Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
TheDriver
Monday, March 23, 2009
Proof That MAG is Coming Out in 2009?
Sony is finally starting to show off the PlayStation 3’s potential. Killzone 2 has received praise for its ultra-realistic graphics and exciting gameplay. MLB: The Show could easily be the best baseball game and perhaps the sports game of the year. Now PS3 owners are now anxiously waiting for even more hits — and Sony has them coming, but the question is; when will they arrive in stores.
One of these titles is Zipper Interactive’s high-profile game MAG. The massively multiplayer online shooting was first announced at last year’s E3. But since its unveiling, it has been a blur of when we should expect to get out hands on it. For some reason, Sony has been going back and forth using the terms “this year” and “fiscal year.” If your wondering if there is a difference; the answer is yes — and its a HUGE difference (depending how you look at it). This year would obviously mean by the end of 2009, while fiscal (for Sony) means anywhere from April 2009 to March 2010.
Scott Rohde who is Sony’s Vice President of Product Development, might have given us a little insight of when MAG should be available. While talking about the quality of the PS3’s lineup for 2009, he mentioned the shooter.
“I think what we try to do is come up with original concepts, and even twists on some existing genres, like what we’re doing with MAG for later this year”
Because we are still in March, 2009-2010’s fiscal year for Sony has yet to start. Meaning, MAG should debut by the end of 2009. Unless of course, Sony sends the PR dogs out and they correct Mr Rohde, which is always possible. Until then, expect to be playing the shooter sometime later this year.
Top 4 Gaming Mobiles
There has never been an official transition of the handheld gaming console over to the mobile phone segment. Of course you understand it was never necessary in the first place. Both devices are portable in nature and the purpose of using the handset for merely taking calls like a telephone quickly became obsolete. But I’ve said this before; mobile gaming is a big deal, ever since those Snake games on the old monochrome handsets of yore were followed by Java games that are still big time winners today.
The mobile phone market now even has a separate category of multimedia handsets for this specific purpose - gaming. Some gaming mobiles are more generic in nature but do still manage to offer superb capabilities to be used for handheld mobile gaming. In case you like to take your games everywhere and already have a Nintendo DS or PSP or other portable gaming devices that satisfy your fetish for gaming hardware, here're a few mobiles phones you might want to consider.
Spice X1 Rs. 8,000
Spice’s X1 gaming mobile may have taken mobile gaming to the next level by reviving an older SE idea of a joystick attachment accessory for a mobile phone. The X1 comes bundled with this attachable controller that makes game-play a great experience. The handset itself also comes with a set of ‘X’ and ‘O’ action keys and you don’t necessarily need to use the controller.
Spice has preloaded a few JAVA games onto the handset and provides quite a few games in the NES ROM format. Nostalgic gamers will enjoy this. You can choose from a list of those oldies but good, 8 bit classics like Batman, Mario and even Kung Fu. It has a large 2.4-inch TFT LCD with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution that only helps while playing and also features a microSD card slot, Stereo Bluetooth, a 2MP camera and GPRS support among other things.
Sony Ericsson F305 - Rs. 9,000
The F305 could very well be SE’s flagship mobile for a possible range of new gaming handsets, since Sony is no stranger to the gaming market with their PSP rating quite high on the handheld gaming console segment of gadgetry.
The handset may have just one drawback and that’s its small 2-inch display that sports a 176 x 220 pixel resolution; but it makes up for that with plenty of other relevant features. The handset has been designed with two gaming styles in mind – motion sensor and full screen landscape games. The motion sensor games allow you to use the device like a Wii controller by swinging your arms for action. Since the handset also comes with ‘X’ and ‘O’ gaming keys on either side of the earpiece, games that can be played in landscape mode are much more entertaining. Other features include an audio player, FM radio and a 2MP camera plus Bluetooth with A2DP and GPRS/EDGE support. It supports JAVA games and M2 cards for external memory.
