God Of War 3: Demo Impressions

On Thursday, Sony released the first publicly open demo of God Of War 3, making it the first time since the Eurogamer Expo that anyone outside the press in the UK has managed to see the game - and of course the first time since the event that we at IQGamer have had a chance to play it. What comes next is our hands-on impressions of the title, in which we originally had hoped would amount to a progresses report on how the game is coming along. Or so that was the idea, if it wasn’t for the fact that this recent demo release is in fact a nearly year-old build first shown off to the press at E3 2009, and then used once again for the public showing at the Eurogamer Event in London.


When I first played GoW3 at the EG Expo I came away particularly unimpressed with the whole thing. Visually the game appeared to look rather flat, with simplistic texturing and a distinct lack of bump-mapping bringing depth to the proceedings. The game also seemed to use only basic pre-baked light maps for shadows, and the much talked about dynamic lighting system was only partially on show. In addition the framerate was pretty poor compared to other competing titles, running at 30fps during any battle scenes with just a hand full of enemies on screen, and only ever hitting 6fps during scenes in which nothing was going on.

However having the demo at home and seeing it running on a properly ISF calibrated Plasma screen, it is apparent that much of what I observed with regards to textures and visual effects was simply down to the HDTV’s being used at the EG Event left in an un-calibrated state. The actual game looks much nicer at home away from all the poorly set up, dynamic mode, upscaled 1080p disasters that showed off the game so badly before.

The framerate still hinges on fluctuating between mostly 30fps and 60fps – which is the kicker for me personally, but the texture detail and various visual and artistic effects come through much more nicely than before. For example you can you can see the finer details found in the ground and wall textures, the pre-baked shadow maps actually add a good sense of depth to the proceedings, whilst the dynamic lighting – albeit used sparingly – comes off as quite a nice touch. The hand-painted skyline and two-dimensional background parts also blend well into the environments and create a sense of fantasy in a dark foreboding realm.

Despite this, the build used for the demo feels completely outdated, having none of the additional complex graphical effects seen in recent footage and screens. Shame, as it really doesn’t look too bad initially, and there are parts of the demo which were quite impressive, like when the Molten Stone Titan smashes through half the temple, making it fall apart before your eyes, and partially revealing GOW3’s dynamic lighting system, or when using your Blades Of Chaos in the caves, with the flames lighting up the walls, floors and ceilings around you. Sadly, these moments are too few and far in between.


This demo is of course just an old build from last year’s E3, and things have come on leaps and bounds since then. It’s just a shame that Sony couldn’t have shown off a more up to date version of the game, and we at IQGamer would have liked to see how much progress has been made in the flesh, as small internet videos and compressed screenshots make it hard to ascertain just how much has actually changed technically rather than artistically.

Of course with the game finally going gold, and due out in stores in a matter of weeks, we won’t have to wait long to see the results of Santa Monica Studio’s hard work, and in the processes seeing if they’ve crafted another PlayStation 3 technical success story.

Under the graphical surface though, lies the same old God Of War that many have come to love, and in which I’m still not yet sold on. The combat still ranges on you mixing various moves and specials together, changing weapons to deal with different enemy types and varying boss encounters, whilst having to dodge and counter numerous attacks and obstacles. These are the parts that for me require a good amount of skill and mastery to them, the part which most attracts me to the game, and provides the most fun. However there is also a whole lot of button mashing to be done, with even the smallest of enemies taking a seemingly huge amount of hits before dying, which is not only unrealistic, but also turns the game into one long combo fest.

With the demo, you start off with Kratos about to breach into a mountainside temple fending off Zeus’s skeletal army along with various undead warriors from the underworld looking to have your head on a plate. Your first encounter against the skeletal foes reveals no surprises; it’s a simple case of playing and feeling much like GOW2. However as you progress through a few doors, going through the caves into the main temple area, and killing a few more enemies, you start to notice some of the subtle, but effective changes which have taken place.


Disposing of your foes is effectively the same as in GOW2, using the square and triangle buttons for light and heavy attacks, vertical and horizontal respectively, whilst using the circle button from grabbing hold of enemies before spilling their guts out. Holding L1 acts as your defence, whilst holding it down and pushing square or triangle has you do some more powerful special attacks. Lastly R1 is used for opening doors, chests, and for other specific context sensitive operations.

