Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots UK Review

UK, May 30, 2008 - In return for letting us play Metal Gear Solid 4 before its release, Konami issued us with a list of things that we're not allowed to discuss. This list of prohibited topics is pretty long, and even extends as far as several facts that the company itself has already made public. Regardless of Konami's list of prohibited topics though, this review was always going to be a spoiler-free zone, because part of the pleasure of playing Guns of the Patriots lies in discovering everything it has to offer. MGS 4 is simply a game that you have to experience for yourself. Because the one thing that can certainly be said, prohibited topics or not, is that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is, without question, the ultimate Metal Gear game. It represents the pinnacle of Hideo Kojima's achievement, and it's undoubtedly one of the games of the year.

Metal Gear... It can't be.

Surprisingly, it gets off to a pretty slow start. Oh sure, there is something uniquely satisfying about the game's opening cinematic: the gruff, distinctive tones of David Hayter's Solid Snake, and the slow, measured edit. But there are various things that give the Metal Gear games a distinct, unique 'feel', and initially, it is the absence of those things that is most striking. The absence of fixed camera angles, for example, or of extended Codec conversations, or of the distinctive PlayStation 2 textures, making the game feel less like a Metal Gear game and more like a typical action title. As the game starts, with its fairly generic next-gen textures and desert battlefield setting, you can't help feeling that you could be playing the latest Call of Duty, or Assassin's Creed.

Play on, however, and you'll soon find yourself re-immersed in Hideo Kojima's distinctive vision of gaming in what is the definitive Metal Gear Solid – tying up every loose end, reprising every notable character and location, and recasting the entire series as nothing less than a re-telling of the Messiah story. If that sounds a little grandiose, well so be it. If you've been following all of the twists and turns across the series so far, you'll gain enormous satisfaction from the multitude of cut-scenes in MGS 4 because they wrap up everything you ever knew about the Philosophers, the Patriots, The Boss, Big Boss, Solid Snake and his brothers. And if you haven't been following? Well then it does a pretty good job of recapping the whole thing: if you've never played a Metal Gear game, you'll still enjoy all the overblown drama and intrigue. But the perfect preparation for the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 would be to sit down for a week and play through each game in turn, from beginning to end. It deserves nothing less.

An older Snake finds himself tested by the battlefield.

If cut-scenes aren't your thing you can, of course, just skip right through them all. You'll be missing out on a great deal, but you will be able to cut right to the chase – or in this case, cut right to the sneak. Metal Gear was the original stealth game, but here, the mechanics of sneaking around and snapping necks are the most polished they've ever been: a refined control scheme, new gadgets, and just the sheer muscle of the PlayStation 3 take the stealth in MGS 4 to another level. Blend into the background with the new OctoCamo – an extension of Snake-Eater's camouflage system that obviates the need to mess around with menus and consequently works much more effectively. Keep track of threats with the stealth ring system (pausing or crouching to get a bead on nearby enemies). Use your Solid Eye to switch to night vision, or thermal goggles, or binoculars to spot important items. Survey the battlefield with Otacon's new Metal Gear Mk. II. And use the new Dreben Points system to scour the battlefield for salvage – salvage that can be exchanged for ammo, items and new weapons.

Prince of Persia: Never Fight Alone

May 28, 2008 - In the Prince of Persia trilogy that thrived in the last generation of consoles, the Prince's story intertwined with that of Princess Farah. Though she was woven into the story, Farah had no real effect on gameplay. For the new POP, Ubisoft Montreal wanted to create a secondary character far more integral -- one who not only had importance to the story, but also was a major gameplay element. From those desires rose Elika, the Prince's female cohort.

As we revealed in our first look at Prince of Persia, the Prince gets lost in a sandstorm and finds himself in a beautiful oasis. That beauty is short-lived as an evil spirit, Ahriman, breaks free from his prison and begins infecting the outside world with his "corruption." It is in this garden oasis where the Prince meets Elika, one of the last remaining Ahuras -- the guardians of Ahriman's prison. It is Elika's duty to return Ahriman to his prison inside the Tree of Life. She's not about to let the Prince fight this evil alone.

