Game On!

A few weeks ago Gameloft was kind enough to take me to watch the Yankees beat Seattle. I also got a chance to play the new Derek Jeter Pro Baseball for mobile phones. I was actually pretty impressed with it and found it very playable. Graphics are getting better on mobile all the time and I thought this looked like it could be PS-One quality, but a lot smaller than a typical TV. That's really neither here nor there but I just thought that I would point it out because I'm usually a little bit too much of a snob to say that a mobile game is good.

The lowdown on the game is that it is fun to play and a pretty good baseball game. Baseball fans will be pleased to see batting and pitching statistics for every team. There are also little Derek Jeter moments where you can learn some tips and some stuff about the life of a big time ball player.

Continue reading "Derek Jeter Pro Baseball 2008" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I recently went out to Las Vegas for Midway's Gamers Day at the Red Rock Resort. They showed a few games: NBA Ballers: Chosen One, Wheelman, TNA Impact, Unreal Tournament 3 Xbox 360, and This is Vegas were playable. They also announced a Mortal Kombat and DC Comics game, which looked like a MK fighter with Scorpion, Sub Zero, Superman, and Batman confirmed as characters. There was a lot of excitement in the crowd about that one. We wondered how the whole fatality thing would play out with the super heroes, for example, would DC want Superman to rip out his opponent's skull and show it to him? They also announced sequels for Game Party and Touch Master as well as Blitz: The League.

There was a lot of talk, especially from Midway execs like Mark Booty, Interim President and CEO, about how Midway is reaping the benefits of centralization and standardization. The different studios share assets like game engines and design tools as well as knowledge. You could see how licensing the Unreal Engine and then using it to build every game is paying off in terms of how the games look, how complex the game play is, and how quickly they can come to market.

The big focus was on This is Vegas. The game is being made by Surreal Software in Seattle - they've been working on it for three plus years. It's an open world of a likeness of Vegas where you gamble, party, race, and fight. It's an ambitious project to create a world that big. This gives players the chance to live out "their Vegas fantasy." It looked OK, nothing special in terms of graphics or audio. The focus has definitely been on game play. I did the dancing mini-game, the same that was shown during the press conference. I thought that it was fun. I wonder about it conceptually though. My concern is that by offering many types of game play it may end up asking players to play in ways that they don't want to play, for example, the guy who wants to drive around and beat people up may not be the same guy who wants to enter a dance contest. But I talked to Darci Morales about this concern and she said that if you don't want to play a particular mini-game you don't have to. The point of all the mini-games is to build your buzz and gain experience and you could choose to do that however you want. I'm mainly interested in seeing how all of the different games and gaming mechanics translate into a holistic gaming experience. I think This Is Vegas is noteworthy because it looks like it'll be a hell of an achievement for Surreal and Midway when it is done and it deserves merit if only for being a massive effort at establishing an open game play world with lots of variety. I'm not sure whether that translates into being a successful game in an overall sense. I'd get a better idea from a more in depth demo where I could see how the player goes from one mode to the other, how fluid that is, and how all of the different modes combine.

Continue reading "Midway Gamers Day 2008" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had the opportunity earlier today to chat with Aaron Goldberg, Group Product Manager for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. We talked about a bunch of Xbox related things and he brought me a shiny new Elite which I'm sure I'll enjoy.

We talked about new games that are coming out this year for Xbox 360:
April 29 - GTA IV. It's going to be in HD for the first time, have many online multiplayer modes, and exclusive episodic content for Xbox 360 gamers starting in fall 2008.

June - Ninja Gaiden II - controls will be easier to master and there will be more save points. I really hate games that don't have enough save points, so this is great news.

November - Gears of War 2

By end of year 2008, there will be over 1000 titles available for Xbox 360. Microsoft's goal is to become the default platform for developers. Remember how 3 years ago every game was targeted at PS2? We're rapidly approaching the days where every game is targeted at Xbox 360. Already, many games are optimized for 360. An example of this is Madden NFL, which ran at 60 fps on 360 and 30 fps on PS3.

Microsoft is really building up Live. Sony completely missed the boat on this one. Microsoft has a valuable entry point into millions of living rooms with Xbox Live. They've got more HD available for download than satellite or cable including movies, TV shows, music videos, and game trailers. TV Shows cost about $2 to own and movies are rentals that time out.

Continue reading "What's in Store for Xbox 360 in 2008?" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met with Ubisoft the other day and talked to them about the games that they are working on for 2008. I saw a bunch of demos, and played some games. They even brewed a fresh pot of coffee for me.

Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 - It's the 10 year anniversary of the franchise and it returns with a bigger (meaning more game play) story. Due out in March 2008. There's a greater degree of character customization in equipment and experience points can be applied to better weapons. Enemy and squad AI is better. There's been a huge expansion of co-op game play - friends can jump in and out of the game on the fly without restarting levels. It's the same core game play as version 1 with simple team controls. They've worked hard to add verticality to the levels such as looking up and seeing an enemy through a skylight and then having to go outside and climb up onto the roof to get him. There's destructible cover so you can't sit in one spot and hide. You sort of have to think and plan rather than charge right in. There are 7 locations and each location has multiple scenarios.

Far Cry 2 - They set out to keep the best parts of the original. The intention is to keep it real yet exotic so this version takes place in Africa. There's 50 square kilometers of open game world, mostly savanna with some jungle. All objects are coded meaning that nothing is just a stupid graphic so trees grow while you're playing and everything can take damage. There's wind and light from the sun that change as the day progresses. No mission will ever be exactly the same because there's a randomness about how enemies are deployed; they're not always in the same place at the same time. It's fast paced and from what I saw there was a lot of fire which is always a good thing. One fascinating thing that Clint Hocking (Creative Director) brought up is that it is now cheaper in terms of utilizing system resources to create vegetation procedurally than it is to make it animated. The game is due out roughly around holiday 2008. It will be the same game on console as on PC with the PC version having higher resolution.

Petz Bunnyz - This cute little DS game is basically targeted at young girls who want to play with fluffy bunnies at Easter time. It's not my kind of game, but if you have a daughter who wants to raise a virtual bunny and play with it then this would be a hit.

Continue reading "UbiSoft 2008 Preview" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was lucky enough to be invited up to MTV the other day to take a look at the upcoming Rock Band. First of all, that building is really something. The lobby has a big waterfall and they actually had someone playing piano. I couldn't help but wonder when Sarrel Group is going to hire a pianist to play in the lobby during lunch time. Second of all, the room they showed me the game in was like a home theater lab and was very cool. Big huge projection screen TV and a massive sound system. Add that to an inside look at one of the most anticipated games of the year and what could be bad?

