The idea behind this move is on the surface a noble one, by cutting out the anonymity of forum posting, they hope to create a more mature and sociable space for communication amongst their legions of fans. Internet forums can often be harsh and cruel places, with people hiding behind amusing nicknames such as xxDeathSLAYERx and venting bile all over their fellow users. Blizzard obviously hopes that people who are representing themselves in a more personal manner will create a more mature attitude for discussion and debate.

However, while their motives may be noble, the change is already proving to be controversial and seemingly unpopular. One of the celebrated facts of the internet is that it allows you anonymity, it allows people to craft their own identity and represent themselves however they please, much in the same way that a game like WoW offers you the chance to craft an avatar.

Personal security and privacy is also an issue, whilst currently if a few forum trolls start a flame war and threaten to burn down each others houses, no-one will bat an eyelid, with personal information being available for all to see, there are concerns about how easily forum users would be able to track each other down, or E-stalk each other. With perhaps the largest gaming community in the world present on Battle.net, there are bound to be a few weirdos or troublemakers in the mix and this change could provide them with an opportunity for mischief.

The official forum thread detailing the changes currently runs at 1138 pages long and 22740 posts. We pity the person whose job it is to read through all that.

Spotted at gamesindustry.biz

• Format: PC
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Realtime Worlds
• Developer: Realtime Worlds
• Players: Massively Multiplayer
• Site: www.apb.com/

APB (All Points Bulletin) is the hotly anticipated MMO from Dundee based developers Realtime Worlds – best known for Crackdown on Xbox 360 – and the brainchild of creative director Dave Jones. Jones is known in the industry as one of the founding members of Rockstar North and co-creator of the Grand Theft Auto series. It’s unsurprising perhaps then, that on first viewing people feel a niggling urge to describe APB as ‘GTA Online’. But there are further influences that are evident in the design of APB that may describe better how the game actually plays. Jones himself claims Counter-Strike as a major influence and it’s easy to see where he’s coming from, with small tactical objective based missions forming the core of the experience.

Gathering together these disparate influences into one game and then basing it in an online world, you get a gaming experience that is unlike any other. The basic structure of the game sees you choose between a Criminal and an Enforcer, then facing off against the opposing faction in a wide variety of different mission types, across two districts of the fictional city of San Paro. As well as fighting there are ample opportunities for personal customisation from creating your character, designing tattoos and customising clothing, to pimping out your ride. The customisation in APB (as you may already have seen) is excellent. Simple to use yet very powerful tools for creation and design are on offer, allowing you to create or copy intricate symbols, songs or graffiti sprays, in the process of creating a unique identity for your character. If you lack those skills in design and your symbols look like you’ve shoved a couple of decals together in the vain hope they might look cool (unlike us here at Critical Gamer obviously, we’re all design geniuses *cough*), there are other ways to procure yourself designs from more talented players through the game’s auction system. Despite the game being very young, there is already a wealth of talent on display, with people striving to make a name for themselves through creating their own clothing brands, or churning out ‘death-themes’ -small snippets of music your opponents hear when you’ve killed them.

Exciting design tools and unique player crafted equipment are excellent ideas and well implemented, but they alone make a game not. For APB to succeed, the action and driving parts of the game too need to be satisfying, varied and balanced enough to hold the paying players’ interest in the long term. This is where the game stumbles slightly. Combat to the newcomer can seem clunky and relatively old fashioned. Modern third person action games nearly always employ a cover system; APB forces you to do that part yourself, crouching behind cars or walls and leaning manually. For a game that calls Counter-Strike an influence, it may also seem like an odd decision that head-shots play no part in the game, but in truth they would only serve to make the game frustrating due to the sometimes random nature of the spawn system. Combat then is about situational awareness, weapon selection and tactical play in groups. Make no mistake, APB is not a game for the solo player, soloing is a frustrating and slow paced experience; and while the option is there, you’re better off avoiding it. APB really comes alive when you group up with other players and take advantage of the integrated Vo-ip system to communicate and work together towards your objectives. At this point things become progressively more hectic as the action flits around across a district, with the two opposing teams dashing towards objectives, destroying each other’s vehicles and melting each other’s faces with the varied selection of weaponry.

