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Joystiq impressions: The Club
Bizarre Creation's next big title, Project Gotham Racing notwithstanding, is The Club, a pretty over-the-shoulder shooter with an arcade twist. Don't worry about a story: each level takes approximately five minutes to finish, and the point of the game is to achieve higher scores. We got a chance to try out the prison level. The pace is brisk and aiming is easy. Where the challenge is going to lie is maintaining a combo multiplier, which drops when you miss a shot. You can also increase the multiplier by shooting skull signs. In our initial run through, we only found two skulls, meaning we'll have a lot more exploration to do upon its release. Blue barrels cause big explosions and major points, which is a plus. The game is challenging enough and we did have enough near death experiences. We tried easy mode, meaning health packs are plentiful, but the other difficulty level reportedly ramps up noticeably. Each of the eight levels have six to eight game modes each, and each one has its own target score you need to earn a medal, dubbed "bullets." Four-player split screen and deathmatch will be available in the final game. The point of this game was quick, fun experiences. We're looking forward to this game when it releases early 2008 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. %Gallery-4838%
SEGA: Rally Revo this Fall, Condemned 2 in Feb
Today, SEGA must have felt a little left out of the E3 hubub and as a result decided to share its video game release schedule through 2008. SEGA isn't giving out concrete dates, but has announced that Xbox 360 games Virtua Fighter 5 and SEGA Rally Revo will be available this Fall, The Golden Compass this December, Condemned 2: Bloodshot is penciled in for February, Iron Man next Spring, Universe at War: Earth Assault Q1 of 2008, and The Club will make its way to retailers Winter 2008. So, later this year SEGA will grace us with some online Virtua Fighter 5, SEGA Rally Revo and The Golden Compass and anything releasing in 2008 we won't comment on, because 2008 is way too far in the future for our A.D.D. minds to care about. Bring on the 2007 games!
The Club excels with killing spree combos
Thick and visceral, The Club is all about head-shots and body count. Nick Davies, Bizarre Creations design manager, says "it's everything that Splinter Cell and Gears of War isn't." And boy, he isn't kidding. Wearing a bullet-proof vest, the game-play demonstration showed an on-screen character running directly towards baddies and firing multiple rounds. There is no ducking for cover here, and certainly no stealth. What sets the game apart is its implementation of a combo system where points are multiplied with head-shots, explosions and all varieties of interesting kills. In order to keep you focused on the task at hand, the combo meter begins to drain between gaps in the killing, so best to head towards large occupied rooms. In addition to the details gathered on our last look at The Club, it seems levels are broken up in pieces, allowing you to tackle these "bite-sized challenges" in any order you'd like, one at a time. There is something strangle fun and yet, sickening about the game I can't quite put a finger on. Nevertheless, take a gander at more details of the quick preview and share with us your opinions. Is this a game that will be on your radar? Or are you sick and tired of shooters and yearn for more non-violent gaming?
The Club: 3rd person Geo Wars on steroids
Next Gen recently took a long look at Bizarre Creations' The Club. Touched on briefly before, The Club is a 3rd person action shooter being published by SEGA. We imagine many fanboys are already thinking that the Xbox 360 has enough 3rd person shooters as is, but The Club looks to offer something different. Yeah, we've heard that before, but Bizarre looks like they're set to deliver.
Welcome to The Club, may I take your coat... and life?
Bizarre Creations and SEGA finally unveil their title, The Club, with a good bit of in-game screens (trust it, these aren't pre-rendered) and a large interview with design manager of Bizarre, Nick Davies and lead designer Matt Cavanagh. Let's see what they have to say about this third-person shooter based on skill, timing, and fun. The game is based on skill and performance -- not fragging enemies. Sure, hitting enemies is the idea, but you get points and multipliers based on your abilities. Sort of a throwback to things like House of the Dead, but third-person and against other players. The level layout varies from linear to non-linear, giving those with knowledge of the maps a smaller advantage than some other online titles. Enemies spawn semi-randomly -- no real "spawn points" for you to camp at and rack up the points. Enemy AI is treated with care, so don't expect a walk in the park on higher difficulties, either. They'll react differently depending on your reactions or how the battle is progressing as well as look different physically. Variation is good. Contemporary, but numerous guns will be available. However, bigger guns doesn't mean the most points -- using the right tool in the right circumstance is key. Single-player mode will boast about 50 levels across 8 environments with a variety of game modes. Each of the playable characters has their own story, too. Look for this game on the PS3 and 360 before the end of the year. It seems like it'll be a fun PS3 Fanboy community game, if nothing else. Hopefully it'll be easy to organize matches.
