• Format: Xbox 360 (version reviewed), PS3, PC
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
• Developer: id Software
• Players: 1 – 4
• Site: http://www.rage.com/

Silent takedowns have been slowly seeping into shooters ever since AI was granted a ‘blissfully unaware’ mode. Most of the time you need to sneak into neck sniffing distance of your target and then tap a button to watch a drawn out and often gruesome animation that depicts your stealth victory. Rage takes the alternate approach and instead gives you a silent takedown you can throw at people. It glides through the air, decapitates the target and then returns to your hand. Awesome.

We love the wingstick, a tri-pronged boomerang that features in lots of Rage’s promotional material and gives you raw killing power in your non-gun hand. It has possibly become our favourite inventory item in a game ever and definitely helps set the zanier tone that features throughout id Software’s latest title.

Crossbow bolts are a great way to settle disagreements with locals.

Stepping away from the much darker, horror museum worlds of Quake and Doom, Rage is more like a horror-themed rollercoaster. Yes, there is plenty of gore, mutilated bodies and creatures that belong in nightmares, but Rage’s setting sits a lot more on the crazy side of things. For example, one character you meet has some sort of robot parrot-like creature perched on his shoulder, and another runs a reality TV show where contestants must kill waves of mutants for cash. It’s a brave leap away from what we have seen previously from id Software, but they have made a vibrant and entertaining world that sets the apocalyptic, broken society tone well.

Story-wise, things aren’t quite as well assembled. The game is set 100 years after a meteorite hits Earth and smooshes life as we know it. Fortunately, the player was buried in an ark, a subterranean chamber designed to preserve life post-meteor. Players emerge from the ark to a wasteland and the game gets going. You meet John Goodman who hands you a gun, and then the rest of the game’s story is slowly trickled to you as you meet new characters who ask you to shoot at things in different areas. The plot mainly justifies the vast amounts shooting you’ll be doing, and fortunately, this is a very good thing.

Big shooty guns are always the core of id’s games, and there’s no exception here. Every gun sounds brilliant and actually feels like they do damage. Enemies recoil as you blow chunks of life from their bodies, each successful hit sparking a pained reaction. Slamming mutants into the wall with shotgun blasts, or hearing your bullets dent and ricochet off of dense armour is immensely satisfying. The run and gun carnage is very fun and feels miles away from other shooters that give you a bad guy shooting gallery that is best viewed through iron sights. You will occasionally run across a bullet sponge bad guy that can take four sniper rifle bullets to his unshielded face which upsets the rhythm slightly, but this isn’t a major issue for the most part.

Deformed tentacle monsters struggle to maintain friendships.

Health regenerates slowly but can be aided with healing items in your inventory. Should you go down a quick time-like event allows you to use an implanted defibrillator to revive yourself. This has to recharge before it works again and so never feels overpowered or like a cheat. In fact, this second chance helps compensate your frustration should you not have healing items equipped. Talking of equipment, the inventory system can get confusing in the heat of the moment as you can only have one item assigned to your quick-use button. It’s very easy to throw a wingstick when you mean to heal, or use a precious bandage when you don’t need it.

From a distance and at a glance, Rage looks fantastic, with beautiful sprawling environments and detailed character models that are amongst the best in the gaming world. When you get right up close to some areas and really start to study them, some of the textures look low quality and not quite as magic is it all first appeared. However, the world of Rage is so manic and chaotic that you rarely have time to stop and scrutinise the few areas that don’t quite match up to the majority of the game’s graphical superiority.

You can traverse the world via car, where the game gives you a third person view of the vehicular carnage. There are only four vehicles in the standard version of the game, but they are fun to drive and introduce another layer of combat. You can also participate in several races to upgrade your vehicles. Whilst the races do get tiresome eventually, you don’t need to complete many to get the upgrades you require, and only a handful are mandatory.

You know you've kicked the hornets' nest when these guys appear.

