If you go back tomorrow you NEED to play more 2spicy - it's ridiculously deep once you get into it and it's by far the best game I played at ATEI. The zoom/crush/freeze/combo mechanics work perfectly and each character has a completely different playing style, so I was still managing to win pretty much every match despite having absolutely terrible aim . I'm seriously considering skipping lectures to go and play it tomorrow...

We sort of got the hang of zooming, although that took some anticipation to be useful. I don't understand how the combos worked - do you know if was that just stringing together hits, or something else?

I noticed some of the environment played a role, depending on the level. Shooting the neon signs on the roof top stage would deal out damage to someone taking cover behind them, for one.

It is such an odd concept blending a versus arcade fighter with light guns, and setting it as a FPS. The controls make perfect sense though, so I probably just need to play it some more

Enjoy yourself Paper/Mads?

That hybrid fighter/FPS sounds mad, I'll have to see if I can get some replay vid's of that.

What games did you enjoy? Was there anything that suprised you or was it a sea of games that you was expecting.

Whats the deal with the pool table with bowling balls at the end?

Oh and hi Mr Peckerston
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Zooming was fairly useless with the majority of the characters, but if you chose Alexander or Sicks and had fast reactions you could win rounds in under 10 seconds

I couldn't quite work out the combos so I just shot their torso/head and hoped for the best, but some other guys seemed to have got them down a lot better than me.

The crush mechanic is that environment thing you described, Papercut. It's not that useful a lot of the time, but on the museum stage I was aiming at the 3 statues more than the opponent - if you chose a character with high attack you could fire off a few shots at each pillar every time he reloaded. Repeat that a couple of times and they're all ready to break - then wherever he runs to you can crush him immediately

And hi gingerj I'm yet another refugee from rllmuk/ntsc-uk, but I hardly posted there so you probably haven't seem me before.

Hi Mr Peckerston .

I have to say for me Too Spicy was a real highlight because out of all the games there it was a totally fresh idea. I hope it's a success as the concept is such a good one I'd love to see where they take it next.

There's definately some zonal damage model in there. Headshots deal massive damage and using the zoom increases damage too.

We played it link up against each other and that was great fun. Certainly a very tight and intense versus game. It will be getting my money when it hits the arcades

Other highlights for me were the Jungle Safari sit down cab, which was reminiscent of Rail Chase, but with QTE events thrown in. It's a bog standard blaster, but was clearly taking the piss out of itself with some really amusing cut scenes. Top stuff.

Oh and who could forget Afterburner Climax. I'd not played it before and expectations were high. It's a very very polished score chasing game I can imagine spending hours on it trying to wring the last few points out of each stage. Gripping. We still can't work out how the climax mode works in link-up play without doing some trickery with dropping sync between the two players :?

I want all three of those! C'mon guys! How can Chase HQ be average!??

I'd be far too busy chatting to the birds and having pictures taken with them rather than the admittedly awesome looking cabs there.

That Outrun II setup is fantastic. And Die Hard Arcade III! OMGz!

Must get to one of these events sometime, would make a cracking day out. I'm such a slacker.

Chase H.Q. 2 was an odd one. Nancy is now FMV (but a hottie), there's some really dodgy CGI cut scenes when you make an arrest and all the driving is cell shaded. It sort of works, but there's not really much of a game in there. We cheated by using continues (maybe 4), just to see the whole game.

There are some short cuts and nitro power ups to collect, but in terms of apprehending the suspects it's all a bit meh. Simply get up along side by taking a tighter line in the corners and jam yourself into the side of the suspects vehicle for maximum damage. Having said that they have tried to mix it up a bit with the suspects firing rockets at you on one level, going the wrong way around a NASCAR circuit during a race in another and the final special mission is quite a good laugh if a little simplistic. Paper nailed that particular one and I totally cocked it up

It is strange. Madbury made the point that there were no fighters and no schmups on display, unlike previous years where there would be something truly 'classic' kicking about.

Most of the games had been seen before, but it is unusual for brand new stuff to be shown at ATEI. The big new games for the UK were Chase HQ 2, which hasn't been seen anywhere else yet, Love & Berry, which had a limited English language release in the States, and OutRun 2 SP DX, which was seen last year at Japanese arcade shows.

What was reassuring is the confidence Sega have - they are really pushing all their larger games hard at the moment. The fact that Love & Berry was their main promotion says a lot about confidence too, but gawd knows where the 1200 machines destined for the UK will end up. In Japan Love & Berry is at arcades, toy shops, convenience stores, video outlets - Sega need to manage the same here for it to work. We were told there would be an English Love & Berry DS release this year too.

The best games of the show for me were After Burner Climax and Love & Berry. It would be great to see Sega succeed over here with the latter, nothing would be better than expanding the audience for arcade games.

The best new games of the show for me were Manic Panic Ghost, even though we couldn't play it, and OutRun 2 SP DX, as I'll probably never be able to play it again.

House of the Dead 4 Special was there also, from the Joypolis in Tokyo (we have a picture of that in the banners). This version has a revolving seat and a screen set behind you. The story has been rewritten to suit the revolving chair too, what I saw was completely new.

Its just a very odd bowling game. You can see on the screen there that its normal 10 pin scoring.

Here's hoping for a home version of ABC somewhere, sometime. I can't think I'll ever crack the Arcade version without a console conversion. Or a large budget... and the ability to teleport to the nearest machine. Maybe we should all chip in for a standup cab and I could err look after it...?

What I loved about climax was the way you had to really focus to get the sensitive controls to move the lock-on reticule in a nice smooth arc. violent side to side motions result in a role (just like the original) and basically cock up any hope you have of locking onto anything for a second or two. I wasn't totally feeling the climax gague I'm sure with repeated play you'd work out when and for how long to use it to keep the combo going.

I had to walk back down to ATEI this afternoon to play more 2 Spicy

I couldn't quite figure out the combo system but I've still got the feeling that it's related to which body parts you're hitting. I spent most of the time playing about with the zoom/headshot/counter system with Alexander, and trying to freeze people by shooting out the pipes and sprinklers above their heads A few other tactics that started emerging too, like predicting your opponent's position as the train is passing in the subway level then destroying the top of the nearest pillar to crush him.

Ghost Squad Evolution and Let's Go Jungle were fun too. I preferred GSE purely because of the optional panda/cowboy costumes and the fact that you got to high-five the president after headshotting his captor out the back of Air Force One, but the QTEs in LGJ worked really well.

Manic Panic Ghosts looks great too - I'll definitely give it a go if it ends up in London. I'd comment on Love & Berry too but I really don't understand the first thing about it

Hehe.

Love and Berry is aces, but so incredibly simple you might not dig it. Basically you scan in clothing items to build up an outfit. More co-ordinated/better outfits help you during the dancing game, which basically involves smashing the big tambourine button at the right time.

Ghost Squad Evolution when we played it on Tuesday was running like a complete dog. Everything was really really slow. As far as I can tell it's the same game as Ghost Squad, just with the card readers removed and all the unlockables available from the get-go.

Thanks for the explaination - I'll probably never end up playing Love and Berry, but at least I vaguely know what it's about now

As for Ghost Squad Evolution I'm always the last person to actually notice slowdown and I've never actually played the original Ghost Squad, so I'll trust you on that.

It's odd there was no reason for the slow down, as it's the same game on the same hardware. I'm betting it was a game mode setting that slowed the action down to make it easier for ATEI peeps.

I'm still slightly miffed that the new Dynamite Deka wasn't on Free Play The attract mode featured a class bit with a Chinese vampire complete with arms outstretched jump move XD CLASS!