X360

Resident Evil 5

2009-03-24T05:51:00.000-07:00

The Good

Beautifully detailed graphics and character animations
Having a partner enhances the fun and excitement while adding tension
Real-time menu system keeps you immersed
Plenty to do once you've beaten it.

The Bad

Frustrating hurdles to leap when joining an online game
Slow, deliberate movement and gunplay may not appeal to everyone
Can't swap weapons with a human teammate online.

Thirteen years ago, Capcom helped revolutionize the action-adventure world with Resident Evil, a game that would define an entirely new genre dubbed "survival horror." In the years that followed, the series continued to build upon the standards set by the first game, until 2005, when Resident Evil 4 radically departed from its predecessors and broke new ground as a more action-oriented game. Resident Evil 5, the latest offering in the long-running series, expands on the action-heavy formula of its forerunner and is built from the ground up to support cooperative gameplay. Though it can no longer be considered a survival horror game, Resident Evil 5 manages to retain and effectively translate the most important aspect of that genre--tension--into its new mechanics, crafting a fun, collaborative experience that will keep you on your toes the entire time.

Hey Sheva, is there a vet around here? 'Cause these pythons are sick!

Ten years after the destruction of Raccoon City, former S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team member Chris Redfield is an agent of the B.S.A.A. This paramilitary anti-bio-organic weapon organization travels the globe to seek out and destroy Umbrella's creations, which have fallen into the hands of terrorists following the collapse of the multinational pharmaceutical company. When Chris gets a tip that a known weapons dealer will be making a big deal in the remote African nation of Kijuju, he heads there to put a stop to it and learn what he can about the mysterious doomsday project known only as Uroboros. Chris is joined by Sheva Alomar, a local B.S.A.A. agent, and together they battle wave after wave of infected villagers, horribly mutated monsters, and even series archnemesis Albert Wesker.

The core combat mechanics haven't fundamentally changed since Resident Evil 4--the action still unfolds from an over-the-shoulder perspective, certain battles or cutscenes are accompanied by brief quick time events, and you still have to stop moving to fire your weapon (though you gain a bit more mobility thanks to your newfound ability to walk sideways). Resident Evil 5's slow movement and gunplay take some time to get used to, and folks expecting a run-and-gun game may find the action too sluggish for their tastes. Fortunately, this slowness isn't really an issue within the game, because enemies are deliberate with their attacks and are better handled with a cool head and steady aim.

Regardless of how similar the combat in Resident Evil 5 is to its predecessor, the addition of a second character makes encounters feel quite different. Teamwork is necessary to take down more-powerful enemies and bosses, and having someone there to watch your back goes a long way toward keeping you alive. Furthermore, there have been radical changes to the inventory management system. The immersion-breaking briefcase from the previous game is gone, and enemies no longer politely wait for you to rummage through your things because bringing up your armory doesn't pause the action. At any given time, you can store up to nine items per character, four of which are bound to the directions of the D pad for easy access. This new system works extremely well and successfully conveys a sense of urgency whenever you go through your gear. It's often necessary to trade items with your partner, and keeping track of who has what at all times is crucial, because rummaging through your things while a boss beats on you is painful.

It's tough to stay frosty in the sweltering heat, but Chris always manages to keep a cool head.

Sheva's artificial intelligence makes her a competent companion, though her degree of skill seems to rely more on her armaments than anything else--she is extremely good at using burst fire with a machine gun, for example, but tends to waste ammo when equipped with a handgun. That said, at no point does she feel like extra baggage that needs babysitting (unlike some of the series' previous companions), and she can hold her own in a fight. Sheva really shines when there's someone else controlling her. Resident Evil 5 supports both split-screen and online co-op play through Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, and exploring Kijuju with a friend greatly enhances both the experience and the fun factor. Every game has the potential to go multiplayer, since split-screen is as simple to initiate as hitting Start on a second controller, and other online players can join in on a free-for-all or invite-only basis if your game session is set up to allow this from the get-go.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope Review

2009-03-06T00:28:00.000-08:00

An addictive, strategic combat system makes Star Ocean: The Last Hope worth playing despite its cliche storyline and annoying characters.

The Good

Incredibly fun and strategic combat system
A variety of huge, beautiful environments to explore
Simple, powerful crafting system
Plenty to do and collect once you've finished the game.

The Bad

Cliched story and characters
Awful camera system
Emotionless, doll-like characters are just plain creepy.

Since its advent nearly 13 years ago, the Star Ocean series has challenged the role-playing game norm with its real-time battles and sci-fi trappings. Despite what appeared to be the series' conclusion with the unconventional revelations seen in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, it has returned in prequel form on the Xbox 360 with a newly overhauled and better-than-ever combat system. Though it features a weak, cliche story and characters you may want to launch out of the airlock, its fantastic and engaging battles, simple yet fun crafting system, and bevy of bonuses make Star Ocean: The Last Hope worth your time.

Get used to deadpan faces, as you'll be seeing them throughout the entire game...

In the latter half of the 21st century, humankind all but nukes itself into nonexistence, forcing the survivers on Earth to look to the stars for a new home. As Edge Maverick, a first-generation member of the Space Reconnaissance Force, you start off on your mission to explore the galaxy for a suitable new home and are drawn into a battle for the fate of the galaxy when you encounter a mysterious and destructive force that threatens all life. Of course, that's nothing that a can-do attitude, the support of your friends, hidden inner powers, and the occasional all-too-convenient plot twist can't handle as you race off to save the day. Sound familiar? Star Ocean: The Last Hope doesn't have a very original story, and its frequently ridiculous plot points and consistently dreadful dialogue don't help to make it any more memorable, especially when it forces half-hour-plus cutscenes on you with alarming frequency. Luckily, you can skip these epic events at any time (though oddly enough, they can't be paused) and read through condensed text synopses to make sure that you didn't miss anything too terribly important.

The formulaic nature of the story is further compounded by the cast of characters, themselves an off-the-shelf mixture of walking, talking space opera and anime cliches. You've got the hopelessly idealistic leading man, who is full of an infinite (and often misplaced) trust in others; the self-deprecating childhood-friend-slash-possible-love-interest; the emotionally repressed, scientifically minded space elf; the busty, scantily clad staff-wielding sorceress; the overly affectionate underaged cat girl; and more. Though the members of your misfit crew do undergo some fairly heavy changes as the game progresses--both as part of the standard narrative and in optional cutscenes and events--it's always in extremely predictable ways that ultimately fail to break them out of their original molds.

Despite these shortcomings, The Last Hope is a fun and engaging game thanks in great part to its deeply engrossing and highly addictive combat system; if the story is the heart of a Japanese RPG, then the battles are its soul, and Star Ocean's shines brightly. Monsters appear on the field, and once engaged, they're fought completely in real time with a party of up to four characters. You actively control one of your crew members and navigate him or her around a wide-open battlefield, dishing out damage at your own pace, while the others act according to basic AI routines that you've given them. At any time, you can switch over to manually control anyone who you have deployed, and you can even swap out active characters with reserve ones at your discretion. Every single character plays vastly differently, and it's fun and engaging to experiment with each character in order to find the play style and party combination that works best for you.

...except for in the odd scene like this, where unnaturally exaggerated expressions are the norm.

Though the battles can get frantic, they don’t all come down to button mashing, especially when you're taking on bosses. These major battles in The Last Hope often play out like simplified versions of encounters in an massively multiplayer game such as World of Warcraft. Each boss has a specific strategy that can be followed to take it out--though it's not necessary to follow these tactics if your party is powerful enough--and figuring them out during the fight will make your life a whole lot easier and dramatically reduce battle times. Another concept taken from online games is monster aggro, or aggression. Though enemies will wander around the battlefield, you can draw aggro from them with attacks or by using specialized skills for doing so, which is useful for pulling a monster off of your physically weaker magic-slingers to give them a chance to cast their powerful spells. Once you have aggro and the monster gears up for an attack, if you dodge out of the way with the right timing, you can break its line of sight on you, leaving it temporarily confused and open to special counterattacks called blindsides. Another powerful tool at your disposal is Rush mode, which can be activated once you've taken or dealt enough damage to grant you an array of bonuses and the ability to chain attacks together with other party members.

Perhaps the most interesting part of battle is the bonus board. By performing specific tasks in combat, such as defeating enemies using only skills or killing two monsters with one blow, you add a tile to this onscreen grid that grants you an extra reward at the end of battle based on your achievement. You can have up to 14 such bonus tiles active at any one time, and these carry over from fight to fight; by carefully manipulating the types of bonus tiles you have, you can customize extra rewards that are given after every single encounter. With this, you have the flexibility to power level your characters, grind for cash or skill points, minimize the number of restorative items that you need to use, or all of the above in any combination. It's possible to lose your bonus tiles, but if you exercise good judgment in combat, they shouldn't be too difficult to keep for as long as you like.

Every character plays vastly differently in combat, allowing you to pick a style best suited to you.

When not in battle, you're exploring a series of open, outdoor locations that range from beaches to deserts to snow-capped mountains and beyond, as well as the occasional puzzle-filled dungeon. These beautiful-but-dangerous environments often contain resource nodes that provide valuable plant life or raw materials if you've got a crew member who can harvest them. These supplies and others earned through battle (or bought from stores) are then used to fuel your research in the simple-but-powerful item creation system. By finding item formulas in your journey or forming research teams and thinking long and hard enough, you can invent recipes for new weapons, armor, items, and even decorations for your ship. Once you gain the right ally, you can further customize your equipment by synthesizing the properties of other items in your inventory to generate some truly powerful gear.

The Last Hope features some top-notch visuals in its huge, open, and highly detailed environments, its abundant cutscenes, and its anime-inspired character models, but it also has a few notable issues. Sadly, the game has only a handful of unique monster designs, and it palette-swaps and reuses them ad infinitum. It's also exceedingly difficult to play on an SDTV thanks to incredibly hard-to-read text and muddied graphics. Sometimes just looking around you is an exercise in frustration thanks to the awful camera system; it zooms in ridiculously close at times and doesn't seem to know what to do whenever you're in a narrow hallway or traveling down stairs or a steep decline. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about The Last Hope is that all of the game's characters have a doll-like, glossy-eyed dead look to them, further accentuated by their complete lack of human emotion or expression. Besides being creepy, this makes supposedly emotional scenes unintentionally hilarious or just plain awkward to watch.

The game’s frequently awful voice acting makes it even harder to connect with the characters. At its very best, The Last Hope's cast will make you groan. At its worse, they're absolutely unbearable. Anyone hoping to escape the lackluster dub will be disappointed to hear that the original Japanese audio is not preserved here, though you do have the option to turn off battle quips from individual characters. Celebrated composer Motoi Sakuraba returns to lend his talents to the Star Ocean series once again, and though the voice acting doesn't work, his soundtrack is perfectly suited to the various locales visited, situations faced, and battles fought.

To infinity and beyond!

When it's all said and done and you've finished the game, there's still plenty more to do. Besides offering two unlockable difficulty settings, there are tons of side quests to complete, items to create, recipes to discover, bonus dungeons to explore, and bunnies to race. The Last Hope also has Star Ocean: Till the End of Time’s coliseum system, which lets you sign up for solo or group fights to battle your way up the ladders for prizes. You can collect dozens of battle trophies for each character by performing specific tasks with them in combat. And if you actually are interested in the story, there are multiple endings to see based on the relationships that you form as Edge Maverick throughout the game.

If all you're looking for is a strong, narrative-driven role-playing adventure, Star Ocean: The Last Hope isn't going to do much to satisfy you. But despite its deficiencies in this area, its huge number of extras and its addictive, deeply strategic and tactical combat system make it a lot of fun.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Review

2009-02-11T03:58:00.001-08:00

This somewhat scary sequel is a solid shooter, but it can't keep pace with its lauded predecessor.

The Video Review

Alma's brings back the F.E.A.R in this video review for Project Origin.

Watch It Watch HD 520p

The Good

Slow-motion shootouts are good, gory fun
Mech sequences provide welcome variety
Some cool, spooky imagery.

The Bad

Story offers little mystery or suspense
Cliched random scares and level design
Multiplayer is drab and disappointing.

The image of a pasty-skinned, greasy-haired young girl has become an iconic image in horror films like The Ring, and the original F.E.A.R. introduced a similar figure with great success. Of course, that game gave its ghostly visions a chilling context, drawing you into the unnerving story of a paranormal prodigy named Alma and the horrific suffering to which she was subjected. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin returns to this fertile universe, but rather than scrutinize even darker reaches of the soul, it merely skims the surface, offering up a series of eerie visions without delivering a good mystery to bind them together. The good news for shooter fans is that the bullet-blasting core of the experience is sound, propelling you forward with enough intensity to keep the single-player campaign engaging. Most of what's here has been done better before, but the unspectacular elements have been stitched into an enjoyably moody first-person shooter that relies on rock-solid mechanics rather than true inspiration.

scenes like these are common in F.E.A.R. 2.

After a short exposition, F.E.A.R. 2 picks up where the original left off--with a bang. The city is in tatters, and as Michael Becket of Delta Force, it is up to you and your squadmates to capture the elusive Genevieve Aristide, president of the nefarious Armacham Technology Corporation. Too much description would risk spoiling the game's few surprises, which are better experienced than narrated, though as it happens, there are few enigmas to unravel. F.E.A.R. 2's story paints itself into a corner, offering very little new to players already familiar with the Project Origin referred to in the title, and nothing compelling enough to wrap newcomers into its fold. With Alma now a known quantity, paranormal secrecy has been replaced by a series of near-cliche bump-in-the-night scares and murky visions that do the unthinkable where a horror-themed game is concerned: They become predictable.

