A lot of people I talk to rave on about how good Bioshock was, but they don’t seem to realise that Bioshock is the spiritual successor to two great roleplaying first person shooters – System Shock and System Shock 2.

My favourite of the two is System Shock 2 (SS2), a dark, gritty shooter with heavy roleplaying and an atmosphere you could drown a cat in.

If you’ve never played SS2 before, I highly recommend that you track down a copy and install it – even if it is just to compare it to Bioshock and the Steampunk/Cyberpunk dichotomy of the two.

Like most older games, SS2 is a bit finicky to get running on modern versions of Windows – but not impossible.

1. Insert your SS2 CD (or mount the ISO)
2. Open a command prompt (windows + R, then type CMD and press enter)
3. Browse to your CD drive by typing its drive letter followed by a colon and enter (e.g. E:)
4. Run the setup program by typing “setup.exe -lgntforce”
5. Install game normally and decline when asked to install DirectX
6. Browse to StrangeBedFellows and grab a copy of SS2Tool at the bottom of the post
7. Run SS2Tool and select Patching Up, Getting Mod Ready and Bug Fixes
8. Choose Widescreen Mod and DDFix if you have a widescreen monitor
9. Press Ok. Most options will flicker by, with the exception of the widescreen mod, which will ask for your screen res
10. Enjoy the game!

If you have any problems with items (for example, if you can’t pick something up or use a switch) then go to the game menu, options, controls and save your key bindings.

As many of you may know, games piracy is becoming more and more of a problem. With hundreds if not thousands of bittorrent trackers live on the internet, people can download cracked versions of your games without paying a cent and play them to their hearts content.

However, I think I may have a solution.

I’m going to illustrate it with a little story, starring Johnny, the publishing Dinosaur.

Johnny was very excited one day, because after months of hard work and hundreds of meetings, his company’s new game, Super Blood Kill 5, was going gold. He was thrilled that the application on which he had worked so hard was about to be released.

Like a lot of publishing Dinosaurs, Johnny hadn’t played the game. In fact, he wasn’t really the gaming type. He was a publishing Dinosaur, and had far too many important things to worry about to be playing silly video games. But the marketing Dinosaurs in his company had told him that their key demographic would be incredibly excited about the release of Super Blood Kill 5, and would be snapping it up in droves.

The marketing Dinosaurs had done a wonderful job on the lead up to the release of Super Blood Kill 5 – they’d arranged for certain high–profile celebrity Dinosaurs to say how great it was going to be. They’d carved conversations on the message trees around the land so that it looked like potential customers were talking to each other about how excited they were that it was being released. They even arranged for some viral marketing to be spray-painted all around the major magical forests of the land.

So now it was time for Super Blood Kill 5 to be released. Like most publishing Dinosaurs, Johnny was following the tried and true formula of carving his game in to thousands of blocks of stone, then shipping those blocks of stone to special caves where people could come and pay for it and take one home.

Now a lot of people did come and buy a piece of stone from the special caves. Some were even there at the midnight launch – queueing up for hours in the cold and dark, just so they could get their piece of stone before their friends.

But there was a problem. Some of the people who got a piece of stone were taking them home, making a mould out of clay, and then telling their friends where to get the mould so they could make their own copy of the piece of stone. This was terrible, because Johnny was told by the accounting Dinosaurs that every time someone made a copy of the game, they were stealing leaves from the company!

Now other publishing Dinosaurs had tried ways of avoiding this sort of behavior in the past. They’d tried making the stone incredibly detailed, so making a mould was really hard. But in the end, mould-making techniques just became more advanced. They’d tried leaving a tiny chunk out of the stone, then making that chunk unmouldable, but again, the mould-making skills got better and stopped that system from working either. They’d even tried attaching homing pigeons to the stone, hoping that the moulders wouldn’t realise, and they’d get hundreds of clay pigeons coming in with which they could track the moulders.

But none of these efforts ever seemed to work. Every time that Johnny, or any of the other publishing Dinosaurs sold a game, people would quickly make a mould and tell their friends how to use it.

So what to do?

Well, two years later when Johnny was getting ready for the release of Super Blood Kill 6, he had a wonderful thought.

“What would happen,” thought Johnny, “if instead of trying to force our customers to purchase the stone in one big chunk, we tried something different?”

See, over the years, some very smart spiders had designed a massive web which stretched the globe. This marvel of engineering made it possible to distribute large amounts of stones around the world almost instantly. In fact, this web was how the moulders were getting their clay versions of Super Blood Kill 5 so quickly.

