After having a blast getting slaughtered by dogs in the Xbox 360 and PC betas and suffering the ignominy of having it played back to us on the kill cam, Call of Duty (yes, I said doody) World at War fans in India will be able to start kicking the living crap out of my hapless soldier in the game starting today. In what is a welcome change from seeing games release months after their international release dates (or sometimes, not at all, thanks to stupid, mutated two-headed bovines and even dumber Fox network-ey legal types) World at War will be available for the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 for INR 1299, 2499 and 2799 respectively. Sure, you’re not running around gunning Soviet / Chechen / Islamic fundamentalist hydrids and saving the world seven seconds before nuclear annihilation, but hey, at least this time you have the option of being able to train your gun sights on World War II cannon fodder with your friends instead of being humiliated by getting knifed nine times in a row by the multiplayer whore (read “best friend”) sitting next to you.

Just when we were about to open our wallets and reach out for the credit card!

A quick look at our Steam account gave us this sweet piece of news, which comes right around the exact same time Xbox 360 owners (except for the sad saps in Japan) will be able to join in and try to answer the lifelong question of what would happen to you in case of a zombie apocalypse. Now that the demo is out and open for all on the PC and Xbox 360, fire up your Steam accounts and get that demo ASAP, in case you have unlucky, stupid or broke enough to not get the pre-purchase and the early demo access.

You need around 3.2 GB of free space for the demo which seems to be quite on the heavier side. Time for our so-called broadband lines to choke on this. See you tomorrow evening in co-op. Me, I’m just looking for a rusty hacksaw or a zombie-on-a-diet to get rid of my ugly, useless thumbs.

After having broken many of the first details on Tomb Raider Underworld, we’ve spent many an hour just running through Legend and Anniversary again and again, waiting for the day when we’d actually get our hands dirty with the new Lara Croft experience, which is exactly what the recently released demo allowed us to do.

A lot has changed in Underworld since Lara went berserk on Amanda and ran off to stop an impending catastrophe in Legend. Old foes, greater mysteries, harder puzzles and a tougher Lara, all dutifully take their place amongst the wonderfully detailed game world rendered brilliantly by the new engine. (Also rumoured to be powering the upcoming Deus Ex 3) But it isn’t just the engine that’s managed to get an overhaul - Lara herself has gotten an extreme makeover to win the hearts of next generation gamers – sporting a firmly toned athletic “Hot Mommy” body, a much more grittier look (modelled after gymnast Alison Carroll, who takes over from Karima Adebibe) and yes, to answer the burning question, quite sensible breasts.

The demo begins with Lara (who seems to have conveniently “appropriated” Natla’s yacht from Anniversary) engaged in an all-too familiar conversation with Zip and Alister about Helheim, the Norse underworld and how both it and Avalon are actually one and the same, continuing the plot that Legend kicked off. Unfortunately, those who played Legend but not Anniversary may find themselves getting short changed as far as crucial plot elements go, considering that Amanda seems to have found and imprisoned Natla, who begrudgingly seems to point Lara in the right direction, presumably until she can find a way to escape her confinement and tear Amanda and Lara into tiny shreds.

What’s immediately apparent as soon as the player gets control of Lara is how much the franchise has changed in terms of visual quality. Underworld has most definitely raised the bar as far as the looks department is concerned – gone are the days of the all-too-apparent paths, the limp waters and the glowing ledges. Taking a page straight out of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, the entire world looks and feels like it would in reality, with lush greenery that reacts to stimulus – including Lara, as she runs through them, pushing them out of her way or the waters of the ocean, which actually swell with the wave motion, making objects bob realistically - creating a very distinct feel of mass that was totally absent in Tomb Raider games before Underworld.

