Hell is about to break loose yet again as the action RPG, Diablo 3, brings evil back  when it launches May 15. Need the lowdown on this game? We’ve got veterans and newbies covered — here’s a rundown of what’s new, what’s still the same, and why the threequel is well worth the $60  price.

What’s New

• Online Required. Yes, you need to be connected to the Internet to play the game, even for single- player campaigns. If you have a slow or intermittent connection, then it might be time to consider an upgrade before running Diablo 3.
• Five distinct classes. You can choose between the Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor or Wizard. To sum up their playstyles — the Barbarian and Monk are close combat specialists, the Demon Hunter is a marksman and trap expert, while the Witch Doctor and Wizard are squishy but devastating
  casters. Each class uses a different resource (no longer Mana for everyone), wears three class-specific equipment, and has a distinct storyline.
• More convenient loot runs. Diablo 3 is an addictive item collection game. Hundreds of hours are spent killing demons to collect rare weapons and equipment, but this time Blizzard has made hauling back loot easier and more convenient.
• Bye Deckard Cain, hello Leah. You’ve seen the trailers. Deckard Cain is presumed dead when a falling star crashes into his home. Her niece Leah takes up his mantle as your trusty lore guide. So what will happen to our unidentified items? This function has been integrated into the inventory system, so no
  need to worry on how the Last Horadrim’s exit will affect your gameplay.
• Crafting. Aside from item looting, Diablo 3 now allows full-blown item crafting. Basically, the junk items you loot can be salvaged and used to make new items via special artisan NPCs — the blacksmith for weapons, armor and accessories; and the jeweler for gem sockets and upgrades.
• Auction house. Diablo 2 players know how rampant third-party buying for gear and runes became in the game. Time-starved players simply didn’t have time to farm the best items, so they instead bought them via the shady gray market. Blizzard changes all that with a new legit auction house system
  that allows players to buy and sell loot between each other. Of course, Blizzard takes a small cut in all transactions.
• Inferno difficulty. For the truly hardcore, Inferno offers a difficulty mode like no other. It’s the ultimate challenge after Normal, Nightmare and Hell modes, with mobs and bosses set at a higher level than you.

What’s Still the Same

• Hack-and-slash grind. Diablo 3 is setting up to be the same — if not more — of a time sink than its predecessors. If you’re looking for a game that can be completed in a weekend, or something that offers a variety of gameplay, then move on because Diablo 3 is anything but those.
• Dark, mature setting. No watered down kiddy themes here. Diablo 3 continues with the twisted and often blood-spattered premise of a world besieged by demons. The situation in Sanctuary grows even more dire and desperate, with your hero only one of the few standing between humanity’s survival and its annihilation.

Why It’s Worth It

• Campaign longevity and re-play value. Diablo 3 will keep you entertained for years to come. Its content is single-player campaigns are sprawling and easily take up 100 hours per class, and that’s not even scratching the higher difficulty modes, team play and PvP arena play.
• Bigger, badder bosses. Screen-wide behemoths will appear more often, making fights feel and look more epic.
• Explore the greater Sanctuary. The first two Diablo games only showed us a sliver of Sanctuary, and restricted us to a handful of locales. Diablo 3 opens up the world to the lands only hinted at before, from the wizard homeland of Xiansai to the lost city of Ureh.
• Star-studded heaven and hell cast. Call us fanboys, but the confirmation that Archangel Imperius and Diablo will both appear in-game has us pumped. Developers also said that plenty of new characters will be introduced, obviously to address criticism that only a handful of characters really stand out in the franchise (as compared to other Blizzard titles like World of Warcraft and StarCraft).

We hope this overview gives you a rough idea of what to expect in Diablo 3. Do you have anything to add? Chime in at the comments. Our Diablo 3 review will be coming out very soon, and we won’t be pulling any punches.

LOS ANGELES — Naughty Dog Game Director Justin Richmond knows that it would be easy to rest on the laurels of the massive success of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves when it comes to the franchise’s highly anticipated next chapter; Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, but refuses to.

“We always want to make a game that we’re interested in playing. We want to push ourselves,” Richmond said. “We never want to rest on the laurels of the last game. Uncharted 2, it was lightning in a bottle, and we know that. It was the right people in the right studio at the right time, but we’re really proud of what we’re doing with this one.”

So just how does Richmond plan on improving what many see as one of the most impressive and memorable games in recent years? Easy; adding pretty much more of everything fans love and improving what they didn’t.

Take the game’s melee combat system for example, Richmond said that while the system worked for Uncharted 2, the team knew they could do so much more this time around.

“One of the things we really tried to improve this time around was the melee system.  We were never really happy with it in the last game and we’re working on making it as much fun as the rest of the game. We’re really taking a look at all of these little things and seeing where we can tweak them to make the game that much better.”

During our interview, we were shown two sections of the Uncharted 3 campaign, and though it’s obvious that the tweaks Richmond talked about were implemented, it was even more apparent that the studio knew what gave Uncharted its identity, big over the top action sequences. The first sequence we saw was a slightly longer version of the cruise ship level from Sony’s E3 press conference (yeah, the one with the really cool water effects) and it was clear that the scope of the game has been made to be even more massive. The level (as seen below) features a ton of interior and exterior locations, completely dwarfing the scope of the last game.

The second section we saw found Drake and Elena sneaking into an airport runway and Drake literally climbing on to the plane’s landing gear to climb on board. Once on the plane, Drake found his way to main cargo area, where he met up with an awfully large Henchmen, and a very cool battle sequence ensued (where we got to see the new melee system with contextual cues and quick time events). While the demo did show the type of over the top Hollywood style action we’re accustomed to see in the franchise, the cinematic leading up to the sequence told a different story, one not usually associated with Drake’s adventures; the heart and believability of the characters, and according to Richmond, that’s something the team is really aiming to change.”We want to be true to our characters, what they’d do, how they’d act. We feel like we have a natural progression of where the characters were in the last game to where they are now.”

But what about the characters not from the last game? Richmond then introduced us to Katherine Marlowe, the game’s new antagonist and quickly became excited about what she brings to the Uncharted saga.

“This is where the Drake’s Deception title really starts to come in. Uncharted 3 finds Nathan Drake searching for an ancient 16 century treasure, but he ends up being pulled in to an even bigger mystery filled with deceit, pitting him against a shadowy clandestine organization and the occult treachery of its cunning and ruthless leader,” Richmond said. “Marlowe is always trying to undermine Drake and getting him to do things he doesn’t want to do, it adds a brand new dynamic to the franchise.”

Uncharted 3 launches on November 1 exclusively for the PlayStation 3. Check back with Blast for more previews and coverage until the game’s release, and be sure to check out our gallery below for a ton of cool Uncharted screenshots.

ORLANDO — The Madden franchise is used to being the only game in town. Following an exclusive $300 million agreement with the NFL and NFLPA in 2004, the franchise became the only game that could use the NFL’s teams, players, logos and stadiums — but this year was different.  With a potential lockout threatening the entire season, Madden NFL 12 came close to being the only football this year period. The goal of EA Sports and Tiburon was clear then, create the most authentic game of football ever. One that looks, plays and sounds different than any that came before. Blast sat down with Madden NFL 12′s  Creative Director Mike Young to talk about what went into this year’s game and that pesky lockout.

To create a better and more realistic football title, EA knew that the first thing they needed to do was ramp up the series production values, which turned out to be quite the extensive process according to Young.

“We put a lot of effort into improving our presentation this year.  Our goal was simple:  Matching TV shot for shot,” Young told Blast.

“Our philosophy was bring in the experts, so we had NFL Films filming our cameras, CBS teaching us broadcast, Troika (MNF, SNF, Sports Center)designing our broadcast graphics.  Through the NFL we were able to arrange relationships with CBS crews to really understand how they execute the broadcast.  How they chose cameras, how they tell stories, etc.  We were able to attend pregame meetings with the director and camera operators.  We sat in the trucks during the games learning how all the elements come together.  We even brought in directors later in the year to critique our work.  The access was incredible. On one trip to Philadelphia we got to drive the wire camera.  We were given production bibles, diagrams for camera placement, and director instructions for each operator.  On top of the camera direction several other pieces were needed to make the content feel authentic to TV.  We added several scenes to the game like exterior blimp shots, cheerleaders, players running on and off the field, pregame runouts, etc.   I think people are really going to notice the attention to detail.”

The difference in the presentation is instantly noticeable from the start of a game. Team specific introductions (mascots and pyro included) start each game and the camera now employs a more broadcast style, much similar to that which you’d see on Sunday afternoons.  Also included this year are player specific celebrations and while you won’t be seeing T.O. taking out popcorn during a touchdown celebration, you do get things like Aaron Rodgers’ championship belt and Ray Lewis’ signature strut. It’s elements like these that according to Young were a culmination of the Madden team’s work over the past few years. ” Several of the features we delivered this year were several years in the making. 

For instance our realistic TV Broadcast style presentation was the result of three years of planning and building better presentation and camera tools and systems.   Some of that work manifested itself in previous versions of the game but I think Madden NFL 12 was the first time we were able to pull it together and make a huge leap forward.”

But football isn’t just about flash and show, and EA knew that it had make its players as realistic as its presentation and created the Dynamic Player Performance system as a result. Essentially, Dynamic Player Performance allows players to act more like their real life counterparts and not just a rating; how they play will be effected from everything from injuries to weather and even fatigue. It’s a system that according to Young, will change how players play Madden entirely.

“Adding Dynamic Player Performance is the biggest change we’ve made to Franchise mode in years and it’s the feature we’re the most excited about. In most if not all sports games including Madden in the past every game feels exactly the same. The players always play exactly like their ratings and there’s no such thing as having a good or bad day. In the NFL you never know what’s going to happen. Is Jay Cutler going to have the game of his life or struggle the entire game? That is why we watch the games.”

So just how realistic are these new dynamic player ratings (Jake Cutler jokes aside)? Young believes that the system makes this the most realistic and true to the league Madden yet.

“We feel like they are very true to life.  In fact Dynamic Player Performance is allowing us to capture intangibles and behaviors of players that we never truly represented before.  I like to think we had previously captured only the raw skills each player possessed, things you would measure at the combine, but now with Dynamic Player Performance we are capturing how players respond in situations.  When you played against Mike Vick in previous Madden’s he wouldn’t play like Mike Vick. He would stay in the pocket just like Peyton Manning.  Now we are able to not just represent the abilities that make players unique but now we ensure they use those abilities just like they do in real life.”

As odd as it may sound, Young believes that the pre-season in this year’s game is another one of the big changes that players will love, especially those that bury themselves deep in the game’s franchise mode.

“The second biggest enhancement in my opinion is the addition of expanded rosters and cut days,” Young said. “Finally the pre-season is meaningful in the game.”

The expanded rosters and cut days gives players the ability to fully access their team during pre-season games and drills, making risky cuts when needed.  “Now there is a real challenge to evaluate the talent on your team and fill the holes.  It’s all about finding the next Danny Woodhead.  Should you keep a veteran that you are familiar with or stick with a rookie to reveal his true potential? By the end of the preseason, if you keep a rookie or training camp invite on the roster for all four weeks, his ratings will be completely unlocked and you’ll know his true overall rating. At that point, you’ll know if you made a mistake by keeping him or if you found a diamond in the rough.”

Madden NFL 12 launches for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and 3DS on August 30. A demo is available on PSN and Xbox Live Today.

LOS ANGELES — Undoubtedly, the biggest news to come out of this year’s E3 was Nintendo’s announcement of it’s brand new home console, The Nintendo Wii U. Featuring a controller complete with a 16.2′ LCD screen and classic button layout with two analog circle pads and a D-Pad; the Wii U is like nothing else you’ve played before. With the Wii U, Nintendo wanted to “remove the traditional barriers between games, players and the TV by creating a second window into the video game world.” In easier terms, the Wii U allows gamers to transfer the screen from the TV to the controller’s LCD screen. there’s a ton of other cool options like using the controller as a tablet to being able to teleconference with it as well. Check out the video below, played during Nintendo’s E3 press conference.

Pretty lofty goals huh? Blast got the chance to sit down with Nintendo and take the new hardware and its tech demos out for a test drive at this year’s E3.

The Controller

At first sight, the controller looks big and bulky. While it is quite large (it’s bigger than everything we’ve seen so far, including the big original Xbox controller), but it’s surprisingly light and comfortable to hold. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to navigate. Perhaps its just because we’re not used to a setup like this, but during our hands on time with the controller, we constantly found ourselves hitting the wrong buttons and fumbling around to find exactly what we had to press. It got better after a bit of time, but the new experience definitely doesn’t come naturally.

The Games

In reality, it’s unfair to call what Nintendo showed off actual games; they’re more of tech demos. The first of these demos we were able to check out (read: it wasn’t playable) was that of The Legend of Zelda. It’s obvious that it was meant to show off the new system’s graphical power — and it worked. Miles ahead of the Wii, the demo showed Link fighting a giant spider in a church building. The image was very detailed, and we were able to switch between night and day to truly check out how the system could handle details.

The Wii U Zelda title used the new controller mostly as an inventory system, allowing gamers to switch from one item to the other on the fly. Of course, you could also flip the image to the LCD screen entirely.

The Zelda Wii U demo featured impressive HD visuals.

Next, we were able to get our hands on Battle Mii, a game which had one character control the ship from Metroid  using the new controller, while three other people controlled soldiers wearing Samus’ suit as they tried to shoot the ship down using Wii-motes.  Playing as the ship required us to take advantage of the game’s gyroscope by moving all over the place. It’s a lot harder than it seemed, and we found ourselves failing a lot. Playing as the soldiers was easy with the Wiimote.

We also played Super Mario Bros Mii, which played exactly like New Super Mario Bros, but allowed you to swap in your Mii characters. The key here is that the touch screen was able to render the game’s image quite well, and I found myself not even looking up to the actual TV screen much.

New Super Mario Bros Mii.

The Verdict

It’s really tough to say right now. Yes, it’s novel and yes, it’s new, but we saw what happened when the Wii’s novelty wore off. The tech demos were fun, but they were nothing revolutionary. The Wii U’s success will depend on a number of things, including third party support (we’ve already been promised everything from Aliens to Batman and Dirt 3), how the developers use the tech and how the Nintendo team can bring the new tech to storied franchises.

The Nintendo Wii U will launch in 2012.

SEATTLE — If you haven’t tried EchoChrome, you should. The new game takes a new direction using the Move Controller. Where the first one you changed your viewing perspective to modify the characters world, this one uses the Move to send a light around the screen. The Move Controller acts like a flashlight, and the blocks on the screen all cast shadows. This time the characters are shadows, and don’t actually walk on the blocks, but on the blocks’ shadows. This fits very well into the theme of the first game, since again perception is reality.

The Move Controller responds very well in the game. It actually feels like you’re holding a flashlight.

The levels are accomplished by getting the character to a doorway that is somewhere in the level, though as one of the levels they had for me to play with in their demo showed, even the Final Exit isn’t always what it looks like. One of the levels that I was able to play, you had to create the final doorway by moving the light such that a rectangular block is right below a circular block, forming a shadow in the shape of a doorway, then the character to walk through it.

The bounce ramps are created by having a half of a circle above a path, which means moving the light to place a circle block half way behind or half way in front of the path blocks. The holes this time make less sense, but are easier to see. They are circle in the side of the blocks; this has problems logically since your character is walking on top, not on the sides so shouldn’t really fall through, though this is easier to see.

One new addition is the levels for creating artistic shadows. They showed off a new level where the goal was to create a shadow in the shape of a smiley face by positioning the light in just the right place.

For anyone that loved the original, they should love this one. It kept the charm of the original, while making good use of the Move Controller.

SEATTLE — Who didn’t ever wish to be Godzilla at one time or another and destroy a whole city? This game is all about that.

