Also, there are attack dogs.
Our final preview look at Dog Days before its release in a few weeks consisted mainly of firefights and dialogue, and I’ve come away with a few things in mind prior to my final verdict on the game.

First, as I mentioned before, the new visual style and presentation quirks are really selling the narrative and subject matter much more successfully than pretty much any game dealing with this subject matter has. By comparison, GTA’s crime infused stories look like kids’ stuff. The language and delivery and camerawork are disturbing, violent, gray stuff, but they’re presented with conviction and confidence, and 3 full chapters in, Dog Days is pretty engrossing.

Second, the story and gameplay are coming together much more fluidly than they ever did in Dead Men, and the pacing feels much better so far. This could change of course; it’s still early in the game. But it’s got me hopeful – by the time the build was over, I wasn’t ready for it to be. That’s a good sign, right?

Finally, my major concern for Dog Days right now is a question of difficulty. Not only is the AI extremely aggressive, most weapons in Kane & Lynch 2 are inaccurate and difficult to score effective shots with, meaning enemies don’t go down easy. Put simply, I died, often and frequently without much warning.

Again, these aren’t final thoughts. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days releases in a few weeks. However, Dog Days seems to be doing enough right to surpass IO’s previous effort and then some. We’ll just have to wait and see by how much.

Source IGN

At least most of the included events are well done, even if they do veer on the shallow side. The last Olympic video game, Beijing 2008, was plagued by an overload of events that forced players to frantically tap buttons–an activity that is the polar opposite of fun. That mindless control method is used only sparingly in Vancouver 2010, resulting in a much more enjoyable experience. The controls change little between skiing and snowboarding down a mountain, but they are responsive, so it can be fun to fly down an icy hill a few times. The problem is that there are only a few different courses (which change depending on the event), so you’re forced to wind your way down the same path every time you replay the event. You only have to go down the hill a few times to memorize the layout, and after you know the exact route to take, there is little incentive to improve your time or play again.

The bobsledding events are even more repetitive. Two-man bobsled, skeleton, and luge are all represented here, but they all control in almost exactly the same way and all take place on the same frozen water slide. It is certainly fun to careen down that slippery track the first few times–making sure you don’t slam into the walls that hover dangerously close to your sled while zooming up as high on the banked curves as possible without flipping over–but once you’ve done it a couple times, there isn’t any reason to go back. And that is the biggest problem with Vancouver 2010. Skiing, snowboarding, and bobsledding events all control well and are pretty fun at first, but there are only a few different courses to go through, which severely limits the replay value. With a whopping 10 out of the included 14 events essentially boiled down into two unique activities, the entire package ends up being skimpy and forgettable.

The other four included events do inject a dose of variety, but they lack the fun of the racing activities. Ski Jump and Aerials, for instance, require players to tap a specific button at the right moment, but it takes only two or three practice runs before you master this technique. The 500-meter speed skating event forces players to frantically mash a button to maintain top speed, and though it requires a bit of skill to take corners at top speed, it’s too tiring and repetitive to entertain for long. The 1,500-meter variety introduces a rhythm game mechanic for most of the race, but is too simple to make repeat runs entertaining. And that is the entirety of the included events. There is no score-based snowboarding competition, biathlon, or even the crazy mixed doubles luge. Even considering the reduced price of this game ($50), there is a dearth of content.

The Olympic mode continues the theme of a stripped winter sports experience by offering a very bare-bones take on the spectacle. You compete in a series of one-off events–without any commentary or special visual touches to make the events mirror the television broadcasts–and are then thrust on a podium afterward to receive your medal. There are only 24 countries to choose from (compared to the more than 80 that will compete in the real games), and you can’t even customize the appearance of your competitors. Furthermore, the events themselves are lacking in presentation, diminishing the thrill of striving for a gold medal. Weirdly enough, many events blast rock music while you’re trying to focus, which clashes severely with the otherwise serene, wintry atmosphere. There is little incentive to play these events more than one time in Olympic mode, which is awfully strange. One would think that the Olympic mode would be a key aspect of an Olympic game, but it feels like an afterthought in Vancouver 2010.

Thankfully, there is one mode in which to take solace in Vancouver 2010. Challenges let you take part in a variety of objective-based events that are the most interesting aspect of this game. Most of your goals involve tearing through an event as if you were a real life competitor, keeping your speed above a certain average in downhill skiing or taking corners perfectly in the luge, which forces you to master the intricacies of the courses and controls. However, there are a few objectives that seem flat-out game-y, sucking you out of the otherwise simulation atmosphere offered in the rest of the game. For instance, during one downhill skiing event, you must slam into snowmen to earn time bonuses, and in a snowboarding event, your controls are inexplicably reversed. Nevertheless, every one of these 30 challenges are fun, and it’s rewarding trying to shave off a second or land a particularly difficult jump. It’s a shame the rest of the game doesn’t have the same care found in the Challenge mode because there is good deal of entertainment in these winter events.

Because of the lack of variety among the events, the multiplayer mode has only a little bit more appeal than the standard single-player competitions. You can play online or off, with up to four players, and it is fun striving for the best time against your buddies. But like every other element of Vancouver 2010, the fun doesn’t last long. With only a few unique events and even fewer courses to choose from, everything becomes stale soon after you start playing. Only the difficult Challenge mode is really interesting, but with only 30 challenges to take part in that too is only fun for so long. Although Vancouver 2010 is vastly improved from Beijing 2008, it is ultimately lacking in many key areas. It’s still more fun to watch the real lugers do their thing than take part in this shallow digital representation.

The eponymous army is made up of Salem and Rios, two mercenaries reprising their roles from The 40th Day’s predecessor, Army of Two. The game is meant to be played cooperatively, and you can do so locally (via split-screen) or online. You and your teammate travel through the besieged city of Shanghai, shooting your way through a mercenary army and having a grand old time, despite not really knowing what is going on. The core shooting mechanics are sharp and satisfying, and moving around the varied environments is generally easy. However, some awkwardness arises from the fact that sprinting, rolling, sliding into cover, hurdling over cover, and entering a mounted gun position are all mapped to one button. Triggering the wrong action can put you in some tight (read: deadly) spots. You also have to be careful when maneuvering into cover, because though you automatically lean into it, cover isn’t sticky. Yet once you start to get the hang of the controls, you’ll find that there is a certain fluidity to the way you can move around the battlefield. And as an added bonus, you can take out a regular enemy just by running into him at a dead sprint, which is both fun and funny.

