Most Anticipated Games of 2010

Most Anticipated Games of 2010

In 2009, the video game industry witnessed the triumphant return of beloved franchises, the appearance of numerous blockbuster sequels, a continued push for major downloadable content, and the arrival of brand-new properties. We've already seen some new faces and some familiar ones in the early part of 2010, and if the games in our Most Anticipated lineup are any indication, this year is going to have no shortage of excellent games on par with those released in 2009. But there's one major difference between this year and last: Both Sony and Microsoft are releasing new hardware in an effort to change the way we interact with games. Microsoft's Natal technology detects and uses your body's motions, while Sony's wand technology has more in common with what Nintendo has done with the Wii. Both platforms should produce some interesting results and provide for an incredibly entertaining year of gaming. Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are GameSpot's most anticipated games for 2010.

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Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge Impressions - First Look

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge Impressions - First Look

We take our first look at LucasArts' next special edition of a classic adventure game: Monkey Island 2.

Way back when, the cult-classic Monkey Island graphical adventure series helped put LucasArts on the map as a development house that didn't just make Star Wars games. And perhaps in recognition of this fact, last year, the publisher brought back the very first Secret of Monkey Island in a "special edition" that contained both an updated version of the original game with new graphics and a new, in-depth hint system. And now the second game, LeChuck's Revenge, will get the same treatment in a new special edition packed with even more features.

Who's Making It: The new game is in development at LucasArts with input from some of the game's original creators: Telltale's Dave Grossman, Doublefine's Tim Schafer, and Deathspank creator (and Monkey Island creator) Ron Gilbert.

What It Looks Like: Like the previous special-edition game, Monkey Island 2 can be played with a brand-new graphical interface with colorful, cartoon-style 2D graphics that have several animated details, like fish hopping in the ocean below a bridge across which Guybrush walks, and moths circling the bridge's lantern. However, just like in the last special-edition game, you can switch back to the "classic" view in all its pixelated 2D glory.

What You Do: As Guybrush, you walk, talk, and interact with environmental objects to solve the puzzles that are immediately in front of you to progress through the game. All of Monkey Island 2's original humorous gags and puzzles are intact in this edition, including the memorable scene of stealing Wally's monocle.

How It Plays: The game can be played with the thumbsticks on a standard controller to directly control Guybrush's movements, though if you prefer, you can also use the classic point-and-click interface with a mouselike pointer to click on your destinations and any characters or objects with which you want to interact. While using the "new" control scheme, not only can you avail yourself of the game's stepwise hint system (which gradually gives you successively deeper hints on what to do next until it eventually reveals the full solution if you keep using it), but you can also immediately locate the nearest character or object with which to interact by pressing your controller's right bumper, which helpfully highlights the person/thing in question. Once you have your target selected, you can then pull up an easy-to-use radial menu that lists every single available option--though again, if you prefer, you can use the original point-and-click option menu.

In addition to offering both versions of the game, this special edition includes an in-game commentary mode that pulls up silhouettes of Grossman, Schafer, and Gilbert at the bottom-right corner (not unlike the presentation of Mystery Science Theater 3000) and the creators' witty commentary in text form at the top of the screen. Plus, the game also includes a concept-art gallery that lets you view the sketches that the LucasArts team used to create the graphical overhaul for the "new" version of the game.

What They Say: Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge has all the great content and gameplay of the original game, updated for a new generation of game players with new graphics, a hint system, and some fun extras.

What We Say: Yeah, sure. That sounds about right. The game will ship later this year.

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By Tom Mc Shea, GameSpot

By Tom Mc Shea, GameSpot
By Tom Mc Shea, GameSpot

We get a first look at Little Big Planet 2's forays into other genres.

The first Little Big Planet ushered in the age of easily creating and sharing tools for consoles, but though some enterprising designers forced their creative visions beyond the game's boundaries, it was still primarily a platformer. Sony showed off new footage of Little Big Planet 2 at its press conference, and it looks to go far beyond even its ambitions progenitor.

Today we got a look at some of the other genres you can easily create levels for in LBP2. You can design your own real-time strategy, role-playing, puzzle, and racing game, as well as 2D shooters. You can also test them out in a simple competitive mode, which we got to quickly see. A puzzle game was whipped together that separated the playing field into four separate columns, each controlled by a different player. This game was built purely on dexterity, forcing players to quickly tap the highlighted button before their competitors.

Other multiplayer minigames included a top-down arena battle in which you needed to push your opponents out of an electrified ring and a 2D shooter in which players had jetpacks strapped to their backs and shot missiles at their opponents. Other genre types were shown off in a single-player setting. There was a 2D side-scrolling shooter reminiscent of Gradius; a light gun game that looked an awful lot like Duck Hunt; a top-down boxing match; and a top-down shooter that was similar to Ikari Warriors. There was also an RTS within the single-player campaign, and one boss fight ended with a psychedelic shooting section that would make Jeff Minter proud.

