I'm not your - Critic

GAMiNG
Watch Dogs, another intriguing title
from this year’s E3, is about killing
people using Facebook. Aiden
Pearce, the painfully generic protagonist, wields
dystopian “Google-goggles” to identify his
target. In an instant, a juicy fact is revealed about
every person he scans: “HIV positive”, “charged
with plagiarism”, “newlywed”. Whether facts like
this can be used to blackmail or target NPCs outside
of heavily scripted story sequences remains
to be seen. Either way, Watch Dogs promises to
be an interesting critique on 2012’s ever-connected,
ever-posting, ever-liking culture.
Pearce has somehow hacked into the omnipresent
network of a futuristic Chicago, allowing
With The Last of Us, developer
Naughty Dog replaces the lush
temple vistas, charmingly witty
characters, wholesome fun and will-theywon’t-they
dynamics of their previous franchise
Uncharted with lush overgrown cities,
gloomy-but-still-likable characters, brutal
strangulations, and adult man/14-year-old
girl relationships.
It follows the Uncharted mould in the sense
that there aren’t really any earth-shattering new
gameplay mechanics. It’s more about applying
extremely high-quality production values to
every facet of the game. The environments
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WAtcH Dogs - PREVIEW
Platforms: Pc, Ps3, Xbox 360 | genre: Action, open World, stealth
him to eavesdrop on any cellphone call, see
through the eyes of any security camera, and
even render any set of traffic lights completely
useless. A brutal vehicle pile-up happens
during the live-demo. Pearce is kind enough to
rescue one frightened, perfectly innocent, driver
during the ensuing shoot-out, despite having
blatantly caused the death of the lady sitting in
the passenger seat. He is a typical male action
protagonist – gravelly-voiced and cynical,
striding around with his collar popped around
his throat and a tacky cap shading his face.
The shoot-out itself is best described as
“GTA” – right down to the shuffling around
behind car bonnets and taking pot shots at
tHe lAst oF Us - PREVIEW
Developer: naughty Dog | Platform: Ps3 | genre: Action-adventure
are saturated with mottled shades of green,
and soaked in as many perfectly shimmering
puddles as could possibly be packed into an
interpretation of a post-apocalyptic United
States.
The opening has a brown-haired, unshaven
male (sound familiar?) forcing a cabinet against
a wall to stop an unseen threat. You hear the
voice of a much younger girl who stumbles into
frame. Her name is Ellie, and Naughty Dog hopes
to steer clear of vulnerable damsel stereotypes.
She’s still a small girl, mind, but she has a knife
and she knows how to chuck a mean brick.
The mixture of cover-based shooting and
games editor | toby Hills | gaming@critic.co.nz
other humans with a plain white dot-crosshair.
Watching it gave me flashbacks to the astonishingly
bland shooting sequences in LA Noire. In
1950s Los Angeles I want to interview people
and solve puzzles, not battle in time-wasting
skirmishes. I’m scared that, in near-future Chicago,
I’ll want to spend most of my time causing
train accidents and none engaged in hand-gun
combat.
A car chase follows. Surprise surprise.
But at least this time it’s integrated with the
hacking mechanics that make the game stand
out – Pearce raises a drawbridge to block off his
pursuers and escape.
close-up combat with a healthy dash of stealth
has returned from Uncharted, and there appears
to be a remarkable integration of combat with
convivial story beats. At the sound of an empty
click from Joel’s handgun, a foe storms down the
hallway towards him only to take a cinderblock
to the side of the head from Ellie. before she biffs
it. Joel’s takedown manoeuvre takes the environment
into account: he smashes his victim’s
head into a bench in a way that’s actually quite
unpleasant to watch.
This game is far removed from Nathan
Drake’s pseudo-charming “Oops! Got your neck!”
quips in Uncharted.