Blur Review

Blur answers the long-contemplated question: What would happen if a speeding Renault dropped a land mine in front of a gaining Nissan at 130mph? The answer is, of course, a massive wreck, but it’s only now that Blur has merged the real-life cars from Project Gotham Racing with the over-the-top weapons more commonly found in the cartoony Mario Kart series that such questions can finally be laid to rest forever. This odd combination paves the way for an exhilarating racing experience with an absolutely relentless pace, but there is another element borrowed from a popular franchise that makes it even harder to put this racer down. An experience system similar to the one that worked so well in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has been integrated into the missile-shooting, corner-taking action, giving you a healthy stream of prizes for successfully pulling off specific maneuvers. The thrilling racing does hit a couple of rough patches, though. The drifting is a little too stiff, and the level cap in single-player can be hit long before you finish up your career. But once you get a handle on the driving, nothing can slow down your fun in this exciting racer.

The only thing missing is John Connor and the California governor.

Despite all the fancy rewards and destructive weapons in Blur, the most important aspect is still the driving, and thankfully, it's a blast to take to the road. This is a fast-moving game where quick reflexes are paramount to success, and the controls rarely get in the way of your chance to grab the checkered flag. You can smoothly glide between competitors, dodge land mines and missiles without any worry, and take tight turns at top speeds--at least after a bit of practice. The drifting is a bit stiff, and it can take a little finesse to steer yourself around corners without slamming into the wall. This stiffness can be mitigated by selecting a vehicle with more grip, allowing you to stay fully in control when cornering at the expense of speed. But once you get a handle on the timing needed to perform a perfect drift, it's a rush to scream around corners with style.

The early portions of the single-player campaign make it easy to learn how to drive on the fly, but the challenges become stiffer once you get deeper into the game. There are 63 events to compete in, topped off by nine bosses that are none too pleased that you're trying to wrest their racing crowns from them. There are three unique event types: racing, checkpoint, and destruction. In racing, you test your mettle against up to 19 other drivers, squealing around corners and unleashing weapons to claw your way to the top. Checkpoint removes the weapons and competitors, and the game is just as fun when you're focused on the smooth driving without anything to distract you from the road. Destruction flips that idea around, forcing you to dispatch as many nameless drivers as possible before your time is up. With only three different event types, there isn't a ton of variety, but the action is so engaging and fun that it hardly matters that your overall objective doesn't change much.

A lot of the enjoyment comes from the secondary objectives you need to complete. Every action you take in Blur is tracked and tallied, and rewards are doled out when you reach certain milestones. Rewards include new cars and passive modifications, giving you plenty of control over your on-track strategy. The mods give you all sorts of additional powers to play around with, such as earning turbo boost at the beginning of every lap or equipping your car with a laser sight to make shooting weapons easier. There are also mini challenges in every event that let you earn more fans which unlocks more cars after you gain enough. Every track has a checkpoint challenge where you must drive through a series of markers within a time limit, but there are more specific challenges as well that keep the racing fresh. These include hitting opponents with a missile while you're drifting or achieving a certain high speed, and it's a blast to strive for these goals while trying to overtake the car in first place. The only strange thing is how quickly you reach the maximum fan-level limit. In single-player, 25 is the highest level available, and you can reach this long before you finish all the events. There are still other rewards to strive for, but it's disheartening to reach your fan limit and be left without levels to strive for before you reach the end of the game.

Hovering clock power-ups are a valuable commodity.