Nokia N85 - Rs. 23, 000
Nokia’s N-Series has always been a popular range of mobile handsets because of their multimedia capabilities. One of the successors to the N81 handset that was the first to host Nokia’s N-Gage gaming platform and was designed for gaming purposes, the N85, takes it up a notch with its dual-slider capabilities and 5MP AF camera.
The N85 is also being classified as a gaming handset because of its superb 2.5-inch, 240 x 320 pixel, 16 million color, OLED display. The once-dedicated-multimedia-keys that appear from the top double as gaming keys for the phone. The handset does seem a bit heavy though at 128g, but that only adds to the stability of the phone in your hand while gaming. It’s also equipped with a microSD card slot, Stereo Bluetooth, internal GPS (AGPS Support), TV out, and Wi-fi. It supports JAVA and .SIS game formats. Look out for the review on Tech2.com.
Max Payne 3 coming to Xbox 360, PS3, PC this winter
For all the things Mark Wahlberg has killed in his life -- The Happening, The Funky Bunch, The Happening Funky Bunch (short-lived kids show, don't ask) -- he's brought at least one thing back to life: The Max Payne series. His non-hit film adaptation will be followed by Max Payne 3, which Rockstar said will arrive in winter of this year on the 360, PS3 and PC.
Here's what Rockstar boss Sam Houser had to say about the sequel: "We're starting a new chapter of Max's life with this game. This is Max as we've never seen him before, a few years older, more world-weary and cynical than ever. We experience the downward spiral of his life after the events of Max Payne 2 and witness his last chance for salvation."
We think we speak for everyone when we ask this. ... More cynical? Really? Like, is he just stealing candy from babies and choking them to death with the wrappers?
Xbox 360 Hybrid Mobile Phone, All in One
If you are craving for something different and funky, then Xbox360 mobile is surely for you. A talented artist of British Magazine T3 has put together his innovative ideas for bringing out this sexy Xbox360 Mobile. The idea is definitely interesting and attractive for all game-lovers as the name itself involves a gaming world. The proposed design is pleasant and including everything in it starting from games to music and a mobile phone. It has 64 GB of memory and with amazing graphics. So, now you can have your iPod, PC and Mobile phone…. All in one.
First Call of Duty: World at War map pack released
($9.99), you can pick up four new maps for Activision's WWII shooter: "Station," a close-quarters underground encounter; "Nightfire," a large battlefield depicting a bombed-out Berlin; "Knee Deep," a huge, jungle-based scenario; and "Verrückt," the promised Nazombie expansion, which, aside from meriting its own trailer (posted after the jump), contains additional weapons, Perks-a-Cola machines and "electroshock defenses." Man, we had no idea history could be so totally awesome.Joyswag: Win Call of Duty: World at War DLC codes [update]
We know you've got a big weekend coming up, with plans to visit you favorite local museum or attend the local sports teams' big game against the cross-town rivals. But you're going to need to cancel them: We're giving out Call of Duty: World at War DLC codes, courtesy of our friends at Activision.
What do you have to do to get one? It's easy, just check out the five DLC codes we've got after the break, and be the first to guess the missing character and enter the code into Xbox Live. If you don't get one there, you can follow our Twitter, where we'll be giving away three more codes. Why? Because we love you. Just do us a solid and let us know in the comments if you get one.
JTW9Q-TBD?J-C6J4C-4Q9X7-8Q4WY
HTBRQ-PW?W4-CQKRJ-TMCMH-CD4W3
QFFP2-83GVK-X9PQK-KQ?QT-7GBCT
BXVQ6-H2G7Y-?G87B-W68X6-W6KGJ
MPV6X-36?K2-3BCR7-MPGW3-4PMCY
Friday, March 20, 2009
WORLD IN CONFLICT:SOVIET ASSAULT
Sometimes stuff just works. It doesn't happen often enough in the gaming world, but every once in a while a title comes along that puts everything together in such an appealing and enjoyable package you have to step back and say "Wow." Once that initial euphoria wears off, though, you have to get back to the controls because the Soviet Union has just invaded Seattle, Spetznatz units are holding the Statue of Liberty hostage and the President is about to drop a nuclear bomb on the small town from "Gremlins." That's the experience of playing World in Conflict, a real-time strategy masterpiece from Massive Entertainment.
