Where’s Jeremy Clarkson when you need him?
It’s been five years since the WRC officially endorsed a game. Well the long wait is all but over, as on October 8th WRC: FIA World Rally Championship will be released. For any impatient Europeans who are eager to play it however, a demo is now available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. So is the game worth five years of anticipation? Well that’s what I endeavoured to find out.

The opening cinematic features a bunch of different rally cars zipping across a bunch of different rally courses, all to the sound of Pendulum’s Witchcraft. Fairly standard really for a rally game, and not unlike the opening to the coverage on Dave. Once past this we get to take a look at the menu, and get an idea of just what the full game has in store for us. While the only available mode in the demo is the single player campaign, and only two stages of it, there are several other modes blacked out on the menu that players can look forward to in the full release. These are:

The Road to the WRC – A mode that allows you to create your own rally team and play through the events of the WRC!
WRC Academy – A glorified tutorial!
Hot Seat – Play against your friends!
Xbox LIVE – Play against other peoples friends!

Back to the campaign and it seems in the full game players will have access to every stage of every rally of the season. Not only that but they will have the choice of playing as drivers from not just the WRC, but the S-WRC, P-WRC and J-WRC. All sounds good so far. It’s only when I began to play through one of the stages that a few problems presented themselves. As I was shooting through Finland in Sébastien Loeb’s Citroën C4 I started to reminisce about playing Colin McRae rally back in the day. While this kind of nostalgia-inspiring may seem good it really isn’t. Not when you consider that the Colin McRae rally I’m referring to was released in 1998, and that this game bears little to no resemblance to its more modern iterations. The Finnish forest looks more like a cardboard cut out that’s been coloured in by a five year old with a pack of Crayola. The cars handle like a greased up drunkard on an ice rink, but lack all the comedy value of such. I understand that rally cars slide, but I have never heard of centrifugal force and a loss of traction putting a car in orbit before. You get the feeling that could quite easily happen here, if not for the natural safety net formed by the cardboard trees.

Needless to say I was not impressed. Of course it may well be an unfair assessment, after all it is only a demo. If this is the shape of things to come however then I strongly recommend that players stay away from this game when it hits store shelves. Hopefully the WRC will get it right next time around. I hope so at least, because it strikes me as a shame that this is the offering rally fans get. Particularly when you compare it to the game series that represent other sports, such as FIFA.

Highway To the Danger Zone
The game opens with the camera panning over an impressively sized valley somewhere in the middle east and eventually coming to rest at Prince Faisal airbase, the H.A.W.X. team’s home away from home. You’re then given control of Colonel David Crenshaw, leader of the H.A.W.X. squadron, and his F-16C Fighting Falcon as he prepares to leave the base on a routine sweep of the area.

After starting your engines you taxi your plane to the runway, which gives you a fantastic look at the detail on display in Prince Faisal. The base is filled with all kinds of colour and noise as jets leave and land, Humvees speed about, and the obligatory PA system shouts military gibberish. Once your plane rockets off the runway and into the sky, the tutorial begins. As you fly between the points marked off on your HUD your illusions of being a world class pilot quickly become shattered, as you come to realise that getting your plane to just turn left or right is somewhat difficult. The control layout is simple enough, right trigger to accelerate, left to brake and the left stick makes the plane both pitch and roll. The controls are also very responsive as you would expect. Nevertheless becoming an ace pilot takes a little work.

"Too close for missiles, I'm switching to guns"

After you’ve got the basics down it’s time to leave the middle east and head to Scotland, home of ginger hair, haggis and the highland games. Here you’re given control of another character, Lieutenant Colin Munro a pilot in the Royal Navy, and another new plane, the Eurofighter Typhoon. It’s here, some 8000ft above the coastline of eastern Scotland that you will practice dogfighting. In combat, players can make use of various weaponry and you will need to master all of these if you want to get anywhere. For air-to-air fights there are heat-seeking missiles and a plane-mounted machine gun or “cannon” and for air-to-ground fights there are air-to-ground missiles, rocket pods and precision bombs. To actually stay in the air long enough to use of any of these rocket-powered death-bringers however, you will need to master various defensive techniques too such as evasive manoeuvres, and the correct use of flares to repel incoming missiles. The tactics involved in flying and fighting in H.A.W.X. 2 are relatively simple but putting them together can be a real challenge, particularly as the enemy AI is quite intelligent. Enemy planes will use flares and dodge incoming missiles, while continually trying to line you up for a shot of their own.

