While I've always enjoyed a good Call of Duty campaign, Infinity Ward's fourth entry really stood out for its wide variety of missions. Escaping a capsizing ship, sneaking through Chernobyl for a quick assassination, or hovering above the battlefield in an AC130 gunship--the game was constantly varying the environments and the scenarios, keeping things fresh in an otherwise stagnant format.

So the most encouraging thing I can say about Call of Duty: World at War is that, according to a Treyarch representative, this formula will continue in full. Though we're back in World War II, there will still be Ghillie Suit-style setpieces, in addition to two vastly different battlefields; players will control both a US marine in the Pacific theater and a Russian soldier on the Eastern Front.

Four-player cooperative play on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC is a welcome addition, and for those preferring an offline experience, the console versions will support two-player split-screen play. Experience points earned in co-op will also carry over into the game's CoD 4-derived multiplayer mode, though a... Read more

In our first batch of hands-on impressions with Valve and Turtle Rock's cooperative zombie shooter Left 4 Dead, fellow Shacknews editor Chris Faylor and I were introduced to thousands of bloodthirsty new friends. Returning to Valve's offices last week to play the latest build of the game, I finally met the belle of the ball: the witch.

When you first encounter her, Left 4 Dead's fifth and unplayable boss infected is a peculiar sight. The notion of a plainly-dressed and raven-haired young woman sitting in the middle of an urban sidewalk might even be plausible, had the city not been teeming with the hungry dead. But perhaps most unsettling is the quiet ... Read more

No one asked Vicarious Visions to make Guitar Hero for the Nintendo DS. No one at studio owner Activision, fellow Activision subsidiary RedOctane, or Nintendo believed it was even possible.

"People thought it was ludicrous," Vicarious CEO Karthik Bala told me at a Guitar Hero event earlier this week. "It was never in the plan to do that."

As Bala puts it, the whole thing came out of the Vicarious staff playing around to "see if it was even possible to do a really good music rhythm game on a handheld." Twenty-three prototypes and a few cardboard guitars later, a breakthrough came in the form of a "crazy Frankenstein GBA cartridge" wired with fret buttons.

Activision and RedOctane thought it was insane. And when the first prototype was presented to Nintendo, Bala says they were stunned.

But the really, really amazing part? For all the unwieldy-looking peripherals and wacky ads, the Nintendo DS entry, Guitar Hero: On Tour, really is Guitar Hero. It works. It's fun. In fact, I think it does some things better than the console editions... Read more

It's a whole new world for the Prince, and a whole new prince.

The debut of Ubisoft's stylized Prince of Persia reboot undoubtedly led many to recall the introduction of Nintendo's cel-shaded Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, after which a grinning Shigeru Miyamoto was the target of a previously unseen brand of gamer vitriol for altering the direction of the hallowed adventure series with its cartoon-like graphics.

But in an era populated by games sporting the "next-gen color palette" of grays and browns, this new, colorful Prince might seem a breath of fresh air for many exhausted by console offerings in recent years. But as Prince of Persia ... Read more

Years ago, a friend tried to sell me on the air combat sim genre, swearing that assault rifles were for pansies and that real men did their killin' from the seat of an F-22 Raptor.

"Fat guys can't join the Air Force, so [Ace Combat 5] is about as close as you'll get," he said. "Pop in the Top Gun soundtrack and it's practically the real thing."

The ensuing war of words ensured that my introduction to fierce in-flight battles wouldn't occur for another three years, when I--with some trepidation--stumbled my way through a demonstration skirmish in Ubisoft Romania's HAWX at the company's Ubidays event. There was fear, panic, doubt. Who would put a clumsy, drunken ... Read more

"I can't even be showing you this. You're totally out of the demo area. But the world is there."

Is it ever. Lead artist Alex Amancio is taking us off the beaten path near the end of my look at Far Cry 2. I see thatched roof huts, brightly colored graffiti sprayed across the walls. Sun-soaked stones line the clear river behind me, a jagged cliff to my front. Far below is a yellow grassland that stretches on for miles. A few convincing water buffalo stand grazing off in the distance, a shot right out of No Country.

Variety is the key to understanding what Far Cry 2 is about. It's a full menu of a game, a long list of cool features, interesting twists, and surprising detail.

That detail seems to permeate every facet of the game's design. Every area is richly textured and wholly different from the last. Every enemy has a totally unique appearance. Every weapon degrades and ages over time.

