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[Deftech]

http://www.computera...y.php?id=119898

3 Jun 05   This is it. For the first time in almost a decade, the hallowed halls of legendary UK developer Rare were unchained, and we were allowed exclusive access to the development teams working on the Xbox 360 launch titles, Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power. The easiest way to describe how we felt would be to compare it with a trip to Charlie Bucket's in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We may have even skipped our way inside, past all the security cameras and motion sensors, up the stairs and into a room filled with sweets and massive plasma TV sets.

Since MS snapped Rare up from Nintendo in 2002, the one title everyone's been feverishly talking about is Perfect Dark Zero, but to no avail. Rare refused to talk shop and so did MS. Until now...

"Development on PDZ has been on and off for about three years," explains Lee Schuneman, group program manager at Rare. "The game has been in full production for around two years. We like to be innovative and design-led, so if something isn't working for us it has to be changed. That's the way it is, and this is why our games take so long to come out. We do recognise that we have to change though, and start getting the games to come out on time." Hallelujah!

Just to recap, Perfect Dark on the N64 starred Joanna Dark as a secret agent that worked for a mega corporation involved in all kinds of dodgy things. Perfect Dark Zero is a prequel, and is set around four years prior to the events in the original game. We're told that it's essentially an 'origin of characters' story, where we find out who Joanna Dark really is, and how she became the agent you see today. Dark is the key to the franchise; everything revolves around what happens to her and what she does, much in the same way Tomb Raider focuses on the adventures of Lara Croft.

"Today we're not going to talk about the single-player or the story," says Schuneman, "we're saving that for later on in the year. Today is all about the multiplayer." A bit gutting to be sure, but we'll take any information on PDZ we can get. But first up, we were given a brief glimpse of a single-player level that showcased Dark tooling up in an elevator, before walking out into an underground car park.

Let's get one thing straight: she looked good, damn good. There was no sign of the cute, cartoon Joanna that was revealed when the Rare/MS deal was announced. She now looks a lot more 'real world' and dare we say it... Lara Croft. We only got a quick glance, and just as the bad guys ended up on motorbikes for a shootout, Rare stopped it and went on to talk about multiplayer. It's obvious that MS wants PDZ to be a flagship Live shooter for the Xbox 360 launch later this year.

Visually the game looked rock solid, with textures on walls, objects, vehicles and floors putting other games to shame - including Halo 2. But as the game wasn't yet up and running on the final hardware, you can expect even greater things from the visual side as the game nears launch.

After being demoed two multiplayer maps we were let loose on the game for ourselves, playing deathmatch against various members of the PDZ development team. We got to play around on an underground subway map and one set in a desert. One important option to note was that each map will play host to more than one version. So if you're playing against four, eight, 16 or even 64 mates, there will be different versions of the same map, and each will cater for the amount of players on board.

A number of vehicles will be available in multiplayer games, ranging from troop carriers to motorbikes. We had a go with the jetpack, which is ideal for scouting out the terrain ahead. It's not the toughest vehicle on the battlefield, and you can be shot down quite easily if you push your luck too much. But all vehicles can be repaired if they take a beating, and the advantages of the jetpack are that it has unlimited ammo and fuel as well as being fast.

Team and single-player Deathmatch were the main dishes of the day. Capture the Flag and a secret mode called Dark Ops (objective-based games) are currently being prepped for the final game. Expect a few more in there too by the end. When playing team games in PDZ, your squad will spawn in an area littered with weapons and armour. The idea is that you tool up first, and then jump into the map ready and raring to go. You're allowed to hold only a certain number of weapons at once, and these are determined by how big they are. You can hold a pistol, small rifle and SMG if you want, but if you like the bigger guns, you'll be seriously limited in your choice of second weapon.

The action was fast and frantic (more so than Halo 2), but not too chaotic that it's impossible to control your aim. Headshots really do count, and during the demo, we were shown how players' armour physically deteriorates when shot at. Controls pretty much followed the Halo set-up, and playing using the new pad felt good. It's very similar in feel to the Controller S, and all the buttons are where you'd expect them. The only noticeable difference was the lack of any Black and White buttons. To make up for this, there are two new shoulder buttons located just above the triggers.

 Being the stealthy operative that Miss Dark is, she has a few tricks up her sleeve that Sam Fisher would be proud of. These can also be used in multiplayer and they come in very handy. Most weapons, for example, have a secondary function. Some fling out grenades while others give you super-spy abilities. You can cloak yourself, making your character invisible to enemies, or you can survey the area around with a few different vision modes. The Threat Indicator picks out any enemies in your field of vision, and is extremely useful when searching out hidden enemies. There's also an X-Ray mode that allows you to see through objects, though the Rare guys clammed up when we asked if enemies could be shot through walls.

Our sneak peek played as good as we thought it would, and looked the part too. It's important to remember there's still a few months of work to be done, and we've not really seen anything of the single-player yet. But our teaser presentation did indeed tease, and we're looking forward to seeing what lies in store for Joanna and the single-player game. Keep your eyes peeled.

[wasting]

ughh cant wait!!

[holla45]

QUOTE(wasting @ Jun 3 2005, 02:25 PM)

ughh cant wait!!

[Andy51]

Wow... I can't wait for PDZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Twasi]

Sounds incredible, hopefuly you can't shoot through walls =( I wouldn't mind being able to if you couldnt see through them, but owell if you can I hope they incorparated it well. I think this game will be great if they can dish out a TON of maps for it, the more maps the better, the main reason Halo 2 gets rather boring at times is because of the limited amount of maps. I also like the idea of just scaling up the same map but for more amounts of players and vise versa. overall looks like it will be a very solid game.

[Carlo210]

Well, it is going to have 6 maps. More will obviously come.

The level that are in all the pics, the desert town one, is supposedly as big as all of the halo2 maps put together.

[towelie1098]

 but i guess the whole map would only be released with 50+

[Andy51]

50+ is sheer insane, i have no idea how those people do it.

[thebroken]

im so excited