Chaos Rising is the first stand-alone expansion to Dawn of War II, 2009's popular real-time strategy/tactical role-playing game based on the Warhammer: 40,000 universe. Leaving core gameplay
essentially unchanged, Chaos Rising adds a new single-player Blood Ravens campaign, the Chaos faction for multiplayer games, two new heroes for the Last Stand game type, and several multiplayer maps. Although you don't need the original DOWII to enjoy the campaign, you'll probably want both games for multiplayer, since Chaos Rising alone won't give you access to the original four factions in multiplayer matches. Even with this caveat, however, Chaos Rising is a gem of an expansion that shines on its own, thanks to immersive gameplay, robust cooperative play, and a delightfully evil tone.
The single-player campaign, which you can also play cooperatively, with a friend controlling half of your squads, brings back your party from DOWII. This includes characters such as Avitus, the rage-filled devastator squad leader, and Captain Davian Thule, whose disembodied spirit pilots a dreadnought battlemech. If you'd like, you can import your existing characters from DOWII, but be warned that they'll arrive without their best war gear, including their terminator armor, which has been damaged and can't be equipped until later in the campaign. Chaos Rising also adds a new character, Jonah Orion the librarian, a versatile and highly customizable spellcaster more at home on the battlefield than at the circulation desk. These simple but robust characters, combined with an intriguing storyline, varied battles, and the cooperative option, make the campaign the highlight of Chaos Rising.
Chaos Rising's campaign forgoes base building in favor of real-time battles, followed by breaks to customize your characters' skills and equipment, listen to intelligence briefings and determine which squads will deploy to your next mission, and (optionally) communicate with your team members and superior officers. In addition to experience points, your characters can now gain corruption points, which grant them access to corrupted war gear and twisted, magnificent new powers bestowed by the Chaos gods. Corruption comes from a variety of sources, including wearing tainted war gear, using Chaos powers, betraying the Empire or your Space Marine brothers, and prolonged exposure to dark energies. Similarly, you'll get plentiful opportunities to redeem yourself and earn the right to wear war gear that requires a pure spirit; however, being good gives you only one special ability per character, so the dark whispers of the void can be very persuasive. Another reason to give in to the dark side is that the "pure" ending cutscene has a tendency to crash to desktop. Although you'll notice in-game consequences for becoming corrupt and evil, sadly you don't get any additional missions as a result, which can be a bit of a letdown if you spend the entire campaign plotting to turn against your commanding officer and do battle with the incorruptible dreadnought Davian Thule.
Your band of intrepid Space Marines must do battle against the Eldar, Orks, and Tyranids over the course of the campaign, but the new Chaos faction is your primary antagonist, not just on the front line, but within the ranks of your own chapter. While fighting the forces of Chaos, you soon discover that one of your own has turned traitor and heretic, working to undermine the Blood Ravens from within. Consequently, your adventure focuses on both driving the Black Legion from Imperial space and unfolding the foul conspiracy infesting the chapter. In Chaos Rising, you'll revisit some of the planets from DOWII, but thankfully, you won't play the same map twice, which keeps the gameplay fresh and engaging. The downside is that the campaign is only about 10 hours long. However, it does have some replayability if you take a different approach to corruption, use alternative skill and equipment builds, or deploy different squads to the battlefield.
After you finish the campaign, you'll want to collect some "skulls for the skull throne" and try out Chaos in multiplayer or skirmish mode. Their units range from psychotic humans, such as the Chaos Space Marines, to grotesque demons, such as the monstrous Great Unclean One, who can fling enemy infantry to their deaths with his agile intestines. Additionally, you can customize several of your units by devoting them to different Chaos gods, who in turn grant unique blessings. For instance, Havocs, the Chaos version of Devastator squads, can earn a rate-of-fire bonus for their loyalty to Tzeentch, while Chaos Predator tanks blessed by Nurgle gain health at the expense of speed. Furthermore, each of the three heroes dedicates himself to a distinct Chaos god, granting you access to both special Chaos powers and the ability to build shrines to his master. The melee-heavy Chaos Lord favors the blood god Khorne, whose shrines periodically spawn powerful demons; the defense-oriented Plague Champion prefers Nurgle, whose shrines heal allies and reinforce your units; while the fragile but potent Chaos Sorcerer lets you build shrines to Tzeentch that shoot bolts of energy at incoming enemies.
