Sony has updated the PlayStation Store today, with the Dark Sector demo and echochrome, the mind-boggling puzzle game, leading the way. Highlights include Karaoke Revolution songs, Rock Band Songs and an all new Kung-Fu Panda trailer. The full list of additions is available after the jump.

Downloadable Games

• echochrome ($9.99)

Add-on Game Content

• Rock Band
  • "Zero" - Smashing Pumpkins ($1.99)
  • "Time-Sick Son of a Grizzly Bear" - The Mother Hips ($1.99)
  • “Red Tandy” – The Mother Hips ($1.99)
• Karaoke Revolution presents: Americal Idol Encore downloadable songs ($1.49 each)

Game Demos (free)

• Dark Sector demo

Game Videos (free)

• echochrome trailer
• Battlefield Bad Company Redford Blog
• Kung-Fu Panda trailer
• Dead Space Announcement Trailer
• Turok - "Kane" Gameplay Trailer
• Turok - "Bring It" Gameplay Trailer
• NBA Ballers: Chosen One TV Spot
• Wyclef's "Fast Car" Music Video

PS3 Wallpaper

• echochrome wallpapers (x4)
• Kung Fu Panda wallpapers (x4)

PSP Wallpaper

• echochrome wallpapers (x4)

• Geo Panel – Is a group of stat altering elemental properties that are placed upon certain parts of the battlefields. When there are one or more colored square panels on the battle grid, it means an element can affect that area. The effect can boost or reduce your unit’s stats.
• Geo Cube – A new addition to the PSP version, Geo Cubes are magic items that add more depth to multiplayer battles. You can use the various Geo Cubes to enhance your abilities, summon monsters, or even attack your enemies with them.
• Demon Gadgets – Are randomly generated items that appear on the battlefield. By acquiring these gadgets, you can power your units up. Some demon gadgets can level your unit up by 30 levels at once.
• Transmigration – A form of reincarnation that allows you to start over from level 1, but your unit will grow stronger than before.

• All-New, Original Action Title – Built from the ground-up specifically for next-generation consoles, Dark Sector offers an original storyline that absorbs players in one of the most cinematic and emotionally-gripping 3rd person action game to date.
• Evolution Powers – After being exposed to a failed cold-war experiment, Hayden will physically evolve specialized superpowers that become more lethal and sophisticated over time.  
• The Glaive –– A bladed disc that grows out of Hayden’s infected hand, this weapon will be one of the key elements throughout the game.  The strength and versatility of this weapon make it truly unique and compelling.  
• It can be thrown at enemies with brutal results,
• Collect elements from the environment such as fire and electricity to use on enemies and interact with the world.  
• Contains a light source to be used in dark areas; can be used in conjunction with conventional weapons.  
• No HUD – Dark Sector removes traditional on-screen elements such as health bars and ammo meters, instead using the character himself as the HUD.  As the character takes damage he will begin to physically show it, ammunition levels will be displayed on guns, available weapons and inventory will be displayed on the character – all serving to keep the player focused on the character and the gameplay.
• Intuitive controls – Simplified and intuitive controls keep players immersed in the action freeing them to utilize their skills in targeting and eliminating enemies.
• Dynamic Camera – Dark Sector employs an over-the-shoulder 3rd person perspective giving the player a full view of the world around him, while also showing full visual of Hayden allowing for the player to make a connection with the character.
• Upgradeable Conventional Weapons – Beyond the evolution powers, Hayden will have an arsenal of conventional weapons at his disposal that can all be upgraded and made more powerful throughout the game.
• Intelligent AI – Players will employ special tactics while encountering new and different enemy combat tactics as the evolving AI communicate amongst themselves, take cover and offer realistic responses to player actions.  
• Compelling Main Character – Hayden Tenno is a cold-blooded, ruthless character who has superhero type powers and responsibility thrust upon him – a true anti-hero who makes no excuses for his actions.  Through the storyline, players will witness Hayden’s transformation into something more than he was, his fight against the powers taking over his body and the effects it has on his psyche.
• Innovative Multiplayer Component – Details to be revealed at a later date.

The game runs on an internally developed next-generation engine and features a "distinct blend of dark modern crime drama and supernatural horror with intense first-person non-linear gameplay". The Darkness casts players as mafia hitman Jackie Estacado, who is possessed by an "ancient demonic entity" that gives him supernatural powers - gifts the player uses to bring down the (fictional) Francetti mafia.

The Darkness videogame is currently slated to launch next winter, with a film also based on the comic series scheduled to release sometime in 2007.

Originally written by Shiva Stella]]> Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:45:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_untold_legends_dark_kingdom_ps3 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_untold_legends_dark_kingdom_ps3 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_untold_legends_dark_kingdom_ps3# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Brian Mohr.

Role-playing games have been a big part of Sony’s console success both in the United States and abroad for the PlayStation 2. They are hoping to continue that trend on the PlayStation 3 with one of the system’s first RPG’s, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom. Sony Online is very familiar with the hack and slash genre with hits like Everquest and Champions of Norrath. Does Sony have a hit in the making or is Untold Legends another run of the mill role-playing title?

Overall the story and game experience are solid. You go on a near 20 hour exploration in the land of Dureth. In the beginning you are given the chance to choose one of three fighters - the warrior, scout, or mage - and then you can choose to play in one of four levels of difficulty. Both the inclusion of three different characters and four difficulty levels does provide a nice variation in play and gives players the opportunity to go back, especially considering each fighter has a slightly different story to tell.

From there, you are chosen by the king to go out and extinguish the barbarian unrest by facing wave after wave of enemies. Soon enough though, you realize that the king himself is killing his own people and now it’s up to you to stop him.

Like most other RPG’s, the game allows you to level up by gaining experience and various orbs in a variety of colors. Red orbs are for health, blue for mana, and yellow for essence. As far as experience goes, killing enemies will boost your statistics which in turn can be used to level up one of nine spells included in the game. Meanwhile, essence is used at checkpoints to upgrade a wide variety of items for you including new armor, upgraded weapons, and more.

One other nice thing in the game, although very small is the fact that friendly fighters join your cause once in a while. The fighters include villagers, animals and more, and you actually have the ability to give them armor and weapons. The only thing with these characters, however, is that they don’t stay forever. They’ll show up on occasion and then disappear.

Of course, you can’t talk about Untold Legends without discussing a key fact about the title and that is online play. Dark Kingdom does allow gamers to play with up to four people from any save point they have in the single-player game and you can then continue your quest offline after you’re done playing with friends. Overall this was one area in which Sony’s developers did a very good job.

Finally, the score from the Prague Orchestra is a very nice compliment to the game. Sadly, the voice acting couldn’t live up to the same standards and seriously needs an overhaul.

The big problem with Untold Legends is once you actually get into battle. Whether you’re the warrior, scout, or mage, all of them basically require you to push X and square repeatedly to pull off various attacks. Sadly this is what the game mostly requires of you and even the magician or mage is quite capable of hand-to-hand combat. Thankfully though, Dark Kingdom doesn’t solely rely on fighting and instead does have a few puzzle solving elements too.

Aside from the repetitive hack and slash nature of the game, there are some serious flaws in the game and environments. Although there are lots of characters on-screen at times, the result of this is some significant slowdown. On top of that, environments are rarely interactive unless getting stuck on or in objects is your idea of interactive. Add to that the fact that load times are rather long for a next-generation title and there’s little question this title was rushed to market.

As for the graphics, they look ok, but the environments are sparse. Most levels feature a few rocks and barrels and then much of the rest of the area is wide open space. What gets worse than that is the fact that areas will actually look empty and then enemies magically appear from nowhere. Meanwhile, the camera in Untold Legends is pretty rough too. Walls, trees, rocks, and more will get in your way during battle and block your view of the action.

Sadly, the last thing that needs to be mentioned particularly for a PlayStation 3 launch title is the exclusion of the motion capability in the SIXAXIS controller. Unlike just about every other launch title on the market, Dark Kingdom doesn’t utilize it at all.

Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom isn’t a terrible experience on the PlayStation 3, but it certainly isn’t the role-playing game most are hoping for either. Instead, it’s probably more of a title for RPG fanatics as the game’s graphics and repetitive gameplay pull it down. Certainly there are some good elements to the game like its online play and various upgradeable options. In the end though, Untold Legends sticks to its roots and doesn’t quite feel like it’s made the jump to the next-generation.

