Quite possibly my most disliked graphics card of 2009 was the Radeon HD 4890. Although the naming does suggest that the 4890 is not a great deal faster than the 4870 that was not what bothered us. Rather it was the fact that this newer slightly improved version cost anywhere from 20 – 30% more while providing just a few extra frames per second in most games.

From the original Far Cry to the upcoming Crysis 2, German developer Crytek has built a reputation for technologically impressive games. Now the studio hopes to turn that reputation into real money, as today it launched CryEngine 3 for use by other developers.

As the underlying technology for Crysis 2, the CryEngine 3 technology reflects Crytek's recent expansion into multiplatform development. The engine is designed to support development not only on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PCs, but Crytek claims its scalability will also make it a viable choice for the next generation of platforms.

When it comes to licensed engines, Crytek is chasing Epic Games and the Unreal Engine 3, the oft-licensed technology underneath the hood of a huge swatch of games, from the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum to the much-reviled Hour of Victory. However, Epic's support for Unreal licensees was castigated in an ongoing lawsuit from Too Human developer Silicon Knights. It's little surprise, then, that one of the features Crytek is centering its promotional push for the engine on isn't in the technology at all; it's in customer service.



"Of course, our international team of more than 20 dedicated support staff are available right now to help our licensees make the most of CryEngine 3; at their studio or at one of our support centers around the world," Crytek director of business development Carl Jones said in a statement heralding the launch of the engine.

Crytek's CryEngine technology has previously been used in creating the studio's own titles and was licensed out to NCsoft for use in the company's recently released massively multiplayer online role-playing game Aion. It's unlikely gamers will get to see the CryEngine 3 in action anytime soon; although Crysis 2 was originally revealed in June, no release window for the game has been confirmed.

If you're a fan of the futuristic action role-playing game series Mass Effect, then you probably already know that despite rumors (and early trailers) to the contrary, Commander Shepard is alive and well. You might also know that the sequel to the 2007 game takes a much darker turn as Shepard and his crew embark on what seems to be a suicide mission. Developer BioWare has kept pretty quiet about further plot details, and that didn't change when company cofounder and VP Dr. Greg Zeschuk visited Australia earlier this week to show off Mass Effect 2. Despite the story remaining a secret, BioWare did show off a bit more about the recently revealed area called Omega, as well as give us some more hands-on time to get acquainted with the more combat-refined feel of the sequel.

Omega--which was first glimpsed in the GamesCom trailer released a few weeks ago--is a gigantic space station and seedy den of scum and villainy that is reminiscent of the dingier parts of the Citadel in the first game. The hands-off section of the demo began with Shepard and his crew--who in this scenario were Krell assassin Thane and Krogan fighter Grunt--standing outside the nightclub AfterLife. It was a huge, triangular-shaped building adorned with large video screens displaying bright arcs of fire, and inside, it had a circular layout with a central dance floor similar to Chora's Den in the original (except much, much larger). Here, we were treated to Mass Effect 2's more cinematic approach to story, with Shepard engaging in some not-so-friendly banter with a character named Aria T'Loak, a mysterious female who is apparently the real power behind Omega. The conversation between the two featured some dramatic camera angles that helped amp up the intrigue, focusing on Shepard and Aria's faces and showcasing a good deal of nuance visible in the character models. The voice acting was also excellent and bodes well for another involving storyline in Mass Effect 2.

After this all-too-brief look at the story, we were then treated to a similarly brief hands-on session with the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 2. BioWare wouldn't disclose the location of where our hands-on session took place, but it looked to be some sort of underground complex. Shepard had Thane and Grunt in tow, with the enemies being the synthetic zombies called Husks, which many will be familiar with from the first game. These Husks would rush the crew in small waves, crawling out from behind crates or underneath walkways to surprise the three. While the first game allowed you to send your squad to certain locations, this time around, you can assign individual members to different areas, which is done by simply pointing your target reticle at a spot and pressing either left or right on the D pad. This worked quite well, and we found ourselves regularly pushing the tanklike Grunt in to take most of the Husk heat while we picked them off as Shepard from behind. One other new aspect we spied during our game time was what looked to be a new biotic power called adrenaline. Triggering this would slow down enemy movements a la bullet time, which allowed us to better target incoming Husks. The effect only lasted a few seconds, though, but the cooldown time seemed quite quick.