Because the pacing and story layout of the game can be a bit predictable at times, F.E.A.R. 2’s real scares come from its atmosphere--and this actually works, sometimes. Expect to jump out of your seat on occasion, when your flashlight flickers and ghostly visages surround you, or when staccato orchestral chords signal the emergence of abominations as they break free from their confining cells. Other attempts at scares just seem stale, given that the game's pacing and level design foreshadow these encounters, therefore emasculating the necessary sense of surprise. However, the excellent sound design is never to blame. A variety of creaks and groans gives ebb and flow to the sense of tension, and musical swells and increasingly hectic clatters and clangs will get your pulse pounding when needed. Unfortunately, the visuals don't paint a picture dour enough to match. Some areas are shrouded with moody environmental shadows, in which light and dark contrast to excellent effect. In other levels, the lack of ambient lighting and accompanying silhouettes are noticeable, and the surrounding frights just feel flaccid. F.E.A.R. 2 simply doesn't match its FPS peers from a technical perspective, so though it looks good, the simple textures, inconsistent shadows, and occasional clipping and other glitches detract from the atmosphere.

The level design also falls victim to a fair bit of predictability, though to F.E.A.R. 2's credit, you'll break away from the endless office corridors of the original and journey through a greater variety of environments. These areas are usually just as claustrophobic, but they won't often deliver that spine-tingling fear of the specters lurking beyond the reach of your flashlight. Trekking through the rubble of decaying city streets is a good change of pace, but the ultraconvenient manner in which the debris holds you to your narrow path is a familiar design ploy. Similarly, there's no more excitement to be found in F.E.A.R. 2's same-old subway than that of any other game. It's at its best when it leaves these stale tropes behind and builds on its roots as a corridor shooter, such as in a nail-biting sojourn through the halls of an elementary school that hides unspeakable horrors. Entering a dusky music classroom to find a hideous mutant pounding on the keys of a piano with abandon is a singular moment, and the ensuing battles are ripe and exhilarating reminders of the series' explosive origins.

There's no escape from the wrath of the assault rifle in reflex time.

Those same inhuman atrocities will spawn clones while emitting ear-splitting, disorienting roars, and others scurry about at super speeds--though as it happens, you've got a helpful skill at your disposal that helps manage nimble and sluggish foes alike. Like the protagonist of F.E.A.R., you can activate reflex time, which slows the action to a crawl and lets you battle your enemies in a bullet-time ballet. You've seen a similar mechanic a lot by now, but it's skillfully done here. Grenade explosions create impressive visual distortions, bullets leave an airstream in their wake, and spoken dialogue and sound effects grind to a muffled crawl. Landing headshots in reflex time is particularly enjoyable and gives F.E.A.R. 2's gruesome levels of violence a temporary starring role. Foes erupt in red gushers, staining the walls with blood and flailing around in their final moments, an effect made even more effective by robust (and occasionally oversensitive) rag-doll animations.

Your instruments of destruction aren't spectacular, but they're varied enough to make shooting a pleasure, even when the flow of time takes its normal path. The two shotguns are particular delights; they feel weighty and dispatch most enemies with a single bloody blast to the noggin. The hammerhead is another delight, filling your foes with neon barbs and potentially affixing them to the wall behind. However, shooter fans should consider playing at higher difficulty levels, given that F.E.A.R. 2 feels noticeably easier than its predecessor.

The AI can offer occasional challenges, particularly in levels featuring intersecting corridors in which human enemies will flank you, use cover effectively, and tumble to the side should they find themselves gazing down the barrel of your automatic shotgun. They will also tip over furniture or other objects and use them as cover (a trick you can use, though will likely never need). However, enemy behavior is inconsistent; a table-tipping guard may not follow through, running away from his improvised cover rather than ducking behind it. Some enemies will blindly fire from behind low obstacles but may also do so when in plain view. The best adversaries are those not governed by rules of human behavior, such as ethereal foes that take shape as you enter reflex time. And in some cases, your enemies are so visually elusive that you're better off finding a way out of the dark environs that spawn them.

The cool melee attacks of the first F.E.A.R. are gone, but other varied gameplay mechanics are here to fill the gaps. The most notable additions are a couple of armored-suit sequences in which you climb into a giant metal mech and riddle your attackers with machine-gun spray and rockets. These sequences aren't tough--you're a powerful death machine plowing down your weakling foes--but the mech controls nicely and you'll be treated to some impressive displays of environmental destruction and general chaos. You can move through these areas on foot if you like, so these levels do offer a bit of replay value, though you should take great pains to wreak fun robotic havoc when given the possibility. You'll also take control of the turret atop the squad's armored vehicle, but this weapon isn't all that enjoyable to use, and these bits feel like filler.

For the best bloodshed, zoom in.

F.E.A.R. 2's multiplayer component also feels like filler, and though we've come to expect online play from most of our shooters, there's nothing special about this suite of lackluster options. For fans of the original, the most notable omission is that of the slow-motion modes, which brought reflex time into an online arena and made for some clever and enjoyable showdowns. Without these modes, F.E.A.R. 2 feels a bit hollow online, serving up helpings of Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, a couple of Conquest variants, Capture the Flag, and a mode called Failsafe that owes a large debt to Counter-Strike. The best of these is Armored Front, in which a player on each team can hop into one of those robotic exoskeletons while his or her teammates capture control points. Otherwise, the shooting mechanics don't translate as well to a multiplayer environment, and the by-the-numbers levels are unimpressive. You have the ability to customize your loadout and level up in ranked matches, but this just isn't enough to breathe life into the musty online play.

You'll get the occasional heebie-jeebies from F.E.A.R. 2, but the magic of the first game hasn't been re-created here. It’s true that some of the changes in the new game seem like they were intended to address criticism of the first F.E.A.R.: tedious and claustrophobic environments, lack of enemy variety, and so on. Sadly, though these changes were made, the resulting sequel, while fun and well-crafted, seems to have lost sight of the strengths that made its predecessor so unique. Nevertheless, playing F.E.A.R. 2 is a worthwhile way to pass the time while we wait for the inevitable next installment.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Hands-On

2009-02-06T16:28:00.000-08:00

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Hands-On

We slice, dice, pounce, and heal in Activision and Raven's upcoming Wolverine action game.

Interview

Get a glimpse at the design behind X-Men Origins: Wolverine in this interview.

We've been anxious to get our hands on Raven Software's upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine game since getting the rundown on the promising game from our Australian compadres. As longtime comic-book fans, we've pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that Wolverine would likely always be neutered in some fashion as far as games were concerned. A slightly mental Canadian killing machine with a short temper, an indestructible metal skeleton with matching claws, and the ability to heal just about any wound doesn't fit into your standard game archetype. That said, Raven seems to be finding its way with its upcoming take on the mighty mutant. We had the chance to get our hands on a few levels of the Xbox 360 version of the game and were very happy with where Raven's going with the game.

Slice and dice anything and everything that gets in your way.

We had the chance to try out four levels--Jungle, Alkali, Spillway, and Agent Zero--that let us get a proper feel for the upcoming M-rated action game. As we noted in our last look, Raven isn't shying away from Wolvie's penchant for slicing, dicing, and general goring. The jungle level was, wait for it, set in a jungle filled with mercenary types eager to perforate everyone's favorite Canadian mutant. The level is essentially the start of the adventure and featured the expected tutorial messages to walk you through Wolverine's move list. Although the game features an experience and leveling system that will amp up your various attacks and abilities, we're pleased to report that Logan doesn't feel neutered at the start of the game. You'll be able to kick butt with a respectable amount of bad assery using normal and heavy attacks, grabs, and, what is easily our favorite move, the pounce attack. The level kicks off with a cinematic that shows our boy heading off to a mission in a helicopter that is eventually shot down. At that point you take control of Wolverine as he falls to the ground in a pseudo-skydiving sequence, sans parachute. Thankfully, if you're able to aim your fall properly, your landing will be cushioned by an unfortunate merc who definitely should have stayed in bed that day. Once you're on the ground, you'll guide the clawed Canuck through the jungle, slicing and dicing your way through the enemy forces like a hot knife through butter. The action varies from down-and-dirty combat--which finds you facing mobs of foes that you deal with by using attacks, grabs, throws, and the environment (such as throwable or exploding objects as well as unique kill spots)--to stealthier bits in which you sneak up behind unsuspecting saps and gut them up close and personal.

The level also let us try out the incredibly satisfying finishing moves that reward timed button presses with shudder-inducing cinematics of gory death. Aside from the basics, the game features dodge and counter systems to let you avoid or reverse attacks. As if that wasn't enough, Wolverine's healing factor and enhanced senses are used very smartly. The healing factor does what you'd expect and heals a fair amount of the damage that you receive, letting you go toe to toe with some heavily armed enemies. That said, there are some limits to how much it can save you, and an onscreen bar will let you know if you've taken too much damage and have to hide for a bit to heal up. Once your healing-factor bar is whittled down, your proper health starts to go rather quickly when you're attacked, which can lead to death if you're not careful. Wolverine's enhanced senses, triggered by hitting up on the D pad, show you the world through a blue filter and let you see useful areas to climb, direct you where to go next, and even let you spot hidden or cloaked enemies. Honestly, we can't go on enough about how well all of the systems capture Wolverine's abilities. Unlike other games that have taken a stab, pun intended, at capturing the mutant, this one doesn't feel like it has compromised much for the sake of a game formula.

As you take out enemies in the various creative ways that the game affords you, you'll earn experience that will enhance different attacks, abilities, and attributes for the surly antihero. In the work-in-progress version of the game that we played, this also meant that Wolvie would spontaneously sprout a spanking-clean tank top every time he leveled, which was a funny sight to see. Given how much punishment he takes, Wolverine's clothes take a pretty hefty beating. As much of a badass as Wolvie is, gaining levels is essential because the enemies that you face become smarter and much more powerful, and some even have superpowers, which forces you to fight smartly as the game progresses.

The Alkali level found our boy punching his way out of a military installation (which is something he seems to do awfully frequently) and facing off against assorted soldiers determined to keep him in. The level is a bit further into the game and showed off the enhanced combo attacks that Wolvie can do. We have to say that we were really pleased by the flexibility of the combat system and the different death-dealing options available to the creative player. Timed deflection of bullets and unique pounce combos are very cool things that we discovered while playing.

Mutant vs. Helicopter. Wolverine can take on just about anything.

The deflection mechanic is key for the Spillway level, which follows Wolverine as he tries to beat an oncoming rush of water by leaping onto moving jeeps that are also trying to get out of the rush of liquid. Pouncing your way from car to car is essential, but after a few cars your foes take to shooting rockets at you. Although the incoming projectiles are almost impossible to dodge, especially if you're in midpounce, you can clear your way through without much fuss if you wait until you're shot at and then simply deflect them back at your enemies. The timing on the deflection takes some getting used to, but it's a breeze once you master it.

The Agent Zero level plays a bit with the skydiving section that we saw at the start of the game and has you leaping in the air between moving helicopters. Though the concept is somewhat similar in spirit to the Spillway level, the gameplay is very different and fun. Once you make it onto a helicopter, you'll have to dodge gunfire from the pilots, who can pretty much guess what's coming once you land on their copter, and do enough damage to fell the vehicle. As the helicopter you're currently on goes down, you'll have to leap and control your fall to the next one. Pro tip for prospective players: avoid the rotors while landing, trust us. The last helicopter that you land on, with Agent Zero on it, changes up the mechanic some and has you shoving Wolvie's claws into the moving rotors to jack them up. The sequence is tricky but very satisfying when over.

As far as the story goes, the game has some ties to the movie but does its own thing in a number of places. The action is a mix of flashback and present-day events that follow chunks of Wolverine's unique life. Although we weren't able to get a full grip on what was going on because we jumped around a bit in the game for the various levels, suffice it to say that our boy has led a rough life. The dedicated CG cinematic sequences as well as the interactive cinematics in which you take control of Logan are looking quite good and should please comic and movie fans.

In terms of the game's look, the visuals are coming together greatly, with Wolvie looking very much like Hugh Jackman. This is especially true in the sweet cinematics done by Blur, the same group responsible for the movies in the original Marvel Ultimate Alliance. The environments and effects are all looking very sharp. We like the effects used for his enhanced-senses vision, and we can't go on enough about the inventive displays of gore, especially the finishers. The lovefest also extends to the way that the game shows off Logan's healing factor. Raven is using a procedural effect for how it displays on his body; you'll see him get progressively perforated, even to the point where there's some decent-sized holes in his skin that you can see through, exposing the adamantium skeleton. Once he starts to heal, the various wounds and holes will slowly close, shifting to gashes, then bruises, and then returning to normal. Not only does it look cool, but it also nails the way that his abilities have been shown in the comics. Key to our enjoyment of all of this has been the game's frame rate, which is fast and smooth. There's nothing worse than getting your killing groove on only to be brought to an awkward stutter by a choppy frame rate. That said, there are definitely some issues with the game's camera, which, if you go on a pouncing and killing frenzy, can make it tough to follow the action.

Those guys will be in for a surprise.

The audio is coming along well and serves as a good complement to the action. You'll hear plenty of satisfying snikts and claw effects as you go about your business. The same is true for weapon fire and ambient effects, such as grown men dying and some shouting of orders tossed in. The game's score definitely has a sweeping feel to it in spots, which is perfect for setting tone and harkens to the film. Hugh Jackman is on hand to voice Wolverine, which helps give the game that extra layer of cred.

Based on what we played, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the closest that we've ever seen a game come to delivering the Wolverine experience that we've wanted. The combat is brutal and fast, and his powers are represented authentically. Although we're hoping that the problematic camera can be tightened up, the sheer fun of gutting fools is there. Movie and comic-book fans will most definitely want to check out Wolverine when it ships this May for the Nintendo DS, PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, and Wii in time with the movie. Look for more on the game in the coming months.

