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'Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08' Review
by AJ

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22 May

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22 May

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23 May

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23 May

EA Imagine: Full Report

EA takes us through their upcoming big games, and show you what you'll be playing soon

We just flew back from Sydney and boy are our arms tired.

Friday was EA's Imagine event, and all the AG Boyz decided to take the opportunity to go down, meet a few of our contemporaries, some people we've been chatting online with for years but never met, and some business partners.

Oh. And there were games. We'll talk about those.

Imagine is a chance for EA to show and promote some of the new games coming out ASAP. It's worth pointing out now that this is NOT like E3 or something. It's games that are due out within months, not years, and rarely (never) features any sort of dramatic announcements or news. It's mostly just a chance for game reviewers and media people to get a look at what they'll be working with for the next few months in the lead up to Christmas.

On to the games. Imagine gave us a few surprises in terms of what we did and didn't like.


Dead to Rights 2

I didn't really play the first game, so maybe I missed the point of this one, but to me it felt like Max Payne 2 without actually being particularly good. That being said I picked it up after someone had already run through and killed everyone. Frankly I couldn't find my way out and just ran backwards and forwards for about 10 minutes, got bored and put it down. Dead to Rights 2 features all the same stuff the first one did, and we'll probably ignore it when it comes out just like we did with the first one. Moving on.


From Russia With Love

It's all about old-skool lately, apparently. EA are bringing out a video game of quite a few old properties, including The GodFather (conspicuous by it's absense) and quite a few of the early James Bond movies as games. From Russia With Love didn't blow me away. It was OK, but it lacked the "movie" quality that in particular "Everything or Nothing" had. That was an exceptional game for a James Bond game, and probably should have set a standard. To me From Russia With Love didn't reach that same standard, and felt a little sparse and flat, but Yug reckons it feels the same. The inclusion of Sean Connery "The One True Bond" is nice. We'll give it more of a go down the track.


Burnout Revenge

This was the Holy Grail for me. Anyone who read the review of Burnout 3 knows I didn't hate that game. I have been looking forward to Burnout Revenge for months, and to get a chance to play it was very exciting. I could write pages on Burnout Revenge alone but I will just say that it is truly amazing. Everything they got right in Burnout 3 they kept or made better. Everything I didn't even REALIZE was a problem is now gone. Other traffic, for example, is no longer insta-death, and can even be used to deliberately ram into opponents for a "Traffic Check Takedown". The whole game also felt significantly faster, which can't be a bad thing. There also seems to be shortcuts and alternate paths, which is a nice addition. What was great is now better, and all is right with the world. The only problem I had with the demo was that it was the PS2 version. The Xbox version (of Burnout 3) looks noticeably better, particularly in the distance, with the clearer image making it much easier to see what you're about to run into. I can only assume PS2 code was more finished than Xbox.

This is also a good opportunity to talk about Burnout Legends. Burnout Legends is the PSP version of Burnout, and features tracks from Burnout 2 and Burnout 3, redesigned for the handheld. It sadly wasn't present at Imagine, but it looks amazing, and if you check out this video you'll agree. Bear in mind this is on the PSP. Yug thought it was the Xbox version. It's that good.


Black and White 2

What we saw of Black and White 2 was really rather flawed. The option to skip tutorials appeared to be broken. Here's another point, Lionhead, or whoever is making Black and White 2: Gamers are not dumb. If you tell us that the system to pan left is "blah blah blah" over a 5 minute period, you probably don't need to spend another 5 minutes explaining right. It's the same thing the other way. Seriously, they really need to work on the pacing of that. There were some odd graphical glitches, and the game got stuck in one or two places, but that's life. It's not launched yet. They've only got about a month or two to go till then, but hopefully it will all come together. One thing I will say? it's looking amazing. Really pretty. The water effect that surround the island especially are stunning, with waves breaking onto the rocks and so on. Detailed and lush, this game might well be a reason to buy a better video card. Now all they need to do is make the game actually good (unlike Black and White).