In Eat Them, you start by creating a monster. They give options for its upper body, lower body, arms, legs and head. So your monster could have three legs, or just one big one. Your monster can have a claw, or a circular saw for a right arm. You can be Godzilla or Robot Godzilla.

The game starts with you in a city with your monster. The goal of the game is to wreak as much havoc as monstrously possible. The level is played with the PS2 controller, with a different button for each type of attack, one for his head, one for each of his arms and one for his legs.

I was also told you can actually pick up the people in the city and eat them, but I was unable to get the game to do that.

It was incredibly satisfying smashing the buildings and stomping on people and vehicles. As the game progresses they send more and more police and military after you to stop you. This starts with a couple of cop cars, than goes up to helicopters and tanks. The more they throw at you the harder the game gets, but your score is based on dollars of damage and casualties, so you want to destroy everything. The game has a red outline of where in the city you can go and that line moves when you destroy enough of the city.

The details in the game are well done, with people streaming out of buildings before they collapse, and the different building styles, and even train tracks in the demo that I got to play. The game features comic book graphics and style — simple but effective.

I thought the game was a lot of fun, if you are feeling frustrated, or angry you can take your anger out on virtual buildings and level a city that you shouldn’t attempt in real life.

SEATTLE — Sony brought a few Move titles to show off at the 2010 Penny Arcade Expo, and with both of the major new motion technology being released soon it was interesting to see what would be available for titles.

It does kinda feel like a Wii game...

One of Sony’s new Move titles is cleverly called Heroes on the Move. You play one of the famous characters: Sly Cooper, Ratchet, Clank, Jak, or Dexter. This is a party title, with short quick games to get a group of people into it.

I was able to play through two levels of the game. The first one was a modified bowling game. The player bowls a ball in the level, then uses the controller to direct the ball to roll in certain directions to hit all the enemies on the board. The ball keeps rolling until it falls off the map. There are bumpers and ramps on the map to help direct the ball in the direction of the enemy units that must be destroyed.

You move the controller up to jump over things or to get it to get to higher areas. The level that I played was fairly easy, but was still fun. The character could also be moved around the board to other starting locations to help get to different spots, like to bowl behind where it started. The controls took small motions to nudge it in different directions, and felt a lot like a Wii Game.

With the glowing orb at the end of the Move controller it was able to very accurately track all my movements, since it knows the exact dimensions of the ball, it knows how far away it is by how big the circle is, and can tell moving forward, and backwards as well as from side to side, and up and down.

The second level I got to play was one where you could throw a disc around to hit the targets. The disc stops when it hits a wall or other object that isn’t breakable. The discs also stop if you try to go to high with them too fast — they stall out and fall to the earth. This level had a limited time and a limited number of discs. As you’re destroying the enemies, you have to also collect more discs and time bonuses to keep going.

Overall the game was fun, and I would enjoy playing it as a friendly party game, and it has potential as a family title. The only complaint is it did feel like a game more designed for the Wii, just using Sony Franchise characters.

SEATTLE — Kung Fu Rider will be coming the PlayStation Network, and it will use the Move Controller. The game features an office worker in Hong Kong riding less traditional "vehicles" down the busy streets.

It was described as similar in style to Crazy Taxi, and we wholeheartedly agree. The demo that we got to play was with an office chair. The character sits on the office chair, backwards, using the seat back as a steering wheel. The final game will feature a variety of weird vehicles.

The movements are fairly simple. You move the controller up and down to go faster, quick upward jerk will cause the chair to jump, so you can leap over objects and grind on rails if you land correctly. They also use two buttons on the controller, one to lean the character back, to duck under objects, and another to do a round house kick. This makes the controls very simple. The game was very arcade like also with the graphics very cartoonish.

The animations in the game when you’d lean back, kick or jump or even when you’d get knocked off your chair were hilarious. Getting knocked off your chair happens in slow motion, with an exaggerated fall backwards.

The object of the levels was to get to the bottom within a time limit, and falling off would punish you by losing time and speed. They have money scattered throughout the level to collect for points.

I thought it was a fun, and quick game. It’s not going to be a real deep story line game, but if you want something quick and fun, you’ll like Kung Fu Rider.

Kung Fu Rider is for 1-2 players and comes out this month.

Game features:

• Find the best routes of escape while racing through 27 exciting courses in six unique areas of Hong Kong.
• Slide solo in single-player mode or have a friend use a PlayStation Move motion controller to aim a "target" around the screen in order to collect items and fend off enemies in the offline multi-player co-op mode.
• Unlock 12 new vehicles that will help you make a speedy getaway through the streets of Hong Kong.
• Check out the tally screen at the end of each race to see your reactions captured by the PlayStation Eye camera during your most extreme wipeouts.

SEATTLE — Valve has running a hands-off demo of the co-op play for Portal 2 during the Penny Arcade Expo.

The Game features two robots, an orange one and a blue one, that Glados has given a set of missions too. The game still plays with the expected commentary, where Glados will say things like "make you wish you could die," after one of the Robots gets "killed.”

The Portal colors were modified slightly, so that it makes it easier to tell which player shot which side of which portal. One portal is red and yellow, and the other is blue and purple. They also added a new “ping” tool. The developers noticed that even when the two players are in the same room telling each other what to do would be tricky, especially with how tricky some of Portal’s puzzles can be. The tool points a marker where you want the other player to place a portal. This helps coordinating, where you can tell the other side what you need them to do.

The co-op missions will be about twice the length of the original portal game. They will be the same length as the single player missions.

They then showed off some of the new puzzle devices in the game. There is a laser, which can be redirected with light cubes, but they require extra caution in the co-op mode that you don’t accidentally use it on the other player. There is a light platform that the robots can walk across, and like all other objects in the game, the new ones will move through the portals. They showed off one of the ways that two players will be needed in the new game, by having the light path going over the acid from one player’s portal, than needing to change the direction to go down another hallway. If the first player moved their portal, the path they are standing on would disappear, and both robots would fall into the acid.

They showed another co-op solution in making more practical a move that was previously a fun stunt to pull in the game. It had been fun to shoot a portal on the ceiling and the floor, so that the player falls from infinitely gaining speed to terminal velocity. In the original one, this, while still being a fun move, wasn’t very practical since the screen moves so fast that it’s near impossible to redirect the upper portal anywhere useful. With two players though, one player starts falling through the other player’s portals, and then they redirect the output to a desired location, shooting the falling player out at maximum velocity, without requiring a huge cliff.

They also added more comic relief to the game. The two robots can wave at each other, and even hug. It’s very funny to watch one of them "forget" to hit a switch, killing the other, and then offer a hug in apology. Though in a non-demo situation, I’m not sure how often either move would be used.

The video ended with a demonstration of the new features of the game, and the two robots preparing to begin their task. I’m looking forward to this when it’s released on Feb 9, 2011, on the Xbox 360, PC, Mac and PlayStation 3.

LOS ANGELES — At E3 this year, we were given a special treat from Square, the makers of the hugely popular, long-running Final Fantasy series: a (mostly) technical demo of their newest entry into the franchise, Final Fantasy XIV. Like XI, this installment will be an MMORPG, so giving much of an in-depth demo beyond the graphics wasn’t too feasible with the time constraints of E3.

The demo was set up with NVidia’s 3D display system (support for which may or may not make it to the end user), and once we got used to wearing the glasses, we were blown away. In the town setting of the demo, we were able to look out into the distance or view objects up close, and we could even distinguish between individual blades of grass and flowers that you can even watch grow from all different angles. The lighting, too, was impressive: the sun leaves varying degrees of shadow from different objects, and going from outside to inside, or vice versa, causes the camera to mimic the adjustments your eyes would have to make in the real world, refocusing to the light level.

Character models are exceptionally detailed and animated, too, as evidenced by a non-player character inside one of the buildings cooking food: you can see individual items of food being tossed as he cooks, leaving a surreal, Uncanny Valley-reminiscent sensation at how lifelike his actions were. NPCs are even rendered at much greater distances than similar games, allowing one to feel really immersed in their surroundings, and will certainly lead to a feeling of being in a densely populater area when there are lots of people around. If you look off into the distance, for example, you might see little specks moving around the terrain; these are actual characters, instead of having flat backgrounds with objects that only load when you get within a few feet of them.

After allowing us to wander around their town, all the people demoing were joined into a party to go on a simple quest to kill two crab-like creatures. Where the quest system shines is in the reactive nature of different elements of the task at hand: for example, after killing one crab, the other escapes and finds another to help fight back, and the quest changes and we then had to kill three crabs instead of the original two. This process can repeat, and a simple quest to kill a creature or two can grow into a more epic battle.

It’s still too early to tell how the latest foray into the world of Final Fantasy will turn out, but this early glimpse is promising. If you were a fan of XI, this could be just what you’re waiting for, but it’ll be quite a feat to take some of the market share from World of Warcraft.

LOS ANGELES — THQ is releasing a new Video Game, to accompany the new DreamWorks movie “Megamind.”

There seems to be fairly limited details on the new movie, mostly based on the two trailers that have been released. The new Movie is about the Super Villain Megamind who manages to kill his opponent. He then decides he needs a new super hero, so attempts to create a new one. Unfortunately his newly created super hero actually decides he likes being a villain better, and instead of ruling the world just destroys everything. This forces Megamind to take on the role of super hero to stop him. The premise behind this movie and game is interesting, that "villains make the best heroes."

The game plays as Megamind, and his trusty side-kick Minion, trying to stop Titan and the Doom Syndicate. Megamind’s super power is cliche, his mind. The game generally follows the movie, but since games tend to be longer they had to add more enemies to fight. They didn’t just come up with random characters themselves though, they used some of the extra characters designed for the movie that were removed, because of time constraints. THQ worked with the movie team to make sure these added characters would fit with the story.

THQ also made an interesting decision on how to make the game mult-iplatform. Instead of having a game for each platform that aims at the lowest common denominator, they decided to make three different games focusing on the strengths of each platform. The HD version of the game is a single player with second player assist, similar to Super Mario Galaxy but is only available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. For the Wii, though they went with a 4 player brawler, where you can unlock new characters by beating them. The DS, and the PSP are aimed at fitting their screen, and using their technology but being a different game than the HD version.

While at E3, we were able to try out the HD version. They designed it to be a good family game, approachable by all ages.

The controls are very simple, just basic movement on the D-pad, a button for shoot and another for action. They made nearly everything in the game destructible, figuring that kids like to go around destroying things.

THQ tried to make the puzzles not too simple to bore the adults. This was harder to see from the short demo of the game we saw. The game seemed to play like any 3D platformer. With super power upgrades, and bad guys to beat up along the way. The game did seem fun. We even saw a Tesla gun upgrade that let us chain hit enemies, one after another. Though like a lot of movie based games it will likely rely heavily on the success or failure of the movie.

Megamind the game is scheduled to be released with the movie in November.

LOS ANGELES — Sega is working on a new 2D platform Sonic game in the spirit of the original series. They had a demo of it available at E3 2010, allowing people to play one of three early levels in the game. The game takes place after the Sonic and Knuckles game.

Sega promises that this is the beginning of a new series of games. The game starts with Sonic going off exploring, and Egg-Man comes after him wanting to just kill him now and get him out of the way, so Sonic won’t stop his next plan.

The game levels are built to feel like the original with a slight difference. The bosses will play like the original but with upgrades. The game then has a twist ending that will lead into Episode 2, and continuation of the new series. They are taking great pains with this title, since the last game in the series was in 1994, there is a lot of time in here, and gamers have a lot of expectations from a new sonic game.

This is evident from the fact that they have delayed the game to make it correctly. They were originally scheduled to release at the end of this summer, but are now targeting the end of the year. When I played with the game it looks like the original sonic games, just having a higher resolution. Sonic has a nice upgraded look, without changing too much to character. I was disappointed with Sonic’s acceleration in the demo. When you move Sonic he walks too long before he will start to run.

They said that was one of the issues that they have decided to rework after showing the demo off. I also had an issue that when you press down to go into a roll it would usually not start spinning rolling fast, but goes back to slowly moving. This bothered me as being very unlike the previous sonic games that were always about speed. The people at the booth said that was one of the reasons they have delayed the release of the game, to give them more time to make it more like sonic.

Sega has included the Chaos emeralds in the new Levels. Like the original games, it requires 50 rings to activate get them, though the game allows the player to replay, and jump to a level that they want. This is nice since if you miss a chaos emerald you don’t have to start the game from the beginning like the previous ones.

They included the original power-ups from the original series, plus some additions from the later Sonic Adventure games. One such addition is the ability to jump attack from one enemy to another. The invincibility and fast shoes are back though.

They made some differences between the PlayStation 3, iPhone, Xbox 360, and Wii Versions for the special stages. The PS3 and the Wii can control using the Tilt controllers. The iPhone can control any level with either tilt, or by controls on the screen for directional pad, and action button for jumping. They arranged the level, and the View point on the iPhone so that the controls on the bottom wouldn’t obstruct viewing the level.

Definitely excited to see this one come out.

After logging numerous hours in the highly anticipated and ultimately important Halo: Reach multiplayer Beta, Bungie has left the sweet taste of promise and potential in my mouth.

I’ve hunted heads in the game’s HeadHunter mode, popped headshots left and right in SWAT, and I’ve journeyed to the ambitious battlefield of Reach‘s newest and most daring game-type yet, Invasion.

While the Beta is, by definition, an unfinished product, the level of detail, definition and structure, is remarkable and in fact exceeds the multiplayer component of many games available at retail today.

Arguably, the most exciting and ambitious component of Reach is its Armor Abilities. These come in five flavors at the moment and include Sprint, Armor Lock, Active Camouflage, Jetpack and Evade. Whereas in Halo 3, these power ups were scattered throughout the map and had to be picked up, in Reach you start with one.

As you can likely deduce, Sprint affords its beholder the ability to run super fast, for a short amount of time. It’s great for escaping the heat of battle and can be a determining factor in your eventual life or death.

Armor Lock, already the most annoying part of the Beta, allows its user to slam his fist into the ground and become invincible for a period of time. While employed, this Armor Ability prohibits you from moving and when it expires (or you choose to end it) you’re an easy target, prone to the scope of a headshot. It’s useful when an incoming vehicle is barreling towards you, but in hand to hand combat, it’s kind of lame.

Armor Lock

Active Camo is just as it sounds and allows you to become invisible whenever you desire. Man is it annoying when someone uses this, sneaks up behind you and knifes you in the back for a one-hit kill. This Ability is  most useful in Capture The Flag game-types, as it allows you to stealthily enter the opponents base, snag the flag and at least make it a decent distance before your foes see a flag magically walking away.

Jetpack is already the best part of Reach. The ability to reach any lookout, ascend any building and escape the bullets of battle, is a great tool to have at your disposal. However, with this newfound ability to flyyyy, comes the fact that when you do choose to use it, you’re literally a flying target, easily falling into the reticules of enemies. That said, its pros outweighs its cons and if you’re like me, you’ll use this Ability more often than not. There is one caveat for Jetpackers though. If you fly to high and use up all your pack’s juice on the way up, the fall damage on the way down will kill you. Remember to pad your landing!

Jetpack!

Evade is an Elite specific ability and allows these aliens to move extremely nimbly throughout combat. Hold down LB to use the ability and flick the directional stick in any direction and you’ll very quickly duck and roll in the direction you chose. If a Spartan is raining fire down on you from high above and you’re in the  middle of an open combat zone, a few somersaults with the Ability will get you out there quickly.

Weapons

Halo: Reach introduces a handful of new weapons to complement the Abilities, but before we talk about them, we need to speak of Loadouts. When a match starts, you have a choice of weaponry. Each has a primary, secondary, grenades and an Armor Ability. Everyone plays Halo a little differently, so you’ll have to play around with options and find the one that suits your play style best.

