The Crackdown 2 demo on offer on the Xbox Live Marketplace lets you complete several objectives and explore the city as much as you can within a thirty-minute time limit; so no dithering around, lard-arse. It also features seriously sped up ability levelling, so you’ll be evolving faster than Charles Darwin on steroids. If you’re feeling lonely, you can also play it co-op with friends online, as you’ll be able to with the full game.

From the looks of the Crackdown 2 demo, not much has changed, which is mostly a good thing. The core gameplay is practically intact, and all in all the game has a very similar look and feel. This time round there is an extra layer added to the gameplay, and that is in the form of… zombies! You can just imagine the developing team sitting round a table and thinking, “Hmm, what component is guaranteed to make games even more awesome?”. As a result, during the daytime you will be crime-fighting in the usual manner, but at night you’ll have the zombies (or freaks, as they are affectionately called) to deal with. This definitely makes the gameplay more dynamic and varied.

In the demo, there are two types of objectives to deal with; one for each of the types of bad guys you’ll encounter. For the living, you have zones to clear, and then call in an Agency chopper to secure the area. For the previously living on the other hand, you set about eradicating them by capturing modules that power up a massive UV machine, as just like vampires the ‘freaks’ are sensitive to light. The objectives on show here aren’t particularly inventive; it’s just ‘kill bad guys then press a button on something’ for the most part.

Reminiscent of crowd control at the average Millwall football match

I have to say I did miss the original layout of missions, that bared a very strong resemblance to Mercenaries; attack the enemy strongholds and assassinate a key leader to gradually weaken the gangs. Whilst not very original, I found it more interesting. To be fair though, just because these types of missions aren’t in the demo, doesn’t mean that they won’t be in the full game. Similarly the weapon choice is slim, generally coming down to either ‘rapid-fire shootah’, or ‘pump-action shootah’. There is the interesting addition of the UV gun however, which annihilates the undead, but is little more powerful than a blast of air to normal people. If there are more inventive weapons like this in the full game, you’ll have a useful and engaging arsenal.

It is slightly irritating how you are plonked straight into the action with no idea what’s going on, as the story seems even more vague than the original. The link between the gangs and zombies isn’t explained (unless I missed it), but for some reason the gangs do their best to get in the way of you wiping them out, only to get their heads snacked on as soon as they encounter any. Undead and ungrateful.

Some aspects of Crackdown 2 from the demo appear a tad clunky. The controls are decent for traversing the city on foot, but the shooting mechanics can be very hit and miss (literally), and whilst driving is probably improved from the first iteration, it can still be like a five year-old bumbling about in a supercharged Little Tikes Cozy Coupe at times. The AI is left wanting also; the first time I called in the Agency ‘Peacekeepers’ after clearing out the area of enemies, they saw fit to gun me down as a thankyou, despite me never laying a finger on them. The graphics were also never spectacular in the original, but in Crackdown 2 they are definitely disappointing, with muddy and bland textures all over the place.

For those who used to love torturing ants as a kid

I have definitely laid down the law on the Crackdown 2 demo, but don’t let this fool you into thinking the game is totally out of order. Firstly, I didn’t particularly like the structure of the demo, and it took me a couple of playthroughs before I got to grips with it more. The time limit imposed for the demo is also a nuisance in a game of this ilk, where you’d much rather be arsing around blowing things up or exploring the city than rushing from objective to objective. I generally get the feeling Ruffian Games aren’t showing us all there is on offer here (at least, I’m hoping so), and that there will be many surprises in store for those of us who cough up the cash for the full version.

That said, I’m disappointed that some issues with the original haven’t been more improved on, and that there’s a lack of innovation evident at least from this demo. The game is still, however, a great laugh and full of the same action-packed fun of the original. I won’t be pre-ordering it, or taking a trip to the shop on the release date, but I’m definitely still crossing my fingers and holding my interest on Crackdown 2 after playing this demo.

While EA Los Angeles have been busy putting together the single player campaign, multiplayer maestros DICE have been concentrating what they do best to complement EA LA’s work, and our first taster of what they’ve produced has recently begun with the multiplayer BETA having gone live this weekend just passed. I was lucky enough to grab myself a code, and what I’ve found is a solid and enjoyable online experience, but that’s about it.

The first thing to note here is that DICE have brought their excellent Frostbite engine to the party, and upon hearing this, it instantly put any questions I might have had about the potential quality of what I was about to experience to bed. It did, however, leave me worrying about whether Medal of Honour would just prove to be Battlefield with a new lick of paint, and in many respects that fear is realised.

In this beta we are treated to two maps, two modes, and three character classes. The two modes on offer are Combat Mission (which I’ll go into in a sec), and Team Assault, which is standard deathmatch fare. As not to bore you senseless about the details on what happens in a deathmatch mode (here’s a hint; you shoot people), I’ll simply stick to the more interesting aspect; the Combat Mission mode, which is on familiar ground for Battlefield fans, but thankfully not too familiar.

Rather than focusing solely on one type of objective, a’la Rush or Conquest, Medal of Honor takes the Killzone 2 route and mixes things up a little. Over the course of the match, the Coalition Forces must complete five different objectives one after the other to win. These include such militaristic tasks as planting charges or capturing key points, while the Insurgents must defend each objective with their lives. This sounds fairly typical of DICE’s previous work, but surprisingly it manages to feel a lot more organic than before. Completing one objective, and then rushing towards your next, different, objective as a team unit has never hit me so viscerally before. With that, the titling of this mode is absolutely spot on; often it does feel like a proper cooperative military mission, to the point where I shamefully didn’t even realise the opposition weren’t AI until I got taken out that first time.

Lone soldier...