The fun begins with a premise ripped straight out of the Red Dawn Cold War book of nightmares. It's 1989 and The Soviet Union is one final five-year-plan away from total economic collapse. Seeing which way the wind is blowing, the hard-line Communist leadership squashes the nascent ideas of glasnost and perestroika and starts moving troops across the Fulda Gap in a desperate gamble to conquer the free world. NATO forces engage the Russians and the Cold War goes hot all across Europe. Unfortunately for the U.S., getting bogged down in Europe means domestic defense isn't quite up to the task of pushing off one last Russian gambit -- a daring assault on the West Coast of mainland America. That not only lets players get their hands on a lot of vintage US, Soviet and NATO military hardware, but also takes them on a grand tour of World War III battlefields ranging from downtown Seattle to the New York harbor to Marseilles, France to the frozen forests of Murmansk in the Soviet Union.
The single-player campaign follows the course of the war through the story of Lieutenant Parker, the faceless soldier that serves as the alter-ego of the player. Parker's commander is Colonel Sawyer, a man pulled out of retirement to command the West Coast resistance against the Soviets. His other companions are Captain Webb in support and tank commander Captain Bannon. Each of these men is provided with an interesting character arc (particularly Bannon) that weaves its way around the different missions in a surprisingly moving and well-written story contributed by noted author Larry Bond.
The game's storyline is presented via a well-done series of cut scenes, in-mission briefings and voiceovers that play over what look like concept art for the game. Of the three different types of presentations, it's only the concept drawings that provide a false note. The cuts scenes in the game are done in-engine and the engine that runs this game is so powerful and beautiful it seems almost criminal to use anything other than it to convey information to the player. This ends up being a minor complaint, as the real stars of the game's storyline are its voiceovers. Each of them is pitch-perfect, especially Alec Baldwin's narration. His gravelly delivery of a reminiscing Lieutenant Parker grounds the game emotionally, conveying the world-weary tones of a WWIII vet as though distance in time from the events of the war has given him the wisdom and perspective to fully understand them.
In addition to providing the driving force behind the story, WiC's characters also take a variety of interesting tactical situations (fun when considered on their own) and turn them into an excellent training ground for multiplayer. Rather than having the player be responsible for the entire battle, each map has a number of AI-controlled units that are fighting their own battles separate from the player's objectives. Often these objectives are timed or need to be otherwise coordinated with what their AI teammates are doing. This serves to not only teach the player how to utilize their own units, but also trains them in working within a team environment. It's a mark of how good the single-player game is that it manages to do this without once making the player feel like he or she's trapped on a dreaded "puzzle map."
The strategic design of World in Conflict is a marvel of simplicity and elegance. The basic design is a sort of action-game version of a real-time strategy title. The game has no base-building. Instead players get a pool of reinforcement points that they can use to buy military hardware. When a unit is destroyed, the cost of that unit gradually trickles back into the reinforcement pool and can then be re-used to bring fresh troops to the battlefield. Since the reinforcement pool isn't very large, it means that players need to be very precise about which units they're bringing out because most of the time a player's force will consist of between three and twelve units.
There are also only a few different types of units in the game. They fall into a few basic categories -- air units, infantry, artillery, heavy iron and a couple of support, repair and transport vehicles. Rather than being a weakness, though, the limited number of units (and unit types) becomes a strength because each and every unit on the battlefield is purpose-built, comes with its own set of strengths and weaknesses and has a clearly defined role that make them vital for victory. A players who fields a squad consisting only of heavy tanks, for example, quickly becomes tank fodder for helicopters, anti-tank infantry hiding in the woods, a zippy squad of APCs or a well-placed artillery barrage. Every RTS game pays lip service to the idea of "combined arms tactics," but few have carried off the concept as well as World in Conflict. 
