8 Realms is a browser based real-time strategy game from Jagex Game Studios, which is free to play. Anyone familiar with The Settlers or Civilisation games will know what to expect, and players are tasked with building their empires from the humble Ancient age through to the high tech Future age. So is it worth spending your time on, when there are already so many other well-established games in the genre?

You begin the game by planting the foundations of your civilisation in a colourful glade with help from the wonderfully named Gary, who is basically your guide on how to play the game. Gary helps you navigate the menus, and makes suggestions on what you should do next. The menu system is clean and easy to use, and is very user friendly, which will help new players feel immediatly at home. The game world is viewed from an isometric viewpoint which works well, and lets you see the whole of your empire without any need to change camera angles etc. The graphics are functional, with a pleasant cartoony look to them. When you build your structures on the squares available, the area is animated with your townsfolk working away on the scene. Each ‘square’ is a self-contained part of the society, and you don’t need to worry about road systems to connect the various amenities together. The main aim of the game consists of constructing and researching to gain culture to help you progress to the next age. To reach the next age you need to reach 100% culture, and then build a Wonder to cement your empire. The 8 Realms of the title signifies the 8 different ages that you progress through. Ancient is obviously the first age, and as you progress you pass through the Classical, Feudal, Renaissance, Imperial, Industrial, Modern and finally Future ages.

Our mate Gary! Your number two.

As is the norm in these games, resource management is key to creating an all-conquering empire. You start the game with three resources: food, wood and stone. To earn these resources you need to build farms, lumber mills and quarries on the relevant squares where these resources are available. Unfortunately these buildings can take a very long time to build in real time, which slows down the gameplay. You can get gems which help speed up the process – but you need real money. These buildings are upgradeable, and you can add extra structures if you need more of a certain resource. The other main resource is Gold, which you gain by taxing your local population. This can be adjusted if you need extra finance, but don’t expect the local population to be too happy, as our own coalition government recently found out! You do have the option to appease the populous by building things to keep them happy. Building a library is an important aspect to your gameplan (take note Clegg and Cameron), as with it you can research new technology (um…), which gives you access to new building structures, classes of people and other bonuses. Research is laid out in a tree-like structure, where you need to research certain things to enable you to branch out into other areas.

Your kingdom is quite compact and bijou.

Once you have sustained your main city, you can then expand out into the wider world, where there are pockets of hostile barbarians who defend much needed resources. Once you have built up your army, through research and resources, you can raid or capture these outposts, and build your own trade outpost. Be warned though barbarians can attack these captured outposts, so you need to ensure that you have adequate defences to repel them. Unfortunately all the battles in 8 Realms are carried out automatically, and you don’t get to see any of the battles that ensue. It’s just a case of waiting to see if your troops triumph or are sent home in disgrace, with a Battle Report that gives you the details of what transpired.

You can expand your realm to the wider world.

8 Realms is a good introduction to the RTS genre for casual players, but we’re not sure more battle weary players will be intoxicated by its charms. The initial bit of land that you get to create your kingdom is small, which limits you somewhat; although its compact nature means it’s easy to keep an eye on what is happening in your glorious empire. The slow building process really hampers play, as some structures can take between one to four hours to build in real time! The gems help speed the building process up, but they are costly at £5 for 85 gems, which we can’t imagine many people forking out for. This means you spend a lot of time letting the game play itself, rather than you playing the game. However the basis is there for a decent game, which could well capture the casual crowd.

NOTE: Previously published and subsequently lost to an evil electronic gremlin, it only recently came to my attention that this had not been republished. The day of our Joe Danger: Special Edition review seemed as good a time as any to put it back up again.

If you’ve already played Joe Danger, you’re almost certainly excited for Joe Danger: The Movie. If you missed that game for whatever reason, check out our Hello Games interview and Joe Danger review (oh go on then, the preview as well) to find out why that title is so darned loved. Done it? Everybody ready? Okay.

No longer restricted to his motorbike, stunt rider Joe now laughs in the face of death and twiddles the nose of peril using a variety of vehicles. Yes, there’s a police motorbike in there; but in the demo levels I played there were also a minecart, a snowmobile, a pair of skis (“not sure if skis count as a vehicle!” admits Hello Gamer Sean Murray) and… wait for it… a jetpack! That got the last of you on board, I think.

The ground-based transportation used the same control method as the first game; hence you’ll still be performing tricks to fill your boost meter, wiggling about in mid-air in a vain attempt to collect all those stars first time around, ducking then jumping with painful precision, and so on. It’s still very much a racing/platforming/stunting (henceforth known as ‘raplunting’ at Critical Gamer) game, and will be instantly familiar to Joe Danger fans – yet it’s oh so different.

Firstly there’s the ‘scripting’, hence the word Movie in the subtitle. Murray was keen to stress that there won’t be any lengthy cutscenes or anything like that; but there will be what I feel the need to pretentiously describe as ‘dynamic context’ (forgive me) for what Joe’s doing and why he’s doing it. For example, one level saw Joe punching other riders in the face, knocking them off their bikes. This isn’t because indiscriminate violence is fun (well, not entirely), but because these are the baddies of the movie scene.

Another, snowy level sees Joe zooming down a mountain with targets to land on. Said targets are actually rockets slowly rising from silos; fail to land on and disable them (blow them up), and they launch. And then, one presumes, Bad Things Happen. Once you’re past the rockets the bad guys, none too pleased at your do-gooding antics, chase after you and lob grenades in your way. Red grenades you need to duck under and green you need to jump over (or was it the other way around?). You have what I estimate to be 0.3 milliseconds each time to identify what type of grenade it is and take appropriate action. Funstrating!

You’re also now able to change lanes at any point on the magic green line (as I found when I repeatedly smashed into oncoming traffic), but the biggest dollop of new was smothered over the aforementioned jetpack. Although I was assured (twice) that the controls for this were considered fiddlier than they should be and were in for some tweaking, I found it fun and easy to use. Especially surprising considering my bloody awful performance for the first five minutes or so of play using the easier vehicles.

