Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2 Review:
Source By GameSpot

It may be easy to take one look at Super Mario Galaxy 2, see the same gravity-altering traps and spherical worlds from its predecessor, and dismiss this as a by-the-numbers sequel to the superb original. But by assuming you know what to expect from Mario's latest adventure, you would be doing yourself and this game a great disservice. This is not only the new standard against which every 3D platformer must now be judged, but it also seamlessly integrates so many elements from Mario's 2D roots that it stands toe-to-toe with even its genre-defining progenitors. Every aspect of this game is absolutely bursting with joy. The vibrant artistic design immediately welcomes you into this colorful world, and the catchy soundtrack deftly mixes classic tunes with new compositions to provide the perfect backdrop for you goomba-stomping, star-snatching fun. But it's the expertly designed levels that will keep you coming back, even after you've seen everything this game has to offer, just to experience it one more time. This is an instant classic that belongs alongside the best games Nintendo has ever created.

Things are once again rotten in the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser has taken Princess Peach prisoner for the umpteenth time, forcing Mario to momentarily put his plumbing gig on hold to rescue his fair lady. The best thing that can be said about the story is that it mostly stays in the background. A few lighthearted exchanges between Mario and his foes precede major battles, but there is only a brief break in the action before you get back to flinging fireballs and cracking shells. In fact, Galaxy 2 is much more streamlined than its predecessor. The elaborate hub world that has appeared in each of Mario's previous 3D adventures has been scrapped and replaced by an easy-to-navigate map that lets you hop right into the next level. Galaxy 2 has less downtime than the original, ensuring you're always engaged and entertained.

And you'll be happy to jump right into the action because Galaxy 2 is a long and often challenging adventure. There are lots of different activities to take part in, but everything comes with the same prize: a shining star. It takes 70 of these celestial bodies to make it to the end of the game, but there are many more hidden throughout the universe waiting to be discovered. No matter what you're doing in Galaxy 2, everything feels just right, thanks to the ultraprecise controls. It's a breeze leaping between walls, performing deadly butt-stomps, or jumping across lava-filled pits. There is an unabashed joy in movement that makes even running around the colorful worlds and taking in the uplifting atmosphere feel special. The camera does an admirable job of framing the action, giving you a clear view even when you're dancing on the ceiling in a reverse-gravity room or leaping between floating meteors in space. There are a few times where the angle is less than ideal, making it difficult to line up an exact jump, but for the most part, the camera performs its duty with flying colors.

The wealth of different objectives in Galaxy 2 is mind boggling. Just about every star introduces at least one new mechanic, generating a truly stunning degree of variety. Whether you're grabbing onto the talons of a powerful bird, competing in score-based challenges for a monkey that's wearing sunglasses, or slamming into enemies while ice skating, you're constantly presented with a new activity. Even though many of these situations only appear once or twice during the course of the game, they're all fully fleshed out and incredibly fun. It's really interesting how varied objectives can be even within the same level. The first time you enter a level, you may have to zip down a sand slide at breakneck speed, dodging cactuses and nabbing coins all the while. But when you enter the level again to try for a different star, you may have to navigate an underground obstacle course from a side-scrolling perspective. Because your goals are constantly changing and always at a high level, Galaxy 2 never gets stale or predictable.

If the huge variety of goals doesn't sound like a big enough change, there are also power-ups that further mix things up. One of the few weak spots in the original Galaxy was a lack of interesting power-ups to play around with, but that has been rectified here. The most notable addition is Yoshi, the lovable dinosaur with the prehensile tongue. Once on this green fellow's back, you can point at enemies or objects with the remote and swallow them whole. You can snatch up a spiny and then shoot it like a projectile, inhale a pepper to receive a massive speed boost, or chow down a bulb to light up hidden pathways. There's also a power-up that lets Mario roll around like a Goron from the Zelda series, a special suit that gives you the ability to create clouds in midair, and a drill for digging through soft dirt. All of these power-ups build on their most basic functions as you get deeper into the game, forcing you to look beyond your preconceptions to use them in unique ways.

Although most of the game is in 3D, letting you explore the environments with few restrictions, there are also 2D sections that are just as entertaining to run through. These stages are exceptionally well designed, going much further than the standard running and jumping for which Mario is known. In certain cases, gravity is your biggest opponent. Rooms will change their gravitational pull at a moment's notice, turning the walls or even the ceiling into your temporary floor. At other times, you'll be running along without a care in the world when you'll come across a pool of water floating above your head. These brief forays into swimming give you a chance to avoid cheep-cheeps and slow-moving urchins before you exit once more onto dry ground. Levels freely shift between the two perspectives. You'll be floating lazily around as bee Mario and then all of a sudden you'll be in a 2D world, swinging on vines and nabbing coins without an extra dimension to distract you. These 2D levels are a great changes of pace from the free-roaming action and are as inventive and fun as every other section of this game.

While attempting to nab every star within these stages you should also keep an eye out for hidden comet coins. These special tokens summon a comet that gives you a new challenge to experience. Sometimes, you need to sprint through a world as fast as possible, running at top speed and performing long jumps so you can shave off precious seconds. Other times, you must collect purple coins or defeat a boss without taking any damage. The comet challenges are the most difficult goals in the game, but it's a blast to sink your teeth into these levels to try to overcome their punishing traps. In one stage, you create clones of Mario with every step you take and you lose health if you touch one of the clones. Trying to coordinate your movements so you can still make it to the end without running into your clones can be difficult, but when you finally outsmart yourself and nab that star, it's extremely rewarding. Most of Galaxy 2 starts out relatively easy for platforming veterans, but there are plenty of stars that will push you to your limits, and these prove to be the most satisfying to earn.

Many of the levels end in boss fights, which are just as varied and exciting as the other aspects of the game. One of the early battles has you take on a slithering dragon that floats above a craterous moon. It flies dangerously overhead, showing off its colossal might, before it dives toward the surface and borrows underground. That's your chance to attack its glowing red pustules, but it's not easy. Dragons don't like to be punched, and it floods the screen with a wall of fire to keep you from poking its weak spot. Every boss requires a different strategy to overcome, and it's a real treat figuring out what needs to be done and then going in for the kill. The Bowser battles are particularly impressive. He is absolutely gigantic in this game, and striking him down is immensely satisfying. There is nothing quite like bringing down a treacherous foe who has been hounding you, and Galaxy 2 does a fine job of making its bosses big and imposing enough to ensure they are rewarding to conquer.

The incredible action is tied together beautifully by the visuals and music. This is a gorgeous-looking game. The levels may be home to snapping piranha plants and explosive bullet bills, but they are eminently welcoming. The attention to detail is outstanding. From the puffs of smoke billowing from the chilly rabbit's snow-covered cabin to Mario's graceful spin when performing a triple lutz, every aspect of this game looks incredible. But the music is even more impressive. Using a great combination of classics and new material, all of the music fits the action perfectly. The older songs have been remixed, and what's most interesting is how they sound even better than they did before. For instance, the haunting theme from Bowser's levels that first appeared in Super Mario 64 now has a choir singing the higher sections, and it adds an eerie note that will send shivers down your spine. Galaxy 2 is a game you do not even have to touch the controller to enjoy. The sights and sounds are so enthralling that you can just sit back, relax, and take in everything.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is simply an outstanding game. It never rests on its laurels for a second, constantly presenting new objectives and mechanics to push you to never before seen places. Even the two-player mode offers new abilities and delights, making it even more fun to play with a friend by your side. Everything is so well designed and so entertaining that it's easy to get sucked into this world for hours. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is so phenomenal that it's difficult to imagine where Mario could possibly go in the future. But that's hardly your concern now. Mario proves that he is still the king of fun.