The game has very repetitive hack and slash gameplay that utilizes just a few buttons.

Graphics look decent, but the game suffers from slowdown and a poor camera.

Voice acting isn’t very desirable, but the music score is very impressive

Not a very enjoyable experience because of the gameplay and the fact it doesn’t feel next-gen.

Online mode should give players a bit more to do, but still suffers from poor hack and slash.

]]> Tue, 05 Dec 2006 21:55:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/ahoy_a_boatload_of_new_ps3_screens http://www.gamebump.com/go/ahoy_a_boatload_of_new_ps3_screens http://www.gamebump.com/go/ahoy_a_boatload_of_new_ps3_screens# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.The original author is Evan Lahti.

Namco Bandai announced that their PlayStation Portable fighter, Tekken: Dark Resurrection has shipped to retailers.

The latest game in the series heads to the Sony handheld and features two new fighters in Lili and Dragunov. Classic characters are still included as well like Paul, Steve, Kazuya, Jin and Armor King. Tekken also looks to feature a variety of customizable items as well as various mini-games including Tekken Bowling. The game will feature wireless ad-hoc mode and ghost infrastructure mode which will allow you to upload your ghosts data character online to share with others in the network.]]> Tue, 25 Jul 2006 22:13:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_tekken_dark_resurrection_psp1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_tekken_dark_resurrection_psp1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_tekken_dark_resurrection_psp1# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

Ports have been the biggest theme ever since Sony’s little handheld was released. One of the larger fighting game franchises finally makes its PSP debut in Tekken: Dark Resurrection, a port of the latest arcade version of Tekken 5. And by the looks of things, fans of the series will not be disappointed. 

The first thing that needs to be addressed is the graphics. Simply put, Tekken: DR looks fantastic. It’s probably one of the most gorgeous games on the PSP. In fact, it almost looks like it belongs on the PS2. There are rumblings that there are some framerate hiccups resulting in some slowdown as well as some slight pixilation and aliasing problems, but word is that it doesn’t detract much, if at all, from the rest of the game. 

The sheer content found here is quite amazing. I mean they managed to squeeze everything from the Tekken 5 arcade game onto the small UMD – characters, backgrounds, music tracks, etc. You name it, and if it was in the original arcade version, it’s in Dark Resurrection. On top of that are the numerous game modes – quick battle, story battle, arcade battle, network, Tekken Dojo, attack, and practice. Quick battle and practice are your standard fare; and story mode, of course, let’s you follow each character’s individual stories. Playing through story mode opens up more modes and a bunch of extras, which I’ll touch on later. Now, let’s take a look at some of the more unique modes.

Arcade battle plays out like you’re at a virtual arcade; think about Street Fighter II on Xbox Live and its quarter battles, and you’ll have the basic idea, though sans the human controlled opponent on the other side. Instead, you face off against a random set of “ghosts”, or AI opponents. Sounds like a generic survival mode, but the ghosts all have their own names, skill levels, and playing styles. And after each match, you can choose from a list of potential challengers and their preference of characters. The kicker – if you choose to, the game can track and record your own fighting style and tendencies to create a ghost of you. Even better is the fact that you can exchange ghost data with others using the wireless connection so you can fight your friends while you’re playing a solo session. 

Sharing ghosts isn’t the only multiplayer option available, though Wi-Fi matches are not present. If both PSPs have a copy of DR then you can play ad hoc versus matches with everything that’s available in-game to the players. The single-disc game-sharing versus matches aren’t too shabby themselves. They offer the entire roster to both players, but the player who downloaded the game won’t have any music playing, and the number of backgrounds is severely limited. Not too bad with one-disc though, right?

We’ve already mention how much stuff Namco has shoved onto the disc, but what makes it even more insane is the amount of extras they piled on. There’s a theater mode that lets you check out each character’s prologue and ending movies as well as the main intro. You can also listen to the game’s soundtrack while in the theater. There are also a handful of minigames that are unlocked as you progress through the different game modes. Not much is known about what kind of games are included, but we do know that Tekken Bowling makes an appearance.

Oh and one last thing - the fact that the PSP’s button layout mimics the Dual Shock controller quite well will make Tekken vets feel right at home here. It will be a smooth transition from console to handheld. 

Beautiful graphics, loads of extras and bonuses, a healthy dose of multiplayer options, and with the overall tried and true Tekken gameplay intact, Tekken: Dark Resurrection has everything it needs to be a success. It really is a Tekken you can play on the go, taking the arcade game and shrinking it down to handheld size. Tekken fans will gobble this up, but even PSP-owning fighting game fans in general may want to think about dedicating some money and time into it.]]> Tue, 18 Jul 2006 22:19:07 -0500 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/big_toe_launches_dark_matter_for_pc http://www.gamebump.com/go/big_toe_launches_dark_matter_for_pc http://www.gamebump.com/go/big_toe_launches_dark_matter_for_pc# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

Big Toe, an independent game developer, has announced its release of Dark Matter for the PC. The game is a "visually stunning" top-down shooter remake that "tests your skills against some of the galaxy's most hostile environments."Key features:Campaign mode - 30 different intergalactic missions!Challenge Mode - Survive an endless enemy offensive and achieve a high score on the Top Gun leader board!Fend off asteroids and enemy ships with powerful weapon upgrades!Score Achievement Medals for outstanding gameplay!Supports Xbox 360 controller while in-game!

Included below is a gameplay video, and if you're interested in purchasing Dark Matter, you can head over to the company's official site to download a trial version or purchase (for $19.95).

divxMovie('http://files.gaminghorizon.com/DarkMatter3.divx',false);

]]> Tue, 16 May 2006 13:14:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/tenchu_ds_images_released http://www.gamebump.com/go/tenchu_ds_images_released http://www.gamebump.com/go/tenchu_ds_images_released# Mon, 15 May 2006 17:59:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_tenchu_dark_secret_ds1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_tenchu_dark_secret_ds1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_tenchu_dark_secret_ds1# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Evan Lahti.

One of the featured games at Nintendo's booth this week at E3 was Tenchu: Dark Shadows on the Nintendo DS. After getting our hands on some of the initial levels, we're ready to bring you the details on From Software's stealthy romp onto the handheld platform.

Following an opening screen, we see a list of menu options for the game before us, including a Kill Gallery, WiFi, Shop, Scrolls, and the main game itself. The Kill Gallery served as an inventory for the images that appear on the bottom screen when you execute a successful kill. The WiFi option, though we weren't able to check out multiplayer, mentioned the ability for players to sell items over wireless. At the shop, we could purchase a small set of items that were available, including bamboo spikes, a health-replenishing rice ball, a poison antidote, and a smoke bomb. Each of the objects carried different prices, and fit into separate inventory categories.

Stocking up on these items, I hopped into the first mission, “The Art of War,” selecting the silver-haired Rikimaru over the dual-dagger-wielding Ayame. A very basic level, the top screen was overgrown with bamboo trees and dense grass, while the bottom screen provided our map and inventory list. Many of the textures seemed blocky and on par with early PS1-titles, but framerate-wise the game moved along smoothly, albeit at the expense of the less-than detailed setting. The character models, while not the best we've seen on the DS, at least helped us tell the difference between our character and the enemies.

Moving through the undergrowth with my katana in hand, I noticed a triangular blip on the bottom screen -- a sentry, clad in kimono, moving in a rectangular patrol. Sneaking up behind him (actually running, as there wasn't a walk or crouch button to be found) and tapping the Y button unleashed my attack, taking the guard down. Seeing another enemy around the corner, I decided to try and use one of my items.

Getting ahead of the foe a little bit, I placed my bamboo spikes in line with his path, then ducked behind a nearby tree to watch. As the guard approached, the spikes shot up, impaling him instantly. It was a simple task, and the combat seemed pretty basic overall, but the use of different items should get more challenging as the levels become more complex in Dark Shadows. At the end of the stage, I was awarded points for Injury, Consecutive Kills, Endurance, and Secret.

Tenchu DS should be a worthy action and puzzle-based title for fans of the series and ninja-philes alike. The game's graphical quality left something to be desired, but if From Software can integrate depth and difficulty into the gameplay as the stages progress, Dark Shadows will be finding some light on gamers' DS' later this year.

