The Lair of the Monkey

Here’s this week’s deal.  Assassin’s Creed on the Xbox 360 for only £24.99 delivered, from Play.com.  I’ve always had excellent service from them so I can heartily recommend the game at this price.  What a deal!

Formats: PC, Xbox 360, PS3

Tom Clancy’s EndWar is an all-new breed of strategy game. Designed from the ground up for consoles, it is a fusion of next-gen. technology, superior design and first-class production values.  It is focussed on simplicity of control so that genuine superior strategy wins out over being able to make multiple button presses.   

It offers A chillingly realistic vision of World War 3, in the fashion of the best techno-thrillers. Set in 2020, Tom Clancy’s EndWar explores a full-scale land war between superpowers. While the narrative engrosses the player in a massive global conflict, with battles taking place in American and European heartlands, on 40 real-life recognizable battlefields including Washington D.C., Paris and Moscow.  Apparently there’s an interesting emphasis on voice-command - a great way no doubt to command your forces into battle.

To see a video of what should be this year’s RTS title, go here to Kotaku.  In the meantime, I’ll have more information on this games blog just as soon as it is available.

Release date: 16/05/08 (UK)

Gamesindustry.biz has highlighted that the Xbox 360 sales have gone through the roof (well up 40%) after the price reduction.  They had this to say about the take-off:

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Chart-Track director Dorian Bloch revealed: “Xbox 360 is up 35-40 percent - that’s from Friday, when the price cut came into effect, up to midnight Saturday.

“Now it’s a question of Easter,” he added. “The real litmus test will be over the next three to four weeks – it’s too early to read too much into it at this stage.”

But while Xbox hardware was up, software did not enjoy an attendant rise. “That’s mainly because the week prior there were big new 360 releases like Army of Two, Bully and MX vs ATV,” Bloch noted, explaining that a drop-off in the following week is typical.

Read more after the jump.

Of course the title is a pun, but one thing that is standing out to me is the quality of the upcoming Wii titles.  Kotaku has some excellent footage of the House of the Dead 2 & 3 games.  They look brilliant and the Wii is perfectly suited to games just like this.  In fact, I can’t wait to play it.  Perhaps not enough to buy a Wii before I get a PSP, but good nonetheless.

Here’s this weeks’ chart.  Frankly, there’s nothing too interesting here - what with a Dawn of War PC expansion that surely tells you something.  Bully at the top is quite an old game now, even if it is on the Xbox 360.  No More Heroes at least is interesting and its good to see Call of Duty 4 holding place in the chart.

Bully - Scholarship Edition
Xbox 360

Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories
Sony PSP

In case you hadn’t guessed, of course Manhunt 2 it’s an 18.  The Video Appeals Committee upheld a decision that the game could be sold, no doubt annoying the BBFC who tried to have it twice banned.

For me, I highly doubt that the game is anywhere near as graphic as say the Saw or Hostel films.  Nonetheless, I haven’t played it yet so judgement remains out on this one folks.  I will bet though that it’s frankly not that great a game.  Since it’s had such a protracted launch, is anyone even too interested in it?
Manhunt 2 is to be released on the Wii, PS2 and PSP on 29/08/2008.

Microsoft has cut the price of its Xbox 360 video game console in Europe. From 14th March, the 20 gigabyte hard drive model will cost 270 euros, a drop in price of 80 euros.

In the UK, the entry level machine, which does not come with any hard drive, will cost £159.99, £40 less than the current price.

Taken from BBC News.

You’ll not have played anything like it before I’m fairly sure.  Mirror’s Edge is a new first person game coming from DICE (the dev studio who make the Battlefield series) on PC, Xbox 360 and PC.  If you’re familiar with Parkour, or Free-Running as it’s also known, then you’ll have an idea of what lies behind the action as soon as you see it.

Gamespot had this to say about the game:

Momentum is a key idea in the game. It’s not enough that you’re jumping around this environment. To perform some moves, you’ll need to string together a bunch of maneuvers to build up speed. For instance, you can climb over a fence, which takes a few seconds. But what happens if you jump off a neighboring rooftop, do a parachute roll upon landing (so you don’t lose precious momentum), and use the ensuing momentum to vault over the fence in a heartbeat?

If you’ve played games such as Tomb Raider, you know that you can stop after you maneuver around an obstacle, take a minute to figure out what you have to do next, and then go for it. Judging from the demo of Mirror’s Edge, you’ll have only seconds to analyze your terrain, partly because of the guys chasing you, but more because of the bullets they’ll be sending your way. So the game is meant to be played at full speed, and to help, there’s a special “Faith vision” that color-codes the environment, giving you clues about what you need to do. If you’re atop a tall skyscraper and seem trapped, look across the street and you might see that the fire escape on the neighboring building is red. Run for it and jump, and hope you grab it on the other side.

As you can read, this certainly sounds like a lot of fun - it’s also this sort of innovation that we’ll likely see in a number of shooters in the future, even if Mirror’s Edge doesn’t given you access to weapons…

There’s a new game on the Internet which is pretty much a word association/synonym game.  However, there is a great difference with this one.  For every right answer, 20 grains of rice are given to the UN Food program.  As such, not only can you increase your vocabulary you can also help the needy.  Go and play!

From Xbox Community: 

The hero of Mistwalker Studio’s newest RPG has lived for a thousand years. Kaim Argonar is an immortal warrior; he has survived for generations. Through the passage of time Kaim has experienced all the glory that immortality can bring, but also suffered the pain of losing loved ones. He has endured the most dramatic life imaginable. Lost Odyssey is his story told through a series of memories, as Kaim gains wisdom that could benefit all of mankind.

Lost Odyssey is driven by a magical but thought-provoking story from the pen of a renowned Japanese novelist, Kiyoshi Shigematsu. The incredible scenes are art directed by celebrated comic book artist Takehiko Inoue. If you loved the music of Blue Dragon, the same composer, Nobuo Uematsu, has been at work for Lost Odyssey too. Producer Hironobu Sakaguchi is at the helm.

Good points: Great in-depth story, interesting MMO style action sequences, fabulous music.

Bad points: Some CGI sequences (such as battle segments) can be overly long, some non-battle sequences can be rather frustrating.