This is all pretty standard stuff seen in the last two games, and is all I was using for most of the demo. However there are important changes to the combat system. The most significant of these is the ability to change weapons on the fly, even during combos if you’re quick enough. This is done by simply pushing down on any of the four directions on the d-pad, which one depends on how many weapons you have available to you. Doing this creates more openings for using strategy against bosses and large groups of enemies, rather than button mashing a few normal and special attacks together. It also makes taking on the larger foes a much more manageable affair without lowering the difficulty level.

In addition to this, the demo showcases a new method of attack along with a brand new weapon. By holding square whilst in a group of enemies you can pick one of them up and use them as a battering ram against the others, after which pushing circle with see Kratos discarding his living weapon by smashing their face in a fury of blood and guts up against the nearest wall.


The new weapon first seen in this demo is called the Cestus Gauntlets, two bulky metal gloves that look like the head of a Lion. Using them is a slower, prepared affair, but one which allows you to smash through the defence of most large enemies in the demo, allowing an opening for some serious combo damage if you quickly switch back to your standard Blades Of Chaos afterwards.

This is perhaps the best part about the ability to switch between weapons on the fly, is that it allows you to try things out using a different tact if normal button mashing isn’t working for you. There is also a lot a of skill and timing involved, especially as you will have to quickly let go of the left stick to switch weapons using the d-pad, whilst moving around and avoiding taking damage.

When fighting against larger enemies and bosses, you may remember the various QTE sequences that come up in order for Kratos to be able to finally finish them off. Well, in GOW3 these no longer just appear above the enemies directly, but now appear in all four corners of the screen, each relating to a face button on the controller. Essentially, you no longer have to look out for the symbols of the face buttons on the pad, but rather what position they can be found in. So for example if an icon appears at the top of the screen, you hit triangle, or on the right side, you hit circle. It makes things easier and the combat during the QTE’s more fluid.

Lastly, the fire bow first given to you in GOW2 is no longer a limited use weapon; instead it occupies the yellow bar below your health meter, and becomes exhausted after about ten shots or so. When depleted, the bar quickly fills up again when not in use, which means it’s now possible to run around the larger enemies firing off flaming arrows whilst evading attack, briefly going back to normal attacks after the ten shots waiting for the bar to fill up again. Once this occurs it’s a simple matter of firing off more arrows and repeating the entire process until the QTE icon appears on screen to enable a finisher. This, like with the instantly switchable weapons, makes boss encounters and tough foes easier to take down.


The various gameplay improvements definitely seem to make GOW3 a better game than its predecessors, and we can certainly see how it might become a bit more fun for those who didn’t feel quite so taken in by the first two. However, the erratic framerate and unfinished visuals don’t really help matters in this regard, and is the main offence that I took to when first playing it at the EG Expo in London. Hopefully Sony can sort this out, as if they were to at least achieve a near constant 60fps, with only a few dips in heavy action-packed areas, it would make all the difference. It definitely did with Platinum Games Bayonetta, in which the gimped 30fps PS3 version felt sluggish and visually much less impressive as a result.

To be honest whilst I’m still not completely sold on the title, it could potentially turn out to be an awesome experience if those niggling graphical issues were taken care of - a game like this needs 60fps as much as a good 3D beat’em up - and if the final game looks as good as in the latest press screenshots, whilst maintaining 60fps and playing as solidly as it did in the demo, we could be looking at another superb must have PS3 exclusive.

We’ll be taking a close look at God Of War 3 when hits stores on the March 19th, bringing you our trademark in-depth technical analysis and the definitive verdict on whether it lives up to all the hype.

Nintendo's Summer Sensations

Nintendo’s media summit in San Francisco on February 24 provided gamers around the world with a taste of what to expect from the company in 2010, and it’s certainly shaping up to be a good year.

For far too long, Nintendo has failed to provide core gamers with a line-up of any real interest, but summer 2010 is looking like the season to set things right.

First up, is the rather sumptuous looking Super Mario Galaxy 2. Not since October 2007 when the original Super Mario Galaxy hit the Wii has the console seen such an incredible game, so it’s only fair that almost 3 years later, such a game should come in the form of its sequel.

Since it was first announced at E3 in June 2009, details of Mario’s new intergalactic adventure have been pretty thin on the ground, and we were expecting an announcement at this years show, but it turns out that we’ll actually be playing it come E3 2010. Nintendo has announced a European release date of June 11.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is looking spookily similar to the original, but more of the same is no bad thing for this sequel. This time around, Mario will be joined by Yoshi, who looks set to feature quite heavily throughout, and we’ve no doubt that Mario will have a slew of new caps to aid him on his journey. We’ve already seen the new drill tool in action, but that’s probably just the start of things to come.