They say you can't go home again, but whoever coined that old adage apparently wasn't talking about the realm of Ferelden. Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening returns you to this familiar and fair
fantasy world, where degenerate demons called darkspawn have ravaged the land. The forces of evil may still lurk, but fans of 2009's wonderful Dragon Age will settle easily into the game's first full expansion pack, which harbors few surprises but delivers all the loot-happy adventuring that they'd expect. Awakening is not as exceptional as the main game; its story and characters make little impression, which is a disappointment compared to Dragon Age's splendid yarn. But in spite of some story frustrations and scattered bugs, Awakening is more of a terrific thing. It isn't a groundbreaking expansion, but it's an entertaining one that reminds us that if it isn't broken, there's no need to fix it.
You begin Awakening by selecting a character, either by importing one from Dragon Age: Origins or by creating a new one, who will start at level 18. Whichever route you choose, you're immediately dropped outside the fortress of Warden's Keep, where darkspawn continue their assault in spite of the Grey Wardens' earlier triumphs. It's clear from the beginning, however, that these foes are not the usual expendable masses. You hear tales of a darkspawn that speaks, and soon thereafter you meet this growling beast. As the keep's commander, it's up to you to venture into the surrounding environs, searching for clues that may help you identify and stave off the forces behind the new threat.
This is a straightforward fable much like the original, though it does provide a few memorable threads. A damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't decision toward the end of the game is possibly the finest of these, and your choice has major effects on how your adventure plays out. Tension between siblings and a journey into the realm of spirits known as The Fade serve up some additional highlights. Yet in spite of a few quality moments, the story isn't as interesting as you'd expect. One of Dragon Age: Origins' most shocking moments illustrated the sacrifice Grey Wardens must be willing to make to join the order, and it underlined just how determined and self-possessed its members must be. In Awakening, the ritual is treated so casually that the Grey Wardens--and the Joining--no longer retain their edge. The story treats The Right of Conscription with a maddening degree of carelessness; what was once serious has become almost flippant.
Luckily, your old ale-swilling pal Oghren will be there to remind you of the good old days. While you run into a couple of friends from your previous quests, the dwarf Oghren is the only party member from Dragon Age to cross over into Awakening. He's as funny as he ever was and a never-ending source of comic relief. His belching, cussing, womanizing ways always make for entertaining stories during your travels, and he's a great foil for Anders, a sarcastic mage who joins your party early on. You'll add four others to your party, including a warrior named Justice who proves that looks really can be deceiving, and a Dalish elf called Valenna who regrets the loss of her people's ancient myths and legends. Oghren is practically a legend, or at least he's one in his own mind, but none of your new cohorts are as unforgettable as old friends like Dragon Age's Alistair and Morrigan, let alone Oghren. There are no romances to undertake, and while giving gifts to your party members will lead to new dialogue options and other surprises, you aren't likely to get too caught up in their personal tales. So classic characters they aren't, but they are still appealing, in part due to the uniformly excellent voice acting that brings them to life.
What hasn't changed is the fantastic combat that made Dragon Age so much fun. It remains the same as you remember, letting you switch among party members at will, customize automated behaviors for those controlled by the AI, and switch from a third-person view to a more tactical overhead position at will. Battles are a total blast: colorful, intense, and occasionally challenging. Most basic conflicts aren't likely to give you much trouble, but several encounters will have you pausing to micromanage party members. One of them is an intense battle against several small dragons who have a good eye for seeking out your mages; another is the final boss fight, which is just as challenging as Dragon Age's last boss, but a lot more enjoyable. Some new enemies help liven up Awakening's standard battles, including heavily armored ogres and foes called the children, who have a nasty habit of taking your party members temporarily out of commission by leaping onto them. And of course, there are hordes of darkspawn to take aim at, along with familiar foes like desire demons and the like.