What's most surprising is how such a simple strategic model gives rise to such a deep and enjoyable strategic experience. Strategy in World in Conflict isn't a matter of marshalling resources or even putting together a specific type of force to counter an opponent. Victory in World in Conflict is all about coordination. Playing World in Conflict means having a deep understanding of a unit's capabilities so that every situation can be approached with an understanding of what's needed for success. Two heavy tanks coming over a ridge, for example, can be handled by five APCs with TOW missiles and smokescreens. If you don't have those or something else to deal with them, you need to get moving or call in some kind of assistance from a teammate. The game's genius is that by keeping the strategic options simple and the action fast, it fills the game with an almost constant series of interesting decisions like this. This leads to the kind of adrenaline-fueled exhilaration one gets from a first-person shooter.
This "coordination" game is at the heart of World in Conflict multiplayer and this, more than anything, is what makes the game so good. World in Conflict comes with three different multiplayer variations, Domination, Tug-of-War and Assault. Domination challenges players to control victory points for as long as possible to fill as much of a "domination meter" as possible within 20 minutes. Tug-of-War has a line of victory points in the center of the battlefield that moves toward one side when a player controls all of them. Assault has two teams take turns attacking and defending a series of command points with the team that captures more winning. Each of these variations gives rise to radically different strategic considerations but all of them are a lot of fun.
Multiplayer World in Conflict plays out more like a game of Counter-Strike than Command & Conquer. The game is designed to be supremely dependent on teamwork. At the beginning of a multiplayer match, players have the opportunity to select a "class" (Air, Armor, Infantry or Support) which makes purchasing units outside that specialty prohibitively expensive. Combined with a small pool of resource points and the large maps, this means that any one player will be unable to field a force capable of standing on its own. If an "Armor" player, for example, wants to capture a "victory point" on the map by moving heavy tanks into the area, he or she may be immediately thwarted by an "Air" player with a squad of helicopters. These can then be taken down by anti-air guns wielded by the "Support" player.
Victorious teams are those that coordinate their armies to take advantage of holes in their enemy's force composition and adjusting on the fly to changing victory conditions, and when a team is really clicking, it's the kind of exhilarating team-based experience that multiplayer gaming is all about. Of course, that does mean that a player's online experience is dependent on the quality of the players they hook up with. Lone wolves are not welcome in World in Conflict, and a random group of strangers will usually get rolled by any of the clans who play together frequently.
Massgate, the game's proprietary online matching service, sports a well-designed front end that includes friends lists, clan support, IM services, a solid voice chat system, excellent stat-tracking, tournament ladders, clan matches and a fun series of individual and clan "achievement" medals that can be earned by performing well in multiplayer games. Unfortunately the service experienced a few hiccups during our multiplayer testing. While not a frequent occurrence, there were at least a few occasions where the game unceremoniously kicked us out of a multiplayer game. Since stats don't seem to be affected by random disconnects or quitting, there wasn't any real harm done, but this is something that Massive will need to look at in the days ahead.
World in Conflict is a triumph for Massive Entertainment. The developers have managed to take a quirky "action game" take on the real-time strategy genre and wrap it in an instantly appealing, accessible and highly polished package. Everything from the game's beautiful graphics to the great story and especially the adrenaline-fueled mayhem of online multiplayer matches make this a must-have for the strategy game set and a serious purchase consideration even for those who never thought of themselves as strategy gamers.
Ninja Gaiden Returns To The PS3
Tecmo has officially announced that the once Xbox 360 exclusive Ninja Gaiden 2 will be reincarnated on the PS3, as Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. If you’re getting a strong sense of déjà vu right now, it’s because we’ve seen this business strategy from Team Ninja before: after the first Ninja Gaiden debuted as an exclusive for the original Xbox in 2004, a reworked version surfaced for the PS3 years later as Ninja Gaiden Sigma, minus the involvement of the always controversial designer Tomonobu Itagaki. Sigma 2 appears to be going down the same path, and will no doubt sport extra content and even flashier visuals: we’ll have to wait and see if Itagaki judges the new PS3 version a worthy update from his prior work… we’re guessing not, and that he’ll offer up plenty of good quotes.
