News has arrived via 1up that Valve has announced that DLC for 360 and PC shooter Left 4 Dead is in the works, offering a new "Survival" mode, two new campaigns for Versus mode, and, if you're a PC gamer, the ability to create custom campaigns with the Source Software Development Kit.

In addition, a Critic's Choice Edition of the game will include the content and will arrive on store shelves around the time of the release. Prices for the content or what to expect from the new mode and campaigns aren't currently available, but we'll keep you updated.

1. Career Mode (Extremely realistic and challenging simulation for gamers and Deadliest Catch fans
2. Missions (Includes United States Coast Guard missions, ice flow navigation) 
3. Mini-Games (Allows casual gamers to enjoy fun crab boat challenges, including crab boat races and skiff races)
4. Five Authentic Crab Boats (including Northwestern and Cornelia Marie) 
5. Customize Your Own Boat 
6. 20 Real Fishermen (including Edgar and Norman Hansen, Josh and Jake Harris)
7. Five Authentic Captains (including Captains Sig Hansen, Phil Harris and Larry Hendricks)
8. 4,500 lines of recorded character dialogue
9. 1st Time United States Coast Guard in Video Game  
10. Captain the 370ft. USCG Cutter Mellon
11. Throw-the-Hook Mini-Game
12. Skiff Racing Mini-Game
13. 34,000 Miles Actual Coastline
14. Four real Bering Sea harbors (Akutan, Dutch Harbor, King Cove and St. Paul)
15. Virtual tour of the Northwestern crab boat
16. 100 exclusive crew videos 
17. Xbox Live multiplayer for up to eight players
    

Capcom has announced that they have sold more than one million copies of the zombie action title, Dead Rising.

The game originally released in August in the US followed by releases in Europe and Japan in September. Capcom attributes the success to "early embracing of next-generation development with an emphasis on high quality that has become a Capcom trademark, along with internal reforms to facilitate Capcom’s success in the global market." ]]> Wed, 10 Jan 2007 21:59:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/pirates_of_the_caribbean_shots http://www.gamebump.com/go/pirates_of_the_caribbean_shots http://www.gamebump.com/go/pirates_of_the_caribbean_shots# Wed, 28 Jun 2006 14:45:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/dead_or_alive_xtreme_2_at_e3 http://www.gamebump.com/go/dead_or_alive_xtreme_2_at_e3 http://www.gamebump.com/go/dead_or_alive_xtreme_2_at_e3#

E3 is scheduled for May 10 – 12 and Gaming Horizon will be there covering the show. We will have more as it develops.

Players partake in a series of camp events based on episodes from the show. Players will get to relive their favorite TV moments, controlling Jellybean campers Lazlo, Raj and Clam. Fans will also encounter other recognizable characters from the show including Scout Master Lumpus, Edward, Slinkman, the Dung Beetles and more.  The game offers players a wide variety of game types, each unique but similarly simple, fun and easy to master.

As Lazlo, Raj and Clam, three of the camp’s newest and most adventurous members, the player must compete in a variety of local challenges with and against their fellow camp mates to prove their abilities, before earning the right to represent their camp and take on the Squirrel Scouts in a final series of events.

• Play as all three of your favorite characters from the show, Lazlo, Raj, and Clam
• Interact with other characters from the show to get hints and directions in accomplishing game goals
• Experience dynamic and humorous dialog
• Collect hidden items throughout the camp for helpful hints and special bonuses
• Play a variety of entertaining mini-games
• Stage a competition between the Bean Scouts and the Squirrel Scouts
• Explore Camp Kidney in a fully navigable game environment
• Enjoy a variety of unique gameplay styles to enhance and extend the game experience

Ok folks, try to wrap you skulls around this: Resident Evil: Deadly Silence is a remake of Resident Evil for the Nintendo DS. Something that might interest you is that if you hack off the first letters from "Deadly Silence" you get "Resident Evil: DS". Isn't that cute? Because it's on the DS, and it's called DS. Weird how that always happens; like all those Nintendo 64 game titles that ended in "64" by sheer coincidence.

Do we really need to play through that zombie-ridden mansion again? Was it not enough that Resident Evil Zero was really good, must we go cross-eyed staring at two screens at once full of blocky graphics with the words "Barry. Where's Barry?" and "I'm Rebecca. Rebecca Chambers!" rattling around the darker corners of our brains until we all die of old age, natural disasters, or a corporate-developed weaponized virus?

