A new football game instigates yet another opening paragraph proclaiming the state of sporting video game nation. With FIFA 10 being so damn brilliant, Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer series has a whole heap of catching up to do.

Most immediately striking are those almost unnervingly accurate player likenesses. Obviously a lot of time has been spent lavishing graphical goodness on some of the world's greatest players, as a chunky number of them look ridiculously close to their real life counterpart. Players like Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Lionel Messi appear almost identical to the players they’re trying to mimic.

Unfortunately things take a phenomenally rapid plummet downwards when these superstars of the footballing world decide they fancy a jog around. The straight backed sprinting remains intact, and continues to look comically terrible and startlingly unrealistic.

Similarly, while the 360 degrees of movement introduced in FIFA 10 was implemented with an incredibly high level of success, in PES 2010 things aren’t quite so impressive. Though more movement variations are possible, there’s no doubt whatsoever that the full 360 degrees simply can’t be explored to the maximum. Something certainly not helped by the computer's insistence to stick to the traditional 8 directions we’ve contended with for many years.

While in control of things out on the pitch, things continue to be hit and miss. Dribbling feels stilted and on rails, and passing still has the continued obsession with aiming towards a player nowhere near your chosen intention. Yet shooting, coming from someone who has extensively played the FIFA series over the last few years, feels fantastically weighty and packed with inertia.

The pace of each match up certainly feels a lot faster than its FIFA opponent, with local multiplayer games in particular absolutely jam packed with frantic penalty box action.

The AI however doesn’t exactly give a helping hand to proceedings, with some particularly dodgy goalkeeping spoiling the party. A number of long range efforts right at the keeper were simply "kneed in" by a flailing ‘keeper, seemingly oblivious that he has the opportunity to utilise his hands in stopping the ball.

Similarly, your fellow pros on the pitch aren’t too bright either. They’ll refuse to make the obvious runs, neglect to mark the opponent in their area of the pitch, and simply try and make it as difficult as possible for you to score.

It’s an odd situation for a series that always offered a decent single player experience, thanks to the (still included) Master League. All the options remain to really test your gaming metal long-term, but the AI you’ll come up against is so random, awkward, and seemingly lacking in any real quality and skill that Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 is essentially a multiplayer-only title.

Which makes the online problems all the more damning. Despite promises that this year we’d be back to the kind of smooth online experience the series enjoyed back on the original Xbox, lag still regularly ruins games and makes almost every online experience fraught with frustration.

Tags: Gaming Sports games PS3 Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 Konami

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 - PS3 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:01:44 +0000

After Infinity Ward’s sublime Call of Duty: Modern Warfare astounded all with its representation of up-to-date combat, expectations have continuously soared for the always inevitable sequel. With predictions of multi-millions day one sales (which incidentally proved to be perfectly correct) a raised RRP, and a mass of gamers desperate to get their grubby mitts on the final game, these talented developers have had a lot to ponder.

The single player campaign unsurprisingly fails to deviate too far from the path trodden by its elder sibling. The campaign lasts a mere 6-8 hours; the breakneck speed that the majority of this time flashes past, due to the hectic action on screen, leaves it feeling much less than half that.

Once again you flit between two intertwined stories, one involving US Army privates fighting in their own backyard, with the other starring the group of British favourites you’ll remember from the last Modern Warfare. In terms of an overall story it’s certainly affecting and brutal. But it does force you to take a few liberties with what’s actually possible in the real world.

It plays from the same first person perspective as before, and retains the obsession with cover from the last game. The pace is almost universally set to absolutely frantic, and even on the Normal difficulty settings you’ll regularly find yourself in an area where you suddenly seem completely surrounded, the screen a horrible red blur (with what appears to be strawberry jam smeared on screen in an awful design decision) as you take hits, and achieving an untimely death in order to give it another try. If you tired of the previous game's addiction with urging you to learn enemy routines a few times before passing through with life intact, then you’ll suffer the same fate here.

Though things may not sound as stellar as we’d expected, they’re no better or worse than the original Modern Warfare. With the rose tinted specs removed, even the last game packed a certainly solid single player campaign with some stunning set pieces (which are multiplied tenfold in Modern Warfare 2) but didn’t offer enough to let that offering sell a game all on its own. That was left to the multiplayer component.

Safe to say that Modern Warfare 2 is an absolute joy online, at least on the Xbox 360. The PC version is, by all accounts, obliterated by the lack of dedicated server support, and the PS3 iteration is already approaching its third patch. But for Xbox 360 owners, we’ve had an absolute riot.

Not much has changed but instead multiplied to offer more depth, more customisation, and a whole new level of fun. A large number of your favourite perks from the last game remain, to be added to be a whole new fresh batch looking to spice up the battlefield. Kill Streaks remain with included new flavours, but new Death Streaks, allowing the frequently killed a chance to immediately bite back, really do add a lot to proceedings for both newcomers and rubbish gamers alike.

The 16 new maps are unsurprisingly a mixed bag, with early favourites already obvious with those who’ve already settled in for the long play. All, however, seem to pack much more in than the counterparts. Even for us, who have spent a quite unhealthy amount of time with the multiplayer component already, we still keep finding new nooks and crannies to hide, exploit, and be killed from.

One major new addition is the Spec Ops missions. Played in either single player or two player cooperative, well over 20 short missions are offered up to play through. These are all wildly different, ranging from holding a tower against waves of enemies, through to slowly and methodically sniping your way through great snowy landscapes, and award you stars after completion. This isn’t a last minute gimmick, as it could certainly keep a whole lot of people away from multiplayer for quite a while as they attempt to bag every last star.

As for the mission that’s been so heavily publicised in the mainstream press, we’ve little to add to the debate that hasn’t already been said. Playing through that particular 5 minutes did become a touch difficult, and it’s certainly not something you’ll come back to once you’ve had a go yourself. But the sheer fury levelled towards the game itself and its developers has been on such a ridiculous level, that you’d believe that violent games/films/music/books hadn’t ever existed before. More violent things have appeared in the past, and they will in the future.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare 2 Call of Duty Activision

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:24:09 +0000

While most gamers have pinned all their Holiday gaming hopes on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, despite the mass hype, had slipped a touch below radar, until reviews started appearing that is.. The sequel to Nathan Drake's Tomb Raider-esque exploration seemingly expected to be decent enough, but not quite hitting the heights of the Call of Duty juggernaut.

Uncharted 2 starts out with a cliffhanger. Literally. You begin with a stunning set piece, with Indiana Jones-a-like explorer Nathan Drake clinging onto the remains of a half obliterated train that's precariously hanging over a huge cliff face. Slowly and methodically you pull yourself up and finally come to rest on solid ground. Only for all hell to break loose.

This supremely bombastic opening does its level best to show off right at the very start every major asset that Naughty Dog have crammed onto a Blu-ray disc. Most obviously there's the huge attraction that are arguably the greatest visuals witnessed in a video game thus far. Everything from eye popping vistas, through to incredible character animation, via stunning lighting effects. It all culminates in quite a stunning visual spectacle.

Similarly high levels of production have been plunged into the aural experience too. The voice acting – in part due to the hefty quality of the script – is absolutely top notch, with none of the usual hammy over the top, or bored sounding individuals simply eager to grab their pay cheque. This helps bring about the almost unimaginable; cutscenes that you will want to witness multiple times.

The high quality continues with some superb physics, more obviously helping make Drake's regular climbs and jumps seem all that more real, but also enemies that perish and move in stunningly realistic manners. We spotted one recently blasted enemy caught on a high railing, and couldn't resist giving him a nudge off his precarious resting place and watch him land bone-crunchingly hard on the rocks below. Yet another sign that some real love has been fed into this game.

Enemies also show a huge amount of intelligence in the way they duck behind cover, try to flush you out with grenades and flank your position, rather than wait to be slowly picked off one by one. With combat outnumbering exploration/platforming by a factor of about 2:1, it helps make the most of every single level of the game.

Drake's adventure isn't quite the new Tomb Raider that some might have you believe, with gunplay playing a major part to proceedings. Weapons are well powered and sound wonderful, and the cover system is as fluid as any other title out there. But when you do get the chance to climb, Uncharted 2 makes it feel so incredibly fluid when compared to Lara Croft's still somewhat stilted nature. There's no slow methodical lining up of jumps required, and you can easily cover huge distances in seconds. It just feels so natural.

Spread throughout the entire game there are a number of fantastic set pieces coming your way. Where some titles may keep the most spectacular experiences for passive cutscenes, Uncharted 2 sets you as the star, allowing you to frantically run from a truck, or swiftly jump across a crumbling bridge. You can always assume that one more breathtaking moment is only a few minutes away.

The single player experience described above lasts a solid 8 to 10 hours of game time, and certainly contains enough to keep you coming back time and time again. There are a few less than stellar moments however. While the latter enemies who can soak up a number of bullets are explained away, one earlier human who can withstand clip after clip of ammo is a strange anomaly.

And then there's the online multiplayer. All the usual standards apply, with the usual Deathmatch and Capture The Flag options made available. But they've been crafted with the same unnerving brilliance that the single player story offers, culminating in something which might not be brand new, but you can't help falling in love with.

