Match flow brings more atmosphere to matchdays with match previews, team talks, opposition player instructions, the match itself, half time and post match now seamlessly following on from one another. There's no more pausing to make tactical changes and you'll find a mini-radar pitch whilst making those tactical changes to keep you in touch with what's going on in the match.
The only massively-multiplayer role-playing game set in J. Tokien's Middle-earth. Travel with your Fellowship in the fight against the forces of Sauron. Across the wide lands of Middle-earth, the Free Peoples must face the threatening Shadow growing in the East. The rumor of war brings forth many eager adventurers who will find their place among the great events of the Third Age.
High deeds call to the willing, for their time is at hand. Hundreds of thousands of people will enter the perpetual world of Middle-earth for the very first time. Prepare yourself to choose a path amongst the likes of Elves, Dwarves, and Humans. Will you choose to fight for the things that bring peace to the land or will you add to the corruption of Middle-earth as the forces of Sauron move swiftly to extinguish all that is good?
Oleg Maddox's Il-2 Sturmovik series of flight simulators continues to expand. The latest offering, Il-2 , adds 36 new planes, four new gigantic maps, over a hundred new ground objects, and nearly new campaign missions. This new opus also includes all of the previous Il-2 series content. What began as a one-aircraft study sim is now an astonishing anthology, with a whopping flyable aircraft and over aircraft total!
Not to mention that players will have the opportunity to get a first glance at the future of the series arriving next year: Storm of War Battle of Britain via exclusive bonus videos. Shivering Isles features more than 30 hours of new gameplay and allows you to explore an entirely new plane of Oblivion — the realm of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. Within the Realm of Sheogorath, players can explore the two extreme sides of the god's madness — the sublimely creative and the completely psychotic.
Something is happening to the Shivering Isles and Sheogorath himself looks to you to be his champion and defend his realm and its inhabitants from destruction. Do you have the strength to survive his trials, tame a realm fraught with paranoia and despair, and wear the mantle of a God? The Shivering Isles features a bizarre landscape split between the two sides — Mania and Dementia-filled with vast, twisting dungeons mirroring the roots of the trees they are buried within. You'll encounter more than a dozen new creatures including hideous insects, Flesh Atronachs, skeletal Shambles, amphibious Grummites.
Throughout your adventure, you will discover all new items, ingredients, spells, and more, and have the talented craftsmen of Crucible and Bliss forge new armor and weapons just for you. It is and the stakes could not be higher. Tiberium—a self-replicating alien substance that has infected the Earth—is spreading like a radioactive ice age. All-out war rages over Tiberium and the fate of the planet rests in the balance. Experience a revolution in RTS gaming with a single player campaign that rewards you for your gameplay style.
Add layers of strategy to your gaming experience by building mobile bases, wielding the power of terrifying Ion Storms on the battlefield, or customizing your armies by combining units. Battle it out online with native voice-over IP, integrated clan support, and new spectator modes that let you play RTS games like a sport.
Kingdoms features four new entire campaigns centered on expanded maps of the British Isles, Teutonic Northern Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. In Medieval II, players were only given a glimpse of South America, but in Kingdoms, vast tracts of land in both North and South America have been opened up for players to conquer.
All-new factions from the New World are also now fully playable, including the Aztecs, Apaches, and Mayans. Along with the new maps in the Britannia, Teutonic, Crusades, and New World Campaigns, there are 13 new factions to play, over units to control, and 50 building types, adding up to 80 hours of new gameplay.
Kingdoms also offers new multiplayer maps and hotseat multiplayer, a first for the Total War series, allowing players to play one-versus-one campaign games on the same computer.
Ready, aim Clear the orange pegs from 55 fanciful levels as 10 whimsical teachers guide you toward Peggle greatness. Wield mystifying Magic Powers, rack up huge bonus points and make shots you'll smile about for weeks. Amidst all this fevered action, only one question remains: Can you become a Peggle Master? Designed specifically to entertain both casual and hardcore gamers with its deep immersion, five to fifteen minute play sessions and turn-based play style, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords incorporates strategy, role-playing elements and a persistent storyline in a puzzle board setting.
