Alone in the Dark Impressions

Alone in the Dark is coming back later this year, and we recently got the chance to see how the game is shaping up. With a torch in one hand and a security blanket in the other, we crept over to Atari's London offices slightly regretting not being able to bring a sofa to hide behind.

When Alone in the Dark emerged in 1992, it brought the nascent survival horror genre into the limelight by combining the latest technology--it was one of the first games to feature true 3D characters--with intelligent puzzles, nonlinear gameplay, and a pervasive mythos that expands beyond the game itself. The 1992 classic spawned two sequels at the time (in 1994 and 1995) as well as a 2001 follow-up, but none of these had the commercial or critical success of the original. Atari is hoping that the 2008 iteration will buck this trend, as the game is going back to its roots of pushing technical boundaries, free-roaming problem solving, and tapping into the current paranoid zeitgeist.

Alone in the Dark has been built using a proprietary version of Half-Life's Havoc 4.5 engine by the studio behind the recent Test Drive Unlimited, with a script by Lorenzo Carcaterra. The veteran writer is best known for his novel Sleepers, which became a film starring Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt, and others--and is set in a version of New York that is falling apart around you.

The game opens in true survival horror fashion, with you waking up confused with no idea who you are or what's going on. Slowly the room comes into focus as you hear a conversation with references to various cultlike activities that are just coming to a head, but your vision soon blurs again--but this is corrected by simply closing your eyes. This mechanic continues for a small part of the first section as you slowly return to full consciousness, being dragged and ordered through an interior complex until you finally find a washbasin with a mirror, and start to get an idea of who you are and what's going on.

Alone in the Dark's attempts to break hardened video gaming cliches are obvious from the start. There are no inventory menus, ammo indicators, or health bars in either first- or third-person views--which you are free to switch between throughout. Your inventory is limited to what you can store in your rather capacious leather jacket, and it's accessed by looking down into it and seeing what you have stashed the various pockets and pouches sewn into the lining. Here you can not only see what items you have, but also work out how to combine them; if you've got a bottle of booze and a rag, you can make an instant Molotov cocktail, but add some tape and a box of ammo and you've got a much more powerful flying bomb.

Your mother probably told you never to play with fire. Ignore her.

Combining objects freely and creatively will likely be one of the game's highlights, as it isn't limited to just your inventory; you can use pretty much any object in the world that's not nailed down, from chairs and tables to fire extinguishers, rakes, and even cars. As you'd expect from the team behind Test Drive, all the cars are promised to be fully accessible. While they aren't all driveable, you can access glove boxes, boots, and even the contents of petrol tanks as well as being able to move from seat to seat and use all the doors, as you might expect from a real car. One segment we saw allowed you to steal a car, use a screwdriver to puncture the fuel tank, and then drive it until you choose to stop--at which point you can run away, light the handy trail of fuel left by the car, and sit back and watch the fireworks--at least until the fuel is exhausted. If you happen to have an empty bottle on you, you can even steal some of the free-flowing fuel to use later.

It's not just cars and petrol you can set on fire, either; everything in the game that looks like it should burn, will. This is particularly useful in darkened interior segments where light is at a premium and you are faced with photophobic enemies, and it becomes essential if you happen to have forgotten to pick up some new batteries for your flashlight. One neat example of this was being able to smash a wooden table using a fire extinguisher, pick up one of the table's legs--with a healthy section of tabletop still attached--and then set it on fire to act as an impromptu flaming torch. This not only served to scare off one of the game's more sinister enemies (who took the form of a shadow creeping across the floor), but also acts as a weapon if swung at speed, as well as a method for spreading fire into other areas easily. If you're feeling particularly creative, it is possible to kill the shambling zombies in this segment by first spraying them with fuel, then hitting them with your flaming table leg, resulting in a satisfying burst of flames over the area the fuel was sprayed, followed by the rest of the creature going up in smoke.

Once you pick up an object its movement is controlled via the analog sticks, so you can just as easily warily hold the torch out in front of you to light your way as you can rapidly swing it round. This control method is needed for the game's various challenges; one of the first we encountered required us to use a crowbar--one that had just been used to bludgeon a most unpleasant-looking creature to death--to slowly and carefully pick up a dangling electrical cable from a pool of water and drape it over a nearby barricade. Even at this early stage, the controls looked to be both intuitive and responsive.

The downside of having items that can be easily picked up in this manner is that enemies can knock them out of your hands. Take a heavy blow when swinging at an enemy and you're likely to lose grip with at least one of your hands; take another and you may see your weapon flying into the distance.

Problems you face don't just take the form of shadows, shambling zombies, and electrified pools of water, however. While most doors don't present a problem, as locks can be shot out and most heavy objects make effective battering rams, some security doors might. One we saw had a classic numerical keypad on for access, but three numbers were helpfully bloodied by the last person to get through. If working out the combination from those is too much for you, it's possible to just smash up the control pad and short-circuit the locking mechanism--once the wires are exposed the game goes into a first-person, close-up view of your hands holding some bared wires. The analog sticks are then used to select the various coloured wires and push them together as you search for the correct pair to short the device.

The game also features fast-paced action sequences. One we saw involved jumping into an instantly recognisable New York yellow taxi and driving it through the streets of New York as the buildings fall apart around you, segments of the road blow up, and other cars cartwheel over you as they get caught in explosions and hit by falling rubble. Another segment we saw involved rapelling up the wall of a chasm that's opened up, with your rope being attached to a freshly crashed helicopter. Rappelling up will involve swinging to dodge falling rubble, adjusting your position as the helicopter shifts position among the rubble above, and leaping clear before the structures holding it in place finally give way.

Driving through Central Park--the game's main location--provides its fair share of thrills too, as enemies will leap onto your car as you drive and attack you through the car's windows, given half the chance. (But if you slam into a tree you'll see them regret not paying more attention to just holding on.) The park has been faithfully re-created lake-for-lake and folly-for-folly, based on the most up-to-date satellite mapping, and it will be totally open for exploration in-game. Doing this thoroughly is likely to add five hours or so to the game's promised 10-hour running time, with plenty there to flesh out the story and reward the determined player, as well as objectives tied into the main storyline.

Sometimes you'll wish you had left the light off.

The atmosphere throughout the game will be enhanced by orchestral and choral music, all of which has been written and performed exclusively for the game. The vocals, provided by a professional Bulgarian choir, range from being haunting in creepy segments to flat-out terrifying as the game's tempo goes up and the score moves toward operatic madness.

Much has been made of the game's episodic format; Alone in the Dark is being promised to be a fairly TV-like experience as a whole. It is split up into eight episodes, all of which will have video recaps, so after not playing for a while, you will get a Lost-esque "Previously on Alone in the Dark" segment recapping the contents of the previous episode. If you're having trouble with certain segments it will be possible to just skip them, but at a price: You'll miss out on nonessential storyline elements, achievement points, and other bonus material. But it does mean that anyone who wants to will be able to get to the end of the game, without the need for endless replaying of particular segments you may not be enjoying.

Overall, Alone in the Dark is shaping up to be a solid survival action title that will not only provide a fair few rushes of adrenaline, but also yelps of fear and some chances for creative thinking, both in terms of destruction and problem solving. We are assured that the beta build is very, very nearly ready, and we expect to get some hands-on time with the game well before the game's release at the end of May.

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath Q&A - Consoles vs. PC

Real-time strategy (RTS) games arguably began their lives on consoles in the obscure Sega Genesis game Herzog Zwei, but they became what they are today on the PC. The keyboard-and-mouse interface was perfect for accurately selecting buildings and groups of units as you gathered resources, constructed a base, and churned out an army to crush your opponents before they could do the same. However, real-time strategy games have begun to pop up on consoles, and the next game to do so will be Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath, an updated version of Command & Conquer 3 that will offer new control improvements and new content. EALA's Louis Castle, cofounder of Westwood Studios and one of the original minds behind the Command & Conquer series, sat down with us to go over these improvements and discuss the evolution of console strategy games.

GameSpot: Give us an update on the development of Kane's Wrath for consoles. How are things going? How is the game working in practice, and how is it stacking up against the PC version of the game, in terms of both performance and head-to-head competition?

