Final Fantasy XIV has been announced as the new next generation MMORPG of Square Enix at E3 2009. Previously known as “Project Rapture”, the game itself is being developed by the same team that worked on Final Fantasy XI, which those of you might fondly remember as the first online foray for Square Enix. The currently targeted platforms are the PC and Playstation 3, though Square is speaking with Microsoft on the possibility of placing it on the Xbox 360.

Glancing at the released information for the game, it would seem that Square believes they are ready to try an MMORPG title again in a post World of Warcraft industry; I’m tempted to agree with them. The trailer alone was marvelous and the typical high level of production usually found within Square Enix games is more than obvious here.

Little information on the actual game itself has been released by Square. Namely that the world is known as Haiderin and the game takes place within a region called Eorzea. The team has also decided to create a familiar atmosphere for FFXI players and have retained a similar art style to that used in FFXI. There are other similarities such as the game’s races, which despite the likelihood of being given different names are already being compared to the playable races within FFXI because of their incredibly similar appearances.

Considering the swarm of other MMORPG titles to be released soon (Champions Online, Aion, and Fallen Earth to name a few..), it’s becoming more and more popular for publishers make an attempt at distinguishing their own game from others. Square Enix hasn’t commented much on this but they have tossed us a few interesting tidbits:

First, they have stated that they will, supposedly, be employing systems and mechanics not found in any other MMORPG title. What this exactly means is, of course, debatable. Square Enix has also stated that Final Fantasy XIV will not be employing a level or experience points based system and will instead use a unique progression system that involves the “job system” found in several Final Fantasy games such as the Tactics offshoot and FFXI. Their desire is to reduce grinding and offer more casual choices to those who can not group all the time.

Weapons are to heavily affect progression, which is interesting. Finally, Square Enix has directed the community towards the FFXIV logo for clues towards the combat and other portions of the game. Overall I would say Final Fantasy XIV is shaping up to be a promising game, though of course we’ll just have to see how well everything is packaged together. They certainly have a lot of high grade competition to live up against!

Unfortunately, Final Fantasy XIV isn’t slated to release until next year. Square has already announced that FFXIV will be releasing after FFXIII, so we’ve still quite some time before our grubby hands can rub it’s silken plastic cover, but expect the beta to likely begin sometime around the start of next year.

If you want to satisfy the cravings now, however, you can view the trailer in full HD quality over at the official site for Final Fantasy XIV.

Issue #244, August 2009
featuring E3 2009 roundup, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS), No More Heroes 2 (Wii), Trauma Team (Wii), Wii Sports Resort (Wii), Legendary Starfy (Wii), Fragile (Wii)

I’m not going to bother saying much about E3 showponies like Super Mario Galaxy 2, Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and Metroid: Other M. You already know enough about those. Instead, I’m going to present some tidbits from the lesser-known E3 reveals.

Like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (Wii). WTF. I moderately enjoyed the original GameCube Crystal Chronicles, but this Wii version sounds completely different. They’re still calling it an action-RPG, but every time I hear about it, it seems to be less and less RPG-like. In fact, it sounds a lot like Elebits, as the main character relies on a grab-and-yank telekinesis ability to solve puzzles and interact with the environment. NP reports that the demo had “no spells, items, or pointless NPC conversations.” Can this sub-franchise deviate any further from Final Fantasy?

Dead Space Extraction is working to earn that Wii pedigree. The prequel will make you shake the Remote to charge your light, and your gun’s secondary modes are activated by turning the Remote sideways.

You remember The Conduit, right? Boy, it seems like ages since anybody talked about that one. When did that come out? 2007? Holiday ’08? … Oh crap, it came out last week? Jeez.

Anyway, developer High Voltage brought two new Wii games to E3, which makes me think poor Conduit was simply the proving ground for better games to come. The Grinder moves the FPS genre from sci-fi to horror, as players will become monster-killing bounty hunters. The Grinder will a four-man online co-op mode. High Voltage’s second game is a fighter called Gladiator A.D. NP claims this one is in the Bushido Blade fighter model with “light RPG elements” to enhance your chosen character. Seriously, has anybody heard of either of these games before? Both are scheduled as “TBD 2010.”

Start planning your perversions now… that personality quiz at the beginning of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii) will determine what kind of clothes are worn by the game’s female police officer. She can apparently show up in full riot gear, as a Law & Order-style suit detective, or with a “provocatively unbuttoned” tight shirt.

