AceGamez’ Reviews Editor Geoff Holland recently made his debut appearance on popular Xleague.tv show Games Night, which was screened on Thursday 24th December at 8pm.

Xleague.tv is Sky’s dedicated gaming channel, which features a range of shows that delve into all aspects of gaming, covering news, reviews, previews and charts, as well as a number of gaming tournaments for the likes of Halo 3, FIFA 08, Virtua Fighter 5 and Unreal Tournament III. Games Night is their fortnightly discussion show, where a panel of four industry experts chat about gaming news topics, look at forthcoming games and review the latest releases.

Geoff joined host Paul Vale and show regulars David Jenkins, Games Editor for Teletext, and Steve Boxer, Games Editor for The Guardian, along with returning guest Games Writer Will Freeman. Topics up for discussion included a controversial Times article that labelled games as “crack cocaine for the brain” and called the creators of games “evil”, plus the return of retro 2D shooters. The group also took a look at the new teaser trailer for Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 and put four games to the test, Ghost Squad on Wii from Sega, Geometry Wars: Galaxies on Wii from Vivendi, The Club on Xbox 360 and PS3 from Sega and Devil May Cry 4 on Xbox 360 and PS3 from Capcom.

The show will be repeated regularly over the next couple of weeks (next repeat Sunday 27th Jan at 10pm), and you can also view the full show online at the link below on Xleague.tv’s website, where you’ll also find a host of other content, including previous episodes of Games Night. Geoff had a fantastic time on the show and is looking forward to returning soon!

Click here to view the show now!

Labels: AceGamez, Capcom, Devil May Cry 4, Games Night, Geometry Wars: Galaxies, Ghost Squad, nintendo wii, SEGA, Sky, The Club, Vivendi, Xleague.TV

Good morning! Your E3 rat has returned for another day of sniffing out news and bring you all the impressions and hands-on reports he can. I need to catch myself up from yesterday, as I was rushed out of the media room before I could finish my thoughts, but at that same time, I have a meeting with SOE real soon and need lunch, so here's a small catch up bit to last you until I return!

Condemned 2 - simply amazing. Easily the most impressive game I have seen in playable form here so far. We were shown around about 25% of the first level, steered by one of the developers. The game opens after the main character (the same one from the first game) and his homeless friend being kicked out of a bar and are now off to find more booze. New to the series are context sensitive moments where if you hit the A button quick enough, you'll interact with the cut scenes. These are generally very simple gestures, such as shaking hands, flipping someone off, etc. I didn't get to see what happens if you don't press the button, though it doesn't seem to be wholly detrimental to your experience.

While the graphics, even in its unfinished state, were very slick. Textures were varied and detailed, frame rate was silky smooth and the physics were accurate and impressive. But what really impressed was how enemies took damage. Depending on where you hit them and with what, enemies would bruise, cut and bleed. You can also break arms and disable your enemies, the key, I was told, to taking on multiple enemies at once. Environmental kills are also making a return, but are far easier to pull off now.

After seeing more of the first level, we were shown the improved forensics parts. You will be called upon, at more random times this time around, to discover why and how someone died, much like in CSI. You will be given essentially a form to fill out, answering questions such as 'who is the person dead?' and 'where is the murder scene?' Your cursor will highlight certain objects, wounds and other items around and you must select from a menu what the answer is to your questions. For example, when answering who the dead person was, we looked at the face and determined it was a male, looked at the uniform to determine he was a police officer, then looked at this badge to figure out who he was. I felt like I was playing Phoenix Wright - a grand compliment!

Finally, we were shown a survival mode dubbed 'bum fight.' This is exactly what it sounds like - you against waves after waves of enemies until you die. I was told this mode actually came from developers playing around, testing A.I. and after a few hours, they decided it was so fun to make it an accessible mode. It is basically a way to 'crack skulls for 15 minutes' I was told - nothing wrong with that! You can set the parameters of the fight, since as how many enemies at a time, what weapons are available and what enemies you want to fight (all of which are unlocked as you complete levels in single player).

A few more notes to wrap Condemned 2 up. Multiplayer is going to play a big part, with a promise given to us that the same stale multiplayer will not be simply rehashed in Condemned 2 - they plan on exploring the possibilities the game world they have created allows. What that means I wasn't able to find out, but it is nice to at least hear a developer willing to branch out and take a risk or two.

All in all, this game is nothing short of amazing in its demoed form and as long as the development team keeps pushing forward and pushing the envelope of game play as they showed yesterday, Condemned 2 will easily be a huge hit when it drops.

Before I go, I want to make a few comments regarding Ubisoft, once press conference I am watching right now. Much like everyone else, Ubisoft is jumping on the casual bandwagon hard, with more than a dozen new DS titles coming out soon. Lots of new animal with a 'Z' at the end games coming, including Dolphinz and Tigerz. A line of games to cater to preteen/teen girls is on its way as are the My Coach series of self-help titles. Jam Sessions was shown off and looks just as interesting and creative as it did a few months ago. One Wii game was show, Nitro Bikes, which looks to take the Excitetruck experience back to the bikes, with fast, arcade action and much welcomed online play.