Tags: Gaming PS3 Sony Uncharted 2 Among Thieves

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - PS3 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:42:28 +0100

After FIFA 09 did such an incredible job at astounding football gamers worldwide with its brilliance, the arrival of this year's iteration appeared with more than just a hint of caution. Change too little and we'll be back in the bad old days when everyone loved to hate EA and their seemingly obscene addiction to ripping us off. Fiddle too much with the core gameplay however and we might be right back to the times of the FIFA series being stuck in mid table obscurity.

The biggest shouting point for this years update is surely the inclusion of full 360 degree dribbling. In comparison, football games previously have been stuck to rigid 16 directions (at best) of movement, making the kind of free flowing and multi-directional dribbles witnessed with the likes of Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi almost impossible to replicate.

When running merely with a prod of the left analogue stick, your players now pack incredible freedom. For the first time in almost a decade, a football game arrives with the opportunity to go on wickedly tricky runs in the exact manner you desire. Upon sprinting, things do drift back in to the old directional methods due to obviously hampered control and body flexibility, but that's something you'd hope to be included rather than a flaw. Now you can finally curve your runs properly without having to force your player to make slow changes to their body shape and ball control.

Another major inclusion is the Virtual Pro. Fans of last year's version will remember the Be A Pro mode, which allowed you to embark on a career as a created footballer. This has been expanded in a number of ways, making for much more organic development of a footballer.

Firstly, you can, using an uploaded picture, give the player your own face. Not a game changing option, but one that stops you fiddling with the options in order to give your Pro a somewhat vague resemblance of yourself.

Second, this player is available in the squad of your favourite team in all options. Which means that simply playing an exhibition match allows you to increase your player's stats and abilities. There's a huge number of Achievements to unlock using your Virtual Pro, some of which will take a ridiculously lengthy amount of time to unlock, with each affecting your players abilities.

Getting 100% of them seems to be impossible at first glance, particularly as a number are striker/defender centric. But only a number of months with the game will show if this adversely affects this particular option. You can even use your player online, and sign-up to online teams to play as a part of huge leagues and competitions. A real treat, especially as your stats are constantly updated so you can easily see just how impressive you truly are.

The last, and probably not quite fully realised addition, is the chance to design your own set pieces. In the Arena, you can set-up and test out your own designed free kicks and corner routines. You can set runs for specific players in order to create holes in the defence, or simply send your big lumbering centre halves to attack the far post for a lofted free kick. It initially feels unwieldy and complex, but after a few minutes it dawns on you just how little there is you can play around with other than simply creating curved runs for your attacking players. It's a shame a little more time hasn't been spent making sure this options is an essential piece of the FIFA jigsaw, but its still worthy of your time.

Other than those major additions, things aren't that much different to last year. The usual exhibition and tournament modes remain, as do the usual wealth of multiplayer options both on and offline. There does seem to be much more in the way of setting options for online play in order to avoid constant fixtures against gamers obsessed with playing as the top teams, and points are alleged to be rewarded for performances and not just results, but at the time of writing the servers are yet to be populated.

On the pitch, the ball physics have undergone huge improvement. Cross-field passes now are much harder and flatter, and not the lofty interception-waiting-to-happen offerings included last year. Crosses into the box too are much more curved and appearing much closer to the whipped-in versions we see in real life. Similarly, player physics have also been ramped up, with much more weight and jostling between players fighting for the ball.

Tags: Gaming PS3 Sports games FIFA 10 EA Sports Fitness

FIFA 10 - PS3 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:43:01 +0100

In hindsight, Halo 2 wasn't quite what we'd expected. After the original Halo single handedly made the Xbox a legitimate rival to Sony's PlayStation 2 console, early videos promised that it's sequel was due to include battles on a ruined earth, taking place huge cityscapes. It didn't. And as fantastic as the series continued to be, it sadly missed out on what looked to be a brilliant turn for the Halo games. Halo 3: ODST feels just like Halo 2 could have been.

Everyone knows by now that the star of the first three games, the tall figure of the Master Chief doesn't reprise his role in ODST. Instead, you take control of various members of a squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. Hence, the overwhelming brute force that we all loved to wield in the first three games has now disappeared, with the various ODST members certainly more than a few notches below the skills of the Chief.

The story itself – which Bungie seem desperate to set as the new "star" of the Halo show – is played out in a novel manner. Each section begins with The Rookie, who was knocked out for 6 hours after plummeting towards the Earth city of New Mombasa, stealthily stalking the streets, picking off a few enemies, and ultimately discovering an item that induces a flashback towards the events surrounding the rest of the squad during the previous 6 hours. Each character's sections play a touch differently, with some focusing on brute strength and weaponry might, and others utilising all those Halo-developed FPS skills we've practiced over the years.

This change to how a Halo game is set out at first feels awkward. Characters feel so underpowered that deaths are frequent as you struggle to come to terms with the lack of the Master Chief. Stealth sections feel slightly cumbersome, particularly as you struggle to understand just what an enemy can't see/hear and what it can.

But, the sections using the other characters, which consists of the major part of the single player campaign, feel much more Halo. Well, like the original Halo: Combat Evolved. Gone is the ability to duel wield, take out bigger enemies with a single melee assault, and make huge hulking jumps. Instead the scaled back nature does hark back to the absolutely sublime combat of the original title. And that's certainly a major plus for Halo fans.

The other change is to the health system. Gone is the fondly loved recharge system, replaced by both shield and health stats. Once your shield has been knocked through – which still recovers through avoidance of combat for a short period – your health will be eaten up. And this can only be recovered due to picking up health packs scattered around the game world. It's an awkward change, and certainly makes things much more tactical when taking on a large group of enemies. Halo veterans in particular may find it a little tricky to get used to.

So the single player campaign is fun and action packed. It's a touch shorter than the rest of the series, but it certainly keeps you gripped for its entire lifespan. But the Bioshock esque influence hits again, just like it did in the recent Batman: Arkham Asylum, by allowing you to discover the back story by listening to snippets of information you pick up during searches as The Rookie. It's a much more complex tale than the series has told before, and it certainly adds to the somewhat depressing tone of The Rookie's in-game sections. Whether it's for everyone however is a different matter. Some Halo fans might just tire of these sections which lack pace and urgency, and just be desperate to rack up the kills.

Thankfully for them, Firefight mode is fantastic. After the popularity of Gears of War 2's Horde mode, Firefight allows you and up to three friends the chance to take on wave after wave of enemies, holding out for dear life. As the kills progress, the waves get tougher, and your score mounts up to wicked levels.

The addition of skills which give certain rounds a specific gameplay nuance makes things even more exciting, and Firefight will undoubtedly prove to be a real time drain for all multiplayer Halo fans. The only minus point is you can only play with friends. There's no chance to hook up with randoms and take on the onrushing hordes. A real odd decision from Bungie, particularly if you're lacking the online friends packing copies of ODST.

Also for multiplayer fans, the second disc comes complete with the entire Halo 3 multiplayer mode and maps, and tosses in a few more for good measure. Everyone knows how popular and brilliant Halo 3's multiplayer modes have proved to be, hence it's a terrific bonus to the entire package.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Halo Halo 3 ODST FPS Bungie Studios Microsoft Halo 3 ODST

Halo 3: ODST - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:21:40 +0100

The story of the split of Football Manager developers Sports Interactive, and publishers Eidos has been told more times than Top Gear gets repeated on that daftly-named Dave TV channel. For a fair few years now, Beautiful Game Studios have attempted to step into the Championship Manager shoes left idle by Sports Interactive, and take the series back to the heights it enjoyed during the 1990s.

This year's version has already gained huge publicity thanks to the publishers, Eidos, decision to allow gamers to purchase a digital download copy of the game for a price point of their choice. Some have seen fit to praise this choice as an example of just where the games industry can next explore. Others, some of the more world weary critics, have used it as ammunition towards proof that the this series is still a long, long way behind the Football Manager games. In any case, it was only for pre-orders, so those of you reading this will have to pay full price.

To say the latter would prove a harsh view of the talents of the development studio would be an understatement. Instead of take on Football Manager head on, BGS have seemingly decided to create a title for those disenchanted with the former series' obsession with micromanagement, and attempt to inject a little fun and fast-paced action back into the genre.

First impressions are, sadly, poor. The user interface is astonishingly unwieldy, with far too little in the way of shortcuts. The number of clicks required to get the information you desire, in almost every situation, are far too numerous to be intuitive.

Thankfully once you dig beneath this unattractive surface there's a wealth of statistics and figures to tuck into. The number of manageable teams, in England for once, are higher in number than the Football Manager series with another tier down available to take control of. A handy inclusion for those who adore the challenge of taking a minor local club through to Champions League glory.

Similarly, the transfer system has much more to it. Back and forth between clubs happen with much greater fluidity, and teams seem much more willing to tweak their desires and wants in order to clinch a deal. However, players are another matter. Despite being offered long-term deals that would make their bank manager dance with glee, players can still quibble over a fraction of a signing-on fee that can ultimately be worth far less. An odd situation when it occurs, and one that can frustrate accordingly.

