Friday, June 26, 2009
Serious Sam HD XBLA
Serious Sam: The First Encounter HD is coming to the Xbox Live Arcade. Developer Croteam has worked up a new version of their CroTech Engine
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Burnout Paradise
If you've got a Burnout itch that's badly in need of scratching, we've got some good news. Though the North American and European release dates for Burnout Paradise are still over a month away, on December 13 those of you with a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360 will be afforded some temporary relief in the form of a demo that supports both solo and online play. We recently had an opportunity to spend several hours with the PS3 version of said demo, and we're pleased to report that it bodes well for the finished game.
The demo gets off the start line with a brief intro movie detailing some of the different areas and neighborhoods that make up Paradise City. Only three areas are available in the demo version: Motor City, Ocean View, and Big Surf Beach. Essentially you only get to drive on and around the city's eastern coastline, and while there's plenty of gameplay to be found there, we'd estimate that the demo area accounts for less than 10 percent of the map that you'll be able to explore early next year.
Your first car in Burnout Paradise is a wreck long before you get anywhere near it.
As you take the controls of your first car in Burnout Paradise--an old, beat-up "Hunter Cavalry" muscle car--you'll learn that in Paradise City you get your cars from the junkyard rather than from a showroom. That's because you'll have to "takedown" (or wreck) cars that you see on the street before you can drive them yourself. Damage doesn't appear to have any impact on a vehicle's performance in Burnout Paradise, but nobody likes to be seen driving around in a wreck, so your first job is to drive to the local auto-repair shop for a makeover. You won't need to stop or even slow down when you reach the shop; the business establishments that you interact with in Burnout Paradise take the words "drive thru" to a whole new level, making visits viable even in the middle of a race.
After getting your car fixed up you'll be encouraged to look around for other drive-through points of interest so that they can be automatically added to your map for future reference. The most useful of these are gas stations, which completely replenish your boost meter. There's also at least one paint shop in the demo area, which will randomly assign a new paint job to your ride every time you visit. Other points of interest that'll show up on your map after you've found them include the start points for races and other events. Most of those in the demo area are locked, unfortunately, but if you check out enough intersections and slow down at enough traffic lights you'll find that a race, a stunt run, and a "burning route" are available for solo play.
You can change the color of your ride simply by driving through a paint shop.
Races in Burnout Paradise play out in much the same way that they always have, save for the fact that you have a lot more freedom to choose your own route to the finish. You'll be encouraged to "takedown" opponents or drive through oncoming traffic at every opportunity to refill your boost meter, and shortcuts hidden behind destructible fences with conspicuous yellow signs are all over the place. Given the speeds you're driving at in Burnout Paradise (even in the demo's relatively slow car), it's not always easy to check the map for the shortest route to the finish, so EA Criterion has been kind enough to include a number of other visual and audible cues. There's a compass at the top of the screen that shows you, as the crow flies, which direction your objective is in, and it's augmented by a small audio alert that sounds if you start heading completely the wrong way. Street signs also pop up on the screen to let you know where you are and, when appropriate, smaller flashing street signs will appear to the left and/or right of it (think of them as turning signals) to let you know what options you have coming up.
Burning routes are a lot like races, except that you're against the clock rather than any number of fiercely competitive opponents. Interestingly, Burnout Paradise will feature a different burning route for each of the 75 vehicles that you can unlock, and although there's no reward for beating the burning route in the demo, we're told that in the finished game it'll be the only way to unlock souped-up versions of cars that you already own.
Stunt runs are quite unlike anything that has appeared in a Burnout game previously, and would perhaps best be compared to the trick score challenges found in skateboarding and snowboarding games. In the demo you'll be tasked with scoring 50,000 points in just two minutes, which was a daunting prospect for us initially. Jumps, spins, and barrel rolls are the stunts that will net you big points on your run, while bonus multipliers can be earned for getting big air and crashing through billboards. Unsurprisingly, lengthy stunt combos are the key to success, and individual tricks are quite easily strung together using low-scoring boosts and drifts.
Although there are only three solo events unlocked in the demo version of Burnout Paradise, there are plenty of other things for you to do without taking the game online. There are 15 billboards to crash through, some of which aren't easy to reach. There are six "super jumps'" to complete using ramps that are marked with flashing lights. And there are no fewer than 34 shortcut fences to crash through. All of these numbers are tracked in Burnout Paradise, along with the stuff detailing your longest drift, your biggest jump, and your best stunt combo that you'd expect.
Crashes and collisions look to be as spectacular as ever.
When you're ready to take the Burnout Paradise demo online you'll find that doing so is as easy as pulling your car over, tapping right on the D pad to pull up an online menu, and then deciding whether you want a public or a friends-only environment. The only online mode available in the demo is "Freeburn Online," which affords you and up to three other drivers the freedom to do whatever you please, while constantly tracking and comparing achievements such as those mentioned above. If you're hosting the session you'll also have the option to initiate challenges for your group, which are cooperative rather than competitive. It's conceivable that the challenges differ depending on how many players there are in the session. Only two of us were playing on this occasion, and we had three quite different challenges to choose from.
The "Wave Jumping" challenge simply tasks you with jumping over each other using ramps located on the beach. The "Smash and Grab" challenge requires you to smash through six billboards. And to beat the "Drift and Near Miss" challenge, the pair of you will need to accrue a total of 40 near misses and 4000 drifting yards. Although the challenges are cooperative, it's worth noting that the latter two track individual scores as well as your total, so there will still be plenty of opportunities for you to prove that you're better than whomever you're playing with.
Burnout Paradise's online modes will encourage cooperative as well as competitive play.
Last but not least, we should mention that both versions of the Burnout Paradise demo support the game's "mugshots" feature, so if you and your friends have cameras attached to your consoles, you'll get to see photos of anyone you take down that are snapped immediately after they crash. "Smugshots" (victory shots of yourself that will automatically be sent to opponents you've bested) aren't supported in the demo, but in the finished game you'll get to send them out and receive them regardless of whether or not you and your friends are online at the same time. For example, you might log on and receive a smugshot from a friend of yours who beat one of your high scores the previous night while you were sleeping. We should also mention that while the demo version of Burnout Paradise supports only four players online, that number will be doubled in the finished game.
Burnout Paradise is currently scheduled for release in North America on January 22 and in Europe on January 25. Expect more information on this one next week.
Reference : http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/driving/burnout5/news.html?sid=6183701&om_act=convert&om_clk=multimodule&tag=multimodule%3Bpreviews%3Bstory%3B10&page=2
The demo gets off the start line with a brief intro movie detailing some of the different areas and neighborhoods that make up Paradise City. Only three areas are available in the demo version: Motor City, Ocean View, and Big Surf Beach. Essentially you only get to drive on and around the city's eastern coastline, and while there's plenty of gameplay to be found there, we'd estimate that the demo area accounts for less than 10 percent of the map that you'll be able to explore early next year.
Your first car in Burnout Paradise is a wreck long before you get anywhere near it.
As you take the controls of your first car in Burnout Paradise--an old, beat-up "Hunter Cavalry" muscle car--you'll learn that in Paradise City you get your cars from the junkyard rather than from a showroom. That's because you'll have to "takedown" (or wreck) cars that you see on the street before you can drive them yourself. Damage doesn't appear to have any impact on a vehicle's performance in Burnout Paradise, but nobody likes to be seen driving around in a wreck, so your first job is to drive to the local auto-repair shop for a makeover. You won't need to stop or even slow down when you reach the shop; the business establishments that you interact with in Burnout Paradise take the words "drive thru" to a whole new level, making visits viable even in the middle of a race.
After getting your car fixed up you'll be encouraged to look around for other drive-through points of interest so that they can be automatically added to your map for future reference. The most useful of these are gas stations, which completely replenish your boost meter. There's also at least one paint shop in the demo area, which will randomly assign a new paint job to your ride every time you visit. Other points of interest that'll show up on your map after you've found them include the start points for races and other events. Most of those in the demo area are locked, unfortunately, but if you check out enough intersections and slow down at enough traffic lights you'll find that a race, a stunt run, and a "burning route" are available for solo play.
You can change the color of your ride simply by driving through a paint shop.