If you choose to roll solo, you’ll be left with an AI teammate who generally does a good job of staying out of trouble. That is, unless you want him to get into trouble, in which case you can use the easily issued tactical commands to influence his behavior. Solo or co-op, you should keep an eye on the aggro meter, a slider that indicates which of you the enemy is concentrating its fire on. If one teammate draws all the aggro, the other can slip about virtually unnoticed, picking off distracted foes or moving into a better position. Playing with this mechanic can be fun, and it is strategically relevant enough that a timely aggro grab can save your buddy’s skin. There are also a few other tactical tricks you can pull, like mock surrendering to the enemy, that help add some unique cooperative flavor to the action.

In both friendly and enemy AI, there is a slight tendency toward extremes, whether it is your AI teammate downing four baddies with superhuman speed in order to rescue you, or the enemy AI being so focused on your aggro-happy partner that it ignores the fact that you just put a few bullets in his back from a few yards away. Sometimes it feels like the game is erring on the side of letting the player have his fun, but there are some situations that seem more like AI stupidity. You can up the difficulty if you choose, but no matter how you play it, the campaign won’t last much longer than six hours. To The 40th Day’s credit, it doesn’t feel particularly short, and there are two elements that provide some measure of replayability.

The first is weapon customization, which you will engage in throughout the campaign. As you progress, you can unlock new guns and gear for purchase, as well as find upgrade parts throughout each level. You and your partner can initiate weapon customization anytime you aren’t in combat, though the other human player must stand near you and accept the prompt in order to actually bring up the store. You can buy guns (SMGs, shotguns, sniper rifles, and so on), weapon upgrades (silencers, clips, stocks, sights, and so on), and a few other augmentations, like increased grenade capacity. You earn a lot of money throughout the game, and many of the upgrades can be applied to multiple weapons, so customization is encouraged. There’s an array of upgrades that range from brutal (shotgun bayonet) to bizarre (bulky barrel-mounted shields) to do-it-yourself hilarity (soda can silencer). It’s surprisingly entertaining to change your loadout, experiment with different weapons, and tweak high and low aggro guns. And once you’ve finished the campaign, you can revisit any chapter with your persistent weapon locker and try even more loadouts on for size.

The second element that adds replayability is the interaction you have with noncombatants. There are civilians in this warscape, and most of the ones you encounter are being taken hostage or threatened. Saving them presents an intriguing tactical challenge. Do you blast away and hope to kill the enemies before they kill the hostages? Or do you sneak up and grab the officer, forcing his unit to surrender? (Army of Two features a tactical GPS mode, which is a handy, if distracting, visual overlay that displays relevant battlefield information and allows you to spot ranking officers.) Some characters you encounter will trigger marquee morality choices. Once you choose between the two options, you’ll be treated to a cutscene that shows the impact of your decision hours or even days later. The comic-book-style scenes are unpredictable and often very strange. A choice that seems good (like trying to keep a child alive), may end up with grim results. These choices are essentially minigames: small, tangential encounters that offer a small bonus but are otherwise frivolous. If you’re looking to derive some sort of clear or consistent message, you’re out of luck. Army of Two: The 40th Day tries its hand at moralizing, but the results range from cliche to overbearing to bizarre. Fortunately, these sections are quickly drowned out by a cacophony of gunfire and explosions.

For further action free of any noncombatants, head online and do battle against other armies of two. The Co-op Deathmatch mode is essentially team deathmatch with teams of two, and it’s a neat twist on the cooperative action from the campaign. There’s also Control, a capture-and-hold mode, and Warzone, a mode that features a fun variety of changing mission objectives. Online action is tuned to be more fast-paced: you can revive your teammates more quickly, and everyone is limited to choosing from the same gun loadouts. While it’s a bummer to have the customization stripped out, you can still add your own flair by designing a logo on the game’s official Web site, sending it to the game, and putting it on your mask or shoulder armor (this also works in campaign mode). There’s a fourth multiplayer mode that is set to be unlocked after those who preordered the game enjoy a month of exclusive play, but as it is, Army of Two’s online multiplayer is an engaging complement to its campaign. Unfortunately, many matches are plagued by lag, so unless you specifically select a match with a low ping, you may end up suffering.

Army of Two: The 40th Day is a very appealing shooter, and it looks great to boot. Diverse, ruined environments, cool enemy equipment designs, and nice animation touches make the action that much more lively. It has its fair share of issues,and you’ll spend most of the game not knowing why buildings are falling and men are shooting at you. But there’s a lot of fun to be had in both the campaign and the online multiplayer. With entertaining action, great visuals, surprising replay value, and the ability to play rock-paper-scissors while standing over the corpses of your enemies, The 40th Day is a fun way for shooter fans to start off 2010.

As War, the red rider of the Four Horsemen, your job is pretty simple. An enforcer of the Charred Council, a neutral body that maintains the balance between the forces of heaven and hell, you apply pressure to make sure that both sides play fair in their endless bickering. Perhaps the Four Horsemen’s most important duty, however, is to heed the call of the Endwar and punish anyone unlucky enough to be found on Earth. When you’re somehow prematurely summoned to Earth, which begins a chain of events that ends with the unfortunate extinction of humankind and the victory of the armies of The Destroyer, it’s time for vengeance. You are charged with the crime of upsetting the balance and are sent back to Earth to find answers, or die trying. Though it’s a grand setup, once the first hour or so of gameplay passes, the plot quickly runs out of steam and devolves into absurdity. None of the characters you’re introduced to are fleshed out beyond weak stereotypes and one-dimensional cliches, and the various plot twists and turns are predictable and unsatisfying.

