Yesterday, our prayers were answered; the Dark Knight is coming back next year. Yes, fall 2011 will bring us Batman: Arkham City, the follow-up to the award-winning Batman: Arkham Asylum from 2009. It's a sequel we've been frothing at the mouth for since the game's debut trailer, but there's one major problem: we didn't know that much about it.

Thankfully, that's about to change. Yesterday's announcement came with art depicting Catwoman and Batman in all sorts of trouble. The news that accompanies those images can't be far behind. However, it's not here yet, and rather than sit and stew in our own dismay, IGN's gathering the comic book geek power of Hilary Goldstein and Greg Miller to talk about what the new art might means, where they think the game is going, and how hot Catwoman is.


Greg Miller: So, Hil, Batman: Arkham City. Hell yes.

Hilary Goldstein: About time! I remember when the trailer came out a while back, we wondered what it meant to see the Arkham sign inside of Gotham proper. Now we know.

Greg Miller: Uh, do we? What the hell is going on? Did Arkham relocate and explode? Did a section of Gotham get so nuts they quartered it off?

Hilary Goldstein: Now we know, Greg.

Greg Miller: We know nothing! To me, Arkham's "move" doesn't look planned. In the video, it's a makeshift wall around what used to be a thriving city. In the artwork, it's smoking like a bomb went off.

Hilary Goldstein: But now we can make wild assumptions. Even with the trailer, I'd say that it looked like Arkham had to be relocated in Gotham City. So maybe something happens to Arkham, they have to set up a temporary version in the city. And that could lead to some stuff taking place even outside Arkham. This will be awesome!

Greg Miller: So, do you see it being a massive free-roaming thing? The walled off area in the video looks rather large. Can you go anywhere at any time? Will it be a large area that's slowly opening to you like the first game?

Hilary Goldstein: I imagine it will use that same sort of Metroid-style system where as you get upgrades you can access different areas. What's really interesting is that if Arkham is now in part of Gotham, there are opportunities for even more cool Easter Eggs. Could Crime Alley be inside this new Arkham?

Greg Miller: Meh. I was already there in the first game. I'm more interested in getting into the Penguin's club and brawling in the streets. How do you think Catwoman fits into this thing? Lots of people are saying co-op...

Hilary Goldstein: Ugh. I mean, I am glad to see Catwoman in the game -- and it would have been a real force to get her into the first game since it was all in Arkham -- but co-op? Yech. Why can't people be satisfied with a good single-player experience? I think co-op completely destroys the story for games. You just can't enjoy the story the same way with someone else nudging you along. And the first game was all about atmosphere. That gets ruined if I have to hear some idiot going "Oh man, turn Catwoman to the left. Oh yeah, baby."

Greg Miller: True, but I think the folks at Rocksteady know what they're doing. Now, I've been burned by saying that before -- Bryan Singer with Superman Returns, Sam Raimi with Spider-Man 3, etc. -- but I think it'll hold true here. If Catwoman means co-op, I have to imagine it's like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves co-op. You have an awesome single-player story and then specific, out-of-canon co-op quests.

Hilary Goldstein: I hope that is it. I mean, the combat rooms and stuff in Batman: Arkham Asylum weren't bad, but there's definitely a lot more bonus missions that could be added. Hopefully Catwoman isn't some awkward clone of Batman but is actually nimble. OK, so -- Robin? Think he will show? I wouldn't be opposed to Nightwing either.

Greg Miller: Hmm. Putting me on the spot. Earlier this year, that IMDB listing slipped and made it seem like Robin would be in the game. That's where the co-op talk got kicked up. I say it's 50-50. If he does show up, it'll be in a non-playable role. Maybe something like Oracle in the first game. There's such a devotion to this universe and so much was crammed into that first title that I find it hard to believe Robin and Nightwing won't make some kind of appearance -- even if it's just a bio or suit in the Batcave. Do you think they'll make the cut? Would you be fine with them appearing in co-op as well -- again, like Uncharted 2 where you have several people to be.
Hilary Goldstein: I think Nightwing makes sense as a combat option for an arena mode. Maybe even as an exclusive (like how the Joker was only on PS3 at launch). I'd be fine with that. I think Robin could be really interesting as part of the gameplay in Arkham City. Like if he were a smart AI-controlled character who could gain access to areas Batman couldn't or was able to back you up in combat. Again, not co-op -- but as an AI character as integral to Batman's success as he is in the comics. Unless they use Jason Todd as Robin. Then I'd like to be able to bash his head in with a crowbar and blow him up.

Greg Miller: I like that idea for Robin -- as long as the AI isn't stupid as hell. Now, what do you think of the fact that the released artwork is black and white? Could game be black and white like Batman Black and White? Some people are talking about it being a replacement for Detective Mode. Do you think it's just a cool look for the debut art?


Hilary Goldstein: I think it probably will fit into the gameplay in some way. And I hope it is part of the new Detective Mode. Why not make the art style at least look unique and cool in a mode, rather than the whole wireframe thing of Batman: AA? They could also be taking a page from Splinter Cell: Conviction (that's an Xbox 360 game, Greg). When Batman is in the shadows, the game loses its color so you know you're hidden. Such a brilliant way to handle stealth -- I hope they are "inspired" by it.

Greg Miller: Oh, I've heard of the Sexbox 360, Hill don't you worry. Speaking of which, how about Catwoman in that chain bondage? ME-OW!

Hilary Goldstein: I hope the gameplay is just like that crappy EA Catwoman game.

Greg Miller: Well, now you've broken my heart. What about the role of the other villains? Joker was in the trailer, but Two-Face is the one on the poster behind Batman in the Game Informer art we have.

