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DRIV3R
Perhaps the best way to look at Driver 3 is by calling it what it is: a videogame take on a Hollywood car chase. Driver has always been about great car chases, superb physics and car crashes, and the third in the series is no different. Starring the series' quiet but rough unsung hero, Tanner, the undercover cop once again takes a clever carjacking network. Building on ideas implemented in Driver 2, players once again get the chance to steal an enormous load of cars (in fact, all cars in the game are jackable), are able to drive more cars than before (including trucks and boats), and are once again able to step outside of their cars.
Halo 2
The defeat of the Covenant in the first Halo game was only a temporary victory, as the alien attackers have renewed their mission to wipe out all of humanity. Despite the human military force's and Master Chief's efforts, the Covenant have breeched the Earth's defenses and have left its inhabitants in a dismal situation. In the midst of desperation, players assume the role of Master Chief and lead the resistance against the Covenant to save the people of Earth from a gruesome demise. Halo 2 will feature an immense and epic single player mode, as the story picks up where it ended in the first game. In addition to the single player mode, Halo 2 will also feature a redesigned multiplayer mode. While the first game limited players to LAN connectivity, Halo 2 takes multiplayer missions online by way of Xbox Live.
Hitman: Contracts
Third installment in the critically acclaimed, multi-million selling Hitman series, developed by Io Interactive. Hitman: Contracts delivers more action-packed and suspense-filled missions, with a greater variety of ways to make the perfect kill and an increased arsenal of firearms and close-combat weapons. You'll begin, as usual, as Agent 47, one of the most ruthlessly efficient contract killers in gaming history. Beginning in Paris, the game sees 47 in a vunerable situation, and promises to be, the most disturbing episode in the series. A new graphics engine showcases your 'work' in brutal detail and brings the new locations to life. An improved control system and more gradual learning curve will ensure that the game is accessible to all aspiring hitmen.
BloodRayne 2
Born from the unnatural union of vampire and human, BloodRayne is blessed with the powers of a vampire but cursed with the unquenchable thirst for blood and a weakness to sunlight. BloodRayne 2 challenges the supernatural anti-heroine with her most personal battle yet as she hunts down each of her wicked siblings who are carrying on the legacy of their dead father. Expanding on the predecessor, BloodRayne 2 includes new in-game dynamics such as pole combat, rail sliding and advanced melee fighting with fatality moves. Built upon a modified version of the Infernal Engine, BloodRayne 2 introduces threatening new bosses, all new environments set within a huge modern day city, a range of new supernatural powers and new motion-captured movements complete with soft-body physics.
Breakdown
Trapped inside a mysterious laboratory and unable to remember his past, Derrick Cole discovers his extraordinary powers as he fights for survival against a determined military faction and a legion of seemingly invincible super-human warriors. Breakdown is a science fiction thriller combining the best elements of shooters and fighters into a comprehensive first-person action adventure. The twisting storyline is revealed through high-end, real-time rendered graphics, accompanied by a licensed music soundtrack. The game features fierce hand-to-hand and weapons-based combat, challenging puzzles, surreal dream sequences, advanced A.I. and massive, detailed environments for exploration. For mature audiences only.
Combat Elite: WWII Paratroopers
World War II. June 6, 1944 - D-Day - The downfall of Nazi Germany's occupation of Europe begins with the Allied invasion of France. The campaign is supported by more than 17,000 U.S. and British paratroopers, dropped behind enemy lines prior to the assault on the beaches of Normandy. Their battles lead them through rolling hills, open plains, small farms and war-torn cities throughout France, Holland and Belgium. The third-person action game features more than 40 missions, including D-Day, Operation Market Garden, and the bitter winter defense of Bastogne, two-player co-operative gameplay, and an upgrades and promotions system. Built with the award-winning Snowblind Studios engine.
Star Wars Battlefront
A multiplayer online shooter set in the Star Wars universe featuring soldier sets from the series (Stormtroopers, Rebel pilots, AT-AT commanders, Republic Guards) and a wide variety of vehicles out of the films. Players take part in epic battles from both the original series (Episodes IV, V, VI) as well as the prequel trilogy (Episode I, II, III.) The game liberally borrows concepts from EA's Battlefield series, transplanting the competitive action into the Star Wars galaxy. Players team up or go head-to-head to fight on ten legendary planets from the George Lucas franchise and use a variety of weapons and vehicles, including X-wings, snowspeeders and AT-STs.
Unreal II: The Awakening
Port of 2003's PC first-person shooter, packed with Xbox Live support and brand new explosive excitement for solo, team and multiplayer combat. Atari brought over all the destruction and visuals elements from the PC original, along with the full lineup of multiplayer options, including deathmatch and class-based team play. Along the outer edge of space, players are plunged into a desperate mission to kill all comers - alien and otherwise - and prevent the awakening of an evil force. The game features a variety of mission objectives (assault, infiltration, defense), providing for a diverse gameplay experience. Player-controlled vehicles add to the carnage, acting as both transport and heavy weaponry.
