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Archive for the ‘Joystick’ Category

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
UBISOFT (XBOX 360, PS3, PC)

If the nonstop firefights of Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 have left you with post-traumatic stress disorder, consider this latest Tom Clancy–stamped shooter a sort of smart-weapon therapy. The war zones here—scattered from South America to the Middle East—are no less treacherous, but victory depends on more than having the reflexes of a 12-year-old smart-ass assassin. You’ll need to master strategic leadership of your four-man squad and careful use of tomorrow’s weapons.

Future Soldier’s developers recruited the help of Navy SEALs to arm the game with gadgets fit for duty in the next few years. Your arsenal includes remote-control surveillance drones, targeting grenades that mark enemies on your map, and optical camouflage that cloaks your body armor in a see-through shimmer (like the dreadlocked alien from the movie Predator). Commanding your three squad mates is a simple matter of pointing and clicking. (Real-life players assume their roles in coop er ative multiplayer missions.) You can order them to scout ahead, con centrate their shots on a single enemy, or target multiple enemies for one synchronized surgical strike when you pull the trigger. Real-time satellite surveillance provides the lay of the land before you dash into the next area.

Most firefights here are fought from behind cover. You lead your guys from obstacle to obstacle, automatically crouching behind cars and flattening against buildings at the touch of a button. Of course, you can just ignore
all these tactical advantages and send in your squad with guns set to full-auto, but that seems like an oldfashioned
way to play a game called Future Soldier.

Dragon’s Dogma
CAPCOM (XBOX 360, PS3)

If this game’s initials don’t give you a clue about its theme and setting, then either you’ve suffered a battle-ax blow to the head or you’ve never chucked a 20-sided Dungeons & Dragons die. Yep, Dragon’s Dogma is an epic hack-and-slash ode to serious high-fantasy, rife with dungeons to spelunk, scaly beasts to slay, and perilous quests to check off ye olde to-do list. It’s sort of a gateway adventure for players too shy to sojourn online, and it lets you recruit a party of computer controlled “pawn” cohorts created by other Dragon’s Dogma players. These sidekick sorcerers, warriors, and archers back you up—and even chat you up—just like real-world players, except they never take White Castle breaks or give you lip about loot-splitting.

BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT (PC)

Ten years may have whizzed by since the release of Diablo II’s last expansion, but hard-core fans are still roaming the game’s randomly generated landscapes, on the hunt for legendary loot. The series’ simple hack-and-slash formula—inspired by the Gauntlet arcade machine that ate all your quarters in the eighties—just keeps on giving, spawning imitators that have amassed their own cult followings. It’s no surprise, then, that the launch of the third title is a bona fide gaming event. More than a decade in development, tweaked and re-tweaked by the genre maestros at Blizzard, Diablo III is the perfect sequel, familiar in all the right areas yet deep and different in others.

SYNDICATE
ELECTRONIC ARTS
(XBOX 360, PS3, PC)
Rating: 4 out of 4 stars

A different sort of futuristic shooter, this first-person update to a classic PC strategy game pits its hero—a trench-coat-clad company man-against evil corporate drones instead of the usual alien armadas. Your arsenal of upgradable energy weapons is straight out of 2069, but you’ll never climb the corporate ladder without using your head. More specifically, a chip in your skull augments your senses and lets you assume control of enemy agents. This hacking ability adds a layer of strategy to each firefight, although single-player missions and the cyberpunk scenery become slightly repetitive after a while. The four-player coop er ative mode is more fun, focusing on action and tactics. Building synergy with online colleagues is the best way to play Syndicate.

HOT SHOTS GOLF: WORLD INVITATIONAL
SONY (PS VITA)
Rating: 3 out of 3 stars

If you’re looking for a PS Vita launch game that shows off all the system’s bells and whistles, don’t bother teeing this up. Despite some token uses of the touch screen, multiplayer network, and tilt features, the game plays nearly the same as every previous console version in the series. In other words, you can practically tear through the well-designed courses with one hand. But that’s what makes Hot Shots such a great on-the-go golf experience. The one-finger stroke meter gets you right into the swing of things—pun intended—letting you challenge online opponents with virtually no learning curve. Unlockable gear and saucer-eyed golfers make it clear this game was made in Japan, but that’s all part of the charm.

Mold your own slugger from the minors to the World Series in this latest installment of the juggernaut baseball franchise. MLB 12 improves the Road to the Show career mode with new spring-training minigames that really do ramp up your skills, if you put in the time. Meanwhile, the entire on-field experience features more realistic physics, truer-to-broadcast presentation, better integration with online play, and enhanced control options (including swing support for the Move gadget). The PS Vita version is compatible with saves from the PS3 game. If you own both versions, you can start a game in your living room and then take The Show on the road.

MASS EFFECT 3
ELECTRONIC ARTS (XBOX 360, PS3, PC)

Known for its titillating girl-on-alien-girl sex and intergalactic blasting, the Mass Effect series is more accessible for the average dude than your typical fantasy-flavored roleplaying game. This final installment is the most action-crammed yet, a grand space opera with Gears of War–style combat. (It even offers cooperative online missions.) Newbies can dive right into the game’s galaxy-spanning war to save Earth without feeling too lost, although series vets will enjoy seeing the consequences of moral choices made in previous installments. Xbox 360 gamers with a Kinect peripheral can issue voice commands during combat and dialogue scenes. Gimmicky? Sure. But it does free up the hands during those sex scenes.

SSX
EA SPORTS (XBOX 360, PS3)

This is a hard-charging snowboarding simulator for people who think ESPN’s X Games are for sissies. SSX plunges players down real-world mountain ranges re-formed with reality-defying tricks in mind. A new physics engine and a lack of boundaries let you grind any line and soar from any precipice in the Himalayas or the mountains of Africa, Alaska, and Antarctica (all rendered from NASA satellite data). And the developers have added a new goal to the Racing and Trick modes of previous SSX titles: survival. Players compete to see how far they can fly downhill before succumbing to avalanches, whiteouts, or exposure. New networking features even let you “like” your favorite drops and seek out global competitions.

TWISTED METAL
SONY (PS3)

You’d expect monster vehicles, inventive weapons, 16-player online matches, and sprawling battlegrounds in a reboot of the road-rage-fueled franchise that perfected offensive driving on the consoles, but Twisted Metal offers at least one surprise: cooperative gameplay, where teammates can combine their cars’ potential for vehicular manslaughter. Pull your hot rod into the trailer of your buddy’s 18-wheeler, for instance, and you can man its turret for extra drive-by destruction. A new helicopter gunship—the first airborne vehicle in the series—is equipped with a magnet that can pluck teammates to safety. Plus, new destructible environments make for satisfying collateral damage, especially during road trips through the malls.

Titanic titles for download or on-the-go

JOURNEY
Sony CEA (PS3)
Less a game and more like the digital equivalent of a bong hit, Journey drops players into a gorgeously rendered world and lets them unravel its mysteries with fellow online day-trippers.

TOUCH MY KATAMARI
Namco Bandai (PS Vita)
The endearingly oddball, exceedingly Jap an ese series takes advantage of the PS Vita’s touch panel to help players squeeze and stretch their ever-expanding junk ball.

UFC ON XBOX LIVE
UFC (Xbox 360)
Not a game but an essential download for UFC fans, this Marketplace app streams payper-view events in high-def and without lag. Interviews and behind-the-scenes videos psych you up before main events.