These tutorials serve a dual purpose. Shooting over the valleys surrounding Prince Faisal and zipping past the hills of Aberdeenshire not only allows you to get used to the controls and fighting techniques, but it also allows you to get a good look at the beautiful environments the team at Ubisoft have created. The levels available are vast open areas that provide plenty of room to spread your metallic wings, dotted with mountains, bridges and other obstacles designed to test your flying skills and reaction times.

“Talk to me, Goose”
H.A.W.X. 2′s story is standard Clancy fare. A tale of lies, betrayal and paranoia set against a backdrop of insurgency and counter-insurgency. That said the story does merge quite fluidly as what at first seems like two or three separate plots quickly combine into one. Initially, the story concerns an attack on Prince Faisal airbase by insurgents in the middle east and the subsequent capture of a US pilot. However, as you progress this narrative blends with another, at first separate tale about a revolutionary group in Russia. The plot is examined from the point of view of pilots in the Royal Navy, Russian air force and US air force(the eponymous “H.A.W.X.”) and you get to control pilots from each of these organizations as they take the fight to the insurgents.

Most missions you will have a squadron for back up.

Most of the games missions are essentially escort missions where you and your squadron must provide air support for infantry, ships or other aircraft. While these fights are impressive, with what seems like dozens of planes taking part in them, it’s here that one of the games most annoying failings becomes painfully obvious. Despite that fact that, on many of the levels at least, you have an entire squadron of allies helping you, the enemy seems to fixate on you. This has the effect of turning some of the lengthier battles into a kind of tedious aerial ballet, as you repeatedly spin your plane to avoid incoming missiles. If you look past this however the story in H.A.W.X 2 has a lot to offer in the way of memorable experiences. During the course of the games narrative you get taken to plenty of different locations and each one requires a different tactic. For example, one level sees you chasing fighter planes between the rigs of a massive offshore oil field, and coming in to land on an airbase suspended above the water on giant metal legs. Another sees you taking off from an aircraft carrier and zipping in amongst the mountains of Norway, destroying SAM sites and MiGs as you go. Both of these levels are unique and require equally unique flying and fighting techniques to best them.

Makes you wonder why we even bother sending manned jets...

It’s not all about maxing the Gs, blasting the Loggins and dogfighting it out over ant-sized cities however. The game also allows players to experience other sides of aerial combat. At various points you will act as the gunner on an AC-130 “Spooky” gunship, and get to control Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The gunship part is a fairly standardized affair that looks, behaves and feels pretty much exactly like the gunship parts from all the other games that have helped make the AC-130 a celebrity among aircraft. The UAVs come in two different flavours. There’s the recon kind that can listen in on phone conversations and drop IR strobes to mark targets for bomber planes, and then there’s the “hunter-killer” kind that can fire missiles to hit ground targets. As with the gunship part the UAV bits aren’t particularly awe-inspiring, more a nice distraction designed to break up the main campaign. Nevertheless there is something slightly satisfying about blowing up tanks with a missile fired from 15,000ft up.

The games missions get progressively harder, leading you to assume that the final level will be like flying into the very eye of the s**t storm. This assumption seems to be backed up by at least one of the characters, who hypes up the final fight to be an intense battle. It doesn’t disappoint. The ending level plays out like a gruelling endurance trial where players have to maintain there plane against swarms of incoming fighters for what seems like hours. Then just when it seems safe, the game throws a few new twists at you that will make you wish you had paid more attention during the initial tutorials.