The addition of creating set pieces, and witnessing them tried out on the training pitch is a brilliant inclusion, but again one that doesn't stand a true test. While you can craft some wonderful ideas, the players seemingly can't sometimes comprehend what you want them to do. They lack urgency, slowly ambling to their marks, and playing slow terrible passes, even with the greatest players in the world.

Out on the pitch for real things aren't that much better. While players certainly look much more impressive than those in their genre rival, they still suffer from some distressing decisions. Players will still play a ball back into midfield despite being through on goal, and some will blatantly ignore the opposition, allowing players to drift into the box unnoticed.

Tags: Gaming Sports games Eidos Championship Manager 2010 Championship Manager 2010

Championship Manager 2010 - PC originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:00:00 +0100

Over the last few years, thanks to a selection of fantastic films, Batman is once again at the forefront of our imagination. Yet in the gaming world, the caped crusader hasn’t truly had a title worthy of his epic name etched on the front cover. At least until Batman: Arkham Asylum anyway.

Set in the titular Arkham Asylum, where all of Gotham cities meanest, most sadistic, and downright crazy criminals are kept well hidden, you start the game helping lock the Joker up once again. Unsurprisingly things take a fairly swift turn for the worst, and you’ve a good 12 hours of exploration, combat, and goon pummelling to take in before those closing credits roll.

Appearing like a traditional third-person title - though with Batman mysteriously way off to the left which can feel a bit fiddly for the first half hour - the Dark Knight obviously has quite a few tricks up his sleeve in order to bring peace back to Arkham Island.

The first, and most often used, is Detective Mode. A quick stab of the left bumper and the world will start to glow, with bits of the landscape you can fiddle with suddenly glowing orange. Now instead of being totally lost as to how to get out of a room, you have a nice glowing grate just waiting to be ripped off the wall. Nice.

Similarly in Detective Mode, your enemies will show up bright and bold too. If they’re simply waiting to give you a slap across the face, they’ll glow blue. If they’re packing a hefty projectile weapon, they’ll shine red.

Thankfully Batman has all kinds of goodies to keep these criminal sorts in check. First and foremost, you’re packing a whole heap of moves and counters in order to take out these goons. With only a couple of buttons used to attack, counter, and stun, the action is fast and free flowing. It is reminiscent of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which packed a fantastic set of brawling mechanics. Yet it feels somewhat tighter, and a whole heap more fun too.

It’s not just about the power in your fists of course. The game drip-feeds a long line of special pieces of weaponry and machinery to utilise against the criminal hordes, allowing you to clear rooms exactly as you wish. You can, if you want, go in swinging your fists like a madman. Or you could treat things like Solid Snake, and get lots of stealthy silent takedowns. Or you can leap from the skies, silence an enemy, and get right back to the rooftops before anyone realises you were there. There’s so much potential, and although the game does introduce ways to narrow your selection as it gets towards the latter stages, the fighting is truly brilliant.

Now although this might be Batman, and the idea of comics to some means "for kids", Arkham Asylum isn’t for little Timmy. This is pretty dark and adult. The language can be colourful, the humour leaning towards the psychotic, and some of the recorded tapes you discover (much like BioShock) certainly urge towards some incredibly murky stuff going on in Arkham Asylum. There’s a lot of story to discover, with lots of extra info for those willing to go out of their way to explore a little more of the world. And it’s all top class writing, and voiced excellently.

The only minus point against the whole package is the somewhat dull boss battles. After the free flowing moves with normal enemies, suddenly finding yourself in the good old gaming tradition of jump, run, hit, repeat, does irritate. It’s a shame, but these battles don’t take up more than a modicum of your total playing time.

Plus, to add to all this lengthy single player story mode, you have well over 200 Riddler riddles to solve, ranging from finding hidden trophies, to actively discovering the answers to actual riddles. As well as all that, there are the Challenge rooms, which offer a wide range of gaming, with leader boards ready to show just how "Batman" you are in comparison to the rest of the world.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Eidos Batman Arkham Asylum Batman Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Since the Ashes victory back in 2005, cricket has been well and truly on the minds of the English public like never before. Suddenly, with the likes of "Freddie" Flintoff smashing sixes, knocking down stumps and downing copious amounts of lager, cricket wasn't just that long-lasting dull sport played by people wearing white pyjamas.

Ashes Cricket 2009 aims to offer what numerous cricketing titles have failed to offer previously. A fun-packed sporting title, that's just realistic enough to keep everyone happy. And it does a pretty fine job of it too.

While the Ashes remains the full 5 sets of 5 days worth of cricketing action (unless, like this year it's in good old England which leaves half the time wasted on rainy days) there's enough instant action right here with the included 20/20 games, which give two sides a mere 20 overs apiece to rack up a chunky number of runs. Which essentially offers all the breath takingly swift bouncers, and long range sixes that the part-time fans adore so much.

But before you take to the wicket, it's a good idea to take a peek at the training options on offer. Splitting up the sport's main disciplines, you're walked through all the batting and bowling techniques you could ever desire.

With chat from Ian Botham – and a few token shouts from a decidedly bored sounding Shane Warne – you're allowed to try your hand at practically every single shot and situation you could conceivably encounter. It's long-winded, with a good few hours required to play through the lot, but it's certainly required if you want to keep those opposition run rates down to a minimum. Seriously, without plowing your way through all these teachings from former masters, then chances are you'll get absolutely annihilated.

Out on the pitch, the control system can be as complex as you desire. Batting, which still remains the particularly fun part of proceedings, can be controlled in different manners on the fly. You can, if you so wish, simply point in the direction you wish to nudge the ball, and press the required button (defensive, hit, or loft) at the appropriate time. But for those of you desperate for more depth, you can also choose whether you hit off the back or front foot. The first option will be the one for most, but the latter can provide a much greater scope for perfect shot placement every time.

Sounds relatively easy, but there's so much to consider. While the game does allow you the chance to see where the ball is about to be pitched, you never truly know whether its going to be a 90+ mph behemoth aiming for your head, or a slower ball thrown down to catch you out. Time it right and you can smash the ball towards the boundary. Miss time, and you can clip the ball to the slips and just have a slow trudge back to the pavilion ahead.

Bowling is a different prospect. This time you get to nudge a circle to the specific area of the pitch you want to direct the ball towards – with a colour-coordinated option allowing you to see where this specific bowler pitches perfectly – and choose the brand of ball you wish to use.

While those not particularly au fait with all things cricket might think throwing it straight and hard towards the wicket is the way to go, nothing could be further from the truth. If you wish to keep the AI's run rates down to a minimum, you'll need to find a perfect line and length to keep the batsman guessing. It's a tricky test when you wish to keep the runs down, but you still want to tempt the batsman into an error of judgement which could cost them their wicket. And that's cricket.

The best thing about Ashes Cricket 2009 isn't just that it's fun, but it feels like cricket. Unlike other cricketing titles, which saw run rates in the twenties and test matches lasting a few hours, here things are much closer to the real thing. It's testament to the developers that they have managed to sublimely combine fun and realism; a lot of developers out there could certainly learn from it.

Sadly the visuals let the whole thing down a touch. While some players do look decidedly like their real life counterparts, others look downright odd. Flintoff and Peterson seem to share almost an identical model, which looks like neither of them. While Monty Panesar looks absolutely perfect to the real off-spinner.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Codemasters Sporting games Sports Fitness Ashes Cricket 2009 Ashes Cricket 2009

Ashes Cricket 2009 - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:00:00 +0100

While the Wii console continues to be phenomenally popular, it's still that token bundled title, Wii Sports, that proves the only real constantly fun game. Introduce a previously reluctant gamer to Wii Sports and they can't fail but adore its simplistic representations of tennis, bowling, boxing, golf, and baseball.

So this sort-of sequel does exactly what you'd expect: more of the same. The number of activities has more than doubled, from the originals 5, to a suitably chunky 12. And while two of the classics remain in slightly souped-up versions of the classic brilliance (we're talking about golf and bowling here), there's a whole heap of brand new trials to test your skills with.

The big push for Nintendo with Wii Sports Resort is a handy little controller addition by the name of the Wii Motion Plus. Now we've looked at this implement before with EA's Grand Slam Tennis, but this little addition (you get one bundled in with the game) comes into its own with Sports Resort. The promised 1:1 degree of accuracy makes its initial appearance, and it does help raise the fun levels just that touch higher.

The only problem is that this additional peripheral, retailing at £19.99, is required for each player. This can lead to quite a chunky financial outlay if you regularly get together with a big group of friends. It's well worth the wedge of cash, however, as your every movement is taken into account as opposed to a vague wave in the generally correct direction as was usually the case with a number of pre Motion Plus Wii titles.

Anyway, onto the games. Swordplay does a fantastic job at representing the additional accuracy included by the Motion Plus adapter, thanks to a close visual representation of how you're physically holding your Wii Remote. Its multiplayer component, Speed Slice, which sees two of you chop up various objects in specified directions, is an absolute riot. The single player mode, which sees you block, parry, and attack various opponents is one of the best, but still lacking in any real depth. And sadly the Motion Plus can get a little confused when you start to flail wildly and requires a paused reset.