Hilary Goldstein: Oh yeah, there are so many cool Batman villains were didn't really see in the first game. Two-Face is probably both the best and worst Batman villain, depending on how he's handled. I mean, I've seen him really be this tortured man who basically is Batman gone wrong. And then I see other times where he is just so frigging dumb and corny and lame. Do you have, like, three villains you really want to see?

Greg Miller: Two of the ones I want have all but been shown (Mr. Freeze and Two-Face), and I'd like to see the Penguin show up as just a reformed crook running a club. Still, give me Talia al Ghul. Let her bounce off of the Catwoman/Batman relationship. Introduce Damian so that the third game can be him teaming with Jason Todd to take down Bats, Robin and Nightwing. Go all the way down the comic book rabbit hole, Rocksteady!

Hilary Goldstein: I'm not sure you are aware, Greg, but I'm a pretty massive Batman fanboy. I've read something like 200 Batman graphic novels. And I have to say, Ra's al Ghul can be the absolute best Batman villain when done right. (Read Birth of the Demon, Son of the Demon, and Bride of the Demon.) But for him to work, he has to be the main orchestrator; he can't be a bit-player. So unless he is the kingpin of this, leave him out. But Talia is juuuuuust fine to include.

Greg Miller: Exactly. And she's hot. Drug Batman again and let her have her way with him. Again. Game of the Year.

Hilary Goldstein: Oh, and can we have Bat-Mite in the game? Just kidding, Bat-Mite is so friggin' stupid.

Greg Miller: Oh, dear lord, no. Please no. Outside of wanting more ladies in leather suits and no goddamn joke characters, what do you want to see on the gadget front this time around? Do you want the same stable of items? You want to drive the Batmobile this time?

Hilary Goldstein: Yeah, if they can make it fun to control, I am down for the Batmobile being part of the equation. They got a lot of Batman's key gear last time. I just hope I don't start at zero again. I hate games where it's like, every time they have to find a way to make you have no gadgets and work up. Start with Batman's usual assortment and then improve and add from there.

I do kind of hope there is a surfing contest so I can use that shark repellent exclusive pre-order bonus from Gamestop.

Greg Miller: Hmm. I'm betting you're starting at near-zero again. That's how the Metroid-style you want works. I bet you get a batarang and grappling hook to start with. From there, I'm sure they'll have a bunch of crazy crap I can't even think of.

Hilary Goldstein: And maybe like an explosive Boy Wonder to throw at walls?

Greg Miller: Or a real one. Have Batman just strapping exploding capes to the street kids he finds in the quarantine area.

Hilary Goldstein: One last question for you Greg. We've talked about Batman allies and villains. But what about other DC guest stars. Should we be expecting any guest appearances from other DC Comics characters?

Greg Miller: No. It breaks the game if you do. Batman's world is so dark and hopeless to an extent. If Superman or Flash pops up with their bright colors, why don't they just solve the problem Batman's facing in the blink of an eye? This has to be a "man versus the freaks" type of thing. If it wasn't, they'd call it a JLA game, it would be set in space, and it would probably suck.

Hilary Goldstein: True enough. Though everyone reading this just screamed out, "The Dark Knight Returns," which really should be the next game Rocksteady makes.

Greg Miller: No. Make a Superman game that doesn't suck, Rocksteady.

Hilary Goldstein: How to make a great Superman game is a topic for another time, Gregerino. I'd say that means we're just about done here.

Greg Miller: OK. Back to my cryo-sleep until they release DC Universe Online.


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Battlefield is going back to Vietnam, this time for a downloadable expansion to the well-received first-person shooter Bad Company 2. The add-on, due out this Winter for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, delivers four new maps, a rematch of sorts between the North Vietnamese army and the United States, and a change in the weapon and vehicle options to match the setting. I got my first taste of this huge expansion at an EA press event on the eve of the Tokyo Game Show.

If you've played Battlefield: Bad Company 2 before, then you know exactly what to expect out of the Vietnam expansion. The base game remains unchanged. Sure, you get different tools of destruction and new achievements or trophies to unlock, but the modes and basic approach to a shooter follow the guidebook laid out by Bad Company 2's multiplayer. That means a focus on team play, some objective based gaming, and wide open maps filled with destructible buildings and plenty of vehicles. Squint your eyes a bit while playing the Vietnam expansion and you can imagine you're still playing the original base game.



That, however, would be missing the point. Vietnam is the perfect setting to show off the power of DICE's Frostbite engine. Little straw huts crumble under the might of tank shells. The landscape is lush with trees and shrubs, all of which can be mowed down through machine gun fire. When making a game that puts such an emphasis on destruction, Vietnam is the ideal locale.

I got to play a Conquest game on a map called Phu Bai Valley. Here, each side was fighting over three locations of interest while doing their best to take out the opposition. Helicopters and tanks were in heavy rotation, though I also found that snipers have a ton of places to hide amidst the trees and huts. My favorite moment came when I crashed a helicopter into an armored vehicle, hopping out just before impact. That was a pretty great explosion.

I only got to play a couple of rounds, but what I played was fun. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is still a fantastic looking and handling game and this download is going to do a nice job of reminding everyone of just that. New maps are always a welcome addition to games with such a heavy emphasis on multiplayer modes, but this download is going well beyond simply adding new places to fight. It flips the script and puts a fresh face on a game that millions have already tried.

My quick impressions thus far tell me that fans are going to eat this expansion up. If you've grown tired of the Bad Company 2 gameplay, this won't do a ton to get you excited again as the core isn't changing. That said, this is a great way to reinvigorate the community during the holiday flood of new games

Settling in at a demo station in EA's booth at Gamescom 2010, I had my first opportunity to play as a lightsaber-wielding class in BioWare's upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. I was lucky enough to play a Sith character, an Inquisitor to be exact, which was preferable because, as we all know to be true, "Good is dumb." He wasn't a full-fledged Sith yet, unfortunately, just a trainee of sorts. Though his face was most definitely evil, filled with spikes and ferocious markings, he only had a training sword instead of the iconic electric death blade.

