We check out Eyedentity's latest action RPG and find the perfect class against the G-Star 2012 gauntlet demo.

If you thought the graphics on Diablo III and Torchlight II weren't colorful enough, developer Eyedentity upped the ante with Dungeon Striker. This action RPG has a lot of googly-eyes and big-heads that may turn off some gamers, but its front masks a chaotic-filled battleground of co-operative levels that can give the aforementioned top action RPGs a run for its money. An ironic statement, given its free-to-play nature.

We took a run on the recent G-Star 2012 demo showcasing eight classes -14 in the upcoming open beta and full version - and in a sense, they're what you expect from a game of this calibre. The warrior and berserker are your standard melee perps; go up close to a horde and swing hard and fast. The former can shield bash enemies so that they get stunned, while the latter can go in a rage state and attack faster than usual while dishing out improved damage. We got more kills during the demo's gauntlet stage (kill as many enemies as possible until time runs out) with a combination of the berserker's rage and his plethora of area-of-effect attacks with pretty low cooldowns.

The cannon blazer and wizard also deserve mention for their varying playstyles. The former is a ranged attacker who can buff himself up for turbo-charged shots, as well as summon turrets for suppressing fire. The latter can summon a sigil onto the ground; whenever she's on it, her spells have additional properties and projectiles, as well as shoot out faster than usual.

The sigil spell has an average cooldown, so it's imperative that you exploit it as much as possible during combat. Preferably, we played defensively by moving out as far away from the horde of enemies as possible, plopped down our sigil, and fired spells that had a higher chance for knockbacks.

Our favorite classes by far are the ranger and the assassin. The ranger can set up bamboo traps and evasive moves that have offensive capabilities. She can burrow underground to one end of an area and then leap out to fire arrows, as well as backdash to fire more arrows. Her spread shot fires at a good crowd-controlling arc while also having near-zero cooldown time.

The assassin can not only inflict poison temporarily, but can also jump away from crowds and do a dash slash and an aerial ground pound that comes out swiftly. His area-of-effect knife throw move has little to no cooldown time, so we made that our priority attack. While fast, we were careful not to make him get pounded on by enemies for too long as he's frail as a kitten.

After much class-experimenting and gauntlet-clearing, were happy with what Eyedentity did with the action RPG formula. The game is definitely not a cakewalk, especially when dealing with larger mobs, thus removing the stigma of it being child's play. You can't fault the controls if you die though; they're responsive, well-mapped, and even have joypad support.

The game will be in open beta in 2013 in Korea. There isn't any news on a Western version of this. However, if the growing fanfare of the company's last game, Dragon Nest, is of any indication, there's still a market for saccharine-riddled fares, particularly if it's as frenetic and arcade action-heavy as this game.

For our recap of G-Star 2012, head here.

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The finishing touches are currently being made to next year“s Devil May Cry reboot, so Ninja Theory came in to show us what we can expect when it arrives next year.

2013 is now very much on the horizon, which means that we're starting to think about what we'll be playing in the new year. The first big release, on January 15 in Europe and North America, is DmC: Devil May Cry, which sees British developer Ninja Theory taking the reigns on one of Capcom's most beloved franchises. We were lucky enough to check out a nearly finished build of the game and speak to the developer to see how it's shaping up. The developer is making some bold and exciting changes to the franchise while keeping other key tenets--here are the five key things you need to know about the game.

A modern evil

DmC takes the series' gothic horror inspiration and updates it with a more modern take on evil. This means that the Demonic forces utilise corporations, advertisers and banks as a way for the Demon King Mundus to control the human world. In the nightclub level we were shown, celebrities are lured in for drink, drugs and girls, and are brainwashed by Lilith, the club's demonic manager.

Limbo

The human world of DmC is drab and uninteresting, which is in stark contrast to the bright and colourful demon-inhabitied limbo world. The architecture was inspired by modern European stylings--the nightclub, for example, takes inspiration from a club that the developer visited in Germany. If you take a look at our video preview above, you can see how these different elements come together in visually in a way that's completely new for the series.

Dante's new threads

The most vocal feedback from fans of the series has been about Dante's general appearance, whic h has changed quite dramatically over previous games. According to Ninja Theory, the original character designs they submitted were similar to the Dante of old, but Capcom sent them back, saying that if it wanted the same old Dante, it would have made the new Devil May Cry game itself. Ninja Theory says it will satirise the fan reaction to the new brunette Dante at the beginning of the game with jokes about his hair colour, while the blonde hair and red coat will still make an appearance when Dante performs angel combos.

