• December 14
• December 15
• December 16
  

• CounterStrike Source 5v5
• CounterStrike 1.6 5v5
• Unreal Tournament 3 1v1
• TeamFortress 2
• ETQW
• Company Of Heroes
• 50/50 Nintendo Wii Sports Tournament
• 50/50 HALO 3 1v1
• RED LIGHT SPECIALS!

The folks over at Sony just released a slew of brand new screenshots showing the upcoming SOCOM title for the PSP.

]]> Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:18:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/cs_source_update_tomorrow http://www.gamebump.com/go/cs_source_update_tomorrow http://www.gamebump.com/go/cs_source_update_tomorrow# Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:49:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_mario_strikers_charged_media http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_mario_strikers_charged_media http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_mario_strikers_charged_media# Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:43:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/meridian4_rips_a_new_deal http://www.gamebump.com/go/meridian4_rips_a_new_deal http://www.gamebump.com/go/meridian4_rips_a_new_deal# “We got lots of positive emotions while developing RIP and RIP: Strike Back. We were excited, when we got positive feedback from the gamers and the press.” said Natalie Lekomtseva at White Elephant, “We are really happy to work with Meridian4 to release the games in North America.”

“The moment we tried RIP and RIP Strike Back, we were hooked. They’re addictive, back-to-basics top-down shooters that bring back the fun in games.” said Steve Milburn, Director at Meridian4, “With their non-stop shooting action, once you start playing, you won’t want to stop.”

Expect more on these games very soon.

Commandos is one of Eidos’ longer running series, dating back to the original PlayStation days. However, fans of those titles may be disappointed to find that Commandos Strike Force is a far departure from that interesting action-RTS hybrid the older ones used to be. Instead, it’s now just a cookie cutter WWII-era first person shooter. Does it do anything to stand out against the sea of other WWII shooters?

Strike Force is set up in missions, each with their own primary and secondary objectives. Sounds par for the course, and it is, but they shake things up by giving you not only the freedom to accomplish your goals in any manner you see fit, there’s also the option to attack them as one of three characters. Each of the characters has a different skill set so it’ll alter how you play a mission, thus giving you a reason to play through the levels more than once. It’s a reason, but there are other reasons not to, which I’ll discuss later.

The three characters you can control are separated into three different types – a sniper, a beret, and a spy. As the sniper you’ll, of course, have your requisite long range sniper rifle as well as a set of throwing knives with which to silently kill nearby enemies. And you can always walk over a body to retrieve the knife you just threw. The beret plays like your standard foot soldier – proficient with a variety of guns. The spy presents the most interesting way to infiltrate an enemy camp as he is capable of donning enemy clothing. By doing so, you can sneak in and walk amongst the enemy like one of their own. However, catch the peeking eye of a high-ranking official and you can say goodbye to your cover.

The variety in which you can approach a mission adds tons of replay to Commandos. Unfortunately, it does a lot of other things wrong that will turn some off from playing through them all again.

Where to start – how about the graphics? Commandos Strike Force is one ugly duckling. It looks more like a PS1.5 game, or at least a first generation PS2 title at best. We’re in the waning period of the PS2’s lifetime and we get stuck with something that looks like this. A good example is the foliage that’s spread through the majority of the levels. I approached one and it was a pixilated 2D bush. I could go right up to it and see that it lacks depth. That’s the worst of it thankfully. The character models look decent, though they tend to walk in very unnatural ways. They seem robotic at times.

The voice acting is, for the most part, one of Commandos’ strong points. All of the characters sound lively and, contrary to how some are animated, natural. The only problems lie in their repetitiveness and bad synchronization. The controlled character will talk to himself during missions, which I find to be a nice addition as it draws the player into the situation. But, he’ll tend to repeat the same things when performing the same action, such as crouching to hide from a patrolling guard, or taunting a soldier he just stealth killed.

The bad synchronization plays a heavy part in the cutscenes. The voices and the lips don’t match up well at all. In the worst case scenario, sometimes the lips on the speaking character will continue to move several seconds after the dialogue clip had already ended. This turns some of the scenes into the equivalent of a badly dubbed 70s kung fu flick.