This was just following a presentation where BioWare explained to a crowd all the features of its big budget online game. It's a fully voiced MMO, which means when you talk to NPCs to accept quests, they actually talk to you through cut scenes with what seems to be quality voice acting. Your character will even talk back when given a choice in the conversation, establishing more of a sense of motive and personality, unlike in some other MMOs where you collect quests like you're stealing pies from windowsills.

Later on in a character class' life cycle a specialization can be chosen to open up more varied modes of play. For example, with the Inquisitor you can choose to go the path of the assassin and use double-bladed sabers while taking a more stealthy approach to combat and walloping enemies with high burst damage, or can go sorcerer to more effectively singe targets with lighting from a distance.



BioWare also made mention of the space combat in the game, which sounds like it won't exactly be free-roaming, but will allow you to do things like soar through asteroid fields, blast enemy fighters, and flee from capital ships. Since every player can acquire and customize a ship, this should hopefully be a nice diversion to the more traditional on-foot gameplay, and it's tough to say more without getting some hands-on time with the ships.

Back to my Inquisitor character, he was initially tasked with proving his worth by finding a certain NPC located nearby the starting area on Korriban. By roaming outside I found myself in a red rock valley along the sides of which were carved huge, ominous figures. I trotted around and checked out the skill bar. It wasn't very full yet, the character was very low level, but could still pull off a few useful attacks. Saber strike could be triggered at close range for a boost in melee damage played out across a flurry of strikes. Shock functioned as a simple ranged electrical attack, and lighting drain was a channeled ability that damaged, restored force, and slowed targets. If a fight proved to be especially tough, there's also the option to meditate to quickly restore health and force over time. With a cooldown of one minute, it seems like this ability is meant to be used pretty often, keeping downtime between battles to a minimum.

Out in the valley with a large pyramidal temple off in the distance, there was plenty to fight. A number of insect-like creatures were roaming the orange-red terrain, and it wasn't long before I cut a number of them down, inadvertently fulfilling a bonus objective on my original quest to prove I'm worthy of being a Sith. Then into the underground I went, where more of the creatures roamed. An NPC was standing down there too who wanted more of the creatures killed, and through a fully-voice series of cut-scenes gave me the task of blasting apart a room filled with the eggs of the creatures. Further in to the cavern network, a datapad sitting on the ground had additional instructions for wiping out bands of looters and robbers down in the tunnels, which I did and was awarded with a few bits of fancier armor. Finally I discovered the NPC that I was originally tasked to find, and he instructed me to kill or be killed in a fight against his minions to show that I'm properly prepared. How very Sith-like.

That's where the demo ended, and it'll be interesting to see how a higher level character with a wider range of skills might play out, especially in a group. If you haven't already, you should probably head over to our video page and watch the space combat trailer, and then join the rest of us in hoping this game might be ready for launch sometime soon.

Last night at the lavish Plaza Hotel just off central park in Manhattan, Irrational Games announced its next project. It's been almost three years since we've heard a word from the Boston-based developer on how it would follow up the critically acclaimed hit BioShock. Now we finally know. Prepare to enter the floating city of Columbia in BioShock Infinite.

Studio head Ken Levine was on hand at the event to introduce his latest project through both a trailer and an extended demo. The trailer is something of a tease. It begins by showing what looks like the ocean's floor and a city suspended under water. But the image turns out to be an illusion, as viewers are simply seeing a piece of memorabilia from the World's Fair in Chicago through the eyes of the protagonist as he is being drowned in a fish tank.

The camera follows his gaze as he is thrown to the ground and then out of a window by a hulking, mechanized creature that looks like a precursor to the Big Daddy. As the character falls we're shown a beautiful panorama of a floating city held aloft by massive hot air pouches. The character crashes atop a zeppelin and struggles to cling to its canvas sides before losing his grip and plummeting downward.

His fall is stopped by a floating bed of roses being controlled by a beautiful, dark-haired woman on the balcony of a passing building. She reels him in through force of will before being grabbed from behind by another one of the mechs, leaving the character in the trailer to fall to his death. Like the original BioShock trailer that showed viewers a grizzly version of their own death in that game, this world isn't looking to treat you any nicer.The setting for BioShock Infinite may seem even more fantastic and technologically advanced than rapture, but it's set in 1912, years before the events of the first game. In this adventure you play as Booker DeWitt, a disgraced former private detective who's picked up a new case. Your goal is to find a young woman who's gone missing and return her unharmed. The only problem is that she's being kept on the flying city of Columbia.

In 1900, Columbia is unveiled as a symbol of America's success as a nation. It floats around the world as a traveling World's Fair, a marvel of human innovation. But an international incident involves the city and it turns out that the airborne metropolis is also heavily armed. A confrontation occurs, and Columbia disappears into the clouds. DeWitt's lead in the case knows how to find Columbia, and how to find Elizabeth. The problem is that the city's inhabitants aren't that willing to let her, and her very strange abilities, just walk away.

The demo that followed the trailer was so packed with action, so dense with hints and nods to what we might experience in this game, that it was difficult to process it all. The first thing that is readily apparent is how visually impressive the title is. The same shiny water effects, sharp textures, and impressive art design as in BioShock, but there are improvements everywhere. The most significant of these improvements is the sense of scale. No longer are you trapped in small claustrophobic settings. Columbia is massive, and the separate floating city blocks drift through the air all around you. It's just one of the things made possible by the completely new engine developed for the game.

As the demo begins, DeWitt walks through the cobblestone streets of Columbia. Sun plays off of the buildings, leaves float through the air, and the view smacks of an early Americana. But like Rapture, something awful has happened here and death is just around the corner. A despondent man drives by in a half broken down carriage and a horse lies dead in the street as crows pick at its flesh. A separate section of the city floats just above, then shrugs and collapses in front of DeWitt, nearly crushing him. Another man sits on a park bench surrounded by the same black birds.