Skill rewards

One element of DmC that remains true to the roots of the series is the combat, which rewards skill and aims to make you feel cool as cool as possible at all times. According to Ninja Theory, this is the area where Capcom's expertise was invaluable, given the Japanese company's decades of experience refining combat across numerous genres. The aim is still to earn a triple-S ranking on each level by chaining together cool combos, and you're rewarded with concept art and new moves for Dante as you progress. You can reassign your library of moves during the game as the situation demands, but it'll take multiple playthroughs to unlock everything. In fact, just with previous games in the series, new difficulty levels such as Son of Sparda, Dante Must Die! and Heaven or Hell reward many, many playthroughs of the game.

New collaborators

Ninja Theory's last game, Enslaved, was famed for its collaboration between scriptwriter Alex Garland, actor Andy Serkis, and musician Nitin Sawhney. For DmC, Garland has given feedback on scripts from Ninja Theory's chief designer Tameem Antoniades, while Giant Studios in Los Angeles, who worked Avatar, was used for motion capture. The team also contacted street artists to incorporate their work into the game to give the outdoor locations an authentic urban feel. And while Sawhney may not be on the audio this time around, Norwegian aggrotech band CombiChrist and Dutch electronic group Noisia have both provided new music for the game, with music that is very much in keeping with the visuals.

Overall, we're excited about DmC's combination of a bold new visual direction and solidly satisfying combat mechanics. But are you excited about what Ninja Theory has done with the franchise? Let us know in the comments, and watch out for the game on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on January 15th in Europe and North America, with a PC version to follow.

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Battlefield 3: Aftermath is the next piece of premium downloadable content for fans of the year-old shooter to experience, and we got to play it early.

Battlefield 3: Aftermath is the next piece of premium downloadable content for Dice's incredibly popular shooter. However, working out when you can actually play the thing isn't all that simple. Here's how it breaks down:

November 27 on PlayStation 3 Premium members December 4 Xbox 360 and PC Premium members December 11 for non-premium PlayStation 3 owners December 18 for non-premium Xbox 360 and PC owners

Got all that!? Good! We were lucky enough to play the expansion ahead of its launch, and we can happily report we had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Here's what you need to know.

There are earthquakes!
Remember that bit early on in Battlefield 3's campaign in Iran, where an earthquake brings down a building right in front of you? Well, Aftermath's four new maps take place right after that earthquake--so everything is a wreck, the character models are bruised and bloodied, but you'll feel aftershocks during your matches as well.

New maps
The two maps we got to play were named Epicenter and Markaz Monolith, which demonstrated how red propane tanks open doors to tunnels that can be used to sneak around, creating new routes through the map as you progress.

Of course there's a crossbow
Not to be outdone by fellow EA shooter Crysis 3 and its crossbow, Battlefield 3 now has one too thanks to Aftermath. There are four different tips--standard, scan bolt (proximity), explosive (C4) and balanced bolt, the latter of which is a sniper-like dart that can travel on a straight line farther than the standard bolt.

Three new vehicles
Aftermath's earthquake-stricken maps can be navigated in three new vehicles--the Barsuk, Rhino and Phoenix. These vehicles have been modded in a Road Warrior-esque fashion by the survivors of the “quake, so they have a more rough-and-ready appearance than the rather pristine vehicles seen in other maps.

New game mode
Scavenger is a new game mode just for Aftermath. Everyone has lost their guns, so you start the match searching around for weapons. When you find one, you only get the ammo that's in it, so you need to keep moving around to find new sidearms. This also means that BF3's class system is redundant, so everyone“s on the same level, making Scavenger perhaps BF3's purest deathmatch experience yet.

Are you looking forward to Battlefield 3's penultimate piece of DLC? What are you looking forward to the most? Let us know in the comments!

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We spent five hours on Falcom's definitive reiteration of Ys IV.

The past few weeks have been a joyous one for connoisseurs of the action RPG genre thanks to Torchlight 2 and Borderlands 2. Gamers who don't mind one more name on their action RPG list would do well to consider Ys: Foliage Ocean in Celceta for the PS Vita, a re-imagining of the fourth Ys game.

A brief history lesson: in 1993, Ys creators Falcom left development of the fourth game to Hudson Soft and Tonkin House for reasons unknown. This resulted in two different iterations of Ys IV--one for the PC Engine (Turbografx-16) and one for the SNES in Japan. As this would naturally confuse a lot of people, Falcom has opted to create their own canon version of Ys IV--20 years later. While we don't know why it took them this long to rectify the oversight, it's better late than never.

