Preview: The Fight

by Kyle Orland on Aug 18th 2010 8:20PM



Sony had a new, roughly 60% complete build of The Fight on hand at a pre-Gamescom press event, and I have to say, my experience with the game couldn't have been more different from the one Chris Buffa had a few months ago (when the game still had its "Lights Out" subtitle). For one, I found the artificial intelligence to be at least competitive, if not overly hard. My computerized opponent -- a thin, bouncy, tattooed Asian gangster -- came at me constantly, using quick jabs to take advantage if I opened myself up with too many attacks and not enough guarding. The player who went before me actually lost to his computer opponent, a beefy black man in a wifebeater who countered an endless series of high, straight punches with some accurate low body blows.

For another, I didn't notice any discernible lag between my real-life motions and the punches on screen. That's not to say there wasn't any lag -- in fact, there probably was -- but just that it wasn't easily discernible in the heat of the battle. I didn't find myself making a punching motion and then waiting for a second to see if the game would recognize it as a punch or anything like that. On the contrary, the game seemed pretty good about moving my on-screen fighter's arm almost immediately when I moved my own.

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It's hard to understate the importance of the game's accurate punch tracking. I started out my demo just stretching my arms all around me and marveling at the range of motion my on-screen fighter could mimic. After that I tried every type of punch I could think of, from quick high jabs to low crosses, slow powerful uppercuts to hand-over-hand punching bag whirligigs, and the game handled them all accurately and without a complaint. After a few minutes I got brave enough to try some simple combinations -- a few short right jabs followed by a left hook seemed to really catch my opponent off guard. I never felt nearly this level of precision with Wii boxing simulations like those in Wii Sports or Punch Out!

In fact, my short session with The Fight felt a lot like the future we were promised when the Wii remote was first introduced years ago -- a new way of playing where the game actually senses your movements, rather then just sensing any old controller movement. I have no idea if the final game will have enough depth to stand up to repeated play, but the sheer "gee whiz" impact of that first play session is going to stay with me for quite a while.

Impressions: Time Crisis: Razing Storm on PS Move
7:00 PM on 07.30.2010 | Samit Sarkar



Light gun games haven't quite gone the way of the dodo, but I've generally considered them to only be worth playing for a few minutes at an arcade (before I get tired of them). But with the launch of PlayStation Move this September, they may be poised for a comeback. Namco Bandai is doing their part, packaging ports of the arcade versions of three light gun games -- Time Crisis: Razing Storm, Time Crisis 4 (2007), and Deadstorm Pirates -- and releasing the bundle as Time Crisis: Razing Storm in North America this fall.

I got to check out Razing Storm on Move at a Sony press event in New York last week. I played by myself for a while, and then tried out same-screen co-op with a Namco Bandai representative. I can confirm that it is an on-rails light gun game where you shoot many, many people and robots. But I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed it, and I think that the amount of fun I had was tied to PlayStation Move.



If you're not pressing any buttons, you'll be behind an impenetrable metal shield. Holding the Move button will have you pop out from behind the shield, ready to fire with the trigger. Instead of "firing" off the screen to reload, you'll automatically do so when you re-enter cover. Razing Storm is the first Time Crisis game with destructible environments, and while it isn't exactly Red Faction: Guerrilla-level destructibility, it's still fun to take out some scaffolding and watch the enemies who were standing on it collapse in a heap on the floor. A second player can hop in at any time, and that brings in the wonderful cooperative-yet-competitive element of "my friend and I are kicking ass together, but I'm going to kick more ass than him."

Move matters here because of its accuracy, the benefits of which were palpable. I've often found the targeting in light gun games to be finicky, but I had no trouble racking up headshots in Razing Storm. That was Arcade Mode, but Razing Storm also includes a single-player Story Mode that plays like an FPS -- you have freedom of movement around the stages. Here, you'll play with the Move Navigation Controller in your left hand and the wand in your right; flicking the wand upward (i.e., away from the screen) will put you into cover. (I didn't get a chance to see the Story Mode.) You'll also use the FPS controls in the eight-player Online Battle Mode, which features shooter standards such as deathmatch.



All three games in the bundle will be playable with PlayStation Move (and the optional Move Shooting Attachment), the Guncon 3 (which came with the PS3 version of Time Crisis 4), or a regular PlayStation 3 controller. Time Crisis 4 and Deadstorm Pirates will feature online leaderboards, although I presume you'll be stuck with using your PSN name instead of a clever arcade-cabinet standby such as "ASS" or "FUK." Pricing is yet to be determined, but the bundle will be available right around the launch of PlayStation Move. Depending on the cost, it could be worth picking up for some mindless shooting fun.