Formula One 2009 Hands-On For Wii

Sony's Studio Liverpool shipped its PlayStation 3-exclusive Formula One Championship Edition back in 2007, and since then racing-specialist Codemasters has taken the reins. Released from the shackles of its platform-exclusive chains, the pinnacle of motorsport is heading to the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation Portable this summer, followed by Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions in 2010. Codies popped in to the GameSpot UK offices to give us a first look at the Wii version, and we wasted no time gearing up for a few hot laps with it. 

Formula One 2009 is being developed by Sumo Digital. The UK-based studio has shipped numerous racing titles, including GTI Club Plus and TOCA Race Driver PSP ports, so it's certainly no stranger to the sport. Based on the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championships, it features all of the drivers and teams represented this year. All of this year's 17 rounds are present, including recent newcomers in the Singapore and Abu Dhabi grand prix. F1 2009 features several game modes, including single exhibition races, full seasons, and the World Championship career mode. This mode spans over three seasons, and you can race as an existing top-tier driver or create a player from scratch with the goal of winning a driver's championship before the end of the third year. Also included are competitive and cooperative two-player split-screen multiplayer. Lastly, there are single and co-op challenges to help you hone your skills. In a co-op challenge, the goal may be for one of you to hold back an opponent while your teammate overtakes. We have yet to give these a spin, but they should add some variety to the game.

For each round of the series, you're able to choose whether to jump straight into the race or take part in a full grand prix weekend, including practice sessions and the new knockout qualifying sessions. One of the biggest changes this year is to the franchise's presentation. Codies has veered away from the "TV broadcast" style of previous years, including commentators and TV-style displays. Instead, the focus is more on the driver's experience, and while there will still be some onscreen data, the team radio will play a vital part in your race strategy. The success of this stripped-down approach remains to be seen, but we're open to improvements to what had become a bit staid in the past--although we'd also certainly welcome a return of Murray Walker's expert commentary.

FIFA 11 Updated Impressions For Wii

Ask any aspiring young footballer what he wants to be when he grows up, and you’re likely to get a similar sort of answer wherever you go: strikers. Everyone wants the glory of being the one to put the ball into the back of the net, but few want the pressure or responsibility of defending their own goal. 

The team at EA must have heard differently, because at Gamescom 2010 the publisher announced that the upcoming version of FIFA 11 will add the ability to play full 11-players-per-side football online, as well as offline goalie management. Of course, no one wants to be standing around for 90 minutes waiting for their time to shine, and rather than be stuck watching everyone else have all the fun, players who pull on the gloves will be given a few new tools to keep things fresh and interesting.

The first is a real-time set of shot indicators, showing the optimal recommended standing position for your keeper, and a guide to the incoming trajectory of shots. While initially it may sound like a cheat sheet to easy mode, offensive players still have the ability to chip and curl the ball past the keeper, and there’s no indication of power until the ball leaves the attacker’s boot. Players steer the keeper around using the left stick like any other player, while keeping the ball out can be done with the right stick, or with a single button press in simplified mode.

The other new tool is called Call to Arms. It's a raised isometric view of the field when your side has the ball and is going on an offensive rampage. As the keeper, you will be able to call for players to pass and set up plays with single button presses superimposed over the players on and off the ball. It’s a nifty way to give the guy down the opposite end of the field a hand in the glory of scoring.

Dino Strike For Wii

It's a race for survival in Dino Strike. Bundled with a gun peripheral, players blast through jungles filled with prehistoric beasts looking to put them on the endangered species list. Choose from a variety of weapons to face five ferocious species of dinosaurs and avoid becoming extinct. 

Source:http://wii.ign.com

Call of Duty: Black Ops For Wii

Call of Duty is the Goliath of the video game world. The series has sold millions of copies and catapulted itself from a solid, World War II shooter to the sprawling multiplayer playground and Hollywood-style campaign that we know today. Call of Duty: Black Ops takes everything that made the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions great, but retrofits the mechanics for Nintendo's system. It's mostly successful in what it attempts, but it's clear that the limitations of the system played a role in this title's shortcomings. 

