Gran Turismo HD Concept Free for PlayStation 3 Owners this Holiday Season (gamezone)

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Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) announced today the December 24 North American release of Gran Turismo™HD Concept, available for free download, exclusively on the PLAYSTATION Store (PS Store) for the PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) computer entertainment system.

Developed by Polyphony Digital Inc., this driving game features an all-new course for players to be the first to drive a Ferrari on a PS3, as well as have the option to select a car from nine other worldwide manufacturers that include Infiniti, Lotus, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Suzuki. Available only for a limited time, Gran Turismo HD Concept takes full advantage of the PS3 PLAYSTATION 3 hardware performance by providing full HD 1080p* resolution and next-generation car physics ushering in a new era of racing for the gaming industry.

“Gran Turismo HD Concept provides PS3 and automotive fans a glimpse into the future of Gran Turismo,” states Kazunori Yamauchi, famed creator of the Gran Turismo franchise. “With the power of the PS3 technology, the world of Gran Turismo is refined by its full HD visual presentation and unique interactive experience, resulting in an even more realistic and true driving simulator.”

EA Reveals Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars: Kane Edition (gamezone)

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Electronic Arts Inc. today announced Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars: Kane Edition - a special, numbered collector’s edition for the PC that will ship in March 2007 simultaneously with Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars™ (C&C 3). Filled with an enormous amount of exclusive content, C&C 3: Kane Edition will be the definitive collectible for any Command & Conquer™ or Real-time Strategy (RTS) game fan.

C&C 3: Kane Edition will include an exclusive bonus DVD featuring a behind the scenes documentary, deleted scenes and a blooper reel from the live action video shoots, a series of gameplay strategy videos from the game designers themselves, and more. C&C 3: Kane Edition will also feature exclusive in-game content including five new multiplayer maps and three unique unit skins—one for each of the three factions in the game. Fans will also enjoy five exclusive wallpapers.

“The Command & Conquer fans are among the most dedicated in the world. It’s very exciting to be able to create a special bonus edition of C&C 3 with our fans in mind,” said Mike Verdu, Vice President and Executive Producer at EALA. “The exclusive maps, strategy tutorials, special unit skins and ‘making of’ video provide hours of enjoyment to anyone who loves Command & Conquer. The ‘blooper reel’ is just flat out funny. I can’t wait for Command & Conquer fans to get their hands on this game.”

Command & Conquer, the groundbreaking series that put the RTS genre on the map, is returning in full force with C&C 3. This highly-anticipated next chapter takes the popular series back to its roots in the Tiberium Universe and features the fast, fluid gameplay that Command & Conquer is known for and an epic tale that will redefine storytelling in RTS games.

It is 2047 and the stakes could not be higher. Tiberium—a self-replicating alien substance that has infected the Earth—is spreading like a radioactive ice age. The Global Defense Initiative, a high-tech alliance of the world’s most advanced nations, is fighting to contain Tiberium, but Kane, the megalomaniacal leader of The Brotherhood of Nod has other plans for Earth. Kane’s secret society turned superpower is bent on using Tiberium to take control and transform humanity into his twisted vision of the future. All-out war rages over Tiberium and the fate of the planet rests in the balance.

The epic story of C&C 3, set in the Tiberium Universe, is seamlessly tied together with live action, high-definition video sequences featuring top Hollywood talent including Tricia Helfer, Josh Holloway, Michael Ironside, Billy Dee Williams, Grace Park, and more.

Currently in development at EA’s Los Angeles studio, C&C 3 and C&C 3: Kane Edition will ship worldwide in March 2007 for Windows PC. C&C 3 has a suggested retail price (MSRP) of $49.99 and C&C 3: Kane Edition will be available at select retailers with a MSRP of $59.99. C&C 3 will also be available in 2007 for the Xbox 360™ videogame and entertainment system. These products are not yet rated by the ESRB, PEGI or USK. For more information, please visit www.CommandAndConquer.EA.com.

Rayman Raving Rabbids - Special Holiday Video Fact - Bunnies Can't Stand Christmas (gamespot)

- gamespot -

Ubisoft today announces the release of a special Holiday video from our ongoing series of scientific facts about the crazed, out-of-control Bunnies in Ubisoft's Rayman Raving Rabbids. The Nintendo Wii version of Rayman Raving Rabbids(TM) is available in stores now! Take a look below for a quick description of this special installment in the series of video facts and access to the video for download:

Click here to download the new Rayman Raving Rabbids video.

VIDEO - Special Video Fact - Bunnies Can't Stand Christmas!:

The Holidays are a special time of the year, family, friends, eggnog, and rabbids. Rabbids? The holidays wouldn't be complete without some lunatic lapin action! Happy Holidays to you and yours from Rayman Raving Rabbids!!!

Resistance: Fall of Man Patch Now Available (gamezone)

- gamezone -

SCEA and Insomniac Games have released the first update to Resistance: Fall of Man. Below are additional details released by Insomniac Games. For more information on the patch notes, visit the Online Play forum on www.myresistance.net.

Ranked Games

• Map size determined by the number of players in the game
• All maps available for ranked games
• Score limits for team deathmatch adjusted based on the number of players in a match
• Time limits added for all game types that were missing them

General

• Added a game option to allow "map voting", which will allow players in a custom game to vote on a new map from the results screen
• Expanded tactical element of squads. In objective based team games (CTF, Meltdown, Breach), players will be able to select to spawn near their squad as well as all the previously available spawn points. Additionally, squad members will be displayed different on the map/radar so that you will be able to find them easier
• We've improved the spawning algorithm to prioritize spawn points that are away from enemies and near teammates and squadmates
• Wins/Losses are now displayed on the character sheet
• We have replaced the Skeleton skin with a new skin, the Mechanic. We've determined that the Skeleton is much smaller and more difficult to see on many levels than any of the other skins. The skins were never meant to give a gameplay advantage, but to offer you the chance to customize your character as you see fit, and we don't want people to be at a disadvantage because they didn't pick any one particular skin. Never fear, the skeleton may make a return at some later date, in some form or other.

