Project Gotham Racing 3

Project Gotham 3 zooms onto the Xbox 360, expanding many of the features you've grown to love. In these races, speed alone isn't enough to win. You have to pull some of the wildest moves you'll ever see. See if you have what it takes, in updated version of incredible racing challenges.

Really shows off the gorgeous graphics of the XBox 360

By Lisa Shea "LisaShea.com"

If you're a racing fan, this is a must-have game for your XBox 360. If you're just looking to see how good the graphics are on the XBox 360, at lesat rent this game. It's quite impressive!!

You choose from a number of real cars. There are Ferraris, Jaguars, Aston Martins, Lamborghinis, McLarens and much more. The cars look AMAZINGLY good with full detail, and you can choose the color as well.

You race your car through a number of circuits around some quite recognizeable towns. You end up in London, Las Vegas, New York City, Tokyo and Nurburgring. Each location is full of detail. When you drive down the river Thames in London you pass Big Ben. Vegas has gorgeous hotels that I remember from my visits there.

Doing fun stunts earns you Kudos points, so not only are you aiming to win your races to earn cash, but you also want to rack up Kudos points. That makes even the easier races fun, as you do spins, slides and much more. The world you're in is quite interactive. The people watching the race take flash pictures as you drive past - but if you crash into a fence near them, they all cringe. There are clouds floating by overhead. Mostly, though, there are other racers on the track trying to get by you and steal the lead.

We found the controls to be very intuitive, and the cars handled quite nicely. Note that this is a GAME racing system - i.e. it's not pure realistic. If you smash into a wall at 100mph, your car does not explode into a thousand shards of metal. You simply spin off gently and keep going. That being said, most gamers really don't want a "realistic" racing game. They want a fun one, and this game delivers across the board.

I have to admit that for me, half the fun in this game is the gorgeous landscapes. In Vegas, you drive past the Excalibur and Treasure Island, and the details are picture-perfect. New York, New York is by the track in quite amazing clarity.

I also love the sound in this game - because the soundtrack options are simply awesome. You can choose from a number of soundtracks, from classical to alternative to J-Pop and more. You can even stream in music from your iPod or other MP3 player!

I suppose if you hate racing games, you probably will find this game to be boring. You're just racing cars around in circles with pretty scenery and great sound. But you'd have to be in the minority to not enjoy this game. The cars are amazing. The graphics are amazing. The sound is amazing. Because of the multiplayer options, including up to 8 simultanous live players online, you could play this game for eternity and still find people to challenge you. If you want even MORE of a challenge, you can even create your own custom route through their maps! You can design your very own custom lap system and challenge others to play on it. Talk about variety!

Highly, highly recommended!

PS3 Games : Metal Gear Solid 4

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, is a next-gen experience complete with top-of-the-line graphics and surround sound designed for the Sony PlayStation 3.

Featuring the most revealing display of Kojima Production's premier title, MSG4 details the world where Snake must under go his final mission. In a world overrun by private military companies (PMCs), wars are no longer fought over nations or ideologies. Instead, the wars of the future are micro-managed by overarching PMCs, right down to the bullet.

New gadgets and abilities fuel Snake's journey deep into the enemy domains of the Middle East, South America, and beyond. New gear includes "Metal Gear Mk. II," the ultimate reconnaissance tool, and "Solid Eye," which gives Snake real-time information on enemies and his surroundings.

Old timer Snake returns for what is slated as the final installment in the Metal Gear series. New and old characters abound in Metal Gear Solid 4. PMCs have run amok and the world is at war. Octacamo will help Snake blend into surroundings. Joined by a familiar cast of characters, Snake must once again return to the battlefield to confront his lifelong rival, Liquid Ocelot, who is manipulating the world's wars from the one world where soldiers will always have a place. But Liquid Ocelot is not the only one who will be able to manipulate the world's wars--Snake can destabilize opposing forces by working behind the scenes, supporting the local militia as they fight PMCs, creating a smokescreen that allows Snake to move freely within the war-zone.

MGS4 is a next-generation adventure set in the aftermath of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The concept behind the latest Metal Gear Solid project is "no place to hide," and this edition in the series will force Snake into unexpected circumstances with an all-new storyline that breaks away in some ways from the previous MGS franchise entries.

We don't want to spoil it for you, but, producer Hideo Kojima did reveal some very juicy tidbits about the game and the storyline when it was first announced at E3 of 2006. "Until now," said Kojima, "we've released two entries of the MSX2 Metal Gear series, and three entries in the Metal Gear Solid series. Add to this Portable Ops, and you get a total of six titles. All mysteries will be cleared up in Metal Gear Solid 4."

Kojima was very clear about the finality of MSG4, leaving gamers to wonder, "Will Snake die?!" When asked if the story will come to this sort of an end, Kojima responded without the slightest bit of vagueness, "It will come to an end." The MGS4 E3 trailer showed a number of characters from the Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid histories. This final installment is sure to deliver loads of cameos, in fact, it is rumored that nearly all the characters from the series will make an appearance.

In addition to a return of classic Metal Gear Solid characters, the gameplay systems from part three are also expected to make a comeback. The camouflage system from part three will make it into MGS4, with the addition of "OctoCamo," Snake's most advanced stealth suit to date.

The name appears to be formed from the words "Octopus" and "camoflauge," and players will be awestruck by the chameleon-like camo that changes with the surroundings. OctoCamo allows Snake to blend in with his environment as it digitally manifests nearby textures in real time. Think if it this way, if Snake is standing next to a wall worn out with holes, he too will appear to be riddled with holes.