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Trauma Team

Trauma Team Preview:
Previous Trauma Center games have focused on virtual surgery, challenging you to hone your operating skills to a scalpel's edge with punishing difficulty. Trauma Team takes a more holistic approach by staffing six different characters, each with a distinct specialty. No two disciplines play the same way, and the resulting variety is refreshing. Hopping between skills and performing different procedures is easy and rewarding thanks to the slick presentation and sharp controls, though players looking for a tough challenge may not be happy with the lessened difficulty. Still, there is a lot of cleverness to be found in both the gameplay and the writing. Of course, neither is without its flaws, and the game sometimes drags its feet when it should be moving things along. Occasional pacing slowdowns aside, this is a lengthy game that is packed with content and priced affordably. The quality and diversity of the gameplay shine through despite its blemishes, making Trauma Team the most accessible and feature-packed Trauma game to date.



The most familiar discipline here is surgery. The controls use the same slick system as before: you select your tool with the analog stick and perform actions with the remote. It is definitely entertaining (even for TC veterans), and there are some new elements to contend with, but surgery is nowhere near as challenging as it was in previous games. There are no supernatural abilities to contend with, only the story of an amnesiac prisoner called on to perform high-risk surgeries in exchange for years off of his sentence. Surgery is more streamlined in Trauma Team because it plays a supporting role instead of being the franchise player. While some may lament the reduced challenge, this old standby ends up filling its niche quite nicely because the other disciplines round out the game so well.

Orthopedics is similar to surgery in that it deals mainly with cutting on an anesthetized patient, but it plays out a little differently. Rather than selecting your tool on the fly, you use the one you are automatically given. You cut, drill, hammer, and screw in sequence, all the while building up a chain meter for each successful action. This meter offers another layer of instant feedback on top of the neon adjectives displayed after every action, upping the pressure as the procedure continues and your chain grows bigger. Another significant difference is in how the cutting action is presented. Pointing the remote to keep your tool in the designated area is easy at first, but it's not long before the camera starts moving of its own accord, forcing you to keep up with the cut line while staying within the borders of the guide. Soon, the camera starts moving out of sync with the guide, and you have to be even more wary. This is initially aggravating, but once you get the hang of things, it becomes a reasonable, if slightly contrived, challenge. The orthopedic doctor is a muscular specimen named Hank Freebird, a relentless optimist whose extracurricular activities, while almost too goofy, somehow manage to stay within the bounds of sanity.

Emergency care is the most intense of all the disciplines and is handled by a similarly intense doctor who loves to take charge and yell at people. Controlwise, this mode is similar to surgery, but you have only a few tools at your disposal, and your focus is on stabilizing patients so they can be transported to the hospital. Burns, cuts, and broken limbs are your common foes, but the real challenge is that you have to handle multiple patients at a time, and they are all losing health quickly. Switching between patients and administering treatment is an engagingly hectic challenge, though you can find yourself forced to rely overmuch on the magical health-boosting stabilizer injection. Still, this is the most frantic action in Trauma Team, and successfully saving a bloody parade of accident victims is very satisfying.

Endoscopy is a much more deliberate specialty, but it's not without its challenges. The trick here is the controls: you have to pinch A and B and move the remote forward or backward, mimicking the motion of pushing or pulling the endoscope through your patient's inner pathways. Steering and tool usage are both relegated to the nunchuk, and learning how to use the analog stick to cut after being accustomed to using the remote is definitely tricky. The controls are sharp, but tough to master. This helps mitigate the fact that endoscopy is one of the more repetitive disciplines, because it takes a while before you get the hang of things. Trauma Team's resident endoscopist is Tomoe Tachibana, the daughter of a modern-day samurai lord, who is on a quest to attain honor outside of her homeland and prove her worth.

Diagnosis and forensics offer the most divergent gameplay from the Trauma Center standard because they don't feature proper medical procedures. In diagnosis, you talk with your patient, use a stethoscope, and run tests in order to identify symptoms. As the cranky diagnostician, you begrudgingly accept a computerized companion program, but not without a healthy share of cantankerous quips. Using this computer, you attach symptoms to diseases and determine your diagnosis. Looking at actual CT scans and X-rays is cool, even though it amounts to little more than a spot-the-difference minigame. Occasionally the progress of your diagnosis hinges on finding one particular symptom that for one reason or another manages to elude you. While Trauma Team generally does a good job of nudging you in the right direction, it is frustrating when one obscure, illogical, or just plain overlooked detail stands in your way. Patience and perseverance are the keys to overcoming these infrequent barriers, and there is always a solution, no matter how vague.

While diagnosis can require some cleverness, it is forensics that more often requires ingenuity on your part, and this gameplay is some of the most unique and clever that Trauma Team has to offer. As the icy Dr. Kimishima, you work with a helpful FBI lackey to investigate crime scenes, corpses, and audio recordings in order to collect evidence cards. By analyzing or combining these evidence cards in logical ways, you can piece together the puzzle and further your investigation. Doing so also requires that you answer multiple-choice questions about the evidence at hand. Some questions are easy, while others are vague or poorly worded; some answers are surprisingly amusing, and the best questions require you to make logical leaps. Forensics episodes play out in clever and enjoyable ways, though they are susceptible to hang-ups in the same manner as diagnosis episodes. While both offer some of the most intriguing new gameplay mechanics in the game, they are also prone to carrying on too long and rehashing discoveries.

Fortunately, quick readers can thumb ahead and accelerate through these doldrums, but the same can't be said for the cutscenes. The story is told through still shots that, while stylish and appealing, often linger too long. All of the aforementioned doctors play crucial roles in the intertwining story, and though they can border on cliche or downright weird, their personalities and escapades come together quite nicely to create an enjoyable narrative. Throughout the game you can switch between characters and disciplines whenever you like, and this freedom helps you set your own pace. Given that forensics and diagnosis episodes are slower paced and take much longer to complete than the other specialties, it's great to be able to hop over to surgery or emergency care to spice things up.

Trauma Team is a lengthy game that will likely take you tens of hours to complete, and just when you think things are wrapping up, well, think again. When you finally complete the game, you unlock a new difficulty level, as well as new doctor-specific medals that are awarded for performing certain tasks throughout the adventure. You can also play four out of the six disciplines cooperatively (diagnosis and forensics excluded), though surgery, in which you share tools and act simultaneously, is much more interesting than the others, which force you to take turns. All told, Trauma Team is an impressive package with a diverse array of engaging gameplay modes. Though the characters and the activities have their flaws, the whole comes together impressively, making Trauma Team a great bet no matter what your specialty is.


Source By GameSpot

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.

2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

Preview: Source: http://www.gamespot.com/

2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Q&A

Producer Matt Prior takes us through some of the new features in EA Sports' upcoming World Cup game.

With the Super Bowl finished up, and March Madness about to wrap up, the attention of the world's sports fans will soon shift to the World Cup this summer in South Africa. Thirty-two teams will face off for the ultimate in bragging rights when the tournament kicks off in June. If you can't wait that long, you'll be able to get a taste of what to expect with the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa from EA Sports. The game is coming for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and PSP in April, and recently we got a chance to speak with the game's producer, Matt Prior, to learn about some of the newly announced features in the game.