While wandering through the great wasteland that was once civilization, War takes out his boundless rage on both the legions of The Destroyer and the armies of heaven in fun and brutal combat. Slow-paced and methodical, battles typically pit you against large numbers of foes, which the wide, sweeping strikes of War’s weapons allow you to hit en masse. Once beaten to within an inch of their lives, enemies can be brutally executed with the press of a single button (indicated by a floating button icon above their heads), though some of the weaker enemies can be similarly dispatched from the get-go. Besides his massive sword, War can have a secondary weapon equipped (such as his brother Death’s scythe), and it’s simple to switch between the two even during a furious assault. With a quick sliding move that can be activated at almost any time to dodge an attack or break off a combo and switch targets, War is surprisingly nimble for such a bulky guy. This freedom, when coupled with your ability to transition instantly into an execution, makes fights feel extremely fluid, even when their generally slow pace is taken into consideration. But while it’s incredibly satisfying to eviscerate an enormous horned devil or cut the wings off an armored angel, battle is, surprisingly enough for a guy named War, only one half of the equation.

When you’re not on the warpath, there’s an enormous world waiting to be explored and dozens of intriguing puzzles to solve along the way. Traversing from one area to the next isn’t always straightforward, for your progress is often hindered by your gear, or at least by your lack of it. As you proceed through the many dungeons on your journey through Darksiders, you find that each one includes a useful new item, such as a bladed boomerang, a grappling hook, or an armored gauntlet, each of which opens up new paths for you to travel and is used in often creative ways to solve puzzles and defeat bosses from then on out. Puzzle complexity ramps up nicely, and each new variation encountered is a fair step up from the previous one. Though some can initially look overwhelming–such as a series of puzzles near the end of the game in which you must redirect a beam of energy from its source using mirrors, moving platforms, and interdimensional portals–they never feel impossible and are extremely gratifying to complete. At the end of each dungeon is a large-scale boss battle that puts what you’ve learned solving these puzzles to the test. These impressive, multifaceted fights are sometimes a bit on the easy side, but not so much that it makes them any less fun.

Throughout the game, you are constantly rewarded with new pieces of equipment, weapons, and abilities–every hour of gameplay yields something new, which keeps you wanting to play to see what’s next. The unfortunate downside of this is that there are so many different things to keep track of that it can get confusing sometimes. Unfortunately, the complex controls don’t do much to curb this confusion. Every single face button on the controller is used (sometimes for more than one thing), and some moves require combinations of buttons to be pressed. Certain actions, such as throwing a charged boomerang at several targets, require a dizzying array of inputs to be made: in this case, you have to tap the right analog stick to enter aiming mode, hold the left trigger down, paint your targets with the cursor, and hold then release the right trigger to finally charge the boomerang and toss it. Because only so many pieces of gear can be instantly accessible through the D pad, in the latter parts of the game you’ll find yourself frequenting the cumbersome inventory menu to swap out items for easy access, which can be annoying. Finally, the controls aren’t always as responsive as they need to be, which can cause you to flub a jump, miss a dodge, or inexplicably fall while hanging off a wall or ceiling when you meant to do something entirely different. This doesn’t happen often, but it’s always troubling when it does.

Though the world of Darksiders is one of decay and neglect following the premature apocalypse, it is still one of visual splendor. From the lush vegetation of the Drowned Pass to the barren desert of The Ashlands, a refreshingly bright and colorful palette is always on display. Varied and imaginative, the open world and dungeons look great, though there are some unfortunate graphical issues in the Xbox 360 version. Screen tearing is a huge problem that surfaces almost any time the camera is rotated, and it’s bad enough to distract you even when you’re just exploring. In addition, battles that get too big make the frame rate suffer, causing graphical slowdown. The PlayStation 3 version suffers neither of these issues. Action in Darksiders is punctuated by an appropriately moody and atmospheric soundtrack, and the vocal cast does a good job bringing the characters to life, considering how meagerly they’re fleshed out. Mark Hamill in particular seems to relish his role as the Watcher, a sadistic demon tasked with keeping an eye on War (though it’s a bit odd to hear him recycle his Joker voice so soon after Batman: Arkham Asylum).

Darksiders unapologetically borrows gameplay ideas and mechanics from all over the spectrum and is constantly cramming new ones in all the way up to the very end. While it’s not innovative by any stretch of the imagination, neither is it entirely derivative, as these myriad features not only gel together surprisingly well, but when put together even feel fresh again. Though it’s hobbled by a disappointing story and excessively complex controls (as well as some technical issues on the Xbox 360), Darksiders is a fun and entertaining adventure with a host of fair but challenging puzzles, a lengthy single-player campaign, and an engaging combat system.

Five hundred years is long enough for an entire world to change, which is what the woman known as Bayonetta discovers after awakening from her slumber in a tomb at the bottom of a lake. With her memory understandably hazy, Bayonetta remembers little more than that she is an Umbran Witch and looking for something called The Eyes of the World. On a tip from her informant, she heads to the isolated city of Vigrid where she begins to piece together her missing memories and learn about the downfall of her clan and its counterparts: the Lumen Sages. What ensues is a series of hilariously over-the-top moments–each of which somehow surpasses the previous–that loosely form a narrative amidst a plethora of sight gags, sexual innuendos, and gratuitously violent angelic deaths. Amidst all the absurdity is a coherent plot with some surprisingly sweet moments, but the main attraction is the combat, not the storytelling.

Having contracted with the demons of Inferno, who serve as a source of her power, Bayonetta is a mortal enemy of the angels of Paradiso who seem to emerge at every corner in Vigrid spoiling for a fight. Armed from the get-go with a unique set of four guns (two of which are attached to her high heels), Bayonetta punches, kicks, and shoots her way through the heavenly aggressors that hound her every step. Apart from the basics, she can also perform a number of stylish special attacks to punish her enemies in often mind-boggling ways. Bullet climax attacks can strike out at all nearby attackers with most or all of Bayonetta’s creatively wielded guns; wicked weave attacks summon monstrous, demonic appendages in her hair for a magical sucker punch or heel stomp; and torture attacks that conjure pain- and humiliation-inducing contraptions out of thin air. You’re able to dish out an incredible amount of hurt in Bayonetta, and it’s hard not to be hooked after experiencing the sheer pleasure of performing your first outrageous combo which may or may not involve break dancing, ensorcelled guillotines, and dozens of bullets to bridge together your myriad punches and kicks. As you fight through the angelic choirs, a variety of new weapons, such as a cursed katana or an enchanted pair of ice skates, are unlocked through trade with the demonic barkeep/smith Rodin, enhancing your already impressive arsenal even further. Because both Bayonetta’s hands and feet are her weapons, you equip both with your instruments of heavenly destruction and can even have two entirely different sets ready for action with the tap of a button. These two arsenals can be swapped midcombo, which offers a great deal of flexibility (particularly when fighting several different types of angels at once) and makes battle feel free-form and pleasing. Truly, angels will cry before you’re finished with them.