FIFA 06

I hate sports games. And I hate Soccer. I know it's the great game and all that crap, I just think it's boring as hell to watch. If I wanted to watch people run around, and then fall down and pretend to cry when no one even touched them I'd go to a kindy. Still, I watched Yug and Rob (from Spectre) play this game, and I couldn't help but love it. It really looks like the sport. Yug actually played this game more than any other on Friday (mine was Burnout Revenge). The graphics were amazing for a current gen system, and it looked and felt fluent and real. I was particularly interested to note that the players move like they're actual people rather than cardboard cutouts on sticks, and the game is almost as good to watch as it is to play. This will be a definite buy for AG, and a proper review will undoubtedly require a lot of mates and a large quantity of beer, and we can't wait.


Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire

Yug has tragically gotten the last 3 of these games on the Xbox and Gamecube because his sisters are obsessed with Harry Potter, but eventually found himself playing through them as well. He quite enjoyed them, so was interested to see what was new in this version. The biggest thing is you can have 3 people playing simultaneously as either Harry, Ron or Hermonie. It seems a lot of the puzzles rely on all 3 characters working together to move certain things or complete certain objectives as well. You also occasionally get help from other characters or teachers. As expected, it seems to be following the trend set by the last games in that the characters and graphics look less 'cartoony' and more mature and accurate.


SSX On Tour

Both Yug and I played SSX Tricky until we were doing ubertricks in our sleep. Literally. It wasn't pretty. SSX 3 kind of came and went. It was a little more toned down than Tricky, which made it a little less fun. A more realistic game, at least in terms of the huge tricks and the unlikely level designs of Tricky, SSX3 just didn't sit right with me by comparison. SSX On Tour is going for a "street cred" vibe. They've changed the look of menus and so on from the polished high tech look to "scrawled on my school books with a nikko pen" style graphics, which actually works better than you'd think. SSX On Tour was quite a bit of fun. I enjoyed playing it, but I still miss the excesses of Tricky.


Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects

Marvel Nemesis really stood out for me. This one could be very hit and miss. On the plus side the graphics (as you can see from our screenshots) are amazing, and the game has a dark and almost dirty look that is quite commendable. It really suits the look of more recent (late 90s to now) Marvel comics, and that's a plus. On the negatives, the game was pretty simplistic. There just weren't many buttons, so there wasn't really much gameplay. It seems like it's going to be rather limited and simple, and that's unfortunate.


Battlefield 2 Modern Combat

Battlefield 2 Modern Combat takes the huge PC game to console, particularly Xbox Live. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have survived the transition all that well, and looks and feels more like Goldeneye than the Battlefield we know and love. We'll definitely give it more of a chance, and it's on Live that this game will succeed or fail.


The Sims 2

The Sims 2 survived the transition better, and actually looked like a lot of fun. Direct control over the sims has been given unto you for this console translation, which reduces the "fish tank" appeal to a degree, but also makes it a lot more console gamey.
For the console versions they have structured it to be very goal orientated, so you can see your Sim's big ambitions and fears, and you can work towards making them happen.

Also cool was spirit mode, if your Sim dies you can still control it in a ghost format, where you can go around scaring or possessing other Sim characters. You can also now grow your own food, and combine foods to cook your own meals.

There are no children in the game however, which is strange considering how prominently they featured in the Sims 2 on the PC.

The most impressive thing however was just how expressive and lifelike the Sims really are now. The movements and interactions were extremely entertaining, and when Yug spent a bit of time actually playing the game, he had to pull himself away or spend the entire time at Imagine just getting the Sim to interact with everything and everyone just to see what he would do.

A lot of effort has obviously been put into making this game shine visually, but what I particularly noted was the humour. Humour doesn't always work in games, but the audience for the presentation of this one laughed repeatedly. It worked, and it worked well. One to watch out for.


Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 was another PC port for the Xbox. It actually didn't turn up until late in the night. The code was compiled for us that day and put on a plane. Which is kind of cool. What they had to show was pretty limited, just the intro. My personal favourite thing was that we had Kylie Minogue's "Love at First Sight" blaring at the time we were watching that. The lights in the room where Barney was made it look like they were having a disco. That was probably just me. All in all, though it was impressive enough looking on the Xbox. It didn't look that different from the PC version, though a little flat and lacking a lot of the detail. Of course. Still, the story is what drives Half Life 2, or so Yug informs me, so it should still work even though playing 1st person shooters is a compromise I have trouble dealing with.

