Halo 3

I hope you were paying attention at the end of Halo 2, because the folks at Bungie don't waste any time getting new players up to speed. The action picks up right after the Gravemind's infestation of High Charity at the end of the previous game, and the Master Chief's escape from that doomed city in the Prophet of Truth's stolen Forerunner vessel. If that makes no sense to you, I refer you to Wikipedia for a brush-up on Halo's lore. That said, once you're in the thick of things you don't need to know a lot about the past two games to enjoy 3's story. There are a bunch of references back, and continued threads, but really ... it's a first-person shooter. There are aliens on Earth, trying to dig up an alien artifact. You have to stop them. Go to it.

If you are a fan of the previous games, the story of Halo 3 is going to satisfy your need to see things wrapped up. What it's not going to do is surprise you. The plot plays out pretty much the way you'd expect, though the writers do make some very mature choices towards the end of the tale that distinguish it a bit from every other hero's journey. I'm reluctant to say more, as I'm not sure what's common knowledge at this point, but there is one storytelling choice I wanted to point out as being particularly effective. Cortana, Master Chief's AI companion, was left behind with the Flood's master at the end of the previous game. Despite this, she connects regularly with the Chief in a form of psychic connection. This allows a sense of desperation to build throughout the title, and has a satisfying payoff late in the game.

Story is a really important component of the gameplay experience for me. Though I'm no expert, I do actually like the Halo metaplot quite a bit, and I was left well pleased by Bungie's conclusion. Suffice it to say that while you're not going to be blown away by any revelations, there are no cop-outs, no cheap tricks and (best of all) no meaningless cliffhanger endings. Just make sure you watch to the end of the credits.

Read more

GTA 4 ..

GTA 4 will be releasing on Oct 16, 2007 for PS3 and XBOX 360 . The much awaited game will have awesome graphics and gameplay .

Check out some trailers ..
http://grandtheftauto.yahoo.com/
http://gtafour.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOskZNJJII8




Storyline ...

The protagonist's name is Niko Bellic - an Eastern European immigrant who has come to Liberty City to live the "American Dream." The game is set in Liberty City in 2007, but it is bigger than the Liberty City we saw in GTA III.

In Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar have recreated 4 of the 5 boroughs in New York, as well as part of New Jersey. Broker is the GTA IV equivalent of Brooklyn, Manhattan is now called Algonquin, Queens is now Dukes, the Bronx is Bohan, and New Jersey is Alderney. The map is smaller than San Andreas, but considerably more detailed. No countryside or desert, we are led to believe.

Pedestrians are far more realistic in GTA IV than in previous GTA games - they sit on benches, smoke cigarettes, read books and generally act like any real pedestrian would in the middle of a street.

Niko was persuaded to move to Liberty City by his cousin Roman, who claimed to be living a wonderful life there with two beautiful women, fifteen sports cars, and lots of money etc, but he was infact telling a lie in order to hide his own failures. Roman is the only person you know in Liberty City at the beginning of the game, and he becomes one of your major connections at the start. Niko is a tough character whereas Roman is friendly. Roman is heavily in debt and a lot of people are after him - he needs Niko's support. They are constantly bickering.

In GTA 4, Rockstar is giving its players more freedom, more choice, and more sense of control over their destiny - the structure of GTA4's storyline is quite different to it's predecessors as it can be told in a number of different ways. You can talk to people in person, by cell phones, and there are a bunch of other ways of giving the player information. In general it's a different experience, with new ways of interacting with the characters and the game world.

Rockstar consulted crime experts and ex-policemen when making the game, and they learned that being a criminal is a lot harder these days than it was during the 80s and 90s and they have tried to reflect this in the game. This means you can expect to see a lot of people getting arrested - the police are a heavy presence in Liberty City.

There are no planes in GTA IV because there is only one city, and Rockstar want the game to seem realistic. That means there will be no rollerblades, no unicycles, probably no jetpacks and indeed no planes. Rockstar are giving choice and variety which feels right for the character. However there will be motorbikes.

After an initial load sequence, the game will never load again. Not even during exterior-interior transitions (and vice versa).

Crysis

Crysis is the new sci-fi themed first person shooter from the minds at Crytek, who released the great looking and great playing 2004 FPS Far Cry. Crysis, however, is an all new game that is being published at Electronic Arts and on the show floor we got a live demo of the game itself


The game takes place in the near future where you are a US Delta Force team member assigned to an Pacific island where an asteriod has crash landed. Except that it's not an asteroid; it's an alien invasion and you are on the front lines as you combat both North Korean troops who also want the alien ship and the aliens themselves. Two levels were shown at E3. The first took place on the island itself and on the surface looks and felt similar to Far Cry. However the island enviroment is far better looking than Crytek's first game; not only is the foliage more dense but the lighting and visual effects give it a better sense of realism than Far Cry.