You begin the game as Alex Mason, a soldier being interrogated for information that he can't remember. You play through Mason's memories in search for information. Sam Worthington, Ed Harris, and Gary Oldman deliver expert performances and really nail their respective characters. There are twists, some of which work better than others, and the plot seems to get bogged down and slightly disjointed towards the middle. But unlike Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops does a wonderful job of cleaning everything up for the finale.  

Black Ops is not just a linear game, but sometimes feels like it's on autopilot. Just one example is when you "guide" the takeoff of an SR-71 Blackbird. I tried to not pull back on the flight stick when the game told me to, just to see if there was any other alternative to taking off, but the Blackbird lifted off on its own.

The artificial intelligence of both your friendly soldiers and the enemies you face is pretty poor. Both friendly and enemy soldiers behave like fools for most of the campaign. I once watched a friendly shoot the back of an armored car that he was using for cover for a solid 20 seconds.

There are also a few design flaws and annoyances, not least of all was a game-ending bug in the first level that made me restart the entire mission. No one else in the office ran into that one, but everyone who'd played Black Ops has run into a major design issue at the Battle of Khe Sanh. The mission never tells you what to actually do and even misdirects you. 

Despite these issues, I really enjoyed the story that the campaign presents and I think it's the best of the series. The characters are well-crafted and the plot rarely disappoints. Wii players can also look forward to solid first-person shooter controls as both the Wii Remote and Classic Controller are very capable peripherals. I preferred the Classic Controller thanks to the dual analog sticks, but there's no doubt the Wii Remote will find a home with some. Due to controller design limitations jumping is a bit of a chore with the Wii Remote and throwing grenades isn't as fluid as it is on other consoles.

Bit.Trip Fate For Wii

Bit.Trip Fate is an on-rails side-scrolling shoot-'em-up that finds CommanderVideo riding the vibe to discover his fate. CommanderVideo will need a little help from the friends he made in Bit.Trip Runner to thwart the Mingrawn Timbletot, who has mutated the world into an ugly technological nightmare. Join forces with the Junior Melchkin, CommandgirlVideo and others to increase CommanderVideo’s power and save the world. Whether you play in single-player mode or team up with a co-pilot, you’ll need a steady hand to navigate the vibe and aim your blasters at the twisted souls out to destroy you. 

Source:http://wii.ign.com

Just Dance For Wii

For starters, it’s a dancing game. Dancing. As every self-respecting man will know, dancing isn’t really something we ‘do’. We might occasionally be dragged onto a dance floor in order to shimmy from side to side for a few minutes before making a hasty retreat to the comfort of a chair and a bottle of beer, but we do not, by and large, dance.

Just Dance is a dancing game. That’s pretty much everything there is to know about it- a dancer appears on screen and you, holding a Wii remote, must copy their moves in time. Doing it right nets you some points, whilst doing it wrong doesn’t. If you play the game with other players- something that we highly recommend- you can have a look to see who got the most points and won. Then you choose a different song, forget all about it, and dance to that instead.

Tomb Raider Underworld Impressions For Wii

It seems almost unthinkable that a concept as simple in its inception as that of Tomb Raider- lone explorer traipses into ancient tombs- could still be going all these years after the series first saw life. And yet here we are, over a dozen games later and with a different developer at the helm, and we're still getting all enthusiastic about miss Croft's latest adventure.

To be fair, this has a lot to do with Crystal Dynamic's reinvention of the series with Legend, and subsequent back-to-basics Anniversary. Underworld is looking to pick up where both games left off, taking story threads from both and weaving them into one of the largest, grandest adventures Lara has ever embarked upon.

The demo on offer gives us only a hint of the adventure to come, but what it does best is show off the  new systems and mechanics that are in place for this latest game. From the outset, Underworld looks and feels different. Bigger, more organic somehow; the lush scenery of Thailand boasts more life and detail than previous games have ever tried to accomplish: an indication of the improvements in graphics technology on one hand, but a clear sign of the direction Crystal Dynamics has in mind for the series: progression.

Metroid Other M For Wii

Half way through Other M (see if you can work out the puzzle behind the title before the end of the review) there was a point where I strongly thought this could well be the best Metroid game ever. Then the game peaked about 3 quarters through and sadly never went any further, promising us a moment we were cruelly denied. I will be discussing (in brief) a couple of these latter moments so please be aware of minor spoilers.

