Review - Dead Space: Extraction

Game: Dead Space: Extraction
Platform: Wii
Publisher: EA
Developer: Vicarious Visions
Players: 2
Release: Out Now

This frantic, fast-paced prequel to last year’s Dead Space has traded in the original’s third-person view for a first-person on-rails shooter similar to House of the Dead and Time Crisis. Set in the distant future on a barren planet, a human colony prepares to “crack” the land for vital resources when a strange artefact is discovered. As a team of engineers attempts to move this object, most of the colony suddenly turns insane, eventually into vicious monsters called Necromorphs that come in all shapes and sizes. You’re job, playing as a number of survivors, is to escape the horror.

Queue 10 levels of intense action, shooting everything in sight and praying you’ll make it out alive. Extraction is a wild ride from start to finish, but doesn’t play like any other light gun game. For example, aiming for the head won’t get you anywhere. Instead you have to go for the legs and arms, trying to slow the enemy down before they can get to you. It makes for a different, more exciting experience compared to what you may have played before. The pressure only builds as more enemies pile onto the screen, and you may well find yourself starting to sweat with anxiety. Other cool additions like using stasis to slow Necromorphs down, or a weapon that shoots spinning blades that you can then move with the controller only add to the experience. The first game was a refreshing addition to the survival horror genre, Extraction is very much the same, only on a new console and a new genre.

You can play through the campaign by yourself, but it’s even better to blast through with a friend in 2 player co-op. The story is constantly moving, perhaps sometimes a little too much for one level, meaning you spend a lot of time listening rather than shooting. Thankfully the plot is engaging enough to keep you interested, the voice acting is top notch, and the graphics actually manage to look quite a bit like the original game, despite being on the Wii over PS3/360.

It doesn’t end once you’re done with the story, either. There are weapon upgrades to collect, digital comics to watch, and a challenge mode that sees you trying to beat high scores. It all runs out eventually, but Extraction does what it can to keep the disc in your Wii for a while.

Overall Dead Space: Extraction works in a number of ways to deliver one of the best shooters on Wii. You may not have the control of an FPS, but the weapons, enemy types, limb slicing, and tight presentation more than make up for it. You might get more out of it if you played the first Dead Space, but that shouldn’t be any reason for you not to pick up a Wii Remote and start blasting away.

Review - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Game: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Platform: PS3
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Naughty Dog
Players: 1
Release: Out Now

It might be just after you take down a helicopter, or after scrambling up a train that’s literally dangling from the edge of a cliff that you realise Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is something truly special. Nathan Drake returns in this stunning sequel to 2007’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Fans of the original game will remember it for many reasons; it played just like watching an Indiana Jones film, with thrilling 3rd person gunfights separated by platforming that would make Lara Croft shake in her boots. The game also looked stunning, the best out there for it’s time. Saying that the sequel has a lot to live up to could perhaps be the understatement of the year.



Fortunately Uncharted 2 delivers on the hype and then some. This globe-trotting adventure holds about 10 hours of jaw dropping action as Drake chases after the lost treasure of Marco Polo. Whether you’re sneaking through the streets of war torn Nepal or hanging on for dear life in the Himalayan Mountains, the game never lets up.

The first thing you’ll notice is simply just how good the game looks. And by that, I mean it’s easily the best looking game to grace a console yet, pushing past Gears of War and Killzone 2. The level of detail you’ll find in any one aspect of the game is just incredible, and this goes past the graphics. Voice acting and story are both top notch, as if you expected any less. The game goes along way to pour everything is possibly can into its presentation, there’s not even a single loading screen after you load up you save.

You’ll get your hands on a load of weapons from the original game, but new additions such as the grenade launcher are more than welcome, and when combined with an improved cover system make for some frantic fights. Even better, you can assault the enemy with your bare fists for some grizzly hand-to-hand sequences. There’s a bunch of times the game will throw something else at you, armoured soldiers, helicopters, even tanks, to make it that bit more memorable. Amazing set pieces play host to the battles, a fight on a speeding train being the highlight. The detail and care in the presentation clearly carries over to the gameplay itself. Platforming returns to mix things up, as do some fairly simple puzzles. They might feel more like road blocks than variety at times, but that’s rarely the case.

The biggest addition over last time however is the multiplayer. There’s a heap of deathmatch modes, along with 2 co-op game types. While the vs matches may well tear you away from Call of Duty 4 for a while, it’s the co-op that stands out, survival missions seeing you hold out against waves of enemies with a friend, like Gears of War 2’s horde mode. Then there are missions that take place in areas from the single player campaign. They do more than enough to make sure this is one disc that will stay in your PS3 for a while.

Ultimately, for all the set pieces, graphics, and guns the game throws at you, it’s the little things in Uncharted 2 that will stick with you. Like making it through a tense scrap by the skin of your teeth, or getting that incredibly lucky shot. Make sure you don’t miss this game.

