No official release date has been confirmed yet, beyond a vague 2012 date, but we’ll be sure to update you as soon as we get confirmation.

Looks pretty intense doesn’t it! Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is due to be released on 25th May 2012.

Fifteen years after the first launch of Rayman, players can discover or rediscover the legendary 2D gameplay that captured the hearts of millions of fans. 

Rayman is invoked by the Fairy Council to save the Glade of Dreams from the nefarious Darktoons. To help him, he teams up with his best friend, Globox, and two crafty wizards, the Teensies.

Players can control Rayman in the solo campaign, or have up to three friends join in or leave any time the game as Globox or as one of the two Teensies in the offline multiplayer mode using four controllers on one computer. There are 60 vast levels of 2D platforming gameplay to explore suited for all ages and all playing styles.  Players can unlock new abilities progressively and return to previous levels to discover new paths and secrets.

Rayman Origins PC will be available in retail stores and as well as online and Ubishop.

We may sound like a broken record here, but we really liked Rayman Origins’ old school sensibilities. At times it had us tearing our hair out with frustration, and at other times it had us squealing with glee. Why not read our full review of the console version of the game?

Check out the full details below:

WARP

15^th February | 800 Microsoft Points

Play as Zero, a lovable-yet-lethal orange alien with a big score to settle in this puzzle-based stealth action game! Captured by the villainous Commander and imprisoned in his underwater facility, Zero must plan his ultimate escape using his arsenal of alien abilities — warp, frag, echo, swap and launch.

ALAN WAKE’S AMERICAN NIGHTMARE

22^nd February | 1200 Microsoft Points

Can you survive until sunrise? In this brand-new stand-alone experience, Alan Wake fights the herald of darkness, the evil Mr. Scratch. A thrilling new storyline, hordes of creepy enemies, serious firepower and beautiful Arizona locations combined with a fun and challenging new game mode, make this a must for Alan Wake veterans and the perfect jumping-on point for new players.

NEXUIZ

29^th February | 800 Microsoft Points

For centuries, the Kavussari and the Forsellians have waged war. They have a fragile truce but, because of their seething disgust of each other, still pit warriors against each other in arenas rather than on the fields of war. These episodes of lethal combat are broadcast throughout the galaxy as entertainment – a spectacle known as The Nexuiz Competition – an arena-based first-person shooter where you can alter the rules of the match and the laws of physics while dominating opponents in ever-changing hostile environments.

I AM ALIVE

7^th March | 1200 Microsoft Points

One year after a worldwide cataclysmic event wiped out most of human civilisation, a man struggles for survival. Faced with an insecure, decaying and hazardous world, he scours a desolated city, searching for his long-lost wife and daughter. Survive the suffocating, murky streets covered in dust. Climb the teetering remains of last-standing skyscrapers to reach breathable air and find untouched resources. Explore the crumbling ruins of a once-thriving metropolis. Discover a changed human condition, punctuated by distrustful survivors, dangerous armed gangs and victims in need.

Stay tuned to newbreview.com for more coverage of these games in the near future.

Ubisoft have sent over a new trailer for their forthcoming downloadable game I Am Alive focusing on their interesting combat mechanics

As resources, such as bullets, are limited the key to survival is knowing when to attack, and just how you go about defeating your enemies. As the trailer shows sometimes all you need to get through a sticky situation is a believable bluff.

I Am Alive is set to be released in February as part of Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade House Party promotion, with a PS3 release coming a short time later.

Two new Just Sweat DLC packs will be downloadable through the in-game Just Dance store on January 17^th on Xbox 360 for a mere 480 Microsoft Points and on January 18^th on Wii for 600 Wii pointseach. The DLC packs include all new dance tracks by the Sweat Invaders: Beat Match Until I’m Blue, Touch Me Want Me, Dun N Dusted, Cardiac Caress, Merengue and Boomsday.

So if you want to be absolutely drenched in sweat at a party or social gathering (and lets be honest, who wouldn’t?!) then why not give these packs a download?

Beginning 15^th Feb, Xbox LIVE will deliver four back-to-back releases of some the best new downloadable games, with one new title a week.

The latest House Party title line-up includes:

·         Alan Wake’s American Nightmare: In this brand-new stand-alone experience, Alan Wake fights the herald of darkness, the evil Mr. Scratch. A thrilling new storyline, hordes of creepy enemies, serious firepower and beautiful Arizona locations, combined with a fun and challenging new game mode, make this a must for Alan Wake veterans, and the perfect jumping-on point for new players. Can you survive until sunrise?

·         I Am Alive: One year after a worldwide cataclysmic event has wiped out most of human civilisation, a man struggles for survival. Faced with an insecure, decaying and hazardous world, he scours a desolated city, searching for his long-lost wife and daughter. Survive the suffocating, murky streets covered in dust. Climb the teetering remains of last-standing skyscrapers to reach breathable air and find untouched resources. Explore the crumbling ruins of a once-thriving metropolis. Discover a changed human condition, punctuated by distrustful survivors, dangerous armed gangs and victims in need.

·         Nexuiz: For centuries, the Kavussari and the Forsellians have waged war. They have a fragile truce but, because of their seething disgust of each other, still pit warriors against each other in arenas rather than on the fields of war. These episodes of lethal combat are broadcast throughout the galaxy as entertainment — a spectacle known as The Nexuiz Competition — an arena-based first-person shooter where you can alter the rules of the match and the laws of physics while dominating opponents in ever-changing hostile environments.

·         Warp:  A puzzle-based stealth action game where you play as Zero, a lovable-yet-lethal orange alien with a big score to settle! Captured by the villainous Commander and imprisoned in his underwater facility, Zero must plan his ultimate escape using his arsenal of alien abilities — warp, frag, echo, swap and launch.

Check out the launch trailer, courtesy of our friends at IGN, below

Stay tuned to newbreview.com for more information on these great looking games over the coming weeks!

A multiplayer beta will be available in April for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

“Ubisoft prides itself on creating some of the most compelling and innovative experiences in digital entertainment,” said Adrian Lacey, IP development director at Ubisoft Studios – France. “Today we are feature complete in our MP, Single player and 4 player coop campaign modes. We have taken the decision to move the date in order to ensure that all these ingredients are pushed to the highest level and provide a truly unique shooter experience. The Ghost Recon franchise is known for setting the standard of high definition gaming and we believe the extra couple of months will allow us to reach that goal. We would like to thank all Ghost Recon fans for their patience and look forward to unveiling some exciting new elements in the coming weeks.”

For a message from the development team and ongoing updates about the game, please visit: www.GhostRecon.com and www.facebook.com/GhostRecon

The track will be downloadable through the in-game Just Dance store on December 14^th for 250 Wii Points, exclusively on Wii… sorry Xbox and PS3 owners!

After distinguishing himself in kart and football, Mario will set the Just Dance floor on fire with a fun dance routine showing off some of the most iconic environments and music of the Mario games.  We’ve got the first look at what you can expect from this DLC below:

This new track joins seven other recent DLC additions: Anja’s Baby Don’t Stop Now, Studio Allstars’ Jump, Olé Orquesta’s JamboMambo, The Girly Team’s TwistShakeIt, U Can’t Touch This and Soul Searchin by Groove Century and In the Style of Irene Cara’s Fame, all priced at 250 Wii Points each.

Sounds like the perfect excuse to dust off your Wii if you as us!

True to Michael Jackson’s ground-breaking and visionary work, the app allows users to experience the excitement and the magic of game environments, based on his iconic short films, in their own hands. Designed and optimized specifically for Multi-Touch on iPad, users are able to experience a more natural way to play rhythm games by drawing a series of shapes with their fingers according to the beat and choreography of the Michael Jackson avatar. Players can rediscover environments from Michael Jackson’s classic music videos with spectacular high definition graphics and sound.

Michael Jackson The Experience HD is available to download from the App Store for £2.99 and features 13 tracks including Billy Jean, Smooth Criminal, and Beat it.

These days it seems that almost every other game released at retail is a grim and gritty first person shooter featuring a cut-out carbon copy hero with a shaved head (and maybe a few scars) fighting against waves of Aliens/Terrorists/Nazis. Older gamers may remember a time when there was a greater variety of games available at retail, ranging from jousting to hospital waste management, and everything inbetween.

Those that miss the simple era of games should check out the latest entry in Ubisoft’s Rayman series. Rayman Origins is as old school as doing sums on a blackboard, a pure 2D side scrolling platformer in which Rayman and up to three friends jump, punch, swim, and glide through dozens of beautiful environments.

Despite the title this is not a game that deals with Rayman’s origins. Instead the game opens with Rayman and friends taking a nap in the Glade of Dreams at the Snoring Tree. Rayman and chums are snoring so loudly that it disturbs an mean spirited old woman in the underworld, who retaliates by sending a legion of monsters to take over Rayman’s home. It is up to you to clear the darkness from the land so that you can get back to the important business of going back to sleep.

The first thing that sticks out about this game is the art design. Graphically speaking there is nothing quite like it out there. The environments have a fantastic smooth quality to them that resembles something you would see in the best animated short category at the Oscars. Everything, from character designs to the levels themselves, is crystal clear and detailed, making this one of the best looking games of the year by far.

The art design is one of the game's strongest points

The basic aim of each level is to free captured Electoons, floating pink balls with smiling faces, and collect Lums, the game’s equivalent of Sonic’s rings and Mario’s coins. Simply completing the level grants you one Electoon, while up to two others can be found in-level by solving hidden puzzles. Meanwhile collecting as many Lums as possible can grant you up to a further two Electoons. Completing the level within set time limits can also award a further Electoon and a trophy, if you’re particularly fast.

Each world has a steady pace to it. You start each world by having to free a captured Nymph, who then grants you a new power, such as the ability to swim, glide, or shrink. The next section of the world revolves around using your new ability to solve some basic platforming puzzles. As well as basic platforming, each world has a level in which you ride on a mosquito and must shoot down a number of enemies. The mosquito can also suck up enemies and spit them out, turning foes in to additional projectiles.

During the first half of the game there is no major pressure to collect all of the Electoons, beyond granting you access to a bonus level in which you take part in a high speed chase. However, in the second half of the game you will need as many Electoons as possible to grant you access to the game’s main bosses. This means that you will likely replay many of the earlier levels over and over again in order to fulfil your Electoon quota for each of the boss encounters, because the new worlds that unlock after freeing all of the Nymphs are incredibly challenging.

Later levels require some really precise timing

It is during the second half of the game that the difficulty ramps up substantially. Early levels have incredibly generous windows of opportunity for each platforming section, so much so that my initial impressions were that the game was too easy. However, the later levels are populated with devilishly tough platforming sections, aggressive enemies, and instant-kill obstacles.

Playing in single player can be infuriatingly difficult because you can be hit a maximum of two times before you die (unless you manage to collect an extra heart somewhere along the way) and some of the later platforming puzzles require pinpoint precision. This can be incredibly frustrating at times, as the checkpoints are fairly far apart. During boss fights, in which you have to learn the boss’ pattern of moves before striking, it can be quite time consuming simply because one little error can lead to your death, taking you right back to the start.

Having said that, playing in co-op, with up to three other players, lightens the burden, as any player that dies can be revived by a team mate. If all players die then you have to restart from a checkpoint, but with a team of skilled players that shouldn’t be too much of an issue. In fact the only issue with the four player co-op is that, for the most part, there isn’t enough to do in each level to fully occupy every player. More often than not the player that is up front will take care of all of the enemies, leaving straggling players little to do other than pick up stray Lums.

The only real downside to the co-operative part of the game is that it only supports local play, meaning that you cannot go online and play with friends. Having said that the inclusion of online play may have gone against the spirit of the game, after all you couldn’t play online in the heyday of the Super Nintendo and Mega Drive, could you?

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 5/5 – Probably the most graphically impressive game to be released in a long time.

Sound: 3/5 - While the game’s music and sound effects are strong (the king of the Lums’ tune is quite catchy) there is no voice acting, beyond a few incomprehensible grunts.

Gameplay: 4/5 - Pure old school platforming, with plenty of objectives to complete in each level. One slight issue is the way the difficulty ramps up half way through, but this is lessened if you play with other players.

Longevity: 4/5 - With nearly 250 Electoons to collect in the game this will keep you busy for hours and hours.

Overall: 4 out of 5

Rayman Origins is a beautiful looking platformer that is evocative of a bygone era, crammed full with objectives and challenging gameplay. This is by far one of the best platformers available on Xbox 360 and PS3, and rivals some of Nintendo’s best offerings, which is a substantial achievement on Ubisoft’s part.

- Luke Mears

Game:

The Black Eyed Peas Experience is the latest Kinect Dancing game from Ubisoft, and features around 30 songs from the titular band’s back catalogue. If you have ever played any other Kinect dancing game then this will all be quite familiar to you.

This is essentially a big game of Simon Says, with you following the moves of your dance instructor to earn points. Match the moves perfectly and you’ll be awarded with oodles of points, and earn a decent rank. While there is no specific verbal feedback on how you are performing, the body parts that you need to move, such as hands, elbows, and feet, tend to glow brightly on your avatar, which is a clean and simple way of letting you know what you need to do better.

There are two modes, Dance Party and Deluxe Experience: Dance Party allows you to jump straight into the action and dance to any of the game’s songs, while Deluxe Experience offers something a bit deeper. Deluxe introduces the concept of followers, the in-game currency, which can be used to purchase outfits for your avatar. Each song is broken up in to three segments, dealing with a specific part of the dance routine. This slowly, but surely, introduces you to each of the moves for the song’s entire dance routine. Once you have completed the three segments you must then dance the entire routine, quickly switching between the dozen or so dance moves that you have previously learned, before culminating with a pose.

As you complete more songs you upgrade your venue, allowing you to pull in more followers. You start the game in a small nightclub, pulling in a couple of dozen fans at a time, and by the end of the game you’ll be filling a 100,000 seater stadium.

There are about 30 songs, each with their own difficulty level

Despite all the effort that has gone in to making this as deep a game as possible, I found that the desire to gain more followers and unlock more items of clothing rarely held my interest. Within about an hour or two of playing the single player I felt like I had seen everything the game had to offer.

The game’s multiplayer modes may increase the longevity substantially. Clearly this has been designed as a fun party game: two players can dance together at any one time, and a further two players can get involved by singing along through USB microphones. Unlike dance games such as Dance Central, the amount of physicality required of you is not that high, and, for the most part, the dance moves are fairly simple. This means that almost anyone can get up and play, making it an ideal game for young and old people that like to dance.

There are several different difficulty settings, and each song has their own difficulty rating. However, increased difficulty doesn’t really introduce any harder routines, instead it requires you to link dance moves together more rapidly. While this can be quite challenging if you aren’t very good at dancing, those with even the slightest bit of rhythm will quickly adapt to the change in pace.

One slight annoyance, that can also be viewed as quite a good feature, is the drop in drop out multiplayer. Whenever another person steps into the view of Kinect they can almost immediately start dancing as a second player. In a controlled environment this works really well, however in a crowded party, with people walking back and forth, it can get a little annoying having a second character pop in whenever someone stands too close to you.

The drop in drop out multiplayer is a great feature... in a controlled environment

Between songs you are bombarded with Black Eyed Peas facts (did you know that Fergie’s nickname was given to her because her surname is Ferguson, or that will.i.am studied fashion?) which, if you’re not a fan of the music, can get a little tedious.

For those that like to be a bit more creative, the Create a routine mode is a nice feature that allows you to string together your own dance routine made up from all of the moves in the game. If you cannot find a specific move when browsing through them you are given the option to perform the move and the game will show you any matching results. It would have been nice if you were able to create your own dance moves and then incorporate them into the game, but that may be beyond Kinect’s technical abilities. For now, those dreaming of dancing the Batsui to Pump It will just have to make do.

Review Round Up:

Graphics: 3/5 – Brightly coloured neon environments and some fairly basic character models. Nothing terrible by any means.

Sound: 4/5 – This score will vary depending on how much you like the Black Eyed Peas.

Gameplay: 3/5 – Your typical Kinect dancing experience, but perhaps a little too simplistic in places. Good for casual players, but more lively rhythmic people may find it too easy.

Longevity: 2/5 – I personally felt that I had seen everything the game’s single player had to offer within an hour or two. However, the real test of the game’s staying power is playing it in a party environment. Play it in short bursts at lively events and you’ll likely have a lot of fun.

Overall: 3 out of 5

The final score for this game will vary depending on your tolerance for The Black Eyed Peas. Personally I do not like their music, but I can appreciate the work that has gone in to making this fun party game that can be enjoyed by many different people. The fact that I didn’t hate the game outright should be considered quite an achievement.

- Luke Mears

Assassin’s Creed Revelations is the fourth game in the Assassin’s Creed series and considering how frequently these games are released (the first Assassin’s Creed came out in 2007) it is astounding how they are able to improve year on year.

Following the events of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, series protagonist Desmond Miles finds himself stuck inside of the Animus, the machine that allows people to relive their ancestor’s memories, and is perilously close to losing himself in the machine forever. In order to free himself, and save his mind, Desmond must live through the memories of his ancestor Ezio Auditore, who lived during the Renaissance, one last time.

This time Ezio is middle aged, and travelling the world in search of the secrets of the Assassin’s Guild. His new base of operations is Istanbul, and with it comes a new league of assassins to train. Much like Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, your aim is to recruit more assassins to your brotherhood, assassinate your enemies, and reduce the Templar influence in the region.

As is customary with the newest title in a long running series a number of changes have been made to improve the overall expeience. Whilst none of the changes are as dramatic as the changes made in Assassin’s Creed 2, the changes have produced a game that is better than its predecessor Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Ezio’s weapons inventory is now broken up in to primary weapons, such as the hidden blade and your sword, and secondary weapons, such as poison darts and your hidden gun. The primary weapons are mapped to the square button, while secondary weapons are used by pressing the triangle button. This slight change makes a big difference to combat, allowing you to switch between weapons on the fly far more smoothly.

Ezio has a new weapon in his arsenal, the hookblade, which allows Ezio to traverse the city with far greater ease. By attaching the hook on the ledges Ezio is able to fling himself higher than ever before, making it easier to climb tall buildings. You can also take advantage of the numerous zip lines located across the city’s rooftops, allowing you a quick exit if needs be. This also comes with the ability to perform a zipline assassination in which you use the momentum of riding the zipline to fling yourself, blades first, into unsuspecting foes.

Ezio probably should've taken more care when crafting his stink bombs

Where Ezio once had a limited explosive arsenal, Ezio can now create various types of explosives with the ingredients that he collects from chests and fallen enemies. The explosives are broken up in to three main categories: offensive, defensive, and distractions. You can customise the ingredients that make up your bombs allowing you to create numerous different types, such as sticky bombs, stink bombs, and an explosive filled with lambs blood, which can be used to trick enemies into thinking that they are injured. By giving you the choice of your explosive ingredients you are able to potentially create hundreds of varients of exlosives.

The final major change is the inclusion of a real time strategy section of the game. In Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood they introduced the concept of Borgia Towers and sections of the city that were controlled by your enemies. In order to reduce their influence you needed to kill a senior guard, climb to the top of a designated tower and set fire to it. This remains a key gameplay element, however this time your enemies will attempt to reclaim lost territory. When this happens you will take command of a small army and build fortifications with the aim of stopping the advancing enemies from reclaiming ground.

Every time you defeat an enemy you earn a certain number of morale points which can be spent on hiring more troops and building defences. There are several waves of enemies, with the final wave culminating in you being attacked by an extremely powerful vehicle of some sort. As well as dictating where your forces fight from and which types of troops to use, you can also directly involve yourself in the battle by firing your hidden pistol at specific enemies, or ordering where you canon fire will land.

