Sometimes we need a little bit of adventure in our lives to make it more interesting or bring some color that would chase away the boredom. From the series of “play-fast-and-bang-each-level”, I will present now Advent Rising, another game coming from Majesco. The conflict between humans and various alien races has been the source of inspiration for many games and movies, and I was wondering if this game would bring anything new to the table. Well, just by using a modified version of the Unreal 2 Engine (one of the best I might add), the action appears to be more vivid, but the graphics (especially the water renderings) are simple and in many cases pretty modest. You will see many elements from other games, like the faces of the main male characters.

The game story begins when Gideon Wyeth arrives at Luriam, a small outpost in orbit around the planet Edumea, where a gigantic extraterrestrial spaceship has arrived. He meets up with his brother Ethan and does a little (re)training. While hanging out at the bar, a crazy marine, Bud threatens them but Ethan and Gideon give him some serious smacks. The player has the choice of either capturing or killing Bud and this will affect how marines see and help him later in the game.

Intro Movie

Gideon receives his orders and heads to the alien ship, escorting the ambassador diplomat to meet the aliens. They are told of the Seekers, an alien species bent on destroying humanity, which are to arrive at Edumea very soon and destroy it. But it does not take long, and the Seekers arrive in the system, and Gideon is forced to return to the outpost, carrying his wounded brother. After shooting down the Seeker armada and rescuing his fiancée, Olivia, Gideon is faced with choosing between helping Ethan or Olivia aboard an escape pod. This choice will decide which opponent the player will have to face in the end, because no matter which person he decides not to help is unable to make it to an escape pod themselves, and is captured by the Seekers. These Seekers look rather like some giant reptiles (I would call them “reptilians”) and they carry heavy weaponry. From this point on, any choice has from little to no impact of the outcome of the game ending.

First Encounter

The escape pod crashes on Edumea and Gideon gets medical attention for Ethan or Olivia (depending on the choice the player made). While finding out about a big disaster threat coming from the Seekers, Gideon goes with Ethan/Olivia to find a way off the planet. Meteorites begin raining down upon the planet (and damn they are many, almost impossible to dodge!) and Gideon finds Captain Marin Steel, who agrees to help them fly away from the planet. While getting out of the atmosphere, a series of asteroids hit and destroy Edumea. They try to find survivors and Gideon scans the radio waves for distress signals, though only to find an offering of assistance to any humans from the Aurelians, the friendly alien race they encountered earlier. After meeting the Aurelian leaders, Gideon learns that humans have divine properties, and asks to be taught how to master them.

the escape

the rescue

While Gideon discovers his mystical powers, the Aurelian ship is attacked by the Seekers. These guys don’t know when to quit, do they? With all the efforts to protect the ship, the whole place is destroyed and they are forced to “jump” on the Seeker ship, which would crash in the Aurelian Sea. The ship must be evacuated because it sinks, and Ethan/Olivia drowns with it. Ok, hold on there, this game seems to be both pointless and dramatic at the same time – so the upshot is that no matter what Gideon does, he loses his loved ones and he still dreams about them on the shore of the Aurelian Sea, after the crash. Gamers most of the times have this attitude of not getting involved into the story too much but they should think for a second – what if they were the characters in such a story as the one on the screen…

almost losing faith...

After retreating to the Aurelian capital of Arnis with Marin, Gideon and the surviving Aurelian leaders ask the government for assistance, though their effort is interrupted by the arrival of a Seeker who claims he knows nothing about the attack against the planet Edumea. Gideon attempts furiously to kill him, but he is able to escape. Marin is captured by the Seekers and Gideon sets out to rescue her. After destroying their bases (and again – they are many – these Seekers are ugly, evil and many, with lots of resources at their disposal – no wonder they have a reputation of conquerors). After the destruction of the final base, all the Seeker threat seems to be removed.

saving Marin

Gideon and Marin come to the galactic council to ask for help in punishing the Seekers for the killing of the human kind. The council believes the testimony and turns to the Seeker representatives for an explanation. While the representatives defend their race's innocence, and also start using their guns, Olivia/Ethan (depending on which one Gideon failed to save earlier) teleports into the council chamber as Koroem, a creature who claims to be a “true” human with godlike powers. Koroem takes credit for destroying the humans that were considered “imposters”.

