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For AC2, Ubisoft really have created a much deeper and more involved experience, some of which shows the level of detail of an ARG for Desmond amongst all that rooftop running and stabbing.

Uncovering glyphs prompts a series of visual mini-games to unlock small video snippets and one of these mini-games also had the following morse code randomly printed on one screen:

- . — .–. .-.. .- .-. – . -..- – … .- -.. .- .–. – . -.. -… -.– — .-. .-.-.- … — .. – ….

A quick trip to google and we find it says TEMPLARTEXTSADAPTEDBYMR.SMITH, which then begs the question who is Mr. Smith? Makes me wish I’d written down the earlier binary clue hidden in one of the pictures to see what it said.

Developed in secret over the last 7 years, OnLive is an online gaming service that should it deliver, could mean an revolution in gaming that ends console wars. In a press conference at the GDC, CEO Steve Perlman offered more details on this incredible new platform.

OnLive promises the prospect of gaming with the latest high-end titles without costly consoles, expensive gaming rigs or the perpetual cycle of upgrades. By utilising a low-end PC, Mac or even your own TV with a microconsole so cheap that ‘it could be offered free as part of a service package’.

The microconsole itself is a small pocket sized box with an ethernet port for internect connectivity, a HDMI port to connect to your TV, optical audio for those wanting audio split from the HDMI say for output to a 5.1 surround sound system and two USB cables to connect to either a keyboard and mouse set up or to a wireless OnLive custom controller which offers a similar layout to the Xbox controller.

The only requirement for OnLive is a fast internet connection with a 1.5Mb/s connection required for standard def gaming and a fat 4Mb/s pipe needed for high def gaming. When questioned about ISP monthly caps on bandwidth, Perlman replied that hi-def gaming would average ‘around 2Mb/s for hi-def gaming’, by our math that means around 280hrs of gaming per month for Comcast users and their 250gb per month cap.

OnLive works by offloading the intensive computing needed in video games to ‘the cloud’, a data center full of high-end server class machines, playing games remotely if you will. These servers then stream their video output over the internet to the player. Key to this is a new method of dynamic video compression that OnLive uses that delivers the video content within ‘a fraction of time of current video compression technology’. While traditional video compression works around 500ms, OnLive’s high-end server farm aim to provide video compression ‘within 1ms, we built our video compression technology with gaming in mind’.

OnLive architecture

Alongside delivering blisteringly fast, 0-latency streaming games OnLive also plans to have a rich and fully integrated community framework including allowing you to view live streams of what your friends and other OnLive gamers are currently playing as well as providing the option to jump right in to the game and join them, finally offering PC gamers the chance to stomp on Mac users or TV users to bring the pwn to both of them. The press conference demonstrating this by showing a TV and low-end PC playing Crysis multiplayer in 720p, ‘this is not a game you could normally run on a sub-$700 laptop’ they added.

OnLive sounds too good to be true, with an impressive list of current titles on offer for demo at GDC including H.A.W.X, Bioshock, Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider: Underworld and many more.

The service is scheduled to go live Winter 2009 with sign-ups being taken for their Beta program. I think this is definitely a service most of us will have to see to believe, but assuming all goes well all it will take is one of your friends to purchase this system and soon-after everyone in your neighbourhood will have one.

[UPDATE] Watch the full press conference below, courtesy of GameSpot.com

A massive explosion rips through six square blocks of Empire City, leveling everything and everyone in its path. At the center of the blast crater a lone man has survived the event and has been changed forever.

Players will experience what happens when a real person suddenly starts developing super powers. Will they exact revenge, protect the innocent or do little of both? These are the situations gamers will face when immersed inside a richly interactive and organic living city. A place where actions create broader reactions in the citizens and landscape around them.

[Official Game Site]

With two ’super hero’ sandbox games coming out, Prototype and inFamous, comic book fans and those who enjoy the Heroes TV show will finally get a chance to play a regular guy with special powers in sandbox environments.

While Prototype sounds like the better game on paper, with the ability to consume people to take on additional powers, the early hands one reviews say that inFamous has the potential to offer a more complex and intricate experience and the ethical and moral choices by the play will have a knock on effect on your characters development in terms of powers as well as how the world reacts to you.

infamous was already one of my most anticipated games of 2009, but this hands-on has propelled it to the top of that list. Since Spider-Man 2, I’ve been waiting for a developer to capitalize on the formula that combines an open-world adventure with kickass comic book storytelling. Although my taste was way too brief — I have no idea how side missions will play out, how smart the NPCs on the street are, etc. — Infamous did nothing but impress when I played it. If you dig superhero stories or the idea of a good guy in GTA gets you all warm and fuzzy, it’s going to be a very, very good spring.”

