Essentially, the game is a type of space shooting MMO where players take the reigns of various types of spaceships to complete hundreds of different quests. There are different sides to choose from such as a merchant or mercenary and each side has its own unique quests and unfolds in different ways throughout the campaign.

That’s just a bit of an overview on the title. Personally, I haven’t downloaded it as of yet but I do intend to shortly. It’s interesting how with the mass leavings of Rare’s employees over the years has led them all down different roads, but roads they’ve taken to together. Like one big family I guess you’d say. Starfire Studios is but one example of this. So if you’re interested in seeing how some of those ex-Rare staffers are faring today, then give Fusion: Genesis a whirl and experience it for yourself.

But what does this have to do with Rare? Well, the music was actually composed by former Rare composer Grant Kirkhope. You know… The guy behind musical scores in Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Pinata, and Donkey Kong 64 to name a few. I played a bit of the demo yesterday afternoon and it definitely has a Banjoish vibe to. Just dont expect anything with cute and googly eyes… Expect the likes of iblood and gore./i Go get em!

Chris Seavor, the man best known as the lead designer behind the crude, vulgar and hilarious Conker’s Bad Fur Day, has sat down for rather long interview with folks over at Gamikia. There’s a ton of interesting information to be had, including when and how he was hired by his former employers, what led to the development of Conker and what he had in store for its sequel!

Interview here

Soccer’s probably the best sport to really show off what sets Kinect apart from its motion controlled competition, with full-body recognition allowing you to get your legs into the game. Perhaps that’s why it’s the most fun game to play on the disc — it’s doesn’t really feel like anything else I’ve ever played (outside of, say, real soccer). Don’t expect Pro Evolution Soccer levels of depth here, because you’re not going to get it. Most of the mechanics are “on-rails,” with the game holding your hands as to what direction you’re kicking and where your body needs to be in order to block. Regardless, it remains just challenging and physically exhausting enough to want to keep you in the game.

Full Review Here

One of Kinect Sports’ greatest strengths is that even if you choose to skip the brief but informative sport-specific tutorials before jumping into a game for the first time, you’re unlikely to have much difficulty figuring out what you need to do. That’s because, for the most part, you control these games by moving in much the same way that you would if you were participating in the sports for real. That doesn’t mean you need to run around your living room in soccer or dive onto your hardwood floor in beach volleyball, of course, but your arms and legs definitely get a workout. This is especially true in the track and field events, which include long jump, javelin, discus, sprint, and hurdles. With the exception of discus, all of these events involve building up speed by running on the spot; the higher you lift your knees, the faster you run. You jump when you need to jump (hurdles change color as you approach them to help with your timing), you make a throwing motion as you approach the foul line with your javelin, and you swing your outstretched arm from back to front to get power behind your discus. All five of the track and field events work well, though because they’re the most physically demanding , it’s likely that much of your Kinect Sports time will be spent elsewhere.

Full Review Here

GN: Conversely, time seems to sand the rough edges off games in the mind of gamers, what flaws in the original game did you find that you fixed in the new game?

JL: The N64 version of GoldenEye was a truly fantastic game, however there were plenty of opportunities to modernize the GoldenEye experience to meet the expectations of today’s gamer. We honestly didn’t think, and still don’t, that creating a step-by-step recreation of the N64 version would have given people the experience they were hoping for. There is an inherent thrill in discovering things for the first time. Because of this, the whole game has been conceived, designed, and built from the ground-up. It’s an entirely new ‘GoldenEye’ experience with nods to the original game, although putting the need to deliver a AAA Wii shooter experience before anything else. As this is a reimagining, rather than a remake, this means that there was nothing to fix, really. The underlying mechanics are designed for the current gaming audience. Needless to say, the graphics have been brought up to 2010 standards. I think you will be hard pressed to find anything that looks this good on the Wii. It is amazing.

Full Interview Here

Some of the games? OK let’s go through all. How was soccer? This was a lot of fun. Rare made some smart design decisions here, essentially turning the game into a sort of third-person foosball. That doesn’t mean you’re connected at the hip to a row of players. It means that the game focuses on passing, blocking and shooting. When you have the ball, you get to kick it a set number of directions, each marked with arrows on the ground. Once you’re close enough to shoot, you can kick wherever and however you’d like. You block by trying to move in front of your opponent’s kick which is also marked with an arrow. When you’re in control of the goalie you have to block or catch the ball, which pops up as an icon after the shot is made. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you find the flow of the game it’s quite a blast.

Full Review Here

There’s a lot of history behind LJN and Nintendo’s treatment of them and other 3rd party publishers during the NES era. Gamespite has an excellent article that goes in-depth on this subject. Definitely worth a read.