The weapons have mostly been inspired by Mario Kart, but they're well balanced and provide a satisfying way to overcome your foes. The assortment of missiles, land mines, and homing bombs are expected inclusions, but most items have multiple uses that make you strategize a bit more. For instance, your force push attack can slam a nearby enemy into a wall or straight off the course, but you can also use it as a defensive mechanism. Time your button push right, and you can destroy a missile homing in on your tailgate. Also, unlike in Mario Kart, none of the weapons are overpowered. The lightning bolt does send three electrical clouds after the pack leader, but these are easy enough to avoid that they won't drastically upset the balance. Because defense is just as important as offense, the rearview mirror is incredibly useful. You need to have eyes in the back of your head to counter offensive barrages or accurately shoot missiles backward, so you have to learn how to protect your backside while still concentrating on where you're going

All of these different elements culminate in a thrilling experience. Between the weapons and objectives, there is plenty of variety to be found in each race, with a new experience waiting for you every time you take to the track. And earning the right to challenge a boss takes more than just coming in first in enough races. Instead, every one of these battles comes with its own set of requirements, and it can be difficult to pass some of these tougher objectives. Some of these requirements come in the normal course of your racing. Passing drivers using a nitro burst or drifting for a set number of meters comes with the territory, but there are others that require you to change your tactics. Knocking an opponent into the water with a push attack or maintaining at least 120mph for an entire lap are not easy goals, but it's still a lot of fun to reach these lofty levels. The rewards system ensures that you have a chance to earn something even when you come in last place, always giving you an incentive to take on one more race.

Cars can get a little touchy feely

The tracks are just as varied as the objective types, making each race feel unique. Although they are based on real locations, they are not necessarily realistic. One ridiculous track takes place directly behind the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, where one lousy turn could see you tumbling off a cliff. Another track takes place on the hilly streets of San Francisco, and as long as you don't mind slamming your undercarriage repeatedly against the ground, it's tons of fun swerving through this iconic city. There's also a one-lap course that takes place on a mountain. You have to navigate narrow, winding roads at top speeds, desperately trying to make it to the finish line in one piece. Because of the diversity in the track types, you need to plan a strategy ahead of time. Certain courses have so many tight corners that you need a car that's good at drifting, while others have dirt shortcuts that beg for an off-road vehicle. The assortment of tracks makes it interesting to play these courses again and again as you attempt to unlock all the rewards.

Once you finish the single-player experience, there is a multiplayer mode with its own rewards to strive for. Like in the campaign, you earn fans for pulling off fancy maneuvers during races, and these points go toward your overall level. Instead of being limited to the single-player level cap of 25, the independent level cap goes up to 50 in online play, giving you much more reason to keep getting out on the track to prove your worth. You unlock cars and modifications as you get deeper into the game, and it's a blast mixing and matching to form the perfect strategy for coming out in first place. When you first go online, you're limited to just a few different race types, but after leveling up for a few hours, the rest opens up to you. These include races with or without power-ups and even battle arenas on circular tracks. Adding to the online experience are challenges you can send to people on your friends list, giving them specific goals to try to beat. If you get an impressive time and high score during a race, you can see if your buddies are good enough to top your best. It's a lot of fun to send out and complete challenges, and the diversity in objectives ensures there's always something to strive for.

There's a split-screen mode as well, but this is far less entertaining than single-player and online multiplayer. First of all, there are no persistent rewards. Even though point markers appear whenever you strike your friend with a weapon or pull off a smooth turn, they don't accumulate, and there aren't any prizes to earn. This removes much of the appeal of the other modes in which striving for new toys to play with is almost as much fun as the racing. Furthermore, the rearview mirror has been taken out, which makes it difficult to play defensively during races. It's almost impossible to dodge attacks when you can't see them coming, so you find yourself immobilized far more often. Finally, you can't go online with a friend in tow. Split-screen is fun if you just want to play a quick race with a buddy, but it lacks any sort of long-term appeal and doesn't stack up to the other elements in the game.

The first-person view puts your chin right on the asphalt.

The visuals also have a few rough patches. When your health gets too low, the screen throbs read, which is fine except that it makes it difficult to see the road in front of you while you’re desperately trying to stay alive. Crashes also leave a lot to be desired. When you tumble off a cliff or fly into the water, you passively watch your car fly off in the distance without a satisfying explosion. Everything else is technically proficient but lacks any sort of flair to keep your eyes entertained. The cars are nicely detailed and move at a breakneck speed, but everything has a generic look that makes it difficult for this game to stand out from the crowd. The one bit of personality Blur's visual exhibit is in the outlandish power-ups. The neon purple missiles and shocking blue lightning bolts add a dose of energy to the sterile view. The bland visuals don't take away the thrill of the high-speed action, but it lacks the artistic brilliance that could have made this a treat for your eyes.

