“Wheelman” is a bit of an anomaly. From its onset the game makes no lies about what it’s trying to be – a balls-to-the-wall, explosive, action romp starring the one and only Vin Diesel, and, for the most part it succeeds. But everything you’ll play here has done better before, by another little game known as “Grand Theft Auto,” and, with competition like that, it’s hard to recommend adding “Wheelman” to your own personal collection.

For starters, the story of “Wheelman” is absolute trash, and by trash I mean that I still have no idea what the hell was going on. Trying to summarize this game will be a difficult task, but I’ll give it my best shot. You are an undercover agent, played by Vin Diesel, that goes by the name of Milo. You, for no explained reason, are sent to Barcelona, which is where the game picks up…literally. You are blindly thrown into your first mission with hardly any intel, and the story only gets cloudier and more convoluted from there. You’ll spend your time in Barcelona constantly meeting new people from three different factions and doing jobs for them for no real reason as to what you’re trying to accomplish. There were too many times where I would do a mission for one person and inexplicably be working for their enemy the next. I know it’s a Vin Diesel game, and I realize its main draw is non-stop action, but with a story this disjointed, it really detracts from the experience.

The voice acting and graphics also do little to add to the story. I’ve never thought much of Vin Diesel’s acting (with the exception of Boiler Room and Pitch Black – both great films), but I certainly don’t have anything against him. However, his monotone, drab demeanor is just too much to take here. Not once did Milo show any sort of emotion and I felt like if someone where to tell him his parents died he’d respond with a simple “bummer.”

Once you’ve come to terms with the lack of plot, you’ll start to focus on how the game plays, and, luckily for Mr. Diesel, there is some fun to be had. For about 80% of the game you will be behind the wheel of cars, trucks, bikes, scooters, etc. During these missions you’ll be tasked with destroying other vehicles, tailing enemies, or trying to scare nervous passengers. The missions can become repetitive, but as long as you’re not on foot, you’ll enjoy your time spent in Barcelona. “Wheelman” allows you to pummel other cars with a flick of the right stick. Flick the stick in either direction and you’ll turn sharply into any enemies that dare to get too close. After multiple hits their vehicles will explode in a slow-motion hellfire, thus giving the game that Hollywood feel that it was obviously going for. You’ll also later gain the ability to slow the action down around you and go into a bullet-time like action sequence where one well-placed shot can destroy almost any vehicle. You’re also given the ability to “airjack” cars, a maneuver that has Milo jumping from the window of one car into the driver’s side of another and taking control of the vehicle without ever touching ground. After learning the game’s nuances high speed chases can become pretty exciting, and pulling off some of the more difficult moves can yield some great visual rewards.

Then there are the missions where the game requires you to hoof it, and this is where the game becomes a boring, repetitive mess. The firing system is playable, but shooting baddies on foot is just so boring. Almost all these missions see you going into a bland-looking warehouse, easily taking out huge waves of enemies, and repeating until there’s just no more bad guys to shoot. Auto-targeting is done with L2 and you shoot with R2 so very little aiming is required. “Wheelman” uses the “Halo” health recovery system, but it seems that the second Milo retreats from fire he heals with Wolverine-like ability. All of this combines to make the on-foot missions feel like more on an afterthought, and the game could have likely been better off without them.

“Wheelman” also tries to capture that open world feeling that “GTA” has been doing so well for years, but fails miserably. Barcelona is a fairly large city, but the game gives you little reason to explore it since you can use a map to warp from mission to mission for most of the game. The city is also rather bland; part of the reason that “GTA”’s are always so successful is because the environments feel like living, breathing characters. There was so much life to Vice City, so much culture in San Andreas, and a very real world feel to “GTA 4″’s Liberty City. ” Wheelman”’s Barcelona is a forgettable mess where every block looks the same and no real landmarks exist. In a game that tries to persuade the player to explore, this becomes an unforgivable flaw.

One saving grace for the game is the amount of content it provides. Aside from the nine to ten hours the main storyline demands, there are plenty of side missions and time trials to keep you busy. Completing many of these will even help you out with the main mission part of the game, rewarding the player with different cars, weapons etc.

Think of “Wheelman” as “GTA” light. By no means is it a bad game, it’s just a very, very average one, and it’s hard for an average game to compete in the open world genre that “GTA” has dominated for the last ten years. However, if you like Vin Diesel, and you go into the experience looking for nothing more then a fun action game that can deliver occasional, memorable thrills, you might walk away satisfied.

[Rating: 2.5/5]
Wheelman was released for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on March 24th 2009 by Ubisoft. This review was based on the PS3 version of the game.