To cut to the chase, I loved it. I had a great time playing the game. So much fun. It really tapped the closet musician in me. Much more than Guitar Hero, which is a hell of a lot of fun too, but Rock Band gives you more variety. If I felt like playing guitar I could. If I wanted to sing I could. Or I could play drums. Or not play drums very well as it would turn out. I wish there were more songs in the game, but overall I totally have to recommend Rock Band for people who want to play music games.

My love affair with Harmonix began back in the day of Frequency and Amplitude. At one point I reviewed Amplitude as one of the most innovative games to come out on PS2. Gameplay has remained essentially the same and I love it. This is apparently the culmination of everything that Harmonix has been working towards over the years.

The hook here is that you can play bass, guitar, drums, or sing. There is a real group experience. People can form their own band and then play together either in one place or online. The cool thing is that how well each of you play affects the overall score and the band's success. If someone screws up the others can bail them out with "overdrive" which is similar to GH's "star power". Guitar and bass are the same. Drums was really hard for me. After screwing up over and over again I developed the theory that I can no longer move my arms to push buttons as part of a game - I can only move my fingers to push buttons in a game. Vocals kicked ass. I have always wanted to scream Mississippi Queen (you know what I mean) while pretending I'm Leslie West.

Continue reading "Rock Band Preview" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm down in Atlanta covering the world premiere of Midway's TNA Impact! video game. This is a very cool event focused on what looks to be a very cool game. We've rubbed elbows with TNA wrestlers, played the game against lead designers, drank an awful lot of bourbon, and enjoyed ourselves to the fullest. You might even say it's been "Total Non-stop Action".

I'm going to follow this up with a post tonight about the actual wrestling match. They got us press passes so we can get right up front and hopefully we'll take some great photos. I've also got some interviews with wrestlers that I'm going to post. I had a great time talking to Samoan Joe. He and I both wrestled in high school and then played judo afterwards. And now I write this blog and he beats the crap out of people in an 18 month undefeated streak.

The game looked very good. The wrestlers worked closely with Midway on facial capture, mocap, and the dynamics of the game. The 6 sided ring is there - they're adding cages, glass, and barbed wire later. The version we saw was about 60% complete so it was a little buggy, ie you could throw guys through fences and stuff. It was really fun to play, not like other wrestling games which have traditionally been a mix of button mashing and really hard to memorize combos. I thought that even at this early stage it had a very good feel to it in terms of how satisfying it was to lay the smackdown on someone and the rhythm of counter-attacks and reversals. One thing that I like in particular is the way guys react to getting punched; if you punch a guy in the face he grabs his face, and if you kick him in the gut he grabs his gut.

There are a lot of grapples, reversals, alternate-grapples, and aerial moves. It's pretty fast paced for a wrestling game. There's the beloved Irish Whip, climbing the turnbuckles, and running around the ring. The ropes ripple when you run into them which is a nice touch.

We only played some one on one quick play. They're adding a story mode, create-a-player, tag team, and online play.

Oh yeah, and Samoan Joe says he's going to kill you.

Continue reading "Midway TNA Impact! World Premiere" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This game will ship June 25 and be available for 360, ps-3 psp, wii. This is the first 2k sports game on Wii, all aspects of the game use the Wiimote - pitching, catching, running.

Today we're looking at the Xbox 360 version.

Why The Bigs? It's a heroic baseball game, over the top, arcadey. The game celebrates the sport of baseball and make highllights and dramatic moments happen, including big catches, wall catches, dives, etc. It's all genuine MLB licensed products with all teams and all stadiums, but with a little bit of a dramatic flare.

There are super slo-mo diving catches. What the players do is still tied to stats but also like a mini-game of timing button pushes to pull off the spectacular. In a double play timing is critical, hold onto it for too long and they slide into and knock you down. There's a knock over catcher button mashing to get slider on your side and then you bowl the catcher over and maybe he loses the ball. 2K Sports is bending the rules to make the game more interesting but not taking it to extremes like MLB Slugfest which was a ton of fun but not very much like baseball.

There's a turbo meter and a big play meter. When pitching, throw strikes to earn turbo, batter takes ball and gets turbo, use turbo to enhance pitches and hits, use turbo in the field to run to the ball or whip it in from the outfield. Turbo becomes pretty important tactically. Pitches based on button that you push to choose pitch, aim with reticle, them meter fills up. Batting is simple - contact green or power red; you can influence direction of the hit with the left thumbstick. You manage baserunning with the left analog stick and color coded base running icons over each guys head. It's easiest to advance all or retreat all using bumpers. The big play meter gives you power blast ability to drive ball deep just by making contact, or make a defensive big play meaning big heat so all pitches are super charged and when you strike the opponent out you steal his points

Homerun pinball is Katie's favorite feature. It was pretty fun. It's like batting practice in Times Square and all the signs and objects are worth points when you hit them. It's a lot of fun and very competitive.

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multiplayer - 2-4 players coop switching turns
online play also

Continue reading "The Bigs" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEGA was in town the other day and I checked out a bunch of their games. Almost everything they showed ships on March 20, 2007. I'm not sure why March 20 is such a significant date for them that they have to deliver every game on that same day. But whatever, I'll take them. A bunch of these were really fun. Virtua Tennis is always fun and Armored Core played pretty well, that is if you like blowing things to pieces.

Virtua Tennis 3 for psp, xbox 360, ps3. This game flat out looks great on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. The attention to detail is superb: little puffs of dust come up from your footsteps when you run on the clay court, the linesmen move out of the way when the ball is hit at them. You can create your own player, customize him or her as far as appearance, cloths and equipment. Then you practice and play on the world tour, slowly advancing and improving your skills. On Xbox 360 there's a whole online leaderboard system. Four people can play together online from four different consoles. You can watch other people's online matches and develop your strategy against them.

Armored Core 4
This is a mech game, but unlike other mech games you can actually move quickly in this game. Most mechs feel like you're piloting them through molasses, but in Armored Core 4 you can jump and strafe and all those good things. Multiplayer online is new. There are 6 different factions. They wanted to make it appeal to new players and veterans as well. You start in the Independent City and it's sort of like a training mission. There are over 35 different missions. You have primary and secondary fire weapons. Your mech is highly mobile and you can strafe; there's regular boost and quick boost for dodging during combat. In general, mechs are more agile than before, and I can say that it seemed so when I played. I could jump over stuff and quickly cut to the side to avoid enemy fire. It's for ps3 and 360 and ships on mar 20. You can customize appearance with paint and emblems and can use the colors to camoflage yourself. This is pretty cool because you could do something like put on desert camo to fight in the desert and have an advantage. You can trade weapons and parts with other players online; some missions are search and rescue, most take 20 minutes or more, mechs have primal armor which is like a force field.

