February 8, 2008 - If you've been following our week-long announcement of This is Vegas, then you already know a bit about the upcoming open-world game from Surreal and Midway -- but there's still so much more that hasn't yet been revealed. This is the stylish parody of Vegas that could only come out of the warped mind of someone that spent a few days too long in Sin City. Or Jay Pinkerton (Cracked Magazine), the guy who happens to be the head writer for This is Vegas. With that kind of influence, it's easy to see that this will be a sandbox game with a distinctly different feel from the rest of the pack.

Here's the coolest part about This is Vegas. If you've been to the city before, the game world is instantly recognizable. There aren't any real casinos, but the parodies of the major resorts are spot on. The Luxor has been transformed into a step pyramid called the Mayan. Circus Circus is now the Big Top and filled with creepy clown imagery. Everything from the porn flappers (yes, they're all over the streets in the game, too) to the elevated walkways is Vegas.


Here's a quick recap of what we know of the story so far. Your character arrives in Vegas with $50 to his name. After a quick bender, you're off to make connections, crash some parties and build your bank. Unfortunately, this jerk named Preston Boyer is trying to turn Vegas into a family-friendly resort. To stop him, you'll have to complete missions and gigs for the various old-school Vegas factions and revitalize the city. Along the way you'll move from a roach motel up to a penthouse as you collect more money, more allies, and more fast cars.

It wouldn't be Vegas without gambling, but then it wouldn't be much of a game if you had to play against the house odds all day. This is Vegas has three featured casino games for you to try your hand at; poker, blackjack and slots. We didn't get to see poker in action, but we were told it would be hold 'em variations. Slots play exactly how you would expect. Blackjack was the focus of the demo and we got a good look at the "advantage play" system Surreal has put into the game to make things interesting.

Put the odds in your favor.
The first thing you'll notice when sitting down at a blackjack table is that the gambling takes place within the greater game world. People continue to walk around, some will sit down and join you, and the pit boss moves from table to table around you. The camera sits in an over-the-shoulder third person perspective allowing you to view the cards and the casino around you. This is important.

While playing blackjack, you can use your sunglasses and a marked deck to give you an edge over the house. When cheating, you can see a dash, circle or X on each card. The dash indicates it's a deuce through six. A circle is a seven, eight, or nine. The X tells you it's either a ten or an ace card. This doesn't give you a sure win, but it certainly does help. You can use this cheat move to watch cards as they're dealt and take a peak at the hole card to learn what's coming for you next. In between hands, there's even a fast forward button which makes it so you don't have to sit through the AI playing along with you.

There is one small catch. Each time you use the shades the house gets a little more suspicious. If the pit boss is watching you while you do it, you're boned. If your suspicion level gets too high or you get caught, the game is off. Depending upon how hardcore the casino is, they might try to kill you rather than just dump you out on the curb.



And yes, you will have to do a fair amount of fighting in This is Vegas. It's not all gambling and partying, but it's also not a game that is focused on drive-bys and killing hookers. The combat will be mostly melee based with some guns thrown into the mix to keep things interesting. We didn't get to see the main character shooting a gun, but we did get a brief rundown of how it works. The projectile system is based on another Midway game, Stranglehold though you won't get any John Woo blood splatters. Hit locations for bullets are designed for comedic effect rather than graphic violence.

The same goes for fist-fighting. Landing a right-hook to an enemy's jaw sends out a flash of graphics reminiscent of the campy Batman TV show. The boxing is modeled after the system laid out in Bully, if you're looking for a reference point. The one combat mission we saw took that idea of camp to the next level.

Batman would be proud.
The combat gig took place at Ugly Changs, a place run by a Chinese guy who thinks he's Mexican. Chang runs a pit fighting and gambling ring in an empty pool and tosses you in to take on his Lucha Libre fighters. We saw the full range of blocks, combos, grabs and special "Buzz Bomb" finishing moves in a series of three goofy fights. Winning unlocked your very own Lucha Libre mask and outfit to wear around town. Sweet.

The last major gameplay element is driving, which uses Havok for its physics. We only got a brief glance at a car zipping down the street, but we did learn a few choice details. Not every car is open to you at the beginning of the game. Some are given as rewards and can be stored in one of your garages. Others are found on the street which can be "borrowed" from a motorist. If you try to grab a car that isn't open to you yet, you'll find the door locked.

Now those may be the main game elements, but you could also argue that the world itself is another. Scattered around Vegas are collectibles to find, assorted buildings to discover, side missions called gigs to take part in and more. The game randomly generates the NPCs to fill out the world. Once they're in the game tracks people and cars, even if they're not rendered while off-screen, to make the world believable and real.

Beats taking a cab.
We're told there's a mission where you get to be a male stripper…and another where you go to a female strip club. There won't be anything overly graphic in terms of sex, though the company is working closely with the ESRB in their decision whether to include nudity or not. Even if it doesn't end up in the game, a crazy super hero character named Vegas Man will be. That's almost as good, right?

This is Vegas is a single player game by design, but that doesn't exclude online functionality. The world is being built from the ground up with the idea of expanding the game post release through downloadable content. Buildings are being put into the city that are under construction which can later be completed and explored through a download. We're told the first will likely make it in roughly one month after the game launches. There will also be a range of leaderboards and the planning is beginning for tournaments.

This is Vegas is expecting to receive a Mature rating from the ESRB and is due out towards the end of this year on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.