Check out below and you’ll see that it is the first ten minutes of the Japanese demo of “Final Fantasy XIII.” The game, which is running on the PS3, looks phenomenal. Game producer Yoshinori Kitase says that the game will be using nearly 100% of the PS3’s power, and, from the looks of it, he’s telling the truth. Even though the video is a little dark, the visuals seem to be some of the best I’ve seen for the system.

After fans complete the Japanese demo a screen comes up noting that the game will see it’s release in the winter of 2009. While it likely won’t show up stateside until 2010, it’s nice to have some sort of confirmed release date window. Enjoy the video below, and keep your eyes peeled here for any more info on Square Enix’s bread and butter franchise.

Capcom just sent us a lovely little email detailing some of the contents in the new update to “Street Fighter IV”; “Street Fighter IV – Championship Edition.” The name size increase in the title is geared towards “serious players”. I am puzzled by that statement because many would agree that those trial and challenge mode challenges aren’t meant for scrubs. The new mode will expand the game by offering players the chance to compete in tournaments and to watch replays of the best tournament matches. That’s awesome, now we can see worldwide beat downs and share it with friends. No word on how the sharing of said beat downs may occur though but expect to see rampant video postings of “look I can do this combo” and such on the internet.

I know what you’re saying, “damn, another add-on!” Well fret not Wondering Warrior, it comes at no cost. The Championship Mode update will be available for both PS3 and Xbox 360 owners on Friday, April 24 (times TBD) for free. There will be 5 different grades of tournaments – “creating the right challenge for players of every skill level”. You will score points for tournament wins, and as your total points grow you’ll get the chance to enter into bigger tournaments.

This was something that should have been in the game but I’m guessing since this is all network harmony stuff, it takes time to be developed. The good thing is, as we’ve mentioned before, users with great connections can have a wonderful time online with SFIV when two users have a good connection. It will be interesting to see how Capcom maintains this trend. Winning tournaments will also net you Championship Points (CP). CP is like “prize money” up for grabs in the tournament. “The higher the GP skill of the players in a particular tournament, the bigger the CP prize” notes Capcom. Each network will have some unique features though (PSN and XBOX LIVE):

• On the PlayStation Network, you can rate matches while you watch according to characteristics such as “awesome” or “funny.” Replays are then ranked based on these vote ratings.
• On Xbox Live, instead of rating the matches, you can choose to download and save your favorite replays to study the players’ techniques. You’ll also be able to turn on the input commands from both players to be able to review their button and joystick motions in precise detail.

Add a few new characters while you’re at it, and also provide those costumes in a bundle pack with an overall discount and several users will be playing this title for some time. Perhaps what’s missing from the game are Custom Unranked Matches. I say custom because it would be interested if we could re-create those funky Time Trial and Survival Challenges for play online; no supers, no ultras, auto-charge, auto-heal, and invisibility. That only proves that there’s room for improvement for this still classic brawler.

Hey kids, I finally have a mega badass “Prototype” trailer to show you. The game, which has had a somewhat rocky development cycle, seems to be coming along nicely, but details on its story have been fairly mum… until now. The trailer, which shows protagonist Alex Mercer tearing up the streets of New York, offers a lot of good details on what to expect from the games story. While the main premise is a tad cliche – Alex wakes up and has no idea who he is or why he has powers – the supporting characters seem rather interesting, and it looks like there will be a lot for gamers to figure out once the game hit stores shelves in June.

Executive producer, Tim Bennison, explains what exactly were looking at in the trailer. All of Alex’s powers look pretty chaotic – in a good way. Bennison refers to wanting the player to feel like the “ultimate badass.” If the game manages to impress me as much as its trailers have, then the crew at Radical Games looks well on their way to achieving that goal. Keep it tuned to TGH for more news on “Prototype.” The game is set to release on the first of June, so hopefully we won’t see any more delays. Latas, all.

Those are tears of joy for 50 Cent! Awhile ago we told you about 50’s newest game Blood On The Sand being dumped because of it’s publishers merger. Well it looks like the fine folks at THQ didn’t want to see 50’s game go by the ways side

The latest rumblings say that sources close to developer Swordfish studios told GamesIndustry.biz that the game was almost complete and ready to go. And according to a listing by the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification, THQ will be publishing the game. So all you 50 fans here’s his next project to look out for, and hopefully it’ll be good! Peep the original trailer below to refresh those memories. G…G…G..Geeee Unit!

source:gamesindustry.biz

In a few years, “Castle Crashers” won’t be remembered for its amazing story, or its ground breaking controls. No, the reason “Castle Crashers” will be remembered, and it’s perhaps the best possible reason for people to remember a game, is because it’s smashtastically fun. It’s a great game to play alone, with friends, or online, and you can keep playing it over and over. Add to that a persistent sense of homage to one of the greatest games of all time, “River City Ransom” and “Castle Crashers” is a quality follow-up to “Alien Hominid.”

