World of Gaming

Put together a crew of 16 players and roam free through the frontier in Rockstar's Western action game.

It's one of those simple rules of video games: Anything in the sandbox action genre is exponentially more enjoyable when you can share the fun with someone else. After all, open-world games are essentially a big blank canvas for players to decorate with whatever style of gameplay they want. Whether it's, say, working through the Saints Row 2 story missions in co-op or just using the free-roaming multiplayer lobby in Grant Theft Auto IV to jump between speedboats and pretend to be pirates, the level of expression you get out of these games is boosted significantly with friends in tow. That's why we were so eager to check out what Red Dead Redemption has in store on the multiplayer side of things. It has looked for a while now as if the story and characters are shaping up to meet Rockstar's exacting cinematic standards, so the big question left was how the multiplayer would turn out.

The answer, in a word, is: fun. The team down at Rockstar San Diego seems to realize that while there are those players who need order, there are also those who are clinically allergic to it, and Redemption's multiplayer looks ready to appeal to both sets. For the free-form crowd, up to 16 players can all gather into the same world and travel through the game's entire geography. All three parts of the world--Nuevo Paraiso, Port Elizabeth, and New Austin--can be explored without players being magically tethered together. Pretty much everything outside of the main storyline missions is available in this free-roaming multiplayer scenario, so if you all want to get together and go on a hunting expedition to sell valuable animal skins or form an impromptu vigilante squad to snuff out roving bandits, you're more than welcome to do so. Or if you just want to ignore each other completely and run off to opposite corners of the map, that's an option as well.

To help keep things a bit organized, there's a posse system that lets players within that group of 16 split up into their own smaller gangs. Each posse is assigned a posse leader, and he acts as the guy keeping his crew in line. He can assign waypoints on the map that will then appear on the maps of his entire posse, and when the team gets too separated, members can instantly teleport to where the posse leader is currently located. There's no rule that says you have to be friendly or violent with other posses in these 16-player setups, either. You can turn the world into an Old-West turf war or be as buddy-buddy as you want.

For those who want to experience some combat during these free-roaming sequences, there are a number of "action areas" spread throughout the world. These are essentially small towns overrun with bandits that you and your crew can eradicate in order to gain experience points. Your team rolls up on horseback to the outskirts of a town with guns blazing, pushing its way toward a bandit stronghold where the most stubborn stragglers are holed up. Combat allows for the slow, methodical player to use cover and fire precision rifle shots or the reckless player to speed through Main Street on his horse, hurling dynamite or Molotov cocktails at anything vaguely resembling a threat. We enjoyed the variety of guns and weapons at our disposal during these action areas. And thanks to the game's use of the Euphoria animation engine, it seems like we didn't see the same stumbling death animation twice.


That should give you a general idea of what to expect out of the free-form, do-what-you-want multiplayer options. But like Grand Theft Auto IV, you'll also be able to play through a number of competitive multiplayer modes. To minimize menu navigation, Redemption will let players queue up a playlist of multiplayer modes so that when one match is over, a different mode of your choosing is immediately due up next. We played through three different modes: Shootout, Goldrush, and Hold Your Own.

Shootout, which can be played either free-for-all or with teams, gathers players together in one of the game's many scattered towns and acts as a contained multiplayer map. This mode is as straightforward as it gets: Shoot opposing players while trying not to die. The action can get surprisingly tense during those moments when the cacophonous gunfire settles down and you know an opposing player is trying to fix his or her sights on you. We're not afraid to admit that, at one of these points, we were thoroughly spooked by a figure in our peripheral vision that turned out to be a goat. Each kill nets you experience points, which can be put toward new weapons, characters, and horses.