Super Bowl Sim, Plus First Madden 2010 Details

2009-02-03T01:20:00.000-08:00

Quite the Super Bowl, huh? I honestly had given up on that game about midway through the third quarter, only to be pleasantly surprised with a Cardinals comeback and a great Steelers win. It wasn't the best Super Bowl of recent years but it was entertaining and turned into tightly contested game. My prediction from Friday wasn't that far off the mark, as it turned out.

And speaking of predictions, while I normally avoid "Madden sim" stories like the plague, this year's EA Sports-run Super Bowl simulation with Madden NFL 09 turned out to be pretty darn accurate. Check out these numbers

•Ben Roethlisberger
Sim: 21/28 for 286 yards
Real game: 21/30 for 256 yards

•Kurt Warner
Sim: 27/38 for241 yards
Real game: 31/43 for 377 yards

•Santonio Holmes
Sim: 8 catches for 131 yards
Real game: 9 catches for 131 yards

•Larry Fitzgerald
Sim: 9 catches for 105 yards
Real game: 7 catches for 127 yards

•Score at Halftime
Sim: 21-7 Steelers
Real game: 17-7 Steelers

•Final Score
Sim: 28-24 Steelers
Real game: 27-23
Nice job, fake football game!
Of course, the real Madden news out of Super Bowl XLIII was the halftime posting of the first details on Madden NFL 10 on the EA Sports blog. In the post, Ian Cummings, lead designer on Madden NFL 10shows off a new technology that will make its way into the game, and into other EA Sports games this year: procedural awareness. As I understand it, PA allows for an in-game character to accurately follow something--a ball, a defender, a receiver--in a way that doesn't require canned animations; instead, it's generated on the fly by the game engine. As Cummings defines it:
"Alright, so what's Procedural Awareness in a nutshell? 'The ability to procedurally manipulate the spine, neck, head, and eyes on a player in the game; and also add layers of emotion/attitudes on top of those manipulations'."
There's no in-game footage of Madden NFL 10 using the PA system yet, but there is a pretty cool tech demo that shows a rough quarterback model turning his gaze to four illuminated objects in sequence. At one point, as the object is moved by a mouse cursor, the QB's head moves accordingly left, right, up, and down. It's pretty easy to expand that out to how a virtual Ben Roethlisberger might follow his receivers along their routes, running through his progressions until the player choose someone to throw to. As Cummings says in the blog:
"This is definitely pretty cool stuff…we can tune how fast the player switches between different targets, and then also how he behaves when he locks on and follows a target. You can already envision this being used by DB's and WR's when the ball is thrown, QB's as they go through progressions, safeties as they drop in zone, and obviously many more cases. In terms of visual fidelity, PA is also a major step up from any other normal IK head tracking solution."
A second video on the page shows a more fleshed out model of Dwyane Wade following objects, complete with eye blinking and realistic-looking neck movement. A third shows a video of ways to use the PA system to generate facial animations procedurally, which seems like it be a handy way to add more emotion to a sports sim (like after a DB gets burned by a speedy wideout) but also seems like it has uses in many other game genres as well.
So, a bit of a tech demo for our first look at the game and it's only the beginning of our six-month wait until the next version of Madden. In the meantime, I'd suggest EA thinks about changing the name of the game. What, after all, is wrong with 'Madden NFL 2010'?
What do you think of Procedural Awareness and how do you think it can be implemented in Madden to improve this year's game?

Sony should build the next Xbox

2009-02-03T01:10:00.000-08:00

We all know that being being a console manufacturer is a capital intensive business. The fact that there are only three companies currently in the business shows just how much of an investment it takes. Now that the world is dealing with a massive economic downturn the cost must pinch that much more. At the turn of the year we had plenty of stories about how the video game industry is recession proof. That belief appeared to be borne out by record breaking sales over the past Holiday season. All three platform holders, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have boasted about their performance recently. Recession? What recession, seemed to be the message sent out by the sales figures. However, fast-forward a few weeks and the picture seems to have changed somewhat. Both Microsoft and Sony are talking about massive lay-offs and/or closure of entire divisions. Hardly the actions of recession proof companies.

Meanwhile, despite a recently disclosed drop in profits the money is still pouring in for Nintendo. The foreseeable future looks assured for Nintendo as both the Wii and DS continue to set sales records and three-year old software like Mario Kart DS still riding high in the charts. In truth, it appears that Nintendo are the only recession proof company in the industry. Now lets assume that Sony wants back on top of the industry and Microsoft want to get there for the first time. What would they have to do to achieve this? Remember that with both companies so far behind and only falling further, it would have to be something very drastic. I think, and here comes the crazy bit, that Sony should build a new console in partnership with Microsoft. With the combined expertise of both companies, what could go wrong? Well quite a lot probably but lets ignore that for now. The division of work would be the most important decision, so who would do what exactly?

I might as well just say it; Sony make better hardware than Microsoft. That statement is hard to argue against for several reasons. Not least among them is the reliability of a console and the PlayStation 3 (PS3) is certainly a more reliable machine than the Xbox 360. The Red Ring of Death (RRoD) is a problem that has plagued the 360 since it's launch in 2005 and it is only recently with the Jasper configuration that Microsoft has gotten on top of it. The PS3 also runs quieter than the 360, which is nice considering it is likely housed in your living room. Coupled with greater reliability and quieter running is the fact that it is more fully featured (built-in WiFi) and more advanced than the 360. The PS3 launched with the then cutting-edge Blu-ray drive as standard, while the 360 is stuck with the tried and trusted (some would say limited) DVD format. When it comes to graphical and processing power it is more difficult to declare a clear cut winner. I could talk ad nauseam about Cell Processors or Tri-Core Xenon Processors but there seems no point. More technically minded people than myself have argued this point at length and have not yet come up with a definitive answer. I am going to side with the PS3 for one simple reason, Killzone 2. This game is without doubt the best looking game on any console at the moment and the 360 does not have a game of comparable graphical quality. Finally, the design of the console itself is a more subjective issue but I believe that the PS3 is an infinitely more appealing design than that of the 360. It is just a sleeker, sexier looking machine.

At this point I'm pretty sure you are all think this article is nothing more than the ramblings of a rabid Sony fanboy but it isn't. Microsoft would have an equally vital role to play in the alliance – marketing and online services. Microsoft have done a remarkable job of marketing the 360, they really do seem to have their finger on the pulse of this gaming generation. As a perfect example, look at the way they handled the RRoD debacle. They emerged from the issue virtually unscathed in terms of sales. How many other companies could handle such a situation so well? They also know how to properly support a game, via marketing and turn a release into a full blown event. The release of Halo 3, was guaranteed to be big but with the might of the Microsoft machine behind it it became a phenomenon. Compare that release to the one that Sony is currently orchestrating for Killzone 2, the most important PS3 release this year. No contest here really. We should be seeing Killzone 2 everywhere we look at the moment but we don't. With some of the Microsoft magic, this game would get the launch it deserves and needs to become a blockbuster.

There is also the issue of the way that Sony is perceived. Either fairly or unfairly they appear to have developed a reputation for being arrogant towards both developers and consumers. They may have abused their position of dominance during the PSOne and PS2 era by not being as accommodating towards developers as perhaps they could have been. Meanwhile Microsoft have gone out of their way to listen to and please developers by making the platform easy to develop on. As a result, the consensus seems to be that 360 is the preferred development platform. There are also charming public utterances such as, “for consumers to think to themselves 'I will work more hours to buy one'”. This comment from Ken Kutaragi regarding the high-price point of the PS3 at launch does little for the public perception of Sony. For this reason, Microsoft would play the main role in selling the console, while Sony would concentrate on building a console to match expectations. As a nice little added bonus for Microsoft they would save themselves a small fortune by retiring the money-hat they use to bribe developers to secure exclusive content over Sony.

Okay, time for a little reality check. I am aware, as I am sure you are too that none of what you have been reading is ever likely to happen. This article is merely intended as an exercise in thinking outside the box for two reasons. How can both companies provide more value to the consumer and genuinely compete with Nintendo for top spot, all in a very tough economic climate? Crazy as it sounds, I do believe that it could work, certainly it would be beneficial to the consumer. Among the many benefits would be piece of mind when choosing a console as there would be no need to worry about platform exclusive games and/or DLC. One question remains, what would they call such a machine?

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard Hands-On

2009-01-30T05:24:00.000-08:00

We take on 2D Nazis and androgynous JRPG bosses in our hands-on look at this satirical action game from Vicious Cycle.

Hazard Returns

Brian Ekberg takes a brief look forward to Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard.

At any given point in Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, the titular star of this tongue-in-cheek action game from developers Vicious Cycle might find himself squaring off against any of the following enemies: Mobsters, zombies, cowboys, space marines, 2D Nazis, and even Japanese role-playing game bosses. One part action game and several parts game-industry lampoon vehicle, Eat Lead is nothing if not unique. We had a chance to spend some hands-on time with an updated build of the game recently to see how far it's come since our previous look in October of last year.

The setup for Eat Lead revolves around Hazard, a fictional action-game star who racked up a string of hits across multiple platforms in the '80s and '90s. After a few disappointing bombs, Matt Hazard retired, only to take up his career as a two-fisted badass at the beginning of Eat Lead after getting an offer to star in a brand-new action game from megapublisher Marathon Megasoft. Traversing the eight levels that make up Eat Lead, Hazard soon discovers that the game is rigged and that the levels he's making his way through are trying to delete him…permanently.

If Matt Hazard isn't blasting 2D Nazis…

From that premise, Eat Lead takes the idea of poking fun at video games and runs with it, with levels that change in appearance and makeup on a dime, enemies that start out as soldiers only to transform into zombies, and boss battles that are memorable to say the least. It's tough to know what to expect from one area to the next in Eat Lead, and there are more than a few chuckle-worthy moments as a result.

Consider the sixth level of the game, which we got to play during the demo. After a brief intro movie that featured some back-and-forth between Hazard and his companion QA (who can hack into the game's levels and help him along the way), Hazard begins the level outside of a warehouse, surrounded by crates, forklifts, and trucks. These objects serve as perfect cover for Hazard, and you can use the cover system by pressing the A button on the Xbox 360 controller. Pressing the B button will cross Hazard over to a nearby cover point, if available, and you can aim your cursor and press the Y button to sprint to a specific point of cover.

Safely behind cover, we first took out the bad guys that were in the level using a pistol. It wasn't long before we picked up a machine gun and, once the level was cleared, we moved into the warehouse. We found more bad guys inside, only these looked completely different from the enemies we fought outside, considering their garish armor and their use of what appeared to be water guns. As it turned out, these guys were holdover enemies from an ill-fated, kid-friendly water-gun shooter from Hazard's 64-bit days. As silly as it sounds to be taking up arms with a water gun, it got the job done against these clowns, so we went with it.

Now, naturally, you don't spend an entire level fighting bad guys with squirt guns. Any game called "Eat Lead" better have an assortment of weaponry to choose from and, indeed, we played with submachine guns, sniper rifles, even laser blasters. Blasting enemies doesn't technically kill them; these are virtual bad guys, after all. Instead, Hazard can absorb a defeated enemy's code. If he builds up enough code, you can add a temporary ice or fire damage modifier to whichever weapon you're carrying.

Like the neon bad guys who were susceptible to water blasts, many of the enemies have unique traits that you'll discover as you go. In the level that we played, we also ran into space marines reminiscent of a certain visor-wearing, heavily armored, combat-evolved hero. Conventional weaponry didn't really do much to them but, if you managed to snag a laser pistol, you could take them down with relative ease. Our favorite garden-variety enemies were the 2D Nazis, patterned after something out of the original Castle Wolfenstein. Blasting these flat-planed bad guys was easy…until they turned sideways, at which point they effectively disappeared from view until they decided to face you again.

…he's facing off against Japanese RPG bosses.

By far the highlight of the level that we played was the final boss battle, in which Hazard takes on a final boss, known as Altos Tratus, who had the creepily androgynous look of, well, practically every Japanese role-playing game enemy ever made. Better than the boss's look, though, was his speech, or rather the lack of it. To get through Tratus' long-winded prefight speech, the frustrated Hazard has to page through multiple screens of text, and the occasional puzzling ellipses. Though the boss battle was in real time, Tratus plays like a turn-based boss in true RPG style--and defeating him was a matter of figuring out which attack he would do next, blasting him for as much damage as possible, and preventing him from healing himself.

Though the concept in Eat Lead is solid--with loving nods to everything from JRPGs to Super Mario Bros.--there were a few rough areas that we hope get attention before the game is released. Melee attacks, which you pull off in close quarters by pressing the X button, didn't have much oomph to them and seemed pretty ineffective as well. In addition, though Hazard's movements into and out of cover seemed smooth, he feels fairly stiff to us when running and shooting; a bit more responsiveness in the controls would be a welcome addition. If the gameplay manages to live up to Eat Lead's satirical metaplot, it has a good chance at finding success. The game is due on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in early March.

Afro Samurai Review

2009-01-30T01:51:00.001-08:00

This gory, gorgeous action game has plenty of flaws, but it will still satisfy your thirst for blood.

The Video Review

Kevin VanOrd slices and dices his way through this review for Afro Samurai. (Video Contains Mature Content)

Watch It Watch HD 520p

The Good

Brutal, satisfying combat
Great art design
Awesome music
Some really fun setpiece battles.

The Bad

Bad platforming sections
Inconsistent pace leads to occasional monotony
Inferior camera can't be customized.

Nariko in Heavenly Sword. Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy VII. And now Afro Samurai. These are the characters that you remember for their remarkable hairstyles, though Namco Bandai's newest hack-and-slash action game offers more than just a curly coif that reaches for the heavens. It is an entertaining and thoroughly gory offering that contrasts sumptuous environments and crisp cel-shaded characters with shocking sights of slow-motion dismemberment. In Afro Samurai, you'll chop ninjas in half and watch their disembodied torsos drag themselves along by the arms until they collapse in a pool of blood. Sights like these make for some wickedly satisfying combat, though in other areas, the game falls noticeably short of the standards set by genre predecessors such as Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry. Clumsy platforming and pacing inconsistencies keep Afro Samurai from reaching its potential, but the entertaining combat and dedication to its subject matter keep it from being just another forgettable button masher.

