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Bigger, better, more badass. That's the three "B's" for this fall's Gears of War 2, according to another "B," Cliff Bleszinski, lead game designer behind Epic's follow-up to one of the great games on the Xbox 360. Those three B's might sound like marketing hype, but based on what we saw of Gears 2 during today's Microsoft press event in San Francisco, it's tough to argue with Bleszinski's assessment.

                                   

The guided demonstration we saw--a walkthrough of the second level of the game--was set up with a minimum of background explanation. Gears 2 will be set roughly six months after the events of the first game. Marcus Fenix and his Delta squadmates will still be fighting the forces of the Locust Horde that have invaded the planet of Sera. In this particular mission, the Delta squad is accompanying a new character--Dizzy, a redneck derrick driver conscripted into the Army--on a mission to take the fight directly to the bad guys in the form of "grind-lifts."

As Bleszinski put it, grind-lifts are essentially "express elevators to hell," dug into the ground and installed via massive rigs that crash through mountainside forests as if they were matchsticks. The problem, of course, is getting the rigs--and the grind-lifts--to the correct spots.

That's where Delta Squad comes in to help, riding on the back of the massive derricks to defend against the inevitable attacks from Locust troops. The level opens as the huge rigs make their way through a narrow pass, being escorted by attack helicopters. Fenix and Dom are on one derrick while Baird and Cole are on the other. And, the familiar back-and-forth between the characters looks to be continuing in Gears 2. Eventually, the convoy rounds a corner and comes into a huge open valley, whereupon it's immediately attacked by artillery fire. The mortar fire blasts helicopters out of the sky and will do the same to the derricks unless Delta Squad does something about it.

As Fenix, your first job will be to blast any mortar fire that gets too close out of the sky. As you might expect, things only get worse from here for the boys in Delta Squad. After dealing with the mortar fire, Fenix and crew are attacked by reavers, which you'll have to shoot down out of the sky. Then, the derrick is damaged, so Fenix and Dom have to buy Dizzy enough time to repair the damage. They make their way down to the ground level and fight a swarm of Locust troops emerging from the familiar emergence holes. After battling through two emergence hole instances, it's back on the derrick, where another wave of Locust troops attacks a nearby rig--this time wielding grappling hooks and climbing up the side of the derricks.

Eventually it's a side-by-side shootout between rival derricks, as Fenix and Dom battle across an overrun rig swarming with Locust troops while occasionally blasting off a Locust that manages to get close enough to their derrick to climb up the side. Bleszinki made sure to show off the new "meat shield" feature in the game, where you can grab an enemy and use it as a human (or alien, for that matter) bullet catcher, then snap its neck and toss it out like scrap.

During one particularly cool moment, Fenix, looking to chop down an enemy with his chainsaw rifle, got his chainsaw blade locked with the blade of his enemy, resulting in a brief struggle for domination. A single-lane bridge ahead of the two derricks only has room for one rig and, after a fierce firefight, you can probably guess that Fenix's derrick is the one that makes it over the bridge, with the enemy derrick falling over the cliff into oblivion. From there, it's a series of battles against some of the bigger monsters in the Gears of War rogues gallery, including massive bipedal beasts with guns on their heads and hands, as well as at least one corpser.

It begs the question: If the action on the second level of the game is this intense, where on Sera will this game go from here? While he wasn't ready to give up all the details, Bleszinski did say that the game will feature peaks and valleys of action in order to keep the pace of the game varied. In addition, he said the game will feature a larger sense of "distance" to the game's environments, including roughly 30 percent spent underground.

The game will take place in winter, so you can expect some snowy levels as well. Other snippets from the demo included a peek at the story (with expanded characterization of Dizzy and the search for Dom's wife being key points); expanded multiplayer options; new weapons, including a semiautomatic pistol (and an IED on the Locust side); and the prospect of downloadable content after the game is released.


Of course, we'll be following all the action on Gears of War 2 in the coming months, so stay tuned .

