Thursday, May 8, 2008

LOTR Conquest = LOTR Battlefront


EA and Pandemic announced today a new Lord of the Rings game, called LOTR Conquest, and it is coming out this fall on Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and DS. The developers have simply called this Lord of the Rings Battlefront as it is pretty much similar to those Star Wars games that came out last generation, but now the LOTR universe gets the treatment. While there are many ways to relive the greatest battles of the movies and books in past LOTR games like the beat-em-ups based on the movies and the Battle for Middle-Earth RTS series, Conquest throws a different spin on the LOTR universe being a normal dude like a warrior or an archer at the various battlefields like Minas Tirith and Helm's Deep, and then as the battle progresses doing well, you can play as the hero characters for a limited period of time (Gandalf, Aragorn, Sauron, and more) just like Star Wars Battlefront 2. I'm curious about how Pandemic will balance out the gameplay with the good and evil factions since they did a decent job with the Star Wars Battlefront games. Multiplayer is currently limited to a maximum of 8 players even though there are so many CPU controlled characters to worry as well. While we are not getting Star Wars Battlefront 3 anytime soon, Lord of the Rings: Conquest does fill the void for a Battlefront game in this generation of games and hopefully it will be pretty good. I have high hopes for this since I liked Star Wars Battlefront for what it brings to the table even though I didn't play Battlefront 2 that much.


SCEE Day Trailers.... LBP and Killzone 2

Other than DICE'S Mirror Edge making a huge showing at the Sony Europe Day, Sony's big first party games have gotten high attention too.


Here's a new trailer for LittleBigPlanet, which is now the most critically hyped game that game journalists (both mainstream and hardcore) are looking forward to other than Metal Gear Solid 4 (You get the whole "I can't wait to play this so bad" vibe every time they mention it). I'm still wandering if all this critical praise before its October release will equal success because the concept has already sold the hardcore audience, but I don't know yet for the casual gamer. Hopefully, a big marketing campaign would start closer to its release to attract the Wii crowd because Sony needs it if they want to make this a killer app. Personally, I'm already sold on everything LBP offers, it is the matter of buying a PS3 to support this.


Lastly, here is a new trailer for Killzone 2, which got delayed to February 2009 and that's good news for it because obviously it wouldn't be that smart of Sony releasing 2 high-profile exclusive first-person shooters at the same time. While Resistance 2 gets the glory of this fall's big Sony release other than LBP, everyone still asks what's up with Killzone 2 and whether or not it will deliver on all the hype it has gathered since that first trailer at E3 2005. By watching this trailer, it is getting better and better graphically, but who knows if it would be the same thing as that first trailer that shook the gaming world apart in 2005. I don't know about this game because it is just Sony's big hype machine and Resistance 2 would be better. Then again, I could be wrong and it could be the "Halo-killer" it was meant to be ever the since the series started.

Codemasters brings back the awesome menus... GRID Demo Impressions

The demo for Codemasters's new racer, Race Driver GRID, came out today on Xbox Live Marketplace and Playstation Network and it is so far pretty good from what I played. First of all, the slick and awesome menus from DIRT along with the stylish loading screens return giving it great presentation. The racing itself is solid if you are used to previous Codemasters racers like DIRT and the spiritual successor to this, the TOCA series. At first, it seems like an arcade racer, but the simulation elements kick in with damage, and taking turns perfectly since this is not a racer that you can get away from being bad at it. The damage element is pretty good since it affects your car's performance significantly as too much damage will mean a defeat since it can't continue the race. Then again, when your car is totally jacked up with the handling allowing swerving everywhere, you might as well give up. Especially with many cars in the same track, one mistake can lead into a messed up car. This gets frustrating in the multiplayer side of things when the usual big pileup happens at the first turn pending on people's skill level. The physics does take some races to get used to as many people at various message boards are complaining about the car handling. This ain't no Forza or Gran Turismo killer, but GRID so far is half-arcade, half-simulation like the PGR and Need for Speed games.

Graphically, this is one of the best looking racing games on this generation even though the bloom may be a little overboard for some people. It runs smoothly at 30 frames per second even though the first trailers have shown it at 60 FPS, but maybe that is for the PC version. The cars look great when in perfect shape and deformed at various parts. The tracks themselves also look great especially the San Francisco course even though I didn't really pay attention to the crowd that much. I'm pretty sure the scenery is better to focus on with the engine than the crowds. Sound-wise, it is your typical music for a racing game with various electronica and some rock.

With an okay amount of single-player race modes and up to 12 players for online multiplayer at two tracks using two cars. The GRID demo offers a good taste of what is come in the final version when it is released next month. The car physics and handling are typical of the Codemasters racers, which may take some races to get used to especially driving in GTA IV and other racers like Burnout Paradise. The damage element is neat allowing players to be careful not to hit walls or bump to other cars even though it will likely happen in every first turn of an online race. For me, it is a matter of luck if I start near the top or the back hopefully to avoid the big pileup like most online racing games for the first week. As mentioned in my racers to watch out for the rest of 2008 post, GRID can be a pretty solid racer for fans of the genre with a slick presentation, a lengthy single-player mode, and online multiplayer up to 12 players. Now I'm considering buying this even though Ninja Gaiden 2 and MGS4 are out around the same time.

Clip of the Day (5/8/08) - Sir Charles getting Punk'd again


Another funny moment for Inside the NBA when Charles Barkley reads the teleprompter and falls for the joke.