Xbox 360 Video Game Previews from 1UP

Final Fantasy XIII Import Hands-On Impressions

Jeremy Parish — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:31:00 PST

I'm about three hours into the final Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII, and things are starting to fall into place for me. I'm getting a sense of the shape of the plot, I've met five of my six party members (and saw the sixth, briefly, in a romantic flashback sequence), I have a handle on the new combat system, and I've finally opened up the character-building and skill mechanics. And what I realize now that I see the game splayed out in front of me, its innermost workings revealed, is that it owes a lot to Final Fantasy X-2.

No, wait! Come back! I know, I know; FFX2 was incredibly controversial and was the first game in the series to really and truly alienate many long-time Final Fantasy fanatics, but that doesn't mean you should write off FFXIII. It draws on the good parts of FFX2 -- the combat and class-change systems -- not its unpopular "girls night out" vibe. On the contrary, FFXIII is all about very serious melodrama, what with its surly heroine Lightning and overarching plot line about magical legends and racial prejudice. One of the main characters, Snow, just saw his fianc�e turn into crystal, which is about one step removed from Lot's wife becoming a pillar of salt. That's some biblical stuff, right there! And on top of that, after watching her transform right before his very eyes, Snow received a vicious right hook to the jaw from Lightning, whose spindly arms apparently pack a lot more power than you'd expect.

Splinter Cell: Conviction Co-Op Hands-On Preview

Thierry Nguyen — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:00:00 PST

While I'm not privy to any deals going on in Hollywood, I think it's fair to assume that no studio has yet to option or greenlight any movie pitched as "The Bourne Trilogy meets Lethal Weapon. But hey, if such a movie is in production, well, too bad for that one, because the recently revealed co-op campaign for Splinter Cell: Conviction is pretty much that: a buddy cop adventure where the two guys-that-are-forced-to-work-with-each-other happen to be lethal Sam Fisher-level superspies.

Multiplayer game director Patrick Redding quips, "If Sam is the panther, then [Archer and Kestrel] are the wolves," before detailing the campaign's central premise: "It's a prequel that sets up some of the events and obstacles that Sam will come across in the main story." Plotwise, this prologue focuses on how Third Echelon (if you didn't already know, that's the black ops division of the NSA) has learned that four Russian EMP warheads have been stolen and are about to be sold on the black market. So seasoned Third Echelon operative Archer is then dispatched to Russia alongside Voron (the Russian analog to Third Echelon) operative Kestrel, and the two different fellows (down to the classic archetype of how Archer is arrogant and boastful while Kestrel is more introverted) work their way through four maps that should provide players with a good four-to-six hours of gameplay.

Mass Effect 2 "Seven Holy S*** Moments" Hands-On Preview

Thierry Nguyen — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:01:00 PST

I generally like my job, but man alive, playing games like Mass Effect 2 is when I really like my job. Recently, BioWare allowed us media to play the first 90 minutes of Mass Effect 2, and my honest reaction can be summarized as a series of "holy shit" moments. Also, in keeping with the "five things about Alan Wake" and "six things about Heavy Rain" theme, here are seven "holy shit" utterances I had during this session.

No. 1 -- Holy shit: The combat feels great.

Sure, I've already written about the combat before, but it's a point that merits restatement: the combat feels a lot better. In the previous game, combat felt like what would happen if an RPG attempted to imitate Gears of War. Now, it honestly feels like a more tactical version of an actual, legitimate, cover-based third-person shooter. Tweaks such as pressing the A button to enter cover, location-based damage (headshots rule!), and squad commands might not be game-changers by themselves, but they all add up to result in much more fluid and engaging combat.

Rocket Knight Hands-On Preview

Jeremy Parish — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:01:00 PST

It's all well and good for a publisher to dig into its back catalog and proclaim its intent to resuscitate a forgotten franchise. It's something else entirely to actually do right by those original games and their fans. So, it's little surprise that classic gaming fans -- having been burned by far too many callow cash-ins and weak efforts that completely failed to recapture the magic of bygone classics -- tend to regard projects like Rocket Knight with well-deserved skepticism.

Sure, Rocket Knight stars 16-bit mascot hopeful Sparkster and his rival Axel Gear, but it's being developed by Americans and Europeans rather than any of the Japanese staff behind the Super NES and Genesis trilogy. And it has 3D graphics, which lack the retro look of the old sprites and bitmaps. And it's downloadable, which is usually code for "crap." So really, how good could Rocket Knight possibly be?

Army of Two: The 40th Day "Morality Moments" Hands-On Preview

Thierry Nguyen — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:40:00 PST

There're two kinds of Army of Two players: those who abhor, and those who love, the sequence where series protagonists Elliott Salem and Tyson Rios argue about the Wu-Tang Clan while fending off hostile Chinese military. Players either felt that such an inane conversation in the middle of what should be a serious military game was indicative of the game's inconsistent tone, or they simply loved the absurdity of having an argument about the Wu-Tang Clan while mowing down Chinese soldiers. I actually belong to the latter half, simply because that conversation was a bizarre and amusing break from some of the more melodramatic handwringing in the script, but I completely understand why others view it as inappropriate -- the same way you shouldn't have fist-bumps and bro-hugs in a game about unsavory Private Military Contractors.

It's interesting to see that Army of Two: The 40th Day, will somewhat address that tonal inconsistency by putting it more actively in the hands of players. During a playthrough of the first two levels in the single-player campaign, I can see some glimpses into a sort of "define how flippant and insensitive these characters are" meter built into the game. In short, if you thought it was an immature fratboy moment for Salem and Rios to talk up the Wu-Tang, then you can keep them more serious. If you like that sort of goofy inanity in your dialogue, then it's up to you to make it that way.