What? A sequel to Dementium (DS)? It’s happening! I’ll avoid Nintendo Power’s classless error and not reiterate the COMPLETE SPOILER they toss out about the first one.

A Boy and His Blob (Wii) will include a “Hug” button to soothe the blob in times of stress. That is all.

And finally, I want to reiterate a point about Wii Fit Plus: they are not kidding about the “Plus.” This sequel has all of the activities of last year’s runaway sales hit, but adds six new exercises and a pleasant-sounding fifteen new balance games. Also, you can string together a custom workout. Wii Fit Plus will incorporate your save file from the first one, so there is literally no need to own the original. I’m hoping the standalone release arrives at the $30 price point.

Miyamoto has some notes about Nintendo’s upcoming releases in his Nintendo Power E3 interview. If you’re wondering how New Super Mario Bros. Wii will handle multiplayer deaths, you can rest assured knowing it will be as punishment-free as possible. As long as another player is still alive, a dead player will simply re-appear right where he or she died.

The game will also feature the return of the Koopa Kids (“We’re still working on it!” Miyamoto promises, as if there’s some sort of complex contract negotiation to work out with Wendy O. Koopa.) Plus, NSMBW will debut the long-rumored “Kind Code” feature that will let the game play for you if you get to spot that you can’t complete. I’m sure I’m in the minority on this one, but I will totally turn on Kind Code – or Demo Play or whatever the final name is – and watch the game play itself start to finish. I like watching games, what can I say.

When asked about the playable characters being Mario, Luigi, Toad and Another Toad, Shigeru Miyamoto says “That’s it.” I still maintain that they’re holding back Peach as a secret character. Either she’s in from the start or you unlock her after beating the game once. The game has such a Super Mario Bros. 2 vibe that I can’t imagine Nintendo ignoring the obvious and not completing the SMB2 quartet.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is intended to be more difficult than the first, which means I should probably just bail out now. Miyamoto says not to expect any new suits (instead: Yoshi and new abilities for Yoshi), that the game will feature all new galaxies (why would you assume they would repeat, because Wii Fit Plus repeats?), and that there will be a time slowdown effect. Miyamoto doesn’t say if this is an in-game effect, or if this is another take on Kind Code to make the game easier to play.

Oh, and about that new Legend of Zelda for Wii? Great quote from the master: “I don’t think it’s going to be that radically different.” Have fun with that one, gang.

This is no Fallout. Although Fragile will bring a post-apocalyptic RPG adventure to the Wii, it’s more about atmosphere than gameplay. In fact, Japan classifies an entire subgenre of adventure games as “funiki”; NP cites such great-atmosphere-but-questionable-gameplay titles as Killer 7, Siren and Rule of Rose as funiki games. These are games that were all frustrating to play to certain degrees, yet oozed an undeniably unique style that kept you coming back for more.

Fragile owes a lot to the Japanese “modern ruins” explorer movement known as haikyo, where amateur archaeologists venture into abandoned locales just to see what’s there. I’ve followed various haikyo weblogs for years (sadly, many of my old favorites are no longer around) and have always found the resultant photography fascinating. Japan has a wealth of these lonely sites, which may seem odd for a country so frequently described as being densely populated. From schools to hospitals to hotels to amusement parks, these locations are real-world cyphers, sitting broken and silent yet full of questions… as if they are forgotten remnants of a mass evacuation or a ground zero nuclear blast.

So needless to say, after reading this I’m suddenly very interested in Fragile. It’s due this winter.

Download Staff Picks: Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (WiiWare), The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (N64)

Top scoring Wii review: Little King’s Story, 9.0 (all scores out of 10)
Top scoring DS review: Dawn of Discovery, 8.5
Lowest rated Wii review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 5.5
Lowest rated DS review: Mega Man Star Force 3 6.0

Other scores this month: The Bigs 2 (Wii) struck out at 6.0, Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits (DS) hit 7.0, and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (Wii) reached a respectable 8.0.

Although being different games, both the DS and Wii iterations of the Overlord franchise scored 7.0.

Bowser, done Book Style. – As if the concept of Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story wasn’t confusing enough, at certain points you’ll have to turn the DS sideways (like Brain Age) and control a giant Bowser across both screens. Also: Fawful is back!

Now that is an awesome subtitle. – In Japan, the game we know as The Legendary Starfy carries the subtitle “Confrontation: Dire Pirate Squad.”

