Tag Archive: preview


ADMIT ONE – Weekend Movie Previews for 10/14/11

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October 14, 2011

We have a new heavyweight champ at the top of the box office and it is little surprise with the incessant PR campaign the movie had to see Real Steel as the big grosser last weekend with over $27 million. The Ides of March had a strong debut with over $10 million to take the distant number two spot as well, which was just enough to edge out the previous week’s top two, Dolphin Tale and Moneyball, which did fairly well with over $9 and $7 million respectively to come in at three and four. And I think none of these movies have much to worry about in terms of competition with the trifecta of new movies being released this week.

1) The Big Year (Fox)

Three avid bird watchers compete to see some of the rarest birds in North America and their rivalry hopes to lead to hysterical hijinx.

I look at this movie and it screams comedic potential, but I’m just not sure if all the elements will gel into something worth watching. Comedy legend Steve Martin teams up with Owen Wilson and Jack Black as men who are all rivals with each other in one of the most ridiculous of past-times imaginable in bird watching. Off the beaten path scenario with some great comedic actors sounds like a recipe for success, but everything I’ve seen of it so far says it comes off as too smart for a good chuck of your audience, much like a movie like Sideways. I would love to see this do well and will probably see it because I’m a fan of everyone in it, but I do so with baited breath.

2) Footloose (Paramount)

A city kid moves to the country where rock ‘n’ roll have been banned and his rebellious nature gets the better of the community.

Why? The slew of remakes we’ve seen in recent years is bad enough as is without making a poor remake of what was already a poor movie to begin with. Anything that revolves around dancing of any kind means I’m out. I’m sure this will appeal to the teener-bopper audience and 12-year-old girls everywhere will claim it to be their favorite movie for the next three weeks, but otherwise avoid this like the plague. Also, I think Drunk Hulk from Twitter (@DrunkHulk) had a rather apropos statement in regards to this movie: “SORRY FOOTLOOSE REMAKE! DRUNK HULK NO SUPPORT ANYTHING THAT TAKE AWAY BACON!” Well said sir. Well said indeed.

3) The Thing (Universal)

The discovery of an alien spacecraft at an Antarctic research installation leads to the de-thawing and subsequent confrontation of a monstrous creature not of this world.

Another remake. At least this one is a horror movie and Halloween is upon us, but still. Some things are better just left alone and I understand the temptation to re-do movies like this with modern technology, but from trailers I’ve seen, the special effects used here still seem to be from 20 years ago and are going more for a gross-out factor than anything that could inspire true terror. Good horror movies are hard to find nowadays because most behind the scenes movie people see them as easy profits, especially this time of year, because they’re cheap to make. But when the horror genre is dipping into the remake fountain as well, you know Hollywood is clearly out of ideas.

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Hands-On: Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

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Constantinople, NOT Istanbul

The war between the assassins and the Templars is one that has raged for ages and the adventures we’ve seen with Altair, Ezio, and briefly with Desmond are all but small chapters in this war that started eons ago. Now, we approach the end of Ezio’s involvement, but first we will learn just how vital his life is to the Assassin’s Order and how he serves as the lynchpin for his bloodline between Altair and Desmond. Soon, all will be revealed.

I had a chance to go hands-on with three of the new sequences we’ll see in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations campaign and had a chance to learn about Ezio’s new allies, his new weapons, and just how Altair and Desmond will fit into all of it in the end.

I started in Sequence 2 and was immediately introduced to Constantinople, where most of the game takes place, in ways I never thought imaginable. The graphics have been so refined and sharpened that you could actually pick out every individual strand of hay for the leap of faith points and every vegetable in the marketplace. You could also see that time had not been kind to Ezio as new scars crisscrossed his face and his hair that was once as black as the night had been lightened considerably in many places and went beyond “salt and pepper” in its effect.

As I made my way through the bustling, cramped city streets with Ezio, who also seemed to move a bit slower on the ground now, another clear sign of his age, I proceeded to find the only friendly face I knew at the moment, the head of the local Assassin’s Guild. There I would learn the ways of the Turkish Assassins and acquire my first bombs and hook blade.

The hook blade immediately caught my fancy because although Ezio may have moved half a step slower now on the ground, in terms of his parkour, he was easily moving twice as fast as he had in previous games. Using clotheslines to zip from roof to roof and the extra reach of the hook blade allowed me to scale buildings faster than ever before as I could reach grips that normally I would have missed in previous games, and this easily made up the difference of speed I’d lose on the ground and then some. This also made me want to stay on rooftops more so than usual.