Sonic and the Secret Rings, just released on Tuesday. This game was designed specifically for the Wii and has more of a 2d feel to it. You tilt the controller left and right to steer while Sonic naturally accelerates. Press 2 to jump, snap the controller forward to catch some more air and do your homing attack. It's an arabian nights story where Sonic needs to find 7 rings before the evil genie does. There are 8 different game worlds each with a few tracks. As far as multiplayer, there are 40 party games for up to 4 players. They all have different movements of the controller depending on the games. It's an E rated title targeted at family fun. This is a solid Sonic game and I hold Sonic games in high regard. There was a time when I sunk at least 80 hours into Sonic on my Game Gear. Man, that was a long time ago.

Continue reading "SEGA's NYC Demo Day" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had the opportunity to chat with Beatrice Spaine of EA about Pogo.com last week. It was really interesting. This whole casual games thing intrigues me because I'm a hardcore gamer, my friends are hardcore gamers, and I sort of target my reviews at hardcore gamers. But these casual games are taking off like wildfire. The most interesting thing is that casual gamers rarely even see themselves as gamers - they're just having fun. In fact, a lot of them spend a helluva lot of time on Club Pogo so maybe they are hardcore. It sort of makes me question the whole use of the term "hardcore".

Here's an example. My father got a Pocket PC last summer and he brought it down the shore for the weekend. He was literally glued to the thing for the whole weekend because he was playing some game where he had to match the color of some balls. I think he even brought it to dinner one night and my mother made him put it away (we had a similar incident earlier in the season when I brought my DS and Nintendogs to the table - hey, Teddy and I were in the middle of a walk). My father is in no way a hardcore gamer, but his behavior reminds me of myself when I get a new game that I fall in love with. What is the real difference between my father playing this ball game and me staying up for 72 hours so I could play through Metal Gear Solid or Medal of Honor? Yes, there was an incident here several years ago with Medal of Honor Rising Sun where my neighbor came downstairs at 2 am to ask me to put the war on hold.

I guess the major difference between my gaming and my father's gaming is the twitch and coordination factor. One has to be reasonably adept in order to target and shoot, whereas it's pretty easy to point at balls with a stylus. But in terms of the love of the game it is the same. I think that's the significant part. People love to play games. Actually, it almost seems like everything alive (with half a brain) loves to play. Not to trivialize the issue, but are my cats casual or hardcore gamers when they're chasing a catnip mouse around the apartment?

So I think I've just stumbled on the bottom line. Gamers want to have fun, pick up a little diversion, and perhaps be challenged. Casual or hardcore, we're all the same on a basic level. And at the risk of sounding silly, game on everyone. Kick back, have fun. Michael Franti and Spearhead sing that "it's not who you love, but do you love", and I think I'm ready to say "it's not what you play, but do you play?"

Continue reading "Pogo Update" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 8:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met with Andrew Wong of EA and Bill Roper of Flagship Studios a few days ago to talk about the upcoming action RPG Hellgate London. Overall I was pretty impressed with it and stayed to talk to Bill for a long time.

I'm trying something new with this entry. I took notes during the demo and I'm writing this directly from the notes so it probably won't flow as well as most of my entries by will probably contain more information. My guess is that you probably came here for information and not for beautiful prose.

They wanted to make the starting area compact and simple for players to navigate. The London Underground is a safe zone so when you're there you don't have to worry about getting attacked. Everything starts with a tutorial. NPCs have quests for you so you have to walk around and talk to all of them. If the quest is blue then it is part of the major story arc. The cool thing about the game is that it is both single player and MMO, so in theory there's tons of replayability which is somewhat refreshing today. You can buy the box and play on your own for about 30-40 hours, then you can go online where there will be additional game modes and story lines. Flagship intends to work tightly with community to tailor the game to be the experience that players want.

Every time you go out on an adventure the area and all the contents are randomly generated. Two people can do the same level or quest and have two totally different experiences. My general impression is that the game looks good and has nice shadowing and fire effects. There's actually a huge mothership kind of thing that casts a massive shadow over the city so shadows come and go and the effect is very cool. The point of the game is to fight demons on the surface, and they're an ugly bunch. There's a lot of finding, buying and selling items which is always a big element of these games.

Flagship has made every effort to make the game playable for both hardcore and nonhardcore gamers. They've tried to simplify menus and also make keys context sensitive so you don't have to hunt for certain functions. For example, the left shift can make you sprint during combat. Alt brings up the action menu, your inventory is drag and drop, as is modding your weapons and leveling up your skills. The automap and quest log shown on the screen.

There is pretty good diversity in game play for the different classes. The hunter is more like an FPS than an RPG where you aim with a reticle and shoot from the hip. The first person features were designed in from the beginning so it feels right. If youŕe hunter with engineering skills (thank you hellgateguru.com) you can build drones that help you fight, drop health, project shields and more. The templar is melee based third person only; he can use the grappler which is a cool weapon that drags enemies in so you can bash them. This can be very useful for enemies with ranged attacks or flying enemies. The game is very playable using each different character class. All of the character classes have to be able to complete the game solo and all character classes have to be playable in solo mode. The cabbalist is a spell caster who uses the powers of the demons against them. They us focus items to channel the energy

One interesting thing is that armor is color themed meaning that individual pieces now match instead of giving the usual patchwork feel. Also you can make a guild color theme and share it with your guild. You can also mod your weapons to enhance capabilities. The armor colors and the mods on weapons are ways to individualize yourself within the game. Using different items require different attributes which creates a whole system of trade offs.

Continue reading "Hellgate London Preview" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 8:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I met with Majesco a few days ago and checked out their spring lineup. It's essentially casual games, ie not hardcore gaming, on Wii and DS. I liked a few of them, but I can't help but remember that Majesco once shipped BloodRayne. That was a great game and you couldn't really ask for something more hardcore than that. Times have changed and markets have changed. My guess is that it has more to do with the finances of developing and publishing blockbuster titles. Nothing that Majesco showed me is going to run away with the market, but there's certainly fun to be had.

Cooking Mama Cook Off - This innovative game for Wii puts you in the kitchen where you learn recipes and cooking techniques. It was pretty fun on DS and now they've got a Wii version with 55 new recipes. An interesting thing that they did was add an international element. There are 10 countries, each with a champion and 2 dishes. So you can compete against the little Spanish girl to make paella and that unlocks the paella recipe. It's really a bunch of clever cooking based mini games. For example, you hold the Wii controller upright and spin it like you are spinning pizza dough on your fingertip. The speed with which you spin the controller dictates the size of the pizza. There's 2 player split screen which should be a blast at parties. It'll ship in April for $49.99.

