Videos, New Lara Croft Tomb Raider - Alison Carroll

As I had mentioned earlier, Alison Carroll is a trained gymnast, and has been practicing Lara Croft's moves for 6 months or so.  Looks like the new movie should have fan boys drooling!

Alisson Carroll Lara Croft Tomb Raider

Here's her interview by Channel 5:

Alison Carroll Lara Croft Tomb Raider interview by Channel 5

Game Preview - Quantum of Solace, James Bond 007

Well, the Leipzig gaming convention is going on, and is currently breaking all sorts of records (more on that later).  They showed a glimpse of the new Bond game - Quantum of Solace.  It looks darker, seems to have more hand-to-hand combat, more running (as in free-running!) and had an Aston Martin on the convention floor.  Woohoo!

Here's the game trailer

James Bond 007 Quantum of Solace video game trailer

And here's a live in-game demo - looks nice

James Bond 007 Quantum of Solace video game demo

Game Preview - Little Big Planet

Everyone else seems gaga over Little Big Planet.  Technically, I think it is very good.  But it just doesn't do it for me.  Too cutsey, no shooting. 

But I can see how Mario might have to step up its game in the next year.

 

 

Game Preview - UFC 2009 Undisputed

Its coming after a long time, and I may not play it anyway, but the new UFC game looks good - very nice and recognizable character models, recognizable fighting styles and moves, good landed-blow graphics (screen blurrs, shakes, you can almost feel the blows).

Looks like a pretty nice job by the game team.  Don King Presents will be KO'ed by UFC.  Fight Night and newer, good boxing games might also find some of their market share eroded... unless UFC opens up brand new markets, with the growing popularity of the sport.

Game Preview - DC Universe vs. Mortal Kombat

Woohoo!  I can never get enough of these fighters.  Call me a nerdy fanboy, but Captain Marvel or Superman vs Scorpion or Subzero gets me every time. 

And there's free-fall combat!  Damn, I like that new addition.

What about the blood and gore levels?  MK is known for their extreme gore, while DC is obviously a little more child-friendly (plus, how can you dismember Superman?).  I'm not sure yet; I didn't see enough gore.  But either way, this game looks grrrreat! 

Finish him!  Flawless victory!

And in case we're in a silly mood, why not check out Mortal Komedy? Its silly, sure, but also nerdly funny, somehow.

Game Preview - inFamous

inFamous is the PS3 game thats starting to interest me.  You play as a superhuman in a city gone to hell.  The entire game is like an open world sandbox - you can go anywhere, do anything.  At the same time, there's a lot of free running, and some weird Sith-like super-powers. 

The free-running plays partly like Prince of Persia, but seems a little more fluid.  What still looked jerky was how the main character ran on the ground.  Priorities, priorities...

Game Preview - Mercenaries 2, World in Flames

So now we're mercenaries, roaming around in Venezuela.  Lots of stuff to blow up, as with the previous Mercenaries game. Drive jeeps up to objects, jump out and blow them up.  Giant (giant!) explosions.  Shoot stuff.  Cool mohawks.  Nice graphics.  Rocket launchers (yeah!).  Monster trucks or tanks choppered in at your call.  Draw distance looks pretty good.  The team's credo - if you can see it, you can use it, you can blow it up - wow!

We're not in Crysis-like graphics here, but I did feel like I was in Venezuela, blowing stuff up!

Dude!  I'm getting the feeling that the next 12 months could  come close to challenging 2007 in terms of vast arrays of amazingly good games!

There's also this character-narrated trailer.

Game Preview - Crysis Warhead

Damn, the Crytek guys have actually stepped it up another notch! Crysis Warhead, which tells a parallel strategy to the original game, has even better graphics!  Seriously.  Resistance Fall of Man, Gears of War... sorry guys, Crysis graphics look just a little better. 

Fire effects, gunfire effects, explosion effects in particular as usual are amazing.

The question as always is, can your PC handle it?  But the Crytek guys are saying they worked to make sure the game could work on a $600 PC.  Yeah, I believe them... what I'm seeing on the screen right now would definitely need expensive hardware to do it justice!

Game Preview - Left for Dead

Zombies.  Turbo zombies.  Out in the forest, hiding in the foliage.  Diaper-changing fun.

Early look at the game, so the graphics look like they still need polishing, specially on the zombies, and effects on shot bodies.

Game Preview - Dead Space

Remember the first time you played Resident Evil?  Remember the first horror movie you saw? 

Ooh man, Dead Space gives me that feeling!  Hope the gameplay stays up to the initial look.

