Dark Sector... It's not dead!

I recently visited the Dark Sector website to see what was up, and was surprised to find it had totally changed. Though the site is only a teaser, I was greeted with this awesome picture that revealed two things: the game comes out fall '07 and "Everything you know about Dark Sector is probably wrong."

For those of you who don't know, Dark Sector is (or at least was) a third person sci-fi shooter. It was one of the earliest next-gen games I'd seen and still one of my most anticipated. I thought the project might have been canceled until now. It looks better than ever! The E3 '05 trailer also remains one of my favorite game trailers ever. You can check it out on gametrailers.com.

E3 in a nutshell

Since I got so lazy and didn't post much on E3, I've found this cartoon that pretty much sums it up for everyone. Enjoy!

Oh, I reviewed it all right!

The Chromehounds review is up! I think I went a little insane, though. Go check it out for yourself. Oh, and if you already have the game, there will be some downloadable content tomorrow.

In other news... this is Gameweb's 150th post!!! WOOT! Here's to 150 more!

Chromehounds Review

Finally, the Xbox 360 gets a giant destructive mech game! Be warned, however, this is no Mech Assault. What you get here is a very different game. The basic story has something to do which three warring nations, though I don't pay much attention because it's presented in such a dull way. I've read, however, that the story is very good. Guess you'll have to see for yourself.

There really isn't much to be had in the single player mode. You'll find yourself playing it to unlock precious HOUND parts (more on that later) or to get accustomed to the six different role types. Speaking of which, you probably want to know what they are. The RTs (role types) are one of the things that truly makes this game unique. There is the soldier, designed for front line battling, the sniper (self explanatory), the defender, designed to defend your base, the heavy gunner, packed with huge long range missiles to take out the enemy's HQ, the scout, quick and able to zip through battles and asses the situation, and tactics commander, who analyzes the map and strategies with the team.

In company mode, you'll find yourself piloting "borrowed" HOUNDS specifically suited to the role type in which you are playing (you choose an RT to play as and each RT has seven missions- 42 single player missions all together). Once you collect parts, however, you can freely combine parts to combine RTs.

The impressive part of this game is the online mode. Unless you have Xbox Live, you won't find much in this game- it has no multiplayer. If you do, then you're in for a treat. Chromehounds has an incredibly deep online mode. When you first start, the game will ask you to join one of three nations. You'll then battle against players on other nations for dominance of the land mass the three countries reside on. As you battle, your mech will take damage. You'll have to spend money earned from victories to pay for repairs, extra ammo, and parts. That's right- there's an online store. You'll be able to buy a variety of parts made by your nation, but there's nothing stopping you from changing your alliance to another nation and buying their parts. You can also import parts and HOUNDS from the offline mode. There's some online single player missions too to earn some extra cash. Nothing special, just destroy as many enemies as you can in the time limit. Also, based on your skill in the campaign mode, the game will give you a level for each RT which carries over into the online mode and is used to pit you against players of similar skill.

The game's three nations are all very unique and different. Each has its own culture, income, ruler, etc. If any one nation were to control 100% of the territory the servers reset and another war starts. The game also lets you start your own squad of up to twenty people, though only six are able to fight at once- that's a total of eighteen players per mach. The game also lets you choose from a variety of unranked matches just for fun. These do not reflect the outcome of the war like the raked matches.

Finally, the best part of the game... HOUND customization! You can literally customize every aspect of your HOUND from weapons (a total of sixteen per HOUND!), to color, to number, and its all incredibly easy! There are several different types of parts that make up your hound: light arms, heavy arms, cockpits, engines, bases, assist parts, and computer chips. To make the game more realistic, it includes a system in which you must balance your HOUND for maximum performance. For example, would you made a huge, heavy, gas guzzling hound with a small fuel tank and no radiator? No, of course not. It won't last long in battle. It a long, but fun, process to get the right balance of parts. You can even test your HOUND on a practice course, then go back and make changes. This mode became what I wanted and more. No two HOUNDs will ever be the same. You can literally customize everything, right down to color and custom emblem.