Juiced
Combining the best elements of simulation and arcade-style play, Juiced features more than 50 licensed vehicles; realtime modding with hundreds of authentic aftermarket parts; realistic car physics and damage; and online head-to-head play, including for the first time ever, 'crew based' team racing". Juiced also enables players to choose between arcade settings as seen in titles such as Ridge Racer, or simulation ones as championed in Project Gotham Racing 2. Players can practice in Solo mode; they can express their own "style" of racing using donuts, boomerangs, etc. in Cruise mode, and they can race in Career mode, a calendar-based campaign mode.
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Star Wars: Republic Commando is a dark and intense first-person shooter for the Xbox video game system and PC, utilizing an enhanced version of the acclaimed Unreal engine technology. Unlike the largely main character focused Star Wars games of the past, Republic Commando presents a dramatic military-style action experience from the point-of-view of an elite squad member of a Republic Special Operations unit. Players step into the role of a Commando performing precision operations deep behind enemy lines in this brutally realistic Star Wars combat experience. The game is set at the start of the Clone Wars, as seen in Episode II, featuring Clone Troopers and Jedi fighting a common foe side-by side.
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Before Splinter Cell was a twinkle in Tom Clancy's eye, the stealth action genre was humming with activity, thanks in large part to its creator, Warren Spector, who bowled us over with Thief: The Dark Project back in 1998. Thief was a much different kind of action game--it was much darker, much slower-paced, and drenched with tension as Garrett slinked through shadows and wove around heavily-armed guards who could hear him rustling around. Well, it's now been four years since the release of the last title in the series, but Thief: Deadly Shadows is promising to give Sam Fisher and Rikimaru a run for their money.
Deadly Shadows, tentatively scheduled for a June release, picks up the threads at an indeterminate time after The Metal Age, and Garrett, the cynical loner, is still doing his thing as a liberator of valuable merchandise. Over the course of the series, Garrett has dealt with three factions, focusing on one in each installment. Before, it was the Pagans, then the Hammerites. Now, it is about the Keepers, who actually trained Garrett as one of their own before he left under unusual circumstances. They come to him with a prophecy stating, among other things, that "The end of Words is coming." By their interpretation, a Keeper will betray them and destroy the city, and Garrett's name pops up everywhere in their ancient prediction. He agrees to help them figure out what's going on, but is quickly embroiled in intrigue. Along the way, he discovers information and comes across items that tell him he's not getting the full story.
Now that we have the back-story out of the way, let's talk about what it's like to put your hands inside the gloves of an infamous thief. Each mission begins with a voice-over briefing (which includes text if you're the impatient type). You can check out schematics, inventory, and other details before you get a-stealin'. Once inside, you have a bevy of options at your disposal. This is a much more open environment than what we've seen in Splinter Cell, example. You'll be wandering through fully fleshed-out interiors and exteriors, and tactical variety is more widespread than before. Garrett can now defend himself reasonably well against a lone guard, but you're still better off sticking to the shadows, because they'll make noise and the cavalry is never far behind.
TOCA Race Driver 2
Online focused sequel to Pro Race Driver. The game features a large number of racing competitions, including Street Racing, Stock Car, Open Wheel Grand Prix, Truck Racing, GT Sports Car Racing, Rally, DTM, V8 Supercars, Global GT Lights, Rally Cross, Formula Ford, Classic Car Racing, and more. Players slip into the role of an up-and-coming pro race driver and work their way through an all-new first person story mode. The game is set to sport 52 international circuits, as well as licensed cars from makers Ford, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Audi, AMG-Mercedes, and more.
Manhunt
A violent action game from Rockstar, Manhunt is the story of James Earl Cash, a man previously thought dead who wakes up in a town filled with deadly gangs. Guided only by the whispers of a man named "The Director" through his earpiece, Cash must find whatever he can to survive the night. Players must make strategic choices as to which weapons to use, ranging from silent and stealthy to loud and destructive. Everyday items may be the key to your survival, as plastic bags become instruments of strangulation, and shards of glass your defensive weapons. Escape the nightmare that is Carcer City and maybe you'll learn the identity of the mysterious "Director".
