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Total Reviews: 113
Average Overall Score Given: 7.75221 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 14,076
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Reviews
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Double Fine Happy Action Theater
Double Fine is a very unique game development studio. Headed by Tim Schafer, they tend to make some of the most unique and creative games that seems to always find a way into my heart. Look at their history; Costume Quest, Stacking (which was absolutely brilliant), Once Upon a Monster, Brutal Legend, and of course the title that made me and many others fall in love with them, Psychonauts (where is my sequel!?). Its like Tim has this magic recipe for creating unique and entertaining games that I enjoy playing, even if its geared towards children.
So now we have Double Fine Happy Action Theater (DFHAT for short) that is for Kinect owners and released on the Xbox Live Arcade. Now, how does one categorize a game? Getting a high score, beating levels, defeating bosses? DFHAT doesnt do any of this, and I found myself wondering if I would categorize it under the game category. The reason for this is that DFHAT is comprised of 18 mini games that you cannot win nor lose in. As you start playing, youll see yourself in your living room, and each event will transform what it sees in various ways. It feels more like an Augmented Reality style of game than your traditional style, and because theres no set objective, youre just there to interact however you wish and to simply have fun. Because youre not required to do anything, theres not even a tutorial of how to play. This isnt a bad thing, as it opens up your creativity and curiosity to see whats possible or not.
So what are these events that spark up imagination? My favorite is the lava stage. This fills your living room with lava and will actually conform around your furniture. Do you jump into the lava and splash around, or recreate the ending of T2 for a laugh? One will place you in black and white movie crushing buildings and swapping planes as if you were Godzilla himself. A full flock of pigeons might come to roost in your living room; do you swap them away, feed them bread crumbs, or let them perch on you and the furniture? Another will have your room filling up with snow, where you can pick it up and throw snowballs at the TV (for an achievement!) or try and dust off the furniture to prevent it from piling too high.
Those are just a few of the events that allow you to interact in any way you desire. Theres no main goal, so feel free to open up your creativity. There are other stages that are more of the goofy side like having a 2D cutout of you dancing in a club that resembles an old Parappa the Rapper game. Others will take multiple pictures of what Kinect sees at set intervals and stacks them so that you can make yourself have multiple limbs or anything else you can think of. Theres a ball pit that youll feel compelled to jump into (I know I did) and even a Kaleidoscope that splices in whatever youre doing on camera for a crazy trip to see.
Because youre not given any direction of what to do or even why, everything becomes very natural and simplistic. Theres no set purpose of any of the stages, but thats part of the fun, seeing what happens when you try new things. To some it may seem like a mini-game compilation of sorts; I see it as a playground that shows some of the more unique possibilities that Kinect offers for experiences.
Its a fantastic little title for children of all ages, and to be honest, I probably had more fun than I should have, as I was climbing up on my furniture to avoid the lava and jumping into the ball pit that appeared in my living room. Why? It was fun and I felt compelled to see what happens. Whatever you do in front of the Kinect, it will react; because of this, I see this more as a great title to simply leave on while you have friends or kids over, as anyone that walks by the TV will most likely stop and try to interact with what they see. No menus, scores, or competition means that you can simply walk up and play; there are no restrictions of any sorts.
Up to six people can play at once as well, which makes it a perfect background game for a party, regardless if its for some younger children, or the older kids that may possibly be drunk. Regardless of the audience, there are laughs to be had as long as you go in expecting a non-game. Try the demo, and if you like what you see and have a creative imagination (or children), much entertainment should be had for the 800 Microsoft Points it costs to download.
Suggestions: More 'levels' please!
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
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Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012
I remember when Kinect was just coming out and I asked my wife what games she wanted for it. She said the dancing one and the workout one. The workout one she was talking about was the first Your Shape Fitness Evolved title that went on to be the best (in my opinion) overall fitness title for Kinect at launch. Since then theres been a few fitness titles for Kinect and I think that the original Your Shape Fitness Evolved still holds up to the competition that came out later. A short time later and we now have Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012, so lets delve in and see what improvements have been made and if it will work to help you tone up and lose weight.
As a side note, Ill be referring to Your Shape 2012 as a game simply for ease and because I feel it deserves that title with all the included activities and classes included within. Also, this doesnt feel daunting, like it does going to the gym, and theres even some minigame-like events like punching blocks and kicking soccer balls that never made me feel like I was purposely working out to lose weight. Ubisoft has clearly listened to user feedback from the first title and now has a ton of new exercises like push-ups and ground activities (like how UFC Personal Trainer pioneered), dancing, and even Yoga classes. Menus are much easier to navigate and the presentation remains distinct to its style. Youll still see yourself integrated into the workout world as youre placed into the game while breaking blocks, dancing, doing workouts, and more.
The main reason people dont stick with their workouts is usually the lack of motivation. This is my biggest obstacle as well, as exercising alone usually isnt all that entertaining. Most people usually fade away from a new workout after a few sessions simply because of this lack of motivation. I know I require inspiration to stay focused on a task like this, and Ubisoft has done what they can to try and supplement this hurdle. Youll have a coach, specific workout plans, and can even track and share your progress online with your friends. I had no problem trying new events and challenges each day and most of the time I didnt ever feel like I was purposely exercising (except those damn push-ups and crunches). People these days are much more health conscious and Your Shape 2012 is meant to be in addition to a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise, not a complete alternative.
The first Your Shape suffered issues simply from being a very early title in the life cycle of Kinect. It would not always work properly or lose track of exactly what you were trying to do. Now it seems that Ubisoft has figured out the bugs and made it much more receptive to my quick movements more accurately. Now I can do all my activities without worrying if Kinect is going to track me properly, as I never really had an issue with it losing sight of my proper moves. Be prepared to move around some of your living room furniture though, as youll need quite a bit of space if you want to properly do every event and exercise, so apartment owners take notice. Your Shape 2012 now can track you with you on your side as you do sit-ups and push-ups to see your proper form, just like how UFC Personal Trainer did, though I felt it tracked much better than UFC did.
The menus are much easier and slicker to navigate as you hover your hand over your selection and then choosing by pushing your hand forward as if it was a button. Small change, but seemed more natural than just holding your hand over a selection like most other Kinect games do. When you finish an event youll have to punch the number of calories you just burned to continue. Again, a small detail, but it was fun to see myself in the game itself interacting in a real way.
The first option youll be given is if you want to be healthier, lose weight, and more options. From here it will tailor a specific workout for you and suggestions based on your choices (though you can deviate from the suggestions if you desire). You can workout for two minutes or as long as youre physically able to. This is something I really look for in a fitness game; the ability to customize my workouts, as not everyone is going to be able to do the same exercises at the same level. Choose to workout with a trainer or your own custom events stringed together. Following the program and trainer will definitely do the job of getting you on the correct path to fitness if you stick with it. From here you can replay any events or harder difficulties if youre inclined and able or even change your weight loss program into a bulk-up session or cardio. You can focus on one body area or have a completely rounded workout session; its completely up to you, which is fantastic and keeps things fresh.
In the Activity section, youll have a ton of different events to start your session. Warm Up has different options such as juggling a soccer ball with your feet, knees, and head, a hula-hoop warm up, kicking soccer balls into goals, and pumping a balloon up by flapping your arms up and down as you squat. These are labeled as warm ups, but they are vigorous and can make you break a sweat quite easily. Wall Breaker returns from the first game, Stack Em Up has you balancing a board on your raised arms as blocks fall down and fall off, Jump Rope, and Stomp It. Stomp it is a music based game where you need to step on the proper placement as the notes come to your feet. Its simple but fun and breaks up the workout monotony. Run The World is an activity thats simply a jogging in place motion, but what makes it interesting is that youll be running through famous cities if the world as if you were actually on the streets, all done in the Your Shape distinct visuals though.
If you want a more traditional exercise, then the Workout section is where youll find the body part specific events. Here you can choose to work on your arms, legs, health, abs, toning, back, glutes, cardio, and even sports prep for football and soccer. This is where you can focus on one area if you desire or can avoid specific sections completely if you dont need it.
The Classes section is where youll be able to join bootcamp, cardio box, participate in yoga, relax with zen energy, or even dance to african beats, hip hop, latin, and even Bollywood routines. All these events have difficulties and can give a much tougher workout than you would expect. Your overall calories are tracked and you even earn new colored belts for leveling up when hitting specific milestones for calories burned. Its an interesting system that actually gave a little more incentive to keep with it for a longer term.
Players can sign up on the Your Shape Center website, link their gamertag, and track your progress. From here you can share your results with your friends and family, link it to facebook, track your stats, see your calories burned, join global events and challenges, see your time played, events completed, average calories burned per hour, sessions, create goals, earn trophies, and even more. Its quite in depth for a free addition, and anyone interested in keeping tabs on their progress should definitely use this extra tool.
Im basing my opinion of the game on its workouts, motivation merits, and gaming activities more than anything else. The quality of the game and the exercises are top notch and will have you needing a towel in no time, provided you do the events properly. My only real negative for Your Shape 2012 is the blatant advertising for G series (Gatorade) products, as it puts a really bad taste in my mouth (no pun intended). To unlock a bonus game, you need to hold up a bottle of the actual product to Kinect for it to scan and unlock (or use Uplay points), which is just another way for you to buy their product. Other than that, Your Shape also suffers the same problem that I mentioned in my UFC Personal Trainer review: Theres no real education or mention of nutrition and a healthy lifestyle outside of the game itself, it just assumes rather than instructs. If youre looking for a fun way to sweat without feeling like youre truly working out, then Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 is a safe choice that will keep you interested in coming back day after day.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
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Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking
Whats a Rabbid you ask? My best answer is a hyper rabbit on crack. They came about in the old Rayman series, but have since made their own spinoff games (like this one) due to their popularity, humor, and viral videos. The rabbids are generally quite hyperactive and enjoy causing mischief anywhere they can. While they may not speak a language, they are known for their constant shouting of BWH!!!! whenever they become excited. After a short time interacting with the rabbids, their impossible to not love, as theyll constantly be making you smile with their senseless antics.
Normally about now I would go in depth about the story and plot, but lets not fool ourselves here. This is solely based on mini-games and thats it. Theres some opening video about the rabbids trying to clone themselves with a cow, and it works, to the point of overflowing the city with rabbids. Now with rabbids popping up all over the city, Im assuming playing these mini-games is your way of stopping it from happening, but theres no storyline to tie in all the games in any manner. Its simply you playing mini-games repeatedly, not that thats a bad thing, as long as you know what you signed up for.
Much like any other Kinect specific title, youll be flailing your arms, kicking, jumping and ducking, and moving all around your living room, provided you have the space of course. I had a hard time playing with two people due to my space constraints so I couldnt even imagine the four player simultaneous games. Youll have access to around 30 different mini-games from the start to play in any order you wish. While there are a lot of different games to play, I really only enjoyed a handful of them, as quite a few are shallow and dull and seems to be there just because.
Firstly, you will run into some tracking issues on some of the games with a single person and with multiple. For example, theres a muscleman game where you need to mimic the pose for your balloon-mans muscles to inflate. The more accurate you mimic the pose, the faster you inflate. I was doing it properly but Kinect thought differently obviously and I didnt score very well. The same goes for the shower silhouette game where you need to fill in a shadow to scare off the oncoming rabbids. Id mimic the pose but nothing, other times it worked no problem. Some of the games seem very hit or miss with the detection without rhyme or reason. To a smaller child, this might become very frustrating as it never explains what you arent doing properly.
Just like any other great Kinect party game, your picture will be taken many times throughout playing. It will capture you in weird positions that you can view and then share online with others if you wish. I wish there was an integrated way to send the snaps to my Xbox Live friends, but you have to upload them to the website and share it that way instead. Be aware if youre a shy Kinect player, each game usually takes about three pictures of the hilarity.
The first option in the main menu is My Raving Rabbid mode. This is an augmented reality section that takes the view Kinect sees and places a rabbid for you to interact with. Theres no real objective here other than simply having fun with a rabbid running around your living room. Youre able to dress up your rabbid with unlocked items and then take a picture of you two in a pose to share online if you wish. If you have played other augmented reality games before, like EyePet, youll know exactly what this is all about. There may not be much here to do other than slap and kick the rabbid for fun then take goofy pictures, but kids will enjoy this small section.
Party Games allow three to sixteen people (granted its not 16 at once, but I commend the option being there as many games dont allow this) play in a slew of different games and styles. Each player steps up to the Kinect to take a picture, then records their voice to save their profile. During tournaments, the game will match up players and show who is playing whom rather than just having people memorize what player they are. All of these profiles can be saved for a later time also if youll be having guests that regularly play with you.
Forfeit mode has you facing off against your friends in a succession of mini-games. Losing a game means they have to perform a forfeit: some kind of crazy action which the other players will vote on if they did it properly. If so they get points, if not, their points go down and players are eliminated when it gets to 0. The Kitty mode has each player going from game to game accumulating points. If you fail you have to do the event again. The player at the end with the most points win.
Carrot juice mode makes players spin a wheel to pick a game. When a player loses the game, they have to drink a glass of his carrot juice. Drink all of your glasses and youre out of the game. Last player to have a glass wins. You can just see the possibilities of this for a tied-in real drinking game to go along with it (if youre of age obviously).
Quickplay will allow one to four players select a random or specific game. With around thirty games to choose from, there are lots to try out and see what you enjoy. Oddly, the last batch of mini-games near the bottom differ from the others as theyre animated cartoon style games rather than the 3D models or augmented reality games you mostly play. These ones seem to be very quick games that give you one shot at whatever youre supposed to do. The issue is that theres no quick retry, so youll have to wait till it calculates your score, then click retry and wait for it to load to try again if you want to beat your old score.
As I stated above, a good portion of the games are pretty unforgettable, but there are some that I kept playing over and over again. My favorite is easily Guitar Zero. Yup, its you playing an AR guitar in your hand as the notes come down the screen, just like in Guitar Hero. Its nowhere near in depth as the original game, and theres only three notes to play that you have to move your arm down the neck and strum to in time, but I kept playing it even though there was only five or six songs (which werent even that good).
I probably enjoyed the next one because its childish and has to do with snot. You have a long snot hanging out of your nose with a rabbid hanging onto the end of it. The goal is to swirl the rabbid around as fast as you can by only moving your torso and head and then cut the snot at the appropriate time to send him flying out the window for maximum distance. Its stupid, but a fun take on discus. The other I played multiple times has one where youre guiding a blindfolded rabbid with only the sound of your voice. The point though is to guide him into danger by making him step on rakes, nails and hitting other objects. You need to move around the room and shout at him to guide him that direction. Not much to it, but it was entertaining calling for the rabbid to come here! while running around my living room. Another one that I think kids will enjoy. As you finish the games youll earn TP Dollarz that can be used to purchase and unlock items for the My Raving Rabbid mode. Not much incentive to keep playing, but at least its something.
The biggest issue I had with the game is the lack of instructions per mini-game. There will be quick little pop-ups that will kind of tell you what youre supposed to be doing, but it doesnt tell you exactly how youll need to move your body to complete them. The best example of this is the fireman pong-style game that took me two tries to figure out how I was supposed to win. Im not sure why there wasnt a tutorial included before each game (skippable of course) as many of the games youll be playing two or three times just to learn what to do. I have a feeling kids might be asking their parents how theyre supposed to get the game to work because of this oversight. Secondly, youre going to need quite a bit of space if you want to play some of these games properly. I had a hard time hiding to the far side of the screen to avoid lasers because of my living room setup.
