Here at Xbox World Australia, there's nothing we love more than a good press shindig- the kind with beer, nibbles and lots of brand-spanking-new games to play. THQ, nice folks that they are, decided to indulge us with their inaugural THQ Loaded event, so naturally we were there in force to check it out. So without further filibustering, read on to find out about the hottest games on THQ's roster for 05/06!

Spongebob: Lights, Camera, Pants!

When you think of party-games, a talking sponge and his odd assortment of friends probably *isn't* what jumps to mind. But THQ are hoping to change that with their latest Spongebob Squarepants offerings, complete with the crazy subtitle Lights, Camera, Pants!

What's the premise you ask? It's Spongebob, do you really need to know more!? Ok, the general jist of things is that Spongebob and his mates are all competing for the chance to star as extras in a new episode of Mermaidman & Barnacle Boy. To do so, they must engage in a seemingly random series of mini-games to earn points, which unlock stuff and increase their chances of landing the coveted gig as an extra.

The silliness of the series is most definitely present in the game, and the team at THQ Brisbane went to great lengths to make the experience as authentic as possible. As such, you can expect to hear all the original voice-talent from the Nickelodeon cartoon, as well as painstaking recreations of the artwork and style of the show. Even better, there's over an hour's worth of brand new, never-seen-before Spongebob animation.

Most impressive is that this animation is used to bring the Mermaidman & Barnacle Boy show to life, and it changes dynamically depending on which character gets what role. Each character has a unique take on their role and the dialogue, and the ensuing escapades promise to be pretty funny, especially for big fans of the show.

But what about the game itself? It's essentially a collection of over 30 mini-games, which range from flipping burgers to flipping switches, four-player pong and stacks of others. Quite a few of the mini-games are unlockables, and there's a wealth of other Spongebob-related goodies to be found by earning points in-game.

Given the close collaboration THQ enjoy with the show, Lights, Camera, Pants! looks and sounds about as close as you could expect to an episode of the series. It's bright and colourful and the dialogue deliverly if perfect- these guys obviously enjoy their work! And given the Xbox's native four-player support and a dearth of decent party-games, this is definitely worth checking out! Spongebob Squarepants: Lights, Camera, Pants! gets the party started this November.

Full Spectrum Warrior : 10 Hammers

Who would've thought that one of the most popular military simulation games would actually be based on a military simulation? So it was for Pandemic's Full Spectrum Warrior, the surprise hit of 2004, which was originally created as part of a contract for the United States army. The exciting blend of tactical manouvres and intense firefights was a big hit with fans of military games and got the nod of approval from Xbox World Australia's resident soldier, Shane Kinloch. Now, a year later, THQ have announced a follow-up campaign to capitalise on their surprise victory in the `04 offensive, codename: 10 Hammers.

Full Spectrum Warrior: 10 Hammers is not tied to the US Army this time around- it's been developed solely for entertainment, and it shows in a number of changes. First and foremost is the ability to directly control team fire- previously your input was largely tactical; directing your squads, ordering suppressing fire and so forth. Now you can assume a more direct role by guiding a targeting reticule and lining up shots.

There are a number of other improvements, including the ability to enter buildings and take up firing positions, and not just on the ground floor. This adds a whole new tactical dimension to the gameplay: not only are buildings solid cover, but it gives your squad a superior line of sight for spotting or laying down suppressing fire.

This isn't the only positive news for the good guys: mechanized reinforcements are now available in a controllable form. They are selectable like any other squad, and while they're pretty vulnerable to explosives, they can pack a mighty punch. Bradleys, humvees and APCs have been confirmed, and coupled with the usual death-from-above airstrike options, you'll have more than enough heavy support to come through your missions unscathed- if you're careful.

It's not all one-sided though: the enemy A.I. has been given a significant boost, it's a lot more reactive than it was previously, as well as proactive. Not only will they move quickly to avoid grenades or find better cover, but they'll actually aim to suppress your team and advance on your position, slowly working their way into a position to take you down. They'll target your vehicles with grenades and rockets, and they'll be able to take out your air support if they're lucky. Make no mistake; this will not be a leisurely walk in a Dubai park.

The visuals in 10 Hammers have also been improved, with normal mapping and dynamic lighting being introduced to improve the already sweet eye-candy. The ragdoll physics have been ramped up too, and your squadmate's animations are about as realistic as you'll get. Our only complaint was that the locations on display were still a little drab- lots of earthy, sandy colours, which is realistic, sure, but hopefully there'll be a bit more variety in the final game.

