The kids come back to the enchanted world in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and it turns out more than a thousand years has passed and everything has gone to hell -- the Telmarine are in control and the magical dwarfs and animals have been driven into hiding.
I don't think he's going to block this one. When the folks in the Disney Interactive booth picked up the controller to give us a once through in this land of make believe at the German Games Convention, we got to see one of the battles for control that raged in the children's absence and how the three-character co-op game will perform.
As magical creatures waged war against a human invasion outside a castle, the majority of our demo came from the perspective of a dwarf and a minotaur as they ran through the battle doing their part to get a W in their column.
The build was admittedly early but already had some impressive mechanics -- such as the massive amounts of brawlers on the ... More »
The NHL 2K series seemed, just a few short years ago, like a dynasty in the making. But after EA's NHL 07 launched the skill stick, 2K's series felt dated. Trying to play catch-up this year NHL 2K8 has completely revamped controls...and they're absolutely confusing. Even after a few games of hands-on time, we were passing when we meant to shoot, deking when we meant to shoot, and on rare occasion shooting when we meant to shoot.
The basics aren't that difficult: deke with the right stick, pass with LB, and shoot with RB. Easy, right? If that was all, yes. The complications come when you're speed bursting with the right trigger, or super speed bursting with the A button. You slap shot with the left trigger and RB. All those button presses get very confusing, and more often than we liked we passed up on the chance to wallop a slap shot because we couldn't sort the necessary combination in a sport that requires split-second decisions. (All control mentions are for the Xbox 3... More »
The new PSP is a slimmer, lighter version of the original, with a few new features. The system plays the exact same games, but now it has a video output port that lets you connect the PSP to an external display, such as an HDTV, for big-screen playback. The system also has a simplified UMD loading tray, 32MB more system memory, lower power consumption, a smaller battery, and can now charge via USB. The new PSP will replace the current system this September. Systems will be available in Piano Black, Ice Silver, and Ceramic White. They'll come in various retail packages with a variety of bundle options that include pack-in games, UMD movies, memory sticks, and, in the case of the white PSP, a Darth Vader silk-screened battery cover.
The Ice Silver PSP will ship with the Daxter PSP Entertainment Pack.
While it was nice to check out the new PSP's redesigned features at E3, what we really wanted to do was pull out a few games and test how the new portable handles ... More »
Monolith Productions is a developer in a prime position to shed some light on the situation, having achieved critical and retail success with their launch title Condemned: Criminal Origins, and working on their follow-up with the upcoming sequel, Condemned 2: Bloodshot. "There is a certain satisfaction in taking on major challenges and overcoming them -- and this was definitely a major challenge. Sega also wanted us to hit the launch date... [and] gave us great testing and localization support to help make sure that we did hit our dates," says producer David Hasle, who later adds, "We knew that being present at launch would provide us more time to get more game titles developed internally at Monolith Productions for the 360 over the course of the lifespan of the 360 so this was seen as a good business decision. Plus being one of six or seven games is better than being one of 50 or 60 games on the shelf at your local game store."
The making of Condemned 2 is not just about ... More »
Thankfully not content with a shinier sequel, Criterion is reinventing its fabled racing franchise for this generation of consoles (the Burnout Revenge 360 port was more of a facelift). Gone are the linear tracks and tiered level structure; Burnout Paradise takes place in one enormous city that's open from the start and never stops to load. And lest you fret, the game still blazes by at 60 frames a second, the buttery-smooth visuals complemented by cars that crumple more convincingly than ever. The series is still about viscerally destructive driving, and the audio-visual impact of hitting a wall at 200 m.p.h. is as "next-gen" as anything we've experienced.
Paradise makes the most of its open-world structure, assuring that it's more than just a gimmick or several levels strung together. The game encourages you to learn the map, and familiarize yourself with where the major landmarks are (most races end at one of them). Every street has a name, and street signs pop up on t... More »
We're not going to crown FIFA 08 just yet, but after spending more hands-on time with it than David Beckham's spent on-field for the LA Galaxy, prospects look good. After a dozen games, we decided to look back at last year's review of FIFA 07, just to see what the developers didn't fix. After all, FIFA tends to dupe the U.S. press with its glamour every year, but ends up being a 10-game experience before you toss the controller and just turn the game on to listen to the soundtrack. So, here are quotes from last year's review and our responses after playing 08:
"...there are only six league licenses at work, instead of the 28 on current gen." Now there are 30.
"...there are only 37 international teams (out of a possible 194)." This is an omission that stands, but there are only 43 teams, now -- no Ghana, no Israel, no Iran.
"...there are no tournaments." 08 has a tournament creator that allows you to get complicated tourneys, like a full-blown C... More »
We have an excerpt from EGM's interview with lead artist Brian Horton and lead designer Jason Allen of The Collective, as well as a video preview of the game with the first footage and a video interview featuring Konami's Akira Yamaoka. Read on for the interview, and head over to our Silent Hill 5 video page for the video preview and Yamaoka interview.
EGM: As a Silent Hill fan, when I heard that a Western team was taking it over, automatically skepticism, trepidation... "How are they going to destroy my beloved franchise? What are they going to do to it? Is it going to be a first-person shooter?" But instead of that, I think you guys -- from what I've seen -- are staying true to the original heritage but evolving it. What was your approach to making this game?
BH: On an art side, obviously we want to maintain what everyone... I mean everyone knows that Silent Hill is known f... More »
Conan the game isn't directly based on any particular Conan story, but fans of the original works will recognize returning locations from the original stories, like the lands of Kush and Stygia. Of course, there will be a number of original, fantastic environments through which to slaughter, too, such as a set of ocean ruins we got to see that are full of gigantic living statues and semi-corporeal, ghost-like enemies that your weapons can't always hit. At the outset, Conan has lost four of his enchanted pieces of armor which he intends to recover, and each one will grant him a new magical attack when he retrieves it. As a barbarian, Conan doesn't especially relish the thought of using magic, but he also recognizes its utility when there are all these enemies just asking to be driven before him. Along the way, Conan will encounter A'kanna, a lithe and sensual archer who seems like she'll act as a wily feminine foil for all of Conan's trademark bluster and bravado.
Unreal Tournament III looks just a little too good to be true, as these new screens yet again show.
But believe what you see, because even early preview versions we've seen (and previewed to death) looked stunning and ran smooth as you like. Yes, that includes the PS3 version, too.
If you haven't seen the ultra-sweet trailers previously released, you really need to do that right now. And if you have seen them, watch them again.
Now we can't wait for November, when those Blu-ray discs of joy land on our desks and we rename the PlayStation 3 "Unreal Tournament Station 3."
Sega has sent out a new release schedule with a little bit of bad news that those looking forward to the upcoming release of The Club will have to wait until next year.
Tagged to the foot of Sega's most recent release schedule is: "Please note that The Club from Bizarre Creations is now to release on X360, PS3 and PC in early 2008."
We can't help but wonder if finishing up work on PGR4 for Microsoft may have demanded a little more attention than was originally though...
You can take a look at our most recent preview of The Club here
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