It’s perhaps best described as like riding your bike in zero gravity. Accelerate pushes you forward in the direction you’re facing, holding brake sends you backwards; but you can go in all directions rather than just left and right, and boost works both forwards and backwards. This has a lot of potential for the risk and reward Joe thrives on, hinted at in the demo. Do you want to bypass hazards wherever possible and finish the level as quickly as you can, or brave the route full of instakill to scoop up all the collectables? There will be many more vehicles in the final game, and some – such as a promised parachute and hang-glider – will use a similar control method.

The half dozen or so levels on offer were tightly designed, sometimes bordering on evil (would fans have it any other way?), and above all fantastic fun. I was surprised, therefore, to find that they’d all been made in just three weeks; a mad rush with fantastic results to get something playable together for the game’s first public outing at GamesCom. Nonetheless, it’s not necessarily representative of the final game. It sounds like the newer elements will be pushed much further to the fore in the finished product, and certain features were of course missing at the expo. The plan, it seems, is also to assign certain types of level to certain types of vehicle. So for example, skis might be used primarily for stunt levels, bikes for race levels, jetpacks for score attack levels (I must stress here that these examples are pulled from my own fevered mind). Brilliantly, vehicles you unlock as you play can then be used in previous levels to play them in a completely different way.

Although I was at the Eurogamer Expo for nine hours, I didn’t actually have time to play very many games. Joe Danger: The Movie is the only title I went back to for a second go. It’s going to be the best raplunter you ever play. I do have one, huge criticism however; I can’t buy it yet.

We are heading into London to a Sony event where they are showing off the PSVita. Sony has huge hopes for this powerful, hardcore gamer-centric portable system. So they should too. As much as there is huge demand for both casual and social games on phones and tablets, it is clear that high quality, hardcore games struggle on those platforms; partially due to the economy around them not supporting the type of investment a 3DS or PSP game requires, partially due to lack of battery life, or down to the fact that FPS and third person games just don’t transfer well to touchscreens.

Hence the PSVita could become the tablet of choice for gamers. Especially 18-35 year olds. With its high res 5 inch OLED display, comprehensive touch and hardware controls and superb wireless connectivity options, it has the potential to become relevant to a subset of gamers who are potential tablet consumers who value Uncharted 3 more than Angry Birds.

However, as with the 3DS it will come down to the games. If the games can justify a shelf price of 30 pounds then consumers will justify owning the device. If the games are just cynical releases such as overpriced tablet conversions, low on content hours, or just rubbish then the device will fail. This preview event will probably be one of the last opportunities to assess that launch line up and potential prior to release in February.

Well, impressions of the hardware itself were very positive. It feels comfortable in your hands and the weight is acceptable for long play sessions. However it is not really a commuting device, due to its footprint. For long journeys and for use at locations once you have arrived, it is perfect. Nine out of Ten iPad users never take their device out and it is seen as a coffee table device when the TV is being used for something else, and the PSVita could become the tablet of choice for gamers.

The screen is remarkable, the contrast ratio on it seems better than many expensive LCD screens. Indeed whilst playing a couple of games next to their PS3 counterparts (see below) it was clear that the PSVita looked better than the Sony TV sets next to them. Playing games and watching movies will be a pleasure on this screen and will be a great selling point.

However, let’s run through a selection of the games on offer:

Reality Fighters

This game has great customisation options. Using the cameras you can put yourself in the game, altering your digital alter ego utilising various settings. It’s purely a gimmick from what I could see, but the comedy element is certainly there. There are tons of options to change the look, size and dress code of your avatar. You can also choose various ‘comedy’ fight styles.

The game has various online and local multiplayer options and it could be really fun with friends. However as a singleplayer experience or serious online brawler, it seems too lightweight and gimmicky. It would make a nice ‘pack in’ with the system or cheap digital release for launch to show off some of the features, should Sony choose to take it down that direction.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

We only got to play a small slice of this game, and it’s very similar to a recent play-through posted on the web. Nate is stuck in a burning building (isn’t he always nowadays), has to do some climbing to escape and then he acts as a sniper, shooting bad guys off in the distance protecting his companion.

If looks sell, then this games sells the system. It looks like a PS3 title, based on the little we have seen. We hope they have some more open, outdoor levels in the real game so that we can see if the PSVita can do those graphics away from small areas of play.

Our only problem with the game, based on this very small demo, is that Uncharted feels a little too much like a ‘Sony Bend’ game and not a Naughty Dog game. If you have played any of the Syphon Filter games on the PSP you’ll know what I mean. Those were great games, but enemy AI and the ‘situations’ were a bit simple and basic. We felt we were playing through a level of those games, especially with the sniping section. It is only a demo, so let us hope the game is more intelligent, and not just Syphon Filter in Uncharted’s clothes with nicer textures and more polygons.

ModNation Racers

Sony’s alternative to Mario Kart; some of us have never truly taken to this game, simply as the handling is so spongy. However this might be no fault of the game, and simply be a result of us (like most other people) being conditioned for Mario Kart. Either way that spongy handling is still there, which is a little disappointing. It does look like nice; but to be honest the PSP version looked nice too.

What makes this version stand out is the online functionality and, more importantly, the superb track building tools which use both touchscreens. These are used in ways which are very natural and intuitive. For example on the track editor you can raise or lower elements (such as scenery or the track itself). Tap on the front screen to raise and tap on the rear screen to lower. This best demonstrated how the touchscreen can suddenly make not so new ideas far more accessible, and the rear screen takes that logic to a new level.

