A Night at the Arcade: Mad Tracks

I find myself once again brimming with articles to write and doing my regular XBLA feature has never seemed like such a chore. It hasn't helped that this week's Arcade release is Mad Tracks.

Massage the jump link for my impressions of this arcade diversion...

Mad Tracks is a cute kiddy racer based on toy cars, not unlike the Matchbox and Hot Wheels kind that you remember from your hazy, half-forgotten childhood. Fittingly, the control mechanics and car physics are very basic and developer Load Inc. has implemented various game modes and features that elevate the game beyond a simple race to a finish line.

I wasn't incredibly impressed with what I saw in the trial version of Mad Tracks and I think that has more to do with the bare-bones trial itself than the spirit behind the game. There wasn't enough in the trial to really hook me into paying 800 MS points. It's fun to drive these toy cars around the inclusion of weapons harkens back to the venerable Mario Kart games on the SNES and N64. Unfortunately, there was only 1 type of weapon available on the 1 available racetrack in the trial version. This is the homing missile, a kick-ass weapon to have in this kind of racer, until you've raced a lap and realize every weapon pick-up is a homing missile. Perhaps this was an idiosyncrasy specific to the trial or that particular racetrack.

Ah, but the pre-exit sales pitch does promise "12 funky pick ups and power ups" in the full version of the game. That's great, Load Inc.. Might I suggest you make a few more of those available in your trial product in order to, you know, entice me into buying the game? The all-homing-missile racetrack became empty and tiresome after the 2nd lap. To be fair, the game does have bright, attractive graphics going for it and a great sense of fun. Oh, and what humour. If you read their sales blurb closely, you'll even learn that another benefit to buying the game is the "satisfaction of getting a genuine cool game".

I kid you not. Fire up the trial and see for yourself. As for determining whether Mad Tracks is that genuine cool game that I've been waiting for all my life, the jury is still out because the trial doesn't compel me to give a damn.

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Remake Heaven

Who needs sequels when you can take the franchise originator -- almost always the most superior in quality, whether you're talking games or movies -- and slap on a fresh coat of paint for a new generation to enjoy?

Ubisoft and Sierra are pulling out the fan service for two older titles, one of which is fairly recent, with the other going way, way back to 1989.

I speak of course about The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and Prince of Persia Classic.

Slap that jump for more information...

Assault on Dark Athena is the upcoming, extended X360 remake of the highly-acclaimed The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Developer Starbreeze Studios is slapping on a fresh coat of paint, adding a developer's commentary audio track and adding a sort of epilogue chapter that was not included in the Xbox version of the game. Oh yes, and online multiplayer will be included as well.

Overall, I think this is sweet because I missed the boat on Butcher Bay and I've heard nothing but high praise for it. The original Xbox version is not due for a backwards-compat treatment either, so if we are to take this next-gen remake in lieu of that, I can only say: Why Not?

Going back further into our past, we have Ubisoft's reimagining of Jordan Mechner's classic platformer, Prince of Persia. Released in 1989 for the PC, this game pretty much took the 2D side-scrolling adventure game to whole new levels and influenced many games in the years since. The remake is being handled by cellphone games developer, Gameloft and as you can see from the above screenshot, it is looking stunning. Aside from the cosmetic update, Gameloft is pretty much leaving the level designs untouched, with a few welcome tweaks to the combat system to make those sword fights even more exciting. The game is due out on Xbox Live Arcade sometime this summer and will likely sell for 800 MS points.

I know it's still too early to tell how good prince of Persia Classic will be, but I'm just going to make a confession to Microsoft right now. I will gladly pay 800 MS points for ANY retro title you release, so long as it is updated lovingly to conform to today's higher production standards. Just pick a good classic (no Xevious garbage, please), hand it over to a competent developer, let them work their magic and slap the 800-point sticker price on the final product. Sold. Done.

On a similar note, I would love to see more next-gen remakes done of old games or games created by defunct studios. For example, I want someone to step up and do a X360 version of the first Deus Ex. Or how about some next-gen love for Thief or the original Half-Life? There's nostalgia to be mined and money to be made, people.

Of course, one could argue that remakes are a mark of laziness and even a lower form of cranking out sequels to cash in on a successful IP. I can sympathize with that perspective, if the remakes were done poorly or based on a truly crappy old game. I'm just talking about revitalizing a great, classic game and exposing it to a brand new audience. They would also be pleasing the veterans who experienced the greatness the first time around but want another taste.

As it stands, I'm looking forward to both the Riddick and Prince remakes very much. I hope they succeed and inspire more publishers to not simply reissue, but reimagine and enchance tried-and-true classic games of the past.

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Gamer Perversions: Manual Huffer

I've been slow to warm up to Destructoid's podcast, Podtoid for any number of reasons. I love the blog and most days appreciate its irreverent and caustic take on gaming. The podcast has been a little trickier to enjoy and much of it was based on the first episode I ever listened to. It was their first show following the Game Developers Conference this winter and the hosts were killing me with their in-joke ridden blather. Among the nearly 90 minutes of that episode, probably only 30 minutes of talk was related to gaming news. Talk about losing your focus!

The most recent Podtoid has been a lot more pleasant. The strong opinions, swearing, camaraderie and in-jokes were all there but I this time I actually had fun listening to it. I actually lawled at one point when the hosts went on another tangent and talked about huffing game manuals.

Oh my god, you don't know how much I relate to that. I used to sniff manuals to new games all the time. It was a ritual. I also agree with one of the Podtoid'ers about how manuals nowadays have been losing that special scent they all used to have.

Gamers and non-gamers alike may wonder what the attraction is to smelling the pages of a crisp, new game manual. I would justify it by comparing it to enjoying the smell of a new car or the comforting aroma of fresh, homemade bakery.

I'm curious if the Podtoid cast and I are the only manual huffers out there. Raise your hands out there if you do this too. You know who you are.

