Brain Hood

Inside 2008’s re-drawn and re-imagined Liberty City, Rockstar declined to change the shape, structure and content of the game, or even the average mission. Niko Bellic’s freedom to roam around the city was comfortably stifled by constant prompts telling him what to do next, whether it was getting in a car, following the mini-map, losing the cops, or shooting a man with an arrow floating above his head. Grand Theft Auto IV’s sandbox element was mainly punching women’s shopping bags out of their hands. Gunplay was never the game’s strongest card and GTA IV’s new cover mechanics did little to enhance it. Now, you just slog along the odd corridor with your back to the wall, instead of facing it.

Let’s not be too down: it’s important to remember what GTA does with majestic, and rarely equalled, excellence: tell stories in a way that makes you feel. Take GTA IV: Brucie was a charming mentalist, and the futility of his missions was a superbly deflating payoff. The constant pestering of your phone might have been frustrating, but it created bonds with certain characters that gave their eventual betrayal a genuine sting. The much-vaunted openness of Liberty City – and the dry and meaningless cliche that it was “living and breathing” – paled next to the lives of its mission-dispensing stars. They might not be sympathetic characters, but they’re never boring, and they’re dripping with satire that the tabloids never acknowledged.

With Rockstar’s skilled writers providing redundant reams of character dialogue and satirical radio chat, Episodes from Liberty City develops the game’s strongest assets admirably – and even fixes one of the more tedious problems of GTA IV with mid-mission checkpoints. The release as two chapters that are playable independently of one other and GTA IV, even makes sense of the game’s bipolar attitude to gritty realism and over-the-top dick-waving. If you want real, get on your bike. If you want to jump out of a golden helicopter, go gay.

The Lost and the Damned drops you into the leathers of Johnny Klebitz, the second-in-command of The Lost, one of Liberty City’s motorcycle gangs. He’s been acting up while the proper boss, Billy, went through rehab. During this time, he negotiated a ceasefire with the rival gang and got the business side of the gang (selling drugs, naturally) sorted. Basically, he’s greatly improved the standard and life expectancy of the average gang member’s life.

But this isn’t a situation that pleases Billy when he returns. He doesn’t own a Biker to Pussy translating dictionary, so he’s not sure what “ceasefire” means. And he isn’t prone to respecting the boundaries of his enemy’s territory. So that’s the journey you take on in The Lost: the role of the reasonable man forced to watch his hard work being undone by a stubborn old-timer with mental health issues. This tense relationship is so expertly written, and with such self-control, that you’ll wince at the constant anticipation of Lost-on-Lost violence.

In terms of what you do in the world, few things change. You ride as part of a pack now, and riding over the icon that appears in the center of the pack triggers bonus dialogue that you’d normally get from being in a car.

The pack mentality extends to your members – they’re not a lot of nameless, faceless people. If someone dies, they stay dead. If they’re replaced, it’ll be with less helpful rookies. Group AI and health is always something of an opaque art in GTA IV – it’s difficult to tell what help your friends are actually offering, or what damage they’re taking. You often suspect they’re simply there to add to the spectacle rather than the battle.

Beyond that (and the excellent handling on the bikes that undermines beefs about the GTA IV cars) this is classic DLC. More of the same, but with new characters that wouldn’t fit into the main story. Rockstar aren’t selling you the last level they didn’t finish by deadline.

A lot of folks never fully grasped what made games like Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV and Far Cry 2 truly great. It isn’t the characters or the writing or the action; those games really succeeded because of the worlds their developers built for them.

Red Dead Redemption is like that. Rockstar has created a beautiful vision of the American West and the Mexican desert, with environments ranging from desert to plains to forests and even wetlands. It’s all a sight to behold, and it would have been difficult to predict that riding a horse through vast expanses of empty desert could be such a wonderful experience. I started a second playthrough immediately upon completing the story for review, because I just loved existing in this world, to the point where even the most mundane of activities in the game were wildly compelling.