Afro's enemies don't just shed blood--they positively gush it.

If you're familiar with the Afro Samurai anime, you'll undoubtedly enjoy experiencing the events depicted in the series, as well as several that aren't. If you're new to the franchise, the most important thing to know is this: You are a big-haired, cigarette-chomping dude who knows a thing or two about blades. This is a revenge tale, and as Afro, the wearer of the Number Two headband, you're out to defeat your father's killer--the current Number One. Even if you're not familiar with every character (the neurotic, potty-mouthed Ninja Ninja; the demure Okiku), the game's vibe has a way of pulling you in. Split-screen sequences in and out of combat embrace the game's anime theme; a fantastic hip-hop soundtrack tinged with Far Eastern harmonies enhances every slice and dice; and energetic voice acting from Samuel L. Jackson and other recognizable talents lends humor and gravitas in turn. Afro neophytes may not be drawn in by the plot, but they'll find it hard to escape the lush but violent atmosphere.

At the forefront of this vibe is Afro Samurai's combat, which cribs from most games of its type. You can issue weak and strong attacks, kick your enemies around, and string these three basic moves into a variety of combos. You'll spill a lot of blood using these simple actions, but if you really want to punish your acrobatic foes, it's better to enter focus mode and watch the guts fly. With a pull of the trigger, you can slow down time, adjust your blade's trajectory a bit, and lop heads, digits, or entire limbs off of your smack-talking enemies. You have to charge up focus mode by landing combos, but you will never go without the ability for long, and the resulting mix of old-fashioned button mashing and focus-powered slaughter is satisfying and fun. A few other moves help mix things up, such as sprint attacks, parrying, and bullet deflection (tricky to time properly but well worth the trouble). As long as you're facing a typical crowd of ninjas and a miniboss or two, it's all a drippy delight.

Once you're outside of combat (an all too frequent occurrence), Afro Samurai trips over its own feet, thanks largely to unpleasant platforming mechanics. The inelegant jumping sections are easy to stomach in small doses, but they're strung into long and frustrating sequences late in the game--one of which you have to repeat if you die at the hands of the boss that appears afterward. You can wall-run here and there, and leap up and grab certain ledges, but as a rule, you can perform these moves only when the game wants you to, and they're purely for getting from one spot to the next. You can't string them into combat moves a la Ninja Gaiden, and rough animations make these acrobatics look as awkward as they feel.

Swordplay, a sunset, and a warm splatter of blood--what more could a samurai ask for?

This leaves the burden of entertainment purely on the combat, and it's usually up to the task. At its best, Afro Samurai keeps pushing you forward, throwing a few different types of foes at you and tossing in various objectives, such as throwing foes into an electrical apparatus or flipping a switch here and there. A few set-piece battles are also a total blast, particularly an exhilarating freefall sequence that might leave you breathless. A couple of boss battles are good fun as well, such as one versus an endlessly self-cloning rival, and the easy but moody final boss battle. Some levels, such as a protracted fight versus Kuma, are lighter on combat but succeed thanks to pensive ambience, entertaining scriptwriting, and pure artistic splendor.

But as brutally beautiful as the combat is, it can't support the weight of some inconsistent pacing and the less appealing boss fights. In some levels, you'll wander around without encountering enemies for far too long; in a few others, nonstop waves of enemies will make you scream for variety that never comes. These issues come to a head in the penultimate level: The combat, normally a head rush, gets a bit tedious, the platforming takes center stage, and a few broken checkpoints might force you to replay sequences that you've already plowed through. The boss fights afterward aren't much of an improvement, spamming some cheap moves rather than providing a true challenge. The camera certainly doesn't help matters; it isn't completely broken, but it has a tendency to get hung up behind objects in the smaller combat areas or jitter around if you move it into certain positions. A related oddity is the lack of camera customization. You can adjust the Y-axis settings but not the X axis, which means that you are forced to deal with inverted camera settings when moving it from side to side. If you prefer standard settings, this frustration will simply exacerbate the other camera issues.

Nevertheless, Afro Samurai is an appealing game, and its visual style and pulsing soundtrack drives this success. The art style doesn't rely on simple cel-shading, but rather infuses this familiar technique with soft colors, muted lighting, and crosshatched textures. It's a unique look, and the gushers of rust-hued blood contrast nicely with the gently lit environments. When you enter focus mode, most of the environmental color washes away, making the gruesome cleaving of a bare-breasted ninja a bloody sight to behold. Jittery animations and other technical flaws can get in the way--particularly in the PlayStation 3 version, which suffers from minor but noticeable frame-rate drops, especially during split-screen incidents--but these rarely detract from the appealing visual design. Likewise, the occasionally lackluster sound effects can't detract from a superb hip-hop soundtrack (inspired by, as opposed to composed by, rapper RZA) and fantastic, lively voice-overs.

These manufactured monstrosities lead to violet violence.

Its flaws are noticeable, but Afro Samurai is ultimately a lot of fun. It isn't the next action classic, but it embraces its subject matter with vigor and delivers equally dynamic combat in spades. You can squeeze a good seven hours of enjoyment out of the experience the first time around, and hidden items and ensuing unlockables may drive you to return, if the fun and ferocious combat isn't reason enough. In other words, it's a problematic but ultimately worthwhile reason to don the Number Two headband and see that justice is done--and that Justice is done in.

The Maw Review

2009-01-24T02:16:00.000-08:00

Average gameplay and an unforgettable main character merge in this short but endearing adventure.

The Good

Bursting with charm
Great visual and sound design
Lighthearted humor and puzzles are good for all ages.

The Bad

Gameplay isn't very engaging
Short, with little replay value.

How long can a game's wily charms carry an experience before its cracks begin to show? In the case of The Maw, the answer is for the entirety of the few hours that the game lasts. However, that doesn't mean that you should dismiss this amusing extraterrestrial adventure as overly saccharine fluff. It will keep you giggling for the few hours that it lasts, but like most sweet morsels, the pleasant feeling dissipates when the sugar leaves your system, and you’ll find your palette struggling to remembering the taste.

The only thing Maw fears is fear itself. Also, birds.

The titular Maw is a voracious, globular alien, and you are Frank, his antlike companion. As captives on a giant spacecraft, you make an instant friendly connection, only to get stranded when the ship crashes on an unfamiliar planet. Nevertheless, your relationship with Maw isn't really a friendship; he's more of a bulbous pit bull, and you lead him around on a leash to help him scarf up his next meal. He starts at a nicely manageable size, but eventually Maw will tower over you, though he remains a loyal companion throughout. That's a good thing, too, because his razor-sharp teeth slice through any number of bizarre beasts, and he'll chomp them with glee, emitting eager grunts while scanning the environment with his giant, bulging eye. Though you can summon Maw to your side by calling out his name (and Frank's vocal pleas are one of many delightful sonic touches), there is no spoken dialogue. But Maw is so physically expressive, with his lively green tongue and keen enthusiasm, that he'll immediately win you over.

Thus Maw is your trusty pet, and the game is essentially an alien-care simulator. Your companion is a hungry devil, and he'll chomp down various creatures on his endless quest to grow larger and larger. But though you can lead a Maw to a gloober, you can't make him eat, so you'll need to attach your electric leash to him and direct him to the local grub, or pick up the edible creatures and throw them directly into his impatient mouth. Some of these extraterrestrials are more than just exotic eats, though, and will transfer some of their attributes to Maw when digested. Downing a temperamental alien peacock turns Maw into a laser-spewing monstrosity; gnawing on a floating puff-tor lets you grab on to Maw and leap wide distances.

Your goal is always to reach the end of the level by fattening up Maw and using his stolen skills to solve a few light environmental puzzles. This may mean using the puff-tor power to float upward on wind streams, fooling a giant horned beetle into charging toward a pulsing force field, or breathing fire into clumps of flora to reveal the hidden fauna within. As Frank, you also have a few skills of your own. For example, you can use the leash to grab and fling some creatures and rocks, and you can dodge turret fire with a well-timed button press. These disparate abilities are brimming with possibilities, yet though some of the puzzles are clever, most are incredibly simple, and you'll deal with just a single Maw transformation on every level.

The ensuing gameplay is mildly amusing but rarely compelling, showcasing plenty of hilarious Maw behavior at the expense of rewarding interaction. In one level, you hop onto Maw and shoot down turrets and space invaders with his laser-spouting eyes, but you can't die and you can't aim with any precision, so you simply wander around and blast away, scarfing up the alien cadavers that you leave behind. In another, you hold on to Maw as he stampedes toward barriers, but imprecise controls and too many moments without player interaction let the wind out of the game's sails. A few blah levels could be easier to overlook if The Maw were a longer experience, but it will take most players around three hours or so to complete. Some rewards and hidden areas may tempt you to return to the levels, and online leaderboards might inspire you to gun for faster completion times and such, but when you complete the game, chances are that you'll be done for good.

Maw signals that he's ready to move on.

The gameplay may be forgettable, but Maw certainly isn't, and developer Twisted Pixel deserves kudos for its colorful and hysterical character designs. Frank looks like a refugee from Pixar's A Bug's Life, but his faithful purple friend is hysterically distinctive. In one uproarious scene, Maw flees in terror from a deceptively beautiful loofer, and the fear on his toothy face is absolutely priceless. He's simultaneously adorable and menacing, a charismatic companion who just happens to eat adorable creatures for sustenance. Kids in particular will get a kick out of him, and the simple puzzles and straightforward controls ensure younger players an adventure free of frustration.

It sounds like a lot to ask 800 points ($10) for a game that won't take up much of your time, but here is a case in which a journey is worth taking purely on the basis of its burgeoning wit and personality. The gameplay doesn't have much bite, but the strong-jawed Maw is a great new character who deserves his starring role.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned Hands-On

2009-01-23T14:29:00.000-08:00

We get our motor running and head out on the highways of Liberty City in this hands-on with the upcoming Xbox 360-exclusive expansion for Grand Theft Auto IV.

The Lost and Damned has been somewhat of a mystery thus far, with few concrete details known about the upcoming expansion to Grand Theft Auto IV other than that it would focus on a brand-new protagonist (biker Johnny Klebbitz) and that it would add plenty of content in the form of new music, rides, weapons, and characters. So as you can imagine, we have been keen to find out more and jumped at the chance to roam the streets of Liberty City again when Rockstar opened up its offices to us this week for an early look.

Is he lost, or damned? Answers on a postcard...

From what we saw at our hands-on session, The Lost and Damned expansion is certainly much more than horse armor or a few extra added missions. Rockstar claims this Xbox 360-exclusive addition features the same attention to detail and production values as the original Grand Theft Auto IV. While we couldn't pin down our local Rockstar rep on exactly how many extra hours of playtime goodness 360 owners can expect, it seems that there will be plenty to do as you explore this new story set in a familiar place. The biggest GTAIV fans will, unsurprisingly, get the most out of The Lost and Damned, with seemingly plenty of nods to Niko Bellic and a difficulty level that presumes from the get-go that you know your way around Liberty City.

Unlike the mostly solitary fish-out-of-water tale that was Niko Bellic's narrative in GTAIV, Johnny's journey in The Lost and Damned is more about brotherhood. So while Niko--a new arrival in Liberty--had to work at getting safe houses and contacts for guns, backup, and cars, Johnny (as a longtime resident of the city) will have all these at his disposal right from the start of the story. Safe houses are where you can interact with your other brothers in the Lost, with new minigames such as arm wrestling and card games joining old favorites like pool. There will be plenty of missions where you'll ride out as part of a pack of Lost, with your brothers helping you out in the tougher firefights. You'll be encouraged to keep your bros alive, and surviving members of your gang will receive a stats boost to their health, accuracy, and damage dealing after each mission. If a Lost member does die, he'll be replaced with a new brother with set-to-zero stats. Simply put, the longer they stay breathing, the more help they'll be. And the attempts to make you feel like a member of a real biker gang don't stop there. When you're riding with your gang, a Lost logo will appear on the road to indicate where you need to be in order to stay in formation. If you stick to the logo, you'll be rewarded with dialogue with your brothers, as well as a small health boost.

Here's Johnny... Expect fireworks.

Main character Johnny is the second-in-command of the Alderney-based biker gang The Lost, while gang president Billy is serving a stint in rehab. The Lost and Damned begins with the violent and unstable Billy finally making it out of rehab, taking the reins of the gang back from the more profit-oriented Johnny. Billy's first order of business is to shoot a member of rival gang The Angels of Death directly outside the Lost clubhouse, ending the truce Johnny brokered and sparking off a new gang war. The Rockstar rep had control of the demo at this stage, taking Johnny as he and the rest of the Lost got on their hogs to chase down the remaining Angels as they sped away from the clubhouse. It was here that we saw a new weapon--the sawed-off shotgun--which Johnny used one-handed to bring down the Angels. We also saw the first of the new vehicles promised: the Hexer, Johnny's custom-built bike, which is unique in the game. And when we say unique, we mean it--apparently there is no way to recover the bike should it get destroyed during a mission.

We grabbed the controls at this stage and set about walking Johnny around to see how different a character he was to Niko. He certainly acted differently onscreen, exhibiting a unique set of mannerisms from what we were used to with Niko. The first mission we took on was called Action/Reaction, in which Billy ordered the Lost to attack the Angels' clubhouse in retaliation for the supposed murder of a young Lost member (fans of GTAIV, however, will remember that it was actually Niko who capped that biker in the No Love Lost mission). Johnny starts the mission off with a grenade launcher, pegging an explosive through the Angels' clubhouse window to start the pain. Plenty of Angels then stream out of the building, starting a large firefight with the five or so members of the Lost who are acting as backup. After the opposition is cleaned up outside, Billy and Johnny make their way into the clubhouse to finish off the remaining Angels. In the basement, Billy orders another Lost to take the Angels' stash of heroin, prompting Johnny to suspect that revenge was never Billy's motive for the attack.