]]> Thu, 11 May 2006 17:38:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/sony_announces_alone_in_the_dark_3 http://www.gamebump.com/go/sony_announces_alone_in_the_dark_3 http://www.gamebump.com/go/sony_announces_alone_in_the_dark_3# Alone in the Dark series, aptly titled Alone in the Dark 3, is being developed for the PlayStation 3 at Atari. We'll have more details as they're released. Originally written by Shiva Stella]]> Tue, 02 May 2006 20:45:00 -0500 Aaron Dunlap http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_syphon_filter_dark_mirror_psp http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_syphon_filter_dark_mirror_psp http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_syphon_filter_dark_mirror_psp# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

Syphon Filter has been around just as long as Metal Gear Solid and even longer than Splinter Cell – yet it never seems to get as much coverage as either of those two. Could that be, perhaps, that all the games in the Syphon Filter series have been pretty weak? The PlayStation titles were alright, if not watered down MGS copycats, but they had their moments. The previous attempt to bring the series back into the spotlight (The Omega Strain for the PS2) was a total mistake, so why are we here yet again – this time with a portable version?

I really don’t know why. It defies logic, but Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror for the PSP is actually a pretty good game. In fact, it’s probably the best action or stealth game on the system right now. I say probably so as not to offend the Splinter Cell fans.

The thing that most developers for the PSP seem to love to forget is that the PSP is not the PS2 - it is a Portable system (that’s what the P stands for… the second one) and should be treated as such. Long, flowing cutscenes or missions that go on and on without letting you save your progress are not suitable for a system designed for use while out and about and for making the other kids at school jealous. A PSP game should come in single-serving doses of gameplay that can be enjoyed at length for a car trip to grandma’s house or briefly while waiting for your Hot Pockets to cook in the microwave.

For this, Dark Mirror is great. Cutscenes are brief, yet well done; and the levels themselves are filled with enough action and intrigue but don’t go on for eternity without letting you save.

Don't mind the plot - there isn’t much of one. Terrorists want a virus, or they want to use a virus, or they want to make a virus; I don’t know, I’m basing that off of the running theme (and title) of the series. The game seems to know that you’re probably going to be skipping all the exposition and does a good job of letting you know what you’re supposed to be doing once the control is back in your hands.

Standard stealth-action fare ensues. Silenced pistols, thermal goggles, ladders, sniping, and that taser-of-death from the previous games (one of the few things I really liked from those games; a self-charging medium-range stun gun that you can use to knock out enemies or guards or just kill them outright by juicing them until they catch fire). The gameplay feels fluid enough as you progress, and small touches like aim-assistance really take a lot of the headache out of the game.

The game looks quite convincing too. It could be called either early-PS2 or late-late-PS One caliber graphics. There are some nice snow and other environmental effects to make the game seem that much more real.

Aside from the good (albeit short) single-player mode, there’s a wireless (online and ad hoc) multiplayer where up to 8 players can go postal – quietly – on each other. The game has one of the better-developed online components I’ve seen in a PSP title, including centralized leaderboards, clan support, and the ability to send in-game “e-mails” to other players. It’s like text messaging, except even harder to type and your dad won’t yell at you when the phone bill comes.

The lack of a second analog pad foils another control scheme. To make up for that, the default control scheme pulls one of those numbers where you use the face buttons to control direction and the little nub of a stick to control movement. That just doesn’t make sense to my brain, so I had to switch to an alternate control system which felt a lot more familiar, where the game stopped trying to pretend it was Splinter Cell and just mapped all degrees of movement to the stick. Most people seem to do likewise, so I don’t know why these 3D PSP games keep kidding themselves. Make the least-frustrating control scheme the default, please.

Even with the customized controls, you do start to feel like there’s too much to do and not enough buttons with which to do it.

Some of the sound design felt a bit off. It seems like whoever does the voice for Gabe always sounds goofy. Weapons and effects seem to miss their audible marks. One weapon shoots darts that you can detonate remotely; you’re told in training how powerful these explosives are, but they sound like bottle rockets. Other weapons sound watered-down too, which is out of place for a game with otherwise great sound engineering.

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror is very surprising. When I saw this game was coming, I was amused. When I saw I was assigned to review it, I was annoyed. I was not expecting such a well-presented game at all, but here it is. This could be the best Syphon Filter game, if not the best action game so far for the PSP. The depth is something out of a console game, but it’s tailored to the tiniest stitch to work best on a handheld – and it does.

Better than you could expect for the PSP, controls are a bit wonky though.

One of the best looking titles for the handheld market. Great characters and environments.

Good voice and scoring, some of the weapon effects are weak.

The control curve takes a bit of the fun from the initial experience.

Unlockables and such, but don’t miss out on the online mode. Yay e-mail!

]]> Tue, 04 Apr 2006 16:15:00 -0500 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_gekido_dark_angel_screens http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_gekido_dark_angel_screens http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_gekido_dark_angel_screens# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

If you were wondering what Rare had been doing for the past few years when they hadn't released nary a game for their new Microsoftian overlords since Grabbed by the Ghoulies in 2003, they were making games for a system that hadn't been invented yet, apparently.

Sorting through the Xbox 360's launch lineup, it's hard to avoid any Rareware without trying. But then why would you, when we've all been waiting for a followup to the Nintendo 64's Perfect Dark for five years.

As the coy "Zero" in the title might insinuate (probably not), Perfect Dark Zero is a prequel to the N64 classic, following Joanna Dark in her pre-super-secret agent days, through her early career with the Carrington Institute. 

For my thoughts about the single-player mission, see "The Bad & The Ugly". It's not all bad, mind you; it's just that the bad overshadows the good in memory. The graphics and sound are all top notch. At the very least, it's definitely the best-looking Perfect Dark game out there. That includes the GameBoy Color version, too (!).

It's sad, but for a followup to a game that was so centered on its arcing story, in Perfect Dark Zero you have to move past the story mode to see the real beauty.

While not the "Halo killer" people want it to be, Perfect Dark Zero is the best – if not only – multiplayer action experience on the Xbox 360 currently. Always a gem of gameplay, there's a co-op mode in which you and a friend (split screen, system link) or stranger (Xbox Live) can power through the story mode as partners, expanding the lonesome single-player mode into something of a bonding experience. With guns.

Even the standard multiplayer fare is pretty interesting. Beyond the classic deathmatch and team deathmatch modes (they're called “killcount” in this game. You know, for kids.), there are some objective-laden modes called “dark ops”. In them, teams compete against each other to perform various tasks like defending equipment while the other tries to destroy it, defending cargo while the other tries to steal it, or an "infected" mode that plays out like a zombie movie.

Killcount matches drop you into a small map with just a pistol; various other guns are scattered around the area on the floor, though sometimes just getting to them can be dangerous since the gameplay can get so frantic. Maps are all designed nicely so there aren’t any places you could hide without being found, and there are at least two routes to each location.

The dark ops matches operate differently. Before each round, you're given time to purchase guns and equipment through a menu screen; as the rounds progress you earn more credits by killing enemy players, allowing you to perhaps buy nicer guns in the next round.

Through it all, chatting is handled well through the headsets. When someone is talking, his name will flash across the side of the screen so you can tell who's being helpful, who's being annoying, and who's still on the south end of puberty. There is occasionally a bit of voice echo feedback, though that seems to happen in any game so is probably a design flaw and not a software oversight. People tend to turn their televisions so loud that they can't hear through the headset, so they turn up the headset so loud that the mic picks up the voices, echo, echo.

The game handles achievements rather nicely too, adding to your Xbox Live gamerscore as you improve your multiplayer ranking.

Much like other launch titles for the Xbox 360, Perfect Dark Zero seems to have lost a lot of flair for the sake of hitting shelves on time. The single-player campaign is just completely disconnected at times. From the very start, you have little to no idea who Joanna Dark is, absolutely no idea who she's working for, and why she's doing any of the life-threatening things she's doing.

The story is delivered via a handful of short and confusing cutscenes, with most of the real exposition being displayed in a briefing screen, PowerPoint style, while your next mission loads. This sucks any element of immersion into the plot bone dry. All you're left with is a gun and a few objectives, both of which can even be a bit confusing.

One of Perfect Dark's sparks of brilliance was how interesting the weapons were, each with a standard and secondary fire that just seeped with creativity. In PDZ, it would seem like they went too far trying to emulate themselves. Some of the guns have secondary modes that just don't make any sense, especially as the feature of a gun. For example, the falcon pistols made so famous in the first game are here given the secondary function of "firecracker", where an entire clip of ammunition is thrown away and the bullets all let loose in sequence (like a fire cracker), supposedly for use as a distraction. Clever? A bit. Fantastic waste of ammunition with little-to-no payoff? You bet.

