Need for Speed: Undercover

กมส์ Need for Speed: Undercover
เกมส์ซิ่งรถภาคใหม่ที่รอคอย ภาคนี้กลับมาซิ่งแบบใต้ดินกันอีกครั้ง

ทันทีที่ทราบผลจากยอดขายของภาค Need for Speed ProStreet ทางคุณ John Riccitiello ที่มีตำแหน่งเป็น CEO ของ Electronic Arts ถึงกับหน้าถอดสีอย่างแรก พร้อมกับบ่นออกมาว่า What a Damm shit ! (แปลกันเองนะ) เมื่อรู้ว่ายอดขายของเกมภาคล่าสุดนั้นไม่ได้ตามเป้าที่คาดไว้เอาเสียเลย และเขาผิดหวังมากที่คิดปรับเปลี่ยนรูปแบบของเกมส์ Need for Speed จากการแข่งรถแบบใต้ดินมาเป็นการแข่งรถแบบถูกกฏกติกาในภาค Need for Speed ProStreet และแล้วเขาก็ตัดสินใจทุบโต๊ะดังปั๊งงงงง! และตัดสินใจส่ง Need for Speed ภาคใหม่ออกมาแนวใต้ดินอีกครั้งในชื่อภาคว่า Need for Speed: Undercover

เนื้อเรื่องของเกมส์ Need for Speed: Undercover จะเป็นการแข่งรถแบบใต้ดินกันอีกครั้ง ซึ่งอาจจะเรียกว่าเป้นการแข่งรถก็ไม่ได้เสมอไป เพราะในเกมส์ภาคนี้ผู้เล่นจะมีทั้งแข่งรถแบบใต้ดิน และรับภารกิจขับรถแบบเป็นตีนผีขับรถส่งคนหรือส่งของ ไปให้ถึงจุดหมายในเวลาที่ต้องการ โดยที่ระหว่างทางจะมีคู่อริ ตำรวจ หรืออื่นๆ คอยขัดขวาง ซึ่งคุณ John Riccitiello บอกว่าเขาอยากให้ออกมาในรูปแบบของภาพยนตร์เรื่อง Transporter กันเลย แต่จะมียิงกันถล่มกันแบบในหนังหรือไม่ อันนี้ต้องรอชม

และเพื่อความรวดเร็วในการวางจำหน่ายเกม คุณ John Riccitiello บอกว่าในภาคนี้เขาได้ตัดสินใจว่าจ้างทีมงานสร้างถึงสองทีมด้วยกันคือ EA Vancouverและ Black Box เพราะในภาคที่แล้วๆมานั้นเขาใช้ทีมงานน้อยไปหน่อย กว่าเกมจะเสร็จก็กินเวลาไปเป็นปี แต่ในภาคนี้เขาจะให้มันเร็วขึ้น และกำหนดวางจำหน่ายภายในเดือนพฤศจิกายน 2008 นี้ ส่วนภาพเกมส์ยังไม่เปิดเผย ต้องรออัพเดตเกมส์อีกสักนิดหนึ่ง

Counter Strike Online : Zombie

ผู้พัฒนา : Valve (ร่วมกับ Nexon)
เว็บไซต์ : http://csonline.nexon.com
สถานะ : Commercial (เกาหลี)
สเป็กเครื่องขั้นต่ำ : Pentium III 600MHz, RAM 128MB, RivaTNT2

“ขึ้นชื่อว่าเกมต้นตำรับ แต่ก็ใช่ว่าพอทำเป็นออนไลน์แล้วประสบความสำเร็จเสมอไป” คำวิจารณ์นี้เคยเกิดขึ้นกับ Counter Strike Online ใน ช่วงต้นๆ ซึ่งกระแสเงียบผิดจากที่คาดไว้ แต่ช่วงเดือน 7 จู่ๆ ยอดผู้เล่นก็พุ่งพรวดกว่าเท่าตัว ติดอันดับ 3 เกม FPS ออนไลน์เกาหลี ซึ่งเป็นผลจากการเพิ่ม MOD “Zombie” เข้ามา ปัจจุบัน มียอดผู้เล่นโหมดนี้เกินกว่า 70% จากผู้เล่นทุกโหมดรวมกัน

โหมด Zombie รองรับผู้เล่นมากที่สุด 32 คน เล่นจบเป็นรอบๆ ระยะเวลาส่วนใหญ่จะเซ็ตไว้ที่ 2 – 3 นาที ฉากทั้งหมดเป็นช่วงค่ำ ใช้ Night Vision ไม่ได้ มีแต่ไฟฉาย เริ่มมาผู้เล่นเลือกได้แค่ฝ่ายเดียว จะเลือกชุดเป็นตำรวจ หรือโจรก็ตามใจชอบ ผู้เล่นทุกคนไม่สามารถโจมตีกันได้ (ยกเว้นเซ็ตไว้ ให้ยิงกันได้)

เมื่อเริ่มเล่น ผู้เล่นจะเกิดแบบสุ่มในฉาก มี HP 1,000 AP 100 ให้เลือกอาวุธที่ต้องการแบบ Counter Strike เลือกได้ทั้งของฝ่ายตำรวจและโจร โดยไม่เสียเงินในการซื้อของ มีเวลาให้ 15 วินาที เพื่อให้เลือกอาวุธ และไปรวมกลุ่มตามที่ต่างๆ เมื่อเวลานับถอยหลังเป็น 0 จะมีคนสุ่มเป็นซอมบี้ (ขึ้นกับจำนวนคนในห้อง) คนที่เป็นซอมบี้โดยการสุ่ม จะมีเครนบนหลัง และเลือดเริ่มต้นหลักหมื่น

เมื่อซอมบี้โจมตีคนปกติ จะทำให้คนนั้นกลายเป็นซอมบี้ทันที โดย ที่ซอมบี้ตัวใหม่อาจจะได้ HP สูงสุดเพิ่ม หรือไม่เพิ่ม แต่น้อยกว่าตัวที่มาจากการสุ่ม มนุษย์จะชนะเมื่อถ่วงเวลาได้จนหมด (เซ็ตไว้ 2 – 3 นาที) แต่ถ้าถูกเปลี่ยนเป็นซอมบี้หมดทั้งฉาก ฝ่ายซอมบี้จะชนะ จะว่าไปโหมดนี้ก็เหมือนการวิ่งไล่จับกันดีๆ นี่เอง แต่ลองเล่นสักครั้งจะเข้าใจครับว่าถึงเป็นโหมดยอดนิยมได้

The House of the Dead: Overkill Updated Hands-On

Yes, it's another House of the Dead game. No, it's not "just another" House of the Dead game.


We know what you're thinking. The second you read the title of this story you considered moving on to another page, or even shutting down your browser altogether, right? Another House of the Dead game? How could that be interesting to anyone? We hear you, but trust us when we say that despite some similarities to previous series entries, Sega's upcoming The House of the Dead: Overkill is a fun-filled retro reboot of the long-running zombie-blasting series that looks to be one of the early highlights on the Wii in 2009. And if you don't believe us, you can just $&@# our &#*@.
OK, sorry about that outburst. You see, it's this Isaac Washington guy. He's one of the heroes of Overkill who, along with the mysterious and handsome Agent G, does his best to rid the world of infected mutants (read: zombies) one bullet at a time. He's also got one of the foulest mouths we've ever seen in a video game--or at least on the Wii--and his racy commentary is just one of the highlights in Overkill. Toss in a grainy film look and an entirely cheesy grindhouse feel to the cutscenes that bookend each of the levels in Overkill, and you've got a charming package that's equal parts zombie-blasting action and chuckle-worthy one-liners.

Mutant zombies? Scary. Mutant zombie back-flipping clowns? Friggin' terrifying.