Cooking Mama: Cook Off Trailer

Continue reading "Majesco Winter Gamers Day" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met with my good friends Anthony (from 2K Sports) and Katie (from Access PR) yesterday and they showed me Major League Baseball 2K7 on Xbox 360 and PS3. It's going to be available on everything except GameCube and Wii (they would have had to create a whole new control system and couldn't do it in time for the season) and it will ship in the first week of March 2007. i was pretty impressed with it. Overall, the graphics and sound are great. The details are all there, from Inside Edge statistics that affect AI on a play by play basis, to 150 signature style individualized player animations, and even to shirts rippling in the wind and little puffs of dirt coming up from player's footsteps. The commentary was reasonably interesting, at least for the few innings that we played. The heckling "Hey, I stole your girlfriend Jeter") was pretty cool.

Here's a screenshot from PS3:

Pitching controls remain the same, using the "Payoff Pitching" system and now you can even control the catcher and have him call the game. Hitting is the same using the swing stick. On PS3 you also have the option to swing using the controller due to it's 6-axis motion sensing capability. I couldn't get the hang of this during the brief time that I had with the game. They reworked a lot of the fielding so that momentum when running seems more real than last year. They also revamped every stadium, including lighting down to the way that shadows affect hitting. The PIP baserunning makes it easy to control runners.

Here's a screenshot from Xbox360:

There is online play with online leagues for both Xbox 360 and PS3.

Also new is the ability to manage your budget and set ticket prices in franchise mode.

Here's a PSP screenshot:

Continue reading "Major League Baseball 2K7" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I spent a few days in Las Vegas last week to visit Midway. They booked The Joint at the Hard Rock for a great event that highlighted several of their 2007 and 2008 titles. They had some great sushi and the scotch was flowing freely; what could be bad?

BlackSite: Area 51 This FPS is due to ship summer 2007 for Xbox 360, PC, and PS3. The story is pretty cool. You're sent into an area because some troops are missing and all of a sudden all hell breaks loose. There are all sorts of creepy crawlies that come after you. My favorite are the ones that you kill but their heads pop off and continue to pursue you. Midway promises realistic sound, but I couldn't tell because it was in a crowded noisy room. The graphics look great and lighting effects were very cool. The massively destructible environment is another cool thing. All in all, the short level that I played was a whole lot of fun. There's also a basic squad based element, which I mainly used to order my guys ahead on point. There were some performance issues, but it's a very early build. All in all, this is a title that I'm looking forward to.

Hour of Victory This Xbox 360 WWII FPS is built on the Unreal Engine 3 so it looked fantastic. The innovation with this title is the ability to switch between 3 characters. There's the brawny charge ahead and gun Nazis down character, the stealthy slit their necks from behind character, and the eagle eyed sniper. At various points in each level you are given the opportunity to switch guys. Interestingly, you can do any part of the game using any character although some are better at certain parts than others. I found that using the brawny charge ahead and gun Nazis down character made this game feel exactly like Call of Duty. Not a bad thing for me, because I love these WWII shooters. In fact, I can remember a night when the guy in the apartment above me asked me to stop storming the beaches at Normandy (Medal of Honor) because it was 2 in the morning. I wonder how many other people like them. How much of a market is there for them? Very little was said about multiplayer modes, although the level looked like a good multiplayer design. The other cool thing is that you can take over turrets, planes, tanks, etc. That's always tons of fun in multiplayer.

They also showed Stranglehold which looks like so much fun. I've written about it several times before.

They showed a trailer for The Wheelman with Vin Deisel. I can never tell very much about a game from the trailer. It's too early for me to have anything to say about this one.

They showed a great video about the controls for Mortal Kombat: Armagedon for Wii. This looks like a lot of fun. It's basically a combination of swipes and motions with the remote and a little button pushing. I'm really looking forward to playing this one.

And finally they had playable The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar which is a MMO for PC. They announced that it will ship on April 24, 2007. They just started a pre-order program which gets you the game for $9.99 per month or $199 lifetime. It looked good and there was a lot of excitement about it.

Continue reading "Midway Winter Gamers Day" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The other night my good friends at EA invited me to come over and see some of their upcoming titles. Overall, it looks like they have a strong spring liineup. I spent so much time there that they were kidding me that I should help pack up.

Command and Conquer 3 - The epic struggle between the Global Defense Initiative and The Brotherhood of NOD continues as the third Tiberium war begins. This is a pretty solid RTS for Xbox 360. I was surprised at how easy it was to command my troops across the whole map. The PC version ships on March 28 and the Xbox 360 version ships in Spring 2007.

Def Jam: Icon - What can I say, these Def Jam games are massively popular. This one integrates hip hop music and fighting like never before. The music actually affects the fight. Drive him down with a series of punches that grow stronger because they match the bass line. Environments pulsate and debris flies along with the music. There's also an all new single player story mode that takes you from nobody to hip hop mogul as you build a record label, discover new talent, and become a hip hop icon yourself.

Medal of Honor Vanguard - I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again: Everyone likes killing Nazis. This latest installment of the highly successful WWII FPS is back and it looked great. They've simplified the HUD and gotten rid of the medpack system. Now when you're hurt you go hide in the corner and heal. This ships in March 2007 for PS2 and Wii.

NBA STREET Homecourt - Featuring a brand new game engine that will knock your socks off, this wild street trick basketball game returns. This game is totally next gen with guys sweating, muscles rippling, cloth physics, all very smoothly integrated into game play. A new animation engine makes all the crazy moves you can pull look fluid. New controls let you create hundreds of tricks on the fly. Get ready to defy gravity and practice saying "Not in my house"!

Continue reading "EA Demo Night" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The good news is that they're going to try to have both NHL 2K7 and NBA 2K7 available for PS3 launch. It's not an official declaration that they will have the games, just an announcement of an intention.

NHL 2K7 This is, of course, the hockey game. They've developed a new concept in hockey game play called "cinemotion", where you can either have no commentary and a dynamically orchestrated soundrack synched to the action, or have commentary. There are a lot of new cut scenes and they've added a lot of player voices in something like 16 different languages. There's a new skating engine and new animations. I am a huge hockey fan and I thought that the game looked extraordinarily realistic. There's a new "parametric" camera angle that is above the rink sort of like the ESPN cameras; it moves in and out, up and down, and you can actually see a line change. The game plays much more fluidly when you can see the whole ice surface, it's really easy to step up in the hole and make a play. The right bumper is a drop pass. The left bumper can be used to send a teammate to shadow or take out a player. In franchise mode trading logic has been tuned and the computer does a better job of balancing team chemistry. There's a rivalry system that builds rivalries over time based on year to year play. There's also something called "opprotunity knocks" where as GM you get a random phone call that you can accept or decline and it can be a good thing or a bad thing for your team. Online leagues are now based on a real point system. Overall, I think the game looked great on the Xbox 360 and I can't wait to play it.

