• Domestic

Xbox 360 2009 Games

• By GamePro Staff
• January 07, 2009 16:35 PM PST
• Print
• Email this!
• Share
  • Digg
  • Yahoo Buzz!
  • FaceBook
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us

GamePro delivers the biggest games you'll want to keep an eye on in the New Year.

Halo Wars

Master Chief's first-person shooting trilogy has come to a close, but the real-time strategy battle for the universe won't begin until this Xbox 360 exclusive hits the ground. The events of this overhead tactical epic occur over 20 years before John-117's video game adventures get rolling, but you'll command lots of familiar UNSC and Covenant assets, including crowds of Warthog-driving Spartans, who haven't yet had their numbers decimated, and fleets of Banshees and Wraiths. There are also brand new units that you've never seen before, like the airborne UNSC Vulture missile fortress, and you can recruit a friend to help you double-team the crafty A.I. crowds.

RTS console games are often viewed with caution, thanks to the lack of a mouse, but Halo War's entire command system is built from the ground up, with the Xbox 360 controller in mind. Whether you send ground troops to take control of Forerunner outposts, carpet bomb a line of invaders, or blast enemies from orbit, the streamlined handling should make all those hours of living room command as intuitive as possible.

Aliens Colonial Marines

The Aliens gaming franchise has gone down the tube much like Sigourney Weaver's acting career. There is hope, however, as the upcoming first-person shooter release Aliens: Colonial Marines should give the series the jolt it needs to once again rise to prominence. Here's why.

4. Marine Tough

The marines that you'll be using throughout the game aren't just random, cookie cutter soldiers. They all have their own unique skills and personalities and react to different situations just like a real soldier would. Out of the 12 you can comprise your team of four; some are more likely to panic than others but may wield more powerful guns.

3. Not Your Average FPS

Aliens: Colonial Marines takes a different approach than other first-person shooters in how it plays out. Instead of being one long, continuous story, Aliens is broken down into three different acts with each one containing a certain amount of levels.

2. Blowing off Face-huggers

Sega's new Aliens game will be bringing back many of the standard weapons from earlier installments in the series as well as adding new guns, too. Players will have flamethrowers, mounted guns, pulse rifles, grenade launchers, and more at their disposal.

1. Allies in Alien-killing

The online version of Colonial Marines will allow people to play through the campaign with their friends in teams of four. What's cool about this is that players can enter the game or leave it without disrupting anything or forcing the team to go back into some type of lobby.

Alpha Protocol

When Jason Bourne came along, he showed that the world of espionage isn't all about sipping martinis, sleeping with tons of women, and Judo-chopping your enemies, which rules out three of James Bond's favorite hobbies. But Sega seems to think there can be a link between the two and has cooked up their own secret agent in Michael Thorton, who is refined enough to attend dinner parties yet brutal enough to take down entire crime syndicates.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Alpha Protocol is that it's billed as a role-playing game. One might expect this since Obsidian is the developer and they've been responsible for such hits as Knights of the Old Republic II and Neverwinter Nights II. The obvious twist in Alpha Protocol is that it's pretty much the first of its kind as a modern day, espionage RPG. Players will take Thorton from a novice spy to one capable of outsmarting his former CIA employers and uncovering the truth behind why he's being hunted.

Even though this is an RPG, there will still be plenty of action involved. Players can make Thorton beat on his enemies with close combat moves or they can also blow them away with guns and other cool gadgets. But they'll want to be careful as different actions will affect the ending of the game. If you're sick of your dialogue-heavy RPGs always set in space, this game will be well worth the wait.

BackBreaker

We've all seen sophisticated physics engines shred simulated vehicles like tin foil, but imagine applying that same processing power to two charging gorillas on the gridiron. Instead of running those meatheads into each other and watching one of a handful of canned and repetitive tackle animations, Backbreaker's Euphoria engine conjures up dynamic collisions that are both realistic and bone-jarring.

The players populating this football upstart won't be modeled on real NFL superstars (due to EA's continued exclusivity) but every one will house a complex collection of simulated flesh, bone, and protection. The result? Just as you're unlikely to see the exact same circumstances unfold in any two televised games, so does Backbreaker promise to make every down a unique experience. Better yet, the same physics system could just as easily showcase epic wrecks of contorted limbs that even the game's designers couldn't have foreseen.

