We here at Ripten enjoy games quite a bit. (Well, some of us. The jury’s still out on that shifty Naylor character.) In fact, one of our highest-rated games of 2007 was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. All things considered, you can see why we’re really excited for Infinity Ward & Activision’s latest foray into the Call of Duty series, Modern Warfare 2, and this trailer does nothing to satiate our hunger.

The trailer, titled Infamy, is the newest trailer for Modern Warfare 2, and it’s amazing. No spoilers, but there’s a rather large reveal at the end of the trailer, and I have no doubt that it’s making a lot of people excited. Maybe this is just me, but does this trailer make anyone else wish that there was a Call of Duty movie? Yes?

Good.

DICE is currently performing maintenance on the soldier profiles in the recently released Battlefield 1943, so you may have noticed that your stats have been reset. Not to worry, my friends, as this is temporary.

Simon Dalziel (I presume of DICE) explains that the soldier profiles are actually being made “better than they already are” and that all of the kills will still count towards the Coral Sea challenge. After maintenance is over in the next few days, ranks and badges will be restored.

Game Stooge

Battlefield Heroes, EA’s new browser-based cartoony MMOFPS, has made the transition from closed beta to open beta.

Not only is the game in open beta now, but the NDA has also been lifted. Battlefield Heroes is going to be free to play when it makes its official launch, so the idea of an open beta makes me laugh. This seems like just the normal game, but a little early and slightly buggy.

Game Stooge

As a kid that grew up owning a Sega Master System, I have always had a special spot in my heart for Sega. It’s nice to see that they are not only alive and kicking these days as a publisher, but working on several new titles that add value to the gaming industry.

I was excited to see a promising Sonic title as well as new projects like Bayonetta and MadWorld shaping up nicely at last years E3. In their continued effort to create unique IPs for the Nintendo Wii console, Sega is bringing us a first person shooter titled “The Conduit” this summer.

Giving away my age, I can remember playing another alien based Sega title called Alien Syndrome — and I’m not talking about the recent Wii adaptation — I’m talking about the 1980’s SMS version of the arcade classic.

Unlike the overhead shooter I played as a kid, The Conduit’s alien ass kicking fest is set in Washington D.C. and just like any good season of 24, there are suspicions of government involvement in the invasion. You will play a former secret service agent codenamed Jack Bau…err “Mr. Ford” equipped with enough Wii-tastic sci-fi guns and gizmos to get the job done.

Next gen junkies shouldn’t pass on this simply because it’s a Wii exclusive. If you own a Wii (or thinking about picking one up), you’ll be happy to know that this bad boy looks pretty darn good on screen, complete with detailed environment textures and real-time reflective surfaces. The controls are everything you’ve come to expect from the Nintendo Wii console too, with customizable configurations that help the game adapt to your play style.

In addition to the challenging AI in the single player campaign, the title features several online multiplayer modes allowing you and twelve friends to carpet our nations capital with the carcasses of would be alien invaders.

So if first person shooters are your thing, and you don’t want the citizens of earth getting thier brains scooped out by aliens HULU style, you may want to slap a few bucks down on Sega’s The Conduit. Giggity.

Title: The Conduit Publisher: Sega Rating: Teen Content: Blood, Mild Language, Violence Platforms: Nintendo Wii Dive into a Wii exclusive award-winning shooter this summer. Featuring advanced graphics and fully customizable controls, take charge in intense single-player or up-to-12-person multiplayer battles.

Some of you might remember an FPS Valve announced a while ago called The Crossing. Valve said it mixed single player and multi-player experiences, and while I don’t know how that would work, with Valve behind it, I’m sure it would’ve worked out just fine- would’ve being the operative word there.

Today Valve & Arkane Studios announced that The Crossing was being put on hold, citing unexpected financial issues, which was supposedly a result of the series of layoffs at Electronic Arts, since EA had been providing support for Arkane’s development. Although I would’ve loved to see this game get off of the ground, I wish the best for Arkane Studios, as the last thing we need is another development studio shutting down.

Source: Destructoid

They’re not calling themselves a “Halo Killer” but it seems that many of the main features in Section 8 were created in response to what annoyed them, and probably annoy you, about established FPS franchises like Halo and Battlefield.

Let’s go through 3 problems even the best first person shooters have and the ways Section 8 provides a solution.

Problem 1: Spawning Then Immediately Dying

If you spawn near a camping sniper, or in the trajectory of a rocket, or just die within seconds of spawning, it sucks. You probably feel a little cheated by the game, which, I’m pretty sure, is never one of the developer’s goals.