Luckily, you get new goodies to use along the way, including new types of weapon coatings and traps, along with stamina draughts to help refresh your warriors and rogues. More importantly, you get fun new spells and talents to tinker with, as well as two new specializations for each class. These elements don't have a dramatic effect on gameplay, but they don't need to; they're simply logical additions to the talent and spell trees that go along with the increase in level cap. But the new spells and talents are ever so fun to unleash, from the keeper's One With Nature defensive field to the spirit warrior's Fade Burst. There are also three new skills: runecrafting, vitality, and clarity. Runecrafting is the only active skill, letting you piece components together to make runes you can slot into your weapons and armor. Vitality and clarity are passive bonuses to health and stamina, respectively--an unimaginative addition but welcome all the same. These additions lead to greater combat flexibility and give you more flashy abilities to look forward to as you rise in levels.
Compared to the original Dragon Age: Origins, Awakening doesn't offer the same kind of outstanding value--$40 for under 20 hours of questing, as opposed to the 50-plus hours of the $50 main game. Yet the length is nothing to sneeze at, particularly when the questing is this involving. Your objectives are typical role-playing tropes--fetch a plant, kill some demons, seek out the apostate mages--but good quest writing gives them context, and improved art design makes some of the environments fun to explore. Awakening still looks like a typical fantasy game, and the forests and underground corridors look much the same as before. But a few of the new areas clearly received some artistic attention. A creepy marsh is one such location; an abandoned dwarven stronghold is another. Even a late-game trek down a series of winding stairways is a nice change of pace for the series and adds a welcome bit of environmental variety. Unfortunately, a few bugs let the visuals down here and there. We had a character's arm get stuck in an odd position and remain there for hours; at another point, initiating a conversation with a non-player character spawned a doppelganger that clipped in and out of its twin's body as it moved. These and other quirks might be small distractions, but they're common enough to be notable.
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening doesn't reach the high standards set by its illustrious precursor, but it's still a great game on its own terms. The combat and questing are as fun as they ever were and will keep you involved up until the very end, in spite of the uneven quality of the story and the characters that fill it. Oghren once said, "Misery, vomit, and malt liquor. Ah, reminds me of home." You know you've missed such delights too, and now's the time to head back.
Just Cause 2 is ridiculous in the best possible way. In the space of a few moments, you can grapple to a hovering helicopter; beat up the pilot and hijack the chopper; blow up a cluster of fuel
tanks; put the chopper on a collision course with an enormous antenna; jump out at the last moment; and watch the resulting explosion as you parachute down to the saddle of a moving motorcycle below. But in the life of Rico Rodriguez, such events are just another day at the office, though in this case, the office is the gigantic island nation of Panau, where three gangs vie to wrest control from a corrupt government. This is a big game that gives you a lot to do and a lot of crazy ways to do it. When Just Cause 2 gives you the freedom to do the things you want in the way you want, it shines in all its preposterousness and good humor. When missions and challenges shoehorn you into specific actions, however, the same loose mechanics that make the open-world exploration such a joy become a frustrating burden. Nevertheless, this sandbox action game surmounts its few issues with liberal doses of ludicrousness; well, that, and the ability to attach disreputable cops to a buggy with your grappling hook and drag them around.