Differences between the two factions are mostly a matter of taste. Criminals have a more hectic time of it, with bounties being placed on them for Enforcers to try and claim, meaning even between the normal mission based play they’re never truly safe. Enforcers have access to less than lethal weaponry which allows them to subdue then arrest criminals – a risky strategy in team play, but it pays dividends of increased rewards and unlocks some of the better equipment in the game for those with the necessary skills to be successful at it. Both factions have access to different vehicles. The Enforcers get an exclusive Jericho muscle car, while the criminals get the Porsche-esque Bishada. Car handling is initially vexing, especially for GTA veterans, and you may find yourself crashing constantly when you wrest control of one of the faster cars. But persevere and you’ll find it worth your while, pulling off expertly timed handbrake turns during high speed chases to impress your allies as you come to terms with the nuance of control.

APB comes across as a game that is more than the sum of its parts. The combat may be somewhat old fashioned in its execution, but when it’s coupled with the dynamic cities and fast paced team-play, as well as its revelatory customisation, it’s difficult not to like. The game does have a degree of repetition and grinding elements as you work your way up through the ranks of the faction specific organisations. But there is a hell of a lot of potential in the title and even as it plays at the moment, there are few games that can get the adrenaline pumping in the same manner. Speeding across the city, music blasting out your car and swerving into the middle of a pitched fire-fight as your passenger hangs out the window taking pot-shots at your foe is just as good as it sounds. There’s work yet to be done on the title and we hope for a patching system as progressive and ambitious as the rest of the game, rather than just churning out extra content. If Realtime Worlds can do that, APB could develop into a game that surpasses its wildly popular and long-serving influences. For now though, there are criminals doing mean things to puppies and it’s up to us here at Critical Gamer to head forth once more and dish out some 44. calibre justice.

8/10

Most of the big flashy AAA titles put trailers out specially for E3 and chances are, you’ve seen them all by now, been wowed by their exposition and action sequences and are having a little rest from the trailer frenzy.

But here’s one more that deserves your attention, simply because it’s completely insane. We have no idea what’s going on here, but from what we can tell El-Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron puts you in the shoes of the girly-boy warrior Enoch (actually he’s a priest) as he does his ‘Lords’ bidding. El-Shaddai is the Hebrew meaning God and the sharp looking guy in the suit is named Lucifel which is a rather ominous name for anyone with even a passing knowledge of Theology.

Gameplay from the trailer suggests a cross between hack and slash gameplay with side scrolling platformer sections. Enemies (seem to, once again we’re not sure what’s happening) range from warrior blokes wearing giant nuts on their heads to strange wibbly-wobbly creatures via blood dripping armoured pigs.

As far as Theology based hack and slashers go, Bayonetta still holds the title as the most weird and wonderful. But El-Shaddei seems to be gearing up to challenge for that much coveted crown with its exuberant art-style and barmy take on the book of Enoch.

El-Shaddei : Ascension of the Metatron is in development at Ignition Entertainment and will release on Xbox 360 and PS3, release date is TBC.

The first big news from this years E3 is in and most of it is to do with the hardware formerly known as Project Natal. The motion sensing control system for the Xbox 360 has been given the new moniker of Kinect, which seems to be the amalgamation of the words connect and kinetic into a brand new word!

Exciting stuff indeed, along with the re-naming Microsoft have taken the opportunity to announce a number of titles we can expect to be Kinecting with later this year, such as the imaginatively titled Kinect Sports, Kinect Adventure and Your Shape: Fitness Evolved. These early announced titles generally seem to be aimed at a casual or family market and may seem a Wii bit familiar to any Nintendo fans out there.

However an as yet untitled Star Wars game too was demoed, the more cynical amongst us might glance hawk-eyed at the above video and suggest that it looks a bit like a bloke miming along to a video of a game.

Transformers traditionally in the world of gaming can be described as little other than disappointing. A series about robots that can turn into cars, tanks and jet fighters on paper sounds like a perfect match for our electronic past-time. But despite a slew of Transformers games over the years, they have been mostly awful, with the 2004 PS2 Transformers game being a rare highpoint.

The recent movie tie-in games have shown some signs of improvement, but were eventually let down by extreme repetition and somewhat shoddy AI (as well as some pretty poor source material to work from). So you’d be forgiven for approaching this latest title with a sense of trepidation. But despite the legitimate concerns we might have as gamers, that didn’t stop floods of people at the MCM Expo heading over to Activision’s booth for an exclusive hands-on with War For Cybertron. Indeed on the first day of the Expo, gamers were limited to about two minutes of the title, such was the demand. Considering the first of those minutes was a cut-scene (of which not a single spoken word could be heard over the general din of hyper-excited cosplayers and anime fans who made up a large proportion of the Expo’s visitors), many walked away from the booth knowing little more about the game than they had before playing it.

