick for crowd control. Traversing through the horde felt easier than in the previous games probably because the number of zombies is so much higher. From time to time you're dragged to the ground and have to press a button quickly to escape. LB is sprint, RB opens up the item menu. LT (hold) puts you in first person mode, RT is for shooting. You can activate a powerful special attack from time to time. No workbench anymore - you can create items anywhere which on the one hand doesn't afford as much strategic planning but doesn't interrupt the flow of play as much on the other hand.

From my time with the game I think that DR3 will be appealing to lots of people who couldn't get into the former games. For oldtime-fans the changes could be a controversial issue, a higher difficulty or the nightmare-mode could at least solve the problem for those who miss the harsh challenge. All I can say is that I played (and loved) all the DR games and after a little adjustment I had a blast with DR3.

DR3 is less japanese, bigger, badder and more akin to a AAA blockbuster-game and thus has a broader appeal. Day one for me.

 

[Z A C K]

Sounds awesome man. Glad to see my decision to have DR3 as the only game that I know for sure I'm getting on launch day is not going to end up being a bad one.

 

[the_slayer]

Absolutely awesome, those are the kind of comments I wanted to hear!!!!!! Ryse and DR3 are both day one buys for me so this makes me very happy!

 

[Holic]

Thanks for the DR3 impressions! Got me even more excited for it, that's for sure.. It's the only game in getting for sure at launch currently

 

[Nervusbreakdown]

pretty much how I see it, good stuff!

 

[CHROMExSKULL]

just what I wanted to hear about dead rising, can't wait! Timer gone, better save system, no workbench, easier more enjoyable gameplay...this is the type of game I don't want to get frustrated with or have it be to challenging, sounds like they have addressed many of my complaints with the other ones

 

[Z A C K]

just what I wanted to hear about dead rising, can't wait! Timer gone, better save system, no workbench, easier more enjoyable gameplay...this is the type of game I don't want to get frustrated with or have it be to challenging, sounds like they have addressed many of my complaints with the other ones

Agreed. This is going to be a game to just sit back, relax, and enjoy.

 

[CHROMExSKULL]

Agreed. This is going to be a game to just sit back, relax, and enjoy.

that's what I'm hoping, just want to kill some zombies and not get stressed out while playing like the others

 

[BDaddyK]

Thanks man, DR3 sounds awesome. Next gen for me is getting tougher and tougher to resist...

 

[Two Pennys Worth]

Another great read for part 2. Thanks buddy.

 

[Intellivision]

DR3 is less japanese, bigger, badder and more akin to a AAA blockbuster-game and thus has a broader appeal. Day one for me.

DR3 just jumped up a rung or two on my ladder of games to get.

 

[drewfonse]

First run of DR3: normal mode, taking my time and enjoying the details.


Seond run: full Nightmare.

 

[TrueBlueHero]

Part III

~Kinect Sports Rivals~​

Was really looking forward to playing Kinect 2.0 for the first time. Although the game was obviously far from finished and Kinect wasn't calibrated to me as a player due to the circumstances it worked surprisingly fine. Didn't notice any disturbing lag however I had problems to adjust to the controls (no PR lady telling me what to do) in both mini-games at first.
In the jetski game you really have to imagine holding a bar in your hands, body leaning helps too. Closed hands = accelerate, open hands = brake. Once I got a hold of it it was wonderful, before that not so much.
Graphics were outstanding, never ever saw such great looking water in a game.
The freeclimbing game is self-explanatory however I didn't let go (didn't open my hand) of the lower handhold with one hand while I already grabbed the above handhold with the other (so was unable to go up). While I was still angry that stupid Kinect obviously couldn't recognize my movements my friend (played 1 vs 1) owned me pretty hard although he fell down half of the wall because he tried to jump to a higher position and couldn't grap the next handholds. Yeah, I'm a Kinect noob - it was fun nonetheless. I can definitely see some people arguing that Kinect 2.0 doesn't work as it should however, because honestly that was my first thought too. Ironically quite the opposite is true, Kinect is so sensible that an open or closed hand can make all the difference.

Just a warning: Both activities were physically very demanding because the postures were so onesided (try holding your arms in front of you for a longer period of time). In that regard I liked the old sports more because you had to use your whole body.