It is fitting that a shooter based on presenting the player with options has spawned two very different sequels. With an open world of 50 square kilometers, a branching mission-based plot powered by a GTA-like cellphone, and an engine built for cross-platform performance, Ubisoft's Far Cry sequel is a wholly different take on the concept than we saw with Crytek's Crysis.

And while I definitely enjoyed Crysis for what it was, Far Cry 2 is shaping up to have far more gameplay potential. ... Read more

Shacknews guest contributor Jeb Haught recently got the chance to go hands-on with Guerrilla Games' PlayStation 3 shooter Killzone 2. He returns from the battlefield to provide us with his impressions and a few new screenshots. Take it away, Jeb.

I cooked another grenade and tossed it in the middle of the room below me. As it exploded, shrapnel hit the various objects littered around the room, including a propane tank. The tank spun around, shot off towards a large shelf, and exploded, killing one soldier and destroying the contents of the shelf.

It's what the developers refer to as "happy accidents," where unscripted random chain reaction events occur depending on the situation.

In my younger years, I had a thing against gnomes, and I blame it on Sega's arcade classic Golden Axe. After wasting a fair portion of my youth on the title, I realized that the very sight of gnomes in any game made me want to kick the little bastards repeatedly, in the hope that I would be rewarded with restorative medicines and magic urns.

That being said, I'm pleased to report that the loot-lugging munchkins have returned in Secret Level's overhaul of the classic arcade fighter Golden Axe: Beast Rider, inspiring the same violent urges I had felt so many years ago.

But as we saw in publisher Sega's demonstration of an in-progress build of the game earlier this week, the new Golden Axe isn't just about wanton acts ... Read more

Sonic Unleashed is a return to concept for Sonic Team. The plan is to get the hedgehog back to his fast, level-based platforming roots. Less awkward adventure, more speedy action.

To that end, this is a Sonic-focused game. Other unspecified characters will be present, but you will only assume control of them for short periods of time.

Of course, after berating a Sega representative, it was revealed that there will still be a Sonic Adventure-esque town area. Players will be talking to other characters, and getting through some kind of story. Sega stressed repeatedly that this portion of the game will be entirely optional, with a portal transporting players to the stage sections.

There will also be nighttime levels, separate from the daytime excursions. These will be focused on combat over platforming, presumably where... Read more

After a long presentation, a fair amount of hands-on time and a chat with lead designer Jason Allen, I still don't know what to make of Silent Hill 5--now known as Silent Hill Homecoming.

As the first American studio to handle a project in the long-running horror franchise, the team once called The Collective but now referred to as Double Helix seems to have done their homework.

There are zombie nurses, and foggy streets, and rusted walls. Doors are locked, and an unnecessary line of text tells us so in a way that only a Silent Hill game could. Hallways are dark, flashlights turned on. It all looks just as I would imagine a Silent Hill game to look on upgraded hardware.

But that's just it. It looks pretty much how I expected it would.

The developers are very honest about their approach: keep the horror... Read more

A new Castlevania entry on the Nintendo DS, the previously uncovered Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, is scheduled for a fall release in North America, series producer Koji Igarashi announced at Konami's press event last night.

The developer demonstrated some of the new features in the latest installment in the long-running 2D action-adventure series. In the place of previously-seen ability and weapon systems in DS forebears Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin... Read more

After the floodgates broke on coverage of Rare's new Banjo Kazooie game, you might've found yourself wondering whether this was the Banjo you remember. And depending on your slant, it can be interpreted as good news or bad news—it's familiar territory, certainly, but populated by a whole new breed of animal.

As you may well have heard by now, the new focus in Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is, of course, vehicles. And from what we saw at Microsoft's Spring Showcase demonstration, the developer is not at all shy in making use of this new cornerstone of gameplay.

Banjo Kazooie QA lead Chris Chamberlain estimates that vehicle use takes up some 70% of total gameplay time, while traditional Banjo-style platforming assumes the remaining 30%. With such a significant portion of gameplay chalked ... Read more

Earlier today at the Microsoft Spring Showcase in San Francisco, I got a chance to check out an entire early level of Gears of War 2. The shorthand? It's Gears, but louder.

First the setup, courtesy series creator Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski: "It's six months after the events of Gears 1, and the Locusts have actually returned. We're right at the onset of winter, it's the last day of fall as we open the game. Basically the Locusts have returned with a force that's capable of sinking entire cities."

Faced with utter destruction, the last bastion of humanity suits up to take the fight into the underground home of the Locusts.

