Mass Effect 2 Xbox 360 Interview - PAX 09: Greg Zeschuk

Valve wants to put Left 4 Dead 2 mods on Xbox 360

One of the main benefits of playing Valve games on the PC is the fact that you get access to a great amount of mods created by a ravenous community of fans. And Valve hopes to at least bring a little of the community's creativity over to home consoles.

"One of the things I'd like to do is to allow these modules that are being released on PC to somehow integrate with Microsoft's system," says Valve's Yasser Mailaka. "We'll have to filter them, we can't allow any copyrighted materials, so it's going to have to go through a process ... And you know, if they are a paid system, perhaps that could go back to the authors. I think that would be a great story."

Turn 10 Thinks About Natal

Forza Motorsport 3 director Dan Greenawalt is excited about Natal, and by the sound of it he's even come up with some ideas on how the 360 motion cam could transform the racing series.

"The thing that excites me the most is Natal. To me it all comes down to that core vision I pitched back in 2002 - turn gamers into car loves and car lovers into gamers," he told Xbox World 360 magazine. "What really excites me as a designer is that car passion.

"What gets me excited about Natal is getting people involved with cars - touching cars, opening doors, smashing cars, taking parts out, that visceral feeling of moving and playing inside a car," he said.

"Is that what Forza 4 is? I have no idea, but I'm excited about it because I can get the controller out of the way and get people even more excited about cars."

Of course Greenawalt isn't the first racing game designer to dream of controller-less driving; a version of Burnout has already been demoed to press running on Natal. Whether or not that setup would be comfortable for a full racer though, it remains to be seen.

Found on: computerandvideogames.com

James Cameron's "Avatar: The Game" Impressions

There were a lot of games out on the show floor during the past few days, but one that caught my eye in particular was the Avatar game that is coming out soon as a tie-in to the movie. Intended to be a prequel to the movie, and based on a third-person shooter mechanic, the game was a bit of a surprise for me. Regardless of how the movie fares, there is a great deal of potential for the game to do well; assuming, that is, that the story tie-in will leave the game with enough freedom to do its own thing and do it well.

The demo I played started off with me assuming control of some fancy, semi-futuristic aircraft with dual rotor blades to keep it aloft and a whole lot of missiles to fire at any outcroppings that got in my way. There weren’t any enemies to fight; I just had to navigate my way to a landing pad while avoiding running into anything, which was fairly easy to do. Vehicle controls, at least didn’t feel loose or awkward; right trigger fired the rockets and the joysticks controlled the aircraft and camera position. The only difficulty I had was that the option to invert the controls wasn’t available in this build of the demo, so I had to readjust my thinking of which direction on the joystick was “up.” Even this early on in the demo, the visuals were absolutely stunning and made full use of the Far Cry 2 graphics engine. The area I was navigating through was a series of tall rock plateaus with vegetation hanging down and water cascading off the sides that quickly transitioned into a jungle-type environment that would be where the remainder of the demo would take place. During the entire time I played, I never noticed the slightest drop in frame rate, which is truly impressive considering what I was in store for in the jungle.

Once I was on the ground, I was placed in control of one of the Marine grunts that has come to Pandora to find minerals. The Ubisoft rep told me that, in the game, players would eventually be able to switch between the grunts and the Na'Vi, those blue cat-like creatures. I didn’t play as a Na'Vi, but for the grunt, the controls felt like a cross between Gears of War and Metroid Prime. Similar to Metroid, there is a button that allows you to scan the florae and fauna in the environment in order to gather additional data that is stored in a database you can access at any time through the menu. There wasn’t an exact number given for how many entries in the scan database there would be, but it was suggested that there was a lot to look at and scan on the planet. You could bring your weapon up to do precision aiming, or fire from the hip, and, interestingly enough, you could jump. Looks like the grunts will be doing some off-roading. The d-pad on the controller changed weapons and I could choose between an assault rifle-type weapon, a pistol, and (my personal favorite) a flamethrower. I immediately selected the flamethrower and started going scorched earth on anything and everything around me. As should be expected, all those plants around me didn’t last long and I left a few black patches of dirt in my wake.

