UFC UNDISPUTED 3 PLAYABLE DEMO NOW AVAILABLE

 THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship® organisation today announced the UFC® Undisputed™ 3 playable demo is now available for free download via Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, as well as PlayStation Network for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system.  Consumers will explore a fantasy UFC matchup between current UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.  In addition, they will relive a classic PRIDE Mode rivalry between renowned UFC fighters and former champions Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Wanderlei Silva.  The playable demo will also offer mirror matches, enabling consumers to play against friends or opponent AI as the same fighter, in the ultimate test of skill.  UFC Undisputed 3 is currently scheduled for release on February 14, 2012 for Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 system.

OUCH!

UFC Undisputed 3 will take players inside the virtual Octagon with focus on intense toe-to-toe combat, impressive visual presentation and significantly increased accessibility, including the debut of PRIDE Mode, two new weight classes and an impressive playable roster of more than 150 UFC fighters.  PRIDE Mode will enable players to fight for the first time in the renowned Japanese MMA organization and include official commentators Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros, authentic environments and notorious MMA rules, including the ability to execute soccer-style kicks, head stomps and ground knees to the head.  Finishing an opponent will be more important than ever through devastating new moves, responsive striking controls, refined visual presentation and the introduction of a brand new, graphics-based submission system.  In addition, players will now enter the Octagon with a choice between traditional and simplified gameplay control options, enabling them, regardless of skill level, to experience the intensity of UFC and nuances of MMA combat while executing simple standing strikes or more complex ground and transition mechanics.

Space Marine game review

There have been many previous attempts to get the world of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 into computer game format. Many years ago we had the rather good, but by today’s standards very primitive, Space Hulk, which was based on the boardgame of the same name.

Best among the spin offs though was the brilliant strategy game Dawn of War.

Which brings us to this latest release: Space Marine.

As the name suggests, you take the role of one of these military superheroes. 

And for those of you who are totally lost or did not grow up as a teenage nerd boy, I shall tell you what a Space Marine is.

They are the elite soldiers of humanity in the far future, in a universe that is defined by conflict. Genetically engineered and encased in a suit of power armour, Space Marines defend humanity against the slavering hordes of aliens and Chaos demons that constantly threaten it.

Or they are horrible fascistic bully-boys destroying anything different to them… depending on your point of view!

You are Captain Titus of the Ultramarines, who are the premiere Chapter in the 40k universe, appearing in countless novels and comics. You are crash landed on a planet with a few of your men and swiftly become embroiled in an Ork invasion… but of course, everything is not as it seems and there may be other forces at work behind the scenes…

The story is good, but not brilliant, there are no real surprises in the twists in the narrative. But it is exactly the amount of story the game needs to take you from one action scene to the next.

And boy are there action scenes!

There is an undeniable thrill to be had as you stand alone on a battlefield and watch as a horde of 100 or more screaming orks charge towards you. But you just grip tighter on your bolter and, For the Emperor, let rip.

The combat, which is of course the backbone of the game, is great. Blood flows. Lots of blood. And to begin with, the combat is surprisingly difficult. I fouind myself getting killed quite quickly a number of times before figuring out that while Space Marines are tough, they are not indestructible, so running headlong into the middle of an ork attack is a Bad Idea.

As your life goes down, you can build it up again by performing a finishing move on an opponent in melee combat. These are Fun, but not for the faint hearted, as they are invariably gory in the extreme and there are different, but equally over the top, ones for the various melee weapons you pick up during the game.

I’m not the best person to judge the length of a single player game, as I play pretty slowly -  but to me the campaign mode in this game is a healthy length, certainly when compared to the likes of Call of Duty. And the range of weapons and out and out feeling of fun will have you returning to levels again to have another go. This was certainly the case with me, and I usually never play a level again once completed.

Of course, the campaign is very much half the story, as games today will stand or fall on the standard of online play.

In this respect, Space Marine is very much hit and miss.

The mechanics of the online game are great. Character design and tweaking is always fun, and you can do a lot of this - choosing armour colour and patterns, or just opting for an existing Marine chapter.  And as is usual, new weapons and armour are unlocked as you progress up the ranks.

The games play well and are fast moving. First few times out are a bit daunting though, so expect to be killed quite a lot before you get into the rhythm of things.

The biggest problem with online play though is the lack of variety.

There are only two races to choose from: Space Marines or Chaos Marines. It would be nice to see some orks up there, they are in the main game after all, so the skins already exists. And the addition of Eldar and some of the other races that populate the 40k universe would be most welcome. As well as a limited number of characters, there are also only two different game modes: a team battle and a seize ground one.

Again, while these are great to play, it would be nice to see more options up there.

I am hoping that this will be addressed in future patches and downloads, or else the online experience will be a decidedly limited one.

