On one of the days of E3 , I had an hour appointment with Maximum Games. I didn’t know what to expect, didn’t know what they were showing, and to being honest, really hadn’t heard of them before. When I arrived at their booth, I was met with a broad variety of games, from sports titles, to a rampaging motorcycle game, to an endearing adventure about a boy and a large monster (no, not The Last Guardian). All of these games aren’t necessarily AAA titles, but they each do something unique, made with heart and passion by the teams creating them.
In the gallery below, you’ll read about The Golf Club 2 — a golf game that lets players create their own courses, Road Rage — an open world motorcycle game, Mark McMorris Infinite Air — a physics based open world snowboarding game, and Troll and I — a puzzle platforming adventure title about, you guessed it, and troll and a boy. Maximum Games also had Loading Human: Chapter One available to see, which is a sci-fi story heavy VR game, but we didn’t get the chance to check that one out. We’ll make sure to get coverage of that as PlayStation VR releases later this year.
What’d you think of the Maximum Games lineup at E3? Anything capture your attention? Check out all of our E3 2016 coverage with news, previews, and interviews from the show floor to make sure that you didn’t miss anything from the year’s biggest gaming show. And as always, stay tuned to PlayStation Lifestyle as we bring you coverage of Sony’s flagship console and related gaming news.
Maximum Games E3 Preview
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Road Rage
Take a traditional open world formula, stick the lead character on a motorcycle, and give them one of a wide variety of melee weapons and you've got the very basic premise for Road Rage. Smacking opponents off of their bikes with a fire extinguisher is a ton of fun, though it often led to me not paying attention and slamming into the side of a building.
Whether it was them or me, the rag doll effects are hilarious to watch, particularly because the game will often slow down to give you a good look at the brutality. Everything is customizable, from characters to motorcycles, to the selection of weapons. More than 40 story missions will lead you and your motorcycle gang to controlling the city.
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Mark McMorris Infinite Air
Infinite Air is a physics based open world snowboarding game. Unique controls use the triggers to charge up jumps and spins, as well as grabbing your board once in the air. The control sticks tweak your board in the air, with varying levels of intensity possible, so instead of just pressing a button to do a trick, you get to see your own personal style showcased in exactly how you pull off each trick.
A helicopter can move you around the mountain and there is also the ability to create your own snow parks, so there's a lot of focus on making sure that Mark McMorris Infinite Air feels like a unique and personal experience for each player that gets their hands on it.
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The Golf Club 2
Not one that traditionally plays sports games, The Golf Club 2 was a surprise for me. Instead of showing off the gameplay portion of the game extensively (which let's be honest, probably wouldn't give me a lot to talk about), I was shown the game's course customization.
Carrying over from the first game, there's a huge possibility for creating just about any kind of course you want to make. One of the developers showed me the ability to raise and lower terrain, put water features on, and odd tons of objects like clubhouses, and even a whale.
There are also clubs that act like exclusive societies. You'll need to play and play well to keep your standing and get into higher end exclusive clubs, feeling just like real exclusive groups that play golf.
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Troll and I
Troll is hunted by the local villagers, and when a boy finds him, he realizes that Troll is not bad. This leads to a bond between Troll and the boy and the start of the puzzle platforming adventure.
In Troll and I, you can swap immediately between both Troll and the boy, both to combat enemies and work your way through each area to get move forward. In one portion I needed to pick up an old airplane wing as Troll and make a temporary bridge for the boy to clamber over.
There's also a little bit of combat in Troll and I, but from what I played, swapping to troll immediately decimated and took care of any of the little goblins in my way. Troll and I seems like a game with heart that will give us an emotional story when it releases next year.
