Hey it’s Craig Baker back once again from wedogames.net and today I have some new video footage hot off the press for you guys from our new staff member Aiden Tingley who visited Game Fest in Birmingham NEC over the weekend. Here he speaks to one of the EA representatives about the forthcoming FIFA 12 review.

Editor James Ireland brings us a video of the EA April Showcase 2011 and talks about the up and coming footage that we’ll have on the website over the next week with previews for big titles such as Portal 2, Shadows of the Damned, Battlefield 3 and much anticipated arcade titles such as Gattling Gears and Fancy Pants Adventure. The action continues tomorrow as we visit Battersea Power Station for the DiRT 3 multiplayer event, so come and join us for the ride!

So, the next racing game we’ll be reviewing is Shift 2: Unleashed by Electronic Arts. Will this game challenge the likes of Forza 3 and GT:5? Why not take a look at the video below and get our initial impressions on what we think of the game, along with live reaction of the game being played. One thing is for sure, if you are a lover of the more arcade NFS, you probably will not like this game too much. Look out for our full video review landing later on this week!

The Gamer Geezer is back and this time he steps his foot into the world of RPG’s, but an area within the RPG realm he has never stepped before. On the border of World of Warcraft in style – Simon Elliot gets to grips with BioWare’s massive RPG, Dragon Age 2. The score is good too!

EA packs in a heavy hitting trailer fro Alice: Madness Returns a return to a game that took the world of Alice in Wonderland and turned it upside down on it’s head. The return of the franchise is eagerly awaited by many of the original release fans. One thing is for sure, Alice: Madness Returns could very well be another freaky delve into the rabbit hole.

In a dimly lit and eerie venue in the heart of London, EA played host to the launch event for Dead Space 2 at The Crypt on the Green, Clerkenwell, London. We were there and not only did we get to play the Multiplayer but we also got to play the first chapter of the single player campaign. Unfortunately we cannot write about the first chapter until after the 26th January 2011 and even if I were to write about it, I couldn’t possibly tell you how this ties into the second game as a deep scratch unreadable disc error prevented me from completing the original Dead Space in vue of the event taking place, so naturally I was gutted about that.

With the disappointment behind me, I focused on the Dead Space 2 multiplayer. One of the biggest questions by the fans of the game is that whether Dead Space 2 multiplayer was anything more than an afterthought, just something to bung in the box and add some extra value to the games asking price. Our verdict, well read ahead. It maybe worth noting that once again you’ll have to use the dreaded EA Pass, so if you want to play online buy the game new or prepare to cough up around £7-8 for the priviledge.

Before checking out the multiplayer I decided to sift through the menu’s and see if there was anything interesting to find. Well, between alternating as Engineers and Necromorphs you will actually rank up. These ranks will sometimes award you bonuses to be used in the following round, but it would appear some type of criteria is required for this as we couldn’t replicate these bonuses very easily. It’s something we’ll know upon getting the full game code whether it’s a one time or COD like perk that can be added each game. Secondly I noticed that dependent on the ranking, you’ll also be able to unlock different armour for Issac and his cloned engineers. A nice way to diferentiate on the battlefield but EA will have to come up with some other unlockables such as guns to keep our attention, as clothing options simply aren’t enough.

So how did the game play? Well, we played two different game modes. We played an Attack/Defend style game where the Engineers had to blow up a construct fuel cell to blow a particular part of the ship up to stop the Necromorphs fully taking over the ship, whilst the other game mode saw us opening up indvidual areas to help Engineers to safety away from the Necromorph in a more survivalesque type multiplayer mode. This took place on two different maps. What we can tell you about the maps is that they enable different classes to excel, there are plenty of narrow corridoors to feel the pressure and all of the maps have that Dead Space uncomfortable visual tones. From the maps we’ve played there isn’t a great deal to say about them, unlike other shooters the focus really is more on the Necromorph classes as opposed to the map designs, so I can’t personally see any hardcore players adopting to the Dead Space 2 multiplayer as the shooting multiplayer arena of choice.