Set in the Warlords universe, the game challenges players to create, develop and customize the ultimate hero in order to save the land of Etheria from evil Lord Bane. To advance their character, players battle in turn-based, head-to-head "match-three" style puzzle games in one of three distinct gameplay modes: Single-player allows gamers to battle against the AI as they embark on over challenging quests, Instant Action allows gamers to jump in and immediately play continuous battles to level-up characters without participating in quests, and Multiplayer allows gamers to battle live opponents.
The new Colin McRae title goes beyond the series' point-to-point rallying to deliver the most diverse selection of extreme off-road competitions. Sensational gravel, mud and dirt racing events from the world over include perilous Hill Climb and collision-packed Rally Cross events. International rallying competitions are also featured, with official cars on tracks based on real roads and locations around the globe.
The title also expands on beat-the-clock racing and includes events with multiple cars on track to satisfy anyone who wants to push their on-the-edge driving just that bit further. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars pits the armies of Earth against the invading alien Strogg in the ultimate online strategic shooter.
Featuring strategic team play, persistent character promotions, day and nighttime combat missions, and the universe's most powerful weapons and vehicles, the game transports players to the front lines of an epic new war for Earth. As the invasion begins, players choose to battle as one of five unique classes in either the EDF Earth Defense Force - humans or the barbaric alien Strogg armies, each augmented with specialist weapons and combat hardware.
Troops utilize over 40 conventional and futuristic vehicles, deployable structures, and defense systems like quad-bikes, tanks, and alien walkers for epic ground assaults; or helicopters and anti-gravity ships to lend firepower from the air. Throughout each battle, teams establish bases, deploy defense structures, artillery, radar, and advanced forward-command systems into enemy territory while constructing and demolishing obstacles to speed progress and gain a tactical advantage over the enemy.
Players can take on class specific missions or join a fireteam to utilize advanced command and communication options, including voice-chat and the game's context sensitive mission order system.
With bitterly contested multi-battle campaigns, each soldier fights not only for victory, but to gain valuable skills, special rewards for team-play, and persistent military promotions and medals.
Players assume the role of a futuristic warrior engaged in contests of intense shooting battles against skilled opponents, controlled either by human contestants online or by A.
These contests are fought with the most powerful sci-fi weapons and vehicles. Unparalleled graphical and physical realism from the latest Unreal Engine 3 technology delivers the most compelling First Person Shooter Experience to-date The weaponry is bigger and badder than ever.
Destroy your opponent from a distance with the ever popular Link Gun or blast away at close range with the Bio Rifle. Battle against lightening fast A. Expanded Onslaught game type features two complete sets of high-tech vehicles, including the massive Leviathan, the terrifying Darkwalker, and a completely new way to get into the action Fight side-by-side with or compete against new and returning characters from the UT franchise, all with enhanced abilities, extremely detailed looks and distinct personalities.
Unreal Tournament provides seamless loading on servers in addition to improved matchmaking for more evenly matched competitors. Bundled with the award-winning Unreal Engine 3 Toolset.
Build your own levels, gametypes, and more, or download the latest mods from the massive Unreal community. Inspired by the first Tomb Raider videogame, originally released in , Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a totally new adventure for Lara, faithfully preserving the elements which made the original Tomb Raider such a classic.
The puzzles are now more in depth and incorporate environmental interaction and physics driven solutions. The level design and flow of gameplay are inspired by the original videogame making Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary a brand new experience in gaming, while still invoking the nostalgia of the first adventure in Tomb Raiding.
Real Cars. Real Racing. Thats what it's all about in RACE Enjoy 9 different racing classes, each with its own distinctive character.
These are just a few of the many cars and the classes featured in this ultimate racing curcuits or city tracks and see the track through the unique Helmet Camera or with the immersive Action Camera. Enjoy RACE 07 and esperience virtural racing like you've never expereinced it before. Buried beneath a war-ruined land ravaged by centuries of conflict, a forgotten enemy rises.
Engage in all-new adventures as you embark on a crusade to reveal the truth of the wars between the reborn Iksar Empire and the Sarnak.
Adventure awaits in the fabled land of Kunark. Players can enjoy over years of gameplay by starting at ANY date between and Nation building is flexible: decide your own form of government, the structure of your society, trade politics and much more.
The great people and personalities of the past are on hand to support you. A lush topographic map in full 3D allows for a rich and complete world view, and contains more than provinces and sea zones.