Thankfully, the lame split-screen mode and unremarkable visuals won't keep you from enjoying this exciting racing game. The odd combination of Mario Kart and PGR is surprisingly fun, and the added rewards system makes it extremely difficult to put this racer down. Blur is so fast and fun to control that you can lose hours slamming into enemies and racking up fans, always coming back for one more race before you turn the system off and walk away. This unlikely marriage has created an offspring that does a fine job of honoring its well-respected parents

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Posted in: Racing

Split/Second Review

Speeding down an airport runway in a shiny red sports car is cool; speeding down an airport runway with an out-of-control aircraft thundering toward you is insane. That's the idea behind Split/Second, an arcade racer in which you wreck your opponents by triggering destructive hot spots scattered all about the track. The frequent explosions, tumbling debris, and resulting tug-of-war among racers are undeniably stimulating, at least for a while. You'll whoop for joy when you demolish four opponents at once as they pass under a fuel station and moan aloud when a falling concrete beam crushes your vehicle like a beer can. These jolts are electrifying, but they aren't lasting ones. Once you learn the tracks and the tricks, the excitement dies away. Then, you realize that underneath the booms and bangs is a solid but one-dimensional racer that relies almost completely on a single mechanic. That mechanic isn't enough to boost Split/Second to the head of the pack, but it is still a fun racer with a lot of speed and a lot of spark.

Power plays let you quickly narrow the gap between last place and first.

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Split/Second is all about power plays. As you zip about the 11 tracks (a 12th empty slot hints at the possibility of future downloadable content), you earn power by drifting, drafting, and getting air. Once you gain enough power, icons appear, indicating an opportunity to take down opponents by triggering a destructive event. If you press a button, a helicopter might drop metal pipes onto the course, a crane may go sliding across the roadway, or rocks and boulders may erupt from a canyon wall. Alternatively, you might trigger a bridge to be lowered or a door to be raised, opening up a temporary shortcut. If you trigger a level-two power play after completely filling your power bar, the devastation is even more dramatic. A chunk of roadway could collapse, changing that entire section of the course, or you might cause that enormous airplane to barrel menacingly down the runway. Just be mindful: You could fall victim to your own power play.

The first few times you unleash your newfound power on an opponent are breathtaking. Explosions and screeches are loud and obnoxious, and if you're driving a lighter vehicle, the powerful shocks might send you careening out of control for a moment. You won't always steer clear of trouble, however. Depending on your position and the timing of your opponent's power play, there may be no evading that enormous obstacle that comes crashing down in front of you. If you've ever cursed the unavoidable blue shell in the Mario Kart series, the inescapable events in Split/Second might annoy you. But getting wrecked is rarely frustrating, for several reasons. Firstly, power play triggers are intelligently laid out, so you aren't likely to get caught up in an inexorable string of accidents. (It's possible to respawn in the middle of more devastation and wreck immediately, but such aggravations are uncommon.) Secondly, the game gets you back into the race quickly after you crash. And thirdly, being behind the pack isn't really a bad thing because it gives you the opportunity to bust up the competition.

Even when an explosion doesn't wreck you, it might still send you veering off course.

The single-player campaign is structured as a reality television show on which you are contestant. Split/Second doesn't do a whole lot with the premise (you won't meet any slimy TV producers or peek in on any bloodthirsty viewers), but each episode's introduction and credit sequence is produced so well that you look forward to seeing what courses you unlock next. Episodes and one-off events include the usual races and elimination matches, all limited to eight participants. There are a few additional modes worth noting, however. In Survivor mode, you earn points by passing a series of semitrucks as you circle around the course. There's some fine print, however: These trucks are dropping explosive barrels onto the track. The more trucks you pass without wrecking, the faster you accumulate points. In Air Revenge mode, you must avoid a helicopter's missile strikes long enough to trigger a power play that deflects the missiles back toward the badly behaving chopper. Neither mode features the environmental devastation that makes Split/Second stand out, but they make for fun and anarchic diversions nonetheless.