Little Big Planet 2 looks to be overflowing with variety and fun. Stay tuned to GameSpot to see our hands-on impressions for this cool-looking game.

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FEAR 3 Updated Impressions

Fountains of blood, flashbacks, and disturbing dreams: All in a day's work for FEAR 3's two heroes.

The next installment in the FEAR franchise will take the trademark first-person shooter action and horror atmosphere of the series and introduce a third ingredient into the formula: teamwork. Cooperative play is coming to the franchise for the first time ever, as one player assumes control of supersoldier Point Man and his ghostly brother Paxton Fettel. It's a bold move on the part of developer Day 1 Studios for a pair of reasons. First, the series has traditionally relied quite heavily on alone-in-the-dark scares, and second, the style of co-op the developer is aiming for--an uneasy alliance between two people who don't trust each other--is fairly novel for the genre.

Previous Coverage: We got our first look at FEAR 3 last month with a demo that showed off some basic combat differences between the two brothers, as well as a sequence showing off the game's focus on mech combat. All in all, it was a pretty action-oriented demo.

What's New: The demo we saw at E3 had a decidedly different tone from the last one. Here, the combat was punctuated by frequent apparitions and flashbacks. At one moment, Point Man and Paxton were working in tandem to proceed through an abandoned building riddled with ghastly thugs--the enemies that might torment the nightmares of someone with a crippling fear of drug dealers. A highlight: Point Man used his slow-motion ability to let Paxton sneak into the middle of five or six thugs, at which point Paxton used his telekinetic powers to emit a violent energy that exploded everyone in the room into a fountain of blood. It was...gruesome. That's a good way to put it.

Contrasting that visceral team-focused combat were frequent head-trip moments like the one that suddenly teleported the two from said abandoned building into a dark forest with nothing around but a creaking carousel. At another moment, they capped off a violent shootout against armed soldiers by suddenly finding two small boys cowering out in a clearing. Turns out, Point Man and Paxton were experiencing bizarre flashbacks of their childhood together, as the game's roller-coaster storytelling includes intense gore, abstract imagery, and creepy images of the two men as children--definitely an odd trio of themes.

What's Changed: Nothing, really--it’s only been a month since our last look at the game. The only thing that's really changed was the environment in which we saw the game. Warner Brothers went to town decorating the private FEAR 3 demo room at E3, scrawling crazy messages in red paint on the wall and sticking kitchen knives all over the place. It was more than a little bit unsettling.

Final Word: FEAR 3 looks very interesting. We're eager to see how the whole fragile alliance element plays out in later stages of the game, as what we've seen so far suggests that the two protagonists have little choice but to work together to avoid certain death.

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Twisted Metal First Impressions

Twisted Metal First Impressions

• By Chris Watters, GameSpot
• Jun 15, 2010 7:43 pm PT

The iconic car combat series is coming to the PlayStation 3, complete with helicopters, chainsaws, and everyone's favorite demonic ice-cream-truck driver, Sweet Tooth.

For over a decade, owners of any PlayStation system have been able to ram, shoot, and otherwise blow each other up in the vicious car combat offered by the Twisted Metal series. Next year, PlayStation 3 players will get their opportunity for mayhem when Twisted Metal crashes into their living rooms. This year at Sony's E3 press conference, series cocreator David Jaffe gave a demo of the game's team deathmatch mode as well as an expansive new mode called Nuke. Explosions and flying shrapnel filled the screen, and we were able to glean some solid information about this new entry in the long-running series.

The demo kicked off with team deathmatch and an immediate surprise: the first vehicle onscreen was a helicopter. The pilot flew between bombed-out buildings as a second player fired a powerful chaingun from the passenger side of the vehicle, showing off the robust destructibility at work (see trailer above). The air superiority advantage was clear, but then the pilot pulled another new trick. He stopped above a friendly car, lowered a large magnet, picked up the car, and flew off. While many of the vehicles can no doubt cruise around at respectable speeds, nothing beats the convenience of an airlift. But before you go thinking that this new ride is too overpowered, rest assured that we saw visual evidence that the helicopter can go boom just like every other vehicle in the game.

They may have a better view of the action, but not even helicopters are safe from destruction.

And speaking of other vehicles, it wasn't long before the action hopped over to a motorcycle tearing around the city streets. We had just enough time to see the driver whip out a large chainsaw before the action switched again, this time showing off a muscle car armed to the gills with a chaingun and a missile launcher. The driver used his destructive power to knock out a few small buildings, then appeared to lean out the window and pull out something unexpected: a sniper rifle. There seemed to be a bit of aim assist at work here, a much-needed aid for such a hyper-accurate weapon. The player moved a small circle around onscreen until he had locked on to a target, and then he zoomed in a few levels and blasted the unlucky victim. The zooming took place in the small circle in the area of the screen where the enemy was located--a clever design trick that seemed to work quite well.