Then the big guns came out. The new Brothers in Arms next-gen title, Hell's Highway, was shown in playable form and looked quite good. Graphics were crisp and gameplay was tight, varied and extremely realistic. Also shown in playable form was Assassin's Creed, which simply stole the show. Breathtaking visuals, superb sound effects (voice, effects and music) and the gameplay looked to take the Prince of Persia formula to new highs with more interactive environments and a greater sense of improvision in how you accomplish a task as well as get to where you are going.

Well, Ubisoft is over and lunch is waiting. Expect more updates as the day continues!

Labels: E3 2007, SEGA

Back again! Its been a few hours since I posted last and a whole lot has gone down in that short amount of time. I sat in on a few more press conferences and enjoyed a private showing of SEGA's upcoming titles not shown at the no appointment necessary Barker Hanger.

I know some of these are vague and missing detail, but I only have 20 minutes of computer time so I gotta go fast!

First off, EA. The EA press conference focused not on the entire lineup but nearly exclusively on casual games. Which is no surprise considering their newly formed division, EA Casual Games, was only just announced to the public. As is no surprise, the majority of the games shown off from their casual divisions were for the Wii. We were treated to live demonstrations of Boogie (Wii), EA Playground (Wii), Smarty Pants (Wii - working title) and blocks title coming out of EA's partnership with famed director, Steven Spielberg.

Boogie is shaping up quite nicely, with very slick visuals that do not give off that PS2/XB/GC stench and fun, if not goofy and embarrassing, gameplay. We were given a live demonstration, showing off not only the dancing - which involves flailing around like a bird having a seizure - and singing - a man with a thick accent is the perfect singer for the Pussycat Girls' "Don't Cha" - but also the replay ability of the game. Our demonstrator showed off a video he had made earlier in the day, which included his dance moves and voice, using a 3D effect. I wasn't sure this title was going to show any appeal outside of the younger set, but if the final game is as solid as what was shown off, Boogie could quickly become a sleeper hit.

EA Playground, announced a couple weeks before E3, was finally shown off to the public. On its surface, it is a Wii compilation of many of the games kids play at school, such as dodgeball and tetherball. But dig a little deeper and you will find new games such as Kicks - the odd combo of soccer and volleyball. The two games shown off - dodgeball and tetherball - were completely controlled with the Wiimote with only the most necessary of controls. I'm not sure how much depth and lasting appeal one may be able to pull from this game, but again, the younger and casual set should have a ball.

Smarty Pants is a quiz show game that brings in gesture controls for things such as ringing in - done by raising your hand, spinning the wheel - you actually have to crank it up, and tug of war of two players tie when ringing in. Not much else is known about this title, but if the questions are plentiful and the quick, gesture-based mini-games interesting, Mario Party may have some competition for the ultimate Wii party title.

Finally, the block title (I can't remember if this actually had a name or not) is an interesting puzzler that can be bested described as Jenga on crack (or Jenga meets dominoes if you don't like crack). You have your Jenga-style towers and blocks, but along with those are special blocks that explode, shoot goo or are cows. Yep, you read that right - cows. There will be around 20 character blocks once the game is finished, along with many, many puzzles, multiplayer and a puzzle editor so you can make all the crazy levels you want!

After EA, I went over to the Loews Hotel to check out SEGA's games. I wasn't allowed to touch anything, so no hands-on any games, but I was given a thorough walkthrough for the titles I saw. First off was Sonic and Mario at the Olympics. I was shown the 100 meter dash, long jump and shotput. Each event using the Wiimote and/or nunchuck to control your characters, such as pumping your arms like mad to run and swinging the Wiimote much like in Rayman Raving Rabbids to throw the shotput. The game is being developed to not be over-the-top, but as realistic as possible - despite the obvious irony. Single player and multiplayer are in the works, as well as an online leaderboard (sorry, no true online multiplayer). Unfortunately, SEGA wasn't privy to details about the WiiFit board, as it would be an obvious addition to the gameplay, but alas, it seems for too late to implement it at this point.

Damn - my time is nearly all spent and I still have some much to talk about. Okay, fast recap for now:

Condemned 2 - the best game I have seen in action so far. Looks to be a complete blast.

Iron Man - looks nice but not quite sure if the gameplay will translate into fun over multiple hours.

Stranglehold - definitely worthy of the the hype.

Blacksite Area 51 - big bosses look awesome, squad gameplay appears simple yet effective.

Silent Hill 5 - for real, though not really graphics were shown, just a teaser trailer.

Metal Gear Solid 4 - new trailer is so bad ass it hurts.

And I'm out of time! More tomorrow (or tonight if I can)!

Labels: E3 2007, EA, SEGA