Games Info & Reviews

Call of Duty: Black Ops First Look

2010-08-04T02:44:00.000-07:00

By Shaun McInnis, GameSpotPosted May 28, 2010 9:05 am PT

We travel by SR-71 Blackbird to 1960s-era Russia, then make a brief stop in Vietnam.

The most recent trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops bridges its two halves with a very serious voice uttering the line, "We live in a world where everything you know is wrong." It's a bold but not entirely universal statement--you probably know for a fact that trying to fist fight a shark is an objectively terrible idea--but there's truth in that proclamation when it comes to the military history that the Call of Duty series has long steeped itself in. With Black Ops, Treyarch may not exactly be exposing all the secrets in American military history, but the developer is nonetheless focused on exploring some of the shadowy covert operations that went down during the height of the Cold War, in addition to some of the more famous conflicts of that era, such as Vietnam. The game appears to be a mixture of the frantic run-and-gun action the franchise is known for and a generous sprinkling of new gameplay options. Treyarch has plucked those gameplay options from this period in history to help paint a better picture of what went on both in and out of the public eye.

We were recently treated to a pair of demos showing two very different sides of Black Ops. The first was a slow and deliberate trek through the snowy mountains of Russia circa 1968. It began with a first-person view of a pilot boarding an SR-71 Blackbird aircraft in a dusty, windswept air force base in Northern California. The plane starts a booming sprint down the runway, the player pulls back on the left analog stick, and one flash forward later, the SR-71 is high above the earth ready to do some reconnaissance above enemy territory.

The player is shown a screen with a rough outline of a road, some buildings, and a few bright blue blips moving in a group. It turns out that these blips are actually ground troops, and it's up to the player--sitting in an aircraft capable of flying 80,000 feet above the earth while wearing what's essentially an astronaut outfit--to direct these troops on where to go, almost as if this were a real-time strategy game. But these commands aren't just for show. Where you send these blips on the screen actually determines how you approach the next sequence of the mission. In a matter of moments, the game cuts to those men on the ground as they're suddenly greeted by enemy soldiers.

This next part picked up with a first-person view of someone hiding deep in the woods under the cover of branches and leaves while a Russian patrol walked by unaware, no more than 10 feet away. The player and his squad then jumped out of the bushes--a crossbow in hand--and began moving down a steep, snowy hill. After repelling down a sheer cliffside using the two triggers to alternate holding and releasing the rope, they breached the windows of a Soviet communications station to start a good old-fashioned Call of Duty-style shootout. The breach itself was especially impressive, with the crew repelling down the outside of the window before jumping back and kicking in the windows in slow motion.

In 1960s Russia, windows smash you!

What happened next was familiar Call of Duty punctuated by shiny new ways to deliver hurt. The player used a combination of '60s-era automatic weaponry to dispatch frantic enemies when things were hot and sniped them from afar with a deadly silent crossbow when it was quiet. One of the new features is the inclusion of alternate weapon types. In the case of the crossbow, it can fire timed arrows affixed with timed explosives. The onscreen result is an enemy stuck in the leg with an arrow flashing a bright green light for two seconds before exploding and taking out any nearby friends with him.

This Russian level--dubbed WMD--ended with the player and his squadmates escaping out onto a snowy ledge overlooking a huge abyss just in time for an avalanche to start rumbling in the distance. They dashed down the ledge but soon ran out of footing, reaching a point overlooking nothing but clouds below. With no other choice, the player took a running start and leapt from the ledge. The sound of sweeping wind quickly faded away while the main character's heavy breathing rose. With the ground quickly approaching, the screen cut to black and the demo ended.

The second demo was a marked departure from the first. This much was obvious from the title screen, which introduced the level as a sequence called "Slaughterhouse" set in Hue City, Vietnam. The action began with the player in a helicopter above a chaotic warzone splashed with an eerie reddish hue from all the fires and flares in the area. Things got ugly in a hurry as the helicopter that the player was repelling from got shot down, sending everyone falling down into the building below.

Inside, they managed to pick up a few combat shotguns equipped with incendiary shells. This helped the crew tear through waves of enemy soldiers with fiery shotgun blasts that looked more like a malfunctioning racecar tail pipe than any shotgun we've seen in Call of Duty before. The rest of the action in this level was just as over the top as the weaponry. It felt a lot like an early level from Modern Warfare 2 where players scrambled their way through Iraqi buildings fighting insurgents; only this time, it was enemy Viet Cong with their sights set on both you and any civilians trying to flee the premises.

Outside, the player grabbed a radio from an injured marine and used it to call in a helicopter strike against a series of nearby buildings where enemies were terrorizing the characters from balconies and rooftops. The action moved at a fast clip, with the main character weaving in and out of demolished buildings under that unsettling red sky while occasionally stopping to call in another chopper strike. This outdoor section looked like absolute chaos, with building rubble showering down onto the streets, explosions all around, and an enemy soldier taunting you over a loudspeaker all the while.

The Vietnam chapter's stark use of color really stood out.

One of the things that grabbed us about both demos was the chatter between characters. Specifically, the playable character has a voice for the first time ever in a Call of Duty game. You're no longer playing a mute supersoldier but someone capable of chiming in with his own thoughts and ideas about what's going down. We're eager to see how Treyarch handles the storytelling in Black Ops, considering that Modern Warfare 2's plot tended to veer out of control for much of the adventure--much more so than previous games.

All things considered, Black Ops looks impressive. Of course, it is a Call of Duty game, so that's probably not much of a surprise. But the varied pacing, new gameplay features, and fresh setting make for an intriguing combination. We're looking forward to seeing what else Treyarch has up its sleeve leading up to Black Ops' November 9 release date

GTAIV Ballad of Gay Tony Hints & Cheats

2010-07-19T03:51:00.000-07:00

Cheat Codes

Dial these codes into your cell phone in game to gain the effect, go to the cheat menu in your cell phone to use previously entered cheats whenever.

Cheat	Effect
227-555-9666	Spawn Bullet GT
359-555-7272	Parachute
276-555-2666 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 276-555-2666 end_of_the_skype_highlighting	Super Punch (exploding punches)
486-555-2526	Sniper rifle bullets explode
482-555-0100	Health, Armor and Advanced Weapons
362-555-0100	Health & Armour
486-555-0100	Weapons (Advanced) (New Weapons)
486-555-0150	Weapons (Poor)
267-555-0100 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 267-555-0100 end_of_the_skype_highlighting	Remove Wanted Level
267-555-0150 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 267-555-0150 end_of_the_skype_highlighting	Raise Wanted Level
468-555-0100	Change Weather
359-555-0100	Spawn Annihilator
938-555-0100	Spawn Jetmax
625-555-0100	Spawn NRG-900
625-555-0150	Spawn Sanchez
227-555-0142	Spawn Cognoscenti
227-555-0168	Spawn Super GT
227-555-0147	Spawn Turismo
227-555-0175	Spawn Comet
272-555-8265	APC(Tank)
625-555-3273	Vader(Bike)
625-555-0200	Akuma (Bike)
938-555-0150	Floater(Boat)
359-555-2899	Buzzard(Helicopter)
227-555-0100	Spawns a FIB Buffalo

Medal of Honor First Look

2010-07-19T03:23:00.001-07:00

Hearing executive producer Greg Goodrich describe things, you'd wonder why a developer would want to use military advisors at all. He had just finished showing us a demo for the upcoming Medal of Honor reboot. It was a tense scene from early in the game--a group of Navy SEALs prowling though the Afghan mountains under cover of darkness. More than anything else, the sequence seemed intended to show the surgical precision with which these elite Tier 1 soldiers operated. Characters slid from one al Qaeda campfire to the next at a pace that was nothing short of brisk, dropping enemies before they heard the M4s go off. It was a ruthless level of efficiency on display, and it seemed that the only things keeping the player from falling behind--or off a cliff--were the objectives whispered from his squadmates. So, of course, when EA Los Angeles showed the demo to real-life SEALs, their only feedback was that they'd never speak a single word during a mission like this one. Silence is golden.

Such are the challenges of developing a game where the primary goal, according to Goodrich, is authenticity. There's a difficult balance to strike between what paints the most realistic picture of special military operations and what works as a fully functioning video game. Finding that balance has meant developers have had navigate the murky waters of a give-and-take relationship with the very Tier 1 operators depicted in the campaign. Sometimes, the result has been taking things out of the game that these elite soldiers can't afford to make public, and at other times--like the example mentioned above--the development team has had to politely disregard feedback in order to keep the game playable.

But for all the hiccups or roadblocks in this relationship, Goodrich says the developers have been able to draw from a mountain of helpful advice and stories. Case in point: The aforementioned demo is based on a real military operation, described to EA LA by some of the SEALs involved in it. It's the night before a major offensive, and the plans call for a group of army ranger cargo helicopters to pass through a particularly dangerous mountain range in Afghanistan. As part of a SEAL unit, you're sent in beforehand to eliminate a number of targets to give those Chinook helicopters a safer flight. An easier way of putting it might be this: You need to soften them up a little.

Goodrich likes to use the catchy phrase "scalpel and sledgehammer" to talk about missions like these. You have to lurk through the darkness to methodically take down unsuspecting enemies, and once you've loudly announced your presence by blowing up their antiaircraft guns, there's suddenly AK-47 gunfire cutting through the nighttime quiet like an angry swarm of bees. According to Goodrich, that's how real life Tier 1 operations work. At any moment, you can go from precise and deliberate to utter chaos; thus, keeping your cool in those jarring transitions is what matters most.

Fortunately, you've got advanced technology on your side. Toward the end of the demo, you see a fleet of enemy trucks coming up the pass. It looks as though these heavily armed vehicles are going to spell failure for your mission. But if you flip down your night-vision goggles to get a better look, you'll see a flashing strobe light on each truck. Off in the distance, a friendly airship fires a missile at this caravan and immediately wipes it out of the picture. Without any context, it seems like you've just been rescued by the military equivalent of magic and pixie dust. But as it so happens, those strobes were carefully planted by a different playable unit in an earlier level. That gradual intertwining of various Tier 1 missions is a key part of Medal of Honor's narrative. And as an example that "narrative" doesn't have to equal "fiction," Goodrich quickly points out that those strobes were planted in the real-life mission as well.

That's one of the more obvious ways EA LA has drawn from this military advisory relationship. After the demo wrapped up, Goodrich told us about some of the more subtle bits of feedback that have been incorporated into the game. If you glance at the cover art, you'll see a real-life Tier 1 operator sporting a thick, impossibly manly beard. He's not just there for looks. This soldier is responsible for switching up one of the most overlooked parts of a first-person shooter: the hands holding the gun. When EA LA brought him footage of handgun combat, he abruptly noted that the player was holding his gun like a cop. That led to the realization that various units within the military will often employ different gun holds from one another. This is all a long-winded way of saying that you'll see different hand configurations on similar weapons as you bounce between military branches in the game. It's one of those subtle things most people probably won't notice, but it's an interesting example of the team's focus on details.

Driving all of this is a heavily modified version of the Unreal Engine. Medal of Honor's matter-of-fact presentation is a far cry from recent EA games that have used this tech to render highly stylized visuals (think Mass Effect 2), but the art design isn't without its striking ambitions. If you climb your way up one of the game's mountain perches, you'll be greeted with an impressive vista showing the sprawling valleys and peaks of Afghanistan's mountain ranges. These views capture a nice sense of scale, which should hopefully give the final game the feeling that you're just one man--however highly trained--in a much larger battle.

At this point, we're looking forward to seeing some of the other parts of the war in Afghanistan that this latest Medal of Honor will seek to portray. We're told that the final game will offer up missions that are set in dusty mountains, urban slums, and even some lush environments that few would recognize as Afghanistan. In the meantime, you can expect Medal of Honor to arrive this fall.

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Updated Hands-On - More Campaign, Beta Updates

2010-07-16T04:33:00.000-07:00

If you're reading this, you have some idea of what Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is. It's the first of three chapters of Starcraft II--the sequel to one of the most popular and influential real-time strategy games ever, Starcraft. Starcraft II is currently in a multiplayer beta specifically built for testing balance between the game's three famous factions: Terrans (human marines), Protoss (ancient alien lorekeepers), and Zerg (a genocidal swarm of insectlike aliens). During a recent press event, we received an update on the game's beta status and also played through three additional missions in the game's single-player campaign--and we have much to report. Please be aware that this story may contain minor story spoilers.

Starcraft II's development team discusses the game's progress and its single-player campaign.

The beta itself, for those who aren't keeping track, currently offers only one-on-one or two-on-two head-to-head multiplayer matches online. Blizzard lead designer Dustin Browder was quick to point out that this is because the beta isn't intended to be a full-on playable demo for the purpose of giving players a sense of how fun the entire Starcraft II experience will be, but rather, it's for balance testing only. Browder did suggest that the beta team is making much better progress than he'd originally hoped for and is now focusing on nitty-gritty details that will make each individual matchup great, such as making Zerg vs. Zerg matches more interesting.

While the beta is still very much being worked on, so is the campaign, which features exclusive units like the Terran firebat.

However, the designer did point out that because Starcraft is an internationally well-known product with beta testers all over the world, there still seem to be gray areas in which it isn't quite clear whether certain factions or units are overpowered, or one group of players knows the game better than another. As an example, Browder cited the current state of the beta in Asia, where the Zerg are the most popular race by far and are considered to be somewhat overpowered, while in North America, the Zerg are far less popular and are considered to be underpowered. According to the designer, ironing out those details will make all the difference to the final game's balance and gameplay. Browder also gave an update on the next rumored beta content patch, which should have the map editor and possibly stronger computer AI--the patch should ideally be out by the end of the month but "may slip to a bit later."

After being briefed on the beta, we hunkered down in front of a fairly early part of the single-player campaign to play through a few more missions. As we've related in our previous coverage, the single-player campaign in Wings of Liberty tells the continuing story of the original Starcraft Terran hero, Jim Raynor, who is now considered to be an intergalactic outlaw with a bounty on his head placed by the evil Terran Dominion. Raynor continues his fight against the Dominion, rejoined by his contemporaries Matt Horner and Tychus Findlay on his ship, the Hyperion.

The ship works as a hub area in the game from which Raynor can commission mercenaries at the cantina. He can also purchase single-player-only upgrades for his units at the armory, which come in the form of two different upgrades for infantry, vehicles, and structures--a cheaper, lower-level addition and a more-expensive (and more-powerful) addition. For example, the Terran bunker structure that can be garrisoned by up to four low-level marines to take cover while unloading their combined fire can be upgraded with a relatively cheap armor bonus, as well as a much more expensive, but very worthwhile, ability to garrison up to six marines instead of four.

Research will let you unlock powerful bonuses that are available in the campaign only--not in multiplayer.

In addition, the Hyperion lets Raynor conduct either Protoss or Zerg "research" in the ship's lab. Research is powered by research points--which come from either Protoss artifacts or Zerg DNA that appear in certain missions as optional goals. Each line of research (Protoss or Zerg) is tiered from five points up to 25 points and offers two-sided choices at each tier. For instance, the first tier of Protoss research, once you've recovered five points' worth of artifacts, will let you add either a permanent, single-player-only bonus of 5 percent damage to infantry upgrades purchased at the engineering bay structure or a permanent, single-player-only bonus of 5 percent protection to any infantry armor bonuses purchased at the engineering bay. At each tier of research, you can pick only one of the two choices available, at which point the second becomes locked out. Browder suggests that by the time players get through the single-player campaign for the first time, they should be able to unlock at least 50 percent of the game's research upgrades and about 80 percent of the game's credit-costly unit upgrades.

At the opening of the campaign, Raynor makes the shocking discovery that not only have the Zerg returned to mount a new invasion, but they also appear to be led by Raynor's former comrade, Sarah Kerrigan (now known as Queen of Blades after her body and mind became infested by the Zerg). In our previous time with the campaign, we had just run a mission for Gabriel Tosh, a disgraced former Ghost (the infamous Terran stealth corps). At the start of our second session, we found that Tosh had made his way onto Raynor's ship, the Hyperion, and was offering bounties for another mission.

Raynor and Zeratul enjoy an all-too-brief reunion.

One of the two missions we were able to play was Bel'Shir, an ancient Protoss holy planet with deposits of "terrazine gas," a mysterious substance that Tosh is desperate to get his hands on for reasons that aren't immediately clear. Bel'Shir is a lush, green jungle world dotted with gas deposits. In this mission, Raynor starts off with an established base camp that includes most major structures (though this could be subject to change). This base camp is located near another expansion of the game's two primary resources (crystals and vespene gas) controlled by the Protoss.

On Bel'Shir, you must recover rare gas deposits before the Protoss head you off at the pass.

Your mission is to order some defenseless space construction vehicle (SCV) building units to each gas node to slowly collect up to seven gas deposits (or, alternately, to completely eliminate all Protoss from the map). However, over the course of the mission, zealous Protoss forces who insist that their sacred homeworld must be defended will send out small recon parties to seal up each node, and if they seal up enough of them, your mission will automatically fail. Each of Starcraft II's campaign missions unlocks a new unit you can begin using from there on out; in this case, the missile-launching goliath walker was our new unit, and we put it through its paces.

While Raynor and his Terran forces start off on one end of the map, and the main Protoss encampment is on the other end, you must keep an eye on multiple fronts, guarding your vulnerable SCVs as you send them out to collect gas while also keeping an eye out on the homestead for any Protoss raiding parties that try to attack your base. You're also required to constantly scout and leapfrog your escort by pushing further into the fog of war that conceals the next gas nodes (which are often guarded by Protoss forces of varying size).

For aggressive players who want to push through into the Protoss installation, the heavy-duty punch provided by the goliath (with backup from the marauder heavy infantry) does a great job of breaking through Protoss defenses so the rest of your forces can swarm in. Bel'Shir seems like a fairly challenging mission that becomes much tougher on the higher difficulty levels. At the end of the mission, a quick visit to Tosh on the bridge reveals that terrazine gas, along with a mineral substance Raynor sought out in a previous mission for Tosh, was used in his experiments in the ghost program to create a new kind of ghost unit--a more-powerful, psychic-powered stealth operative known as the "spectre." Raynor expresses displeasure at how Tosh kept this a secret, but Tosh assures Raynor that there isn't any threat to the vigilante marshal.

Siege tanks, I presume.

The second mission we played was on the planet of Xil, the site of a Protoss reliquary and an accompanying Terran dig site from which all contact was mysteriously lost. According to Findlay, Xil houses an extremely important artifact for which the mysterious Moebius Corporation--a group that offers big credits for Protoss artifacts--will pay exceptionally well. Raynor desperately needs to finance his own efforts, so this mission is primarily motivated by money. As he touches down on the planet, Raynor is once again accosted by hostile Protoss who fanatically believe their holy site should remain untouched (and presumably took out the previous Terran operation). Our new unit in this mission was the siege tank, which, like in the original Starcraft, can be deployed as a stationary artillery unit and performs exceptionally well when you have both line of sight to your enemy and the high ground.

Over the course of this mission, Raynor scouts out the abandoned dig site and hacks its abandoned facilities to start working for him, at which point he can start harvesting resources and pumping out units regularly. The dig site also houses a gigantic mining laser that continually pounds away at the heavily sealed doors protecting the artifact (though there are actually three other hidden artifacts on the map that you can convert into Protoss research points as well). The mining laser slowly but surely chews away at the seals on the artifact while the Protoss send wave after wave of land and air enemies at you.

The Protoss are everywhere! If only we had some kind of gigantic mining laser we could use to zap them!

Fortunately, Horner gives you manual control of the mining laser. This changes the dynamic of the map considerably, since you can focus the powerful weapon on any enemy unit or structure with which you have line of sight and then more or less instantly destroy it. By switching regularly between the laser and our standing forces, we were able to hold off all Protoss encroachments while pushing outward to the artifacts and eventually to the Protoss installment on the other side of the map. Like with the Bel'Shir mission, you can complete this mission simply by eradicating all the Protoss on the map.

After completing this mission, we headed back to the Hyperion, where, in a cinematic sequence, Raynor wanders the halls and takes a few pulls of liquid courage from his trusty flask before being confronted by none other than Zeratul, the Protoss dark templar he aided in the previous game. Zeratul, who appears to be injured (the Protoss warrior clutches his own arm while speaking), suggests to Raynor that the end of the universe is coming and that the key to salvation is none other than the evil Kerrigan. Before the incredulous space marshal can even protest, Zeratul presses an "eon crystal," a small Protoss device, into Raynor's hands. The crystal apparently lets its user relive the recorded memories of the Protoss that originally used it--Zeratul entreats Raynor to use the crystal, which will help him understand the real threat.

The crystal, when used in the ship's laboratory, opens up one of the game's optional "challenge maps," which offers research points as rewards, as well as several of the high-quality prerendered cutscenes for which Blizzard has become famous. In this mission, you play as Zeratul as he reminisces about his journeys investigating the troubling visions he has seen of the end of the universe, culminating with his arrival on a sacred Protoss world that has been overrun by Zerg. He begins his journey alone but possesses powerful innate abilities, such as the ability to be permanently cloaked in psionic invisibility, the ability to telekinetically "blink" himself to a different location, and the ability to use telekinetic "void" power to briefly stun opponents. He easily makes his way past the first few spawns of Zerg in search of the ancient Protoss texts that are housed on the planet, only to encounter Kerrigan, who makes a vaguely threatening speech about how the end of the universe is coming and how neither of them can stop it.

Puzzlingly, Kerrigan lets Zeratul walk away, and over the course of his journeys, the dark templar uncovers a few texts guarded more closely by larger clusters of Zerg with scouting units that can pierce his invisibility. He's joined by a group of Protoss stalkers for backup, and later, by a small army of Protoss archon infantry whom he cannot control, but for which he provides backup against increasingly vicious waves of Zerg. Eventually, Zeratul's newfound comrades vow to slow the Zerg while he escapes, at which point we took him and his few remaining stalkers and made a frantic dash toward the exit.

Just as Zeratul is about to escape, he is again challenged by Kerrigan. Zeratul bravely attacks the Queen of Blades in a spectacular prerendered cutscene that involves the dark templar blinking to and fro in wispy clouds of smoke and Kerrigan repulsing a lunging Zeratul with a telekinetic "push." Both characters trade blows--Kerrigan scores a hit on Zeratul, causing him to hold his arm (just as he does when he meets Raynor), while the Protoss manages to slice off one of her wings. Rather than retaliate, Kerrigan casually regrows her severed wing and calmly explains that the unavoidable end of the universe is coming. She then departs. Zeratul vows to find some way to avoid the culmination of the prophecy and climbs to safety. This ended our single-player experience with the game but also introduced many new questions, such as exactly what sort of prophesied end of the universe is coming, and how, as Zeratul suggests, Kerrigan represents the only hope of avoiding that terrible fate.

And a warm welcome back for the dark templar Zeratul.

Blizzard hopes that optional challenge missions like these, along with the game's achievement system (which offers additional challenges with each single-player campaign mission, such as finishing the mission with no casualties or destroying all enemies on the map), will not only extend the single-player campaign's replay value, but will also help lead newer players along the path to trying the game's online multiplayer, perhaps first in cooperative play against computer-controlled opponents and eventually in head-to-head matches with other players. In any case, Wings of Liberty's single-player game remains intriguing. Stay tuned to Systemkill for future updates.

Red Dead Redemption [review]

2010-07-16T04:04:00.000-07:00

This stunning Wild West epic raises the bar for open world action games, and stakes its claim as one of the most engaging games this year.

The Good

Superb cast of memorable characters
Varied and always-fun story missions
Loads of optional activities and challenges
Story does a great job of building up to multiple climaxes
Good number of enjoyable multiplayer options.

The Bad

Infrequent but noticeable bugs
Limited customization options for persistent multiplayer character.

As you ride the train west from the northern city of Blackwater, you have no idea what's waiting for you in the frontier town of Armadillo at the end of Red Dead Redemption's intro sequence. Conversations between other passengers clue you in to the state of the nation, and a quick look out of the window tells you that the territories are as untamed as they are beautiful. But it's not until you step off the train in the well-worn boots of protagonist John Marston and have to sidestep a drunk staggering out of the saloon that you realize how alive the world feels, and how much fun you're going to have exploring it. Similarities with recent Grand Theft Auto games are immediately apparent in the controls and the HUD, though both have been improved in subtle but important ways. Those basics, in conjunction with excellent gameplay, a great story, and a sizable multiplayer suite make Red Dead Redemption something very special.

In Red Dead Redemption, even escort missions are fun.