The next mission we took on once again intertwined with a storyline from GTAIV. If you played the full game, you'll probably recall one mission called Blow Your Cover, where drug queen Elizabeta sent Niko and Playboy X to broker a heroine deal in some abandoned apartments. It seems that the heroine was actually the gear the Lost stole from the Angels, and Johnny hooked up with Niko and Playboy X to try to sell the smack. In The Lost and Damned, you'll play this mission, now called Buyer's Market, from Johnny's point of view. Of course, the deal ends up being a police sting, and while Niko escapes by heading to the rooftops and sneaking away, Johnny decides to go the direct route downstairs and take on the cops. This is, of course, a pretty tough option, because there are plenty of police with heavy armor standing in between Johnny and the Hexer. We're not ashamed to say we found this fight quite tough, but it's going to be a good challenge for experienced GTA veterans..

The Lost and Damned starts off pretty tough--but Liberty City veterans probably won't mind.

The final mission we played harked back to the old on-rails shooting challenges of previous GTA games. In the Shifting Weight mission, yet another drug deal goes wrong, and Johnny and Uptown Riders gang members Malcolm and DeSaun have to flee the police. You control Johnny as he rides on the back of Malcolm's motorbike. The Lost gang member is armed with a cool automatic shotgun with unlimited ammo, which is handy given that dozens of police cars are in pursuit. This section was pure fun, with a palpable adrenaline rush as you pound police car after police car (and even two low-swooping police helicopters) with shotgun pellets as you zoom through the city.

From our brief hands-on with The Lost and Damned, it's clear the expansion will feature the same mature narrative, great voice work, and action-packed mayhem of GTAIV. It's especially rewarding to see the intertwining stories of Johnny and Niko play out. We'll have more on The Lost and Damned in the weeks leading up to its release in mid-February, so keep it locked to GameSpot for more information.

Skate 2 Developer Q&A - Online Multiplayer and Content Sharing

2009-01-20T02:58:00.000-08:00

Producer Brian Lindley tells us all about Skate 2's online side, including the game that inspired them and how to best share your wipeout videos.

Skateboarding may not be a team sport, but it's certainly not all about keeping to yourself. To get the most out of Skate 2, you'll want to head online and check out all of the various multiplayer and community features that the EA Black Box development team has been working on. Producer Brian Lindley has been kind enough to answer some of our questions on that exact subject.

Let's start with Skate 2's online multiplayer. The big focus in that area seems to be the idea of freeskate activities, or spontaneous challenges that a group of players can pull up anywhere they want while freeskating online. We've talked to a few members of Black Box about Burnout Paradise being an inspiration for this feature. What sort of process is it, going from "Hey, that's a cool idea" to actually working it into the game? What are the big similarities and differences players should expect to see between the two implementations?

Brian Lindley: To this day, free-skate remains one of our most popular online modes from the original Skate, so with Skate 2 we really wanted to expand on it and give the player more to do in this mode. We were very impressed with what Criterion was doing with Burnout Paradise online, so we took some inspiration from their Freeburn Challenges and came up with our own take on the idea, Freeskate Activities. It can be a pretty involved process getting a new mode built into the game, so before anything went in, we spent a lot of time brainstorming and playing freeskate ourselves to test out various ideas for different types of activities. From there, we picked our favorite types, wrote more detailed designs, [and] iterated on those designs with feedback from the team. With the paper design out of the way, our designers and engineers began working on building the mode into the game. Once the mode itself was functional, our designers got to work building activities throughout the world.

I think a big similarity between Freeskate Activities and Freeburn Challenges is their social nature and reliance on player cooperation. To complete all of the activities, every player will need to contribute, which really can come from players at any skill level. A key difference I would say is that in Skate 2, Freeskate Activities are completely optional and not host-managed, so any player in the session can propose an activity and only needs one other person to join in for the activity to start. If a player doesn't feel like joining an activity, they can simply decline or ignore the activity proposal and continue skating. Once the other skaters finish their activity, everyone in the freeskate session will be back skating together again.

Click image to enlarge.

GS: Most of the focus on Skate had to do with its innovative control scheme, but the game was also fairly revolutionary for a console title in the way it let players record media and upload it to the official Web site to share with others. Moving on to the sequel, you've obviously had some time to decide what you liked and didn't like about this system. Can you describe for us what the general process has been like, deciding how to go about improving the content-sharing process?

BL: The process was fairly straightforward. Before we went into development on Skate 2, we spent a lot of time reviewing our wish lists for fixes/improvements and melding that together with the feedback from the Skate community. A lot of customers were frustrated with trying to get skate.reel and our Web site to function properly for them, so it was clear we needed to make improving that user experience a top priority in Skate 2.

To achieve that goal, we went back to the drawing board and rebuilt our server back end and the skate.reel Web site itself. With this new foundation, we've been able to build out numerous improvements to the system, including a simplified registration process, streamlined navigation of the skate.reel gallery, and expanded player Web profiles. Beyond that, we've also added some needed convenience features like a direct download link for videos/photos, the ability to embed clips into external Web pages, and a URL field for quick copy/pasting of skate.reel links.

On the game side, we've abandoned our "slot-based" upload system from the original Skate, so players are no longer restricted to a maximum of three clips for uploading, but can instead upload a total of 90 seconds of footage using as many clips as they like. Given the above, we believe the process and experience of sharing content has been vastly improved with Skate 2.

Click image to enlarge.

GS: Let's talk about the two main hubs for users to share their creations, which are the skate.reel Web site and the game itself. What type of work have you done in the way videos are rated, featured, and shared to make it so that the cream rises to the top and the best stuff is easiest to find?

BL: One of the coolest additions to skate.reel is the ability to add tags the content you are uploading. Whenever a player uploads a video or photo, they are prompted to add some tags to their content. The tags range from things like "Hall of Meat," "Realistic Line," "Funny" or "Grind," et cetera. For players that want to see the realistic skating vids, crazy wipeouts or whatever, they can search against these tags on our Web site to see the best and brightest in those categories.

On the skate.reel gallery, players can quickly view and sort content that is highest-rated, most popular, most recent to get quick access to "cream at the top" so to speak. We also make a point to keep the highest-rated videos and photos at the forefront of the in-game skate.reel screens, so you can get quick access to the best and most creative skate.reel content at the press of a button. Lastly, we've added a "featured" section to the skate.reel Web site where our dev and community teams handpick videos and photos that will appear on the skate.reel homepage gallery. Chances are pretty good [that] if a piece of content is worthy of attention, it will be front and center in all of the various access points of skate.reel.

GS: It seems like the most popular user videos to come from the first game were nasty wipeouts. Obviously those are entertaining, but we imagine in the back of your minds, after all the work you put into creating such a convincing skateboard simulation, that the more "serious" stuff caught on a little more. As you looked to improve the video editor, was there any sort of focus on giving users the tools to make successfully pulling off a trick more entertaining?

BL: As long as players are having fun playing the game and making videos, we're happy to see crazy wipeouts as well as more "serious" skate videos being made. The wipeout videos are fun and entertaining, but we still are very impressed by the more "realistic" vids our community has put together. Seeing the effort and the skill they've put into crafting their videos or remaking their favorite parts from other skate videos has been fun to watch, and definitely justifies the effort we've put into the simulation side of the gameplay.

As for the original question, we've always wanted to provide a replay editor that could rival the creative freedom the player has with their skating. In Skate 2, we certainly were focused on surpassing the replay editor from the original Skate, and put more control in the hands of the filmers to make great videos. To that end, we essentially scrapped the editor from the first Skate.

In rebuilding the replay editor, we based much of the new functionality on what the tools we had in our own studio. The end result is that the Skate 2 replay editor allows players to manipulate the camera and make the most realistic and creative videos possible. We have three camera options available in the Skate 2 replay editor: follow camera, tripod camera, and game camera. The follow camera is attached to the player, but the player can rotate that camera anywhere around their skater. The tripod camera is a static camera that tracks the skater but can be placed anywhere in the scene. The game camera is simply the replay from the perspective of the gameplay camera. On top of these new cameras, the player can layout their camera and speed changes throughout the clip using the replay editor timeline. With enough time, I'm confident that a player can make even the most basic tricks and lines look really good.

Click image to enlarge.

GS: One of the big new features in Skate 2 is the ability to hop off your board and grab objects such as benches and picnic tables and drag them around to make your own little skate spot. Now we know that it's not just for single-player; you can save the arrangements of these objects in the Create a Spot mode and share them online. How does that process work? Do you share your creations in a similar way to user videos?

BL: The Create a Spot process is somewhat similar to video sharing, but there are a few more steps involved. As you know, players can move objects around while in career mode, and if they find a cool setup that they like, they can choose to create a spot out of it. At any time in the career mode, the player can access the Create a Spot editor from the online menu ("back" button on 360, "select" button on PS3). While in the editor, the player can move, scale, and rotate a box that identifies the scored area for their spot. The movable objects placed within and around the scored area are saved with the spot itself and put in place any time the player or someone else plays that created spot. Once the player has defined where the spot will be scored, they have to then set a spawn point and score on the spot before it can be shared online.

From the Create a Spot Browser (in the online menu), the player can access their own spots and download spots from their friends and skate community. Like skate.reel, we have numerous categories for created spots like top rated, friends' spots, most recent, spots you've owned, spots you've made that people owned, and so on. For those with a competitive streak, you can literally spend hours just downloading and trying to own (set the high score) and re-own spots from your friends and the community. We also save a "ghost" line of the highest-scoring line with each spot, so players can see exactly how the owner set the high score and try to beat it. On top of the competitive aspects of Create a Spot, it is a convenient way for players to share their best configuration of movable objects.

Click image to enlarge.

GS: One interesting little bonus feature that was recently unveiled is the Skate 2 graphics creator, a Web site where you can make your own custom designs and import them into the game. How did this idea come about? What types of challenges are there in implementing a system that gives players so much freedom to create their own designs?

BL: Skate as a game has always been centered on self-expression, and we really wanted to extend that ideal even further by letting the player add custom-designed graphics to their skater in Skate 2. NBA Live had been running a promotion using a Web-based jersey-creator tool, and we realized that we could utilize a similar application on the Skate Web site but extend it to allow those graphics to be imported directly into the game. Fortunately, we have some extremely smart and talented people on our game and Web teams that figured out how to make the system work, and the Skate 2 Graphics Creator was born!

Aside from making the technology of the feature work, we have the additional challenge of trying to moderate the content coming from such a creative and dedicated community. Thankfully, we have our customer-support team working quickly to take down any graphics that violate our terms of use, and our community has the tools to flag potentially inappropriate graphics for review by our support team. Honestly, it has been amazing to see what our community has been doing so far with the graphics creator.

GS: Finally, are there any plans to support the game's various online features postrelease?

BL: Absolutely. Our community and postlaunch team will be keeping a close eye on things to make sure servers stay up and everything runs smoothly in the hectic days following launch. Also, expect to hear more news on our plans for downloadable content sometime after the game hits stores next week.

Fuel Hands-On

2009-01-20T02:57:00.001-08:00

We headed over to Bordeaux to see how Asobo's open-world off-road racer is shaping up in both single and multiplayer.

Asobo has been quietly working away on its open-world climate-changed racer for some time now, and we were invited along to its studios in Bordeaux to see how the game is shaping up. Due out in the first part of this year, Fuel mixes up on- and off-road racing with 75 vehicles, including road bikes, dirt bikes, quads, pickup trucks, SUVs, muscle cars, monster trucks, and even big rigs, in what feels like an enjoyably frantic experience.

Fuel is the result of mixing extreme weather and off-road racing.

Fuel is set in the aftermath of major climate change, in a landscape that's virtually devoid of human life. It seems society has moved away to safer climates, leaving Mad Max-like survivors (sans the wanton destruction) competing in a series of unofficial races in a quest to win more fuel. Expect to see a wide variety of landscapes across the huge open terrain, including sand, desert, mountains, alpine, urban cities, ice, and both sealed and dirt roads. There's also a range of weather effects, including rain and fog, as well as a full day/night cycle. You'll encounter thunderstorms, sandstorms, blizzards, tornadoes, and even flooded areas left behind from costal tsunamis.

Asobo claims that no loading screens or invisible walls will halt your progress, meaning that your experience with the environment should feel seamless. You'll be able to race standard point-A-to-point-B-style races, either with or without checkpoints, as well as lap-based ones. One of the most interesting components looks to be extensive road network, and Asobo says there will be more than 100,000km of drivable road throughout the game. There are also some ambitious landmarks, including Washington State's Mount Rainier, Oregon's Crater Lake, and a bridge that looks inspired by the Golden Gate Bridge--all of which are apparently to the same scale as their real-world counterparts. In fact, the total size of the world is huge--reportedly 120km by 120km (14,400 square kilometres in total), which apparently would take two and a half hours to traverse diagonally corner to corner.

Playing the game itself, we found Fuel's arcade-style action to be instantly accessible and, more importantly, fun to play. In both online and offline modes, you can explore the world at leisure, much like in other open-world racers, and searchlights indicate the beginning of a nearby race. You'll also be able to "heliport" to helipads scattered throughout the game, and while you can't be dropped on, say, the top of a mountain, you'll be able to warp to a safe place nearby. If you're not happy with the races on offer, one of the designers at Asobo showed us how you will be able to design your own race with the game's track editor in as little as 30 seconds, and you can create races with up to 30 checkpoints in them.

