Infinite Lives: First Look: Razer Sabertooth Xbox Controller
Posted on Monday February 18, 2013, 16:22 by Tom Ambrose in Infinite Lives
 Searching for the ultimate Xbox controller has long been a quest of ours here at Empire. You name it, we’ve tried it: everything from hard-modded official pads to weird and wonderful add-ons like the subtle FPS Freek to the octopus-like monstrosity that is The Avenger. We even put Razer’s last bespoke controller, the Onza, through its paces and while the adjustable tension thumbsticks and responsive buttons were a plus, the programmable button was awkwardly placed and the triggers annoyingly long. The successor to the Onza is the Sabertooth, Razer’s latest entry into the third-party controller market and one that has learned an awful lot from criticisms aimed at its predecessor. The first thing you’ll notice about the Sabertooth is its presentation. The pad comes in a quality fabric carrycase with webbed pocket for storing a... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Lego The Lord of the Rings: The Video Game Preview
Posted on Monday November 5, 2012, 09:19 by Ali Plumb in Infinite Lives
 Lego The Lord of the Rings: The Video Game is the latest in a long line of Lego video games based on movie properties. Though they’ve only been making them since 2005, developers Traveller’s Tales have brick-ified Indiana Jones (twice), Batman (also twice), Star Wars (three times) and many, many others, creating family-friendly 3D platformers with their own unique look, feel and sense of humour, all centred around everyone’s favourite plastic building blocks.
The team are so trusted, it’s almost inconceivable that TT wouldn’t do the films justice. The bigger question this time around is whether they can rejuvenate a series of games that’s so set in its ways it’s practically become its own genre.
Encouragingly, TT’s previous Lego game, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, was a huge leap forward for the franchise, creating a more open world for Lego fans to explore, fix and smash up. But the second plastic coming of the caped crusader was limit... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopInfinite Lives: The Return Of Max Payne
Posted on Tuesday May 1, 2012, 16:47 by Ali Plumb in Infinite Lives
 The original Max Payne game came out in 2001, with Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne arriving two years later. Both are still regarded as minor classics, despite Mark Wahlberg’s ill-fated (and quite frankly god-awful) cinematic adaptation tarnishing the brand’s reputation.
Now, nearly a decade later and the company that took over the Max Payne franchise, Rockstar Games – also known as the guys behind GTA, Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire – are finally releasing the franchise’s follow-up, taking the bullet-dodging antihero and planting him in the seedy underbelly of São Paulo.
The reason for his jolly holiday? Well, after the tumultuous events of the first two games, Max has, would you believe it, hit the bottle hard, so when a friend offers him a private security gig in Brazil, he takes it... but that doesn't mean trouble isn't too far behind.
It's no secret that die hard Max Payne fans weren't dancing in the street when they fi... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Empire's Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer Survival Guide
Posted on Sunday November 6, 2011, 14:30 by Ali Plumb in Infinite Lives
 If you’re in possession of a games console and a pulse then you’ll doubtless be picking up a copy of Modern Warfare 3 when it hits stores next week. While some of you will immediately jump into the game’s multiplayer nirvana with aplomb and start lighting up noobs like there’s no tomorrow, a great many of you will more likely end up on the wrong end of a Barrett .50 cal, getting your arse handed to you by bloodthirsty twelve-year-olds. Because we’re the caring sort here at Empire, we’ve assembled a few broad tips that should keep MW virgins from spending all their time watching killcams and waiting to respawn. 1. Know what kind of player you are
Even if you’ve only played first person shooters a couple of times in your life, you’re already going to have an inkling as t... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopInfinite Lives: In Search Of The Ultimate Xbox Controller
Posted on Tuesday September 20, 2011, 15:32 by James Dyer in Infinite Lives
 With Gears of War 3, Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 each vying for position as this Christmas’ obligatory time sink, the need to get a leg up on the multiplayer league tables has become rather more pressing. While the average thirteen-year-old can put in a dozen hours a day to develop pixel-perfect sniping and nanosecond reflexes, we ‘mature’ gamers (ones with, jobs, wives or iPad editions to put out) simply can’t compete. It’s with this catch-up mentality in mind and the bitter taste of a recent CoD defeat at the hands of a cackling German teenager fresh in my mouth (“I am ze master, you are ze noooobie!”) that I set out to do the only mature, responsible thing left to me. Cheat.