So Johnny decided to do something really clever. First he organised with some of the spiders to attach a log to their giant web which his customers could carve into with a username and password. Then, he took Super Blood Kill 6, which just happened to have 30 levels and cost 60 leaves, and he split it into 30 pebbles which up on his log, along with a simple way for his customers to send their leaves to him. Finally, he did the same thing with Super Blood Kill 1 through 5, although he only charged 1 leaf for each pebble from Super Blood Kill 5, and the rest were free.

When the game released on the giant web, he was stunned by the amount of leaves which were pouring in. Not only were people buying the whole game one little bit at a time, but there were many more people buying it – evidently because each pebble was so cheap, customers were more willing to make an impulse decision. “Hey, it’s only 2 leaves. That’s nothing!” they’d shout, instead of “Hey, 60 leaves? I can’t afford that!”

They were also buying lots of copies of Super Blood Kill 5, which was fantastic because it was an old game, and he hadn’t expected to make any more leaves off it once Super Blood Kill 6 came out.

He was also very pleased to note that there weren’t many moulds being made of Super Blood Kill 6, but he was very surprised as to why. It seems that people weren’t making moulds of Super Blood Kill 5 because they wanted to steal his leaves. They weren’t making moulds because they wanted to sell the moulds and make leaves themselves. No, they were making moulds because it was easier.

Yes, the main reason people did it was because they didn’t want to have to go all the way to the special cave, and hand over a large wad of leaves before they could get their stone. They wanted it now. Sure, there were still customers out there who were making moulds, but they were only doing that for fun – after all, mould making is very tough to do, and some people enjoy the challenge.

By letting people get the stone one pebble at a time, Johnny had made piracy pretty much pointless for the majority of his audience.

With a blinding flash of light, Johnny magically transformed into an Eagle. Soaring above all the Dinosaurs he used to stand beside. And he was happy.

WipEoutHD

Since it came out, I’ve been glancing casually at the PS3 every now and then. While it is an awesome gaming platform, there weren’t any games that really tickled my fancy… Until now.

WipEoutHD is the latest in the WipEout series of combat racers, one of my favourite serieses of games. Something tells me this will be causing a very large chunk of cash to disappear from my bank account, and a PS3 and 50″ plasma to appear miraculously in my lounge room.

http://www.wipeouthd.com/en_AU/index.html

GH3 will be available on all colsoles (PS2, PS3, X360 and Wii), and each version will have it’s own wireless axe. The Wii version (the picture above is a mock-up of what it will look like) is a pluggable axe so you can add your Wiimote in, but there’s no word yet on whether it will use the accelerometers in game. The X360 version will be the first third-party piece of kit to tap into the X360s proprietary wireless system.

Trailer. Read on for the rest of the preview.

So apart from wireless controllers, what’s new? Well, in the first two versions of Guitar Hero, players were basically engaged in a guitar simulation, following modified sheet music with their axe’s five buttons and mashing out face-melting solos. In GH3, things go to the next level by adding in MarioKart-esque modifiers.

So when you’re battling against someone else, you can get modifiers to make your opponents’game more difficult. Things like disabling frets, overloading their amp to make their screen flash around and flipping their axe into lefty mode for a little while. You can even fire double notes at them which will destroy them if you’re playing in expert mode.

These modifiers aren’t just for throwing at other players, though. You’ll also get them thrown at you when you’re playing in single player mode, and will have to weave your way through to become a legend of rock.

Online play will be included at release time, and should give this version of Guitar Hero a huge range of tracks, available through a download system.

Most of the tracks are originals, including the original master track of Metallica’s “One” – surprising due to Metallica’s ruthless licensing fees. So far, the confirmed tracks are:

Slash’s Original Boss Battle Recording (i.e. Slash from Gunners. He’s an unlockable boss character)
Welcome to The Jungle (by Guns N’ Roses)
Paint It Black (by The Rolling Stones)
One (by Metallica)
Cherub Rock (by Smashing Pumpkins)
Sabotage (by Beastie Boys)
The Metal (by Tenacious D)
My Name is Jonas (by Weezer)
Knights of Cydonia (by Muse)
Even Flow (by Pearl Jam)
Lay Down (by Priestess)
Cult of Personality (by Living Colour)
Rock and Roll All Nite (as made famous by Kiss)
School’s Out (as made famous by Alice Cooper)
Rock You Like a Hurricane (as made famous by Scorpions)
Slow Ride (as made famous by Foghat)
Barracuda (as made famous by Heart)
Miss Murder (by AFI)
Through Fire and Flames (by Dragonforce) – definitely going to be some RSI suits claimed over this one.
Number of the Beast (by Iron Maiden)
3′s and 7′s (by Queens of the Stone Age)
Suck My Kiss (by Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Raining Blood (by Slayer)
Reptillia (by The Strokes)
Paranoid (as made famous by Black Sabbath)
Cities on Flame (as made famous by Blue Oyster Cult)
Mississippi Queen (as made famous by Mountain)
La Grange (as made famous by ZZ Top)
Minus Celsius (by Backyard Babies)
Hier Kommt Alex (by Die Toten Hosen)
In the Belly of a Shark (by Gallows)
I’m in the Band (by The Hellacopters)
Avalancha (by Heroes Del Silencio)
Take This Life (by In Flames)
Ruby (by Kaiser Chiefs)
Closer (by Lacuna Coil)
Generation Rock (by Revolverheld)
Mauvais Garcon (by NAAST)
Radio Song (by Superbus)

