Apparently it' s the first 60fps UE3.0 console game, the controls are fluid and work really well and it' s fun. But cutscenes are said to have sync issues, although whether like other games it' s worse over VGA or not i don' t know.

Obviously i can' t play it yet, so i' d appreciate feedback on whether or nor it' s as good as you hoped.

Also, i' ve been away since before E3 was finished and i' ve missed tons of stuff. Could some kind soul tell me what content (demos and XBLA/PSN titles specifically) has been added in the past month?

mm gonna download it.

Just played it and finished it on hard,and hard-boiled.

Its a max payne clone,and in the demo there isn' t anything special or cool at all.
However at the end of the demo there is some awesome video footage of cool moves and enviorment changes,like skyscrapes and banks,casinos etc.

If the story is decent,then im sure its an 8/10 game,being a max payne clone isnt bad.

For you Nitro, the first demo I will let you know that just came up on marketplace in Canada yesterday is Eternal Sonata.

Other demos include:

1. Blue Dragon
2. Stuntman
3. Nascar
4. NCAA Football
5. APF 2K8
6. Ace Combat
7. Harry Pothead

PSN the newest demo that came up recently was Heavenly Sword.

Canada is way after the rest of the world...and in gaming demos.

HAHAHAHAHAHA.


QUEZ PWNS!!!

I' ve had Eternal Sonata on my HDD for ages... was that a JP release?

Detailed Stranglehold impressions in a bit. My 360 doesn' t like my new service provider.

Canada is way after the rest of the world...and in gaming demos.

Canada usually gets things at the same time the Americans do.

On a slightly different topic, guess who just saw a 100$ price drop on the 360. That' s right the Canucks!

http://www.dailytech.com/Xbox+360+Receives+100+Price+Drop+in+Canada/article8357.htm

Thanks for the info Agent.

Another one for those damn Crazy Canucks boys!!!!!!

Quez, in the immortal words of The McKenzie Brothers...................

TAKE OFF EH!!!!!!!!!

Go and ride another horse/goat and wear your uniforms and eat ya bacon you damn lumberjacks.

Could some kind soul tell me what content (demos and XBLA/PSN titles specifically) has been added in the past month?

not much on the psn front, graw 2 demo, Hs demo, a few film/game trailers. And a few ps1 games [CastleVania: sotn [I have that, cant get into it], spyro 2, medieveil 2 and others, think we are getting ridge racer tomorrow. Not sure] The extra content for blast factor is out in america. Thats it I think.

think we are getting ridge racer tomorrow

Bout time!

Quez, in the immortal words of The McKenzie Brothers...................

TAKE OFF EH!!!!!!!!!

" On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me... a beer."

i' d appreciate feedback on whether or nor it' s as good as you hoped.

Been playing it for about an hour now, and I have to say, I' m really really impressed.

Graphics
Remember what you saw in the Stranglehold trailers a while back? Yeah? There you have it. The game doesn' t really stand out in screenshots. The enemy character design and environment quality isn' t really anything to write home about, and the water effects are anything but good (It looked like he was drinking gritty, yellow, dry-ice more than it did tequila with bubbles in it).

However, It runs at a relatively solid 60fps the whole way through, the game draws your eye to " cool stuff to ' splode" very naturally in a non-annoying sort of way. The smoke effects are absolutely awesome, the explosions are top-notch (the propane tanks really caught my eye) and the sheer amount of destructable objects makes the game look gorgeous in motion. I' ve only got one major complaint in the graphics department, and it has to do with the lighting. There' s no better way I can put this, as I don' t know why it' s happening, but all the enemies look like they' ve had their bloom cranked up about 400% higher than the environment.

Not a major issue, just a little off-putting.

Sound
Didn' t pay attention to the soundtrack, if there was any, so that means that it really doesn' t stand out much. The firearms are nice and loud, and the destructable environments all fizzle, pop, explode and crash very satisfyingly. The enemies don' t do a whole lot of talking, but it' s not like there' s a significant lack of voices either.