The Den Defence sections are quite rare, which is a shame

Unfortunately these battles are actually quite rare, with the enemies only trying to reclaim land if your notoriety bar is full. How notorious you are depends on how frequently you engage with the enemy and complete missions. As the city is literally jam packed full of various enemies, this means that your notoriety bar will very quickly fill up. However, lowering your notoriety is actually very easily achieved; bribing heralds or murdering town officials will reduce your notoriety significantly, and considering that having a high notoriety level means that enemies are more easily able to identify you, potentially ruining any stealthy plans you might make, it becomes essential to regularly reduce your notoriety. During my playthrough of the game I only had to defend territory twice – once during the tutorial and a second time when I decided to let my notoriety fill up to see what would happen.

The main story is broken up in to nine major segments, each culminating in a fantastic cinematic set piece that gives the Uncharted series a run for its money. These set pieces usually offer the most varied gameplay, from being dragged along by a horse and cart, to using a primitive flame-thrower to destroy fleeing enemy ships. Each segment is made up of numerous missions each with their own optional objective, such as completing the mission without taking any damage. Completing these optional objectives is the only way to achieve 100% synchronisation and unlock everything in the game.

Aside from these changes, the basic gameplay is pretty much unchanged from Assassin’s Creed 2: you can run freely around a large city, completing objectives that range from your basic fetch quest, to more advanced assassination missions. Hidden around the city are a number of collectables, ranging from hidden books and documents, to shattered fragments of Desmond’s memory which, when enough are collected, grant you access to puzzles inside of the Animus. These are fairly rudimentary spacial awareness challenges played from the first person perspective, like a simplistic version of Portal, that fill in a lot of Desmond’s back story.

Much like Rome, the city from Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Istanbul is filled with derelict business that you can purchase such as tailors, banks, and blacksmiths. Owning these shops provides you with a means of purchasing extra equipment and upgrades, as well as boosting your overall income.

You play as Desmond, who is playing as Ezio, who plays as Altair... got it?

The game also supports stereoscopic 3D which, if you happen to have a 3D capable TV, is really quite spectacular. While you can certainly debate the merits of 3D movies, the advent of 3D games is a fantastic development that should be supported by as many developers as possible. The added depth really enhances the game’s sense of scale, making it seem like towers reach high up in to the heavens and those long perilous drops look as if they go on forever.

Multiplayer returns with a bigger focus on narrative, this time putting you in the role of a Templar agent going through extensive Animus training in preparation for a battle with the Assassins. Ubisoft should be congratulated on creating such a unique and genuinely thrilling multiplayer game; about a dozen or so players are put in to a small map that is populated with seemingly hundreds of computer controlled characters, each going about their business. Each player is ordered to take out one other player, while at the same time has the constant treat of being assassinated. In order to score points you need to take out your target as stealthily as possible, and avoid being taken out yourself. This leads to some gloriously tense moments in which you are constantly looking over your shoulder, trying to look for those telltale signs that that person behind you is not just another NPC, but a human player that plans on stabbing you in the brain.

As you level up your position within the Templar organisation increases, dealing out more information on the game’s back story, which acts as a decent incentive to keep fans of the series playing. Additional new features include the ability to customise your character and form guilds, as well as substantial training exercises that teach you the ins and outs of the game’s multiplayer modes (including the the new capture the flag mode).

The Playstation 3 owners get the added bonus of a copy of the original Assassin’s Creed, which you install directly from the disk to your hard drive. This is a nice bonus, introducing new players to the character of Altair, and also shows just how far the series has come since Assassin’s Creed’s release back in 2007.

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 5/5 – The environments and character models are fantastic looking, especially when you consider that there are dozens of independent characters walking around at any one time.

Sound: 5/5 – Strong voice acting courtesy of Nolan North, Danny Wallace, and John Delancie (Q from Star Trek The Next Generation) is coupled with a brilliant epic score.

Gameplay: 4/5 – At first glance the game isn’t that different from Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, however there are a number of improvements, with particular highlights being the den defence strategy game and the improvements to the game’s multiplayer mode.

Longevity: 4/5 – The main story is broken up into nine segments, which is slightly less than previous entries in the series, however there are dozens of side missions and over 100 collectables to find. Chuck in a lengthy multiplayer mode and you will have plenty to keep you occupied for the foreseeable future.

Overall: 4 out of 5

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is a thrilling cinematic adventure that features a dense single player experience and a lengthy involving multiplayer mode. While not being a massive departure from previous entries in the series, there are plenty of great additions to the game that make this a worthwhile purchase.

- Luke Mears

Game:

Movie tie-in games don’t enjoy the best reputation. For every occasional gem like Spider-man 2 or King Kong there are three or four under-developed clunking stinkers like Transformers or Iron Man. You might, then, be forgiven for approaching Ubisoft’s new Tintin game with a healthy measure of trepidation.

Fortunately, it’s pretty good.

In crafting The Secret of the Unicorn as a gently exploratory platform-puzzler, Ubisoft Montpelier have wisely looked to the company’s other work for inspiration. Prince of Persia and Beyond Good and Evil are the two titles that the game calls insistently to mind as you navigate  its multi-tiered, playful environments. Anyone familiar with the  original Prince of Persia game and/or its more recent HD remake will  feel immediately at home propelling Tintin across yawning chasms and  tumbling him down steep slopes in search of treasure and adventure and  also sometimes bunches of bananas and old tins of paint.

Combat is based around a simple one-button fisticuffs system, but the majority of  enemies are best dispatched using traps and objects found in the  environment. These encounters have a simply, yet rather delightful,  slapstick physical element to them; for example, setting an enemy’s  pants on fire with a torch hurled in his direction will cause him to  careen in panic into the two people in front of him, before crashing  into a nearby pile of dynamite that demolishes an obstructive wall. All  the game’s violence is handled with the same kind of playfulness as  enemies are made to skid on wet floors into walls or have chandeliers  dropped on their heads and are left prostrate on the floor, bottom in  the air and a halo of stars circling their head.

Combat is simple, but satisfying.

As with Beyond Good and Evil and Prince of Persia, puzzles are comparatively simple affairs, consisting usually of  triggering switches, aligning platforms and finding keys. Some of these  require the help of Tintin’s dog Snowy, who can squeeze into cramped  passages, dig for treasure and (in a move seemingly pinched from 2010’s  enjoyable dog-based action game Dead to Rights: Retribution) use his canine senses to follow scent trails. None of it will  particularly challenge the average gamer, but there is a pleasantly  imaginative use of physical space that manages to evoke the masterful  panel-to-panel progression of Hergé’s pages without doing anything as  crass as aping their form outright.

The main campaign, coming in at around four hours, is a pleasant enough  experience, but it is rather overshadowed by the extra co-operative game mode. Based around the hallucinations of a seriously concussed Captain  Haddock, this mimics the structure of some of Nintendo’s Super Mario games – specifically the progressive unlocking of doors to new areas from Super Mario 64 and the rambunctious knockabout co-op play of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Stripped of the need to follow the film’s narrative, it is more  ludicrous, playful and imaginative than the story mode, managing to  condense almost all of its best conceits into single levels and then  expand on them and move them into new directions.

New characters are  unlocked with progression, and the use of their unique abilities allows  access to previously-hidden areas of earlier stages, allowing the game  to suddenly develop into a sort of jaunty, clownish version of Castlevania.

The game's main story mode follows the story of the film

Less successful, but still fitfully entertaining, are the challenges. These  are culled from the single player mode, wherein they were originally  used to provide a little variety and breathing space from the  platforming. The sword-fighting challenges see you stepping into the  shoes of Captain Haddock’s nautical ancestor Sir Francis Haddock and  taking on waves of pirates in simple duels. Seaplane trials are mainly  simple checkpoint-races and obstacle courses, while the motorcycle and  sidecar challenges involve either time trial races or simple  driving/turret sections. None of them particularly stand out on their  own, but they provide a few minutes of entertainment for those looking  simply to dip in and out of the game now and then. They also feature  optional motion controls, but only the sword-fighting really accommodates this in any kind of satisfying fashion.

Review Round-Up

Graphics - 4/5 - A good job has been done of capturing the, admittedly very  peculiar, hybrid of Hergé’s drawings and real humans from the film, and  the game makes fine use of some rather painterly colours and  characterful, expressive animations.

Sound – 4/5 - Good quality performances all-round, charming sound-effects and a score that is occasionally preposterously Gallic. As an added bonus,  the game is also fully playable in French (at least on PS3), for those  unused to experiencing Tintin in translation and also for ponces.

Gameplay – 3/5 - Engaging and accessible platforming action makes up the  majority of the game, and it is a fair success. The co-op mode is an  enormous bonus containing a king’s bounty of imaginative gaming fun for  two players. The attempts to leaven the mixture with minigame sections  are not, however, as successful. None of them are terrible, but they  have no real spark or zest to them, and largely consist of repeating the same slightly soggy actions over and over again in slightly different  configurations.

Longevity – 3.5/5 - A short-but-sweet campaign mode gives way to deep and dense  co-operative platformer with dozens of unlockables and collectables. For those with the heart for it, challenge mode contains dozens of short  tests of reflexes/patience of varying difficulty. A fairly generous  package, all told.

Overall – 3.5 out of 5

Given past experience, you might be forgiven for imagining this would be better titled The Adventures of Tintin: The Curse of the Licensed Game, but Ubisoft Montpellier have dodged that particular bullet with some style. While perhaps not a game for the ages, The Secret of the Unicorn is charming, generous and fun, and in that respect captures the spirit of the character perfectly.

- Elliot Mears

Well thankfully games like that still exist! (YAY!)

Games in recent years like Little Big Planet (1 and 2) and Kirby’s Epic Yarn show that you can still make a brilliant game, without having to cram epically long cutscenes into our eyes, or force cliched, badly written dialogue into our ears.

Yet another case in point seems to be Rayman Origins, the forthcoming, latest title from the Rayman universe. Although the game doesn’t reach our shelves until November, we managed to get some hands-on time with the game before launch and it’s shaping up to be very good indeed.

The clue is in the title, but for those that aren’t familiar to the Rayman series, Rayman Origins takes the series right back to its roots, switching out the 3D visuals of the more recent games, for 2D graphics, harking back to the early days of the Rayman series (a nostalgia-fest). It is a move that seems to have proved the right one as, from what we’ve seen, Rayman Origins looks stunning.

Rayman Origins new 2D overhaul of the Rayman series is absolutely beautiful.

It’s rare for a big series of games to change up the graphics in such a drastic way (the only other two series I can think of off the top of my head are Zelda and Mario – Windwaker and Paper Mario anyone?) but you will be simply mesmerised by Rayman Origins when it hits the shelves just before Christmas. The level of detail on show (which looks almost hand drawn) coupled with lush slickness and vibrancy on display has resulted in refreshing graphical style, quickly becoming one of the most unique-looking games you’ve played to date.

But what really gets our juices flowing at the good ship newbreview.com is the game’s brilliant drop in-drop out multiplayer gameplay which looks to be, put purely and simply, fun.

Supporting up to four players, both local and online, players will take control of Rayman, his friend Globox and two Teensies, as they hop, swing, run and jump through a multitude of different side-scrolling locales (everything from glorious, barren deserts, to dark dank caves and lush jungles). As you would expect, along your travels you must collect various pick-ups, overcome obstacles and fight a ton of different enemies and bosses along the way (which, from what we’ve seen, have been BRILLIANTLY designed).

The locales and enemy designed look set to impressive.

There doesn’t seem to be anything groundbreaking or revolutionary in terms of gameplay when it comes to Rayman Origins (although it might have a few surprises in store for the full version of the game) but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The game gives off the impression that it’s far more concerned with capturing the same type of innocent charm and fun that games like Super Mario Bros Wii and Little Big Planet did, and from what we’ve so far it has achieved it emphatically.

Ideal as a ‘party game’, the genius of Rayman Origins seems to be that the team over at Ubisoft Montpellier look to have made a game which encompasses all there needs to be in an accessible, four player, side-scrolling platform experience, yet still leaves room for some unique innovation in terms of its graphical style.

Those who shun Rayman Origins as ‘just another Rayman game’ are certainly in for a surprise when the game hits the shelves. Could we be looking at one of the year’s biggest sleeper hits? We think so.

- Kieran Roycroft

The basic ‘manhunt’ style of the multiplayer remains similar to that in Brotherhood; across a few modes and configurations, you’ll stalk an assigned target, or ‘contract’, and try to avoid being slaughtered yourself. One intriguing thing about AC’s multiplayer was always the challenge of trying to look like an non-player character so that your pursuer can’t identify you from the crowd, and that’s a central gameplay conceit that’s set apart from the shoot-everything-that-moves-twice-if-possible approach of most online modes. The multiplayer of the AC world is about analysing behaviour, and considering how others perceive you. In principle, it’s smart, and subtle, stuff; though the multiplayer of Brotherhood was criticised for rewarding bully-boy tactics, too.

Some of the changes introduced for Revelations do a great job in supporting the nuanced approach. My favourite new thing is the honourable death action; if you’re being stalked, and you realise that the jig is up, you can demonstrate submission to your pursuer and impending doom, and earn yourself or your team some points in the progress. As a relative newbie however, I didn’t get much of a chance to appreciate the delights of the other new features such as special abilities and killstreaks; although in fairness, Ubisoft didn’t do the best job of explaining the controls or mechanics for these. You had a quick, cursory glance at the button layout, followed by a CGI cut-scene of an old man’s face getting up in your grill as if he was about to get off with you (looking left and right I could see others trying, and failing, to skip this, as was I). And then you’re dropped into it. As a result I’m not sure too many others would have come away with a good impression: with the context-sensitive actions and distinctive way that player characters move, AC’s controls do take a bit of getting used to.

Revelation's multiplayer is bigger (and better) than its predecessor's.

The star of the single-player session was, undoubtedly, the city of Constantinople. The main location in Revelations, it is pleasingly distinct from the Rome setting of the previous game: all warm lighting, irregular architecture, and cramped, crowded alleyways filled with spice merchants and beggars. I was pleased to hear that the famously hilly city had been faithfully recreated, with the developers promising plenty of places to sit and drink in the view after a long climb. It’s harder to get an impression of the single player from the demo shown, but I came away cautiously optimistic, if a little unsure about some elements.

Unfortunately, some of the animation shown in the demo didn’t match up to the lush design of the environments; in even only a short time, we saw a few limbs moving through bodies and awkward transitions between animations. What’s more, the first demo played out like a vaguely confused action game: we saw Ezio facing off against groups of ineffectual guards in swordplay, and, rather absurdly, dispatching an entire group by throwing a powerful grenade at them (we were promised that the stocks of these would be severely limited). I realise that the demo was meant to excite and amaze, but there’s a slight worry that Ubisoft have forgotten that we’re in this for the sneaking and the assassinating, not diving in like a generic badass. Thankfully the second demo, showing off a flashback to Altair’s time, was all about the sneak; this section, brighter and cleaner, also showed off the different visual style that is apparently being aimed for in these bits.

Protagonist of the original Assassin's Creed, Altair, makes a return in Revelations.

We got the impression that Revelations was going to be a fairly story-heavy and cinematic experience. Ubisoft certainly wanted to give that impression anyway, with those fancy-pants CGI trailers and the developers’ thorough explanation of the motivations of their protagonists. I imagine there’ll be cheers and groans at that news, as the storytelling of the AC games is fairly divisive. It’s a selling point for some, and those people will be excited to hear that Revelations aims to wrap up the stories of the series’ two main protagonists, Altair and Ezio, and aims to do so in epic style. Others will be sceptical at that: particularly those who banged their head in frustration every time they ran into another cutscene in Brotherhood. My impression is that finishing up the story is probably a good idea at four games in. It’s always a little worrying to see a series stop numbering its sequels so early on, because you wonder if the publisher is looking to start farming out yearly updates, Call-of-Duty-style. Doing so risks turning the storyline into an irrelevance, or, worse: a soap opera. Not that this is still an impossibility, but wiping the slate clean after Revelations would be a bold and probably positive move.

To these eyes, however, it was the multiplayer that shone out at Eurogamer: innovative, surprising and psychological, we can only hope that the balance tweaks and new features help to bring out the mode’s full potential. In any case, you can delve into the game’s pants to search out any surprising Revelations on November 15th. It’ll be released on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

-Gareth Lloyd

I Am Alive follows an everyman’s journey to find his wife and daughter, who were lost during the “Event.” A year later, he finds Haventon, his hometown, in shambles. Buildings are destroyed, toxic ash fills the streets, and society has been torn, causing inhabitants to take all necessary actions to survive.

“We know people have been waiting for this game to arrive, and we believe it’s going to be worth the wait,” said Adam Novickas, Director of Marketing at Ubisoft. “I Am Alive presents a unique take on the post-apocalyptic, survival genre by creating more complex and emotional situations for the player. Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network are the perfect platforms to leverage the mature and challenging experiences of the game.”

In I Am Alive, players will be challenged by both their environment and their enemies. Stamina and resource management are key when being exposed to deadly atmospheres and scaling enormous buildings in search of supplies. The unique combat system requires players to utilize intimidation: cowards are easily swayed with an empty gun, while other enemies will put players to the test.

So far we only have a vague “winter” release date for the game, so stay tuned to newbreview.com for more details as and when we get them.

Game:

Driver San Francisco is the latest entry in the long running Driver series and, at first glance, the basic gameplay remains the same as the previous entries in the series. You drive around a large open city, chasing bad guys in your car and in turn get chased by baddies in their cars. However shortly after completing the first mission the series takes a dramatic left turn into strange and unfamiliar territory.

Series protagonist, and all-round super-cop, John Tanner is once again after master criminal Charles Jericho, however this time Tanner is caught in a horrific car accident that puts him into a coma. Being the super-cop that he is, he doesn’t let a little thing like unconsciousness stop him from solving vehicle related crimes.

The vast majority of the game takes place inside Tanner’s mind, where he finds that he has the strange ability to leave his body, called Shifting, that allows him to possess other drivers… sort of like a cross between Life on Mars and Quantum Leap. As well as being incredibly meta, Shifting is this game’s strongest point by far, and differentiates it substantially from other open world driving games out there.

Shifting can be used in a number of ways, both defensively and offensively. On the most basic level you can use it to switch vehicles on the fly, while more advanced tactics include possessing large vehicles and using them to block off certain parts of the road… or just take control of a truck and use it to ram your opponent off the road. Basically, this system is fantastically inventive and can be as deep and as complex as you want it to be.

As well as being a cool gameplay mechanic, this also allows you to quickly navigate the large sprawling open world in which you are racing. Simply press the shift button and you propel yourself in to the stratosphere, granting you a bird’s eye view of the city, which quickly allows you to identify key points of interest, as well as travel from one side of the city to the other with ease.

Shifting allows you to get a birds eye view of the city

The game is broken up in to about 10 chapters, each with about half a dozen key missions that you must complete. These range from basic races, chases, and missions in which you must escape from pursuers, as well as key story missions. There are also dozens of optional side missions in which you must perform specific tasks, such as overtaking a set number of vehicles, or destroy specific targets. Completing missions rewards you with points which can be used to buy upgrades to improve your performance, including new offensive abilities, unlock additional bonus challenges, and open up more areas of the city for you to explore.

Every action you perform in the game, from drifting around corners to racing through oncoming traffic, awards you with points. Even if you fail a mission the points that you earned curing that attempt at completing the mission still carry over. This is a particularly welcome feature, as it means that upgrades are always within your reach, even if you are not very good at the game.

The multiplayer effectively has you compete in these challenges against other players, as well as allowing you to compete in more traditional multiplayer races. Shift can be used in all game modes, unless otherwise specified, and acts as the ultimate equaliser in multiplayer. Say you are in a race and struggling in last place, thanks to the fact that all races take place on busy public roads, you can just skip ahead and take control of a passing vehicle, likewise if a specific racer is doing too well you can shift in to a vehicle further up the road and charge straight in to his path. The number of times you can shift is dictated by an energy bar at the bottom of the screen, which prevents players from abusing the system.