The real stand out title is the Archery. The Wii Remote acts as the actual bow, with the Nunchuk used in representing you pulling back the string. The Motion Plus makes accuracy absolutely pin point, leaving this one of those gaming experiences that just feels right, right from the very start. Moving your aim around, even wildly, is smooth as silk and Archery stands quite tall in being the real major gaming pleasure in Sports Resort.

Of the rest, most are average, but all come into their own when multiple players take to proceedings. Frisbee may sound incredibly simplistic, but again the unnerving accuracy with which you can add curve and spin with a simple flick of the wrist raises the skill many levels higher. Even Basketball, which initially seems to pack in an obscene number of control tweaks and options, is a real blast when it comes to multiple player matchups.

The only real poor offering is sadly Cycling. Pumping your arms in order to cycle uphill isn't exactly riveting, and the game does quite frequently lose its bearings as your arms start to work overtime. It's a shame as a decent representation of Cycling could have been a bucket load of fun.

Tags: Gaming Nintendo Wii Sports games Nintendo Wii Sports Resort

Wii Sports Resort - Nintendo Wii originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:00:00 +0100

It’s only a few years ago that EA were seen as all that’s wrong with the modern gaming publisher. Rather than offer fresh ideas and new experiences, they churned out yearly licenses that merely tweaked the existing formula, and relying on long-term fans to essentially buy the same product with a slightly shinier paint job.

Yet in recent times their ways have changed. Even the yearly sporting franchises started to take great leaps forward, none more so than the huge gap between the last two Tiger Woods PGA Tour titles. The 2009 iteration managed to cram in all kinds of improvements and brand new gameplay enhancements that nudged it all the way to true greatness. Sadly, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 fails to hit par.

The game works in much the same manner as always. You get to create your own golfer, or take control of your favourite club swinger, and take part in all those multinational tournaments that we enjoy watching so thoroughly. In terms of single player longevity, like another recent EA release Fight Night Round 4, your life could so easily be stolen.

Similarly, the standard analogue stick control system that the series saw fit to introduce quite a few years ago remains fully intact. Again, you pull it back towards your body to initiate the backswing, and swiftly punch it forward to send the ball rocketing forward down the fairway. All works in exactly the same manner as the last few iterations, though it does feel a touch more responsive.

The big change comes to the putting system. Now fully analogue like the standard golf swings, this change does make that final nudge into the hole a much more exciting prospect that before. Known as Precision Putting, it’s a huge step upwards over the long-term options that have previously been available to us.

Other changes are moderate, with changeable weather conditions proving to be far less exciting here than in any other sporting title out there. Where others will drastically change performance of your sporting heroes and how the games played, here it feels purely cosmetic.

For online gamers, the most exciting introduction will undoubtedly be the online tournaments that are constantly available. EA provide daily and weekly tournaments to anyone out there packing an Xbox Live subscription, giving you the chance to test your skills against the very best Tiger Woods fans the world over. The only minus point at the moment are these tournaments are severely daunting, particularly for those lacking in confidence of their gaming talents, with few amateur options available at this early stage.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Sports games EA Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:01:06 +0100

While pummeling another human being utilising only your fists might seem completely abhorrent to a healthy number of the common folk, the sport of boxing has never suffered from a lack of popularity. Nor have the brawling titles emanating from those talented developers at EA.

The last in the series did its level best to truly bring us a firm realisation of just what this latest generation of consoles was truly capable of. With superb animation (outside the sometimes comical knock downs) and phenomenal looks, Fight Night Round 3 had all the facets needed to be the absolute success that it was.

For Round 4, EA have tweaked rather than fiddled too deeply with what made the series so highly regarded. Like the Tiger Woods titles, the Fight Night series has introduced a method of control system that does its level best to culminate in a much simpler and responsive feel. The majority of your punches - the only omission being your "signature punch" initiated by a single button prod - are controlled via the right analogue stick alone.

A simple nudge upwards initiates a straight jab, with a left or right inclination reflecting the hand your fighter will use. Push the stick downwards, and hook it back upwards and you'll unleash a brutal uppercut that could fell even the most stone jawed of boxers. It's a quite wonderful system, and combined with various trigger pulls, and bumper pokes, you can block, swerve, and even send a cheeky headbutt your opponent's way.

But as fantastic as this control system is, it's still a way from perfect. When the fighting gets quite hectic, you will undoubtedly throw punches you never intended, and your fighter won't feel quite as responsive as you could have hoped for. And the strange decision to completely the remove the good old button centric control system which served the series so well in years gone by is mystifying.

The counter system, which gives a subtle audible and visual prompt towards that brief snippet of time you can unleash a counter blow to send your opponent rocking, has been vastly improved and feels much more organic over the last version's somewhat mechanical method. Before it became a test of just who could land the most counter punches. Now it feels much closer to a true boxing test.

What can't be criticised are the absolutely superb visuals. While last version's fighters still stand tall as fantastic representations of what the modern consoles can achieve, these are still a major jump upwards. Everything simply appears real, with punches connecting appropriately and fighters moving around the ring with grace.

The only problem comes with the slow motion replays for knockdowns. Last time out the only miss was the jarring physics which sometimes left your fighter flopping on the floor like a dead fish. This time there is no such problem, with brawlers hitting the mat with the satisfying thump we've all craved. But, this time around the punches sometimes don't stand the connection test. At times you'll see a fighter tumble down over what seems to be a missed punch, followed by a brief rub of an arm on an ear. A small flaw, but one that certainly stands out when it makes an appearance.

For fight fans wanting to make a career of things, get ready to miss quite a few nights out over the next few months. After creating a boxer, or choosing a current fighter, you embark on a full scale boxing career. You'll be tasked with booking fights, training to up your skills, and working your way gradually up the rankings until you can finally be called the "Greatest Of All Time". It can seriously devour huge chunks of your life, and will be some of the most fun packed gaming hours you'll have earned in years.

Again, there's still a small problem however. The various training choices level up differing areas of your boxing skill, and the better you score during training, the more improvement you'll witness. But the training is of such a ridiculously high level of difficulty that you'll constantly settle for the auto-training option which only offers a 50% potential improvement. Much better than the 15% you'll attain unless your gaming prowess is truly something special.

It's not all about the career mode of course. You can easily match up a hefty number of some of the most popular and widely known fighters in boxing's history, in both single and multiplayer modes. And for online gamers there are even belts to be won online if you believe you've a shot at the gold. Don't expect any cheap victories online however. The skills of some of the online fighters easily rivals one Muhammad Ali.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Sports games EA Fight Night Round 4

Fight Night Round 4 - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:35:47 +0100

The Wii's phenomenal success with its intuitive control system has given traditional game developers a brand new avenue of gaming to explore. With gamer movement and interaction required in earnest, as opposed to a few button prods, a much wider variety of potential experiences have been conjured up. Even in traditionally rigidly structured genres.

EA's Grand Slam Tennis takes the basis of Wii Sports Tennis and takes things up a few levels. Combined with the freshly released Wii Motion Plus peripheral, which promises to offer much more accurate representations of your Wii Remote swings and thrusts, it aims to pave the way forward for sporting related titles.

Grand Slam Tennis doesn't, however, aim for true one-to-one movement representation - something which is promised in the current adverts populating the airwaves. Instead it takes into account your Remote swinging speeds and the manner in which you hold the Remote in order to make your chosen tennis playing character strike the ball in the way you desire. Just remember that the front part of the Remote - the one packing the buttons - is considered the face of the racket.

It does, essentially, work. At first you'll be swaying around in a similar manner to Wii Sports, and viewing the same old quite unpredictable results seen in the aforementioned Wii bundle title. But a little time proves that shot manipulation becomes intuitive and impressively accurate.

Shots do aim towards the spot you're urging the ball to drop, and the game does a good job of reigning you in a touch. With true representation, the majority of us would barely manage a single shot per match landing within the lines of the court, so the game does its best to give a much needed helping hand. Plus, lobs and drop shots are made with a racquet swing combined with a button press, so all isn't that realistic in terms of play.

What is a fantastic addition is the inclusion of Nunchuk control. Now you can utilise that sizey analogue nub on the Nunchuk to force your player to rush about the court. It sounds such a tiny little simple change to Wii Sports Tennis, but it adds such an incredible amount to proceedings. It does, however, take a lot of time to get used to. It'll take your mind quite a while to realise that the analogue stick is used solely to move your character and not aim your shot too.

Sadly it's not all peaches and cream. Just like any other new control method, the Wii Motion Plus can be a temperamental beast. It may happen only once or twice per dozen matches, but those moments where your player suddenly refuses to swing, despite the incredible arc of brilliance you've just created in your living room, is more than enough to cause a Wii Remote shaped hole in the wall. And when the racquet connects with ball, there still are a few instances of the ball veering off in completely the wrong direction. Again it's a rare occurrence, but one that flatly brings you right back to earth.

