Prior to even seeing the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie I downloaded the Xbox 360 game demo.  I had read good things about it via Twitter from Gabe of Penny Arcade Tim of CTRL+ALT+DEL.  As soon as I started the demo I was excited.  Okay… maybe not right away, but as soon as the opening cut scene started I sure was!

I will not give away the opening as it is pretty cool.  Overall the graphics are good as the game uses the Unreal 3 engine.  For those of you who have played X-Men Legends as Wolverine the combat style is very similar.  You control Wolverine from a 3rd person perspective looking down at the ground for the most part.  There are two basic attacks as well as a grab which, when used in the various combo moves, that can be unlocked, can unleash some crazy moves and tons of damage.  Attacks can also be upgraded with points gained at each level and more combos are opened up after leveling.  On top of that you can get what I believe were called orbs that will add stats to various skills.  Examples are quicker rage build up or faster regeneration.  Unless you have some good memory that game becomes a bit of a button masher or you’ll just find a couple moves that work for you and use them over and over.  The ability to use the environment to slay your enemies added to my enjoyment of the game.  In the demo you can impale enemy soldiers on spikes, which I of course did a couple times for effect and once completely by accident.  You not only can pick up an enemy near a spike and slam them onto it, but it appears that you can also throw them across the room onto spikes.

On top of all the fun hacking and slashing to the enemy there are also some really cool things that happen to Wolverine.  Things not meant for small children to see.  No, I’m not talking about sex…. Blood man, blood!  As Wolverine takes damage his clothing will shred up and wounds will appear in his flesh.  If he gets hurt really bad you can even see down to his adamantium skeleton and then watch as the wound heals back together.

All together I really enjoyed the demo.  From reading about it elsewhere it sounds as though while a majority of the game is hacking and slashing there are some puzzle solving elements to break it up a bit.  So long as there is a decent amount of plot and said puzzle solving I think that the game could be a lot of fun.  I most definitely recommend downloading the free demo and giving it a try.

When I first saw the demo for Red Faction: Guerrilla waiting for me to download it I was instantly taken back to high school when I played Red Faction for the Playstation 2.  While I did not believe the original was really all that great, my brother, friends and I definitely enjoyed blasting apart the environments on the multiplayer maps.  We used to enjoy tunneling into the walls to create bases.  Somehow I completely missed Red Faction 2 so I will not comment on it.

Continuing with that great idea of enabling the player to destroy the environment Red Faction: Guerrilla has recently been released.  Through the use of the Geo-Mod 2.0 engine almost any man made structure can be destroyed.  I am not sure if you can destroy the terrain as I do not recall seeing it happen.  However, even if you cannot, the engine handles the destruction of structures so well that I do not think I would care.  You can blow the crap out of buildings using explosives, drive right through them in a vehicle, and even walk/hit them while in a mechanized construction suit.  At one point I even drove through a support for a bridge, after which the bridge promptly fell down along with the guys standing on it.  I was in pure glee after causing all this destruction.

The perspective is in 3rd person, unlike Red Faction and apparently Red Faction 2.  This seems to work out pretty well for the game as it has in many games like Resident Evil 4 & 5, Gears of War 1 & 2, and Mass Effect.  It does make it easier to see enemies immediately behind or to the side of you which is nice.  You also get to see yourself carrying around all the crazy weapons which is pretty cool.  The weaponry includes  shotguns, rifles, pistols, rocket launchers, proximity mines, arc welders, grinders (it shoots sharp discs that later can explode on impact), and remote mines.  There will also be a ton of vehicles including trucks, tanks (I think), and mech suits.  The map is huge, much like Fallout 3 which means plenty of space to use the weapons and vehicles to destroy things.

I have also read that there is  a multiplayer mode.  According to what I have read it would appear that you can choose between different sets of gear for playing multiplayer.  The gear will be for different types of play such as heavy weaponry, explosives, stealth, etc.  If pulled off properly I think that the mode just might catch the interest of people who enjoyed playing Halo or, going further back, Tribes.

This game looks like it could quite simply be amazing.  I really look forward to blowing the living daylights out of things in Red Faction: Guerrilla.  Hopefully when I get around to playing the game I will manage to actually do the missions instead of just walking around blowing up anything in sight.  Check out the really cool trailer below.

By the way…. For any of you who enjoy reading my posts, or don’t, you should check out my friend Pat’s “videotized” blog at http://superpatquest.blogspot.com/.  His posts are quite funny and yet quite informative on comic related topics.  His post on X-Men Origins: Wolverine is absolutely hilarious and also filled me in on some questions I had after watching the movie.  Before you ask, yes, I am the one with the shades on in the JibJab Sendable.

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