To me it was a little unfortunate that there was no reason youre playing other than playing the mini-games repeatedly. I didnt really expect much of a story being its a Rabbids game, but tying in the mini-games to stop the rabbids population growth would have given a little incentive to keep playing. If you have kids or a bunch of friends that get together for gaming nights, its a decent party game that should entertain and embarrass. If youll mostly be playing alone, its not nearly as fun and gives little motivation to keep on playing after youve tried each game.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
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Motion Sports: Adrenaline
If you want to get your sports game fix, its normally not a problem. Hockey, Football, Soccer, Rugby, and even Cricket games come in yearly iterations, but what if youre into something a little more extreme? Theres been a light sprinkling of downhill biking and skiing games in the past, but very far and few in between, and they usually arent all that great.
Motionsports Adrenaline tries to rectify this by putting some of the more intense extreme sports out there in this one gaming package. In Adrenaline, youll be wearing a wingsuit and free fall down a mountainside, use the wind to kitesurf some insane layouts, kayak down some fierce rapids and waterfalls, downhill biking at breakneck speeds, extreme skiing with massive jumps, and even rock climbing while avoiding falling boulders. It may sound a little cheesy, but I dont recall a game collection quite like this one (even without the motion controls) that has multiple unique sports all in one package.
Adrenaline requires a moderate amount of space to play in properly. While I didnt have to completely reorganize my living to play, I did need to stand a little further back than some games allow. Also, Ill let you know right off the bat that the controls arent always the most responsive. You will become frustrated at times trying to properly steer but with the actual steering not happening properly or with a slight delay. The event youll notice this the most will be in the Rock Climbing, as it has you reach our your arms in a direction then pull them back into your chest (as if youre pulling yourself up) but youll notice a distinct lag from movement and game input.
As you travel around the world to different locations for each event, your goal is to score as high as possible to pick up coins that will fill your boost meter quickly (which in turn helps you cross the finish line quicker). As you do your best to avoid obstacles, most events will also have you performing stunts mid-air as well by mimicking the pose needed. As you score higher, youll unlock new gear to wear that will give you boost from the beginning and other bonuses as well, if you choose to wear these better clothing. In each event, there are only two or three courses available, so it wont take long to unlock them all and to bring on fatigue from repetition. If youre playing connected to Xbox Live, periodic challenges from other players will pop up on screen for you to contest, but its very confusing and it doesnt tell you what you really need to do to win against them.
So lets talk about each event shall we. First off is the Wingsuit event; this event begins with you jumping off a cliff into complete free fall down a mountainside. As you barrel down the side of the mountain, you need to hold your arms out to slow down, lean to the sides to steer horizontally, and put your arms at your side to speed up. Youre able to crouch and jump to steer up and down (camera is from behind you looking downwards). There are some branching paths depending on which path of coins you wish to try and collect, and youll also need to mimic poses to do stunts as you soar through the corresponding markers for bonus points.
For the Mountain Biking event, youll be speeding downhill as quickly as possible as you gather coins, take jumps, and navigate steep corners. You hold out your hands as if youre holding onto the actual handlebars, and move your hands as if you are turning on a real bike. Youre riding on essentially 3 lanes and you turn your handlebars to choose the lane with the coins and without the obstacles. As you get to the tight corners, you need to turn at the appropriate time to get a speed boost. You never feel like you have complete control of your biker beside youre really only choosing between the three lanes for the duration of the race.
The Kayak event will have you rushing down white-water rapids and jumping down waterfalls. You steer by leaning your body, speed up by paddling, and even do a roll by going underwater by crouching. The problem with this event is that you always need to keep your speed up by constantly paddling but you need to turn very often as well, and it seems like Kinect doesnt like when youre trying to do multiple things at once. It becomes very difficult to duck, then paddle, then steer, then paddle, then duck for the whole race. You never really feel like youre in control of your kayak as youre constantly trying to fight either the steering or the paddling.
Extreme Skiing will have you barreling down the mountain while avoiding trees and taking huge jumps. I found this event to have the same problems as Kayaking, as you need to keep pumping your arms to push with your poles as you lean to steer also. When you take a jump, stunts are performed by copying the pose of the ring you pass through (like all the other events) and youll even need to crouch just before landing to get a soft landing and keep your speed. This does become tiring when youre constantly jumping and crouching while flailing your arms to keep up. Sometimes ramps will have a tree branch attached to the end where it will automatically grind then jump for you, leaving you to just do the stunt pose for more points.
I found the Rock Climbing event to be the most frustrating, control-wise. You need to reach out your arms in whatever direction you want to go (provided theres a hand hold for you to grip onto), then pull your arm back into your chest, as if youre pulling up. I found it took many times of the same gesture for Kinect to register exactly where I wanted to go, and when it did work, there was always a delay between my movement and the on-screen gesture. Youll need to avoid falling boulders and mossy handholds will slow down your progress. This was easily the weakest of the events, and thats not even taking into account the frustrating controls.
My favorite event is Kite-surfing. This has you on a wakeboard being pulled by an attached parachute in the wind. You move by leaning and holding onto the handle bars in front of you and youll need to steer and jump to find the best areas for coins and stunts. Theres not much to this event, but I found it the easiest to play as youre essentially just steering and jumping.
There is a severe lack of tutorials for the game which will have you struggling early on to perform well at all (not even taking into account the controls). There are some slides before the event begins that show you how to play said event, but if youre switching events often or forgot, youre on your own and will just flail your arms around trying to figure out if you had to raise your arms or jump to boost. Adrenaline doesnt teach you how to play well aside from these quick slides that most people will skip past.
As for Adrenalines graphics, its simply adequate but underwhelming. When youre speeding down the mountain in a wingsuit or taking jumps on your skis, the frame rate stays solid and nothing terrible stands out, but when you slow down or finish an event, you can really see how basic the modeling and textures are (especially the water after a Kite-surfing event). The same goes for the games audio. While there are some licensed rock songs, there arent many, and youre simply better off streaming your own soundtracks while playing.
If you have up to three other friends that want to play with you, Adrenaline Party is the mode for you. It allows for 10 randomly selected events to compete in; the player with the highest score at the end of the events is the winner. The two problems with this mode is that the scores dont work towards your game unlocks and again, the lack of tutorials. New players are going to be confused how to play while veterans will have that unfair advantage.
There is one other mode that allows you to compete against other online players scores (unlike the pop-up challenges). You Against the World mode has one huge problem with it though; its not unlocked until you create a Uplay account and unlock it with Uplay points. This means youre forced to sign up for their service if you want to unlock the full game to play. I honestly didnt unlock this mode as I save my Uplay points for other Ubisoft games, but being forced to take this extra step seems completely unnecessary and is just a ploy to force you to sign up for Uplay. I have nothing against Uplay at all, but being forced to use your Uplay points and sign up might seem a little too much for some people.
Motionsports Adrenaline is a blatant advertisement for Degree deodorant, as it is plastered everywhere (one of the modes even has it in the name). It seems out of place and very tacky, but I guess you want to smell good when performing these extreme sports. Maybe if the game came with a free coupon to get a stick of it, I might have let it pass.
It wont take too long to unlock everything in the game and once youre done playing each event a few times, theres very little reason to keep on playing unless you really want to move up the leaderboards by beating scores. With shoddy controls at times and very little replay value, I can already tell you that the game has been shelved for me and I have no reason to ever go back, which is a shame, as I though this game could have had so much potential. Instead, each event basically plays the same (aside from the uninteresting Rock Climbing), and if you get it to control properly, its really not even all that fun for more than an hour or two.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
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Black Eyed Peas Experience
Say what you want about the Black Eyed Peas, but its hard to deny their success with their huge fan base, record breaking sales, and massive hits (some that I didnt even realize were theirs). Ill admit, Im not the biggest Black Eyed Peas fan (I dont even own any of their albums), but I do enjoy their hits and unique style. Is the Black Eyed Peas Experience enough though to bring in new fans?
To be honest, I was more interested in the Black Eyed Peas Experience game more because its developed by iNiS, whove been around for over a decade making great music based games like Elite Beat Agents and the Lips franchise. Before we delve into the game, lets go over a brief history of the Black Eyed Peas and why they even have their own game, for those that dont know much about them. In 2003, the Peas released their third album, Elephunk and since then have gone on to sell more than fifty million records. As an alternative hip-hop group, the band consists of Will.I.Am, Apl.De.Ap, Taboo, and the newest front woman, Fergie, who joined in 2001. As I mentioned above, Im not the biggest fan, but youll mostly likely recognize many of their hits from radio, TV, movies and other media.
Not being a huge fan, I was surprised with how much of their music I actually recognized (and enjoyed), and some I didnt even know that it was a Black Eyed Peas song. Some of the notable songs on the disc that I knew were Boom Boom Pow, Dont Phunk With My Heart, Hey Mama, I Gotta Feeling, Just Cant Get Enough, Pump It, and Rock That Body. Also, who doesnt want to dance whenever My Humps comes on every now and then? There are thirty songs included on the disc (two of which are downloadable for free if you bought the Limited Edition new), and while it may not seem like much number wise, all the hits are here and any Black Eyed Peas fan should be happy with the selection.
From the very beginning of the game youll notice that its different from the other dance games. To even begin playing you need to sway back and forth in line with the dancers on screen. An interesting touch that didnt go unnoticed. From here on, youll control the menus with your normal hand movements by hovering over your selections. Rather than having an icon on the left for your hand to hover over like almost every other Kinect game to go back a menu, you have to raise your right arm above your head, then kind of swipe backwards to bring up the menu of previous choices. It seemed odd and at first I couldnt get it to work because its just an icon that shows to raise arm and move it (which didnt do anything). Its a small thing, but its one of the first frustrations I had with the game almost immediately.
If you want to just quickly jump into a song and play, the Dance Party mode is for you. If youre looking for the campaign, then youll want to choose Deluxe Experience. The first thing youll do in campaign is create your dancer (male or female) and as you complete songs and gain more followers, youll unlock more clothing choices to eventually dress your dancer however you like. You gotta look good when youre on stage with the Black Eyed Peas, so get dancing!
Obviously people are going to compare this to Dance Central 2 and see how it compares. There are similarities simply because of the genre, but it does do some things differently that make it a unique experience apart from the other dance titles. Most notably, is that while your mimicking the dancer in front of you, off to the left side youll also see your created character, as if youre standing behind them. I found following this character instead of the dancer in front of you (like a mirror) made it much easier to learn some of the more difficult moves and ultimately felt like I was seeing my dancing on screen through my dancer.
From here youll pick your venue (you have to unlock them in order with a set amount of followers), then the song you want to play. Youll notice the song is sectioned into 4 different pieces. Play part 1 to learn 4 or so moves of the routine, then part 2 to learn another set, and lastly part 3 for more moves. Each training set is mimicking the moves twice, and then putting them into a string of moves with each other. After all 3 training sections are complete; you can then play the routine that brings it all together. By the time you get to the actual routine, youve heard the same song about 8 or so times. The routine is just all the moves put together for half the song, take a quick rest break, and then repeat. The issue I found with this layout is that by the time you get to the routine, youve forgotten set 1 and 2s moves if they are difficult. Every so often youll also be given a challenge if you choose to accept it. This has you trying to complete a specific objective in the set or routine youre about to play such as getting 30 incredibles, 10 smooth transitions, or a set amount of followers by the end of the set.
Instead of flash cards coming at the screen in order, at the top itll show you only the next move a few seconds before its about to happen, so theres less clutter on the screen at once. While I like the less clutter, its also sometimes difficult to get ready for the next move as you can only see the next upcoming move instead of the next few. Dance better and youll gain more followers. Do smooth transitions between moves and youll gain bonuses, and nail that finishing move for a big bonus. I just wish there was feedback on your moves and why you arent doing well. If youre not even close to doing the correct movements, your dancer will stop, but that doesnt help me to get better and tell me why Im doing it wrong. Seems no dance game has figured out this solution yet. If youre having trouble nailing specific moves, theres a dance coach to assist in learning said moves. I highly suggest it for some of the more difficult moves, as some require a lot of energy and flexibility.
If you want to prove you have what it takes to make a routine of you own, then Choreo-maker is the mode for you. Here you can completely customize a dance for any of the songs included. Sadly, you dont get to just dance in front of the Kinect, making up your own moves as you go. Instead, you pick set moves built into the game and string them together however you wish. Youre able to pick any dance moves from any song and incorporate them into your dance masterpiece for you to then share online with your friends.
Speaking of your friends, if a friend wants to join you at any time, they are able to by standing in front of the Kinect beside you and hold their hand above their head for a few moments. If theyre too shy to dance, two players are even able to grab a microphone and sing along instead (the Lips microphones even flash in sync with the music). Multiplayer is highly encouraged because youll earn followers much quicker, and its obviously more fun than dancing alone.
Its great when a Kinect game simply works, as the tracking seemed to be accurate and I never felt like I was being unfairly scored performing a move. I know if I was missing dance moves, it was out of my own laziness (though usually tiredness). New copies of the limited edition come with a download code for Someday and Light Up the Night and it feels like a much more involved game than the Michael Jackson game did. There are even small facts about the band and members are the loading screens and now I know that Fergie has dry hair and uses olive oil for it.
What Black Eyed Peas Experience does right is make you feel like youre in a club atmosphere rather than just trying to learn some moves by yourself. Does it beat Dance Central? Maybe if youre a huge Black Eyed Peas fan, but keep in mind theres no other music here other than theirs (which is probably why youd be buying it anyways). Just like Beatles Rockband, Greenday Rockband, and others, if youre a big fan of the band, youll enjoy the experience within. To everyone else, its not a necessity unless youre becoming tired of Dance Central 2 somehow. While Black Eyed Peas may not be my band of choice, they do bring a different dance experience to Kinect and even though I didnt know all the songs, I enjoyed my club-like experience for the most part. After a handful of songs, youll easily break a sweat.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
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Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3
Ive been looking for a reason to dust off my Tournament Edition fighting stick for a while now. Now that Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom is here, Ive been putting it to good use, trying to learn all the new characters and combos included in this updated version. Marvel vs Capcom 2 is still one of my favorite fighting games ever which is why I was so surprised it took so long for Capcom to eventually release the third game. Now in the span of under a year, we already have this new ultimate version of the game that boasts a significant roster update, new stages, modes, and a slew of new features and balances.
The fighting mechanics are essentially the same, and its still a very deliberate chaos happening on the screen at all times. While all these new features and updates will be great for the hardcore and competitive players, casual fans might feel a little confused at why this is a full disc purchase rather than a DLC package (like how Super Street Fighter 4 did the Arcade Edition DLC update if you chose to download rather than buy a new disc). I enjoyed Marvel vs Capcom 3 when it came out last February, but it wasnt without its own problems such as over powered characters, infinite combos, and a lackluster online. This new Ultimate edition tries to rectify all these issues and more while improving and adding upon a great franchise.
The main story is essentially unchanged; youre still trying to prevent Galactus from destroying everything, and to do so, youll need to defeat him. What is new is the inclusion of this story being told in comic book form at the beginning of the game. If you go into the gallery and actually read the comic, it slightly explains that all the characters are trying to stop Galactus, but are fighting each other for their own reasons. Its vastly unchanged and youll still net points for how well you do in your matches. Its simply a shame that the endings you get for beating arcade mode is a few comic book panels; it just didnt feel all that satisfying trying to earn the different endings.
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 still utilizes the same mechanics of fighting one on one with a team of three characters that can be swapped out at any time or used to help assist your current character defeat your opponent. Youre still able to choose what assist ability you want each character to have when selecting your fighters and performing moves will slowly fill your Hyper Combo meter that can be used for devastating attacks (and even more powerful combination attacks the higher your gauge).