After that came Goldrush. This mode first takes a scattering of gold bags and crates that randomly pop up all over the map then asks you to return the bags to the crates while avoiding a hail storm of gunfire. Randomly generated locations of those gold bags means that you're constantly on the move, dashing around either for unclaimed gold or players to shoot and steal their gold from them while they're in transit. Similar to Goldrush is Hold Your Own. Here, it is two teams with their own sides of the map, which either can be two small towns separated by sprawling frontier or a pair of corners within the same walled outpost depending on the scale of a given map. Players race from one side to the other on foot or horseback trying to capture the other team's gold, engaging in shootouts along the way. On the bigger maps, defensive positions are available in the form of Gatling gun turrets and cannons. We really enjoyed manning the cannon situated at the top of a small hill between two towns on the bigger map we played and randomly lobbing cannonballs onto the enemy team's base.


Overall, we walked away impressed by Red Dead Redemption's multiplayer offerings. On one end, there are those fixed game modes for players who enjoy engaging in traditional multiplayer matches and working toward earning a tangible reward like experience points. But there's also the potential for free-roaming creativity with little in the way of restrictions. Whether you're in the mood for a standard deathmatch or prefer coming up with new games like "The First Annual Nuevo Paraiso Man Versus Mountain Lion Contest" it looks like flexibility and options are the two big themes in Redemption multiplayer. Expect to see the game arrive in stores on May 18.

Source: Gamespot.com

CiNG, the team behind cult hit Hotel Dusk, return with another murder mystery, but this one's an interactive crime novel better left on the shelf.

Developer CiNG carved out a nice niche for itself before folding under bankruptcy a few months back. Cult hits such as Trace Memory and Hotel Dusk: Room 215 tapped into a completely different handheld experience than most were accustomed to playing on DS. The development team’s efforts have become synonymous with “book-style” DS games that forced you to play with your system turned sideways. The team’s latest project, Again, is one of the team’s final projects, and could very well be the last game of theirs to hit the US. While it offers many of the ideas and concepts that made games like Hotel Dusk so attractive, it falls far shorter in execution.


Like those other games, Again is an adventure game that plays out like a crime novel. You play as Jonathan “J” Weaver, an FBI agent who discovers that he has (or is it that he suffers from?) clairvoyant abilities to that allow him to simultaneously see past and present crimes. J and his partner Kate are in search of Providence, a serial killer who went on a short but brutal murder spree 19 years prior. Providence’s calling card was a cut-out Eye of Providence from dollar bills, which he was left at each murder scene. Nearly two decades later, a similar strain of murders -- seemingly directed at J -- are striking the city, which somehow is connected to his past., and they’re connected to the past.

Previously On Again…

Similar to Hotel Dusk, Again uses a stylized aesthetic to portray its crime-fighters. Though CiNG’s previous hit used pencil-drawn animation a la A-Ha’s “Take on Me” video to depict its noir-inspired world, Again uses real actors to provide a sense of TV-crime drama realism. Although it doesn’t always work -- characters have a limited number of stock animated gestures and the camera pans back and forth between them in a highly jarring fashion -- it gives the game a visual sense of CSI-esque urgency. Factor in a TV-stylelike recaps and five-secondbrief cinematic sequences in between chapters (or when re-loading a save file), and it begins to s best moments feel like you’re participating in a detective show.

Without spoiling the plot too much, each of Providence’s crime scenes is structured like a stage. As you discover the events of the past, a connection to the successive murder opens up. J’s psychic abilities are the main hook of Again. Once you’ve finished questioning witnesses and victims’ family members, you enter the location of the crime -- usually conveniently preserved since 1991 -- and through careful deduction, piece together the killing as it occurred. Mechanically, the deduction splits the action into the past (left screen) and present (right screen). Your mission is to scan the latter-day scene for psychic links to the old-time locale. It’s a unique idea in theory, and starts off with plenty of promise.

Psychic Powers Couldn’t See This Coming

Unfortunately, it becomes the root of Again’s issues. When crime investigations work well, they flow together in a relatively intriguing fashion that evokes the thrills of other great DS adventure games. But more often than not, I wandered the murder scene scanning for related clues, and the mechanics failed me more frequently than they aided. J can search a room, but if he mis-scans five items, he dies. While the game is lenient in allowing you to restart if you kill him, you’ll probably murder him more often than you’ll successfully execute a clue-unlocking puzzle.

