Oh fine, there's parkour and it's set in New York City. But the game has more in common with its cousin The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction than it does with anything Ubisoft or Rockstar created; and it doesn't have some pretentious sci-fi or overwrought gangster premise. Seriously – when you're elbow-dropping tanks and flinging pedestrians into airborne helicopters, do you really need some character-driven excuse to have fun?

What Is It?
Prototype is a singleplayer action game set in a sandbox world that happens to be New York City. Gameplay focuses on the sinister superpowers of amnesiac Alex Mercer that allow him to, among other things, rip people apart and absorb their appearance and memories. It's coming out on PC, 360 and PS3.

What We Saw
I spent an hour with the 360 version of the game in a private hands-on appointment, going through the first tutorial mission and a second steal-the-helicopter mission set about a third of the way through the game.

How Far Along Is it?
This build is shy of release code by a bit – Trophy/Achievements haven't even been worked out yet – but it looked pretty smooth for a game two months away from shipping.

What Needs Improvement?
Why Do I Care About Alex?: No matter how vast, pretty or interactive a sandbox game is, it gets boring if you have no connection to the main character. Radical has kept details of the plot pretty close to the vest so far, so maybe there is some compelling reason why I should care about this hoodie-wearing mutant. But unless and until I found out what that is, Alex could get old fast after the first hundred elbow-dropped tanks or so.

What Do You Mean No Multiplayer?: Sounds like Radical bit off more than they could chew when they first announced Prototype – this game was supposed to have a badass multiplayer to go with the badass gameplay. But it doesn't, and I'm docking points for promises broken.

Simultaneous Releases Make Me Nervous: I only saw the 360 version of the game, so I don't know how it plays on PS3 or PC. But I have noticed a sad trend where games that go for simultaneous releases on all three platforms usually break one and leave the other out in the cold for DLC – that's PS3 and PC respectively.

What Should Stay The Same?
The powers: Remember those old Nintendo ads that said "Now you're playing with power"? I think this is what they had in mind. Alex Mercer has all kinds of weird mutant tricks that allow him to run up the side of buildings, tear through the streets of NYC at a blurring rate, glide like a bat, and – of course – kill people in weird ways. One of the weirdest I saw in the tutorial level was where his hand turns into a black and red writing mass that he slams into the ground, which causes a huge set of spikes to jut out from the ground in front of Alex, flipping cars and impaling people.

The control scheme: Alex has a lot of superpowers and a lot of people shooting at him because of said superpowers; players need to be able to handle his big bag of people-killing tricks and get him the hell out of trouble at the drop of a hat. Thankfully, the controls lend themselves to both, with most of the mutant moves mapped to the face buttons, plus a "flee" option mapped to the right trigger that performs most of Alex's parkour moves without the player having to find surfaces that are viable parkour platforms – so for example if you're running through a crowd, Alex doesn't shove people aside and stumble, he just vaults over them and then runs up the side of the building because the flee button allows you to parkour off of pretty much any surface (unlike a certain game that I said we shouldn't compare Prototype to).

So Many NPCs, So Little Time: The Titanium engine developed for Prototype can support a lot of NPCs on screen at one time. Dave Fracchia, VP of Technology at Radical (and former software dev on Reboot), told me that the engine can handle between 80 and 100 pedestrian NPCs plus another 100 or so vehicles. That's 200 things for me to wreck, maim or otherwise inconvenience via Alex's superpowers at any given time. Awesome!

Gotta Absorb ‘Em All: A major storytelling method for the game is the Web of Intrigue – a network of memories that Alex collects by absorbing people. Some of the Web you'll unlock by progressing through the main plot; but there are lots of non-essential memories that fill in Alex's back story that you can gobble up by seeking out and absorbing random NPCs all over town. Having this storytelling method might not make the plot any better (or worse, as the case may be), but it definitely gives you something extra to do in the game. And the really fun part? They might "misremember" stuff, so you'll have absorb even more people to get a clear picture of what really happened to Alex to make him the freak he is.