Louis Castle: In terms of console RTS games, Kane's Wrath is tracking to be a strong improvement over Command & Conquer 3. This is the third console RTS in a row that the team here in LA has developed, and it shows. The continual improvements in interface design, performance, and suitable mission design for console gaming is evident from the moment you pick up the controller. The CommandStick controls make even traditionally challenging PC commands lightning-fast and intuitive. The full integration of the PC and console teams allows for great sharing and game design that maximizes all platforms, from concept to final.

GS: Give us an overview of the CommandStick control. What does it add to the experience of a real-time strategy game on a console?

LC: The CommandStick allows for rapid command selection from a radial user interface which appears on the screen with the press of a button. This gives players the ability to build units in resource queues anywhere on the map without switching their visual context. This latest improvement in the console UI gives console players the rapid controls associated with dozens of hotkeys on the PC, all at the flick of a button.

GS: How will Kane's Wrath go beyond what we've already seen from Command & Conquer 3 on consoles? How will it evolve the control scheme and pacing that was developed specifically for consoles with C&C3?

LC: The CommandStick alone is a great innovation and large evolutionary step in console RTS design. The mission design and performance improvements help to drive full-featured RTS gaming into the hands of millions of console gamers. The PC guys have had the rich experience of RTS gaming to themselves for over 10 years, and it's great to see a whole new breed of console RTS gamers who are passionate and as capable as any PC player at executing their personal strategy nearly instantly.

GS: In a larger sense, in what direction do you feel Kane's Wrath will push real-time strategy on consoles? Going back to Battle for Middle-earth II (EALA's console real-time strategy debut), in what direction is the studio trying to push console real-time strategy?

The console versions of the game will have new interface features.

LC: Our team has the single-minded goal of unlocking the amazing gaming experience of full-featured RTS games on consoles. With each console RTS we complete, we learn more about what excites and empowers console gamers, and that learning drives improvements, not only on console RTS games but also on their PC RTS peers. I have found that one of the best ways to make better games is to try new ideas, test them in the marketplace, listen to consumers, and improve the experience. With each new product, our team evolves and improves an already outstanding experience.

GS: In the eyes of some skeptics, consoles may not offer as strong a real-time strategy experience as PCs--after all, there's no traditional mouse-and-keyboard control setup, more-restrictive online options, and little to no room for user-generated content and mods to keep games fresh and vibrant for months or even years. In your opinion, what unique advantages does a console real-time strategy experience offer, aside from letting people play them on the couch?

LC: One of the best advantages for console RTS gamers is the absolute certainty that you are playing against another player who has the same machine spec as you do. The PC market has the complication of so many hardware configurations and connection issues that a multiplayer gaming session is often compromised by a player with a less capable system.

The winners of console RTS matches are, more often, simply the better player. I wouldn't so quickly dismiss the value of playing on the couch. Most gamers with console systems have their gaming system where the bulk of their entertainment dollars have been spent. Sitting on a comfortable couch with a large, high-definition screen and surround sound simply amplifies the great RTS experiences we seek to create.

GS: Would you say that console real-time strategy has truly hit its stride at this point? It's easy to see that first-person shooters, traditionally a game genre that was associated with the PC, have come into their own on consoles. What will it take for real-time strategy games to really take off in the living room?

LC: I think console RTS games will continue to grow in popularity as console gamers seek richer strategic gaming experiences. We have far from hit the stride in my opinion. The continued growth of the console installed bases ensures many players with the same equipment can enjoy the gaming experience we have enjoyed making for over a decade.

But the console versions of the game will still have all the lasers and explosions that C&C fans expect.

This continued market growth and the continued growth of existing gamers' depth and complexity expectations will almost certainly result in more and more RTS fans that play in their living rooms.

GS: We understand that the recently announced Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is scheduled to ship on both the PC and consoles. Has EALA resolved to put all its new real-time strategy games out for both PC and consoles from here on out? Any possibility that future projects might be exclusive, either to the PC or to consoles?

LC: I can't comment on what we might do in the future, but I would expect us to continue to try and deliver the best full-featured RTS gaming experience we can for all the audiences we have the pleasure of attracting.

http://www.j4jumpy.net/MusicLibrary/Mainstream-Music/Falak/Rog_FALAK.mp3

It's hard to believe, but it's been nine years since the original Super Smash Bros. brought some of the most iconic Nintendo characters together for frantic battles, and roughly seven years since its sequel Super Smash Bros. Melee was released. Perhaps even harder still to believe--and a testament to the series' popularity and longevity--is that these games are still being played religiously to this day. But no matter whether you're a diehard Smash Bros. fanatic or a neophyte brawler, you'll be pleased to know that Super Smash Bros. Brawl includes a plethora of impressive characters, features, and game modes, and is more accessible and fun than ever before.

For the uninitiated, Smash Bros. is a multiplayer-centric series of fast-paced 2D fighting games that features a cast of characters from all over the Nintendo universe. If you've ever found yourself arguing with a friend about whether or not Mario could beat Link in a one-on-one match, Brawl is the game that will let you settle the issue once and for all (the answer of course is that Kirby would eat them both). Characters such as Ike from Fire Emblem, Meta Knight from Kirby, Fox McCloud from Star Fox, Lucas from the unreleased-in-the-US Mother 3 (Earthbound 2), Pikachu from Pokémon, and many more are all on the roster in Brawl, boosting its size up to an impressive 35 total characters--14 of which are hidden and must be unlocked. For the first time, the list of guests includes third-party, non-Nintendo characters such as Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog, and all of them bring their own signature fighting styles and moves to the game.

The roster is bigger than ever before and includes some surprising new additions.

Smash Bros. has always been one of the most accessible fighting games on the market because of the simplicity of its controls, and Brawl is no different. There are essentially only two attack buttons (one for normal attacks and one for special moves), and depending on which way you tilt your control stick when you hit them, they can produce a variety of effects that include the titular "smash" attacks. In the interests of user friendliness, Brawl offers four possible control schemes, which ensures that everyone can play whichever way they like; Wii Remote and Nunchuck, Wii Remote alone, Classic Controller, and GameCube Controller are all equally represented. Each of these methods are equally viable, and fans of Brawl's predecessor will be happy to know that the GameCube controls remain unchanged.

Combat includes up to four players brawling on video game-themed stages. The goal is to knock your enemies out of the arena with one of the aforementioned smash attacks. The amount of damage each character has sustained is measured in a percentage, and the higher this percentage is, the farther he or she flies when hit. Battles are fast-paced, frenetic, fun, and often outrageous orgies of chaos, which makes Brawl a perfect party game. But just because the game's mechanics are so simplified compared to traditional fighters doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of depth to be found for those willing to invest the time.

All of the characters have their own strengths and weaknesses, and learning how to protect yourself while taking advantage of your opponents' flaws goes a long way toward securing a victory. There can be a surprising amount of strategy involved, from knowing when and how to attack to ensuring that the terrain of the sometimes over-the-top levels works for you rather than against you. But all that said, Brawl is an incredibly well-balanced game in which even a brand-new player can come away the victor against a hardened veteran.

Throughout combat, various types of items will spawn on the battlefield for use by the first player to reach them. Some, such as the beam sword, are offensive in nature and augment your attack capabilities, whereas others are restorative and will lower your damage meter. Many of these items are from the various games the characters originate from, such as the fire flower and the super mushroom from Super Mario Bros. Although a lot of them have been featured in the previous Smash Bros. games, many new ones appear in Brawl, including the superspicy curry, which makes your character breathe fire for a time. Also worthy of a mention are the various assist trophies, which summon non-playable characters such as Tingle from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker or the 8-bit racers from Excitebike to help or hinder you. Some things--especially the hammer, bob-omb, and warp star--could be considered game-breaking due to their abilities to inflict fatal wounds nearly all of the time, but these items and any others can be toggled off in the options menu before a match begins.

Metal Gear?! It can't be!

In fact, customizable is the name of the game, given that a wide variety of parameters can be adjusted when participating in the special brawl mode. Gravity, fighter size, and game speed are just a few of the options, with some of the more outlandish possibilities being whether or not your characters are made of metal (which makes them much heavier and thus harder to KO) or are virtually invisible. Both special brawl matches and regular battles let you customize which items are allowed and how often items will spawn, what kinds of handicaps--if any--are in place, how stages are selected, and more.

