"Far Cry marked the beginning of a new era for shooters. An era of gorgeous graphics and of advanced artificial intelligence," declared Tony Key, vice president of marketing at Ubisoft. "We are confident that Far Cry 2 will have the same impact again on the FPS genre landscape."
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Genre: Action
Publisher: Vivendi
Developer: High Voltage Soft.
Release Date: Q3 2006
And lo, the seas did run red with blood, and the wolf did lie with the ewe, and the oceans did freeze. The seventh seal was undone, and an army of howling spirits was released upon the world entire, to destroy and undo all that man has built.
50 Cent: Bulletproof on PSP doesn’t look all that bad, guys.
Believe me, I’m as shocked as you are. This is in stark contrast to the PS2/Xbox title, which overcame the critical equivalent of mob violence to move something
Genre: Action
Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games
Developer: Rebellion
Release Date: July 2006
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If you're thinking scathingly bright pastel colors, silly '80s fashion, and the cheesiest of all TV music when you hear Miami Vice, then I'm afraid you're on the wrong track. The upcoming Miami Vice: The Game for the PSP is based on the upcoming film starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell, not the masterpiece 1984 TV series starring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. It was honestly pretty disappointing. Miami Vice: The Game, much like the film it's based on, seems downright serious. This
The game is being developed for Xbox 360 by Sierra’s own Swordfish Studios, in conjunction with Massive Entertainment, also a Sierra-owned studio, to optimise gameplay for the Xbox 360 controller
and implement a new heads-up-display (HUD) that is more functional and appealing for console gamers.
World in Conflict represents the next-generation of strategy games, pitting Cold War-era superpowers against one another with completely destructible 3D battlefields, blistering visuals, and a narrowed gameplay focus that removes traditional resource-gathering and base-building in favor of non-stop combat, tactical decisions and an FPS-like addiction to intense action.
World in Conflict presents a chillingly authentic
Genre: Stealth Action
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Release Date: September 2006
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There are tons of Splinter Cell games, or at least it feels that way. Somehow, Ubisoft can keep a new one hitting every 18 months (or so) and still leave the gameplay feeling fresh and fans satisfied. The upcoming Splinter Cell: Double Agent seems to be no exception to this general rule. Plenty of what goes on in the story and gameplay should feel familiar to fans of the Splinter Cell titles, but there are also some striking differences from previous entries in the
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Action Role-Playing
Developer: Secret Level
Release Date: Q4 2008
Golden Axe: Beast Rider is an odd beast because it both does and does not feel like a Golden Axe game. Initially, it's difficult to spot the elements that are related to Golden Axe but noticeably easier to spot the omissions. A single playable character and no multiplayer component could make some Golden Axe faithful scream in rage, but while some of the series' iconic gameplay has changed, much of the world setting has remained the same. Familiar monsters, both friendly and hostile, populate the
Genre: Action/Stealth
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Release Date: October 2009
A little while ago, Splinter Cell: Conviction vanished off the radar. It was originally supposed to come out in 2007, and there were even screenshots and videos of the game, which starred a long-haired, hobo-esque Sam Fisher who seemed to be very similar to Jason Bourne. However, sometime before the release, the game was quietly put on hold, and all info about it seemed to vanish. Earlier this year, Ubisoft revealed that the game was alive and well but had been completely reimagined. At E3 this
Get The Bad, The Ugly, and the Sober Trailer off WP (140mb)
This game will be very enjoyable for gamers who like “Western” films (e.g. ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’) or adventure games (e.g. ‘Three Skulls of the Toltecs’, ‘Another World’).
The main character is a farmer called Jack, a former accurate shooter. One day an injured Indian, being chased by Black Bill’s bandits, comes to his ranch. Jack manages to save his life, but in return gets his farm burned down by the bandits.
In bad need for money to rebuild his farm, Jack decides to participate in a
Genre: Driving
Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games
Developer: Bugbear
Release Date: July 2006
FlatOut was at best a deeply flawed game, but remarkably, the original developer has come back with a second installment that shows staggering improvement over the original. This time, Bugbear is a bit more serious about trying to deliver an authentically enjoyable racing experience, while still retaining the demented ragdoll driver-flinging wrecks that put the original title on the map. With everything from the production values to the depth of the various mini-games, FlatOut 2 is simply shaping up to be a bigger and better
Virtua Fighter 5, the game that pioneered the 3D fighting genre is back and online for the first time ever. The latest instalment in the popular series is currently under development for the Xbox 360 and will release this fall. Virtua Fighter 5 raises the bar for console fighting games including all the features fans know and love plus enhanced gameplay mechanics, leaderboards, and online multi-player.
