More Hands-on Gameplay

Full Spectrum Warrior - XBox

FSW is looking to be a great game. Please let it be known that this is NOT a first person, or even third person shooter, it is a hybrid genre game that combines squad-based combat and strategy. You command squads of four soldiers, and your view is limited to what they can see. You can switch between squads freely and issue commands to individual soldiers or the entire squad, such as ‘fire within this scope’, ‘move here’, ‘take cover’. The command interface is interesting, as you can see and move icons to tell your troops where to go. We’re glad to see this is not another military FPS where you go on missions in decimated African or middle eastern nations.

Juiced - XBox

Juiced is a racing game for the Xbox. I can sum it up in that it’s NFS: Underground but with damage modeling. I tested it out driving a Subaru WRX – with total body-work decals and spoilers. As I was racing against six AI opponents, I noticed the controls were good, and physics were not too arcade-y. I started hitting barriers and poles (and other cars) and the bodywork got more and more damaged. After one big hit, my steering was damaged, and it pulled to one side all the time. Nice looking racer, but the graphics didn’t really stand out in the crowd.

Under the Skin - XBox

This is a cute cel-shaded action game in the vein of Jet Set Radio and Space Channel Five for the Dreamcast. You assume the role of an alien creating havok on Earth while other aliens are doing the same thing and competing with you. You can use your DNA gun to absorb the genes from a person, and change into that person when standing in your spaceship icon. But you can get discovered, and walk around in your skivvies, or worse, you are seen as an alien! Cute.

That’s all we have for day 1 coverage, look out for more articles by your friendly FiringSquad crew in the days to come. In the meantime, check out these photos from the event.