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Gamespot Gets Guided Tour of GTA 4

Gamespot posted impressions of their first look at Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 4 just before the weekend.

My summary and regurgitation after the jump...

Aside from some gorgeous new screenshots and concept artwork, the preview lays out some tantalizing tidbits about the plotline, the Russian protagonist and Liberty City. Taking a page out of Crackdown's book, verticality will figure more prominently in GTA 4, with the ability to ascend buildings in a variety of ways as well as pilot a helicopter.

In addition, the player will be able to enter more structures, with seamless transitions between interior and outdoor environments. This is a rather fitting next-gen upgrade, as I always found the cityscapes in previous GTA chapters a bit too superficial and lacking in the player-interaction department.

The article hinted at some multiplayer possibilities in GTA 4 but claimed Rockstar reps were tight-lipped regarding that aspect of play. The encouraging note was that the dev team was committed to making the online multiplayer as substantial as the single-player campaign. I am also relieved that there will be no persistent world with online play. Nice to know Rockstar is aware of what's going on in the market and are leaving the "GTA MMO" to Realtime Worlds and their upcoming APB.

Visually, GTA 4 is still looking very juicy. I'm just holding out for some solid information on gameplay mechanics. This is shaping up to be the most technically advanced GTA yet and I can easily imagine the developers fawning over the graphics and leaving core gameplay largely untouched. I would love to see more sophisticated story missions and a greater sense of open-endedness, perhaps falling just short of completely free-form play found in Crackdown.

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ANatA: Rush N' Attack & Xevious

I'm not going to mince any words like I usually do. This week's XBLA releases are bad.

The gaming overlords have graced us with yet another double release, but what good does that do when the games in question are Rush N' Attack and Xevious? The pair of them are hardly the most memorable retro games out there. I remember owning Xevious for the 8-bit NES. It was one of the few games I nabbed from the bargain bins - some blowout sale at the local video rental shop - and playing the trial on Live Arcade underlined the reality that bad games only get worse with age. What's hilarious about this is that just last week they dropped the excellent (and free) Aegis Wing on us, while charging an outrageous 400 MS points for this disaster from the '80s.

Rush N' Attack fares no better. Mildly entertaining during its heyday in the arcades, this game stands out for its cheesy, pun-happy name and its lackluster side-scrolling game play. Pressing up on the D-pad or thumbstick to jump, when you have 2 available face buttons? Sorry, that's just retarded.

My suggestion to Microsoft the next time they want to release 2 retro action titles: Raiden and Bionic Commando.

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Make Me Buy Your Mag

I was shopping for groceries the other day and did my usual shuffle past the magazine racks to oggle the men's magazine covers. I also took a gander at the gaming mags, picking up a shrink-wrapped copy of OXM to check out the content on their bonus disc.

It was then that I realized something. Gaming magazines are not trying hard enough to stay competitive in this world of blogs, game trailers, G4, podcasts and online news syndication.

Come, follow me across the jump and I will explain more...

The OXM is a decent magazine that I've purchased one issue of at the beginning of the year. It's a little skimpy on the pages but still shares a lot of good qualities with its sister publication, PC Gamer. Despite this, I've been getting the sense that the traditional magazines have been slow to adapt to the advances in new media an Web 2.0. This is a time when a single blogger can sift through the latest games news and post coverage on their own site mere minutes, if not seconds, after the news has broken. The end user, through the magic of hyperlinking and broadband, can read this article and immediately jump to additional support articles, rich media, such as a game play video posted on YouTube or watch a freshly posted developer interview on IGN or Gamespot.

My point is of course is that information spreads with incredible speed now. Furthermore, we as consumers of information have much more power to control what and how much we want to take in. Traditional magazines, stuck to their rigid one-month production cycles, are slowly getting phased out of relevance.

They do have an ace in the hole in the form of their pack-in bonus discs. Dating back about 10 years, these discs used to be a cool novelty for magazine to include in their issues. And what a valuable novelty they came to be. The commercial web was still growing up, so it was still hard to get hard information on new releases, let alone demos, videos and cute casual games. These bonus discs had all of these things in spades and were often wrapped in a very slick interface. Sadly, these discs have slipped drastically in quality and relevance over the years.

The disc that came with my first issue of OXM was decent. It certainly didn't contain anything that made me want to rush home and pop it into my Xbox. It did include premium downloadable content for Oblivion, which I didn't have in the first place, and a collection of demos to very mediocre games, including Superman Returns.

At the supermarket, holding up the latest issue of OXM, I was equally unimpressed with their bonus disc. Their feature demo was for Star Trek: Legacy, followed by trial versions of Xbox Live Arcade titles like Worms, Alien Hominid and a couple older releases. I blinked, looked over the content again and immediately shelved the magazine.

Who are they selling the magazine and the disc to? Am I being too harsh when I say you can't just slap any old content onto your disc... the same disc that doubles the price of your skimpy magazine. Granted, if the stats are to be believed, a good 50% of all X360 owners are not connected to Xbox Live. This increases the value of those old demos and Arcade trials for those poor souls who are a literally only getting half the fun out of their Boxes.

What about the rest of us who still enjoy their gaming news in hard copy form every so often? What about the rest of us Xboxers who actually have access to Live and want something we can't get on the Internet? How attractive is it for us to lay out $10 for a magazine that might have the odd exclusive on an upcoming game, pap on the remaining pages and a bonus disc full of old or uninteresting demos?

This slide in quality is one of the prime reasons why I'll buy a games magazine once every three to four months at best. Traditional publications need to take advantage of their strengths and push harder to keep and expand their readership.

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Assassin's Creed Throws Down Again

How fitting to post on the next Splinter Cell game and follow up with a brand spankin' new trailer for Assassin's Creed?

Need there be more said about this? Extra props to the trailer for the classic UNKLE track.

