Iron Man 2

Source: GameSpot

Review:
It's pretty evident from the start that even Sega knows that its original Iron Man game wasn't all that it could have been. Therefore, the new team working on the game is going to great lengths to make sure that the follow-up, Iron Man 2, not only plays better than its predecessor, but also stays true to what Iron Man, the character, is all about. This is apparent with the new control scheme: switching between hovering and flying only requires some manipulation of the left and right analog sticks--a simple press forward on the left stick pushes Iron Man forward through the air in flight mode, while the right analog stick controls his direction.



Interestingly, something else that has been streamlined is the way that Iron Man's suit functions. Instead of manually switching between different power modes (more power to shields versus more power to weapons), the game automatically switches these modes based on Iron Man's current status. If he's on the ground, then Jarvis (Tony Stark's robo-butler and onboard suit AI) changes the power flow so that Iron Man's shields and weapons recharge at a faster pace while the navigation systems power done. Conversely, to zoom through the air at top speeds, Jarvis switches things around so that most of the suit's juice goes toward the boosters, depleting some energy from weapons and shields. The whole system makes sense, and best of all, it doesn't do away with a mechanic that otherwise gives the game a slightly more strategic feel.

And those aren't even the only changes made to the suit. At any point, you can switch between different melee sets, meaning that if you want Iron Man to use kung fu, then you can select the kung fu melee set. This gives Iron Man a few more nimble and quick punches and kicks that he might not have in the default setting. There's also a brute force setting where Iron Man's just a little bit slower but his attacks pack more power.

Not all of the attention is focused solely on Iron Man. Quite a bit of attention is also being paid to the environments and what Iron Man can do within them. In fact, in our brief demo, we got a glimpse of an indoor area--an arc reactor-powered factory--where Iron Man has to plow through groups of massive robots before finally making his way to the reactor and destroying it. The sequence afterward has you, as Iron Man, escaping from the factory as it explodes around you. It's sort of like the exploding Death Star sequence from Return of the Jedi. After making it outdoors, we got a glimpse of another aspect of the game that the development team is working on: destructibility. While it was certainly possible to create massive amounts of damage in the original Iron Man game, the version of it in Iron Man 2, in a way, is much more precise. Iron Man can destroy roofs, doors, and all sorts of other objects before taking down bigger things, like an entire building.

What's also interesting about this outdoor environment is that it looks a little less like a flight sim where everything generally appears small. There's seemingly a lot more detail in everything, and generally speaking, enemies seem to be much larger and more substantial than in the previous game. But some things that definitely are bigger in Iron Man 2 are the bosses. At the end of this demo, we got a glimpse of a massive spider tank that has multiple target points that Iron Man has to take out before striking the final death blow. We got to see an even bigger boss, which fans may recognize as Crimson Dynamo (who also isn't in the film), at the end of the demo in a teaser trailer, and to say that he completely dwarfs Iron Man would be an understatement.

From just about every angle, Iron Man 2 already appears to be a drastic improvement over the original Iron Man game. And best of all, the game's story is also being worked on by well-known Marvel scribe Matt Fraction, who is helping to ensure that in-game Iron Man and Tony Stark speak and are represented in the proper way. Iron Man 2 is scheduled for release next year.

Splinter Cell: Conviction

Splinter Cell: Conviction Review

Sam Fisher is back, and he is not in a good mood. Of all the smart decisions made in crafting a new Splinter Cell title, this might be the best one developer Ubisoft Montreal made. Sam's angry and you hear it in every grunted line of dialogue, can see it in the brutal takedowns and interrogation moves and feel it pulsating through Sam with every step. That anger, that aggressiveness is built not only into the story but the gameplay changes as well. It was a huge risk deviating from the trial-and-error style that made the series famous, but it paid off. Splinter Cell Conviction is awesome.

The story takes place a few years after the end of Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Don't worry, if you never finished that game, you'll get caught up quickly as to what's going on. Sam's daughter was killed, he murdered his best friend Lambert, and he split from Third Echelon, the government agency he'd called home for years. With new evidence leading to his daughter's killer, a tormented and semi-retired Sam Fisher is called back into action. Turns out the people responsible for his daughter's fate are planning a major terrorist attack on Washington D.C. This is going to be one long day for Jack Bauer Sam Fisher.