Another bothersome thing is the moronic AI. I didn’t like the fact that crouching makes you virtually invisible to a close range enemy the majority of the time. Also, since dead bodies disappear after a few moments, it ruins the realism that Strike Force intended to evoke. If there’s a dead body lying around in the open, someone is bound to notice and sound the alert. But no, all and any evidence that you sliced a Nazi throat just vanishes into thin air.

Adding to the moronic AI is the fact that the Nazi soldiers have some really bad aim. I was once caught in a 6-on-1 disadvantage and managed to escape with minimal damage. It’s like the Stormtrooper effect all over again. Thankfully, there are multiple difficulty settings, and while the hardest doesn’t quite make the enemies smart, they’re smart enough to at least pose a threat. The downside to that is now portions of the game become trial-and-error. In others words, it’s “what happens if I do this? Ok I now know not to do that, so let’s do this”. And don’t sweat having to reload an old save that’s hours back because you can save anywhere at anytime.

Lastly, there’s a serviceable online multiplayer mode. I say serviceable because while it functions well enough, there just isn’t anyone out there playing it. And those that do suffer from occasional bouts of lag and stuttering frame rates. Commandos offers your standard deathmatch and team deathmatch mode, but the third and most interesting of them is sabotage.

The goal in sabotage is to decipher the other team’s 6-digit code. Doing so awards your team points. The coolest part about it all is how you find the code. Each team has at least one spy who can interrogate fallen enemy players. Some will give up just one digit while others may give you three, depending on who it is you’ve interrogated. It’s a very fun mode and one I’d like to see implemented in other multiplayer FPS’. It’s a shame that such an awesome mechanic isn’t being experienced by more players.

Commandos Strike Force has some good points of its own merit, but when the genre is already flooded with so many other games that do it better, it has to offer more than what we’re given here. Unfortunately, because of that, it’s just another WWII-era first-person shooter.

The three different skill sets for the characters offers a nice change of pace.

We shouldn’t be seeing first-gen PS2 graphics this late in its lifetime.

The voice acting is good, but it’s repetitive and badly synched.

Different styles are great and sabotage is awesome, but nothing outside of that is engrossing.

Reasons to play single-campaigns exist, but some problems will turn you off from it. Ok online.

]]> Wed, 26 Apr 2006 12:01:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_star_wars_titles_for_handhelds http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_star_wars_titles_for_handhelds http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_star_wars_titles_for_handhelds# 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 Matthew Call.

Turns out a Star Wars game somehow managed to sneak under the radar for the last few months. Ubisoft is developing Star Wars Shadow Strike for the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. Shadow Strike is scheduled to be released on May 26 and is an “action” game. Not much else is known about the title, but with a May 26 release date it’s likely that more information will become available soon or the game will be delayed, so stay tuned! ]]> Mon, 06 Mar 2006 23:39:00 -0600 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/commandos_strike_force_ship_date_trailer http://www.gamebump.com/go/commandos_strike_force_ship_date_trailer http://www.gamebump.com/go/commandos_strike_force_ship_date_trailer# 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.

Eidos Interactive recently confirmed the April 4 ship date for Commandos Strike Force on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC in North America. In a new direction for the multi-million selling series, Commandos Strike Force takes you right into the heart of the action with an innovative blend and first person perspective.  Set in war torn Europe amid the backdrop of World War II, take your elite 'Strike Force' unit behind enemy lines on a series of linked missions through France, Russia and Norway. Undertake action, infiltration and stealth missions with the Green Beret, Sniper and Spy, using any means necessary to challenge a winning enemy and pave the way for invasion. Enter into battle alone, or take the fight online with your friends.Commandos Strike Force features an innovative blend of stealth and action gameplay new to the genre. With the ability to freely move within the battlefields players execute attacks with a high degree of control. This gives the player the ability to set ambushes, attack silently and unseen, infiltrate prisoner of war camps, stalk and stab, all while being surrounded by the enemy.Commandos Strike Force also features several missions where players control two commandos at the same time switching between the two on-the-fly.  The game boasts a variety of multiplayer modes, up to eight players online with console and 16 players via the internet.The company also published a new trailer to go along with this announcement, which you'll find below.

Download the DivX Browser Plug-In.