The hook blade also added several new aspects to assassination and taking down enemies. Not only could you drop down on foes from above now while zip lining across rooftops, but in more traditional combat, like when Ezio finds himself surrounded by Templar or Turkish Royal Guards, he could use the hook blade to pull enemies down to vault over them and let him change the direction the battle might be heading in. Or just stab them in the face. Whatever opportunity presented itself first.

The bombs were also fun to play with as they provided several new aspects to Ezio’s possible strategies of getting around Constantinople. The first one we were introduced to was the cherry bomb. Primarily used for distraction, you could throw the bomb in one area to lure guards over to where the sound came from, while you sneak by the new unoccupied pathway or set them up for an easy assassination from behind. There are also more explosive bombs that do damage or stun foes and we also see the return of smoke bombs for those moments where you may need to slip away or to assassinate enemies via eagle vision in the confusion.

Later on in the sequence we also came upon a brand new mini-game element introduced to the series. In Brotherhood, you could take out Templar towers and convert them into Assassin hideaways. Now, in Revelations, you cannot only take out the towers, but the Templars may attempt to reclaim them at various times. When this happens, if you race back to the tower, you begin a tower defense style game where Ezio, no longer young and fit enough to lead men on the front lines, will use his accrued wisdom over his many years of waging this Assassin vs. Templar war to place various assassins on rooftops leading up to the Assassin tower and build barriers to slow down the advance of his enemies. If you defend the tower for so many waves, your foes will retreat and you will remain in control. If you fail…well, let’s just say it isn’t in your best interests to fail.

As we moved on to Sequence 4, we got our first hands on with Altair. Our Crusades era experiences in the finished game will look to entail five missions, but this was the first of two I was able see. It took place immediately after Altair had slain Al Mualim and we see the rift that starts forming in the ranks of the assassins. I immediately felt the difference with handling Altair compared to Ezio as Altair was much lighter and fluid in his movements as he raced to put affairs in order after Al Mualim’s death. Although rather short, the Altair missions explain so much about what happens between the first and second Assassin’s Creed games.

What was most interesting was in Sequence 5, when we took over as Altair again, we saw him as an old man. Still quicker than Ezio, we see that the rift between the assassins has become a chasm and Altair, after settling a threat in another part of the world, returns home unwelcome and surrounded. This change in scenery and time for the same character in such a short period of time game play wise really hammered home just how significant these events were in the grand scheme of things and makes you wonder just where we’ll bounce to next in further Altair missions.

Leading up to the Altair missions as Ezio was also very different. Unlike in previous games where it felt like a very separate experience to go hunt down artifacts of Altair and other assassins, now it felt much more intertwined with the story. One mission had us racing against a group of Templars to reach Altair’s hidden key while another had us simply platforming and parkouring around a collapsing mine, which felt like more of a threat than many of the Templars did. This gives the game a much more fluid experience in terms of the storytelling and clearly shows the importance of locating all of Altair’s keys, as they are the main purpose for Ezio to be in Constantinople after all.

Unfortunately, we did not get to play at all as Desmond, but his levels will definitely be like nothing we’ve ever seen as we were able to confirm from Creative Director Alex Amancio that Desmond is in an Animus induced coma and that he is located somewhere called “Animus Island”. This is also significant as instead of collecting feathers or flags, Ezio will collect Animus data pieces while in Constantinople as the reality Desmond is experiencing begins to blend with the technology that induces it like never before.

All in all, with new weapons at our disposal, a new world to explore, and many questions to finally be answered, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations looks to somehow once again raise the bar for this stunning historical sci-fi franchise and I can’t wait to get my hands on the final product.

Are you folks fans of the historical aspects of Assassin’s Creed? Where do you think the series goes from here? How do you feel about this being Ezio’s final chapter? What about there being a tower defense mini-game aspect now? Let us know your thoughts with comments below!