Edit: While you're at, you may as well scope out the other nice videos Game Trailers has on the game, including an interview with producer, Jade Raymond. Boy, I'd love for her to produce MY game some time... wink wink, nudge nudge.

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Splinter Cell: Conviction, Or When Giant Dice Attack

You've no doubt heard the announcement last week that the next installment of the perennial Splinter Cell series of stealth games will largely be set during the light of day. IGN covered this ground-breaking news last week with an in-depth look at the new game mechanics and how the series has evolved to this next stage of evolution.

I'm always cautiously optimistic when a company decides to tamper with a proven formula and strike out towards more innovative game design. Having the inspiration and intention to do something different is great, but we as consumers know all too well the importance of solid execution.

More ramblings after the jump...

The feature on IGN is pretty good and I'll boil down the essential for you. Splinter Cell: Conviction will feature many daylight missions and implement a completely different stealth model. Instead of the light/dark concealment paradigm we've seen in the previous 4 titles, Ubisoft Montreal will allow players to blend in with crowds of people and "improvise" ways to evade his enemies. In case the title didn't tip you off, Conviction sees our Third Echelon hero, Sam Fisher on the wrong side of the law. Stripped of his high-tech gadgetry and intel support, Fisher must now rely on his pure instincts more than ever.

If you're a long-time Splinter Cell fan, you've probably already absorbed this and either exclaimed, "It's about time" or threw your hands up in the air with, "OMGZ THEY CHANGED EVERTYHING THAT IS SPLINTER CELL!!". Or something to that effect. Me, I'm just slightly puzzled. This whole daylight, crowd dynamics business... isn't that the proof of concept for Ubisoft's upcoming Assassin's Creed? The protagonist
for that one is remarkably similar to Sam Fisher, with a drastic difference in time periods to set them apart.

While it does sound like Conviction will push the concept of hiding without shadows even further than Assassin's Creed, I have to wonder why they wouldn't want to make sure it works on one A-list game first before injecting it into a best-selling franchise.

Don't get me wrong. To be able to simulate the feeling of movies like The Bourne Identity and dodge cops through busy streets sounds like a wonderful idea and is very "next gen". Just judging from the tone of the comments made by Ubisoft producers, however, they make it sound like the old concepts of waiting in the shadows is a dead horse. Nothing could be further from the truth. With advances in AI and dynamic lighting technology, the classic style of play seen in Splinter Cell can be made so much more immersive and realistic. And let's face it, although the previous games made nods to realism, they are anything but.

It's still too early to say how the next Splinter Cell will turn out. Credit can be given to Ubisoft for attempting to shake things up a little and after 4 games, it's probably time for Sam Fisher to ditch the black bodysuit in favour of looking like a street bum. Every series, be it games or movies, has that blip, that one sequel that seems oddly out of place alongside all the other episodes. Conviction could be that blip that makes people scratch their heads and take notice. And even if it fails, they can go back to the tried-and-true formula and take that even further into parts unknown. I for one would love that.

Source: IGN

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Taking the Halo 3 Beta Down a Notch

Games Radar is a new-ish video games website from Future Publishing that sets itself apart from other gaming sites with humour and stimulating editorials. Although I find their game reviews too glossy and brief, I do appreciate their attempts to write different kinds of features beyond the usual, news, gossip, previews and developer interviews.

Just last week they published a very informative history of console wars. This week, they've addressed the hot-button issue of games that are so horrible, only the gratuitous inclusion of breasts provide for their redemption. Fluff journalism? One could argue so. One could also make a case for injecting some fun back into the discussion of games since they are after all, just games. Take for instance the popularity of the Screenshot Comparison stories you see everywhere these days. Now I'm certain there's enough reader interest out there to justify writing these things - I just think we're starting to take the medium a bit too seriously. Relax people, our games look fantastic! One version may have prettier smoke blowing in the wind but the game is still the same!

And with that tangential preamble out of the way, I would now like to focus our full attention to Game Radar's latest opus, an article titled: "What's Wrong With Halo 3?". Read it, ponder it, nod your head in agreement or shake your fist with rage.

More on that article and my impressions about the Halo 3 beta after the jump...

So someone at Games Radar is a little underwhelmed by the multiplayer beta. They took the words right out of my mouth. I agree with pretty much everything covered in the article. Given that this is the Xbox 360's flagship title, the one game that has the power to seal Microsoft's victory for this generation's console war, the beta is surprisingly run of the mill.

"It's a beta!", I hear all the cries of from the Halo loyalists (and sensible people alike). Yes, the Halo 3 we are experiencing now is exceedingly rough and bereft of any real content to dig into. In overall polish and stability, things are looking bright. The textures are crisp, the controls feel solid and I'm liking the little innovations they are doing with player matchmaking and match playback. Being able to save and review entire matches is a wonderful feature and it's a wonder something like this isn't attempted more often with online shooters.

I've put in several rounds of play so far this week and I've been trying to take what's there and extrapolate what could be in the final product come September. Beyond the venerable Halo brand and familiar universe, what else is Bungie bringing to the increasingly competitive FPS table? As far as multiplayer is concerned, more of the same, or MOTS. That is always a double-edged sword for gamers and a creative conundrum for successful franchises well into development of sequel-itis. How much of the tried-and-true formula needs changing? Does it even need to be tampered with?

I fear Halo 3 is going to play it too safe this fall. For all the joy the game will bring to die-hard fans and newcomers alike, I am skeptical about how the game will throw down in terms of an amazing "next-gen" experience. Perhaps Bungie will bring the noise with a rousing single-player campaign adventure and I'm fairly confident they've kept a lot of juicy secrets about that tucked away until the right time. I don't know how interesting the multiplayer contests will be, and that is where any game gets its longevity from.