]]> Sat, 11 Feb 2006 00:03:00 -0600 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/handheld_guilty_gears_this_spring http://www.gamebump.com/go/handheld_guilty_gears_this_spring http://www.gamebump.com/go/handheld_guilty_gears_this_spring# 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.

Majesco Entertainment has announced that its taking the popular Guilty Gear fighting series to handhelds this spring in the form of PSP and DS renditions. Guilty Gear Dust Strikers is slated for the Nintendo DS while Guilty Gear Judgment is heading to the PSP. Both games are being developed by Arc System Works.Said Ken Gold, VP marketing for Majesco, "Widely praised as one of the leading 2D brawler franchises, the Guilty Gear series has a long history of offering gamers deep, character-driven game play. These exciting new installments will provide hours of entertainment while offering two unique new gameplay experiences that fans can enjoy on the go."Guilty Gear Dust Strikers for Nintendo DS features 21 historic Guilty Gear characters whose intertwining stories reveal all-new insights into each character’s personality and past. Players battle on multiple levels across both DS screens, against the computer or up to four players via wireless networking. The game also features six modes of play including Arcade, Story and VS Battle plus seven unique touch screen mini games and a Robo Ky Factory where you can customize your fighting moves.Guilty Gear Judgment for the PSP system offers gamers incredible value by combining two games on one UMD. The game includes the fast-paced arcade fighting of Guilty Gear X2 #Reload plus a brand new side scrolling experience in Guilty Gear Judgment. Guilty Gear Judgment features 20 Guilty Gear character favorites, including Sol Badguy, Potemkin, May, and Dizzy; 18 levels of 2D side-scrolling action; and special moves like Psych Burst, Dust Attack and Roman Cancel. In addition, both games within Guilty Gear Judgment offer wireless multi-player connectivity for up to two players.

The latter 13 screenshots are of ]]> Thu, 26 Jan 2006 12:55:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/ubisoft_announces_ghost_recon_2_summit_strike http://www.gamebump.com/go/ubisoft_announces_ghost_recon_2_summit_strike http://www.gamebump.com/go/ubisoft_announces_ghost_recon_2_summit_strike# Ubisoft has announced an exclusive for the Microsoft Xbox, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 Summit Strike.

The game will include more maps, missions and weapons than Ghost Recon 2 along with 11 brand new single player missions and an expanded multiplayer experience. Summit Strike is scheduled to release for the Microsoft Xbox August 2005.

"People have described this frenetic game as soccer meets Super Smash Bros .," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "Soccer remains one of the most popular sports in the world, and Super Mario Strikers gives players the tools they always wished they could unleash on their opponents."

The game rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.]]> Wed, 30 Nov 2005 23:55:00 -0600 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_tom_clancys_ghost_recon_2_summit_strike_xbox http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_tom_clancys_ghost_recon_2_summit_strike_xbox http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_tom_clancys_ghost_recon_2_summit_strike_xbox# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

As an expansion to the successful Ghost Recon 2, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike stands as an affordable addition to an already solid game, with a new campaign mode and the same multiplayer havoc that fans crave, presented in a simple and direct style that enables players to jump into the action either offline or on. UbiSoft has proved once again that when it comes to Tom Clancy, they know what they're doing. 

Gamers are cast as Captain Mitchell and sent to Kazakhstan on a hunt for Asad Rahil, a Pakistani terrorist who has committed numerous crimes against innocent civilians including devastating a small village with chemical weaponry. On top of this chaos, the region's president has been assassinated, creating even more uncertainty and unrest. When the UN steps in to stabilize the area they're met with hostiles from Rahil's army, further complicating matters and causing the Ghosts to be deployed to terminate Rahil. It's not as gripping a campaign, but it's presented well and ties the missions together for a believable product.

If you're familiar with any Ghost Recon game then you already know that the bulk of the gameplay has you serving as squad leader and guiding a small team through enemy territory on to target objectives. You can issue on-screen or voice commands, and on the whole the unit will act accordingly thanks to the adequate AI. You can have your subordinates shoot targets and/or offer cover fire (suppress), flank left/right of you (to surround an enemy/structure), take a knee (hold position), regroup (gather on you), hold fire, attend to a member's medical needs (medic), attack an oncoming vehicle (including tanks, helicopters, and armored cars), protect a target, or demo a target (plant a charge or designate it for air-drops). Your AI buddies will seek out cover and may even spot hostiles before you do, which is a great help to counter-balance the ease with which a player dies - one shot in the right spot will bring Captain Mitchell to his knees.