Matt Prior: We have partnered with Coca-Cola Zero for an ambitious feature called the Coca-Cola Zero Story of the Finals. We will re-create moments from the real World Cup during the actual tournament and will allow gamers to play them out in the game. From June 11 to July 11, as the actual World Cup is taking place in South Africa, we will select the most interesting match scenarios each day, and gamers will be able to download them for free and play them out in the game. For example, if in the real World Cup England were losing to the US with 10 minutes to go but ended up winning with two late Rooney goals, we would re-create that scenario and allow gamers to download it. It may take the form of a scenario where the gamer plays as Rooney and joins the game in the 80th minute in an attempt to re-create Rooney's real-life heroics or alternatively we may choose to let the gamer take control of the US team and try and prevent the loss. 

GS: Describe the process of how the team will create these scenarios. How quickly will scenarios be available during the World Cup? How many scenarios will you be creating? 

MP: As diehard football fans, we will all be watching every single game during the World Cup. While watching, we'll be taking note of the most exciting games and key incidents, and at the end of each day we'll sit down and decide which ones we want to create. The scenarios will go live within 24 hours after the actual games take place. We need testing time for each, so we can't get them out any sooner than that unfortunately.

We are aiming to do a scenario for every game, but nothing has been finalized yet. I think it will be a very popular feature as it directly connects our game to the real World Cup on a daily basis, which is something we have never done before. For those disgruntled fans whose teams don't do too well, it also gives them the opportunity to vent frustration by downloading the game and showing them how things should have happened. 

GS: Beyond the obvious of downloading new scenarios, will there be any online component to Story of the Finals mode, such as leaderboards? 

MP: Not this time. If it proves popular, it's certainly something we could look at in the future, but I think for a first-time outing it will be enough for gamers just to have the ability to play alongside the actual tournament taking place on their TV. 

GS: What scenarios will be part of the Story of Qualifying mode? 

MP: There are lots, as the actual qualifying process created a lot of interesting opportunities. We actually had a tough time picking them as there were so many we could have done. I don't want to spoil the surprise completely, but there are over 50 to choose from, and they include scenarios from all of the different confederations. One of the great things about this mode is that it allows gamers to play with teams that they may not ordinarily pick, so they'll get to see all the different environments and stadiums in the game. Some of the more memorable ones we have included are Argentina's visit to Bolivia and having to deal with the issues of playing at high altitude; the historic playoff between bitter rivals Egypt and Algeria (the first time in the history of the World Cup a playoff of that kind has happened); the USA's visit to the Azteca in Mexico in a must-win scenario for the home side; and who can forget the game between France and Ireland in Paris and the now infamous Thierry Henry handball incident.

As an added bonus, completing each of the scenarios earns points which go towards unlocking the extra scenarios. The unlockable bonus scenarios are all from the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, and we all know how memorable that was. Remember the incident in the final!

GS: Elsewhere in the game, we've seen the composure meter that will be used with penalty kicks. What kind of fan feedback have you seen on this feature? Have there been any tweaks to the system based on this feedback? 

MP: There was a lot of feedback and tweaks required on the new penalty kick system, as it is such a step forward to what gamers are used to. We actually ended up putting in a training mode, as we were finding gamers were missing almost every kick because they were not used to the added accuracy and control of the new system. The composure meter was all part of that tuning and feedback and is one of the features that help us emphasize the pressure of taking a penalty kick. Each player has a different composure setting in the database, and in addition to that, the composure meter will also be affected depending upon the importance of the kick. If it's simply a kick to extend a big lead in a friendly match, then there is not much pressure. If it's the kick to win the World Cup, that's an entirely different matter, and the composure meter will relay that to the user. The feedback on the new system has been hugely positive so far. 

GS: What new features in FIFA 2010 will we recognize once FIFA 11 is released later this year? 

MP: We have a central gameplay team that continually refines and improves the gameplay experience for all of our football titles. It's all part of continuing the evolution of the EA football games so they get better and better with each iteration. The gameplay improvements in World Cup will certainly feature in FIFA, as they make the game that much better. FIFA 2010 World Cup South Africa represent the best football game EA has ever produced, so we are not going to throw all of that effort away. Likewise, we put a lot of effort into the new penalty kick system, so we will consider carrying this over as well. In terms of modes, there are clearly a lot in World Cup that relate to just the World Cup, so they won't feature, but everything we do to improve the gameplay experience will be carried over. 

GS: Tell us about Captain Your Country mode. 

MP: Captain Your Country is a mode based around achieving the ultimate goal of any professional footballer and that is captaining your nation to World Cup glory and being the one who lifts the trophy at the end of it all. You play as an individual player, which creates a unique spin on gameplay. You can play as one of the real-world players, create a new player, or even bring your virtual pro in from FIFA. If you choose to create a player or bring in your virtual pro, you also have the added bonus of being able to grow your player. As you play well and move up the rankings from B team player all the way to the first team squad, your player's attributes will improve. Most of the producers chose to create a player, as we have also added thousands of new commentary names that you can assign. There is nothing quite like hearing the commentator shout your name as you score, so the created players make it that much more special. The mode is a local multiplayer mode for up to four players, and that also creates a unique spin on gameplay. As a team, you are all competing for the same prize: to take your team through the entire qualifying campaign and onto World Cup glory. The subplot, however, is that you are all competing on an individual level for the captaincy, so while you must all play as a team, the other players are your direct rivals for the ultimate prize. These competing goals create some very interesting and entertaining games and a very different gameplay experience than many will be used to. 

GS: Players can use either existing stars or created players in Captain Your Country mode. We've seen this option in Be a Pro modes in other games, but I'm wondering if you have any data that shows how often people use one or the other? 

MP: We do track data surrounding these things, as it helps us develop features that gamers want and ensures we focus our efforts in the areas most people use. Making created players has become more popular since we have put more features surrounding it. In FIFA 10, there were 2.8 million virtual pros created, and 770,000 of these players utilized the photo game face feature through easportsfootballworld.com.

You will always get users who want to play as their heroes, and that's perfectly fine, but using a created player has its own unique personal feel in my opinion. In Captain Your Country on World Cup, for example, we have added another 6,000 player names that users can assign to their player. If you are lucky enough to have a name that features in that long list (and most people probably will), then you can give your created player your own name and hear the commentator shout it as you score. You'll also see your name feature in news headlines in the Fifa.com screen we have incorporated in the game. It's just a couple of the things that makes using a created player that much more satisfying. Additionally, using a created player also allows you to grow his attributes, which is something you can't do with an existing player, so he'll develop as the game progresses.

We'll always support both, but as we continue to develop the created player and make the process much more user-friendly, with features like game face and so on, I think you'll likely find more and more people gravitating towards creating themselves. In Captain Your Country, if you are good enough, you get to see yourself lift the World Cup surrounded by the real-world team. How cool is that!


2010 FIFA World Cup Updated Hands-On

It was fitting that today in San Francisco we got beaten by USA when playing as England in 2010 FIFA World Cup. While that was a particularly humiliating blow, the event allowed us to find out a whole load more information about the official World Cup game, including penalty shoot-outs, online modes, and the plans for postrelease downloadable content.

As we mentioned in our first hands-on with the game, 2010 FIFA World Cup is much more vibrant than the usual FIFA, which reflects the carnival atmosphere of the tournament itself. However, the development team at EA Sports in Canada has incorporated plenty of gameplay tweaks, as well as new game modes. These are the focus of this GDC preview, so if you're new to the game, check out our previous coverage.
One new improvement is the penalty kick system, which has radically changed since the last FIFA. Each penalty kick will change in terms of difficulty depending on the events surrounding it. For example, a penalty against Fiji when you're 5-0 up will be relatively easy; while the decisive penalty in the World Cup final against Brazil will be much tougher.