DeWitt follows the sound of a political speech to a town covered in picket signs. The messaging is clear, the citizens must take up arms to protect their rights from the anarchists. Wooden barrels filled with guns line the gazebo that a politician named stall is stumping from. As DeWitt approaches Stall, the man's eyes flare red, the air around him vibrates and he calls upon the citizens of Columbia to attack.

DeWitt goes for one of the weapons and comes up with a sniper rifle just as the man from the park bench unleashes a flock of attacking crows at him. DeWitt fights back and sends him careening over a railing as Stall latches onto a floating rail system and heads for another section of floating city off in the distance. DeWitt peers over the edge to find the crow man dead on a platform below, but he psychically pulls a tonic called Murder of Crows to his hand, takes a gulp, and gains the ability to control the birds. A blood covered raven perches on his hand with pieces of meat still hanging from its beak.
The previous sequence goes by in a flash, but it highlights some important features of BioShock Infinite. DeWitt can seemingly psychically push and pull almost everything around him. There are gas containers, pots and pans, and most importantly weapons, all of which he can manipulate at will. In one scene, he yanks a shotgun from a man's hands from a distance then turns it around and pulls the trigger. Also, when Stall turns tail, DeWitt tracks him for a moment with the sniper rifle, showing off just how large the city is. Mere specks in the distance are targetable and can fire back.

The aforementioned rail system is called the skyline and it connects all of Columbia's floating islands. It was constructed as a way to transport cargo but now the citizens of Columbia and DeWitt use a grappling device to slide along the rails at a break-neck speed. And this isn't just "grinding" ala Ratchet and Clank. Players can change rails and direction on the fly, engaging in combat as they ride the roller coaster-like tracks.

Stall has escaped to a part of the city equipped with gigantic canons, and he takes aim at DeWitt. The city explodes around DeWitt and forces him to hop onto the rails, riding first upward then accelerating down and around a bend. A deranged citizen comes at him on the opposite rail and DeWitt readies a hammer, pummeling the man through the air and into the side of a building, leaving a bloody splotch as he bounces off and downward.

DeWitt lands back on solid ground and enters a tavern to an audience that becomes almost immediately violent. What follows is a flood of combat that shows DeWitt psychically disarming characters, blasting them with gunfire, and releasing swarms of crows on a crowd of enemies. The sequence ends with a familiar lightning power used to fry enemies in their boots. When DeWitt confronts Stall a second time he stops one of the mortars fired at him with a wave of his hand, then turns it back on the gun and blows it to hell.

It's at this point that the attacking city folk start looking like a mob. The new engine can currently throw about 15 enemies at players at the same time. It's a good thing players will have some help. At this point in the demo DeWitt is joined by Elizabeth, the woman he's been sent to liberate from Columbia and she has some powers of her own.

Not only does Elizabeth react to the combat, she helps by using her own powers to add elements to the environments. In one sequence, she sends a rain cloud over a mob of enemies giving DeWitt's lightning an extra kick if he decides to use it. And he does have a choice. Elizabeth's actions will never directly kill people off, so she won't do all of the work for you. And according to the developers she won't get in the way either as players can choose to ignore her actions and handle threats themselves.

As DeWitt and Elizabeth head toward a bridge, they get pinned down by gunfire behind stacks of what look like kitchen supplies. Elizabeth somehow turns the metallic cookware into a cyclone and then fuses it into a molten ball of metal, instructing DeWitt to launch it at their enemies using the game's version of a Force Push. The plan works, but it's at this point that the two are introduced to BioShock Infinite's version of a Big Daddy.

These creatures have a human head set atop a large mechanized body. Their visible heart is encased in glass and their oversized bodies have something of a steampunk aesthetic, only slightly less advanced. Bullets don't seem to do much to the behemoths so Elizabeth and DeWitt try to bring down the bridge around the threat. She shoots a beam of light at the top of the structure (perhaps the same heat ray she used on the pots and pans) and DeWitt sends an explosive towards it to bring the whole thing down. As the hulking enemy tries to claw its way off the collapsing bridge a few more shotgun blasts send it into the abyss.

Elizabeth collapses in exhaustion after the encounter and a trickle of blood runs out of her nose. Her actions are extraordinary, but they also drain her physically. She needs DeWitt's help if they're going to take on the entire city.

DeWitt exclaims that the "thing" is what had been chasing Elizabeth. She corrects him and points towards the sky, at a much larger, much more ominous threat. A giant mechanical bird-like creature swoops down from a building, crushing DeWitt, leaving the screen black and ending the demo.

The demo showed off quite a lot for a game's debut. It gave us a look at a completely new setting among the clouds and a BioShock game with two compelling characters. Levine promises that by introducing two well-defined main characters, BioShock Infinite will make a huge leap in storytelling when compared to its predecessors. Though there was nothing revealed about the economic elements of Infinite or any hacking puzzles, this was just a first look. There's a lot more still to be revealed.

BioShock Infinite is scheduled to be released in 2012 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC so it may be a while before all of the wondrous secrets of the flying city of Columbia are known.

It's no secret that BioWare has made some drastic, and in my opinion positive, changes to Dragon Age 2 – faster attack animations, a distinctive art style, an adapted version of the Mass Effect conversation wheel plus a fully voiced main character. The updated combat is my by far favorite, as I found the formerly sloth-like animations to be downright dull.

I've seen the revamped warrior and mage classes in action but haven't seen much of the rogue despite its presence at community events like PAX. Luckily, I received some dedicated hands-on time with the final character class and got a peek at a pants-less party member. Here's a breakdown:

Strike Swiftly And True
Not designed for a tank role like the warrior or damage and support class like the mage, the rogue is more of a one-on-one fighter. Great for tackling bosses, the rogue is armed with the speed and nimbleness of a jumping spider. Aggressive, but stealthy, a rogue aptly navigates crowded battle zones with stun bombs and can backflip away from danger or can teleport directly behind an enemy, depending on their skill set.


