Metro 2033 – ‘Kill Or Be Killed’ Trailer

4a-games has released a new trailer from their first person shooter, Metro 2033. While usually, trailers are meant to showcase bits of story and tons of exciting gameplay, and ‘Kill Or Be Killed’ does that with aplomb, it also pulls off an Gamestop advertisement, much to our annoyance, offering an exclusive in-game weapon if you pre-order the game, completely ruining our spellbound gaze of the gorgeous graphics. Have a look, anyway:

Metro 2033 is set to release on March 19, 2010 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

New Borderlands PC Patch Released

Gearbox Software has released a new patch for their open-world FPS-RPG, Borderlands. The patch updates the game to v1.30 and addresses the following issues:

Addressed issues:
- Invalid weapons or items can no longer be loaded into the game
- Brick’s Centurion class mods now regenerate health correctly
- Brick’s Bombardier class mods now regenerate rockets correctly
- Roland’s Tactician class mods now regenerate shields correctly and display
the correct bonus values
- Roland’s Rifleman class mods now apply damage increase to all machine guns
- Certain powerful legendary item names should now be displayed in the
appropriate color
- Opening the bank in the Mad Moxxi DLC no longer prevents other players from
moving
- Multiple copies of DLC missions can no longer be obtained
- Corrected some incorrect icons in the ammo vendor
- Fixed a crash caused by killing the final boss while zoomed in with a scope
- The “Careful, he bites” achievement should now properly unlock when playing
in French
- Added icons to the server browser that indicate which DLCs the server has
installed
- The server browser now displays the name of the DLC a server is playing
instead of the plot mission
- Adjusted scrolling in menu options in long server lists
- Added a notification if a player attempts to continue a game saved in DLC
that is no longer installed
- Fixed DLC notification dialogs that were not closing properly
- Alt-F4 no longer closes the game if it is not in focus

Balance adjustments:
- Chests in New Haven have been adjusted to contain more appropriate loot
- The duration of daze effects has been reduced to 6 seconds, and the amount by
which it decreases the speed of enemies and their projectiles has been reduced
- Damage from shock elemental effects has been increased
- Repeater pistol damage has been slightly increased, accuracy slightly
decreased
- Sniper Rifle critical hit bonus has been increased

You can download the patch (193MB) from here or here.

Red Dead Redemption – ‘The Women’ Trailer

Rockstar has unveiled the latest trailer from its upcoming wild-west shooter, Red Dead Redemption. Titled ‘The Women’, the video showcases the ladies of the game that are of the ‘sinner, saints and survivors’ variety. Check it out:

Red Dead Redemption hits store shelves on April 27, 2010 for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Heavy Rain Review

Since it was announced, nearly 4 years ago, much hype has surrounded this PS3 exclusive. Much has been said about its photo-realistic graphics and even more about its unique (yet somewhat touch-and-go) gameplay. In the spirit of 2005’s Fahrenheit (aka Indigo Prophecy), Quantic Dream has once again attempted to really test the limits of the video game form. While many games nowadays have neglected the story-telling element, relying instead on gameplay mechanics to drive the player through, Heavy Rain has taken the opposite route, creating what could be described as an ‘interactive drama’. Though an interesting approach, the challenge is immense. We’ve all seen a boring film at one point or another – a film where the 2 hour running-time seemed like an eternity of wishing you could break your own neck to end the suffering. Well, Heavy Rain is essentially an 8-10hr cinematic work and, beyond a control scheme based primarily on quick time events (QTEs), the story is really all there is.

So did they pull it off? In one word…yes. Now let’s elaborate on that a bit.

I will not delve into the story much because, as I’ve mention already, the story is the single most important thing in the game and so I wouldn’t want to spoil the experience. However, to skim the surface a little bit, Heavy Rain is a psychological thriller that puts you in command of 4 characters – An architect (and ordinary father), a private investigator, an FBI agent and a mysterious female photographer with apparent sleeping problems. Though there doesn’t seem to be any relationship between the characters at first, the stories begin to intertwine as they attempt to solve the case of the origami killer before the death of his latest victim.

