Ok so I’ve been waiting for this for a while now..yay! FAR CRY 2

Also check out our video Gallery for the FAR CRY 2 Console Comparison Video

Well Ubsoft has done it again! After the Sands of time trilogy here’s the new Prince of Persia Game

SAN FRANCISCO -April 28, 2008 - Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced that a new Prince of Persia is scheduled to release Holiday 2008 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and PC. This new Prince of Persia marks the debut of the critically acclaimed franchise on next-generation consoles. Developed by Ubisoft’s award winning Montreal studio that brought you Assassin’s Creed(TM) and the same all-star team that created the previously acclaimed Prince of Persia® Sands of Time trilogy, Prince of Persia is opening a new chapter in the Prince of Persia universe, featuring a new breed of gameplay. The game is poised to rejuvenate the action-adventure genre in addition to introducing a brand-new illustrative art style.

Ubisoft will also release a Prince of Persia game specifically designed for the Nintendo DS(TM) system, featuring an entirely new storyline and new characters. More details to be unveiled in the future.

The events in Prince of Persia occur in a completely separate timeline from the Sands of Time trilogy, with an altogether new prince making his debut–except this time, he’s not a prince from the get-go. The new character that you play as is described as an adventurer searching for riches, who, through the course of the story, becomes a prince. Inspirations for the character have been drawn from Sinbad the Sailor, Han Solo, and even Lo “Dark Cloud,” the desert bandit from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The story is also loosely based on Persian mythology and the twin gods Ormazd (read: good) and Ahriman (read: bad). It seems that something’s amiss with the Tree of Life–which holds the power of life and death–and an evil corruption is spreading across the land. Throughout your quest you’ll need to heal the world one area at a time by destroying enemies that serve as a manifestation of that corruption, thereby ridding the land of it.

You’ll also be accompanied by an attractive young lady named Elika, the last descendant of the guardians of the Tree of Life and apparently inspired by Keira Knightley’s character in Pirates of the Caribbean. Elika has grown up within the walled garden that protects the tree from the outside world and therefore has led a rather sheltered life until now. While Elika serves as a storyteller, she’ll also assist you in combat, acrobatic moves, and puzzle-solving.

Elika becomes your companion early on in the game, and while you won’t control her directly, there is a context-sensitive button that’s assigned to her and at your disposal during the game. For instance, you might be able to pull off a move midfight by throwing her over your shoulders into attackers or use her during the more acrobatic parts of the game to help you climb the more difficult ledges. She’ll also respond automatically on some occasions, switching places with you while scaling a vertical cliff, for example. Despite the fact that she is human, she can’t die or be killed in the game.

The enemies you’ll encounter in Prince of Persia represent physical manifestations of the corruption. They’re neither human nor mechanical but instead are a result of the gooey, organic corruption coagulating into adversaries, which, unlike in previous games where you fought multiple enemies at once, now have to be taken out one at a time.

The majority of the game’s action takes place in outdoor environments. You’ll explore canyons, cliffs, and many other natural structures that you’re able to scale. You’ll also find yourself indoors at times, with corridors and sheltered bridges mixing things up a bit. Highcastle, one of the regions we saw, was dominated by–you guessed it–a castle set high above the corrupted landscape.

The series has always had elements of acrobatics, puzzle-solving, and combat. However, on this outing the prince will have to rely more heavily on acrobatics to advance through the game. That isn’t to say there won’t be any adversaries or any puzzles to solve, but the emphasis will be more on exploration and using the prince’s abilities to reach new areas. Standard Prince of Persia moves are back, but the prince also now sports a glowing, metallic glove that will allow you to perform an array of new moves, including the Grip Fall–a move that gives you a second chance in instances where you might otherwise have plunged to an untimely death.

The game has a partly open-ended structure, in that the order in which you explore each area is completely up to you. However, the path to each objective will still be linear. The developers didn’t elaborate, but we were told that the order in which you complete the objectives will also have an effect on gameplay.

The game’s world is divided into dark and light areas, which represent the two states of cursed land and healed land. One of the major objectives in one of the regions we saw was represented by a beam of light that extended high into the sky. When we came close to reaching the healing ground from which it emitted, we were confronted by a huge beastly creature called a hunter. After a short fight he was disposed of, and we were then ready to step into the light, presumably to vanquish corruption from the region, yet unfortunately for us, it was at this point that the demonstration drew to a close.

Prince of Persia will be making its way to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and DS later this year. Stay tuned for more coverage of the game.

Drool on the new Prince of Persia 4 trailer

Ok, so I know the Xbox 360’s been out for over 3 years now…and not like this is a very informative article…but I still get asked the golden question “why should I buy the Xbox 360?”

Well its not so much so as a golden question, but a question nonetheless. With the risk of repeating myself over and over again..i’ll move on now.

So before jumping into why you need to buy a 360, you need to know what are the types of Xbox consoles out there:

The three types are:

Xbox 360 Arcade, Xbox 360 core and Xbox 360 elite. Each of them come with their differences.