Few details are available about the rest of the game's components, but we do know the developers hope to immerse fans in the tense atmosphere of on-the-field decision-making, from the quarterback's desperate search for a receiver to a tackler's quest to put him on the ground by any means necessary. Besides, even if Backbreaker proves too ambitious for its own good, the added competition should help to improve everyone's game.

Borderlands

Borderlands turns you loose on the hostile backwater planet of Pandora to find your fortune and the location of a mysterious alien "Vault." Gameplay mixes first-person shooting with the leveling and skill development of an RPG, but developing and customizing three character classes is just the beginning.

Much has been made of Borderlands's claim that it contains more than half a million different weapons, but more impressive than sheer quantity is the inventive variety of this arsenal. Rather than simply spawn firearms with better stats and new skins, the loot system fabricates wild and wonderful new weapons from a diverse library of component parts and modifications. Whether you fire huge explosive shells, sticky goo, or some oddity of your own creation is up to you.

Even the environment itself is constantly changing. A procedural system that changes around the location of enemy encampments, strategically valuable buildings, and ambush points promises that even regions you've visited in previous expeditions will offer fresh challenges, whether you're hoofing it alone or tearing up the terrain in a customizable vehicle with three friends.

Borderlands makes some pretty big promises, but Gearbox's track record and early glimpses of the frenzied action give us the high hopes to match.

Brutal Legend

Tim Schafer's past credits include Grim Fandango and Psychonauts, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that his latest project features a comically offbeat premise. When heavy-metal roadie Eddie Riggs, voiced by none other than Jack Black, bleeds onto a cursed belt buckle, he and his black mane are whisked away to a fantastic demon-filled landscape yanked straight off a 1980s hard rock album cover. There he must rescue Ophelia, a true gothic babe in the music-video mold, who's been kidnapped by an evil bassist.

You'll tear through local nasties with a giant battle axe, cast magical spells with your Flying V guitar, lead a hopelessly emo human resistance against the pointy-tailed multitudes, and grind gears in a bitchin' hot rod. This guitar hero's adventure will blend intense third-person action-adventure with an affectionate tongue-in-cheek parody of heavy metal culture, and your army will grow with every victory as defeated foes join the throng at your back.

Everything about Br?tal Legend screams loving tribute, from the voice-over participation of legends like Lemmy Kilmister and Rob Halford, to ancillary characters like the Headbangers and Fire Barons. Melee combat, unapologetic high drama, and self-conscious rock posturing might sound like an unlikely mix for a modern video game, but the final product of that unholy union is bound to be one of a kind.

Bionic Commando

Back in the late 1980s, when the NES ruled the world of console gaming with an iron fist, Bionic Commando became one of the early hits for the system. In those days, the simple acts of beating on Nazis and using a bionic arm were more than enough to produce a best-selling video game. Now, 20 years later, Bionic Commando is making a return to consoles, but this time it will be in 3D. Here's a look at some of the aspects of this new 3D world.

4. Armed and (More) Dangerous

The old Bionic Commando relied heavily on the usage of the hero's mechanical arm. It allowed players to swing from one platform to another and avoid falling in pits. And even though the new rendition is in 3D, players will still use the arm quite often. People can aim the arm in the direction they wish to swing and even use it to pick up objects and hurl them at foes.

3. Arm-Slinging

As with many other 3D games, Bionic Commando is going to have a huge city for players to explore. Similar to some of the Spider-Man games, players will be swinging through the city with their arm and have the freedom to go where they want to. Much of the action, however, will take players to specific areas, such as a lush tropical jungle.

2. Ammo Commando

Using the Bionic Commando's guns is just like pretty much every other 3D shooter out there. Weapons such as the tarantula (rocket launcher) and machine gun will feel very similar to most other 3D games. Swinging kicks and attacks round out the hand-to-hand combat.

1. Making the Jump

The old Bionic Commando literally had no hops as players had to use the arm to cross every gap. But the upgraded 3D commando is different in that he will actually be able to jump, which will make life a lot easier for players this time around.

• Previous Page Prev
• Next Page Next
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4

• Print
• Email this!
• Share
  • Digg
  • Yahoo Buzz!
  • FaceBook
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us