When you arrive in Armadillo for the first time, you're a small fish in an extremely large pond. None of the townsfolk have ever heard of John Marston, and they're too busy believably going about their business to pay you much attention unless you bump into them. The gameworld stretches for miles in every direction beyond the confines of the modest town, and if it weren't for a number of mandatory missions that deftly familiarize you with the controls and gameplay mechanics early on, the prospect of venturing out into the wilderness could be daunting. Marston is a deeply flawed but very likable protagonist, and therefore it doesn't take long for him to start making friends in the New Austin territory. One of them, a ranch owner whom you meet early in the game, gives you both a place to stay (which doubles as a place to save your progress) and a horse to call your own, and it's at this point that you're more or less free to do as you please. Marston's lengthy and occasionally surprising story is linear for the most part, but it's told through missions that don't always need to be completed in a specific order, and you're free to ignore them for a time if you'd rather just explore the giant Wild West sandbox you're playing in.

Whether you're galloping between locations where there are missions available or just trotting around aimlessly, Red Dead Redemption's world is a far easier one to get sidetracked in than most. That's because in addition to the dozens of excellent and varied story missions, there are countless optional undertakings to enjoy--most of which offer some tangible reward in the form of money, weapons, or reputation. While you're in town, you might choose to gamble at card and dice tables or tear a wanted poster from the wall and do some bounty hunting, for example. And when you're in the middle of nowhere, opportunities for gunfights and the like have a habit of presenting themselves or even forcing themselves upon you. Random strangers in need of help can show up at any time, and while it's a little jarring to find two or three strangers in the same predicament back-to-back, most of their requests are varied and fun for the short time that they take to complete. You might be called upon to retrieve a stolen wagon, to collect herbs, or even to rescue someone being hanged from a tree. There's no penalty for ignoring strangers, but when you help them you collect a small reward and become a little more famous in the process.

This guy is about to get riddled with bullets, courtesy of the slow-motion dead eye mechanic.

Fame is interesting in Red Dead Redemption, because it's measured alongside but independently of your honor. Regardless of whether you're doing good deeds or bad, becoming increasingly famous is inevitable as you progress through the game. How people react when they recognize you is determined by your honor, though, which can be positive or negative. If you spend your time acting dishonorably, townsfolk might be terrified of you, but if you're considered a hero, they'll go out of their way to greet you and might even applaud as you ride into town. Either way, there are pros and cons to becoming something of a public figure. People won't bother to report you when you steal a horse if you're famous, and any bounty hunters or posses that come after you when there's a price on your head will take twice as long to try again after failing the first time, for example. On the flip side, as you make a name for yourself you become a target for gunslingers who are looking to make names for themselves, and so you're challenged to duels that play out entirely using the game's slow-motion "dead eye" mechanic.

In duels, even though speed is a factor, dead eye affords you an opportunity to place your shots precisely. The head is the most obvious target, but occasionally you might be required to (or wish to) win a duel without actually killing your opponent. With practice, you can shoot a gun out of an enemy's hand as he makes his move, which is especially satisfying and makes you more famous than killing someone outright. Dead eye can be used in much the same way during regular play, but a slowly replenishing meter limits how often you can trigger it, and given how effective the lock-on targeting system is, you're unlikely to need it much. With the exception of sniper rifles, you can lock on to enemies from a great distance with any weapon. Then, once you're locked on, you can tweak your aim to target a specific part of your enemy. Nudge your aim up just a touch, and there's a good chance you'll get a one-hit-kill headshot. (You do that so often that it's likely to become a reflex every time you raise your weapon). However, you don't always want to kill your enemies, because, for example, once you learn to use a lasso, you have the option to bring bounties in alive. It's more challenging, but it also doubles your reward, and it's extremely satisfying to shoot a criminal in the leg so that he falls to ground and can only try to crawl away, hog-tie and slump him over the back of your horse, and then deliver him to the local sheriff.

When accompanying other characters, you can easily match your speed to theirs.

You can also use your lasso to rope wild horses, which is a fun way to upgrade or just replace the mount that you spend so much time with. After catching a wild horse, you wait for just the right moment to mount it and then, via a simple minigame in which you maintain your balance as the horse tries to buck you, you break it. Initially, you might want to change your horse just to get a color that you like (there are lots to choose from), but it's also fun to keep a lookout for rare breeds, because they not only look a little more impressive but are also noticeably quicker. Regardless of what kind of horse you ride (including those that are pulling carts and wagons), the responsive controls work in the same way and make it easy to adjust your speed from a walk to a trot, canter, or gallop. You also have the option to match your speed with that of any character you're riding alongside, which is incredibly useful.

As you spend more time with the same horse, it rewards your loyalty by increasing the length of its energy bar, which determines how long it can sprint at full speed. You shouldn't become too attached to your mounts, though, because Red Dead Redemption's world is both a dangerous place and one in which horses occasionally behave unpredictably. There's nothing wrong with a horse walking around a little when you climb off it, but if you leave it close to a deep river, you run the risk of losing it if--as we witnessed on one occasion--it stupidly steps in, because, like you, horses can't swim. Horses also have a habit of not staying put when you tie them to a hitching post, so you then need to whistle for them to come to you from wherever they've ended up or run the risk of inadvertently stealing someone else's identical mount. Other, more avoidable ways to lose a horse include its getting shot by enemies or attacked by wild animals, though the controls for shooting from the saddle are good enough that you really have only yourself to blame if that happens.

Red Dead Redemption's varied wildlife adds a great deal to the world and also makes it a dangerous place to let your guard down. Crows, hawks, eagles, and vultures fly overhead; armadillos, raccoons, deer, and skunks try to stay out of your way; and cougars, coyotes, wolves, and even snakes can be dangerous if they see you before you see them. All of these species and lots more inevitably cross your path, and whether they're solitary creatures or hunting as a pack, their behavior is always believable. Furthermore, all of these animals can be hunted and then--via an animation that sees blood spattering on the screen--harvested for their skins, meat, and other valuable body parts. Beavers, boars, bobcats, bears, buffalo, bighorn--all have something to offer, and all pose a slightly different challenge.

Other than the fun of the hunt, the main reason to kill most of these animals is so that you can sell the aforementioned body parts to a store owner the next time you're in town. Sometimes, though, there are additional incentives in the form of ambient challenges that, as the name suggests, reward you for objectives that you might complete in the course of regular gameplay. For example, sharpshooter challenges include shooting people's hats off and shooting birds out of the sky from a moving train. Hunter challenges, on the other hand, include one-shotting grizzly bears and taking down a pack of wolves using only a knife. For a change of pace, treasure hunter challenges present you with a treasure map that often amounts to little more than sketches of a landmark, and challenge you to locate the treasure hidden nearby. You become a little more famous every time you complete one of these challenges, and beating a significant number of them is a requirement for unlocking at least one of the different outfits that Marston can change into.

Standoffs like this one mark the start of every multiplayer match.

Marston is an impressively detailed character whose scarred face and default outfit play big parts in making him wholly believable as a 30-something gunslinger. Other than donning a bandana that covers much of your face (and hides your identity so that you don't affect your fame or honor while performing certain actions), there's nothing you can do about the scars, but by putting on a different outfit you can change how certain people react to you. There are more than a dozen different outfits to discover and unlock. Some of them, like the duster jacket and the poncho, are easy to unlock and offer no real benefit other than making you look even more dangerous. Others, though, such as military and gang uniforms, can be obtained only after completing multiple challenges, and wearing them makes certain factions more accepting of you. There are even a couple of outfits that can make gambling more fun: one gives you the option to cheat anytime you deal in a game of poker, and another--acquired by signing up for the Rockstar Social Club--grants you access to a high-stakes game.

Believe it or not, even while cheating at cards and gunning down hundreds of enemies, it's possible--with only one exception during a plot-critical mission--to make it through Red Dead Redemption's entire story without ever getting on the wrong side of the law. It's fun to play as a heroic bounty hunter, but it's also fun to be chased by one, or several. Much like the system in GTA, being spotted committing a crime alerts local law enforcement, and until you outrun them, they pursue you relentlessly. Your crimes aren't completely forgotten the moment you escape in Red Dead Redemption, though, because every crime that you commit raises the bounty on your head, and the only way to clear that is to visit a telegraph operator and either pay the amount of your bounty yourself as a fine or present him with a letter of pardon--which isn't easy to come by. It's a great system, because in conjunction with fame and honor it really makes you feel like your actions have lasting consequences.

Shooting from mounts and wagons works every bit as well as shooting on foot.

Depending on how much time you spend completing optional challenges, Red Dead Redemption's single-player mode can take you anywhere from 20 to 40 hours to play through. If you're in a rush to get through the game for some reason, you can use stagecoaches and quick travel options to move between key locations on the gigantic map instantly, but there's so much fun to be had out in the wilderness that bypassing those areas isn't recommended. You should also know that while bugs and glitches are few and far between, there's at least one stagecoach driver who apparently isn't great at math and might inexplicably charge you $100 (not an insignificant sum of money, given that it's enough to buy property) on top of the quoted price for a journey. Other problems worthy of note during our 30-plus hours in single-player included a conversation between Marston and another character in which only Marston's lines could be heard, an attempt to crouch behind a decrepit overturned wagon that resulted in Marston being thrown high up into the air, and a cutscene in which two versions of the same character--one injured and animated, one neither--appeared alongside each other. You might also notice characters having some pathfinding problems when confronted by hitching posts, stacks of crates, and the like, but beyond these extremely rare issues, the world of Red Dead Redemption is very difficult to find fault with. It looks incredible, it sounds superb (though the excellent soundtrack occasionally swells up without reason), and it's just a fun place to spend time regardless of what you're doing or whom you're doing it with.

In addition to its lengthy single-player offering, Red Dead Redemption boasts a good number of multiplayer modes that support both competitive and cooperative play. No matter which mode you want to play, all multiplayer sessions start out in Free Roam. Here, you and up to 15 other players are free to do whatever you please with the entire gameworld at your disposal. You can shoot each other, you can cause trouble with townsfolk, you can form posses to complete gang hideout missions, or you can become the session's most wanted outlaw and then kill or steer clear of any other players who come looking to collect the bounty on your head. Your character in Free Roam mode is persistent, and as you earn experience points you gain access to additional character models, better weapons, and superior mounts. It's unfortunate that you don't get to design a character from scratch, and it can be frustrating to enter Free Roam as a level-one player riding a burro and armed only with a pistol, but it doesn't take long to level up, and even high-level players can be killed with just a few bullets if you can get close to them.

In multiplayer, the entire map is your playground.

When you enter competitive online modes, you don't get to use your persistent character, and everyone is on a level playing field. The five modes on offer are free-for-all and team-based versions of Shootout and three versions of Capture the Bag. Clearly, these modes are variations on the traditional deathmatch and capture-the-flag themes, but they do more than just apply a Wild West lick of paint to them. For starters, all multiplayer games kick off with an awesome standoff in which all players stand around in a circle (or in two opposing lines if it's a team game) and wait for all hell to break loose when the word "Draw" appears on the screen. And in Capture the Bag modes, the bags of gold that you carry weigh you down so that you move more slowly, making you an easy target in the free-for-all Gold Rush and making escorts or cover fire vital in the team-based Hold Your Own.

Between the Free Roam and competitive modes, there's enough great multiplayer content to keep you playing Red Dead Redemption long after you've watched the credits roll at the end of the superb single-player mode and gone back in to finish up any optional challenges and missions that you missed. This is an outstanding game that tells a great story with memorable and occasionally laugh-out-loud-funny characters. Think about great moments that you remember from spaghetti Western movies, put them all into one 20- to 40-hour epic feature, and picture yourself in the starring role. Now you have some idea of what's waiting for you in Red Dead Redemption.

Age of Empire III [Cheat]

2010-07-14T16:55:00.001-07:00

this is too hard	Win in singleplayer
censored	Gives 10,000 wood
Speed always wins	Turns on 100x gather/build rates
Ya gotta make do with what ya got	Spawns the Mediocre Bombard at your Home City gather point
Sooo Good	Turn on “Musketeer’ed!” when you get killed by Musketeers
Give me liberty or give me coin	Gives 10,000 coin
Nova & Orion	Gives 10,000 XP
A recent study indicated that 100% of herdables are obese	Fattens all animals on map
Medium Rare Please	Gives 10,000 food
X marks the spot	Reveals map (fog of war still there)
Shiver me Timpers!	Destroys all the enemy boats on the map
tuck tuck tuck	Spawns a big red monster truck that can run over anything
Where's that axe?	George Crushington
nature	Get 10,000 Wood

Mass Effect 2 [review]

2010-01-30T05:52:00.000-08:00

January 22, 2010 - Mass Effect is one of my favorite games of the past decade. Despite its technical shortcomings, BioWare's first in what it promised to be a trilogy took the role-playing genre to new cinematic heights. Mass Effect 2 is a better game in near every way. From the very first scene, you will be hooked. And the farther you dive into this epic action role-playing game, the better it gets. It fulfills the promise of its predecessor while continuing to push the boundaries of what we should expect in a videogame.

This is the continued saga of Commander Shepard. It's the future, and all sentient life across the galaxy is in peril. An advanced race of machines known as Reapers is intent on wiping the slate clean. Shepard, a distinguished soldier, has faced this threat and emerged triumphant once, but victory is far from assured. Now Shepard must take the fight to the enemy -- a mission that is dubbed suicidal from the outset. Things don't look very promising, but Shepard has a plan. It involves recruiting the best and brightest from around the galaxy and somehow convincing them their lives are worth sacrificing for the greater good.

More Mass Effect 2 News & Previews

These heroes are what drive the story. Their motivations become yours as the experience continues to get better with each addition to the cast. Shepard's compatriots are fascinating and flawed; captivating and occasionally despicable. The arc of the main tale itself isn't in itself exceptional, but the characters BioWare has crafted most definitely are. These are some of the most compelling players I've ever seen in a videogame -- the Drell named Thane is a particular favorite of mine -- and the great design and writing isn't limited to the main cast. The citizens of the galaxy are extraordinary and offer more than enough reason to explore every location and talk to everybody.

All of this is made even better by Mass Effect's trademark cinematic and interactive approach to conversations. With Mass Effect 1, BioWare introduced a conversation wheel that allowed for fast-moving, intriguing, and player driven cutscenes. Rather than slowly moving through conversations by selecting dialogue from a list, Mass Effect allows the player to quickly choose an emotional response, which generally include an honorable paragon reaction and a snappy renegade remark. The result is that every little dialogue snippet is about as engaging as they come. It was innovative when Mass Effect 1 first came out, and it's still so far ahead of the curve, backed up by further refinements, including a quick-time interrupt system, and powerful voice acting. Mordin Solus, a Salarian scientist played by Michael Beattie, and Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man, are high points in an all-star cast of voices.

The true strength of Mass Effect 2's story, however, is in how personal BioWare has made it. If you played Mass Effect 1 through to the end and still have your save data, this game will import your character and all the decisions you made. The central plot will not drastically change, but the experience most certainly will. Some old friends and acquaintances will return – and others won't – based on decisions you made in the last game. Even the opening moments of Mass Effect 2 can be slightly different.

The actions you take in the sequel only compound this feeling of personalization. By the finale you'll have made so many decisions – ranging from simple things like whether you play as a male or female all the way up to those governing life or death – that the result is a game that is yours and yours alone. Choices you made in Mass Effect 1 come back to remind you of past good deeds or injustices. Decisions made here affect the final outcome. Reminders that everything you do will be reflected in Mass Effect 3 are everywhere, adding further drama to every conversation. Things you say and do actually matter, and that's an incredible sensation to get from a videogame.

Even if you didn't play Mass Effect 1, this game is worth playing. If you're not importing a character, BioWare simply makes some of the decisions from Mass Effect 1 for you. It's slightly less dramatic and the story here is often references events in the first game, which might make some bits less thrilling for novices. There are revelations and tantalizing plot twists that Mass Effect veterans will go crazy for. These same moments simply won't carry the same weight with those hopping in for part two. It's a bit of a Catch-22 for the designers tasked with the impossible job of pleasing newcomers while still pushing thelimits.

Speaking of pleasing people, BioWare listened to every last bit of criticism leveled at Mass Effect 1. That game, particularly on Xbox 360, suffered from a few technical and presentational issues. This sequel is a much, much cleaner experience. Long elevator rides and slow-loading textures are gone, replaced with (occasionally lengthy) loading screens. Generic cut-and-paste side quests and empty planets to explore have been totally ripped out. Pretty much everything that anybody took even the slightest issue with in Mass Effect 1 has been axed or rebuilt entirely.

Even though it's a cleaner production, Mass Effect 2 isn't a perfectly polished game. I've played through the game twice and during that time experienced sound cutting out, my character getting stuck in the environment and full game crashes. Thankfully, these miscues are infrequent, which allows the art style to shine. Mass Effect 2 is a visual treat, filled with breathtaking landscapes and an awesome attention to detail. If you're playing on PC and have a powerful rig (I took Shepard for a spin on an Alienware Intel Core 2 Quad 2.00 GHz prcoessor, dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M cards, and 6 GB of memory), it will look even better.

The improvements aren't only technical. The inventory and skill systems have been made more manageable, streamlined to the point that they might initially appear too thin for a role-playing game. Keep playing, however, and you'll begin to see strength and depth emerge as you further customize your squad.

One of the biggest reasons why this streamlined approach to character customization works is the retooled character classes. The same six specialization options are back, ranging from the Jedi-inspired biotic users to the technically inclined engineer. This time, however, they've been defined and differentiated much more clearly, each getting its own set of weapon specializations and unique skills. Playing as a soldier is a vastly different combat experience compared to the vanguard or infiltrator. Each class has its own approach to battle, which is then further defined by how you choose to outfit your squad and where you assign skill points. By the end of the game, everything about Mass Effect 2 will be shaped by your choices – from the story to the ebb and flow of combat.

Of course, none of this would matter if it isn't fun to play. Good news. Mass Effect 2 is a lot of fun. The action has been refined to the point that even general fans of shooters will find a lot to like here. It's not perfect, but the game handles quite well. It doesn't take long to master simultaneously ripping off rounds from an assault rifle, tossing out a few biotic skills, and directing the two AI driven squad mates to combine raw power with smart tactics. And when things get really rough -- and they will, Mass Effect 2 is no cake walk -- you can always pull out a heavy weapon and tear the enemy a new one.

Add in fantastic level design and awesome skills like the vanguard's charge or the infiltrator's cloaking ability and you have one spectacular virtual playground. Mass Effect 1 toed the line by offering some of the action elements that shooter fans enjoy with some of the role-playing tactics that the hardcore fans of the genre want. The sequel improves both areas for a through-and-through satisfying battle system.

On PC, the heads-up display is a bit different, custom built to work with a keyboard and mouse. Both versions are largely identical, though you will get a few more options for customizing hot keys and skill usage on the PC. Which works better for you will be a matter of personal preference.

An emphasis has clearly been put on ensuring that the combat in Mass Effect 2 never grows stale. Side quests each have their own unique areas to explore -- and you'll have to explore the galactic map, talk to random characters, and find key items to even trigger many of them. The combat zones themselves, however, have been cleaned up to be more straightforward and compelling, rather than repetitive labyrinths. New gameplay twists are introduced frequently with some large quests eschewing combat entirely. There's a great focus on exploration and discovery here and BioWare has made sure that the reward for doing so is worth the effort.

Supreme Commander 2

2009-12-26T16:12:00.000-08:00

August 19, 2009 - Giant explosions and the culmination of a set of decisions made to best manage a complex tug-of-war resource system is part of what made Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander so great. Hopefully the same sort of thing could be said about the sequel, which I had a chance to play at the Square-Enix booth at Gamescom 2009. While in many ways the game felt familiar, there were also quite a few areas of the tech trees that proved to be quite different.

Many things from the original are still there. You still control a gigantic robot to build your initial base. You can still queue up build orders when setting down mass extractors, generators, and land factories to fuel production of and build units. It's still possible to zoom way out until you can see the entire map, though in this case the map was rather small, resembling more of a Demigod map than something out of the original game. When you're zoomed out, units are still labeled with little symbols that help distinguish what is what, an important factor when a whole bunch of units are bunched together.

The game also makes use of a new stretch cursor on the 360 that automatically links your cursor with the nearest unit or building. This makes controlling the units much easier but doesn't force the player to deal with snappy camera problems. The same is true of the build menus, which automatically snap to whatever factory you're closest to. Best of all, you can issue production orders at the factories without unselecting the units you're controlling. That alone is worth the price of admission.

Another noticeable difference was the way in which units are upgraded. Instead of building a whole bunch of little structures to support and defend your base, you can actually build shields and guns directly on your factories, in addition to being able to set up the regular point and air defenses. For upgrading to new units, you'll also have access to a Company of Heroes-style upgrade grid, where points you earn through battle can be put toward advancing the effectiveness of your economy or military.

A few of the options I saw in the build allowed you to cut the cost of production at your factories, boost a veterancy rate of your units, or even unlock new units. The overall branching research tree is divided into a number of tabs, including ones for your land, air, and sea factories, as well as structures and your commander. This system wasn't really fully functional while we were playing though, as this is still an early build of the game it seems and descriptor text was missing from most of the tree.

Chris Taylor said the new system was an attempt to make the first and second tier techs and early units more meaningful towards the end of the game. Rather than simply racing for this highest units in the tech tree and using those, the incremental boosts to your lower level units will give them a chance to stay competitive on the battlefield.

The mission itself was a seemingly simple defend mission, with the occasional character portrait popping up to speak. The game still felt a little rough, but expect that sort of thing to change as the product is polished in the time leading up to its release date.

Dante's Inferno Preview

2009-12-11T03:39:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, a doomed soul would pay a gold coin to Charon the ferryman in order to cross the River Styx and enter Hades. This Thursday, PlayStation 3 owners will be able to take their miniature tour through hell for free with a demo level of Dante's Inferno, the upcoming action game from EA's Visceral Games studio. The demo will be available on December 24 for Xbox Live, and today we had a chance to play through that demo and get another look at a later level of Dante's harrowing adventure in the underworld.

First up is the demo, which features the opening level of the game and sets up the necessary backstory for Dante's plunge into the nine circles of hell. The opening scene gives you a look at Dante's life as a Crusader--and hints at some of the sins Dante committed during his service. After you get some quick background on the Crusades, the action begins with Dante, armed only with a halberd, fighting against enemy soldiers in the city of Acre, not far from Jerusalem. The halberd is a far cry from the powerful scythe you'll be armed with for the majority of the game; nonetheless, Dante is a powerful fighter and you'll make quick work of the enemy soldiers by using both light and heavy attacks (tied to the X and Y buttons on the Xbox 360 controller, respectively).

After defeating the first handful of soldiers, Dante scampers his way to a new area where he is subsequently stabbed in the back by an assassin. It's here that Dante comes face-to-face with Death himself. Dante, being the badass that he is, however, isn't about to succumb to Death, and thus begins the first boss fight of the game. Death vs. Dante doesn't sound like a fair fight--and the fight took us a couple of tries to get right--but with a bit of careful blocking (using the left trigger) and dodging (by flicking the right stick in any direction), we were able to defeat Death by snatching his famed scythe out of his hands and turning it on him. In fact, one of our favorite bits from the demo featured Death begging for mercy before Dante split him down the middle and sent him to wherever Death goes when he dies.

Death defeated and scythe in hand, Dante returns home to his farm in the Italian countryside, only to find his home ransacked, his servants dead, and his beloved Beatrice dead in the backyard. Rushing to Beatrice, Dante watches as her soul escapes her body and is then joined by a smoky figure we learn is a manifestation of Lucifer himself. Satan absconds with Beatrice, and Dante immediately gives chase.

In no time, the ground erupts as Satan's undead minions begin climbing out of the dirt and attacking Dante. After defeating a handful of them--you earn enough souls to buy some new combo moves in the game's upgrade screen. You upgrade your powers via holy paths (to upgrade your cross weapon) or unholy paths (to upgrade your scythe). In the demo you'll be earning more souls than in the full game in order to get a better taste of the upgrades that will be available to you. We upgraded Dante with, among other powers, an upgraded heavy attack that launched enemies into the air (perfect for midair juggling attacks).

After another wave of baddies are sent back to the grave, Dante heads to his local church, where he finds Beatrice lying on the altar. Beatrice accuses Dante of "breaking his promise" and after, a brief stylized cutscene (showing Dante swearing to Beatrice to forsake all pleasures of the flesh, followed by a malevolent-looking Pope forgiving the Crusader recruits for all their sins), Beatrice once again disappears. After that, the walls of the church begin to crumble, and you realize that Dante is now in hell and the long descent has begun.