The sequel has retained the art style and feel of the original, but judging by the new trailer and screens, enemies are looking more impressive in terms of scale, and bosses look set to take on much larger forms with more devastating effects than before. IQGamer is also pleased to announce that the glorious 60fps platforming action will continue for Mario once again.

Details of the interesting Metroid: Other M have also been revealed. Produced in collaboration with Tecmo’s Team Ninja, Samus’ first console outing since Metroid Prime 3 looks set to feature a mixture of gameplay styles, whilst still retaining a distinctive Metroid feel.

Screen shots show Samus in action in both first and third person mode, with most of the action taking place from a 2D perspective, but all the while in full 3D. Simply pointing the Wii remote at the screen will enable you to enter first person mode, though you can’t move around. This mechanic will likely be used for exploration rather than intense fighting.

Graphically, the game is shaping up well. It almost looks like a 3D version of Super Metroid, and in typical Tecmo style, the fully rendered cinematics look gorgeous. We’ve only seen a space station environment so far, so it will be interesting to see where else Samus winds up in her latest adventure.

Metroid: Other M has been given a European release date of Q3 2010. Nintendo has announced a more specific release date for America on June 27.

Other key Wii titles for 2010 have also been given European release dates. The crazy looking, and nicely titled Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is set for June 7, and Capcom’s massive Monster Hunter Tri will be gracing stores on April 23.

The DS certainly hasn’t been overlooked either, and with a new hardware iteration about to hit stores in Europe and America, Nintendo’s super successful handheld is set to gain yet more momentum throughout 2010. The DSi XL is coming to Europe next week on March 5, with America following closely on March 28.

Big titles arriving on the DS in Europe over the next few months include Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, coming March 14, WarioWare: Do It Yourself on April 30 and Dragon Quest IX coming sometime in the summer. The DSiWare service will be receiving further support from shooters X-Scape and Metal Torrent, Photo Dojo, Art Style: light trax and Art Style: Rotozoa.

Summer is looking bright and very colourful for Nintendo fans right now, and with some solid release dates and tantalising details having been revealed so early in the year, let’s hope Nintendo has a few surprises in store for E3 in June.

SNKP Announces New King Of Fighters!

Yesterday SNK Playmore revealed the existence of The King Of Fighters XIII, the latest instalment of the long running series of 2D fighting games, which started out way back in 1994, and featured yearly updates up until the release of KOF 2003. No other details about the game were given out, although it has been confirmed in the past that the series is to remain in the realm of hand drawn pixel art, along with lush 25fps animations and enhanced visual effects.


The game is being developed for the Taito Type X2 arcade board, the same one which powered predecessor KOFXII. Also SNKP have stated that a proper unveiling will take place at what they’re calling a premier event, due to be held in the Tokyo electronics capital Akihabara on 25 March.

In other related news, SNK Playmore have opened up a website in anniversary of the much-loved Neo Geo platform, which features a brief history of both the home AES system as well as the MVS arcade variant. In addition the site features a list of pretty much every title to be released on the format, and is available to browse in a full Engrish (I’m mean English) language version.


For those who aren’t completely aware, the Neo Geo was the birthplace for pretty much all of SNK’s flagship titles, including The King Of Fighters, Metal Slug, Fatal Fury, Art Of Fighting, Last Blade and Samurai Shodown. It out lasted two full generations of consoles (16 and 32bit), and was laid to rest near the end of a third due to growing piracy issues, and outdated technology, which had been pushed as far as it could go.

- SNK Neo Geo Anniversary Site

Editorial: Preowned & Project Ten Dollar

The debate over the second-hand (preowned) market has been a thorn in the side of both retailers and publishers. With supermarkets selling games at below cost price, retailers have responded by pushing preowned further into the public eye, and publishers are left feeling short-changed by the lack of any income via sales of used games, determined to claw back some of the money they have lost, which once would be found in selling brand new releases of older titles at cheaper prices. All the while retailers are constantly upping their prices of preowned games whilst reducing or keeping the trade-in price low. Consumers on the other hand are buying more games than ever, playing through more, and exchanging them more regularly as to keep being able to purchase new titles as soon as they are released.