In this Ys, it's definitely dangerous to go alone.

Players control main character Adol as he explores the huge forest continent of Celceta to try to recover his lost memory. Accompanying him are thief Dulen, tribe warrior Carna, and a host of other Celceta denizens, each with their own skills and story. Players control a party of three characters: you control one person from the group, while the AI handles the duties for the other two.

Switching between party members is a must, as certain enemies can only be damaged by the type of weapons they carry. Fleshy and soft-skin enemies can only be damaged by slash attacks, which Adol has, while heavily-armoured foes can only be hurt by bludgeoning attacks, which Dulen inflicts from his fists of fury.

Switching party members also help in non-combat portions of the game. Dulen can unlock special chests, which contain sweet loot or quest items, through unconventional means, while Carna can use her glaive to cut down hard-to-reach tethers, like spider webs and thick branches.

As with most action-oriented RPGs, the controls appear easy to master. The circle button is to attack enemies, while holding the R button and pushing another face button activates an SP attack. This move requires SP energy (the blue frilly meter on the bottom right), which fills up by attacking and killing foes. Every character has a ton of special moves catered to their fighting style, which and can be upgraded further, provided you use them frequently.

Adol has a dash-slash attack and a quick uppercut slash that knocks lighter foes into the air, while Carna has ailment-afflicting knives (poison, paralyse, the works) and a charge shot that hits multiple foes, at the cost of more meter and a slight delay in the attack. For more oomph against enemies with bigger health bars, you can pull off an ultimate attack by pressing the L button when your ultimate attack meter (the yellow circle, next to the special attack meter) is full.

What is it with JRPGs and little girls packing hammers bigger than themselves?

To avoid attacks, players just need to press the X button to dodge, and the triangle button to do a quick block. The kicker is that dodging at the last possible frame of the attack will trigger flash roll, where time slows down for a few seconds so that players can amass a quick counterattack to punish enemies. Blocking at the last second will not only nullify damage, but also gets you back a good chunk of SP energy to pull off more moves.

Depending on the scenario, these moves help add a lot of strategy in playing style. For example, we went all out with Adol and Dulin, while also playing the range with Carna when fighting things like poison-spitting bugs, stone-chucking gorillas, and leap-frogging mermen.

When we came across the slightly-larger foes like a mutant bull and a giant gorilla pack leader, we had to be a bit defensive. Some bosses, like Glucarius the "Great Squilla of Extermination" require you to do a flash dodge when it attacks so that you can attack its temporarily-exposed weak spot to kill it faster. Unless you like getting steamrolled constantly by its continuous charge attack, we suggest practicing flash dodge and flash block beforehand.

You'll need to switch characters frequently against enemies impervious to particular attacks.

This game being on the Vita, some touchscreen nuances had to be added and thankfully, it all appears to be for the better. Players can access menu and item screens with a touch of the icons at the bottom right of the screen. If the current view is too close to the party characters, you can zoom in and out by dragging both of your fingers inwards or outwards on the touchscreen.

Accessing the full map of the area only requires you to touch the top right map, while scanning the floors is as easy as dragging the touchscreen slider on the right part of the screen. Falcom resisted the temptation to implement touchscreen controls for combat, and instead used it for menus. Frankly, we think it was a good move.

The flash dodge system may remind action game fans of Bayonetta's Witch Time mechanic.

At the end of the day, killing enemies and earning materials to make better loot is the key point of Ys: FOC, and it seemed to deliver on that point well enough during our playthrough. The game's flashy combat appears to have a lot of meat to it, resulting in really frenetic battles with enemy hordes that can be managed with a lot of skill. Boss fights so far have been challenging and require you to make use of the game's new dodging techniques. While the game's canon takes place before the third game, players can get into the story quick without much of Ys' backlog in mind, provided they can read Japanese.

We hope these qualities can justify Xseed Games (who previously localized Ys Seven) to push out a North American-translated version of this reiteration, even if they haven't officially announced any plans to bring it over. In the meantime, fans of action RPGs can check it out from their friendly neighborhood parallel import store.

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It's been a long time coming, but we finally have an update on Jagex's free-to-play, massively multiplayer Transformers game.

The last time the world saw anything on Transformers Universe was all the way back in April, when an appearance at the official Transformers convention BotCon allowed fans to reserve their in-game name and meet members of the development team. Since then, the team at the Cambridge, UK-based studio has been diligently working on the game, even if that's meant that fans have been left wondering on forums when they would actually, finally, get to play it. Thankfully, Jagex broke its silence when it came into our London office this week, with both an exclusive new trailer and the latest development build of the game.