The back-and-forth between Washington and Agent G is always engaging, but of course it's the gameplay that means the most in Overkill. While the game's look and feel might be decidedly retro, the nuts and bolts of blasting zombies by the bushel are still intact. This is still rail shooting at its heart, with a constantly changing first-person perspective and zombies coming at you from every angle. Your goal is to blast anything that moves by aiming with the Wii Remote and pulling the B button to let loose with your weapon of choice (and reloading with the A button).
Power-ups in Overkill will help you along in your two-man battle against the horde of infected zombies. These include basic health packs, grenade pickups that come in handy when things get crowded, a power-up that lets you temporarily slow down time, and a brain-shaped power-up that acts as a points multiplier. Points play a particularly important part in Overkill's gameplay; when you die, you'll spend a chunk of the points you've earned along the way to resurrect yourself. If you run out of points, you'll run out of lives.
Nearly as helpful as points is the cash you'll earn for completing levels. In between each mission, you can head to the gun shop where you can spend money on upgrades for your current weapon (such as increased damage or a larger clip) or buy an entirely new weapon. You start off with a standard pistol but can upgrade to a submachine gun, shotgun, assault rifle, and more.
The missions we played in Overkill seem to follow an overarching plot of sorts, with Agent G and Detective Washington on the heels of a bad guy known as Papa Caesar. The duo start off in an abandoned house before taking the fight to a hospital overrun with zombies and, later, to a circus complete with a bevy of undead backflipping clowns, which, coincidentally, happen to be the scariest things our minds can conjure. Each mission ended with a boss fight, including one boss that seemed remarkably similar in design to the witch in Left 4 Dead. Presumably the game will feature a big showdown between the duo and Papa Caesar, and the game gives you the option to add extra mutant enemies to a level, which should give it some replay value.
Three minigames will find their way into Overkill, two of which are mildly amusing. Stayin' Alive is a survival-type game that challenges you to defeat wave after wave of zombies. Victim Support challenges you to protect fleeing civilians from mutant freaks; the more civvies that escape, the more points you'll earn. The final, and least inspired, minigame is called Money Shot II and is a standard carny shooting game, with moving targets and a time limit--shoot as many targets as you can within the time limit. If time runs out, it's game over.
So, there are a few things to take away from our time with The House of the Dead: Overkill. First, Isaac Washington is in the early lead for best new character of 2009. Second, the game's '70s feel and outrageous dialogue will keep you giggling in between the gameplay that feels pretty much exactly like the House of the Dead games of the past. Finally, the game is due out in less than a month, so get ready to lock and load.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Hands-On

We get an early look at CDV's action role-playing game as it makes its way to consoles.

There's something about PC action role-playing games that draws you in, even though you're not doing too much beyond slashing foes, collecting loot, doing quests, and upgrading your gear. This formula has worked well for many PC games over the years, but how does it translate to a console? Developer Ascaron takes the test by migrating last year's PC version of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel to the Xbox 360 as well as the PlayStation 3. Although the build we played is an alpha build, we were able to get a feel for what it would be like to take a romp through the vast lands of Ancaria.

It takes talent to fight in those stilettos.

After the initial gloomy cutscene that set the stage for this adventure, the story wasn't what we ended up focusing on, since its purpose is just to give you an excuse to keep going. We gathered that there's trouble brewing among the high elves and it involves T-energy, a hot commodity that you'll find flowing through what looks like oil pipes. This bright blue liquid is essentially the life source for those in Ancaria. However, depending on how much you care about the world and its citizens, it's the side quests and the loot that ultimately keep you coming back for more. You choose from six character types: temple guardian, seraphim, dryad, shadow warrior, inquisitor, and high elf. It's obvious which characters are female, given the fact that the seraphim, dryad, and high elf clearly have an aversion to pants. Choices are limited in terms of customization, especially for the men since you can't do much about their hair. But if you're looking to sport a high ponytail and blue hair, then you're in luck. Once you select which campaign you'd like to follow, the light path or the shadow, you'll be whisked to the starting point of your journey.
While the build is far from complete, what is impressive is the scope of the land that you've set out to explore. This 22-square-mile world should have no loading times in the final version, with the exception of entering dungeons and caves. This provides a seamless experience as you race across dry fields and worn dirt paths to reach the next town or outpost. Along the way, you'll encounter an endless supply of brigands, wild boars, and undead creatures, so be sure to pick up quests as you go, because chances are you can stab some of these menaces for a reward. A minimap in the top left corner helps by pointing you in the direction of your current side quest, and an orange arrow points you toward the main story.
Raiding and pillaging camps is already a blast on your own, but having a friend jump in with a second controller makes it even more worthwhile. Fallen Angel supports two-player offline play, as well as four players via Xbox Live. Hopefully by the time the game ships you'll be able to drop in and drop out with ease, but right now that feature still needs a bit of work.
The controls work well for the most part, although it can take a while to figure out how to navigate the menus quickly. There is no pause button, so you shouldn't rummage through your belongings in the middle of a well-traveled road unless you want to get jumped. The left bumper is used quite a bit to interact with the townsfolk and to open chests. You can map selected weapons and spells to the face buttons so that you're well-equipped for some serious button-mashing. Potions and other handy items are mapped to the D pad for easy access. It still feels and looks like a PC game, however, especially with the camera angle hovering in a top-down view or brought in so that it rests high over your shoulder.

Just like riding a bicycle.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel still requires quite a bit of polish in many areas, but if the developer can get rid of the issues and spruce up the visuals, it should be a solid action RPG that console gamers can enjoy. For further details on Sacred 2, please read our PC review of the game. Prepare to unleash that T-energy when Fallen Angel is released on March 24.

Guitar Hero: Metallica First Look

We take a look at the first Guitar Hero spin-off to support guitars, drums, and vocals.

If you want a good example of the incredible growth the Guitar Hero series has undergone since its 2005 debut, last year's Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is a great place to start. It's hard to tell who exactly the headliner was in that show: the phenomenally successful band that's been around for nearly 40 years or the phenomenally successful video game franchise that's existed for a 10th of that time. No matter the answer, the formula must have worked, because Activision will soon be releasing a similar spin-off in the form of Guitar Hero: Metallica. Besides the obvious switch from bluesy hard rock to heavy metal, Guitar Hero: Metallica will differ from its predecessor by supporting the full suite of instruments bundled with Guitar Hero: World Tour while also cranking up the level of fan service packed into the game. Just yesterday, some members of the Neversoft development team dropped by the GameSpot office to give us a look at what to expect out of the final release.

Metallica band members are rendered in Guitar Hero's signature caricatures.

The challenge that exists in creating a music game dedicated to such a massive artist is the sense of progression in the game's Career mode. After all, when you're already on top of the world, there's not a lot of vertical growth left to achieve. Neversoft's solution to this will be to replace the documentary-style approach of the Aerosmith game--which took you on a chronological journey of the band's greatest hits--with a fleshed-out storyline that puts you in the shoes of a garage band looking to achieve their dream of opening for Metallica. Animated interludes that play out between sets show a young collection of Metallica fans doing their best to win over the famous rockers, and the visual style is definitely in the rough and grungy aesthetic Guitar Hero fans are familiar with.
The progression of the game's Career mode will alternate between performances by Metallica--complete with eerily accurate character models for all four members--and performances by the upstart band featuring characters of your own creation. Metallica will be playing some of their hits, such as "Enter Sandman," "Master of Puppets," "No Leaf Clover," "The Unforgiven," and "Nothing Else Matters," alongside some lesser-known numbers, while your group will be covering the work of bands that are associated with Metallica in some way. Whether it's a group that played with Metallica, inspired them, or used them as a source of their own inspiration, there will be a wide variety of other bands' music available to you. A few examples are Bob Seger's "Turn the Page," Social Distortion's "Mommy's Little Monster," Mastadon's "Blood and Thunder," Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Tuesdays Gone," and Judas Priest's "Hell Bent for Leather"--plus an unnamed Queen song. Similarly, the venues you'll be playing in will be those taken from key moments in Metallica's career and will include the likes of the Los Angeles Forum, Hammersmith Apollo, and Tushino Airfield in Moscow.
Like the Aerosmith game before it, Guitar Hero: Metallica will have a lot of fan service for those who consider themselves big followers of the band--the only difference is that Metallica will have a lot more of it. As you progress through the game's songs, you'll unlock all sorts of bonus features, such as video of old live performances and behind-the-scenes footage at Neversoft, pictures such as backstage photos and setlists, and other audiovisual fragments of the band's history. One of the more interesting unlockables is something called "Metallifacts," which is a performance of each song in the game by the computer accompanied by pop-ups on the screen containing facts about each song. For example, if you didn't realize before that "For Whom the Bell Tolls" was inspired by James Hetfield's love for the work of Ernest Hemingway and represents one of the many examples of literary allusion in his songs, well, now you do. Further unlockables include details for each song, such as lyricist, producer, original recording date, and complete lyrics.

Expert+ drum difficulty allows you to play with two kick pedals.