Some weapons have secondary functions that are extremely useful, but just don't make sense as features of a gun. The assault shotgun's secondary function is to add a radar to your screen. Ok, maybe the gun has a radar screen on the stock or something. Then you get a fearsome little submachine gun that unloads bullets like easy-cheese, but the secondary function is to overlay your HUD with a viewfinder that will highlight all enemies in red and allies in blue (the same function of a pair of goggles you can acquire later). This function is extremely useful, especially in low-light, so much so that once I'd gotten the gun I rarely had that friend-or-foe indication disabled; but how on earth does holding a gun make your eyes start seeing the world in red or blue? Ok, maybe the gun has a pair of goggles tethered to it that you can slip on. No, when you look at yourself in third person, there's nothing on Jo's face. So... suspend your disbelief, I guess.

There's also a dandy little subcompact gun with an impressive rate of fire, and its secondary function is to project a holographic image of yourself a few feet in front of you, which mimics any movement or position you put yourself in. Ok, maybe if you turn that on and poke it around a corner, enemies will think that it's you and start shooting at it, exposing them so you can pop out and shoot them! Hmm, that never seems to work. Well, maybe if you're in a heated gun battle you could flip the hologram on so that enemies would be confused and shoot at it? No, that never works either. It is kind of cool though, having a hologram of yourself walking two feet in front of you; it lets you check out your own butt while still maintaining tactical awareness. Yeah, pretty sweet.

Suddenly, weapon choice becomes no longer about what might be the most useful and more about just assuming what you're most likely going to be finding the most ammo for. Honestly, once I'd found the gun with the friend-or-foe screen I never picked anything else. The decision was as deep as this: Am I going to be trying to be sneaky, or am I trying to be deadly? If sneaky, get the gun with the silencer and powerful scope; if deadly, get the gun that fires three hundred million rounds per second and makes any enemy stand out across the screen like an apple in a bushel of blueberries.

So moving past that confusion, often missions and objectives are totally unclear or contradictory. In the second mission, you're told to spy on some mob enforcer type people without causing a scene. In fact, your father even tells you, “That gun is for your protection, don't use it unless you need to”. Ok, you figure, it's one of those "no unnecessary bloodshed" style stealth missions. Then, not five feet from where you start the mission is a guard blocking your way. Sneak past him? No, he sees you. Kill him silently? No, the five hundred other guards notice and start shooting you. Knock him out? No, same story. So, fourteen seconds after the mission starts, it turns into your standard enemy-fortress scenario where everybody immediately knows you're bad and starts shooting at you, even though you're in a public place dressed as a (hot) civilian.

None of this is helped by the fact that until very late into the game, you really have no idea what's going on. It seems like Joanna is working for a group of mercenaries, mercenaries with outlandish budgets and consistently benevolent motives. If I hadn't played through Perfect Dark, I'd have even less of an idea what's going on. Stories that presume you've already gone through the story it's based on are no fun. There's no sense of situation, as in Perfect Dark where you start out in the Carrington Institute headquarters, running through training exercises and feeling like you know who you are and what you're doing before you're sent on a mission.

The training mission in Perfect Dark Zero is a boring infiltration mission into a dataDyne building where robot spiders go haywire and start attacking everybody, which later turns out to just be a VR simulation. Ok, maybe that's clever. Then later in the game, you have a real mission in the same building. That would be creative if you had to perhaps use your familiarity with the building from the VR to get through it in real life, or if there was a "Where'd this wall come from? Oh no! They must have remodeled since we programmed our VR system! We'll have to backtrack!" scene. No, they just shamelessly reused a map they made to save time. How would non-government mercenaries be able to recreate the insides of a secret corporate base, protected mainframes and all, with absolute precision, anyway?

If that's not enough, the game has a very clunky save/restore system. Some missions can be very lengthy, and if you happen to die after spending a half hour cutting through a level, you get to restore from the last checkpoint. That would be cool, if they actually had checkpoints. I can only remember one time through the whole game where I died and didn't have to re-do the entire level. If you hit a checkpoint and leave the game, however, the checkpoint is void and you get to start all over again. In that respect, you're forced to break up your gameplay time into missions, so you can't go join your friends at the mall until you've finished the mission, or you could just pause the game and turn off the TV – something we had to do with our NES games eighteen years ago. It's strange, too, as Kameo (another Rare game) has a pretty smart auto-save system where the game is saved anytime you do anything of significance whatsoever. Open a door? Game saves. Break open a box with a lot of floating crap in it? Game saves. Yet in PDZ, you can roll through 40 minutes of a level with a body-count in the triple digits, and lose it all if lightning strikes. As the missions become longer, more boring, and more redundantly redundant, the question, "Why bother?" began to echo louder and louder in my head as I hovered over the "retry mission" button.

As good as the Xbox Live gameplay can be, it would have been pretty easy for me to just assume that there wasn't any. For days and days I would try the "quickmatch" features, which just pick a hosted game at random and throws you into it (standard Xbox Live fare), and every single time it would say "connecting..." then I'd get a "connection to the game was lost" message. It happened without fail, so I assumed that the servers were down for maintenance or something. Finally, I went through the process of manually searching for games, and there were hundreds that I could hop on with no delays or errors. 

I don't know what it is about Perfect Dark games, but I can never get the controls to feel right. Goldeneye on the N64 controlled well, but something always felt off about Perfect Dark's. Now, on the 360, Call of Duty 2 controls absolutely brilliantly yet for all the tinkering with the options in PDZ, I could never get it to feel right. Maybe I'm just a dummy, but however I adjusted the sensitivity I always either felt like I was wagging the gun around like a garden hose or crawling through sand.

This game has to be graded on a curve. Yes, the single-player game is pretty disappointing, but the multiplayer gameplay is the best out there on the 360, so you have to give it props for pulling that off. The single-player mode is passable though, just not as great as you'd expect it to be, and handles with nowhere near the precision of Call of Duty 2. If you're an Xbox Live gunplay junkie, this game is for you. If you want something to match the story and immersion of Perfect Dark, you might not be impressed.

Easily the best multiplayer experience you'll find on the Xbox 360 to date.

Fancy new console, fancy new GPU, fancy new graphics.

Voiceacting has its highs and lows. Good soundtrack, great gun effects.

Sick to Xbox Live. Solo missions have their moments, but few and far between.

More difficulties for beating it, but the real draw is multiplayer.

]]> Tue, 03 Jan 2006 19:37:00 -0600 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_neopets_the_darkest_faerie_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_neopets_the_darkest_faerie_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_neopets_the_darkest_faerie_ps2# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

The pet/character simulation craze has received rather powerful support in the last few years, beginning with Tamagotchi (a portable virtual pet you raise into adulthood) and The Sims (people you care for like only a loving – or evil – mother/father could) and quickly followed by Nintendo’s Pokemon, the virtual pocket monsters that have rocked the videogame industry on more than one occasion. But while Pokemon essentially seized the day, another simulation craze was taking flight on the Internet, and this new pet simulation madness was termed “Neopets” – after strange fantasy creatures that live in Neopia. When Neopets first began the game was nothing more than an Internet adoption center for some cute artwork, sporting a few flash games that earned players points and a handful of shops that enabled Neopets owners to spend those points on items and gear for their virtual bundles of joy.

As you can imagine, the primitive Neopets game of yesteryear is now a bustling community stocked with decorative shops, dozens upon dozens of adoptable creature types, a plethora of flash and text-based games (including a PvP feature), and more special Neopets trinkets than the founders probably ever thought they’d have to draw, not to mention the actual merchandizing of the label – you’ve got your Neopets tops, plush dolls, and now, videogames, thanks to developing house Idol Minds. The company didn’t create a Neopets simulation title, though, and instead opted for an action/adventure game set in the fantastical land of Neopia, a world guided by magical faeries and dark prophecies. Neopets: The Darkest Faerie is a good (that is, playable) game by mediocre standards, but in comparison to any other decent action/adventure game on the market, it’ll dull you to the core. In a real videogame, cute characters can only take you so far.