Marty's Better!

Continue reading "2K Sports NHL2K7 and NBA 2K7 Previews" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I met with Majesco a few days ago and looked at their holiday games. They're now making casual games for DS. I understand that casual gaming (games with easy instructions that you can just pick up and play for a minute or two) is hot, but I want to see more hardcore games because that's what interests me. And probably anyone reading this for that matter. I just couldn't really figure out what Majesco's overall objective is by coming out with all of these inexpensive casual style games.

Guilty Gear X2 and Judgment - For PSP, this game ships in September 2006. Guilty Gear X2 is a straight port of the Xbox title with 22 characters. You can use the analog stick or the d-pad for control. There's two player ad hoc versus mode. Judgment is a sidescroller like Final Fight with unique moves for each character. There are five core characters. You meet new characters, fight with them, and then unlock their story mode. There are 19 areas for each character. The right shoulder button is a powerful back attack.

Mech Assault Phantom War - This is a mech fighting game for DS that ships in September 2006 for $29.99. There are campaign and multi-player modes, 4 player ad hoc game play. There are 24 missions on 4 planets. You use your mech to bring generators back online. There are 20+ mechs, battle armor, tanks, and turrets. The game uses a lot of voice to tell you what to do so you'll have to actually listen to your DS for once. You pick up salvage to replenish health and power up weapons. Take over enemy mechs. This looks like a fun game. Multiplayer can be team based or not. THere's a Phanto Melee mode in which heavy dense fog makes you rely on your radar for combat.

Monster Bomber - This DS title ships in September 2006 for $19.99. This is a casual game for the DS. Aliens invade earth in this bust a move meets missle command meets space invaders game. There is single cartridge four player multiplayer which is pretty cool because 4 friends can play with only a single copy of the game. Basically, you fling balls of color at the matching color enemy and then go for combos of coloration.

Naco Libre - This DS title ships in October 2006 (when the DVD comes out) and will cost $29.99. When I saw it, it was about 35% complete. The plot follows the movie with cut scenes from the movie. There's also a 4 player ad-hoc mode. They're using a technique they're calling "photo puppetry" to creat characters with a realistic head and face and a cartoony body. The result is realism combined with comedy. This is going to be the first wrestling game on DS and will also come with mini games that use the touch screen.

Continue reading "Majesco Holiday Games Preview" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met with Midway today and saw their holiday 2006 lineup.

Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar - This is a Turbine developed MMO for the PC that will ship "when it's ready." Beta testing begins around the end of August. They believe that they've created a state of the art MMO set in Tolkein's world. It's a large world where players have to act in groups and changes are persistent. Explore the world and fight monsters to unlock accomplishments and special skills. You can customize your character by developing different skills. It's easy to play, the quest list is showing on the right side of the screen all the time with specific steps that you have to take. There are classes and professions. Bree town is a major gathering place that Turbine forsees as a bustling city full of player and nonplayer characters where you can train and participate in secure auctions. There are huge open areas like the Misty Mountains. Even though I was looking at an alpha build I thought it looked good. You can drag and drop to equip items. Quests encourage you to participate in group activities so there are some social aspects to it.

Mortal Kombat Armageddon In the seventh of the series for PS2 and Xbox, Midway brings back over 60 characters from the earlier versions. A huge feature is Kreate-A-Fighter where character creation is totally tweakable down to (or up to) breast size. If you add it all up there are millions of combos of different features that you can customize. You can also customize fighting style and button combos and write a bio for your character. Then you can take it all online and battle against other people's characters. There's also Kreate-A-Fatality where you enter a series of 3 button presses and can make your fatility as complex as you want. We're talking about ripping out skulls, spines, beating hearts. There's also a hidden mode that they're releasing information about in August. Konquest mode is bigger and better with better graphics and more realistic melee fighting. It's a single player story driven mode with boss battles that are the classic MK style. There are 20 plus backgrounds, some classics revisited now in 3D. This ships in October 2006 for PS2 and Xbox.

Mortal Kombat Unchained - This ships in October 2006 also and is for PSP. It's got ad hoc WiFi multiplayer combat. There are 30 characters. Honestly, this looked fine but after seeing the Xbox version the PSP didn't look so great.

Continue reading "Midway Games Holiday Preview" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met with a number of companies yesterday to talk about casual games. For those of you who don't know what a casual game is, it's a game that is easy to learn and doesn't require complex skills to operate. Web games and mobile phone games usually fit into this category. According to DFC Intelligence, the worldwide casual games market is valued at $205 million today and will surpass $13 billion by 2011.

Boonty - They aggregate and serve casual games, usually with a free version that doesn't have all the levels or times out. Then you have to buy it to keep playing it. A lot of their games are web playable which means from deciding to play to playing there's no delay. Go to www.boonty.com for tons of casual games.

PlayFirst - They've seen an enormous growth in non-hardcore or casual gaming. The audience is broadening for 35 year old women. The average casual gamer is a different person from the average hardcore games. Many of these games have a woman as the protagonist. Developers target women and people over 35 who want to take a break at work or after the kids go to bed. There's no killing and no babes in bikinis. These are easy to learn games that provide an escape. They've seen 90% year over year growth. One of their games is Connect Four Cities, where you play Connect Four using buildings. And yes, you can give the gift of game on their site.

Glu - They're the #2 publisher of mobile games. Holiday titles include ATV Offroad Fury (8 different tracks), World Series of Poker, and Deer Hunter 2 (five weapons and persistent environments). In July they've got Super KO Boxing which is a cartonny boxing game like Super Punch for NES. They also offer Fox Sports Mobile Pro for $5.99 per month. It's a shell that gets filled with sports news. You can also follow your favorite team while they're on the field with live play by play.

Continue reading "Casual Games Day" »

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Desperate Housewives - Think of this game as a fresh new season to play with 12 new episodes. The central question is "should you be bitchy or should you be nice?" as you manage your character and your home life. The game starts off and you're a new housewife on Wisteria Lane. You create your character and choose your husband. The game has the feel of The Sims but with more intrigue and manipulation. It seems well written. They're working with a writer from the show. You've got a composure meter that you need to maintain so you can play with the big girls. There are a series of mini-games also, such as cooking, gardening, sneaking around and spying. Unlock your dark past in this narrative driven adventure sim. This is PC only and ships in October 2006.

Every Extend Extra - This PSP game from Q Entertainment ships in November 2006. As with most Q Entertainment games, the music is interactive with the game play. This is very much like Rez, where you target a bunch of objects and hold down the button; when you let go everything explodes. The music sort of keeps time with the action. You can detach the target quickly to go get crystals and to greate chain reactions. The name, "Every Extend Extra" refers to the fact that the better you are at the game the longer it lasts.

