SEGA’s upcoming Yakuza 3 has been a long time coming, and, in fact, up until December 2009 we didn’t know if it would ever come out after the not-too-grand reception (in terms of sales) the first two games had in the West. This isn’t surprising – Yakuza is a game series centered very much on Japanese culture.

Yakuza are to the Japanese as Mafia bosses are to the Sicilians. That’s my understanding, please correct me if I’m wrong – my Japanese culture knowledge is limited. In the demo you’re a tough guy named Kazuma Kiryu, the same main character from the previous Yakuza games, and you’ve just arrived back in Kamurocho, an area of a city (I think Tokyo) which must have the most neon-lights per-square-meter of anywhere in the world.

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When it comes to the Battlefield (BF) franchise, I fear I am still stuck in the 1940’s. My last experience with anything BF related was set in 1942. Prior to the preview, I was incredibly naive about the whole “Bad Company” series, and I had this strange impression that it was some sort of single player campaign-based game similar to Army of Two. Yes, honestly - I know! I’m still lucky to have any job at all!

Subsequently to me the BF series has always been a bit of a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none sort of franchise; we’ve got the usual FPS fare coupled with an emphasis on vehicles bundled together into a “massively multiplayer” team-based game, but with none of the frills and spectacular storyline or technology advancements that typically propel a new FPS release over previous ones. My memory of BF could be summed up as buckets of multiplayer fun with a so-so FPS experience and amusing vehicular combat, but a game that never managed to take-off . BF was marred by a decidedly average infantry experience, and it was often difficult to get enough friends together to play the multiplayer game with any degree of “massiveness.”

Continue reading El33tonline’s hands-on preview of Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

I have not played an MMO in the last nine years. The last one to get all my attention was Anarchy Online, and it was pretty good. But the amount of time needed to really make the best of an MMO is something I simply do not have anymore. With so many MMO’s out there I often get the urge to maybe give World of Warcraft a shot, or try my hand at City of Heroes. And when I first saw some screenshots of Aion I thought that maybe now is a good time to try it out.

Star Trek Online, however, is the game that will get all my attention. I have never considered myself a huge Trekker, but have really enjoyed some of the shows and movies, and the mythos that followed. Being an action junkie, the new reboot of the Star Trek universe was a really enjoyable action romp, unlike any other Star Trek movie. It is this same plotline that sets the scene for Star Trek Online.

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Heavy Rain is the much anticipated psychological thriller from Sony and Quantic Dreams, anticipated not only because of the amazingly detailed screenshots we have all been pouring over at every opportunity we get, but also for the possibility of intrigue that the movie-like, branching story promises to deliver.

I got the chance to spend some hands-on time with the game thanks to the shiny new demo that landed on the PlayStation Network yesterday. The demo features two full chapters from the game – introducing players to Norman Jayden, a FBI profiler who has been brought in to help the local law enforcement to find and capture the Origami Killer, and Scott Shelby, a private investigator who has been hired by the families of past victims to see their killer brought to book.

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Let me start by admitting that I wasn’t always the biggest fan of the Aliens or Predators franchise. In fact I was somewhat reluctantly introduced to it through my first screening of the Aliens vs Predator film. And I will even go as far as to admit that I didn’t know which was the Alien and which was the Predator.

However, I suppose you could say that this was the beginning of my education in all matters of Aliens and Predators, and before long I found that I couldn’t get enough of the action. So you can imagine that I have been following the Aliens vs Predator videogame with quite a bit of interest and anticipation. Not even the guts and gore could distract me from eagerly downloading the game’s multiplayer demo as soon as it was delivered into our hands last week.

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Dark Void is a new action adventure game from publisher Capcom and developer Airtight Games. The new IP brings a twist to gameplay proceedings by blending aerial and ground combat, introducing a jet pack to allow players to fly, jump and climb in all manner of vertically-oriented environments.

We recently got some hands-on time with Dark Void thanks to the new demo which is available now on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. The demo promises to give players a taste of this new flying mechanic with some flying tutorials, before dropping you into some serious UFO dogfighting, and then moving on to ground and vertical combat.

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Dante’s Inferno is the new action adventure game to come from EA and Visceral Games, the studio who brought us Dead Space, and takes players on a journey through the nine circles of hell (limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery).

We got a little hands-on time with the game in the form of the Gates of Hell demo, available now on both Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. The demo promises to give gamers a preview of Dante’s journey through the nine circles of hell, and delivers just a taste of what’s to come when the game hits shelves early next month.

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During my time with The Saboteur, EA and Pandemic’s upcoming open-world action adventure game, during rAge 2009, I managed to get stuck in a pool of water, accidentally reset the Xbox 360 debug unit I was playing on, sneak around out of sight of gun-toting Nazis, and scale the side of a building by climbing up a large, light bulb encrusted sign.

