Time to get derezzed and parkour your way through the world of Tron: Evolution for the Sony Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and PC. As denizen of the digital world it’s up to you to save Flynn and Tron from Flynn’s evil digital doppelganger Clu.

The game’s story takes place before the Tron: Legacy events and provides some insight into the film’s past. The film will also reference elements of the game’s story so fans will want to play the game to learn more about the TRON mythology seen in the film, but according to Disney each entertainment experience will stand on its own.

In the Story mode gamers will take on the role of Anon a character that can best be described as a “digital” version of the Prince of Persia. Much like the PoP you will be spending it parkouring your way through Tron and most likely falling to digital doom over and over again. The annoying aspect in this game is that your parkouring courses features a lot of floorless areas that will require you to make running leaps off a small ramps to get over to other walls and ledges. However these ramps are always located next to the edge of a ledge and most times you inadvertently wind up running off the end of the ledge.

While the parkouring aspects plays a big part in this game so does the fighting. Using your “Tron Frisbee” gamers can beat the digital bits out of some bad guys. Using a combination of the triggers and face buttons players can pull of varying attacks and combos. As you progress you can upgrade your disc to include added attributes like bomb and stasis, which gives you explosive attacks and with the later slows them down to a crawl.

Gamers will also get to ride light cycles and race across TRON’s digital landscape doing 90 degree sharp turns to make spectacular escapes. Players will also get to hop into tanks and blast their way through obstacles and shoot down transport ships. Unfortunately both of these features are laden with finicky controls and once you’ve tried each of them the novelty wears off quite quickly leaving you with no desire to try them again.

Overall game play is fun; however it is repetitive much like shampooing your hair, wash rinse and repeat. Gamers will find themselves parkouring their way to a large hall filled with Tron denizens who run screaming from you to be replaced by a group of bad guys who you pummel to bits, then you parkour your way to the next hall and you keep doing this over and over again. Occasionally you’re rewarded with a very short movie sequence that queues you in a little bit on what’s going on plot-wise and also points you to your next game destination/objective.

There a few multi-player games that expand the worth while-ness of the game and lets you and a few buddies have some extra fun. The multi-player light cycle races are very fun and a very similar to those seen in the movie. The battle arenas are similar to multi-player Quake and Halo matches and unfortunately seems like a simple knock-off of those games.

A special Tron: Evolution’s limited-edition package will also be available that will cost die-hard fans a whopping US$130 (about HK$1,010). What makes this package so expensive is the inclusion of an exclusive Tron light cycle collectible model made by Sideshow Collectibles. Also included in the package is a special casing to house the model so that you can proudly show it off and the display case also features a pullout drawer in its base to store the game’s box.

Hopefully Tron: Evolution isn’t indicative of what the movie will be like. It seems this game falls into the same abyss as other movie tie-in games and fails to deliver an equally exciting or fun experience as the movies that they are based on. While gamers might not find this as stimulating as the like of  Prince of Persia or Assassin’s Creed, fans of the original movie will definitely get some fun out of this game and some extra insight into the soon to be released movie that will be in cinemas on the 23rd of December.

Racing onto local PC’s is a MMO that will have you racing on courses all over the world and a possible competitor could even be local celebrity model Chrissie Chau.

Over a hundred audience members witnessed the officially launch of INTERUSH’s “Asian Proxy of iRacing Press Conference” in Hong Kong. Mr. Martin J. Matthews, the Chairman and CRO and Mr. Todd Mitsuishi, the President and CEO of INTERUSH Inc introduced and demonstrated iRacing to the local media and online game enthusiasts.

A demo by someone else is fine and all, but the total lack of any other stations for us gaming reporters to try out was very disappointing. The whole thing was akin to watching an adult slowly eating a softie ice-cream cone (with a Cadbury’s Flake). While that’s fine if it was Chrissie outside in the heat eating that ice-cream cone but alas it was not.

