Natural Selection 3.0 Trailer

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Trailer for Natural Selection.

¶ 6:59 PM //

The more we play Battlefield 2, the more familiar it seems. We had another chance to try our hand at the big-budget sequel on a recent visit to EA's Chertsey studios, and we're now even more convinced that Battlefield 2 is in fact Battlefield: Desert Combat with better graphics. If you're a fan of the popular Gulf War mod, this is great news; and if you've never played it before, you're in for a real treat. EA certainly has experience with big-license games, and although this isn't FIFA, the kits have certainly been updated to match the latest fixtures in the Middle East.

While it's too early to say whether Battlefield 2 might be too similar to previous games, the core gameplay of Battlefield 2 is identical to that of Battlefield 1942 and Desert Combat (BF: Vietnam being something of a tangent). Even new features such as the Commander mode, where one player from each team can view the battle from an overhead RTS perspective, don't fundamentally change the game.
Indeed, we've had a good crack at the Commander mode, and you're actually quite limited in how you can affect the battle. Sure, you can launch the occasional artillery round, but your most effective power is to issue orders to squad leaders. Knowing how cooperative online gamers tend to be, we can't help but think this is a feature only clan gamers will truly make the most of.

REAL PURDY
On the other hand though, there is one major difference: Battlefield 2 looks stunning. The custom graphics engine brings the game up to similar levels of detail as you see in offline shooters, which is extraordinary in a game of such scope. The new physics engine also makes for a far more interactive environment, though it does have to be a bit selective. Too many loose physics objects would bring your server to a standstill, while too many destructible items would allow players to lay waste to the carefully crafted levels. As it is, you can shoot through walls and blow up bridges, which is good enough for me.

SPANNERS AT THE READY
On top of this, the gameplay has been tweaked in a million places, tightening
up and balancing something that was already superb. So, you've got two new combat kits (spec ops and support), advanced weaponry such as heat-seeking missiles, a new sprint function and a new medal and rankings system.
What's more, a huge amount of effort has been put into encouraging teamplay and tactics, with a squad system, the aforementioned commander role and a small set of command options.

We were dubious at first as to the appeal of such a formal command structure, but after extended play, we're now totally convinced. For one, the fact that you can select your squad leader as a respawn point is a stroke of genius, and means that lone wolf players are at a serious disadvantage. On top of this, the communication functions in the game are excellent. Not only is voiceover IP built right into the engine, but the context-sensitive 'commo rose' - a radial pop-up command menu similar to Raven Shield - is set to improve team cooperation hugely.

But perhaps the biggest difference between Battlefield 2 and its predecessors lies in the new game environments. There are 12 of them in total, with three variations of each depending upon server settings - every map can shrink and grow to accommodate 16, 32 or 64 players. In previous incarnations, all the maps were pretty much of a kind. In 1942 they were mostly open, sparsely-treed affairs; in Vietnam they were typically dense jungle or swampland. Buildings were sparingly placed, with urban combat mostly avoided.

NOT LIKE THAT, LIKE THIS...
Battlefield 2 is a very different story. Not only are the new levels looking extremely tasty, the amount of variety has increased dramatically, with many new styles of play emerging. One of the Chinese levels is called Songhua Stalemate. It's a swampy, fog-shrouded affair with a foreshortened field of vision, which immediately determines the type of action you see. Vehicles are weighted towards small, fast vessels, encouraging swift infantry attacks over large-scale vehicular assaults, and sniping is out of the question.

Another map, Divided City, focuses on close-quarters urban combat within a heavily built-up area. There's a key hold-point in an exposed central square, and the importance of sniper cover and air support are immediately apparent.

Basically, the gameplay is going to be far broader - not to mention more tactical - than ever before, and this is where Battlefield 2 shows its strength. Desert Combat with better graphics it may be, but we all know this is exactly what the fans want. The resulting game, while not a revolution, can't fail to be great.

¶ 6:27 PM //

Computer&VideoGames is the latest site to preview the RTS Empire Earth 2, from Mad Doc Software:

Empire Earth II is the sequel to the excellent 2001 empire-building RTS, and is promising to improve on the original in, oh, at least 17 new ways. As we said in last month's mag, EEII has14 civilisations (including British, German, American, Aztec and Greek), each with unique units, spanning over 12,000 years from 10,000BC to well into the future - hence my excitement at stumbling onto the mechs in the city. Each map is divided into territories that can be acquired through diplomacy or war, enabling you to expand your military, economic and/or Imperial empire.