As Lara dives off the yacht and makes her way inland, you get a feeling of slight unease, because for the first time in the series, you are completely left clueless on how and where you’re supposed to proceed. Crystal Dynamics, true to their word, have made Underworld an experience where the focus is not just on the puzzles, the story or the combat, but on assessing the environment in front of you, figuring out where you need to go and how exactly to get from where you are to where you should be. So now, instead of fortuitously placed ladders and ropes, players should see Lara using the environment – projections in the rock surface, for example – to get to her destination.

Coming to the inventory, the system works as a combination between what we’ve seen in Legend and Anniversary, where players will have to follow the Anniversary path by going out of their way to pick up artefacts and herbal health drinks, which serve as replacements for the handy medipacks everyone seemed to drop in Legend. Using them, though, along with the PLS, the magnetic grapple and the binoculars (which seem to have lost their RAD mode upgrade), is exactly the same as it was in Legend. And if you get lost or stumped, the PDA serves as the voice of Lara’s thoughts (a function provided by her Journal in the previous games) while a handy sonar tool maps out your environment in 3D, just in case you’re having trouble locating that pesky key. Unfortunately, the minimalist HUD that the previous games sported seems to have been replaced with a more elaborate Halo 2-ish one, showing Lara’s health, oxygen levels, equipped weapon and ammo count on a bigger, more stylish panel instead of simple bars, while the target reticule now shows an enemy’s remaining health as Lara struggles to whittle it down to zero.

Coming to Underworld’s evolved combat system, Lara now has a whole new bunch of attacks, including a more powerful version of the roundhouse kick she threw in Legend, all designed to push her enemies away from her and in front of her gun barrels. Players who preferred the Adrenaline Dodge headshot moves from Anniversary (like yours truly) will now face an extra chore as they manually have to get in close to their targets to start the adrenaline move, which ends with you manually guiding the aiming reticule to the target to pull off the headshot. And to their credit, the enemies just aren’t as forgiving as they were in the earlier games. Sharks, bats, spiders and worst of all, tigers (I didn’t know tigers hunted in packs! Shame on you, Animal Planet!) all try to tear our pretty little archaeologist apart, while Lara jumps, dodges and shoots her way to safety in a fluid, lifelike manner. However, enemies that get killed disappear after some time, casting a shadow on the developers’ earlier comments about dead bodies staying put and serving as navigational markers to show whether Lara’s been through that particular area before.

And if you’re getting too tired of getting killed and want to make like Sheba meets Rambo, there’s always the player tailoring options that allow you to change the gameplay to suit your style by increasing or decreasing parameters such as how often you bump into the baddies, the magazine capacity of your guns or the damage enemies do to Lara (and vice versa) – making the gameplay easier or harder on-demand.

Unfortunately, there are some minor issues that tend to make the experience frustrating at times for the players, including the return of the annoying controls that suddenly tend to snap to your shifting camera right as you are doing something tricky, inevitably resulting in Ms. Croft plunging to her demise, replete with floppy ragdoll death animations that we’re still waiting to see fixed. Needless to say, the experience is much more appealing with the Xbox 360 controller or a good gamepad rather than fighting the wonky camera with a keyboard and mouse.

The subdued background score and the music, composed by Colin O’Malley under supervision by Legend and Anniversary composer, Troels Folmann, is hardly noticeable and takes on shades of Angel of Darkness rather than the typical Tomb Raider meets Batman Begins theme that I personally have come to love over the past two games. Voice acting, as usual, is of excellent quality with Keeley Hawes, Kath Soucie and Grey DeLisle reprising their roles as Lara Croft, Amanda and Natla.

At over 15 minutes long (longer if you go for all the artefacts and health drinks), the Tomb Raider Underworld demo dishes out an appetizer that has had us going stark raving mad as we wait for the main course coming November 21, 2008 to India, on par with the European release. At INR 2199 for the Xbox 360 version, INR 2499 for the PS3 version and with the PC version’s pricing yet to be announced, Tomb Raider Underworld is all set to join the ranks of the dozens of other AAA titles that are determined to make our wallets squeal for mercy before the year draws to an end.