But don’t think for a minute we didn’t bring out the eye candy for you:

iRacing is an online racing game that features NASCAR, IndyCar, sports cars and Grand Prix racing, iRacing has it all. All you need is a PC, a gaming wheel or game pad and Internet connection. iRacing organizes all of the racing for you, or you can choose to host your own race. Either way the competition is as real as it gets – you will be racing against motorsports fans who share the same passion for racing.

For membership info gamers can go to www.iracing.com for full details. We took a quick look and the site is running a US$5 membership promotion with over 20,000 members targeting the US, China, Taiwan, Japan and now Hong Kong. Interesting! And the gimmick here is that you not only race other people around Asia – you can actually test your leadfoot against the pro’s like Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Alex Gurney and Marcos Ambrose.

iRacing offers:

• On-line racing simulation and service in the world with brilliant features and functionality
• Head-to-head competition – racing against real people
• Constant free automatic updates and improvements to the service
• Officially licensed cars that are engineered from the ground up in cooperation with real world race teams and using real-world physics
• Officially-licensed, exact replicas of the world’s greatest race tracks
• Officially-sanctioned racing organized by iRacing including the iRacing Pro Series (Road & Oval) and World Cup of iRacing
• An online community of racing enthusiasts over 20,000 strong
• Ability to host your own private sessions or create your own private racing leagues

There are 3 things inherent with any tech company that brings Chrissie out to their launch event:

1. They have lots of money to get the #1 Leng Mo in Hong Kong.
2. They are slightly insecure of their product or else they wouldn’t need to do the bait and switch.
3. They just want to meet Chrissie themselves.

With the big Disney Summer blockbuster version Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time opening in Hong Kong today we thought we’d take a stroll down memory lane to have a look back at this classic video game to remember its roots as one of the classic games of the late 80′s.

For those of you who don’t know, Prince of Persia is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. The first ever PoP game was released by Broderbund in 1989 that signified a great step forward in animation quality seen in computer games.

At first, it didn’t seem so complex. It revolved around a nameless traveler that climbs the palace walls of Persia merely to glimpse the Sultan’s daughter, more beautiful than a sunset. Mixing carnal lust with political ambition, the evil Vizier Jaffar imprisoned a beautiful Princess in a high tower and gives her an hour to marry him or die. Rather than go for an annulment, the Princess leaned towards Option B. Her only hope was her commoner-lover, the fearless Prince, who Jaffar left to rot in the lowest dungeon. One swift escape later, the Prince was running up the tower to beat the deadline, for the path to save his Princess is treacherous, and there is no time to waste.

And running was the only way to do it. Players had just sixty minutes to reach the top and defeat Jaffar, and a ton of pressure-plates to hit on the way. Guards were actually dueled in a patient series of retreats, advances, strikes and parries. If spike traps skewered you, or a skeleton warrior chopped you, or a section of floor collapsed under you, the game whisked you back to the start of the level while the clock kept ticking. Lost time compounded issues like loosing your soul, which cut the Prince’s health to almost nothing. Worse, that “Shadow Prince” played for the other team, harassing you at every turn. A real sense of danger permeated every moment, helped by seamless animations and rudimentary physics that gave the Prince real weight. It just felt like he was always about to be killed. Often enough, he was. That made his escapes all the more thrilling.

Prince of Persia started with players under the gun, and let the pressure build from there. Then Mechner added twists nobody expected; killing the Shadow in a duel killed the Prince, but simply walking into it merged them back together. Reaching Jaffar required a “leap of faith” over a bottomless chasm. Gamers were challenged to think about what they were doing in ways few other games did, but taking the time to simply stop and think ate into the precious few minutes you had left. This was how the first PoP game played out. It was wonderfully tense.

In 1994, Broderbund released Prince of Persia: The Shadow and The Flame which was similar to the first but had far more complex graphics. It was only in 1999 that the game was incorporated with 3D graphics with the release of Prince of Persia 3D under the wings of Red Orb Entertainment. Four years later, Ubisoft would take over and continued the series with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. In this 2003 game, the Vizier of the Maharajah tricks the Prince into releasing the Sands of Time contained inside the Hourglass of Time, using the Dagger of Time. The Sands wash over the kingdom, turning all living beings into monsters. On a journey to repair the damage he has caused, the Prince teams with Farah to return the Sands of Time to the hourglass, using the Dagger of Time. The game was developed for the PC, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, and later a 2D-version for the Game Boy Advance and mobile phones.