I also soaked in the stylised black and white visuals punctuated by splashes of red, and the orangey haze of explosions, as I returned fire against those gun-toting Nazis from behind doorframes and in dark corridors, using ordinary room objects for additional cover in the style popularised by Gears of War, but much more in line with Uncharted (if you’re looking for an accurate comparison), in the way that realism-based action shooter controls during firefights, climbing sequences and general movement.

Continue reading El33tonline’s hands-on preview of The Saboteur.

The upcoming Forza Motorsport 3 was available to play at the Microsoft stand at rAge 2009, and I managed to get a few races in. The set up at the Expo was how racing games are meant to be enjoyed - with a seat, wheel and pedals, particularly when the racing game being played is as realistic as Forza is.

The track set up was a circuit around a mountain that was reasonably technical, but not too difficult with the assists on. The dynamic racing line is especially helpful because it changes to a red colour around corners to indicate that you need to slow down, changing back to green once you’re going slow enough. The game runs very smoothly at what seems to be 60 frames per second, which helps immensely with the feeling of control and with driving pleasure. I didn’t manage to destroy my car but by the end of each race my paintwork was a little bit chipped here and there from bumps with other cars, and it looked really authentic.

Continue reading El33tonline’s Hands-on Preview of Forza Motorsport 3.

The biggest surprise of rAge 2009 for me was Borderlands. DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5, Uncharted 2, Forza Motorsport 3, Brutal Legend - those were on my radar and on my “hope to buy” list. But Borderlands, being a first-person game (not my favourite genre), an RPG with MMO leanings (definitely not my favourite genre), wasn’t even on my map. 2K and Gearbox, please forgive me my ignorance - it’s not easy to keep track of the hundreds of games that come out every year, and even more difficult to choose which ones to pay attention to.

Fortunately Megarom, 2K’s South African distributor, had a four-player LAN set up to try the game out on, and I managed to get a go at it. If I had played singleplayer for a few minutes, or even if I had watched one of the excellent demo’s by 2K’s David Halse, I would probably have thought “pretty cool,” but I don’t think I would have been swayed to seriously consider buying it. But that would have been my loss. Now I’m trying to tell people about it so that I have a crowd to play co-op with.

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The latest and greatest edition of Tekken, Namco’s long-running, storied and venerable series of fighting games, is due for release later this month and was on hand to go for a spin at rAge 2009, and for a game that’s to be responsible for reinvigorating the, of late, lagging franchise, Tekken 6 is doing a lot right in terms of the spectacle and bombast on display to bring in new fans and ‘wow’ the old ones.

For all of its style and flair, though, Tekken 6 is also doing a lot that’s… the same as previous entries to the franchise, which is a good thing, but it’s also the reason the series has been surpassed in recent years by other fighting games.

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A new third-person action adventure title, Avatar, or to give it its full title, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game (based on the movie, James Cameron’s Avatar, but we’ll stick with Avatar) was playable at rAge 2009, and despite the fine tradition of extremely poor games based on movies, comic books and TV licenses, Avatar breaks the mould, going against this tradition and looking set to deliver an experience that will definitely surprise players with its quality.

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Tim Schafer and Double Fine’s next game, Brütal Legend, was on hand to have a look at during rAge 2009, and for those wondering (i.e. me) if the core gameplay matches up with the excellent story segments and traditional Tim Schafer humour we’ve seen so far, you (I) can breathe a sigh of relief, as the gameplay sections on display felt very solid and smooth, and, might I add, the combat and movement feels excellently visceral and responsive – a bit of a hackneyed description, but true.

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The first thing that strikes you about Ubisoft’s upcoming Wii first person shooting and sword sequel, Red Steel II, is the art style. Not only has it changed dramatically from the first Red Steel, but it’s so unique that it successfully manages to set itself apart from any other game as well.

After spending some time with the demo of the game I can safely say that it is action-packed from the get-go, with the opening cut scene showing the main character being dragged ruthlessly, hands-bound, behind a motorbike. The environments are slickly presented with the Western theme being carried through down to every last detail of the stages.

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The gameplay trailers and screenshots of Assassin’s Creed II that have been released to date have quite clearly shown the level of detail that the game features. Even so, they don’t even begin to do the beautifully rendered streets and canals of Venice justice. Each scene has been lovingly re-created with an amazing reproduction of the Italian city to bring a sense of authenticity to the game.

Set in 15th century Italy, the game tells the tale of how the lead character Ezio becomes an Assassin in order to avenge the tragedy that befalls his family, after which he is branded a criminal and seeks to reclaim his family’s honour. While we didn’t get to have any hands-on time with Assassin’s Creed II, we did get to spend some quality time with the game, watching a demo and discovering Venice and a couple of the new features of the game along the way.

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