By Dimorphic

Not really a suprise that its been announced, though amusing that World at War dosen’t even have a concreate release date yet. Nonetheless Activison announced at a recent press conference that Call of Duty 6 is in development and will be released sometime in 2009. And guess what kids, Infinity Ward are back at the helm!

Joy!

By Dimorphic

It dosen’t matter that Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 constantly battle it out for the top spot on the most played list for Xbox Live every month,  Bungie still love Infinity Wards creation.

Speaking to Gameindustry.biz, Halo 3 Lead AI Programmer Damian Isla believes that Bunige has a lot to learn in the realm of scripted singe player experiences.

“I think it’s a great game and single player obviously is fantastic… they did a hell of a job with their set pieces, of scripting certain moments that they were really sure the player was going to actually see and experience first hand. The way that they use those moments to craft the player experience…Halo has a lot to learn from.

“While we certainly have many scenes throughout the Halo series that are scripted in-game moments, a lot of time players don’t experience it, or they don’t see the thing going on, or they maybe don’t experience it in quite the same way that we expected them to.”

Most companies just shoot down the opposition, Bungie are trying to better their products while also giving kudos to others. Much love me breda.

By Dimorphic

People come and go and here on Dimorphic 360 we are saying goodbye to some contributers. Roadkill and Northy (again) are moving on after helping us build our site to where we are today. They are leaving due to becoming too busy to be able to activley contribute to the site. Those of us that are still here re-afirm our dedication to delivering you the news, reviews and previews that you need to know with our own opinions and views on the matters that matter to you.

Thanks again guys for your help and we wish you luck with any future endevours.

By Dimorphic

The long awaited Conquest mode update for Battlefield: Bad Company has finally been given a release date. The update will drop this week, Thursday August 7.

Conquest mode sees players fighting it out for specific control points on a map, just like territories in Halo 3. DICE have done some editing to the maps to increase the play size as well as weather effects to give the mode a unique feel over Gold Rush.

Conquest has long been the staple for Battlefield games, and its great to see DICE and EA reward the fans who have made it such a success on Xbox Live with this awesome free update!

by Peaking Legoman

You know we really don’t sit back and appreciate how great this country is often enough. Not only do we have Vegemite and Koalas, but we have politicians who actually care about our well being. I just spent 5 weeks in the UK, and over there games like GTA4 are released in their entirety despite having mature content that could be viewed by mature people. Its insane!

Fortunately for us we do have politicians that care. Bethesda’s new game Fallout 3 is set for release this year and you can bet that in such nutty countries as England the game will be released unaltered. However that certainly wont be the case here. Remember? We have politicians who care! Fallout 3 is set for release in Australia with edits so that us innocent folk down here don’t become corrupted.

1up.com reports:

Fallout fans down under are celebrating as the word on the web is that Fallout 3 will be coming to Australia. Initially the game was threatened with the ban hammer over in-game drug use, but The Gamer Chip reports that EB Games, and GAME representatives have assured fans that they will be getting the game in a slightly modified format.

Remember to write your local member and thank them personally.

By Dimorphic

The fast paced and frantic action of the original Geometry Wars made it one of the most loved and unique titles released on the Xbox Live Arcade. The simplistic nature of its gameplay coupled with some of the most insane, over-the-top visuals we’ve ever seen secured its place in many of our hearts. And now we see Geometry Wars 2 unleashed on the world, bringing the same crazy visuals and heart pounding action we’ve come to expect.

However, Geometry Wars 2 brings more to the table. More gametypes and enemy variations mix up the gameplay and help evolve it into something more than the original was, and help make it another quality release to the Arcade.

The control system has stayed the same, the right thumbstick fires your weapons while the left moves you around, and the triggers fire the bombs. However the multiplier system has been changed.

Every enemy you kill drops small ‘geoms’, which increase your multiplier as opposed to killing enemies like in the last game. You also do not lose your multiplier if you die, which makes it possible to get radically high scores and really helps the game flow.

The gametypes that have been added to Geom Wars 2 are Deadline, King, Evolved, Pacifism, Waves, and Sequence, all of which have varying objectives and rules and really attempt to make it a worthwhile sequel, and not just a haphazard cash-in.