Yet even with the variety these and a couple of other extra modes add, Split/Second comes off as a bit basic. It doesn't take long to memorize each track, including power play locations. So while entire sections of the track may change if someone activates a level-two power play, the game doesn't offer as much flexibility and variety as Burnout: Paradise or even MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. If you strip away the power plays completely, you have a solid but unspectacular racer with few trimmings. You unlock new vehicles as you play with various stats relating to power, drifting, and so on, but there is no way to customize their appearance, aside from changing their color. You also unlock decals as you play, but they appear automatically on your vehicle. Fortunately, the racing itself is smooth; a low camera angle gives sports cars a terrific sense of speed, and drifting feels great, even in the slipperiest of vehicles. Collision sensitivity, however, can go a bit awry. Sometimes you can bang into a wall and emerge perfectly intact, while at other times, barely scraping a girder can result in an immediate crash. But these are rare moments in an otherwise dependable racing model.

Rubbing is racing!

Once you've cut your teeth on the single-player season, you can show off your racing and crashing expertise online. There's a rather bare-bones experience here. You can jump quickly into a race using the Public Game option, but the game cycles through tracks on its own. Conversely, you can host a match for friends and fill empty slots with AI racers, but you can't limit the vehicles allowed in the race or even set the number of laps. Nevertheless, while it lacks the peripheral online features you'd expect from a modern racer, multiplayer Split/Second is often a riot. The AI is aggressive, but computer opponents don't offer the cutthroat competition human players do. In full races, expect an intriguing tug-of-war as pack leaders fall victim to well-timed power plays from racers lagging behind. Besides, it's always a pleasure to destroy a competitor who previously caused an enormous wrecking ball to smash into the side of your racecar.

You can play Elimination and Survival matches with other players, though standard races offer the most pound-for-pound thrills. (Multiplayer Survival can get too chaotic for its own good.) There are some Xbox 360-specific online quirks that need sorting out, however. In that version, the game may report erroneous times and point totals should a competitor drop out midrace. This issue doesn't appear to affect the points you receive toward your overall ranking. However, it's still annoying for the game to indicate you are in first place as you cross the finish line, only for the results screen to erroneously report that an AI racer crossed the finish line two minutes beforehand. We didn't experience this issue in other versions of the game, though the PC version possesses a few foibles of its own. Most noticeably, the game's button prompts don't change if you've plugged in a controller, and in some cases, contextual prompts are completely missing. For example, you will get a prompt inviting you to view an instant replay, but for some reason, the game doesn't tell you how to view it.

Just because you're in first place doesn't mean you can get complacent.

Split/Second is unlikely to become your go-to racer, but while it lasts, it's one hell of a thrill ride. Tailing an opponent and taking advantage of his shortcut, watching a tall tower fall onto your speeding nemesis, drifting around a corner while miraculously avoiding destruction raining from the sky--these are great moments that will make you cry out in glee. This is a one-trick pony, and once you see through the trick, it's hard not to wish there was something more substantial to support it. But if you're in the mood for some rip-roaring fun with no strings attached, Split/Second makes for a boisterous weekend romp.

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Posted in: Racing

The Whispered World Review

Traditional point-and-click adventure is alive and well in The Whispered World. But that's both good and bad for Daedalic Entertainment's surreal fantasy about a sad clown and the end of the world. While the German game certainly features the captivating story and memorable characters that made classic adventures so engaging, it also boasts dozens of those old-fashioned illogical puzzles that made you want to tear out your hair and a lot of wordy dialogue that slows the action to a crawl. This is one of those experiences that does enough right in terms of storytelling to make you embrace it, but enough wrong to make you wonder why you're wasting your time.

Cartoon characters and lush painted backdrops give The Whispered World a lot of atmosphere.