With the demo over, we cornered Zeschuk to glean a few more details about what else we can expect from the game once it ships in early 2010. Despite the game being a direct sequel, Zeschuk says new players won't need to be overly familiar with events in the first game, saying "Mass Effect 2 is done in such a way that it feels like you're in a brand new experience." As for those who did play the first game, BioWare has already stated that original save games will have some impact on character and story in the second, although Zeschuk wouldn't elaborate further. "As a general rule, any big things that have occurred should still be consistently reflected," he said.

When it comes to downloadable content, Zeschuk said Mass Effect 2 content was definitely on the cards. "We have a pretty aggressive DLC plan. We did release two pieces of DLC for Mass 1, which is pretty good, but I think we could have done better. But I think that's our own fault, and we have to learn and improve. And I think that's what we're doing with the second one," he said.

While Modern Warfare 2 may depict the harsh reality of urban conflict, Activision chose the penthouse suite of one of London's swankiest hotels to give us a final hands-on with the game. While the irony may have been lost on the publisher, the demo at least gave us the chance to see a brand-new level from the single-player game, as well as play an objective-based co-op level from the Special Ops mode. During this time, developer Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling answered our questions about multiplayer progression, cinematic influences, and using the game's Special Edition night-vision goggles for nefarious means.

The single-player demo took place at the end of the game's first act. You're on the hunt for an arms dealer, and after finding some marked shell casings, you're led to the dealer's right-hand man in Rio de Janeiro. The level opens as you're tailing a van. The van stops, and the dealer's confidant murders everyone in it. He then opens fire on your van--killing the driver as you and Soap MacTavish jump out and start a chase. We watched as Bowling ran after the suspect and then took him down by shooting him in the leg, allowing you and MacTavish to take him in for questioning.

After a short break, you take the victim to a quiet location, where MacTavish and a member of his squadron start interrogating him--using electricity "convince" him to talk. While MacTavish extracts the information he requires, he gives you instructions on where to head to find the man in charge of the operation. You enter Rio's slum with the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking it, and you encounter resistance from the arms dealer's militia. The problem is that the slum is also populated with civilians, and Bowling would periodically fire into the air to make them disperse.

The slum section was a classic Call of Duty set piece, with a seemingly endless supply of thugs to dispatch as you progress. The difference was in small details--your character will knock out an old clip using the new one when using certain weapons, and when you're injured, blood fills the screen more than it did before. This was a ferocious section filled with rocket-launcher fire and dog attacks, and it came to a head when MacTavish dived out of a window to catch the subject.

LOS ANGELES--One of the most exciting announcements of E3 2006 just couldn't wait until Wednesday. Instead, Square Enix today revealed at its press conference not one, but three Final Fantasy XIII games. Two of those games are exclusive PlayStation 3 releases, while the other is scheduled to be released on "next-gen" mobile phones. The premier game in the series is Final Fantasy XII, which was shown off in a lengthy trailer at the Square Enix press conference. According to the press release, the entire trailer was rendered in-game, and it revealed quite a bit about the game but left many questions unanswered as well. Read on for the full details.

The Final Fantasy XIII trailer opened with a sweeping shot of a lush canyon filled with dense vegetation stretching beyond the horizon. The camera then slowly descended into the canyon to follow a speeding futuristic train that seemed to be propelled forward by passing through successive portals of some sort. Just as the train entered a dark cave it struck a barrier on the track and exploded.