One thing that sets Metallica apart from a lot of bands featured in Guitar Hero games is the prominent use of double bass pedal in their drum work. For World Tour, Neversoft had to effectively cut the number of pedal strikes in half for a lot of songs on the expert difficulty level, at the risk of forcing players to upgrade their human feet into something a little more cyborg. Now they've introduced a new difficulty setting for drums called Expert+, which allows you to plug in a second kick pedal (using a splitter accessory) and play the songs with full pedals. We watched as a member of Neversoft played through one Metallica song on this setting, and at several points during the song his entire note highway was filled purple kick pedal notes. It made our feet hurt just looking at it. But you can take solace in the fact that this is a purely optional bonus setting for mildly insane drummers; normal players won't be required to drum with both pedals on the standard, beginner-to-expert difficulty levels.
This being Neversoft's second stab at the multi-instrument branch of rhythm games, it has had some time to see what works and doesn't work as far as the gameplay is concerned. What Neversoft has found is that it liked the way players mimicked songs, but there was some room for improvement in terms of how players could tell whether or not they were doing a good job of it. So Neversoft made a few small but noticeable changes to the game's heads-up display. Now your overall success gauge won't be tucked away in the upper left corner; it will be attached to each player's own note highway, so as to limit the distance your eyes need to travel between seeing which notes you're playing and seeing how well you're playing them. Another change has been made to the overall feedback system for how well you're doing as a band. If the entire group is at risk of failing a song, the edges of the screen will glow progressively redder, as you might see in a first-person shooter along the lines of Call of Duty.
One of the biggest features from Guitar Hero: World Tour, the music studio, will be available in the Metallica game. A few Metallica-specific guitar sounds have even been added, such as the ESP Truckster guitar tone. All the songs you make in the music studio here will be compatible with those made in World Tour's music studio, and vice versa. That's good news if you've created a discography's worth of Metallica-inspired tunes in the World Tour music studio and would love nothing more than to play them in Metallica's favorite venues using spot-on doppelgangers of the band. You'll have the chance to do that when the game is released this spring.

Red Alert 3: Uprising First Impressions

The crazy world of RA3 heats up in its first expansion pack, bringing new units and modes to the franchise.

A hallmark of the real-time strategy genre has always been expansion packs, so Uprising will certainly be no surprise to Command & Conquer veterans. After introducing a wide range of wacky, improbable, and ingenious contraptions in Red Alert 3, the team at EA LA are adding a dozen more with the first expansion, Uprising, which is being released for the PC later in March. Senior producer Amer Ajami was on hand to showcase the pack during a recent media event at EA's Guildford offices.

The team has added about a dozen new units to Uprising.

Uprising kicks off after the events in Red Alert 3, taking place after the Allies have won the war. Despite being victorious, it's not all easy going for the new global watchdog and all-round peacekeeper, and the Allies will still have a fight on their hands as the Soviets and Empire of the Rising Sun continue to wage war. Uprising will also shed some light on private military contractor Futuretech, which was briefly mentioned in Red Alert 3, and how it has enabled the Allies to stay at the forefront of military technology. In addition to introducing three new "minicampaign" modes--one each for the Allies, Soviets, and Rising Sun--Uprising also introduces a new mode exclusively for fan favourite Yuriko. The Japanese schoolgirl will have a number of commando-style missions to undertake, and the action centres on the Shiro Sanitarium, where she was empowered with her psionic abilities. Ajami told us that other characters will return for Uprising, including our personal favourite Lt Eva McKenna, played by British bombshell Gemma Atkinson.
Yuriko's sister Azumi, a new (and presumably nonplayable) character for the series, sends you a psychic video message telling you to escape using your special abilities. Yuriko's "one-man army" missions are essentially dungeon-crawling exercises and will be familiar to those who've played previous instalments in the series. You can't build structures or call for reinforcements and instead will have to rely on her powers to get you through.
During her campaign, you'll unlock several powers that let her lift and squeeze enemies to a pulp, unleash an Akira-like bubble that destroys nearby infantry, mind-control up to three nearby enemy units, as well as use telekinesis to throw objects in the environment at her foes. Yuriko is still sensitive to enemy fire, and you'll need to be careful when attacking other troops, but thankfully there are healing stations scattered throughout the Sanitarium that will let you recharge when you stand within a certain radius. While battling your way through the facility, you'll encounter terminals on which you can unlock secret files and new abilities. EA LA has also updated the game's physics system, including new rag-doll physics specifically for this mode, which makes sense given the smaller, indoor war zone.
Commander's Challenge is another new addition and is similar to the General's Challenge in Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour. In it, you'll fight skirmishes against AI-controlled commanders. There are 50 skirmish maps to complete, and each features a par time to beat; we're told that you'll unlock some extra goodies if you manage to finish the whole mode under par. It looks as if this will offer a challenge to experienced players, given that Ajami managed to miss the seven-and-a-half minute par time for the level being demoed by a clear 30 seconds.
The exact number of new units is still being finalised, but expect to unlock up to a dozen as you progress through the expansion's Campaign, Skirmish, and Commander's Challenge modes. Although Uprising is a purely single-player experience, Ajami told us that the team will decide in six months or so if it will update RA3 with a patch to let new units be playable in multiplayer matches. We saw two new units during the presentation: the Allies' Pacifier, developed by Futuretech, and the Rising Sun's Giga Fortress. The Pacifier is a hovertank equipped with twin miniguns that let you mow through groups of infantry in no time. The secondary attack can be used only on land, given that it turns the tank into a devastating, long-distance field artillery unit. Cruising around the battlefield with one of these, Ajami was able to lay waste to enemy structures within seconds of deployment.

Despite getting a beating from the Allies, the Rising Sun has remobilised for a new fight.

If the Pacifier sounds menacing, wait until you see the Rising Sun's Transformers-like Giga Fortress. This city-sized behemoth can float on water, resembling a lotus flower, or it can transform into a floating sphere to effortlessly glide above the ground while raining missiles on foes from on high, with a giant laser as its secondary attack. Apparently the Giga Fortress is immensely powerful, making victory almost certain, provided that it's not destroyed during the lengthy one-minute build time.
Red Alert 3: Uprising is due out in March and heading exclusively to the PC. For more on Red Alert 3, read our full review and watch our exclusive interview with Amer Ajami on this week's episode of Start/Select.


Credit  By Luke Anderson, GameSpot UK

MLB 2K9 First Hands-On

Pitching and batting get some tweaks in our exclusive hands-on with MLB 2K9.

If it has been a while since you've played 2K Sports' MLB 2K series, don't be surprised if the first pitch you throw on the mound is a strike. OK, allow yourself to be a little bit surprised; after all, the long-running baseball series has been chasing the virtual pitching sweet spot for nearly as long as Vlad Guerrero has been chasing curveballs. While it's too early to put the final judgment on our pitching prospects in MLB 2K9--as well as the rest of the game's lineup of features and improvements--based on what we saw last week during a demo of the game with 2K producers, things are looking up.

Whether on the mound...

Like all of the core titles in 2K Sports' roster of sports games, MLB 2K9 has been pulled into internal development. The result is a baseball game that, at least graphically, has been built from the ground up. Producers told us that while the AI code has been modified and built from previous entries in the MLB 2K series, the look and feel of the game are new. That includes the new front-end menus, which are reminiscent of those found in NBA 2K9.
There's no jaw-dropping feature in MLB 2K9 that looks to reinvent baseball games entirely. What the development team has done, instead, is pay attention to the complaints about MLB 2K8 and directly address them. While the preview code we played still looked and felt early (with graphical hitches aplenty), producers told us the development aims to deliver a smooth gameplay experience running at a full 60 frames per second. In addition, all of the cutaways during gameplay--from the crowd, to the players warming up in the batter's circle, to the batboy running up to home plate--will be real-time renders, not prerendered cutscenes.
Real-time cutaways are nice, but it's the nuts and bolts of pitching, batting, and fielding that will make the difference with MLB 2K9. We sampled all three, and while fielding remains virtually unchanged, the pitching and batting controls have received some subtle tweaks that improve both. The focus is still on the right stick, with each pitch in your pitcher's arsenal having a unique pattern to follow. Unlike in MLB 2K8, however, the timing is much easier. Last year's game featured an expanding and contracting onscreen ring in the strike zone, which determined both the effectiveness and the timing of your pitch. In MLB 2K9, the contracting ring has been removed, effectively removing the "timing" aspect of pitching and thus the rash of meatballs you would unwittingly throw in last year's game. Producers told us that pitching is still a challenge, but the game will focus more on the accuracy of your right stick movement than the timing of your release. Considering our intense dislike for last year's pitching system, this felt like an improvement to us, though obviously more time is required to see how the system plays out in the long run.

...or at bat, MLB 2K9's control tweaks make sense.