The gameplay mechanics are untouched and still use the same three button control scheme. You have a light, medium, and heavy attacks, along with the special attack button that allows you to launch your enemies into the air for air combinations. A drastic change though is that the X-Factor mechanic returns, but can now be active mid-air, damage has been reduced, and lasts for a shorter duration. For those that didnt play Marvel vs Capcom 3, X-Factor allowed you to have a massive damage increase, speed output, and even health regeneration; all of these made for some very interesting comebacks, but it was also controversial with some of the hardcore crowd. For casual players like myself, I liked the system, as it at least gave me a last chance of making somewhat of a comeback when I was badly losing a battle.
Another change you might notice right away is that the HUD has been slightly changed, though I dont feel its for the better. The new HUD made it harder for me to see my teammates health and what position they are in. On the flip side, its much easier to tell if you have any X-Factor left or not. You may notice some new stage select and character screens, but most of the other visuals have essentially been unchanged aside from the drastic HUD update.
A big complaint many had about Marvel vs Capcom 3 when it released was the drastic drop in playable characters compared to part 2. Marvel vs Capcom 2 had over 50 playable characters, where 3 only had 36. Ultimate now adds 12 new characters to the mix bringing the total to 48 (50 if you included the two downloadable characters), which is still less than part 2 had. The twelve new characters (6 from Capcom and 6 from Marvel) are all new except for Strider Hiryu (who returns from part 2) and range from very powerful (Nemesis), to completely odd and whacky (Pheonix Wright). For the most part, the new characters felt like they fit and belonged in the game, so lets go over the new characters.
Doctor Strange is all about luring the other person into playing the game you want to play. Get them close, and then unleash your combos with some unconventional moves. I found Firebrand to be very weak compared to many of the other characters as his damage output is low. Ghost Rider seems to be one of the more solid characters, as he can keep almost anyone at range and uses his chain whip to do decent damage from almost anywhere on screen. Hawkeye is similar in the same way that he can use his arrows to dictate where the fight takes place on screen, and even poisoning his enemies.
Iron Fist is a solid choice if youre a pressure fighter like myself and light to be constantly attacking by using dashes and making the opponent wonder where youll be next. Nova is another pressure fighter that has some crazy combos that take chunks off life bars as well. I wasnt a fan of Vergils move set, but I was surprised with how good Nemesis performed. Hes a straight forward character that doesnt require you to memorize insane button combinations to do well. Strider returns and is as elusive as ever. While he isnt that great at taking hits, he can attack and then retreat almost instantly on a whim.
The last three characters to go over are the most unique and interesting in my opinion. First up we have Rocket Raccoon. He reminded me a lot of Servbot from Marvel vs Capcom 2, as he has a very small hit box due to his height, and hes very sneaky and getting around screen and trapping you into some of his combos. While not all that powerful, he can be an annoying character to fight against in the right players hands. Frank West from Dead Rising fame finally makes his debut to the series (Im not sure why it took this long) and he will use his photography skills to good use in a match, as they will power up some of his special attacks. Again, not the most powerful, but unique to fight with and against. Lastly is the courtroom attorney, Pheonix Wright. His addition feels more like fanfare, as hes very weak and takes a lot of preparation to be competent with. He needs to collect evidence to change him into a powerhouse that can easily decimate almost anyone, though youll need some noticeable skills to pull this off appropriately.
While the new characters will get most of the spotlight, many changes have been made to some of the previous characters as well that will take some getting used to if you used them as your main group. Ryu has been changed from a mediocre character to someone that can hold their own. He can now spam fireballs and is a much stronger character in general. Captain Americas seems to have gotten a boost as well and Ive made him part of my main fighting team. Not everyone got boosted though; the more powerful characters have been relined with balance in mind, like Magneto. He seems more sluggish making it much more difficult to setup and execute your combos. The same goes for some of the characters assists that made them once invincible, this is no longer the case. It seems like almost every character played slightly different (for better or worse) to try and alleviate the problem of everyone using the same top-tiered characters.
Capcom seems to have listened to the community when it comes to online competition, as now theres a spectator mode where you can watch other people fighting with friends. You no longer have to wait as long when a match isnt found and rematching is much easier this time around. With an improved netcode implemented, matches for the most part seemed smoother and there was nothing to complain about in this department.
While Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom brings some desired (and undesired) changes to the table, there are some glaring omissions in the character department. Theres no Mega-Man, Venom, Ken, Gambit, and a few others that I would have really loved to see return from the second game. Hopefully theyll be DLC one day, but at least any characters and costumes you purchased from Marvel vs Capcom 3 will carry over into Ultimate.
For a casual player like myself, I still found it very difficult to become very good at the game (going online proved this). There is a mission mode that teaches you the different move and combos, but it really needs to be expanded, as its just there, but doesnt do a great job to guide you (like Street Fighter IV) and make you a better overall player. To be honest, it feels like its too soon to bring us Ultimate as a full priced disc purchase rather than a title update and DLC. A DLC update was done with the Arcade Edition of Super Street Fighter IV, so Im wondering why it couldnt have been done in the same way here for Ultimate. If youre a casual player and already bought Marvel vs Capcom 3, then its hard to justify this upgrade unless you really want to play with the new characters (or see how your fighters have been tweaked). If youre a competitive player or dont have the original offering, then this is obviously the version to get without hesitation. It wont win you over if you didnt click with it the first time, but if you enjoyed your time in this crossover, the new characters and updates should keep you hooked for a little while longer.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
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Rayman Origins
Its hard to believe that its been over 15 years since I first played Rayman back on the original Playstation. It was a 2D sidescrolling platform game that eventually got a number of sequels and even made the move to a 3D approach. Rayman Origins arrives and goes back to its 2D sidescrolling brilliance. Its funny, Rayman originally had no limbs due to technical limitations back in the mid 90s, now with Rayman Origins, a simple explanation is given to why he is limbless; There simply wasnt enough Lums when he was born. While the game is titled Origins, its not going to give you a deep backstory and look into Raymans world, though it does take place before some of the earlier games.
Im not sure why Raymans popularity didnt become big enough for him to be a mascot, as he always had solid games and he seems as if hes a likable character and is marketable. Either way, he returns now limbless and with his helicopter hair with a bunch of his friends, and he just happens to bring us one of the best 2D sidescrolling platform games that Ive played in quite some time. Its been quite some time since Ive played such a memorable platforming game with such unique and gorgeous hand drawn visuals.
Rayman games have never been known for their amazing story telling or plots, but they are known for their great game mechanics, tight controls, and unique art styles. In Rayman Origins, this is no different, the story is a wacky Saturday cartoon plot-line, but that wont matter once youre running and jumping all over the place trying to collect as many Lums as you can. Rayman and friends reside in a tree in the Glade of Dreams, and it turns out they were snoring way too loudly for their underground neighbor, an evil old granny, and she retaliates by letting loose an army of evil creatures across the land. All of the Electoons and Nymphs have been taken hostage and its up to Rayman and his friends to set things right by rescuing them. Again, it wont win any awards for its story, but like I said, it wont matter as the gameplay and distinctive visuals vastly outweighs everything else. Itll take you around a dozen hours or so to get through the main levels, though you can add infinitely more depending on how compulsive you are trying to collect every last Lum and Electoon to try and 100% the game.
The first thing we need to talk about is the absolutely stunning visuals youll notice from the first level you play. Every character, animation and background is masterfully hand drawn and simply stunning to look at. Everything is so bright and vibrant; it reminded me a lot of Bastions art direction and doesnt disappoint. Its rare to find a game thats so simple yet intricate at the same time, Origins visuals makes it had to not randomly stop during a level and just admire everything on screen.
There are five worlds that need to be completed to move to the next, and each world is broken into six or so individual levels. Each level is then broken into five or six smaller segments (that also act as your checkpoints) that flow together naturally. At the end of a level, theres not a boss, but you need to defeat all of the enemies guarding the cage holding Electoons before you can move onto the next stage.
As Rayman run, jumps, swims, and more throughout the different levels, the platforming itself never becomes stale due to the precise controls that never have you feel like youre doing something wrong (due to controls). Each world has a voluptuous nymph to save, and doing so will have her bestow a special power unto Rayman, such as running up walls, swimming, shrinking, and more abilities youll need to progress. Each world usually caters around one of the specific abilities and near the end of the game youll be using them all in succession to proceed forward. The pacing is done perfectly, as you get enough time to get used to each ability and wont ever worry about forgetting how to use it in the latter levels. With more than sixty levels to progress through and no difficulty settings to worry about, youll just be progressing through ingenious level design with a solid platforming base.
As you progress through each level and segment, youll be attempting to rescue imprisoned Electoons (they are the pink dots with smiling faces). During each level youll also be collecting Lums (the gold colored smiling dots) that will go towards your tally at the end of the level. If you find a large Lum, it will temporarily make any Lum gathered valued at two instead of one. Theres some strategy required if you want to collect every Lum at the end of a level for the bonuses at the end of stages.
To progress through the later world levels youll need a specific amount of Electoons. You have a chance to collect one to 5 Electoons in each stage if youre vigilant and can find all the hidden areas that will next you extra caged Electoons at the end. Youll also gain Electoons based on how many Lums you find during a level; manage to gather a specific around by the end of the stage (usually 300 to 350 or so) and youll get the bonus Electoons. If youre very diligent, you can even earn medals if they collect every Lum which will allow you to attempt a time trial of that stage.
As you meet set Electoon counts, you are given the option to play special treasure-chase levels that will have you running as fast as possible trying to catch the legged treasure chest and get its precious Ruby Tooth. Manage to collect all ten teeth and youll gain access to the final bonus world, though getting all the teeth will be quite challenging. These treasure-chase levels are some of the most difficult stages in the whole game (aside from the bosses that come much later in the game). There are no player life counts, so you can try as many times as you want in each stage, but youll be playing these specific stages many times as you memorize each obstacle and timing of jumps. One mess up and youll basically have to restart the level. Not controller throwing frustrating, but it will definitely make you grit your teeth when you get so close.
To break up the monotony of running, jumping, and attacking, there are some levels that have Rayman riding a large mosquito that turns into a 2D sidescrolling shooter. Youre able to suck up enemies and spit them out and can rapidly shoot at enemies as well. Its a great tool to break up the pacing a little bit, and I found myself looking forward to these levels for just a quick change of pace.
The only real issue I had with Origins is that the later end-game is blocked off until youve collected enough Electoons to progress. This means youll be replaying many levels, trying to find those hidden Electoons (and collecting enough Lums) so that you can get a certain amount to try and get another ruby tooth.
Have friends over that want to do more than just watch you jumping around? You and three other friends can simultaneously play alongside you, each with their own character. Players can choose between Rayman, Globox (Raymans longtime friend), and multiple Teensies. Youll unlock addition skins and costumes for each character as you progress through the game, though Ive always been partial to the leading man himself, Rayman. If a player is hit by an enemy or falls to their doom, theyll become encompassed in a bubble that any of the other players need to pop to get him back into the game. The best part is that the co-op is drop in and drop out whenever you want, though game progress will only count towards the main profile.
Nothing can ruin a platforming game more so than shoddy and unresponsive controls. Luckily, you wont ever have to worry about this in Origins as every animation is done wonderfully and youre always in control of Rayman at all times. This doesnt mean that you wont miss platforms, ledges, and wall jumps; you will, many times, but not because of loose controls. Because the levels are segmented into smaller sections, youll never have to redo a section of great length due to the checkpoint system thats done perfectly as well. Dont let the infinite lives, frequent checkpoints, and colorful artworks fool you though, this isnt an easy kids game, and does become quite challenging in the later half and some levels (usually he treasure chases) will have you replaying stages many times until you learn it to perfection.
This is where some of the charm comes from though. Im glad I wasnt able to breeze right through it and even though youll hit random spikes of difficulty, overcoming those levels makes you feel accomplished. Some levels really gave me a vibe of playing Battletoads (with the falling and climbing levels), and others even made me reminisce of Earthworm Jim; both are two of my favorite games of all time.
I do wish there was online co-op over Xbox Live, but Ill live without it. Frame rate never once slowed down and hearing the Nymphs speak pig latin always put a smile on my face. The music for each world is very distinct and masterfully done and I really wish that I could by the official soundtrack for Rayman Origins (like I did Bastion), its that well done.
Its a shame Rayman Origins came out during the busiest time of year with all the other huge games now out, as its sure to be overlooked, but if you love platforming games, pick this up without hesitation. If youre strapped for cash because of the holidays, get it as soon as youre able, its that good and easily justifies its price tag. You wont find a better 2D platformer with a more unique visual style. Im glad this game landed on my desk to review, as I really enjoyed this stand out title in this busy season.
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
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PowerUp Heroes
Remember pretending to be a super hero (or villain) as a kid, waving your arms around mimicking how to use your special moves? Id raise my hands in the air and slam them downward as if I was summoning lightning bolts from the sky, conjuring magic in my hands, or even throwing fireballs by imitating a Hadouken from Street Fighter (and yelling it out loud of course). PowerUp Heroes attempts to give you this feeling once again while you punch, kick, and flail your arms about to defeat your enemies in this Kinect enabled fighting game.
Obviously this isnt going to be as robust or technical as your modern day Street Fighter IV or Mortal Kombat, but its not trying to be either. This is Ubisofts second attempt at a fighting game, and after the first, I honestly wasnt getting my hopes too high. Remember how terrible that Kinect fighting game launch title, Fighters Uncaged, was? Thats what had me nervous about PowerUp Heroes before even playing it, though I went in with a blank and unbiased slate. PowerUp Heroes feels like a super power kids version of what Fighters Uncaged was trying to be. While it seems they have learned from their mistakes, you know, since it actually works, know right away that youll need the recommended amount of space Kinect suggests to play accurately (as possible).
Geared towards a younger audience, your avatar will fight the bad guys, but instead of mashing the buttons like in standard fighting games, youll essentially be doing it with your arms and legs. Its entertaining to see how many of the characters, costumes, and moves are inspired (and sometimes blatantly ripped off) by current characters in modern fighting games. Youll see a character that clearly resembles Scorpion and Reptile (and theres even Scorpions signature spear-pull Get over here! move included) and even move your hands to the side of your waist before unleashing a fireball towards your enemy in classic Hadouken fashion.
While there is a plot in PowerUp Heroes, its so thin and cliché that it wont even matter. Since when do you play a fighting game for the story anyways? An extremely powerful villain, Malignance, is on his way to Earth in his quest for absolute power which will turn humankind into minions for his growing army to take over the while universe. Volta happens to crash on Earth the same time as Malignance and as he dies he gives all his powers to the closest human, that being you. Now with Voltas costume and powers inherited, its up to you to save not only Earth, but the whole galaxy. Yes, cheesy but its meant for kids and its a simple enough premise as to why these guys are fighting one another.
Youll need to use your entire body in this over the shoulder brawler. Youll be striking with punches and kicks and dodging my titling your torso from side to side. When you throw your arms out in a punching motion youll throw projectiles that are low damage but is used to interrupt certain super powers that need time to charge up. Lift a knee and youll rush into close combat melee range which youll then have to punch and kick to make a combination of five attacks before doing a finisher to end the combo. The finisher needs to be an uppercut or a knee but youre told exactly which move to use to complete the combo successfully. The problem is that you dont know which move itll be beforehand and you need to perform the move very quickly or the enemy can counter and use the finisher against you. Its almost a guessing game, as you need to prepare your balance to throw a knee that fast or get an uppercut ready in time.