MotorStorm RC

This was a lively little game. To be honest, there is very little Motorstorm about it. It is not a traditional 3D racer, but one which harks back to the 16 bit days of off-beat racing games, such as Skidmarks on the Amiga. As with Skidmarks it’s very non-offensive fun. Races are very short, so the game has that ‘just one more go element’. The game is one of the first to offer the ‘buy one copy for both PS3 and PSVita’ technology. Whilst PS3 users and Vita users cannot play against each other, all online leaderboard and community features will be shared.

This will be a digital, PSN release and it will be one of the launch titles. If priced fairly this will offer compelling and honest fun gaming, something often missing in modern videogames.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3

Not a lot to say here. It is Marvel vs Capcom, in your hands and with terrific graphics. If you want a serious fighter in your hands you’ll want this. It is fast, fluid and looks amazing. There seemed to be a huge list of characters to choose from, and it was comfortable to play.

We think it’ll be the only (serious) fighter at launch, but it also looks like it’ll be setting the standard for the others that follow at a high mark.

Little Deviants

It’s a minigame collection. A little bit Super Monkey Ball, a little bit Face Raiders (from the 3DS) and a little bit this and that from every other mini-collection on the market!

This has been relegated to a title which is simply a tech demo to show off the PSVita’s control options. Based upon the lack of people playing it at the event, it’s fair to assume that it has not garnered a whole lot of interest.

This is because people’s assumptions seem on our experience largely true. Once again, as with Reality Fighters, this might be better as a pack-in, a Wii Sports title for the PSVita to help move units off the shelf. However if this game is priced at £30 or above it’ll surely bomb. Most of the game modes are not memorable and most people would have played something similar elsewhere. The AR games built into it are very similar to the software packed into the 3DS.

I’m sure there is more to this game, but we will have to wait till its formal release to see and experience it.

Super Stardust

A PS3 favourite. What can we say? It’s Super Stardust on the Vita. It looks amazing, the controls are superb too. Dual stick controls (as you would expect), face and shoulder button use and touchscreen controls for some weapons. Additionally you can control a camera which lets you see more of the above or across from your ship by gently tilting the Vita.

The tilting doesn’t change the gameplay and you don’t ever need to do it, but it adds real depth to the graphics, and can be useful to plan strategies if you can keep a couple of steps ahead of the game.

F1 and Ridge Racer

Both driving games were generally underwhelming. Ridge Racer looks very competent, with high res graphics, but it seems like a cynical release to cash in. Locations might be high res, but they are quite dull. F1 also looked competent; but I felt that despite the lower resolution, driving games might actually be better on the 3DS, due to that much underused 3D screen. Games where you are going at speed into the distance can really benefit from that third dimension, possibly more than extra high res textures.

FIFA 12

This is FIFA, in your hands. No other way to say it really. Well visually it is, anyway. The game, from what we experienced, lacked the new defending technology, but the graphics seemed almost the same. FIFA on the old PSP played well, despite only having one control stick – so even though the Vita has two, the difference is less pronounced than with other genres.

However, the touchscreens add some really great depth to the gameplay. Shooting can (if you wish) be controlled by swiping the rear screen, but more importantly, passing can be triggered on the top screen. Simply press where you want the ball and the player will try to pass it there, even if they are not currently pointing in that direction. It’s not a replacement for traditional button play, but for situations where you see a possible ‘play’ (even if your player and teammates are not all in the right positions, or facing the right way), then touching is a superb way of triggering a counter attack.

This could be a system seller.

WipEout 2048

This was simply blinding. It looked amazing. It was fast (locked at 30 frames per second I think the developer said – which on an OLED screen is better than 60 frames on a LCD), has all the features a WipEout game would have, and a great selection of tracks. Controls were as you would expect, in addition to tilt control, which felt really comfortable.

One of the really cool elements was the implementation of Cross Play. This meant that Wipeout HD (on PS3) users could play alongside PSVita users where the tracks were the same, both with local play and with online play. We tested this feature using local wireless and it was seamless. We also have to point out that the game looked better on that cool OLED screen.

WipEout has become a smaller franchise in recent years, but the Vita could see it blossom again and become the mainstream racer it once was.

Gravity Rush

Beautiful is not often a word associated with games, but once in a while a game comes out which is lovely to look at. It is not trying to be realistic or fluorescent in tone, but is simply mind expanding. Gravity Crash is beautiful to look at but also to play.

How can we explain it? Well it is a third person brawler (in some ways to its detriment as it could be a puzzler, like Portal with some more imagination), where you can shift the centre of gravity. Your main character can fly through the air, suspending and switching the perspective on the fly. It is beautiful and is fully realised by taking advantage of the control set of the Vita. The dual sticks, the motion controls and traditional buttons all come together to allow the gameplay to flow along without it feeling clumsy. That, you see, is why it is beautiful. The gameplay is allowed to develop and involve you, as the hardware is able to display and perform the code the way the designers have clearly intended it to be experienced.

The demo was short and didn’t explain much about the setting. All that was clear was that you play a young girl, who has a cat as a friend, who doesn’t understand where she is or how she can control gravity.

I’m sure the story will be bizarre to match the gameplay, but that’s just fine. Along with traditional IP such as FIFA and WipEout, this should be one of your launch purchases.

It comes in a BLUE box!

PSVita Summary

So to summarise, the launch line up does have some real gems. Sony will need to work with its third party developer to make sure there is a constant flow of new games soon after launch. A 3DS style vacuum of games to follow till August 2012 could kill the system, so we hope the games we saw were only the start of a constantly growing line up.

However, with FPS games not even shown off and with at least Resistance confirmed for release soon after launch, and third person shooter Unit 13 recently announced, it seems Sony are on track to offer a comprehensive selection to any early adopters.

A true tablet for gamers is what the Vita offers. The platform has the potential to offer superb £40 games, digital games at £5 and possibly ‘marketplace’ style apps for 80 pence. We also saw some of the serious apps, such as Twitter, the web browser (not fully working) and other social-orientated applications which shows that this could be a hardcore gamer’s one stop shop for media consumption, and a true player in the portable digital market.

