The plot is a simple one and is told through a comic strip style in every cutscene. You are part of a group of mercenaries known as the Renegades and your mission is to stop the evil overlord ‘Inferno’ from destroying the world at all costs. There are four characters to choose from and, as you would expect from an all-out, balls-to-the-wall action game, Renegade Ops is not afraid to dole out the action title clichés even before you step in your car.

L-R: Gunnar, Armand, Roxy, Diz, Inferno and Bryant

You’ve got good looking white guy, token tough black guy, rock/biker chick and assassin girl, who all have their own cars and special attacks however that’s as far as the difference between the characters goes. Each car drives exactly the same, so who you choose solely depends on your mood. I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more variety among the characters apart from different special weapons, maybe involving a class system of sorts.

The setting of Renegade Ops changes over its nine missions quite dramatically. From the jungle to the beach, to battling a huge aircraft carrier and finally on to an underground labyrinth of tunnels and traps as you negotiate Inferno’s base. The map is completely open plan so you can get from point to point using a variety of different paths. However, the main missions have time limits which restrict you straying away from the beaten path too much. This is a shame as the game on the whole is very well presented, so it’s disappointing that you don’t get a chance to see it all. The explosions are loud and satisfying and small buildings collapse into dust as you smash through them at full speed.

Renegade Ops’ main control system revolves around the two analogue thumbsticks; the left controls your vehicle’s movement, the right controls which direction your primary weapon fires (and you only need to aim it to unleash a hellfire of bullets at the enemy). It’s an interesting idea that does take a bit of getting used to, especially if you’re suited to using the shoulder buttons to control your vehicle, but when you get the hang of it, the control system works well, a necessity in a game as fast paced as this. Enemies come at you from all sides so your best bet is to keep moving and shooting as the action is frenetic from the outset.

Of course, it’s not just you that can take part in this insane action; up to 4 friends can take the wheels of their respective death machines via split screen co-op or over Xbox Live so you can all work as a team to take Inferno and his henchmen down and save the day. However, in practice, tactics go out in the window as it becomes a free-for-all for the powerups and health which can leave the less assertive players taking an early bath. Until that point Renegade Ops is a fun experience with a few cohorts, although I felt I got more enjoyment playing through the single player on my own.

One of the things that really irked me about Renegade Ops, however is the voice acting. It’s some of the worst I’ve seen since the first Resident Evil and that’s saying something. The leader of the Renegades ‘Bryant’ is your typical army general type, albeit with a walrus moustache who’s been given the voice of Shaft, despite being white. Similarly, Inferno’s über-bad-guy role is punctuated with some of the most over-the-top acting I’ve ever heard. Some say this just adds to the ‘cheesiness’ of Renegade Ops, but ended up annoying the hell out of me at times.

As you frag your way through Inferno’s almost never-ending waves of bad guys and complete the various main and side missions, you gain experience points which can be used to level up your vehicle’s defensive, offensive and special abilites. However, you can only have a maximum of four powers active at one time, as they don’t stack like we’ve seen in games like Borderlands. This creates an air of tactics for Renegade Ops.

On the face of things, this game looks like a brainless shooter but as I got further in I started to mix up the abilities depending on the mission ahead. If I kept dying at a certain point, I went back to the talent tree and see what wasn’t working, and really thought about what ability suited the situation.

Talking of dying, you better get used to it because that’s what you’ll be doing a lot of when you first pick up Renegade Ops. You begin with 3 lives and how used to the game you are will determine how often you die. Even though you may have cracked it, Renegade Ops will creep up on you and take one of your precious lives away with something that you had no way of expecting. When those lives have gone, that’s it. Game Over. No Continues. With each mission lasting about 30 minutes, to get almost to the end and then be ganked by a boss and be put back at the start is frustrating to say the least. Here’s where the tactics come in again. You’re forced to move and fire, looking for a chink in the enemies’ armour. You WILL beat Inferno, it’s all a question of when.

Renegade Ops assumes little and promises even less, however what it delivers for under a tenner is some pretty sweet visuals, a tight control system and an extremely fun action gaming experience. It’s like the modern video game version of Rambo or Commando. You’re not expected to take it too seriously. Just have fun blowing stuff up and beating the bad guy like old times. If you suspend your disbelief (and put reality aside), Renegade Ops is one ass-kicking little package.

