Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Welcome to Vice City. Welcome to the 1980s.

Having just made it back onto the streets of Liberty City after a long stretch in maximum security, Tommy Vercetti is sent to Vice City by his old boss, Sonny Forelli. They were understandably nervous about his re-appearance in Liberty City, so a trip down south seemed like a good idea. But all does not go smoothly upon his arrival in the glamorous, hedonistic metropolis of Vice City. He's set up and is left with no money and no merchandise. Sonny wants his money back, but the biker gangs, Cuban gangsters, and corrupt politicians stand in his way. Most of Vice City seems to want Tommy dead. His only answer is to fight back and take over the city himself.

From the decade of big hair, excess and pastel suits comes a story of one man's rise to the top of the criminal pile as Grand Theft Auto returns to the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system this October. Vice City is a huge urban sprawl ranging from the beach to the swamps and the glitz to the ghetto, and is the most varied, complete and alive digital city ever created. Combining non-linear gameplay with a character driven narrative, you arrive in a town brimming with delights and degradation and are given the opportunity to take it over as you choose.

As a major gateway to South America and the Caribbean and attracting migrants, Vice City is brimming with diverse characters, so there's a friend for everyone. It is a sociable place and the new guy in town is sure to meet all manner of friendly people in the sunshine capital of America. Athletes, pop stars, real estate developers, politicians, trailer trash, everyone is moving to Vice City to find out what makes it the number one growth city in America. But, as Tommy quickly finds out, trust is still the rarest of commodities.

Vice City offers vehicular pleasures to suit every taste. For the speed enthusiast, there's high-performance cars and motorbikes. For the sportsman, a powerboat or a golf buggy lets you enjoy the great outdoors. For those that need that sense of freedom and escape, why not charter a helicopter and see the beauty of Vice City from the air?

As the party capital of America, you would expect your ears to be seduced by a host of sultry melodies and pumping beats, but the city is truly rocking. You'll be AMAZED as you sweep through Vice City's FM dial. If you are feeling like trouble, you can tune into some driving rock, or some crucial electro, or maybe you want to slow down with some sweet soul, and there will always be some great romantic anthems if you want to really take your mind off things.

For the action man, or outdoors type, there's tons of fun things to do and adventures to be had... guaranteed. For the secretive or creepy type, Vice City is full of surprises, a place where you'll constantly be surprised by the vivacious, fun-loving types who live there and the things you can discover

Everything old is new again in Capcom's upcoming sequel to this legendary fighting series. Find out about the newly

announced characters and more.:D
There was a time, back in the early 1990s, when fighting games ruled the arcade scene across America, Japan, and around the world. And if you had to go back in time to the starting point of the fighting craze, you'd stop at the sublimely balanced Street Fighter II, a game ahead of its time; one for which even the term "seminal" is an understatement. Fighting games may not be at the forefront of gaming the way they were in those halcyon years, but if any game is going to rejuvenate interest in this flagging genre, it's Street Fighter IV. Street Fighter IV Q&A - Familiar Faces(:):))

There were many new releases this year.It's a amazing year for gaming.Since I have joined gamespot it has become easy to see the new releases of this year.Now the time has come for the best game of the year 2007.

Editor's choice:

Best game of the year:

Deciding this year's winner for Game of the Year was probably the single toughest award deliberation that GameSpot's editors have ever had to participate in. Even narrowing our top list of finalists to just 10 games was extremely challenging and very, very, very contentious. Really, any game in our top 10 list would make a fine winner and could be easily supported by some very strong arguments.

Ultimately, it came down to Super Mario Galaxy as our top game because it is (by a narrow margin indeed) the best overall package of polish, gameplay, and presentation for what it is--a traditional but highly evolved platformer. Let's face it, this is a game that Nintendo could easily have phoned in and still sold about a zillion copies. We could've seen a game that took very few risks and more or less replicated the same old stuff we've seen in previous games. We could've seen a game that relied heavily on nostalgia value and trotting out the same old characters and reprised music tracks instead of adding in fresh and exciting new content. Traditionally, every Nintendo console has been christened with a blockbuster Mario adventure, and with every Nintendo console launch, fans everywhere are always ready and waiting to grab their copy simply because the game features their favorite video game plumber.

