Tutorial

Review:
Once you get over developer Tate Interactives sheer lack of subtlety though and judge the game on its own merit, the real surprise is that Urban Trial Freestyle is actually a decent game. Rather than a half-hearted rip-off of an already popular title, its clear that Tate Interactive has dedicated proper care and attention to this during its development, to the extent that wed happily recommend it as an adequate (if not perfect) alternative for PS3 and Vita owners who cant get the Xbox-exclusive Trials games on their own systems.


The aim, naturally, is to get through a variety of side-scrolling obstacles and ramp-filled stages while riding a motorbike. The key to success is pressing left and right to shift your weight on the bike forward and back, influencing the way you climb ramps and land from jumps. If your rider hits an obstacle - be it the ground, a ramp or a low-hanging roof or decoration - then theyll fall off their bike, ragdoll physics will kick in and youll have to restart from the last checkpoint you hit. Just like Trials, then.

Its not a complete carbon copy, however - there are some differences. For starters, there are two different types of trial. Theres your standard time trial, where you race to finish the track in the fastest time (the game automatically downloads a ghost of the best racer so you can see how its done). Then theres the stunt trials, where each track has between three and five different stunt stations scoring you on a certain ability - the most flips, the highest or longest jump, the fastest speed you can travel past a set point, the most accurate landing on a tiny target - before adding up all your scores for a track total.

The stunt trials are interesting, and not just because they tinker with the traditional Trials format. As you approach each stunt station you can see a big video screen in the background naming the player who currently holds the highest score in that particular stuny, along with a big picture of their avatar. Its a little detail but a clever one, because the knowledge that you can actually be part of the level design if youre good enough offers great encouragement to keep trying or return later with a more powerful bike. Its especially entertaining on the Vita version, as youre asked to take a (optional) photo of yourself on the main menu, which is then used in the high score walls.

The tracks themselves arent perfectly designed but the background details are at times fantastic (at least on the PS3 version - much of it is removed from the Vita version to keep things running smoothly). Youll be riding through police shootouts (with characters rolling in front of your path), dodging giant clowns eyeballs, zipping through a ghost train, hopping over a giant golf ball, jumping through the middle of a massive rotating statue - and thats all just in one level.

Elsewhere there are exploding helicopters, slow motion leaps through office buildings, speeding trains used as jumps, picnicking couples who dive out of the way as you zoom past them... hats off to the developers, who could have easily made this a bog-standard Trials clone with generic tracks but chose not to. Read more

System Requirement:
Operating System: Windows XP/Vista/7/8
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.2 Ghz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
RAM: 2 Gb
Disk Space: 1 Gb free
Video RAM: 512 Mb
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD 4650
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
Network:
Direct X: 9.0c

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Review:
There comes a point while playing Prototype 2 when you realize the marketing campaign was a lie. The Homecoming trailer weaves this heart wrenching story of a soldier who told his family to trust the government and how it cost them their lives. With that pain, Sgt. James Heller becomes a relatable character and we want to see him use his superpowers to exact revenge on those responsible. But that motivation is lost when the game starts and Heller begins shoehorning curse words into every other sentence. The emotional connection to our protagonist is severed. Heller becomes an angry caricature, and Prototype 2 becomes an enjoyable but predictable action title.
If you skipped the original Prototype, you wont have an issue jumping into the sequel. About 14 months after the events of the first game, New York City is once again in the grips of a viral outbreak -- supposedly at the hands of Alex Mercer, the antihero of the original title. Heller blames Mercer for the death of his family, and through a 14 or so-hour game (if you do all the side quests), its our job to rain vengeance.

The story doesnt get much deeper than that. Youll partner up with shady characters throughout the journey, and theyll feed you missions that usually end with Heller beating the hell out of a bunch of soldiers or mutants. The setup is repetitive, but the action is entertaining.

Prototype 2 gives you five weapons to morph Hellers hands into, and you assign two of them to the face buttons. See, Hellers powers -- given to him in a WTF moment by Mercer -- allow him to create these tools of destruction, leap tall buildings in a single bound, and ingest people so he can steal their memories and shapeshift into their forms. Hes also packing the ability to turn people into bio-bombs. So, know that.

Its a delicious recipe. Leaping into the air, targeting a foe and swooping in for a claw attack that beheads the bad guy is fun. Sneaking around a base disguised as a solider and absorbing unaware enemies is cool. Prototype 2 excels at making you feel like a badass. Completing tasks levels you up so you can move faster, fly farther and become invulnerable to gunfire. Absorbing specially marked characters upgrades your abilities so you can pounce on victims from farther away and increase the range of your Whipfist.

With each mission, you feel Heller getting stronger and stronger. Brutes that used to be the bane of your existence eventually become your pets and the first helicopter you KO with an uppercut will leave you feeling like the apex predator of New York City. Read more

System requirements:

CPU:	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz, AMD Phenom x3 8750

CPU Speed:	Info

RAM:	2 GB

OS:	Windows XP / Vista / 7

Video Card:	NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, ATI Radeon HD 4850

Sound Card:	Yes

Free Disk Space:	10 GB

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