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Hands-On: Need for Speed: The Run

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Baby we were born to run

Your body violently jerks into the side paneling as no seatbelt known to man could hold you down from the G-forces you generate as you whip around hairpin corners while flying down a two-lane mountain road somewhere between Denver and Detroit. All the while you’re trying to control a 750 horsepower monster engine and keep all four tires pinned to the gravel as you try to split the difference between an oncoming tractor-trailer and the Porsche 911 Carrera S that is just ahead of you and weaving back and forth to keep you from passing in your Ford Shelby GT Super Snake. You think you get the timing right. You shift into a higher gear. And then you floor it. As horns blare, sparks fly, and paint is lost forever to the road behind you and the driver side door of your competition, you finally move into 78th place in the race for you life.

Sound pretty exhilarating? Well, that description above is hopefully going to describe nearly every moment of Need for Speed: The Run when it drops in November and from the several stages we got our hands on at an EA event in Vegas, it was all that and more. The Run marks the 18th game in the Need for Speed franchise’s history, but is the first to take place in the real world and the stakes have never been higher. You play as Jack, a street racer down on his luck and who owes a lot of money to a lot of the wrong people. Jack’s last chance to pay everyone off and come out on top is to win “The Run”, an unofficial, illicit, underground street-race that spans the entire length of the USA, starting in San Francisco and ending in New York City, with the winner being awarded 25 million dollars. More than enough to make Jack’s problems go away and maybe enough left over for him to start new. But there are a lot of people who don’t want to see Jack win. From law enforcement in various cities Jack will have to drive through along the way to a bevy of rival drivers including some lovely ladies whose physical appearance were based of Sports Illustrated swimsuit models, Jack will have his work cut out from him.

As in traditional Need for Speed fashion, events will force Jack into many different cars including some classic American muscle cars, refined exotics, and high-tuned street racers. Unlike in previous games though, for the first time you can actually step out of the car for short quicktime segments that bridge the narrative gap of how Jack gets from car to car and continues the race. We did not actually get to play one of these events and remained in our car for our particular demo, but we’ve seen them in action before and as we are constantly reassured that they take up less than 10% of the game, we feel we can live with this device for the sake of what is shaping up to be the deepest and most compelling plot Need for Speed has ever put out there.

Aside from the overall race where you will try to overtake dozens of opponents, there is also some race variety dropped in at various points to try to keep the game fresh, like pitting you one on one against a rival as you try to avoid an avalanche caused by an unknown faction firing a grenade launcher into the mountain you’re driving along, or racing between toll booths in a checkpoint like fashion. Mind you, the overall objective is still to end up in first by the time you reach New York, but the only way you’ll do that is if you pass every race and traverse easily the largest series of tracks a Need for Speed game has ever featured.

And rivals and checkpoints aren’t the only challenge you’ll face as I found out in my demo. My biggest challenge came in oncoming traffic on smaller country roads. Trying to pass a series of exotics while big rigs, mini-vans, and other vehicles are roaring down in the opposite lane provides a challenge of timing that needs to be seen to be believed and may have you racing a bit dirtier than you’d expect as sometimes bumping an opponent out of the way is a lot safer than trying to shoot past them through a gap barely big enough to get a bicycle through never mind your Pagani Huayra.

The overall most satisfying aspect I came away with from our demo of The Run though may be the controls. Although they have less of an arcade feel than Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, they’re still very responsive and easy to pick up and just jump into a race with. And with a “rewind” feature that allows you to pick up at various checkpoints throughout the race should you find yourself more of an expert at crashing and burning than handling tight corners, the game is forgiving enough to make it appeal to even the most casual of race game fans.

But what about replay-ability? Once you finish this massive looking race campaign, what would make you want to do it again if you do fall into that more casual category? Well, one thing that did transition over from Hot Pursuit has been Autolog, the social competition functionality for the Need for Speed franchise. You may finish the campaign first amongst your friends, but by participating in Autolog and uploading your best section times, you can see where your friends smoked you and vice versa and maybe even why they had a better overall time. You can even upload race ghosts so that you can actually see how your friends did it and you can feel like you’re racing directly against them even if you’re in a different time zone, work a different schedule, or just are plain never on when they are.

So, if you like supermodels, fast cars, and you’re looking to get behind the wheel of a super car but are a few hundred thousand dollars short, you might want to look into Need for Speed: The Run and get ready for the race of your life when it drops in mid-November.

PARTING SHOTS: It has been a long time since I’ve been this excited for a racing game and with all these new features, a compelling original story, and a whole new twist on the idea of underground street racing, Need for Speed: The Run looks like it could easily be the most exciting game in the franchise to date.