Conviction sets itself apart from its predecessors with its pacing. You're always being pushed forward, so much so that I played through the entire single-player campaign in one sitting without even realizing I'd been up all night. Ubisoft pulled off a few magic tricks to make this happen.

There are no in-game loading screens unless you die. From the moment the game starts, you never sit around waiting for something to happen. Levels are loaded while you're watching slickly presented cutscenes. Fancy new projection technology integrates text into the scenery to point you towards your goal, and back story is shown with movies playing out on walls as you progress through a level. These things aid in keeping players immersed in the world, but the real reason things feel so fluid is the change in approach to stealth.

In Conviction, stealth is about speed.

Sam moves fast. Really fast. He can get in and out of cover quickly, shimmy across ledges faster than the Prince of Persia and beat a hasty retreat if he gets into trouble. Sam's codename used by Third Echelon is "panther," and that's fitting. In past Splinter Cell games, enemies were meant to be avoided; in Conviction, Sam is a hunter. He isn't avoiding enemies, he's stalking them.

Sam lurks in the shadows, finds his moment to pounce and strikes with deadly efficiency. There may be a dozen men, fully armed and with extensive combat training closing in, but they're the ones who should be worried. You feel like the ultimate badass thanks to some generous aiming assists that let you easily put bullets into approaching enemy noggins.

Rather than force players to eyeball a variety of meters to determine their level of stealth, Ubisoft made things very obvious. If you're in the shadows and impossible to see, the color bleeds out and things go black and white. The minute you're in the light, the color comes back. This easy sense of whether you are hidden or exposed enables you to move quickly through the environment and plan your route of attack on the fly.

Shadows and light are just half the stealth equation. The other half is the cover system. The cover is not at all like Gears of War, where you're sucked against a wall. Squeeze the left trigger and if you are near an object, you'll take cover behind it. Release the trigger and you immediately disengage, or you can hold down the trigger and move away from cover with no problem. You're never attached to a surface. In fact, you can hold down the trigger when out in the open and Sam will crouch, doing his best to minimize his visibility.

This is the best cover system I've ever used. Every other game needs to change, because I can't go back.

Should you be spotted, the best thing to do is retreat. Get out of sight and a white silhouette appears, marking your Last Known Position. The AI will focus on this spot, because it's where they think you're hiding. They'll unload some shots, maybe toss a grenade and then make their way towards the spot to see if they got you. On Realistic difficulty -- the only way you should play Conviction -- the AI is very sharp and won't be fooled for long. You can use the Last Known Position to your advantage. Flank your enemies when their attention is on your silhouette, then take them out before they realize what's going on.

Using shadows and cover, you stalk your prey, and when you're close enough, you can perform a hand-to-hand takedown. There are dozens (probably more than a hundred) of these. They're an excellent reward for being sneaky. My favorite is shooting a guy in the leg and as he crumples downward, popping him in the chin with my silenced pistol. But the system isn't perfect. You bash in a door with the same button as a hand-to-hand takedown. Attempt to quietly kill an enemy near a door and you may end up kicking in the door and causing a ruckus. Occasional glitches aside, stealth kills look cool, avoid attracting attention and earn you the ability to execute.

The Mark & Execute system is probably the most controversial change to the Splinter Cell series. You can tag or "mark" enemies, putting a big arrow over their heads and then executing them with the press of a button. So long as the mark is red, you are guaranteed a kill. As it's described, this would seem like a "win" button that would make Splinter Cell too easy. Far from it. You have to work to earn the right to execute. Use it once and you must perform another stealth takedown to activate the execution option again. More importantly, executing does not equal "stealthily execute." If you aren't careful, you can easily expose yourself to enemies when you enter execution mode. There are often more enemies than you could ever mark, so it's not as if you run through tagging and killing with ease.

Each weapon has its own unique properties, including the number of available marks. This is a great way to balance the game while adding a bit of strategy to how you gear up before heading into action. Do you take the low-powered Five-Seven pistol because it has the most marks (four) or do you up your firepower to another gun, sacrificing the marks?

Mark & Execute is a great addition and doesn't ruin Splinter Cell in any way. The only drawback is that sometimes you'll hit Execute and a targeted enemy will pass behind a wall. You'll still score the kill, but your bullet with defy physics and phase through the obstruction to hit your target.