Plenty of time for the team to get it right though: Full Spectrum Warrior: 10 Hammers is slated for release late in the 1st Quarter, 2006.

Without Warning

Capcom's Without Warning is shaping up to be an interesting game indeed- rather than placing you in the shoes of a lone marine/special forces/agent/super-solider/etc who must fend off a seemingly unending horde of bad-guys, Without Warning tells the story of six disparate characters- half of whom have a military background, while the rest are civilians. The six are thrown together when a platoon of heavily-armed terrorist insurgents capture a chemical plant. Their agenda: unknown. Yours: survival.

Without Warning is all about individual perspectives and abilities; the Special Forces characters may be able to go in guns blazing and disarm the bombs, but you'll need someone on the inside to open doors to secure locations, or get a message to the outside world. In this way, the three civilians are probably the most important people in the game, and since most of them can't use weapons, you'll have to work very hard to keep these guys alive.

You'll play each character individually, so the story switches it up quite a bit. Your actions as one of the six will have an impact on the other- both the security guard and the secretary can open locked doors or access restricted areas, which will open up new areas for the more heavily-armed characters to explore.

Without Warning is an unashamed fan of the TV series '24', and seeks to emulate that blockbuster cinematic feel while playing around with time. The game takes place over the 12 hours from 8pm to 8am, and while it isn't billed as a “real-time” experience, it will play out chronologically for the most part. For example at the beginning of the game you'll play as one of the soldiers, Hooper, who sees a security guard running past a second-floor window before a massive explosion. When you're done with Hooper's section, the perspective switches to the security guard, and if he looks down he'll see a lone solider blasting his way through terrorist nasties. In this way the characters will often cross paths even if they don't always interact directly, and it makes for a compelling narrative.

The game handles like a typical third-person shooter, with tight controls and a slightly wonky camera that we hope will get looked at before the game goes gold. The controls are pick-up-and-play friendly, and while each character seems to handle differently, it should be simple to get into. There's a couple of mini-games to break up the action, you know, light-hearted fun like bomb defusal and rescuing hostages, that kind of thing. And in that vein, Capcom revealed that not all of the six characters will live through the night, which had us absolutely intrigued!

Without Warning looks pretty good, though it's a cross-platform title so it's nothing truly impressive. On the plus side, even the early Xbox build we played was silky smooth with fairly minimal load-times. Chances are you'll be too busy blasting your way through baddies or engrossed in the story to critique the visuals anyway, at least that's what we're hoping for!

Without Warning is currently scheduled to blast onto Xbox late October.

We're feeling pretty lucky right about now…not only did we get to watch some Xbox 360 games in action, we actually got to *PLAY* a couple at THQ's Loaded `05 event! All told there was 5 next-gen games on show; rolling demos of Saint's Row, Chromehounds and The Outfit, and 2 hands-on playable- the first of which is Full Auto.

Full Auto

There are two kinds of racing games in my books: boring ones, and the kind where stuff blows up. Needless to say I'm more inclined to Burnout than I am to go rally driving, and with this in mind, let's talk about Full Auto!

Full Auto is one of Sega's debut Xbox 360 titles, and while it isn't going to win any awards for depth of narrative, it sure as hell is going to be fun. From what we could glean, there's a nasty gang in town called the Shepherds for whom you are racing, but anything beyond that was a little sketchy. But the story isn't the selling point; rather the breakneck speeds of racing a pure, unadulterated carnage. Emphasis on the car. Full Auto could be well described as Burnout colliding violently with the likes of Twisted Metal or the old PC game Death Rally. Basically, you grab yourself a sweet ride, add a whole mess o' weaponry, and proceed to blow stuff up and race like the devil's nipping at your break-lights.

Unlike so many of its predecessors, Full Auto promises a great deal of mayhem thanks to most of the environment being destructible: picture Red Faction 2 in a sports-car and you've got a pretty good idea where they're headed. This will open up all sorts of possibilities during a race…why look for a shortcut or learn the racing lines when you can just demolish a building? Hell, why bother racing to win when you can just obliterate your opponents?

To facilitate this wanton destruction you'll have access to around a dozen weapons, including shotguns, mines, rockets and smokescreens, and naturally your environment can be used as a weapon. Every race contains similarly armed competitors who will have no qualms blasting you off the track. During an event players may have a 'Rival' racer who is better-equipped and gunning solely for you. Taking these guys out will yield a big whack of points and multiply the amount you finish the game with. These points are accumulated based on how much devastation you cause ala Burnout's Crash Mode.

