Demo Round Up - 5/03/10

This week we have a wide variety of demos to cover. Whether you enjoy hugging tight turns or pummeling your opponent to a pulp, we've got something for you.

Split/Second

I was eagerly awaiting the chance to get my hands on Split/Second. I'm a big fan of Black Rock Studio's last release, Pure. It featured addictive gameplay, simple controls, and a large assortment of off the wall tricks. Split/Second promised to deliver a similar fantastical experience with hot cars traveling at blinding speeds. The gameplay revolves around the ability to trigger environmental changes in order to trip-up your opponents. The demo features one track, one car and one race. For those of you who have a tough time making decisions, this demo will be easy on the nerves. Split/Second is based around the premise of a television reality show in the same vein as the film "Death Race." However, it isn't violent or gory in anyway. This is a Disney game after all. The objective is to fill your momentum meter by drifting around turns, and drafting by driving directly behind other racers. Once the meter is full, you can execute environmental hazards to take down opponents. The Tier 2 takedowns are often spectacular and include crashing jumbo jets and helicopter missile attacks. Split/Second is the sort of game that can interest gamers that aren't even particularly big fans of the racing genre.

Verdict: Download it!

UFC Undisputed 2010

This one is a tough nut to crack. I can see that the bones of the game are strong. Somewhere in there is a strong and competitive fighting game, but the presentation in the demo is terrible. UFC Undisputed 2010 assumes you are a well-learned MMA fan with knowledge well above that of the average gamer. I'm not even foreign to UFC and I had a difficult time working through the controls and fighting styles. For every situation there is a unique set of actions depending on offense or defense. This is confusing and more often than not has you button mashing hoping to gain the advantage. There is an action list included, but it requires you to sift through an endless array of menus to find the exact situation you are currently in. More often than not the computer opponent made me tap in 20 seconds. I won a few of the bouts thanks to slamming the punch button until the other fighter was napping on the mat. If you've mastered UFC Undisputed 2009 you are going to have a much easier time in the octagon. Hopefully the full release will feature an in-depth traning mode to break-in newcomers to the franchise.

Verdict: Skip it!

Top 5 Most Anticipated Games of 2010 - Marc's Picks

For me, 'most ancicipated' is different than what I feel will be the best games of 2010. I have chosen five games that I think can change the balance of gaming and I’m trying to stay away from sequels, Mafia II being the only exception.

1. Dante’s Inferno

After playing the demo, I realized one thing. This game is God of War. It's almost exactly the same game, but with a different setting. The combat is smooth and silky and it controls exactly like God of War. It even has Quick Time Events (you press a certain button at a certain time), which was originally made famous by Resident Evil 4. It is now also a God of War staple. The demo, which is available on PSN and XBL, is worth playing through. It’s a long demo at about an hour and it gives you a full boss battle and a mini boss. It ends at a proper location, making you crave some more. It’s about the best game-selling demo I have played since Batman: Arkham Asylum. It may rank up there with Bioshock as one of the best demos I’ve ever played, period. I hope the story stays good as it has a lot to work with, being based on a poem (POEM!?, how many games have you ever played based on a poem) that is almost 700 years old. It’s like the stylization of Assassin’s Creed, only in Hell. You have to go through the 9 levels of Hell and each one has its own boss. People love boss battles that are smart and not too easy or hard. Here’s hoping they can get that balance down.

2. Heavy Rain

Indigo Prophecy is one of my favorite original Xbox games, lame ending aside. The next game from the same development team is Heavy Rain. It could prove to be too much movie and not enough game and end up being hurt by being a Playstation 3 exclusive. Still, nobody knows exactly what to expect from this game other than a twisted story and highly realistic graphics. It will be full of Quick Time Events (note a recurring theme here?) and you play as four separate characters. If one dies it affects the rest of the game! I have a lot of skepticism about how exactly that will work and how it will affect replay value, but it kind of worked in Indigo Prophecy. My only concern is how much will you actually be playing this game and not just clicking a button at a certain time. The demo can't get here fast enough.

3. Mafia II

The first Mafia was pretty good on the PC but stunk on PS2 and PS3. This one is being developed concurrently for PC/PS3/360 and looks to be the game that Godfather should have been. So far everything I’ve seen looks like this game is a combination of the best elements of the Godfather games and the GTA games. It's open-ended with a heavy emphasis on story and other mafias fighting with your crime family. It will not be as goofy as GTA, that's for sure, but can it be better? Can the world be much more alive than GTA IV was? It’s hard to tell until you actually jump into the game and start playing it.

4. Split/Second

I was debating which racing game I was going to put on this list, either Split/Second or Blur, and after thinking it over, I chose Split/Second. Why? Well as much as I love Bizarre Creations and Project Gotham, the developers of Split/Second also developed Pure which, aside from its lame career mode, was just plain fun. Now they are taking their awesome ATV games and making a bona fide car racing game. What’s the difference? Each race has a bunch of “special events” that once you build up your “powerplay” meter, you can trigger them and create obstacles, shortcuts or change the race course entirely. Burnout kind of had that, but it was very limited and each race only had 1 or 2. These tracks are supposed to have a LOT in each one. The story mode also sounds intriguing, using a reality TV show premise, broken up into numerous “seasons” with 24 episodes, and one episode consisting of 3 race events.

5. Alan Wake

I don’t usually take to survival horror games, but this one is not your typical survival horror. It’s what the guys over at Remedy Entertainment are calling a “psychological action thriller." This is a game that is about 5 years in the making, and the first game from these guys since Max Payne 2. The game was originally planned to be more free-roam, but that has since been removed to focus on a compelling story. I can’t thank them enough for that; not every single game needs to be free-roam. Sometimes I just want the story to progress and not have to do a million side stories to get the full experience. What has been shown of this game so far looks amazing, from the graphics to the “psychological action” scenes. I want a scary game that has nothing to do with monsters (Dead Space) zombies (Resident Evil) or fog (Silent Hill).