Batting, too, has received a face-lift. As with pitching, you still use the right stick to swing the bat. Unlike in previous games, however, you don't need to time your backswing; instead, you can hold the right stick down and your batter will stay in his prepared backswing stance. Then, when the ball crosses the mound, you can swing as you normally would. While the batting in MLB 2K8 was probably more true to life, it's more fun in MLB 2K9, and in this case, we'll go with fun over realism. Another new feature: the ability to influence the path of the ball when you make contact by moving the left analog stick in any direction. Move it up for a fly ball, down for a grounder, left to send the ball toward the third baseman, and so on. Naturally, the timing of your swing and when you make contact with the ball will still come into play here; the left stick will be just for influencing the path of the ball.
Our hands-on time with MLB 2K9 was limited to an inning or so. Afterward, producers gave us a tour of some of the other features that will be part of this year's game. As in previous MLB 2K games, the Inside Edge scouting service will be a big part of the action in MLB 2K9. Using the Inside Edge feature, you can get a detailed breakdown of the tendencies and history of every big-league player in the game. Producers told us that the Inside Edge feature also had an influence on the player ratings that the team came up with for this year's player roster. In addition to the Inside Edge player rating, MLB 2K9 will use sabermetrics, the highly specialized stats made famous by baseball analyst Bill James. These stats are essentially different ways of analyzing players and include value over replacement player, stolen base runs, game scores (average game score for a given pitcher), and more.
Both Inside Edge scouting and sabermetrics statistics will be ideal tools for use in your MLB 2K9 franchise, which has a look and feel much like that of NBA 2K9. Using an MLB.com front page, you'll get caught up with all of the latest news in your virtual franchise, generated on the fly from stats and game results as the season progresses. You can control up to 30 teams in your franchise (up from four in MLB 2K8), and as in NBA 2K9, you can customize what you control and what you don't in your franchise. Don't want to deal with the minor leagues? Automate it. Don't want to deal with player trades or your pitching rotation? Automate them.
Another similarity between NBA 2K9 and MLB 2K9 involves player ambitions. As in NBA 2K9, every player in MLB 2K9 will have individual desires based on factors like financial security, team prestige, and playing time. How each player measures up in each of these categories will determine just what he's looking for when it comes time to sit down and negotiate a contract. The smart GMs will tailor their offers to their players' individual needs. Add to that the MLB version of the living roster feature that was found in NBA 2K9, and you've got a baseball game that goes deep with the stats and will be constantly updated to keep up with the real sport.

This time around, you'll have more than one way to earn baseball cards for skilled players like Evan Longoria.

Good news for fans of the playing-card feature in MLB 2K8: The feature is returning for MLB 2K9. Even better news? It's going to be easier to earn cards and build your playing-card team than it was last year. For those who missed it last season, the trading card feature lets you earn player cards of real MLB players by completing various challenges, and then field your own unique team in the game (or take online against other players' trading card teams).
Last year, you had to complete a challenge with a certain player to earn that player's card; in MLB 2K9, you'll be able to earn a card by either completing a challenge with that player or completing a different challenge against that player. For instance, to earn Ryan Dempster's card, you'll need to either pitch four consecutive shutout innings with the Cubs starter or get six earned runs against Dempster in a single game. While we'd still prefer to buy cards in packs with in-game currency and leave a little of the trading-card system to chance, this new system will at least make it easier to build a decent team quickly. You'll naturally start with a full set of cards to build a playing-card team, and you'll be able to substitute in better players as you go. As in last year's game, you'll be able to get cards only by earning them in a game--no cards will be awarded for simulating games.
With Gary Thorne and former Mets GM Steve Phillips replacing Jon Miller and Joe Morgan in the booth, MLB 2K9's commentary will have a fresh new sound to it. And, of course, the game will still have all of the online features you've come to expect from the folks at 2K Sports. Still, it's the control changes that we're most curious about. We hope to get a better idea as to how these new tweaks change the gameplay in MLB 2K9 and will be bringing you more on the game ahead of its release in early March.

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard Hands-On

We take on 2D Nazis and androgynous JRPG bosses in our hands-on look at this satirical action game from Vicious Cycle.

At any given point in Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, the titular star of this tongue-in-cheek action game from developers Vicious Cycle might find himself squaring off against any of the following enemies: Mobsters, zombies, cowboys, space marines, 2D Nazis, and even Japanese role-playing game bosses. One part action game and several parts game-industry lampoon vehicle, Eat Lead is nothing if not unique. We had a chance to spend some hands-on time with an updated build of the game recently to see how far it's come since our previous look in October of last year.
The setup for Eat Lead revolves around Hazard, a fictional action-game star who racked up a string of hits across multiple platforms in the '80s and '90s. After a few disappointing bombs, Matt Hazard retired, only to take up his career as a two-fisted badass at the beginning of Eat Lead after getting an offer to star in a brand-new action game from megapublisher Marathon Megasoft. Traversing the eight levels that make up Eat Lead, Hazard soon discovers that the game is rigged and that the levels he's making his way through are trying to delete him…permanently.

If Matt Hazard isn't blasting 2D Nazis…

From that premise, Eat Lead takes the idea of poking fun at video games and runs with it, with levels that change in appearance and makeup on a dime, enemies that start out as soldiers only to transform into zombies, and boss battles that are memorable to say the least. It's tough to know what to expect from one area to the next in Eat Lead, and there are more than a few chuckle-worthy moments as a result.
Consider the sixth level of the game, which we got to play during the demo. After a brief intro movie that featured some back-and-forth between Hazard and his companion QA (who can hack into the game's levels and help him along the way), Hazard begins the level outside of a warehouse, surrounded by crates, forklifts, and trucks. These objects serve as perfect cover for Hazard, and you can use the cover system by pressing the A button on the Xbox 360 controller. Pressing the B button will cross Hazard over to a nearby cover point, if available, and you can aim your cursor and press the Y button to sprint to a specific point of cover.
Safely behind cover, we first took out the bad guys that were in the level using a pistol. It wasn't long before we picked up a machine gun and, once the level was cleared, we moved into the warehouse. We found more bad guys inside, only these looked completely different from the enemies we fought outside, considering their garish armor and their use of what appeared to be water guns. As it turned out, these guys were holdover enemies from an ill-fated, kid-friendly water-gun shooter from Hazard's 64-bit days. As silly as it sounds to be taking up arms with a water gun, it got the job done against these clowns, so we went with it.
Now, naturally, you don't spend an entire level fighting bad guys with squirt guns. Any game called "Eat Lead" better have an assortment of weaponry to choose from and, indeed, we played with submachine guns, sniper rifles, even laser blasters. Blasting enemies doesn't technically kill them; these are virtual bad guys, after all. Instead, Hazard can absorb a defeated enemy's code. If he builds up enough code, you can add a temporary ice or fire damage modifier to whichever weapon you're carrying.
Like the neon bad guys who were susceptible to water blasts, many of the enemies have unique traits that you'll discover as you go. In the level that we played, we also ran into space marines reminiscent of a certain visor-wearing, heavily armored, combat-evolved hero. Conventional weaponry didn't really do much to them but, if you managed to snag a laser pistol, you could take them down with relative ease. Our favorite garden-variety enemies were the 2D Nazis, patterned after something out of the original Castle Wolfenstein. Blasting these flat-planed bad guys was easy…until they turned sideways, at which point they effectively disappeared from view until they decided to face you again.

…he's facing off against Japanese RPG bosses.

By far the highlight of the level that we played was the final boss battle, in which Hazard takes on a final boss, known as Altos Tratus, who had the creepily androgynous look of, well, practically every Japanese role-playing game enemy ever made. Better than the boss's look, though, was his speech, or rather the lack of it. To get through Tratus' long-winded prefight speech, the frustrated Hazard has to page through multiple screens of text, and the occasional puzzling ellipses. Though the boss battle was in real time, Tratus plays like a turn-based boss in true RPG style--and defeating him was a matter of figuring out which attack he would do next, blasting him for as much damage as possible, and preventing him from healing himself.
Though the concept in Eat Lead is solid--with loving nods to everything from JRPGs to Super Mario Bros.--there were a few rough areas that we hope get attention before the game is released. Melee attacks, which you pull off in close quarters by pressing the X button, didn't have much oomph to them and seemed pretty ineffective as well. In addition, though Hazard's movements into and out of cover seemed smooth, he feels fairly stiff to us when running and shooting; a bit more responsiveness in the controls would be a welcome addition. If the gameplay manages to live up to Eat Lead's satirical metaplot, it has a good chance at finding success. The game is due on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in early March.


Credit By Brian Ekberg, GameSpot

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned Hands-On

We get our motor running and head out on the highways of Liberty City in this hands-on with the upcoming Xbox 360-exclusive expansion for Grand Theft Auto IV.

The Lost and Damned has been somewhat of a mystery thus far, with few concrete details known about the upcoming expansion to Grand Theft Auto IV other than that it would focus on a brand-new protagonist (biker Johnny Klebbitz) and that it would add plenty of content in the form of new music, rides, weapons, and characters. So as you can imagine, we have been keen to find out more and jumped at the chance to roam the streets of Liberty City again when Rockstar opened up its offices to us this week for an early look.

Is he lost, or damned? Answers on a postcard...