Since coming on board earlier in the year, chief creative officer Alex Horton and story director Alex Derakoff have enacted some big changes, notably in story and characterisation. And when you look at the pair's history, this approach is understandable. Horton is an ex-Rockstar animator and art director whose CV includes Bully, Grand Theft Autos III and IV, and Red Dead Revolver, while Derakoff has directed movies such as Dead Man Running starring 50 Cent, and The Calcium Kid, starring Orlando Bloom. The pair are good friends, and it was Horton who got Derakoff into the games industry when he helped him land direction duties on the cinematics for Need for Speed: The Run, starring Christina Hendricks and Sean Farris.

However, with changes to the game come delays to the game--up until now it was scheduled to be released before the end of the year, but now it's clear that it won't see the light of day until 2013. While it's a frustratingly vague release date for fans, whose first question on internet forums usually seems to be "when will we get to play the beta?", it's clear that the duo are passionate fans themselves, and won't release anything they're not happy with. Horton spends a long time explaining his vision for the story before we even see the game, explaining that the world will change depending on the outcome of battles between the autobots or Decepticons, which will then have an impact on where the story goes post-release as well as what content they put out.

We got to see the very latest build of the game itself, mere days old, with the game played through a web browser and the server running on the same laptop. You start out by choosing your character--in our demo, there were a few car-based Autobots to choose from, but in the finished game there will also be Decepticons and bikes available. In the finished game, you'll be able to build a collection of multiple Transformers--a "toybox" according to Horton, who can be collected and tweaked each time they're used. Replicating the magic of the toys seems to be the idea for Horton, while Derakoff says he's hoping to explore the Transformers universe with the same sensibilities as a HBO production.

Back in the game, we dropped into protected Autobot territory--a safe ground for players to familiarise themselves with the controls as well as mingle with other players. The team says that the first hour of the game will take place within such a zone, with tutorials to explain the various mechanics, and hopefully some friendly players to party up with.

Melee combat plays a big part in Transformers Universe's combat.

This being a Transformers game though, it's not long before you're getting into some action. We were shown the game's Deep Scan feature--essentially a horde mode where you face off against multiple enemies. The combat is fast-paced, with Horton saying he wants the game to have the immediacy of a shooter. Alongside the standard combat, which includes both melee and projectile-based weaponry, there are special weapons that can be used. We saw one Transformer becomes an artillery weapon--a state which takes a while to transform in and out of, but able to lay down heavy fire that devastates groups. The idea, therefore, is that you use it to support your party from afar--you can imagine an ideal party having smaller, faster Autobots in the thick of it, while bigger Transformers are raining down artillery fire. Transformers are also equipped with powers, such as an invisibility orb, which allows allies to see you but shields you from the sight of enemies, or a chaff mist, that protects you from incoming fire.

With an emphasis on action, rather than grinding, it seems like Jagex is aiming to build an accessible MMO that still has an ephasis on teamwork. We got a glimpse at how a large-party raid may work with a mission to extract some Energon. Energon is the main resource in the game but you have to find it and mine it in order to use it. Once you're in the vicinity of some Energon, you have to use trial and error to dig into the ground and begin extraction--the closer you get, the faster this process is. However, enemy Terracons will come and attack you during this process, so Transformers must work together to ensure mining players are protected when they come under attack.

Sadly, at this stage of production, there are still lots of unknowns about some of the specifics of Transformers Universe. First of all, there's no talk of release dates for betas--either closed or open--nor any word on how monetisation in the game will work. And while we know there will be post-release content, none of it is being detailed, other than the fact that there will be new Transformers on the way. Another one of the big questions yet to be answered is what role famous Transformers such as Optimus Prime and Starscream will play, but Horton confirmed that big characters will play a supporting role.

There have been some high-profile licensed games that have gone free-to-play recently, including Gotham City Impostors and DC Universe Online, while next year offers the very promising Marvel Heroes. There's plenty of work to be done on Transformers Universe, but in the meantime, Jagex has promised to make sure fans are properly up to speed with the story before release, so check out the game's official website for more as it develops.

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Ubisoft's upcoming shooter is blending genres one shark hunt at a time.

Spend an hour with Far Cry 3, and it feels like a first-person shooter. One where you can hang glide from a mountaintop and hunt sharks with a grenade, mind you, but a shooter just the same. But spend a few more hours with it, and Far Cry 3's influences from the role-playing genre begin to creep in. It's not quite Borderlands or Deus Ex, but there's a sense of openness and adventure here that doesn't feel too far removed from a game like Skyrim.