Visually, the Wii's power constraints have been overcome by utilising stylised representations of some your tennis favourites. Bold clear lines, and colourful backdrops make for a visually appealing title. It's not quite a Wii best by any stretch of the imagination, but it performs its job admirably and attractively.

Single player-wise the game again does a fair old job. Taking you through various friendly match-ups before hitting the major circuit, you earn new skills and abilities from stronger serves, to more attempt-worthy lobs. Sadly the large portion of unlocks as you play through are yet more blandly coloured clothes to layer upon your created tennis sensation. Sadly a form of gaming victory that's a long way behind what we truly desire.

Multiplayer-wise things take an upswing. Up to four gamers can play on one screen, as expected. And although it lacks the immediate fun to even the newest of gamers that Wii Sports Tennis packs, it's still a riot when you've got to grips with the control system. And for those of you lacking the friends/money required for all those Remotes and Nunchuks, the online mode is sturdy enough to while away more than a few evenings.

Tags: Gaming Nintendo Wii Sports games Nintendo EA Grand Slam Tennis

Grand Slam Tennis - Nintendo Wii originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Once racing titles were populated by finely crafted courses, designed with such a degree of brilliance that they stick firm in the mind of gamers decades later. Fuel, however, has meandered down the recently well trodden route of giving us a huge world to explore, with racing and challenges only one facet of the entire package.

Set in an expansive area of America ravaged by freak weather conditions, Fuel is a mix of sandbox and traditional racing. For those of you lacking the wealth of time all gamers truly desire, you can simply play through the career mode which concentrates on straight racing against multiple competitors.

Yet in every event you take part in, you'll "see" various challenges that are scattered across the landscape. These vary on the standard racing formula quite considerably. Some task you with following a helicopter and arriving at its designated landing zone before it can touch down. Others will drop you in a speedy vehicle which needs to touch its target before the timer ticks down to zero.

That's not to say that those of you sticking a little more closely to the traditional career path will miss all the fun. A large portion of the time the courses themselves are fairly open. Though you will be required to hit checkpoints along the way, you're free to choose your own path. What appears to be the shortest route isn't always necessarily the quickest when you take into consideration the surface and sharp drops that can cause your chosen vehicle to drop in speed quite considerably.

There's even a choice in how you choose each event you wish to take part in. For the driving lovers, and ones who pack the urge to explore, you can hop in one of your vehicles and traverse the world to the exact starting spot. Yet if its immediate action you want, you can simply choose the options via a menu screen.

Completing each event attains fuel, the currency in this particular racer. This, unsurprisingly, is utilised in purchasing brand new items for your ample garage. Both two and four wheeled options are plentiful, from tiny bikes to hefty trucks. And each of which can be painted and tweaked physically however you see fit. You can even pick up the liveries of downed vehicles in the game world by smashing into them which unlocks yet more options.

The racing itself feels quite close to the much-loved Colin McRae's Dirt, also from Codemasters. Each vehicle handles truly uniquely, and drifting around bends has been crafted to a high degree of fun and accuracy. The included route finder, which uses huge glowing arrows to help you pick a decent route between checkpoints can sometimes get a little confused, but it wont take long before you're much more eager to pick and choose your own direction as you see fit.

The ability to pick and choose your difficulty settings for each career-based race - each step up attains double to total fuel - is an obvious, yet brilliantly tuned inclusion. While you can leave your fellow drivers far behind during the early races at the lowest difficulty, take things up a notch and two and it'll be tight the whole way. Making for a much fun and thrilling time.

You can even, if the mood takes you, use this expansive landscape to create your own races. You can easily craft a tricky route, test it, and tweak it until you can sit back and feel truly proud that you've created something as impressive as the professional design team.

What can't be competed with are the fantastic technical levels on show. In terms of sheer gorgeousness, Fuel truly hits some mystifying peaks. Particularly during a morning race through a forest, you'll be astounded by just what the game has to offer in which to treat your aching eyes.

It's not all peaches and cream however. Loading screens make ample appearances which only breaks the feel of the huge expansive world to explore. And your fellow racers aren't the best and brightest, with little in the way of unique personality and reluctance to leave the preferred racing line.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Codemasters Fuel

Fuel - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:00:00 +0100

As far as blockbuster opening sections go, the first 10 minutes of Prototype are right up there with the best of the best. Finding yourself in control of one Alex Mercer, the game hand-holds you through a ridiculously over-the-top opening section with limbs flying here there and everywhere. Not bad considering you start on a mortuary slab.

After that, it's all about the tale of just how a ridiculously over-the-top state of affairs - which see poor civilians slaughtered by infected beasties, while army tanks are regularly spotted traversing the streets - came to fruition.

As one Alex Mercer, you seem to be infected with some kind of super hero inducing skill juice. Your most basic of initial skills allow you to run up the side of skyscrapers, and plummet down to the city below without a mere scratch. You can even "consume" characters to shape shift into them to shake off your enemies, increase your health, or get into previously restricted areas. Yet the army seems intent on tracking you down and causing and terminating you; Mercer is understandably a little eager to discover just what the hell's happening.

Special mention must go to the story itself for keeping things ticking, thanks to its mish-mash of qualities. While cutscenes and chance to see memories of specific characters to reveal more of the back story are both well done, it still leaves what is essentially a quite simplistic tale inherently confusing and difficult to comprehend. It's never explained, for example, just why Alex is more than happy to slaughter uninfected civilians for no reason other than a swiftly consumed health boost.

Set out in much the same manner as the recently praised inFamous, Prototype offers a hefty cityscape to explore. Manoeuvring around is easy enough, with rooftop hopping the preferred method for the thrill seekers among you. You can, with a swift hold of the right trigger, initiate a parkour-esque running style, allowing Mercer to hop over objects in his path. But this particular mode of travel requires a little more than holding the analogue stick forward and the trigger pressed down. Not exactly testing your skill levels.

You can upgrade the talents of Mercer via the menu screen, with new possibilities regularly unlocked. Everything from faster running, higher jumps, and brand new monstrous abilities to transform your limbs into hulking masses or sharp slicers are included to be purchased via your won XP as you see fit.

Yet as exciting as these new skills can initially seem, never do they truly again hit the heights of that initial few minutes. Missions descend into either stealthy infiltration or merciless slaughter, giving the initial sandbox appearance a quite generic gloss. You can traverse the city and try your hand at various side missions to earn extra XP and unlock yet more additional quests, but still none of these differ wildly from the norm.

The fighting system too is a major let down. Targeting is flimsy at best, and the camera regularly fails to give you a decent viewpoint of what's ahead, particularly when the action really heats up. All ultimately lacks real weight and excitement, and feels like a system that's severely lacking in any quality control. It's functional, but simply missing any real fun qualities.

Similarly the aesthetics are a huge let down. Though a large amount of action can be going on at any one time, textures are lacking in detail and any kind of brilliance. It's safe to say that the visuals in particular are a long way behind the likes of inFamous, Gears of War 2, and other vaguely sandbox releases such as Red Faction: Guerrilla, or Grand Theft Auto 4.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Activision Prototype

Prototype - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:52:09 +0100

Infectiously appealing, the Virtua Tennis series has been a big hit with gamers for almost a decade. Originally appearing in the arcades before a pair of appearances on the ill-fated Dreamcast console, it’s blend of immediate simplicity and well hidden depth has helped make it one series that all gamers keep a keen eye out for.

Unsurprisingly things out on the court don’t sway too far from the well trodden path. Again, the face buttons on your controller are set to various forms of tennis shot, making immediate play ridiculously easy, even for the most timid of Virtua Tennis virgins. Which is obviously a major plus for those gamers with house mates who perhaps aren’t quite as keen gamers, yet still fancy a few rallies.

Yet as simple as stabbing the right button can be, the simple start hides a wicked amount of depth and skill. Getting to the bounce of the ball early, and holding your chosen shot button/direction for a half second before the ball arrives will culminate in a much more powerful and almost unreturnable effort across court.

It’s a fantastic system, and one that though not blatantly changed, does somehow feel much more responsive and creative than ever. New player animations give what was previously quite stilted play a whole new lease of life, and the sheer ease at which newcomers can get to grips with the basics is one that the likes of FIFA can only dream of.

While multiple players will enjoy the same old dazzling brilliance when it comes to on-court tennis action, single player wise things are quite dull. The World Tour mode, allowing you to take on various training challenges, and head up the rankings returns. And it’s all sadly a bit bland.

Firstly, loading times are quite terrible. It’s not that they’re overly lengthy, but so incredible in number that you struggle to figure out just what new data the console is desperate to read. The menu system and spinning globe are once again entirely devoid in character, and there’s little excitement to be had from attaining the top rankings and winning the major competitions.

The training challenges are different however. With a few additions to the same batch of classics, these tests not only up your players stats, but prove a real heap of fun. Who couldn’t adore smashing tennis balls at a multicoloured wall after all?

The same can't be said for the visuals. While things are a step up from the last version, the character models just look downright weird. They universally pack the kind of stare you’d only expect to witness in your darkest nightmares, and all have the kind of glassy sheen that makes them appear to be coated in furniture polish.