Practice Makes Perfect
The rogue, like other classes, can be built out to enhance certain traits. Assassin, Shadow and Duelist are all specializations available to the rogue, and each offers a unique way to slay enemies.

Assassins are trained in the Antivan traditions, so they are able to mark their foes and call out a target's weaknesses to their allies, which helps increase the party's damage against enemies.

The stealthiest of all the rogues, Shadows are able to slip away at any moment in battle, lay low in the dark and then wait for the perfect time to strike.

The Duelist, though not as stealthy as the Shadow or as accurate as the Assassin, is extremely difficult to hit, so you can feel free to taunt your enemies while you hack away at them.

Getting A Face Lift
The first area BioWare showed off to the press and fans was the Blightlands, and it sure wasn't pretty. A brown color palate topped with burned tree stumps and rocks, the new "art style" didn't seem promising.

This time, I got to see a bit of Kirkwall. The entire city, though structurally impressive, has a rough populace. My party was exploring a portion called High Town, which is a nicer area but still seedy. Despite Kirkwall's less than stellar reputation, it proved that Dragon Age 2 will be a much better looking game than Origins. The buildings all shared a similar clean architecture, but there was a foreboding feel that lingered.

But the streets were nothing compared to the Chantry, adorned with giant solid gold statues and blood red candles, it reeked of religious worship.

Practice Makes Perfect
The rogue, like other classes, can be built out to enhance certain traits. Assassin, Shadow and Duelist are all specializations available to the rogue, and each offers a unique way to slay enemies.

Assassins are trained in the Antivan traditions, so they are able to mark their foes and call out a target's weaknesses to their allies, which helps increase the party's damage against enemies.

The stealthiest of all the rogues, Shadows are able to slip away at any moment in battle, lay low in the dark and then wait for the perfect time to strike.

The Duelist, though not as stealthy as the Shadow or as accurate as the Assassin, is extremely difficult to hit, so you can feel free to taunt your enemies while you hack away at them.

Getting A Face Lift
The first area BioWare showed off to the press and fans was the Blightlands, and it sure wasn't pretty. A brown color palate topped with burned tree stumps and rocks, the new "art style" didn't seem promising.

This time, I got to see a bit of Kirkwall. The entire city, though structurally impressive, has a rough populace. My party was exploring a portion called High Town, which is a nicer area but still seedy. Despite Kirkwall's less than stellar reputation, it proved that Dragon Age 2 will be a much better looking game than Origins. The buildings all shared a similar clean architecture, but there was a foreboding feel that lingered.

But the streets were nothing compared to the Chantry, adorned with giant solid gold statues and blood red candles, it reeked of religious worship.



Rogues are also blessed with the talent of archery, and they can equip either a bow and arrow or dual daggers. Not too shabby.

It doesn't have the words "tomb" or "raider" in the title, but Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is the best Tomb Raider game in a long time. This is a very different adventure for Lara. She's still spelunking for treasure, but Guardian of Light finds her playing cooperatively with a partner, introduces fun new arcade features, and gives players a new perspective on the iconic British action heroine. The result: you're going to fall in love with Lara all over again.

The story is mere fluff designed as an excuse for Lara to run into traps and encounter monsters. She uncovers an ancient mirror in South America, an evil demon is released, and The Guardian of Light, Totec, wakes up to help Lara save humanity. Story and dialogue are definitely the weakest parts of this game. Any time a giant monster or trap appears Lara offers up a "one liner," but they are entirely unimaginative and always made me cringe. It's also pretty ridiculous to watch Totec, who is supposedly an Aztec deity, running around puncturing fools with an M-16.

Story moments are delivered with animated cut scenes -- except the opening and ending moments, which are presented with that comic book pan-and-scan style that downloadable games are so fond of these days. It always looks a bit cheap to me. An intro is supposed to draw us into a game and the ending is a reward for playing all the way through, so I don't see why these important moments were the ones to miss out on animation.

This game is gorgeous, though. The environments are intricately detailed and there is a lot of verticality so you can often see new areas or some you've already visited in the distance. Because the game looks so good, I think I notice the faults more than I normally would. Many objects are destructible and look great as they explode, but then the pieces may immediately disappear when they hit the ground. And during a boss fight with a demonic T-rex, the collision detection felt a little wonky so that Lara would be warped into its mouth. Not a major buzzkill, but it did momentarily take me out of this beautiful world Crystal Dynamics has created.

But, that's about where my complaints with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light end. I had a blast with it from start to finish and several IGN Editors who I rounded up for co-op sessions did, too. Crystal Dynamics is really onto something here and I would much rather see more of these types of adventures for Lara than the traditional Tomb Raiders that have become stale over the years.

Fitting for an arcade game, Guardian of Light is about racking up high scores and enjoying some friendly competition with a partner. Finding treasure and killing enemies earns you points and you can compare scores with everyone on the worldwide leaderboards. You may find yourself good naturedly trying to grab gems before your buddy does or stealing their kills in order to boost your own score. Earn enough points on a level and you may receive a new weapon or upgrade. Each stage has optional Challenge Tombs that will offer up valuable artifacts and relics if you can solve the puzzle. Artifacts and relics can be equipped to your character in order to significantly enhance their skills. And then there are the many Reward Challenges in each level that grant weapons and items for completing random tasks like "destroying all the columns in the stage." There are many, many hooks here to keep you interested.

Speaking of weapons, there are loads to find and you can customize your character (Lara or Totec) with four at a time. Guardian of Light is sort of a dual-stick shooter that has you running around with the left stick and aiming with the right. The action is very satisfying and it's fun to experiment with the many weapons.