So what do you guys think? Are you pumped up for The Run or is it just another racing game? Do you think the quicktime events will take away from the game even though they are such a small part of it? And what about Autolog? Will this make you want to come back to this more and compete against your friends’ times, or is it a waste of time? Let us know with comments below!

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Hands-On: Ace Combat Assault Horizon

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Originally Published: 9/22/11 on EGMNOW.com

Stay on target…

The Ace Combat franchise has seen a lot of change in recent years and Assault Horizon looks to continue this necessary evolution of the series in order to keep it relevant in a market flooded by various kinds of wartime shooters. Where Joint Assault paved the way for the series to find roots in the real world, Assault Horizon looks to find a way to let the series flourish there by improving the A.I. and adding new mechanics that could increase the game’s accessibility to a whole new audience. Of course, being the first game in the series to be multi-platform doesn’t hurt either.

I had a chance to jump into the first few campaign missions for Assault Horizon and anyone who has played this franchise before is definitely in for a shock to their system. You’re immediately thrown into a fighter jet cockpit over a major metropolitan area in a sink or swim kind of tutorial where you’re very likely to get shot down if you don’t pick up on the controls quickly enough. The major purpose of this though is to introduce everyone to the new “Dogfight Mode”, an attempt at preventing the most effective way of shooting down enemies being a game of chicken like in some previous Ace Combat games, which had led to repetitive and dull game play at times. What Dogfight Mode does is when you get to optimal engaging distance, it allows you to lock in behind an enemy and assists the player in sticking to an enemy’s rear to try and get that perfect lock-on for a homing missile or to shred them apart with machine guns. Mind you, to prevent the game from being too easy, this also leaves you open for another enemy to settle in behind you for a missile lock as well if you fly too predictably.

With this new mode comes a drastic increase to enemy A.I. as well to prevent the ‘missile spamming’ also seen in previous games in the franchise as some of your tougher opponents will easily shake off your missile locks. This will force you into either surprising them with some special maneuvers like barrel rolls or using the Dogfight Mode and riding their tail. Of course, trying to get that close to these enemy aces will put you at risk of falling into their sights though and having them shoot you down before you can get into Dogfight Mode and that adds a new nuance of strategy.

Even with all these drastic improvements to air combat that should allow players of all skill levels to pick up and play this game though, the game play feels like it could get repetitive if you stayed in the cockpit of an F-18 for the whole game. To fight this, Assault Horizon finds a way to mix in a compelling story woven through some solid cinema scenes while also giving you tremendous mission variety. After only a handful of missions we were thrown into a Black Hawk helicopter as a door gunner, moved into the pilot seat of another copter, and cleared the path for some guys on the ground via an AC-130’s cannons. And of course a couple of traditional missions in fighter jets. With all of these different missions being set in real world locations in a possible near future. For the first time being able to fly helicopters and various other aircraft may provide just the twist and variety this series has needed for a long time to rejuvenate it and really grab the attention of arcade flight fans. I know I’m excited to grab my flight helmet and see just how far Ace Combat: Assault Horizon can go.

PARTING SHOTS: We were able to only get a few missions in and yet we had a larger variety of experiences than in probably all the previous Ace Combat games combined. The big question will be can the game keep up that variety over the course of the full campaign before the experiences we saw become repetitive in their own rights and can the story hold it all together.

Are you folks excited for Ace Combat: Assault Horizon? Are you fans of the new direction this game is taking or already missing the old-school mechanics? Is this something that can reach new heights or will it be crushed by the mid-October competition it will be up against? Let us know with comments below!

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Batman: Arkham City Hands-On Preview

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September 22, 2011

Oh, it’ll be a hot one in the ol’ town tonight!

Riddle me this. How do you top one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time while appeasing one of the more rabid comic fan bases to have ever existed. Answer: Batman: Arkham City. At least that’s what the folks at Rocksteady are hoping, but from what I’ve seen in some hands-on demos, I don’t think they have much to worry about now that we’re less than a month away from launch.

So what exactly have they done to make this game so much better than Arkham Asylum? Well, how about more villains, more heroes, a larger open-world, more gadgets, and the return of Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as the Joker, and Paul Dini as the script writer? And that’s just scratching the surface.

