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Feature - THQ Night
THQ Gamers Day 9/12/2009
In case you haven’t realized, we’re nearing Christmas. And to celebrate the occasion, THQ invited any and all Melbourne media to come down to their offices to check out three of the biggest games the company will be offering for the first quarter of 2010 – the Wii game Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All Stars; the Xbox 360 and PS3 game Darksiders, and the PC and Xbox 360 game Metro 2033.
To begin with, THQ’s Darksiders is probably the best to start talking about first, for two reasons. Firstly, THQ are making a big, BIG deal over this game, and after playing it, it’s not hard to see why they’re really starting to push it hard, given just how distinct it looks – the work of artist Joe Maduieria is on show here and on great display. The second is the interesting mesh of a variety of different gameplay styles. The exploration of quite large levels and the targeting system evoke a Zelda vibe, while the combat evokes a lot of God of War in not just the way it plays, but also in terms of just how visceral and violent the combat is. Rather fitting too, since you’re actually playing as War – one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Overall, proved to be an interesting experience to show, and it will be interesting to check out the full version when it hits in early January.
The second game worth discussing isn’t a THQ game, but a Capcom game that THQ are distributing down here; Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All Stars; the updated Western-released version of the original Japanese game, Cross Generation of Heroes . This one’s the return of the Capcom “VS” series, this time with a variety of Capcom characters taking on characters from legendary Japanese anime studio Tatsunoko Productions, including characters from anime like Battle of the Planets.
"Even amongst the atrocities of war, a Space Marine has to celebrate Christmas"
One thing that impressed me was the diversity in character selection for the Capcom side. Instead of featuring a roster primarily centered around Street Fighter or Darkstalkers, this one includes characters from Lost Planet, Dead Rising, Viewtiful Joe, and the original, Legends and X series of Megaman games.
For the most part, playing the game is as similar as playing something like Marvel vs Capcom 2, except more simplified. There’s now three attack buttons, a weak attack, a medium attack, and a strong attack. The fourth button is a catch-all partner button, handling things such as tagging, assists and ultra combos. And boy, are they something. Two of the newer characters in Ultimate All Stars, Zero and Frank West are quite awesome to play with, and have enough from their own games to make them great characters to play with. For instance, killing Zero results in an explosion that’s not too disimiliar from how he’d die in the Mega Man X games, and Frank can summon (and subsequently manhandle) zombies. Oh, and he can transform into Megaman and fire off his Mega Buster as an Ultra move. Don’t question it – he’s covered wars y’know. Expect to see this one in February.
The last, and by far the most interesting game on show, was of the little known Metro 2033, a PC and Xbox 360 shooter, although it was demoed to us on the PC. Probably better too – it looks like the kind of game that would be better suited to be controlled via a Mouse and Keyboard. As the game was loaded up, we were given a brief history of the project, learning that the developers of the project, 4A Games, were founded by former members of the team that created S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl, and that hteir newest project was much like that game, in that it was based off the work of another Russian novelist - Dmitry Glukhovsky.
"Sure, he's may not look like he's not celebrating Christmas, but with a chainsaw arm...I don't think you'd want to argue"
In the world of Metro 2033, the survivors of a nuclear holocaust have fled to the tunnels of the Moscow underground, as they struggle to fight off against the horrors present in the outside world. People now live in ‘stations’, which were described as being similar to the Vaults from the Fallout series. As the game was being played, there were numerous interesting systems on board, such as your bullets actually being used as currency, a gas mask that is required for traversing the outside and the most interesting, a completely interface free system.
You see, there’s no interface present in Metro. Everything you need to know, such as how many bullets are in a clip or how much pressure you have for your gas mask to breathe, makes you constantly check visually on their progress. For the clips, because most of guns are put together from a bunch of different things, clips are usually open and you can always see just how many bullets you have. As for the gas mask pressure, your pressure is shown on your characters watch, making you hit a button to constantly check it.
In comparison to S.T.A.L.K.E.R, both games share the same sense of atmosphere, and is always welcome. The other thing worth noting is that Metro is definitely a much more linear experience than the open world present in S.T.A.L.K.E.R, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. And even in its linearity, it proved to be extremely impressive. Look for this one around April.
Another cool aspect about the night was the social aspect. A lot of local outlets managed to turn up, with representatives from Thumbpad, Oz Box Live, Medianator, Australian Gamer, Vooks and even some from Madman. Was great hanging out and meeting with them, and hey, the promises of booze and pizza helped some also. We had some great discussions regarding the industry in general, which helped make the night even more of a success.
Aside from that, it was a great night, and we love to extend a thank you to THQ’s Paul Houlihan and Candice Martin for inviting us down. Would also like to thank Liam Marcon from Spacemeat for allowing the use of his pictures.
Written By
Jamie Galea (Darth_Homer)