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return of the sims We review EA’s ridiculously addictive new blockbuster that manages to expand upon its winning formula without losing any of its trademark charm

famous on the ps3

Our interview with Brian Fleming and Nate Fox of Sucker Punch gets the inside word on the PS3 exclusive Infamous

hell in the pacific

Exclusive Q&A with Saty Mann, Associate Producer at Eidos for the upcoming WWII title, BattleStations: Pacific x-Men origins: wolverine / the godfather 2 / afro samurai / guitar hero metallica

www.ea.co.nz/grandslamtennis

GRAND SLAM TENNIS

®

SWING THE RACKET LIKE A GRAND SLAM CHAMPION! Wii MotionPlus™compatible.

Wii MotionPlus™ included.

IN STORES JUNE 19 PLAY AGAINST OR AS YOUR FAVOURITE PRO. © 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. EA, EA SPORTS, and the EA SPORTS logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All Rights Reserved. Grand Slam is a registered Trademark jointly owned by Australian Open, US Open, French Open and Wimbledon. Roland-Garros French Open is registered trademark of the French Tennis Federation. Used by permission. The USTA and the US Open Ball and Flame design are registered trademarks of the United States Tennis Association. The Tennis Australia logo and the Australian Open logo are registered trademarks of Tennis Australia Ltd and must not be reproduced or otherwise used, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Tennis Australia Ltd. Approved by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon. All sponsored products and company names, brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

june | 2009

gamefreaks PLAYSTATION 3 / PS2 / XBOX 360 / WII / WINDOWS / PSP / NINTENDO DS / HARDWARE / DVD

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return of the sims

Our interview with Brian Fleming and Nate Fox of Sucker Punch gets the inside word on the PS3 exclusive Infamous

9

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We review EA’s ridiculously addictive new blockbuster that manages to expand upon its winning formula without losing any of its trademark charm

famous on the ps3

inc. GST

hell in the pacific

ISSUE

81

Exclusive Q&A with Saty Mann, Associate Producer at Eidos for the upcoming WWII title, BattleStations: Pacific x-Men origins: wolverine / the godfather 2 / afro saMurai / guitar hero Metallica

editorial

Well we’ve finally done it with magazine work over’s and shoddy release schedules and come into the

contents coming soon

12 Ghostbusters: The Videogame Virtua Tennis 2009 13 Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings LEGO Battles 14 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Star Ocean: The Last Hope 15 Terminator Salvation Armed Assault II

reviews 18 The Sims 3 20 Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena 21 The Godfather II 22 X-Men Origins: Wolverine 23 Eat Lead: Return of Matt Hazzard Guitar Hero: Metallica 24 Battleforge 25 Afro Samurai Codename Panzers Cold War 26 Little King’s Story Runefactory

featured 12 Interview:

10 Hell

Sucker Punch

This recently conducted interview with Brian Fleming and Nate Fox of Sucker Punch gets the inside word on the PS3 exclusive Infamous.

in the Pacific

Read our exclusive interview with Saty Mann, Associate Producer for the upcoming RTS war game, BattleStations: Pacific

movies 32 Twilight The Signal Choke 33 The Edge of Love Let the Right One In Samurai Jack: Season 2 32 Australia The Quiet Earth Hair High 33 City of Ember Yes Man My Name is Bruce 34 The Big Bang Theory: Season 1 The Wave Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow 36 He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not The Square Wolverine and the X-Men 37 Smurfs 50th Anniversary Box Set Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2

bright spot – I hope you like the result.

This month we get to welcome Julie Grey to the team as a contributor. An experienced print and internet writer, Julie will be getting elbow deep into the gritty realms of pc reviews and this month we thank her for her before sale review of The Sims 3 – a game she never expected to love and Battleforge which mixes a healthy dose of Magic the Gathering, RPG and RTS elements together.

We also get to see Stan unless his inner animal with the Wolverine game which coincides, and in some ways is better than the actual movie. Lee plays the part of a Hollywood bad-arse with the Vin Diesel oriented Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena and savagely mocks one of the worst games we’ve had the displeasure of reviewing.

As usual we have to thank Adrian and Matt for their good work on getting the latest DVD releases reviewed for you. While he was at it Adrian also took on the no doubt terrible job of playing and writing about the adorable Little King Story which is quite possibly the most worthwhile Nintendo Wii release for 2009. If you have any love for the platform which has been starved of 3rd party success then get out there and buy this game.

Remember that aside from Nintendo, few publishers have found sales success on the Wii and if that doesn’t change soon then it’s going to be a very bare looking release schedule for our favorite motion tracking game console.

With that I hope you enjoy the June edition with our magazine. Have fun with the long Queen’s birthday weekend, wish me a happy birthday (thanks, ta) and have fun playing some great games!

Nigel Clark - Editor

contact Tenth Planet Publishing Limited Phone: 09 625 2879 Email: mail@tenthplanet.co.nz

advertising Tenth Planet Publishing Limited Phone: 09 625 2879 Email: jon@tenthplanet.co.nz

people

Publisher: Jon Minifie jon@tenthplanet.co.nz Editor: Nigel Clark nigel@tenthplanet.co.nz Design: Scott Judson scott@tenthplanet.co.nz Words: Lee Marrett, Adrian Hatwell, Stan McGuigan, Julie Gray, Caleb Judson

thanks Aaron, Adrian, Amanda, Angely, Annie, Ben, BNE, Bob, Bruce, Clare, Craig, Danny, Dave, David, Drew, Ewan, Gary, Haley, Ian, Isabella, Jacqui, Jemma, Jen, Jeremy, Julie, Justine, Kate, Katie, Keith, Keri, Leigh, Leroy, Luc, Mark, Matthew, Mike, Paul, Pip, Samantha, Scott, Simon, Teresa, Zeljana The contents of Gamefreaks are copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of the publishers.

The views and opinions expressed in Gamefreaks are not necessarily those of the publisher.

For those about to rock: Brütal Legend due October The rock gods have heard your prayers and have answered - EA’s Brütal Legend now has a release date It’s been a long road for Brütal Legend.

Tim Schafer’s rock-fueled adventure was left out in the cold after the merging of Activision and Blizzard, only to eventually be picked up by the EA Partners program.

Thankfully, the game has survived, and finally has an official release date. North American gamers can rock out on October 13, while those in the UK can do the same on the 16th.

“Wooo! Having an official release date is awesome,” Schafer said. “And how cool is it that EA threw down the dough to have the name of an entire month changed to Rocktober?”

Tim Schafer, the game’s creative director, was inspired to create the game by his own past musical experiences. The game will feature the character of Eddie Riggs, voiced by Jack Black, a roadie who is accidentally transported to a fantasy world inspired by the artwork of heavy metal album covers.

In addition to Black, the game will feature voices of both heavy metal musicians including Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne and Lita Ford and other celebrities such as Tim Curry, as well as several metal songs selected by Schafer for inclusion in the game.

This is great news for fans of Schafer’s work, and gamers in general. Getting an official release date makes it almost certain that Brütal Legend will finally—fingers crossed—see the light of day. Our time spent with the game at GDC certainly left us impressed. The game is coming to both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Warners manoevering to purchase Midway Troubled publisher Midway have received a $33 million offer from Warner Bros. to buy out most of their company.

“It’s in writing now, that there is interest,” said Geoffrey Mogilner, director of corporate communications for Midway, who added that the company has been in talks with other potential owners as well.

The “stalking horse” asset purchase agreement with Warner Bros would include rights to Mortal Kombat and Midway’s studios in Chicago and Seattle.

The agreement would not include the studio in San Diego, Newcastle or the TNA wrestling franchise. The Warner Bros. decision to not include the Newcastle or San Diego studios or the TNA rights was based on what they felt was best for their company, Mogilner said.

Midway currently holds a multi-year, multigame contract with TNA and are already working on the next title, Mogilner said.

The offer for Midway does include picking up the rights to Wheelman, which was developed in Newcastle.

This all comes after several months of speculation over the fate of Midway which has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and all but seen its last hope of a hit fade with the rather lukewarm response to the Vin Diesel starring Wheelman driving/sandbox game.

Along with properties such as Wheelman and Area 51, Warner Bros stands to inherit Midway’s one shining jewel which is the Mortal Kombat franchise – a popular arcade and console fighting game which stands alongside the likes of Street Fighter and Tekken in popularity. Thus far two Mortal Kombat movies have been created to admittedly mixed reactions.

Prior to finalizing the deal, there will be a court-supervised auction process to handle any possible competing bids. That process, if approved by the court, would give other companies 30 days to make a bid, with the auction happening a few days after the bidding stops.

Capcom primed for big iPhone push Japanese publishing giant to release 10 titles for Apple’s iPhone in 2010

Bizarre Creation’s reveal new racer Project Gotham developers announce upcoming action-racer, Blur

Japanese gaming stalwart Capcom has become the latest big-name publisher to firmly pin its name on Apple’s iPhone mast with the news that it will release several titles on the platform.

The creators of Street Fighter and Resident Evil have said it is to launch ten new iPhone games before the end of its business year in March 2010.

No news on what those games will be, but after the successful launch of Resident Evil: Degeneration last month the company is looking to expand the market, and its Capcom, so the number of IP’s it can bring to the system is unprecedented.

Reuters reports that the publisher has enjoyed success with the recently released

news

Resident Evil: Degeneration, which brings the popular over-the-shoulder mechanic of global hits RE4 and RE5 to handheld for the first time.

Few publishers enjoy as rich a bank of IPs as Capcom, and if the iPhone version of Resident Evil meets expectations, the publisher is likely to turn to other big-hitting series such as Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, Bionic Commando, Phoenix Wright, Monster Hunter, Lost Planet, Dragon Quest and Devil May Cry. Furthermore, the company also boasts an incredibly rich retro catalogue that would fit the iPhone’s casual credentials perfectly – think Mega Man, Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts, Mercs, Strider and Dino Crisis.

Now, far be it from developers to blow their own creative horn (check out the prerelease guff for Haze - hyperbole much?), but the announcement of new racer Blur on behalf of Activision and blizzard, was accompanied by such audacious guff, even we were surprised.

The CEO of Bizarre Creations Michael Griffith said that Blur will “do for racing what Call of Duty did for shooters.”

Woah woah woah. Back up there Mr. Let’s get a little back story first. Bizarre Creations are the big thinky bods behind the excellent Project Gotham Racing series, and this is their latest attempt to mix up the genre, by crafting an ‘actionracer’.

While there will be all the typical realworld locations and beautiful cars we’ve come to expect, Blur’s 20-vehicle races

will also include power-ups which will provide the “ultimate wheel-to-wheel racing action experience that will revolutionise the racing genre.”

“We did our homework and saw a huge opportunity to move beyond traditional racers and create a game completely focused on making racing ‘fun’ again,” said Bizarre Creations Creative Director Martyn Chudley.

“Blur delivers a new style of racing experience for all gamers, regardless of their experience, skill or genre preferences. Everything the player does, both in their cars and with their cars, is a dramatic adrenaline rush; it’s a real blast!”, he added.

Blur is in development for PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 and will hopefully be previewed at next month’s E3.

Open-world racer: biggest game ever With an area of 14,400 km² and 160,000 km of road Codemasters’ new -racer FUEL is by far the biggest video game ever Codemaster’s FUEL has been named by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest videogame ever made.

Ok, maybe the geeks have a little less reason to moan. Rather than measuring the sheer volume of content or hours of gameplay, FUEL has acquired the rather random accolade on account of the fact that it spans 5,560 square miles of – admittedly digital – terrain.

According to the book’s stat-icians, FUEL consists of 5,560 square miles (14,400 km) that spans rivers, deserts, forests and mountains. For all of you that have whined and moaned about trekking

across the forests of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, contemplate this: to drive from one end of the map to the other in FUEL takes three actual hours and is described as being bigger than “Hong Kong, Singapore, St Lucia and the Isle of Man put together.”

“We knew FUEL was going to be big,” said the game’s producer Phil Wright, of Codemasters, “but to have this confirmed officially by Guinness World Records justifies our faith in this ground-breaking title.

No other game comes close to offering the variety of environments, the range of vehicles or the sheer size of FUEL.”

PSP Go details leaked before E3 Images and a video of Sony’s updated PSP been leaked Once again, the internet proves to be a tough environment to keep development secrets under wraps. The latest victim is Sony’s new PSP Go, which was leaked in online images and video.

The video shows that the new PSP Go will have 16 GB of flash memory, as well as Bluetooth support, and will have a monitor that is 43% lighter than the original PSP, but will be a little bit smaller at 3.8 inches.

John Koller, the man from Sony featured in the video also relates that UMDs will be

a thing of the past as everything will be downloadable, something he says, “a lot of consumers are going to like.”

The new design looks pretty sleek and uses a slide-out function, and looks to remove some of the original buttons such as display, sound, and volume. The PSP Go will not replace the PSP-3000, which will be sold along the new model. According to the video, the PSP Go is set for release in Japan and North America later this fall.

Tony Hawk gets a new skateboard Shred in the sitting room with motion-sensing skateboard controller Players will be able to experience skateboarding like never before in Tony Hawk: RIDE from Activision. For the first time, players will have the ability to physically play the game using an innovative motion sensing skateboard controller, allowing for unprecedented freedom and movement.

Tony Hawk: RIDE focuses on innovation and fun, bringing the #1 best-selling action-sports franchise to the forefront with cutting-edge technology for the hardcore fans and accessibility for the mass audience.

“Tony Hawk: RIDE is a massive step forward for the franchise and the gaming industry as a whole,” said Rob Kostich, head of marketing, global brand management, Activision Publishing, Inc. “The skateboard controller will redefine sports games by offering players a true skateboarding experience, hands-free, playing with friends and family at home or online in a variety of different locations.”

“This is the game I’ve always wanted to make,” said Tony Hawk, who has been directly involved with development of the project. “Playing on the board is unlike any other game, and I’m excited for everyone to have the chance to feel what it’s really like to experience the true feeling of skateboarding.”

Tony Hawk: RIDE features a wireless skateboard controller designed in conjunction with the game to offer a dynamic gaming experience built from the ground up. Using a combination of accelerometers and motion sensors, the intuitive controller allows players to physically control the action by performing various movements and gestures on the board that directly translate into amazing tricks in the game. Without complex button combinations or analogue sticks, gamers of all skill levels can literally step on the board and play!

Revamped Metroid Trilogy for Wii Nintendo to bundle all three Metroid Prime games onto one disc

Wow. It seems Nintendo actually do pay attention to its loyal, actual game-playing customers. Hidden amidst the latest announcement of WiiActiveFitFamilyFun-tendo clones, was the nifty little statement that the Big N is set to refit and reformat all three Metroid Prime games for the Wii. Set for an August release date, the Gamecube (and one Wii) ports will be compressed onto one disc and retail for roughly the same cost as a brand-new release. Fans of the hottest bubble headed, pulse cannon shooting babe in the Universe, Samus Aran, will be happy to hear that the ports will make use of the Wii’s unique motion controls.

Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime: Echoes will also come with improved 16:9 aspect ratios, faster loading times and better lighting effects. Players will be able to unlock secret bonus content by completing specific objectives during gameplay and, we think best of all, access all three epic soundtracks upon completing certain tasks.

While Super Mario All-Stars paved the way for this kind of Ninty compilation, gamers will – thankfully – be able to interchange between each game whenever they wish, as opposed to having to restart each game just to play another.

“Metroid Prime Trilogy puts the best first-person adventures all in one place, with a host of new additions that make these three timeless titles more engaging than ever,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “A great deal of care and detail has gone into Metroid Prime Trilogy, providing longtime fans with new ways to experience the games they love.”

Or, in non PR jabber: this is freakin’ awesome.

VR gaming will replace consoles predicts Spielberg Famed movie director Steven Spielberg has predicted the demise of consoles, suggesting virtual reality will be “the new platform for our gaming future.”

