Racing games don’t age well. You can remake classic puzzle games, platformers and side-scrolling shooters, and they’ll retain their old school charm, but that doesn’t usually work with racing games, especially arcade racers. It’s why they tend to gather dust once the new ones come along. So it’s natural to approach the HD remake of Hydro Thunder, an old Midway coin-op arcade racing game, with a hint of scepticism. Then again, this is one of the showcase titles from this year’s Xbox LIVE Summer of Arcade promotion, so it may just have a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
From this writer
As a game reviewer, a casual game that is also a movie tie-in isn’t something that would have me marking my calendar in anticipation. So when Toy Story 3 arrived in the mail, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. But since this is a bit of a lean period in terms of game releases, I thought I’d take a crack at it. First off, despite its target audience, this is not a casual game. Secondly, and more importantly, it’s not bad at all. In fact, it’s pretty damn good.
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men was a game full of imperfections. In fact, I’m being too kind by even calling it that. A lot of it was quite poor; the shooting mechanics, the hit detection, the animations, the overall graphics. Most people who picked it up probably didn’t play it all the way through, and you really can’t fault them for it, because it was an unpolished game that never should have made it to shelves in the state it did. But many who did play it look back at it fondly. It had a simple story, but it worked for the kind of game it was. Same goes for Kane and Lynch, the game’s main characters; poles apart, but equally despicable and yet likeable at the same time. And despite little co-operation from the gameplay department, the balls-to-the-wall action was undeniably fun.
There’s something to be said about a fighting game that has no HUD to speak of – no health bars and no ultra meters going ballistic – but can still accurately indicate exactly how well or how badly you’re doing in a fight purely through gameplay. UFC Undisputed does that brilliantly, and that’s one of the reasons why last year’s game was a surprising success. The one criticism levelled at the game though was that it was extremely technical. In the game’s defence, mixed martial arts (MMA) itself is technical. But very much against today’s gaming trends, it just wasn’t accessible enough. This year, UFC Undisputed 2010 aims to change that.
In the PS2 days, we used to marvel at how each new Pro Evolution Soccer game would require you to relearn it because it was such a change from the previous year. This year, I’m going to have to relearn PES, as well as FIFA, not because they’ll be drastically different from last year, but because in order to play Pure Football and be good at it, I had to turn off half my brain and dumb the other half down until I reached the level of incompetence that this game requires. PES and FIFA will now feel like a Demon’s Souls boss fight.
Playing through a race in Split Second, or Split/Second, is a bit like watching falling dominoes. It’s this series of intricately and painstakingly arranged pieces designed to create a visual spectacle, and the first time you see the dominoes fall, it’s almost poetic. But once the last chip has fallen, as impressive as it looked, would you want to watch the dominoes fall in the exact same pattern again and again? As much fun as Split/Second is, it always comes back to this question – how many times can you replay it before its explosive and often catastrophic set pieces become predictable?
Here’s the dilemma most FIFA fans find themselves in. FIFA 10 came out six months ago, FIFA 11 comes out six months from now, and bang in-between we have another FIFA release – 2010 FIFA World Cup. Based on the demo, there’s little doubt that this game plays well, but the question is, does it offer enough to warrant a purchase with a beefier release only a few months away?
It’s not like IVG members need a guide to gaming, but the guys over at Chip magazine and Tech2.com (that includes Nash and myself) have put together the latest issue of All About, which is Chip’s monthly e-magazine that targets a different tech category in each issue. The May issue is All About Gaming, and the focus of the magazine is to act as a guide to those who are new to gaming. We have several features on must-buy games, an introduction to motion controlled gaming, as well as a gaming glossary, where we’ve talked about age ratings for games and recommended some must-visit gaming websites (IVG is there, of course) and online retailers. We also have three contests in this issue, where you can win copies of Super Street Fighter IV and 2010 FIFA World Cup, and a brand new PlayStation 3.
2009 was a great year for the PlayStation 3 worldwide. But here in India, the success of the PS2 made the year twice as nice for Sony. So we felt it was just the right time to get in touch with Sony Computer Entertainment India country manager Atindriya Bose for some reflection on the year gone by and his thoughts on the year ahead. This is our fourth sit down with the PlayStation India boss (read the first three here, here, and here) and this one comes almost two years after the last one, so we have lots to catch up on. So let’s get straight to it.
We’ve had a better than expected response to our BioShock 2 contest. Considering members were required to listen to the IVG podcast to enter it, we were surprised at how many of you actually managed to participate in the contest. It probably also helped that we had some great incentive in the form of a sweet BioShock 2 Collector’s Edition to give away courtesy Take-Two and E-Xpress Interactive. Before we announce the winners, here are the three questions we asked, and their correct answers.
Q1. Where does BioShock 2 take place?
A1. Rapture
Q2. Whom do you play as in BioShock 2?
A2. Big Daddy/Subject Delta
Q3. Whom do the Big Daddies protect?
A3. Little Sisters
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