It won’t surprise people to hear that the controls are smooth, they give a feel that sits somewhere between Call of Duty and Battlefield, and probably more in the camp of the latter. Visually, however, it’s hard to deny whose scalp EA want here as the game oozes Call of Duty from every orifice; from the sun-drenched Eastern environments to the scores that appear above your victims head when you successfully bag your kills (that yes, can be used to unlock 14 levels of upgrades and customise your character). Look a little deeper and you’ll see some cracks; slightly jagged edges, a poorer texture here, and a crap explosion effect there. I put most of this down to the fact it’s a beta, and that DICE have always incorporated vastly more expansive maps than the smaller choke-point focused maps of Infinity Ward’s titles.

I also have to say that it’s a very strange experience to enjoy this great engine once more but without the amount of level destruction you’ve come to associate with it. Sure, cover (of which there is plenty) is partially destructible, making scrambles to safer areas intense and enjoyable, especially when under heavy fire, however it really lacks that destructive punch present in DICE’s previous work. That’s the main issue with this beta, it’s hard not to compare it to their back catalogue.

At the moment there are some technical issues, the most regularly grating of which is an irritating momentary pause before showing the third person death animation. The most damaging though, are the couple of times when I earned a ribbon or award in gameplay for the beta completely to lock up and crash my PS3. A quick google shows that these aren’t isolated incidents, and it’s put me off venturing back into the beta until I hear it’s been fixed. I also had the odd connection issue, but knowing DICE’s record, these are all problems that will be promptly sorted, at least for when the game hits the shelves. The biggest problem I had with the game wasn’t even technical. Let me explain.

Actually the Taliban.

You may have noted above that I’ve used the words ‘Coalition’ and ‘Insurgents’ to describe the factions used in the game, and I’m honestly a little disturbed at how it is exactly how it sounds. There is no anonymity in Medal of Honor, you are not fighting in ‘Namelessistan’, or starting wars with an unnamed area of mother Russia; you are playing a game based on real conflicts that are happening in the world as we speak. We’ve all played as marines before, and we’re used to it, but when you’re shown a screen labelling you as being a member of the ‘Taliban’ and you have to gun down Coalition forces, it sits a little uneasily. Even to the point where even I, Mr Tasteless, am unsure about making a joke regarding the Taliban suing over property and image rights.

I’m not an over-sensitive gamer either, I’ve laughed at jokes I shouldn’t have, I’ve defended many a violent or brutal game in the past, pointing to context to justify a game’s setting, but I genuinely find it hard to do so here. It’s very close to the bone and very real situation to a lot of people out there. Okay, twenty years on, but now? Didn’t ‘Six Days In Fallujah’ get hounded out of development for less? It depends on context I guess, and creating that justifiable context is hard to do in an example that’s online only. If the single player ties it together with a tasteful narrative, it’s something that I believe people (outside of the hysterical media) will feel easier with.

I want to move on from that uncomfortable subject to wrap this up, although it was something I felt I had to touch on, I’m not here to discuss taste or politics. I’m here to tell you whether the beta is worth playing and the answer is yes; for me it is. What it does at this point in time isn’t ground-breaking in the slightest, it’s actually fairly typical of the genre. It is, however, solid; it suffers no lag, and offers up expansive FPS multiplayer action in huge maps, but that’s what you’d expect with the calibre of developer behind the online mode, right? This small slice of the action is more than enough to pique the interest of even the most modern warfare-weary gamer, but so far offers nothing truly different to make you sit up and think ‘wow’. I look forward to seeing how this evolves over the coming months.

From the title screen, depicting a struggle between Elite and Spartan, you get the vibe of a feeling of desperation. On this battlefield, these Spartans look scarred, beaten and bloodied, as if tolls have been taken on their endurance, their armour,  even their very souls. Every time they step out onto the battlefield, though they may be weary, each seems to have every incentive, each of them prepared to go all out to defend their home. Of course, we all know how this story ends, but you still feel as if you’re contributing, as if you can still do something to change the course of the events. Reflecting on this prospect, I for one, am foreseeing an incredibly exciting single player campaign when the game ships later this year, but for now, all we know is multiplayer and what we do know is that it’s good!

The modes at hand…
As Beta testers, we’ve only been able to sample Team Slayer, Free-For-All, Grab Bag, Invasion and Generators. Each of these modes offers a little bit of something similar to what we’ve seen from Bungie before, with a splash of something completely different.

Team Slayer is what you would expect from a Halo game. Red vs Blue. 4 vs 4 with only a selection of two different maps, one outdoor, one indoor for the Beta. It’s the standard premise. First team to fifty kills gets the win which usually ensues in absolute pandemonium somewhere around the middle of the map. Except with Reach, its a little bit different. Each player on the battlefield, in addition to the weapons they start with and those scattered around the map, are blessed with a special ability. These abilities are Sprint, Guard, Cloak and Jetpack. When the game starts and each time the player respawns, they are presented with the opportunity to spawn with a different weapon and different ability through the medium of loadouts. This obviously adds a whole new tactical layer on the familiar team slayer layout and can utterly change the way a game is played. This was obviously the most popular mode in the Beta, alongside Free-For-All and so you’re able to get a better handle for the ways in which Reach has truly influenced the Halo franchise. Whether the player is sprinting toward you with a hammer or a shotgun in tow, or sneaking up behind you for an assassination with a sword while disguised in a veil of shadow, this isn’t the same Team Slayer you are used to in Halo 3.

Free-For-All is much the same, except all on all and up to 25 kills. However, my feeling is that there is less of a feeling of a clusterfuck going on, and more a feeling that you can change the course of your luck by implementing different strategies. If flying around the map and shooting people isn’t working for you, then you stand guard at the centre of the map when all the bullets are heading in your direction. If the Beta is anything to go by, both Free-For-All and Team Slayer are going to be furiously competitive this Autumn.

Invasion is one of the new modes introduced into Reach and is perhaps one of the most confusing. You have a group of Spartans and a group of Elites. The Spartans will be defending and the Elites assaulting. The Invasion mode is structured into three tiers and each will gradually unlock parts of the level until it is completely open. In the first wave, the Spartans need to defend the generators from the Elite invasion. If the Spartans are unsuccessful in this, then they will need to fall back to the second objective and stop the Elites from exposing the core. If the Elites expose the core, then the game will go to the third and final stage where the Spartans need to prevent the Elites from claiming the core and taking it to the extraction point. During this struggle, players will have access to familiar vehicles from the Halo franchise such as the Ghost, the Banshee and Scorpion tank to help them with achieving their respective goal. This is a fun and frantic mode and is going to be favourable to a great many players,  although may be more of an attractive diversion from where the real competition is sure to be in the retail release of Reach.

