Luke Anderson

the ramblings of a videogame journalist

I can’t wait to play as Daft Punk in DJ Hero! That is all.

I got a chance to check out Ubisoft’s brand new WWII strategy game R.U.S.E. last week in London, ahead of the game’s official unveiling today at GDC 2009 in San Francisco.

Developed by Eugen Systems (Act of War) and published by Ubisoft, the new IP looks like it has the potential to be a pretty solid addition to the strategy genre, combining decent graphics with some fresh ideas when it comes to gameplay. The battlefield can be viewed both as a 3D environment, or a 2D playing board and the inclusion of 10 special “RUSE” cards gives you access to some interesting tricks, such as setting up decoys with fake units, and the ability to steal intel on enemy plans. Check out the full preview on GameSpot.

My HAWX review is up over on GameSpot. Check out the video review in HD on GameSpot, or SD below! What’s your thoughts on the game, Tom Clancy or air combat games in general? Post below and see you on the flight deck!

I received an intriguing e-mail today from an anonymous tipster (and presumably now redundant Free Radical Design employee), lets call him Freegate, linking to a YouTube video which appears to be real footage of Star Wars Battlefront III. The Lucasarts game was rumoured to have been under development by Nottingham-based Free Radical Design, who have recently lost the majority of its team and gone into administration.

In the five minute clip, posted today on YouTube features gameplay of Stormtroopers, Ewoks, Tauntauns, The Millennium Falcom, TIE Fighters, A-Wings and what looks to be Boba Fett’s ship, Slave I–as well as a prominent FRD logo watermark throughout. According to YouTube user naughtydude1999, who posted the video, “this video was taken in an internal show and tell Alpha meeting back in November.”

This isn’t the first time Battlefront III assets have leaked from Free Radical with a number of character renders appearing on the personal site of Richard Smith, a 3D Artist for Free Radical, and later German site swbf3.de after they were removed from Smith’s site. With this latest piece of evidence it looks almost certain that the team was working on the latest instalment in the series.

Okay so I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a procrastinator at times when it comes to games (and blogs), especially if there’s a particular title that I’ve lost interest in or haven’t picked up for a while. I start a lot of games with good intentions and plan to see them all through to the end, but on occasion I simply don’t have the time, patience or inclination to see them through. It may be that something better came along that simply cannot be ignored (eg. GTA IV), other times a particularly frustrating part of the game means I’ll take a break and don’t come back to it later (eg. Gears of War).

But I’ll admit that there are some games that I owe to myself to finish, and with the quiet release schedule at this time of year now’s the perfect opportunity to tick as many off my list as I can. I finally got around to finishing some oldies off the list recently (namely Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty 4) and, truth be told, I have dozens of Xbox, GameCube, Wii, PS2, PS3, PSP, and DS titles at home waiting to be finished, if not played. But below, in order of priority, are the top ten that I’m going to try and finish soon, perhaps as a sort of New Year’s resolution.

1. Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)
2. Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)
3. Bioshock (PS3)
4. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)
5. Mass Effect (Xbox 360)
6. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360)
7. Fable II (Xbox 360)
8. Half-Life 2: Episode One & Episode Two (Xbox 360)
9. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
10. No More Heroes (Wii)

Just before Christmas I headed up to Midway’s Newcastle studio to meet the team and see how development of the Vin Diesel open-world racer Wheelman was getting along, and took some photos of the studio while I was up there.

Check out the best ones below or click here for the full gallery on my Flickr account.

Among other things, I’ve had my hands full reviewing some new additions to the SingStar and Rock Band franchise over the last few weeks in the lead-up to Christmas, namely SingStar Vol. 3, SingStar Abba (yes, I’ll admit I actually enjoyed it!) and AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack. You can check out the reviews for all of them over at GameSpot and have a musical Christmas!

AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack

Being a games journalist certainly has its ups and downs. While you have to constantly wade through media releases from publishers all trying to tout their new “groundbreaking” titles, and play through some mundane, run-of-the-mill, or downright God-awful games, you also get first access to ones that look amazing and show a lot of promise. You also get to meet some interesting people in the process…people like Gemma Atkinson.

I got a chance to interview the former Hollyoakes actress, glamour model, and now star in Red Alert 3 at EA’s Be the One show at Trafalgar Square and I present it now for your viewing pleasure. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Back in September I headed down to Apple’s Regent Street store in central London to hear Will Wright give a presentation on Spore, just a few days before its launch. While I was there I talked to Reuters’ Matt Cowan about the game and you can see what I had to say in the video below (from about 0:58 onwards).