Trauma Team is not Medical Minigames. – After reading the first vague press releases, I was worried that Trauma Center was going to become Trauma Party. Although the game features six doctors with different specialties, Trauma Team still maintains the dramatic storyline and style of the rest of the franchise. The key improvements are a greater variety of operations, full voiceovers, and a step away from the series’ more fantastical elements such as GUILT and the Healing Touch.

Some More Shinobu. – The No More Heroes sequel will break up all the Travis Touchdown with a little playable Shinobu, the young girl who is one of Travis’s early boss fights in the first game. Also, creator Suda 51 is including some exercise minigames for Travis’s pet cat because he “didn’t want to lose against Ubisoft’s Petz series!”

Freakin’ standardize this, already! – Wii Sports Resort will feature Achievements, er Trophies, er Challenges… er Stamps that you receive for completing various tasks within the game. Hey Nintendo: it’s clear you like the Achievements idear, so go ahead and make that a console standard, okay?

Next month in Nintendo Power… Professor Layton!

Mass Effect was a darling for Microsoft, and for some time now, it has lived up to its potential with the exception of the paltry DLC offerings.  I mean, Mass Effect is similar in scope to many space operas like Star Wars and Star Trek, yet it never really seemed to get much attention from Bioware.  Sure we have a sequel coming, and a couple of books that flesh out the back story, but nothing to expand on the universe that is here and now while we wait for the sequel.

Yes we did get the Bring Down the Sky DLC, but that was in March of 2008, over 15 months ago, and as noted, was a little short, and that Mass Effect players needed more DLC to flesh out the current state of the universe.

Well, now it appears that Bioware is finally getting part of the message.  In a post over in the Mass Effect forums on Bioware’s site, community coordinator Chris Priestly states the following:

We haven’t revealed much in the way of details on the next DLC yet. You should be hearing more about it this coming week. Stay tuned.

We heard at E3 that there might be some DLC announcements soon and that the DLC would be more gun centric, and now it seems to be nearing a reality.  We don’t have much on details, but it seems like we will know more in the next few days.  I hope that they take a page from Bethesda, and release some meaty content.  I want a new reason to come back to Mass Effect besides achievement hunting at this point.  Oh, and when I say take a page from Bethesda, I mean hours of content, not stability.  Don’t use the Bethesda release method of DLC content, where it does not work for the first week of release.

I do hope we get more of the Batarians, and maybe some other race, like the Quarians.  The flotilla is an enigma, beyond the Mass Effect: Ascension book from last year, and could be an interesting place to go, maybe with Tali leading the charge.  Aeropause will post more when we get the deets from Bioware.

Its a few weeks late, but Brinton Williams was nice enough to give some of the press, including Aeropause, an early look at Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, showing off a lot of the new fusion combos that will be used and the inside line on the Civil war storyline.  We did not get an answer on how the Hulk could be there, but we did find out that regardless of what side you play, “you get to kick the crap out of Iron Man”.

After the huge success of the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance, it was a no-brainer that there would be a sequel.  The only two questions most could come up with were “which characters would be included” and “where would the story take place”.  We now know that the sequel will take place during the time of the Civil War, and you will have heroes taking sides in the battle.  We also know that you will be able to play either side of the conflict with different heroes becoming available to your cause based on the side that you play.

At the start of our presentation, Brinton started us out in Latveria, on a mission that is actually set in the period of Nick Fury’s Secret War.  Our party consisted of The Hulk, Iron Man, Venom and Wolverine.  In some missions you will have a special fifth character that will follow you, and can be used in fusion attacks.  In this mission, Nick Fury is storming Latveria with us, and he can be used in your fusion attacks.  At this point we get to see our first combo, and for comic book fans it was a joyous occasion, although a little modified, as we got to see The Hulk pick up Wolverine and toss him, in similar fashion to the Fastball Special.

We are told at this point that there will be 24 playable characters “at least”, opening the door for a few more unlockable characters, similar to the way you could unlock Daredevil, Black Panther and Silver Surfer.  While there was no official word on this, one would think the “at least” comments would lead towards it.  We also were told that every character can combo up with another for fusion attacks, creating at least over 500 different fusions.

At another point we also got to see Deadpool, Human Torch, Thor and Spider Man lead an attack on The Thinker, a nemesis of several Marvel characters.  The battle took place in The Tinker’s Lab, where we saw our enemies fight cybernetic organisms with grafted weapons.  The attack was muted by the fusion of a whirlwind created by Thor, with a flame column inside provided by the Human Torch. 