The camera and movement around the 3D space feels clunky and unnecessarily complicated to maneuver. Although many handheld games in the adventure genre have the quirk of shoehorning you into solving a mystery on their terms (see: Ace Attorney), Again exacerbates those quirks to the point that it devolves into a bland exercise in “match the objects” at best and dysfunctional gameplay at worst. If the supporting experience were was stronger, it would make these troubling moments more tolerable. But as it stands, Again’s crime scenes are wildly uneven, which is a shame, since it’s the anchor of the experience.


Unfortunately, the rest of the game fails to prop up Again’s weak hook. Whether it can be attributed to bad localization or the original Japanese plot is being truly tepid, the game’s dialogue is dull as dishwater and does little to engage the player past an early eyebrow-raising plot revelation. The story progresses, but doesn't grip with nearly the level of tenacity seen in CiNG's prior games. When a genre that's known for slow burns delivers a game with all of the heat of rubbing two sticks together, there's a real issue. Despite the initially appealing aesthetic of the game, Again wears out its welcome within a few hours of play, and honestly, there’s little that’s engaging enough to bring you back to it.

CS-Why?

After CiNG’s strong efforts in the genre, it’s sad to see that a game with the potential to deliver another distinctive handheld experience would flounder so much. While Again's sleek prime-time crime drama aesthetic is appealing and, the initial crime investigation moments show off potential, and an early plot twist show off lots of initially grand potential, the game goes on to squander it with dull dialogue that never picks up, choppy pacing, and misfiring mechanics. In this case, the shortcomings far outpace the best attributes of the experience. After several years of great adventure games on the DS, it’s truly shameful to see Again fall so short of great possibilities.

Source: g4tv.com

Sci-fi trappings don't make the repetitive gameplay in this dungeon crawler feel any less dated.

Since its inception, the Megami Tensei franchise has weaved elements of science fiction with fantasy stories to craft rich worlds steeped in the occult. With the release of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, developer Atlus has taken a slightly different approach with a story that is much more focused on science fiction than previous entries. Despite this shift in direction, however, Strange Journey is still a game firmly entrenched in the past. Longtime Megami Tensei devotees may be thankful for its return to the first-person dungeon-crawling roots of the series, but those expecting this to live up to the superb Persona 4 or Devil Survivor will be disappointed with the outdated gameplay, straightforward combat, and boring exploration of Strange Journey.


At the tip of the South Pole, a mysterious black spot that consumes everything within its boundaries has appeared. This spot, dubbed the Schwarzwelt, is observed to be expanding uncontrollably; thus, a multinational team of soldiers and scientists armed with the latest weapons and technology have been sent in to find a way to stop it. After crossing through the threshold, you learn that the Schwarzwelt is actually the gateway to a world of gods and devils fed up with the human race. After an accident traps you inside with demons who endlessly expound on how mankind has squandered and abused their planet without a shred of subtlety, it's up to you and your ship's crew to save the world and escape.

As an American soldier, you spend most of your time securing the various sectors that are found within the Schwarzwelt; each of them a twisted facet of the human world. Gameplay consists primarily of first-person exploration through these mazelike areas which, over time, become increasingly complex. They are also booby-trapped with pitfalls, moving floors, damage tiles, and the like. To survive the bland, repetitive, and presumably harsh environments in the Schwarzwelt, you're equipped with a suit of demonica armor. This set of prototype combat gear automatically maps your movements, and helps you uncover hidden passages, enemies, and items through various subapplications you install. Though the demonica proves invaluable, even with all of its utility, you still often find yourself wandering around aimlessly. There are times when your map does not show you where to go next and your list of objectives doesn't clearly communicate what to do, and so you have no choice but to stumble around looking for hidden passageways or the next story event. This is particularly frustrating if you return to the game after a break and forget where you are.

