Welcome to the Loadout. Our philosophy is that the working week is a recurring boss battle that you’ll need the proper weapons to take down. The supplies at hand won’t always be pretty but you might just be able to hold out until the weekend. Green means add it to your arsenal, yellow leaves it up to your discretion and red means back away slowly. With that, let’s see what we’ve got this week.
The Game: Alpha Protocol
Specifications: After a few delays, Sega’s releasing the Obsidian-developed action RPG to Xbox 360 and PS3 this week. You’ll play as disgraced spy Michael Thorton, who’s rooting around the intelligence underworld trying to stop an imminent threat. Branching storylines offer different consequences depending on the choices you make and a trio of special classes allows you to specialize in gadgets, combat or stealth.
Ideal Usage Scenario: Even if you’re really hankering for some globe-trotting espionage action, you still might find Alpha Protocol a tough pill to swallow. The game feels unpolished and just a step out of sequence with other recent high-profile titles. Play at your own risk, we think.
The Game: Backbreaker
Specifications: Since you’ll be able to create your own team uniforms and logos in Backbreaker, this gridiron game don’t need any stinking licenses. Everything in it–the teams, the logos, the stadiums–is fictional but the action feels real. Developer NaturalMotion has made middleware animation tools that have been used in games like Grand Theft Auto IV and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. So, hopes are running high that they can deliver a visceral pigskin playable to the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Ideal Usage Scenario: Even the most fanatical football fan must be curious what life outside of yearly Madden NFL releases must look like. Thanks to all that animation expertise, the game engine ensures that every tackle happens differently. You’ll be able to play splitscreen multiplayer, too, and the gameplay camera uses a angle that’s focused right on the player. Backbreaker could be the chance to play video game football in a whole new way, so it may be worth a try.