Playing as Humans

In the Dead Space 2 multiplayer session it was very difficult to tell whether comorardare and tactical team play becomes instrumental in winning the match, what we will say though is that throughout the course of playing several hours of MP is that the Necromorphs had a high percentage of wins, now that is not to say that the Necromorphs are overpowering, not in the slightest, I felt the balancing was absolutely fine. The reason why the Necromorphs kept winning is mainly down to the fact that most of the people playing didn’t realise that there were actual objectives, something we never realised until a fellow journalist cottoned on to it. Playing as an Engineer there is very much one default player type, you have the laser cutter and you’ll also have the space machine gun. The plasma laser cutter can be altered to single or tri-shot and the machine gun sprays a satisfying tear of bullets to disable the Necromorph with real aplomb. As long as you keep your distance you’ll be fine. Head squashing also is the order of the day to fully kill off your foes.

Playing as the Necromorph

This is where the game gets interesting and where we believe the core strategy of the game is going to come from. In this build of the game the Puker was available to play, many other previews of the multiplayer did not have this class to use, so take a look below to get our opinions on it. Necromorph species obviously do not have any guns, so they need to make up for that by getting in the face of the enemy combatent. We felt that a slow approach behind the Engineers was the most effective and you’ll have the opportunity to button mash your way to a kill if your opponent is caught unaware. So what are these classes like to play?

Puker – The puker is quite a stocky and ugly bastard but at the same time provides the longest range attack for the Necromorphs, projectile vomiting ranges from 1-2 metres in the game map, so it proves pretty effective to run the Puker behind a Lurker for a dual pronged heavy attack. This pretty much goes for most of the classes, teaming up is essential. If you loved Gears of War, you will love the initial strategy required to be successful at Dead Space 2.

The Spitter – Once again a decent range but with less volotile projectiles, hit your enemies with the spitter consistently and the damage pays off. The Spitter is also pretty agile and can avoid quite enemy fire and move out of the danger zone pretty much on cue.

The Pack – These are the freakiest things available in Dead Space, these are pretty much babies with a severe lust for human flesh. Because of their size it makes it harder for the Engineer to target them, kind of like Oddjob in Goldeneye 64. Using The Pack can be extremely dangerous, especially if your enemy is already caught in a crossfire and his attention is somewhere else.

The Lurker – I did wonder whether they’d include a Necromorph that could crawl along walls and that’s what we have with The Lurker. It’s a cross between a ticker from Gears of War 3 but without the exploding capability, instead you have excellent jumping ability to latch onto Engineers heads in an attempt to button mash a kill. The Pack also have this ability perhaps with one of the sickest finishers we’ve seen, pulling out the spleen of Engineers, it’s totally sick and unforgiving.

The whole experience plays pretty steady, I could have sat their happily for several more hours honing in the attack skills of the Necromorph or really go zen deep picking off limbs as an Engineer. EA haven’t just thought about Dead Space 2 Multiplayer, it’s clear that it was fundementally the very core idea to implement since Dead Space 2 production started. The event took place five years to the day that Dead Space was drawn up, I don’t think anyone at Visceral or EA ever imagined that Isaac has become a household name along the lines of Master Chief or Nathan Drake, but he has and I can tell you right here, right now – Dead Space 2 is not to be missed.

Gamer Geezer is licensed material for www.wedotech.net all permission has been given by the owner (one of our new staff members) to embed this piece.

If you have a Warhammer Online account, you may just want to go and check your bank account right about now. A billing error has charged some players between 12 to 22 times according to 1UP 

A representative from Mythic confirmed that the charges were result of a billing error and that refunds will be processed within the next 24-48hrs.  Depending on the way Mythic uses to refund transactions, some players can be looking at 3-5 working days for a refund as per standard billing proceedure.

There have been some reports that players have received charges up to $330, not exactly chump change. If anything this furthermore validates the reason for pre-paid cards can could leave some players with a pre-paid option as the only trustworthy source in future. This won’t be the last we’ve heard on this issue as there is bound to be some players incurring bank charges because of this fiasco.

To follow the error in full, here is a direct link to the EA discussion forums

Forget about an Amazon Kindle, FLIPS does it better.