Races in Burnout Paradise play out in much the same way that they always have, save for the fact that you have a lot more freedom to choose your own route to the finish. You'll be encouraged to "takedown" opponents or drive through oncoming traffic at every opportunity to refill your boost meter, and shortcuts hidden behind destructible fences with conspicuous yellow signs are all over the place. Given the speeds you're driving at in Burnout Paradise (even in the demo's relatively slow car), it's not always easy to check the map for the shortest route to the finish, so EA Criterion has been kind enough to include a number of other visual and audible cues. There's a compass at the top of the screen that shows you, as the crow flies, which direction your objective is in, and it's augmented by a small audio alert that sounds if you start heading completely the wrong way. Street signs also pop up on the screen to let you know where you are and, when appropriate, smaller flashing street signs will appear to the left and/or right of it (think of them as turning signals) to let you know what options you have coming up.
Burning routes are a lot like races, except that you're against the clock rather than any number of fiercely competitive opponents. Interestingly, Burnout Paradise will feature a different burning route for each of the 75 vehicles that you can unlock, and although there's no reward for beating the burning route in the demo, we're told that in the finished game it'll be the only way to unlock souped-up versions of cars that you already own.
Stunt runs are quite unlike anything that has appeared in a Burnout game previously, and would perhaps best be compared to the trick score challenges found in skateboarding and snowboarding games. In the demo you'll be tasked with scoring 50,000 points in just two minutes, which was a daunting prospect for us initially. Jumps, spins, and barrel rolls are the stunts that will net you big points on your run, while bonus multipliers can be earned for getting big air and crashing through billboards. Unsurprisingly, lengthy stunt combos are the key to success, and individual tricks are quite easily strung together using low-scoring boosts and drifts.
Although there are only three solo events unlocked in the demo version of Burnout Paradise, there are plenty of other things for you to do without taking the game online. There are 15 billboards to crash through, some of which aren't easy to reach. There are six "super jumps'" to complete using ramps that are marked with flashing lights. And there are no fewer than 34 shortcut fences to crash through. All of these numbers are tracked in Burnout Paradise, along with the stuff detailing your longest drift, your biggest jump, and your best stunt combo that you'd expect.
Crashes and collisions look to be as spectacular as ever.
When you're ready to take the Burnout Paradise demo online you'll find that doing so is as easy as pulling your car over, tapping right on the D pad to pull up an online menu, and then deciding whether you want a public or a friends-only environment. The only online mode available in the demo is "Freeburn Online," which affords you and up to three other drivers the freedom to do whatever you please, while constantly tracking and comparing achievements such as those mentioned above. If you're hosting the session you'll also have the option to initiate challenges for your group, which are cooperative rather than competitive. It's conceivable that the challenges differ depending on how many players there are in the session. Only two of us were playing on this occasion, and we had three quite different challenges to choose from.
The "Wave Jumping" challenge simply tasks you with jumping over each other using ramps located on the beach. The "Smash and Grab" challenge requires you to smash through six billboards. And to beat the "Drift and Near Miss" challenge, the pair of you will need to accrue a total of 40 near misses and 4000 drifting yards. Although the challenges are cooperative, it's worth noting that the latter two track individual scores as well as your total, so there will still be plenty of opportunities for you to prove that you're better than whomever you're playing with.
Burnout Paradise's online modes will encourage cooperative as well as competitive play.
Last but not least, we should mention that both versions of the Burnout Paradise demo support the game's "mugshots" feature, so if you and your friends have cameras attached to your consoles, you'll get to see photos of anyone you take down that are snapped immediately after they crash. "Smugshots" (victory shots of yourself that will automatically be sent to opponents you've bested) aren't supported in the demo, but in the finished game you'll get to send them out and receive them regardless of whether or not you and your friends are online at the same time. For example, you might log on and receive a smugshot from a friend of yours who beat one of your high scores the previous night while you were sleeping. We should also mention that while the demo version of Burnout Paradise supports only four players online, that number will be doubled in the finished game.
Burnout Paradise is currently scheduled for release in North America on January 22 and in Europe on January 25. Expect more information on this one next week.
Reference : http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/driving/burnout5/news.html?sid=6183701&om_act=convert&om_clk=multimodule&tag=multimodule%3Bpreviews%3Bstory%3B10&page=2
NFL Tour
Why exactly EA took the NFL Street series out behind the shed only to replace it with the upcoming NFL Tour is anybody's guess. After all, as arcade football games go, the Street series had its charms (as well as its flaws). Regardless, the folks at EA Sports Big must have felt as if a change was needed for their fast and furious seven-on-seven series, given that NFL Tour is set to emerge early next year on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. High-definition visuals and a new presentation style make this very much arcade football circa 2007, but the gameplay is old-school...straight outta the Street, so to speak.
With Ronnie Brown conveniently out of the picture, the Dolphins' run at perfection of another kind is still intact.
What if you had a shot to make it? To hook up with your favorite NFL team, and go on tour with them? To play against the league's best and prove your skills on the field of play? To earn a shot at a real NFL contract? No, this isn't some Disneyfied Mark Wahlberg movie; it's the fun, if sort of silly, premise to NFL Tour's core single-player mode. Here, you create a player from scratch and go on tour with your favorite team, playing seven-on-seven ball against every team in the NFL on your quest to become the best of the bunch.
Creating your player is straightforward in NFL Tour. You simply choose a head and body style, as well as some basic gear for him to wear, and then it's off to pick your assignment on the field. You can play almost any position on the field: on offense, quarterback, running back, and wide receiver; on defense, defensive end, tackle, linebacker, cornerback, and strong safety. Each of these positions automatically assigns points to various attributes such as speed, catching, and so forth. Offense and defense have their own unique attributes (for example, passing on offense, or tackling on defense), and you'll have eight points to spend as you see fit on any of these attributes before you set out.
With your attributes set, it's time to take off and begin playing your way through the tour. Your first stop will be in the AFC West division, home to such "powerhouses" as the Oakland Raiders and, well, every other team in the AFC West. We dove right into the tour with our created player--the awesomely hirsute and ponytailed quarterback Doug Bonafide--on the Indianapolis Colts, and began to leave a path of Raiders, Chiefs, Broncos, and Chargers in our wake. If you've been spending most of your football-gaming time with Madden, getting into the NFL Tour swing of things will take you about, oh, two plays. First there's those simplified playbooks to adjust to, reminiscent of NFL Street's pared-down lists. On offense, you've got short and long pass, and run plays; on defense, it's man and zone coverage, and then blitz plays.
Considering that our created player was a quarterback, the other adjustment we had to make was to the "so old it's new" scrolling-style passing found in Tour. Instead of passing to receivers using assigned buttons, you have one highlighted receiver that you can hit with the A button. To move to the next receiver in your progression, you press the B button, then tap the A button to toss the ball to him.
With the rock in the hands of your ball carrier, you can check out the reversal system. On offense, you can elude tackles or perform wall moves with the B button, or shed tackles by pressing the A button at the right time; with correct timing, you can pull this move off multiple times to gain a few extra yards, or even break free of defenders altogether. For other tackles, you can get into button-mashing battles in which you're supposed to press the A button repeatedly; press it fast enough and you can put a defender on his back. Similarly, on defense you can attempt to reverse a player's dodge by pressing the X button at the correct time. Pull it off successfully and you'll be able to drag the player down--assuming he doesn't get a shot at reversing the reversal.
Although these reversals and button battles can result in big breakouts, the animations involved in these reversals can often drop you back a few yards from the point of contact, which means that you'll have to make up that yardage even if you break free from the original tackle. In fact, throughout there seems to be work left to be done on the gameplay. For example, all too often on the option play we were able to interrupt the toss from the QB and the HB, but we were rarely able to scramble back with a defender quickly enough to pick up the ball and get the turnover. Passes weren't as lofty as in the previous build of the game we played, but it sure would have been great to see streaking bullet passes every once in a while, especially when we really needed to nail a receiver in the numbers.
All of the games in Tour mode seem to go quickly, but the rules for the different games differ depending on the division you're playing. For example, in the first group you're playing two-minute halves, with the highest score winning the game. In the next set of games, the first team to score 24 points is declared the winner. There are other game types to be found in NFL Tour: Big D, where you earn points for big defensive plays, and in which offense takes points from the opposition; as well as Make It Take It, where if you score you keep the ball; and others. There are also custom rule sets you can configure however you like.