What I first noticed with my hands-on demo though was that I surprisingly started playing as Catwoman. Many people feared this addition when the announcement was made that you would play as her, but after clearing a room full of thugs with her before cracking a safe, rest assured fellow Bat-fans that it feels good. She has a faster and lighter feel compared to how Batman moves while also falling into the same control scheme of mixing attacks with well-timed counters. It also fits in with the early plot of the game as the cat looks to help the bat in his war on Arkham City’s inmates before she is captured by Two-Face.

Once I donned the cape and cowl though, the whole game literally changed in terms of perspective and feel as I was moved to a Gotham rooftop and although some of the guys from Rocksteady were encouraging me to go do mission objectives, I had a spectacular time just gliding from rooftop to rooftop and using my bat-line to pull me up when I miscalculated the length of a gap. When they say this world is five times larger than the last, they meant it as Gotham felt almost intimidating in its size and scale. It was this fear of being consumed by the nooks and crannies of this massive digital megalopolis that I concurred with the prodding of our PR handlers and headed into a building.

It was here that much of the last game began to flood back to me as I perched high above a room filled with Two-Face thugs. As I listened to Big Bad Harv rant and rave, I began planning how I would take down the room full of foes. Once Two-Face had moved on, it was time to make my move and as I leapt from the perch and onto my first victim, I found that a couple of key additions had been added to the combat.

The first is the ability to use items and gadgets without breaking your combat flow at all. Throwing batarangs and detonating small packets of explosive gel to help dictate where I wanted my foes to go so I could get the largest combo possible all while countering, kicking, and punching others in my nearby vicinity made it look like Batman was moving almost like water through the group as every movement made perfect sense and optimized my combat experience like nothing I had ever seen.

The next addition to combat actually came on the side of the low-rank villains I was facing as their A.I. has improved greatly from the last game as they picked up pipes and chairs for weapons and trash can lids or broken car doors for shields. Enemies also would occasionally throw these weapons at you and now Batman could catch them in mid-air and use the item’s momentum to hurl it back to its original chucker or into the face of a different enemy in Batman’s vicinity. All in all, what was already probably the best action/adventure combat system in gaming looks like it took the next step forward and kicked it up a notch.

But I was far from finished as a sniper shot pierced a window and we got to play with Detective Mode once again as Batman begin tracing the trajectory and calculating just who could have fired the shot. We soon tracked down the location and was met by an unexpected fan-favorite, Harley Quinn. She warned Batman to stay out of the Joker’s way as he had big plans for Arkham City.

I was paying more attention to how Harley said things than what she said though. For those who are unaware, this is a rare time where Harley Quinn is being voiced by someone other than Arleen Sorkin. Luckily it is voice over veteran Tara Strong who Batman fans may know better as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl from Batman: The Animated Series or even maybe as Raven from Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans. It was definitely different though as Sorkin’s ditzy but dangerous was replaced by a slightly more serious and seductive tone by Strong. This could work as supposedly with the Joker nearly incapacitated from his high exposure to the Titan formula in the first game, Quinn has had to step up her game for the sake of her ailing puddin’, but hardcore fans might be taken aback at first. Still though, she is in the hands of the man who created her in Paul Dini so I have faith that the character will rise above it all in the end.

Speaking of the voice cast though, a superior job was done by all involved so far from what I heard in terms of many of the villains and heroes. Of course, Kevin Conroy, also of B:TAS fame returns to play the Dark Knight and Mark Hamill, in what he has stated as being his last time doing it, returns to play the Joker. On top of this, the hardest working man in video game voiceovers, Nolan North, shocked me when I found out he was playing the Penguin of all characters, but he did an alright job with it. Doing a bit of a cockney accent definitely helped as I don’t think his Nathan Drake voice would have worked here. The Penguin’s dark and twisted design this time around is also something that needs to be seen on a screen to be believed as his classic monocle has been replaced by a beer bottle that was jammed into his face and smoking cigars and cigarettes all those years has left him with an advanced voice box. Beautifully twisted and dark indeed.

I’ve also been really impressed with Maurice LaMarche as Mr. Freeze, best known as The Brain from Pinky and the Brain, Egon in The Real Ghostbusters, and, well, he’s basically had one role or another in every major cartoon of the past thirty years. Although only seeing him in trailers, I wanted to mention what an awesome touch I think Maurice is bringing to the character in the few lines I’ve heard and I thought it was a stroke of genius by the sound guys to make him sound so normal when he has his helmet open, and so mechanical when he closes it up.