Here’s a comparison:

ontents	Xbox 360 Arcade	Xbox 360	Xbox 360 Elite
Xbox 360 Console			BLACK
Wireless Controller			BLACK
Storage
Headset	SOLD SEPARATELY		BLACK
Network Cable	SOLD SEPARATELY
AV Cable	STANDARD	STANDARD/HD	STANDARD/HD
HDMI Digital AV Cable	SOLD SEPARATELY	SOLD SEPARATELY
Xbox LIVE	SILVER MEMBERSHIP	SILVER MEMBERSHIP	SILVER MEMBERSHIP
Game Compatibility	ALL XBOX 360 GAMES	ALL XBOX 360 GAMES + OVER 300 XBOX GAMES	ALL XBOX 360 GAMES + OVER 300 XBOX GAMES

Price                      $280                $350                 $450

Simply put, buy the best and most expensive 360 you can afford.

Dhoom 2.5 the game is expected to hit shelves very soon. Earlier, the game was scheduled to be out by end last year but got delayed.

FX Labs refused to comment on the delay or give a tentative release date for the game simply saying ‘the wait would be over soon!’. The game is designed to give players the opportunity to assume the role of their favorite characters from the movie and make their way through numerous exciting missions and mini-games.
FX Labs and Yash Raj Studios inked an exclusive deal in 2007 to develop the blockbuster into a PC game. The former also claimed that the game will have an international production quality to it, at the same time creating a bench mark for future film-based games in the country.

Incidentally, FX Labs is also developing a game based on the film, Ghajini, which is being remade by Aamir Khan. The game will feature mind-boggling quests, stunning sound and visuals that would get you immersed. Expected to be released in the Fall of 2008, I think that this game will be delayed due to Dhoom 2.5.”

It’s now official: Street Fighter IV will definitely be hitting consoles following its Japanese arcade debut.

Capcom announced yesterday that the heavily anticipated fighter will be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as well as the PC, which is maybe the one big surprise to come out of the announcement.

No word yet on when the game will hit homes, but the game should be officially released in Japanese game centers sometime this summer. A fifth, and probably final, location test was held in Tokyo and Osaka this past weekend.

Capcom’s CAPTIVATE08 media event starts tomorrow and may reveal some more info. The company has also been teasing that their site will introduce a fourth new character for the game tomorrow, and also reveal the final boss of the game.

So after watching Iron Man the movie, there was just 1 thought in my head: Blockbuster summer film hits theaters. Mediocre video game tie-in hitches along for the ride.

The Game Plot: Weapons mogul Tony Stark is kidnapped by militants in the Middle East and forced to build a superweapon. Instead, Stark creates the Iron Man armor and escapes. After returning home, Stark decides to cease weapons production and destroy the remaining remnants of his arsenal. (read LAME)

Sega handles the game’s star pretty well. The armor glimmers brightly. His three main weapons — hand repulsors, missiles and a unibeam from his chest — are fun to use. The first time you grab an oncoming missile and thrust it back is gratifying. Manipulating Iron Man in the air is tricky, especially when switching between flying and hovering, but becomes easier to grasp as you advance.

Unfortunately, the ‘one-man army’ wastes his capabilities fighting in shoddy landscapes against buffoons for enemies. Every level looks awful. Mountain ranges have no depth, while city skyscrapers resemble miniature models.

Opponents are easy targets. Rarely do they maneuver away from your line of fire. The lock-on feature only exacerbates the issue, allowing you to mindlessly hold down your fire button while zipping around enemies as the reticle automatically flips to your next target.

Missions are absolutely lame. Here’s your basic breakdown: Destroy x number of targets, then annihilate a larger, more difficult entity.

At the end of one level, for example, Iron Man must destroy a heavily armored Stark tank. After firing a barrage of missiles, the tanks rumbles down a desert path and eventually just stops in front of a wall. From there, you can stand on the tank and punch out the power core until it’s defeated.

As you conquer levels, you’ll earn cash rewards to go toward armor upgrades. But when you consider the quality of opponent, you don’t really need them. Additional armors are available in One-Man Army mode, in which Iron Man must defeat a series of foes within a specific timeframe.

What sucks is that when you’re not getting 15 missiles up the ass, it can actually be pretty cool to be Iron Man. The shoulder buttons control flight, hover, repulsors and your unibeam, while the face buttons are your secondary weapons and melee commands. Once you get into a game, the scheme feels like second nature and it’s pretty cool to see Iron Man with his arms at his side flying through the air as the sun reflects off his suit. When you’re sitting down to play in a world built around a superhero who can fly all over the place, there’s always that fear you’re going to slam into the edge of the “battle zone” or something equally as lame. For me, that didn’t happen with Iron Man. Sure, there are ends to the maps, but they’re not close to where you’ll be playing, so you’ll actually have the feeling that you’re part of a massive world.

The problem with Iron Man is that at some point someone sat down and said “You know what would be fun? Drop players into situations where they have to do repetitive, meaningless tasks and then add respawning, overwhelming douchebags.” That’s a shame. Flying is fun, the upgrades are neat, and the game can look good. However, these pros are outweighed by the aforementioned frustration, crappy storyline and lame cutscenes. You never feel like Iron Man in this game, and if you’re like me, you never feel like you’re having fun.