Other M is the result of the collaboration between Team Ninja of Ninja Gaiden fame and Nintendo themselves. What we have is a wonderful continuation of the classic Metroid gameplay but also a nice nod to the phenomenal Metroid Prime titles, in that you can look through our heroine Samus’ mask at any time you desire. It’s a little confusing a system at first but one soon adapts thanks to some decent design decisions which we’ll look at in detail below.

Hot Wheels Track Attack For Wii

My defining memory of the Hot Wheels toys was when my friend got one of the stunt tracks for his birthday. We spent hours watching the die-cast little cars race around the thing; invariably ending with one (or more) flying off into the air and crashing somewhere over the other side of the living room floor. Those loops were a killer.

This is the Hot Wheels that Wii / DS Racer Track Attack seeks to embody; not the collectors market of the classic Hot Wheels toys, and not even the more character-driven antics of the Battle Force 5 range. The emphasis in Track Attack is firmly on stunts, speed, and drifting around the track faster than everyone else.

The car library - which comprises some 30-odd vehicles - is mostly made up of cars from the Hot Wheels 'Track Stars' and 'Thrill Racers' series'. That means you won't see any licensed cars, but rather a selection of bonkers creations ranging from chromed hot rods (and indeed, a Croc Rod) to curvaceous supercars to dune buggies. All can be customised, with several preset colour schemes available, and you're free to paint them your own colours as well as upgrade them with tokens.

Resident Evil - Darkside Chronicles For Wii

Most of it stemmed from the fact that Chris and Wesker during the CODE: Veronica segment now never meet on screen. Cutting corners? Obviously. Wholly disappointing? Quite. But it’s not just little things missing from both Resident Evil 2 or CODE: Veronica’s adaptations here, nor are some bizarre changes to the storyline which I will elaborate on below, (so spoilers). No, the biggest cause for complaint from me is the entire lack of extra content. See, Umbrella Chronicles featured adaptations of Zero, Remake, and (loosely) 3 but also featured an entirely new scenario and then on top of that several bonus scenarios that further highlight new story details and showing us aspects of the history such as Rebecca and Richard together in the Spencer Mansion. In Darkside, there’s the Resident Evil 2 and CODE: Veronica adaptations, and a new mission where you play as Leon with Krauser two years prior to the events of Resident Evil 4, titled Operation Javier.

See, UC’s adaptations of Zero, Remake and 3 all had problems with the storytelling, missing characters, changed events, but most people simply saw them as abridged story, leading onto the real meat of the game which was the new and hidden scenarios.

Castlevania - The Adventure Rebirth For Wii

Over the years i've been a massive Castlevania fan, i've seldom ever attempted the original Gameboy titles. My vague memory of attempting the first, titled Castlevania - The Adventure was a sour one. Terrible graphics, reasonable if not great music and perhaps one of the most dissapointing side scrolling platformers for the Gameboy. It was slow, unresponsive, you name it - it was all wrong with it.

So years later, Konami announce a Castlevania game for Wii Ware, built from the ground up. Everyone assumed it would be yet another retelling of the original Castlevania (itself retold twice), but many seemed to not notice the Adventure subtitle. (Neither did I originally, truth be told). Excitedly I saw this as my first real oppertunity to take this title by the reigns and experience it.

However, The Adventure Rebirth isn't just a straight port with upgraded graphics, it's an entirely renewed approach to the title; though the basic story is the same, it's extended and been completely revamped. It is to the original 'The Adventure' as Super Castlevania IV was to the original Castlevania. It's the same story but told completely differently.

Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest: Hands-On For Wii

At E3, Headstrong Games was showing off its Wii version of Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, while TT Fusion's PlayStation 3 version with Move integration was absent from the show. (There's no Xbox 360 version, Kinect-enabled or otherwise, in the works.) Our demo, taken from the last quarter of the game, was set in Pelennor Fields, which is the battleground that Tolkien fans will remember from the battle late in Return of the King. The game covers Aragorn's part in all three books, as told by Sam Gamgee (voiced by Sean Astin of Peter Jackson's movies) to his kids, some time after the events of the trilogy. Framing the game with a bedtime-storytelling narrator is Headstrong's way of turning the relatively dark fantasy of classic Lord of the Rings into a family-friendly Wii game, with Sam playing up Aragorn's heroism and omitting grislier details. 

