WiiNintendo

Below are 3 direct feeds of “Alone in the Dark”, “Top Spin 3″, and “Guitar Hero III: Aerosmith”. Also don’t forget my “My first 25 min. w/ Mario Super Sluggers, direct feed” posted yesterday.

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My first 10 min. w/ Top Spin 3, direct feed:

Features:
* New gameplay controls: Wiimote and Nunchuk.  It works rather well, the controls were responsive, but working on timing took a bit to get down.
* Signature style: The world’s best players are accurately depicted like never before with actual apparel, equipment and swing animations.
* Tennis legends: For the first time ever, play with or against legendary figures of the tennis world.
* Mini Game Mode - Of course this is in the Wii version…
* All-new soundtrack: New music is included featuring Jamiroquai, Calvin Harris, Boys Like Girls, The Go! Team, Stone Roses, and Franz Ferdinand.

Playable Characters:

Men
James Blake, Tommy Haas, Gael Monfils, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal (PlayStation 3 Exclusive)[2], David Nalbandian, Andy Roddick, Mark Philippoussis, Tomas Berdych, Mario Ancic, Roger Federer.

Women
Justine Henin, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Amelie Mauresmo, Maria Sharapova, Nicole Vaidisova, Caroline Wozniacki.

Classic legends
Boris Becker, Bjorn Borg, Monica Seles.

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My first 17 min. w/ Guitar Hero III: Aerosmith, direct feed:

Plot - A departure from other games in the game franchise, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will follow the career of Aerosmith, by playing significant songs in their catalog in a ‘rough chronological fashion’.

The gameplay will follow the band through various periods in its history, spanning from its first show at Mendon Nipmuc Regional High School in 1970 to the 2001 Super Bowl XXXV halftime show, to their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 19th, 2001.

The game will not focus on internal strife and stress within the band; Guitarist Joe Perry stated that the game would focus on the positive aspects of Aerosmith’s history.

Perry has stated that “Having a game built around Aerosmith has been a huge honor and really a great experience for us. We’ve put a lot of ideas into the game so that fans can have fun interacting with our music, getting inside our body of work and learning about the band’s history.”

Even though the player will be able to play as Aerosmith, they will start the setlists as the original band from Guitar Hero III with a rhythm character added as the opening act. After the player has played a song with the characters from Guitar Hero III, Aerosmith will make a dramatic entrance and the player will start the journey through Aerosmith’s career.

Tracklist - “Song” Artist

“All Day and All of the Night” The Kinks
“All the Young Dudes” Mott the Hoople
“Always on the Run” Lenny Kravitz
“Back in the Saddle” Aerosmith
“Beyond Beautiful” Aerosmith
“Cat Scratch Fever” Ted NugentTed Nugent
“Bright Light Fright” Aerosmith
“Combination” Aerosmith
“Complete Control” The Clash
“Draw the Line” Aerosmith
“Dream On” Aerosmith
“Dream Police” Cheap Trick
“Guitar Battle vs Joe Perry” Joe Perry
“Hard to Handle” The Black Crowes
“I Hate Myself for Loving You” Joan Jett
“King of Rock” Run-D.M.C.
“Kings and Queens” Aerosmith
“Let The Music Do The Talking” Aerosmith
“Livin’ on the Edge” Aerosmith
“Love in an Elevator” Aerosmith
“Make It” Aerosmith
“Mama Kin” Aerosmith
“Mercy” Joe Perry
“Movin’ Out” Aerosmith
“No Surprize” Aerosmith
“Nobody’s Fault” Aerosmith
“Pandora’s Box” Aerosmith
“Personality Crisis” New York Dolls
“Pink” Aerosmith
“Rag Doll” Aerosmith
“Rats In The Cellar” Aerosmith
“Sex Type Thing” Stone Temple Pilots
“Shakin My Cage” Joe Perry
“She Sells Sanctuary” The Cult
“Sweet Emotion” Aerosmith
“Talk Talkin” Joe Perry
“Toys In The Attic” Aerosmith
“Train Kept A Rollin” Aerosmith
“Uncle Salty” Aerosmith
“Walk This Way” Run-D.M.C. featuring Aerosmith
“Walk This Way” Aerosmith

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My first 40 min. w/ Alone in the Dark, direct feed:

Plot - Set during 2008, the story continues with Edward Carnby, the main protagonist from the original game, looking for answers to strange supernatural and bizarre occurrences while battling his way through the opposition in New York City’s Central Park.

The game story centers around rumors, allegations, and suspicions of clandestine activity in tunnels found below the park.

Subjects of investigation include possibly mutated trees, unusual aviary migration behavior in the park, astounding insect invasion problems, as well as the park’s value in real-estate; which is stated to be in excess of $528,783,552,000, a finding produced in 2007. In addition, the park’s value is compared to the national defense budget, with the park being 26% higher in value than the defense budget in 2007. Also, to further support rumored reports of tunnels found below the park, it is said that the atom bomb was invented by instigation of the Manhattan Project (Central Park is located in Manhattan). Conclusively, at the time of writing, there is a historical reference to a treaty between The Dutch and The English in 1667, in which The Dutch gained the island of Run in exchange for the Manhattan Islands.

Alone in the Dark will develop ties between these mysterious aspects of the park, while dealing with supernatural elements as well.

My Impressions:

Deep down, there is a really interesting game here, but my impressions would be best expressed with bullet points:

- Too Dark, not evil/dark or scary/dark, dark/dark.  I couldn’t see a damn thing and had to turn up my TV’s contrast to make out things.
- Not able to skip cut scenes even after you already saw them, some last for 3-4 minutes
- Controls are horrendous, not because of the Wiimote.  I’m sure on any platform they would be terrible, except maybe when you have to drive the car, that was hell.
- Storyline was great, decent voice acting, and some really great environment interactions