Before sitting down and getting stuck into Asura’s Wrath, I was given a friendly warning by a Capcom employee not to expect a typical demo. This wasn’t just PR hyperbole, as it turned out to be by far the most difficult demo I’ve come across in six years of attending TGS, and one that gave me a real sense of achievement once I’d finally finished it.

As well as offering up a real challenge, Asura’s Wrath took a rather unusual form for a fifteen minute demo. Instead of offering up a range of gameplay features, representative of the full experience, it focused solely on a hard-as-nails boss fight; which although probably not indicative of the entire experience, certainly gave a strong indication of its style: O.T.T action from start to finish. This will be of little surprise to those of you who have seen the early trailers which featured our fallen deity, Asura, battling a planet sized god and attempting to halt a giant finger the size of a skyscraper.

As if the breakneck and devastating combat between Asura and his overpowered foe wasn’t ridiculous enough, the battle is set on the moon and concludes with our protagonist hurtling through space towards Earth, skewered on the end of a giant sword. His six arms begin to disintegrate as he enters the earth’s atmosphere, leaving him with just the regular two – though these painful amputations didn’t seem to bother him all that much.

Between earth/moon shattering blows, our burly pair bark at each other in the gruffest of voices, each doing his best impression of Kratos in an especially foul mood. I quickly learned to ignore the nonsense each was spouting and instead focused on the combat, which kept me on my toes throughout. I have seen it likened elsewhere to games as varied as God of War, Virtual On, Street Fighter IV and even Fist of the North Star – all of which are apt comparisons – though ultimately it managed to achieve a style all of its own. I was armed with the standard heavy and light attacks, as well as blast, all of which dealt substantial damage when they found their target. But things were not quite that simple, as cornering my nimble foe was more difficult than getting Sony to give a concrete release date for The Last Guardian.

Without the ability to block, jumping and dodging became skills worth mastering, especially during the latter stages which required quick reflexes to squeeze through a bombardment of light beams. Once I had wreaked enough havoc, a much needed unlimited mode became available. Suitably powered up, and faster than ever, I could finally land some combos, which sent my opponent reeling. This reliance upon stringing together powerful attacks made Asura’s Wrath feel right at home sat next to Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken at the Capcom event.

The two pronged battle was riddled with QTEs. At times they felt intuitive and very much part of the experience, but at others more tacked-on and superfluous. For better or worse, QTEs will be present throughout the game and look set to feature heavily in the boss battles.

I certainly hope that Asura’s Wrath will turn out as unique and memorable as its challenging demo. Although it shed very little light on how the rest of the game will be structured, it certainly grabbed my attention with its combat mechanics and a visual style all of its own. Look for more information on this PS3 and 360 title as we get closer to 2012.

Most of you probably have a good idea of what OnLive is. For those of you who don’t; this is cloud gaming. The games you play aren’t stored on discs, nor are they installed on your hard drive. They are hosted by – and streamed to your device from – OnLive.

This is done either via an undemanding (and free) download from the website for PC, Mac and certain tablet devices, or on an HDTV via OnLive’s proprietary ‘microconsole’ (£69.99). As interesting as the basic concept is, it was the intricacies of the service that fascinated me when I explored them at the Eurogamer Expo.

“These are all live games going on right now.” explains James Beaven of Indigo Pearl (who are handling OnLive’s PR in the UK). “In essence, this is almost the world’s biggest shopping window.”

We are in a (relatively) quiet, walled-off area of the expo. OnLive is running on an HDTV via a microconsole. The screen before us is made up of dozens of smaller screens, each one of which shows somebody somewhere playing a game through OnLive in real time. It looks like something a Bond villain might glare at while cackling manically (if the idea of strangers watching you play unnerves you, you can prevent this in the privacy settings). This is the ‘arena’. Beaven picks a screen at random; within just a second or two, the image has filled the entire TV and we see everything that the player sees.

We can bring up the player’s profile, in a similar manner to Xbox Live. As well as viewing his friends we can see when he first joined OnLive, and how many games he owns through the service. Again, if the privacy settings allow, you can talk to the player while you’re spectating by sending a message – or via voice chat with a bluetooth headset.

I am then introduced to the ‘cheers and jeers’ system. This is an informal way of players to approve or disapprove of – generally – one another’s skills while spectating. To illustrate this, Beaven clicks a button to ‘cheer’ the player when he fires a cannon and hits his target. The number next to the ‘thumbs up’ icon in the corner of the screen changes from 0 to 1, and the person we’re watching instantly knows that we’ve ‘cheered’ them. I like to believe that people who camp in multiplayer FPS games will pick up a hefty pile of ‘jeers’.

Spectating opens up several other possibilities when playing with friends. “Say you’re playing co-op. You can actually spectate your mate. Maybe you’re doing a pincer attack; you can see exactly where he is, co-ordinate the attack using your bluetooth headsets. Once you can see you’re both in the perfect position, ‘OK, go, now!’ Or you can create multiple player tags if you want to, use one for constant spectating on one device while you’re playing on another.

It’s also quite useful if you’re stuck on a level. Call up your mate on your headset, tell him you’re stuck. Then he can spectate you while you’re playing; ‘Okay I see you on the viewer; go left, left, shoot him, down there, you’re done’.” Then, I am shown the OnLive Marketplace.

There is no compulsory subscription involved with OnLive. “The only subscription aspect, if you want it, is the PlayPack; currently over a hundred games in there [instant and unlimited access] for £6.99 a month.”