At certain points we also found boosts that can power up characters.  The boosts will take some searching to find, and there are over 100 boosts that can be found throughout the game.  I was not sure if these boosts replaced the equipment drops that were in the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance, or if they would be in addition to equipment drops.  Character customization will be available from a quick access menu, allowing for skill upgrades and consume changes, eliminating the need to find a save spot to make changes to your characters.

The last area we got to see was Washington D.C. on the eve of the Superhero Registration Act bill signing, and we find that a group of enemy commandos have stormed the area looking to cause trouble.  During this battle, we have Songbird, Juggernaut, Storm and Captain America as our team, and the Juggernaut is a site to behold.  He is a very powerful unit and can cause a lot of destruction, as he has a ramming attack that can destroy just about anything he attacks.  Confronted with a large group of units all at once, Storm performed a fusion attack with Captain America, using a lightening attack with Captain America’s shield to shoot lightening at all the enemies.  Songbird and Storm also teamed up with a fusion attack to form a Sonic Prism.

At the end of the presentation, we got to see a montage of characters that will show up in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 at some point, either as playable characters, enemies or special characters.  The characters in the trailer included Luke Cage, Iron Fist (go Heroes for Hire), Mr. Fantastic, Green Goblin, Cloak and Hercules.  These are on top of the characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Storm, Juggernaut, Songbird, Venom, The Hulk and Thor.

Now for those that complained at great length about the co-op play in the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance, you voices have been heard.  Co-op has been completely revamped from top to bottom and it will be easier to join games, and choose characters.  This is a big plus in my book as co-op was such a chore in the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance.  I was never able to select characters properly when less than four players were playing in co-op, and it never felt 100% stable.

From all the gameplay that was shown in our presentation, it looks like Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 will be bigger and more refined than the first game.  The new camera system allows you to get in far closer to the action, more characters seem to be available and a more solid co-op system will be great for fans.  The addition of Songbird was a bit of a downer, as I feel there are far more characters that would be better for that slot (Wonder Man anyone?) but overall, Vicarious Visions and Activision look to have another solid sequel that will please fans and non-fans alike in September 2009.

Dragon Age: Origins is meant to be a return to Bioware’s roots, which are based in the fantastic computer RPG, Bauldur’s Gate.  Bauldur’s Gate is considered by many to be one of the best Dungeons and Dragons based games ever created and formed the base of many signature story elements that can be found in almost every Bioware release to this day.  Mike Laidlaw, lead designer on Dragon Age: Origins was nice enough to give Aeropause a look at Dragon Age: Origins, including some of the team interactions, as well as one of the big set piece battles.

Dragon Age: Origins introduces players to The Great Wardens, protectors of the land that fight off corrupted creatures that come from a disastrous plague known as The Blight.  The Blight has infected the land, destroying anything that comes in its way.  The Great Wardens play a powerful role in trying to defeat the creatures of The Blight, but of course, since it is a Bioware title, you will not be battling on your own, as you will recruit and interact with several party members to help you reach your goal.

The first section of gameplay that Mark has us look at is the personal interaction between characters after we have set up camp.  During Dragon Age: Origins, you can set up a campsite at any time, allowing you to rest your characters, learn new spells and fighting techniques, as well as interact with party members, including appeasing or insulting them.

Character interaction is a big part of Dragon Age: Origins, as you must balance the desires of all the distinctly different characters.  If you appease one person too much, you might do critical harm to another character relationship.  Do enough damage to an NPC party member and they may just up and leave you, denying you the use of their skill set, or worse, having them fight against you.

Our first interaction is with Morrigan, a sorceress of the black arts.  Morrigan is an outcast of the party, but has decided to come along to help your character fight the evil of the land.  Of course, she is driven by a more than passing fancy in your character.  As we interact with Morrigan, the options in the dialogue support multiple branching paths that could take the discussion in multiple avenues.  To have some fun, Mark decides to have our character totally play along with Morrigan’s desires, which concludes with us “warming her tent”. 

With our evening complete with Morrigan, we then are confronted by another female party member, Leliana.  She is a famed archer that has had a long standing friendship with our character, and she is not too happy about our sexual congress with Morrigan.  In our dialogue options, we start down a path of being rather contrite with Leliana, telling her it is no big deal and that she should not worry.  At this point, Mark tell us that we can continue to press down this path, and we can get to a point where Leliana will decide she does not want to roll with your character anymore and she will leave.  So we decide to bring it back and convince her that our digressions with Morrigan will not continue, thus ending another episode of 90210, I mean pacifying the situation.