Grab-Bag implements Capture the Flag and Oddball modes which all will be familiar with who’ve played most any FPS game online. You take the enemies flag on one end of the map, and put it in your base at the other end. As for Oddball, you claim a skull which spawns at random locations on the map and hold it for as long as you can, trying to reach the 150 point limit. Of course, these will also include the loadouts found in every other mode in Reach and so play completely differently from how you’re used and yes, they fit like a glove!

Finally, there is the Generator mode which is also quite fun and features 3 on 3. You will either play as Spartans or Elites and both will take it in turns to attack and defend. There are three generators scattered across the map, Alpha, Bravo and Charlie and depending whether you are on assault or defence, it will be up to you to annihilate or protect the generator respectively. This is another tactical mode implemented into Reach that can make for a very quick game or one that goes right down to the final seconds. I had a lot of fun with this one and think with a variety of maps and loadouts, this could be a very popular mode in the final release. Playing Generators also gives players the chance to nuke enemies or generators with the rocket launcher and the returning spartan laser!

Gimme your lunch money n00b!

Observations on Reach’s overall structure
In regard to the new interface in the menu screen of Reach, I like what Bungie have attempted to do by essentially making the menu more three-dimensional and accessible by just using the analog stick. Pushing it right to open up another series of menus and pushing it left to return back to the main. However, the graphics behind it seem ugly and out of place. It does add to the gritty edge of Reach, as this is supposed to be a story about desperation and survival, yet, I still pine for the finesse of the Halo 3 menu system. While I wouldn’t want it to be exactly the same, I hope when release rolls around Bungie will have changed this a little bit. Don’t get me wrong, I think the interface is well suited to the menu and I hope this remains, I just feel the whole thing needs a graphical upheaval, as it seems tacky right now.

Another really cool aspect of Reach sees you able to change your search criteria. The tools are more powerful than ever before. Here you can search for opponents that are trash talkers or those of a more civilised nature. You can search by good or poor connections and even nearby or distant regions. I’ll be very interested to see if Bungie work on this further for release, but what they have in place already is pretty damn fantastic.

As for the gameplay, the health system is more reminiscent of Halo: Combat Evolved, but falls somewhere in line between that in Halo ODST and Halo 3. Players have a recharging shield that will reinvigorate itself when you’re out of combat, however, in the middle of that is a health bar that doesn’t recharge and regenerate. Once your shield is down, your character will be easily exposed and very easy to kill, especially if the health bar is already in the red, so the days of waiting to rejoin the fray once your back up to full capacity during mad multiplayer moments in Halo 3 are gone. Players will need to pick and choose their attacks and do so wisely, otherwise they’re going to end up on the bonfire.

Some other noticeable changes include the melee attack. No longer will you be able to pop a few shots on a player and kill them with a single melee blow. Now, when you try to do that, your opponent will probably stand there, laugh in your face and fill you full of lead. This will be a surprise to many who used the melee as an effective tool of destruction in Halo 3. Once again, Bungie have tried to change the way that everyone plays Halo and this is a prevalent theme I noticed throughout all of the Beta.

You’ll also notice the loadouts add a much more strategic and tactical feel to the Halo you know and love. It’s not so much of a case of just dying, respawning, finding a powerful weapon and trying to redeem yourself. Reach is going to make you think, it’ll make you mix up and alternate your battle techniques. Its doubtful that a player will simply be using the same actions throughout the course of the game. If you want to survive in Reach, you’ll need to change up your tactics, be unpredictable, but at the same time, cater toward your strengths. For any who think this is just Halo with a run button, I’m here to assure you, you’re sorely mistaken.

You’ll also have to bear in mind the weaponry within Reach, as there is a mix of something old and something new. You’ll be familiar with the needler (although the graphical update can make it seem more menacing than ever), the rocket launcher and the Spartan Laser, but Reach also has some new toys to play with. Introducing the needler rifle, which is like a hybrid of a needler and the sniper rifle, complete with a zoom feature. Each shot you fire at an enemy will stick a needle to them, and the more you shoot at them, the more they become like a human or alien pincushion, until they eventually explode in true needler fashion. This is easily my favourite of the new weapons as it combines the sheer raw power of the needler but allows you to do it from a long range.

You’ll also notice that the battle rifle is back, but is a lot different from how you may remember it. No longer are you going to have burst fire every time you press the trigger, instead you’ll be having straight, single shots, but with a better zoom functionality and a more motion stable alternative to the Sniper Rifle. This has been used to great effect in the Beta, and also seems to be another fan favourite. You may have also come into contact with a very powerful, behemoth of a gun, that seems to harken back to the days of DOOM and the BFG. While holding down the trigger button, this one heats up and fills your opponent with a series of glowing energy balls, exploding them on impact. This one has a take no prisoners mentality and forces you to be good with your evasion techniques.

While we haven’t had much chance to see how the Season system will work in Reach, the game will pop up and tell you that you have been assigned to a division based on how you play and then a star is placed next to your name to tell you which division you’ll be in. It wasn’t really practical for Bungie to implement this into a Beta as they want to maximise the amount of games people are playing but they do give you an idea on how this will eventually play out. Already, I’m sure you can feel a competitive surge as you see yourself fighting to be considered top of your class, and I think this will actually make competition even more fierce in Reach as compared to the already extremely talented pool of players dominating Halo 3.

The upgrade system is also teased in the Beta, enabling you to do the most basic of things and change your armour around just for looks. However, I imagine there will be much more for us to look at once the game goes gold, perhaps players can purchase new abilities, new guns, much like they can in Modern Warfare 2, even insignias, taglines, nicknames. As long as they can’t purchase a promotion to another league, I think Bungie can do pretty much anything they want with this system and regularly update it with new and exciting ideas.