Balance

• Chimeran rage damage multiplier has been reduced.
• Chimera at max heat will now only lose health until they are at 50% health instead of going all the way down to 1% health.
• Humans will now spawn with 1 frag grenade as well as the M5A2 Carbine
• Enemies will now show up on the Human map/radar if they are within radar range of ANYONE ON YOUR TEAM and only in the following circumstances: They are sprinting or in rage mode, they are firing/attacking, they are jumping, or they are within range of node radar (Breach)
• Most weapon damage values have been tweaked in the interest of balance. In general, weapons have been tweaked to deal slightly less damage.

Voice Chat

• Voice chat is now “push-to-talk” by default in team games as well as free-for-all games. The standard button is L3 and it can be remapped. Open mic is active only for squad chat when you choose to join a named squad. In that case you still use the push-to-talk button to broadcast to your entire team. Other places where open mic is active are when observing in a limited lives game and when you are in a party
• here is now an indicator in the lower right hand corner to let you know when you are transmitting on the microphone

Blitz: Overtime (gamespot)

- gamespot -

Overtime is an apt subtitle for this port of Blitz: The League, as the exceedingly lengthy load times and sluggish running speed run the game well past regulation.

The Good: Heartless, bloodthirsty football; ferocious animations.

The Bad: Load times are insanely long; game runs significantly slower than the console versions, sometimes running at half-speed; a few artificial intelligence quirks; graphics are glitchy and textures look real bad.

Blitz: Overtime is a PSP update to Blitz: The League, which was released last year on the Xbox and PS2, and earlier this year on the Xbox 360. Generally speaking, this is very much the same brand of over-the-top, bloodthirsty football the console games contained, but with more than a few caveats. First of all, the developer clearly couldn't get the game to run at the proper speed on the PSP hardware, no matter how many textures it blurred and lighting effects it removed. Secondly, the load times are just abysmal, lasting only slightly longer than the average pro football player's career. Yes, there's a bit of new content, and yes, the game that lays underneath all these technical gaffes is a fun one, but you'll be hard-pressed to enjoy it in the state it's in on the PSP.

Blitz: Overtime takes the console versions of Blitz: The League, and slows them to a crawl.

If you ever played the Blitz brand of football in its arcade heyday, the core mechanics of The League will be immediately familiar to you. This is eight-on-eight football with an incredibly quick pace, 30-yard downs, and the kinds of barbarous hits that would snap a typical human being in half. But really, anyone with a basic understanding of football ought to be able to pick up The League's simplistic mechanics quite easily. You still call plays as you would in any football game, and you can run, pass, and tackle at the press of single buttons. Just don't expect any fancy audibles or defensive scheme shifts to be available. You'll call a play, and that's the play you'll run, dammit.

Overtime does futz with the Blitz formula a bit, however, and in quite satisfying ways. As you earn yards and touchdowns on offense, and as you stuff your opponents on defense, you'll build up your team's clash meter. Clash is basically the gamebreaker concept from EA's arcade sports games, but it's done better here. Any time you have any clash built up, you can simply press the left shoulder button to slow down time for everyone on the field except the player you're in control of. Passing the ball while in clash mode will let you take control of the wide receiver, tight end, or whomever else you choose while he's in midroute, letting you shift him to the position he needs to be in to manually catch the ball. Runners can use this mode to shift and juke around would-be tacklers with relative ease. Defenders use clash differently than offensive players, because it doesn't slow down time for them. Essentially, clash lets them lay down the dirtiest, foulest, meanest hits you'll ever see.

These defensive cheap shots will often lead to injuries, which are the best part of the game. Any time you injure an opposing player, the game shifts to an X-ray camera mode, highlighting the portion of the poor schmuck's anatomy you just snapped in two. If it isn't a season-ending injury, you're even given the option of treating it as normal, perhaps leading to the player being out for the entire length of the game. However, if you're the gambling type, you can "juice" that player up, bringing him back into the game after just a short time. Just pray to whatever you believe in that the player doesn't get hit really hard again, because if he does, you can kiss him good-bye for a good long time.

The clash functionality usually works really well--at least, it did on consoles. The funky thing about the PSP version is that you actually don't need to use it very much, especially on offense, because the game already runs so slow on the PSP hardware that you already get a bunch of extra time to figure out where to throw the ball on a passing play. On kickoff returns it's the worst. The game runs quite literally at half-speed, and because of that, it's not too hard to break off a lot of kickoff returns for touchdowns. But even on basic offensive plays, the game slows significantly, making clash moves almost irrelevant. The only time you need to use them now is on defense to try and injure other players, and with the slowed speed of the game, it's now even easier to line offensive players up for a dirty hit.

Dirty hits will often completely wreck an opposing player.

Slowness negatively affects just about every area of Blitz: Overtime, from the on-field action to the menu screens. Load times are atrocious, clocking in anywhere from a full minute to a minute and 45 seconds in spots. Whenever it has to load up a cutscene during an actual game, you'll see the camera linger on one shot for much longer than is necessary while the game tries to access the UMD to load up the next sequence. Nothing about Overtime runs well at all, which is a crying shame since the game itself can be really fun. It's a great game of football that's been kneecapped by all the loading and slowdown.

There are also a couple of things about the way Overtime plays that might irritate longtime football-game players (though these were issues in the console versions, as well). For one, the artificial intelligence, while generally smart, occasionally loses its mind and forgets that going for an extra point instead of a two-point conversion will keep it behind by, say, four points instead of the three it would be losing by after a two-pointer. The kicking game, in general, seems to be a little all over the place, too. From a player's standpoint, the rhythm-game-based kick meter is awesome, but the computer opponents seem to whiff a few too many easy kicks. Also, don't be surprised if you catch wind of the computer opponent magically grabbing interceptions and forcing fumbles late in the game when it's down. Blitz games have always kind of flirted with catchup AI, and it's not horrible here. Just be careful toward the end of a game, and don't start throwing unnecessary long bombs--no matter how tempted you might be--because the AI will take advantage.