You may think that the above headed title is a sign of myself going through early signs of madness, but I can assure you I am not talking to myself. The release of the Amazon Kindle was a breakthrough in pointless technology coined by environmentalists who jumped on the Green Industrial Complex. It was something that book publishers lapped up like cat nip because the production costs of sending a book to print was considerably less. However, EA have actually come up with a range of DS titles called FLIPS which aims to get kids back into reading by offering interactivity at the heart of its goal. Our first venture into this series is with the release of the Percy Jackson book series.

Now, you maybe thinking that reading something from a small dual screen would be an impossibility. You would believe that it would be uncomfortable, cumbersome and slightly stupid. However, you are completely wrong because you’ve never even tried have you? No, I didn’t think so. Don’t feel ashamed though, because these were my exact thoughts too. The reality is, reading a novel using FLIPS is very easy and the navigation is easier than turning a page. Sweeping the stylus against the page turns it, keeping the stylus to the page whilst moving flips you through the pages at speed, with no load times and minimal fuss. You can also navigate to pages manually using the d-pad and a guided system but it’s not as fun as the animations look superb. As you will see, the pages are meant to look straight from the book, the typography is very classic looking and the pages have a rustic sense of history about it, but historic they aren’t because they boast features that turns reading into a whole new experience all together.

FLIPS is all about interactivity and this is the fifth release of the series. Throughout reading all five of the Percy Jackson books you will be able to collect coins which can be spent to unlock the historical time lines and information and drawings about the methodical creatures featured in the novels themselves. There is also a dictionary of Greek Mythology in the book as well, with its ‘links’ feature which will teach children certain discussed items within the book. Combining these features gave me the same impressed feeling I had when I booted up Encarta Encyclopedia for Windows for the very first time and that was eleven years ago. Now, imagine bringing all five of Percy Jackson’s books around with you. You would look like a hunchback in no time! Not only do you get the five Novels, you also get two bonus reads that expand upon the universe created by Riordan. These can be unlocked alongside interview footnotes. Players get rewarded from reading the book and collecting the coins and will be required to do this to unlock the additional content. This is a good way to ensure that your kids get the best value out of this title.

The big pies de la resistance is the fact we have WiFi available. How is this used? Well, you can send the novels temporarily to other DS players in your local vicinity, meaning they can read the adventure series as well without having to pick up a copy of FLIPS DS cart. This is a fantastic feature as there are so many children around that have Nintendo DS hand held gaming systems that it would definitely get a use. It was certainly not an after thought. Now, what about price? Well, depending on where you shop you can get it from anywhere between £17.99 to £24.99 now tallying up the price of the 5 books, your looking at £20.00 for the books themselves and considering that the FLIPS series has bonus content and the additional features, it really weighs up to be a good purchase.

I would have like to have seen a little more reward for reading through thousand of DS byte-size pages and given that EA are at the helm for this, some little mini-games to unlock would of really have topped it off. The ability to get some fun mini-based games that could be played over WiFi as the reward through reading through the series would have been awesome and is definitely something worth considering for future releases. Overall, would I recommend this? Absolutely, no doubt about it. It not only provides good value for money, it also gets children into reading in a more modern way and the ability to share the book really puts the cherry on the trifle.

“Why can’t games be non violent?” come the cries of those too old or too stupid to not understand computer games and the ever expanding world they represent.
“Why are they always violent? Why do you have to kill so much? Can’t we all just get along?” they continue, “These games are corrupting our young and innocent!”
These people would love Portal. But we won’t let them have it and we certainly aren’t gonna tell them about it! Because Portal is just too cool.

Portal is a puzzler game made by Valve. It is a game based around a gun. A gun that shoots portals that allows you to enter and exit them. And you have to solve puzzles with these portals. Simple? You sir (having guessed yes) are WRONG!

Portal is one of the most intelligent, adult and well humoured games to have ever been released. It’s a game developed and made for those of us who enjoy a good challenge and won’t give up until our psyches have been worn away by frustration and far too much caffeinated beverages. Its a puzzler but not as you know.

