Project Natal: What does it mean for game industry?

Moments ago at E3, Microsoft showed off it’s upcoming motion sensing system. Project Natal - that’s codename - will work with every 360 when it launches and will be available on all the new systems. It has full body motion control by tracking 3D movement. Plus it recognizes voices, and totally immerses the players into the game. You can use your own gear like a skate board and such. Basically it kicks the Wii’s ass in the interactive gaming field. That is if the system works as well as the Microsoft video shows.
We have two questions: when and for how much?
Update: It seems that the pricing might have been revealed early by Brier Dudley at The Seattle Times. His post, which went up 45 minutes before the press conference, states that the price will be around $200. Who knows where the number came from so we’re labeling this one as a rumor for now.
Update 2: Added a quick video demo after the jump. More to come.
Update 3: The official video is finally online. Enjoy it after the break.

Left 4 Dead 2 Hands-On Preview

The world of zombie-related media is often full of nods, homages and references. Despite a lawsuit claiming plagiarism the initial moments of Dead Rising, a human dropped by helicopter into a shopping mall filled with zombies is quite obviously a reverent bow to George Romero’s dawn of the Dead. The house defending scene from Resident Evil 4 felt like

something from the original Night of the Living Dead or any number of other horror films.
Not to be outdone, the folks developing Left 4 Dead 2 have put in their own loving tribute, but this time to a far more modern piece of zombie lore: Shaun of the Dead. No, you won’t be hurling records at the shambling corpses, but you’ll have the far more satisfactory crunch involved with pounding on them with a cricket bat. The efficiency of this weapon is yet to be announced since Valve are keeping a tight lid on things, but whether it takes one or a hundred whacks with this simple implement to dispatch a zombie, every swing will be full of glee. I’m guessing once the game comes out the number of virtual cricket bats in use will far exceed the number of real cricket bats being employed.

Left 4 Dead 2
Our current favorite game is getting an undead sequel. According to uber-developer Valve, Left 4 Dead 2 ($60) "takes place at roughly the same time as the original, and leads four new survivors through the southeastern region of the U.S., from Savannah, Georgia to New Orleans' French Quarter." L4D2 adds melee combat (chainsaws, frying pans, axes, baseball bats, etc.), a new group of survivors, new zombies and creatures, co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, maps for Survival mode, and more. Find it for Xbox 360 this November.

The Godfather II Review

The Godfather II Review

Forget the fact that the original was nothing more than a poor man's GTA; ignore The Godfather tag and the fact it's loosely based around one of the most iconic films in movie history; look beyond the woeful presentation, shoddy driving and gunplay. Provided you can manage this, then you may just find that The Godfather II offers a surprisingly enjoyable insight into the tactical demands of being a Don and mafia life.The ties to Francis Ford Coppola's essential sequel are tenuous at best. Following an arrival in Cuba between the various families, the fictional protagonist from the first game, Aldo Trapani, is killed and it's up to you to take control of the Corleone's operations and expand them across New York, Miami, and Havana.From the first mission any optimism for a semi-decent open world action title is quickly thrown out of the window. Despite the fact that The Godfather II has been developed specifically for the Xbox 36o, PS3 and PC, the game looks as though it's still based on the original game engine which was compromised by last-gen formats. As a result, The Godfather II looks terrible and is far from the usual gloss we've come to expect from an EA title.The experience isn't helped by the thoroughly unremarkable shooting action and unrefined driving gameplay, which is bland beyond belief and shows very little signs of advancing the format from the open world genre's early days. The Blackhand combat system makes a return allowing you to punch, headbutt, and stick a few well placed knees to the nether regions to force people to submit with flicks of the right thumbstick and pulls on the shoulder triggers. Although we're loathe to praise the game's presentation or direction, the ability to throw punches and force a surrender while cutting to cinematic camera views is a neat touch. We're also quite fond of the cop system, which places the emphasis on the location in which the incident took place and eye-witnesses instead of instantly narrowing in on you .Fortunately, EA's decision to ditch many of the original's blueprints and concentrate on a concept that stands on its own merit is commendable. This is all tied to the implementation of the 'Don's View', which although not exactly profound, does at least steer The Godfather II away from being just another GTA wannabe. The concept takes the idea of taking over businesses, crime rings, and rackets of the original, but does it in a much more effective manner. Simply hitting the start button swoops the camera to a birds-eye perspective of the various cities featured in the game, providing the perfect vantage for carrying out a mobster's dirty work.Amassing your family of made men and gradually taking over crime rings and rackets is the formula for success. Made men specialise in a variety of different skills, such as safe cracking or demolitions, which in turn provide the means to taking over rival businesses. Gaining control of each of the businesses in a certain crime ring not only provides a daily income but also endows you with various bonuses, such as bulletproof vests and brass knuckles. By taking over all of a rival family's businesses you can begin to track down the members of the family, marking them for assassination before ultimately taking down their compound and wiping them off the map for good.Once control over a business has been established you'll need to shore up its defences, either by keeping a made man present or allocating a number of guards - although obviously this incurs a cost against your daily income. This constant flow of attack and defence is at the heart of The Godfather II, and the very reason why it's vastly superior to its predecessor and worthy of standing on its own in the open world action genre. There's an element of the best gangster films in its portrayal, with strategies such as sending a group of made men to bomb an opponents business to serve as a decoy to a genuine takeover attempt of another premise.Of course, anybody who's watched a mafia film or seen an episode of The Sopranos will know the importance of favours. Carrying out tasks for various individuals, from random people on the streets to the upper echelons of the CIA, will in turn provide numerous benefits, from locations and details on rival family's made men to other benefits such as calling off the cops, putting a rival made man behind bars, or rebuilding a bombed business. The way in which the various rewards are tied to progress in the game serves as a satisfying gameplay dynamic.Despite its qualities, there are problems. Certainly when trying to take over the larger premises, hunting down the owner is exacerbated by the main character's inability to interact with the environment. It can all bit a bit long-winded and you're constantly bemoaning aspects such as why the character can vault over certain obstacles, but is unable to save himself five minutes and nip over a ledge. This stilted main gameplay does a lot to detract from the qualities EA has managed to introduce. If EA could have offered a higher level of primary gameplay with the visual quality of Dead Space, then The Godfather II could have been an unstoppable proposition. We'd also suggest that the game's pace tends to lag towards the middle sections as you become embroiled in the game of cat and mouse. The lack of any standout scripted gameplay events hinders the overall flow, and we feel that the odd occasional sequence could have dramatised the standard gameplay a little.

