Consolation Prize

I thought it would be prudent after the quite impressive Chronicles of Riddick demo to take Wheelman, the game designed to tie in with the movie of the same name starring Vin Diesel, for a test drive.

To be honest I was feeling a little bit apprehensive about this demo. After all, movie related games aren’t exactly renowned for there quality and generally give the impression of being thrown together just to ride upon the coat-tails of celluloid success . My expectations, therefore, weren’t high.

The demo kicks off with an impressive opening cinematic as the camera sweeps majestically over Barcelona harbour before finally speeding into the city itself where it centres upon a stationary car. Within, sits our protagonist, Milo Burik. He waits patiently, glancing in his mirrors, and doesn’t seem phased when a local police car slowly drives past. A few heartbeats later the camera pans to a building as we witness an unidentified woman exiting possibly what is a bank. She steadily walks towards the parked car, but seconds later an alarm sounds. It’s your job to get her to safety.

I must admit that at this point in the demo my impressions were entirely positive. The opening sequence had been enticing; the in-game graphics looked great, and I thought to myself that if Wheelman continues this level of quality and polish then maybe, just maybe, we would have a rarity on our hands: a decent movie-game tie-in.

Alas, it wasn’t to be, and the more I played Wheelman the more my enthusiasm diminished.

The initial chase through the city, evading the police and then a local gang, is quite entertaining as you streak through the streets trading paint with your pursuers and causing spectacular crashes which are played out in slow motion. In some respects it feels as if Burnout has had a small part to play in influencing Wheelman during this early chase sequence, but in fact the further you progress into the demo the more obvious it becomes that Wheelman is a concoction of borrowed styles all aspiring to make this more than just a racing game.

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Game demos seem to come in two flavours - those that ease you in gently and those that throw straight into the action without any explanation. In some respects the latter approach is perhaps the best way to experience a demo; the raw nature of being plunged into the deep end quickly highlights any flaws and it allows the formulation of an opinion based upon the time it takes to go from bewilderment to enlightenment. The faster this can be achieved, the more intuitive the game is to play.

Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena successfully takes the latter approach, and anyone who is remotely familiar with first person shooters shouldn’t have too much trouble learning the nuances of controlling the anti-hero Riddick and dropping straight into the game.

This demo doesn’t really give too much of the plot away. All that can be surmised is that Riddick has escaped, is working in cooperation with another mercenary, and is about to free all the captured prisoners aboard the Dark Athena. This story fragment is really of little consequence until we get to see the bigger picture in the released game, but it does at least give us a brief (very) insight into the characterision - especially that of Riddick, whom thanks to active participation of Vin Diesel looks and sounds like he should.

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Tom Clancy seems like he’s associating his name with a variety of games these days, and not just tactical shooters, albeit all of them having a military theme of some sort. The latest offering, HAWX, hopes to take to the skies with the aim of shooting down its nearest rival: Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.

I must admit that I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for air combat games. It’s probably because I had delusions of becoming a pilot whilst growing up and spent many pleasant hours flying around stark battlefields in games such as F-15 Strike Eagle
[1], and Gunship 2000
[2] – basically I would play anything from Microprose back in the day. I am always keen to see how any air combat game fairs; perhaps with the hope of rekindling a long lost passion.

With HAWX we’re thrust into the world of the PMC (Private Military Contractor) as an ex-USAF pilot now working for Artemis, whom have recently secured a defence contract with Brazil in the year 2021. In this demo you get to play through a couple of missions, although the first of which is really nothing more than an elaborate tutorial to familiarise oneself with the controls whilst practicing some rudimentary air combat against some remote drones. It does however demonstrate the difference between “assistance on” and “assistance off”. The latter apparently gives you more manoeuvrability but forces you to adopt a distant view of your aircraft, rather than a chase or cockpit camera angle - which to be honest you’re either going to love or hate. Personally, this view isn’t for me, and I found it incredibly disorientating. I want to feel like I’m flying a multi-million pound military fighter, not controlling a remote controlled plane I just purchased from Toys R Us. At least it’s an option – so everyone should be happy.

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Halo Wars may just be the perfect swan-song for Ensemble Studios. Best known for there Age of Empires series, this Microsoft owned development studio whom specialise in RTS games unfortunately shut up shop earlier this year (29th January) after completing work on what could have been there best seller to date given the strength of the Halo fan base.

Set twenty or so years before the events in Halo: Combat Evolved the demo introduces you to the first couple of campaign missions for the UNSC. In addition there are basic and advanced tutorials to help players more familiar with first person shooters acclimatise to the nuances of a real time strategy game, and there’s also skirmish mode to play against the AI on one of the maps.

Firstly, this does feel like an RTS by the numbers approach to the franchise and follows the familiar template - we have a base to construct, units to produce, resources to gather, and of course an enemy to smite. I’m struggling to identify any real innovation, and I’ll admit to not being an RTS connoisseur of late. But if you expect nothing more of the genre, then based upon my time with the demo, you’ll be more than happy with the results here as it is competently handled.

