So we all know that 2010 is going to be a big year for gaming, if not the biggest. We have Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2, Splinter Cell, Bayoneta, Battlefield and Final Fantasy 13 and this is all before the summer. But what about the games we haven’t heard much of? In this series of articles I will be looking a few games that in my opinion have a chance of coming from nowhere to grab that converted title of game of the year.

 

The first game of the series is Spec Ops: The Line™. The game is currently under development in Germany by Yager for 2k games. First off I can hear you all saying “Yager?” Well they were founded in 1999 and released “Yager” a shooter on the original Xbox gaining mediocre scores at best (6.7/10 Gamespot) and that is basically all I could find on these guys. Any way enough of that lets get down to business…

The game was announced last year during the Spike VGA’s with what can only be described as a breath taking trailer. The third person shooter will be the 9th in the Spec Ops series (Although “The Line” is a standalone game) and will be released on Xbox360, PS3 and PC late 2010 (No official date as yet.)

 

The game is set in a post apocalyptic Dubai, no not your nuclear war etc… but a series of sandstorms that have all but wiped out the Arab city. You, the player, will play as Captain Martin Walker who is accompanied by a Delta Force bravo team to rescue U.S. Army Colonel John Konrad and his loyal squad who remained behind in Dubai when everyone else was fleeing. Unable to reach anyone after the storms hit the US Army fears that Konrad and his team are dead. Until they pick up a week distress signal resulting in the rescue mission. During the game the player will face the common A.I enemy threats as well as threats that are posed from the ongoing natural disasters that are bombarding the city. As the game progresses better weapons and equipment become available along with squad commands.

 

The game uses the natural sandstorms to constantly change the arena of battle. The game will use an unpredictable engine that randomises when, where and how powerful these storms will be. The storms may block or open paths, turn a battle in your favour or indeed put you on the back foot.

 

Although gameplay footage is not available yet the trailer and screenshots that are available look stunning to say the least. The screenshots show a great variety of locations both in doors with equally nice textures and lighting effects. The atmosphere created in the trailer gives a real indication that the game will be not just about fighting and killing but also the human sacrifices’ made in order to complete the mission.
Multiplayer is included however details are sketchy. Currently Yager describes the games multiplayer as “a campaign that expands the single-player experience.” So the possibility of co-op, maybe?

 

The game is poised to be one that will truly surprise the vast majority of gamers. Bringing together the apocalyptic game styles of Metro 2033 and modern warfare styles as seen in Battlefield and Modern Warfare 2 to create what will hopefully be a great game that can really challenge for the game of the year title. I for one am really looking forward to this title and really do hope that it holds out as a really good game.
So make a note of Spec Ops: The Line™ coming 2010.

 

Useful Links
Screenshots (Gamespot)
Videos (Gamespot)
Official Site

By James Taylor UK

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This coming Thursday (4th March) we’ll be able to get our grubby mitts on a rather tasty looking demo for Eidos’ upcoming Just Cause 2. The demo alone will feature 35 square miles of island to explore.

Hunt down and assassinate one of the game’s 50 military colonels; devastate military bases, bio fuel chambers, government infrastructure and more; hijack tuk tuks, military 4x4s, armoured vehicles, mopeds, helicopter gunships, light aircraft, mini vans and numerous other military and civilian vehicles; freefall from desert outcrops or from burning planes at 20,000 feet; and unlock one full, multi-stage mission, traversing the mountains to a heavily fortified government radar station and ending in an unforgettable desert car chase.

“The Just Cause 2 demo is simply massive and with so much to do, the replay value is enormous,” said Lee Singleton, General Manager of Square Enix London Studios. “It’s easily one of the biggest freeroaming demos of all time and for fans of openworld games, it’s unmissable.”

As far as demos go, this one looks to be shaping up very well indeed. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what improvements have been made from the first game. If the gameplay can match the lofty assertions of the developers then we are in for a treat indeed.

Good news for anyone who’s been following the progress of this interesting looking spy based RPG: the European release date has been announced as May 28th.

The premise sounds excellent to me, as I’ve always enjoyed the Bond and Bourne films. Getting a chance to take a few steps in their shoes should make for an interesting experience.

The much loved Gadget Show (as shown on Five TV) have recently reviewed the Natal, and I must say, this short review is probably one of the better, unbias pieces I’ve heard. If you’re interested in the Natal at all, I suggest viewing the link below.

 

Click here for the video.

 

Good times.

 

After listening to podcast episode #106, the 2 year special, I thought I’d post a little bit of info concerning Final Fantasy XIII.

 

In the heated debate about blue-rays vs. dvd, the amount of space taken up by games on our hard drives was brought to attention. With FF XIII being the current centre of attention, why not take a glance upon the figures?