“All the videogame parlours went the way of the Dodo bird and now we’re all playing at home, and someday we’ll be playing directly on our TV sets, bypassing all of the platforms,” Spielberg said “In the short term I would love to start seeing 3D games being developed with a good pair of glasses [where] we get a real three-dimensional experience in front of an appropriate monitor that is designed just for 3D,” he added.

“I really think virtual reality, which experimentally came and went in the eighties, is going to be redeveloped, just like 3D is being redeveloped today, and that’s going to be the new platform for our gaming future.”

Activision/Blizzard unveil plans for Guitar Hero 5

Living room rockers can now drop in and out of songs, change instruments and difficulty levels on the fly Activision have recently officially announced or confirmed information for a wide range of products with the Hero moniker, including Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, DJ Hero, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, and Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits. The biggest news is that Guitar Hero 5 was also officially revealed, though no specific details except for the release window were mentioned.

Guitar Hero 5 is expected to follow the formula of Guitar Hero, World Tour which was released last year on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, and PC to positive reviews. It will offer an “unprecedented level of control over the way they

play the game with the ability to drop in and out of songs and change band members, instruments, and difficulty levels on the fly,” according to the megapublisher.

The long-rumored Band Hero was also confirmed. Instead of featuring nonrock instruments, the game will instead be an all-ages, family-friendly entry in the series, and the first game in the franchise to bear an E10+ rating from the ESRB. No details were given other than that the game will feature “top-40 hits designed to expand the appeal to a broad family audience who can play together on the guitar, drums, bass, and

microphone.”

In a separate announcement, Activision also confirmed the complete 48-song setlist for Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits, combining songs from previous games in the series including Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.

France sets tough new Anti-Piracy law

France to introduce severe measures to combat piracy including a “three strikes” regime for persistent offenders.

Rockstar to tell ballad of Gay Tony Rockstar Games announce second downloadable add-on for GTA IV

Grand Theft Auto IV’s second downloadable episode, The Ballad of Gay Tony injects Liberty City with an overdose of guns, glitz, and grime. As Luis Lopez, part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (aka “Gay Tony”), players will struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price.

“Liberty City is the most vibrant game world we’ve created yet. The episodic structure has allowed us to interweave stories, gameplay and atmosphere in a whole new way,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “The team at Rockstar North have yet again surpassed themselves, and made something that is both epic and very innovative. This episode’s focus on high-end night life contrasts with the biker gangs portrayed in The Lost and Damned, whilst giving us a lot of new gameplay possibilities.”

news

The French National Assembly ignored a vote last week by the European Parliament and approved its “Création et Internet” three-strikes bill on Tuesday.

The measure supported by French President Nicolas Sarkozy punishes digital pirates by suspending Internet service if they are caught illegally sharing copyrighted material. The vote comes a little more than a month after the same government body rejected the proposal.

It seems the vote by the French Assembly is in direct opposition to the European Parliament, which last week passed a measure prohibiting EU governments from terminating a user’s Internet access without a court order.

The way it would work is that suspected offenders would receive two warnings about their illegal activities and on the third suspected offense, their Internet access would be cut off for anywhere from two months to a year. Users will also be put on a “three-strikes” blacklist so that they can’t sign up for service from another ISP.

But other countries, such as Sweden are also taking a heavy handed approach to fighting digital piracy. France’s strict piracy legislation comes less than a month after a Swedish court found the founders of the peer-to-peer site The Pirate Bay guilty of infringing copyright. The four defendants were each sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay 30 million Swedish kronor ($3.6 million) in damages to copyright holders. The Pirate Bay has already been mentioned as one of the sites that could be easily taken out under the new French law.

8M8@C89C< FE ;M; ALE< (' Maximum Hi-Def Experience

© 2008 SPIRIT FILMS, LLC. All Rights Reserved. THE SPIRIT trademark is owned by Will Eisner Studios, Inc. and registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. © 2009 Layout and Design Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.

lifestyles of the rich & infamous Infamous is the story of Cole MacGrath, a bike messenger given an assignment to deliver a package that is secretly a bomb. Cole survives the massive explosion and develops electricity-based powers. Soon, Cole discovers that his city has fallen into chaos under the rule of gangs and factions and must fight back against them to restore order.

We caught up with Brian Fleming and Nate Fox of Sucker Punch to get the inside word on this PS3 exclusive.

How has the make-up of Sucker Punch changed during development of inFamous?

The game has a much bigger scope, much more content, so much more detail than anything we’ve ever tried before… It’s borderline crazy for a team of sixty people to try to build a game like this, but we have always valued being a smaller sized team because it keeps us nimble. I never thought I’d say “nimble” about a sixty person team, but it still feels that way! So many new specialized positions for this title: high detail character artists, full-time lighting, a team of 2 guys just detailing out the climbing system across a city’s worth of buildings. But in the end, I think inFamous is very much going to be a game with similar strengths to our previous work… Excellent controller feel during gameplay, strong storyline, and incredibly detailed/interactive environments… It’s who we are!

Why just electricity? Was there a temptation to go full-on elemental, to include fire and water powers?

We never entertained fire and water powers for Cole, though we did entertain those for enemies at one brainstorming meeting—though we never could really work out how water or earth might really work out. At the beginning, we started off with a blank slate, and just prototyped… We tried all sorts of powers in the first year of the development cycle—always looking for things which gave us the feeling of being powerful, had cool impact on the environment, and which gave lots of good gameplay opportunities. Electricity had some very encouraging initial prototypes and that got us excited, so we started more focused brainstorming there. We found great relationships between the hero powers, and the city itself. And then things got rolling—you start simulating the power system of the city and you end up with a super model for influence and control on neighbourhoods. Healing peds like a defibrillator happens and things start to make even more sense. It just sort of snowballed from there. The constraint of “just electricity” ends up being hugely helpful to the brainstorming process, kind of opposite of what you might expect.

Can you name examples of the comics/movies/TV shows that inspired the premise of inFamous?

Egads, how long do you have? If you forced me to pick a few big ones, I’d say Batman Begins (early on) and the more recent Dark Knight movie certainly connected for a lot of us. For print, I’d point first at Brian Woods’ work, especially DMZ, as something we talked about a bunch when trying to imagine the world of Empire City.

We’d already begun development of the title when the Heroes TV show started airing, and we constantly talked about how it portrayed ordinary people as heroes… You didn’t need a spandex suit to be a super-hero. That was

focus

encouraging and inspiring, too…

Can you tell me more about how the blackout in Seattle had some effect on the concept of the game – is this true? Can you relay that story for our readers?

On December 14th, 2006 a huge rainstorm hit the Pacific Northwest, followed by 70+ MPH winds… Besides putting a serious dent in the Sucker Punch holiday party that year, the storm knocked out a huge amount of the electrical power infrastructure. Our offices were in one of the 5 square blocks that had power the whole time, but many employees had no electricity at home for days and days.

The first day it’s sort of an adventure; you eat the ice cream melting in the freezer, and enjoy the candles. But then you see the police take over the only working gas station and turn away the public. Streetlights and signals are off for a week. Most folks don’t have a generator so they endure 40 degree nights, or bring their baby and wife to the office to stay warm.

So this all happens a year into the development of inFamous… We happen to be creating a fictional world which doesn’t just have a power outage; it has a law enforcement vacuum, and some actual destruction from a bomb blast. Now let it drag on for weeks and weeks. More than anything the blackout helped us imagine the world of Empire City much more vividly.

What are the real-world inspirations behind the city’s design?

Super hero comics and movies were the principal inspiration—and super heroes are so closely linked to city life, it seemed obvious from the beginning that we were talking big-city locales…. We looked to New York for some of the architecture and design elements, it’s kind of the godfather of super hero cities… But we certainly aren’t trying to make New York, we looked at a ton of international cities (Tokyo, Montreal come to mind), and always looked for cityscapes which had really excellent climbing related architecture as well—we knew from the beginning that Cole was going to use the city like a 3D jungle gym. I remember our game director, Nate, kept bringing in all these photo reference pieces from Kowloon, which were crazy complex and detailed—telling us all “This is what we gotta make!!”

Can you explain how the customisation of Cole works in the game? Every player, we assume, is imbued with electric powers – how, then, can one character differentiate from the next?

I’m going to have to pass on this one—I see our PR folks are about to electrocute me with their powers if I spill.

Has the release of GTA IV affected the way you create your open world? Did you see that title and go: ‘Okay, let’s add this so that we keep ahead of the times’?

Brian

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Not especially. Clearly GTA IV is the big dog of open world games, and we’d be stupid if we didn’t play it, study it and learn. But the big differences in inFamous – the totally explorable, climbable, and detailed environment, the simulated city and crime ecology, discovering and mastering your powers, the decisions you make to save or destroy… Those were in place long before GTA IV shipped.

How long would it take a player to travel from one side of Empire City to the other?

Well that will depend on the method you use to traverse it! Is this the beginning of the game? If yes then it’s essentially impossible… Not only are bridges out but the power grid is down in most places and you’d never survive the journey -- even if you could make it across the bridges. By the end of the storyline, your journey will of course be possible… You’ll have acquired powers which enhance your navigation through the world, there’s trains running around the city you can hop rides on, etc.

Are there advantages to being under the Sony umbrella? Do you have an open dialogue with other developers within the PS3 community?

Without question there are advantages – the largest of which is the amazing team at Sony America who produces our titles. They’ve been amazing partners over the last 10 years and have always supported and challenged us to make our games better. We trust our publisher— something that seems quite rare.

We also have been fortunate to have a close and open relationship with the teams at Naughty Dog and Insomniac, two amazing teams whose ability to make excellent titles always inspires us. We trade tools, approaches and offer advice to each other. It’s another great part of our gig.

Can you talk a little bit about developing on the PS3 for inFamous? How can you build upon it in future?

We’ve enjoyed the PS3 development experience. As a PS3-only studio, we’ve had the chance to focus on and extract a lot of the power that the platform offers, which

Nate Foxr

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sort of feels like a luxury at times. I’ve said this in previous interviews but the SPUs are simply amazing. Of the things we could move onto the SPUs, we’ll get about half of them there in this generation of our technology— occlusion, rendering, particle systems, ect. But there’s much more we can move, it’s just a matter of time until we do so, and I can’t wait to make games with our next generation engine!

Have you cast any voice actors for the project?

As I write this we’re 24 hours from our second major recording session. Casting voice actors who capture the vibe of a character in the game is a surprisingly difficult part of the process. I know for one of the bosses on the game, who has a small-ish overall line count, we listened to between 70 and 100 auditions for that role. Actors from Seattle, Portland, LA and New York did readings for the part. We cast an actor, had them record the part, and then decided we didn’t like it, so pitched it and tried the process again. Hopefully the results will show up in the final game!

Additionally, we try very hard to schedule our recording sessions with multiple actors in the booth at once.

So if Cole is talking to his friend Zeke about how much they miss pizza delivery ever since the blast – we put both those guys in the booth and record it as a conversation. If you listen to a lot of game audio, you can tell they recorded the halves of the conversation in isolation – and it has a subtle but very important effect on the quality of the performances.

The moral choices you make in the game – how much of an effect does it have on the outcome of the story, or indeed the tasks you’re handed by the game? Is it just a case of watching a different ending FMV, or have you tackled it in a new way?

(Answer redacted by a sharp-eyed marketing team member who points out that this is being revealed at a later date) What types of tasks can players engage in outside of the main story?

Beyond the main story, we’ve built a sort of crime ecosystem constantly running in Empire City. It’ll offer up lots of heroic and not-so-heroic opportunities to the player.

Will you save those pedestrians being rounded up by the Reapers? Or will you blow the whole lot to smithereens?

Want to help the few remaining cops retake their police station and try to establish some order? These choices are yours!

We’re almost sorry to ask, but have you played Crackdown on the 360? That game had quite a cool mechanic for scaling buildings – how do you feel inFamous compares with its equivalent system?

Don’t apologize, it’s a common connection. I think people hear superheroes in a modern setting and they connect the two. And for the record Crackdown was a fun if under-appreciated game that many of us played and liked!

Cole’s climbing and exploration abilities are one part scaling buildings athletically and gracefully, and one part vertical duck and cover combat. It’s empowering, fluid and works everywhere you think it should… Want to climb that drain pipe, leap to the windows and then off the building onto the nearby streetlight? That should be effortless…. We’re trying to give a complete sense of freedom to the player, while trying to make things feel believable and grounded enough that it seems entirely possible. And the fact that you can use your powers while climbing means you can use poles and structures for cover and to get better firing angles. All together you’re looking at the most core mechanics of the entire game—movement and using your powers—so things better work pretty well!

Cole isn’t alone in the game; can you talk about his companions and their role?

Like any good superhero story Cole is surrounded by a supporting cast of bad-asses. Zeke’s the best friend who sometimes helps out in the field (AKAthe Sidekick). Trish is the love interest, she runs all around town helping out as a guerrilla medic. And finally there’s Moya, Cole’s mysterious source for Intel.

How hard has it been to give the player so much power but still provide a challenge in the game?

Since we’re trying to give Players the feeling of becoming a modern day superhero it sort of demands a full slate of amped-up powers. To provide a challenge we’ve crafted a large Rogue’s Gallery of equally gifted enemies. After all, powerful iconic villains are a must for any superhero experience.

If Cole can be good or evil how do you define the ‘bad’ guys?

Anyone trying to kill Cole or his buddies is the enemy.

It’s pretty simple really, Cole’s on quest that allows him the flexibility to be either selfless or selfish, good or evil… and anyone that tries to keep him from his goal is gonna get a lightning bolt to the face.

Pitch your game to someone who’s never heard of it before in 50 words.

InFamous takes a realistic, modern-day look at super heroes -- it’s not set in a fantasy world, it’s set in our world. What would happen if you suddenly found yourself with super powers? How would your friends react? What would the public think of you? Those are the issues that inFamous explores, all while offering a dynamic, open-world environment.

What’s different about developing your game now compared to developing something when the PS3 launched?

It took a while to get our new streaming engine up and running, but now that it’s here “life is good”. It’s easy to create elaborate cinematic missions packed with a variety of enemies. And since it’s a sandbox game you end up getting all this spontaneous interaction between systems.

How is development coming along? When can we expect to see the finished product?

The game’s coming along pretty well and we’re right on target for a release in Spring 2009, and it’s fun to play. I guess that’s the big thing, isn’t it?

What will set your title apart from other games of its genre?

Our hero, Cole, has powers that are designed from the ground up to work well in the context of a videogame. For example, he can shoot lighting bolts out of his hands -- why? Because shooting in videogames works really freaking well. Same with being able to climb everywhere in the world and jump between buildings -- it’s fun to do! This is our core strategy in crafting our superhero -- we’re building the world around his powers and his powers around what’s fun to do in the world.

tora! tora! tora!

Even if you haven’t realised, there’s a next-gen war going on and we’re all part of it.

In terms of actual video game war, though, there are few games as ambitious and in-depth as Eidos’ Battlestations: Midway. With the sequel Battlestations: Pacific due for release soon, we caught up with Eidos to find out how the new game improves on the original.

For the multitude of war games we see, the Battlestations series is one of very few to deal with the absorbing naval command strategy side of things, what is the appeal?

I would go as far as to say that Battlestations: Pacific is the only mainstream title that gives the player such a perfect blend of action and strategy. I think we provide plane handling and dogfighting action that is on par with any dedicated console flying game; but on top of this you have the ability to control ships and subs. The ships offer a different challenge to planes and a totally unique gameplay style. You need to be able to know which type of ship will be the most effective in a given scenario and be able to deploy that unit to inflict maximum damage.

For example a Battleship is the most powerful warship in a fight against other ships and planes but it is completely at the mercy of a submerged submarine because it is not equipped with Sonar or Depth Charges.