The Ubisoft rep that was standing with me told me that, in this game, if something looks pretty then it’s probably dangerous. She was right. As I approached a group of interesting and beautiful looking plants, a vine suddenly swung out and struck. This called for some fiery retribution and once I had dealt with the floral foe, I was set upon by some panther looking things that would strike, dash away into some nearby tall grass, and then strike again. A few ample applications of napalm later, I was safe once more. In addition to the 60+ weapons that will available, players will also have access to approximately 30 special skills that include healing, stealth capabilities, and speed boosts. At this point, another group of grunts showed up and we proceeded to go through the rest of the demo that included a chance to ride in a dune buggy vehicle, strap myself into a power suit (ala Aliens) that came with a machine gun, and take on a very large and very angry rhino. The appearance of a team of fellow grunts that were roughing it through the jungles with me inevitably raised the question of "so is there co-op?" The rep told me no and didn't have much else to say on it; which is a shame as Avatar has all the makings to be a great game. Without the presence of co-op, though, it’s success or failure will likely ride on whether or not its story is enough to make it an outstanding title, or just another third-person shooter.

Found on: co-optimus.com

Impressions: "Assassin's Creed 2"

While the Splinter Cell Conviction demo at PAX was (mostly) free of anything new, Ubisoft decided to show off a completely new live demo of Assassin's Creed II. The demo was guided by creative director Patrice Désilets, who was a mite nervous giving a demo in front of a frothing throng of rabid fans. After the demo, we can safely say his fears were unfounded.

The demo was set in Florence, and Désilets showed off many new abilities for the game's lead character, Ezio. First, picking pockets is as simple as bumping into pedestrians. We saw Ezio saunter through a crowd, brushing his hands against random citizens and swiping a few Florens from each of them.

Money can be used to purchase various items, like poison, which Désilets bought from a doctor. You can also use money to hire mercenaries to help do your dirty work. Side missions return again, only this time around many of them set restrictions for players. The mission in the demo, for example, required that Ezio assassinate a target without raising an alarm -- sounds like a good use for poison, but not in the way you'd think.

Désilets explained that the development team wanted to make exploration less restrictive than the first game. To facilitate this, Ezio will sometimes encounter hanging baskets on the corners of buildings. Players can use these to swing around the corner, effecting an instant 90 degree turn without losing any momentum. It's very reminiscent of Prince of Persia. Eagle Vision has also been streamlined. Players can now walk while Eagle Vision is enabled, which makes tailing targets much simpler.





Speaking of targets, Désilets eventually caught up with his, except there was one problem: The target had a bodyguard. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where the poison comes in. Désilets slyly trotted over to the bodyguard and dosed him with poison. Rather than simply keeling over and dying, Gertrude-style, the poor soul quickly went mad. He quickly began to slash everything in sight with his halberd, including Ezio's target. Mission accomplished. Désilets, however, wasn't finished.

Ezio has another new ability: He can throw money from his purse onto the ground. It just so happens that Désilets did this within range of the enraged bodyguard, causing many of the innocents to be slaughtered before he finally succumbed to the poison. At this point, all Hell broke loose, and Ezio soon became embroiled in a battle with half a dozen guards. While Désilets had to struggle a bit to show us a new feature -- the AI did a good job surrounding and cornering him -- he did eventually succeed in using an enemy soldier as a human shield, another new feature.



And, as if all that wasn't enough, Désilets revealed that Assassin's Creed II also plays host to a new style of gameplay. There are several catacombs located throughout the game, offering players a more linear, puzzle-oriented section. He noted that they were inspired by Prince of Persia. Players enter a dungeon-like catacomb and must reach the exit -- in this particular mission, Ezio was tasked with listening in on a secret Templar meeting. The Prince of Persia influence is evident immediately, as once Ezio enters the catacomb, the camera pans through the chamber, revealing the path he must take. Désilets noted that there are three to five hours of catacombs in Assassin's Creed II, further explaining that they can be used to teach the player different ways of playing the game -- something he earlier admitted wasn't done very well in the original.

All in all, it's clear that Ubisoft is aiming to offer as much variety as possible to players in Assassin's Creed II. Given that repetition was the main complaint leveled at the first game, that's a very good thing. Assuming the new features, abilities and missions we saw in the demo can manage to keep the game fresh, fans are in for a real treat.

Found on: joystiq.com

"Halo 3: ODST" Live-Action Trailer