Loadouts

First, players will need to get accustomed to the new Magnum Pistol. This handgun can be fully scoped and is a beast of a headshot weapon.

The DMR, or Designated Marksman’s Rifle, is the Battle Rifle (though Bungie says it’s not) of Reach. It’s great a medium to long range and is a great headshot weapon.

The DMR

I’m a little concerned with Bungie’s choice to make the Magnum pistol exactly as deadly as the DMR. I constantly found myself running into battle with the DMR, absolutely expecting to win the shootout, only to find my foe, with a Pistol, killing me faster. Seems kind of wrong.

Next, the Focus Rifle is quite a treat. This bad boy is a combination of Halo 3′s Sniper Rifle and Sentinel Beam. You can scope it in, but instead of “shooting” enemies, you “cook” them, which is obviously a lot more fun. Cook an enemy for long enough and they fry to a crisp, leaving their corpse lifeless on the ground. It’s not terribly easy to amass kills with this weapon, but when you pull it off, the smile stricken across your face will make it all worth it.

Focus Rifle

The Plasma Launcher is the weapon I’ve waited for I think my entire life. This gun follows the same king of “charge-and-kill” mechanic of Halo 3′s Spartan Laser, but this one will fire before it’s fully charged. It fires up to four rounds  of deadly plasma. These plasma projectiles can lock on to both human and Elite targets or, where it’s more effective, vehicles. Basically, you scope it in, select a target, hold down the fire button and if you can get all four round to lock on, you’ll most certainly get the kill, but feel free to let go after one or two. What’s more, if you die, the guided munitions will still hit their target, and hopefully get you a kill or two.

Plasma Launcher

Next, the Grenade Launcher, a single shot beast, is one of the most intriguing and (possibly) awesome weapons in Reach. It fires one shot at a time and when fired, the grenade skips once, then explodes. However, if you hold down the trigger after launch, you can make it explode whenever you like. Used this way, you can shoot a projectile at an oncoming enemy and when he stands near it, let go of the trigger and BOOM, he’s dead. I haven’t been able to effectively use it yet, but I’m sure when I do master it, it’ll be a deadly weapon.

The Needle Rifle is also a weapon I’ve longed for since Halo 3. Similar to the DMR in power and effectiveness, this Covenant weapon shoots Needles one shot at a time. It’s a headshot machine and those with skilled hands will rack up more than many kills with it. Additionally, sink enough shots into the body of an enemy, and, similar to the Needler (which is also in Reach!), it will force them to feel the power of pink  mist.

Melee Attacks

Beating down enemies in Halo: 3 was pretty much my favorite thing to do. I can’t think  of something more exciting and rewarding than charging a foe, tapping B and ending their killing spree. Unfortunately, Bungie has ramped down the effectiveness of Beatdowns in Reach. In fact, the term Beatdown is gone, in favor of Pummel. In Bungie’s defense, Pummel is a pretty awesome term. And, again thankfully, the horrible double melees or melee sandwiches, whatever you called them, are largely gone in Reach. You can’t wildly run into frag-fests hoping  to beat down enemies as easily as you did in Halo: 3, because it just won’t work!

Ultimate Assassin

Game-Types

In the Beta, Bungie has a handful of game-modes and playlists available, allowing you, if you become bored with one or another, to keep it fresh and play a multitude of game-types.

If you’re a Lone Wolf fan, there’s HeadHunter. In this game-type you’re all by yourself and every time you or someone else dies, they drop a skull. You pick them up and must bring them to a “drop zone.” You can be risky and collect a bunch of skulls before running back to the drop zone, but know that if you get capped, you drop them all. The game is played to 25, that is unless someone amasses 10 skulls at once, at which point that person will earn the “Skullamanjaro” award, ending the match. Yeah, I did that once.

HeadHunter on Swordbase

Then there’s the Arena. This is the place that Bungie says will be for the best of the best seeking the highest level competition. Play enough matches in a day and you’ll get a daily ranking and beyond that a season ranking, good for bragging rights. This  mode isn’t entirely fleshed out at the  moment, but its aim is, according to Bungie, to give the hardcore, skilled players a reason to not reboot their character and trounce low levels as they climb the ladder again.

And the elephant in the room. It’s Invasion. This game-type is Bungie’s most ambitious yet. Similar to Battlefield: Bad Company 2‘s Rush Mode, this game-type progresses through three different phases. It pits Spartans versus Elites. Elites play offense and Spartans defense. It’s played exclusively on the Boneyard environment, a map larger than anything Bungie has ever done and truly speaks to the studio’s very strong ability at crafting largely scaled environments, something fans (or maybe just me) have clamored for, for years. As Elites capture points from the Spartans, new and more powerful loadouts and eventually vehicles become available for both sides. The game ends (if Elites are able) with the Elites stealing the “Core” and transporting it to a Phantom, docked on the corner of the map.

Invasion

The offshoot of standard Invasion is Invasion Slayer. In this game-type, it remains Spartans versus Elites, but it’s a game to 100 kills, but there’s a twist. Instead of standard kill, kill, kill, there’s a strategic take gamers  must use to succeed. As Spartans or Elites capture points, more powerful loadouts become available. It breaks down like this.

Phase 1 (0-25 kills, or until the 4 minute marker)

Spartan Weapon Drops: Power Weapons (Rocket Launcher, Sniper Rifle)
Elite Weapon Drops: Power Weapons (Plasma Launcher, Focus Rifle), or a Ghost

Phase 2: (26-50 kills, or until the 8 minute marker)

Spartan Weapon Drops: Power Weapons, or a Warthog
Elite Weapon Drops: Power Weapons, or a Ghost, or a Banshee

Phase 3: (51-75 kills, or until the 12 minute marker)

Spartan Weapon Drops: Power Weapons, or a Warthog, or a Scorpion
Elite Weapon Drops: Power Weapons, or a Ghost, or a Banshee, or a Wraith

Invasion Slayer, so far, has been the most rewarding Halo multiplayer I’ve ever encountered and this game-mode is certainly a long time coming, and I’m certainly excited that Bungie has it very well nailed down at this early Beta stage.

Then there’s Stockpile. This game-type is a spinoff of Capture The Flag. Flags spawn at specific points on the map and it’s your team’s duty to carry these to collection zones that hop from location to location throughout the game. There’s two ways to win here; either capture 10 flags in the allotted time, or capture  more than the other team when time expires.

Flags go here!

The final new game-type in Reach is Generator Defense. This mode doesn’t go live in the Beta until May 14 and it certainly sounds interesting. Like Invasion, it pits Spartans vs. Elites. Three Spartans must defend three generators and three Elites are tasked with destroying them. Simple. Straightforward. Should be fun.

Don’t worry, if you seek familiar affairs, Oddball, Capture The Flag, Team Slayer, SWAT and others are mixed in to the rotation.

Environments

There’s only three maps available in the Beta right now (one more when Generator Defense goes live). They include Boneyard (for Invasion only) PowerHouse and Sword Base.

PowerHouse is an outdoor location, looking similar to High Ground from Halo 3. It’s full of water, indoor and outdoor locations, dark hallways and alluring lookouts, great for raining fire down from. Jetpackers will love PowerHouse, as there are a few places only these Ability will be able to get to.

PowerHouse

Sword Base is a very straightforward map. Visually, it resembles Cold Storage from Halos of yesterday and has two distinct sides with bridges, on various elevations, for travel from side to side. There’s a Sniper Rifle on this map and it’s extremely useful if you’re perched in the right spots. Also, due to the verticality of this environment, you’ll find yourself using the Jetpack Ability. Use it to ascend to higher levels and you’ll rack up kills on unsuspecting enemies.

Swordbase

Boneyard, as said before, is a Invasion only map. It’s huge, the largest Bungie has ever built. There are big open spaces, but also dark and enclosed areas where frag-fests and melee attacks will run supreme. There are also several vertical layers, accessible through scaffolding and staircases, perfectly suited for snipers and Focus Riflers looking to rack up headshots.

Boneyard

Bungie.net Stat Integration

Just like in Halo 3, Bungie will let you track your in-game statistics online at Bungie.net. They’ve redesigned the look and feel of it and overall, it’s just much better. It’s truly incredible Bungie went to such extensive lengths to incorporate stat-tracking with a beta.

The new Bungie.net

Reflection

While I’m certainly not the  most skilled Halo: 3 player (a highest skill 36 in Halo: 3) my skills from that game transferred to Reach and I’ve enjoyed nearly every minute spent in the Beta. It’s certainly not Halo: 3.5 and this is very exciting. Bungie provides an incredible tease with this Beta and it’s going to be an extremely long haul from when the Beta ends (May 19) to early Fall when the title releases.

Play some Beta with me if you’d like. My GamerTag is “eddie not eddy”

If you’ve ever wondered what a game inspired by gruesome Quentin Tarantino and Rob Rodriguez films would look, sound and play like, wonder no more, as klei has made the game and “Shank” is it.

Last weekend at PAX East in Boston Klei had its game on the show floor. Crowds of eager gamers huddled around it all day to wait their turn to slice, dice and mangle enemies left and right. The build of the game on the show floor was the one at PAX in Seattle. We loved the game then and we still love it now.

Butcher Slam

But Klei showed us a new level. It had engaging enemies, a parkour element to it and one heck of a boss sequence in which I was tasked with taking down a mega brute in a meat hall by snapping his neck with a rusty chain.

I loved every minute of my time with “Shank,” but in an effort to more effectively communicate the game, we shot video of the level and it’s embedded below.

Some of the more satisfying moments of the game were its varied and plentiful manners in which you can kill enemies. Stuff a grenade down his throat (yes please!) and watch his eyes bulge right before he sees breathes his last, ram a rusty chainsaw into his gut, why not?  You can also dual wield pistols and swords to wield bad-assery upon your foes.

The most exciting facet of the game, for me, was its violence. As you’ll see, I didn’t finish my playthough until every enemy, or what I deemed to be an enemy (rats!) was bleeding out on the floor or thrown off the ledge of a skyscraper.

There’s a heck of a lot to love about “Shank.” It comes to the XBLA, PSN and PC this summer.

The action starts in the video at 2:00.

“Shank” Demo Walkthrough from Eddie Makuch on Vimeo.

3D Dot Game Heroes is all about familiarity and nostalgia. The most obvious comparison to the game is The Legend of Zelda–the music, the enemies, the level design, the items (the list goes on) all bring Nintendo’s classic franchise to mind. That’s not the only game that From Software’s latest is honoring though, as there are countless references to old-school gaming and games scattered throughout the experience.

I’m not going to spoil any of that for you here, because that takes a lot of the fun away. What I can tell you is that 3D Dot Game Heroes leans very, very heavily on Zelda gameplay–specifically, NES-era Zelda, where dungeon rooms were all the same size and enemies walked back and forth and reacted when you got close. Now, that’s not to say that this game is a ripoff–that’s a word with negative connotations, the kind of thing we would rather use on a title that just isn’t very good so we can shoo it away. We’ll stick with “homage” here, because what I have played of 3D Dot Game Heroes, I love.

Think of it like Shadow Complex, in a way. That game was a love letter to Super Metroid, the kind that, in many courts, would result in a restraining order. That title was fantastic though, one of the best on the Xbox 360 last year, and 3D Dot Game Heroes is shaping up to be the same way. From Software understands what made Zelda and other classics into, well, classics, and they have used that knowledge to create their own love letter to a Nintendo franchise–I’m perfectly fine with that so far.

Gameplay should be familiar to anyone who has played Zelda in the past, and should be easy enough to pick up if you never have. You attack with the X button, and can swing your sword around in a sweeping motion by rotating the analog stick in the direction you want to swipe. When your health is full, rather than fire a bolt of energy, your sword grows to massive proportions that will fill up a lot of the screen’s real estate. You can customize your swords at the blacksmith shop as well, adding width and girth to it, as well as strength and the ability to pierce through objects with it.

The item acquired in the first dungeon was a boomerang–your fairy companion made obvious reference as to what it may be capable of, something you should get used to as you play along. The boomerang stuns enemies, turns switches on–you didn’t need the fairy to tell you that, which is why her role is more comic relief than anything. I’m curious to see what other kinds of items you acquire, but based on the HUD itself, you can see that bombs and a bow are eventual acquisitions.

Humor in the game is something that stands out, as the translation, even in the early goings, has made me crack more than a few smiles. There are easter eggs and references to old games all over the place, nestled within caves, out in the open, or found in the loading screens, which are based off of the cover art for old-school titles. Again, I don’t want to spoil anything, despite the fact that I’m bursting at the seams to share even one thing with you, but I won’t be responsible for ruining your trip down memory lane.

The character I selected was the default Hero, but there are loads of pre-created characters you can choose from. I say “pre-created” because you can also design your own–seriously, whatever you want to make is good by the game. One of the characters you can choose is a shark that now wields a giant sword, and he fits into the storyline as the descendant of the (human) hero of the past. If that isn’t classic video game logic, I don’t know what else could qualify.

Graphically, this game looks even better in motion than it does in screens. Everything is bright, crisp and colorful, and the effects for light, shadows, water–you name it–all look nice and pretty. It’s got a decidedly new-age sheen to it considering its retro feel, but my eyes appreciate it.

It’s still early in the game, but there are seven dungeons total to conquer on my way to save the world. We’ll have an early review of 3D Dot Game Heroes up later this month so you have plenty of time to save up for May 11 if you decide it’s your cup of classically trained tea. For now, enjoy the screens from early portions of the game.

Disney Interactive Studios, the publisher that brought you the much beloved ATV racer "Pure," came to PAX with guns blazing. And by guns blazing I mean showing off their latest racing title.

It’s called Split/Second and, from the brief time I had with it on the show floor at PAX East last weekend, it certainly feels like it has its head screwed on right.

Boom

What the hell is it? All right, try this. Morph the pretty environments of Need For Speed with the handling of Forza and infuse it with a shot of arcade, and you’ve got Split/Second.

My time with it, limited to one race with a Disney representative telling me what I was seeing by my side, was enough to remind me that the racing genre is one I used to love and can love again, provided this game follows through.

Even more explosions

What is it though? In the nuttiest of nutshells, it’s an arcade racer. As you slip, slide and e-brake around corners, a bar, at the bottom of your screen begins to fill up. Fill it up enough and you’ve got the ability to smash vehicles in front of you by way of special power-ups.

Fill this meter up to the point of near overflow, and you’ll wreak some serious havoc on your fellow racers. While I never achieved this, the Disney person told me these finishing moves of sorts were "fantastic."

The other intriguing facet of Split/Second was its dynamic environment. Thank you!

In the game, the race track dynamically changes with each completion of a lap. This adds a considerable amount of variance to the game because (and I can’t completely accurately speculate because I never was), if you’re in the lead, you might not remain in the lead because the environment always changes.

Docks

During a part of my second lap, a tanker truck breached a wall and exploded in fiery flames right in front of me. Should I swerve to the left? To the right? Barrel straight through it? I had no idea because I hadn’t seen it during the previous lap.

The game races along at a breakneck pace and, thankfully, the frame rate (at least in my demo), never lagged a bit and was always smooth and fluent.

Split/Second allows for both split-screen co-op and online multiplayer, providing gamers the opportunity to race traditionally in the heat of the living room, or the new way, across the Internet. Choices are definitely great.

My Disney representative said there’s a lot to the game the company plans on announcing in the coming months leading up to its release. Naturally, I wanted to know more, but also naturally, she could say nothing.

Split/Second comes to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in May.

From Atomic Games, developers of the still unreleased and highly controversial "Six Days In Fallujah," comes an Xbox Live Arcade game called "Breach."

Never heard of it? Yeah, you aren’t alone.