Just when we had all but written off EA’s long running FIFA series as nothing more than a nice looking arcade title that just happens to have all the licenses of the real teams and nothing more, FIFA ’08 burst into the scene to impress one and all. With its innovative Be A Pro mode and the 5 vs. 5 mode, we were pretty amazed at the turn-around that the series was showing. As much as we wanted not to, there was still this little shred of a doubt that with the next FIFA game, EA will again settle down in the rut. How wrong we were!

With FIFA ’09, the FIFA team has proved that they are not willing to rest on their laurels any more. With more then 250+ tweaks, the game has all but shed its arcade roots and moved on towards the simulation genre, winning new fans along the way. What was once the PES stronghold is now being chipped away with a renewed vigor by FIFA ’09. Gone are the days when you could sprint past the whole of the opposition to score a goal. The key here is to play like a real footballer, making use of the space, control the ball with the advanced control scheme and make the right move at the right time.

Even though the 250+ tweaks won’t be visible to you right from the word go, the game makes you feel that the programmers weren’t sitting idle with this one. Player responsiveness is immediately apparent by the way how they react to the ball, fluidly responding to your commands, all beautifully and realistically animated. To make the package even better, Custom Tactics have been added that will allow you to tinker with sliders until you get the desired attributed as close to perfection as possible. Throw in the Adidas Live Season (free for first month) which syncs the players in-game form with the real world form and you have the bar rising up yet again.

Presentation, as always, has been the strong point of the series. Unsurprisingly, FIFA ’09 does a great job in this department yet again. All the major players are true-to-life though the lesser know players tend to be generic. All the leagues are in there. The stadiums have been re-created in-game to perfection. You will be excused if you mistake the game for a live telecast; it’s so life-like. Andy Gray and Martin Tyler return to the commentary box. Specific audio-scripting for the crowds for each club elevates the experience to a much higher level. Football fans will feel right at home here, whether playing themselves or simply watching someone play.

The single player mode has the standard Exhibition match. Then there is the Manager mode, pretty deep and detailed when it comes to controlling the fate of a club as you steer them towards success through 15 seasons. But the star here is the Be A Pro mode which literally lets you shine as the brightest star in your team. You start off by either choosing your favorite player or custom-creating one. From here on, it’s up to you to display your prowess on the field over a period of four seasons and see yourself rise up the ranks from side lines to ultimately captaining your country’s team. This is stuff that dreams are made off and Be A Pro mode allows you to at least give it a shot in the virtual world.

The online mode allows you to go head-to-head with friends and random opponents in ranked and un-ranked matches. Here again we see a brilliant stroke by the FIFA team in form of 10 vs 10 mode. You choose your position on the field as you team up 9 other friends to take on another team of similarly matched opponents. A persistent rating system keeps track of your on-field antics, rewarding you when you play the right way and penalizing you if you break ranks. Extremely fun and addictive, it’s a wonder why it took so long for this to come through!

To sum it up, EA has managed to redeem itself with FIFA ’09, a game that not only gladdens the heart of its long time supporters but one that might just as well win over new ones from the PES faction. With so many features, both online and offline, it’s an absolute must-buy for any self-respecting football fan out there.

9 / 10

With Gears of War 2 just around the corner (read tomorrow), we’ve all gone the extra mile to walk around in Marcus’ footsteps - watched marathon sessions of Futurama, bought all the Gears action figures, drooled over the metal Lancer paraded around by CliffyB and Major Nelson and heck, even pumped steroids into our veins and larynges just to be that much closer to Marcus “Candy Bar” Fenix. (You know, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside…)

Or, if you don’t want to go through this much trouble, and spend the better part of daylight huddled in a dark room posting on Facebook, there’s a handy little Facebook app that we got hit up with some time back. We’re still kinda unclear on who designed this, but it’d sure be nice if they could actually, add, like, umm, you know, Gears of War 2 stuff - newer enemies, newer locations, newer weapons, newer contests, newer goodies - instead of all the stuff we’ve been seeing every other minute since we got our Xbox 360s. Hopefully, someone in PR would soon be tasked with the unenviable (oh?) job of getting to work on all this, but until then, if, for some reason, you’ve made the unpardonable sin of forgetting your Gears lore, head on over to the Facebook app page here to jog your memory and add the app to your profile. Quite obviously, you need a Facebook account.