If you get a combo chained against you, blocking is possible if you mimic the moves that show on the screen in time. Youll essentially be copying poses but you need to really exaggerate the motions and poses for them to register, on top of being very quick to be successful. In regular combat you can lean side to side to strafe quickly and dodge incoming attacks and projectiles, though some moves will hit you no matter what if you dont interrupt them by lifting your knee and rushing them to start a combo. As you take damage (and you will in the last part of the game) your Rage meter will slowly fill .Once full youll take less damage and deal more yourself. Your super moves will also instantly be ready for use and will refresh twice as fast.
The real fun in the fighting comes from using your super powers which are based on whatever costume you are currently wearing. Certain moves will have you replicating how you would perform them in real life if you could. Fireballs are usually done just like how Ryu and Ken would in Street Fighter, hold your hands above your head then bring them crashing down for a black hole or lightning (again, depends on which suit you are wearing), or even jump up to quickly teleport to your foe and uppercut them. Your special moves have cool down timers so that you cant spam them repeatedly, so you need to vary your attacks as you wait for the big moves to refresh. The first of three moves listed are used for damage but to also setup a chain of super moves for devastating damage. While it is possible to do Ultimate Chains (by using three super powers and switching costumes twice in between) its nearly impossible to do them with certain accuracy. Holding your left hand above your head will make you switch costumes (you pick two before battle) on the fly so that you can vary your attacks. Most moves work just fine where others seem less simple to use and even harder to chain into a combo.
You gain experience for winning (and losing) battles which goes towards your overall level. As you gain levels youll unlock power-ups like better projectile damage, starting the match with a full rage meter, and more that you can freely swap between battles depending on your play style. There are ten levels in all but youll need to grind for quite a few hours if you want to max your level. Youll actually finish the game (if youre able to beat Malignant X) around level three or four where your enemies will be more than double your level for some reason. Maybe this is to promote versus matches with a friend or online matches to level, Im not really sure.
As you defeat Malignances minions youll collect their suits and powers to be used if you wish. With twenty suits in all to collect theres some variety to mixing and matching certain powers but once you find a few you like youll stick with them throughout the game. There are even a few special unlockable Ubisoft suits such as a Rabbid suit and even an Ezio costume in tow with his abilities. The only downfall is that once you beat Malignance youll need to run the gauntlet again against their X-forms. They have one or two new powers but are much more powerful the second time around and is a shallow pool of actual enemies youll face against.
At first I couldnt figure out why my avatar looked so terrible. When you pick which costume to wear it puts the suit on top of whatever your avatars clothing is. What this means is that if youre like myself and have some odd clothing that is larger than regular clothing, itll constantly be clipping through and looking terrible. If you play wrestling games and create custom wrestlers, youll know exactly what Im talking about.
There is a multiplayer component to PowerUp Heroes with quick match and ranked choices, but each time I tried to find a game online it never would. I tried multiple times and let it sit there searching for a game but it seems no one else was wanting to play when I tried, so unfortunately I was unable to test this feature properly (and couldnt get my achievement for winning a ranked match).
Menus control just like how Dance Central does with side swipes of your right hand but youll sometimes need to be very precise with your selections. Just like in combat, the controls work but you need to be very deliberate with your movements for everything to register properly. When moves dont register properly the first time youll sometimes end up flailing around your arms and legs trying to do multiple things at once. While annoying at times, its definitely a workout that breaks a sweat and would make for an entertaining party game for kids.
In essence, it feels like youre playing an embellished version of rock-paper-scissors since one move or motion is always the counter to another. Itll succeed and making your kid feel like a super hero at times (and yourself when you start using the super powers) provided they have the balance and dexterity needed. If this was meant to be a serious game for the hardcore crowd, then I could dock it points for missing features, bare boned campaign and more, but its not, its meant for the younger audience and I could really see them enjoying this if they are into super heroes
There are really only two gripes I have with PowerUp Heroes. The first is the preciseness needed to do a good portion of the super moves (and balance to chain them all together); great premise, frustrating controls at times. The second; its incredibly short. Youll finish the game and unlock the suits in around two hours or so, so be warned the replayability comes from combining different costumes and trying new moves out more than the campaign itself. Also, I was actually unable to defeat the final boss (at level 5) and tried for about two hours total combined. This is supposed to be a kids game and the longer you play the more tired you become, making moves harder to do since youre reacting slower.
When youre fighting the same ten guys twice, it doesnt seem like theres much value within. To a kid who wants to throw fireballs and beat up the bad guys, I dont think they will care, especially since two player support is there for siblings and friends. It feels more like a premium XBLA game and Id actually really like to see this idea taken to the next level with a PowerUp Comic Book Heroes. Imagine the possibilities with characters from Marvel, DC, and more. For what it is and who it caters towards, kids that have lots of energy should really enjoy pretending to be a super hero with a plethora of super powers.
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
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Tropico 4
Ive actually never played a Tropico game before this one arrived on my doorstep, and to be honest, Im not really sure why. Ive always loved the Sim City style of creation gameplay, but maybe its the ruling and management mechanics like Civilization that turned me away. I dont really know why I never gave it a fair shot, and after playing Tropico 4, I regret not finding this series sooner. I wasnt sure what to expect as Im not usually very good at these types of games.
It took me awhile to wrap my head around some of the mechanics as I started off trying to play it like I would Sim City by building road infrastructures, electricity grids, residential areas and more in a symmetrical fashion. I learned very quickly that in Tropico, everyone can and will walk freely anywhere, and you arent forced to make that Sim City style of design to be successful. Actually, I rarely even make any power plants at all as only a few buildings require a set amount of electricity.
Haemimont Games has done a fantastic job of creating a game with very in-depth resource management, feeding population, keeping Tropiconians (Im assuming thats the right context) happy, balancing budgets and debt, foreign relationships, and plethora more that youll constantly have to juggle simultaneously. Whats great about it is that it never becomes too overwhelming at once, even for a new player to the series like myself.
Generalissimo Santana has decided to take you under his wing and show you how to rule over the land. You are El Presidente and you now rule over all of Tropico; how you do so is completely up to you. Are you simply trying to build up your population for fame and the good of the people, or do you want to build a tourist resort to roll in the cash while ruling with an iron fist? Youll be doing so during the banana republic era all the way up until the end of the Cold War. Because this era was chosen, youll constantly have the Soviets and Americans breathing down your neck forcing you to pick sides in difficult situations. They wont be the only ones though, prepare to deal with the Middle East and China also.
As El Presidente, youll have a full campaign with twenty missions on ten new maps that need to be played in order to unlock the next one. Once you pick your leader from preset options like Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and a dozen others, or a completely custom leader you design, youre then put in charge and need to build Tropico from the ground up. Youre placed in charge of building the economy, infrastructure, politics, environment, and anything else you could think of. How you do so is completely up to you, and almost any play style has their strengths and weaknesses. I ruled by being a diplomatic leader; I gave healthcare, free living areas, high wages, and rarely heard any murmuring about a rebellion. When I tried to be a cruel dictator, I had rebellions and many countries upset with me, but I was filthy rich by exploiting my people wherever I could. It makes for some interesting gameplay as you can always try something new and see what the outcome is like, molding exactly how you want to rule over the island.
First off, Tropico is known for being a PC game, obviously because of its history and strategic elements. Now that its also on the Xbox 360, it obviously wont compare to using a keyboard and mouse for controls, but I never felt like I was hindered (aside from the preciseness needed when picking buildings). The controls arent perfect by any means, but its not overly confusing considering how much can be done, and it became second nature once I got two missions in. The only major glaring flaw is the very low-res graphics when completely zoomed in and theres also lots of screen hiccupping when lots going on the screen at one time or when the weather suddenly changes (when in fast forward mode). To be fair, Ive not play the PC version, so I cant say if these are issues with the game itself or just with the Xbox 360 port.
I highly suggest playing the tutorials first, as it will teach you the basics (youll still have much to learn) of building a sustainable living for your islands population. Youll also need to quickly figure out the food problems, jobs, education, police, and every other infrastructure we have in society today. By importing and exporting, this is how youll bring in precious resources and exporting your own products for your income. El Presidente obviously also has his own personal Swiss Bank Account, which is your personal wealth. Will you steal from the citizens, embezzle money, or save none for yourself to help Tropico thrive?
Different people will constantly have problems for you to solve or an agenda of their own that they want your help with, these are called tasks. And by the way, I hate the environmental lady that is constantly bugging me. Complete these tasks and youll earn bonuses and more, depending on whose task it is and what you had to do to complete it. You can have up to five tasks at once but sadly theres no way to get rid of a task if youre full until one of them is completed. I got stuck a few times with tasks I shouldnt have taken yet but couldnt grab new ones to help until I had one of the five spots clear for a new task. Im not sure why there is a limitation, as it could have been a checklist in the background to check at any time.
There are many different types of buildings you can construct, deepening on what your wants and needs are (and cash flow). Some of the new buildings are the Shopping Mall, Stock Exchange, Aqua Park, and more. Some buildings even have internal upgrades that you can purchase that add another layer of depth and strategy. Make sure to always have some funds on hands though; as it never seems to fail that some type of natural disaster will always strike at the most inopportune times, forcing you to rebuild what was destroyed.
You can appoint council of ministries that will help push through your controversial decisions through in your government. Politics are used to keep relations with other countries and super powers and play a large factor in almost every aspect of life in Tropico.
An edict is an announcement of law, and you eventually have access to many different types of edicts that can quickly turn around a situation for El Presidente. There are many edicts that range from anti-litter policies, to printing money, to same-sex marriages, to even nuclear testing. Youll be using your Almanac to keep tabs on everything thats going on your island, especially all the different factions that may or may not agree with your administration and policies. Your Almanac is especially useful to see the many different factions happiness levels and what you can do to make them support (or turn) on you.
For those that want to simply build their dream island and not have to worry about major objectives, Sandbox Mode is essentially a free-play option for those that want to play almost like a Sim City. Its actually a great way to become more familiar with the controls and the smaller nuances about the game.
Tropico 4 does an outstanding job at getting someone like me thats never played the series, eased into the missions and feeling like I was doing a good job to boot. Obviously a few missions later, I was struggling as the difficulty rises, but Im learning the intricacies and just how much depth to this game there really is. I do wish there was an option to show where buildings are listed in the menus when you have a specific task to build something. Sometimes I forget where the Power Plants are located in the building menus and have to shuffle around between them to find it. Not a game breaker by any means, but definitely something a new player like me would have made a big use of.
Tropico 4 has a ton of content included, almost to the point of being overwhelming for a new player to the series like myself. There are so many ways to play each mission and the smallest decisions can have the largest impacts. It has a perfect balance of complexity and entertainment, and for how in-depth it really is, I never become too flustered (aside from never keeping enough cash flow on hand). The missions come in a steady pace and increasing difficulty that never made me think it was impossible. Ill definitely be following the series from now on and Im having much more fun than I thought I would (trying to push back all these rebels)!
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
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Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
If Halo didnt become the massive success that it did back in 2001, its no secret that theres a very slim chance that the Xbox would even be around today. Luckily, Bungie showed the world what a first person shooter on a console could strive to be and the rest is history. Im an absolutely huge Halo fan; I probably have more Halo merchandise than one person should. I cant believe its been a decade since I bought my Xbox and was introduced to Halo. I do miss my duke controller after all this time though.
Halo helped shape the kind of gamer than Ive become today. Halo was the first (and I think only as far as I can remember) game that Id ever coordinate with 15 other friends to get together for a lan party. We would set a place and everyone would bring their TV (this was before LCD TVs, so we had to lug our hefty TVs around), Xbox, Halo, controllers, and a ton of pizza. This is how you played together with friends back in the day before Xbox Live and sixteen player Halo lans with my friends are some of the fondest gaming memories I still have to this day.
Now that Bungie is off doing new non-Halo related games, 343 Industries is now taking the helm for all Halo projects going forward. Their first order of business was bringing fans the Anniversary edition of Halo Combat Evolved for the ten year anniversary. Master Chief returns a decade later to suck us back into the lore of Halo and hopefully find some new fans of the series along the way. If youre a Halo purist, dont fret, Anniversary is essentially the same experience you remember playing all those years ago. The core of the game is intact and unchanged, but new visuals, audio, and more, make Anniversary look like it belongs in modern times. Youll be impressed to see how drastically cleaner and high-def Master Chief and the new environments look. And yes, the overpowered ionic pistol makes its long awaited return.
The story of Halo is unchanged and maintains its history and lore. You know how the story began, you know how it ends, but it still manages to capture my attention after all these years, regardless of how many times Ive beaten the campaign. I wont go into the story too much, as by now if youve played Halo, you know it, and if you havent, I dont want to spoil it. Master Chief awakens from a cryo-chamber shortly after the fall of Reach. They crash onto a mysterious ring world inhabited by the Covenant, the alien race that humanity is battling against. Master Chief uncovers a disaster in the making with the introduction of the Flood, aliens that can end all of humanity if it isnt stopped. One way to stop it, is by using Halo, but that would end all sentient life in the universe.
Throughout the campaign, I kept getting deja-vu and a constant overwhelming nostalgia feeling. It was welcomed and it kept putting a smile on my face as I proclaim Oh yea, I remember that!. Ten years ago, you could play through the story with a friend locally on the same screen, now that Xbox Live is here, each player gets their own screen and you dont have to share a room any longer. Its still only two player co-op and you can only play with people on your friends list, theres no random matchmaking unfortunately, for those times you dont want to fight the Flood alone.
So lets start with whats new in Anniversary. Most notably and the first thing youre going to take notice of is the updated and sharp visuals. Im not just talking an up-scaled resolution, but all models and textures have been recreated and boosted to high definition. Colors seem more vibrant, theres much more detail everywhere, more foliage on the ground, and even some new lighting will help guide you in some of the maze-like levels. Some levels seem drastically different in remastered mode, not that the game itself was changed, but in dark areas, its actually bright now. In the swamp level you can actually see more than 10 feet in front of you because of the new lighting and draw d, surface textures, environments, and more have all been drastically updated, and at times it can almost look like a completely different game than you remember. Thats where the beauty of switching between classic and remastered mode come into play. By tapping the back button, you can switch between the actual 2001 graphics, and the updated graphics of today. It takes about three seconds of black screen loading to happen, but youll be amazed at the substantial differences. This is achieved by having both the classic and modern sets of code running at the same time (which is why Im assuming theres the slight delay while switching). Youll be constantly surprised at how the game looked back then and what your memory actually thought it looked like. Im constantly switching back and forth just to see the differences and always come away amazed, not only at how good they got it to look today, but how good that looked for only ten years ago. Take note though, whatever version youre playing when a cutscene triggers, the cutscene will play in that mode; theres no switching while watching unfortunately.
Next are the games audio enhancements. I could tell a slight difference between some of the different gun sounds, voices and such, but the real improvements can be heard when the soundtrack kicks in. The music somehow sounds cleaner and some tracks have been remastered and sound absolutely stunning. It was great hearing the rock version of the Halo theme kick in when Im obliterating a pack of Covenant.
There are some new secrets hidden within the world you remember though. Terminals can be found hidden in each level, though only if you are playing in remastered mode (they simply arent there if youre in classic) that when found, will play a new short cutscene to give you some more insight into the lore of Halo, narrated and revolving around Guilty Spark himself. Theres even the inclusion now of hidden skulls in the levels that can alter gameplay in interesting ways, just like it did in the games successors.