His teammates would never tell him so, but Frank Gore's football sense just isn't what it used to be.
Finally, let's talk about the voice-over work. ESPN's Trey Wingo is all over this game, both in movies introducing NFL Tour mode and in play-by-play duties during games. Wingo keeps the banter light and (occasionally) funny in between plays; his delivery is fine, but many of his scripted lines aren't. Sure, one joke about the repetitive nature of sports-game commentary is clever. More than that and the joke begins to run a bit thin. Nevertheless, the actual sounds of football are pretty good, from the big bash of the tackles to the explosive fanfare when touchdowns are scored.
Once you tear through the NFL Tour mode, you can spend some time with the handful of minigames (Smash and Dash, which is like the old playground game "kill the guy with the ball"; and Red Zone Rush, where you try to score on your opponent one-on-one and then prevent him from doing so). However, you'll likely spend the rest of your time with the game playing via Xbox Live against real-life opponents. Due for release in January, NFL Tour will be aiming to satisfy football fans looking to scratch their post-08, pre-09 Madden itch. We'll be bringing you a full review of the game once it reaches store shelves.
Reference : http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/nfltour/news.html?sid=6183707&om_act=convert&om_clk=multimodule&tag=multimodule;previews;story;9
With Ronnie Brown conveniently out of the picture, the Dolphins' run at perfection of another kind is still intact.
What if you had a shot to make it? To hook up with your favorite NFL team, and go on tour with them? To play against the league's best and prove your skills on the field of play? To earn a shot at a real NFL contract? No, this isn't some Disneyfied Mark Wahlberg movie; it's the fun, if sort of silly, premise to NFL Tour's core single-player mode. Here, you create a player from scratch and go on tour with your favorite team, playing seven-on-seven ball against every team in the NFL on your quest to become the best of the bunch.
Creating your player is straightforward in NFL Tour. You simply choose a head and body style, as well as some basic gear for him to wear, and then it's off to pick your assignment on the field. You can play almost any position on the field: on offense, quarterback, running back, and wide receiver; on defense, defensive end, tackle, linebacker, cornerback, and strong safety. Each of these positions automatically assigns points to various attributes such as speed, catching, and so forth. Offense and defense have their own unique attributes (for example, passing on offense, or tackling on defense), and you'll have eight points to spend as you see fit on any of these attributes before you set out.
With your attributes set, it's time to take off and begin playing your way through the tour. Your first stop will be in the AFC West division, home to such "powerhouses" as the Oakland Raiders and, well, every other team in the AFC West. We dove right into the tour with our created player--the awesomely hirsute and ponytailed quarterback Doug Bonafide--on the Indianapolis Colts, and began to leave a path of Raiders, Chiefs, Broncos, and Chargers in our wake. If you've been spending most of your football-gaming time with Madden, getting into the NFL Tour swing of things will take you about, oh, two plays. First there's those simplified playbooks to adjust to, reminiscent of NFL Street's pared-down lists. On offense, you've got short and long pass, and run plays; on defense, it's man and zone coverage, and then blitz plays.
Considering that our created player was a quarterback, the other adjustment we had to make was to the "so old it's new" scrolling-style passing found in Tour. Instead of passing to receivers using assigned buttons, you have one highlighted receiver that you can hit with the A button. To move to the next receiver in your progression, you press the B button, then tap the A button to toss the ball to him.
With the rock in the hands of your ball carrier, you can check out the reversal system. On offense, you can elude tackles or perform wall moves with the B button, or shed tackles by pressing the A button at the right time; with correct timing, you can pull this move off multiple times to gain a few extra yards, or even break free of defenders altogether. For other tackles, you can get into button-mashing battles in which you're supposed to press the A button repeatedly; press it fast enough and you can put a defender on his back. Similarly, on defense you can attempt to reverse a player's dodge by pressing the X button at the correct time. Pull it off successfully and you'll be able to drag the player down--assuming he doesn't get a shot at reversing the reversal.
Although these reversals and button battles can result in big breakouts, the animations involved in these reversals can often drop you back a few yards from the point of contact, which means that you'll have to make up that yardage even if you break free from the original tackle. In fact, throughout there seems to be work left to be done on the gameplay. For example, all too often on the option play we were able to interrupt the toss from the QB and the HB, but we were rarely able to scramble back with a defender quickly enough to pick up the ball and get the turnover. Passes weren't as lofty as in the previous build of the game we played, but it sure would have been great to see streaking bullet passes every once in a while, especially when we really needed to nail a receiver in the numbers.
All of the games in Tour mode seem to go quickly, but the rules for the different games differ depending on the division you're playing. For example, in the first group you're playing two-minute halves, with the highest score winning the game. In the next set of games, the first team to score 24 points is declared the winner. There are other game types to be found in NFL Tour: Big D, where you earn points for big defensive plays, and in which offense takes points from the opposition; as well as Make It Take It, where if you score you keep the ball; and others. There are also custom rule sets you can configure however you like.
His teammates would never tell him so, but Frank Gore's football sense just isn't what it used to be.
Finally, let's talk about the voice-over work. ESPN's Trey Wingo is all over this game, both in movies introducing NFL Tour mode and in play-by-play duties during games. Wingo keeps the banter light and (occasionally) funny in between plays; his delivery is fine, but many of his scripted lines aren't. Sure, one joke about the repetitive nature of sports-game commentary is clever. More than that and the joke begins to run a bit thin. Nevertheless, the actual sounds of football are pretty good, from the big bash of the tackles to the explosive fanfare when touchdowns are scored.
Once you tear through the NFL Tour mode, you can spend some time with the handful of minigames (Smash and Dash, which is like the old playground game "kill the guy with the ball"; and Red Zone Rush, where you try to score on your opponent one-on-one and then prevent him from doing so). However, you'll likely spend the rest of your time with the game playing via Xbox Live against real-life opponents. Due for release in January, NFL Tour will be aiming to satisfy football fans looking to scratch their post-08, pre-09 Madden itch. We'll be bringing you a full review of the game once it reaches store shelves.
Reference : http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/nfltour/news.html?sid=6183707&om_act=convert&om_clk=multimodule&tag=multimodule;previews;story;9
NCAA March Madness 08
After a prolific freshman season at Texas, Kevin Durant is getting acclimated to the level of competition in the NBA. Judging from Durant's 20 points per game average through the first 18 games, he isn't having problems adjusting. We had a chance to catch up with KD after practice and talk to him about his work on March Madness 08, his transition to the pros, and the mark he plans to leave on the sport.
GameSpot: How did you feel when you heard you were going to be on the cover of March Madness 08?
Kevin Durant: I was ecstatic, man. I've been playing this game for a long, long time and just to be in a great group of guys to be on the cover of the game was a blessing for me. And it's going to be crazy seeing myself in the stores, on the shelves, with my face on the game.
Kevin Durant's teammates will miss him during their 2007/08 campaign.
GS: How was your experience with EA's motion capture for the game?
KD: It was a great experience. I mean, it's something that I had seen on TV before, growing up, and that's something that I always wanted to do--making moves and seeing it being incorporated into the game right in front of your face is great. It was fun for the guys that were there with me and it's something that I would like to do again. It was a very fun experience for myself.
GS: As far as gaming is concerned, do you prefer the college game a little bit more than the NBA?
KD: Oh, no, I think it's all the same to me, to be honest with you. But both games are very fun and intense. I get very into the games when I'm playing, especially when I'm playing against my family members or my friends. So I try to play each game evenly, you know what I mean? Once March Madness comes out, I'll play that for about a week straight then go to NBA Live and kind of switch it up like that.
GS: Oh, that's cool. Do you guys get a chance to play a lot of games when you're not on the court?
KD: Yeah, I try. We have a lot of free time to ourselves. So after practice or workouts or things like that I try to get some time in on the game, try to hone my skills a little bit.
GS: So who's the biggest gamer in the Sonics locker room?
KD: Really, you don't really hear too many people talking about the game. So I think myself, I'm a big gamer. I like to play a lot. That's what I do in my free time just to get away from everything, just go out and play some games.
GS: Just a little unwind, huh?
KD: Yes, sir.
GS: Recently EA ranked you as the number two-ranked college basketball player of all time. What do you think about that rating?