BBR and The Club updates from Bizarre
Aside from mind blowing videos of EA producers with too much time (or skills) on the hands, Bizarre had a nice studio update this week. On The Club side of things, they revealed that several levels are now reaching the standard they set forth graphically to meet, as well as rapidly approaching having all the content present in the game, in one form or another. They also teased about having something special to show us regarding The Club in the near future. Back with Boom Boom Rocket, Ben gave us word that the game has hit Partnernet this week, and is close to launching, though they haven't decided on a date yet. He also showed off the Bonus Run's graphical style with a slew of screenshots, complete with Geometry War style shockwaves, rising water levels and reflecting windows on skyscrapers. Check out the other screenshots by clicking the "Read" link.
More screenshots of The Club
Xboxygen posted up some more pictures of The Club, Bizarre Creations' upcoming action-shooter. Our first shot of the game looked very pretty and the four new ones are no different. The character models look realistic, and very promising considering where the game is in terms of development. Lighting from muzzle flash and other sources also look like they're coming along nicely. Click the "Read" link to give them the once over. What do you think? Can Bizarre Creations make a quality shooter this side of Fur Fighters?
First screen of the Club
German site Xbox Front got their hands on the first screenshot of Bizarre's upcoming action-shooter, The Club. The cool thing about this is it will retain a "Kudos"-ish system wherein you get points and multipliers for kills done in quick succession. For those of you nay-sayers that Bizarre is incapable of pulling off a shooting game, look no further than their Dreamcast release of Fur Fighters. While that cutesy third person shooter had a couple bugs here and there, it was a fluffing good time. Do you think Bizarre can pull it off? The full resolution screenshot is also available to what the engine can do. [Via Xboxic]
The Club mini-update
This week's Studio Update from Bizarre Creations touches on their upcoming third person action title, The Club. Unfortunately, their update is more about the tech behind the game, but teases that next week will touch on gameplay and all that fun stuff. It gives good insight on how their teams works together and what a studio tour is like from their perspective. Their bits on particle and water effects are rather interesting, and it even has a really cool wireframe screenshot of a explosion of cubes with fire and smoke effects. They also go into the character creation process from concept to modeling. A good read, and it leaves us wanting more, which we'll get next week, thankfully. Are you a Bizarre fan, and been looking forward to another action game from them since Fur Fighters?
SEGA says: Meet us at The Club, it's goin' down...
There's no more originality in the genre. I mean, "meet me at the mall, it's goin' down"? How about my knee meets your groin? That would at least make you sing with a little bit of tone sensitivity. Anyway, rants about annoying radio station's programming aside, SEGA has finally let slip some new info about their third-person action shooter, The Club. To quote WorthPlaying, "The Club mixes the best elements from action shooters with arcade accessibility, the pace of racing games and a story structure based on fighting games." Which, if you like any of the above genres, is a tough link to make in your mind. So, it's twitch-kill, fast-paced, and a large cast of characters fighting in a tournament of sorts for personal causes? Yep, that really about sums it up. You could call it a third-person fighting game. Which is cool enough, especially with the added features of online play and the always welcome split screen. While not many gameplay details are explained, there's a pretty long narrative about the game itself -- backstory, story, frontstory, sidestory... just a lot of bits and pieces of the game's universe revealed. It's an interesting read and we really couldn't do a better job telling you about it, so check it out!
Becks loses two Bimmers to laptop-toting thieves
For every hundred or so stupid criminals that we feature on these pages, there are a few just as brilliant as their contemporaries are dim: look at the international group of hardware pirates who managed to build their own version of Japan's NEC Corp, or the laptop-toting thieves who succesfully stole not one, but two, of soccer football star David Beckham's BMW X5 SUVs by hacking the keyless-entry systems. In the last six months, the Real Madrid star and Mr. Posh Spice has seen two of his $60,000 vehicles lost to geeky criminals, with the most recent GTA occurring while Becks dined at a mall in Spain. Apparently thieves armed with a particular model's security schematics can jack into the car's PC and run software that dumps out the necessary codes for breaking the encryption, allowing them to unlock the doors, start the engine, and in some cases, even disable built-in tracking devices. Yeah, we're kind of impressed, but let's see these fancy criminals use their high-tech lockpicks to "hack" the cold, hard steel of our "Club LX."[Via Left Lane News]
