Codemaster just flat out fucking rock at car games.  You can’t even begin to deny that statement without making baby Jesus cry… you wanna make Jesus cry?  Thought not!

Over this coming weekend the first footage will be shown from the upcoming Dirt 3 from Codemasters.  The grab was uploaded to Twitter a few hours ago by the Codies communications director.  It accompanied the tweet :-

ESPN deal done – clip from upcoming DiRT 3 trailer going to air w/wide during X Games this weekend. Here’s frame 114 of a few of thousand.

If the game can be anywhere near as good as Dirt 2 managed last year then it will be a fantastic title that fans will just lap (yeah it’s a pun deal with it!) up in their thousands.

The screen grab is below – looks like intro CG to me – don’t forget to click it for the full size shot…

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So there are rumours, yet again, flying around about the contents of the fighter list for the upcoming Capcom beater Marvel Vs Capcom 3.    Grab a fistful of sodium with these names as none have been announced officially yet.  The game hits next year on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Team Capcom will have:

Ryu, Mike Haggar, Frank West, Chuck, Spencer (Bionic Commando), Dante, Chris, Morrigan, Arthur, Amaterasu , Albert Wesker, Zero, Chun-li, Viewtiful Joe, Trish, Tron Bonne, Hsien-Ko, Akuma, Felicia.

Team Marvel will have:

Spiderman, Hulk, Wolverine, Mr Fantastic, Captain America, Iron Man, War Machine Elektra, Thor, X-23, Magneto, Dr. Doom, Shuma-Gorath, Emma Frost, Deadpool, Super Skrull, Taskmaster, Juggernaut, Miss Hulk.

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Let’s face it, Fallout 3 is/was bloody awesome no matter which way you cut it.  So the impending lovelyness if Fallout: New Vegas has the BG team super excited.  So it’s time to find out more from Obsidian’s world builder supremo Denise about her involvement on New Vegas below.

What’s your job at Obsidian?

I am a World Builder, basically my job is to decorate the New Vegas wasteland. This includes both interiors and exteriors, everything from rocks and trees to that bottle of Nuka Cola you see sitting on the table. I try to set up cool looking areas for players to explore, and set up props that tell a story about what happened in that area. Occasionally I’ll get to add lighting to help emphasize what the area’s all about.

What’s your favorite part of your job? Least favorite part?

I think my favorite part of my job is coming up with a cool idea for an area and being able to put it together. I get to sculpt little areas of the wasteland and call them my own. My least favorite part of my job is navmeshing that cool area I just created.

Can you share something most gamers wouldn’t know about world building?

You have to have a bit of an artists’ eye to do world building. You can just place rocks and trees all over the place at random and call it a day. You have to think about how the player is going to see the area and react to it, how they will try to navigate the space. You set up shots and vistas that are interesting to look at and will draw the player to them. The wasteland would be a pretty boring place if world builders weren’t constantly thinking of ways to make it visually interesting.

How did you get involved in the game industry?

Ever since I was a little kid with a Nintendo I’ve wanted to get into the game industry. I never thought it was really a reality until I started seeing schools advertise Game Art & Design programs. I immediately entered as soon as I found out. Unfortunately that particular school didn’t give me the tools I needed and I ended up in a job at a company making mobile phone games that was not so fun. I never gave up on my dream though, and after about a year I went back to school, except this time I did my research rather than jump headlong in. I had some great teachers who introduced me to various people in the industry including the hiring manager here at Obsidian. I worked really hard on my school work and eventually found out about an internship here. Several interviews later I was in.

Do you have any tips for breaking in?

For anyone who wants to do design or world building working with a game engine is important. Pick an engine and go crazy. When doing mods though think of things that are outside of what everyone else is doing. If everyone is using the Unreal Engine to make FPS mods then make an Adventure game. Show game studios that you can do things that few others try to do.

Do you ever mod other games?

Once I learned the Unreal Engine in school I was spending a lot of time playing around in it. I made a few mods here and there between school work. I still try to poke around with mods every now and then when I have time.

To date, what’s been the highlight of your career?