The new system is based on a compsure meter that goes back and forth, moving between red in the extremities and green in the center. The idea is to hold the shoot button when the marker is in the green area and then perform a similar maneuver to determine the power. Meanwhile, a blue marker will appear on the screen allowing you to direct the shot, with a small marker allowing pinpoint accuracy if you landed in the green portion of the bar. The position marker appears only in the training mode though; in the real game, you have to make a judgement on how much to tweak the aim of the ball.

With the penalty taker getting more options, it's only fair that the keeper does as well, so thankfully EA Sports has improved this area as well. Keepers now do more to stop the ball than before, automatically moving their arms and legs to knock the ball if they're heading in the right direction. You can also move the keeper up and down the line and perform various taunts, moving your body to try to put the penalty taker off his shot.

While the World Cup mode will allow you to take your favourite team to win the coveted trophy, there's plenty of other stuff to sink your teeth into. The Captain Your Country mode will allow you to work your way up from your nation's B-team, playing as either a famous player or a virtual pro just like in FIFA 10. You'll be able to compete against friends locally in four-player, and as it takes covers qualifiers to the World Cup final itself, this will be the longest mode in the game.

Online will be a massive part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup package, and we got to speak to producer Matt Prior about what to expect. Battle of the Nations will allow each country to see who has the best FIFA players by tracking each individual player online. A points system will award wins, and more points will be awarded for those who play with lower-ranked teams. Hopefully this will avoid the frequent Manchester United vs. Barcelona matches that clogged up FIFA 10 online and help to keep things interesting overall.

There will also be postrelease downloadable content for 2010 FIFA World Cup, although EA Sports wouldn't reveal what it will be or when it will arrive, other than sometime after the launch. The game also introduces a new two-button control system, which should allow novices to get into the game. Pass and shoot will be mapped to A + B, with secondary actions such as run being controlled by the AI.

2010 FIFA World Cup may well be coming out five short months after the last FIFA game, but EA Sports has certainly added a lot to the game. The build we played was feature-complete and was a noticeable improvement over the first version that we played back in London. The game is being released on April 27, so we won't have long to wait to get into the World Cup spirit.



2010 FIFA World Cup and FIFA 10 Ultimate Team Impressions


Today was footie day at GameSpot HQ, as developers from EA Canada came by to show off two of the company's big soccer releases for this year: 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa and the latest edition of the Ultimate Team feature for last year's FIFA 10. I've got some thoughts and observations on both games, but if you want a more complete look at World Cup, check out GameSpot UK's hands-on preview of the game.

2010 World Cup South Africa

It might not be a back-of-the-box feature, but this year's World Cup game has something that no previous FIFA game has seen: women. If you look closely during game introduction, you'll see ladies in the mix who are supporting their favorite teams among the guys wearing jester hats or brightly colored Mohawks. For whatever reason, people go nuts when they see girls at World Cup games, so it's nice to see EA is including the fairer sex this time around.

While I didn't spend a lot of time playing last year's FIFA 10, I like what I've seen of 2010 World Cup's evolution of the FIFA engine. Consider a situation I experienced during my hands-on time with the game:

Playing as Japan (against Cameroon, who was being controlled by EA Canada producer Luke Didd), I gave up a goal I'd never seen in a soccer game before. After my goalkeeper made a wonderful diving block to stop an otherwise certain goal, the ball bounced off his hands and just in front of him. My center half--who was nearby--collapsed down near the ball and over the keeper as he lay on the ground. Desperate to kick the ball free, I tried to move my defenseman close enough to the ball, but his legs were tangled up in the crumpled form of my keeper, which gave the Cameroon striker just enough time to get to the ball and knock in the go-ahead goal. Sure, I was angry at giving up the goal, but the game's attention to the physics of how bodies interact on the pitch was surely impressive.

The good news: 2010 World Cup will let you play a full World Cup tournament online, matching you with players of similar skill levels from the group stage matches, through the knockout rounds, and all the way to the World Cup finals. Matchmaking is random, so you can play a round in your WC tournament at any time and be matched up with a similar player. The not-so-good news: Matchmaking is completely random, so if you and 31 of your friends want to get together to organize a private World Cup tournament online, you're out of luck.

The "Battle of Nations" feature stands intact from previous international tournament games, which were first seen in UEFA Euro 2008. It is a metagame that assesses which nation--among the 199 national teams that were eligible to qualify for the 2010 World Cup--has the most serious FIFA skills. Playing the game will earn you points for your favored nation, but you won't need to play as your country of choice in order to earn points. So with that said, fellow Americans, let's plan on loading up Brazil online and never looking back!

FIFA 10 Ultimate Team

The popular card-collecting series, which began with UEFA Champions League 2006/2007 and has now migrated over to the Madden series, continues in late February. That is when FIFA 10 Ultimate Team is released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It will run you 400 Microsoft points or $4.99, respectively. The FIFA team has made several crucial changes to the mode. Here's a look at some of the most notable tweaks:

Unlike in previous years, Ultimate Team in FIFA 10 no longer includes the concept of doing away with excess cards in your collection. The card-collecting album is gone, and though you can still discard cards for coins or put them up for auction, keeping a ton of cards on hand will be to your benefit. Instead of simply focusing on creating a single ultimate team, you'll be able to create multiple teams from your various cards (and even save your various teams in any of 15 available slots).

Why would you want to create different teams? Why, for tournaments, of course. Ultimate Team will have numerous different tournament types, with new tournaments introduced on a regular basis after the game is released. While you'll want to have your most powerful team available for some tourneys, others will challenge you to build teams with very specific requirements (such as a team with a maximum skill level of three stars or fielding a team where no more than two players come from the same club). These various restrictions are another good reason to keep as many cards as possible on hand.

The developers behind FIFA 10 Ultimate Team are clearly putting a premium on playing in tournaments--thanks to tournament modifiers. These modifiers will change depending on the difficulty of the tournament and will affect the amount of coins you earn at the end of the tourney. In addition, one team in a tournament will earn bonus coins by being declared the best team in the tournament. Winning a tournament doesn't necessarily guarantee you this bonus; you still have a chance at it by playing skillfully throughout the tournament, even if you don't pick up the trophy.

Contracts will still play a role in FIFA 10 Ultimate Team, but there is one big change this year. Even if a card's contract is reduced to zero, it won't be automatically removed from your deck. Instead, you'll need to renew the card's contract with...you guessed it...a contract card.

Speaking of cards, there are a few changes to note here, as well. First, FIFA 09 Ultimate Team's gameplay cards--cards that you could play in midgame to affect either your team or your opponent's team--have been removed this year. New to the Ultimate Team deck are rare cards--which are essentially pumped up versions of their regular counterparts. Rare cards can happen for players of any skill level--for instance, you might have a rare card of a player who would normally be found in a silver or bronze pack but a boosted heading ability will elevate him to "rare" status.

Chemistry--or how Ultimate Team players play together on the pitch--is one of the most interesting aspects of Ultimate Team's gameplay, and there are plenty of theories on how to improve your team's chemistry. This year, the parameters for how team chemistry works have opened up a bit. For example, unlike last year, players who play in the same league or the same club in real life will enjoy a boosted chemistry bonus. The developers have also changed how a player's preferred position or formation affects his chemistry rating. For example, a player who normally enjoys playing right wing won't take as a big a chemistry hit if he's playing right midfield on your team. Similarly, a defender who prefers a 4-4-2 formation won't be put off if you change the formation to the very similar 4-4-1-1 formation. - Your club is your own in FIFA 10 Ultimate Team. If you created a team in last year's game, you'll be able to transfer your team name to this year's version. The game will even note the year when your team was established. The bad news? All the coins you earned in FIFA 09 will not transfer over into FIFA 10...because that would just be cheap.