Teams can be created if you so desire, and the types of brawls that can be started include timed matches in which the one who scores the most kills and the least deaths wins, stock matches in which the last player standing wins, and coin-collecting matches in which the number of coins everyone has when time is up determines the winner. Tournaments are a snap to set up due to a built-in mode that facilitates up to 32 players on a single Wii, and there's even a rotation mode to help up to 16 players figure out how to take turns. In short, there are literally dozens of ways that you can battle in your living room.

Mario Kart wii for wii reveiw

One may wonder why Nintendo would add motorcycles and dirt bikes to the game series that popularized, if not invented, the genre of weapons-based go-kart racing. If you're one of the fans who balked at the inclusion of two-wheeled vehicles, a midair stunt system, and motion controls, rest assured that despite these changes, Mario Kart Wii is still very much the game that you have come to love over the years. But even if you haven't been on the receiving end of a blue shell before, the extensive multiplayer options, deeply integrated online functionality, multitude of controller schemes available, and simple gameplay make this latest Mario Kart great fun and quite possibly the most accessible one ever.

The main event of Mario Kart is the Grand Prix mode, which in this version pits you against 11 other computer-controlled competitors in a race to the finish on a four-course cup event. Grand Prix lets you select from three different engine sizes/difficulty settings, and there are initially four cups available, with four more that are unlockable by conquering their predecessors. This makes for a total of 32 different courses, of which half are brand-new for the Wii and the rest remastered versions of classic stages from previous games. This combination of both new and old provides a solid mix of novelty and nostalgia, but overall, the stylistic differences highlight two of the game's greatest flaws.

Waluigi Stadium is just one of the returning tracks, and unlike some of the other classic tracks, it looks and plays better than ever before.

One of the major new features is the midair stunt system, which is activated by flicking the Wii Remote at the very moment you leave the ground from a ramp-assisted jump, making your racer perform an extreme-sports-style trick, such as a 360-degree spin, which upon landing rewards you with a considerable speed boost. To facilitate this new mechanic, most new tracks include huge half-pipes, rampant ramps, a multitude of moguls, and a plethora of pits, all of which are deliberately placed to encourage extensive stunt work. While this new system itself isn't flawed and in fact injects a great deal of fun and new strategy into the gameplay, its influence on course design has made certain items even deadlier, as you're that much more likely to be blasted uncontrollably into lava or other hazards due to how much time you spend in the air.

The second major track-related issue is that the classic courses, while they've never looked better, are much less engaging than their counterparts. While the newer tracks are wild, crazy, and may even change dynamically as Grumble Volcano or Dry Dry Ruins do, the older courses are their polar opposite and are with few exceptions flat, empty, wide-open, and pit-free. Though you may find the occasional ramp or half-pipe haphazardly bolted on to make it play a teeny bit better with the stunt system, it generally seems like Nintendo deliberately decided to make you choose which was more important: stunts or a slightly better item balance. This dichotomy of level design creates a tenuous balance of play styles and is inelegant at best.

Mario Kart Wii includes the standard batch of items that players have come to expect, including mushrooms, starmen, fake item boxes, shells, and more. New items include the thunder cloud, which will automatically shrink you after several seconds unless you ram someone to pass it off onto them; the POW block, which temporarily stuns everyone ahead of you and makes them drop their items; and the mega mushroom, which makes you grow super large for a time to flatten other racers beneath your tires. While it's pretty much a guarantee of the Mario Kart experience that no one can stay in first forever, some of the more powerful items such as the blue shell, lightning bolt, and POW block appear absurdly often. It's not uncommon to be hit by several of them in a row or even simultaneously if you're in first place.

Much like Super Smash Bros. Brawl before it, Mario Kart Wii includes support for every possible controller configuration under the sun. The game comes packaged with a steering wheel controller shell that allows you to take full advantage of the Wii's motion-sensing abilities for what is perhaps the best purely tilt-driven control scheme available on the market. Though it does take quite a bit of time to get used to, the steering wheel feels quite natural and is very responsive. However, if you're not exactly up to the task or prefer the touch of an analog stick, the Wii Remote with Nunchuk, Classic Controller, or GameCube Controller schemes work just as well, with the directional pads on the more traditional controllers nicely substituting for remote-waggling.

Bloopers are back and far more dangerous without the separate map screen of the DS version.

Though the fundamental Mario Kart experience has remained generally the same, there are several changes that can greatly impact gameplay. Drifting mechanics in particular have changed dramatically, both to make it easier to perform for beginners and as a countermeasure against the controversial technique known as snaking (continuously mini-turbo boosting on a straightaway). Mini-turbo boosts are no longer performed by wiggling the analog stick. They are instead determined by the amount of time spent in a drift, and in fact can't be done at all in automatic mode. The type of vehicle you select also affects how drifting works, as go-karts have the ability to super mini-turbo boost by drifting around a turn a bit longer than normal. Motorcycles can't do this, but they can pop wheelies for extra speed on straightaways at the cost of impaired turning and increased susceptibility to ramming attacks. It is worth mentioning that while snaking is still possible to perform--especially on wide and open avenues-- it is no longer as viable or even as helpful as it once was.

Hardware Perfomance Guide of Crysis.

Crysis is the textbook definition of a next-generation game. Picturesque beaches? Check. Ridiculously detailed jungles? Check. Utterly drinkable water effects? Check. Requires a computer from the future? Check. Crysis is either a game from the future that managed to travel back in time to warn us about nanosuits and North Koreans as interpreted though a cleverly disguised shooter, or it's just ahead of its time. Our best test computers, outfitted with high-end CPUs and GPUs, struggled to maintain frame rates at the game's highest-quality settings. Suffice it to say, you will need to upgrade your computer for Crysis.

We used Crysis' two built-in benchmarks as our primary frame rate tests. The GPU benchmark performs a flyby over the island, gliding over many of the game's watery locales. The CPU benchmark takes a more destructive approach, and has the character hurling grenades and firing rockets at every single structure and vehicle in sight, taxing the CPU with the resulting carnage. All results are the average of three test runs.

Game Settings
Expect to relax some of the game settings you're accustomed to enabling in other games when playing Crysis. We went through each game setting and figured out which settings affect performance and graphics quality the most. Take a look at the comparison screenshots to determine which settings are worth keeping.

Graphics
The minimum specs for Crysis call for a GeForce 6800. The game will run on a 6800, but it won't be pretty. We went ahead and tested more than 20 video cards to see how the game performed under three different operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista 32-bit, and Windows Vista 64-bit.

CPU
Crysis likes multicore processors. It doesn't care how many there are, or even how fast they are, as long as you have at least two cores. However, if you're chugging along on a single-core processor, you might want to look into getting a new CPU.

Memory
We broke out the memory sticks and tested Crysis to see how the game performed with varying amounts of memory across Windows XP, Window Vista 32-bit, and Windows Vista 64-bit.

Systems

We put together a few sample systems to show how the game performs using real-world computers put together with parts from past hardware generations. Our slowest machine, a 3.0GHz Pentium 4 paired with a GeForce 6800, barely managed to run the game at the lowest settings. Our single-core AMD Athlon 64 4000+ paired with a Radeon X1650 XT performed adequately at low resolution with medium-quality settings. The dual-core Athlon 64 FX-60 paired with the Radeon X1900 XT 256MB managed to run the game with high quality settings at somewhat playable frame rates. Our Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz and GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB system could run the game at high quality, but we had to reduce the screen resolution to boost frame rates. Our best dual-core rig, the Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93GHz and GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB setup, managed to run the game decently at 1600x1200 with high-quality settings.

System Level Performance Tests

(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1600x1200, High Quality

Intel Core 2 X6800, GeForce 8800 GTX 768, 2GB RAM, Vista

27

1280x720, High Quality

Intel Core 2 E6600, GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB, 2GB RAM, Vista

25

AMD Athlon 64 FX-60, Radeon X1900 XT 256MB, 2GB RAM, WinXP

19

1280x720, Medium Quality

AMD Athlon 64 4000+, Radeon X1650 XT 256MB, 2GB RAM, WinXP

23

800x600, Medium Quality

Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz, GeForce 6800 128MB, 1GB RAM, WinXP

21

System Setup: Intel Core 2 X6800, Intel Core 2 E6600, Intel 975XBX2, 2GB Corsair XMS Memory (1GB x 2), 160GB Seagate 7200.7 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows Vista. Graphics Card: GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB, XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB XXX Edition, beta Nvidia ForceWare 169.04.