It has also been revealed that MGS4 will have online play, but no specifics have been released. Although very little information is known about the game's visuals, rumor has it that MGS4 is expected to be the finest representation of console graphics on the PS3, and it is expected that they will just get better and better as the game nears its release date.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

By Brooks Huber -- 21/5/2007

Video Game Review by 1UP.com

Unlike the swashbuckling Disney trio of cash-cow films, developer Eurocom's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End comes closer to walking the plank than it does scoring some sunken treasure. Well, at least in terms of summertime fun. Casting minor inconveniences aside (long load times, especially when moving between interiors and exteriors), the attention to detail -- such as the rowdy pirate town of Port Royal or Capt. Jack Sparrow's inebriated mannerisms -- is spot-on with the films. And while Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley don't provide their respective characters' voices, the actors portraying them sound so close to the real thing that we had to do a double-take just to make sure they really were soundalikes and not some mutant clones created by Disney.

It's painful, then, that the swashbuckling combat (if you can call it that) consists of only a few simple sword swipes that don't always feel very responsive when you try to pull them off. And why does every enemy soldier/barman/sea crony turn his back after only two sword clinks? Such antics cause some serious déjà vu: attack, attack [enemy turns his back], attack, and the enemy drops dead. Simple? Yes. Fun? Well, only if repetition is your thing. But while the various controllable pirates (Capt. Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and so on) are mostly identical, at least character-unique, trigger-based sword fatalities offer something different.

Tossing daggers and flinging grenades are both large parts of being a pirate, but without crosshairs to properly display a locked-on target -- save for the direction in which your character is looking -- misses are fairly common, even in a room full of cronies. And with only one projectile item allowed at any given time, it's far easier to just slash away with your sword than it is to take the time to bend over, pick up a projectile, and then properly align yourself up to strike.

When not sword-swinging your way through levels, you'll be tackling exploration-based puzzles, especially in the later levels. One area in particular, Davy Jones' Locker, forces Capt. Jack Sparrow to work his way out of mirage-filled sand dunes -- complete with one-hit-kill booby traps. Also particularly frustrating is a puzzle in which you must locate five hidden bottles throughout a mundane environment. Luckily, distractions -- such as bare-fisted bar fights -- fall in between some of the more obnoxious puzzles to keep things fresh.

Boss battles manage to shake things up a bit from the repetitive hack-and-slash combat with 1-on-1 duels. Dueling consists of timed defense maneuvers as you alternate between high and low blocks with your sword. After successfully blocking an enemy's barrage of attacks, the chance to finally land a successful strike opens up. Strategy takes a backseat in this mode, as you simply watch the onscreen displays, which indicate where to block and when. Again, as with the regular combat, dueling lacks fluidity and feels like more of a chore than anything else. The best parts of these 1-on-1 showdowns, however, are the cut-scenes that cleverly show off baddies' comedic deaths at the hands of Capt. Jack Sparrow.

While it certainly isn't the worst movie-licensed game out there, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End isn't exactly the best, either. Sure, it's cool that you'll find references to some of the more popular third-person action titles, such as Prince of Persia's balance-beam act and hand-over-hand wall crawling, but nothing in here screams innovation. In fact, if it weren't for Johhny Depp's humorous onscreen likeness and Disney's unmistakable pirate love (films, rides, memorabilia, etc.), At World's End would lie on the seabed right alongside Davy Jones' Locker.

Grand Theft Auto IV

What does the American Dream mean today?

For Niko Bellic, fresh off the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity. As they slip into debt and are dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don’t.



Beginning with the 1997 release of the original Grand Theft Auto, the GTA series has been one of the most prolific, controversial and down right entertaining franchises in video games history. This pedigree of success guarantees that the highly anticipated eleventh game in the series, Grand Theft Auto IV, will garner at least as much attention if not more.




The Plot

Grand Theft Auto IV is a brand new adventure in the GTA universe following the experiences of Nikolai "Niko" Bellic, a new immigrant from an undisclosed eastern European country whose troubled past and the persuasion of his cousin Roman have brought him to the fictional Liberty City. Unfortunately, Niko’s search for the American Dream and a much needed fresh start, hits an immediate snag when the rags to riches story Roman spun to pique Niko's interest is exposed as not only a complete fabrication, but a ploy to enlist Niko’s well-known skills as a tough guy against the ample list of enemies clamoring for Roman’s debt-ridden blood.

Because Roman is the only person Niko knows in Liberty City he begrudgingly accepts his role as Roman’s protector despite the deception. But as time goes on Niko comes into his own, and his experience on the wrong side of the tracks proves more valuable than he could have ever imagined as he fights for survival and later supremacy on the crime ridden streets of Liberty City.

Game Environments

Based on several of the boroughs of New York City and parts of New Jersey, Liberty City, familiar to players of previous games in the series, has been entirely redesigned for GTA IV. Players can expect visible detail down to the weeds growing in the cracks in the sidewalk, cars and buildings of visibly different ages and a much greater level if verticality in the buildings and bridges that they are able to explore as Niko moves through the city streets. In addition, pedestrians in GTA IV are much more realistic. No longer simply moving cardboard cutouts, these NPCs are intelligent, modern, human representations that laugh, cry, eat, drink, use cell phones and ATMs, and talking amongst themselves regardless of Niko’s interaction with them.

Gameplay

Historically GTA games have focused heavily on mission-based play, requiring successful completion of fixed tasks in order for players to progress through the game, but this has changed to a great extent in GTA IV. Players will experience an entirely new and exciting emphasis centered on the blending of on-mission and off-mission play, resulting not only in an increased sense of realism, but more interesting and unrestricted gameplay.

Features

Official features for GTA IV have yet to be released. Stay tuned for more information as the game’s release in early ’08 draws nearer.