The answer is, of course, yes. Capcom has yet again retooled their classic survival horror game, this time for portable consumption on the Nintendo DS.

Deadly Silence lurks into stores this week, but what do you get for your 35 bucks (besides a game cartridge just the right size to get sucked up by a vacuum cleaner or ingested by a cat)? Horror and survival, baby.

The game plays out mostly how you'd expect. The bottom screen is where the running and dying takes place, and the top screen is used to display the map, inventory screen, and a few deadly forms of miscellany. Don't expect graphics to blow you away, but they pull off the atmosphere we're all used to quite well.

The gimmicky features of the DS do not go unused here. In some parts of the game, the view will switch to first-person and you'll use the touch screen to control knife swings to ward off the approaching zombies. The microphone can be used to solve puzzles, avoid poison gas attacks, and blow your teammates – back to health! That's right, CPR isn't just for drowning victims; it apparently works just as well when your friends take one too many zombie bites to the face.

For once, a multiplayer mode exists that might not be altogether awful. Using the miracle of wireless connectivity, you can compete with friends in time-trials or try and kill the most zombies you can. There's even a co-op mode where you and a pal can crack puzzles, cap baddies, and escape the mansion together. Ah, bonding.

When looking at this title, the first thing that comes to mind is "tired re-hash". Since Resident Evil first came out a million years ago, we've seen countless reiterations just like this. There's no telling how it will be until we actually get our hands on it, but most likely this game will only appeal to RE fans who simply cannot get enough of that big spooky house in the outskirts of Racoon City.]]> Sun, 05 Feb 2006 17:39:50 -0600 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_resident_evil_ds_screens http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_resident_evil_ds_screens http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_resident_evil_ds_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.

Ratchet: Deadlocked is the latest installment in the famed Ratchet & Clank platformer series from developer Insomniac Games, and while it's got most of the bells and whistles that fans are accustomed to, it has also abandoned a lot of the platformer gameplay that defines the series. Preferring a sharply focused, third-person shooter to round out the PlayStation 2's last year, Insomniac has opted to strengthen the combat, foes, and weaponry to better suit the action, but while the mechanics were born for it and the weaponry just demands it, the presentation suffers because of it. The question really is: how much of the traditional Ratchet & Clank experience are you willing to give up for a funny, but slightly cut-and-pasted shooter?

Ratchet: Deadlocked utilizes a humorous storyline consistent with the series, though it is simplified: Ratchet, Clank, and his scientist buddy, Al, have been kidnapped by the “Vox Network” to appear on a holovision show called Dreadzone, which pits heroes from across the galaxy against menacing foes in gladiatorial combat. To keep Ratchet and his friends from trying anything “funny”, Gleeman Vox, the network’s president, has installed a collar on his contestants’ armor. If Ratchet should try to escape (or worse – become boring), the collar electrifies him or otherwise explodes, ending his Dreadzone career. It’s up to Ratchet’s “Team Darkstar” to raise ratings, destroy the holovision show, rescue the other captured heroes, and defeat Vox. And this time they do it without Clank.

Insomniac Games immediately makes up for that, however, by providing ten powerful weapons available through the vendors, including a vulcan cannon, scorpion flail, fusion rifle, and a mini-turret launcher. As fans would expect, the weapons gain experience from kills and level up from 1-10 rather quickly, becoming much more lethal in the process. As a bonus, Insomniac added alpha and omega gun modifications; alpha mods can increase a gun’s intensity/rounds or even add special effects, like health regeneration or more bolts rewarded upon an opponent’s death. Omega mods, which are much more useful and fun, are purchased from the vendors and attach to weapons, though you can’t have two omega mods on a single weapon at once. The omega mods are mostly elemental: you have the ice mod, which temporarily freezes enemies; the lava mod, which burns them; the electrical mod, which hops from enemy to enemy, shocking all foes on the field; and so on. The mods don’t make up for the less amount of weaponry, but they do add some variety to the killing.

As the game is presented as a show, it progresses via planetary episodes. Each episode has both required and optional challenges; the former is linear and serves as the plot for each planet while the latter acts as a bonus, providing varied as well as additional gameplay. Challenges range from surviving waves of foes in the arena or taking out a particular contestant to saving the audience from certain doom or killing opponents with only the weapons the audience chooses. A few challenges involve vehicles, of which there are four: the landstalker (which moves like a spider), hoverbike, puma (which resembles a small jeep), and hovership. In these stages players have to shoot appropriate targets, defend ally characters, and race for checkpoints. This gameplay setup enables you to speed through the stages at your leisure as well as avoid the bonus challenges you’d rather not do, like the hoverbike “races”. Completing challenges also grants you skill points, rank points, and bolts (the only useful reward). You can check your rankings, pick up some new weapons, or hop a ship to the battledome (main arena) from your base/prison whenever you like.

