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Virtual war, snatched peace and guys dressed up as Ghostbusters: my take on rAge 2013

rAge 2013 has come and gone; the crowds have left the Dome and the consoles have been packed away. The thousand or so gamers who brought their PCs along to play in the massive three-day LAN event have deflated their mattresses and gone home for a good night’s sleep. The roads in Randburg are once again navigable, and the booming sound of virtual guns has finally gone quiet.

That was rAge. In my opinion, a great success. The kind of gaming event Africa needs more of. Unlike most gaming shows, rAge is open to the public: Thousands of people turned up to see the biggest and brightest that the local gaming industry has to offer, including the up-and-coming PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles.

This post is all about what I saw, what impressed me and what I am looking forward to now, even more than I was before.

One of the first things I did was to seek out the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers to satisfy my curiosity about their new designs. After handling both, I came away more impressed with Sony’s redesign as it felt heavier and more comfortable in my hand, whereas the Xbox One’s controller felt rather light and a smidgen smaller than the 360’s, two things that didn’t win me over in my brief time with it. Sony still has the two thumbsticks arranged at the same level at the bottom of the controller, which I’ve never really liked, but it’s at least consistent with previous controller designs.

What I did like, though, was the interactivity Sony has built into the controller – it has a bright blue light that the PS4’s camera can pick up and use for all kinds of augmented reality fun, and a touch-sensitive pad that responds beautifully to finger presses, swipes and taps. My colleague Christo showcases it quite nicely in his article on Sony’s Playroom mini-game.

Dead Rising 3Then there was the Dead Rising 3 demo being run behind closed doors. Groups of gamers were ushered in every 30 minutes to see the game in action, and I am happy to report that it looks amazing! As a huge fan of the franchise, I was very happy to see that the grittiness shown in the initial demos at E3 does not drown out the silliness the franchise is known for – this is definitely the Dead Rising I know and love, just done better. I saw more zombies, more gore, more detail, more weapon combos, a bigger world and better graphics, and I couldn’t be happier. Still no word on an actual launch date for the Xbox One in South Africa, though, the announcer dude made that quite clear. I was encouraged to snap a picture of the console Dead Rising 3 was being run on, though, so I’ve at least been up close and personal with it.

Interestingly, Microsoft was actively showing off the actual Xbox One console with live game demos clearly using the console, whereas all of the PS4 demos were being run on hidden hardware – the only PS4 console I saw was inside a glass showcase. I also spotted a playable version of Forza 5, which was open to the public to play. I can’t believe how much more detailed it looks than other Forzas that I’ve played.

RyseRyse, the gladiatorial combat game from the guys behind Crysis (what is up with their obsession with the letter Y??) was also on show. I was hoping for melee combat a bit more like that of Dark Souls, but instead I saw a hack-and-slasher with quick-time execution moves. The game still looks good of course, and the brief time I spent with it playing co-op with a random gamer who was playing on an adjoining console was a lot of fun, but I really don’t think its take on melee combat will beat Dark Souls in terms of strategy, depth and the skill required to master it. Still, Ryse has its gorgeous visuals and admittedly bloody combat that should appeal to gamers, which might make up for its rather arcadey controls.

Dark Souls 2Speaking of, I saw Dark Souls II on demo at the Megarom stand, and I am very happy to report that it seems to offer the same style of combat that I loved so much in Dark Souls (deep, strategic, hard to master), set in another similarly-oppressive locale. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? I didn’t have the courage to pick up the controller for fear of getting pwned repeatedly in front of a rather large crowd, so I hung back and took pictures instead.

Also on show at Megarom’s stand was The Stick of Truth, the South Park game being made under the strict supervision of show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. I was very impressed – the demo I saw really looked like an episode of the show was happening on the screen, and not a game. TSOT features all of your favourite South Park characters and a surprisingly deep RPG/customisation system, along with a story only Matt and Trey can dream up (and pull off).

I also got to see Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag in action while I was hanging around Megarom’s awesome stand – anyone could walk by and play on any of the multiple stations Megarom had set up…. if they could find an empty space, of course, which was quite a challenge. I’ve seen a bunch of videos of the game but they just don’t do the real thing justice. It’s absolutely gorgeous and silky-smooth to behold, and holy cow is there a lot of stuff to do. I’m not a huge fan of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, but this new one with all its piratey goodness, naval battles and its huge open world to explore might just win me over.

BF4 and AlienwareNot surprisingly, EA had a huge presence there as well and the biggest games they were showing off included FIFA 14 (yawn, sorry I’m not a soccer fan), Need for Speed: Rivals and of course Battlefield 4. I snagged a few minutes of time with Rivals, and was utterly blown away by the level of detail EA has managed to coax from the Frostbite 3 engine: the car I was driving slowly got progressively dirtier, and when the rain came down thanks to the incredible weather effects I saw water droplets running down my car’s rear window, all in a totally realistic manner. Sure, it looked quite a bit like NFS: Most Wanted in terms of its overall presentation, but the visuals themselves have definitely gotten sharper.

Battlefield 4 was probably the biggest draw of EA’s new titles. Dell had supplied a bunch of Alienware gaming PCs which were all running the game, and gamers could sit down and play against each other throughout the expo. On the surface it looks quite a lot like Battlefield 3, but the gamers I spoke to assured me it was not once you got to grips with all the subtle changes. Also, the new “levolution” technology which changes the levels as you play proved quite popular (and spectacular!) and easily the largest departure from BF3’s design. I – and many others, by the look of the game’s popularity at rAge – can’t wait for the 29th of October for the full game to launch. The open beta will just have to scratch that itch until then.

In my time at rAge, I was lucky enough to snag an interview with the lead designer of Watch_Dogs, Danny Belanger, which you can read here. I also sat down with Gavin Slevin from Dell South Africa to talk about Dell’s new range of Alienware gaming notebooks; spoiler alert – they’re awesome!

Cosplay1Something else I noticed at this year’s rAge was the growing popularity of cosplay, a word that basically means “dressing up like characters from popular culture and walking around in public”. I’ve never seen so many people dressed up as anime and videogame characters in my life, and amazingly, it wasn’t lame at all. In fact, the cosplay showcase that happened on the Saturday was fantastic! Everyone from the audiences watching to the cosplayers themselves clearly loved it, and I look forward to seeing an even bigger turnout next year.

There was a lot to see at rAge, and this article doesn’t even begin to cover it all. If you missed it, and you’re a huge gamer do yourself a favour and start making plans now to get to Jo’burg next year for rAge 2014. I heard a number of people saying that the dhow is now bigger than many overseas expos, and is big enough and well-organised enough to be thought of as the South African equivalent of the ComicCon and E3 expos that take place in the US every year. I must admit I felt a pang of pride at those remarks, and I’m not even responsible for making it happen.

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