So did it Reach me?
To put it simply, Halo Reach, even in Beta form, is a polished, fun and exciting experience that does nothing more than whet your appetite for the Autumn when the game finally drops. This Beta puts to shame many games that have gone gold and shipped to retailers; it’s that good! There are certainly aspects Bungie can work on; the matchmaking between divisions and within seasons will be a real test for them, also ensuring there is a real balance within established weaponry, as some currently seem to make others almost superfluous in terms of how similar and how powerful one over the other is. It’ll also be interesting to see whether there will be any more attributes players can acquire aside from Sprint, Shield, Cloak and Jetpack in the final version, I certainly think that something similar to the Elite’s dodge move for the Spartans could be interesting. Maybe they’ll make more attributes as unlockables which you can purchase with your points.

All of this coupled with as exciting a campaign as it has potential to be and I think you’ll be safe in saying, Halo Reach is going to blow us away this Autumn.

Don’t get me wrong, Reach is going to frustrate you just like Halo 3 did, but you’re going to love it, and probably love it more than you ever did Bungie’s previous titles. This is a dream game for the franchise because of what it offers us and what it promises. You may think to yourself “why do Bungie need to do another Halo?” Well, Reach is the perfect answer. It feels different, plays different, there is more of a purpose to keep playing. There is more replay value, more incentive, more desire to play to best of your ability. Reach seems to have everything going for it, and yet Bungie have still shown us so little. I’m prepared to eat humble pie if, when Autumn rolls around, this isn’t considered another Game of the Year candidate by many leading reviewers. Halo Reach seems ready to dominate the Xbox Live Charts for a long time to come and if it keeps up this pace, is set to bury Modern Warfare 2 from people’s minds, forever.

The series is second to none in terms of its realism and presentation and like all the other usual suspects (FIFA I’m looking at you) tries to convince us all to part with our hard earned cash every twelve months with some polish and a few extra game modes. This year is no different and I have been spending a bit of time with the great man to find out what makes this years game different.

The first thing that I must say is that I have not bought a Tiger Woods title since the 07 model and yet I still knew and was comfortable with the feel and control of my golfers swing from the off. This has been tweaked ever so slightly over the years but from last years version the difference is minimal. Likewise graphically, the game looks superb, there is a little more polish on the golfers themselves, a touch more detail on the courses and the shadowing effects are just a little more elegant than previous versions. However, this is all minor, but then let’s be brutally honest; it’s Golf, in terms of looks and feel, there aint much you can do with it really.

Look it's a Golf Course

As is always the case with a franchise such as Tiger Woods, they live and die by the game modes on offer. The demo gives you a brief line of what’s to come in the full game without letting you test much, such as a new swing tuner, challenge mode and the promise of online Team play for up to 24 players. For the sake of this article though we’ll stick to what the demo does give you.

First up is the new way of developing your golfer. Your golfer’s skills will now be earned and measured in Experience Points (XP). You are told immediately that anything you earn in the demo will carry forward (a nice touch) and these can be earned from the off by sending a live message to your buddies to ask them to download the demo. They are also gained for every shot you play. Hit the fairway; get XP, hit the green; get XP. Want a big bonus? Hit an eagle or a hole-in-one; you get the drift.

The second big thing is the Focus meter. This sits in the HUD and works as follows. You play well and in return your focus improves. With it you can utilise the old power boost and spin boost power ups we all know and love to improve your round (and ultimately gain more XP). Be warned, however, as using the boosts and the putt preview camera reduce your focus, and when you have none, you cannot use the power ups, often leaving you an impossible putt with no guide to help line it up, which ultimately causes you to three or four putt the hole at a major cost to your round total and those ever important Experience Points.

The  other newbee you get to utilise in the demo is the True-Aim mode. Billed as First Person Golf this takes away your option to follow the ball’s flight and makes lining up shots more of a challenge. When out on the course you are solely reliant on the crowd to know if you are close, far or in the sand until you line up the following shot. You do have your GPS which will allow you to view the distance to pin as well as any hazards out on the course and can, if you want, pull up a caddie tip (though in true TW fashion these are about as useful as a chocolate teapot).

With this mode, you can play three holes of match play with a generated golfer on either the 2010 Ryder Cup course, Celtic Manor or the Picturesque Liberty National in New York. Complete with the usual hole “fly by”, commentators tips and “Get in the hole!” shouts from the spectators.

The other game mode available in the demo and probably one of the biggest selling points this year is the Ryder Cup itself. You pick your side (Europe of course) and are given a team of four. McIlroy, Poulter, Casey and Rose line up for Europe. Weekly, Kim, Furyk and, of course, Tiger for the US. Set the number of matches for each discipline (Foursomes, Fourballs, Singles) and away you go. Again you have three holes per match and if there is more than one match you can choose which one to play and which golfer to play as.

Control wise, as touched on earlier, nothing much has changed. Your swing is still on the left stick with your right stick used to set elevation. B will allow you to zoom in to your target area or bring up the holes GPS details when in the True-Aim mode. X allows you to cycle the shot types and A is utilised for the much used power and spin boosts (if you have some focus), LB and RB control your draw and fade respectively and LT and RT cycle your club selection.

What you get from the demo is the idea that this years added features on the whole are pretty good ones. The chance to play the Ryder Cup (and kick some US butt) is definitely a plus. True-Aim, though a good addition will be utilised by the hardcore only to increase the challenge and it remains to be seen if the other additional game features can add enough to make the title worthy of purchase for anyone with last years version. My overall feeling is that with the prospect of gaining some XP over the next six weeks to give myself a boost from the start, I may well be spending a bit more time with the Tiger Woods 11 demo prior to when its release on 2nd July.