Now, on to the gameplay. Chromehounds has incredibly simple pick-up-and-play controls. Move with left stick, look with right stick, shoot with right trigger, switch weapons with right bumper. You can only have four weapons to switch between, but can customize it so you can fire up to four weapons at once. By clicking on the right thumbstick you can switch to first person view. This will become a necessity in battle. A small screen in the upper right corner shows the third person view or a first person view when zoomed out. My only problem with the gameplay is that most of the mechs were really slow. I've learned to deal with it, however. You can always make a fast scout if it bothers you.

Graphically, Chromehounds is beautiful. The one problem is that enemies disappear completely in a puff of smoke when destroyed. Levels are huge, but barren and buildings crumble unrealistically. Other than that the game looks fantastic. Sound wise, the game is good. Sound affects are great and music is cool and eerie, yet repetitive.

The Breakdown
+ Great customization
+ Awesome online mode
+ Simple controls
- Lacking campaign mode
- No offline multiplayer
- Where the hell do the enemies go when you blow them up!?

Overall, Chromehounds is a great game and a fun experience. If you don't have Xbox Live, don't bother. If you do, definitely pick this one up! 8/10

It's been a looooooooooooooong time

Out of nowhere, back from the dead is... Gameweb! Surprise! I, and everyone else was caught by an extreme case of The Laziness. This is a very dangerous disease as it prevents any productivity of anything. Nothing gets done. You just sit and watch reruns on TV or play video games... or sleep. In any case, don't let the laziness get you! This is the first post in a long time (save for one or two on Viewpoint, which, by the way, weren't mine), and I hope the start of many more. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll write a review of Chromehounds... or maybe I'll just play it some more.

Guild Wars

That's right folks the one known as to be reckoned with is back with a review on Guild Wars. Well from the get go I can tell you Guild Wars is a good game but when we get down to the nitty gritty it depends. First of there are 5 classes to choose from Warrior, Monk, Elementalist (wizard), Necromancer (evil dude that controls evil stuff), Ranger, Mesmer ( weird spin off of elementalist but looks Irish and wears masks). Now you may be saying that only 5 classes are to little for a MMO, well your right but that's were they through in the second class in which you can choose another of the classes to be a sub class for your character for exp. Warrior monk (Paladin), Monk Necro. These are only a few of the combos that you can come up with and the amount of skills you can learn are just flabbergasting. The one thing that I got a little upset with in this game and many other MMO's out there is the customization of making your character look unique ( props to Oblivion for doing it right) I was quite annoyed when I saw a guy that looked similar to my warrior ranger. All in all this is a good MMORPG for you MMO fans if your not I suggest a game like Ragnorok online which is like a MMORPG for people who are not really interested in MMORPG's. But if you like a good MMO and staying up till late trying to get money to buy armor guild wars is the game for you.

E3 2006- Sony

Personally, I think Sony was pretty weak this year. They did have some big announcements, however. Sony finally revealed the price and release date of the PS3: November 17 at a price of $499 for a twenty gig HDD and $599 for a sixty gig. A little pricey if you ask me. Sony's president, however, disagrees. He says it's too cheap. Even Microsoft's head of Marketing Peter Moore says to get an Xbox and a Wii instead of a PS3.

Sony also revealed their final controller design: exactly the same as it was for the past two systems. It is, of course, wireless, and word on the street is it's very light as well. Here's the problem I have with Sony though: they're unoriginal. They were being sued for stealing the former PS controller's duel shock technology and using it without permission. As a result, the PS3 controller no longer rumbles. So what do they put in it's place? Motion sensitivity. That's right, Sony swiped Nintendo's idea. And what do you find right in the middle of the controller? A guide button. They also announced plans for a "virtual-console" similar to the Wii's and a free online gaming service they hope to kill Xbox Live with. So far, Sony has done little to make me want to buy their product.

