STACK #153 Jul 2017

GAMES FEATURE

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EA PLAY

THE CREW

Need For Speed: Payback ’s game director William Ho on casting the three leads: Right from the outset, we were very keen on these

characters. We needed to cast them based on their chemistry – they had to be

Need For Speed: Payback

believable as a unit. It was an extensive casting process, because not only did they need to

hands-on impression found a more realistic and fluid game; visually, there are noticeable improvements and the gameplay, at this early stage, definitely feels more balanced. According to Prior, FIFA 18 will feature a new motion technology system that will capture in detail particular player traits. Crowds in stadiums are more spontaneous and will react directly to player celebrations. The Journey is back to track Alex Hunter’s next progression through his career as a professional footballer, and FUT will feature a host of new legends (none, I’m reliably informed, from Gillingham). It’s a real challenge keeping an annual sporting franchise fresh, but one that EA have consistently managed to do with FIFA over the last ten years. Alesha: When the E3 trailer debuted for Need For Speed: Payback , there was an obvious (and with good reason) comparison to the Fast and Furious films. A feeling of family and togetherness resonated from the crew shown in the EA Play trailer, which, according to game director William Ho, was a conscious choice.  “Growing up, I really wanted to make racing games. I loved Hot Wheels, TV shows and movies with cars… I’m basically a walking encyclopaedia when it comes to car stunts and how they look and feel. For Need For Speed: Payback , it just made sense to tap

but this is exactly what I want from a Star Wars game, and I left feeling excited about the prospect of playing the entire campaign in November. Every year we chat to Matt Prior about the new FIFA, and every year he takes the p-ss out of my football team, Gillingham. So nothing new in that regard when I quizzed him on what to expect

Star Wars dogfight sequence, weaving in and out of ships trying to get your reticle on an X-Wing. However, when Iden decides to board a Rebel transporter to take out the ION cannons, it’s a good old laser fire-fight through tight corridors, launching thermal detonators at clusters of Rebel soldiers and discharging well-aimed head shots.

be proficient as individuals, but they also had to

spark as a group. It was a very arduous but ultimately fun process.

The inclusion of a campaign mode in Battlefront is something everyone has pleaded for

into not necessarily one franchise in particular, but a lifetime of knowledge and memories. You could say it’s been 40 years in the making.” We jumped in for 20 minutes with Payback at EA Play, and the short hands-on we got was highly- polished. The story mode features a roster of three characters that Ho hopes will appeal to every type of driver. These characters will need to work together and utilise their different areas of expertise to conquer missions. The mission we played had us fight off a few cars escorting a semi to an undisclosed location. It had a rather fast car on board we wouldn’t mind driving! The handling is great, and there were even a few slow-mo crash sequences thrown in that were real eyebrow-raisers. Fans of driving games this year are literally spoiled for choice.

with FIFA 18. If we’ve learned anything about playing FIFA at E3 over the years, it’s not to judge what we see in June as what we’ll be playing in September when the game launches. Prior tells us that only now, in the second year of using the Frostbite engine, are the team really hitting their straps. Our brief

A nice addition here to the combat is a mini Imperial probe droid (launched with the press of a button), which can override computers or take out multiple enemies with bolts of electricity. Gameplay is optional – play stealth, or in our case, opt to blast away everything that moved. It was a short time with the campaign,

Need For Speed: Payback

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JULY 2017

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