Personally I could only handle the beta in short 15 minute bursts before boredom set in. It all seemed over-familiar, and this is coming from a guy who's never touched Halo 2 and played through 1/3 of the original game. It's the classic run and gun game play in attractive, uninspired maps with the usual assortment of rifles, shotguns and energy weapons. If I could be allowed a mash-up comparison, playing the beta reminded me a lot of playing Quake 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004. Quake 2 because of the seemingly sluggish movement speed of your Spartan warrior and the "floaty" feel of the game's gravity. Unreal Tournament 2004 because of the operable vehicles and recycled arsenal of weapons. That's actually the same rut the Quake and Unreal franchises have fallen into already. Every iteration of these games, it's the same flak cannon, the same rail gun (but maybe they'll call it the lightning gun this time around) and the same rocket launcher. There's an increasingly heavy feeling of deja vu with these games and it's not in a good way.

The most damning thing I can say about the Halo 3 beta at this point is, it does not feel fresh, at all. I'm coming to this series as a relative rookie and it still feels very derivative. Yes, derivative of its own multi-million selling self, but still derivative.

The strange thing is I could hardly call myself a hater. I very much want this game to succeed and take solace in the fact this is merely a beta. Test run, folks. Just the rough cuts. We're only getting a minuscule slice of the final product. On launch day, I just hope we get much more than a bunch of guys in identical Mjolnir suits blasting each other with shotguns and...(yawn)... rocket launchers.

(I just realized the delicious irony in the way I ranted about having more fun with our games and following up with a rather serious and critical analysis of the Halo 3 beta. Yeesh. Good thing I'm only human.)

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A Night at the Arcade: Aegis Wing

I think we can all agree that yesterday was a magical day of gaming goodness. The Halo 3 multiplayer beta was eventually made available to all registered testers, even for us lowly Crackdown owners. In addition, XBLA got the smackdown with two simultaneous releases. To top it all off, I succumbed to my insatiable curiosity (and a tempting $20 price tag) and picked up the original Xbox version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

Phew! Can you say "hectic"? But this post will not be my lukewarm review of The Beta nor will it be my impassioned tirade about publishing wildly dissimilar games under the same name and earmarking the crappier version for the 360. No, this little post is all about that free little gem, Aegis Wing.

My review to please your eyes after the jump...

So you've probably heard about the rags-to-riches story about the plucky trio of interns who approached the enigmatic and mighty J Allard about their dream of making... a 2-D side scroller?? Well, yes, Aegis Wing is the fruit of this inspirational project and although there may not be many riches involved (it's a free download), you can be certain these interns should not be worrying about wearing rags with this game as their portfolio piece.

The game play and presentation of Aegis Wing will be instantly familiar to anyone who has lived through the 8- and 16-bit era of video gaming. You pilot an agile aircraft through many hostile, techno-centric levels, blasting all manner of techno-organic creatures until the pulse-pounding denouement with a much larger, techno-organic Boss critter. There is a very masculine undercurrent to the early levels of the game, as I find myself pursued by red and blue oval pods with squiggly, sperm-like tails wiggly away. Some enemies try to collide with you, which results in an instant death. Many more simply spray you with unending waves of orange pellets that, on contact, deplete your force shields.

It's all very simplistic and retro. Fans of classics like Gradius and my personal favourite, Lifeforce, will be hit with fond memories, as well as finding the need to quickly dust off their twitch reflexes. I played through several levels by myself on Normal difficulty and found it to be a bit of a snooze. Even on Insane, the enemy bullets are quite easy to avoid and the repetitive avant-garde techno soundtrack does get drummed into your noggin sooner than you might like it to.

My second pass through doing co-op was a better experience. In an interesting wrinkle to the old formula, players can combine their ships together by getting close and pressing the "X" button. Whoever initiates the attachment becomes a multi-directional turret, while the attachee assumes navigational duties and retains their pee shooter primary weapon. As more players combine together, the slower the super ship gets, but in contrast, the larger your firepower. I never got a chance to form up 4 players together to try this, but I hear it's pretty sweet. This dynamic does place more emphasis on teamwork, as players consider when to combine or separate, as well as how to share and distribute power ups. In my co-op session last night, everyone was too damn independent to become just a turret on someone else's boat. To our credit, we still worked well together and played nice with the power up grabbing.

After all is said and done, I have to question myself as I am apt to do: Why is there a review for this game? It's free and the hard drive footprint is less than 50MB. What possible reason do you have for not trying it out for yourself?

Oh right. You're too busy playing Halo 3. (wink wink)

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Game Dump: Aegis Wing, Soltrio Solitaire... And Oh, That Halo 3 Thing

It's a busy Wednesday and I'm already behind. We have another double-bill feature on XBLA this week in the form of the FREE side-scroller, Aegis Wing and the 800 pointer, Soltrio Solitaire. I had a chance to try Aegis Wing in the wee hours of the morning. Hey, not bad for a free game. Pssshhhhh... Actually, it's pretty good and hard to knock with such a generous price point. I'll post more impressions as the day unfolds.

I haven't taken the Soltrio Solitaire trial for a whirl yet, but it has me fairly unexcited. Cards don't turn me on.

As for the magical Halo 3 Beta, well... that's started up today. Trouble is brewing, however, as I popped in my Crackdown disc this morning only to find the Halo 3 download option still unavailable. All the necessary parties are already aware of the situation and a fix is in the works.

Call me crazy, but this too has me fairly unexcited. I will recognize the Halo franchise as the behemoth that it is for the Xbox, but as a former PC gamer, it really is just another run n' gun shooter to me. The lackluster PC port of Halo 1 didn't exactly set my world on fire either, so I suppose my biases are negatively coloured. I still want to try out the beta and get a taste of what all the fuss if about.

It's going to be a busy day of gaming. Oh Xbox, why do you rape my time so?

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Shadowrun: Half a Game?

That Shadowrun is coming out for Windows Vista and Xbox 360 on May 29th is soooo last week's news is not lost upon me. Yet I soooo wanted to talk about what the world's first cross-platform FPS means for gaming.