With our demo all but done, so many questions were answered, but even more were popping into my head. How deep does the conspiracy go? What does Batman do to disprove to Hugo Strange that he and Bruce Wayne are one and the same? What unannounced villains will rear their head? How will the fights against the likes of Mr. Freeze and the Riddler go down? How will displaced villains like the Penguin from the Iceberg Lounge and Black Mask from Sionis Industries affect the landscape? Will we get to drive the Batmobile?! What will happen to the Joker in the long term?! I’m getting amped up just thinking about it! All I know for sure is that we here at EGM are going to be covering this game like a Kevlar glove with triangular fins so you had better stay tuned to our coverage here for more on this Game of the Year contender. Same Bat-EGMNow.com time, same Bat-EGMNow.com channel!

What are you all looking most forward to about Batman Arkham City? What other questions do you still have about the game? What has you most excited about the game’s release? What unannounced surprises do you think they have in store for us? Let us know with comments below!

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Roast of Charlie Sheen Preview

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How do you like your warlock roasted?

The Comedy Central roasts, much in the tradition of the old-school New York Friars’ Club ones, have seen some of pop-culture’s biggest names put their sense of humor to the test as they’ve been dragged through the hot coals by some of their closest friends, today’s up and coming comic stars, or washed-up has beens who are looking to get their name back out there. Pam Anderson, David Hasselhoff, Bob Saget, and Donald Trump are just a few of the chosen that have been called upon to be humiliated in front of a live studio audience by their pop culture peers. But never have so many comedians been chomping at the bit to be given a stage to roast so easy a target.

Tonight marks the world broadcast premiere of the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen, a man who we’ve seen go from making millions an episode on a mediocre sitcom to living with a pair of goddesses and claiming to be a warlock, a rock star from Mars, and to have tiger blood running through his veins. Yes, Charlie will be an easy target indeed.

Serving as Roastmaster for the third time is Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy fame and this move has many calling for him to become the official host of these events, although I’m sure Roastmaster General Jeffrey Ross, who is amongst tonight’s panel of roasters (like it was ever in doubt), might have something to say about that. Also on the panel is Jon Lovitz, William Shatner, Mike Tyson, Kate Walsh (Yeah, the one from Grey’s Anatomy. I don’t know why she’s there either), Amy Schumer (who?), Anthony Jeselnik (see previous roaster parentheses), Steve-O from Jackass, and Patrice O’Neal who finally caved in and decided to do a roast.

Suffice to say, like in previous roasts, some people will bring their A-game and others will bomb horribly (although I was there and can attest to the fact that no one bombed as badly as “The Situation” during Trump’s roast, he reached a whole new comedy low that will not be seen again for generations to come). You probably think you can tell from the list of roasters who should do well and who shouldn’t. But you’d be wrong. Trust me when I say that some people will surprise you, or at least they hired really good writers to surprise you, while others will shock you with how little their shock humor works when dealing with a subject like Charlie Sheen.

All in all, for the most part the show is a good, solid laugh so if you’re interested in seeing one of Hollywood’s elite get completely trounced in-between a lot of censored swear words, then be sure to tune in tonight at 10 PM ET/PT to Comedy Central.

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EGM Preview: War of the Worlds

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It’s the end of the world as we know it

Based loosely on the 1898 novel and the 1953 movie (and definitely not on the 2005 piece of trash film), War of the Worlds takes place in 1953 London, where after monitoring the Earth for centuries, aliens have finally decided to attack. Panic quickly spreads as the English first think that somehow the Germans have begun to attack again, being only several years after the end of World War II. Soon though as bodies begin to be vaporized by weaponry beyond anything seen before, even greater panic sets in as this is an enemy not seen before by human eyes.

Moving away from the global scale of the attack, the game follows one man returning to London by train when the attack first starts. His personal quest is to save his family who were in London at the time the attack began and to find a way to get them out alive. Very cinematic in its visual style with many different layers of beautifully painted and rendered textures, the most striking thing about War of the Worlds may actually be the audio. Mood setting orchestrations along with the brilliant choice of the game’s narrator in Sir Patrick Stewart, recalling the levels of the game as he looks back on the invasion now as an older man, helps to give you this feeling of near helplessness as this common man is simply looking to reunite with his family in the midst of a disaster the likes had never been seen up to that point or since.

