Matt Gerlach : Xbox360- Unwrapped Holiday 06

My 2 Hour Session with Gears of War (Part 2) - Mansion

gerlach — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 02:06:00 GMT

In this part, I've decided to take you into the multiplayer map we played. We played what the team called "Mansion". First off, this was a new level that was not played at E3.

The basis of Mansion, is that you are playing on a mansion. Simple. Yes, I know. The mansion appears to have been invaded and parts of the structure have been destroyed and demolished.

The level is very symetrical. Each team has an entrance to the Mansion. It will be on the right or left, depending on which of the 2 starting points you are at. Each team also has an entrance to the courtyard. The courtyard (after going up a flight of stairs) also has an entrance to the Mansion. This is the main entrance, and as you look in, you see the upstairs and the set of staircases leading up there.

The courtyard is filled with places to take cover. I have provided a rough, read rough, skematic for what the level looked like. Each top corner (top right and top left) were starting points, in which you alternated in the first to 5 sessions.

My Two Hour Session with Gears of War.

gerlach — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 02:02:00 GMT

CliffyB was there at the NYC session and that can only mean one thing. Gears of War. I was introduced to CliffyB by Godfree (Gamertagradio.com). We talked with Clif, who is an amazingly down to earth guy, for a couple of mins. He asked if we would like to see the E3 demo that he played. I, obviously, obliged and we sat while he played through the game showcasing alot of the features.

Disclaimer: Couple of things. I work outside alot, so I was fairly tan from that. Couple that with the immense heat inside the studio, and me being irish, I showed up very red. Also, do not take the graphics on the TV as the game, because cameras never do justice.

Now on to the Multiplayer:

Wow. It was that simple. That is the way I felt after I completed the 2 hour session (got about a good 90 minutes of playing in).

To be straight out of the gate, it was only multiplayer (system link) on 1 level. But damn, this level was BEAUTIFUL. I believe they called it Mansion. We had a 4v4 session of the multiplayer game from 4pm-6pm.

Ok, not to the actual gameplay. It freakin ROCKED. Heres a little list:

You can easily cycle your weapons with the D-Pad. We had a pistol (down), the assault rifle/chainsaw (right), smoke grenade (up) and the shotgun (left).
Get close to a wall and press A You will slam into coverage.
The Roddy Run Rocks! You can hold down A, you guy crouches and begins to run. The camera changes to a different view, regarded to by CliffyB as "the CNN Camera view". It really does look like a journalist running behind your character, as it is off center (to the right) and shakes as you run.
If you run towards a wall during your Roddy Run, keep holding A, and you will slam into coverage.
While in coverage:
- If you hold the right trigger to shoot your weapon you will shoot while staying in coverage. It lacks accuracy, but you can control the direction they spray.
- If you hold down the left trigger, you will go into a zoomed 3rd persion view. It gives you the accuracy, but takes away from your coverage.
- If you are at a corner, you can lean your guy. Again, just pressing the right trigger shoots, but holding the left will give you the accuracy.
You can revive your teammates. If your teammate goes down (and are still on their knees), and are not officially dead, you will see a red circle with a way point. It will direct you in the direction of your teammate. If the circle becomes 100% filled with red, your teammate dies. This could be from you taking too long, or the enemies finishing them off. If you are to get there in time, just run up and press "X" and you will revive them. My team was pretty good at that.

We were setup to play 4v4 matches. I forgot the game type, but everyone had 1 life, and the remaining team one. It was up to 9 rounds, with it going to the first to 5. After struggling at first, my side made a run and won a couple of games. We went into a funk again, until later in the session. I moved over to a different 360. Godfree and S4Lee joined my team, and we went on a run of atleast 4 consecutive wins. We were so good, that at points, the other team didn't even kill us.

One of the rounds that we won 5-0, the other team had 2 total kills. It was great. In the game, CliffyB decided to join for 2 of the rounds. On the first round, I was shooting a man atop the staircase (actually situated in the center oval, between the 2 staircases), and I heard CliffyB yelling for help. I was poking out of coverage and shooting him. It gave me the kill, and I then turned and looked, and CliffyB has just died. I killed the man at his own game. It was the highlight of my session.

Overall, this game will be amazing. It will have a big battle to fight, not just again the locust, but agaist the PS3 this coming November 12th.

CliffyB is into posing for images now. We all said "OK".

Xbox360's Holiday 06 Unwrapped

gerlach — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 01:58:00 GMT

Microsoft held an event here in NYC the past 2 days (August 2nd and 3rd). It was a showcase for the games that will be selling before or during the holiday season.