The most intriguing new addition would have to be support for Kinect. No, you arent going to be running around your living room pretending to fire a gun; its actually just voice controls for a number of different things. Shouting grenade, reload, or flashlight in game will do those commands instead of pressing the corresponding button. Sadly though its not all that practical, as theres a delay of voice to action. Saying analyze will make your visor look like it did in ODST (almost like night vision), and new weapons, enemies, and vehicles can be scanned to fill your library index to learn more about the scanned items. Note, you need Kinect to use this feature, and you cant do it with just a controller, but theres no attached achievements to it, nor will you learn any new secrets, its simply for the OCD that want to scan all 45 items in the world. Interestingly, you can even say brighter and dimmer to change your settings on the fly, even contrast and enabling 3D mode should you have the TV for it (as a side note, I dont have a 3D TV, but from what Ive read, most people say the 3D mode for Anniversary works very well and isnt intrusive). Be warned co-op players of a Kinect owner, you will get sick of them shouting analyze and scan often.
Ah, classic Halo multiplayer, many nights have I stayed up saying one more game repeatedly. Before Xbox Live, players figured out a way to play online with each other that involved downloading a program and tunneling through your computer. It was primitive, but it worked, though I always preferred to have the big Halo lans at a friends place. Now, while the campaign has gone relatively untouched (outdated mechanics and all), sadly the same cant be said for multiplayer. Those looking to relive those memories of all night Halo lans might be disappointed to know that this isnt the same multiplayer you played a decade ago. Sadly, you cant play multiplayer in classic visuals though which was a little bit of a letdown.
There are only six maps included on disc, and they are taken from Halo CE, Halo CE PC, and Halo 2. To be fair, the majority of the original maps have already been remade for Halo 2, 3, and Reach, but in Anniversary youll have access to High Noon (Hang Em High), Breakneck (Headlong), Penance (Damnation), Ridgeline (Timberland), Solitary (Prisoner), and of course Battle Canyon (Beaver Creek). The maps have been slightly altered, like with teleporters or new tunnels but will give you the same general feel that you remember them from.
There are new matchmaking playlists that gives access to Squad, Big Team Battle, Free For All, Classic, and even Firefight (new Firefight map called Installation 04). The multiplayer is using the Reach engine, but playing these classic modes wont allow for the armor abilities and other drastic changes. Youll have essentially the same multiplayer from years ago, complete with pistol, but something just seems different about it, though I cant pinpoint what exactly it is. Theres a code when you open Anniversary that will even allow you to import the maps into Reach (and thus play with armor abilities) if youd rather go that route as well. Considering the map pack separate is 1200 Microsoft Points, Anniversary selling at $40 isnt such a bad deal, as youll get the remastered campaign.
Anniversary is by no means perfect; theres still texture pop in, disorientating and laggy warping when another player gets to a checkpoint, and minor things like the cryo-chamber Master Chief comes out of at the beginning of the game; the cutscene shows one tube, when the game begins in co-op, theres suddenly two. I dont know if all of these issues are because the old code is running underneath or not, but they do stand out.
After ten years, the game has held up surprisingly well. Its been awhile since Ive played a game that doesnt hold my hand every step of the way and I got lost quite a few times not knowing where to go, but that was some of the charm as well. You can tell that every facet has been done with love and care by 343. They could have simply bumped up the resolution and called it an HD remix, but a lot of work has gone into this package. We original Halo fans thank you. I really hope that other HD re-releases take note; this is how HD versions should be done, as it stays true to the source material, but also brings something new.
Certain mechanics will feel outdated and archaic, but thats because they are. A game like this from ten years ago feels completely different from a game of today. I kept catching myself wondering why I couldnt pick up the sword, change weapons with marines, and remembering when Hunters werent too big of a threat. These facets and more have changed over the years in each game, and bias aside, I cant fault the game for its mechanics and design choices, as this is a decade old game. Im more weighing the score on its updated merits.
If the multiplayer was a true remake, Id probably stick with it longer and score it slightly higher, because Halo lans is what made Halo for many people. Anniversary does a fantastic job at retelling a story by staying true to its legacy and also being an overhauled experience that many of us have probably forgotten over the years. If you were too young when Halo was released, or never played it for some reason, pick it up and you can see how the phenomenon all began. Im eagerly awaiting a Halo 2 Anniversary now, make it so 343.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
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Dance Central 2
I never have and never will proclaim that Im a dancer. Im not a dancer; Im a white guy that dances like a typical white guy. Though I do love me my dancing games. I know Im a terrible dancer, but I have fun, and thats what matters right? Luckily, Kinect doesnt judge me too harshly; it even sometimes tells me Im doing well while Im playing Dance Central 2. I do wonder what my clubbing days would have been like if the Dance Central games where around back then; would it have made me a little better on the dance floor? Possibly.
Dance Central 2 is finally here and Ive been waiting for this title for some time. Its the Sequel to the bestselling dance game on Kinect and Id even wager it was the bestselling Kinect game at launch by far. Dance Central offered a reason and justification to all the early adopters of Kinect like myself. Ive even heard it be called the Dance Central machine, it was that well done. Now the sequel is here with some big improvements and fresh dance moves for you to try out. Dont fret, the base game itself is generally unchanged and still has you following and mirroring the on screen dancers for points, showing that you can keep up with their dance moves.
There are more songs this time around, 44 to be exact. Everyones going to have different musical tastes, but the songs that were noteworthy to me were: Baby Got Back (not the original, its a mix version unfortunately) by Sir Mix-A-Lot, Bad Romance and Born This Way by Lady Gaga, Grenade by Bruno Mars (which my wife cant stop playing), "Mai Ai Hee (Dragostea Din Tei)" by O-Zone (better known to youtubers as Numa Numa), Sandstorm by Darude, and What Is Love by Haddaway. Theres a diverse selection of music, though I found DC2 to be a little more hip-hop and R and B heavy for my tastes than the first game. Theres sure to be a few songs here for everyone to enjoy though.
Not enough songs for you? Youre also able to import the whole song list from the first Dance Central as well, for a small fee for 400 Microsoft Points, just like how Rock Band offered. All you need is the code on the back of your manual from the first game (new copy of course) and you can import every song, none are left out due to licensing issues! Importing the first games 32 songs will boast your song list up to 76 songs, not even including any DLC songs youve (or will) purchase.
Dance Central 2 now boasts a campaign mode of sorts. Dance Crew mode will have you battling against seven other crews of two dancers. Performing well will earn their respect and allow you to move on against the more difficult and talented crews. To represent a crew, you need to earn their respect and prove you can carry on their name. As you make your way through all the crews, youll eventually dance off against Glitterati, which to me felt like a hybrid of the Misfits from Jem and Lady Gaga. To beat a crew you need to earn stars for your performance in each song. Once youve earned sixteen stars total, you can challenge them at their boss song. Get a minimum of four stars on this final song and you can move onto the next crew. Beat all the crews and youll have a final confrontation, which I wont spoil, but be prepared, because youll have to dance to all the boss songs in a row without rest. As you dance through the Crew Challenge, youll unlock new dancers, venues, and clothing. Its obviously not the deepest story, but at least its there and its a new addition that I commend for Harmonix for including.
Its no secret that I have a small living room and an even smaller play space for my Kinect games. Somehow Harmonix gets it right each time as I never had any issues with body tracking with my severe space constraints. You control the menus in the same fashion by swiping your arm from right to left to select, but now theres also the inclusion of voice controls as well. Instead of using your hands to select songs and difficulties, you can simply say Xbox Dance, and then pick your song by saying Song ____, and even Difficulty ____. Then just say Xbox Dance again and youre in the song you wanted. My only issue by using the voice commands for song selection though is that you need to know the songs name. I had a brain fart, couldnt remember the name of the song I wanted, and had to go back to using hand controls to scroll to it for me to remember. I wish it had a list of songs that came up when using voice controls, but its a minor oversight.
Many of your favorite dancers from the first game make a return; Angel, Emilia, Miss Aubrey, Taye, and Mo all return with new styles and clothing. There are also a handful of new dancers as well that make up each members two person crew. Also expect many of new dance moves to go along with the ones you still know from the first game. The routines are quite varied when playing the same song but on different difficulties.
If youre a more health conscious person and wan to track your fitness, there are even Fitness Playlists included for those that want a deep cardio workout. Here you can pick a preset play list to burn a sweat, or even pick your own favorite songs to dance along with. Youll see how many calories youve burned, and dont take these playlists lightly; youll need a towel and water after the longer and more difficult ones.
One of the biggest complaints about the first Dance Central was learning how to do some of the more difficult dance moves. Yes it had a tutorial, but if you were unable to do a specific move, there werent any other tools to really help you out. Now, for the inept dancers like myself, the vastly improved Break It Down mode will be able to teach you even the hardest of dance moves with enough practice. Here you can learn an entire routine or just that one specific dance move that you cant seem to quite get. Practice the move and nail it three times and youll move on. If you continue to have problems, even when slowed down, theres an option to record video of yourself trying said move and comparing it to the dancer side by side. Some might be terrified at the idea of the game recording you, but for those really wanting to learn the more intricate movements, this tool is invaluable, even if I do look silly trying these moves in my Halo pajamas. Seeing yourself side by side the dancer is a fantastic tool to see what youre doing right and wrong. Harmonix definitely listened to the first games criticism and this is exactly how you remedy that problem.
Now that Dance Central supports up to two dancers simultaneously, my initial reaction was thinking that I wouldnt be able to do it because of my small play space in my living room. I was proven wrong and surprisingly the wife and I played side by side in my very small section and had zero problems with Kinect detecting both of us and our frantic movements. Why cant all Kinect games be this accurate and done properly? It seems Harmonix knows some of the development secrets!
If youre playing a song by yourself and someone wants to join, its as easy as them standing beside you and raising their hand (like some other Kinect titles). The drop in and drop out multiplayer was much needed and its much more entertaining trying to beat a friends score now that you can compete side by side and not have to take turns.
Challenge your friend to a Dance Battle and youll be off to the dance floor competing for high scores and showing who really has the best moves. Many moves of a song will be synchronized with your dance partner, but there will also be sections that will showcase each player with a spotlight, giving them the chance to earn a bonus multiplayer if they can dance fluidly. There is even a section called Free-4-All thats almost like a mini game that will pop up from time to time. Here, a bunch of dance moves on cue cards are shown and you can pick any of the moves to perform for points. Every so often a gold card will be shown and will net you four times as many points to whoever can pull it off first. Things become frantic in this section and you will bump into each other and step on some toes, but youll have a great time laughing while doing it.
To those not shy, all of the pictures taken can be uploaded to your social network sites to share with your friends that show you in the game with details of your song, score and more. To the guys out there, be warned though; theres a heavy use of very feminine dance moves included in the routines that should be more than enough to embarrass even the bravest male dancers. This will be an absolute blast at parties with friends though, especially ones that have much drinking to be had.
All aspects of the game simply seem improved. Graphics seem cleaner and sharper, theres more facial animations on the dancers that give them more life, and hair and clothing moves much more fluid and realistically. Sadly though, there is still no online multiplayer, so heres to hoping for it to be included in Dance Central 3. I can live with the two player simultaneous support for now though.
The first game set the standard for the dancing genre on Kinect; the sequel raises that bar by adding a solid multiplayer that you dont have to fuss with and a tutorial mode that should be able to teach dancers of any skill many dance moves to use in real life should the opportunity arise. Again, Dance Central 2 is THE reason to own a Kinect if you dont already. Now go get your boogie on and dance up a sweat.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
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Dead Rising 2: Off The Record
I feel like Ive played this game before. Well, thats kind of because I have. Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is Capcoms reinterpretation of Dead Rising 2. While Dead Rising 2 was fantastic (though not without its faults), the biggest hurdle for most fans to get over was a completely new hero to the story, Chuck Greene, instead of Frank West from the first game. While Dead Rising 2 had many improvements from the first game, it still has the frustrating time limitations and frustratingly difficult boss battles (provided you didnt take time to level up).
While I didnt mind Chuck as a new hero, at least he had a true reason for his actions; he was trying to save his daughter whod become infected and needed a dose of Zombrex (anti-zombifying drug) every 24 hours. With this reinterpretation, this proposes a what if situation. What if the incident at Fortune City was covered by Frank West and Chuck wasnt the protagonist this time around? Frank brings back his trusty camera to find out whats going on, though without a deep meaning behind his intentions, unlike Chuck, the motivation just doesnt feel the same.
Frank seems to have learned the new tricks that Chuck brought to the table in Dead Rising 2, as hes now able to craft items also to help against the never ending zombie horde. Personally I liked chuck, but Frank was still the favorite out of the two. While Frank wont have to worry about a daughter to take care of, the story in Off the Record is essentially the same aside from the few additions and twists here and there.
After Franks exploits at the Wilamette shopping mall five years ago, he instantly become a huge star, culminating in him receiving his own TV show. After the show eventually became cancelled, Frank fell upon hard times and became a shell of his former self. Hes now looking for redemption and finds himself in Fortune City when a zombie outbreak transpires rather suspiciously. Frank being the natural born reporter, now much find out whos behind whats going on so that he can also rise back up to the top of his career. Granted, the motivation is nowhere near the same urgency that Chuck had for his daughter, but Frank still brings his style and charm in a story that youve already heard if you played Dead Rising 2.
As mentioned before, this reimagining is essentially that. Its basically the same game with the same story (though slightly altered to make sense in relation to Frank) but with you controlling Frank instead of Chuck. Fortune City is just like how you remember it aside from a small theme park addition to the area and a few different survivors. And yes, their AI is still just as dumb and will get themselves killed when youre trying to escort them back to the safe zone.
If you played Dead Rising 2, youre going to have a constant feeling of deja-vu as I did throughout the campaign. Similar to Dead Rising 1, you have 72 hours until the military arrives and Frank will need to complete case files at set times if he wants to find the real truth behind whats going on. Hell also need to find himself an injection of Zombrex every 24 hours to keep himself alive (see what Capcom did there? Frank needs it instead of Chucks daughter). While its more of the same, Dead Rising 2 was a great zombie killing time. While there may only be one new area to explore, theres also a few new combo cards to make some very unique weapons, and of course, youll be playing as THE man, Frank West.
The first thing youre going to notice is the atrocious loading time at the main menu (oddly enough the game loads fine when playing). It stalls and takes quite a while, but it actually looks like your Xbox has frozen since you cant even bring up the guide when its doing its thing. This is compounded when youre attempting to find an online game, but more on that later.
Youll gain PP (experience points) for killing zombies, completing quests, and more. As you level up youll gain stat increases, skills, and unlock combo cards. Take note that youre going to want to level up as much as possible before taking on the psychopaths (bosses). Now that Frank is back in the picture (see what I did there?), hes able to use his camera once again to take intriguing shots that will net you bonus PP depending on how good your photography skills are, much like in Dead Rising 1 (though hes seemed to figure out the battery problem). I found myself taking pictures in opportune times when I probably should have been running away instead, but that was always part of the fun of playing as Frank in Dead Rising; sometimes the danger is worth the massive amounts of PP.
Weapon crafting that Chuck taught us in Dead Rising 2 returns and is essentially the same. You combine different items to make a much more powerful version or a completely new insane item (I still love the boxing gloves with knives). If you have the combo card and create the item, youll get massive amounts of bonus PP per kill, if you know or experiment and create an item without having the combo card yet, youll earn half that amount of PP per kill until you get the corresponding combo card.
The biggest addition to Off the Record though, other than playing as Mr. West himself, is the inclusion of a Sandbox Mode. This is all the fun of Dead Rising without the frustrating time limits and people begging for help. Its you versus the zombies for as long as you want, by yourself or cooperatively with a friend online. The great feature of Sandbox Mode is that all the progress you make in PP and cash can be saved and carried over into your campaign. I actually suggest playing sandbox for a while to get some needed levels and upgrades before delving too far into the story, as the psychopathic bosses are still very challenging without he right weapons and stat bonuses.
