GC: Heavy Rain

With Playstation 3 games like Resistance 2, Killzone 2, Little Big Planet and Motorstorm Sony tries to run, which are on the Xbox 360 console when it comes to the number of titles to appear. In arrears According to the Japanese company is "the year of Sony's coming, and one of the titles that go with should play an important role Heavy Rain. The game is being developed by the French studio Quantic Dream, who has worked on. Fahrenheit earlier Fahrenheit was marked by the quirky way the story was told in the game, the game was something between a game and an interactive movie. Fahrenheit was not a blockbuster, but got good reviews in the international media game. Not surprisingly, that since 2006, looking forward to Heavy Rain.


In that year, the game was first announced under this title. It was once one of the most promising projects, PS3 and was often in the row with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune named, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gran Turismo 5. The first two games have been, but GT5 and Heavy Rain have long to wait. That raises questions. What is wrong with this game, which was shown for the first time in 2006 and then more than two years where nothing was heard about

Meanwhile, it appears that the long development time is the only thing that is to be noted on the game. Heavy Rain is one of the best games I've ever seen on the Playstation 3 and in the field of animation of faces is the game, well before the release, second to none. Develop Studio Quantic Dream wanted to see in the new project after Fahrenheit more emotion. "How do you make emotion after?" Asked Quantic Dream head developer and director David Cage to the audience during a presentation at the Games Convention in Leipzig. The studio has found the answer, from years of working with complex textures and develop that eye movements can be recorded. Completely new motion capture technology


That effort has not missed its effect. It is startling to see how something relatively small, like a pair of eyes, may be how you look at a game. So decisive When the makers zoomed in on the face of the main character, I saw in her eyes the reflection of the street, and that reflection changed in real time along with the movement of her eyes. Impressive.

GC: Project Origin

I remember well that I got the horror shooter Fear a few years ago for the first face, a small press room at the E3 game show. The game made a big impression and managed to release the hold on power. The combination of Japanese horror influences, intense shootouts and clever artificial intelligence Fear was one of the best first-person shooters of 2005. Several expansions and migrations followed for consoles, but the PC original was without a doubt the best version. Fear knew you as a player to seize by the throat, and the action in the game was overwhelming.


For unknown reasons became developer Monolith and publisher Sierra after the appearance of Fear quarreled. The publisher owned the rights to the name, while Monolith retained the rights to the characters. A strange deal, because especially Alma, the mysterious girl who appeared to be so run away from the movie The Ring was intertwined with Fear. Without her character Fear may simply not exist.

Meanwhile Monolith bought by Warner Bros., Which is increasingly making its wishes profile in the game industry. At the Leipzig Game Convention Warner Bros. presented. include Lego Batman The Videogame, the strikingly handsome Wanted - loosely based on exaggerated action movie with Angelina Jolie - and, drum roll, the actual successor of Fear, named Project Origin.

GC: Call of Duty: World at War

Call of Duty fans watching with fear and trembling to the fifth in the series. The succescvolle fourth section was in fact developed by top studio Infinity Ward, so it is now the turn of Treyarch, that so far the lesser Call of Duty parts put down. Therefore it does not help that Treyarch brings the series back to World War II - a rather conservative step, as discontinue Infinity Ward just step into Modern Warfare had put in the fourth part. At the Games Convention Activision revealed the new shooter and extensive media and consumers, in an attempt to take doubts.


Call of Duty: World at War player pushing the two new campaigns. On behalf of Americans go to work in the Pacific, and the Russian army jerk you to Berlin. In both campaigns will focus on revenge. America is angry about the dastardly attack on Pearl Harbor, while the Russians feel compromised in their pride by Hitler showed contempt for Russia. The Russians also approached the campaign than with "no mercy" and shot his way to Berlin. However, this was not shown at the Games Convention. Activision focused in Leipzig more on the campaign in the Pacific.