2010 FIFA World Cup Hands-On

As certain as night follows day, it was a sure thing that EA Sports would announce a World Cup game in time for this year's South African tournament. After all, FIFA 10 is now within touching distance of selling 10 million copies, making it one of the most successful games in EA Sports' history. So we pretty much knew what we were in for when we received an invite to a mysterious event in London recently where the division's
Peter Moore lifted the lid on 2010 FIFA World Cup. What did surprise us, however, was just how different a proposition it was from the four-month old FIFA 10, with a much more vibrant look that befits the World Cup tournament. We managed to get hands-on time with the game at Stamford Bridge, where Premier League leaders Chelsea ply their trade, and spoke to producer Simon Humber about what to expect.

"We've been working on the game for 12 months to create the most stunning football game ever," said Humber. This has been achieved, he claims, through enhancing the gameplay, improving the visual authenticity, and capturing the carnival atmosphere of the tournament itself. The gameplay improvements are undoubtedly the most important, but it's certainly a tough job for Humber and his team to top what David Rutter achieved in FIFA 10. "We've something new in every area," he claims, listing 100 improvements in passing, shooting, dribbling, and every other basic gameplay feature in the game. Humber is upfront about other FIFA 10's annoyances, such as the goalies who were too eager to rush out and the fact that it was too easy to chip them as a result. Both issues have been addressed in the World Cup game.

Of course, while FIFA 10 is authentic to domestic football, the World Cup is a different beast entirely. We'll have to wait for the actual tournament to see how this year's event is presented on TV, but early marketing shows a bold colour scheme, and the South African weather should give the whole event a bright visual aesthetic. All these elements have been incorporated into the game, which results in a distinct carnival feel to the tournament. The crowds are vastly improved over FIFA 10--each team has its own 3D supporters, on whom the camera focuses during downtime, wearing their own team colours and waving their nation's flags.

All of the razzmatazz is there, too, with fireworks, confetti, and the new LED ad boards adding to the atmosphere. The FIFA broadcast captions have all been licensed, which means that the matches should have the same feeling whether you're playing them on your console or simply watching the real tournament unfold on TV. Also new are the actual managers for all 199 eligible teams who will bark orders at their teams from the sidelines. And if you take your team through the seven games to go from group stages to the finals of the tournament, you can watch them winning the World Cup as we saw when Humber played a video of England lifting the trophy.

One of the most surprising aspects of 2010 FIFA World Cup is just how much the graphics have changed from a technical perspective. The new lighting engine really adds to the realism of the players, with comparison shots of Ashley Cole and, particularly, Peter Crouch revealing the greatest improvement in the new game. The pitch is similarly improved, with richer, more textured grass clearly shown in Wembley comparison shots. With the carnival atmosphere of the competition added to the game, 2010 FIFA World Cup is substantially different from its predecessor in terms of visuals.

As Humber said during his presentation, this is the first time the World Cup tournament will be playable online. Details are sketchy right now, but there will be a persistent multiplayer mode where you will be able to represent your favourite team against the rest of the world. There'll also be an interactive globe in the game with statistics and news pulled in during the buildup, as well as the competition itself, from FIFA.com. We'll have to wait a little longer before finding out more about these features, but with 300 million FIFA 10 online games played and counting, you can be sure that online will be a huge focus for EA Sports in 2010 FIFA World Cup.

2010 FIFA World Cup will be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and PSP on April 30, leading up to the the tournament itself on June 11. Stay tuned for more info on the game as we get it.



FIFA World Cup 2010 Q&A With Simon Humber

With the 2010 World Cup in South Africa just a few months from now, an official World Cup game from EA Sports was a virtual certainty. After all, the publisher behind the tremendously popular FIFA series has produced the last three licensed World Cup games, beginning with World Cup 98 on the original PlayStation, the first WC game produced by the company after obtaining the license in 1997. For the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2010, EA is throwing a good deal of its development muscle behind the online features; the game will feature an online World Cup that will let you play as any of the 199 nations that participate in the FIFA, taking on other players around the world to claim sports' most prestigious prize.

We recently had a chance to speak with FIFA World Cup 2010's line producer Simon Humber to learn more about the game's features ahead of its April 27 release, as well as the process of putting together a World Cup game while at the same time continuing to work on the next entry in the long-standing FIFA series.

GameSpot: In World Cup years, you have two soccer games released in the same year from EA Sports. How do you decide which features will be in the World Cup games and which will be reserved for FIFA? 

Simon Humber: Well, some features are uniquely suitable for World Cup, and others would be common to any of our football titles. Essentially my team looks at the preceding FIFA, works out what needs to be enhanced, and then looks at the World Cup and what that means to people and creates a set of features that give a World Cup experience to people who can't get to South Africa. "Everyone can play in the 2010 FIFA World Cup" is the mantra we work to.

It's not as if [FIFA lead producer David] Rutter and myself end up wrestling on the floor of his office to decide what features go into each game! We have long-term plans we revise each year and work through the prioritized feature ideas getting as many as we can into each game we release. The World Cup is a spectacular event, and we wanted to capture the excitement and the atmosphere, so the first thing you'll notice about the game is how good it looks. It looks really good. In a way, we're lucky in that we get to tell a story and we know it's all building to the climactic ending in Soccer City on July 11. Since we know the ending and there is just one ending, we can put together a bunch of great visual features to support the run to the final. Take a look at the images, and you'll see things such as:

• A gorgeous new pitch: Our pitch simply wasn't good enough, so we've made it look superb.
• Lighting of the players and environment: Clever changes to the lighting makes everything look more realistic.
• Camera flashes: You'll see all the fans in the crowd using their cameras.
• Seat cards: Fans hold up cards to form national flags and emblems in a show of patriotism.
• Fans: Close-up shots on supporters cheering on their team or despairing in anguish.
• Confetti rains down from the sky in the team colors and stays on the pitch all game.
• Streamers create a carnival atmosphere as they glide to the ground.
• Populated benches: Characters sit on the benches rather than being empty.
• Broadcast graphics: The same captions you've seen in FIFA tournament broadcasts.
• Close-up celebration camera: To really feel the goal-scoring moment, the camera zooms in close to the player as he responds to your celebration commands.
• New players and managers: More content for star heads and many of the team managers.[England national team manager Fabio] Capello looks brilliant, and [notoriously tall English footballer] Peter Crouch no longer looks like a naughty elf.

GS: What's the main aim for FIFA World Cup 2010 in terms of gameplay and AI improvements? Are there any control changes we need to know about? 

SH: The game is not just about visuals, though. The gameplay has over 100 enhancements--some major, others subtle--so players will notice a difference in how World Cup plays compared to FIFA. So here are just a few of the improvements you'll get in World Cup. We'll talk about other aspects of gameplay closer to release.

Responsiveness:

• New chest traps that allow you to chest the ball in the direction you want to go rather than having to take midair touches after a chest to change direction.
• The ability to let a ball drop over your shoulder and move off in the direction of ball travel. Great for preserving momentum with lofted through balls.
• Improved the problem of trapping the ball too far and being "stunned," then taking too long to go and dribble the ball.
• Defensively players will now clear an aerial ball rather than do a chest trap first when you are asking for a clearance.