But with all that being said, there’s no doubt that in terms of multiplayer enjoyment, Virtua Tennis 2009 has the lot. It’s perfect to play for a swift 10 minutes before you both head to work, and it’s a perfect way to spend a summers evening playing a grand tournament. It’s thoroughly addictive, drenched in charm, as well as being fantastic fun.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Sports games Sega Virtua Tennis 2009

Virtua Tennis 2009 - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:00:00 +0100

As far as gaming reputations go, PopCap Games are right at the pinnacle of all things great and good. With titles like the huge worldwide smash Peggle, the addictive Zuma, and the lovable Bookworm Adventures, PopCap have built themselves into a well recognised brand that stands for addictive gaming.

Their latest title, Plants vs. Zombies, is yet another simple twist on a well-loved genre. This time a heavily streamlined version of all those Tower Defence games that have popped up over the last 5 years.

On one side of the screen is your homestead. On the other, a bunch of stylised cartoon zombies that are presumably desperate to munch on the gooey brainy goodness that’s waiting inside. In between is a large patch of garden with set paths for the zombies to slowly trudge along.

This being PopCap, it’s not the usual zombie defence of shotguns blasting off heads, and ultimately a scene smothered in creepy gore. But instead you have the opportunity to plant a wide variety of cutesy plants in order to keep the oncoming hordes at bay.

To have the opportunity to set down these plants, first you need to collect enough sun. Little sun icons appear at defined moments in order to keep things trucking along, but your first batch of plants will almost always be a handful of sunflowers which create oodles more of these dazzling little icons that you simply need to click on to add to your tally.

Once you have the sun, then you can start defending yourself. Simply click on the icon of the plant you wish, and then set it down in the required grid spot. The first defensive item, the peashooter, fires green projectiles towards the enemy that’s on their line in order to keep them back.

As you progress through the main adventure mode you’ll unlock and stumble across a huge mass of different varieties of plants, each with their own plus and minus points. Some will guzzle a zombie in a split second, but then are open to attack as they chew down on their prey. Others will not attack but merely prevent zombies marching onwards until they’ve gobbled the offending item up.

Similarly there are a large variety of zombies. The standard shambling monstrosities are only the start. As things progress they’ll get quicker, faster, stronger, and some will even have the ability to hop right over your first line of defence. As easy as things seem during the first hour or so of play, the difficulty levels really ramp up as you push on further.

With so much variety on offer on both attacking and defensive fronts, there’s a wide range of strategies to use. You can quite easily set down a full screen of projectile firing plants and hope for the best. Similarly you could conceivably utilise the exploding foliage that can easily take out an entire group of surrounding zombies in combination with blocking vegetation and take out entire waves in one go.

You can quite easily play through the entire Adventure mode in completely different ways thanks to the mass of options available to you.

And yet there’s more. Puzzle and Survival modes change the usual formula to offer yet more addictive gameplay, and there are a variety of other mini-games available to enjoy. And though these are twists on the standard Adventure mode, they do provide a true test for those who have ploughed through the full scale Adventure.

Tags: Gaming PC games PopCap

Plants vs. Zombies - PC originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 25 May 2009 16:00:00 +0100

Sony’s big PS3 hope for the summer months, infamous, stars one of those twisted super hero types that always seem incredibly popular. As Cole McGrath, you find yourself slap bang in the middle of a hefty blast which does its damndest to destroy the city, leaving you with the kind of super powers we all slyly dream of.

The biggest power bestowed upon him is the ability to fire electronic bolts out of the palms of his hands. To start with, Cole can utilise this skill to dispatch the enemy types that are taking advantage of this ravaged city, blast away at handily damaged pieces of scenery, and charge himself up at any power point he stumbles across.

Over the course of the game your powers will grow and change with regards to how you act, hence you can eventually command the heavens to send huge lightening bolts down to earth to obliterate everything in its path.

But, reminiscent of the Xbox 360 title Crackdown, Cole is also quite an impressive climber. The game does its level best to direct you towards the items you can grab and climb with, allowing you to swiftly scurry up the side of buildings and traverse across precarious ledges. Even huge plummets will barely cause Cole to pause for thought allowing you to attempt to climb almost anything in the game world.

And as enjoyable as both facets of the game are, it’s the clambering that truly feels super powerful. While your electric skills are handy, they don’t get truly fantastic until much later on in the game. Which though an understandable gameplay mechanic, does cause the early sections to suffer when you can feel a touch underpowered. But right from the start you can climb and traverse the dangerous surroundings, meaning the fun starts right from the opening sections.

Being charged with masses of electricity some things are beyond Cole’s reach. Touch water and that’s an instant death, unsurprisingly. Similarly, it's made known right at the start that traditional guns explode at the slightest touch so your only methods of brawling are with your fists, or using your powers.

What’s a touch more interesting are the moral choices you’ll need to make. Though they do veer to either black or white with no mix in-between, the choices you make will shape the powers you’ll utilise later on in the game. It’s a system that many games now use and it works to a point. Though your choices are narrow and blatantly sign posted, they still do give you the opportunity to be a thoroughly pleasant chap, or a downright blood lusting murderer.

Thankfully the story that pushes things along is one of the better of recent attempts. Comic book styled cutscenes do an excellent job at introducing characters, building personalities, and telling the whole sorry story of just why the city is crumbling around you.

What’s slightly more disappointing is the sheer blandness of the missions. They’re your standard fare for these kind of freeform titles, with story missions sticking solely to either destruction or escorting something/someone. Thankfully the open world does allow for a wide range of more appealing side activities which do an excellent job of breaking up what could have become standard gaming monotony. Similarly, enemy types are few in number, and the sheer number of irritating machine gun nests is incredible.

It’s a shame that visually this isn’t quite what you’d expect from a PS3 exclusive. The world is detailed enough, but colour wise things are a touch bland. And while clutter litters the streets, pop up and frame rate problems rear their ugly heads from time to time.

Tags: Gaming PS3 Sony InFamous

InFamous - PS3 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 22 May 2009 16:00:00 +0100

Fans of old school gaming will no doubt remember both the original Bionic Commando, as well as the impressive remake released as a digital download last year. Starring a hero packing a huge grappling hook that allowed him to hook onto platforms and head to the heavens, Bionic Commando was a fantastic old school 2D platformer.

This brand new attempt to bring the series into the modern gaming world unsurprisingly takes things into full scale 3D. Now instead of craftily structured 2D levels, we now have huge cityscapes to peruse and swing around in a Spiderman-esque manner.

The switch to full scale 3D brings its obvious potential flaws, with aiming your hook being much more awkward with so much potential area to attach to in error. And to the developer's credit, they’ve done an admirable job at almost obliterating these worries. A context sensitive icon appears as an area you can attach to comes into view, and just a hold of the left trigger will see your arm fly out and attach to your aimed surface.

It’s a method that works, and does erase a large portion of the potential problems that the switch to 3D could have initiated. But it’s not flawless. At times you will, instead of attaching to the end of a platform, grapple onto the underside of a hulking piece of city and hence have nowhere to go other than drop. Thankfully your included boots stop you from perishing during these regular plummets, but it does bring frequent and abrupt halts to the swinging action.

Your arm isn’t restricted to merely initiating you flying around the 6 hours of play time the main game has to offer. It can be utilised to solve puzzles, hack consoles, and even fling items at enemies when you see fit. Again, it all works, but doesn’t have the kind of immediacy and success rate that any game with such an unusual feature requires.

Nathan Spencer, your protagonist, also packs a wealth of weaponry too. To start with you merely wield a horribly underpowered sounding pistol, which does indeed feel as commanding as flinging a wet fish at your enemies. As you progress, things get spiced up a touch with much more interesting and complicated weaponry which helps invigorate the latter stages.

Fans of the series will no doubt be pleased to hear that the traditionally high difficulty settings remain fully intact. Though enemies are easy to pick off one by one, find yourself with three or more on screen and chances are you’ll suffer yet another swift death and nudge back to your last checkpoint. Thankfully these save points are frequent enough to avoid much in the way of frustration, but the high difficulty setting will artificially extend the life of the single player campaign.

Like the rest of the game, visually things vary between quite attractive and downright ugly. The opening sections, which see you stuck inside a hulking office block, are a major low point and do appear horrifically dated. Yet once you’re outside and progress, the huge expansive outdoors are populated with some tremendous visual effects.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Capcom Bionic Commando

Bionic Commando - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 19 May 2009 16:00:00 +0100

This years first major summer blockbuster may only just have made it onto the big screen, but it’s not taken too long for the gaming world to have its own representation of the genesis of Wolverine.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a truly action-packed title. Enemies flood towards you at specified points at the kind of rapid rate you’d expect football fans to head out of boozers at ten to three. And Logan certainly isn’t too reluctant to slice off limbs, heads, and keep the blood flowing free.

With one button initiating heavy attacks, another for quicker lighter flails, and one to prompt throws, the fighting system shares a lot with the likes of the Ninja Gaiden series. What starts as seemingly a mere button masher eventually becomes a quite depth filled collection of complicated combinations and manners in which to slaughter your prey.