It’s all a bit on the messy side, with different views held up high by all three parties, and a behind the scenes battleground between retailers and publishers, consumers caught right in the middle. As always with such complex matters, it’s neither simple, not elegant finding a solution, and sometimes perhaps, requires all individuals concerned to give up a little in order to do what’s best for everyone in the long run.

At the forefront of this is something EA like to call ‘project ten dollar’. It is a policy which entails the company providing a sizable chunk of downloadable content for a game at launch, for no extra cost to the consumer, redeemable via a download code contained inside the box. The first release to feature this was Mass Effect 2 with a code for the ‘Cerberus Network’ included in the box, and this will be repeated with the forthcoming Battlefield Bad Company 2, which is said to include a large chunk of DLC available from day one, all included for your standard £39.99 when you buy the game. Like with most DLC codes it can only be redeemed once, so anyone buying the game used will have to fork out $10, or what will probably be around £10 in British money, to get the extras.


Sony however, seem to be taking things a step further, by actually making standard features locked out on the actual game discs, until the gamer uses a redeem code inside the box to enable access. The game in question is the latest Socom title for PSP, in which the multiplayer mode is locked out until you activate the code contained in the box online. For users who purchase a preowned copy, they are expected to pay up a fee of around $20 to get the code from Sony. Now seeing as Socom is a primarily online title it isn’t as bad as it sounds, although not allowing people to play what is arguably the point of the game just because they bought it second-hand, is perhaps just a bit too unreasonable for many consumers to accept.

The EA system however doesn’t sound too shabby, and actually provides a good reason for you to pay up a few quid extra over a second-hand copy for the privilege. Certainly for people like me who only buy new (unless it’s sealed) can feel rewarded for supporting developers, and hopefully which will lead to new IP and more niche titles being made - though I’m sceptical on this front. It’s almost a win/win situation, except for the fact that not everyone can afford to buy a new game at launch.


There are many gamers who rely on trade-ins to be able to afford new releases, and part of that appeal is a reasonable trade in price, one which brings down the cost of the game to that of a much older title. For example, after playing Bioshock 2 I could trade that game in for around £22 and get the money off something like Heavy Rain, paying only £18 rather than the full £40 if I were just to buy the game outright. For younger games, students, and people who aren’t on a high income, it allows them to purchase a greater number of games per year than if they couldn’t trade their old ones in. The publisher’s still get their share of the profits by the retailer buying stock of the game in the first place, and the gamer goes home happy because they’ve saved some money. It could be argued that more people trading in equals more people buying games. In addition it also means that more people are likely to spend their money on unproven titles rather than just the big AAA releases, which surely benefits new IP to an extent.

However the grey area, and the one that is offensive to so many publishers, is the fact that once a game is traded-in and sold by the retailer, they make absolutely no money from that sale. In addition if a consumer trades-in their old games for a preowned title, the publishers make no money. The worst cases are when gamers are trading in a copy of last week’s new release for a preowned version of this week’s newest hit, traded in only a few days after release and sold for a huge mark up by the retailer. Again the publishers don’t see any of those profits. Also an added problem with this, is that they cannot judge how well a game that didn’t do well at launch has sold later on down the line. Titles like Mirrors Edge and Dead Space have become cult classics (especially Dead Space) through strong sales of cheap preowned versions, brought on by via word of mouth recommendations, and good reviews about the game by the press. Of course, it would help that publishers were at least getting a cut of these late sales, as it would help in funding future new projects based on new ideas, or niche avenues.


The big issue here, is that many publishers and people inside the industry believe that preowned games de-value the price, and perceived worth of new releases, especially when the mere notion of trading-in week on week for new titles incites that your hard-earned work, costing millions of dollars, becomes effectively nothing more than a disposable item, rather than something for people to keep and enjoy over a long period of time. This is something the likes of EA and many other publishers are trying to reverse. You only have to look back as little as seven or eight years ago, when new versions of games were still selling quite well as a brand new item months after release, yet at a reduced price which still gave the publisher back some income, whilst providing a cheaper alternative for consumers. Effectively you could keep selling a new version of the game for much longer than you can now, benefiting all of the industry whilst at the same time allowing games to consistently pick up older titles without the lottery of seeing if they had been traded in.

This is something that I myself would like to see, a greater selection of new stock available in store when compared to the huge selection of used available, not always in good condition. Indeed, when browsing non-specialist stores there seem to be many back catalogue titles available new, whilst at the big specialist chains you mostly only have the option of buying an alternative second-hand copy.