Marston’s first few assignments involve clearing rabbits out of a garden, racing horses, herding cattle and roping and breaking wild stallions. My Marston then spent his nights patrolling a ranch with a dog, looking for trespassers. He took the money from that job and played some horseshoes, and then he lost his paycheck playing poker. The stereotypical gamer would respond to this idea with disdain; “Let’s just shoot some people, jeez,” he says.

But those who think that way are missing the point. These “missions” exist to immerse the player in the world that the engineers at Rockstar have created. And it works wonderfully; by the time my Marston began to deal out some extreme violence, I was able to understand the world of 1911 New Austin (aka Texas) and the character of John Marston.

Speaking of Marston — he rides into the West at the behest of g-men who are holding his family captive while he attempts to seek out and kill a group of outlaws he used to run with. The story is slight; it’s more The Wild Bunch than Unforgiven. What that means is it’s all about the characters and how they interact with each other — more so than it is about having a really thought-provoking narrative. That’s not to say the story doesn’t have its fair share of absolutely perfect moments, like when Marston first meets the leader of the Mexican revolution; but for the most part, progression through the story feels more like a reason to explore new areas and meet some insanely interesting people than to find out what happens later in the game.

In fact, the narrative almost feels like it’s holding the game world back by having Marston talk about how urgent his quest it. I call this Oblivion Syndrome; you want to ride the land and see what there is to see and get into whatever trouble you can find, but the narrative desperately wants the player to stay focused on the mission, and the game provides Marston, if not the player, a tangible reason to do so.

This was an idea Gearbox understood perfectly when they put together Borderlands. In that game, the goal is simply to gain fame and fortune, and everything there is to do in the game is a means toward that end. Whereas in Red Dead Redemption, you might need to take on a bounty hunting job for cash here and there, but, for the most part, taking on side missions feels antithetical to the plot. Every sandbox game doesn’t need to be as loosely structured as Borderlands, obviously, but I use that example just to illustrate that sidequests need to be at least somewhat integrated into a game’s narrative so that there might actually be a plot-driven reason for them to exist.

The way the story eventually plays out, though, is perfect in that sense, assuming you don’t 100% the game beforehand. I won’t elaborate, though, so as not to spoil it.

Pros:
Beautiful and compelling game world
Cleverly written characters
Some perfect story moments
Solid acting and writing
Tangible motivation to be good

Cons:
Bland on-foot gunplay
Can’t customize controls
The side missions are antithetical to the narrative (Oblivion Syndrome)
Competitive multiplayer feels unnecessary

Today, Bethesda announced the contents of the Fallout: New Vegas Collector’s Edition, which is now available for pre-order in North America. The box contains eight poker chips , a deck of cards, a hard cover graphic novel which tells the events leading up to the game’s story, a making-of DVD, and, of course, the game. All that for $79.99! Yeah… you don’t really need all that. But we won’t lie, it looks cool.

If you do pick it up, let me know if I made it into the making-of documentary on the DVD. I was watching a demo of the game with a big crowd of gamz jarnalists as cameras were being swung about like buzzing flies. Just look for the skinny guy in plaid and too-tight jeans. Oh wait, that was half the room.

Distant Worlds is a vast, real-time, 4X space strategy game. Experience the full depth and detail of large turn-based strategy games, but with the simplicity and ease of real-time, and on the scale of a massively-multiplayer online game.

Vast galaxies are made to order: up to 1400 star systems, with up to 50,000 planets, moons and asteroids. Galaxies are so deep, fun and immersive that you won’t want to finish the game… Build, expand and improve your empire endlessly. The galaxy is packed with life and activity. Encounter other empires, independent alien colonies, traders, pirates and space monsters. Explore star systems, asteroid fields, gas clouds, supernovae, galactic storms and black holes. Discover evidence of civilizations long since past, uncovering secrets about the galaxy’s troubled history…

Best of all, you can play the game your way: enjoy a quick, intense game in a crowded galaxy or take your time in an epic game spread across a vast galaxy!

Features

The Halo: Reach multiplayer beta has finally begun in earnest, and the servers will be full of carnage till May 19. We’ve spent some time killing and being killed and have developed strategies to help you get the most out of your all too brief time with the beta. We’ll be updating this page as new maps and modes are revealed. And if you have any multiplayer strategies of your own, please share them in the comments below!