All these action oriented features sit under a simple to use but highly effective strategic layer of control. The real appeal of Battlestations is that it gives the player options but at the same time you can get a high degree of exciting gameplay by jumping into any unit under your command. This is what really makes it stand out from the competition.

As well as putting players in the strategist’s seat the Battlestations games also offer the opportunity to control the action of a single unit, is that a challenging gameplay balance to achieve?

It is a challenge to design a game that allows you to play a single level in two completely different ways and at the same time keep things fun and compelling. I think we have managed to achieve this with Battlestations: Pacific.

The great thing is that it allows you to exploit your strong points and play the way you want to, especially in the Multiplayer modes such as Island Capture. The player that wants to sit on the Tactical Map and give orders to all his units can do that and at the same time the player that wants to spend a lot of their time piloting a fighter or controlling a warship can also do that.

One of the most exciting additions to Battlestations: Pacific is the chance to play through an alternate version of history in which Japan are victorious at the

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Battle of Midway; does the hypothetical Japanese campaign feel as historically authentic as the American campaign?

The Japanese campaign is extremely believable and scripted in a similar way to the US Campaign. The Japanese campaign story arc is actually based on the real plans that the Japanese Military created at the time of the war. The game shows how they would have progressed in the war if they hadn’t lost their carriers at the Battle of Midway. So many of the scenarios are based at the locations that the Japanese had identified as potential targets in order to achieve their desired goal of taking control of the Pacific region.

Another interesting addition to the game is the Island Capture aspect; can you explain how that will impact on the battle dynamic?

Island Capture in the Multiplayer and Skirmish modes allows the player freedom to play the game the way they want to. The only constraint is that you have a fixed Command Point pool with which to “purchase” units and you must capture and hold island bases from the opposition.

How you choose to do this is up to you. You can play this on your own and command the entire fleet or you can team up with others in a four vs. four match-up and delegate duties to individual team members. The freedom of choice allows you to take what you have learned in the other areas of the game and carry out your strategic plan.

Can you give us an idea of some of the new units that will pop up in the title?

Some new units are available to the player from the off, others the player will have to work for by unlocking them via progress in the Single Player Campaign.

Historically, the Battle of Midway took place in June 1942; and that is where the Battlestations: Midway single player campaign stopped. So there were a lot of updated military units that appeared in the Pacific theatre of war after that date, especially on the US side. So Battlestations: Pacific introduces these at around the same time period that they made an appearance during the war.

For example the main Carrier based fighter at the Battle of Midway was the Wildcat but this was then replaced by the Hellcat which was a much improved fighter that held

its own against the previously superior Zeroes. At a later stage of the war the Americans introduced the Corsair which also excelled in a ground attack role and these feature heavily in the amphibious operations at Leyte Gulf and Iwo Jima by providing air support for marines with their wing mounted rockets.

The Japanese side introduces the player to the infamous Kamikaze units that were used by the Japanese near the end of the war. These are some of the most devastating units in the game but it is an extreme challenge to get these to the target without being shot down on the way. One of the more experimental forms of Kamikaze was the Ohka human guided missile that was launched from a Betty bomber. The pilot was actually strapped into the jet powered rocket and guided it to the target at very high speed. All these units are accurately recreated and playable in Battlestations: Pacific.

The game demands a lot of attention and mastery of some rather comprehensive inputs; do you think the learning curve might dissuade a less dedicated audience?

Our goal was to let anyone without previous experience of this type of game be able to pick up the controller and learn the mechanics of Battlestations: Pacific quickly and easily. We listened to feedback in regards to Midway and now players are taught the fundamentals as they progress in the game rather than in a series of separate tutorials. There are numerous tips to show the player the controls and we also feature tutorial videos in the Naval Academy. A really great feature is the Training Grounds where the player takes control of any unit in a safe environment populated with neutral practise targets that won’t fire back. So the player can jump in here at any point to learn about or master any air or sea unit.

Many of the missions sound like they have quite iconic parameters; do you have a favourite?

One of my favourite missions in the US Campaign is the Battle of the Philippine Sea which was nicknamed the Marianas Turkey Shoot; this took place in June 1944. It was one of the last ditched attempts by the Japanese to take out the US Carriers. They threw everything that they had at the Americans but unfortunately they didn’t take into account the superior training of the US pilots as well as the

i m p ro v e ments in US weaponry introduced by that stage of the war. In the game this is a classic Carrier Battle where you command the aircraft carriers USS Enterprise and USS Bunker Hill and your goal is take out the Japanese Carriers. You face a massive onslaught of Japanese Planes intent on sending your carriers to the bottom of the ocean and you will require all your dogfighting skills to stop them.

Can you give us any details on the expanded multiplayer aspects?

The new game features five very distinct Multiplayer modes which all offer a different challenge. The Escort and Siege modes let you command either the US or Japanese forces in a set scenario that will revolve around you laying siege to an island base or escorting friendly units to their designated target. The Competitive mode has all players fighting on the same side in a given scenario, competing against each other to score the most kills.

Duel is a classic head to head “Deathmatch” style mode where you control one particular type of unit and go up against the counterpart unit from the other side. This is a mode where knowing the finite capability of a unit can make a big difference; alternatively it is an ideal mode just to jump in and slug it out with friends. Finally, you have the Island Capture mode which I have discussed earlier.

All these modes are all available to play against an AI opponent in single player Skirmish mode as well.

Can we expect much of a graphical improvement with the sequel?

Yes. Definitely! The visuals have been completely overhauled to feature some of the most realistic sky and sea environments in any game. The models are also a lot more detailed and the damage effects with smoke,

flames and bits falling off planes and ships are superb. On this point I recommend everyone to check out the visuals for – they have to be seen to

themselves be believed!

Both Battlestations games have been set in the milieu of the Pacific War, would you be interested in seeing the series explore different aspects of WWII, or indeed some other area entirely?

The Battle in the Pacific has a special place in history in that it was the only conflict where this particular style of combat took place. It saw the introduction and quickly the dominance, of the Aircraft Carrier in naval combat.

Though their days were coming to an end you still had the massive behemoths of Battleships roaming the seas and submarines quietly stalking their prey. In the air the classic match-up of piston powered planes made for exciting duels before the advent of jets and missiles changed the face of dogfighting forever.

All these factors have been brilliantly captured in BSP so I don’t think we could do another historically accurate game with the same gameplay for a different era or conflict. However, the fictional Japanese campaign does suggest that there is nothing stopping us doing another “what if” scenario which would allow us to take the franchise to the next level!

Is there any worry that story material might be in some way contentious, allowing the player to contribute to the bombing of Peal Harbour, leading Japan to an invasion of America?

We feel that this is in no way any more contentious than a movie such as Pearl Harbour or Tora! Tora! Tora!. We are accurately re-creating scenes from the past in an interactive medium and this is introducing aspects of history

to a new generation. We have tried to keep a lot of the missions as authentic as possible and obviously the story is full of historical facts about battles that took place and units that took part in these battles. For example we have rebuilt Pearl harbour and placed all the major ships at the exact point they were when the Japanese attacked. Our attention to detail supports our goal to provide the player with a feel for taking part in this great historical battle.

Battlestations: Midway had the Iowa Mission Pack, are we likely to see much Downloadable Content for Battlestations: Pacific?

Yes – keep your eyes peeled. We will be following up the main product with a number of downloadable content releases. I’m not able to give exact details at this point but I’m sure fans will appreciate what we will have to offer them.

The game will eventually be coming to Mac, would you like to see the series expand to further platforms or does working with the Xbox 360 and PC exclusively offer more advantage?

Without a doubt the online capability of the 360 and PC provides a perfect platform for Battlestations because it is the type of game that people love going online to play.

However, with the ever increasing popularity of this game I wouldn’t rule out us taking it to other platforms.

Battlestations: Pacific isn’t quite as American-centric as many war games, do you think that will give the title more global appeal?

Our goal was never to make a game that was American or Japanese centric but to provide an accurate representation of the War in the Pacific. But I suppose that with the publisher being based in the UK and the Developer in Hungary we’ve ended up with a very balanced product that allows you to play from both a US and Japanese perspective without bringing any preconceived notions to the game.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game PlayStation 3 / Sony - Atari

Games based on movies are very rarely occasion to get excited, but Ghostbusters just might prove one of the few exceptions. Setting aside the fact that fans will pretty much lap up anything the springs from the cult franchise, the heavy involvement of original filmmakers and cast members makes this seem much more than a cheap tie-in.

Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis who originally wrote both films (as well as staring as Dr. Ray Stantz and Dr. Egon Spengler respectively) are behind the gameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s script, which Aykroyd has dubbed essentially Ghostbusters 3. All four members of the Ghostbusters team, including Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson, have lent their voices

Virtua Tennis 2009 PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC / SEGA

Virtua Tennis 2009 developed by Sumo Digital and published by Sega is part of the Virtua Tennis series following on from Virtua Tennis 3. This edition will include a World Tour Mode with a fully integrated online ranking system. All new create-aplayer options give the gamer the ability to create anyone from Ivo Karlovic to Olivier Rochus. The game features 40 different courts to play on, including locations such as Dubai and Shanghai.

The ever popular mini-games are back in

12 coming soon

Virtua Tennis 2009 with 12 court games to play, including 5 new ones: Pot Shot, Pirate Wars, Block Buster, Count Mania, Zoo Feeder, and Shopping Dash. It will also support the Wii MotionPlus feature.

The roster of star players consists of 20 main players (10 men and 10 women) including stars such as Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova as well as all time legends Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Tim Henman.

and likenesses to the project.

The game invites the player into the world of the Ghsotbusters as a new recruit, someone for Egon to test his experimental new inventions on, two years after the events of Ghostbusters II. Over the course of the game the team will run into a host of familiar spooks including Slimer, the Library Ghost, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The game is being developed for every current gaming platform, and gameplay is said to vary quite radically across different machines. The PS3 and Xbox 360 editions will feature a strong action bent whereas the Wii and PS2 versions will feature stronger puzzle elements.

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings PSP, PS2, Wii, DS / LucasArts

Last year saw Indiana Jones return to the big screen for his first new cinematic adventure in almost 20 years, but in that time gamers have had the chance to play through a number of new Indy tales in the form of original 3D adventure games.

Soon we will once again get to don the virtual fedora and chase biblical relics about the globe in Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings.

Set during the dawn of WWII, Indy is this time traipsing about forgotten ruins looking for the staff once carried by that Red Sea-parting rascal himself, Moses. Dr. Jones will be competing with a suspiciously German-sounding rival, Magnus Völler, to be the first to discover the se-

LEGO Battles DS / Warner Brothers

Not content with appropriating some of the biggest names in entertainment and turning them into first-rate videogames, LEGO are now stepping out on their own with a title that brings their brick universes crashing together. LEGO Battles moves the age-old LEGO values of building cool stuff and then smashing it all to hell to the dual screens of the Nintendo DS. Players will get the chance to virtually construct LEGO bases, populating them with various LEGO minions, and see how they fare against attacking hordes. Over six different storylines players will go toe-totoe with battalions of Pirates, Skeletons, Knights, Aliens, and other classic LEGO motifs.

Each class of LEGO fighter has their own unique attributes, and as the campaign unfolds players will be able to recruit their preferred mix of soldiers, creating a strategically sound force to defend their uniquely designs stronghold.

LEGO Battles will also offer multiplayer options in which players can test each other’s defensive designs and army formations over wireless multi-card play.

If the game manages to capture the same irreverent humour of previous LEGO video games then LEGO Battles’ customisable approach to the blocky world could well be another must have for Nintendo’s portable powerhouse.

crets of the staff.

The game, coming to the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2, sets out to capture the swashbuckling action of an Indiana Jones movie by incorporating highly interactive environments, high-stakes vehicular chases, temples strewn with spring-loaded death traps, and truckloads of goons to be dispatched in imaginative ways.

The game looks to feature equal parts puzzles and action scenes, with fists, whip, or just plain cunning being viable solutions to any given situation. If the game is up to snuff with Emperor’s Tomb and Infernal Machine that came before then we’re in for a treat.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Multiplatform / Activision

For every good movie game tie-in there’s a thousand and one piss poor movie games, so it’s always with a certain amount of suspicion and worry when there’s a movie game in development that has so much potential. On the surface, there’s not really much you can mess up; large robots, hot girls, great mix. Unfortunately, Activision didn’t quite see eye to eye and just to spite us they made a bit of a shocker. So can we expect anything different with the

tie-in for the upcoming sequel? Apprently yes, say Activision; much more action, closer adherence to the story, at least with the PC and console versions and a metric shedload of destruction and mayhem.

Activision are also saying what you get on the console version isn’t necessarily what you’ll get on the PSP, DS or Wii versions so fingers crossed for a decent and varied set of releases soon!

Star Ocean: The Last Hope PC / SEGA

If we had 30HP points for every time a JRPG was heralded as the next ‘Final Fantasy’, let’s just say we could cartwheel blindfolded through a Fantasy boss fight in seconds. Yet the latest incarnation of the ‘Huge in Japan’ Star Ocean saga might just be the one to do it.

A joint effort from the triAce and Square Enix stable, the Xbox 360-exclusive Last Hope is a prequel to the previous three games that follows humanity’s first steps into space after WWIII has left Earth’s surface an uninhabitable, inhospitable mess.

As you can expect, it’s semi-traditional RPG-fare, and you control a small group of intrepid explorers who are soon tangled up in a mission far more complex than initially expected. Big eyed, blonde spiky haired leads, magical summons – there’s nothing necessarily groundbreaking here.

But with a whole treasure chest of realtime action packed gameplay, intuitive fight mechanics (you can swap between having complete control of your team at any time), a complex item creation system, the Private Action system (optional character quests) and an engrossing scifi/fantasy plot, there’s more than enough to sate even the neediest of nerdy role players.

14 coming soon

Terminator Salvation PS#, PC, Xbox 360 / Evolved Games

If it’s one thing the Terminator films have taught us, it’s that no matter the omens, portents and psychotic time-travelling death robots, the future isn’t set in stone.

So fingers crossed that this movie to game adaptation follows Wolverine’s recent lead and handily dodges the crap-adap bullet.

Set two years before the start of the Baleranting relaunch, players will find themselves controlling the soon-to-be messiah John Connor himself. As the game opens, LA has been paved over by the machines and with the resistance on the retreat and regroup approach, it’s up to stray bullet wildcard Connor to save the day.

Salvation has been crafted in the Gears of War mould, so while you’ll be at home with all the running, exploding and 3rd person covering, fights are unique in that they take place in 360 degrees and the cover system is intertwined with a radial menu that advises where to grab cover.

Aside from that rather ingenius mechanic, everything else is looking a little ropey.

Presentation, cut scenes and general gameplay seems underdeveloped and we can’t help but feel the whole project has been rush released to coincide with the movie release. Only time (and preferably not death-wielding robots) will tell.

Armed Assault II PC / 505 Games

Operation Flashpoint’s impromptu success was only marred by the successive legal wrangle between Codemasters and developer Bohemia Interactive Studio.

After much ranting and judicial raving, follow up ArmA: Combat Operations was released in 2007 to critical and commercial nonchalance.

Cue a frenzied return to the drawing board and the announcement of the new and improved Armed Assault II. With its sprawling maps and open-choice shooter gameplay, its closest comparison is probably Battlefield 2. Yet while there are always multiple paths by which to complete a mission, ArmA stands out with its diversity of missions and branching ele-

ments within. Simple missions can turn on their heads in a minute and the random chaotic spirit of true warfare stands front and centre.

While it’s not likely to challenge Call of Duty anytime soon, the visuals have had a significant overhaul and playing through is no longer a retina-defiling experience.

This, of course, makes the level editor a far greater joy too, and it’s surprisingly simple and enjoyable to create missions.