Wii Music 2 a possibility, blame Miyamoto

There are a lot of things in life I wish I could un-see, most of which can’t be mentioned here. Wii Music, specifically the game’s E3 presentation is one of these things. Despite this faceplam moment, a lukewarm reception and under-performing sales, Shigeru Miyamoto hasn’t given up on the franchise yet.

Mr. Mario spoke out to Edge on the title, saying, “As soon as we’ve finished a project, I always have regrets about what we could or should’ve done,” count one of those regrets as pretending to play the saxophone with a Wii Remote in front of everyone at E3.

“But then there are these great ideas that we can utilize with future projects, one way or another. Some people might say Wii Music is a good example. It’s been said that it could have sold much more than it actually has to date, but it simply means that I have some assets right now that, by tweaking something, we might be able to have great success with in future.”
Okay so maybe not quite Wii Music 2, more of a Wii Music Plus, perhaps? Maybe Miyamoto will be air guitaring his way onto the stage in LA this year, one can only hope.

Square Enix bumping up DLC on their ‘Things to do’ list

Square Enix have made it obvious that they like money a lot this generation with their multiplatform approach to consoles and a move towards developing more Western games. There’s still another filling to go into the sweet money pie though; DLC. We’ve seen the publisher pass up on some huge opportunites to take advantage of this in games like Final Fantasy XIII, but that’s all set to change.

Square Enix Europe CEO Phil Rogers has been talking about the importance of DLC in the company’s future, stating, “How we offer content to consumers via digital download is very important to us, and premium downloadable content is an absolute must for the titles that we launch.”

We can already see the seeds of this plan being sewn; Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is Square Enix’s first download-only entry into the Tomb Raider franchise (or maybe not). “I think the new Lara Croft game is a testament to our strategy to try something new,” said Rogers, “not as an experiment in a hit or miss way, but actually as a way to meet new consumer demand.”
So we can expect to see plenty more Sqeenix content when we go to check the PSN and XBL from now on.

Yakuza heads to PSP, brings nunchuks, new characters, and gorgeous graphics with it

If there was any reason for me to learn Japanese, the Yakuza series is it. It’s taken a year since the Japanese relase of Yakuza 3 for it to reach the West, and now we’re all waiting for an announcement on Yakuza 4 doing the same.

Sega aren’t stopping there though; they’re bringing yet another entry to the series to Japan. No, not Yakuza 5 just yet, instead it’s time for a PSP spin-off. This is the teased “Project K” title that was hinted at during a Yakuza 4 launch party. It’s hard to gather much solid info on this title just yet, seeing as everything about it is written in a very different, and very confusing language, but we can piece together a few things from first screens and a teaser site.

It seems like Kazuma is missing this one out, passing the torch down to a younger, much more angry looking lead character. The game also ditches in-game cutscenes for the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker approach with animated movies.

We’ll probably have to wait a very long time for more revealing info. If we have a hard time convincing Sega to bring the franchise over here on PS3, it’s not going to be any easier to get them to release it for PSP. Still, fingers crossed that we’ll be able to take all of Kamurocho in our pocket in the not too distant future.

SEGA cuts back and reforms in the West

When you think about Sega, mostly Eastern games/development springs to mind; Sonic, Yakuza, Valkyria Chronicles etc. For that reason, when it comes to making job cuts it might not be surprising to hear it’s all happening in the West. The company’s London studio has suffered a cut of 37 jobs, and a further 36 have been lost in San Fransico. Sadly, this is around 12 per cent of Sega West’s work force gone.

But it’s not all in vein however, as the publisher is to reform with a clear focus on digital and traditional gaming. San Francisco is now primarily concerned with downloadable games, while London is to focus on packaged goods. Sega are hoping the more straightforward approach to these different products will bring them great success.

Sega West president, Mike Hayes helped to explain the situation, saying, “Traditionally, Sega of America and Sega Europe had been running a dual company where both would look at traditional goods and both would look at the digital side. What we decided to do is to make San Francisco the kind of hub for our digital efforts, and therefore make London the hub for the traditional packaged goods part.”

Quick to wipe out any sign of weakness, Hayes also added, “I would stress, however, that this is very much administrative reorganization, because clearly we want to be very successful with digital globally. Likewise, we want to continue to be successful with traditional goods. So the reorganization allows us to be much more efficient in terms of our costs, but probably more importantly in the way that we can look at the future business.”

iPad comes to Europe on May 28th with huge price points

It’s about time Europe literally got their hands on the iPad (see what I did there?), and the 28th of this very month is when it finally makes its way over. Yes, for all you tech-heads the wait is almost over, the only problem now is choice… oh and price.

Apple’s touchy block will come in 6, count ‘em 6 different models; 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB versions of both the normal and 3G range. The cheapest (and we use that term lightly) model, the normal 16GB comes in at a staggering £429, which is £5 more than what I payed for my PS3 when it launched 3 years ago. Don’t pick up your jaw just yet though; because if a rich uncle just died and you’re going for the 64GB 3G enabled edition, that’ll cost you just a pound shy of £700.

I’d carry on writing, but you’ve already had that heart attack, haven’t you? I’ll call the ambulance…