From what we saw at our hands-on session, The Lost and Damned expansion is certainly much more than horse armor or a few extra added missions. Rockstar claims this Xbox 360-exclusive addition features the same attention to detail and production values as the original Grand Theft Auto IV. While we couldn't pin down our local Rockstar rep on exactly how many extra hours of playtime goodness 360 owners can expect, it seems that there will be plenty to do as you explore this new story set in a familiar place. The biggest GTAIV fans will, unsurprisingly, get the most out of The Lost and Damned, with seemingly plenty of nods to Niko Bellic and a difficulty level that presumes from the get-go that you know your way around Liberty City.
Unlike the mostly solitary fish-out-of-water tale that was Niko Bellic's narrative in GTAIV, Johnny's journey in The Lost and Damned is more about brotherhood. So while Niko--a new arrival in Liberty--had to work at getting safe houses and contacts for guns, backup, and cars, Johnny (as a longtime resident of the city) will have all these at his disposal right from the start of the story. Safe houses are where you can interact with your other brothers in the Lost, with new minigames such as arm wrestling and card games joining old favorites like pool. There will be plenty of missions where you'll ride out as part of a pack of Lost, with your brothers helping you out in the tougher firefights. You'll be encouraged to keep your bros alive, and surviving members of your gang will receive a stats boost to their health, accuracy, and damage dealing after each mission. If a Lost member does die, he'll be replaced with a new brother with set-to-zero stats. Simply put, the longer they stay breathing, the more help they'll be. And the attempts to make you feel like a member of a real biker gang don't stop there. When you're riding with your gang, a Lost logo will appear on the road to indicate where you need to be in order to stay in formation. If you stick to the logo, you'll be rewarded with dialogue with your brothers, as well as a small health boost.

Here's Johnny... Expect fireworks.

Main character Johnny is the second-in-command of the Alderney-based biker gang The Lost, while gang president Billy is serving a stint in rehab. The Lost and Damned begins with the violent and unstable Billy finally making it out of rehab, taking the reins of the gang back from the more profit-oriented Johnny. Billy's first order of business is to shoot a member of rival gang The Angels of Death directly outside the Lost clubhouse, ending the truce Johnny brokered and sparking off a new gang war. The Rockstar rep had control of the demo at this stage, taking Johnny as he and the rest of the Lost got on their hogs to chase down the remaining Angels as they sped away from the clubhouse. It was here that we saw a new weapon--the sawed-off shotgun--which Johnny used one-handed to bring down the Angels. We also saw the first of the new vehicles promised: the Hexer, Johnny's custom-built bike, which is unique in the game. And when we say unique, we mean it--apparently there is no way to recover the bike should it get destroyed during a mission.
We grabbed the controls at this stage and set about walking Johnny around to see how different a character he was to Niko. He certainly acted differently onscreen, exhibiting a unique set of mannerisms from what we were used to with Niko. The first mission we took on was called Action/Reaction, in which Billy ordered the Lost to attack the Angels' clubhouse in retaliation for the supposed murder of a young Lost member (fans of GTAIV, however, will remember that it was actually Niko who capped that biker in the No Love Lost mission). Johnny starts the mission off with a grenade launcher, pegging an explosive through the Angels' clubhouse window to start the pain. Plenty of Angels then stream out of the building, starting a large firefight with the five or so members of the Lost who are acting as backup. After the opposition is cleaned up outside, Billy and Johnny make their way into the clubhouse to finish off the remaining Angels. In the basement, Billy orders another Lost to take the Angels' stash of heroin, prompting Johnny to suspect that revenge was never Billy's motive for the attack.
The next mission we took on once again intertwined with a storyline from GTAIV. If you played the full game, you'll probably recall one mission called Blow Your Cover, where drug queen Elizabeta sent Niko and Playboy X to broker a heroine deal in some abandoned apartments. It seems that the heroine was actually the gear the Lost stole from the Angels, and Johnny hooked up with Niko and Playboy X to try to sell the smack. In The Lost and Damned, you'll play this mission, now called Buyer's Market, from Johnny's point of view. Of course, the deal ends up being a police sting, and while Niko escapes by heading to the rooftops and sneaking away, Johnny decides to go the direct route downstairs and take on the cops. This is, of course, a pretty tough option, because there are plenty of police with heavy armor standing in between Johnny and the Hexer. We're not ashamed to say we found this fight quite tough, but it's going to be a good challenge for experienced GTA veterans..

The Lost and Damned starts off pretty tough--but Liberty City veterans probably won't mind.

The final mission we played harked back to the old on-rails shooting challenges of previous GTA games. In the Shifting Weight mission, yet another drug deal goes wrong, and Johnny and Uptown Riders gang members Malcolm and DeSaun have to flee the police. You control Johnny as he rides on the back of Malcolm's motorbike. The Lost gang member is armed with a cool automatic shotgun with unlimited ammo, which is handy given that dozens of police cars are in pursuit. This section was pure fun, with a palpable adrenaline rush as you pound police car after police car (and even two low-swooping police helicopters) with shotgun pellets as you zoom through the city.
From our brief hands-on with The Lost and Damned, it's clear the expansion will feature the same mature narrative, great voice work, and action-packed mayhem of GTAIV. It's especially rewarding to see the intertwining stories of Johnny and Niko play out. We'll have more on The Lost and Damned in the weeks leading up to its release in mid-February, so keep it locked to GameSpot for more information.

Credit By Randolph Ramsay, GameSpot AU

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon Hands-On

What's old is new again in our latest look at the Fire Emblem series' debut on the Nintendo DS.

The next Fire Emblem game represents a step forward for the long-running strategy series, while ironically being a blast from the past. The upcoming Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is the first in the series to appear on the Nintendo DS; the game itself is actually a remake of the very first Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryu to Hikari no Tsurugi, released way back in 1990 on the Famicom in Japan. Naturally, the translation to the DS has brought with it more than a few improvements, graphically and otherwise, but at its core, Shadow Dragon is still a Fire Emblem game, which is a very good thing.

The Fire Emblem series is finally coming to the DS…in the form of a remake of the very first FE game.

An intricate storyline full of medieval intrigue and backstabbing is at the heart of Shadow Dragon, beginning with the hero Marth, prince of the kingdom of Altea. As the game's five-part (!) prologue unfolds, Altea is overrun by invaders--its king lies dead on the field of battle, and Marth is sent out of the kingdom to preserve the royal bloodline and, presumably, right the wrongs beset upon him by his enemies.
The game's dense plotline and big cast of characters should please fans who enjoy that kind thing; for our purposes, we were more interested in hopping into battle and testing out the always-entertaining Fire Emblem formula. You start out with a small band of warriors--essentially Marth and a few trusted lieutenants, including Jagen, a heroic paladin who is considerably more powerful than the rank-and-file soldiers you command. Characters have a set number of tiles they can move on a map, with soldiers on horseback able to move farther than those on foot.
The turn-based combat is resolved based on a number of different factors: the class and level of both combatants, the weapons they're wielding, and more. Melee attacks, for example, can be executed only when you're standing next to an enemy. On the other hand, ranged attacks from archers and soldiers with javelins can happen from several squares away.
It's in learning your soldiers' individual strengths and weaknesses that the tactical aspects of Fire Emblem come to life and the game's addictive nature is revealed. The game's translation to the DS brings with it some advantages that weren't found in the original game. For instance, while the action takes place on the lower screen (and is controlled with either the stylus and touch screen or with the buttons), the upper screen serves as a handy information dump, where you can access important statistics about the members of your party, what weapons they are carrying, and more. In a game like Fire Emblem, where a single wrong move can lead to disastrous results for your party, having that kind of information handy is invaluable.

Warning: Death is permanent in Fire Emblem, unless, of course, you power down and start the battle all over again.

Even with all of the data at hand, however, you're going to have to make sacrifices. Anyone who has played a Fire Emblem game knows the pain of losing a party member--especially one you've spent weeks or months leveling--in battle. Shadow Dragon won't be an exception to this rule, however--in fact, early on in the game, you're actually forced to choose one of your trusted lieutenants to pose as a decoy so Prince Marth can escape his enemies, essentially dooming the lieutenant in the process. And, as any Fire Emblem fan will tell you, in this game, death is permanent. As the game implies, sacrifice is often essential to victory.
As you progress through the game, you'll add new members to your party--some of whom have specific abilities. In the early going, you'll add an archer, a Pegasus-riding warrior, and a cleric of sorts who wields a healing staff. As you make your way through the levels, you'll also encounter friendly villagers who will offer wisdom and sometimes new weapons or cash you can use at vendors to replenish your stockpiles. Weapons (and magical items) wear out over time, so sooner or later you'll need to visit a store (or call on your caravan) to load up on new items or replace your inferior equipment with upgraded weaponry.
With the game released last summer in Japan and just before year's end in Europe, it's high time that Shadow Dragon is released in the U.S. next month. We're most curious to see how the game's wireless multiplayer (both local and via the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection by the looks of it) will work, as that should give an already deep game even more replay value. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is due for release on February 16.

Credit By Brian Ekberg, GameSpot

The Sims 3 Hands-On Impressions - Creating a New Sim, and a Day in the Life

Get the details on this highly anticipated sequel from our hands-on report.