Multiplayer returns and works well.if you can get it working. I found it very difficult to find a game to join (and only one person ever joined me throughout my play through). Every time you load the main screen you had to deal with the frozen loading for each step to get into a game. If a game isnt found to join or the random player declines your request, youre backed out to the main menu and have to begin this tedious and frustrating process once again. Theres no lobby or game browser, so its random who youll get paired up with (hopefully) if you dont invite or join a friend directly.
You can choose to play Story or Sandbox mode cooperatively online. Keep in mind that only the hosts story progress will save though, but at least the partner helping gets to keep all the PP and cash earned during the session for their own game. As you kill more and more zombies in Sandbox Mode, new challenges will unlock for you and your partner to try out should you desire. These will vary in objectives and net you medals and bonus PP for completion. If your friend loses all their health, you can bring them food to revive to continue on before time runs out.
And yes for those wondering, you can still dress up Frank in ridiculous looking clothing that carries into cutscenes. It still impresses me how many zombies can be on screen at one time and how much fun I can have wasting hours knocking them over with park benches as I wear a dress (Frank, not myself) and flip flops. Like previously, the inventory is still clumsy and picking up a specific item in a pile can be frustrating. Boss battles still have a huge spike of difficulty, but anyone that played Dead Rising 2 will know exactly what they are getting into.
Once I get a few cases in I kept asking myself why wasnt this just DLC? I dont know, youd have to ask Capcom that. Given that the DLC for Case West and Case Zero were so unique, I was hoping that Off the Record was going to have new areas to explore, or at least a new story, rather than a rehash with some simple tweaks.
Its not a bad game by any means, its simply the same one again, and it didnt excite me all that much since Ive ultimately already played this game before (the Chuck cameo was worth it though). Its hard to recommend if youve already played Dead Rising 2 as its fundamentally the same game for the most part. If you havent though, then definitely pick it up as this is the version to get as theres really no other game like it.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
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Need for Speed: The Run
Blackbox Studios finally makes their long awaited return to the Need For Speed series after a few years hiatus. This studio has brought us some of the best Need For Speed titles in the past such as Hot Pursuit 2, Undercover, and my favorite, Most Wanted (they are also the ones that do the Skate series among others). Ive been eagerly waiting for their next Need For Speed title, as I always seem to enjoy theirs more so than the others like Shift. Now boasting the Frostbite 2 engine (of Battlefield 3 fame), Need For Speed returns with a story driven experience coupled with a long lasting multiplayer.
Its no secret that its a packed gaming holiday this year, and with Need For Speed: The Run, coming out right in the middle of the chaos, its bringing an arcade racing game that also has a story (you know, other than just racing). Youll be speeding at well over 300 km/h (and yes, Im Canadian, so Im going to use kilometers throughout this review), and with Autolog making its return, youll always know how you stand up against your friends racing skills.
The game begins with Jack Rourke in some deep trouble with the mob. Hes in a massive debt to them and hes going to need to pay back what he owes before they kill him. He meets up with his longtime friend Sam who has got an interesting proposition for him; win a race for a cool twenty five million dollars. The catch, its a race across the country, starting in San Francisco and ending in New York against a large amount of other racers who also want the prize money. Sam tells Jack that shell take care of his problem and hell get a ten percent cut of the purse if he wins the race. What I didnt get is why shes only going to give him such a small cut, why hes ok with it, and why hes in so much trouble with the mob in the first place. Unfortunately these questions never get answered, though it is a racing game, maybe Im caring too much.
While the plot has been done before, its interesting enough to keep you motived to keep playing the campaign to finish and youll race in many different areas like Vegas, steep mountain sides, the plains, and more in your journey across the country. Youll need to make a specific ranking by the time you get to each major area to continue on in the race and youll have people trying to stop you along the way. Sadly, theres an opportunity lost here to have some great driving rivalries (like Most Wanted), but instead youll get a quick loading screen when youre about to race a boss enemy, and thats it. Theres a recurring character, Marcus Blackwell, which youll run into a few times, but because theres no interaction with these characters, you simply wont care about anyone but Jack himself.
The Runs campaign will have you racing coast to coast but its done so in small bite sized racing chunks. Youll beat one to ten racers at a time to move up the ranks, make up lost time in checkpoint races, out race rivals, and more across the ten separate stages. Its not as easy as it sounds, as cops arent the biggest fans of street racers. Theyll use their entire backup to try and shut down you and this race. Dont fret though, these arent the cops from the past few Need For Speed titles, as they dont have EMPs, road spikes, and choppers to try and stop you; theyll attempt to take you down the old fashioned way, by slamming you off the road. Aside from the occasional road block put directly in your path, the cops arent really anything to worry about.
A big flaw I found in the campaign is the AI for your competition. It seems they are heavily scripted when it came to certain spots and timing. Almost every time when its the last one kilometer of race, theyll either slow down purposely or hit a wall so that I could almost always pass them. They sometimes also intentionally run into cops and roadblocks when youre supposed to pass them and win. Once you figure this out, theres not always a need to drive like a maniac until the last section of the race (this isnt as true for the Challenge Series, as youll need to drive at your best constantly to win those).
When you crash, and you will many times, the game will rewind to the last checkpoint automatically. The last checkpoint you hit is anyones guess as it could roll you back a few seconds or even a minute or so, sometimes even in an awkward spot or right behind traffic. If you think its the cars fault and not your driving skill, then youre welcome to change your car. That is, if you keep an eye out for a gas station during a race and successfully pull into it without crashing. Thanks right, you have to pull into a gas station to change your car, and its not always possible on every race either. The race pauses as you choose, but why its done in this manner, I dont know, as it feels very clunky and awkward (not even including trying to pull in during a race). You gain access to any rivals car that youve beaten and there are even some amazing signature edition cars that are performance tuned and look completely badass. Unfortunately youre unable to paint and tune your own cars, but theres many to unlock by simply playing, leveling up, completing challenges, beating Autolog recommendations, and winning multiplayer.
Jack will have some setbacks during the race and sometimes hes going to have to get out on foot and get away from the cops. These are done with cheesy quick time events (QTE), though luckily this QTE sections are very few and far between and dont happen that often. There are also regular cutscene, but the frantic sections with lots of actions are usually done when Jack is on foot trying to get away. It does the job of pushing the pacing forward and its infrequent enough to not be bothersome. The biggest downfall of the campaign though, is that youll finish it in one sitting. My complete racing time was roughly two hours. Now keep in mind that was on the road driving and does not include cutscenes, QTEs, and a whole lot of loading screens (which is supposed to be better with a retail disc apparently).
As you finish races youll earn driver experience points. Youll work towards leveling your driver skills and with each level usually comes a bonus of some sorts. Youll notice right away that you dont have any nitro for your cars, thats because you need to unlock it by obtaining level two driver skill. The same goes for other perks like filling nitro by driving in the wrong lane and drafting. Why some of these skills come so late I dont know (I was level 10 when I finish campaign).
Once you complete the short campaign there is a plethora of Challenge Series for you to compete and unlock. These are set courses that are usually timed attacked or sprint races, and youll be earning medals, unlocking more challenges, and trying to beat your friends times via Autolog. Challenges unlock as you progress through campaign, so I suggest finishing that first (it wont take you long anyway) as youll gain access to new challenges like out running cops, 1 vs 1 battles, and more. Im normally not one to spend a lot of time in these types of modes, but with the inclusion of Autolog, I can see me spending multiple tries on specific challenges to simply beat a friends time. Now Autolog will show you in real time, your racing time vs theirs, rather than just their finish time. This makes things a little more hectic and will cause you to drive a little faster and aggressive than you might normally.
Need For Speed wouldnt be the same if you werent able to race directly with your friends and others, so now in multiplayer theres a new playlist and lobby system than I hope other games implement. Instead of sitting in an empty lobby, waiting for people to join before you start a race, you can pick a specific playlist that you want to race in and begin. The game will populate with other players automatically, this taking the fussing around with lobbies and menus between races. You can join a game mid progress, though it puts you at the back of the pack for fairness. The further back in the pack you are, the quicker your boost will refill, almost to the point of being endless, which makes for some insane driving skills needed.
Being touted as using the Frostbite 2 engine, I had very high expectations of what to expect. Sure the cars, wrecks, and environments look fantastic, but the close-ups, interiors, and very low textures (especially in cutscenes) were a letdown. I also didnt really feel like there was much performance difference in the cars either. Regardless of what car you choose, youll have no problems keeping with the Lamborghinis and porches, even though the game tells you that certain car type are suited better for different roads; I didnt find that to be the case at all.
With a driver level and an improved Autolog, The Run is a fun time regardless of the campaigns shortcomings. Challenges and multiplayer is whats going to keep The Run in your Xbox 360 during the holidays and I would suggest a purchase of the game if multiplayer is what you want to invest the majority of your time into, rather than the story.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
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Just Dance 3
The dancing genre seems tailored for Kinect with its full body tracking capabilities; Dance Central proved that at launch and was arguably the best launch title for the small black camera peripheral. Much like Rock Band, the dance genre is a fantastic type of game to play at a party with a bunch of friends (the more inebriated, the better).
Just Dance was previously a Wii only game where you held the Wii-mote in your hand and thats how the game determined if you were correctly doing the dance moves. Suffice to say, it was easy to cheat as it was really only tracking the movement of the controller and as long as you got those hand and arms movements correct, you didnt have to do the rest if you didnt want to. Now with Kinect and full body tracking via camera, gone are the days of cheating your way through a song since it will be tracking your limbs and body. Youre actually going to have to show that you got the moves!
I didnt play the first two Just Dance games on the Wii, so I cant say how they compare to 3, but I can compare to the other dance game for Kinect, Dance Central. The first thing youll instantly notice in this series is the bright 80s influenced neon presentation that carries over from the previous games. Just Dance 3 is also a very space-friendly game that seems to plague many Kinect games. I was able to comfortably play with my wife simultaneously in my very small playing area between the couch and TV without any major issues.
Being a dancing game, the focus is going to be on the music selection. Ofcourse everyone is going to have a different outlook of the song selections on the disc, but these are some of the few that stood out for me personally (no making fun!). What You Waiting For? by Gwen Stefani, Barbara Streisand by Duck Sauce, No Limit by 2 Unlimited, Take on me by A-ha, and Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO. Yes, I know my music selection will differ from yours, but what stood out for me were the unique and odd choices of some songs included on the disc. Yes theres the standard top 40 selections from current artists, but theres also some interesting selections like Lets Go To The Mall by Robin Sparkles (which is AWESOME if youre a fan of the show How I Met Your Mother), and This Is Halloween from Nightmare Before Christmas. There are some other interesting choices as well, but it really made Just Dance 3 stand out among the competition by not taking itself too seriously.
You are able to choose to play songs in Full or Short versions (usually a minute and a half long) in the options which is great if you plan on playing this at parties with lots of friends and dont want to wait long in between songs. My biggest complaint though comes with the dance routines of the songs themselves. I was hoping to learn the actual moves you see in the music video of Party Rock Anthem and Da Funk, but alas, they arent the official routines, so you wont be mimicking the music videos moves next time youre in the club from this game.
Like many other Kinect games, youll be navigating the menus with your right hand to choose and progress, and your left to go back with a simple swipe. This can become very finicky at times. The best example; you choose the song difficulty by holding your arm up (which is confusing in its own right), but this will more often make you accidently start the song or go back a menu depending on what arm you hold up for change the difficulty. The same goes for choosing songs, as youll scroll up or down at the last second before choosing the wrong selection.
The premise of the game is simple and just like any other in the genre; mimic the onscreen characters movements and youre scored on how closely you copycat them. Depending on how well you dance per move, youll get a miss, ok, good, or perfect. The problem is that you wont know why you got a miss and other times youll clearly be doing the wrong moves but get a perfect. Sometimes it seems to only care if youre flailing your arms about rather than actually dancing. If you play on Easy mode, Kinect will only track your upper body and arms. Choose Normal and youll have to also spin and jump as well to get those perfects. This actually isnt explained though and I didnt know the difference until I read through the manual.
Small pictographs will show you upcoming moves that youre about to try and perform just like Dance Central, but the biggest problem is that a series of moves can be implied for a single flashcard unlike in Dance Central where they show you every move you need to make individually. This makes it very difficult when the pose shows a single arm in the air, but then the on screen dancer is also doing something crazy with their legs or body that youre somehow supposed to know without being told. Theres no tutorial either like in Dance Central, so if you cant get a certain move down, you arent offered any assistance to learn it and are left on your own.
There are Shout Out sections that require you to sing along with the lyrics in the bottom left to gain extra points (or for others to play along in the background as you dance). Certain moves labeled gold moves will net you tons of points if you pull them off correctly. Theres usually only 2 or 3 in a song and are typically needed to get the perfect 5 stars. Get up to 5 stars for finishing a song and for each milestone of stars youll unlock bonuses like other songs for other modes. While you can never fail out a song, the incentive to do well is in the stars you earn and is like leveling up in a sense as you gain unlocks for doing better in the long run.
Youre not forced to dance alone anymore as you can now dance as a duet or even in a dance crew of up to four performers. If you stagger the four simultaneous players, it can apparently track them all individually without fail. Its not always the same moves for each player either, each dancer may have their own sections and moves, though only a certain amount of specific songs support this particular routines though.
If you want a complete dance workout, then you want to hit up the appropriately named Sweat Mode. This will have you committing to a group of songs in a set playlist like 80s, duets, groups, and more. Youll do songs back to back (though you do pick difficulties before each song, so you can take a break whenever you want) and it tracks how much sweat youve perspired. Its actually quite challenging once youre a few songs in if youre really going for it youll work up a sweat no problem.
For something a little extra, theres even a Simon Says mode that has you not only following the dance choreography, but also having to watch your scoring area for extra Simon Says commands like Stop, Spin Around, Jump, and Dance Frantically. I found it quite hard to watch the dance cue cards and for the Simon Says commands since they are on opposite sides of the screen and youre trying to concentrate on mimicking the dancer as best as possible.
The most unique feature of Just Dance 3 though has to be the Just Create Mode. This has you creating your own routine as it films you (complete with bright neon overlay) which you can then share and play with your friends or even online to everyone should you be brave enough. Its not perfect, but its there and can make for some entertaining nights with some friends; sadly, it wont make the flash cards for upcoming moves though.
Just Dance 3 is clearly more geared towards people that have no problem letting go of their inhibitions, dont embarrass easily, and are not shy in the slightest. If you have no problem making a fool of yourself and like to wear funny wigs and clothes at a party, youll feel right at home dancing to the set list.
What I found odd about playing through Just Dance 3 was that I wasnt really enjoying it all the much playing solo due to it wanting me to be too technical at times with moves I know I will never be able to do, but when I started playing with my wife, it was a much more entertaining experience. While I still prefer the other dancing game for its selection of music, Just Dance 3 does one-up them by adding four player support and very unique visuals.
The dancers you (try to) mimic are extremely energetic, almost to a fault, as theres no way youll be able to keep up with them for very long. But they seem so happy in their routines; you almost want to smile knowing youre dancing nowhere near as well as they are. Just Dance 3 doesnt take itself as seriously as Dance Central but its not as refined either. Fans of these games probably wont care though and will make for an interesting party night, thats for sure.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
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Spider-Man: Edge of Time
Spider-Man games and I have a love-hate relationship it seems. One year Ill really enjoy his video game and the next will leave me asking why. Considering last years game, Shattered Dimensions, was great maybe I should have prepared myself better for this years Edge of Time. For me, Spider-Man games seem to be very hit or miss and it seems like it was a miss this year. Really Activision, stop playing with my emotions like Im on a rollercoaster. Im still waiting for the Spider-Man game that has the quality and depth that Arkham Asylum brought to Batman.