 

“Are you ready for Final Fantasy 13? Well if you are and picking up the title on Xbox 360 with the option of installing to your hard drive you will need a good amount of space.

 

After installing all three discs the total amount of space used up was 18.3GB’s, so it’s bad news for the (Arcade) 20GB owners.”

Here’s how it breaks down:

 
Disc 1: 5.9GB

 

 
Disc 2: 5.8GB

 

 
Disc 3: 6.6GB

 

So the maths is simple. 5.9+5.8+6.6=18.3 + 6GB (the amount of space the Xbox memory system reserves for caching and backwards compatibility etc., approximately) = 24.3.

Damn.

When you’re as famous as Peter Molyneux *cough*, you demand a certain amount of attention. And what better way to get that kind of attention than over the world wide web?

 

Lionhead have asked the gaming community to log into their facebook accounts and take a look at their Fable III fanpage. Lionhead want fans to comment about their opinions on what they’ve heard of Fable III so far. More importantly they are also releasing screenshots one week at a time asking for comments.

They’re only up to two so far so if you want to be involved, and get some sneak peeks at the game, be sure to join the group today!

Yup you read it correctly, and nope I didn’t get the symbol the wrong way around. I’ve been coming to this conclusion gradually over the last couple of weeks and months: Treyarch’s World at War is the far superior game to Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2, and I’m here to tell you why.

Single Player Experience

Both games feature compelling and absolutely enjoyable single player games that are capable of testing the mettle (and patience) of even the most skilled FPS player.  From storming beaches in World at War to blasting through the favella in Modern Warfare 2, neither game gives an inch in terms of pacing or gameplay. What gives W@W the edge in this area is that without a doubt it has the superior storyline (admittedly using locations and events from history to add a layer of authenticity). For much of Modern Warfare 2 I had little idea what was going on, other than knowing that I needed to shoot the other guy in the face before he had the chance to do likewise to me. As for the scene in the spacestation? Ridiculous at best.

Combine the poor storyline with a single player experience that is far too short and you can begin to see why in this area that W@W is the winner in this little duel. Oh, and did I forget to mention the ability to play through the campaign in co-op mode with friends, surely this feature should be a given in this type of game? Not so in the case of MW2.

Ok, so things don’t look too good for MW2 so far, but maybe it’ll manage to turn things around when it comes to the multiplayer. After all, that’s the area in which Call of Duty games are managing to dominate at present so surely it must represent the highpoint for the game.

Multiplayer

1 – Zombies vs Spec Ops

This one may be too close to call. In W@W’s corner: 4 player co-op on large levels with awesome enemies and cool environments both to explore and use against attackers. In MW2′s corner: 2 player co-op on short but sweet levels featuring well thought out teamwork essential play. I don’t think that I could pick one over the other at present, but I would qualify that by saying that the constant stream of zombies DLC made a great addition to the experience of W@W and therefore if MW2 hopes to better this then DLC for spec ops is an absolute must.

 
 
 

2 – Glitches

Even the most fanboyish of all fanboys would have to admit that both games have suffered from potentially game breaking glitches in their multiplayer modes. Getting shot from underneath maps on W@W was one of my biggest gripes with that game, but loopholes like the care package and javelin glitches in MW2 are no less annoying. The fact that in my opinion sees Treyarch’s game come out on top here is the much speedier response time of the developer in dealing with these glitches.  Infinity Ward just haven’t been quick enough in patching problems and as a result it’s another point to W@W.

3 – Levelling

Everyone loves levelling up in Call of Duty games. The excitement of unlocking and then trying out new guns and perks is a central component in the addictiveness of the multiplayer portion of the games. Prestiging then takes this onto the next level, allowing experienced players the chance to prove themselves all over again.

The problem that MW2 suffers from is that this levelling process just takes too damn long. They either need to increase points gained during matches or decrease points required  to rank up. The rankings system in W@W was as close to perfect as any game with an EXP based system has come, giving a steady flow of new unlocks. In MW2 there’s just too much time between anything exciting happening as far as levelling up is concerned.

I’m sure people will accuse me of just being rubbish at the game and as a result of being unable to rank up fast enough, I would ask those people to look at my online stats before making such accusations: I’m not bad at the game, I just got bored of nothing unlocking for ages and gave up. This sort of thing was never an issue in W@W.