Neopets: Darkest Faerie’s Neopia is a medieval land populated by Neopets, little fantastical creatures that feature dog breeds, dragons, several varieties of cat, and other “races” that appear the odd – though adorable – product of mixed animal breeding sprinkled with faerie dust and somehow involving a lot of beer. The game stars two characters, Tormund – Tor for short – the lupe (a dog creature, as the name implies) and Roberta the acara (a cat creature). Darkest Faerie is separated into four acts, with the first introducing Tor and typical gameplay mechanics, the second introducing Roberta, and the third and fourth unraveling the plot behind the Darkest Faerie’s intentions. The Darkest Faerie is the faerie of darkness, hatred, and spite (total surprise, right?) and has somehow freed herself from her watery tomb; now she’s back with a vengeance, and obviously the first and only thing on her mind is punishing the people who put her away for a thousand years and eventually ruling Neopia for eternity. Featured heavily in the Darkest Faerie’s plans are evil purple clouds that alter the minds of the Neopets, save two: Roberta and Tor, because they’ve been gifted with special amulets of protection. If this isn’t a typical, mundane storyline, I don’t know what it is.

And the typical, mundane plot is quickly followed by typical, mundane gameplay. Players – as either Tor or Roberta – can talk to other Neopets to obtain secondary quests akin to “retrieve the golden rose,” “save this character in the forest”, “kill these monsters”, and so forth. Tor’s quests involve knight training as he is a squire (and eventually a knight) and the primary character throughout most of the game, while Roberta’s quests involve matters of diplomacy and magic, as she is a budding sorceress and the niece of the king of Brightvale. As Tor, players learn basic gameplay mechanics – circle to attack, L1 to block, etc. – and master combat. The key to combat in Darkest Faerie concerns motes, small magical elements that you can attach to your clothing, shield, or sword/wand. You either purchase motes from a magic shop or collect them on the field, and each mote has a special elemental alignment that is supposed to be vitally important in everything you do, but isn’t. Opponents – other Neopets, giant weeds, and so on – have alignments too, though they’re usually not readily discernable. As in every game that utilizes elements, some are weaker/stronger to others, so if you want to do damage to a fire-based creature you’ll need to attach water to your weapon, and if you want to reflect damage from a fire-based creature you’ll need to attach fire to your shield.

In a slight twist, some of the areas feature actual puzzles or merely sections that require spontaneous thought, as when the evil faerie sisters chase Tor out of the castle, or when Roberta is trying to escape from the horrors of the “endless staircase” (here’s a free tip: observe the statues’ hands). None of the puzzles are intensely mind-boggling, so if you’re purely an action/adventure junkie whose answer to every problem is “swipe at it”, you should be okay.

Other than wandering around Neopia in search of stuff to kill, players travel and explore new kingdoms (most of the game is spent in Meridell) on the trail of anything to help them stop the Darkest Faerie. The environment has a classic old-world feel to it, and towns are populated by characters donning full battle armor or petite dresses befitting ladies of royalty. There are also basic games you’d find at a renaissance fair, like spin-the-wheel or the traditional obstacle course or battle arena, and the rounds sometimes give you major cash. For those used to stocking up on miscellaneous Neopet items, Darkest Faerie has several shops scattered about the countryside and secure inside town gates, and these shops enable players to buy health items, magic items, weapons, armor, and so forth. Most of the environs are lush green hillsides spotted by farms, bridges, and the occasional cliff or stream, but some areas host caves, deadly forests, or a fantastical castle floating on heavenly clouds. Areas are dotted by weeds, rocks, grass, and special colored grass, and most of these objects can be demolished for health/magic items and/or neopoints (finally, money does grow on trees).

Darkest Faerie does feature some prominent voiceacting, but it’s far from top-notch and barely breaks up the monotony of regular gameplay. Sound effects and other ambient noises, like footfall on the hillsides or the loud buzzing of towns people as you approach a kingdom’s base, are noticeable and provide an adequate backdrop to the game’s musical score, which is a mix of classical meets Europe pre-black death.

Despite the game’s mediocrity (and I’m using the term to describe the game’s best overall feature), there are a lot of aspects that keep Darkest Faerie from being anything more than a really decorative coaster. The game is quite boring, lifeless, and dull; there is zero level interactivity (swiping grass does not count) and absolutely no reason to play this game unless you like watching the CG cutscenes, which aren’t that entertaining or of a higher quality anyway – the CG scenes sport characters that look like clay-dolls from the Gumby era, though to be fair the gameplay will have you so bored that you’ll hardly notice, as you’ll be pleased to have anything break up the monotony.

I’ll admit that I’m what you’d call “navigationally challenged” – I get lost on the interstate, and you don’t even want to know how many hours I’ve wasted wandering throughout the lands in MMORPGs – but I do understand “get to the point marked on your map”. Darkest Faerie does have a map system and it does, on occasion, have marks; however, the maps show no marked connectors. You really don’t know where kingdom A is in relation to kingdom C, but you’ve got the spot you need to visit in kingdom C marked on kingdom C’s map. Pity you don’t know how to get to kingdom C without wasting an hour backtracking and looking for sign posts. Now that’s my idea of a good time. Of course, you can always just use the manual’s complimentary map, but you shouldn’t need a manual to figure out where the hell you’re going – that’s information supposed to be provided to you within the game, and the fact that it’s not is going to annoy some players.

Though enemies supposedly feature elemental alignments, besides fire and water (red and blue-colored monsters), you really aren’t sure which bad guy is aligned to which element. To make matters worse, you really don’t even need to know; swing, swing, swing even without an element attached is just as – and sometimes more – effective than wasting your time guessing which element the bad guy is by trying out five or six, and there are quire a few elements with strikingly similar color palettes. This becomes a serious problem when you’re facing flying monsters that toss plasma balls at you and you need to know which element to equip onto your shield so you can reflect the balls back at the baddies. You can just switch to Roberta and start zapping them from a distance, but any sensible player is going to spend five minutes with this game’s camera and Roberta’s aiming system and ultimately decide that it’s far easier to run home to daddy. The aiming system features a red circle that’s positioned above Roberta’s head (in the center of the screen), and as you turn the camera the reticule moves, or is supposed to move, to where you want it to go. This doesn’t happen; the camera “catches” or whatever you’re aiming the reticule at doesn’t get zapped. Sometimes you’ll even aim it at one position and the reticule will move in the opposite direction, making Roberta completely useless.

Camera problems don’t stop there. This thing doesn’t even go a full 360 degrees around your character – it hits 358 and then skips to begin circling again, which is very noticeable and annoying. The camera also has a tendency to lock on you or clip through Tor/Roberta’s head whenever you’re backed into a corner, and while we’re on the topic of errors and glitches, some of the enemies in Darkest Faerie actually disappear as they’re attacking you, only to reappear three seconds later. One moment you’re being sliced into tiny pieces, and the next – poof. Empty countryside, until you turn around and suddenly you’re surrounded. This is a very common error that I encountered in 1/3 of all my fights, and is complicated further by enemies clipping into the environment, where I can’t reach them but they can still reach me.

Continuing with weird graphical errors, there is absolutely no reason why a game as visually “intense” as Darkest Faerie should nearly freeze whenever you take a few steps. The game actually loads-up as you’re running, and again, this is a common and very annoying occurrence. There’s also no reason for why the game should lag with two opponents on-screen; there’s not that much magical flash going on, and the environs aren’t so detailed that you can make out every single pollutant in the air or speck of grass on the ground. There are also some audio catches and other audio errors; at one point my background music and character voices actually shut off, but ambient sounds – jumps, footsteps, weak sword swipes – still functioned. I had to reload the game to get back into the renaissance groove.

Finally, I also encountered some strange random errors that immediately ended my brief respite in Neopia, the last of which had menus cycling continuously – non-stop – in the middle of a battle, by themselves. You can bet that I haven’t turned this game on since.

Though I’m not a fan of Neopets, I’m not ashamed to say that I owned one or two (or three...) in the past, and thus am privy to the details and system mechanics that Idol Minds could have drawn on to create Darkest Faerie. It’s pleasing that the game wasn’t a simulation title (after all, we’ve got Neopets online for that), but as an action/adventure game, the strange errors, “catchy” camera, wasted time backtracking, and a weakened combat system land it flat on its face, and this is on top of the game’s incredibly boring plot and shallow character depth. It’s an average action/adventure game for the Neopets fan; everyone else is strongly discouraged from playing.

Flawed combat system, but the basic mechanics are (mostly) functional.