The game is an Xbox Live exclusive with an estimated price point of $15 when it plans to launch sometime this summer, an Atomic Games spokesperson told me.

Break Rail Jump

As for the game, it’s a, you guessed it, first-person-shooter, whose aim is pointed at the headshot-happy crowd with a limited budget (hey, that sounds like me!).

Atomic Games brought the game with them to PAX and used as a beta testing ground, as a spokesperson told me the game has never been shown before and that PAX East, with its some 60,000 attendees was the absolute perfect avenue to test its game. That is, of course, if the game was fun.

And it almost was.

Though the game suffered from persistent and game-breaking instances of ugly lag and odd hit-detection, the essence of the game, that of a pick-up-and-play shooter, was cemented in it.

Boom!

Atomic Games have jumped on the destruction bandwagon and have incorporated a level of destructibility to "Breach." Sure, it’s no Frostbite engine (what runs the destruction-heavy Battlefield series) but it works and keeps campers out of buildings nicely.

Visually, the game looks all right. It’s certainly not Battlefield but it’s better than Counter Strike. I guess it would be somewhere in the middle. And again, this isn’t a problem, but it certainly is an important point to consider when EA DICE’s "Battlefield 1943" is readily available, with great graphics, last summer, an entire year before "Breach" hits.

The game also has a cover system built into it. It’s not as dynamic as that of Gears of War or Uncharted, and, with the aforesaid destructibility of the game’s environments, it never lasts long. Perhaps I’m simply not a fan of cover systems, but I do believe they slow the pace of the game down and, in my estimation, "Breach" is all about action, and cover just muddies things up.

Take Cover!

Being an online-only title, those without Internet connections, or a desire to kill nameless faces, won’t even think about this one. But Atomic Games believes there’s enough of an audience for the game to succeed. Whether that thought comes true, we won’t know until this summer when we get our hands on the full game.

I’ll give Atomic Games the benefit of the doubt here and say if the studio improves upon its PAX East buggy build and releases a lag-free, functioning shooter in the summer, I’ll be intrigued.

EA DICE, makers of the beloved Battlefield franchise are at it again. This time developing a sequel to 2008′s original Bad Company, and this time focusing its efforts on something we all love; multiplayer!

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is due out in March of 2010, but if you threw down $5 to reserve the game at GameStop or Best Buy, or snagged a code from Sony directly, you’ve got access to the shooter today, three months before it hits shelves.

In the beta there’s one massively scaled multiplayer map to enjoy dubbed "Arica." This environment consists of a series of attack/defend points littered with tall structures, claustrophobia-inducing buildings and alleyways, and the always enjoyable Abrams tanks to have fun with. The game supports a maximum of 12 on 12 multiplayer mayhem, and really, when you’ve got a full match, with 24 players having at it, you’ll wonder why more games don’t go this route.

The game runs on the famous Frostbite Engine. This game backbone allows for the total destruction of nearly everything on your screen.

See a cluster of enemies camping out in one room? Easy, launch a rocket into the room and they’re all dead. Not to mention the demolished walls don’t come back, keeping those pesky bad guys at bay for the entire length of the game session.

This game mechanic creates a "never-safe" type mentality when playing that’s extremely refreshing when considering not every game (Modern Warfare 2), does this yet.

In the beta you can play as one of four classes each with varying weapon load-outs. There’s the sniper, assault attacker, and a few more. As you rack up kills and earn points for doing so, you’ll eventually unlock weapon upgrades, the ability to carry more grenades, and a few more tweaks.

Apart from weapons, there are Abrams tanks and the newly added jeep, which eerily resembles the Mongoose found in the Halo franchise. This fast little bugger is helpful when you need to race across the vast environment to get to a strategic position before someone else does. And on the funny side of things, in a match I played the other day, I saw a jeep racing in from afar and tossed a grenade where I thought he might be in a few seconds. Luckily he drove over my frag just as it exploded, killing him and sending the vehicle soaring through the air at rocket speed.

The beta’s one map, Arica, is huge. It spans multiple attack/defend zones comprised of very varied means of cover. If you’re attacking and you capture both points you’ll push on to the next series of objectives and with it comes an entirely new plan of attack. Do I play a little recon, take enemies out from afar with the sniper and let my teammates push through on the ground? Or do I go straight up the gut and attack full on? Your strategy should change from point to point, and this keeps gameplay fun, engaging, and never boring.

Based on how impressive the beta’s one map is, I can’t even begin to fathom what DICE has in stock for us when the full game hits in March. Rest assured it’ll be amazing.

Unlike another war game out there today, Modern Warfare 2, matches in BC2 last around thirty minutes, depending on if your buddies know what they’re doing or not. Sure, it demands more time and effort than an all-out frenzied fragfest (again, looking at you MW2), but this is its strong part, and why I’ll likely end up playing this one more.

Blast Factor: With its uber-massive masterfully designed map, very varied weapon loadouts and a clear addicting nature, Bad Company 2 feels like one hell of a game already, and that’s based on impressions from one map of the multiplayer. We haven’t even seen single player yet! If you’re contemplating a purchase, throwing down $5 to play the beta is the easiest choice you’ll make today. Go do it; you’ll be glad you did. And while you’re at it, add me, EddieNotEddy on the PlayStation Network and we’ll game together.

Monster Hunter is huge in Japan. Huge. Over here in North America? Well, it’s not as huge, though it’s pretty popular thanks to the slew of PSP releases over the past few years. While these PSP games are quality titles that give you a near endless amount of content to play, there a few things they are missing that keep this from becoming the next big thing in the States. Monster Hunter 3, or tri, as its often referred to, aims to fix many of those issues to make a more accessible and enjoyable game that still retains the hardcore factors you know and love from Monster Hunter.

For instance, the tutorial in the PSP games takes hours. I’m not exaggerating. Every time I thought I was finished with the tutorial, it turned out that I was still learning how to do things by going out on much easier missions than I maybe wanted to. Basically, the game kept you out of the hardcore action and the monsters you want to slay for far too long, which kind of kept people from getting into it if they were impatient. It doesn’t help when it looks like you have hours upon hours of learning to do before you can even kill a monster that wants to hurt you as bad as you want to hurt it.

In tri, the hand-holding is less evident, and you will be out there in the fields fighting impossibly huge creatures before you know it. The tutorial is much more in the vein of, “Hey there, let me tell you about that sword you’re holding” then it is “Now before you can wield a sword, I need to send you out on this overly simplistic sword-based mission”. This lets you learn as you play, and also allows you to dive in to the meat of the game much earlier–I’ll admit I’m a bit of a Monster Hunter rookie, but I’ve played Freedom Unite on the PSP, and I can tell you this is a welcome change.

There are also a lot of little changes that are worth noting–you can now change your gear inside the meeting hall where your online compatriots can see it, rather than going outside to change your equipment and then coming back in. This is nice for showing off some gear you’ve picked up, or if you just need to make a last minute change to your equipment and don’t want to hold your buddies up. Harvesting plants and digging are also much easier now, as a context sensitive button will appear next to these items and let you perform the action–no more stopping and going through your inventory to equip your pick axe before you start mining. This all makes for a smoother experience, and keeps you from having to muck around in your inventory every time you see something you want to dig.

The biggest change is the fact that you now have split-screen co-op and online multiplayer, rather than the more limited online of the PSP titles. In Japan, this service requires monthly payments, but as of now, the American side of Capcom has not made a decision. One reason they can do this in Japan is due to the popularity of the series–people would probably pay way more than Capcom charges to get their hands on it–but that may not fly over here, considering it’s just not as popular. Regardless, the game will be on Capcom’s own servers, and will not require Friend Codes. It’s much more like playing an online game on the Playstation Network or over Xbox Live, which works for me.

I played two levels during my time with Capcom–the first of these had us fighting a brand new monster that would call for help from other monsters if we stopped attacking it for too long. The obvious solution was to beat the thing into submission, but the monster didn’t just stand there and take it, so it’s easier said than done. With four of us working on it though, the fight did not last too long–it showed off how important teamwork can be in a Monster Hunter mission though. I got to mess around with a brand new weapon during this mission, the switch axe. It’s either a huge axe or a massive sword, depending on which mode you choose to use, and you can switch back and forth using the right bumper on the classic controller. Both have their positives and negatives, as axes are obviously swung slower than swords but do massive damage, and vice versa.

One other thing I noticed during this session–you get up from being knocked down significantly faster in the Wii version than in the PSP one, which is great. Monsters won’t be able to get as much of a head start on you if they run, you can get back into the fight faster–nothing bad can come from speeding that up a bit, especially since it took so long to get back up in the older versions.

The other level I demoed was meant for the hardcore Japanese audience that is used to playing Monster Hunter, meaning I had little to no chance of completing it. It did show off the new underwater combat though, which means I needed to give it a go. Water combat is a lot like combat on the ground in some ways–get near your enemy, use your weapon, rinse and repeat–but also very different. Since you need to angle yourself in the water, the combat is more 3D, since the monsters can come from behind, in front of you, on top of you or underneath you. There’s also a layer of strategy here–if you can harass the monster until it gets out of the water, sometimes you help your chances. Not everything that swims fast is as adept on land, and you may be able to turn a once difficult foe into a sluggish, easier target on dry ground. That’s not always true though, as some enemies that you find in the water excel on land, so you will learn when this is a good tactic to employ and when you’re better off fighting aquatically.

Don’t worry about running out of breath, either–you can dive for around 20 minutes without any problems, and there’s an item you can take just like a potion that will allow you to breathe underwater indefinitely.

Lastly, the graphics in this game are fantastic. Despite the gargantuan beasts, Monster Hunter utilizes a realistic graphical style, and it looks like the Wii finally got their graphical showcase for that style of game. Everything is brightly lit, with light and shadows playing an important part in the landscapes (especially underwater) and everything also looks very, very smooth. You can see for yourself in the screens, but the game looks better in motion.

Monster Hunter is one of those series that always intrigues me, and I want to love it, but there’s always something that gets in the way of me either picking it up or diving in as much as I want to. With tri, Capcom seems to have done away with many of these barriers to entry, and may have set themselves up to release their best effort yet on the Wii. We’ll have more info on this game as it nears release, but for now, just know the series seems to be headed in a positive direction.

We’ve previewed The Darkside Chronicles in the past, and the gist of our coverage was that Darkside Chronicles needed some work, but it was looking like it would be a superior effort to the bestselling Umbrella Chronicles. I got the opportunity to play a brand new level as well as another one that has been floating around demos for much of the summer last week.You’ll want to check out our previous hands-on to get certain details, as this preview will be concerned mainly with the levels and where the game has progressed.

The latter was a Code Veronica level, with Claire Redfield and Steve Burnside doing the zombie killing on Rockfort Island, as Claire searches for her brother Chris in his pre-boulder punching days. The gameplay was similar to the Resident Evil 2 level demoed earlier this summer, though there was a lot less running from zombies given you were in a more secluded area than a city’s streets.

Here are the basics–the game is on rails, but this has a more cinematic feel to it than Umbrella Chronicles did. There’s a lot more looking around at your environment, a lot more going on in the way of dialogue–it feels much more like a standard first-person game at these times than an on-rails shooter. The shaky cam adds to this feeling, especially since the game doesn’t wait around for you to kill every bad guy in your path. If Umbrella Chronicles was like House of the Dead, then Darkside Chronicles is more like the recent Dead Space: Extraction.

Except for when it isn’t, and after exposure to EA’s latest “guided first-person experience”, Darkside Chronicles may have some catching up to do, at least on the gameplay side of things–the Resident Evil mythology and universe may carry the day as far as story goes, given how much deeper and longer the history is for this franchise. There isn’t much dialogue during the actual gameplay; for the most part, it comes during cutscenes, which affects the games flow. Whereas in Extraction it felt like you could be attacked at any time, from anywhere, because the game did not make distinctions between cutscenes and gameplay moments, the line seems to be drawn pretty thick in Darkside Chronicles–you have a good idea of when you will be attacked, even if you don’t know from where. That being said, what gameplay is here does work, though it’s to be seen if it will stand up to Extraction when we get a full copy of the game for review.

The Code Veronica level was enjoyable, but the highlight was the brand new locale, meant to fill in spaces in Resident Evil history. Those of you that played Resident Evil 4 are aware of the rivalry between Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser–the history isn’t exactly clear or revealed during that game, but Darkside Chronicles looks to fill in some of those gaps. Krauser and Leon work together in South America in broad daylight, in an area that looks more than a little bit like the African lands that Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar traversed in Resident Evil 5. A Capcom representative even mentioned that developers from Resident Evil 5 were impressed with the way the Wii handled these scenes, and that they felt it meant the system could have handled Resident Evil 5. Mind you, that’s not a confirmation that it’s coming or anything, just an observation from an impressed developer.

This was visually impressive in a few ways–it was well-lit, and despite being essentially a ghost town, had that same feeling that it used to be vibrant, much like the African setting in RE5. On the other hand, without the shadows and darkness to conceal some graphical shortcomings, the stage’s rough edges showed up a bit more–of course, there’s still a few weeks left of development for this game, and this demo was originally from the Tokyo Game Show, meaning it could already be cleaned up.

One thing I could not get direct confirmation on was whether Darkside Chronicles would feature some of the level types that Umbrella Chronicles did, where you were able to play as series’ villain Albert Wesker. It would make sense to have them again, and a “no comment” is more of a positive than a “no”, so keep your fingers crossed.

As a fan of Resident Evil, I’m excited for The Darkside Chronicles. From the looks of things, I may not be as enamored with the gameplay as I was that of Dead Space: Extraction, but the Resident Evil backstory–including new sections created for this game that are meant to fill in the gaps–should do wonders to make this game a quality holiday title on the Wii regardless.

One thing that never gets old is killing zombies. Sure, you can get tired of shooting them, or tired of beating them down with a bat or what have you, but the act itself of tearing through a crowd of zombies is one that just does not lose its luster over time. That’s part of what made the original Dead Rising so appealing–you had a lot of freedom to take care of zombies however you wanted to, which kept the game appealing throughout, and for multiple play sessions.

Okay, so maybe Frank West and his freakish fivehead are not part of Dead Rising 2, but Blue Castle Games and Capcom are doing their best to make us forget that. Chuck Greene, a former national motocross champion, is stuck in Fortune City, which is basically Las Vegas with zombies. This means a brand new environment, brand new weapons, and, thanks to advances in technology, loads and loads of zombies. Part of what made the original Dead Rising impressive was the number of shambling, muttering undead on screen at once; this time around, Blue Castle has cranked the knob up to 11 and is telling people that 10,000 zombies can be on screen, at the same time. The zombies are also a lot more animated than they were in the original Dead Rising, so this massive number is even more impressive. Exponentially more zombies with additional animations and more life-like movements? Yes please. Let’s not forget to mention that the camera has been improved so that you don’t lose Chuck as easily as you may have lost Frank in a crowd–zombies now appear see-through when the camera pans in close enough, so you can see what you have to do and where you need to go as you fight with the brain-craving masses.

What stuck out to me about my time with the single-player mode in Dead Rising 2 were the weapons. You had some old favorites–the katana, chairs, trash barrels–but there were plenty of new weapons that demanded attention too. The katana has been overhauled a bit, with improved physics–whereas in the original, if you sliced away, the animations just had zombies fall away from you sliced open with a katana, you now see the exact spot where the zombie was hit slice open and fall away. I just managed to scrape against a zombie’s head with a glancing blow at one point, and part of his scalp came flying off before the blade separated his shoulder from his body.

As for the new weapons, I tried out a few things like the roulette wheel, which acted much like any other large, blunt object from the first. Smash first, ask questions later. More interesting was the chainsaw paddle. This was two chainsaws, duct taped to a pole. You started both chainsaws up and went after the undead like you were Darth Maul and they were mindless, bleeding Jedi. The duct tape is something important to note; it quietly confirmed that you can create brand new weapons by combining other weapons, which, even if there was not a single new item in the game to start, would give this sequel a better weapon selection than the original.