As is the series’ standard, every vehicle you see can be piloted, driven or blown up, and from the footage we’ve seen so far, it’s clear ArmAII is as keen to polish off the playability factor as its intense attention to detail.

The Sims 3

A virtual world where the sky is truly the limit - the Sims 3 offers an even more expansive and immersive gaming experience than it’s predecessors. And you know what that means, yep, say goodbye to your real life and hello to the virtual world of Sims 3.

I’ll be straight up and say that I was never a fan of any of the previous Sims games.

So you may find it odd to hear that I am now what you could call a ‘Sims convert’.

After spending almost an entire day playing Sims 3 as in 24 hours (I literally had to drag myself away from the PC to stop), I am 100 % convinced that anyone with an addictive personality type should seriously stay away from this game. You will lose all sense of time playing it - the Sims 3 will eventually take over!

The path to addiction really begins with the creation of your Sim. I’m not sure how much customisation was available in previous games but in Sims 3 you can literally spend hours modelling your Sim to look and behave exactly how you want, right down to the highlights in your hair!

You can change the colour and shade of practically everything including, clothes, eye colour, skin pigment and accessories.

There are so many options available; you’ll be spoiled for choice.

Once you’ve managed to spend sev-

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eral hours on your appearance, you can then choose personality traits for you Sim from a list of available traits and again, the possibilities are endless. And depending on what traits you choose for your Sim, you can then embark on acquiring the necessities of life such as a house, a job, a career, friends, relationships and so on.

The focus in the Sims 3 is definitely on having more choices to customise your Sim’s virtual ‘life’ by allowing it to do more and to be more interactive with the Sims world. Of course, as in real life, there are things that just can’t be avoided (and will eventually make your Sim very unhappy if they are) such as cooking, cleaning, personal hygiene and even keeping your mood rating high so your Sim doesn’t get grumpy! I found one of the easiest ways to play the Sims is to look at your virtual life as a series of ‘layers’. For instance, when creating your Sim, you will need to lay the ‘foundations’ for everything before you can move to the next stage. To be able to cook, you need to learn how, to be able to

The incredible freedom of The Sims 3 will inspire you with the endless possibilities and amuse you with unexpected moments of surprise and mischief

work; you will need to acquire knowledge (usually from books) which is very much how it is in our real, everyday lives. ‘Life experience’ is a very real concept in the Sims 3. Without it, your Sim is nothing more than an empty avatar.

All interaction with your Sim is done via the main interface called the ‘Sim Panel’.

This is where you control everything you Sim does from eating to cleaning, to interacting with other Sims. The navigation is very simplistic; by clicking on your Sim ‘avatar’ (which is the head of your Sim) you can then choose your next action. You can also control the speed in which your Sim completes each action (for example, a day at work for your Sim can be ‘sped up’ so that you jump forward). Each day in the life of your Sim is represented in hours just as it is in real life.

The world of the Sims is also just as complex and expansive as everything else in the game. Your Sim will be required to make many choices, some extremely fundamental in the development of your Sim. When you finally decide which path you wish to follow as a career (you can even choose to become a criminal if you want), you will then need to ‘build’ upon this choice by queuing up ‘events’ to complete that will compliment your chosen career path. Currently, my Sim personality traits include ‘Ambitious’ and ‘Genius’ because

I want my Sim to eventually become a computer hacker. To improve on my logic skills (so I can then afford enough to buy a computer which costs around $4000) I have a career in the field of Science and I ensure my Sim reads alot of books about logic. I am also working my way up the rankings in the local Chess competitions by challenging other Sims to Chess games. This is how the concept of ‘layers’ works in Sims 3. Everything you do is set up in a sequence of events and actions for your Sim and by building on your base skills, you Sim grows and improves.

Interacting with other Sims is one of the highlights of the Sims franchise and is evermore appealing in Sims 3. You can create as many relationships in the Sims as you wish (or choose to become a socially inept hobbo if that’s your true Sims calling) and even have other Sims over to party with you. The interactive environment of Sims 3 allows you to do alot with your Sim including putting out

the rubbish (and even recycling), renovating your house (upgrading and selling objects to make money) and even tutoring other Sims to supplement your income.

The daily tasks such as eating, sleeping, cooking, and working are all staple requirements of every Sim but are sometimes a bit of a drag when you want to do things that are more fun.

Sims 3 is heavy on the micro-management and multi-tasking and you’ll always need to be aware of the current state of your Sim (whether it’s hungry, smelly, moody etc). With so much more to do, it seems your level of involvement is doubled in Sims 3 but that’s why the game

is so appealing and addictive at the same time. Watching your Sim grow through various stages of improvement can be extremely satisfying (and if you’re a goalorientated person such as I am, you’ll love this aspect of the game).

As the code I played was preview code and not the final product, I did notice a few graphical glitches (such as cars driving into each other and disappearing) which are sure to be ironed out with the retail release in June. Apart from this, the Sims 3 looks ready to take the world of virtual reality to an entirely new level. I’m now swapping Swords in Warhammer for a lab tech’s coat and loving it!

Summary

details

Sims 3 looks to have expanded in every way possible on the previous games and offers so much more in the way of Sim development and interaction. There isn’t a game out there that can rival it in the genre.

Sims 3 reigns supreme.

Genre: Simulator Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: The Sims Studio Platform: PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch Released: June 5, 2009 Website: http://thesims3.ea.com/ Players: 1 Rating: TBA Price: $99.99 Writer: Julie Gray

Did You Know?

‘The Sims’ franchise holds the record for best-selling games franchise of all time, with more than 100 million copies of Sims 1, Sims 2, all expansion and stuff packs being sold worldwide to date.

Originally starting life as a small expansion to Escape from Butcher Bay, it’s now a full-length, eight-hour sequel to the critically acclaimed shooter.

Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

Ever seen the fantastic sci-fi movie Pitch Black? Or it’s alsosurprisingly-good sequel Chronicles of Riddick? If not, you probably ought to be reading something else, like maybe Fishing Monthly. Then again, you might just not have gotten around to it yet. Either way, it’s high time you gave them a go, at the very least so you can play the Chronicles of Riddick titles without being completely confused -- we promise you won’t be disappointed, something we can’t really promise for the newest Riddick game to be released, Assault on Dark Athena.

It all started out being so very promising. Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was a thoroughly enjoyable title, developed in part by Vin Diesel’s own game studio, Tigon (for you Fishing Monthly fans, Diesel stars as Riddick in both films). Outlining the events leading up to the films, Butcher Bay was an example of a movie game done right; it looked great, had a fantastic plot and involved a decent variety of first-person action, adventure and stealth gaming.

Five years after the release of Butchers Bay, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena appears at least at first to offer up more fun and excitement, but more in-depth exploration reveals it’s really just more of the same; fairly stock

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standard FPS gaming.

The story begins as Riddick wakes to find his ship has been swallowed up by a mercenary ship callled the Dark Athena.

Naturally, being Riddick, the plot revolves around him working his way through the massive ship, finding out who’s in control and killing them all so he can leave again.

He still has his characteristic night vision which helps him out a great deal during the stealth segments of the game, of which there are a decent number.

The variety found in the original is more apparent in Assault on Dark Athena, with a very gracious mix of stealth-action and balls-out killing. The linear gameplay flows fairly smoothly and manages to keep you more or less entertained, however while

the opening few levels are the most enjoyable, with a nice pace which ensures you’re kept entertained, unfortunately it doesn’t always stay that way. It’s sort of like the developers just ran out of steam; after you’ve been playing only a few hours everything gets very dull, with fewer opportunities for stealth, boring level design and some downright stupid AI makes winning combat more like a game of memory than strategy and reflex.

Graphically speaking, Assault on Dark Athena ain’t all that. There’s some fairly decent model design, but after a while it all gets pretty ‘samey,’ especially when you get further through the story and the environments change for the worse.

Thankfully though the voice acting is awesome, albeit fairly strongly worded, which takes what would otherwise be a fairly

uninspired FPS and turns it into a pretty OK one.

While it won’t take you long to finish the game, the developers saw fit to include a completely reworked version of Escape from Butchers Bay; this looks fantastic and continues to be the better game.

There’s also multiplayer fun to be had on both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, with your standard offering of Capture the Flag and Deathmatch options keeping things interesting.

Overall, despite its obvious flaws, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a fairly decent game, way better than most movie/game tie-ins usually are and certainly worth checking out, especially if you’re a fan of the movies.

Summary

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Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PS3 Genre: FPS, Stealth-action Publisher: Atari Developer: Starbreeze & Tigon Studios Players: 1+ Did You Know?

Website: www.riddickgame.com/ Despite the rather lacklustre box office take of the Chronicles of Riddick Rating: R18 film work – according to star Vin Diesal – is continuing to make a further RRP: $139.99 2 films to create a trilogy (if you don’t include Pitch Black) Release date: Available now Writer: Lee Marrett A not so stellar follow-up to a fantastic original, Assault on Dark Athena offers some good gameplay and some fun stealth-action moments; the addition of a refurbished copy of Escape from Butchers Bay makes it well worth the purchase.

‘The Don’s View’ is the most effective way of navigating the maps and maintaining your crew. Maneuvering the camera around the maps makes controlling your businesses much easier

The Godfather 2

The Godfather has the reputation of being one of the greatest…nay the greatest movie of all time. Can EA’s second attempt to make an R18 classic sandbox stand against the fervered love of movie buffs and their library of classic gangster quotes…

Do you feel like the boss? If so it’s time so show if you’re man enough for it with EA’s sequel to their GTA inspired mafia sandbox game which unsurprisingly enough happens to be based on the much more famous movie of the same name – The Godfather II. Fast forward a couple of decades and we’re in the golden fiftes. Cuba has just been taken over by Castro’s Communist forces (as detailed in the opening scenes of the game) before the action moves on to New York, Miami and back to Havana.

If you’ve played the original Godfather game then you’ll find that much here remains the same…yet at the same time in my opinion at least, sadly lacking. There’s the 3 different cities on offer, yet they all

feel rather dull, so too there is the ability to extort and take over business, but they get repetitive real quick.

The main plot follows the aspiring Don to be Dominic who is a made man in Corleone family – ruled naturally by the previous game’s protagonist. The events are loosely based on the events of the film although obviously with a fair amount of fluff and artistic liceanse to add some hours to the whole experience.

Fundamentally the game is about wiping out the other familes and taking over rackets – ranging from prostitution rings, gambling dens and car scrap yards etc and businesses. Collecting an entire set leads to bonuses ranging from

a greater cash flow or special equipment like a bullet proof car or body armour.

Taking over said establishments involves killing the guards (who will belong to one of 4 or so rival families) and then proceeding to threaten the owner into submission – without pushing things too far (via a little on screen bar) at which point they’ll stubbornly refuse to buckle. Of course other families don’t take too kindly to all of this and will do their best to sieze them back.

This is where the biggest change in The Godfather II shows its hand.

Being a Don in making, you get to control a bevy of underlings. This ranges from $100 a day thugs who can be hired to defend your businesses from enemy

attacks to an eventual half dozen NPC’s who make up your most capable made men. Up to three of them at a time can accompany you during your journies and have special skills such as the ability to set explosives, crack safes or implement first aid. Those not in your immediate gang can be sent via the Don’s View to help defend properties under attack or to try their best shot at taking over an enemy location on your behalf.

The Godfather II also supports 4 multiplayer game modes for up to 16 players.

There’s not much new here and it’s certainly lacking in local players. The upside though is that winnings carry over into your single player game.

Summary

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The Godfather II is a capable game but fails to excite as a third person shooter or an open world ‘sandbox’ opus. Compared to many of it’s like it’s also ‘short’ at about 15 hrs to complete.

Genre: Action/Sandbox Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: EA Redwood Shores Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PS3 Released: 9th April Website: http://godfather2.ea.com Players: 1-16 Rating: R18 Price: $119.99 Writer: Nigel Clark

Did You Know?

We love wikipedia, especially for giving us this little bit of info.The Taxis in each city of The Godfather II belong to a company named ‘Bickle Cabs Co’. This is a reference to Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle.

Gameplay is viewed from a third-person perspective and is divided up between bloody battles with multiple foes, cinematic boss battles and puzzle solving

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Wolverine is not only my favourite comic character but one of the most popular marvel champions of our time.

Perhaps its his murky background, his guttural instincts, his bad attitude or those crazy sideburns but one thing is for sure - Hugh Jackman has become the face of one of the most violent angry hero’s that everyone is growing to love and that’s not a bad thing. In the game we see the more feral wolverine that graced the comics of old. We spend a bit more time traveling the past and watching our hero Before we get into the game, we have to mention that damned movie; perhaps there are some who enjoyed it but I did not. It failed to capture the essence (in my humble opinion) of Stan Lee’s creation. There is a hell of a lot of history to Wolverine that makes him the man he is today and certainly not all of it was pretty.

It seems that the movie storyline chose to rifle through a couple of hundred years of development in the blink of an eye before finishing in a mind numbingly stupid ending.

Now the reason I spoke of the movie is that this game is of course the game ‘of the movie’. I would view it more as com-

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plementary to the movie as it fills the gaps rather than strictly following the movie scenes.

There is no namby pandering here; from the opening sequence through to the shattering climax it is pure animal ferocity.

The game itself could be classified as a button masher where our hero has 3 main attacks: light, heavy and grab as well as the ‘lunge’ for longer ranged strikes. Now there are a few other combos that you can use but you’ll soon discover that these three main moves are all you need to finish the game. The game moves away from previous ones that have seen Wolverine somehow vulnerable, or unable to heal. In

this one he has two health bars; one representing his ‘body’ that will deteriorate as he takes damage (in great detail), the other representing his heart or vital organs that become exposed and therefore vulnerable. Wolverine will take a fair beating to die in this game and that’s all good.

In fact I can’t think of another Wolverine game that has worked so well.

Watching him lose skin and muscle is quite amazing as the game displays exquisite detail. The graphics are well done as are the voiceovers.

Seeing Wolverine’s mutilated enemies grasping at missing limbs before finally dying has brought the comic-book Wolverine of old back to life, except of course

that crazy yellow spandex outfit.

What the game does lack is variety; it doesn’t take long before you get into the routine of slicing and dicing your foes or lunging into the many bosses you need to get past. It’s the only real issue I have with the game and for many games such a flaw would be a death knell but luckily for this one it is actually still a great deal of fun. As I mentioned it does seem to have captured Wolverine’s soul more than the movie did but better than that, it has done its job ‘as a game’. If you want to pick up a game in which you play Wolverine who does actually have a healing power like no other and is essentially indestructible then this is it. Yes the game is repetitive, but I would rather play this for a few hours than watch that crap movie again.

Summary

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Hard hitting, furiously violent gaming brings back our comic hero in all his feral glory. Repetitive gameplay doesn’t downplay just how much fun it is to play Marvel’s most animalistic crusader.

Genre: Third Person Action Publisher: Activision Developer: Raven Software Platform: PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, DS, PSP and PC Release date: 30th April Website: http://www.uncaged.com/ Players: Single player Rating: R18 Price: $129.99 Writer: Stan McGuigan

Did You Know?

When James “Logan” Howlett previously worked in a quarry and lost his temper (as he often did), he would work out his angst by digging even more furiously hence his co-workers gave him the nickname Wolverine as they likened his intense burrowing to a wolverine going after a root.

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazzard

Oh. Dear. God. Eat Lead might just be one of the most crappiest titles ever; it’s a game you really only play once before deciding there’s nothing you’re going to enjoy about it. It might even make you mad enough to storm back to the shops and demand your money back. It’s certainly one of those games you’ll see in a $5 bin outside your local games store, and even when you see it there you should think twice about buying it and dirtying up your disc drive with it. The only Not content with popping out yearly releases of the Guitar good part about the game is that you can tell it’s horrible just Hero franchise, Neversoft and publishers Activision are frantically milking the property for all they’re worth with these by looking at the cover.