We also took a ride in a Mustang-style sedan in a 15-checkpoint race through a stretch of road in a desert. The muscle car felt both powerful and responsive to control, while a huge tornado was brewing in the distance, evidenced by a loud whistling wind, blowing debris, and, most surprisingly, a flying truck that almost wiped us off the road. While the extreme weather effects aren't in every race, it felt like quite a novel experience to have to battle against not just other racers but Mother Nature herself. During our playtime with Fuel, we also encountered woodlands, coastal and lakeside areas, grassy plains, and a race that took place around the Yellowstone National Park visitors' centre and nearby area.

Your chosen race will determine which vehicle you'll need. Dirt bikes are nimble, helping you climb hills and weave through forests with ease, whereas muscle cars are much faster but better suited to asphalt or dirt tracks. One important note is that though Fuel is mostly about racing, tricks are triggered automatically when you hit jumps on a bike or quad. We weren't able to manually control which trick our rider would perform, and with no boost bonuses, the gameplay focuses purely on raw speed and exploring the world. Fuel feels like a mixture of Pure's gravity-defying racing and Burnout's insane breakneck speeds with a postapocalyptic dash of flavouring. It's certainly not Capital Wasteland from Fallout 3, but the extreme weather and the feeling of isolation give it an interesting vibe nonetheless.

Despite the wide-open world, there will still be plenty of asphalt to traverse, with around 100,000km of drivable roads.

Completing races scores you medals and kudos-like style points, allowing you to unlock new events. You can earn bronze, silver, and gold medals for each race, and by exploring the environments during or after races you'll uncover better routes to shave seconds off your time. There's an in-game GPS to help guide you to the next checkpoint, but to get the quickest times you have to find your own path to victory. When you win races you'll score fuel bonuses--the in-game currency. We're not entirely sure what accumulating fuel will allow, but this valuable resource is a scarce commodity in Fuel's future setting and may play an important part in your career progress. While we got hands-on with a few local eight-player multiplayer matches, Fuel will also support 16-player online racing. In addition to being able to play all of the Career mode tracks with friends, you'll be able to free-roam and share the tracks you've created.

With some solid arcade racing, a huge open world, user-generated races, and an interesting scenario, Fuel looks set to strike a chord with extreme racing fans when it comes out later next quarter. Stay tuned to GameSpot as we unearth more about the game in the coming months.

Final Fantasy XIII exclusive to Japan in 2009

2009-01-20T02:56:00.000-08:00

Square Enix's highly anticipated JRPG won't be released outside of island nation until sometime after April 2010 on PS3 and Xbox 360.

At this year's Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix debuted a new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII, its highly anticipated role-playing game slated to arrive for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Aside from the eye candy, Square Enix's trailer also offered the tantalizing promise of a 2009 launch date.

Unfortunately, that promise of a 2009 release apparently applies only to Japan, given that the game isn't going to make it to the US or Europe until the second quarter of 2010 at the very earliest. The news emerged as Square Enix, the game's developer, delivered projections for the remainder of its current fiscal year, which ends March 31.

Square Enix president Yoichi Wada told Reuters that the game was on track for a 2009 PS3-exclusive launch in Japan, with international launches for the Xbox 360 and PS3 coming "in the business year from April 2010 or later."

Final Fantasy has been one of the most successful franchises ever to hit the console market. Since its first incarnation on the NES, the series has sold upward of 85 million units worldwide, with numerous spin-offs and even a feature-length movie adding to its success.

Despite the delay in the launch of Final Fantasy, Square Enix has remained optimistic about its financial outlook for 2009 with a small dip in operating profit of 2.4 percent to 21 billion yen ($236 million) forecast for the year. The company also reported healthy sales for the tail end of 2008 and said "demand has been generally brisk," with key titles such as Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest IV and Final Fantasy VII prequel Crisis Core all hitting shelves throughout the year.

Q&A: Final Fantasy bard Nobuo Uematsu

2009-01-20T02:51:00.000-08:00

Uematsu shares his experience with Blue Dragon Plus and hints at something "big" for the Black Mages.

Source: gamespot

A self-taught musician, Nobuo Uematsu joined Square back in 1985, and in 1987 Hironobu Sakaguchi asked if he would like to compose music for a role-playing game called Final Fantasy. The subsequent success of the series launched his career as a video game music composer, eventually making Uematsu one of the most well-known video game music composers among Western audiences, often referred to as the John Williams of video games.

Nobuo Uematsu

Uematsu stayed with Square Enix until 2004, when he left to form his own production company, Smile Please. He continues to compose for video games, working alongside Sakaguchi, who left Square Enix in 2004 to start his own studio, Mistwalker. Uematsu's recent works can be heard in Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon for the Xbox 360. He also composed the main theme for Super Smash Bros. Brawl last year.

In addition to composing game music, Uematsu formed the Black Mages in 2003, an instrumental rock band that takes his original Final Fantasy compositions and arranges them into rock music. The group has released three albums: The Black Mages, The Black Mages II: The Skies Above, and their most recent album, The Black Mages III: Darkness and Starlight," which was released last year.

In 2004, Uematsu made an appearance at Dear Friends--Music From Final Fantasy, the first-ever video game music concert in the United States, which was held in Los Angeles at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Due to its success, another follow-up concert was held the year after in LA, titled More Friends--Music From Final Fantasy. This was also the first time that the Black Mages performed live in the US.

Since then, Uematsu's work can be heard live in various concert series, such as Video Games Live and Play: A Video Game Symphony. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy, AWR Music Productions is currently presenting a concert world tour titled Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy, with performances scheduled across multiple cities in the US as well as Singapore.

Amid all the excitement with the concerts, album releases, and video games, Uematsu shared his thoughts with GameSpot through an e-mail interview about composing for the upcoming Blue Dragon Plus on the Nintendo DS and talked about his band, the Black Mages.

GameSpot: What is it like to work with Sakaguchi again at Mistwalker?

Nobuo Uematsu: Business as usual, but his ability to get things done never ceases to amaze me. Achieving goals is just second nature to him.

GS: What will the music be like in Blue Dragon Plus? Is it similar to the previous Blue Dragon?

NU: There are slight variations in the arrangements, but it's more or less the same; plus, there's one new track.

GS: What challenges did you face when composing for the Nintendo DS versus a current-gen console?

NU: It was just that it had been quite a while since I last worked with internal sound hardware.

GS: What kind of process do you go through when composing a track for a specific area in the game?

NU: After I draw inspiration from the scenario and artwork, I just let my imagination take me along for the ride.

Midi tunes aren't Uematsu's only forte.

GS: After composing hundreds if not thousands of different tunes, how do you manage to continue to stay original?

NU: Actually, all of my music sounds the same to me, to the point I get fed up with myself sometimes.

GS: What is your band working on now? Are you working on another album?

NU: There's the DVD of the live concert we did in August; it's coming out next year. I'm thinking of doing "something big" for the end of 2009, but I can't really say anything at this stage. You'll just have to keep your ears peeled.

GS: How do you select which pieces to use for your album? What are some of your favorites to perform?

NU: I draw up a list of things, and then we all get together and decide which ones we're going to do. I have fond memories of all of my music, so picking out favorites is difficult. But the live concert we did this year featuring "Maria and Draco" was fully accompanied by a drama ensemble; this was a first for us, so it was really exciting.

GS: When will we see the Black Mages again in North America?

NU: We don't have any plans as of yet, but we're definitely looking forward to another performance overseas; the sooner the better.

GS: You've been able to travel across the United States for the Dear Friends concerts as well as Distant Worlds. What has the experience been like? What has been the most memorable moment for you?

NU: It was really gratifying to receive such a thunderous ovation from all the people who came out to our concerts overseas. I truly felt thankful that I was born. The fact that people from different countries all over the world can experience the same universal joy from the same music...Doesn't that inspire you to believe there's hope for a world of peace, free from war and conflict?

GS: We can agree on that. Thank you for your time.

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest

2009-01-18T23:54:00.000-08:00

The Good

Fight epic battles in iconic locations
Evil campaign is morbidly delightful
Cutscenes and music create dramatic atmosphere
Playing as trolls, ents, and heroes is exciting.

The Bad

Battles often boil down to button mashing
Many cheap ways to die
Playing campaign solo can be aggravatingly hard.

The Lord of the Rings universe is full of memorable battles. No matter whether they are staged in a cramped burial chamber or on a vast, open plain, each clash of arms teeters between exultant triumph and agonizing defeat. In The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, you'll experience your fair share of both. There are abundant thrills in both the good and evil campaigns, from attacking oliphaunts with catapults on the Pelennor Fields to burning the ringed ramparts of Minas Tirith. However, the frantic combat can often devolve into a button-mashing frenzy as you try to avoid the many varieties of death (some unpleasantly cheap) that await you on the battlefield. These frustrations may prove to be too high a cost of entry for many, but if you're willing to brave the pitfalls (or are a big Lord of the Rings fan), then Conquest has many hours of satisfying and immersive action for you to enjoy.

Trolls? Oliphaunts? Just another day at the office for Legolas.

The best hours you'll spend in Conquest will be in the campaigns. The War of the Ring campaign puts you on the ground in the most memorable battles from the books, taking a few detours from canon along the way. The well-crafted, immersive environments mirror those of the movies, from the filthy industrial pits of Isengard to the crumbling walls of Osgiliath, and the score draws on themes from the movies to make battles feel more dramatic. As fun as the War of the Ring campaign is, there's an exciting novelty to playing as the forces of Mordor in the Rise of Sauron campaign. In this alternate storyline, the ring bearer fails in his mission and the once-ebbing tide of evil flows forth across Middle-earth, scouring all in its path. Cutscenes between levels use footage from the movies to craft a believable narrative around your dark exploits, and it's morbidly thrilling to destroy beloved locations and heroes. The last level in particular is so delightfully sinister that you'll likely find yourself cackling with malicious glee.

During most of the battles, you'll be fighting as one of the rank-and-file soldier classes. The warrior, the archer, the mage, and the scout all have their own unique strengths, weaknesses, and special attacks. From the mage's firewall to the warrior's whirlwind sweep, each class can perform a number of pleasingly powerful special attacks by drawing on energy gained from fighting and surviving. As deadly as each class can be, they are also vulnerable. An archer can easily mow down a warrior from a distance, but if the warrior manages to close the gap, there isn't much that the archer can do to survive. Close combat is brutal and chaotic, and once you get knocked down, it can be very hard to get up. Because fights favor the soldier who lands the first strike, they often become frantic button mash-offs. This can be tense and exciting, but it also makes defeat bitterer than it ought to be.

Working with other players is a great way to shore up your defenses, and The Lord of the Rings: Conquest features a cooperative campaign mode for two players, both locally and online. However, when you're going it alone, you'll find that not only is friendly AI unhelpful, but the enemy AI also sees you as public enemy number one. You'll have to destroy the lion's share of the enemy forces and be vigilant for attacks that can kill you instantly (such as fire arrows, backstabs, and anything a troll or ent does). You have a limited number of lives, and with so many ways to die, they can go quickly. Restarting the level is mildly tedious, but it can be a blessing in disguise when a mismatch between friendly and enemy spawn rates has you facing an insurmountable tide of foes.

A poison arrow to the face will take the wind out of that Gondorian's sails.

It can be frustrating to be a grunt, so it's fortunate that The Lord of the Rings: Conquest offers many ways to make your battlefield presence more formidable. The simplest of these involve mounted weapons such as catapults and ballistas: powerful yet destructible machines of war that can be a blast while they last. You can also mount horses or wargs and ride through enemy ranks, sword a-swinging. Taking control of an ent or a troll lets you grab, smash, and throw enemies to your heart's content, and rampaging around on a massive, lumbering oliphaunt is unwieldy fun. Occasionally throughout the campaign you will also get the chance to play as heroes, such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Sauron, and the balrog. These units are powerful versions of the normal classes with their own unique special attacks that let you wreak all sorts of havoc. There is a pleasing variety of heroes featured throughout the campaigns, enough that there is an entire online mode dedicated to hero play.

Hero Deathmatch is just one of the 16-player online modes available in Conquest. There is also normal Team Deathmatch, as well as Lord of the Rings versions of Capture the Flag and Territories. Everyone chooses a soldier class to begin with, but the many maps feature the aforementioned machines and mounts to spice things up. When a team reaches a certain percentage of points needed for victory, the top-scoring player will be offered the opportunity to spawn as a hero. It can be tough to break a team's momentum at that point, but success really depends on the players' willingness to work together. Playing against human opponents is both more exciting and more frustrating. It's more satisfying to work with human teammates to kill characters with human minds behind them, but those same human minds are more capable of getting the best of you with aggravating combat techniques. This makes online battles legitimately challenging, so you'll want to polish your skills in the campaigns first.

War is messy, and The Lord of the Rings: Conquest isn't a clean gaming experience. Combat can be as exasperating as it is exhilarating, and playing solo can be a trying endeavor. Nevertheless, these pitfalls are somewhat compensated for by two epic campaigns that draw you into a rich world in new and exciting ways. Fans of this world will get the most out of The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, but gamers who are looking to battle in an epic setting and willing to weather some frustrating elements will find plenty of excitement on this journey through Middle-earth.

Game Lag: 5 steps to reducing lag in online games

2009-01-16T16:41:00.001-08:00

Tired of pulling a trigger in Call of Duty: World at War, then watching your gun fire five seconds later? Sick of adrenaline-fueled Halo 3 matches playing out like slide-shows? Well, the GamePro editors have five secret tips to help you reduce or eliminate lag, and make online gaming more stable and enjoyable.

Without further ado, here are five proven ways to fix a laggy game experience!