The good news is: Kinect 2.0 is no doubt a big improvement - more accurate and way faster.

~Forza 5~​

It was the same Laguna Seca one lap only demo I had already played @GameCity Vienna, so you can read my older impressions as they still apply. What I hadn't experienced before however was the fantastic sound. I was actually surprised that in the run-up to the race a real dramatic composition pumped me up - no need to say that the engine noises were top-notch as expected.
As the demo wasn't particularly meaty there's not much more to say. This is a rock-solid Forza experience, looks just beautifully sharp and features a silky-smooth framerate. Laguna Seca isn't very aesthetically pleasing however, would have really loved to race in Prague instead.
However I once more fell in love with the impulse triggers - can't wait to see how they feel in other games/genres too.

~Crimson Dragon~​

The start screen welcomed me with an awesome artwork of different dragons, really loved it. The game felt finished, you could choose between different dragon-set-ups and missions. At a first glance there seemed to be a lot of possible customizations in the run-up of each mission - you could basically choose the perfect dragon for the job at hand. I didn't have time to mess with the settings and went with a fire based dragon for the icy planet the mission took place at. The visuals are a mixed bag, on the one hand the game felt dated from a technical point of view on the other hand it really has that distinct japanese style that you either digg or not. I really liked the setting with it's strange icy sculptures. From a gameplay point of view it's standard panzer dragoon (orta) fare, there were special flying segments with no foes however where you had to catch some sort of coins.
Really have to learn more about this game. If there's a solid background (dragon breeding/progression system, interesting settings, good story) I might bite. Really a shame that there's so little promotion/info for this game.

~Battle Field 4~​

I have to admit that I havn't played BF in multiplayer-mode before. This demo (which is a beta as far as i know?) didn't do much to win me over however. While the gameplay was fun most of the time (really love games with a lot of strategy, and thus i really liked the different classes and the tactical map) I was very disappointed with the graphics. In my eyes BF doesn't have the most inspired look already and this demo didn't seem to have any form of AA and thus looked very rough and not next-gen aside from the better textures. While it's cool that you can set your own spawn-positions I'm not 100% sure that system works all the time. I spawned right in front of a foe a couple of times which was frustrating. Probably the game works better on bigger maps (this was a small, 16 player map)?
While all of that could very well change till release the demo didn't do much for me. Take my words with a pinch of salt however, I didn't follow the game's progress enough to comment in a more profound way.

 

[Z A C K]

Again, excellent write up @TrueBlueHero.

I agree 100% on the Crimson Dragon part, I really want more information about this game. I never played any of the Panzer Dragoon games, so really not too sure what to expect with this one. By the way, how much is this game going to cost?

 

[drewfonse]

Great impressions, thanks.

It's worth a note that Crimson Dragon is a $19.99 downloadable time, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[drewfonse]

Again, excellent write up @TrueBlueHero.

I agree 100% on the Crimson Dragon part, I really want more information about this game. I never played any of the Panzer Dragoon games, so really not too sure what to expect with this one. By the way, how much is this game going to cost?

PD Orta was a fantastic experience on the Xbox. The best way to describe it is as an on-rails, 3rd person shooter with much of the strategy/fun stemming from switching between fast/slow dragons (each with pros and cons) and also alternating between lock on homing missiles and rapid free fire. Visually and artistically unique, if not cutting edge.

Hard to comprehend unless you play it. For $19.99, I'm all over it.

 

[Flight School]

I sort of feel as though a game like this in 2001 would get great reviews. I'm just not sure how 2013 us is going to take it.

 

[Z A C K]

PD Orta was a fantastic experience on the Xbox. The best way to describe it is as an on-rails, 3rd person shooter with much of the strategy/fun stemming from switching between fast/slow dragons (each with pros and cons) and also alternating between lock on homing missiles and rapid free fire. Visually and artistically unique, if not cutting edge.

Hard to comprehend unless you play it. For $19.99, I'm all over it.

Sounds cool. With this, KI, and Peggle 2 there looks to be a good variation of experiences for $20 or less on X1 day one. Hoping all of those titles will turn out well.