Fortunately for you readers, we here at Critical Gamer are a persistent bunch and managed to get an extended session with the game on the following day. War for Cybertron lets you see both sides of the conflict over the Transformers home-world Cybertron. It also serves as a kind of origin story for Optimus Prime, who is cast here as an inexperienced leader, rising to prominence within the Autobots. On the other side, the focus is on Decepticon leader Megatron and it’s into his big metal boots we stepped for our time with the game, accompanied by Barricade and Brawl. I’d love to report more on the story and interaction between the characters, but the aforementioned din and my oversight in neglecting to study Robot Lip Reading at school mean that, alas, I cannot.

What I can report on however is that I was pleasantly surprised by the other important aspect of the game – combat. Transforming is unsurprisingly the big thing Transformers offers over other Giant Robot shooter games, and the ability to switch between ass kicking Megatron (with his giant purple mace and arm mounted fission-cannon) and his powerful hovertank form at the press of a button is both satisfying and tactically useful. You’ll soon find yourself flipping between forms, using the tank to lay down a barrage of fire upon grouped foes, before switching to the more precise fusion cannon to pick off those enemies who have the gall to take cover or evade your initial onslaught. The battles we encountered showed a glimpse of variety from ambushes, to mini boss fights, to areas where you have to time your attacks in tandem with the changing environment. Your arsenal isn’t limited to the starter weapons either, you can chop and change picking up different weapons to be found lying around the level – including a repair beam that you’ll probably find more useful in co-op than I did here. Token platforming sections were liberally sprinkled around to break up the metal on metal carnage, with giant air vent fans to be dodged or blown up and glowing pads of death to be avoided with some simple timing based jumps.

So not all doom and gloom for War For Cybertron and taking the action away from Earth (and those godawful Michael Bay films) could help the series to rediscover its identity. Unfortunately it’s not all sunshine and rainbows and there were a few concerns to be found. The environments I found myself in were not particularly awe inspiring, suffering from both linear corridors and graphical repetition; we can only hope that the game broadens out in terms of the space allowed to manoeuvre and in terms of the colour palette, or the game could suffer the repetition that plagued Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Some of the control mapping frustrated too, with transforming assigned to pressing in the left analogue stick (also used for basic movement), causing accidental transformations in the heat of battle on several occasions. But these are minor quibbles. Transformers games should be about frenetic explosive action and the crunch of metal as giant robots beat the crap out of each other with a variety of different weapons and forms, and that’s exactly what we found here. It probably won’t be a world beater, but fans of the series are due a good title and there are positive signs here that War For Cybertron can deliver that.

War For Cybertron is in development at High Moon Studios and is due to be Published by Activision on June 22nd on PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii.

In fact playing it safe, with regards to gaming mechanics, storyline and art style seems to pervade throughout my experience of Quantum Theory with a post apocalyptic setting, boss battles with ‘weak spots’ and an all too familiar cover and shoot system characterising the experience. Quantum Theory at first glance appears to be a clone of Gears of War. At second glance it’s quite astounding just how much they’ve taken from Epic’s blockbuster title (including something suspiciously like a ‘roadie run’); even the UI seems to be a re-skinned version of GoW’s, with a cover and aiming system that leaves the player in no doubt as to which title provided the ‘inspiration’ for Quantum Theory.

That’s not to say Quantum Theory is without merit; if you’re going to choose a game to ape then Gears is a very solid choice indeed, with intense battles, spectacular visuals and very solid shooting mechanics at the core of the experience. Most of these things are successfully transferred across to Quantum Theory, although some of the environmental textures appeared to be disappointingly low resolution.

As I familiarised myself with the controls, I found myself flung into one of the lower levels of the ‘Living Tower’, an evil monument residing within the post-apocalyptic world that forms the landscape of Quantum Theory. Within the tower I fought my way through a series of battles, as protagonists Syd and Fillena occasionally took breaks to explain the situation in frankly incomprehensible terms. Although in a short demo taken out of context of the wider game, we can forgive Tecmo if the storyline didn’t seem to make a lot of sense. One thing absent from the demo was co-op play, which is mooted as the game’s most interesting feature, with both characters able to combine to perform special acrobatic manoeuvres, something that -gasp!- isn’t present within the Gears of Wars series.

