PLUS SCARLETT JOHANSSON, LINDSAY LOHAN AND ANGELINA JOLIE SHARE THEIR DREAMS

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GETTING INTO GEARS
The much-anticipated Gears of War is both gorgeous and hideous I BY SCOTT GARDNER
GEARS OF WAR
XBOX 360
Every year on Emergence Day,
the few remaining humans on
the planet Sera, holed up on the
heavily fortified Jacinto Plateau,
pause and remember. It’s a
chance to reflect on life before
the nightmarish race called the
Locust Horde emerged from
deep in the ground, wiping out a
quarter of Sera’s population in
Tony Hawk’s Project 8
TONY HAWK’S PROJECT 8
XBOX 360, XBOX, PS3, PS2, PSP
The first entry in the Tony Hawk series built
specifically from the ground up for the new
cohort of consoles, Project 8 promises
extremely detailed animation and a truly
open environment of anonymous Midwest
’burbs, theme parks and factories.
It’s also the first game created in
developer Neversoft’s new motion-capture
studio, using high-res, high-megapixel
body scans of all the pro sk8rs to capture
their moves, and even facial expressions.
24 hours, and precipitating the
thermonuclear holocaust that
left 90 percent of the planet a
smoking ruin. Not a big picnic
and beach volleyball day, in
other words.
Here on Earth, however,
“Emergence Day” (or November
12th) marks the release of
Gears of War. Developed for
Microsoft by well-regarded
Epic Games (of the Unreal
The result: newly fluid and natural-looking
popshoveits, melloncollies and, hopefully,
bone-snapping slams.
UNTOLD LEGENDS:
DARK KINGDOM PS3
This third epic in Sony’s Untold Legends
series arrives just in time for all the newly
minted PS3 owners who can’t live without
a little fantasy, adventure and dungeon
crawling. This time, a mad king is terrorizing
his people and you — playing as a powerful
mage, a hearty warrior or a nimble (yet oddly
voluptuous) scout — must free the land.
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
famous 44 | november 2006
franchise), it’s arguably the
most-anticipated 360 game yet.
The buildup for this sci-fi and
horror-themed third-person
shooter is through the roof and
rapidly accelerating toward the
nonsense-osphere. Amazingly, it
just might be warranted.
Set some years after
Emergence, the game tells of a
few “Gears” — battle-scarred
soldiers, outgunned and
outnumbered by a relentless foe,
struggling to preserve humankind
in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
It’s gorgeous and hideous to
look at, from syrupy arcs of
arterial spray to the screaming
lizard-worm faces of the Locust.
Rejecting the standard
“run ’n’ gun” scenarios of most
shooters, Gears forces you to
creep and dive behind cover.
But the bad guys are fast, smart
and fully capable of flanking you
or just blowing up your shelter.
The key is working your squad
as a team. And although it’s often
promised, these AI characters
finally seem like the real thing.
As highly trained fighters, they
move intelligently, follow orders
and defend themselves.
And moms and dads:
Microsoft’s own promo material
stresses that Gears of War is
designed for gamers over 18.
Though, really, the cover pic of
a pockmarked grunt holding a
giant machine gun mounted with
a chainsaw bayonet should be
your first clue.
When you tire of smiting monsters,
casting spells and collecting gold, there are
extensive multiplayer and online features,
including deathmatch, “capture the flag”
and “last man standing” competitions.
STAR TREK: LEGACY
PC, XBOX 360
The TV series and movies may have run out
of dilithium crystals, but this space
combat game takes on Trek’s entire history.
As a Starfleet admiral, you’ll command
more than 60 ships over the decades,
including various models of the Enterprise.
The focus is real-time tactical combat
— from small-scale engagements to all-out
war — including Kirk’s disagreement with
Khan and Picard’s lovers’ quarrel with the
Borg. And for the first time, every single
lead Star Trek captain — William Shatner,
Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew
and Scott Bakula — will lend (or rather
sell) their voice talents.
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