KD: I think it's a little too high, to be honest with you. I mean, there were some great college players. But it's a blessing to be in this company with guys like Michael Jordan, Erving Johnson, Clyde, and Larry Bird and [guys] like that. But it will be cool just to play as myself on a college game as well. It's a blessing for me.
GS: Coming into this, your rookie season, what was going on in your head just prior to your first game? Did you feel you shouldn't push the issue too much or maybe you didn't want to try to force shots?
KD: I just wanted to be aggressive and try to get that win the first game. And unfortunately we didn't come out with the win but I think we played very well. After the fourth quarter--we kind of gave up in the fourth, kind of put our guard down and didn't put pressure on Denver in the fourth. But I think we're capitalizing on that and we're getting better.
GS: So far, what's the biggest adjustment you've had to make to the NBA, if anything?
KD: The one biggest thing is the travel and how we travel almost every day and then how we play games one day and practice that next morning and things like that. The NBA schedule is just so different from a college schedule. Right now, I've already played over half of a college season so far and this is only the first month. And I think in about two more weeks, I would have played a whole college season. So you just got to get used to that. And once you get used to that I think everything is like smooth sailing from there on in.
GS: Do you think fatigue is going to be a factor, as it is for a lot of rookies, as the season progresses?
KD: I wouldn't say that. I just got to keep eating right and keep working out and keep getting better. I think that's all that matters is that you've just got to tell yourself that you're going to continue to get better, continue to grow as a team and as a player.
GS: What has it been like adjusting to the two-guard position?
KD: That's something new for me. I've never played this position before. I just got to learn how to defend two-guards in this league and learn how to get the shot off against smaller, quicker, and stronger guys. But it's been fun. I'm playing against the best players night in and night out, guarding the best players night in and night out. And that's only going to make me better. I think that it's an adjustment for me but I'm getting used to it and, with the help of my coaches and my teammates, I'm getting better.
Durant is the #2 all-time player in March Madness 08, but feels he should take a backseat to guys like Magic in real life.
GS: Do you feel that that's more of a natural position for you or would you prefer to move back to, like, a three or a four?
KD: I never played this position before but I'm willing to give it a try. I'm just willing to go out there and help my team out as much as possible. The majority of my basketball career, from being young to all the way to college, I've played mainly a three and a four. This is a big change for me coming into the league to start off playing the two. It's something I've got to get used to and I've just got to keep getting better.
GS: You recently said that you expected to play this well in the NBA. Were you surprised that the transition from the college game to the pros was this smooth?
KD: Oh, I don't think it's gone as smoothly as I would want it to be. But I'm still learning. I'm still getting used to this game. It's been very fun. Each game has been very fun just getting to play against some of the players that I looked up to coming up. I've just got to keep getting used to the game and keep having fun and everything's going to be OK.
As another young star on the rise in the NBA, Durant looks to superstars like Carmelo Anthony for advice.
GS: Well speaking of players that you looked up to, has there been anyone in the NBA that you went to for advice or anybody that you model your game after?
KD: I try to talk to the guys that have been in the league for a while and are veterans on their teams... Kurt Thomas, Wally Szczerbiak. They tell me things I need to do to become a better player. I try to talk to LeBron and Dwight Howard and guys like that sometimes, and Carmelo. They kind of show me my way being a rookie in this league. And guys like that are a big help for me because they've been through it. They were starting in the same situation coming in there as teenagers coming into this league. So guys like that can help me out a lot.
GS: And as for players you modeled your game after?
KD: I looked up to a lot of players. I looked up to Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis, guys like that--versatile guys that can do just about everything on the floor. I just tried to watch those guys each and every night when I had the chance, to just try to take little bits and pieces from each one of them and try to incorporate them to mine.
GS: I noticed you mentioned Rashard Lewis. Rashard Lewis also kind of came into the NBA also with a slightly smaller build. Do you kind of see that same transition to more of a three or four as you progress in your career?
KD: I mean, whatever my team needs me to do I'm willing to go out there and do. I try to see myself as more than just a position but as a player, a guy that can do just about everything on the floor. I mean, that's why I'm trying to work hard each and every day on my game and trying to expand my game as much as possible. So whenever my coach needs me to play the three, four, or five [for a couple possessions], I can do it.
GS: What was it like to play with Tayshaun Prince before the season? Did he have any advice for you?
KD: Everybody's been telling me the same thing, "Just go out there and have fun and just play the game you've been playing your whole life." I mean, I know it's a bigger stage. They told me that it's a bigger stage. But just go out there and have fun and everything's going to be all right.
GS: After such a special season at Texas, what's it been like for you personally to play on a team that's struggling to win right now?
KD: I mean, that's tough. With the exception of only a couple of games, we've been in every game and we just got to learn how to pull it out at the end. It's still early on in the season and we've just got to build up some momentum and get some of these games.
GS: How is the chemistry of a team like this in comparison to your team at Texas?
KD: I think the chemistry is there in the locker room. We all enjoy being around each other. We all help each other out a lot. And we're new. I mean, everybody here is new basically. And we just got to get used to each other and I think we're still trying to figure that out. We've only been together for about a month and a half now. We just got to get used to that. In college you had almost a whole month and a half to practice with each other. Here, we only had like two weeks. I think that's a bigger difference. We went from training camps straight to games within a two-week span. So we just got to get used to playing with each other and we'll be OK.
GS: What's your reaction to the rumors that the Sonics my relocate to Oklahoma City?
KD: We're letting the owners and the proper authorities deal with that. We're trying not to get into that. We're just going out there and trying to play our hardest each and every night.
GS: Where do you see your game in five years?
KD: Right now, I'm not trying to think about how I'm going to be in four or five years. Hopefully, I'll be an OK player. Right now I'm just trying to get better each and every day and just take it a day at a time and take it a game at a time. Hopefully down the line everything will pan out the way I want it to.
GS: Has there been any player that you saw on TV in NBA games but surprised you when you had to compete against him face-to-face?
KD: I knew coming into the league that everybody would be good. So I really didn't kind of say, "That player is not good," but once I came to the league, I mean, everybody is good. Everybody is a threat on the floor. You just got play everybody as if they were the best player on the floor.
GS: All right. A tough question here...how do you think the Sonics are going to finish this year?
KD: Wow. I can't tell you. We're just getting better. That's all I can say. We're going to take it a game at a time and hopefully we'll build up some momentum and get some wins at home and on the road and hopefully make it to the playoffs. That's the ultimate goal right now, so far.
Squatch the Sasquatch vs. Bevo the Longhorn. You make the call.
GS: What kind of legacy do you want to leave on the sport of basketball? As far as this season goes, is your aspiration to be Rookie of the Year?
KD: I mean, I think coming into the NBA I think that's everybody's goal is to be mentioned as one of the greatest players to play the game. But right now I'm just trying to portray to the fans that I'm going to work hard and that I'm going to do what I need to do to help the team out. I think that if I show them that, they'll be behind us 110 percent. That's all I can give them. [As far as Rookie of the Year,] I'm not really into that as much. I'm just trying to go out there and help my team and try to help build this franchise into a playoff kind of a team each and every year. I think that's the goal we want, to get to being a threat in the Western Conference each year.
-GameSpot
GameSpot: How did you feel when you heard you were going to be on the cover of March Madness 08?
Kevin Durant: I was ecstatic, man. I've been playing this game for a long, long time and just to be in a great group of guys to be on the cover of the game was a blessing for me. And it's going to be crazy seeing myself in the stores, on the shelves, with my face on the game.
Kevin Durant's teammates will miss him during their 2007/08 campaign.
GS: How was your experience with EA's motion capture for the game?
KD: It was a great experience. I mean, it's something that I had seen on TV before, growing up, and that's something that I always wanted to do--making moves and seeing it being incorporated into the game right in front of your face is great. It was fun for the guys that were there with me and it's something that I would like to do again. It was a very fun experience for myself.
GS: As far as gaming is concerned, do you prefer the college game a little bit more than the NBA?
KD: Oh, no, I think it's all the same to me, to be honest with you. But both games are very fun and intense. I get very into the games when I'm playing, especially when I'm playing against my family members or my friends. So I try to play each game evenly, you know what I mean? Once March Madness comes out, I'll play that for about a week straight then go to NBA Live and kind of switch it up like that.