The Sims series is all about controlling the lives of little computer people as they live, laugh, love, laugh, sleep, love, eat, take a bathroom break, work, love, and laugh. The series' combination of quirky artificial intelligence (that leads to quirkier behavior on the part of said little computer people) and open-ended building and design has enthralled many players for many years, and across many expansion packs. The series is now shaping up for round three, and we had a chance to give it a try.
Our first experience with the game was with the new create-a-sim character builder, which has been expanded to accommodate a much wider range of color tones for skin, eyes, and dyed hair, along with plenty of new options for preset faces, beauty marks, hairstyles, and clothing. The Sims 3 offers six different ages for your characters, from baby to toddler to college student to senior citizen, and you can start your individual character, or small family of characters, at any age and of any gender you care to.

The Sims 3 will have all kinds of wacky hijinks. Zany antics, too.

In addition to customizing each character's appearance, you can customize each one with traits from The Sims 3's revamped personality system. Previously, you'd spend points on different personality aspects to decide whether your sims tended to be messier or neater, or lazier or more active, and from that decision, you'd be assigned a specific horoscope that would partially determine how you interacted with other characters. This time around, you'll instead choose five traits, which range from being extremely useful if you plan to play the game with an aggressive and ambitious approach ("schmoozer," for instance, grants you extra dialogue options and gives you an inside edge into getting to know the rich and famous), to being less beneficial and presumably intended for comedy value (such as "crazy," which makes your character prone to unpredictable behavior, and "nevernude," which, if you're not a fan of the underappreciated TV series Arrested Development, is exactly what it sounds like). There are also traits that are apparently intended to help you put more of a focus on telling a specific story with your characters--for instance, the "evil" trait will give you less-savory dialogue choices, as well as less-honorable things to do, like stealing candy from a baby, which we actually did, ourselves, with our own evil character. And in case you were wondering, yes, we enjoyed it.
The "things to do" department has also been expanded in The Sims 3 with a new "lifetime goal" system that presents each newly created character with a choice of a single life goal, determined by your sim's traits. For instance, if you happen to choose evil as a trait, as we did, your life goal could be to become a criminal mastermind or maybe a corporate CEO. Once you've chosen your life goals, you'll then be presented with various wishes, which are short-term tasks you can perform to increase your characters' overall mood and get them a step closer to their life goals. You can choose to promise your sims that you'll work to accomplish a certain wish for them by selecting from a constantly cycling list--and if you care to, you can play the entire game as a successive series of wishes that pull you along a certain path to ultimate life fulfillment (or kind-of-funny failure). Each successfully performed wish gains you life goal points, which you can then spend, immediately, by selecting various powerful advantages for your character, such as "iron bladder," which frees you from ever having to use the potty again and frees up the sims who possess this mighty attribute to do other things with their day.

You'll be able to create very obnoxious characters.

In addition to choosing tasks, you'll be able to choose a profession for all of your sims, just like in previous games, though your characters can actually perform work in-game and also take on additional tasks that will present themselves as random opportunities--such as a career-related task you might get called about from out of the blue. Like in the previous Sims games, you'll also be able to build up your character's skills by repeatedly performing practice activities, such as working out to increase your sims' "body" statistic, which makes them healthier and more likely to succeed on an athletic career track. But the game will be less about doing the same repetitive things over and over, and it definitely won't be about being chained to your sims' personal "motive" needs of eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom--your characters will do that on their own if you don't care to command them to. Instead, the game will be more about managing your sims' moods, which can be enhanced by successfully performing wishes or random opportunities or by simply interacting with or being around things they like, such as eating their favorite food or listening to their favorite music. Moods can also be decreased by failing certain wishes or opportunities, or being around things they hate, like the sound of a crying baby whose candy was just stolen.
Our evil schmoozer sim began his life in his run-down home, receiving a visit from a next-door neighbor holding a crying (but candy-eating) baby, and because we were so single-minded in our approach to doing evil things, we quickly isolated the child the moment it was set down by its absentminded father so we could steal its candy, then promptly started a fistfight with the angry dad. Of course, our pudgy, out-of-shape sim lost the fight due to his total lack of body skill, but it was worth the effort of using our conversational skills to imply that our pugnacious guest was descended from a llama. As you may recall from our previous coverage of the game, The Sims 3's dialogue system has been revamped such that you can't curry favor with others by repeatedly choosing to "chat" or "tell jokes" until their relationship meter builds up to full--you need to vary up your approach and will get better feedback on whether you're successfully attracting (or alienating) people by their body language, such as the arms-crossed, standoffish stance our neighbor took before pounding our candy-smeared face in.

You won't have long to wait for this long-awaited sequel.

After taking a drubbing, we decided to leave the house by simply zooming out our view of the neighborhood to see all the nearby houses to visit, and then we decided to take a tour of the town by zooming out even farther and clicking on different points of interest ("lots"), such as the local library and the gym. Simply by clicking to move to them, we were whisked away by taxi (no need to manually pick up a telephone and call for car service anymore). All sims will be equipped with cellular phones in their inventories so that they can call for cab rides wherever they may be. Our quick trip to the library was less fruitful than our house visit, unfortunately, since the library staff was tied up with a birthday party being hosted on the front lawn for what was likely the child of some very frugal parents. We're told, however, that different houses and lots will change over time as other sims' lives are simulated and they, too, advance in their careers, grow old, and eventually die. Before they go to the grave, however, they can explore their town to find out-of-the-way spots, like an out-of-the-way fishing hole where they can go to decompress (and maybe add a few fish to their inventory collection of fish, rocks, and seeds).
The Sims 3 will clearly offer an enhanced version of everything that Sims fans have loved about the series, along with some brand-new stuff that should help make the series seem fresh and new. The game is scheduled for release later this year.

Credit By Andrew Park, GameSpot

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor Q&A - Single-Player, Multiplayer, and What the Fans Want

We get the latest details on this follow-up to the explosive strategy game Company of Heroes.

2006's Company of Heroes changed what people have come to expect from real-time strategy by focusing on explosive, small-scale battles featuring squads of soldiers behind enemy lines in World War II--soldiers with the ability to drive tanks through walls and blow up buildings. The game expanded in 2007 with the stand-alone game Opposing Fronts, and later this year, developer Relic Entertainment is getting ready to finish its next follow-up, Tales of Valor, which will be a stand-alone game that won't require the original game. It'll also have plenty more smashing tanks through walls and exploding buildings. Senior producer Tim Holman explains.

Tales of Valor will add new vehicles, new campaigns, and lots more explosive, squad-based action.

GameSpot: Give us an update on Tales of Valor. What aspects of the game is the team working on at this point?
Tim Holman: We're closing bugs at the moment and about to finish--close enough that we started thinking about the wrap party!
GS: We understand that Tales of Valor will be a stand-alone product rather than an expansion that requires the original game. Why go in this direction for the product? What exactly will players get out of the box?
TH: We'd rather make our content accessible to any new players rather than having them fork out cash for the original, and we don't want to split our multiplayer community. You will get three short campaigns (instead of one long campaign), three new multiplayer games modes, new units for multiplayer, new skirmish maps, and more.
GS: We understand that the campaigns will have an even stronger focus on small-scale tactical battles, including the Tiger Ace campaign, in which you basically play as a single tank crew rather than controlling an army. Why the even smaller-scale focus? What does this add to the experience?
TH: We've done big campaigns focused on telling long stories, and this time we wanted to do more intimate stories of small groups of soldiers fighting against overwhelming odds. It's hard to create that when you have a huge army behind you, but when you've got only a small number of troops, it's easier to create that tension.

Like in the original Company of Heroes, in Tales of Valor you'll generally control a small squadron of commandos.

GS: Tales of Valor will also have an arcade-style "direct fire" mode for the King Tiger tank in the Tiger Ace campaign. What does this new mode add to the game? Will we see it anywhere else other than in Tiger Ace?
TH: Players can play units in the regular way, but direct fire gives even more intimacy. In the hedgerow-and-city terrain of [the] Tiger Ace [campaign], it makes for some fun tactical maneuvering and fire control. And yes, [it's used for] other units. Defend against a rush of infantry with an HMG, funnel tanks toward your direct-fire-controlled 88, and my personal favorite, painting the landscape with fire, with my direct fire flamethrower (and that's just a few). We only use it in the single-player missions and one of the operations modes--original multiplayer stays the same.
GS: We understand the expansion will include a new set of multiplayer vehicles. Give us a rundown of them, how they work, and what they add to the game.
TH: I can only reveal some right now, so I'll do [a few of my] favorites. The first is the Schwimmwagon--this amphibious vehicle was used as a scout car--which acts as a great early-game harassment and capture vehicle. The second would be the Hellcat, a mean little tank destroyer used by the Allies. And then there is the Kangaroo, which the British used. It acts as a troop carrier and, while slower than others, is much more [heavily] armored. These new units are swapped for existing units and fill the role of the unit they are replacing in multiplayer, but people can also play with the "classic" units.
GS: What other additions and tweaks to Company of Heroes' multiplayer will Tales of Valor add?
TH: While there are some adjustments to multiplayer balance based off community feedback, the biggest multiplayer addition are the game modes. Invasion is a cooperative mode where players defend a town against waves of attackers--a very fun comp-stomp mode. In Assault, players choose a hero unit and join a larger battle to push back the front lines of their enemy and destroy their base. And finally we have Panzerkrieg. Multiplayer tank destruction using direct fire is a recipe for mayhem.

