Soul Calibur IV

Computer Gaming started with simple games like Pong, and developed in the late eighties of the last century in genres that are still popular, such as beat 'em up. One of the first big games in that genre was Mortal Kombat, which was later joined by, inter alia, Tekken, Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter. Soul Calibur does not have the same status as the series, but the fourth approach but its quality.

Tested on: Xbox 360
Also available on: PlayStation 3


Soulcalibur IV features a new story, different game modes as well as other innovations, but the most striking news about the title was the announcement of two guest characters. The contribution of Master Yoda and Darth Vader in the game took all the headlines and was widely covered in each preview. The two Star Wars characters may otherwise not be seen together. Jedi Master Yoda leukt the Xbox 360 version, while Darth Vader is only in the PS3 version. However, there are rumors that the characters are available for both consoles via downloadable content. So there is hope for those ultimate duel is off.

How dominant the two heroic characters are, Soulcalibur IV obviously has more to offer. As a backstory, recovery: a lame background story. There may be more to it than you inherits at first sight in the game, but I do not get it hot or cold. The story is about two swords, with Soul Calibur for 'good' condition and Soul Edge for 'evil'. In Soul Calibur IV does not translate that into a clear story mode. Instead, developer Namco Bandai each character with a small, personal story and the writer of this is, to put it mildly, not a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Nevertheless, it is worth at least some of these stories, which are usually no more than fifteen minutes to complete, through play. That you develop the level of the various characters in the game and you play it with additional content free. Take the story of Master Yoda. The living on Dagobah Jedi master decides between meditating and waiting for the arrival of Luke Skywalker, to clear to deal with another evil force a trip. In the series of enemies to defeat Yoda you automatically against The Apprentice, the main character from the upcoming Star Wars game The Force Unleashed. If you defeat this "secret apprentice of Darth Vader's" The Apprentice becomes a playable character.

GC: Darksiders - Wrath of War

Vigil Games, a new studio of publisher THQ, is not only the second massively multiplayer online game about Warhammer 40,000, but also to the action game Darksiders: Wrath of War. The game, which will appear on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in early 2009 was presented at the Games Convention in Leipzig.

Vigil Games, which has an office in Austin, Texas, was founded by Joe Madureira. That is not a very well known name for gamers, but for comic fans. The reason why the artist Vigil has established that he is going to see more gradually than in comics. In moving pictures The hand and the past Madureira are however evident in the games Vigil, which Darksiders: Wrath of War will come out first.


*Revenge

Darksiders is based on the story of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The story of the four horsemen is in the book of Revelation. Darksiders tells the story of one of them, War. The disaster where the horsemen are associated has already taken place before the game begins and War is punished for his part in the destruction of the Earth. When the game starts, he is stripped of his demonic powers and his horse, and is separated from the other Horsemen. That does not, of course, is intent rider so he seeks revenge. Moreover, he wants his powers and his three friends back

Beijing 2008

Around the time that the Olympic Games an Olympic computer. Appears invariably That virtual games are always burned in the media game, but that is not reflected in the sales figures. Apparently pulling the Olympic video games an audience that includes not only the gamers. This year the Olympic Committee awarded the honor to make to Sega. Official Olympic video game


If an "Olympics-game develops encounters at least two problems. The first problem is the amount of Olympic sports that should be transferred. Games count to around thirty different sports, with many parts. Selection is inevitable, but a little Olympic computer game is a decent range of disciplines for the day to come. As so often, is quantity over forced at the expense of quality. If you like Sega Beijing has done in 2008 recording ten Olympic sports, it is inevitable that some of them are worse prepared than others. More on that later. The ten sports are divided into 38 events. That seems a lot, but between the 50 meter freestyle, 100m breaststroke and 100m backstroke is very little difference in gameplay example. This brings us to the second problem that the makers obviously have ran: converting sports movements to computer control. Sega has chosen the primitive, and as more and more gamers outdated 'button bashing'. The finish gives you in this game as soon as possible, usually by unabashedly rams. The buttons on your controller


Ultimate low point in this is the team pursuit, the only cycling part in the game. Do you gain by minute period steeds two buttons on your controller or stick in quick succession, and downward. The only draft at this sport consists in that you occasionally the leader of your team must alternate, as it indicates that he is getting tired. This discipline is primarily an attack on your wrist and on your hardware, and after a few rides you're done with it. This applies, albeit to a lesser extent, for all disciplines in which to achieve the fastest time is the goal, such as swimming or running. Luckily there are some more challenging disciplines in Beijing in 2008 included. So you make the high jump at the best possible outlet to carry the colored dots that are projected on the floor. From your run- Timing is important in this section, the control is reminiscent of the way you play Guitar Hero. Are also in the hurdles, some turn-disciplines, clay pigeon shooting and whitewater canoeing timing and agility around the corner

GC: Fifa 09

For publishers Electronic Arts and Konami seems to be a tradition to get around the annual Games Convention new football games to display. First The competition between the two superpowers is immense. While Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer for years was a favorite with fans of the genre, the FIFA series from EA Sports in the last two editions clear land reclaimed. Fifa 08 was qualitatively anxious close to PES 2008 and FIFA was perhaps this game even better than the last edition of Pro Evo. With Fifa 09 EA Sports hopes to compete with PES definitively decide his advantage.


For that purpose EA focuses on innovation, innovation and more innovation. Where sometimes to be desired, the renewal in Fifa 09 PES bursting of the new features. The less innovative points are fine. Think of teams that are nicely updated with regard to transfers, think of better graphics, better animations and more atmosphere in the stadiums. These are points where the Fifa series fine with scores for years. There are also a lot of countries and teams represented in the game, a point which the Fifa series is miles ahead of PES.

A number of innovations in Fifa 09 demands attention. First is the feature that EA just announced last week: Live Season. Electronic Arts will publish an update every Wednesday during football season, the statistics of different players are updated. Wayne Rooney plays a tremendously good match? Then his stats will be raised slightly next Wednesday. For now it is only secured a weekly adjustment of the mold level, so it is not clear whether EA in this way also about to make in the area of ​​injuries, suspensions or transfers updates. Another innovation that should be mentioned is that the upgrade process is based on a subscription per competition. You get to play a code that you can take. Complimentary subscription to one of the leagues Would you like to update more competitions automatically you will be charged per competion an unknown amount. This feature can not be applied to the Dutch league, but only for those in larger countries, such as Spain, England, Italy and Germany.


The updates provide not only a database in which the shape of players has been updated, they also provide all kinds of other information. For example, to see which players have gone ahead and what most players with a form crisis camps. Using a convenient menu quickly This menu can be viewed by competition or a list of all competitions - provided you have the appropriate subscriptions, of course. Moreover, the game weekly team of the week together, so you can see which players have performed. During the week in the best direct Information that you can find in the regular football magazines and websites, but it's a nice bonus.

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.