As Beaven scrolls through the games in the PlayPack, I am reminded of something that occurred to me when I caught a glimpse of some older games briefly mentioned as a footnote in the trailer, which is running on a loop on a gigantic screen in the main area of the expo. Though not something mentioned in the OnLive promotional push (so far as I am aware), the service opens up a whole new back catalogue of classic titles to console gamers (such as myself). The original Deus Ex and Alien vs Predator games are available to play, two fantastic titles previously unavailable to those who prefer to sit in front of the TV with a joypad in their hands. Incidentally, the microconsole supports other controllers apart from the included OnLive one – such as a wired Xbox 360 joypad and, yes, mouse and keyboard.

PlayPack subscribers also enjoy a 30% discount on anything not included that they want to buy, and you can play each and every game for half an hour for free; whether you’re a PlayPack subscriber or not. All OnLive users – as well as developers and publishers – enjoy more general benefits. The cloud hosting means that all updates and patches are automatically applied, with no need to wait for installations. It’s easy to see the appeal from the industry’s point of view. As well as the obvious lack of costs involved in manufacturing discs, packaging and manuals, I’m told that the cloud hosting means that piracy will never be an issue.

Interestingly, every game in the marketplace carries its Metacritic score. When I point out that perhaps some within the industry won’t be best pleased about this, Beaven points out that it means the users are “empowered with information”. Bottom line there is that OnLive are helping gamers, which can only be a good thing, Not everybody likes Metacritic, and an average user rating is also displayed; but nonetheless, this level of openness is something Xbox Live and the PlayStation Store would benefit from.

The OnLive controller is comfortable to hold and easy to use.

As well as the scores and the aforementioned half hour trial, trailers for each game are also available to stream instantly; and you can even pay to rent most games for three or five days. It’s hard to think of how ‘try before you buy’ could be stretched any further here. When I ask about the possibility of cross-platform play with other formats, it’s not such good news.

“Unfortunately, that’s not possible. All this takes place within the OnLive cloud. But what it does give you on the flipside is multiplatform play in that somebody on a PC could be playing against somebody on a microconsole, or a Mac against an iPad, and so on.” And now, I get to play myself; the OnLive joypad is handed to me, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is launched.

It’s not long before the game is running. It does, as Beaven says, take less time than it would take to get off the sofa, find and insert the game disc, and wait for it to load in a standard console. Though I didn’t find Space Marine to be the best example, it’s true that OnLive games are graphically comparable to a high-spec PC. This was more immediately obvious when watching people play various other games, such as Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Deus Ex: Human Revolution on the show floor.

This was the first chance I got to play on an OnLive console, and such was the lack of input lag that I actually forgot there might be any. It was genuinely no different in that respect to playing on my PS3 or 360.

When the expo had quietened down later, I got a chance to sit down with one of the public units. I spent a while playing DiRT 3 and Super Street Fighter IV, two games where any input lag would be obvious and game-breaking. Again, I was impressed by the responsiveness of the controls which was still no different to that of other formats.

While playing Space Marine in the private session, I am introduced to the concept of ‘brag clips’. The underside of the OnLive controller has play, rewind, fast forward and record buttons. Hitting the record button creates a ‘brag clip’, which is basically your last ten seconds of play recorded and put up for your friends and the OnLive community to see. There’s no way to edit these ten seconds sadly, but the fact that you can record in any game at any time offsets that (for me at least) somewhat.

The microconsole really is tiny, fiiting easily into the palm of one hand.

The basic idea of course is to share something really cool you’ve done in-game, or perhaps to show off something so embarrassingly bad you can’t keep it to yourself. Personally, I can see this getting a lot of use to record amusing glitches. There are various filters to use to search for these clips, which can then be rated. As with seemingly everything nowadays, you can post your clips to Facebook should you so wish.

Arguably the most important issue is that of download speeds. What sort of connection do you need to actually use OnLive? “It depends on the size of your screen. On an HD screen this size -” he indicates the TV which, from memory, I would hazard a guess at being 42” “it’s running at 720p. Most games do 1080p, but 720p is reducing bandwidth. On a screen like this, you need 5-6mb. On a PC screen, 15”, 3-4mb; all the way down to tablets, then it’s 1mb. There are hundreds of compression algorithms checking your line speed, the game you’re playing, all those sorts of things; and it’ll actually compensate for the best possible experience.”

So what happens for people playing on a TV, who are perhaps struggling to meet the required download speed? Is that where lag comes in?

“It’s not lag.” Beaven affirms. “It will compress the graphics. Fundamentally the less bandwidth you’ve got, the more it will compress the graphics. There are so many benefits though, I don’t think anyone’s really going to pay attention to that.”

“The average connection speed is actually better here than it is in the states.” I’m told, when I ask if the UK is ready for the OnLive service. “The last OfCom report was that 92.5% of high speed broadband connections in the UK are 6mb and above.”

But not everybody in the UK has a high speed connection…

“There are going to be people out in the country, too far from the exchange, that it’s really not going to work for.” Beaven concedes, before adding “That’s going to change over time. The infrastructure’s increasing, getting better, getting faster.”

When I bring up the issue of existing gaming formats, it seems that OnLive have no interest in getting confrontational. “What it boils down to is choice. We’ve said very openly we get PS3 and Xbox 360 owners coming on, trying the demo, then going off and buying the game for their PS3 or 360. It really doesn’t matter. What we’re saying is if you want the choice, if you want the flexibility of being able to play wherever you want, then OnLive is a great option. Just come on and try it!”

As for security the bigger OnLive gets, the bigger a target it will become for hackers. Are they prepared for that? “There is a degree of inevitability there, in that the bigger you get the more you attract attention. All I can say is that OnLive is set up to be as secure as possible, without giving too many details away. You don’t advertise your security plans! Just on the simple basis that you can’t pirate software, it is in essence a very secure system.”

The private session ends with something to hammer home the fact that OnLive offers the latest graphical technology without requiring the user to own powerful hardware – technology from Mova, also owned by OnLive CEO Steve Perlman. A completely computer generated, and almost perfectly photorealistic, female human head talks and smiles. It really is ahead of anything in any game currently on the market. “Developers can design for the highest spec; they don’t have to worry about compatibility issues, All the user needs is the video feed.”. The idea is that one day, these could be in-game graphics.