Splitscreen multiplayer is a big bonus

The multiplayer initially required a code to play online (which came with all new copies of the game) but following a serious printing error Ubisoft have allowed all owners of the game the right to play online. They have also granted access to a video editor mode that allows you to take footage from your game and create clips to upload to Ubisoft’s website. Kudos must also be given for making all multiplayer modes playable in offline split-screen. This is something that more developers should do.

Much like the movies from which Driver takes its influence, vehicle handling is very loose, with vehicles swerving around corners with only the tiniest provocation, spinning tyres, and oodles of burnt rubber. This is all well and good until you hit dirt roads, then cars veer around uncontrollably. This is particularly frustrating around half way through the game when you must win a specific dirt track race in order to progress through the story. I personally don’t like the way a lot of the cars veer out of control when taking corners, but that may be more of a testament to my lack of driving skills than anything else.

The game’s city of San Francisco is a perpetually sunny, hilly metropolis, teaming with traffic; it is not a slavish recreation of the real world city. As the Driver series has always been heavily influenced by late 60s’/early 70′s chase movies, most notably Bullitt, it is appropriate then that the car radio stations play nothing but funky soul music. If that isn’t your sort of thing then that may get on your nerves, but for the most part the soundtrack fits in perfectly.

If you're a sadist you can play the game entirely in the first person perspective

Similarly the voice acting and script may not be to everyone’s taste, but the (fairly predictable) story is acted out by competent actors with enough enthusiasm to stop it from ever becoming tedious. In fact a number of the cursory side characters that you come across have some of the best dialogue in the game, such as a man that has been bitten by a spider whose poisonous bite is slowly rotting his mind with hallucinogenic venom.

Review Round-Up

Graphics – 4/5: The city of San Francisco is not slavishly replicated, but instead is a vague approximation of what you think San Francisco is like – large red bridge, lots of hills, that sort of thing – and the cars look great.

Sound – 3/5: A funky soundtrack is complimented by enthusiastic voice acting.

Gameplay – 4/5: Despite some wonky vehicle handling there are a wide variety of mission types, so things rarely get boring. The strong single player mode is complimented by a wealth of multiplayer modes.

Longevity – 5/5: There are about sixty story missions as well as dozens of side missions and collectibles. There is fun to be found in splicing together your gameplay footage in the game’s video editor. Did I mention that there are about a dozen multiplayer modes, as well as some soon to be released free DLC?

Overall: 4 out of 5

Despite the odd issue with vehicle handling, Driver San Francisco is an inventive original open-world racer that brings something new to the table in the form of the Shift mechanic. As well as acting as an innovative way to navigate the city in the single player, this acts as the great equaliser in online multiplayer, giving players of all skills the chance to earn experience.

- Luke Mears

OK, how much fun does that look!

200 racers per track? Create your own tracks?

So, you could have 200 racers simultaneously racing your track! That is clearly very awesome!

- Richard “Rax” Burley
@Raxous

Just Dance 3’s track list offers a wide range of songs drawn from classic hits and legendary songs to today’s chart-toppers, including Party Rock by LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock, I Feel Love by Donna Summer, I Was Made for Lovin’ You by Kiss, in addition to Barbra Streisand by Duck Sauce and many other great dance party songs! The game also explores many different music genres such as Bollywood music and Reggaeton. And for those who still want more, they will be able to download tracks from an expanding catalogue of new hits.

Tracks available in Just Dance 3 include:

1.       2 Unlimited – “No Limit”

2.       a-ha – “Take On Me”

3.       Anja – “Dance All Nite”

4.       Bananarama – “Venus”

5.       Black Eyed Peas – “Pump It”

6.       Bollywood Rainbow – “Kurio ko uddah le jana”

7.       Cee Lo Green – “Forget You”

8.       Countdown Mix Masters – “Beautiful Liar”

9.       Daft Punk – “Da Funk”

10.     Danny Elfman – “This is Halloween”

11.     Donna Summer – “I Feel Love”

12.     Dr. Creole – “Baby Zouk”

13.     Duck Sauce – “Barbra Streisand”

14.     Girls Aloud – “Jump (For My Love)”

15.     Groove Century – “Boogie Wonderland”

16.     Gwen Stefani – “What You Waiting For”

17.     Inspector Marceau – “The Master Blaster”

18.     Janelle Monae – “Tightrope (Solo Version)”

19.     Jessie J featuring B.o.B – “Price Tag”

20.     Brahms by Just Dance Classical Orchestra – “Hungarian Dance No. 5”

21.     Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg – “California Gurls”

22.     Kiss – “I Was Made For Lovin’ You”

23.     Konshens – “Jamaican Dance”

24.     African Ladies – “Pata Pata”

25.     Latino Sunset – “Mamasita”

26.     Laura Bell Bundy – “Giddy On Up (Giddy On Out)”

27.     Lena Meyer-Landrut – “Satellite”

28.     LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock – “Party Rock Anthem”

29.     Madness – “Night Boat To Cairo”

30.     MIKA – “Lollipop”

31.     Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland – “Promiscuous”

32.     Pointer Sisters – “I’m So Excited”

33.     Queen – “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”

34.     Reggaeton Explosion – “Boom”

35.     Rita Mitsouko – “Marcia Baila”

36.     Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman – “Somethin’ Stupid”

37.     Scissor Sisters – “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’”

38.     Sweat Invaders – “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”

39.     Taio Cruz – “Dynamite”

40.     The Buggles – “Video Killed The Radio Star”

41.     The Chemical Brothers – “Hey Boy Hey Girl”

42.     The Girly Team – “Baby One More Time”

43.     The London Theatre Orchestra & Cast  – “Think”

44.     The Sugarhill Gang – “Apache (Jump On It)”

45.     Tommy Sparks – “She’s Got Me Dancing”

46.     Wilson Pickett – “Land of 1000 Dances”

Just Dance 3 will also have a variety of new game features. With songs that feature 4-part choreographies, each player has a chance to take the spotlight as they break it down with their own dance crew. Dance mashup mode lets players experience different dancing styles and moves from their favourite Just Dance choreographies on a single song, making it a unique experience each time. And all tracks provide on-screen lyrics to sing-a-long with the hits while dancing. For the first time on the Kinect, 4 players can dance simultaneously. Also on Kinect, players have the chance to create their own unique choreographies with the JUST CREATE mode and immediately play the new choreographies back for 4 players to compete against.  Just Dance 3 still has everyone’s favourite modes like Classic Mode, Duet Mode, Medley, Simon Says, an updated Just Sweat mode with more workout plans, and more!

Just Dance 3 will be released worldwide on October 11.

Child of Eden is a multi-sensory shooter that sends players diving into a kaleidoscopic matrix of synchronized music and mind-blowing visuals that will usher forth a landmark game experience.

“We’re excited to be bringing the critically acclaimed Child of Eden experience to PS3,” said Geoffroy Sardin, EMEA vice president of sales and marketing, Ubisoft.“This is one of those special, rare games that belong in every gamer’s library, and the PlayStation Move integration coupled with the ability to play the game in 3D make for an even more unique experience on PlayStation 3.”

Child of Eden thrusts the player into the centre of a battle to save Project Lumi, a mission to reproduce a human personality inside Eden, the archive of all human memories. As the project nears completion, the archive is invaded by an unknown virus. The player’s mission is to save Eden from the virus, restoring hope and peace. We reviewed the Xbox 360 version of the game and we loved it.

Key features of Child of Eden (PlayStation 3):

·        Multi-sensory effect: A visionary entertainment experience that synchronizes stunning graphics and innovative sound design to electrify the senses. By bringing physics in synergy with spectacular visuals and audio,Child of Eden is the next-generation sensory experience. The PlayStation 3 version goes even further by offering the experience in full stereoscopic 3D.

·        The world of Eden: Coming straight from Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s creative mind: a unique, surprising, rich and beautiful world.

·        Controls: Simple and natural. Designed for standard controllers and the PlayStation Move for the PS3. The PlayStation Move captures a full range of motion giving you ultimate control over how you play the game. There are other added bonuses, like the ability to hook up multiple controllers for added sensory effects.

Child of Eden is available now on Xbox 360 (and is best played with Kinect). The PS3 version will be available from 30th September and can be preordered from all major retailers at a discount price of less than £20. Amazon.co.uk are accepting preorders for £14.99 and for that price we cannot recommend this game enough. Do yourself a favour and buy it.

From September 3-11, PlayStation Plus members and Uplay members will enjoy exclusive access to the multiplayer beta on PlayStation 3. The multiplayer beta offers access to nine characters (The Sentinel, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Vizier, The Thespian, The Deacon, The Bombardier, The Trickster and The Champion), three maps (Knight’s Hospital, Antioch, Constantinople) and four playable modes (Wanted, Manhunt, Deathmatch *NEW*, and Artifact Assault *NEW*), which are only a sample of the final multiplayer content.

In Assassin’s Creed Revelations, master assassin Ezio Auditore walks in the footsteps of the legendary Altaïr on a journey of discovery and revelation. It is a perilous path – one that will take Ezio to Constantinople, the heart of the Ottoman Empire, where a growing army of Templars threatens to destabilize the region.

Assassin’s Creed^® Revelations will be available on November 15, 2011 along with the Collector’s Edition, the Animus Edition and the Special Edition. Stay tuned to newbreview.com for more info over the coming weeks.

Game:

Over the years Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade promotion has become synonymous with some truly memorable games. Braid, Shadow Complex, and Limbo are just handful of brilliance that have all been released through Microsoft’s summer extravaganza.

Joining the Summer of Arcade’s stellar line-up of games is From Dust, the much anticipated project from Ubisoft and Eric Chahi (the man who brought us Another World) who features as lead designer on the game.

Lauded as the ‘spiritual heir’ to Populous (Peter Molyneux’s cult hit god game before he swaned off and made the Fable franchise) and being mentioned in the same breath as Black & White (another of Molyneux’s creations) and the Lemmings series (an influence which isn’t getting as much coverage as others but one influence that I find to be one of From Dust’s biggest inspirations) is a testament to just how good From Dust is.

However, From Dust isn’t just a game you can compare to other games willy nilly, to do so would be to do it a disservice because it’s so much better than that. Despite its obvious ties to other games, From Dust stands out amongst their shadows and legacies, offering one of the most unique and distinctive gaming experiences to come out on Sony and Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network platforms to date.

From the outset, From Dust is nothing short of mesmerizing. How the game looks, sounds and feels is totally unique, almost alien-like, and an experience most will likely never forget… for all the right reasons.

Assuming the role of God, players are given a variety of beautiful barren deserts, epic oceanic shores, fiery molten volcanoes, and lush vegetated jungle terrains in which to essentially play God in. Of course you are not alone because, let’s face it, having a tribe of people who you can help out or toy with at you own discretion is part of what being a God is all about, so naturally From Dust is centred around a nomadic tribe, steeped in their lore, with the games campaign mode focusing on their journey from habitat to habitat.

As God you can manipulate earth, water, and lava

What From Dust boils down to is simple objective based gameplay. Players are required to help the tribe achieve certain objectives in order to advance to the next habitat. It is pretty basic and quite simplistic at times, but that’s not to say its boring or uninspired simply becuase these objectives range from protecting the tribe from GIGANTIC tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, to the simplest of tasks such as creating a path for the tribe to access inaccessible settlements. Simply put, there’s never a dull moment.

But what really defines From Dust and is the key to what makes it such a brilliant game is the way in which players achieve the in games objectives.

The magic of From Dust resides in its core gameplay mechanic, the power to manipulate the vivid and incredibly well designed landscapes Eric Chahi has lovingly created. Every level is its own sandbox, made up of a variety of different elements for you to harness. Players can literally pick up and drop water from the vast oceans, earth from the barren land and molten lava from bubbling volcanoes. Through advanced physics (so impressive, I literally spent an hour just playing around with water) players use these powers to overcome all obstacles in interesting and creative ways.

Water and lava flows in true to life ways, and more importantly they behave in the way you would expect, for instance you can use water to cool down and solidify the lava. Picking up earth and dropping it elsewhere can block off water sources or create paths to uncharted land but it will also have adverse effects, raising water levels and diverting water flows elsewhere. Even fire is present, spreading quickly to burn down jungles and evaporating nearby water sources. Mastering the way in which each element behaves and reacts with other elements is integral to achieving your objectives, yet allows you to achieve them in fun and interesting ways that you perhaps haven’t seen in a game before.

What really accentuates this is just how well designed each level is. Levels have been created in ways that allow the player to approach from different angles, allowing them to be solved in multiple ways. For example you may need to help the tribe reach a particular island, picking up earth from the land and joining up the two parts of land by dropping the soil in the ocean may seem fairly straight forward. But if you had lava at your disposal, you could create a lava bridge by dropping the lava in the water to solidify it, therefore avoiding reduction of your vegetation spread, which occurs when you take earth from the land. You could even use one of the few spells the tribe learn throughout the campaign mode, ‘Jellify Water’ and carve a path into the ocean, parting the sea like Moses.

Such detailed level design encourages players to think before they act, inspiring creativity and unveiling a deeper, more intelligent way in which to play the game.

Thankfully with such a complex physics system and cleverly crafted level design, balance has been achieved with how the game controls. Simple, yet affective is the order of the day with the entire control scheme being comprised of three buttons (one for picking up things, one for dropping the things you’ve picked up, and one for zooming in and out of the map) and two analogue sticks, which control movement around the map and the camera angle. Such a control system is very minimalistic, without compromising on any features, allowing for the game to be accessible and intuitive without having to dumb any of its superb gameplay down.

The challenge mode demands you take decisive action quickly

The strategic, decision making and problem solving skills developed through the game’s campaign mode are put under more intense scrutiny in the games other mode, challenge mode. Scaling down the vast levels featured in the games campaign, challenge mode is made up of various different score based objectives which are designed to test your speed in map navigation and creative and lateral thinking, which is in contrast to the relaxing tones of the games brilliantly orchestrated soundtrack.

With online leaderboard support and sporting the same core gameplay as campaign mode, challenge mode is a frustrating yet compelling experience akin to that of Geometry Wars or Trails HD. It encourages hours and hours of gameplay as not only are its challenges challenging, but it is also compounded by the fact that like campaign mode, every problem can be solved in multiple ways, opening itself up to replaying challenges in an attempt to experiment, searching for faster times, higher scores and short cuts in order to shoot you up the rankings.

Sporting just two modes, From Dust offers some replay value, but it could, should and might offer a lengthier experience. Whilst its campaign is an enjoyable experience, its also short and lacks a true story that would turn what is a very VERY good game into a masterpiece. The gorgeous and moody cut scenes (or should I say scene?) is recycled time and time again after every level is complete and I can’t help but feel that this time could’ve been better used as a way of giving the tribe more personality, allowing players to become emotionally invested in the tribe they are looking after through the use of a variety of story driven cutscenes. Clocking in at 13 levels, it won’t be long before your moving on to the game’s challenge mode which, at times is perhaps a little too difficult for less advanced From Dust players and might turn some off.

That said, there are murmurs from both Ubisoft and Eric Chahi that plans for a new multiplayer mode and level editor are in the pipeline, depending on sales, which would help extend the game’s overall game time. However, until those ideas come to fruition the game’s lack of real replay value is one of the only drawbacks.

Review Round-up

Graphics 5/5: Graphically, the game is totally unique. It’s vivid, vibrant and utterly mesmerizing. Some of Chahi’s best work.

Sound 4/5: The game’s sound isn’t THAT noticeable, which isn’t actually a bad thing. The relaxing, calm tones make for the natural sounded accompaniment, even if it becomes a little jarring when it comes to playing the often frantic, challenge mode. The dialogue, delivered in the tribe’s own language, also helps add to the games odd, otherworldly atmosphere.

Gameplay 5/5: From Dust offers a unique gameplay experience you won’t find anywhere else. Its accessible, promotes creativity and is actually deeper, and more intelligent than it might first seem due to its advanced physics and clever level design, which is the game’s biggest strength.

Longevity 3/5: Campaign mode is enjoyable whilst it lasts, but there’s very little to keep you interested once you’ve beaten all of the levels and challenges. Hopefully future expansions will provide an effective solution.

Overall 4.5 out of 5

One of the best downloadable titles to come to consoles, From Dust offers a gameplay experience like no other. Its look is unique, fresh, distinctive and beautiful. Its sound is relaxing and serene. But most importantly it boasts some brilliantly crafted, intelligent gameplay that is like no other. An essential purchase, even if it doesn’t quite deliver ‘bang for your buck’….yet.

-Kieran Roycroft

Driver San Francisco features over a dozen multiplayer modes, with both competitive and co-operative slants. One of the key unique features is the ability to shift from one driver to another if you feel things aren’t going your way. Shifting is a key component of the game’s single player campaign (think of it as body hopping from the driver of one vehicle to another driver across town) and we’re very glad to see it present in the multiplayer modes.

Stay tuned to newbreview.com for our full review of Driver San Francisco in the coming weeks.

Call of Juarez is a series that has always hovered unobtrusively somewhere in the mid-list. The first game was an awkward, though interesting, western-themed shooter that gave way to a more action-focussed sequel, the civil war-set Bound in Blood, that was one of the best Call of Duty imitators yet produced. For whatever reasons, developer Techland have seen fit to discard the series’ main unique selling point, its Old West setting, in favour of a modern LA gangland milieu, with a little excursion into Mexico to ensure that the “Juarez” part of the franchise is all present and correct.

The main link to the past comes in the form of regulation surly bad-ass detective Ben McCall, descendant and doppelganger of the previous games’ Ray. He’s joined here by two other characters; dodgy DEA agent Eddy Guerra and inappropriately-sexy FBI hardwoman Kim Evans. Their characterisations consist mainly of yelling the name of their agency and calling people a motherfucker, yet over the course of the game’s convoluted, low-rent narrative they somehow become oddly compelling – another example of that peculiar video-game version of Stockholm syndrome that will be all too familiar to players of the Gears of War series.

The story, a tangled web of betrayals, counter-betrayals, assassinations and a lot of very snide phone-calls, never particularly rises above the level of a particularly good Chuck Norris film, but it maintains a certain level of thematic consistency and a relatively serious tone that lift it above the level of a lot of similar games. This is aided in no small part by the fact that all three leads are hopelessly corrupt individuals whose rampant criminality actually helps to put their violent, gun-blazing approach to police work into some kind of context.

Each character has their own weapon set, yet they all play in almost exactly the same way

The campaign throws up its main trump card in the form of each character’s ‘secret agendas.’ These are secret objectives and collectibles that must be completed/collected without either of the other two characters noticing. In single-player, this is a relatively simple matter of leading them away from a collectable, then suddenly sprinting back to collect it before they can follow you. Throw in two human partners, however, and it creates a pleasant thread of suspicion as you attempt to keep one eye on your comrades to make sure they’re not sneaking off to pilfer a kilo of weed in the middle of a firefight.

Unfortunately, this otherwise-fine idea is somewhat let down by the fact that the items will always appear in the same place, meaning that a player with a keen eye and a good memory will always be able to frustrate the larcenous intentions of another player. It’s a pity that such a good idea has been implemented in such an off-hand way, as it contains the germ of something really special.

While you are tasked with working together as a team, each character has their own secret (illegal) objective

In all other respects CoJ, as no-one will ever refer to it, is a solid piece of work, made with the solid yet unexciting professionalism of a jobbing craftsman. Combat is accurate, tactile and concussive, if not as slick and fast as the Call of Duty games it seems to idolise. Car chase sections are thrown in at regular intervals to offer a quick change of pace, but generally fail to thrill thanks to floaty handling and some inept sign-posting.

Despite getting off to a patchy start, the game improves considerably in its final third or so, thanks to some deft pacing and the introduction of some more interesting environments to fight through. Appropriately enough, they are largely returnees from the previous game.