Blitz: Overtime contains no franchise mode to speak of. Instead, you get the campaign mode, a 30-plus game storyline telling the story of one team's rise from the dregs of the game's fictional league to the top. You begin the mode by creating a team of your own, complete with city name, uniform style, and logo. Then you get to choose a rookie offensive player and a veteran defensive player. These are the two players that will come under the most focus during the storyline. The story itself was apparently penned by some of the writers from ESPN's now-defunct gridiron soap opera Playmakers, and it shows. After a particularly humiliating defeat against Quentin Sands (voiced to perfection by the dirtiest player in the game, Lawrence Taylor) and his New York Nightmare, your team is sent to Division 3. The league in this story is broken up into three divisions, with the top dogs competing in Division 1 and the bargain-basement, Houston Texans-like squads rounding out the bottom of the barrel in Division 3. The game never explains how this whole thing works, beyond the fact that you need to win the championship in each division to move up.

Juicing up players? Betting on your own team's games? Doubt you'll see anything like that in Madden any time soon.

After the humiliating defeat, team owner Lyman Strang (best villain name ever) clears house, pulls together an entirely new roster and coaching staff, and makes a bet with the city's mayor that the team will win the Division 1 championship. What's at stake? A lucrative bond issue for the city's voters that would call for the building of a new state-of-the-art stadium for the team. From there, things get crazy. Sexual escapades with team cheerleaders occur, gambling debts pile up on your veteran player, and more than a few heated rivalries get started against opposing teams. Oh, and everybody swears a lot. A lot.

Each division plays 10 games and a championship game, and you have to win seven games in each division to get to the championship. That shouldn't be an issue through the first couple of divisions, provided you're smart about how you build your team up. With no free agents to sign or rookies to draft, the only way to improve your squad is through training and illicit substances. You earn cash for said improvements by winning games, delivering big hits, and even gambling on your own games. Once you've got some cash, you can buy equipment and trainer upgrades to build up the stats of your players the good old-fashioned way, or you can give them "supplements" of varying degrees of legality. Some offer mostly harmless boosts to a couple of stats, but some also juice you up to 'roid-rage-like levels. The more dangerous drugs can be useful, but they'll usually also diminish things like a player's field awareness or injury resistance. So start thinking about just how much you really need that strength and speed boost in contrast to the risk of having a top player's spine cracked into a million pieces. Also, you'll want to avoid juicing up a player too far, as random drug tests will rear their ugly heads from time to time.

The storyline is interspersed only periodically into the flow of the action, and at times it comes across as pretty inconsequential. The few scenes you do get, despite a seemingly intentional level of cheesiness, can be quite entertaining. Of course, this is the same story you might have already played through before, but Midway did add one twist by tossing Bill Romanowski in there as the voice of Bruno Battaglia, one of the main player characters in the story. Not that this changes anything, mind you, but hey, the more disgraced football players on hand, the better. Maybe next year Midway can get Maurice Clarett.

Apart from the inclusion of Romanowski, the new, PSP-exclusive content in Overtime isn't that impressive. Some new user challenges have been added to the campaign mode, but unless you were paying really close attention to the ones in the console versions, you're unlikely to notice they're even there. New teams are included, but they're all all-star teams from the various divisions, which is just incredibly lazy. There are also a number of minigames to play via the two-player ad hoc mode, but it's only ad hoc. Infrastructure play isn't included, and that's a real shame, since half the game's appeal on consoles was being able to build up your created team in the campaign mode and take them online against other players. Without online, the multiplayer loses a lot of steam.

The game's visual engine has also lost a lot of its luster in translation to the PSP. It's understandable that the developer would need to scale things down to get the game to run well on the platform, but it didn't make that dream a reality in the slightest, so having troublesome graphical glitches and nasty-looking textures on top of a bad frame rate is a real kick in the teeth. The animation is still highly entertaining, of course. The basic movements of the players still have that exaggerated, gangly style to them, but the hits in the game are just ludicrous. Even the basic tackles look like they hurt a lot. And the special moves? They're not for the faint of heart. You'll see great moments, such as when some poor receiver gets upended and lands right on his head or when some recently beaten-up player gets up and spits blood that splatters on the camera lens. These are equal parts painful and hysterical, and it's surprising how many types of hits there are in the game. Still, with all the other graphical problems scattered throughout the game, no amount of awesome animation can really salvage the game's visuals.

The character models have been scaled down considerably for the PSP hardware, and they look much worse for the wear.

As mentioned before, Blitz: The League is a foulmouthed game. The characters are cynically written and are gruffly voiced, and they drop an awful lot of "F" bombs. Most of the voice acting is pretty good, though a few characters sound lousy. Apart from those uneven spots, it's good work, and the in-game commentary turns out surprisingly well. There's just one play-by-play man, but he delivers the commentary well. In fact, he's probably the least hammy character in the entire game. On the field, everything is as it should be. Hits are booming in nature, bones snap in raw fashions, and players jaw back and forth with one another using goofy insults that aren't nearly as bad as you might expect. The soundtrack is made up of a number of licensed bands, as is the trend these days. It mostly consists of a bunch of bands and hip-hop acts you've probably never heard of, but most of it is surprisingly good, with only a couple of off-kilter tracks here and there.