Goalkeeper:

• Improved the "narrowing down the angle" logic so the keeper doesn't come out so soon and so far, making him vulnerable to the chip shot.
• Ability to change his save direction if there is a deflection.
• Added variety to punching, which results in punches sometimes not clearing the ball out of danger.

CPU Teams:

• Added more skill moves for the CPU to use depending on a player's flair attribute or trait.
• Better understanding of game context and situation, resulting in more intelligent changes of tactics/mentality.
• Manager now looks at who he has as subs and will attempt to give star players on the bench some playing time (i.e. Fabregas for Spain; Pato for Brazil). Previously he would rely solely on match rating and fatigue, leading to unrealistic substitutions or the same one over and over again.

Positioning:

• Teammates will now take more factors into account when looking into space inside the box when they are making a run for a cross to be delivered. I can verify how exciting this is having seen the way that Emile Heskey bulldozed his way onto the end of a cross in Andorra the other day.
• Improved marking for when the CB pushes up to the ball possessor when he shouldn't, leaving the team vulnerable to an easy through ball and 1-on-1 with the GK.

Shooting:

• Improved the realism of where players strike the ball to give more off-center strikes leading to more swerve and variety in ball trajectory.
• Changed the chip shot to make it more challenging and also to improve the feel of it--more backspin, better trajectory.

Passing:

• Added personality to crosses to allow better players to put in more driven crosses into the box.
• Added chest and shoulder passes.
• Lowered the amount of power you can get on backwards crosses and backwards lofted through balls, forcing you to roughly have to face the way you want to pass it to for these types of kicks to succeed.

Set Pieces:

• Ability to trigger a teammate run on a quick free kick.
• Lowered the likelihood of the CPU scoring from FKs--they were too good.

There are also brand-new features for gameplay. I am allowed to mention that each team will play differently at home or away if under CPU control. For example, Northern Ireland are great at Windsor Park, so they are way harder to beat there than they are on their travels. That makes qualifying for the World Cup Finals feel much more realistic, as you can beat the smaller nations at home quite easily, but away from home you may have an unexpected battle on your hands, and they are the games that define who qualifies.

GS: How much of World Cup's on-the-pitch gameplay serves as a "proof of concept" for gameplay ideas in future FIFA installments? Is there anything new in World Cup 2010 that fans will see refined or improved in FIFA 11? 

SH: The fundamentals of gameplay are ever improving and evolving, so every improvement in that area for World Cup will be refined and honed even more for FIFA. The game will get better and better with each iteration, and World Cup marks the finest football game EA have ever produced. There's the occasional feature where we would consider taking a real chance outside of FIFA. If you look back at UEFA Euro 2008, I really wanted to try out user-controlled celebrations. There were some skeptics, but we pushed ahead, and now it's a core feature of gameplay which you can use or ignore.

There are new things for World Cup which should end up in FIFA. But right now they are unannounced, so you'll have to be patient on that info. 

GS: How is the development team organized for the World Cup games? Is it a completely separate team, or do certain folks work on both games? 

SH: The gameplay team make all of our gameplay, regardless of whether it's FIFA 10, 2010 FIFA World Cup, or future football games. So as soon as FIFA 10 was over we sat down and worked out how we could improve what we had. It was very amusing to read so many reviews wondering how we could improve on FIFA 10, as the hardcore players know there is always room to improve and we are totally dedicated to making our games better and better and better. While there is one gameplay team who continually refine and improve the experience on the pitch be that for FIFA 10 or World Cup, everything else is a separate and devoted team on World Cup. We're all located in the same space as the FIFA team, and so there's much sharing of ideas and knowledge.

The World Cup is such a massive and important event, and this is the biggest World Cup game we have ever produced. It features every team in the world who took part. It is by far the best-looking and sounding game we have ever made and features many new innovate modes particularly in the online space. To be able to bring all that takes a massive effort and a completely separate team of about the same size as FIFA's but with a different creative outlook since you all want a new game, not a FIFA 10 clone. 

GS: In previous years, the FIFA team has made no bones about wanting to bring the World Cup online. How does this game's online tournament mode fulfill that ambition? 

SH: I am happy to say we have achieved that completely. For the first time ever, we have managed to get the entire finals tournament online so that when you play online you will always be matched up against another human player regardless of the time of day or night. You'll choose your team and then play the three group matches, attempting to finish in the top two before heading into the knockout phase where you're four wins away from lifting the FIFA World Cup Trophy amidst a cacophony of confetti cannons and fireworks on a cool Johannesburg night. Without a doubt it's the most exciting online mode we've put together and the perfect way to build up to a match on TV or carry on the experience after a broadcast.

I expect this experience to really speak to our core gamers, and I get sweaty palms every time I test the mode and feel the pressure of tournament football for myself. 

GS: From a player's point of view, how will players compete in the World Cup online? How will tournaments be organized? Will player skill be taken into consideration when deciding seeding? 

SH: We have made it as simple as possible. Essentially the online tournament will feel exactly like the offline tournament with the obvious difference that you are pitting your skills against real-world players rather than the CPU. The player will simply pick their team, according to the size of the challenge they want, and enter into the competition. They are then matched up against players in the same round of the competition and progress as they would normally through the group stage and knockout rounds. Wherever possible, we adhere to the rules of the competition, so in the group stage you wouldn't be matched up against players who have the same team as you, and in the knockout stages you wouldn't meet any opponent from the group stage until the appropriate round. These are the rules of the real competition, and they have been factored into the mode. The only caveat to that is if the only other player available online has one of those teams. We are all avid online gamers, and the most frustrating thing about playing online can be waiting to find an opponent, so as a last resort you could get matched with the same team, but in reality this is very unlikely.

Player skill is not factored into matchmaking; instead, we use the Battle of the Nations to encourage better gamers to choose weaker teams so they earn more points for their nation on the leaderboard. So what you will see is a much more varied use of teams than normal ranked gameplay. Playing as a smaller team will earn you more points, so don't be surprised to see the likes of Tahiti or Andorra featured. This creates a much more interesting online experience than the usual battle of five-star teams and worked out well on EURO. 

GS: Beyond competing for the World Cup, what other online features will be in the game? Will you be able to play on the same team with other players online, for example? 

SH: I'll have to take the fifth on this question at the moment. There will be other online announcements at a later date though, and they are exciting. 

GS: An odd question, but with regard to the Battle of the Nations feature, how do you balance the feature to make up for large population variances (and thus the installed base of players) between different countries? Do relatively small countries like Honduras or Switzerland have even a hope of victory here? 

SH: Not an odd question at all. It's one at the front of our minds since in the past there have been some poorly implemented attempts to have rankings for groups.

We have online usage data that gives us a pretty good idea of how many players will be from each country. We'll use that as the starting point to create a level playing field. Then after the game has been out a week we intend to look at the actual usage figures and make any adjustments needed. The intention is that it comes down to gamer skill rather than big or small populations being favored.

GS: We understand that this year's game will include altitude effects in certain stadiums. How will this affect gameplay? 

SH: Altitude will affect gameplay realistically but subtly. We saw the effect altitude can have during the qualifiers when Argentina got thrashed away against Bolivia 6 to 1. Undoubtedly Argentina are the stronger side, but on the night they just couldn't handle the altitude. If you have ever been at high altitude you know that it can really sap your stamina, and you'll see that effect in game.
Likewise, the ball physics will be subtly different; the ball will fly a bit faster and straighter since there is less air resistance. You're not going to be able to hit 50-yard screamers into the top corner, but shots will be harder but also a bit more difficult to keep low.
It's not going to create unrealistic gameplay and might not be picked up on by some people. But the gameplay engine is quite mature now, and we can start to play with this type of thing to go a bit deeper on the experience. 