I took the railroad into the City and headed over to the place where the event was held. It was held in a studio in Manhatten. I got up there and met my MVP and Xbox's Online PR Community Manager, Tony Hynes (aka Bastelyon). He gave Godfree, DirtyDiva, S4Lee and I the rundown of the event. They were going to showcase some Games for Windows, and Xbox360 games. For the Xbox360 games (Sorry if I missed one), they had:

Test Drive Unlimited (There should be a 2nd demo)
Tony Hawk's Project 8
World Series Poker: Tournament of Champions
Crackdown
Dead Rising
Saint's Row
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Madden NFL 2007
NBA 2k7
Smackdown vs Raw
Gears of War

Test Drive Unlimited

I am pretty excited about this game. I love racers, and what they are offering is pretty amazing. I was told that the game (with in game and post release download content) will feature 45 different manufactuers totalling 150 cars and bikes. With that you have the seamless play from Single player to Multiplayer. Ooo, take a left there and go to MP rounds, or take a right and continue with single player. It is definetly an awesome system they have with "M.O.O.R" (Massive Open Online Racer). I was talking to the game representative there, and talked about how sweet MOOR is. He then instructed me to drive through these different paths just to see how stunning the environment is. Yes, it is stunning.

Tony Hawk's Project 8

We all know the Tony Hawk series, and we are now on the 8th iteration of the game (I didnt even realise). What initially caught my eye was just how good this game looked. So, I sat down and decided to see whats up. After the rep gave me a run through with the game, showcasing the cool new features, I gave it a little try. Simply, it plays just as well as any Tony hawk game has ever played. A is your Olly, B is your grab tricks, X are your flip tricks and Y is for your grinds. A new feature (if I remember correct), was called "Hit the Trick". As you Olly, you click one or both of the tricks (sorry cant remember), and it goes into a zoomed mode of your board, where you control your right and left left with the joysticks, respectivly. It is a little difficult at first, but when you get it, it is definetly something cool. You can also go into "focus" mode, at any time in the game, when you click the right joystick. It slows the game down for you to nail everything.

Now for terms of story. There was always "do this trick" and "do that trick". But, now they all have levels. Lets give an example. You have to grind this rail to complete the objective. BUT, there are now 3 levels, Amateur (ama), Professional (pro) and sick. To achieve th ama status you have to grind 25 feet, the pro you have to grind 50 and the sick level, you have to grind 100 feet. It is definetly a cool system, and he said that for "sick", they wanted to make it hard so it lived up to its name. This new system is definetly cool and a great addition to one of the top 5 best selling franchises of all time.

World Series Poker: Tournament of Champions (Xbox360

I am not going to lie, I am not an avid poker player. I play with buddies, and in a friendly tournament every once in a while, but I am in no way close to my brother. He plays multiple times a week with his friends and if he isnt playing with them, he is on FullTilt Poker. But, to play poker online (for fun), this game is going to be good. It uses the Xbox360's Live Vision camera to mask your face onto your character. Seeing the examples they did in front of us, with the right lighting, it looks pretty freakin close. Couple that with the fact that the camera shows you decided what to do with your cards on your turn, makes it very very fun.

Crackdown

This is a fun third person shooter. I spent about 5-10 minutes with the game (finished off the level), to get a feel for it. They are encorporating the cell-shading type graphics. I was talking with the Project Manager for the game, and I was discussing how this was just a fun shooter. It was a very run and gun shooter. If you are looking for a pretty fun game, make sure to check out crackdown.

Dead Rising

Fun. Its a simple as that. It is fun and funny. The concept is that you are in a mall and have 72 hrs to complete the objectives, which relates to about 12 hrs in real time. But, this game is a game, like GTA, where you can play just to kill the zombies. You can pick up many objects that can become your weapons, like bowling balls, sickles, dumbells, and much much more. The games finish is depended on what you can complete. You can pick up the demo now on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Saint's Row

I did not play this game at the event because I have been playing the demo that has been available on the Xbox Live Marketplace since earlier this week. The game is similar to Grand Theft Auto, but has its own signiture feel. I haven't played it enough to make a decision on it though, but make sure you download the demo to get your own impression.

Splinter Cell Double Agent

You are still Sam Fisher...but a different Sam Fisher. You are now a rogue agent. The gameplay was very similar to the 3 previous Splinter Cell games, and that is good. The gameplay has been really great across the whole series. The one big different with this game is that there is barely a HUD. It is good, like Fight Night Round 3. It lets you see more of the environment, and just has that "cool" feel about it.

Madden NFL 2007

This is another version in the most popular sports franchise to ever hit the gaming world. It has distintive features for the 360 include the mini camp, where you can train your athletes. Check for it in stores soon.

NBA 2k7 and Smackdown Vs Raw

These are two games I did not get to sit down and play. NBA 2k7 (watching and listening to others) was another great iteration in the series. The graphics look a bit more realistic, and the gameplay is still good. The wresting game, looked very well, but not being a wrestling fan, it did not truly interest me. Again, basing it off what I have heard it is a pretty good game.

Gears of War

Finally, you read all that. Wow. What I saw/played was that. You can find my impressions inthis post.

Edit: Fixed some grammar.

Edit 2: Swapped "HUD" in for UI in the description of Splinter Cell Double Agent.