Recently, Guerilla Games announced a new patch for Killzone 2. The patch includes many features that fans have been clammoring for since release, including squad carry-over between matches, and adjusted controls. Hit the jump for the full patch notes.

Patch 1.27 will include:

• The join friend feature has been improved. If you join a friend, you will automatically go onto their faction.

• Squads carry over to other matches.

• All badges and abilities have been unlocked for Skirmish.

• There is a new ‘High Precision’ control setting.

• If a match is unbalanced, someone can manually swap over to the other faction. It doesn’t work the other way round however.

• Temporary spawn point point invulnerability has been disabled.

• The Assault class armour has been reduced from 100 to 50 hit points.

• Sentry bots for the Tactician have been upgraded.

I’m pretty excited for this patch, and am looking forward to how the game will play with the High Precision controls. Let’s just hope that the Spawn Point adjustment doesn’t bring in a whole new problem, namely spawn camping.

It is scheduled to be out this week.

Source: Killzone.com (www.killzone.com)

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was one of the best games on the PS3 at its time of release. Personally, I still play it today and have got the platinum trophy. One question that has always been asked after the sequel was announced was: Will Uncharted 2 have multiplayer?

Now that the embargo on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has been lifted, Naughty Dog has finally revealed some of the answers on the game. It turns out it, that it will feature multiplayer.

Details are, at the moment scarce but what we we know is this: multiplayer will feature 5v5 competitive gameplay, and up to 3 player co-operative gameplay. This co-op campaign runs alongside the single-player campaign. So you will come across the same scenes you saw in the single-player experience, but you have to get around it with help from your friends.

The competitive multiplayer modes, at the moment, consist of Deathmatch and Plunder. Plunder is essentially capture the flag. Two teams battle it out for a treasure that is placed in the map. The team then have to work together to transport the treasure across ledges and obstacles.

As you can see, the gameplay still seems to be as fluid as ever, and the graphics already seem to be reaching and/or surpassing Killzone 2‘s standards.

I’m in two minds of this multiplayer. On the one hand, this will add some major replay value for Uncharted 2 if done right, which was Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune main flaw. On the other hand, I’m afraid that the multiplayer will either be something tacked on, or that the single-player will suffer as a result. After all, Uncharted‘s roots is single-player.

If you want a taste of the mulitplayer early, early copies of inFamous are packing beta vouchers, starting on June 3rd.

Sources: Kombo, GameTrailers, Playstation Lifestyle

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is the first entry for Naughty Dog in the “next generation” of gaming. ND has had a reputation for releasing highly polished games that attempt to push the limit of the Playstation console. In my opinion, they are one of the best developers out there, creating the original Crash Bandicoot and the Jak and Daxter series. They have a lot to live up to with this new franchise. Can they create another popular game that will serve as a showcase for the PS3?

The answer to that is simply: yes.

You find yourself playing in the shoes of Nathan Drake, who believes himself to be the descendant of the legendary explorer Sir Francis Drake. On a search off the coast of Panama, they discover what seems to be the coffin of Sir Francis; but inside, what they find is his lost diary, which details the happenings of Drake’s life up to his death. It also mentions a treasure of the name “El Dorado”. Armed with the diary, and his too friends Elena Fisher and Victor Sullivan, Nate sets off to find the treasure. The story is his journey. As this is a single-player only game, the story is one of the main focuses. While it is intriguing at times, and there is a big twist at the end which you won’t see coming, it can sometimes fall flat. You do develop a relation with Nate but it’s minor.

But when you have gameplay like this game does, it doesn’t matter that much. You carry two guns; a primary weapon i.e. a pistol, and a secondary weapon like shotguns, submachine guns etc. The main focus of combat is the cover system, which is perfect. Walls are sticky when you want them to be, and un-sticky when you want to get out of cover. You run up to an object and press circle to attach the object. It’s all very slick and you never feel frustrated with it.

I’d even go as far to say that it matches Gears of War’s cover system, if not better. The game is molded so that you have to use the cover system. If you run out commando style, you will die in 15 seconds – or just run out of ammo. You constantly feel like you need ammo, but it never gets too much so that you’re overwhelmed with helplessness. The game feeds you with ammo just enough to keep your stock topped up. Unfortunately, on the first couple of playthroughs, some of the areas can become very frustrating unless you change your gameplay style, which does hamper the experience a bit.

When things get up close and personal, you have a melee system. It isn’t extensive and you have around two basic combos. The fast furious combo (just tap square) and then the Brutal Combo (square, triangle, square). This drops more ammo and useful for when you need those extra bullets. The enemy A.I. is actually pretty good, even compared to today’s games, they still hold their own. They potshots at you from behind cover and if you hide for too long, they’ll try and flank. You get enemies that like to stay behind to cover, to big shirtless dudes who charge at you with shotguns. The A.I. of your friends is equally as good. They never seem to get in the way, and their shots actually kill enemies rather than just softening them up. The game can sometimes be broken up by platforming segments which, with Naughty Dog’s experience, feel just right.  Nate can run along walls while holding a vine, shimmy along ledge and jump across wide gaps. It all works very well and yes, SixAxis is used – but in such a way so that you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to, it’s just there to compliment the gameplay.

The graphics of this game are astonishing, even if you compare to recent games, this game is still up there with the best. Textures pop out at you and the jungle you find yourself in feels as if it is filled with life. However, there is noticeable texture pop-in when you load up a chapter and I have come across the occasional hitch in the framerate, but that is extremely rare. When the game moves into the darker areas of the world, it seems to lose its character and the environments don’t seem as polished, I feel it would have been a better game if it had stayed in the lush, jungle areas.