Continue reading "Buena Vista Games Demos" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I went up to midtown to meet with THQ and check out some of their games.

Supreme Commander - I'm sorry I don't have any screenshots for this one. The zip file THQ gave me is corrupt. This is a futuristic sci-fi RTS game for PC. The design goal was to bring strategy back to the RTS, to open up the game and increase scale. That way you can see everything and make the best strategic decisions. You can zoom all the way out to see the whole board or zoom right down to a single unit. Supreme Commander supports dual monitors, so you could keep one set on the overview map and use the other to drill down to specific battles. Battles are a simulation and are fought on land, sea, and air. There's a coordinated attack system where you can schedule multiple units to arrive at the battlefield at the same time. You can control any single unit. This game packs some serious firepower - it's possible to launch full scale nuclear assaults. It's scheduled to ship in early 2007.

Company of Heroes - This is a WWII RTS game for the PC. They stepped up the graphics beyond what you'd usually expect from the RTS genre. They've got Havoc physics on everything. The environment is fully destructible. Soldiers are aware of their environment and they seek shelter and set up crossfires. Resource points are scattered across the map (manpower, munitions, fuel) and you need to control them in order to milk the sweet resources from within. You need to maintain supply lines between your resource points in order to keep building resources. You can customize your experience by playing as infantry, airborne, or armor. You can build custom units. You can seize control of enemy weapons and use them.

Continue reading "THQ Holiday in the Heat of Summer" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

See it in action with the new video now available online at www.codemasters.com/micromachines

New York (June 13, 2006) – Remember what pure fun looks like, as Codemasters unleashes the first video of MICRO MACHINES v4. Multiplayer mayhem like this is the reason friends were invented, as gamers can see for themselves at www.codemasters.com/micromachines.

MICRO MACHINES v4 has now gone gold and is speeding towards its June 27th ship date for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the PSP system, and PC with a Nintendo DS edition to follow. The MICRO MACHINES property is under license from the Hasbro Properties Group, the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS).

Everything gamers love about the MICRO MACHINES games is back and tuned up several notches. It’s time again to race tiny sports cars around the dinner table firing pint-sized rockets at friends knocking them over the edge. But no hard feelings, what’s a glass of spilt milk between friends? Just a road hazard is all.

Up to four players can challenge each other on MICRO MACHINES v4’s genius household raceways, weaving between train carriages on a model railway or ripping up the baize on a pool table.

A tantalizing taste of the massive fun to be had in this micro world is online now at www.codemasters.com/micromachines. Players can also prepare for the trash talking on the forum at www.codemasters.com/forum.

ABOUT MICRO MACHINES V4
Mixing miniature mayhem with maximum multiplayer racing, Micro Machines v4 comes packed with knockabout, breakneck racing in the fastest scale miniatures, complete with explosive weapon power-ups. Letting players loose with hundreds of vehicles, each with distinctive performance abilities, players will race inch-long miniature motors on the wildest tracks where everyday household objects appear immense in size and can become lethal hazards.

There’s an arsenal of power-ups and weapons to collect and use on opponents while racing. Micro Machines v4 brings all the favorites back – such as missiles and bombs – and provides new ones to attack with, including flamethrowers, heat-seeking missiles, plasma guns and, of course, the car-mounted giant hammer!

* Engage in madcap competition racing with your micro motors on the wildest tracks around your house, garden and beyond...
* Spin out on the breakfast table, turbo boost across the pool table or hit the gas as you race around the rim of the bath.
* Use your arsenal of power ups to blast your opponents with the flamethrower or heat-seeking homing missiles to throw them off course.
* Hundreds of tiny turbo cars to collect or trade. Or, up the stakes when you play for keeps with ‘pink slip racing’.
* Unlock bonus tracks with PSP system to PlayStation 2 connectivity.
* PSP system & DS wireless capability for up to 4-players, PC online multiplay and LAN.
* Unlockable multiplayer and single player content.
* Earn credits to unlock tracks and cars then trade with your friends.
* Track editor choose your own route through the garden or science lab… then challenge your friends to do battle!

Continue reading "Watch the return of the greatest multiplayer series with MICRO MACHINES v4 first game play video" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this PC CD-ROM game the notorious serial killer “The Phoenix” is back and the authorities need your help to catch him once and for all. Using an innovative blend of Windows® gameplay and the Internet, the player will explore key cities in Europe and North America. They will receive actual emails from virtual characters, scour real and fictitious websites, analyze video excerpts, photos, soundtracks, and piece together evidence to break the Phoenix’s embedded codes. From the creators of MISSING: Since January.

Continue reading "The Adventure Company Releases Trailer for EVIDENCE: The Last Ritual" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met with Wizards of the Coast on Thursday morning and they revealed to me a new version of Magic Online due to go live in the third quarter of 2006. Essentially, they give away the software for free (and there's no subscription fee) and you then sell you content as you go. There's new content released every 3 months. People collect and trade digital objects (like cards). There's a significant market on Ebay. There are 6 million paper (or real card) players and 250,000 electronic players. There are 400 million digital objects in the Magic Online universe and they host 2 million games per month.

Continue reading "E3 Coverage - Magic Online III" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met with Scott Rubin, VP of Sales and Marketing for Namco Networks America as my last meeting on Wednesday. This is the first year that Namco Networks has had it's own booth. And it was a huge booth for a mobile games publisher. Scott told me of Namco Networks' success in the past year with the rapid uptake in casual gaming and how their classic arcade games lend themselves very well to the mobile format. Popular titles include Galaga, Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man.

Scott also told me about original Namco Networks titles such as Snoopy and the Red Baron, Dilbert Cubicle Chaos, and Scene it? the number 1 board game in the world. For those of you who don't know about it, like me, it's a tv and movie trivia game. All of these games are network enabled meaning that you can download additional content and they support multi player.

Continue reading "E3 Coverage - Namco Networks" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have to admit that I didn't know much about Razer prior to our meeting Robert Karkoff (president) told me the whole story.

Razer was founded eight years ago and makes PC gaming products. Gamers are passionate about their equipment and Razer makes equipment for that high end market. They make high resolution gaming mice. Most, almost all, mice are 8-bit. Razer made the a 16-bit mouse in 2004. Most mice are 400 dpi; Razer mice are 1600 dpi or 2000 dpi. Razer believes that mice should be measure in inches per second because it is a more accurate measure of the type of performance required by high end gamers. The Diamondback runs at 90 ips and a human can move at about 72 ips. Everything Razer makes is a pure hardware solution. They actively seek feedback and validation from professional gamers with each product they bring to market.