The protagonist of this odd tale is Sadwick the Sorrowful Clown, a sad-sack kid in a jester's costume. He looks a lot like Eeyore, Winnie the Pooh's depressive donkey sidekick, with the tails of his jester's hat taking the place of long floppy ears. Sadwick is also just as down in the dumps as Eeyore but with good reason--he's the human cannonball and resident whipping boy for a small family circus. Grandpa can never remember his name. Bother Ben treats him like some kind of indentured servant and insults his artistic ambitions to write poetry or perform legitimate theater. And he's having constant nightmares about the end of the world, which in this case is a medieval fantasy land of sorts filled with magic and far-off kingdoms. The only creature that loves this clown is his pet "caterpillar" Spot, a green globular character that looks like the Shmoo from '80s Saturday morning cartoons that can similarly morph into different shapes like balls on demand. Spot lets his cuteness do the talking, remaining silent through the entire game with the exception of the odd squeak. He really serves as more of a tool that allows Sadwick to explore places he can't get into than as any sort of adventuring companion.

Most of the story centers on Sadwick's search for adventure. After spending the first few minutes of the game getting told off by his jerk of a brother and senile grandfather, he wanders into the woods and runs into a goblinlike messenger from the far-off kingdom of Corona. The king is sick and the realm may fall to a race of beings called the Asgil, so the only hope is to get a magic item called the Whispering Stone back to the castle quickly. A seer of sorts named Shana is apparently the only one who can help get the stone, but when Sadwick finds her, she goes into a trance and tells him that he is fated to destroy the world…just the kind of thing that every clinically depressed clown wants to hear. Sadwick can't bring himself to tell her this when she awakens, however, so he lies and says she actually prophesied that he would save the world. At this point, she gives him a few vague tips on how to do so and the quest begins in earnest.

Unfortunately, you feel like you've done it all before. The Whispered World may be loaded with story and atmosphere, featuring striking painted backgrounds, character animations straight out of a great cartoon, and a haunting piano/flute musical theme, but everything is overdone. Some of the charm of this dreamy fairytale is lost because there is too much dialogue. Every rock and bush comes with commentary from Sadwick, and most of the conversations go on endlessly, through what seems to be a dozen or more options in branching dialogue trees. At first, this florid script immerses you in the story. An hour or so later, listening to all of this meandering jibber-jabber builds the tedium up so much that you'll just scan the lines and click through them as quickly as possible. Voice acting quality is hit and miss, too. Some characters are very bland, while others are overwrought, and at regular intervals, a bug causes voices to go silent until you restart the game. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, however, because Sadwick speaks with a nasally whine (again, like Eeyore) that makes you want to smack him. Atmosphere as conveyed by the outstanding art is also a bit much because it is so detailed that items blend into backgrounds. Every locale is just crammed with great little touches, from all of the junk strewn around Sadwick's trailer to the throne room in the castle at Corona. So while it's great to just gawk at all of this art, it's not so great to have to highlight the many clickable objects on every screen with the spacebar in order to keep the game from turning into an annoying pixel hunt.

Locales are just crammed with little details tucked into the artwork everywhere you look.

The puzzles are very derivative. This is an old-fashioned adventure, like Sierra and LucasArts used to make, where you have to pick up everything that isn't nailed down no matter how stupid it might seem. Common sense is trampled on much of the time. Sadwick just has no reason to grab some things, like his grandfather's crusty old handkerchief, yet you make him do it anyway because you know that you'll eventually be able to MacGyver some essential gadget out of even the smallest piece of refuse. Actually solving many puzzles is also virtually impossible because of the incredible leaps in logic necessary to figure things out. At one point, for instance, you need to grab some pantaloons stuck high up on a wall. You have a ladder. Simple, right? Not really. Instead of simply climbing the ladder, you have to close a door to see a mouse hole in the wall behind it, lure the mouse out with a sock, grab the mouse, and then dangle it by its tail on top of the wall above the pantaloons, where the little rodent grabs said puffy pants with his teeth. The human cannonball puzzle is even more insane, forcing you to do absurd things like make a sculpture out of tree resin, stone turtles, grandpa's dentures, and bear claws to scare your brother into dropping his objections to your stealing (another) pair of pantaloons and a red juggling ball. Your head hurts just thinking about this stuff. At least the handful or so of set piece brainteasers are involving and challenging, even if they mostly rely on old genre standards. These include sliding tiles, moving chess pieces, and mixing chemicals to make various meals and potions.