If it seems blurry, it's just because he's moving so fast.

“You can be my wingman anytime”
The games entire campaign is playable in four player co-op over Xbox LIVE or system link, however this is not the only multiplayer option available. The game features a competitive online mode where up to eight players can battle it out for air superiority. Players are split into two teams of four and AI fighters make up the numbers for each side. Points are awarded for each kill and the game ends when one team reaches the score limit. The multiplayer, while not particularly impressive, handles well and can be quite challenging.

In addition to the online play the game features several other modes to distract frequent flyers. Survival mode is a variation of a style of gameplay that is becoming very popular in recent years. Similar to Gears of War‘s “horde” mode or Halo 3: ODST‘s “firefight” mode, survival has players defend themselves for as long as they can against wave after wave of enemy planes. Then there is Arcade mode, where story missions are given dangerous twists designed to make them more difficult(e.g. no missiles, more aggressive enemies etc.). Finally there is free-flight mode where you can test fly any of the planes unlocked using the games XP system, without the hassle of avoiding enemy fire.

“Less-than-subtle Top Gun reference”
While the H.A.W.X. series could never claim to be an original idea – we’ve seen aerial combat games before – it is certainly a leader in it’s field. H.A.W.X. 2 is a fast and fun experience, sullied only occasionally by repetitive gameplay. In spite of a few shortcomings, the game is a complete package and its multiple offline modes, difficult to master online multiplayer and branching experience and leveling system mean that H.A.W.X. 2 has countless hours of replay value. Besides, nothing out there makes you feel quite as much like a fighter pilot. So make up a silly nickname for yourself, switch the game to “cockpit view”, write your own “overcoming a crisis of confidence” story and wait for the award nominations to arrive. Or more likely, a procession of concerned relatives.

3.5  /5

So, We’re just going to ignore the fact you missed last week?
Yes, yes we are. Hello and welcome once more to the Monday games chart, the only early week stop for people who find organised lists of names and numbers just a little too alluring. So without further ado let’s kick off this week’s annoying commentary, this one is for all you chart-osexuals out there. Toy Story 3 lets its competitors know that it won’t be running like the wind anytime soon as it stands with its feet firmly planted in the number one spot. Meanwhile, coming up the trail at lightning speed we have Red Dead Redemption which moves up from 5th to 2nd place. Dance on Broadway holds at 3rd and Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 makes a move from 8th to 4th place. In a truly astounding leap the latest educational release for the DS, Art Academy, climbs from 28th place all the way up to 5th. For those who don’t know Art Academy is a game that teaches you how to draw and paint like an artist, just don’t paint anything too spectacular as you can’t really sell it. Plummeting this week we have Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with a fall from 2nd to 8th, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty with a drop from 4th to 12th and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands which tumbles from 16th to 19th. In the worst recorded week for climbers since the start of the UK Games Chart, only one game heads North. Sniper: Ghost Warrior steps up one position from 14th to 13th place. You can see the full chart below.

Game Freak give Pokémon a kick in the Pokéballs
In a post on his personal blog, Game Freak Director Junichi Masuda confirmed that Pokémon Black and Pokémon White, the next two games in the long running franchise, would feature entirely new Pokemon. While traditionally each new game in the series would feature a few new creatures, mixed with familiar faces from previous releases, Black and White looks to recapture the joy and excitement of discovery that the first titles evoked. So far reviews from testers have been positive with one of them even saying that Black and White feel like “something completely new”. Fans of the original 150 need not worry however, as all the old favourites will still put in an appearance once the league is cleared. In addition to new Pokémon, Black and White will of course also feature an all new region to explore. Called Isshu(for now at least) the region is the most industrialized of all the Pokémon settings and as a result features many bustling cities, complete with towering sky scrapers. The games also make use of the 3D style of graphics introduced in Diamond and Pearl and will apparently feature brand new multiplayer modes, possibly allowing players to explore the region cooperatively. All in all Black and White look to be very complete packages. No news on an EU or US release yet outside of a vague “Spring 2011″ but Japanese Poké-fans will be able to get their hands on it September 18th.

