SEGA and Obsidian Entertainment have released a new trailer for Alpha Protocol. This clip focuses on the ‘Dialogue Stance System’, also known as DSS (and you’re reading this article at The Black Panel or, as we now prefer, TBP).

The DSS was always a big selling point for Obsidian Entertainment. They bandied about the slogan ‘your weapon is choice’ and Senior Producer, Ryan Rucinski, promoted the ‘three J.B’s’ approach to the game (character responses based on the personalities of Jason Bourne, James Bond or Jack Bauer) when speaking to The Escapist.

From the trailer, we see examples of how the DSS works. You can take a subtle approach and attempt to charm your way into or out of a situation or you may opt for all out aggression. At one point, the main player has the option to select ‘warning’, ‘dismissive’, ‘honest’ or ‘execute’ when speaking to an NPC. Execute seems a little extreme compared to the other approaches. Can’t there be an in-between ‘rough him up a little’ option?

Hopefully the RPG elements of the Alpha Protocol will provide a genuinely immersive experience for the gamer. I doubt whether most will be blown away by the pedestrian voice acting they’ve witnessed in the trailer.

Alpha protocol is still scheduled for a May 27 release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Disney Interactive has released a new trailer for Split/Second: Velocity, the upcoming arcade racer from Black Rock Studios. The action takes place on a fictional game show and as the one minute clip ably demonstrates, winning requires a great deal more than speed. By triggering explosions at strategic junctures, drivers can cause trackside structures to collapse onto their opponents.

Split/Second is just the latest game to take the reality television concept to its logical extreme. William’s classic twin-stick shooter Smash T.V. was a pioneer in this regard, while Capcom’s forthcoming Dead Rising 2 is set to become one of the more brutal examples of the subgenre. Given that it has been assigned a rating of PG in Australia, we’re unlikely to witness anything overly grisly in Split/Second. Apparently driving your vehicle through into an avalanche of steel and cement isn’t as dangerous as it looks.

A demo for Split/Second was released to Xbox Live earlier this week, with the PlayStation Network to receive the same content in the second week of May. Hopefully this is merely a quirk of scheduling and not an indication that we’re now to be subjected to timed exclusives of demos.

Split/Second is due for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on Thursday 20 May 2010.

Loosely inspired by Greek mythology, the God of War series has been shocking audiences with its epic encounters and unrestrained violence since 2005. Just like its predecessors, God of War III is a roaming third person action game. You again step into the well worn sandals of Kratos and despite having already left a mountain of carnage in your wake, your thirst for vengeance remains unquenched. Being repeatedly tricked, shunned and betrayed has left a sour taste in your mouth that can only be washed away with the blood of the Gods themselves. You pursue your quarry from the depths of Hades to the heights of Mount Olympus and destroy anyone and everything that stands in your way.

The game begins precisely where the second instalment concluded, with you riding on the back of Gaia as she and the rest of her titanic posse close in on the home of the Gods. Within the first 20 minutes of the game, it strikes you that this is the series to take full advantage of the PS3’s graphical capabilities. The camera soars majestically and you’ll be stunned by the sheer scale of the action, before it plunges you into the first of many epic boss battles.

All of the boss encounters are played out over multiple stages, with many shifting to entirely new environments halfway through. Once you complete the quick time event to subdue your foe, you’ll be asked to perpetrate some of the most gruesome acts of violence in gaming. Even after your victims beg for mercy, you’ll bash, bludgeon, tear and dismember them. After decapitating one foe, you’ll carry his ghastly head with you on your travels. Whenever you employ the head’s magical properties, it screams in anguish. You’re unlikely to encounter a more brutal mainstream game any time soon.

Regular combat is almost as visceral and just as challenging. Don’t expect to breeze though God of War III using only a favoured weapon or method of attack. Some enemies are just not susceptible to certain weapons. Others require you to use a specific object against them before you select a weapon to finish them off. This requires you to quickly assess each opponent before an attacking them. Fortunately the controls are extremely intuitive and well laid out, allowing you to switch from weapon to object with relative ease. This is especially important as you’ll sometimes face five or more enemy types at once.