Next up was Nuke mode, which sounds like an open world where a lot of online players can engage in all sorts of simultaneous mayhem. The map was clearly structured for creative driving, as evidenced by the abundance of clearly drivable rooftops. There was also a freeway system in place, including an incomplete on-ramp that led into a hanging commercial airplane chassis. Nuke supports faction-versus-faction play, and from the looks of things, there were 30 or more players in there at one time.

See if you can spot what's twisted about this picture.

The factions we saw clash were the clowns (led by Sweet Tooth, naturally) and the dolls (creepy in their own special way). The end goal of the match was to destroy a massive statue representing the opposing faction that was being airlifted around the map. In order to do so, a faction must activate its missile launcher. Naturally, missile launchers require the sacrifice of a kidnapped faction leader, so the first goal in the match is to get past your enemies and grab yourself a hostage. This proved to be no easy task. Not only must you deal with the trigger-happy defenders, but the target himself is planted in a powerful stationary turret.

A lot of fiery explosions later, the clowns had made off with their hostage and were dragging him behind the car as they sped toward the missile launcher. Once there, the launcher took a few moments to gear up, meaning another frantic standoff as the dolls desperately tried to get their leader back. The clowns held them off, though, and soon the gaping, grinding maw of the twisted launcher had opened, welcoming the sacrifice into its flaming jaws. This triggered the launch of the missile, which the player then had to guide around the city, dodging buildings and seeking out its target. The clowns claimed victory as the missile smashed into the dolls' statue, blowing it to pieces.

With the focus squarely on mayhem and destruction, Twisted Metal certainly knows its audience. Deathmatch looked as explosive as ever, and Nuke is poised to take online car combat to a whole new level. Be sure to check out the gameplay in the latter half of the trailer for a visual taste of what's to come.

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Vanquish Impressions

We check out some new gameplay footage of the futuristic third-person shooter from PlatinumGames.

It's an odd feeling watching the first gameplay footage of a new PlatinumGames title without being immediately blown away by the carefully crafted over-the-top violence and irreverent humor. It's an even odder feeling making it through the entire demo without coming across either of these Platinum trademarks. During our behind-closed-doors session with upcoming sci-fi shooter Vanquish at E3 2010, we took a closer look at the game's combat and asked Sega why things have suddenly become so serious.

Vanquish is the last title in the four-game deal between Sega and PlatinumGames, following MadWorld, Bayonetta, and Infinite Space. Directed by Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami, the third-person shooter is all about fast-paced, frantic action and a little something called the Augmented Reaction System (ARS).

The hands-off demo began with an introduction to the game's hero, Sam, a US government agent sent to wrench back his country's space station from the hands of some pesky Russians. Decked in a full-body battle suit and backed by a team of US agents, Sam immediately launched into action, shooting down a group of Russians (also in power suits) in what looked like a power station. Interestingly, players will not have to waste time manually picking up weapons as they progress through the game--Sam's suit allows him to scan the weapons he comes across and then replicate them directly in his hand. A weapon gauge on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen will let players know which weapon Sam is currently using and allow him to switch among four different types (during our demo, we saw Sam using a standard shotgun, assault rifle, and a sniper rifle). When scanning a weapon type he already owns, Sam will instead receive extra ammo for that weapon and eventually an upgrade.

In the second environment Sega showed us, we saw Sam immersed in a heavy firefight with several enemy aircraft while riding on a moving platform. It was at this point that the action became frantic: Aircraft approached rapidly from all directions while Sam began a frenzied attack of gunfire and grenades until the screen resembled a large, moving blur. After a minute of this incomprehensible craziness, the full power of Sam's suit finally kicked into gear--on occasions where battles become too frantic or Sam is attacked by too many enemies, his suit will automatically turn on the ARS and temporarily slow down time to allow Sam to either destroy his opponents without being attacked or retreat to cover.

The system can also be triggered voluntarily by performing either a power-slide boost move (which sees Sam surge forward in one rapid, fluid movement) or jumping over cover. However, all these moves are controlled by a heat gauge on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Performing power-slide boosts and melee attacks, as well as using the ARS will deplete the gauge, so Sam must either take cover or shoot himself out of a tricky situation.

The last environment of the demo saw Sam on his way to fight one of the game's midlevel bosses, a giant human-controlled robot standing atop a hill overlooking a sprawling metropolis. Here, we finally got to see the game's cover system in action. While making his way up the hill, deflecting fire from both the boss and swarms of Russians, Sam used some strategically placed metal crates to jump and slide his way from cover to cover while continuing to dish out a never-ending stream of bullets. While the cover system appears to work quite smoothly (especially when coupled with the power-slide boost), Sega told us that the game will reward players who are a bit more brazen in their combat technique (which means no cowering behind cover and letting your AI buddies do all the work). While Sega admitted that you can play the game this way if you wish, it was quite clear that it's not the way it was meant to be experienced.