Visually, the game is fantastic, often really nailing the film noir look and feel. The environments and the characters look great and are only let down by some poor animations. That is not to say that the animations are all bad but since they are obviously trying to achieve visual realism, the discrepancies can become glaring. The game also suffers from a myriad of technical issues like texture pop-ups, occasional screen tearing and other anomalies. For example, A face may disappear for a second and a TV that is obviously on may appear off, but these are generally minor and nothing to worry about because 90% of the time, the game is pretty smooth and utterly gorgeous. The music and sound effects are also top notch and so is the voice acting. In fact, to talk of voice acting is moot, because I often found myself judging the characters on their acting performances as a whole. The game is designed as a cinematic experience and so it looks and sounds just like a film…and even though the same could be said of Uncharted 2 for example, Heavy Rain is different in that in emulates a film genre that relies more on emotional stress than over-the-top action. Obviously some plot branches are more convincing than others both in terms of performance and story-line. Yet for these performances to transcend at all, given the technical processes required to make a game, is an achievement in itself.

The game’s control scheme is quite basic and yet surprisingly varied and effective. Most actions or object interactions are done with the right analog stick, moving it in the manner indicated. Other actions will require pressing a button before it disappears, holding down a button or rapidly tapping one. Some actions require holding down different buttons in a certain sequence. The game also utilizes Sixaxis motion controls, so there is quite a variety at their disposal. The best thing about the control scheme, however, is that translates the actions pretty well. Lifting a heavy object or climbing a wall will strain you more than lifting a lighter object or opening a window. The system is simple but it works.

That said, not everything works as well as you’d like. Funnily enough, movement is where the control scheme fails. Just walking around can be a very frustrating experience, especially in tight places. By holding down R2, your character is essentially in ‘walk mode’ and so you use the left analog stick to steer. Seems fine on paper, but the characters are clunky and just do not react well to direction changes. Worse yet, sometimes the ‘absolute’ movement direction doesn’t react quickly enough to a shift in the camera angle; so if you are walking towards a door and the camera angle shifts, you may find yourself beginning to walk away from the door but since walking is clunky to begin with, before you can adjust the direction, the camera will shift back and, unless you intervene by changing the camera manually with L1, you may find yourself spinning around, which can look pretty ridiculous. This becomes even more frustrating in tight areas. Frustrating yes, but thankfully not enough to really hinder the overall experience.

The key to Heavy Rain’s success is the game’s ability to engross you completely. It does so through key sequences that are usually suspense heavy. This is where the game is at its absolute best. Not knowing what will happen while knowing that your reaction speed and decisions ultimately dictate what will happen is quite a rush. Just imagine a suspenseful action sequence from a film you’ve seen and imagine what it would be like if every kick, punch, block and desperate reach for a knife was affected by your ability (or inability) to quickly react to button prompts. Mess up and the character’s tragic demise may be in the cards. It’s a heart-pounding blast. Most importantly, it puts you in the character’s psychological state which is essential for the game mechanic to work. Quantic Dream try to reinforce this connection through both the visual appearance of the button prompts as well as the type. For example, if a character is really nervous, the QTE prompts will quiver and shake haphazardly. If the character needs to do something more delicate, like handle a baby, you will need to be more careful as the prompt will be pressure sensitive. All these considerations are done to enhance the game’s immersive quality which is really the essence of the experience.

Once you’re done with the game, you will undoubtedly be curious as to what would have happened had you made different choices. This option is obviously available, as you can just restart the game and go again. Alternatively, if you don’t want to go through the whole thing again, you can load up and play a specific sequence by selecting the appropriate chapter. The downside of Heavy Rain’s immersive qualities is that its just not as fun the second time around. The aura of suspense and mystery as well as your attachment to the story and characters will wane and this will lessen the experience, especially in a game like this. But you will retain fond memories and they will likely stay with you long after you finally shelve the game.

It is a pity that Heavy Rain was banned in Dubai and not just for the people hoping to play the game. It is a pity because though it is abundantly clear that gaming as a form of entertainment has grown tremendously in the last decade alone and today rivals even film, in the eyes of many it is yet to achieve film’s art-form status. This is true not only in Dubai but across the world. Thankfully not all developers take this lying down and hats-off to Quantic Dream and Sony for taking a chance. The result is a worthy effort and a greatly unique gaming experience and though it is unlikely to start a gaming revolution, I genuinely hope it will convince more developers that story is not lifeless decoration and innovation is always welcome.