Elika is by your side for the majority of the new Prince of Persia. She is primarily controlled by the AI, but is meant to be an assistant, never an annoyance. Elika isn't going to get in your way like so many other AI partners in other games. You just need to watch her in action for five minutes to see how gracefully she avoids hindering the Prince in any way.

A perfect example of this is when the Prince is shimmying along a ledge. Typically, Elika is pulling up the rear. She's a support character after all and isn't going to be leading the charge -- that's your job as a gamer. But if the Prince suddenly changes direction and begins backtracking on the ledge, well, he's going to run right into Elika right? Not at all. The moment the Prince changes directions, Elika lets go of the ledge. The Prince reaches down to grab hold of her with one arm and casually slings her behind him. His momentum never stops and she never gets in the way.

In the short demo we received, we witnessed such acts numerous times. The Prince would climb up a wall and Elika would leap on his back and then hop off as soon as they were clear. Or the Prince would make some acrobatic leap that perhaps Elika could not match, but she'd find her own way to return to his side. Though we didn't witness any tandem acrobatics, you will team with Elika from time-to-time to perform some amazing feats.

Elika is a smart AI character -- smart enough to know that the Prince is the leader. She won't take any direct actions unless you tell her to. Though controlled by the AI, there is a specific "Elika button" that when pressed calls her into action. This is most noticeable in combat.

During a battle, Elika roams the perimeter. She has some minor combat skills, but her specialty is magic. She won't take a negative initiative. She will never sully the Prince's combo or turn a fight into an episode of the Three Stooges. As we told you previously, the four face buttons act as attacks and that any one button can be used in combination with another. Elika is one of these buttons. So you can triple-tap the Elika button and she will jump in and hit the enemy quickly three times, then jump back to her support position. Or you can mix in the Elika button as you are creating combos on the fly. Some of the collaborative moves that come from this are truly inspiring.

Today, Ubisoft released a CG trailer showing Elika and the Prince teaming up in combat. Though the video is a cinematic creation, the moves are in the game -- we've seen the aerial somersault throw in action! On top of being a tool in physical combat, Elika's magic can also has a role, but Ubisoft isn't giving any hints on how that might play out. However, we do know that Elika may come in to block a killing blow and spare the Prince.

Just to reiterate, Elika's not going to cramp your style. She will never die and (assuming Ubisoft can pull it off) won't bog down the fast-paced combat. From what we've seen, we have little reason for doubt.

Elika will follow the Prince anywhere.

Aside from acrobatics and combat, Elika also assists with puzzles. How this works remains to be seen, though we assume there will be some puzzles that require carefully timed activations from two different people. Elika is also your compass. If you were wondering how you would find your objectives in the new open world of Prince of Persia, look no further than your AI sidekick. If you want to see where the next objective is located, Elika can use her magic to shine a beacon on where you need to go, keeping you from getting lost.

While there's still a lot to see with Elika, she shows tremendous promise. It seems Ubisoft has learned from the AI mistakes many other developers have made in the past. If they pull this off, Prince of Persia should be one of the most talked about games of the holiday season.

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Review

May 29, 2008 - Traveller's Tales is back and tackling the plastic building block world again. After exhausting the Star Wars franchise with no less than three LEGO Star Wars releases, the company has worked with LucasArts on bringing another of its franchises to the peg-filled universe with LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures.

If you've played any of the LEGO Star Wars titles, you'll feel right at home as the formula has largely remained exactly the same, right down to the control scheme. There is a bit more adventuring this time around however, with more emphasis placed on solving puzzles and collecting keys or parts to unlock the next area, though mashing everything in sight and collecting as many Studs as possible is still the main gameplay focus.
The game runs through the original three Indy films and while it follows the stories well, there are some segments that have been added or tweaked to better fit the title. For example, after rescuing Marion from her bar towards the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark, you'll run through a section where you work along a snowy cliff side, take on some Germans and eventually head out of the area. Similarly, the temple at the end of the Last Crusade has much more than three tests to pass, with plenty of mostly non-deadly puzzles to complete before you get to the Grail. This all works well in terms of how the game plays as well as its pacing, and most all of the segments are fun, though there's certainly a bigger separation between game and films than what we saw with the LEGO Star Wars titles.