The Copperhead has a 1ms latency, which is just about nothing. The mouse is completely portable. It has memory to store settings so you can take it with you, plug it in, and have all your settings right there. The mouse can receive firmware updates. It was the first 2000 dpi laser sensor mouse.

They're coming out with a keyboard named Tarantula in August 2006. It's the "first true gaming keyboard", low latency (1ms) and anti-ghosting so you can press as many keys as you want at once. It's completely programmable and has macro keys on each side. There are 5 profiles to store your programming; Razer will host a website to upload and download profiles. It's washable and has replaceable keys. There's a dock for peripherals across the top of it and Razer says that a lamp and a webcam are on the way. It will sell for $99.99.

Continue reading "E3 Coverage - Razer" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a good time over at SEGA with Jenny. Overall, they've got an impressive bunch of games.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz - This is a Wii launch title and I'm looking forward to it. Playing is a good demonstration of how the Wii controller can be used. Imagine that you are holding the puzzle tray in your hand. Tilt the controller the way that you would tilt the puzzle tray to move the monkey the way you want. It makes the game very cool. There are 50+ mini games and 50+ puzzle trays. Some of the mini games have creative ways of using the controller. For example, in the hammer throw you twirl the controller and release the button to throw the hammer.

Sonic Wild Fire (working title) - This is another Wii launch title. Sonic falls asleep reading the Arabian Nights and journeys into that world. It was fun to control him running through the game using the controller, tilting it to turn, flicking it up to jump. I got pulled out in the middle of this demo so I don't have much more. I also don't have a screen shot for this one.

Midieval II Total War - This is a PC only title due to ship in November 2006. It's being developed by a 40 person Australian team. There are 21 factions, 17 of which are playable. They doubled the resolution at which the graphics engine runs. They replaced the battle engine. Troops are now individuals that move and think independently within the context of their orders. You can upgrade the troops and see the difference in how they battle. There's a vegetation system that makes for great looking trees and bushes. The environment has strategic value so you can use it to win battles by trapping the enemy. The battle was something to see. Troops look around for their next opponent, corpses stack up in pools of blood. You can fight in the Crusades where there's a whole aspect to the game of managing the relationship with the Pope.

Continue reading "E3 Coverage - SEGA" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Test Drive Unlimited - The entire game takes place on the island of Oahu. There are over 100 licensed vehicles and 1000 miles of road. It's all pretty much online races. There can be up to 8 player online races. You can drive around randomly exploring. When you encounter another player you can challenge him to a race. Then you lay out the course on the map and start racing. The world can have up to 1000 players on the same server so you probably won't have to race the same person twice, unless you want to. There will be online racing clubs to join. This game ships in September 2006 for PS2, PSP, PC, and Xbox 360.

Continue reading "E3 Coverage - Atari" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NBA 2K7 - 2K did more motion caption on more players so there are more players in the game with their signature moves. For example, Steve Nash pauses every few minutes while dribbling to lick his fingers. Shot stick is more precise so you have more control over your dunks and layups. Players sweat, the clothes ripple. There's online play on all platforms. This game is for Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2 and PS3 and ships at the beginning of basketball season.

NHL 2K7 - 2K focused on making gameplay a more cinematic experience. Their goal was to emulate the movie Miracle. As such, players are more graceful and gameplay is more fluid. You can give defensive orders instead of just watching them and hoping they do the right thing. They've got NHL and NHLPA licenses. They promised me that the crap in the current version has been cleaned up, that the inicidence of garbage goals scored from the back of the net is down and that the stats and announcing are accurate. This game is for Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2 and PS3 and ships in Fall 2006.

College Hoops 2K7 - This is a basketball game where the more important aspect is coaching. You have to take into account team chemistry, not just grab the ball and drive the lane. The stadiums are realistic. There's an in-depth legacy mode and online play. This game is for Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2 and PS3 and ships in Fall 2006.

Continue reading "E3 Coverage - 2K Games" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Wednesday I got to meet with my good friend Alicia Kim and see Capcom's line of upcoming games. Alicia's really the one who launched my career as a game reviewer about 5 years ago when she hooked me up with a Dreamcast and a whole lot of SEGA games.

Lost Planet - You're on a very cold planet. In fact, the whole game is about how cold it is and how much thermal energy you can gain and store. You have to maintain your thermal health in this futuristic scifi 3rd person action adventure. This comes out on Xbox 360 in Q1 2007.

Dead Rising - This game comes out soon, in August 2006. You're a photo journalist in a mall that's been overridden with zombies. You can use anything as a weapon, and I did. I was beating up zombies with a huge teddy bear. It was hysterical.

Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins - This game comes out for PSP in September 2006. It's a sequel but everything in it is completely new. It's a 2D side scroller. The great thing is that when you die you come back in at the same spot where you died. This prevents you from having to redo the entire level over and over again until you get it right.

Capcom Puzzle World - This game is for PSP and ships in October 2006. It's all previously seen content but new to the PSP. It includes Super Puzzle Fighter, Blank Blank and three versions of Buster Brothers

Power Stone Collection - This game is for PSP and ships in October 2006. Again, no new content, just Power Stone 1 and Power Stone 2 ported to PSP. It's a multiplayer fighter with wacky weapons. You collect power stones to unlock abilities and weapons. You can take your own screenshots, so if you beat the crap out of your friend really bad you can take a screen shot, save it to the memory stick, copy it to the PC, and e-mail it to all of your other friends.

Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded - This game is for PSP and ships in October 2006. It is 19 Capcom arcade games such as Street Fighter 2.

Capcom Classics Collection Volume 2 - This is for PS2 and Xbox and ships in October 2006 with 18+ classic arcade games.

God Hand - This is for PS2 and ships in October 2006. Developed by Clover Studios, this can best be described as a samurai game set in a future western style world with funky surf music. It has over the top action and lots of fighting.

Continue reading "E3 Coverage - Capcom" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 7:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met with Ignition Entertainment and they showed me Mercury Meltdown for PSP. You control a little blob of mercury and have to navigate through mazes. It's party Super Monkey Ball and partly that game we had as kids where you roll a marble around on top of a wooden box and try not to get it in the holes. They kept the core gameplay the same but there are lots of new aspects to it. You move through 3D mazes, flip switches, navigate rollers, and try not to split up the big ball. There's multiplayer mode.

You can do different things with the mercury. You can heat it up to make it more blobby and make it go faster. You can turn it into a ball bearing to run up two rails. And you can make it cold, which makes it sticky and less likely to fall apart.

There are 160+ levels and 5 party games.