The puzzles have been cleverly designed to require the particular talents of both Lara and Totec. Lara has a grappling hook she can extend that Totec can then walk across like a tight rope. Or Totec can throw his spear into a wall for Lara to jump to. You encounter puzzles, start experimenting and trying different approaches, and then you eventually solve it -- together. If you ever had a friend watch you play a Zelda or Resident Evil game and offer advice, it's a lot like that, except in this game your friend is playing with you. It's great fun.

Over the course of the game the puzzles develop from simple one-step exercises to elaborate conundrums and you'll find that two heads really are better than one. Those Reward Challenges I mentioned become significantly more complicated than just destroying all the pillars, too -- but the artifacts and relics you can earn later in the game will turn Lara and Totec into super heroes.

Impressively, Guardian of Light remains a good time even if you're flying solo. The game doesn't give you an AI partner -- instead, you'll encounter slightly tweaked versions of puzzles that are possible to solve on your own. Since the single-player and cooperative games differ significantly, drop-in drop-out play isn't possible. All of your equipment carries over from single- to multiplayer games, though.

I should also point out that, at launch, Guardian of Light does not offer online cooperative play. That feature will be patched in later.
CLOSING COMMENTS
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a great adventure, especially if you're playing co-op. Despite the silly story and dialogue, I had more fun with it than any Tomb Raider in recent memory. With a great new look, clever puzzles, and loads of fun stuff to collect, this is an extreme makeover for Lara of which you will surely approve.

There's one James Bond game coming out this year that's got 007 fans cocking their golden guns in anticipation. Then there's Blood Stone 007. While Wii and DS owners are being treated to a re-imagining of one of the most beloved console shooters of all time in GoldenEye 007, PC-owning Bond fans have to make do with a consolation prize in the form of a third-person shooter from Project Gotham Racing makers, Bizarre Creations. And as far as consolation prizes go, this is about as comforting as an open-mouthed kiss from Dame Judi Dench.



Dench and Daniel Craig reprise their roles of M and Bond in Blood Stone 007, while pop singer Joss Stone steps in as the token Bond girl Nicole Hunter. And those are basically the only obligations to the Bond license that this game fulfills. Otherwise there are no memorable villains, no signature gadgets – even the Bond theme music doesn't properly play until the final credits roll – and the only moment even vaguely resembling any form of fan service is the time you get to briefly step behind the wheel of the Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger, albeit for no apparent reason. Otherwise this could be any other bog standard third-person shooter with Daniel Craig's expressionless face smeared across it.


The plot has you chasing biochemical terrorists across a handful of exotic locations in Europe and Asia, and at times the game can be quite visually striking – like when you're escaping an exploding oil refinery in Siberia, or chasing a monolithic earth mover across crumbling highway overpasses in Bangkok. Unfortunately such moments are both fleeting and few and far between, and Blood Stone's five hour campaign is mostly padded out with repetitive firefights against brainless henchmen with the odd interactive cutscene to spice things up every now and then.

Aside from the use of explosive barrels to take out your opposition – which comes direct from chapter one, page one of the FPS textbook – the main hook to Blood Stone's otherwise generic cover-based combat is the Focus Aim feature, which is basically a carbon copy of Splinter Cell: Conviction's Mark and Execute system, only in this case it doesn't really present any genuinely strategic benefits to the gameplay. For every context-sensitive melee takedown you perform on an enemy (Bond smashes their face into a table top and/or cuddles them into a deep sleep) you're awarded a Focus kill – and you're able to store up to three of them at any one time. When activated the Focus Aim mechanic allows you to swiftly dispatch enemies with a few quick button taps/mouse clicks.

On the game's lower difficulty levels, Focus Aim is entirely unnecessary thanks to the Call of Duty-style targeting that automatically snaps to an enemy each time you zoom in, making it easy to pull off headshots without the need for any further assistance. But even on the higher difficulty levels there's no tangible gameplay rewards for being stealthy, so whilst Focus Aim might be a slightly quicker and more stylish way to dispatch enemy goons it's far from essential, and at times we forgot it was even there.

Bond's smartphone can be used to display your current mission objective in the HUD, along with the location of enemies in your vicinity even if they're concealed behind walls, as well as scan for evidence and hack keypads and the like. Too bad it doesn't also let you play a copy of Angry Birds, because the smartphone is the closest you'll come to getting your hands on any kind of gadget from Q branch, otherwise your only tools are an assortment of samey assault rifles and shotguns, and the odd grenade launcher. Fair enough the Daniel Craig Bond films haven't featured many gadgets either, and Bizarre has tried to ape the style of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, but when the lack of gameplay variety as a result is detrimental to the overall experience, we think the developer should have been afforded some artistic license. Strictly as a shooting experience, Blood Stone can only be described as uninspired.

But when you're not shooting cookie cutter enemies or idly staring at your smartphone like a bored teenager, you're speeding along in sports cars and powerboats in one of the handful of vehicular sections in the game. These high-octane interludes are easily the standout portions of the single-player campaign, and although they're slightly unforgiving in terms of the instant deaths caused by head-on collisions and wrong turns into bodies of water, they at least kick start your flat lining enthusiasm levels as though each vehicle is packing a set of the glove box defibrillators from Casino Royale.


Sam Fisher's Daniel Craig mask was the hit of the Halloween houseboat party.

Unfortunately the cars and boats are entirely absent from the game's online multiplayer component, which consists of just three uninspired shooter game types – Team Deathmatch, Objective and Last Man Standing. You can level up and unlock new character skins, but otherwise there's very little gameplay meat here. Some Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit-style car chases with friends would have been appreciated, but as far as multiplayer experiences go, Blood Stone's seems very much like a last minute afterthought and is unlikely to extend the lifespan of the game by more than an hour or two at best.