I first came across this game at last years Eurogamer in Leeds last October. Andy had little faith in the game, and many times he tried to drag me away from the game as I was too immersed in the high velocity, action packed racer. I then tried to track down the game for a long time but had no progress until The Gadget Show LIVE a few weeks back. Split/Second, now titled ‘Split/Second: Velocity’ was being showcased at the event by GAME.

Anyway, enough of my experiences of the game in other locations (you can read Andy’s Eurogamer impressions here)… you want a demo impression right? Well here goes…

Let’s start by talking about what really makes the game so different; the power-ups. The game features eight power-ups in total, and these definitely help to hinder the other racers depending on how well they are used. Included in the Beta/Demo are Mines, Nitro Boosts, Shunt, Barge, Shield, Bolt, Shock and repair, with each featuring  a cool secondary fire. This could mean firing a shunt homing missile behind you or throwing a mine forward. It’s these power-ups that make each race different and exciting and it’s certainly a nice change of pace from just driving around a track focusing on the right time to brake, or when not to crash… mainly because in this game it definitely is more fun to crash.

The cars in the game are sorted by class, ranging from A to D, with A Class cars being the best performing cars. The cars that you own can also be ‘modified’ in the mod-shop and small upgrades can be applied to the car for small advantages, like the ability to start with a particular power-up or having more damage dealt in collisions with other cars. Once you start racing, you will earn ‘fans’, and it’s these fans that help you progress further in the game. In order to gain these fans, you have to drive recklessly. While it’s not compulsory to take out and wreck other racers, it does help you gain more fans… and yes… it’s a lot of fun too. Once the race is over, your fans are added up, and then you gain a rank thanks to the amount that you have accumulated. Unlike other racing games, facing off against higher ranking opponents is not that bad an ordeal, as besides having a faster car, they won’t really have any other advantage. This keeps the race’s fair and all in all, leads to a better gaming experience.

There are six tracks to play through in the demo, along with different race modes for people who are after a specific racing experience. Skirmish Races allow up to ten players to compete in races online, whereas other modes such as Motor Mash are all about smashing up the opposition and causing as much mayhem as possible. The game also features Challenges similar to games like Modern Warfare 2, to aid in gaining more fans for those hard to earn unlockables. These tasks usually consist of hitting rivals with power-up’s X amount of times or evading theirs. The challenges will more than likely be earned over time as power-ups are used consistently throughout the game; they have a purpose but I doubt that it’s important to core gameplay to be looking to earn them immediately.

A colourful racing experience

The actual racing side of the game is exciting from the off and the controls are simple to use too, which means that anyone can play, but more importantly anyone can win. This constantly changing field keeps you on edge, and makes for some exciting moments. Tactics with the power-ups can play an important part; as I hinted above, you really can be in last position and by using the right power-ups to your advantage end up taking the race; all you need to do really is to learn how to use them successfully. I suppose it’s that ‘unpredictability’ factor that will make you want to play the game more, because you just never know what the outcome of the race will be until its actually over.

Blur is said to be the next big thing for the racing genre, and I really hope that it does deliver what racing fans are yearning, because it’s about time we racing fans got a game that has successfully incorporated such a twist as this. From what I am seeing so far, I can’t see too many people being disappointed with how the game will eventually turn out. There is definitely a lot of fun to be had in Blur, and whether you win or lose, you’re just going to keep going back for more. This is an experience that fans of all schools of racing games should check out via the demo on the Xbox Live Marketplace, with the full game being due on shelves on the 28th May.

So, with under a month to go until its now concrete release date of April 16^th, does Ubisoft Montreal’s demo show a game that has beaten adversity, or has the uneasy creation period proved too much to recover from? You know how to find out.

Keeping in with the theme of the game, we begin with an informative video created by Sam Fisher’s former employer, The Third Echelon. The video is pretty much an infomercial for Echelon operatives tasked with tracking down Fisher, explaining his many deadly skills. You are informed of Fisher’s status of having gone rogue and how he can strike from anywhere. The video explains that our hero is now using improvised techniques alongside the training he received as the organisation’s first Splinter Cell. This really is a just a clever way to show you some of the moves and abilities you’ll be able to perform throughout the game, but it sets the scene pretty nicely.

When gameplay kicks in, you are oddly presented with two men peeing at urinals in a dingy male toilet (note that Ubisoft took time to use the unspoken men’s room etiquette; one space apart looking nowhere but forward). Suddenly a guy is thrown into the middle urinal by Fisher, who is demanding the name of the man looking for him. The guy is unwilling to spill the beans and upon prompting you are able to smash his face into one of the urinals. During this scene you are first introduced to the ‘background storytelling’ technique, where when key plot points are unravelled, elements of the story might be projected onto the scenery, rather than ripping you away from the action. At first I found it a little visually distracting, but shortly after becoming accustomed to it, it seems that it’s a very smart technique for keeping the action flowing. You are informed that a guy called Kobin wants you dead, and after a little more ‘gentle persuasion’ (walking him around the room and seeing how he erm… ‘interacts’ with certain parts of the scenery), you soon find out why. It also turns out that Kobin is the ‘drunk driver’ responsible for the death of Fishers daughter, something which took place prior to events in Double Agent.

'I can't go while someone else is in the room!'

After disposing of your toilet buddy, you are taken to a scene with two Third Echelon operatives discussing how Sam had made Kobin talk and that he’s already on to them. This is where the game starts for real, as Fisher is stood outside a warehouse that is hiding weapons testing. This level is pretty much a tutorial, and just like the story telling, the instructions appear on the surroundings. The first thing you are taught to do is take cover by running up to any object and holding the left trigger. To stay perfectly in cover you must hold the left trigger all the time. A new cover-to-cover system is employed here and it’s similar to what you might have found in Eat Lead or the Terminator Salvation game. Lean out and you can point to your next piece of cover and Sam will automatically run there. After that you get to take down your first enemy; he’s unsuspecting, so all you have to do is hit ‘B’ and Sam will take him down silently with hand-to-hand combat. Next up, you are shown the ‘tag’ execution system. By aiming at an enemy and hitting RB, you tag them, you can do this on more than one guy, and then when you press ‘Y’ they will both be taken down quickly and efficiently. With both guys down you are advised to reuse these tactics to infiltrate the Echelon’s Warehouse. The controls here are extremely smooth and intuitive; very easy to get to grips with.