GS: Oh, that's cool. Do you guys get a chance to play a lot of games when you're not on the court?
KD: Yeah, I try. We have a lot of free time to ourselves. So after practice or workouts or things like that I try to get some time in on the game, try to hone my skills a little bit.
GS: So who's the biggest gamer in the Sonics locker room?
KD: Really, you don't really hear too many people talking about the game. So I think myself, I'm a big gamer. I like to play a lot. That's what I do in my free time just to get away from everything, just go out and play some games.
GS: Just a little unwind, huh?
KD: Yes, sir.
GS: Recently EA ranked you as the number two-ranked college basketball player of all time. What do you think about that rating?
KD: I think it's a little too high, to be honest with you. I mean, there were some great college players. But it's a blessing to be in this company with guys like Michael Jordan, Erving Johnson, Clyde, and Larry Bird and [guys] like that. But it will be cool just to play as myself on a college game as well. It's a blessing for me.
GS: Coming into this, your rookie season, what was going on in your head just prior to your first game? Did you feel you shouldn't push the issue too much or maybe you didn't want to try to force shots?
KD: I just wanted to be aggressive and try to get that win the first game. And unfortunately we didn't come out with the win but I think we played very well. After the fourth quarter--we kind of gave up in the fourth, kind of put our guard down and didn't put pressure on Denver in the fourth. But I think we're capitalizing on that and we're getting better.
GS: So far, what's the biggest adjustment you've had to make to the NBA, if anything?
KD: The one biggest thing is the travel and how we travel almost every day and then how we play games one day and practice that next morning and things like that. The NBA schedule is just so different from a college schedule. Right now, I've already played over half of a college season so far and this is only the first month. And I think in about two more weeks, I would have played a whole college season. So you just got to get used to that. And once you get used to that I think everything is like smooth sailing from there on in.
GS: Do you think fatigue is going to be a factor, as it is for a lot of rookies, as the season progresses?
KD: I wouldn't say that. I just got to keep eating right and keep working out and keep getting better. I think that's all that matters is that you've just got to tell yourself that you're going to continue to get better, continue to grow as a team and as a player.
GS: What has it been like adjusting to the two-guard position?
KD: That's something new for me. I've never played this position before. I just got to learn how to defend two-guards in this league and learn how to get the shot off against smaller, quicker, and stronger guys. But it's been fun. I'm playing against the best players night in and night out, guarding the best players night in and night out. And that's only going to make me better. I think that it's an adjustment for me but I'm getting used to it and, with the help of my coaches and my teammates, I'm getting better.
Durant is the #2 all-time player in March Madness 08, but feels he should take a backseat to guys like Magic in real life.
GS: Do you feel that that's more of a natural position for you or would you prefer to move back to, like, a three or a four?
KD: I never played this position before but I'm willing to give it a try. I'm just willing to go out there and help my team out as much as possible. The majority of my basketball career, from being young to all the way to college, I've played mainly a three and a four. This is a big change for me coming into the league to start off playing the two. It's something I've got to get used to and I've just got to keep getting better.
GS: You recently said that you expected to play this well in the NBA. Were you surprised that the transition from the college game to the pros was this smooth?
KD: Oh, I don't think it's gone as smoothly as I would want it to be. But I'm still learning. I'm still getting used to this game. It's been very fun. Each game has been very fun just getting to play against some of the players that I looked up to coming up. I've just got to keep getting used to the game and keep having fun and everything's going to be OK.
As another young star on the rise in the NBA, Durant looks to superstars like Carmelo Anthony for advice.
GS: Well speaking of players that you looked up to, has there been anyone in the NBA that you went to for advice or anybody that you model your game after?
KD: I try to talk to the guys that have been in the league for a while and are veterans on their teams... Kurt Thomas, Wally Szczerbiak. They tell me things I need to do to become a better player. I try to talk to LeBron and Dwight Howard and guys like that sometimes, and Carmelo. They kind of show me my way being a rookie in this league. And guys like that are a big help for me because they've been through it. They were starting in the same situation coming in there as teenagers coming into this league. So guys like that can help me out a lot.
GS: And as for players you modeled your game after?
KD: I looked up to a lot of players. I looked up to Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis, guys like that--versatile guys that can do just about everything on the floor. I just tried to watch those guys each and every night when I had the chance, to just try to take little bits and pieces from each one of them and try to incorporate them to mine.
GS: I noticed you mentioned Rashard Lewis. Rashard Lewis also kind of came into the NBA also with a slightly smaller build. Do you kind of see that same transition to more of a three or four as you progress in your career?
KD: I mean, whatever my team needs me to do I'm willing to go out there and do. I try to see myself as more than just a position but as a player, a guy that can do just about everything on the floor. I mean, that's why I'm trying to work hard each and every day on my game and trying to expand my game as much as possible. So whenever my coach needs me to play the three, four, or five [for a couple possessions], I can do it.
GS: What was it like to play with Tayshaun Prince before the season? Did he have any advice for you?
KD: Everybody's been telling me the same thing, "Just go out there and have fun and just play the game you've been playing your whole life." I mean, I know it's a bigger stage. They told me that it's a bigger stage. But just go out there and have fun and everything's going to be all right.
GS: After such a special season at Texas, what's it been like for you personally to play on a team that's struggling to win right now?
KD: I mean, that's tough. With the exception of only a couple of games, we've been in every game and we just got to learn how to pull it out at the end. It's still early on in the season and we've just got to build up some momentum and get some of these games.
GS: How is the chemistry of a team like this in comparison to your team at Texas?
KD: I think the chemistry is there in the locker room. We all enjoy being around each other. We all help each other out a lot. And we're new. I mean, everybody here is new basically. And we just got to get used to each other and I think we're still trying to figure that out. We've only been together for about a month and a half now. We just got to get used to that. In college you had almost a whole month and a half to practice with each other. Here, we only had like two weeks. I think that's a bigger difference. We went from training camps straight to games within a two-week span. So we just got to get used to playing with each other and we'll be OK.
GS: What's your reaction to the rumors that the Sonics my relocate to Oklahoma City?
KD: We're letting the owners and the proper authorities deal with that. We're trying not to get into that. We're just going out there and trying to play our hardest each and every night.
GS: Where do you see your game in five years?
KD: Right now, I'm not trying to think about how I'm going to be in four or five years. Hopefully, I'll be an OK player. Right now I'm just trying to get better each and every day and just take it a day at a time and take it a game at a time. Hopefully down the line everything will pan out the way I want it to.
GS: Has there been any player that you saw on TV in NBA games but surprised you when you had to compete against him face-to-face?
KD: I knew coming into the league that everybody would be good. So I really didn't kind of say, "That player is not good," but once I came to the league, I mean, everybody is good. Everybody is a threat on the floor. You just got play everybody as if they were the best player on the floor.
GS: All right. A tough question here...how do you think the Sonics are going to finish this year?
KD: Wow. I can't tell you. We're just getting better. That's all I can say. We're going to take it a game at a time and hopefully we'll build up some momentum and get some wins at home and on the road and hopefully make it to the playoffs. That's the ultimate goal right now, so far.
Squatch the Sasquatch vs. Bevo the Longhorn. You make the call.
GS: What kind of legacy do you want to leave on the sport of basketball? As far as this season goes, is your aspiration to be Rookie of the Year?
KD: I mean, I think coming into the NBA I think that's everybody's goal is to be mentioned as one of the greatest players to play the game. But right now I'm just trying to portray to the fans that I'm going to work hard and that I'm going to do what I need to do to help the team out. I think that if I show them that, they'll be behind us 110 percent. That's all I can give them. [As far as Rookie of the Year,] I'm not really into that as much. I'm just trying to go out there and help my team and try to help build this franchise into a playoff kind of a team each and every year. I think that's the goal we want, to get to being a threat in the Western Conference each year.
-GameSpot
MX vs. ATV Untamed
Everyone knows MX bikes and ATV quad runners are a big part of THQ's MX vs. ATV series--after all, they're in the name. But in the next entry in the series--the upcoming MX vs. ATV: Untamed--they'll be far from the only mode of transportation you'll be zipping along through the mud and dust. In this developer diary, Brian Coonce, principal game designer on Untamed, gives us the scoop on vehicle customization in the game, as well as a few details on a new vehicle type that makes up in fun what it lacks in stature.