Red Dead Redemption "Nuevo Parasio" Impressions

Thierry Nguyen — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:10:00 PST

The thing I love most about Grand Theft Auto 4 is the abundance of little details that help Liberty City feel, for lack of a better word, "alive." Details such as tapping a pulled-over car on the freeway, and seeing the driver smack his head on the open hood as he moves back in response to you hitting his car. Or the fact that you can sit down and watch television for hours on end. Or that you can go on a date, and then immediately read a blog about said date at an internet caf� afterwards. And from what I've seen of Red Dead Redemption, it looks like Rockstar is trying even harder to maintain that "vast open-world game filled with little details" vibe this time around.

Case in point: For the first 30 minutes of a 45-minute presentation, Rockstar personnel showed dynamic/unscripted open-world gameplay. Sure, I eventually saw a traditional scripted mission, which I'll get to later, but before then, all I saw for half-an-hour was RDR protagonist John Marston wandering around the Mexican countryside (specifically Nuevo Parasio, one of three major regions within the overworld known as "the Territories" that includes New Austin and West Elizabeth), and performing all sorts of side activities with no ties to the story campaign.

BioShock 2 "Pauper's Drop" Preview

Alice Liang — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:40:00 PST

After playing through BioShock 2's fourth level, Pauper's Drop, I was struck with the resemblance it holds to the original game's Fort Frolic level. Part of this may be due to knowing that the sequel's creative director Jordan Thomas was in charge of that particular level in the first as well. But though the similarities may be tenuous, I'm still reminded of something I loved from the first game -- the slow uncovering of character back stories as you make your way through Rapture, like some sort of anthropologist wading through the remains of a distant time, trying to figure out just what role you play in it all.

I'll try to keep things as spoiler free as possible, but fair warning, I'll be detailing all the new gameplay tidbits I picked up during my play session. And while I will try to be vague and cursory, especially when it comes to the story line, some plot aspects are unavoidably intertwined to the gameplay. And be sure to check out our BioShock 2 Cover Story for week-long exclusive coverage.

Just Cause 2 Exclusive Hands-On Preview

Thierry Nguyen — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:00:00 PST

Just Cause 2 is one of the most ridiculous games I've played in the past few years. I don't mean that in a pejorative, "Oh man, this is a clich� scenario with lame mechanics that make me roll my eyes in disgust." I mean "ridiculous" in the sense that I get a ridiculous grin on my face when, within the first hour of playing the game's opening act, I've done goofy stuff like: skydive onto a poor schmuck, shoot up a military installation while dangling from a helicopter, knock over a car using just my grappling hook, and indirectly cause vehicular manslaughter. While most people will describe Just Cause 2 as an, "over the top open world third-person action adventure," the previous examples demonstrate why I prefer categorizing it as "a ridiculous game that you can screw around endlessly in."

We covered Just Cause 2 before, both as quick impressions and as hands-on within isolated demo areas; for this session, Eidos personnel simply handed me the controller and hit "new game." There's a brief intro cut-scene detailing series protagonist Rico Rodriguez going to Panau (a fictional analogue of Malaysia, because I guess it's not okay to have a game about overthrowing the actual country) to take down his former boss from the first Just Cause, Tom Sheldon.

Five Things You Don't Know About Alan Wake

Matt Leone — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:41:00 PST

It would probably be safer to call this article something like "Five Pieces of Alan Wake Trivia," because really, I know very little about what you know about the game. You might work at Remedy and laugh at how simple this list is, or you might have never heard of Alan Wake. Chances are, you're somewhere in the middle, and if I've done my job well, hopefully you'll discover at least a couple of nuggets below that you didn't previously know about the game.

No.1 -- There are more vehicles than you'd expect.

If you've been paying attention, you won't be surprised to hear you'll be able to drive vehicles in Alan Wake -- that's been established for years. But according to Remedy lead writer Sam Lake, there will be quite a few of these in the game. Expect helicopters, boats, and "other types of vehicles and machines perhaps not traditionally used in games." Lake clarifies, though, that not all of these will be under the player's direct control, so sometimes you'll ride along while someone else drives, and sometimes you'll be attacked by enemy-controlled contraptions.

Alan Wake 'Light and Dark' Preview

Andrew Hayward — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:03:00 PST

After more than five years in development, Alan Wake is -- finally -- almost finished. And while developer Remedy won't confirm the heavily rumored May 2010 release date -- sticking to the less fun "Spring 2010" -- they are now ready to reveal new details about some of the game's key features, such as how the light and dark mechanics work. [For more on the game, check out this week's 1UP Cover Story.]

"Light and darkness [present] a central theme in the fiction of Alan Wake," says lead writer Sam Lake. "Darkness is the enemy; it represents terror, danger, and nightmares. Light is your ally; it represents the waking world, sanity, and safety."

Remedy has succeeded in keeping many of Alan Wake's narrative specifics under lock and key, but as previously detailed, the game focuses on the titular novelist, who finds himself searching for lost pages of one of his thrillers after his wife goes missing on a trip to the Pacific Northwest. While Wake cannot recall writing the novel, the pages he finds indicate that the paranormal events held within are unfolding in his real life, with a "dark presence" possessing both objects and living beings to thwart his quest. So of course, light becomes an essential tool.