However, don’t let that put you off! If you’re a Warhammer fan, you’ll probably have this already, but if you’re not and are maybe unsure or just a fan of shoot ‘em ups, then it is well worth a look.

Gameplay is great, graphics are superb and there is a lot of highly entertaining highly bloody violence to be dispensed to the enemies of Mandkind.

Get to it!

Driver San Francisco review

The original Driver and Driver 2, more so I would argue, were stone cold classics. You remember Driver 2? You remember how amazing it was to actually be able to get out of your car? You remember the impossible final mission?

Such a small thing as opening a door and standing up seems no big deal now, in this post GTA world, but it was back then. In fact, There’s a good argument to be made that GTA and the like would not be what they are today without the first couple of Driver games.

Of course, as we know, the series went off the rails a bit with the not so good Driver 3 and slightly better Parallel Lines. Could San Francisco be the thing that would breathe new life into the franchise?

On the face of it, the central premise of this game is utterly ridiculous.

It starts with Charles Jericho, Tanner’s mortal enemy, making a bid for freedom while being transported in a prison van. During the course of the chase, you (that is, Tanner) crash and end up in a coma. Don’t worry about spoilers, this is the first couple of minutes!

After that, things get a bit… unusual.

You see, from your hospital bed, you are able to ‘shift’. That is, jump from car to car and take control of the driver of that vehicle.

Like I say, ridiculous.

It is a credit to Ubisoft Reflections that this gameplay element works so well. In fact, it works brilliantly, and adds a much needed extra layer to gameplay that helps lift this release well above other driving games.

For example: you shift into the body of a police driver as they are chasing a criminal. As you pursue them, you can shift between yours and other police cars and wear them down, or shift into a car further up the road and use it to block your targets path.

There are loads of side missions like this – like scaring a driving instructor or taking on the roll of a movie stuntman among them, and the make great use of the shift system.

The player has a choice to take these on or to pursue the main story arc, although some of these missions need to be unlocked by playing side missions.

I should also mention the environment here too. It is huge. I have never been to San Francisco, so cannot comment on how accurate it is, but it certainly feels realistic. And did I mention just how big it is? Well, it is. Huge.

Graphics are astonishing, with some of the cut scenes being almost CG movie in quality. Voice acting is very good too, and the banter between characters is fun and funny.

I also loved the control system. The shift element is surprisingly easy to use, and the cars all handle well. The physics are not too realistic, making it fun for the casual player like me who isn’t a hardcore FORZA nut!

And as well as all this, we have online play.

This is fun too, although being the aforementioned casual player, I am sometimes out of my depth with the more… serious players out there. But there are some nice online missions and the developers have obviously given a lot of thought as to how they can utilise the shift ability to the greatest extent.

So, can this breathe new life into the franchise?

It can indeed, if you have time to catch your breath.

Child of Eden review

It is hard to describe this game. You really need to play it to get what it is about.

Only you don’t actually play this game, it's more like you experience it.

It is strange in way… much like Star Wars is just your basic rescue the princess from the bad guy’s castle story (it even has Black Knight and everything) and Alien is merely a haunted house story- Halloween on a spaceship- Child of Eden is, when you strip everything away, a basic on rails shooter.

But, like Star Wars and Alien, it is done in such a way as to become so much more than the sum of its parts.

It took me a couple of plays of the first level to get this, but when it clicked it was a real ‘wow’ moment and from that moment on I could not get enough of this game.

There are only five levels here, and each is relatively short, but because you need to accumulate stars to open the next level, you need to replay levels again and again.

But know this- you will not mind.

This is because designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi (he of Rez fame) has created something truly spectacular. The graphics are great. Mind numbingly so. Players are treated to a visual feast. Images swirl and… things... fly past. Things that cannot quite be described. And the colours. Oh man, the colours.

So, in summary: it looks divine.

And then there is the sound element of the game, where you will get better scores of you mange to kill the bad guys in time with the music, which will in turn add another layer to the beat.

Oh, and the bad guys are not bad guys as such, there is a story to this game. Something about a computer virus and you are killing of the viruses inside a computer. Never mind that though- as I said at the beginning, this is a game to experience, not just read about. 

So get it and jump right in.

Child of Eden trailer

If any of you have tried the Kinect in the Xbox, then you'll know what an astonishing piece of kit it is.

Things appear to have taken a leap forward if the trailer for the forthcoming game Child of Eden is anything to go by.
I think we'll be getting this...





Visit the game site HERE.

How do they do this???

I've just bought the dance game thingy for the Kinect. But I have one very big question- how the hell does this work?

How does it know that when you're pretending to kick a ball, your foot has hit where the ball is supposed to be and translate that into pictures on the screen?

I have thought long and hard about this and have come to the only logical conclusion.

It is magic.