Continue reading "E3 Coverage - Mercury Meltdown" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I saw a very cool set of PSP speakers today. I would show you pics but it was just a prototype. This is pretty high end stuff and it sounded very good, way better than the Logitech or Logic3 speakers that I have. They use "TM Technology" which is a digital amplifier that cleans up imperfections in mp3 files.

Continue reading "E3 Coverage - Psyclone PSP Speakers" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nintendo showed 27 titles for Wii. They're not all launch titles though; they wouldn't commit to a specific number of launch titles. The Wii is actually very cool. I have to admit that I'm more excited about the Wii than I am about the PS3. The way I see it, Microsoft and Sony can throw more horsepower at games and have better graphics. Big deal. Gaming is still the same just with better graphics. But the Wii is new and radical. The controls are totally different from anything else that I've played. Honestly, after PS3 is going to cost as much as a house, I think I'm much more interested in Wii. There's a bunch of different controllers, the usual nunchuck controller and then there's the classic style controller which is like a GameCube controller, and there's a prototype zapper style controller which is like a gun.

If you'd like to view the slideshow click here.

Madden NFL 07 - using the Wii controller is very cool. You use the controller like the football. You snap it to start the play, then you pass with it, and shake it to juke.

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess - this is so cool. The controller takes some getting used to. You use both hands to play, aiming with the controller and swinging your sword by swiping with the controller. The game looks great.

Wii Sports is golf, tennis, and baseball. You use the controller like you would play the sport. For instance, you serve in tennis and then swing to hit the ball as it comes to you. Very cool stuff.

Continue reading "E3 Coverage - Nintendo" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night my friend Andrew and I went to Pandemic's party and saw their PS3 title Mercenaries 2 World in Flames. I was very impressed that they had this Humboldt Fog goat cheese that I really like. This is the first actual PS3 game that I've seen played. I've seen plenty of trailers and movies but this ws the first time I saw someone playing it. The game is due out in 2007.

It's pretty similar to the original Mercenaries. There's a support mechanic so you make friends with NPCs and then your friends can be called in with particular things to help you, like they'll bring you a dune buggy or a helicopter. One really cool thing is the ability to light fires and basically play with fire. That's the first time I've seen fire as a toy and not fire as an effect in a game. The dev team is going for an action movie feel so a lot of stuff looks very cinematic with the way the camera shows the action. You can take control of any vehicle anywhere. There's a grappling hook that you can use to board helicopters while they're in the air and then fly them.

Continue reading "E3 Coverage - Mercenaries 2 World in Flames" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 7:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is an RPG where the galaxy is your playground. The game world is a huge scale with a sleek and futuristic look. You can play as Commander Shepard or develop your own fully customizable character. There is a lot of walking around and interacting with NPCs. Everything is very fluid and the character modelling is excellent. There's an innovative dialogue system where you pick the basics of what your character should say and then he says something like what you selected but with more detail.

Continue reading "E3 Coverage - Mass Effect" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 7:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You have seen the game, now it is time to take a trip inside the development studio behind Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend. Crystal Dynamics has brought Lara Croft back to the top, and you will find that not only are they skilled at game design, they also have a good sense of humor! In these two video developer diaries you get to hear from members of the development team about what their thoughts are regarding Lara Croft and the new game. Also take a look at some of the design aspects that were used to create the fluid movement system, as well as a nice tour of the sound studio where music genius Troels Folmann works.

Download the videos now over at:
http://www.eidosinteractive.com/downloads/search.html?gmid=158!

Continue reading "Eidos Releases Two Video Developer Diaries for Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend!" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Agent 47 is set to make his triumphant return in the latest installment of the Hitman franchise, Hitman: Blood Money. As the world’s deadliest assassin, Agent 47 is normally the one stalking the target. This time however, other assassins from his contract killing firm known as the Agency have been ending up on the wrong side of the executions. Sensing that he might be the next target, Agent 47 travels to America to uncover clues about this rival agency which has suddenly entered the fray.Much of this conspiracy is still unknown, but in the latest trailer released for Hitman: Blood Money you can take a first look at the mysterious Wheelchair Man, and it is pretty clear that Agent 47 is definitely not on his good side. Who is this Wheelchair Man and what are his motives... these answers you will have to find out for yourself.

Download the new trailer now at:
http://www.eidosinteractive.com/downloads/search.html?gmid=159!

Continue reading "Get a Glimpse at the Mysterious Wheelchair Man from Hitman: Blood Money in the Latest Trailer!" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

San Francisco, CA (April 21, 2006) -- Eidos Interactive, one of the world’s leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, today announced that URBAN CHAOS: Riot Response will be released in North America on June 13, 2006 on the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and the Xbox® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.

Developed by London-based Rocksteady Studios, URBAN CHAOS: Riot Response gives gamers the opportunity to step into the shoes of a real urban superhero. Play as Nick Mason, an ex-US marine and leading member of T-Zero - an elite police counter-gang unit. Specially trained in all areas of urban combat and armed with the very latest high-tech weaponry, T-Zero – the last line in urban defense - teams-up with Emergency Services groups including firefighters, paramedics and police to save the city and combat multiple threats including bombings and hostage scenarios.

“URBAN CHAOS is one of the most anticipated games of 2006 and offers a unique experience right at the heart of a full scale riot,” said Helen Clark, Brand Manager, “for fans of the FPS genre, this will be a highly original and intense challenge.”

URBAN CHAOS: Riot Response offers gamers the latest in gaming advancements including realistic and dynamic city environments where all sorts of extreme action takes place, progressive fire effect technology and fully interactive environments, using Havok 3 technology. Players can utilize members of the Emergency Services to progress through levels and save civilians and partner with the riot shield and use it as a weapon or for protection. In hostage scenarios, gamers go head to head with a twisted enemy to save innocent bystanders. Players are tasked to be the hero the city needs... don’t back down in the face of true Urban Chaos!

Continue reading "EIDOS CONFIRMS URBAN CHAOS: RIOT RESPONSE RELEASE DATE AND RELEASES NEW TRAILER" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rogue Trooper, the upcoming third person sci-fi action shooter game based off of the popular comic book series from 2000 AD, puts you in the shoes of the last survivor of the Genetic Infantrymen who were set up and brutally massacred. Rogue sets off alone on a mission for revenge as he fights his way through platoons of soldiers to search for the traitor responsible for the death of his comrades. Though alone on the battlefield, the bio-chips containing the genetic information of his fallen comrades Gunnar, Bagman and Helm, have been implanted in his gear, which allows their personalities and abilities to come to life a second time.

Download the new video now at: http://www.eidosinteractive.com/downloads/search.html?gmid=161!

Continue reading "Special Abilities of Gunnar Displayed in the Latest Gameplay Video for Rogue Trooper!" »

Posted by Matt Sarrel at 7:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)