Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

EA launched Need for Speed Undercover in Delhi today (more on that soon) and while there, we met Ashim Mathur, the National Marketing Manager of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. Earlier, Microsoft India had said they expected Gears of War 2 to help boost sales of their console, and today Mathur said that while they can’t reveal the exact figures, sales for the 360 went up by 30 to 45 per cent in the wake of Gears 2.

Of course, while exclusives like Gears of War 2 and Fable 2 might have been important in pushing the sales for the 360 up, the games came out around Diwali, a major festival here in India, and traditionally when people buy a lot of gifts for their friends and family. In terms of spending, it’s our Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, so Microsoft’s huge surge seems a lot more questionable all of a sudden.

Still, in India, Microsoft’s library is clearly doing well, something independent retailers confirmed for us, while Sony’s new ad campaign is still gathering steam, the Wii remains an import. So, the XBox 360 has apparently got a lead in the console wars here, for now anyway.

Deus Ex 3, the sequel to Ion Storm’s only critically and commercially successful series, is currently in production at the new Eidos Montreal Studios and is expected to release in 2010.

You play as Adam Jansen, a security guard in the biomedical company known as Sarif. For Jansen, it seems like one of those days…until men in suits suddenly appear and kill everyone. A revenge quest takes priority but if the originals taught us anything, it’s that you can never really be sure who or what to trust.

The game takes place in the year 2027 - more than two decades before the original and four decades before the sequel. Maybe, we’ll discover what led to Deus Ex’s dystopian future (who pressed the big red button and what not).

The originals captured the conspiracy theory meets “all-encompassing gameplay freedom formula”, which defined the series perfectly. The original Deus Ex met with great success, going on to win several awards including BAFTA’s Game of the Year award, even though the sequel did comparatively poorer. Unfortunately, Ion Storm has since ceased operations. Can Eidos revitalize Deus Ex like Bethesda did for Fallout 3? Time, and a lot of it, will tell.

by Ravi Sinha

Save the princess? Avert/destroy a disastrous evil? Cold cuts in the long term. Sure, most heroes would jump (some literally) at the prospect of flitting from castle to castle in search of their fair ladies. Following any romantic thread, even if it allows certain extra concessions - witnessing the birth of the useless emo champion; capable of wiping out entire armies with lots of sparkly.

Every once in a while, a different kind of hero comes along. And we mean the kind who doesn’t give a damn about the consequences, as long as he’s in the right. Some dub them villains; others call them anti-heroes. However, if two words could properly convey the heroic dismembering of a baddie when he thinks you want to negotiate, its “bad-ass”. Here are our top ten picks for the bad-asses of gaming.
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by Ravi Sinha

The hype has died down. The critics have answered. Copies sold have numbered in the millions. Has Gears of War 2 lived up to the expectations of its fans? Not an easy question to answer. After all, for every moment of the original Gears faithfully carried over, the needling feeling of some thing more creeps in. For every successful Horde match completed, there are Matchmaking sessions so painful, that they could give reality TV producers new ideas.

Yes, we liked it and yes, we’d like to answer the door but we’re still too busy playing it, however, if Epic wants Gears of War 3 to be remembered for the blockbuster finale of finales, which justifies its publicity as well; it would do well to heed the following.
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Epic Games and Microsoft announced that weekend sales of the X360-exclusive shooter Gears of War 2 reached 2 million units worldwide.
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