4 – Hardcore Modes

The hardcore game modes in W@W are some of the most intense playlists in any online game, providing a generous portion of tense, nervous excitement. I’ve spent far too long playing them and have enjoyed every minute of it. The best thing I can say about hardcore in MW2 is that it is broken beyond belief, and barely worth playing at all. To be fair though, in my opinion that is partially due to…

5 – The Weapons and Perks

I’m sure that this will be a controversial point, but the weapons in W@W take much more skill to use. Hardcore mode in MW2 is ruined by heartbeat sensors, thermal sights and the like. Yes, there are perks that can be used to cancel these things out but if the only point of your set up is to cancel out that of someone else, then why bother including either? The trouble is that matches boil down to games of scissors, paper, stone depending more on what set ups people have than their levels of skill or tactical planning. Yes, this is present in W@W to some extent, but it’s taken overboard in MW2.

6 – Kill Streaks

MW2 killstreaks, especially at the lower end of the scale, really do cater to the lowest comon denominator. The airspace is all too often cluttered with planes and helicopters, getting cheap kills for players who had to get relatively few kills in order to unlock them.  Other players have little chance to fight back, unlike in W@W where killstreaks are harder to earn and even the dog killstreak, as strong as it is, gives players a chance to survive. As for the tactical nuke? If someone is good enough to go on such a superb killing spree as to be able to deploy the nuke then do they really need to be given several more absolutely free kills?

Hopefully I’ve made my point strongly enough: W@W is just a far more enjoyable experience than MW2. I could spend some more time trying to convince you by talking about how it has better maps, how party chat made online a much better experience and how getting booted to the lobby happened less frequently than it does in MW2, but if you’re not convinced by now then you probably never will be. In any case it makes little difference to me as I’m done with both games and am busy looking forward to Call of Duty: Vietnam, which hopefully will put them both to shame.

 

360GamerCast is two years old and to celebrate we have a guest from the community on the show and we are giving away a code for a copy of Geometry Wars 2 on XBLA.

 

We have our usual discussions on what we have been playing, Latest news and talk about the new Windows 7 Mobile phones. Xbox live anywhere is finally a reality.

 

All this and more in episode 106 of 360GamerCast

 

Don’t forget to leave us those Important Itunes Reviews

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first two words of Alan Wake are “Stephen King.” The next big Xbox 360 exclusive game is an interactive thriller played in the shadows of America’s Pacific Northwest. I recently played the game’s impressive first full “episode.”

Remedy Entertainment’s May-dated game comes on a disc but is divided into episodes. These chapters are sometimes narrated in the past tense and they are designed to end in cliffhangers. To describe the first one, as I’m about to, involves spoilers, though we’re talking spoilers of a pilot episode designed to set up mysteries and tone and answer just about nothing — that’s what the rest of the episodes are for. So reading this will allow you to remain as much in the dark as I was at the end of the first episode or even as was Alan himself.

The first episode is called Nightmare. It opens with the “Stephen King” reference and some narration by Alan, setting himself up as “a writer.” He’s a King-style writer, an author of thrillers, visiting a Twin-Peaks-style town, Bright Falls in the Pacific Northwest. Nightmare begins in the middle of things. Alan Wake is driving down a dark highway. It’s late. He drives smack into a hitchhiker. Alan has a flashlight, wielded in his left hand in this third-person game. Pulling the Xbox 360′s left trigger focuses the beam. Seconds after he is out of his car, Alan is creeping down a path that descends near the highway’s cliffs. He’s being pursued by a shadowy figure, possibly the hitchhiker, who is maybe a character from one of Alan’s books. As would be the prevailing gameplay theme of most of Nightmare’s action sequences, Alan was being pursued, hounded, by one and then by multiple shadowy axe-men.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gameplay was mostly panicked escape in this first section of Nightmare. I had to rush Alan down outdoor paths and into a house. A couple of times, a mysterious voice offered advice, pointing out a pistol that Alan could wield and a player could fire with a squeeze of the right trigger. When confronting a shadowy enemy in Alan Wake, the main mechanic requires using the L trigger to burn off the shadows covering the enemies and then shooting them with the R trigger. A well-timed press of the game’s dodge button triggers a slow-motion effect, shades of Remedy’s Max Payne games, which allows the player more time to roll Alan out of the way, turn and fire a good shot.

Alan Wake is a thriller that appears to be the exception to two gaming genre rules. Games that are scary often have two deficiencies: controls and graphics.

The former can frustrate in a Silent Hill or a Resident Evil, forcing the player to deal with clunky or muddy controls. The inability to move a character with swiftness and finesse is arguably an essential element of the games’ creators’ intent to make the player feel overpowered and afraid. Recent, more dynamic controls, such as in Resident Evil 5, seemed to help make the game more of an action movie and less of a horror flick. Better controls produce fewer scares?