1. Shut down all PC downloads and sharing apps.

File-sharing programs such as BitTorrent are infamous for eating up bandwidth, and will guarantee you a choppy online gaming experience on your game system. Big downloads, such as Apple Store TV shows or movies, will also slow down your online game. If you're playing online, try to limit any PC internet use beyond simple web browsing or e-mail.

2. Cable internet beats DSL every single time.

There's a reason a DSL connection costs less than cable internet: it's slower and less stable. In fact, some industry groups have recommended stripping DSL of its "broadband" label because it can only handle a fraction of the speed of a cable connection. DSL is fine for speedy web browsing, but cable reigns supreme for online gaming. Cable internet is also relatively inexpensive if you're already a cable TV subscriber - ask your provider for package deals.

3. With Wi-Fi, placement is everything.

Your wireless Wi-Fi router has a limited range, and consoles can be pretty picky about that signal (especially if the Wi-Fi has to go through a wall). Try to place your console close to your router to get the best results. If you're still seeing a strong signal, yet experiencing lag, try changing your game system's location in the room, or flipping it horizontally or vertically.

4. Hardwire it!

Though wireless Wi-Fi is more convenient, a hardwired Ethernet connection is unbeatable for online gaming - it's faster and more reliable. The downside: an ugly cable that leads from your internet router to your game system. If your cable or DSL jack is located close to your entertainment system, you'll definitely want to use an Ethernet cable for maximum performance. Even if the internet jack is located far away, you may consider running the Ethernet cable under the carpet, along a wall, or under floorboards to conceal it.

5. Choose top-quality internet hardware.

Don't expect top-level gaming performance from that cheap $20 internet router you bought at CostCo. Instead, spend a little more and get a quality router from a trusted manufacturer such as Linksys or DLink. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo also have preferred hardware that is guaranteed to function perfectly on their systems - that information is available on their websites.

New York City from January 17th and 18th from 11am - 7pm

2009-01-16T16:40:00.001-08:00

Are you in New York City from January 17th and 18th from 11am - 7pm? Then you have a chance to play F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin before the demo comes out later this month. Here's the info about the event:

This Saturday and Sunday, January 17th and 18th from 11am - 7pm, our mobile F.E.A.R Lab will be parked outside of the GameStop at 1282 Broadway on the corner of Broadway and 33rd (near Herald Square) to give a sneak preview of the upcoming first person shooter game F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin.

Live stream tomorrow from the location via this link: http://www.armacham.com/fearlab/

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Impressions

2009-01-16T16:38:00.000-08:00

We see the damage razor-sharp adamantium claws can do to a human body in this bloody first look at the upcoming movie tie-in.

Marvel character Wolverine's previous appearances in games have been mainly kid-friendly and gore-lite, which is somewhat odd considering that the mutant's indestructible claws should result in plenty of decapitations, severed limbs, and exposed intestines with every attack. Raven Software's latest take on the feral superhero--the movie tie-in X-Men Origins: Wolverine--looks like it's taking those claws pretty seriously. Our first look at this game proved to be a blood-splattered affair with plenty of brutal attacks on display.

Wolverine isn't playing nice in this game.

And when we say brutal, we mean it. Our hands-off look at some of the levels in Wolverine showed the character dishing out some gruesome and visceral punishment. The game looks like it might reach levels of blood-spewing mayhem not seen in a comic-book-based game since 2005's The Punisher. The third-person action game will use the storyline from the upcoming big-screen film (as well as adding its own levels), with stars Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber lending their voices for the characters of Wolverine and Sabertooth, respectively. Our demo began with the title character free-falling through the skies over Africa (apparently his helicopter had just been blown up), with his high-impact landing making a small crater in the ground. A 1,000-foot drop means nothing to the regenerative mutant, however. In a matter of seconds, Wolverine had bounded out of the crater, ready to take on the small band of enemy soldiers that had surrounded him.

Wolverine will sport both quick and power attacks, which can be threaded together to perform increasingly powerful combos. Landing one of these combos will result in a quick cinematic view of one of Wolvie's various finishing moves, which is where the ultra-violence comes in. One of the finishers we saw included Wolverine holding back a soldier's head and stabbing him through the neck. Another had Wolverine impaling an enemy, lifting him up in the air, and repeatedly stabbing him in the chest with his other set of claws. One of our favorites (in a sick way) was the finisher that saw Wolverine slash an enemy across the stomach, pulling out his intestines along the way. Wolverine will also have a lunge maneuver, which will allow him to leap large distances to target enemies, as well as a feral sense ability, which will allow him to spot special paths across levels and see enemy weak points.

As well as upping the gore quotient, Raven seems to be going for a cinematic feel, with several set-piece action sequences planned. As an example, we were shown a level set in the Weapon X facility underneath Alkali Lake, where Wolverine had to escape a wall of water rapidly rushing down a tunnel. Wolvie used his lunge ability to quickly leap onto an enemy's truck, which was also trying to escape, and proceeded to jump from vehicle to vehicle, attacking soldiers as he went. In another sequence, Wolverine was being pursued by an attack helicopter and had to quickly run across a bridge while the chopper was destroying it behind him. The final sequence we were shown should please longtime X-Men fans: Wolverine taking on a 100-foot-tall sentinel. Wolverine's feral senses kicked in, highlighting fuel cables running along the sentinel's feet that had to be attacked to hobble the giant robot.

Guess who's about to get some claw-in-face action?.

If the violence we saw in our quick demo is any indication, X-Men Origins: Wolverine looks to be a decidedly more adult take on the popular superhero. Check back with GameSpot soon for a full hands-on preview of the game.

Kojima addicted to Left 4 Dead

2009-01-15T05:42:00.001-08:00

Kojima The creator of Gamezine's Game of 2008 is obsessed with one of our faves.

Kojima, the brainchild behind Metal Gear Solid, hones in on the virtues of the Western video games market and how its a better place to develop games than in Japan. Along the way he also comments that he's currently addicted to Left 4 Dead, which we gave a huge 9/10.

In a Famitsu Magazine interview, Kojima argues;

"The US and European marketplace are far better balanced. There are games everyone can play -- maybe calling 'kids' games' would be inappropriate -- but there's also a deep base of core titles made with movie-industry people that explore the depths of hi-def. I'm addicted to Left 4 Dead right now, but people say to me that that game would never work in Japan."

Kojima's a little pessimistic about the Japanese video games market, laughing as he says;

"Maybe I should quit being Japanese. And speaking of which, there were hardly any Japanese games nominated in Spike TV's Video Game Awards this year. It's sad to see that Japan's games failed to even register in America last year."

When asked why Japanese developers struggle to keep up with the overseas competition, Kojima is just as damning;

"Because they're Japanese. Japan makes all their own books and movies and music. You can't export entertainment made by Japanese people in the Japanese language, so it's all made with the sort of budgets that guarantee profit within the Japanese marketplace only.

"Meanwhile, the English-speaking world is a global one. The scariest scenario I see is people overseas taking the ideas from Japanese games, running the Hollywood business merchandising machine on them, and taking all the revenue. If that happens, then there won't be any new Japanese creators."

Furthermore, the man who has continuinly changed the rules of gaming, comments that the hi-defination era of consoles hasn't really been taken advantage of in Japan;

"Game design up to now has been about making rules," he notes. "It was like a card game; there were lots of things that weren't possible and had to be cut. With hi-def, the more real it gets, the less instruction you need to give, so preoccupying yourself with making rules seems silly. Western developers have realized this, but Japanese ones are still preoccupied with making these rules."

The good news is that Kojima is working on a bunch of new projects that'll whip both the East and West into shape;

"There is a title I'm designing that I think we'll be able to announce relatively soon, and there's also a rather challenging project I'm working on to compete against the overseas industry. So as far as unannounced projects, I've started work on one and three others are in progress."

We can't wait.

Skate 2 Updated Hands-On - Career Mode

2009-01-13T04:09:00.000-08:00

We return our professional skater to his former glory in Skate 2's Career mode.

Skate 2 Bail

Only the mature should watch this horrifying Skate 2 wipeout.

Games like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space have been touted as examples of EA's newfound focus on originality, but Skate 2 is another example of how the megapublisher has given its studios a little more room for creativity lately. Rather than release the game on the anniversary of the original Skate, the folks at EA Black Box have had more than 16 months to put together a sequel, which audiences will finally get their hands on when the game is released on January 21. We've covered how Black Box has used that time to enhance the basic gameplay--an expanded roster of tricks, a newly rebuilt city, the Burnout Paradise-inspired online multiplayer--but we've recently been given the chance to cruise through the entire completed game before it hits stores to see how it has all come together.

What better way to see how the sum of Skate 2's parts have coalesced than taking a tour through the main draw, the game's Career mode? It all begins in a similar fashion to its predecessor: A cheeky intro video gets you acquainted with the roster of professional skateboarders available in the game, though you'll need to create your own character to begin a career. The options are expanded a bit over the first game, but you still won't be able to make anyone too outlandish. A larger variety of gear and clothing is also available to you, including the ability to make custom graphics on the game's official site and slap them on a blank T-shirt of your choosing. With your look set, you'll embark on a quest to return to your former glory when you were Skater of the Year in the original game.

An expanded video editor allows you to capture some crazy shots.

The path back to stardom is primarily focused on making it to the cover of two of the world's biggest skating magazines, Thrasher and the Skateboard Mag. You'll befriend famous photographers from each publication and then perform a series of increasingly elaborate challenges for the cameras in order to gain exposure. Along the way, it's probably a good idea to explore some of the side competitions available to you, such as downhill races, street contests, and the unfortunately titled tranny contests (riding in pools and such). Throughout the game you'll run into pros, and if you're able to pass the challenges they throw your way, you'll gain access to their gear and sponsors. You can also befriend a few buddies who will help you take care of security guards, remove skate-stoppers, and drain swimming pools whenever you call them.

The Career mode definitely feels like a refined, slightly more cohesive take on the first game's campaign, but one of the best improvements is the level of freedom you're given in the game's challenges. Whereas Skate didn't realize the limitations of its control scheme (excellent but hardly precise), Skate 2 doesn't force you into doing specific tricks nearly as much. As a result, you're able to take on challenges how you see fit much more often. In fact, many of magazine challenges give you the ability to customize the shot by hopping off the board and dragging obstacles around for the ideal line. There are still a few moments when you're faced with performing a specific trick on a specific spot, but these seem to be few and far between this time around.

The ability to kick your board out in the air means more potentioal for moments that can't possibly end well.

Another new feature is the inclusion of properties, which are areas in the city that you can purchase after you've racked up enough money from doing challenges. The only one we were able to buy was an addition to the Mega Compound called the Fun Track, a twisting series of ramps, jumps, and bowls that connects the two spots to form a huge amount of real estate with which to devastate your bones and internal organs.

Bombing Down a Dam

See what happens with dry dams in San Vanelona.

In fact, you can earn even more money by doing just that. Hall of Meat is an extension of the feature found in the first game that recorded details of your worst wipeouts. This time around, it has been turned into an optional series of challenges that let you earn cash for the worst bails you subject your body to. A variety of information is recorded and turned into mini-achievements, like cannonballing into a moving car or achieving 24,000 bodily damage points in a single spill. You can sell the footage to Thrasher magazine for cash to buy property and gear. A few special bonuses pop up too, like new spawn points to fling yourself from (our favorite was a towering rooftop near the waterfront).

Finally, it's worth noting how Skate 2 looks now that it has entered the final stage of polish. In short, the graphics won't immediately strike you as being better than those in the first game, but one thing that will--and this is a big one--is the frame rate. The jump from 30 to 60 frames per second makes every last move look that much more smooth, giving you a better appreciation for a game that already boasted some impressive animations. The animations involved in walking around without your board still looks pretty rough, which is disappointing, but the rest of your new moves, such as street plants and inverts, look quite nice.

Even with the realistic physics, there are still plenty of moments for you to go huge--like airing into this dry dam.

Altogether there should be a lot for Skate fans to enjoy when Skate 2 is released next week. To help tide you over, we'll be posting a developer Q&A later this week to explain some of the new online features found in Skate 2. Stay tuned for that.

Legends of WrestleMania Hands-On

2009-01-13T03:39:00.000-08:00

It's Andre the Giant versus the Hulkster in this retro wrestling game from Yuke's and THQ.

In front of a crowd of 93,173 screaming fans, Hulk Hogan enters the ring, looking even more hulking and muscular than you might remember. His opponent is the gargantuan Frenchman, Andre the Giant. If you're a long-time wrestling fan, you might remember this match-up like it was yesterday, and surely you remember the finisher: After several attempts, the Hulkster manages to pick the big man up and slam him to the mat. After dropping the leg on him, it's 1-2-3, and Hulkamania runs wild as Hogan defends his WWF Championship belt. Only this time around, when Hulk tries to get the big man up, he falters, Andre's feet won't leave the ground, and the Hulkster grabs his back in agony. Then Andre balls up his mighty fist and strikes him down, lays down for the pin, and wrestling history is rewritten. Welcome to Legends of WrestleMania.

Relive the past or rewrite it altogether: The choice is yours in Legends of WrestleMania.

Developed by Yuke's (the same folks behind THQ's WWE SmackDown Vs. Raw series), Legends of WrestleMania is a different spin on the sometimes plodding, complicated wrestling action in SVR. With Legends, the goal seems to be creating a wrestling game that even nongamers can enjoy, with simplistic controls and bigger-than-life characters that hearken back to each wrestler's prime.

The limited demo of Legends that we played featured an exhibition match with four wrestlers to try out: The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Andre the Giant, and Hulk Hogan (along with the choice to have a manager--Bobby "The Brain" Heenan--accompany you to the ring). More compelling was the "Relive" game mode, which looks to be a series of matches based on classic WrestleManias from the past. Only one was available in the demo: the aforementioned WM3 matchup between Andre and Hogan.