Athlon 64 FX-60, Athlon 64 4000+, Asus A8R32 MVP Deluxe, 2GB Corsair XMS Memory (1GB x 2), 160GB Seagate 7200.7 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows XP Professional SP2. Graphics Card:Radeon X1900 XT 256MB, Radeon X1650 XT 256MB, ATI Catalyst 7.10.

Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz, Asus P4C800, 1GB Corsair XMS Memory (512MB x 2), 160GB Seagate 7200.7 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows XP Professional SP2. Graphics Card: GeForce 6800 128MB, beta Nvidia ForceWare 169.04.

Crysis

It was hard not to be completely impressed when the first images and videos of Crysis appeared about 18 months ago. Scenes of lush jungles and towering alien war machines looked light-years beyond what seemed possible. Of course, the two questions that revolved around Crysis since its announcement were whether it would deliver on those visuals and whether it would deliver a game worthy of those fancy graphics. It turns out that the answer to both those questions is a resounding yes, as Germany's Crytek has proven that its 2004 hit Far Cry was no fluke. In fact, it was just the beginning from this studio. With its sophomore effort, Crytek has managed to deliver an incredibly advanced and exciting first-person shooter that practically rewrites the rules for the entire genre.

Welcome to the prettiest jungle that you have ever seen in a game. Notice that it's starting to snow?

Crysis is an alien invasion game set in the year 2020. An archeological team on a remote Pacific island is captured by an invasion force of North Koreans, and your US Special Forces team is dispatched to investigate and rescue the scientists. Clad in high-tech nanosuits capable of boosting your strength, speed, and armor, as well as cloaking you temporarily to the enemy, you're parachuted into a tropical paradise that's crawling with intelligent enemies and something else that's tearing both the North Koreans and US forces to shreds.

Like Far Cry, the first half of Crysis is essentially a "sandbox" game where you're put in the middle of incredibly large levels and tasked with an objective. How you get the job done is pretty much entirely up to you, which is part of the brilliance of the game's design. For instance, the environments are big enough to give you a wide range of latitude. Do you have to get to a certain point on the map? You can take a meandering route that avoids patrols and go stealthy, or try the up-front approach and try to blast your way through, with the danger of enemy reinforcements showing up. Need to infiltrate a North Korean-held village? You can try the front gate, or maybe explore and find a quieter way in.

Couple these huge environments with the powers of the nanosuit, and you have a ton more options. You can play like the eponymous character from the movie Predator and use your cloaking abilities to stalk North Korean patrols, picking them off one by one and watching the survivors react in confusion. That could be via a silenced rifle, or simply coming up from behind a guard and grabbing him by the throat and hurling him off a cliff, or through the roof of a building, or against a tree, or whatever catches your fancy. Enhanced speed and strength give you an amazing amount of mobility, so you can vault atop buildings and come down behind someone, or run up against a North Korean vehicle next to a cliff and push it over the side. In a heartbeat you can switch between different roles, from stealthy assassin to seemingly unstoppable death dealer. It's a game that makes you feel like a superhero, though not an invincible one, because you simply can't run roughshod over the enemy. Crysis rewards smart, fast thinking.

The firefights are stunning, as well as challenging, whether you're tackling North Korean soldiers or alien war machines.

It helps that the game features a high degree of advanced physics and destructibility in a highly dynamic world. Getting caught in a firefight in the jungle is a cinematic treat, thanks to the way the bullets will chop down trees, while branches sway from impacts. This isn't just a visual effect, either, as falling timber can kill if it lands on someone. There's all sorts of emergent behavior like that throughout the game, events that spring up completely unintended or unforeseen. In one instance, the flaming wreckage of a chopper landed on a hut, crushing it and killing all those inside.

Meanwhile, the gunplay and ballistics modeling make this shooter feel as if you're handling real weapons. Trying to hit a target at long engagement ranges is challenging thanks to weapon recoil and other factors. The North Koreans are encased in body armor, so they take some time to gun down, unless you aim for the head, which usually puts them on the ground. At your disposal is a variety of firearms, like shotguns and assault rifles. One of the neat aspects of the game is that you can fix up your weapons on the fly, adding scopes, silencers, and grenade launchers, provided you've found them. There are trade-offs for each add-on. Silencers let you take down guys quietly, though they reduce bullet damage, meaning you've got to make every shot count. Or flashlights mounted on your weapons might help you out in dark levels, but will give you away.

It's not just infantry combat, as you can hop into almost every vehicle in the game, as well as take part in an incredible tank battle.

Crysis gives you all of these toys and ratchets the action higher and higher the deeper you get into it. The first level of the game introduces you to the sandbox combat and the nanosuit. From then on, the battles become larger and more intense as the action escalates. You'll storm North Korean-held villages and bases; encounter their counter to your nanosuit; take part in a chaotic assault on a North Korean harbor; and from there the game accelerates. Next is a wild tank battle in a tropical mountain valley, with helicopters and jet fighters roaring overhead. There's a sheer rush as your tank plows through vegetation and knocks down trees as missiles and tank fire erupt all around you. Meanwhile, the vehicle explosions are convincing, right down to the way ammunition cooks off and sends spirals of smoke outward. It's visual poetry of destruction. You're not confined to your tank the entire time, either. You can jump out at any time and use your suit powers and rifle to take on enemy infantry. When they're dead, pick up their dropped rocket launchers and engage vehicles in a cat-and-mouse-style game.

As events in the game continue to ramp up, you'll find yourself inside the alien ship, the zero-gravity environment delivers a visually strange and yet wondrous setting. As you navigate through the environment and engage the aliens you have to figure out your way through the level. Escape the alien ship and you're tossed into a frozen environment against the alien foe. After the alien vessel, the game becomes less free form and more linear, but it also amps up the action along the way, reflecting the way that the stakes are being raised. Now you're trying to fight your way out of the alien sphere, which means dodging war machines that look like something from The Matrix. There are a few more surprises in store from that point before you get to the ultimate showdown.

The alien environment feels appropriately otherworldly, and it feels like you're under the sea.

The one criticism that can be leveled on the story is that it leaves you screaming for more. While there's an adrenaline-packed finale, you still don't want the game to end on the note that it does. The single-player campaign is around eight to 10 hours long, which is a healthy amount for a shooter. There's a lot of replay here, too, as you can experiment with a multitude of different approaches. Plus, it's fun to go back and try out the large, set-piece battles again and again, since they can unfold in different ways thanks to the dynamic nature of the combat and the artificial intelligence.

Speaking of which, the AI is generally excellent in a fight, as enemy soldiers use cover and concealment effectively. They also know how to lay down suppressing fire and are great at tossing grenades to flush you out of hiding. Getting in a firefight in the jungle with these guys is always fun, because they'll make you work for it at the default normal difficulty setting. (However, the AI can suffer from the same problem all shooters seem to have; mainly that bad guys sometimes don't know what's going on down the road from them.) When you take damage, find cover and your armor and health will regenerate. If you die, you reload to the last checkpoint or quick save. Meanwhile, Crysis includes a special hard mode called delta, which is a lot of fun, because rather than making the game tougher by cheating and giving the bad guys more powerful weapons, delta takes away some of the gameplay crutches that help you at lower difficulty levels. For instance, incoming grenades are no longer highlighted, so you've got to pay attention now, and your health regeneration is slower. And the best part about delta is that all enemy soldiers speak fully in Korean, so unless you understand Korean, you're going to have a much harder time trying to figure out what they're planning to do.

The single-player game is a considerable accomplishment by itself, but Crytek has also included a full-featured multiplayer mode called power struggle that combines the best of the Battlefield games and Counter-Strike. The goal in power struggle is that each 16-man team (for 32 players total) must destroy the opposing team's base, but to do so they have to construct alien weaponry at a central prototype facility. To power the prototype facility, though, both teams need to seize and hold power stations throughout the map. In addition, there are bunkers and factories that can be captured; capturing a bunker allows your team to spawn in forward positions, while capturing a factory allows you to purchase vehicles that can help your side. Whenever you help your team by killing the enemy or seizing an objective, you gain points that can be used to purchase more advanced weapons, vehicles, and gear. It's an excellent multiplayer mode, and it comes with five large maps to support it. Keep in mind that everyone has their suit powers as well, so in addition to all the running and gunning and vehicle driving, there's plenty of leaping and speed running and cloaking going on.

