I’ve been a big fan of Prince of Persia since the beginning of the previous generation’s remake series (I’ve never completed a Prince of Persia game, but I am willing to live in blissful ignorance of that fact). Needless to say, I was excited at being able to try out the new game a few months before release, and also needless to say, it is a worthy successor to not only the previous series, but the originals to.

From that, I mean that the game holds features more common to the original Prince of Persia than the previous series, while still including the acrobatic thrill the last-gen games offered. In this, you might argue that it feels a bit like Assassin’s Creed (it does run on the same engine after all).

In the new Prince of Persia, the time-shifting TiVo system of old is replaced by a new gimmick. Her name is Elika. She is magic. That’s about it.

While you might expect Elika to be the star of the new game, she factors into the gameplay as little more than a weapon - being assigned to one of the buttons much the same as acrobatic attacks, or sword attacks are. This plays into combat interestingly as you jump around using deadly combinations to surprise and defeat your foes.

Talking of combat, in the new Prince of Persia you only fight one enemy at a time (an homage to the original? Or perhaps an example of the limitations of the Scimitar engine). This means that you need to think a lot more about every move you take, as you face death after one connecting strike to your vulnerable body and means that blocking is key to the game. Blocking is also key for the enemies, which is why the variety of attacks becomes so important to  surprise your enemy and get through his defence. It also makes for tactically engaging boss battles.

Read more »

Dave was supposed to review this demo, but since he’s off to find some games that he hasn’t played or owned already, I get it. And I’m glad, because this is a damn good game.

First off, the game is accessible. All you need is one hand (I proved that on my second play), and a voice. All the voice commands work really well, even to the point where I can call upon all units of a specific type to move, attack, or engage. I can combine units’ orders to make things easier, and the HUD makes it so easy to maintain a good eye over the battlefield. Calling it an RTS game is a bit of a push, though. It’s more a tactical game, similar to that of Dawn of War, that you can only call so many units up (In EW’s case, 12), regardless of what type they are. But that’s good, because it means that the equivalent of Zerg rushes, or massing infantry to cause problems for the opponent simply through numbers, is impossible.

I thoroughly enjoyed this game, and I was impressed with it, both graphically and ergonomically. Needless to say, this is a game that I will be putting on my Pre-Order list.

I have to admit that I didn’t have too high a hope for this game. After all, it’s treading where Ace Combat has already tread. Like Generals, HAWX is proving that a named License (in this case, Tom Clancy) can be put onto any title and automatically generate the hype.

The demo wasn’t really too hefty. Just keep defending an oil refinery against wave after wave of enemy tanks and planes. Pretty basic stuff, nothing that hasn’t already been covered by it’s cousin from Japan. But there are a few unique differences. One of which is the ‘Intercept’ ability. By quickly pressing ‘X’ (on the 360), you can follow a set of markers. Match all the markers, and you either end up ready to smash a missile into the cockpit, or come up on his tail to make evading the missile that much more difficult.

The graphics have to be applauded. They pretty much beat AC6 hands down. Granted, Ace is a lot older than HAWX, but the rendering of the ground feels like a generation apart, almost to it’s detriment. The graphics are just too sharp for me to really consider real, and there was no resistance or notions of wind as you tear through it on your fighter/attacker. But then again, I was only using an A10 Thunderbolt, which doesn’t really move that quickly anyway. I saw someone play as a Berkut (a really fast fighter-bomber, if my knowledge serves me well), but still had the same lacking realism that I did.

Having said that, from what I played it’s still a damn good flight game. Honestly though, I doubt I’ll be buying it when EndWar is just around the corner. Dave’ll be covering that for you.

So, I figured that now that I had beaten Hell’s Highway, at least on one of the difficulties, and my rental was up on Sunday, I figured that I would try out the multiplayer. After all, 10v10 did sound fun. Oh god was I wrong. Wrong like people liking SecuROM.

I only managed to get a few games in, but let me give you my first impressions…

Read more »

A recent article over on Kotaku has revealed deeply embedded opinions within Ubisoft HQ. The clumsy employee who dropped this comment is (possibly was by now) a moderator over at the Ubisoft forums - in sharp response to one member’s well-founded rant about how…

“[The Wii] gets no new Core-titles and when we get some like Shaun White Snowboarding it looks worse than SSX on the Cube. Doesn’t really look like Ubisoft is trying to put some effort in it.”

In response to this member’s thoughts, an angry Ubisoft moderator decided to bite back with the claim that…

“Parents who are buying a console for their children do not really care about Prince of Persia, Rainbow Six or Far Cry on the box, they want games that are going to be good for their children and not get them in the local newspaper”

This may be more accurately read as “You Wii owners aren’t mature enough to play the big boy’s games”. The rep then has the nerve to claim that “Amazing new AAA games” do not sell very well on the Wii. I’m guessing that means that the rubbish, old ZZZ games Ubisoft keep churning out go down a treat then.
Read more »

French gaming magazine Joypad have secured an exclusive, bearing the first ever in-game pictures from the new Prince of Persia game. It looks… different. Different in a good way, that is. It appears to have the art style of Okami (sloshed around with a bit of Street Fighter 4) meets Ico meets Twilight Princess and the amalgamation of styles has resulted in what looks to be an amazing new game from Ubisoft Montreal. Scans of the feature have been lovingly uploaded by twobrothersandasister.com and we’ve uploaded crops of the individual in-game screens for those who don’t read French!

This visual reboot appears to signal a reboot in the series in general, with signs hinting that the next game will be titled “Prince of Persia”. This is in no way a bad thing. Throughout the previous games the art-style was starting to tire, and the plot was starting to wear a little thin. We have really high hopes for this new game, and we look forward to some hints at the gameplay itself (which may be described in the article. If any of our readers can read French we’d appreciate if you drop us a line if there’s any useful info there).

[Show as slideshow]

Source: TwoBrothersAndASister

Let me start off by saying that I do not own this game but rather, I rented it from Blockbuster (they do 7 day rentals now). Now that’s out of the way, let me reassure you that I have completed the Single Player story mode (albeit coop with a friend) and I have played a few terrorist hunts with a friend also. So back on topic, this is a review of the sequel to the immensely successful and immensely awesome Rainbow Six Vegas.

In Vegas 2 you play the role of an operative within Rainbow Six (a top secret special operations unit set through collaboration between NATO states) called Bishop. Bishop looks like… well, the thing is you decide. Yes, unlike the original there is character customisation, and apart from facial features it’s surprisingly deep. The first thing you’re greeted with when you boot up the game is a character creation screen, where you get to choose uniform (with some armour choices affecting game-play e.g. heavy armour will make you slower but able to absorb more lead), clothing, camouflage, choice of weapons and facial features - All of which can be changed at multiple occasions

This becomes your avatar throughout the game, for single and multiplayer modes. What you may have expected even less is that not only does your avatars appearance follow you throughout the game but there is also an experience system in place, which records statistics about everything you do in the game. you get experience for killing enemies and you get an increased amount if you put your experience and known tactics to use when confronting a bad guy (such as long range kills, shooting through cover or close quarters. More experience unlocks new weapons, armour and clothing to give your character.
Read more »