"Why are you playing that?" asks our bewildered editor when he casually glances across at my monitor and catches me deftly managing my gold and tin supplies with a few taps of the mouse. I may blather on about my macho leanings towards shooters that allow you to dismember enemies with an overpowering amount of brutal weaponry, but as Woods has now discovered, I'm also perfectly happy ruling over virtual kingdoms - especially ones that allow you to blow the shit out of large futuristic robots.

Empire Earth II is the sequel to the excellent 2001 empire-building RTS, and is promising to improve on the original in, oh, at least 17 new ways. As we said in last month's mag, EEII has14 civilisations (including British, German, American, Aztec and Greek), each with unique units, spanning over 12,000 years from 10,000BC to well into the future - hence my excitement at stumbling onto the mechs in the city. Each map is divided into territories that can be acquired through diplomacy or war, enabling you to expand your military, economic and/or Imperial empire.

The most obvious improvements when playing the new Empire Earth are the short-cuts that enable you to get to grips with your world much quicker and with less faffy micro-management. The Citizen Manager gives you unfettered access to your units (of which there are more than 270 in the game), so you can easily group them and, for example, move all the townsfolk from wood-collection to gold-digging in seconds.

ZOOM IN
Also, a new picture-in-picture feature (shown in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen) enables you to bookmark any unit, object or location in your empire and switch instantly between them, like having numerous interactive close-circuit TV cameras. You can now easily keep tabs on large areas of territory and even issue orders without having to zoom frantically around the main map.

Other major additions are the improved 3D graphics, weather conditions that can hamper operations, improved diplomacy for forming alliances (to be broken later at your convenience), and 'non-cheating AI' - basically the computer doesn't automatically know where you are and what resources, armies or firepower you have.

Meanwhile, single-player mode is broken up into entertaining campaigns and skirmishes, with 'turning points' such as WWII's Operation Overlord and scenarios that include the soon-to-be-famous USA Cyborg Insurrection of 2058. Multiplayer is included too, with the usual Deathmatch and King of the Hill modes accompanied by Quickstart, which is great if you're impatient to get on with the action. There's also Sole Survivor, where you can make alliances with other players, knowing that you're eventually going to have to screw them over to win the game - if you're a fan of Risk, you'll love this mode.

SHIP-SHAPE
With a few months to release, there are still a few bugs to iron out in this early code, including the quirky ship movement, which unfortunately turned my Normandy landings into a new Pearl Harbour. However, developer Mad Doc appears to be crafting a complex, yet hugely playable strategy epic that as well as giving you access to classic civilisations such as the Aztecs, puts your despotic finger on the nuclear trigger. And it has robots - did I mention that?

¶ 6:19 PM //

Valve meat popsicle Doug Lombardi sent over a note with news that the Day of Defeat: Source is approaching beta:

Day of Defeat: Source, Valve's World War II-themed multiplayer action game, is approaching beta and will be available early this spring via Steam. A team-based multiplayer game that cast players in the Axis vs. Allies battles of Western Europe circa 1944, Day of Defeat: Source leverages the power of the Source engine to introduce integrated physics simulation technology, all new audio, updated maps, enhanced effects and more. More information about Day of Defeat: Source will be released in the coming weeks.

Plus, a pair of snazzy screen shots:

(Click to Enlarge!)

¶ 6:18 PM //

As we know, they will make PS3 soon!

Japanese media reported on May 6th that the PS3 console is in development.

The goal is to make new processor technology, called "grid" about 200x faster than current console technology. This is almost achieving their original goal of making the PS3 1000(!) times faster than the PS2. This goal was publically set by Mr Okamoto, the Senior VP and Chief Technical Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, at the 2002 Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California.

¶ 6:12 PM //

SEGA Europe is set to publish NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005 this summer on PC/Mac, full of new features and revisions - many of which were influenced by feedback from fans of last year's Eastside Hockey title.

NHL EHM 2005 will feature more than 15 playable leagues with 3,200 teams and 32,000 players and staff - each listed in detail with more than 50 attributes. Developer Sports Interactive has also revamped the scouting aspect of the game allowing for player comparisons, talent reports and points projections.