Review Round-Up

GRAPHICS – 3/5 - Solid enough, with moments of occasional beauty, especially once the action moves out of the dull confines of LA. Character models are unfortunately rather stiff, with civilian NPCs being particularly comical in this regard.

SOUND – 3/5 - Some excellent Morricone-influenced music is rather let down by rather tepid voice-work. Characters have a habit of yelling the same things over and over again and dialogue cues sometimes fail to match up with what’s actually happening on-screen.

GAMEPLAY – 3.5/5 – Solid and enjoyable gunplay. The new ideas on show here are rarely as fully-formed as they could be, but show flashes of inspiration that hint at a better, more imaginative game that never quite emerges from the cloud of staunch, contented competence that hangs over the whole affair. Competitive multiplayer is a mixed bag of poorly-balanced weapons and abilities with a few modes that seem to offer much more on paper (the heist mode for instance) than they ever actually deliver in practice.

LONGEVITY – 3/5 - Three characters to play through the six-or-so-hour campaign with, yet the choice makes little tangible difference to the majority of the gameplay. The game does a fairly good job of integrating online support into the campaign itself, but co-operative play largely amounts to having two other people standing next to you shooting at the same group of enemies, with the honourable exception of a couple of sequences that allow sniper-support. Competitive multiplayer is unlikely to hold anyone’s attention for too long, lacking as it does anything that isn’t done better elsewhere.

OVERALL – 3/5

Call of Juarez: The Cartel is an accomplished and unpretentious B-movie shooter that will certainly scratch your itchy trigger finger for a little while until something more substantial comes along. For all its rough edges, it possesses a certain roguish charm that has just about survived the slightly perplexing transition from the Old West to the modern day, but there remains a feeling that the sun may be setting on this kind of mid-range, unadventurous shoot-em-up and the day may be fast approaching when Call of Juarez and other games like it may be forced to hang up their guns.

- Elliot Mears

How much do you want second hand multiplayer?

Ubisoft today announced the launch of it’s “pay-to-multiplayer” system for second-hand games, coming August 30th, joining the likes of Sony, THQ & EA.

It seems the day of the second-hand game may be entering it’s twilight as more and more publishers shut down equal access for second hand owners.

We’ll certainly miss rooting around in second hand games bins for killer bargains when the last game goes pay-to-play… and with more and more games featuring online multiplayer as a key mechanic this seems almost inevitable now… *sniffle*…

- Rax

Far Cry 3 looks to be shaping up very nicely, as well demonstrated in the above video, with both realistic AI behaviours and excellent variety in gameplay approaches possible.

It also looks awesome, obviously!

- Rax

Game:

Child of Eden is the Ubisoft published spiritual successor to Dreamcast cult hit Rez. It’s an on the rails shooter, boasting some of the most beautifully mesmerising visuals the gaming industry has ever seen.

Continuing an idea established by Rez, Child of Eden makes the player an orchestral conductor of sorts; every enemy you target, shot you fire or pick up you collect contributes towards the game’s score, resulting in some mesmerizingly chaotic music. Did I mention that this has been designed to be used with Kinect, Microsoft’s body tracking camera?

You could be forgiven for thinking that all of these factors together would make for a game that plays like a car wreck, but you would be utterly wrong. Simply put, Child of Eden is one of the most involving games released for years; and is a work of art in its own rite.The (admittedly rather flimsy) story revolves around Lumi, the first person to be born in space. Because she was born away from Earth and was never able to visit, she developed a great deal of profundity, and became a symbol of hope to humanity. When she died the human race wept and, in an effort to cling on to her symbolic status, the universe’s greatest scientists stored her consciousness on a disk. Hundreds of years later she was uploaded to the Internet, which is now known as Eden, to live on in cyberspace and share her insights and beautiful music with those that are far away from earth. Sort of like a futuristic Celine Dion.

However, there is a corruption in Eden that is endangering Lumi and risks destroying everything in Eden. You are tasked with purifying Eden, to ensure Lumi’s survival and bring happiness back to the human race. No pressure, right?

Meet Lumi, the most important person in the universe.

While the game has been designed to utilise Kinect, anti-motion control snobs out there need not fear: you can use a regular pad, and yes, it controls almost exactly the same as Rez. However, there really is nothing like playing this game with Kinect. Your right hand controls lock-on-rockets, while the left hand controls the machine gun. Switching weapons is as simple as raising one hand up, and placing the other arm by your side. To perform the Euphoria attack (think of it as being a screen-clearing explosion) simply lift both arms above your head. When using the right arm you simply move your hand to control the cursor and highlight enemies. To fire you simply push forward. The left hand machine gun fires automatically, but this does slightly less damage than your rockets.

The pure fidelity of movement with Kinect (the on-screen cursor tracking your movements in almost perfect real time) cannot be matched by the controller. In fact, after completing the game in one sitting with Kinect I found it incredibly difficult to go back to the controller for the purposes of this review. That is not to say that the controller controls are bad in any way shape or form, it’s just that the Kinect controls are that good, bringing us an entirely unique experience.

As far as the actual gameplay goes, your targets tend to be colour coded, which indicates the best weapon to use on them. For instance, if an enemy is purple then the best way to purify them is to use your machine gun. The machine gun is also useful for taking out large crowds of enemies and shooting down adversarial projectiles, something the developers have gone to great lengths to telegraph for you, allowing for plenty of reaction time.

Purple enemies are best handled by your machine gun, otherwise known as the left hand.

Because the game only tracks your arm movement it does not require as much space as fully body tracking Kinect games, such as Dance Central or Kinect Sports, which is a welcome feature (not everyone has about 8ft of space between them and their televisions after all). Of course, should you choose to play with Kinect, its worth taking into account the fact that this can lead to some very tired arms after a lengthy playing session.

The game consists of five main chapters, each of which lasts about 10 to 20 minutes, depending on your skill. There are no checkpoints in levels, so if you die you will have to start from the beginning. I did not find this to be an issue however, as I managed to easily survive when playing through the five main levels on the default difficulty.

Completing levels rewards you with numerous unlockables, consisting of videos, artwork, and filters that change the graphical style of the game, as well as awarding a star ranking out of five. These stars are used to gain access to new levels. Each level culminates in a battle against an epic boss, including my personal favourite, the giant space whale that turns in to a glorious phoenix. While it may appear that this is a very short game (well, ok, it is) there are dozens of items to unlock, including a new hard difficulty, which is incredibly tough, and a free roaming mode in which you cannot be hurt, that allows you to simply take in the beauty of Eden.

There are online leaderboards, which allow you to compare scores with friends and strangers over the internet, but these will only appeal to a small number of people. The real replay value comes in re-experiencing just how wonderful the game is.

In this picture we can see the corruption surrounding Lumi... I think.

Upon completing the game you unlock a Kinect only challenge mode, which is the closest thing we will likely ever get to a direct Rez 2. This challenge mode is a fairly lengthy score based attack mode, in which you work your way through level after level of Rez-inspired stages, and this does increase the game’s length somewhat.

Despite issues with the game’s length, there is one undeniable truth about Child of Eden: one of the best things about it is that, despite having very little in terms of narrative (beyond the short introductory video), the game is incredibly moving. Rarely have we ever seen a shooter that isn’t about destruction; in Child of Eden you are purifying the inhabitants of Eden, saving lives and restoring hope. These positive feelings are enhanced by the constant presence of Lumi, who provides the game’s soundtrack and can often be seen floating off in the distance. Rather than using a computer generated character, the developers opted to insert footage of a real person into the game. Doing this really helps you to relate to the character’s plight and acts as suitable encouragement to continue playing.

This uncommon level of empathy and euphoria is embellishedby a nice feature that is included in the final level. Upon purifying enemies you start to see that they are turning in to photographs of scenery, of people, and of animals. These pictures are the result of a request from the developers, where by they asked gamers to send in pictures of the things that make them happy. In a lot of ways this simple act is entirely representative of Child of Eden as a whole: full of happiness and beauty.

Review Round-Up

Graphics 5/5 – Simply put, one of the best looking games ever made. Pure beauty presented through the medium of a video game. If you do not have a HD TV make sure you get one to play this game on.

Sound 5/5 – The sheer act of making the player responsible for the music, through their choice of weapons, and by purifying the environment, not only engages, but really empowers players. The music may not be to everyone’s taste, but there is no denying the euphoric effect it has on players.

Gameplay 4/5 – It may be your typical on the rails shooter, but the implementation of Kinect makes this game a thing of true beauty.  The levels are expertly designed to be just challenging enough, without being frustrating.

Longevity 2/5 – The one area in which Child of Eden falls a little flat is in terms of longevity. Sure, there are plenty of reasons to replay the game over and over again (it’ll be one of those games you show to non-game-playing-folk to demonstrate how great games can be). After completing the game you could extend the experience by attempting to work your way up the online leaderboards, but I suspect that most players will be able to resist their charms.

Overall 4 out of 5

Child of Eden truly is an epic experience. There is no other way to put it. While it may lack a little in terms of length, the sheer beauty and immersive wonderment that comes from playing it makes it a must have title, not just for Kinect owners, but for everyone.

- Luke Mears

Shooting straight out of the gates with Rayman: Origins, which takes the franchise into new territory 2D side scrolling, platform play, changing the gameplay up in certain sections (the demonstration that was put on for us even had some bullet hell shooter elements thrown in). Needless to say though, the game looks lovely and has a certain Super Mario Bros Wii vibe about it (especially with the inclusion of 4 player co-op). Backed with what looks to be a brilliant, yet hillarious soundtrack, Rayman: Origins shows all the promise of being a excellent, fun game.

Aaron Priceman then took to the stage to give the audience a bit of a history lesson in conjunction with Ubisoft’s 25th anniversary. After a few dick jokes, he then gets on to unveiling some games. First up, Driver: San Francisco. We are given a trailer, showing off the vivid San Francisco setting of the game, the game really does look to reboot the series and put it back on the map. Fast paced car chases are the order of the day, complete with uber stylish soundtrack, so far, so good.

Next into the firing line is Far Cry 3, featuring a lavish jungle setting, and packed with personality, Far Cry 3 is what it would look like if COD and Uncharted got together and had a baby. Its intense, which contrasts with the game’s serene locale, but what’s more impressive is the in game footage on show, even the in game graphics look sumptous.

Randy Pitchford is next to take to the stage, ready to announce Brothers in Arms: The Furious Four, bags of personality and dark humour give a brand new take on the World War 2 genre. Its bloody, it’s in your face and it all looks very promising. We will be keeping an eye on this one.

The Tin-Tin movie tie game is then announced through a trailer featuring appearance by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. The Adventures of Tin-Tin may be a movie tie in (and we all now just how good those turn out to be), but The Adventures of Tin-Tin at least looks athestically pleasing. Jury is still out, we remain skeptical.

As if making an appearance at Microsoft’s conference earlier in the day wasn’t enough, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier returns to the E3 2011 stage. this time we are treated to an extensive demonstration o the game and boy does it look beautiful. Featuring a similar style found in Tom Clancy’s last outing, the brilliant, Splinter Cell: Conviction, not only does Ghost Recon: Future Soldier feature futuristic weaponry, it now also look stylized and futuristic too. Once again, the Ghost Recon franchise looks to have a cooked up another multiplayer success, with the on stage demonstration perfectly capturing the multiplayer experience that has made the Ghost Recon series so successful. Future Soldier feels very much, more of the same, only a whole lot more stylized.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online is then unveiled, a free to play, online PC game. Very nice! Beta sign up is now under way, why not sign up?

Next up is the reveal of Trackmania 2 on PC. Trackmania 2 is boasted as online gaming at its best, a big claim since Forza 4 was teased earlier, however there’s no denying that Trackmania 2 looks stunning. One to watch.

The Rabbids finally make their appearance with Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking. The game is demonstrated with whack-a-mole style gameplay, using Microsoft’s Kinect motion sensor. Using augmented reality, you and you pals will be able to embark on a variety of different mini game adventures. Looks like a great family game to add to the Kinect roster.

A game that is sure to top the sales charts, Just Dance 3 is unveiled. As you would expect, Just Dance 3 looks to offer the Just Dance experience, this time on ALL motion platforms. Coming October 2011, it is guranteed to be 1 of the top selling titles this Christmas.

Rocksmith: Authentic Guitar Games is unveiled as a game/teacher crossover. Designed to actually teach the player how to play guitar, seems to like like a more futuristic, more complex version of Guitar Hero/Rock Band, with the drastic decline in music game sales, it will be interesting to see how this game fairs.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 is next to take the stage. Promising a far more social take on the fitness game, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 will also be out before Christmas. Again, another title that’s bound to sell well this Xmas.

The Ubisoft announcement we’ve all been waiting for finally arrives, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is unveiled. Promising to be Ezio’s final chapter, Revelations sees the protagonists from the first 2 Assassin’s Creed games come together with stunning results. As you would expect from an Assassin’s Creed game, Revelations  looks mesmerizing, well, at least from what the trailer shows. From the demonstration we were treated to, AC: R’s gameplay continues in the same vein as the Assassin’s Creed games before it, which some people will love and some people will hate. Overall though, Revelations looks far more action orientated than the stealth origins of its predecessors, almost certainly another blockbuster.

And that was all she wrote, Day 1 of E3 2011 DONE. However stay glued to Newbreview.com for full coverage of the Sony and Nintendo conferences, capping off the last day of E3 2011.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations follows master assassin Ezio Auditore as he walks in the footsteps of his legendary mentor, Altaïr, on a journey to recover five ancient seals that hold the keys to the future of the Assassins brotherhood. It is a perilous path – one that will take Ezio to Constantinople, the heart of the Ottoman Empire, where a growing army of Templars threatens to destabilize the region.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations is set to release on the Xbox 360^® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation^®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC this November.

• Hone the deadly art of assassination – As Ezio Auditore, wield the lethal skills of a wiser, more efficient assassin. Armed with a new arsenal of weapons and abilities including the hookblade, bomb crafting and a heightened Eagle Sense, you can kill with death-dealing proficiency.
• Herald the return of a legend – Assassin’s Creed Revelations features the return of Altaïr as a playable character, the hero of the original Assassin’s Creed.
• Journey to the Constantinople –Explore picturesque settings, from Masyaf, the mountain stronghold of the Assassins during the Third Crusade to the vibrant and exotic Constantinople, the jewel of the Ottoman Empire in the 16^th Century. Navigate crowded streets and vistas, through a cauldron of cultures as Constantinople comes to life.
• Meet new players to the Assassins Creed lore –Encounter memorable personalities, including fellow master assassin Yusuf Tazim, Prince Suleiman, destined to become one of the greatest monarchs in history, and Sofia Sorto, a simple woman who vies for Ezio’s heart.
• Test your skills as an assassin against your friends – the acclaimed online multiplayer experience returns, refined and expanded with more modes, more enthralling maps and new characters

Cheap Princes! Get your Cheap Princes here!

Steam have kicked off their latest week long publisher sale by offering the Prince of Persia series at rock-bottom princes… sorry prices.

Ubisoft publish a number of highly successful franchises, so this one is definitely worth keeping an eye on this week.

The Newb Review will be present at this year’s MCM Expo in London, on Friday 27th – Sunday 29th May. The show will bring some of the summer’s hottest Movies, TV Shows, Comics, and Video Games, directly to members of the public for the first time.

The event is sponsored by Warner Brothers’ soon to be released blockbuster Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds. The show is also boasting the attendance of a number of the cast of Futurama (including Phil Lamarr, who voiced Green Lantern in the Justice League animated series), a panel dedicated to the next X-Men movie, X-Men First Class, and appearances from high profile comic book figures Warren Ellis (The Authority, Nextwave: Agents of Hate) Kieran Gillan (Uncanny X-Men), and the good people from Rebellion, Publishers of Judge Dredd and 2000AD.

As for the games, the MCM Expo has partnered with our friends at Gamespot UK to bring you playable demos of some of this year’s hottest games, including THQ’s Red Faction: Armageddon, Capcom’s Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Ubisoft’s Child of Eden, Square Enix’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Atari’s Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale, EA’s Shadows of the Damned and Epic Games’ Gears of War 3.

Not every game that will be at the show has been announced yet, and we have heard that there will be a few special surprises in order for attendees that will be revealed closer to the time. We have been assured that there will be a number of tickets available to purchase on the day, however, if you do plan on attending we recommend that you buy your tickets in advance from the MCM Expo official site, which can be found here: http://www.londonexpo.com/faq/tickets/

Don’t worry if you cannot attend, we will be on the show floor all weekend, and will be bringing you a number of photos and articles based on what we find there. Expect our coverage to start trickling out next weekend, and we hope to see you there!

- Luke Mears

After accidentally revealing the game through their facebook promotion last week Ubisoft have been releasing a stream of teaser images and trailers that seemed to imply the return of Assassin’s Creed’s original protagonist Altair. However, it has been confirmed that Revelations will star Ezio Auditore, the hero from Assassin’s Creed 2 and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood.

The official press release goes on to say:

Expect Assassin's Creed Revelations to include new gear such as the Hookblades seen in this screenshot

“Developed and led by Ubisoft Montreal with the support and expertise of Ubisoft studios Annecy, Massive Entertainment, Quebec, Singapore and Bucharest, Assassin’s Creed Revelations presents the most immersive experience available in the series to date and the culmination of Ezio’s adventure. The game is set to release on the Xbox 360^® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation^®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC this November.

Initially launched in 2007, the first three Assassin’s Creed^® games have sold more than 28 million units worldwide, and the franchise is now established as one of the best-selling series on next generation consoles. Recognized for having some of the richest, most engrossing storytelling in the industry, Assassin’s Creed has transcended video games, branching out into other entertainment experiences such as comic books, Facebook, novels, short films and more.

In Assassin’s Creed Revelations, master assassin Ezio Auditore walks in the footsteps of his legendary mentor, Altaïr, on a journey of discovery and revelation. It is a perilous path – one that will take Ezio to Constantinople, the heart of the Ottoman Empire, where a growing army of Templars threatens to destabilize the region.

In addition to Ezio’s award-winning story, the acclaimed online multiplayer experience returns, refined and expanded, with more modes, more maps and more characters that allow players to test their assassin skills against others from around the world. The latest chapter in the Assassin’s Creed saga also includes revolutionary gameplay, allowing players to manipulate the construct of Desmond’s memories and the Animus to decipher the mysteries of his past and gain insight into the future.

“Delivering the final chapter of the Ezio trilogy is an important milestone in the Assassin’s Creed franchise for us and for our fans,” said Alexandre Amancio, Creative Director at Ubisoft Montreal. “Assassin’s Creed Revelations includes lots of new features and some significant surprises. We can’t wait to show our fans what we have in store at E3 this year.”

So there we have it! Expect more details on June 7th – June 9th at E3. Also, considering how essential having an Assassin’s Creed game out every year has become to Ubisoft, you can safely expect Assassin’s Creed 3 to be announced this time next year.

We’ll keep you updated

Game:

Nearly two years after the death of the King of Pop Ubisoft have released a Kinect enabled dance game featuring about 30 of Michael Jackson’s hit songs. Unlike other Kinect Dancing games Michael Jackson The Experience also includes the option to sing, be it through Kinect’s inbuilt microphone, or through any USB Microphone if you fancy hearing your own voice booming through your television.

From the outset I was pleasantly surprised by how much polish has gone in to this version of the game. Utilising similar technology to Ubisoft’s Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, rather than featuring an on-screen avatar, you are actually transplanted directly in to the game, except covered in a glittery sparkly light, with no noticeable lag.

As soon as you start the game all songs and game modes are available to you, so there is no Guitar Hero styled single player campaign with missions that need to be completed in order to unlock tracks. The game modes to choose from are:

Dance Mode: This tasks you with following on screen prompts in order to rack up the highest score possible. Matching the simple on screen movements in time with the music earns you more points.

