PS3 Previews

There is one question to ask, one question to answer even before the demonstration begins. One question that almost defines the development of Operation Flashpoint 2. “Can you do that?” We point at the incredible rendered scenes that the British developers, Codemasters, have made available to the press.

Imagine if you were playing a war game and you suddenly noticed that the weapon you were wielding was held together by eight-sided nuts instead of the statutory six-siders. You’d naturally be horrified, the integrity of the experience would be compromised, and you’d probably never touch it again.

Dragon Rising is ultra-realistic, far from the medipacks of Medal of Honor and even further from the regenerating health magic of Call of Duty. Yes, it’s one of ‘those’ games, the ones where bullets make you absolutely dead, or where, if you’re simply grazed by some shrapnel, the wound will pump blood realistically all over your uniform.

Despite that exclamation point, Orcs Must Die! is fairly unassuming. Developed by Robot Entertainment, who you may remember for its work on Halo Wars, it was tucked away in the corner of the LA Convention Center’s South Hall, its existence easily dwarfed in the shadow of Activision’s monolithic real estate. Orcs is set up like a tower defense title, but only at first - as you play, it mixes in third-person action until the screen is filled with cartoon gore...

Ubisoft hosted their first "Digital Day" event last night, touting their new DLC only content, and furthering the idea that triple A games may no longer only be found on discs. The event featured a number of titles, including the just announced Beyond Good and Evil HD, in addition to some very unique original offerings. Let's have a look shall we?

Make no mistake; this is a game about being evil. Not evil in ‘six axis of terror’ way. Not even evil in the traditional videogames ‘make moral decisions’ way - but classic, pantomime evil. This is about the kind of folklore evil that involves slaughtering sheep for no reason other than you can, destroying peasant farms on a whim and commanding minions with a lisp to make Gollum point and laugh. Oh the fun.

At Codemasters’ Gamers Day 2009, we were given a chance at a sneak peek on three new titles in the works based on 2007’s twisted fantasy action adventure, Overlord. The grotesquely charming Minion horde is back as these games begin and continue the story of the original Overlord, written by its award-winning games author Rhianna Pratchett. All games are scheduled for release in June 2009.