Round Up for March 27th.

First post for some time. Sorry folks, i've been a little busy! Among other things i've written a Rainbow Six Vegas 2 review which is up on Ripten.com. Check it out here.

Starting to get real excited about GTA4 now! Pre-ordered it today, a little late but at least i still could. Midnight launch for the game happening in mah' town too, so i'll obviously be there! Probably end up completing the story stupidly quick and then regret that i haven't left anything for later. But... there's multiplayer, so it's all good!

Totally addicted to N+ at the moment and i haven't even tried the multiplayer. Eternal Sonata has been getting a good outing onthe ol' 360 recently too. The same can't be said for Mass Effect though, not sure if i'm ever gonna finish that one.

COD4 maps next week! I've not been playing to much COD4 in the past few weeks but i'm still gonna splash out for the maps as soon as they come out (3rd April). You never know, it may get me playing it again.

5 New Gameplay Movies

5 new gameplay videos have been added. Click below to see each video or click the "8WM Videos" link in the sidebar.

Haze - Gameplay Video 1, Gameplay Video 2

Soul Calibur 4 - Gameplay Video 1, Gameplay Video 2

Battle of the Bands - Gameplay Video 1

Here is the Battle of the Bands Gameplay Video - just to get your appetite going.

Preview: Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Another round of terrorist swatting action is coming our way, on Thursday 20th March Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 will be shipping out across the EU. The game has looked fantastic since the early screenshots and on the eve of it's release, it's looking even more promising.

Something that has been getting alot of attention in the build up to the game's release is the A.C.E.S. experience point system. Essentially this breaks down the levelling up system into three sections; marksman points gained through getting headshots, CQB points gained through taking out enemies up close, and assault points gained through blasting enemies through cover. As you gain XP in these different categories you achieve ranks in each of the three A.C.E.S. areas, these ranks in turn unlock new items specific to that category. So, for example, you could achieve rank three and marksman and be rewarded with a new sniper rifle, perfect for headshots.

This is intended to reward players in a meaningful way, as it will fill up each players armoury differently depending on their playing style. So if you like to keep your distance with a sniper rifle your weapons list may be full of sniper and assault rifles, whereas if your a run 'n' gun kind of player you may have a whole host of shotguns and grenades at your disposal. The A.C.E.S. points are achieved in both single and multiplayer as one complete XP system.

In comparison to the original, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is looking to be a bigger, longer and deeper game in both single and multiplayer modes. There will be 13 new multiplayer maps (including a couple of classic mas from R6: Raven Shield), 11 new weapons, a tweaked co-operative play mode, the in depth experience system and a longer singleplayer mode. Added to this there are apparently 36 different ways to take out your enemies (Major Nelson Podcast 3/14), and there should be enough to keep even the demanding gamer busy.

This time round, the co-operative mode will now be playable through the entire single player campaign, unlike the original Rainbow Six Vegas. So now, 2 players can play through the entire story mode. The main character in the game, Bishop, will be played by the host, who will also command the friendly AI allowing the second player to act pretty much like a hired gun.

Two new multiplayer game modes have also been added; Team Leader and Demolition. Team Leader sounds particularly interesting. In Team Leader one player per team is designated the "leader", with the objective being to either get your leader to an extraction point, or to eliminate the other team. The twist is that while the your leader is alive, you have respawns available; kill the leader and respawns are taken away. Each of the two leaders can also see each other on the radar, making team tactics and communication vital to success.

Add to this the in-depth character customisation and, of course, achievement points (for 360 owners) and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 looks to be one of the games of the year.

Review up in the next few days.

4 New Gameplay Videos

Four new videos posted. 3 LEGO Indiana Jones gameplay videos as well as a Ghostbusters gameplay video.

Apologies for the length of the Ghostbusters video, the PS3 it was being played on was not very reliable.

The Ghostbusters video can be seen below.

Check here for the other videos.

A link to all the videos has been added in the sidebar.

Eight Way Movement TV Beta

Rock Band - Stage Demo from Play.com LIVE at Wembley.

Eight Way Movement is getting ready to hijack your internet experience. This video is a test of the system, expect many more videos soon - including video reviews, video blogs, gameplay footage and more.

A new RSS feed has been made available specifically for video and other media content.

All videos can also be seen on youtube here.