Solution: Let the Player Choose his Spawn Point and Make the Act of Spawning Awesome.

Section 8’s eliminates the annoyance of cheap deaths via their most impressive feature: “Burning in.” Every time you die, you’re taken to an orbital drop ship. You choose the point on the map you want to “burn in” to and the ship torpedoes you screaming through the atmosphere headfirst, in first person view, until you slam into the ground with thunderous force.

There’s a strategy to where you choose to burn in, as well. You can burn in right on the inside of an opponents base, but if your teammates haven’t disabled their anti-air guns, you may not make it to the ground in one piece.  Or you could just try to aim your burn in to land on some poor sucker’s head and score the game’s only one hit kill.

No one wants to ride passenger in a real life Warthog either…

Problem 2:  Feeling Lame Riding in the Passenger Side of a Vehicle

OK, how many times have you been playing Halo 3 and got stuck shooting the machine gun of the Scorpion or the Wraith while your buddy gets to drive and shoot the cannon? It sucks.  It sucks so much that many players will just go on foot rather than rolling like that.

Solution: Vehicles Where Everyone Gets to Do Something Cool:

In Section 8, when you drive a tank everyone gets to do something awesome. So if you’re not driving and shooting the cannon, you’re launching a cluster bomb reminiscent of Gear’s of War 2’s mortar, or you’re shooting the huge caliber bullets of the anti-air gun.  Whoever gets in has a job and has fun.  There are no back of the Mongoose experiences here.

Problem 3: Trekking across a Huge Map to Get to the Battle

When you’re dealing with the absolutely huge maps of Battlefield or similar franchises, you are often left with a tedious trek across a huge landscape unless you find a vehicle. Even in games without huge maps, the relatively slow pace of your characters movement can be a chore.

Solution: Make Each Player as Fast as a Speeding Vehicle.

Section 8 lets you become the vehicle. If you’ve got a long expanse to traverse, you have the ability to trigger your Overdrive, which shifts the camera to a third person perspective and lets you sprint at ridiculous speeds. This coupled with the built in jet pack for jumping lets you bound across large portions the game map like the Incredible Hulk.

If you want to be able to sprint for longer, put more points into your Overdrive before you spawn and you’ll never again have to experience Master Chief’s slow trot.

Section 8 seems to be made by developers that feel your pain as a FPS fan and want to give you a game that takes the weaknesses of current FPSs and turns them into strengths.  They’re a long way off from release but these features look promising.

I’ve never been a RTS fan, especially when the genre tries to break into the console market.  At best there is a distinct sense of a lack of control in the game, and at worst it’s unplayable.  Obviously, any excitement for Halo Wars was lost on me.  Recently, however, I got to reminiscing about the entire Halo franchise and how substantially things have changed over the course of it’s history, many of them in part due to the franchise’s own innovations.

Part of what got me to thinking about all of this was that it’s pretty much the same way I felt about first-person shooters on consoles before I played Halo.  A controller would never hold a candle to a mouse and keyboard.  There is more accuracy with a mouse than a game pad and getting weapons and items would always be quicker on a keyboard when you can just press one button for whatever weapon you needed.  Hell, at that time I was very much not an Xbox fan.

I remember hearing from friends about this awesome game they’ve been playing in their rooms called Halo.  They invited me up a few times, but the idea of sitting around playing a FPS on a console that wasn’t GoldenEye was insane.  I certainly wasn’t going to play some crappy Microsoft game on their crappy system.  Besides, I told myself, at best it’s just another first-person shooter, and they’re never that good.  Hell, my friends probably only liked it because it was extra gory or something.

It wasn’t until I was deployed in Iraq and had gone through two separate PS2s that I was willing to even give the Xbox a chance.  We were having problems with our PS2s in the desert constantly getting messed up from the sand.  We did what we could, but there is just no way to keep things sand free with the set up that we were working with.  I had heard that the Xbox is a little more durable than the PlayStation from some people we were supporting, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Of course, they also told me that I HAD to get Halo.  It was simply one of those games that every person had to own if they owned the system.  I still didn’t buy into all that, and made several game purchases before I finally gave in and got Halo.  I had no idea what I was in for.