Though there's obviously a lack of Force powers this time around, Traveller's Tales has once again done a good job of providing distinct character groups. Indiana Jones' whip always comes in handy, and he's the only one that can open a number of the game's sections thanks to its numerous uses. Thugees, the bad guys from the Temple of Doom, are able to "talk" to statues of Kali and open up secret areas, while people with manuscripts, like Henry Jones Sr. or Elsa, are able to decipher hieroglyphs and open other secrets. Some characters come with shovels or wrenches, which allow them to dig up objects or fix broken items.

Fights with armed enemies can be a nuisance when all you have is your fists.

The cool thing here is that aside from Indy's whip (or a tiny character's small stature), you're able to find all of these items in-game to help you solve puzzles. So even if you only have Junior and Willie at your disposal, you'll be able to dig up treasure if you can find a shovel nearby, or you can work with hieroglyphs if you can find a book. There are plenty of areas that won't have these things lying around, requiring that you come back in Free Play to unlock more goodies, but the puzzle variety is able to be mixed much better throughout the game thanks to the ability to pick up and use items.

Adding a bit more character to the main cast are phobias that a couple of them have. Indy, for instance, is afraid of snakes, while Willie is scared of spiders. Both will cower in fear when near them, so you'll need to use another character to either clear the way or go ahead and solve a puzzle without them. It's a small touch, but one that works well to bring about some of the characters' traits from the films to the game. Since the characters don't really talk though, Short Round lacks his funny quips and just winds up being short. Oh well.

Process Monitor v1.33

By Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell

Introduction

Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more. Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit.

Process Monitor runs on Windows 2000 SP4 with Update Rollup 1, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, and Windows Vista as well as x64 versions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows Vista.

Process Monitor Enhancements over Filemon and Regmon

Process Monitor's user interface and options are similar to those of Filemon and Regmon, but it was written from the ground up and includes numerous significant enhancements, such as:

• Monitoring of process and thread startup and exit, including exit status codes
• Monitoring of image (DLL and kernel-mode device driver) loads
• More data captured for operation input and output parameters
• Non-destructive filters allow you to set filters without losing data
• Capture of thread stacks for each operation make it possible in many cases to identify the root cause of an operation
• Reliable capture of process details, including image path, command line, user and session ID
• Configurable and moveable columns for any event property
• Filters can be set for any data field, including fields not configured as columns
• Advanced logging architecture scales to tens of millions of captured events and gigabytes of log data
• Process tree tool shows relationship of all processes referenced in a trace
• Native log format preserves all data for loading in a different Process Monitor instance
• Process tooltip for easy viewing of process image information
• Detail tooltip allows convenient access to formatted data that doesn't fit in the column
• Cancellable search
• Boot time logging of all operations

The best way to become familiar with Process Monitor's features is to read through the help file and then visit each of its menu items and options on a live system.

Screenshots

What’s new from Sysinternals

• Process Monitor 1.33
• Autoruns 9.2
• AccessChk 4.1

Mark’s Blog -- Guest Post: The Case of the FrontPage Error
Mark Russinovich’s latest blog entry highlights how one IT pro used Process Monitor to quickly solve a perplexing FrontPage error message.
Speaking of Mark Russinovich, be sure to see Mark’s in-depth technical articles in TechNet Magazine. The magazine also features a special security issue this month. Don’t miss The Great Debate: Security by Obscurity or Michael Murgolo’s New Elevation PowerToys for Windows Vista for a discussion on the enhanced Run as Administrator functionality that works with third-party scripting tools, a way to replace a handy Windows XP feature removed from Windows Vista, and many more useful tools.

Finally, watch Bill Gates at Microsoft’s 12th annual CEO Summit as he demonstrates the Touch Wall and talks about what’s changing over the next 10 years.

