Friday 5 May 2006
This is a big year for WWE SmackDown! The long-running wrestling series - it debuted on PSone in 1999 - will be released later this year on PS2, PSP, PS3 /and/ Xbox 360. This marks not only its next-gen debut but also the first time a SmackDown! game has appeared on a non-Sony platform.
You'll be able to read our exclusive playtest of SmackDown! vs Raw 2007 direct from E3 next week. But in the run-up to getting hands-on with the game, we caught up with THQ creative manager
We can't wait
Gears of War
By now, we've all seen the jaw-dropping trailer, but we can't wait to get our hands on this festival of frags. Just the thought of burying the end of our chainsaw-gun into the face of a formerly subterranean dwelling Locust monster has our fingers twitching with anticipation. Being able to share the bloodletting with online friends in a little co-op play only makes the prospect of eviscerating Locusts more
While PS3 and Revolution don't yet exist - they're built from press shots and promises, so far - Xbox 360 is here and it's real. We're about to ride the second wave of games for the machine, which are already looking to squeeze greater performance out of the console, and they're anything but prettied-up versions of current-gen games.
Dead
Back to day 3
Day 4: Going it alone
Today we'll walk you through the first 10 levels of your adventuring career and give you tips to maximize profit while doing it.
Conquest
Once you create a character and find your way out into the wilderness, the first thing on your mind is going to be slicing up monsters. But before you begin your bloody career, you should become acquainted with the "Conquest" system. Why? Because Conquest will be where most of your money comes from for the
When Microsoft launched Xbox Live Arcade in late 2004, people laughed. Who would pay five bucks to play PC freeware and old coin-op games on the Xbox? Oh, how times have changed. Now everybody's got at least one guilty pleasure lurking on their Xbox 360 hard drives, whether it be a frantic shooter or a maddening puzzle game. The games are easy enough to obtain, but why should you drop your hard-earned Microsoft Points on just anything? We're crashing through every Xbox Live Arcade game on 360
Back to Day 4
The Final Push
While gil, items and experience points can take you pretty far in Final Fantasy XI, they're not always the answer. Today we'll help you through some of your first major milestones before pushing you out of the proverbial
Back to Day 2
Day 3: MMO Boot camp
If you've never played an online RPG before, be prepared to change the way you think. Sometimes it seems like the game bashes you over the head with rules - written and unwritten. So why do people bother? Because it turns out these rules actually help more than they hurt, most of the time - and the games are so addictive, anyway. In Final Fantasy XI, many of the rules are designed to force players to play with one another, and others simply aim to get them
Back to Day 1
Day 2: Get a job
If you've played other Final Fantasy games, chances are you've run into the "job system." It's a classic - it lets you totally change your character's class and abilities. Even better, once you hit level 18 you can equip a "Support Job" to make your character kick even more ass, with a sackful of new abilites. In total, Final Fantasy XI sports 18 jobs, each more classic than the last.
Support Jobs operate at half the level of the main job, but can alter your
Not only is WWE wrestler Shelton Benjamin the reigning intercontinental champion, he's also been the winner of the WWE Superstar Challenge - the knockout videogame tournament in which wrestlers go head-to-head in bouts of SmackDown! on PS2 - for four years in a row. After he once again trounced the competition in this year's contest, we caught up with Benjamin for the full SmackDown! lowdown...
You've won the WWE Superstar Challenge four years in a row now. Is there anyone even close to your
Agent 47, everyone's favourite hired killer, makes a welcome return this summer, and we tracked down Rasmus Hojengaard, game director at IO Interactive, for a Hitman: Blood Money interrogation.
Born in a secret lab and genetically engineered to be a ruthless killer, Agent 47 uses his shadowy ties to an unknown agency to acquire missions - and for the first time, we'll finally be able to earn cash for killings and blow it on gleaming metal murder-tools.
Hitman: Contracts gave us some excellent