There's a story tying all of the craziness together, but it's about as believable as the crazy stunts you pull. As in the original Just Cause, you play as Rico, a member of a US agency called, appropriately enough, The Agency. The story is all silly fluff, standing out more for its so-excruciating-it's-almost-good voice acting and broad ethnic caricatures than for any intricate plot developments. (Don't bother looking: There aren't any.) You'll probably have more fun trying to figure out where different characters are from based on their insane accents than you will working out what exactly is going on or why you should care, but the tale still works well in light of the game's screwy attitude. Contradictory updates from the government-run news agency will have you giggling precisely because they're so crazy; Rico offhandedly dismisses the insane, supernatural events that occur after an eventful flight into a Bermuda Triangle-type region. Most importantly, the tale provides oh-so-implausible excuses to blow up gas stations, radar installations, and offshore oil platforms.
And blowing stuff up is what Just Cause 2 does best. Causing explosions leads to chaos, which functions as a type of currency in Just Cause 2. To unlock new story missions and other goodies, you need to wreak as much havoc as you can, and you get lots of different, preposterous ways to do it. If you see a grouping of fuel tanks, you could just run in and shoot them with a machine gun, but that is one of the less dramatic ways to do it and will use up ammo besides. (And early on, the game is a bit too stingy with ammo, given the focus on making things go boom.) But why approach things in such a pedestrian manner? Instead, you could hijack a passenger jet, put it on a destructive path, and jump out at the last minute. Or you could steal a hulking tank, drive it to a central location, and start blasting everything that looks like it might erupt in a ball of flames. The dramatic approach can take a bit more time, but it usually leads to a good deal of entertainment. Yet, even if you do things the easy way and use a dinky pistol, the explosions are perfectly loud, big, bright, and obnoxious.
Of course, such noisy endeavors will get the attention of the local authorities. It's amazing just how quickly swarms of militants will descend on you. (You might actually see soldiers fade into view directly in front of you.) The most obvious way of handling them is to fill them with lead, and when you're surrounded by enemies, Just Cause 2's loose shooting mechanics work just fine. The ultraforgiving autotargeting makes it easy to run about spraying fire, though you can zoom in if you need a bit more precision, like if you are taking out a military colonel and need to land a headshot. If you use a controller, you might run into troubles with that same autotargeting; You can aim and shoot directly at a guy's head as he leans out a car door but not land any hits. But if you're using a mouse and keyboard, you aren't likely to encounter this issue, and you're getting a more fluid experience to boot.
When you're surrounded by a dozen armed baddies and bombarded by a hovering helicopter, however, making a quick getaway may be the best option. Rico's grappling hook is a real life saver in these circumstances. You might attach it to a nearby building and fling yourself onto a roof or grapple the ground and pull yourself out of harm's way. Better yet, you can pull off a sort of inverted Spider-Man routine by grappling the ground, hurling yourself into the air, and opening your handy parachute before you hit the ground. Once airborne, you can repeat the move over and over, flinging yourself around using the grapple hook like Spidey would use his webbing. From the air, you can perform some satisfyingly silly stunts. For example, if you'd rather travel around in a motorized rickshaw, you can grapple on to one, pull yourself onto its roof, and evict the driver, who will undoubtedly be vocal about his or her displeasure. Or perhaps that chopper is still dogging you. In that case, grapple onto it, chuck the pilot out, and take it for your own. But it's plenty satisfying just to travel using your hook and parachute. It takes a little time to get used to the rhythm of taking off, but once you're accustomed to it, there's nothing like soaring above Panau's snow-capped mountains or taking in a beautiful sunset while floating slowly toward the beach.
Whether sneaking through a crowded village hoping to avoid enemy contact, or seeking a vantage point to line up a shot on a high-value target, a sniper's job is always a difficult one. And while many modern military games give you a taste of what it's like to wield a
high-powered rifle as a part-time killer, the upcoming Sniper: Ghost Warrior looks to put you in a ghillie suit and give you a taste of the problems (and power) that come with being a military sniper.