In analysing player performance, SI has also implemented a "much requested" Hot Or Not report feature, as well as a new 2D snapshot view which reveals player positioning second-by-second. With all these tools you'll be able to command your own legion of padded puck-peddlers, trading players, signing free agents, drafting new talent at training camps, and even firing head coaches to appease the board when results don't go your way.

SI's own head coach (well, managing director) Miles Jacobson said the 2005 edition owed a lot to the fans. "We have listened to what they have had to say, and have reacted accordingly," he said. "The new look of the game makes it a lot easier to browse around, and the new features help make it an even fuller Hockey management experience."

For more on NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005, head over to www.sigames.com where they're profiling the game bit by bit.

¶ 6:05 PM //

For ages it seemed like Ubisoft was playing some elaborate practical joke on fans of the Tom Clancy games. On the one hand you had Splinter Cell, a game of such startling visual opulence its initial late 2002 arrival seemed to descend upon us a generation ahead of anything else, and on the other Ubi were busy chucking out Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six games so visually retarded they appeared to belong to the generation before. It probably says everything about how good Red Storm's efforts were in gameplay terms that even our inner graphics whore was forced to pipe down while we hugged them to our imaginary bosoms and cherished them for what they were. Beauty is often only pixel deep.

With the Ghost Recon series finally out of the fugly camp at last with last year's sequel getting the big thumbs up from us, that left only the Rainbow Six series due a butterfly-esque re-emergence. And so it has proved. It's like seeing all your badly dressed bouffant-haired best mates cropped, suited and booted for the first time. You always knew they had it in them, but finally witnessing it fills your heart with pride.

Paint a rainbow

Getting to grips with an almost fully-formed pre-release build was in the main a joy to behold and leaves us in no doubt that Ubisoft has one of spring's more exciting games on its hands. Not because it's doing necessarily anything magically different, you understand, but mainly because it's just a formula that works, that feels so right, and one that simply feels somewhat more satisfying than the typical first-person run and gun.

Unlike previous R6s, there appears to have been some real semblance of storyline attached to it. Even though Tom Clancy's name has been stapled to the series for seven years now (look! This bloke writes books! Buy our game based on his books!), it's hard to really recall there being an especially big effort in the past to engage gamers with anything other than some really quite forgettable pre-mission briefings and virtually no in-game character development. For gawd's sake, the only reason we knew that Ding Chavez was the lead character in any case was because of the timely hilarity of his surname. Undoubtedly conscience of this disparity, Red Storm now regularly reminds us who each character during load pauses, and loads up the game with much more in the way of scripted banter and so on.

The vastly improved game engine helps reinforce this as well, with each character fully recognisable facially and no longer a generic piece of cannon fodder with a name. Each sport their own identifiable uniform, talk to you in their own regional accent and appear to be far better animated than previously. All round it's a world of improvements, and one that extends to the general game world as well, with every element of the environment richly detailed. Crouch behind a car and wince as windows get shot out and individual bullet holes appear in the paintwork. It's hard not to be impressed - and this was the apparently inferior PS2 build.

Ding dong

Add to that a bunch of far superior cut-scenes that deliver a much greater sense of purpose than previously Spartan efforts of old and that's one area already that's a massive improvement. This time there's a sense that we're fighting against an organisation of mighty evil; in this case the Global Liberation Front, an organisation that blames the problems of the Third World on the developed nations. But they're not just pissed off and waving AKs around like bad boys, these bio-terrorists have a 100 per cent fatal and incurable bio chemical weapon at their disposal called Legion that effectively wipes out everyone in the vicinity. Fighting terrorism and rescuing hostages is one thing, but dealing with this lot is another. They want an end to all military occupation by First World nations, and the removal of all Third World debts. No compromises.

So, headed up by the Chavmeister himself, you go into one tense situation after another supported by - as ever - three elite soldiers all capable of looking after themselves. As before, you can tweak the arsenal at their disposal or take the recommended offerings and get going. The controls are modelled precisely on the previous versions with a few minor additions. So, for example, clicking your cursor on a destination will send your squad-mates scurrying forth to take up the best position of cover, or if you want to take the lead you can order them to hold, or hold down the command button and even mete out suppressing fire, with the ability to configure whether you want them to shoot in full auto, single shots or burst.

