BioWare and Electronic Arts have announced that gamers will be able to purchase a new team member for their Mass Effect 2 games via the Cerberus Network, come April. Kasumi is the ‘galaxy’s most enigmatic and cunning master thief’ and her DLC pack will also come with missions surrounding her character specifically. The Kasumi – Stolen Dreams DLC pack will retail for 560 Microsoft Points, or $7 dollars.
Checkout more Kasumi screenshots, After the Break!
Electronic Arts has announced that its upcoming skate game, Skate 3, will be released in North America on May 11th and three days later in Europe. Skate 3 will feature a number of professional skaters, such as Jerry Hsu and Colin McKay. Skate 3 also promises to allow gamers the option to build their very own skate parks to truly alter the ‘face’ of the open-world environment.
Capcom has released a new trailer for their upcoming motorcycle racer, MotoGP 09/10, announcing the release date for the game to be March 23rd on the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms.
In 2007, the world was introduced to an incredible entry into the real-time strategy genre called Supreme Commander. GasPowered Games touted its ability to display hundreds of units on the field of battle and, while the game did have some issues, did provide gamers with an epic experience. Three years later, they have released Supreme Commander 2, and video-game war is once again ‘epic’.
STORY
Supreme Commander 2 finds us twenty-five years after the Forged Alliance expansion to Supreme Commander. The three once-warring nations of the United Earth Federation, Cybran, and Illuminati have made peace after battling a terrifying external menace. Unfortunately, nature abhors a vacuum and war is once again threatening to plunge the nations into global war.
GAMEPLAY
Supreme Commander 2 features similar gameplay to the original, with few exceptions. GasPowered Games has painstakingly simplified the game, which they were criticized for not doing in the original. No longer can your commander and engineer units help one another in building structures. While this seems like a negative, in a game like SC2 it actually works out for the best as it allows you more time to focus on tactics and not juggling build units. To help alleviate any pains the player faces due to this change, units now just build faster in general. Of course, this does not matter at all if you have no resources with which to build, and in SC2 you have three different resources types.
You gain material to build with from specially-marked locations on the game maps while you can build power plants for energy just about anywhere. Also available for you are research structures which speed up the rate at which your side gains points which can be spent on unit upgrades and new technologies. This is far different than the original game, which features unit tiers. The new system turns out to be a lot more fun, however, and also adds to the differences between sides. One player may want to focus primarily on air assets or buffing up their command unit, for instance, while another may want to focus on beefing up structures with AA guns and hitpoint enhancements.
Battles in Supreme Commander 2 are just as thrilling as ever, thanks in part to the visual complexity of the game being slightly reduced. While this may seem counter-productive, the reduced comparative system requirements allows the game to run VERY smoothly, so when you do get a couple hundred units facing off, it will be incredibly smooth and animated.
Controlling units in the game is very straight-forward and surprisingly easy given just how many units can be displayed at once. You can double-click on one unit to select the units of the same type in the immediate vicinity or do the old-fashion ‘click and drag’ to select multiple units. What was cool is that when I would select mostly ground units and a rogue fighter would whiz past, the game seemed to figure out that I did not want that air unit in my group and did not include it in the selection. You can still assign groups to various number keys but one thing I wish was added was the ability to orientate your groups after setting a destination – even general formations would have been a cool addition. Setting up patrols has been made ‘baby-can-do-it’ easy by either allowing the plays to click a patrol button and a destination, in which case the unit will walk back and forth between that point and its original location. You can also zoom out on the map to display unit path indications. Hold down the shift button to assign waypoints to a group, then at the end re-select the original waypoint. It will convert the path into a never-ending patrol, which is a perfect assignment for CAP missions. And, trust that you will need them as the enemy is VERY fond of sending air units at you fairly quickly.
Unfortunately, unit path-finding leaves much to be desired and many times you will have to redirect certain groups to navigate the various landscapes of the game maps.
EXPERIMENTAL UNITS
The highest-level units that you can unlock are the ‘experimental units’ and each side has their own to play with. For instance, the UEF can build the ‘King Kriptor’ robot, which towers over the battlefield and features large plasma cannons for hands. The Cybrans can build a cybernetic T-Rex (yes, the dinosaur). It’s all really cool stuff and there is nothing like seeing your army of smaller units trudging along with one of these behemoths in tow. The resulting battles can be simple spectacular.
THE NUCLEAR OPTION
The idea of long-range combat takes a whole new level in Supreme Commander 2 with various options of hurting enemies from a far, ranging from long-range artillery which ‘dumbly’ targets enemies on the other side of the map, to your ‘basic’ nuclear missile. In fact, once unlocked, you can build several nuclear silos and launch missiles from each simultaneously! The resulting destruction is incredible and seeing the ‘vacuum effect’ from the blast is a great touch to the effect.
Of course, there is a deterrent to nuclear weapons aside from obliterating your opponent prior to their using them. You can build missile defense installations which are very effective at downing nukes in mid-flight.
OVERALL
If you are looking for the best modern RTS title around, you can find no better than Supreme Commander 2. Complex enough for strategy nuts while accessible enough for the more casual gamers, SC2 is a great blend of offensive and defensive maneuvers, effectively catering to each play-style.
Bethsoft and Splash Damage have released a new cinematic trailer for their upcoming shooter, Brink, which is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of this year. Brink features the id Tech 4 game engine as well as on-the-fly multiplayer gaming capabilities.
Capcom has just released a slew of new screenshots for their upcoming motorcycle racer, MotoGP 09/10. The game is due out on March 23rd for the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms. A demo is currently available on Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network.
See the new screens, After the Break!