There are literally dozens of different controllers out there and I’ve tried them all. But extra tactical buttons (thank you Mad Catz) or adjustable thumbsticks (Razer, please stand up) have only provided the smallest of performance boosts. To take my game to the next le... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Hands On With Need For Speed: The Run
Posted on Thursday September 8, 2011, 11:48 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
 The last few years has seen the Need for Speed series turn something of a corner. After spending much of the last five years stalling with seemingly indistinguishable instalments (hands up who can tell the difference between Underground and Undercover), thankfully EA has been spending the past few years placing innovation high above convention.
Last year’s Hot Pursuit introduced the Autolog system, an innovative social hub that keeps the competitive spirit roaring long after you’ve hopped offline (and has subsequently been used in each new game since), and earlier this year Shift 2: Unleashed changed the in-car perspective with helmet cam, turning the action into a realistic blur of dizzying intensity. So it shouldn’t really come as much surprise then that the fourteenth title to fall under the Need for Speed banner, Need for Speed: The Run, is taking risks and shaping up to possibly be the boldest step the series has taken to date.
You might remember that the foo... Continue reading... Comment Now (2 comments)
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Hands on with El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
Posted on Tuesday August 9, 2011, 16:15 by Ali Plumb in Infinite Lives
 It’s no great surprise that El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron starts up with “this game was made by a multicultural team with various religious beliefs”, Assassin’s Creed-style, what with it essentially riding roughshod over The Dead Sea Scrolls with some seriously rough shods.
You play Enoch, God’s scribe, who’s called away from his scribbling duties to kick the celestial buttocks of seven fallen angels down on earth. You’re helped by Lucifel, a guardian angel who dresses like a slick Japanese media consultant – black trousers, black shoes, poorly buttoned up black shirt – while you look like Troy-era Brad Pitt wrapped up in strips of white cloth.
In other words, it’s totally bonkers. Then again, it’s directed by Takeyasu Sawaki, the character designer behind other Japanese gaming oddities Devil May Cry and Ōkami, so we wouldn’t accept anything less.
So yes, it’s totally bonk... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Empire at E3 - Aliens: Colonial Marines
Posted on Monday June 13, 2011, 13:17 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
 Originally announced back in 2006 before going MIA, E3’s worst kept secret was finally re-announced: Aliens: Colonial Marines. I sat down among fellow journalists and excitable fans to take a first look at gameplay in the hands-off demo for the eagerly anticipated Aliens spin-off.
The crowd was given a lengthy introduction from producer Brian Burleson, whose enthusiasm for the franchise was certainly infectious. The team at Gearbox has worked closely with Ridley Scott and Syd Meid (designer on the Alien series) to keep true to the movies’ lore (we asked about James Cameron’s involvement but were told they were not ready to announce anything yet). And by all accounts it has the tone of Cameron’s sequel mastered.
Although it is a direct continuation of the second movie, that actual chronology of the game lands somewhere just after the events of Alien 3. A team of marines on the ship SS Sulaco are searching for Ripley, Hicks and the other members of the team disp... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Empire at E3 - Wii U: Early Impressions
Posted on Monday June 13, 2011, 13:05 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
 This is going to be quite a brief opinion on Nintendo’s newest controller because our time with it was, well, brief. In fact, the console itself wasn’t even the focus (it resembles a curved Wii at this stage but it could change) and it was the controller that Nintendo was showing off.
It’s a piece of tech that is already dividing opinion across the gaming globe. Some call it another technological revolution from those red-capped lot at Ninty, others think it’s an impractical device backed-up with a console playing technological catch-up with its competitors. I think it’s a little bit of both.
First thing to clear up is that the official specs for the console (or even its final design) have yet to be announced. So while plenty of multi-platform titles have been confirmed, there’s no word whether it matches the power of Sony and Microsoft’s consoles, or surpasses their capabilities. Titles like Battlefield 3, Aliens: Colonial Marines and Arkh... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopInfinite Lives: Empire at E3 - Mass Effect 3
Posted on Monday June 13, 2011, 12:41 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives
 Mass Effect 3 is the final chapter in the much-loved, colossal series of sci-fi RPG-action titles that has wowed gamers for years. The third instalment sees those ancient hyper-advanced machines, Reapers, finally reawaken and set about trying to destroy our galaxies. On their way to Earth, it’s up to Commander Shepard to rally as many alien races as possible to join the resistance an prevent mankind’s extinction.
The hands-off presentation at E3 was an extensive display of what to expect from the third instalment. Namely, lots of large-scale epic action. The first mission we’re shown we got a peek at during the EA conference earlier in the week. Shepard is invading a Reaper stronghold, blasting assault troopers before ordering an airstrike on the base. It’s not the wisest of moves, as he awakens the towering Reaper lying dormant inside.
One outstanding mounted-gun action sequence later and we’re on another planet trying to extract an official off the p... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
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