Logan is more than happy to utilise the environment around him too. Levels are strewn with areas where you can bash enemies onto huge spikes, into spinning industrial fans, and even plummeting to oblivion. And the more interesting way in which you kill, the higher your experience levels head, allowing you to unlock new combos and moves, as well as get your basic stats made even healthier.

This blend of simplicity keeps things fast and frantic, and a whole heap of fun with the bog standard enemies. Though you will start to lean a little too heavily on certain combos that guarantee a swift kill, there’s no denying that things are certainly towards the better end on the fun scale. Sadly, things drop a touch as the game progresses.

The first boss battle is easy enough. You’ll use your swift dash to avoid your hulking enemy's attacks, before jumping on their back and hacking away at their health bar. Do that five or six times and down they go. The only problem is, boss battles don’t truly vary from that initial bout. Not only is the way to win exactly the same, the boss skins are identical. And hence, each becomes a test of how easily you can perform the same few button presses all over again without nodding off. It takes a good 4 hours of game time before the game finally decides to spice things up by chucking multiple of these behemoths towards you at once.

Similarly, the few puzzles lean towards just one of two variants. You’ll either wind a crank and be forced to hide behind moving cover/make a few jumps before the opening closes. Or you’ll carry a huge object to its nearby destination in order to open up the next area. Not exactly the kind of depth that we’d hope for.

Then there’s the much talked about aesthetics. While the idea behind Wolverine’s constant healing and true to attack body marks is a fantastic one, the sad fact is that the action is so fast, and with the camera needing to be quite a way away from Logan's back, that you’ll only really notice things during the few seconds of quiet time. It’s a shame as this is one good looking - if not visually astounding - title.

What’s a little stranger is the weirdness of the frame rate. While the action can be incredibly brutal, and numerous enemies can appear on screen without even a flicker, all of the sudden the game can stutter to a crawl with just two of you. It’s incredibly odd, and smacks of a game that has been rushed to the production line to tie-in with the movie's release. It’s an odd situation, particularly as the development team have gone to great lengths to maintain that they’ve had ample time to craft this one up to perfection.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Activision X-Men Origins Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 01 May 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Chances are you’re well aware of the Riddick universe. If not from the classic Xbox title Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, then the films starring self confessed video game addict Vin Diesel.

Athena packs in two games in one. Not only is there a brand new tale for Riddick to gruffly mutter his way through, but a remake of the aforementioned Xbox classic released 5 years ago which attained numerous high scores and awards for its terrific blend of stealth and action.

For those of you that have somehow managed to miss every avenue of the series thus far, Riddick is the absolute anti-hero. He’s wickedly aggressive, lacks remorse, and utters the kind of threats that could chill the blood of any self professed "tough guy".

Butcher Bay remains a fully fledged classic. As Riddick, you find yourself dumped in one of the most widely regarded prisons available. And as you aim to ultimately escape, you’ll take part in a terrific blend of traditional RPG style chatter, hectic gunplay, sneaky stealth-based action as you keep to the shadows – utilising Riddick’s unique ability to see in the dark – and horrifyingly brutal hand-to-hand combat.

It's to the game's credit that even 5 years on with little more than a fresh lick of paint it remains as a true thoroughbred. The balance of action and stealth still stands tall as one of the very best ever created, and the very few changes – one of which trims down a section of the original which caused us no end of irritation – only help nudge things up a level. Admittedly some textures do appear a touch blocky and aging, but the gameplay remains fully fledged brilliance.

Dark Athena unsurprisingly takes the base of the original and refuses to budge particularly far from what’s proven to be a winning formula. At least initially. Again in the guise of Riddick you’ll be tasked with chatting the various folk you stumble across, first on the titular ship, and secondly on a doomed colony planet, and giving a thorough thrashing to anyone who gets in your way.

Sadly things aren’t quite as tight as the original. The first few hours descend into the kind of fetch and carry missions you usually only find in sandbox titles, and while the same framework as Butcher Bay helps make this tedious opening head towards the enjoyable end of the scale, you can't but feel a little disappointed after Butcher Bay.

Similarly, balance doesn’t seem to be quite as important in the developer's minds this time around. Where before you had a good choice between brute force or sneaky stealthing, a large portion of the game forces you down one or the other path. And like the original, the gunplay simply isn’t quite of the standard of more singular focused titles, and the game's reluctance to allow you to concentrate fully on your fists and shivs does start to become frustrating.

Things also take a downturn towards the end, as dark stealth action is almost eradicated completely. It’s not horrifyingly bad, but when you fully understand just how excellent the stealth-based sections are then you can’t help but feel a little short-changed.

Visually things are top notch. Lighting effects in particular are universally incredible, and character models – particularly when talking – look unnervingly real. The voice acting too, lead by Vin Diesel, is absolutely superb and it’s a true shame more games don’t show quite as much technical prowess.

Sadly the additional multiplayer is poor. While Pitch Black mode, which sets a group against one lone Riddick character, is a high point, the rest is dull and derivative. Plus things don’t seem to be too heavily populated, which is never a good sign.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Atari Chronicles of Riddick Assault on Dark Athena

Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:00:00 +0100

The world of gaming peripherals has taken a quite wild turn in the last decade. Previously it was all about quite dodgy third-party controllers that seemed to be cobbled together by a blind meerkat. Now, it’s all about expensive, yet inherently solid items like the Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller.

The big difference is, well, the size. Rather than the trimmed down size of the official guitars, this one is (almost) a proper guitar size. The neck is a touch shorter, presumably in order to keep the fret buttons and slider still somewhat close, but for all intents and purposes this is one sizey beast.

Equally, gone is the plasticy lightweight feel. This guitar is staunchly solid, and packs a similar overall weight to all those guitars you see sitting idle in a thousand student rooms worldwide. The tuning pegs are metal, the neck is rosewood, and all feels suitably realistic and ridiculously expensive.

For those of you still dismayed by the constant click of both the buttons and strum bar, Logitech have you in mind. The strum bar in particular is perfectly quiet, allowing you to actually hear a few tunes rather than constant clicks. Similarly, the fret buttons themselves are also incredibly quiet. The former is understandable, but it does take a touch of getting used to. The clicks did somehow have this metronomic quality that kept you in time and on the right path, and this sudden jump to complete silence does take a few hours of practice.

The biggest thing for a lot of users is the quality of the strum bar. Unlike the last few variations of the guitar, it doesn’t feel like it’s about to drop off after a brief nudge. Here it honestly feels like it could easily stand the test of time when used responsibly.

Being completely wireless (up to 30 feet) the lack of wires is handy. And yet despite the weight and complexity of such a piece of kit, a single pair of AA batteries is enough to keep the music going for quite a considerable length of time.

Included in the pack is a “gig bag” of questionable quality. It does have enough space to lug around the guitar itself plus a copy of the game, which is handy, but it’s a long way from being something of major desire, but it’s a nice little addition, particularly considering the cost.

Tags: Gaming Gaming hardware Music games Logitech PS3 Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller Premiere Edition

Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller Premiere Edition - PS3 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:30:00 +0100

As far the downright coolest professions go, taking the streets as a ninja must be in the top few. Probably alongside footballer, Formula 1 driver, and Scarlett Johansson’s personal trainer. Essentially being a ninja is considered an incredibly interesting past time. Hence it crops up in the gaming world time and time again.

While Ninja Blade may look similar in style to the tricky Ninja Gaiden series, there’s little in the manner of similarities between the pair. While the latter concentrates on creating a superbly crafted battle system, the former aims for sheer excess.

The closest title currently on the market to Ninja Blade is undoubtedly the God of War titles, which Ninja Blade borrows from quite heavily indeed. Most notably with the constant utilisation of Quick Time Events.

Barely a minute goes by without some form of QTE breaking up the action. Whether it be taking down a multi-storey behemoth - and there are plenty of those to contend with - or simply running down the side of a skyscraper, wasting enemies as you head downwards, huge button shaped icons can appear on screen at any second.

As frustrating as their constant appearances can be, somehow they simply seem to fit in perfectly. As Ninja Blade is far from realistic, making well timed button presses as your ninja arcs through the air, hacking and slashing an enemy a thousand times bigger than himself is certainly an enjoyable experience.

Not all your enemies are hefty things mind. You’ll still have ample use of the two face buttons controlling close and long range attacks as you contend with groups of enemies that try to halt your progress. It’s certainly a long way from the depth offered in combat in the Ninja Gaiden games, but it’s still easily considered a lot of fun.

What aren’t quite as top notch are the Prince of Persia esque platforming sections. The main one you’ll use is the basic wall run to avoid huge chasms. The only problem is that these are incredibly easy to miss thanks to a camera system which sits far too close to the ground, leaving you plummeting thousands of feet over and over again.

Equally, the visuals are, on average, sub par. While the cityscapes can look quite attractive, particularly during a fast paced QTE, the rest of the game suffers from some quite poor visuals. Worst of all has to be the fire effects which look like they are from a title released well over a decade ago.