[Source]

Infamous is awesome. Period. End of statement. I know a lot of times we at IGN get railed on for over-hyping games — we tell you a game looks great during the preview period but then crap on it when review time comes — but I’m willing to put my reputation on the line right now and tell you I can’t see that happening with this game.

Infamous is a blast, and you’re going to need to buy it come spring.

[Source]

Screenshots:

Video Trailers:

Now released on Steam, the open multiplayer beta of Dawn of War II,  download and enjoy, before the beta ends.

The sequel to 2004’s popular Dawn of War, an RTS based on Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40K universe, the sequel builds on the original featuring updated graphics and physics engines, a new race (The Tyranids), destructable cover and improved AI.

Dawn of War II is scheduled for release in the US, February 19, 2009.

Forcibly shoved out of the limelight by Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2, Far Cry 2 is something of an unsung hero of a game for which few expectations were set and so is able to happily blow you out of the water

The Good

Like any good story, FC2 sets the mood from the offset, leaving you disorentated, confused and cursing the hell hole you are in, thankfully this is all part of the game and you’ll quickly pick up the skills needed to succeed.

FC2’s AI is superb, reacting to gun shots, investigating noises in pairs and groups will always try to out flank you and attack from behind. All this helps to unseat you and place you on edge. Was that noise behind you just the wind in the grass, a passing zebra or are you just being paranoid? For someone who loves to snipe like myself, being able wound enemies and use them as bait as they call over their comrades for assistance is a most wonderful guilty pleasure. Is it still curelty to toy with computer opponents?

Firefights are intense and often confusing, enemies shooting from cover behind bushes and trees leaving you with little idea where you are being shot at from, encouraging you to keep your head down and keep on the move instead of opting for the ‘bullet magnet’ offensive technique employed by most shooters.

Morality, like your guns, have to be checked at the door. While FC2 is set in a war torn African country and has running commentary on the morality of war and the mercenaries like your character who thrive on the war economy, at no point is the game righteous nor does it allow the player to feel as such. The missions you take are solely about the money and while there are some humanitarian side missions, these are done out of a very real need for malaria medication, not any sense of good will.

Pyromaniacs will giggle with glee at this game and those who aren’t pyromaniacs soon will be. Fires were a much hyped feature of the new graphics engine and with good reason, molotov cocktails can quickly turn into huge infernos raging through the bush and grass. It can also be a danger far greater than your enemies with backdraft from rocket launchers easily igniting the ground around you. There are few sights greater than a large fire engulfing trees and grass alike in the middle of night in this game.

Dying is no longer a frustration, thanks to FC2’s buddy system. Talking to a buddy before a mission will have them ‘rescue ready’ and should you fall in combat you’ll be treated to a series of flashes of your buddy dragging you to cover, shooting at the enemy all the way. Then you’ll be equiped with a pistol and told to pathc yourself up. A further death here will send you to the loading options, but this recovery system is a perfect way to counteract the frustration of a cheap death.

Weapon jamming might seem like a pain, but the notion of weapons degrading over time in your equipment and thus becoming less reliable works well in game. It leaves you desperate not to pick up the weapons of fallen enemies which are often covered in rust, but add just that extra challenege when you run out of ammo and are forced to throw all you can into the fight.

Did I mention the massive open environment? While most of the missions are found at the centralized hubs, there are plenty of side missions located out there and hunting for hiden diamond cases will keep the explorers happy. Racing off road through varied jungle, desert and grasslands as you keep off the roads and rivers, away from vehicle patrols and roadblocks, you really get a sense of freedom and also extreme vulnrability. You’re alone in a country filled with a lot of very bad people.

The game also offers the ability to play your missions how you want. Snipe from afar? how about loading up with RPGs and heavy machine guns to go in rambo style causing maximum damage and attention? Perhaps the stealth option is more your style, go in at night with silence sub machine gun and pistol or get up close and personal with the machette. Whatever your style, FC2 offers up the freedom to approach your objectives however you deem fit, leaving no two missions and no two games quite the same.

The Bad

While the AI is at times stunningly brilliant, there are just as many occasions where you’ll be little more than a few feet from a crouched enemy facing you who takes 5-10 seconds to react to you and open fire. They also have a number of pathing issues, getting stuck on fences and such and is even more of a problem once they are behind a wheel.