Tales of Valor will be available later this year.

GS: Finally, is there anything else you'd like to add about Tales of Valor, or about Company of Heroes in general?
TH: Tales of Valor has allowed us to create a more-intimate single-player experience while greatly expanding multiplayer. We think we've struck a good balance that meets the needs of both audiences.

Credit By Andrew Park, GameSpot

Skate 2 Developer Q&A - Online Multiplayer and Content Sharing

Producer Brian Lindley tells us all about Skate 2's online side, including the game that inspired them and how to best share your wipeout videos.

Skateboarding may not be a team sport, but it's certainly not all about keeping to yourself. To get the most out of Skate 2, you'll want to head online and check out all of the various multiplayer and community features that the EA Black Box development team has been working on. Producer Brian Lindley has been kind enough to answer some of our questions on that exact subject.
GameSpot: Let's start with Skate 2's online multiplayer. The big focus in that area seems to be the idea of freeskate activities, or spontaneous challenges that a group of players can pull up anywhere they want while freeskating online. We've talked to a few members of Black Box about Burnout Paradise being an inspiration for this feature. What sort of process is it, going from "Hey, that's a cool idea" to actually working it into the game? What are the big similarities and differences players should expect to see between the two implementations?
Brian Lindley: To this day, free-skate remains one of our most popular online modes from the original Skate, so with Skate 2 we really wanted to expand on it and give the player more to do in this mode. We were very impressed with what Criterion was doing with Burnout Paradise online, so we took some inspiration from their Freeburn Challenges and came up with our own take on the idea, Freeskate Activities. It can be a pretty involved process getting a new mode built into the game, so before anything went in, we spent a lot of time brainstorming and playing freeskate ourselves to test out various ideas for different types of activities. From there, we picked our favorite types, wrote more detailed designs, [and] iterated on those designs with feedback from the team. With the paper design out of the way, our designers and engineers began working on building the mode into the game. Once the mode itself was functional, our designers got to work building activities throughout the world.
I think a big similarity between Freeskate Activities and Freeburn Challenges is their social nature and reliance on player cooperation. To complete all of the activities, every player will need to contribute, which really can come from players at any skill level. A key difference I would say is that in Skate 2, Freeskate Activities are completely optional and not host-managed, so any player in the session can propose an activity and only needs one other person to join in for the activity to start. If a player doesn't feel like joining an activity, they can simply decline or ignore the activity proposal and continue skating. Once the other skaters finish their activity, everyone in the freeskate session will be back skating together again.

GS: Most of the focus on Skate had to do with its innovative control scheme, but the game was also fairly revolutionary for a console title in the way it let players record media and upload it to the official Web site to share with others. Moving on to the sequel, you've obviously had some time to decide what you liked and didn't like about this system. Can you describe for us what the general process has been like, deciding how to go about improving the content-sharing process?
BL: The process was fairly straightforward. Before we went into development on Skate 2, we spent a lot of time reviewing our wish lists for fixes/improvements and melding that together with the feedback from the Skate community. A lot of customers were frustrated with trying to get skate.reel and our Web site to function properly for them, so it was clear we needed to make improving that user experience a top priority in Skate 2.
To achieve that goal, we went back to the drawing board and rebuilt our server back end and the skate.reel Web site itself. With this new foundation, we've been able to build out numerous improvements to the system, including a simplified registration process, streamlined navigation of the skate.reel gallery, and expanded player Web profiles. Beyond that, we've also added some needed convenience features like a direct download link for videos/photos, the ability to embed clips into external Web pages, and a URL field for quick copy/pasting of skate.reel links.
On the game side, we've abandoned our "slot-based" upload system from the original Skate, so players are no longer restricted to a maximum of three clips for uploading, but can instead upload a total of 90 seconds of footage using as many clips as they like. Given the above, we believe the process and experience of sharing content has been vastly improved with Skate 2.

GS: Let's talk about the two main hubs for users to share their creations, which are the skate.reel Web site and the game itself. What type of work have you done in the way videos are rated, featured, and shared to make it so that the cream rises to the top and the best stuff is easiest to find?
BL: One of the coolest additions to skate.reel is the ability to add tags the content you are uploading. Whenever a player uploads a video or photo, they are prompted to add some tags to their content. The tags range from things like "Hall of Meat," "Realistic Line," "Funny" or "Grind," et cetera. For players that want to see the realistic skating vids, crazy wipeouts or whatever, they can search against these tags on our Web site to see the best and brightest in those categories.
On the skate.reel gallery, players can quickly view and sort content that is highest-rated, most popular, most recent to get quick access to "cream at the top" so to speak. We also make a point to keep the highest-rated videos and photos at the forefront of the in-game skate.reel screens, so you can get quick access to the best and most creative skate.reel content at the press of a button. Lastly, we've added a "featured" section to the skate.reel Web site where our dev and community teams handpick videos and photos that will appear on the skate.reel homepage gallery. Chances are pretty good [that] if a piece of content is worthy of attention, it will be front and center in all of the various access points of skate.reel.

GS: It seems like the most popular user videos to come from the first game were nasty wipeouts. Obviously those are entertaining, but we imagine in the back of your minds, after all the work you put into creating such a convincing skateboard simulation, that the more "serious" stuff caught on a little more. As you looked to improve the video editor, was there any sort of focus on giving users the tools to make successfully pulling off a trick more entertaining?
BL: As long as players are having fun playing the game and making videos, we're happy to see crazy wipeouts as well as more "serious" skate videos being made. The wipeout videos are fun and entertaining, but we still are very impressed by the more "realistic" vids our community has put together. Seeing the effort and the skill they've put into crafting their videos or remaking their favorite parts from other skate videos has been fun to watch, and definitely justifies the effort we've put into the simulation side of the gameplay.
As for the original question, we've always wanted to provide a replay editor that could rival the creative freedom the player has with their skating. In Skate 2, we certainly were focused on surpassing the replay editor from the original Skate, and put more control in the hands of the filmers to make great videos. To that end, we essentially scrapped the editor from the first Skate.
In rebuilding the replay editor, we based much of the new functionality on what the tools we had in our own studio. The end result is that the Skate 2 replay editor allows players to manipulate the camera and make the most realistic and creative videos possible. We have three camera options available in the Skate 2 replay editor: follow camera, tripod camera, and game camera. The follow camera is attached to the player, but the player can rotate that camera anywhere around their skater. The tripod camera is a static camera that tracks the skater but can be placed anywhere in the scene. The game camera is simply the replay from the perspective of the gameplay camera. On top of these new cameras, the player can layout their camera and speed changes throughout the clip using the replay editor timeline. With enough time, I'm confident that a player can make even the most basic tricks and lines look really good.

GS: One of the big new features in Skate 2 is the ability to hop off your board and grab objects such as benches and picnic tables and drag them around to make your own little skate spot. Now we know that it's not just for single-player; you can save the arrangements of these objects in the Create a Spot mode and share them online. How does that process work? Do you share your creations in a similar way to user videos?
BL: The Create a Spot process is somewhat similar to video sharing, but there are a few more steps involved. As you know, players can move objects around while in career mode, and if they find a cool setup that they like, they can choose to create a spot out of it. At any time in the career mode, the player can access the Create a Spot editor from the online menu ("back" button on 360, "select" button on PS3). While in the editor, the player can move, scale, and rotate a box that identifies the scored area for their spot. The movable objects placed within and around the scored area are saved with the spot itself and put in place any time the player or someone else plays that created spot. Once the player has defined where the spot will be scored, they have to then set a spawn point and score on the spot before it can be shared online.
From the Create a Spot Browser (in the online menu), the player can access their own spots and download spots from their friends and skate community. Like skate.reel, we have numerous categories for created spots like top rated, friends' spots, most recent, spots you've owned, spots you've made that people owned, and so on. For those with a competitive streak, you can literally spend hours just downloading and trying to own (set the high score) and re-own spots from your friends and the community. We also save a "ghost" line of the highest-scoring line with each spot, so players can see exactly how the owner set the high score and try to beat it. On top of the competitive aspects of Create a Spot, it is a convenient way for players to share their best configuration of movable objects.