One of my teammates, Smith, and I spent pretty much all our waking hours for the next several weeks just playing the hell out of the game.  I had gotten several other ones in the mail and such, and they were great games, but Halo was just an awesome experience.  The story was spectacular, the characters were all great in their over the top way, and the gameplay was just phenomenal.  I honestly felt that I hadn’t had a gaming experience like this one since I first played Half-Life.

The very best part of the entire experience, however, was the co-op.  I probably would have only played through the game once and then forgotten about it if it wasn’t for the co-op.  It was one of the few games that I challenged myself to go through the harder difficulty settings simply because I wanted to make sure I had picked the bones of the game clean.

The entire control set up was fantastic and it really was a revolution in the genre as far as console based FPS were concerned.  Games before Halo always touted off how many weapons you could get or how many different bad guys you would see and things like that.  Things were limited in Halo, but in a good way.  You could only carry what makes sense to carry (I still don’t understand where Gordon Freeman keeps all his weapons).

With only having those weapons, you weren’t sitting around digging through some sort of inventory or dropdown to find the gun you wanted when you wanted it.  You simply pressed a button to switch.  It simplified controls but also made the game suddenly more complex.  You actually had to think about what weapons you wanted or needed now, not when to actually use them but if you even wanted to carry them.  I look at the sniper rifle and rocket launcher as great examples of the thought that had to go into what weapons you wanted to carry.

In most FPS, you had them available all the time, so you could just whip them out and snipe a bastard, or blow up their tank.  Suddenly with Halo, you really had to think about the pros and cons of each weapon.  A rocket launcher probably isn’t that great for using against a bunch of little guys, but if you drop it for that SMG, you won’t have it later.  You actually had to think about what was going on and figure out your play style.

The other great thing that Halo really introduced was the regenerating health system.  It’s all over the place these days simply because it streamlines the gameplay.  Everything before Halo had some sort of health pack or healing system where you simply had to try and survive to find more health, like it was ammo or something.  With Halo, you always had “something” to fall back on.  Granted, in the first Halo you still had health after your shield was taken out, and that you would need to find the traditional health packs for, but Bungie eventually got rid of that also.

Now you see it everywhere and most games don’t even have a solid lore reason for it.  The Spartans have regenerating shields to protect them, but what does Marcus Fenix have that allows him to regenerate?  Gears of War, Call of Duty, and Rainbow Six are just a few examples of games that use a regenerating health system that allows the action to progress at a steady pace instead of having to stop the fighting and go back through an entire level scouting for a missed health kit.

The last huge improvement the Halo series introduced was with multiplayer.  I mentioned GoldenEye before and I liken my experience with the first Halo to those wonder years of fun playing the N64.  It was fun, fast, and smooth, and there wasn’t a lot of goofiness in the way.  With Halo 2, they made perhaps the greatest online multiplayer matchmaking system ever and no one seemed to care.

For the longest time I wondered why no one was doing things the way Halo 2 did them.  Being able to set up parties and get into matches together was just awesome.  Everything before that involved inviting your friends after you joined or talking to them on the phone or something so you would all try and get into the same game.

So looking back at all that, I now ask myself what I was thinking when I dismissed Halo Wars out of hand.  There is so much pedigree there that they almost have no choice but to get it right.  Ensemble Studios certainly knows where they’re doing at the helm of RTS gaming, and Halo simply lends itself to the genre.  Hell, if you go back, Halo was originally going to be a RTS game before Bungie changed things up.

The thing that has really got me sold on it however is that there is a co-op mode.  To me, whatever else Halo has done, whatever you want to say about the story or the multiplayer or the graphics, it all really comes back to the co-op for me.  Being able to play through the entire game in co-op mode just screams Halo to me.

All I really know for sure is that Halo has constantly pushed things forward and now that the franchise is branching to another genre, I expect it to do just as much for the real-time strategery genre that it has done for first-person shooters.

Title: Halo Wars Publisher: Microsoft Rating: Teen Content: Mild Blood, Mild Language, Violence Platforms: Xbox 360 Halo Wars is a strategy game based on the Halo universe. Halo Wars will immerse gamers in an early period of the Halo universe, allowing them to experience events leading up to the first Halo title for Xbox.

EA today announced Dead Space Extraction, the Wii edition of 2008’s acclaimed Dead Space. The game is set before the events of the other versions and will incorporate the Wii controls in an On-rails first-person shooter style. The game will also feature co-op multiplayer. See the trailer after the jump.

This game seems as much “House of the Dead in space” as the other versions were “Resident Evil 4 in space”- but who’s complaining? Dead Space worked well, and I expect that this will too- it’s good to see developers working with the strengths of the console.