Deadline see’s you going up against the clock, with three minutes to get the highest score possible. Lives are infinite, bombs are not and the best way to build your score is to keep momentum going, as enemies take precious seconds to spawn in after a death. Deadline is probably the weakest gametype introduced to Geom Wars 2 as it feels like a watered down version of Evolved, which is just the gametype from the first game. Coincidently it is my favourite gametype and the ones that lends itself to the game the best.

King is a king of the hill variant, where circles pop up over the map, inside of which is the only place you can fire. The catch is that while you can only fire inside the circles, the enemies cannot get in. The circles only last for about six seconds however before collapsing in on you so you have to do the most damage and clear yourself a path to the next hill zone quickly.

Pacifism is a very novel approach to the game. Your ship has no weapons and the only way to take on enemies is to fly through ever spawning gates which explode as you pass through them and take everything nearby (apart from you) out. Pacifism is fun but tedious, it doesn’t really have the same frantic feel as the rest of the game.

Waves and Sequence are the best new gametypes. Waves see’s you fight off waves of spawning jets (the new enemy type) which fly back and forth on the map from where they spawn. This mode does get very hectic and the rate at which the jets spawn begins to overtake your ability to take them all out, and you have to start punching holes in their lines to fit through and keep yourself alive. Sequence throws you into a series of ‘levels’ which spawns in different types of enemies in different ways. You might get surrounded by a circle of jets or have three rows of purple homing trapezoids flying at you. You have 30 seconds to take out all the enemies to win the round. If you die you can continue on but you have finite number of lives to use.

While the new gametypes do change the formula of the game quite a bit, the same general feel is there. It is simply and evolution, not a revolution, which in this case is a good thing.

Visually the game runs at full 1080p and looks incredible. The array of colours coupled with screen bending effects really works and it is breathtaking to watch. The sound is still as sharp as it was, with a techno soundtrack reminiscent of Rez adding to the experience.

Overall Geometry Wars 2 is pretty much exactly what everyone was expecting from a sequel. The game is as fun to play as ever and the new modes add a longer lifespan to the game. As ever beating your friends high scores on the leaderboards is what it is all about and it’s perfect for a pick up and play session. Another great addition to the Live Arcade. Oh, and don’t forget to smile.

Gameplay - 7.5/10
Visuals -  8/10
Sound - 8/10
Longevity - 7/10

Overall - 8/10

By Iamthemonkeyhead

Everyone reading Dimorphic 360 is no doubt a fan of one game or a thousand of them. I thought it might be fun to put some art up and ask the readers and other writers to do the same. So If you have any fanart or screenshots that you took that you thought were cool or just plain funny throw a link in one of the comments and I’ll edit the post to remove mine and put up some of the best entries.

Link away!

Dial-up users beware (if you still exist), there are a lot of images to load.

Here are my entries using the Halo screenshot feature (no post editing):

By Dimorphic

Having a large fan base is a very daunting thing, especially for a video game developer. You want to create a game that is true to your vision but also satisfies the fans, and this doesn’t always add up. However in the case of Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, Dimps and Bandai Namco have made a stylish and fast fighting game that harnesses the power of the Xbox 360 and tames it into something that is very, very fun.

The game ships with several game modes which include your stock standard versus, arcade and survival modes. It also comes with the story mode, aptly named the Z Chronicles. In Z Chronicles mode you play through all the key fights from the anime series. Well, almost all the fights, as the game only spans the Sayian, Frezia and Cell sagas (with two smaller bonus sagas thrown in for good measure). This is a bit of a disappointment as it leaves out a fairly large chunk of the story in not including the Buu sagas and even parts of the included sagas are not there (such as future Trunks vs Cyborg Frezia or Android 19 and 20 vs Goku and Vegeta). The story is also told in a fairly barebones fashion, with no real explanation of what is actually going on, so non DBZ fans will probably be lost in terms of story from the get-go.

But even though the story elements are fairly thin, the game does a fantastic job of recreating the feel of the cartoon, it has all the intensity and speed that the anime provided and the game also has the original voice actors (both English and Japanese, for the purists) so the game does a great job of staying authentic.