Blood Stone won't just disappoint fans of 007, it will also frustrate those familiar with just how capable a studio Bizarre Creations is. The British developer consistently excelled with its acclaimed Project Gotham Racing series, and subsequently displayed versatility with The Club, an underrated yet fast paced and addictive shooting experience. And yet here we are with a game that combines dangerous driving with third-person shooting – clearly two of Bizarre's strengths – and the studio has come up well short of greatness. We're not sure if it's due to the restrictive nature of working with the Bond license, or if the game has been focus-tested within an inch of its life – completely stripping it of any real depth or innovation in order to appeal to the lowest common denominator – but Blood Stone is a shallow and short-lived husk of a game. It won't keep you entertained for an afternoon so much as it will merely pass the time.

We should point out that the PC version of Blood Stone doesn't feature the same graphical inconsistencies as the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, and is certainly the most visually appealing version of the game. However, some compromises have to be made in terms of the controls. A mouse and keyboard is naturally best for the on-foot shooting, but driving an Aston Martin with the WASD keys just feels too clumsy. Ultimately we settled on playing the game with a USB gamepad, forsaking a little of the targeting precision that only a mouse can provide.
CLOSING COMMENTS
Blood Stone is not a bad game: it's just a painfully average one. There aren't any majorly broken elements to it, but just because this Stone is relatively polished, doesn't make it a gem. There really isn't anything at all remarkable about it, and even though it's extremely short it still manages to wear out its welcome thanks to its extremely repetitive design. If GoldenEye is indeed the Sean Connery of 007 video games, then Blood Stone is the George Lazenby; not bad, but not good either, and forgettable in almost every way. At just five hours long and lacking in any real innovation or challenge, it won't leave you feeling shaken nor stirred, just shortchanged.

v>
Producator: Tigon Studios
Distribuitor: Ubisoft
Platforma: PC Xbox360 PS3
Gen: Action
Data lansarii: 27-Mar-2009
Website: Viziteaza
PC recomandat: CPU 2GHz, 2GB RAM, Video Card with 512 MB

Wheelman is an apparent undercover mission in Barcelona starring Vin Diesel. I say "apparent" because the story is pretty much never explained with the exception of a short cutscene at the beginning of the game. Vin just meets some dude from an agency who hands him a folder of info and vaguely mentions a world-ending thing that's in Spain. From there, you're Vin's undercover persona Milo, a no-nonsense driver for all sorts of bad guys. Throughout the game, you'll tear through the streets of Barcelona chasing a document in a tube, a guy named Felipe and more, but you'll never have any idea why the hell you're doing this thanks to the nonexistent story this game packs.

Seriously -- I'm an undercover agent, but I have no idea what group I'm working with. I get profiles of characters from the RAI between missions but I causally told some dude I worked for the CIA at one point. Who am I really working for? Who knows! Why
would the CIA come to Barcelona? Who cares! All I know is there are three factions of bad people in the city and I need to work with them all to find the big thing. That's it. These are pretty big storytelling flaws.

Making this feeling of detachment even worse is the fact that this is a botched take on the open-world environment. See, you can get through the so-called story of Wheelman in about eight hours, but this is designed to be like the sandbox world of Grand Theft Auto. OK, that's a lie; it seems like this game is designed to be a direct knockoff of GTA. When you pull up the world map on your PDA, you'll see green icons for story-based missions and then a number of colored icons for the seven categories of side missions -- stuff such as driving people to certain places in a Taxi, taking out your opponents in Rampage and escaping your pursuers in Fugitive.

What makes this feel disconnected is the fact that these things just pop up without any rhyme or reason. When you choose to do a cabbie mission, you just teleport into a car that's already got a passenger. Why are you smashing into other cars? Just because you want to, I guess. Sure, the missions can give you upgrades and such, but how does that make sense in this world? There's no in-game economy, so you're not earning money for these tasks; you're just doing them to do them and get the best rank. You don't feel like you're a part of this city. It's just a bunch of random instances in a sun-bathed Spanish town.

One of the greatest things about any of the GTAs was connecting with the city you were inhabiting -- knowing shortcuts, tight turns, or where people lived. You'll never get this in Wheelman because you can just jump to any mission you feel like. You pull up the PDA, select the mission you want and you can be warped to that spot. You don't need to drive there; you can just travel through space and time. This leads to you not knowing or caring about the city, but honestly, there's nothing to know or care about. Barcelona is colorful and bright, but it's wholly forgettable. Every street looks like the one before it with a few notable landmarks here and there. Just about everything's destructible, which is a nice touch because you'll be smashing through all sorts of crap, but none of it looks that good. In fact, when I was tearing through a patch of dirt, the mud my rear tires kicked up was so blocky that I could've sworn it was pulled from a PlayStation 2 game.

Yeah, I wouldn't want the moped either.Still, Wheelman isn't a complete failure -- there are some fun parts once you accept there's no story and the city is dead. What the game actually has going for it are a few completely over-the-top, unrealistic elements involving its vehicles. When Milo's barreling down the street and coming up on a car, you can hold down the Airjack button and watch a red arrow appear over the vehicle in front of you. When that triangle turns green, you let go of the button and Milo will leap from your ride to the new car in slow motion. That's right -- he's jumping forward from a speeding car to another vehicle that's going slower. Either upon impact or (oddly) after he's already jumped through the window, you'll see some shattering glass and Milo will be behind the wheel. It's completely unbelievable and it looks hilarious, but this is the kind of goofball crap I was expecting in Wheelman. This is actually fun.

Another ludicrous idea the game employs but can actually be a cool is Vehicle Melee. Here, the right joystick acts as your car's hit stick. When you're rolling down the street, you can jerk the stick left, forward, or right to perform a body check in that direction; it's like your car's wheels turned 90 degrees and you're driving sideways. Sure, it could never happen in real life, but for a videogame starring Vin Diesel, I'm behind the moves. If you wear down a car, you can pull off a finisher where the camera will follow the rolling ball of flame that used to be your enemy.

