In a statement provided to Gamasutra,
Bhatia said the open-world action game is likely to arrive in March
2013. Previously, the firm had expected the title to ship during the
2012 holiday season.
Developer Rockstar Games took the wraps off GTAV in October, but it did not provide a release date or platforms for the sequel to 2008's critically acclaimed game.
A March 2013 launch for GTAV would be advantageous for Rockstar,
according to Bhatia, because that window is far from the releases of new
entries in the Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty franchises.
The analyst also noted that a 2013 ship date for GTAV would leave open
the possibility for a Wii U version of the title. The Wii U is scheduled
to launch worldwide during the holiday 2012 season.
Last month, Rockstar said further GTAV details are months away.
That time frame lines up with the game industry's biggest
information-drop event of the year, the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
This year's show will return to the Los Angeles Convention Center June
5-7.
Rockstar has provided brief glimpses at GTAV thus far. The game will be
set primarily in present-day Los Santos, a fictional town modeled on Los
Angeles. Rockstar has also said that GTAV boasts the largest scope of
any installment in the franchise to date.
Sony
lays out launch lineup headed by Uncharted and Hot Shots Golf; games
priced from $10 to $50, memory cards running from $20 for 4GB up to $100
for 32GB.
Dark Souls is an extraordinary role-playing game that transports you to an awesome and menacing world you may never forget.
The Good
A gorgeous and frightening world you won't want to leave
Abundant, amazing bosses test your skill and determination
Superb combat in which every attack feels powerful and precise
Fantastic online aspect lets players both cooperate and compete
Covenant system and other features lead to constant surprises.
The Bad
Frame rate gets choppy in certain areas
Finicky target lock.
Any game can deliver a few cheap scares. It takes a special one to
terrify you. Dark Souls is such a game. It's a thoughtful, atmospheric,
and mysterious role-playing adventure that challenges your mind and your
mettle. It takes the concepts of deadly environments and unflinching
difficulty introduced by 2009's infamously tough Demon's Souls
and cranks up the challenge, the fear, the frustration, and the
eventual triumph. Dark Souls' enormous world is vast and dangerous,
filled with terrifying fire demons and homicidal lizardmen, all with a
single goal: to annihilate you. And so you die, over and over again, as
you make your way through this strikingly fearsome land. But in Dark
Souls, death and resurrection is a core mechanic, not a roadblock, and
because the combat is so precise, you ultimately feel in control of your
destiny. Dark Souls plays by its own rules, and in doing so, provides
an unforgettable adventure that seeps into your being and invades your
thoughts. It's a landmark game, destined to be loved and talked about by
anyone who has the pleasure of unraveling its mysteries.
Like Demon's Souls, Dark Souls is a third-person dungeon crawler with
precise and responsive combat. You create a character, select a class,
and enter a bleak kingdom populated by undead horrors, shrieking
gargoyles, and iron-clad knights. The tutorial introduces you to the
impending terrors in fine fashion. You fight a gargantuan ogre, get
rolled over by a giant ball, and encounter a sad fellow who issues you a
warning in his final moments. After this sinister and enthralling
introduction, a giant raven flies you to the shrine that serves as your
initial hub. And so begins your exploration of Lordran, where non-player
characters offer a few vague notions of where you are and what you must
do, but little else. NPCs muse on their undead conditions and emit
disturbing giggles, but Dark Souls doesn't focus on plot, character
development, or questing in the traditional sense. Rather, it provides
you with a captivating world spiced with narrative details, and
encourages you to craft your own tale. You might expect that such thin
storytelling might lead to aimlessness, but Dark Souls is anything but
aimless, in part due to the structure and design of its large, seamless
world.
Demon's Souls was a collection of large levels attached to a hub area;
Dark Souls is a single, massive realm, separated into distinct regions.
You can't explore with impunity, however: certain areas open up to you
only when you beat bosses. Watching a giant closed gate swing open after
a nail-biting battle is a fantastic reward for proving your dominance:
You are filled with trepidation and excitement at the prospect of
investigating a mystifying new territory. That region might contain dim
forests, crumbling castles, dilapidated bridges, and ominous fortresses.
Each area has its own defining visual characteristics, yet feels like
it belongs to the same melancholy medieval universe. A giant red dragon
perches above a stone bridge and breathes fire upon you. Undead knights
clad in capes charge at you. Ghostly figures descend on a murky village.
Dark Souls is beautiful and terrifying all at once--yet as horrifying
as it is, it draws you in. No one should ever want to reside in a land
in which death lurks around each corner. Yet once you're there, Dark
Souls convinces you to remain, promising new vistas to ogle and new
creatures to slay. The biggest blight on this land is the inconsistent
frame rate. It isn't a pervasive issue, but things get choppy in certain
areas. The slowdown isn't likely to affect your exploration, but it's
noticeable enough to stand out.
You eventually unlock shortcuts between regions and make good use of
them, especially when trying to best Dark Souls' immense and numerous
bosses. They include twin gargoyles atop a parish roof, a giant fire
demon, a huge wolf with a sword in its mouth, and a deceptively
beautiful butterfly that sings a soothing lullaby when it isn't trying
to murder you. And there are minibosses too, such as a blue dragon
guarding a narrow path and a giant diseased rat skulking in the sewers.
Every boss looks gruesome, and each plays differently enough to keep you
on your toes. Even standard foes are wonderfully hideous in Dark Souls
and are suited to their environment. Each enemy attacks differently from
others, with some taking advantage of openings to whittle away most, if
not all, of your health bar. However, smooth animations and clear sound
effects signal the most powerful moves, allowing you to block properly
or roll out of the way. Yet each dog and demon has enough different
attacks to make every encounter a surprise; it's a great mix of
consistency and unpredictability. And with so much combat variety, you
might find use for multiple weapons and sets of armor, each with its own
attack and defense benefits (one for fending off poison, one for fire
protection, and so on). One moment, you might look like a hooded wraith
in your gold-trimmed cloak; the next, your gleaming armor gives you the
look of a virtuous silver knight.
Fortunately, the combat is weighty and exact, which is why Dark Souls
feels fair and rarely cheap. In all but a few instances, the collision
detection is flawless. When your blade makes contact with a shield, it
glances off; when it meets flesh, it sinks into it. If you hit a wall
rather than the flaming minotaur rising above you, he will take
advantage of your error. These might seem like small details, but
without such accuracy, Dark Souls wouldn't be such a triumph. Combat
isn't perfect: a drake might clip into a mountain and get stuck, or you
could perish due to mistakes caused by the finicky lock-on mechanic. But
such issues are easily overlooked, and more apparent than they might
otherwise have been, because the action is usually ultraprecise.
Thank goodness for such precision. Without it, you could never survive
in this wild world. On your travels, you cross narrow beams and avoid
deadly swinging blades. Evil shrubs spring to life and pierce you with
their branches, and the bones of skeletons you just defeated reassemble
themselves before your very eyes. And so you die. Often. Afterward, you
resurrect at the most recent bonfire you rested at. These bonfires are
scattered around the world, though they are far enough apart that you
don't feel totally secure in your travels. Resting at one saves your
game, replenishes your health and your supply of health flasks, and
restores the number of times you can cast a particular spell. (There is
no mana bar in Dark Souls.) The catch: every enemy, apart from bosses,
respawns when you rest.