GS: One interesting little bonus feature that was recently unveiled is the Skate 2 graphics creator, a Web site where you can make your own custom designs and import them into the game. How did this idea come about? What types of challenges are there in implementing a system that gives players so much freedom to create their own designs?
BL: Skate as a game has always been centered on self-expression, and we really wanted to extend that ideal even further by letting the player add custom-designed graphics to their skater in Skate 2. NBA Live had been running a promotion using a Web-based jersey-creator tool, and we realized that we could utilize a similar application on the Skate Web site but extend it to allow those graphics to be imported directly into the game. Fortunately, we have some extremely smart and talented people on our game and Web teams that figured out how to make the system work, and the Skate 2 Graphics Creator was born!
Aside from making the technology of the feature work, we have the additional challenge of trying to moderate the content coming from such a creative and dedicated community. Thankfully, we have our customer-support team working quickly to take down any graphics that violate our terms of use, and our community has the tools to flag potentially inappropriate graphics for review by our support team. Honestly, it has been amazing to see what our community has been doing so far with the graphics creator.
GS: Finally, are there any plans to support the game's various online features postrelease?
BL: Absolutely. Our community and postlaunch team will be keeping a close eye on things to make sure servers stay up and everything runs smoothly in the hectic days following launch. Also, expect to hear more news on our plans for downloadable content sometime after the game hits stores next week.

 Thx
Credit By Staff, GameSpot 

Q&A: Final Fantasy bard Nobuo Uematsu

Uematsu shares his experience with Blue Dragon Plus and hints at something "big" for the Black Mages.

A self-taught musician, Nobuo Uematsu joined Square back in 1985, and in 1987 Hironobu Sakaguchi asked if he would like to compose music for a role-playing game called Final Fantasy. The subsequent success of the series launched his career as a video game music composer, eventually making Uematsu one of the most well-known video game music composers among Western audiences, often referred to as the John Williams of video games.

Nobuo Uematsu

Uematsu stayed with Square Enix until 2004, when he left to form his own production company, Smile Please. He continues to compose for video games, working alongside Sakaguchi, who left Square Enix in 2004 to start his own studio, Mistwalker. Uematsu's recent works can be heard in Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon for the Xbox 360. He also composed the main theme for Super Smash Bros. Brawl last year.
In addition to composing game music, Uematsu formed the Black Mages in 2003, an instrumental rock band that takes his original Final Fantasy compositions and arranges them into rock music. The group has released three albums: The Black Mages, The Black Mages II: The Skies Above, and their most recent album, The Black Mages III: Darkness and Starlight," which was released last year.
In 2004, Uematsu made an appearance at Dear Friends--Music From Final Fantasy, the first-ever video game music concert in the United States, which was held in Los Angeles at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Due to its success, another follow-up concert was held the year after in LA, titled More Friends--Music From Final Fantasy. This was also the first time that the Black Mages performed live in the US.
Since then, Uematsu's work can be heard live in various concert series, such as Video Games Live and Play: A Video Game Symphony. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy, AWR Music Productions is currently presenting a concert world tour titled Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy, with performances scheduled across multiple cities in the US as well as Singapore.
Amid all the excitement with the concerts, album releases, and video games, Uematsu shared his thoughts with GameSpot through an e-mail interview about composing for the upcoming Blue Dragon Plus on the Nintendo DS and talked about his band, the Black Mages.
GameSpot: What is it like to work with Sakaguchi again at Mistwalker?
Nobuo Uematsu: Business as usual, but his ability to get things done never ceases to amaze me. Achieving goals is just second nature to him.
GS: What will the music be like in Blue Dragon Plus? Is it similar to the previous Blue Dragon?
NU: There are slight variations in the arrangements, but it's more or less the same; plus, there's one new track.
GS: What challenges did you face when composing for the Nintendo DS versus a current-gen console?
NU: It was just that it had been quite a while since I last worked with internal sound hardware.
GS: What kind of process do you go through when composing a track for a specific area in the game?
NU: After I draw inspiration from the scenario and artwork, I just let my imagination take me along for the ride.

Midi tunes aren't Uematsu's only forte.

GS: After composing hundreds if not thousands of different tunes, how do you manage to continue to stay original?
NU: Actually, all of my music sounds the same to me, to the point I get fed up with myself sometimes.
GS: What is your band working on now? Are you working on another album?
NU: There's the DVD of the live concert we did in August; it's coming out next year. I'm thinking of doing "something big" for the end of 2009, but I can't really say anything at this stage. You'll just have to keep your ears peeled.
GS: How do you select which pieces to use for your album? What are some of your favorites to perform?
NU: I draw up a list of things, and then we all get together and decide which ones we're going to do. I have fond memories of all of my music, so picking out favorites is difficult. But the live concert we did this year featuring "Maria and Draco" was fully accompanied by a drama ensemble; this was a first for us, so it was really exciting.
GS: When will we see the Black Mages again in North America?
NU: We don't have any plans as of yet, but we're definitely looking forward to another performance overseas; the sooner the better.
GS: You've been able to travel across the United States for the Dear Friends concerts as well as Distant Worlds. What has the experience been like? What has been the most memorable moment for you?
NU: It was really gratifying to receive such a thunderous ovation from all the people who came out to our concerts overseas. I truly felt thankful that I was born. The fact that people from different countries all over the world can experience the same universal joy from the same music...Doesn't that inspire you to believe there's hope for a world of peace, free from war and conflict?


Credit

• By Sophia Tong, GameSpot

HAWX Updated Cooperative Hands-On

We hit the unfriendly skies in a pair of brand-new missions set above American soil.

Just last week, we brought you our first hands-on look at the co-op feature found in Ubisoft's upcoming air-combat game HAWX. Based on a gameplay session at a London press event, we told you about the basics of piloting a jet fighter in a team of four and how the game ties into the greater Tom Clancy universe. Recently, though, Ubisoft held an event in San Francisco to give American press a chance to experience a few brand-new co-op missions: Washington DC and Chicago.
Before jumping into co-op, we acclimated ourselves to the game's controls by taking a sneak peek at the public demo, due to be released in February. This mission takes place in the skies above Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and offers a tutorial on the game's accessible control scheme. You're guided through the basics of moving through the sky and firing your weapons, plus a few advanced techniques such as drifting (which is essentially a way of performing a midair U-turn). It's all pretty simple stuff, at least on the default difficulty. However, you have the option to move to advanced difficulty, which makes piloting your jet substantially more challenging because it removes the various assists that keep your plane on the right track.

The Pentagon could use some help right about now.

Having conquered the air drones terrorizing the skies of Brazil, we moved on to the first America-based mission in the game, which was Washington DC. Prior to the mission, we had the option to choose our aircraft, a process in which you need to consider the requirements of the upcoming mission against the attributes of various jets. Things such as air-to-air versus air-to-ground capabilities are key, but each plane also has attributes for speed, handling, and armor. We settled on the F-22 Raptor, a great balance of each.
This first mission gave us the goal of defending the heart of Washington from PMC cargo planes dropping ground forces. It required us to divide our attention between enemies in the sky and those below. With such a huge altitude difference, this is where co-op strategy really comes into play, given that you'll probably want to divide your team into antiair and antiground forces. Taking out enemies in the air is definitely trickier because they can dodge and juke your missiles even when locked-on. Ground forces are usually easier, in that you're required to make a quick pass over the earth below, and your only real challenge is making sure that you don't get so low that you smash into a building.
The next stage in this mission took us from defending a bunch of politicians on the ground to one very important politician in the air, given that we had to escort Air Force One and keep it safe from a flurry of Russian MiG-23 jets. In this scenario, a good co-op strategy would be to let a pair of pilots play defense and the other two offense. That is to say, some players remain close to the president's plane and the others go take on the enemies before they get within firing range. Although our group was a little more scattered and freewheeling, we still managed to keep the president safe and sound.

Beautiful downtown Chicago.

The next mission brought us to the Midwest, above the skies of downtown Chicago. In this scenario, PMCs have installed a massive radar jammer in the city. Your role is to defend an AWAC used to detect enemy units as it flies over the city. The trick here is that you have to stay within a relatively small radius surrounding the AWAC because getting too far away will wreak havoc on your in-flight instruments, turning your heads-up display into a static-filled mess. If you're successful here, you can move on to the next stage of the mission, which involves defending ground troops on the streets below. As you'd imagine, this gets awfully difficult when it involves buzzing in close to the towering skyscrapers that make up Chicago's skyline.
Thus concluded our time with this pair of America-focused missions from HAWX. Other chapters in the campaign will bring you to places such as the Middle East, South America, and the Caribbean, so there should be a lot for globetrotters to enjoy. No release date has been announced, but you can expect to see more on HAWX in the coming weeks and months.


 Credit By Shaun McInnis, GameSpot