In short, The Whispered World is beautiful, yet treacherous. Although the game has many strong points in the dreamlike storyline, gorgeous painted art, and detailed script loaded with dialogue, it is too slavish an imitation of the old adventure game formula to be completely enjoyable two decades after the heyday of Sierra and LucasArts. Going retro is one thing; forcing adventurers to wrangle with pixel hunts and riddles that you have no chance of figuring out without a walk-through is something else entirely.

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Posted in: Children

Green Day: Rock Band Review

Last year, The Beatles: Rock Band demonstrated how a rhythm game dedicated to the songs of one band can create a uniquely immersive and enjoyable plastic rock experience. Green Day: Rock Band follows in those footsteps, and while it doesn't rise to the same lofty heights as its predecessor, it is still a solidly entertaining package. There's a good amount of music, including three full albums, though your affinity for the Bay Area band's work will likely be the determining factor in whether or not you think the game is worth full retail price. The unlockable photos and videos are a nice touch, but Green Day: Rock Band lacks the artistic ingenuity to broaden its appeal much beyond its established fan base. Still, there is some high-energy entertainment to be had here, and interested parties won't be disappointed.

Rockin' out to the title track.

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The 47-song tracklist includes three full albums (Dookie, American Idiot, 21st Century Breakdown), as well as a few selections from Warning, Nimrod, and Insomniac. The game also incorporates the six downloadable Green Day songs available for the original Rock Band and Rock Band 2, provided you shell out the funds to download them. The youthful energy of Dookie contrasts nicely with the more melodic 21st Century Breakdown, and though the drum parts in many songs feel a bit too familiar, there is a substantial degree of musical diversity.

Unfortunately, the presentation doesn't do much to highlight that diversity. There are only three venues to play in, and the band members wear only three different outfits (and hairstyles/colors). Career mode is centered around these venues, and as you progress, you unlock new setlists and new songs to play (though all are available from the get-go in Quickplay). There are no music videos to accompany each song and differentiate among them, only a live performance scene featuring avatars that, while recognizable, fail to capture the band's dynamic energy. While the unique videos in The Beatles: Rock Band helped create a sense of progression and novelty from song to song, the forgettable visuals in Green Day: Rock Band practically beg to be ignored. More venues and some of the artistic variety shown in the band's videos would have made this a more unique experience; as is, it feels more like a track pack.

Black-and-white camera filters are about as fancy as the visuals get.

Of course, Rock Band has always been about the experience of playing, not watching, and Green Day: Rock Band is a lot of fun to play. There is a good range of difficulty, ensuring that rockers of all skill levels will have something to enjoy. Each instrument has a number of standout songs, and the three-part vocal harmonies pioneered by The Beatles: Rock Band are on full display here. It's still great fun to chime in on vocals, especially while playing an instrument, making a mic stand an increasingly valuable part of any living room rocker's gear. Venue repetition aside, the setlist format works fine for Career mode, and the unlockable challenges repackage songs in different ways, providing a refreshing change of pace.

You can also unlock pictures and videos from throughout the band's career that include amusing behind-the-scenes profiles and electrifying performance recordings. You can play Quickplay, Career, and Score Duel (a competition against an opponent playing the same song and instrument) either locally or online, and you can export all the songs on the disc to your hard drive using the code on the game manual and 800 Microsoft points/$9.99. As far as value goes, 47 songs for full retail price isn't a great one, but there is more than enough music here to keep Green Day fans rockin' into the wee hours. It goes without saying that Green Day haters should stay away, but those on the fence will find that there is plenty of fun to be had with this solid new entry in the Rock Band lineup.