Another aspect of character interaction has to do with gifts.  During your travels, you will find rare items in battle.  Some of those items can be used by you to boost your character, but some can be given to party members to boost their interactions with you, aligning them to your cause.  The gifts tend to give inspiration, and of course, boost their skill set.  Giving gifts to a party member that might be upset with you is a good way to ease tensions and nip problems in the bud.

Moving away from the campsite, Mark loads up a new section of Dragon Age: Origins, where we have been charged with finding a person by the name of Flemeth.  She is the Witch of the Wilds and in common day terminology, would be the equivalent of “the boogeyman”.  Well except for the fact that she is a female.  In our interaction with Flemeth, we find out that our party is not the first to try and put her down, and that the others before us had failed.   Not being deterred, we enter battle with Flemeth, which revealed a great surprise, as she ended up either turning into a dragon, or summoning one.  I was unclear on which sequence happened.

This battle is one of the larger set piece battles in Dragon Age: Origins and it employs some new devices for an RPG battle.  First we are shown how the dragon attacks in 360 degrees.  The tail section will attack, while the head might bite in another direction.  Also, claws and wings will factor into the battle, requiring your party to choose angles of attack from different directions.    The AI for each of the characters plays out very smart, and the battle system seemed to be reminiscent of Mass Effect in that you can command characters to load up spells and so forth, if you want them to attack with specific powers or weapons.

During the battle, it should be noted that the action on screen looked amazingly fluid, with little to no hiccups considering all of the battle items that were happening at one time.  As the battle raged on, and we watched our player character get chomped on a couple of times, the screen faded to black, causing the room to moan a bit, as we all wanted to see the dragon get taken out.

With the presentation at an end, we did find out that Dragon Age was set for an October 20th release, and will be shipping to three platforms simultaneously.  Those platforms are the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.  I did love all the dialogue choices, and the battle sequences were amazing.  As long as the character appeasement stuff does not get too juvenile, as it started to get in the Morrigan vs. Leliana segment, I think Dragon Age: Origins will be another big hit for Bioware.

The original Sin & Punishment was a legend among N64 fans, developed by Treasure and published by Nintendo but never released outside of Asia. Nintendo fanboys spoke of it in rushed tones of reverence. When the game showed up on the Wii Virtual Console in 2007, the rest of the world got to see what all the fuss was about.

For my part, I was disappointed. The control scheme on the VC was awkward and the graphics were tough to enjoy. But S&P2 may change that opinion, as this E3 2009 trailer makes it look like the Wii Remote + Nunchuk was exactly the controller this game was waiting for. You use the Remote to aim the onscreen reticule, light gun style, while the Nunchuk is used for running around amid the fleets of giant flying galacto-sperms. Press release, screens, and your angry comments about how I missed the natural genius of the N64 original are all after the jump.

Resurrection of a Classic

Players engage in nonstop shooter action as they’re propelled through this run-and-gun style game. Isa and Kachi are being hunted. They go on the run and on the defensive, shooting everything in sight. Sin and Punishment 2 is the long-awaited sequel to the Japanese Nintendo 64™ cult-classic shooter. It brings a frantic arcade sensibility to a post-apocalyptic world. Fans who can’t wait for the sequel can replay the original game by downloading it from the Virtual Console™ section of the Wii™ Shop Channel.

1 player, release Q1 2010, developed by Treasure

FEATURES:
• Players can run on foot or take to the skies with a jetpack or hovering skateboard-like device to dodge enemy attacks or get a better lock on their targets.
• Players can fire at targets in the distance or switch to sword attacks for close-range targets.
• The Wii Remote™ controller’s pointing ability is used to aim weapons, while the Nunchuk™ controller is used for positioning and maneuvering.
• Numerous settings include beautifully rendered cityscapes and dramatic underwater tunnels, all populated by fierce enemies.
• It’s all about the multiplier. The better a player’s skills, the more points are earned, and the bigger the bonus. Players will want to play the game again and again to beat their personal best on each level. The better the performance, the bigger the multiplier and the higher the final score.

And cats too, according to the press release (after the jump).

The E3 video above shows off some Balance Board minigames in the style of Super Mario and that one Monkey Ball game.