The success of The Sands of Time led to two sequels, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within picks up where The Sands of Time left off, adding new features, specifically, options in combat. Following Warrior Within, The Two Thrones is the closing chapter in The Sands of Time saga.

In mid 2007, Prince of Persia was remade and ported by Gameloft. The remake featured the same level design and general premise but contained 3D-rendered graphics, more fluid movements, and Sands of Time aesthetics.

Now fast-forward to 2010. Last May 18, Ubisoft released Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands as the latest installment in the PoP series. The game is an interquel, taking place in the seven year gap between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within. The Prince character is supposed to be a cross between the character models in these two games. According to a press release from Ubisoft, it’s available on all major gaming platforms and is to “feature many of the fan-favorite elements from the original series as well as new gameplay innovations. This latest offering from Ubisoft should definitely mark as one of the most exciting games to play.

Prince of Persia has taken the art of visuals and storytelling in video games higher and higher. Centered on a fearless hero who’s challenged and excited all comers. Different men may take up the mantel, but there will always be a Prince fighting the odds and the clock to save his lady-love. And we’ll always be there to enjoy the ride.

Take a look through the history of the Prince of Persia franchise from the original game in 1989 through its various incarnations on PC and Ubi’s versions of the game and let us know what you thought of the movie version that open today in Hong Kong.

One definite advantage that the movie has over the classic game: Gemma Arterton!

If this is just a trailer to the game, what would a movie look like?

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is coming to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, PSP, Nintendo DS and Wii this fall, with an Xbox 360 beta arriving April 13, 2010 in North America.

And according to Kotaku, the duo behind the Academy-Award winning short film are making the Ghost recon short film too:

Francois Alaux and Herve de Crecy will be working with writer Tim Sexton (Children of Men) on the 20-minute short, which will serve as a prequel for the upcoming Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

Ubisoft has set aside $8-10 million for the film, which is the latest in the studio’s ever-expanding line of movie projects, the last of which were based on Assassin’s Creed.

More at the official site here.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Electronic Arts’ new first-person shooter for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 is now available in Hong Kong.

EA Hong Kong launched the game in Times Square, Causeway Bay with these 2 lovely female soldiers to heat up gamers across our fair city – even though its already pretty hot for March.

And game reviews are calling Battlefield: Bad Company 2 a winner: Game Informer magazine gave the game a 9.5 out of 10, GameZone gave the game a 9.25/10, Gametrailers gave it a 9.1/10 and this video review from IGN gives it a:

If you are sick of Modern Warfare 2, and looking for a new contender then its time to suit up for Bad Company 2!

Enter to win a FREE Commander Shepard statue!

Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 hits shelves today in Hong Kong and in celebration we’re doing a giveaway for a Commander Shepard limited edition statue.

This awesome, highly detailed, long since sold-out Commander Shepard Mass Effect statue was released when Mass Effect 1 came out, and now you can only get one of the 2,500 created worldwide by entering this contest.

The Commander Shepard statue is 9″ tall and is made of polyresin and comes with a numbered base. Photos are below:

Again, this contest is only for Neonpunch VIP’s (you can still register here) and contest is open until February 14th, 2010: our Valentine’s Day/Year of the Tiger gift to Neonpunch readers) List out your 3 favorite characters from either Mass Effect 1 or 2 in the comments section below.

The game looks to live up its promise of being as good if not better than the first Mass Effect, have a look at this IGN video review if you still haven’t pulled all your hair out in anticipation:

Even though we’ve passed Christmas, we’re still unwrapping more photos and coverage from the annual Asian Game Show X Online Game Show (December 24-26).

At the yearly event, tens of thousands of local gamers descend upon the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre to play and buy games. Due to last year’s poor attendance, AGS organizers decided to team up with the Online Game Show in the hope that more people would be drawn to the double bill event.