The campaign revolves around the U.S. Marines, where one of the roles is played by (voice) Kiefer Sutherland. A great name, which should provide. For top voice acting He succeeds fine, but a personal "problem" that I have thereby then, is that I hear Jack Bauer from 24, not the protagonist of Call of Duty. You may therefore wonder whether it is wise to connect. Such a name to a game Okay, it sounds very good, but I expected every moment a cry as Cloe, upload the schematics to my cellphone, do it now! " - And that can not be right ...

Lots of time to marvel at the voice of the main character does not. You Call of Duty is about action. That has always been so, and will not change this. In part five In the level shown, called Hard Landing, it took thirty seconds for the Japanese first laid ambush and a fierce firefight broke out. Hard Landing is one of the three missions that take place on the island of Peleliu, which was of great strategic value by the airport that there was. The Americans were at that stage of the battle, although stronger, but nevertheless had the greatest difficulty in taking the island in what was clearly stated in the mission.

GC: Operation Flashpoint 2 - Dragon Rising

There are games that years of hiding and then as a devil out of a box appear shoot. Shortly after Operation Flashpoint appeared in 2001, it was already clear that the game would get a successor. Seven years is the sequel coming, and at the Games Convention in Leipzig showed developer Codemasters for the first in-game footage of Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising.


Operation Flashpoint 2 is set on the island of Skira, which is north of Japan. Skira is often changed hands over the years, and especially China and Japan have thereby leapfrogged. However, a real conflict arises only when it is discovered that just under Skira a large oil well is that the country has control over the island billions of dollars can deliver. Some powers will result to stand diametrically opposed to each other and it is not long before all hell breaks loose.

Codemasters has not at all been busy the past few years, according to a first look at the game. The island on which everything happens looks stunning. The chosen style vegetation remotely resembling a watercolor, but up close it's almost photo realistic. According to the producers present at the Games Convention is due to the engine, specifically for next-gen consoles is written. This is at a partial explanation for the long development time of the game. The new engine shines especially in efficiency. If you're in a car or helicopter and you are moving quickly on, you will see considerably less detail in the landscape than when you propels your foot. A conscious choice to perform at the game, as well as possible so confident Codemasters media present in Leipzig. If we are not impressed, then we had to add, especially to bring that more than a half million trees on the island are five kilometers and you can certainly look far. In itself does not say much, but it's nice to know.


The code in Leipzig was shown incidentally was anything but smooth. The framerate take a shit regularly and even racing through a forest looked not very stable. That is understandable, the game only comes in 2009 and Codemasters still has time to optimize everything. You may be wondering whether the engine is a bit too heavy, even for the powerful Playstation 3. At the same time, we found that the quality of the graphics was fine. If the game looks on a console already so great, it will only get better on a powerful PC.

Far Cry 2: The Dunia engine

Who gets the chance to speak, as Technical Director is responsible for the internal studio Ubisoft for the engine that drives shooter Far Cry 2, Dominic Guay shows that obviously do not ignore it.

Developer Crytek was working with Ubisoft responsible for the first part of Far Cry. The game was made by Crytek, based on the self-built Cryengine. The marriage between the publisher and the developer would be shortly after the appearance of the shooter go wrong, which Crytek teamed up with Electronic Arts. Ubisoft held to break the name of Far Cry, and the company could continue to use the technology used in the game. Use Based on the Cryengine is the development of the Ubisoft Dunia engine built where Far Cry 2 runs.

