Milestone Gamers' Day Impressions

While the future of the Xbox 360 in the Indian market is relatively secure, the PS3’s place is still a little iffy. The lack of quality software is among the main reasons (apart from the wallet-butchering price tag), but from what we’ve seen, that just might change in the near future.

Even if it doesn’t, it’s good to see publishers and distributors like Milestone Interactive and EA make an effort to get as many titles to the Indian market as possible. In fact they invited us to their Mumbai office yesterday, where they showcased (and gave us a shot at) some of their future releases…

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

We had a chance to play an early build of the game a while back (again, courtesy of Milestone) and quite frankly, we weren’t too impressed. The texturing seemed inadequate and the gameplay seemed really loosely packed back then, leaving a lot to be desired. This time, however, we laid our hands on a near-complete build of the game, which plays much better and wasn’t disappointing at all.

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Apart from the clean visuals and the gradual way the game leads you into the action, what impressed me most was how tight the gameplay has become. Nathan Drake (the game’s playable protagonist) controls as responsively as (if not more than) Lara Croft in Tomb Raider: Legend, allowing you to jump across ledges and hanging over bottomless pits with ease. It certainly seems like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune will live up to the expectations they set, and be a real treat for fans of the platform/action genre.

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Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction

The other big title we spent some time with was Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, and we really loved every minute of it. The game looks as vivid and lively as most of Pixar’s animated movies, with enough happening in the foreground and the backdrop to make the game’s world seem like it’s brimming with life.

It fits in perfectly with the look of the game; even the gameplay’s action-packed and there’s not a single dull moment. Both the platforming and machine bashing action have been designed to perfection. You have all your high-flying, devastating melee moves, along with a ray gun that’s got a sticky reticule to help you aim in the heat of battle.

The fact that the game has a light-hearted storyline allows for many segments of varied gameplay, from freefalling off a road while dodging flying cars, to skateboarding on steel pipes high above the ground – each of which is more intense (in a fun way) than the other.

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The Simpsons Game

They’ve finally started optimizing multiplatform games for the PS3, which is clearly evident in the Simpsons game. The game boasts some really clean, cel-shaded animation that’s so close to the show that you’re bound to love it. The faces of the characters seem a little skewed though, but it isn’t a deterrent when you’re burping your ass off using Homer.

The missions in the game allow you to play as either one of the Simpons, each honing different abilities. You can even play the entire game in co-op; it uses a horizontal schemed split screen though, which I found really restrictive and annoying. The fact that they’ve parodied so many games allows for a lot of gameplay variety.

Some segments in the game do get a little monotonous, but maybe it’s just me. Still, there’s no denying that the humor isn’t as well-timed as in the show or the Simpsons movie.

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Medal of Honor: Airborne

Here’s an example of a highly unoptimized multiplatformed title. The game runs flawlessly on the Xbox 360 and PC, but on the PS3 the frame rates slow to a crawl. It might just be the build we tried, but the slideshow-like gameplay was so horrendous that you might just want to steer clear of this title if it stays this way. I hope they fix these issues, since MoH:A is a great game and it’d make a good addition to the PS3’s limited library of titles with great multiplayer content.

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The Eye of Judgment_

Among the bigger titles was Sony Computer Entertainment’s own unique turn-based card battle game – the Eye of Judgment. The game utilizes the PlayStation Eye (the PS3 camera peripheral) and works sort of like an action-packed version of chess. The game revolves around nine playing squares that start off blank, and your aim as a player is to capture at least five to win. Each player gets a single turn in one round, where he picks up a random card. This can be used to summon a creature on one of the squares.

These creatures use elemental attacks to fight what the opposing player summons, and in the end whoever captures five spots wins. The game gives you mana each turn, which you can use to cast spells or move around in on the playing tiles, complicating things further. This is certainly not a game for the masses; only those who like tabletop RPGs and have the required patience will like it.

Milestone has no plans of launching the title in retail (for good reason), but they might take web orders for the few aficionados out there.