Namco Bandai has released a ton of new screenshots from their upcoming third-person actioner, Clash of the Titans. Based on the upcoming film of the same name, the game is due out on July 1st.
Check out all the new screenshots, After the Break!
EA DICE has announced a big, PC-only Battlefield: Bad Company 2 tournament titled the ‘Battle for PAX’. Winning teams can claim prizes like new video cards and even a grand prize of $10,000 US Dollars. The first matches begin on March 14th with the finals taking place at the Penny Arcade Expo East in Boston, so if you and your team are interested in playing, checkout the official tournament page for more information and registration details.
Last year, the FIFA team at EA Sports introduced an interesting concept with the DLC pack called ‘Ultimate Team’, a card collecting and team-building game with the goal of increasing the lifespan of the FIFA series. With the success of Ultimate Team in FIFA 09, the team at EA Sports brought it back again for FIFA 10, with a slew of changes.
In fact, almost every aspect of the DLC pack has had some sort of alteration. The basics of Ultimate Team are pretty simple: Your squad is built by collecting packs of virtual ‘cards’ filled with players, coaches, kits, and more. When you start the game, you are presented with your first pack of cards to start building your team. A nice touch for 2010 was added by the FIFA team giving some recognition to people who bought last years version. If you happened to buy it on day one your name has a nice ‘FUT Founder’ nameplate next to it showing you off to those you play against.
If you were not a day one purchaser, but still got the pack, you will receive two packs of gold cards instead of the normal bronze packs. There are three tiers of card packs available for purchase for via game coins or real money/MSN points: Bronze, silver, and gold. As you would expect, the quality of the items and players in these cards increases as you move from bronze to gold. The new addition to this system is that each tier of card packs also has a ‘premium pack’ option, which for additional cost can produce a rare set of cards.
One big problem with these packs is that you really only get about two or three players in each. The pack is mostly filled with consumable cards like contracts or training. It would be nice to see a few more players in there. The way you earn in-game currency is simple: By playing in matches or tournaments. Your bounty at the end of the game can also change depending on if you are playing online or offline. No matter how you do it, the amount of coins you get for winning tournaments or important matches seems low. I have heard that, at some point in future, special/tournaments will yield a greater amount of coin.
Once you open your first pack of cards you will need to build your squad. One of the new features in Ultimate Team 2010 is that you can set up multiple squads. This is really cool because different tournaments have different requirements. Some tournaments will only allow a max player level of silver status participate. Having a squad of all silver packs will be able to get you into that tournament. As you set up your squads you will want to make sure you not only have enough players but managers as well. Another new feature is that you can send all cards to your ‘My Club’ book and, instead of them being un-playable, you can still use them at-will. This essentially makes it possible for you to have and use every card in the game.
Consumables are worked a bit different this year as well. Long gone are the days of out-of-contract players being worthless to you. Instead of losing those players, you can swap them into your club book until you pick up a new contract card. Training cards work a bit different as well. Instead of training cards giving a permanent boost to your players, they are instead only boosted for your next match. This really balances out the gameplay in online matches.
One of the most important new features to Ultimate Team 2010 is the way ‘chemistry’ works. How many times have you gone up against an all-gold team, only to be obliterated on the pitch? Count your lucky stars, my friends, because those days are over. I witnessed first-hand as my team of mainly bronze and silver players beat an all-gold team because our chemistry was right. No longer do you need to have the best players to be the best on the pitch. Chemistry is important because it boosts how your players do on the field. Making sure players are in the right position, formation, and matched up with fellow countrymen is the key to success in this game. Not only that but some tournaments require you to have a certain number of players from the same country to enter. Kudos to the FIFA 10 dev team for balancing this aspect out and keeping the game fun for all skill levels.
In this Ultimate Team edition, you can play in a variety of offline and online matches, including tournaments. The cool new feature for this year is the ‘featured tournament’. Every week, a new tournament for offline matches and online matches is released. Each tournament has a special set of requirements to enter and the amount of coins you earn is ramped up by a bonus amount. This is a great new feature that will keep the lifespan of the game going as long as the community supports it. Thankfully, the FIFA community is huge and the FIFA team has also decided to release special packs that you can only buy at certain times. This is an interesting idea, however I was disappointed with the lack of North America support for these packs. The first special pack that went on sale was a kit and badges pack. Unfortunately, only a small amount of packs were available and they were given away on a GMT-based time schedule. This is not very friendly to us North Americans as I tested this out by rushing home at 10am PST to try and score a pack. They were gone in about 5 minutes and I was left with nothing.
The FIFA team should look at giving away these packs for both regions of play. The North American fan base may not be as huge as the Europeean base but we are still very strong. Another new feature is the ‘players of the week’ card sets with increased stats. Each week, a list of players who did really well in the ‘real world’ will have their stats increased if you find them in a pack of cards.
The last revamped feature worth mentioning is the auction house. The auction house is a place where you can trade your star player or get rid of your duplicate cards for in-game coinage. Unfortunately, the auction house really is not needed in Ultimate Team 2010, what with the changes they have made to the game’s chemistry system. It would be better just to trash duplicate cards for higher coin value instead of trying to put it up for sale. Here’s to hoping that, in next year’s release, they decide to get rid of the draconian auction house completely.
Overall, Ultimate Team is perfect for any fan of the FIFA series. Not only does it continue the life span of FIFA 10 but it also adds some great community aspects that help bring everyone together to compete. Ultimate Team 2010 is worth the 400 Microsoft Point price tag, so get out there and I will see you on the pitch!
Thanks to our friends at Sony’s PSN Blog we were able to get the live stream of their GDC 2010 press conference for all of you. The feed is set to start just after 4pm PST. Enjoy the live stream below!