When Larry [Liberty] gave me the opportunity to do some Area Design along with my World Building. It was a lot of fun to set up a few quests and characters along with building the space they would be occupying.

What’s your all-time favorite game?

My all-time favorite game would have to be Chrono Trigger closely followed by Final Fantasy VI.

What games are you looking forward to?

I’m a big Star Wars geek so I’m looking forward to Force Unleashed 2 and The Old Republic. On the non-Star Wars front, I’m looking forward to The Last Guardian.

Worst job you’ve ever had?

Working at Target, 8 hours of making sure all the items on the shelves are straight is very tedious.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Well I play video games for one. I’m also a member of the 501st Legion (again Star Wars geek) so I spend a lot of time building armor and trooping at various events.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Being able to live my dream and work on games is totally worth all the long days and sleepless nights I spent working on game projects to hone my skills while I was in school.

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Since it’s announcement last week I’ve been pondering this most unlikely of match ups.  A few moments looking at these screen have completely blown away all thoughts of this being a bad idea – they look phenomenal!

There is a huge selection below and mostly they feature Ryu getting his arse handed too him.  The game is coming no earlier than 2012 so these shots and more like them are the best we’re going to get for the next couple of year.

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As promised in the original box, The Signal DLC is now available free to those who picked up Alan Wake at launch.  If you have the card and have not used the code already then go ahead and scratch that silver gunk off and redeem your free DLC.  If you, much like Barry did in Podcast #39, peeked to soon and redeemed your code early Microsoft will be emailing you out a redemption code soon so you can get the DLC too.

If not the DLC will rack up at 560MSP.  The next DLC will be called “The Writer“.  No date has been given for this.

Looking forward to the DLC?  Love/Hate Alan Wake?  Head to the forums to tell us what you think.

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You wait an age for some good racing titles to come along and then we get several candidates all in the space of a month or so.  Hydro Thunder : Hurricane is the follow-up to the much beloved Arcade racer Hydro Thunder.

Hydro Thunder left all other boat racers in it’s wake when it hit home consoles like the Dreamcast, Playstation and N64 back in 1999.  Eleven years later does the title still have what it takes to cut it with the big boys?

The game splits down in to several areas.  In the single player you have the standard race style where it’s placement in the top three that will win you all important credits to spend on unlocking other events, boats and extras.

In Ring Master you traverse the watery course in as faster time as possible whilst passing through all of the green gates.  Miss a gate and a time penalty is levied against you adding to your overall run time.  Finish inside the desired levels to obtain a bronze, silver or gold trophy – and earn more credits to boot.

Gauntlet is basically like Ring Master just with the gates replaced with a shit load of exploding barrels.  Oh and you should be avoiding said barrels rather then trying to collect them.  Again it’s a matter of making it through the course in as faster time as possible to achieve the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards.

Lastly you have the Championship mode.  This is an amalgamation of the other modes.  You take on a series of challenges over 2 or more stages and ranked placed finishes (ie top 3) earn you points to add to a tally.  Top 3 places over the course of the events get the fables Gold, Silver and Bronze awards.    Oh and word to the wise, if you finish joint first.. you get 2^nd prize grrrr.

Graphically the game is a reasonable looking download title.  The water effect is pleasing enough but I’ve seen it done a whole lot better in games that focus on water a whole lot less.  If you’re making a water based title the thing that should look breathtaking really is the water.  Here it’s more than pleasant enough and completely functional.   The water is just about on par with the water effect used on the PS3 Rubber Duck PSN title from the system launch three years ago.

There are some nice touches like the sea life that you glimpse under the water as you race and the animations are smooth enough.  Frame rate is pretty solid but the graphics never seem to convey a realistic sense of speed.  It appears their idea of conveying speed is to make the screen go really blurred.

Maybe I’ve been spoilt by titles like Blur and Burnout Paradise but Hydro Thunder Hurricane never seemed liked I was whipping along the foamy tips of the waves at breakneck speeds.