But that didn't happen. Nintendo didn't take so much as a single step back with Super Mario Galaxy, and instead reinvented Mario's traditional platformer adventures with beautifully designed levels that make unique use of zero-gravity gameplay and clever, enjoyable puzzles. All of the levels are varied and look fantastic, and they even add replay value because the game has a set of collectible stars that you can go back to hunt for, as well as a limited but still enjoyable multiplayer mode. This is a game that plays great and looks fantastic; this is a game that you can recommend to basically anybody who might have any interest in video games--without having to qualify it or apologize for it with "it's great, but."

Again, this was by no means an easy decision to make, but GameSpot's ultimate pick for the top game of 2007 is Super Mario Galaxy. That's no reflection at all on our other nine finalists, all of which are remarkably good games in their own right and all of which are absolutely worth playing. For a year like this, with so many incredible games available to play, the real winners are each and every one of us.

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

After one look at Zack & Wiki, it's unlikely that anyone would think that this game had much to do with the adventure genre. Brightly colored anime characters in pirate garb wandering around what look like environments ripped out of the platformer of the week hardly screams point-and-click adventure--but in this case, appearances are deceiving. Zack & Wiki is the first Wii game to successfully take the sort of point-and-click gameplay the adventure genre is known for and translate it successfully to consoles with the Wii Remote. You point where you want the game's lead character, Zack, to go, and guide him through each of the game's levels while solving puzzles all the way.

And what a collection of puzzles it is. Each level is its own stand-alone series of quandaries, and though none of the game's environments are terribly large, the amount of problem solving you'll need to do to progress through each one is highly impressive. That the difficulty level feels so well balanced is an even greater asset. The puzzles occasionally delve into the arcane, but never so much so that you feel totally out of your depth. This is a challenging game, but not a punishingly difficult one.

Considering that many third-party-published Wii games haven't been super great as of late, and the fact that this game dives into a near-forgotten genre, Zack & Wiki could easily have been a colossal failure. Instead, it's one of the best Wii games released yet, and easily the best adventure game of the year.

Best fighting game:

Even though we've seen Virtua Fighter 5 before, we hadn't seen the game make its way online prior to 2007. The Xbox 360 version of the game has some issues with its online menus and ranking system, but it's otherwise the closest thing to a smooth, functional online fighting-game experience yet. In a best-case scenario, where both you and your opponents have fast, healthy connections to the Internet, you might have a multiplayer match with a near-perfect pace, though obviously your experience will vary with different opponents on different connection setups.

Aside from the online play, Virtua Fighter 5 Online still packs in Virtua Fighter 5, and that means you still get one of the best-looking and most sophisticated fighting games to date. VF5 Online is based off of the Revision C version of the arcade game and comes with all the tweaks and updates that were added there, and also comes with the standard modes we've come to expect from a console fighting game, such as an arcade-****mode and a training mode. The game also comes with a single-player "quest" mode that lets you work your way through the ranks of a virtual arcade scene and encounter computer-controlled opponents with surprisingly varied behavior. In terms of both single-player and multiplayer play, with functional online options, Virtua Fighter 5 Online offers the most complete fighting-game package of 2007.

Best dirivig game:

It does so much so well, but when you call Forza Motorsport 2 the best driving game of the year, you must start where the wheels meet the pavement. Put simply, Forza 2 feels better than any console driving game of the past. Every car feels attached to the road and reacts authentically to every indentation of the game's many tracks, be it the bumpy final corner of Sebring, or the swooping right-left nightmare that is the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. It's all too easy for sim racing games to lose sight of speed in their relentless quest for accuracy; Forza 2 doesn't falter here, either--although the moderately powerful cars feel great, the fastest cars in the game are positively ludicrous.