And don’t forget to pick up your copy of Gears of War 2 in stores tomorrow, with the standard edition going for INR 2195 and the Collector’s Edition with your very own photo of Maria for a scant INR 2510.

In a time when games are being hyped through the roof, it indeed comes as a welcome surprise when some of them do manage to live up to all the hype that they have generated. That’s the case here with EA Canada when it comes to the latest game in their long running FIFA series. EA was quick to announce that this iteration has more than 250 tweaks to it that will change the look and the feel of the game. True to their word, EA Canada has managed to pull of this impressive feat and this year’s FIFA does look and feel like a new game all together. The beautiful game has never been this beautiful before.

During the games promotional campaign, EA talked a lot about the more than 250 improvements that the game has seen since FIFA ‘08. These improvements include a more responsive shooting system, passing and a dribbling style by which gives you total control of the ball. The goalkeeper AI has been tweaked to make him actually useful this time around. The Be A Pro mode now has the option for you to play over 4 seasons and take your custom created player or your favorite superstar from the sidelines to the center stage, making his darling of the paparazzi. It also allows you the flexibility to upgrade the player’s overall attributes according to their weekly performances in real life. If being the next Wenger or Sir Alex Fergusson, is what your wet dreams are made of, that is also possible, all thanks to the Custom Team Tactics option. In addition to all this, the game also boasts of exclusive licenses to all the real world teams and clubs which its competition can only dream about.

Even though the 250+ improvements will not be apparent right off the bat, the general feel of the game will many a heart considering it does an excellent job of replicating the beautiful game. Right from defending to attacking, all aspects of the game has depth to it. If you have to nitpick, the only disappointing aspect of the game play is that through balls are highly inaccurate and you wouldn’t want to depend on them much. If you do try a through ball, you will notice that the player will always try to run around the opposing player while logically the player should have been running according to the balls placement. Customization in-game is mind boggling in a good way. Not only can you customize the way you control the player but also whom you control all thanks to the Custom Team Tactics and the Control customization option. 

Graphically speaking, there is no competition out there for the game. Right from the player animations to the stadiums, all look so authentic that you end up feeling as if you are actually watching a live match. Reality steps in when you realize that Manchester United is being beaten by Southampton, that too on world class difficulty! The Game modes provide enough variety to keep you busy till the next FIFA game. The Be A Pro mode allows you to control a single player over 4 seasons where you write his destiny; whether it’s a life on the sidelines or at the helm of the national team. This mode, by far, is the most engaging of all modes in the game. Controlling just a single player across many games makes you realize how positioning works in the real word. In addition to all this, you have the option to upgrade the attributes of your players depending on their weekly performance in real life. However, you need to be on XBL or PSN for this. This does help in giving the game a more realistic feel but is free only for the first month after which, you will have to shell out a nominal fee to avail the service.

Once you’re done getting used to the offline part of the game you can take your skills and test them online. There are several modes here to keep you busy like Ranked and Unranked matches against friends or random opponents but the best one has to be the Be A Pro mode in 10 vs. 10 matches. The goalie here is controlled by the computer while one person controls one particular member of the team and no more. The fun factor over here hugely depends on who you are playing with. If you play with random people, you are sure to run into some annoying ones who won’t stick to their positions. The mode shines for the ones who do play seriously guaranteeing you a truly immersive experience. Lag in such cases can ruin all the fun and it does, so all we can hope here that the lag issues are ironed out soon. You still can play 1 vs. 1 match virtually lag-free which earns EA some major brownie points.