From the very beginning of the game, dozens of different combo attacks can be performed with the right recipe of button presses and timing, but even more advanced techniques are available for purchase from Rodin as well. In an ingenious move, the between-level loading screens also double as a practice mode of sorts where you can play around with each of Bayonetta’s attacks. Complete with a handy onscreen move list, this feature is invaluable for learning the differences between the many different combos and finding the ones that work best for you, and you can even turn it into a full-fledged practice mode at the touch of a button. Even with this helpful mode, though, it can be tricky to grasp the subtle nuances of combat. If complex combos or elaborate attack dances aren’t your thing, Bayonetta’s easy and very easy difficulties equip everyone with the means for performing even the most impressive of attacks almost effortlessly. But for those clamoring for a challenge, Bayonetta does not disappoint–on normal difficulty, even lesser angels can prove to be fatal, and there are two harder levels to unlock for the most skillful of players to brave. The core mechanic that fuels Bayonetta’s combat complexity is your ability to dodge enemy assaults: Pulling the right trigger at almost any time–including midcombo–will instantly cause Bayonetta to pirouette out of harm’s way. Enemies hit hard and rarely drop bonus health, so it is in your best interest to exploit your dodging prowess as often as possible. Indeed, the combat system is not only built around the concept of avoiding damage altogether, but it also rewards you for doing so in more ways than one. If you dodge an attack at the last possible moment, Bayonetta activates a powerful ability known as witch time, which temporarily slows time down to a crawl for everyone else and allows her to thrash her foes and circumvent their sometimes considerable defenses. By making dodging so accessible and utilitarian, developer Platinum Games has transformed each battle into a fluid, continuous dance, with your performance graded and compared against other players via online leaderboards. This grading system judges your angel-slaying aptitude based on time spent in combat, combo damage dealt, and damage taken for each battle and stage. Obtaining the coveted “pure platinum” grade in a complete level or even a single encounter for your speed and skill is both challenging and rewarding. Going for them all is a great reason to replay and drive your scores higher and higher.

Each of the 16 chapters in Bayonetta is broken down into a series of self-contained enemy encounters called verses. When not actively killing the agents of heaven, you maneuver your witch through Vigrid, as well as its surrounding areas, solving simple environmental puzzles, finding ingredients to concoct health and support items (all lollipops, naturally), searching for hidden challenge rooms, and watching as the pleasantly preposterous story unfolds one cutscene at a time. When the moon is full and visible–which happens more often than you might think–Bayonetta is able to witch walk on walls and ceilings to move about or fight. These situations are among the most memorable moments in Bayonetta, and being able to run across a collapsing wall to avoid an incoming wave of molten lava or leap from floor to wall to ceiling to continue a furious assault is not only freeing, but it also adds a new dimension to the genre. Action peaks when the most powerful of angels–the personifications of the cardinal virtues–appear and try to stop Bayonetta, and you’ll need every one of the powers at your disposal to defeat these titans of heaven in awesome multipart battles. Each boss fight ends with an aptly named climax attack that summons one of the many infernal demons Bayonetta has contracted with (and seems to keep in her hair) to brutally finish them off and drag them down to hell.

With each moment spent in the world of Bayonetta, it becomes more and more evident that an incredible amount of effort was spent in making everything look as stylish as possible. The frame rate is crisp and smooth, with each of Bayonetta’s ridiculous, hypersexualized poses expertly animated. Watching as she suplexes a dozen angels at once, defeats herself in a dance off, or jumpstarts a motorcycle by using her middle finger as a key is delightful, and the arena for each boss battle is a sight to behold. Even the more mundane actions are carefully detailed–Bayonetta doesn’t so much bleed as she blooms roses, double jumps are assisted by the butterfly wings that sprout from her back, and so on. Angels have a fantastic yet grotesque art direction that blends together elements from classically beautiful Greco-Roman statues with avian, insect, or even technological bases to form unique designs. Some of them, such as the virtue Fortitudo–a twin-headed dragon whose central body is itself yet another inverted head–stand out more than others, but all are memorable. Though the dynamic camera generally does a fine job of ensuring that the action is front and center–particularly during witch walk sequences–there are a few enclosed areas where it seems unsure as to what to do. This is a rare occurrence, however, and overall, it’s a minor annoyance at worst.

Matching the over-the-top action of Bayonetta is a suitably ridiculous soundtrack that is equal parts annoyingly catchy pop, epic chorus, and retro arcade synth. Like the rest of Bayonetta, the soundtrack is very tongue-in-cheek, particularly an upbeat remix of “Fly Me to the Moon” that is used throughout the entire game, and most often as you gleefully dispatch angelic foes in a whirling dance of death and display. Accompanying the soundtrack is an all-star voice cast, the real star of which is, of course, Bayonetta herself, who is voiced with just the right combination of sultry, sass, and self-confidence to bring her to life and keep her from devolving into the realm of stereotype and cliche. With nearly every ridiculous stunt, she delivers a double entendre in her feisty British accent (all the time with a wink in her eye), the complete spectacle of which brings a smile to your face.

With the fluidity and flexibility of its fighting engine, innovative use of bullet time and wall-walking mechanics, and the competitive online scoring system that is weaved into its very fabric, Bayonetta isn’t so much a sister to other combat-oriented action games as it is an evolution of them. Its battle controls are silky smooth from the very first moment you experience them, and the magic remains throughout the entire journey; whether you’re throwing a bus at a boss or hitching a ride on a ballistic missile. Chock-full of often silly but always memorable moments, Bayonetta is hard to get out of your mind even after you’ve stopped playing it. More than anything else, almost everything about Bayonetta feels just right. Its host of hidden items and secrets, multiple difficulties, competitively balanced scoring system, and charismatic heroine make it a game that will be revisited time and time again. This is one action game that you absolutely must not miss.

