WelcometoExtremeGamer

PG 1/2 October 20th /2006

Intro
One week after Sony's Toronto Event, Xbox shows up to give gamers the down low on the upcoming season of gaming for the Xbox 360. I had the chance to have a look at all the games on the show floor and even sit down with Larry Hryb (Major Nelson). The Xbox 360 is looking good and it's unbelieveable that a year has almost passed us by. In standard Extreme Gamer form here are my hands on impressions of the floors best.

  • Page 1 - Gears of War, Crackdown, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas
  • Page 2: Sonic The Hedgehog, Dead Or Alive Xtreme 2, Superman Returns
GearsOfWar
GEARS OF WAR
Publisher - Microsoft
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Developer - Epic Studios
Genre - Action
Release - November 7th, 2006
Platforms - Xbox 360 *Exclusive

The buzz award for X'06 has goes to Microsoft's Gears of War. From the Microsoft representatives to other publisher, everyone was talking about Epic Games upcoming blockbuster Gears of War. Gears was playable in single player and multiplayer and I spent a good chunk of time exploring Gears.

The fist thing you will notice about Gears of War is the amazing amount of detail Epic has put into ever frame of the game, from the character models to the environments, nothing has been missed. You can follow the action on screen with a single button press so your never miss a moment of action. At times a few on lookers wondered thought we hit a cut scene, Gears looks that good in motion. With support for 1080i, and a smooth as silk frame rate, Gears is aimed to impress any doubters to the potential and ability of the Xbox 360.

Gears of War played how I expected, a duck and cover, run and shoot type of action game. Although, I was surprised in the amount of strategy you have to use to out smart and outflank the enemy. Looks are deceiving and I think once you sit down with Gears of War you will find an underlining level of difficulty and depth. The multiplayer portion of Gears of War that I experienced was a 4-vs-4 mode, the Locust Horde (or Lizard People) vs. the Humans. I had the chance to play through two maps and it was interesting to see how people reacted to gameplay mechanics. At times it was an all out war and then other times it was a paced snipe and move affair. Even though the representative from Epic was slaggin' me, I think I had a good showing and snagged more than a few kills.

 

Crackdown
CRACKDOWN
Publisher - Microsoft
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Developer - Real Time Worlds
Genre - Action
Release - TBA
Platforms - Xbox 360 *Exclusive

Besides Gears of War, Microsoft had a single player demo of Crackdown at X'06 and I was impressed. Crackdown was the most visual interesting games being showcased, besides the obvious Viva Piñata. Crackdown would be best described as a cross breed between cel-shading and normal rendering. It was good to see a fresh approach to a graphically similar genre.

In my impression of running around Pacific City I was impressed, not only by the look, but the scale of the city and the unique concept of playing someone other than your typical thug. You can do all the normal features you expect in an open world environment like drive cars and run around like a madman, but you can also throw the cars and scale buildings. Crackdown reminds me of Superman, which was also on the floor, it's like your play an unknown superhero who feels the part. Besides the single player game, just thinking about causing multiplayer gets me giddy. It could get real interesting giving the characters powers set in this open world environment.

I think Crackdown might surprise a lot of gamers with its unique look and innovative approach. Given Dave Jones (Grand Theft Auto, Lemmings) is the visionary behind Crackdown, I have a lot of faith that this could be one of the best Xbox 360 games next year.


R6Vegas
TOM CLANCY'S RAINBOW SIX: VEGAS
Publisher - Ubisoft
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Developer - Ubisoft
Genre - Shooter
Release - November 11th 2006
Platforms - Xbox 360 / PS-2-3-P

Ubisoft showcased two Tom Clancy games at X'06, Splinter Cell: Double Agent and Rainbow Six: Las Vegas . Since Double Agent has just been released, I'm going to focus on the equally impressive Rainbow Six: Vegas .

First thing you should know about R6: Vegas is that it's returning to its Rainbow Six 3 roots, and away from the overly arcade influenced Lockdown. What this means for the player is more realism and more strategy. Your new reformed and smaller Rainbow team has been retooled with some awesome new features with greatly improved A.I. One of the best features Ubisoft added is the inclusion of Special Orders. You can now tell your squad more precise orders like who to shoot, where to shoot and when to shoot. Team Rainbow also has the ability to repel down areas and even scale walls. One moment in the game the team was repelling down a glass wall right behind a group of terrorists and they deployed orders to shoot after I fired the first shoot targeted for headshots. Glass broke and bodies fell, it was pretty damn cool. These new features, plus a host of others are going to add a whole new dimension to how we play Rainbow Six, and best of all, it's all for the better.

Rainbow Six unfortunately didn't have the multiplayer hooked up, but since the multiplayer has always been a premiere focus it's understandable they wanted to hype the new single player game. Rainbow Six: Las Vegas was demoed running through a half build industrial building and although the building was nothing special graphically, the level design was complex and the graphics looked crisp. Ubisoft even added some new motion blur animations along with glittering signs showcasing the magic of Vegas. Rainbow Six: Vegas, all around impressive and that's without seeing the multiplayer in action. I have a feeling this will be the best Rainbow Six game we have ever seen.

PG2

X'06
CANADA

The Brant House
Toronto, Canada
Oct 18th, 2006

PG1

PG2