The trailer then cut to the interior of the train, where a lithe woman with long grayish-reddish hair and two pistols was engaged in a battle with yellow-clad, futuristic soldiers. The stylish, fast-paced battle sequence showed the woman performing all sorts of acrobatic stunts while deftly dispatching of wave after wave of soldiers. Every so often, a faint blue light would come from her body, which appeared to be some magic discharge or perhaps a shield of some sort.

The scene cut to another train that sped along a winding track suspended high off the ground in a dark, possibly underground area. At this point a massive monster that looked somewhat like a weapon or summon from the previous Final Fantasy games appeared next to the track and began to attack the train.

The video then cut to a shot of hovering cars driving through a tunnel toward the camera before they were destroyed by an explosion. The next shot showed some massive airships flying around a floating cluster of tall, dark spires that appeared to be a city.

After the fight, the camera zoomed in close on the woman as she flicked her wrist and transformed her pistol into a large dagger or small sword, similar to a gunblade from Final Fantasy VIII. The next scene showed her walking through a very dense, green forest with crystalline structures throughout. She walked into the forest as if looking for something, then paused and looked around.

Then it was back to the floating cities as another train sped between buildings. A large flying manta ray type of creature flew down from above, landed on the train, and hijacked it. The creature looked mechanical but moved very fluidly and naturally. The trailer then ended with a line of text that simply stated, "PlayStation 3 Exclusive."

Assassin's Creed set the gaming world on fire when it appeared at the end of 2006, and despite its appearance in one of the strongest years for games in recent memory, it secured excellent reviews, as well as sales. The game put you in the middle of the third crusade as assassin Altair, whose memories were accessible to his present-day descendant Desmond. The game boasted an intriguing story, stunning graphics, and memorable backdrops. These included the Holy Land, as well as the cities of Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus.

It's no surprise, then, that Ubisoft is prepping a sequel, and we were lucky enough to be invited to meet the game's creative director Patrice Desilets for a first look. He told us that you'll rejoin Desmond directly after the events of the original, and though his role isn't clear yet, he will be more interactive than before. Lucy will also return, again played by Kristen Bell, with the Animus and the nefarious Abstergo Industries featured in the present-day setting as well.

As for the historic setting, Assassin's Creed 2 moves to the Italian Renaissance in 1486. It is set in Venice, Florence, and Tuscany. Again, you'll play as one of Desmond's ancestors, who is called Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Ezio is born into a noble family, but he soon becomes embroiled in a plot against his family, causing him to exact revenge on the conspirators. Ezio's quest will see him go up against the powerful Grimaldi family, a precursor to the modern-day Mafia. In addition to squaring up against the Grimaldis, we know that the Templars will again make a return. One of the central characters is Carno Grimaldi, who is one of the most powerful men in Venice. Although he's obviously well protected, it appears as if his overconfidence may ultimately be his downfall.

Unlike Altair, Ezio isn't a fully trained assassin when you first take control of him. In fact, he's not an assassin at all but simply part of a merchant family. However, throughout the course of the game, you will lead Ezio to embrace the lifestyle of an assassin. Luckily, you're aided by one of the Renaissance's most revered minds: Leonardo da Vinci. The legendary Italian polymath will play a key part in the story, and he's described by creative director Patrice Desilets as the game's answer to James Bond's Q. The inventor created many ingenious designs, and he'll equip you with all sorts of useful gadgets in the game. One of the best creative licenses occurs around da Vinci's famous flying machine, which--it appears--he originally created for Ezio's use. We saw how he used it to navigate Venice from the air as he controlled altitude by using the heat from burning platforms floating on the water.