This particular portion of the demo was a mission–I was supposed to kill 300 zombies in 10 minutes in order to unlock a bonus round, which the Capcom reps told me I did not want to miss out on. Heeding their advice, I surpassed that total before time was up, which allowed me to partake in the bonus round. The bonus round gave me a wheelchair. With assault rifles duct taped to it. Did I mention it was a wheelchair that drives itself? Because it was a wheelchair that drives itself with assault rifles attached to it.

You can guess how much fun that was to use–one of the Capcom reps even pointed out that you could see how happy the wheelchair made me as I used it (my poker face was nonexistent, apparently). Like I said, wiping out crowds of zombies never gets old, especially when you do things like equip a motorized wheelchair with high-powered weaponry and tell me to go crazy.

I’m very impressed by the progress of Dead Rising 2′s single-player mode, as this feels like it could be a very different game from the first while still retaining the over-the-top zombie thrashing that drew so many people to the series in the first place. Multiplayer was also a good time, which took me by surprise.

Four games (the only four that have been announced, and Capcom was silent on details of future info on the subject) were available for multiplayer–Ramsterball, Headache, Pounds of Flesh and Slicecycles. Ramsterball may have been my favorite–you were placed inside of a rolling ball and told to run over as many zombies as you could, along with three other players. The twist was that just one player–the one whose ball was lit up–could score points with their kills, and the other players had to smash into them at a certain speed or higher in order to take that advantage away. The player with the points could bank their points by going to one of a few pedestals littered around the playing field, but it appeared as if your points multiplied the longer you held them and killed more zombies, adding a layer of strategy to the game.

Headache was entertaining as well–you slammed colored blenders onto zombie’s heads, with the intention of starting them up and making zombie juice with the press of a button. You also had a stick of dynamite, which you could plant in a zombie near an opponent’s blenders; blow that up when you press the button to nullify their progress and enhance your own.

Pound of Flesh was the only one of the four that left me without a big smile. You have antlers on your helmet, and you charge at a row of zombies by holding X, then press X quickly to flick those zombies onto a scale. There are fat zombies and skinny zombies, so with some practice and finesse you can put the heftier drones on the scale and improve your chances. This was the only one of the four mini-games that didn’t have you interacting with the other players, which may be why I didn’t like it as much.

Slicecycles was my second favorite of these games–you drive around a motorcycle that has two blades attached to it on the sides. Whoever was leading from the previous three games got a few seconds to themselves to start the match as well, which is nice incentive. Drive through the zombie horde, slicing up as many of them as you can by accelerating with the RT and using the LT as a brake–if you tapped the LT correctly, it worked as a handbrake, which allowed you to skate through the crowds at an angle and let the bike turn itself around, saving you valuable seconds and giving you more chances to wipe out zombies. This game also came with a bonus round, where certain zombies had pink balloons on their heads–they were worth bonus points, so you want to nail them.

As our scores were tallied up, a dollar amount also showed up. There wasn’t any word on what that money was for, but it’s obvious it’s going to be used for something–otherwise the game would just use points as a guide for success.

Both the single and multiplayer experiences are shaping up to be good fun, which is good news for those of you waiting for your next go-round of zombie mashing mayhem in an out-of-control controlled environment. We’ll have more info on this game as it nears release, but for now, enjoy the screens–apologies for the lack of zombie slaying gun chair pics.

The game continues to grow, with the addition of legendary coaches, real-life, current players and legends of the game, but there’s one thing I’ve been looking forward to testing out that is finally working: the fantasy points and leveling system for your players and your team.We’ll get to that important point momentarily.

If you missed our initial hands-on, you can read it here; just know that a lot has changed since I wrote that, as the camera has zoomed back a bit for a better view of the field and the action, the game runs smoother (the framerate was locked in for most of my time playing, whereas it skipped around often in the alpha), and the pacing feels a bit better, as the clock has been tweaked and fixed so that it doesn’t run at random anymore. These are normal things to clean up as a game approaches launch, but it’s nice that you can feel the game getting closer and closer to completion, improving along the way.

The legendary coaches are for single-player matches; you can earn points in these bouts (and a future update will ensure that you keep the points even if you quit early, since it’s just the computer and not a fellow person). It’s a good way to help yourself along to the next level, as well as a place to check out some different plays so you can what they do–and what your team is capable of doing effectively. Legendary players come into play a bit more often, as you get two on your created team when you start it. These players will be more experienced than your other, made-up players, and are selected based on the style of play you choose; for example, if you want to be pass heavy, you’ll probably end up with a legendary quarterback or wide receiver, and if you want to run, you will probably get a running back.

The game feels more and more like a coaching simulation as time goes on, and since it’s more accessible than EA’s foray into that field with their Head Coach series, it also feels like it will stick. You don’t need to be a football genius in order to succeed at Quick Hit–if anything, the game might teach you a bit about play-calling and the like, which can only make you better at it, but it isn’t required.

The fantasy points are the thing I want to focus on, as stated. You earn points for successfully completing plays–such as passes, runs, touchdowns, field goals, etc.–but also for little things. Your linemen can earn points for successfully blocking the opposition or running through them if they are on defense. You pick up points for sacks, picks, extra points, even successful punts. Every action builds towards you earning points and leveling up, and once you have leveled up, the game switches to its more RPG/MMO aspects. You earn coaching points for every level you gain–these coaching points are then distributed among your players as you see fit. You can organize them by worst players, best players, position–you have a lot of options for filtering, and it’s all easy to use. Every few levels, your players unlock new skills which are automatically used in games. Say you have a lineman with a skill that helps the linemen around him block a bit better–that’s valuable, especially when you need to use coaching points on other parts of your roster in order to stay balanced.

It’s a system that I can see getting addicting–people complain about having to level grind in MMOs or more traditional RPGs, but there’s one important point here that you need to remember: level grinding is playing football. I can’t stress that fact enough. If you want your team to be better, you play a game. You don’t have to do anything special, just play, and you will earn points. You don’t have to win–as long as you play, you’ll earn points for what you have done right. Facing harder teams is actually good for you too, as there is an experience multiplier for tougher opponents. You don’t even have to focus on a particular player, like you would if you were playing the franchise mode of Madden. If your running back is awesome, abuse your running game, rack up fantasy points, and use your coaching points on other positions. That kind of freedom isnt’ found in any other football title I can think of, and is a huge positive for the system in place in Quick Hit Football.

Brandon Justice, the Director of Design for Quick Hit Football, let me know that they are working on an update to make rage-quitting a non-issue, for those of you who are wondering if you are going to be screwed out of earning points by other people. The plan is to setup the game so that whoever quits loses their points, but you, the non-quitter, get to continue to play against the computer in order to pick up a victory for your record (assuming you can continue to win) as well as continue to earn fantasy points. There has even been talk of making it so that those who quit, once the computer has taken over, will still earn the loss if the AI is unable to beat their human opponent. Since rage-quitting and whiny opponents are the main reason I get away from online football (and online sports games in general) after a time, this is news I can welcome with open arms.

Quick Hit is looking better each time I play it, which is good news considering the team is still hard at work improving the experience and listening to their fans for feedback. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I suggest you get going and join the open beta, especially since you can start to earn fantasy points now for your team.

When Activision first announced Band Hero, I cringed at the thought of a kid-friendly Guitar Hero game, but today I sing a different tune.

Activision unleashed the Band Hero demo on Xbox Live this morning. The trial comes with three tunes from Taylor Swift, Finger 11, and Katrina & The Waves, as well as Party Play mode from Guitar Hero 5, and the ability to try out the game’s brand new Sing-Along game mode.

The first thing you’ll notice about Band Hero is that it looks and feels just like Guitar Hero 5. The game features minor aesthetic changes, mainly adding brighter colors and lots of pink, but it still looks wonderful.

From the main menu you have three options. Play Now, which will drop you directly into the song being performed in the background, Start, which allows you to pick any of the three tunes and start from the beginning, and Sing-Along, the demos’ only new feature.

The addition of Sing-Along mode speaks directly to Activision’s clear pursuit of accessibility and fun. In this mode, up to four players can sing along to a song using one USB microphone or headset. It’s very much like Karaoke. The words appear on the bottom of the screen in two line phrases and you cannot fail. I tried my hand at Paralyzer, the only song with a male singing, and I, for the first time, felt good about my general aptitude at singing. Additionally, the scene that transpires on-stage while you’re singing is a sight to behold and one that really makes you feel like a rock-star. Hell, you can even think of Band Hero as a 65-song Karaoke machine if you’d like.

I tried drums, guitar, and singing, and all of them felt just like Guitar Hero 5, but this is no problem whatsoever. Guitar Hero 5 is a truly excellent title and even if Band Hero is simply the same game with a few new features and a different target audience, it still excels at what it needs to: gameplay.

There’s no doubt Band Hero will be quality product when it releases next month, and with its kid-friendly song list, it’ll likely fly off shelves for the impending Holiday season. From my time in game retail I’ve seen first-hand the dismay of parents concerned about scantily clad women and provocative songs, both of which do not exist in Band Hero.

Blast Factor: The Band Hero demo is fun, and lots of it. Party Play is as solid as it was in Guitar Hero 5, and the addition of Sing-Along mode is tremendous, and essentially morphs the game into an always fun session of Karaoke. Sure, the song-list is kid-oriented, but with the Holiday season rapidly approaching, it may be just what parents everywhere are looking for.

Ijji.com gave several gaming outlets a preview of Alliance of Valiant Arms (A.V.A.), and we at Blast were among them. The game’s plot is focused on a fictional war between the E.U. and the NRF (Neo Russian Federation). Players choose which side they want fight for and the game jumps from there.

Aside from a Tutorial, I got to try out two different online co-op modes: Annihilation and Demolition. Annihilation is a team death match. The EU and NRF fight until one team earns a certain amount of kills or the timer runs out. Highly entertaining and fast paced, this part of the co-op particularly impressed me with their fast paced action which is reminiscent of Call of Duty. Demolition focuses on the EU planting an explosive at one of two targets while the NRF defends these zones from attack. While fighting your way through, you must navigate physical obstacles and actually coordinate with teammates in order to stay alive long enough to complete the objective at hand.

You can choose from three different class types which allow for a variety of weapons to use. Following the formula of most FPS, you have three weapons: Primary (rifle, machine gun, or a sniper rifle), Secondary (handgun), and a Melee weapon (knife). You can change classes while playing so that you are a different class when you respawn. Game play varies depending on the level (Annihilation allows you to respawn as much as you want while Demolition only allows you to respawn once the round is over), but is overall pretty good. Aiming with the mouse is easy but lacks the realistic aim of console FPS. Just point, click, shoot.

Visually, the game holds its own against games like Counter Strike, which is very impressive for a free-to-play game. While the game is entertaining, it is a generic First Person Shooter. While the online multiplayer is very fun, I was disappointed by the lack of a basic campaign mode. The story is basically “Europe and Russia go to war.” This is a fantastic concept which could EASILY be fleshed out in serialized campaigns which players could download, but that isn’t planned for the game. Despite the lack of a campaign mode, there are 6 additional objective rounds available for the North American release. While the Tutorial is a helpful intro, at times it can be difficult to understand. Specifically, when the Tutorial asks you to destroy a tank, you need to get a rocket to destroy it. However, all you get is a box which you can’t open. So the game needs a better Help menu for improved game play for new gamers, which will hopefully include an objectives list. ‚ Aside from these issues, the game delivers what it intended: free FPS game play.

My final impression of the game is that it is a very enjoyable FPS, but it doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. There’s nothing ground breaking about it, but it is a cheap alternative to expensive games. ‚ The game took what makes FPS games great (multiplayer), but left out what gave them substance (the context of a campaign mode). If you have a decent processor and graphics card then this is definitely a game you should check out in your spare time. The game is currently in closed beta, but any minor problems which surface will probably be all set by the time the game is given a wide release by ijji.com. ‚ Swing by ijji.com to learn more about the game. It’s an easy solution to having to pay for games like Counter Strike, and can serve as an introduction to FPS for young kids. Check out the gallery below and let us know what you think!

SEATTLE — Rockstar had themselves a booth that was anything but low-key at the Penny Arcade Expo, despite being tucked away in a corner. With the trailer for The Ballad of Gay Tony blaring and showing on two monitors, along with a big emphasis on the upcoming PSP title, Beaterator, including a professional DJ to show you how it’s done, you could hear the booth before you saw it. Behind closed doors was where Red Dead Redemption’s demo hid though, and that may have been the star of their booth despite its shyer placement.

While no one was able to play the game except for Rockstar’s representatives, Redemption was shown off on a massive screen made up of multiple monitors with the volume cranked, so it was hard to miss what the game was about. You play as John Marston, a former outlaw sent to clean up the outlaws he used to ride with in the early 20th century. You do this in the largest open-world that Rockstar has ever created–yes, larger than even San Andreas.

The thing that stuck out almost immediately was how everyone reacted to being shot or shot at–Rockstar informed us that there were “no canned animations”, so the NPC will react in his death the way you would expect them to, based on how you took them out. The animations and physics involved in this system are also deep–we got a chance to see Marston’s hat shot clean off of his head by an errant rifle blast, and we even saw the world react to the battle when it was over; vultures began to circle and land, ready to feed on the bodies left behind.

Animals like vultures play a large role in Redemption, as you can kill them and skin them so you can sell their pellets. Yes, you can also kill your horse–we saw this accidentally happen, when the Rockstar rep used the Dead Eye, bullet-time aiming system and targeted his horse by mistake–but why would you want to? That horse is going to carry you all around this massive environment, one that spans three themed regions. One is very much like Mexico, the Frontier is like Texas, and the North is like Colorado territory (sans the cannibalism, ninjas and snowmen named Beowulf). Of course, if you do blow your horse away, you can always find a wild horse, lasso it and break it so that it becomes your new steed.

There are other forms of transport, though these don’t work as well for exploration, and are more suited for travel. Coaches, boats, and trains will take you from place to place, depending on where you are in the game world. If you ride around on a horse though, you will get the chance to run from or confront thieves and bandits, which is one way to keep yourself busy as you traverse the southwest.Taking out the thieves may not be such a bad idea either, as the game recognizes whether you fancy yourself a good guy or a bad guy–they will be happy to see you ride into town if you’re the former, but everyone will be running for the hills like you’re Mongo if you’re the latter.

One other thing that impressed me was that there are no loading times between the exterior and interior–this means that, in the example given by Rockstar, you can run into a saloon, start a bar fight, and bring the tussle outside, all without the annoyance or interruption of a loading screen.

Red Dead Redemption isn’t due out until 2010 on both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, but the game is impressive even at this stage. I will be glad to get my hands on the game to give it a whirl eventually, but even just from a hands-off perspective, this looks like one to watch. Check out the screens in the gallery, and let us know what you think about the open-world adventure.

Nvidia was pushing their new 3D stereographic technology at PAX. Nvidia is in a unique position to add Stereographic video to DirectX or Open GL games. The Geforce 8, 8800, Geforce 9 9600, Geforce 200, or higher support this option already. Stereographic video uses two images, with one shifted slightly to the side of the other image. Then you show one image to the left eye and the other to the right eye (through the use of lenses) it will look like the image has depth that you otherwise could not perceive.

There were three ways Nvidia presented at PAX that deliver the image to either eye. Two of those setups everyone should be familiar with, since theaters and home movies do this. There is the old way of tinting each image either blue or red, and then wearing glasses that have colored glasses so you can only see one or the other color. They had one monitor in their booth hooked up this way so that you can use the cheap glasses to see in three dimensions. The problem with this setup is that obviously it messes with the colors, and looks weird.