Source: gamespot

The Bad

Football Manager 2008 is one of those rare games in that it knows exactly what it's trying to do, sticks to that plan religiously, and does it very well indeed. It places you as a fresh-faced manager in charge of almost any professional team in Europe, with control over everything from season ticket prices to your player's individual training schedules and match-day tactics. You can control your team over as many seasons as you wish, with new young players being generated by the system to keep it fresh until the next database update. You can play in an attempt to get yourself the best management job you can, start as an unknown, or just for the glory of the team. It's entirely up to you.

Every year the game gets fractionally better by drawing on input not from an isolated development team working out what features they feel would be impressive, but from a massive range of sources both inside and outside of the professional football world. Financial changes were influenced by football league chairmen, transfer negotiations and options by agents, and the interface by a small army of usability testers. The result in this year's game is not only still the gold standard for sports-management games, but also a significant step forward for the series.

For once, this improvement isn't going to be noticed only by experienced players of Football Manager; the usability and interface changes are aimed squarely at those who have never played the game before, or who lost interest many seasons ago. In this vein, a significant amount of work has been done this year to revamp the interface into a much sleeker "Web 2.0" style, as well as to add a host of other usability changes based on extensive testing. The interface now has many more graphical options and icons (rather than just imposing text lists), and buttons are duplicated in sensible places to minimise mouse movement and better relate to player interaction.

With a similar goal in mind, the new advisor system is likely to improve the experience of first-time players. This is a contextual help system akin to Microsoft Office's infamous paper clip. It works due to the fact that it is very easy to turn off in full or in part, given that it can be deactivated on a topic-by-topic basis. This provides useful information on every aspect of the management process as issues arise. It's clearly aimed at new players, but will be of interest to anyone who doesn't feel as if he or she is quite making the best use of the wealth of available options.

Despite these changes aimed at new players, there has been no dumbing down of the game's depth at all. The database has information on around 300,000 players and staff, and consequently the option exists to see any match played in the match engine. This can give you tactical insights into your future opposition, considering that you can go to any game to see firsthand who's likely to give you problems, rather than just relying on the reports you automatically get from your scouting teams.

One other feature that's been added as a result of player feedback is the ability set your own pitch dimensions and react to those of clubs you visit. It's a minor change, but its realism is indicative of the way the game works as a whole.

Another feature that is new this year and that will be of particular interest to first-time players, as well as those looking for the challenge of managing in unfamiliar leagues, is the new coaching-report system. You can now ask any member of your coaching staff to give you an overview of any player in the squad, which lets you know instantly not only his best positions, but also how the player fits into your squad, how he's viewed in terms of his current performance and prospects, and all other aspects of his footballing makeup. However, the changes aren't just for new players. As happens every year, the game has moved that little bit closer to reality; although it might not matter to a first-time player that win bonuses are now done by squad rather than player (as in real life), it's the little touches that add up to the great game that is Football Manager 2008.

There are other little details that add to the overall feel. When the game is processing each day's action, you're not presented only with a loading bar, but rather you receive updates on results as they come in. You also get a selection of domestic statistics that might be of interest, be they winning streaks, goals conceded, or other trivia. Whether such information is useful depends on your playing style, but its presence is a nice touch. The game's news feeds are also good in this respect. You get reports, as standard, on every competitive game in which a member of your squad participates, with a round-up of the game and his performance, whether it's for your reserves or youth team, or on any international stage.

Financially there's now more (and more detailed) interaction with the board than ever before. You can negotiate funds for the season based on your expectations, but be prepared to face up to life on the streets if you fall short of the story you've sold to your board. One neat feature in this vein is the ability to move around the money allocated by your board for the season; if you're underspending on wages but need to increase your transfer war chest, it's now possible to simply move money from one pot to the other.

It's not just the board that gives you feedback, either; this year you've also got the option of hearing what the fans have to say. Although the fans can be rather fickle, and have a tendency to carp on about seemingly insignificant matches for too long, their views do provide an indicator of where your club should be, irrespective of the views you've presented to the board--and keeping them happy is key to ensuring revenue from ticket sales.