Alan Wake’s scheme denies that better controls necessarily alleviate fear and tension. Alan may have controlled pleasantly, like a man and not a tank, but the need to illuminate enemies and then shoot them — and to do so while batteries swiftly drained and then needed to be recharged or be replaced in the flashlight — provided just enough enjoyable trouble to make skirmishes a fright, without being a frustration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for graphics, well, it’s hard to say if the darkness enshrouding many of the games in the genre excused less than industry-leading graphics or if it is smaller development teams, not armed with the resources to make industry-leading graphics that turned to the horror genre. Whatever the case, it is rare to see a game in the dark-and-creepy category that could be a Best Graphics candidate, but Alan Wake, like EA’s Dead Space before it, represents a pleasant exception. The Pacific Northwest is a rare and magnificent sight in video games, rendered in real and spooky detail in the episode I played. The forests were tall, dark and dense, light playing through branches. As Alan ran into a house for refuge, I noticed it was full of details, chairs and TVs and wall-hangings, meeting my newfound Uncharted 2 standard of amount of stuff I think a developer can render in a realistic indoors space. As some dark presence shook the house apart, I felt not that I was in a primitive diorama but that I was in a big-budget blockbuster. Even in the dark it felt I could see far across the valley, that this was a detailed world so well-rendered I could almost smell the sawed logs.

I’ve barely described the events of Nightmare so far. Alan’s shelter is wrecked. He is told, by that voice, to go to a lighthouse that beams in the night. Light is refuge in this game. As he runs, the shadowy figures pursue him. And just as he’s getting there, this first little bit of the episode ends.

Time turns back. It’s sunny. Alan and his wife, Alice, are driving to Bright Falls, ready to start a vacation. They park their product-placed car on a ferry, where Alan is immediately recognized by a local disc jockey. Alan takes a call from his agent. The ferry rides us into town, setting that Twin Peaks scene of a remote and quaint corner of American civilization full of folks who know each other maybe too well. There’s some sort of festival called Deerfest starting in two weeks.

The couple goes to a diner to pick up keys to the house where they’re going to stay. They want to meet a man named Carl Stuckey. Alan is recognized again in the diner by a waitress gets an earful from two old codgers, one of whom wants him to put a song on the jukebox — I don’t know if it matters if the player does it — and then heads to the back where a creepy lady in a black veil hands Alan the keys she says he’s looking for. Alan and Alice drive away. Carl Stuckey stumbles after them yelling that he needs to give them keys. That’s the first sign of trouble for Alan and Alice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cabin they drive to is nice. It’s set on a small island at the end of a dock, nestled into a cove at the foot of wooded hills. This house also is highly-detailed, with rugs and a radio (the disc jockey is blabbing that Alan is in town), paintings and furniture and an odd framed photo of what looks like someone in a diving suit. I had control of Alan on the island. I walked him around to explore and picked up the details about Alan and Alice’s struggles. Their marriage isn’t perfect. His writer’s block is a struggle. He wanted the trip to be a vacation from the stress and is not pleased when he sees the surprise Alice has set up for him: A typewriter in a room of his own. She’s even found a local doctor who she thinks can help him surmount any mental blocks. Alan’s angry.

The next events happened fast. Alan is back outside. It’s getting dark. Alice is suddenly calling for help, as if she’s drowning. Alan dives into the water for her. And then a scene change. Alan wakes up in a crashed car. He’s outside of town. What follows are some dark and lovely scenes of chase and combat. Putting them in words wouldn’t do them justice. Alan winds up chased by shadowy figures in a logging camp. The big trucks that haul and cut tall evergreens create their own frightful shadows and set up new dangers: rolling logs, falling logs, blind corners hiding another enemy. Alan sees a service station in the distance. Its bright lights are his his goal.

The first half of the episode, which would last about an hour, was easy. The second half was tough. Enemies are numerous and relentless. On some walls my flashlight revealed arrows which pointed to hidden caches of weapons or batteries (also product-placed, Energizer brand). There are pages of a novel seemingly written by Alan scattered in the level. Collecting them tells a story. Everything, including the arrows, has a narrative explanation, if players dig for it, the developers told me. But I was busy trying to survive. I fared better with a shotgun and then with a flare gun which can flash-shock a cluster of enemies. I made it to the service station after a few more tough fights and called for the police. A sheriff showed up. She drove Alan to where he said his wife had fallen into the water, outside that house on that island in that cove. The sheriff drove him there and made him look. There was no house there. Just a dock leading to nowhere. Just a cove.

 

In this episode we discuss games that are coming out in the year ahead including Ghost Recon Future Warrior, Splinter Cell Conviction, Alan Wake, Metro 2033 and much more. We discuss what we have been playing, News and questions from the community.

 

We hope you enjoy the show and don’t forget the all important Itunes reviews.