Our demo ended there. Fielding questions about why PlatinumGames took the aggressive combat approach with Vanquish, Sega told us that Mikami wanted players to explore the battlefield as much as possible, making use of everything available to emerge victorious and earn rewards for being bold and taking risks. The publisher also made mention of the fact that Vanquish's story will include some aspects of quirky PlatinumGames humor but refused to comment on whether the game is geared more toward a Western audience following the lackluster reception of the studio's last three titles outside Japan.

Vanquish will be released in October 2010.

by:http://e3.gamespot.com

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Red Faction: Armageddon First Impressions

We destroy everything we see in the infested underworld of Mars in our first peek at Red Faction: Armageddon.

Things have changed for the worse for the citizens of Mars. After a relatively brief period of peace after Alec Mason and his band of rebels took control of the planet at the conclusion of Red Faction: Guerrilla, an as-yet-unnamed foe practically destroys the surface of Mars, forcing its inhabitants underground. Now, 10 years after the populace moved below ground, yet another threat has emerged--a mysterious, alien force that has begun butchering innocent inhabitants. The rest of the populace begins to suspect that Darius Mason (descendant of Alec) is somehow involved, and it now falls to Darius to clear his name, as well as save Mars from the dangers besetting it.

That's the world you'll be entering in the sequel to the 2009 hit Red Faction: Guerrilla, with Armageddon promising even more of the rampant destructibility that made the earlier game a hit. Developer Volition showed off one level of the game at E3 2010 today, and it's clear that while the open spaces may have been done away with, the opportunities for laying waste to any structure you see are still there in abundance.

The demo began with Mason, who was leading a convoy of human refugees on foot. Apparently these refugee's colonies were recently attacked by the mysterious aliens, and Mason was relocating the survivors to a safer place. Soon, some strange creatures with insectlike legs appeared and immediately started to attack Mason. He had to fire upon them using an automatic rifle, rolling occasionally to avoid the creatures' lunge attacks. After that first wave was dealt with, Mason moved forward, eventually coming across an abandoned settlement that had been infested. Weird, organic-like red growths overran most of the buildings, giving the settlement an eerie vibe.

Mason was then tasked with cleaning up the infestation, which simply meant destroying almost everything in sight. This gave the developers an opportunity to show off a brand new weapon making its debut in Red Faction: Armageddon--a powerful rifle called the magnagun. This weapon wreaks its particular brand of crazy in two stages--the first requires you to fire a bolt into one target before selecting another target and firing a second bolt at it. Once both bolts have been released, the two objects you've chosen will become irresistibly magnetised to each other and will come together with crushing force. For example, the developer in charge of our demo fired one bolt at an infested tower and fired the second at another nearby building, resulting in the quite sizeable tower to completely come off its supports and come crashing into the building (thereby destroying two targets in one swoop).

The magnagun's offensive capabilities against moving foes came to the fore shortly after this section, when a huge wave of alien enemies came swarming into the area. Our demo tester used the magnagun to great effect, firing the first bolt at enemies before launching the second against walls, sending the enemy flying at terminal speed into them. But destruction won't be the only way to solve your problems in Armageddon. Faced with an increasing number of aliens, our demo tester decided to use another weapon, the nanoforge. The nanoforge takes on the same abilities of the reconstructor gun found in Guerrilla's multiplayer and is able to repair broken structures. In our demo, the tester ripped open a hole in a nearby metal shipping container using the magnagun, stepped inside the container, and then repaired it with the nanoforge, locking himself in from the marauding aliens. After a brief respite, the tester again blew open the container and then raced to another impressive weapon--a large mech.

While the walker mechs in Guerrilla were huge, the mechs you'll find in Armageddon are slightly smaller and more humanoid looking. Despite the smaller size, these mechs still packed plenty of wallop and were able to make quick work of the remaining aliens. All that was left to do was finish the job of destroying the alien infestation in the settlement, and Mason was able to quickly do that by simply running through buildings whilst still in the mech, crashing down everything around him in a matter of seconds. With the threat neutralized, Mason got out and signaled to the refugee convoy that it was safe to proceed. But all wasn't well--a series of large, rocklike tentacles burst from the ground, surrounding the small convoy. And with that cliff-hanger, our E3 demo ended.

We're excited to see more on Red Faction: Armageddon, if only to get our hands on that magnagun and see what damage we could do with it. We're also keen to see how the game will play now that the open-world nature of Guerrilla has been scaled back, with the developers of Armageddon saying their world will be more mission focused as opposed to having large areas where nothing really happened. Expect more information on Red Faction: Armageddon in the coming weeks here on GameSpot.

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