So what if ‘Project Ten Dollar’ does become a success for publishers, what will that mean for the industry?

For retail, initially it would have the effect of reducing the selling price of preowned games; in addition the trade-in price would also be lowed to maintain the sometimes-ridiculous amount of margin retailers make on, to keep profits up so new releases can be sold for less than RRP to compete with supermarkets and other discount happy outlets. It would also mean an even harder push towards the cheaper preowned alternative as well as accessories sales, damaging the once good customer service even further into the hard sales culture it has become.

Consumer wise, they would benefit by getting extra content previously reserved for quick release DLC a few months down the line, an added extra to say thank you for buying new. Although some publishers and developers may try to cut down the game intentionally to promote this ‘benefit’, when in reality you could be ending up with exactly the same product before this whole ‘Ten Dollar’ idea came to market. It might also become harder for certain gamers to be able to afford new releases, instead choosing to wait until the price goes down on the new version, or instead just buying a cheaper preowned copy after a price reduction, sans later buying the DLC. Alternatively people may be turned further towards piracy and illegal downloading, chipping their consoles to get their fix. Of course most will simply, I imagine, be more than happy to pay up the full £40 more often, especially if it means that they will see the money being channelled into new ideas and IP in addition to the usual AAA blockbuster releases (I know that I would).

Publishers will naturally get a greater slice of the retail pie than with what there getting at the moment, so long as sales of new titles don’t slow down as people may decide to hold off buying, or simply may no longer have the money to do so. In effect publishers could go back to having a new copy available in the shelves for longer, gradually over the year reducing its price in small increments allowing more gamers to pick up the title as an alternative to preowned, thus making more income from the same title over and over. This potentially would mean the end of selling large AAA titles such as Call Of Duty for the full £40 some two years after its release, especially if they don’t want customers picking up the cheaper used alternative.


These however, are only some of the changes which might take place in our much loved, but often-contradictory industry. It’s far too early to accurately gauge just what will happen, how retailers, publishers, and consumers will react, as well as to how far reaching the implications will be. One thing’s one certain though, it will make for a long and interesting debate, one which is sure to spurn on a wealth of ideas, along with an obligatory backlash and leaving many confused as to just what is going to happen.

With piracy, price discounting and preowned all presenting the industry each with its own set of problems, each interlinked with one another, it’s only fair that the industry finds new avenues to explore profit and self-preservation, whether it be with DLC, bonus code incentives for new games, or simply by thinking outside traditional consoles altogether.

Either way we at IQGamer will be following these events closely.

For more thoughtful discussion and insights into other issues surrounding the gaming world as a whole, be sure to check out gamesindustry.biz for another informative read.

Yakuza 3: Demo Impressions

It’s rather ironic that a few days after I posted my Heavy Rain impressions, whilst also making some obviously valid comparisons to Sega’s Shenmue, that Sega should release a demo of the very Shenmue-like Yakuza 3 on PSN. How utterly weird that must feel, especially since there was also some interesting news on the forthcoming Sonic 4 revealed last week, making IQGamer seem for like IQSega.


The demo that was released on Thursday allows you to explore only a very small part of Tokyo City, giving you very limited access to which shops or arcades you can go in, and people whom you can speak to. It’s really just a tiny taster of what’s on offer in Yakuza 3, and for the most part bares only a passing resemblance to Sega’s other epic. You could in fact describe it as a Shenmue Lite of sorts with the limitations present in the demo. It’s also true that the very first game in this series also felt this way compared to how much stuff the second game allowed you to do.

You start off the demo playing as Kazama, a once prominent gang member long since retired, pulled back into action after hearing that your two closest friends have been gunned down, interestingly, by a man who is said to look a lot like your deceased father. You find yourself starting out in the heart of Tokyo, wondering down a bustling, neon-lit street after just arriving back into the city to follow up on some leads and to hunt down the killer. As you casually stroll down the street, you are greeted by a group of screaming girls hastily being thrown out of a club by some ugly looking Yakuza types. It’s a this point you get your first task of the day, to find out what’s going on, and possibly to kick some arse along the way.