Play.com Live Hotdogs & System Crashes

OK, so Play.com Live is over. It was pretty successful i suppose, alot of people there of all ages having a good time, some of 'em playing games. More on that coming soon. I've got some gameplay videos to put up, so keep an eye out for those in the near future.

Also have a short videoblog on of the event that i made, which will be up soon and there are plans afoot to make regular Eight Way Movement media available in the form videos/podcasts etc.

In the meantime why not familiarise yourself with the hotdogs that were being sold at the event.


PS. Couldn't resist posting this pic also. As we were playing Soul Calibur 4 at the event, the 360 we were playing on crashed just as we unlocked an achievement somehow. Soul Calibur 4 seemed to have alot of problems, constantly crashing on numreous consoles, put it down to the game not being ready yet or heavily used 360's.

COD4 New Content

For those of us getting tired of sniping the enemy from a bombed out house in "ambush" or running around like a madman on "backlot", there's a light beyond the barrel of your M16. The downloadable content for Call of Duty 4 is finally almost upon us.

First off, remember the TV station level in the single player campaign, entitled "Charlie Don't Surf"? It seems that one map, "Broadcast", has been constructed using the TV studio section of the mission. Just as in the current multiplayer maps based on single player levels, "Broadcast" has been significantly jazzed up to make it more suitable and exciting for online multiplayer action. Various extra rooms and corridors have been added, opening up the entire second floor of the building, an area largely out of bounds in the single player campaign. As the map is predominately based indoors, helicopters and airstrikes will not be as effective as they are on other maps. There are some outdoor areas however, so with good timing you could wipe out a few bogeys with a precision airstrike; and we know how good helicopters are at shooting through windows, right?

Small, cramped firefights make Broadcast an "intimate" map

One of the other maps in the pack is totally original, not based on any COD4 environment currenly in the game. Entitled "Creek", the map is an extremely large scale affair with a huge ravine running down it's centre complete with small pathways scarring it's walls, perfect for camping out with a sniping rifle, if that's your thing. There is a small collection of houses at one side of the ravine, strategically placed for a skilled team to be able to hold down for extended periods of time as the enemy try to attack from the ravine. As well as this the map also contains a waterfall located at the base of the ravine, and a winding cave that cuts through the rock leading out through the other side, a perfect trap. "Creek" looks as though it will have ample oppurtunities to clock up kills for both snipers, and players with a lot of patience who look to ambush the unprepared. This original map looks perhaps the most interesting, partly because of it's layout and partly because the graphics and scenery are all totall new, the sky and foliage for example are supposedly much brighter and more colourful than the current multiplayer maps.

The thick undergrowth lining the ravine will be perfect for sniping on "Creek"

In total there will be four maps included in this downloadable pack. The other two maps, "Chinatown" and "Killhouse", not too much is known about at this point, but rest assured that they'll live up to the high standards we have come to expect from Infinity Ward and their design team. Be sure to look for this downloadable content over the coming months for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 - no word on release dates yet for PC gamers, perhaps Infinity Ward are trying to work out how you get them to pay for this content, seeing as how PC gamers are so used to getting extra content for free.

More on the release dates for these maps when the information becomes available.

Apple Games

The iPhone as a serious gaming device? Think about it and it actually starts to make alot of sense. Steve Jobs, at a recent Apple presentation, showed off the Software Developers Kit (SDK) which enables third party developers to create games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Videogames were not the sole topic of the talk but did take up a significant chunk of the time.

The first game showed was named Touch Fighter, a game made in-house by Apple as a sort of demo showing off the what type of thing could be accomplished on the hardware. Touch Fighter is an arcade style shoot em up set in space. You control a spaceship through space blasting and avoiding enemy ships.

What was most impressive was that the game made use of the iPhone's tilting recognition, this means that you play the game by tilting the phone away from you or towards you to move up and down, and tilt it to the left or right to change direction. The only control other this was a tap any on the screen which would shoot your weapon. While the game was only a test for the hardware it seemed to work very well and the graphics were fairly good.

As well as this game, EA and Sega also showed up to the event to show off a couple of games they have been developing using the SDK. Sega had a version of Super Monkey Ball, which of course made excellent use of the tilt recognition to control movement. Super Monkey Ball in particular had some really neat looking graphics, the Nintendo DS would find it difficult to match them.

