Hands-on Highlights at London Games Festival
Public get to play upcoming games
By Jonathan Cresswell, Content Manager of BritishGaming.co.uk
Every time you hear of the exciting new games getting shown at an event, it turns out to be in some far-flung place like LA or Leipzig - so as the third London Games Festival hit the capital city, it was refreshing as this holiday's upcoming hits were available to play at the Eurogamer Expo. Gears of Ware 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Resident Evil 5... these titles, and more, right there for you to play with a ticket that cost just £5.
Sure, the new iterations of those favourite series are all looking to be great when they hit stores soon, but the most interesting titles were the ones that did something different. Whatever people say about games becoming generic and the same, there were a few titles that showed that innovation in gaming is alive and well: and here are three of the top games.
Mirror's Edge
This free running game from EA is set in a clean, pristine white city, but it's not so clean in that it's a world with few freedoms. It's down to people called 'runners' to jump, slide, dodge and weave through city heights to deliver information whilst avoiding the law. Everything is seen through the eyes of main character Faith, and although a first person perspective is anything but new, the way the camera moves and seeing your arms and legs on impact after a jump, it feels more immersive than any first person shooter of recent years.
As you follow the red marked objects over the city rooftops, there is a real, exciting sense of adrenaline when making a huge leap of faith between buildings and then quickly sliding down a pipe to escape from incoming gunfire.Mirror's Edge has an element of trial and error to it. You didn't make the jump? Try again... but this helps you practice, get to grip with the skills and really feel involved with the world.
The game will be released on PS3, 360 and PC on the 14th November, and you can try it now as a short demo is up on the Xbox Live Marketplace and the Playstation Store.
LittleBigPlanet
A Playstation 3 exclusive, this platformer with the mantra 'play, create, share' has been touted as the next title that has the weight of the console's success resting on its shoulders - and it doesn't disappoint.
Put aside recent delays due to possible offence caused by a piece of music used, this is a really fun, charming and accessible game with a superb amount of depth. Based on classic 2D sidescrollers of days gone by, in LittleBigPlanet you control a little sackboy with the goal of reaching the end of the level.
It's a very social game - the whole thing can be played by up to 4 players, and I had an absolute blast trying to get through a tricky level with somebody I didn't know when playing it on the show floor. The cute characters, the clever level design, it all comes together in an extremely polished and fun experience.
That's just one element of the game though - the really clever thing is knowing that everything that the game designers have done... you can do too. LittleBigPlanet features a really intuitive level creator, where you can build your own areas, make enemies and set goals - and then share the results online. Even though you might think that there's no way you can build anything on the scale that the developers at Media Molecule have, the creativity from the community could potentially extend the live of this game for ages... and on top of an already brilliant title, that's one thing to get excited about when it finally gets in to stores this week.
Prince of Persia
Forget the Prince of the games gone by: with a new, gorgeous cel-shaded style, this simplified,streamlined game involves pretty much one button interaction with the environment as you jump from platform to platform, sliding down rocks and jumping off walls to navigate through the beautiful environment. It feels a bit easier to play, but at the same time you're placing a lot of faith in the game to know that by pressing A you want to do a wall jump, when that same button is used for pretty much everything else too.Things get a bit more complex with the fighting, where you've got the benefit of a metal gauntlet, allowing you to chain jumps, sword attacks and also the gauntlet to great effect... but there's also the option to use magic, of your companion Elika.
She's a bit of a downside to the game - using magic to bring you back from mistimed jumps, or helping you with combat... it's quite obvious Ubisoft weren't lying when they said the Prince will never die. This makes the game less of a challenge, but we'll have to wait until the final game when it is released on PS3, 360 and PC later this year to see if it has too big of an effect.
But quite frankly, any game that features the line "That's not my girlfriend, she's my donkey" is a game worth paying attention to.
For more impressions of games from the London Games Festival, check out full coverage at BritishGaming.co.uk - with in depth coverage of some of these games and more.