The first problem is that Eat Lead thinks It’s hard to continue to talk about this in-between band specific packs. Can Guitar Hero: Metallica it’s funny. It’s not, but it thinks it is. It takes game when all you want to do is fly to deliver on the quality?

Guitar Hero Metallica

potshots at a myriad of other games yet doesn’t even have the decency to be able to stand on its own two feet. Each level is poorly designed, as the developers have been under the impression they’d be funny enough to care about how their game looks. They even like to point out how bad their game is from time to time.

But, you see, they didn’t need to. WE KNOW ALREADY. Eat Lead is also ugly. Character models are poorly animated. Textures are plain and boring. We’ve mentioned the levels already; they’re boring too.

It’s like the game was made in the 90s, only in the 90s, games were made this bad BECAUSE THEY HAD TO BE. Hey, developers, here’s a point to note: unless a warehouse is run by an anally retentive cleaning Nazi, nothing ever lines up with anything else.

wherever these developers live and rip their hearts out so they never make another game, but you get the feeling they actually intended for this to be the reaction you have. Everything in Eat Lead it seems was created to annoy you, from the small security guard who won’t die until you’ve pumped every last bullet in your arsenal into him to the stupid Achievements scheme; it’s all done in a tongue in cheek “parody” style intended to make you laugh. But really all they’ve achieved is to try and sting you for more than a hundred bucks.

We’ll stop ranting now, but if you get one thing out of this article please get this: do not buy this game. There, we’ve saved you a hundred bucks. You’re welcome.

How about you take us out for a steak?

Not every band would qualify as having the appeal for their very own Guitar Hero game. Previously we’ve seen middling entries from Aerosmith and ACDC – the latter on rival game Rockband. But the best has finally come with Metallica, who love em or hate em have been pumping out the hits for near on two decades now appealing to (most of) their original fans and new comers alike.

Whether you’re a long haired bogan thrasher inspired by the hard sounds from Ride the Lightning, a commercial fan from the self titled Black album or a newcomer to the rather more dubiously loved recent albums such as St. Anger you should have your cravings fulfilled here with Guitar Hero: Metallica acting as a greatest hits spanning their entire career.

As per most Guitar Hero games the heart of the title is the career mode. It

opens with you - and your band mates if you’ve gone for the full kit approach, playing as the Metallica foursome in a perfect line-up of ‘The God, The Bad and The Ugly’, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ and ‘The Unforgiven.’ After this it switches to you as an audience member being so inspired by what he sees that he creates a Metallica tribute band.

The rest is rather standard stuff in terms of progression. Complete songs, get stars and unlock more songs. Also get cash in which to upgrade your appearance and unlock bonus content. Of course this is skinning over the fact that as far as fan service goes the extra content on the disc is no less than excellent with plenty of exclusive video clips. The best of the lot are videos of all of the songs included in the game which pop up blurbs with Metallica related facts and trivia.

Summary

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Summary

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An extremely poor attempt at bundling the history of computer gaming up into one long parody, all this game succeeds in doing is making you look (and feel) stupid for buying it.

Platform: Xbox 360, PS3 Genre: Third Person Shitter Publisher: D3 Publisher Developer: Vicious Cycle Software Players: 1 Website: www.eatleadvideogame.com/ Rating: M RRP: $119.99 Release date: 9th April Writer: Lee Marrett

Obviously there’s little point bothering with this game if you’re not a Metallica fan of any sorts. The rest of you will love the line-up which includes 28 songs from Metallica and another 21 from bands that have inspired them over the years.

Genre: Rhythm Publisher: Activision Developer: Neversoft Platform: Multiplatform Released: 29th May Website: www.guitarherometallica.com/ Players: 1+ Rating: M Price: $119.99 (Without instruments) Writer: Nigel Clark

Did You Know?

So impressed are the developers with their game they’ve already started on the sequel. Lee has wet his pants already…

Did You Know?

In 1996 all four members of the band cut their hair to coincide with the release of ‘Load’. Goodness knows why – marriage maybe? Afterwards we imagine many thousands of teens made their first trip to the hairdresser’s in years.

The story in Battleforge is a huge mythology of giants, skylords, dying suns and an infectious darkness that’s corrupting the world

Battleforge

RTS with a ‘Magic: The Gathering’ twist to it, Battleforge blends real time strategy with fantasy complete with cards to collect and use as tactical units within the game.

I’ve never really understood the mechanics behind games like ‘Magic - The Gathering’ so playing an online game that blends elements of that with real time strategy and fantasy is indeed exciting and unique. Battleforge is played using a deck of cards. The cards represent the units, spells and structures you will use and create in the game.

There are 200 cards in all split into four separate sets; Nature, Shadow, Frost and Fire. Each deck also has their own unique characteristics and units, strengths and weaknesses. You can choose to build your army from one set of cards or from each set depending on how you want to play. You can even save your custom decks which is handy when you want to try out new tactics and units with new decks.

Now all this talk about cards probably has

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you wondering where the RTS comes into it. Well, even though the concept is quite simple, the sheer amount of units really gives Battleforge the potential to be a game that requires alot of time to master.

There are also various facets to the game that are very different to your vanilla variety of RTS. Unlike other RTS games, Battleforge does not require you to keep all your forces fortified in one area of the map and in fact, requires you to dominate as much of the map as possible to gain the muchneeded power source and orbs which will dictate how many units you can build and what type. So in part Battleforge is a game about resources (like many RTS games), but also has unfamiliar mechanics that are unique and interesting.

Battleforge comes with the option to

play single player (not that much fun), campaign mode with other players and PVP (player versus player). I strongly recommend to anyone new to Battleforge that you play the tutorial right through.

The community for Battleforge is quite expansive and there are alot of things to learn before you can start playing with other gamers. The user interface also has heaps of options which are easier to navigate once you understand the basics.

Playing alongside other gamers is relatively easy to do. Once you connect to

the server you can enter a lobby which will show you how many other people are currently connected. You can start the campaign mode and others can join your game.

To play Battleforge you will need an internet connection so you can connect to the Battleforge server. You’ll also need an EA account which is easily set up when you install the game. And on that note, the game install will take some time so make sure you set up when you’ve got plenty else to do.

Summary

With a strong focus on card collection and trading in the game, I think Battleforge will suit gamers who are already familiar with the mechanics behind collectible card games. If you’re an RTS fan who is looking for something new to try, Battleforge might do the trick but otherwise, unless you’re already familiar with Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic: The Gathering, Battleforge may be too much of a learning curve.

Did You Know?

Phenomic is the development company that created EA’s first RPG game “Spellforce” and was acquired by EA in 2006 and became ‘EA Phenomic’.

details Genre: RTS Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: Phenomic Platform: PC Released: April 3, 2009 Website: www.battleforge.com/ Players: 12 Rating: M Price: $99.99 Writer: Julie Gray

Afro Samurai

Afro Samurai is possibly the coolest, freshest and dopest game to come out in quite a while. Mixing science fiction with feudal Japan, big hair, headbands, Samuel L Jackson, sword fighting, a lot of blood and a killer soundtrack by WuTang’s The RZA is a recipe for completely awesome genius and we’re thrilled to say it’s been pulled off with the utmost skill and panache.

Based on the original manga series by Takashi Okazaki, Afro Samurai tells the story of a young samurai named Afro who is on a quest to become Number One and wield powers like a god. You can only become Number One by being Number Two and taking the ceremonial headband off the existing Number One. Afro is currently Number Two and, based on how many challengers he’s beaten down, a pretty damned good swordsman. Afro’s father was the old Number One, but was killed by a gunman named Justice; his quest is also one of revenge.

Visually, Afro Samurai is gorgeous, with stunning cel-shaded cartoon like characters mixed with stunning environments and artfully realised cutscenes. The action is fast-paced; the combat is very quick and you are often fighting overwhelming odds. By stringing combos together you build up focus which you can use to slow the action and rain carnage down on everyone; you can also shift into focus mode

at any time which lets you concentrate your energy in one direction, often inflicting damage on a massive scale.

The quick action and gorgeous visuals are beautifully complemented by the coolest soundtrack to be created in a long time along with fresh voice acting

by Samuel L Jackson and Ron Perlman, among others.

There are a few issues, of course; in order to create a more cinematic feel the developers have completely done away with the HUD, forcing you to continually watch for blood on your costume to know when you’re low on health; the lack of a map also means you’re always wondering where to go next. These are relatively small however, and certainly don’t take away from the awesomeness of the game.

Afro Samurai is one of the better little games to come out in a while; if you like your hip hop and your swordfighting you should NOT miss this title.

Summary

Utterly thrilling, fast paced sword fighting action with more blood spattering and slicing up of bodies than you can shake an ancient Japanese warrior at. Slight issues surrounding camera battling and not being able to change your camera settings in game make for some frustrations but there’s not much to get upset about with this game.

Did You Know?

Voice of Afro Samurai, Samuel L Jackson is a big golf fan – so much so he has a clause in his contracts which allows him to play during production. He states it’s the only place he can go dressed like a pimp and fit in perfectly.

details Platform: PS3, Xbox 360 Genre: Hack & Slash Publisher: Namco Bandai Developer: Surge Players: 1 Website: www.bloodisbeautiful.com/ Rating: R16 RRP: $129.99 Release date: 2nd April Writer: Lee Marrett

Codename: Panzers Cold War Real time strategy makes a comeback with Atari’s Codename: Panzers Cold War. It’s not ground-breaking stuff but it’s war and everyone needs a good ol’ dose of RTS warfare every now and then.

Dust off your suit Armchair Generals, it’s time to command your troops and take control, Panzer-style. Codename: Panzers Cold War is a straight-forward, no-frills RTS made especially for fans of the genre.

Panzers has everything you’d expect of an RTS; you get to command your troops, create new units, vehicles and buildings and of course, dominate your opponent in all-out warfare. The problem with this of course is there’s nothing really new here and you literally feel like you’ve done it all before.

Movement and control of your units is done with the left-click control commanding movement of your troops and movement of your mouse controlling the map (battlefield) view. The objectives are

also clearly outlined and once you’ve got the hang of meeting objectives (such as infiltrating and capturing enemy targets), you’ve just about covered the content of the entire game.

Codename: Panzers Cold War isn’t badly made, in fact, graphically the game looks fine and runs very smoothly. The only major flaw relates to the actual content itself being a tad too repetitive. Of course, if you’re a fan of military-style warfare and moving troops around a map regardless of how often you have to do it is your idea of fun, then Panzers will definitely satisfy. But for anyone looking for a game to revitalise the genre and offer something unique, you won’t find it here.

Summary

A been here done it all aspect belies the fact that Codename: Panzers Cold War is a solid RTS offering. We can’t complain about blowing away a few Ruskie tanks though.

Did You Know?

Ever get annoyed at the fact that units in RTS games never run out of ammo? Fret no more as Codename: Panzers Cold War requires you to make sure constant supplies of munitions are available to keep your army functioning.

details Genre: RTS/Warfare Publisher: Atari Developer: Stormregion Platform: PC Released: April 2, 2009 Website: http://www.atari.com Players: 8 Rating: R 16 Price: $89.99 Writer: Julie Gray

Little King’s Story

Rune Factory

Enchanting and deceptively rich, the King may be little but his story is huge. Delivering a superb blend of Simulation, RPG, For those heathens among us that didn’t think Harvest Moon and strategic action, Little King’s Story is the sort of game the had enough mindless violence Marvelous Interactive present Rune Factory, in which peaceful farming simulation meets Nintendo Wii has been desperately crying out for. fantasy monster slaying. It’s not an easy marriage but worth Things tick along peacefully for the the effort for broader appeal.

A humble, timid youth finds his fortunes dramatically reversed when he happens upon a magical crown. Placing the coronet on his head the young man is imbued with power of irresistible charm; whatever he commands people now find it impossible to disobey. And so the little scamp is appointed King of Alpoko Kingdom, shouldering all power and responsibility with which it comes.

King Corobo starts the game with very little; a ramshackle castle, a handful of shiftless layabouts to command, and a trio of eager advisors ready to steer the path of glory. The kingdom is a nonstarter without a little capitol, and with no natural resources to depend upon Alpoko’s main source of finance comes from scrounging about for treasure.

Investing found money in training facilities allows the King to assign jobs to those brave or foolhardy enough to choose to reside in Alpoko. Basic farmers and soldiers get the job done initially, but as the game unfurls a bevy of occupations become available, hunters, miners, engineers, and lumberjacks among them.

fledgling kingdom, but it’s not long before the haggard old military advisor is barking urges to move beyond the kingdom’s borders and give the neighbours a right royal welcome.

Combat involves taking a limited number of followers out into the field and hurling them at anything that looks vaguely threatening, ala Pikmin. Each class of follower has different strengths and weaknesses, so it’s important to do sufficient recon in foreign territory so you know just what you’re getting into and who best to deal with it.

The initial scope of the game continually expands until you’re asked to grow your empire out to the furthest reaches of a considerable world map. With all taken into account the game turns out to be a far larger ordeal than it’s kindly little beginnings ever let on.

The scope, strategy, management, and an odd feeling of responsibility make Little King’s Story a singular, infatuating experience.

Summary

Don’t be fooled; the cute and cuddly exterior might make it seem a perfect game for the Wii’s vast casual crowd, but Little King’s Story is one of the most original, enthralling games for the system so far.

Did You Know?

Fans were encouraged to submit artwork for Unidentified Mysterious Animals during the game’s development. The very best appear as characters in the game, 99 others can be collected as lost art items for the King to track down.

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details Genre: Strategy - RPG Publisher: Rising Star Games Developer: Cing & Town Factory Platform: Wii Released: 30th April Website: www.littlekingsstory.com/ Players: 1 Rating: G Price: $99.99 Writer: Adrian Hatwell

The Harvest Moon games have always held niche appeal. While the value of, say, shooting people in the head seems to be a universally accepted basis for a game, managing the daily chores of a farm doesn’t carry quite the same currency. Even so, the series has netted its fair share of fanatics (myself among them), so shoring up the basic farming simulation with a more conventional RPG twist is a shrewd move.

Rune Factory opens as its protagonist stumbles into a small town, exhausted and thoroughly amnesia-stricken. As is the general cultural practice in quaint medieval towns, a kindly young lass takes the befuddled adventurer into her care, offering him a cottage to stay in and a large field to tend. Not the most rousing beginning to a swashbuckling epic, but by introducing the farming aspect up front Rune Factory gets its hooks in good and early.

It’s hard to pinpoint the attraction held by the dull routine of tilling a field, plant-

ing crops, watering them daily, and selling them on, but it’s something that becomes difficult to walk away from. Perhaps it’s the notion of actually doing something positive in a game, rather than caving in skulls or ruling the world, that makes the laborious process rewarding. Whatever it is, from your first handful or radish seeds Rune Factory delivers on that whimsically rustic farming experience.

Things get a little choppier when our hero heads out for the RPG sections of the game. There has always been a shallow shade of role-playing in Harvest Moon, running about town building relationships, choosing a wife, raising a child, but it’s never been the grandiose Dungeons and Dragons flavour before. Rune Factory throws in dungeon crawling, levelling up, grinding, boss fights; the whole generic enchilada.

It’s not exactly a disappointing experience, but the bawdy PRG element doesn’t exactly hang well next to the peaceful, idyllic segments of farm tending.

Summary

In trying to be all things to all men Rune Factory ends up encroaching on the effervescent tone that made Harvest Moon such a hit in modest circles. It’s difficult to fault the addition of a widely beloved gameplay style though; it will certainly extend the series’ audience further.

Did You Know?