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Posted in: Funny

The First Templar Impressions - First Look

It's mid-June in Los Angeles, and there are crowds of people in the Staples Center area, and that can mean only one thing: the Electronic Entertainment Expo is here, with such games as the medieval-era action adventure game The First Templar. This new game will take place at the tail end of the Dark Ages in Europe and will chronicle the rise of the fabled secret society known as the Knights Templar as they continue their search for the legendary Holy Grail while also facing an encroaching threat from the ambitious Spanish Inquisition--a powerful faction whose chief weapon is fear (or...fear and surprise) and that seeks to oppress the peoples of Europe with intimidation, paranoia, and sudden executions on the grounds of heresy.

In the game, you'll play as a noble French knight armed with sword and shield who is a puissant swordsman and a crusader for the cause of right, or so he thinks. The game will actually support cooperative play for two players, either online or on the same console for the Xbox 360 version, and therefore will feature two playable characters in action pretty much the whole time. If you decide to play the game all by your lonesome, your companion will be computer-controlled, and you can change control to the other character at any time, though you can also have a friend drop in or drop out at any time (similar to the co-op play in the later Lego Star Wars games and Resident Evil 5). While our hero starts out the game alongside his mentor, the cynical veteran knight Roland, the two men later rescue an Inquisition captive--a young noblewoman who is handy with a bow and arrow and just as skillful at using short swords and daggers. The lady becomes our hero's primary companion while Roland appears to ride off in the sunset, though publisher Kalypso Media suggests that the embittered veteran may return later in the game in a very different role.

Watch the E3 2010 trailer for The First Templar.

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We watched both a promotional trailer for the game and a brief demonstration of live gameplay in an early pre-alpha version. Apparently, the game will draw strongly on recorded history, and with the exception of a few huge, mutant humanoid monsters, your friends and foes will all be human, and no one will have any magic powers. The play session we watched showed the noble knight and his mentor investigate a village of terrified peasants who claim to have seen a monster prowling the nearby wood. We headed out into the forest to see whether there was trouble at the mill, first encountering a handful of angry Inquisitors dressed in the order's trademark red robes. We dispatched them with a series of melee combination attacks that can be performed with a series of button presses (as you'd expect from a third-person melee action game), though different characters will also have special abilities. Roland, for instance, can grapple and subdue an enemy character, leaving him wide open to his companion's attack. In addition, each character has three power icons that gradually fill up as you perform normal attacks. As your characters grow in power over time (using the game's extensive skill tree), you'll learn new attacks that cost one, two, or three power points, such as a knockdown attack that costs a single point and sends most enemies sprawling.

Though our path to our quarry was clearly marked, we followed the sound of barking dogs and cries for help to a side quest, which amounted to a brief battle against an Inquisitor and his trained attack dogs (which were capable of tackling us clean off our feet). After a brief and bloody engagement, we dispatched the cleric and his troublesome hounds to find their captive, a harmless monk who divulged new information about the beast we hunted, as well as their treasure, a small box that, when opened, granted us a new combat ability. We then pressed on to the clearing to see a stony structure built into the side of a foothill in which our beast most likely lived. To draw it out, we first hid in the nearby brush, signaled to another one of our men positioned above the hillside to emerge and grab the big, ugly brute's attention. We then jumped into combat and attacked him from behind. Unfortunately, the game is still in a very early state, so this boss battle didn't look quite as climactic as it probably should, but the game itself has a long way to go before it's complete. The First Templar is scheduled for release early next year.

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Posted in: War

inFamous 2 First Look

In most game sequels involving people with super powers, the lead character usually goes through some devastating event at the start where their powers are scaled back or stripped, forcing players to build up skills and abilities all over again. Not in inFamous 2. While there is a major event that sets protagonist Cole MacGrath back at the beginning of the game, developers from Sucker Punch Studio say players won't have to start from scratch. If inFamous tracked Cole's journey into becoming a super hero, then the sequel will track his journey into becoming a super-super hero, and from we've what we've seen of the game at E3 2010, this significant increase in power will be one that fans welcome.