The "Isshu" region

Hiun City

Twelve years of waiting! I’d have gone be-zerg!
Hey chartophiles! It’s not Friday, it’s not five to five and it’s not time for Crackerjack. Oh no no, it’s Monday, it’s about twenty-five to two and it’s time for the weekly game chart. The much anticipated Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty has been flying off store shelves and finds itself landing in the number one spot on our chart. The arrival of Starcraft pushes previous winner Toy Story 3 to 2nd place, which in turn pushes Red Dead Redemption(previously 2nd) to 3rd, Dance on Broadway(previously 3rd) to 4th and Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4(previously 4th) to 5th. Super Mario Galaxy 2 starts heading south this week as it falls from 6th to 9th place. Also down this week are Tiger Woods PGA tour 11 with a drop from 5th to 11th and 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, which trips up at 7th and lands flat on its face at 13th. Additionally Sniper: Ghost Warrior tumbles down three places and ends up teetering over the pit of unimaginable horrors that is the 21 to 40 section of our chart. Looking on the bright side for a bit and we have Battlefield: Bad Company 2 moving up from 12th to 10th, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 climbing from 11th to 8th and FIFA 10 with a jump from 19th to 12th. You can see the full chart below.

The new trailer, directed by LP’s Joe “Mr” Hahn, features a mix of live action and in game footage, and of course the whole thing is set to Linkin “Don’t-call-us-Nu-Metal” Park’s powerful melodies. The song in question, The Catalyst, is the lead single off Linkin Park’s next album A Thousand Suns which is scheduled for release on September 14th. Speaking to the press recently Joe Hahn said “This is a unique, creative association for us and a collaboration that we are excited about … We are enormously proud of the music on A Thousand Suns and are excited to have created an exclusive trailer around the lead track.”

Hinting at the idea that this isn’t a one-off, EA’s Worldwide Executive for Music and Music Marketing Steve Schnur said “Medal of Honor marks the beginning of an innovative new relationship between EA and Linkin Park … they have always been an intensely creative group who understand the power of video games and have wanted to explore and expand the medium’s possibilities.” The trailer will be released on August 1st exclusively at www.medalofhonor.com/linkinpark and the game itself will hit store shelves October 15th.

Or watch here:

'ExtraAmmo' Partner of TGH

So, what are next weeks lottery numbers?
It’s that time again folks! That’s right, it’s time for me to fulfil my obligation and deliver to the expectant masses(all three of you) your weekly games chart. Last week one of our menagerie, in truly sibylline fashion said he was surprised that “Toy Story 3 is not #1″. Well oh wise and powerful oracle Renegade1985, it seems your vague prediction has come true as this week Toy Story 3 sits proudly atop our game chart. If Woody wants to keep his molded plastic head on his tiny woven shoulders however, he’s going to have a gunfight on his hands as gentleman outlaw John Marston and the rest of Red Dead Redemption’s colourful cast creep back up from 4th to 2nd place. Additionally this week the much reviled(at least by me) Dance on Broadway falls from 2nd to 3rd place, which in turn forces Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 down from 3rd to 4th place. In one of the most dramatic falls from power we’ve ever seen on the games chart, last weeks winner Crackdown 2 plummets downward and settles into it’s new position at the number 10 spot. Also down this week are Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with a drop from 9th to 11th and Bioshock 2 with a drop from 12th to 16th. Meanwhile up this week are Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with a jump from 20th to 12th, Sniper: Ghost Warrior with a jump from 22nd to 17th and FIFA 10 with an astounding leap from 27th to 19th place. You can see the full chart below and you can leave your offerings to our divine seer in the comments.