As ever, you'll be bursting through a lot of doors in Lockdown, and here there's a small tweak to the controls whereby you can order your squad-mates to approach them in a variety of ways. For example, as well as the ability to open doors normally, you can get them to kick them down (termed shotgun), as well as blast them open, not to mention lobbing frag or flash grenades after their grand entrance. But unlike before, whatever you decide has to be confirmed on your 'go code' by default, putting an end to those miscalculated attempts that you'd inevitably hastily command and be unable to backtrack on.

The path to greatness

In terms of the general character behaviour and AI, even at this unfinished stage everything works a treat. Not only do characters actually take care of themselves, never get in your way and can path-find better than probably any comparable game, they don't just sit there getting shot where you haven't given them a command and won't take commands if they're busy fighting for their lives at the time. We can only hope the enemy AI puts up less than a scripted fight than it normally does. Probably the one area R6 could improve is in the area of presenting more of an unpredictable challenge, and from the little we've seen so far this is still an area that hasn't been dealt with; it's still very much a case of learning the appearance of the baddies and working your way around based on that prior knowledge.

With the main single-player campaign shaping up very nicely, it's nice to know there are a bunch of other new modes that shore up the longevity, including a Silent Scope-inspired Sniper mode that has you acting as a sharpshooter tasked with taking out terrorists while protecting your squad-mates, who are busy running the gauntlet on the ground. Add to that a slick co-op mode that lets you play the campaign mode with a buddy, plus the usual online fun and thrills that tip this over the edge from being a might buy to a 'must buy' in our opinion. Even Halo 2, for all the hype of its online mastery, can't compete with the superb teamplay-based mode that allows you to tackle the full game together (the best way to play it if you can get adequately skilled players to enjoy it with you), as well as a plethora of other team-based and all-versus-all multiplayer; much like it was before in fact, with Team Rainbow versus Mercenaries Deathmatch, CTF (a.k.a Retrieval), the Xbox-only Assault (a.k.a. Conquest), Team Sharpshooter, and two platform specific modes: Team Rivalry (PS2 only) and Persistent Elite Creation Xbox-only). But more news on those when we get it.

On the downside, Red Storm seems determined to try and take the shine off the package with some more truly heinous Nu Metal dirge (a la The Warrior Within) making an unwelcome appearance in the soundtrack, not to mention some appalling voice acting that manages to pronounce Edinburgh "Edinbor-oh" like only tedious American tourists can. Someone kindly put these morons straight!

Throw away the key

But we jest (but with serious undertones). From our initial run through of three single-player levels, there's every reason to be excited about Lockdown. It's admittedly no gameplay revolution in terms of new ideas, (save for one new single-player mode) but it solidifies the huge potential of the previous versions, buffs it up and presents it as something far more in keeping with what we expected last time around. We look forward to getting to grips with the finished article in the coming weeks.

Rainbow Six: Lockdown is coming to the PS2 and Xbox on 25th March. Check back for a full review in the days leading up to release.

¶ 5:56 PM //

Order yours now from Simply Games.

There's nothing we can tell you about Champions League that you don't already know. But then, you know this. Anyone with half a brain will have mumbled over their pint, as soon as the game was announced by EA, "That'll be FIFA 2005 with half the teams taken out, then."

And you'd have been mostly right. But maybe the inevitability isn't so depressing after all.

Licensed EA products are good. There's no escaping it, and it's the reason the teetering giant of videogames publishing gets so many of them. FIFA is one of the biggest-selling games in the world: EA knows how to do this sort of thing. So, when it comes to making a game about the greatest cup competition on planet football, there really isn't that much of an alternative. If you want all the names, the strips, the stadiums and a thick veneer of professionalism cloying the whole thing like special sauce in the movies from t'internet that mother warned you about, then there's really only one place to look. And both the ref and his assistants agree that it isn't Codemasters.

EA already had Champions League waiting for release before the idea for the game itself was even conceived. Because it really is FIFA with loads of stuff taken out of it and a stultifying injection of UEFA branding. As you begin, the soaring, official music of the league washes out of the TV pulling on reminiscences of hundreds of children wobbling a huge piece of football-shaped cloth around on a football pitch, and a movie rolls focusing very blatantly on Henry and Beckham. We reckon that maybe, just maybe, the focus of the players will be different in different European countries. It's a radical concept.

Then the game. You already know what we're going to say. You're presented with choices of The Season, a quick match, a modes option which includes other league variations (which all amount to the same thing) and scenario football, Live play in the Xbox version, My Champions League (which lets you alter squads, tactics for separate players, music and so on), and a create-a-player section. Obviously, you bought UEFA Champions League because you want to play football in the UEFA Champions League. So you select The Season. Inevitably.