Controls
Right-trigger - Fire
Left-trigger - Context Sensitive Action/Dive
Left-bumper - A mostly useless cover button.
Right-bumper - SloMo

All the rest you could really figure out for yourself. There' s no reload button, as Mr. Woo has a brand new 120 round magazine for his pistols. Also, there' s no dedicated jump button, jumping/climbing is all contextual apparently, which I found odd.

Character movement is the most fluid I' ve ever played in a 3rd person 360 game yet. Aiming is quick when it needs to be, but it' s suprisingly precise. If there was an option to calibrate it beyond inversion, I never needed to do so.

Gameplay
Now, if you can envision this, imagine what Enter the Matrix could have been....

Shazaam! That' s Stranglehold. The game manages to give you that epic feeling of achieving movie-esque stunts and creative kills (A-la Black) without feeling like you' re being lead through a set of action-movie hoops. You can pick up on the frequent " Tequila Moments" or whatever they' re calling them, or you can go about your merry way, using the well-balanced slo-mo system. You don' t feel cheated out of an epic fight-scene if you don' t pick up on all of the context-sensitive qeues, which is quite an achievement.

Which leads me to the epic moments themselves. Whenever you are able to do something neato, a silver glint pops up where you should be doing it. (IE a kerosene tank having a bright white glint, or a handrail being lit up) All of it feels very natural, mainly because there are so many of them lying around (kerosene tanks, AC units, support beams, produce trollies, awnings with heavy objects above etc.).

The destructable environments are top-notch. There' s a fountain in the first area that while on first glance looks indestructable, so naturally, I pop about 4 or 5 shots into it & start to see parts chip off. I persist a little bit & large chunks start falling away. There' s stuff like that littered all through the demo. Very nice.

Last thing I' ll cover is Tequila' s special moves. I was really wary of these when I first got wind of them, as special moves in shooters tend to be rather bland & uninspired, but these captured the right balance of usefulness & fun. You fill a circular bar by well, shooting people. The more epic the kill, the more green you get, which means more special moves for you.

One gives you a quick health boost, just enough to dust whoever is bugging you & find a medkit.

One sends you on a bullet rampage. There' s a quick pan-back showing Tequila reloading his guns, looking menacing, then it heads back into the game, rather blurry & drained looking. You start firing like mad (not expending any of your ammo I might add) destroying anything and everything in your path. My only complaint is that there aren' t enough enemies to kill before your time runs out.

One is a spinning-attack where it pans back, shows Tequila spinning around firing tons of shots into everybody local, while a dove floats about looking poetic. It clears out the area of all enemies.

The final special ability (my personal favorite) is their precision-aim feature. Aim at an enemy, hit up on the D pad and your view zooms in on him. Take a precision shot & fire off a round. The camera follows your bullet & watches it hit. Depending on where you hit the guy, the results are different. So far I' ve gotten different results from headshots, a shot to the mouth, neck, shoulders, hands, heart, stomach, balls () and legs. Very very slick.

Final Impression?
B+ or an A-

From what I' ve seen, the game managed to avoid most of the problems that plague most 3rd person and destructable environment games. I' ll be buying this game at full price when it comes out, which is saying something.

My only problem with it was the fact the bodies dissappear. All that destroyed enviroment stays put until you leave the area, but the bodies vanish. Tho before they vanish its fun sliding into them and seeing them as a solid mass getting tossed around.

Eddie said everything as I veiwed it as well. So not much else too add. I really hope thwe mulitplayer isnt just tacked on. It' ll be interesting since it using everything from the single player as well.

Ah, that' s more like it! Why would i need a review when i' ve got the ever awesome Eddie to give detailed impressions like that!?

Thanks dude, it sounds superb. Roll on September!

This game would be alright to play for 10 or 15 minutes, but it gets boring fast. Why does every game these days strive for realistic-as-possible graphics? Realism is getting really, really boring to look at.