Bioshock was one of 2007’s best games and best in my opinion, but the only thing it lacked was an online multiplayer of any kind, unlike Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip. But 2K Boston’s next game won’t have this pitfall, as it seems that the project 2K Boston is currently working on is a multiplayer first-person shooter.

In a resume posting for Lead Designers and Lead Engineers for 2K Boston, they detailed a few key points of their next project, which you can find after the jump. While it’s not completely out of the question that this listing is for Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams, I’m thinking it’s not likely. However, we do know that the FPS in question runs on the Unreal 3.0 Engine, and will most likely be released on the PS3, PC, and Xbox 360… whenever it appears.

Leading multiple engineers within a proven team to design and build a network frontend and backend support for an action-packed AAA multiplayer title

• Advising engineers on how to properly architect their systems for optimal multiplayer support

• Extending and enhancing Unreal Engine 3 with proprietary networking tech to address gameplay, performance, platform, production, tools, and QA needs

• Interfacing with Microsoft, Sony, and other providers for matching-making and other services

• Working with the Technical Director, Lead Programmer, and IT Director to plan and execute major changes to core technology or backend services

• Responsible for delivering a robust, scalable, and responsive multiplayer gameplay code and backend services for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 platforms

The BioShock team is betting big on multiplayer and plans to stay at the top of the charts– we’re careful about the problems we tackle, innovative in our approach, solid in our implementation, and we polish the heck out of everything we do. Right now we’re looking for an exceptional individual to direct the development of this multiplayer experience through a combination of leadership, design, coding, and daily problem solving on the gameplay networking and backend server components.

Source: V4VG.com

Legendary is a first person shooter with a strong concept but a weak execution. The mystic Pandora’s Box at the center of the plot unleashes hellish versions of mythological creatures like werewolves and griffons– a cool idea, but there’s not a decent game to back it up. I feel that Legendary’s horrendous one-track level design deserves much of the blame.

Much of the game’s feeling of chaos is conveyed through scripted scenes that take place just as you happen to walk by. Your character, a professional thief named Deckard, seems to be the videogame version of William H. Macy’s The Cooler, as everyone he encounters is immediately struck by horrible luck. Don’t get too attached to any of the random, nameless police officers and soldiers that you’ll meet along the course of the game. You’ll never hear more than a few seconds of pointless banter before they’re dragged away screaming by some random monster.

These scripted sequences were amazing back in the days of Half Life 1, but the game ignores completely the wide-open locations, compelling characters, and feelings of immersion created by later Half Life games. Even the pacing is screwy—you start out Legendary in a scene of utter chaos, with people screaming continually for the next few hours. Later, a few slower moments in the underground segments (mostly sewers and subways) provide the give-and-take of quality FPS games, but instead of gradually building suspense, the early parts of the game come across with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

One of the few successful sequences, a scene that actually builds over time, starts with you trying to turn a crank to open a doorway in a sewer, only to watch as mischievous nymphs steal the crank and place it in a cramped compartment below. When you go back for the crank, the nymphs seal the doors around you and start up a giant fan that sucks you into it unless you shoot out some planks around it. This was one rare moment that captured my interest—the rest of the sewer crawl was forgettable.

A quality videogame, especially the best first person shooters, thrive on an increasing expectation of tension and payoff, but the rushed pace of Legendary leaves no room for suspense. An objective marker that pops up when you press the L3 button always points you to the next door or shootable environmental “puzzle”, which limits the frustration and aimless wandering but also cuts any feeling of exploration out of the game.

The lazy, straightforward design of this game is a shame, because the visuals are generally attractive, with some exceptions. The monsters are well animated, but the human characters act choppy. Also, all the CG cutscenes are of PS2/Xbox quality, which is well below what we’ve come to expect from the current generation.

While this game may sound like a relentless bore, there were brief moments when I enjoyed myself, so maybe Legendary is best designed for a slow weekend. This is not a game you’ll replay more than once, so it’s not worth adding to your collection, but shooting the heads off of werewolves and absorbing their energy to charge strange machines is a passable distraction.

You can even cut straight to this core gameplay in the multiplayer mode, but good luck trying to find anyone else to play against online. With so many far superior games coming out this season, Legendary doesn’t even come close to worth your money—unless you have your Blockbuster card handy and everything else has already been checked out.