Far Cry 3's open world--a tropical archipelago overrun by pirates--is a scavenger's playground. There's an entire economy built around finding items, selling them off, or crafting them into more useful pieces of equipment. On the most basic level, you're constantly finding little bits and bobs that you can pawn for cash to put toward weapons and ammunition. The archipelago is also full of plant life you can harvest and mix into various types of concoctions, from basic medicines to a mixture that makes animals less likely to run away from you while hunting.

That last mixture can come in pretty handy, because there's a lot more to Far Cry 3's hunting system than running over a deer who got in the way of your jeep during an especially reckless joyride. Every animal you kill can be skinned, and those hides become the leather you use to upgrade all sorts of equipment. You can upgrade the size of your wallet to carry more cash, craft new weapon holsters for carrying more guns, and make all sorts of arrow quivers and ammo pouches.

It's one of those systems that don't sound terribly sexy on paper, but in my experience it somehow managed to entangle me in a compulsive scavenger hunt across the gameworld. Say you're planning a raid on a pirate camp, and get to thinking just how nice it would be if you could carry a backup gun, or a few more assault rifle clips. What do you do? Well, you take a look at which animal skins you need in order to upgrade a specific holster or pouch, and before you know it you're after the next upgrade beyond that first one, scaling the crafting tree one expedition at a time.

There's a difficulty curve built into it. A basic wallet upgrade requires only a few boar hides; boars are dangerous animals when they catch you by surprise but don't pose much of a challenge when you're the one searching them out. But if you want the biggest wallet you can carry, well, that's when you'll need to start hunting sharks.

Yes, shark hunting. I don't think I got caught up in anything more dangerous or more exciting during my hands-on time with Far Cry 3. Snipe one from the beach, and you'll need to swim out and find where its body has sunk down to the ocean floor, making sure that (A) you return before you run out of air and (B) you don't run into any of his shark buddies along the way. Eventually I discovered that cooking a grenade and tossing it in the shark's general direction was an effective tactic, though that meant bearing the guilt of killing a few innocent sea turtles along the way. It wasn't exactly my finest moment, but I got my shark skins.

But that's the beauty. The crafting system feels like an open-world role-playing game in the way it sends you off on your own wild journeys and expeditions through the gameworld, bringing back tragic stories of dead sea turtles. Whether you're sitting on the beach thinking of the best way to kill a shark, hiding in the bushes debating whether you can kill a buffalo with the two shells left in your shotgun, or just wandering through the wilderness picking flowers to stock up on medicine, Far Cry 3 really seems to capture a lot of that emergent exploration that people love about open-world RPGs.

Where Far Cry 3 gets a little more overt in its RPG leanings is in its skill tree system. As you complete quests and pull off especially skilled takedowns (headshots, stealth kills, and so on), you collect experience points, which unlock skill points at various thresholds. These skill points let you purchase new active and passive abilities along three different animal-inspired skill trees: The Heron (long-range takedowns and mobility), The Shark (assault takedowns and healing), and The Spider (stealth takedowns and survival).

Each of these trees bears a different focus. Dumping your skill points into The Heron unlocks abilities like reduced fall damage, shooting with one hand while on a zip line, or staying underwater longer. With The Shark, you get things like more health slots and the ability to quietly pull the pin from an enemy's grenade before kicking him away. And with The Spider, you unlock stuff like faster reloads, quieter sprinting, and selling scavenged items at a higher price.

Combine these skill trees with the focus on exploration, and you have a game that really does feel like it has taken a page from Bethesda's portfolio of expansive, exploration-driven RPGs. Of course, this is still a first-person shooter first and foremost. There's no leveling, no class system, and no dialogue options. But in that one specific way, where you're wandering this world searching for interesting items to gather and mix together, Far Cry 3 really does feel like an RPG. Exactly how much is something we'll find out come Far Cry 3's December release.

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Picotto Knights may be free to play, but by avoiding common pitfalls typical of the pricing model, it could end up as the Vita's surprise hit of 2013.

The free-to-play market on the Vita is the slimmest of all, but the good news for Vita owners with shallow pockets is that more games are on the way, starting with GameArts' and GungHo Online Entertainment's Picotto Knights. We had a chance to take the side-scrolling action role-playing game for a spin at the Tokyo Game Show, and though superficially it looks like a cutesy take on Castle Crashers' formula, its rewarding multiplayer components and a generous approach to the free-to-play model should strike a chord with budget-conscious fans of RPGs and beat-'em-ups.

