Three big demos have just hit the Xbox Marketplace, a real treat if you’ve already made your way through that awesome Chronicles of Riddick demo that hit yesterday (which was different than the one we tried at the NYCC). Rather than wasting your money on that horrible Watchmen game why not give some more free demos a try?
The one I was most excited to try was Grin’s take on Wanted – Wanted: Weapons of Fate.
Silly title. The film was a big surprise… we shouldn’t have expected anything less
than a fantastically entertaining action film from the director of Night Watch, and that’s what we got. The movie’s just a ton of fun, and hopefully this game (from the developers of Bionic Commando)
will continue the trend. The demo offers up three different training
levels, which get you used to the cover system, moving quickly around
the environment and the bullet curving system. Oh yes, you can curve
bullets just like the movie and hit enemies behind cover just by holding down the Right
Bumper and letting go when the trajectory is just right.
After you go through the tutorial you can check out the main demo,
which throws you onto an airplane that’s about to go down, killing off
terrorists (?) as you make your way past dozens of murdered passengers.
The cover mechanic is solid, but there’s not a whole lot here to sink
your teeth in. It’s pretty repetitive even in this small stage, as
well. Still, the gunplay is very satisfying- if they can change up the gameplay a bit over the course of the game
we could have a nice diversion on our hands.
Next up was Wheelman,
Vin Diesel’s game that lets you star as the gravelly-voiced muscleman
and drive cars like a maniac. It’s actually a helluva lot more fun than
you might expect. With an emphasis on crazy arcadey driving, this
game’s right up my alley. Using the right analog stick you can slam
cars from side to side or ram your way through barricades. It’s got a
sandbox-style map and allows to you to walk around and explore GTA-style but it’s all about cars here. When you pick a mission it will close off the
streets that you don’t need, making it much easier to navigate during
races and chases.
The coolest part about it is that driving crazily can let you fill your
focus meter- hardly a new idea in a racing game- but this time besides
just giving you boost you can also do a bad-ass slow motion 360 move
that lets you pull out your pistol and take out anyone who’s chasing
you. Another fun feature is that you can air-hijack vehicles. Yep, if
your car’s taking too much damage during a race you can just seamlessly
jump out of car and into another one. Hardly realistic but anything that keeps you off your feet is good news to me.
There’s a lot to do in the demo as well, one main mission and two
sidequests that are fairly substantial, and encourage repeat playthroughs. Consider me completely
surprised- it looks like we’re going to have to give this game more
consideration when it hits later this month. That’s TWO Vin Diesel games I’m excited about. What are the odds?
The last demo was the one I was least anticipating, WWE Legends of WrestleMania.
Despite having tons of friends who are into wrestling (I used to go to
some old JAPW shows with friends. ‘Bring your own weapons’ nights were
always fun!) I never got bitten by the bug myself. But I can appreciate
a good wrestling game, and this is the one everyone’s been waiting for.
In case you were wondering- yes, there was a Legends of Wrestling game
for the last generation of consoles, but that wasn’t sanctioned by the
WWE so you were missing a ton of guys. This demo pits Hulk Hogan vs
Andre the Giant.
Simplifying the controls makes things a lot easier to pick up for
newcomers, although the quick time events will surely piss a few people
(AHEMTREVOR) off. It’s pretty much what you’d expect though- two sweaty guys duking
it out to the crowd’s roar and some annoying announcers. It’s not
really my cup of tea, but it’s the best looking wrestling game I’ve
seen.
In any case, there’s a lot of good stuff out there to download, so make sure to check the Marketplace. If Sony updates the Playstation store today perhaps some of them will pop up there as well.