*Leftovers

The question is what Ubisoft has added to the engine and what the Cryengine still in the code is to be found.
Dominic Guay: "We wanted to Far Cry 2 on the basis of our own technology development and so we knew that a new engine had to make. It is much more difficult to build than to start with an existing engine and it gradually to replace parts. an engine from the ground up, it is possible, but then we would from the beginning at the same time important components such as physics and rendering to program. Hence we have used as a basis. Cryengine Far Cry That gave us the opportunity to continue to focus on our part, completely and are all parts of the engine to be replaced. Moreover, we are not taken lightly. In April 2005, we started the project, we have done the necessary research first. We wanted to know what the capabilities of the Cryengine are, what we wanted to achieve with the Dunia engine and where competition with was busy. We wanted to advance above have clearly how we would deal with the day-night cycle and how we would build. Dynamic lighting We have also gone into the trees and vegetation in the game. "

Far Cry 2
"Our research has lasted until the end of 2005 and beyond, we are going to program., We have spent on pre-production, until early 2007, so the conversion of the engine. Early 2007 we were as far as the rest of the team with the engine could go to work. We were not totally done with our work, but the editors that the rest of the team must play with it were ready, so when we started the actual production of the game. We started all textures, models and develop animations and were the first parts of the game world to build.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 Wii Review

The Wii comes with a simple golf game, however, as a start just fine. Due to the limitation of only one job is the challenge quickly away. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 would get a chance to improvement. There are many options and settings, but ...!
The game is clearly not meant for the Wii. There is no adjustment to the lower resolution avn Wii with the result that text and symbols readable, or not at all readable.
, the starting instructions to learn are understandable what the words are concerned, but in practice the strokes not work to master. For example, if you want to do a draw then the result is completely random even run the whole of description from. Strokes are sometimes performed while you are still working on the backswing.
Setting characters is a crime. Why not make use of the already established characters in the Wii.
Wii-ers are people who want some action and not sit with a game controler on a chair. Using a golf club is also obvious, but the program responds poorly (unreliable) with the Wii remote in a Wii golf club.
EA apparently has to do with a game that may work better and better on other platforms, but some quick cash My idea if Wii fanatic is certainly "never an EA game." After 3 weeks of frustration, the game landed in the bin with a touch shot.

Used in conjunction with:
Wii game console

GC: Empire - Total War

The Creative Assembly proved years ago that it knows how a good strategy game should be made. The Total War series from this studio dominates the strategy genre since Shogun: Total War was published eight years ago. The half-English, half-Australian company introduced the time-scale battles, with thousands of soldiers went to attack each other simultaneously. That massive character has always been one of the trademarks of the game series, like the strong variation between turn-based and real-time gameplay. Fans of the Total War series will be delighted that the Empire to be published in February 2009: Total War herein the line of the series follows.


Empire of The Creative Assembly has again set a step on the timeline of history. Earlier in the series, the Japanese ancient times, came the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages discussed, and in Empire we find ourselves in the eighteenth century. A time when trading was rampant and maintaining profitable zeelijnen was as important as winning battles. The developers present at the Games Convention of The Creative Assembly hinted that to properly maintain your economy is indeed very important in a campaign, but they were not yet there continue to. Information about the campaign mode will follow later, she argued. The list of playable countries is not yet published. Only a few countries, including the United States, Britain and Prussia have been confirmed, and it is obvious that nations that played a major role in the 18th century, such as France and Spain, will be playable. The developers left open the question whether the same is true with any certainty Netherlands. "We do not comment on it yet, but it's very likely," came the explanation that we have to work with.

The studio members of The Creative Assembly wanted to do something about the real-time portion of the game. The largest, known for some time, innovation in this section is that it becomes possible for the first time in the game series to fight. Naval battles These battles were previously simulated on the basis of calculations, but now you can own your boat control. In addition, various elements play an important role. First, it is important that you have enough ships and that the ships have firepower. If you do it with a few small boats up against ten galleons, it is a short battle.


Further technical and tactical aspects also play a role. For sailing wind is of course essential. The wind determines whether fast or slow speed at your opponent. But the wind also often determines whether you have a chance to flee when you risk losing a stroke. Good wind can therefore be helpful in battles. But your tactics is important. An important consideration here is related to the type of ammunition you use. There are standard bullets boat 'just' take damage, but you also get ammunition to injure people and there is ammunition that is more suitable for the downing of a mast, so the speed is achieved. From an enemy ship