Splinter Cell: Conviction System Requirements

Although not official, German site GBase has the system requirements of Ubisoft’s upcoming stealth-action Splinter Cell Convction.

Core 2 Duo at 1.8 GHz or Athlon X2 64 at 2.4 GHz
1.5GB RAM for Windows XP; 2GB RAM for Windows Vista or 7
GeForce 7800 or Radeon X1800 with 256 MB (GeForce 8800 GS or Radeon 4670 with 512 MB recommended)
10GB hard disk space
1 Mbps always-on Internet connection (2 Mbps recommended)

Did ya read the last line? Yup, read it again. Mind you, these are not the official system requirements from Ubisoft themselves, but they hit home pretty close. Ubisoft had announced a while back that they are working on a new DRM which will require an ‘always-on’ internet connection. As annoying as that is, the biggest offense of the DRM is that if, by chance, your internet fails (which is quite common here thanks to our wonderful ISP), you will be booted out of not only your multiplayer game but also your single player session, leaving you on the mercy of the last autosave.

However, even that made some business sense, that they are trying to stop piracy no matter how shoddy the software to do is. But what goes like a bouncer over our confused heads  is that…why does it require a 1-2 mbps connection for? What exactly will Ubisoft make us download everytime we game that would require at least 512kbps of download stream? Oh, please explain, french publisher guy.

Sega Announces Alpha Protocol Release Date

Press release:
SEGA® of America, Inc. is proud to announce that Obsidian Entertainment’s long awaited Alpha ProtocolTM is hitting store shelves this summer. The espionage game, a fiercely original take on the role playing game genre, will launch in North America for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC on May 28th, 2010.

“The wait has been worth it. It is time for an RPG to go beyond fantasy and space,” said Sean Ratcliffe, Vice President of Marketing for SEGA of America. “The genre needs a shot in the arm, and renowned developer Obsidian has delivered. Alpha Protocol will be the absolute best it can be, and we look forward to revealing fresh aspects of it to the community in the upcoming months.” With a plot torn from today’s headlines and more twists than a season of “24″, Alpha Protocol brings a new level of modern day realism to the world of RPGs. Tasked with uncovering the perpetrators behind a tragic missile attack on a passenger jetliner, players dive into a story rich with characters and locations to discover an international arms-dealing conspiracy. Through their actions and choices, players direct the outcome of the game as they ultimately decide who to befriend, trust or kill.

In Alpha Protocol, players assume the role of rookie spy Michael Thorton and are given unprecedented control over the development of his abilities and interactions with other characters. Customizable character skill-sets, attributes and weapons all play an important role in allowing gamers to tailor Thorton to their play-style.

Gamers that pre-order Alpha Protocol through GameStop will receive the Exclusive Assault Pack, containing exclusive weapons and ammo like the UC Regulator high damage shotgun and Rittergroupen Grizzly high accuracy rifle. For more details visit www.gamestop.com.

Alpha Protocol is set to release on May 28th, 2010 on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC. For more information visit http://www.alphaprotocol.com/us/main.php

Screenshots:

Supreme Commander 2 Demo Now Available

Press release:
Square Enix Ltd., the publisher of Square Enix® interactive entertainment products in Europe and other PAL territories, today announces it has released a demo for SUPREME COMMANDER® 2. Consumers will get an early taste of the highly anticipated next installment of the award-winning SUPREME COMMANDER franchise. The demo will be available via STEAM® download for the PC version.

Developed by critically-acclaimed developer Gas Powered Games, SUPREME COMMANDER 2 delivers a new level of emotional connection and accessibility to the RTS genre. Set 25 years after SUPREME COMMANDER, this sequel features numerous game enhancements, an in-depth campaign mode, online multiplayer and a unique storyline.

MISSIONS: This riveting, first-look opportunity for consumers contains two levels of the tutorial as well as two missions for the United Earth Federation (UEF), one of the three factions of the Colonial Defense Coalition. Strike While Cold

The Cybran invasion force is on the run. Sensors have picked up a number of operational Cybran Mass Extractors off the coast of the Weddell Strait. Players will need to explore the islands in the strait and successfully destroy the extractors.