Armor Powers

Armor powers are like classes, you choose one every time you spawn. By default, armor powers are mapped to the L1 button (effectively replacing Equipment from Halo 3) and give you one of the following special abilities.

Note: in team objective games, activating an armor power causes you to drop the item you’re carrying (CTF, Oddball). In free-for-all Headhunter matches, you hang onto your skulls when you activate your armor power.

Loadout: Guard

The Armor Lock power makes you invincible, but also immobile, for a short period of time. When you release the armor lock, a burst of energy knocks back any nearby enemies.

Best match types: CTF (defense), Stockpile (defense)

Most compatible weapons: Gravity hammer, focus rifle, grenade launcher

Loadout: Scout

Scout gives you the ability to sprint using L1. The burst of speed helps you cover distance faster, and makes you harder to hit.

Best match types: Headhunter, Stockpile (offense), Crazy King, Oddball

Most compatible weapons: Plasma sword, gravity hammer

Loadout: Airborn

The benefits of a jetpack are obvious, and the Airborn loadout is the most immediately gratifying. The jetpack is particularly essential for getting around quickly on the Sword Base map, or for jetting from hill to hill in Crazy King. But really, it’s the only class to choose when you simply must get across the map as directly as possible.

Best match types: Any, really, but especially Headhunter, Stockpile and Crazy King

Most compatible weapons: Plasma/rocket launchers, needler rifle

Loadout: Stalker

Use cloaking to turn your Spartan invisible, as when playing the Arbiter in Halo 3. Stalkers are particularly deadly with the plasma sword, and also have an easier time getting assassinations. Another great Stalker tactic is sniping: you can move to exposed positions without drawing fire, pop off a few quick headshots, and vanish back into the ether.

Best match types: Stockpile (offense), CTF (offense), Slayer

Most compatible weapons: Plasma sword, shotty, DMR or sniper rifle, assassinations

A lot of people condemned the original Assassin’s Creed’s repetition as its worst aspect. Wrong. Player character Desmond Miles, with his idle chit-chat and regular naps that too-often interrupted the flow of the game proper, was actually the lamest aspect of the action/adventure free-running killathon. PSP-exclusive sequel Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines scraps these nonsensical sci-fi interruptions altogether, focusing completely on Crusades-era hitman Altair, and that means there’s more killin’ than conversing.

The big thing to realize is that this game ignores most of the advances made in the stellar full-sized sequel, Assassin’s Creed II. A portable excursion across Cyprus, an unexplored area where the last of those douchebag Templars are hiding, Bloodlines sticks to the series’ roots and adopts more from the first game. That means the horrendously repetitive structure that everyone justifiably criticized is back, and you’re going to follow dudes around a lot before getting to the good stuff, and even then, the stealth assassinations have been gutted in favor of full-blown boss battles.

Don’t get us wrong – the action in Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines, as well as the straightforward and fast-paced platforming, is as slick and enjoyable as it was in 2007, though the loading screens sprinkled throughout the cities kick the game’s flow in the ‘nads. The combat is full of brilliantly-animated flourishes and violent counterattacks that are easy and satisfying to execute. Brain-dead baddies won’t do much in the way of slicing and dicing, but the boss battles, which take the place of set-piece assassination objectives, are decently difficult – our fight against a speedy, grab-happy boss called The Witch took a couple tries, which we didn’t expect. The battles are competent, if a little simplistic in setup, but it felt good clobbering fatties with chain whips and countering the lofty sword-swing of an armored brute. In that respect, Bloodlines feels like it’s lost in a limbo between the original Assassin’s Creed and God of War – a good thing if you’re into those titles, but it executes expertly in neither regard.

Part of the problem is, as expected, the gruesome repetition of looping missions. The same structure applies to almost every aspect of the narrative, which is disappointingly forgettable and full of boring fluff characters. Cinematics are followed by investigations, and eventually assassinations that are preceded and followed by a gauntlet run to and from your target. Escaping castles is exciting, though we often found them to be an artificial way of inflating the game’s length. You’ll rattle off the game’s seven chapters in as many hours, and the listen-attack-escape structure gets old pretty quick.