Performance Mode: This mode breaks each song in to numerous sections, and alternates between asking you to Dance, and having you Sing along. You will never be tasked with singing and dancing at the same time, but if you really feel the need to sing whilst dancing there is no penalty.

Vocal Performance: Essentially Vocal performance mode is Michael Jackson Karaoke, however it is only available on a small number of songs that have minimal dancing, such as Earth Song.

Master Performance Mode: Also only available on a select number of tracks, Master Performance is a more fast paced and complex version of Performance Mode. This is a mode exclusively for those that are looking for a challenge.

In performance mode the dance moves are incredibly simple

The songs that do not have a Master Performance mode only really have one difficulty, which is fairly forgiving and does not require split second reaction times. Because of this Dance Mode and Performance Mode are ideal for people of all ages and sizes, especially in a party setting. For instance, my two year old niece gave the game a try, and managed to earn a respectable score for someone that was just jumping up and down and running around in circles. Unlike other music games it is impossible to fail a performance.

Speaking of parties, this game features turn based multiplayer that accommodates up to four players. Participants are required to split in to two teams, and each team member takes turns at performing during a song. The game breaks down the performance of each player at the end, and the team with the highest score wins. It is a shame that there is no multiplayer mode that allows to players to dance against each other.

The Playstation version of the game utilised the Playstation Eye to snap pictures of you as you perform and then upload them to facebook, which is a feature that some may love, and others may hate. The Kinect version also takes pictures of you as you play, but you are unable to post them anywhere online. Instead your pictures are used in the leaderboards, attaching your face to your score.

Another shame is the fact that so few songs feature the Vocal Performance Mode. It is easy to imagine that a number of Michael Jackson fans would want to sing along to some of his most famous songs. For the life of me I cannot see why they would not include Vocal Performance Mode for each and every single song in the game.

The actual song list itself is a fairly competent ‘Best Of’ selection of tracks. However, when you consider that Michael Jackson recorded about 100 songs in his lifetime, the track-list is actually quite small. It would have been nice to have some of the songs that weren’t released as singles. It could be that Ubisoft plan on releasing more songs as downloadable content, however there appears to be no sign of any yet.

Only a few songs, such as Earth Song, feature Vocal Performance mode, which is a shame.

One slight issue is that a number of the dance moves, particularly in the Master Performances, require you to perform a move with your arms that is similar to the Kinect pause gesture. Fortunately you are rarely required to hold it in place for long enough to pause the game, but it can cause a bit of panic.

From the outset there are a number of videos starring professional dancers that show you how to dance like Michael. These videos are an amusing distraction for those that wish to take the skills they have picked up in this game to the dance floor. A strange omission is the inability to watch Michael Jackson’s music videos; this is strange because parts of the music videos flash on-screen, so they clearly were allowed to use the footage.

The overall gameplay experience is not massively hindered by these niggles. In fact there is a lot to love about Michael Jackson The Experience, especially if you are a fan of his music and are looking for an easy to play family friendly alternative to the other dancing games out there.

Review Round-Up

Graphics 3/5: Featuring a bold, yet simple art design Michael Jackson The Experience manages to look good without being too distracting. One thing that may put off hardcore Michael Jackson fans is the distinct lack of the King of Pop himself. The Wii and PS3 versions of the game feature Michael showing you how to dance, but the Kinect version has you taking his place. This is disappointing because whenever a dance move comes up a generic backing dancer shows you how to do it, when they could have had Michael be the one showing you.

Sound 5/5: Each of the songs is incredibly clear and polished. If you are a fan of Michael Jackson’s music then you will likely already have this game.

Gameplay 3/5: Performance Mode and Dance Mode are incredibly simple to play, and will provide a nice little workout. However, there are a few peculiar choices, such as making vocal performance available on only a small number of songs, that bring it down.

Longevity 3/5: As things stand there are about 30 songs on the disk, and a number of different game modes. As such, this really is a game that is best suited for parties. The game’s lifespan could easily be extended by having extra songs made available for downloading on Xbox Live Marketplace, but as of writing that does not seem entirely likely.

Overall: 4 out of 5

As far as dancing games go Michael Jackson The Experience is a very straight forward, easy to play game, with a decent selection of iconic songs on offer. Those that like dancing games and have even a passing interest in Michael Jackson will doubtlessly have a lot of fun with it.

- Luke Mears

That may change with the release of Child of Eden, the spiritual sequel to Dreamcast cult classic Rez. This game makes novel use of the Kinect camera, allowing players to interact with a vibrant trance-like world, firing shot after shot at a sea of enemies. Nothing displays the game’s brilliance like this trailer, released today by publisher Ubisoft:

After watching this impressive trailer we have two questions:

Kinect owners, do you plan on buying this game?

Kinect haters, has this made Kinect more appealing to you?

Answers can be posted below.

Child of Eden is due for release on Xbox 360 Kinect in June 2011. A Playstation 3 version is also due for release later this year.

Ahead of the game’s release on Friday as part of the Nintendo 3DS launch, Ubisoft have sent over a video featuring producer Julian Gollop walking us through one of the later missions in Ghost Recon Shadow Wars.

The above video details exactly how this turn based strategy game works, with a particular focus on the combat and character movment mechanics.

Stay tuned to The Newb Review for our continuing coverage of the 3DS launch all this week.

From the looks of things, it appears that Ubisoft have taken the initial concept of Pro Guitar Mode from Rock Band 3, and made it infinitely more accessible to the masses by allowing any Electric Guitar to be used, rather than just a pricey (and hard to find) peripheral. From the official press release:

“Featuring gameplay that automatically adjusts to the player’s skill level and innovative game design that makes reading music visually fun and intuitive, Rocksmith engages experienced musicians and those who are picking up a guitar for the first time. The game includes a sizeable library of music from classic rock bands to current artists, such as The Animals, The Black Keys, David Bowie, Interpol, Nirvana, and The Rolling Stones.”

“Rocksmith is the most authentic and addictive music game ever created,” said Geoffroy Sardin, HQ Chief Marketing & Sales Officer at Ubisoft EMEA. “Whether a beginner or a seasoned guitarist, players can progress at their own speed and walk away from the game with the ability to play songs by memory. Rocksmith is the only video game that gets players stage-ready.”

Developed by Ubisoft, Rocksmith is slated to be released in the second half of calendar year 2011. For more information on Rocksmith, you can find the game on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rocksmithgame, or visit www.rocksmith.com.

To those not in the know, Might and Magic Heroes VI is a prequel to the main campaigns of Heroes of Might and Magic V, taking place four centuries earlier in the world of Ashan. A legendary Archangel general, revived hundreds of years after perishing during the Elder Wars, plots to recover his powers and take control of Ashan.

Producer Erwan Le Breton has stated that while the gameplay of Heroes VI will remain largely faithful to the Heroes series and retain most of its fundamental elements, it will involve a mix of familiarity and new innovation, including boss fights, a town conversion functionality and a reputation system.

Might and Magic Heroes IV is due for release on PC some time around May of this year.

Taking place after section three of AC:Brotherhood, The Da Vinci Disappearance (as the title suggests) deals with Ezio’s friend Leonardo Da Vinci disappearing, introduces two new sections to the single player part of the game, and includes two new multiplayer modes.

But the most important information is the official release date:
Xbox 360 owners can download it from the Xbox Live Marketplace from 8th March, while Playstation owners will be able to purchase it from the 9th of March.

As an added bonus Ubisoft also sent over a trailer for their new Multiplayer characters, game modes and a level set in Spain.

Game:

Originally cast out alone and unprotected into the unforgiving badlands of Christmas 2003 after a lengthy period of troubled development, Beyond Good and Evil made a sufficient impression upon the relatively few people who actually bought it to acquire a healthy afterlife as one of gaming’s cult classics. It’s this elevated critical reputation which must have played a part in the decision to re-release the game as a digital download, allowing a new generation of gamers to give it a second chance at stardom.

The game centres around Jade, an investigative photographer who runs a lighthouse full of anthropomorphic animals. These facts immediately establish the game-world as one where realism and whimsy intertwine, where a determined photojournalist struggles against an oppressive fascistic regime who are revealed to be green-skinned boggle-eyed child-snatchers; Sophie Scholl via Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Held together by assured storytelling and a craftsman’s eye for simple, approachable game mechanics, its tone never threatens to jar or to tip over into tweeness.

The actual gameplay that takes place within this world is always solid and well-designed, weaving a number of different play-styles into a coherent whole without allowing any of them to become stale. Combat (one attack button and a dodge) and platforming are user-friendly, though somewhat lacking in depth, but the game’s main point of interest is in the photo-taking mechanic that forms the backbone of much of the story and many of the side-quests.

Jade aims to take down the opressive government with little more than a staff and her camera

Whether taking pictures of flora and fauna for a biologist’s catalogue or snapping evidence of secret Space Nazi installations, there is a real sense of involvement fostered by seeing your own images integrated into the gameworld, showing up on video-screens and newspapers in all their badly-framed glory.

Broadly divisible into free-roaming overworld sections and story-mission “dungeons,” not unlike Nintendo’s Zelda series, there are two main forms of gameplay on offer. Out in the overworld, travel largely takes place in Jade’s hovercraft, which is used to navigate from island to island and also to participate in races. Vehicle controls are smooth and generally responsive, with little of the irritating imprecision and tendency to drift usually associated with high-speed water craft in most videogames. Out of the hovercraft, Jade is able to roam around the islands, looking for subquests and visiting shops to purchase weapon and vehicle upgrades.

The hovercraft is your primary form of transport

Dungeons drop the free-roaming element and instead offer up various environmental puzzles, often solved using the various gadgets acquired throughout the game. These are generally fairly satisfying to complete without ever really being especially challenging; no-one is likely to spend forty minutes running around a single room cursing the lack of clues. 

Stealth sections are also included, as was the fashion at the time, and once again Michael Ancel’s team have done a fine job of wringing the enjoyment out of them and abandoning the frustrating elements usually associated with third-person creeping sections, especially in emphasising the empowering thrill of sneaking up behind a Space Nazi and clubbing the exposed weakspot on his back. Indeed, it’s in the various smaller flourishes that the game finds most of its expression, as the basics of combat and platforming are capable but entirely unmemorable, amounting to little more than some fairly rote button-bashing, lacking in tactility or any real skill. 

Review Round-Up

GRAPHICS 4/5 – Despite its relative age, the game still manages to retain a certain beauty thanks to its vibrant art direction and elegant character design as much as the HD remaster that’s been applied to it for this re-release.

SOUND 4/5 – Capable voice-acting and a score and sound effects that occasionally come close to the mysterious charm of the Zelda series, which seems to have been something of an inspiration for many aspects of the game.

GAMEPLAY 4/5 – Content to do many things rather well, rather than a few things masterfully. The game’s tolerant approach to puzzles, excellent pacing and generous variety of content combine to create an experience which never feels perfunctory or slow, and which radiates the energy and warmth of a piece of art created with real care and attention.

LONGEVITY 4/5 – A solid amount of playtime will go into clearing the main adventure, especially if you want to finish all the side-quests and get all the collectibles. You may well wish to return to it in future just to bask in the atmosphere of the thing.

OVERALL 4 out of 5 

A game of personality and warmth, individual, charming and likeable to the core. Rarely excelling in gameplay terms, it is instead a triumph of storytelling and atmosphere, creating a coherent and absorbing universe populated with confidently-drawn characters and an endearing sense of playfulness and amiability. Those who played it the first time around have remembered it with nothing but fondness and satisfaction and this re-release should provide a welcome opportunity to relive the experience. Those who encounter it here for the first time will be unlikely to forget it.

Beyond Good and Evil HD is available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace right now for the low low price of 800 Microsoft points (about £6.80) and is due for release on Playstation 3 later this year.

- Elliot Mears

To get a whopping 40% off all purchases (excluding preorders) simply enter the following code at the checkout: ACB18MARCH

 Games on offer include Call of Juarez, Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell, RUSE, and Prince of Persia! This promotion is only open to UK residents and will only last until midnight on 28th February, so get in there to quick!

There are 60+ titles on offer, including some Newb Review favourites like Spilnter Cell Conviction and Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands for £13.39 each,  Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood for £6.69, and classic titles including Prince of Persia The Sands of Time for £4.68, and XIII for £3.34. 

Want to know why we recommend these titles? Click the hyperlinks to read our reviews then head on over to the store to get yourself a real bargain. 

All of the games on offer can be found at this link: http://shop.ubi.com/store/ubiemea/en_GB/search/plat.pcdownload

Enjoy!

Can a video game help you to get fit? One of the unhealthy aspects of being a gamer is the sedentary lifestyle that comes with playing most video games. When Nintendo released Wii Fit in 2008 the debate raged in both the mainstream and specialist press about whether it was possible for a video game to actually improve your health. While Wii Fit’s potential to help people drop weight is dubious at best, you could easily make the case that its popularity was responsible for the release of a number of more serious fitness titles, including EA’s Sports Active and Ubisoft’s Your Shape.

With the release of Microsoft’s motion sensing camera, Kinect, we have seen the release of the latest editions of both of these franchises – EA Sports Active 2 and Your Shape Fitness Evolved. Today we review the first title to make it on to shop shelves, Your Shape Fitness Evolved, to see just how well this latest fitness game goes towards using the new technology to help people get fit. 

First thing first; in the Wii edition of Your Shape it was quite easy to cheat your way through the game just by knowing how the game wanted you to waggle the remote for each of the exercises. This is not possible with this latest edition of Your Shape as the Kinect camera scans your entire body, looking specifically at how your joints bend, and offers you advice on how to improve at each exercise.

Rather than featuring a generic avatar that your actions are mapped on to, Your Shape scans every part of you in to the game and places you on screen. The technology behind it is very impressive; Kinect is able to tell you precisely how tall you are, and measure the length of your arms and legs. What it cannot do is measure your weight, so you may need to get a set of scales to check your weight before playing.

At the start of the game Kinect will measure your entire body

After filling in a quick survey about how much you exercise and what your fitness goals are – such as losing weight, toning muscle, or building stamina – a personalised exercise regime is developed for you. Well, they say it is a personalised fitness regime, it is more like one of about a dozen pre-set workout routines that may get you the results you are looking for is selected for you

Things start out simple enough with you learning basic moves in your chosen routine. Each routine consists of three exercises performed in a row, followed by a quick break, and then at least one more set of three exercises. While you do earn a ranking depending on how closely you map the on screen trainers move, this ranking has little or no effect on your progress. Simply completing the first routine will unlock the second, and completing the second unlocks the third, and so on.

When learning a new exercise you will have to participate in a the basic training for said exercise. One problem I found with the training is that it did not give enough feedback as to why I was not performing particularly well at some exercises despite mimicking the actions of my on screen trainer. Having said that, once I started the main exercise routine the trainer offered up some advice on how to improve my scores.

By imprinting you directly in to the game the trainer can easily give you feedback on how you are performing

Whilst each of the exercises may seem basic enough – most revolve around stepping from side to side and punching or kicking – they perform adequately as a form of exercise through sheer repetition and the length of each of the workouts. Most routines will not last longer than about 10 minutes each, but upon completing a routine you are asked if you want to start the next routine or simply return to the main menu.

Outside of the fitness routines there are specific classes in yoga and boxing that can be done to break up the monotony of the fitness routines. Much like said routines, completing the first round of each class unlocks the second, no matter what your score. These classes last about five minutes a piece, but can be played in quick succession to supplement your main fitness routine. A bonus fast paced boxing routine can be unlocked through the game’s Ubisoft Uplay rewards.

For the uninitiated, Uplay is Ubisoft’s online bonus content distribution service that, essentially, grants you access to content that is already on the disk in exchange for you registering your details with them. Completing certain objectives unlocks Uplay units which can then be spent on unlockables such as a post pregnancy exercise routine, the aforementioned new boxing class, and a theme for your Xbox dashboard. Should you choose not to spend any of your Uplay units you can save them up and use them to purchase bonuses for other Ubisoft Uplay enabled games such as Splinter Cell Conviction, Ruse, or Assassins Creed Brotherhood.

The final game mode consists of four fitness based mini games, each with several difficulty levels, which are designed to be a fun way of exercising and burning calories with up to four players:-

Virtual Smash involves you punching (and occasionally kicking) across your body to hit floating blocks. Each block stays on screen for a limited time before disappearing, If you manage to hit a block as soon as it appears then you earn three points, hitting it a second or two after it appears rewards you with two points, while hitting it at the very last second grants a single point. Hitting blocks without missing any grants you multipliers which are the key to earning the higher scores.

Getting a high score on Virtual Smash requires precise timing

The second mini game is a balance based game called Stack ‘Em Up in which you stack blocks as high as you can before tipping them in to a specified hole to earn bonus points. Yeah, it sounds a bit out of place for a fitness game, seeing as you will spend most of your time standing still waiting for the points pit to activate, but it still creates tense Jenga-like moments when your stack begins to tumble just before the precious points pit opens.

Following that is a ‘simon says’ like stepping game called Light Race that tasks you with stepping on glowing pads as they light up, which is reminiscent of Dance Dance Revolution. If you can maintain a decent pace then this game can be quite physically challenging despite being quite basic.

Finally there is the obligatory hula hoop game Loop-A-Hoop; anyone that played the hula hoop game on games like Wii Fit will know just how embarrassing it is to play. Take this initial embarrassment and then multiply it by a factor of ten simply because you have to stare at yourself awkwardly gyrating on screen at all times. Of all the mini games hula hoops is probably the most physically challenging and makes you thankful that the game does not actively record your exercise sessions like other Kinect games do.

Throughout all of these exercises the game displays a calorie counter, which keeps track of the running total of calories that you have burnt. If you log on to the official site (yourshapecentre.com) and register your account you can set yourself weekly goals, compare stats with other players, and even subscribe to set events for the community. As of writing the community events section of the site is not up and running, which is a little disappointing considering that the game has been out for over two weeks.

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 3/5 Your Shape has a very clean graphical style to it, with stark backgrounds that serve as a way of embellishing the bright colours of the interactive objects on screen. There is not a lot going on graphically most of the time, but everything that appears on screen looks very stylish.

Sound: 2/5 The music in the game is mostly perfunctory, and the overly cheery enthusiastic voice overs got on my nerves for the most part. Others will be more forgiving, but for the most part I played the game with some of my own music playing over the top of it.

Gameplay: 4/5 While most of the exercise routines seem to focus on the legs, the Yoga and Boxing classes make a nice change of pace, instead focusing on the arms and general balance. The inclusion of the four mini games is a welcome, if somewhat limited, feature.

Longevity: 4/5 With dozens of routines to be unlocked, and about a dozen Yoga and Boxing classes, there are plenty of exercises to work your way through. Having said that, they are mostly fairly similar aerobic exercises that focus on the legs. The integration of your progress on to the official site, which allows you compare stats with other players as well as set up your own targets, is a great feature. It is just a shame that as of writing only half of the site’s promised features are live.

Overall 3.5 out of 5

Can a video game help you get fit? After spending over a week playing Your Shape Fitness Evolved I can answer that with an unequivocal yes. Spending just 20 minutes a day performing the set exercise routines has noticeably improved my general fitness level. As a game that you play for fun it is a little harder to recommend simply because of its repetitious nature and the lack of variety between the exercise routines. The manual for the game advertises some soon to be released downloadable content that looks set to increase the number of exercises to choose from, which may go some way towards making Your Shape Fitness Evolved in to a more attractive package for gamers looking to get some regular exercise.

I personally have a love/hate relationship with the The Assassin’s Creed franchise. Whilst I thought the first instalment of the series was an over hyped exercise in style over substance, when Assassin’s Creed 2 came out, we here at The Newb Review fell in love with it. However, whilst my history with the series has had its ups and downs, at no point when playing the two games did the thought of a multiplayer element ever cross my mind. In fact such an idea would’ve been passed off as plain idiocy. So you can imagine my mixed feelings when it was announced that a direct sequel to Assassin’s Creed 2 was in the works, complete with multiplayer mode.