The clipping errors and camera problems are a nuisance, but the environs aren’t too bland.

Weak sword clatter and magical zapping noises. Decent musical score and voices.

Only if you seriously love Neopets or rough adventure games.

I can’t imagine the people who’d want to finish this thing.

]]> Sun, 01 Jan 2006 18:07:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/xtra_goodies_for_pokemon_xd_preorders http://www.gamebump.com/go/xtra_goodies_for_pokemon_xd_preorders http://www.gamebump.com/go/xtra_goodies_for_pokemon_xd_preorders# Gamers are already anticipating the first full-fledged console Pokemon RPG. Those who preorder the GC game, however, will receive a special vinyl skin featuring characters from Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness.

In addition, Nintendo says that it will release a GameCube bundle pack that will include the system, a controller, a copy of Pokemon XD, and a Limited Edition Pokemon XD face plate.

“We are ecstatic to be working with High Moon Studios on the Darkwatch product,” said Todd Thorson, director of marketing, Capcom Entertainment. “High Moon Studios has crafted a unique and immersive first person shooter which raises the bar for quality and will take the market by storm with its gripping story and intense fast action gameplay.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Capcom to bring Darkwatch to gamers,” said John Rowe, president and CEO of High Moon Studios, Inc. “Capcom has a sterling reputation for the caliber of products in their portfolio, and for their stellar job in establishing their properties in the marketplace. We could not have asked for a better partner to introduce Darkwatch and help confirm its place as a premier entertainment property.”

Darkwatch is scheduled to hit this fall.

The Castlevania series first made the leap to 3D with Lament of Innocence. While diehard fans thought it was a good attempt, many others panned it because it lacked the open-ended castle exploration and featured lackluster combat and environments. Fast forward a year and half later and Konami releases its second 3D game in the series, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. It offers some beefier combat options, the new innocent devil system, and some new places to explore. Unfortunately, some of the same problems that plagued Lament make their way into Curse as well.

In CoD, you aren’t in control of a Belmont, but of Hector. Hector is a former devil forgemaster who worked for the dark lord himself – Dracula - but betrayed him and abandoned his powers. However, years later, the love of his life is falsely mistaken for a witch and burned at the stake in a plot set up by an “old friend”. Thus, he seeks revenge against his old buddy Isaac, another devil forgemaster still loyal to ol’ Drac. To do so, he must travel to Dracula’s Castle and once again accept his powers as a devil forgemaster.

Being a devil forgemaster allows Hector to forge weapons as well as create creatures known as innocent devils. Creating new weapons and evolving your little pets is just as fun as killing monsters and exploring the countryside. Let’s dive into those two new and deep systems.

Lots of critics hated how boring and repetitive combat with Leon was in the previous game. And though the fighting here does essentially boil down to some button mashing, Hector now has a variety of weapons with which to slay monsters. And that brings us to the rather fun and deep weapons forging system. At any time, you can forge a new weapon if you have the available materials by using the forge option in the menu. There are a four different weapon types, armors, helmets, and accessories to forge, so there are plenty of items just waiting to be made. You can’t preview exactly what the item you’re about to make is, but newer items can only be created from existing items, thus newer swords can only be made from older swords and so on.

Though gathering materials to synthesize sounds bothersome, enemies are pretty generous when it comes to material drops. If they aren’t, however, you can always force the situation by attempting to steal – a new feature to the series. To steal, you’ll first need to acquire the ability, which you do fairly early. Once you have that in your possession, simply lock on to your target and hit circle when the target flashes purple. It’s a simple and easy process; just don’t try it in crowds because the ones you’re ignoring will pick away at your health rather quickly.

Innocent devils, or IDs, will become your best friends throughout the course of the game. Most gamers and fans of Castlevania will recognize these more as familiars. The IDs will help you out in battle by distracting enemies, chain attacking with you, or even healing and guarding Hector. You'll be able to issue commands to them, so they won't be off doing their own thing unless that's what you want them to do. The largest difference between IDs and the old familiars, however, is that you can evolve your ID and control that evolution. It’s a little like Pokemon – just substitute the cuddly pocket monsters with some gruesome hellish creatures.

Enemies will drop different colored Evo Crystals. The colors of the dropped crystals are determined by which weapon is used, which ties in very nicely with the weapon forging process. Swords will give red crystal drops; spears will give yellow, etc. You can track an ID’s particular progression with a map. The map tells you how many of what color crystals are needed for the ID’s next evolution. And don’t feel restricted to using one weapon to gain the evolution as some steps allow the use of more than just one colored crystal to achieve the next stage.

The Innocent Devils will also drop devil shards on occasion. If you take these devil shards to a shop and extract them, you’ll receive the base version of the ID that dropped the shard. Thus, if you’re unsatisfied with the current ID’s progression, you can start all over again.

Another item of note is that the presentation is fabulous. The cutscenes look great and what adds to their power is the outstanding work of the voice actors. The script was well-written with some medieval wordings and sentence structure thrown in to help convey that this takes place in the midst of that era. Those things together with the wonderful and natural delivery of the lines and another beautiful musical score form a recipe of aural bliss.

Gamers who have been fans of the series since day one will also love the fact that Curse of Darkness is essentially a direct sequel to fan-favorite Castlevania III. And while a Belmont isn’t in the starring role, expect to shriek with delight when Trevor Belmont first enters the screen. 

While Konami managed to add those two deep and refreshing systems, they also failed to address Lament of Innocence’s shortcomings.

The first of those shortcomings is the graphics. They aren’t terrible by any means; it’s just that they aren’t spectacular either. Hector’s character model is well detailed and smoothly animated, but there seem to be only a handful of enemies before you get to the palette-swapped versions of them. The biggest culprit, however, are the backgrounds and environment. Many fans of the first game complained that each room looked the same and that it was easy to get lost. Unfortunately, that’s the case here as well. What doesn’t help is that the map, which you’ll be using quite a lot, is buried in the status screen. An active on-screen mini-map would have alleviated part of this problem, but sadly there isn’t one. Having to bring up the menu to check out the map really brings down the pacing. The good news, however, is that CoD isn’t confined to a castle. You’ll find yourself fighting all across the countryside of Valachia, which is a nice change of pace.

Another one of LoI’s fallings was its repetitive combat. The same can be said here despite the new variety of weapons. One could bust through the entire game using the sword because it’s the most balanced of all the weapon types. The only reason why you’d use a different weapon is to control an ID’s evolution; even then, using the sword exclusively will still yield some impressive evolutions. In its defense, however, I do have this to say. Many have criticize the 3D Castlevania games as being repetitive in the sense that your attacks are the same and that you’re killing the same enemies over and over again. That said, aren’t the 2D Castlevania games the same thing? If that’s the case, then why is it that the 3D ones are so heavily ripped while the 2D versions are being praised as being some of the finest ever made? That’s like saying it sucks just because it’s 3D. Now, I’m not saying that this is on par with the great GBA games - Curse still has very linear progression compared to the more free-exploration castles first introduced in Symphony of the Night as well as a lesser variety of enemies - but if you’re comparing them based on just the fighting mechanics, then you could argue for days about this. But, I’m not trying to keep you here for days.

The last thing to pick on is Hector’s horribly slow running speed. He seriously looks like he’s jogging in place or at least running the wrong way on one of those moving walkways. Exploration has always been a big part of the series, and considering how expansive some of these levels can be, his gait can be very bothersome. Couple his slow running with all the pausing to view the map and the pacing of the game is brought down to almost a crawl.

Despite the fact that Konami failed to improve upon the thing that made Lament of Innocence a mediocre title, Curse of Darkness is still a decent game. The deep customizable options found in the weapon forging and innocent devil evolutions should keep Castlevania nuts and completionists busy for hours on end. Fans of the series will be both pleased and slightly disappointed at the same time with the second Castlevania game to hit the third dimension, but to the casual gamer, it will be nothing more than an average action title.

Repetitive combat. Weapon forging and ID systems are deep but can be made useless.

Suffers the same problem as the previous CV – bland environments in which it’s easy to get lost

Fantastic voice cast and soundtrack – just as I would expect from a Castlevania game.

Starts off on the right foot but then the problems add up and sap some of that initial joy.

Beating it once unlocks a harder difficulty and Trevor mode.