Nevertheless, the game is not without its flaws. The limited number of responses from announcer pundits can grate a bit after a run of similar results, and you don't have quite the flexibility in staff that you might like. For example, as a big club, you cannot raid a smaller club for its manager to act as your assistant. Network play returns, but is generally untouched from last year's game. Essentially, a human opponent can simply take over for one of the hundreds of other teams being controlled by the AI. It's an OK feature, but not the sort of robust multiplayer functionality you might be hoping for. This, along with the simplistic graphics (even with the interface's new skin), may be enough to put off the uninitiated. The match engine is still in near-2D, and though some may say this adds to the game's charm, it is now starting to look very dated. Additionally, Football Manager still almost entirely lacks sound outside of match days, and one feels that though the game might not benefit from its own music, the addition of some optional sound effects and a media-player remote would be welcome.

Overall, Football Manager 2008 is a worthwhile upgrade for long-term players, and a much more accessible experience for those who have been put off by the scale of this truly massive game.

Bizarre Creations has very kindly told us what to expect from the Project Gotham Racing 4 Xbox Live demo - just as soon as it comes out of certification and lands on your Internet face.

The demo will consists of five vehicles (made up of cars and bikes), with a demo-only Arcade mode chapter set in Macau. This will consist of new challenges that have been custom-built for the demo.

Not content with that, they are throwing in a Nurburgring Snow Time Challenge - so you'll be able to see just how pretty the track (rebuilt for PGR4) looks when it's blanketed in snow. The snowy Time Attack also includes full leaderboard support.

The full game, for which our final-build hands-on will go live oh-so-shortly, splits single-player gameplay between Arcade (128 medals from Steel up to Platinum) and Career (difficulty pre-set by user, then a season of races and events).

And of course it has lots of Internet play, with a greater focus on Friends-based leaderboards and tournaments that are suitable for players of all skills, rather than the "best in the world or nowt" mentality of old.

Sounds rather good, no? We'll let you know when it's up there.

PGR4 is due out exclusively on 360 on 12th October

source: here

News Source : here Technorati Tags: Call of Duty 4, Infinity Ward		Buy
posted by Stoney

Project Gotham Racing® 3 introduced gamers to the "next-gen" Xbox 360™ experience: slick high-definition graphics, an exquisitely immersive in-cockpit view, live races on Project Gotham TV, as well as the stylized Kudos system, exotic cars, interactive garages, and photo-realistic tracks.

Even the rain splatter is physics-driven.

Most encores to a wildly successful game franchise would play a conservative hand. Evolve a few features, slap on a new coat of paint, and call it a day. This is not the case with Project Gotham Racing® 4. PGR4 has taken advantage of its more relaxed development schedule (no console launch date to meet this time), and jam-packed the title with new, groundbreaking content.

That's right, racing bikes have made the cut in Project Gotham Racing 4 and they help revitalize the franchise with a feel and control all their own.

Read more

If you thought the cost of internet access in the UK was a bit steep, and didn't offer you a good gaming experience, spare a thought for the residents of the oil-rich republic of Kazakhstan.

An unlimited 1.5Mb/sec connection in the home of Borat costs a staggering £1,660 per month. And installation plus the modem costs an extra £200.

£11,000 will buy you a 6Mb/sec connection. That's roughly a thousand times what it costs in western Europe and around 55 times the average monthly wage, according to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which compiled the figures.

Dial-up is much cheaper, just £55 per month for unlimited access, dropping to around £20 for pay-as-you-go access that OSCE says would encompass just basic email exchange without attachments and occasional web browsing.

And yet the Kazakh authorities hailed 2006 price cuts which increased the number of internet users.

"The first serious drop in prices for internet access was part of a company strategy to increase the number of users; 2.7% of the population used the internet at the beginning of the year, but now 4% are active users," claims Askar Zhumagaliev, head of the Information and Communications Agency.

OSCE says that this 4% is primarily corporate users. Individual citizens are restricted to occasional dial-up home access, limited free access at schools and universities and internet cafés "from time-to-time".

Kazakhstan has strict laws governing media content but it has certainly found another highly effective way of restricting access to internet content.

"Those who think it's impossible to control the internet can continue living in the world of illusions," Information Minister Yermukhamet Yertysbayev told the country's Vremya newspaper.

As for Borat, the Kazakhstan authorities shut down his .kz website in December 2005.

Source: http://www.computerbuyer.co.uk/news/121376

Posted by Stoney