Gas Masks are 'well scary'.

Ahhhhhhh. Breath it in, or out. Whichever way, this may be the last gasp of relief you have this year. With Christmas now weeks in the past, the hyperbole express is back in action. What I'm trying to say, in the simplest of terms, is that videogames promotion is now well back underway. Gone are the Christmas big-hitters, the disappointments and the triumphs are all soon swept under the carpet and we ready ourselves to usher in a new year of titles, some we saw coming, and others that will no doubt surprise (so, actually not that surprising then).

With there actually being so many new games to play towards the end of 2007, we could all be forgiven for ignoring the true spirit of the videogames industry.....HYPE!

Let's get the ball rolling then, with the potentially amazing, or shit-awful Prototype. Some of the games in the back catalogue of it's developers are probably best forgotten. That said though, they certainly don't seem to be ashamed of their past. Maybe these are the kind of developers that learn from mistakes. Either way, not brushing your past under the carpet and taking a sense of pride in each release, no matter how ill-received it was, shows integrity and gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Something about 'open-world' games always makes me slightly sceptical, its a trend best left in the hands of more credible developers, I feel. It has certainly been a buzz-word in recent years, and very often it was so poorly implemented that in the hands of anyone other than Rockstar, I began to see it as a sign of warning, rather than merit.

With Crackdown paving the way though, it seems like Prototype has alot of potential, it at least remembers that a 3-d world includes an x, y and z axis. Details are still thin on the ground, but you can clearly jump off big buildings. That'll do for now. I don't have great story hopes for this and their character artist seems oblivious to the existence of Half Life 2. But, the character art does stand out to me, with a few of the enemies reminding me of Lost Planets' evil-doers, and that is no bad thing. Capcom may disagree mind you.

The Faux-Bot