]]> http://www.geope.com/2010/01/19/bayonetta-review/feed/ 0 http://www.geope.com/2009/12/23/0-day-attack-on-earth-preview/ http://www.geope.com/2009/12/23/0-day-attack-on-earth-preview/#comments Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:13:56 +0000 admin http://www.geope.com/?p=2131 Alien invasions are perfect video game fodder. They provide a fantastic backdrop for amazing heroism and allow the use of neat sci-fi weapons and gadgets that might otherwise seem out of place. Perhaps the enticing aspect of this scenario is the underdog factor. Except for a few rare occasions, humanity is almost always the ones who are being overwhelmed by the advanced alien weapons and powers. It’s much more exciting when humans can come up with a way to blast aliens to pieces. Everyone loves an underdog victory, and 0 Day Attack on Earth is a game built entirely on this concept. It doesn’t have much of a plot, but it focuses entirely on what makes those sorts of adventures exciting: pilots in inferior machines using their skills to overcome a seemingly unstoppable alien foe.

0 Day Attack on Earth is an overhead shooter, and the controls are really simple. You pick an aircraft of your choice and are instantly thrown into the battle. The left analog stick controls your ship’s movement, while the right chooses the direction you want to fire. The right bumper will drop a bomb that destroys all enemies nearby, while the left allows you to temporarily boost in a certain direction. These are all the controls you need to play the game, but there are some interesting mechanics involved in 0 Day Attack on Earth. Every enemy you kill drops a green orb that increases your score.

These orbs also have other uses. For instance, they slowly refill your ship’s health meter so you can remain in fights. More importantly is that these orbs also power up your ship. Each of the different types of ships has a unique three-tiered weapon system. At level 1, it’s a puny machine gun, but as you pick up orbs, you’ll level up the weapon. Higher-level weapons vary depending on what aircraft you’re using and can be either a spread of multiple machine guns, homing rockets, heavy cannon shots or flamethrowers. At level 3, weapons usually gain more attack power and unique attributes. My personal favorite was a helicopter that gained a flamethrower at level 2 and a second rear-mounted flamethrower at level 3, allowing it to become a whirling fireball of death.

0 Day Attack On Earth‘s missions are structured rather simply. You’re dropped into the middle of a furious air battle over one of Earth’s cities, and your goal is to eliminate the enemy leaders within a certain time limit. It sounds simple enough on the surface. Arrows on your HUD and red dots on your radar show the exact locations of the enemies you need to kill. It can be a bit challenging to kill them, but if you focus on them, it isn’t too difficult. There are also tons of alien machines scattered around the levels, just waiting to be blown to pieces by your weapons. Destroying enemies increases your score, and the more enemies you destroy, the higher your score. Simply winning the game in 0 Day Attack on Earth shouldn’t be your overall goal; in old-school arcade style, you’re attempting to get the highest possible score within the time limit. This means that you have to destroy the leaders and as many of their minions as you can. You generally have an excess of time, but it still involves careful management of your abilities. Spend too long farming weak enemies, and you might not have time to break through your enemy’s defenses and take out their leader.

Enemies in 0 Day Attack on Earth come in all shapes and sizes. Different enemy fighter crafts have different tactics: fly around and try to smash into you, fire lasers, crush you in a vise, teleport behind you for an ambush, or even latch onto your ship and attempt to self-detonate. These enemies are dangerous because of their numbers and not their individual attack power, but you also earn you very few points for destroying them.

In order to get a ton of points, you have to attack the enemy’s big assault crafts, which take up a good chunk of the screen and have tons of weapons and strong defenses. You have to pound on them for a bit before they explode, but you get a lot more points in exchange. These mid-bosses come in many forms. Some are tripod walkers à la “War of the Worlds,” while others are flying snake monsters or weird flower-like enemy spawners.

The deadliest units of all are usually the leader units. These units are large and often take up most of the screen, and they can withstand bullets with ease. They’re also powerful attackers and can launch swarms of bullets, tentacles or other weapons, forcing you to dodge or be destroyed. The leaders are actually the most interesting units, and for good reason. While they are usually dangerous, every so often, they’ll go into an attack pattern that’s deadly but easily dodged. If you back up, you’ll generally keep yourself outside of their range. The only problem is that this puts them outside of your attack range as well. If you want to easily avoid their attacks, you can’t damage them until it is over, wasting precious time. Each enemy has holes in their attack patterns that you can exploit to continue damaging the unit even when they’re going all out with their attacks. The problem is that this puts you at much greater risk of dying. Getting caught in one of these swarms is almost instant death, turning the game into a pseudo-Gradius, where you are a moment from death at all times.

If you play 0 Day Attack on Earth in single-player mode, you’re aided by a group of NPC planes. These planes can’t be killed, but they also can’t upgrade or be commanded, so they’re of limited use. The real way to demolish the enemies is going to be in co-op mode, which allows you to play online with other gamers. It generally follows the same basic rules as the single-player game, but it also has a few twists. All the units share lives, so if one dies, all players lose a life, but death isn’t an instant game over. Once all your lives are gone, you get “frozen” instead of killed, so you’re prevented from doing anything unless one of your allies shoots you free or you wait a lengthy period of time. If all allies are frozen, the game is over.  Like the single-player mode, this plays into the goal of earning a high score. You can generally avoid getting a game over with careful play, but every moment wasted on a frozen ally is one less second you can use on earning high scores. The game will also feature competitive multiplayer with traditional Capture the Flag and Point Capture modes, where two teams compete to either capture the opponent’s flag or hold certain areas for a period of time.

