The Shape of Things to Come
Posted: 2009-01-09
We're in for some interesting times this year if things stick to their release schedules. This is a quick look at some of those games that might not be on your radar, or you might only have heard of recently. Since we are a Euro based site a game that is mentioned may well be already out in the US.
First off we're looking at the release of Pandemic's Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Pandemic are hoping to relight the fire of their Star Wars: Battlefront games with a chunk of online/offline LotR action published by EA. You can play either the Light or Dark (Good or Evil) sides and there are numerous classes to choose from, each class seems to be fairly well balanced and the maps have a theme from the LotR movies. Narration for the tutorial is provided by Hugo 'Elrond' Weaving and it introduces you to the concepts of the game. There are numerous modes on offer in the retail version and graphically it captures the feel of the movies extremely well. In game-play terms from the demo, it seems to be shaping up nicely and we should be reviewing the full game when it hits on/around the 16th in the European market.
Next to come is Rise of the Argonauts. Codemasters have managed to secure the rights to publish this unique Greek themed action-RPG developed by Liquid Entertainment, the people who brought us the excellent Battle Realms and expansion. Rise of the Argonauts is a tale of betrayal, revenge and murder set in the backdrop of ancient Greece. The game is a single player experience that is 3rd person and has a focus on hand to hand combat. You are cast in the role of Jason who must try to save the soul of his beloved by searching for the Golden Fleece, the only object that has the power to help her. Along the way Jason meets up with Hercules, Pan, Achilles and numerous other characters. The game has a similar feel to Mass Effect in terms of quest dialogue choices and exploration. The Argo is Jason's main base of operations and it is here where you can choose your next destination. There are numerous powerful weapons to collect and each one is a unique design, there are no generic weapons in the game. Finally, Rise of the Argonauts features a clever experience system that allows you to dedicate your deeds (enemies killed, quests solved) to one of the four main gods: Ares, Athena, Hermes or Apollo. Each one of these can offer you a staggering array of bonuses and powers. We'll be looking deeper at Rise of the Argonauts hopefully when it hits in February.
The Wheelman should arrive on our shores around the 13th of February and promises a slice of on-foot, in-car free-roaming action with a little dash of Pursuit Force thrown in for good measure. Vin Diesel and company are creating a new IP and Vin of course is the main star. The game engine promises rapid speed based thrills that would make James Bond happy, where you can jack a car or vehicle as you're driving by leaping from one to the other when your primary vehicle takes too much damage. Offensive driving moves including being able to slam your car using the analogue stick, from left to right, mirroring the best Hollywood car chases and pile it into the enemy vehicles to ram them off the road. There is a bullet-time like feature where the car spins 180 and you can shoot out vital parts of the enemy vehicle before spinning back 180 and driving off through the city. From what we've seen of the Wheelman so far it looks like it's shaping up very nicely and should provide enough thrills and spills to keep fans of the Transporter movies happy, where we all want to be able to drive like Frank Martin.
Halo Wars should be an interesting take on the RTS on console; the developers have promised that the system used to control your forces should make it simple and easy to play. From what we've seen of Halo Wars so far that seems to be the case with the game delivering a vibrant and energetic take on the Halo universe. All of your favourite things are in and some surprises that we can't say. Of course what's fun about Halo Wars is that the attention to detail is there and units/vehicles are instantly recognisable. It's pretty impressive to see a Warthog ramp across a ravine carrying a squad of marines, land on the other side, skid a little and then drive off. You can begin to look for Halo Wars around the 27th of February (hopefully) and see for yourselves then.
No coming list of 2009 would be complete without a shout out to Resident Evil 5. So here we go. Resident Evil 5 plays in a similar manner to 4 and the controls will be instantly recognisable to fans of the series, it takes a few things and improves on them. Inventory management is better and the biggest draw of the game is that you can play split-screen coop offline and go online to play coop with a friend over Xbox Live. For the majority of the game you're accompanied by a coop AI partner that isn't bad, they can save your ass when they need to and they are capable of holding their own against the hordes of enemies. CAPCOM have upped the ante in terms of scary mini-bosses introducing the chainsaw wielding psychopaths once more, who take an armoury's worth of ammo to kill and a massive axe/hammer swinging addition who takes that and more.
You can expect lots of cheesy dialogue from Resident Evil 5, as is traditional. Some good and some bad voice performances and a host of odd characters to interact with as you attempt to uncover the mystery in Africa. Graphically the game is looking extremely nice and crisp with some beautiful character models and location architecture. Whether this can be moulded into a playable and enjoyable game remains to be seen since the title doesn't come out until at least the 13th of March.
CAPCOM are in the limelight again, and this time it's no surprise since this game is coming from the lovely developers that brought Crimson Skies to the Xbox. Dark Void promises to be an interesting combination of 3rd person on foot, vertical and seamless flight action. The hero of the game is equipped with a 'Rocketeer' style jetpack and the whole game's feel is very 'pulp' in terms of art and design. It's already looking fantastic and features dog-fighting by stealing an enemy UFO in a nail biting real time capture mechanic and then using it to blast the others out of the sky. The dog-fighting is looking simple enough with tactical choices galore, letting you concentrate on actually trying to outthink and out-fly your opponents. The on foot action is interesting since the hero has close quarters combat moves he can use against the enemy, as well as numerous powerful guns. The true star of the show is the vertical combat where you are capable of ascending via short bursts of the jetpack, up a sheer surface, hanging on via the developer's grip mechanic and still engaging enemies. You can use the various rifts in the rock for cover, ducking and popping out to shoot. Enemies fall past you to their deaths and the whole experience looks immense fun. Graphically it's got a gorgeous style and design, with some massive vistas to fly around and some truly 1930's Saturday Morning Picture Show inspired costume designs. Dark Void should be out much later this year and should be well worth the wait.