It soon transpires that there is a brewing Mafia war between families, with one such family known for unleashing sporadic violence having run into a sizeable amount of money, and are now using it to influence their grip on another families turf. Really, at this point the club owners – two friends of yours - have no choice, it’s either accept the money or get re-educated on how this business actually works. With a fight about to go down, Kazama challenges these guys, and the game sets you up with your first action scene.

The combat here is pretty much like every side-scrolling beat’em up ever released, or more specifically Virtua Fighter Lite, with button mashing and well timed counters being the order of the day. The face buttons are used for attacks and throws, the d-pad for changing weapons, and the shoulder buttons for both blocking and locking-on to enemies. As you are kicking the crap out of the various thugs the game presents you with, a meter called the heat gauge fills up. When it’s completely full you will start glowing with blue flames surrounding you, allowing you to unleash a brutal weapons-based finisher on whoever is left standing in your way. In addition, when squaring off against the boss character of these fighting segments, you have the option of performing a stylish QTE finisher to take them down permanently. This is another Shemue-esque trait that Yakuza has inherited.

Disappointingly, the animations when fighting in the real-time sections are rather stiff, lacking the fluidity of the Virtua Fighter games, or even those found in the Tekken Force mode of Tekken 6. Everything looks extremely last-gen, from the basic punching and kicking animations, to how characters get up after being floored, or even how you just run and move around the environments. It seems like nothing has really been improved upon, or reworked to any great extent from the first two games on the PS2.


The same could be said for the visuals overall, with basic texturing lacking detail found in many western AAA titles, and average looking character models, all running at thirty frames-per-second with a noticeable amount of aliasing. Certainly, it looks very much like an enhanced PS2 game, without the polish needed to really immerse you into the world you are thrown into. Heavy Rain this is not.

Anyways, back to the gameplay itself. After beating the seven shades out of those Yakuza guys, you become informed that the life of an ex mafia colleague of yours is in danger (aren’t you mr popular), after which conveniently, he contacts you in order to arrange an urgent meet up.

This now opens up a wider area for you to explore in the demo, most of which there is very little to do other than to fight it out with the local punks and street gangs, or to enjoy a spot of arcade gaming, before stopping off for a quick Karaoke session with a girl who blatantly sees you as her love interest (oh Nozomi I should’ve noticed you).

After leaving the club in which I’d just disposed of those pesky Mafia scum, I’m told that the police are everywhere, and that I should find another route down the back streets to avoid arrest, whilst heading to meet up with my contact at the Millennium Tower. Instead I decided that I would rather meet up for a quick date with Rina, and go sing it away with her in the Karaoke first for a few hours, seeing as I’d just arrived in town almost having my arse handed to me, and am now expected to dive in head-on into who knows what. No, I needed some time out.

This is perhaps the best thing about Yakuza, that you can just go off tangent and do your own thing, completing side missions you find whilst exploring the streets, or simply stopping off to have some fun with the local nightlife. In this case Karaoke, which brings up a bizarre mini-game in which you have to push the correct face buttons as a coloured circle moves over them on screen. Results range from clapping, to Kazama shouting hey whilst Rina belts out her vocals. Of course you have the option of going alone if you really want to humiliate yourself.

Naturally, I failed miserably, and Rina said that she wasn’t ‘feeling it’ as a result, so my chances of getting in there with her were busted right down. With all this negativity it was time to get back on track and head for the Tower.


Now back onto completing my second mission, the game has you walk around the city avoiding the numerous police roadblocks that have been set up – though walking up to one simply results in Kazama saying to himself how he should avoid any contact with the police – at the same time having to fight off potential muggers and more street punks, before finding that elusive back alley you need to avoid any law enforcement.

Once you find this alley, it’s time for another real-time battle, but this time against some FBI Men In Black wannabes. This one plays out exactly the same as the fight in the club, with several henchmen to take on followed by the identikit looking, group leader. Again, it’s simply a case of combining those face buttons to perform combos, whilst alternating between whatever weapons you have left until all these guys are down, before taking down the leader with another QTE finishing move.

The demo ends after this battle, giving you only a glimpse of the type of things you will find yourself doing in the final game. You can’t venture into most of the shops and bars found in the game, and most people on the street will just give you a sly comment rather than open up a basic conversation with you. In some respects Yakuza has never been as in-depth as Shenmue on this level, and with Yakuza 3 it seems Sega have done very little to move the franchise on since the first two games. However, what you have here isn’t representative of all of Yakuza 3, just the opening few minutes of an early chapter of the final game.