Developed by City Interactive, Sniper will feature 16 missions that will add up to nine to 11 hours of gameplay. Though there are some straight run-and-gun assault missions to be found, most of your time is spent sniping. The game's plot takes place in the fictional South American country of Isla Truena, which has been under dictatorship rule. The US military is sent in to assist the rebels looking to overthrow the dictator, which is where you come in.
During our demo of the game, we watched as a sniper, wading through waist-deep vegetation, lined up a shot on two unsuspecting soldiers who were standing on the far side of a pair of cliffs spanned by a rope bridge. To set up a shot, you press the left trigger (on the Xbox 360 controller), which brings up the scope. The scope HUD has a lot of information--including the obligatory crosshairs, as well as a shifting red dot that is used on the easy difficultly level to show you exactly where your bullet will make impact (taking into consideration factors like wind and the natural arced path of a bullet's flight). At higher difficulty levels, that red dot is not available, and you'll be required to make the adjustments yourself. Another meter in the HUD measures your heartbeat; if your heart rate is normal (around 80 beats per minute), you're considered calm and can easily line up a shot. If you're under pressure and your heart rate is elevated, it will be more difficult to set up shots.
Much of the challenge of successful sniping isn't hitting the target, but rather getting into a suitable position that will allow you the best shot possible (while not getting caught in the process). In game terms, stealth is a big part of Sniper's challenge. Because many of the missions take place in the Amazon jungle, there will often be plenty of thick vegetation to hide in. You'll also have a handy meter at the bottom of the screen that will display how aware enemies are of your presence. If the meter fills up completely, you've been spotted and better look for an escape route. In some missions, you'll also have a spotter who will tell you exactly what you need to do in order to get through a mission. Finally, there's also a minimap that shows nearby enemies and their current state--calm, urgent, or alarmed.
In the sniping missions, you'll have a variety of gear to see you through to the end--most importantly your sniper rifle. You'll start a bolt action rifle but will eventually move on to longer range weapons like the Barrett, a significantly more powerful rifle that brings with its stopping power the added danger of being really, really loud. Enemies will respond to shots fired, after all, making every shot you take that much more important. There will be other accessories on hand in the game, including pistols, throwing knives (which you can pick up again to reuse), and claymore mines which you can use to set traps.
Different missions will have different requirements--some are straight-ahead sniping missions where the goal is to clear a village of enemies or take out a high-ranking officer. In others, you'll need to avoid enemy engagement altogether, and even being spotted by the bad guys will result in a failed objective. Some missions hold your hand more than others--such as those that use a spotter to alert you to nearby enemies--while others put the onus squarely on the player in dealing with all of the obstacles in your way; from planning, execution and, as looks to often be the case, dealing with missions that go haywire.
It's not all slow-paced stealth in Sniper, however; the game will have a number of assault missions to play through. In these missions, you're playing as an Army soldier whose missions are often tied to the sniper ops in the game. One mission we watched featured a full-on assault of a pair of oil rigs and, as you might expect, the action was frenetic and fast-paced, especially when compared to the slow-as-you-go sniper missions. In addition the game will include multiplayer, though details on the different modes haven't been released yet.
Developer City Interactive says Sniper will be "the most realistic sniping experience in a video game ever," which, considering the long and illustrious history of sniping in games, is a heady claim indeed. We'll have to wait until we actually play the game before we can judge that assertion, but we do know that Sniper deserves some credit for putting so much of its attention on this most deadly of professions. The game is currently due for release in spring for the Xbox 360 and PC.
Have a lot of spare time on your hands? If so, Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic might be the game for you. The latest addition to Ubisoft's venerable submarine simulation franchise is so
confusing and unfinished that it would be less of a hassle to join the Navy and get firsthand experience underwater than to figure out what's going on here. While the game has strong points and shows potential if you want to wait for developers and modders to (hopefully) fix the current problems, at present you have to do everything the hard way. The opening tutorial mission teaches you nothing about how to captain a sub. Key functions have been stripped from the interface in favor of clumsy commands and giving orders to the crew in person. The new morale system for crewmen is broken. And let's not forget the generous assortment of design quirks and bugs, which are joined by an obnoxious copy-protection scheme that requires you to be online at all times. There are a few glimmers of hope, but much of the time this is one of the most grueling experiences below the waves this side of Das Boot.