One area where your demonica does excel, however, is in facilitating interactions with the resident demons of the Schwarzwelt, whether they are violent clashes or philosophical debates. Depending on your equipment, you have a variety of attacks at your disposal to dispatch your enemies, but things don't always have to go down that way--some demons are open to talk. The demon negotiation system--most recently seen in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona on the PSP--has returned once more, allowing you to bribe, wheedle, or scare adversaries into becoming allies. Though this gameplay mechanic was fresh and innovative when it was first introduced well over a decade ago, it's no longer particularly exciting to figure out which of the multiple choice responses you're given will gain a demon's support or its ire. The system hasn't significantly changed in recent years, and dealing with demons in such a passive manner is neither engaging nor intriguing.

Regardless, successfully drafting demon allies means you can summon up to three of them to fight alongside you against their hostile neighbors in the turn-based combat system. Each demon has their own strengths and weaknesses, and so it's necessary to constantly tweak your party to ensure the optimal team depending on the situation. Demons aren't only meant for fighting, though--your recruits can also be fused together to create new, more powerful allies and to pass on special skills and abilities. You can even share your creations with your friends by trading passwords.


Strange Journey features a wide variety of demons to fight, recruit, and customize through fusion, each of which has its own meticulous artwork and animations (though some are reused from previous Megami Tensei games). Likewise, dungeon tile and texture art is highly detailed, though it unfortunately loses its luster due to the repetitive nature of the dungeon-crawling action. Veteran series maestro Shoji Meguro returns to score Strange Journey, and like other aspects of the game, his compositions shift slightly away from the norm to fit the sci-fi plot and settings quite well.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey may be the latest entry in the venerable franchise, but its outdated demon negotiation system and tedious dungeon-crawling action might have you think otherwise. Longtime series fans will no doubt appreciate its return to form for the dozens of hours its appropriately dark story will occupy them, but neophytes--especially those expecting something similar to games like Persona 4--are better off staying away.

Source: Gamespot.com

A few flaws hold it back, but the latest Settlers game is the series' most charming to date.

The little workers that follow your orders in The Settlers 7 are a tireless lot. They mine for coal, shear sheep, chop wood, and smelt iron yet ask for so little in return. In fact, if you don't have anything for them to do, they might cry out for a little work to ease the burden of their own laziness. And when you play this economy-heavy strategy game, you'll be just as busy--and content--as these tiny computer people. The latest in the long-running Settlers franchise is as charming and enjoyable as past installments, though it's hard to escape on-again, off-again online troubles that have plagued the game since release. Even if you are only interested in The Settlers 7 for its single-player features, you have to be connected to the Internet and signed into Ubisoft's online portal to play. Unfortunately, server problems occasionally make the game inaccessible for hours at a time, which is an issue that does not appear to be improving as the weeks pass.


If you're the patient type, however, you'll probably want to put up with the ongoing connectivity issues simply because The Settlers 7 is fun to play. It isn't as complex or as varied as similar offerings--Dawn of Discovery, for example, or even previous Settlers games--but it has a mesmerizing flow that has a way of pulling you in. The game is all about setting up supply lines by building appropriate structures and abodes in the appropriate places, and then balancing the stream of resources that your settlers then automatically collect. Then you expand your realm across the map by taking over connected settlements, whether they be neutral or already taken by an opponent. The campaign starts you off slow, introducing you to concepts one by one, but in time, you discover just how complex the economic web can be. For instance, you need wood to make planks, which are in turn used as a basic building material for standard structures. Your armies require fancy food, which means you need to build lodges near forests teeming with wildlife or build piggery extensions onto your farms. Then, you need to make sure to attach a butcher annex onto a noble house--which itself requires regular food to operate.

This sounds complicated, but it's easy to get the hang of, and the game does a good job of pointing out gaps in your economic chain. If your mints aren't pumping enough gold into your coffers because you are low on the coal they need, a little icon will appear over the building in need to let you know. Matches can be challenging nonetheless, and resource imbalances may require you to approach things a little differently every time. For instance, you might need to gather wood on barren land. In that case, you need to add a forester annex to a lodge, and because main structures can only have three additions attached to them, space restrictions can become a concern. If you find there aren't many gold mines to empty, you can make beer to sell at your tavern, though then you are redirecting a resource used to attract clerics to your realm. You're constantly forced to make adjustments throughout the course of a single match, and failing to pay attention can have disastrous consequences.

