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[fragger]

Has anyone heard anything about this one? It's being produced by Ubisoft working with film director James Cameron. Security around it is pretty tight so there's not much info as yet, it appears to be a 3rd person, movie tie-in affair. I don't think it's open world, not enough info so far to really tell, but the graphics look cool and the story sounds interesting, at least for those who are into sci-fi. I don't think it's really my cup of tea, just thought it may be of interest to some folks.
It'll be available around December for PC and I think all consoles.

http://screenrant.com/ubisoft-shows-minutes-avatar-game-rob-27510/

http://www.gamedaily.com/games/james-camerons-avatar-the-game/xbox-360/game-previews/preview/8936/20726/

[Art Blade]

thanks for the info, fragger  :)

Although I like Sci-Fi, this type of game doesn't seem to be my cup of tea, either.

[PZ]

Sure does look interesting though from my perspective because I love games when they have beautiful graphics.

[Fiach]

Well, kinda by default, I got this game as nobody else wanted it, I've only been playing a few hours, so here are my first impressions.

Firstly, it seems every reviewer and their dog, dislikes this game, so bear that in mind, before rushing out to buy it after reading this.

When you start the game, you hit the character creation screen, you dont have any real control, I think there are about 12 male and female preset characters to choose from. They all look pretty similar too, mostly different hairstyles and skin tines.

You start off as a grunt marine type, just landed on the planet Pandora after 5 years in a cryo sleep for the journey. Its hinted that alot has happened in those five years.

You are sent on a couple of missions, to aquaint yourself with movement, combat, vehicles etc.

Once you exit the compound and enter the jungle type surrounding area, you will be pretty amazed at the visuals, there is no point in comparing them to FC2 as this has more dense vegetation, rivers, waterfalls etc. Whereas FC2 is beautiful, but quite barren in comparison.

There are times, in some of the higher areas, that the game even seems "majestic", in the grandeur of its environment. The plant life is quite unique, even scary! I was in an area at the start and I walked towards some plants that actually looked like they had razor sharp "fan-like" leaves, I walked slowly, because they looked vicious, as I drew adjacent to them, the disappeared, I thought it was a clipping bug, but no, it wasn't. I was afraid to go through, incase they reappeared and locked me into the area!

The wildlife is also quite unique and vicious, when you play as a marine type, everything hates you, but when you play as a native (Na'Vi), only about half the fauna hates you :)

The marines use guns and can call in airstrikes, the Na'Vi use more primitve weapons, well they look primitive, but the bow is one of the best bows I have ever used in a game, as you level up, you get more weapons and skills made available, you dont have to purchase them, they just become available and you assign them to different buttons.

The types of skills are quite varied, Self heal, Call an animal to fight at your side, an AoE stun skill if you are getting mobbed, turn Invisible, move faster, have stronger attacks etc.


The vehicles for the army are jeep/boat  types, but thats all I have seen as I have only played as Na'Vi.
The Na'Vi have a nice selection, Notably a weird horse type creature and eventually an awesome eagle/dragon type arial vehicle.

Combat takes some getting used to, the monsters are pretty fast and the game is TPS, so getting accurate shots takes some getting used to, the Bow is quite awesome, pull and hold the trigger and the bow kinda locks on to the target, but doesnt hold the lock if the target is moving, the arrows provide incredible damage, alot of one-hit kills. You also get two swords (dual wield) or a club, or a kind of Darth Maul staff melee weapon, you gather arrows by interacting, with the plant life, you aquire bullets by killing marines, wheras the marine characters have types of vending (but free) machines that replenish all your ammo, if you interact with them.

At a certain point in the game you must choose whether you play as a native or a marine, I chose native, but they are two very diverse play styles, that the game will have plenty of length, a single play is supposed to be about 15 hours, so I guess 15X2.

The quests so far are pretty varied, and seem intended to make you explore, even though your compass is pointing in a certain direction, there are many trails and paths that entice you away from your current goal.

Alot of effort has been made to create a "lore" for the world of Pandora, you can "scan" many items like flora and fauna and machines, similar to Metroid Prime, to fill up a kind of in-game encyclopaedia.

I'm currently enjoying the game I cant understand so much hate for it, my mate Dan hated it for example (hence my copy), but its a very deep game that is very immersive and though there is alot of (mostly) combat, the world in which it happens is very immersive, I would nearly say its more of an experience than just a game.

Anyway, so far so good.

[Art Blade]

cheers, Fiach :)

In my mind an image of that world has formed, like you got to see in FC1 (colourful jungle vegetation, sun, perhaps birds of sorts in the air) and also some sort of Jungle Book environment, I imagine the Na'Vi as Mowglis who also had animals fight by his side :) Sounds interesting what you told us, indeed.

[PZ]

Well, lots of people had bad things to say about FC2 as well, so the comments of the Internet public at large is probably to be taken with a grain of salt as they say.  I'd trust your opinion over what I read on the 'net - you never know if someone has an ax to grind, or on the flip side, if there are marketing lies to be told.

The bottom line is still that it is up to the individual to read reviews of individuals they trust, and then perhaps use that information to base their decision to purchase (or rent).