Blitz: The League was revelatory upon its initial release on the Xbox and PS2. When it hit the Xbox 360 earlier this year, the sense of revelation wasn't there, but it was still a fun game of arcade-brand football. On the PSP, even a good chunk of the fun has been stripped from the experience, leaving a deficient game of football that can't hold a candle to its predecessors. By all means, if you have the chance to play Blitz on any other platform, you absolutely should. It's still a great game of football that holds up well. But you'll have a hard time finding that great game of football when you're playing Overtime on the PSP.

Brutish Halo 3 "ViDoc" now playing (gamespot)

- gamespot -

[UPDATE] Seven-minute documentary focuses on new and improved Brutes; gameplay footage includes first peek at game's archvillain. Video now on GameSpot.

By Tim Surette, GameSpot

Posted Dec 20, 2006 12:17 pm PT

As is its modus operandi, Bungie Studio is ever so slowly building hype for the next installment of Halo by letting details out at a snail's pace. But this morning the Washington-based studio picked up the pace dramatically by releasing a seven-minute Halo 3 "ViDoc" over Xbox Live Marketplace.

The "video documentary" gives the public its first peek at the game's campaign mode--something that has been highly guarded until now. The 97MB video, titled "Et Tu Brute?," focuses largely on the Brutes, the apelike race that act as bodyguards for the Prophets.

The video begins with Bungie talking about the Brutes as they were in Halo 2. "Brutes were added a little late [to Halo 2], we didn't really have time to flesh them out. That's what we're doing in Halo 3," said one Bungie employee.

The short then walks viewers through the changes to the Brutes, concentrating on the race's improved artificial intelligence and new animations. Brutes will now largely move in "packs," and come in three classes--the standard Brute soldier, the Brute captain, and the Brute chieftain--each recognizable by the extravagance of their armor. Chieftains will lead the bunch, and call for team orders such as simultaneous grenade tossing.

While much of the video shows footage from Halo 3, there aren't any real details about the story. However, during a rundown of new Brute animations, the video shows some new features of the game. The highlights include one Brute ripping the arms off of an unfortunate human, another Brute pushing a warthog over, and a dual-plasma-sword-wielding Elite skewering a Brute. Gamers will also get a close look at the Brute's standard-issue weapon, a pistol which appears to have two scythes as bayonets, similar to the Brute Shot from Halo 2.

Though rumors persisted earlier this month that the Brutes would be playable in Halo 3, Bungie quickly debunked the notion. There is no mention of the simian race being playable in the video.

On its Web site, Bungie repeats the disclaimer that the graphics shown in the video are merely works in progress, and that gamers "won't be seeing anything like finished graphics." Bungie also says the video gives the first peek at "the bad guy you will grow to love and hate," but the video doesn't really distinguish the foe from the rest of the Brutes.

Currently, the video is only available on Xbox Live Marketplace but Bungie will be releasing the video in another format "relatively soon." Markets outside the US should get a localized version of the video sometime later today.

Catz Review (gamezone)

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Try as I might, I cannot get the crazy looping "Catz lullaby" out of my head. It's one of those things that sticks with you in your mind and you can't stop it. Like an annoying commercial that makes you cringe, yet you constantly hum it as your day goes by, Catz has that disturbing quality when it comes to that darn song. Otherwise, Catz is a game that features not much depth or challenge to it; I mean, it is about cats after all.

Now before you get all up in arms and start sending me emails saying your cat is awesome and so on and so forth, please know that I have one-and-a-half cats myself. I say that because I am the owner of one cat named Marci who is as skittish as any animal that has ever walked the face of the Earth. Even after 10 years, she shies away from both me and my wife and only seems to want attention as we are just about asleep. The 1/2 of a cat I own is this pseudo stray named "Bob." Bob likes to come around every once in a while and stays inside a little cat kennel we own when the weather gets too cold or she wants a regular meal as opposed to the mice I'm sure she is gobbling up as I see she has taken up residence in my backyard wood pile. Bob, likes to be held when inside and loves the constant petting my two boys lavish upon her when she comes in for a visit. Marci would rather eat a rock than let those boys touch her. So with that said, the game Catz is leaving me in an interesting predicament because the cats in this game are both friendly indoor cats who love attention lavished upon them and have no desire to go live outside in a wood pile; so I'm having a hard time relating to the game.

"My cat would never let me do this to her."

Ok, Ok, I know, the Catz franchise started off on the PC and had a pretty decent following behind it, but where the PC version and the DS version vary is with the DS touch screen. Borrowing heavily from a certain Nintendogs title, you can use the stylus and touch pad to scratch and pet your little kitty and the microphone to talk to it as it makes cute little kitty cat sounds. Sound familiar? Yup, it is. Now I know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I can't begrudge them too much. I mean, there are gamers out there that don't like dogs and prefer cats, so this may be an option for them if they so desire. The big problem with gameplay though, where in Nintendogs you could take your dog out, play Frisbee or catch and generally have a good time competing in disc-catching competitions and making money to buy things, you can't do that with your cat. Nobody walks a cat anymore, it's just weird and you certainly can't play Frisbee with a cat, it would just look at you like you were a fool when you threw the disc "I hope you enjoy going and getting that Frisbee, cause I ain't gonna." You can toss some cat-sized toys around and get the animals all worked into a tizzy and ultimately tire them out, which brings me to the game's main objective - pictures. Throughout the game, you will receive e-mails from friends and relatives asking you to take a picture of their cat in various states. Some want an action shot of them playing with a new toy, others want one where the cat is asleep.

But it really is just more of the same. In fact going to other peoples houses and taking photos of their cats is really just mean to your own cat, isn't it? "Hang on Gangrene (the cat) I have to leave you now so I can tucker out someone else's cat so I can take a picture of it sleeping, hope you enjoy being alone while I do it - bye." Poor cat. Completing these little tasks will earn you kitty cards, little factoids about cats that are supposed to make you a better caretaker of cats both in the game and in real life. That's it, not much more to the game unless you consider buying outfits to put on your and cat and taking pictures of it to send to your friends via multi-card play. Just for fun I thought I would try and place a Halloween mask on my cat Marci; surprisingly she wouldn't stay still for a picture. We're still trying to coax her out from under the bed.