Character development is the driving force behind Picotto Knights. You start the game by choosing your Cocoroid, one of the miniscule heroes fighting off the Dark Army. There is a good selection of base Cocoroids, and you can ground their skill sets in one of five classes. However, since every class can equip any of the eight available weapon sets, a typical mage can forgo the traditional staff in place of a bow or sword. Though you have class-specific abilities, Picotto Knights is melee heavy to the point that your weapon choice has as much of an impact on the gameplay as your chosen class does on your skill tree.

Controlling your Cocoroid in battle is straightforward: movement is controlled with the analog stick, X is mapped to jump, square performs a light attack, triangle commands a heavy strike, and circle blocks incoming attacks. Using the L and R triggers toggles different commands for the face buttons, represented on either side of the screen.

The range of potential customizations, from a visual and statistical standpoint, expands rapidly once you start collecting loot and purchasing new equipment. Much like in Diablo, the actions in-game are enjoyable in their own right, but are nowhere near as compelling as discovering new equipment or a healthy stash of gold. Even the Cocoroids support the hoarding of loot, regularly extolling the virtues of treasure during battle cries.

You may assume that for a player with enough real-world money, collecting treasure is optional in a free-to-play game, but that's only partially correct in Picotto Knights. While you can't purchase new equipment outright, you can purchase keys to access chests that have a better chance of containing rarer-than-normal loot. The other option is to purchase tickets that can be used to acquire items within the in-game store. Rather than going for the traditional pay-for-power model, GameArts has found a way to maintain the game's influence on your character's items and abilities without ruining it for people adhering to the free-to-play mindset.

The stamina meter plays another important role in the monetization of Picotto Knights. With each level or stage that you complete, your character loses a single bar from the stamina meter. A typical level consists of sections filled with hordes of enemies, punctuated by a boss fight at the very end. The amount of experience earned in battle is tied to your stamina meter, diminishing your earning potential as it depletes. It's possible to recharge stamina using potions purchased with real-world money, but it also auto-fills when you aren't actively playing, resetting completely each day. Thankfully, even if your meter runs out, you can still play Picotto Knights to your heart's content; you'll just earn minimal experience for your efforts.

Even when playing solo, there are always four Cocoroids on the battlefield, whether they are friends, your friends' ghosts, or randomly selected combatants. The best part about the inclusion of your friends' ghosts is that the experience and loot they earn is carried over to their Cocoroid the next time they connect to the PlayStation Network.

For a free-to-play game, Picotto Knights is surprisingly inviting to the cheap among us, allowing you to play endlessly without completely neutering the experience. It's got the chops to fulfill the multiplayer desires of the Vita-owning masses, and since everyone can jump in for free, it's poised to become one of those games that everyone with a Vita plays at one time or another. Of course, it helps that it's actually fun, undeniably charming, and potentially addicting. Picotto Knights is available now in Japan and will appear in the PlayStation Store in North America sometime in early 2013.

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Assassin's Creed III adds plenty of new features to the series' trademark climbing and assassinating, as we found out in a recent three-hour demo.

Assassin's Creed III is the fourth game in the series in as many years, so the main tenets of it's gameplay are pretty established at this stage. Thankfully, Ubisoft is implementing plenty of new features in its latest game, as we found out when we recently got to spend three hours exploring both Boston and the Colonial Frontier.

Our demo started in Connor Kenway's homestead of Davenport circa 1773. Straight away, we were introduced to the new rope dart weapon, or "sh“ng biāo" as it's called in the game. You can fire this weapon at enemies and pull them towards you, but it really comes into its own when used from stealthy positions. For example, you can hide in the grass and pull your enemies into the overgrowth for a silent kill, or shoot from an elevated position such as a tree, then jump down and use your weight to leave them suspended from the branch.

Our extended play took place from Sequence 6, where we were allowed to tread whatever path we liked through the game. Our first encounter was with a woman who had been attacked by poachers just outside our house, so naturally we headed off into the wilderness to take care of said poachers and try out the new tree climbing in the game. Jumping from branch to branch works in much the same way as jumping from building to building--you can hold down buttons and Connor will mostly take care of the rest. Exploring a little further, we also traded items with travellers, got attacked by wolves, and lost “50 on a game of checkers (or English draughts).

Before long though, we'd decided to head on horseback and ride to Boston, where we were told we could meet famous historical allies such as Samuel Adams and enemies such as William Johnson. Boston offered all the usual Assassin's Creed fare, including View Points to scale, assassins to recruit and items to collect (this time the collectable is almanac pages). We were taked with plenty of unpleasantness towards the British, such as blowing up tea supplies, defending Frenchmen from tax collectors, and generally taking out the invading armies where possible.

