Mirror's Edge is the latest in a series of EA's latest drive for new IPs (intellectual properties). Mirror's Edge, a first person freerunning (parkour) game, with a bit of shooting added in for good measure. Do you like to die? Because if games bring out the survivalist in you then perhaps you’d be best off stopping right here and trying something else. You see in Mirror’s Edge you are going to die a lot. Whether it’s being filled with lead, crushed by trains, plummeting to your doom or being electrified to a crispy shell of a woman, Faith, the game’s protagonist, though she may have the agility of a cat will need considerably more than 9 lives. This masochistic desire for pain that flows throughout developer DICE’s (who brought us Battlefield: Bad Company earlier this year) latest ...

Rat a tat go the guns, neeyoorm go the missiles, bing goes the Xbox: "achievement unlocked" argh goes your character, aww go you; you weren't quick enough, you've been stabbed for the fifty sixth time that hour. Call of Duty World at War has a lot to live up to. Last year Infinity Ward surpassed all expectations with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Heralded by many as the best game of last year, CoD4 impressed everyone. It was the multiplayer that everyone loved; it remains one of the most played games on Xbox Live, and I'm sure its the same on the PlayStation Network. So after last year's success, development duties have passed back to Treyarch, who have made the third COD. In a nutshell, CoD World at War is everything CoD4 was (but now in World War 2). But that's the problem. ...

The Prince of Persia trilogy that saw the light of day in the past few years garnered much praise among the videogame community. This was due to the innovation seen in the platforming and time rewind gameplay seen in each of the games, and not because of the dodgy combat. Weirdly, developers Ubisoft have decided to get rid of all they created in the last trilogy, and create a whole new game from the ground up. The most obvious difference in Prince of Persia-the uncomplicated name for the PS3/Xbox 360 entry of the series-is the graphical style. Instead of using the near realism of the last games, the game is cell-shaded, taking cues from ...

In recent years, Microsoft has spent millions and millions of dollars making sure that the massive games are coming to Xbox. For example, Grand Theft Auto, previously a headlining game for the Playstation came to Xbox this year with exclusive DLC. Rock Band 2 has had platform exclusivity for a couple of months in the US, and is about to have the same treatment in the UK. How? Well Microsoft has very, very big pockets! So whats next on Microsoft's hitlist? Well, here are (hopefully) all of the games coming to the PS3 only next year: ActiveDogs Big Time Revenge BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Bumpy Trot 2 Codename: Sengoku 23KU Dark Cloud 3 Demon's Souls Driver Eyedentify EyePet Fifth Phantom Saga Final Fantasy Versus XIII Gran Turismo 5 Heavy Rain inFamous Killzone 2 Kurayami L.A. Noire MAG: Massive Action Game Metro 2033: The Last Refuge Ni-Oh - Koei Nobi Nobi Boy PlayFactory Quantum Theory Redwood Falls Rengoku: The End of the Century Resistance 2 Twisted Metal - Eat Sleep Play WarDevil: Unleash ...

Lara is back. There hasn't been a Tomb Raider game for a couple of years, so the release of Underworld has been attracting quite a bit of attention of late, so it seemed like quite a good time to write a preview. So, whats new? Here comes the press release! Master your surroundings: Reach new heights with the broadest range of acrobatic abilities and utilize objects within the environment to uncover new paths to explore. Explore epic and unknown worlds: Discover ancient mysteries of the underworld hidden within the coast of Thailand, frozen islands of the Arctic Sea, the jungles of Mexico, and more. ...

I was vaguely aware of Mirror's Edge, but it was only recently that this game really came to my attention.  To get an idea with what Mirror's Edge is about, take 500g of Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed's freerunning, and combine it with 50g of GTA IV and 50g of Tomb Raider Underworld, and top it with 100g of Half Life 2. What you've got is a first person freerunning, adrenaline pumped, shooter puzzle game. Thats FPFAPSPG for short. Having never played a FPFAPSPG before, I'm not really sure what to compare Mirror's Edge to. So instead I'll give you a snippet from an EA press release: Live or die? Soar or plummet? One thing is certain, in this city you will learn how to run. From the makers of the groundbreaking Battlefield franchise, Mirror’s Edge is an action-adventure experience unlike any other...

This post is an "Impressions" - we will give you a full review alongside Rock Band 2 later this month when it is out in the UK. Guitar Hero III has been a great hit in the UK, despite Rock Band being arguably (way) better, so the arrival of Guitar Hero World Tour was bound to draw some attention. It drew ours. Initial impressions were very, very good. The rather in your face Guitar Hero III graphics had been toned down quite a lot, with the focus on the screen a lot more on the music. The great initial impressions continued further, diving straight into the quickplay mode, and shouting at the top of my voice "WOOAH WE'RE HALF WAY THERE-ERE, WHOOAH-OH WE'RE LIVING ON A PRAYER!" Unfortunately, things started to go steadily downhill. A closer inspection revealed that save the music creation studio ...

I have been looking forward to playing Fallout 3, not least because it's made by Bethesda - the makers of Oblivion, which I rated very highly. In many areas, Fallout 3 is more than I expected, but it also has its shortcomings. To start, I'm going to try and work out a name for the genre. Fallout 3 is both a Role Playing Game, and a Shooter. Not a First Person Shooter, a First and Third Person Shooter. So maybe a F/TPRPGS? If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. After all, this game format is quite rare. The first thing you tend to notice about Fallout 3 is how it relates to Oblivion, at least, you do if you've played Oblivion. Some of the character voices are familiar, the initial control format, in fact, even the cheat codes are mostly the same. ...

I know everyone is writing about it, but the chance to play the new Call of Duty was a chance that we could not pass up. So. I downloaded the beta to my Xbox and dived straight into a game. Five seconds later I was dead and realised I should have looked at the controls. I missed out on Call of Duty  (COD) 4, so I didn't have the experience or skill that everyone else in the game had, which was unfortunate. I think thats the best way to describe it. I have to say, I wasn't very impressed. The didn't seem very polished at all, and there were a lot of glitches. Hopefully these will be sorted out by the time of the final release. Virtually everything from COD4 is there is World at War, but thats the problem. COD4 was ...

At this time of the year, there are so many anticipated releases that some lesser-known titles are bound to be trampled on by the heavy hitters. Dead Space looks to be one of these games, never overly hyped, and being released at a tough time, especially with games like Gears of War just round the corner. But it shouldn’t be; it has everything going for it. Impressive visuals, an epic story, and the best gameplay elements from other games in the genre. It sounded great on paper, but after playing Dead Space, I realise that I wasn’t ready for just how good the game is. Set aboard a seemingly abandoned space ship, you are part of a team sent to investigate why the ship has lost all communications. What is found up there ...