Features: Naval Battle, Kraken Experimental.
Titans of Industry

After refusing orders and refusing to surrender their Armored Command Unit, players are now public enemy #1 in the UEF. Colonel Rodgers has targeted New Cathedral, a colony where the players’ wife and child reside – they will need to take the most direct route to defend the colony. Unfortunately, that means traveling through the ruins of the Boolon Industrial Complex.
Features: Air and Land Battle, Fatboy 2 Experimental.

WHEN/WHERE: The PC demo is now available via STEAM at: http://store.steampowered.com/app/40140/ and the full PC version of SUPREME COMMANDER 2 will be available from 5th March 2010.

Just Cause 2 Won’t Support WinXP & DX9

The Steam page of Avalanche Studios’ upcoming action adventure, Just Cause 2, offers the official system requirements to run the game. But eager eyes will notice that neither the minimum or the recommended requirements suggest users to have at least DX9 or Windows XP. Yup, rather surprisingly, the developers have decided against to support the two old but still very used platforms.

Minimum System Requirements:
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista (Windows XP is unsupported)
Processor: Dual-core CPU with SSE3 (Athlon 64 X2 4200 / Pentium D 3GHz)
Memory: 2GB System Memory
Hard Drive: 10GB of free drive space
Graphics: DX10 compatible graphics card with 256 MB of memory (Nvidia GeForce 8800 series/ ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro)
Sound: 100% DirectX 10 compatible sound card
DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 10

Recommended System Requirements:
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 or Windows 7
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz or AMD Phenom X3 2.4GHz or equivalent
Memory: 3GB system Memory
Hard Drive:
Graphics: DX10 compatible graphics card with 512 MB of memory (Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 series/ ATI Radeon HD 5750 series)
Sound: 100% DirectX 10 compatible Dolby Digital 5.1 sound card
DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 10.1

In a statement to Ve3D.net, Square Enix Community Manager Mike Oldman said that the decision to drop DX9 and WinXP support was “because the game has been written to take advantage of the extra performance offered by Direct X10 and sadly Windows XP does not support that application.”

Warner Bros. Acquires Rocksteady Studios

Warner Bros. announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Rocksteady Studios, the makers of the critically and commercially smash hit Batman: Arkham Asylum.

“With the successful release of Batman: Arkham Asylum, a franchise that is a key focus for Warner Bros., Rocksteady has proven that they have the expertise to create hit games with mass appeal,” said Martin Tremblay, president, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “We are currently working with Rocksteady on the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum and look forward to bringing the continuation of the franchise to fans worldwide.”

“We are delighted to be deepening our relationship with London-based Rocksteady Studios, one of the UK’s most respected games developers and 2009 recipient of the VGA’s coveted ‘studio of the year’ award,” said Josh Berger, president and managing director, Warner Bros. UK. “Rocksteady clearly has the talent, expertise and technology to make great games and we are fortunate to continue working closely with them as we further expand our games portfolio.”

This is a big and timely catch from Warner Bros. Though, Square Enix were quick to point out that they still retain 25.1% stake in the studio and will continue represent on the board of directors of the company.

Army of Two: The 40th Day DLC Announced

Press release:
EA Montreal, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced an all-new campaign map pack called ‘Chapters of Deceit’ for the third-person co-op shooter ARMY OF TWO™: THE 40th DAY. Available for download on Xbox LIVE™ and the PlayStation®Network on April 1, 2010 for £7.99 or 800 Xbox LIVE points, players will return to war-torn Shanghai where they will encounter more destruction, more devastation and enemies determined to bring the city to the brink of ruin.

ARMY OF TWO: THE 40th DAY – Chapters of Deceit features two all-new co-op campaign maps. In the new chapters, players stumble upon information that could lead to ending the invasion by Jonah and his 40th Day Initiative army. However, they quickly learn that everyone is out for themselves and to trust no one but their partner.

In ARMY OF TWO: THE 40th DAY, players have to work together to escape Shanghai as it falls under attack. The game boasts a robust playbook of co-op moves with one of the most extensive and varied weapon customization systems ever found in an action/shooter game. Players can mix and match weapon parts and execute strategic two-man tactics that create a one-of-a-kind co-op action experience.

Next Page »