On the one hand I was brimming with joy - a sequel to my own personal game of the year (ooooo controversial!) - I was more than ready to dust off Ezio’s robes and bring the fight to the Templars once again, but, when it was announced that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood was incorporating multiplayer for the first time, I was extremely sceptical.

Since it’s announcement there’s been so much promotion for the game, even before it’s November UK release, it’s been practically inescapable. Everything from character reveals to pre-order bonuses and trailers, the game seems to be here, there and everywhere. But my own, personal relationship with the Assassin’s Creed franchise has already had it’s day of reckoning because at this year’s Eurogamer Expo I was lucky enough to get some hands-on time with the very thing that I had been incredibly dubious about; I sat down and played some of the game’s multiplayer, in particular the game’s “Wanted” mode.

Despite all my dobts I picked the controller up and found that my initial fears were proven to be totally and utterly off the mark. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not to everyone’s tastes, you’ll either “get it” or you wont, but rather than being an awkward, tacked on addition to the game Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood’s multiplayer is fully fleshed out and strangely addictive.

Surprising... like a blade to the throat.

Whilst the idea of multiplayer in Assassin’s Creed seemed alien at first, it’s actual premise is not unlike something we’ve played in any of the previous games. It’s concept is simple, you pick a class, you pick a loadout and then you run around a thriving, stunningly rendered city, assassinating other players in the game world, pretty standard stuff. However it is the care and the attention that Ubisoft have put in that really elevates the games multiplayer to dizzier heights.

Climbing up buildings, running along rooftops, assassinating enemies, you know... just your standard practice.

Class and loadout systems have become somewhat of the norm these days for online multiplayer modes, but what impressed me was not only the variety between different classes and loadouts, but the way in which they have an effect on how the gamer plays. Each class comes with a variety of different loadouts (some needing to be unlocked before you can use them), each with their own different gadgets, abilities and weapons at your disposal, and it is these different options that really dictate the way you play. For example if you are someone who is drawn to perhaps a more stealthier approach, you may pick The Priest class over the more “guns blazing” Soldier class because he comes equipped with hidden guns and a unique disguise ability, allowing you to blend into the background seamlessly and assassinate your targets before they even see you coming.

With such a diverse range of gameplay styles catered for, the game enters a more tactical realm with gamers selecting different classes and loadouts, and then using the tools at their disposal intelligently in order to bring home the kills. However, this tactical approach is something that has been woven through the very concept of the “Wanted” mode, with players not simply seeing a dot on a map and travelling over to that location in order to assassinate another player. Instead players are assigned contracts and then it’s up to the player to use his or her eyes and ears in order to locate their target and carry out the kill. Of course, the idea to let gamers wonder around blindly looking for their targets is perhaps a little harsh, so to counter balance that the game will offer you some help. When your target is in the same area as you, the game will alert you, giving you some sort of indication as to where the target is, making for an intense, frenzied affair as you frantically look for any sign of your target. But beware because whilst you’re attempting to track down your target, the fact remains that you are the target for someone else too.

A game to get your senses going.

In an attempt to put the hunter and the hunted on a level playing field, the game will also alert you when your pursuer is in the same area as you too, allowing you to make a break for it, just as it would for the very target you too are hunting down. The real sense of tension and paranoia that the alert system creates is definitely what sets it apart from other multiplayer experiences and is definitely the most impressive thing about the multiplayer. The challenge is compounded by the fact that the maps are populated by dozens of the same character models, meaning you have to carefully watch the crowds looking for that one tell tale sign that will identify your target while at the same time try not to bring too much attention to yourself, or face being assassinated.

“Wanted” shifts you between motions of paranoia, frenzy and fear, as you go about tracking down targets and running away into hiding from your pursuers, and whilst this is still very much Assassin’s Creed it’s aesthetics and it’s familiar, clunky controls, this is an unlikely, but brilliant addition to the series.

- Kieran Roycroft

The trailer depicts lead character Ezio Auditore venturing in to the city of Rome with a number of new abilties, including a parachute and being able to ride his horse within the city walls. It also teases that some of the action will take place during a battle in Spain, a first for the series.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood will be released on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on 19th November in Europe. Stay tuned to The Newb Review over the coming days as we offer our thoughts on the multiplayer component in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood.

As the trailer says Shaun White Skateboarding will be released on Xbox 360, Ps3, PC and Nintendo Wii on 28th October.

Stay tuned to The Newb Review for our hands on impressions of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’s Multiplayer soon!

Based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s sharp and amusing slacker-romance comics and released to promote the film version of the same, SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD cannily draws on the 16-bit beat-’em-ups that were popular long ago when the world was young and the Gods guarded jealously the secret of steel, and whose tropes inform a large part of the comic’s aesthetic.

Choosing from one of four playable characters, the game sticks to a simple structure of seven charming characterful levels topped off with a vicious boss-battle. The fighting system contains rather more depth than classics like STREETS OF RAGE or FINAL FIGHT, finding room for two attack buttons that can be combined with directional inputs for a number of special attacks that are unlocked through levelling-up, as well as a traditional screen-clearing special move, which in this case takes the form of Scott’s Chinese-Canadian schoolgirl ex-girlfriend Knives Chau running around the screen slapping everyone to little noticeable effect.

The visual style does a good job of capturing the look of O’Malley’s artwork while simultaneously fleshing it out with colour and more detailed envisonments

While the upgrade system provides a welcome sense of progression and empowerment as the game advances, it does somewhat leave the player underpowered and easily overwhelmed at the outset of a game which has clearly been tailored more for co-operative play. As a result, playing alone can lead to being bundled by large groups of enemies who bully you into submission; a problem mainly remedied by grinding completed levels over and over again to unlock further abilities, very one of which will prove useful in cutting a path through the huge numbers of increasingly-tough opponents to be found within each level. As is often the case with energetic 2D brawlers, the screen can become overwhelmingly crowded, especially if there are four players involved, causing the game to devolve into a confusing whirl of random kicks and punches and thrown bottles and spilt whisky and bitter tears.

Boss battles can be overwhelmingly tough without the right upgrades; be prepared to put in some time grinding through earlier levels again

Review Round-Up

GRAPHICS 4/5 Vibrant and eye-catching animated visuals capture the texture of the comic very well, despite an occasional lack of clarity during busy fights. The colour palette could have stood to be a little more varied in places, but overall the game has an energetic, charming appearance.

SOUND 3/5 Quirky retro chip-based tunes and old-school sound effects fairly accurately recreate the tones of 16-bit gaming, without being in any way as memorable as anything created by the mighty Koshiro Yuzo in those days of endless summers.

GAMEPLAY 3/5 You walk from left to right beating the hell out of everything you see. This basic formula is enlivened by an atypically deep combo-based fighting system which, while not quite NINJA GAIDEN in its versatility, still makes room for parries, reversals, grabs, sliding kicks, weapons and other staples of nominally more sophisticated fighting games, and certainly has far greater depth and flexibility than SHANK, which was released around the same time. Like SHANK, it shares the controversial lack of online multiplayer.

LONGEVITY 3/5 A fairly difficult experience for a lone player, SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD can still be finished in a few hours. However, the availability of alternative endings and three other playable characters, plus the inherent simplicity of the scrolling beat-’em-up genre, gives the game a certain afterlife as an enjoyable diversion whenever you’re in the mood for a quick burst of 2D violence.

OVERALL 3/5

[starreview tpl=16]

A pleasant and well-crafted fighting game in its own right, SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD suffers not from a lack of attention to detail, but from a certain sense that everything about it is rather too calculated and fussed-over, that it is at heart a corporate product attempting to exploit our fondness of older, more innocent works. Part of what is noble and beautiful and truly touching about games like STREETS OF RAGE is their unknowable peculiarities, their sense of a group of people, artists all, flailing to communicate something about the redemptive emotional power of muscular people in ridiculous trousers mincing around Disneyland beating hookers about the head and neck with lengths of lead piping and killing dwarves with flying knee-drops on a ghost train. SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD settles instead for trying to remind us of how good those days were, how blessed we were to see, through a glass darkly, into a better, stupider, punchier world. For all its mechanical assurance, it is both the most ringing endorsement and the most damning indictment of the game when I say that it simply made me really, really want to go and play STREETS OF RAGE 2 instead.

- Elliot Mears

Looks pretty good dunnit?

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is available to preorder now (lucky UK PS3 owners that preorder the title will gain access to a free multiplayer beta from October 4th), and is due for release on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 19th. A PC version is due for release a short while later.

The Publisher went on to explain further details of the beta: “In the Multiplayer beta, players will have the opportunity to choose from nine different characters such as the doctor, the priest, the executioner or the courtesan, try their unique deadly weapons and discover their signature moves.

The beta will allow players to play as a variety of characters

Up to eight players simultaneously will be able to use new ways to assassinate their targets in two different modes:

Wanted – challenges players to get the higher score by killing their assigned targets and escaping their hunters in clever ways.
Alliance – allows players to compete cooperatively in teams of two, fulfill contracts and confuse enemies in tandem.

Both modes will be playable on two different maps located in Rome and Castel Gandolfo.”

Players will be given an early taste of strategically planning out the demise of a friend.... online obviously

Sounds pretty exciting, and quite a coup for Sony.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is scheduled to release on November 18th 2010 on Xbox 360 and PS3. It will be available on PC in Q1 2011. Stay tuned to The Newb Review for more coverage on Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood.

R.U.S.E will be available to buy at all good video game retailers this Friday, the 10th of September, in the UK on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

All Aboard!

Throughout my gaming life I’ve always been a sucker for hype. I’ll always be the guy pushing in line at the ticket office, making sure I get two seats booked on the hype train. With videogames gaining ever more exposure in the mainstream media, it’s hard not to jump on board, and I do like to put my feet up from time to time. But more often than not the trains are shoddily built from cheap materials, and they soon derail; sometimes even before the’ve left the station.

If game developers are lucky, and have an excellent marketing campaign, they can turn an appalling excuse for a game into a work of art before it has even hit the shelves. All thanks to the hype train.

Did you ever play the original “Alone in the Dark”? Well, back in July 2008 Atari felt the need to publish a reboot of the aforementioned game, which had been six feet under for many years. Sadly, the gravedigger should’ve dug a little deeper and hammered a few extra nails into the coffin, because this is one game which, despite the best efforts of the hype train, should’ve stayed underground.

Alone in the Dark should never have been unearthed

Alone in the Dark, undead edition, was released on PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox360 and of course the Wii. What you guys probably don’t know is that, despite being strictly Xbox 360 at moment, once upon a time I too owned a Wii (I even bought it on launch night). After watching numerous trailers and reading endless articles (to be honest, I just looked at the pictures), I was looking forward to Alone in the Dark, more than any other scheduled Wii release in 2008 in fact.

It was like no game I had ever played before, and its visual style really appealed to my love of the paranormal, BUT the stupid hype train got the better of me. I got up early to buy the game on it’s first day of release, and I finished the game at around midday the same day. Yes, it was that short. There are no words to describe how terrible this game turned out to be. I consider it to be the worst game ever made and I’ll probably take that to my grave…in fact, now I think about it, I might have that as my epitaph. Anyway! Alone in the Dark single handily killed my already rocky relationship with the Wii, and it was all thanks to the f*cking hype that had surrounded it!

But, my friends, it doesn’t end there. Did you ever play an RPG game called Lost Planet? Back in 2006 it was one of my favorite games. I’ve been a fan of third-person gameplay ever since I got my grubby hands on a copy of Resident Evil 1 on my Greystation (thats Playstation 1 for those of you that aren’t cool), and shooting aliens never gets old. Combining the two, Lost Planet came with a crisp look and an abundance of huge enemies to slaughter, with a unique storyline to tie it all together.

Lost Planet 1 was awesome

The sequel on the other hand, oh boy was that a big disappointment, even bigger than it’s enemies (with are MASSIVE by the way). This time around there was a heavy focus on online co-op gameplay, something which any gamer will appreciate: exploding aliens that are larger than your house is even more satisfying when you’re with your friends, yet somehow CAPCOM failed to deliver.

However, Lost Planet 2 was marketed very well. First of all they let us all in on two very impressive demos, one demonstrating the single player aspect of the game, and another for the multiplayer, and after five minutes on both, I was sold. There was practically nothing about the game I did not like and it was hard to find reasons not to buy it on launch day. Add a nice spoonful of TV & internet advertising and it sounded like a recipe for success.

On the day of release, I was once again first in line at my local game shop; I couldn’t wait to find out what the rest of the game was like. Once again though, the hype train had hit me hard. Though my experience with the demos had been great, I just didn’t enjoy the full game as much as I had expected to. For some reason Lost Planet 2 had Lost (see what I did there?) its charm, and most of the critics agreed with me too. Capcom had made a few designs missteps which hindered the game. Camera angles were dodgy, AI was stupid, and I felt like I needed to buy some insurance for my controller because the game is so frustrating at times I almost smashed it against my cell door.

Lost Planet 2? Not so much..

So…. We’ve established that a bad game can still sell, but what about the games which don’t get the hype train they deserve? Take Batman: Arkham Asylum for instance. There have been a lot of Batman games released during Bruce Wayne’s tour of duty, but none of them had ever really met the expectations of the fans of the comic books. The films were not exactly Oscar material either mind you (Dark Knight excluded), so it was understandable when nobody really believed the hype around Batman: AA. We had videos and screenshots floating around the internet like band-aids in a swimming pool but it just never caught anyone’s attention, it was dismissed as nothing more than a Splinter Cell clone. That is until it was released in August 2009. The game was brilliant, a great success. It had solid gameplay and some of the best fighting mechanics seen in a video game for a long time. It had a cool and dark narrative, and most of all it was bloody good fun. For once, a game had exceeded everyone’s expectations and ultimately lived up to the hype surrounding it. Batman proved he was still the king of all flying rodents, and the best superhero by far.

As a consumer, by jumping on the hype train you are also becoming a sheep. All games should be judged on their own merits, but the opinion of the masses all too often overshadows everything a game has to offer. If you can get everyone on the internet raving about it, and you are lucky enough to have a TV ad campaign, you will most likely shift a metric ton of discs. That said, it will be hard to recover your reputation after gamers find out your games can’t live up to expectations. In the short term though, it’s the hype that will determine whether the latest games end up on the top shelf or in the bargain bin.

This is one of the many reasons why independent games have become so important in preserving originality throughout the gaming industry. Downloadable games from XBLA and PSN are getting better; becoming more impressive and visually spectacular as small time developers churn out more engrossing content. At the same time, these developers are not subjected to the hype which all the big wigs inevitably receive.

The fruit based title Apple Jack is a prime example. Apple Jack is a simple platformer, with the main objective being to kill all the enemies in each stage by throwing them into one other. Levels start simply enough, but quickly become challenging as you progress, introducing all manner of puzzles. Sometimes foes will be the only solution to completing a puzzle, as you use them as platforms to reach areas that would be otherwise inaccessible, while others border on the bizarre, with some levels completely covered in pandas and washing machines, as well as the return of the dreaded spiked maze.

Apple Jack.. underrated brilliance

Apple Jack is mechanically solid, and has a great sense of humour. Enemies and stages are named after British towns and counties, which is a delightful addition, and whats more, it looks fantastic. But despite how well this game was received, it amassed a hype percentage of zero: I had no idea it even existed until recently, but its one of the best indie titles out there.

Ultimately, the situation is unlikely to change. Smaller developers have smaller budgets, meaning that they have fewer options for promoting their games.  Sadly, that means that all too often they don’t get the recognition they deserve. The games industry is a circus, and creating buzz around games gives gamers a reason to be excited and journo types stuff to write about, but those that ride the hype train are going to be left disappointed. So keep your heads on, stay calm and keep your eyes and ears peeled, because whilst you drool over the brand new and the shiny, you may be missing out on some absolute gems.

2009 was a great year for games. We had Batman: Arkham Asylum, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Left 4 Dead 2 amongst others, and this year seems to be a continuation of that. It’s incredible to think that already this year we’ve managed to get our hands on Mass Effect 2, God of War 3 and Super Mario Galaxy 2, with games from the Halo, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, Fallout and Castlevania series all still to come.

With a constant flow of big titles coming out there’s fierce competition and with that comes fairly big titles losing out on sales and somewhat slipping under the radar. No game this year sums this up more than Alan Wake.

Despite all the time, money, effort and publicity pumped, and is continuing to be pumped into Alan Wake, it’s safe to say the game didn’t sell well…. not at all really. This could be down to a number of things. The fact that the game came out on the exact same day as Red Dead Redemption (which sold TONS by the way) obviously had something to do with it but to place the blame for the game under selling solely on the fact it came out on the same day as another popular game is just being plain delusional. Perhaps people got tired of all the hype and delays over the years that when the game actually came out not as many gamers were interested. Who knows? But you can’t change what has already happened.

Pinning the blame of poor sales solely on Red Dead Redemption is perhaps a little bit ignorant

So Alan Wake sold badly and this has thrown the possibility of a sequel, that the game so richly deserves, into doubt. But whilst the gamers didn’t flock out in their masses to pick up the game, I was one of the very few who actually did and for me Alan Wake will go down as THE most underrated game of 2010. Despite no one buying it and it’s reviews seemingly missing the point, the fact remains that everyone that I personally know that has played it has loved it, and that includes me too. Alan Wake was refreshing, compelling and intelligent, something that games rarely are these days, so when it was announced that, despite it’s sequel being in jeopardy, 2 bits of DLC were being release, I embraced the news with open arms.

With “The Writer” DLC yet to come, Alan Wake’s first piece of downloadable content “The Signal” sports as much attention to detail and polish as the original game itself. Attempting to bridge the gap between the first game and a possible second, The Signal picks up right where the original game finished, this time giving previous Alan Wake players the opportunity to experience the involvement of some of the more mysterious and unknown characters of the original, namely that of diver, Thomas Zane, thickening the plot and adding depth to an already weighty story.

The Signal allows you insight into the role of the mysterious, Thomas Zane

If you were one of the very few that played Alan Wake and enjoyed it, you will undoubtedly enjoy The Signal as essentially it’s just more of the same. The gripping, psychological storytelling that made the original game so compelling is still there, at times coming across a little more harrowing than the original and the same combat mechanics are there.

That’s not to say Remedy haven’t made SOME changes of course. As someone who played the original on normal difficulty, The Signal felt a lot more difficult, a lot more like the full game’s harder difficulties. More enemies attack you at once and in more confined locations too, perhaps the whole sense of the DLC feeling more harrowing is down to the fact that throughout The Signal you are constantly fighting for survival; not only are there more enemies and less places to hide but equipment, such as ammo, seems in short supply adding more focus on rationing and survival. The intention of making The Signal just that little bit harder is then hammered home by the fact that there is an achievement for not dying or restarting from a checkpoint.

Possessed cars, trucks, people, debris, poles, bits of machinery, it's all out to get you and it's everywhere

What, I hear you cry, the DLC contains more achievements? Indeed, achievement whores, it does. In fact The Signal comes with a whole host of new features which is a testament to the effort being put in to the I.P considering Remedy could’ve gotten away with just tacking on some DLC with minimal effort. But no, The Signal reeks quality and attention to detail. There are more achievements to unlock, collectibles to collect, more of the overall Alan Wake story to experience, a new unique end boss to fight, and a brand new world to explore (still set in Bright Falls, but the environment is much harsher and much more dangerous this time around).