Because each stage of every episode is littered with enemies, Al has acquired two bot allies to perform menial tasks for Ratchet and serve as his support. The bots provide additional humor and, though worthless in the beginning, soon become powerful via modifications at Al’s section of the base, where you can adjust their color scheme or head style, or even upgrade their armor or weaponry. The bots become indispensable on the field, as they activate nodes (turn screws into the ground), provide force shields, shoot stray enemies, hack into distant computer networks, activate EMPs (a disabling device), and hold out grind cables to get Ratchet to the next area. They also follow direct commands, like “gather on me” or “revive”, and have a special command called “ravager” that has them instantly destroying all foes on-screen, which is cool as well as convenient.

Platform elements are dispersed throughout certain stages, usually consisting of timed jumps, some minimal climbing, boot-grinding on rails, or swinging via the grappling hook. Ratchet has a few gadgets at his disposal in Deadlocked, but they’re significantly less (and less often used) than in any of its predecessors. To accommodate this almost complete switch to third-person shooting, the camera has been adjusted to stay centered on Ratchet, though it still spins a full 360 degrees if you need it to. Now when Ratchet backs away from foes, he retreats several steps instead of turning around and running for the hills, enabling players to continue to shoot opponents even while they’re backing up or flipping about. Furthermore, each gun (except the scorpion flail) features a targeting mechanism that is always on-screen, aiding in shooting without a first-person view.

For some much-needed replay value, Insomniac added several modes beside the standard single-player campaign, along with adjusted difficulty levels (which you can switch any time by re-loading a save and making a difficulty selection). There’s a fun co-op mode that enables two players to go through the Dreadzone tournament together, though gamers lose their bots in the process. The game’s key feature, however, is its online play, which houses five game types: conquest, king of the hill, juggernaut (tag), capture the flag, and deathmatch. Hopping online brings you to the lobby, where you can modify a buddy list, join/manage a clan, view the rankings, find a game, create a game, or select “quick play” to instantly join any game of your chosen type. While online I didn’t encounter any lag, and there were always a variety of games for me to flip through (often you pick up a PS2 title and find only 10 people online at a time); the game is also compatible with the SOCOM/PS2 headset, which is a plus for team play.

The Ratchet & Clank series has always been pretty, and Deadlocked is no exception. The game sports great visuals with fluidly moving and detailed characters as well as detailed (though smaller) environments. Ratchet’s controls are very responsive, and his maneuvers feel very natural. He flips through the air, cycles between giant guns that all have their own special effects, and grinds railings or clambers up walls with ease. Levels feature lava areas, acid pools, bright green, glowing grapple orbs, thousands of stars in the sky during hovership stages, and ferocious explosions. Enemy design isn’t too intricate, but it does strike a nice balance between swarms of smaller enemies (aptly termed “swarmers”) and the big, stocky foes that cause Ratchet the most trouble. Cutscenes use in-game graphics like the rest of the Ratchet & Clank games, and are all quite humorous, though quick.

The game’s soundtrack is as good as ever, with non-distracting background music that supplements the intense action on-screen. Most of the audio comes from either the solid voiceacting – always a strongpoint of the series – or the sound of heavy, powerful guns blowing stuff up. I’ve got no complaints.

Despite all of Ratchet: Deadlocked’s good aspects, it’s still got some strange hindrances. The game has a cut-and-pasted feel to it due to its short bursts of cutscenes that only carry the story along at key points, ignoring the smooth transitioning that fans are accustomed to. Most of the plot progresses via audio when Clank/Al messages Ratchet to inform him that a new planet is available or to return to base for upgrading/entering the battledome, which players easily figure out for themselves. Fans may also be unhappy that the Clank character isn’t playable, although an “Alpha Clank” look-alike is available in the co-op mode.

Even with additional modes and online play, the game is still quite short, as you can fly through it in two-three days on normal mode and then be done with it; however, it does include some gameplay bonuses (additional gun mods) for completing it. The weapon/gadget selections, while adequate, house significantly less items than Deadlocked’s predecessors, which is disappointing considering its heavier combat focus. The game also has only a minor emphasis on platform elements, so if that’s your major preference in the Ratchet & Clank franchise, you might be deterred from picking Deadlocked up.