All in all this looks like it’ll be a fantastic addition to the Guitar Hero franchise. More info here about the Wii version.

Overlord explores the same lines, but comedic evil is where the similarity ends. In Overlord, expect a fast-paced third-person action game, where you charge into battle and loose hordes of minions against your enemies.

There’s a great review over at AtomicMPC.

This sort of idea has been the work of fantasy for many years, and is especially prevelant in HP Lovecraft’s ‘Cthulhu’ mythos. In 2002, Nintendo released “Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem”, a survival horror game which explores these dark notions in a novel and compelling way. It is the first ‘mature’ game which Nintendo has released (a welcome change from moustachioed plumbers and sentient pink balls), and is the first Nintendo game to be designated with a ‘Mature’ rating by the ESRB. It is, in this author’s humble opinion, the greatest game which has been produced by Nintendo to date.

The story is set in the year 2000. Alex Roivas, a young student from Washington, is called to her grandfather’s home in Rhode Island. There the police have made a shocking discovery – her grandfather has been murdered in a most brutal way, and there are no clues as to why or how he was killed. All that is left is the spooky old mansion, which she endeavours to explore in an attempt to retrace her grandfathers last days and perhaps uncover the reason for his death. During her search, she discovers a hidden study which is loaded with strange paintings and occult items, one of which is a mysterious book which is bound with human skin and bone. She opens the book and begins to read from the beginning, where a Roman Centurian is commanding his troops.

From here, the key mechanics that drive the story unfolds, as the player is asked to assume the role of this Centurion, Pious Agustus. Over the course of the story, which is almost entirely linear, you’ll be asked to assume the role of a dozen characters, each of whom controls differently and possesses special abilities. Pious, for instance, has the endurance and strength to wield his sword against the undead who rise up against him. Other characters, such as the Francenscan monk Paul Luther have much less endurance thanks to his academic lifestyle. Age also plays a role, and you’ll find that the Indiana Jones-esque archeologist you’ll get to control in the 80′s to be much more long winded when running than the portly Dr. Max Roivas in the 1820′s.

Each character has their own stats as well, granting them varying levels of mana, health and sanity. Mana, obviously, powers your spells, but the means by which you acquire them is fairly unique. The Tome of Eternal Darkness is a means by which humanity may fight back against the Ancients, as it can grant normal humans the ability to channel supernatural powers. Before you can access these abilities, you’ll need to collect several key items. Primarily, you’ll need a collection of runes that may be combined to create magical effects. As a secondary need, a wide array of codexes are available to decipher the meanings of the runes, such as Protect, Area and so forth. Also scattered throughout the story are a variety of spell recipes that outline the rune combinations that will actually create an effect. For example, the combination of the protect and area runes will create a field around the caster that damages anyone opposed who tries to approach.

Experimenters will find their efforts rewarded, as there are several ways to break the mold when using the spell system. Some powerful spells, for instance, require more than the standard three runes and there are some that appear in no scrolls in the game, instead awaiting your experimental touch. Further encouraging dabbling are power runes that may be added to the larger magical circles, which range from three to seven spots for runes. These can turn a light enchant weapon spell into a devastating enhancement to even the most simple of attacks.
No matter the size of the magical circle you elect to use, one rune is key to the effect of your spells. Remember where we mentioned that three Ancients existed, and were trapped by the fourth? Well, it turns out that beings of immense, malignant power don’t get along from any era of time, and these beings are no exception. The Tome, it should be noted, doesn’t allow humans to create their own magic, per se, instead it allows them to channel some small measure of the Ancients’power, and you may specify any of the four alignment runes behind your spell, affecting its Colour and its effects. The Red Ancient, by way of example, is particularly strong against its green counterpart, meaning a red enchant weapon spell will let you clobber a green zombie in a single stroke. A blue spell will still help somewhat against the green zombie, but in nowhere near the same scope.

