Mobile, Connect 4 Review

By Chris Reed/SlideToPlay.com, GameSpot

Over the years, the Milton Bradley game Connect 4 has proven to be timeless fun for anyone past the age of plastic pieces being a choking hazard. Sure, it may be little more than a glorified version of tic-tac-toe, but there's enough complexity involved to occupy you and a friend on a rainy afternoon, and it won't eat up a weekend like a game of Monopoly or Risk.

Connect 4 is a bare-bones version of the board game, with few additions.

For anyone deprived as a child, here's how Connect 4 works: You and your opponent play with pieces of two different colors, and you take turns dropping pieces of your color one at a time into a vertical grid. The first player to get four pieces in a row (vertically, horizontally, or diagonally) wins.

One thing is immediately clear in the Palm Pre version of this game: The developers did not go above and beyond the call of duty. Assigned the task of making a cell phone version of Connect 4, they fulfilled their duty with as little flair as possible, ending up with something that does re-create the board game, but in a sterile and visually bland way.

The only graphics you'll encounter in the game are a start menu and a view of the board. Control input is limited to tapping where you want your chip to fall, and it works just fine. Tap the screen, see your chip drop, watch your opponent go, and so on. It's simple and effective.

The available gameplay modes are single-player, pass-and-play (which lets you take a turn and then hand your Pre over to your opponent to take his or her turn), and online multiplayer. In single-player mode, you can choose from three difficulty levels, but even the hardest one isn't all that difficult to beat. When you tap the online multiplayer option, the game tries to link you up with someone else looking to play at the same time. The longest it will wait is one minute, at which point the request times out, and you're booted back to the menu screen. Unfortunately, there isn't much of a Connect 4 online community at the time of this writing.

The goal is to make a line of four chips of the same color.

While the Pre version of the game may be wholly uninspired, there's a reason Connect 4 has stuck around all these years: It's a pretty fun game at its core. Like checkers, it's a simple game, but some strategies work better than others. At the same time, the Pre is a powerful little device that's capable of a whole lot more. The best you'll get from this game is a tiny fireworks animation that pops out of the winning line of chips at the end of a match.

Even though this version does a good job of reproducing the core gameplay of Connect 4, it's as basic a download as you're likely to find. It has enough gameplay for fans of the original game or players who aren't looking for much else--otherwise, there isn't much here to keep you around.

Mobile, Boggle Review

By Chris Reed/SlideToPlay.com, GameSpot

Playing the original board game Boggle is a fun but cumbersome experience. You cram 16 jumbo-sized letter cubes into a plastic container, clamp on the lid, and give it a vigorous shake, which makes an incredible racket. Then you shuffle the contraption until the cubes fall into separate slots on the game board and you end up with 16 random letters faceup on a grid. You then set a timer, and everyone tries to come up with as many different words as possible by stringing together adjacent letters. Fortunately for those of us who keep losing the plastic letter pieces, EA has done a remarkable job of replicating the fun of the original game on the Palm Pre, while adding a few elements to the mix that take advantage of the platform.

You have to form words out of a jumble of lettered blocks.

The Pre version of Boggle offers a few different game modes, such as the single-player classic mode, which will make Boggle fans feel right at home. A single tap on the screen sets up the board and also starts a three-minute timer. To enter words, you can either drag your finger across individual letters to spell out words (which is somewhat problematic since you can accidentally highlight the wrong letter), or just tap letters, which works better.

All words you've formed appear in the window next to the game board, along with each word's point value. At the end of the round, your score goes into the leaderboard and you're shown how many words you found out of the total number possible. There's also a list of all possible words, and you can tap any of them to see where they are on the game board.

Multiplayer comes in several varieties: online, pass-and-play, and self-score mode. Online multiplayer tries to connect you to another player by waiting for someone else to try to start a game too. It searches for a minute before timing out and asking you to try again later. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, there isn't a huge multiplayer contingent out there, so it's unlikely you'll happen upon an opponent. Pass-and-play mode requires you to play a match on your own and then hand the phone to someone else so that person can play using the exact same board. Self-score mode limits the amount of computer input to nothing, mimicking the board game. It sets up a board with random letters and starts a three-minute countdown. No player inputs are accepted, so you have to write your answers on a sheet of paper, and you can score them however you want.

