Fact: Sucker Punch makes excellent action games — the Sly Cooper series was a great addition to Sony’s PlayStation 2 lineup. Fact: Grand Theft Auto plus superpowers can equal an amazing experience — I don’t think I need to remind anyone of Crackdown.
Sucker Punch is billing Infamous as the ultimate superhero simulator, a game that lets you choose your path, saving the city or wreaking destruction. I’m really interested to see how the story plays out and how the open world environment is used — is it just window dressing for your destructive amusement, or will you really feel like the most powerful being in a living, breathing world? We know so little about howInfamous will play, but as it is likely to be Sony’s marquee title for 2009, I imagine we will be hearing a lot about it.
Given the endlessly bad press it receives, you’d almost think Grand Theft Auto was the ruin of Western civilization. But while its hooker-beating and indiscriminate violence come up every time some culture critic wants to rag on digital entertainment, gamers have their own reasons for liking it. Reasons like limitless freedom, unfettered exploration and infinite possibilities for running over old ladies at high speeds. And with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, you’ll get more of that stuff than most people can handle.
Giving players three full-sized cities to go nuts in, San Andreas is the biggest chapter in the urban car-crime series, as well as one of the most convincing virtual worlds ever created. As former gangsta Carl “CJ” Johnson, you’ll explore the massive, fictional state of San Andreas, a California/Nevada hybrid complete with analogues of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas, with miles of countryside and small towns in between. It’s all supported by an epic, misison-based storyline that takes CJ and friends from fighting lowly turf battles to pulling jobs for the CIA to planning a massive casino heist. And then, as the game winds down, they’ll finally go gun-to-gun with the people behind CJ’s misfortunes.
Until then, the gameplay is classic GTA, which means players are generally free to do as they please in a big, open 3-D world. Any vehicle you see can be taken for a joyride, and thanks to GTA’s mix of tongue-in-cheek mayhem and fine-tuned controls (when driving, at least), this is a hell of a lot of fun even when cops are chasing you around town (and they will, the second they see you doing something illegal).
The rest of the action still revolves around shooting or beating folks, and this is a little less enjoyable thanks to an auto-aiming system that locks on to the nearest person, rather than the nearest threat. Is there a gang member shooting at you from across the block? Too bad! You’re locking onto that old lady behind you, whether you want to or not. And since she’s behind you, CJ will just point his gun straight up until you turn him around. To be fair, San Andreas adds a first-person-style control scheme that makes aiming a little easier, but it still gets clumsy in firefights with squads of enemies.
Mass Effect is a science fiction action-RPG created by BioWare Corp., the commercially and critically acclaimed RPG developer of “Jade Empire,” and “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.” As the first human on the galactic stage, you must
uncover the greatest threat to civilization. Your job is complicated by the very fact of your humanity, as no one trusts you and you need to find a way to convince everyone of the grave threat. You will travel across an expansive universe to piece the mystery together. As you discover and explore the uncharted edges of the galaxy, you come closer to an overwhelming truth – learning that the placid and serene universe you know is about to come to a violent end and that you may be the only person who can stop it! In addition to the main story arc of the game, players are be able to visit a large number of uncharted, unexplored planets which are side quests independent from the main story. At any time during the campaign, a player can choose to explore one of these planets and have an opportunity to discover new alien life, resources, ruined civilizations and powerful technologies. Talents and abilities are upgradeable and advanced talent options become available at higher levels. Weapons and vehicles are customizable to include various effects, abilities and upgrades using the “X-Mod” system. Each character class have unique talents and abilities which increase in power as the player progresses through the game