For instance, I'd never purchased Fallout 3 were it not for OWG member recommendations, nor would I have known about (nor have played) a role playing game.

[Fiach]

Anybody that dislikes FC2 (I hated FC1 btw), is bonkers, it looks great, has a good contemperory storyline, has great weapons, you get to drive around the african bush in a landrover for gawdsake! Kinda like the Anti-Daktari :)

People hated it because the checkpoints respawned, which is dumb, its a shooting game, which gives you more stuff to shoot, wheres the problem?

They also hated the malaria, I hated it too, everytime I left the "mission track" I died and I had no idea why, I found it very frustrating and figured it out when in future, I just went straight to mission waypoints, but it did colour my opinion, insofar as, I thought that you couldn't actually free roam the map and the malaria was like the invisible walls you get in some games, to funnel you through them. Glad I was wrong about that :)

Back to Avatar.

I forgot to mention that the Na'Vi also get a machine gun, which upgrades as you level, you cannot use the human weapons as the Na'Vi are about 12 foot tall, which makes spotting camoflaged tiny humans a little difficult at times.

I dont know why Dan hated the vehicls controls, I find them OK, I had problems with the flying dragon thing, but it was a combination of me flying too fast and not realising that there was a "reverse" control too, for tight spots.

I must say that the view of the planet rom the air, is quite a spectacle, also the height to which you can climb (I havent hit the ceiling yet), is quite impressive.

[Fiach]

Here is a link to the creation of the Banshee (the Na'Vi arial vehicle), this includes footage from the movie, which is pretty interesting, because it would appear that the gameworld has really "nailed" the movieworld, its quite impressive.

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/avatar/featurette-the-banshee

[spaceboy]

I'm glad I got the chance to read your review on this one, it certainly piques my interest.  I must say the trailers for the movie and not exactly getting my gander up - (my son is interested though).  It'd be interesting if a game for a movie is better than the movie!  Looking forward to hearing more...

[Art Blade]

wow, the visuals are great, but geez, it looks so packed :)

[Fiach]

Well I made a new character and went marine this time, (I havent finished the Na'Vi one yet), to get a more rounded view of the game.

I can see why people complain about the vehicle controls, there is a slight issue with the marine helicopter gunship you get.

I use reversed controls for flying (eg pull back for up and push forward for down), The game uses the opposit of my preference, but, you cannot change this control, which takes a little getting used to, especially when shooting stuff with the chopper, you have to remember to aim with the left stick, not the right one, which is odd as the on foot aiming is done with the right stick, it just seems like a weird oversight.

Also with the buggys and boats, you steer with the left stick, let the camera take care of itself, but I tended to use the camera stick initially. Now I have no problems.

The human campaign is pure evil though, from what I have played, so is quite different from the Na'Vi campaign. Its interesting how the plants and animals attack you as a human, as opposed to when you are a Na'Vi.

Marine weapons are standard fare, Assault rifles, Shotguns, Flamethrowers, dual pistols, Nailguns, these all upgrade in quality, as you gain levels too, which is nice.

Na'Vi weapons are primitive fare, Dual swords, Clubs, Staves (like darth maul) and of course the bow.

Anyway, bottom line is, this is a really good game, excellent visuals (there is a 3D mode for 3D televisions, which I believe makes Crysis look like crap), a very immersive world, a good story to drive you along, lots of exploration, the weapons are cool for both sides and each get different skill sets, Humans can call in an air strike, which never gets old :), plus the vehicles are really cool too.

8/10 (would have been 9/10 but for the chopper controls).

[Fiach]

LOL still finding new stuff.

As you play you gain experience (XP), this translates into upgrades of skills/gear......BUT....

At teleporters, your experience accumulates as "credits", these credits can be spent in a "Risk" style game, where you have a globe of the planet Pandora, divided into countries and continents.

You spend the credits on creating troops (grunts, Banshees etc.) and use them to invade and take over neutral countries and enemy countries as you battle to control the planet. This is totally seperate to the standard campaign game.

Its like a simplified Command and Conquer game, but success transleates back into the campaign in XP and gear as well. So a very nice synergy going on there.

[fragger]

Interesting, that game-within-a-game concept, I like that idea. Adds another dimension to the game.

It also sounds vaguely reminiscent of the original Dune game, where you'd switch between first-person interaction and commanding your forces in a map-based strategy game, and where actions in one play mode have consequences in the other. I think there's a lot of potential in that concept.

[Fiach]

Well at this stage, I have both my characters up to the same level and its quite interesting, so heres a few points.

1. The Na'vi can sort of "live off the land", he gets his ammo by interacting with trees, this also allows him to collect "cells", every ten cells gives him one life, so, although health regenerates and he has a heal spell, if he dies, he gets a chance to "recover". He can have 5 "recovers" before he has to resurrect at a checkpoint.
The check points are always near each other, so its no biggie, any damage done to enemies, or if any are killed, they stay damaged or dead. This adds a certain easiness to the game, but bear in mind the Na'Vi have no armour and use primitive weapons, this does provide a sense of balance.