Have more than a thousand historical leaders and over historical Monarchs at your disposal. Manage more than individual unit troops to secure as much power as possible.
Co-operative multiplayer mode allows several players to work together to control a single nation. Customize your game: Europa Universalis III gives you the chance to customize and mod practically anything your heart may desire. With an internet crisis looming and a viral video game holding its players hostage, in this episode Sam and Max need to slip into a new reality to set things right. Can our heroes crack this virtual case in time to avoid a worldwide system failure?
In Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, players are transported back to the Forgotten Realms shortly after the events detailed in the original Neverwinter Nights 2. Following the climactic battle against the King of Shadows, the player awakens alone and stranded deep beneath the earth. Surrounded by a horde of evil spirits, the player embarks on an epic adventure that reveals his true destiny.
Set in harsh, spirit-rich Rashemen, near the powerful nation of Thay, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer presents players with an exciting new campaign; epic levels; dozens of new feats and spells; new races, base classes and prestige classes; new companions; new weapons, armor and crafting options; hordes of new monsters; and enhanced modding tools. A massive ocean world, teeming with life and filled with ancient secrets.
Join Naija, a lone underwater dweller in search of her family, as she explores the depths of Aquaria. She'll travel from hidden caves, shrouded in darkness, to beautiful, sunlit oases, all lovingly handcrafted by its two creators. Naija's story, narrated fully with voice overs, will become yours, as you join her on this magnificent adventure. Naija has the gift of the Verse.
By singing songs, she can weave this force to change the waters around her. With each song Naija learns comes new abilities. With powerful songs, Naija is able to change form, giving players many options as to how to play the game. And with Aquaria's intuitive mouse-only control system, it's as easy to make Naija swim gracefully through the waters as it is to have her sing, cast spells, and engage in combat with the numerous dangerous creatures that inhabit Aquaria's waters. The player will become a stalker, a guy who earns money from shoveling embers out of infernal oven of Chernobyl Zone.
Returning from the radioactivity-blazing Zone, he will sell anomalous formations to underground dealers and scientists in research camps on the Zone border. With the money procured, the player will purchase equipment, weapons and protective suits allowing him to reach previously inaccessible areas.
This is a role-playing game without growing experience of your character, without changing characteristics and levels. He's the most powerful opponent they've ever faced, an ancient being of myth — Santa Claus! Can our heroes save the world's children from a holiday tainted by tears, turmoil, and Torture-Me-Elmer? The Flight Simulator X Acceleration Expansion Pack delivers an all new thrilling multiplayer race mode, new action-packed missions, and even more new content!
Challenge friends in the new racing mode, or test your flight skills in the 20 new missions like being a NASA test pilot, performing search and rescue on an ocean liner, or navigating a whiteout blizzard in the backcountry. Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is the next chapter in the critically acclaimed Supreme Commander franchise.
The game continues the epic story following the Infinite War, featuring an all-new single-player campaign, a new faction and a myriad of innovative multiplayer features. More than one hundred new units will give players access to cutting-edge strategic options, including fully realized navies, orbital weaponry and advanced counter intelligence technologies.
The Witcher combines spectacular and visually stunning action with deep and intriguing storyline. The game is set in a world created by best-selling Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The world shares many common features with other fantasy lands, but there are also some distinguishing elements setting it apart from others.
The game features the player as a "Witcher", a warrior who has been trained to fight since childhood, subjected to mutations and trials that transformed him. He earns his living killing monsters and is a member of a brotherhood founded long ago to protect people from werewolves, the undead, and a host of other beasts.
It's an action oriented, visually stunning, easy to use, single player RPG, with a deep and intriguing storyline. Step into the role of an aspiring martial arts master and follow the path of the Open Palm or Closed Fist.
In this multi-award-winning action-RPG, your choices and actions will determine the fate of an empire. Will you prevent the destruction of this beautiful land or crush it beneath your heel? Are you a warrior who uses strength and fighting mastery to bring peace or will your power bring pain and ruin? Increased graphics resolutions and new visual effects. New monsters and enemies. New fighting styles. Improved combat AI and difficulty levels. New world map interface.
Jade Empire: Special Edition is exclusively available for the PC and features increased graphic resolutions with new visual effects and fighting styles, as well as new monsters and enemies with enhanced AI.
