At first glance Pariah's "Can You Survive?" tagline seems inconspicuous enough and, considering the primary objective of any first-person shooter is one of self-preservation, perhaps just a tad unimaginative.But during a hands-on session with the game in the company of its Canadian developers, Digital Extremes, we discovered that there was a much deeper meaning to those three little words.Set on Earth in the far away future of 2520, players will assume the role of Jack Mason, a down-on-his-luck ...
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22 Feb 2005

Without Warning

Xbox Feature | Without Warning

After the widely documented fallout from , Eidos whisked the series away from original developers Core Design and handed it over to Crystal Dynamics, who are currently working on Lara Croft's seventh incarnation. Following the debacle, Jeremy Heath-Smith - who co-founded Core in 1988 - left the company and has only recently resurfaced with brother Adrian with a new coding outfit, Circle Studio. Their first offering? - a third-person action-adventure, natch. We caught up with Heath-Smith to ...
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18 Feb 2005

Grand Theft Aspirations

Xbox Feature | True Crime: Streets of LA

Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery or the lowest form of light-fingered skulduggery? Well, we're not entirely sure but, after Konami's announcement, last week, of , which reeks of a GTA rip-off, and today's release of Activision's GTA-in-a-war-zone, , we thought it was a particularly relevant point to ponder.Of course, publishers can hardly be blamed for wanting to muscle in on Rockstar's highly lucrative turf. But, in the long run, is tailgating the GTA juggernaut ultimately a ...
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20 Jan 2005

Pariah

Xbox Feature | Pariah

After the huge success of the Unreal series, Digital Extremes have a lot to live up to with their latest first-person shooter Pariah. Especially when claims of an immersive storyline penned by Hollywood writers, compelling first-person action and the ultimate multiplayer experience are bandied about. We talked to James Schmalz, founder and creative director of Digital Extremes, to get the full, gory details: upgradeable weapons, multiplayer map editing... and just what's happening with that PS2 ...
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2 Nov 2004

FlatOut: Exclusive developer diary - part four

Xbox Feature | FlatOut

Mental stock car pile-up FlatOut is released for PC, PS2 and Xbox this Friday and it's already been met by a slew of positive reviews. But what's it like working on a game during its very final stages of development? 3D artist Ilari Lehtinen talks us through it...Here's the good news: this is it. Or very, very close to it. No, we're not gold yet at the time of writing but all the to-do lists on our project server are showing 'OK' or '95%' for almost all tasks. We'll have fierce competition in ...
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25 Oct 2004

Unreal Championship 2: Hands-on

Xbox Feature | Unreal Championship 2: the Liandri Conflict

Midway and developers Epic Games recently threw down the gauntlet in Madrid for all would-be kings of the arena as they presented for hands-on gladiatorial delectation the latest build of Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict. We experienced full-on system-linked multiplayer sessions and a bout of Capture The Flag of the Xbox-exclusive Unreal title that aims to push the genre in a refreshingly new direction.UC2's introduction of a complementary third-person perspective to the traditional ...
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22 Oct 2004

Tron 2.0 Killer App

Xbox Feature | TRON 2.0 Killer App

A quick history lesson: classic sci-fi movie Tron was released in 1982 and was based around a hacker who was literally abducted into a computer and then forced to participate in gladiatorial games where his only chance of escape is with the help of the eponymous security program. It's best remembered for its ridiculously nippy lightcycle races and those strange Moon Monkey-style cybersuits. Twenty-one years later and PC game Tron 2.0 is released to encouraging reviews. But it's not a game (even ...
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18 Oct 2004

FlatOut: Exclusive developer diary - part three

Xbox Feature | FlatOut

Bugbear's 3D artist on FlatOut, lari Lehtinen, talks about a crash-test dummy's worst nightmare, alcohol-inspired petrolhead mentalism and Ragdoll Olympics in the penultimate part of our exclusive developer diaries.In this part I'll fill you in with one of the most talked about aspects of FlatOut. As you can probably guess by now, I'm talking about the poor ragdoll driver who gets flung out of the car when the player crashes badly enough. Seatbelts in FlatOut are for wussies, and following that ...
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1 Oct 2004

FlatOut: Exclusive developer diary - part two

Xbox Feature | FlatOut

Developed by Finnish petrolheads Bugbear Entertainment, mental stock car pile-up FlatOut is not for the faint-hearted Sunday driver. Thanks to completely destructible cars and worlds and persistent, dangerous debris, each and every lap is more fraught than the last. In the second of a series of exclusive developer diaries, Bugbear's Ilari Lehtinen - the game's 3D artist - talks us through the creation of the game's environments...Last time we gave you a and now it's time to look at the ...
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21 Sep 2004

Halo 2

Xbox Feature | Halo 2

Asking Bungie about the singleplayer component of Halo 2 is still useless. Journalists do their best, playing the rephrasing game until it becomes embarrassing, but no matter how they twist direct questions into innocent-sounding gambits, Bungie will not budge. "We're not here to talk about the oneplayer game" becomes the familiar refrain.Later, we get to speak alone with Bungie's studio manager, Pete Parsons, and ask if the secrecy is an attempt to give Halo a mystique, to make a geeky sci-fi ...
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