Soaring above the watery city looked incredible and was a new way to show off Assassin's amazing vistas. The confused guards mistake the contraption for a flying devil and try to shoot you down using arrows. We watched a demo of Ezio flying through several areas of the city, including Venice's famed Piazza San Marco square, but the ultimate aim is to gain entrance to a heavily guarded mansion in which one of your targets is located. Thankfully, landing on the rooftops reduces the risk of being spotted because there are only a few guards. Ezio easily took out a few nearby snipers, pushing one of them into the lagoon, and he then dived into one of the famous haystacks that make a return from the first game.

The last time we saw Kratos, the bald and bladed antihero star of the God of War series, he was aggressively working out some family issues. God of War II ended on a cliffhanger, with Kratos climbing up Mount Olympus with a whole mess of titans, eager to beat the smack out of the gods. This set high expectations for the next chapter in the series. While Sony has teased the upcoming game in trailers and in print, there really is no substitute to seeing a game in action with your own eyes, which is what we were able to do this week at a press event officially unveiling the game. Besides getting a look at another trailer, we were able to see a live demo of the game and talk with some of the team working on it. Does it live up to our gory expectations? It's getting there.

The event kicked off with game director Stig Asmussen taking the stage and serving as emcee for the event. Asmussen has been a part of the team since the original game, serving as lead and environmental artist on GOW and GOWII, and has now been handed the hookblades for the latest adventure. The game's direction is obviously to kick gameplay, story, and technological ass on the PlayStation 3. The team is pushing to make the game big in scale, mayhem, and bloody eye-candy and rich with gameplay.

But, while talk is nice, the proof is always in the game, and Asmussen didn't waste too much time in cutting to a trailer of Kratos in motion. The surly warrior is shown racing through a forest and tearing through hordes of skeletal warriors. His brutal assault highlights one of the new moves in the game--grabbing enemies and using them as a battering ram. The assault looks effective and painful. When a cyclops joins the fray, Kratos improvises and hops onto the monster's back, using it as a not entirely willing mount. Kratos doesn't seem to be too concerned with how the cyclops feels as he forcibly guides it through mobs of foes by stabbing and hacking at it. As the trailer winds down, the landscape goes wobbly as Kratos struggles with the cyclops and leaps off of it onto a passing harpy. The camera pulls back to show that the "forest" he's been fighting on is actually the back of a titan that is climbing to Mount Olympus. The trailer doesn't leave much to the imagination when it comes to what to expect next: an epic and bloody battle.

Before diving into the demo, Asmussen hit on four elements in the game that will shape GOW III's gameplay. The first is the "titan" gameplay, which, as you'd expect, is being expanded on quite a bit thanks to the PS3 hardware's muscle. As hinted at in the trailer, some levels in the game will be set on moving titans, which means they'll likely change up depending on what the titan is doing. This seems like Shadow of the Colossus on steroids, with level orientation shifting from horizontal to vertical as you progress. When you consider that these levels are set to span acres of land, this bit of gameplay could be a mixed blessing for the angry bald demigod.

The second gameplay element, the ability to mount enemies, ought to be an interesting addition to Kratos' repertoire of moves. Besides the obvious benefits of using a cyclops to clear some space when dealing with mobs of foes, you'll be able to make use of harpies to fly to new areas or dive-bomb enemies. Unfortunately, your unwilling mounts don't have too long of a life span, because Kratos "directs" them where he needs them to go by assorted stabbings, throttlings, and painful contortions. On the plus side, it sounds like there should be plenty to choose from and each has unique attacks and abilities.

In Far Cry 2's chaotic world of mercenaries, gunrunners, and armed militias, you'll find yourself dropped into a dizzying web of shady clients and paper-thin alliances. All manner of names and faces are introduced during the course of the storyline, but the real star isn't anyone brandishing a smuggled weapon in search of blood diamonds; it's the daunting and awe-inspiring 50-square kilometers of African landscape that make up the game's open-world setting. Aside from providing the opportunity to soak up an amazing sunset, Far Cry 2's free-roaming terrain brilliantly harmonizes with the first-person combat. The diverse landscape and myriad environmental factors work alongside a wide assortment of weaponry to give you tremendous freedom to approach each mission. Combined with solid multiplayer, Far Cry 2's sheer breadth of action provides you with plenty of reason to stay lost in the African wilderness despite an underwhelming plot and the occasional sense of tedium in navigating from one location to another on the gargantuan map.