The game also includes customizable, intuitive controls and an all-new art book as part of the Special Edition bonus content. Controlling a mysterious figure that has inherited the legacy of the evil, long-dead Overlord, the player emerges, near death, from the ruins of the old Overlord's Dark Tower.
Only the player's actions determine if they will rise to become the new all-powerful Overlord; it's all down to how much of a bad ass they want to be in order to succeed Played out with plenty of black humour and dark irony, the game immerses players in twisted parodies of classic fantasy scenarios and characters.
Overlord's key innovation is the introduction of an array of impish creatures — the Minions. They believe you are the old Overlord reborn and will use their unique skills to fetch, fight and die for you. Throughout the game players actively control a horde of these gremlin-like critters and they follow your every instruction no matter how despotic or, for the Minions, life threatening it is.
Playable Asian civilizations. Lead one of three unique Asian civilizations — Japan, China and India — to expand their empires and fight for control in the Eastern world. New gameplay elements. Returning to the historical, civilization-based single-player campaigns, Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties will offer gamers who enjoy the solo experience a chance to engage in strategic combat with Japan, China or India through several engrossing scenarios.
The president's lost it. Federally mandated group hugs, a pudding embargo Titan Quest: Immortal Throne features an original storyline with more than 12 hours of single-player content per difficulty level. New game-play features include an all-new skill mastery that combines with existing masteries to form eight new playable character classes.
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne also adds dozens of terrifying new monsters, hundreds of unique weapons and an additional 10 levels of character and skill development. Test Drive Unlimited is the only game that immerses you into the car and bike enthusiast lifestyle, with total freedom to race however and wherever you want within a huge, online-persistent environment.
Visit the most sophisticated car and bike dealers to purchase new vehicles or simply take them for a spin. Collect and trade rare performance parts and customize each vehicle to make it one-of-a-kind. Test Drive Unlimited challenges players online to experience the most exotic and fastest vehicles on more than miles of diverse Hawaiian roads. Gamers win races, challenges, missions and tournaments to earn credits and purchase new cars, bikes, rare performance parts, clothes, apparel, homes and garages.
Features more than licensed vehicles from exclusive manufacturers including Lamborghini, Ducati, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Saleen, Shelby, and Jaguar; Upgrade each car or bike with options from the actual manufacturers' catalog. Players create characters, buy new homes and garages, and tune and upgrade vehicles with aftermarket parts; Extracurricular activities such as expanding your garage, getting clothes and fashion accessories for your avatar, helping hitchhikers catch planes, picking up girls, chasing car thieves, and escaping from a psychopath.
Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific takes players to the depths of the Pacific Ocean as the skipper of an American submarine. Immersed in this intense environment with the help of amazing graphics and sound, players will engage in massive battles with enemy units, manage and evolve an entire submarine crew, and earn promotions and commendations to ensure victory in the Pacific.
Innovative Crew Evolution: Earn upgrades and experience to help create the most effective naval force in the Pacific Theater. Immersive Single-Player Gameplay: Diverse mission objectives and events on more than 15 maps combined with unique rewards make each campaign a unique experience.
Scripted and generated mission types allow for epic online battles and unlimited replayability. Forged in the fires of advanced biotechnology, a new race has emerged from the shadows to threaten the SotS universe. Born of blood, driven by hunger and launched on a relentless search for the Gods that made them, these brutal warriors will stop at nothing to find "The Great Masters.
Bringing with it new strategies, new weapons, and a new view of "resources. And they have uses for you. But when chaos collides with tranquility, have the Freelance Police finally met their match? Arcade mode is designed to throw gamers into the action as quickly as possible and, although only one plane will be available initially, progressing through the Career mode to unlock other planes will gradually give access to the full Arcade experience.
Career mode consists of a collection of high-octane tournaments spread over various landscapes. As gamers progress through their career from a Rookie through Pro, Ace, Elite and finally to a combat Hero, they'll gradually win access to enemies' planes and earn cash, which will enable players to upgrade capabilities and keep up with the competition.
Multiplayer — Players race or dogfight against up to eight opponents over an Ad hoc wireless network or via Game Sharing with rival PSP system owners for the ultimate deathmatch experience!