The other way theaters do it is using polarized lenses. They then interlace the video and use a special projector so that you only see certain portions of the screen with each eye. One of the other groups in the expo hall was showing off this setup. They were selling monitors that would work with the standard polarized lenses. I tried these out while at PAX; some of the demos that they were showing seemed kind of blocky or pixelated. I’m not sure if this was because it was interlaced, or because they were demos just to show off the technology, and not real games.

Nvidia was mostly showing off their 3D Vision glasses. These didn’t require any special monitor, though, in reality, anyone that would want one of these setups would have to buy a new monitor. These glasses work by opaquing the image to each eye alternately 120 times a second. By swapping the image from left to right eye 120 times a second the monitor just shows the image for each eye every other frame. Most CRT’s will have the necessary 100Hz or higher. With CRT’s people bought high refresh rates because they reduced strain on eyes, and were nicer to look at. With LCD’s the manufactures almost never bothered to go above 60 Hz. The problem is that for Nvidia’s 3D vision graphics you only would get half the fps the monitor naturally gets, so with a standard 60 Hz monitor that is only 30 fps which is far too low for most games.

This means that, fancy new LCD you just bought is becoming obsolete already. Ironically though, if you still have your old, huge CRT around, it will probably work great with that. The demo that they showed of the goggles on looked really good; you can see the image clearly, with no real distortion to the image. How well the 3D feel works somewhat depends on the game, but like mentioned above Nvidia has an advantage on the tech in this field. They are given the 3D model and told to render it for one point of view normally. All they had to do to get the stereographic images was to instead move the point of view slightly to the two sides and render two separate images instead.

While talking to the people in the booths it was interesting to note that this will work with many older games with no modifications. Since almost all Windows games already use DirectX it’s not that difficult to do the modification to double render for them. It’s interesting to note what could go wrong though. 2D objects may not work properly, ‚ and similarly all Full Motion Video Sequences (FMV) are likely pre-rendered so will not work.

Overall I think the technology is pretty cool. And will love to play with it myself some more to see which games work with it, and which do not. Since it works with most Nvidia cards currently on the market, it’s also an accessible technology. The worst thing is that you have to probably buy a new LCD monitor. It’s also ironic that it works with older CRT’s more than the new tech, so for once, those who are technologically behind may have the advantage.

SEATTLE — I miss Defense of the Ancients. “Well, Marc, it’s not like DotA has disappeared–you can go play it right now!” While true, I haven’t played in a long time, and there have been so many changes to characters, additions of new ones and balancing in every which direction that I stand no chance against those who have been playing the game since before I stopped, not unless I want to look like a total noob for a considerable length of time. That’s no fun for anyone, so when I read that a new game, League of Legends, was being created by Riot Games, my interest piqued. Here was a new, built-from-the-ground-up experience, and without the restrictions that a mod of Warcraft 3 came up against, and it was not just being worked on by former Blizzard developers, but was also receiving an assist from some of the folks who brought DotA to being in the first place.

At the least, League of Legends would turn out to be on the same level as DotA, which isn’t a bad thing. After all, the one reason I said I haven’t jumped back in to that game, one I have spent more time than I care to admit playing, is due to the extended break and reeducation that would be necessary for me to get back into it. Here was a whole new experience though, still in beta, that everyone had to learn anew, putting myself and anyone else who feels the same way–or new audiences altogether–on equal footing.That’s why I’m excited to report that League of Legends isn’t “just” as good as as DotA–it’s got the potential to be noticeably better, to the point of keeping you from DotA servers from now on.

For those unfamiliar with this style of gameplay, it’s arena based PvP play. You pick a champion–League of Legends boasts 40 original champions, each with their own skillset–and you, along with your teammates and AI controlled minions, attempt to take out enemy towers along the way to their base, which your goal is to destroy. That was the point of DotA as well, but there have been some changes. First of all, League of Legends is designed to run matches a bit faster than DotA, so you may not have as many epic-length matches (read: drawn out matches where you are clearly going to lose, but the game isn’t ready for that to happen yet) but competitors of even skill levels will see matches go a bit longer. The matchmaking system will also help this along a bit, as it will put you with similarly skilled opponents and teammates.

Second, there’s just one shop this time around, and you can get everything you need there. Anyone who has ever navigated the mess that was the DotA shops will appreciate the refinements made here. There’s a recommended item set, and each item you can create has the full recipe necessary for it listed for you as well, so you can just buy from there rather than searching out all of the individual pieces yourself. Item types are broken down into weapons, armors, etc., but are further broken down into categories, such as life steal, armor, critical hit, etc. That’s going to be wonderful for those who want to go beyond the recommended items and create some nifty pieces on their own.

One other major change that bears mentioning is the new summoner system. Whereas in DotA, each match was a one and done deal, in League of Legends there is incentive to play, play often, and stick around in the matches you are involved in, even if defeat is imminent. The summoner is you; it’s your account, and the summoner is the one who picks the champions for use in each match. Your summoner gains experience from your matches, and this XP leads to earning levels that unlock skills for you to use. Your champion will have their own four skills, but you can add two of your summoner’s powers to their own; things like Teleport and Heal, so you can move around the map more easily or heal yourself and allies close to you. There are tons of these skills, but you have to unlock them as stated, but it gives you another strategic level to work with, and also plenty of incentive to play a whole lot of League of Legends.

The game will have a retail version, but also be available to play for free. Riot Games has reconciled these two different versions in an intelligent manner–the boxed, retail version will have all of the bonus materials unlocked from the start (though nothing that makes gameplay easier for them, just the kind of stuff you would unlock if you played a lot of League of Legends over the course of six months). The free-to-play version will not have those same goods, and you’ll have to earn them the old-fashioned way.

I’ve played a few matches of League of Legends in the beta that’s running right now in addition to my time with the title at PAX, and I’m impressed by its ease of use. It’s very much like DotA in all of the good ways, but has also improved in areas where DotA either did not or could not, and that makes it a title worth paying attention to. We have beta codes to give away if you want to give the game a looksie on your own, and we’ll have more details for you very soon on how you can score yourself one of them. For now, enjoy the massive gallery of screenshots that features almost every champion in the game.

SEATTLE — The Penny Arcade Expo gave me my second taste of Nostalgia, Matrix Software and Ignition’s latest Nintendo DS RPG. After a hands-on go with it at Comic-Con in San Diego and a hands-off demo at PAX, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on what the game is offering, and I like what I know.

You play as Eddie, who is searching for his father in a semi-real, semi-fantasy world. You will visit real world locations such as Cairo and London, but with that embellished, fantasy vibe to them–for example, when you’re in the pyramids in Cairo, you will be attacked by mummies and monsters, and you will fight them off with magic, guns and swords. +1 for going the 19th century, alternate reality‚  steampunk route.

While there are four main characters in your group, there will be other characters you can use at different times in the game, so you get to switch things up a bit as you play. In addition to your standard turn-based battle system (attack, magic, skills, etc.) there are also airship battles. Enemies attack you from all directions while in your airship, and you have to fight back using cannons and weapons attached to the front of your ship. Depending on the placement of the enemy, certain characters will perform better against them–you will want to use a cannon on the side to attack an enemy on your left, for instance, while one directly in front of you is a perfect target for the sword jutting out of your hull.You are graded for your skill in battles, so you will want to figure out the best strategy for tackling opponents in order to secure the best grade.

The airship is used to travel long distances–in the demo, you had to set out from London to Cairo, and since both were in the proximity of their real-world location, finding your destination is not a difficult process (unless you failed geography, of course). The airship is also fully customizable as well, and there are more than one of them to fly around–later airships bring you higher and higher, but the higher you fly, the more difficult your opponents will be. Not only do you have to contend with monsters, but other airship owners–many of them sky pirates–will give chase as well.

It’s tough to gauge how entertaining an RPG can be from just 15-20 minutes of gameplay, but what we do know about Nostalgia looks promising. The game is slated for an October release, and you will want to clear some time off your schedule to play it–without even tackling sidequests, the story is upward of 30-40 hours, which is very long for a DS RPG. We’ll have more info for you as the game nears release, and also a review for you once it hits retail.

SEATTLE — In theory, MAG sounds great. You play along with 255 other people in a first-person shooter, fighting skirmishes that are part of a much larger battle. If you envision it, you get this feeling that you’re part of something much larger, that you’re helping a bigger cause with your actions. When you do get to sit down and play it though, those feelings may be fleeting, and from what I gathered, it seems like you feel like you are playing, well, any other first-person shooter with multiplayer.

From a technical and gameplay standpoint, MAG is rock solid. It looks good, though there are better looking shooters on the system (thanks, Killzone 2!) and it plays well–this shouldn’t be a surprise, given Zipper Interactive, the team behind SOCOM, is responsible for this game. The problem is that, in the time I played the game myself, and the time I spent watching others play–I may have been the other person in the room responsible for harassing afiercepancake all around the map–it didn’t feel like you were fighting in part of a larger battle. It felt like you along with two dozen or so other players, somewhat relegated to a specific area based on your spawn points and squad designation. If 256 players is the hook, and you don’t notice the hook while playing, you may have a problem, though there may be reasons for this that the demo didn’t explain.

Now, there are a few things that could have been the fault of PAX, rather than the game. We did not have headsets, so voice chat was not an option. Squad-based gameplay necessitates headsets, and we may have felt like more like part of a larger unit were we donning them. Second, even without the big hook mentioned above, it’s still fun gameplay–you have specific targets you are supposed to take out, so it isn’t straight death match style gameplay, and if you work together with others to take out those targets and move on to the next area safely, then the game improves significantly.

There are some features we didn’t get a chance to check out–MAG has a chain-of-command system that allows you to lead different sized groups of troops, from an eight-man squad to a 32-man platoon to a full-sized, 128-man army. There’s also a “Persistent Shadow War”, which moves back and forth on the world map depending on how well your hand-picked PMC performs each round. I think I’ll have more of an appreciation for MAG once I get to see these items in action, as they could help separate the title from the other FPS on the market.

I don’t mean to sound too hard on MAG–this is, after all, the first bit of time I have spent playing it live, and as stated, the lack of headsets may be clouding what the game is truly trying to offer us. Luckily, we are part of the next wave of beta testing, so we will be able to report further on this for you, including how we feel about the game with the use of headsets and more strategic, planned-out actions. This is a bit of a shorter hands-on preview because of it, as testing the game in an improper environment doesn’t work well for it.

SEATTLE — There has not been a traditional, 2D Mario platforming game on a home console since the days of the Super Nintendo. All of the remakes and new adventures were put onto the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS rather than on the Nintendo 64, GameCube or, until now, the Wii; hell, even Wario got in on the 2D goodness around this time last year, and he had a 2.5D title the generation before that. The wait for this style of game is almost over though, as Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros. series makes its way to the Wii with some new additions that could make it a must own.

If you like 2D Mario games, you will like New Super Mario Bros. Wii. That’s a pretty open and shut discussion, as it has the kinds of things you look for: tight controls, great level design, secrets to find, nifty power-ups, and of course, a score-based system that the 3D games lack. What this game also has that no other Mario title has is multiplayer. I don’t know the kind you’re used to, when Mario attempts a level and then Luigi gives it a go, I mean four-players at once, in the same level, acting either competitively or cooperatively — or a little of both — in order to clear a level.

If you want to help your friends, you can work together to solve platforming puzzles, or use each other as a springboard to reach out of the way items and coins, divide items evenly and try not to rush through the levels too fast so that they don’t fall behind. While it’s fun to play nice, the real joy in New Super Mario Bros. comes from its competitive nature. Steal items from your friends to keep them from gaining power-ups and extra lives, and to give yourself more points. Run as quickly as you can to ensure they fall behind, or to make sure you always get to item blocks, coins and enemies first. Do your best to bounce off of their heads, using them as a springboard to collect what you want without sharing. While riding Yoshi, eat your buddy and shoot him into a canyon or into enemies, or just hold on to them to keep them from collecting anything. There’s a lot you can do in each level to ensure that you come out on top–you will be ranked by points at the end of each level–so if you’re the competitive type, this is‚  going to be your kind of game.

Nintendo might not like this comparison, but it’s a lot like LittleBigPlanet in its concept, except with much, much tighter controls and a more well-developed and cohesive universe. I think there’s also a higher emphasis on competition than there was in LBP, which personally I find appealing. I played through a few different levels: the first in the game, which is just meant as an introduction to the controls and some new abilities, like your spin attack/boost which you perform by shaking the Wii Remote (an ability you will utilize with the Propeller Suit, also found in this stage) as well as the two levels that introduced you to Yoshi and the Penguin Suit. Yoshi controls like you expect him to, except now you can eat your friends, as mentioned before. There is more than one Yoshi per stage as well, but you will want to fight over him since having Yoshi allows you to dispose of enemies easily and also allows you to eat the fruit growing in the stage. The Penguin Suit is a neat addition–not only is it pretty adorable, but Mario and company can slide across ice with it, allowing them to break through blocks that they normally could only dispose of by hitting them with a shell. You also can shoot ice balls, much like if you had collected a Fire Flower. Speaking of Fire Flowers and Ice Balls, you can shoot in multiple directions at once while wearing these suits by spinning with the Wii Remote; this is useful if you’re surrounded, or just want to try to steal as many points as possible from your pals.

Even though the basic concept was easy to grasp and there wasn’t anything new unveiled for it at PAX, this was one of the coolest games on the floor, and is one we will continue to cover up through its release later this year. Check back here in the future for more info and assets, but for now, we’ve got some screens for you to check out.

SEATTLE — Seeing as this is a Bit.Trip friendly zone, I jumped at the opportunity to check out the latest in the series, Bit.Trip VOID, at the Penny Arcade Expo this past weekend. This one is very different from the other two titles in the series, yet retains the same cohesive feeling and look that those exhibited

In VOID, you are collecting black beats as they fly across the screen from the left, and avoiding the white beats that come along with it. As you collect more and more of the black bits, the black circle that you control will grow and grow. It becomes harder to navigate away from the white beats as it grows though, and here’s where the game gets interesting. You have to press the A button to shrink your circle back down to starting level before you can be hit by the white pieces — if you’re hit by the white, you shrink as well, but you don’t get to keep the points you have acquired. You basically use shrinking as a way to deposit your points, but you will earn more points by being larger — there’s a lot of strategy involved in this, and in a way, it reminds me of Blast Works: Build, Trade and Destroy, in the sense that you’re trying to collect things to grow larger while balancing the need for more points with the need to avoid being hit by objects in the level.

It wouldn’t be a Bit.Trip game without a high difficulty level, and even in this demo build of the game you could see where this will be hard to play. Sometimes there are tons of bits on the screen to collect and avoid all at once, and they move fast, so you’ll need to react faster. Luckily the game supports both WiiMote/Nunchuk and Classic Controller play styles, so you won’t have to navigate with the D-pad at high speeds or around corners, and in a first for the series, there are mid-level checkpoints, which should make completing this game a bit easier than it was with the other two, though you still have to reach the checkpoints before you can use them.

There are a few other things that make this title intriguing, the most interesting of which is four-player local co-op. Multiplayer improved the experience of Bit.Trip BEAT substantially, so I’m excited to give this game a shot in multiplayer, especially when the object of the game is collection. The game also sports a chip tunes soundtrack, which makes a retro nut like myself happy. The music in the two previous titles was wonderful, catchy and fit the games perfectly, and from what I heard of VOID, that holds true once again.

Bit.Trip VOID will be out this fall for WiiWare, as the third game in a six title series. We’ll have more info for you on the game as it nears release, but check out the trailer and these screens now as an appetizer for later retro goodness.

SEATTLE — The Peregrine at first glance looks like someone took a black glove and tried to make it look like a cyber punk costume. It has metal running up and down each finger, and metal tips to the thumb, and along the palm of the glove.