Activision has announced Secret Service; a brand new tactical first-person shooter, for release on XBox 360, PS2, and PC. Secret Service puts players in the role of– guess what?– a Secret Service agent, tasked with protecting the President of the United States at all costs, in all manner of world famous locations.

It is interesting to note that Daniel Arey, who has worked on Uncharted, the Jak series, and Crash Bandicoot, has contributed to both story and level design. As a huge fan of everything Naughty Dog has produced, it is exciting for me to see Arey working on a new project outside of these main franchises.

In terms of gameplay ideas, this is shaping up to be worth keeping an eye on. See the full release and screens after the jump.

Secret Service takes place on Inauguration Day in Washington D.C. An extremist assault has been launched against the capitol – security has been compromised and it is unclear who is friend or foe. There is no time for negotiation as you are thrust out of the shadows and into the line of fire in order to protect the nation’s leaders. The action takes place among famous landmarks and everywhere in between, including both Marine One and Air Force One.

A tactical first person action game full of plot twists and revelations, Secret Service features story and level design contributions by Daniel Arey, who previously worked on Uncharted, the Jak series and the Crash Bandicoot series.

“This game is a unique addition to the first person action genre, with a rich storyline set across famous locations and the need to use both lethal and non-lethal force to achieve your objectives,” said Dave Oxford, Activision Publishing. “Secret Service brings a nice refreshing spin to fans of run-and-gun games.”

Not to mention:

The Secret Service videogame is not approved, endorsed or authorized by the U.S. Secret Service.

Good first person shooters are a rare find on the DS. C.O.R.E promises “old school” action tied to a “Gripping sci-fi storyline, with a fully interactive world”. I got my hands on an early build of the game last week, so hit the jump to get my impressions.

The build I have been playing spans two of the eventual 15 levels of the game, so I can’t say too much about the story. The general gist of the situation is that a secret base, built over a crash site of something alien, has dropped out of contact. It’s your job to go in and find out what’s going on. You slowly find out more about what happened via text logs scattered throughout the levels. Nothing too original or ground breaking so far, but there is certainly room for a few interesting twists.

The seemingly de facto DS FPS controls, with the touch pad for looking, d-pad for movement and shoulder buttons for firing feel comfortable for the most part. In the build I was playing I was unable to move diagonally using the d-pad, which sounds like a minor complaint, but did cause movement to feel a touch clumsy at times.

Once you get used to it, you can move quite rapidly around the hallways of the underground base. The maps themselves are typically linear, and feel quite sparse in parts. I didn’t encounter any more than two enemies at the same time and there are very few items to pick up. There are just enough health and ammo stations to keep you alive, but you will find less ammo causally spread around than in your typical FPS.

Combat feels good with the stylus providing you with just enough accuracy to be usable. My only problem was when I was taking damage. There is no indication of the direction your enemy is in. This can make it hard to determine just where your target is. The enemies I encountered did have some nice variation and their character models seemed on par with the level of the rest of the game. That is to say, somewhere between Doom and Quake

Graphically I was impressed by what the team at NoWay Studio have accomplished. The game runs smoothly and has a nice level of detail to it, considering the hardware it’s running on. The music and sound effects are as you would expect. Repeating heavy guitar riffs make up the majority of the audio-scape, interspersed with the grunts of your foes, very reminiscent of Quake 1.
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The preview also came with Free For All, Team Arena and Capture The Flag multiplayer modes. The game will support both multi-card and single-card play and allows up to 4 players at once. Although I wasn’t able to play too much with the multiplayer, it really does feel like it could be a legitimate challenger to Mario Kart DS for the “we’re sat around and bored with our DS’” game of choice.

So things are looking good. It may not be ground breaking in its narrative accomplishments, or re-defining the hand-held FPS genera, but it is definitely bringing around all the right feelings. If you are a fan of the classic PC FPS’ and want that same feeling on the go, then I highly recommend keeping an eye on C.O.R.E.

A year ago we previewed and reviewed Dementium: The Ward, a dark and spooky FPS for the DS that ended up being, well, not so great.

Developer Renegade Kid is giving it another shot this year with The Moon, which looks like it not only grafts a sci-fi raygun onto the action, but also lets you get behind the wheel of a Moon Buggy. Sweet!

Let’s just hope they expand the color scheme– Dementium relied a bit too much on black fog, and from the trailer we expect there to be lots of shades of gray. Check out that trailer, right after you click on “read more”.

Moon is expected to come out on November 18, 2058– I mean, 2008.

