I took a look at the opening chapter of the game entitled Frantic that introduces us to the character and the heavy driving theme of the game. You are the titular Wheelman and your first mission is to help a gal named Lomi escape from a bank heist. Because you are new to the area and don't know your way around, you must follow her directions to complete the mission. An inset map also helps with finding your way around. Throughout the level you are being pursued by police and a quick flip of the left stick will have you ramming your car into your chasers. If you are in possession of a gun, you can also use the stick to fire your weapon out the window. One insane special move called the cyclone sends your car spinning 180 degrees allowing you to shoot at enemies through the windshield. Your car takes a lot of abuse in this game, constantly smashing into other cars or in my case, walls. Luckily, once your car is wrecked, you can merely hop out and jump into another one.

Wheelman isn't all about driving however and you can leave your car to run around and take on enemies with your gun. The portion I played used both driving and on foot controls to complete the mission. The driving controls felt very tight and intuitive and the on foot controls had a similar feel. Accelerating and reversing in the car is done via the triggers and when you switch to on foot, the triggers allow you to aim and shoot your gun.

The graphics, while nice, had a certain sparseness to the details which I'm sure will be polished up in subsequent builds of the game. The camera work is very cinematic and dramatic. For instance, when making one particularly large jump, the camera switched to a front view and we got a little "bullet time" as the action slowed down so we could take in the full effect. Once the car hit the ground again everything went back to full speed. It was an effective trick and really gave one the feeling of being in a movie.

There's quite a bit of content to explore in Wheelman as well. Besides the open worldliness of the game there are also ten hours of missions and ten hours of events. I appreciated the work that went into making this title and thought it was a decent enough game, but ultimately there was not a whole lot about it that really wowed me. But then again, I am rarely impressed by franchise games in general and driving and shooting can get a bit boring after a while. I will reserve my final judgments of Wheelman until the game is actually completed and I have a chance to see more than a couple missions. Perhaps the addition of a little spit and polish will help me change my mind.

In the main career mode, you are taken through six episodes of a TV show "contest" to become the NBA chosen one. Hip Hop artist Chuck D hosts the episodes with actual real life footage. Each episode pits you against the many NBA stars and their signature moves and you must win each round to move on. By scoring points, you can fill up your meter allowing you to pull off "Shut 'em Down" super moves and "Act a Fool" combos. The Act A Fool combos are pulled of by a series of button presses and are completely over the top. I got to see a few of these in action and they are actually quite funny and had me shouting "No Showboating!" You also have the option of playing 1-v-1, 2-v-2 or 1-v-1-v-1 match-ups either locally or online over XBL. Downloadable content will also be made available so you can customize your character adding to the game's already rich Create A Baller system.

Admittedly, I am not a big sports fan so I think that some of the nuances of the game were rather lost on me, but the graphics looked nice and the special moves were good for a laugh. I'm sure those of you who enjoy a good round of basketball on your console will find plenty to do in NBA Ballers.

The fighting mechanic was pretty basic and what you would expect from this type of open world, mission based game. You can fight everyone form the local yokels and thugs to the mascots of the various casinos. I got particular pleasure out of beating the crap out of one mascot who looked suspiciously like my arch nemesis, The Burger King. By pressing X to attack, you can build up your BuzzBomb meter which, once it's filled, will give you an special move that will send your enemy flying through the air. Beating enemies down yields casino chips that can be used later to buy more clothes, cars and other goodies.

Next we moved on to the gambling portion. At the current time they have confirmed that there will be Black Jack, Texas Hold 'Em Poker and slots with other games to be announced later. I tried my hand at a Black Jack game and did pretty well. Of course, it helps that the game has a built in cheat device for each casino game. In Black Jack, the cards are marked and going into a special mode will allow you to see What's coming up next and what the other player have in their hands. but don't linger to long in cheat mode, because the pit boss is watching and if his suspicion meter fills up, you are busted.

Where game really shone was the party mode. Your character is dispatched to a club that is rather empty and you are implored by the DJ to help her bring customers in. This is accomplished through a series of mini-games like a Cake Mania-esque bar tending gig, beating up cheesy bachelors and a rather gratuitous wet t-shirt mini-game where you spray girls down with water.

My favorite part of the club scene however, was the dancing. Based on the Tony Hawk method of combos, you can make your character pull of various dance moves using button presses. The more moves you can stack up without failing, the more points you can score. If you get really good, you can even get everyone on the dance floor to follow you in a group synchronized dance routine. It was really pretty clever and I found myself thinking that in itself would make a pretty fun game.

All in all I'd have to say that the game seemed pretty fun and the dialog was amusing. The graphics looked great and the recreation of Vegas was really well done with loads of detail. However, what we saw of This Is Vegas was pretty disjointed so it was difficult to get a handle on the overall gameplay. I look forward to seeing a more cohesive version that includes the driving mechanic at this year's E3. It is expected to ship Winter 2008 for 360, PS3 and PC.

The thing that sets TNA Impact apart from other wrestling games is its pace. While not quite the frantic pace of a fighting game, it finds a nice middle ground that makes it comfortable to control. The other thing that really made the game spectacular was the graphics. Truly some of the best I have seen in a game like this. The backgrounds were fully 3D rendered, great dynamic lighting and character models so detailed that at times they seemed almost photographic.

As to the game itself, it contains over ten different modes including Full Metal Mayhem, Tag Team and the infamous Ultimate X which has players trying to grab a big red X that is chained over the ring by large cords. This mode was particularly fun because it gets the wrestlers off the floor and hanging off the giant cords above. While grappling the cords, the wrestlers can still kick each other off or if one is on the ground, he can reach up and pull his opponent down. Pulling off any wrestlers special moves will give you style points that can then be used later to unlock all sorts of goodies from clothing to special move sets.

Of all the things I saw from Midway, TNA Impact was overall the most impressive and you can expect to see it available for your PS3, PS2, Wii and Xbox 360 this summer. You guys can have your Lara Croft and Kasumi, just give me the beefcake.

Later in the evening however, an ugly story started to circulate. According to several sources, Ed Boon stated that the game would have no fatalities. No fatalities? Seriously? Fatalities are what the franchise is best known for but apparently DC will not have their beloved characters torn limb from limb in fountains of blood. Can't say I blame them, but I'm curious to see how such a move will affect sales of the game. Will Mortal Kombat fans be willing to accept the trade off? Superman vs Fatalities: who is going to win out?