Power struggle is Battlefield meets Counter-Strike meets the powers of the nanosuit.

Then there's instant action, which is essentially deathmatch with nanosuit powers. This is a chaotic mode set in some stunning levels, including what feels like a fully modeled Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. You can run around the flight deck, a good chunk of the hanger deck, and many of the corridors. Weapons are strewn about everywhere in instant action, so it's just a crazy melee of shotguns, snipers, rocket launchers, or nanosuit-enhanced fists. However, a team deathmatch mode is missing, which seems odd. Team deathmatch would have been a welcome addition, since it would have instilled some kind of teamwork into an otherwise free-for-all frenzy. Finally, Crysis multiplayer features built-in voice support, which means that all you need is a microphone to talk to your fellow players and teammates in power struggle.

Graphically, Crysis looks photorealistic at times--it's that amazing. Crytek has managed to achieve a visual fidelity that blows away anything seen to date, and there are countless moments when you'll just stop and gape at what you're seeing. Sometimes it's just the ordinary, like the setting sun casting all sorts of shadows and rays through the jungle canopy. Other times, it's something epic, like watching a huge alien war machine stomping toward you. The impressive aspect of the graphics is just how it manages to render huge, open, dynamic, interactive levels. Everything looks amazing up close or far away. Interacting with your squadmates lets you gaze upon the mechanical sinews of their nanosuit, or the incredible facial animation that brings them to life. They're capable of the subtlest of facial gestures to help convey emotion. Then you can sit on a ridge and peer down using binoculars to a village a kilometer away, scouting the location of the patrolling guards and machine gun posts. The sheer fact that many of the trees and buildings are destructible just adds a level of realism that's staggering.

You'll need a fairly high-end system to make the game look its best. In that regard, Crysis really does embody everything that's both exciting and daunting about PC gaming. A dual-core CPU and the latest generation of video card can run the game at maximum detail settings capably, though you have to lower the resolution a bit to do so. It's doubtful that a system has been built yet that can run the game at ultra-high resolutions with all the graphical sliders maxed out. Dial down the detail settings to high, which is the next-lower setting, and Crysis still blows contemporary games out of the water. Results are a bit mixed at medium and low settings, though. At the lowest detail settings, objects pop in and out with a fair degree of consistency. It's annoying at best and frustrating at worst, as it can impact gameplay. Crysis does support both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10, though the latter requires you run the game using Windows Vista. The visuals in DX9 are impressive, but they really come to life in DX10, provided you have the hardware.

This is a backwoods redneck's worst nightmare: North Koreans, aliens, and a tornado.

The game also sounds fantastic, from the primordial "moans" that the island periodically releases, the soft crunch of dirt and branches under your feet, and all the background sounds that you'd expect in the middle of the jungle. Turn on your suit's cloak, and everything sounds muffled. The music, by composer Inon Zur, feels inspired by the scores from epic Hollywood action movies, while the voice acting is also excellent, helping to deliver some distinct characters and even a little humor.

If you put it all together, Crysis is just remarkable. This is a game that pushes the envelope in terms of both technology and gameplay and does so with aplomb. Crysis raises the expectations for every shooter to follow when it comes to graphics, interactivity, environments, immersiveness, AI, and gameplay. Quite simply, Crysis represents the first-person shooter at its finest, most evolved form.

Halo 3 Guide..

Regardless of how you felt about its cliffhanger ending, there's no denying that Halo 2 was a gigantic success that raised the bar for what we, as a game-playing society, expect out of a good console-based first-person shooter. In the years that followed, plenty of games attempted to duplicate the Halo formula, with varying degrees of success. But there's still nothing quite like the genuine item. Luckily for all involved, Halo 3 is a positively amazing package that offers extreme satisfaction across all of its different parts. Maybe now you can finally retire your Halo 2 disc and really move into the next generation of games.

Halo 3 manages to feel familiar while also packing in a good amount of new material.

Halo 3 is an interesting mix of established protocol and intriguing new stuff. For example, the gameplay doesn't stray too far from Halo 2, which, in turn, didn't exactly reinvent the original Halo. Don't take that as a negative, because it means that Halo 3 plays extremely well, with the same types of light tactical considerations that have made the series stand apart from other, faster-paced shooters. The balance between your guns, your grenades, and your melee attack has always given Halo a unique feel in the genre, and those same considerations apply today, both in the campaign mode and in multiplayer. You'll also have new weapons and items to consider, such as a host of Brute weapons. One example is the spiker, which is an exciting automatic pistol that fires quickly and decimates opponents, especially if you're holding a pair of them. Another is the mauler, which is a one-handed shotgun that can level enemies up close. You'll even find weapons so huge that your movement speed slows when you carry them. When you use these weapons, the camera pulls out to a third-person perspective so you can see your missile pod, plasma cannon, or flamethrower as it fires. And then there's the gravity hammer. Originally shown in Halo 2 (where it wasn't usable by the player), the gravity hammer is a large melee weapon that will wipe out most regular enemies in one swipe. Needless to say, it can be especially fun in multiplayer settings. The end result is gameplay that feels wholly familiar without retreading the same ground too heavily.

The campaign is structured in much the same way as past Halo games, with multiple chapters and effective streaming that ensures you'll see load times only between chapters. There are also lengthy vehicle sequences to break up the on-foot action. You'll pilot the classic Halo vehicles, such as the Ghost, a hovering one-person craft that's fast and deadly, and the Warthog, a dune buggy with a turret mounted in the back. You'll also see new vehicles, such as the Brute Prowler, which is a two-person vehicle with turrets. Like in previous games, the vehicles are fun to use. Also similar to previous games, the artificial intelligence can't drive very well, so if you're playing alone, you'll usually want to grab the steering wheel rather than the weapons.

The concept of "equipment" is new to the series. These deployable special items have a variety of effects. The most obvious example is the bubble shield: You (and your enemies) can walk through it, but bullets and explosions bounce right off. It's especially entertaining when your enemies use it, given that you can just walk through and bash them with the butt of your gun. You'll also find items that make your shields regenerate more quickly, and others that drain enemy shields and stop their vehicles dead in their tracks. These items also show up in multiplayer, where they're a little more interesting.

Halo 2's ending was widely criticized for being too much of a cliffhanger and leaving you with no sense of progress or resolution whatsoever. It's good news, then, that Halo 3's story doesn't suffer from that problem at all. It opens immediately following the events of Halo 2: The Covenant is on its way to Earth, continuing its religious zealotry and attempting to activate the floating space weapons known as Halos, which could destroy civilization as we know it. The Master Chief and the other Earth forces of the UNSC are in hot pursuit to stop them, with newfound allies such as the Arbiter coming along for the ride. We'll spare you the specifics because they're quite compelling and should be seen firsthand. All you really need to know if you're on the fence about Halo 3's campaign is that it's a delicate balancing act that manages to provide satisfying closure for the trilogy, make perfect sense of all the cryptic events in Halo 2, and leave you filled with anticipation for more adventures set in the Halo universe. Not bad for a game that will take most players between 10 and 15 hours to finish on one of four difficulty settings.

But you'll probably go through the campaign more than once, thanks to the inclusion of a strong co-op mode. Previous Halo games have let two players go through the campaign; Halo 3 ups that number to four players and lets you do the whole thing over Xbox Live, if you so choose. This is a really fun way to experience the campaign's nine chapters, and you can choose to go through them in any order, provided you've already played through it alone. Furthermore, this method of play (which you can also do alone) lets you turn on scoring in campaign mode, in which you earn points for kills and lose them for dying. This adds a sense of competition to the co-op, and there are also achievements associated with finishing chapters with high point totals. You can also customize the experience a bit by turning on a series of unlockable modifiers that open up as you collect hidden skulls. The skulls are stashed around the game, and some of them do things such as increase the amount of damage you'll need to deal to take an enemy down, remove the heads-up display and make your weapon invisible, and so on. This gives the story-driven section of the game some more replay value, although it doesn't get significantly more difficult as you scale up the number of players. Consequently, finishing the game on legendary difficulty is a breeze if you're rolling through with three experienced fellow triggermen.