F.E.A.R. 2 Special Edition

So i was on a Fear 2 site and I see that the F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin PC GAME Exclusive Special Edition Contains:

Steelbook packaging
F.E.A.R.: full game
Fear 2: full game.
Exclusive skins

So does this mean we get Fear 2 Skins For the old Fear?

Or is this just [WB] trying to make more money real quick off the game?

If u ask me, "A Big update is way overdoo for this game".

FEAR 2 New Skins?

Monolith's games are always richly multi-layered and F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is no exception. Different game types- intense action, puzzle solving, horror elements- are seamlessly blended together and enhanced by intelligent level design, brilliant music & sound effects, smart AI and the controversial story. Every aspect is worth a separate praise, but F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is more than the sum of its parts- it's very creative & inspired Art.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is the sequel to F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon (2005). It starts shortly before the first ended- half an hour before the explosion of Auburn. But this time the protagonist isn't Point Man- you're playing as Michael Becket, member of a different military unit. But don't relax- Alma is back. And she's meaner and more powerful than ever before...

Plot Overview

From the very first seconds F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin dives you into the universe of Alma- she walks you through a dreamlike vision of ruined city's fires, so you would feel like being led by Beatrice in the modern version of Dante's Hell. Though, this hell was ignited at Armacham laboratories and mastered by their raging victim- Alma However, the new protagonist Michael Becket doesn't know that yet- neither does the peaceful city of Ausburn. His squad's task is simple- to take Genevieve Aristide, head of Origin Project, into protective custody. But you won't be enjoying her posh penthouse for long- Armacham Corporation sends in their own black ops. And like it wasn't enough, strange visions and even apparitions of Alma don't leave you for long. Finally Becket finds Aristide, but their conversation is short- explosion of Ausburn (F.E.A.R. Point Man detonates reactors of Origin labs) changes everything.

And from here all hell breaks loose. Armacham's forces are eager to 'clean-up' the mess from all evidences and witnesses. Becket has to fight them and escape the secret background hospital, but on surface he encounters additional enemies- the reactivated Replica troops. Like it wasn't enough, the liberated Alma is also constantly pursuing Becket and his comrades. And they die one by one in this blood bowl, where edge between reality and nightmare becomes thinner with every your step.

Undead remnants with paranormal psychic powers, super-quick almost-invisible assassins, the haunted school with ATC research labs in its basement, Still Island- all these and many more other odds will stand between Becket and Alma. And she really 'likes' him. But you even can't imagine how much Alma will like him in the end

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is a genuine horror game and it does everything to make your pants wet. That's a difficult task if to consider that most of the game is a first person shooter and you get not only the most powerful weapons, but also the famous 'reflex time' skill (consider it as 'bullet time'). The action is truly cinematic and even epic, especially when you're operating Elite Powered Armor (EPA) with mounted rocket launchers and chain guns and devastating the remains of Auburn. Also you better don't use a shotgun in short ranges, otherwise your visors will be all covered in blood :)

There're few nice'n'easy puzzles in F.E.A.R. 2 too- otherwise it wouldn't be a Monolith's game, would it? And you'll be grateful for them- they give you some little cool down time from otherwise intense (and very, very bloody) game.