But have there been solid talks about OnLive exclusives? “That I don’t know. All I know is conversations are going on all the time.”

With an extensive and solid streaming infrastructure, are OnLive looking at moving into music and movies? “Not now. There are other services out there that are doing really well; what we see is a great opportunity for streaming games, and that’s what OnLive will be known for.”

In theory, OnLive is little short of incredible. There’s already an extensive games library including some of the biggest titles, and that doesn’t seem set to change; Arkham City, Borderlands 2, and Saints Row the Third featured prominently in the looping trailer. Search social networks and you’ll find legions of people singing the service’s praises; but it’s not difficult to find people complaining either, with the main problem seemingly being an inability to connect to the service. OnLive has been running in the UK for less than a week at time of writing, so personally I’m prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt – for now.

Will download limits, customer demand and broadband speeds suckerpunch OnLive in the UK in the long term? Only time will tell. One thing’s for sure; if it does work, OnLive really could revolutionise the way we buy, play, and enjoy videogames.

Resident Evil Revelations is a return to the pace and style of earlier entries in Capcom’s successful, survival horror series, and it feels just right running on the 3DS. The visuals are sharp, the lighting impressive and the 3D subtle, making for a surprisingly atmospheric, portable experience.

The TGS demo followed series stalwart Jill Valentine – the master of unlocking – through the dimly lit corridors of an antiquated cruise ship that looks to be an intriguing place to explore. The game is seen from an over-the-shoulder perspective, much like in RE 4 and 5, allowing you to take in most of your surroundings whilst retaining some vital blind spots to keep you guessing. The impressive visuals and eerie sound effects create a chilling atmosphere, as fog hugs the floor of an abandoned dining hall and unseen creatures scratch away behind locked doors. The more social of these monstrosities were humanoid in nature, yet a far cry from your standard zombie, and could take a pounding before crumpling to the floor in a bloody heap. Fortunately, they were rather slow footed, but once within striking distance they became quite a handful.

Ammunition and health pick-ups were at a premium throughout. On more than one occasion I resorted to fleeing confrontation as I found myself out of ammo, forced to drag my ailing body in the other direction in search of a precious herb. I could barely contain my excitement when I stumbled upon a shotgun, though predictably it came with only a precious few shells. If the stage in question is anything to go by, then Revelations will demand sensible rationing and the ability to wield a knife as effectively as a firearm.

The controls are familiar, despite being on a portable, and although the demo did not require it, the final version will support the additional, circle pad peripheral. Revelations retains some of the stiffness of movement from previous games, which serves to make every enemy encounter that much more intense, whilst not being too clunky or reliant on sharp, right angled movement. However, I did struggle to get accustomed to the switch to a first person view point when aiming a weapon – a shift that did not appear to be optional during the demo. It felt slightly disjointed from the rest of the game, and did not offer the accuracy or responsiveness that you would usually equate with first person shooting.

Resident Evil Revelations is shaping-up to be the survival horror experience that Mercenaries had no intention of being, with exploration and puzzle solving front and centre. This return to vintage was apparent from the opening moments, when I had to drain a bath full of sludge to reveal a missing key and tackle a fuse-box puzzle. Expect plenty of creaky floorboards, crank puzzles and grotesque creatures when Revelations drops in 2012, exclusively for the 3DS.

Hard Reset is a futuristic first person shooter that has appeared out of relatively nowhere and attracted itself a little bit of attention over a short period of time. Created by Flying Wild Hog (the Polish development studio made of up creatives who worked on the likes of The Witcher 2 and Bulletstorm), Critical Gamer was able to sit down with a preview build of the game to see what it’s about.

When first dipping into Hard Reset it was a little obtuse about what exactly was going on, forcing us to go looking elsewhere for the finer details. However, a basic amount of plot is conveyed via comic book style cutscenes before, during and after levels.

You play as a man named Fletcher in a somewhat dystopian city of the future called Bezoar. In a mixture of concepts remarkably similar to the likes of The Matrix and Blade Runner, the enemies of the game are Artificial Intelligences running amok, attempting to access The Sanctuary (a collective hub of human personalities that left their bodies and became digital). The reason for this (as best we could work out) is that there are distinct limits as to how advanced AI can become, and only by accessing The Sanctuary can these limits be transcended.

Fletcher works for The Company and is tasked with protecting The Sanctuary (though in monologue he explains that he only does it for the money). The game begins with Fletcher being informed that attacks on humans have been reported in a district of the city. This is where you are thrown into control and begin exploring Bezoar.

The first thing that will strike you (assuming your PC can handle it) is that with the visual settings set to the absolute highest Hard Reset is a good looking game. From the murky streets to an abandoned hospital there is distinct character with a heavy Sci-Fi flavour. It feels a little devoid of life (save for the enemies) but is highly interactive with destructible or moveable scenery littering every street.

A standard FPS HUD displays health, armour, and ammo for your currently equipped weapon. Within the preview build we were given a large machine gun and also an energy weapon that fired bolts of electricity. Both these weapons only had a basic left-mouse fire system until upgraded using N.A.N.O found around the levels. These can be used to upgrade weapons (the machine gun can be given a faster firing rate and zoom, the energy weapon can gain a charge-up shot and regenerative ammo) as well as Fletcher (increased health, armour, etc.) and other more advanced HUD features (making the radar display enemies or hinting where hidden caches of N.A.N.O are located).

Fletcher only needs to take a few steps before his first encounter with one of the enemy AIs. We were exposed to a few different types across the four or five sections we played. The smaller types (which come in flying, cutting or exploding form) favour a swarming tactic and will often rush at you numbering no less than four. There are also medium sized gun wielding bots and larger ape-like robots which move quickly and enjoy ramming you across the room.