"The way that we do this is with a massive assault scenario, in which the humans have these devices called grind lifts," continued Bleszinski. "These are essentially express elevators to hell, in which two guys get in, and it tunnels down into the depths of the underground, and then they go into the Locust cities and kick their ass."

The opening of the sequel sees Marcus hooking up with an armored column on its way toward Locust-held territory, as seen in the few minutes of footage released last week. The whole of the chapter consists of an on-rails sequence, the player... Read more

It's been so long since I've invoked any hostility in defending PC-centric control schemes over console counterparts—I guess Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare changed me, or made me soft, or something.

But with Mass Effect's somewhat limited Xbox 360 control configuration transitioned to its reworked form on the PC, I'm on the cusp of becoming an elitist jerk again.

Sure, Mass Effect certainly looks great on the PC, but veterans and newcomers alike ought to be most interested in how it plays. Utilizing familiar FPS controls, the game allows you to pull up the tactical HUD by holding the space bar at... Read more

At the EA Spring Break press event in San Francisco, we had a chance to give EA Black Box's motion-centric Skate It a test run in both its Wii and Nintendo DS incarnations.

While we were grinding our faces into the pavement, we also managed to chat up the designers on bringing the Skate franchise to Nintendo's systems and the development of the new control schemes.

"It took between a month and a half to two months to reach that 'really, this is the game we want to make' kind of point," said designer Dana Fortier. "Up until that point, we really weren't even sure we wanted to pursue it. Once we hit that point where... Read more

With the game recently announced, Electronic Arts showed the first glimpse of EA Phenomic's RTS-TCG hybrid BattleForge (PC) at its recent Spring Break event.

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Though at first glance appearing to be much like Blizzard's WarCraft III (PC) or any other fantasy RTS title, BattleForge plays very differently. Rather than rely on anchored structures and bases to churn out armies and units, BattleForge uses a deck of up to 20 cards to create units and cast spells free of micromanagement... Read more

Real battlefield heroes have flashbacks to moments of horrifying combat. Halfway through a round of EA DICE's Battlefield Heroes, I was having flashbacks to World of Warcraft raids. Not quite the same experience, but almost as scary. After shooting my first enemy soldier, strange numbers popped out of his head: -20, -3, -25. There were more clothing options than weapons, more time spent slotting pirate hats than strategizing. People were ditching their medic packs for area effect heals, and waiting longer for sprint cool-downs than for vehicle respawns. And did I get killed by an Ornery Arathi Nazi, or was that just my imagination?

I went into my hands-on time thinking that Heroes was essentially a pared-down version of Battlefield 1942, and in many ways, it is. From the speed of the jeeps, to the slightly sluggish feel of the infantry controls, I was instantly at home, feeling pleased with the game's clear nod to the first--and still my favorite--entry in the ... Read more

Much like its confounding two-part title, Fallen Empire: Legions really consists of a combination of two separate elements.

On the one hand, GarageGames has fashioned an accessible time waster, the next generation of Flash-like gaming. It runs in a web browser, looks great for it, and can be played and quit in the span of a coffee break.

On the other hand, Fallen Empire is a hardcore online shooter, a game any Starsiege: Tribes fan will immediately recognize. It has chainguns, large maps, and is entirely centered around jetpack-based flight combat.

In the end, you'll need two quick hands to get anywhere in Legions, because if this game is anything, it is fast.... Read more

Two days ago, Soul Calibur IV (PS3, X360) was just another game coming out this summer. Now, after playing a build of it at the recent Namco Bandai press event, I very much want that final disc in my hands.

I was a big fan of Soul Calibur and its sequel, but for whatever reason chose not to partake in the third entry to Project Soul's series. When following these long-running franchises, which typically change very little between iterations, I find it is sometimes necessary to sit one out. Gorging yourself is always more fun when preceded by a period of fasting.

Well, I might be done fasting. The first "next-gen" version of the game, Soul Calibur IV is a finely crafted graphical treat. Call me shallow for saying so, but this thing looks fantastic in motion, and the graphical boost alone is enough reason to rekindle my still-burning soul.

Character detail is exceptional, but even more impressive are... Read more

With the second Halo 3 (X360) multiplayer map pack due out April 15--better known in some circles as Tuesday--the Shack editors recently took the three new maps for a spin. Aaron Linde's got the word on the new arenas, along with exclusive screenshots and movies.

"Internally we were calling [Ghost Town] the Counter-Strike map for a long time, mostly because of the choke points and the sight lines," said Bungie multiplayer designer Lars Bakken. "It plays really differently from the other maps we've had." Read more...