Vehicle combat spills over into the online mode where there are several car arena modes that allow you to compete with three other players. It’s surprisingly fun and reminds us of classic Twisted Metal style gameplay, even if the environments feel a bit sparse at times. A co-op mode also lets you and a pal pick up guns and stroll through unique missions that fill in some of the back story from the main game. The lack of a competitive on-foot multiplayer mode strikes us as odd, but the modes available are good, even if they lack the long lasting appeal that some online modes add.

Rage is a great single player game that offers excellent gunplay from start to finish. The ending appears very abruptly after about 10 hours and serves as the game’s biggest disappointment, but other than that there is not much to fault. The shooting mechanics are fantastic, as are the enemies and environments. Navigation is never an issue as you just need to follow the carnage around the brilliantly designed mission areas to find your next objective. Id have done a great job at creating a shooter that has a classic feel to it, whilst still sticking to modern FPS principles.

• Format: 360 (version reviewed), PS3, PC
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Bethesda
• Developer: Splash Damage
• Players: 1 (offline), 2-16 (online)
• Site: http://www.brinkthegame.com

It’s a first person shooter folks, but not as we know it. With Brink, Splash Damage stick two fingers up at the rest of the industry and concentrate on what they want to do. The result? A game that you’re guaranteed to adore… or despise.

Take the story – or lack thereof. The basic premise is solid: in a future where global warming has ruined the Earth, the ersatz floating city of the Ark has become the most desirable community in the world. As a result it has become massively overpopulated, and is on the Brink (geddit?) of civil war. However, the cutscenes do little more than provide cardboard cut-out backdrops for mission objectives, and no details whatsoever are revealed during gameplay (none you have time to stop and appreciate, at least). Your only other in-game source for story is the wealth of (sigh) audio logs that you earn as you progress, which can be accessed from the main menu.

"No, I'm not going to help you. You said I look camp."

From day one, Brink was created to provide offline and online experiences that were identical. This decision has, for better or worse, dictated the design of the whole game down to the smallest detail. For example, the Resistance and the Security have a total of eight campaign missions each. Rather than these being unlocked as you complete them however, all sixteen are immediately selectable – so if you want to jump straight into online play, you’re not restricted in which missions you can choose.

There’s no two ways about it: offline play is basically the online mode with bots. Two teams of eight battle over a series of objectives in each map, one team attacking and the other (wait for it) defending. There are four classes to choose from and, unlike most games, you’ll almost certainly want to spend a lot of time with each. Firstly this is because most objectives, primary and secondary, are class-specific. Only soldiers can plant explosive charges for example, and only Operatives can hack. A broken piece of machinery will need an Engineer to repair it; and anybody can escort a prisoner/comrade, but only a Medic can heal and revive them.

Secondly – and this is what really sets Brink apart from the pack – teamwork is nothing less than essential. Essential for success, and essential for a decent amount of XP. Let’s take a hack as an example. If everybody becomes an Operative and runs for the objective separately, they’ll be picked off easily by an organised team (that includes AI). However, if two Operatives (for a speedier hack) are backed up by two Medics for healing/reviving, they stand a much better chance. Throw in one or two Engineers – who can lay mines and build turrets – to stand guard, and victory seems even more likely.

It is first person, honest - but the PR shots don't show that.

As for gorging on XP, you’ll have to help others to help yourself. Yes, you’re rewarded with XP for kills. That’s not the emphasis though; there are no killstreaks, and no post-match kill/death ratios. Five kills might net you 100XP. Altruistic actions such as improving teammates’ weapons, buffing their health, or giving them extra ammo could see you earn about three times that amount in five seconds.

You’ll even get a steady trickle of XP for simply staying close to something – or someone – that needs guarding. Put all of the above together, and you’ll soon realise that playing a supporting role can be more rewarding than being on the front line for the current objective (and is often essential to avoid mission failure). Brink encourages a team of complete strangers to work together like an experienced clan – without them even realising.

However, the number of human players on each team of eight is usually limited to four, due to lag issues. Most matches we played were just as smooth online as offline. However, whenever lag did rear its ugly head, it was crippling, and completely ruined the experience. If you join a match and see signs of lag, get outta there!