You can earn the campaign achievements in co-op mode, which makes the legendary difficulty a lot easier to manage.

In addition to the four-player co-op action, you can also play competitive solo and team-based multiplayer matches with up to 16 players on 11 different maps. There's a lot of depth to the multiplayer modes, ranging from simple stuff such as deathmatch and team deathmatch (still referred to as slayer and team slayer here), to more objective-based gameplay such as capture the flag. Another similar mode is called territories, in which the two teams fight to defend or attack various control points around the map. You'll also find a mode called infection, where a percentage of the players start as sword-wielding zombies and must convert the members of the other team by killing them, until only one non-zombie remains. Each of the maps can handle any of these game modes.

Like in Halo 2, you can customize these game types, and there's more to customize this time around. You can change things like starting weapons, the weapons that appear on the map, whether the motion sensor is active, the force of gravity, the game speed, whether the players all have active camouflage or not, and much, much more. The multiplayer is as strong as it has ever been thanks to the addition of new weapons and tweaks to old ones. Swords have been made much more interesting this time around: If two players run at one another with energy swords and attack at the same time, the swords clash and the players bounce off one another. This makes all-swords matches totally wild. The gravity hammer is also big fun in multiplayer matches, both because it crushes enemies that are foolish enough to get too close, and because you can smack incoming rockets to bat them away, which makes for an interesting game of baseball.

The weird thing about this last concept is that, with the addition of the Forge, you'll actually be able to build some sort of crude baseball variant if you want. Forge mode is a map editor, but not in the 3D modeling sense that you're used to seeing in PC shooters. You can't edit level geometry with Forge, but you can spawn, remove, and move objects and items around the level. All of the editing is done in real time, and you can pop in and out of edit mode by pushing up on the D pad. You can also play this mode with other players, letting everyone run around in edit mode to spawn Warthogs, rocket launchers, and whatever else is already on the map. On the surface, that doesn't sound so exciting. But in practice, it's a weird and potential-rich addition to the game because there are a ton of little secrets and tricks you can use to manipulate the objects in ways the developers may not have intended.

The Forge might not sound like much at first, but when you figure out how to play with it, it becomes one of the game's most impressive features.

For example, take the fusion core. It's Halo's version of the exploding barrel, and by default, it blows up when you shoot it or drop it from a significant height. It also takes 30 seconds to respawn. You can modify it to respawn every 10 seconds and, with help from another player's rifle fire, you can coax it into respawning in midair, where it tumbles to the ground and explodes every 10 seconds. Naturally, if you surround that spot with more stuff that explodes, you'll have a fun little physics-based bomb that respawns and explodes every 10 seconds. If you've ever messed around with Garry's Mod, a similar physics-based toolbox for Half-Life 2, then you'll recognize this as a simplified take on that idea when you start using it for more than simply adding a few weapons to a map or moving spawn points around. Though many players probably won't get hooked on Forge tinkering, it's an extremely powerful addition that may just take over your life.

You'll be able to easily share your Forge creations with other players via a handy file-sharing system that lets you quickly send map configurations and gameplay types to your friends. You can also set a certain number of items as publicly shared, and users can go to Bungie's Web site to browse and rate the shared items. Additionally, you can flag items for download on that Web page, and the next time you fire up Halo 3, it'll download the items you've marked. It's a very slick interface that makes moving stuff around very easy.

You can also use the file-sharing options to send screenshots and saved films. Saved films are replays of action from any of the modes in the game, from campaign to multiplayer to Forge sessions. The game automatically stores the last 25 or so sessions, and you can choose to save them more permanently from there. Once you've got them, you can edit them down to key kills, weird single-player behavior, or the strangest Forge stuff you can come up with, and then save them for sharing, just as you would with a map or game mode. Much like Forge, the saved-films feature doesn't really sound like much, but Halo 3 is a very replay-worthy game, and you'll probably run into plenty of little moments that you'll want to save for posterity. Another nice touch is that the films aren't locked to one perspective. You can detach the camera from your player and fly anywhere on the map, or change it to any other player's view, as well. The only real issue is that rewinding and fast-forwarding are a little clunky. So if you've got something you want to save that's at the end of a 45-minute session, you'll have to hold down the fast-forward button for a long time to get to that moment, and if you miss it, rewinding can be a real pain, too. Once you've figured out the little idiosyncrasies of footage manipulation, it's not so bad.

Halo has always had a very strong artistic vision, and the graphics have always been just good enough to convey the necessary imagery without becoming huge technical powerhouses. That's not to say that the game isn't technically impressive, because it maintains a smooth frame rate throughout, and looks very sharp overall with plenty of great lighting and other nice effects. But the visual design overpowers its technical side and really stands out. Given that the game takes place in a wider range of locales than the previous two games, you'll see a lot of different, colorful environments, including deserts, snow, jungle settings, great-looking building interiors, and more. The enemies, many of which are returning from past games, also look great.

The audiovisual portion of Halo 3 is definitely impressive, with great art, sharp effects, and terrific music.

The sound in Halo 3 is a good mix of old and new, much like the rest of the game. You'll hear the familiar Halo theme music and variants thereof. You'll also hear plenty of great new music, including one suspenseful track with a heartbeat-like sound that manages to get your heart pounding as well. Most of the voice cast from Halo 2 returns to voice their respective characters, and they again turn in terrific and believable performances. You'll also hear a ton of combat dialogue, both from the marines that fight by your side as well as the enemies you're fighting, who don't seem to appreciate it when you kill one of their comrades. Our favorite line from the Covenant was probably "You've killed my brother for the last time," which is pretty hilarious.

As games start to consider user-generated content, it's becoming clear that more and more games will be ready to give you back just as much as you're willing to put into them. On the surface, Halo 3 is every bit the sequel you would expect it to be, in that it delivers meaningful upgrades to both the story-driven and competitive sides of the package. However, it's the addition of the Forge level editor and the saved films that give the game an even longer set of legs, legs that will probably keep you running at full speed until Bungie figures out where, exactly, to go from here.

Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare Hardware Perfomance Guide

Call of Duty 4 leaves the oft-played battlefields of World War II behind and enters the modern age. The game takes place in current hot spots around the world, rendering the ravaged landscapes with the right amount of grit and a great amount of reality. You wouldn't expect a game that looks as good as Call of Duty 4 to run well without the best hardware, but the developers made the game accessible on a broad range of computers. Call of Duty 4 still manages to look decent even at its lowest quality settings. However, multiplayer battles--the likes of which Call of Duty 4 is famous for--will tax even the best of computers. The key to making Call of Duty 4 run really well is to upgrade evenly across all the major component classes and to select the appropriate settings.

We used FRAPs and the opening sequence of The Bog mission to measure frame rates in our benchmark tests. The Bog takes place on a war-torn stretch of road with flaming wrecks, flares flying through the sky, and scores of friendly units charging. Occasionally, those friendly units are also taking cover from a substantial amount of enemy fire. The intense map acts well as a worst-case test scenario for how the game might perform.

Game Settings
Call of Duty 4 allows you to pick and choose from a host of options. We identified three guaranteed frame rate killers; two of which, you can probably live without.

Graphics
You can run Call of Duty 4 on a GeForce 6800, but it just won't look or play all that great. We tested more than 20 video cards to help you figure out what GPU best matches your budget and performance needs.

CPU
Ditch the single-core processor. Call of Duty 4 requires a dual-core processor to run well. We tested three different kinds of Intel processors and three AMD processors to help you decide what's enough versus what's overkill.

Memory
The Call of Duty 4 system requirements state that the game only requires 512MB of RAM to run, but you're going to have to turn down all the settings to get the game to run well with that little memory. A bump up to 1GB of RAM solves most of the problems, but we went ahead and checked out what upgrading to 2GB, or even 3GB of RAM, can do for performance.