Colour coding also extends to the three statistics, and a recover spell used with a red rune will restore your health, while the same spell powered by the Green Ancient will restore your sanity. Of course, this begs a return to the discussion of each character’s sanity meter – the truly unique part of Eternal Darkness’presentation. Unlike the Redfield family’s ability to shrug off any event save for the occasional scare during the cutscenes, the characters in this release react in far more human ways. Whenever an enemy spots you, its eyes will glow green, and your character’s skin will shimmer to indicate a sanity loss. It’s not surprising that watching the dead and horrific approach you would fluster even the most seasoned of humans, and as their sanity starts to slide, so do aspects of the game.

At roughly half mast on the sanity bar, Eternal Darkness will play a bit differently: the camera will slump to the side or pull an obscure angle, you’ll notice trickles of blood dripping down the walls or from the ceiling and your character will start to gibber phrases like, “This can’t be happening to me.” It would be an injustice to ruin too many of the effects that occur when your sanity bottoms out, but suffice it to say your character becomes harder to control, and the game will pull stunts on you occasionally. One memorable trick that caught me fully unprepared was the muting of the sound accompanied with a large, green block-lettered MUTE in the corner of my TV. One doesn’t usually expect a game to break the fourth wall in this way, so it can catch you totally off guard.

Of course, there has to be a mechanic to regain sanity, and in Eternal Darkness, it’s all about the finishing move. Perhaps proving that their fears can be destroyed is all it takes these characters to keep their heads together, but hacking the head off a downed zombie will prove a wise tactic. Of course, getting them to stay still has always proved a notorious problem in all aspects of video gaming, and you’ll spend a good chunk of time investing in your character’s survival. Melee combat’s fairly involved, as you can elect to slash in a wild combo with whichever weapon your character has, though this often leaves you open to counterattack. The more precise way to approach the problem of a rampaging horror or zombie is to hold in the right flipper and aim at the torso, arms or head of your target. Obviously, these have different effects and require different timing, but the more limbs you can remove in this manner, the more likely you are to survive the encounter. Taking the head from a zombie, for instance, will leave them disoriented and let you circle around to finish them from behind. Ranged attacks can also be aimed, and targeting the head is always a wise idea if you can manage it.

People may wonder at the lack of extensive time devoted to the puzzles. Unlike its contemporaries, Eternal Darkness spends much less time on collecting items and backtracking. The magical system often serves as the puzzle catalyst, meaning you’re usually carrying the needed ingredients, but simply need to think of a way to use them properly.

Graphics:  While I resisted mentioning it in the body of the review, it must be brought up here: Eternal Darkness started as an N64 project. There are very, very few indications of that in the finished product, though. Some of the textures might seem a bit muddy when compared to what we know the Cube can pull together, but Luigi’s Mansion suffered from the same malaise. Texture problems are but a touch of grey, as the characters are beautifully rendered, from the shuffling gait of the zombies to the wounded limping of the heroes. The characters are imbued with incredibly lifelike motions in particular. Watching a zombie fumble for its head is cool, but has been done before; noticing that your character’s head whipped around to look when a log burning in the nearby fireplace cracked under the heat is absolute genius.

Another area in which Eternal Darkness manages to transcend many other offerings is in its simple sense of style. The cutscenes are exceptional moments of cinema that bring the horrors of the Ancients to life, often by explicitly showing a grisly end to those who oppose them. The visuals here stop just short of shock horror, and this restraint makes them all the more chilling through what’s implied, but not shown. Couple this excellent cinematography with visual effects that haul your hindbrain into the game, such as the panic I felt when that giant MUTE popped on my screen. Similarly, the camera is so good and carefully placed the majority of the time, that you’ll be very disoriented by the rapid and uncontrollable shift of angle as your character’s sanity wavers. Taken all together, this makes for a visually enthralling game that’s not afraid to deal with horrific images when necessary.

Interface:  You can save, load, adjust your options, experiment with your spells and manage your inventory all from the same menu system by paging through the screens using the shoulder buttons. In theory this should work very well, but the overall effect is slightly too cluttered to be efficient. You can adjust everything you’d want to, including changing the sound balance and adjusting it between stereo, mono and Dolby Surround. The rumble feature of the Nintendo controllers gets a bit of a work out in Eternal Darkness as well, but you’d not want to turn it off, since it serves as yet another means to pull you into the action. One laudable aspect of the visual interface is that the status bars are context sensitive, meaning you’ll only know what your mana is currently at if you either actively check it, or in some way spend or lose mana from an attack. This means that the meters can be fairly large and clear, and then disappear so as not to clutter the interface overmuch.