The FIFA franchise finally closes in on the gap between the FIFA and the PES series, in some cases, even overtaking it by a mile. Now is the time for the hardcore fans of the game to wave Konami’s franchise a good-bye and jump on to the FIFA bandwagon. The onus is on EA to keep the momentum going and not fall into the rut all over again. Being a FIFA fan for a long time has finally paid off and now we can proudly say that we hug our copies of the game every night before we go to sleep.

9 / 10

It’s that time of the year again when Sony Computer Entertainment India pulls out all stops in its bid to woo in as many as possible to its ever increasing tribe of PS3 owners. Last year event proved that if marketed properly, a gaming event such as this one can draw in gamers and non-gaming crowd alike. No wonder this time around, they have upped the bar again by making the Playstation Experience 2008 a multi-city affair.

Mumbai will be seeing the event held at In-Orbit mall on 8th and 9th of November. Bangalore will be there to experience it first-hand at Kormangala Indoor Stadium on the 15th and 16th of November. The city-hopping show will wrap at New Delhi where gamers and non-gamers alike can flock in to Ansal Plaza on 22nd and 23d November. In addition to this, the Mumbai event will be seeing a press-conference as well on the first day of the event. Here is hoping some good news comes our way from that.

SCE India has wisely kept it a weekend affair which would ensure families can flock in by the droves. Throw in the ad campaign and you will be looking at a record turn-out. It’s also heartening to see that the Delhi and Bangalore crowd are also finally getting some attention, especially Bangalore which has long been passed over for such events. Our kudos goes out to the SCE India team for making this possible. TAP most definitely approves!

Click on the image on the left to see a bigger, better, more badass version.

In other news, a similar event was scheduled for Bangalore as well with Consoul playing host to Microsoft. Gamers from the city would have been invited over to Consoul, Bangalore’s premiere console-only gaming parlor, to try out the game all by themselves. However, it seems like as of now, the event has been put on the backburner. We will update you as soon as we have some news regarding this.

Edit: More news on the Bangalore event after the jump.

Hello Bangalore,

We invite you all to the launch event of Gears of war 2 on the 7th of November’08.

This event would be held at Consoul - The Xbox360 Game Lounge, Bangalore.

Event starts 1 pm onwards..

All Consoul members from Bangalore who have Pre-ordered Gears of war 2, may come and collect their copies on that day.

This is a Microsoft India and Consoul initiative.

Come play!

Consoul Forums

It seems like those of us who normally opt for a Custom Installation over a Typical one are prone to running into issues while doing so in Capcom’s latest installation of the long running superbike sim, MotoGP ‘08. Usually during installation on PC, you will have the option to go for a Typical Installation where the game will choose the directory ( “C:/Program Files/” in most cases ). In case you opt for a Custom Installation, you get the ability to choose which drive you prefer your game installation to reside in. However, with MotoGP ‘08 there seems to be some kind of an issue serious enough for Capcom to issue a press circular which you can read after the jump. In the meanwhile, stick to the default installation and wait for the promised patch.

Capcom regrets to inform consumers who have recently purchased the PC version of MotoGP 08 that we have just identified a technical issue with the PC version of the game. This issue only happens with MotoGP 08 PC when installing the game to a custom location on a hard drive; This issue does not affect the default installation, as it only occurs when the destination location has been changed.

To avoid this problem, please do not use the custom installation option to change the destination location for the game.

When the MotoGP 08 InstallShield Wizard reaches the step labeled “Choose Destination Location”, the default installation directory will be displayed (“C:\Program Files\Capcom\MotoGP 08”). Select “Next” to continue to the next step. Do not press the “Change” button.

In the next few days, Capcom will be releasing a patch for MotoGP 08 that will correct this issue. We regret any inconvenience that this may have caused our MotoGP community.