Toy Story 3, rated 18 for scenes of graphic sexual violence
It’s weekly games chart time, coming at you live from our secret base on Walamalachoochoo island. An island that, ironically, is not on any chart. This week Ruffian games proves it deserves it’s name as it ruthlessly batters the competition,to allow Crackdown 2 to hold on to its number one place. Coming in a close second(by some untold miracle) is Dance on Broadway, a game that has somehow sold nearly 40,000 units in the last week alone! To be fair however most of those were brought by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Dance on Broadway’s rise to the seat of penultimate power pushes Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 to third place and Red Dead Redemption to fourth place. At number five this week is newcomer Toy Story 3 which, if the Internet rumours are to be believed anyway, has a shock ending as Woody dies manually detonating charges on an asteroid that threatens all life on Earth. Down this week are Wii Fit Plus which falls from 11th to 15th, UFC 2010: Undisputed which drops from 10th to 19th and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 which slips from 15th to 20th. On the other hand up this week we have three previously lost games re-entering the chart, namely Pokepark Wii: Pickachu’s Adventure with a jump from 25th to 18th place and Alan Wake and Bioshock 2 that each make an impressive leap of 12 places, landing them at 11th and 12th position respectively. You can see the full chart below.

Aaaahh freak out! Le freak, c’est chic
Well this week it seems the wizards vs cowboys fad has been swept aside for the more brutal and equally bizarre contest of “Agents vs Freaks”. Ruffian Game’s Crackdown 2 was released last week and has hit the games chart hard jumping straight in at number one. The swift entry of Crackdown 2 displaces former leader Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 pushing it to 2nd place, which in turn forces the previous runner-up Red Dead Redemption to 3rd. Dance on Broadway, described both as “Just Dance, only way worse” and “Just Dance for the fruity” takes a step up, followed by a pirouette, then an assemblé and lands daintily in 4th place. Also this week Super Mario Galaxy 2 takes a plunge from 3rd to 6th, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 drops from 4th to 7th and Sniper: Ghost Warrior falls from 10th to 14th. Meanwhile on the up we have UFC 2010: Undisputed moving from 18th to 10th, Wii Sports Resort climbing from 16th to 12th and Tom Clancys Splinter Cell: Conviction leaping back onto the chart from 23rd to 18th. You can see the full chart below.

Does Crackdown 2 deserve its position? Comment below and let us know.

The Bigger They Are, The Further You Have To Walk
These days, linear is for losers. Developers are turning their attentions to crafting free roam environments of immense size and beauty. These creations range from fantasy worlds filled with sorcerers and swordsman, to sun-baked prairies teeming with coyotes and cowboys. Some of them are vast wildernesses where a man can roam for miles and never see another soul, while some are considerably smaller in size and heaving with life. Then there’s the really big ones. Getting lost in these beasts may result in your in-game avatar being declared MIA and his virtual wife and kids holding a candlelight vigil. Here we are going to count down the games that boast the biggest maps, some of the results may surprise you. So, starting at number 10.

Map of Azeroth

10. World of Warcraft – 80 square miles
World of Warcraft is the fourth game set in Blizzards Warcraft universe. With over 11.5 million subscriptions, World of Warcraft is the worlds most subscribed MMORPG. As with all games in the Warcraft series it takes place in the fictional world of Azeroth which, in this iteration of the franchise at least, is a modest size of 80 square miles.

9. Burnout Paradise – 200 square miles
The seventh game in EA/Criterion’s successful racing series, Burnout Paradise featured an impressive map. The game was released with over 70 cars to explore the 200 square miles of open road with and was later updated to feature motorbikes and a day and night cycle.

The island of Panau

8. Just Cause 2 – 400 square miles
The original Just Cause was a less than gratifying affair. The map was pretty and the parasailing was cool but the island was far too vast with very little in it. To fix this problem and make the sequel Just Cause 2 more enjoyable Avalanche Studios decided there was only one thing to do, make the map even bigger. Interesting idea. It seems to have worked though as Just Cause 2 sold well and has received positive reviews from most critics. It sits here at number 8 on our list with a map size of 400 square miles.