The cheap AI banter makes traversing these great landscapes more entertaining, as running between snowy mountaintops or through miles of grasslands eventually takes its toll on the boredom scale. Enemies are scattered around targets, and objectives change as the level progresses; Mitchell may have to take out a defensive structure, shoot down helicopters, terminate a pack of dangerous tanks, destroy enemy convoys, pin-point structures for air-drops, assassinate members of Rahil's army, and so on. Environments feature differing weather patterns and may splash rain onto the screen or spill a gentle snow on the ground, accompanied with appropriate sound effects like lightning strikes or fierce, chilly breezes. Character models are highly detailed as in their parent game, and Summit Strike features nice water reflections from rivers/lakes, tire tracks from armored cars, burnt markings from air-drops, and minute graphical attention for every wisp of grass that's guided by a small gust of wind. Spotting a full moon overhead or a bright sun on the horizon adds further realism and gives the game a presentation boost.

It wouldn't be Ghost Recon without a plethora of gadgets and high-tech weaponry, and Summit Strike delivers - at the start of each mission you select a preferred main gun, support weapon (pistol variant), explosives (grenades), and a heavy-hitting weapon (rocket/grenade launcher) if the level calls for it. Main guns are separated into four classes - rifleman, gunner, grenadier, marksman - and feature numerous options, including standard rifles, submachine guns, differing grenade launchers, and specialized sniper rifles (the scope view on the MB sharpshooter is particularly impressive). The targeting or scope view changes per weapon, and if you're so inclined you may even control Mitchell and have him fire at targets via voice commands (but I wouldn't recommend it).

Along with advanced weaponry the gamer has a useful radar display that alerts as to impending targets, a squad indicator that presents each member's health status (green for good, red for nearly dead, depleted for goner, etc), air-strike commands (for missions without team members, as in the "lone wolf" mode), night vision view, a detailed satellite map for each area (with indicators), a rate of fire (ROF) indicator that can be modified to single-shot, three-round burst, and full auto, and lasers that designate drop targets.

After you've gone through the entire campaign mode and seen the real breadth of the game, you'll probably want to hop online via Xbox Live and score some multiplayer kills. All the standard Xbox Live features are present - you've got a friends list, a player count (people you've recently played with), a team option (i.e. clan management), leaderboards (who's who among Summit Strike players), downloadable content (new levels, etc), in-box (in-game email messages), competitions (set up, join, or play in a tournament), and sign out. The team/clan management is a great inclusion for the hardcore, and competitions exclude all non-clan members. As a team leader you can recruit players, promote/demote members, name a General, send friend requests, and kick idiots.

If you're anti-social and would rather jump in shooting people and forgo teams and tournaments, multiplayer through Xbox Live definitely allows for that. You can create a match where you serve as host, let the system pick a quick match for you, or select game features you want in optimatch. All modes enable observer viewing (originally made popular in Sony's SOCOM), re-spawning options, and a slew of differing game types, 24 in all, including hamburger hill (keep a central area under your control), helo hunt (bring down helicopters), seek and destroy (think: tag), recon (work with others to accomplish mission objectives), mission (complete regular missions online), firefight (team up to destroy all hostiles), and your typical capture the opponent's base, search and rescue hostages, and last man standing (the team with someone still alive wins). If you're not interested in co-op play you can always go team-killing and join the squad-based games.

If offline play is more your style and you've finished with campaign mode, UbiSoft included some minor gameplay options - training, mission, helo hunt, lone wolf, recon, defend, and firefight. By now these should be rather self explanatory; in lone wolf you trade team AI for explosives and air-strikes; in firefight you remove all opponents; in defend you hold your position against waves of hostiles; and so on. If you’re completely bored of both Xbox Live and single-player fun, the offline multiplayer/split-screen mode is a final option.