Impressive 2 years ago when it was shown at E3, it didn't really have the same impact here. Yug's played through the PC version, and was impressed by how well it captured the look of the level. The textures were a big blurry however, and the control scheme could have used some tweaking (the movement in particular was too quick and erratic), but over all it looks like anyone who doesn't have the capacity to be able to play Half Life 2 on the PC should be happy with the Xbox version. It suffered slightly from some framerate drops as well, but nothing as extreme as Doom 3 on Xbox.



Need For Speed Most Wanted

This was probably the one that polarized Yug and I the most. Yug liked the "return to roots" and found it a good bit of fun after the tedium of NFSU2. I, however, thought it looked and played like poo. Need For Speed Most Wanted has changed styles substantially. Where NFS Underground was clearly inspired by The Fast and the Furious, Most Wanted draws all of its cues from Burnout 3. It looks and plays an amazing amount like that game, but there's something wrong. First of all, the graphics were terrible. It didn't look nearly as good as Burnout and something was definitely not going well. We were told that it was only about 60% done on the graphics, but? we'll wait and see. I also didn't like the way it felt. The cars were too light, with no mass at all, and could be easily hooked around even the tightest corners with full speed and full lock. It was iffy at best.

Yug, on the other hand, really enjoyed this one. He spent more time playing it than me and enjoyed it a lot more. He didn't think the visuals were as polished as they should be, but noticed a lot of background details that I didn't really see.

We'll wait and see on this one, and hopefully EA can polish it up more.


Both the Star Wars games, Battlefront 2 and Empire at War made me snore, but Yug was far more impressed than I was.

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From Yug:

Star Wars - Empire at War

This game gives me wood, it really does. I was so disappointed I missed the presentation of it, but I did get a bit of hands on time with it, and although I had no idea what I was doing, I could see the potential, and play around a bit with the control, and witness some of the cool micro animations of space combat!


Star Wars Battlefront II

It was heaps of fun to play, I was most impressed by 3 things:
1. Jedi. You can now PLAY as a jedi, if you reach a certain number of kills you can choose to play as the jedi character of that level (I think that's how it worked), where you run around and carve it up like a madman. But you don't stay a jedi, you have a bar which runs down over time, and the only way to keep it up is by actively getting kills, so you have to WORK to remain the jedi character. Also of note is that there are other 'special' characters depending on the level that work the same as this, such as han solo and Chewbacca.
2. Space. The guys from lucasarts showed us a video (which we have) where you start out as a pilot in the hanger of your own capital ship, get in a tie interceptor, fly over to the rebel mon calamari capital ship (while dodging lasers) and fly into their hanger, land and steal one of their X-Wings. The flying looks particularly solid, reminding me most of the space sequences in any of the Rogue Squadron games.

I also thought it was cool having a more acurate Kashyyyk level, and the new vehicles look kick ass!

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Conclusion

There was some really unexpectedly good stuff happening at the Imagine show. Burnout Revenge and FIFA especially stood out.

The thing that disappointed me the most can be put in two words. Or... one word and a number. Xbox 360. There were no playable demos of 360 games. There were no videos of Xbox 360 games.


There was a presentation by a Microsoft representative demonstrating some of the features of Xbox 360, but he didn't touch on... well, much at all. In fact, in referring to the self-evident fact that Microsoft rules and the 360 is going to be awesome he failed to in any way show or talk about... games.

I find this somewhat disturbing.

There was an upside to this, however. At the after-show party we actually got to meet quite a few people, including representatives of Microsoft. There followed an impassioned, but friendly argument about the decision not to launch in Australia at the same time as many major territories. While I still don't agree with many of the points made, we have been given assurances by Microsoft that it will all be made right, and sooner rather than later.

I believe something along the lines of "When you hear what we're offering you will be GLAD we've delayed the launch here". I'm both curious and a little excited to find out what these enigmatic words mean, and hope to have more for you soon!

There is one other issue that I'd love to address because it caught my eye and really worried me.

Take a look at that list. What is there that isn't either a sequel to another game or a major license in it's own right?

Where's the next Ico? Where's the next Doom? The next Oddworld Stranger? Innovation was thin on the ground. Non-existent. It simply doesn't pay EA to support new things. They won't support it. They won't promote it. And because they won't promote it, no one will buy it. A vicious cycle that leads to ossification in an industry already slumped in stagnation.

On that positive note, hope you enjoy the pics and movies, and don't forget you can listen to our podcast about the event!