Quake Wars

Xbox 360, also PS3 and PC.
Clone Wars
Spawned from the daddies of the FPS genre (id), Quake has always been a title synonymous with innovation and fast paced, purist gameplay. Quake III Arena took the series to it's streamlined conclusion, ditching plot for people in one of gaming's greatest online shooters (and coming to a web browser near you soon). Quake Wars attempts to expand on that ideal, switching the twitch gaming deathmatches for massive battles, team work and grittier graphics.
Originally a PC game, Quake Wars has been ported to consoles, bringing its sci-fi take on the Battlefield series to the comfort of the living room sofa. Aside from the branding you've basically got an online FPS that sticks to the formula of differing soldier classes, massive battlefields and vehicular combat.
The difference is in the technology at your disposal and the objectives on the map, be you the plucky human marines or Borg-a-like Strogg. Humans have the usual array of guns, with each class having different tastes in lead poisoning and a varying array of skills such as snipers complementing their camping skills with radar dishes. The Strogg are a tad more interesting with their alien technologies, jet packs and taste in body modification.
As with any Battlefield clone, learning the different classes is key to success, particularly with Quake Wars' multiple objectives. Introducing a twist to the epic battles, each map has different goals such as building a bridge or destroying a reactor, with the opposing team stalling these objectives at all costs. Once complete a new goal kicks in and the focus of the game moves forward. This brings a fresh angle to the usual node capturing of Battlefield, and with each map offering different goals there's plenty of variety on offer.
All of this sounds good of course but Quake Wars struggles to really gel together on the 360. The Benny Hill-ish run speeds sit at odds with the realism and the art direction is devoid of any imagination, or colour.
The one vital flaw however is the fact that only two months after its release there are very few people playing it online. For an online-centric game that's a killer indictment and a real shame considering its many charms.
7/10

E3 2008 roundup.

With the dust settling in Los Angeles' Convention Centre and the lone fan-boys are left routing through the bins for collectable trash, it's time to look at what the big three had to say at this years Media & Business summit.
First up was Microsoft with some tasty games on the 360 – Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Fallout 3 and Resident Evil 5 all wowed. They also announced a redesign of the 360's dashboard, replacing it with an Apple-esque system and introducing Mii-like avatars. There's also family friendly stuff such as an online gameshow with real prizes, a B-Movie creator and an online party mode that allows groups of friends to play games and watch films together. With nothing from the Halo bods, MS made up for it with the bombshell that Final Fantasy XIII is coming to the 360. 

8/10
Nintendo's show was about making people smile (unintentionally), or being bored to tears with sales figures. Thankfully, Animal Crossing: City Folk was debuted with voice chat support. A new Wii Sports title was shown, utilising a controller add-on for increased sensitivity, while Shaun White Snowboarding showed off great use of the Wii Fit Balance Board (which means you can dust yours off again). After teasers that the Mario and Zelda teams were hard at work, the show stealer came from Wii Music – a game that lets friends jam together without the need for plastic guitars (or skill), relying on mimicry more than anything else. 

6/10
Lastly, Sony's conference began with an epic Resistance 2 trailer before settling into some Little Big Planet inspired statistics. Disappointingly, Home barely received a mention. A new video download service was announced though (joining the 360), with the bonus of being able to watch them on your PSP too. A bigger hard drive is to be bundled with the PS3 (instead of a price cut) and a brief teaser from God of War 3 revealed nothing apart from a 2010 release. Notably Loco Roco 2 and DC Universe Online also got mentions, with news of a 256 player online shooter called MAG spicing things up at the end, despite the prospect of being tea-bagged by 128 people in a row. 