Canto Pop idol and spokesmodel for the event, Joey Yung (容祖兒), was on hand at the AGS X OGS to start proceedings, in what looked like a cyber samurai outfit! Weilding a katanna, Joey posed for the paparrazi while screaming fans swooned behind the metal barricades.

Sony rolled out a few models of their own to add to the festivities:

As usual, Sony dominated the hall by roughly taking up nearly a quarter of the convention space, with numerous console stations for gamers to try out new and soon-to-be-released video games. The Sony area was separated into a number of booths that included a MTR PSPgo booth, Gran Tourismo 5 area, 18+ games room and a Winning Eleven Football area.

The industry giant also put on a number of shows and competitions that drew huge crowds to its main stage, where gamers got to watch game producer interviews along with the Asian Tekken 6 championship finals and Winning Eleven competitions.

Their horde of Playstation Game girls, like the sirens of Greek mythology, lured plenty of gamers to the shores of Sony’s booths; however, the online gaming companies weren’t going to be outdone by Sony and, flashing a lot of leg and cleavage, the online gaming girls lured their own crowds of gamers and amateur/wannabe “gravure” photographers to their booths! Dressed in various seductive outfits from Miss Santa to Naughty School Girl to a World of Warcraft sorceress, there was definitely plenty to see and little needed to be left to the imagination.

This is only the tip of the iceberg for this show, so come back this week to see more stories and yummy photos from the Asian Game Show X Online Game Show.

The makers of Mass Effect go medieval on us!

The spiritual sequel to the infamous Baldur’s Gate comes in the form of Bioware’s Dragon Age: Origins – a RPG title developed by the same company that made Mass Effect and were made famous by Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

The title is currently for PC (Windows) the Xbox 360 (release date Nov. 3rd) and the PS3 (release date Nov. 20th.) The company describes the game as a “dark heroic fantasy” story with mature themes. Mature is definitely correct as is evident by the blood (video below). The hook here is that the designers are integrating “origin” stories for each race and some classes – which means that rather everyone starting from the same point in the game – everyone will have their own “starting zone” which comprises unique events which are completely separate from each other class and race. This is one idea that has made WoW so popular – re-playability.

Key points in gameplay include a great deal of NPC’s to choose from. Combat will consist of you choosing two other NPC’s to join you similar to Knights of the Old Republic. To quote Bioware: “The spells in the game will interact with the effects of others. For example, a blizzard spell would put out the flames caused by hitting something with a grease spell and then a fire spell. The combat will be real-time, with the option to pause the game to queue up attacks to be performed when unpaused. This is similar to the combat in the Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate games.” We can see what they mean in the gameplay video below:

The release date is November 3, 2009. For more information, check out the official website and get ready to pick it up at Toys R Us, 188 Mall, HMV and the other usual Hong Kong outlets in the next 3 weeks.

An upcoming science fiction, first-person shooter with various RPG elements and outlandish, cartoony graphics appear to be overrunning us on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC platforms this October with Borderlands. In a hell-torn wasteland similar to Doom or Fallout 3, Borderlands gets you to deal with the trash. Think of a game like Diablo where demons are coming after you but instead of an isometric view…you’re dealing with it in first-person. With amazing graphics. That’s terrifying.

The game will feature four player online co-op (think Left 4 Dead) allowing your friends in arms to conveniently come and go as they please. Players will have access to customizable vehicles and can customize their character. Similar to RPG’s like Diablo, slaughtered enemies will drop equipment which you can then equip yourself with… and fast. There will be 160 different quests with 30 being part of the story line and the rest being side quests.

Other things that will be randomly generated are things like bunkers, towers, caves and enemies hopefully making it truly worth your spending money as the fun might never stop.

A game play video that might just get your heart-pumping is down below or you can visit the official site here.

Borderlands is available for Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the PC this October. We’ll keep you posted on the actual release date in Hong Kong.

This version of King of Fighters brings an RPG element to your PC featuring the KoF characters and is schedule for release early next year. This is the first piece of publicity for the game and it’s already got us excited for the good ol’ KoF characters and SNK!