You won't see much of hell in the demo--just enough to get used to using Dante's holy cross (which effectively is a ranged weapon) and earn a magic spell that acts as a sort of dash attack. You also get a look at Dante's redemption ability--by performing combos and other powerful moves, you'll fill up a Redemption meter. When it's filled you activate Redemption by pressing the right and left bumper--which will temporarily make Dante faster and stronger than normal. You'll tangle with a few more powerful demons, as well as a huge demonic mount, similar to the one we saw on board the living ship Charon in an earlier look at the game. After taking control of the mount and killing a few more minions, it was time to bid a fond farewell to the underworld with the end of the demo.

That wasn't all we saw of Dante's Inferno, however. We also got a further look at the Anger level. The scenario we saw (but didn't play for ourselves, alas) was near the end of the level, just outside the gates of the City of Dis, which holds the four inner circles of hell. The scene opened up with Dante in midfight against a horde of minions and demons, while the gigantic Phlegyas (the giant demon who ferries Dante across the River Styx on top of his head, as seen in an earlier look at the game) does his best to kill everything onscreen. Avoiding Phlegyas' attacks while taking on the demon enemies is a challenge, but if you're careful, you can have the big guy do a chunk of your work for you--as when he sprays the entire platform you're fighting on with a blast of fiery breath (which you can avoid with a double jump or two).

Once the fight was finished, producers paused the game to give us a quick look at the upgrade screens, particularly those dealing with the holy/unholy upgrades for Dante's cross and scythe. You increase your holy or unholy level by absolving or punishing enemies in the game. To do so, you first grab them using the right trigger, and then you choose to either absolve or punish them; you then mash the appropriate button to finish the move and earn the souls as a result. Souls you earn will fill up your holy or unholy meter, and there are seven levels for each path. Each new level will grant you access to new abilities you can purchase--new combos and attacks as well as rewards like a larger health or mana bar, among other things.

Producers told us that it's unlikely you'll be able to maximize your level on both the holy and unholy paths after one play-through--but thanks to a feature that will let you keep everything you earned the first time through upon playing the game a second time, you'll be able to max out Dante's powers in the early goings of a second trip to hell. We also got a glimpse at the relic screen, where you'll be able to add modifier relics (there are 32 to find hidden throughout the underworld). These passive modifiers will give you abilities like causing damage when rolling or earning mana when killing enemies. You can equip two relics at the start, and you can buy additional relic slots as you go.

Continuing through the Anger level, we watched an impressively rendered cutscene that featured Dante in a confrontation with Beatrice and Lucifer. In his bid to destroy Dante's will, Lucifer tempts Beatrice with a conjured fruit, the seeds of which she eats, thus transforming her into a malevolent queen of sorts; the two then share a rather intimate moment in clear sight of Dante before disappearing. Of course, it will take more than Beatrice macking on the Devil to thwart Dante--a man who was shown earlier in the game sewing a cloth Christian cross into his own skin--and he leaps back onto Phlegyas' head to give chase.

From there, Dante pilots the massive Phlegyas into the formidable City of Dis. After bashing a hole through the rock wall that surrounds the city, you begin a sequence of wanton destruction as you move Phlegyas through the city, toppling towers and killing the tiny demons that are unable to slow your progress. As producers told us, this is basically a playground of destruction--you'll be tough, if not impossible, to kill, and you'll be earning souls for any and all destruction you cause, giving you a nice cache of souls to spend on upgrades after you're done.

With each new glimpse into the dark and forbidding world of Dante's Inferno, we continue to be impressed by the imaginative take on the underworld by the Visceral Games art team. Their vision of hell isn't just a place of eternal torment for damned souls; its twisted architecture creates a great game setting, one that is often beautiful in its depiction of suffering. That there are a few additional layers to Dante's combat system than mindless button mashing (though there is plenty of that) gives us hope that the game will continue to be interesting the further down into hell you descend.

Look for the Dante's Inferno demo for the PlayStation 3 on December 10 and for Xbox Live on December 24. (In the EU, the demo will appear on December 24 for both systems.) Dante's Inferno will be released to retail on February 9.

Aion [review]

2009-12-09T07:01:00.000-08:00

Upon entering Aion's world for the first time, you can't help but notice how beautiful it is, and for the first few hours it seems that as much attention has been lavished on the engaging quests and interesting characters as has on the CryEngine-powered visuals. Play past the first dozen or so character levels though, and Aion's grind-happy design becomes increasingly apparent. Non-player characters with stories to tell make way for others who might as well be notice boards, and quests that are at least somewhat imaginative early on are replaced with a mind-numbing mix of deliver, fetch, kill, and collect objectives. Aion does a lot of things right, and it looks great doing them, but ultimately, you're too busy grinding while playing it to care or, perhaps, even notice.

Even before you enter the postcataclysm world of Atreia, Aion impresses with its incredibly robust character creation system. The extensive customization options are more reminiscent of those in sports games than in other massively multiplayer online offerings, and after choosing one of the two factions and one of the four starting classes to play as, you could easily spend an hour or two perfecting your character's look. In the wrong hands, though, tools likes these can be too powerful as players go out of their way to create the most ridiculous and improbable avatars imaginable. Thankfully, heads and arms that are far too big for the bodies they're attached to aren't a common sight, but characters at both ends of the size scale definitely are. That wouldn't be a problem, except that the extremes are so far apart--diminutive characters are dwarfed by even the insects and other small enemies that you fight early on and are barely waist high to players who opt for the Aion equivalent of Andre the Giant. Jarringly, animations of the small characters are sped up significantly so that they can move around at the same speed as everyone else while large characters run in slow motion. The end result is that you're constantly being reminded that you're playing a game and that not everyone you're playing with has the same goals.

When deciding which faction to play as, you’ll notice few distinguishing characteristics separating the Elyos and Asmodian races; they're functionally identical and even their appearances aren't dramatically different. The most obvious distinction is that the Elyos have white wings while the Asmodians' are black. The latter also have talons on their hands and feet and dull gray skin, while the former look more or less human. Classes are the same for both races, and although there are ultimately eight, you initially get to choose from only four. That might sound restrictive, but it's actually a great system because rather than forcing you to choose your class right away, it affords you 10 levels to decide which of the more specialized classes you want to pursue. For example, after playing for 10 levels as a damage-dealing scout, you can opt to specialize in either ranged combat as a ranger or melee combat as an assassin. You won't necessarily have had a lot of experience with both options when the time comes to make your choice, but some is better than none.

Combat in Aion isn't radically different from that in other MMO games, but it does place a greater emphasis on skills and abilities that chain together to form combos. Many moves can only be performed during a short window immediately after another move is performed, and conveniently these moves are automatically mapped to the same key. For example, your first attack might have a 100 percent chance of making a second attack available to you that, in turn, has a 25 percent chance of triggering a third. Rather than having to assign these three different moves to three different keys, they're automatically mapped to just one key so that you can press 1-1-1 rather than 1-2-3. Furthermore, the cooldown indicators for these moves are superimposed alongside your character during combat, so you know exactly when they become available to you without having to take your eyes off the action. It's a great system because it not only makes the occasionally spectacular-looking combos easy to perform, but it also dramatically cuts down on the number of buttons that you need to arrange on your screen. The only downside is that--particularly when fighting against the various creatures and humanoid enemies that inhabit Atreia--combat can feel like an extended quick-time event in which you do little more than respond to onscreen prompts.

That's because once you've devised an efficient attack rotation, very few of the enemies you encounter force you to deviate it from it. They might prevent you from finishing a chain or incapacitate you temporarily, but the moment you regain control you can generally just pick up where you left off. That's not to say that enemies in Aion are pushovers, because they're not. Enemies around your level will often manage to take a chunk of your health before you finish them off, and--depending on which class you're playing as--enemies that are two or more levels higher than you can pose a real threat if you don't have any health and/or mana potions in your inventory. When you're not rolling with a well-rounded group that has both a tank and a healer, you should expect there to be plenty of downtime between your fights. You can sit down in order to speed up your health and mana regeneration, but it's still not quick, and you're vulnerable to attack the whole time you're on the ground. But, you're not necessarily any safer up in the air.

Surprisingly, whether you're on foot or flying, combat isn't that different. You have to be aware of enemies at different altitudes, of course, and there are certain moves that are more useful in the air than on the ground, but the hardest (or most frustrating, at least) thing to get used to is the idea that you can only fly or glide for a limited amount of time before you become exhausted and fall out of the sky. Prior to gaining access to gear and wing augmentations that increase your flight time, you have only about a minute before you have to return to the ground and spend another minute regaining your strength to be able to fly for that amount of time again. This makes flying, which should be one of Aion's most unique and exciting features, something of a chore at times and downright infuriating at others. Frequently, when flying in quest areas, you hit invisible walls and are told that you're entering an area where flight is impossible. There's no attempt to justify this grounding, but it's clear that the majority of quest zones were not designed with flight-capable players in mind. Even those zones where flight is permitted very rarely put their verticality to good use. Rather, quest objectives are still found almost exclusively on the ground while materials that can be collected and used for crafting float above.

Flight comes into play a lot more after you reach level 25 and complete the quests necessary to enter the Abyss. This no-man's land situated in the middle of the Elyos and Asmodian territories is where the bulk of player-versus-player combat takes place. There, factions (and specifically, large player legions and alliances) battle for control of fortresses that become vulnerable to attacks on a seemingly random schedule. Interestingly, a third non-player faction known as the Balaur is also vying for control of the Abyss, which keeps things interesting even if you find yourself on a server where one of the player factions is dominant. Fortress sieges involve destroying and repairing gates, deactivating an Aetheric field (force field) that needs to allow your allies can attack from the skies, and capturing nearby artifacts that bestow significant bonuses on the faction that controls them. Nevertheless, these battles are still more about overpowering the enemy with sheer numbers than they are about tactics. Once inside the fortress, the attacking faction must defeat a large defending boss known as a guardian deity general, and the legion that does the most damage to it is the one that is credited with the kill, control of the fortress, and the spoils of war. Fortress sieges can be fun if the factions are evenly matched, but all too often that's simply not the case, and as an increasing number of enemies gain entry to the Abyss and try to join in, the servers struggle to keep up. Outright disconnections are almost never a problem, but the frame rate drops so dramatically and often enough that large-scale PVP borders on unplayable.

The other problem with PVP in Aion--both in the Abyss and in the respective quest zones of the factions, which enemy players can reach by jumping through portals that frequently appear in their own zones--is that players who are several levels apart are often thrown together. You're never able to actually see the level of enemy players in-game, which is good in so much as it encourages a cautious approach to combat, but when high-level players find their way into the other faction's low-level areas, you can bet that only players from one faction are having fun for a time. Similarly, when players of one faction spot a temporary rift that enemy players can come through to invade their territory, they like to set up camp right next to it and pounce on players as they emerge. You might argue that all's fair in love and war, but there are several quests that require you to complete objectives behind enemy lines, and these rifts are the only way to get there. You can skip those quests, of course, but there aren't so many quests available that you can afford to do that very often--at least not if you want to avoid spending much time grinding with the quests that are repeatable 100 or more times.

When you're not questing, battling in the Abyss, or in a group working your way through one of Aion's numerous instances, you can spend your time working on as many of Aion's six crafting professions as you like--all of which can only be undertaken at your faction's capital city. Professions that have you work as a cook, weaponsmith, armorsmith, tailor, and alchemist should all be self-explanatory, but the remaining job warrants some explanation. A handicrafter primarily manufactures accessories, such as rings, earrings, and headgear, but because it's the only profession that uses a lot of wood, it can also be used to make staffs, bows, and siege weapons. In addition to the crafting professions, you can learn to morph items into other items, which can be a useful though not particularly cost-effective way to create materials necessary for other professions. Regardless of which professions you choose, you shouldn't expect them to make you any kinah (the in-game currency) for a long time.

That's because every element of crafting--whether it is picking fruit from a bush or combining a number of valuable materials to make a new sword--involves an element of luck. Every time you try to gather or craft an item, your progress is indicated by two bars--one for success, one for failure--that fill up sporadically until one of them reaches the finish. It's an occasionally time-consuming and unpredictable race that might have you succeeding in a second one moment and taking 15 to 20 seconds to fail the next. In fairness, failures are far from common, but that doesn't make them any less frustrating if you're working with expensive materials that you can ill afford to waste. Luck also comes into play where the quality of your crafted item is concerned because the vast majority of recipes have two possible outcomes. For example, if you're cooking a curry that grants anyone eating it a significant stats buff for 30 minutes, you'll occasionally make an especially tasty version of it that lasts for 45 minutes instead. The differences between regular crafts and proc (programmed random occurrence) crafts are far more pronounced when you're making weapons and armor, even going so far as to let you craft rare (valuable) items in place of common (more or less worthless) ones.

This element of luck serves to add value to superior items when you sell them, but it's unfortunate that there's no way to influence the outcome at all. Furthermore, you don't earn a skill point every time you gather or craft a qualifying item, but rather every 6 to 10 times. So, if you need just 10 more skill points as a weaponsmith before you can make a dagger that you want, you might need to craft dozens of other weapons in preparation. Alternatively, you can undertake "work order" crafting quests to speed the process up a bit--you still have to craft 6 to 10 items (that you don't get to keep) for every skill point, but rather than spend hours gathering materials beforehand, you can purchase them from a nearby NPC. No matter how you approach crafting, it's a time-consuming grind, and if you're not lucky enough to be in a legion that's helping you out with materials, it can be very expensive as well. It's also an activity that--if you plan on doing it for any length of time--will almost certainly cause you to mute your speakers.

Aion's sound design isn't uniformly bad, but it's rarely good. Standing at a crafting station, your ears will be assaulted by a never-ending loop of hammers on anvils, frying pans that sizzle, knives on chopping boards, and the like. If you step outside the artisan hall, things aren't much better. Critical hits in combat sound more like someone beating a drum than striking an enemy; carnivorous creatures could be confused with cute critters; and when your flight time runs low, you're alerted by what may well be the world's worst alarm clock's buzzer. Yes, it's important to know that you should land soon. But, no, the noise doesn't need to sound like something from a world very different to the one in which you're playing. The soundtrack is occasionally a highlight, but the quality and style of the background music is inconsistent to say the least. The same can be said of the visuals, which are quite beautiful initially, but become less imaginative as you progress. The impressively detailed characters are always well animated, but as you level up and their weapons and armor become more extravagant-looking, so the environments they're fighting in become more drab.

It's a shame that Aion's early engaging gameplay so quickly devolves into a mind-numbing grind. This is a great-looking game with an interesting premise, and its combat system--while flawed--could certainly teach other MMOGs a thing or two about accessibility. If the zones you spend your time in from levels 10 to 50 were half as well put together as the starter zones, then this would be an easy game to recommend, but that's currently not the case.

Dragon Age: Origins Review

2009-12-09T02:39:00.000-08:00

When was the last time you felt totally lost in a fantasy gameworld? When was the last time you played a game with such a well-crafted and enjoyable story that you knew you’d remember it for a long, long time? Dragon Age: Origins is that kind of game, so rich and involving that you are powerless to resist its wiles and whims, so touching and triumphant that your mind and heart will be moved. In the fictional land of Ferelden, you meet memorable characters and fight for a cause you believe in, and it's this backdrop that makes developer BioWare's newest role-playing game so extraordinary. Dragon Age is more than a well-crafted story, however: It's a lengthy, intricate, and thoroughly entertaining adventure that's easy to fall in love with.

Dragon Age's plot, which deals with the impending invasion of a horde of demonic creatures called the darkspawn, isn't where the story's biggest surprises lie. The shocks, the joys, and the disappointments spring from the repartee among a number of remarkable characters; they lurk within books of lore and stories of martyrs; and they burst forth during spine-tingling moments when you must choose from a selection of difficult choices that affect the tale's direction--and the way your associates interact with you. Ferelden is a colorful and fascinating kingdom that takes enough cues from well-known fantasy tropes to be familiar, but bends enough conventions to feel original. Dragon Age features dwarves, but their caste-based society and the social paragons that rise above it twist the norms enough to keep you intrigued. Mages remain under the constant watch of templars, a restriction that doesn't sit well with those who view such policing as virtual slavery. The role of religion in human circles is of particular note. Chantries provide refuge to those worshiping the all-powerful Maker, and chanters recite the holy word near their houses of prayer. But lest this world sound too serious, don't despair: One such disciple slides food references into her chant, and a few dwarves warn you not to fall into the sky. Small, humorous touches like this are plentiful. Even if you aren't the literary sort, Dragon Age may inspire you to read every note, every character bio, and every creature description, thanks to the richness of the world and the consistency with which it's presented.

You'll learn even more from the companions who join you, and you'll grow to care about them on your quest for glory. There's Morrigan, the cynical apostate mage bound to your cause for reasons that become clear only late in the journey; Sten, the strong, silent type who isn't so quick to reveal his innermost thoughts; and Zevran, a darkly mischievous would-be assassin with a wild streak and a playful disregard for the law. There are others too, including Alistair, a wisecracking, vaguely insecure member of the Grey Wardens, an elite group of champions that recruits you early on. Great dialogue and fantastic voice acting make these characters leap off the screen as if they were real friends, and the way they interact with one another feels authentic. Morrigan and Alistair banter about the role of templars in the lives of mages, and the sweetly devout Leliana tries to communicate with your trusty canine cohort in some amusing exchanges. You may even develop a romance (or two) before all is said and done. The course of love isn't always a smooth one, though it can be a bit steamy, in a PG-13 sort of way.

Relationships must be nurtured; in the world of Dragon Age, love doesn't develop at first sight. Rather, you must improve your standings with available party members by giving them gifts and fulfilling quests in ways that please them. Doing so opens more dialogue options and may even reward you with unexpected gifts beyond the private pleasures of your tent. Your personal relationships aren't all you need to worry about when facing a difficult decision, however. On significant quests, you'll encounter complex choices that force you to weigh the risks against the rewards, even as you try to stay true to your own vision of your character. Are werewolves heartless killers, or is there a method to their madness? Should you wholeheartedly embrace a political candidate, or will some unexpected information have you playing double agent--or just killing the opposition? Such open-ended quests have become staples in many similar RPGs, but few make these decisions feel so momentous. The anxiety that results when you encounter important choices is a result of superb writing and character development: When you care about your destiny, decisions have more weight.

Even Dragon Age's initial moments present important decisions that affect how your adventure plays out. You'll customize your own avatar's look from a variety of presets, but more importantly, you'll choose a race and class. The choices may seem initially limited, but your options eventually expand. Later, you can choose up to two subclasses once you reach the necessary level requirements, and there are a few different means of unlocking additional skill trees. Your initial race and class choices don't just determine the kinds of skills and spells you will have access to, however; they influence how the first few hours of the game progress. You will experience one of six different "origin stories" that follow the events that lead you to the elite Grey Wardens. Every origin story leads to the same place, but that doesn't mean you leave these events behind for good. Characters you met early on will cross your path again, and crucial moments of your origin story will continue to haunt you. The varied origin stories not only provide plenty of replay value, but allow you to see familiar characters from a different angle. A prisoner you meet within a dank dungeon may not have much impact on you if you are playing as a Dalish elf, but if you play as a human mage, this encounter is a bittersweet reunion.

You aren't a lone adventurer, however. You can take up to three companions along with you, and eventually you will meet more willing (or unwilling, as the case may be) darkspawn slayers. You can switch out party members back at your camp or in other friendly areas. Party members you don't use will remain at camp, though they thankfully level up even when you don't take them along. Your comrades aren't just AI-controlled henchmen; you can take full control of any party member at any time, though how you do so depends on the platform. PC owners get the most versatile and rewarding experience in this regard. You can zoom the camera in to a close third-person view when exploring and conversing with non-player characters, or pull the camera back to a tactical view, which makes it a breeze to quickly and easily micromanage every spell and attack, in true Baldur's Gate tradition. On consoles, you always view the action from behind a single character, and you use a shoulder button to switch among them. It's a great way of experiencing the buzz of battle, though occasional pathfinding quirks are more apparent in the console versions, simply because you experience the action from a single perspective at a time, rather than while managing four characters simultaneously.

If you've played a BioWare fantasy RPG in the past, you'll feel right at home with the combat system. By clicking on your target or pressing the attack button, you don't just swing a sword, but you approach your target and queue up your attack. Once your party has gained access to a good number of spells, stances, and skills, battlefields explode with bright colors and raucous sound effects, and it's a lot of fun to switch back and forth between party members, managing your abilities and taking advantage of various spell combos to wreak havoc. There are dozens of different types of enemies to slice up, from giant spiders and darkspawn, to ghosts and walking trees, to demons and, of course, dragons. Allies will join you in the biggest battles, and the best of these, particularly those toward the end of the game, are thrilling. On the PC, they're particularly challenging, and many battles benefit from frequent pausing and tactical thinking, so that you can queue up attacks across your entire party. The same battles on consoles are noticeably easier.

Nevertheless, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions have their challenges, and no matter which platform you choose, you can customize your cohorts' AI behavior to be more effective in battle. Using the tactics menu, you can set characters up to drink potions when their health gets low; have Morrigan cast helpful crowd-control spells when enemies are clustered together; and program sturdier characters to draw enemies' ire when more vulnerable party members are under attack. As you level up, you will earn additional tactics slots, allowing you to implement even more intricate actions. You can also apply basic behaviors to your team members, making them more aggressive or defensive, and you can switch them around on the fly if an experimental custom tactic isn't working as you intended. When things come together as you plan--such as when Morrigan freezes a hurlock in place and Alistair smashes it to smithereens--battles are even more rewarding.

All of these elements coalesce wonderfully, making for a memorable and exciting adventure that keeps you on the move. The flow of loot and pace of leveling are both highly satisfying, and because you have four active characters to consider (in addition to others back at the camp), you spend a lot of time poring over armor and weapon choices. The tempo is even quicker than the Dungeons & Dragons games that preceded Dragon Age, thanks to important tweaks that minimize downtime. For example, you do not need to rest between encounters to replenish your health and recharge your spells. Instead, health and stamina are replenished quickly once the skirmish ends, allowing you to string encounters together without unwanted breaks in between. Should a party member fall during battle, he or she will be resuscitated once the battle has ended, albeit with a stat penalty applied (though it can be cured with an injury kit). These factors, and more, give Dragon Age an excellent sense of forward direction.

All the spells, tactics, and skills sound like a lot to organize, but the interface does a great job of helping you keep track of things. The PC interface is brilliant, letting you browse through your inventory and tweak your quickbars quickly and easily. The console versions do a surprisingly great job as well, making it simple to sort through your quests, and to queue up actions while battle is paused. One particularly useful feature is the ability to identify inventory items as trash and sell them all with a single button press once you're back in town. There are some console-specific interface irritations that could have been cleaner, however. For example, identifying new codex (that is, lore) entries can be troublesome, because the list doesn't scroll down until your highlight cursor reaches the bottom of the window. As a result, you can't always distinguish new entries from old ones, which is an issue that doesn't plague the fantastic PC interface. The consoles' radial menu, on the other hand, is an excellent way of letting you access every battle skill, and it works somewhat like the similar interface in Mass Effect--albeit with a few more layers.

The differences between versions aren't limited to the interface. Dragon Age doesn't look amazing on the PC, but it's an attractive game nonetheless. Zooming from an isometric view to a third-person perspective is slick, and while environments don't hold up quite as well when viewed up close, they're consistently lovely when viewed from above. On the flip side, the Xbox 360 version looks positively disappointing. Textures are highly compressed and colors are washed out, though the upside is that this version maintains a smoother frame rate than on the PlayStation 3, where things might get jittery when swiveling the camera around. The PlayStation 3 version features higher-quality textures than those on the Xbox 360, better color saturation, smoother facial animations, and shorter load times. Minor visual hiccups, like corpses that disappear and reappear, are a bit more common on the PS3, however. The PC version is the superior experience, but if you're choosing between the two console releases, the PlayStation 3 has the upper hand. Some minor glitches are shared between the console versions, however, such as rare occasions when the soundtrack or voice-overs disappear. We also ran into a few quest malfunctions that could be replicated on all three platforms, though they were relatively minor and did not interfere with the progress of the main quest.

No matter which version you choose, however, there are plenty of audiovisual details to note. In many ways, Dragon Age looks and sounds like other high-fantasy games, but while the towers, forest paths, and underground caverns are what you've seen before, the art style is attractive, and a few sights, such as an underground dwarven city, are particularly eye-catching. Character models don't exhibit Mass Effect-level expressiveness, but they look good and animate smoothly enough. Also of note are the splatters of blood that appear on your party members after battle. It's a nice idea, but the splotches look like they've been splashed across you with a paintbrush. The crimson stains are a cool thematic touch, however, because blood plays an important role in Dragon Age. The sound effects are excellent, console glitches notwithstanding, and the soundtrack, while typical for a fantasy game, swells and murmurs at all the right moments.