With the more modern setting comes technological advances, with more enemies equipped with guns. This means that the combat system has been tweaked slightly--if an enemy lunges at you with a bayonet, you can disarm them either by taking the weapon or using the momentum to drive the weapon into the ground. When you're engaged in melee combat, you sometimes see guards line up to take a shot at you--the best way to combat this is to grab one of your enemies as a meat shield.

Perhaps the biggest new addition to Assassin's Creed is the naval action that takes place on the Eastern seaboard. We went to the docks, jumped aboard a boat and headed out to check for British activity. It wasn't long before we were escorting a ship down to Martha's Vineyard. You take control of the ship's wheel to dictate direction, and then tell your crew whether to sail at full or half mast. You also control the canons, firing at ships or mines that are in your path. Eventually, we hit a fortification that demanded multiple attack runs, and its own cannon bombardments required us to take cover or take major damage.

At its core, Assassin's Creed III offers all the same action you've come to expect from the series, but Ubisoft has certainly added a lot of new mechanics. There are even more new features to be seen in our video preview (including moose fighting!), so make sure you check it out. You can play the game for yourself when it launches on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 at the end of October, and on Wii U in November.

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Can Soul Sacrifice carve out its own niche, or is it riding on the success of its predecessors?

This week at its pre-TGS press conference, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan announced that Soul Sacrifice--its Vita-exclusive action RPG collaboration between Marvelous AQL, Japan Studio and Keiji Inafune“s company Comcept--has been delayed until Spring of 2013. While the game will make the jump from the East to the West at a later stage, international release windows haven“t yet been confirmed. As part of behind-closed-doors presentations and a hands-on demo here at TGS, the team revealed additional details about the game, and we can“t help but get a distinctive Monster Hunter vibe from what we“ve seen so far.

The game“s premise is simple: a demon book tells you what monstrosities you need to take on, and you and up to three friends crack some fantasy-creature skulls in search of glory and gear. The twist is that the game allows you to sacrifice items, enemies, your body parts, and even members of your own team to create weapons, boost your health, and imbue buffs that improve combat effectiveness.

However, while the basics of loot lust and big, nasty creatures to slay may sound familiar, there's one major difference: the development team is banking on the addition of player choice to make this a slightly more cerebral experience than your typical hack and slash adventure. For each enemy you kill, you will be given the choice of either salvaging or sacrificing their souls; and in the process, helping put a little consideration into your bloody rampage. While the game takes place in a dark fantasy setting, many of the boss creatures we“ve seen so far blend human and animal forms, such as Hydras with people faces, bipedal wolf creatures, and warped cherubs. Perhaps the team figures it“ll be tougher to pull the trigger on a mockery of nature when it looks more like the old woman you see walking her poodle at your local park than the tortured sketches found in the back of your average teenager“s high school textbooks.

Everything has potential to be a weapon in Soul Sacrifice, and while casually plucking out your eyeball and turning it into something a little more deadly sounds cool (because it is) doing so will come at the expense of something else. Opting for a weapon built on one on your peepers impacts your vision, adding a persistent penalty to your field of view. How long the effects last still remain unclear at this stage, but the system shifts the mentality away from unlimited ammo and regenerative shields and health to a more micromanagement-focused, finite resource that players need to monitor and spend carefully to stay alive and progress., rather than spam incessantly.

Rather than penalise players who wade in weapons hot and end up on the wrong side of the health bar, those who fall in combat give their squadmates a chance to either exercise benevolence by resurrecting them, or use them as a destructive battery waiting to be drained; activating a fiery meteor shower at the cost of them able to continue to participate. There“s no game over screen or reset if someone in the unit dies. Instead, you continue on in spirit form, taking on an overwatch role that allows you to easily monitor other players, share buffs, and weaken the enemy by tapping on the Vita“s touch screen.

Like the other popular action RPG titles Soul Sacrifice appears to be drawing inspiration from, a heavy emphasis is being placed on coordinated attacks. While you“ll be able to play it as a solo handheld experience, the game benefits from involving others in the hunt. Summoning a stone shield protects weak members of your crew; slowing time provides a window for compatriots to charge up a bigger attack, or allows a fellow soldier the chance to summon helpers that spew out elemental attacks.

Inafune conceded that the social experiences that have become synonymous with games such as Monster Hunter and God Eater have gained the most traction in markets like Japan where handheld ownership is high, and people meet in person to play together. With Soul Sacrifice setting its sights on a global audience, he hopes the game will be the catalyst to kick start similar gaming gatherings around the world.