Some of the sound bites heard during the episodes, while funny at first, quickly become tiring. There's enough variety to avoid a lot of replays until a few planets through, after which time you'll hear a lot of the old "look at that lombax go!" and "oh no, his bots are down!" Riveting.

Finally, Deadlocked’s online play – while a pleasant feature – offers nothing that we haven’t seen before. By now I’ve played through thousands of deathmatch rounds and hundreds of games of tag. It’s not terribly addictive either, which adds to the feeling that the game is nothing more than an aside for the franchise – a last spin on the PlayStation 2 before the PlayStation 3 launches.

I really only consider Ratchet: Deadlocked as a bonus game in the series, but it's a great bonus game with a heavy combat emphasis and the same style of televised humor that the franchise is known for. Fans should definitely give it a try, although it does place less importance on platform gameplay and offers a more limited amount of weapons/gadgets. It’s got customizable bots, however, which sort of balances the game out, and if you tire of single-player/co-op play, you can always hop online for a few deathmatch rounds. It’s win/win.

A quick experience with a rushed feel, but great action. Love the bots and guns.

Visuals on-par with the rest of the series. Dynamic lighting, fluid motions, detailed environs

Great sound effects and the same techno/jazzy music we’re used to. Strong voiceovers.

You’ll enjoy yourself. A full co-op mode is a plus for those who never game alone.

A full online mode on top of co-op, but standard offerings means you won’t be hooked.

]]> Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:39:00 -0600 Aaron Dunlap http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_dead_or_alive_4_3601 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_dead_or_alive_4_3601 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_dead_or_alive_4_3601# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

The fighting game franchises specific to each game system are somewhat indicative of each system's philosophy or attitude. The GameCube's Super Smash Bros. series has a light-hearted exterior on top of savagely engaging gameplay; the PlayStation 2 has the Tekken lineup which seems to focus more on accessibility and control; and the Xbox's Dead or Alive franchise is, above everything else, really cool looking.

Not to speak ill of the fantastic gameplay in the DOA games, but the most obvious appeal of the Xbox 360's Dead or Alive 4 is how absolutely beautiful the graphics are. Environments have more detail than you could imagine, and characters move more realistically than we've seen in any fighting game. Perhaps the most marked graphical upgrade is how the fighters’ hair and clothing are modeled and rendered separately from their bodies, giving the characters a unique level of realism as they run, jump, and kick about.

Fans of the Dead or Alive series should feel right at home, as the game controls almost exactly like DOA Ultimate and DOA 3 with a few things tweaked and tightened for good measure. The added processing power of the system allows for even finer precision in controls and smoother transitions between animations.

The interactive and multi-leveled environments we’ve had a small taste of in previous games have been ramped up in this game. Opponents can be knocked through walls or off bridges, and when that happens your character will automatically leap down to watch the poor chump fall and then meet him at the bottom. As a character falls, you can see his health drop with each satisfying impact. Most of the game’s many, many arenas have either a break-through zone or an area that will do a great bit of damage like an electrified railing or spikes on the wall. Beyond that, different areas include many background effects that are worth the price on the box alone. One level has a whole troop of monkeys leaping around and reacting to the two crazy people fighting amongst them, and in areas where other people gather around to watch the fight, the bystanders root for specific fighters and flee like mice when you throw scantily-clad opponents at them.

Dead or Alive 4 features a standard versus mode, a story mode, and a full-fledged online mode featuring multiple lobbies with voice and text chat, tournaments, clans, and scoreboards. As one of the launch titles for the Xbox 360, it’s good to see Xbox Live support right from the get-go.

Overall, Dead or Alive 4 looks to be a sure-fire addition to the DOA franchise as well as the Xbox 360 lineup. Fans of the series will appreciate the improvements and first-timers will be blown away by the level of detail in the graphics and environments. Fighter fans looking for the perfect game to compliment their new Xbox should put DOA4 at the top of their wish-list.]]> Sat, 05 Nov 2005 23:25:50 -0600 Brian Mohr http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_ratchet_deadlocked_ps23 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_ratchet_deadlocked_ps23 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_ratchet_deadlocked_ps23# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

Insomniac Games is bringing back Ratchet and Clank in the title Ratchet: Deadlocked. We got our hands on a six-level demo of the game and from our experience it was pretty impressive; there’s much of the same wonderful platforming experience, but with some unique additions.