Despite the DLC not costing a single penny/dollar/whatever the currency in your country is, (THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S FREE! So long as you kept your downloadable token when you bought the game new, because we all bought the game new right?), it’s also not very short either, giving more bang for your buck (wait, no, that doesn’t work does it?). Whilst being feature packed, The Signal is about as long as your average chapter length in the original game. One play through, neglecting achievements and collectibles, will clock in at around an hour on it’s own, which means that although The Signal is a piece of downloadable content, on it’s own merit, it provides at least 2 -3 hours worth of play to unlock and collect absolutely everything.

Alan himself was even shocked by the notion of The Signal being free

The Signal contains all the trademark features that made the original, full game different and so special, and it all ends so perfectly leading up to The Writer (sadly though, that piece of DLC won’t be free, 300 odd MSP though so still not bad). And as David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” (yes that’s right, SPACE BLOODY ODDITY), plays over the credits, you draw the first breath you’ve taken in an hour, an experience.

Review Round Up

Graphics: 4/5 – Facial animation is still a little bit weak, but the way they’ve changed the environment in conjunction with the progression in story is great. Contains all the polish and attention to detail as the original, full game.

Sound: 4/5 – Space Oddity FTW!

Gameplay: 3.5/5 – The Signal is harder and more harrowing than the full game, but nothing has changed drastically, more of the same. Something a little bit different would’ve been nice though.

Longevity: 4.5/5 – For a piece of DLC, it has a lot of replay value.

Overall: 4.5/5 – Overall The Signal gets 4.5 possessed toasters out of 5.

[starreview tpl=16]

- Kieran Roycroft

Four years or so have gone by since the launch of the Wii and yet the console still doesn’t have even one good FPS. Sure, Nintendo have made attempts with the aforementioned Conduit, but nothing that’s ever been good enough. Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 have their own flagship FPSs in form of their Halos and their Killzones, but what does Nintendo have?

Where is Nintendo's answer to Master Chief?

Needless to say, in terms of first person shooters, Nintendo have been left behind. But all of this could change. If there was any first person shooter that needed a sequel it would be XIII. Not only was the original brilliant, it also ended with a cliffhanger, leaving room for a sequel anyway. In an age where FPSs all look and play the same, the comic book stylings of XIII would set it apart from the crowd, a true alternative, one that was on the Wii for a change.

Alas, this will likely never happen. After all, Ubisoft owns the XIII license (or at least did) so if a sequel were to ever be made it would probably be available on all formats, just like the original was. For the moment at least, lets forget about such misery and instead allow me take you back in time and talk to you about the original XIII; a game that was made for a sequel it will never get.

The opening to XIII was, and is still, one of the best opening scenes to any game I’ve ever played. The president is dead and you are the number one suspect. Problem is… you can’t even clear your name as you are suffering from amnesia; you cannot remember a thing. You awake on a beach, badly injured; you don’t know who you are, where you are or why you’ve got a mysterious tattoo of the Roman numerals for the number 13 on your shoulder. Sounds like your average night out to me.

The plot to XIII is like your average Friday night out... minus the assassinations, shoot outs, spies and corrupt government organisations

Immediately you’re thrown straight into the deep end, which despite its age is still somewhat refreshing alongside contemporary FPSs. Modern entries into the genre take far too long to get going, making you sit through drab tutorial after drab tutorial. XIII kicks off the action right away with gang members out to get you from the off. It draws you straight into to an intense, exciting world full off espionage and betrayal, giving you the necessary tutorials as you progress, thus ensuring the controls are fresh in your mind and that you are properly equipped to take on any challenge at any time.

Speaking of controls, the GameCube controller itself is somewhat of a strange beast (I’ll assume you’re playing XIII with the GameCube controller on the GameCube itself or the Wii, like I did). It’s not really designed to play any game, let alone a first person shooter, with its odd shape and its many, many buttons. However, the way XIII uses such a strange controller is brilliant. Every button, every flick of the joystick, feels extremely intuitive and accessible.

The GameCube controller is somewhat of an alien entity in itself

What makes XIII really shine is its unique graphical style. I’ll admit, at the time the game looked stunning on the GameCube; I can’t think of any game that looked better, but after recently firing XIII back up in my Wii, I can safety say it hasn’t aged well graphically. This is something you will have to look past in order to get maximum enjoyment out of the game. But whilst time has not been kind, the uniqueness of XIII’s graphics is still unparalleled.

In today’s gaming environment, graphics are at the forefront of game design (Crysis anyone?). It’s a true testament to XIII that, whilst cell shaded, comic book style games have been done to death. The game’s edgy, gritty, comic book visuals continue to set it apart from games of a similar style, let alone your generic, copy and paste shooters we have to live with today. Everything from the beautiful looking cutscenes to the actual gameplay itself is highly stylized (taking huge influence from the comic book series XIII is originally from), and utterly unique.

XIII is such a multifaceted shooter, not only does it have a brilliant story, “pick up and play” controls and a unique graphical style, but it boasts a variety of gameplay elements that help set XII apart from other shooters. Whether it be a skill/cheat system you unlock throughout the game, brilliant cover and hostage systems or gruesome skill shots that display head shots and the like in gory detail with the clever use of some comic-book-esque panels.

The game rewards players for skillful shots with some brutal, comic book panel inspired effects

A standout moment from the game is the awesome (and my personal favourite) second level in which you must escape from a bank after being framed for yet another crime: this time, setting off a bomb in one of the vaults. Of course you are innocent, so you want to escape as quickly and as quietly as possible without seriously hurting anyone.

Rather than running around shooting the place up, the game forces you to think more carefully; by using chairs and other objects you can knock out the armed police and security guards (as opposed to killing them and/or taking them hostage) which will enable you to escape without injuring anyone. The way the game effortlessly shifts between a shooter and some sort of a stealth game gives you the sense that you are in the starring role of a James Bond film… or something.

This level of variety is something which runs through the game as a whole. Whether it be the 34 singleplayer levels, the 6 multiplayer modes, playable on 14 different multiplayer maps (including up to 4 player local, en or over the internet via Xbox Live 1.0 and PS2 Online, on the Xbox and PS2 versions), or simply the huge range of weaponry at your disposal ranging from melee weapons such as ash trays, and glass bottles to AK47′s, Sniper rifles and Magnums, each with their own comic book inspired “POW!”, “BOOM!” and “”BANG!” imagery. XIII is chock full of content and variety.

There's no better way than to kill an enemy with a rocket that goes.. BAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

And that’s not all! XIII also sports brilliant use of sound, coupling a cheesy, 80′s inspired soundtrack with an awesome voice cast including Adam West (insert Family Guy reference here), and David Duchovny aka Mulder from The X-Files.

Unfortunately, whilst XIII is a brilliant example of game that has all bases covered, it’s another game that time seems to have forgotten and a sequel is about as likely as pigs flying… with wings and all that. However, if you do find yourself getting bored with the same old, generic FPSs, why not give XIII a shot? (no pun intended). Once you look past its age, you get to experience its real beauty.

- Kieran Roycroft

For an MP3 copy of the show, right click the link and choose Save As.
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If you’d like the show notes, click the more button.

[H:MM:SS] – Show Notes
——————–
Opening Song (Track 3 – Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia OST)

[0:00:41] – Introductions + Special Guest

[0:05:28] – Microsoft Press Conference

[0:40:11] – EA Press Conference

[0:55:13] – UbiSoft Press Conference

[1:06:44] – Nintendo Press Conference

[1:27:20] – Sony Press Conference

[1:57:30] – Top 5 Most Anticipated Games From E3 2010
-The Trailer for Dust: An Elysian Tail

[2:37:52] – Wrap Up
-The Wiki Link for Parasite Eve

[2:41:13] – End

Movie fans with a gaming habit will have noticed that a certain adaptation is scheduled for release in a few days; Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Based on the 2003 film of the same name, it’s being hyped as a video game adaptation that will actually be good.

Back to the game though, at the time of release this multi-platform title was praised for its graphics and fantastic time control mechanisms as well as the strong character building of both the Prince and Farah. For many at the time it was game of the year and is still one of the highest ranking games for the Xbox, Playstation 2 and GameCube.

Since then, there have been three more releases: The Warrior Within, The Two Thrones and, more recently, the 2008 title simply called Prince of Persia. So now we have Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, but where does it fit into the franchise?

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is very much the spiritual successor to The Sands of Time over the rather divisive 2008 release. Of course, this is also a movie tie-in that, whilst not directly related to the Jerry Bruckheimer film, is Ubisoft’s first foray into the movie tie-in since the rather sub-par Avatar games.

Those amongst us that have experienced The Sands of Time will know what to expect: jungle-gym-esque rooms full of mazes with obstacles to vault, jump, swing and wall-run over, punctuated with the occasional sword-swinging battle against the resident enemies of the game. So how does this hold up against the much-loved original?

Once you get the hang of controls you can become a master acrobat.

The opening is impressive, sweeping over the vast landscapes of the desert city to reveal the place where you’ll predominantly be for the rest of the game. Graphics are as polished as one would expect them to be, conveying scale and the grand atmosphere to come. I have to be honest though, the first twenty minutes or so is a complete slog.

The controls feel heavy, the jumps delayed and the Prince felt more akin to controlling a block of stone than the lithe acrobat I expected. Personally, I thought the Prince was a little too on the boxy side for my liking also, a complete contrast for me against the well spoken voice of Yuri Lowenthal, but that’s just me.

The game was a complete slog until the realisation that this was, in almost every aspect, The Sands of Time. After a quick revision of the original, that I thankfully still own, the controls of this title made a little more sense. The controls are an emulation of a title released some seven years ago. After this epiphany, oddly enough the game opened up a little more.

Some moments of the game look visually stunning.

Nearly every aspect of this game can be compared closely to The Sands of Time, but for the sake of the review I’ll put aside the comparisons as much as I can. Firstly, let’s deal with combat. In any previous game in the franchise, combat hasn’t been the most praise worthy gameplay aspect. In a similar fashion, I doubt anyone is going to be singing the praises of this system too much. It is, on the whole, very simplistic. You essentially hit things with your sword… who could want more?

Occasionally you have to kick someone with a shield before damage can be done, cinematic aerial slashes can be performed by jumping on the enemies and on occasion, one can throw minions over balconies and banisters to their doom. It may not be complex, but it is fulfilling as the game will throw a multitude of enemies at you. Slashing down swathes of sand-creatures in one swipe couldn’t be more satisfying.

Kicking an enemy off the side of a building = satisfying out of ten

An inescapable comparison is the Prince’s control over time. As a spiritual successor, the Prince once again can stop and rewind time to prevent his demise. This may be a welcome addition for the nay-sayers of the 2008 ‘death-defying’ game in which it was impossible for you to commit suicide. Instead, you have a certain amount of chances to rewind time should you fall into trouble, but once those chances are gone, the Prince will die.

This chance to rewind time is combined with other special powers gained throughout the game that must be activated in order to navigate the levels. The most prominent of which is the ability to freeze water. This new ability is used to freeze sheets of water to create suitable areas for wall-running. You can also freeze jets of water that act as substitutes for the traditional flag-pole style objects that the Prince regularly swings from.

How he grips on to either of these, I’ll never know; perhaps a good pair of gloves and some spiked boots? All of this combines to make a game far more challenging but rewarding in some sense than the 2008 title.

Be prepared for some icy moments after gaining power over water.

Level design overlaps somewhat with the 2008 title. Yet, despite this the differences in the game’s difficulty as well as in the design of the Prince himself lend the game a completely different feel. This is the area in which Prince of Persia excels. The level design flows and increases in difficulty as the game develops, always seeming to keep the right side of challenging.

When you get into the ‘zone’ and manage to string together segments of traversing the obstacles flawlessly without having to resort to rewinding, the feeling of mastery leaves you speechless. That said, the game will always keep you on your toes; just when you think things are becoming too easy, it will throw something your way that will make you stop and consider the level a little longer.

Some enemies are a little bigger than your regular sand-minions.

That said, not all is rosy within The Forgotten Sands. Should players have fallen in love with Sands of Time or even the 2008 storyline, this game may come as a little bit of a disappointment. Sure, this title may emulate the Sands of Time in everything from combat to level design but it falls flat in character development. The interplay between the Prince and Farah and even the 2008’s Prince and Elika is entirely missing from this game.

Without the stunning interplay between the Prince and a companion, this game can come across as little more than a soulless movie tie-in. The gameplay is important, of course, but when this is a follow up to such a successful game, and in light of a big screen release, such faults could be crippling for a Prince of Persia fan.

It is relatively easy yet satisfying to massacre enemies from the sky.

The auto-saves too, need mentioning. Whilst I myself had few problems, with only a couple of irritating restart points after dying, others online have noted more troublesome glitches. As the game only has one slot which is continually auto-updated as you progress, should anything go wrong there is no opportunity for the player to reload from a personal save.

Having a personal save alongside an auto-save would have easily got around this. Even offering a choice of previous auto-saves would have been nice. Unfortunately, should the game auto-save when you are dying, the results can be irritating, forcing the player to restart the whole game.

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 4/5 The graphics in this game can’t really be faulted too much. Everything looks nice with cinematic attacks working well within the combat system. There is a great gradual addition of colour as the game progresses; the Prince initially starts out in Gears of War brown settings, graduating into lush green gardens later into the game. All in all, it is what you would have expected.

Sound: 3.5/5 The sound is atmospheric and works within the game, however it lacks any sort of mesmerising qualities. You won’t be humming any of the tunes after playing this, but for general atmosphere it works. Voice acting is well done, with a welcome return from Yuri, but his voice doesn’t suit his new bulky appearance.

Gameplay: 3.5/5 Combat is satisfying as a frustration reliever and when you can flow combinations of jumps, swings and wall-runs you’ll be shouting about how awesome you are. But be prepared for the traditional throwing of the controller when things don’t go so smoothly.

Longevity: 3/5 Once this game is completed there is little in the way of replayability outside of completing the game on a higher difficulty or grabbing those last niggling achievements. Extras offered aren’t too much of a bonus unless you love Ubisoft’s staple Ezio enough to see his behind swinging around instead of the Prince’s.

Overall: 3.5 rewinds out of 5

Whilst it starts out as quite a disappointment, Forgotten Sands picks up as the game progresses. People who have a long-standing love affair with Sands of Time might not be as forgiving, however.

When you look at it, what you have here is a sequel that might find tough times being released as a dreaded movie tie-in. Had this been a stand-alone release it might not have felt quite so soulless. That said, if what you want is a more up to date version of Sands of Time sans the romance, this will be the game you’ve been waiting for.

[starreview tpl=16]

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Originally announced in early 2007, Splinter Cell Conviction – the fifth in the Splinter Cell series – has had something of a shaky development. Originally due out towards the end of 2007, the game has apparently been through a number of redesigns since that initial announcement. In fact, so little was said after the game was originally announced that people started to believe it would never come out. Yet here we are, March 2010, and the game is almost upon us. The Newb Review recently got hold of the Xbox 360 demo to take it through it’s paces.

After the events of Splinter Cell: Double Agent, gruff, old-age super spy Sam Fisher is on the run from his former employees, government agency Third Echelon. Without their backing, Sam is forced to rely on less high tech methods of infiltration. For instance, early in the game, rather than using his usual spy camera to peer under doors, Sam uses a bit of broken glass he procured from a car’s wing mirror. The demo features two levels from the game, the first level being an interrogation from early on in the game, and the second level taking place later in the game, when Sam has a bit more equipment.

The interrogation scene is short but stylish

In the first scene you take control of Sam in a public toilet, interrogating someone about the death of his daughter. By interrogate, I of course mean beating the shit out of him until he talks. Certain parts of the toilet are interactive, such as the sink or toilet door, and pressing B will cause Sam to use the interactive scenery to aid him in getting answers. Press B near the sink and Sam will Slam the guy’s head clean through it, while Pressing B near the toilet door will cause Sam to throw the guy through it. Whenever any information is given to you it is stylishly exhibited on the walls, as if a large projector were beaming the events for you as a visual aid. For instance, when the name of the person responsible for your daughter’s death is revealed, a picture of him appears on the wall, along with a few details about him.

After the interrogation is over, the demo jumps forward a few levels – in order to avoid spoilers apparently – to a level that shows us just how much the actual gameplay has changed since the last game. In previous Splinter Cell games it could be argued that you would be better off avoiding confrontation all together. Head to head conflict would, more often than not, lead to a swift death. Conviction is a very different animal – you are actively encouraged to kill everyone you come across. Having said that, Sam is by no means invincible, and death is easily achieved. In order to be successful in defeating your enemies, you have to be crafty.

The main new combat feature is the Mark and Execute tactic. Successfully taking an enemy down silently, with your bare hands, fills a bar which means you will be able to perform a quick kill on an enemy with your gun. By aiming at the enemy you want to take down and pressing the right bumper, the enemy is marked for death. The demo only has situations where up to two enemies can be marked at a time, but the mark and execute metre appears to have three slots, which suggests that perhaps you can mark three at a time. Pressing the Y button performs the execution animation, in most cases a few quick headshots with your silenced pistol.

Successful stealth kills will allow you to perform Mark and Execute kills

As well as the pistol, Sam has access to Sonar Vision goggles (think of Batman’s goggles from towards the end of The Dark Knight) that allow him to see through walls, an EMP device that disrupts computers, and machine guns. Using this equipment, as well as your wits, you must breach a warehouse, rescue a captured scientist, and disable an EMP Bomb. There are multiple paths you can choose to take. Rather than taking a side entrance, I chose to climb up a drain pipe and enter through an open window. Once on the upper floor of the warehouse I was able to watch the enemy guard patrols and work out the best tactic to get through the warehouse unscathed.

If you are unfortunate enough to get spotted, then you had better run. If you try and stick around and fight then the chances are you will not survive. Fortunately there is a new gameplay mechanic that will aide you in evading your foes. If you manage to leave the enemy’s line of sight then a silhouette of Sam appears where the enemies last saw you. With this knowledge you can rethink strategies with ease.

Sam is on his own this time.

While you are given plenty of opportunities to use the Mark and Execute move, I found it just as easy to line up headshots with the silenced pistol from the shadows and take out most of the guards that way. This is primarily because the enemy intelligence is, at times, comparable to the career of Lindsay Lohan: non existent. However that does not take away from the fact that executing enemies from the darkness is incredibly satisfying.

Overall the demo is fairly short considering it’s file size (1.2 gigabytes), but it exhibits the changes made to the franchise in a positive light. Much like The Newb Review Game of the Year: Batman Arkham Asylum, Splinter Cell Conviction is successful in empowering the player, while at the same time punishing you if you mess up.

Splinter Cell Conviction will be released on the Xbox 360 on 16th April, and on PC on 30th April. Look for a full review at The Newb Review around that time.

Why not help out this site by pre-ordering this game from our Amazon Store:

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Game: Assassin’s Creed 2: The Battle of Forli & Bonfire of the Vanities & Secret Locations
Format: 360, PS3
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft

The Newb Review has something of a love/hate relationship with Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series. We weren’t the only ones who, to put it quite mildly, didn’t like the first instalment (for the full review click here) as despite huge sales, every games critic under the sun gave it the good, hard bashing it rightfully deserved.

It was to our surprise then that last year Assassin’s Creed 2 released and not only did it garner huge sales, but this time it was good. Very, VERY good in fact, a gargantuan improvement on its predecessor and subsequently it ended up being Crofterz personal vote for game of the year (although he was outvoted for The Newb Review Game of The Year Award, by about a quadrillion to one).

So naturally, since he enjoyed the game so much The Newb Review has sent him out to splash some cash on the 2 brand new(ish) DLC packs. Namely, sequence 12, The Battle of Forli and sequence 13, Bonfire of the Vanities & Secret Locations. Are they worth the money? Well, hold on… We’re getting to that bit now.

The Battle of Forli

The Battle of Forli is the first bit of DLC for Assassin’s Creed 2 and I said new(ish) before because well, it’s been out for a while now. It also caused a bit of an uproar because anyone who has played Assassin’s Creed 2 will know of the huge gap in the story between sequences 11 (where you acquire a piece of Eden) and 14 (where you go to the Vatican). In the story it says something about sequence 12 being corrupt!?