MiniMotos and CustomizationBy Brian CooncePrincipal Game Designer, Rainbow Studios
When most people imagine the life of a game developer, they think of people who need to get outside more often and drink less soda. While this may hit uncomfortably close to home for many of us, the crew at Rainbow Studios has also always held a great passion for the outdoors. Ten years ago when we started making our first off-road games, our development team consisted of weekend warriors and insights from pro riders to help ensure we were making the most accurate off-road games in the market. Fast forward to today, and you'll still find that racing heritage throughout the MX vs. ATV development group: Six of our team members ride competitively, even more own their own quads and bikes, and every year the team attends the World Supercross GP when it stops in the Phoenix desert. Heck, we even own a sandrail.
Frankly, pocketbikes seem like a better fit for video games than real life.
So when the design team sat down to create MX vs. ATV: Untamed, customization of vehicles and riders was high on our list. In MX vs. ATV: Untamed, we wanted to ride the same bikes and quads that we ride in real life. As a result, we've blown out the customization ability to give you ultimate control over what you ride. Paint your plastic to match what you take out on the weekends, or color the chrome to match what you've always wanted. Tweak your suspension and handling to match your own riding style. You're even allowed to mix up the machines by choosing new grills, tires, and suspension sets. And make sure you're decked out in the same gear you ride in; with more than 100 of the top racing brands included in the game, you'll be able to look like the pros do. Still not close enough to the real thing? Choose from 20 of the top MX and ATV riders including Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed, Grant Langston, and Ryan Villipoto.
Another perfect example of our passion for motorsports is our inclusion of 50cc pocketbikes in MX vs. ATV: Untamed. For the casual off-road racer out there, a MiniMoto bike is essentially a two-wheeled go-cart. Imagine a miniaturized MX bike with a lawnmower for a motor and you'll get some idea of what it's actually like to ride one of these things. While obviously lacking in power compared to their larger counterparts, MiniMoto bikes are a blast to ride because of their quick-turning ability and low profile. You might not hit the top speeds of a typical MX bike, but because you are so low to the ground the sense of speed can be just as thrilling. Out on the track, you don't even need to see a pocketbike to know when one is around; a pack of MiniMotos sounds more like a swarm of bees than the roar of a 250cc or 450cc bike.
We're such fans of pocketbikes that when we moved into our new offices, we had to have the carpet replaced because team members had left streaks and tears while riding around the empty hallways. Management was obviously not thrilled, but how can you resist 25,000 square feet of wide-open office space? In MX vs. ATV: Untamed, we took advantage of the unique physics of these bikes to create custom courses that cater to their speed and agility. You'll notice special animations, too, as the riders kick to maintain balance in turns and shift to maintain position. So before you write off the big dude on the tiny bike, make sure you try one out for yourself first, either in real life or in MX vs. ATV: Untamed.
MiniMotos and CustomizationBy Brian CooncePrincipal Game Designer, Rainbow Studios
When most people imagine the life of a game developer, they think of people who need to get outside more often and drink less soda. While this may hit uncomfortably close to home for many of us, the crew at Rainbow Studios has also always held a great passion for the outdoors. Ten years ago when we started making our first off-road games, our development team consisted of weekend warriors and insights from pro riders to help ensure we were making the most accurate off-road games in the market. Fast forward to today, and you'll still find that racing heritage throughout the MX vs. ATV development group: Six of our team members ride competitively, even more own their own quads and bikes, and every year the team attends the World Supercross GP when it stops in the Phoenix desert. Heck, we even own a sandrail.
Frankly, pocketbikes seem like a better fit for video games than real life.
So when the design team sat down to create MX vs. ATV: Untamed, customization of vehicles and riders was high on our list. In MX vs. ATV: Untamed, we wanted to ride the same bikes and quads that we ride in real life. As a result, we've blown out the customization ability to give you ultimate control over what you ride. Paint your plastic to match what you take out on the weekends, or color the chrome to match what you've always wanted. Tweak your suspension and handling to match your own riding style. You're even allowed to mix up the machines by choosing new grills, tires, and suspension sets. And make sure you're decked out in the same gear you ride in; with more than 100 of the top racing brands included in the game, you'll be able to look like the pros do. Still not close enough to the real thing? Choose from 20 of the top MX and ATV riders including Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed, Grant Langston, and Ryan Villipoto.
Another perfect example of our passion for motorsports is our inclusion of 50cc pocketbikes in MX vs. ATV: Untamed. For the casual off-road racer out there, a MiniMoto bike is essentially a two-wheeled go-cart. Imagine a miniaturized MX bike with a lawnmower for a motor and you'll get some idea of what it's actually like to ride one of these things. While obviously lacking in power compared to their larger counterparts, MiniMoto bikes are a blast to ride because of their quick-turning ability and low profile. You might not hit the top speeds of a typical MX bike, but because you are so low to the ground the sense of speed can be just as thrilling. Out on the track, you don't even need to see a pocketbike to know when one is around; a pack of MiniMotos sounds more like a swarm of bees than the roar of a 250cc or 450cc bike.
We're such fans of pocketbikes that when we moved into our new offices, we had to have the carpet replaced because team members had left streaks and tears while riding around the empty hallways. Management was obviously not thrilled, but how can you resist 25,000 square feet of wide-open office space? In MX vs. ATV: Untamed, we took advantage of the unique physics of these bikes to create custom courses that cater to their speed and agility. You'll notice special animations, too, as the riders kick to maintain balance in turns and shift to maintain position. So before you write off the big dude on the tiny bike, make sure you try one out for yourself first, either in real life or in MX vs. ATV: Untamed.
Burnout Paradise
The world of Burnout is about to open up. With Criterion Games' upcoming Burnout Paradise, the high-speed, crash-'em-up style of Burnout play you've come to expect from the series is expanding to include go-anywhere, open-world gameplay, as well as online play that will keep you and your friends zipping through the highways and byways of Paradise City long after the game is released in January. Hot on the heels of last week's look at the Paradise demo, we've been spending some time with the full game for a sneak peek at what to expect once it crashes into store shelves.
The world of Paradise City is open to you… and a few of your closest friends.
Though it's tough to boil down a game as huge as Burnout Paradise, the way we see it there are three overall ways to enjoy your time in Paradise City. Step one is simply getting used to the huge expanses that make up the open-world environment; the entirety of which is open to you from the get-go in Paradise. The city is massive, and you'll likely spend your first hour in the game just trying to get your bearings or marveling at the sites. With enough time, you'll get to know the city pretty well, learn the shortcuts you need to get you from one spot to the next, and even uncover some secret spots that don't show up on the game's minimap.
Once you've got some miles under your tires, you can move on to the second step of enjoying Paradise: the challenges. Every intersection in the game has a challenge associated with it, and you can choose to enter a challenge simply by stopping at an intersection and burning the tires (by pressing the LT and RT triggers simultaneously). Different challenge types are indicated by colored dots on the minimap, so you always know what kind of challenge you're near. The challenges themselves are pretty standard Burnout fare. You have your race challenges that take you from one end of Paradise City to the next, and your stunt events where you execute as many huge jumps, drift turns, and barrel rolls as you can to string together to score huge point combos.
There are also marked-man events, where you must get from one point to another without being taken down by psychotic drivers looking to do your car much harm, as well as road-rage challenges, where you flip the script and try to take down as many cars as you can in a given amount of time. Finally there are make-specific challenges, which you can enter only in the prescribed car. To switch cars, you head to the closest junkyard (the Paradise equivalent to the garage) and change your current ride for any car you've collected on the way. You collect cars either by upgrading your license, or taking them down during the occasional street encounters with these special collectible rides.
Different cars in Burnout Paradise have different attributes. There are your souped-up, tricked-out speedsters, which are obvious choices for the race events, as well as bulkier rides whose strength will keep your challenge hopes alive even when the pressure gets intense. Choosing the right car for the right event becomes more important as the game progresses. For example, you don't want to enter a marked-man event with a slim, speedy sports car like the Rossolini LM Classis, as it will most likely get eaten alive.