Sound wise the game is a real mixed bag.  Leaning heavily on arcade influences most of the tunes are fake techno rock tracks that would seem right at home blaring out of a cabinet in your local electric entertainment parlour.  There are plenty of splashing sounds, engine revs and the slapping of waves and all of these help convey the sense of being in a motor boat tearing through the water – more so than the graphics manage.   The voice work is bad.  There is very little of it but what is on display is the worst cheesy arcade snippets imaginable with some poorly realised noise filter to make it sound like radio chatter.  It just jars a little to be honest.

There are a great selection of boats on offer with skill levels ranging from Novice to Expert catered for.  As you would expect the range of Novice boats are pretty simple to control and have a moderate speed – the Pro boats all tear along the waves but will take a little more time to master & the Expert boats, well you need to be an expert to use them.  More boats are unlocked as you earn more in game credits by placing in the top 3 in unlocked challenges and races.

Than handling of the boats feels super loose.  At times it verges on the uncontrollable.  The secret is to pre-emptively make your move, this is a boat after all not a turn on a dim car.  Once you take some time wrap your head around the fact that this is how the game plays things start to fall in line for you.   The game starts to feel a little more in your control when you reach the Pro level boats.  Before then things just feel too lose to be effective and can be a little off putting.

The game employs a fairly standard boost system.  You collect bottle of boost that float above the waves.  Certain bottles will fill your meter a little others a lot more.  Hitting A will boost your boat or hitting X will make you do a small “boost-jump”.  This is supposed to allow you to jump boats in the way but it rarely gets used.  More often than not you will use it to reach hard to get boost bottles of some of the Hydro Thunder Hurricane tokens hidden around the levels.

The single player portion will last you a good number of hours due to the fact you have to replay the same events multiple time to gather enough credits to unlock later levels and boats.  This offers an annoying false longevity but it really an issue rooted in the games arcade roots.  The addition of a leaderboard for each event adds to the longevity thanks to a healthy level of competition between friends.

Now one of the most beloved aspects of Hydro Thunder was its multiplayer elements.  Offering 2 or 4 players against each other depending on which system you played it on Hydro Thunder was regarded as a great party title when gamer buddies came over.

Well Hurricane takes that 4 player mode and rolls it in to a fairly well implemented online multiplayer component.   The online multiplayer lets you take up to 4 local players online with you as you compete in up to 16 player races.

Online modes include race and Rubber Ducky.  Race is pretty self explanatory but Rubber Ducky is a team game which sees all players split in to either the red or blue team and then the designated “Rubber Ducky” driver has to pilot their teams Ducky over the line first.  The other team members run interference to stop the opposing team’s efforts.

The races are fluid and handle well, lag was a minimum and was never really an issue.  Online games are fun and addictive when with friends – especially if there are a few of you locally taking on players on the internet.

I’ve been pretty down on the looks and sounds of Hydro Thunder Hurricane which is a little unfair seems as the title is a download one.  That said with the £10/$15/1200MSP price tag you expect something a little special.  For the money Hydro Thunder Hurricane just does not deliver to the high standard of recent similarly priced titles like Limbo and Deathspank.  If the game had come in at 800 MSP then I would of been able to be a little more lenient on some of it’s short comings.

Final Thoughts

Hydro Thunder: Hurricane is a good game.  Better than your average downloadable racer with some unique features.   It genuinely tries to capture that zany “Sega” look and feel but just comes off a little “meh” in the attempt.  The racing can be furious and has some pace to it but just never seems to be break-neck or put you on the edge of your seat.  The game offers a reasonably deep single player component with plenty to unlock such as tracks, boats, events and decals for your boats.

The multiplayer is a great diversion and nothing else on Xbox Live offers a similar racing experience at this time.  The price is a little off for my liking and it struggles to earn the respect a 1200MSP title needs to justify it’s price tag.  I think players of the original will be surprised at how faithful a lot of this game is and new players will be pleasantly surprised at just how “pick-up and play” the title is.  I suggest spending a little time with the demo to see if this game floats your boat… see what I did there?

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Made up of footage from the recent showing at E3, this trailer is looking spectacular!  The game won’t be out until January next year but I’m already convinced this will be bigger and better then the original Dead Space title.