So, with that said, the only people that will enjoy Forza 2 are the nuts-and-bolts, grease-up-to-their-elbows car nuts, right? Not even close. Although being a grease monkey won't hurt your appreciation of Forza 2, the game is tailored to a wide audience. An easy-to-understand performance index number helps you compare your ride's performance against your competitors, and a slew of driving assists will make you faster no matter what your level of skill.

The development folks at Turn 10 understand that, these days, a driving game needs to be more than just a place to turn laps. Thanks to rich community features such as photo uploading (a perfect place to show your creations using the game's insane paint/decal tool) and a vibrant auction house that lets you buy and sell cars with folks all over the world, Forza 2 aficionados can continue the "car talk" for a long time to come. These kinds of features offer a glimpse of the future of racing games, and we look forward to continuing the ride.

Best sport game:

Look, we know the NHL has had it rough as of late. Attendance is down, TV numbers are basically nonexistent, and the sport doesn't seem to be heading anywhere other than down. It's lucky for those of us who play games, then, that hockey absolutely rules in video games, as exemplified by EA Sports' NHL 08.

What's so great about hockey video games is exactly what's so fun about NHL 08. First of all, it's fast. Skaters move with a fluidity and speed that is a joy to watch and, thanks to some retooled skating controls, a joy to control as well. The contact is definitely "full" in NHL 08; there are big hits in the game, and more importantly there are hits that make sense, in that you don't see speedy wingers laying out hulking defensemen on a regular basis. Find your comfort zone on offense? Not for long, because NHL 08's artificial intelligence is smart enough to adapt to your ****of play as the game goes on. Finally, the presentation is top-notch, especially the play-by-play and color commentary.

Although the basics are there, it's those features that the developers at EA Canada tossed on top of an already fine-playing game that make it so compelling. Three-on-three online multiplayer, online leagues, a fun practice mode, with an in-depth, flexible create-a-play tool--the list goes on.

It wasn't that long ago that EA's hockey series was in a doldrums similar to the real-life sport. In just a few short years, the series has performed a remarkable turnaround, with NHL 08 ending up not only as the best hockey game of the year, but also the standard-bearer for all sports games in 2007.

In a typical sequence in Assassin's Creed, you will climb a towering steeple to survey the bustling city of Damascus. You fall from these dizzying heights safely into a wagonful of hay, only to hear the distressed cries of a citizen being harassed by corrupt guards. You slice through one guard's neck with your hidden blade, plunge your sword through the heart of another, and lure a third up to the rooftops, where you push him off a ledge, then hear him land with a thud onto the streets below. From here, you leap from building to building--sometimes dropping down yourself to listen in on a private conversation, sometimes to bully an informant into submission, and sometimes just to take in the activities of the citizens as they go on about their business. Afterward, you head to your final assassination target, throwing blades in hand.

These kind of free-form activities are at the heart of Assassin's Creed. Yet for every action-packed sequence, there is a moment of pure beauty that will take your breath away. It's all capped by exquisite controls that miraculously toe the line between player input and automation. This ease of adventuring, diversity of gameplay, and sense of freedom make it the best action adventure game of 2007.

Why Crysis? It's the shooter that pushes the limits of gameplay and technology in almost every way possible. Yes, it's got the most advanced graphics seen to date, but it's also a deeply rewarding shooter that requires you to think as much as react. Dropped into large levels, you're constantly making decisions, whether you're conscious of them or not. Which approach do you take to the objective? Go stealthy or guns blazing? How about using your nanosuit's powers to vault over a fence or onto a rooftop to hide from the enemy? Use cloak and stalk your prey? Do you even want to get in a firefight right now?

One of the most rewarding moments that we had in Crysis was during an escape from a military base at night. Running into the woods, we stumbled into a large squad of soldiers hunting us. The ability to make your own tactics on the fly let us suddenly slow down to use the suit's cloak powers, silenced weapons, and headshots to raise havoc in the enemy's ranks. Suddenly, the hunters were the hunted, and they were panicking at being picked off one by one. This wasn't a "stealth only" sequence; we could have gone guns blazing or bypassed the enemy altogether. It was this open-ended, emergent gameplay--the ability to let us tackle our challenges in whatever way we wished while requiring us to think on our feet that helped the game squeak past impressive shooters such as the highly addictive Call of Duty 4, the extremely polished Halo 3, the creepy and distinctive BioShock, and the jam-packed game known as The Orange Box--all of which are genuinely exceptional games in their own right that are absolutely, positively worth your while. But for being able to make us feel like an incredibly lethal and intelligent predator in a way that perhaps no other game has done, Crysis takes this award.