Gameplay:  Ranging from the sands of Egypt to modern day New York state, Eternal Darkness hops across the globe and timeline of history with grace and dexterity. The story unfolds through your characters, cutscenes and mid-game interludes. By hanging the whole history of the war with the Ancients on a peg like the magical tome read by Alex, the game builds to a carefully scripted climax that moves her from the role of scholar and passive reader to active agent; and yet we often see her in that same role as she explores the mansion in between the book’s chapters. In a word, the storytelling that results is exceptional; you’ll be drawn into Eternal Darkness so deeply it’s conceivable that you’ll play it straight through the first weekend you own it. Luckily, there’s some replay value offered, as a key choice early on determines the path of the storyline and modifies many puzzles, encounters and boss creatures later.
Further enhancing the story, of course, are the sanity effects which will plague you throughout the game. No matter how closely you monitor your characters, there will be moments where they end up nearly gibbering heaps, and you’ll hear knocks on doors that can’t be opened, the sounds of children crying and you’ll be treated to some of the most unique effects to ever grace a horror title. As much as the PC’s Majestic aspired, Eternal Darkness succeeds as the game that plays its player.

Beyond the story and its immersion, Eternal Darkness is backed by excellent gameplay. The combat is more precise and less forgiving than the more modern survival horrors, and you’ll find that both the quick reflexes of might and the quick thinking of magic combined will be required to survive the creatures thrown at you. The puzzles are present, but they rarely steal the spotlight. For the most part, the solution will be fairly obvious, or at least readily accessible, and there’s only one part of the game where you have to back track any real distance; even then, it’s to retrieve an optional rune that isn’t strictly required. This keeps the pace brisk and the focus on your characters’reactions to their situation, whether he be a priest trapped in a corrupt monastery or an architect captured by a warlord and asked to inspect the engineering of a monument dedicated to his glory. Even the controls shift away from the standard “tank turn” we’ve come to expect, and your characters move in relation to the camera, making it much easier to sprint around an enemy to attack from behind.

Add it all together and we have an offering that’s easy to control (like the human pawns), more immersing than a dip in the pool (of the blood of sacrifice), and as affective as it is effective.

Multiplayer: As Eternal Darkness has no multiplayer mode, this criterion has not been rated.

Sound FX:  Not since the Soul Reaver series have I warmed to the actors as quickly as I was seized by Eternal Darkness, and that’s about the highest compliment I can pay. The vocal work is quite extensive, as there are upwards of two dozen characters when you account for the supporting cast and the Ancients themselves. For all that the herd of humanity pretends that they don’t exist, this criterion must acknowledge that the lines for the beings are chilling and representative of their characteristics. Building upon their performances in the cinematics, the spells are vocalized depending on the Ancient chosen, meaning every rune is chanted out individually in a properly arcane manner by the Ancient powering the spell.

Ambient effects deserve equal praise, though there’s a definite consensus around the console department that it’s time to dispense with the “stock” door opening, rocks sliding, walls crumbling effects. These complaints are minor issues of aesthetics when compared to the brilliantly jumpy ambiance created by crackling torches, occasional flashes of lightning or forlorn howls of wind. Each area is quickly and effectively given its own personality by the sounds within, be it tortured screams or just the creaky creepiness of an empty mansion.

Musical Score:  Quiet and atmospheric for the most part, the music in Eternal Darkness only barely counts as a score. Certain combat intensive scenes are highlighted with music, and most of the cutscenes have a subtle backdrop that ratchets the spooky factor up several degrees. While it’s surprising that more music isn’t used, the sparing times it is employed, it heightens the effects immensely simply because of the novelty.

Intelligence & Difficulty:  Suffice it to say that the majority of your foes will be zombies and that they’re easily dispatched, especially if you take the time to behead them all before dispatching them at your leisure. This is status quo, but Eternal Darkness throws a few twists into the works with zombies that can still attack you with spectral versions of their limbs, zombies that can regrow lost body parts and those that explode if you can’t cut them down quickly enough. Later enemies develop more advanced tactics that don’t center on walking mindlessly towards you, including the Horrors who can fling bolts towards your character and the Reapers who possess the ability to summon small creatures called trappers. Of particular note, these beasties can send you to another dimension where magic simply won’t work and force you to escape, so they’re a unique foe which must be avoided by moving quietly rather than brute force. Obviously, the next echelon up pits you against boss monsters, and while you won’t be tackling too many of these, especially early on, they require careful use of magic and tactics to defeat.