What does act much to Ninja Blade’s benefit is the sheer pace of the game. There’s barely a second's respite due to the game's insistence that you rush on to the next area, usually involving yet another QTE and a batch of enemies to slaughter. If it’s real pure action you’re after, this one is for you.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Microsoft Ninja Blade

Ninja Blade - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:00:00 +0100

Set not long after the close of the Wanted film, Wanted: Weapons of Fate has all the hallmarks of a video game based on a film license. It’s short, packed with action, and ultimately doesn’t do the source justice.

First the good stuff. As you progress through the game's simplistic storyline (safe to say that if you pick this up without having read the novel/watched the film, you’ll have little idea of what’s going on) in a Gears of War brand of third person action, you’ll be able to utilise the quite over-the-top option of sending your bullets curving around scenery.

This means that essentially no enemy is safe. If they decide to hunker down behind a supposed safe piece of cover, if you’re packing an ounce of adrenaline (you obtain this by dispatching enemies with standard straight shots, or close range knife attacks) you can hold a button in order to show the arc of a bullet heading for your target. Then, you simply twist the angle of curve with the analogue stick until your enemy appears white for a sure fire hit, and let go. And if it’s a particularly thrilling kill, the camera will follow the bullet in slow motion through the air until it hits its target.

In addition to this, your adrenaline meter can also be utilised to initiate Max Payne esque bullet time as you rush between two areas of cover. Incredibly handy when a number of enemies are showing their faces allowing you ample time to pick them off with ridiculous ease.

The cover system too is absolutely stupendous. A simple nudge of the A button is all that’s required to get firmly behind an area of cover, with the usual ability of being able to peak out and take as many pot shots at enemies as you wish. You can even blind fire to help enemies start to cower so you can cheekily rush around them and take a free shot from the side.

Moving from cover to cover is a total breeze, and helps drag Wanted up from what could have been a pretty poor title. Simply lean towards the next area of cover, prod the required context sensitive button, and you’ll swiftly rush to the next hidey hole. And as it’s so easy, you can move from spot to spot incredibly swiftly, making progression consistently fast and frantic.

Sadly all these plus points have more than enough counterweights to drag Wanted down into mediocrity. First off, Wanted will take roughly 5 hours to complete from start to finish. And with little changed for further play-throughs on a higher difficulty setting (though you can play as an unlocked character) there’s no reason why once those 5 hours are up that Wanted should again drop into your Xbox 360.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Warner Wanted Weapons of Fate

Wanted: Weapons of Fate - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:03:41 +0100

EA’s previous attempt at bringing The Godfather films to consoles culminated in a solid if unspectacular effort. A number of decent ideas clashed with poor and downright broken elements which ultimately left us with a title that was a long way from the quality of the first film.

The Godfather II, sadly, heads in much the same direction. Again there are a number of fantastic ideas, but also much more freedom than the previous title. But technically this is terrible for a major release and ultimately staggers way short of greatness long before its short storyline rounds up.

After a brief introduction and shoot out in Cuba, you find yourself in control of Dominic, who suddenly finds himself the leader of the Corleone family in New York. Unfortunately New York has fallen under the rule of a rival boss, and what could easily be considered a 2 hour tutorial plays out which displays all the various tools you have in your armoury.

One of the first things you’re required to do is to help your "family" grow. Various characters are eager to join a fully fledged crew, each of which packs a specific skill which can come in handy as you attempt to take over. Everything from medics, to explosive experts and safe crackers are just waiting to be recruited and building your family attempts to be the main crux of the game.

Once you have a team of men, you can utilise the money that you extort and gain from the less legal sides of the business to upgrade their skills and weaponry. You can even promote them through your own ranks, until one member eventually acts as your consigliere.

But each character simply lacks personality. Though the first half dozen characters you chat to with regards to joining your crew will seem firmly unique, soon their chatter will repeat at an alarming rate, leaving your crew feeling much more expendable.

As you progress you’ll be forced to utilise strong arm tactics. Thankfully you’ve a healthy amount of weaponry to choose from, with shotguns and handguns feeling particularly powerful and impressive. Automatic weapons however feel mysteriously underpowered, and it seems to take an unhealthy number of bullets to down an enemy. The targeting system locks you to one opponent, and you can tweak your aim to go for the immediate kill, but the lack of real cover system and the downright ease in which you’ll slaughter rooms full of enemies make the on-foot sections feel mightily poor.

On the road however the action is far, far poorer. All vehicles are terribly slow, which can easily be explained away via the periodic setting. But that doesn’t clarify why each car feels like you’re driving a milk float on sheet ice.

What’s most jarring however is the manner in which you discover just how to take out the main men of other families. To soften them up for the final assault, you can find out information about where your enemy hangs out, and just how they should be taken out in order for them to depart from the world entirely. But instead of this information being extracted from kidnapped soldiers from rival families, or infiltration of the gang, it instead comes from random members of the public. You simply approach a random character with the required icon above their heads, mention they seem like they need help, and you’ll need to help them out in a small and easy manner for them to suddenly divulge all this sensitive information. It’s downright ridiculous.

Thankfully taking over businesses does work. Once you find out just what you need to do to make the owner beg for mercy, you’ll have yet another source of income. A large amount of cash will head back out with recruiting security to look after all these businesses, as rival families will happily attack and attempt to claim them as their own. Manage to bag a complete set of similarly themed areas of commerce and you’re family will receive a boost. It could be brass knuckles, body armour, or many other variations. But each is handy enough to make you eager to claim the entire set.

Technically, The Godfather II is downright shocking. The various cities you’ll venture into are consistently empty and lifeless, lacking any real character of visual clarity. Textures are average at best, with car headlights in particular looking akin to something you’d expect to find in a PS1 title. Enemy AI is almost non-existent, with each seemingly having no regard as to their own lives. They’ll happily stand just waiting to be cut down.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 EA The Godfather II

The Godfather II - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:00:00 +0100

At first glance, The Wheelman seems to be attempting to travel down the murky old route of copying Grand Theft Auto IV. And doing it quite badly. You’ve got a big open world to explore, missions for different factions to complete, and a multitude of secondary objectives to complete as and when you see fit. All very GTA.

Instead, it becomes apparent incredibly swiftly that those initial impressions are quite foolish indeed. Right from the opening action packed sequence that introduces you to Milo Burik, this is all wickedly over-the-top and much more in comparison with the likes of Burnout Paradise and Midtown Madness.

As Milo, played by the video game fanatic Vin Diesel, you’re a wheelman. Essentially a top skilled driver, acting undercover in order to infiltrate a number of gangs making their names in the huge city of Barcelona.

Once you’re in a vehicle, it’s quite obvious that realism wasn’t at the forefront of the developers minds. Driving is far from the quite complex method witnessed in GTA IV, instead acting much more arcade like as you swerve and handbrake around corners with relative ease.

Inevitably as you take on missions, objectives will task you with preventing other vehicles from hitting their required destination. In order to help, you’re given a truckload of special abilities in order to hold them back.

Firstly, you can melee attack with your vehicle. A nudge on the right analogue stick will send your motor careering left or right, smashing into your opponents and eventually bashing them into submission in much the same manner as Burnout Paradise. And as over-the-top as it sounds, it certainly fits The Wheelman’s style and provides you with frantically fun crashes.

As you smash other vehicles through the general clutter of the Barcelona streets and generally be a nuisance, your focus meter will increase. When it nudges high enough, you can either unleash a brief boost of speed sending your car careering forward, or utilise your aimed shot and cyclone moves, which allow you to blast your enemies in slow motion and obliterate their rides.

But despite all these abilities, your car will from time to time come close to expiring. Thanks to the air jacking system, all you need to do is line up behind another vehicle on the road, hold the B button, and release it once the arrow atop your target goes green to leap from automobile to automobile. The first time you see it, it looks ridiculous. But you do come to appreciate what it adds to stop breaking the action up. In other titles you’d be forced to stop, clamber out of one vehicle, before entering another. Here, the action only needs the briefest of pauses.

Everything is tied together by your handy PDA which displays all the current story-based objectives, and side missions that you can choose from. You can utilise this in one of two ways. As either a handy map to drive to the next mission, or simply click on the one you wish to take part in and immediately jump to it. Yet another way in which the action is kept ramped right up. Side missions offer handy boosts to your vehicle's life and even the length of your boost if you manage to finish a number of them.

As enjoyable as all the above sounds, there are drawbacks. The on-foot action is downright terrible, with no cover system proving a real minus point. These boil down to holding the lock on button and firing when you can get a shot off. Thankfully these missions are few and far between, as they do offer some of the poorest gameplay available in the dozen or so hours of story.

Secondly, Barcelona is a disappointment. It simply lacks the feel of being a real city, with a true lack of life milling around and even appearing quite cartoony, particularly when compared to the gritty examples currently on the market. And though the game moves at a fair old lick, graphically it’s definitely a long step behind the best.

Tags: Gaming Xbox 360 Ubisoft The Wheelman

The Wheelman - Xbox 360 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:00:00 +0100