In this version of the game, Ratchet and Clank find themselves on a television series called Dreadlock. Our two heroes have been captured by Gleeman Vox, the media emperor who has captured them for ratings and holds their lives on the line with collars on their necks a la the movie Running Man. Ratchet and Clank must battle their way through various environments to get themselves out. 

From our experience with Deadlocked the gameplay is still very much intact which is obviously a good thing because the previous versions are some of the best platformers on the market. In the game, players can either use your usual wrench or one of a handful of guns which are all upgradeable as you use them throughout the game. Unique to this year’s game is that you can not only purchase other weapons, but also add upgrades, for example freeze, to very different types of guns which in turn makes each of them unique and different. Combat and weaponry is particularly more important in this version as you’re now battling it out in arenas and not doing much of the running, jumping except in battle sequences. 

Besides new weapons, Deadlocked features a handful of vehicles for players to cruise around in too. We were able to get our hands on just one of the vehicles in the game, the Landstalker which is a mechwarrior that can jump, move and shoot tremendous firepower in a short period of time. The vehicle does take a good bit of damage as well.

Each mission we went through seems to be a set of battles against various enemies. The battles are even more open-ended and developed as you’ll now have enemies surround you from the sky and ground. This makes the battles much more intense and keeps you moving throughout. Of course, you couldn’t fight the enemies alone and so the developers have a handful of bots that help alleviate some of the difficulty, but from our experience you’re still doing all the work. The good addition of the bots is that you can defend an area and get them to hack orbs or do other quests. Just like your own weapons, players can customize the bots weapons, skins and more.

Online play wasn’t available with the demo, but we were able to check out a nice new addition in cooperative play. This allows two players to play the same levels together and you’re instead without the assistance of the bots. It’s a good way to make a platformer a two-player experience and is a nice new direction for the genre. Beyond the actual two-player experience from the missions, they were all the same. 

Overall Ratchet: Deadlocked is set to be another impressive success for Insomniac Games when it releases this holiday season. With what is rumored to be a better online experience, a more open-ended experience, cooperative and multiplayer gameplay and better graphics, Deadlocked has made another huge step forward for not only the genre but also the series. ]]> Thu, 08 Sep 2005 23:25:00 -0500 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_dead_to_rights_reckoning_psp http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_dead_to_rights_reckoning_psp http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_dead_to_rights_reckoning_psp# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

Dead to Rights: Reckoning is Namco’s straightforward action game for the PSP, offering cinematic disarmament scenes and slow-motion dives as the basis for entertainment. It’s got a detective, an obedient dog, and lots of bad guys with big guns to care of. This may sound like a plain formula for success, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to screw up something this basic. Four words: repetitiveness, camera, and controls. You already know where this one’s going.



The story in Reckoning is just as plain as its gameplay formula. You’re Jack Slate, a typical cop, and you’ve just received a small photograph and a note informing you that if you don’t come to the local warehouse/biker hideout then the girl in the picture is going to die. Naturally you grab a gun and your favorite puppy and head to save the mysterious hostage that potentially doesn’t exist – am I right? Don’t ask me how it’s possible, but somehow the game’s storyline manages to connect everything together, even if it’s done shabbily.

As you’ll gather from the two-minute training level the first time you delve into the game, Reckoning is all about two actions: targeting and shooting. Thankfully the controls for this are simple, accurate, and functional. The analog stick maneuvers Jack around, the R button targets, the X button shoots, and the circle button disarms/opens doors. You can perform a normal dive via a tap of triangle, but you’ll have to hold the button down for the slow-motion variety; if you’re halfway through a slow-motion dive and are ready to pick up speed, merely press triangle again to return to normal. Of course Namco couldn’t let you take too much advantage of this special ability, so you can only use it when the adrenaline gauge has enough juice. The majority of this is pretty moot, though, as the bulk of the gameplay has you tapping R to switch between targets and then proceeding to pound the X button until Jack is the last man standing. You do this, presumably, so a green marker feels safe enough to display itself so you know where to go to hit the circle button for the next stretch of thugs.

Namco included Shadow, Slate’s lethal companion, to twist things up a bit. When targeting an opponent, press the square button and Shadow runs a man down, tackling him and then leaving him a bloody, broken mess. For a lovely cinematic touch, you can even toggle the camera around with the analog stick to get a more grisly view. To keep players from working the poor dog to death (and I certainly would), Namco also included a Shadow meter; you can’t summon man’s best friend until the meter is full and you hear him give a healthy bark. He’s an efficient, fun addition when you’re able to use him.