Overall:  If you have a GameCube or a Wii, you should own this game; it’s that simple. Eternal Darkness not only represents the first Nintendo-published title that’s mature, frightening and strictly for grown-ups, it also happens to shed some light on a genre that’s become a touch stale. No one’s yet tired of the great storytelling emerging from Resident Evil, Silent Hill and so forth, but Eternal Darkness’mechanics let this title tell its story even better than its peers. A game that plays you with its unique sanity effects, that forces you to adapt to over a dozen characters and that holds no punches when it comes to the horror of Lovecraftian agents plotting our demise, Eternal Darkness will be a significant milestone in gaming for years to come.

Screenshots:

There are plently of games which have been based on Fox animated shows. Futurama and The Simpsons each have their own games (Several in the case of the Simpsons). The Family Guy video game fits in about half way – It’s not as horrific as the worst of the simpsons games, but it’s nowhere near as good as the best, either.

Family Guy is a very funny game. Offensive humour and one liners are rife through the game. In fact, you could say that it’s like watching the entire series and distilling out all of the best jokes into one rapid-fire joke machine gun. There are brilliant scenes like where Stewie is in the hospital, and an announcement comes over the PA system in the background regarding a man in a red and yellow hawiian shirt in the ladies showers. Unfortunately, humour alone doesn’t make a video game. This point is made painfully clear when playing Family Guy, as you’ll see below.

There are three different game modes that make up Family Guy. First you start off as Stewie; the maniacal, world-domination-bent, british-accented baby of the family. Stewie is trying to defeat his evil arch-nemisis half-brother, Bertram. This game mode is a 3D platformer, so Stewie can do all the standard platformer things; including double-jumping, jump-gliding, and shooting enemies with his raygun. Unfortunately, the controls are quite slippery, and there are a number of occasions where you’ll climb your way to the top of some elaborate structure, only to slip and fall all the way to the bottom. Stewie’s main weapon, the raygun, is a little clumsy, with scenes where you do nothing but fire randomly and hope that the seemingly endless wave of enemies will be stopped. You can upgrade the raygun, but it doesn’t seem that it really does anything new once it’s upgraded. It just looks slightly different. In addition to the raygun, Stewie can use his Mind Control Ray to control adults. This comes in handy as there are some scenes where only an adult can open a door or, as is the case in a section of the hospital, die spectacularly on a laser grid so that Stewie can pass by safely. The best scene from Stewie is where he’s in the hospital and must battle a barrage of orderlies and nurses as they pour down the corridor, Space Invaders style. Complete with all the right sound effects, this scene is the most enjoyable of all.

Second there’s Brian, the talking dog. His scenes are based around an accusation of foul play on Brian’s part to do with Seabreeze, Carter Pewterschmidt’s winning race dog. Brian is thrown into prison, and must sneak out. This game mode is interesting, but can be incredibly frustrating. There are scenes where you have to sneak past policemen who are sitting at their desks by waiting until they put their head down and start working again. If you mis-time your dash past their desk, you’ll be caught as they sit up to have a swig of their coffee. A lot of scenes take a number of attempts as you figure out the timings for each section, and the slippery controls can make things difficult. Sometimes you’ll bump right into an enemy and they won’t spot you, other times you’ll be far enough away that you think you’re safe but all of a sudden they spot you and the level ends. The classic scene is when you don a clever disguise to make it past your enemies – a lampshade. And any time Brian is standing still he turns the light in the lampshade on or off, complete with a verbal “Click”.

Finally there’s Peter, who starrs in a side-scrolling beat-em-up for whatever reason. This one seems the most fun, but turns out to be the most frustrating and annoying of all the game modes. There are a number of attacks that Peter can employ, like kicks and punches, but different enemies need different attacks to take them down. For example, children are for some reason impervious to punches, whereas adults are completely unfazed by kicks. There’s also a ‘snack meter’, which is filled by picking up junk food goodies that enemies drop. When this meter is filled, Peter can perform ‘special moves’to take out a number of enemies at once. At times this game mode is simply overwhelming, with seemingly neverending supplies of bad guys rushing on screen to attack you. More slippery control problems, too many enemies and uninteresting gameplay makes this one a complete dud.

So, This game is really funny for the die hard Family Guy fan, but the gameplay is so incredibly frustrating that most of the time all the jokes do is take the edge off your frustration and stop you from throwing your PSP halfway across the room.

Screenshots:

“We’re extremely excited about this opportunity and what it means both for Bethesda and for Fallout fans around the world,” said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks. “Fallout is one of the great RPG franchises. Millions of Fallout games have been sold worldwide, and fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of a Fallout 3 title. Bethesda’s proven expertise in this genre, building on our experience and the tremendous success we have enjoyed with our cutting-edge Elder Scrolls series, will enable us to create the next chapter of Fallout that is worthy of the franchise.”