0 Day Attack on Earth has the makings of a great arcade game. It may not have a deep plot or interesting characters, but it perfectly captures the feel of the “Independence Day” movie. Zooming through the enemy defenses and trying to destroy as many foes as possible is quite exciting, due in no small part to the way the scoring system works. The game is designed in such a way to encourage you to take risks and play offensively, as each wasted moment brings you closer to running out of time. It’s an interesting mechanic that even pushes cautious players to take risks. The online mode looks to be a well-made cooperative game for players of all skill levels. The freezing mechanic prevents high-level players from being held back by novices, while still letting them play together with their friends. Competitive multiplayer gives those same friends a chance to tear each other apart.  All in all, 0 Day Attack on Earth is shaping up to be a solid arcade shooter. It might be disappointing to those who buy Square Enix titles for their plots, but anyone looking for an addictive old-school arcade game will find a lot to like here.

Fast forward to now … I am at BestBuy debating which console version to get.  At first I was leaning towards the PS3, since it was built on the PS3 architecture and was initially intended as a console exclusive.   But why not try to see how the first iteration of Tekken on a non Sony console worked out.  Would it meet my expectation or would it fall flat.

The first thing you will notice with this game is load times.  They are tolerable but it seems like you tend to be waiting quite a bit.  *Note: Installing the game to the hard drive helps out tremendously.

Next are the  graphics and they are awesome. Character models are top notch and move fluidly.  With more than 40 characters its surprising the level of detail put into each model.  The backgrounds on the other hand are either hit or miss.  Some of them of them are amazing with great effects other are just mediocre.   With the graphics you can play with a motion blur on or off.  It is on by default, which seems to drops the resolution down a bit.  With the blur off the game will run at higher Resolution but with no AA.  I think it actually looks better with it off but it’s all personal preference.

*Note: The Xbox360 version runs at a higher resolution with blur off and tends look better than PS3.  PS3 people seem to be pretty pissed about this.

Now on to the Controls/Mechanics, they are typical of any Tekken Game.  The controls are smooth and rely heavily on precise button tapping. Coming straight from 2d Fighting, particular Street Fighter 4, I find this game to be an interesting transition.  First off combos don’t seem to have crazy strict timing like SF4.  You can either link a particular punch or you can’t, no need to worry about 1 frame links. On the other hand though learning your timing for air juggling and
other advance techniques is said to be just as strict.  The mechanics of this game are pretty much the same as earlier iterations, the only new items are the ability to bounce enemies off the ground and a rage mode.  The rage is another comeback defense for players like me.  Not that it helps my situation much but it allows the player with lower
life to do more damage and possibly make a comeback.   I personally think it’s a bit cheap, but really shouldn’t complain since it helps keep me in the battle most the time.

For Modes they have plenty but some to be lacking.  Campaign takes its roots from a 3d olds school beat-em up game. A good comparison would be like Die Hard Arcade or 3d version of Streets of Rage.   The campaign is supposedly pretty long.  I have only played though about a couple hours.  So far I enjoy the cut scenes and it’s a nice addition to the one on one killing.  Next are the Original Arcade/Vs/Ghost modes.  They are typical of most every fighter and nothing really more to say about that.  Online mode is there but I personally haven’t touched it much yet.  Supposedly the net code is not all that great. I have only had couple matches and both were a bit laggy.  This seems to a big disappointment for most but hopefully a patch will be made to make the game run a bit better online.  I’m looking to test out this feature more against Tail in Alaska. **editor’s note: Tail is a real person in Alaska, not a euphamism for everyone in AK.

Overall as a fighting game fanatic, I would have to say my initial impressions of the game are good.  The game is fun, with easy entry into the series, but does provide a very deep system for those who want to explore it.  I am not sure I can recommend the game unless you’re a diehard fighting game fanatic or Tekken fan, due to the glaring online lag issues.  My only true complaint about the game so far is the fact that I suck beyond belief at this game.  I am horrible. So if someone needs a virtual punching bag, feel free to hit me up online.

(gamertag: naturemade4u)

By Bryan

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The more we play Need For Speed: Shift, the more we feel that it’s become a little bit schizophrenic. When we saw the game earlier in the year it seemed to us like Slightly Mad Studios were the guys in charge. With much of the team (then working for SimBin) responsible for well-respected PC racing sims GTR2 and Race, it was clear that Shift was an extension of their past work.

As the game nears release, however, it’s evolved into a racer that fits in much more with the Need For Speed brand. Under the skin, a serious and challenging simulator still exists – but we get the impression that all the pomp and extravagance we normally associate with past Black Box NFS games is attempting to overpower it, which is a shame.

Still, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Although Need For Speed now has several ‘branches’ (motorsport, street racing, open-world MMO), few would argue that the franchise needed a boot up the arse. With Black Box responsible for developing all of the outings almost every year for the last decade, it’s no surprise that things have been stale for a while. Ever since Codies released Race Driver: Grid last year to whopping acclaim, we can’t blame EA for wanting a piece of the 90%-plus rated action.

Anyone familiar with Grid won’t have much difficulty making comparisons – and not just with the presentation. Like Grid, Shift sports a handling model that sits in between Forza 2 and Project Gotham. It also boasts Drift events and head-to-head Touge races (deemed Car Battles here) in addition to the traditional multiple race series. Similarly, Shift focuses primarily on the intensity of racing. Here it’s represented by the physical forces inflicted on a driver – run over a kerb or collide with another vehicle and your head will be shaken about; barrel into a wall at 100mph+ and you’ll know all about it.

Picture being caught in the blast of a grenade in Call of Duty – the effect is similar here. Colour drains from your view, the sound on the impact rings in your ears and you’ll be disorientated by the violent tremors of the screen. Your vehicle will be well aware of the cock-up too – although it doesn’t feature quite the same level of damage modelling, the way it crumples looks visually impressive.

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Essentially, if you get behind the wheel and expect to ham-fistedly powerslide your way around a track like in previous Need For Speed games, then you’ll be in for a right old shock. Try to grab Shift by the scruff of the neck and you’ll quickly discover there is no Grid-like Flashback option to get you out of the gravel. If anything, the handling demands the precision of a steering wheel peripheral – using a controller to wrestle some of the rear wheel drive cars can be tricky. Personally, we’d like more sensitivity from the throttle and more ‘feel’ from the steering – it took a real effort to readjust our skills from other racers to stop us overcompensating during slides; cue much ‘fish-tailing’ down the road due to the lack of feedback from the balance of the car. Whacking off most of the driver assists helps, but we hope the last few weeks of crucial physics tuning rectifies this…

What we’ve talked about so far is Slightly Mad’s role in development. But Black Box have also played a big part – namely, adding the Need For Speed-iness. Beyond the tuning and visual makeovers (which uses a system that looks like it owes a lot to their last title, Undercover), Black Box have also incorporated substantial career and driver development.