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Finally you can play!  EA have made it known that Xbox 360 owners will finally get their chance to play the Beta.  After numerous false starts and delays this will come as welcome news to the thousands of 360 owners chomping at the bit to play the Beta.

EA have had this to say so far:

Go to medalofhonor.com/beta to redeem your beta key. Once you redeem your key, you will be given a token which you can then take to Xbox LIVE Marketplace and use to download the beta. If you have already downloaded the PlayStation 3 or PC beta and have another key that you would like to use to download the Xbox 360 beta, you must create another EA account. Only one key can be redeemed per account.”We have received great feedback so far from our PlayStation 3 and PC players and with the Xbox 360 version going live, we look forward to hearing that feedback from you as well!” said EA LA community manager Matthew Pruitt. “While you will not see too many changes reflected in the beta yet, feel confident that the team is hard at work building an awesome gameplay experience for Medal of Honor. Your feedback is crucial to enhancing the experience, so please visit the Medal of Honor forums and tell us what you think.

“Finally, we would like to thank our Xbox 360 fans for sticking with us through the delay – you guys rock!”

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Feel like you’re tossing your words in to a sea of Blog content? Fed up being undervalued or overlooked for your efforts at your current site? Or just looking to get your views read and appreciated by thousands of readers a day and be supported by one of the best bunch or writers in the community?

Then BrutalGamer.com is keen to hear from you. We pay a grand total of zero but offer a good supply of review codes/copies, press event access and interview opportunities. We enjoy great relationships with all of the industries top developers and publishers and have forged remarkably robust relations with UK and US PR companies.

We have a large site relaunch planned for later in the summer (cash willing!) with a fresh look and feel and our Weekly(ish) podcast has seen a dramatic, but consistent, rise over the past 2 months. In short BrutalGamer.com is a 2 year old site and a well respect mid-level blog with many talented writers who also contribute to places like pocket-lint, world-of-meh, GamerLimit & several print magazines throughout Europe. We’re on our way to the higher levels of “blogdom” and would love you to join us for the ride.

We are finding the stress and strains a little too overpowering so are looking to bring on another raft of writers (we took on 3 a couple of months ago brining us to 7 full time writers, 2 part time writers & 1 forum manager). Primarily we are looking for people to provide coherent daily news posts. As a background feel free to explore your thoughts in the form of features or Editorials. Once you have proven yourself a reliable team member we will offer you review copies and codes and ask you to attend events if they are relevant or in your area.

The team is super friendly and we work on a casual basis for the love of games and writing. We won’t pressure you with crazy deadlines or make stupid demands of your time – we just ask for a commitment to provide regular content is all.

There are enough posts for anyone who meets the grade. If you think you might be available to work with the team then drop our EIC Leigh an email via the contact us form above and he will tell you what you need to do.

Thanks for reading and if you want to talk this over more then grab me on Twitter and we can chat it over.

Zeth
Reviews Editor
BrutalGamer.com

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We had the most responses ever to a competition on BrutalGamer.  Just goes to show how much love there is for Joe Danger out there in the community.  Well the fine chaps (all 4 of them!) over at Hello Games have sent us through 5 lovely codes for the EU PSN store for Joe Danger which means it’s time to choose the winners!

Winning entries are as follows -I will be contacting you for your emails! :-

@nuts24

@moosehound I should get a JoeDanger code becasue this game looks like a remake of kickstart on c64 & I loved kickstart #JoeDangerBG

@ KHunt_

@moosehound I should win Joe Danger because if I dont I’ll have to do real life stunts and break my fragile nerd body. #JoeDangerBG

@KellyFragsYou

@moosehound I could use Joe Danger to kill alot of time in a great way till I get my RROD xbox back from microsoft. #joedangerbg

@dyeknom

@moosehound I should get #JoeDangerBG because I’m Evel Knievel’s nephew’s twice removed cousin’s roommates stepson. Not really.

@tripmeter

@moosehound Been looking forward to this exciting game. The GFX & Gameplay look awesome! And is available on the PS3! Thx! #JoeDangerBG

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