"Can you pick which one out of a lineup that stole your milk Mrs. David?"

It isn't anything terribly complicated when the graphics come into play. The houses that you and your friends/clients live in are very large and have literally no clutter or much in the way of furniture. You can see the bowl of food and the kitty box, but the game kind of has those ho-hum kind of graphics. In fact, when you initially pick out your cat, I thought they all had a unhealthy look to them. Look at that picture above, are those cats eyes in the right spot? Who bred these animals? Regardless, the cats look and act alright when you are as close as you can get, the petting is fairly accurate because I do know that once you start petting a cat, they don't want you to stop any sooner than a month. This is called "cuddle" time, and oddly enough the game camera zooms in and just as you start lavishing affection on your cat, the camera just as quickly zooms out. So there are some below par graphics and design going on here.

The last thing I'll mention before we get to the scoring details is that crazy song. It is actually painful to listen to, and my six-year old, who has had moderate enjoyment playing this title, loves the song. Other than that, the little kitty sounds sound fake and un-authentic. But the fact that the kitty lullaby actually was written by someone and pings around in my head like a verbal migraine is enough to induce nausea.

Review Scoring Details for Catz

Gameplay: 5.8
There isn't mush to the game, you can play with your cat, play with other people's cats and take pictures. Collecting kitty cards is really an afterthought.

Graphics: 5.2
I'm still convinced the kitties in this title were bred by an shady dealer. They don't look right, they make funny cat-like sounds, the house they live in aren't full of needless paperwork and other junk, where's the realism?

Sound: 2.5
Possibly the worst song ever created in the history of everything. Sound effects are also disappointing.

Difficulty: Easy
It's easy because there is no real depth to the game. Even when you fail to get a photograph, you get the "oh well, better luck next time" and then next time comes four minutes later.

Concept: 5.5
It's a port of a game that was mostly an attention diverter for bored office workers. The game is inane and devoid of any sort of challenge.

Multiplayer: 2.0
The only thing you can really do in multiplayer mode is send one another pictures of cats. We may have had something if there was a mouser competition or sofa-scratching contest, but there simply is not.

Overall: 4.4
My six-year old was real excited about the game when I first got it, but that excitement has disappeared and he has moved on to another better title. My wife has tried to stick with it as well, and she too has become tired of the lacking challenges. If both the young and the young at heart turn away from the game, then that should give you a good idea what you are getting into.

Over 2 million BK games served (gamespot)

- gamespot -

Fast-food chain's collection of promotional games featuring mascots like The King, Subservient Chicken reaches sales milestone faster than Gears of War.

Last week, Microsoft proudly touted the sales figures of its Xbox 360-exclusive shooter Gears of War, mentioning that it had achieved sales of 2 million copies worldwide in just six weeks of release. Microsoft was mildly one-upped by promotional partner Burger King today, as the fast-food chain announced that its trio of games for the Xbox and Xbox 360 had broken the 2 million mark in just four weeks.

That number represents the cumulative sales of Burger King's three games--Pocketbike Racer, Big Bumpin', and Sneak King. All three were developed by Blitz Games, maker of the original Fuzion Frenzy, and are rated E for Everyone. The games sell for $3.99 each with the purchase of a value meal, while supplies last. For more on the Burger King collection, check out GameSpot's reviews of Pocketbike Racer, Big Bumpin', and Sneak King.

Downloadable maps for 360 COD3 debriefed (gamespot)

- gamespot -

Activision heads back to the front lines of downloadable content with its latest WWII shooter; free map, $10 map pack coming postholidays.

While several publishers struggled with getting the correct formula right for downloadable content over Xbox Live, Activision didn't seem to have any problems.

For its Xbox 360 launch title Call of Duty 2, the publisher released bonus multiplayer map packs, ranging in price from free to $10. Through August, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said that more than $1 million had been made from downloadable COD2 maps alone.

The company is hoping for similar financial success from its latest game in the series, Call of Duty 3. Today, Activision revealed that it is releasing six new multiplayer maps for the game sometime after the holidays.

One map, titled "Champs," will be given out for free. The map is set in Port Royal de Champs, France, and is sized for small to medium groups of players. The remaining five maps will be bundled in the Valor Map Pack and sell for 800 Marketplace points ($10).

For more on Call of Duty 3, read GameSpot's review.

Victoria: Revolutions (gamespot)

- gamespot -

Revolutions does a nice job of fixing up Victoria, but it's more of a giant patch than an expansion.

The Good: Fixes a lot of problems with the original Victoria; economic and political changes make the gameplay more plausible; includes a converter to port saves into hearts of iron ii.

The Bad: Still no in-game tutorial; lingering graphical issues; probably should have been released as a free patch.

As a cheap online-purchase-only expansion to 2003's Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun, Revolutions does its job reasonably well. While it doesn't change or enhance enough of the core game to attract players turned off by the original's extreme attention to detail, convoluted interface, and design flaws, it contains so many subtle tweaks and improvements that it is a must-buy for fans. The only drawback is that this $10 expansion probably should have been offered as a free patch.

Same look, same complexity, but there are more than a few changes under the hood.

The massive scope seen in Victoria remains the same, of course. As usual with developer Paradox Interactive, this is a game of grand strategy, where you take over pretty much any nation and try to guide it to prosperity or flat-out world domination. Game mechanics address virtually all of the social and political turmoil that took place during the 19th century, including liberalism and industrialization, as well as the rise of democracy and the establishment of the first truly globe-spanning empires. The big change to the focus of the game involves stretching the open-ended grand campaign from the original terminus of 1920 to the end of 1935 (a move that comes complete with new units, historical events, and inventions). You'll also now be able to port your Revolutions saves into the game's WWII-era big brother, Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday, where you can continue the struggle for world dominance all the way into the Cold War. So if you own both games, you can now play geopolitical guru for more than a century and span virtually the entire modern age.