Upon reaching the warehouse door, you can revisit one of Sam’s old tricks allowing you to peek under doors using an optical cable and then tag enemies without exposing yourself. Of course, what’s stopping you from simply tagging every enemy? Well you can only do this on a maximum of three guys at any one time, and the ability has to be earned beforehand by performing a hand-to-hand takedown, meaning that you will also have to rely on your aim at some point. Aside from being advised that you can use your new sonar goggles to highlight all enemies within a certain parameter, that is all the tutorial tells you as you work your way around the warehouse taking out the guards. That said, you can play through this demo in an entire multitude of ways. If you’re like me you’ll aim to be super-stealthy, trying to remain almost invisible, but you can have more of a gung-ho approach if you wish. There is more equipment and weaponry than what the tutorial tells you, for example there are sticky cameras that you can throw on a surface to scope the area, make distracting noise and can even be detonated. You can drag people over ledges just like before, and there are multiple ways to dispose of people. Because you do have that bigger arsenal than the tutorial reveals, it is definitely worth playing through this demo a number of times and experimenting with what is presented to you.

The demo is fairly short, however what is prevalent throughout is unquestionable quality in all areas. Everything from this demo’s level design, the voice acting (which I’m pleased to say that Michael Ironside is back on vocal duties after all!), and greatly detailed graphics, you get the impression that there was never anything to worry about. There are some things missing that people might regard as integral to the Splinter Cell experience, such as the ability to drag and hide bodies for example and making noise seems to have less of an impact, but as it stands this is a little taste of what in my mind now is going to be a great game. While it still has much to prove in terms of multiplayer and the much hyped co-op experience, this is now a day one purchase for me.

Things start out in a horrifically cheesy tone, with the protagonist Rico Rodriguez a.k.a. Scorpio meeting with… hang on a second, Scorpio? Rico Rodriguez?  I knew that this game was never going to have a particularly engaging narrative, but what a lazy naming convention. Who else will be making an appearance I wonder? Rico’s young but plucky (and rocket launcher wielding) sidekick Tito? Or perhaps a mysterious Italian informant who goes by the name of Flavio di Pizza, who it turns out is a bad guy of course because, well, he’s European and they’re always evil. Especially if they wear a suit, which I imagine Flavio will. Anyway, Scorpio (sigh) is meeting with the leader of The Reapers, no not those ones, a group of rebel mercenaries who look to overthrow the self serving dictator Baby Papay, who rules the island of Panau with an iron fist since his father popped his clogs under mysterious circumstances. Well I say mysterious, Papay clearly killed him.

This introduction is mercifully brief however and after being introduced to our extremely unlikable but generously equipped protagonist we’re dropped right into the action with only one objective, turn the entire island into a flaming mass. The lifeblood of Just Cause 2 is chaos, which is accrued by killing the occupying forces, destroying property and also taking over government strongholds such as radio towers which will then be occupied by Reaper forces. There seems to be a decent level of variety in the different strongholds, and based on the size of the map there’s certainly no shortage of them. I found myself being a bit frustrated however as there aren’t any visual cues that point you in the direction of which structures need to be destroyed or what items need to be picked up within each stronghold, which resulted in me wasting a sizeable chunk of the demo’s half hour playtime.

I decided that my first target would be a small village at the bottom of the hill I was standing atop. As I looked down on the settlement I was about to reduce to a cinder I couldn’t help but admire how lush the island looks. The draw distance seems limitless and the detail is impressive, the former of which is extremely useful when planning an attack. Since I hadn’t built up any heat at this point I could have walked straight into the town without too much interference from the local militia, but where’s the fun in that? So my approach involved off-roading my jeep down the hill towards the village towards the petrol station on the outskirts and once I had gained a decent bit of momentum I jumped onto the roof of the car using the very well executed stunt driving controls. As my vehicle hurtled towards the very, very explosive station I was unloading both of my submachine guns at anything that moved before jumping off at the last minute to see the entire thing go up in flames. It was pretty damn epic. It also gave me the opportunity to see just how well the Avalanche engine handles destruction, which it does admirably and seems to particularly set up some nice chain reactions.

Any chance of a lift mate?

After my outrageously stylish entrance however it all got a bit stale. The core gunplay is pretty boring with the enemy AI being extremely simplistic. Every location is littered with destructible environments and explosive barrels which helps to keep things exciting, but there really isn’t enough depth to the shoot em’ up element of the game to keep me interested for an extended period of time. Scorpio’s grappling hook can also be used as a weapon ala Bionic Commando, but it seems like the only move he is capable of is throwing them through the air which only has the desired effect if they happen to be standing at the edge of a cliff. Melee attacks are equally uninspiring and seem to be as powerful as whipping the enemies with a wet fern, with would be fair enough if enemies could be annoyed to death but doesn’t really have a place in Just Cause 2. Enemies are also able to absorb a hail of bullets before going down unless you score a headshot, which is nigh on impossible unless you use the zoom function, slowing yourself to a crawl in the process. Basically, don’t expect to win a fight through finesse in Just Cause 2, shock and awe is the only effective way to see you through the revolution.

After “reclaiming” a couple of strongholds and causing an acceptable level of carnage in the name of the Reapers, a Faction Mission is unlocked which seem to be essentially the same as the stronghold assaults, except much bigger and with more things to blow up. A different approach was required this time in order to get myself over the vast wall of the complex I was trying to infiltrate, so I decided that Scorpio’s slingshot move would do the trick. The slingshot makes use of both his grappling hook and parachute, launching him in the air before deploying the parachute to control his descent. It’s a very quick way of getting around the island, but doesn’t allow for much of a controlled entrance. Pushing forward to gain some speed results in the control of the parachute resembling a wonky unicycle, while pulling back somehow manages to levitate you even further in the air. The view from that high in the air is undoubtedly remarkable, just don’t expect to hit your landing zone, or anything within a few hundred yards of it for that matter.