For interactivity, Namco scattered cars and barrels throughout each level. These can save a player a lot of trouble by merely shooting them when a bad guy is around; the explosions are just as deadly to you, however, so make sure you’re a safe distance back before you go barrel-happy.

I should probably mention the “cinematic” part of this action title as it’s the game’s key selling point. You get a short cutscene whenever Jack opens a door, kicks down a door, hits a door, shoulders a door, or flips a switch. For those who tire of the door variety, you get another cutscene when Jack disarms an opponent; essentially the world watches as Jack throws a guy down/grabs a guy and proceeds to shoot said guy with said guy’s own gun. Cruel, ironic, and bloody – just how gamers like it.

Foes come in one variety: a guy (biker, gangster, whatever) with a gun. Defeated enemies conveniently drop their weapons for Jack, which is a good thing because he likes to travel light. Namco offers a standard arsenal of weapons – a sawed-off shotgun, revolver, silenced pistol, pump shotgun, assault rifle, and then three SMG variants (light, silenced, and tactical). You can pair some of these up (i.e., dual-wield silenced pistols or revolvers) but for the most part you’ll be taking advantage of the shotgun. Thankfully the bad guys do have enough intelligence to take cover when someone’s firing at them; unfortunately, they don’t have enough intelligence to move or return fire when that someone is standing directly over them.

I lied to you when I stated that foes come in only one variety. There is another – the dreaded boss, which is basically a guy (or girl) with a bigger gun and better armor. These “bosses” run around the room while shooting at you as you run around the room while shooting at them; when the boss goes down the next green box pops up and it’s time to go. It’s a smidgen of excitement in this otherwise entirely boring adventure.

There are 12 levels to complete, each taking roughly two-three minutes, and completing the game the first time unlocks super-cop and normal challenge mode. You can have some multiplayer fun if you know anyone who’s easily entertained and persuaded to buy a copy. Assuming you don’t care about wasting your friend’s money (and if you work here you wouldn’t be), you can use the unlocked multiplayer skins and run around shooting at your “friend”. It’ll be a great (but bland) bonding experience.

Those explosions that I mentioned earlier are very nicely done; the few areas that sport fire offer a bright orange glow that helps illuminate the dark, gray world that is Jack’s. There aren’t any voiceovers to mention, but the guns sound like guns and Shadow...barks.

I hope you enjoyed all that nice stuff I mentioned up above, because here is where I ruin any thoughts you may have had about purchasing this game. Let’s start with the less noticeable.

Reckoning features an uninteresting, nonsense plot. How many cops do you know receive random notes of “come here or this girl dies”, actually listen, and then are displeased when bikers set their beers down just long enough to run outside and shoot at them for approaching their turf? Jack Slate himself is, ironically, a blank, expressionless, boring slate that (I’d bet money) speaks in a monotone and grimaces half the time he’s alive. What’s wrong with having a third-person action/shooter that features a character with depth? Metal Gear Solid did it. You can have an action title where players actually give a damn if the lead character (or another) dies. In Reckoning, however, there are only five “characters”, and one of them is a dog (and no, I’m not referring to Jack) and the other gets 10 seconds of gameplay time before being blown away. That’s not a “character” – that’s cheap fodder because someone over at Namco got lazy.

And the dialogue during cutscenes before or after levels is ridiculously flat and stupid and looks like it was written by a ten-year-old. “I walked into the hotel room. It was empty. The hostage was long gone. Someone had left a note. It read ‘go to the grove’. The grove was a notorious biker waterhole.” Absolutely stimulating! Obviously our Jack Slate was right on-board with those fast-track kids in elementary school. “Today I painted a bug. It was blue. I like rain. I want to become a cop.” Namco, you can create dynamic characters and have them play the hero role without coming off as idiots, and you start by letting them speak like real people. I don’t want to be reminded that I’m playing a (bad) game while I’m playing a (bad) game. Immersion is missing here.

Ready for some actual gameplay nuances? On normal mode, some of these bad guys couldn’t hit me even when I was backed into a corner/hallway and standing still while returning fire. I guess bikers and thugs have too much fun selling crack, getting wasted, and riding motorcycles (probably in that order) to worry about targeting practice. Some of them actually stand and stare, gun raised menacingly, in the opposite direction as Jack fills them with bullets. I love coming upon prone enemies – guys seated with guns – because I can stand there and shoot them and they don’t move. They sit there and point their gun at the wall whilst being riddled with pieces of metal.