Gameplay has been both enhanced and extended. A lot of the exploits from the original Victoria have been tightened up or eliminated. A mostly new economic system means that you can no longer take advantage of economic issues that could see middling states like Poland and Spain accumulate massive sums of cash and become globe-bestriding behemoths. Money is now a more big-picture resource. Instead of controlling every dime in every province, you now take a hands-off approach and embrace a free market. This greatly eases the crushing levels of micromanagement in the original game and sets up more realistic economics where capitalists take charge of developments and build the factories that they want, when they want. At the same time, however, less control really means less control. Free markets mean that you lose input when it comes to ordering up buildings, which can be a real issue at times, particularly if you want to go to war while the money-men are focusing solely on luxury items and infrastructure like railroads.

Elections have been altered, too. In the original game, elections came and went without having much of an impact on how you were playing. In Revolutions, elected governments place certain restrictions on your conduct. If the electorate votes for a pacifist party, you can't just ignore their will and go nuts on a military buildup, as your spending will be capped. However, if they go the other way and select war-mongering jingoists, you won't be able to cut back all that much on military spending. The trick now is to make sure that your people stay somewhere in the middle and give you room to move, which you can attempt by banning the more extreme parties that you don't want to see in power. Of course, too much repression and populaces can revolt and force the change that they want, and this has a habit of happening at the most inopportune times, like right after declarations of war.

All in all, both the economic and political restrictions are good changes. While hemming the player in is usually seen as a negative development, the original Victoria left things so wide open that it was very tough to figure out what you were supposed to be doing. Some of the limitations set in place in Revolutions can be frustrating at times, but they're a lot less frustrating than not being able to figure out many aspects of the game at all. Also, these changes do a great job of immersing you in the game as an actual head of state who has to take the people into consideration, and not as an omnipotent figure lording over a computer game. The overall feel is a lot more natural, which makes the game more playable.

The pop-up blizzard returns!

But Revolutions still doesn't get the job done in a number of areas. Even though the developers at Paradox likely rewrote a fair bit of the game code, they still didn't bother to include an in-game tutorial, which is an absolute must for a game of this complexity. So you still aren't given enough of a leg up when it comes to learning the game, or even when it comes to managing the blizzard of pop-ups that the interface hurls at you. Many of the historical choices you'll make during the campaign are presented with little or no background, so you don't really know what you're choosing when you click on yea or nay. This is a real annoyance, as many of these options have huge effects on how you build your economy and wage war. And Paradox still hasn't addressed a few technical issues. The game has a tendency to blink on a regular basis, and it chugs mightily when scrolling the map. This just isn't acceptable, especially considering that the engine is now well over three years old.

Yet even with the steep learning curve and cumbersome interface firmly in place, Revolutions fixes Victoria up to a playable state that seems to get a lot closer to what the developers originally had in mind. However, it's grating that you're being forced to pay for what really should have been in the box three years ago, and it's further bothersome that Paradox still hasn't added a proper in-game tutorial.

MLB 07 chooses Wright (gamespot)

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New York Mets All-Star third baseman selected as cover athlete for Sony's upcoming baseball game, which is due out in early 2007 on the PS3, PS2, PSP.

MLB 07: The Show The Box!

Things are really good for David Wright, the young third baseman for the New York Mets. Playing in a city known for being particularly critical of its pro athletes, the young slugger has become the apple of New York's eye (and the envy of mid-20s males) for his slick fielding, clutch hitting, and charismatic presence.

Wright breaks into a new area today. Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced that he will be the cover athlete for the upcoming MLB 07: The Show. The game is due in stores in early 2007 on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable.

Wright is coming off his best season yet, one in which he batted .311, belted 26 dingers, and knocked in 116. His performance earned him his first All-Star appearance, where he started for the National League squad.

For more information on MLB 07: The Show, read GameSpot's recent preview.

Pokemon Diamond, Pearl get domestic date (gamespot)

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The latest adventure starring Pikachu and crew is set to arrive in the US April 22; Pokemon-themed styluses to be offered as preorder bonus.

Compulsive collectors of all things Pokemon can clear up their calendars, as Nintendo has announced the North American release date for the series' new DS role-playing games. On April 22, addicted Poke-addicts will be able to once again embark on a quest to "catch 'em all" in Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl.

Although it takes place in the new land of Sinnoh and features new monsters to tame like Munchlax and Weavile, some of the old standbys will still be present. Players can even import Pokemon from Game Boy Advance versions of the series by plugging the GBA cartridge into the DS's GBA port.

While the game has already proven to be a strong seller in Japan, Nintendo is looking to boost its fate domestically with a preorder bonus. Those who reserve their copies at participating retailers will receive a stylus featuring a Pokemon from the new games.

Both games are rated E for Everyone.

TMNT (gamespot)

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie Q&A--Early Details, Combat, and Movie Magic

We sit down with Ubisoft Montreal to discuss the newly announced Ninja Turtles game based on the motion picture.

Those zany ninja turtles from those comic books and cartoons you remember from the 1980s and 1990s are making their way back to the silver screen next year. They'll also star in a brand-new video game in which they'll fight evil with their mighty ninja weapons and maybe a catchphrase or two. We caught up with Ubisoft Montreal's creative director, Nick Harper, to discuss the new game.

GameSpot: How closely are you following the movie's story?

Those rascally reptiles are back in a new feature film and a brand-new video game adventure.

Nick Harper: We are following the movie's story very closely and are really trying to explore the darker feelings of being a teenager, and at the same time, include lots of humor, intense combat, and action. We received an early version of the film script, and it was clear that this movie was about the strength of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles family.