It's not that Vista owners and 360 players will be able to compete with each other for the first time ever has me a'twitter. I'm actually more interested in exploring what constitutes a full, complete game in this age of arcade revivals, episodic content and expansion packs.

Specifically, Shadowrun is a strictly multiplayer game and will retail for full price - $60 to $100 depending on where you live. Why does this not bother me very much? Does it bother you? Is this an acceptable proposition in the years to come for our beloved hobby?

I attempt to answer my own questions after the jump.

So, Shadowrun is only going to support online multiplayer over Windows/Xbox Live. Are FASA and Microsoft Game Studios out of their freakin' minds?

Surprisingly, no, they are not.

After detractors tired of pre-hating the game for not staying true to the brand's roots as a pen-and-paper RPG by being a CRPG, the game attracted additional flak for not having a single-player mode. Xboxers without a net cable plugged in and a Gold subscription would be left out in the cold. They could perhaps enjoy the meager scraps of a few single-player training scenarios, if even that . The cynical-minded of us could speculate this is just a clever way for MS to shepherd more Silver players into becoming paying subscribers to Live or even as a foreboding sign of things to come in the industry. Let's face it: our games are getting prettier, but the content is shrinking and companies are taking less risks in a world where 30 million dollars, a staff of 100 and 3 years of development time can still result in a bomb that sells less than 100,000 copies. Developers are narrowing their focus, finding a niche and focusing their efforts on a few key areas of the game experience.

But does this grim reality of the games industry really matter to you and me? There we are, standing in the console aisle of our favourite retailer and we're considering shelling out full price for a game that has the content equivalent of the icing on the cake we used to have atop the single-player main course. It wasn't so long ago when multiplayer modes were almost like a luxury. Most gamers were still chugging about with their 56k modems. Net code was primitive at best and if you got a deathmatch game running smoothly, that was a reward enough.

It wasn't until the late '90s when a trio of PC first-person shooters set the precedent for multiplayer-exclusive gaming. Tribes (1998), by Dynamix, not only eschewed single-player options, it introduced jetpacks and operable vehicles for the first time in the genre. Both Unreal Tournament (1999) and Quake 3 (1999), by Epic and Id Software respectively, featured respectable single-player matches versus intelligent AI bots, but the real deal was testing your reflexes against human opponents in the online arena. Today all three of these games are hailed as modern classics and -- certainly in the case of Quake 3 -- are still being played by a hardcore community of gamers.

Whether Shadowrun joins the lofty ranks of these classic shooters still remains to be seen. I was very apathetic to this title when it was initially announced. Personally, I'll take a long, involving single-player campaign over addictive mutliplayer any day of the week. Call it the gradual numbing of media exposure or just the passing of time, but I've been slowly warming up to the possibility the game might actually be top quality... perhaps even as good as my beloved Unreal Tournament.

In addition, All the VIP bloggers and gaming press that got their hands on the Shadowrun beta have nothing but great things to say about it, so that is a very encouraging sign indeed. Ah, but the doubts persist. Only 3 modes of online play? Less than 10 maps on launch? My mind ponders how long it should take to develop a shooter like this. FASA devs keep harping on how they have fine-tuned the play balance to a razor's edge. The map count may be small, but each one offers layer upon layer of strategic depth and replayability.

Come May 29th, we will all get a chance to decide if this truly is a great game for the ages or merely half a game that costs a full chunk of change.

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Blacksite: Area 51 Demo Impressions

This demo made a visitation to the Marketplace pretty much out of nowhere. I was hunkering down in front of the Box yesterday for a session of Rainbow Six when my friend IM'd me to download the Crackdown updates and Blacksite: Area 51 demo. Demo what? Oh snap.

Blacksite is the next-gen installment in a line of alien shooter games developed by Midway. The series began as a light gun arcade box, which I have some fond memories of playing as a university student back in the late '90s. In the early '00s, the game transformed into an under-appreciated PC and console FPS. The franchise has done well enough to warrant the latest incarnation of Blacksite, which is still a ways off from release (September 2007) but if the demo is anything to go by, should be yet another hot game to watch for.

Full demo review after the jump.


The Blacksite demo is a relatively short download at 580 or so megabytes. Unfortunately, that also makes for a very short demo experience. Do not expect a lavish, meaty sales pitch like in the recent C&C 3 demo. You are introduced to the most rudimentary aspects of the game play (not to say the game play has a lot of depth anyway) and taken through two brief skirmishes against some bad-ass looking aliens. Expect the usual climax teaser where shit suddenly hits the fan (in this case, a gigantic alien bug-thing) and the game fades out to the "Coming Soon, Buy It!" closing credits.

The preview videos of Blacksite had me daydreaming about the possibility of meshing the run-and-gun mayhem of your typical sci-fi shooter with the more tactical undertones of a game like Rainbow Six: Vegas. Make no mistake, Blacksite's game play is grounded in a more realistic approach in comparison to previous entries in the series. You play the leader of a 3-man squad, staffed by the usual muscle-bound marines. There are no special powers to speak of, only your fast reflexes and steady aim to rely on.

The tactical options for commanding your troops seemed a bit limited in the demo. Aside from assigning waypoints and ordering them to breach a door (wonderful breaching effects, btw), my AI teammates were very autonomous but competent as well. The final game promises a wider range of commands that can be issued, such as planting C4 charges but I have a feeling these actions will be reserved for pre-designated hot spots. I also don't imagine it being necessary to execute room clearing tactics in the final game. The alien menace will just pop up and we shoot them. The demo blurbs also tout a dynamic AI system that will take into account your team morale. Again, the demo was too brisk and cursory to get a feel if that had any effect on the game play. I did notice that my squad would tell me to hurry up if I milled around an area for too long, but that was the extent of it.

