Xbox 360 first impressions

Kameo: Elements of Power

Originally a Gamecube title, development was moved to the Xbox (and then the 360) when developers Rare were bought by Microsoft. Now touted by Microsoft spokespeople as one of the surprise hits of the console, it's been hyped as one of the must-have titles for launch day.

Our playtest of the game focused on one level, which involved - as far as we could tell - killing monsters by beating them up then throwing them into a big lava pit. The graphics are pretty good, although not on the 'wow' scale offered by Gotham and DoA. Textures are crisp, framerates are smooth, and the otherworldly effects offered by Kameo's setting are all suitably luscious. The game looks great in high definition, but isn't a showcase.

In practice, we found the control overly fiddly. Despite being a fairly simple platformer in concept, the controls are quite complicated, with Kameo having all kinds of different actions and modes. We like deep gameplay, but our initial impressions suggest that it's not a pick-up-and-play title. Analogue control was oversensitive, and this made it hard to play the game with any great degree of accuracy. Hopefully this will be tidied up in the final version.

FIFA 2006 - Road to World Cup

EA has gone in for Xbox 360 in a big way, with a number of sporting titles hitting the console on launch. The publishing giant has cleverly avoided the issue of having to convert the entireity of FIFA 06 on the traditional platforms to luscious high definition, by just making this a 'Road to World Cup' edition - meaning only the top teams at club and international level are rendered, saving time and work.

The gameplay is basically the current FIFA 06 but with a few tweaks, which as we all know is FIFA 05 but with worse tackling. The game is slightly faster-paced, and this will make for an interesting transition for players of the existing version. It feels, in fact, a little bit more like Pro Evolution Soccer in terms of player control and speed.

The graphics are very hit and miss. Some of the player likenesses are stunning, but some are marred by skin textures that look awful. David Beckham has a great physical likeness, but his skin is dimpled, freckled and dirty to a degree never before seen on the legendarily clean-shaven, fancy-looking hero. The same skin effect on Wayne Rooney merely emphasises his 'trollishness'. The game also suffers from the same 'stadium shadow' problem as the current 06, where entire halves of the pitch are covered in darkness to mimic the effect of the sun on the stadium. Realistic, yes, good for gameplay, no. Seeing as it's the only footie game available on launch, you won't do badly to have it, but we hope for a more concrete next-gen implementation for 07.