Horror

As I mentioned before, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is heavy on action, but the game is definitely not for easily heart-fainted. There are many moments that will make even 'horror veterans' jumping (I confess- I did, though generally I'm horror-immune). I don't want to start spoiling, but better get ready for a few surprises from Alma :)

AI & Game Difficulty

The vast majority of F.E.A.R. 2 the gameplay is pleasingly balanced and very hooking thankfully to smart AI and brilliant level design. Those, who are complaining about the game being too easy, wait till the last levels- that's where F.E.A.R. 2 shows off its true teeth. AI and level designs create genuine survival experience- waves of smart Replica Soldiers and other 'experiments' will force you to become really careful with ammo and health. And the amazing thing is that Monolith managed to avoid cheap tricks: everything's fair- that's just you and good AI.

Pay attention: NPCs know how to use the environment for their advantage. They will flip tables to create covers (you can do that as well- in fact, there's even a dedicated achievement/trophie for that), they will crawl to get behind you and use different fight strategies.

Environments

Monolith Team listened to fans and put extra efforts into environments- maps are not only huge and diverse, but also awesome and mysterious. My personal top favourites are Outer Shell of ATC facilities and streets of the devastated Auburn. Most surprisingly, the much larger environments didn't loose the eerie and dreamlike feeling to them- I spent a lot of time just exploring and enjoying them. Falling debris from upper floors, beautifully rendered flames, dust & sparks in the air, rats running by your feet- all these details really help in creating very memorable experience.

Graphics
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is not a mega-billion-polygon game, but it's rather the true evidence that the polygon-count isn't everything. I really liked that the developers, instead of pushing geometry till processors are red, used instead many layers of cinematic visual effects like film grain, blur, motion blur and such. In this way, F.E.A.R. 2 looks much more organic and consistent visually. Well, that also helps to smooth a little bit compressed textures, but you wouldn't notice that anyway- neither Alma nor Replica guys will give you the time for that :)

Music

Soundtrack of F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin deserves a separate praise- it's so good. The music of Nathan Grigg is always subtle, yet very captivating and easily winning your attention. I would describe his music as 'alternative', though I think Nathan would disagree with me :) Nevertheless, it's a real shame that Nathan Grigg's music isn't available on separate CDs or on iTunes/Amazon.

Multiplayer

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is more about the story and Alma, but multiplayer is a great party too. The modes should be familiar to FPS fans: Deatmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the point. However, the fourth mode- Armored Front- gives Enhanced Powered Armors to players, so you could try the Hell Machine on your friends :) Plus, most of the trophies/achievements are earned from online games. My only nitpicking would be that getting into ranked matches takes sometimes too long

The Bottom Line

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is many times more than just a horror shooter with paranormal mysteries and over-the-top amount of blood. Monolith's consistent vision and creativity from the very details to overall Alma's tale brings you an unforgettable and very artistic experience. There's only one excuse for you not to play F.E.A.R. 2- it could be too scary for you. Otherwise, you don't want to miss this very special 'date' with Alma ;)

Mostly Multiplayer related

1. When server is full or otherwise rejects you, you should be dumped into the server browser instead of now the multiplayer meny, this would speed up the process of joining a server.

2. Automatic shotgun is not Automatic, it bloody well should be and theres already a key for alternating firing modes, making it auto would differiente it vs the Combat shotgun. Should also be done for Singleplayer

3. Proper mouse support so all buttons works, aswell mouse sensitivity to be lowered even further.

4. Ping should be shown in milliseconds not in green bars wich is utterly useless method of demonstrating ping.

5. Combat Shotgun, Automatic shotgun, Penetrator, Sniper rifle, Pulse, Rocket, Laser, Napalm and anyone I forgot should have their ammo restored in Multiplayer, ballance it some other way such as longer reload, but Dont mess with the ammo count.

6. Theres two things wrong with the proxy its sticky and it glows, on another note grenades could be more expensive.

7. Not being able to esc out at the end of round, id like to be bale to do more productive things at the end of a roudn than watch my score, say for example editing my loadout.

8. Autograbbing Bloody Ladders, is there anything more annoying than grabbing a ladder in the middle of a gunfight?

9. Seriosly fix the ASP, it shouldnt be best at Close Medium and Long range, defeat Light Medium and Heavy with ease, currently its a Shotgun, Penetrator and Sniper rifle...

10. Get rid of the black screen fade out when connecting to a server, since you cant even abot the connection attempt your left wondering of the game froze or not.

11. Sound is low and movments and gunfights are hard to triangulate by sound due to the low sound.

12.Silly amounts of everything must glow especially Proxy and Especially Penetrator, aswell enemies glowing while in slowmo in singleplayer. And WHY! do the assasins glow, arent they supposed to be stealthy? Because now they blind you with their radiant light.

13.Getting stuck on the smallest imaginable debris littering the ground, also its rather silly that your teammates can step in the way and completly block the movment of the EPA in armored front.

14. An armoured front map where you can pilot a REV6 or two.

15. LEANING!

16. quik saving, quik loading, manual saving and manual loading.

Federal Assassins Gaming Network

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