Infinite Lives: Empire at E3 2011: Day 2 - Need For Speed: The Run
Posted on Thursday June 9, 2011, 10:02 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
 Last year’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit introduced major innovations to the franchise that cemented it as the ultimate racing franchise. Autolog allowed you to competitively take on your friends online without having to be in the same race, tracking details across all of your online play. Stats, times and challenges were all available, as you were constantly up against your Friends List vying for racing domination.
Need for Speed: The Run reintroduces the feature but takes it into the single-player campaign, as you race across America on the run from the mob. It’s a more focused title, this time developed by Black Box, that puts as much focus on Hollywood thrills as it does plunking the player in some of the hottest cars in the world.
The technology behind the game impresses, using the same tech as Avatar for motion capture to recreate all the nuances of the human face. A bit odd for a driving game, really. It’s because The Run takes you out of the driving seat and... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Empire at E3: Day 2 - Nintendo Conference
Posted on Thursday June 9, 2011, 09:30 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
 Everyone was waiting to see what Nintendo had under its red cap this year at E3. With their new console being unveiled (previously codenamed Project Cafe), many were speculating that Nintendo had taken the necessary steps to bridge the gap between the hardcore and casual gamer.
You wouldn’t know that from the way the conference started, though. LA’s Nokia Theatre was massively overcrowded and we were welcomed by the nostalgic melodies of the Legend of Zelda soundtrack that accompanied announcements of the 25th anniversary celebrations occurring worldwide (including the Zelda Orchestra touring the globe). It was an unremarkable opening that only reinforced the growing criticism of Nintendo’s reliance on their prime mascots.
New 3DS titles were announced with Super Mario 3DS, Starfox 64 3DS (Lylat Wars for us Brits), Mario Kart 3DS and Luigi’s Mansion 2. It was the latter that impressed most, providing a sequel to the criminally underappreciated Gamecube laun... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Empire at E3: Day 1 - Sony Conference
Posted on Wednesday June 8, 2011, 13:38 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
 Sony had a lot to deliver with their E3 conference this year. After the hubbub of the PSN outage, there were as many people out for blood in the audience as there were people out for games. Plus, with the conference also scheduled to run a bum-numbing five hours, there was a hefty amount of anxiety surrounding the event.
The fear soon subsided as the show proved very triumphant for Sony, detailing their recently announced handheld, the PS Vita, while providing fresh glimpses at their AAA titles and showing off some fancy tech that’ll be hitting shops later in the year. That wasn’t before Sony’s Jack Tretton hit the stage to talk PSN outage, mind. “Nothing makes their editor’s day like controversy and bad news,” he began. “So to the press I say... you’re welcome.” He went on to provide a humble apology for the outage and opened proceedings with everyone’s favourite not-Mark-Wahlberg hero, Nathan Drake.
The Uncharted 3 demo ... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Empire at E3 2011: Day 1 - EA Conference [VIDEO]
Posted on Tuesday June 7, 2011, 16:06 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
![Empire at E3 2011: Day 1 - EA Conference [VIDEO]](/images/image_index/580x250/51852.jpg) EA has one of the best games line-ups of E3 and while their conference was light on new material, it did deliver with some of the most scintillating games footage of day one. A panicked montage of news reports from around the world flashed across the screen to begin. London’s invaded, San Francisco is aflame and Earth itself is glowing red with global destruction. Mass Effect 3 is all-out galactic war.
BioWare brought along a bit more gameplay footage than was shown in the Microsoft conference and it’s clear that the scale of the sequel dwarfs that of its predecessor. The slick-looking action saw Sheppard quickly dispatching guards, firing his rifle and stabbing them in brutal fashion with his concealed blade. The biggest surprise came with the appearance of one of the skyscraper-sized Reavers (the civilisation-destroying bad guys of the series) rising in front of Sheppard left the audience in awe. Sheppard jumps into a turret and gets on the move, peppering the Reaver with bullets.... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Empire at E3 2011: Day 1 - Microsoft Conference [VIDEO]
Posted on Tuesday June 7, 2011, 10:27 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
![Empire at E3 2011: Day 1 - Microsoft Conference [VIDEO]](/images/image_index/580x250/51846.jpg) E3 2011 started with a blast, as the Microsoft conference provided the first gameplay peek at surely the year’s biggest gaming release, Modern Warfare 3. The packed out Galen Centre in Downtown Los Angeles was treated to a level of explosiveness that would even rattle Michael Bay’s temperament – submarines explode, bullets are fired rapidly and New York’s coastline gets completely obliterated. Sheer lunacy, sure, but it’s some of the most impressively bombastic imagery from the Call of Duty series to date.
It was a thrilling kick-start to proceedings that unfortunately lost momentum rather quickly as Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business, hit the stage to welcome everyone.
That was followed by a brief look at the Tomb Raider reboot, which saw a young Lara fighting off cannibals while trying to escape a cave using just her cunning, along with using survival skills to forge items to solve puzzles. It was brutal and slig... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Trejo! Gellar! Rooker! Englund! Romero! It's Call of the Dead...
