BRAVO GAMES E3 SPECIAL: PART 2

PS3
Metal Gear Solid 4
This is Snake’s last game. If you haven’t seen the phenomenal trailer yet, we urge you to. It’s set ten or twenty years after Metal Gear Solid 2 and promises you’ll be using the environment as your battleground with ‘no place to hide’. The end of the trailer has a geriatric Snake sticking a gun in his mouth and Raiden reborn as a cyborg ninja. Oh yes.

Assassin’s Creed (PS3 and Xbox 360)
The next game by the Prince of Persia team. Set across times, the game’s full story is secret, but to our best guess involves going back in time to perform assassinations that hold ramifications for the future. The game uses Parkour – free running to you and me – to navigate through environments in a unique way. The crowd can also be used to fulfil your will if you use them intelligently, but don’t go bumping into everyone as they remember and when you try to escape post-assassination, they’ll get in your way or outright try and stop you. Awesome potential.

Stranglehold
John Woo’s video game sequel to Hard Boiled, starring action-fave officer Tequila, played by Chow Yun Fat. We would’ve loved to get our hands on this, but sadly it was trailer only. It’s done by the Psi Ops team – another game you should get hold of if you have a PS2 or Xbox. You can destroy everything in the environment and pull of special moves involving doves. Very John Woo.

Nintendo DS
New Super Mario Bros
Best 2D platformer in years. Every Super Mario fan needs this game. Seriously.

Yoshi’s Island 2
Same as Yoshi’s Island 1, but with more power-ups in the form of new babies to carry. Princess Peach let's you float longer and Donkey Kong allows you to climb. Sounds duller than it is and a crying shame it didn’t use the same mechanics from the superb, if short Yoshi’s Touch and Go.

Mario Hoops
Best basketball game I’ve ever played frankly. You use the stylus to dribble either side of Mario and and then draw lines to pass and throw while running with the d-pad. Dead simple and great fun. Even non-basketball fans will enjoy this.

PSP
Killzone
A surprise of the show for me. A very Metal Gear inspired top-down isometric arcade shooter. Very arcadey and much more enjoyable than the first person shooter released on PS2 many moons ago.

Loco Roco
One of those cute and bizarre Japanese games that you’ll get hooked on and your girlfriend will love while thinking you might be a bit gay. You’re a blob who has to get from one end of the level to the other. Beautiful ‘goo’ physics and ingenious design to boot, with only the L and R buttons needed for progress where you tilt the level. Dead simple, dead hypnotic, dead fun.

PS3
The line-up was underwhelming despite solid titles that sadly reeked of‘’me too’ rather than ‘I’m better than what they’ve got on 360’, which is what they’ve been bragging about since the PR train first took off from the station.

The new controller tilt ‘innovation’ worked well with Warhawk, but they need to play this card better, along with their potential to deliver the best online content library this side of Jupiter. Sadly, online details were scarce, with Singstar showing the coolest stuff by way of a constantly updated Karaoke-ready library of Sony artist music, totalling 300+ songs.

Currently, common thought on the system is that it’s way to expensive - £425 in the UK, $600 in the U.S - and a bit premature. Do we really *need* Blu Ray? Not for another few years at least.

Xbox 360
The strongest console line-up there, obviously thanks to a year-long lead time and a fan-favourite live service being boosted with management from your mobile phone or web browser and content updates which will soon include exclusive TV shows and video messaging.

The games were the biggest draw, with the shock announcement of Grand Theft Auto 4 for the format (quashing Sony’s earlier boasts of securing it exclusively), as well as support boosts afforded by Fable 2, Forza 2, Halo 3 and Lumines announcements.

A new HD DVD attachment was announced with a retail price of around £100. A bloody bargain if you’re into all that HD stuff.

The on-floor lineup was solid, with the massively enjoyable and tongue-in-cheek GTA-a-like Crackdown, the Counterstrike-inspired Gears of War and the jaw-dropping Mass Effect leading the charge.

Wii
It was obvious from playing the games that development is still at an early stage for designers on Wii. Thus far, traditional games like Mario and Zelda don’t control as easily as they would with a standard joypad, but games like Metroid, Wario Ware and Wii Sports: Tennis feel like thick caramel being poured through your fingers.

The lineup was very much a large number of promising seeds that are yet to bear their fruits in full form – Super Monkey Ball springs to mind, which although should feel at home on the machine, needs some control refinements. So far, the buzz is positive, though expectant of more. With the newly announced specs too, we expect the games will look a hell of a lot better too.

And it’ll cost around £150 when it comes out. Not bad!