Game sharing mode requires only one copy of M. Sonic Rivals is a head-to-head competition between Sonic and his top rivals, where the gloves are off and winner takes all. Built from the ground-up, the engine allows gamers to rip through tracks in some high-spirited single player and wireless multiplayer action against friends as Sonic returns in a whole new racing-platformer with classic 2D gameplay in true 3D environments for gamers on the go. What starts as a friendly competition between Sonic and Knuckles quickly intensifies as Shadow and other rivals jump into the action.
Sonic Rivals allows gamers to utilize boost moves and power-ups to trip, shove, and vault over each other while hurtling towards the finish line at breakneck speeds. Players will negotiate wildly twisting 3D tracks while avoiding the insidious Dr.
Eggman and his myriad of hazardous traps and contraptions. In Sonic Rivals, gamers can play as one of four different characters from the Sonic Universe, each with separate fast and winding storylines. In addition, the extensive rewards system, which is based on collecting trading cards, allows players to customize their favorite characters. Connect via wireless to race against a friend, and put trading cards on the line for even more multiplayer challenges.
Pocket Racers features miniaturised cars whizzing around a series of everyday environments. The player is cast as a spoilt teenager at a party, who is transformed into a toy car by of a vengeful demon.
What follows is a frenetic race for survival as the 'Nemesis' demon sets a series of increasingly hard challenges within the fully interactive - and destroyable!
The cars in Pocket Racers represent the soul of the stricken player, and can be augmented through the collection of 'Soul Shards' which litter the play area. Collecting these allows the user to inflict massive damage on rival cars or the debris that clutters the race area, while additional weapons such as nitro boosts, missiles and ice can be used to sneak past opposing racers.
These extra weapons are left around the courses, and must be gathered before your opponents get them. The courses themselves range from a messy bedroom, a conveyor belt-laden factory and a kitchen, and feature sneaky short cuts and hidden extras for the player to find.
Pocket Racers also features a number of vehicle styles that are ideally suited to the varying locations. Sports cars, trucks, 4x4s and Coupes vie for the player's attention, while other hidden vehicles can also be unlocked. What the Wright Brothers were to flight. Like them, he rewrote the rules of what's possible. On the ground or above it, the Miracle Boy has redefined the boundaries of the sport and then promptly surpassed them. Now, the legend of the winningnest X Games competitor of all time is on the PSP system, letting you defy gravity wherever you go.
With ad hoc wireless play for players, you can challenge your friends to racing and freestyle competition and see who's got what it takes to ride with the greatest. Customizable player characters, with tricked out clothes and gear.
User Score: 4. Need for Speed Carbon Own the City features all-new crew-based gameplay and an exclusive east coast open-world city to explore.
The unique to handheld story thrusts you into an ongoing turf war. You are challenged to build an unstoppable crew, win races against fierce rivals, and outwit the cops. How you choose and manage your crew will be the difference between victory and defeat.
Known as "L. Go head-to-head with a friend in a street race or cruise mission using wireless functionality, or experience Story Mode which allows you to race through five Los Angeles city re-creations while finding treacherous shortcuts and surviving death-defying jumps.
Exclusive to the PSP system is an all-new Stunt Arena, where players can fly over ramps and perform stunts in the air and drive the loop-de-loop to gain massive bursts of speed, all the while collecting golden tokens to unlock extra content. Feel the rush as you race more than 36 licensed rides including muscles, tuner and exotic vehicles. Supporting up to four players via wireless multiplayer connectivity, players will speed through more than 30 visually stunning environments with six distinct terrain types including snow, dirt, mud, ice, water, and grass.
Featuring five new events, new vehicles and mini-games, and cross compatibility with ATV Offroad Fury 4 for the PlayStation2, ATV Offroad Fury Pro will provide players the opportunity to tackle the trickiest off-road courses anytime, anywhere. The Maximum Team Control Racing features have been expanded to 11 different modes, each designed to exploit different aspects of team racings such as blocking, drafting, and switching. Multiplayer has also been enhanced to include both team and solo racing options, utilizing the wireless capabilities of the PSP system for high velocity head-to-head racing battles.
Racing fans can take the excitement of Moto Grand Prix racing with them wherever they go as the game boasts thrilling new features including the new roster, unlockable rewards, and a wireless multiplayer mode that allows up to eight players to race against each other. Players face new challenges in this portable installment in order to unlock cool rewards such as one-on-one mode, hidden riders, Moto GP movies, and more.