We can’t wrap our heads around the “why” of Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines. Not its existence, mind you. We love a good mix of portable platforming and swordplay, even if the PSP is prone to awkward analog controls and intolerable cameras – and this is no exception. But Bloodlines adopts too many ideas from its origins rather than the impressively improved sequel, which seems completely counterproductive. There’s a lot to like about Assassin’s Creed on PSP, provided you’re tolerant of its heavy flaws, and we love that you can connect it to your PS3 and unlock new weapons in Assassin’s Creed 2 – we just wish the developers had looked more to the future rather than the past when creating it.

The Xbox 360 hasn’t exactly had a smooth ride to this point, what with the dreaded Red Ring of Death hitting the system hard in its early days. But the console has now hit the 40-million -old milestone. And with the Natal motion control system due to be released by the 2010 holidays, the future is looking positive.

Microsoft entered the games hardware market in 2001 with the original Xbox. And the console did extremely well considering it was the company’s first attempt, managing to sell 24 million units, beating both the Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo GameCube to place second in its generation. It couldn’t compete with the Sony PS2, however, which ruled all with 140 million units sold.

This was enough to persuade Microsoft to carry on its efforts in the games industry, and the Xbox 360 arrived late in 2005. Within months, users started reporting fatal hardware errors, signified by the Red Ring of Death which appeared on the front of the unit. Microsoft eventually acted to appease customers extending the warranty of the console to three years, meaning a replacement can be sought when the RRoD occurs.

With that out of the way Microsoft has upped its game, constantly improving Xbox Live, and securing both Xbox 360 exclusives and former Playstation exclusives such as the latest game in the Final Fantasy series. And sales have remained steady and strong throughout.

Microsoft is now reporting that 40 million Xbox 360s have been sold worldwide, placing it second amongst home consoles, behind the Wii but ahead of the PS3. Sales do seem to have taken a slight dip of late, with the PS3 being the main beneficiary, but certainly in the U.S. at least, demand remains strong.

The next 12 months are all about motion control. The Wii has had such a system in place since launch, which has helped Nintendo sell the console to casual gamers around the world. But both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are set to get their own motion control systems before the year is out.

Natal is the name of the Xbox 360’s entry, and is innovative due to the fact that a gamer’s whole body becomes the controller thanks to a 3D camera system. How this will work in practice remains to be seen but the theory looks exciting. And if it takes off then it could change the face of gaming forever.

EA’s World Cup games used to suffer from a lack of effort; now they’re built to look effortless. 2010 FIFA World Cup exudes the confidence of a development team at the top of their game – orchestrating the bigger picture with myriad subtle prods and pokes, like Zinedine Zidane in his majestic, late 90s pomp – rather than relying on showy gimmicks to deflect attention from fundamental weaknesses.

What’s changed since FIFA 10? Loads. EA claim over 100 gameplay improvements, the majority obscenely subtle, though no less welcome. Keepers are quicker off their line, headers are punchier, players more physical in collisions, short passes crisper, chesting no longer leads to infuriating player ‘freezing’ and player/ situation specific animations are more expressive. Simply, it plays better.

For example, when using the right stick first touch, Bellamy might flick a bouncing ball over his head to keep momentum, rather than trapping it on the ground, while midfield schemers like Fabregas might automatically opt to heel flick a one-touch pass in a crowded midfield. Shooting also benefits from context-sensitive animations, resulting in goals like Joe Cole’s delicate flick in the recent Manchester United game with a simple tap of the shoot button.

Visually, it’s brighter and crisper than FIFA 10, with – for the World Cup teams at least – improved likenesses. Sadly, for fans of Ireland, Wales and, er, Aruba, ‘star’ players like Damien Duff are decent, but more generic – forgivable, given the 199 team roster. There are new, more ostentatious, goal celebrations – Heskey doing the moonwalk never fails – plus authentic manager likenesses, although the cutscene breaks start to intrude.