We in European territories are a good three years behind on Rune Factory, Japan and the US have not only been playing the original title for a while but they’ve also been privy to a DS sequel and Wii spin-off.

details Genre: RPG Publisher: Rising Star Developer: Neverland Co. Platform: DS Released: 9th April Website: www.bokumono.com/ Players: 1 Rating: PG Price: $79.99 Writer: Adrian Hatwell

Buzz! Brain of New Zealand

Bionic Commando

EA Sports Active

Sony Computer Entertaiment / PS3, PS2, PSP

Capcom / PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC

EA Sports / Wii

The formula is pretty much identical to all the Buzz titles that you’ve gotten stuck into, although the inclusion of being able to create and share your own questions is certainly a seriously cool addition.

Up to 8 players can get buzzing together in local multiplayer and the game can be expanded with quiz packs available to be downloaded from the PlayStation Store.

Best of the lot though is not being lumped in with Europe, or worse still Australia with a large number of questions aimed for the New Zealand audience – choice bro!

Capcom’s iconic NES era character has returned in blazing next-gen style to the latest consoles. Set 10 years after the events of the last game, a great Bionic purge is occurring and even our hero has been betrayed and captured by his government. After an explosion wipes out most of the city the race is out to clear your name and find the terrorists. The game does rely heavily on the bionic arm, and without that is a rather plain action game.

However if you enjoy swinging your way, Spider-Man like through environments it could be worth a look.

Following hot on the heels of Nintendo’s Wii Fit game comes EA with its similarly themed EA Sports Active. So closely entwined in fact is the game that it even make’s use of Wii Fit’s balance board! Still it does comes with a couple of extra peripherals – a leg strap to monitor lower body exercises, and a resistance band of sorts in order to give those arms a good workout. There are workout plans and heaps of various exercises to get stuck into, that is if you’re such a gaming nut you can’t possible drag yourself outdoors for more normal exercise regimes.

Fallout 3: Broken Steel

Lode Runner

Dragon Hunters

Bethesda / Xbox 360 , PC

Southend Interactive / XBLA

Playlogic / DS

Broken Steel is in fact the 3rd release of Fallout 3 DLC content. It makes for the ideal starting point if you want to resume your adventures in post nuclear Washington DC. Not only can you continue to journey’s throughout the region but it also raises the cap to level 30, brings in new perks, new enemies, equipment and new quests.

The latter deal with the Brotherhood of Steel’s attempts to deal a final blow against the Enclave who are already reeling from the destruction of their main base and defeat at Project Purity. Lot’s of high tech gun fights await.

A spiffy remake of the 1983 classic. Levels consist of platforms and ladders, about which enemies chase players as they scramble to gather up enough gold to reveal the stage’s exit. Relatively helpless, players are armed with a gun that can blast away certain blocks, leaving holes for the baddies to fall into. The remake deserves credit for maintaining the original’s brutal level of difficulty -- there’s no gentle learning curve here. Coupled with insanely fun multi-player options and Lode Runner’s signature level builder, this little download is huge value.

Based on an animated TV show and movie, Dragon Hunters is strictly for the young ones. Tragically it probably won’t entertain terribly much. Three characters are available; each has one ability, i.e. rolling into a ball, punching or double jumping. That’s all they can do which means you’re forced to wrestle with unresponsive controls throughout the game rather than just being able to relax and enjoy. Diehard fans only need apply -- even then we urge caution. On the upside there is a budget price tag for this title.

Air Conflicts: Aces of World War II

Velvet Assassin

Terminator Salvation

Cowboy Rodeo / PSP

THQ / Xbox 360, PC

Gameloft / Mobile

A low budget PC title being ported to the PSP is not a great start. But it gets worse when you realise the developers have made no effort to adjust the graphics to the portables smaller screen. Yes ladies and gentlemen, here we have a truly awful game. Spanning 13 campaigns and some 250 non linear missions you’d think there would be plenty of content. Instead you’ll find impossible difficulty, weak graphics and incredibly long loading times (often longer than the time it will take to fail a mission, which you’ll do constantly). Stay away, at all costs.

The premise is certainly interesting. Taking on the role of real life figure Violette Szabo you act as a spy and saboteur during the dark days of World War 2. Impressions are that this could be an alternative to the long missing in action Splinter Cell style gameplay. However the end result is a game with poor graphics and rather inconsistent stealth mechanics. It’s a shame really since the story itself is decent enough and it does a good job of showing some of the truly horrible aspects of the war and the atrocities committed during the time.

Assume the role of John Connor, leader of the Resistance, in post-apocalyptic 2018 Los Angeles and battle for survival against the forces of Skynet in this thirdperson shooter inspired by the movie. Counter hordes of enemies in concentrated armed combat, destroy specific targets, hack computers, drive futuristic vehicles, defend areas and more. Although at times overly repetitive the game has plenty to offer in mission variety. There is nothing particularly new in gameplay but it’s solid in design and a treat for any Terminator fan.

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giveaways The sims 3 (PC) The Sims 3 is a strategic life simulation video game in the popular and critically acclaimed franchise, originally created by Maxis. In contrast to the previous versions, the houses and neighborhoods are seamless, allowing players to explore and interact with their neighborhood without loading time. EA has kindly provided us with 3 copies to give away. So get your answers in to us today!

Pro Golf 2010 World Tour Gameloft / Mobile

Whether you’re a golf fan or not, this is one top notch game, offering beautiful graphics and 5 world famous players such as Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose. You can customise your golfer, buy gear at the golf shop and embark in career mode to fame and glory.

Travel the world and play 54 holes in 3 courses located in Fiji, the American Mountains and in the English countryside. Pro Golf 2010 World Tour is a fantastic mobile golf sim with exceptional environments and solid gameplay that will allow you to whittle the hours away.

Who is the game designer who first created the Sims? a) Will Smith b) Will ferrell c) Will wright

INFAMOUS (PS3) with comic We have a copy of Sony’s hottest new PS3 exclusive inFAMOUS to give away this month – there are also 3 copies of a limited edition inFAMOUS comic for the first 3 names drawn. To enter the draw all you have to do is answer the following question…

Who is the developer behind the game inFAMOUS? a) Punch drunk games b) donkey Punch studios c) Sucker Punch Productions

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai Microsoft / XBLA

An unnamed protagonist awakes with strange new abilities. Having been captured by villainous cyborgs the dishwashing hero was killed then resurrected by his mentor Chef with the help of a little alien blood. The soapy deathmachine picks up a pair of meat cleavers and sets a course for pain through the cyborg strongholds.

The game won Microsoft’s Dream-Build-Play competition for independent Xbox Live development programs, likely on the strength of its striking visual style and slick violence, as the content itself is fairly tepid.

Smurfs: 50th anniversary Box set Celebrating 50 years with The Smurfs, this box set contains 9 Discs featuring 52 episodes. Magna Pacific has provided us with one of these box sets so get your answers in to us now and get in the draw.

Who is the mature, grey bearded Smurf who runs Smurf village? a) OLd SMURF b) senior smurf c) papa smurf

Zombie Wranglers Sierra Online /XBLA

Looking to score a little pocket money while the folks are away, a squad of neighbourhood children have decided to take care of their fair city’s zombie problem. Each baring their own special weapons, the youngsters can either cut the zombies down or attempt a slightly more riskier wrangling, which earns them a little more coin.

The Little Rascals meets Night of the Living Dead concept is fun and the designs have that Nickelodeon cartoon look, but ultimately the game is a chore to play. Sloppy controls and boring missions make this an easy miss.

how to enter

Write the correct answer, your name and contact details in an e-mail and send it in. All correct entries immediately go into the draw. This month’s winners will be drawn June 25th, 2009. No entries will be accepted after that date; please refrain from flooding our e-mail or you’ll be excluded from this and future draws.

Send e-mail entries to: competitions@tenthplanet.co.nz

Last Month’s Winners

Please keep those entries coming: our congratulations go out to all the lucky winners from issue 80.

MADWORLD (Wii) Kirsty Copher, Auckland | Toni Squire, Tauranga Danesh Singh, Auckland RESISTANCE RETRIBUTION (PSP) Judith Perez, Wellington KILLZONE 2 POSTERS Shawna Moller, Nth Auckland | C. Razinger, Hamilton

The Signal

Twilight STARRING: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed DIRECTOR: Catherine Hardwicke RATING: M RUNNING TIME: 122 min STUDIO: Sony Pictures RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Julie Gray

If you’re after a blood-soaked romp through modern day USA with plenty of violence and lustful vampirism you’ve come to the wrong place, in fact, you’re probably looking for ‘True Blood’ rather than Twilight Ashley Greene.

Twilight is about vampires yes, but not in the classical sense. Twilight is a teenage love story that focuses on Bella Swan (Kirsten Stewart), a newcomer to the town of Forks who just happens to fall ‘irrevocably in love’ with Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) - the local hottie who as it turns out, just happens to be a vampire.

Based on the best selling novel by Stephanie Meyer,

Choke STARRING: Sam Rockwell, Kathryn Alexander, Teodorina Bello, Kate Blumberg DIRECTOR: Clark Gregg RATING: R18 RUNNING TIME: 92 min STUDIO: Fox Searchlight RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

With both films originating from books penned by cut author Chuck Palahniuk, comparisons between Choke and the David Fincher-directed Fight Club seem fairly inevitable. In such company Choke doesn’t hold up marvellously, but that’s largely because it’s striving for a totally different tone. Fight Club dove right into the dim grit of its material; Choke strives for a lighter look at similarly

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the movie adaptation of Twilight sheds a lot of the overly cheesy romantic undertones from the book (which is a good thing) and therefore is slightly more entertaining.

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson definitely have the chemistry going on and the supporting cast (including a cameo by the author herself) hold their own well enough with rival vampire James (Cam Gigandet) vaguely reminding us of what real vampires are supposed to be like.

Music featured by Muse (apparently, one of the author’s favourite bands) and two songs off the original soundtrack are also composed and played by Robert Pattinson (vampires have oodles of talent it seems, and not just for smelling out blood types). Catherine Hardwicke has done a great job taking the script from book to screen so it’s a pity to see she won’t be directing the follow-up movie ‘New Moon’ releasing in November this year.

Not a movie for the hardcore vamp fans but perhaps good for the teenagers in the house and the hopeless romantics who just happen to love vampires, like me...

disturbed matters.

Vic (the wonderful Sam Rockwell) is a hopeless sex addict, he’s taking measures to get help but isn’t above ditching Sexaholics Anonymous mid-meeting to go rut with a fellow 12-stepper. His perversions have made it difficult for Vic to function normally in society, forced to find demeaning work that doesn’t distinguish between the freaks, burnouts, and slackers; he works as a mascot at a colonial-era theme park.

For a reprobate Vic certainly is a busy guy. Between strapping up his long johns and dropping them again for anyone with a pulse, Vic spends his time at a nursing home, looking over his damaged mother (Angelica Huston), who has no idea who he is. He even manages to earn a little cash on the side running a scam in which

STARRING: Anessa Ramsey, Sahr Ngaujah, AJ Bowen, Suehyla El-Attar DIRECTOR: David Bruckner, Dan Bush RATING: R18 RUNNING TIME: 103 min STUDIO: Magnolia Films RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

The debut feature from a trio of directors, The Signal takes an experimental approach to the straightforward ‘panic in the streets’ genre films, tripping itself up with its own unconventional flourishes.

Split into three sections, the film tells the story of a town driven mad by a mysterious signal emanating from every television, radio, and telephone. Tracking a handful of survivors through the murderous chaos that ensues, each segment weaves a blood-drenched tale from a different character’s perspective.

The opening chapter is easily the strongest, playing the material fairly straight and setting up a compelling sense of paranoia and doom. Returning from an evening of extramarital entertainment, Mya finds her apartment building a scene of bloody turmoil, her neighbours and suspicious husband Lewis all strung out and violent after being infected by the mysterious signal. Surrounded by brutal, unprovoked killings, Mya flees in an attempt to leave the city with her lover, Ben. The second segment follows the unhinged Lewis as he chases his wife only to end up at a local New Year’s Eve party gone horribly wrong. Swinging from the gloomy anticipation of the first segment, chapter two becomes a cabaret of awkward gore comedy. As Lewis and his fellow partygoers slip further from reality the gross-out gags get more and more insane, it’s all amusing enough but really doesn’t hang well with the first section.

Part three takes a turn for the weird while we follow Mya’s lover Ben as he tries to track down his sweetheart, battle her murderously mad husband, and flee this city of insanity. Trying for equal parts suspense and black humour, the conclusion isn’t quite the head-trip it wants to be. Nothing is really resolved, the credits seem to roll simply because we’re out of time.

While the filmmaking trio certainly show promise with the project, they never manage to rope the unwieldy beast into a coherent whole. he visits a restaurant, pretends to choke, and is saved by a Good Samaritan who then feels compels to continue support the life they have saved by sending Vic sporadic checks.

This mad mix of addiction, deception, desperation, and insanity continually blur the edges of reality until Vic, along with the young doctor attending his mother, begins to believe he may by the product of an artificial insemination using the preserved semen of Jesus Christ himself. Much bizarre, raunchy hilarity ensues.

It’s not the hyper-masculine assault on modern societal values that Fight Club gave us, but the dark humour, giddy pace, and naughty sense of fun make Choke an easy, entertaining watch.

The Edge of Love STARRING: Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Simon Armstrong, Ben Batt, Geoffrey Beevers DIRECTOR: John Maybury RATING: M RUNNING TIME: 110 min STUDIO: Independent RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

A thoroughly unpleasant WWII-set romance of a kind, The Edge of Love squanders a talented cast to become a tonally confused mess. Recalling the debauched entanglements of the poet Dylan Thomas, the film seeks to glamorise charming excess while at the same probing meanly at genuine tragedy, and it just doesn’t fit well together at all.

The film opens as the glitzy Vera (Keira Knightley) serenades an underground bar as German bombers shell the British streets above. She would soon run into her beloved childhood friend Dylan (Matthew Rhys), now a career poet and famous drunk, and embark on a rather fraught relationship. The arrival of Dylan’s perennially flirty wife, Caitlin (Sienna Miller), and straight shooting soldier, William (Cillian Murphy) who also has eyes for Vera, com-

Let the Right One In STARRING: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl DIRECTOR: Tomas Alfredson RATING: R16 RUNNING TIME: 115 min STUDIO: Magnolia RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

Vampires are definitely back in vogue, with the likes of Twilight and True Blood bringing the bloodsuckers all sorts of mainstream exposure. Let the Right One In is also a vampire film, but one would hesitate to lump it in with such company, it may feature those creatures of the night but it’s a profoundly more affecting experience than the usual crosses and garlic fare.

The grim, pondering Swedish film is a veritable experiment in amoral atmosphere. The bleak visuals seldom move beyond washed-out greys and frosty blues, except for the occasional splash of deep black blood. In such a world it’s no wonder that 12-year-old Oskar is an unhappy young

pletes the sordid web.

The film starts off as a puzzling jaunt, the couples intermingle sordidly, most considerably comfortable with open relationships and general drunken tomfoolery. Things take a jarring turn for the maudlin, however, when William is shipped off to fight. The horrors of war, the agony of childbirth, the loneliness of unrequited love, the pain of infidelity, suddenly no one is having much fun anymore, least of all the audience.

Not helping matters is just how thoroughly unlikeable every last character is. While Thomas’s personal shortcomings are rather well known, the film fails to make him as roguishly charming as necessary to pull off such devilry without becoming loathsome. Similarly, the women whom fawn over him (for reasons we are never privy to) are made into passive sticklers for emotional torture. The only virtuous character in the bunch returns from war a shattered thug, making the whole production seem like an exercise in misery and futility.

The source material is compelling, those of the cast that aren’t brilliant at least make it up in beauty, and the director is a fairly well-regarded captain; there’s really no reason The Edge of Love should have turned out so dull.

man. Bullied at school, ignored by separated parents, the alienated young man is desperate for companionship and revenge; two aspects neatly provided by his new neighbour Eli, a pale young girl who only comes out at night.