The "advanced" menu has some interesting options that wouldn't be feasible on a real Boggle board. A "panic flip" game plays normally until 20 seconds are left on the clock, at which point the game gives you a totally new arrangement of letters. A game with "portal cubes" enabled swaps the first and last letter of each word you play, making the game board dynamic, interesting, and occasionally frustrating.

The game also offers a number of extras. A stats screen mines all kinds of data, detailing everything from your best games to your average time between finding words. You can also unlock up to 18 achievements by completing various tasks.

You can let the computer keep track of your words and score, or you can do it yourself.

And Boggle looks stellar. The colors are bright, the contours are bold, and the interface is clean. The only thing that's missing is sound. There's no sound at all in this version of the game. Though the lack of sound and the lack of multiplayer competition out there aren't ideal, the Pre version of Boggle otherwise has a surprising amount to offer. The game's various modes and extra features offer plenty to do for both solo players and those who like to play with nearby friends, and best of all, there are no more annoying plastic parts to lose.

Xbox360, Lost Planet 2 Update: X10 Impressions With Gears of War and Resident Evil Character Skins

News by Ricardo Torres, GameSpot

We got the chance to try out the recently announced character skins for Lost Planet 2 that let players blast their way through E.D.N. III as Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago from Gears of War or Albert Wesker from Resident Evil 5. The levels on display were taken from the second chapter of the game's first episode (the game is broken up into episodes that are made up of separate chapters). We played through two chapters, set in a tropical jungle on the once frozen planet.

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The two levels had us playing with a team of four human and AI-controlled characters. We played as Dominic Santiago, while our teammates included Marcus Fenix, Albert Wesker, and one of the standard pirate characters from Lost Planet 2. The gameplay wasn't affected by the cosmetic changes offered by the three selectable skins; all the characters handle the same and feature the same animations as the game's regular cast.

The first level we played was a straightforward race to activate data posts scattered throughout a lush jungle. Although the posts were easy enough to find thanks to the onscreen radar, activating them was a challenge because of the mobs of akrid. Apparently the alien critters are very anti-human, regardless of any cool skins on display, which made for a whole lot of shooting. While the akrid are a real drag when you're trying to get your data-post activating done, their weak spots are helpfully highlighted by bright orange markings that let you know exactly where to aim. The level featured a smattering of weapons and grenades to collect, which made killing the alien bugs an easy thing.

Once we cleared the level by activating the required data posts, we went right into a boss fight with an unpleasant akrid miniboss. Known as Queen Gore Chryatis, it's a massive multilimbed creature intent on murdering some humanoids. The creature popped out of a watery area and flailed its arms to smack anything within range. In addition, the critter shot out a frigid beam that froze anything it hit. When hit you're stuck in a block of ice, immobilized, until you break free by moving the left analog stick from side to side. While the queen made an imposing impression, it had plenty of colored weak spots to shoot at. The most useful targets on the creature were the two main arms it uses for flailing and ground pounding. The smaller arms on its massive body were more cosmetic but did set the queen on you if you blasted them off. The main weak spot on the massive creature is its head, which features a bright spot that amounts to a massive bull's-eye for you to target. The fight is tricky due to the queen's attacks and the general chaos that happens when four ice pirates are standing around being attacked by a creature that appears to be out of their league. However, as we've seen in demos of the game before, a little bit of teamwork and ingenuity can do wonders in the face of overwhelming odds.

The visuals look stunning, and we can't go on enough about the game's performance, which is smooth, stable, and fast. The jungle locale featured sharp detail and shiny water effects, which looked great. The various effects for explosions, weapon fire, and the queen's attacks popped out in spectacular fashion. On the more subtle side of things, character animation was smooth and well done, albeit a bit more disturbing than we would have liked: Marcus, Dom, and Wesker's motions, especially taunts, weren't quite in character. Lost Planet 2's wide array of customizable poses and animations may unsettle diehard Gears fans not ready to see Dom and Marcus pose and strut like supermodels.