Combo kills are simple in theory. When you attack an opponent, you can tap the attack button again when your sword hits your foe for a combo kill. If you time it right, your sword will attack once, then you'll attack again immediately for an instant kill. The second attack will occur whether your opponent takes or blocks your first strike, but it won't occur if they dodge it.

Combo kills are mostly handy against easier opponents; the tougher foes you'll face later in the game will mostly be immune to the combo kills and will deflect both of your blows. When you're surrounded by enemies, the time required to attack twice will also usually leave you open to incoming attacks, making counters a better maneuver. Still, there's some brutal animations here, as well as an achievement for using them often, so it's worth trying them out on the weaker foes you face.

You can dodge an incoming attack by tapping the dodge button as it comes your way; that will let you dance backwards and attempt a counterattack. The timing is tricky on dodges, and there isn't much benefit for performing a dodge instead of a counter. We suppose you can chain dodge counterattacks into combo kills, but usually counters will still be your best bet.

A defense break can let you bust through an opponent's defense. To perform a defense break after you unlock the ability, let go of the high profile trigger, press the Step button, then attack as soon as the Step is complete. If you do it correctly, you'll attack once to shove your enemy's blade off to the side, and can then attack again to hit them while their guard is down, just like Darth Maul and Qui-Gon.

We've said this before, but whenever possible, lure your enemies up high and knock them to the ground through throws or sword blows. It's the easiest way to dispatch your foes, and even though you may get knocked off yourself, you take a lot less damage from falling than your opponents do, making it more likely that you'll survive and they'll die if you both fall.

Your synchronization bar will regenerate your health over time, even in combat. If you find yourself dangerously low on health, run away from your enemies for a bit to regain some health, or simply hide until it comes back.

As the game progresses, the guards you'll be fighting against will become progressively tougher. An easy way to spot the difference in guards at a glance is to look at their helmets: the more powerful the guard, the shinier their headware will be. In Damascus, the silver and gold-plated helmets will denote the toughest guards, while the red-plated helmets on Templars will tell you the ones to look out for.

You are much more agile than your opponents are. If you're cornered in a street fight, keep in mind that your best option, especially early in the game when you don't have many combat maneuvers unlocked, is to run. Untarget your opponent, enter high profile mode, and run up the nearest wall to see if there's a handhold; there almost always will be. If you can reach the rooftops, you'll have a few seconds before your opponents find a way to reach you, giving you time to draw your blade and strike them as they run up a ladder, or to simply run away and try to find a rooftop garden to hide in.

If you do attempt to run up a wall, though, your enemies won't give chace immediately. Instead, they'll try to throw rocks at you to knock you off the wall. Rocks will take off one health bar per hit, and they'll also knock you to the ground. If you have the Grab Ledge ability, you can attempt to arrest your fall before you hit the ground, but early on in the game you'll simply be knocked to the ground. Rough stuff.

The Good::D

• Very addictive online offering
• Really stellar graphics from both a technical and an artistic standpoint
• Fully-featured level editor included.
• Satisfying gameplay in story mode.
  

• System requirements can be a little steep
• New chapters added to this version don't fit quite so well with the old ones
• Difficulty could have used some slight tuning.

TOKYO-After putting out games like Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting, SNK combined a bunch of its fighting characters into a little game called King of Fighters. Over the years, KOF developed its own storyline and grew a life of its own, above and beyond any of the games that it took characters from. Now, SNK is seemingly doing the same thing with a new tag-battle game called NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. The game has been out in arcades for some time now, but at the Tokyo Game Show 2005, SNK is showing off a PlayStation 2 version of the game.