Fortunately for the sanity of this writer, there are frequent check points and opportunities to regenerate heath in each boss battle. For the most part, the checkpoints are this forgiving throughout the game. If you fall off an edge, as I did on numerous occasions, you’ll most likely have another opportunity to fall off that same edge within seconds.

The movement and jump function can occasionally be a little finicky and the lack of a player controlled camera may lead to a few untimely deaths. This is a common issue for the genre and therefore only a minor criticism. The more significant issue I have applies to the series as a whole. Why do we need to have a section of the game where women are suddenly topless? What’s the purpose of being launched into a quick time event to determine if Kratos has ‘successfully’ had sex with a woman? It seems out of place with the rest of the narrative and detracts from an otherwise absorbing game.

I found God of War III to be one of the more satisfying and disturbing gaming experiences of recent memory. The gameplay is a shining example of the genre and the graphics are a sight to behold. These elements, coupled with the narrative, keep you engaged to the very last cinematic. It will satisfy both fans of the series and newcomers.

Not the hammer. Anything but the hammer...

A first person shooter set in the aftermath of a nuclear catastrophe, Metro 2033 makes a diabolical first impression. Your quest begins in an overcrowded and poorly lit fallout shelter beneath the streets of Moscow. As you negotiate your way through the clutter, you’re inundated with the inane chatter of your fellow survivors, not to mention the odd snort from the livestock pens. Once you realise that many of the market stalls and most of the NPCs are non-interactive window dressing, the shelter begins to feel even more claustrophobic.

Before you can escape these hellish conditions, you need to trigger a series of conversations involving various NPCs. Though your perspective remains in the first person throughout these pseudo cut scenes, your input is neither required nor permitted. You can wander around or listen in if you’re prepared to stay within earshot, but you can neither speak nor act. When an NPC attempts to hand you a postcard featuring the Statue of Liberty, you have no way of accepting his offer. After a while, you begin to feel like a ghost.

When you attempt to steady your nerves with a quiet drink, your hand passes through the mug as if it wasn’t there. Just as you begin to suspect that you really have departed the land of the living, the vessel vanishes from the table and reappears in your grasp. Unfortunately, clipping issues persist throughout the campaign. Metro 2033 certainly isn’t the most polished title on the market and if you’re at all prone to motion sickness, the muddy textures and erratic camera will likely exacerbate your condition.

After what seems an eternity, you venture into the subway system, determined to deliver a critical message to an allied colony. Atmosphere is the key selling point of the game and funnily enough, the subpar graphics actually contribute to the aura of decay that the developers are aiming for. With its gloomy tunnels, choking dust and endless piles of rubble, Metro 2033 has a way of seeping into your pores.

The tunnels between you and your goal are clogged with hostile soldiers and horrific mutants. Penetrating enemy strongholds requires both patience and stealth, but this is due to intelligent level design rather than impressive AI. The resilience of your foes also plays a part in extending battles, with most requiring multiple headshots to subdue.

The guns available to you are, by design, not particularly accurate or enjoyable to use and in some cases, excessive muzzle flash obscures your view of the target. While undeniably frustrating, the unreliability of the weapons forces you devise creative plans of attack. Further, it enhances the authenticity of the experience. After all, this is a jerry-rigged future in which just about everything has well and truly exceeded its use by date.

In its pursuit of realism, the developer has made a number of design choices that are even more likely to divide players. Chief among them is the requirement to manually recharge the device that powers your flashlight and night vision goggles. This essential function involves mashing the right trigger every ten minutes for the entire duration of the game. Reading  your compass requires even more work. You must first remove it from your bag, then draw it up to eye level, before finally illuminating its face with your cigarette lighter, a minimum of three button presses.

Metro 2033 cannot be recommended without reservation. It requires patience and a willingness to forgive dire conversations, mediocre graphics and deliberately unrefined gameplay. Do so and you’ll be rewarded with one of the more evocative settings in recent memory.

“Tickets, please.”