Aside from those minor points, the demo was remarkably solid. The control over my character and the feel of combat feels very good. Midway's Core technology, integrated with the ubiquitous Unreal 3 and Havok physics engines provide more than enough horsepower to render all the thrilling action. There's a great atmosphere to the game: in the dark of night, pouring rain and near-deserted American towns in the middle of nowhere. The alien enemies themselves are nicely designed and remind me of CGI rejects from Men in Black, only with a much nastier edge. Near the demo's conclusion, my squad was set upon by a pack of these squid-like spider creatures that looked like came straight out of a movie. Their animations and sound effects just came together perfectly and it was a great sign of even more impressive surprises to come in the final version of Blacksite.

Sadly, the demo was over all too soon but Midway's mission was accomplished: I was left with wanting more. As promising as it looks, I really hope Midway pushes to get this thing released prior to September. There are just so many heavy-hitters coming out for the 360 this fall and winter, a rather "generic" title like Blacksite is really going to have a rough go of it.

Personally, I will be keeping this one top of mind come autumn. It could my affinity for sci-fi shooters or more likely, my obsession with full co-op play, which the final game is slated to support.

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Crackdown Crackilicous DLC: Videos

If you're a fan of Crack(down) you've probably already hear the buzzing about the DLC extravaganza that's either already out or due out very, very soon. Like, extremely soon.

New co-op game modes, a cheat mode, new races, new vehicles, new weapons... it's all there. Developer Realtime Worlds has done an exemplary job of addressing player suggestions and dishing out a value-packed title update and pay content that should set an example for all other developers to follow.

The above video provides a quick summary of all the new weapons that will be included in the Getting’ Busy Bonus Pack premium DLC. The guys at Xbox 360 Fanboy have gone through the trouble of linking to all the preview videos, so go check out the goodies there and try not to salivate all over your keyboard.

For all you die-hard readers who yearn for hard text, there's not better summary of the Crackdown DLC than at Team Xbox.

I can't wait to tack gangbangers up all over Pacific City with my harpoon gun!

Update: Oh it is a good day for downloads. Both the free title update and the premium pack are available on the Marketplace for consumption, as is the demo for Midway's upcoming alien shooter, Area 51: Blacksite. A review of both currently in the works...

Source: Xbox 360 Fanboy & Team Xbox

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Gears of War: RAAM Killer

The Xbox 360 news is flowin' and I have a stack of stories to publish but I really just want to crow about my Gears of War achievements for this week.

Several weeks ago, Taylor blogged about his Top 10 Xbox 360 Achievements. I don't have anything close to 10 achievements that I find especially noteworthy, just the satisfaction of defeating General RAAM, the end boss of Gears of War on Insane difficulty.

Opinions differ on how difficult it is to beat Insane General RAAM. To put things in perspective, it only took me one or two tries on the two lesser difficulty levels (Casual & Hardcore) to best RAAM. The battle was more of a polite ritual. Truth be told, getting through the various stages on Hardcore was far more challenging than fighting the end boss. And it shouldn't be this way! C'mon, it's the End Boss, the Big Cheese. RAAM crumpled after little more than a handful of shotgun blasts to his ugly mug.

On Insane, my friend and I probably clocked in about twenty attempts, amounting to 60-80 minutes of play time. We cried and cursed. There was much throwing up of our hands and sighing. Then we cursed some more. But we finally pulled through it.

How did we do it? To be frank, I don't think our method can be duplicated with any rate of success. It was just a lot of luck and persistence that got us through. I armed myself with a sniper rifle and shotty, while my friend passed off the shotgun for his trusty Lancer. Upon arrival at the grand showdown, we simply parked our asses at the first block of cover and began pelting away at RAAM's face with sniper fire. As he got closer, we emptied out our supply of grenades on him, to no avail really, since he was protected by the Kryll most of the way.

Then the real fun began. RAAM got to within kissing range and we simply hid. Yes, we stayed cowering behind our cover, which suddenly felt way too small for two fully-armoured manly-men marines. Oh, we also did something else. Blindfire. We blind-fired like there was no tomorrow. Me with the shotgun, and my friend with his Lancer. It was a fantastic game of cat and mouse as RAAM circled around our cover, we quickly hopped over and hunkered back down on the other side. Then we waited for him to point his mottled ol' finger, which signaled the flight of his Kryll entourage, and we unloaded on him. Repeat and rinse. Eventually, the crazy general gave up the ghost and mercifully allowed us to finish our grueling trek through the Insane campaign.

Is this best way to tackle RAAM? Probably not. He would foil our little dance around cover countless times, shooting us while we were halfway over or simply just getting a good angle on us and blowing us away even while we thought we were safely behind cover. Other times, I'd try to cheat and walk around our block of salvation and be torn to bits by the swarm of Kryll. I can't imagine how hard it would be to battle him solo, with the brain-dead AI-controlled Dom watching my back. Uggh.

Well, I just wanted to share that scintillating story with you. I really enjoy the Achievements system for the 360 and beating Gears of War on Insane is the first of my achievements that I am truly proud of.

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Spring Update Hoopla

You smell it in the air? Yes, spring is upon us and the weather is finally behaving accordingly. The windows in my apartment are being left open longer each day, the shorts and t-shirts are getting more play, and all the parks and beaches are looking a lot less deserted. The hotties are also crawling out of the woodwork, eagerly exposing their skin, so long been shielded during the harsh winter months. If you live in a city where young women walk their toy dogs through the beach, brazenly touting but the skimpiest of bikinis, then you know this spring time feeling very well.

But hey, shapely beach beetches aren't the only ones shedding their skins this spring. Why, your very own Xbox 360 just put on a new look and is only to eager to strut her stuff in front of you.