NeoGeo Battle Coliseum takes characters from King of Fighters, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, Mark of the Wolves, Samurai Shodown, Last Blade, King of the Monsters, World Heroes, Metal Slug, Aggressors of Dark Kombat, Kizuna Tag Battle, and Athena. It also has a couple of all-new characters. This new and often redrawn amalgamation of fighters are selected two at a time and placed into a tag-battle-****fighting game, where you can switch between your two characters at any time.

The character choices in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum are pretty cool, though NeoGeo fans will probably be able to name at least one character that they wish were in the game. Ours? Heavy D!, obviously. But it's just neat to see characters from the World Heroes universe again. And being able to play as Marco from Metal Slug is an interesting and weird addition that you wouldn't expect. The mixture of fighting and non-fighting characters almost makes the game feel like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, which threw in a whole lot of weird characters from Capcom's history.

Graphically, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum looks pretty good on the PS2, though the Atomiswave-powered arcade original does have more vibrant colors. However, the PlayStation 2 version will feature online play and a few extra, though standard, modes, like survival and practice.

NeoGeo Battle Coliseum is expected to be released in Japan later this year on the PlayStation 2. No North American release has been announced at this time.

A old game but it rocks.Here are some good and bad about the game.Look through:

The Good:

The actual races are fun

Strong online stat tracking.

The Bad:

Too much meaningless driving to get between events

Heavy product placement makes the game feel like you're playing a big ad

Cross-genre soundtrack is too varied to give the game a cohesive sound.(this article is taken by gamspot)

Codemasters releases new information on the upcoming rerelease of its ****c soccer game.

Plenty of great stories came out of Microsoft's X06 event in Barcelona last year, but the most exciting news for many attendees was the announcement that Sensible World of Soccer is headed to Xbox Live Arcade this year. Little else was said about the game at the event, but that didn't stop it from getting the loudest cheer of the day during a briefing that also included the announcements of Project Gotham Racing 4 and Halo Wars, as well as exclusive downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV. Codemasters has recently started releasing information on the game to the SWOS faithful via its official forums, and we're so excited for this one that we decided it'd be rude not to share that info with you.

Although Sensible World of Soccer first graced the Amiga in 1994, the upcoming Xbox 360 and Windows Vista game will be based on the 96/97 version, which is generally considered to be the best game in the series. Like many Xbox Live Arcade games, SWOS will include two versions of the game--an emulation of the original Amiga source code and a reworked game with high-definition visuals, improved audio, and new gameplay features. Online play and leaderboards will be supported by both versions.

The 96/97 version of SWOS was played using only a single button, and this will still be the case if you opt to play the original game rather than the updated one. You'll be able to use either the analog stick or the directional pad for player movement, and if you're playing on a PC, you'll also have the option to use keyboard controls, of course.

The Xbox Live Arcade version of Sensible World of Soccer is currently scheduled for release this summer, while the PC version for Vista-based machines will follow later in the year. We look forward to bringing you more information as soon as it becomes available.

AS YOU KNOW NOW THERE ARE MANY VERSION'S OF NEED FOR SPEED.(NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED,NEED FOR SPEED UNLEASHED,NEED FOR SPEED UNDERGROUND,NEED FOR SPEED PROSTREET,NEED FOR SPEED CARBON ETC)ALLTHIS GAMES ARE POPULAR AND ROCKING TO PLAY.

BUT MOST OF THEM WILL BE THINKING WHAT'S THIS NEED FOR SPEED UNLEASHED.YES ITS THE 5th PART OF NEED FOR SPEED GAMING.AMAZING GAME AND HAS GOOD GRACHICS.AS IT IS THE OLD VERSION IT HAS NO STORY(LIKE NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED)BUT IT IS A SUPERB GAME.

SIZE OF THE GAME:2.03MB

HAVING AMAZING CARS HAS MADE IT A WONDERFUL GAME.BUT LIKE (NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED) IT NEVER HAS DIFFERENT COMPANY CARS BUT ONLY PORCHE CARS ARE AVAILABLE IN THIS GAME