Tips and trick game

While Lombax-loving gamers have already received a second retail release starring Sony's other dynamic duo, fans of the eco-hunting hero and his ottsel sidekick haven't received a game since 2004's Jak III. Oh sure, there was Jak: Combat Racing in 2005 (doesn't count) and the Jak-less PSP exclusive Daxter (nope, doesn't count, either) the following year, but a true sequel to the twosome's epic three-title arc has only existed in patient fans' dreams... until now.
Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier hits the PSP in November, and while it's not the full-on current-gen realization PS3 owners were hoping for, it is an action- and platforming-packed, console-quality continuation of the PS2 trilogy. High Impact Games, the capable creators of Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank, are developing the title. And based on our hands-on time, it appears their knack for successfully bringing console stars to the portable is firing on all cylinders for the duo’s PSP debut.
Anyone who's played the other Jak titles knows the series adds significant innovations with each iteration; previous entries have evolved by adding vehicle- and weapons-based play. The Lost Frontier is no different, as it takes this approach to new heights – literally. While taking to the skies isn't a totally new concept for the series, it's never been as prominent as it is in The Lost Frontier. The title will incorporate the staple elements fans have come to expect from the franchise —platforming, combat, vehicles— but air-based adventuring will account for nearly 50 percent of the game's total playtime.
The mission we played through, “Galleon Assault,” highlighted this, beautifully filling the PSP's wide-screen with a cinematic battle for the skies. Piloting the Hellcat jet fighter, Jak — with Daxter manning guns, repairing damage and replenishing ammo — sets off to rescue Keira, who's being held captive on a massive pirate airship. The ensuing encounter, centering around an airship that dwarfs Jak's winged ride, unfolds like one big boss battle. Firing machine guns with the right trigger, with lasers and missiles mapped to face buttons, we proceeded to target the airship’s propellers. This proved an easy task, as the props were large targets, and we had the advantage of stealthily hovering behind the vessel. Taking out the various turrets on the ship's deck was far more taxing, however, as we traded lead with the enemy's well-protected onboard cannons. Again, like in a boss battle, we had to strategically waffle between aggressively attacking and retreating to ensure we remained airborne. With all the targets' weak points destroyed, and our own ship spitting smoke from various breaches, we finally took down the sun-blocking craft.
Our demo also included a much more familiar-feeling level, which saw Jak breaking out his signature platforming prowess to avoid lava pits and ascend a volcano. But it was the breathless battle against the galleon that really got our fingers twitching and adrenaline pumping. While we look forward to The Lost Frontier's more standard Jak gameplay, we can't wait to take to reach for the sky again and experience more of the franchise's new flight-focused play.

Nov 2, 2009 (gamesradar.com)

What do you think of the new storyline and theme?

"I’m actually really excited by it. Just getting to see another side of GTA IV’s story is interesting to me at this point, but I like that they’ve taken it in a more lighthearted, colorful direction, because The Lost and Damned’s grain filter gave the proceedings a more depressing, joyless feel than I think Rockstar intended. Everything’s big and loud and colorful and explosive." Mikel Reparaz
"I really like that Rockstar is using Luis’ position in the centre of the hedonistic and affluent club world as an excuse to go screaming-mad-bonkers with the gameplay and mission design. No longer do we start as a lowly crime-loving pauper scrabbling around for peashooter and cheeseknives." Dave Houghton

"The idea of focusing on Liberty City’s gay scene is interesting. I just hope they don’t treat it with the series’ usual broad-brush stereotyping - one Florian Kravich was enough, ta very much." Dave Meikleham
"The theme and storyline are spot on. They hark back to the colourful and comical world of Vice City and the amount of things to do (base-jumping) in San Andreas." Nathan Irvine
"I'm never massively fussed about storyline. As long as I get to do plenty of stupid crazy shit along the way in a GTA game, that's me happy. And Ballad of Gay Tony looks like it'll keep me happy." Matt Cundy

Is Luis Lopez a good choice as lead role?