For some reason sometimes you can’t use Shadow unless Jack has direct line-of-sight of the target. In other words, if there’s a pile of crates between you and the targeted opponent, Shadow will give out a helpless yelp to indicate that you need a clear view before he can charge. At other times, though, you can set Shadow upon foes 100 feet away and he brings them down. Just be sure to listen for the dog’s pathetic whimper as you’re tapping the square button and nothing’s happening.

The health system in Reckoning is dreadfully unbalanced; the green bar is Jack’s actual health while the blue one is his armor rating. Getting shot a few times lowers the blue bar rather slowly, but once it’s depleted practically any little stray bullet can bring him down to half health. This really gets nasty when Jack is surrounded or being shot by a guy with a shotgun, especially since shotguns can break through that blue bar in one-two shots and then kill Jack with a third, if he’s close. If no one’s wielding a shotgun in your vicinity then you’ll have an incredibly easy time removing foes, except for those instances when you are surrounded and being shot at from all sides, because you can’t pull a 180 turn and shoot who’s behind you because you can’t target what’s behind you; you’ve got to run/dive to remove what’s in front of you before turning around and targeting the guys at your back. This is the number three method of death in Reckoning.

The main point of contention is this: the poor camera and control setup. I blame Sony as much as I blame Namco for this. The (left) analog stick maneuvers Jack throughout his levels while the R button targets, pulling the camera directly behind him to give gamers a clear view of what they’re aiming at. Here’s the problem: you can’t move the camera otherwise. You will find yourself tapping R just to focus on a barrel to move the camera behind Jack so you can see where the hell you’re going, and 90% of the time that won’t even be intentional. You’ll run around an empty area targeting cars just so you can look around, and God help you when you actually need to quickly switch between targets when you’re in an enclosed area, because you’re going to die. Several times. Because you can’t control the camera properly and it swings around wildly as you change targets. Someone remind me why we don’t have a right analog stick? How could the beauty of the system be compromised by adding another stick when there’s just enough room for it underneath the D-pad (and if there isn’t I’ve got no qualms with shrinking the screen)? Does Sony hate us or was this a sacrifice for looks, because if so then I’m expecting the start of a trend – be prepared for lots of shooters with freaky cameras.

See this picture to the right? If I sent you a note saying that if you didn’t head to the nearest Wal-Mart and pick me up a new purse I’d kill this kitty, who’s to say that the cat exists? Maybe I took the picture from a magazine? Maybe I stole the photo from the Internet?!? Are you going to hop into your car, race to Wal-Mart, and get me my purse because a cat that might exist might be in dire need when have you no proof whatsoever that this isn't a prank? Obviously not, so why so much work looking for a hostage that might not even exist? I just have a serious problem with games that feature such large negations of logic. I want to feel immersed in my Jack Slate experience, not constantly reminded that what I’m playing is a flawed game with a stupid, boring character who has no leads in his “investigation”, by the way, because he insists on killing them all. Oops! I’m guessing we didn’t graduate first from the academy.

Every boss fight is the same. Shoot a little, watch the boss run away, chase after him, shoot some other baddies while en route, shoot the boss again, watch the boss run away again, chase after him again...ad infinitum. It’s a great stroke of luck that all the bosses happen to carry vital information on them (instead of putting that information somewhere safe so no one could get it) because if they didn’t, Jack would be wandering the streets all day looking for “clues”.

Some of these levels take approximately three minutes to beat, which is probably intentional due to the PSP being a handheld. Why not aim for bigger levels but save features along the way? And why not include more than 12 levels? That’s frighteningly short, even for a handheld game.

I would probably like Jack (and his game) more if I could hear him speak. Instead I get to listen to gunfire, barking, and the same jazzy tune in the background, which I don’t mind so much except that it’s the same song over and over again. The game’s graphical quality is just as average and dull as its gameplay except for the “cinematic” scenes where Jack opens a door, dives, or flips a switch, and those scenes sport moderate clipping.

And finally, even that very cool slow-motion dive feature is troublesome because opponents can still hit you. The idea is that you’re cycling through targets as Jack slowly takes a tumble, but what happens is that while you’re cycling you’re still getting shot.

I think my full opinion on Reckoning is summarized best in Jack’s last words: “Shadow and I were alive. Everyone else was dead. It was over.” That makes those 12 levels worth completion, doesn’t it?