Eli’s deep-set eyes and ice-cold skin hold a secret that is as obvious to outsider Oskar as it is to the audience, but what isn’t so predictable is the warm, strange relationship that the two strike up. Eli is as far from normal as is possible to be, not only is she not exactly human but, as she constantly tells Oskar, she’s not a girl either. But it’s that transgressive nature that speaks to the desperate, pre-pubescent loner; unable to deal with the world alone and not yet consumed by sexual desire, each is the other’s salvation.

While this is a vampire love story, the film makes no apologies for the vampire’s nature. Eli must kill and drink blood to survive, and she does so without reservation. She is a monster, but through Oskar’s damaged little eyes that couldn’t matter less, and so too does it eventually ceases to mater to the audience. Let the Right One in is a hypnotically memorable experience.

Samurai Jack: Season Two STARRING: Phil LaMarr, Mako, Kevin Michael Richardson (Voices) CREATOR: Genndy Tartakovsky RATING: PG RUNNING TIME: Season 2 STUDIO: Cartoon Network RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Samurai epic is easily one of the most significant animated projects of recent years. The time-displaced quest of Samurai Jack is an enchanting and exhilarating watch for animation fans of all ages and regions. A deft blend of minimalist style, rhythmic action, and a huge bibliography of sly references make for an eminently entertaining, deceptively rich television show.

Season 2 sees Jack, as ever, traipsing through the remnants of a ravaged future, searching for a way to return to his home in the past. The series isn’t really set up so that he progresses in any way, but rather Jack wanders like an aimless ronin, helping innocents and fighting tyranny in whatever form he may find it.

This season contains some of the best episodes of the show’s run, and even its weaker entries are more stylish and bold than most shows offer at their peak.

One of the coolest traits of the series is the way that certain episodes will appropriate a particular genre, style, or period, such as when Jack helps an army of Greeklooking warriors battle a legion of mechanical minotaurs.

Feeding a rough vase painting style through the show’s spares futuristic look makes for some wonderfully sublime visuals.

While the show definitely knows how to do stylised action, from intense duels to raging battles, it also has its lighter moments. The comic Scotsman returns this season, this time with a horrible bride in need of rescuing. Jack’s deadpan reactions to the bawdy couples’ squawking is just priceless. The humour, like the action, is cadenced and never gratuitous.

Some episodes of Season 2 even take a more experimental tack to their structure; one sees Jack at the centre of three fable-like short stories, while another has him plunged down a rabbit hole into a psychedelic wonderland of weirdness.

It’s a great season of a wonderful show, if you can’t find something to like here then you’re probably a little bit dead inside.

The Quiet Earth STARRING: Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Pete Smith DIRECTOR: Geoff Murphy RATING: M RUNNING TIME: 91 min STUDIO: Cinepro RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

Australia STARRING: Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Bryan Brown, David Wenham DIRECTOR: Baz Luhrmann RATING: M RUNNING TIME: 165 min STUDIO: Twentieth Century Fox RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Julie Gray

Hugh Jackman definitely has the Hollywood leading-man act down pat. And joined by fellow Australian Nicole Kidman, Australia is not quite a love story, not quite a war story nor is it an expose on the rights of the indigenous Aboriginal people. In fact, it’s pretty hard to pinpoint exactly what Australia is but then again, Baz Luhrmann never was one for straightforward love stories. He effectively reinvented the timeless Romeo and Juliet for the modern age, which became a blockbuster hit.

Perhaps Nicole Kidman is Baz Luhurmann’s secret muse, I’m not sure, but whatever he did with the photography and close-ups, it all looked just a little too perfect and unrealistic. Nicole and Hugh would have been great except for the major issue of having absolutely no chem-

istry what-so-ever. Don’t get me wrong, they deliver their roles as individuals fantastically (Nicole’s English accent is divine) but as lovers onscreen - it’s a snore fest, I’m afraid. You’d get more fun out of watching paint dry. And Hugh Jackman really looked like he was struggling to get the waterworks flowing in some of the more emotional scenes.

The addition of the mythical and mysterious Aboriginal theme was however a great highlight, especially during the scenes focused on the ancient Aboriginal tradition of ‘Walkabout’. I don’t know a whole lot about the ‘Stolen Generations’ of the Aboriginal people (of which Australia briefly exposes us to), but I think Baz did a great job on this aspect and it helped to give the movie a lot more depth and substance when it would otherwise have fallen flat.

If you’re looking for a love story that will bring tears to your eyes, there are better movies out there. For the female fans though, we get to see Hugh as a true Aussie bloke, complete with whip and hat and a nasty, nasty David Wenham. The Aussie bad boy makes a comeback - ooer!

Hair High STARRING: Eric Gilliland, Sarah Silverman, Dermot Mulroney, David Carradine (Voices) DIRECTOR: Bill Plympton RATING: TBA RUNNING TIME: 78 min STUDIO: Independent RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

Cartoonist Bill Plympton turns his Rock ‘n’ Roll ugly animation style loose on 1950’s American teen culture with hair High, an odd take on young love. Plympton’s toons, as seen on The Edge, MTV, and Liquid Television, have always been more style than substance and stretching one to feature-length puts undue stress on a non-existent plot.

The film is framed as a cursory tale told by a sagely old soda jerk to a feuding couple on the way to their prom; he insists that they delay their social passage in order to hear his tale of misbegotten teenage amour.

Spud is the new, slightly dorky kid at school who unwittingly makes things very hard for himself when he insults the king and queen of the schoolyard, cheerleader Cherri

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Unavailable here for far too long, this 1985 New Zealand classic finally gets a richly deserved DVD release.

The Quiet Earth belongs to New Zealand’s golden age of cinema from the late 70s through the mid-80s, and stands to this day as the best Science Fiction film produced on these shores.

Directed by veteran Geoff Murphy and starring the inimitable Bruno Lawrence, The Quiet Earth takes the ‘man alone’ theme so prevalent in kiwi narrative to its disastrous conclusion. Scientist Zac Hobson wakes up one day to find that he is alone, everybody else has just inexplicably vanished.

Not of the soundest mental state to begin with, Zac embraces his newfound solitude by enacting his wildest fantasies. He loots everything he could possibly want, moves into the biggest, most fancy house in the city, indulges in reckless gunplay, confronts Jesus, and eventually declares himself God, President of the World.

When the madness of alienation begins to wear off, Zac decides to get down to the business of hunting for survivors and trying to figure out just what it was that cause his situation. He runs into two more warm bodies, the lovely if somewhat scatty Joanne, and the intimidating though spiritual Api. Together they form an emotionally volatile threesome, bent on making sense of the madness providing they don’t kill each other first.

Funny and harrowing, with slick production values and fantastic acting, The Quiet Earth shrugs off the limitations that usually hamper home-grown product, rising to match most other entries in the post-apocalyptic genre.

The Quiet Earth sits comfortably at the top of director Geoff Murphy’s output, even above classics like UTU and Goodbye Pork Pie and is probably the last truly great film from the late Bruno Lawrence, our Brando, a national treasure. and hulking motorhead Rod. Forced to become Cherri’s personal slave in order to atone for his rudeness or face horrendous violence at the hands of Rod and his greaser buddies, Spud’s school year gets off to a rocky start.

Initially repelled by each other, she with her dizziness and disregard for education, he with his thorough lack of machismo, the mismatched pair ends up spending more together than either would like, and inevitably those bitter feelings slide towards the sweet. This puts Spud in the middle of an intimidating love triangle that will have deadly consequences for the star-crossed lovers.

Plympton’s distinctive style, derived as much from budget restrictions as aesthetic intent, is unlikely to appeal to traditional animation fans, with its static backgrounds, jerky movement, ugly distortions, and a penchant for the abstract. Hardcore fans will be well served, however, and will likely find no problem in the trade-off of narrative, character, and dialogue for gross-out jokes, sexual shenanigans, and long-winded surrealism.

Hair High is a lot more cohesive than the creator’s previous efforts, but it’s still unlikely to seduce anyone not already well adjusted to such bizarre styling.

City of Ember STARRING: David Ryall, Ian McElhinney, Harry Treadaway, Bill Murray, Tim Robbins DIRECTOR: Gil Kenan RATING: PG RUNNING TIME: 95 min STUDIO: Fox RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

Ever-advancing film technology has brought Jeanne Duprau’s post-apocalyptic young adult’s novel to vibrant life on the big screen. Heavily dependent on CGI effects to facilitate the lavish subterranean setting, Ember leans too heavily on its visual crutch to do the energetic story justice.

With life as we know it about to end in nuclear flippancy, the great minds of science and engineering concoct a plan to ensure mankind’s continued existence; deep below the earth’s surface a giant city will safeguard our species’ few survivors. It was planned that each generation would inherit the secrets of Ember locked away in a box and, after a safe period of 200 years, follow these instructions back to the surface. Over time, however, the important directives are lost and corrupt officials lead the City of Ember down a path of certain doom.

The majestically glowing lights of Ember begin to falter after 200 years of illumination, the city’s amazing generator is about to give up the ghost. Most citizens are placated by their glutinous Mayor’s head-in-the-sand proclamations, but a couple of obligatorily plucky teenagers aren’t so easily sedated. Having reached the age at which their careers are assigned both Doon and Lina are privy to glimpses of Ember’s bigger picture, and they don’t like what they see.

When their warnings of impending disaster fall on deaf adult ears and their insistence that salvation lies of the surface written off as madness the pair take matters into their own hands, vowing to unlock the sweeping mechanical puzzle that is Ember.

The film’s message of self determination and sagely assurance that youngsters shouldn’t be afraid to tear down ignorant old traditions is welcome, but one gets the feeling (having not read the book) that the novel probably makes its case much more poignantly. The film gets too caught up in its own visual wonderment, which is spectacular, to worry about trivial things like character development, resulting in an exciting but forgettable theme park ride.

Yes Man STARRING: Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Darby DIRECTOR: Peyton Reed RATING: M RUNNING TIME: 104 min STUDIO: Warner Brothers RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Julie Gray

Funny man Jim Carrey is back and as good as ever as a man who finds it hard to say yes to anything. When he is introduced to a seminar that features the fantastic Terence Stamp as the ‘Yes guru’, Jim’s character is suddenly transformed after saying ‘Yes’ to a homeless man looking for a ride home. The comedy is non-stop and although it won’t have you laughing in stitches throughout, it’s still pretty fun stuff.

Kiwi actor Rhys Darby (from Flight of the Conchords) is brilliant as Jim Carrey’s manager (that kiwi accent really helps to accentuate every scene he is in). Zooey Deschanel features as the love interest, which is the only part of the movie that probably could have been omitted without doing any real damage to the comedy. She’s cool and all that (and beautiful to boot) but I found the whole ‘looking for love’ thing a little humdrum.

Yes Man is true blue Jim Carrey comedy and it’s been a while since we’ve seen Jim in anything half decent. The supporting cast is great and the humour keeps things ticking over nicely. Take particular note of the scene with

Jim Carrey’s overly friendly elderly neighbour. Having to say ‘Yes’ to everything can have dire (and ridiculously funny) consequences.

Yes Man is not quite as funny as Ace Ventura Pet Detective or even Cable Guy but there’s no denying Jim’s ability to make you laugh. It’s still as solid as ever and is just the ticket if you’re looking for a funny movie night in.

Plus, any movie that features a kiwi actor as talented as Rhys Darby has to be a must-see!

My Name is Bruce STARRING: Bruce Campbell, Grace Thorsen, Taylor Sharpe, Ellen Sandweiss DIRECTOR: Bruce Campbell RATING: M RUNNING TIME: 86 min STUDIO: Independent RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

Bruce Campbell, legend of the B-Movie circuit, has crafted an irreverent, self-aware love letter to his fans, his seemingly shambolic career, and to low-budget trash in general with My Name is Bruce. Fans of Campbell flock to his films, even if it’s just a cameo role, regardless (or often because) of how bad they are. For that cult mob My Name is Bruce is a sure thing.

Playing a version of himself cultivated through myriad roles as an arrogant, pig-headed buffoon, Campbell portrays an aging genre film star whose best roles are behind him (and even they weren’t very good). One thing he’s not in danger of losing, however, is his annoyingly obsessive geek fan base; one of whom can think of no better defender of the people when his town falls prey to an ancient Chinese demon.

Kidnapped by his adoring fan, Bruce becomes the dopey town’s last hope, with his vast knowledge of (movie) villain slaying techniques. The actor, coming off a heavy bender, believes the setup to be an elaborate birthday prank pulled by his manager, but when the heads start flying it becomes all too apparent that the avenging spirit Guan-Di is deadly real.

Anyone who isn’t a Bruce Campbell fan will likely find the film totally bemusing. It’s characters are practically cartoons, the humour swings wildly from the witty banter to slapstick violence, one of the actors (Ted Raimi) clearly plays at least three different characters, and the plot doesn’t really try all that hard to make sense. And if you are a fan, that’s why you’ll love it.

Bruce isn’t exactly putting his best foot forward here, but one can’t help but admire the level of self-depreciation to which he stoops. In the hopes that it’s merely a pit stop on the road to Evil Dead 4, My Name is Bruce is worth a giggle but is definitely no substitute for the main event.

The Big Bang Theory: Season One STARRING: Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar CREATOR: Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady RATING: PG RUNNING TIME: Season One STUDIO: CBS RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

The realm of the television sitcom has become such a murky cess-pool that in order to stand out a show needs only show mere competency to seem like top shelf product. The Big bang Theory is such a show, filthy with the cheeseball conventions of the genre but marginally more clever, idiosyncratic, and intelligent than the rest. That meagre achievement is enough to make it one of the best American shows currently around.

The series revolves around two brilliant young physicists and the beauty who moves across the hall from them. Being archetypical nerds, Leonard and Sheldon

are socially hopeless but the allure of their new neighbour, Penny, sucks them in to awkward situations time and again. Not exactly a genre busting premise, but the show quickly allows the characters to be more than the cardboard cuts they so easily could have been.

One of the biggest steps forward the show makes is in letting the nerds really be nerds, something the geek fraternity should appreciate. They make tragic jokes about scientific theories, are forever spouting obscurely fanboyish references, and simply seem unafraid to alienate a large portion of the audience. Or perhaps the jokes work whether you get the background or not, either way it is hard to imagine the same person who gave us the abominable Two and a Half Men put this show together.

For everything the show does right, however, there are handfuls of sitcom conventions it can’t shake. While Leonard and Sheldon are more than just hapless dorks and Penny often breaks out of the dumb blond bombshell mould, second-stringers Koothrappali and Wolow-

itz are often the butt of broad, stupid racial stereotypes, never moving beyond the clichéd Indian and Jewish friend, respectively.

Following seasons will hopefully iron out the shows kinks, because the bits that work happily make the show more than just a guilty pleasure.

Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow STARRING: Noah Crawford, Brenna O’Brien, Aidan Drummond, Michael Adamthwaite (voices) DIRECTOR: Jay Oliva RATING: PG RUNNING TIME: 78 min STUDIO: Marvel RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

The Wave STARRING: Jürgen Vogel, Frederick Lau, Max Riemelt, Jennifer Ulrich DIRECTOR: Dennis Gansel RATING: M RUNNING TIME: 107 min STUDIO: Independent RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

A stern and dramatic look at the roots of fascism through the lens of a modern German High School, The Wave is a provocative and riveting piece of filmmaking. A talented young cast and deft screenplay seduce the audience into reconsidering how far society has come since the time of the Nazi’s, and whether or not it could all happen again.

High School teacher Rainer Wenger is an aging radical, beloved by his students for his unconventional approach to the job, and disliked by his fellow staff for the same reason. Come ‘Project Week’ at school, Wenger is disappointed that he can’t teach his favourite subject, Anarchy, but soon thinks of an interesting angle to take in his Autocracy class.