All of these new gameplay elements are quickly explained in the single-player campaign. These things are so intuitive, that the tutorial is over before you know it. The campaign is a brisk and enjoyable five-hour experience that has only two odd spots.

Early on, there is a flashback to 20 years ago in Iraq. Out in broad daylight, all stealth is eliminated and Splinter Cell becomes nothing more than a third-person shooter. The other section that sticks out is an area where, if spotted, you fail the mission. What a bad idea. This is what Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory fixed five years ago. Who wants instant-fail gameplay?

While the single-player campaign won't take long to beat, even on Realistic difficulty, it's just one piece of the larger package. There's a ton of content in Conviction: a totally separate co-op campaign, Hunter, Infiltration, and Last Stand modes. Plus, there's an an in-game challenge system to test your stealth skills.

The co-op is well worth discussing. It is, after all, better than the single-player campaign. Offering split-screen, System Link and online support, you and a friend take on the roles of Third Echelon agent Archer and Russian Voron agent Ketrel. The co-op story is a prequel to the single-player campaign and has the two teaming up to hunt down some missing WMDs. While both Archer and Kestrel have the same moves as Sam, they must work together to make it through four unique environments.

Live together or die alone. That's the motto for Splinter Cell's co-op. If your friend dies, the mission fails. That means you must watch each other's back. Fortunately, you can heal your fallen friend before he bleeds out. And if your pal is careless and gets grabbed by an enemy, he can elbow his captor's face to gain a bit of separation before you cap him.

The ultimate joy of co-op is marking and executing enemies in tandem. Archer and Kestrel share their marks. So even if your buddy marks someone, if you have the angle, you can hit the execute button to take them down. When you both have line-of-sight on marked enemies, time slows down for a few seconds after an execution move begins. If your friend taps the execute button, he can join in. This often leads to double-shots to a villain's dome.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games

We take a look at three new events and one new gameplay mode in which Sega and Nintendo characters talk to each other and help each other out. Mass hysteria!

Mario and Sonic had such a blast competing at the Summer Olympics, it seems, that they're back for some wintery competition. During our E3 2009 demo for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, we got to see a few of the iconic events that the pair (and their respective crews) will be participating in. We also saw a new adventure-style mode that offers an interesting diversion from the sports-themed action.

The first event that we saw was Alpine Skiing. Using only the stylus, players must guide their character down the slope, between each set of gates, and across the finish line. Touching the screen to the right of your character will move them to the right, and likewise for the left. Swiping the stylus down the screen will put your character into a crouch position that will enable him or her to ski faster, but will also make him or her less maneuverable. Going through the gates is essential to earning a good time, and if you hug one of the flags when you pass through, you'll get a little speed boost. Motivated players can challenge themselves to crouch as often as possible and hit the gates with style, and more-relaxed players can just stick to the center of the fairly wide run. At the end of the race, you can view a cinematic replay of your run and relive (or regret) your performance.

The next event was the two-man (or creature) Bobsled. Players control both of the characters during this race, using the D pad for the front character and the face buttons for the back. When the race begins, players can frantically mash buttons to get a fast start, and then match the onscreen prompt to jump in the sled at the perfect moment. You'll have to lean into the curves by pressing the left/Y button and right/A button if you want to keep your speed up, and keeping both characters leaning the same way will let you go even faster.

The final event was Dream Snowboard Cross. The Dream events differ from the Olympic events in that they have more fantastical elements, such as power-ups, traps, and speed ramps. In Dream Snowboard Cross, players steer with the D pad and drift around turns to get a speed boost, like in Mario Kart Wii. Players can use the B button to get air off of jumps and, if they perform tricks in midair, they'll fill up the special move bar. The special move gives you a burst of speed and lets you break through any obstacles that may lie in your way.

The last thing that we saw was the new mode, called Adventure Tours. In this mode, Bowser and Dr. Eggman have conspired to stop the Winter Olympics by kidnapping the snow spirits. Mario and Sonic must explore the winter world and talk to various familiar characters to solve puzzles and get the snow spirits back. This adventure looks to offer a pleasant diversion from the action of racing and performing.

By Chris Watters, GameSpot