Just Cause 2 pushes a lot of the right buttons and when you run through a list of the ingredients it should result in a winning concoction; high octane action, breathtaking stunts, massively destructive environments and a well accomplished sandbox element. However, it just doesn’t seem to come together well and falls apart when it comes to the more basic elements, with the gunplay and grappling hook mechanics in dire need of an overhaul. The general tone and pace of the game reminds me a fair bit of the film Desperado which can only be a good thing, but it’s going to need to do a lot better if it wants to really break out of the pack, and not be remembered in the same light as that weird bit where Enrique Iglesias sets everyone on fire with a guitar case.

The demo takes you through a short tutorial and two gameplay scenes. The tutorial is essential as the controls seem somewhat alien; to me, anyway. The tutorial takes you through a dark and dank alleyway, and, unsurprisingly situations arise that mean you have to try out the techniques. For example, a dumpster blocks your path, and you are required to squeeze by. Press a button, watch an animation? No, no, not with these guys! You have to time button presses, or else your man (Scott Shelby) gives up. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, actually it is not. Give it a go, and you’ll see what I mean. The two full scenes that you get to sample are quite different; in the first you question a victim/witness and get into a fight. The second sees you (now a different (and hunkier (yes, I notice these things)) man named Norman Jayden) investigating a crime scene.

As I have hinted, the controls are quite strange, but not in a bad way. They take some getting used to, but I consider them to be innovative, rather than being different for the sake of being different. The fight scene is case in point. It would be easy for Quantic Dream (the developers) to require you to simply reapeatedly press button (X) to punch your adversary to the ground. Instead you take out the bad guy by, yes, timing button presses with the screen prompts. I don’t think I am doing this much justice, but it is harder and more immersive than it sounds. Unless I am mistaken, the sequence of buttons needed is random, and therefore throws you off a bit. Kind of like being in a fight… hold on. Do you think that’s why they did it? Well, it works.

The second odd-but-good controls section that I will mention is demonstrated in the second scene. You are investigating a crime scene; a body has been found, and you need to find clues. I won’t spoil this, but you will find yourself, at some point, traversing tricky terrain. This is when if you didn’t take my advice and skipped the tutorial you will really notice it. Timing, patience and skill are all required. Unfortunately I am not blessed with much of any of these, but I did triumph, and felt some acheivement. This isn’t traditional platforming in the sense that you hurl yourself from one ledge to the next, but the principle is the same. It feels so different, though. You have to think about what you are doing and I really enjoyed it.

That's a lot of water!

I think you can see from this screenshot (which admittedly wasn’t taken from the demo) that the graphics look superb. I can not imagine how hard water is to represent graphically, and as the game title suggests, there is a lot of water. Thankfully the developers did a great job, and the pouring rain, which adds to the dark atmosphere, is so realistic you don’t really notice it. Facial animations seem believable, too. The ‘out of the ordinary’ actions, in my view, best show off the skill and effort put in by the developers. Shelby clearly has an asthma problem, and as someone who has spent many of her former years drawing on an inhaler, I could empathise with his suffering. Similarly, when you are pounding the bad guy’s face in the first scene, you are treated to many animations and movements that make the brawl look and feel more realistic than other games I have played.

If you are anything like me, sequences like this will make you feel like you are controlling an actor, rather than a game avatar. The difference, however, between this game and more traditional ‘punch people until they die’ games is that you are playing through, I believe, set sequences rather than fighting in your own style. This is not a criticism, though, in fact this does not bother me at all, as it still works.

Add to the quality visuals some sublime sound effects and voice acting, and we have a very promising game. I mentioned that this feels quite movie-esque (a very dark, slow-paced movie), well, I think you can guess where this is going. The exceptional sound does nothing to lessen this vibe. You get to choose, to a certain extent, what you say to whom at certain times. Games that employ this methodology can suffer; they can sound quite disjointed, and lack flow. Heavy Rain seems to somehow avoid this. Rather than merely repeating the last line spoken by an NPC, or waiting patiently while you decide what to say or ask about next, the game mechanics recognise that you are dallying, and the NPC provides a legitimate prompt, or assumes you have finished talking.

All in all this game looks and feels great. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea though. It is slow moving and careful and feels feels very immersive, requiring you to think about your actions and consider your next move. While it does not look like it will raise adrenalin levels through bullet dodging, I do think it will succeed in its attempt at thrilling you. It plays out like an old style point-and-click adventure, but with updated mechanics and techniques. I think that if you like those types of games, you are going to love this… and then some.

The demo starts worryingly, with far too many connection issues and ridiculously long waits just to find a game, which stopped me from getting going. I understand that it’s just a demo and it’s probably unfair to judge the final product (which will have a lot more networking hardware behind it) against this, but it’s a frustrating start for a multiplayer demo. Fortunately the matchmaking system finally found seven other people who were looking for a game, with me joining the lobby as part of the Xenomorph roster.

Alien
The modus operandi of the Alien is pretty much public knowledge. Creeping silently along any surface and striking with surgical precision, the chances are the only time you’ll get to see one is in the split second before it rips you in half. Rebellion have recreated this feeling pretty well, although it will take a lot of practice to get anywhere near as proficient.

Marines: At the bottom of the food chain for a reason.

All of the abilities are there, but the Alien’s trademark agility is pretty difficult to get the hang of. The Alien is capable of crawling along ceilings and walls, which is possible through two different methods. Pressing the right shoulder button while standing next to a surface will result in you immediately snapping onto it, while aiming towards a point and pressing the jump button lets you make a leap towards the surface you’re aiming at, latching onto it if you’re close enough. The main problem with this mechanic is that the transition between each level is very quick and disorientating. A quick jump to the ceiling and all of a sudden the entire map is upside down, which despite being what you’d expect to happen threw me off for a couple of seconds. After a few games I did get used to it but there was still the odd occasion where I’d end up running around in circles for a few seconds trying to work out where the hell I was.