As a guy struggling with the barren, charmless EA Sports Active, I’m glad to see that Wii Fit Plus is including customizable workouts for “seamless exercise.” It’s due this fall, packaged both with and without the Wii Balance Board. You’d think they’d start trotting out some 2-player Balance Board activities to try to convince you to go for a second Board bundle.

New Fitness and New Fun

Wii Fit™ attracted millions of new players to the world of video games. Now Wii Fit Plus offers a range of new features and enhancements to help players reinvigorate their workouts, along with exercises and balance games designed to keep them fun. Players will find a new dimension to the Wii Fit experience as they easily set their own customized workout routines or choose 20-, 30- or 40-minute workouts based on how much time they have available. Users will also be able to choose from specialized workout routines that focus on an individual’s personal fitness goals or certain target areas. And with the addition of activities like Skateboarding and Rhythm Kung Fu, players will be using the Wii Balance Board™ accessory in a variety of new and fun ways.

Release date: Fall 2009

FEATURES:
• Workouts combine the original Wii Fit activities and selections from 15 new balance games and six new strength training and yoga activities.
• Users can input the amount of time they want to spend on their workouts or select an area for personal improvement, and Wii Fit Plus will suggest a number of diverse activities for them.
• For the first time, users can mix and match which strength and yoga activities they prefer on a given day. The seamless exercise flows make it easier than ever for users to maintain their daily workout routines.
• Users might be asked to run an obstacle course across a series of platforms, zoom across a beach on a Segway® x2 Personal Transporter or flap their arms to help their hilarious chicken-suited characters aim for targets.
• The range of games and customization options will make players want to play every day. They’ll be having so much fun that their workouts will seem to fly by in no time at all.
• Players also can see estimates of calories burned and can even activate a feature that lets them weigh their dogs or cats.
• Wii Fit Plus comes packaged with the Wii Balance Board accessory. For people who already own Wii Fit, the Wii Fit Plus disc will be available for purchase separately.

When the premise of Alpha Protocol was announced by Obsidian Entertainment, I immediately perked up with excitement.  The idea of being a spy, with the choices, women and gadgetry of James Bond, while being in a completely new franchise is something every gamer has wanted, but never seen executed well.  We have had spy games, but nothing that really made you feel like your decisions had any gravity on the situations present in the game.  Alpha Protocol looks to make every decision have lasting impact in the game world, in essence, making you the next big time spy in the long lineage of secret agent greats.

Just to rewind a bit, Alpha Protocol is an action/RPG based adventure, starring you as Michael Thornton.  Your character has been recruited from the CIA to become an agent in a secretive agency of the US Government called Alpha Protocol.  In one of your first assignments for Alpha Protocol, you are sent into a trap meant to kill your character.  After the attempt fails, you work on piecing together the mystery of who is trying to kill you, and why.

Aeropause was given a live presentation of Alpha Protocol by Nestor Protacio, where we got to see a mission that Michael Thornton was sent on by the CIA.  It seems that a US plane has been shot down in the Middle East, and you have been sent in to find out what has happened to the plane.  You will also be sent on missions through Saudi Arabia, Taipei and an undisclosed location in the US (not sure what that is all about).  At the beginning of the mission, we got to meet with our contact, a female Russian arms dealer that offers her guards and weapons as long as you perform a side mission for her.   At this point we are set up with a dialog to decide how to proceed.  The decision that we make does not only affect the woman’s current disposition, but it will affect her for the rest of the game in how she interacts with our character.

It is these choices that become the foundation of what Alpha Protocol will become for each player.  At any point, there are dialog trees that will set up new twists and turns for the player.  At one point you could be friendly with the Russian arms dealer, and you end up with extra muscle helping you through points in the mission.  In our case, Michael declines the assistance of the Russian arms dealer, and now we have to fight not only enemy soldiers of the government, but also Russian muscle. 

With our dialogue done with our now, not-so-friendly Russian arms dealer, Nestor started our way through what looked to be an oil refinery.  While we do have RPG stats and features, things like shooting weapons is inherent upon the skill of the player, or as we are told, Alpha Protocol is “an FPS wrapped around an RPG” styled game.  Shooting is very intuitive, using the normal mechanics.  You can blind fire, or aim down the sights to get better accuracy at the expense of cover.  There is also hand to hand combat options, because what spy would be complete without a smooth set of hand to hand combat moves.  Getting up close and personal with the enemy is very visceral, with punch and kick combos being brutal and harsh.  It almost reminded me of The Bourne Conspiracy, which had some great close-quarters hand to hand combat that was fiercely brutal.

