The bad news only gets worse for the USG Ishimura in the upcoming Wii-exclusive Dead Space Extraction from EA’s Visceral Games development studio. This platform-exclusive survival horror game functions as both a prequel and side story to the acclaimed Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 original. We’ve seen the game a number of times so far (most recently, at GamesCom 2009), and yesterday, EA dropped by with an updated build of the game to show off a new level and give GameSpot an exclusive peek at the first boss in the game.

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The sixth chapter in the game takes place in the sewers of the USG Ishimura, where you’ll play as Nathan McNeil, a security officer who will be responsible for escorting fellow survivors to safety. The chapter opens up with the quartet falling into the water system and being swept through a section of tunnels courtesy of some nasty-looking sewer water. Eventually, the four end up in a pool of standing water; they’re chilly, on edge, and aware of the fact that things are about to get much worse.

Thus begins your tour of the Ishimura’s sewer system, which involves a long snaking exploration full of alien Necromorphs to dismember and includes an encounter with a previously unseen Necromorph type known as the “water creep.” Picture a long-stemmed flower rising out of the sewer mulch–only the stem of this rose is made out of thick, rotted Necromorph flesh and its bloom is a bloody mess of fangs and gore–and you’ll have a decent idea of what a water creep looks like. They’re slender and whip around quickly in the air, so they can be tough to hit with your weapon. An effective tactic is to use your stasis beam to temporarily freeze them, giving you enough time to take them out with a well-placed blast to the head.

Extraction is a rail shooter, which means you won’t have much control over which way your character goes. That said, there are periodic points in each chapter where you can take a quick look around (ideal for picking up collectibles like audio and text logs or refilling your health and ammo supplies with pickups). In addition, you’ll find the occasional branching path that will let you choose one direction or another. From what we saw, it looks like these branching paths end up in the same spot in the long run, though producers did say that you might miss out on an upgrade or collectible by taking one path over another (which just gives you an excuse to play a level over again). There are also sections where you’ll run up against stiff defense from multiple waves of Necromorphs–some of which fire explosives at you. An effective way to take them down is to catch the explosive in midair using your telekinesis powers and fire it back at the bad guys.

About midway through the level, the group is separated when Lexine Murdoch–a surveyor from the Aegis VII colony–is attacked by number of swarm Necormorphs and falls into a vat of water. You dive in after her, but she’s gone and presumed dead–and you’ll discover her fate in the next chapter of the game. Incidentally, this chapter also introduces Dr. Karen Howell, Chief Botanist of the Ishimura, a character the player will control in the next chapter in the game.

Eventually, the group–now reduced to a trio with Murdoch’s disappearance–makes its way through the sewer tunnels, encountering a strange hazy Necromorph mist that causes dementia along the way until the trio finally happens upon a huge open room. It doesn’t take much experience with survival horror games to tell you that “big open room” equals “big ugly boss to fight” in short order. And sure enough, after a brief encounter with another of th Ishimura’s crew, the big baddy appears–a four-tentacled monstrosity with a huge reach and bad intentions.

The law requires me to inform you, gigantic four-tentacled sewer beast, that I am armed with a pistol.

You’ll need precise aim and a little creativity to take down this grotesque boss–you’ll fire your weapon at a sensitive spot at the end of each of its tentacles to temporarily stun it. On either side of the room, you’ll find huge industrial fans that will turn out to be effective for battling the boss. Using your stasis beam, you can temporarily freeze the fan blades and climb in behind the fans. With a little luck, the monster will send in a tentacle after you, and once the stasis wears off and the fans return to full speed, it will hack that tentacle to bits. You’ll repeat that process for one more tentacle, then return to the water and use your telekinetic powers to toss barrels at the monster, blasting off its remaining pair of arms. As for its final evolution, if you’ve got the arc-welder handy (one of several new weapons in the game), you’ll find it very effective–what with the whole electricity and water thing happening.

At the end of a chapter, you’ll get a wrap-up of how you performed during the level, which will track such things as damage taken, med packs used, and puzzle failures, as well as number of shots fired, enemies killed, dismemberments, and more. If you’ve played a level cooperatively, a bar will also appear, showing which player contributed more to the level’s success.

We’ve seen a lot of Extraction so far, and the game’s grim atmosphere and impressive visuals continues to impress. The rail-shooter gameplay seems like a necessary evil considering the Wii’s technical limitations, and that lack of player control might actually work in the game’s favor by giving the developers a chance to better script payoff moments that might be missed in a more open game. We’ll find out if Visceral manages to match the sustained tension of the brilliant original game when Extraction is released on the Nintendo Wii on September 29.