Server 3.5 / 3i - New Patches Available

VMware ESX Server 3.5 Patch Download Page [http://app.connect.vmware.com/e/er.aspx?s=524&lid=2398&elq=0BCF9A5B79414AFDB4C359866EB56DF7]

ESX350-200804401-BG (Critical): Prevent DHCP from resetting the IP address and netmask when trying to acquire or renew a lease. Change the default multipath policy for all HDS modular storage arrays such as AMS, SMS, WMS, 9500V to "fixed".

ESX350-200804402-BG (Critical): Prevent the guest from stalling for a long time during snapshot operations. Prevent the ESX Server host from crashing during snapshot consolidation. Prevent the ESX Server host from rebooting while powering on a vSMP virtual machine on a Unisys ES7000/one with eight or fewer logical CPUs. Fix emulation of instructions that access I/O ports. Fix emulation of string instructions on 64-bit guest operating systems.

ESX350-200804403-BG (Critical): Prevent hostd from crashing due to incompatible entries in /etc/vmware/hostd/authorization.xml. Allow spaces in a password while creating and editing local ESX Server users through the VI Client. Set the executable bit for .vmx configuration files. Fix a vmware-vpxa crash caused by invalid UTF-8.

ESX350-200804404-BG (General): Allow Windows virtual machines to boot when DataDigest is enabled in software iSCSI.

ESX350-200804405-BG (General): Include a megaraid2 driver fix for UNISYS platforms.

ESX350-200804406-BG (General): Add support for the Intel PRO/1000 PF Quad Port Server Adapter.

ESX350-200804407-BG (Critical): Add support for the Broadcom HT-1100 SATA/IDE controller. Prevent path thrashing during an Invista all paths down condition.

VMware ESX Server 3i Patch Download Page [http://app.connect.vmware.com/e/er.aspx?s=524&lid=2398&elq=0BCF9A5B79414AFDB4C359866EB56DF7]

ESXe350-200804401-I-BG (Critical): Fix typographic errors in the message strings of storage controller battery status, which is displayed in the VI Client. Include fixes for issues addressed by the following 3.5 patch bundles: ESX350-200804401-BG, ESX350-200804405-BG, ESX350-200804405-BG, ESX350-200804403-BG, and ESX350-200804407-BG.

Lancio del Legendary Map Pack di Halo 3

Preparati a un'azione multiplayer ancora più intensa in Halo 3, perché è arrivato il “Legendary Map Pack”! Questa raccolta di tre incredibili nuove mappe di Bungie sarà disponibile al costo di 800 Microsoft Points da Xbox LIVE Marketplacea partire dal 15 aprile.

Analizziamo le mappe in ordine alfabetico, perché è praticamente impossibile stabilire un ordine di preferenza. "Avalanche" fornisce il pretesto per mettersi alla guida dei numerosi veicoli resi famosi dalla serie Halo, con un ritorno sul campo di battaglia innevato. Avalanche è un tributo alla mappa “Sidewinder” di Halo: Combat Evolved, ampiamente rinnovata per Xbox 360.

La successiva (se le nostre conoscenze in termini di alfabeto non sbagliano!) è “Blackout”, basata su “Lockout”, la mappa preferita dai fan di Halo 2.La struttura di base è fondamentalmente la stessa di Lockout, ma con una grafica estremamente rinnovata.A volte ci dimentichiamo dei cambiamenti introdotti da Xbox 360 sul piano della grafica, anche se le modalità di gioco classiche non tramontano mai.

Infine c'è "Ghost Town”, una mappa completamente nuova per questa serie. Questa mappa di medie dimensioni è stata creata per le partite in modalità Team Slayer, perciò non sorprenderti se ti terrà piuttosto impegnato. Non meravigliarti se i tuoi battiti aumenteranno a dismisura mentre cerchi di attraversare un terreno infestato dai conigli o quando ti ritrovi su un tetto ben lontano da terra.

Viste tutte queste novità, senza dimenticare le nuove opzioni di personalizzazione Forge, non potrai fare a meno del Legendary Map Pack, tenendo anche conto del costo di soli 800 Microsoft Points. Nel frattempo potrebbe interessarti sapere che l'Heroic Map Pack può ora essere scaricato da Xbox LIVE Marketplace completamente GRATIS.

Che cosa aspetti? Vai!Preparati a scoprire le novità di Halo!