Over the past decade, Electronic Art’s FIFA series has spanned across many an iteration, from yearly updates to entries based on the World Cups, the European Championships, the arcade-friendly Street, and even Manager simulators. With each successive update overtaking the next, a host of improvements are made to fill in the disparity felt from last year’s edition - hoping to flesh out what’s already become EA’s top-premier sports franchise in the world from growing too stale for the rapid believers and interesting enough for the newcomers who might be busy playing rival-franchise Pro Evolution Soccer. FIFA Soccer 09 for the PSP does well in that regard not only by improving a lot of the shortcomings left from last year’s game but also thanks heavily to the addition of Be a Pro Mode.

Be a Pro Mode has been universally hailed as the best addition to the pocket size version of the game. You start off by selecting a player of your choice and proceed to play through the game across four seasons as that player. The zoomed-in view presents an amazing perspective of the game from your players view. While for most part, you will be trying to stick to your designated position in the field and waiting for a teammate to send the ball your way, but when you do get the ball, it feels no less then being on-field yourself. The sheer exhilaration of converting a pass from a teammate into a brilliant goal or chipping through the defense to pass the ball to a teammate and watch him net cannot be described. You will be hard pressed not to exult when the whole sequence flows seamlessly.

Your progress in Be a Pro mode is just not limited to being a player on the field. As you successfully decimate the opposition, you gain something akin to experience points that you can use to upgrade your specific abilities. Gradually, you will get the ability to call for balls or through shots, be a free kick-taker and eventually, manage an entire team all by yourself. This RPGish element adds an extra dimension to the whole set-up. The only thing that marred our experience a wee bit was a nasty bug where the view got stuck at the opposing team’s goal post. No matter what we did could get the camera shift back to our player, forcing us to restart the game. Also, the balls does look a bit weird in the zoomed-in view but we are guessing it has been done deliberately to make it more conspicuous as the whole time, the camera will be trying to show the playing field from your perspective.

Animation is another department where EA seems to have invested quite a lot of time tinkering it to near perfection. Players interact with each other in a more natural fashion, colliding and jostling for control of the ball as you race towards the goal. We gasped with delight each time our player fluidly slid along to cut a through ball at the very last second to save an almost inevitable goal. You do see a noticeable gap between scoring a goal and the celebration animation, as if it took a fraction of a second for the player to realize that the ball is firmly nestled in the back of the net. Also post-goal celebrations seem to have been toned down considerably. The tweaked camera catches the whole action seamlessly while the control layout remains the same from the previous installments save for minor tweaks here and there, offering you much better control over your shots. Opposition AI will give you a run for your money and make you think on your feet.

Graphically, the game looks impressive on the small PSP screen, giving you just the perfect view of the action unfolding on the screen. Player models are detailed enough for a handheld system to look pleasing to the eyes. All the stadiums have been rendered beautifully. Sounds effects are the usual though extra kudos to the more free-flowing commentary this time around. Loading time seems to be on the higher side with the PSP 1000 taking almost taking 30 seconds to load the game. A nifty feature, Soccer IQ 2.0 will test your knowledge about the game, starting with the most basic of the questions and gradually pushing the difficulty level up as your progress through the game. We were unable to test the online features of the game as the online mode seems to be sparsely populated.

FIFA 09 does justice for football fanatics by showing how a proper portable rendition of an oft-hailed game series should be properly dealt with. If opting for a console version isn’t an option and you’ve been compelled to believe that handheld versions are nothing but cheap knock-offs of the real deal, a few hours with FIFA 09 will leave no such disservice.

8.5 / 10

Was browsing through the PC game section at Landmark, Forum Mall today when I stumbled upon this nice little offer from EA. If you are planning to pick up a copy of the latest Sims wannabe Spore, then you can pick it up at INR 999 and get a Sims 2 copy bundled along with it. A pretty neat offer if you ask us, considering the two games combined can give your hours upon hours of fun like trapping your sims inside a house with no windows and doors and watch them go insane.

Thanks to Kris Acharya’s Flickr photostream for the pictures.