PS3/X360/PC Preview - 'Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway'
by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2008
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Gearbox Software
Release Date: September 23, 2008
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With the glut of WWII-themed games littering the store shelves, it's getting harder and harder for people to figure out what sets each franchise apart. One can only bomb so many bunkers, kill so many Nazis (wait, actually that never gets old) and make the "difference" in the war so many times.
However, the Brother in Arms series has at least attempted to break from the pack by emphasizing actual storytelling, complete with unique characters, plotlines, cinematic shots and relatively meaningful conversations. While other
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Psychonauts is the very definition of a cult hit. It was released for the Xbox to solid reviews and poor sales, but word of mouth turned it into a real hit. All you have to do is mention it to people who've played it, and their faces will light up as they recall one of their favorite moments. The brilliant minds behind Psychonauts may not have released any new games since then, but they most certainly haven't been idle. Instead, they've been working on what
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It's hard to make a good superhero game but nearly impossible to make a good superhero team game. Characters like Superman, Spider-Man or The Hulk are hard enough to make work when the entire game is focused on them, but trying to put a bunch of heroes into a single game usually leads to iffy results, such as the lackluster Justice League games. The one notable exception to this has been the Activision superhero titles, X-Men: Legends and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. The two games
The original Just Cause had some big ideas. It thrust gamers into a gigantic tropical sandbox and invited them to tinker with some interesting gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, glitches and an overall lack of variety kept the game from being anything above mediocre. There was the potential for a truly unique game, but it was buried under the repetitive gameplay. Fortunately, Just Cause 2 looks to be anything but repetitive. In our brief demo at E3, we got a glimpse of a handful of the game's)
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It's been long enough that quite a few gamers have never heard of the System Shock games, two benchmark PC games that set the bar for challenging FPSes and, in their own way, for survival horror. When you hear older gamers talking about SHODAN or crawling through hallways with only a wrench to defend themselves, they're referring to the arguably classic System Shock 2.
We live in perilous times, my friends. These days, the game industry is either all about the single-player experience, or the dynamics of (God help us, sometimes massive) multiplayer. Remember back in the day, when it was only about two people? In games like Streets of Rage, Contra and Final Fight, you had to help out your partner every step of the way, or face mutual destruction. These days, we're lucky to get a "cooperative mode" in the games of our choice.