"Yeah, he strikes me as an interesting guy. At first I was leery about playing as a character who’s at the beck and call of a single boss, but if you think about it, having to protect Tony and run missions for him probably won’t be all that different from Niko’s relationship with Roman." (MR)
"So far I have no reason to think that Luis is a bad choice, but I’ve seen nowhere near enough of his character to decide whether I really like the guy or not. At the moment he’s just another gritty, put-upon GTA anti-hero, but at the moment I’m happy to believe Rockstar will make him more interesting than that. Let’s hope it does." (DH)

"The only GTA lead I’ve ever really taken to was Tommy Vercetti. To be honest, I’m fed up with playing supposedly conflicted characters, trying to go on the straight and narrow that have an aversion to killing, who then go on to garrotte more people than Genghis Khan. Luis’ story looks like it might be set in this mould, which would leave me a bit cold." (DM)
"Not particularly. We’ve only seen a glimpse into what makes the guy tick, but he's a carbon-copy of Rockstar’s previous leads. Tough? Check. Shady past? Check. Torn between doing right and wrong? Check. Will kill indiscriminately either way? Check. Rockstar may have missed a trick by not making Gay Tony the lead. It would’ve been interesting playing as a gay man who'd rather swing a handbag than a baseball bat." (NI)
"Rockstar has gone to the trouble of giving the interface a completely fabulous makeover and the trailers suggested a dazzling neon sparkly disco-ball vibe. So I didn't get why I was playing as such a disappointingly not fabulous lead. Lopez looks like he would be at home in San Andreas. But here? He just doesn't feel like he fits the glitz." (MC)

What did you think of the new OTT weapons and vehicles?

"The weapons are fantastic, especially the auto-shotgun with its explosive shells. At the beginning of my hands-on time, they gave me a minute to just play around with the guns, and the devastation I was able to wreak on the cops was breathtaking." (MR)
"I judge the fun factor of video game hardware on my patented Scale of Giggle. If a gun makes me smile, I like it. If it makes me titter, it’s a winner. Gay Tony’s cranked-up death-kit took me from 0 - demented cackle in about 1.5 seconds flat." (DH)
"The new shotgun, which packs bus-bashing, copter-crashing explosive shells, is amazing. I kept deliberately failing missions simply because I couldn’t resist shooting the fuzz in the face. The new helicopter seems like a hoot, too, and was much easier to manoeuvre than GTA IV’s unruly whirlybirds." (DM)

"GTA’s going out with a bang in this one and the new assault shotgun and sticky grenades are there to encourage carnage in the most entertaining way possible." (NI)
"The exploding shotgun shells bring a new meaning to devastation. You want carnage? Holy shit kickers. This is two barrels of super-sized wrecking ball Armageddon carnage. If you've got a bad-tempered elephant, this is the gun that can take it down. Oh, and Sticky grenades + pedestrians = GOOD TIMES." (MC)

Which bit of the hands-on demo impressed you most?

"It’s a toss-up between the skydiving, which was a lot of fun and which I proved to be really good at, and the mission where you’re riding on top of a subway so that Yusuf can steal one of the cars.
"I liked the sense of speed and the wind drag slowing Luis down, and I liked that he occasionally had to flatten himself against the car when a tunnel came along. But mostly I liked tearing attack choppers apart with the explosive auto-shotgun. That was pretty badass." (MR)
"A stratospherically high parachute mission gave me the most spectacular view of Liberty City I've enjoyed yet. The sheer scale of Liberty City is *still* utterly mind blowing. I'm glad the parachute's back." (MC)

"The sky-diving infiltration mission really brought home to me how much of a scaled-up, San-Andreas-crazy feel Rockstar seems to be bringing to Gay Tony. Parachuting to the top of a skyscraper from not far below cloud level before butter-knifing down through it with a P90 has exactly the right balance of brutality and ludicrous carnival decadence." (DH)
"The epic fight atop the train carriage that the crazy Yusuf character wants to steal. Blowing SWAT team choppers out of the sky with the new shotgun is bags of fun." (NI)

How does it stack up against the original game and Lost and The Damned?