An updated version of Ninja Gaiden 2 is cool and all, but with the recent success Street Fighter IV has had by going back to the basics, we can’t help wondering what a return for Hayabusa to his 2D roots would be like… Maybe after Sigma 2 is out, Tecmo will be willing to take the series in a new (or really old, that is) direction. In the meantime, more information on Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 will be released on March 24th.
Crysis Warhead
I don't believe that any game has ever created the rubric of an astounding action movie around the player as well as Crysis. The very best actioners have a tangible feeling of chaos and seat-of-the-pants decision-making, films like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Die Hard, and Crysis just nailed the sensation that astounding action scenes, made possible by your decisions, were falling in fiery pieces around you. Crysis Warhead pulls this same trick again, only with extra Schwarzenegger. No, three Schwarzeneggers. Actually 10 Schwarzeneggers, each smoking three cigars, driving a burning Humvee into an oil refinery. But of course, Crysis had issues. Some adored it despite its flaws, others were miffed by it - the PC ZONE mailbag was a criss-cross of sparring Nomad-based opinion. However, what is undeniable, is that the decision to replace free-form Korean-throttling tomfoolery two-thirds of the way through the game with relentless alien bashing was stifling; sky-high system demands shut out people unwilling to play the game with half the engine switched off, and the North Koreans' AI would occasionally have soldiers standing blankly on a beach with nothing but a worried grimace.
Warhead promised to fix all this, and has done so with aplomb - plastering up the holes of Crytek's earlier effort, and then using any leftover plaster to mould frescoes and porticoes to make the whole affair more attractive. What with its budget price and improved multiplayer, there's more than enough here to cheer nay-sayers.
Psycho
With a runtime of five hours, there's an argument that says in older, more innocent times Warhead would be known as an expansion pack. Despite its standalone nature, this is perhaps true: it follows the concurrent travails of a different character, it's budget-priced, it adds some super-powered weapons, it features the same menagerie of foes, and it has a story that doesn't hold water.
Then again, to call it a mere expansion would be a huge disservice to a game that's so uniformly excellent in its art design, ballsy level concepts and exceptional gameplay. It's from the Paul Ross school of criticism to label something as a "rollercoaster thrill ride", but if Warhead doesn't fall under that umbrella then I don't know what does. Apart from, maybe, Spy Kids 3.
The hero of Warhead is Psycho, the angry cockney from Crysis whose dialogue is (praise the maker) both improved and somewhat distilled from his previous appearance. He even gets a catchphrase that manages to raise three individual laughs on the three individual occasions that it's used. The MacGuffin of the piece, meanwhile, is a piece of alien hardware that the Koreans have snaffled from beneath the noses of the American forces - and it's down to you to follow it over frozen sea, through a decrepit mine and along rattling train tracks. One of the most striking things about Warhead is the way it shakes the template Crysis snowglobe and has its constituent parts drift and settle into surprising new patterns. In Crysis encounters with enemies were heavily cordoned off from each other, in Warhead anything goes. Nanosuited enemies, revamped aliens, bog-standard Koreans, a whole bunch of the monolithic Hunter tentacle beasts... they all tumble out of the Crytek level design tombola in an unpredictable order, often fighting against each other in-between times.
The most awe-inspiring level starts off with you fighting Nanosuits, then moves into a remarkable hovercraft chase over frozen seas: it's simply a triumph in art design. Frozen waves, suspended by a sudden alien ice blast, stand in arctic silence as they crash against the hulls of battered ships - after which the level is punctuated by Korean battles against a goliath Hunter, squad combat against aliens, and a fight with another Hunter that puts the closing boss of the original to shame. It's a frenzy of intelligent and original level design, far away from the Far Cry model that Crysis aped. And this is only the second level.