As for games, I thought Sony was rather weak this year. They announced GTA IV(http://ps3.ign.com/articles/706/706234p1.html) and showed of FF XIII (http://ps3.ign.com/objects/826/826843.html) and MGS 4 (http://ps3.ign.com/objects/714/714044.html), but there were few other blockbusters. There were, however, several games that have potential. One in particular, and the only one that really interests me at the moment, is Resistance: Fall of Man (http://ps3.ign.com/objects/748/748483.html). Other titles of note that were shown include: Ratchet and Clank PS3, Assassin's Creed, Heavenly Sword, and Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom. Check out IGN's E3 page for more.

For the PS2, Sony had God of War II playable at their booth as well as Guitar Hero II. Sony also showed off FF XII. For the PSP, Sony showed off GTA: Vice City Stories, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, and MGS: Portable Ops. Again, be sure to check out IGN's coverage for more on these games.

All in all, like I said before, I think Sony fell a bit short this year. The competition, however, was stronger then I've ever seen.

E3 2006

I thought it would be much easier to cover E3 once it was over. I know there are a ton of people that didn't follow the show day-to-day, so this is for you. I will basically have three posts. One for Sony, one for Nintendo, and one for Microsoft. The final post will be my overall impression of the show. So sit back, relax, and enjoy some of the most awesome, content filled posts ever. This is definitely a year to remember.

Huxley: possibly the most annticipated online MMORPG for the X-Box 360

It's no surprise that MMORPGS are going to be seen alot more on the next gen systems. However, besides Planetside, which got canceled about a year ago; there have not really been any major advancements to a first person shooter MMORPG.
Until now
Huxley is a first person MMORPG comming out for the X-box 360 and and it looks amazing.
The story line is as follows: For years now objects called Lunarites have hit the moon causing it to collide with the eart. This collision with earth causes a branch out of six different variations of humans. Trouble soon starts however when the human races of the earth don't exactly agree with each other...

Sapiens One:
These humans are the most closely related with todays modern humans. They hate all othe human races except for the Sapiens Syn who are most closely releated to them. The One only admire the Syn for there cruelty to other human species. The dream of the One are to anilate all other human races minus the syn and create the perfect world witht eh perfect human race.

Sapiens: Syn
These humans are similiar to the One with the excpetion of there slight albino features. They formed a pact with the One early one in order to avoid anilation. The Syn however are very cautious and trust no other race but themselves.

Alternative: Alteraver
These humans are best refered to as gentle giants. They are kind and warm hearted but when angered can quickly become a deadly fighting machine. Once oppressed by the One, they learned how to deal with heavy weapondry and become a poweful force to be reckoned with.

Alternative: Alternix
These humans are completly albino and make excelent assasins. They are however quiet and easily intimidated. When threated though, you can quickly find out that they have the means to kill anyone, quietly, and deadly.

Hybrid:Human+Hybrid: Monster

These are the only non playable races in the game and nothing is knows about them besides that they seek to rule the world and destroy alll other races.

Huxley will provide an arsenal of weopans for a player to wield as well as different types of vechiles the player can pilot. I will keep you updated as future information about the game comes in. However, will Huxley be the game its hyped up to be, or fall like Planetside?

-Doegab
(information retrived from www.huxleygame.com)

First Halo 3 images!

Following yesterday's story about the Halo 3 release date, Bungie released today the first concept art for Halo 3! There's a lot to be learned from these pictures. First, the game will take place on multiple Halo rings. Second, for the first time, you'll be able to interract with the native creatures of the ring worlds. Third, in one of the pictures a library can be seen. Finally, you'll notice the vasat variety of enviornments you'll encounter. Ther's a desert level, an ice level guarded by giant walking sentinals, a valley, two canyons, and what appears to be a city in the clouds. It can also be seen that the game might take place on other planets as well, because a halo ring can be seen orbiting what looks to be a planet besides Earth. If these pictures are any indication, we're in for one hell of a game!