Some people have complained that “Alien Hominid” was too hard, but those people just forgot how grueling great games used to be (go play the original “Ninja Gaiden” for 20 minutes and you’ll remember). Just because a game is hard doesn’t mean it’s not good. Fortunately, (or unfortunately, depending on your stance on challenging games) “Castle Crashers” doesn’t suffer from the punishing level of difficulty that “Alien Hominid” made so memorable. It’s a bit more accessible, partially due to the fact that you have the ability to level up your character. However, that doesn’t mean the game is a cakewalk.

Each character has four different upgradable skills – strength, magic, defense, and agility. In the tradition of “action-RPGs” (of which I wouldn’t consider “Castle Crashers” to be) there’s a fairly straight-forward XP system, where your hits and kills contribute to your experience, which then allows you to level. As you advance, your character can take on stronger enemies, and the stronger enemies provide more XP to level up and advance, and so on and so forth. It’s simple, easy, and straight to the point, which is something a game like this needs to be, as there isn’t really much more substance beyond hitting things repeatedly with your weapon of choice.

In addition to the experience system, the story is as straightforward as they come. A bad guy has stolen your kingdom’s giant (one can only assume life-giving) diamond thing, as well as kidnapped the princesses, and it’s you’re job to make everything right. The journey takes you to all different kinds of worlds – most of which you’ve seen in other games – deserts, ice, lava, and even outer space. However, Dan Paladin’s unique art style helps make them feel like new environments, unless you played a lot of “Alien Hominid.”

Some of the best parts of the game for retro fans out there were the similarities to the Technos classic “River City Ransom.” While I may have gone out of my way to pick them out, since I’m a bit partial to “RCR,” there seemed to be constant reminders at every turn of the game. Aside from the basic beat ‘em up gameplay that both have in common, there’s a long list of similarities, the best of which is during the initial load of the game where the creators, Dan Paladin and Tom Fulp are credited with a very “River City Ransom”-esque screen. “Castle Crashers” is a must-play for any fans of Alex and Ryan’s original 8-bit adventure.

“Castle Crashers” isn’t game of the year just yet, there were a few problems with the game that hampered the overall experience. First of all, getting into an online match seemed rather difficult – while I understand that there may have been no one else searching for a game when I did, I find it a bit hard to believe. In addition to that, the game glitched out right at the end of a particularly trying boss battle in multiplayer causing more than a few choice words to be yelled as I turned off my 360. Both of these issues can be fixed very easily via a patch, and according to Behemoth, there is one on the way.

Overall, “Castle Crashers” borrows from a lot of other experiences, but it still manages to create something that is unique, creative, and, most importantly, fun. My advice to you is to find three other friends and get to crashing (and then pray the game doesn’t freeze as you beat one of the bosses). Then, after you beat it, play through it again, on intense difficulty and find all the unlockables. Then, after you beat that, take your character online, and go head-to-head with other crashers and fight some arena matches. Castle Crashers gets a 4.5 out of 5

Written by 2.0

Here’s a little something something for all you folks out there who can’t get enough of the Afro sportn’ samurai himself. I had the pleasure of attending Namco Bandai’s 2008 press tour here in NY. I was able to get some hands on time with the game and

I have to say things are looking up for this title as the controls feel on point and the look and feel of the series has been translated well. And the music doesn’t disappoint either! Take a look at the video preview as I think you fans of the show will be very pleased with what ya see! AYO AFROOOOOOO!

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is set in August 2010. The story follows the player’s hunt for Ramon Solano, a druglord who contracted the player’s mercenary for a job then subsequently refused to pay and tried to kill him/her. Following a militaristic coup, Solano becomes the dictator of Venezuela. He uses his position to seize control of the country’s oil supply, resulting in an international incident and distress among OPEC (in the game the oil company excavating in the region is called Universal Petroleum). Alongside Solano’s Rebel Forces, a large portion of the Venezuelan army fiercely support the dictator’s cause. The other rebel forces, in opposition to Solano, have risen under the name of the PLAV–the People’s Liberation Army of Venezuela. Soon, numerous other factions join the fight for control of Venezuela’s oil. Among them: The massive Universal Petroleum Corporation and its private military; the Rastafarian Pirates (the equivalent of the Russian Mafia from the original Mercenaries game); China’s PLA; and the AN (Allied Nations–a less controversial pun on the UN). These six forces will inevitably form the backbone of a war to determine the fate of the country’s oil supply.

Betrayed, the player’s mercenary will ally him/herself with any of the other factions to get even with Solano, and make some money along the way.