Few games are this ambitious, and even fewer can mold these ambitions into such a complete and entertaining experience. You might spend 50 or more hours on your first play-though, but there are so many paths to follow, so many details to uncover, and so many ways to customize your party that you'll want to play again as soon as you finish the first time. PC owners even get an extra dash of depth via the downloadable toolset, which lets you create new levels, spells, skills, and even cutscenes. But any way you slice it, here's the fantasy RPG you've been waiting for, the one that will keep you up late at night, bleary-eyed, because you have to see what happens next. Like the best fiction, Dragon Age will sweep you up in its world, so much so that when you're done, you'll want to experience it all over again.

Battlefield : Bad Company 2 [preview]

2009-10-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

It's safe to say that when you mention military FPS games, Call of Duty is that the forefront of everyone's mind. With that being said, EA has been at this shooter business for quite a while, and developer DICE is known around the world for the amazingly popular Battlefield series. Those that jumped into 1943 on XBLA got a brief taste of what was in store for Bad Company 2, as more destruction, a stronger core online engine, and more customization is in store for the game's second go. While the first Bad Company was a bit touch-and-go overall, my brief time with the game's sequel at TGS 2009 has been anything but, as the game feels great, looks awesome, and plays very, very well.

EA gave the press a chance to try out an all-new level today at its pre-TGS showcase, and from the looks of it the Bad Company 2 is off to a great start. The new desert level mixes some decent elevation changes with two distinct home bases, a mid-level town area (filled with dozens of wrecked vehicles, including halftracks, tanks, technicals, and more), coupled with a beachfront on one side. Using the newly implemented ATVs, players can get a quick jump into the action from the get-go, cruising in at quick speeds to seize the three capture points. Each of the profiles in-game were unfortunately at level one, so we didn't get to see too much customization, but I did have a chance to call in an airstrike on a M1 Abram tank with my sniper class, and blasting people with an AK-47 is always fun.

The level itself was a blast. With the new full-building destruction tanks ruled the field, which in turn caused more counter-tank support classes to easily dispatch the heavy armor. With more support on the field come more snipers, more snipers means more SMG classes and building-leveling tanks, and already you cans see the tug-of-war that occurs. With a map such as this one, the three capture stations acted as three main choke points for the map as well, so action was fierce while spawns were still nice and out of the way. Toss in some choppers and quick-moving ATVs and the action heated up nicely.

As someone who loves on-foot combat as opposed to too much vehicle play, the ATVs were hands-down the highlight of the hands-on time for me. Allowing for a quick start while having virtually no offence, I hopped on using my assault class, would drive directly into hot zones, jump out, and fire away at enemies drawn to the ATV's coasting stop. Those that played Modern Combat on 360 know the awesomeness that comes with triggered explosives and vehicles, and while we didn't have any unlocked for this current game I'm already salivating at the possibilities. Of course there were also a few moments where the ATV screwed me as well, as I'd rip into the city, come face to face with a tank, veer off to the side (with a surprisingly high amount of agility by the vehicle) and then launch into the bay, flooding the engine and forcing me to abandon the vehicle. Still, it was a blast, and for someone that digs jumping into the thick of battle and a more run-n-gun feel the ATV was a great compliment to a more fast-paced "grunt" style of play.

The new destruction engine was also being shown off in full effect, and while we've already touched on the advancements of it in previous hands-on write-ups I personally loved seeing full buildings topple from devastating artillery. Helicopters now own the field even more as well, with barrages of missile fire causing otherwise-sturdy structures to crumble on top of foot soldiers. EA is obviously putting a huge emphasis – larger than normal – on vehicles this time around, with Bad Company housing 15+ in all, but the balance seems to be there, which is great to see.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 at IGN.com

Speaking on balance, I also seemed to have less trouble dropping enemies in Bad Company 2. One of my main gripes with the first game (outside of too much Gold Rush, and not enough point capturing) was that guns felt just too underpowered. This was not the case with my latest hands-on, and while it still took a few good shots to bring a guy down it was far more realistic, and more effective to be a strong on-foot player as a result. Hopefully this is evidence of huge strides being made in the overall balance department, as Bad Company 2 is outdoing what was started two years ago. This is looking to be a great way to kick off 2010.

We'll have more on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 as the game nears completion. Until then, check out new images direct from TGS in our media gallery below. Bad Company is set to release on March 5, 2010.

The Sims 3: World Adventures

2009-10-02T05:06:00.000-07:00

We've had a lot of fun with The Sims 3 since it shipped in early June, and we're not the only ones. According to EA, there have been 3.7 million copies sold since then. The Sims 3 did a bang-up job of widening the scope of the game, giving us the ability to explore entire towns without a single loading screen. That did bring up an interesting question as to how EA would then expand the game, and we got a first look at the newly-revealed The Sims 3: World Adventures to see the expansion pack strategy.

It's sort of difficult to add whole new regions of the existing towns of Sunset Valley and Riverview since they're already so large, so the idea is to create places where your sims can travel to and visit for days or even weeks at a time. (Don't worry, because sims lifetimes are so limited, the designers are making it so your sims essentially don't age while on vacation.) They won't be able to build homes in these new areas (simified versions of Egypt, France, and China), but they will be able to pursue adventures that seem like a further evolution of the franchise. These adventures feature puzzle elements that, upon completion, unlock bigger adventures and more.

Here's how it works. The example we were shown was Egypt, which, as expected, is a desert environment that's filled with simified versions of the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, and other famous Egyptian landmarks. When your sims go on vacation they are limited in the amount of time they can stay in a region by their visa level; at the earliest levels your visa might last a few days, while at the higher levels it might last a couple of weeks. A high visa level will even let you build a vacation home to stay in, because at the low visa levels you'll be staying in a base camp that's essentially a small tent lot. (Tents will also be in available in Sunset Valley and Riverside, which may means good news to those who like homeless sims.)

At the base camp is a job board that has adventures, which are beefed up versions of the opportunity missions you found in The Sims 3; the more complex adventures might consist of a dozen or more tasks chained together. Completion of these adventures unlocks more challenging adventures, raises your visa level, and so on. An example of these adventures might be exploring tombs, of which there are many in Egypt. These tombs might have diabolical traps that must be circumnavigated or be dealt with. For example, fire traps can be tackled by dousing your sim in water (say by jumping into a small pool) before entering them; the soaked nature of your clothes will protect you. Or you might need to move objects around to activate pressure plates in order to open a secret door. Your sims might dig in rubble for artifacts that can help unlock other doors. Or, you might find all the parts to a rare item and reassemble it, thus giving you a nice trophy for that shelf back home.

More The Sims 3: World Adventures News & Previews

Typical, you're making out and someone's mummy interrupts.
You'll also have to search for triggers to reveal hidden doors or stairwells, and this is something that can be used in the regular game when designing houses. That could potentially create all sorts of new adventures in Sunset Valley or Riverview as you could download user-made houses with all sorts of secrets to uncover. Another piece of good news for house designers is a brand-new basement tool that will finally make basement making about a billion times easier than it is currently. With it, you can create basements up to four stories deep that cover the entire breadth of a lot.

Other travel regions will have their own themes. In France it's nectar making, which is the equivalent of wine for The Sims. This involves learning how to cultivate up to eight different kinds of grapes, stomping them into wine, and more. In China, it's martial arts, and there have been all sorts of improvements to the animation system so that the fighting movements are fluid and natural.

While you can't live in these new areas permanently there are many ways you can take them back to Sunset Vally or Riverview. Of course, you might meet foreign sims and marry them. Or there are a new skills and abilities that you can bring back with you, such as nectar making (the sims version of wine). And you might see foreign tourists wandering around your home town taking pictures. That's another new thing, as your sims can now take pictures that you can then mount on your walls, much like the paintings they create.

And this wouldn't be a Sims expansion without a nice, supernatural element. This time around it's mummies from Egypt. These guys (and gals) might come out of a sarcophagus and chase after you. You can get cursed by the mummies, in which you must go to the Sphinx and perform a ritual or else your sim is doomed. You can also become a mummy; the downside to that being that you move very slowly.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

2009-09-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

How much free time do you have? It's a legitimate question if you're considering Bethesda's epic The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, as it's likely to engulf whatever tidbits of unoccupied hours permeate your life. It might even start chipping away your daily responsibilities. With over 200 hours of gameplay, Oblivion's depth is nothing short of staggering. However, depth means nothing if it's paired with crippling bugs or frustrating gameplay. Though Oblivion has a few issues, it thankfully avoids any major blunders, making this the best single player role playing experience to come along in years.

To briefly sum up, Oblivion has no multiplayer. It's an entirely offline role playing game, meaning you'll complete quests, level up and progress through a rich storyline. As you grow more powerful you'll acquire better weapons, armor and spells to kill monsters and, if it's your preference, innocents. Oblivion's four Guilds, Mages, Fighters, Thieves, and Dark Brotherhood all have their own unique questlines and provide opportunity for added perks. Designed to be an open-ended experience, Oblivion's biggest draw is its massive world. Set in Cyrodiil, a province of the larger land of Tamriel, practically everything is accessible right from the start. You can head in any direction you like, playing to beat the story, to complete side quests, or wander around fields, mountains and streams exploring at your own pace.

Though the main quest is usually a game's primary draw, that isn't the case here. The game starts out with the world in danger and you're destined to save it. Pretty standard stuff. The largest threats to Cyrodiil are the Oblivion Gates opening up across the land. Flanked by ominous stone columns, these flaming portals are doorways to hellish dungeon settings where better armor and weapons can be found. Which ones you enter is totally up to you, though some are required by quests. While the story missions are great, there's tons of excellent content you'll be missing if you stick strictly to the main plot. The Guilds, for instance, all have epic storylines of their own. There's a gladiatorial Arena in the Imperial City where you can engage in mortal combat with one, two or even three enemies at a time for cash rewards. It's a wonderfully open-ended game, yet also surprisingly focused once you decide what you want to do.

Anyone who played through the previous The Elder Scrolls game, Morrowind, will remember the almost total lack of direction, a feature which turned many off. While in that game that main quest didn't even begin until around 15 hours after starting, Oblivion kicks off with a major plot development and thrusts you immediately into the main adventure. Once given your initial task to restore order to Cyrodiil and shut down the demonic invasion from Oblivion, you'll never have trouble figuring out what to do next.

This is mostly due to the intuitive map and easy to use quest log. Whenever you accept a task to perform or are assigned a duty, an entry is made in your journal. By clicking on the quest you can see a brief description and set it to "active." Any active quest in your log is highlighted on your map screen with an arrow. Red arrows mean you need to pass through a door, green ones mean you're in the right place, and the arrow also pops up on the compass at the bottom of your screen for extra convenience. Unless you're a total masochist, it's a much welcome improvement, making quest objectives and locations much easier to find.

On top of that, you're given the ability to fast travel around Cyrodiil. Every location in the game pops up as an icon on your map. To be eligible for fast traveling, you need to first visit the location on foot, although the major cities are accessible right from the start. After a location has been made fast travel accessible, you can pop open your map, select it, and arrive there instantaneously. Though time still passes when you travel, you don't have to actually spend it hoofing the journey out. If you'd rather walk, that option is always available, but fast traveling effectively eliminates the tedium of fetch quests so prevalent in the RPG genre. On top of that, it's great for when you want to buy specific spells or armor only available in certain cities. With the improvements to the map, journal and travel system, the world of Tamriel just got a lot more user friendly.

These improvements make Oblivion a great title for anyone still wary about RPGs. Though the depth and gameplay options may be daunting, there's always plenty of information available to tell you how to go about getting things done. Of course, the goal of any game is to make your character an utterly unstoppable force, capable of destroying friend and foe alike with the mere twitch of an eyelash. To become an unconquerable world dominator in Oblivion, there's a mind boggling array of options.

Before doing anything, you need to create your character. Bethesda has implemented a great creation feature, allowing you to meticulously customize your character's appearance and class. Whether you play as a reptilian Argonian, stout Orc or sneaky Wood Elf, you'll be able to adjust skin tone, facial structure, hair styles, eye color and many other options. When moving through the initial sewer area, you'll also choose a class, which can be completely customized should you wish to do so. We could list all the options available, or we could tell you that it's entirely possible to create a thief-mage High Elf with albino skin and bruised eyes, a penchant for haggling with item vendors and nasty accuracy with a bow. What this all means is Oblivion lets you create as fined tuned and personalized a character as you could possibly want.

Despite the range of options, some of the skills and attributes are useless given the effectiveness of others. For instance, Luck is a terrible attribute to choose for one of your two primaries, since it doesn't directly affect anything. A few of the skills, such as acrobatics and athletics, are useless as well as one of your seven main. The way your character levels up is through use of skills, not experience. The more Destruction spells you cast, the more monsters you conjure, the more you heal yourself, the higher those skills rise. Once your skills bump up enough, you level up and can increase attributes. Since you're going to be running and jumping (athletics and acrobatics) constantly regardless, there's no need to build those into your main attributes.

If you do pick a few useless skills, you're going to know it a few levels down the road and likely want to change them. Once you're outside the first dungeon, however, you can't change your character. So read all the information provided by the game and choose whatever you feel best. Yes, it's going to require thinking. If that prospect turns you off, then this game probably isn't for you. Better yet, make a game save right before leaving the initial dungeon you can reload should you be unsatisfied with your character choice. In fact, save about every five minutes. Since you'll never be sure how powerful an enemy is going to be, the chance of a brutal death is always high when trekking across Cyrodiil. Having a recent save is a requirement, otherwise you could find yourself losing hours and hours of progress. Though the game will auto-save, it's a better idea to have a hard save available, since the auto-save always overwrites itself.

Once outside the initial dungeon, you'll start to understand just how massive Oblivion's world really is. Opportunities for new quests and stories are everywhere, and there's no pressure as to which path you should follow. Thanks to the map, journal and fast travel system, it's way easier to follow a path once you pick one. Throughout each of Cyrodiil's towns you'll find nearly everyone has something they need done, and each task has a story behind it. Though many quests turn out to be standard dungeon crawls, there's usually a twist or turn along the way. For instance, buying a house at a discounted price in Anvil seems like a great deal. That is, until you actually sleep there and get attacked by ghosts. Upon investigation, you discover there's the corpse of a long-dead Necromancer haunting the crap out of your basement, and he's still pissed off. This kind of attention to detail is present in many of the game's bevy of quests.

Interacting with people around Cyrodiil is surprisingly realistic, and Bethesda's much-hyped Radiant A.I. system works well. NPCs engage in random conversation from which you can glean quests should you eavesdrop at an opportune time. We witnessed one branch of the fighter's guild sit down to eat dinner in unison. NPCs will take naps, engage in everyday activities, and occupy themselves with swordplay or spellcasting for fun. Some of the random conversations still sound stilted and unnatural, starting off with lines like, "Hey, so how about that that local Mages Guild." It's basically water cooler talk, but it's interesting nonetheless. Sometimes, you'll overhear more intriguing topics, like one NPC hitting on another.

Actually engaging NPCs in conversation is absolutely impressive, as each character in the game has spoken dialogue. Considering the titanic amount of NPCs in the game, that's a lot of spoken dialogue. Though in many cases they're just canned responses using a repeated voice (every Argonian female sounds pretty much the same), there's always some unique samples for every quest. Whether the NPC is pouring their heart out to you because they need help or detailing an intricate history of a specific item, it's all voiced, though not free of occasional excessive cheesiness.

There's also an engaging persuasion system in place in case an NPC won't give you the information you're looking for. Like the rest of Oblivion, there's multiple ways to get them to see your side of things. Depending on the kind of character you're playing, you can use speech skills to charm them, use a charm spell or just toss some money their way. Rewards from doing so include getting information necessary for quests, and gaining an NPC's trust so you can buy a house, among other things. So, the system isn't there for the sake of its own existence, it serves a function which at times can be very beneficial.

Once out in Cyrodiil's wilderness, these persuasion skills become much less relevant. You'll instead need to rely heavily on your combat skills. One criticism of The Elder Scrolls since its beginnings has been awkward combat, and that remains true here. Oblivion's fighting mechanics are much improved and interactive over previous versions, but still not perfect. You're able to block and swing with separate buttons and have another for casting spells. Blocking can knock enemies off balance for free swings, but also do the same to you, so the fighting is no longer a mindless procedure of hitting attack ad nauseum; you'll actually need to pay attention and properly time your swings, blocks and casts. In one-on-one situations, these controls function well but run into problems in confined areas or in group battles.

A good strategy in Oblivion is to lure all opponents to an open area, allowing you to move around. While you don't need pinpoint accuracy to attack effectively, you do need to be facing the general direction of your opponent. In tight quarters, the dizzying effects from getting smashed by swords and maces make proper aim overly difficult. While in open spaces you could recover by backing up, you're pretty much stuck in many of the smaller cave tunnels. This problem intensifies when in group battles, especially with friendly NPCs. Since getting struck occasionally makes you wobble, you'll have a difficult time discerning who you're slashing at in a group melee. Given the fact that friendly NPCs will actually start attacking you should they take enough damage from your weapon, it's important that you're targeting the right person.

During the confusion of battle, you'll need all your important spells and weapons readily available. Enter Oblivion's hotkey system, which allows up to eight items from your inventory to be accessed without returning to your menu screen. It's a wonder the system was limited to only eight, given the depth of the rest of the game. There are literally hundred of icons to choose from, be it items, weapons, spells and armor. Trying to limit that to eight is a little extreme, especially considering the range of situations you can find yourself in. Why not implement a system where you can switch between multiple hot key sets? That way, you've got a hotkey set for magic, one for combat, one for fighting undead, one for marksman, etc. As it stands, you'll have to constantly switch appropriate icons in and out of hotkey assignments, which is more of a hassle than it should be.

For PC users, the hotkeys are conveniently mapped on your keyboard, but Xbox 360 owners will be faced with a more annoying control setup. The D-Pad's vertical and horizontal directions work fine, but the icons you assign to the diagonals will prove difficult to select with any sort of regularity. You'll often find yourself mistakenly switching to a healing spell when you meant to pull out a shield and sword, or siphoning health when you meant to summon a Frost Atronarch. Combine this with the imprecision during battles with multiple foes or in close quarters, and you'll find combat in Oblivion requires a little more patience that you might have expected.

Despite those issues, the rest of The Elder Scrolls IV controls very well. Basically it just comes down to whether you prefer a mouse or a thumbstick. Though the game offers a third-person mode, don't bother using it save for checking out your armor. It's nearly impossible to fight with the camera pulled back, and some of the third person animations look unrealistically silly (sideways moonwalk anyone?). All in all, the Oblivion functions better than it did in Morrowind, but there's still room to improve.

Though you'll spend a lot of time fighting in Oblivion, you'll also spend a good deal of it just wandering around. Mostly, this will be an unconscious result of Oblivion looking absolutely fantastic. Environments sprawl for great distances in front of you, trees and grass sway to and fro, and the lighting and level of detail in the sky can be breathtaking at times. The environments look so good, it's nearly impossible to resist the urge to plunge into the unknown. Weapon and armor models are intricately detailed, towns have their own unique architectural flair, and though some of the dungeon designs may get repetitive, they're always pretty to observe.

Character and enemy models are highly detailed, though some of the NPCs have odd facial features and questionable speech syncing. Creature animations are generally very good, and the physics system embedded in each model can produce some impressive results at times. For instance, a conjured Daedroth can effortlessly smash an enemy several feet through the air on a killing blow. Downed wolves roll down hills, and enemies can be blasted right out of midair with a well placed magic blast.

Unfortunately, the graphics aren't without their faults. Though you can see extremely far into the distance, far off hills will be blanketed in low resolution textures that otherwise mar a beautiful scene. Loading times may also be a bother. Not the loading times when entering doors or fast traveling around the world, those are entirely manageable. It's the loading that occurs when traveling across the land that will cause the Xbox 360 version to stutter, as well as any mid to lower end PC. The game needs to load in grass and environmental objects at regular intervals, and the ensuing pause in the action may turn some off. There's also a very visible amount of pop-in, as grass, rocks and even houses appear at the edges of your vision.

This loading setup was obviously implemented to keep framerates manageable. For the most part, it's excusable considering the stunning graphical heights Oblivion is able to reach in other places. Still, the loading stutter may bother you and the framerate as well. While the game runs at a steady clip in dungeons and indoors, you'll notice a performance hit when traveling quickly through outdoor areas and in crowded towns. These framerate drops don't so much affect the gameplay, but remain an annoyance as it takes you out of the experience. On high end PCs these framerate and loading issues are diminished, but most PC and all Xbox 360 gamers will have to put up with them to enjoy the otherwise visual delight that is The Elder Scrolls IV.

While wandering and wondering at Oblivion's visual prowess, your ears will be equally entertained. As previously stated, the game is packed with an amazing amount of spoken dialogue, for the most part well acted. The musical score is excellent and fitting for the game's medieval fantasy setting. Depending on the environment, you'll get cheery daytime adventure type of compositions, tense battle music, and ambient, unsettling string arrangements for dungeons and ruins. Sound effects are equally impressive, with crisp metal clangs for clashes in battle and eerie, otherworldly audio for magical happenings. Wraiths and ghosts boast unearthly wails and residents of the Oblivion plane bellow in deep, hell-tinted cadences.

With a game this gigantic, you're going to have to expect some bugs. Morrowind had quite a few, some relatively serious, specifically with the Xbox version's "fall through the world" bug. Thankfully, Oblivion has so far proven to be a more stable product. That being said, if you play this game, you'll likely encounter crashes. Bugs include the PC version crashing to desktop and freezes during loading screens on the Xbox 360. When we first popped in our Oblivion disc it has absolutely painful loading times, but they went away the second time we fired the game up and haven't returned since. Other bugs include monsters and NPCs disappearing, clipping through walls, and strange sound glitches. Do the bugs make the game unplayable? Absolutely not. Sure, they're annoying, but they don't break the game. The sheer amount of content and breadth of gameplay options that went into this title outweighs any minor gripes that can be made about errors that crop up here and there.

Closing Comments
I've done enough blabbering and hairsplitting. Is the Elder Scrolls IV worth a purchase? Definitely. If you checked the Xbox 360 page, you'll notice it got the same score as this version. If you're an RPG fan, it's an incredible experience. If you regularly beat RPG fans with hockey sticks, you should still try this one out. It's got combat issues, the hotkey system could have been implemented better and some may be ticked off by the environmental loading stutters. Also, keep in mind your loading times aren't going to be seamlessly smooth unless you're playing on a high-end rig. For most gamers with mid-range PCs, you're going to experience hitches. PC gamers get the benefit of the Elder Scrolls IV Construction Set, a big asset for modders looking to expand their Oblivion experience beyond the scope of what Bethesda envisioned. Let it be said, the PC version has advantages. However, because of the PC market's RPG competition, the score remains what the same as Oblivion on the Xbox 360. Despite any criticisms, Oblivion remains a thoroughly enjoyable, user-friendly, gorgeous experience with enough content to keep you returning time and time again.
Another Take
from Tom McNamara
Once upon a time, I bought the Collector's Edition of Daggerfall and wandered through its operatically enormous landscape for untold hours. I played and finished Morrowind and its expansions. ES4 was my most anticipated release since Half-Life 2, and it doesn't disappoint. While I don't think Lynda Carter's voice acting is that great, this aspect of the game is otherwise uniformly excellent and star-studded -- a refreshing change from the B-list hell us RPG geeks are often stuck with. And it's all voice acted; apparently over half the disk is dialog. The music is also memorable, yet it doesn't get tedious after many hours of playtime (I passed the 25-hour mark last night). The ambient material in the dungeons is awesome.

I've finished the Thieves Guild quest line, gotten to Conjurer in the Mages Guild, but I've only done a few quests in the main storyline. Unlike most other RPGs, the "side quests" have nearly enough content and narrative continuity to be games in their own right. Each of the main organizations -- the mages, thieves, fighters guild, Dark Brotherhood, et cetera -- has its own drama to unravel, and you're rewarded with some pretty cool loot along the way. There's so much content, in both the cities and the countryside, that I'm astonished Bethesda was able to put this thing together in a reasonable amount of time.

But it’s not all wine and roses. There is a certain quest in the main storyline that simply must be done early on. It appears to be hard-coded for a large amount of NPC (non-player character) assistance, as you'll encounter a much larger amount of monsters than usual. The monsters of Oblivion dynamically progress to match your character level, giving you a challenge no matter where you are in the game world, but your NPC assistance appears to remain static. So quests that require this assistance can be extremely difficult if you wait too long to get to them. Those helpers who were wearing iron or steel armor will still be doing so 20 levels later, whereas the enemy will have some pretty nice gear. It gets ugly. You can also level up with non-combat abilities and get your butt handed to you, since the game appears to only check your character level, not your combat proficiencies, when auto-adjusting. And a spellcaster won't have much in the way of roots or snares, making for a lot of backpedaling during combat.