Originally released in 1997, Fallout places a player in the role of a Vault-dweller, who ventures from his secluded, underground survival Vault into a post-apocalyptic world of mutants, radiation, gangs and violence. The game has been widely hailed as one of the outstanding role-playing games and video games of all time with its unique gameplay, style, and setting.

Commenting on this development, Interplay Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Herve Caen said, “This is a good agreement for both companies and for gamers. Although several parties had a high level of interest in licensing Fallout, we are most impressed by Bethesda’s execution of role-playing titles. Bethesda is an ideal steward of the Fallout franchise.”

Fallout 3 will be developed by Bethesda along with the next chapter of The Elder Scrolls, both under the direction of Todd Howard, executive producer of The Elder Scrolls. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind won every national and international award of note in 2002, including Game of the Year and RPG of the Year, and is one of the best-selling games ever released on Xbox.

“We are overjoyed,” said Howard. “Fallout is one of my favorite games, and we plan to develop a visually stunning and original game for Fallout 3 with all the hallmarks of a great RPG: player choice, engaging story, and non-linearity.”

Future announcements about the release of Fallout 3 will be made as work on the title progresses.

Tactical Assault is also available for the Nintendo DS, and each platform has it’s own bonuses. The DS, for example, makes extensive use of the touch screen for sheild placement, weapons controls etc. The Sony PSP, on the other hand, has a widescreen format and slightly sexier graphics (bump mapping, anyone?).

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Tactical Assault is a bit of a misnomer – It’s not that tactical in the traditional sense (i.e not turn-based or isometric). It’s more of a hard-and-fast space sim. Based in the original movie era (what some would term the ‘golden age’of Star Trek), the game offers plenty of great starships to play with.

In the single player game, you are a young Starfleet captain fresh to his first command – a Federation frigate, destined for quiet border patrols and months on end of nebula scanning. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) the Klingons make a surprise attack on the Federation side of the Neutral zone and a major war begins.

You are thrown into brutal battles, rescues and the irritating tedium of trying to attack a cloaked enemy vessel. Battles are crisp and quick, with no boredom risks. But it’s not always the best tactic to run in with guns blazing – sometimes you can use diplomacy to talk your way out of hostile situations.

Each decision made in the single player campaign allows the storyline to branch slightly. A great example is when you are following a mystery ship across the galaxy. You’re hot on his tail, but then your science officer loses the warp trail. If you guess the right system to warp to next, you get an extra little tidbit about who’s behind a spate of surprise attacks. If you warp to the wrong system, you avoid getting your arse kicked by another mystery ship.

During your gameplay, you are rewarded with new commands as the game continues; from the Miranda-class light cruiser (think Khan’s ship in the second trek film), Constitution-class heavy cruiser (the Enterprise from Undiscovered Country) all the way through to the Excelsior-class (erm, think the Excelsior). Each ship has better weapons and sheild capabilities, although manouverability takes a bit of a slide when it comes to the larger vessels.

Once you’ve finished the Federation campaign, you can try your hand at being the bad guys (the Klingon empire), or you can take on your friends in wireless head-to-head skirmishes.

The Graphics of the game (and in this case I’m referring to the PSP version) are pretty stunning for a handheld gaming platform. At some points they’re a little jagged, but that’s purely a limitation of the PSP – no antialiasing to play with here. The initial cut scene is stunning, and brings goosebumps to the skin of die hard Trek fans.

Sounds are also pretty much spot-on. Rousing orchestral music keeps things feeling nicely trekky, and weapons sounds are so good you’d think you’re watching one of the original films.

All in all, I love this game. Fantastic graphics, awesome sound, great gameplay and excellent replayability.

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KEY FEATURES:

• Based on the films of The Original Series. Space is the final frontier, Kirk is in command, and the Klingons are the bad guys. Play through the era that started it all with this classic Star Trek game.
• Real-time combat involving multiple warships. The true test of a Captain is his ability to act under fire. Every second counts as you attempt to out-maneuver enemy warships and expose their weaknesses while protecting your own.
• Two full campaign modes. Become a hero of the Federation or a champion of the Klingon Empire in two full-length, independent campaigns.
• Branching missions with multiple outcomes. You are in command. As the Captain, it is up to you to make the best decisions for your crew. With a multitude of paths to choose from, you will decide the direction and ultimate outcome of your campaign.
• Head-to-Head wireless multiplayer. Test your skills and tactics against the most challenging opponents you’ll find…your friends.
• Five playable races. In Skirmish and Multiplayer modes, command ships from the Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Gorn, and Orion fleets. Each fleet has its own combat philosophy, strengths, and weaknesses. Tactics that lead to victory for one race will result in disaster for another.