At Pelennor Fields, Aragorn is backed by an army of soldiers--some ghostly, some human--as well as Legolas and Gimli--as he sees off Sauron's forces, siege engines and ogres among them. You play with the remote and nunchuk and, as the title suggests, only as Aragorn, but you can pick up items that buff your small party. In our time with the game, we picked up a battle cry that confers a reddish aura and extra power to each member. Aragorn and his group began by repelling siege engines from the city walls in a side quest, aiming and shooting fire arrows with the Wii Remote. These are optional, in addition to the main level objectives, and failing them doesn't end the game, though completing them earns you useful items, such as special arrow types.

EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp First Impressions For Wii

The EA Sports Active franchise has carved out a successful fitness-focused niche on the Wii, motivating players the world around to take the remote and nunchuk in hand and work up a sweat. While previous games have been about general fitness, the latest entry in the Active roster boasts a more specific theme and the official license of a professional sport. With EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp, EA is planning to put you through the paces that aspiring athletes go through to get fit and ready to compete in the NFL Scouting Combine. If you're looking to improve your 40-yard-dash time, this may be the game for you. 

One of the major differences in this iteration of the EA Sports Active franchise is the new total-body tracking system. Ditching the nunchuk and its cumbersome cord, this system uses the remote in conjunction with two new sensors. One sensor straps around your thigh and features an accelerometer, just like the remote. The other goes around your arm, where it can track your heart rate. With these three sources of input, NFL Training Camp can track your movements in a number of different ways, giving you the feedback you need to have a more efficient, more effective workout.

As expected, the workouts in NFL Training Camp are similar to what you might find NFL players doing. In fact, EA consulted with a number of different professional trainers from around the NFL in order to create a variety of workout regimens that they then combined into the 60-day challenge. This is the campaign, the career mode, and the main endeavor when it comes to NFL Training Camp, and it's aimed to target the skills and stamina you'd need to succeed in the Scouting Combine (actual Combine success not guaranteed).

During the demo workout we saw, the player went through a number of different exercises without much of a break in between. He started off alternating between running and sprinting in place, pounding his legs up and down as fast as he could. While he did this, the voice of the in-game trainer told him that he would need to keep his legs moving all the time if he hoped to get through the defensive line and break tackles. He then took on another running exercise that challenged him to sidestep and extend his arm in order to quickly dodge tackling dummies. Again, a voice-over put his actions in the context of actual football, though it was pretty easy to see the application in this case.

Those exercises focused on agility and aerobic stamina, while others worked on dexterity in the guise of skill challenges, such as kicking field goals and throwing footballs at moving targets. We also saw a few strength-training exercises, including hammer curls that used the included resistance band. We were told that each workout was aimed to come in around the 20-minute mark, with time built in for warming up and cooling down. With many of the exercises chained together by jogging and other aerobic activities, it was clear that NFL Training Camp will provide a vigorous workout for those interested.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Multiplayer Hands-On For Wii

Cops and racers are the gaming world's cats and dogs--they're violently antagonistic towards each other, and it's never good to have them both in the same room. This long-held animosity will be the focus of UK studio Criterion's first stab at the Need for Speed franchise--Hot Pursuit--and follows up from its much-lauded work on Burnout Paradise two years ago. Criterion and publisher EA recently showed off the main competitive multiplayer mode for Hot Pursuit at a pre-TGS 2010 event, and we managed to get behind the wheel as both a speedy racer and a dogged cop to play out this classic struggle yet again on the open roads. 