Like its predecessors, Silent Hunter 5 is a thorough World War II simulation of life spent hiding under the waves in a German U-boat. Just about everything can be configured, so you can go for total realism or take advantage of crutches that make it easier to spot enemies, shoot torpedoes, and so forth. And it's a good thing that you can dumb everything down, because Ubisoft has made it tough on rookies. The early hours are frustrating, largely because the tutorial mission is a waste of time and the 35-page on-disc PDF manual covers virtually none of the core concepts you need to understand. It's absurd how little you're told. The tutorial sees you do nothing but sink sitting-duck cargo ships and use the map screen to plot a course, while the manual spends more space on cheesy bios of your crew ("Emil is usually very quiet and somewhat nerdy") than it does on the nuts and bolts of the sub operations necessary to get everybody home to Hitler. Even worse, the manual has been scanned at a low resolution, so you can't zoom in on maps and illustrations without them turning into blurry messes. First impressions don't get much worse than this.
If you can get over this steep learning curve, you'll find a full-featured game awaiting you on the other side. You assume the role of a U-boat captain in the lengthy single-player campaign, as well as in the handful of one-off historical missions where you do things like protect the Bismarck and sail down the St. Lawrence River to attack the Canucks. Most of these historical missions are brief and flavorless, wrapping up fairly quickly after you fulfill basic objectives, such as sinking a specific enemy vessel or sending a set amount of cargo tonnage to the bottom of the sea. Multiplayer (LAN or online) offers a more intriguing hook with co-op teams of up to eight U-boats working together to hunt ships in the eight included scenarios. Objectives range from simple quick strikes against small convoy groups to large-scale assaults on task forces that include dozens of merchant ships along with battleships and even a carrier. Modders are already making missions for the multiplayer, which should give it a long life span. Unfortunately, the online game suffers a lack of players, partly because this is a niche sim and partly because of connection problems that force some users to manually open a handful of ports on routers. At least you can try multiplayer missions solo, so you can get a taste of how they play even if you can't connect with anybody else.
Campaign missions start as the war begins. Your first assignment is to play the first officer aboard a sub patrolling the Polish coast during the German invasion in September 1939. From there, you are promoted to captain and given your own boat to guide through a branching series of assignments that take you into 1943. Oddly, the campaign can be sort of a snore. Patrol objectives seem arbitrary and dry. Your directives are sensible and usually involve taking down a couple hundred thousand tons of merchant shipping in the North Atlantic or sinking specific Allied ships by set deadlines, but the way they're presented leaves a lot to be desired. Aside from short briefings on maps at the start of scenarios, the rationale for missions is never explained. It's a little too much like you're clocking numbers, hoping to win the war if your sunk-ship totals wind up higher than the other guy's. At least these goals are situated in a way that makes you feel like you're part of the war. You pitch in to help with the greater German war effort every step of the way, fighting the British blockade during the phony war, aiding in the invasion of Norway, hammering UK shipping after the surrender of France opens up rather convenient new sub harbors, helping Il Duce in the Mediterranean, and going toe-to-toe with the Royal Navy when the tide begins to turn against Germany in 1943.