First off we're looking at the release of Pandemic's Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Pandemic are hoping to relight the fire of their Star Wars: Battlefront games with a chunk of online/offline LotR action published by EA. You can play either the Light or Dark (Good or Evil) sides and there are numerous classes to choose from, each class seems to be fairly well balanced and the maps have a theme from the LotR movies. Narration for the tutorial is provided by Hugo 'Elrond' Weaving and it introduces you to the concepts of the game. There are numerous modes on offer in the retail version and graphically it captures the feel of the movies extremely well. In game-play terms from the demo, it seems to be shaping up nicely and we should be reviewing the full game when it hits on/around the 16th in the European market.
Next to come is Rise of the Argonauts. Codemasters have managed to secure the rights to publish this unique Greek themed action-RPG developed by Liquid Entertainment, the people who brought us the excellent Battle Realms and expansion. Rise of the Argonauts is a tale of betrayal, revenge and murder set in the backdrop of ancient Greece. The game is a single player experience that is 3rd person and has a focus on hand to hand combat. You are cast in the role of Jason who must try to save the soul of his beloved by searching for the Golden Fleece, the only object that has the power to help her. Along the way Jason meets up with Hercules, Pan, Achilles and numerous other characters. The game has a similar feel to Mass Effect in terms of quest dialogue choices and exploration. The Argo is Jason's main base of operations and it is here where you can choose your next destination. There are numerous powerful weapons to collect and each one is a unique design, there are no generic weapons in the game. Finally, Rise of the Argonauts features a clever experience system that allows you to dedicate your deeds (enemies killed, quests solved) to one of the four main gods: Ares, Athena, Hermes or Apollo. Each one of these can offer you a staggering array of bonuses and powers. We'll be looking deeper at Rise of the Argonauts hopefully when it hits in February.
The Wheelman should arrive on our shores around the 13th of February and promises a slice of on-foot, in-car free-roaming action with a little dash of Pursuit Force thrown in for good measure. Vin Diesel and company are creating a new IP and Vin of course is the main star. The game engine promises rapid speed based thrills that would make James Bond happy, where you can jack a car or vehicle as you're driving by leaping from one to the other when your primary vehicle takes too much damage. Offensive driving moves including being able to slam your car using the analogue stick, from left to right, mirroring the best Hollywood car chases and pile it into the enemy vehicles to ram them off the road. There is a bullet-time like feature where the car spins 180 and you can shoot out vital parts of the enemy vehicle before spinning back 180 and driving off through the city. From what we've seen of the Wheelman so far it looks like it's shaping up very nicely and should provide enough thrills and spills to keep fans of the Transporter movies happy, where we all want to be able to drive like Frank Martin.
Halo Wars should be an interesting take on the RTS on console; the developers have promised that the system used to control your forces should make it simple and easy to play. From what we've seen of Halo Wars so far that seems to be the case with the game delivering a vibrant and energetic take on the Halo universe. All of your favourite things are in and some surprises that we can't say. Of course what's fun about Halo Wars is that the attention to detail is there and units/vehicles are instantly recognisable. It's pretty impressive to see a Warthog ramp across a ravine carrying a squad of marines, land on the other side, skid a little and then drive off. You can begin to look for Halo Wars around the 27th of February (hopefully) and see for yourselves then.
No coming list of 2009 would be complete without a shout out to Resident Evil 5. So here we go. Resident Evil 5 plays in a similar manner to 4 and the controls will be instantly recognisable to fans of the series, it takes a few things and improves on them. Inventory management is better and the biggest draw of the game is that you can play split-screen coop offline and go online to play coop with a friend over Xbox Live. For the majority of the game you're accompanied by a coop AI partner that isn't bad, they can save your ass when they need to and they are capable of holding their own against the hordes of enemies. CAPCOM have upped the ante in terms of scary mini-bosses introducing the chainsaw wielding psychopaths once more, who take an armoury's worth of ammo to kill and a massive axe/hammer swinging addition who takes that and more.
You can expect lots of cheesy dialogue from Resident Evil 5, as is traditional. Some good and some bad voice performances and a host of odd characters to interact with as you attempt to uncover the mystery in Africa. Graphically the game is looking extremely nice and crisp with some beautiful character models and location architecture. Whether this can be moulded into a playable and enjoyable game remains to be seen since the title doesn't come out until at least the 13th of March.
CAPCOM are in the limelight again, and this time it's no surprise since this game is coming from the lovely developers that brought Crimson Skies to the Xbox. Dark Void promises to be an interesting combination of 3rd person on foot, vertical and seamless flight action. The hero of the game is equipped with a 'Rocketeer' style jetpack and the whole game's feel is very 'pulp' in terms of art and design. It's already looking fantastic and features dog-fighting by stealing an enemy UFO in a nail biting real time capture mechanic and then using it to blast the others out of the sky. The dog-fighting is looking simple enough with tactical choices galore, letting you concentrate on actually trying to outthink and out-fly your opponents. The on foot action is interesting since the hero has close quarters combat moves he can use against the enemy, as well as numerous powerful guns. The true star of the show is the vertical combat where you are capable of ascending via short bursts of the jetpack, up a sheer surface, hanging on via the developer's grip mechanic and still engaging enemies. You can use the various rifts in the rock for cover, ducking and popping out to shoot. Enemies fall past you to their deaths and the whole experience looks immense fun. Graphically it's got a gorgeous style and design, with some massive vistas to fly around and some truly 1930's Saturday Morning Picture Show inspired costume designs. Dark Void should be out much later this year and should be well worth the wait.