Far Cry 2's story is filled with potential. You're a mercenary working for a client who's sent you to an unnamed African nation engulfed in civil war, and your job is to take out a notorious arms dealer known as "The Jackal." He quickly proves to be an elusive figure, so you'll need to begin working for various warring factions that the Jackal has armed so you can trace the supply line back to your target. The two primary organizations at the heart of all this bloodshed are the militaristic UFLL and the revolutionary APR. You'll spend the bulk of the story working for these two groups, getting to know their power structures, and taking on all of the violent tasks they throw your way. Complicating things is the fact that your character has malaria, which means you'll need to occasionally play nice with the more ragtag Underground, the only group with the medical connections necessary to keep your potentially life-threatening symptoms at bay.

Each story mission can be played in multiple ways. There are 12 potential buddies randomly scattered throughout the storyline who you can befriend (nine of whom are available to choose as your silent protagonist), and they're often keen to tack on their own interests to the quests handed out by the UFLL and APR. Instead of just taking out a target, you have the option to earn extra reputation points by working alongside your buddy to first squeeze any remaining assets from the soon-to-be-deceased. This also earns you the ability to increase your level of companionship with that buddy. It's a neat reward, but it doesn't shed much light on their backgrounds. But that's par for the course; the main story is delivered in such a rushed, quick-and-dirty way that you never feel very involved in the game's overarching conflicts. The plot is less Blood Diamond than it is early Grand Theft Auto, a long roster of changing faces that scroll by far too quickly to capitalize on the politically charged setting.

Those who have been following BioShock 2's development will by now know that the protagonist is no longer an outsider making his way into Rapture. Now, you're playing as the original Big Daddy after he has regained his free will. After having lived the life of a mindless drone for all these years, he is suddenly able to think for himself. This newfound clarity leads him to wonder what exactly has happened to Rapture, and in his confused state, the only thing he can think to do is find the Little Sister he was originally paired with. The journey isn't an easy one, though, because while Andrew Ryan may be gone, there's a new villain in control of the city.

See, a lot has changed in the 10 years since the original game. With Andrew Ryan out of the picture--insofar as someone whose face is plastered all over the city can be considered out of the picture--one of his old political rivals has assumed control of the city. Her name is Sofia Lamb, and she's someone whose ideas reside on the opposite end of the spectrum from Ryan's. She's an altruist with the motto "make the world your family" and believes that it's everyone's duty and obligation to help out the world around them with no regard for their own desires. That's all well and good, but like Ryan, she takes that stance a bit too far and ends up on the extreme end of the spectrum. According to creative director Jordan Thomas, she has taken control of the city by "spinning a collectivist philosophy into a religion for recruitment purposes."

Thomas led a demo focusing on a particularly interesting recruited figure. His name is Father Simon Wales, and he's an Irish priest who has joined Lamb's ranks to help spread her extreme beliefs. Naturally, this is quite a departure from the era of Andrew Ryan, who railed against religion in seemingly every audio log or propaganda poster found in the original game. But like the scientists and artists from the first game, Wales' original intentions became corrupted over time--something visually manifested in his dark, twisted church. From the ravaged altar to the hundreds of candles illuminating incoherent messages on the walls, it's clear that Wales' days as a legitimate priest are long gone, and he has become more of a crazed cult leader than anything else. Wales had evidently been splicing up, too, because he proved quite a challenge during this boss encounter. But thankfully, even the most genetically enhanced priest is no match for telekinesis plasmids and a gun that fires rockets on spears.