General gameplay involved taking cover and picking your time to pop out and take down enemies, who mostly came in two forms – standard grunts and larger more heavily armoured foes, with a smattering of pesky sniper creatures for good measure. A generous supply of weaponry was found scattered across the level, from sniper rifles to grenade launchers, via your usual shotguns and machine-guns. The art style found in the demo is a cross between the uber-macho Gears and more traditional fare you’d expect from a game hailing from the Far East – that is to say, main character Syd is a musclebound hero with slightly funky hair and red eyes.

Our time with the game culminated with a big boss battle, against a creature who looked like a bigger more craggy version of the foes we’d battled throughout the level. Featuring the traditional weak spots you might expect from a shooter, there was little new and original in this encounter. Despite that, it still managed to grip as I came to terms with dodging in time, using cover intelligently and finding a window of opportunity to strike back at my gigantic foe. Quantum Theory may be derivative, it may lift ideas wholesale from other games; yet if it can keep its shooting mechanics solid and provide the same level of challenge and action to be found here, it still has the potential to be darn good fun. Passers by in the Expo found themselves sucked in as the teenage boy in the stall next to us fought an epic battle with the boss, sadly putting the rest of us to shame (OK, yes I died, feel free to laugh). There was even a smattering of applause as he felled the giant beast, and few other games at the Expo managed to capture the attention of the casual roving eye as well as Quantum Theory.

Quantum Theory is due out in Autumn on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Brink Creative Director, Richard Ham and Lead Game Designer, Neil Alphonso recently held a Q&A with fan site Brinkish, answering questions on a wide variety of topics including Split Screen, the game engine (powered by ID Tech 4) and Clan support for the game.

Brink is the hotly anticipated team based FPS in development at Splash Damage due for release September 7th in North America on PS3 and Xbox 360. EU and PC release dates have yet to be announced.

Critical Gamer were present on Saturday at the MCM Expo as an attempt was made on the world record for the largest Nintendo DS party. The previous record held by Australia had 381 gamers playing their DS for 10 minutes, a record eclipsed at the MCM Expo where 586 Nintendo fans joined together as Guinness World Record adjudicators watched over.

The crowds were ‘entertained’ by British J-pop artist Bentley Jones as they waited for the participants to sign in. By entertained of course we mean treated to a grown man prancing around a stage, giving his best impression of a cat being strangled.

Bentley Jones: Do Not Want.

Damian Field, Guinness World Records’ Official Adjudicator, commented: “It is a tremendous achievement for the MCM Expo to reach a number of 586, smashing the existing world record of 381. It’s rare for a UK mass participation to reach over 500.”

Last year’s MCM Expo saw gamers clinch the title for The Largest Gathering of People in Costumes From a Video Game and once more the Cosplayers were out in force – from intricate Gundam robot outfits, painstakingly crafted Final Fantasy costumes, to blokes dressed up like the girls from Sailor Moon (That is your cue to shudder).

We have loads more coverage from the MCM Expo on its way, including hands on previews and interviews; so check back with Critical Gamer later.

Crackdown developers Realtime Worlds have spoken previously about a unique payment system for the game, which includes both traditional monthly subscription fees alongside other options. Players can buy additional action game-time hours priced at £5 ($6.99) for 20 hours, pay a monthly fee of £7.99 ($9.99) or convert money made through the in-game trade system to purchase extra game-time. The game will RRP at <£34.99/$49.99/€39.99

Pre-Order details too have emerged with exclusive outfits, vehicles and emotes on offer for both the Criminal and Enforcer factions.

Further information can be found on the faq at the official website: http://apb.com/faq/

MCV note that the deal between Bungie and Activision only pertains to a single new IP and the exclusivity will be limited to that IP.

This means that Bungie could potentially continue to work with Microsoft on further titles in the Halo series as Microsoft themselves own the rights for it.

Bungie are still an independent Developer however, so if they wish to work on other new IPs or return to old favourites, today’s deal with Activision will not stop them from doing so. Either way we’ll keep you up to date with announcements on the details of Bungie’s new property as and when they appear.