War of the Roses is a third-person medieval battle game. The players takes on the role of a single soldier for either the House of Lancaster or the House of York. The player’s heavily customizable character is just one member of a larger army, and participates in epic battles alongside dozens of other soldiers—either in a single-player campaign which follows an alternate version of the real battles of the historical War of the Roses, or in multi-player battles with up to 64 players. As one works up through the ranks, more customization options become available. A heraldic crest can be designed, a helmet plumed and painted, and ranks earned. There are 30 ‘perks’ to specialize the characters, 30 different weapons—which can be further customized by quality, strength, and metal type—several types of armor, and various different fighting styles, including cavalry with advanced mounted combat mechanics. The gameplay looks a lot like the battles in Mount & Blade, except that the player is only controlling the one character, rather than also controlling an army. With the focus just on this aspect, however, I’d expect it to be a bit more sophisticated. If you’re looking to be a part of some epic battles with lances and bows, you might want to give this one a look.
What surprises and interests me most about the Resident Evil series is that it is able to continue on as if the films do not exist. The Resident Evil films have become pretty popular, and the high-action, special-effects-heavy flicks recently got their fifth installation in Resident Evil: Retribution. In other video games which see such film stardom while the series of games is still ongoing, we end up with bits of the films dropped into the games to create a closer tie-in. So, I’m surprised that we haven’t at least gotten Milla Jovovich, or her character Alice, in one of the games, even as a voice. The characters in the game never even come across evidence of Alice’s struggle. The games are developed as if the films don’t exist, while the films are constantly pulling characters and situations from the games. Perhaps this is caused by an ocean separating the film production from the video game development. Whatever the cause, Resident Evil 6 will be continuing the video game plot with a few major new features. There is now a sort of crafting system, by which players can collect ‘herbs’ with which to craft ‘pills’ with beneficial effects. The more herbs collected before crafting, the fewer herbs needed to craft each pill. There is also the addition of a ‘downed’ system, similar to other contemporary co-op games, whereby severely injured characters will be knocked down, and forced to defend themselves from the ground, while their teammate tries to heal them. This is in play whether you are playing co-op mode with a friend, or just playing through with an AI partner. In either case, if one character fails to be roused in time, the level is failed. Finally, there is a new enemy type, the J’avo, who have the capacity to carry weapons, and to attack the player tactically, coordinating with the other J’avo in the area. Allowing them to create too big a team will be very deadly for the player. The rest of the game is just more Resident Evil. If you’ve played any earlier installations, you know what to expect.
Following is a full list of this week’s announced North American releases:
Windows
- NBA 2K13
- War of the Roses
Wii
- Drop Zone: Under Fire
- NBA 2K13
DS
- Pokemon Black Version 2
- Pokemon White Version 2
3DS
- Crosswords Plus
- Pokemon Dream Radar
- Samurai G
Xbox 360
- NBA 2K13
- Resident Evil 6
PS3
- NBA 2K13
- Resident Evil 6
PSP
- NBA 2K13
Vita
- New Little King’s Story
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