Players go head-to-head in time trial, arcade, one-on-one, and wireless multiplayer mode where up to eight players can race against one another at the same time. The control is now in the hands of the player as they attempt to navigate through intense moments with drivers racing inches apart at mph.
Push your car to the limit and leave drivers in the dust as all-new effects from screen blurring to camera shaking highlight every detail of the action.
Modify your car's handling to your exact specification with a user-friendly sliding scale that makes for ultimate control behind the wheel. User Score: 5. Players kart race for the win or fight it out in colorful Battle Arenas with special weapons, power ups and variety Pac-Man powers.
The game also features the Prince of all Cosmos from the award-winning Katamari series as an unlockable character. Juiced: Eliminator captures the look and feel of Juiced while building on its success with the addition of new cars, tracks, characters and game modes.
The built-in wireless connectivity on the PSP lends itself to expanding the multi-player options, including multiplayer crew races, pink slip racing and the all new 'Eliminator' mode where the slowest driver per lap is removed from the competition, and the winner is the last one left in the race.
Key features include: All new 'ad-hoc' multiplayer games, 8 new characters and crews, 2 new locations each with 8 unique tracks, 9 new cars with over new body-kit components, new single player game modes, re-styled menus, improved career mode progression, and all-new full-screen post-race movies.
Immerse yourself in a new, deep non-linear career mode that tests your skills and savvy as you progress through all the motocross disciplines - motocross, supercross and freestyle - to become the ultimate MX athlete. Mixing miniature mayhem with maximum multiplayer racing, Micro Machines v4 features knockabout, breakneck racing in the fastest scale miniatures, complete with explosive weapon power-ups.
Letting you loose with hundreds of vehicles, each with distinctive performance abilities, you'll be racing your inch-long miniature motors on the wildest tracks where everyday household objects appear immense in size and can become lethal hazards.
Sport cars, street racers, stock cars, 4x4s, beach buggies, lowriders and muscle cars are just some of the Micro Machines models you'll be taking out on the improvised tracks around the Micro Machines house, garden and - for the first time - beyond. Spin out around the breakfast table littered with cereal spills, tear through the kitchen but avoid literally burning tyre rubber on the blazing hot cooker, turbo boost around the pool table while avoiding the treacherous pockets , or hit the gas as you drive around the rim of the bath, carefully negotiating the ferocious waters pouring over the edge of the bath because someone left the tap running.
The title, a massively expanded edition of the European PSP system title "TOCA Race Driver 2" comes complete with real performance cars, real damage, real physics, and intense pack racing with up to 21 cars on-screen competing for position. Plus, with WLAN multiplayer gaming modes enabling up to 12 players to race simultaneously and an all-new WLAN game mode, competitive racing has never been so aggressive or closely fought. Designed especially for the PSP system gaming, a further race mode, the Trans-World Cup, delivers high-octane racing in short bursts making it perfect for gaming on the go.
Beyond that, Activision promises ten storylines, a fully swing-able New York, side missions, the black costume and more. With 12 Lone Wolf missions, players will have access to just about every weapon and item found in the console versions, such as the Crosscom and Narcom. Players will also be able to engage the enemy in ad hoc co-op play, or fight in multiplayer across 12 different maps.
Using the more-and-more popular dual-D-pad setup for freelook aiming, the game retains most of what's made the series so popular in the past without having to rely on a lock-on targeting system. Stealthy items like the snake cam make an appearance, and careful planning and tactics still reign supreme.
A number of classic maps will appear in the multiplayer portion, which will be playable both online and off. We're big fans of the console series, and Ubisoft doesn't aim to disappoint with the original PSP release. Using the gameplay mechanics of the recently-released Tomb Raider Legend, the title will focus on the same skills and platforming elements of the original release and should appease long-time fans of the series.
From dinosaurs to wall climbing to double-fisted uzis, this should prove to be classic Tomb Raider action. Lara may be getting up there in age, but this game looks to prove that she hasn't lost her step.
Virtua Tennis 3. Generation of Chaos: Aedis Eclipse. Alien Syndrome. Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars. Here's some popping fresh portable PSP titles in time for Spring. Winter is on its way out, but it did manage to drop off some excellent titles on the PSP before the snow melted.