As you travel through Paradise City, you'll encounter stations along the way that can provide some timely help in a crunch. Perhaps the most valuable are the repair shops; drive through one and your car will be instantly repaired and ready to continue on its way. Gas stations come in handy, too; zip through one and your boost meter will fill up to its maximum as you exit. Finally, there are the paint shops; yeah, they don't really help you for challenges, but they're an easy way to quickly (and randomly) change the color of your ride. All of these stations appear on your minimap after you've discovered them for the first time. It's good to know where all of them are, so exploration in the early goings is a must.
Winning challenges in Burnout Paradise is how you upgrade your Paradise City driver's license and thus get access to better vehicles. However, it isn't just about the intersection challenges; every road in Paradise City is a challenge unto itself in this game. By pressing up on the directional pad, you can enter one of four road-rules challenges: two race (offline and online) and two crash events (offline and online). Road-rules races challenge your timed run from the very beginning of the street to the very end, whereas crash events will test your high score in "showtime" mode, which is essentially one extended car accident.
By pressing the left and right buttons simultaneously, you can enter showtime mode at any point, even during a challenge. Your goal is to destroy as many cars as you can before your boost meter runs out. You can press A to leap your heap of wreckage into the air, and hitting big-score objects such as buses will give you a multiplier to your score (and more boost to continue the mayhem). At the end of race or showtime events, you can save your results for offline events, or upload them in online events, to compare your handywork against others. Each street in the game has its own lap time record and showtime score to beat, which essentially turns every inch of asphalt in Paradise into its own mini-game.
The seamless uploading of times and scores for races and showtime events is really just a prelude to the third and potentially most rewarding method for playing Burnout Paradise: online multiplayer. Here, up to eight players can compete and cooperate in a variety of challenges. All online access is controlled with the directional pad. You can first invite friends to your multiplayer session by choosing them from a list. Once your pals are in the same session as you, you've got a lot of options. First of all, you can create races from scratch, choosing the start and end points, as well as setting any checkpoints you wish players to drive through along the way. You can also create multiple-race events, with each succeeding event taking a completely different route than the one prior.
Where things really get interesting online are the online challenges, which feature both competitive and cooperative play that opens up the world of Paradise in exciting new directions. There are seven sets of 50 challenges to take part in online, and the set of challenges available depend on the number of people online with you, resulting in a total of 350 online challenges available in the game. For example, though there is some overlap, the list of challenges available to four people online is slightly different than the list available to five or six, and so on. These challenges run from the relatively mundane, such as crashing into one another or meeting at a particular spot on the map, to the considerably more interesting, such as power-parking challenges (which judge you at your skill in parallel parking your car at top speed).
Though a junkyard acts as your garage in Burnout Paradise, these rides are anything but scrap.
The cooperative challenges are some of the best. One two-player challenge requires you both to barrel roll off ramps at the same time, which takes some delicate timing and communication between the two players. One eight-player challenge requires seven drivers on the steps at Ocean View, while the eighth player jumps over them. If you have an Xbox Live vision camera or PlayStation Eye handy, you can take photos of yourself for use on your license, or for bragging rights when you take down one of your buddies. All of your collected pics will be stored in a menu known as "the lineup" that you can refer back to later, if only to see the smiling (or otherwise) faces of your defeated foes.
We've spent a good deal of time with Burnout Paradise so far, and it's hard not to be impressed with the amount of content that is being stuffed into this game. All that's left to do is continue to refine the elements of the game that are currently in place; most notably the artificial intelligence, which seems as if it could use a good dose of aggression to give the road-rage and marked-man events a bit more oomph to them. Nevertheless, it seems that, long after you've tired of the single-player challenges in Paradise City, you'll want to experience the multiplayer challenge events to see what kind of trouble you and your friends can stir up.
The world of Paradise City is open to you… and a few of your closest friends.
Though it's tough to boil down a game as huge as Burnout Paradise, the way we see it there are three overall ways to enjoy your time in Paradise City. Step one is simply getting used to the huge expanses that make up the open-world environment; the entirety of which is open to you from the get-go in Paradise. The city is massive, and you'll likely spend your first hour in the game just trying to get your bearings or marveling at the sites. With enough time, you'll get to know the city pretty well, learn the shortcuts you need to get you from one spot to the next, and even uncover some secret spots that don't show up on the game's minimap.
Once you've got some miles under your tires, you can move on to the second step of enjoying Paradise: the challenges. Every intersection in the game has a challenge associated with it, and you can choose to enter a challenge simply by stopping at an intersection and burning the tires (by pressing the LT and RT triggers simultaneously). Different challenge types are indicated by colored dots on the minimap, so you always know what kind of challenge you're near. The challenges themselves are pretty standard Burnout fare. You have your race challenges that take you from one end of Paradise City to the next, and your stunt events where you execute as many huge jumps, drift turns, and barrel rolls as you can to string together to score huge point combos.
There are also marked-man events, where you must get from one point to another without being taken down by psychotic drivers looking to do your car much harm, as well as road-rage challenges, where you flip the script and try to take down as many cars as you can in a given amount of time. Finally there are make-specific challenges, which you can enter only in the prescribed car. To switch cars, you head to the closest junkyard (the Paradise equivalent to the garage) and change your current ride for any car you've collected on the way. You collect cars either by upgrading your license, or taking them down during the occasional street encounters with these special collectible rides.
Different cars in Burnout Paradise have different attributes. There are your souped-up, tricked-out speedsters, which are obvious choices for the race events, as well as bulkier rides whose strength will keep your challenge hopes alive even when the pressure gets intense. Choosing the right car for the right event becomes more important as the game progresses. For example, you don't want to enter a marked-man event with a slim, speedy sports car like the Rossolini LM Classis, as it will most likely get eaten alive.
As you travel through Paradise City, you'll encounter stations along the way that can provide some timely help in a crunch. Perhaps the most valuable are the repair shops; drive through one and your car will be instantly repaired and ready to continue on its way. Gas stations come in handy, too; zip through one and your boost meter will fill up to its maximum as you exit. Finally, there are the paint shops; yeah, they don't really help you for challenges, but they're an easy way to quickly (and randomly) change the color of your ride. All of these stations appear on your minimap after you've discovered them for the first time. It's good to know where all of them are, so exploration in the early goings is a must.
Winning challenges in Burnout Paradise is how you upgrade your Paradise City driver's license and thus get access to better vehicles. However, it isn't just about the intersection challenges; every road in Paradise City is a challenge unto itself in this game. By pressing up on the directional pad, you can enter one of four road-rules challenges: two race (offline and online) and two crash events (offline and online). Road-rules races challenge your timed run from the very beginning of the street to the very end, whereas crash events will test your high score in "showtime" mode, which is essentially one extended car accident.
By pressing the left and right buttons simultaneously, you can enter showtime mode at any point, even during a challenge. Your goal is to destroy as many cars as you can before your boost meter runs out. You can press A to leap your heap of wreckage into the air, and hitting big-score objects such as buses will give you a multiplier to your score (and more boost to continue the mayhem). At the end of race or showtime events, you can save your results for offline events, or upload them in online events, to compare your handywork against others. Each street in the game has its own lap time record and showtime score to beat, which essentially turns every inch of asphalt in Paradise into its own mini-game.
The seamless uploading of times and scores for races and showtime events is really just a prelude to the third and potentially most rewarding method for playing Burnout Paradise: online multiplayer. Here, up to eight players can compete and cooperate in a variety of challenges. All online access is controlled with the directional pad. You can first invite friends to your multiplayer session by choosing them from a list. Once your pals are in the same session as you, you've got a lot of options. First of all, you can create races from scratch, choosing the start and end points, as well as setting any checkpoints you wish players to drive through along the way. You can also create multiple-race events, with each succeeding event taking a completely different route than the one prior.
Where things really get interesting online are the online challenges, which feature both competitive and cooperative play that opens up the world of Paradise in exciting new directions. There are seven sets of 50 challenges to take part in online, and the set of challenges available depend on the number of people online with you, resulting in a total of 350 online challenges available in the game. For example, though there is some overlap, the list of challenges available to four people online is slightly different than the list available to five or six, and so on. These challenges run from the relatively mundane, such as crashing into one another or meeting at a particular spot on the map, to the considerably more interesting, such as power-parking challenges (which judge you at your skill in parallel parking your car at top speed).
Though a junkyard acts as your garage in Burnout Paradise, these rides are anything but scrap.