Final Thoughts
Prototype was a cathartic game to play, but not at all mind-numbingly repetitive. The varied superpowers, dense city and numerous ways to break a helicopter (you can jump off a building and sort of glide into its propeller – so hilarious) kept things interesting, even though I couldn't get into the plot. I'm almost willing to say that even if the plot is horrible, that won't make the game less fun; repetition is the enemy of sandbox games, not pretentious plots. But I'll have to wait and see. Maybe Radical can cook up something so pretentious, it sucks all the fun out of sucking up people's memories.

Note: This is excerpted from a review I attempted to write, but pulled back as I didn't complete the game. Some of you asked if I was willing to share my opinion of the game anyway. Last week, Brian reminded me of the strict conditions we have to do a full review, which are as much to protect the site's credibility as the writer's. But he also said that impressions are still fair game if the game hasn't been completed. I haven't, probably won't and with that caveat, here are some thoughts on The Bourne Conspiracy. It is not a full review and it's a month after the game's release. Take it for what you will.

Off the bat I wanted to like High Moon Studio’s The Bourne Conspiracy because it was a movie adaptation, but released about a year after the most recent film. That meant someone decided to do this game for a reason other than the obligatory game adaptation. And though it lacks Matt Damon’s likeness (gameplay Bourne more resembles Rob Lowe, cutscene Bourne is huskier), by itself that doesn’t deep six a good concept.

The game is touted as becoming Jason Bourne — a man who knows neither his identity or his past, only his present, and his capacity for killing others within that present. That kind of immersion is an ambitious goal, and the game doesn’t quite get there. It never felt like my goal was to piece together Jason Bourne’s past, or even inhabit his persona. In the end it’s an action game with a story that doesn’t get in the way, but no a-ha moment where you transform from just a guy with guns and deadly hands into someone truly special.

Where this game shines is in its hand-to-hand combat. The "takedown" is the game's showpiece, and most everything in your combat is geared to triggering it. You earn one after filling an "adrenaline meter" to a certain point (or more, to take out multiple enemies). Then by slamming a button, you get to watch a very entertaining cutscene in which you take a part your foe, and there's nothing they can do about it. By the time you get into your fights, you have so much hostility welled up that slamming someone’s head into the edge of a toilet is eminently cathartic. The game will improvise flawlessly with the available environment.

Unfortunately, as you wade through bad guy after bad guy, you get to a point where you just want the combat over. It then becomes a process of executing three combos, throwing up a block, and combo-blocking until you finally get the magic button that puts an end to what are typically overly long encounters with minor foes. Rarely was I able to string together more than four combos, and the devastating kicks require plenty of lead time, you'll rarely use them on tougher settings where your assailants are faster.

The takedown conditions you in other ways too; your enemies can perform a takedown, and you'll notice one's coming when a certain sound rings in your ears and the screen slows down. Then you have a simple one-button task to parry or reverse the attack. This same procedure is repeated for certain cutscene cinematics. In other words, you really shouldn't put your controller down and watch at any point, because you never know when you’ll be called to hit the correct button (it always changes) and get your ass out of trouble. I could have stood to see these button cues a little more complicated, to be honest.

But the game has seriously flawed gunplay mechanics. There’s no other word for it. It’s abysmal. If you are a highly-skilled FPS or third-person free-aimer, you might have less of a complaint than I do. But whatever your skill level, this game is least fun when a gun is in your hands. The game encourages you to use your “Bourne Instinct” — a non-bullet time spider sense — to find your targets, but it is not a true lock-on, unless your target is stationary. Also, at higher levels, you drain "adrenaline" using this. Ambushes will require you to run it out completely.