The plot is standard doom or quake.  Except that you aren't a hot-shot spiked up fighting machine.  You're an ordinary mechanic who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The weapons look very new - they all seem derived from ideas around mining tools (which I believe is the protagonist's profession).  The fight sequences seem a mix of slow shooting mixed with sudden melee attacks.  The monsters themselves don't look too scary, but the atmosphere and graphics (as with Doom) and the pacing (as with Resident Evil) seem to be the primary drivers of the scream factor.

Per reports, the sound engineering is really good too, and you need a 5 point surround sound system to get the benefit of the game.

An interesting thing - the inventory screen doesn't give you respite; it shows up in your hud during gameplay.  So no cheating during battles!

And I also saw the curb-stomp used a few times;  Gears of War, I love how you spread your influence around!  Curb-stomping rules!

Game Preview - Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Underworld

The graphics (and Miss Croft) look good as usual.  Um, and there's some under-water swimming with, um, bathing suits.  I got only a very quick look.... everything I saw so far looks good.

Plus the developer's cryptic comment - "she's also going to a location in the north... in the very far north".  How far north can she go?

(about the 1:35 mark)

Game Preview - Killzone 2

Killzone, a PS3 exclusive, should be out in Feb 2009.  I saw a demo played at E3 - I wish it was on the 360!  Killzone looks really awesome! Lets not look for gory special kill moves, weird targeting systems, just a really really solid shooter with Hollywood level scene setups.

Hmm, I might buy a PS3 after the next price drop.

Game Preview - Fracture

Fracture, from Lucas Arts, is looking good.  The character models seem like Quake-lites, (where, of course, Quake copied from Gears of War).  Ok, so they look A LOT like the Gears guys, with red armor with the same blue lighting.

It looks quite good, and the main idea of the game, terrain deformation, looks quite cool.  Essentially, its 2090 and you have weird new guns that can help you deform the terrain, and attack enemies in different and weird ways.

Looks like a solid buy; after I finish with Gears of War 2, play GoW again for the umpteenth time, Fracture can help me get a little more of the juju.  I'm hoping I can get away with just normal gun-play once in a while.

Game Preview - Star Wars Clone Wars on the Wii

Ok, this is where the Wii-mote is quite fun to use, with a bit more precision added in.  The Clone Wars demo, while not live, did look quite good. 

I'll buy this one!

Game Preview - Wii Music

With the new mod to increase the Wii-mote's sensitivity, and the Wii Fit pad to serve as pads for your feet while drumming, Wii Music might have a few converts.
And of course, Miyamoto led this game's development, so it probably is quite good.

But I just don't see folks leaving Rock Band or Guitar Hero for Wii Music.

Game Preview - Wii Sports Resort

Ok, the Wii Sports game was the best received game overall, so here comes the successor - Wii Sports Resort.
Frisbee with your dog.
Jet skiing.
Wooden sword fighting.
Chainsaw pencils.
Ok, its nice. But I was hoping for more.

Game Preview - new Rayman Raving Rabbids

The new Rayman Raving Rabbids game fo rthe Wii looks just as wacky as usual - woohoo!
Every Rayman game is a solid buy! The previous one was more for groups, not as good in single player mode, but still a solid buy... and for groups, really good!

Game Preview - Animal Crossing, City for the Wii

Watching E3 2008 again with Mike. Animal Crossing, City left us quite, quite bored.
So you can roam around the town. You can buy stuff, send mail, cut trees, dig up bunny eggs.... yawn.

But Reggie Fils-Amie (Nintendo America head) looks pretty pissed off, so perhaps we should buy this game.

Game Preview - Resident Evil 5

Saw Resident Evil 5 played live at E3 - whoohoo!  Finally on XBox!!! 

The game looks sweeter than before, although maybe a little less freaky. And they showed one of the tougher enemies - a chainsaw-wielding, burlap-sack on the head zombie!!

A solid buy rating, dear bankers.

Here's the extended trailer - set all flights to Africa!

Gave Preview - Gears of War 2 (contd.)

Just saw a live demo on E3.... OMFG OMFG OMFG!!!!!!!!

November 7th, I can't wait!

Meat-shields, oh my!

Faster pacing, goodness gracious!

Better and more detailed graphics... wha..? how...?

Newer weapons, smarter and new enemies, ooh yeah!  (Like the priests, with their new ink grenades, the tickers - explosive little buggers, drones with grappling hooks - you can shoot the hooks off walls so the drones plunge to their splattery deaths... and on and on!)

Newer, gorier kill-moves - flip me over and curb stomp me, why don't you??

The brumaks! Damn!

November 7th, I really can't wait!!!!!

In the meantime, here's an older video, revealed by Mr. Mousse, Cliffy B.  Around the 2 minute mark, you can see an example of using a meat-shield.  And of course, the Brumak is there, and the locust have chainsaws too.  Woohoo!