The game's titular Hot Pursuit mode sees you either as a racer or a cop. Your goal as a racer is to make it to the end point first by taking whatever roads (or shortcuts) are quickest, while cops need to hunt down and destroy all racer vehicles. Eight players will be able to compete online, with both types of drivers having access to a suite of four power-ups that will assist in your quest to escape or to detain.
We chose the law for the first few runs of our demo session, with our team of four cop cars having to run down a similarly sized squad of racers. Bringing down racers requires you to damage their vehicles enough to the point of breakdown, which you can either do by ramming into them, by forcing them into barricades, or by making them crash into other cars. Assisting you in this task are four power-ups--an EMP blast, road spikes, support helicopter, or road blocks. Calling in a road block will see a group of police vehicles and barricades set up in front of a racer, with only a minor gap in the wall to drive through. Spikes will similarly give racers plenty of steering hassles, as deploying them will see spikes stretch out across most of the width of a road, with only the edges free from the tire-damaging power-ups. Helicopters act like spikes on steroids--calling in one of these supports will see a chopper hover ahead of a racer, dropping road spikes for a set amount of time. The EMP will scramble a targeted racer's driving controls and is the only power-up that will require you to be in sight of your quarry to use. When you first deploy an EMP, a target reticle will appear onscreen, and you'll need to keep your chosen racer in your sights for a few seconds before the EMP hits. Choosing one of these power-ups to deploy is as simple as pressing a direction on the D pad, but some powers can't be stacked (such as the helicopter)--that is, two or more police choppers can't be in the air at once, which means you'll need to liaise with your fellow police officers to make sure you're using that chopper at the best time.

New Super Mario Bros For Wii

You better bring your butt-stomping A-game to New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Like the best Mario 2D games of decades past, this game is unashamedly and deliciously challenging. It will even test the most seasoned platforming veterans. And it's not just the difficulty that evokes comparisons with such classics as Super Mario Bros. 3. While New Super Mario Bros. Wii feels and plays like its esteemed side-scrolling forebears, there are enough additions here--such as the ability to have four players take on Bowser's minions at the same time--to make it a completely engaging game in its own right. Whether you decide to tackle it solo or submit yourself to the at-times fun, at-times frustrating multiplayer, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a thoroughly worthwhile experience. 

S.C.A.T. Special Cybernetic Attack Team: For Wii

Let's get it out of the way right from the start -- yes, this game is actually named S.C.A.T. It's meant to be an acronym here, standing for Special Cybernetic Attack Team. But you and I both know that "scat" is also another word for, well, poop. Fecal matter. The morning aftermath of your last late night run to Taco Bell. So you'll need to push past that truly, truly terrible title first -- but if you do, the actual game you're getting when you buy S.C.A.T. is a pretty solid shooter.

S.C.A.T.'s an under-the-radar release from the NES days, originally published by Natsume in the summer of '91. As an 8-bit shooter in that age, it had some pretty stiff competition to go up against -- true classics like Gradius, Contra and Life Force had already asserted themselves as the staples of the system. Gamers of the day who gave it a chance, though, found that S.C.A.T. even gave those greats a run for their money.

It's intense, right from the start. The loud and explosive opening cutscene is so overly dramatic that you can't help but be drawn into its tale of aliens invading America -- and then Arnold Schwarzenegger shows up. Seriously, the main character of the game is named Arnold and is intentionally modeled after the Governator. Even better is the female protagonist for Player 2, named Sigourney, who's looking like she just stepped off the set of Aliens.

NASCAR The Game 2011 For Wii

NASCAR The Game 2011 completely redefines what fans can expect from a NASCAR racing game. Players can choose to play as themselves or as one of the sport's real-world drivers as they battle it out for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship. Each pro driver has the AI characteristics of his or her real world counterpart, setting the stage for intense rivalries played out on the track. From the 22 real world tracks to full pit stop strategy action, NASCAR The Game 2011 captures the real atmosphere, sense of speed and spectacle that embodies NASCAR. Players can even feel the thrill of a win with the interactive celebration mode.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Screenshots

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword introduces full motion control enabled by the Wii MotionPlus accessory, which synchronizes player movements with Link's actions while offering intuitive play control.

With the Wii MotionPlus accessory, every movement of Link's sword matches the player's motion with exact precision. If players motion left to right, Link swings from left to right. The precision play control is applied to enemies as well, as players must contemplate strategy when battling opponents that actively try to defend against attacks.

Source: ign.com

A.H.C Games

Hi.!
We are two cousans and we decide to start a blogg about games. Here we will post different content about games and also about consoles like PlayStation, XBLA, Wii, PC and also mobile devices like symbian, android and iPhones mobiles.