After this boss fight came a message from Sofia Lamb. The quick version was that she wasn't going to tolerate anyone going after her associates, so to prove her point, she tried to flush the player out by…literally flushing the player out. Lamb remotely triggered a flood to sweep through the Siren Alley area of Rapture--the city's red-light district, essentially--in an effort to drown the player. This sort of desperate act is a clear sign of what has happened to Rapture since the original game. No longer is Andrew Ryan in charge, still clinging to the hope that his life's work will turn into something great. Instead, we have Sofia Lamb, who's perfectly willing to ravage the city at all costs in order to achieve her goal. As scary as Rapture was then, it's a scarier place now.

UK REVIEW--EA Sports' FIFA series has improved dramatically over the last few years, finally bringing the gameplay up to the same standard as its glittering presentation. With FIFA 10, the developer has produced the best game in the series to date, thanks to incredibly fluid 360-degree player control, improved animation, and realistic opponent AI. This year's game also introduces a revitalised Manager mode and a brand-new Virtual Pro feature, allowing you to put yourself in the game and unlock new abilities across nearly every game mode. The result is an unparalleled game of football, whether you're playing a quick game with your mates or sitting in the manager's chair over several seasons. There are still some issues--the sheer number of options and game modes result in an overloaded menu system, while the ability to upgrade players in exchange for real cash is a worrying sign for the future of downloadable content. However, these small issues aside, FIFA 10 is without a doubt the best football game yet, and it's a package that no football fan will want to be without.

The gameplay hasn't been radically overhauled this year, but the tweaks and improvements really add depth to the game. The biggest new gameplay feature is 360-degree player control, which makes player movement much smoother than before. Previously, players were limited to an eight-way axis of movement--a throwback to the days before analogue control that saw them zigzagging across the pitch. In FIFA 10, they move much more naturally, since you're able to make finer tweaks to their runs and subtle alterations to their angles of attack. It's a change that really doesn't become apparent until you go back to FIFA 09 and compare the differences, but FIFA 10 possesses a fluidity that has been missing in all football games before it.

In addition to the new controls, the improved animations and more-intelligent AI banish the small but niggling problems with last year's game. The computer no longer has an unfair advantage winning the ball in the air. The goalies are superb, with an increased number of animation routines that result in more realistic saves. The players have an incredible sense of physicality, and the differences in stats such as height, weight, and fitness have never been so accurately represented. Players now deal with the ball in a more realistic way, moving to intercept a high ball and chesting it down, rather than waiting for it to land at their feet. In short, it's difficult to fault the gameplay in FIFA 10.

FIFA 09 added a lot of new game modes to the series, including Be a Pro, where you took a single player through a career. Be a Pro returns this year, but Virtual Pro builds on the idea by allowing you to create a player in your own likeness and then play him across a greater number of game modes. The customisation options are the same as they are in Be a Pro, but the big new feature is the ability to upload a digital photo of yourself and import your face onto your Virtual Pro player. Unfortunately, we were unable to get the GameFace feature working despite repeated attempts--the server reported errors on the PCs we tried, and this problem has been echoed by numerous users. The whole process seems unnecessarily complicated: you have to take a photo, upload it, and then manually map out features such as your nose and eyes on a computer.

Published by :2K Games
Developed by :Gearbox Software
Genre : Action RPG
Number of Players : 1-4
Release Date:
US: October 20, 2009
Europe: October 23, 2009
Australia: October 23, 2009
MSRP : $59.99
ESRB Content Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Strong Language
Also Available On: PC, Xbox 360



Borderlands features four player online cooperative play, which allows players to join and leave games whenever they want to, along with other single-player and multiplayer modes and a large number of weapons. Players can choose from four different playable characters who each have their own unique abilities and skill trees. In addition, players may have access to customizable vehicles for "vehicular combat" and will also be able to customize their pre-selected character. Defeated enemies will sometimes drop equipment, which is then available for players to pick up. The game is described by Gearbox Software as an "RPS," or "role-playing shooter."