7. Asherons Call – 500 square miles
Slightly older fans of MMORPGs among you may remember this title. Asherons Call was released in 1999 for Windows and was the third major MMO to be released. Set on the continent of Dereth, itself set on the fictional planet of Auberean, the game map covered 500 square miles. Along with Ultima Online and Everquest this was one of the “Big Three” of early MMOs but its subscription numbers fell when newer titles began to flood the markets. Never the less its servers still remain online, more than ten years later.

The Oahu inspired island

6. Test Drive Unlimited – 618 square miles
The Test Drive series is one of the longest running arcade racing franchises of all time and the ninth game in the series, Test Drive Unlimited, featured a map modeled after the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The map was a magnificent 618 miles long, all the better for getting the games collection of 125 cars and motorbikes up to dangerously awesome speed.

5. FUEL! – 5560 square miles
We’re into the thousands of miles now, this is where the maps really start getting big. Released in 2009 Asobo Studio’s Fuel is truly immense. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and boasts a map that is 5560 square miles in size(roughly the size of the American state of Connecticut). This makes Fuel’s map the largest gaming environment ever to appear in a console game. Couple this with over 70 vehicles to cruise around in and you have one immense game.

The continent of Elona

4. Guild Wars Nightfall – 15,000 square miles
Guild Wars Nightfall is the third game in ArenaNet’s Guild Wars series. The game took place on the continent of Elona, in the Guild Wars universe. Elona was the biggest game map created for a Guild Wars game spanning a mighty 15,000 square miles(that’s bigger than Kuwait, Isreal, Jamaica, Cyprus, Barbados, Singapore, Albania or Macedonia. Just to give you some idea).

3. Lord of the Rings Online – 30,000 square miles
Released in 2007, Lord of the Rings Online completely one-ups the Guild Wars series. LotRO(as it is known) features a Middle-earth inspired map twice the size of ArenaNet’s offering. This means that theoretically you could fit the entire of Belgium into it 2544 times.

The Tamrielic provinces of High Rock and Hammerfell

2. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall – 62,394 square miles
If LotRO went one-up on Nightfall by doubling its map size, Daggerfall two-ups it by quadrupling it. The second game in Bethesda Softwork’s highly successful and much loved franchise, Daggerfall is thought by most to be the largest game map ever created with a colossal area of 62,394 square miles(and Bethesda claims it’s even bigger, twice the size of Great Britain in fact. This would make it roughly 181,008 square miles). Spread out across this land there are 15,000 towns, cities, villages and dungeons to explore. The games sequel The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind didn’t even come close to this, with its map being only as big as 10 square miles.

1. Midwinter – 160,000 square miles
As we get to the end of the list I’ve pretty much run out of decent adjectives meaning “large”. It’s just as well though as there really aren’t any that would do this game justice. Midwinter is a first-person action role-playing game with strategy elements. It was released for the Atari ST, Amiga and PC back in 1989, making it slightly before my time. The game is set(as so many are) in a post-apocalyptic world where a giant meteorite landed in Burma and caused nuclear winter. The impact also caused a lot of volcanic activity in the Azores islands, forming the isle of Midwinter where the game takes place. Midwinter is an enormous(found one!) 160,000 square miles stretch of ice and snow, that’s nearly as big as the state of California. The game was well received upon release but due to a very steep learning curve it never became the hit it could have been.

So that completes our rundown of some of gaming’s biggest maps, with sizes ranging from big, to immense, to ridiculous. As a bonus extra here a few maps that didn’t make it into the top ten.

GTA III – 3 square miles
GTA San Andreas – 13.6 square miles
Fallout 3 – 14 square miles
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – 16 square miles
Far Cry 2 – 19.31 square miles

Note: Most, if not all map sizes are approximations made by either the writer(based off some evidence) or the game developers. They should not be taken as gospel fact or as cause for a flame war. Chill out man.