Japanese composers Wataru Hokoyama (Afrika) and Yasumoni Mitusda (Chrono Trigger, Xenoblade Chronicles) have been tapped to work on the game“s soundtrack, with recording being done at Skywalker Sound.

While there“s no doubt that the addition of the sacrificial mechanic gives players a healthy dollop of choice to determine which powers to use, and when, it“s impossible to ignore the well-worn footsteps the game is stepping in; and as a result, the inevitable comparisons with its contemporaries. Is there room in the action RPG space for another contender? Stay tuned for more details on Soul Sacrifice ahead of the game“s launch on the PlayStation Vita next year.

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Cell-shaded beatings administered by catwalk male models on horses and machine-gunning fashion cowboys? Sounds like a video game manga adaptation from CyberConnect2 and Namco Bandai.

Developer CyberConnect2 have finally branched out of their Naruto fighting game-making comfort zone and opt for another IP. After throwing a dart on a board filled with anime and manga names, they somehow lucked out with the long-running JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series. At the very least, they have a frame of reference game-wise thanks to Capcom's past efforts. Still, this new 2D fighting entry subtitled All-Star Battle for the PS3 will amp it up with possible character variety and lovingly-rendered art direction if the recent TGS 2012 build is of any indication.

Right from the get-go, the demo wowed us with its color palette and stylized aesthetics that stayed true to the manga it's based on. Odd character poses and fighting stances, insanely-crafted wardrobes, sound effects of punches popping up comic-style; fans will love the work CyberConnect2 did.

Behind its flash is also fighting game substance. Each of the four selectable characters on the demo have their own particular methods of mayhem. Cowboy-lookalike Joseph Joestar has the mix up-heavy cracker volley attack where he spins two discs which can be followed up with a counter-attack pose, an additional combo attack, or an overhead. His zones include his cracker boomerang, which can return to him when holding down the attack button.

Recent protagonist and actual cowboy Gyro Zeppeli attacks with steel ball projectiles as well as ride on a horse that opens up vertical bumrush and knockdown moves. One of the manga's antagonists, Wamuu of the Pillarmen, uses bursts of wind in his anti-air attacks as well as performs a spinning overhead attack and delayed human torpedo move. He can also turn invisible for a short bit; while a silhoutte and wind trails remains, he can absorb hits in this form temporarily while also make opponents guess what moves he will launch. The recovery for the move is long though, so players should use this with care.

No JoJo title will be complete without the fan's favorite protagonist Jotaro Kujo; he fights with his Stand which he can bring up or dismiss with just pressing the R1. Though he has no projectiles, he makes it up with the mid-range reach of his Stand that has an anti-air, a sweep, and a knockdown rush punch that can be used as a combo-ender.

Each fighter has his own Heart Heat attack (the game's equivalent to SSFIV's super and Ultra combos); this can be activated with a down, down forward and forward motion followed by two attack buttons and requires just one Heart Heat gauge. A bigger version of that, a Great Heat Attack, requires two Heart Heat gauge and a press of the L1 button (or a down, down forward, and forward motion plus three attack buttons).

Each of these moves are different for each character and some even have follow-ups: Joseph Joestar whips out a machine gun in a super-cancelable attack, does a wall bounce push on his opponent and then juggles his opponent into oblivion. Jotaro Kujo's Heart Heat attack is just a glorified version of his Stand's rush punch attack where you can get more mileage out of it via button-mashing during the move. Gyro Zeppeli's Great Heat attack, while fancy, requires him to be on his horse.

To make itself stand out from the crowd, All-Star Battle allows fighters to sidestep attacks by pressing X. Some of your attacks can be cancelled by pressing the L2 button at the cost of your heart heat gauge. Furthermore, background objects can damage players depending on where they're standing. Halfway through the fight, we triggered a bunch of horses to run around in a run-down coliseum. If you're in the way, it will knock you down. Tell-tale signs of incoming objects are highlighted by manga panels that pop up in the middle of the screen. While we're fine with the first two evasive and attack cancel mechanics, we do hope that there's a way to turn off the third bit in serious matches because it may seem too disruptive for its own good.

It's hard to gauge whether All-Star Battle will be a fighting game considered for the tournament space, especially given that the game is still in its early stages. Nonetheless, fans of the manga and adventurous gamers can look forward to All Star Battle when it hits Japan shelves in 2013. A North American release seems likely, as Namco Bandai previously filed a trademark for "All-Star Battle" within the region.

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