Also, I find the Invisibility spell to actually be too powerful. Not only does a monster completely lose track of you, but you can even bump into them and push them out of your way. You can cover a ton of ground without getting in a single fight. The spell can last up to 60 seconds with a manageable mana cost, and it can be recast ad infinitum. There's no WoW-style cooldown, or diminishing returns (such as monster resistance). The behavior is flat and its effects total. Once I got this spell, I sailed through the latter half of the Thieves Guild quest line.

But while Oblivion certainly has its quirks, it's still very compelling and engrossing. It's also a ton more stable than I'm used to with Elder Scrolls games. Character creation is a little complex for the ES initiate, and the town guard AI a little physic when I "borrow" something, but I was hooked after going through that first big mission in the main storyline, and I think most RPG gamers will be as well.

Burnout Paradise [review]

2009-09-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

Burnout franchise has now long been the king of arcade racing. Its tight controls and overwhelming sense of speed have catapulted it to the top of the genre, and few games have come even close to matching the series' strengths. But while Criterion has garnered tons of praise from both gamers and critics alike, the studio never sits still. With every release, the developer tweaks the core formula in an attempt to offer something new to gamers.

Burnout Paradise sees what are arguably the biggest changes in the franchise's history, with nearly every single aspect of the game having seen some sort of shift in design. Some of it works really well, and some of it not so well, but what we wind up with still remains an intense, blazingly fast and perfectly controlling racer, one that you shouldn't miss.

The biggest change introduced in Burnout Paradise is the move to an open world, the streets of Paradise City (cue Guns 'N' Roses title track). The entire city is open at the start of the game, with the idea being that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. Not all of the events are present at the start, mind you, and you'll have to put in a lot of time to unlock the game's roughly 75 cars, but you're never limited in the options before you.

There are bits of good and bad to this. The good is that the city design is great, offering up plenty of varying spots for you to race in and tons of hidden areas to find. There is no shortage of tucked away passages, underground runs and all sorts of cool spots to hit. You'll find jumps littered everywhere, including small ramps with kickers on the side to send you into a barrel roll, which are great for the Stunt runs (which we'll come back to in a bit).

The main downtown area of Paradise City is very reminiscent of the downtown tracks in the last couple games, while the western section of the city harkens back to the long, winding, countryside courses of past games as well. A couple of highways will put you dead in the middle of traffic and give you plenty of road to get up to speed on.

The car designs are fantastic.
Paradise City is very dense, especially the eastern, downtown section, offering you a myriad of ways to get through a race. When a race starts, you simply must race from point A to point B as fast as you can, along whatever route you want. While this means that you're given the freedom to create your own course, it also means that you'll be stopping the action and referring to the map fairly often to make sure that you don't take any wrong turns. Since there are so many different tunnels, highways and such to take, it can be easy to make a wrong turn and wind up going off course for a bit. Until you've memorized the bulk of the map, which given its complexity, will take quite a long time, you'll likely have to pause and check the map two or three times during a race to make sure that you're on the right path.

There's an in-game indicator of where the finish line is, but it just points in the compass direction and doesn't help with turns or anything of that sort. This is understandable to a degree since Criterion (rightfully so) wants you to create your own routes and not rely on what it thinks you should do, but it does mean that you'll be at the mercy of the pause screen until memory starts taking over.

Another downside to the overall design of the open world setup is that you cannot simply pause and restart an event. This means that if you race from one side of the map to the other, which you will often do, you'll need to turn around and drive all the way back to the starting point to try again if you lose. While this sounds, and can be, annoying, changing the way that you approach the game helps to overcome this for the most part. Knowing that this was the case, instead of trying to perfect every event as we went along, like we've done in the past, we instead tried an event and, regardless of the outcome, just tried something else nearby when it was over. Playing this way makes for a much more organic experience and will help greatly in lessening the annoyance of not being able to quickly restart, though if you're aiming for a 100% completion rating then you will inevitably have to drive back to the starting line when you're down to the last few events in the game.

Of course, races aren't the only event type to be found in Paradise City. Of everything in the game, it's perhaps Road Rage that has seen the smallest amount of change, which is perfectly fine by us. The only major difference this time around is that instead of having three target cars at any one time, you'll now have five or six at a time to take down. It's a small change, but Road Rage is even more chaotic now because of it as you'll see more cars than ever before crashing in front of you and flying over your windshield. We still can't get enough of it.

The Crash mode of old is essentially gone, replaced by Showtime events. Rather than racing up to a streetlight and spinning your wheels to begin it like most every other event, Showtime can be started at any time (even as you're already crashing) by hitting two shoulder buttons. Your car will immediately begin flipping and you'll start racking up a score for the street that you started the Showtime on. While the street that you begin the event on is where your score will apply to, you can actually flip and crash across the entirety of Paradise City if you're good enough.

There are major differences between Showtime and the Crash events of old, however. You can keep your crash going so long as you keep moving, which you can prolong by bouncing your car if you have some boost. Boost is earned every time you hit a car, which also increases your score, of course. However, you only earn points for cars that you actually hit, not those that crash around you, and you only earn multipliers for hitting busses. The bus-only multiplier thing is disappointing because you can go for 10 minutes without seeing a bus during one Showtime, but start another and hit a handful right away, thereby giving you exponentially more points simply because of randomized luck.

Regardless of that, there isn't a whole lot of skill involved in the Showtimes, aside from seeing how absurdly long you can keep it going. But the required scores are easy as pie to hit, and since there's no planning or anything involved in what you're doing, it feels like most of the challenge (and thereby fun) of the old Crash modes is gone.

Road Rage is largely the same, but it's still the best incarnation yet.
Showtime events are coupled with timed runs for each street. If you head to one of the ends of any road in the game and start driving on it, a counter will begin ticking up that shows you your time. It's a very simple and very natural way of including time trials in the game, and as simple as it is, it works really well.

Stunt events are the freshest addition to the Burnout formula, tasking you to rack up a certain amount of points in a given timeframe. While you'll earn points for sliding around turns and boosting, you'll only earn valuable multipliers for jumping off ramps, crashing through gates or performing a barrel roll, which gives you double goodness. It's a pretty awesome event that'll have you screaming down streets, looking for just one more ramp to hit to help keep your combo alive. The only downside here has to do with the different types of cars you can choose and how they affect a Stunt event's difficulty Each of the 70+ cars in the game falls into a certain category, either Stunt, Speed or Aggression. The Aggression vehicles are large and heavy, perfect for Road Rage, but not so much for events that require agility. Cars with the Stunt classification are designed to be good for jumps and drifting, and most resemble the rides that you'll find in past Burnout games. Speed cars specialize in excessive boosting as they allow you to chain together Burnouts to keep your boost going forever, but they have a downside in that you can only start a boost when your meter is full.

Having to wait until your boost meter is full means that the Speed cars are more finicky during races, though the payoff on long straightaways can be greater. But during Stunt events they wind up being terrible picks since a quick tap of the Boost in any other vehicle will immediately extend your combo meter. In a Stunt or Aggression car, you can take a jump for points, cruise for a bit while looking for your next jump, and then tap the boost for just a second when your combo is about to expire to extend it. Not so in the Speed cars. This boosting difference would make more sense if the Speed cars were noticeably faster than the other types, but they're not.

One pretty cool thing relating to the vehicles in the game is how you earn them. When you get a new license, you'll be rewarded with a new ride in your junkyard for driving immediately. All of the other cars, however, have to be taken down first. When you "unlock" a car after an event, it will then appear somewhere in Paradise City and drive around on its own. In order to fully earn it, you have to find said car and then take it down. Like our approach to event selection, we found this to be best when we didn't bother hunting them down after unlocking them, but instead kept doing our thing while keeping our eyes peeled. Then when a car crossed our path, we'd drop everything and head out with a new ride in our headlights. It's a pretty awesome mechanic that helps instill life into Paradise City.

Perhaps the most well-implemented addition to the franchise is the way that online play works. Instead of having to jump out to a separate menu to get online, invite friends to your game, set up challenges or whatever else, all of this is manageable in-game with the D-Pad. Pressing right on the D-Pad opens up the online menu where you can then hop online, invite friends to your game, set up race events or whatever else you want, all while your engine is still running.

When a friend or two (or seven) hop on, you have a number of options. You can create a custom race where you can set start and end points and drop any number of checkpoints onto the map. You can even save these routes for play later on so that you don't have to keep making them. You can also start a Freeburn Challenge of some sort. There are 50 challenges for each number of players in the game. In other words, there are 50 challenges for two player, 50 different challenges for three players, and so on and so forth, giving you an absolute ton of Freeburn runs to complete (yes, 100% completion will take a long time). These are as simple as having two players race from opposite sides of an open bridge and crashing in mid-air to having every player do a barrel roll through a hoop. They're all good fun and give you tons of different things to do.

Speed, speed and more speed. Oh, and some extra speed for flavor.
Regardless of everything we've talked about, the most important part of any Burnout game, and the reason they've been so successful in the past, is simply how well (and fast) the driving mechanics work. Criterion has nailed the formula once again, offering gamers the pinnacle of arcade racing mechanics with cars that control exactly how you would expect them to, with the perfect amount of inferred weight sent to the player. As well, the sense of speed we've seen in the past is here 110%, with roadside objects blurring by your outside mirrors at uncountable speeds.

Lastly, it's worth mentioning that Criterion has also once again delivered a game that runs incredibly smooth and sounds fantastic. The game runs at a blistering 60fps, which ties perfectly with its controls, and it looks impressive at that. The crash effects are fantastic, slowing down to show you your crumpling wreck as the steering wheel is shoved into the driver's seat. Were there a virtual driver sitting there, he'd be dead.

Army of Two: The 40th Day

2009-09-10T06:04:00.000-07:00

Plenty of shooters are set in locales rife with political turmoil and social upheaval, but few take the genre into full-blown disaster zones. Sure, there are some good reasons for that--most of them beginning and ending with the fact that people would likely be too busy fighting for survival to fight each other--but it's a setting that presents designers with a lot of room to explore new ideas. EA Montreal has been doing just that with the development of Army of Two: The 40th Day, a shooter that takes place in Shanghai as the city is falling apart left and right.
In a recent look at The 40th Day, we explored a crumbling office building that, at one point, toppled over at a 45-degree angle that we then had to traverse down in the middle of a heated shoot-out. That's certainly one of the game's bigger set pieces, but even the game's less spectacular environments are pretty striking. Take, for example, our latest hands-on time with The 40th Day. Dual co-op protagonists Salem and Rios have made their way into the Shanghai Zoo, which has been hit hard by the destruction going on all over the city. In one continuous sequence, we gazed up at the sky to see a jetliner crashing down to earth, quickly followed by a shoot-out in which our only defense was--and this is the best part--taking cover behind a dead hippopotamus.

That general feeling of "What the heck is going on here?" is something that EA Montreal wants to instill in players early and often. The developer's goal is to take your expectations of typical third-person shooter settings and toss them aside in favor of the unexpected. That theme carries over into the type of weaponry you'll be using, as well. You can use cash earned in-game to customize your guns like in the original Army of Two, and while you can still unlock a gold-plated finish for your weapon, the general look of your customized loadout is a little more down-to-earth. We were shown a gun that had been modified with a makeshift bayonet consisting of a screwdriver tied to the barrel of the gun, as well as an ice pick bayonet and a stock made of bent wire. But the real king of the makeshift add-ons--or "homebrew parts, as EA Montreal calls them--was a gun that had been outfitted with a soda-can silencer.

Another area of focus for the development team has been making the action less black and white than it was previously. Whereas the firefights in the original game had a fairly obvious on-off switch--with players either in a big shoot-out or not in a big shoot-out and very little room in between--the sequel has added scenarios for you to sneak up on enemies and get a bit of a jump on them. In the zoo, we had a chance to walk up to a group of thugs relaxing on the other side of the hippo pen and snipe them from afar, and later in the demo we had the opportunity to crawl up behind a group of enemies and let one player take a guy hostage, while the other player held back and sniped them from afar. Other possibilities in these situations allow you to mock surrender to draw attention from guards and let the other player ambush them, or tag enemies using a special targeting screen to determine ahead of time which player goes after which guys. Combine those frequent opportunities for strategizing with similarly frequent miniboss battles against heavily armed super-enemies, and it looks like there should be a good amount of gameplay variety.

Bookworm Adventures 2 [review]

2009-09-07T07:34:00.000-07:00

If adding a few RPG elements to your word games sounds like a good time to you, then you probably won't be able to put Bookworm Adventures 2 down. This sequel to the 2007 PopCap game is still adorable and still fun. The original, non-adventurous Bookworm is merely an exercise in finding words amidst a jumble of letter tiles. Affixing "Adventures" to the title takes this basic gameplay mechanic and adds a lighthearted story, enemies to battle, and experience points to be gained. PopCap is known for creating polished games that are easy to get into and offer a lengthy experience, and that's what you'll find here.

An important difference between Bookworm and Bookworm Adventures is that, in the former, you had to link adjacent tiles in order to create a word. Here in Adventures, any tile in play can be used, regardless of whether or not it is touching any of your other selected pieces. I'd guess this change to make things a little easier for the player was made because of all the other gameplay elements that have been added, and it doesn't upset the balance. PopCap's titles are aimed at the mass market, though, and Bookworm Adventures 2 is a bit on the easy side. For example, I didn't lose a battle until I was a third of the way through the story, and the game will prompt you to use a health potion when you're near death. Better it's too easy than too hard, though, and Bookworm Adventures 2 is lengthy enough to make up for any simplicity. This is a game you can settle into your computer chair and kill many an hour with.

Bookworm Adventures 2 has some features in common with another recent PopCap release: Plants vs. Zombies. You unlock new items with each level but have a very limited number of item slots to use in battle, so before heading into each "chapter" of the game you'll need to choose the right tools for the job. The story is divided into three books, each with ten chapters that throw a handful of enemies at you until you finally reach the chapter boss.

Our hero, Lex, is an adorable little bookworm with a high-pitched voice, and he'll cheer you on and encourage you to spell big words during battle. The longer the word the more damage he deals, and certain letters are stronger than others, as in Scrabble. Bookworm's dictionary includes some strange possibilities, such as abbreviations like "tux." These sorts of games often censor sexual words in order to protect the innocence of the children, but I was able to spell "orgasm" and "poop." "Pussy," though, was not accepted. You may learn some new words just be experimenting with different tile combinations. I really wanted to see if it would accept "Peggle," but I never managed to spell that one. Most importantly: the game recognizes "Daemon."

Bookworm Adventures 2 is full of silly, innocent humor, and the lush, orchestral score helps set a fantasy tone. Characters are presented in a sort of paper doll style that somehow looks a little cheap and yet remains charming.

Left 4 Dead 2 [review]

2009-09-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love a carnival? The intoxicating smell of cotton candy, the whirling lights and cacophonous sounds.......the flesh-eating zombies.

In keeping with its recent trend of revealing new maps and monsters at each of the year's gaming trade shows, Valve Software brought its co-op zombie shooter to the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo to show off the Dark Carnival map. You could wait in line for more than an hour to play the demo at the show, or you could read this preview instead. Smart choice.

Let's clear one thing up. This is not a carnival that any sane person would want to attend. What was once a serene scene of merriment and mirth has degenerated into a dangerous cesspool of rotting flesh and abject terror. The rides have ground to a halt, and military vehicles sit abandoned, their floodlights illuminating an eerie landscape of horror.

A cheap motel that looks like it would have been a sketchy place before the zombocalypse is now overrun with the undead. A stopped Ferris wheel now represents terror rather than fun. The world has gone to hell, and it's up to you and your three surviving companions to make it out of the Dark Carnival alive.

By now, you know the drill with Left 4 Dead 2. Valve's zombified co-op shooter sequel takes over where Left 4 Dead left off, adding new characters, different maps, and more weapons/items/zombies than ever before. In the Dark Carnival demo, Valve showed off a new special zombie called the Jockey, a terrifying little bastard who jumps onto your back and rides you around like a lame horse. Your only course of action is to move around with it, trying to stay on a safe path while waiting for your companions to knock the thing off. All the so-called "specials" in Left 4 Dead 2 are creepy, but the Jockey is especially so. It's so invasive, hopping onto you like a human-sized parasite. Kind of makes you want to beat it to re-death with a big piece of wood.

As any little leaguer knows, nothing cracks skulls quite as effectively as a baseball bat. And Valve has thoughtfully built a slugger into Left 4 Dead 2. The developer showed off the baseball bat (did I really just write that?) in L4D2 at PAX, so I gave it a few satisfying swings. And I'm happy to report that it pops heads in a seriously satisfying way. Get the hang of this hefty hunk of hardwood and you'll soon be batting 1000 against the horde.

The bat is a nice addition, but I still prefer the guitar, which also smashes noggins effectively but does so with a pleasing twang that sounds like The Who tuning up at Wembley. I also have to mention an unwelcome addition to Dark Carnival: the new "uncommon common" zombie clown. I hate clowns that are alive, and now I can confirm that I hate dead ones even more. As this creep moves around the map, he squeaks his oversized clown shoe, drawing the horde. He'll always show up at the most inopportune times (just like a real-life clown), making your life even more of a living hell than it already is. I highly recommend hitting him in the face with a melee weapon.

WonderKing [review]

2009-09-04T04:31:00.000-07:00

WonderKing is 2D Side Scrolling MMORPG with the potential of dethroning Nexon’s MapleStory as the leader in the genre. Even though WonderKing is basically a ‘MapleStory’ clone, it’s a darn good one, as it offers a lot of interesting features that Nexon’s game just doesn’t have, most notably crafting and PvP. I can also safely say that the graphics in WonderKing are much crisper and more visually appealing than any other side scrolling game. The only thing WonderKing is really lacking right now is overall content, as the game only has four base classes and a lot smaller game world than its competitors. Even if WonderKing doesn’t dethrone MapleStory, it should easily be able to compete with other side scrollers like LaTale and Wind Slayer. The game’s four starting classes are:

Swordsman - Swordsman are the primary melee ‘tank’ class in the game. They have the most hit points and defensive capabilities. They also have powerful melee attacks.

Thief -Like in MapleStory, thieves in WonderKing are capable of dealing a great deal of damage in a short period of time but have few hitpoints. They can specialize in melee daggers and claws or throw shurukens.

Mage - Mages are the primary spellcasting class in the game. They can specialize into more offensive oriented Wizards or supportive Priests after their first job advancement.

Scout – The ‘Scout’ in WonderKing is capable of dealing a respectable amount of damage from a distance with either a bow or a gun. They’re basically archers.

Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising [review]

2009-09-02T01:16:00.000-07:00

If there's one game that needs a sequel, it's Operation Flashpoint.

"It was a game with a lot of potential," observes the game's senior designer and lead AI designer, Clive Lindop. "People fell in love with it even though it had lots of quirks and lots of things weren't quite right with it, but its promise, and the fact that it was unique kind of drew people in."

And draw people in it did. Released in the summer of 2001, the PC-only military shooter sold well over a million units and spawned two successful expansion packs, Red Hammer and Resistance. Such success proved that despite (or possibly because of) its brutally uncompromising approach to the genre, gamers were hungry for a title with scope, ambition and freedom. Admittedly, the visuals were rubbish even then, but what lingers in the memory are the moments of palm-sweating tension as you snuck through a wood or crawled through a field with enemies just feet away from you.

Seven years on, Codemasters is finally ready to take the wraps off the long-awaited follow-up. "There's a reason for that," Lindop says about the delay - but declines to clarify further. The well-documented souring of relations between original developer Bohemia Interactive and Codies certainly didn't help, and meant that the UK publisher was faced with either binning one of its most successful original IPs of the decade, or going it alone. So, in 2005 the company took the latter option and essentially built the game from the ground up.
'Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising' Screenshot 1

Zoom in as close as you like.

"We've built all the technology from scratch because it's the only way of [taking] that original promise forward," Lindop says. "It's taken a lot of time and effort to get the technology to the point where we can do these huge landscapes, these massive battles and all these effects and all this impact with a visual delivery and an experience which is 'next-gen', for want of a better word."

But hardcore fans fearing their beloved game will be watered down for the masses needn't fret. "It's still very much from a simulation heritage," he confirms. "But rather than that kind of slight detachment you get from sims where it's all about the numbers and the kit, we wanted to amp up the kind of experience so that you [feel like you] are really there, having bullets flying at you."

We're told to expect a game that's "stylistically a lot more documentary-style" and can look forward to crazy amounts of attention to detail including "kit [that] doesn't just roll out of a factory fresh - it gets muddy, it gets scratched. We want you to feel these are real, in your hand, getting battered as you dive around running past things."
'Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising' Screenshot 2

I hope that chopper's on our side.

While the original game was set in 1985, Operation Flashpoint 2 opts for a real-world, contemporary setting where you're squabbling for oil. "The game itself is set on an island called Skira, which is off a chain of islands called Scarlett - north of Japan, east of China. It used to be Chinese, then the Japanese nicked it during World War II, then the Soviets liberated it and never gave it back," Lindop explains.

"It's a backwater of history, not a geopolitical hotspot, except... The world's largest oilfield is underneath it. It was found about ten years ago, and everyone's been trying to develop ever since. That's where the tension and back-story come from."

As you might expect, Flashpoint 2 favours vast, sprawling environments which can accommodate battles of impressive scale. We're told that the island itself spans 220 square kilometers or 134 square miles, and that the viewing distance is about 35km ("It's a damned long distance to see!").

To add to the realism, real soldiers have been motion-captured doing all manner of incidental actions, whether entering/exiting different vehicle types, climbing convincingly over obstacles, kicking down doors, bursting into buildings or hitting the deck. But as well getting the look and feel spot-on, Codies has taken a very different approach to the weapons system. "You have to assemble the weapon systems as the manual says. So if you're carrying a javelin, you have to put on the main aiming system, mount it, shoulder it and fire. We didn't want weapons to be a magic wand with bullets," he reasons. "They actually have a sense of functionality, and they have a weight."

In total, we're told to expect 70 infantry weapons in the game, with different sights, scopes, and attachments, including "very James Bond-looking Japanese submachine guns and a fully tricked-out Mk16 with a CVLA aim laser". There will be 50 land, air and sea vehicles, each with different strengths and weaknesses. Apparently "you'll need to learn how to use them".

Moving onto the real-time portion of the demo, Lindop takes the opportunity to stop the game in motion and show us a staggeringly detailed AH1Z Cobra helicopter in mid-air, and how well that detail scales. It's every military fan's wet dream, with every dial and instrument in the cockpit lovingly recreated, and the pilots sitting in massively detailed uniforms wrestling with the controls. "We've got hardcore fans that love their kit, and love the detail and the accuracy and we're delivering on that. You can see that we're not afraid to take you up close to the action."
'Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising' Screenshot 5

Hands-up who's about to die.

But there's more to it than just a pretty face, Lindop argues. "Of course, the vehicles look nice but the functionality's got to be there: the weapons systems, deployable weapons systems, crew spaces, passenger spaces, the simulation of the engine and the torque, the vehicle's ability over different terrain types. That buys you a lot in terms of gameplay balancing. If you simulate the real thing, it makes balancing much more realistic."

Achieving this level of realism is, understandably, a vast undertaking, and Lindop is keen to stress how important it is for it to gel correctly on a technical level. "To have all these dynamic effects and terrain, weapon systems all running simultaneously... A lot of the technology and effort has gone into that," he nods. "It means we have to have very clever audio managers and effects managers to have this kind of scale of combat on a cross-platform [title]. As part of the cross-platform delivery there's actually a lot of cross-pollination between platforms so that everybody benefits."

Indeed, PC owners with Quad Core processors and 4GB of memory will particularly benefit from the extra detail. Console owners need not fear getting a watered-down version, but PC owners can expect more expansive multiplayer options and bigger matches. It has previously been reported that the PC will feature 32-player (16 vs 16) multiplayer compared to the console's eight-player multiplayer. In both versions, however, each player will have a total of eight AI squad members fighting alongside them. In co-op terms, the PC will feature eight-player co-op, while console will be restricted to two-player co-op - so there are evidently going to be huge benefits to opting for the PC version if multiplayer is your thing.
'Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising' Screenshot 6

Quite how much of this detail will make it to the PS3 and 360 is open to debate. Hint.