While being swarmed by a dozen small bots backed up by a large one charging right for you can be a little daunting and challenging, we did find that there was a lack of intimidation or sense of fear. This was probably down to the design of the enemies being quite adorable. The little AIs look like Robot Wars rejects and the larger ape-like ones with their glowing green and red sections and crooked faces were borderline cute. Sure they were all trying to kill you, but it was hard to take them seriously.

Progressing through the preview largely consisted of moving from one orchestrated battle to the next, having an area to play with to your advantage each time. Numerous electronic appliances litter the street that can be hit to send out shock-waves to damage enemies, as well as explosive canisters or easily flammable vehicles. There were also some basic puzzles (find the power supply to shut down a barrier, turn a valve, etc.) but these did not seem central to the gameplay at all.

After raiding the streets and making our way through an atmospheric deserted hospital scavenging old AIs as we went, we were tasked with taking down an Atlas statue which had been mechanically altered. Needless to say we were not surprised when we approached it and it sprang to life. Towering high above us firing rockets, lasers and summoning swarms to nibble your ankles, it was a fair challenge to eventually bring it down. Upon raiding the corpse of the giant machine and the discovery of a revelation that more may be going on, the preview ended there.

Hard Reset is a good looking, interesting mix of concepts built on solid (albeit generic) FPS traditions. The preview build we played was just a small taste, but Flying Wild Hog’s project deserves some attention as it nears a swift release. We do hope that in the full version of the game the story is more easily conveyed (at least to begin with) and that some intimidating enemies make an appearance later on (not just bosses).

Hard Reset will be released September this year as a PC exclusive.

Criticalgamer.co.uk was recently invited down to London to experience Codemasters’ up and coming shooter Bodycount. For those of you who have not been following the development of Bodycount, let us have a small reminder of events so far.

The game has unofficially been tagged the spiritual successor to the PS2 and Xbox hit Black, not least due to Black’s lead designer being involved. However, he left the development of Bodycount some time back and so that link is a little tenuous and overused. What does link the two games is the focus on arcade style, explosive gun battles where the star of the game is the gun.

Unlike, say, Borderlands where the stars are the many guns, Bodycount only has ten firearms and they are not customisable. However, they are full of character, and by limiting the player to two at a time getting to know their strengths and weaknesses will be crucial for efficient gameplay.

The gameplay itself is very ‘throw away’, but in a good way. A great deal of the environment can be destroyed, and this is best highlighted when the player takes cover. There is no ‘cover button’ per se, but instead the ‘ironsights’ button is no longer an ‘on or off’ toggle but instead recognises the analogue nature of the controller, similar to how modern racing games allow you to control the gas pedal.

Hence if you hold the left shoulder button all the way down you will have a traditional, accurate iron sight but you cannot strafe or move. You look, and you can lean. Yes, you can lean left, right and over objects allowing you to use anything for cover, however it best suits you. However, the cover you hide behind rarely lasts long as either your own bullets or enemy ammunition will soon destroy it. If you only hold the left shoulder button halfway down you will have traditional ironsights with movement; but it is less accurate. This system works very well and is refreshing. Leaning has been in FPS games before, but this is one of the best implementations of the technique.

The game forces you to run – keep moving and keep shooting. The storyline is intentionally non-existent as the game is all about the action, similar to a nonsense 1980s Hollywood action film. You are an unnamed character, working for a vague organisation fighting the enemy. That’s about it. The levels have mission targets within them, but you can carry them out as you choose as each level is a small sandbox, rather than a linear scripted experience. Additionally the game will offer traditional deathmatch shooting and a co-op survival mode, which could be terrific. As the rounds progress there would be less and less scenario to hide behind!

The build we saw was not the latest and the graphics were still rough at times, but the game moved fast (it’s a 30 frames per second game, techie nerds), and the outside level we saw looked bright and inviting. We also saw an inside level which, while clearly inspired by Tron, felt very narrow; full of ‘corridors’ and a strange coming together of Halo 1’s opening level and the Wii’s Conduit (not a good thing that).

Overall this could be a great antidote to the serious nature of MW3 and BF3. Other games have tried to give players a lighter, more humorous shooter in recent times such as Bulletstorm and Duke Nukem Forever, but many have failed as they got too bogged down in narrative or were not ‘pure enough’ in terms of simple shooting and running action. Our playthrough was limited and as with all AAA titles, we are still to find out if the game can keep our interest for a number of hours.

If the level design can be kept varied, and if a range of gameplay modes such as destroy and fetch missions along with survival (with respawning enemy sections against the clock) and possibly more can be implemented, then Bodycount could be a high quality, over the top diversion from the serious nature of the other 2011 shooters. A game like this really needs interesting locations and maps, along with enemies with a good AI. Even though the build we experienced was not up to date, the enemy AI already seemed ferocious and adaptive, which bodes well.

Bodycount could be a very addictive, play for 30 minutes and get a high score shooter. It’s out in a few months and with any luck we will do a full review to see if the final package hangs together and delivers on its promise to entertain with explosions and adrenaline.

If we told you that we recently had a chance to play an open-world post-apocalyptic first-person shooter with an emphasis on RPG elements and bloody combat, you’d likely ask “Which one?” In this case it would be id Software’s very own Rage, available to play at QuakeCon 2011 and a title that has every chance to shoot itself in the foot. We had about an hour and a half to get acquainted with Rage, and despite the initial sense of unpleasant regurgitation, we had a good deal of fun.

The opening kicked off with a large meteor crashing into the earth (a flash of pre-apocalyptic action, we suppose), followed by chaos. Hiding in some sort of stasis pod seemed to be a logical move in this situation, and the protagonist did so. Upon emerging from the chamber, however, it was discovered that this was no silly episode of Futurama: the world was smashed up, blew up, and beat up with reckless abandon. We took control at this point but stood no chance against the mutant forces of awfulness, so it was a lucky break when a survivor took pity and helped us out.