Usually laid back and friendly, Wenger’s students are

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surprised to be confronted by a changed man; demanding to be addressed as Mr. Wenger, insisting that people stand before speaking, and pedalling the mantra ‘strength through discipline’.

His class is told that they will be adopting their own uniform, white shirts and blue jeans, and the dangerously empowering effects of conformity soon begin to show. Setting themselves apart from other classes and bound by their membership in a club that is christened ‘The Wave’, Wenger’s little social experiment soon gains a threatening momentum of its own.

Vandalism, intimidation, and eventually violence break out as members of The Wave, now with their own special insignia and handshake, push things beyond what their teacher had in mind, forcing the conflicted educator to somehow put a stop to his runaway model of fascism before anyone gets seriously hurt.

The class’s slow slip into unthinking brutality on the back of what first seemed to be genuine empowerment is a fascinating process to watch. The film’s only significant fault is an overly dramatic conclusion, but with its point well and truly made the indulgence is easily forgiven.

Finding great success in translating their heroes to the big screen, Marvel have in recent years started releasing straight-to-DVD animated features starring their newly popular characters. Next Avengers is both the most ambitious to date, and also the most entertaining.

Alternate futures are a big hit with comic book fans; it’s fun to see younger characters grow up, older characters die, villains win, worlds destroyed, even if it’s just a ‘what if?’ scenario. That’s the direction Next Avengers takes, presupposing that all iconic members of the Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, et al., fell in battle, leaving their mantles to their offspring.

In this version of the future the human-hating android Ultron has defeated earth’s champions, killing most, and turned the world into a robot-run nightmare. There is one region secreted away from Ultron’s all-seeing surveillance however, an invisible bio-dome in the arctic where the offspring of the fallen heroes are raised in secret.

A series of mishaps lead to the dome and the young heroes being detected, setting them on an explosive collision course with their destiny, a final showdown with Ultron to avenge their parents deaths and free the world.

While the previous, more dubious animated features from Marvel were targeted at a mature audience, Next Avengers takes a more family friendly tack. The lead characters sport the big eyes and vague features of cutesy anime, and the action stays fairly clean despite all the allusions to death. However, the story is respectful of its roots, well paced, and will not bore an older audience.

Long-time Avengers fans will find plenty of off-hand references to geek out on, the animation is a league above previous efforts, and the material is broad enough to be enjoyed by young and old. All told, a solid effort.

Maximum Hi-Def Experience

Š 2009 Layout and Design Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not STARRING: Audrey Tautou, Samuel Le Bihan, Isabelle Carré, Clément Sibony DIRECTOR: Laetitia Colombani RATING: M RUNNING TIME: 92 min STUDIO: Independent RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

A none too subtle bait-and-switch, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not comes on like a quirky French romantic comedy but ends up somewhere much darker. The schizophrenic tone might be a little rough for some, but there’s no faulting the director’s attention to detail in the film’s clever, if not particularly meaningful, central twist.

The first thing the audience sees is Audrey Tautou’s cheeky pixie grin surrounded by a sea of roses and expectations are instantly carried back to the feather-light romance of Amélie. The film plays up these assumptions as happy-go-lucky art student Angelique bounces about her day, eager to see the man she so adores, dashing Doctor Loic.

Things get a little stickier when we learn that Loic is a married man, though Angelique’s love is such that she has no doubt he will leave her any day now.

Stickier still when we learn

that Loic’s wife is 5 months pregnant, perky Angelique begins to wither at what she sees as an insidious trap to keep the lovers apart.

Things get progressively worse for our heroine until she is reduced to considering suicide. A dark turn indeed, but the film isn’t done yet, at this point the narrative freezes and rewinds to the very beginning. The audience will now see the story again from Dr. Loic’s perspective; I shouldn’t spoil the result but suffice to say that from there the film gets really nasty.

Tautou is perfect for the romantically doomed lead, her onscreen persona is so connected to Amélie that the audience sympathises with her instantly, which only makes her gradual degradation all the more surprising and effective.

In the end, however, despite how technically sound the film’s big reveal is, there’s really nothing else on offer but a peek at some a-grade insanity and misery.

The Square STARRING: David Roberts, Claire van der Boom, Joel Edgerton, Anthony Hayes DIRECTOR: Nash Edgerton, Joel Edgerton RATING: R16 RUNNING TIME: 105 min STUDIO: Independent RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

Wolverine and the X-Men: Season One STARRING: Steve Blum, Fred Tatasciore, Jim Ward, Gwendoline Yeo CREATOR: Marvel Animation RATING: PG RUNNING TIME: Season One STUDIO: Marvel Animation RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

Despite how the title screams out cheap tie-in, the latest X-Men animated series is a far more accomplished beast than Marvel Comic’s recent animation history would suggest. More akin to the adored 90’s animated show than the High School melodrama of the more recent X-Men: Evolution series, Wolverine and the X-Men hits that sweet spot that should appeal to comic purists and casual viewers alike.

The show manages to avoid retreading too much original material, instead starting out at a point where the XMen are already well established, only to have the team torn apart by tragedy. In the wake of a mysterious explosion that has claimed both Professor X and Jean Grey, the X-Men are dissolved, each of the mutants going their

36 view

separate ways.

One year later things are taking a turn for the ugly, the government is stepping up its hatful anti-mutant agenda and there’s nobody left to resist. The burden falls on a wayward Wolverine to try and reunite a dejected team under the leadership of a renegade that none of them trust all that much.

The series does a splendid job of juggling the forward momentum of an over-arching story line (which comic fans live for) with self-contained episodes that introduce the various faces of the Marvel universe. Many of the core concepts and relationships established throughout years of comics have been picked up, while others have been twisted in interesting ways to intrigue those that think they know what’s coming.

Crisp designs, smooth animation, and first-rate voice acting round out the quality production, it’s clear that a lot of effort has gone into making this more than just a quick cash-in on Wolverine’s current popularity (even if the marketing team have obviously had a pretty heavy say at the concept level).

Australia’s Edgerton brothers make an assured featurefilm debut with The Square, a nimble thriller with a nasty edge. A genre film without any of the usual Australiana baggage that mars films of this ilk, The Square stays dynamic and engaging while remaining firmly rooter in Film Noir-ish conventions.

Set in Suburban Sydney, the film probes a grimy underbelly below the surface of painfully ordinary life. Ray Yale is a construction supervisor, bored husband, illicit lover, and soon to be trouble-magnet. His lusty affair with lithe young Carla might be naughtiness on a Home and Away level, but the scale of trouble his affair eventually brings down upon his dull working class life would be enough to drive anyone mad.

Sick of Ray’s half-measure commitment to their affair, Carla takes matters into her own hands, spying an opportunity to steal her criminal boyfriend’s latest haul of misbegotten cash so that she and Ray can run away together. Stoic Ray reluctantly agrees to the plot, hiring an arsonist to cover their tracks. Unfortunately instances of greed, passion, betrayal, and good old fashion bad luck conspire to make Ray’s dalliance in crime as painful as possible.

With its self-aware approach to genre, revelry in brutal violence, and mischievous humour the flick is almost reminiscent of early Coen Brothers crime films. However the naturalistic aesthetic and unavoidable local inflection also lend the film a characteristic similar to the Outrageous Fortune series, a feeling that sits at odds with aspirations of Hollywood slickness.

It has been a good long while since Australia’s proud tradition of rebellious genre films subsided, but if The Square is indicative of what a revival might look like then bring it on. Acting, for the most part, was more than adequate, the story exuberant, and the direction confident; a fine contemporary crime film.

Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 STARRING: Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Blake Lively DIRECTOR: Sanaa Hamri RATING: PG RUNNING TIME: 117 min STUDIO: Warner Brothers RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

The Sisterhood have grown up a little since we last saw them; they’ve got new careers, new relationships, new dramas, and the same old pants. Having graduated High School the lovely young women are all heading in their own successful directions but distance, both emotional and geographical, might just tear the threadbare sorority apart.

The titular pants, as I’m sure we all remember, were picked up by the friends at a second-hand store and, when tried on, magically fit each girl perfectly despite differing body types. The ladies agreed to share these charmed trousers between each other over their summer break in order to reinforce the bond between them all, a tradition they still maintain years later for the sequel.

All four members of the Sisterhood are propelling their lives forward, some in a logical extension from the first film, such as Tibby graduating from student documentary to summer school script writing, whereas others have suddenly developed passions hitherto unmentioned, like Bridget going from soccer brat to dedicated archaeologist. Lena is still drawing pictures and falling timidly in love, and Carmen makes the transition from diligent stagehand to reticent leading lady of theatre.

The life lessons each of the women comes to learn are very much in line with the sort of struggles they came up against in Pants 1, though the original did a better job of keeping the drama interesting. That’s probably because it’s easier to make childhood growth engaging, there’s always that dark undercurrent seething just beneath soci-

etal approval, whereas the early 20’s often comes of as self-indulgent, Zach Braff-esque soul searching.

There’s some pretty glaring problems with the script, like Lena’s little sister Effie (previously unheard of) popping up at random points to artificially drive conflict, which is probably a result of hacking up three different books to produce the plot. It won’t win anyone over but fans of the first should be just as comforted by the sequel.

coming soon Female Agents Five French Servicewomen and resistance fighters are enlisted into British Special Ops at the dawning of D-Day. Their rescue mission turns out to include an assassination that test’s the women’s duty and ethics.

Historically interesting but ruined by a contrived screenplay.

The Shield: Season 5 One of the most intense, absorbing, and brutal television shows of recent times, The Shield just gets better and better. Season 5 sees Forest Whittaker join the cast at the start of a mega story arc that concludes with Season 6. Television at it’s very finest.

Igor A cute GGI flick about a stereotyped science assistant, Igor is a novel twist on the classic Frankenstein’s Monster story. While he’s relegated to assisting evil science, hunchbacked Igor dreams of becoming a successful mad scientist in his own right, and winning the annual Evil Science Fair.

Chrysalis

Smurfs 50th Anniversary Box Set STARRING: Don Messick, Lucille Bliss, Michael Bell, Hamilton Camp (Voices) CREATOR: Pierre Culliford RATING: PG RUNNING TIME: 52 Episodes STUDIO: Magna Pacific RELEASE DATE: New to retail REVIEWER: Adrian Hatwell

One of the most beloved children’s creations of all time, the Smurfs may only be three apples high but they have left a cultural footstep generations wide. While Belgium artist Peyo originally brought the little blue ones to life in a series of delightful comic books, it is the wonderful, longrunning animated series of the 80’s that truly ingratiated the Smurfs to the world a large.

This mammoth 9-Disc collection has been put together in celebration of the Smurfs’ 50th Anniversary, offering 52 classic episodes of the mischievous cartoon. We’re rather privileged to receive this Australasian box set, as it is the largest DVD collection of the show available anywhere in the world to date.

Anybody who grew up in or around the 80’s couldn’t help but be intimately familiar with the Smurf society.

Little blue forest dwellers, the Smurfs were prone to bold adventures and collective shenanigans. Living in harmony, each with their own talent or ability to offer the community, the Smurfs lived an almost communistic lifestyle in their wee village of mushroom houses.

It’s not easy being the little guy in a big world, especially not with pesky human villains like Gargamel forever getting in your face. Still, the Smurfs struggle on in their indefatigable way, under the guidance of wise old potionmixing Papa Smurf.

Re-watching these old episodes brings back a lot about Smurf life that I had forgotten: the village-wide crush on Smurfette, Vanity Smurf’s incredibly effeminate voice, that they fed off Smurfberries, just how freaking annoying Brain Smurf was, and the weird way in which all the female Smurfs were created through sorcery.

What I hadn’t forgotten, and what still holds up, is how sweet and fun the show was. I hate to sound trite, but they really don’t make them like this anymore.

An enterprising French sci-fi outing, Chrysalis delivers frantic action and impressive visuals at the cost of a coherent story. A tough guy cop is charged with ensuring a fancy piece of cybertech that downloads people’s memories doesn’t fall into the hands of future-thugs.

Too Tough To Die Just a few days before Johnny Ramone died a bunch of rock ‘n’ roll’s royalty put on a benefit gig celebrating the Ramones 30th anniversary to raise money for cancer research.

A touching doco, but nowhere near as essential as End of the Century.

Adulthood Following up the gutsy but clichéd Kidulthood, Adulthood sees young tough guy Sam released from prison after the violence of the first film, looking to find a place on the outside and settle things with those he hurt.

As gritty as the first with a little more heft.

Location, location, location…

The mobile games industry is growing. In 2008, there was a 17 per cent increase in the number of mobile games downloaded and, at the Mobile Games Forum in the UK earlier this year, it was estimated that the market itself would grow to $10bn by 2013.

There is much speculation about what the next big breakthrough in mobile gaming will be. Graphics and game-play remain high on developer’s priority lists, as does distribution. But, regardless of how aesthetically pleasing and accessible the games are, if the content of the game is not entertaining, stimulating or challenging to the player, they will quickly lose interest.

Without doubt, one of the next big innovations in the mobile games industry will be social location gaming. Your location and are sensitive to your surroundings, adapting to where you are. For example, it might mean that, if you are on a boating trip, the system will give you in-game activities that are linked to fishing or water sports.

A great example of how context-aware gaming can add considerable value to a game is ONE, an award winning First Party title for N-Gage. Here you battle to become the master in the city where you live. Through the social location capabilities, you can see your high scores in relation to other players who live in the same city, country or even continent!

On the technology front, you have technologies such as GPS which is the most reliable way to pinpoint your location.

A Gartner report in 2006 highlighted this former point as it estimated that 40% of handsets in 2010 will have GPS and this was before smart phones had started to break into the mainstream.

GPS used to be the USP of high-end handsets. Now it’s slowly becoming the norm and it brings something exciting and fresh to mobile gaming.

It’s important to highlight the fact that the sort of gaming we’re looking at isn’t just restricted to using GPS. Another big growth area could be using maps – something that gives social location gaming another dimension. The technology itself is there, it’s just a matter of writing those APIs and making them available and useful.

NEXT ISSUE Lookout for our coverage of Sony’s Infamous and Vivendi’s multiplatform Prototype – both of which feature characters in urban settings who inherit amazing powers and the ability to use them to do good or ill.

Other games to keep an eye on are BattleStations: Pacific for which we have a content heavy interview this very issue and Red Faction, the latest offering from Volition which is set during a rebellion on Mars and features quite literally an engine which allows anything to be destroyed – rather explosively!

We’re also please that finally we get to see a Ghostbusters game although platform owners for consoles other than the PlayStation 3 are going to have to hang tight. A publishing agreement between Sony and Atari has resulted in Ghostbusters being a timed exclusive to the PS3 console.

In any case the game itself is looking hot; hands-on input from Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd has confirmed.

Last but certainly not least we have a ton of E3 coverage planned for the July so be sure and check that out .

38 last word

More and more innovations will come from other internet services and device features being incorporated into new and existing games. For developers, location-based games will provide many different and exciting challenges.

The whole mobile games experience will definitely become more personal through social location – which makes games far more engaging, relevant, interesting and stimulating. There will be more sharing of content and UGC as a result which will lead to larger games communities. It is exciting to see the industry evolve, and now the technologies, innovations and capabilities are in place. It’s just a matter of finding the right opportunities and building on them. Ultimately, we want to ensure that all our games are friendly, fun and offer players a new experience that they’ll want to re-visit time and time again.

Jaakko Kaidesoja - Director of Games, Nokia

© 2009 THQ Inc. Developed by Volition, Inc. THQ, Volition, Inc., Red Faction: Guerrilla and their respective logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks, logos, and copyrights are property of their respective owners. “PlayStation”, “PLAYSTATION” and “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Games For Windows, the Windows Vista button, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft.

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M contains violence