We've added some characters from the turtles' history that aren't in the movie, and we've expanded on some elements that are present in the movie. Of course, we had the movie plot and script as our starting point, but I think the game and film will complement each other well. The game is really an extension of the movie experience.

GS: How much did you collaborate with the filmmakers?

Nick Harper: We have a really good relationship with Mirage Group and Imagi Animation Studios, the people making the movie. We traveled to Hong Kong to see early footage, and we are sharing assets on a daily basis. We are in continuous communication with Mirage and original cocreator Peter Laird. And so far, the relationship has been great, and the feedback from Peter has been really positive. They validate the look and ensure that we respect the universe, and they also help us create the dialogues. We regularly send them versions of the game, and they are great at giving us plenty of good suggestions and feedback.

GS: How involved is the film's cast? For instance, will the characters be voiced by their movie counterparts?

Nick Harper: The four turtles are voiced by the same actors in the movie and in the game.

GS: Tell us about the game. Will it offer straight-ahead action with items to pick up? Will it be some kind of action role-playing game where you gain levels for your turtles?

Nick Harper: This game is best described as over-the-top ninja action with lots of fighting and classic platforming elements mixed in.

GS: How many levels are in the game?

Nick Harper: There are 16 levels in the game.

GS: Can you walk us through the combat system? Nick Harper: In combat, the turtles can pair up to perform "family attacks." Each attack is linked to the turtle who initiates it. So, for example, if Leo calls the attack, the brothers leap in the air and then slam down on the ground, creating a damaging ripple effect, whereas Mike's attack is more comical--he grabs his brother by the feet and spins him around like a helicopter, knocking the bad guys down and away. Individually, each turtle has his own fighting style based on his weapon, personality, and dedication to the ninja way. So Leo is very controlled and efficient, whereas Mikey is flamboyant and extravagant.

GS: How is the Jade engine helping you show off the turtles' unique abilities?

Nick Harper: Using the Prince of Persia engine definitely gave us a great head start, but the game mechanics have been optimized for the turtles' adventure. It was important for us to maintain a much more fluid experience. We wanted players to always be jumping and dashing along walls. We streamlined the input and animation systems to enable these abilities to flow together rapidly.

GS: What kind of multiplayer modes will the game have? Cooperative? Competitive?

Nick Harper: Since the game is based on the upcoming movie, it's really about the emotional toll of feeling the loss of the turtle family and the rewards of earning that unity back. So, we needed the turtles to be distanced, both physically and emotionally, just like in the film. Therefore, we opted for a single-player experience where players can control each turtle at certain parts in the game and then play the entire family once they have reunited all four brothers.

GS: Will there be any unique features specific to each platform?

The game's combat system will take each character's fighting style and personality into account.

Nick Harper: There will be some special content for the Wii version of the game, and we're taking advantage of the controller to make fighting and acrobatics more immersive and fun. We'll be able to provide more details on the Wii version of the game soon.

For the other console versions, we've taken lots of the movie imagery and sneak peeks and included them as Easter eggs in specific sections in the game.

GS: Will there be support for downloadable content for any of the games?

Nick Harper: Whether or not there will be additional content for next-generation consoles is still under wraps, but what we can share now is that we are leveraging the achievements system for Xbox Live, so that everyone with a Microsoft console can go online and see how ninja-like they truly are.

GS: Thanks for your time, Nick.

Donkey Kong Jr. (gamespot)

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This is a perfect port of the NES version of Donkey Kong Jr.--all four levels of it.

The Good: All four levels from the arcade version are in this version too; some cleverly designed stages.

The Bad: Only four stages to play through; audio and graphics don't hold up well; gameplay is extremely simplistic.

Much like the version of Donkey Kong that hit the Wii's Virtual Console a few weeks back, Donkey Kong Jr. is a port of the NES version of the game--not the arcade original. But this fact is less of a detriment to the game than it was in Donkey Kong, as none of the original arcade game's levels have been removed this time around. Yes, Donkey Kong Jr. is fully intact, but that means you only get four full levels to play through. And though it was certainly a great game for its time, it's hard to get terribly into such a simplistic and brief platformer in this day and age. It's even harder to justify paying 500 Wii points ($5) for it.

I'm a comin' pa!

Donkey Kong Jr. is effectively a sequel to Donkey Kong, but this time, the tables have turned. Mario has captured the senior Kong, and DK Jr. must rescue his father from Mario's clutches. You go about this by playing through a series of four levels, each rife with pitfalls to navigate. The main trick to the gameplay is that DK Jr. can climb various vines scattered throughout each stage. Mario will keep tossing creatures at you that will either climb down those vines or hit you while you're climbing around on them, so you have to time your movements between vines, as well as your jumps around some of the moving platforms and other typical pitfalls, to avoid being touched. Each time you get up to the platform on the top level, you've beaten the stage.

It was a very fun game for its time, but it hasn't held up very well over the years. The only multiplayer is a two-player, trade-off mode, and as fun as some of the levels can be, with only four to play through, you're over and done with the game before you know it. Apart from DK Jr.'s cute character sprite, the graphics are rather archaic, and the audio isn't all that enjoyable, despite a decently catchy soundtrack. The short length and crusty graphics and sound are to be expected from a perfect port of a game from 1986, but for the $5 that's being charged for it, it's tough to recommend to anyone that didn't count Donkey Kong Jr. among their most favorite of NES games. If you're on a nostalgia hunt, there are far stronger options available on the Virtual Console.

Delta Force: Team Sabre (gamespot)

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The PS2 version of this military shooter addresses some of the issues that hampered its 2-year-old PC counterpart, but it introduces far more problems than it fixes.

The Good: Vastly improved squad and enemy AI over PC version; controls fairly well; large multiplayer games.

The Bad: Terrible presentation hampers gameplay ; frustratingly difficult checkpoint system; stripped-down version of pc game leaves many plot holes; unrealistic and overly punishing enemy accuracy.

