GamesCom Day1 Recap with Mike

GamesCom has returned to Cologne once again to bring all the latest in the video game industry to consumers and press alike. As this is my first time at GamesCom, I was met by an incredibly vast and somewhat daunting venue with enormously large halls filled with busy-looking press types and all the latest games. It wasn’t long before I soon got stuck in and was busy bugging every exhibitor in sight; you could say, I took to GamesCom like a mooli to stew.

We spent some extensive time with the Criterion and checked some stunning gameplay and most notably, the newly announced AutoLog feature present in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. The game’s visuals are fantastic and high-speed cop chases have never looked better, the Criterion guys showed a real passion for social gaming and that’s where AutoLog comes in. If you missed the EA conference, AutoLog is something completely new to the franchise, if not the genre. Its focus is solely on the social side of gaming, AutoLog allows you to compete against your friends and the world even if you only have five minutes a day to play. As the name suggests, AutoLog automatically logs any and all race statistics from the most wrecks to the most spike tracks avoided. This is all easily accessible through any point in the game and is carried throughout the career and multiplayer aspects of the game. The great thing about AutoLog is you can set a record for a race, leave the game and your friend can then pick up the game, see your race time and attempt to beat it. If they do beat it then you’ll be notified and you will then inevitably set out to beat that score and it really adds a whole new sense of replayability within the game. AutoLog also allows you to share in-game photos of your car and races with your friends, you can also leave notes and the whole system really provides an unrivalled social experience. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is set to release in the UK on November 19^th!

We’ve had the opportunity to speak with fantastic people that are so enthusiastic about what they do and to have the chance to sit and chat with these guys is incredibly awesome, awesome-tastic even. (I possibly stole that one from Bullestorm)

After several cans of Red Bull, a cup of coffee and a dance with a Storm Trooper, I moved onto another game being showcased, Darkspore.

Darkspore is the sequel that isn’t quite a sequel to Spore. Sim-developers Maxis are back with more Spore but with a twist. Darkspore isn’t your average simulation game, Darkspore allows you to create the characters just as in Spore but then allows you to use these characters in real game situations. The game is a sci-fi action RPG and plays somewhat similar to the Diablo series in that it’s very kill and loot-focused. Of course, with Spore being an simulation game, it’s all about creativity and this is present even more so in Darkspore with a huge amount of new tools and new ways to really make some unique creatures. The game features a 4 player online co-operative mode, which allows you to take your custom creature and join friends and battle online. Darkspore is set to build upon the existing Spore community and the game is very social focused, the co-op mode allows for some much deeper interaction with other players. Maxis are hugely committed to the game’s community and are really developing Darkspore around requests from Spore and are giving the game the “edge” that Spore lacked, creatures now have their own personalities and are much more life-like than in Spore and the game features a large variety of environments which are soon to be revealed!

 

I asked Twitter for a few questions to fire at Maxis and here’s the answers we got!

Question: Will the PvP arena in Darkspore feature an online ranking system?

Answer: Currently Maxis aren’t talking about the PvP features of Darkspore, however “it would suck to not have leaderboards, right?”

 

Question: Can content from Spore be imported into Darkspore in any way?

Answer: Not as such, however, Maxis have been constantly encouraging the community to get involved and be creative and one of the ways in which they have done this is by running various competitions to create the most innovative designs from a standard template, the winners of these competitions then have their creation transformed into an in-game NPC in Darkspore.

 

Question: Spore was renowned for it’s simple but powerful creation tools that played a major role in the game, will we see similar tools in Darkspore and are they just as important?

Answer: The core creature editor from Spore has been moved in it’s entirety over to Darkspore and has from there been tweaked and refined into a much more powerful toolset. However, the idea of “simple but powerful” is still very much present and very important to the developers.

 

2010 is clearly a big year for EA and they have an incredible line-up here at GamesCom featuring titles spanning across every genre and platform. There’s lots of exciting stuff to tell you so make sure you stay tuned to the EA community blogs! Now it’s time for me to get some sleep to ensure I’m alive for the next GamesCom blog!