Before the match began, a video intro gave a nice setup for the classic match, showing interviews and clips with Hogan and Andre that set up the rivalry (and brought back a lot of nostalgic memories in the process). The video then moved to the actual match, with the Hulkster pumping himself up before slamming Andre and getting the pin. From there, we were taken to a list of objectives for the upcoming match. These include everything from winning a "counter chain battle" at the start of the match, to repeating history and body-slamming Andre onto the mat.

Many of the objectives on the list can be accomplished only once your wrestler has built up his chain level, indicated by an onscreen meter that builds up as you pull off successful moves in the ring. There are three levels you can attain, and you can only pull off your finisher once you've built up your chain level to its maximum.

After brief entrances by both wrestlers (including the ring-shaped cart that brought Andre and Heenan to the ring), Hulk and Andre start jawing at one another in the middle of the squared circle. Soon, Andre takes a swing at Hogan and, if you time it right, you can earn the first objective by simply pressing the A button and blocking the big man's punch.

The in-ring controls are easy to learn in Legends: the X button is for punches; A is used to grapple your opponent (sometimes resulting in back-and-forth reversals guided by onscreen button prompts); the B button is used for special attacks and for climbing in and out of the ring; and Y is used for reversals. Although the move set doesn't seem to be as deep as that found in the SVR series, you can pull off more specialized moves such as Irish whips and certain submission holds.

Of course, the real draw for Legends' Relive mode will be in rewriting the history of the WWE's most famous bouts. During one match we played between Hogan and Andre, we immediately took the action outside the ring and began bashing on Bobby Heenan, only to have Andre come outside, grab a steel chair from under the ring, and blast Hogan in the face. Afterward, Hogan picked up the chair and returned the favor on Andre's dome, twice, cutting open the big man's forehead and eventually earning Hogan a disqualification, all of which is about as far removed from the original match as can be imagined.

Moments after this screenshot was taken, Hulk Hogan and his gigantic, mutated back muscles took to the air in glorious flight, never to be seen again.

Managers look to play a pretty big role in Legends' action. When we weren't beating on Heenan outside the ring, he was finding a way to interfere in the match, either by grabbing Hogan's foot when he approached the edge of the ring, or by climbing up on the ring apron and causing a diversion. Although it didn't have a huge effect on the outcome of the match, we never shied away from another opportunity to beat up on "The Weasel."

The game's cartoonish character models are a far cry from the more realistic characters seen in the SVR series; for example, Hulk Hogan's huge back muscles make him look like a balding, overly tanned turtle. Likewise, the game's simplistic wrestling style is obviously geared for the button-mashing crowd. The game's audio is turning out to be strangely anachronistic, too. Though long-time WWE announcer Howard Finkel handles wrestler introductions, the modern-day team of Jerry "The King" Lawler and Jim Ross call the action, which is especially strange when playing the classic Andre vs. Hogan match. Regardless, long-time WWE fans with a bent toward nostalgia will probably get a kick out of the game's roster, which should feature a mixture of classic and modern stars. Legends of WrestleMania is scheduled for release in late March.

CES 2009: Dark Void Update: Shooting, Flying, and Boss Killing in the Void

2009-01-12T05:08:00.000-08:00

We try an updated version of Capcom's upcoming third-person action game.

We've been keeping a close eye on Capcom's upcoming multiplatform Dark Void since the game was announced last year. The original action game from newly minted developer Airtight Games has been making a positive impression with us the more we see of it. There's a lot of promise to be found in the game's mix of standard third-person action, flight, and vertical combat. It helps that, although Airtight is technically a new developer, the studio is made up of some key veterans who helped make Crimson Skies one of the gems for the original Xbox. Our latest look let us try our hand at playing an updated version of the game on the PC to see how things are coming along. We're pleased to say that, though there's plenty of the expected rough edges from a work-in-progress game, it seems as if the game is shaping up to have a nice, solid core of fun.

The level that we tried was a small chunk taken from the first third of the game and modified into a demo. The section of the game revolves around you finally getting the chance to use your rocket pack to fly around. You'll start out guiding main character Will, the world's unluckiest cargo pilot, through a building interior that opens up onto an outdoor area. The goal in the demo is to help your fellow humans, who are being victimized by the mysterious Watchers. Will is tasked with disabling force-field generators that are trapping a transport full of humans from heading out. The generators are housed in massive, floating structures, the entrances of which are blocked by force fields as well. To save the day, Will must deal with ground troops, dogfight or hijack UFOs, engage in some dizzying vertical combat, and take on a scorpion-like boss called the archon. It's a pretty hefty task for a man armed only with a jetpack, grenades, and two weapons, but we reckon that your options are limited when you're trapped in an interdimensional void by aliens.

Welcome to the Void.

Dealing with the force-field generators was an adventure that entailed assaulting the two floating structures that held them and deactivating the barriers to their interior. Once the barriers were lowered, we had to exit and fly to the newly opened entrances, which were either at the top or bottom of the structures. Once inside, we had to fight our way to either the top or bottom of the structures, jumping and shooting, to take out the generators. When the combat shifted to a trek up or down, we relied on button prompts and visual cues to guide us to the right path.

With the generators taken out, the action focused on the archon miniboss fight. The scorpion-like mech needed to be taken out methodically by targeting several weak spots. Once all were hit, we had to guide Will onto the creature and engage in a minigame of death. The fatal (for the archon) game blended God of War-style button prompts along with analog stick waggling to take out the pilot, an advanced form of Watcher.

When all else fails, sky-jack.

The controls in our version of the game, mapped to an Xbox 360 controller, were serviceable but needed some tightening. Minor things such as triggering the jetpack to hover or accelerate took some getting used to, especially in the heat of battle. UFO-jacking had a nice feel to it, as did controlling the craft once we got it. The UFO controls made smart use of the dual analog sticks for 180-degree turns and fine turning. The on-foot combat mechanics worked pretty well when using weapons, although it came across as a little too simplistic when melee combat consisted of a single context-sensitive button push when you're in the right range. Overall, though, we found that we were able to kill things on land or in the air with relative ease.

The visuals in the game definitely popped thanks to the crisp resolution and high frame rate courtesy of the beefy PC running the demo. The effects for weapon fire look good, and there were some nice effects on hand for when you disintegrated enemies. Character animation looks promising, thanks to the little flourishes seen when Will uses his jetpack and melee attacks an enemy, and when the various Watcher enemies that we faced dove in and out of cover to attack us. There are also some nice, subtle touches to be noticed in scale when you're in the air and on the ground, such as the sense of being dwarfed by the massive archon miniboss.

Violence against robots is always appreciated.

Based on what we played, Dark Void is definitely showing an encouraging amount of promise. The gameplay has some very solid mechanics that, though they could definitely use some tightening up and polishing, are blending well. Flight, a subject that the Airtight crew knows pretty well, feels especially good. The varied action blends relatively well already, so we're anxious to see more of it. The visuals are crisp, though they could use more of a distinctive style right now, and they do a solid job of creating a unique atmosphere. Dark Void is slated to hit the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 later this year. Look for more on the game in the coming months.

CES 2009: Dark Void Update: Shooting, Flying, and Boss Killing in the Void

2009-01-11T01:54:00.001-08:00

We try an updated version of Capcom's upcoming third-person action game.

Welcome to the Void.

When all else fails, sky-jack.

Violence against robots is always appreciated.

HAWX Cooperative Hands-On

2009-01-11T01:53:00.001-08:00

It's time to take the battle to the skies as we suit up for a hands-on with HAWX's four-player co-op mode.

HAWX is shaping up to be one of the games most worth watching in early 2009, with an intriguing plot firmly rooted in the Tom Clancy universe, overlapping with Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and EndWar, and featuring about 12,000 square kilometres of land to soar over. According to the game's lead designer, Simon Thomas, HAWX will take you across the Americas from Chicago, Cape Canaveral, and New England in the US, to Rio and even as far as the Magellan Strait at the bottom of Chile. In addition to all of the airspace you could want, there are more than 60 licensed fighters from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Eurofighter, and more, spanning from the first Gulf War in the early '90s to current-day prototypes. We settled into the pilot's seat and fired up the game's four-player cooperative mode at a recent event in London.

Time to kick the tyres and light the fires, yeehaw!

The first mission of the day, codenamed Adder, takes place after the opening mission in which you serve as air support to Captain Mitchell's Ghosts (as seen in GRAW2). Along with your three AI- or human-controlled wingmen, you'll need to protect a refinery in the Middle East from an imminent attack from ground- and air-based threats as part of your work for a private military outfit. Despite it being an early mission, the arcade style of HAWX means that you'll be dropping bombs like they're going out of fashion, and with more than 100 onboard missiles, you'll be armed to the teeth and ready for anything. Even at this stage, you'll be in the thick of a full-scale war zone, with waves of tanks, attack helicopters, and carpet bombers all vying to destroy the prized refinery. With so many targets to go after, you'll need to strike fast and in a coordinated manner if you want to stop the hostiles in time. Even with a lightning-quick plane such as the F-22 Raptor we used, it is still a challenge to cover the wide area and get in close enough to take out all of your targets. The baking-hot sand of the Middle East makes a refreshing change from the hectic urban environments that we've seen before, and despite the unforgiving nature of the desert, you'll have plenty of gorgeous eye candy to look at while flying around at the speed of sound.

Although we didn't see a lot of HAWX's story, it seems that you'll be forced to defend the USA itself against aggressors at one point in the game. The Torchlight mission takes place in the skies over New England, and with Washington under attack from hostile forces and the city evacuated, you'll be given the critical task of protecting Air Force One, including the President and senior cabinet officials, while escorting it to a secret location. Though the Presidential jet has its own escorts, it'll take the best of the best (you, of course!) to keep it in the skies despite waves of enemy forces. The Russian Sukhoi Su-37 Terminator might seem an odd choice to defend the US President, but it worked well for us, and customising its payload meant that we were well equipped for short- and long-range threats. With HAWX's arcade-style gameplay, you'll sometimes be up against literally dozens of enemies at a time, and communicating with your human wingmen, or assigning AI members to attacking or defending roles, becomes more important as the tension escalates. You'll need to keep track of and balance the overall mission objectives as well as your current target.

Buckle up for some intense dogfights in HAWX.

HAWX's controls also seem to be sharp enough for the job, with face buttons used to fire cannons and launch missiles, switch targets, and activate the ERS (Enhanced Reality System) system, which makes targeting obscured land-based target or fast-moving enemy fighters a bit easier. Shoulder buttons are used to yaw, triggers are used for accelerating and braking, and double-tapping your triggers turns assistance on or off. With assistance off, the camera will switch from a fixed angle behind the tail wing to a contextual style that shows you more of the battlefield. The trade-off of losing some onscreen information and the risk of putting your plane into a stall means that you'll also have greater precision over your aircraft, and you'll be able to pull off some advanced manoeuvres such as drifting.

Although we have yet to clock up enough flight hours to pass final judgement, Ubisoft Bucharest has put a lot of love and care into making the planes and environments look and sound as realistic as possible, and the game is looking well on its way to touching down in Q1 2009. Keep your radio frequency set to GameSpot for more on HAWX as it approaches.

Raven Squad First Impressions

2009-01-11T01:52:00.000-08:00

We check out a jungle conflict where first-person shooter action meets real-time strategy and generates some intriguing hybrid gameplay.

Two squads of hired mercenaries parachute into the jungle to rescue a kidnapped VIP from guerrilla forces. It sounds like a cliched setting for another run-of-the-mill first-person shooter, but developer Atomic Motion is adding one key twist that it hopes will help Raven Squad stand out from the crowd. In addition to running and gunning in first-person view, you will be able to pull back to an overhead satellite view and issue orders to your squads as if they were units in a real-time strategy game. We checked out publisher SouthPeak Interactive's booth at E3 2008 and got a look at this interesting new hybrid game in action.

At the outset, things feel pretty familiar. There's a dense, green jungle crisscrossed by dirt roads and occasional clearings filled with tin roof structures and construction debris. Two four-man squads enter this environment, and you can control each of them. Every soldier has an assault rifle with unlimited ammunition as his primary weapon and a unique secondary weapon that is more tactically significant yet has limited ammunition. Squad A's secondary weapons are primarily assault-oriented: machine gun, rocket launcher, grenades, and land mines. Squad B has a more support-oriented arsenal: sniper rifle, flashbang, smoke grenade, and sonic decoy. You can switch among any of the eight soldiers on the fly, which comes in handy when it's time to reload. Maneuvering in first-person mode seemed pretty standard, but that can change with the press of a button.

Satellite view is easily toggled on, and with it on, we are treated to a top-down view of the battlefield. In addition to seeing our squads, we can see nearby enemy soldiers and terrain elements. Our presenter showed us that what previously appeared to be a blank wooden wall is actually hiding an enemy machine gun post. When he quickly selects the grenadier and commands him to attack over the wall, the enemy is gone before he knows what hit him. We watch as both squads moved forward and automatically engaged the units alerted by the blast. Then our presenter finished off the remaining soldiers by ordering his two squads in a flanking maneuver around opposite sides of the building that his enemies were hiding behind.

Some levels in Raven Squad will be fairly linear affairs that task you with getting from point A to point B. Others will be a bit more complicated and challenge you to defend two separate points simultaneously or defend a choke point with one squad while you assault an encampment with the other. Along the way, you'll meet friendly non-player characters that will help you and even fight alongside your squads, though you won't control them directly. Raven Squad will also feature drivable four-wheel vehicles, such as jeeps and trucks, as well as an online cooperative mode that will allow each player to take charge of one squad.

The idea of combining first-person action with an overhead tactical element is an interesting one, and hopefully, Raven Squad will be able to deliver on its promise. We're looking forward to seeing how the various missions incorporate these two elements. Raven Squad is slated for a winter 2008 release on the PC and Xbox 360, so keep an eye here for more in the intervening months.