The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction [PS2]

The office was abuzz yesterday when we got word that we were getting an exclusive look at the E3 build of The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction from Vivendi Universal and Radical Entertainment. One of the surprise games of GDC, Ultimate Destruction aims to do something no game has managed to do yet -- create the perfect Hulk game. To see how the whole thing is turning out, we looked to our resident comic book experts Hilary Goldstein (IGN Comics) and Jeremy Dunham (IGNPS2, PS3) for their opinions on what has the potential to be one of the best comic book games we've ever. You'll find their comments below, in addition to brand new movies and screenshots on our media page.

Hulk Mad, Jeremy Speak In the old days, finding a videogame development team that accurately tried to capture the essence of a superhero was a hard thing to come by. As up until recently, most comic book software out there was usually delegated to the "quick and easy" rehashed beat 'em up genre -- regardless of whom the character was or what he was capable of. So, while there were definitely numerous games out there that put you in the roles of Spider-Man, Batman, or Iron Man, it really didn't matter... because regardless what your superpowers were, the only thing your alter ego was capable of doing was punching and kicking his opponent into submission.

Luckily for comic book fans, those generic trends have started to shift thanks to more collaborative efforts between videogame, motion picture, and funny book creators. Last year's Spider-Man 2 is a great example of this, as it showed the kind of game possible when the product is specifically designed around the super powers of the main character. Sure it had its own mission and pacing flaws, but no other Spider-Man game until then had such a dead-on faithfulness to its superhero. Other upcoming titles, like Marvel Nemesis and X-Men Legends 2, looks to continue this trend as well but I don't think any of them have me as excited as Vivendi Universal's The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. It's simply the most honest attempt at recreating the powers and demeanor of a comic hero that I've seen in a videogame so far.

Now those that know me are pinning my sheer excitement for the game on my unwavering devotion to Kirby and Lee's rage-filled character. And while I'll always be the first to admit that the Hulk has been my favorite superhero for the last 25 years, that's not what's fueling my anticipation in the least. Simply put, the game is fun and captures Bruce Banner's angry alter ego nigh-perfectly. I'm thoroughly convinced that if you weren't a Hulk fan before, Ultimate Destruction will end up making you a true believer.

Still three months away from release on the GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2, Ultimate Destruction is really about just that -- destroying everything in sight. After playing through a good bit of the beta version that will be available for on the show floor at E3, I find myself compelled to want to keep going... to see just how much carnage and devastation I can really cause.

Grand Theft Auto and Spider-Man 2 fans should recognize Hulk's basic concept pretty quickly: the whole design revolves around a living, breathing open-ended city where most of the fun is skipping the storyline to jump around looking for things to smash. So while you can always undertake various plot-related missions by moving into the checkpoint circles at anytime, you can also go off on your own to see what happens. The options available outside of the story are pretty kick-ass too -- as Hulk can participate in everything from a timed footrace and destruction-oriented fetch quests, to special mini-games that require you to move a destroyed car from point A to point B using only attacks (grabbing not aloud). It's great fun, and with the incentive of unlocking dozens (possibly even hundreds) of bonus goodies for doing so, it grows addicting pretty fast.