Check out the source at GameSpot

Gazing around your local games store, you’ll notice that there’s certainly no shortage of rhythm or karaoke games. SingStar, Lips, Guitar Hero World Tour, Rock Band, and Karaoke Revolution seem to have karaoke gameplay pretty well covered, but developers 4mm Games is banking on the power of hip-hop, a partnership with Def Jam Recordings, and some unique features to swing the balance in its favour. We took a closer look at this infectious title at GamesCom 2009, in Cologne, Germany.

What’s New: While the set list is still a work-in-progress, we got a good idea of what to expect with tracks that included Gold Digger by Kanye West, Always on Time by Ja Rule, Rapper’s Delight by The Sugarhill Gang, They Reminisce Over You by Pete Rock and CL Smooth, Live Your Life by T.I., Molotov 4 by Sefyu, Mein Block by Sido, Put On by Young Jeezy, Right Round by Flo Rida, Stand Up by Ludacris, and around 30 more tracks from the likes of Run DMC. Regionalised artists will also appear in the game, such as Dizzee Rascal for the UK release. One cool idea King mentioned is that every performance uploaded to servers can be geotagged, allowing you to see if you’re the best at a particular track in your suburb, city, or even your country.

According to King, regular DLC updates will allow 4mm Games to publish songs that fall into subgenres or niches. He also confirmed that while all of the songs are radio edits, there won’t be any changed words, and the uncensored lyrics may skew the game to an older audience. Given the material they’re dealing with, this seems like a sensible approach. King also told us that some songs are particularly suited to duets, and while female artists will make an appearance, there will be plenty of songs “for the fellas.”

What’s Different: We pulled up our socks, tightened our belt, and challenged 4mm Games president and rapper extraordinaire Jamie King at Kanye West’s Golddigger. Unfortunately, we lost, unlike Chris Watters, but had plenty of fun letting our inner rap star out of its cage. Even if you’re not into listening to hip-hop, there’s something infectious and energetic about it as a genre, and it’s hard not to want to bust out some dope lyrics in the process.

What’s The Same: When you’re singing, the graphics appear very similar to those in SingStar or Lips, with a bar displaying your pitch and timing, a multiplier bar, and the words appearing above or below. If you have a camera plugged in, you can use it to record your performance, and at the end of the song you can add a range of graphical effects and then upload a 30-second clip to the Def Jam Rapstar Web site. You also get scored on various indicators, including text (saying the right words), “takt” (timing), and “tonlage” (pitch), as well as your multiplier. King says the game will support all existing microphone peripherals, as well as the Xbox Live Vision and PlayStation Eye cameras, and there are plans to launch peripheral bundles with the game at launch.

What Impression The Game Made This Time: Def Jam Rapstar is still in development, and all the graphics we saw were merely placeholders. However, the game shows a lot of potential. The included songs seem destined to create countless living-room battles, and the community aspect sounds like it might set it apart from its existing competitors. Def Jam is currently scheduled for a fourth-quarter 2009 release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii.

Check out the source at GameSpot

After the enormous success of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games–(Mario & Sonic win 5M Olympic medals) 5 million copies and counting–creating a sequel based on the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Winter Games seems like a no-brainer. So far, we’ve seen a number of fun events for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, including bobsleighing, speed skating, and downhill skiing, as well as numerous characters with which fans of Mario or Sonic games will be familiar. We recently got a chance to meet some more characters and events at GamesCom 2009 in Cologne, Germany.

What’s New: Sega unveiled several new events at GamesCom, including snowboard halfpipe and two dream events (non-sanctioned events that are definitely not going to be included in the Olympics anytime soon): dream snowboard cross and dream snow fight.

The snowboard halfpipe event was demonstrated by a Sega employee using a Wii Balance Board. After choosing Amy as a character, he leaned to one side on the balance board to drop into the halfpipe, and by pivoting and leaning in various directions at the right time, he was able to pull off an impressive number of tricks. These included a backside 360, frontside twist, backflip, double backflip, and more. Next up was dream snowboard cross, which featured a complex, twisting track called radical highway, and we watched two players use Mario and Sonic in the race. The track features incredible speed thanks to steep runs, a loop-de-loop, and a huge suspension bridge (you can ride on its cables). Finally, there are a few different paths you can take throughout the course thanks to ramps and Sonic’s springboards.

Dream snow fight was a four-on-four event that took place in a small arena with a few brick walls to hide behind. You use the Wii Remote’s D pad to move and flick so you can throw snowballs, and when you run out of snowballs, you can make more with the A button. There’s also a trade-off when choosing your character because smaller ones will be faster; however, the slower, bigger characters will be able to carry more snowballs. Lastly, we saw the skeleton event, which can be played by sitting or leaning face forward on the balance board. To do this, you place your chest on the balance board and use your hands to grip the side of the board. It looks like this method could be a bit uncomfortable, but judging from the demo, it might actually give you greater control over the board. We’ll have to investigate this control option the next time we get hands-on with the game.