Sadly the poor also extends to your buddies, who’ll often be found popping flares and crying out for help. If you aren’t fast enough then you’ll only be able to ease their passing or pull the trigger and end their suffering. Once a buddy dies they are gone and while forcing this brutal detachment of emotions from your buddies keeps in theme with the rest of the game and story, most players will simply load up a previous save and work harder to save their favourite buddies.

Respawning checkpoints are FC2’s only real source of frustration, but clearing a road block to visit a location a few hundred yards away only to return and have to fight your way back through the road block is an unnessary waste of time and precious ammo.

Like most sandbox open worlds, travelling is a large part of the game. Impressive scenery and graphics are enough to entertain during the first hours of gameplay, it’ll soon wear thin though as you try to avoid the numerous checkpoints between you and your objective.

The Verdict

I’ve stuggled to figure out quite why GTA4 recieved so many perfect scores while it destroyed what had been an enjoyable franchise so far. Far Cry 2 is everything GTA4 should have been and could have been. Far Cry 2 is a top rate shooter with untold hours of gameplay woven together with a decent storyline and topped off with a side of gameplay freedom. It is easily, by some distance, my favourite game of the year.

Once upon a time there was a game called the Sims and it was insanely popular and made lots of money. The creator found though that diving through the McDuck vault of cash generated from the game made him bitter and twisted against the world, resenting not just the players of the Sims, but all games and set out to teach them all a lesson and began work on his revenge, a game he entitled Spore.

While that is most likely not true, it is the only explanation I can come up with for why Spore was designed as little more than a big ‘fuck you’ to anyone who plays video games for fun. The hype surrounding Spore pretty much ensured the game would never live up to expectations, but this is a game that has refined, concentrated and bottled futility and provides ample supplies of it at every turn.

The game itself is split into five eras, Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilization and Galactic, with each promising you’ll be able to customize and guide your creation with limitless freedom. The creature creator certainly provides that, with thousands upon thousands of possiblities, but the vast majority of the body parts are found by wandering aimlessly around the large map looking for them. Looking for the higher stat body parts that are critical to dominance can lead to a lot of wasted time unless you feel like simply resorting to beating on the various weaker species.

Outside of the creature creation your options are severly limited with each stage tracking if you opted to kill or befriend the other creatures or head down some zen bhuddist middle path. Choosing anything other than kill,kill,kill will result in a painful lesson about the mechanics of the food chain and exactly how far down it your creatures lie. Once you get to the civilisation stage, the warrior path opens up city destroying nukes that allow you to simply bomb your enemies into submission making the two other strategies, bribe/trade or send units to attack, irrelevant.

Each of the four opening stages lacks any real depth and serve as little more than a lead-in to the galatic stage, clearly the focus of the game given the attention devoted to it. It does offer more to do than the other stages, tasking you with running missions, trading, forming alliances and even managing the food chain on your new colonies to improve their teraform rating and thus the number of facilities you can build. Again though, you are reduced to either bribing and trading with the other species or destroying them.

The overall aim of the galactic game is to reach the center of the galaxy a task made supremely difficult due to the distance to the center, numerous wormholes that never seem to lead you where you want to go and the center of the universe being occupied by a vast race, the Gorx. While every other race in Spore holds only a few paltry planets, making alliances all but worthless as the vessels they send to your fleet are unable to defend against even modest threats, the Gorx have an epic empire that once again leaves you with two choices: A systematic removal of the Gorx from their planets one by one as you journey to the center, a task requiring Final Fantasy levels of devotion and game hours, or you can stock up on repair modules and race to the center as their ships pile on with each planet you pass. The later is made even more difficult with the addition of the fact that your travel range reduces as you get closer to the center and this only allows one or two paths to the center of the galaxy, making for lots of pausing of the game and finding paths with lots of stars to get you there.

Ultimately Spore offers only a few modest hours of ‘fun’ gameplay and the creature creator is certainly where most of that joy will spawn from, I’m sure it’ll be an even bigger hit with younger players, but there’s precious little choice or control over your race and the latter end of the Galactic stage feels more like a chore or a day job than entertainment.

With EA’s decision to implement strict DRM with Spore, only allowing limited installs, which has meant many stores won’t allow you to return or trade the game, I can’t even recommend this be a game you ‘rent’. If you are really desperate for a Spore fix, just buy the creature creator and save yourself the $40 for the full game as you’ll have the only real enjoyable part of the game and avoid the many flaws, pain and deep, deep frustration that comes from playing it.