How the game is balanced between racing and combat we're a little unsure of, but with over 20 cars we get the impression winning races is still going to be pretty important. But we hop the combat isn't just an afterthought! According to developers Pseudo Interactive, there's going to be a full campaign/career mode to hone your road rage skills, and in addition to individual events, there'll be a robust multiplayer mode with full Xbox Live support.

Visually Full Auto was in the early stages when we saw it, but even the 360 Alpha kits illustrated just how much grunt we can expect in the future. The action was smooth, and even when skyscrapers were crumbling and vehicles exploding in spectacular fashion the game didn't miss a beat.

The hands-on preview utilized an existing Xbox controller so we don't have any juicy info on the next-gen handset at this time, but the game handled well and the vehicles were quite responsive. More importantly, the button layout was pickup-and-play simple, meaning any of your mates will be able to drop by and enjoy some multiplayer without any prior experience.

What grabbed us though was the 'unwreck' feature. Basically if you hit a corner (or you know, a wall) too fast and things grind to a terminal halt, you can rewind time ala Prince of Persia and try again with a little less gas. This, coupled with some insane physics, mean Full Auto should be pure arcade fun.

Full Auto is an Xbox 360 title only so don't expect to see it anytime soon, though it is currently slated as a potential launch title for the system.

Condemned : Criminal Origins

Without a doubt the most exciting Xbox 360 title on show, Condemned feels more like a developer's opus than a launch debut. Still, it isn't surprising given that the developer in question is none other than Monolith, the guys behind some of the best first person shooters on the PC, including a personal favourite, No One Lives Forever. Needless to say, a playable version of Condemned was one of the highlights of the show!

Condemned puts you in the shoes of deviant detective Ethan Thomas, whose job it is to track down and apprehend all manner of psychopaths and evil criminals. Along with the Serial Crimes Unit, it's up to the player to solve a slew of grizzly crimes using nothing but their wits and some nifty in-game gadgets.

Despite what you might've heard earlier, Condemned is just as much a first person puzzle experience as it is a 'shooter,' and the forensics and detective work play a pretty significant role in the story-driven experience. You'll need to use your CSI-style tools including a multipurpose digital camera that can highlight forensic trace evidence, and liaising with your colleagues back at HQ is a must. Rather than just being ancillary to the action, picking up on these clues will be essential for advancing the story and unraveling the mystery.

Of course, it's not all about book-smarts and sifting through cigarette butts- there's a lot of action and combat. In the demo we played, we were stuck in a derelict office building of some kind, infested with deranged hobos who had no qualms beating the snot out of us using whatever they could lay their hands on!

The visuals were excellent, and we were told this was a pretty early build (running on the G5 developer rig rather than the actual 360 devkits), so we can only imagine how good it looks in the more recent builds. The location was dripping with atmosphere: decaying plaster, decrepit furniture and rust flaking off every metallic surface really made you feel like you were in an abandoned building. The lighting and shadows were a little on the simple side in the build we played, but were already doing a tremendous job of making the level creepy as hell.

We didn't get long to take in the scenery however before crazed enemies set upon us with a variety of weapons of opportunity- pipes, wooden planks, and even one guy tripping on PCP or something who ripped a *door* off its hinges and took a swing at us! Thankfully the beat-downs aren't entirely one sided: Ethan can make his own weapons from whatever he can find in the environment- we used the door of a waist-high locker to pound some sense into a criminal. Obviously being a Fed has its perks, and Ethan will be routinely armed with a pistol or other firearm. But in a realistic touch, the man doesn't carry an armoury in his pocket, and ammunition is a scarce resource, and best used sparingly.

What struck us about the combat, if you'll excuse the pun, was just how brutal the action was. Ethan staggers under the impact of enemy blows, and they don't let up either, so if you don't make an effort to block you'll be punch-drunk and disoriented. Taking a leaf out of Breakdown's book, your point-of-view is designed to mimic a human, not some sort of extended weapon-sight like in many FPS games. Ethan's view shifts realistically as you analyze your surroundings and interact with objects, and the end result makes the game's eerie design that much more believable.

Condemned is currently scheduled to release close to launch for the Xbox 360.

That concludes our report from THQ LOADED! 2005. We have a couple of great interviews coming up for Full Spectrum Warrior Ten Hammers and also with Volition about their upcoming Xbox360 title, Saints Row.

Article by Dominic Rozenberg.