In reality it’s a keyboard attached to your fingers. They are using hand gestures similar to American Sign Language to control your computer and your computer games. If you touch your thumb to your middle finger at the end it will trigger one key, or macro, if you touch it in the middle it triggers another one. They are claiming that there are over 30 combinations of gestures that the hardware recognizes; when I got to try it, the presenter showed me that he used 40 different ones. All the gestures consist of you touching the end of one of your fingers to the middle of another one, or to the palm of your hand.

The metal cables that are running through the glove were branded, as “military grade” the presenter said that he had abused his glove and was unable to break the metal cables. It seems like the fabric in it would tear long before the rest of the glove was damaged. They said that the glove is also the cheapest part–probably about $20–since all the actual intelligence and work is in the cable that goes from the glove to the computer.

They had areas where there were no contacts like above the palm of the glove with netting instead of the fabric so that your hands won’t sweat. The Fabric was also flexible enough that it can be used while typing. I had no trouble moving my hands when I put it on; it’s a thin glove so shouldn’t give much trouble doing dextrose activities like picking up objects, like say, going to the fridge for a drink. Though, with the metal contacts on it I’d avoid actually spilling water on it. They said that it is hand washable though since it’s durable metal, and just plain fabric, so if you do spill something on the glove you can still clean it.

To make it easy to leave the computer to get things the glove snaps on and off. The glove has a magnet and a proprietary connection on the back that connects to a USB wire. The wire again has all the logic for the glove in it.

The spots on the glove that they sewed into the fabric show where to press your fingers to. The software though is able to calibrate to how you actually press your fingers. Also if you miss the spot you could have two spots do the same action if you want.

The configuration software that they showed me has a picture of the glove, as a guide and then allows the user to calibrate the glove, set the macro’s or setup a configuration for the glove, or setup multiple configurations. The picture has dots for the points on the glove, where you can click on a dot and set the macro, or key in the assignment screen, or go through how you would do a given gesture in the calibration window so the glove fits your exact style of game play. They also were nice when you want to clear data from a point; they make you do that action so you confirm that is really the action you want to clear, and not a miss-click of the mouse.

Different games might need different configurations. One macro that’s good for one application could be bad for another. They have the configuration program as a tray icon in windows that you can click on to quickly set the configuration.

The Actions that are caused by certain movements of your hand can be triggered to a simple keyboard press, or to an elaborate macro, allowing you to execute a complex command with just a simple hand gesture. These macros and keyboard actions are powerful enough that people end up completely replacing their keyboard with the glove.

They were also claiming that it’s faster to learn a new game than a keyboard; I’m not as certain about this claim. It’s definitely a learning curve to starting to use for the first time, once you’re used to the gestures it’s probably easier to learn new games than that first game, and it is nice that with most games they decide that the keyboard hot keys are related to the action by being a letter in the command. This can be hard to remember 60 or so different commands and which key matches to them. In the peregrine they can be mapped based on their location on the screen, such that the index finger is row 1, the middle finger is row two, and so on. They could also be mapped based on type of action. The tricky thing in starting a new game this way is remembering which finger is which and arranging it such that you only have a max of 5 categories. The positional keys are also important if different characters in a game have completely different actions so that they can all be learned in a similar way.

Personally when I played with it, it felt awkward at first but I can see how it would be addicting. I liked how once I got used to it, it could be very easy to do different actions, very little thought to pressing your thumb and ring finger together. This also could be nice for people that have issues with their wrists. Since there is no object to press against, you can make sure your wrist is straight. On the other hand, if you’re lazy, you still might end out bending your wrists when you move your fingers which would prove to be just as bad as a keyboard.

Overall I think if you play a lot of PC games you should definitely give this a try. This may turn out to be the controller of the future. If they added in some motion sensors then they wouldn’t even need a mouse at all.

Full disclosure: I’ve never been behind the wheel of anything more powerful than a bicycle, let alone one of the high-speed, high-performance beasts featured in Need for Sheed: Shift (unless you count the times when I was sitting on someone’s lap because my feet didn’t reach the pedals). So, suffice it to say that I wasn’t exactly the best representative of EA’s target demographic at the NFS Shift NYC Event which took place in downtown Manhattan late last week.

NFS Shift represents a conscious effort on EA’s part to cater to hardcore fans of the sim-based racing genre. Which doesn’t mean that the mega-developer/publisher has decided to neglect the arcade junkies who used to compose the franchise’s core audience”"EA’s also putting out Need for Speed: Nitro for Wii later this year, with Need for Speed: World Online to follow. EA’s Andrew Meakin represented this new direction for the series to me as an initiative akin to the foundation of EA Sports, a large umbrella under which gamers of all tastes and persuasions have been invited to shelter.

As Andrew explained, “The idea behind the game is all about the true driver’s experience”"it’s all about the g-forces, it’s about the crashes, it’s about the cockpit, it’s about being the driver. When you are at speed, you feel the speed. When you crash, you feel the concussion.”

My driving naivetƒ© prevents me from distinguishing between true and false driver’s experiences, and I can’t tell you whether the cars handled like they should (though the fact that I was more or less able to handle them after a brief period of smashing into every available obstacle bodes well). However, I can report that Andrew wasn’t kidding about feeling the concussion. Granted, I was standing mere inches away from a very large screen, so your mileage, as they say, may vary. But EA has done an excellent job at depicting a crash as something very much to be avoided”"and, perhaps, to be secretly and guiltily enjoyed.

The psychological impact of the faux-physical impact begins with the level of detail presented on-screen. Andrew assured me that in the unlikely event that I ever do find myself steering one of the game’s 67 playable vehicles (including the ’09 BMW M3 GT2 featured on the cover) in real life, I’d recognize every curve of the cockpit and light on the dashboard, since every detail has been painstakingly modeled in-game. Swiveling the joystick while playing from the in-car view doesn’t just move some disembodied camera; it shifts the driver’s head and perspective. Side and rear-view mirrors perform the functions for which they were intended, and various readouts alert the player to overheating engines and other motor-vehicle minutia.

When your inherent lack of coordination conquers these assorted aids (and the color-coded guide paths superimposed on the road’s surface) and you hurtle head-on into a thoughtfully placed barrier, another set of visual effects takes over. The screen assumes a reddish tinge, followed by a black-and-white vista drained of all color, and a blurry haze and careening camera make you want to rub your neck and blink a few times in sympathy.

The attention to detail apparent in the visuals also extends outside of the vehicles. Each course has been meticulously researched and rendered. Again, I can’t tell you how well they resemble their real-world counterparts, but they sure are pretty. Windmills turn, balloons float by, barely glimpsed spectators snap pictures, and very convincing clouds of dust accompany the squeal of tires. Velocity changes aren’t only reflected on the speedometer”"the motion blur and tunnel vision employed to suggest the effect of g-forces make glancing at your instruments only partially necessary.

As you drive through NFS Shift’s scenic environments, regardless of mode, race type, or success level, the game will constantly update your driver profile in response to your tendencies and achievements. The points you earn will allow you to fan the flames of your car fetish with abandon, but the game also classifies your style as “precision” or “aggression” depending on how you drive. Cutting corners cleanly is considered precise, while ramming opponents and knocking them off the track will result in your being labeled an aggressive driver. Fortunately, the game won’t force you to enroll in a remedial driving program if its sorting hat places you in the racing equivalent of Slytherin; these classifications are made purely for online matchmaking purposes, so you can always race how you want, and against whom you want. Even when you’re racing offline, your adversaries will show some personality; 20 different driver personalities have been included as an alternative to rubberband AI and a pack of opponents racing in unison.

Of course, every aspect of every car can be micromanaged, but EA has also included more simplistic sliders for the less seasoned automobilistas among us. In addition, the devs have inserted the option to take a test drive at the start of your experience, during which the game’s AI will determine, Left-4-Dead-director style, exactly how far it can push you before you break. Nice to know that EA’s still looking out for those of us who wouldn’t know a carburetor from a camshaft.

Be sure to check out the latest trailer and screens. Need for Speed Shift will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, PC, and a smartphone near you on September 15.

The original Deca Sports was a big success for Hudson, as it shipped and sold loads of copies. There was room for improvement though, and Hudson was aware of this–the first title may have been a little too casual focused, and much of the core audience and many critics were displeased with that fact as expected. For the sequel, Hudson has included 10 sports, and has done their best to include ones that are not found elsewhere on the system while also making the game more appealing to both casual and core audiences.

The demo has four of these 10 sports included–ice hockey, darts, petanque, and dodge ball. You play as a character that is meant to be Hudson’s version of a Mii, but looks more like a Microsoft avatar in its appearance. There are multiple teams to choose from, each with its own personality and some differences that could be important depending on the game, like the size of your players.

Ice hockey is split into halves rather than thirds, but there’s also an option for sudden death overtime included. Ice hockey is fast-paced, since most of the game is passing to your teammates, slamming into opponents on defense with a motion of the Wii Remote (that never stops being satisfying, no matter the sports game) or going for one-timers to get past the goalie, which is controlled by the AI rather than the player. My one complaint with hockey is that the motion for checking your opponents and for a pass is the same, meaning that if you steal the puck before you get a chance to hit the guy holding it, you might accidentally pass it off immediately. That might be more on my end than on Deca Sports 2, but it’s something to keep an eye on when you play. Also, this game has the kind of one-timer success that made games like NHL ’94 so much fun back in the day, meaning that you will have some high scoring games. Try to go easy on grandma there, champ.

Darts takes some practice, but it’s rewarding once you get the hang of it. You have to hold the Wii Remote like a dart and simulate a throwing motion, but you need to keep the IR on it straight so that it doesn’t go flying off to the side of the dartboard. Countdown is the mode included in the demo, but there are a few different versions of darts you can play. Don’t be discouraged when you can’t get near the bulls-eye during the first few rounds–by the end, both myself and the person I played against were hitting the spots we wanted to with much more regularity. In fact, I screwed myself over by being more accurate than I planned when I hit bust and lost all of the points I had accrued that round.

Petanque is a French game and a version of boules that has you tossing a jack in a specific area, and then throwing metal balls as close as you can to said jack. You can throw from a crouching or standing position, and your throw distance is determined by the speed and force of your Wii Remote motions. This can make for some fun matches given the accuracy a petanque amateur like myself can exhibit, as you can hit the jack of your opponent’s balls in order to secure more points for you. The throwing works well, but if you need to go through some practice throws before tossing, you can. Thankfully there’s also a progress bar that is color coordinated, so you know that if the jack is over in the orange area, you need to get your throw around that to get close. It’s a simple addition, but it makes for a big boost in accuracy.

Last, we have dodge ball, which is my personal favorite from the collection. Hudson used international rules for dodge ball, so when one of your five teammates is hit by the ball and called out, he or she just goes to the outside of the regular playing area, where they are now able to throw the ball and pass it to your other teammates in order to nail your opponents upside the head. You can catch the ball by pressing Z and B at the same time, and if you manage to catch a ball that bounced off a teammate’s noggin before it hits the ground, you can keep them from being thrown out and take possession of the ball as well. Diving out of the way of the ball is as simple as motioning with the Wii Remote, but be warned: you can’t just spam dodging rolls, as you need to get up off of the ground before you can perform another. If you do it wrong, you will get caught in a dodge ball crossfire. This is definitely the most fun, especially since the dynamic of the game changes as more players are put on the sidelines to throw the ball, making things that much more difficult for the target that now sticks out like a sore thumb.

Deca Sports 2 is looking to be an improvement over the original, which was a success with a particular group of consumers. Hudson would like everyone to dig Deca Sports the same way that everyone is into Wii Sports, and things look like they could be heading in that direction based on the time I’ve spent with it. We’ll have more information on the title as it releases though, so be sure to check back.

Are you one of those people whose favorite part of Madden is the strategy? You love building rosters and tweaking them, improving your team a little here and there and then utilizing your new direction in games? Are you tired of playing people online that either rage quit when you do well or spam play action slant passes to their tight ends again and again because you can’t cover it effectively? Well QuickHit has a solution for you that gives you what you want from the first while helping to do away with the second problem, and that’s the upcoming QuickHit Football.

The team at QuickHit (formerly Play Hard Sports) is made up of two very distinct groups of developers: part of the company has a rich history of developing football and other sports titles, while the other part of the company has a background in developing MMORPG’s. You may think that there’s no use for that MMO experience in a football title, but then you would be wrong, because QuickHit has shown that there is a good reason to have that setup in place. QuickHit Football is flash and browser based–you pick the plays, the game runs them for you. How is the level of skill between players determined then, if the computer is just going to run the plays you pick for you? Well first of all, picking the correct play is half the battle in any football title, but second, your team and its players are capable of leveling up. No, seriously. You earn experience points for completing certain plays and reaching certain goals, such as completing a game. Once you earn enough of these points, you can increase the skill points of your players and choose a direction for them to grow in. Do you want a pocket passer with an accurate arm, or are you more interested in a running quarterback? Do you want a running back that darts and weaves through the defensive line, or do you want a bruiser that plows right through everything in his path? You get to decide this, and you get to level them up–think of playing through games as very strategic and very rewarding form of level grinding.

The game doesn’t use actual NFL teams and player names, but you can customize your roster and use fake names, just like you would in an NCAA game. There are plenty of colors to choose from, though I think the game might need a few more logos in order to keep things mixed up.It is fast and simple though, so you can get right into a game after going through those few short registration screens.

Playing is as simple as picking from the recommended plays and hitting the space bar to hike the ball, but you can also be as in-depth and strategic as you want by filtering for running and passing plays, and then filtering further for the kind of distance you’re looking to get out of the play. Each play is graded (think A, B, C, etc.) for the situation that you are in, so you will know if you’re doing something crazy or not each time out. The play’s routes also shows themselves above the playbook on the field, so you don’t have to strain to see what you’re looking at. Bill Cowher is going to be the color commentator in the announcing booth, and he will also provide a sort of “Ask Coach” type of feature, where you can get assistance from someone who knows what they are talking about.

Games are short and fast paced, so you can play many of them without feeling like you’ve spent too much time at the website. This also allows you to upgrade your team quickly, and you will want to, as QuickHit, in its final form (the game is in Alpha now) will keep track of loads of statistics, including your overall won-loss record. If you don’t feel like playing a live opponent over the Internet (just go to the lobby to see people who are available for games) then you can also play against the AI.

The actual game design is strong, and the use of experience points to level up your team is something that intrigues me, so I’m excited to see how QuickHit takes shape as the game nears release. There are still some bugs and tweaks to be worked out of course, but that’s par for the course with any game at this stage in development. We’ll have more news for you on QuickHit Football as it releases, especially when word of the beta makes its way to us. For now, check out the screens as well as the video featuring the founder and CEO of QuickHit, Jeffrey Anderson, and sign up to create your team and reserve your coach name at QuickHit Football’s website.

Time can be a fickle beast.

Luckily, Activition will soon allow you to manipulate it.

Coming in Spring 2010, a game called Singularity will drop for Xbox 360.‚  This time-traveling first-person shooter has some hype around it. ‚ Still, I was able to get my hands on Singularity during Comic-Con 2009 and I was quite impressed with what glimpse that Activision had to offer.

Let’s start with a little plot overview.‚  Singularity takes place in Katorga-12, a small island that passing backwards and forwards through time thanks to the finding of an element called E-99.‚  Players take control of an Air Force pilot of has crash-landed on this isle-in-limbo and are tasked with the need to solve the mysteries of the experiments and discoveries made on Katorga-12.‚  There always seems like time-traveling games have interestingly written scripts.‚  Singularity seemed like its following suit beautifully.