For a matter of a few minutes we were shown some pre-alpha code running in real-time, albeit in an un-optimised state. Still, the high levels of detail, advanced damage modeling and awesome sense of scale were already easy to see as we watched as a marine troop land on a beach.

As a squad of soldiers advanced up a hill towards a village (continually chattering about the precise position of nearby landmarks), the old Operation Flashpoint gameplay was very much in evidence: the use of cover, the sense of imminent danger, the total freedom to decide for yourself which route to take. Rightly or wrongly, it's a very different approach to the typical run-and-gun, and all the game is looking all more interesting as a result. Whether all this rich promise will come to fruition is still open to question. But as the spring 2009 release date draws nearer, it hopefully won't be long before we can decide for ourselves whether Codemasters will deliver on its many bold claims.
Preview by : Kristan Reed

Demigod [review]

2009-04-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

Demigod is an action role-playing/real-time strategy hybrid that is notable for both what it does--and what it doesn't do. It does offers an addictive, click-happy gameplay model that combines elements of two genres into an appealing, competition-focused package. As one of eight demigods, you join either the forces of light or the forces of darkness and exert your hammer-swinging, spellcasting prowess, all while streams of AI-controlled reinforcements rush at each other on predetermined paths. If you're familiar with the popular Warcraft III modification Defense of the Ancients, you'll have an idea of what to expect here, even if the details and nuances don't correlate perfectly. Demigod doesn't offer what you would expect from a full retail product. Without any story-based single-player campaign, the intriguing backstory and heaven-gone-haywire atmosphere go disappointingly unexplored. Worse yet, online connection issues may alienate the game's target audience of competitive tacticians. It's too bad, because Demigod is a good-looking, great-sounding game that has all the right ingredients; it just can't quite combine them into a complete meal.

Flash Player 9 is required to watch this video.

On the surface, Demigod plays simply: you choose from one of eight hero characters called demigods, and you and your fellow deities (either other players or the generally smart artificial intelligence) attack the opposition in a mouse-centric scheme reminiscent of action RPGs like Diablo. Additionally, you might cast elemental attack spells, perform healing buffs, summon minions to do your bidding, swipe at enemies with your sharp demon claws, and more, all depending on which demigod you select. There are two types of demigods. Assassins are solo warriors, geared toward direct damage, while generals can summon troops to aid them in their cause. Because you manage only one unit, playing as an assassin is akin to playing an action RPG, though each assassin plays quite differently from the others and offers even more variety within its own skill tree. For example, Unclean Beast specializes not only in fast melee damage, but also in damage over time, spitting poisonous goo on foes or emanating an ooze that diseases nearby foes--but reduces his own health as well. The Beast's skill tree opens up a number of possibilities, and as you level up during the match (a quick progression, as befits the generally quick matches), you'll choose from several paths. If you like spitting poison, you can focus in that area, but you could potentially disregard that range of spells entirely and focus instead on your frenzy skill, which unleashes melee mayhem for a limited period of time. Or, of course, you can combine them in ways that befit your play style and benefit your team's needs.

Playing as a general requires a bit more battlefield strategy, allowing you to summon minions to aid your cause. This entails more micromanagement (but not much), and it also makes these demigods more flexible. To summon minions, you equip idols, though you can possess only three at a time. There are multiple idols (and therefore companion types) available, so you can choose which minions will accompany you in battle. As with assassins, each general brings various nuances to the battlefield, which in turn leads to more variety than you might perceive at first glance. The paladin called Oak can place a flag on the battlefield that summons the ghosts of defeated reinforcements in its radius to rise and fight, while the healer Sedna can conjure trolls. The gameplay requires a bit more finesse when you're playing as an assassin, but it's still satisfyingly addictive.

Online play is incredibly rewarding...

Your upgrades aren't limited to spell trees, however. At your team's base, you can purchase a variety of gear and items that let you further tailor your strengths or assuage your weaknesses--and even apply universal upgrades that benefit your entire team. As you play, you earn gold by killing other demigods and capturing flags that control nearby gold nodes. In turn, you purchase equipment that improves armor stats, health regeneration, movement speed, and so on; consumables like teleport scrolls and health items; more expensive damage and buff items called artifacts; and fortress upgrades that, for example, increase the amount of experience team members receive or that improve the amount of damage defensive towers do.

This sounds complex, but the options come in a pleasing trickle, so they aren't as overwhelming as they sound. As matches progress, you'll return to base from time to time (either by foot travel, teleport, or, sadly, death), make a few purchases, and return to the fray. Nevertheless, you'll need to make tactical decisions based on how you prefer to play and to make up for potential weaknesses. Perhaps those speed-enhancing boots aren't your first choice of gear, but if crossbow master Regulus is on your heels, you may appreciate the boost. And you can't discount the strategic value of the AI-controlled reinforcements that flow from the portals on the map. These grunt armies make the battles feel even more epic, for when enemy grunts meet, chaos often follows--as do more possibilities for the warring demigods. Not only are they the best source of experience points, but they even have great value as damage-doers if you take advantage of their predetermined routes. It's a pleasant balance: simple, addicting, and flashy fantasy battles in one corner, and flexible, strategic progression in the other.

This mix provides an excellent, if not quite original, basis for some enjoyably anarchic battles. Demigod is tailored for competitive play, and online battles should, in theory, provide an unending tug of war between the forces of light and darkness. A semipersistent multiplayer mode called The Pantheon lets you earn favor points for your faction, and you can participate in one-off skirmishes with others. The big problem? Online play was barely functional at the game's launch, apparently due to the peer-to-peer networking mechanism that drives it. Connecting to other players takes an inordinately long time, if it happens at all. A connection dialogue window indicates which player is connected to whom, and there are invariably multiple players who cannot connect to others. As a result, the larger the match, the less likely you are to actually play. Furthermore, the game client may hang should you try to exit while the game attempts to connect players, leading to an unhandled exception error dialogue (and a game reboot). Connection issues are widespread, which is a disastrous blow in a game that requires online play to be of much value.

...if you can actually get into a game.

If you look for solace in Demigod's single-player offering, be aware that there is no story campaign to get lost in, only skirmishes and a tournament mode, which is essentially a series of ranked matches against the AI. Granted, the gameplay is intrinsically fun, the various demigods offer variety, and the number of options you can tweak help keep offline battles fresh. Yet with only eight maps to explore, you will soon long for a real campaign to flesh out the game's god-versus-god mythology, which is absolutely brimming with possibilities. The colorful visuals and fantastic sound effects merge wonderfully and make the battles between minor deities seem oddly authentic. The pounding of drums, the calls of wood flutes, and even the strum you hear when mousing over the game menus contribute to the atmosphere of polytheistic bloodlust. Leaving this rich milieu unexplored by a true narrative is an unfortunate oversight, particularly in a game this light on features. And while Demigod is relatively easy to learn, the lack of a tutorial of any kind will further leave newcomers cold and makes the game seem even more stripped.

In Demigod, the moment-to-moment gameplay is relatively simple. However, the varying play styles of each demigod, as well as the numerous tactical upgrades and items, offer fulfilling strategic breadth. Nevertheless, this is an overly streamlined package that doesn't hit all of the marks it should. Newcomers to this type of gameplay will bemoan its limited single-player options; competition-focused tacticians will be frustrated by crippling connection difficulties and will long for more arenas. It's a shame that these flaws are so conspicuous, because Demigod has an addictive and rewarding foundation that should have had more (and more-functional) features built upon it.

Battlefield 2142 [review]

2009-03-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

Baseball legend Yogi Berra once quipped that "the future ain't what it used to be," which seems appropriate when describing Battlefield 2142, the fourth PC game in the best-selling action franchise. This new game attempts to follow up last year's superb Battlefield 2--and that's both a blessing and a curse, as 2142 will invite inevitable comparisons to Battlefield 2, even while it's busy trying to break new ground. Nevertheless, while a lot of the changes seem minor, there is enough new content in here to merit your attention.

A different sort of Cold War rages in Battlefield 2142, as two factions battle for survival and a new home in the distant future.
The plot of 2142 could best be described as Battlefield 2 meets The Day After Tomorrow, the 2004 movie where the world is suddenly encased in a present-day ice age. When billions of people are forced to flee the frigid Northern Hemisphere for the more hospitable Southern one, tensions escalate and shooting wars erupt for the last remaining bits of habitable land. In the game, this translates to the European Union battling the Russia-centered Pan Asian Coalition as they fight to flee Europe ahead of the ice and establish themselves in North Africa. The battlefields will shift from a wintry and war-torn European landscape to the arid sands of North Africa. This also means there are only two factions in the game, though why are the current inhabitants of North Africa sitting idly by while they're being invaded? In any event, these new factions are interesting, even if they are a bit hard to distinguish from one another. The soldiers of the future are clad in the same type of high-tech body armor, though the Russian armor is a bit blacker than the European version.
If you've played Battlefield 2, then you'll feel quickly at home in Battlefield 2142. The future is a very familiar place, because the designers didn't go too exotic with the weapons and vehicles. There are no laser or beam weapons here; instead, you'll get futuristic versions of today's weapons. There's an assault rifle, a sniper rifle, a missile launcher, and a light machine gun to equip the game's four classes. That's right: There are only four classes in the game, down from the seven seen in Battlefield 2, though these new classes are a lot more flexible and customizable. The price is that you're going to have to play 2142 a lot to access most of these customization options, as this system is designed to encourage long-term play.
The designers took the idea of weapon unlocks in Battlefield 2 and put it on steroids, so you can unlock up to 40 different weapons or pieces of equipment. Not only that, but each class has two different unlock tracks, which specialize in a different direction. For instance, the recon class can become a more powerful sniper or a more effective Special Forces operator, who can sneak around and blow up enemy ground stations, thus hampering the ability of the enemy commander to call in various forms of support. However, this also means that you might be in for some frustration in the beginning, as your character won't even have grenades until you unlock them, and you'll be at a disadvantage against those players who have access to the more powerful weapons and abilities. And while the promotions and unlocks come fairly quickly early on, the pace will slow down as each new unlock requires you to accumulate more and more points. So you'll need to play quite a bit to unlock a lot of what makes Battlefield 2142 so different from its predecessors. Or, you'll find yourself playing one class a lot more than the others, since that's where most of your early unlocks will go. This entire process is a bit confusing, as it's not enough to simply unlock new items, but then you must outfit your character when you join a battle for the first time.

Of course, Battlefield games aren't just about infantry combat, as the series' engaging mix of infantry and vehicle combat is what makes it so addictive. If you're a Battlefield veteran, you'll find that the vehicles of the future are a familiar lot, save for the cool mechlike walkers, which are essentially walking tanks. Still, you have slightly tricked-out versions of today's buggies, armored personnel carriers, and tanks. Again, there are some new features to make these vehicles feel a bit different. The buggies can kick in a short turbo boost to speed out of the danger zone, while the APCs can launch infantry into the sky on assault pods. The PAC tanks float thanks to hover technology, while the EU tanks rely on conventional treads. If used properly, these new vehicles can be devastating, though they can be countered if infantry teams work together. Of course, getting people to work together has always been a major issue in Battlefield, so we can probably expect the same endless debates about balancing as before. And the big question is the airpower, which was overly dominant in Battlefield 2. Our experience with 2142 is that these aircraft aren't as devastating as those in Battlefield 2, since they're slower and less capable, plus there are more ways to take them out. Then again, we'll probably be proven wrong once ace pilots emerge and figure out how to make these aircraft do stunts that even the designers didn't envision.
As you can probably tell by now, many of the gameplay concepts that were introduced in Battlefield 2 return in a slightly more evolved form. The squad nature of the gameplay is back, but now there are incentives in the form of "field upgrades" that reward players for squadding up and playing together. You get more points quicker if you follow orders, too. The commander role returns, and one player on each team can call in satellite scans and aerial drones to detect the enemy, as well as orbital strikes, which are a powerful form of artillery that take a long time to recharge. There's also an electromagnetic pulse strike that temporarily disables any vehicles in the blast radius, as well as scrambles the helmet-mounted displays of infantry. Still, there's a lot here that seems familiar, including the visuals, thanks to 2142 using a slightly enhanced version of the Battlefield 2 graphics engine. The engine is getting a bit dated at this point, and there's still no widescreen support, but the good news is that the system requirements haven't really changed, though the drawn-out load times of Battlefield 2 haven't been improved on, either.

World in Conflict: Soviet Assault [review]

2009-03-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

Soviet Assault doesn’t do anything to change 2007’s excellent Cold-War-gone-hot RTS. Instead, it weaves six new multi-part missions directly into the original campaign, so you play as both the invading Soviets and the defending US and NATO. It feels as if I’m playing World in Conflict: Director’s Cut, featuring scenes from the Russian perspective that ended up on the cutting room floor.

Much as I enjoyed the Russian missions and the excellent accompanying story cutscenes, as a fan of the original release I don’t particularly like the approach. Not because the new missions weren’t up to the same high standards, but because it forced me to replay the entire original campaign in order to see the new stuff. After kicking off the war by invading western Germany in 1989 as the Soviets, you replay a few American missions from the original release, then back to the Soviets, etc. Considering that the Soviet missions barely overlap with the American storyline at all (you’re never fighting against ‘yourself’) I would have preferred to play the new missions as a self-contained campaign.

Massive’s action-oriented approach to RTS, abandoning base building in favor of purchasing air drops of units from a rejuvenating pool of resource points, and capturing strategic locations rather than destroying enemy structures, is as fast-paced as ever. Everything still looks spectacular, especially now that hardware has caught up a little more with the demanding engine.

However, the AI hasn’t improved; the mission scripts still just throw massive numbers of enemy tanks and troops at you that roll right up to and sometimes right on past your forces with no regard for tactics. It’s still tough at times to deal with their endless numbers, but it’s annoying that they don’t behave the way armor should.

Writing to his wife while seated atop a tractor on a conquered American farm, the conflicted Russian Colonel leading the Red Army remarks, “These Americans are not so different from us.” I agree – if not for the accents of the unit voices, I’d have frequently forgotten which side I was fighting for. From the zoom level you typically play at, the identifying characteristics of American and Soviet tanks and soldiers are difficult to make out, and unit capabilities are nearly identical. Even the airstrike and artillery abilities (which are as awesome as ever) are identical. This makes playing as the Soviets less of a fresh experience than it could have been, although the missions are as challenging and well-made as the previous batch.

Multiplayer is where SA could and should have distinguished itself, considering WiC still has a loyal following online. Instead it offers only eight new official multiplayer maps, while a lack of new factions, units, abilities, or game modes makes its value to veteran players questionable, given the availability of community-made maps.

SA doesn’t offer enough of an incentive to dust off your copy of WiC for another go, but if you were otherwise occupied when it first came out, consider this the perfect opportunity to try it with a more expansive campaign.

Halo Wars Review [review]

2009-03-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

The designs of many video games feel like simple extensions of the games we used to play as children. I’m not talking about board or card games, though those are fairly well represented in the digital realm. I’m talking about things like shooters, which are just extensions of the fake war games we used to play. You know, “pew pew, I shot you, you’re dead, no I shot you first!” All boys played “guns” at one point or another, which is undoubtedly where I learned my elite grenade spamming skills.

Real-time strategies also always reminded me of games we used to play as young boys. But usually when we played army men with our toys, it was with G.I. Joe, or Star Wars action figures or some unholy combination of the two. As long as the scale was correct, no one minded mixing the universes as we built huge battlefields on patches of dirt in our back yards, and had our toys fight to the death.

Since that’s what RTS’s have always felt like to me, Halo Wars feels like the ultimate backyard battle with my friends, provided we had action figure versions of every last vehicle and character in the Halo universe. Since that’s somewhat impossible, we have a video game to realize our adolescent dreams. One heck of a video game, I might add.

Gamers have been waiting a long time for a real time strategy on a console to get it truly right. I can say with some confidence, that Halo Wars is that game. The controls have always been the issue and in Halo Wars they are perfect. Navigating the map, building buildings and units, commanding your troops in the field; it’s all so easy, and yet allows you to do almost anything you need to do, that you’ll often be surprised that your hands are touching a gamepad and not a mouse and keyboard. The game is designed to make it easy for RTS newbs, yet it doesn’t back off from its core ideal: to be an awesome RTS, plain and simple.

Plenty of hard-core strategy fans are surely foaming at the mouth at what I just wrote. But it doesn’t have hotkey grouping! The tech tree is rather shallow! There’s no waypoint system! Let me say this in the kindest way possible: shut the hell up. You may have certain expectations of the genre if you’ve ever played another game like it on the PC. But seriously, let go of your expectations and accept what they’ve done here.

Halo Wars is easy; choose all your units in the world (useful when you’re throwing your all against an enemy base), only the ones you can see on screen, or hold down “A” for a paintbrush style tool. Either way, they all work in really intuitive ways. Second, isn’t not having to find a place to fit your factories and resource gatherers nice? Base building is reduced to a single, multi-unit space, often augmented by other spots on the maps to build secondary bases. Seriously, I’ve never felt less intimidated building a second base in an RTS, and that’s a good thing. That’s an awesome thing.

Halo Wars is the RTS genre stripped down to its roots. But it still has complexity. It still has a tech tree, and balances your ability to strategize production and warfare in the appropriate equation. In essence, it’s good, but some will find it bad. Or rather, less that good. To each his own, I say. The people you really need to worry about are hardcore Halo fans.

What about them? What if you’re one of those countless Halo fans who only plays the game on multiplayer and not the single player campaign? What if you’ve never played an RTS, have no idea what one is, and only bought the game because of the word “Halo” on the front? To you I say, you’re gonna love the cutscenes. But seriously, I think you might love the game too if you only give it a chance.

Because if you are a Halo fan, Halo Wars is essential. The aforementioned cut-scenes are nothing short of awesome, putting previous efforts in Halo to shame. Even though it takes place years before the events of the original Halo: Combat Evolved, the action in Halo Wars fleshes out a lot of the story, while being awesomely conceived in its own right. The story only gets richer. But the in-between, the actual game, is not to be missed.
What about them? What if you’re one of those countless Halo fans who only plays the game on multiplayer and not the single player campaign? What if you’ve never played an RTS, have no idea what one is, and only bought the game because of the word “Halo” on the front? To you I say, you’re gonna love the cutscenes. But seriously, I think you might love the game too if you only give it a chance.

Because if you are a Halo fan, Halo Wars is essential. The aforementioned cut-scenes are nothing short of awesome, putting previous efforts in Halo to shame. Even though it takes place years before the events of the original Halo: Combat Evolved, the action in Halo Wars fleshes out a lot of the story, while being awesomely conceived in its own right. The story only gets richer. But the in-between, the actual game, is not to be missed.

Turn and Burn in H.A.W.X [review]

2009-03-13T02:44:00.000-07:00

It was only a matter of time before the Tom Clancy series broke free from land and took to the skies with deadly intent in a military, jet-powered dogfighting game. In Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X, you'll settle inside the cockpit of a series of custom outfitted fighter jets to test your dogfighting wits and tactics against air, ground, and sea forces.

PMC Squadron
Your training and initial mission finds you in the comfortably familiar confines of the U.S. Air Force, but it's not long before your squadron is decommissioned, a casualty of the Air Force's increased reliance on unmanned fighter planes. While Uncle Sam might have moved on to cold, calculating computer-powered fighters, the Private Military Corporation (PMC) Artemis Global Security is only too eager to snap you up and make use of you and your squad's elite skill set.
Players want to shred entire platoons of enemy tanks, gunboats, and attack choppers while turning, burning, and juking their way through the skies.

This shift from the government to private sector sets off a chain reaction of political and military intrigue, as the game explores the muddy and morally ambiguous world of PMC forces. In terms of gameplay, Artemis accepts contracts from all over the world, so you will rain down support and death across South America, Central Asia, and even the United States of America, among many other exotic and familiar locations.

Arcade Realism
While grounded in Tom Clancy-approved reality, H.A.W.X treads the fine line between simulation and arcade shooters. After all, no one wants to fly with a realistic payload, only able to tackle a small handful of targets and enemy fighters for an entire mission.

Instead, players want to shred entire platoons of enemy tanks, gunboats, and attack choppers while turning, burning, and juking their way through the skies to create the perfect intercept angle and line up missile-locks and gunfire on enemy planes. H.A.W.X allows you to do precisely this as you take on epic, tense engagements at every turn.

Dogfighting Mechanics
While your plane's payloads are stretched beyond realism, the handling and capabilities of your fighters are firmly grounded in realistic physics. Planes pitch (Left Thumbstick), yaw (LB, RB), accelerate and decelerate (Left Trigger, Right Trigger) much as you would expect, allowing you to combine your own internal sense of logic and the game's well refined mechanics to inform your quick-witted strategies.

Perhaps most interesting though in terms of the controls are the Assistance On/Off and ERS mechanics. Here's how they work:
Assistance On/Off: In keeping with the arcade/realism balance, Assistance On curtails your control of the plane in favor of keeping you from endangering the aircraft with ill-conceived maneuvers. Or, you can enable Assistance Off to gain more subtle control of the jet to pull off daring and precise maneuvers. This puts the plane at greater risk; for example, stalling is a very real danger with Assistance Off.
ERS:This remarkable addition to fighter-jet UI takes the form of virtual, glowing gates showcasing an easy path for both evasion and interception. If an enemy fires off a missile at you, enabling ERS will show you how best to dodge the missile without having to employ flares.

Hands Free
Also worthy of special consideration is Ubisoft's use of voice commands during gameplay. Don your Xbox 360 Headset and use your voice for greater combat efficiency. Want to let loose a missile? Say "Fire." Likewise, "double" fires two missiles, "radar" brings up your TACMAP, and "decoy" launches flairs.

Level Up
Every kill you notch and special objective you complete earns experience points toward increasing your level from lowly Private First Class all the way to General. New levels unlock access to new fighter jets and even different weapon payloads with which to outfit your fighter. Kitting your jet properly is particularly important as each pre-mission briefing breaks down the percentage of air, ground, air defense, or naval forces you'll likely encounter.

Cooperative Aces
Your A.I. squad mates are valuable commodities, and they can and will outperform you if you're not on the ball. But nothing quite replaces the thrill and camaraderie found when playing cooperatively with a friend or fellow gamer. When you're focusing on ground targets only to have a bogey tuck in on your six and start lining you up for missile lock, there are few things as satisfying as having your wingman light them up before they let one fly. Every single mission can be played cooperatively in the game.

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X for Xbox 360® brings to bear one of gaming's most powerful and respected franchises on a genre that has seen too little fanfare in recent years. Daring air combat awaits, so buckle up, soldier.

Battle-Tested Strategies [review]

2009-03-13T02:28:00.000-07:00

The beauty of the real-time strategy (RTS) genre is the almost limitless well of tactics you can draw from for success. Every strategy has a counter strategy, and so even an entire guide book could hardly hope to provide every useful tip for a game like Halo Wars™.

That being said, we have a few battle-tested tips that should help. They should give you an edge as you begin your Halo Wars career, and set the wheels in motion for creating your own unique strategies as well.
Peek-a-boo!

Gathering intel on your opponent is a must when deciding among what units to build and upgrade. Give your opponent a few minutes to prep and then send a lone throwaway unit (such as the Warthog or Ghost you begin with) to drive through your opponent's base.

Look closely at what kinds of units are milling about, and what structures they've built. If their primary base boasts a single Barracks, with nothing but Supply Pads and Reactors filling out the rest of the slots, you know they're powering up for a tech heavy army. And that's a perfect time to strike with a rush attack.

Trigger Happy

The moment you engage in battle with an enemy, you should already be plying the Right Trigger to highlight specific units to employ their special attacks and focus on the units they're best matched against.

It's not enough to build a well balanced army. You must also use them efficiently in battle. For example, if you're sporting Spartans and your opponent rolls in with Scorpions, send your troops to jack the Scorpions. Use your Flamethrower units to take out enemy infantry and your Marines to shoot down enemy aircraft. If you're not focusing on what you're best against, a skilled enemy will make short work of your army.
Rarely Scroll

Halo Wars is designed with the D-Pad in mind for almost all of your quick navigation needs. Use it in lieu of scrolling across the map whenever possible. If your base is attacked, don't scroll. Instead, tap right on the D-Pad to instantly warp to that location. Tap left to quick-travel to your bases and down to cycle through your armies. Precious seconds are wasted when scrolling, and you'll need every one of them against a skilled opponent or Heroic or Legendary A.I.
Leader Forte

Each of the six leaders (three per faction) offers a very unique set of abilities and special units. Always focus heavily on at least one of these abilities. For example, Commander Cutter is the only UNSC leader that can train ODST units, an exceptionally potent variation on the standard Marine unit. So focus your resources and research priorities around unlocking access to these units. The Prophet of Regret's Cleansing Beam can tear through buildings in a hurry, making him an ideal choice for rushing an enemy base. Always err on the side of your leader's strengths.

