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Archive for the ‘Previews’ Category
Silent Hunter is all ready to set sail for the fifth time, harnessing the raw power of the modern day PC’s to deliver a richer and more life-like experience of what it feels like to be the commander of a hulking mass of bullet-shaped steel and sail right under the nose of enemy ships. Silent Hunter V has a bevy of improvements lined up of the previous iterations of the game. The most important one all these changes is that you no longer can change stations just at the flick of a switch. So now, if you want to go from the gunner’s station to another section of the ship, you will have to actually walk through the submarine, brush against other crew members and slid through port-holes to get to your destination, all in a first-persons view.
Thankfully, the realism factor can be toned down at will, keeping the game accessible to both the causal gamer as well as a true submarine-warfare sim fanatic. So if you are one of those who would rather prefer to have a third-person view of their submarine or just let loose a salvo of torpedoes on the enemy battle-ship, you can do just that by bringing the realism a notch down. Thankfully, by doing that, the game doesn’t turn into a cake-walk and still manages to throw enough challenges at you to keep you hooked.
I really enjoyed the first Call of Juarez game when it was released in 2006. The game was set in 19th century Wild West, a setting rarely used in shooters which seem to be content with sticking to generic themes where you are either fighting aliens or shooting Nazi’s for the umpteenth time or gunning down mutants and zombies. Call of Juarez on the contrary, was a refreshing change. It helped that it was my first foray in this type of a genre as well. Needless to say, I was impressed.
All you gamers in Delhi eager to check out Need For Speed Undercover at the Playstation Experience event coming your way next week, here is another chance to play the game before it hits the shelves.
EA India is inviting all Indian fans of Need For Speed series to try out the game at All Sports Bar, Connaught Place on 19th November, which is tomorrow. Be there by 12 p.m. if you don’t want to be stuck in a queue waiting for your turn.
Click on the picture to view the complete ad.
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.
Lucky buggers in Mumbai, get ready to have your first glimpse of Marcus Fenix and his band of brothers as Microsoft-India prepares to show-off the eagerly anticipated Gears of War 2. Head over to Blue Frog on November 3rd to keep your date with the game. Cocktail and snacks are on the house.
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.
Original IPs have been quite the rage with EA these days and it’s hard not to get misty-eyed upon seeing Dead Space, a third-person action/adventure horror escapade developed by EA Redwood Shores, in action for the first-time. Reggie and I were invited to EA India’s office in Gurgaon today to have ourselves an intensive hands-on session with a near final-build.
In the beginning of the game, we’re treated with an in-game cinematic of lead protagonist Isaac Clarke with a space crew heading towards the USG Ishimura, a giant orbital ship that suffered a huge communications blackout for whatever reason unbeknownst to its curious approachers. Eventually, stinky poop hits the fan when your crew’s vessel gets pulled into the Ishimura’s magnetic field and you’re forced to make a landing inside its hull. Voodoo vibes are in full effect, and this is pretty much were you come in.
There are games that are up there and on everyone’s radar – or indeed, in everyone’s face thanks to the large amount of marketing or advertising it gets (Halo 3 I’m looking at you) – games that everyone’s heard about and are looking forward to. But then there are games that slip under the radar completely – sleeper hits that somehow manage to miss the marketing train and instead come to your doorstep via bus.
Fracture is one of these games. Somehow I managed to miss all the marketing and road signs stating “TERRAIN DEFORMATION HERE” and being oblivious until the folks over at Penny Arcade mentioned it by putting up this video in their news. After seeing the rather viral excitement of the presenter, I realized that the Fracture demo had hit the XBL marketplace – the only logical action from this was to actually give it a run through. And let me tell you this: I’m really, really glad I did.
Hit the jump to find out why.
GCA 2008 has come and gone and we are still pretty much disappointed that we could not be there to cover the event. However, the Experience EA event in our very own backyard in Mumbai more then made up for it, what with it’s healthy dosage of upcoming AAA titles like Mirror’s Edge, Need For Speed: Undercover and FIFA 2009 bound to put a smile on the grumpiest of the gamers.
Held at the Hotel Trident in Mumbai, we got to try out many of the games that were featured at the recently concluded Game Convention Asia 2008 held in Singapore. One of the games that have had everyone spell bound for quite a while now, besides giving rise to endless debates on whether the Third Person View of the First Person View is the better choice is Mirror’s Edge. DICE, at the helm of the game, has done a radical turnaround from their award-winning Battlefield games to a totalitarian world which Faith, the game’s protagonist and other Runners like her inhabit. After having watched countless videos of Faith soaring through the roof tops, it was quite an exhilarating experience in itself to be given the control, of which we made some good use, a couple of hard landings notwithstanding.
My experience with the Real Time Strategy genre began not amongst the spice-filled hills of Dune II. Nor did it begin at the side of Kane, crushing my enemies under the Iron hand of NOD. No – it all began amidst the star-spangled banners of the allies, charging the front lines even as the colossal front of Soviet Mammoth Tanks pushed forward against all that stood before it – be it tanks, helicopters or infantry. Such is the affection towards the game that if my heart were considered an Italian mafia restaurant, the best table would always be reserved for the boss of the place and his son, Red Alert 2. No other game – regardless of how powerful or good – would dare to eat at that table, lest find themselves at the bottom of the creek with their feet in cement blocks.
And yet today I find myself in a dilemma of sorts. When I was given the opportunity to partake in the Red Alert 3 beta thanks to the bossman, I was nothing short of elated and excited. To finally see the continuation of the series and the third installment – to relive part of that experience along with something more – it was and still is an exciting opportunity. However… I seemed to have fallen into a trap.
There is something I try to keep reminding myself everyday: to stop falling prey to hype, flashy banners and pimped-out sites. Unfortunately, those constant reminders failed with Red Alert 3 (RA3) as I got into my sub and dived into the beta, completely ignoring the warning signs along the way. By the time I emerged back from the murky depths, my impressions of the game had changed significantly – both for better and for worse.
Back in the days when the World War II genre was dying a slow death, with no COD4 in sight to revive it, the first Brothers In Arms title came like a fresh whiff or air, bringing with it real battlefield tactics and allowing you to step in the boots of a real commander. Nearly three years after the first in the series, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 tasted critical and commercial success, Gearbox Studios readies Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (BiA:HH) to storm our consoles and PC in glorious HD. The ANGRY Pixel got it hands on PC preview code of BiA:HH to get a first hand taste of what the game has in store for us.