Before we go further, here's a spoiler warning--we'll be talking a little about the story of inFamous in this paragraph, so best skip to the next one if you haven't finished (or played) that game. At the start of the sequel, Cole finally goes head-to-head with the mysterious, world-ending entity known as The Beast that the time travelling Kessler had gone into the past to prepare Cole for. But the fight does not go well, with Cole being defeated and realising that despite his powers, he was still no match for his foe. So our hero (or villain, depending on your play style) heads to the New Orleans-inspired city of New Marais, the place where the Ray Sphere (the device that gave him his powers) was built to see if he can get stronger.

Life for a super-powered being isn't easy in New Marais, however, thanks to the city being overrun by The Militia, a group of militants who hate any deviant humans. The group--led by the elderly Bertrand--had been striking up anti-deviant fever in the city, and our demo began at a rally where Bertrand was addressing a large group of people while flanked by heavily armed guards. In the crowd is a familiar face from the first game--the impressively side burned Zeke--who shakes his head at the bile Bertrand is spewing. He's soon joined by Cole, who looks quite unfamiliar thanks to a significant character redesign. Instead of a yellow courier jacket and close-cropped haircut, Cole looks more Nathan Drake, wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt exposing some serious ink on his arms.

As Bertrand speaks, some strange, humanoid creatures attack the rally. These creatures sported what looked like sharp claw-like appendages for arms and legs, and had gaping, sideways-opening mouths with plenty of sharp teeth. Cole leaps into action, and we were shown a new melee weapon that he'll be able to use in inFamous 2. According to Sucker Punch, the move to a heavier focus on melee came from wanting players to get closer tp the action, with many of his powers from the first game deemed much more ranged-focused. This new weapon--which looked like a giant tuning fork with electricity coursing along its two arms--allowed Cole to make some flashy moves, including one where he jammed the weapon around an enemy's neck and swung around it to deliver a huge, slow-motion finishing blow.

With the mutant-looking enemies taken care of, Cole turned his attention to Bertrand, who had fled in a limousine. Cole quickly gave chase, showing off several powers he had in the first game, including the ability to "slide" along electricity lines and hover for extended periods of time. He could also quickly make his way across some horizontal pipes, adding another layer of speed to his ability to quickly cover open ground. Cole's attack powers looked quite beefed-up--his basic electrical bolt and shock grenade attacks seemed to do serious damage to enemies, and his shock rockets exploded with enough force to pick up cars and smash them into buildings. In fact, this showcased another new aspect to inFamous 2--greater destructibility in environments. The streets of New Marais Cole was chasing Bertrand though contained plenty of large balconies on buildings, and these collapsed with plenty of impressive effects when cars were thrown into them.

Cole eventually caught up with Bertrand, landing on his car and threatening the old man with a close range bolt through his open sunroof. Bertrand was unconcerned, however, and with good reason. A low swooping attack helicopter appeared and knocked Cole off the car, before throwing some rockets at the rolling superhero. Cole managed to avoid the explosions, but the helicopter was already in the process of turning around and retargeting. Cole chooses this point to unleash a massive new power--joining his hands together, Cole created a massive, multi-storey tornado infused with bolts of lightning, which travelled down a narrow street, picking up cars and balconies in its wake and eventually taking out the chopper. That wasn't the end of it, however. A gigantic, shadowy figure began to emerge from the dust, throwing out a large tentacle that grabbed a nearby pedestrian before dragging him screaming into the large dust cloud. Cole sighed, and said "It's always something", at which point the demo ended.

With the official game play sneak peek over, the developers at Sucker Punch took the opportunity to reiterate a few key points. Firstly, that the game was still a year or so away from shipping, and that plenty of decisions still had to be finalised--including the final look for Cole. Secondly, while the first game's morality system will definitely be making a return, no final determination had yet been made on whether how you finished the last game would affect the new title (i.e. would being a bad Cole or a good one affect inFamous 2). The answers to this question will be coming in the future, so keep it tuned to GameSpot for more soon.

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