We at The Game Druid give it a 4/10

Well this was expected wasn’t it. Unfortunately I don’t have access to my old posts, but I distinctly remember a debate of sorts that was happening about which console will be the most selling by June 2008. Most of my readers voted for the 360.

In spite of PlayStation 3 sales that are surging, Microsoft is still the first to claim rights to the “10 million sold” crown in the U.S.

Xbox boss Don Mattrick crowed over the high water mark and predicted the sales tally would presage total console dominance. “History has shown us that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle. We are uniquely positioned to set a new benchmark for the industry,” Mattrick said.

Another milestone reached is the 12 million global membership tally in Xbox Live. The spike in membership is attributed to the recent release of Grand Theft Auto IV and GTA gamers looking for a little multiplayer mayhem on the closed network. Total worldwide sales, says Microsoft, is 19 million.

Cajoling industry analyst Billy Pidgeon into lending his thoughts on the milestone, the analyst added to Mattrick’s remarks, saying in a statement, “Reaching an installed base of 10 million consoles in the U.S. is a significant achievement and an essential milestone on the road to market leadership, [but] perhaps more important is the Xbox 360 worldwide online base–12 million Xbox Live gamers is the largest community in the connected console games sector, which represents the greatest growth opportunity in the console market and where Microsoft has been the leader for two generations.”

Through March, total sales worldwide of current gen consoles is 24.45 million Nintendo Wii units, 19 million Xbox 360s, and 12.85 million PlayStation 3 units.

It’s also worthwhile noting that the Xbox 360 has been on sale for over a year longer than the PlayStation 3 and Wii, and that in the U.S. PlayStation 3 sales are picking up–for the first time since launching, the PlayStation 3 outsold the Xbox 360 (NPD figures for the first three months of the year, through March 2008).

Ok, so this site, was talking about moving a bunch of PC games to the console…How lame.

Read the article here

The retail box business doesn’t paint an accurate picture of the PC
games market, a sector that EA CEO John Riccitiello said has been
“growing for several years.”

“I certainly recognize that the box-side [retail] of PC is soft. It’s been soft for some time,” Riccitiello said during a conference call Q&A with analysts.

“Frankly, if it were not for The Sims and World of Warcraft PC box sales, it’d be a pretty dismal sector.”

But Riccitiello said that EA is still committed to the PC platform, because it’s the primary vehicle for burgeoning businesses such as subscriptions, microtransactions and casual games.

“One thing EA tries to look at is the total business that’s represented by PC game software. And we’re seeing a growth business there. In fact, it’s been growing for several years.

“It’s just been categorized wrongly by looking simply at the box-side of the equation.”

EA has continued to be a firm supporter of the PC platform while continuing to help feed the growing console business. Titles such as The Sims and Crysis have served as high-profile PC titles from EA, and the free-to-play online title Battlefield Heroes, Burnout Paradise, Spore and others are also on the way.

Wednesday morning the Internet heated up with the possibility of a playable Fallout 3 demo. The flame was originally sparked over on the Bethesda Blog, where the developers listed what they are currently playing. Producer Craig Lefferty, Ashley Cheng, Pete Hines, Matt Grandstaff and Fred Zeleny all claimed to be playing Fallout 3; it was Matt Grandstaff’s offering that sparked hope in the eyes of the fans, saying “Fallout 3 demo - over and over again.”

However, according to Bethesda’s Pete Hines, there will be no demo. “We are on the record that there will be no demo for Fallout 3,” he told Tom’s Games. “Bunch of folks ran news items on it a few weeks ago based on an interview I did. [Matt is] playing the Fallout 3 demo we showed at E3. He was traveling and showing it to a bunch of retail folks that hadn’t seen it. He’s not playing an actual demo.”

Apparently, Tom’s Games wasn’t the only press site to question the blog entry. Hines edited Grandstaff’s blog entry and posted the following message: “Let me clarify that Matt is playing the original E3 demo we showed to the press over and over again as part of a trip to show the game to retail folks…he is not playing an actual demo, because there isn’t one and won’t ever be one. -Pete”

Curious as to why they were holding firm on the decision, one huge question came to mind and was emailed to Bethesda: with piracy of PC games to rampant, wouldn’t it be a good idea to release a demo anyway? It’s no secret that many people pirate games just to try them out when no demo is available.

Hines followed up with a prompt response. “We don’t build our games in section,” he told Tom’s Games. “They’re one giant…”thing.” It’s all tied together, and there’s no way to break it apart. So the only way we could release a demo is to release the full game and “section off” part of the world or something to limit how much you can do. No way in hell we’re doing that.”

And perhaps rightfully so. If Fallout 3 will be as massive as Oblivion, a demo would certainly be next to impossible to carve out a demo. Currently Fallout 3 is slated to hit the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this fall. Taking place 36 years after Fallout 2, the role-playing game thrusts players into the post-apocalyptic world of 2277. Players valiantly search for the protagonist’s father who ventured out into the wastelands for unknown reasons. Bethesda boasts that the game reached Oblivion standards in regards to size, and features over 10,000 possible endings.