GS: OK, wrapping up, let's have a World Cup prediction or two. Who is your dark horse to make a deep World Cup run, and who do you think wins it all? 

SH: I'm going to steer away from England so I don't jinx them, and regardless, we don't have a good enough keeper. Assuming we don't win, I'd like Spain to win since they have been playing amazing football for the last two years. My dark horse would be one of the African teams. I suspect that on their continent one of them will make a run to the semifinal.

Add Link All Result From Amazon.com
  

Monster Hunter Tri

Monster Hunter Tri Preview:

Monster Hunter Tri Updated Multiplayer Impressions

Monster Hunter’s multiplayer is split into two types: open-world hunting and arena battles. Open-world hunting sees you take to the lush landscape with a crew as you search out and kill wandering monsters for their meat, item drops, or trophies. Arena mode works similarly but takes much of the running around out of the game, spawning you and friends into a sealed gauntlet leading to a huge open-air coliseum with a foe of your choice as chosen from the quest list available. First timers are able to select from one of four different class types as defined by their weapon loadouts. These are ranged attack with a gun; lance and shield; short sword and shield; and all out offensive attack with a huge two-handed hammer. Each class has its own damage profile, and while the slow speed of the hammer can unleash large amounts of damage, you’ll need to have someone else eating the hurt, as well as a fairly still target, to successfully land attacks. On the other end of the scale, light, faster attacks with the short sword and shield allow you to fend off smaller additional monsters that spawn into the arena defensively. But while you remain agile, your damage relies on prolonged periods of jabs rather than a single haymaker.

Selecting and playing a particular class--and we use the term class loosely--doesn’t assign you to a specific function during battles. While in other action games the guy with the shield is the designated damage sponge as everyone else wails on the boss, there’s no real “tank and spank” system here. The player doing the most damage to the enemy will be the focus of its anger, but that doesn’t give everyone else a free pass. Teamwork and coordination are essential here. The optional WiiSpeak support will also go a long way to helping organise parties to focus attacks on exploiting weak points while avoiding zones immune to damage. Monster Hunter is a game that rewards players who put the time in to kill monsters, as well as upgrade their weapons and armour. With this in mind, it's good to see that players will be happy to take their single-player character online or copy a profile to a Wii Remote to take to a friend’s place.

Your performance can be tough to gauge in the arena. Your health bar will deplete and grow as you quaff healing potions, but there are no health bars for your targets. Instead, you’ll need to rely on visual cues, such as staggering animations and the enemy’s attack behaviour to determine how well you’re slaying the beast. It’s an interesting approach and means you won’t know if you’re one more sword stab away from glory or rounding the first corner in a long, winding road to victory.
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During our hands-on time, we fought a midsized Raptor with no visible weak points. Our two-player approach consisted of sticking fairly close to each other, dashing in, and getting in a few shots before rolling out of the way to avoid tail swipes. Knockbacks and some smaller, more basic spawned enemies split us from each other, but we managed to take the big guy down after a long, drawn-out battle. Nintendo reps confirmed some fights may last as long as 45 minutes. Unlike seems to be the case in the open-world part of Monster Hunter, enemies don’t attack each other in the arena. This means you won’t be able to watch from the sidelines as they go toe-to-toe before stepping in to land the killing blow. Provided at least one player is still alive in the arena, you’ll be able to zone back in after dying without the boss regaining full health. A team wipe from multiple simultaneous deaths requires you to start over from the beginning of the encounter. The inability to swing a sword and heal at the same time means you’ll need to sheath your blade to drink potions or set traps. This will leave you vulnerable to wayward physical attacks and area-of-effect damage unless someone else picks up the aggro.

One thing we did notice is the scaling of the game visuals in the multiplayer mode. The single-player portion of Monster Hunter Tri looks great with its lush environments, textured terrain, and varied monster types. But unfortunately, perhaps as a limitation of the Wii’s hardware, split-screen multiplayer ratchets things down a few notches. Character and enemy models become blockier while the arena doesn’t have the same flashiness of the world surrounding it. It’s not bad enough to detract from the main event of killing things, but we’re hoping it’s something still being tweaked prior to launch to wring every drop of performance out of Nintendo’s console.

Monster Hunter Tri will be slicing and dicing its way exclusively onto the Wii in the first half of this year. Stay tuned for the full GameSpot review shortly.


Monster Hunter Tri Multiplayer Hands-On

When we last saw Monster Hunter Tri back at GamesCom 2009, we were taken with how impressive it looked. If bringing the franchise to a Nintendo system for the first time wasn't sweet enough, it was also one of the best-looking Wii games we'd seen to date. The visuals certainly go a long way in bringing the exotic monsters, environments, and characters to life. Originally released in Japan last year, the game is being localised by Capcom for Western markets, and this latest game in the series should be out this April in Europe. We recently got a chance to play the European version, including its two-player split-screen and four-player online modes.

Nintendo hosted a hands-on event in London, which kicked off with a presentation from producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and creative director Kaname Fujioka. The duo attempted to initiate the UK media in the ways of monster hunting, and given that the series hasn't been the runaway success in the West that it has been in Japan, this seemed like a sensible start to the day. During the presentation, Tsujimoto revealed a number of interesting facts about Tri, including the addition of several new weapons that weren't in the Japanese version, such as the Lion's Bane sword and the Grim Reaper-fashioned Sinister Saints switchaxe. Tsujimoto also confirmed that Monster Hunter Tri will support Nintendo's Wii Speak microphone peripheral. Text chat is also an option, and this feature will no doubt make communication between hunters easier during online matches. Lastly, he revealed that Capcom had direct involvement in designing Nintendo's Classic Controller Pro control pad. The redesigned controller appears to be the default control scheme for Tri, and while you can use a Wii Remote and Nunchuk or the original Classic Controller, we found that the pro's longer handles made it a better experience. In fact, Nintendo has announced two additional versions of the game for Europe: one that will be bundled with the Pro controller and another that will include the controller and the Wii Speak peripheral. After the presentation, we met with a Capcom spokesperson, who told us that you'll be able to copy your characters to a Wii Remote and play them on a friend's system, much like you can import Miis from one console to another.

Capcom has already revealed that the cute catlike Felynes won't be tagging along in Tri's single-player hunts, although they are available in the village to help you cook food and plant crops. Aiding you in battle this time around is Cha-Cha, a dwarf-sized fellow who looks a lot like the village witch doctor. We weren't able to see him in action, but according to Tsujimoto, Cha-Cha will become bigger and stronger and will unlock new abilities as you progress.

Monster Hunter Tri introduces underwater battles to the series for the first time. With the exception of two shoulder buttons to dive and surface, the main controls are the same whether you're in the water or on land. The Classic Controller Pro is particularly useful for underwater areas, as the inside shoulder buttons are easier to reach and sit underneath the outside ones, much like on the PlayStation 3's Dual Shock 3 controller. After kitting out our hunter with a great sword, we headed to the aquatic hunting grounds with our companions to hunt down the giant aquatic Lagiacrus dragon. The map had about a dozen sections, with several areas featuring bodies of water deep enough to conceal the beast. Diving into the sea and coming head-to-head with such a giant creature was cool, and he certainly proved to be a challenging opponent. Because you have to move in three dimensions underwater, combat is slightly more challenging at first, and unfortunately the series again fails to include a fixed camera angle behind you, so you need to use the right analog stick to keep the camera on the action. The Lagiacrus eventually moved to another area where we were able to attack it on land. Despite being a creature of the deep, the Lagiacrus was just as formidable on land, and it was great to see that the action continued unabated despite the location.