DK2 is a real-time strategy game where the aim is to build a subterranean lair, fill it with all sorts of wicked creatures and traps, and then defend it against the goodly heroes who wish to see you destroyed. It is a lot of different things, but the biggest feature of this game is the Evil Humor of every aspect of the game.

While it is similar to the original game in many respects, there are a number of great improvements which make this game stand out. For starters, instead of a pixellated isometric overview of your dungeon, you are now presented with a polished 3D world. Each room in your dungeon is created with incredible detail, from rats and sculls in the Prison, to books and scrolls fluttering around in the Library. The best part about the overall graphics system is that it has been designed to avoid the dungeon seeming dark and colourless – brilliant lighting and shadowing effects make each room seem more alive and realistic.

As well as the graphics, the sound of the game is fantastic. Each room has it’s own ambient noise, and melds seamlessly into the background sound and music as your camera passes by. The music is phenomenal. Staying at a slow and quiet pitch for most of the game, it changes to a rousing, fast-paced track whenever battles are being fought. This gives the game a great feeling of urgency whenever your minions draw their swords.

Even the game narrator adds a level of humor and depth to the game. He pipes in occasionally in his wicked voice with a piece of news about what’s going on. Most of the time it’s to let you know that your dungeon has been breached, a creature is unhappy or that you’re running low on money or mana. But every now and then he’ll give you a special message, whether that be something random like “A neutral creature sends word that he can’t make it today”, something based on your actions “The very rock yawns in anticipation of your next fascinating move” (if you leave the game paused for several minutes”, or something based on the time of day “your nocturnal prowess has earned you a special gaming tip—GO TO BED!” (generally heard at about 3am)

The creatures themselves (your evil minions) are the stars of the game. Each of them looks different in their own way. The weak and stupid looking goblins, the frightening (and fearless) skeletons through to the nefarious vampires. And each creature has their own sounds, habits, likes and dislikes. Each of them will favor a certain fighting style, and will only enter your dungeon if their favorite room has been constructed.

The gameplay is quite simple. You start with a dungeon heart – the source of your terrible power. It holds your mana, and serves as, well, the heart of your dungeon. If it is destroyed, you lose the game and are “banished from this world forever”. Or at least until you start the next game.

From this starting point, you can send your imps (servant creatures born from magic), out to dig tunnels and mine gold. Once room-sized areas have been dug out, and providing you have enough money, you can place down different types of rooms. Some rooms are necessary, like a Lair (where creatures sleep) or a Hatchery (where creatures eat), while others are added as needed. The Library, for exaple, attracts Warlocks and other “thinking” creatures to your lair, while functioning as a research base where they can discover new spells for you to cast.

Once you have captured a portal, and have a few different rooms to attract creatures, they will start making their way into your dungeon. Once there, they’ll create themselves a bed in the lair and head off to do whatever it is they’re required to do. And if you want them to do something else, say if a Warlock was researching and you wanted him to build his skills in the Training Room instead, then it’s simply a matter of picking up the creature in question and dropping them where you really want them to be.

While your fighters are training, your thinkers researching and your imps scrabbling to reinfoce your walls and make your dungeons as safe as possible, you can utilize your builders (such as the Troll and Bile Demon) to build a feindish array of doors and traps. Doors range from a humble wooden door, through to a magic door capable of shooting fireballs at encroaching heroes. There’s even a door which looks like a section of rock wall – the Secret Door. On the trap side of things, there’s plenty of choices, whether that be to instill fear in your enemies, alert your creatures to an enemy incursion or to simply destroy the enemy creatures with fireballs, lightning bolts and so on.

Once all of your creatures are ready, you can make an attack on your enemy. There are a few ways of doing this. Picking up your creatures and dropping them near the enemy is pretty much the same as Dungeon Keeper 1, but to make it a touch more challenging, you now have to keep in mind that when you drop a creature they will be stunned and vulnerable for a short period. Because of this, you have to be mindful how close to the enemy you release your minions.

You could use the Call to Arms spell – a war banner which all your creatures will rush towards. But my personal favorite would have to be the ability to posess one of your creatures. Once posessed you can control your creature and wander around your dungeon. On top of that, you can use the ‘Group’mode to select creatures which you want to join you on a raid. Simply select group mode, spot a creature you wish to have join your party and click. Once you’ve got a decent team it’s a matter of walking over to the enemy dungeon and wiping the goodly smiles from their faces.

All in all, Dungeon Keeper 2 is a riot of a game. It is beautiful, it sounds fantastic, the gameplay is straightforward and enjoyable, and most of all it is wickedly funny.

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