Source: Pocketgamer

NoWay Studio have released fresh new info in their DS exclusive FPS, C.O.R.E. Boasting an impressive 15 single player levels and 10 multiplayer maps, could this be the Halo of the DS? Hit the jump for all the info.

This game, until recently, was nowhere near my radar-of-games-to-watch, but after watching the debut trailer and reading about the game, this has definitely become the first DS game to come close to matching the excitement I had for Imagine Babies.

With impressive graphics and inspiration from such classics as Quake and Half-Life, could we be seeing the finest example of mobile FPSing to date? If the single player can manage to not be too generic in its story, and be as good as it looks execution wise, the game would be good. Combining this with the impressive array of multiplayer options and we could be onto a winner.

Poland, 7th August 2008. Fresh new video games developer NoWay Studio is proud to announce the launch date for its exciting debut title, “C.O.R.E.”. Available exclusively on the Nintendo DSTM, and launching in October 2008, “C.O.R.E” is an action-packed multiplayer First Person Shooter. With a gripping single player mission, based on a Roswell style storyline, the game also boasts an exciting multiplayer experience in specially designed arenas.

Jakub Pieczykolan, CEO at NoWay Studio states: “The inspiration for C.O.R.E. comes from the team’s love of the classic early video games like Doom, Quake and Half-Life. These incredible games have that great combination of skillful and addictive gameplay which we have now re-created for the Nintendo DSTM. “C .O.R.E.” is essentially 2 games in one, the single player mission is spread over 15 huge levels and the multiplayer across 10 specially designed arenas.”

“Capture the flag”, “team arena” and “free for all” multiplayer modes can now be played on a handheld games system. Ten specially designed arenas have been created with a range of weapons and shields strategically placed around these challenging environments. With a single game cartridge up to four players can now quickly set up multiplayer FPS game that can last for hours.

“C .O.R.E.” brings a classic sci-fi storyline and great multiplayer gaming to the Nintendo DS.

For more information visit: www.noway-studio.com

GAME STORYLINE & FEATURES:

In the single player mission a meteor has crashed into the Earth. The largest single impact on the earth in a millennium is being investigated by the government at a special research facility (C.O.R.E) built alongside impact site. For 20 years the scientists have been drilling into the Earth trying to reach the centre of the meteor and unlock its secrets. Just recently a news blackout was declared for the site and rumours started of an incredible find. Suddenly all communication with the base was lost. With no information on what might have happened and a new strange radiation emanating from the site a special forces team is needed to investigate, your mission as part of that team is to find the answers.

• Gripping sci-fi storyline, with a fully interactive world
• Mysterious atmosphere intensified by heavy music and advanced graphics
• Complete 15 huge, shocking and breathtaking levels
• 20 different enemies ranging from insane marines and mad scientists to big deadly mutants
• A plethora of secret rooms and special quests
• Choose among 8 types of weapons, including: blaster, shotgun, plasma gun or rocket launcher.
• Alternative firing modes for some weapons.
• 10 different multiplayer arenas
• Capture the flag, team arena and death match
• Up to 4 player multiplayer

This week at Quake Con, id Software unveiled their new Wolfenstein shooter for the PC, PS3, and 360, simply titled “Wolfenstein”. We have the first released screenshots and trailer, for your Nazi-smiting pleasure, after the jump.

First up is the revelatory trailer. This thing has so many swastikas in the first half that I thought it might be a colorized version of Triumph of the Will. Fortunately, we get to watch a ton of bad guys get zapped into cinders by a new gun in the second half.

So now do you think you’ve got room for just one more World War 2 shooter? My personal belief is that you can always improve the genre, and adding a big freaking laser gun is definitely an improvement.

Wolfenstein also seems to have something called the “reality shroud”, which appears to be a version of the light/dark world mechanic seen in other games (Zelda comes to mind). You can check out the particle cannon and reality shroud, plus some of the more conventional WW2 shooting, in the gallery screens below.

Wolfenstein

5 Photos

 

The original Stalker didn’t shake the earth too much, but we have high hopes for Stalker’s prequel, Clear Sky. An open-ended FPS sounds much more interesting than the average corridor-crawler, even if high radiation levels will keep you mostly on track. Now that we’ve got the box art, you know what to look for on shelves starting August 29. Check out the full-sized image after the jump.

Maybe I’m spoiled. Maybe my expectations are too high. Whatever the reason, the most positive thing I can say about Conflict: Denied Ops is that I was not physically injured by how horrible it was.