There are times when you'll wish the game made it easier to keep track of things. In a typical match, you'll start expanding your kingdom quickly, and space restrictions might require you to place important structures in settlements other than your primary one. In time, it can become a burden to keep track of a stronghold (for creating troops), a church (for producing men of the cloth), and an export office (for hiring traders). Hotkeys or icons that let you quickly jump to these crucial buildings, along with your all-important tavern, would have been incredibly helpful. As it is, you need to remember where you placed such structures, and when you scroll to that settlement, you must be able to visually identify the structure in question so you can click on it. Other interface improvements would also have been welcome (being able to click on the icons in the build queue to jump directly to that structure, for example), but some flaws aside, it's easy to get around the map by scrolling or clicking on various nodes on the skeletal minimap. If you scroll all the way out, you'll switch to a helpful bird's-eye view that shows you where resources are located, the status of the opposition's expansion, and other helpful tidbits.


Armies provide the most straightforward way of expanding, and you'll easily crush the neutral armies that protect most unconquered settlements. There's nothing complex about combat; you just click on an army, click on a sector to attack, and off they go. Battles are an automated affair that comes down to sending enough of the right types of troops. Once you've gotten your economy going, you might have multiple armies moving about, each led by a different general, but military might doesn't mean easy triumph. You can win by vanquishing your enemies' primary hubs, but most of the time, you'll overcome your foes by earning a set number of victory points. You might earn a victory point by having more gold than your adversaries, earning more prestige (accumulated by placing prestige structures like statues), or capturing specially designated villages, for example. This system provides flexibility and a bit of unpredictability, and the resulting tug of war is tense and enjoyable.

You'll want to start with the campaign, which helps you get up to speed on all the economic intricacies. The straightforward story is buoyed by Princess Zoe--and her excruciating French accent--who must yank the land of Tandria from the clutches of some flamboyantly histrionic enemies. Missions begin with lovely pop-up storybook updates, occasionally punctuated by impressive and colorful cutscenes. These highlights help make up for the not-so-subtle plot development you'll see coming from the beginning, though the campaign is really just an extended tutorial for the more substantial multiplayer and skirmish modes. In skirmishes, the AI provides a decent challenge and does a good job of adapting, and while there aren't a whole lot of maps, you can edit them in various ways (change victory conditions, for instance), which keeps things somewhat fresh. If you want even more adaptive competition, you can head online, where both ladder (ranked) and unranked matches await. Online play is smooth and matches are of a goodly length (often over an hour), but you might have trouble finding games online.

Vibrant colors and a somewhat goofball art design make The Settlers 7's lush forests and ghost-ridden swamps leap right off the screen, and the animations make the game as fun to watch as it is to play. The exaggerated movements of your miners as they hop into a mining car are delightful; even constructors exude endless charm as they bound toward their destination. There is a distracting blur effect used on more distant objects, though it seems more noticeable at certain resolutions and can be hard to get used to. The wonderful soundtrack provides a nice complement to the sun-drenched visuals, featuring light orchestral fare, a bit of harp strumming, and even some Celtic-inspired vocal warbles.


Some of The Settlers 7's more interesting features are the peripheral ones. You can customize your castle with different ornaments, windows, flags and such. An integrated achievements system lets you post your accomplishments to your Facebook profile if you so wish, while you can call on another player for assistance with the click of a button. The flipside of this social friendliness, of course, is the inherent unfriendliness of an unstable online-only copy-protection scheme. That drawback and others aside, The Settlers 7 offers something for everyone, whether you're an experienced armchair economist or just like watching little virtual people run up and down the roadways carrying pails of water.

Source: Gamespot.com