The fighting engine in Burst Limit is fantastic. The moves are not overally complicated like Virtua Fighter or Soulcalibur but this only adds to the frantic nature of the fights. X and Y deliver quick and strong attacks respectively while the B button controls Ki attacks. The Ki attacks are what everyone remembers from the cartoon and they are all (for the most part) all here. These Ki moves are powered by your aura which is gauged at the bottom of the screen. As your aura fills you can pull of longer combos of hit and deal out devastating damage. If your aura fills totally you can pull off ultimate moves. These moves are like Goku’s Kamahamaha wave and Vegeta’s Final Flash, the signature moves of the characters and are very cool to use. When your aura is also filled you can either power up which gives you infinite Ki for a short amount of time, or if your character can, transform. So if your playing as a Saiyan like Gohan or Trunks you can transform into a Super Saiyan which gives you a speed and power boost, or if your Frezia or Cell ascend to your next level of power.

Another unique addition to the battles are the drama pieces. Clearly in an effort to more closely relate the game to the anime, during  fight when certian paramaters are reached (like dealing a certian amount of damage or pulling off a certian move) a short cutscene will start where a move is pulled off or the fighters taunt each other, just like in the show. It a nice little addition but in Z Chronicles mode on the harder difficulties when you are trying to pass a fight and have to keep retrying it (believe me, it happens) the drama pieces get very annoying, hearing the same ones over and over again, and you can’t skip them.

Graphically the game stands out. The cell shaded approach is perfect for this game and looks great in HD. Sometimes it actually looks better than the anime itself, which is a fantastic achievement. The sound is equally as impressive, with the same voice actors (as mentioned before) but also the same power up sound effects and contact sounds, the game looks and sounds top notch.

The most disappointing thing about the game is really its barebone approach in terms of content. The shortened story mode is coupled with only a handful of stages to fight on (though in versus mode when you pull off an ultimate move you can sometimes ‘destroy’ the planet you are fighting on ala Frezia on Namak and the stage changes) and a smaller fighter list. There are 21 characters to choose from and while that sounds like a lot, fans of the series will notice a number of absences from the list (such as Cyborg Frezia, he really should have been there).

There is also included online play, which plays out just like the versus mode. The fights are much the same, though you can turn off the drama pieces (which is a good thing) and at the end of each fight depending on the result you are rewarded or deducted a certain amount of ‘power level’ which makes up your leaderboard score. Its a nice little homage to the fans and works suprisingly well. Though fighting someone overseas will result in some lag for us Aussies, the game never becomes unplayable, and against a fellow Australian the game is as silky smooth as if they were sitting next to you.

Despite its shortcomings the one thing Burst Limit does very well is just be fun. The speed of the matches is great, it look visually stunning and it just genuinely fun. The lacking story mode and characters will no doubt be added too in the inevitable sequel (the last DBZ game series spanned three games) but the combat engines make the fighter quite deep and immensely playable. A must for Dragon Ball Z fans but also worth a look for anyone wanting a good fighting game.

Gameplay - 7.5/10
Visuals -  8/10
Sound - 8/10
Longevity - 7/10

Overall - 7.5/10

By Dimorphic

The newest episode of OzBoXLive, Australia’s only dedicated Xbox 360 podcast, is now live. OzBoxLive are good friends of Dimorphic 360 and supporters of the Aussie 360 community so you should all head to their website and give the show a listen.

OzBoxLive Radio #035 – E3 2008 Special

In this SPECIAL episode of OzBoxLive Radio…

- News and Announcements with Mick

- Review - Race Driver GRID

- Xbox Original Game of the Week - Crimson Skies

- Group Discussion - Microsoft Press Conference

- Competition - Win a copy of Race Driver GRID, Forza Motorsport 2, Making of - Mass Effect DVD, Making of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 DVD, the Official Halo 3 Game Guide, a Halo 3 Bag worth $50 Bucks AND next months issue of AUSTRALIAN 360.

- OzBoxLive Game Night #12 - Crimson Skies - Join the OzBoxLive Team for their next Game Night in this Xbox Original title and WIN real prizes and make new friends.

Go to www.OzBoxLive.com now for the latest episode.

By Dimorphic

In a recent interview, Matt Shell, the marketing manager for Lucasarts confirmed that come August a demo for the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be released. The demo will feature a special version of the Tie FIghter Construction Facility level which has some differences from the final game.

Not only that, but the demo also features a unique ending that will not be featured in the retail release. There has been no exact date (just ’sometime’ in August) or size for the demo but this is one I’m really looking out for!