7/10

Ninja Gaiden II

On Xbox 360
Gloriously, bloody, hard.
Ninja Gaiden is akin to beating your head against a brick wall – with enough determination something's got to give, be it an insanely hard boss or your skull against stone. The original was a triumph of heady, fluid combat that made you feel like you could slice through anything, yet punished with such heavy odds, that only the persistent, patient or foolish could make it to the end. I was persistent, I'm always foolish.
Ninja Gaiden II continues in very much the same trend, yet under the cowl things have changed. Combat has been re-jigged with an emphasis on even more violence and the ability to slice limbs off your opponents, followed up by a scarlet drenched finishing move. There's also the Ultimate Technique that allows you to decimate opponents (after charging the attack), then chain further UT attacks by sucking in the energy of fallen foes.
Alongside tweaked move-sets and new weapons, these 2 additions re-write the way Ninja Gaiden is played. If an enemy loses a limb he becomes more desperate, often to kamikaze-like extremes, so the strategy of finishing off the limbless first is a priority. Senseless button mashing won't get you far either, with careful and considered timing key to success.
Making sure you have the time and space to charge an Ultimate Attack is also important. It's also difficult, considering the rate at which enemies fly at you, fire at you and slice at you, but timed well can turn the tide of a one sided battle.
The original wasn't without its flaws, despite its awesomeness, and here those same problems rear their fiendish head. Once again the camera is a pain to use, where a mastery of it is as important as a mastery of the blade. It can be dealt with, but you shouldn't have to considering its sequel status. It's also hard as nails again, yet this time feels cheaper on the harder Warrior setting, with spammed, long distance fireball attacks the right way to send your joypad hurtling towards a wall.
As always, the way of the ninja is paved with many obstacles – while these may be mountains at times, the joy of climbing them almost always makes it worthwhile.

8.5/10

Super Smash Bros Brawl

On Nintendo Wii
Smashing!
Ever wondered what it’d be like if all of Disney’s characters got together for a Royal Rumble? No? Well Nintendo did, kind of. Rather than pitching the Seven Dwarfs Vs Shere Khan though, they’ve used their own massive catalogue of characters instead to create a supercrazyfuntime explosion of fisticuffs, laserguns and bottom burps.
Grabbing classic Nintendo characters from over 30 years worth of games, Smash Bros once again brings together the likes of Mario, Pikachu and Donkey Kong to fight, introducing new characters such as Wario, Pikmin and Kid Icarus to the mix too.
On its 3rd iteration, Smash Bros remains pretty much the same game you played on the N64 and Gamecube, except with nicer graphics, a bigger character roster, beefier solo modes and online play. Basically it’s a 2D beat-em-up, pitching up to 4 players against each other at the same time.
With 4 characters on one screen and all manner of special moves, power-ups and weapons, Smash Bros is a chaotic game where players seek to increase their opponent’s damage percentage and knock them flying off the screen to comedic effect.
Simple to play, yet with depth, Smash Bros gives you easy moves at the touch of a button, yet using them in the correct way and combination is the way to victory.
Brawl’s most obvious addition to the fight is the Final Smash – an orb that appears randomly, that if smashed, bestows the player with a decimating super power. Thankfully its appearance isn’t frequent enough to disrupt the balance and is always fun to execute and entertaining to watch.
Rammed full of different modes, unlockable items and characters (Solid Snake?!), Brawl is a big game to play to completion, especially considering its notable single player (or co-op) story mode ‘The Subspace Emissary’. Once you’re through all that there’s online play to test your mettle and even a level editor to share your creations with the rest of the world.
With snippets of Nintendo games littering the landscape like coins, Brawl is an exhaustive catalogue of Nintendo’s history disguised as an immensely fun game, and one that will be at the centre of many a multiplayer party to come – the time to finally pick between Mario and Sonic is here!
9/10

Ghostly

A wee trip to manchester to see radiohead play resulted in me stumbling over this iconic little feller. Aint he sweet? Must have lost his way as pacman was no where to be seen.

Definitions.

From EA –

PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360 Feature More Than 250 Core Gameplay Enhancements That Deliver Most Responsive, Intelligent and Realistic Action Ever

A quote detailing some enhancements to Fifa Football. I'd love to see EA's dictionary of 'adapted' definitions for key packaging blurb.

Re•spon•sive
Ability to move in the direction commanded

In•tel•li•gent
Having or showing more intelligence than a beefburger

Re•al•is•tic
Representing things in a way that is vaguely related to real life