"At its best, GTA has always been about playing with toys we’d never be able to touch in real life, and that’s what the chunk of Ballad I played through delivered. In terms of gameplay, I like that there’s more stuff to do, even if certain things - like the dancing minigame - are likely going to be throwaway asides I’ll probably try once and then forget about.
"Otherwise, what we’ve seen so far seems to be in line with the last two installments in terms of mission complexity and scope - although I’ll withhold judgment until I’ve had a chance to play through more." (MR)
"I’m definitely more excited about it than I was about LatD. It keeps the grit and texture of GTA IV, but blends it with so much gleefully exaggerated lunacy as to feel almost like a GTA theme park ride." (DH)

"Again, a bit early too say. But the change in tone from angst-ridden bikers to a paranoia-filled jaunt of base-jumping, criminals caught in their kecks and flamboyant nightclubs seems more in keeping with the series’ previous sense of fun." (DM)
"More comedy, outrageous weapons and more variety of things to do in Liberty City equals a more unique experience than the last two." (NI)
"It looks every bit as incredible and feels every bit as playable as both previous Liberty City excursions. But, fundamentally, there's no drastic difference - it's still trademark GTA. Anyone that's interested knows exactly what that means by now." (MC)

Is it 'gay' enough?

"It’s kind of hard to tell from what we saw - I think the idea of an openly gay character playing a big role in the story is intriguing, if only because it’s venturing into territory that the game industry is still obviously uncomfortable with. I’m interested to see whether Rockstar uses Tony Prince’s apparent homosexuality as a humanizing character trait, or if they just play it for laughs." (MR)
"Admittedly we’re going to have to get further into the rampant glam of Gay Tony’s club realm before we can see just how glitzed-up this GTA is, but between the daylight, city-based missions and Luis’ dour persona, I felt like the only nod to the sparkly madness we were hoping for was the multi-coloured reskin of the options menu. I want eye-searing neon and flaming camp, goddamnit." (DH)

"Well, the menus are a bit pink. Does that count as gay? To be honest, it doesn’t really matter. Look at GTA IV, everyone bangs on about how amazingly gritty it was. But, last time I checked, bombing around in a bright orange sports car, while wearing a thousand buck suit and listening to 80s rock wasn’t exactly the definition of grit." (DM)
"The neon gradients, soft sparkles and liberal use of pink are all well and good, but that promise of 'flamboyant playfulness' wasn't really bursting through in any of the demo's characters or scenarios. The Rockstar rep assured me that it would be more evident when playing from start to finish. And, in fairness, I didn't get to meet Gay Tony or check out his club, so... I think the logo and trailers filled my head with glittery thoughts and I was expecting a little more than pink mission markers." (MC)

(gamesradar.com)

As the first non-EA Lord of the Rings title in quite some time, Aragorn’s Quest is, fittingly, quite different from what we’ve come to expect from the post-movie Tolkien series. It’s the adventure of heroic Aragorn as told by Samwise Gamgee, so while you play as the main man, it’s viewed through Sam’s warped perception – which is a handy way of explaining the stylised look.
The bulk of the game is all about combat, as Aragorn hacks and slashes his way through hordes of evil minions. The Nunchuk controls a shield, which can also be used to hit enemies and knock them back, and the remote takes care of the main weapons – a sword, a bow and a bit of wood with fire on the end of it. You can switch weapons on the fly and also fire arrows from horseback. The bow can be used for a spot of run-and-gun, during which the camera is lowered to offer a view over Aragorn’s shoulder to aid aiming.
A second player can drop in at any time, taking the role of elderly wizard Gandalf and offering magical assistance in the form of force fields, fireballs and healing spells. Gandalf can even batter goblins with his fancy walking stick, which is surely just the way Tolkien would have wanted it.
While Aragorn’s Quest looks to be aimed very much towards younger players, the developers reckon there’ll be enough depth to make it an appealing prospect for more experienced gamers. Fans of the books can explore the locations to uncover background information, and there’s always the prospect of seeing familiar characters and environments rendered in an unfamiliar graphical style.
It’s due out in the spring, and even though it’s hardly the type of thing we’re all wetting ourselves with excitement over, it’ll probably be interesting to find out if switching the Lord of the Rings games from EA to Warner Bros has resulted in an upturn in quality for what has, in the past, been a fairly patchy and uninspiring gaming series.

Feb 19, 2010 (gamesrasdar.com