One thing that is going to be the same is the voice acting and dialogue. The UK and US releases of Yakuza 3 are both subtitled with no English language option for voice acting. In addition, only the most important of scenes are actually acted out. Most are simply text based, having you move on the conversation by pushing X, and with more text appearing afterwards, rather than fully voiced dialogue present in almost every area of Shenmue. It was the same for the first two PS2 games, though the first one did have full English voice acting with regards to the dialogue, along with using many text heavy segments.

From what I’ve seen so far, Yakuza 3 is looking rather dated and less interesting compared to Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain. Not surprising, given that it has been available in Japan for over two years, and since then, things have moved on significantly. However despite the stiff animations, unimpressive graphics, and familiar gameplay, Yakuza 3 may still be worth picking up, especially for fans of the last two games, and for people looking to at least try something different.

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing: Demo Impressions

With the recent announcement of Sonic 4, we thought things were starting to look up for Sega’s flagship mascot. That was up until we played through the recently released demo of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, both on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

The stupidly named game (did they really need the “Sonic?”) sees Sega’s biggest franchises come together in a Mario Kart style racing game, complete with various weapons, traps and character specific power moves. The game also features Sega’s famous drift mechanic to make navigating the courses a faster, more enjoyable experience.

The demos available on the Xbox 360 and PS3 are console specific, with the 360 version taking a Sonic Heroes inspired course, and the PS3 opting for a rather drab Billy Hatcher inspired course. The 360 version also features Banjo and Kazooie as an exclusive racing duo. Other courses seen on the selection screen, but unavailable on the demo, take their inspiration from such Sega gems as Samba De Amigo, The House of The Dead, Super Monkey Ball, Jet Set Radio, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg and various Sonic titles.

After booting up the demo, you’re presented with a mildly enjoyable, fully rendered opening sequence, after which you can choose your character and course. Waiting on the starting line, I expected to shoot off at 60fps, but that definitely didn’t happen. The opening few seconds of the 360 version suffers from some disappointing slow-down, as does the rest of the demo. The 360 demo never rises above 30fps either, but things are a bit smoother on the PS3. Much like the PS3 version of Sonic Unleashed, the game actually manages a few moments at 60fps, but quickly drops back down to a regular 30fps.

For a racing game, this is disappointing news. The speed of the vehicles and the fast paced nature of the courses and action would have really benefited from a faster frame rate. It’s even more disappointing when you consider that overall, the graphics aren’t really that much more impressive than Sonic Heroes on the original XBox.

Lighting throughout the courses is all pretty standard and the character/vehicle models feel too small to have any kind of visual impact. The various powers up feel very similar and flash by too quickly to leave an impression, as do the character specific power moves.

Ultimately, the core racing gameplay experience doesn’t live up to much either. The game races along at a fast pace, and staying in the lead proves quite tricky for such a simple game. Power sliding has been simplified and watered down in comparison to the likes of OutRun, and lacks any skill to give you a sense of accomplishment when navigating the courses, though the speed boost gained from a successful slide is a welcome addition. Tricks can be performed in the air with a simple tap of a shoulder button, and if successful, you’ll once again be rewarded with a handy speed boost. Traps are laden throughout the courses and in the demo, these included badniks from Sonic’s world, wooden boxes as well as seawater and snow patches to slow you down. These obstacles are easy to avoid and rarely get in the way of racing.

A certain amount of enjoyment can be gleamed from the appearance of Sega's most popular characters, even if they don't all fit into the roster successfully. As expected, Sonic and his companions take up a lot of the slots, but some less well-exploited characters are also thrown into the mix. Shenmue's Ryo Hazuki joins the cast, complete with his borrowed motorcycle. Successfully triggering Ryo's power move will enable you to take his trusty forklift truck for spin and flip the opposition out of the way. Other Sega favourites making an appearance include Ulala, Alex Kidd, Jacky and Akira from Virtua Fighter, AiAi, and Billy Hatcher. It's an impressive line up and certain to please most Sega fans out there.

For such a simple and proven concept, as well as being able to choose from such a rich selection of franchises, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing should be a nostalgic trip through the history of Sega, but instead, the demo has left us feeling like we'll be presented with yet another messy, technically flawed and unenjoyable experience. The demo never rises above mediocre, leading us to believe that the final game is destined to join the ranks off all the other Mario Kart pretenders that have come and gone over the years.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing is released on February 26, and is available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and PC.