Regardless of these lukewarm patrol assignments, combat is challenging and the mood is dark and ponderous. Playing an underwater assassin stealing across the ocean on starry nights is addictive. It's incredibly satisfying to stalk enemy vessels, whether you're zeroing in on a convoy of wimpy cargo ships or creeping into a task force of destroyers and launching a salvo of torpedoes before slinking off into the deep. It's like you're playing a nautical chess game. You have to think a couple of moves ahead, assessing the risks involved in revealing yourself long enough to fire torpedoes or even taking your boat to the surface and finish off wounded prey with the deck gun. You're always tempted to try something outrageous, like sliding into the middle of a task force and sinking a battleship. So situations can get very crazy, very fast. One moment you're admiring a kill, and the next you're running from a pack of destroyers that are trying to crack your hull open with depth charges. And as the war moves along, the Allies get smarter, throwing more warships, more escorted convoys, and better sub-hunting tactics at you even as your Mark VII line of U-boats improves through a couple of new model iterations.
Still, as much as you want to get immersed in the reality of life as a U-boat boss, it's easier said than done. There are loads of problems. The biggest is with the overhauled interface. So much has been streamlined that key features have been removed entirely, in particular most of the gauges that gave the earlier Silent Hunter games a WWII-era atmosphere. Now when you're on a periscope screen, all you see is a black background dotted with the Tactical Action Interface minimap--which looks a lot like a GPS--and some modern-looking icons. This is definitely more realistic in some ways (look through a real periscope and you don't see gauges all over the place), and the black makes it easier to spot enemies at night, but this screen remains awfully blah. At a glance, you wouldn't know if the game was set during WWII or today. Many functions have been ditched, such as the compass that allowed minute course alterations. Now you have to plot all course changes on either the main map screen or the minimap, which isn't fun in tight moments when you're engaged with a convoy or fleeing from warships. There isn't even a way to check your depth under keel. Fan mods are already starting to address some of these deficiencies, but still, it's incredible that Ubisoft removed such vital parts of the interface.
The prince has undergone a drastic transformation during the seven-year span between the Sands of Time and Warrior Within. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands returns to that
universe and plans to fill in some of the gaps by recounting just one of the prince's many chaotic adventures. In this particular case, the story is about the prince and his brother who have teamed up against the devastating Sand Army. While the game and the upcoming movie Prince of Persia: Sands of Time are coming out around the same time, the game is completely separate from the film; thus, the in-game prince bears no resemblance to Jake Gyllenhaal--except for the outfit. The last time we saw the game, we ventured into an expansive city that was under attack by outsiders and eventually faced some skeletal members of the Sand Army. In our latest hands-on session, we practiced our freezing water ability to navigate through the sewers and get a taste of what combat is going to feel like.
Our demo put us in what looked like the basement of an enormous palace where we stumbled upon prisoners who had been recently converted into statues by the Sand Army. Water columns and spouts shot out that were often timed, so to make sure we had something to hold onto, we had to time our powers with the left trigger carefully. Your energy bar depletes as you hold down the trigger, so you can't keep water frozen indefinitely. Switches and levers are located in certain rooms to trigger the position of the water, so when you're not stabbing sand creatures in the belly, you're trying to find the way out. Some of the trickier maneuvers will require you to let go of the trigger to unfreeze and recharge your energy bar before using it again or time it so that you can leap from one spout to the next while passing through a waterfall in between. It can take a few tries to get the timing down, but once you have it, you can find secret collectables that will yield some extra experience points for you to upgrade your powers.
We were able to experiment with a few combat powers that were selected for us, which included a stone armor spell that boosted our defense, an ice spell that would shoot a beam of frost along the ground from our sword, and a tornado attack that picked up neighboring enemies then swirled them around until they disintegrated. These abilities can be upgraded as time goes on or you gain experience points, and they cost a blue orb to cast. If you didn't like your last move or happened to die, a blue orb can also be used to rewind time, but once you're out of orbs, you'll have to start over from the last checkpoint. So, yes, you can die in The Forgotten Sands.