This tiny slice of Lost Planet 2 left us hungry to play more of the promising game. The action has a good feel to it and is complemented by the impressive visuals. The addition of the unlockable skins is a nice extra, especially for Gears fans who just can't quit Dom and Marcus. Speaking of the skins, for those wondering, while Wesker is confirmed to be unlockable across the PS3 and 360 versions of LP2, there's no official word about Dom or Marcus--though we're pretty sure the odds of the dynamic duo's appearance in the PS3 game are exceptionally low. Lost Planet 2 is slated to ship this May on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Look for more on the game soon.

Xbox360, Crackdown 2 Update - Hang Gliding, Mission Objectives, and Zombie Hit-and-Runs

News by Shaun McInnis, GameSpot

Crackdown was one of the unsung heroes of the Xbox 360's early years, garnering more attention for the included invite to the Halo 3 multiplayer beta than for the game itself. That was a bit of a tragedy, because the game was a whole lot of fun, showing what you can do when you combine an open-world action formula with a maddeningly addictive progression system that has you seeking out agility orbs up and down buildings to become an ever-more-powerful force of destruction. The sequel, developed by Ruffian Games, is due out for release this year, and we just had a look at it earlier today at Microsoft's X10 preview event.

The demo was divided into two distinct halves. The first showed how some of the new story missions will work, while the second was of the free-form sandbox variety, showing what sort of trouble you can get up to when you cast aside any preconceptions that you're a force for the greater good. The story mission involved a relatively low-level agent (that is, before you've picked up too many of those agility orbs) attempting to infiltrate the stronghold of a group called The Cell. This faction is a sort of militia made up of people who are angry at the Agency (you, in other words) and blame them for the zombie freak outbreak that has plagued the city. With the city totally cleaned of gangs after your work in the first game, these two groups are your only enemies in the sequel.

The mission involved gaining entrance to a Cell stronghold in order to procure a piece of valuable technology that they'd stolen from the Agency. It all took place in a shipping yard filled with steel crates and hinted at a couple of the new features you can find in story missions. One is the new goal structure that has you going through multiple objectives and sub-objectives, as opposed to the extremely minimalist approach to mission design from the first game that was more or less just "Go here, kill these thugs, and then kick the gang leader off a building to win!" Now there's a bit more variety to these objectives, and you'll find some storytelling during the missions as well. Another new feature: midmission supply crates, so that you can stock up on weapons and vehicles without having to run back to the Agency building.

With this mission over, the demo turned to the type of activities you can pursue when you take things at your own pace. Crackdown 2 offers a day-night cycle that changes the world substantially when darkness hits. The zombie freaks take over the city at night, turning the streets into an ocean of shambling monsters. Ruffian producer James Cope, who was manning the controller for the demo, made it a point to hop into a car and quite simply plow through this wave of freaks. They bounced off the front fender like pinballs, which, well, might be something you can technically do with civilians in the game, but now you can do guilt-free with freaks. Later in the game, you'll eventually take to the freaks' underground lairs and fight them on their own turf, where you might find some more-powerful enemies. As an example, Microsoft Game Studios lead designer John Noonan hinted at the idea of former superpowered agents becoming infected. All we know is that if there's one thing scarier than a guy who can climb skyscrapers, it's a guy who can climb skyscrapers and has a thirst for human flesh.

After violating every traffic rule known to man, the demo moved on to some high-flying antics. One of the new pieces of equipment available to you when you progress to a fairly high level is the wing suit. This beauty effectively turns you into a flying squirrel when you leap from a tall building. You can glide, swoop, or simply dive-bomb straight to the earth below, with different-colored contrails coming off your limbs to denote whether you're delaying or accelerating the effects of gravity. As in the first game, you can strike the ground with a devastating thud and clear out a large radius of enemies.

The team also managed to get their hands on the new agency helicopter, which looks like an average helicopter until you stop to realize that, like the rest of the agency vehicles, its look and function will drastically improve as your driving level ranks up. We're eager to see what else Crackdown 2 will offer in terms of the leveling up and agility orb system, as the original game seemed to have struck a great balance with those progression elements. You can expect to see more coverage leading up to the as-yet-unannounced 2010 release date.