Anyway, the frame rate in this demo bothers me. It runs at 60fps and then drops to 30 when it gets a bit hectic, then back to 60, then to 30. It is constantly stuttering back and forth. I would rather this game just run at a solid 30fps than try to do 60 whenever it can. It must be a shitty graphics engine programmed by amateurs. Or maybe the Xbox360 is an extremely weak machine, graphically. It is not meant to do 60fps in HD resolutions which it is expected to do. Stick to 30fps guys, and drop the realism graphics motif. It' s older than god damn f*ck. But hell, I am absolutely flabbergasted and amazed beyond belief that this isn' t an FPS game.

I also downloaded a demo of a game called Fatal Inertia, and it was one of the worst things I have ever played. Control was sloppy, like Wipeout. Sucked.

Anyway, the frame rate in this demo bothers me. It runs at 60fps and then drops to 30 when it gets a bit hectic, then back to 60, then to 30. It is constantly stuttering back and forth. I would rather this game just run at a solid 30fps than try to do 60 whenever it can. It must be a shitty graphics engine programmed by amateurs. Or maybe the Xbox360 is an extremely weak machine, graphically. It is not meant to do 60fps in HD resolutions which it is expected to do. Stick to 30fps guys, and drop the realism graphics motif. It' s older than god damn f*ck. But hell, I am absolutely flabbergasted and amazed beyond belief that this isn' t an FPS game.

Variable framerate really bugs you doesn' t it? If I really take a good look, I notice a change between 60 & 30, however it' s not like it detracts from the game for me. Does it screw with your eyes or something funny?

I also downloaded a demo of a game called Fatal Inertia, and it was one of the worst things I have ever played. Control was sloppy, like Wipeout. Sucked.

I fell out of the level 2 seconds out of the gate!

Eddie said everything as I veiwed it as well. So not much else too add. I really hope thwe mulitplayer isnt just tacked on. It' ll be interesting since it using everything from the single player as well.

The multiplayer looks decent from the little video at the end there, the cover feature should be just as useless as it is in the story-mode, but I' m really wondering how they' re going to implement slo-mo, if at all. If I remember correctly, F.E.A.R. had a slo-mo component in it' s multiplayer, but I could never get into anything but Deathmatch or Teams to figure out how it worked!

Ah, that' s more like it! Why would i need a review when i' ve got the ever awesome Eddie to give detailed impressions like that!?

Thanks dude, it sounds superb. Roll on September!

No prob dude. It' s been on my " games to watch" list for a while, so I' m just glad that it delivered.

I can tell a huge difference between 60 and 30fps and yes, it bothers me. I find it weird that Sega Rally 2 for the Dreamcast did this and everyone in the world bitched about it. But now many games do this as a common practice, yet nobody but me bitches? I imagine this is mostly a western thing to do. I don' t think I' ve ever seen a Japanese game do this (other than the aforementioned Sega Rally 2, of course). Variable frame rates should be illegal. So should v-sync tearing.

Played the demo for 15 minutes and then stopped and deleted it.
I think it sucks. In every possible way.

Is it really running on the Unreal Engine? I' m starting to believe Silicon Knights accusations of sabotage are actually true...

lol, its not Lego. Unreal engine is hard to devlop and if coders cant handle it they whine and whine untill Epic gets sued. Nice try SK!

So should v-sync tearing.

Wanna ' splain for the slow kid?

Played the demo for 15 minutes and then stopped and deleted it.
I think it sucks. In every possible way.

It was only like a 10 minute demo dude. That means you played it 1.5 times! Your clever ruse doesn' t fool me Ging!

Wanna ' splain for the slow kid?

That' s when the bottom half of the screen updates separately from the top half. You see this in many Xbox 360 games, especially a lot of the earlier ones. Moto GP 06 is full of it, as is that Ubisoft airplane game. Blue Dragon does it quite a bit, especially during the boss fight. It usually happens when the camera moves quickly to the left or right. It looks completely unprofessional and weak.

Seriously, the 360 is an extremely weak machine. It' d be better if it were SDTV only, then it wouldn' t have to worry about having to try and render good graphics at HDTV-level which is has an extremely tough time doing. Imagine all of that power dedicated to a 720x480 resolution.