Systems

We put together a few sample systems to show how the game performed using real-world computers. Our slowest machine, a 3.0GHz Pentium 4 paired with a GeForce 6800, choked out a barely playable result at the lowest quality settings and ran a slide show at the pace of one frame every 10 seconds when we tried increasing the settings. Our single-core AMD Athlon 64 4000+ paired with a Radeon X1650 XT performed surprisingly well at the highest quality settings, but we did have to relax a few of them to get the system to play nicely. The dual-core AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 paired with the Radeon X1900 XT 256MB ran the game at a more than playable frame rate with maximum quality. Both of our Intel Core 2 rigs ran the game just fine and could handle even higher resolution, as well as antialiasing settings.

System Level Performance Tests

(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1280x1024, Maximum Quality

Intel Core 2 X6800, GeForce 8800 GTX 768, 2GB RAM, Vista

76

Intel Core 2 E6600, GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB, 2GB RAM, Vista

65

AMD Athlon 64 FX-60, Radeon X1900 XT 256MB, 2GB RAM, WinXP

42

AMD Athlon 64 4000+, Radeon X1650 XT 256MB, 2GB RAM, WinXP

20

800x600, Minimum Quality

Pentium 4 2.4GHz, GeForce 6800 128MB, 1GB RAM, WinXP

26

System Setup: Intel Core 2 X6800, Intel Core 2 E6600, Intel 975XBX2, 2GB Corsair XMS Memory (1GB x 2), 160GB Seagate 7200.7 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows Vista. Graphics Card: GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB, XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB XXX Edition, beta Nvidia ForceWare 169.21.

Athlon 64 FX-60, Athlon 64 4000+, Asus A8R32 MVP Deluxe, 1GB Corsair XMS Memory (512MB x 2), 160GB Seagate 7200.7 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows XP Professional SP2. Graphics Card:Radeon X1900 XT 256MB, Radeon X1650 XT 256MB, ATI Catalyst 7.11.

Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz, Asus P4C800, 1GB Corsair XMS Memory (512MB x 2), 160GB Seagate 7200.7 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows XP Professional SP2. Graphics Card: GeForce 6800 128MB, beta Nvidia ForceWare 169.09.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES

Memento Mori. That Latin phrase can be translated a few different ways, but the best version goes thusly: Remember that you are mortal. Those ancient words cross the screen during Persona 3: FES's introduction cinematic, and they set a properly mature tone for the deep and engaging role-playing that the game offers. FES is an expanded edition of last year's intense Persona 3, complete with a long new episode, dozens of new quests, and an impressive amount of other new content. However, this isn't just your standard collectors-edition fare. The extras in FES expand and deepen the core game, and the new episode, though disappointing, adds a good 30 hours of gameplay to an already-lengthy experience. This is the best way to play last year's finest RPG, and if the original release's short supply is any indication, you should grab a copy quickly before the game disappears from store shelves entirely.

The core Persona 3 experience, titled "The Journey" in FES, revolves around the player character, a sullen young protagonist new to Gekkoukan High School. Although most teens need no reasonable excuse to power their adolescent angst, your own character witnesses events that would make most of us question our sanity. Every day at midnight, citizens get locked into coffins, and dark creatures roam the streets during a hidden hour that the public isn't privy to. As it turns out, you're not the only individual aware of this aptly named "dark hour." A group of students called the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad pulls you into its embrace, and the group fights to rid the city of its scourge--and hopefully the spread of a mental illness called Apathy Syndrome along with it.

Having to endure the dark hour may be a curse, but you and your classmates are blessed with the ability to summon personae, which are fantastical representations of your inner beings. Unlike your peers, you can summon multiple personae, though you all perform the same shocking action to call them forth: pulling out a pistol-like instrument called an evoker, pointing it at your head, and pulling the trigger. This sets the surprisingly somber tone for a compelling gameplay experience that weaves the mundane travails of academic life into the entertaining eeriness of the dark hour. For details on these mechanics, please refer to our review of Persona 3's original release.

The main addition to this impressive package is that of a new chapter called The Answer that takes place after the events of The Journey. Here, you take control of the robotic Aigis, who is struggling to make sense of the dramatic events that ended the school year. She and the members of the SEES find themselves trapped in the dorm in a Persona-style version of Groundhog Day, forced to repeat March 31 over and over. The teens are joined by another android named Metis that claims to be Aigis' sister. Thus the stage is set for a straightforward dungeon crawl that eliminates the academic sim gameplay and social links altogether, and focuses almost entirely on combat. Even the persona compendium is eliminated from the new episode.

Losing a large chunk of the core gameplay makes the new chapter less interesting to play than the main story, though the additional narrative should satisfy Persona 3 fans looking for a little more closure. You aren't exploring Tartarus this time, but you might as well be; the dungeons are all structured exactly the same way as before, and you won't get the occasionally different battle environments that The Journey offers. That said, the combat model is still strong enough to carry the new chapter, particularly because the level of difficulty has been increased. The challenge seems more or less the same in standard encounters, but even with some grinding, the boss battles feel tougher. Furthermore, you may find yourself using certain items (magic mirrors are infinitely helpful) and support spells during those fights that you may never have needed in the original version of Persona 3. The postbattle card shuffling is more challenging, too, with cards flying off the screen and then flitting back on. Don't let the added flurry of activity confuse you, though: It takes a keener eye, but you can still usually track the card you desire once you get used to the patterns.

Other additions and changes span both episodes, though The Journey benefits from the enhancements more than The Answer does. A new social link has been added, there are dozens of new quests, and 23 new beautifully designed personae are available, from the suitably named Mothman to the slinky Empusa (and really, it never gets old hearing Aigis call forth her winged companion). There are countless other adjustments, and many of them will tempt veterans to check out the new version. Test questions are different, you can now level up skills by visiting the local arcade, and you can even take pet and party member Koromaru out for a walk. You can also fuse personae to create weapons, which is an entirely new feature. And if you finished Persona 3 and want a real challenge, you can use your saved game data to access hard mode--and indeed, this mode is much more difficult than the normal difficulty setting.

The disappointing new chapter notwithstanding, Persona 3: FES is a wonderfully enhanced version of an already-great RPG. The gameplay has been deepened, broadened, and lengthened, yet the game sells for a discounted price, which makes FES a bona fide steal--even if you already played last year's release.

Robert Ludlum’s Bourne

Robert Ludlum’s Bourne series is an action-packed set of novels that has successfully transitioned to the big screen. The storyline revolved around Jason Bourne, a multi-million dollar weapon that had lost his memory during an assassination and was trying to piece together the fragments of his past to create a cohesive image of who he was and what he was doing.

All he knew is that he possessed an incredible arsenal of skills and that there were a lot of people out to kill him.

Sierra recently showed off a next-gen video game based on the Ludlum character at a media event in San Francisco. The game was shown on the 360 and was demonstrated by developers. High Moon Studios is the developer behind the game what they have crafted is a game that appears easy to jump into and play, but does have some complexity and challenge in the way the combat system plays out.

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy is almost a precursor to the first movie, which starred Matt Damon, though it does manage to integrate segments familiar to movie fans as part of the game play. The game’s timeline is the first book, but original story points come into play in a series of flashbacks. Players will get to see two sides of Bourne – the Treadstone agent and the amnesiac agent on the run.

Those familiar with the movies can tell you that the story of Bourne is not one of stealth. This is a game in which the title character is visible and relies on superior combat moves to get the job done. Not much covert action here and the game picks up on that with a system that uses two attack buttons (for light and heavy attacks) plus a block. But much like the game, that is only the beginning of the combat scheme. The combat uses adrenalin-based takedowns, which translate into cinematic moments that rival the action on the silver screen. Not only will the takedowns do some major damage to your opponent (or opponents – if you have enough adrenalin built up, you can take down multiple targets) and recover health as well. There are three tiers to the adrenalin meter, each corresponding to the number of enemies you can take down.

In addition, Jason has the “Bourne Instinct,” which can show the direction that players need to be moving in as well as possible enemy locations.

The game experience, as one could expect, is very directed and linear. The levels will include melee battles, gun fights and even high-speed driving. Some of the elements are timed.

The sound sports 11 custom tracks for the game and visually the game is solid. Don’t expect to see Damon’s likeness in this title, though, as he was not willing to work on the game and the dev team went with a new look for the agent. The combat animations, though, are stellar and the game ensures there are several moments that mirror scenes from the first movie, complete with environmental props that can be used to do delightful damage.