And the helpless feeling only will continue with the game play as you are truly nothing more than your average human. Set up almost like classic Pitfall, the game is a 2D side-scrolling platformer that centers more on puzzle solving and avoiding instant kill obstacles than on shooting or destroying things. Taking cover to avoid lasers, dodging alien mines, and using your surroundings to your full advantage is the extent of your abilities as the game will likely push your platforming skills to their limits while immersing you in this beautiful looking and near cinematic story-telling experience.

PARTING SHOT: Although the controls felt a little stiff in the early build we saw, if you are a fan of old-school platformers that revolve more around overcoming obstacles than just blowing them up or maybe just like the good ol’ fashioned alien invasion story set in another era than modern times, then you should keep an eye out for when this drops on XBLA and PSN sometime in October.

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SSX EGM Preview

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July 7, 2011

Originally Published: June 28, 2011, on EGMNOW.COM

TRY CONQUERING A MOUNTAIN WHEN THE MOUNTAIN FIGHTS BACK

From the second you start playing SSX, you know you’re in for a wild ride. Using Google Earth and various other mapping technology, SSX paints a 3D globe while highlighting some of the world’s biggest peaks like Mt. Everest or K2. After selecting your mountain, you then enter into one of three game modes that revolve around the game’s theme of “Race It, Trick It, Survive It”.

The first two games modes are standard to a SSX game and deal with racing to the bottom of the mountain or getting the highest score possible by pulling off insane stunts. With some crisp graphics and the fact that you can perform a trick or grind anywhere leaves these modes with so much new potential. “It really speaks to our physics system that allows you to trick off anything, ride anything, and do things you’ve never been able to do before,” said SSX Producer Connor Dougan in regards to pulling off stunts in the game.

But the third mode, titled “Deadly Descent”, offered so much more in terms of testing your ingenuity and boarding skills. Likened to a boss battle where the mountain took center stage with each battle revolving around a particular element of being up in the mountains. The one we saw featured a beautifully rendered avalanche, that almost seemed alive as it kept reaching out to swallow our boarder whole, which we of course had to outrace to the bottom in order to win. This mode provided a completely new twist on not only the franchise, but snowboarding games in general. I’m looking forward to catching some fresh powder when SSX drops in January 2012.

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X-COM E3 2011 EGM Preview

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment
June 29, 2011

Originally Published: June 21, 2011, on EGMNOW.COM

A WAR OF THE WORLDS

WHAT ITS ABOUT: Set in the early 1960s, the world is under attack from an unknown alien force. As a member of the secret government organization known as XCOM, you must put together a crack field team to analyze and somehow subdue this threat to humanity.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: This franchise reboot sees a major facelift from the original’s tactical tradition. Not just a first-person shooter, XCOM will put your wits to the test in not only building and leveling up your team, but also how you act in the field. Will you capture enemy weaponry for personal upgrades later or turn them against their alien masters right in the middle of the fray? The choices are near endless.

WHAT RAY THINKS: Easily one of the longest demos at E3, I wouldn’t have minded seeing even more. XCOM has a strong, cinematic feel while mixing in elements of both Bioshock and Mass Effect. Weird and wonderful weaponry will constantly be at your fingertips while you command your units on the fly in the field and also dish out as much punishment as you can yourself from the first-person perspective. I can’t wait!

-Ray Carsillo

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WWE 12 EGM E3 2011 Preview

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment

Originally Published: June 21, 2011, on EGMNOW.COM

IT’S GONNA BE A SLOBBERKNOCKER!

WHAT ITS ABOUT: This is the latest installment of THQ’s hit yearly WWE wrestling franchise, which sees a much needed facelift while still featuring some of the sports entertainment business’s biggest names.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: This franchise had been just coasting along up until last year’s revolutionary online Royal Rumble feature. But that was only the beginning as this year’s entry marks not only a branding change that falls in line with the WWE’s slow movement to dissolve the rivalry between their RAW and Smackdown TV programs, but adds a brand new submission system and new “Predator” gameplay mechanics in honor of the game’s cover boy, Randy Orton.

WHAT RAY THINKS: I was able to take control of “The Awesome One” himself, The Miz, for a brief demo against a CPU Randy Orton and was amazed at not only how smooth the new animations for the game seemed, but how much easier it was to just pick up and play, which should please old and new fans alike. I just hope they work out the glitch that wouldn’t let me pin Orton after performing four finishers before November’s launch.

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