Council Scene

Gideon has to use his demigod power to defeat the big alien being, and after the final blow he is attracted into a big portal towards an ice world, full of snow and cold temperatures, while Marin is left alone in the council chamber. Because of the decreased temperature, Gideon almost dies when a mysterious horned being appears and says: "Come with me human, there is much to be done" and that’s the ending of the game.

Only "Human"

The sound in the game didn’t bring anything special, but the music is really impressive, it shows the emotion of the moment in each instance of the game. It is one of best soundtracks I’ve encountered so far. The theme songs that are introduced in “official” meetings between the humans and the Aurelians give the aspect of continuity of the story. However, even if you will see “to be continued” at the end, you may never see a second and a third game as Majesco hasn’t given any sign of working on the project any longer. It could have been continued under the form of a game like “Lost Planet: Extreme Condition” – I was particularly impressed with the movie-like graphic effects there.

Digitainment Mark: 7 out of 10

Producer: Majesco

Buy: about $30

Website: http://www.adventtrilogy.com and at Majesco's website: http://www.majescoentertainment.com/catalog/works/adventrising_pc.php

Reprobates is a cool 3rd-person adventure developed by Future Games and published by Digital Tainment Pool.
Not all of you know German but in my opinion, the images from the trailer are enough to convince anyone that the game is worth playing.



AGDS III , the game’s engine is the same on which were built Black Mirror and Nibiru, and with Reprobates it captures again the attention with the superb graphics and high character 3D details.

The dark, thrilling story begins with the 23-years old Adam Raichl who was driving his car relaxed, until something happens suddenly.

With Windows operating system installed and Direct3D, you will enable special features of the AGDS engine, like face-play and emotions in faces, aging and cloth wear, and atmospheric effects.
You can watch all these in the demo.

Ubisoft partnered with Paramount pictures to provide a dual launch for the upcoming Beowulf motion picture, coupled with a Beowulf videogame title of their own. As we get closer to the November 16 premiere, Ubisoft just signed the original movie actors to supplement the in-game voice talent. You can expect to hear Anthony Hopkins and Ray Winstone to feature for the first time as voice actors in a video game. Brendan Gleeson and Sebastien Roche also lent their voices to Ubisoft for greater character authenticity. One question remains though, why didn’t Angelina Jolie join them, since she plays a definite role in the storyline as Grendel’s mother?

Let’s pretend for a moment that you’ve seen the movie and it’s a fast paced, exhilarating part of a grand destiny like Beowulf’s. While seeing our troll friend Grendel stomp humans for hours sounds like fun, the game would have been a severe disappointment hadn’t Ubisoft expanded the story into Beowulf’s 30 year reign. The day is saved ladies and gentlemen, because game trailers, screenshots and stories reveal a bloody and power hungry Beowulf which will put to the sword hordes of beasts and men alike.

In the tradition of northern warriors, Beowulf was berserker himself, overcame by apathy in real life, until the climax of battle was high. It was then his terrible power would be unleashed, thrown into a savage fury to strike foe after foe, relentless, unappeased. The game implements this in the form of carnal rage, a state attained by the use of certain mushrooms which bring the delusion of invulnerability. In fact, the game has already been rated M for Mature, due to the use of intense violence, blood and certain sexual themes.

The game lets you build up a small army of heroes, up to 12 of Beowulf’s trusted thanes being freed as you delve deeper into the plot and defeat powerful creatures like trolls. I felt slightly nostalgic when I saw the trailer, because gameplay reminded me of Rune, with the major 2007 head’s up. You can order troops to operate massive and complex mechanisms like rolling over a stone block which before a cave entrance or even rowing on a drakhar (the Viking ship). Graphics look exceptionally good and Ubisoft used Tom Clancy’s Advanced Warfighter engine. Thus you can climb structures and hold on to ropes, giving room to the classic gameplay tactics of adventure and role playing games.

The multiplatform release pretty much comes on premiere day so mark November 16 on your gaming calendar. Meanwhile, the game can be preordered directly from the official site for roughly US 55$.