Sid Meier's Pirates! Live the Life managed to port the classic title to the Sony handheld, with an excellent amount of multiplayer fun. Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters appeared to be just as good as the console titles in the franchise, and The Warriors and Burnout Dominator were as good, if not better, than the PS2 versions of the same name.
Have you played Virtua Tennis 3? Call of Duty: Roads to Victory Activision. Ghost Rider 2K Games. Jeanne d'Arc Sony Computer Entertainment. It had to be done. The previous three entries in the series had all made their debut exclusively on the PlayStation 2. Sony fans were outraged that they would have to share one of their system's most anticipated games with the competition.
Why it was important: Solid, exclusive software sells systems. For consumers who were debating whether to buy a PS3 or , the loss of DMC4 exclusivity meant one less reason to pick up Sony's expensive console. The reality is that Capcom's decision reflects a change in publishers' strategy. Games are expensive, risky undertakings, and companies need to make sure they can get their products in the hands of as many gamers as possible. Going forward, we're likely to see fewer and fewer exclusives.
But by E3 it was ready to confirm gamers' suspicions by unveiling a new version that, while cosmetically similar, was 33 percent lighter, 20 percent thinner, and added a host of upgrades. Why it was important: After months of redesign rumors, many fans were left unimpressed with the PSP slim. Some had expected a complete overhaul like the DS had received when it went Lite.
Still, sales went up, and the PSP is doing better than ever. Home Announced. Sort of a Second Life for the PlayStation Network, the service aims to offer many of the community features found on Xbox Live and the Wii -- and surpass them. Users get their own Mii-like avatar to represent themselves in Home's Virtual space, and there is an achievement-type system that awards players with trophies for accomplishing specific tasks.
Why it was important: Home is incredibly ambitious -- which is why it was delayed from a year-end release to spring The service has the potential to significantly up the ante for what modern gamers can do with their consoles.
The achievement system on the has been enormously popular. Rather than merely duplicating it, Sony appears to be trying to take that concept to a whole new level. If it is successful, Microsoft could find itself the one playing catch-up. What happened: Developer Media Molecule announced back in September that it was working on an original and innovative PS3 title. Built around the idea of user-generated content, LBP is set to unleash players' creativity like few other games can.
Why it is important: Sony is using the high concept of user-generated content to differentiate its console from the competition. So far, it's only delivered promises.
But our play time with LittleBigPlanet indicates Sony will make good on those promises this spring. Sony denied the cut, but then confirmed it right before E3. Another Benjamin was carved off the system in October, although this new model sacrificed backwards compatibility.
Why it was important: The high cost of entry to the PS3 was initially one of the biggest drawbacks to the system. In order to win over more casual, mainstream consumers, the price had to come down. What's interesting is the cuts came just eight months into the system's life span. In comparison, the Xbox held at its launch price for over a year and a half.
While falling PS3 prices are good for future consumers, early adopters might understandably be upset. Sony's latest had a rough first year, but now it and the are evenly priced. With some great games currently available and huge titles set for next year, the PS3 can head into with confidence. His departure means we don't know who is handling the third installment in the series. Part two turned out great, though, without original director David Jaffe, so there is hope.
Phil Harrison — Sony's Chief of Worldwide Studios has made many appearances this year championing the PS3, but also the future of gaming in general. His response to the negative media attention his new system received early in the year?
Sony fans were able to rest a little easier this year knowing they had Harrison in their corner. Events of With the PS3 out -- and taking it on the chin for most of the year -- and a new PSP on the way, Sony brought the thunder to events in A ton of games, announcements and a greater sense of connectivity had the handheld making its move in the industry.
Hot Game Tips of As the year comes to a close, we look back fondly at all of the games that had us cursing like sailors and throwing our controllers in obscene rage. There's nothing quite like finally showing a game who's boss, stickin' it to the virtual man, and IGN's Guides and reader-submitted FAQs and Cheats made that triumph more possible throughout the past twelve months.
Here's our recap of the year's most popular videogame wisdom. Back before the widespread use of the Internet, there was a little game from Core Design featuring a rough and tumble heroine by the name of Lara Croft.
Although not present in the first game, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary holds some of the franchise's most deviously hidden relics and secret artifacts. While you may scoff at archaeology, you want to grab all those hidden items because they unlock new costumes and in-game cheats for Lara infinite ammunition and the like. Check out our free guide and complete Ms.
0コメント