As you walk through clearings, plants sway out of the way and the water is the best feature. You jump in, and ripples spread out over the smooth surface and it all looks like one entity. Unlike Resistance 2, they are perfect and not randomly exaggerated at times. The detail on Nate’s character model is noticeable too. As he runs his muscles bulge and his clothes crease etc. The attention to detail on is to be commended. In cutscenes, the eyes and the mouth move realistically, with the eyes performing the minute movements that they do in real life. The voice acting is top notch and you can really see what difference it makes to use motion capture.

To keep you playing after you completed the game, there is a medal system that you are rewarded with after you complete certain tasks (these are also converted into trophies). As you unlock medals, you are rewarded with points that go towards unlocking tidbits of extra content. You have a costume selector for allies and villains, you have a render select option, weapon select, slow motion, and more. It just adds a bit more replay value after you finish the main story. Two years after its release, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune remains one of the best titles to have on your Playstation 3 console. It still holds its own as one of the best graphical games on the market.

Recently, on the official Gears of War 2 forums, Rod Fergusson made a topic announcing the possibility of a new ranking system for Gears of War 2. As oppose to the TrueSkill ranking system, this new system would work as a generic ranking format (getting a certain amount of XP, levelling up, next level needing you to obtain a larger amount of XP). Rod says that there will be 99 (!) levels for you to climb up the ranks.

TrueSkill Ranks

From the first responses, the general consensus from fans is that they want this to happen.

If you want to read his post go to the Gears of War 2 forums: http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=658236

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The Grand Theft Auto series has satisfied many a gaming fan. The series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, and new installments to the franchise always get massive hype. Grand Theft Auto IV is no exception, and is one of the most hyped up games in gaming history. It’s finally here.

You play as Niko Bellic, an immigrant to America and a veteran of the Bosnian War. He has moved in with his cousin Roman Bellic and together, they pursue the elusive “American Dream”. Roman has been telling Niko stories of how he is living in luxury. But when Niko turns up, they are just that. Stories. Soon they are both catapulted into a life of debt, drugs and violence. With the promise of money, Niko works for multiple employers so that he and his cousin can live a good life in Liberty City. Although it tends to stop and start at various locations in the game, the overall narrative is deep and enthralling, making you want to play just so you can witness the story develop. You develop a relation with Niko, which is strange for a game in this genre.

Should I try a wheelie?

The core GTA gameplay is still there. You have a mini-map at the bottom of your screen that shows icons of various missions that you can do whenever you like. You can still jack cars and go on random killing sprees whenever you like. Car handling is a more realistic and slow then the previous games, with a unique handling system based on what car you have and how damaged it is. I don’t really mind this adjustment, but for some people, it will making driving around feel like a chore. Combat has been improved, as you can now take cover behind an object using R1 (or RB). You can peek around corners by tilting the left stick and can jump out by aiming at an enemy and firing. It’s a welcome addition, but it is clunky, and at times, slow to respond. When you aim, there is a lock on system that tracks your enemy with a reticule, with the enemy’s health shown in bars around the reticule. You can tilt the right stick in a direction to fine tune aiming, which makes head-shots quite easy. A new addition is your mobile phone. You can bring it up by pressing up on the D-pad and you can call friends, use your organizer, camera, and even customize your ringtones! The main missions aren’t really that diverse. It mostly follows the structure of “go there, kill him, come back”, although there are some different missions which make the game just that little bit more enjoyable (play “Museum Piece” and you’ll know what I mean).

Argh the sky! It burns!

Some of your employers will become friends which you can phone up and spend time with. If you get to know them well enough, they will grant you special abilities, like selling you guns at a discounted price, or lending you a chopper etc. While the concept of this is good, it boils down to your friends pestering you about ignoring them, and it ends up being an annoyance. You can also date people, which follows the same structure. The activities you can do with them range from drinking to bowling to going in helicopter rides. You can also go on computers and go on the internet. In addition, you can buy clothes that Niko can wear, giving him that extra bit of character, although the range is slightly more limited than it really should be. The voice acting is great, especially Niko’s and the soundtrack on the radio is diverse, although you’ll find yourself sticking to one or two radio stations.

The immersion in the game has definitely improved. You will hardly ever see the same person twice. Pedestrians go about their lives like a normal city; they answer phones, have conversations with each other in the street, and eat food. Police pull over and arrest civilians and you can hear a radio drowned out through a car. If you just sit back and observe your surroundings, you will notice that hundreds of things are going on at once. It all adds up to create the most immersive Liberty City yet.

Graphically GTA is pretty good. The environments are nicely rendered, with three islands to unlock as you progress through the game. Although the area to explore is smaller than San Andreas, there is more going on at each location. You won’t find any useless areas, which more than makes up for it for it’s lack of size. There is a dynamic weather system which include rain and fog and there are great lighting effects like when the sun beats down on the water. The ripple effects on the water are there, but unless you strain your eyes or use something big like crash into it with a helicopter, you can’t see them. Textures aren’t great, and character models are sometimes expressionless. Rockstar tries to mask the texture deficiency by implementing a lot of motion blur when you’re moving fast. There is also noticeable pop in in regards to draw distance.

Liberty City in all its glory

Multiplayer is a good addition with a healthy number of game modes. It plays and looks almost identically to the single player mode. A certain mode that stands out is Free Mode, which allows you and other people to just chill in Liberty City. There are some competitive modes and also some cooperative modes like Bomb Da Base II, Hangman’s N.O.O.S.E. and Deal Breaker. They are a great deal of fun, and since there aren’t many sandbox games that have multiplayer.

All in all, GTA IV performs well in living up to the hype. Some may think it fails miserably, but if you avoid comparing it to other GTAs and observe GTA IV on its own, you will realise that it truly does deserve the hype it gets.

Reviewer’s note: The Xbox 360 version was tested for this review