The lack of weapon variety also hurts the game. You can carry a handgun and a long arm, but I never sensed any difference in weapon types beyond rate of fire. There's no incentive to scan your environment for a particularly deadly rifle or a sidearm with pure stopping power. There are also no melee weapons nor grenades, which I suppose is not entirely necessary for this genre, but would be great at breaking up the repetition of the combat.

I played midway through on Agent setting, then again partway on trainee, getting roadblocked each time at Vilnius trying to take out the tank. Controller-throwing fits. Am I a bad gamer? Is this a bad video game? Both are probably unfair characterizations. It's not good enough for a complete review, but I made the decision that suffering through that round for another 20 deaths spread over an hour would not change my impression that The Bourne Conspiracy is a novel concept for a linear shooter that accomplishes one thing well, and is hamstrung by the rest of its controls. Lots of folks have said this is a great rental, not a great purchase. That's a pretty fair grade.

"The mix of guns, acrobatics and swords in the midst of non-stop action will undoubtedly ensure Rubi takes the title as the most exciting heroine ever in video games," said Martin Tremblay, president, Worldwide Studios, Sierra Entertainment. "WET is an exciting addition to Sierra Entertainment's original games portfolio."

SIERRA ENTERTAINMENT UNVEILS THE ACROBATIC NEW SHOOTER WET

Sierra Entertainment Introduces WET's powerful heroine, Rubi, as She Makes Her Debut on Consoles Worldwide in 2008

LOS ANGELES (August 22, 2007) - Sierra Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, today announced WET, a seamless integration of intense gunplay, death-defying acrobatics and exciting swordplay, framed by breathtaking art direction and unparalleled animation quality.

Developed by A2M, WET tells the story of Rubi, an acrobatic gun-for-hire. When she agrees to help a wealthy man find and bring back his wayward son, all hell breaks loose and the tables are turned, as the man who hired her isn't who he appeared to be. Now Rubi's on the run, needing to find the man who left her for dead and leaving a massive body count in her wake.

In an adventure that spans three continents; WET will keep the adrenaline pumping from start to finish.

"The mix of guns, acrobatics and swords in the midst of non-stop action will undoubtedly ensure Rubi takes the title as the most exciting heroine ever in video games," said Martin Tremblay, president, Worldwide Studios, Sierra Entertainment. "WET is an exciting addition to Sierra Entertainment's original games portfolio."

WET features include:

• Innovative 3rd person shooter gameplay: With her trusty twin custom made Colt Pythons, Rubi gracefully engages in amazing, cinematic high-body count gunplay against diverse and challenging enemies.
• Acrobatics: Along with her guns, Rubi has an arsenal of death-defying acrobatic moves. Her incredible agility allows her to climb on ledges, slide under obstacles, swing on poles and run along walls.
• Swordplay: Rubi's sword is an instrument for deadly close-quarter proximity attacks. Rubi will unleash a flurry of multi-staged stylized attack sequences.

Joel is an inconsolable mess right now. He only had the energy to IM me about Sierra's announcement today before curling back up into a fetus position.

Starting August 16, Sierra Entertainment will be pulling the plug on mulitplayer support for 20 of the developer's older games. The list... yes, Starsiege: Tribes is on the list:

3-D Ultra Cool Pool
ARC (Attack Retrieve Capture)
Lords of Magic™
NASCAR® Legends
NASCAR® Racing 2002 Season
NASCAR® Racing 2003 Season
NASCAR® Racing 3
NASCAR® Racing 3 demo
NASCAR® Racing 3 Trucks
NASCAR® Racing 4
Professional Bull Rider 2
PGA Championship Golf 2000™
Starsiege: Tribes
SWAT® 3 demo
Throne of Darkness™
Field & Stream Trophy Bass 4
Field & Stream Trophy Bass 5
Field & Stream Trophy Hunting 4
Field & Stream Trophy Hunting 5
You Don't Know Jack®: 5th Dementia

Notice of Multiplayer Fuctionality Termination for 20 Sierra Entertainment Heritage Titles [Sierra]