This will be the first column that I’m writing for Friday Five. The simple gist of it is that I will breakdown 5 new games that I have gleaned information or trailers where appropriate, and generally give you 5 new games that are from a variety of generes and systems. Starting off, here’s the list of the Friday Five:

Fruit Machine Mania - PS2/PC

FlatOut 2 - Xbox/PS2/PC

KUON - PS2

Air Taxi - PC

Maelstrom - PC

Fruit Machine Mania - PS2/PC

Despite the ‘fruity’ name, this is essentialy a slot machine game. Only, instead of gambling for money, you earn points on machines to unlock new machines, to, um, earn more points and make the wheels spin.
I don’t know, maybe it’s something to do with the British, but I don’t get the same feeling playing slots as I do when I’m at a casino and the 85-year old great-grandmother sitting next to me smoking out of her tracheotomy hole while spending her social security money $5 at a time hits the Jackpot, has a heart attack, and I swoop in to save the day. And by day I mean money, and by save I mean steal.

FlatOut 2

Now, I found the original FlatOut enjoyable, and there were some features that I enjoyed, like being able to play System Link games on the Xbox. Or catapulting my driver out through the windshield over and over and over and over and over again. The physics engine that they use for the game is amazing, and they’re keeping the same engine, and just adding more to the game, and adding more things to destroy. Twice as many cars, twice as many tracks, twice as many mini games , faster tracks, better career mode, and now with online multiplayer modes.

KUON

KUON seems like a very stylized fighting game. It’s based on an ancient Japanese horror story (Kwaidan) and uses materian from the Heian period of Japanese culture. I’m interested in seeing more gameplay, as you can fight demons in real-time with magic, summons, and traditional Heian weapons (Meaning katanas, spears, etc.).

Air Taxi

Take 2 parts Flight Simulator 2004, and toss in one part of Crazy Taxi, and you have yourself Air Taxi. Based in the near future where larger passenger airlines and private charter jets are obsolete due to cheap, efficient Air Taxis. You have the choice of operating one of eight different companies, and running a business to try and make the most money possible. They’ve also replaced the standard layout of the cockpit with what they call the Primary Flight Display which represents the next generation of aviation equipment. The PFD is a single CRT screen which replaces the many analogue gauges used in older aircraft. Looks like quite a trip.

Malestrom

Anarchy, destruction, annihilation, and great talent behind the storyline. There are a lot of games that try to build a great storyline, but they usually fall short unless they have a tremendous backstory that you can glean bits and pieces of throughout the game. I’m sure that there are some amazing storyline writers for games out there, but they don’t usually get the same headlines as Hollywood movie screenplay writers. So, when a studio signs on one of those bigwigs to do the story for their new game, it makes me tingle in anticipation.
James Swallow, who’s previous sci-fi credits include Star Trek: Voyager and Doctor Who (Okay, we’ll forgive him for Voyager if it’s on that included Seven of Nine), has been signed on by Codemasters to work on the storyline for their new game Malestrom.

“I’m excited to be a part of the Maelstrom project,” says Swallow, “We have a dynamic and compelling plotline, epic scope and strong characters. As the game unfolds, the conflicts between the factions and the characters within them become the flashpoints for player missions, and what begins as a battle to live another day soon becomes a global fight for survival, with the player at the heart of the action.”

Says Carl Johnson, Maelstrom’s game designer at Codemasters:
“The story in Maelstrom is hugely important; it doesn’t just set the tone and atmosphere, but it also ties directly into the game mechanics, to give the player a better understanding of each faction and how they play. The story follows the apocalypse that has befallen Earth and provides the player with a greater understanding of the motivations behind each of the game’s three factions, the origins of the technology for each side, and the reasons behind the conflict.”