While Nestor was taking the “break down the front door” approach to the refinery, Alpha Protocol allows you to tailor your skills to your style of gameplay.  If you would rather stick to the shadows and sneak your way in, you will have that option.  It is just as easy to pull the trigger, as it is to snap to cover, hide in the shadows and creep your way to the target objective. 

Inside of each level of Alpha Protocol, you will have chances to find sub-objectives via computer terminals, other characters and so on.  In our Middle East mission, we found a computer terminal that brought up a mini-game to hack the machine.  The hacking game consisted of matching a static group of numbers from a scrolling pattern.  There are several types of these mini-games based on the type of device you are looking to unlock.

At this point, we got to bring up the info sheet for Michael Thornton.  From here we can look at his RPG stats, which include classes like Submachine Guns, Assault Rifles, Sabotage, Martial Arts and others.  Each of these stats can be upgraded with experience points that are earned throughout the mission, similar to most RPG games.  We also have an Intel tab that gives us info about all the objectives and sub objectives that we have for that level.  It will also give us clues on how to reach the conclusion of each objective.  The inventory screen is standard fare, although you can upgrade your weapons with weapon mods here.  You can only carry two weapons per mission, so this screen will get a lot of use as you try to maximize the mods for these weapons.

At this point, I wanted to know a little more about the dialogue system and how it worked.  As with most RPG dialogue systems, Alpha Protocol will have a branching dialogue tree that will present the player with several choices, ranging from nice to outright angry and mean.  Each choice will influence the people that you are talking with, breaking down into sub-choices to each branch of dialogue.  Also, there is a timer for your response, so if you do not choose an answer quick enough, it will default to your last mood choice.  In one instance, we rejoined our Russian arms dealer at the end of the level, and Michael struck up a dialogue with her.  Nestor decided that we were playing as a not so nice guy, so we basically told her to shut up, which resulted in another battle.  But some people respond better to rough choices than nice choices.  Since the Russian arms dealer was a bit psychotic, she responded better to angry dialogue rather than being nice.

With our tour about ended, I had to ask one more question about Alpha Protocol, and of course, it was about the ladies that you will meet.  Michael Thornton will have six female characters that he will have significant interactions with during the main game, and of those, four can be potential love interests.  So there you have it, your inner Austin Powers desires can be fulfilled in Alpha Protocol.

Currently Alpha Protocol was shown to me as an Alpha build, and is currently shaping up to hit retail shelves Fall 2009, and will come to PS3, PC and Xbox 360.  With all the gameplay mechanics that I saw in Alpha Protocol, I think that we might have an honest to goodness spy thriller on our hands that really injects the feel of being in the middle of a spy flick.  Hopefully, Alpha Protocol does not slip up along the way.

About a year ago, Disneyland and Disneyworld opened up a new ride called Toy Story Midway Mania, using 4D effects and shooting, while players rode on carts.  The ride was an instant success and used cutting edge effects, including a Mr. Potato Head greeter that used optical technology to talk to the crowd.  Disney immediately identified the success of the ride, and started work on migrating the experience to the one console that would fit the game style at home, the Wii, and with that, Toy Story Mania is becoming a reality.

Toy Story Mania is a collection of 30 mini-games that play out in either a shooting gallery or knockdown type of gameplay.  Mark Madsan gave us a guided tour of Toy Story Mania and it looks to break out of the typical mass market shovelware shooting gallery game fare, by using the Toy Story franchise, and years of fan service to grab the player.

The mini-game that we get to try out in Toy Story Mania is the Pie Toss.  Pie Toss is set up with targets set in the distance that have point values, and you have to try and hit the targets to rack up a high score and earn tickets.  Tickets are the currency of Toy Story Mania and are there to unlock new mini-games as you play through the game.  Shooting pies was easy enough, using one of the buttons on the Wiimote to shoot out an unlimited stream of custard-filled goodness.

As we started to play Pie Toss, the first thing pointed out to me by Mark, was the absolute lack of a targeting recticle.  Without the recticle, I really felt challenged trying to hit targets, so I had to ask why no recticle.  The reasoning made sense – there is no targeting recticle on the Toy Story Mania ride, so the developers wanted to stay true to that vision.  However, for those that feel the need to know where they are aiming , a targeting recticle is available via the options menu.

