|
PREVIEWS
|
 Stranglehold
John Woo, the acclaimed director for blockbusters such as John Travolta and Nicholas Cage’s Face Off and Van Damme’s Hard Target makes his directorial debut in the gaming world, with his martial arts hero Chow Yun-fat (from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) as his digital counterpart, Inspector Tequila, from the film Hard Boiled. The game’s screenshots may make some gamers salivate. However the actual gameplay looks much like the technical descendent of Max Payne with all the exquisite appeal of cinematically rendered destructible environments and slow time (referred to as Tequila Time in this case) that transmogrifies docile gamers into tech savouring beasts, ever hungry for crisply rendered visuals in 3-D. The inspector will be seen in the usual dilemma of his personal life involuntarily dragged in his professional life. Built on the impressive Unreal 3 engine, the game will animate Chow in his ongoing crusade against gangs and drug lords in Hong Kong and Chicago and pair him against a Russian Mafioso who picks up his ex-wife as a second resort. Gun fight duels will be available in multiplayer mode elongating the game’s life span, but the tequila time feature will obviously not be a part of it. Audiences have escalating expectations from action games and movies alike, and when celebrities cross the line from actual reality to virtual, the stakes are pushed a lot higher. But from what one can estimate from the teasers and trailers so far, the game is well worth the wait.
|
Condemned explores the reality behind mentally impeded serial killers, and the pleasure they get from getting their hands wet with blood. Ethan Thomas, an FBI operative is investigating serial killers. From eerie moans and grunts of men whose sole purpose of living is to kill those around them to the visual finesse, Condemned stands shoulder to shoulder with action titles intended to give grown men the taste of fear through virtual reality. The game seems to uphold all the qualitative features that made F.E.A.R. stand out. The cinematography is handled during gameplay as is the tradition of new games.
but with metal pipes, wooden planks, axes, just about anything they can grab from a junkyard or toolbox that will result in a sickening crunch or a blood splattering gash on impact. The atmosphere of the game is sinister and unpleasant, and the constant thought of passing through an unpopulated neighbourhood with madmen hiding in the darkness is enough to convince gamers that this is serious business. Good games always attempt to play with the gamer’s mind and conscience, and the emotion of fear is one manipulated effectively and easily. Games like Condemned is definitely not for the weak hearted, and those with a medical history are better off playing something else.