The Sand Army is led by an ifrit, which we encountered later in our session. While we explored the dingy underground prison and pristine palace interior, we came across several different types of creatures we hadn't seen before. Ghouls were armed with shields that prevented us from merely slashing with our sword, but they were easily disposed of with a swift kick that knocked them over and a follow-up stab in the chest. Summoners are another creature type that will continuously summon wraiths and other Sand Army minions unless you take them out first. The other monster type are specters, which are a bit tougher and armed with a spiked club, so it'll take a few tries, as well as frequent dodging, to keep them at bay. You don't have the ability to block, but you can defend and reposition yourself with the B button by rolling or jump over the enemy with the A button. Combat is fairly fluid at this point, and you can come up with your own combos to keep enemies at bay.
The ifrit showed up once we made our way to the palace exterior, which was a breath of fresh air, especially after having spent a good amount of time running around the grimy dungeons. As we made our way across the wide, spacious balconies, it was easy to enjoy the spectacular view of the sky and the distant palace rooftops all while jumping over the fresh gaps that the ifrit had just made by launching fireballs at us. The build we played on was still early, so some enemies didn't quite move the way the way we expected them to and had missing textures. Hopefully, the camera will be improved because it was a bit fidgety at times, but the environments and surroundings looked great while the controls were solid.
Look for this version of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands when it is released on May 18 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. The Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS versions of the game with the same title are completely different games with a new storyline.
The last time we ventured through the lively halls of Hogwarts, we got a glimpse of what the stars of the Harry Potter series could do with a little class time and practice. At the 2010
Game Developers Conference, we played Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 for the first time and found that it can be just as fun to play as Hagrid's drooling puppy Fang or Hermione's fat cat Crookshanks. Granted, they can't cast spells to ward off dementors or get through devil's snare, but they come with their own unique abilities to help you get where you need to go.
Our first stop was Hagrid's house where he would eventually take the young wizards to the Forbidden Forest. After a few goofy cutscenes where Hagrid was airing out some dirty laundry and tending to a sick unicorn, we were on our way through the mysterious woods. Because Harry is not always alone on his adventures, you can easily rotate among the members of your party, including the nonhuman ones. One particular handy party member was Fang because he could dig in areas that were highlighted by paw prints, giving us access to secret areas. He could also pounce and attack giant wasps that were otherwise in our way.
Hagrid may come well equipped with a crossbow, but Fang can bark, beg, climb ladders, and even play dead. Not too shabby for a big dopey dog. And you can play as other pets--not just as Fang. By using the right bumper to rotate through your arsenal of spells, Hermione can bring out her fluffy cat Crookshanks, and you can control the cat temporarily to help you dig. The forest is full of strange critters and out of control plants, so it's fun to see what kind of animations are triggered when you put the right pieces into place. It's important to interact with anything that you can because you never know what will happen if you water the plants or put a particular brick back where it belongs.
We jumped ahead to year three to watch a scene where Harry goes for a ride on Buckbeak with Hermione and they get dropped off on the rooftop of Hogwarts. Like previous Lego games, there's still a lot of teamwork involved, which is what makes the games more fun to play with a friend. As we made our way across the roof, we realized that we needed to rely on Harry to cast expecto patronum to keep the dementors at bay and that Hermione was most useful by keeping the devil's snare in check. Friendly fire is usually off when you're playing with someone, but when you're partnered up with the computer, some funny things will happen--like enlarged faces--if you mistakenly zap your fellow wizards.
For our final stop, we moved onto year four, jumping head first in the Triwizard Tournament. Some liberties were taken so that you won't be facing a giant fire-breathing dragon alone, so just know that Hermione has got your back when it comes time to face the trials. The game becomes more intense as the years go by, which makes sense as the series gets darker as more time passes. After fending off dementors in year three, we were hopping around by year four trying to track down vital potion ingredients for a strength formula all while dodging the dragon's flames coming from the background. It's chaotic but fun, and it'll be sure to keep you on your toes.
Little details and new objects are continuously being added so we'll have more updates when we get a chance to play with a build of our own in the near future. The game looks good so far and can be played cooperatively offline across all consoles, as well as online for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 will be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, and PC later this year.