The cooperative challenges are some of the best. One two-player challenge requires you both to barrel roll off ramps at the same time, which takes some delicate timing and communication between the two players. One eight-player challenge requires seven drivers on the steps at Ocean View, while the eighth player jumps over them. If you have an Xbox Live vision camera or PlayStation Eye handy, you can take photos of yourself for use on your license, or for bragging rights when you take down one of your buddies. All of your collected pics will be stored in a menu known as "the lineup" that you can refer back to later, if only to see the smiling (or otherwise) faces of your defeated foes.
We've spent a good deal of time with Burnout Paradise so far, and it's hard not to be impressed with the amount of content that is being stuffed into this game. All that's left to do is continue to refine the elements of the game that are currently in place; most notably the artificial intelligence, which seems as if it could use a good dose of aggression to give the road-rage and marked-man events a bit more oomph to them. Nevertheless, it seems that, long after you've tired of the single-player challenges in Paradise City, you'll want to experience the multiplayer challenge events to see what kind of trouble you and your friends can stir up.
One Piece: Unlimited Adventure Hands-On
One Piece: Unlimited Adventure is an action adventure game based on the One Piece manga and anime series. With the freedom to switch between characters at will, you'll assume the roles of captain Monkey D. Luffy and six other members of the Straw Hat Pirates' crew as they attempt to escape from a mysterious island. We recently had an opportunity to spend some time with a near-finished version of the game and came away impressed that we were able to have a good time with it despite knowing very little about the aforementioned source material.
Before taking the controls in One Piece: Unlimited Adventure, you'll be treated to a lengthy intro that shows how the Straw Hat Pirates have come to be stranded on an uncharted island. It all starts when Luffy, who is fishing off the side of the boat, lands a strange blue orb while the rest of the crew searches in vain for land on the horizon. Taking his prize with him, Luffy heads up to the crow's nest and, in desperation, yells something urging any nearby islands to come out of hiding. The orb starts to glow, but before Luffy has even had a chance to return to the deck, a large island rises up out of the water nearby and launches a tsunami directly at the ship.
X marks the spot just about everywhere you look.
Luffy has no idea what has happened to the rest of the crew when he wakes up alone on the island; thus, your first job is to go and look for them. As you explore the island, you'll find that many of the paths through it are blocked by large boulders and rock formations that, because they're marked with Xs, are obviously destructible--more on those later. The first crew members you'll find are Chopper, Usopp, and Nami. The crew members have come under attack from navy sailors and need you to rescue them before they can join your playable party.
Combat in One Piece: Unlimited Adventure is pretty mindless for the most part, but because all of the characters have their own attacks, you'll find that some are better suited to certain situations than others. Most of the characters only have one basic attack the first time you use them, which is performed by pressing the A button. As you continue to use characters, you'll unlock additional moves and combos for them that require multiple presses of the attack button. In some cases, the use of the C (dash) button or some movement of the Wii Remote may be required as well. Pulling off quite spectacular-looking attacks isn't difficult at all, and you'll find that the majority of enemies offer very little challenge--at least early on.
As you locate additional members of the crew, you'll learn that a number of them have far more to offer the group than just alternate combat techniques. For example, Franky the shipwright has the ability to engineer weapons and other useful items, while Sanji the chef can use one of those items (a stove) to prepare foods that permanently increase the attributes of any crew member who eats them. Most of the ingredients needed to craft these items are readily available on the island or are dropped by enemies, though some are much harder to come by and definitely rarer than others. Incidentally, the other two playable crew members are Robin and Zoro.
Crafting can only occur at your campsite, which is also where you'll be storing most of your raw materials because there's a limit on how much you can carry while exploring the island. Excess items can be converted into energy to "feed" the mysterious blue orb that Luffy carries around with him at all times, and at certain locations, you'll find that the fully charged orb can be used to alter the island's geography--invariably creating paths to otherwise inaccessible locales. The campsite is situated in the same area where you start the game and is also where you'll need to go anytime you want to save your progress. You'll be transported there automatically after you beat most of the game's bosses so you can do just that, which is definitely a feature we welcomed even during our brief time with the game.
Most of the items used in crafting aren't difficult to find.
Gathering the materials necessary to craft the pickaxe was definitely time well spent for us on this occasion because we were able to destroy the aforementioned rocks with Xs on them and also dig holes in the ground where similar markings appeared. However, some of the rocks were too tough for our pickaxe and won't be going anywhere until we find a way to upgrade it or craft a superior one. Other items that we're disappointed not to have crafted during our time with One Piece: Unlimited Adventure on this occasion include a fishing rod and a bug net which, among other things, will be used to catalog the island's wildlife (insects, lizards, and fish) in the reference area of your journal.
In addition to the story mode that we were playing, One Piece: Unlimited Adventure will feature a combat-oriented survival mode, as well as a versus mode for two players. We look forward to bringing you more information on those features closer to the game's release date.
Before taking the controls in One Piece: Unlimited Adventure, you'll be treated to a lengthy intro that shows how the Straw Hat Pirates have come to be stranded on an uncharted island. It all starts when Luffy, who is fishing off the side of the boat, lands a strange blue orb while the rest of the crew searches in vain for land on the horizon. Taking his prize with him, Luffy heads up to the crow's nest and, in desperation, yells something urging any nearby islands to come out of hiding. The orb starts to glow, but before Luffy has even had a chance to return to the deck, a large island rises up out of the water nearby and launches a tsunami directly at the ship.
X marks the spot just about everywhere you look.
Luffy has no idea what has happened to the rest of the crew when he wakes up alone on the island; thus, your first job is to go and look for them. As you explore the island, you'll find that many of the paths through it are blocked by large boulders and rock formations that, because they're marked with Xs, are obviously destructible--more on those later. The first crew members you'll find are Chopper, Usopp, and Nami. The crew members have come under attack from navy sailors and need you to rescue them before they can join your playable party.
Combat in One Piece: Unlimited Adventure is pretty mindless for the most part, but because all of the characters have their own attacks, you'll find that some are better suited to certain situations than others. Most of the characters only have one basic attack the first time you use them, which is performed by pressing the A button. As you continue to use characters, you'll unlock additional moves and combos for them that require multiple presses of the attack button. In some cases, the use of the C (dash) button or some movement of the Wii Remote may be required as well. Pulling off quite spectacular-looking attacks isn't difficult at all, and you'll find that the majority of enemies offer very little challenge--at least early on.
As you locate additional members of the crew, you'll learn that a number of them have far more to offer the group than just alternate combat techniques. For example, Franky the shipwright has the ability to engineer weapons and other useful items, while Sanji the chef can use one of those items (a stove) to prepare foods that permanently increase the attributes of any crew member who eats them. Most of the ingredients needed to craft these items are readily available on the island or are dropped by enemies, though some are much harder to come by and definitely rarer than others. Incidentally, the other two playable crew members are Robin and Zoro.
Crafting can only occur at your campsite, which is also where you'll be storing most of your raw materials because there's a limit on how much you can carry while exploring the island. Excess items can be converted into energy to "feed" the mysterious blue orb that Luffy carries around with him at all times, and at certain locations, you'll find that the fully charged orb can be used to alter the island's geography--invariably creating paths to otherwise inaccessible locales. The campsite is situated in the same area where you start the game and is also where you'll need to go anytime you want to save your progress. You'll be transported there automatically after you beat most of the game's bosses so you can do just that, which is definitely a feature we welcomed even during our brief time with the game.
Most of the items used in crafting aren't difficult to find.
Gathering the materials necessary to craft the pickaxe was definitely time well spent for us on this occasion because we were able to destroy the aforementioned rocks with Xs on them and also dig holes in the ground where similar markings appeared. However, some of the rocks were too tough for our pickaxe and won't be going anywhere until we find a way to upgrade it or craft a superior one. Other items that we're disappointed not to have crafted during our time with One Piece: Unlimited Adventure on this occasion include a fishing rod and a bug net which, among other things, will be used to catalog the island's wildlife (insects, lizards, and fish) in the reference area of your journal.
In addition to the story mode that we were playing, One Piece: Unlimited Adventure will feature a combat-oriented survival mode, as well as a versus mode for two players. We look forward to bringing you more information on those features closer to the game's release date.
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