IGN RoXXOrs: First Impressions of Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich!

For some reason I was awake and online at 3am and I was tickled pink to find a preview of Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich on IGN. Check out this excerpt from the very first paragraph:

"This wonderful piece of software allowed players to sink themselves into an exciting and vibrant game world full of comic book style art, writing, and drama. It was simply as good a super hero game as we've ever seen"

Now, this was the first time any journalist has had hands-on time with the game so Dan, if you are reading this, you made my day! Of course, every good review is extremely gratifying and means a lot to us but this was the first journalist feedback from the play-through of a level so there was a lot riding on it emotionally.

Dan goes on to say that "a lot of improvements to the engine...make it an even more interesting game to look at and only enhances that same terrific comic book art style. Frankly, this little demo has just left those of us that have played it wanting more."

Be sure to read the article to get all of Dan's impressions and check out the screenshots.

Also on IGN, Tribes: Vengeance picked up a couple "Best of the Year" awards, including Best Story.

"Irrational Games stepped in and added their magic touch in order to make an excellent game out of Tribes: Vengeance. The story was great, the gameplay was great, levels were designed well to take advantage of the jet pack..."

Now, back to my middle of the night Google-fest: Once I started to come down from my IGN high I looked around some more and came upon this SWAT preview on SimHQ by Chuck Ankenbauer. Chuck played the multiplayer beta and gives the reader a brief history of the SWAT franchise, a fairly detailed description of SWAT 4's features, and some excellent screen shots. Here's my favorite quote from the article:

"There is no doubt that SWAT 4 could be another Tactical Game of the Year. Not only is the single player looking exciting and fun, but the multiplayer is the icing on the cake. Find yourself four disciplined gamers who can follow orders, and work well as a small unit and you got the making of some of the best co-op action out there. Look for SWAT 4 around April."