21 | October | 2011 | "DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!"

Electronic Arts, DICE and their mighty Frostbite 2 engine definitely has a winner on both consoles as well as PC. I got to play some multiplayer last week at EA’s holiday event against the DICE team on the PS3 and not only is the gameplay lightning fast and frantic, BF3 looks REALLY spectacular on the system. As fas as the whole “which is better” nonsense going on between the big shooter franchises, I say who cares as long as BOTH games are as good as their respective dev teams can make them. In the end, I see some folks buying and playing both or at least buying one and renting the other to compare. Expect productivity in a few countries to drop even further (er, provided those calling in sick with BF3 flu actually have jobs).

Bugbear Entertainment has been hard at work on a much different Ridge Racer, but it’s clear than this new game isn’t being made to completely take the place of the more familiar franchise that’s been a key title for nearly every console it’s appeared on. Rather, Unbounded is a high-impact spin-off that takes the drift-crazy gameplay and fictional vehicles the series in famous for, adds in destructible elements and the ability to create your own courses and hits the ground running. I took a demo build for a spin at a Namco Bandai event about two weeks back and liked what I played quite a lot. There’s definitely a nod to Criterion Studios’ last few Burnout games (as well as Burnout-inspired titles such as Split Second) as well as Bugbear’s own FlatOut series. As Burnout has morphed into a top-down family fun arcade game with disco tunes blasting during crashes and FlatOut has been retired (for the time being), it looks as RRU will be the go-to game for crash fans when it’s released next year. Continue reading →