Well, maybe that’s a bit harsh. There’s nothing really fundamentally wrong with the game — it’s just so underwhelming in pretty much every aspect that’s supposed to make games fun.

Browsing the Xbox Live Marketplace, it seems the developers spent a lot of time trying to make people think this game was going to be cool. Developer diaries and trailers showcase the “destructible environments” and cooperative elements — both of which, in practice, suck ass.

In one of the videos, the player blows a hole in a wall with a shotgun and then shoots through the newly formed hole with his sniper rifle. Seems like that should be awesome, but it’s not. The most destructible thing I encountered was a wooden guardrail around some stairs, which splintered in a very impressive N64-era kind of way.

I shot plenty of things with my shotgun in an attempt to destruct the environment. A television screen shattered (not impressive) and I put a dent in a table (also not impressive). While it is a step up from the flat, untextured decals that represented bullet holes in the past, it is not the mind-blowing feature they try to make it out to be.

As far as co-op, it’s just garbage. Playing this game with a buddy is like when you eat something disgusting and then say “Dude, this tastes like shit! Here, try it!” It’s nice to have someone to share in the experience, but it would be more fun to just take turns stabbing each other in the brain.

Then the characters themselves — wow. You have your choice between generic white guy and generic black guy. Whitey has a sniper rifle with a shotgun attachment, as well as a silenced pistol. Blacky has a light machine gun with a grenade launcher attachment and a rocket launcher. Their interactions with each other remind me of Padmé and Anakin from Star Wars Episode II — more irritating than a sandy vagina.

The shooting is pretty bland. The sniper rifle has absolutely no kick and barely makes any noise. I kept shooting a wall when I first loaded the game up, and I couldn’t tell that I was even shooting. The wall didn’t deform like I expected either, adding to my uncertainty as to whether or not I was actually firing. Maybe I was just confused because of how bad the graphics are…

The overall impression I get from this game is that it sucks. It’s either poorly designed by people that don’t know what fun is, or it was targeted at 3-year-olds that don’t quite understand all the intricacies (the few that exist) of tactically shooting people in the face. In either case, I think it’s in your best interest to only play this game if you hate yourself.

For all you masochists out there, the demo is available now for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PSN.

What’s the best thing on the store? Other than the DMC4 demo I downloaded last week, we do get Theme Hospital and another swish PixelJunk Monster’s theme. Splendid.

United States/Canada Playstation Store Update:

Games/Demos:
- Conflict: Denied Ops demo (989 Mb)
Conflict: Denied Ops is a highly accessible co-op FPS featuring massive, extremely explosive firefights across destructible environments. Work as a team to utilize the specific skills of each operative and experience the ultimate in destructive satisfaction with tons of exploding objects and an endless barrage of terrorists who are begging to be blown to hell.

Downloadable Content:

Folklore: (Last DLC)
- Add-On 5: “Nightmares” – $3.99
- Add-On 6: “Visions of the Tower” – $3.99
- Add-on Bundle 3: Includes Add-On 5 & 6 – $5.99

Rock Band - $1.99 each:
- “Siva” by Smashing Pumpkins
- “Working Man” by Rush
- “Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial)” by Coheed and Cambria

Game Videos:
- Go! Sports Skydiving Trailer
- Battlefield: Bad Company Haggard’s Blog

Movie Trailers:
- Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
- Prom Night- Across the Universe
- Daddy Day Camp

Other:
- PixelJunk Monsters Theme #2
- Two PixelJunk Monsters wallpapers

United Kingdom Playstation Store Update:

Games/Demos:
- Devil May Cry 4 demo (640Mb)
- MX vs ATV Untamed demo (715Mb)

- Fade to Black (PS1 game) – £3.49 or 4,99€
- Motorhead (PS1 game) – £3.49 or 4,99€
- Theme Hospital (PS1 game) – £3.49 or 4,99€

Trailers:
-PixelJunk Monsters Trailer

Why don’t we throw in Japan’s Playstation Store Update for free:

Games/Demos:
- Block Kuzushi (PS1) – ¥600
- Dezaemon Plus (PS1) – ¥600
- Kuroi Hitomi no Noir: Cielgris Fantasm (PS1) – ¥600
- Pro Mahjong Kiwame Plus (PS1) – ¥600
- Wai Wai Kusayakyuu (PS1) – ¥600

Trailers:
- Sega Rally Revo trailer

Many of you will have heard the buzz about user created maps making their way to the Playstation version of the game, but you might have thought that this first time console modding was probably not that good. Well, you’ll be pleased to know you’re completely wrong, folks. Unreal Tournament’s modding system has changed the way console FPSs are presented.