Street Racing Syndicate
We must have missed the part of "The Fast and the Furious" when Vin Diesel and company wagered their women on illegal street races while we were fast-forwarding through the DVD (the only way to watch TFATF), but that's probably going to be the most memorable part of 3DO's Street Racing Syndicate. Oh sure there are plenty of other features like detailed real world racing environments in Miami, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, but it's all pales in comparison to the things you'll do to earn your street credibility in SRS. Developed by veteran racing game developers Eutechnyx, Street Racing Syndicate is a racing sim with realistic physics designed to bring the world of illegal street racing to home consoles. With no sign of Infogrames' The Fast and the Furious, SRS may have an inside track when it arrives for the PS2, Xbox and GameCube this Summer.
The game's Street Mode will serve as the career mode where you're thrown into the role of an up-and-coming driver (aren't we all) trying to earn his street cred. Credibility is earned through winning races obviously, but having the tightest rides and tightest stable of girlfriends is also factored into the mix. In Street Mode, your PDA is the non-racing interface and its here that you'll access your in-game email, calendar and web-browser. Email messages from girlfriends and competitors will be huge because the game's producers claim you'll have instances where you'll have to choose between entering a street race and taking your complaining girlfriend out for a night on the town. There are consequences to each decision. If you take your girl out, she'll stay happy and in your corner, but the fellas will write you off as a punk bitch who's afraid to race. Your credibility takes a hit, but not as much as it would if you lose your girlfriend by choosing to race instead of spend time with her. Showing up to a street race with no honeys on your arm limits the quality of races you can enter since you're obviously not good enough to have any groupies, so who wants to race against you anyway.
If you want to go even higher stakes than betting your girlfriend (and who in the hell wouldn't?), you can bet pink slips on your races. It's a good idea to have a backup ride in the garage otherwise your Street Mode career could end suddenly.
The calendar tells you when and where the upcoming illegal and sanctioned races are taking place. The sanctioned races are few and far between over the course of a month, but it's here that you'll be able to wager your girl against a competitor's girl. If you win, you'll get to watch a filmed video segment of your girl in a naughty outfit shaking her ass to contemporary tunes. It's all very similar to what we saw in Acclaim's BMX XXX. Should you lose the race, you'll get to see a short abbreviated clip of your rival's girlfriend doing her thing. But the majority of the races will be illegal street races for dozens or hundreds of dollars that you'll need to buy everything from upgrades, to new cars, to entry fees and travel expenses as you shuttle to Miami, LA and Philadelphia.
The web-browser is where you'll buy and install licensed aftermarket products for your car. Exhaust and body kits are among the parts from companies like Flowmaster and C West that you'll be able to order --at real world prices-- and have delivered to your garage. The interesting twist here is that some parts, like body kits, can take a few days to arrive and a couple more to install, so you'll have to take this into account when you're looking at the calendar scheduling races. Some parts like tires can arrive in a day and be installed in the same day, just in time for a big race the next night. Other more cumbersome parts will keep that specific car out of commission while your mechanics hook it up. Again you'd better have a backup.
The plan is to have more than 20 licensed import vehicles from manufacturers like Toyota and Honda, but with intention to include real time damage physics, there's a chance we'll just have to make do with look-alikes. The cost of the vehicles, like the auto parts, will reflect real world pricing, so you'd better pile up those $200 races mighty quickly if you want to purchase the better cars. The girls in SRS are licensed as well and represent a cross section of the import car magazine cover model industry. That is, the 18 total girlfriends you'll be betting and winning and ogling in video clips in Street Racing Syndicate really are illegal street racing groupies (the racing's illegal, not the girls...we hope) from the Southern California area.
Continuing with the theme of realism, the tracks in SRS are all specific segments of the cities mentioned above that have been cordoned off, but unlike Project Gotham Racing you can leave the tracks and go exploring from the get go. When you're racing east through the Hollywood section of LA, you'll notice House of Blues and comedy clubs along the Sunset Strip, but when the race course makes a right turn on Crescent Heights, you can choose to continue down Sunset and see some more sights. You'll lose the race, but you'll get to explore another few miles of Los Angeles on your own.
The physics of the cars in SRS are super heavy so bending a corner will require some pre-planning. Drift racing will be a valuable skill to develop in SRS since many of the racing circuits will be surprisingly tight laps with few straightaways. One element of danger thrown into the illegal street races will be the law-enforcement presence. At any point during an illegal race the cops can show up to bust up the party and you'll have to make an onscreen selection to stay or run away from the cops. Staying means continuing on the race course until you're inevitably caught. Penalties for getting caught may include your car getting impounded and losing any illegal aftermarket parts you may have purchased. The severity of the penalty will vary, but your credibility amongst the racing crowd goes up if you show you're not afraid of one-time. Running away, will open up a new shortcut in front of you --this is why they model the whole city-- and it'll be up to you to lose the cops yourself on the city streets. Since all of your competitors will run away when the cops show up, you don't gain any credibility points when you split, but you do keep your car and all of it sparts.
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