Virtua Fighter 5 will deliver fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping action as players head into battle, taking on a host of popular characters. Play as one of the 17 default characters in the game or customize a character
Get the Switchball [X360/PC] trailer off WP (33mb)
Coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade late this summer and currently available for the PC on popular online gaming portals, Switchball challenges players to control an ever-changing ball along a narrow and challenging course suspended in midair. A polymorphous ball exhibits different physical characteristics as it changes form as either a standard Marbleball, a feather-light Airball, an electrically charged Powerball or a dense and powerful Metalball. Players will have to solve their way through challenging levels packed with tricky obstacles, traps and mazes. With beautifully rendered 3D environments including Skyworld, Iceworld,
Genre: FPS
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Bungie
Release Date: September 25, 2007
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With the multiplayer beta giving Halo 3 all the bonus buzz it would need to keep gamers at bay until September, Microsoft opted for low-key presentations at E3, keeping the game in a dark room for the huddled masses to watch (but not play). Much like the Fable 2 meeting, this was not meant as a comprehensive overview of the game — not only is Halo beyond such things, but Bungie is also attempting to keep a Grand Theft Auto level of secrecy
Genre: Action-Adventure
Publisher: Vivendi-Universal
Developer: Stormfront Studios
Release Date: Fall 2006
Buoyed by the sudden interest in fantasy fiction that followed in the wake of the Lord of the Rings movies and the monstrous success of Harry Potter, Christopher Paolini's Eragon novels soared to the tops of the bestseller lists despite being written by a fifteen-year-old and being arguably quite derivative. 20th Century Fox promptly snapped up the rights to make an Eragon film, and a veritable deluge of Eragon related media - the film, the final novel of the trilogy, and a video game - are all poised
Genre: MMORPG/PVP
Publisher: Gamecock
Developer: Auran
Release Date: Q4 2007
One of the interesting things about the MMORPG genre is that it is, technically, a niche market. Not everyone wants to play one of them, and those who do, don't tend to play much of anything else. As World of Warcraft has recently proven, though, it is an extremely big niche, with room for hundreds of variations on the theme.
Fury is one of those variations. PVP is a big part of most MMOs, but as most of the (deeply whiny) hardcore fanbase of those MMOs would tell
Get the King's Bounty: The Legend Trailer off WP (22mb)
Gameplay is divided into two major sections: adventure mode and battle mode. While playing in adventure mode the gamer controls their character in real-time. With several classes available at the start of a new game, the player moves through the adventure map seeking various treasures, fighting monsters and accomplishing quests tasked to him by the local stewards. Once in battle mode the gamer assumes the role of a war chief, leading his troops in tactical turn-based combat. Battles take place on land or sea, in dungeons or castles or even
Genre: Action
Publisher: Sega
Developer: From Software
Release Date: July 2006
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It's time to take smashing each other with giant robots to the next level.
From Software's Chrome Hounds is a next-generation squad-based shooter, the first mech game for the Xbox 360, and offers you the opportunity to go after your friends with huge, customizable robots. It's hard to find anything wrong with this.
In an alternate universe where the Cold War ended in the decimation of the planet, you take on the role of a mercenary participating in a conflict between nations, as a member of one
Genre: Real-Time Strategy
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Gas Powered Games
Release Date: Q1 2007
The Strategic Possibilities of Deluded Megalomania
The Gas Powered Games crew, including Chris Taylor of classic real-time strategy game Total Annihilation fame, really know how to get a point across. That title hit PCs in 1997, and a decade's worth of anticipation and expectation awaits the arrival of Supreme Commander, the Taylor-led PC RTS due out early next year. The Supreme Commander show at the THQ pre-E3 summit was a presentation, not a demo. Still, the sense of scale and the-galaxy's-at-stake drama emerged convincingly from
Genre: RTS
Publisher: TBA
Developer: SEK/Sunflowers
Release Date: TBA
No, it isn't the "Land of the Lost," but the world of Sunflowers' upcoming real-time strategy title, Paraworld, will certainly remind you of it. It's a land of dinosaurs and ancient tribes anachronistically juxtaposed with modern humans with shotguns and smug grins. It's a land that time forgot, but one that Sunflowers hopes you won't.
Paraworld is an example of the action RTS – a game of building a base, collecting resources, creating an army, and crushing your enemy without mercy. Other than the dinosaur theme, there are a
Genre: Racing
Publisher: Koei
Developer: Koei
Release Date: November 17, 2006
Of all of the titles slated to ship alongside the launch of Sony's PlayStation 3 console, Koei's Fatal Inertia looks to be one of the standout titles. Set in the 23rd century, Fatal Inertia is based on a sport that involves pilots flying around at incredible speeds and taking each other down, all in the name of honor and glory. At this year's E3, we got to talk with some members of the Koei team to check out their fast-paced racer, which is set to hit
Genre: Real-Time Strategy
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Relic Entertainment
Release Date: September 19, 2006
What Would a 30-Ton Tank Do?
The conventions of World War II-themed games have become so persistent and commonplace that the act of discerning cliché from authenticity is a grand struggle in its own right. Everyman heroes, squadmate drama, clear distinctions between good and evil that let you enjoy the shooting without much regard for the corpses piling up, forever referencing the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan – it's all endlessly recombined to balance the intensity-versus-authenticity equation in new ways that keep gamers