What will irk many is the absence of lobbies and server lists. If you want to play online then you choose your mission, select whether you only want to play co-op or if other players can join the opposition too, if you’re comfortable playing with higher ranked players, and then the match loads. Invites aside, who you play with is completely random. In fact, you can only be sure who is human by checking the scoreboard.

Kudos to Splash Damage, the AI is eerily realistic (though is sometimes reluctant to tackle objectives). Yes, it’s annoying when they guard corners or bunch up to defend an objective – but that’s exactly what human players do. This makes offline play good practice for online, not to mention the fact that your greatly-customisable character, his (also customisable) weapons, and his XP are consistent across all modes.

The much discussed SMART system works great. You slide under and clamber over obstacles simply by holding down the sprint button, which opens up a new world of shortcuts and escape routes. It also means that some pieces of cover are not the unassailable positions you might at first think…

You’ll be pleased to hear that all classes can use all weapons, and camping is almost pointless. Not only will it result in a piffling amount of XP (not least because one-shot kills are rare), but most teams will easily hunt and kill a camper. There’s not even a dedicated Sniper class. Great news for some – disappointing for others.

Be a team player or fail. That’s Brink in a nutshell. It’s a game that goes out of its way to reward you for helping others, resulting in a fresh experience with a great atmosphere. That really is the only way to enjoy this game; if all you ever want to be is the player with the kill count everybody else is chasing, this Brinks nothing to the table for you. Us, we like a Brinkle of originality now and then.

Everybody put your spirit guide back in its box for the time being as a live action Prey 2 trailer has been released on G4TV with a significantly lesser amount of Cherokee than the original game featured.

Not to say that the sequel will not have any of the Native American influences – a significant part of the first game – it’s just that none of the material churned up so far has featured anything that’s related to it.

Kotaku has reported that the protagonist in Prey 2 is an air marshal according to “a source close to the game”. According to the site he is connected with the aeroplane that the player experiences colliding with the spaceship in the first game.

The presence of a man with a gun on board the aircraft in the trailer leans towards this suggestion, as we find it hard to believe that many airports will have that much of a lax attitude to security.

The shaky cam footage that makes up the reveal definitely shows that the aliens are back, and they seem just as socially responsible as ever, merrily blowing people in half and whatnot.

Earlier in the week it was revealed that Prey 2 will be coming to Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in 2012. Chris Rhinehart, the project lead of Prey 2 said the game “will provide gamers the opportunity to explore a new facet of the Prey universe, one that offers fast-paced action in an open, alien world.”

Grab your Native American alien slaying boots and dance a happy jig as Bethesda have just announced that Prey 2 is in the making and aiming for a 2012 release.

Developed by Human Head Studios, the team behind the original Prey, the sequel is being built using the id Tech engine from id Software.

“We are thrilled to be working with Bethesda on Prey 2,” said Chris Rhinehart, project lead. Prey 2 will provide gamers the opportunity to explore a new facet of the Prey universe, one that offers fast-paced action in an open, alien world. We’re excited to show gamers the title we have been working on and hope they will be as excited by this title as we are.”

The original game put players behind the eyes of Cherokee Domasi Tawodi (although he preferred being called Tommy) dealing with the troubling fact that himself, his girlfriend and grandfather are abducted by aliens. Utilising variable gravity, fixed portals and Tommy’s spirit guide to complete the game, the ending words on the screen simply said “Prey will continue…”

After five years of waiting it has been confirmed that the story will indeed continue next year on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

This sentence tells you as much about the game as the above trailer does.

With the release date just a few days away from European shores, Bethesda are already talking about some Xbox exclusive DLC for the apocalyptic RPG FPS that is set in a rather desolate version of the world’s most famous den of glitz and glamour.

“We’re excited to continue the partnership between Bethesda and Microsoft, and build on the success of the game add-ons released for Fallout 3 on Xbox LIVE,” said Pete Hines, VP of Marketing and PR of Bethesda Softworks. “Fans will once again be able to continue their experience in the Fallout universe with the add-on packs planned for after the launch of the game.”