Renegade Ops is out now on XBLA (1200 MSP), PC and PSN (£9.99).

What struck me right from the off is that I had to concentrate on driving safely as well as avoiding the onslaughts of enemy bullets and rockets. The developers have done a great job in designing the environments, with danger lurking around almost every corner. Cliffs, deep ravines and rivers were all lying in wait to inflict pain if I wasn’t careful where I put my vehicle’s wheels.

On more than one occasion I ended up totalling my vehicle as I desperately tried to blow up another bit of enemy hardware. Each time this meant I was a sitting duck for what seemed an eternity before my vehicle had righted itself. If I’d set the difficulty level to hardcore these would have been fatal mistakes. Even on normal difficulty the enemy put up quite a challenge and quickly removed large portions of my energy bar.

Gameplay is geared around completing primary objectives within a time limit. Fail any primary objective and it’s game over. With optional secondary objectives that can be completed at the same time, I was faced with making a judgement call. Do I risk finishing the secondary objective and getting lots of lovely bonus points added to my score or chill out and just complete the primary objective? Well, in the first mission, I spent a lot of time saving the hostages (secondary objective), racking up the points and then rushing around like a banshee to blow up the missile launchers in time. Which I just managed to do. The large countdown clock at the bottom of screen became very mesmerising when I was running out of time.

Here are a couple of minutes of Xbox 360 gameplay footage from the first mission:

With its great graphics and environments packed with action that provided me with some tense gameplay moments as I rushed to complete all the objectives against the clock, Renegade Ops is well worth a look.

Renegade Ops is due for release on the 14th Sep 2011 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Screenshots

Nintendo 3DS Console:

From the 12th Aug 2011 Nintendo are cutting the price of their 3DS console. Based on the announced price cut in Japan (from £196 to £118), we are looking at ~30% reduction in the UK retail price. As you can see from our Nintendo 3DS – Best Cheap Deals post the price in the UK does vary a lot, so we don’t know yet what price the 3DS is going to drop down to after this cut.

For the early adopters of the system, Nintendo is offering access to the loftily titled “Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Programme.” Members of this program will get to download 10 NES games and 10 Game boy and Game boy Advance games for free. The GBA games will be exclusive to the program members.

Note: You need to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 23:59 on the 11th Aug 2011 in order to qualify for these free games.

NES games:

• Super Mario Bros
• Donkey Kong Jr
• Balloon Fight
• Ice Climber
• The Legend of Zelda
• Plus 5 unannounced games

Game Boy Advance games:

• Yoshi’s Island
• Super Mario Advance 3
• Mario Kart
• Super Circuit, Metroid
• Metroid Fusion
• WarioWare
• Inc.: Minigame Mania
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong
• Plus 2 unannounced games

48-hour SEGA iOS games sale:

SEGA have slashed the prices of their iPod/iPhone and iPad games for 48 hours. Either search for SEGA on the app store or click on this link to open up the SEGA app store page in iTunes.

SEGAs 48-hour iOS game sale

Mass Effect 2:

Until the 1st Aug 2011 there’s 50% off the following DLC packs for Mass Effect 2 on the Xbox 360. Price shown below is the sale price:

• Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker (280 MS Points)
• Mass Effect 2: Arrival – (400 MS Points)
• Mass Effect 2: Kasumi – Stolen Memory (280 MS Points)

Change your gamertag:

From the 2nd – 8th Aug, Microsoft are knocking 30% off the price to change your gamertag. During this period it will cost 560 MS Points to change it. I only wish Sony would offer this service on PSN.

Need For Speed: The Run:

Finishing off today’s news is the “Run to the hills” trailer showing one of the driving stages from the game without a single on-foot section in sight.

Currently in development for the PlayStation network and Xbox LIVE, SEGA Rally online arcade is sounding very much like a greatest hits compilation of SEGA Rally as it’s been inspired by both SEGA Rally Revo and SEGA Rally 3:

We’ve blended our hit arcade racing series with the best elements from the console versions to bring our fans the SEGA Rally experience in compact, downloadable format,” said Haruki Satomi, Vice President of Digital Business at SEGA. “Whether they’re new to the SEGA Rally series or they’ve participated in countless races over the years, we’re confident everyone will enjoy the wide variety of features included in this fan favorite.

