10 - Infamous (PlayStation 3)In order to reach you goal you have different powers to your disposal. You’re able to blow enemies away with a blast, just like you are able with the Star Wars games. Furthermore there are electric beams which are you ‘machine gun’ type of weapons, and let’s not forget the grenades! With every mission you unlock xp and by killing enemies you will do to. This allows you to upgrade existing weapons and buy new ones.
Next up the climbing abilities of Cole. Before the explosion Cole used to ‘free-run’ a la Mirror’s Edge. This allows him to climb towards a ledge, balance on poles and perform all kind of stunts. By simply pressing X and aim for a specific ledge will move Cole towards that desired position. This all works very fluid. However on a side note, if you’re trying to fall down to a specific position it isn’t that accurate in some exceptions. This also adds another layers of depth. Imagine that you climb up a sky-crabber and jump towards the next building which is 600feet below…. You are up in the air, land, continue you’re firefight.
Combining the battle system with Cole’s climbing abilities and you get an awesome feeling. Furthermore this will give you advantages over the gangs which rule the streets. You can duck and lean while hanging on a ledge, pop-up and give a guy a headshot and continue your quest. Did I mention that this is pure fun? No, well it sure is!
All these action do consume power of Cole’s power bar. To fill it back to it’s normal level you need to refrill it. You can do so by walking up to devices which use electricity. So walk up to a freezer and press L2 and you will draw all the power out of it and fill up your own bar. This is a great addition which helps the pace of the game and ups the difficulty. Last topic about the gameplay. All this action is great fun and addicting. But this get even better because it’s a sandbox game. You can free-roam in a huge city and discover all kinds hidden objects and have even greater fun.
GAME FEATURES
POWERS
Since the blast, Cole has picked up some electrifying powers, Like some kind of human dynamo, He can draw electricity from the city’s power grid and use it to fry anyone that gets in His way. And just like electricity, His charges run through metal – so if nay punk tries to hide behind a dumpster or a burnt-out car, Just zap it and the charge’ll fry him quicker than a chicken wing.
But let’s get this clear, Cole is not invincible, Empire City’s in one hell of a state and blackouts are common – if Cole finds himself in a dark part of town and unable to access the grid. His powers are Gonna dry up. That means he’s vulnerable. So try to keep those street lights car batteries in sight….
9 - Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and the Damned (Xbox 360)
Bargains, bargains everywhere, which will get my money?
We all know about the wonderful thing that deals are, especially Microsofts’ very own Xbox Live Deal of the Week series which they’ve been sticking to for a few months now, we’ve seen major arcade games like Ikargua and N+ however there has also been quite crappy stuff (not mentioning any names…).
This weeks Deal of the Week is for the Rockstars’ latest title in the GTA series, the incredibly popular Grand Theft Auto IV. The deal is for the first piece of major episodic content “The Lost and the Damned” changing the price from 1,600 Microsofts points to 1,200 points. If they’d dropped it to 1,000, I definitely would of picked that up. Although as they didn’t, looks like my Microsoft points are staying in my virtual wallet for Trials HD which comes out tomorrow (hooray, the waiting is over!)
8 - Resident Evil 5 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
"GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley" will unveil yet another world exclusive on one of their upcoming shows: the global premier of a new Resident Evil 5 trailer. Said trailer will feature both CG cut-scenes and in-game footage so mark your calanders and tune in on Friday, May 30th at 1:00 a.m. EST to mess your shorts.Spike TV's "GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley" (GTTV) today announced that it will unveil the global premiere of the new trailer for Resident Evil® 5, one of 2008's most anticipated games, on Friday, May 30th at 1amET/PT. Composed of both cut-scenes and gameplay footage, this exclusive high-definition trailer will reveal never-before-seen elements of the game's storyline, as well as further hints into the mysteries that the game's protagonist, Chris Redfield, will encounter.
"Capcom's Resident Evil franchise is a favorite of our viewers, as demonstrated by Resident Evil 4 winning the Spike VGA for Game of the Year in 2005," said Geoff Keighley, host and executive producer, GTTV. "The debut of this stunning trailer further underscores that Spike is the number one destination for videogame world premieres."
Capcom®'s Resident Evil 5 continues the story of the Resident Evil® series. Set in Africa ten years after the events of the original game, players fight off infected enemies and animals with a variety of high-tech weapons. Resident Evil 5 will be available on the PLAYSTATION®3, Xbox 360™ and Games for Windows®.
7 - The Beatles Game (Multiplatform)
We don’t know what it’ll look like, how it’ll play or even what it’ll be called. But Harmonix’s collaboration with The Beatles is the odds-on favorite to be the biggest thing to happen to videogames, and maybe even music, in 2009.
The creators of Guitar Hero and Rock Band have turned millions of gamers into faux rockers with plastic instruments, letting non-musicians experience the joy of jamming. And what better way to put on a show in your living room than with the legendary music of the greatest band of all time? Harmonix is forgoing Rock Band 3 this year to concentrate its efforts on re-creating the Fab Four’s music in interactive form. Even if this were just downloadable content for Rock Band, it would be one of the best things to happen this year. As a standalone game, it’ll be unstoppable. (As long as Harmonix includes an option to sing the entire B side of Abbey Road without stopping, I’ll be happy.)