The add-on pack will be released on Xbox Live ‘this holiday season’, and that pretty much exhausts the font of information available to us so far. We expect to hear more information about this over the next few weeks.

Fallout: New Vegas is released today in the states, with an Australia release following on October 21, and us trailing behind with a release on October 22.

I forgot to take a photo, so spent several hours carefully crafting this portrait.

Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood is Game Director (in his words, “Basically jumped up playtester”) for his company’s latest title, Brink. He’s on the show floor for the first day of the Eurogamer Expo, tensely watching how press and public alike react to his game – despite all the positive press it’s received in recent months. It soon becomes clear that Brink is the most popular game of the show; people are queueing two to three hours for one match on every day of the Expo.

A few short hours after the first players (including myself, lucky enough to jump the queues before the public were admitted) sat down to play Brink, its popularity has made Wedgwood visibly happier and more confident. Or perhaps it’s the chance for a nice sit down with a coffee in the VIP lounge where the interview takes place; my hideous visage is unlikely to be what puts him at his ease.

“Brink is, in a way, the spiritual successor to what we’ve done in the past.” he tells me. “I hope what we’ve done this time round, is to create a game that really blurs the lines between singleplayer and multiplayer in a way that we never did in the past. The truth is that both Enemy Territory games were hardcore multiplayer shooters, largely inaccessible to anyone other than the core fans of that style of gameplay. If you were the sort of person to get offended by being headshot five times while trying to get out of your spawn points, you weren’t going to enjoy those games.”

The AI in Quake Wars was impressively lifelike, and it seems that this is matched – if not improved upon still further – in Brink.

“It’s a different approach to AI. I think what a lot of shooters call AI is nothing more than a scripted, repeated sequence. Our AI is fully autonomous; that is to say it levels up alongside you, it can use every ability, tool, item you can; it can make decisions for itself. For example, ‘We haven’t got a Medic, I’ll become a Medic’. Or thinking tactically, ‘I’m going to stick a landmine in this doorway, because I think it’s a threat to the command post I just captured’. The tactics that they use are based on the abilities that they have and that you’ve unlocked. So if you unlock the big heavy character with the minigun, you’ll be playing games with AI that also have access to that.”

The AI is important, because the Brink offline experience will be virtually identical to the Brink online experience…

“Traditionally you’ll spend 10 – 12 hours playing the singleplayer story. You go online, and as soon as you start playing you’ll get taken down with a headshot, you’ll get beaten. So what we do with Brink is it starts out with people coming in from the side, taking over this area, etc. So you think ‘Okay, I can deal with this, because I know it’s the AI’. It doesn’t offend you; it doesn’t feel like there’s some thirteen year old on the other side of the planet laughing their head off, it’s just AI. And we reward you for stuff that makes the game fun for other people; you’re becoming a good team player.

And then when you say ‘You know what? I’m going to play against strangers’, when you drop in, they’re no different from the AI you’ve been playing with all the time you’ve been playing the singleplayer game. So there’s no shock to come. If you go online with contemporary shooters, it’s so different from the game you’ve just played as a singleplayer game. In the singleplayer it’s a bit old school. Enemies coming up from behind barrels, once you’ve killed them they’re gone for good, if you die and come back they’re all going to be in the same place… that’s not how it is when you get online. More people would love online gaming if they had a slower introduction to what it’s going to be like when they get there.” He says that introducing more casual players is “what we’re aiming for”.

Headsets weren’t provided at the Expo, and Wedgwood doesn’t think they’ll be necessary to enjoy the full game.