Historically, RTS games on consoles have suffered when it comes to user input, usually as a direct result of trying to map complex controls more suited to a mouse and keyboard to the limited options available on a controller. Fortunately Halo Wars feels like it has achieved the correct balance between simplicity and complexity and predominately uses the “A” button for selections, “X” for movement and targeting, and then the left thumb-stick to highlight options within circular menus and to pan around the screen. The net result is that you’re free to concentrate on the base building and strategy without having to navigate endless menu screens whilst wrestling with the controls.

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The skateboarding crown once held by the Tony Hawk franchise was put in dire peril in 2007 when a new kid on the block, namely Skate, made its appearance. Developed by EA Black Box Skate generated quite a lot of praise for its innovative controls and environments upon release, and now 16 months later we’re getting a sequel. To wet your appetite a demo of Skate 2 was recently released on Xbox Live Marketplace and is scheduled to arrive on Playstation Network imminently.

The career demo lets you sample the initial first moments of the game, enabling you to comprehensively design your avatar’s look and then jump into some simple challenges. The vast customisation options not only extend to tinkering with your facial features and clothes, but also your skateboard deck, truck and wheel selection - albeit only as far as your limited $300 budget will stretch. You can appreciate that in the full game you’ll certainly be able to completely style the look of your skater as more funds become available and additional items are unlocked.

Once you’re happy with your skater then it’s straight into the tutorial as you head off to Slappy’s Skatepark, learning the odd trick or two along the way. What’s initially quite impressive is the use controller to perform tricks; from simple ollies and nollies to kick flips and rotations, they’re all handled by flicking or rotating the right analogue stick. It does take a little bit of time to get used to, and undoubtedly you will fall off your board at some point, but it does feel like a more natural control method than just simply pressing a sequence of face buttons. Once at Slappy’s you’re met with the usual assortment of ramps, and rails to perfect your jumps and grinds, but there are also a few challenges to complete as your sick tricks can be photographed for Skateboard Mag.

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Mirror’s Edge has a lot of potential. It promises to take the FPS in a new direction focusing on the art of free running - Parkour - and away from shooting. In fact, FPS is probably the wrong acronym to use and it would be best described as a first person action game.

Mirror’s Edge is placed in a seemingly utopian city with clean streets and gleaming skyscrapers. All is not as it seems however, and this perfect society is in fact a mask for a totalitarian government with a penchant for over the top big-brother-like surveillance. The only way to deliver sensitive information in this day and age is to employ a runner - specialists in moving data under, over, and around the radar. This is where you come in as you play the role of Faith.

There are a couple of things that you need to get used to before you can get the most out of Mirror’s Edge. Firstly the controls are a little more complicated than one would usually associate with a first person game. This is mainly due to the fact that Faith can perform a variety of manoeuvres that allow her to traverse the environment with speed and grace or disarm dangerous opponents. But, it is also true that you’re brain will require a minor rewire to automatically associate “jumping” and “ducking” actions with the assigned left shoulder buttons on the controller. Secondly, you need to be aware of your environment and make good use of Faith’s “runner’s vision” which conveniently highlights objects that will be of assistance when traversing the cityscape a bright red.

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Going back a few years to 1996 I remember thoroughly enjoying Tomb Raider on the PlayStation. It was an amazing game to play at the time; full of exploration with intricate platforming levels, featured some truly stunning and varied locations, and was steeped in mythology which enhanced the story. Both gamers and the media alike took to the new English upper class gun-toting-ass-kicking heroine, Lara Croft, like ducks to water. And for a while everything was hunky-dory.

However, after so many sequels it got to the point where the game had moved far away from the roots of its success and had become just another run of the mill action game, albeit with a female protagonist. Thankfully the series was given a much needed reboot by Crystal Dynamics with the release of Tomb Raider: Legend – an enjoyable romp based on the Arthurian legend. And now we’re on the verge of finding out whether the series is going to continue it’s upward ascent, or is about to plummet back down to earth like a fallen angel (of darkness) with the release of Tomb Raider: Underworld

The recently released demo at least gives us an inkling of how the finished game is going to fare, and on the whole I’m pretty happy with what I’ve seen so far. Although there are still some issues that could do with being ironed out.

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While waiting for the release of Fable II this week, a title I’ve been anticipating for many months, I took the opportunity to play through the Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway demo. An historical tactical first person shooter based on the events that occurred during Operation Market Garden, an allied airborne invasion that saw two American divisions and one British division dropped behind enemy lines in the Netherlands with the aim of securing key military bridges.

The WWII historical theme may be getting a bit too close to overstaying its welcome since the market became saturated with sub-par historical shooters, but there’s no denying that as a back drop for a story it’s one of the richest veins a developer can tap into. And, if handled correctly, can still deliver a meaningful FPS.

I’ve never played a Brothers in Arms game before but I definitely get the impression that this is a more tactical shooter than say Call of Duty. Playing the role of squad leader Matt Baker of the 101st Airborne Division, you’re in command of a fire team which you can order around the battlefield to provide suppressive fire support. Suppression of enemy forces is in fact the key to game, and whenever an enemy soldier is in cover a small round dial appears above their head to indicate how “suppressed” they are; the aim is to ensure the dial is completely grey, thus making life easier for yourself as you approach their flanks.

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