]]> Thu, 17 Nov 2005 11:26:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_perfect_dark_zero_3601 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_perfect_dark_zero_3601 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_perfect_dark_zero_3601# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Evan Lahti.

Perfect Dark Zero, the long-awaited sequel to the N64 Goldeneye 007 inspired original, has been hyped by Microsoft as being as significant to the Xbox 360 as Halo was to the original Xbox. Originally developed as a Gamecube title, it’s been adapted by Rare since they were bought outright by Microsoft as one of the Xbox 360’s premier launch titles. While original impressions of Perfect Dark Zero’s graphical prowess in May were universally grim, Rare has made significant visual improvements in the past few months.

The original Perfect Dark was a critical and sales success story, though failing to meet the record-breaking numbers achieved by its spiritual predecessor, Goldeneye 007. After five years in development for two different systems and being repeatedly told that this game is to be a next generation benchmark setter, fans’ expectations are high. No one minded trading the polygon iteration of James Bond for Joanna Dark, who is blatantly designed to look like videogame pin-up eye candy. In this prequel, which boasts more realistic curve and form technology, Joanna Dark is younger, and presumably hotter.

She’s also less experienced, the crux of Perfect Dark Zero being an origin narrative. Detailing how Joanna Dark came into contact with her employer the Carrington Institute, by the time the original Perfect Dark occurs, Joanna Dark is a trained clandestine agent who is renowned for her venerable skills in weaponry, unmatched agility with stealth-like movements, and ability to gather counter-intelligence. Her conflict with Carrington arch-emulator dataDyne begins here in Perfect Dark Zero.

One of the areas where Perfect Dark stood out from other console shooters was in the quality of its multiplayer mode which was directly taken from the Goldeneye 007 engine. Perfect Dark Zero is set to refine that experience with all new features. There is a green versus red theme that is utilized within all game modes, which means that all of your enemies regardless of team affiliation will appear in red while all of the players from your team will appear in green. If you capture an enemy vehicle, a la Halo, its attributed color will change from red to green as well.

Online rankings in Xbox Live will determine every player’s identity in a new character model. Hence if you are on a team as the highest-ranked player you’ll be playing as Joanna Dark herself, and if you are the lowest then you’ll probably take the form of a generic soldier. Will the #2 player on the team be a new sexy sidekick?

Due to development-time constraints, Rare has reluctantly made the decision to reduce the maximum amount of players in every death match from 50+ which was their original ambition to 32 simultaneous players per online death-match. If you’re like me, then once you’re past 16 players either the levels become too large to accommodate the added number of participants and the learning curve goes up or they become too crowded to implement serious strategies and de-evolve into skill-less shootouts. So I’m personally not crushed by this, but I imagine there are some diehard fans out there who are disappointed.

As in Goldeneye and Perfect Dark Zero, you’re not permitted to jump but will have the ability to dodge attacks by rolling instead. The AI bots that I thought were well-programmed in the original PD have returned, so if it’s just you and a buddy playing on Xbox Live or in person you could choose to add 30 bots and max out at the 32 limit. To ensure that annoying lag-times are kept to a minimum, Rare promises to implement a match-up system that pairs players with similar bandwidths who are looking to participate in random deathmatches. In what is becoming a standard use of Xbox Live technology, Rare is also implementing a rating system that records your stats (accuracy, kills, speed, etc.) during story-based/multiplayer modes and enables you to compare your rank against players internationally.

And in an Xbox Live addition so desired that just the mentioning of it deserves its own paragraph, Rare has added an online (and off-line) co-op mode to the roster of new gameplay features in Perfect Dark Zero. Rare has announced that if your partner gets clapped you’ll have to find him and bring him back to life, with health reductions on harder difficulty levels.

A single-player story-based campaign is the meat and bones of Perfect Dark Zero, as could be expected which follows the same level trajectory as the co-op mode which is naturally playable offline as well. With four difficulty levels a la Halo 2, Rare has dynamically designed every level to shift objectives depending on whether you play it on agent, secret agent, perfect agent, and dark agent (otherwise known in Halo 2 terms as legendary). Likely examples of palpable differences between difficulty levels are variable time requirements to complete goals and diverse routes through expansive terrain with hazards that correspond to the AI condition the player selects. The Hong Kong level design has been cited as a singular example of this feature; the storyline has you as Joanna progressing throughout the level while occasionally “pwning” bad guys who are trying to waste her pop, who is simultaneously fighting as an agent for the Carrington Institute. You’ll have the chance to experience the Hong Kong level in an entirely new perspective when you play as Joanna’s father in the co-op mode.

Joanna will be packing more heat than ever in her latest pre-adventure, with new weapons and old favorites returning. Her arsenal will be comprised of a Laptop Gun, RCP 90, Super Dragon, KSI 74, Magsac, and 20+ other weapons. The Psychosis gun which turns enemies into allies will no doubt become a renowned curse and a blessing to the Perfect Dark Zero hardcore. For those who crave speed, Rare isn’t going to disappoint. Available in both single-player and multiplayer modes will be hovercrafts, motorcycles, and a new jetpack that’s equipped with an infinite amount of automatic machine gun ammo. And as if Rare read my mind to mitigate some of my gripes with Halo 2, you’re capable of holding four weapons at a time.

To say that Perfect Dark Zero has surpassed the low-expectations that were fostered by the May build is an understatement; now this game will be held to the high-expectations of the Halo masses that will likely comprise the majority of Xbox 360 early adopters this fall. Rare has been developing this game for five years, an astonishingly long development cycle by any standard, which leads me to believe that these very capable developers have created a game with exemplary control and level design. However, it’s no secret that they’ve only possessed Xbox 360 final kits for a fraction of PD0’s total development time (and that Microsoft is actively looking for a Halo substitute to keep the FPS faithful satiated during the off-years between releases in their pre-eminent franchise).

While new screenshots and movies are encouraging, as a launch title Perfect Dark Zero must not only be an utmost example of gameplay but also a graphically mind-boggling hardware pusher in order to justify the purchase of an Xbox 360 now and sway the Nintendo and Sony faithful from holding out for the Revolution and PlayStation 3 - a feat that certainly looks possible.]]> Tue, 25 Oct 2005 07:57:33 -0500 Aaron Dunlap http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_darkwatch_xbox1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_darkwatch_xbox1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_darkwatch_xbox1# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

Just when you thought you’d seen everything, here’s a vampire cowboy killing zombies in the Wild West.

Convention is obviously not what High Moon Studios is looking for with their upcoming shooter for the PS2 and Xbox, Darkwatch. In it, you play the suspiciously-initialed Jericho Cross who was at one point in his life both alive and a cowboy, but at the beginning of the game trades in the part about being alive for being a vampire when he gets feasted on by some nasty Nosferatu against his will. Please note that in any work of fiction where the main character’s initials are J.C., he will invariably be forced to sacrifice himself to save someone or something with the realization to those around him that he could have been the salvation of the species, see Deus Ex and The Green Mile; so take your storyline hints from that pool of literary precedent.

After becoming a feed bag for a vampire with the munchies, Jericho decides to use his newfound vampiric abilities to fight against the undead rather than just conforming to the popular crowd. He is recruited by the secretive Darkwatch organization to fight the undead in style; they give him the skills and the fancy shootin’-gear and give him missions that should paramount with the destruction of the entire undead faction. Undead types in this game include – but are not limited to – vampires, zombies, monsters, skeletons, and vampire zombie monster skeletons.

Mr. Cross, being mostly a vampire and partly a cowboy, is not without a few impressive tricks. Aside from basic feats like his “vampire jump”, which performs sort of like your average videogame “double-jump” but is rationalized with the notion that vampires can float around all they want, and a sort of “vampire vision”, which allows him to see any undead baddy in the dark in the same fashion that Predator could see Arnold Schwarzenegger before he gave himself that mud bath, Jericho can earn points toward two different sets of powerful abilities. If he performs like a proper gentleman, saving innocents and the like, he will earn points toward “good-guy” powers like shields and weapon upgrades, but if he performs like a cowboy who turned into a vampire, killing innocents and, say, drinking their blood, he will earn “bad-guy” powers like a nasty mind trick he can pull on enemies, making them fight against their allies, or a frenzy power that temporarily upgrades your melee attacks from “ouchie” to “vicious”. This good cop/bad cop points system is well-integrated into the game without being too much of an interruption as it would be if being bad or good sent you on opposite story arcs or something RPG-ish like that.