Sadly, the AI you'll go up against in Wheelman will quickly drain the fun out of these nifty moves. See, everyone in Barcelona is mentally challenged. Let's look at a simple example: there's a Trophy/Achievement for surviving a five-star wanted level for five minutes (yup, they stole the star system and achievement type from GTA). When I first started my quest to get this, I'd shoot a civilian for a while to get my level up (you can't kill police or innocents in this game) and start driving when the cops gave chase. My first few times, the cops caught up to me and took down my ride in a hail of gunfire (Oddly, there's never a car to Airjack when you need there to be one in these situations.).

Then, I remembered that I was up against idiots and tried getting out of my car and running from them. This strategy worked for a few minutes because every time the cops would get close to me, they'd climb out of their cars to chase me on foot but that animation gave me enough time to get far enough away that they'd climb back in their car to chase me and repeat the process. Finally, I got cocky around the three-minute mark and tried backtracking and they shot me. On the attempt that actually scored me the honor, I just drove in a circle around a courtyard. That's right; for five minutes, I drove in the same circle around a Barcelona fountain and the game's AI couldn't figure out a way to stop me.

This idiocy bleeds over into the hackneyed on-foot combat as well. Yeah, Milo can get out of his car whenever he wants to and he's going to have to do it a lot seeing as how a ton of Wheelman missions are "drive to destination, get out of car, fight dozens of bad guys, get objective, fight back to base." These are the types of mechanics that grate on my nerves. It's not that these tasks were tough; it's that they're so goddamn boring. You start at the alley entrance, crouch behind some boxes and pop up to shoot. When you've cleared all the red dots off your radar, you move forward and suddenly some new dots materialize a ways in front of you. It's your job to just mow down wave after wave of these dudes and it's not hard.

Health's regenerative in Wheelman, Milo's pistol ammunition is unlimited and there are a few secondary weapons he can pick up such as the shotgun and assault rifle. Comically, Milo'll store the secondary weapon on his back, but there's no strap or anything to hold it in place. It's just inexplicably stuck to the small of his back like he's got double-sided tape back there. I guess this shouldn't surprise me because I've seen Milo do a number of flat-out amazing things in this game -- he takes phone calls in his head without holding a phone or owning a Bluetooth; when you tell him to jump out of a moving car, he'll sometimes phase through the seat and just be standing where he was driving a second ago; if you see a car you want in the distance, you hit the button and Milo telepathically stops the car and jogs over to jack it; and he walked away after getting hit by a car, where he got bent in half to the point where his heels touched the back of his head.




When the bad guys get in cars, the action isn't much better. One mission had me facing off against a gang in a circular construction site and I needed to take out the leader in five minutes. However, once the leader and his cronies climbed into their vehicles, they just drove around the site in a circle. It wasn't until the five minutes were up that the bad guys tried to leave the site. Why they felt like they'd toy with Milo for five minutes when they could just take off was beyond me, but I don't think the AI thinks out any of its plans in this game. Keep in mind that you're working for three different gangs in Wheelman so that you can... um... get info on this "device" or whatever.

Anyway, you're helping one gang kill another gang and then immediately turning around and helping the one gang you just hurt. During the one cutscene where a gang leader called Milo on this fact, the wheelman brushed it off by saying he was just a driver. That satisfied the leader, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it works in real life. This one boss who runs a casino didn't even know I was working with the other gangs -- even after I led a lone assault on the casino that killed dozen's of the boss' men. Did he think there was another bald American who runs like he pooped his pants killing people in the streets of Barcelona?

For lots of the missions, you'll be going after a certain car or trying to get away from a group. This means that you're in a match with a handful of other vehicles and you'll need to clean their clocks using your vehicle melee skills as well as the few super-moves you have via the turbo gauge. As you pull off moves like "speeding" and "handbrake turns," a gauge in the bottom left corner will fill with juice; you can use this power to boost or perform two types of trick shots. The first slows down the action, coats the screen in black and white, and puts you in the driver's seat so that you can shoot 180 degrees. Circles appear on the enemy vehicles during these moments so you can pull off some instant explosions and the results can be pretty satisfying.

The second move does everything I just wrote about, except this one spins the vehicle 180 degrees so that you're now face-to-face with the slow-mo enemies coming right at you. This is great for taking out bad guys who you've gotten a bit of a lead on. It usually ends with you whipping the car back to the front and crashing into some obstacle that's popped up in front of you, but it still can be cool... except for the times vehicles exploded before my bullets even got to the gas tanks.

Crrrrrazy taxi. Except not that crazy, fast, or fun.Problem is you won't get that many leads as the game goes on. For some reason, when you hit your boost, it always seems the enemies hit their's as well. This means you rarely get the chance to get way ahead of the pack and deal out some damage. Hell, in the final missions, you're just SPAMMED with enemies. You'll be on the trail to taking out these gang leaders who are holed up in one vehicle, but whenever you get the slightest chance at popping the boss, three fricking underlings will t-bone you or knock you out of your turn. It's infuriating.

• Atari
• Terminal Reality
• Action
• Release: Jun 16, 2009 »
• ESRB: Teen

It's good. If you're a fan of Ghostbusters (and maybe even Ghostbusters 2), that's all you needed to know, so you can go out and grab your copy without worrying that you'll have to tread through bad game mechanics just to get a few good laughs. If for some reason you're a newcomer to the franchise, that's OK too. Ghostbusters The Video Game is a humorous and amusing third-person action-adventure with some clever mechanics and loads of personality. It's not all pleasurable, due to some tedious mechanics and other issues, but if what's most important to you is some lighthearted fun, then you'll find enough in this package to keep a smile on your face.