Leader Counter

While it's hard to go wrong using your Leader's special units and abilities, don't forget to take your opponent's Leader into account when devising your strategy. For example, if you're facing off against Sgt. Forge, it's a fair bet he'll focus on vehicles, particularly his super-unit Grizzly tanks, in which case, you might consider investing heavily in anti-vehicle units such as Cobras.
Spare the Jacked

The UNSC Spartan's most potent weapon is the ability to take control of an enemy vehicle. Not only does the enemy lose a unit when you successfully jack a vehicle, but the Spartan immediately makes that unit more powerful.

When you enter a battle with Spartans at your control, be careful to pick out the enemy vehicle you want to jack and make certain none of your units are attacking that vehicle. This way, you won't be wielding an already damaged unit when you take control.
Battle Heal

Whenever you enter battle as the UNSC, don't forget to make instant use of the Spirit of Fire's Heal and Repair ability (press up on the D-Pad). Drop it immediately once your units are set up (you don't want them running out of the area of effect). This will make them substantially more difficult to bring down and tip the advantage heavily in your favor.

Structure Destruction

While the ultimate goal should be to annihilate an enemy base, try taking aim at individual structures if you find yourself in a losing battle. Wreak havoc with your opponent's infrastructure by destroying Supply Pads, Barracks, and the like, forcing them to rebuild their losses rather than build up their army.
Environment Use

Whether in Campaign or Skirmish, the game's maps are teeming with environmental advantages. Look to make use of these as often as possible. In short, never leave sniper towers unmanned or cover unused. Units protected in these structures can take many times more damage than normal. If there's a neutral Reactor or Supply Pad to be taken over, storm it as soon as possible. The player that controls most of the environment's map-specific features will have a tangible advantage.

Don't underestimate the importance of the supply crates scattered across the map either. Taking the time to search these out and farming them can make an enormous difference in your early preparations.
Specialized

When making your initial battle preparation, try focusing heavily on one or two types of units. While a well balanced army is important, you don't want a hodgepodge of random, basic units wandering about. Instead, build a strong foundation centered on two unit types and then augment them with additional units afterward.

If, say, you're playing Professor Anders, you might want to invest in anti-vehicle Gremlins and her super-unit Hornet variant, the HAWK. Then, once those units are established, try adding a trio of Spartans and other units handpicked to counter your opponent's strategy.
Expand!

Even a fully upgraded base can't hope to accommodate every structure you need for a successful match, so make it an early priority to take over an expansion base location. Remember that many of these expansion sites are defended by a neutral faction, so take at least four units with you to ensure you don't fail in your attempt.

Try ignoring the turrets on these neutral bases as well. Instead, attack the base itself. Once destroyed, the turrets will self-destruct, leaving just a few basic infantry units to mop up.

Also, if your second base stands between you and the likely approach of your enemy, consider using your first base as a hub for mining resources and researching technology. Then, use your second base for your unit building structures.

Covenant Rush

While either faction can "rush" an enemy effectively, the Covenant has a rare advantage in the form of their Gravity Lift. Place any Covenant unit in the Grav Lift and they'll be teleported instantly to the Covenant Leader's location. Use this to your advantage by stealthily approaching an enemy base with your Leader. Then, send your army onto the Grav Lift and employ an immediate stealth attack.

Every Campaign level and every round of Skirmish should teach you something new. Play to win, sure, but also play to learn. Pay close attention to your opponent's tactics and how your own strategies play out and you can't help but improve with every session. Good luck on the battlefield!

X - Blades [review]

2009-03-12T05:13:00.000-07:00

For the past year I've been covering SouthPeak's X-Blades, I noted that it looked like an action title with quite a bit of promise. Originally thought to be an Xbox 360 title, PSXE was the first to give our readers a hint that it's also coming to the PlayStation 3. To be honest, I was fairly excited about the release of the game, and even enjoyed my playtime with it at E3. Now, the game has arrived, and upon playing the final game, my excitement has turned into disappointment. The potential this game once had has been overlooked with redundant gameplay, wrapped around in a shinny wrapper.

X-Blades is a hack-n-slash action game with a few minor action-RPG elements, as well. As Ayumi, the game's heroine, you'll have the ability to use a variety of different weapons, in addition to being able to cast spells, and employ strategic tactics. For starters, your weapon is actually a gun-blade, so you can use it to fire shots during long-range combat by hitting R1, or slash away during close-range combat. Magic spells include healing, fireballs, lightning, ice attacks, earthquakes, and so forth, and they can be mapped to four buttons on your controller.

The story behind the game is sort of like a medley of Lara Croft meets spunky anime chick with an attitude that's all too reminiscent of Tila Tequila, the ever annoying troll whose face has been plastered on MTV and mags for far too long now. X-Blades follows Ayumi, an adventurer who is out on the quest for invaluable stones, after discovering a map that may potentially lead her to them. Forces lurk inside of Ayumi, and she must cope with them, believing that the stones she is in search of are the secret to ridding her of the curse that lies within her body. The presentation of the story is pulled off very stylistically, utilizing the game's unique art-style.

So where does X-Blades fall apart? Well, as I mentioned earlier on, redundancy kills it. From the moment you start the game to the hours that have passed, you never feel like your game has grown or evolved. Sure Ayumi's got a selection of new spells and attacks to use, but the game's combat still feels largely the same. Additionally, the constant barrage of enemies make for some extremely long and tedious battles against dozens of the same creatures, and the boss fights aren't any better. Worst of all, the level design is poor. While 40 levels may sound epic, once you see them, you'll realize they're pretty tiny with nothing worth exploring. Instead of utilizing a more connected world, like that of Uncharted, X-Blades boasts a plethora of tiny fragments that don't amount to much.

I also noticed something extremely unusual about X-Blades, and that's the fact that the game doesn't seem to support rumble. Shooting doesn't trigger a response from the controller, neither does attacking, or even getting attacked. Very poor design choice on the developer's part. And while we're on the topic of controls, I should mention that X-Blades could control a bit tighter, too. As far as value, despite the various game endings, there isn't much incentive to play through X-Blades. With a bit more time in development and better design choices, SouthPeak could've had a much better title on their hands.

Visually, there's no doubt that X-Blades looks stunning. The environments, in particular, look downright beautiful, with gorgeous lighting that fills up the entire image, and a color palette so vivid that it oozes eye-candy. If you think the screenshots are pretty, the game looks even better running on your TV. The back of the box indicates a 1080i and 1080p resolution, although I believe the 1080p is just upscaling. In any case, giving us 1080i with the option of 720p is still very nice. Perhaps, considering how small the levels are allowed Gaijin to utilize such sharp textures, seeing as how the engine is only rendering them on a limited scale. There are some problems, such as Ayumi's animation that could've been done better, in addition to sleeker character detail. I do like the contrast of art styles, and the overall artistry is very solid. Though, I don't quite like the embarrassingly skimpy outfit on Ayumi; that is to say I'd be embarrassed to be caught playing a game where a skinny little anime girl is running around with a G-string. Nevertheless, from a technical standpoint, X-Blades is a very good looking game.

But back to the bad, the audio fails too. If you read my Tila Tequila reference a few paragraphs up, then you should know the kind of voice acting you're in store for. The voice acting is like a shower of grated cheese. And then there's the soundtrack, which is made up of nothing but really cheesy metal/rock tunes, cheesier than what you'll find in Devil May Cry, thankfully you can shut if off. Getting off the topic of cheese, there's also a technical issue with the audio, and it's the sound effects. Pulling off these devastating specials, like an earthquake, may look fierce, but you'd never know it is, considering that the sound effect for it is totally mute, and that goes for a whole bunch of other attacks.

What I once pegged as a sleeper hit has left me disappointed. X-Blades is riddled with potential, but thanks to a series of poor design choices, the game lacks the core fundamentals that made games like Devil May Cry and Heavenly Sword so great. The tiny environments, the tedious and boring combat, poor audio, and lackluster control feel really bring down what could've been a solid game. Despite a nice and polished visual package, X-Blades is not worth the coin.

Alone in the Dark: Inferno [review]

2009-03-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

Last year, survival/horror fans everywhere anxiously awaited the launch of Eden and Atari’s Alone in the Dark, as acquired preview information indicated a potentially solid and freakishly entertaining experience that would tide us over until Resident Evil 5 (or, little did we know at the time, Dead Space). Unfortunately, the game ran into serious issues: the PlayStation 3 version was delayed until fall, the 360 version was nothing more than mediocre, and the PS2 version was downright awful. The only saving grace of the situation was that Eden promised a completely overhauled adventure for PS3 owners, thereby turning the discouraging delay into an encouraging wait for a superior version. Thankfully, after playing the freshly named Alone in the Dark: Inferno, we have learned that it is indeed the superior version…even if it’s not necessarily worth the price of admission. For fans of the genre, though, this revamped production may prove to be a satisfying adventure.

Obviously, the clearest evidence of this upgrade lies in the graphics. This visual presentation features plenty of detail and solid design, and the characters appear more refined and polished than they were in the 360 version. There’s no comparison to the PS2 version, so we won’t waste your time with that; let’s just say it’s a whole different universe. As is usually the case with titles in this genre, there’s always a whole lot of darkness so it can be difficult to sit back and conduct a complete analysis of the graphics. But with the exception of a few inconsistencies and tiny glitches that aren’t really worth mentioning, this is a surprisingly pretty and even accomplished production. If Eden had managed to provide us with this early last year, they would’ve been more impressive; we’ve seen the industry make more visual strides since then (things happen fast in gaming, you know). Enemy artistry is decent – even if many of them are merely altered humans – and the explosive effects, while not quite as appealing and one would’ve hoped, certainly serve to enhance the experience.

The sound falls well shy of new expectations, as the decent voice acting and some enjoyable special effects have to override the lackluster gameplay effects. The latter are extremely erratic; certain aspects of your adventure will never even be heard. For instance, at one point, you have to leap at a cable in order to cause a piece of broken cement to rise on the other side. There’s a short cut-scene once you’ve leapt to the cable, in which you hear absolutely nothing. Furthermore, when engaged in mortal combat with the nasties that infest New York City, we’re left wanting in regards to appropriate impact, whether you’re attacking with a chair or using a firearm. The soundtrack isn’t too great, either. It kicks up a notch when things get extraordinarily intense and the suspenseful music fits the atmosphere, but it’s never quite up to the challenge. In order to create a completely effective survival/horror setting, one must have convincing visuals and music that continually adapts and sets the tone. Inferno does some of this, but not all.

Perhaps the biggest issue with the original iteration last year was the lack of stable control. There were all sorts of problems, ranging from incomprehensible tutorials, bizarre button-mapping decisions, and a general lack of smoothness and solidity. Perhaps the best way to describe them is that they were just “too all over the place.” Therefore, when starting Inferno, with the crippling control and gameplay problems from the previous versions sitting in the back of our mind, we immediately checked to see if Eden had fixed it. It didn’t take long to realize they had indeed made the appropriate adjustments, but they just didn’t take the next step and polish the gameplay to the point where a player would simply slip into the adventure without thinking about the control. This is what great games do: they make us forget we’re controlling a fake character on a video screen. Once we get a feel for the controls, they don’t let us down and they’re implemented in a sensible, accessible way. And while we weren’t saying, “damn, this is terrible,” we were still saying, “yeah, this is a lot better…but…”

But let’s talk about the good stuff first. The tutorials finally make sense and the controls have been streamlined a bit. The first example of this improvement came during the introductory sequence when our character had to descend on a cable inside a building that’s falling apart. We remember playing the PS2 version and completely failing to understand how to perform the necessary actions. This time, things worked out just fine (despite a small hiccup at the end where the last tutorial command came very late), and that was most encouraging. It helped to make up for the slight disappointment we felt when first gaining control of our character; you can choose between first-person and third-person view, which is a fantastic idea, but only if the developer can make both views work equally well. In this case, you move too quickly and erratically when in first-person view, and besides, it just feels strange to be playing a game like this with that camera angle. The third-person view works out just fine, even if it’s nowhere near as tight as it should’ve been. And if you enjoy a first-person look, you’ll still use this for aiming weapons (and fire extinguishers).

The good news? Eden gives us some really nice ideas that we hope to see in other games. For example, you won’t open up a generic screen when you go to search through your personal inventory; you will actually look down into your coat and belt to examine what you’re carrying. It’s a simple idea, and it’s surprising nobody thought of this before. Also, instead of merely selecting a healing item and having it magically take care of business; your hand with the first aid spray actually hovers over the wound in question, thus allowing you to target the afflicted area. Finally, there’s more in the way of platforming than in your standard survival/horror title, as you will be shimmying along edges, leaping over chasms, and swinging along cables. This all works relatively well, and Eden tosses in plenty of visual assists to ramp up the intensity and atmosphere; hanging from a ledge while pieces of a crumbling building are hurtling by you is pretty damn cool. Oh, and you’ll even be able to leap into vehicles – sometimes, you’ll have to cross the wires to start it – so there’s a lot more gameplay elements than you might not have anticipated.

Perhaps the biggest addition here, and a valid explanation as to why “Inferno” is in the new title, is the role fire plays in your adventure. This time, you can use fire in a number of different ways: you can use it to light pieces of furniture to use as a torch, you can light up Molotov cocktails, and you’ll even need it to finish off enemies for good. Fire can be both your worst enemy and best friend, which is an enticing concept. Sadly, it’s not always so easy to use. This stems from a lack of gameplay and battle balance that remains the single biggest drawback of the game, and will likely cause some frustrated grimaces. Shooting with a weapon is okay (even though we didn’t like the idea of pressing Triangle to aim), but trying to whack enemies with objects like chairs is just plain annoying. You have to push the right analog stick right or left to prepare your strike, than push the stick back in the other direction to deliver the blow. This just doesn’t work anywhere near as well as a normal mechanic would’ve, and we can’t understand its purpose. We tolerated bashing through certain barriers by pulling back and pushing forward on the right analog, but in combat…? No. Just…no.

Alone in the Dark: Inferno is indeed the best AitD version available, although it’s difficult to say if it was worth the long wait for PS3 owners. If it weren’t for Dead Space, Atari’s game might be more appealing, but this renovation just feels a little incomplete. They did manage to tweak the controls, add in a bunch of appreciated little features, streamline and smooth out the core gameplay, and strengthen the foundation for the entire production. However, everything still feels too loose; the platforming and vehicle use is entertaining but still a little unstable, the idea of striking with the right analog stick is silly, the sound effects and voice acting don’t always deliver, and the storyline isn’t quite as engaging as we would’ve hoped. Inferno is now decent – yay! – but it still falls short of the intended goal.

Fallout 3 [review]

2009-03-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

Vault 101 -- Jewel of the Wastes. For 200 years, Vault 101 has faithfully served the surviving residents of Washington DC and its environs, now known as the Capital Wasteland. Though the global atomic war of 2077 left the US all but destroyed, the residents of Vault 101 enjoy a life free from the constant stress of the outside world. Giant Insects, Raiders, Slavers, and yes, even Super Mutants are all no match for superior Vault-Tec engineering. Yet one fateful morning, you awake to find that your father has defied the Overseer and left the comfort and security afforded by Vault 101 for reasons unknown. Leaving the only home you've ever known, you emerge from the Vault into the harsh Wasteland sun to search for your father, and the truth.

Left 4 Dead [review]

2009-03-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

If the names Zoey, Francis, Bill, and Louis don't mean much to you, then you probably haven't played the exceptional shooter Left 4 Dead. But if they trigger memories of gunning down endless hordes of zombies and desperately fighting for your life while screaming at your buddies, then you're quite familiar with Valve's thrilling cooperative multiplayer shooter, which shipped late last year. Now Valve is prepping the first batch of downloadable content for the game, which it is going to give away for free to both Xbox 360 and PC players sometime in March or April. What's in it? Well, we went to Valve this week to find out.

Now while it's not unusual for a PC game to get extra content for free post-release, it's vary rare for Xbox 360 DLC to go out sans fee. But Valve and Microsoft have figured out an arrangement. If you haven't bought Left 4 Dead on the Xbox 360 yet, Valve, the company that practically invented Game of the Year editions, does plan to release a special Critics Choice Edition of Left 4 Dead on April 21 for the console. It will feature the original game, as well as all the updates and the DLC. The DLC itself will go out digitally to existing Left 4 Dead players sometime before that date.

There are two key features in the DLC. The first is that Valve has finally added Versus mode to the Dead Air and Death Toll campaigns, a process that meant tweaking and enhancing quite a number of levels to allow for a balanced playing field. Versus mode lets two teams take turns playing as survivors or zombie specials in an anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better duel. The winner is the team that can accumulate the best score, which is usually determined whether the survivors make it to safety at the end of each level in the face of everything the zombie players throw at them. Left 4 Dead shipped with only two of its campaigns playable in Versus mode, so the DLC instantly doubles that numbers.

We played with Valve employees in a Versus game on Dead Air, the airport level. Now, playing with the guys who created the game may seem a bit unfair, and that's because it is. Still, we had a blast, as well as learned some expert tips from the designers themselves. (One diabolical tactic is to use the smoker to grab a human survivor with his tongue and drag him or her through the metal detectors in the airport, thus triggering a humongous zombie horde. Surprise!) Just like with the existing two Versus campaigns, Dead Air proved to be a fun cat-and-mouse struggle, as the humans attempted to race to safety while the zombies tried to improvise coordinated ambushes on the fly.

The second big addition in the DLC is the introduction of an entirely new Survival mode that's designed if you just want to get in and have fun for about 10 or 15 minutes at a time, though the fast pace and challenge of it means you and your group can do round after round while the hours waste away. In essence, it's the equivalent of Counter-Strike's five-minute matches.

In Survival mode, the goal is simple: you and up to three other players are on a single level and must stay alive as long as possible against an unending assault of zombies. Each Versus match starts with a setup time, as you can scour the map for weapons and equipment, like health kits and gasoline tanks. You can take as much time as you want, as the timer at the top of the screen doesn't begin until someone hits the button that starts the zombie horde. Once the button is pressed, the action gets off to a furious start and escalates from there.

How furious is it? Consider this: In all of the play testing that the Valve designers have done while creating this mode, none of them have ever survived past the 10 minute mark. We're told the company best so far was about nine minutes, with a team of elite players battling like crazy to keep one another alive. Our experience at Valve averaged around three or four minutes a round, but they're like the fastest three or four minutes of your life.

What makes it so challenging is that the Survival mode doesn't waste time building up. After the initial wave of zombies you'll start getting hit by waves of special zombies; these are the hunters, smokers, boomers, and tanks. You'll get multiples of them at a time; I often saw two or three hunters or smokers leaping around the battle while the mindless horde minions were everywhere. In one battle, we had the tank, a boomer, a couple of smokers, and a hunter hitting us at the same time. We're told it's even possible to get two tanks at the same time, a prospect that seems both ludicrously unfair and hilarious at the same time.

The way to survive as long as possible is to work together, which means sticking together as well as doing everything you can to protect the weakest member of the group, especially if they're knocked down and must be revived. There's plenty of equipment available in various areas of the level; some of these areas only open up during the match, so after you exhaust all the equipment in one room, you'd best move as a group to the next. One of the most dangerous moments is when you run out of ammo; you then have to make a coordinated move to one of the few ammo points on the map to restock.

So what's in it for you? Well, beside the intense action, there are all sorts of personal records you can accumulate. The most obvious one is trying to get a best time for each of the 16 Survival levels in the game. There are extra incentives as well. You can earn bronze, silver, and gold medals if you survive long enough. Though the medal times for each map will be tailored for each map, right now the basic idea is that you need to survive for at least four minutes to get bronze, six minutes to get silver, and eight minutes to get gold. (In our play session, the best we ever got was within a minute of earning silver.) Of course, online leaderboards will also let you compare your times with those of our friends for bragging rights.

As soon as your group is wiped out, you get the match results and then the entire thing resets. Basically, once you start playing you can do round after round easily, which eats up the time. Survival mode is playable on 16 levels, 15 of which are taken and modified from the existing four campaigns. We played in Dead Air's airport terminal, Blood Harvest's farm house level, and No Mercy's hospital level. There is one entirely brand-new level in the DLC called Lighthouse which the designers say may be the toughest level of them all.

Lighthouse is exactly that; a lighthouse atop a seaside cliff. You also get a sense of what you're in for when you realize that you start with a ridiculous amount of stuff at your disposal. There are about a dozen gasoline containers and propane tanks, as well as plenty of Molotov Cocktails and pipe bombs. It's like that age-old first-person shooter tradition of giving you plenty of ammo and health before encountering a major boss. What makes Lighthouse so dangerous is that it's a pretty open level; there aren't a lot of places to hide, and those places are pretty porous once the zombies start knocking holes in walls. Even the lighthouse tower itself is dangerous; while it's scenic and gives you a height advantage, you're exposed to any smoker who can grab you and drag you off the room with its tongue. You're in a dire position if you're on the ground and the rest of your teammates are still in the tower.

Granted, its going to be free, but even if Valve charged a reasonable amount for it the Left 4 Dead DLC would remain a great value. The Survival mode is perfect for a quick fix, while the new Versus campaigns should provide plenty of gameplay. In addition to the DLC, Valve will also release the SDK for the PC version, allowing PC users to start creating their own mods and levels for the game. But if that's not for you, there's always plenty of zombie killing to be done.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne [review]

2009-03-09T17:15:00.000-07:00

Payne or Pain
It’s still all the same.

Max Payne 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed 3rd Person Shooter “Max Payne”, released in 2001. Two years later, Rockstar Games and Remedy Entertainment bring us the long awaited sequel. But does it live up to its predecessor?
Story:
Two years after the events of the first game, Max is a NYPD detective. While investigating a series of murders by a group of hitmen known as The Cleaners, Max comes face-to-face with Mona Sax, who was thought to have been killed in the first game. When he returns to the station, he hears his new partner Valerie Winterson talking on the phone about Mona. Not long after the station is attacked by unknown assassins looking for Mona. After fighting off the assassins, Max begins hunting down the people responsible for the attack.

The story in Max Payne 2 isn’t incredibly deep, but it still keeps you on your feet with some unexpected twists, and it’s interesting enough. The characters are pretty well developed, but you can never really identify with them due to their extremely dark and depressing personalities.

The themes the game presents are a lot more interesting than the actual story. Max’s motivation eventually goes from looking for answers, to seeking revenge. But what is Mona’s motivation? Money? Revenge? Justice? I won’t give that answer away, but suffice to say it is nothing in the least way noble.

Now, while the themes are interesting, they are far from positive. Revenge, Murder, Sex, Passion, Betrayal and Money are pretty much what the game focuses on. There is never any reference to positive values like Friendship, Love, or Loyalty. The game seems to try and get a message across that says these values don’t exist, and that there is only bad in the world.

Gameplay:
The main focus of Max Payne is combat, and you never really do anything else. Combat is as simple as point and click, but what makes it special is a feature called Bullet Time. When you go into BT the world around you slows down, but your aiming doesn’t. This gives you an advantage as you can target multiple enemies and get a shot off at each one before any of the bullets actually connect. A new aspect of BT in Max Payne 2 is that when you’re in bullet time the more enemies you shoot, the slower everything gets and the faster you become. At maximum speed you move normally and the whole world around you just crawls. Of course, this ability isn’t unlimited as an hourglass in the bottom of the screen shows how much of it you have left. Unlike the first game this meter is always refilling, as opposed to having to shoot enemies to refill it.
Another aspect of bullet time is the shoot doge. This ability lets Max dive (forward, back, left, or right) while going into a sort of BT. It doesn’t actually use any of your meter up (probably because everything goes back to normal after about 3 seconds), but it’s still very useful as you can dive out of the way of bullets while still shooting at your enemies. Also, unlike the first game you can stay on the ground after using shoot dodge (as long as you’re shooting), which gives you a bit more cover.

This may seem like a cheap move but the enemies are smart enough and come in such large numbers that it balances things out very nicely.

Max’s arsenal includes Grenades, Molotov Cocktails, Machine Guns, SMG’s, Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, and Dual pistols.

The AI in Max Payne 2 is definitely better than it was in the first game. Enemies will take cover behind walls and doors, coordinate assaults, throw grenades, and even run away from grenades they themselves had thrown. That’s not to say the AI is perfect; an occasional enemy will still completely ignore you until you shoot him while others may blow themselves up with their own grenades.