What we’ve seen so far in Jericho’s arsenal has been pretty impressive. Most of the weapons that we’ve seen all come with sporty little blades attached to the handles for some painful melee attacks. FPS classics like the revolver pistol (and eventual dual pistols), crossbows, shotguns, sniper rifles, and giant-freaking-missile-launchers all appear (with some sweet modifications; the shotgun has  four barrels, for instance), but some unique and custom vampire-hunting weapons might come along to surprise you. You will also find some incendiary devices (bombs) to spice things up, like sticks of dynamite and some more interesting fare.

Darkwatch takes place in the old West, so expect to see some classic Western environs with a unique vampire twist, as well as some not-so-expected areas like snowy mountains and dark caves. Despite being mostly linear, the game does manage to offer a few refreshingly unique scenes and events to knock your undead socks off. Classic images like the spaghetti western downtown shootout become brand new when there are zombies lurching at you and vampire-types blasting at you from rooftops. There are even some scenes which take place on horseback, which we sadly didn’t get a chance to see, but hear wonderful things about.

The Xbox version of Darkwatch includes split-screen multiplayer modes as well as full featured Xbox Live support with up to 16 players per game. No dice for PlayStation 2 owners, but they should be used to that disappointment.



Darkwatch is, if nothing else, certainly not ho-hum. It’s got all the unique content you need for a blockbuster FPS title, but fancy guns and vampire teeth don’t automatically make a great game. Everything about a console shooter hinges on its controls and level design, and this is High Moon Studios’ first game so for a formal opinion you’ll have to wait for our full review when the game ships next month. Until then, we can tell you that Darkwatch is sure to be a game you’ll want to check out perhaps just for the unique twist on vampire and western lore.]]> Tue, 26 Jul 2005 15:49:54 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_arc_the_lad_end_of_darkness_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_arc_the_lad_end_of_darkness_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_arc_the_lad_end_of_darkness_ps2# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

Though the Arc the Lad series may not be as widely known as Final Fantasy, its fans are just as, if not more, rabid. The first three games in the series were strategy RPGs released on the PS One, whose stories wove together quite nicely. Two years ago, Namco and Cattle Call collaborated for the PlayStation 2’s Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, which takes place 1,000 years after the original trilogy. Namco and Cattle Call once again worked together to produce End of Darkness, which continues the trend of interwoven stories as this takes place a mere five years after Twilight. A lot has changed in End, more specifically the move from strategy to real-time combat and the addition of online play. But how will gamers take to the changes?



The story starts off with you in control of a young orphaned boy, Edda, who possesses exorcism powers that no one has seen in ages. He seems destined for much more than the tiny island life he currently knows. Some bad stuff goes down on the island, which leads Edda to leave the island to become a hunter and defeat the malademons that have been spotted throughout the world.

If playing the part of a hunter sounds familiar to Phantasy Star Online fans, then you could consider the system employed in End of Darkness almost nearly identical. A number of guilds are set up throughout the land. At these guilds you can take on counter tasks like exterminating a predator or protecting someone that citizens have sent in to the guild. Completing counter tasks is the only way to earn experience and money. There is another type of task, notice-board, that you can undertake. Notice-board tasks don’t pay out any money, but they do give you dignity points. To increase Edda’s hunter ranking, or “level”, you need 10 experience points and 10 dignity points. You’ll then be eligible to take a hunter exam that consists of a few different goals that must be met in a time limit. It’s an interesting twist to the experience points formula that some may take to while others won’t.

End of Darkness also introduces a card system that is the basis of all your equipment. Some cards increase attack and defense, some imbue different magic abilities, while others, known as gimmick cards, let you use tools and attack items during battle. The reason why everything is set up as cards is that the only way to get the best equipment in the game is to synthesize cards. To synthesize cards, you choose a cardist, select which two cards to synthesize and hope it produces a good combo.

The largest change to the entire series is the battle system. No more grid-based movement and turn-based attacks; everything is in real-time. The X button is a normal attack which can combo into a chain, but leaves your character open to a counterattack; circle unleashes a slower but more powerful attack. Up to four card abilities can be equipped and are available by holding R2 and hitting a face button. Doing so will use up card points, which is this game’s equivalent to MP.

What’s awesome is that you aren’t stuck to just using the main protagonist, Edda, for the most part. There are 24 playable characters from previous Arc games like Kharg and Darc from Twilight and the titular character himself, Arc. But you’ll need to find character cards scattered throughout the game and materialize them at card shops. These characters can only be used during counter tasks. Notice-board tasks are what usually drive the story and thus Edda must be used; the other characters bear no impact on the story, other than the other Twilight characters like Maru, Ganz, Paulette, and Tatjana at certain plot points. However, there is another place where you can use the other characters – online.

Online you can take a character of your choice (as long as he’s unlocked) and enter in cooperative tasks, or in 4x4 and 1x1 battle competitions. In cooperative tasks you’ll join up to three other players and tackle a mission. When creating a room the leader can choose from a large number of different tasks, though most of them fall under one of few umbrella categories such as elimination or protection. An 8-player battle royale is also available. If a free-for-all isn’t your thing then you can jump into the 4x4 team battles or go mano-a-mano in 1x1 fights.

Those of you who played Twilight will appreciate this game more than those who didn’t. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. When you get down to the nitty-gritty, End of Darkness feels a lot like Twilight of the Spirits 1.5. The overworld map in Twilight wasn’t all that much to begin with, and in End, it’s stripped down even more – five continents, five cities, and that’s it. Other parts of the continent are only accessible if a task takes place there. Beyond that you’re stuck with Yewbell, Dilzweld, Rueloon, Milmarna, and Sulfas. I know this takes place only five years later, but we could’ve used some different viewpoints to give the cities a refreshing look. Instead, we see the same exact cities and almost the same exact look.

That brings me to the graphics. On the whole, it looks just like Twilight. That game was never a graphical powerhouse, but two years later, not even a hint of a touch up leaves End of Darkness’ graphics underwhelming and entirely outdated. The audio didn’t make much of a transition either as all the areas still have the same music tracks as the previous Arc game. And an oddity in this Arc is the lack of voices. All the other games had voices and now all of a sudden there are none. There are voices in battles when the character pulls off a move, but it’s just one line and it grows tired quickly.

The story itself moves at a slow, tedious pace. And when it finally hits a crucial plot point, it throws it right out the window a couple missions later. The reason for this is the stilted progression of leveling up. Each notice-board mission gives five dignity points and you’ll only need 10 to level up. Thus, there aren’t that many notice-board task missions to complete before the end of the game comes creeping up from behind. Fifteen hours should get you there easily.

The online portion will lengthen the time you spend with the game, but not by much. The variety in missions isn’t all that great, and the in-battle action can become mind-numbingly boring. Most battles, off- or online, usually break down into mash X, run away, rush back in, mash X more, use special moves and magic occasionally. And in the versus competitions skill makes up about 20% of it while 40% involves the equipment setups and the other 40% is what character you used because there are some severe balance issues. Apparently, everyone wants to be a high-leveled Arc with Total Healing.

Lastly, the online community is rather small. I’ve only seen about 50 people at most online at once. With it being so small, it’s a nice tight little neighborhood online, but because the demand is so little, the fear of the servers being shut down soon runs rampant.



The Arc the Lad series had a reputation of a great series – the keyword is “had”. Many hardcore fans felt that Twilight of the Spirits was a travesty, but after getting ahold of this, they may rethink that. I, for one, will not say the game is a “black eye” in the series. But I went in with high expectations after thoroughly enjoying the previous entries, and after playing End of Darkness I am highly disappointed. The interesting card system and fun-for-a-while online mode can’t save the generic, arduous story and lackluster hack-and-slash battle system. If you aim low, then you’ll find an agreeable RPG; aim high, and you’ll end up sorely disgruntled.

Battling can get boring, but the card system is a nice twist.

Seemingly recycled graphics from 2002’s Twilight look very dated.

Same tracks from the previous Arc. No voiceacting, and the voices that are there get annoying.

Story unravels slowly, but online play is a great redeeming factor.

Online mode is fun for a little while; plenty of character cards to find/win.

]]> Tue, 28 Jun 2005 20:43:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_pokemon_xd_gale_of_darkness_ngc1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_pokemon_xd_gale_of_darkness_ngc1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_pokemon_xd_gale_of_darkness_ngc1# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Aaron Thomas.