Perhaps most ambitiously, EA showed up with a version of Spore. While graphically not on par with the upcoming PC version, this version seemed almost as good in all other areas. When i first saw that EA were showing this game, i expected some sort of heavily simplified, almost mini-game-esque port of the PC game, but i was pleasantly surprised to see this wasn't the case.
The release of actual games like these is probably same way off yet, but these signs are very encouraging for a video industry needing just that little extra push to go fully mainstream. Check out the whole video here. Also the SDK program itself can be downloaded for free here, if there's any one out there who fancies giving it a try. I believe you have to buy some sort of license if you want to actually apply for your program to be considered for release, costing $99.

Bully Time

Big day for game releases tomorrow. Will hopefully get my hands on a copy of Army of Two for the 360, so i will post up some early impressions here. From what I've seen it looks more interesting than exciting, the concept of the co-op play seems interesting and kinda demands you play with a friend rather than team up with the AI. Also released is Bully: Scholarship Edition, a re-release of the PS2 game with a bunch of extra content. Having extensively played the original back on PS2 I'm not sure there is enough content here to warrant buying it for that, but i may end up getting it just to play through the game again with the improved graphics and what not, also seems like a good way to spend some time while holding out for GTA4. Dynasty Warriors 6 is also out, which I'm not at all bothered about.

Many more games announced for Play.com Live next weekend. Most notable for me are Street Fighter 4, Res Evil 5, Prototype, Ghostbusters, LittleBigPlanet, Star Wars: Force Unleashed and Lego Indiana Jones. I'll have write-ups on these games and the event in general during and after the event.

Thinking about picking up Jumper and Lost: Via Domus on rental just for the easy achievements. I need to boost my gamerscore somewhat so seems like a good idea. Have been working on getting some more achievements on PES 2008 and Virtua Fighter 5 but the remaining achievements all require you to slog out 100 or more matches for some minor number of points so i've packed that in, the points to hour ratio is just not working out.

Will not be getting Rocketmen: Axis of Evil for Xbox Live Arcade after playing the demo. The whole game seems to be kinda on the lazy/cheap side of things. Rocketmen is a fairly basic top down, dual stick shooter that is relentless in it's lack of imagination and diversity. The combat is incredibly dull, when compared to other dual stick shooters on XBLA such as Geometry Wars and Mutant Storm Empire, and consists merely of blasting your generic enemies with blue balls (that i presume are supposed to be some sort of futuristic projectile) while you try to dodge their attacks. No skill or tactical nuance required. There's also some RPG elements thrown in, you can level up your characters and specialise in different areas, you'll probably not be playing long enough to notice any of the effects of this. I know I've only played the demo, but from what I've played and read on the game, it seems like it's just more of same until the end of the game.

Games, Games, Games

Been on a bit of an achievement binge since getting Orange Box last week. Blasted through Portal and Half Life 2, the small but constant stream of achievements seemed to add some sort of addictive quality to the gameplay, begging, teasing you to want more and more. That spurned me on to complete a few achievements in Forza 2, PES 2008 and Burnout Paradise. My gamerscore is kinda low and every time i play everything at the moment I'm looking at those achievements first and planning according. I'm not ashamed of it - i want the achievements! Anyway, HL2 is an incredible game. I never had the chance to really play it the first time round on PC, but it was worth the wait. The way game tells the story, entirely through the gameplay, without any cutscenes is very engrossing and added a sense of intimacy between the player and the game world, as you knew you were only going to witness what you saw first hand throughout the game. I'm never going to get that sound of the crowbar breaking open crates out of my head again. HL2: Episodes 1 & 2 next...

Play.com Live seems to be shaping up nicely. Have now found out that Capcom are going to be at the event, so hopefully that means some Street FIghter 4 and Bionic Commando - fingers crossed. Sierra will be there showing off Ghostbusters, which is apparently playable, so that'll be high on my list. LittleBigPlanet on the PS3 is gonna be at the show also, which hopefully I'll get to have a decent go on as I've been desperate to play it since i first saw it, however long ago. I'm sure there will be many more games there, just not sure which ones. Alot of companies have signed up - EA, THQ, Sega, Microsoft, Capcom et al, they had better bring their games with them.

Got out the Mega Drive the other day, played some Street Fighter 2 followed by some Flashback and Streets of Rage 2 to finish. It was fun for about an hour, not sure when I'll play it again.

SF4 Screens

Couldn't resist posting a couple of Street Fighter 4 screens, the game looks incredible.

Enjoy.