At its most basic, the key to advancing your way up through the racing tiers (from Euro hatchbacks like the new Renault Megane and VW Sirocco and old Japanese classics like the Nissan 240SX and Sprinter Trueno to higher tiers which include the Pagani Zonda, McLaren F1 and Bugatti Veyron) is by earning stars and profile points. Stars are awarded for podium finishes and completing race objectives (overtake a certain number of opponents, drift for so many seconds etc) and are used to unlock new races. Points, on the other hand, are similar to Gotham’s ageless Kudos system; impressive or destructive driving techniques earn points which can be used to unlock new cars, parts and other goodies.

There’s more to the profile points than unlocks, though – and they have interesting potential. Points can be awarded for two very distinct actions: Precision and Aggression. Clean overtakes, keeping to the racing line and flawless laps are considered Precision actions. Spinning opponents, trading paint and powersliding are classed as Aggression.

Levelling up both of these aspects will present opportunities depending on your style but, more importantly, they’ll also identify your abilities online. In conjunction with Achievement badges, you should very easily be able to assess what sort of drivers you’re going up against. The online modes were inaccessible to us at this preview stage, but we’re hoping this means Live races could be restricted to, say, Precision drivers over a certain level – so at least this means there’s some possibility of starting on the grid with gentlemen drivers rather than loose cannons.

If they want a rough and tumble race, they can compete with other Aggressive drivers. If this isn’t the case, what’s the point of telling the world you drive cleanly and courteously (or like an arse)? Shift will also punish drivers for cutting corners (lap times won’t count) while eliminating any car heading the wrong way for more than three seconds – a trifle harsh, but you’ll soon learn.

Shift may have a bit of an identity crisis but it’s still the most thrilling prospect for the series in ages. It’s used Grid as its yardstick and thrown so many other ingredients into the mix it’s difficult not to be impressed with what’s on offer. It looks like being a real bumper year for petrolheads.

The Guitar Hero franchise took a big leap last year with World Tour, incorporating vocals and drums and making a bid for Rock Band’s multiplayer music game crown. While World Tour was a great debut, Guitar Hero 5 is a more refined, more accessible game that better fulfills the promise of a full band experience with the Guitar Hero name. A number of enhancements make the game more enjoyable across the board, and the new Party Play mode sets the standard for relaxed, social gameplay in the genre. The freestyle jam mode provides a fun creative outlet, and folks interested in recording their creations will have a much easier time thanks to the significantly improved music studio interface. While none of Guitar Hero 5′s improvements are groundbreaking, they all contribute to this very entertaining, very well put-together package that is sure to please both aspiring and established Guitar Heroes

The most significant new feature in Guitar Hero 5 is Party Play mode. When you start up the game, you see a brief intro animation, and then the game starts up a random song and a video of Guitar Hero characters performing. You can press the start button to call up the main menu, or you can press the yellow button to jump right into the song being performed. Your note highway appears, and after selecting a few options, you’re playing the Guitar Hero you know and love. Up to four players can join this way, using whatever combination of instruments they want. Two vocalists, a drummer, and a bass player? Yes. Four guitarists? By all means. You can’t fail in this mode, and changing difficulty, skipping the song, and dropping out are all easily accomplished through a little menu that only obscures your own note highway. The result is a casual play environment that is accessible, welcoming, and delightfully low key. You can jump in and out as you like, rotating in other players or just taking a break. The music keeps playing, and you can tailor your experience on the fly without any abrupt pauses or song restarts. It’s a great way to entice shy friends to join in the fun, and it makes firing up Guitar Hero 5 at a party a more informal prospect. A way to exclude certain songs from the random play rotation would have been welcome, but you can temporarily interrupt a song to create a set list and then jump right back into the music. Party Play strips away anything that might impede your enjoyment of the game, and as a result, Guitar Hero 5 shines as an example of how to make music games accessible and fun for a wide range of players.

If you prefer more deliberate and finite sets, then Quickplay is a great place to go. Here you can construct a set list and play with up to four players, again using whatever instrument combinations you see fit. Quickplay also makes accommodations for more casual players, allowing only those playing on hard or expert difficulty to fail out. Previously, you could save failed bandmates only by using the star power you earned by nailing glowing notes. You can still use this method, but Guitar Hero 5 gives you another option. When a bandmate fails, a crowd meter pops up. If the rest of the band plays well enough for long enough, the failed bandmate is revived and the band keeps on rocking. There is no limit to how many times you can revive a bandmate, though it does seem to get harder as the fails pile up. The crowd meter makes your band less dependent on star power opportunities that may or may not appear in time and also means you don’t necessarily have to save your star power for a flagging fellow rocker. Quickplay is also a good place to make a bid for a spot on the extensive leaderboards. There are high-score categories for each song, each instrument, and each difficulty, so score-seekers of all levels can participate.

Xbox 360 Avatars make strange band fellows.

If earning rewards for your skills is your thing, Career mode once again provides a place where you progress through different venues, playing songs and unlocking new gigs. In Guitar Hero 5, you earn up to five stars for each performance, and the more stars you collect, the more gigs you unlock. This mode will feel very familiar to Guitar Hero veterans, but there’s one new element that helps keep it from going stale. Each song has a bonus challenge associated with it that allows you to earn up to eight stars per song instead of the usual five. These three-tiered challenges (one extra star per tier) can be either instrument specific (whammy for a certain amount of time as the guitarist) or band-wide (maintain a 4x multiplier for a certain amount of time). This variety encourages you to mix up the instruments you use or to play with a few friends, and there’s a handy onscreen meter that tracks your progress throughout the song. Some of these challenges will be easy for confident players, while others are so difficult that only experts will have a shot. Earning a few extra stars is nice, but completing challenges can also earn you bonus unlockables, including new outfits, sponsored equipment sets, cheats, and new playable characters.