You start in a test chamber within the walls of the Aperture Science laboratory and you are woken by the sing-song voice of GlaDOS. GlaDOS is the Aperture Science computer system and she is here to guide you through the world of portals and the testing chambers beyond.

The controls feel solid and easy to learn if you have never played an FPS before. For those who have many a headshot under there ever expanding belt of achievements and trophies, this will be a second nature. One button to shoot entry portal, one to shoot exit portal, one button to jump and the analog sticks/WASD mouse configuration is the same as most FPS games. Simple!

You escape your room when a portal in the glass wall is activated. This action, in all its humbleness, is one of the best sequences in computer game history. I can almost guarantee that everyone that played this game did a Keanu Reeves “Whoa!” when they saw this. It’s a simple portal out of the room on the wall but it doesn’t show what should be on the other side of that wall. You can see the hall way adjacent to your glass walled room and you can also see this wall from your room. With the exit portal on the wall showing what is on the other side of that portal which just happens to be your room…and yourself!

Ahhhhhhh! Brain meltdown!

As the game says, thing goes into portal, thing comes out of portal. Think of it as a door that opens anywhere. The game is very cleverly designed to allow you to get your head around the structure and the use of portals. You don’t start with the gun only with standing portals. You then get a gun only being able to shoot the entry portal but not the exit portal which is already placed in the test chamber. You get an upgrade that allows you to control the entry and exit portal after your understanding of the portal mechanics have sunk in.

You won’t get over how cool it is to shoot a portal on each side of a cornered wall. And being able to run in a “circle” and see yourself running in front of yourself or putting a portal on the ground and one on the ceiling above you and then “fall” through an endless, eternal string of portals. In reality you’re just falling the same 10 feet over and over again but it looks too cool.

The environment of the game is mostly the testing chambers you’re put through. Sterile white test chambers with water hazards, drops and objects to move. It never becomes boring as every test chamber is large and will take you several minutes to take it all in. new objects and barriers keep coming at you and keep the levels fresh and prevent repetition.

There are no “enemies” in portal, just obstacles placed in the test chamber. Some time though they are turrets that will shoot you. In that respect, I have never been so happy to be shot by a gun turret. It’s typical of Valves “in-house humour” to have a turret sound…cute? Possessing only a portal gun to overcome these most adorable of foes is tricky but infinitely more fun than using a missile launcher. Making a portal appear below them and then manifesting another in the ceiling and watching it crash through to the floor below is very amusing and there is almost infinite fun to be had with the portals and the gun turret. Use your imagination! But there is something about disabling a gun turret that makes you feel guilty. It will chime things at you like, “I don’t blame you” or “Goodbye” as it fades into robot death. I’m a bastard…

That’s what makes this game great imagination and originality. You will not find anything like this game out there. It makes you use your brain and your imagination. You won’t survive with out it. It’s a challenge and the puzzles can really make you think and sometime frustrate, but this is off set by the humour and hidden back story. It becomes an interesting adventure with hidden secrets, dangerous revelations and cake.

Only issue I would have with this game is the length. You could do it in about 4 hours but if you are really stupid 5-6 (any longer and we need to talk after class). But this is off set by the price which is nice and low if you buy it on its own or a fucking steal if you get it in the Orange Box Set (which every gamer needs regardless of issue).

The “feel” of Portal is a strange one. Like all of Valve’s games, it has a certain atmosphere to them that makes them just better. Does Valve employ some type of wizard or necromancer to enchant their titles? They always feel solid and that you are part of a larger universe. There is almost never any point that makes your subconscious ring a bell that goes; “It a game” that permeates most games out there.

You can’t really go wrong with Portal. Its cheap, it’s great and it’s memorable. We just all hope that Portal 2 is multi-platform (knowing Valves hatred for the ps3) and doesn’t suffer from Half Life 2, Episode 3 production time (any good gamer will know that greatness takes time but, seriously? How long?). Buy it in the Orange Box Set or stag. Game reviewed on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. The cake is a lie….

9/10

Update, this game has been rescored to 9/10 after finding numerous bugs and flaws in the Manager Mode.