We also got a chance to play Tri's two-player split-screen mode, where we were able to hunt down a Great Jaggi and a Qurupeco. This mode took place in a single arena covered in sand and featured the backdrop of a beautiful, crumbling colosseum. Rather than fighting on regular hunting grounds, you need to fight it out man-on-beast in a single area; however, the overall gameplay remains pretty much the same. The starting area is adjacent to the arena, and if you die, it's easy to rejoin the battle once you've respawned. The monsters can't retreat to another area and recharge their health, and neither can you (although you can carry health potions and other items with you), so the battles are simple fights to the death. Despite having to share the screen with a companion, this mode does a good job of keeping the screen uncluttered while still managing to display all of the vital heads-up displays.

Nintendo and Capcom are still considering whether to charge a monthly subscription fee for Monster Hunter Tri, which would follow the model for the just-announced Monster Hunter Frontier Online on the Xbox 360 in Japan. Given that it's a four-player cooperative game rather than a persistent, massively multiplayer game, added fees might make it a difficult sell.
Monster Hunter Tri looks like it will be a delicious monster-filled treat for fans of the series when it comes out in April. Because multiplayer is such a vital part of the Monster Hunter experience, it's good to know that Capcom is working on its own in-game friends system, and we're hoping it will be as painless as possible for people to jump online and start slaying monsters. We're looking forward to seeing the final version and checking out all of the monsters and environments in store for hunters. For more on the franchise's Nintendo debut, be sure to check out our previous coverage and keep an eye on GameSpot for the full review this April.

Monster Hunter Tri Hands-On

Monster Hunter is a game that has been synonymous with the PlayStation brand up until now. The Japanese cult hit has sold millions of copies (and helped sell plenty of PSPs) in its home country but has experienced limited success in overseas markets thus far. Capcom hoped to challenge this notion with a marketing campaign in Europe for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, which launched to strong reviews, and is following this up with the series' first outing on the Nintendo Wii. We embarked on a hunting quest at GamesCom 2009 in Cologne, Germany, armed with our wits and a Wii Classic Controller.

What's New: Capcom confirmed that the European version of Tri will support an online cooperative mode for up to four hunters, as well as a two-player split-screen mode for certain missions and a single-player mode. When online, you can use your friends list to set up quests with friends, or you can quest with people you haven't shared friend codes with. You will be able to communicate using standard gestures, which will probably be similar to those incorporated into Mario Kart Wii.

While felyne helpers may make a comeback in Tri, they'll no longer go into single-player quests with you. Instead, you'll be accompanied by another human monster hunter. We have yet to find out about your companion, other than that it will be a male character. We also checked out the impressive-looking new switchaxe weapon--a ridiculously oversized, curved, double-edged blade that looks as impressive as it does formidable.

What's Different: This build is localised for the European region.

What's The Same: Our demo featured the same monsters we saw at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, including the bird/lizard hybrid Qurupeco and a dragon that you can fight underwater (a first for the series), the Lagiacrus. Like other new monsters, the Qurupeco will devour other monsters to recover stamina. In our hunt, it called some smaller members of its species in for backup, along with one of the dragon-like Rathian. Apparently there will be only two existing monsters making an appearance in Tri, including the Rathian, and all the rest will be completely new to the series.

We're pleased to report that the game's controls still feel pretty tight when using a Classic Controller and closely match the PSP scheme. You can also use a Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination to get the job done, and while Capcom wasn't able to confirm it, we expect that GameCube controllers will also work. Unfortunately there's still no option to lock the camera onto your current monster, but the L2 button will reset the camera behind you, and the right analog stick can be used to pan the camera.

What Impression The Game Made This Time: Monster Hunter Tri looks nothing short of impressive when running on the Wii hardware, and the engine does a great job of displaying the heads-up displays, your character, hard-earned weapons and armour, vibrant hunting grounds, and, of course, the monsters themselves. There's a soft look to the environments and some nice bloom effects, which make this version of the game the best looking to date. The controls felt natural and responsive, despite a few caveats, and we're keen to see what playing Tri online will look like. Monster Hunter Tri launched in Japan on August 1 and will be heading to Western markets in early 2010.

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A Boy and his Blob

We caught up with the bean-powered duo to check out some new levels and abilities

Based on the NES classic, A Boy and His Blob has been reimagined by Majesco for a new generation and a new console: the Nintendo Wii. You play as an unnamed boy who befriends an alien blob with shape-shifting abilities. Throughout your quest to get him back to his homeworld of Blobonia and defeat its evil emperor, you feed Blob various coloured jelly beans that transform him into a range of handy items. We recently got the chance to check out some of the later levels in the game and even paid a visit to Blob's house.

The game is divided into four hub worlds. We've seen the forest and swamp areas previously, but this time, we got to see the caves and Blobonia. We're told by Majesco that the final area in the game is called Citadel and will feature a final showdown between the boy and Blob and Blobonia's evil emperor. The main menu has a similar style to Braid, and you can access each of the hub worlds via paintings hung around the boy's house. There wasn't any dialogue or evidence of a storyline in the areas we played, but due to the intrinsic charm of the characters and world, it's easy to form an attachment to these delightful characters.

There are 80 stages in total: Each hub contains 10 regular levels and 10 challenge levels, which are unlocked by collecting special chests. Each level has three chests, and collecting a series of these unlocks a new level. One of the challenge levels required us to use the Blob in jack form to destroy an evil blob, which started a chain reaction and destroyed a string of blobs across the level. Unfortunately, the force of the explosion also destroyed the blocks we were standing on, and we had to race to reach a safe platform.

The cave levels are dimly lit, which contrasts with some of the brightly coloured parts of the game, and it would be impossible to traverse them if it weren't for Blob's bioluminescent ability. By swallowing nearby fireflies, Blob's body will glow with a soft-yellow colour and give you enough light to progress. Despite the visual contrast, the gameplay didn't deviate too much from what we'd seen before and threw a variety of puzzles at us, requiring us to use every bean in our collection. You're given different beans to use in each new level, resulting in a different experience every time.

While Blob has plenty of puzzles to solve, it will also feature some challenging boss battles. We played against a menacing, oversized, doglike blob that attacked us with claws, projectiles, and tentacles on its back. One hit from it will instantly kill you, but Blob can transform into a protective bubble, making you impervious to attacks. In order to defeat it, we had to make three evil blobs fall onto him from above platforms. One of these was achieved by using a hole for the blob to fall through, while we made use of another by pressing a switch to remove a barrier in the way. It may sound easy, but defeating it will require quick thinking and precise timing on your behalf.

There are plenty of forms that Blob can assume to aid you in your quest, including a trampoline, jack, space hopper, shield, balloon, anvil, parachute, and cannon. We got to try some of Blob's new abilities, such as the rocket ship, which lets you pilot him to new areas, and the aforementioned bubble. There's always a specific ability on hand to help you with your current problem, and you have unlimited beans--unlike the original--so you can keep experimenting until you find the right one.

A Boy and His Blob is looking great, and we really like the hand-drawn art style, detailed environments, and interesting characters. We still have some concerns about a few niggling issues, including the game's controls. On a few occasions, we had problems getting the game to recognise our analog-stick input when using the bean selector reticle. Despite this, A Boy and His Blob looks like it will be a fun remake of a classic, and you can find out for yourself when the game is released on November 6.

By Luke Anderson, GameSpot UK