Before you start you're told that the difficulty setting you select will affect the bonus your manager receives should you crush Europe's finest and be crowned king of the continent. Big bonuses unlock big stuff. Onward.

Most of the teams from FIFA aren't included. Obviously. You get the choice of the English Premiership, France's Division 1, Germany's Bundesliga, Italy's Serie A, Spain's Primera, and... that's it. You could argue that it makes for a more streamlined experience, that all the teams you'd ever want to pick, all the important squads are included. But then, you could very easily counter with the fact that you can play UEFA with a copy of FIFA 2005, if you think about it. And still have the options of playing with all the other teams in FIFA's head-splitting pantheon of 350 sides. We'll leave the arguing for now.

You select you manager. You can create a new one if you feel like it, but this isn't necessary. Then scenarios are presented as gloss to the game itself, the first being "Winner Takes All", with a backdrop of a boardroom and a message from the club's owner to the manager. Objectives: "Win Match". Really? "Well, it's the last match of a long, hard season and it all comes down to this. Whichever team wins will takes the full Champions League qualifications places and for the future of this club, it needs to be us. I cannot stress how important is to our club to qualify for the Champions League. I wish the team luck."

It's a shame "our club" couldn't have been substituted with the name of the team. We mean, really.

So off you go. It's Arsenal against Newcastle. Instantly, the glitz that splattered FIFA like so much of the aforementioned gloop is flung at the screen. As you'd expect, UEFA looks amazing, and the commentary focuses on the manager's plight, the tension of the day. It's slick. The weather is summery, St James's Park packed to the gills. The game takes you there. And when the game begins, it's FIFA 2005. It's the same game, and this is no bad thing. Just to recap, FIFA isn't as good as Pro Evolution, but it's got all the right names. If you can imagine us saying this, we've got one finger on our nose and the other pointing directly at your face.

We could go on, but that really is pretty much it. You win the Champions League. That's the point. This is a slick, professional game made to allow those that dream of wearing a United number 9, flirting with Del Piero and dumping him with a quizzical expression in the midfield, then leasing a screaming shot from 30 yards to baffle the keeper, singe the net, reduce the Stadio Delle Alpi to chaos and take glory back to Manchester. It's a good game because FIFA is a good game, and EA produces licensed video game products better than anyone else in the world. But if you own FIFA you're buying it simply for the branding and the thrill of "being in" the Champions League, and your affair with it will be fleeting. As fleeting as the event itself, in reality.

UEFA Champions League is basically a story mode based on FIFA 2005. But then, you knew that already.

¶ 5:56 PM //

Publisher LucasArts has debuted a second title in a row at number one in the UK, with PS2 and Xbox military action title Mercenaries taking the top spot and knocking Knights of the Old Republic 2 down to number two.

Mercenaries also topped the PlayStation 2 chart, knocking Sega's Sonic Mega Collection Plus from poll position in that ranking, but it couldn't unseat KOTOR2 from its place on top of the Xbox ranking.

Capitalising on the school mid-term break here in the UK, THQ's The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie rose three places to number three, while former chart topper Sonic Mega Collection Plus dropped back a single place to number four.

In terms of other new releases, Namco's Ace Combat 5: Squadron Leader, published in the UK by Sony Computer Entertainment, was the highest ranked title aside from Mercenaries, coming in at number 12 in the all-formats chart.

Tecmo's Xbox Live enabled beat 'em up Dead or Alive Ultimate, published here by Microsoft, came in at number 19, managing a number three ranking in the Xbox chart, while Ubisoft's Settlers: Heritage of Kings (PC) came in at number 39, completing the line-up of new releases.

It was another poor week for Nintendo's GameCube, however, with top-ranked Cube title Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat failing to dent the top 40 ranking.

This Friday is a quiet one for UK retail, with Sega's Altered Beast and Konami's Suikoden IV (both PS2) joining Koei's Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends (PS2) and Nintendo's Mario Power Tennis (GC) in a slew of minor Japanese developed releases.

¶ 5:55 PM //

Currently we are making a new enhanced website for egamenews. But, that will be done later in the month. Now, we have made a temporary website just to have more information on egamenews and to promote the website to our new users.

Visit it HERE

¶ 8:09 AM //