6 - Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (Windows)
For more than two decades, the tabletop game Warhammer 40,000 has captivated countless fans with relentless miniature figurine battles waged between hyper-religious superhuman space fascists, space Orks, space Elves and savage, genetically engineered insect-things that are also from space.
The transition to the real-time strategy genre on the PC went fairly well, but the onset of sequel-itis has left the original Dawn of War looking a bit tired. Fortunately, Relic Entertainment is bringing players back to the basics with Dawn of War II — namely, control of small, elite squads embroiled in close-quarters combat, with a number of traditional RPG mechanics rolled in. Dawn of War’s gleefully excessive brutality and visual flair have been revamped, adding tantalizing levels of detail to the act of vigorously throttling enemy units before hurling them through the air like a large, wet sack. There will also be bits of traditional base-building and resource gathering on the multiplayer side of things, but confess: We’re all really in it for jetpacks and chainsaw-swords.
5 - BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)
I’m anticipating this game in the sense that I’m anxiously holding my breath. 2K says that BioShock can be its Star Wars, meaning that this episode could be as awesome as The Empire Strikes Back. But the original BioShock worked so well because it had such a unique story. Will a trip back into the world of Big Daddies and Little Sisters be as interesting this time around, now that we’ve already experienced it?
More worrisome than that: Will the fact that Ken Levine and 2K Boston are passing off development to the new 2K Marin studio in Northern California change things? Developing the BioShock sequel is a tall order for a rookie developer. The original’s blend of intelligent political commentary and riveting human drama had me hooked, and I’d fall in love with a game that managed to recapture that feeling. I can’t wait to find out if Sea of Dreams can pull it off.
4 - Dark Void (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows)
Gears of War’s cover system is getting a bit tired these days, so when I heard at E3 that Capcom’s upcoming shooter Dark Void lifts it, I had to stop myself from yawning. But then the developer giving the demo twisted the camera angle to reveal that we weren’t walking down some dark hallway blasting enemies — we were flying up the side of a tower, leaping from cover point to cover point courtesy of a very Rocketeer-ish jetpack.
Moments later, the protagonist leaped off the side of the tower, cutting a beeline toward a wildly maneuvering metal disc. Try as it might, the disc couldn’t get out of his path, and when he alighted on top of the frame, a familiar sequence of button presses popped up just as they might in God of War. Triangle, X, Square and the craft’s pilot had been beaten soundly and thrown from the disc — only to have his ride hijacked, Grand Theft Auto-style, by our hero. Three minutes of gameplay and Dark Void had cemented itself in my mind as the sleeper hit of 2009.
3 - StarCraft II (Windows, Mac)
Let’s review: The original StarCraft, released in March of 1998, was one of the deepest, best balanced, most addictive real-time strategy games ever made. It had three richly varied races, an actual story and near-limitless potential for strategic variations. Now, Blizzard Entertainment — a developer that has never released a bad game — is finishing up a sequel with gorgeous graphics, new unit types and abilities, and improved online matchmaking.
What’s not to anticipate about StarCraft II? I mean, except for the fact that I’ll be losing my job and my friends and getting scurvy because the game will end up devouring every waking moment of my life. Some people are griping because Blizzard has already announced plans to hold back some content for expansion packs. But come on, do you really think you won’t get your money’s worth? People are still playing the original, 11 years later.
2 - Killzone 2 (PlayStation 3)
With a name like Killzone, you’d be forgiven for dismissing this first-person shooter as yet another hypermasculine, shades-of-gray gorefest. Don’t get me wrong — there’ll be plenty of blood sprays and vulgar übermenschen, but Guerrilla Games’ next stab at the good-guys-versus-space-Nazis formula promises to deliver much more.
The run-and-gun mantra of console shooters past has given way to a focus on tactical supremacy, with a snappy cover system giving you time to plan your next move. The slower pace should let us really appreciate the eerily hypnotic reloading animations and the stunningly realized crackle and pop of machine-gun fire. Right up until those brutally clever baddies either flank your position, or blow chunks out of whatever it is you were hiding behind. Good looks and brains to match. Where do I enlist?
1 - Rhythm Heaven (Nintendo DS)
I’m cheating a bit here, because I’ve already played the hell out of Rhythm Heaven. The game has been available in Japan for months, and it’s been riding the sales charts as if its name were Brain Age or Nintendogs. If you think that hard-core games have been pushed to the back burner in the Japanese consciousness, you obviously have not yet played Rhythm Heaven, a collection of hilarious, inventive and often brutally difficult music-based minigames created by the WarioWare team.
Failing to release the stellar Game Boy Advance original is one of the crappier things that Nintendo of America has ever done to you, but at least you’re not being cheated out of the sequel. I can say with deep certainty that this is one of the best games on Nintendo DS, and you should be anticipating the hell out of it if you like Parappa the Rapper or Elite Beat Agents.