Once again, the visuals of Crysis are pretty incredible and it's clear that when this game is released it will become the new benchmark on what PC first person shooter graphics should be. Indeed, our E3 demo was based on DirectX9 on Windows XP but Crytek has already announced plans to support DirectX10 on Windows Vista so the visuals should be even better. Start saving your upgrade money now.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl has always been an overly ambitious game, which is probably why it has arrived several years later than originally expected. The game's goal is to create a virtual world with an ecology all its own and then place you in the middle of it. That's something that's rarely been attempted, particularly in a first-person game. However, to the credit of THQ and Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is an impressive accomplishment. This first-person survival game is at times amazing and engrossing and on par with such classics as Deus Ex and System Shock.

This is another first-person game that features a silent and mysterious protagonist, much like Half-Life's Gordon Freeman. You play as the Marked One, a heavily armed scavenger suffering from amnesia and stuck inside the exclusion zone surrounding the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, Ukraine. Yes, the same nuclear plant that exploded in 1986 and, in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s fiction, again in 1989, creating a radioactive hotspot brimming with mutants, heavily armed rival factions, and all sorts of weird, paranormal activity. Your task: Figure out who you are and what's going on at the core of the zone.

At its heart, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a first-person survival game that blends action with role-playing. This isn't a linear game, like Half-Life or Call of Duty, where you basically are restricted to a straight path and are taken for a tightly controlled and scripted ride. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s huge environments and open-ended gameplay make it more like a role-playing game, as you can go where you want and do what you want if you're willing to live with the consequences. However, you don't have to worry about traditional role-playing attributes such as strength or intelligence, or accumulating skills and abilities. Instead, all you have to worry about is your skill with a rifle and scavenging enough weapons, ammunition, and med kits from fallen enemies to keep going.

Slowly but steadily, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. introduces you to the bizarre world of the zone, a place where the fabric of reality is being ripped apart. Strange energy anomalies are everywhere, and wander into one at your own hazard. These anomalies produce rare and valuable artifacts that can be collected and traded, or even equipped, as they can confer special abilities. Perhaps the most useful ones enhance your endurance, letting you run for far longer than normal, which is a particularly valuable ability to have when traversing the huge area of the zone. And, of course, danger lurks everywhere in the form of enemies that are both human and not-quite human, as well as from animals.

Halo 3

Halo 3 is set in the fall of this year. It is going to be released this year on September 25 in America and September 26 in Europe .

Check out the trailer ..
http://www.youtube.com/v/uCsdPszJLNQ

SWAT 4

As with the real-life SWAT teams, your job as an element commander in SWAT 4 is to take your five-man team into dangerous situations and defuse them. These situations range from a botched jewelry heist to high-risk arrest warrants to a raid on an illegal casino. In almost every mission, there are innocent civilians mixed in with the bad guys. Those of you who are Rainbow Six and Counter-Strike veterans will need to cool it on your itchy trigger fingers. Even when you do run into armed criminals, you don't have carte blanche to shoot them immediately. You have to follow the same strict rules of engagement as a real police officer and do whatever you can to subdue and arrest suspects without lethal force. Your guns are meant to be a last resort and should only be used if an armed suspect is an immediate threat to your team or civilians. This is the primary detail that separates the SWAT games from the military-style action games. The rules of engagement add a good deal of difficulty to the game, and SWAT 4 pulls this off well. At the end of each mission you're graded on how well you did, and more points are awarded for arresting as opposed to killing suspects. You are assessed big point penalties for improper use of force, and for the most part, these penalties are levied fairly and intuitively.

SWAT 4 includes a good selection of assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, and nonlethal weapons like Taser guns, pepper spray, and a paintball gun modified to shoot pepper balls. You can also choose between ammo types like hollow-point bullets for more stopping power against unarmored suspects, or full metal jacket for better penetration against body armor. The grenades and gadgets are probably the most important selections. You'll need to carry in flashbang and tear gas grenades for assaulting rooms, and you also have special gear like the Optiwand, which is a fiber-optic camera used for peeking around corners and under doors. Door wedges allow you to seal off exits to keep suspects from running away into rooms you've already cleared.

Project Gotham Racing 3

Project Gotham Racing 3 plays like any other racer. You pick a car, you hit the streets, and you beat your opponents to the finish line. But in addition to numerous race types that offer challenges far more varied than the usual “get first place” objective, PGR3 has its own particular system of reward--the unique kudos point system that encourages flashy driving during races. Drifts, clean racing, sticking to a racing line, passing rivals, and stringing such moves together racks up kudos combos. Push your kudos rank high enough and you’ll unlock super-powered concept cars for purchase in the store.

Both the car physics and the kudos system have been substantially improved since the second Project Gotham. Control is more intuitive and the cars move a bit more realistically. Bonus kudos are now awarded for special types of drifts and turns. Now a shallower, less extreme drift turn that doesn’t look too slick but does let you take a turn just the way you need to catch that opponent up ahead will earn you far more points than in previous games. It still doesn’t quite reward good racing on an equal level with showing off, but that’s kind of the point.

A lengthy solo career takes you on a whirlwind tour of the locales of the game. New York City, Las Vegas, London, Tokyo and the Nürburgring play host to automotive events ranging from straight-up street races to cone challenge agility tests to the brand new time vs. kudos event, in which earning kudos actually stops the clock from running down.

Check out the trailer ..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VFZ_6GooE4