Graphics:
Despite being a 5 year old game, Max Payne 2 still has some nice graphics. Everything looks quite good, textures are sharp, and the physics are fun (enemies fall down stairs and off roofs). Character models, especially faces, aren’t all that great, but they get the job done. Bullets look great though, with a bullet leaving a trail a-la-Matrix while in bullet time. Also you can actually affect your surroundings. Bullets, grenades, and even bodies knock over paint cans, boxes, etc, adding to the realism.

The game has almost no cutscenes with pretty much all of the story being shown through graphic novel type storybook pages, along with voiceovers and sound effects.

Sound:
The music in Max Payne 2 is great, and really helps set the dark, brooding mood of the game. Gunfire sounds realistic, and all the sound change in bullet time, becoming more drawn out and deeper sounding. The voiceovers are very well done and capture the character’s personalities well.
Objectionable Content:

Violence: Hundreds of enemies are killed during the course of the game, all of them are either hired killers or mobsters, no innocent civilians; the sheer body amount is staggering, and even a bit desensitizing. All of the deaths include at least some blood. Enemies will spout a bit of blood when short, although it’s not realistic in any way. However, there is a scene where you see the remains of someone who’s been blown up while inside a large toy costume. It’s not bloody, but it is a tab bit disturbing. All in all, the blood isn’t a very big issue.

Language: The game is chalk full of profanity. Godd*** makes a few appearances, along with countless uses of Sh** and the F word. I didn’t think the profanity added any “realism”, it just seemed pointless.

Sexual Content: The worst I have ever seen in an M game. There are always TV’s on in the buildings you visit, and one of the shows that is often on focuses completely on sex. It’s full of gross innuendos, and throughout the game you hear a women moaning and screaming as she has sex. And this pops up at least 10 times in the game, and it’s impossible to avoid. Also, there is constant sexual tension between Max and Mona, which eventually leads to them having sex. You see this happen with some partial nudity via the graphic novel pages, along with sexual sounds. You also see Mona taking a shower twice, with almost everything visible.

Other negative elements: The whole game is dark and depressing, and the ending does nothing to redeem it. Max himself does nothing admirable and the game shows everyone as being a corrupt backstabber.

Conclusion:
Max Payne 2’s gameplay is fresh, innovative, and a lot of fun. But the sexual content, language, depressing atmosphere and non-redeeming characteristics make this a game one to avoid at all costs.

Medal of Honor: Airborne [review]

2009-03-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

Medal of Honor has been one of the most successful franchises, but since early 2005, some of their games, like Medal of Honor: Vanguard, are coming up quite short for expectations. EA saw this and decided to work on a WW2 shooter that would have stuff no other WW2 game saw: open world gameplay. It is one of the best games so far that I have seen, and actually prefer this one over COD4. This is the first MOH game to include a sprint feature, and when you sprint, you actually feel like you’re moving. The only complaint some people may have is when you parachute, you can land anywhere, but land in a wrong spot, and you’ll be dead before you can get the chute off. Also, once you land, you are guided by invisible walls that guide you towards your objective. It’s not really noticeable though, unless you’re a hardcore gamer. Where this game really shines is multiplayer, but then again, don’t all shooter games shine in that department? When you play with other human beings, you feel like you’re playing Saving Private Ryan or something. It just gets your heart pumping.

The game plot is simple: gun your way to the objective. While it may seem like any other FPS, Medal of Honor: Airborne shows you different aspects of battles. Normally, on a D-Day mission, you’re storming up the beaches. Here, you land behind enemy lines, and attack them from their blind spot. This all leads up to a grand finale that even amazed me. While I won’t tell you what it is, I will tell you it’s worth the money.

This is a war game, and with all war games, there is killing. While this is a next gen game, the killing is actually somewhat covered. When you aim down the sight of your gun and shoot, your gun moves around so much you rarely see the body get shot, much less fall to the ground. This is a good thing since aiming is encouraged. You can fire from the hip, but your chances of hitting anything are slim to none. When you shoot someone from the hip, 1 time out of 15 will you see a blood spurt, and when I say blood spurt, I mean a weird little blood area that fans out and disappears in less than a second.

There are VERY few words spoken that would be offensive. I just played it not even 10 minutes ago, and this is what I heard: 1 of the Lord’s name in vain, 1 B*******, and 1 crap, which will be offensive to some.

There is nothing sexual in this game at all. EA is usually good about stuff like that.

Also, no occult overtones are even thought about in this game.

This game shows you how men bonded with each other, and went from hating each other to helping each other in hairy situations. There are cutscenes in the beginning that show a man disliking his Sergeant, and by the end of the game, they are “best buddies”. When one guy shows his dislike of germans (handled very well by EA) a Captain yells at him to show some respect. That caught me off guard. Usually you don’t see that in a WW2 game.

The Orange Blog [review]

2009-03-08T10:15:00.001-07:00

Games included in The Orange Box compilation: The original Half-Life 2 - The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people - people he cares about - are counting on him. Half-Life 2: Episode One - The player reprises his role of Dr. Freeman, who must immediately face the repercussions of his actions in City 17 and the Citadel. Freeman reconnects with Alyx Vance and her robot, Dog, as they continue their support of the resistance's battle against the Combine forces. Half-Life 2: Episode Two -- the second installment in Valve's episodic trilogy advances the award-winning story, leading the player to new locations outside of City 17. Portal - a pioneering type of single player action game that rewrites the rules for how players approach and manipulate their environment â€“ much like how Half-Life 2's Gravity Gun reinvented the way gamers interact with objects in the game. Team Fortress 2 - an all-new version of the legendary title that spawned team based multiplayer action games. The game's daring new art style features the most advanced graphics of any Source-based game released to date.

StarCraft [review]

2009-03-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

In the distant future, a small group of human exiles have been doomed to fight for survival on the edge of the galaxy. Planet resources begin to run short, and three unique species--Terran, Protoss, and Zerg--engage in intergalactic warfare. As the military leader for your species, you must gather the resources you need to train and expand your forces and lead them to victory across three different campaigns. Each species has unique units, technologies, attributes, and abilities--all of which you'll need to master for control of the galaxy.

Half Life 2 [review]

2009-03-07T17:31:00.000-08:00

The follow-up to Half-Life continues the intense action and immersive storytelling from the original and adds more realism and responsiveness. Once again, you play the role of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, and its populace dwindling. With your trusty crowbar and a variety of other weapons at your disposal, Freeman must rescue the world from the wrong he unleashed at Black Mesa.

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos [review]

2009-03-07T16:52:00.000-08:00

It has been nearly fifteen years since the war between the orcs and humans ended. Yet the kingdoms of men grew complacent in their victory - and slowly, the defeated orcish clans regrouped under the banner of a new visionary leader. As the drums of war play once again, you must build and rule an empire of four unique races armed with distinctive units, magical abilities, and weapons. Spread your dominance online against other armies over Battle.net, which includes an improved ladder support.

Empire : TOTAL WAR [review]

2009-03-07T16:33:00.000-08:00

Empire: Total War is set in the 18th century, a turbulent era that is the most requested by Total Warâ€™s loyal fan base and a period alive with global conflict, revolutionary fervour and technological advances. The game features themes such as the Industrial Revolution, America's struggle for independence, the race to control Eastern trade routes and the globalisation of war on land and sea. Empire: Total War sees the debut of 3D naval combat within the Total War franchise. PC Gamers intuitively command vast fleets or single ships upon seascapes rich with extraordinary water and weather effects that play a huge role in your eventual glorious success or ignominious defeat. After pummelling your enemy with cannon fire, close in to grapple their ship and prepare to board taking control your men as they fight hand to hand on the decks. Empire: Total War also sees further enhancements to the Total War series signature 3D battles and turn based campaign map. Real time battles pose new challenges with the addition of cannon and musket, challenging players to master new formations and tactics as a result of the increasing role of gunpowder within warfare. And the Campaign Map â€“ for many the heart of Total War â€“ will see new improved systems for Trade, Diplomacy and Espionage with agents, a refined and streamlined UI, improved Advisors and extended scope taking in the riches of India, the turbulence of Europe and the untapped potential of North America.

Resident Evil 5 [review]

2009-03-07T07:17:00.001-08:00

The biohazard threat has not ended: Just when it seemed that the menace of Resident Evil had been destroyed, along comes a new terror to send shivers down players' spines. Chris Redfield, returning Resident Evil hero, has followed the path of the evil literally around the globe. After joining a new organization, Chris heads to Africa where the latest bioterrorism threat is literally transforming the people and animals of the city into mindless, maddened creatures. He is joined by a new partner, Sheva Alomar, who lends her strength, intelligence and sharp-shooting skills to the mission. In order to survive, Chris and Sheva must work together to take on the challenges of discovering the truth behind this evil plot. Utilizing a revolutionary new 2-player co-op mode of gameplay, players assume control of either Chris or Sheva and experience Resident Evil in new ways. In Resident Evil 5, Capcom has players fearing the daylight as much as they have feared shadow in previous games. [Capcom]

Command & Conquer : Tiberian Sun

2009-03-05T23:40:00.000-08:00

In Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, players fight on dynamic 3D battlefields where nature itself provides tactical opportunities: ion storms, destructible terrain, forest fires, treacherous ice fields, and many more surprises that can help or hinder your strategies. Choose from two very different ways to play. Command the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) or join the secretive Brotherhood of Nod. Then prepare your troops for combat in Tiberium-filled temperate zones, arctic tundras, and full cityscapes. Invent new strategies and tactics. Employ a deadly mix of advanced technologies, high-energy weapons, guerilla warfare, and high-tech sabotage (see screen shots).

Units can become smarter, faster, and stronger with "veterancy." As units gain experience they learn new abilities and receive special bonuses of hit points, armor, and weapons power. The Hover MRLS will gain speed and armor strength; Nod Stealth Tanks will automatically employ tricky tactics; and GDI infantry can learn to scatter.

Dynamic, colored lighting makes the mood and attitude of the battlefield more lifelike than ever before. Covert night missions, new defenses, searchlights, and sirens intensify the thrill and excitement. Experience a kinetic, living battlefield created with new technology that delivers things like flying shrapnel, shock waves, and crashing debris for an in-game experience like never before.

Find free multiplayer support at Westwood Online. Play on the definitive Internet battleground for Command & Conquer gamers, with a new, quick, and easy connection application and worldwide ranking and ladder systems

Battlefield 3 Rumour

2009-03-05T23:20:00.000-08:00

A tipster sent us PDF document which looked like an outline of features for Battlefield 3. The three page document is apparently prepared for investors which should get it by December of this year. It details basic features of BF3, and are as listed:

* Release in late 2008
* Powered by “Frostbite DX”
* Set in year modern day (just like BF2, ed.)
* Will ship with 8 maps, each supporting up to 40-players per team
* Two playable factions, NATO and MEC (Middle Eastern Coalition)
* Same “ticket-based” gameplay style as before
* Maps are mostly urban, based in Middle East
* Squads and Commanders are present, introduced are “Battalions” which consist of three to four squads.
* Five playable classes; Sniper, Assault, Engineer, Medic and Support
* Will feature 48 different vehicles (24 for each faction)
* Will feature 34 different weapons (17 for each faction) and another 22 unlocks (for both factions), in total 56 different weapons.
* Other unlocks include different types of ammunition, body armor, helmets, camouflage and accessories.
* Possible public beta in “Summer 2008″
* Online stats tracking, awards and “real world ranks”
* “Soldier” feature, looks like MMO-styled characters and avatars
* Ranked servers will be available for resellers weeks before the game ships (for testing, apparently, ed.)
* In-game replay and recording feature
* VoIP, friends list, in-game IM-client and “extensive clan support”
* Built-in auto software updater (no more patches!, ed.)
* Widows Vista and OS X (no XP?!, ed.)
* Announcement and teaser trailer in January 2008.

A map is mentioned by name, called “Baghdad Burning”, and appears to be a massive urban map, similar to BF2’s very popular “Strike at Karkand”. The game is powered by “Frotbite DX”, currently the Frostbite engine is used in Battlefiled: Bad Company on PS3 and Xbox 360. The “DX” could refer to DirectX (10?), a PC version of the Frostbite engine.

Please note that none of this is confirmed, we’ve emailed a few people from EA and DICE (Battlefield developers) and will update the article as soon as we know more. Also note that we cannot, for obvious (legal) reasons, release the PDF document. Stay tuned for more info.

[Update 1] A few wanted to know if the document mentions in-game advertising, it does not, but wouldn’t be surprising, considering BF2142 had in-game advertising.

[Update 2] EA responded to the rumor with a “no comment” statement. Still waiting for a reply from DICE (which will probably be the same).

[Update 3] For clarification, the document doesn’t say that XP is not supported, it only lists Vista and OS X.

[Update 4] Further investigation reveals that EA DICE owns the domain “battlefield3.com” (not so important, since it was registered in 2004, so was battlefield4.com etc.). Still no reply from DICE. Stay tuned for further updates.
[Update 5] EA and DICE have responded to the rumor.

World of Warcraft: Ashbringer

2009-03-05T23:09:00.000-08:00

The epic end to the Ashbringer Saga arrives and ties directly into Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion of the wildly popular World of Warcraft online role-playing game! In the end, all roads lead to Light's Hope Chapel, where the seemingly unstoppable Scourge army will mount a relentless offensive to destroy the Argent Dawn.

Counter Strike : Source

2009-03-05T23:07:00.000-08:00

If asked, Valve will tell you that Counter-Strike: Source originally began life as an experiment, designed to demonstrate how easy it is to port Half-Life modifications to the Source Engine. But it's easy to see how it's since established itself as Half-Life 2's chief multiplayer component; given that the majority of people who own the original Half-Life and still go online with it choose to play Counter-Strike, why waste time and resources trying to reinvent the multiplayer wheel when you can just polish an unbroken concept and re-release it as a pre-order bonus?
Go, go, go!

In the end, the idea turned out to be so good that Valve also decided to remake Day of Defeat, Team Fortress Classic, the original Half-Life single-player and more besides in its new Source Engine, not only attracting nostalgic fans back to retread fondly remembered paths, and gathering new blood to the shiny old flag, but saving the Seattle-based developer the trouble of designing an original multiplayer component to tack on the end of Half-Life 2 at the same time.

Having given ATI coupon holders, Condition Zero owners and LAN cafés the chance to try out a one-map beta version last month, Valve has now finally launched its Steam pre-purchase offers for Half-Life 2, and given fans who pre-order the game full access to a 'release version' of Counter-Strike: Source, featuring nine maps. Some argue that it's familiarity that fuels the success of unambitious sequels; in Valve's case, familiarity is just the kindling, and it's ignited pre-orders direct from the developer in a manner that's sure to have rival firms - including publishers - nursing furrowed brows of jealousy.

As long time veterans of the original Counter-Strike, we were some of the first in line. And having spent the past few days getting to grips with CS: Source, and reacquainting ourselves with hot headed bellowing - and, in particular, screams of "Stop running with the effing gun!" and "Defuse kit? DEFUSE KIT!" - we thought we'd let you know what you're up against; whether CS: Source is worth the trouble for fans of the original; whether it's good value as the multiplayer component of a £40 first-person shooter; and whether Valve's finally managed to give newcomers a way into the seemingly impenetrable world of Counter-Strike.
Enemy spotted

If we answered each of the last three questions in sequence, we could plot the resulting graph with a backslash. Yes, Counter-Strike: Source is "worth the trouble" for fans of the original - it's the game you remember and love, where a few minor shortfalls are offset by a resounding improvement in visual quality and a number of smaller, sensible alterations that subtly improve the experience. Secondly, maybe it's good value as the multiplayer component of a £40 FPS, but we'll deal with that in more detail later. And lastly, no, Valve's not managed to give newcomers a clearer way in.

For the completely uninitiated, CS: Source's problem is that it's too exclusive. It may be simple enough to get your head round quickly - Terrorists versus Counter-Terrorists with real-life weapons, one primary and one sidearm per player per round, bought along with grenades and suchlike before the round commences, you sit out the rest of the round when you're dead, and you can win by planting/defusing the bomb, protecting/rescuing the hostages, or killing off the other team - but it's a bitch to master.

Valve had planned to include AI-controlled bots to help players practice their way into CS - an approach that almost worked with the much-maligned Condition Zero - but they're not in this build (something that's attracted particular criticism given that an illegal hacked version of the CS: Source beta has been circulating with the bots enabled). So, in the meantime, players are expected to pick up and learn the maps in hostile online environments, full of people (like this reviewer) who know how to kill them before they've worked out which gun to buy, or which way to turn to get from point A to point B, or even what they'll see when they do get to point B. Let alone the best map strategies, the right radio commands, the best way to handle each weapon, the best vantage points, and everything else that everybody else already knows.

Frankly, anybody coming to CS: Source afresh, hoping to pick up the multiplayer game all their friends rave about, is going to have their work just as cut out as ever, and may prefer to wait for Valve to activate the bots so they can practice and grasp the fundamentals - how the game works, which weapons to go for and why, the map layouts, and the best team strategies - offline, before heading online to start nailing down the subtleties, like the way crouching improves firing accuracy, how you move quicker with the knife drawn than a primary weapon, and what to expect from individual chokepoints in a live game.
Need backup

For existing fans though, CS: Source ought to provide ideal fodder on those increasingly cold winter nights. In gameplay terms it's almost indistinguishable from its Half-Life-based predecessor. Two teams race towards chokepoints and try to achieve their objectives against the clock, taking advantage of the wide variety of weapons and tactics at their disposal, and the departed troops get to sit around and spectate as they do so, chatting about the action and sharing in the pervading mood of the encounter. It makes you laugh (particularly when it's one v. one and someone accidentally kills himself with a grenade or falling damage), and it makes you cry (particularly when people run with their bloody guns), but, given time to prove itself, it's also one of the most arresting FPS disciplines in existence.

Or, to make that a bit clearer, in gameplay terms the only practical differences can be run through in a couple of paragraphs. You can smash crates, computers and plenty of other destructible items littering each level. Glass, when hit by a bullet or knife, only falls away in a small radius around the point of impact, so it now takes another bullet or somebody jumping through the frosted effect of the cracked remnants to make it through completely. You can no longer penetrate two-foot walls with bullets, and a grenade going off on the other side of a wall will no longer hurt you anywhere near as much, but you can still send bullets through boxes, cupboard doors and the like. Water now splashes visually as well as audibly, giving the defending side on maps like Aztec a bit of an advantage in locating intrepid aggressors. And hostages are now capable of following you without getting stuck every five seconds, even if they still do so every once in a while.

And, of course, CS: Source adopts Half-Life 2's Havok-based physics code, meaning that barrels and limp bodies are now thrown around semi-convincingly by explosions (although they do seem to bounce a bit too much at the moment), adding to the spectacle. The gameplay benefits of this are, in practice, almost negligible (you'll be lucky to benefit from any extra cover as a result of it, in any case), but it certainly contributes to the increased believability of the whole thing.
Fire in the hole!

But CS: Source makes no secret of its intentions - it was not envisaged as "Counter-Strike 2", and as a result it doesn't attempt to overhaul the dynamic, or even augment it in more than a few subtle ways. What it does aim to do though is make the game look like a first-person shooter ought to do in this day and age, and not like the five year-old game it really is. So far Valve's revisited, overhauled and released nine of the original game's maps - Aztec, Dust, Dust 2, Chateau, Havana, Italy, Office, Piranesi, and Cobble - and it's a good mixture, from which most CS fans are bound to be able to pluck a couple of favourites.

Changes in terms of layout are harder to pick out. Dust has a couple of new routes and camping spots, but they're not mission-critical, and other changes are mainly superficial. All the maps benefit from a lot more incidental - and generally destructible - detail. Italy's market stall section now features all sorts of fruit displays, which react with great fervour to a grenade impact. Office, meanwhile, is a far more believable, um, office, complete with innumerable PC set-ups, signs encouraging employees and a well-stocked (albeit blown apart) underground car park.

Each of the nine maps has been given a lot of love and attention, although some plainly benefit more than others. Aztec, for example, takes best advantage of the new 3D skyboxes, which create the illusion of much more depth (temples rise into the sky, and banks of hills are lined with military supplies and vehicles), all harness bump-mapping techniques to make the most of their re-chiselled textures, and many make use of the engine's various showpieces - specular lighting effects on shiny floors, particles of sand dancing in the air, realistic splash effects and water behaviour, and increased detail in death animations. Then there's the blinding effect of the flashbang - the whole screen goes white, and the image gradually distorts back into focus as you twist and turn. It's a delightful agony, now, not being able to see.
Affirmative

Ultimately, then, as a package for the fans it's hard to criticise. We'll always have time for Counter-Strike which, despite having played it so long that we've past death and been reborn almost in synchronicity with the game itself, we still find does something enthralling and new every once in a while. And it's still our favourite multiplayer first-person shooter of all time, marginally ahead of various flavours of Quake.

And yet the game is still far from faultless. Counter-Strike has always been a modification that evolves periodically as the developer tackles pertinent issues, and as a freebie we were always prepared to endure that. But in using it as bait to encourage pre-orders of Half-Life 2 - in other words, charging for it - we're forced to ask tougher questions of it, and in some cases it doesn't have the right answers. Why, in what is presumably considered the final release version of the game (and the one that will ship on Half-Life 2 CDs and DVDs), are so many classic maps left off the roster? Why haven't the bots been enabled, or presumably even finished? Why is there only one character model per team, compared to the four options in the original? Why are we seeing widespread reports of crashes and missing sound files? We appreciate things like the Report A Bug option in the main menu - minor bugs are a given, and it's better to tackle them head on like this than not, polished retail code or no - but this version of CS: Source is not the finished article many expected.

Which leaves us to return to the issue of whether it's good value as Half-Life 2's multiplayer component and, in the meantime, a pre-order incentive. And it's here that Valve's attempt to avoid piling resources into a fresh multiplayer set-up arguably slips up; despite borrowing an existing game and sprucing it up, we're still forced to conclude that Counter-Strike: Source will be brilliant once it's finished, which is what we used to end up saying about most multiplayer FPS games anyway. For now at least, it needs more. Popular maps like Assault, Nuke, Militia, Back Alley, Inferno, Prodigy and Train are absent, it lacks some of the features we'd been more or less told to expect, and it's still far too intimidating for the average PC gamer to pick up anew without enduring hours of frustration and a Herculean feat of perseverance.
Storm the front

Still, none of that should detract from the reality that Counter-Strike: Source is, once you've gained a knack for it, the most consistently rewarding and surprising team-based shoot-'em-up available on the PC today. It's been dressed up nicely for its relaunch in 2004, but it wasn't broken, and Valve hasn't fixed it. But then the developer hasn't finished it either. And that does take some of the shine off a project fuelled more or less entirely by the desire to polish.

Corel Draw X3 Portable

2009-03-05T22:53:00.000-08:00

FL Studio 8

2009-03-05T22:44:00.000-08:00

YouTube Downloader 2.1.7

2009-03-05T22:36:00.000-08:00

Download.com editor review about Youtube downloader

* "Grab your YouTube"

This simple freeware application works pretty well, given how basic the interface is. It has two main features: to download FLV files from YouTube, and to convert them to most major formats. If there's a YouTube URL in your clipboard, it will automatically paste it for you when you click on the dialog box. From there, just hit OK and the downloading will commence. One more left-click is all it takes to load the file in the converter, which supports iPhone, iPod, PSP, cell phone, AVI, MP3, WMV, and Xvid. Surprisingly, there's also a basic video editor for cropping videos by time stamp. You can also cut out the sound when converting.

This is one of the lightest editors around, but the simplistic interface belies its functionality and it performs exactly as advertised. We'd like to see support in future editions for hunting down missing codecs, and version 2.1.5 and earlier won't work because of embed code changes on YouTube itself. Still, the YouTube Downloader is proof that not only is video-making accessible to everyone, so is video downloading and editing.

# Requirements:

Windows 2000/XP/Vista

# License:

Free

Vovox Beta

2009-03-05T22:10:00.000-08:00

Take Control Of Your
-Phone Call(VOIP)
-Video Conferencing
-Instant Messaging
-Social Networking
-Email
-File Sharing

Voxox Support complete feature for an im program like Phone call, u can calling with ur friend by using voxox, chatting, SMS, instant mail by using chat mode also integrated with social networking like facebook and My space, not only that....it's also have the "Fun" button which able to send funny sound,the other more feature: call forwarding, voicemail dan fax, video conference,etc.
So...what r'u waiting for....download Voxox Now..

True Transperency (like vista)

2009-03-01T08:27:00.000-08:00

ASSASIN CREED.wba

2009-03-01T07:57:00.000-08:00

bio windows blind

2009-02-28T16:11:00.000-08:00

bio windows blind is a aplication to use the much themes on windows, this can be easyly to use. with bio windows blind, you can pimp your windows. after download bio windows blind, you can download themes with extension (*wba). you can download at here.