OK, try this idea on: Take a nearly 2-year-old PC expansion pack for a nearly 3-year-old middling shooter that's very loosely based on a 5-year-old movie and port it to a more than 6-year-old system. If your immediate reaction was "No, that wouldn't be good at all...just, no," then you would be correct. Unfortunately, not everyone shares that seemingly self-evident wisdom, so Delta Force: Black Hawk Down: Team Sabre from developer Rebellion has been unleashed upon the masses. And though this PlayStation 2 version does address some of the issues that hampered its PC counterpart, it introduces far more problems than it fixes and clips out a significant amount of content. What you're left with is an equally frustrating, slightly incoherent, borderline busted, impedingly ugly-looking game.

There is a Black Hawk, and it does go down.

The PS2 version of Team Sabre is very similar to the PC version, but it does have a few distinct differences, most of which are for the worse. You'll still be hacking your way through missions set in the jungles of Colombia and the scrub lands of Iran, though portions of these missions have been cut in the PS2 version, and other portions have been considerably downsized. For instance, in the first mission, you'll begin by traveling down a river in a boat to clean out a local cartel-infested village. However, in the PC version, you begin by being air-dropped in by a Black Hawk helicopter, and then you must secure the boat to take down the river to the village. In the PS2 version, the village you arrive at isn't nearly as impressive because there are far fewer mercs, and their placement is less logical, as far as fortified villages go. This makes some of the transitions between objectives rougher than they should be, and you'll more than occasionally be furtively searching for that one last mercenary or other objective because of the lack of direction. Further aggravating this disjointed feel is the dialogue, which received even more substantial cuts. In the PC version, you get a fair amount of banter and exposition between the leader and the squad that worked well to fill in the story and provide a moderately entertaining backdrop to the action. In the PS2 version, the dialogue is reduced to annoying and poorly voiced catchphrases, so you never get a clear sense of what your purpose is--other than to frag some bad guys.

Several other changes were made to the PS2 version of Team Sabre with varying degrees of success. Most substantial among these is the greater emphasis placed on your squad. In the PC version, your squadmates were mostly brain-dead, serving no other purpose than to squeeze off a few rounds and look baffled when you took a rocket to the head and slowly crumpled to the ground. The artificial intelligence has exponentially improved for the PS2 version so much so that it makes your squadmates almost too efficient. On occasion, you'll be able to squat back with your head between your knees while the squad eradicates an entire host of mercenaries or insurgents. You'll also be able to receive a limited number of health kits and ammo from them, direct them to a flanking position, or alter their battle readiness. And it's good that your squadmates are more useful, because the enemies have been upgraded to be more aggressive and more prone to react when under attack as well.

Team Sabre was an excessively frustrating game on the PC, and it's equally frustrating on the PS2, though for different reasons. The PS2 game doesn't include a rigorous save system; instead, you'll hit checkpoints along the way, which you'll revert back to when you die. However, checkpoints are far too sparse. So in effect, they play out like mandatory saves, and you'll still end up having to repeatedly replay large chunks of the levels. Though weapons aren't quite as damaging when directed at you--and you'll have a limited number of health kits--being killed often feels extremely cheap for a number of reasons. First, enemy combatants are ridiculously accurate from long range with automatic rifles and rocket launchers. Granted, so are you, but the enemy will at least be able to see you coming, which leads to the second reason. Because of the muddy textures, abysmal world lighting, and severe lack of detail on just about everything, you'll never know there are enemies about until yellowish-orange streaks start flying around, or they're in a readily obvious post. This is especially bad in the Colombian jungle missions. And because the game doesn't help you out by displaying targets on your radar or equipping you with a color-changing reticle, you'll be relying on your squad far more than you'd probably like. Speaking of the radar, it isn't very detailed, but it will direct you to supply depots. And you'll need to hit these up often because, like children on the first day of school, your elite squad of specialists have forgotten most of their supplies at home.

When it comes to the actual shooting mechanics, the game surprisingly performs quite well. Aiming is accurate and responsive, and you have a fairly large repertoire of weapons that range from realistic rifles, pistols, and sniper rifles to satchel and other grenades. Calling for "a heal" and other squad commands is also unobtrusively and intuitively mapped out with a menu system that is initiated with the triangle button. Also, the actual feel of shooting is pretty decent, thanks mostly to the kick of the weapons and the force feedback in the Dual Shock. It's a shame that these controls are buried among the refuse that is the rest of the game.

Who's to say how many mercenaries are actually in this shot.

The game isn't nearly as graphically impressive as the PC version was two years ago. And the poor graphics hinder gameplay in a big way. As mentioned above, it's a veritable "Where's Waldo?" trying to find mercs in the Colombian jungles. At least the Iranian insurgents aren't shrouded in foliage; they're just ethereal silhouettes off in the distance. The audio is also a total mess because the voice work and dialogue are extremely low quality, the weapons have a tinny, weak sound, and the background soundtrack is nearly inaudible, which is probably a blessing, judging from the rest of the presentation.

Team Sabre offers a fully featured multiplayer mode, which will probably be the primary draw for most people to this game. Online, you'll be able to shoot it out in a large variety of maps that support up to 32 players in the standard battle modes of deathmatch, capture the flag, and so on. You can also undertake a short campaign in split-screen cooperative mode. These options do add some value to the package, but you're still playing in the same ugly environments, which really sucks the enjoyment out of the experience. The game is currently enjoying some player support, but with so many better, more technically impressive options out there, it stands to reason that the player base won't be sticking around for too much longer.

It's typically a good indication that something isn't quite right when you have to strip down a two-year-old expansion pack. Among the horrendous presentation, frustrating gameplay, and nonsensical story, you'll find very few redeeming qualities here. And because the first-person shooter genre isn't exactly lacking in variety or depth, you'll be far better off skipping this one and picking up a more enjoyable and rewarding game.