Given that the PSP is a handheld unit that is designed to be played when it’s on-the-go, should developers focus on engrossing titles that take loads of time to play or simpler games that one can start and stop without worry? Do you make a cinematic experience as Reckoning aims for, or (as in this case) a poor shooter that’s better suited for quick and easy play? I think that’s the bigger question that playing Reckoning has brought to mind.

What we’ve got here is a fair game that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone except for a mindless, young teenager that likes shooting games and puppies. Reckoning does have its good moments, and it is fun to shoot hordes of bikers, but it gets tiring and repetitive fast. The lack of proper camera control and a worthwhile plot (or character) doesn’t bother me because with the features it’d be just a slightly better game. I remain unimpressed with Reckoning and am now even more doubtful that a good shooter will ever see release on the PSP.

Boring, dull, but workable. Has a dog. Can shoot. Will travel.

It’s dark, void of color, and boring – in a word, dull. Some clipping.

I counted three sounds – a background song, a dog barking, and gunfire.

It has its moments, but you won’t be drawn to it.

Complete it once and trade it in.

]]> Thu, 14 Jul 2005 08:54:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_ratchet_deadlocked_ps22 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_ratchet_deadlocked_ps22 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_ratchet_deadlocked_ps22# 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 Sean Kearney.

Ratchet: Deadlocked, the latest installment to the Ratchet and Clank series, is an excitingly different title that is sure to stand out from the rest of the games in the franchise. The way in which this game differs from the other Ratchet and Clank titles extends to almost all areas of the game, from level design to gameplay. Despite all of the differences, the game’s action elements are still present, as well as the humor associated with the series.

The story of the game begins when Ratchet and Clank are kidnapped by a media mogul named Gleeman Vox, who has decided to place Ratchet in an underground combat sport reality show “Dreadzone”, where he must fight robot gladiators called “Exterminators” in tournaments in order to protect his friends.

The level design in Ratchet: Deadlocked has been altered to reflect the more serious tone of the game. Gone are the rounded, cartoon- looking levels of the previous Ratchet and Clank titles. In this game, the world has a little more of a hard edge.

In keeping with the combat sport storyline, the levels in Ratchet: Deadlocked are designed more like the outdoor arenas that you would expect from a first person multi-player game. Instead of moving straight ahead to a goal, you are now sent all over the map in search of multiple goals, in an open arena. As well, instead of enemies coming at you from straight ahead, enemies now come from all sides to attack you, some even jumping at you from cliffs overhead.

With enemies approaching from every angle, the creators of Ratchet: Deadlocked have deemed it necessary to make the “lock-strafe” control setting from previous Ratchet and Clank games the default control setting. This setting resembles that of Halo and other FPS games, and is extremely useful in the wide open settings of the game.

The weapons of Ratchet: Deadlocked have undergone a major overhaul, as now along with the weapon upgrades you are also able to alter any weapon in the game with a combination of modifications that you can either purchase or win as prizes for completing various missions. One of the most attractive mods in the E3 demo was one that froze your opponents with one shot, no matter how large they were, so that you could walk right up and defeat them while they stood frozen. 

One of the techniques that Ratchet: Deadlocked stresses is cooperative gameplay. In the single player mode, two “Combat Bots” assist you in your journey throughout the Dreadzone arenas. The role the bots play in your game is solely up to you, however the game is constructed so that it is much harder if you try to ignore the bots and handle every mission alone.

If you’d rather play through the game with a friend split-screen, there is no need to open a new save file, or start from the beginning of the game to play cooperatively. You can simply replace the two combat bots in the game with a human friend anytime you like, and continue from your current position in the single player mode. When you choose to go off in the campaign on your own again, you can simply pick up from where you had left off in the cooperative game.

Ratchet: Deadlocked also features an online multiplayer mode that is reminiscent of Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal, however, there are a few new additions in the multiplayer mode as well. One is a “Conquest” mode, an updated version of the “Siege” mode from the previous Ratchet and Clank, as well as the ability to play online multiplayer matches using maps from every one of the single player levels.

With an incredible assortment of new features and gameplay, Ratchet: Deadlocked is shaping up to a very solid title for the PS2. The demo, one of the most extensive at E3, showed off many of the new enhancements to the Ratchet and Clank series, and demonstrated how a company can take an already solid title and build on to it to make a truly awesome game. With an unbelievable amount of new features and improved gameplay, Ratchet: Deadlocked is aimed to impress a both die-hard fans and newcomers alike when it interrupts your regularly scheduled gaming this Fall 2005.




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