Posted on Wednesday April 27, 2011, 10:34 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
 “You’ve just messed with the wrong Mexican!” Screams the slightly-less-foul-mouthed-than-usual digital incarnation of the legendary Danny Trejo. No, it’s not some kiddie-friendly censored version of Machete, but the recently-released trailer for the upcoming Call of the Dead – the latest, slightly barmy Call of Duty: Black Ops zombie DLC expansion pack.
Surely one of the most gloriously ludicrous pieces of geek fantasy to ever hit mainstream gaming, this zombie shoot-‘em-up expansion pairs together the aforementioned dual-machete wielding Mexican with a veritable chocolate box of creature-crushing heroes. Teen vampire slayer, Sarah Michelle Gellar? Check. The Walking Dead’s current hick zombie-basher, Michael Rooker? Check. Finger-knives, pizza-faced maniac, Robert Englund? Oh, yes please.
"This is Treyarch's tribute to the legendary George Romero, who truly defined the zombie genre and whose incredible work has been such an inspiratio... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopInfinite Lives: The GAME BAFTA Video Game Awards 2011
Posted on Friday March 18, 2011, 11:19 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
 If you thought the glamour of award season was well and truly over, then you were sorely mistaken, readers. First of all, there's the Empire Awards next Sunday, and besides, The GAME BAFTA Video Game Awards was back in town this week, celebrating the biggest entertainment industry in the world and honouring some of the most talented developers in the business - by cramming them in a ballroom chock full of c-list celebrities.
Thumb-busting titles competing for the golden gongs this year included Mass Effect 2, Heavy Rain, Call of Duty: Black Ops (or Blops, as the kids call it), Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Red Dead Redemption. In fact, the nomination lists were stuffed full of equally deserving titles, even finding room for edgy arcade game LIMBO on the list (buy it now – it’s the sort of independent gem to rarely get recognition).
This year’s awards were hosted, once again, by Irish funnyman, gaming crusader, and regular Empire Awards host Dara O’Briain, bringing wit... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopInfinite Lives: 9 Upcoming Movie-Related Games You Should Know About
Posted on Monday February 21, 2011, 17:23 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
 Love it or hate it, video games have been tirelessly trying to replicate some of Hollywood’s greatest creations for as long as kids have been waggling control pads in the general direction of their televisions.
And while GoldenEye, Aladdin and New Ghostbusters II (look it up kids) can be considered button-thumping classics, the same can’t be said for ET: The Extra Terrestrial, Iron Man and a small continent’s worth of god-awful Star Wars titles.
And 2011 is definitely no different in packing in those movie-related games (something to do with the fact they’re genuine money-spinners, no doubt). There are the general tie-ins, some ‘80s revivals and, yes, even a Star Wars title here and there. Here’s a rundown of what could (and should) be the best of the year’s movie-related joypad offerings.
Captain America: Super Soldier (Summer TBA)
The Good:
If the thought of launching Cap’s s... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Name Your Favourite Superhero Game
Posted on Wednesday December 8, 2010, 15:50 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
 You may have forgotten (and, in the majority of cases, who could blame you?) but comic books have offered fairly frequent material for video games over the years. Superman, Spider-Man, Batman and even blooming Aquaman have been replicated in various amounts of pixels since the late ‘70s.
Something recently occurred to me during my second playthrough of the sublime Batman: Arkham Asylum – a game that allows my penchant for detective work, gadgetry and martial arts to thrive within the haunted corridors of fiction’s most infamous madhouse*. This could be the truest video game adaptation of a comic book ever. It’s certainly the Dark Knight’s most accurate representation to date. It’s an exemplary title among the hefty pile of dreary efforts that plagued bygone consoles for years (yes, I’m looking at you Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu and Batman: Dark Tomorrow) that have left the Caped Crusader’s reputation as tattered as half of Two-Face’s jacket. The ba... Continue reading... Comment Now (58 comments)
Back To TopInfinite Lives: James Bond Will Return... In Blood Stone
Posted on Wednesday October 13, 2010, 12:31 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
 With James Bond currently staring down the gun barrel of cinematic purgatory, fans of all things double-O and 7 can turn to the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC this year for their Bond fix. James Bond: Blood Stone is a brand new story starring Daniel Craig and Judi Dench, and Empire was fortunate enough to take a nose around developer Bizarre Creation’s studio.
Known most recently for the delightfully chaotic arcade racer Blur, Bizarre are piling all their effort into creating the ultimate Bond experience for gamers. Some may shudder at the thought of another standalone Bond game. Rightly so, after all, previous efforts like Nightfire and Agent Under Fire were barely worthy of holding James’ Martini, let alone carrying his name.
While Craig’s involvement in both voice and face certainly helped to ease me in, it wasn’t until I saw his entrance that I truly felt Bizarre had nailed the bombastic tone of the series. Arguably the best Bond openings have the spy literal... Continue reading... Comment Now (4 comments)
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