A demo of the game is due to be released in May with the game’s release date set for June.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (ps3)

If Gran Turismo 5 is going to be the real driving simulator, then Prologue could be described as the warm-up lap. Although the game is an astounding technical achievement that looks and sounds nothing short of amazing, it's ultimately only a brief taste of the smorgasbord to come.

Prologue is available to download via PlayStation Network or on a Blu-ray disc from stores. As with previous iterations of Gran Turismo, the structure of GT5 Prologue is based on competing in a series of races, unlocking new event classes, and earning enough credits to purchase better cars, though you won't be required to complete any license tests before you're allowed to compete. With more than 30 events to unlock, the single-player game isn't overly lengthy, but it features a challenging difficulty curve as you progress from beginner to professional level. There are several different formats for events, from standard races and time trials to varied challenges, such as overtaking the entire grid in a single lap.

You start the game with 35,000 credits, which is enough to buy a basic car, such as the Mini Cooper-S '06, Citroen C4 Coupe '05, Ford Focus ST '06, Honda Integra Type R '04, or our favourite, the Mazda RX-8 Type S '07. A few race victories should give you enough credits to buy something better, but the option is always there to save your money and complete a 10-race series to win an exclusive new ride. Unlike in earlier iterations, Prologue doesn't give you the option to upgrade car parts, although you do gain access to the quick-tune option later in the game.

Prologue is hands-down one of the best-looking games on the PlayStation 3. Environments are packed with a stunning amount of detail and really make the most of a high-definition display. An incredible amount of attention has been paid to the cars, which look absolutely beautiful as they fly around the tracks. Environments are similarly impressive, though the High Speed Ring's expanses of water look flat and motionless, and the mountains of Eiger Nordwand look less convincing than the vistas on other tracks. Occasional motion judder and noticeable aliasing also tarnish the impressive visuals somewhat. That said, these issues are rather minor, and the game holds up well in two-player split-screen, which lets you race head-to-head without any AI drivers.

Unlike arcade racers, Gran Turismo games reward technical proficiency and have no margin for error when it comes to sloppy driving. Thankfully, the controls are accurate without being oversensitive, with support for racing wheels and plenty of adjustable options for the driving model. These include transmission choice, driver-assisted steering, traction control, tire selection, and a driving line, which has been included in a GT game for the first time here. The button layout is logical and can be tweaked to suit your personal taste. Unfortunately, damage modelling is still a notable omission, so hitting a wall at 180mph and bouncing off unscathed pretty much shatters the otherwise convincing illusion of reality.

There are four views available during races: normal (bumper height), bonnet, above-car chase view, and a new in-car driver's-eye view. The last of these makes the visibility of the track somewhat restricted, given that part of the screen is taken up with a detailed view of your car's frame, dashboard, steering wheel (complete with manufacturer logos), rear-view mirrors, and even working gauges. Resting on the wheel are your driver's hands, clad in Sparco racing gloves that move realistically at your whim. It's a nice addition to be able to appreciate your new ride from the inside (you can also look out of the back window when you press the rear-view button), but it's not very practical. Though the inclusion of this feature is in keeping with the authentic replication of the vehicles, you'll likely end up opting for a less-restricted view of the racetrack once the novelty wears off.

Although the vehicle lineup is respectable at 70-plus cars, it's still only one-tenth of the 700-plus cars seen in GT4. Annoyingly, there are no Lamborghinis, Porsches, or race-bred touring cars, and the 1995 Toyota Celica rally car from the GT HD demo has disappeared completely. Much has been made of Ferrari's debut in the game, especially because there are several models, including the 599, 430, and F40, as well as its 2007 Formula 1 racer. Nevertheless, the popular Enzo is nowhere to be found. Other brands synonymous with racing, such as Mercedes Benz, Audi, and Honda, boast only one or two cars in their showrooms. These misgivings aside, the lineup is broad and even has space for such curiosities as the Suzuki Cappuccino.

Each model's characteristics are reflected in its price tag, with the cheapest cars being rather sluggish and unresponsive compared to the exotic supercars on offer. Despite this, high-powered cars won't necessarily have the best handling available. With so much juice on tap at the press of a pedal, you'll need to give just as much attention to braking and steering if you want to beat the rest of the pack.

The game's AI is quite competitive, and working your way through the game's events will be a challenge for all but the most dedicated racing fans. AI competitors race with seemingly effortless skill and very rarely deviate from the optimal driving line, but they're not bulletproof; on occasion they'll slip up, as evidenced by clouds of dust emerging from gravel beds alongside the track. They'll use your slipstream to their advantage, just like you can with theirs, but they will generally drive defensively. Taking advantage of this by nudging your competitors off of the track can be satisfying, but it's hardly in keeping with the game's sense of realism. On occasion, AI drivers will force you off of the track as well, though this feels more like the act of a driver unaware of your existence than of a fiercely competitive rival. True to the series' past form, your opponents in GT5 Prologue exhibit no personality or distinct behaviour, and as a result you'll never get the feeling that you're racing real drivers.

It will take a reasonable amount of time to unlock all of the cars in the game, but the same can't be said for the tracks, given that there are only six and they're all available from the start. Each track does feature an alternate version, but most of them are simply the primary track in reverse. Thankfully, there's some variation to the racing styles, with four race circuits (High Speed Ring, Daytona Speedway, Fuji Speedway, and Suzuka), one rally course (Eiger Nordwand), and a street course in the city of London that takes in such landmarks as Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus.

Prologue's menu system is logical and well-presented, offering all of the various game modes along the bottom of the home screen. These include news, GTTV, online, online rankings, arcade, split-screen, single-player events, your garage, dealerships, replay options, general options, and a decent digital manual for those of you opting for the downloadable version of the game rather than the Blu-ray Disc. The My Page feature dominates the screen's real estate, showing your current car in a range of stunning locations, including Ahrweiler and Nurburg in Germany, as well as several locales in Japan.

The series has earned a strong reputation for its soundtracks, and Prologue's selection of music doesn't disappoint, with rock numbers during races and relaxed chillout, electro, and jazz music when you're navigating the menus. The in-game sound effects are also as realistic as you'd expect from a game that prides itself on being a simulator. Those of you who are using a decent speaker system will be able to rely on the soundtrack for audio clues of screeching tires, asphalt surfaces, rumble strips, or nearby competitors. The sound effects are spot-on, and really help to enforce the game's realism.

You'll need to download an update to access Prologue's online features, which can be a lengthy and occasionally unreliable process. Once you have it up and running, the online mode is quite disappointing. Intermittent lag causes cars to jump around the track, which makes it hard to predict where they'll land. It's still fun to battle it out online against real opponents, but the faceless nature of the matchmaking system means that the experience lacks the social nature of some other online racers out there. However, racing online isn't completely without its merits as the prize money you win carries over to your Career mode. As Prologue focuses more on simulation than on gameplay there's no auto catch-up for those of you bringing up the rear. Your skill behind the wheel won't always make a difference if the driver in front has a significantly more powerful car, either.

Although the online mode feels rather tacked on, the GTTV feature has plenty of potential to grow in the future. Only four videos are accessible at launch, one of which is the game's opening cutscene. The three other videos are short documentaries on the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X and the 2007 Nissan GT-R, featuring Polyphony's Kazunori Yamauchi, as well as members of the cars' development teams. The videos are a nice addition to the package and should become more numerous as updates are released over time. Worthy of a mention if you're a big fan of the Gran Turismo series is the 20-minute-long Beyond the Apex documentary, which is presented in full HD, though available only with North American Blu-ray versions of Prologue.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is a good simulation for PlayStation 3 driving enthusiasts who have a penchant for exotic cars. It doesn't veer from the course set by its predecessors and still features top-notch driving, accurately recreated vehicles and tracks, and a good learning curve that forces you to step up your game as you progress. However, the lack of vehicle damage, the relatively small number of vehicles and tracks on offer, and the shallow online mode conspire to make this a tough sell when pitted against some of the competition.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue's price tag goes some way toward addressing the fact that this isn't nearly as comprehensive an offering as a full Gran Turismo release, but paying 25 pounds (or US$40) for what is essentially an extended demo of an upcoming game still doesn't represent good value for the money. If you're willing to overlook the dearth of content, the lack of damage modelling, and the problems with online play then by all means get behind the wheel. Otherwise, you're probably better off waiting for Gran Turismo 5 proper.