Next, we moved to the Ring Toss, which uses the same basic mechanics that were present in the Pie Toss, except that we were shooting rings around targets.  In this level, we got to see one of the numerous amounts of fan service in Toy Story Mania.  When we were able to get rings around all the targets on the planetary rings in the background, we were treated to a little segment from Zerg.  Fans of the movies will find a bunch of these little easter eggs throughout all the games.  As a matter of fact, Mark made mention that there are so many, that you will find yourself coming back to the game again and again to try and find all of these hidden bits of fan service.

Not all of the games in Toy Story Mania focus on shooting items on the screen.  In Army Air Raid, we were presented with R. Lee Ermey, commanding his green toy troops to build structures that we as a player, had to topple, similar to Boom Blox.  The structures were made from what looked to be the old building blocks that some of us older folk, played with as children.  As you knocked down structures, more complicated creations would be built, continuing to build the challenge for players.  As with Boom Blox, you use the remote in a throwing motion to chuck a ball at the structures.  The throws are velocity sensitive, so the harder you throw, the better chance you have to knock down some of the more complicated targets.

While we did not get to see any of the levels mentioned, Mark let us know that Toy Story Mania would capture the true feel of the ride experience by including some levels that would be in 3D.  The glasses would be included in the game box, but they were not announcing what mini-games would be in 3D.

There are a lot of family friendly features in Toy Story Mania, including two player drop in and drop out play, and three to four player round robin gameplay.  It was only apparent after playing the game why they limited the mini-games to two players at any one time, and that is due to the amount of stuff happening on the screen at one time, that four players would have just been sheer chaos.  Scores are also not shown on the screen, but with the press of a button on the Wiimote, you will get a quick pop out by the character that is winning, along with a score.  A lot of the voice talent from the films is in Toy Story Mania, including Tim Allen performing newly recorded material for Buzz Lightyear.  I did not get an answer on whether “Angels and Demons” star Tom Hanks was recording new dialog for Woody.

Disney Interactive has really been working hard on trying to translate their very popular Toy Story Mania ride into an experience that fans of the Toy Story franchise, as well as casual players will enjoy.  Look to huddle around Toy Story Mania with your family and friends September 15th, 2009.

Up until E3 2009, I had seen little of the Spectrobes series, as I have not been a huge fan of the capture, train, battle animal games that follow in the vein of Pokemon.  That said, I do know that there is a huge following for the Spectrobes titles on the DS (to the tune of 1.6 million units), so I figured I would sit down with the producers of Spectrobes: Origins, and find out about this new, exclusive to Nintendo Wii title.

Spectrobes: Origins is a sequel to the first two DS Spectrobes titles, “Spectrobes” and “Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals”, and stars two characters, Rallen and Jenna, with a story that plays out through flashbacks to important events in the past.  It also appears that a major galactic event is about to happen that could change the universe as we know it.  I found out that Spectrobes are little creatures that come from fossils.  Your goals is to befriend these creatures, feed them and train them to become fierce beasts that can be called upon in battle with other Spectrobes trainers.

In my first segment of gameplay, we got to see Rallen in a battle using two different powers.  All of the Spectrobes powers are element based and they each have two attacks that can be used during battle.  The first attack is a standard fight attack, that uses the A button the Wiimote.  Secondary to that, we have a charged attack.  Hold the B button down and release to send out an elemental based attack that will hit enemies for a lot of damage.  Throughout the battle, you can change out between all your Spectrobes by swinging the remote foward to summon a Spectrobes and motioning backwards to call a Spectrobes back to you.When you finish a battle, you get a readout showing how you performed in combat and then you gain a chunk of experience for both your Spectrobes and your player.

The allure of titles like Spectrobes is the whole aspect of collecting creatures and training them, and in Spectrobes: Origins has a section of the game focused on this aspect of collection.  Aeropause was shown a collection screen where you see Spectrobes in a square fossil form.  From here you use the tools similar to what a paleontologist would use to extract a fossil.  You have a plasma cutter, dust blower, chisel, hammer and other tools to get at the Spectrobes inside the fossil block.  We can also use an X-Ray machine to get the shape of the Spectrobes, and the strength of the Spectrobes is determined by how well you clean the fossil without actually hitting the creature inside.

Overall, I think that people that are fans of Pokemon and collection type games will find a lot of fun with this title.  I really did like the whole fossil extraction part of the game, with trying to extract a fossil with the full amount of strength being very challenging and a lot of fun.  Look for Spectrobes: Origins on the Nintendo Wii in the Fall of 2009.