The penalty system is deeper, but initially bewildering. You need to stop an oscillating ‘composure’ bar in its central sweet spot, then direct the shot ‘blind’ using analogue pushes. Top players have a bigger sweet spot, but the bar speeds up subject to the occasion. Problem is, even when you nail the composure, gauging the length of analogue stick pushes is highly demanding. Initially, your shots either go straight, or blaze wide. The practice arena lets you see how the ‘invisible’ shot pointer responds to your analogue pushes, but in-game, it’s still slightly nebulous. Our tip? Practice. A lot.

The new, optional, ‘two button’ control scheme screams father/son play, mapping complex controls – fairly intuitively – to two buttons. Tap, or hold, pass, and the game will play the appropriate through ball, or lofted pass; hold shoot, and it chooses between precision strikes, chips and blasts. It’s surprisingly effective, but on higher difficulty, feels a bit like attempting heart surgery with artificially intelligent forks, not surgical implements. Still, it’s another smart addition to broaden the game’s appeal.

Welcome to the beginning of the end! EA today announced that gamers worldwide will experience an all-new way to play RTS games when Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight hits store shelves beginning March 16^th. Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight brings the 15 year-long fan-beloved Tiberium saga to an epic and stunning conclusion and offers players innovative and compelling strategic depth through its new class-based gameplay, mobile bases and experience system throughout all game modes.  EA also announced the first pre-order incentives for Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight. Fans who pre-order the game now will receive early access to the upcoming beta program, the game’s official soundtrack and an exclusive prequel bonus mission.**

“Finally, fans will learn what happens to Kane, Nod, GDI, Earth and Tiberium when Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight hits store shelves March 16^th,” said Mike Glosecki, Lead Producer of Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight at EA Los Angeles. “We can’t wait for fans to experience the trademark C&C action with the new level of strategic depth we have added, especially with our new experience system.”

Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight throws players into the epic battles between the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of Nod with its enigmatic leader Kane. With its new experience and class-based systems that are persistent across all game modes, Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight sticks to the action-packed gameplay fans have come to love while offering them entirely new ways to play Command & Conquer. Whether conquering alone, in co-op mode or in an all-new 5v5 objective-based multiplayer mode, Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight delivers an innovative social real-time-strategy experience never seen before in a Command & Conquer game.

Pre-orders are now available at the EA Store and include early access into the multiplayer beta program, the official soundtrack of Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight as well as an additional bonus mission.

Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight is being developed for the PC at EA Los Angeles and will be available in North America on March 16^th 2010 and in Europe on March 19^th. The game has not yet been rated by the ESRB or PEGI.  For more information about the game, please visit the Official Website or follow the community and development team on Twitter at ea_apoc.

From the Makers of the Best RPG of 2009, Dragon Age: Origins, comes the first official expansion pack.

For centuries, the Grey Wardens-the ancient order of guardians, sworn to unite and defend the lands-have been battling the darkspawn forces.  Legend spoke that slaying the Archdemon would have put an end to the darkspawn threat for centuries to come, but somehow they remain.

You are the Grey Warden Commander and have been entrusted with the duty of rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens and

uncovering the secrets of the darkspawn and how they managed to remain.

How you choose to rebuild your order, how you resolve the conflict with “The Architect”, and how you determine the fate of the darkspawn will be but some of the many complex choices that await and shape your journey as you venture to the new land of Amaranthine.

A Stunning World Expanded: BioWare’s deepest universe to date just got bigger with an all new area of the world to explore, Amaranthine

• Unlock the secrets of the Darkspawn and their true motivations
• Rebuild the Grey Warden order and establish their base of operations at Vigil’s Keep

All-new Complex Moral Choices: Embark on an epic story that is completely defined and reactive to your play style

• Shape your entire experience based on the choices you make and how your handle complex situations

New Ways to Customize your Hero: Experience additional spells, abilities, specializations, and items to further personalize and customize your hero and party

• Import your character from Dragon Age: Origins or start anew as a Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais
• Encounter five all-new party members and an old favorite from Dragon Age: Origins

Even more Bone-Crushing, Visceral Combat: Battle against a new range of horrific and terrifying creatures

• Put your skills to the test against an evolved, intelligent breed of Darkspawn and other menacing creatures including the Inferno Golem and Spectral Dragon!