Well The Battle of Forli is that such memory. It has caused such a big outrage because, well, according to some (and I totally agree)… it should have been in the game in the first place! The time it takes to download the DLC is a clear indicator that the memory is already on the disc, so why not give it to us for free? Well they’ve got to make money some way right? Although this does seem like a cheap trick.

Is the DLC any good? Well it’s rather short for a start. Containing only 6 new missions, including another mission where you use Da Vinci’s flying machine. So for those who didn’t get the achievement for kicking people in mid-flight, you now have a second chance.

However, at 320 Microsoft moon points (and around £3 on PSN) I would’ve liked to have seen a little bit more bang for my buck. In fact, the only thing that warrants the 320 point/£3 price tag is that it fills in and completes the Assassin’s Creed 2 story. But again, the plot hole really shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Even though there are painfully few of them, there is a nice variety of missions on offer. This is more of the same, but the inclusion of more assassinations, more target locating and more out and out fighting makes for a nice balance. The DLC is definitely more action orientated rather than stealthy (i.e. there’s lots of fighting) and all in all it does a really nice job of filling in the large gap in story. You get some interesting cut scenes that carry the story through well, the same great voice acting you’ve come to expect from Assassin’s Creed 2 and even a few new characters in the mix, as well as exploring a few characters that had seemingly minor roles in the original release.

Unfortunately, it all ends far too quickly and abruptly and the inclusion of the flying machine feels really tacked on. Labelled as a special memory on the map, the flying machine mission isn’t really a mission at all. Ezio seems to fly through the air, without any mission or objective to achieve, and leaves a large question mark over the choice to include it at all.

So let me get this straight, Ezio gets in the flying machine just to marvel at the breathtaking sights?

Review Round Up

Graphics: 4/5 – Nothing has changed graphically from the original game but the inclusion of a few more cut scenes really helps to drive the story.

Sound: 4/5 – Battle of Forli is full of the same great voice acting we’ve come to expect from Assassin’s Creed 2, it’s all very much more of the same.

Gameplay: 3/5 – Nothing new from what we’ve seen in the original game. There’s a nice variety of missions. however the fact that there is very few of them is a big killer.

Longevity: 2/5 – You’ll have finished this DLC in just about an hour, enough said.

Overall: 3/5 – 3 pointless flying machine set pieces out of 5. Overall The Battle of Forli does a good job of filling in the some of the plot holes in the original game. However, at 320 points or around £3 for PS3 owners, I can see why some would expect a little more for their money.

The Bonfire of the Vanities & Secret Locations

The Bonfire of the Vanities is the second pack of DLC released for Assassin’s Creed 2 and it’s the last missing sequence (sequence 13) in the Assassin’s Creed 2 story. Following on from where The Battle of Forli suddenly ended, The Bonfire of the Vanities has had something of a confusing release. So, let’s clear it all up once and for all (read this carefully, it may save you a few bob)… The Bonfire of the Vanities has been released in two editions, one that costs 320 Microsoft moon points (£3.19 on PSN) and one that costs a bit more, at 520 MSP (that’s £5.49 for PS3 owners). The first contains the Bonfire of the Vanities DLC, whilst the latter (the one that I bought, and shall be reviewing) comes with the DLC as well as the added bonus of some extra Templar lairs that previously only buyers of the black and white special editions of the game had access to.

Anyway with all that price juggling b*llocks out of the way, is the DLC any good?

Well, it’s certainly longer than Battle of Forli (it boasts 10 new missions and 3 Templar lairs), giving you far more content for your money. But the variety between missions is non-existent. In Forli you must eavesdrop, escort and assassinate, Bonfire of the Vanities is just a series of assassination missions. Of course, stabbing people in the neck is fun, but personally I wanted a little bit more variety. After all… it’s the spice of life.

In fact you could say Bonfire of the Vanities is the exact opposite of Battle of Forli. It’s certainly worth the price. It’s longer, has less variety and whereas Battle of Forli is all about action, Bonfire of the Vanities takes a more stealthy, relaxed approach as you plan the assassination and then execute.

The same great voice acting and cut scenes you have come to expect from Assassin’s Creed 2 are all present and correct, even if used a little more sparsely than in Battle of Forli. And of course the DLC pack, just like the previous, does a very nice job of filling in and completing the Assassin’s Creed 2 story arc.

Despite it’s lack of variety, the assassination missions themselves are still a lot of fun. You can easily avoid any monotony setting in by visiting the 5 or 6 new viewpoints and the 3 Templar lairs, which really made the DLC worth it for me.

Although the lairs offer little in terms of a reward past simple monetary gains, they act as a brilliant change of pace. The lairs are essentially  the same as the assassin’s crypts in the original release, which inherently means there’s nothing completely new, but coupled with the assassination missions, this makes for a nice overall package.

Unfortunately there is a catch. To fully sync Desmond with Ezio you must complete all DLC packs and the Templar lairs as well as all the other bonus objectives in the original title (such as those stupid pointless feathers). This is a very cheap and dirty move on Ubisofts part – the filthy, rotten b*stards! But then again, at 520 points/£5.49, you can’t argue with the price.

Killing is Ezio's business and in The Bonfire of the Vanities, business is good.

Review Round Up

Graphics: 4/5 – Like The Battle of Forli DLC, nothing graphically as changed… the game still looks incredible.

Sound: 4/5 – Again nothing has changed much from either the original game or the previous DLC. Great voice acting as per usual.

Gameplay: 3/5 – This time around there’s plenty of content for your buck. It’s just a shame it lacks variety. However the Templar lairs really do help to instil a bit of choice and fend off tedium.

Longevity: 4/5 – For your money you get a lot.

Overall: 4/5 – 4 spices of life (curry powder, paprika, cumin and and nutmeg) out of 5. Plenty of content for a fairly cheap price, just a shame the content had a bit more depth.

[starreview tpl=16]

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Game: Assassin’s Creed
Format: XBox 360
Developer: EA Montreal
Publisher: Electronic Arts

November is always a very exciting time of year in the gaming calender. Mostly because every man and his bloody dog decides to release their game in November in an attempt to garner a few extra sales thanks to Christmas and the January sales. This year being no different of course, we’ve had the likes Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and Assassin’s Creed 2 all coming  within a week or two of each other. This means us nerds have had to file for bankruptcy just in time to start the Christmas shopping.

I’ll admit, I do have them all. Left 4 Dead 2, Dragon Age: Origins (although I did trade it in on the account that the Xbox 360 version is rubbish), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and most strangely Assassin’s Creed 2. “Why most strangely?” I hear you ask? Because, to be honest, at the time I wasn’t into the whole Assassin’s Creed thing; I simply went out on a whim and bought it… and am I ever glad I did!? Assassin’s Creed 2 for me is the best of the November bunch, and quite possibly the best game I’ve played all year.

However this isn’t a review of Assassin’s Creed 2, this is the review of it’s predecessor. A game which I hadn’t played until a month or two ago, and a game that was kindly donated to me from a friend of mine. I say friend, he is now my most bitter enemy for putting me through such torture. “Such torture?” you cry? Yes I can safely say that playing this game was the single most torturous experience I’ve ever felt. I’d have rather been Chinese water boarded than play this game. In other words…. I don’t like this game.

There you go. Review done. Bye.

In fact, saying I don’t like this game is actually putting it quite mildly. What I mean to say is I absolutely, 100%, with every bone in my body loathe this bloody game!!!! Why? Well lets get to that in a minute, but first let us discuss the positives you can take from the game (from which there are very few).

First of all the game is simply stunning. I’ve recently joined the ranks of you graphics whores out there and now find myself with a great big HD TV sitting on my desk (not by my own will might I add, it was bought for me, as a birthday present). Assassin’s Creed was the first game I had loaded up on the brand new TV. To say I was blown away by a) everything looks a trillion times better on an HD TV and b) how awesome the game itself actually looked. Yes, the game looks great. OK, better than great. Graphically it’s superior to most of November 2009′s big hitters, and this game is 2 years old. This is a remarkable achievement.

The lush setting is very refreshing and beautiful.

So there are the positives. Now for all the negatives. Actually I joke, there’s one other thing that you can say about the game in a positive light; the concept is brilliant. It’s utterly unique and fresh, there is no other game like it. However, I can’t even begin to imagine how they would pitch a game like this to the big wigs at Ubisoft, but I think it went a bit like this:

So right we’ve got this idea for a game, right? You wake up in this unknown place; you don’t know where you are and you have to follow orders from some strange bearded guy and a suspiciously good looking girl… And what happens is you get in this KERAZY machine that takes you back in time where you play out the memories of your ancestor, who is an assassin… And it turns out that it’s all a big conspiracy; the bearded guy is working for the templars, who are after pieces of eden in order to control the world. But you have to do as he says or he will kill… And in fact even when you’re done and your ancestor’s memory leads them to where the pieces of eden are, they will kill you anyway because they’re at war with the assassins… And it turns out that you yourself are an assassin. So what do you think?

Anyway, whilst the game concept is brilliant; the story itself is poorly executed. It’s far too predictable and any twists in the plot (of which there is one right at the end - but I won’t spoil it for you) can be seen a mile off. It doesn’t help when two of the main characters are so irritating that every time they open their mouths to speak you want to pull them out of the TV by the scruff of the neck and repeatedly headbutt them ’til their face turns to mush. Your boss, Al Mualim (pronounced Al-Moo-Al-Him) is the typical b*stard in waiting. The way in which he makes your character, Altaïr, jump through hoops like a little dog throughout the game is most comparable to a paedophile grooming their next victim. Needless to say he’s a prick. And Altaïr (pronounced Al-Tye-Ear), the main character you play… God is he irritating! This is mainly because not only does he act like an angst ridden, brooding teen but he also dresses like a d*ck too; what are those white robes all about? He couldn’t be any more more emo if he tried, unless of course he dyed his robes black, sported eye-liner, facial piercings and a sweeping, black fringe so big it could take your eye out at thirty paces (although I suspect he has actually got one, it’s just hidden underneath that white hood of his).

Also, for an assassin he’s pretty rubbish. The gameplay has many, many problems and one of these is when you’re doing an assassination. There is only one way to kill your target, that being a hidden blade right to the neck. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the whole point of an assassin that they can kill from anywhere, with anything? If you ask me Altaïr isn’t even an assassin at all, just a second rate murderer.

Anyway, on to the free running controls. Gosh, are they broken or what? The controls themselves are simple, hold right trigger and A and you’ll climb, jump and go anywhere. However doing this also makes you sprint. So as you’re running away from killing the target you’ve just had to kill with your hidden blade in broad daylight in front of everyone, thanks to the limited ways in which you can dispose of your target, the game fails to recognise that no, you don’t want to jump up that wall because you can’t reach the ledge at the top. It just tries tries it anyway; halting your escape and causing the utmost frustration.

What makes it worse is the game itself feels like a chore. There are tedious travel sections where you ride from city to city on your horse. These are made even boring when the distances between cities are massive, they takes literally 10 minutes. That’s 10 minutes of just riding a horse! If I wanted to do that I’d play Horse Life Adventures on the Nintendo DS for God’s sake!

Everything is a monotonous drag. You’re constantly doing the same things over and over: save this citizen, eavesdrop on that conversation, interrogate this person, kill these people, over and over again… In every city… At least 3 times each!

To try and break up the monotony of doing the same thing over and over, they give you optional tasks such as the collection of a billion flags that are all hidden in ridiculous places where you can’t find them… FUN! It’s like the hidden orbs in Crackdown, but not at all enjoyable and with little incentive other than achievements. At least in Crackdown the orbs you collected made your character stronger. Thus, you felt more compelled to collect them. Here, all you’re doing is collecting stupid flags to get stupid achievements. Whoopteedoo!

I think the key words for this review are “boring” and “limited”. There’s so little to do except the same thing over and over, making this one of the most tedious and torturous games I’ve ever played. I find humour in the fact that as soon as I started playing Assassin’s Creed, my Xbox had decided to start overheating as if it were disgusting that I would put such a game in its disk tray. In fact, that pretty much sums up my entire experience with this game.

Review Round Up

Graphics: 5/5 –  Graphics are probably the only thing positive you can really take from the game and still are better than most games released this year despite it being 2 years old.

Sound: 4/5 –  Some nice voice acting, just a shame the characters they were portraying were cliché and one dimensional.

Gameplay: 2/5 –  Do you like doing the same thing over and over? With broken controls and little incentive to play at all? Then first of all your a masochist, but second of all this games for you. Gameplay = Rubbish.

Longevity: 2/5 –  Thank the heavens for Assassin’s Creed 2. It has put so many wrongs in its predecessor right that hopefully everyone will just forget about this game altogether.

Overall: 2/5 –  Overall I give the game 2 blades to the throat out of 5. Over hyped, boring and tedious. However it does look pretty.

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In the world of entertainment there is an unwritten rule that sequels tend to be much worse than the original; the latest album from your favourite band is not quite as good as the previous album, your favourite author’s latest book just does not quite measure up to the last one, and the latest blockbuster sequel in the cinema comes across as being a bit samey and naff. Fortunately for those of us that play video games that same rule rarely applies, in fact you could easily say that the opposite is true. A prime example of this is Assassin’s Creed 2.

It is through playing this game that I have come to realise that just how bad the original Assassin’s Creed was. The original was a repetitive experience with a clumsy, cluttered, and incoherent narrative, full to the brim with pointless side missions and aimless flag collecting. It is almost like the developers thought of a series of ‘fun’ things to do with their impressive free running mechanic, but could not think of an actual reason to do any of those things. I am pleased to report that the team behind the sequel appear to have taken these criticisms to heart and have managed to make a far better game, with a wide variety of missions, and a beautiful open world to explore.

To set the scene, Assassin’s Creed 2 begins right where we left off at the end of the original; playing as Desmond Miles who has been captured by the modern day incarnation of the Knights Templar, and has been forced to relive the memories of his ancestors through a machine called the animus to discover the location of powerful ancient weapons called Pieces of Eden. As the game opens, Desmond is rescued by a small group of Assassins, the enemies of the Templars, and taken to their hideout and placed in their version of the animus in order to help them discover the secret of the Pieces of Eden. Fortunately the game opens with a flashback to the first game letting the player know the basics of what they need to know from the original’s story. This time, rather than controlling Desmond’s ancestor Altair during the Crusades, you control another one of Desmond’s ancestors Ezio Auditore in 15th Century Florence, Italy. Ezio is a young noble man when the game begins, but before long his family are betrayed, causing his father and two brothers to be hung for treason. Ezio retreats in to the mountains of Tuscany with his mother and sister where he meets his Uncle Mario, who trains him in the family business in order to get revenge on those who wronged his family.

During your travels you will venture to other cities, such as Venice and Rome, and the countryside between them. The mission structure of old – go research your target, return to the Assassin’s Bureau, go kill target – is gone. Now the game features a more dynamic and expansive mission structure with numerous types of missions, ranging from simple assassinations, to horse and cart riding, to prison breaks. There are a series of side missions that revolve around solving platforming puzzles to discover secret assassin tombs, and discovering hidden glyphs that have been hacked in the environment through the animus. When examining these glyphs you must solve a series of puzzles which are mainly picture hunt mini games with various key figures in history using the pieces of Eden. Other side missions include races, courier missions, and assassinations.

The controls have had a number of little tweaks made to improve them

Unlike the original you are able to blend in to any crowd of people just by standing in the middle of them. When you have successfully blended your character and the characters that shield you turn black and white. If you find that there are not enough civilians in an area to blend with, then you can hire prostitutes, mercenaries, or thieves in order to create some cover. Your hired help can also be directed at guards in order to create a distraction allowing you to sneak past unnoticed. As with the original you have a notoriety metre which determines how visible you are to guards – with a full metre guards will attack you on sight. In the original you only had to hide for a few moments to become inconspicuous, however in the sequel you have to try a lot harder to become anonymous. In order to become anonymous you must either assassinate an official, bribe a herald, or find wanted posters and pull them down. Amusingly these wanted posters tend to be high up out of the view of ordinary citizens, so they are actually very impractical as a means of identifying wanted criminals.
If you are forced in to fighting the guards you can now disarm enemies and use their own weapons against them, and the countering is a lot more forgiving.

There are a number of new enemies, including large armoured guards armed with either long swords, axes, hammers, or spears, all of which you can take from their dead bodies and use. While the weapons you loot from dead bodies cannot be kept for very long, you can purchase a number of various swords and knives, each with different properties from blacksmiths located all around town. Your armour can also be upgraded and repaired at the blacksmith. Every item you purchased can be accessed from your uncle’s villa in the hills if ever you feel the need to change equipment. Speaking of your uncle’s villa, you can invest your money in the town it is located in with the aim of making it more prosperous and improving the daily income the town will provide for you as it’s patron. There are a number of collectible items in the game, and unlike the original, these collectibles actually contribute towards unlocking items, and improving your town’s economy.

There are 30 pages of the Assassin’s Codex hidden around the world which when translated can be used to upgrade your equipment and increase your health. The most important Codex entries are earned by completing missions, so you will not be able to miss out on the best upgrades. It is worth noting that in order to access the final level you must have all 30 Codex pages, but that should be no problem by that point.

One of the new upgrades is a second wrist blade, meaning you can kill two targets at once.

As with the original, Assassin’s Creed 2 features real life historical figures as characters, such as the translator of your Codex entries, Leonardo Davinci, and people like Niccolo Machiavelli and Pope Alexander VI. Each city has a number of famous landmarks, and while I cannot attest to the accuracy of the city design, the cities have a very authentic look to them, especially Venice. The story takes place over the course of about 15 years and while the city does not change very much over that time they do a decent job of making each period of time fairly distinctive, such as the section of the game that takes place during the Venice carnival. A day and night cycle has been added to the game, and the guards change shift at dawn and dusk, which can give you the chance to sneak in easily. However you would need to either be incredibly fortunate to stumble upon this realisation, or just a very patient person, especially when you can just hire a group of people to distract the guards, or even just chuck a handful of coins on the floor and sneak in during the commotion. Still, I guess it is nice to have the option.

The depiction of Venice in particular is very impressive

It may seem as if the entire purpose of this review has been to criticise the original, but at the time I enjoyed Assassin’s Creed a great deal despite it’s flaws. I make the comparisons between the two games, apart from the obvious reason, because the sequel truly improves upon almost every issue that any one could have had with the original. The only real issue with the game is that at times during combat the camera angles can be counter productive, often obscuring your view behind a tree or a crate, when in tight spaces. Other camera issues can occasionally cause you to veer off in the wrong direction, which can be frustrating when in a situation where you need to have precise control over your character. There may also be a slight issue with accessibility with the story, as if you have not played the original then it may come across as being a little confusing at first. Considering the fact that the game has a lengthy story with dozens of side missions and collectibles to discover, and so few substantial flaws, it is hard not to recommend to everyone.

REVIEW ROUND UP:

GRAPHICS: 4/5 The environments are incredibly detailed and some of the character models are very detailed. However there are a few characters that look very bad in comparison to the others.
SOUND: 5/5 The music, while being subtle, is very good and suitably dramatic when needs be. The voice acting is impressive.
GAMEPLAY: 4/5 There are a wide variety of mission types spread out through the main story, with a number of side missions. Improvements to the combat and general mechanic of anonymity make the game a lot more playable than the original.
LONGEVITY: 5/5 Including collectible feathers, crests, codex pages, and statues that actually unlock special items can keep you playing after completing the lengthy story mode.
OVERALL: 5 Assassinations out of 5 – A nice long single player experience that does not outstay it’s welcome, featuring a nice mix of missions, and collectibles that are actually fun to search out.
[starreview tpl=16]