The much-anticipated Dashboard update hit the airwaves early today and it's been a rather uneventful, painless transition. I was a little concerned last night when a guy on my friend's list (should I just call him "my friend"?) spammed out a distressed tirade about the update after it had bricked his system. Yikesy. To err on the side of caution, I didn't fire up my Xbox until about noon today, making sure to monitor the blogosphere for signs of trouble. Well, the bricking pandemic did not happen and the update turned out to be a pretty anti-climactic 15 second download.

S'more details on this here story after the jump...

The cosmetic and functional changes caused by the update are too numerous to count. If you've yet to get the update, you can easily find a quick summary or more detailed FAQs that explain just how your gaming life will change FOREVER. I'll highlight a few changes worth noting in the short time I've spent with the new Dashboard.

First, the Windows Live Messenger service. Setup was a snap and I'm mildly excited at the idea of using the upcoming thumb keyboard attachment to quickly text peeps on both my buddy list and my MSN friends list. Their one major oversight, however, is not giving you the option of separating those two contact lists from each other. I have a ton of MSN contacts, so scrolling through the combined list of names is unwieldy at best, but mostly just plain annoying.

Achievement notifications have been souped up, so you no longer have to press the guide button to find out what the details are of that achievement you just unlocked. Nice. They've also made the disc tray icon more informative, showing you what game you have currently loaded as well as a snapshot of your recent achievements and gamerscore for that title.

Oh yes, and how could I forget the Marketplace blade? It is now the first in line, to the left of the Xbox Live blade and features all the handy-dandy information previously squirreled away in the Xbox Live > Marketplace sub-screen. This change was a no-brainer and it surprised me how long it took for them to frame the importance of Marketplace in the overall eco-system of the Xbox Live service. My one niggling point with the new blade is that stupid promotions box, which occupies the top-right portion of the blade. Because you can highlight this box, moving from the Marketplace blade menu options back to the Xbox Live blade takes flicks of the thumbstick instead of the usual one flick, since your "cursor" needs to traverse over the promotions box first. Hey, call me finnicky, but the devil is in the details.

And last, but not least, I noticed a very welcome change to the way my video media is organized:

Yes, it finally recognizes the folders I've shared out on my computer, thus allowing me to separate the naughty shows from the nice ones. Kudos, Microsoft, kudos...

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A Night at the Arcade: Double Dragon

I staggered away from an intense couple rounds of Team Sharpshooter in Rainbow Six: Vegas to find the grand daddy of beat'em ups, Double Dragon available on XBLA.

Like TMNT 1989, the brawling saga of Billy and Jimmy Lee has not aged terribly well. I fired up the trial and was greeted with a colourful, "next-gen" main menu. The graphics of the game itself appear to have been improved slightly for modern audiences but let's get real: it still looks and plays like a relic of the '80s. You can forget about fancy attacks or combos with this one. It's punch, kick, jump, grab, knee and throw, with maybe an accidental head butt or elbow strike thrown in for variety's sake.

Double Dragon has off and online co-op available, so I'm almost duty bound to spend my 400 points and play through this once with a friend, just like I did with TMNT. Then I remember that I'm still waffling on my purchase of last week's Live surprise, Catan. Oh, what to spend my precious points on!

For those of you who inexplicably do not know what Double Dragon is all about, the trial gives you but a taste of the retro punching/kicking action. It is so short you'll finish it before you can recall how old you were when this game first hit the arcades. Ah arcades... remember those?

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Kane and Lynch Gamespot Impressions

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men has been grabbing some buzz these last few months, with the most recent news blip being that it would see a release on the faltering PS3 alongside the X360 and PC versions.

Gamespot recently posted an updated preview of the Io Interactive-developed game. This is perfect for me, as I was confused about what kind of action game Kane and Lynch was striving to be. My only previous experience with Io's work were the Hitman series, so I was expecting a stealth-heavy style of game play.

Well, you watch that video on Gamespot and you clearly see stealth is not really a factor, at all. In fact, the game reminds me a lot of Gears of War, with a bit of that action-movie flavour that you might find in the upcoming John Woo's Stranglehold. The small squad dynamics, 3rd-person view, over-the-shoulder aiming and hailstorms of gunfire scream GoW but the gritty, modern-day storyline makes this even more appealing. Throw in some predictably gorgeous graphics and co-op play modes, and you have a promising game that is likely flying under a lot of radars in this season of spring updates and Halo betas.

I also like the trailer.

Source: Gamespot

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You Are My Johnny Arcade

All hail Stivi Paskoski! In case you missed it over the weekend, Destructoid posted up a retrospective of Video Power and celebrated skewered the unadulterated cheesyness of late '80s television. They've linked to not one, not two, but THREE episodes of this embarrassing chapter in games TV.

I remember being so excited to catch this show after school. It had a spotty airing schedule, so it wasn't like I caught it every day, Monday to Friday. When I did catch it, I was rooted to the spot. Sure, the show was pure fluff, complete with a shameful in-house band, brain-dead gaming "tips" and far too much pastel-coloured appareil.

But that was then, this is now. Look how far we've come. Instead of Johnny Arcade and his acid-wash, we have G4 and Olivia Munn. And let's not forget the bazillion podcasts, blogs, websites and magazines dedicated to gaming that you could never hope to consumer in a lifetime. Don't we live in a wonderful time right now?

Source: Destructoid

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Unfaithful Gamer

"A man is only as faithful as his options."

Such are the wise words uttered by Chris Rock during one of his classic stand-up comedy routines. He was of course referring to men's natural fidelity to women (or lack thereof). The spirit of the joke, however, applies just as easily to gaming. Now before you think this post is going to be a tell-all confessional of all my techno-fetishist deviancies, let me assure you it's not nearlythat kinky.

I'll elucidate you with more of my verbage after the jump.

We live in a multi-platform age, this much is true. I'm willing to bet 99% of all Xbox 360 owners have at least one other game console plugged in to their home entertainment system or a PC in the house with The Sims or World of Warcraft installed on the drive.

