Game Preview: The Club

Imagine an organization so hidden and secretive, that only a few people around the globe know of its existence. Powerful leaders in The Club "recruit" outsiders to fight in their violent underground blood spot, like ancient gladiators. The combatants have only one option: kill or be killed.

At first glance, Sega’s The Club looks like every other shooting game out there. Big guys carrying even bigger guns running around killing everybody. Been there, done that. But on closer inspection you realize there’s more to it than that. Developed by Bizarre Creations, the guys behind Project Gotham Racing, The Club feels more like an arcade game than your typical shooting game.



The objectives of the game are simple: kill everybody as fast as you can. The camera is behind your character’s shoulder, similar to Gears of War, but unlike that game you won’t be finding cover behind walls and obstacles or you will lose. On the contrary, the game encourages you to sprint as fast as possible, killing off your enemies in as little time as possible to score massive points and combos. You get more points the closer you get to shooting an enemy’s head, with head shots giving you the most points, and satisfaction. This is why it feels like an arcade game. No time to waste staring at the pretty graphics.

I must admit my adrenaline was pumped while blazing through the levels, especially in Time Attack mode. The timer is constantly depleting, like, super fast, and only killing your opponents fills it up a bit. You also have to find and shoot clock signs hidden throughout the levels, which improve your chances of success. Did I mention there’s also a set target score for each difficulty level? Yes, you’ll have to beat a time limit and a target score.

With four levels of difficulty, 20 different kinds of weapons, 8 massive stages, a time attack mode, tournaments, and intense multiplayer it seems like The Club will be a sadistic fun ride, at least until the next big shooter comes along.

Game Preview: Turok

It’s been 6 years since the last Turok game was released on the PlayStation 2, Turok: Evolution. That game sucked so bad it almost completely killed the franchise. Now, Propaganda Games and Touchstone Studios (I’ve never heard of them before either) are resurrecting Turok on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this February. The game will simply be called Turok.

Even thought I wasn’t expecting much from a game studio I’ve never heard about I was still disappointed by the demo. It’s better than Turok: Evolution, but Popeye on the NES was better that Evolution, so that’s not saying much. It’s all so average and ugly. It runs on the Unreal Engine 3, the same one used for Gears of War, but doesn’t look even half as good as Gears. The character models are ugly and the background textures are boring and very last generation. The weapons are not impressive and the dinosaurs are lame. The most fun I had was using the combat knife, pulling off one hit kills when an enemy or reptile gets too close.

I’ve heard good things about the multiplayer modes but I don’t know if that’s reason enough to buy it. Maybe I’ll rent it and write a proper review. The again, maybe not.

Game Preview: Burnout Paradise

The Burnout Paradise demo has been available for download on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network for a while now, and as a fan of the series for many years I thought I’d go ahead and write my thoughts on it.

The main feature in Paradise is that the game is no longer linear. You are free to roam around Paradise City and choose which challenges to participate in. I wasn’t sure this was going to work, but playing is believing. The demo only allows you to race on two events and do a single stunt run, but what’s there is exciting enough to make me want to own it when it’s released next month. Oh, and the graphics are sick! Expect a full review early next year.

Game Preview: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

First of, let me apologize to the PlayStation fanboys who got agitated because I left out this game from my November must-have games post. Frankly, I completely forgot about it. Now that the demo is available on the PlayStation Network Store, I will devote a whole preview post for it. Everyone can be happy now.

Nothing I had previously seen about Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune had impressed me, and I mean nothing. It looks like Tomb Raider with a random dude in jeans who doesn’t know how to aim a gun. Well, that’s still my impression of the game, but having played it changes everything.

The graphics are very nice to look at, with fluid animations and lush rainforest environments. The water effects are fantastic, and Nathan Drake’s clothes get wet in a very realistic way. I don’t remember ever seeing something like that. Even the guy’s hair is amazing to look at. Another nice feature is the facial expressions in the cut-scenes. As good as the graphics are, I have to mention that Metal Gear Solid 3’s jungle environments are still the best I’ve ever seen.

The demo begins with Nathan and a woman on a plane flying over a forest. Their plane is shot down by invisible enemies and they are forced to jump in parachutes and land in separate areas. You start running around, getting used to the controls, and you’ll immediately get the impression that someone at Naughty Dog is a fan of Gears of War. You can hide behind walls and obstacles by pressing the circle button, peek from the side by holding L1, and fire your weapon with R1. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I thought I’d mention it. You can also punch and, of course, jump, as well as climb stuff and hang from ledges. The controls are good and responsive, but it sucks that you can’t auto-jump over anything that’s over one inch in height, like in Ninja Gaiden or even Zelda, but you do get used to it.

Shortly after jumping over a few obstacles the enemies start to attack you. Generic guys in dirty tank-tops start crawling all over the place like cockroaches, armed with guns, rifles, shotguns and grenades. Punching foes is easy and looks cool, but gunplay is awkward and a bit challenging. There’s no health meter either, so you have to be extra careful. Standing still for a few seconds seems to refill your health, though. So you shoot the bad guys while hiding behind walls and rocks, and then steal their ammo and weapons. Most of the time I got shot and didn’t even know where the enemy was. They hide behind walls and shoot you from high, hard to reach places. And yes, there are exploding barrels all over the jungle, like in real life. The demo ends after fighting some more guys, in a very anticlimactive way.

Since the game will be released on November 15 there won’t be any changes made to the gameplay, so playing the demo and the full game will feel the same. I can’t really say it’s a must-have, but it does seem fun enough. PS3-exclusives are few and far apart so that alone makes Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune a game to look out for.