With the success of last years Shattered Dimensions, the developer Beenox was essentially given the right to make all the Spider-Man games going forward. Great news I thought since their first outing was a positive experience and it gave me high hopes to play another spidey tale. Dont expect many of the things that made last years outing so great to be included here. The web slinging, fluid combat, exciting super villains and more have all been scrapped and replaced with an office building, button mashing combat, fetch quests and repetition.
The narrative begins believable and something youd find in a Spider-Man comic book (though being written by veteran Marvel writer Peter David probably has something to do with that). The 2099, CEO of Alchemax, Walker Sloan (voiced by Val Kilmer) finds a way to time travel and wants to alter history in his favor by making his company the most powerful company in the world. Miguel OHara who is the Spider-Man of 2099 knows that this wrong and hes going to do what it takes to revert history to the proper course of events. In the new altered past, present day Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker doesnt work for the Daily Bugle, but Alchemax instead. Because of company policy his DNA is on record which allows 2099 Spider-Man to create a device that allows him to communicate with Parker and vice versa. Still with me? Good, cause now it starts to get confusing.
Both Spider-Men are going to have to work together if they want to reverse the events of the future (and the past?). This is of course after OHara tells Parker that he dies fighting Anti-Venom, so they need to alter history to prevent that and other events from taking place. Theyll need to work together to alter history to save each other and ultimately Amazing Spider-Mans life. The game takes place in the same areas but in two simultaneous different timelines in parallel that plays heavily on the cause and effect mechanic of time travel.
When OHara and Parker are communicating with each other youll see them talking to each other in a picture-in-picture moment that can drive across the need for urgency in certain situations. Your actions in the past will have consequences in the future. For example, if OHara is stuck somewhere at a dead end, Parker can break a machine or clear a room of enemies to change the future, opening up a new path for 2099 Spider-Man. The way its presented is slick, with walls disintegrating in front of you or a wall that turns into a ventilation shaft because of Parkers doing. Every action has its own cause and effect, though it wont usually make sense; yea, its that confusing and absurd at times.
As you shift between both characters from mission to mission, youll constantly hear them talking to each other and having banter that wears pretty thin. Many of the scientific explanations for whats happening is obviously incomprehensible so youll just hear 2099 Spider-Man ask Parker if hed rather want a five hour lecture on wormholes and paradoxs or does he want to live instead. This is the way they get around explaining how events like this could actually take place. I understand its a comic book setting, but its an easy scape goat for not having to explain anything in detail. While the main plot is interesting, the six hour journey of gameplay to complete it is not.
Each Spider-Man handles themselves in combat very differently from each other. Amazing Spider-Man is weaker by nature where the 2099 version is more fun to play as hes more powerful and has more moves at his disposal that are of use. Parker can avoid enemies by moving quickly for a short amount of time whereas OHara can seem like hes in two places at once and make a clone of himself to distract enemies as he beats them up. Combat is essentially a mash of varied buttons, as later in the game youre unable to stand toe to toe and fight without getting destroyed and youll need to rely on Spider-Mans agility instead. Youll need to jump, web swing away, attack, and back off if you want to live longer than one battle. While there is a large arsenal of available moves to purchase and upgrade, youll learn quickly that many of these new moves are unnecessary once you learn that the only way to live in combat is to jump, web pull, dive attack, and then repeat. Expect to get hit many times also due to the cameras inability to show you enemies that are about to attack you from behind. Couple that with an inability to lock onto a specific target, youll be decimated many times from the rocket enemies because of you web pulling tot eh wrong guy in the heat of battle.
So you managed to survive a few battles and now youre starting to collect some orbs laid out around the levels. These orbs are used as currency to buy upgrades for both spideys and you can improve their health, stamina, and combat repertoire. The orbs collected are shared between both spideys so choose wisely; or just so as I did and try and focus on improved Amazing Spider-Man as hes the weaker one in the combat department.
Because of the level design, pacing is way off and feels very stop and go. This isnt alluding to switching between the two characters, but the actual design itself. Youll constantly have to find a red key to unlock the red door blocking your pathway onwards, sometimes even being forced to find three keys for a single door. With a press of your Spider-sense ability you can always see where the key holders are so you can go defeat them but it seems to always happen when you just want to progress in the story. If that doesnt slow you down, youll often have to button mash the B buttonto open a locked door instead. Later on things change a little when you have to guard a device while hoards of enemies try and destroy it (and you), but this game could appropriately be called Spider-Man: Find the Red Keys instead.
If youre expecting a big open world for Spider-Man to swing around in, sorry, this isnt the game you were expecting. The whole game takes place inside of the Alchemax building with you fighting recycled enemies over and over. Come to think of it, I dont think there are even a dozen types of unique enemies (excluding bosses). There are very little web swinging sections and its more used to get you out of combat rather than traversing since everything takes place indoors. There are free-fall sections for the 2099 Spider-Man that will take a lot of getting used to. Youre able to maneuver in all directions and speed up but youll constantly hit walls and barriers many times as you try to fit into small openings at a quick pace. Because of the camera angle youll overcompensate many times until you learn that you have a curser that will show up on oncoming obstacles. Even then, its quite challenging with the speed needed to complete these sections.
Spider-Man doesnt fare much better when he needs to climb around on walls and ceilings either. Controls when climbing on walls is all well and good until you either move to another wall or touch the camera. Youll become disorientated very quickly and Spider-Man will start going in a direction you dont intend him to. The timed sequences are also quite difficult due to the controls and combat also. Sometimes youll need to defeat a set group of enemies before time runs out (which will kill OHara in the future) and most of these timed sections I barely completed with time left on the clock.
Everything usually comes in threes, so be prepared to do the same tasks multiple times. Find three red keys (again and again), kill three groups of enemies to proceed, and even kill a boss three different times. Again, the pacing due to this is thrown right off and it felt more of a way to prolong the game without adding any substance. Sure there are additional events for you to try as you unlock them in the Web of Challenges but these are also uninspiring and will simply have you defeating a set amount of enemies in a short time or to finish a group without getting hit twice for example. Its all very linear and repetitive in design.
The voice acting is up to par and were again treated with Josh Keaton voicing Amazing Spider-Man and Christopher Barnes for the 2099 version. While the voicing it great, the dialogue can sometimes be less desirable. With the constant bickering between the two characters, OHaras overuse of the work shock instead of an expletive and his inability to take a joke, and Parkers bad puns; may just put you over the edge. There are even subtle jokes making fun of itself when Parker asks if this is a video game, since he has to do a task three times.
While the voice acting and plot is great (even though its incomprehensible at times), the gameplay is the meat of the game, and thats where Edge of Time lacks the greatest. Poor pacing and repetitive tasks (I hate you red keys) is what youll be dealing with for the majority of the game. You might also be like me and wish there were more notable boss fights, but on second hand, Im sure Id just have to defeat them three times like everything else in the game, so maybe its not such a bad thing.
Hopefully you wont run into the same issues I had where I had an enemy die mid-air, thus preventing the room to be cleared and me unable to move progress forward. This happened to me twice and forced me to restart the checkpoint which would be fine if the cutscenes were unskippable (some are and some arent for some reason). Your journey will be over in six to ten hours depending on how much time you want to spend collecting orbs and working on the Web of Challenges.
I gladly give points for presentation, story, and voice acting, but thats about it. Everything feels like quite a step down from Shattered Dimensions which was only a year ago. Beenox dropped the ball with Edge of Time; lets hope next years Amazing Spider-Man game can make up for it and hope this was just a rush job, since were aware of the quality theyre able to create.
Hopefully they'll let Spidey outside of these hallways and back to swinging freely between skyscrapers where he truly belongs. With great power comes great responsibility, Beenox has that power. Now that theyre doing all the Spider-Man games going forward, lets hope theyll be responsible next time.
Overall Score: 5.3 / 10
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Forza Motorsport 4
Ive always loved the Forza series. They came into the racing genre but differentiated themselves among the stiff competition very quickly. I really enjoyed Forza 3 but I really didnt play as much of it as I would have liked to. Looking back, I see why. Simply look up the list of blockbuster games that came out around the same time in 2009 and I now remember why I never got my driver level all that high. It came out the same season as other huge hits like Halo ODST, Borderlands, DLC for GTA IV, Dragon Age Origins, and Assassins Creed 2 just to name a few. While I did spend a decent amount of time with it, I just never gave it as much attention as it deserved and I made it a point to remedy that as soon as Forza 4 released. That day has now come and Im enjoying every minute of it.
Im not a car buff by any means, but the cars I do know, I love with a passion (A yellow Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII is my favorite car of all time, you know, for those that are wondering). If you played Forza 3 and have a save file on your hard drive, youll be given some goodies in the form of some money and cars based on your driver level from Forza 3. Your vinyl creations will also carry over and youll soon experience all the new tweaks and additions that make Forza 4 a worthy successor.
Forza is all about cars and they are the star of the show, so lets start there shall we? There are more than five hundred cars available so I wont obviously list them all, but here are a few that really stood out for me: 1997 Acura NSX, 2009 Bugatti Veyron 16.4, 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser GT, 2006 Dodge Ram SRT-10, 1978 Ford Mustang King Cobra, 2006 Hummer H1 Alpha, 2008 Lamborghini Reventon, 1993 McLaren F1, 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII MR (sadly not my beloved VII version), and even the infamous DMC Delorian that you know from Back to the Future. Theres obviously many more and everyones tastes will differ, but these were the ones that I got excited about (among others). You might have noticed that I didnt list any Porsches; sadly thats because Turn 10 wasnt able to obtain the licensing, which you can thank EA for by the way. Luckily RUF offers somewhat of a substitution, but even with the obvious omission, there are plenty of cars here to get excited about.
Cars are designated into separate classes based on their performance (speed, handling, acceleration, etc) and are categorized into classes ranging from F (the lowest) to R classes (the insane speed machines) that youll never even hope to drive in your lifetime. If you love your little F-class car but want some stiffer competition, youre able to upgrade your car to almost any other class quite easily. Upgrading can be as easy or in depth as you want it to be. The quick upgrade options will optimize your vehicle for a specific class of your choosing (if possible), or you can upgrade each part yourself individually. Paint and then tune your ride if you wish and youre set with your upgraded dream car. Turn 10 understands that people love and become attached to their cars. Now with these upgrades I can finally race my Delorian competitively against a Ferrari (or at least try to).
As you complete races youll earn driver and affinity experience points. Driver xp goes towards your overall level and will give you a set choice of car every time you level up. Affinty levels work towards the specific manufacture of the car you just raced with and will earn you extra cash and discounts for their stock parts (youll have 100% discounts for manufacture parts in a few short races). The more damage you take the less money youll earn as that goes towards fixing your car (No, you cant completely bust your car and Ive never lost money at the end of a race yet). The only issue I had with crashes and damage was that the paint scrapes way too easily and dents can look very rough and unrealistic for the amount of force that you were hit with. Sometimes your bumpers and parts will fall off with enough damage but youll never find your car in pieces or totally trashed when even slamming into a wall over 200 mph.
For those that loved many of the tracks in Forza 3, a good portion returns and looks better than ever. Old favorites return like Maple Valley Raceway (my personal favorite), youll also be racing on Laguna Seca, Nurburgring, Twin Ring Motegi, Suzuka Circuit, and Sebring International Raceway, just to name a few. There are some new courses as well that will take time to master such as Hockenheimring, Infineon Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Bernese Alps and even the Top Gear Test Track. I enjoy all the new tracks as they have their own styles that need to be driven and its stunning to see the Alps track redlining your speed machine. Point races in Japan are also very entertaining when competing in uphill climbs in F class vehicles like a Hummer H1 or a Delorian.
New to Forza 4 is the Autovista mode. This allows you to see and interact with an extremely detailed versions of a car where you can learn about the lights, engine, wheels, cockpit, and more while freely moving around (and getting inside) the car. Whats disappointing about Autovista mode is that there are only a handful of specific cars that you can interact with in this manner and its not going to have any standard cars for you to play around with. I have to admit though, the unlockable warthog from Halo kind of won me over (even though its not drivable in game). The one and only Jeremy Clarkson will voice and overview for these specific cars and its an interesting inclusion, but after viewing them once youll never go back to Autovista mode as theres no reason.
Forza 3s Season play has been replaced with a much improved World Tour Mode and will have you racing infamous tracks from all over the world. Complete a set amount of specific races and you finish that season and move onto the next. As you get further in the seasons, races and the number to complete the season becomes larger and more daunting. Once you get to around half way through the career, difficulty hits a spike almost suddenly and enemy AI will have no qualms using you to take a corner quicker. As you play your career, youll be presented multiple choices of events to compete in based on what car youre currently driving (or possess). Upgrading your cars will also impact what events you are offered to race though youre able to pick specific events in a checklist form if you wish. Normally career modes in racing games can be very boring and mundane as you need to race specific cars at specific times, but the way that Forza 4 has laid out its career mode means you can race that Delorian for the majority of your career should you choose to.
Forza has also been known for having a very accessible approach for any type of player. Being a racing simulator, its difficult to make a game so realistic but still have it approachable for the casual players as well. Turn 10 seems to have figured this out in a very natural way other than having an AI difficulty setting while keeping all types of players happy. No matter your skill level, you can choose what assists to have toggled on or off. My wife plays with every assist on (braking and steering are even available for those that lack driving prowess) and I drive with a nice balance of medium settings thats still challenging. The more assists you turn off, the more experience and money youll earn at the end of the race. If you really run into trouble and incorrectly judge your speed into a turn, the rewind function from Forza 3 returns for those in need. Rewinding mistakes soon became my friend when I got a little too cocky taking a turn faster than I should have (and I earn less by using it, which Im fine with). The only issue with the rewind is that it seems the marks to restart at are set points rather than however long you want. Sometimes youll need to rewind twice to get back to the spot pre-screw up.
As I mentioned above, because theres no AI difficulty setting, they will adapt to your skill and aggressiveness. The more you bump your opponents, the less theyll try and avoid you as well. This means that the career has its own preset difficulty, though you are able to make it easier with the assists toggled on should you choose. Youll notice quickly that every race seems to take place in perfect weather. Thats because theres no other weather options unfortunately. No racing in rain, snow, or even fog for added challenge; definitely a letdown.
Other than your standard circuit racing youll also have access to other types of events. Multi-class races are highly entertaining and stressful. It takes place on a course with two or more separate car classes racing at the same time. You might have Fs racing with As and you need to compete with your own class rating while also avoiding the slower or faster class(es) to keep your own ranks lead. 1 vs 1 races usually take place on a point to point track and is littered with regular traffic (though no oncoming cars). You need to maneuver with agility which is easier said than done when slow moving traffic is in your ideal racing line. There is even bowling pin events that have you trying to knock down as many as possible to try and reach the set score.
Sixteen players can compete simultaneously online and is very entertaining (and hectic) to witness that first corner where everyone usually crashes into one another. Unfortunately the lobbies are still bland and dont give you all that much info about other racers in the room. You can create or join a Car Club (like a guild) and can even share your cars for others to use.
Rivals Mode is a new way to enjoy multiplayer and will have many hours of gaming within if youre competitive. You compete against other players ghost cars trying to beat them in almost any type of event you desire. The much praised Autolog from the Need for Speed series obviously isnt here, but youll get similar style of notices if someone beats your time (and they will if you beat theirs) though its not done as smoothly or intuitively as Autolog showed us.