“We have a context sensitive automated communications system. When you first pick your character you can pick one of eight accents; we have a true sense of irreverence for all accents, so we take the piss out of every single one of them. So if I plant a bomb, I’ll shout ‘I’ve planted the bomb!’ over the radio, I’m communicating. If I get shot down, and a Medic is on his way to revive me, he’ll say ‘I’ll revive you!’. If I’m defusing the bomb, maybe somebody else will say ‘I’ve got your back’. You can still use VoIP if you want to. But we can take a whole bunch of strangers who have never played together, are unable to communicate by using VoIP, and allow them all to communicate the very first time they play. Right out of the box we’re supporting all the different languages, the different territories. For instance, if you say ‘I need ammo’ via our communications system, then on a German guy’s machine it will say that to him in German.”

With all the recent rumours of subscription – based online play for Call of Duty games, could we see that for Brink? Is it even a good idea in the first place?

“I think it depends on the model. For me, today, my view is that if you own an Xbox 360, you’re already paying a subscription to Microsoft for the Xbox Live Gold, to allow you to play online. They provide the entire infrastructure for account management, networking, and everything else. So I don’t see why we would then charge an additional subscription, when we don’t have anything to do beyond release. We just have peer to peer hosting with host migration. In the PC community with dedicated servers, there are plenty of plenty game server providers happy to host. You can launch a game and have two thousand servers already provided.

I can’t really comment on other publishers; maybe they plan on supporting those games with official mods and things you don’t have to pay for, which would be an alternative to the traditional DLC model – which might make sense for some people. For us, if we were to charge for DLC in the future, maybe the subscription model works out; maybe microtransactions ends up being the right model to go for, I don’t know. But for Brink, which is all I can talk about right now, it’s a straightforward retail game – you buy it, Bethesda provides the backend infrastructure that tracks statistics and account management, all that kind of stuff – and they do so free of charge.”

If games have taught us anything, it’s that hunting vicious mythical creatures is best tackled when you are not inconvenienced by protective clothing. And here’s us thinking silly things like a suit of armour would be better for the job.

Showcasing the sophisticated barbarian look are Caddoc and E’lara from inXile entertainment’s co-op action romp, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge, which is being shown off in a trailer for the game which will be on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

The game seems like a fairly fun looking magical hack and slash affair, where you and a mate can join each other to fight various nasties with swords, shields, crossbows fireballs and more. Conforming to genre stereotyping, Mr Caddoc is the big, beefy sword specialist, where as Lady E’lara prefers a bit of range between her and murderous monsters.

Apparently it’ll take a variety of weapons, spells and cover tactics to get you through the game, and of course working together may help a bit too. There will be puzzles that require co-operation to solve and towards the end of the video it seems as if we get the glimpse of a co-op kill which looks brutally cool.

If the trailer is anything to go by, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge looks like it is shaping up well as a streamlined co-op experience with brilliant visuals to match.

Bethesda’s quickly growing library of published titles will be expanding by one more with the announcement of Hunted: The Demon’s Forge, a new dark fantasy action game by InXile Entertainment. The announcement boasts Hunted as a co-op dungeon crawl combined with fast action inspired by modern-day shooters.

It seems like a good fit for Bethesda, the company behind both Oblivion and Fallout 3. Developer InXile’s pedigree includes The Bard’s Tale, and company founder Brian Fargo (whose industry credits include Baldur’s Gate and Fallout) is overseeing the project.

Hunted’s dark, grimy graphics come courtesy of Unreal Engine 3, with a visual style and character design that could best be described as a playable metal album cover. The game focuses on two heroes, E’lara and Caddoc, as they mix up long-range magic with up-close melee combat. Hunted: The Demon’s Forge will also feature a cover system and cooperative puzzles.

The game is currently slated for release on PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360, though no release date has been announced yet.

Part three of Splash Damages developer diary for the forthcoming shooter Brink is up. This time we have Senior Game Designer Ed Stern discussing the writing process and delving into the Ark – the man made floating island Brink is set on.

Here’s a snippet:

“At Splash Damage, we believe that a game’s environment is the best narrative medium we have. Compelling environments allow players to pull in information from their surroundings without having to be held hostage by an NPC lecturing them on The Way Things Were. We knew we wanted to use our game environments to tell the story, so they’d need to be packed with detail.”

Read the full diary here