In addition to franchise standbys like Axel Steel and Judy Nails, Guitar Hero 5 features the likenesses of a handful of real rock stars. You unlock many of these stars just by playing through their songs successfully in Career mode (no boss battles here), while other stars become available only after you complete one of the aforementioned bonus challenges. Once unlocked, these stars can join Guitar Hero characters, your user-created rockers, and your Xbox 360 avatar onstage. This gives rise to some truly bizarre band lineups. Seeing Kurt Cobain perform onstage with three avatars is like watching a bizarre segment from Sesame Street, while watching four Johnny Cashes sing a song by Public Enemy is just ridiculous. Regardless of whether you find these strange pairings hilarious or utterly stupid, Guitar Hero 5 delivers improved visuals that you’ll easily notice when you get a chance to look away from your note highway. Character animations are more fluid, and lip synching looks good, even on the avatars that are just cycling between a few different mouth icons. The crowds still look like a patterned mass of clones, but the lively performance camera angles ensure that you’ll notice them only at the beginning and end of your song.

One of the most improved aspects of Guitar Hero 5 is the music studio. The overhauled interface makes it much easier to lay down tracks, and you can learn more about the different options simply by holding down the fret button you would use to select them. It still requires patience and skill to make a decent song, but the barrier of entry has been significantly lowered. If you’re not at the composition stage yet, you can flex your music muscle in the new jam session mode, which allows you to choose a background loop and play over it to your heart’s content. This feature makes it much easier to experiment with playing music with your not-actually-musical instrument, and noodling around with some cooperative friends can be fun.

GHJam mode is a fun place to cut loose with your plastic guitar.

There’s an extensive set list on the disc, and players can once again download user-created tunes as well as official downloadable content tracks. However, if you’re looking to import songs from your copy of Guitar Hero World Tour, you’re in for some disappointment. After entering the 20-digit Unique Owner ID from the back of your World Tour manual, you have to pay 280 Microsoft points to download digital copies of the World Tour songs to your hard drive. Worse, you get only 35 of the 80-plus tracks from World Tour. Though the 35 tracks have been updated to include stuff like band moments (a bonus for playing in unison) and expert plus drumming (with adaptor-enabled double foot pedal action), it’s disappointing that a higher percentage of tracks aren’t available.

There are a number of other sundry tweaks in Guitar Hero 5, but the core gameplay remains largely the same as World Tour. The new Rockfest multiplayer mode eschews item-based battles for more natural challenges, like nailing the longest streak of notes. Oddly, vocal star power can no longer be activated by tapping the mic, so singers have to keep a controller on hand if they want to use star power. Other than this change, and the disappointing song import options, Guitar Hero 5 improves upon its predecessor in almost every category. It’s an easy buy for folks who bought World Tour, and it is a great option for those looking to see what this plastic video game rock craze is all about. It won’t blow the roof off, but Guitar Hero 5 will definitely get your party rockin’.

By Chris Watters, GameSpot

Usually we have at least a couple days warning about what is being released on Xbox Live Arcade. But on July 15, Tour de France 2009 was unceremoniously dropped onto the service with no announcement, as if the people responsible for it hoped we didn’t notice. Spend a little time with the game, and you’ll understand why it may not be the developer’s proudest moment. This is an ugly simulation of the sport that offers absolutely nothing to all but the most hardcore Tour de France superfans.

Two single-player modes are on offer: you can ride a single stage of the Tour de France or compete in the whole thing. The single stage is a simulation along the same lines as Football Manager (Soccer Manager to us stubborn Americans), so you won’t have direct control over your racers. You manage a team of five cyclists, paying close attention to their heart rates and energy meters. Individuals can be issued specific commands that tell them to begin a relay or increase their effort. But there isn’t any in-game tutorial and trying to figure it all out is confusing as hell. You can scroll through some pages of text in the “How to Play” section, but this is never the ideal way to instruct the player. Tour de France 2009 assumes you know the rules of the sport, are familiar with all the terminology, and are capable of developing your own winning strategy right out of the gate. As such, it is very unfriendly to anyone with a mere passing knowledge or less cycling. Sure, most sports games don’t go to the trouble of teaching the player how the sport works – but the Tour de France is a little more exotic than baseball or basketball.

I’m pretty sure at least a couple people usually show up to watch this thing.

When racing the full Tour de France you do have direct control over your riders one at a time, but they control as sluggishly as a battleship. Taking corners is near impossible without colliding into a wall, which could have provided some fun crashes if the game made any attempt at realism. Instead, your rider will remain permanently upright, guided back onto the road by some unseen, godly force. And for some reason, the left analog stick isn’t supported anywhere in Tour de France: from maneuvering through menus to steering your cyclists, you have to use the 360′s crappy D-pad.

The European locations aren’t much to look at. You’ll notice a lot of pop-up during a race, textures are ugly, and no crowd has turned up to cheer you on. You may wonder how this mob of cyclists can ride so close together without smashing into one another and creating a massive pileup. It’s because, if you zoom the camera in closely, you’ll notice the riders have no collision detection and can pass through each other like ghosts. Too bad, because the ability to cause a Tour de France disaster that results in hundreds of injured athletes would have been fun.

Tour de France also supports online multiplayer, but as of this writing it’s a ghost town out there on Xbox Live.

Closing Comments
If you’re just cuckoo for the Tour de France, you may find some enjoyment in this uninspired simulation. There are many stages to race through and lots of opportunities to micromanage your dream team of cyclists. But everyone else should steer clear, as it is a very unfriendly experience to anyone who isn’t well-versed in the ins and outs of the sport. It misses a good opportunity to teach us a little bit about this event that, despite being over 100 years old, is a mystery to many Americans. Not only does it expect you to be familiar with the cycling challenge, it also doesn’t take the time to teach you how to play this videogame version. The most famous Tour de France athlete, Lance Armstrong, is known for persevering through difficult challenges. But I doubt even he could make it very long with this game.

by Daemon Hatfield [IGN]