Over the weekend, I saw Need for Speed.
Typically, movies based on video games turn out to be a mess, mostly because the cast and crew try to strike a balance between being faithful to the source material, while also trying to make it open to wider audiences who generally have no idea about the game it’s based on. For example, the last movie I saw based on a video game was Prince of Persia back in 2010, and as far as I remember, there were no ostrich races in the 2003 game.
Ubisoft announced the delay of Watch Dogs, its open-world game set in Chicago, to spring 2014 today on their blog. When it was first shown at Ubisoft’s E3 2012 press conference, Watch Dogs was synonymous with next-gen, heading the charge of the new comes that are now less than a month away.
“Our ambition from the start with Watch Dogs has been to deliver something that embodies what we wanted to see in the next-generation of gaming. It is with this in mind that we’ve made the tough decision to delay the release until spring 2014.”
According to the post, Ubisoft is using the extra time on polish to closer deliver on their desired quality.
“We know a lot of you are probably wondering: Why now? We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune each detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience.”
Watch Dogs was originally slated to release on November 19 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 version launching alongside those consoles. It will now release sometime in spring of 2014. The push to spring leaves November 19 open to Need for Speed: Rivals and the PC version of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.
Games are releasing again. The summer drought of games started near the beginning of June and starting next week, games will figuratively start hitting shelves again. The fall schedule always seems to start fast and furious, but unlike 2012 where there was a constant stream of new games almost every week, 2013 appears staggered. This makes sense, though, as Microsoft and Sony have yet to confirm dates for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, leaving these gaps in releases for console releases and launch line-up games leading up to Thanksgiving and Black Friday. This list covers the majority of games I’m looking forward to with a few exceptions, like games that are console exclusives, such as Grand Theft Auto V, and games that don’t have a release date yet, such as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance for the PC.
August 20
Saints Row IV
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
August 28
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
September 3
Rayman Legends
September 10
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
October 25
Batman: Arkham Origins
October 29
Battlefield 4
November 5
Call of Duty: Ghosts
November 12
XCOM: Enemy Within
Injustice: Gods Among Us
November 19
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Need for Speed: Rivals
Need for Speed: Rivals is sounding more and more like the perfect blend of Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted after its showing at EA's press conference. Set in an open-world build in the Frostbite 3 engine, Rivals will take a stab at blending singleplayer and multiplayer by populating the world with other players while online, meaning races and pursuits between other players could happen at almost any time. Meanwhile, Rivals also has a complete singleplayer campaign for both cops and racers. Ghost Games is putting a focus the pursuit, giving tools such as spike strips and EMPs that were absent in Most Wanted. You can see the full reveal trailer shown at the press conference below. Need for Speed: Rivals releases for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on November 19, with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions coming later.
EA announced a new Need for Speed game, Rivals, will be coming later this year. Though it's not the first Need for Speed title to use Rivals (that honor goes to the 2005 PSP exclusive Need for Speed: Underground 2: Rivals), it will use the same Frostbite 3 engine appearing in other EA games, including Battlefield 4 and Dragon Age 3: Inquisition. Need for Speed: Rivals aims to combine the open-world of last year's Most Wanted with the exciting police chases of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Surprisingly, Criterion Games, who announced at E3 last year it would oversee all future Need for Speed games, is not developing Need for Speed: Rivals. Instead, a Gothenberg-based studio called Ghost Games will be handling development. However, the creative director of Most Wanted and Hot Pursuit, Craig Sullivan, joined Ghost Games to oversee the project. Along with the return of Autolog, Rivals will include a new feature called AllDrive, allowing players to seamlessly drop in and out of single and multiplayer races. Need for Speed: Rivals arrives for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on November 19, with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions coming at a later time.
Between Hot Pursuit and The Run, the Need for Speed series always nails down the feeling of high top-speeds while weaving in and out of obstacles. Need for Speed Most Wanted did this taking the police chase model executed in Hot Pursuit and applying it to the open city of Fairhaven, while measuring players up against their friends for nearly every single thing they do.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t been doing this as long as others, but I’ve yet to become jaded or cynical about E3. I still look forward to it each year, whether it’s the multitude announcements that come beforehand, or the surprises we still haven’t heard about. Going over the current list of confirmed games going to be at the show, it's clear the rest of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 looks to be amazing.