Features:

All in all this is fairly standard stuff for an online racer, with nothing really revolutionary in the feature list. However, it is a SEGA Rally game, so I’m hoping there will be a little bit of SEGA magic in there somewhere. Don’t forget SEGA is responsible for these driving classics:

Virtua Racing (1992):

Daytona USA (1994):

SEGA Rally Online Arcade will be available later on in 2011 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

[P.S. You've got some SEGA on your SEGA. - Ed]

Sadly missed by many, the Dreamcast never really made a mainstream impact in the way that Sega would have liked. That was a real shame, as the console was home to some truly groundbreaking games, and a massive line of slightly insane peripherals – motion sensitive fishing rod, anyone?

In the unlikely event that Sega come knocking on my door to ask which titles they should include on their compilation, I have started to gather my thoughts. Topping the wish list for me would be Jet Set Radio, Shenmue and Space Channel 5 – three classic first party titles that are all deserving of a wider audience.

Are there any Dreamcast games you would like to see appear on the compilation? Feel free to comment below. Heck, you never know who might be listening.

Here’s how to do location-based marketing exceptionally well, from SEGA’s Vanquish. Stick your UK postcode in and let rip.

If, like us, your postcode doesn’t get enough coverage (boo!) try your mum’s house, or a previous home. Overseas visitors can always try for Big Ben – SW1A 0AA

Simple but genius! Did your postcode work? Tell us in the comments.

On with the Dexter like blood splatter analysis and the scary looking characters.

Condemned 2 is released on the 4th April 08 on PS3 and Xbox 360

“We thought it was a phase that you’d grow out of.” Sound familiar? Well, these are the words spoken to me by my parents when discussing the topic of videogames. Grow out of what exactly? What’s wrong with playing videogames for the rest of my life, they aren’t just for kids you know?

When Christmas 1984 came around my parents bought a BBC Model B Microcomputer for my older brother. Didn’t make much difference whose it was as I took to it like a fish to water. Little did they know what they had started. My journey into the world of videogames had begun. Yay for parents.

Now fast forward 23 Christmases (yuk, I feel old now). There I was sitting in my parent’s living room playing Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games on the Nintendo Wii with my girlfriend. The rest of my family were sitting on the adjacent sofa looking distinctly disinterested in my rabid wiimote flailing and even turned their collective noses up at Wii Sports (but it was made for old people). The overriding feeling was that adults should be playing with children’s toys at their age, unless it’s with another child. Then it’s all ok, as you’re playing WITH the child and not acting AS a child.

Even in 2007, when the games industry officially overtook the music industry in terms of overall revenue, the sight of an adult playing videogames is still viewed as fairly childish behaviour by a large section of society. Sure there are plenty of children playing videogames. You only have to spend some time on-line using Xbox LIVE to witness many, many teenagers communicating via a mixture of swear words and grunting. However, these teenagers only account for 28.2% of gamers. 47.6% of gamers are aged 18-49 with the remaining 24.2% aged 50+ according to a recent report by Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

Now that I’ve been playing videogames for 23 years now, I’m the average gamer (33 years old). From Elite on the BBC Model B to Army of Two on the Xbox 360 (mmm, not a great game but the most recent one I’ve played) I’ve enjoyed every minute. So that makes me a gamer and an adult. I must be very childish then? Err no, in fact for many aspects of my professional life playing videogames has actually helped me in performing medical procedures (e.g. endoscopy or colonoscopy) as they have developed my hand to eye coordination.

We need to get over the fact that videogames aren’t just for children. Now more than ever they are played by adults, like me, who aren’t your stereotypical gamer (long hair, poor social skills and personal hygiene). If only the rest of society, in particular politicians, would start behaving like adults towards the games industry and the gamers themselves, we could start making some progress. Or maybe I should give up on that idea and go binge drinking down the pub and start smoking in order to be treated like a “grown up” adult in today’s screwed up society.

Check out these other Blog Banter articles: The Average Gamer, Silvercublogger, shinybento, Unfettered Blather, Boom Stick Brigade, Gamer Unit, Zath!, Man Bytes Blog, Game Couch, Video Game Sandwich, Delayed Responsibility, thoughts and rants, Hawty McBloggy

Whilst the demo was fun whilst it lasted, I’m just not enough of a high score Nazi to want to buy it. I appreciate what Bizarre are trying to do and bring the whole style of killing as something else to try and perfect. Whilst this does add quite of bit of extra spice to running down a corridor and shooting people it does get a little dull after a while. When it comes down to it, I like to play and complete games, rather than to just obsess over high scores. Mostly.