I have a PC in my room that I used for gaming up until I bought my 360 last December. Then it was aaalll about the console gaming for 4 straight months. Play With My Box was born and I thought the 360 would be my main squeeze until the 720 is announced in 2010. That prediction turned out to be fabulously unrealistic. If you haven't yet noticed, X360 owners are in a new release drought at the moment, with the sole big releases this month being C&C 3 and the Halo 3 beta. Not to say that isn't keeping with the general retail pattern with game consoles, when the spring and summer months are typically very dry and the deluge of blockbuster hits all pour out in the two months leading up to Christmas.

The games industry REALLY should adopt the Hollywood model of releasing over-budget blockbusters during the summer and rushing out the serious, high falutin "Oscar bait" just prior to Christmas. Sadly, the typical summer drought of game releases is probably based on hard, empirical retailing statistics, as hard to believe as that is. I mean, gamers are gamers, and we are going to buy and play games year-round if there's good stuff to be had.

But I digress slightly. The point of all this is to say I have been "stepping out" on my 360. That's right. My PC has lured me back into its warm embrace for the past couple of weeks. It all started with the innocent downloading of the Puzzle Quest demo. The turn-based fantasy trappings of that game lead to my purchase of Disciples 2 Gold over Steam, in blatant disregard to rumours of credit card information hacking I might add. The snowballing cullminated to my long overdue return to the world's greatest "free" MMO, Guild Wars.

Much like World of Warcraft, Guild Wars is an addictive, crack-like substance that sucks you in hard and keeps you up way to0 late, way too often. Only this past weekend have I returned to my neglected wife Xbox and humoured her with joyless rounds of M:UA, Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas. It's all a bit discombobulating and even a little dirty, but I've always been a single-platform gamer. Juggling the PC and Xbox 360 is a naughty business that I'm only just getting used to.

But don't judge me. When was the last time YOU snuck away from your main gaming platform to get some side action?

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ANatA: Catan Trial on Trial

Woke up bright and early this morning and what did I do? Did I have a healthy breakfast? No. Did I get dressed for a productive day? Nope. Did I anxiously check Xbox Live Marketplace to see if the working demo of Catan was available for consumption? Oh yeah, baby.

As I was saying in yesterday's post, I've never been big on Settlers of Catan or board games in general for that matter. Gone are the days when I would come home from school, friends in tow, and sit around the fireplace for rousing game of Talisman. Board games are slower placed, require interested friends and don't have HDR lighting and sweet volumetric smoke effects. So given this set-up, it should come as no surprise when I say I had a lot of fun with the trial version of Catan.

My juicy game-playing details are, as always, found after the jump!


This is a good game. Sure, sure... I'm playing a board game on my Xbox so I'm only paying lip service to board games, but hear me out. The trial has not only given me a hankering to purchase the full game, it has made me much more receptive to playing it "bricks n'mortars" style with actual people sharing the same physical location with me, holding up physical cards to our fat, physical faces. This game is one of those instant classics: easy to learn, with impressive depth of play to master and just enough old-fashioned, dice-rolling luck thrown in to keep players on their toes.

If you haven't tried it already, I do recommend you give the trial version a spin. The tutorial mode is extremely helpful and the overall translation of the board game is quite elegant, with brightly attractive graphics and a no-brainer control layout. You do get a couple added touches that you wouldn't get sitting around a table with friends, namely one-touch access to useful match statistics. Knowing the type and amount of resources currently in play is a not a luxury included in the board game, however since all players have access to it, there is no real game imbalance there.

If I could level one gripe at the Catan trial, it's that they cap your progress in a match at 7 Victory Points, which is a total bummer. I was laying down those roads and settlements like nobody's business! Perhaps I will purchase the full game. I find it very soothing and refreshingly bereft of murder and decapitations. Even so, would I have the mind space and time in my Xbox life to dedicate to this slower paced affair? Fellow blogger, Jigsaw, made a salient point about the game's length. With any single match lasting at least 30 minutes (usually longer), would I be playing this a lot or only when there's a serious 360 release drought? Hey, that drought is sorta like right now!

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A Night at the Arcade: Catan and Puzzle Quest

This week's ANatA (whoa, messed up acronym, son!) is a shorty but a happy one. Catan gets the XBLA grand opening today. This is, as you may know, the video game version of one of the most popular board games around, Settlers of Catan. This thing may have sold about a zillion copies, possibly making it this generation's answer to Monopoly but I never really got into it. My gaming bud and my roommate used to play this once a week and I even joined them a couple times. It's one of those rare games that deals with economic and resource domination, and not one drop of blood is spilled. You just build roads, trade wheat and bricks and invoke nasty thieves to hijack your opponents' booties.

More Catan ramblings after the jump!

I have yet to try out the board-to-video translation of the game and it looks like I will have to enlist the expertise of my roommate to determine how faithful the XBLA version is to the old-skool one.

Remember how I was whining about Puzzle Quest 2 weeks ago and criticizing Infinity Interactive for releasing a PC demo of their game, yet not disclosing any details of an actual full PC release? Well the gaming gods have answered my goddamn prayers, because Puzzle Quest is making its bejeweled way to the Live Arcade! Huzzah, I say. Huzzah!!

For the record, I'd still like to see a PC release around the same time it hits XBLA. It just makes sense, y'know? Their PC build is practically finished.

That's all for now, kids. A review of sorts for Catan should be coming soon.

Update: It appears there is no demo version of Catan, so you have to shell out 800 points up front. I do not like this. No, not one bit. I suppose as a concession to cheap-Os like me, Microsoft also released two retro titles (with demos!)as well, Millipede and Centipede. But really, who wants to play those?

Update Update:Okay, so there was a demo of Catan released but it was pulled due to technical issues, according to Major Nelson. There is not ETA yet for the corrected demo, so until then shell out the moolah or wait. In other news, I will (try to) stop whining.

Source: Xbox 360 Fanboy

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