After getting to grips with the Alien’s occasionally erratic movement I was able to put its offensive capabilities to the test. The Alien is the only species to rely solely on hand to hand combat, but this is counterbalanced by the fact that most of the attacks are absolutely lethal, even though mapping them to the shoulder buttons rather than the triggers is a bit of a strange call. The heavy tail attack is more often than not a one-hit kill and has a pretty impressive reach, while the quick claw attacks can stun an enemy long enough for you to unleash one of the very well presented execution attacks. These attacks really personify what the Alien is all about and appeases some of my more sadistic tendencies as you get to look right into your helpless victims eyes before you impale, devour or decapitate them. Like the wall crawling however the Alien combat isn’t entirely without issues. Tail attacks occasionally fail to register at all, while it can all get a bit frantic and muddled if you’re going toe to toe with someone. Because of the sheer speed that you attack with, diving forward with your claws can be quite dizzying at times I occasionally had to resort to thrashing my claws around wildly in the hopes of hitting someone. The inclusion of Focus Mode (which automatically tracks the camera to a single person) can remedy this most of the time, but I’d have no chance if Sigourney Weaver was in the vicinity.

Marine
From the outset of my games with the marine it’s clear that they’ve been designed as the plucky underdogs (or in my case, the other species bitch). They’re much slower than either of the other species and can be killed almost instantly no matter what the attack, but this is compensated by the massive arsenal they have at their disposal. The standard Pulse Rifle can do a fair bit of damage from a distance, but there are much more destructive goodies for those who can survive long enough to find them. The shotgun is useful for last ditch shots at Aliens who want to get too personal, and I managed to get a good run going with the Smart Rifle.

That being said, I think too many things go against the Marine to make it a fair fight. With a well organised team of Marines the imbalance isn’t too noticeable, but it will certainly ensure that any gung ho marines will be dispatched a lot quicker than the ones who employ teamwork. My main issue with how the Marine played was that he often has to rely on his flashlight to see a few feet in front of him, a problem which was only amplified by the lack of natural lighting in the map on the demo. Even with my Motion Sensor periodically identifying any incoming threats, I often found myself looking at the business end of a Predator’s claw before I even knew we were in the same room. The Motion Sensor also doesn’t show up on your HUD until a few seconds after you spawn, leaving you extremely vulnerable in that short window. It just seems a bit unfair that the Predator utilises high tech thermal imaging and the Alien has naturally enhanced sight, while poor old Marine has to make do with a torch that barely manages to perform its sole function in the first place. The Marine is also a lot less manoeuvrable than the other species, having to rely on the age old practice of legging it while Predators and Aliens leap all over the place.

I did get the hang of the Marine closer to the end, although most of my more successful runs involved arming myself to the teeth and using the rest of my team as human shields. That being said it wouldn’t make sense for a single Marine to come out on top against either of the other species, and watching a single blip on your gradually close in is absolutely thrilling, in a “soiling your pants” kind of way. You really can do some major damage with the artillery at his disposal, but until you actually get your hands on any of it you’ll often find yourself being promptly parted from your limbs without much warning.

Predator
There’s no denying it, the Predator is bad-ass. I’ve yet to meet anyone who wanted the Alien to come out on top in either of the (woeful, Uwe Boll-esque) films, and as a result it took a while to actually get into a game with me in the shoes of Arnie’s nemesis. In the demo at least, only two predators are permitted in the map, which is a reasonable constraint when you see how supremely destructive they are. The Predator is supposed to be an almost unstoppable killing machine, and with this in mind Rebellion have done a pretty good job of balancing things out while still maintaining the feeling of “I could kill you all within a heartbeat” that must surely be going through the Predator’s mind.

"As long as I don't see Arnie or Glover these noobs are mine"

While the Predator doesn’t share the wall crawling stealth of abilities of the Alien, it can outstrip it in terms of agility through massive leaps across the map. Entering Focus Mode allows you to pick a spot to jump to and a tap of the jump button sends you soaring through the air. It can get you into advantageous positions very quickly, whether you’re getting into an ambush position or bailing out of an uneasy fight. Entering Focus Mode also flags up points of interest in your HUD such as weapons or health, the former of which are essential if you want to fulfil your potential as a being of gory awesomeness. The shoulder mounted Plasma Cannon (the one that blows Carl Weather’s arms off in the most epic moment in cinema history) is just as powerful as you’d expect it to be and looks absolutely fantastic while throwing discs are very useful for quickly dispatching large groups of advancing Aliens. These weapons have a pretty limited supply of ammo and you’re left exposed when recharging them at stations around the map, but I found that other species found it tough to get anywhere near me when I was packing some extraterrestrial hardware.

Away from the more meatier weapons, the Predator’s default weapons are his wrist mounted blades, which are used in an identical fashion to the Alien claws. The Predator can also make use of Execution kills, making the Alien’s equivalent look like a pillow fight in the process. The Alien undoubtedly knows how to shed as much blood as possible, but with the Predator it’s different… You get to experience him savouring the kill. My very first execution involved jumping in front of a terrified Marine who managed to get a few shots away before I impaled him in the stomach, lifting him in the air in the process. Driving the blades in farther, the Predator holds up his victim and just admires the kill for a brief moment, before ripping his head off in a manner highly reminiscent of Mortal Kombat. It’s very bloody, but in terms of asserting dominance over your foes, it beats the hell out of teabagging.

Despite the only map available in the demo being a bit one-tone and dull, the Aliens vs Predator demo provides enough of an experience to get an insight into what the game has to offer. The main thing for me is that Rebellion have captured the feeling of what it means to take control of each of the characters. I can’t help but worry that the multiplayer will be unbalanced in favour of the Predator but I also get the feeling that this will eventually balance out as players get more familiar with the advantages of each species. As long as the connection issues are merely a pre-release blip, fans of up close and personal decapitation could have something to keep them busy for quite some time.