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Sports Legends previews games with the philosophy that people want to hear our honest opinions on titles before they are released. If a game looks really promising, we'll pass on our excitement. But if a game needs work, we'll let you know. Here is our exclusive The Wheelman Playstation 3 preview. (Also On: 360,PC)
Vin Diesel stars in the action-driving-movie game based on the action-driving movie that doesn't exist.
Combining spectacular Hollywood-style stunts with a gripping storyline, Wheelman provides an adrenaline-fueled, cinematic thrill ride guaranteed to leave you breathless. Vin Diesel stars as an undercover agent and highly skilled driver who must infiltrate the Barcelona underworld to gather intelligence surrounding a covert heist. Posing as a driver-for-hire, he ends up caught in a crossfire of corruption and chaos while trying to stay one step ahead of local law enforcement and rival gangs.Also Available On: Xbox 360, PC | Release Date: Feb. 20, 2009
MSRP: $59.99 | Genre: Action
It's gaming's perpetual hot-button issue: Should games emulate movies? Sure, no one would deny that you've gotta use techniques pioneered in cinema to tell a visual story. But at the same time, games require their own techniques -- after all, the player ultimately has control over the action. Wheelman takes this argument and hurls it from a speeding car: Every aspect of the game's designed to be just like a movie. The enormous explosions, slow-mo car jumps, and endless destruction -- it feels a lot like The Transporter come to life.
According to Midway, Wheelman's about 80 percent driving and 20 percent on-foot action. Even though the game's based on the same engine that powered Stranglehold, the on-foot shooting portions feel fairly clunky and uninspired when compared to the driving, where the game's cinematic nature's on display at all times. I played a mission that involved chasing a gang leader through a subway -- all the while being hunted down by his cronies. The goal was to shoot the connections between the train cars to dispatch baddies stationed in each section of the train, eventually making my way up to the gang leader in the front of the train. After killing wave after wave of goons and detaching the train cars, my Focus gauge was full, allowing me to use the game's ridiculous special moves -- in this case, the Cyclone. Watching Vin Diesel do a front wheelie on a motorcycle and spin around to face the oncoming train while shooting an Uzi -- losing no momentum, but entering into slow-mo bullet-time in the process -- was enough to make even John Woo salivate.
The game's vehicles are indicative of the Barcelona locale, as tiny micro cars abound. With supershort wheelbases, these cars zip around, and it seems possible to do a 360-degree spin through a turn, fulfilling a wild gaming dream I've had since watching professional drifting videos on YouTube. While watching Vin Diesel frolic around Spain on scooters and in bright green microcars probably doesn't match with the developer's idea of a big, tough action flick, it's a lot of fun being able to wreak havoc all over the city -- regardless of transportation choice. The "airjack" feature's certainly one of the game's greater -- if not most ridiculous -- ideas, as you can leap from one speeding car to another while driving. It's the developer's effort to eliminate the downtime typically seen in other sandbox games, where a damaged or wrecked car must be abandoned.
With its shamelessly cinematic nature, nonstop driving action, and relentless explosions, Wheelman tries its hardest to resemble mindless midsummer entertainment -- and in that respect, it definitely seems set to succeed, at least given what we've seen of the "80 percent" portion of the game. We'll learn more about the rest as we get closer to Wheelman's February release.