He and a small band of resistors lived out their days in a junky yet welcoming gas station (also smashed up, blew up, and beat up) and invited us to stay. The offer of companionship and a chance to go kill lots of bad guys suited us just fine, so we wasted no time in loading our pistol and driving a four-wheeler into the unknown.

If this situation does not look appealing, Rage might not be for you.

Our buggy was faster than a man with a mutant on his tail (we would know), especially when the boost was activated. Flying up ramps and launching the poor driver into walls was exhilarating, but the controls felt a little squirrelly, especially when using the all-too-sensitive brakes. Still, it got the job done, and we roared our way through the semi-open world with eager anticipation.

The mini-map pointed the way via a handy dotted line, and we were soon in enemy territory; only a pistol stood between us and a horrible death as angry survivors attempted to murder us. The shooting felt both responsive and fluid, rewarding us for paying close attention to our foes. They hid behind cover of all sorts, sometimes taking us on with blindfire, to make good use of the grimy environment. The bolder ones (including those with flaming bats) charged us with all their might, but a sound smack to the head sent them spiralling away. However, they used melee attacks of their own, so spamming the punch button did us no favours.

The animation was a highlight of our experience. Enemies limped away when injured or even fell to the ground and tried to shoot at us from their prone position. Of course, gore flew every which way, specifically when grenades were in use. We also found ourselves a shotgun and some sharp blades that could be thrown through the air, upping the count of beheadings substantially.

It's not the muscles, the scars, the belt of grenades, or even the tank tattooed on his chest; that mustache commands respect.

Rage wasn’t very tough on Normal difficulty, but when we did finally go down, a mini-game was there to pull us from death’s icy grip. By dexterously aligning the thumb sticks and nailing the timing on some button presses, our health was refilled relative to our (sloppy) performance. Whether or not this skill can be abused as an easy way out remains to be seen, but it’s a neat addition on its own.

While Rage’s combat certainly hit the spot in terms of solid, tried-and-true shooting, there wasn’t anything especially original about it. There are, however, some light RPG additions to spice things up: for example, junk can be salvaged and combined to make brand new items. We made ourselves a device to break locks and a nifty scope for our pistol, both of which came in handy right away.

We sold the extra contents of our inventory back at the base, purchasing some healing kits in exchange. The locals were also willing to teach us how to use certain weapons and hand out missions to complete, the latter of which move the story forward. Tips during lengthy loading screens told us to head off the beaten path and explore, but most of these excursion ended with dead ends or invisible walls; often both. These early parts of Rage might be more confined than later portions, but we didn’t see a whole lot of open-ended opportunities.

Many mooses died for this manly costume to live.

For such a thoroughly apocalypsed world, Rage managed to look spiffy. Character models were detailed to an impressive degree, set in a dusty land under a glorious sky. It’s often ugly, sure — but that’s the point. Our main concern was the texture pop-in that plagued even the nearest of surfaces. We only had access to the PS3 version, but it could use some polishing up before hitting store shelves.

We weren’t blown away during our time with Rage, yet the intense fights kept us pushing forward and yearning for more. Ninety minutes was hardly enough time to dig into this promising game’s many layers — we didn’t even touch the racing or multiplayer — but it’ll have to work hard to dig itself out of the potentially stale genre pit. Keep your eyes open and your Acme Mutant Repellent at hand as we rapidly approach its October release date.

Imagine LittleBigPlanet was a gorefest featuring all kinds of traps that cause the screen to be filled with blood. Bloody Trapland isn’t far off, but also brings a whole lot more to the table. This fast paced multiplayer platformer made by a couple of students from the Blekinge Institute of Technology recently caught my attention during the Nordic Game Conference a couple of months ago. I sat down with Alexander Åkerman to talk a bit more about the game.

Simple student game gone crazy

“With Bloody Trapland, we wanted to create a simple, yet fun platformer that anyone could just pick up and play with their friends,” Åkerman says. “We felt that the market was missing a simple game that let all the players enjoy the fun together, no matter what gaming experience they have. We have always wanted to create a really addictive platformer.”

Made in XNA with the team’s dream to see it released on XBLA some day, Bloody Trapland lets you enjoy a race through levels filled with traps with up to 4 players. You can compete in different game modes, including the standard Race mode. First player to reach the end of the level, after being repeatedly killed and instantly respawned, wins the match. In Deathmatch, the players are set against one other in battle. Whoever kills the others most within a limit time wins.

Little Big indie game

Don’t let the pixelated graphics deceive you. Bloody Trapland features some very smooth mechanics, such as allowing players to kill each other by jumping on each other’s heads Super Mario style, while using them as a springboard at the same time. The game also has 60 maps split into six different worlds for you to play in, including different difficulty settings.

“Our first thought was that we wanted it to have a retro feel, so we designed it to feel and play just like an old classic 16-bit game,” Åkerman explains. “We started our work with a quick prototype with some basic gameplay functions. After that, we’ve been fine-tuning the controls to feel just right, and added a ton of features like more traps, multiplayer support, more characters, etc.” Åkerman and his team have been working on the game the entire summer.

The responses they got from attending the Nordic Game Conference gave Åkerman and his team quite the boost of motivation. “We had the opportunity to attend Nordic Game thanks to our school, Blekinge Institute of Technology. We took the chance to show our game and get some feedback from the people who tested it. We learned a lot and received feedback from all sorts of people! We hope we have the opportunity to attend Nordic Game next year again!”

Bloody Trapland has also been applied to enter the Game Concept Challenge, a game design contest held in Karlshamn, Sweden. “We are really excited about this contest,” Åkerman tells me. “We have strong faith in our game! But first and foremost our goal is to get the game released on both Xbox 360 and Steam, and if all goes well we will release it at the end of summer.”