Flash forward to one year old, when the game will acquaint you with the walking controls by letting you toddle around your playpen. Here, you'll also notice your father's facial appearance has been derived from the same choices you made in the last scene. Approaching a whimsically illustrated baby book entitled "You're Special!," you'll flip from page to page, each showing one letter of Fallout's SPECIAL system (that is, strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck). This is how you assign your character's attributes. Read more..

At first, things did seem far easier on the lower difficulty level. Unlike the previous game, which tamed me by the third level, not once did I become unduly frustrated after blasting through five chapters of Gaiden II. This was mainly due to the numerous save points littered throughout the sequel's stages, shrines that now instantly boost your health to full. If that's not enough to welcome you with open arms, your health will now rejuvenate automatically inbetween battles, only a fraction of the bar permanently staying red and unhealed. Read more..

Rather than forcing bench-sitting as a prerequisite to murder, the designers have now allowed you to complete several other, less tedious challenges that fulfill the same function. Players will have the choice of participating in timed rooftop races, archer assassinations, merchant stand destruction, and escort challenges, in addition to the five previous tasks. All are fairly self-descriptive, and all serve to infuse the investigatory intermissions with some much-needed life, by way of additional death. Read more..

"The main goal of Pacific is to create a bigger and better game than Midway, which was just the game from the US side of the Midway campaign," lead designer Botond Szalacsi told me. "I want it to be the whole Pacific experience for the players."

Unlike its Xbox 360 and PC predecessor Battlestations: Midway, Pacific features both US and Japanese campaigns, allowing players to see the war from both perspectives and, if victorious as the Japanese, change the course of ... Read more

Battlefield Heroes will sport three character classes: the standard Soldier, the fast-moving Commando, and the heavily-armed Gunner. Instead of picking their faction at the beginning of each round, players will be forced to swear their allegiance to the National Army--a politically correct Axis team--or the Royal Army when registering their account. The conflict between the two has something to do with a dispute over the Olympics. Yes, really. Read more..

Of all the games I saw at this year's Game Developers Conference, Mirror's Edge was the one that interested me the most. Its unconventional take on the action-adventure platforming genre holds a lot of potential, and translating what is typically third-person gameplay to a first-person perspective presents a daunting, yet exciting series of obstacles for the crew over at DICE. Read more..

An explosion rocked the house and the wall behind me collapsed, crumbling like a pile of LEGOs. The attackers stormed in through the makeshift doorway, and another rocket quickly cut through the space between them, ending my piece of the engagement.

In my defeat, I slumped back into the couch. Adding insult to failure, the abrupt motion of the attached controller cable was enough to flick a whiskey sour off the tabletop, pouring its contents into my messenger bag.
Read more...

The crew identified a few key factors that truly defined the series: "Team play, freedom of movement, and just zipping around the terrain and blasting the shit out of people."

They wanted to make sure the spiritual sequel retained the fun of the original, but was still accessible enough for anyone to pick up and enjoy.

It looks like they've succeeded. Read more..

Either because I was already familiar with the mechanics from my last session, or because the designers had tweaked the difficulty and feel as I was hoping--probably a bit of both, and more of the former if I'm being honest with myself--Dark Sector was a whole lot easier for me this time around. Chucking the glaive with one hand while popping rapid-fire pistol rounds into an enemy's head with the other became almost second nature, where before it had been more unwieldy. Read more...

Fortunately for you, you are the protagonist in a video game, so rather than becoming horribly mutated and losing all shreds of your humanity, your arm becomes metal and you gain the use of a boomerang-like, triple-bladed weapon called the glaive (ie, the Glaive of Krull, rather than the historical polearm).
Read on...

As Remo can attest, it's extremely difficult to shoot enemies from the air while the other player is moving the parachute--hell, it's pretty tough regardless. But it can be done, and this furthers the collaborative play required in other areas of the game by forcing close communication--"Stop moving, dammit, I need to shoot this guy!"--between the two players.

The Wii remote's rumble feature comes into play in the Wii rendition of Guitar Hero III, sending a jolt through the guitar's plastic body to let you know when you've shredded hard enough to activate star power. It's actually a neat effect, as the pulses continue with the rhythm of the song while star power is activated, giving the feeling of a fully juiced guitar vibrating with fuzzed out power.

EA Montreal did a great job with making the controls for these context-sensitive segments incredibly natural. When my human-controlled partner picked up a heavy shield, all I had to do was run up behind him. My character automatically latched onto his best bro's back with one hand, and the camera angle switched to give me a more helpful sideways view.

Despite the DS' surprisingly strong lineup of late, with a library that seems to be getting stronger all the time, most would probably agree that the best of the system's gems are the more unique and daring titles. It's not exactly the system of choice for home console spinoffs and ports. With Tony Hawk's American Sk8land, however, Vicarious Visions seems to be hitting on a nice compromise of mainstream accessibility and good use of the system's hardware features. And, of course, online never hurts.