In fact, there are only two sections that are the traditional 'survey, sneak, attack' levels - Warhead encourages you to be constantly on the move, often in vehicles with big guns, and always with fire and broken fuel storage tanks left in your wake. However, this is not to say that you can't take your time if you want to. Another level begins atop the back of a train, complete with various miniguns on its sides, that rattles through a valley to the other side of the island - complete with a brief sojourn in the ice sphere. Now you could happily sit there on the guns and protect your metal steed from the many and various helicopters, jeeps and small encampments along the way - but if you fancy some elongated Predator-style hunting then there's nothing at all stopping you from jumping off and catching the train up later. In this way both pyrotechnic-demanding sorts and sneaky snipers are catered for, and replay value is virtually guaranteed.
Once again, the Nanosuit's different modes (armour, invisibility, strength etc.) lets you add skill, finesse and trickery to your tactics - even if the constant bombardment and increased number of on-screen enemies will entice you into staying armoured a smidge more often than in Crysis. Still, the feeling of successful showboating among the Korean heavy armour is a paramount joy.
Addict
I could prattle on about how great the mine section is too, but I'll start giving away each and every level. Suffice to say, when I heard over the radio "You're going to have to go through the nearby mine," a little bit of me died inside (because I think we've all been damaged by three-texture FPS mine sections over the past decade or so). As it turned out though, it was so wonderfully envisaged, so entirely mine-like and so full of loose equipment to throw about the place that it was probably my favourite part of the game. Plus, you even get to pick up rats and throw them at people. Also: they squeak.
But are the aliens better? Well, a fairer question might be "are the aliens as oddly unexciting as last time round?" - the answer to which is a straight no. They're a lot more dynamic now, they get into scrapes with the Korean army and they jump from rock to rock with AI routines that have a lot more in common with your be-nanosuited foes. They're good fun to be around (apart from when there's too many pumped in, which certainly occurs at one point), but certainly still not as engaging as the human vs human combat found in the game. Still, the improvement is marked - just as it is with Korean AI that may not have a vast number of new tricks for you to be flanked by, but still makes it unlikely that you'll come across a soldier displaying gormless brain-funk. The game does stumbles somewhat in its mundane tale of camaraderie with a rogue pilot called Sean O'Neill. He makes Han Solo-esque flying visits every now and again, and stars in a sequence of confusing audio flashbacks between levels. This never dips into a naffness that particularly harms affairs, mainly because the forever-just-out-of-reach container provides enough impetus, but it seems misplaced nevertheless.
Another storyline talking point the game is sure to raise focuses on a scene shortly after a bridge encounter towards the end of the game. Warhead's cutscenes are a lot longer and better produced than those in Crysis, and this one deals with the unasked question of exactly why Psycho is called Psycho. Just what effect does power-throwing ovens at people have on the human psyche? The resulting cutscene is either one the best moments in gaming ever, or one of the most embarrassing. I honestly, truly am unable to make up my mind.
Insane
As with Crysis the best experiences you'll have with Warhead aren't anything I can predict here - and that's half its magic.
The most thrilling event that happened to me came from a casually thrown grenade in Warhead's closing airstrip level - a jeep thundered around the corner of a nearby hangar and drove toward me with what could only have been the intention of running me over. With beautiful timing its back-end was directly above my hopefully lobbed grenade at the point of ignition. The jeep's fiery hulk was then somersaulted directly over my head, before landing on the remnants of its smouldering wheels a few metres behind me. This sequence could have been dropped in from one of the very best action movies - and yet it was completely unscripted. Warhead honestly is the finest burst of action gaming released so far this year, and if you're canny then you'll be able to pick it up for a mere £15 from online retailers. It's a five hour tour-de-force that's plugged the holes in Crysis with diamonds; underlining just what a shame it was that those holes were there to steal outright greatness last time round. Psycho is many things but, as he'd tell you just before thowing you into the sea, he's certainly no muppet.
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