What’s Different: Winter Games includes all of the characters from the original, and we’ve already seen some of the characters in action, including Peach, Knuckles, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and Metal Sonic. This time around, we were introduced to two new characters for Winter Games: Bowser Jr. and Silver. Silver was shown during the snowboarding event and looked just as impressive in action as the rest of the lineup, and Bowser Jr. competed in the skeleton event.

What’s the Same: We’ve seen balance board support previously, but it’s great to see Sega trying to incorporate this into as many modes as possible, as well as in creative ways, such as using your chest on the balance board. Thankfully, there’s always alternative control schemes should that method sound a bit too involved.

What Impression the Game Made This Time: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games has plenty of fun games to participate in, and the idea of using your balance board in the skeleton event sounds like it could be fun. We’d like to try it out for ourselves and will hopefully get that chance before the game is released this October.

Check out the source at GameSpot

The original Lego Indiana Jones was a smash hit, and with the arrival of the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last year, there’s suddenly more material for a sequel. That’s the thinking behind Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, which will also include material from the original film trilogy that didn’t feature in the first game.

We got to see reproductions of both new and old films in our GamesCom demo today, both with the diner section from The Crystal Skull and the opening of the ark from Raiders of the Lost Ark. The latter cutscene was particularly memorable, as the Nazis were compelled to perform funky dance moves before disintegrating into thin air. In-game, Indy can now do more with his whip, such as tie enemies up and drag them around, as we saw in the diner fight scene.

Lego Indy 2 also has plenty of upgrades that will please fans of the Lego series. When two players drift apart, the screen now automatically splits in two, letting players do what they want before joining seamlessly together once they’re close to each other. There’s also a new level builder that allows you to put down boards and pieces just like you might have done with real Legos as a child. However, with this being a children’s title, you probably won’t be able to share these creations online, although LucasArts is currently looking into this possibility. At least you and a friend can both work on your design at the same time.

The hubs in Lego Indy 2 have also been expanded and improved, with three hubs from the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and three from the original trilogy. The hubs are themed around different areas in the films, and you can fly around in a plane, parachute out, and then jump into levels straight from these hubs.

Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues is looking almost finished, which is a good sign given how close we are to release. The game will be released on all major platforms in the third quarter of 2009.

Check out the source at GameSpot

Monster Hunter is a game that has been synonymous with the PlayStation brand up until now. The Japanese cult hit has sold millions of copies (and helped sell plenty of PSPs) in its home country but has experienced limited success in overseas markets thus far. Capcom hoped to challenge this notion with a marketing campaign in Europe for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, which launched to strong reviews, and is following this up with the series’ first outing on the Nintendo Wii. We embarked on a hunting quest at GamesCom 2009 in Cologne, Germany, armed with our wits and a Wii Classic Controller.

What’s New: Capcom confirmed that the European version of Tri will support an online cooperative mode for up to four hunters, as well as a two-player split-screen mode for certain missions and a single-player mode. When online, you can use your friends list to set up quests with friends, or you can quest with people you haven’t shared friend codes with. You will be able to communicate using standard gestures, which will probably be similar to those incorporated into Mario Kart Wii.

While felyne helpers may make a comeback in Tri, they’ll no longer go into single-player quests with you. Instead, you’ll be accompanied by another human monster hunter. We have yet to find out about your companion, other than that it will be a male character. We also checked out the impressive-looking new switchaxe weapon–a ridiculously oversized, curved, double-edged blade that looks as impressive as it does formidable.

What’s Different: This build is localised for the European region.

What’s The Same: Our demo featured the same monsters we saw at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, including the bird/lizard hybrid Qurupeco and a dragon that you can fight underwater (a first for the series), the Lagiacrus. Like other new monsters, the Qurupeco will devour other monsters to recover stamina. In our hunt, it called some smaller members of its species in for backup, along with one of the dragon-like Rathian. Apparently there will be only two existing monsters making an appearance in Tri, including the Rathian, and all the rest will be completely new to the series.

We’re pleased to report that the game’s controls still feel pretty tight when using a Classic Controller and closely match the PSP scheme. You can also use a Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination to get the job done, and while Capcom wasn’t able to confirm it, we expect that GameCube controllers will also work. Unfortunately there’s still no option to lock the camera onto your current monster, but the L2 button will reset the camera behind you, and the right analog stick can be used to pan the camera.

What Impression The Game Made This Time: Monster Hunter Tri looks nothing short of impressive when running on the Wii hardware, and the engine does a great job of displaying the heads-up displays, your character, hard-earned weapons and armour, vibrant hunting grounds, and, of course, the monsters themselves. There’s a soft look to the environments and some nice bloom effects, which make this version of the game the best looking to date. The controls felt natural and responsive, despite a few caveats, and we’re keen to see what playing Tri online will look like. Monster Hunter Tri launched in Japan on August 1 and will be heading to Western markets in early 2010.

Check out the source at GameSpot