Here’s a gameplay video from Need For Speed Undercover’s police chase mode. Game producer John Doyle, in a Nissan GT-R cop car, walks us through the mode, which includes road blocks, pursuit breakers and some pissed off cops. You can also see some of the pop-in issues that plagued that build of the game. But we have been promised that this would be rectified in the final build.

After briefly giving the cops a run-around, John hands the controller over to a journalist, who, after negotiating a few bends and trading some paint, was greeted with an Xbox 360 memory crash. Priceless!

The second video is a brief gameplay snippet from the highway battle mode. As you can see, the pace is frantic and the highways are populated with some crazy rush-hour traffic.

Check out the videos and tell us what you think at the GamingIndians Community forums.

With another Need For Speed game approaching, everyone is anxious to know if Black Box will redeem the franchise after the disastrous ProStreet or hit ‘refresh’ and take it back to the glory days. GamingIndians had the opportunity to test drive a bit of Need For Speed Undercover at the recently-held Games Convention Asia in Singapore.

EA has been talking about Undercover being a successor to Most Wanted, and at first you will feel like you’re indeed playing Most Wanted; it feels instantly familiar. Whether that’s a good or bad thing remains to be seen when we get to sample the full game. But it sure does feel like EA have taken the safe route in terms of gameplay to concentrate more on the story side of things, with the much talked about Hollywood-style live action cutscenes with the likes of Maggie Q.

The game employs, what EA calls, the Heroic engine. It is basically a physics engine that tweaks the handling of each car to make it feel different, while still firmly maintaining the series’ arcade gameplay style. Essentially, they want each car to feel different, but they also want you to feel like the star of a Hollywood action film, hence the name – Heroic. I tried two cars in this build – the Audi RS5 and the Nissan GT-R. Although both did feel different, I wasn’t wowed by Heroic physics. It just felt like a regular arcade game. For instance, a handbrake turn was equally easy to pull off on both cars.

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is one of the most eagerly anticipated Star Wars titles of this decade. The game has been released on all major and minor platforms, right from mobile phones, to handhelds like the PSP and NDS, to old and new home consoles like the PS2, X360, PS3 and Wii. This review deals with the iPhone version, which is a surprisingly good version of the game.

The game is available for US$ 9.99 from the iTunes Applications Store (this is also available in India). The purchase and installation process is as painless and streamlined as buying music or videos from the iTunes Store and I had the game installed an running on my iPhone within 20 minutes of buying it (the download took a bit of time considering the comparatively abysmal internet speeds in India).

The story in the iPhone version of the game is a heavily abridged version of the one that plays out in the console versions, so its more or less incomplete and you won’t derive much understanding, satisfaction or closure from it. The protagonist is a secret apprentice of Darth Vader, who is trained in the dark side of the Force and is now being used by Darth Vader to carry out surreptitious missions for him without the knowledge of the Emperor. The game’s storyline will take you to various planets in the Star Wars universe in your quest as the Jedi assassin for Darth Vader. The game play is similar to a “rail shooter” in that you cant actually control the movement of your character. Instead, you need to use the variety of Force powers at your disposal to dispose off enemies in order to progress through the levels. Each planet will throw up a linear path peppered with enemies and monsters and culminates in a boss fight.

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With FIFA 09 looking to take the series to new heights, the game’s producer Clive Gorman takes some time out to talk to GamingIndians regarding the game’s new features, criticism over the PC version, what improvements EA have in mind for FIFA 2010, and more. He even takes a potshot at the competition, saying Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer games have failed to take advantage of the PS3 and Xbox 360 hardware. Read on for the full interview:

Can you start by telling me about the changes that you’ve made since FIFA 08 and UEFA Euro 2008?

The way it breaks down is there are five key areas. Most important to us was gameplay. We’ve made over 250 changes to the gameplay that affect two things. The first is the responsiveness, which means that not only are the passes quick, but players trap the ball properly, they realistically anticipate where the ball will come. There’s also the physical aspect of it; how players behave in one-on-one situations. Now you can actually jostle with your opponent and you’re able to start the jostle and pull out of it when you want as you would in real life. Also, the stronger player with higher attributes will be able to outmuscle the smaller player. So when two players come together, the stronger player has a better chance of winning the tackle, whereas the small, faster players will be able to get around slower opponents more easily. It’s all very realistic.

There are also adjustments to the way you take freekicks. You will be able to adjust the amount of spin on the ball. Goalkeepers themselves have seen an overhaul; this was one of the biggest demands. You won’t see the stupid moments where they just stood there and waited for the ball. Similarly, you won’t see ‘keepers stopping a perfectly placed shot, which would’ve been impossible to stop in real life.

Of course 10 vs 10 is a huge new feature for us. We want to make it a virtual sport. We want people to learn how to play in a particular position. That’s important because with the introduction of Clubs, there is a grading system and if you can learn to play together as a team, you’re going to be more successful. There are 15 divisions, so the guys who don’t learn how to play as a team and work together, they’re going to be at the bottom. Those who take the time to play together and work as a team will move up the ladder and earn the bragging rights.

We’ve also introduced customisable controls, which is important especially in Asia. We have a competitor, who has a large market share and they use different controls. So now we’re giving the player the option to play FIFA the way they want. Then of course, there are the custom team tactics, which allow you to get under the hood of the gameplay and make the changes that go a step beyond what was possible before. Another new addition is Adidas Live Season, which will allow in-game statistics to change on a weekly basis based on how players perform in the real world.

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After several discussions and design changes, we have finally arrived at the final two designs for our GamingIndians T-shirts, which will be available to GI members at a special discount courtesy Myntra.com.

GamingIndians members suggested and voted for their favourite slogans and the two that received the most votes were “Don’t piss me off. I play violent video games” (Design A) and “I see fragged people” (Design B). “GamingIndians.com” will be printed on the back of all T-shirts. While Design A is available in black and white, Design B is available in grey and white, and all colours and designs are available in sizes S to XXL.

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