The Human is similar, but gets ammo from dispensers that are about 100 yards/meters apart, so its never a problem running out of ammo. The human can only collect cells for recovery, from random drops, by killed enemies, so they have access to less recovery items, but they have better weapons and armour.

2. Its interesting playing as both species as you can see how the skills w@&k in combat from the other sides point of view. For example, there is a Na'vi skill that makes you run faster and phase in and out of visibility, I never bothered with it, until I played as a human and saw the Na'vi do it..... its bloody effective, they keep disappearing as they run at you with these massive clubs, so combat really keeps yu on your toes.

3. The humans get more toys, like mech suits, mobile missile vehicles, buggies, choppers. The Na'vi are all beast riders, the manual only mentions two forms of transport, Direhorses and Banshees, but there are more, they all look really cool and handle well, but the flying takes a little getting used to for both races.

4. The plants HATE humans and have interesting and exotic methods of killing them :), I was in a battle today as a human, I was being attacked by Viperwolves (kinda like Skags that can go invisible), Navi ranged and melee, plus two different types of plants, one that fired poison gas and one that lobbed pineapple sized explosives, it was utter chaos, because I  had marine units helping me, using guns and grenades, the ragdoll physics were very impressive, with people and animals (me included), being blown all over the place.

5. Frequently you will encounter skirmishes between groups of Na'vi and marines, you can help or not as desired, but it reinforces the feeling that you are in a warzone, I have also been in firefights with Na'Vi and suddenly a chopper will come in and drop a platoon of marines to help me out (without being asked for by me), also, you will sometimes come across marines or Na'vi fighting with the local wild life, which makes the world seem more alive.

I checked the metacritic score for this game and it only scored 5.5/10, that is totally bonkers for this game, I can only assume that its utter morons that need games to hold their hands, that are voting scores like that.

It is a really good game, although I know some dont like the TPS view.

It has great graphics, a really good two sided storyline, very diverse gameplay and very imaginitive vehicles. It may not have 87 bazillion guns, but the ones you have get upgraded every level or so, to make them more effective.

[Art Blade]

The way you describe it makes me think you're actually enjoying the game.





lol, of course ;) Nice descriptions, and it does sound intriguing. Shame it's only a TPS, it would be nice to be able to toggle third and first person view.

[Fiach]

Yes, I would like a toggle, similar to FO3.

The vegetation is so lush, sometimes when the combat gets hectic, with the physics, you can get thrown into the foliage and cannot see your targets, because the camera is over your head.

Now this is no big deal, I would prefer to have the lush foliage than FPS really and getting out of the foiage is just a jump button away, which is what you would use in FPS anyway.

I wish there was a demo available, because the environment is really nice to look at.

[fragger]

Here you go, there's a 3-minute vid here:
http://screenrant.com/ubisoft-shows-minutes-avatar-game-rob-27510/

and some screen shots here:
http://www.gamedaily.com/games/james-camerons-avatar-the-game/xbox-360/game-previews/preview/8936/20726/

These are actually from early October though, before the game was released, so I don't know much may have changed.

[Ricamundo]

Shame about the 3rd person perspective. That rules me out from the get go. >:( Looks great tho. BTW the posting window is now nice and wide, so my last words on the right are visible. yay!  :-X

[Art Blade]

I agree with Ricamundo: Shame it's TPS... quoting a FC2 merc: "it doesn't look right" lol

[fragger]

I was reading in the paper today that the James Cameron film is due for release here very soon. This game is a movie tie-in, and if the couple of film stills that I saw are anything to go by, it looks to be an interesting movie. Not that you can judge by stills, of course, any film can be made to look great with the right choice of stills. We'll see, I guess.

And cheers to the admin team for making this nice, new cinemascopic post-editing screen :-X Ah, I love the wide-open spaces...

[Fiach]

I dont get thie "post screen"? I dont notice anything different.

I do have issues when I do a long review, when I get to about half way, the cursor jumps all over the place, making it difficult to continue.

Probably Admin enforcing some sort of "brevity rule"  :P

The Movie will release in 2D and 3D I believe. According to one player, the game looks astounding in 3D, using some special glasses, not sure about his TV though.

On an interesting note, there is an irish company making a retro fit screen for PSP's, that have done prototype retro fitting TV screen enhancers, to give 3D viewing on ordinary HD TV's, apparently its very good.

[fragger]

I dont get thie "post screen"? I dont notice anything different.

I thought the editing screen for typing posts had gotten wider. Hasn't it? Or is it just that I finally cleaned my glasses?

Probably Admin enforcing some sort of "brevity rule"  :P

Yeah, they don't want us old farts to waffle on for too long. This way is cheaper and easier than administering Serapax ;D

[Fiach]

Dunno what serapax is, but I think I want some dammit!  :-[

[fragger]

Serapax is a drug used to combat anxiety and hyperactivity.

Yeah, I could use some, too. Tell you what, Fiach, I'll see if I can swing us a deal, I'll sweet-talk my nurse when she comes on later ;)

[Fiach]

I changed me mind, send me the nurse dammit! :)