Since the game’s release, there have been over 16 fully functional user created maps made available for download to the PS3, and it doesn’t stop there. You can also throw in two new camera angles (an over the shoulder “Gears of War style” view, and a distant Third Person “SOCOM style” view), an improved visual color, and new game modes. And here is the kicker: it’s completely free of charge.

All you need is an external memory unit for your PS3, whether it’s a USB Jump drive or a Memory stick. This has got to be by far the best rendition of Downloadable Content.

The support behind modding for the PS3 is simply amazing, with modders hard at work creating new maps, game modes and mutators. They have placed themselves as the number one reason to go out and pick up a copy of Unreal Tournament 3 for the PS3. Strong, engaged communities have made UT3 a must buy.

“Now, we are growing Tiberium from a simple backdrop to a fully realized universe with its own unique, hybrid squad-based shooter gameplay. “ says Mike Verdu, VP and General Manager at EA Los Angeles, “This is the birth of a new franchise – we couldn’t be more excited”.

The game is set to feature both off-line and on-line game play, as well as “a unique blend of first-person shooting and tactical squad combat”, allowing you to control your infantry, armour and air squads , all within the realms of an FPS.

You will play the game as Forward Battle Commander Ricardo Vega and lead the fight against an alien invasion taking place 11 years after the Third Tiberium War. Read about the game in the press release below.

Tiberium is a mysterious extraterrestrial crystal that shatters the energy output of traditional fossil fuels. It has the power to save our civilization. It also has the power to destroy it.

Over two-and-a-half years in development, Electronic Arts Inc. today revealed Tiberium, a new intellectual property that brings a rich, original fiction to life through intense tactical action and visceral first-person shooting.

Set in a stunning sci-fi world with spectacular visual effects and dramatic environments, Tiberium takes players on an adventure through an environmentally-devastated world and places them in the heart of an epic battle for control this powerful energy source.

For eleven years, an alien tower has stood dormant, looming like an unholy mountain over a wasteland once known as the Mediterranean Sea. The tower was thought to be a relic of the Third Tiberium War; a devastating war fought for control over Tiberium crystal. It is not a relic. It is not dormant. Deep within the tower, plans are in motion for an alien invasion. This is where the Tiberium adventure begins.

Players step into the shoes of Forward Battle Commander Ricardo Vega and will assemble an assortment of elite squads to combat the global crisis. Armed with an intense arsenal of weapons including a transforming personal weapon system, multi-launch homing missiles, capital ship bombardments and tactical ion cannon strikes, Vega will lead the fight from the front lines.

Featuring a unique blend of first-person shooting and tactical squad combat, every moment in Tiberium is intense, every mission leaves players breathless. To take the first-person shooter experience deeper into strategic combat, players will control multiple infantry, armor, and air squads as the fight escalates.

In Tiberium, Vega is the most powerful presence on the battlefield, and the squads are his most decisive weapon. Players can take multi-squad control combat into single-player or bring the action into online multiplayer battles.

“Tiberium is our ‘One Ring’, our ‘Force’. It is the connective tissue that defines this universe and tears it apart,” said Chris Plummer, Executive Producer at EA Los Angeles. “After two years of pre-production, it is exciting to finally reveal this game and its rich fiction to the world. We’ve put a lot of effort into evolving the tactical shooter experience by taking core gameplay compulsions like commanding, choice and dominating your enemies and delivering them in first-person. Some of the weapons and mechanics are truly innovative for a first-person game. We’re very proud to be part of a project that has the potential to really make a mark on the cannon of sci-fi fantasy fiction.”

Mike Verdu, VP and General Manager at EA Los Angeles added, “EALA has a long history of developing groundbreaking real-time strategy games with the Command & Conquer series. That series also originally introduced the Tiberium universe to gamers worldwide. Now, we are growing Tiberium from a simple backdrop to a fully realized universe with its own unique, hybrid squad-based shooter gameplay. This is the birth of a new franchise — we couldn’t be more excited.”

Developed at EA Los Angeles, Tiberium will be available worldwide in Fall 2008 for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, and PC. The game has not yet been rated by the ESRB. For more information on Tiberium, please visit: www.Tiberium.com.

Via Neogaf