For $29.99 I've essentially got very few complaints. My biggest concern with Summit Strike (or my Xbox, depending upon your point of view) is that on several occasions I've had the misfortune of encountering Xbox errors that caused me to reset the game, usually corrupting the campaign save I was working on at the time and usually while on particular levels. Take this tip to heart: have multiple campaign saves! The game saves to your active campaign by default, so if you've just completed a mission and want to save in your second slot, you've got to manually enter the slot's name (my default was CS, my second CS2). I highly recommend this safety precaution because nothing sucks more than completing seven levels and being kicked to level one because you forgot to create a second save. Except encountering that error twice without a third save. That definitely sucks more.

If you're going to focus on voice commands for either your team or Captain Mitchell, speak clearly. Slurring your words and mumbling into the microphone won't get you as far as proper pronunciation. 

I spotted some AI hiccups, but mostly where the enemies were concerned. Would you as a lone combatant run over to a huge pile of dead bodies, get down on the ground, and stay there – completely vulnerable – looking around for a killer who has just terminated five of your best friends? Not unless you're a Summit Strike hostile, apparently, though the easy kills make up for the game's difficulty. When UbiSoft claims that "in the world of Ghost Recon, one shot can kill", they're not kidding. Be prepared to die a lot.

Voiceacting is done adequately considering the game's genre, but you won't find intense cutscenes or award-winning voiceovers. 

This is a great stand-alone expansion to Ghost Recon 2 at a wonderfully affordable cost. It won't remake the third-person shooting genre or earn UbiSoft a gold star, but it's definitely worth picking up if you're a shooting game freak (and I use the term literally). A plethora of options, a well-presented campaign mode, and Xbox Live play (there's even offline multiplayer if split-screen is your thing) secure it as a decent addition to your collection. Just remember to have multiple game saves and you'll have a blast.

The same as its parent game's, with new offline/online missions.

Visually pleasing, but nothing extraordinary. Nice attention to detail.

Good when it counts, but minimal voiceacting. Solid effects.

If you enjoyed any Ghost Recon, you'll enjoy Summit Strike.

Large online offering, but most modes are simply modifications and not new.

]]> Mon, 12 Sep 2005 12:21:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_super_mario_strikers_ngc1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_super_mario_strikers_ngc1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_super_mario_strikers_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.

He’s a star at tennis, a pro at golf, a fearsome slugger, and even made an appearance in the latest NBA Street, so why not give Soccer a go? Everyone’s favorite plumber is lacing up his boots to take on all comers in Nintendo’s upcoming take on the world’s most popular game.

Super Mario Strikers doesn’t have a scheduled release date, and the version that was playable on the show floor felt like it was pretty early in its development cycle, but it was still enough to tell that the game is going to be fun. All of the favorites from the Mario universe are present, with Mario’s team consisting of him and a bunch of Toad characters, as well as a crocodile for a goalie.

The game feels much like Sega Soccer Slam, with plenty of slide tackling and goals to keep the pace moving. The controls were very simple and very responsive. You could use the R shoulder button for turbo, and the L shoulder button was used in conjunction with other buttons to modify certain moves. For example, holding L and the pass button would lob a pass, and holding L and the shoot button would result in a lob shot, which was great for getting the ball over the head of a keeper that strayed too far out.

I’m not sure how you earned them, but there were several power ups that could be used during the action. By pressing the Y button I was able to leave a trail of bombs on the screen, which needless to say did a nice job of impeding the other team. At a later point in the game a giant Chain Chomp made his way around the field, taking out his frustration on my team. The current AI was pretty bad, and the game was rather easy, but it’s such an early version of it that it’s not a cause for concern.

The graphics were very simple but the animation is smooth, and it's easy to discern the players on each team. Every cutscene after a goal featured Mario celebrating, regardless of who scored the goal, but this was most likely just a placeholder animation and should be replaced before the game is finished.

Only quick play was available, but there were a few cup modes listed on the game’s main menu. Super Mario Stikers doesn’t feel like it’s going to be very deep, so having one cup mode, and another that is the same thing, only harder doesn’t make it seem like there is going to be tons of replay value. Granted, the game will support four-players at once, so those of you with lots of friends will have a blast, but I’d take a wait and see approach if you plan on playing it alone. ]]> Sat, 21 May 2005 13:29:00 -0500