The unique draw to Singularity is that, beyond the use of your basic first-person shooter firearms, this title makes use of another tool called the Time Manipulation Device, or TMD.‚  The TMD allows the main character to “use time as a weapon” as the folks at Activision put it.‚  Players can use this TMD to rapidly alter the age of certain objects in the environment in order to make a situation more advantageous.‚  For instance, if a staircase has rotted and fallen apart but you’d still like to get to the next floor of the building, just use the TMD to restore the stairs to their former state and walk right up.

My first hands-on experience with Singularity was quite enjoyable.‚  From the beginning, I loved the feel and look of this first-person shooter.‚  To describe the gameplay, I’d have to say that Singularity is a mix between FEAR and Bioshock (with perhaps a dash of Portal mixed in as well).‚  The overall scheme of the graphics was definitely similar to FEAR, while the dark and mysterious look of things (not to mention the fact that players use their enhanced hands as a main weapon) reminded me of Bioshock.‚  Singularity also resembles both FEAR and Bioshock in its use of ghost-based flashbacks and creative problem solving requirements.‚  The Portal comp comes from Singularity’s use of a dual-function weapon in the TMD.

The best part of Singularity (during my brief exposure to it) was the many different ways players could fight enemies.‚  The first way is not very surprising: via the use of a gun.‚  Most enemies can be taken down with a few bullets to the head.‚  However, I quickly realized during my demo that ammunition comes at a premium in this game, making complete reliance on guns impossible.

The second and third methods of combat are much more entertaining than the first.‚  Remember that handy TMD I mentioned a little earlier?‚  Yeah, well that gizmo also has the capability to mimic what Star Wars fans would call Force Push.‚  Basically, players can use this function if a group of enemies are charging you and don’t seem worthy of your precious ammunition.‚  A simple toggle of a button will quickly incapacitate that once extremely hostile group of enemies.

Finally, players can also use the TMD to either age or un-age objects to create cover.‚  Say you see a giant partially destroyed pipe on the ground while you’re facing heavy enemy fire.‚  Just point the TMD, press a button and “" Presto! “" you’ve brought that pipe back to its former luster.‚  It’s now a convenient piece of concrete cover.‚  This diversity in the combat aspect really meshes well with the similar mixture seen in the problem solving portions of the game, making me more and more interested in what else Singularity has to offer.

Overall, Singularity seems like it’s going to be a pretty good game.‚  It’s been a little while that I’ve been this excited over the storytelling potential of a FPS.‚  Time manipulation is a hard concept to implement into a game, but the fine people at Activision may be on to something here.‚  At worst, I see Singularity being a rentable game.‚  At best, I see one of the must-have titles of 2010.

Not a lot of Alan Wake’s gameplay has been shown off, and very little information is available for it–the story is supposed to be one of the most important parts of the experience, and showing off the story would ruin things a bit, no? That’s why getting a look at it at San Diego Comic-Con behind closed doors was great, because you got to see the game in the element it belongs in: in a secluded area, with the lights dim. Psychological thrillers like Wake deserve that, and this one could turn out to be quite the thriller indeed.

Developer Remedy Games was not at a loss for ideas on how to develop the Alan Wake story: “We’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from different forms of popular culture–books, films, TV. We’ve taken our cues from masters such as Stephen King, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, with his work on Twin Peaks. Bright Falls is the setting, and it’s an all-American town that looks pretty but underneath it has these deep, dark secrets.” You can see the influence just from the demo and from hearing Remedy talk about their game, as Alan Wake is a writer seemingly living in the nightmare created by a book he doesn’t remember writing–that sounds like a playable King novel if I’ve ever heard one. Sadly for Wake, he didn’t write a happy story about rainbows, puppies, and European bikini models, but instead has written a psychological thriller that now seems poised to destroy him and the town of Bright Falls.

Alan Wake is an everyman kind of character, which shouldn’t be surprising given he’s a writer. He’s not a writer that was secretly a former CIA assassin, or some kind of tough guy trying to get away from his past life of violence, he’s just a guy trying to relax so he can write. There is combat in Alan Wake, and there are guns, but your focus is going to be on utilizing light in a way that damages your enemies and allows you to progress. You are armed with a flashlight, and will gain access to more powerful light emitting objects with time, and will also have flares at your disposal. Creating explosions and fires is another way to create light, and if the short demo was any indication, there will be plenty of opportunities for this kind of creativity.

This “everyman” direction affects the gameplay, but in a positive way. “It gives the game authenticity–he’s a writer, he reads books. He’s done research for his work and has been to the shooting range, so he knows how to use a gun, but he’s not a commando or a superhero.” That doesn’t mean Wake is entirely sans powers though, as he believes he has the ability to, “will his light source to burn away the darkness quicker” though as Remedy tells us, that is a limited resource. You can see this power on the right side of the screen as a blue bar, opposite your health. Just because this power recharges though does not mean you should abuse it; just like real batteries, your flashlight batteries will be less effective with more recharges, meaning you will need to find replacement batteries–there’s a limited supply–or be overrun by the darkness.

Remedy has not announced how long the game will be, or how many episodes there will be–the chapters are presented episodically–but they promise that it’s akin to what you are used to with this sort of game. You’ll get what you put into it, as digging deeper into the story and exploring the open-world further will extend the game experience for you.

There is a day/night cycle in Alan Wake, which is intriguing given how important the darkness is to the title. How does this work, if darkness is the key element to Wake? “In terms of pacing, we want to have more story and more interactive segments in the game, and the daytime is a good time for us to show you some of the characters and open up dialogue.” That does not mean that the daytime is going to be limited to just those elements though: “There are dark places during the daytime, so if you have some compelling reason to go into that dark warehouse, something bad might happen.” There may also be daytime segments under the cover of cloud, with stormy weather, rain and the like. “Having the entire game in the dark may make things repetitive; we wanted to avoid that and balance the game out, give you the opportunity to meet the locals of Bright Falls, and have some NPC interaction and some exploration during the day.”

Alan Wake looks to have a tight combat system, some wonderful graphics, and while we know little about the story, what we do know is intriguing enough to make us want to know more. Look for this game in spring of 2010, but we’ll have more details for you as they release.

There is so little information available on The Behemoth’s latest game that it’s working title, “Game #3″, is still in use. The fact sheet given to me at Comic-Con is, for the most part, covered in TBAs, and what isn’t is (purposely) covered by the head of one of the game’s characters. Despite the fact that this game seems to barely exist yet as far as the amount of information released on it goes, I got a chance to play it, and I can’t wait to play some more.

You know The Behemoth’s work from Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers, two very fun titles that took genres we know and love from the days of 2D, and put them right back in the spotlight in this age of voice acting, cutscenes and cinematics. With Game #3, the aim is to make a single-player experience that’s flanked by an engrossing and addictive multiplayer mini-game collection. The multiplayer is what I got a chance to check out, as three of the different game modes were on display at Comic-Con.

The first of these was a game where you fought for each other’s souls by bouncing on your opponent’s heads (there were two teams of two in San Diego, but Behemoth hasn’t announced just how many people can play in a match at once yet) or by using a variety of weapons–boomerang, explosive frisbee, grenades, fireballs–to take them out. You gained points every few seconds for holding on to their souls, but they can just as easily take yours away and then get themselves some points. It’s very fast, very frantic, and loads of fun. The levels are designed in a way that you can run around aimlessly and still bump into your opposition, which is either a good thing for you or a terrible thing, based on who is better with jumping or with a weapon. I was told that some of the weapons still need to be balanced, as some cause too much destruction relative to the others, but even with that the game was a blast.

The second game mode was somewhat like the soul stealing one, except there was a golden fish flying around that would drop gold. You would pick up the gold blocks it dropped and try to make it back to the drop point for them; whichever team had the most gold blocks at the end wins. You can interrupt people on their way back to making a deposit by attacking them, so if you’ve got a good teammate, you can do some serious damage both collecting and impeding the progress of your opponent.

The last game mode I tried out was a bit different, as the emphasis was not so much on a deathmatch type game, but instead had you trying to finish the level with more colored blocks than your opponent. You run around the level, and every unclaimed block you touch becomes on of your teams. While it flashes, the other team can take it, but once it turns solid it’s yours. The level resets and tallies your points every now and then in order to give you more blocks to color as well. You can still kick around the other team in order to stop them from succeeding, but you won’t want to waste as much with that here unless you have run out of blocks to convert.

All three game types are great fun, even in their early form, and Behemoth promises that there will be more modes when the game does release–whenever that may be. They have not decided on what platforms the game would release on (though the demo I played was on the Xbox 360).

In addition to the game modes, I was shown the character creation screen. There were different heads and faces to choose from so you could give your character a bit of a personal touch, and there are plans to make tons and tons of these in time for release. Same goes for the weapons, which The Behemoth are busy working on to ensure the game is balanced.

We have screens for you above, as well as the first developer diary for the the as of yet unnamed project. We’ll give you more information as it releases, but for now, enjoy.

Grab your flashlight because it’s almost time to visit Silent Hill again.

Yes, Konami Digital Entertainment, creators of the original Silent Hill, is looking to have players return to that dreadful place in the upcoming Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

Due out in October, Shattered Memories will be a reimagining of the first Silent Hill.‚  With this in mind, though some general aspects of the game may seem familiar (man looking for his daughter in a mysterious town, etc), Shattered Memories should play like a completely different experience thanks to its development for the Wii console.

Helping nurture this “completely different experience” was the developers’ idea to customize each game for every player.‚  This is accomplished through a number of in-game mediums.‚  The first method used is a psychological survey in which a series of questions are asked about the player.‚  These questions can as impersonal as how easily the player makes friends, to something as forward as how much does the player enjoy role-playing during sex.‚  Each question plays a role in how the game plays out later.‚  For instance, when the player is asked if they have ever cheated on a partner and says “yes”, the game will feature more provocative clothing on some characters (ex: the female police officer will show more cleavage, etc).‚  When taking this survey during an exclusive demo in Konami’s offsite event at Comic-Con, I felt like it could have been legitimate.‚  Though it was short in length, the survey seemed to be personal enough to be a psychological analysis, but distanced enough to be tolerable in a mature video game.

The Shattered Memories gameplay also helps further customize a player’s experience.‚  Using the Wii Remote to control the flashlight, the in-game computer monitors how often a player will stop to admire certain paintings or points of interest in the environment.‚  The game will also keep track of how quickly or tentatively a player will “peek” through a doorway before entering a room.‚  All of these aspects (and possibly more that we don’t even know about) will be constantly watched by the game, making every play and replay of Shattered Memories unique.‚  Sadly, however, my demo was too short to be able to appreciate most of the customization features that were in store for me.

What’s great about Shattered Memories’s gamplay (besides the fact that it is constantly monitored), is the fact that it really helps promote the overall creepy feel to the game.‚  Developed as a third-person adventure game, Shattered Memories really captures the loneliness of the main character.‚  Armed with nothing but my (lack of wit) and a flashlight, I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of helplessness during my entire hands-on experience.‚  Also, as mentioned in an earlier paragraph, players must “peek” through every door they want to enter to check if the room is safe.‚  Gamers will have the choice of either slowly opening each door to prevent unnecessary attacks, recklessly entering every room with little regard for their safety, or doing something in-between.‚  This peeking feature was especially affective with me because I take a very conservative approach when it comes to these types of games.‚  Well played, Konami.

Shattered Memories gameplay is also fairly simple.‚  Walking around is as simple as moving the joystick on the Wii Nunchuk, while shining the flashlight, as mentioned earlier, requires players to point the Wiimote at the screen.‚  With the simplicity of the controls and sophistication of the Wii’s technology, making a Silent Hill game for Nintendo’s current console seems like a no-brainer now.‚  Again, well played.

Overall, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories looks like it’s going to be a pretty solid game.‚  The gameplay was fun, the customization is fantastic and the title is a perfecft fit for the Wii.‚  Though I wasn’t able to enjoy all of the customization that Shattered Memories had to offer during my demo at Comic-Con, the details the devs gave me and the excitement they showed make me a believer of this feature.‚  I know how much fun the Wii can be, but now I’m excited to see how thoroughly it can scare the crap out of me with the release of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, dropping this fall.

Batman is back and he’s better than ever.

Thanks to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Edios Inc. and Rocksteady Studios, the next major release featuring the Dark Knight may be 2009′s next big hit.

The game, called Batman: Arkham Asylum, will be a third-person action adventure title due to drop on August 25.‚  With all of the hype surrounding Arkham Asylum, it’s no surprise that Blast Magazine wanted to get a closer look at the highly anticipated game.‚  With an exclusive sneak peak at Comic-Con and some additional hands-on time with the recently released demo, we at Blast have the inside scoop on what to expect from the upcoming title.

Batman: Arkham Asylum takes place at Gotham City’s high-security center for the criminally insane, where Batman has just returned the Joker to be imprisoned once again.‚  Batman’s suspicions rise when he starts to realize that the Joker was captured with little resistance.‚  The Dark Knight’s worst fears are confirmed when the Joker escapes from the clutches of Arkham’s security guards.‚  Batman’s green-haired foe reveals he is now running the facility with all of his villainous pals. It’s now up to the Caped Crusader’s save the facility and its employees from total devastation.

As with any comic book-inspired game, the first aspect I look at is how authentic that is.‚  Too often do these types of titles drift a bit too far when it comes to being accurate to the original canon.‚  However, though I cannot speak for the full version of the game, Batman: Arkham Asylum seems to stay true to the initial stories of the characters while also having some addition stylized flair from the developers.‚  Case and point: Harley Quinn.‚  Also known as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Ms. Quinn is described in her in-game bio correctly (according to my research and cross-checking), but is also presented in a newer, sexier outfit than seen in the original comics.‚  This seems to be the case for many of the villains (especially of the female gender) and is a welcome change to‚ the outdated costumes of the past.‚  The folks at Rocksteady did a fine job of dancing on the right side of the fine line between respectable, unique interpretation and overdone elucidation.

The unique interpretations do not end with the enemies.‚  Rocksteady seemed to pay homage to the comic book that may have partially inspired the game, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, by giving it a very dark and gritty feel.‚  Also, the developers decided to make Batman’s character model to be almost superhuman.‚  Looking more like a linebacker than a billionaire, Sefton Hill, director and owner of Rocksteady Studios, told me that they wanted to make it clear that “Bruce Wayne represents the peak of masculine strength and endurance.”‚  Message received.

Arkham Asylum’s gameplay is quite interesting.‚  Using the Unreal graphics engine, Gears of War comparisons will be inevitable.‚  Still, Arkham Asylum has enough unique features to distinguish itself from other Unreal games.‚  First off, Batman, being a vigilante who refuses to kill, does not use guns to take his enemies down.‚  With this in mind, Rocksteady made Batman use a “panther approach” in his conflict suppression.‚  This stealthy-but-aggressive style lets the Caped Crusader use the shadows to his advantage while also putting his hard-hitting martial arts training to work.

My favorite aspect of Arkham Asylum was the need to think like a sleuth.‚  Acting as the world’s greatest detective, players are required to do some major problem solving (or at least that’s what the demo alludes to).‚  In short, you have to think like Batman to succeed in the game.‚  Whether it is with attacking enemies or just putting clues together, taking a Batman mindset is essential when playing Arkham Asylum.‚  Helping with this is an interesting feature called Detective Mode.‚  This mode, activated when the Left Bumper is toggled, illuminates nearby enemies, useful objects and points of interest.‚  Detective Mode will surely come in handy when deciding a course of action to complete missions and tasks.

From what I’ve seen so far, it’s no surprise that Batman: Arkham Asylum is already being deemed as one of the best games of 2009.‚  With both my hands-on experience with the game and discussions with the owner of Rocksteady games, I have found nothing to dislike with Arkham Asylum so far.‚  I don’t want to get too excited about a game that hasn’t even come out yet, but I’m finding it harder and harder to imagine me not picking up a copy of Arkham Asylum when it drops on August 25.