Like all the Project Gotham Racing games, The Club will probably keep you happy for a while before you just can’t be arsed any more.

The Club will be released on 8th Feb 08 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360

It’s officially approved by the Olympic committee for the upcoming Beijing games. They had a lot of influence over the gameplay and their input helped ensure that this isn’t the crappy Wii Sports clone it could have been. Wii Sports is a great game but its lack of depth means that we rarely play it unless we have visitors. It’s just not that engaging compared to… well, pretty much any other game we own.

The Game

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games has over 20 different Olympic sports to play. They’ve chosen a good range of them, too. You have the basic track and field events, like hammer throw, triple jump, sprints, hurdles and relays. There’s also skeet shooting, trampoline, archery and a bunch of swimming and gymnastic events. To top it all off you can unlock Dream events which use the skills you learn from the Olympics and drop you into a more traditional Mario/Sonic fantasy setting. And yes, there is a sprint version of Mario Kart so you can get your fix of cheating flinging lightning bolts at your friends.

The proper sports event are much more detailed than Wii Sports. In general, Wii Sports only modelled a small aspect of the games – for Wii Baseball, you didn’t have to worry too much about the game. You just smack the ball with the right timing and you’re off! The game did all the running and fielding for you. In Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (or MSOG as I shall now call it) they’ve put a lot of work into properly modelling the events.

For archery, you use the Wiimote to draw back your arrow and aim, much as we expected for Zelda: Twilight Princess but didn’t see. You have to worry about the wind direction as well as keeping your aim steady. For Pole Vault, you don’t just run and jump. You have to run, lower the Wiimote to plant the pole at the right time, struggle to spring yourself up to the right height and flip your body over the bar. Each section has its own control style. Passing a baton between relay runners means raising the Wiimote as you would a real baton; rowing needs you to row with the Wiimote and nunchuck; and trampolining involves swinging the wiimote up and down to bounce you to greater and greater heights. Once you’re high enough you have to pull off a complex button combo to finish the acrobatic routine in time for the next bounce. I played it once. And scored a perfect 10. Click on the picture for photographic proof. I like the trampoline section ;)

As for the characters – you can play with your Mii, though I have yet to see how an armless, legless Mii can cope with trampoline or fencing. You can also choose from sixteen characters, eight from the Mario world and eight from Sonic. Each character has its own advantages. Sonic is, unsurprisingly, very fast while Princess Peach is, more surprisingly, good at skill-based events. It’s still balanced so playing Sonic doesn’t mean you’ll win all the speed events. Shadow is just as quick, so playing with your friends doesn’t turn into a race for the best character. Even playing by yourself is entertaining. There will be online leaderboards so you can attempt to beat everyone’s “Olympic” records.

In Summary

It’s great – a fantastic step forwards from Wii Sports. I fully expect Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games to be this year’s family Christmas title. It will be released in the UK on 23rd November 2007. You can preorder it from Play.com

The Bloggers’ Event

As for the event itself… the Wii flat is nice in a crowded kind of way. If you’re going to use a domestic setting to demonstrate a game to seven people, for heaven’s sake put a futon or sofa bed in the tiny bedroom! Sega also had a video camera and did a few interviews with us. With any luck mine, won’t be uploaded anywhere since I’m not much good at off-the-cuff diplomacy. They asked me what I thought of the event and the only thing that came to mind was “You hired people in Mario and Sonic costumes? Seriously, how old do you think we are? Six??” Thankfully, I didn’t say that but all I could come up with was a slightly confused expression, along with a mildly patronised “It was very exciting”. I’m definitely not cut out for videocasting. And I still posed for photos with Giant Mario and Giant Sonic.

It was good afternoon anyway. A fun game and it was nice to meet up with our fellow UK games bloggers, who are apparently all male. The other woman in the photo below was part of the marketing team.

Other blogs there

• Nintendic
• Zath
• British Gaming Blog
• NTSC-UK
• Binary Joy
• Nintendic
• NekoFever