Youll notice on the box that it says Better with Kinect. Kinect has a few uses for Forza 4, two of which I really enjoy and two that could do without. Youre able to use Autovista mode with Kinect and move around the car with just a wave of your hand, but it feels very unnecessary. You can play a quick race with your arms held out as if you were holding a steering wheel and drive in that manner. While this works quite well surprisingly, this means that the game automatically will control the gas and brake pedals though, meaning youre only steering and thats it. These are the two that I feel the game could do without, though its not forced so it doesnt hinder gameplay in any way.
What I do like is the inclusion of voice commands that can be used as a quick shortcut to where you want to go in the (convoluted) menus. While its a cool inclusion and I use it often, its a shame that it cant be used for everything as you only have a small set of commands that can be used. You cant simply say paint car red or anything like that as that would have been very interesting. The most interesting Kinect feature though is easily the head tracking mode if you use the cockpit view. When this is enabled, a slight turn of your head to either side will move the camera in that direction so that you can see out your side windows and into your mirrors. Its a small Kinect inclusion like this that adds just that extra small bit of realism.
Each car sounds authentic and very distinct. A V8 muscle car sounds completely different than a Lamborghini revving its own engine. The voice over work is done wonderfully and the only negative thing I have to say about the sound overall is the music. The music selection is very weak and just has generic music rather than licensed music tracks, so I just ended up streaming my own soundtrack for each race.
Forza 4 builds upon what made 3 so great. Cars have more detail, tracks have more wear and tear, and sun glare is a real thing just like in real life that will leave you temporarily blinded if youre racing into the sunlight head on. Youre still able to put plenty of hours into Forza 4 without ever racing. Painting and tuning cars can become an art that takes many hours to master and you can even spend a full day just buying and selling on the in-game Auction House (and yes, unicorn cars have returned).
Youre always being rewarded with xp when completing races regardless of single or multiplayer. Youre constantly working towards your driver and affinity levels and Ive noticed how much working towards a specific affinity determines what car Ill chose for a race. The only major gripe I have with the game is that the menus are very convoluted and it takes time to learn where everything is hidden within. Since the underlying game is so fantastically executed, I can give the menu issues a pass since youre only passing through them to get to the next race most of the time anyways. Ok, I have two gripes. Youre able to spend Microsoft Points in exchange for Cark Tokens to purchase cars in game. It seems like a cash grab more than a feature, but because it doesnt hinder gameplay nor or are forced to have Car Tokens to buy specific cars, I cant hinder the final score because of it.
The way World Tour is laid out is done wonderfully and I hope other racing games learn from this structure and pacing. Theres no reason I shouldnt be able to use my Delorian in every race, which is why I have multiples, one for each car class. Forza 4 may only have incremental updated features from Forza 3 but its still an amazing time to be had and the best simulation racing game to date. It still has that awesome new car smell.
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
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X-Men Destiny
On paper, X-Men Destiny sounds like a fantastic idea for a comic book based game. Take a brand new mutant in the universe with powers you decide to pick and choose from all the other mutants then decide whose side of the fight youll be on: X-Men or the Brotherhood. Unfortunately it feels as if the game was rushed and not polished at all and we have a generic comic book based game that falls flat and grows tiresome very quickly from its generic and shallow combat.
I want it to be known that Silicon Knights is one of my favorite developers. Ive loved every game theyve done so far, from Eternal Darkness to Too Human. Yes, Im one of the few that loved that game and I dont know why they got such a bad rap for it, but thats a whole different issue. Im not much into the comic scene though I absolutely loved the X-Men cartoon from the 90s and once I found out Silicon Knights was doing this game I was instantly intrigued to see what they were going to do since Too Humans offering.
First and foremost what you need to know is that you wont be playing any of your favorite mutants from X-Men in any way; youll be playing a brand new character that suddenly comes upon having new powers. If you want to play Wolverine, Cyclops, Iceman and others, youre better off getting either the X-Men Legends or Ultimate Alliance games instead. Destiny is going to feel more like a generic comic book game rather than anything exceptional that sets it apart from anything else.
As you play through the game youll find random X-Genes around that give you specific powers for your new character. As you pick up these enhancements youll be granted an offensive, defensive or utility power that came from and resembles powers that your favorite mutants possess. As you gain more powers youre able to mix and match what powers you want equipped at a time for a unique play experience to your liking.
The games plot starts at a peace rally that is being held in the memory of ex X-Men leader Professor X who was recently killed by Bastion whom youll recognize if you now your X-Men lore. Just as quickly as the rally begins it is interrupted by destruction that looks like its from Magnetos hands himself, yet hes nowhere to be seen. With mutant and human relations being tense already, this sets events in motion that start absolute chaos in San Franciscos streets and youre just an unlucky individual at the rally when this all goes down. Lines are about to be drawn and youre going to have to eventually decide if youre backing the X-Men or the Brotherhood. Just as things are looking bad for you, suddenly you appear to have mutant powers (which you get to choose) as well.
Your first order of business is deciding which of the three new mutants you want to play as. Aimi Yoshida is a Japanese teenage girl whose parents sent her away from home on a tanker ship. She doesnt know why and has resentment towards her parents because of this choice. Grant Alexander is your generic jock type trying to become a football player that has no interest in the whole mutant vs. human conflict thats going on. Lastly is Adrian Luca who is the son of an extremist against mutants who was killed. Adrian grew up hating mutants and seeking revenge for his fathers death. Aside from some minor back story to each character, it really doesnt matter who you pick as they can all equip the same powers once obtained.
Throughout your journey to find out the truth youll cross paths with many recognizable mutants such as Iceman, Gambit, Magneto, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Cyclops, Pyro and more. Sometimes youll fight alongside these characters and others you might be fighting them depending on your choices. From here youre going to go on a short five hour journey of button mashing with a story that isnt all that interesting since youre not really invested into your new character unlike the other mutants weve known many years. As you smash, hack and slash your way through, youll probably lose interest about halfway through, which isnt a good sign when the game is so short. I really finished the game out of curiosity and obligation rather than enjoyment.
After you make your choice of who to play as you need to pick your main core power for your mutant (which cannot be changed unless you start a new game). Your three choices are Density Control, Energy Protection and Shadow Matter. Density Control is made for your brawler types that make you tougher and hit harder, Energy Protection is your ranged attacks that may not be as powerful but makes up for it in speed. Lastly is Shadow Matter that allows you to hit multiple opponents with extremely fast attacks. I chose Energy Matter and once you get a few upgrades I had no problem being in the thick of battle with some of my extremely powerful attacks taking out groups of enemies at once.
This is a straight up brawler game. Youll fight ten to fifty guys and once clear you can then move to the next checkpoint where youll fight ten to fifty guys again. As you repeat this over the course of your five hours of gameplay youll also be searching for collectibles and X-Genes which will grant you new powers. Once you unlock a combo or two that find work well for you youll essentially be repeating the same combo over and over making for a very shallow combat system even though youre supposed to have many different abilities at your disposal. Eventually your attacks will become so powerful that youll no longer need to dodge or block, which can be fun but theres only two types of enemies that need any sort of strategy to destroy (I hate you mechs with turrets!). As you complete large combos or have a specific numbers of enemies remaining youll see these giant words appear on the battlefield saying Great Combo! or 1 Enemy Remaining! .They can become distracting but in a neat comic book fashion, youre able to destroy these words and see them smash as you beat up enemies through them.
As you meet up with some of the more famous mutants, youll be given different dialogue options in your conversation with them. You can talk to them about certain subjects to find out more backstory but skipping these options wont really lose you any background info youll need. Sometimes when theres only one choice of response, youre still asked to pick it as a dialogue option. Why wasnt it just part of the cutscene of you two talking rather than pretending you had an option of something different to say? Oh, and you better hope you dont accidently pick the same dialogue choice a second time because all dialogue and cutscenes are unskippable. Sometimes in your conversations youll have to make moral choices that are supposed to be a big factor in X-Men Destinys gameplay. Sometimes youll need to decide if youre standing behind the X-Men or Magnetos Brotherhood. Moral choices are supposed to have a heavy weight or bearing attached to them to make them feel like youre actually deciding between good and evil. Your choices really have no weight attached and has no repercussions other than which factions quest you want to side on. This mechanic could have had such a great possibility, what if you had to choose to side with Magneto or else hed kill a bunch of his prisoners in front of you. Sadly nothing this deep is offered so dont worry about siding with one side or the other; it really doesnt matter.
As I mentioned before, as you play youll need to find X-Genes hidden around the world as you progress to gain new abilities, powers and combos. Rewards are completely random so when you reload a checkpoint for a second time, you will find a completely different ability than your first time. While it seems like a good idea, it makes it near impossible to find a full matching set of offensive, defensive, utility and costume. The reason you want a matching set of the same mutants powers is because when you match all four slots of the same person you have the ability to use a very powerful ability of theirs called an X-Mode attack inspired by that mutants powers. During my one and a half playthroughs I was only able to find one persons complete matching set; disappointing indeed. This means theres no way to find all your missing powers consistently and trying to finish a set can be frustrating as its completely random. As a redeeming quality, the option to mix and match specific abilities does become quite powerful once you decide how youre going to play, but it does take a lot of trial and error to find out what works for you.
Its very confusing to figure out how you spend your xp gained from battle to put into your skills and abilities. Once you figure it out it still doesnt make sense and is more convoluted than it needs to be. If you have a maxed out X-Gene then swap it out, youre stuck using the new one instead, so decide well before hand what abilities you want to level up. To make matters worse, many X-Genes essentially do the same thing but exact powers will have different wording. For example: an extra bar is added to your M-Power meter and an extra bar is added to THE M-Power meter. Subtle difference and they mean the same thing, but with an already confusing menu and inventory system, this doesnt help and seems sloppy and overlooked.
I understand that X-Men Destiny is comic based, but why must every boss tell you their master plan in great detail just before they think theyre going to kill you so that when you escape and defeat them you can fix all the wrong doing? Your character seems to have this problem as well and will tell anyone your plants regardless if youre aligned with X-Men or Brotherhood as if everyone is your friend.
Once I finished the game for the first time I was slightly disappointed there was no New Game+ mode once the main menu loaded. I decided to see if I went to continue my first game if it just saves it before the final boss and lo and behold, it starts the game over with my character and powers intact. While youre stuck with your main core choices it is entertaining to defeat challenges in mere seconds with your overpowered mutant and to see the secondary choices in the dialogue options. Even though the campaign is short, I simply didnt want to sit through the game a second time but at least the option is there for people who will try and suck a few more hours out of the game and achievement hunters.
X-Men Destiny lacks polish and lots of it. Some may consider these next items minor but the fact that they stood out made my experience tainted. Subtitles dont always match whats being spoken which is a big irk for me for some reason. Many cutscenes are clumsy and lack continuity; like when you give Gambit a package and he says lets see whats in the box then reacts to it instantly before even opening it or moving himself. I had a cutscene where a big package in the back of a truck slipped out half way and was clipping through the side of the truck as if nothing was wrong. If you have Icemans defensive ability equipped that gives you an ice armor coating, its instantly gone and missing once a cutscene loads. Facial expressions look completely dead and theres massive slowdown at specific sections where the frame rate just plummets.
As I said before, Im not the biggest X-Men fan but I know the basics and some of these are just wrong. Gambit doesnt sound the least bit Cajun or even resemble anything like the Gambit from the 90s cartoon. Also, why can you get Juggernauts X-Gene powers? Technically hes not a mutant. But alas, maybe Im reading too much into it, but when a casual fan notices this stuff I can only imagine what the real hardcore fans are going to think to these decisions.
Being that there are three characters to choose from it seems like the game is meant for a co-op experience but its only a single player affair and has no multiplayer of any kind. X-Men Destiny isnt inherently bad; its just unfinished and unpolished with a few poor design choices that make for a shallow experience. As I said, on paper all these ideas seem great, they just dont come together well in this full prices package. Even if youre a huge X-Men fan, its a rental at best and youll probably finish it in one sitting like I did.
Overall Score: 3.7 / 10
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Dark Souls
Remember throwing and almost breaking your controller as a kid due to losing or dying? It seems for me that Dark Souls has brought many of those old feelings to the surface as there was a few times I felt like launching my controller off the balcony. For those not in the know, Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to Demons Souls which was an exclusive to PS3 until recently. Demons Souls was known for its brutal difficulty and was a truly humbling experience. I thought I was above average on my playing skills of most games, and then along came Demons Souls. I never saw it through to the end, and to be honest, I actually wasnt able to complete the first level after many hours of trying. I gave up out of frustration as no matter what I tried, it just wasnt working for me. I heard the sequel was coming and I was excited to give it another chance and start fresh with a new perspective, knowing what Im going to get myself into since Ill now be able to play it on my 360.
From Software brings us Dark Souls and many of the games mood and charm have also returned. Weve become accustomed to games holding our hands, telling us where to go, and pacing games in a specific way so that players can (hopefully) enjoy themselves and maybe even complete the game. Dark Souls will not hold your hand in any way; actually, its more likely to make you cry than help you. Prepare to die many times (even their website is preparetodie.com).
Dark Souls is centered on Risk vs. Reward. Youll fail many times and become extremely frustrated but the feeling of accomplishment once you finally kill that specific enemy or boss is very rewarding. Casual players will struggle with the difficulty curve and wont make much progress where returning players will thrive on the challenging difficulty. You simply cant grind your way to victory in Dark Souls; every battle requires knowledge of your enemy and abilities. Trial and error (mostly error) is the only way youre going to learn how to progress and gain the knowledge needed.
Dark Souls has a very thin veil masquerading as a story. Truly, theres no real story and no side quests. Its about you, your isolation against impossible odds. You arent told where youre going or why other than ringing a bell after defeating some of the bigger guardians. Essentially youre going to see how many times you can throw yourself against the same enemies and if youre capable of learning from your mistakes.
Just like Demons Souls, Dark Souls starts off which seems borderline impossible. I apparently didnt go the correct path from the very start and got myself killed by the first skeleton enemies a dozen times before trying to go elsewhere. This is because the world layout of Dark Souls is radically different than its predecessor. Rather than having a central hub where you pick which level to go to, Dark Souls is now comprised of one massive world that is seamless separated by regions. Every area you see once you make it to the top of a tower is all completely accessible eventually. Eventually youll unlock shortcuts between regions as you progress and youll need them quite often when trying to fight your way back to where you died. As you progress, beat bosses, and unlock doors and gates, new pathways will open up for you to explore. Keep in mind that just because a new area opened up, its not always the correct path and youll be met with a vastly overpowered enemy blocking your path. You are not told where you need to go, why, and what to do next. This can be terrifying, leaving you to your own choices in every aspect and will sometimes (lets be honest: most times) lead you to somewhere you shouldnt even think about being at yet and will more times than not send you back to your last bonfire (more on this later).
I was curious how the controls would transition to an Xbox 360 controller, luckily it feels natural and I have no real qualms with this aspect. Your bumpers are whats going to get the most use. Left Bumper is held to block (which youll be doing 99% of the time) and Right Bumper is your quick/light attack. Left Trigger is to parry (though your timing has to be absolutely perfect and if you mistime the press, youll most likely end up dead) and Right Trigger is your heavy attack. I do wish I could swap the bumpers with the triggers in the options, but Dark Souls doesnt care what you want, youll play it their way (and to be honest it felt just fine after the tenth death or so).
The menus and equipment screens will be confusing and does nothing to help you understand it better. Its very cumbersome and you better hope you completely back out of the menus because youre unable to block or attack with them up. Did I mention there is no pausing in the world of Dark Souls? Yup, youll want to be in a safe area clear of enemies before loading up your inventory screen or youll pay the price and learn quickly that there is no pause.
Any enemy can kill you quite easily if you arent playing properly and dont study their attack patterns. Even the first skeleton in the game can destroy you if you dont learn and adapt quickly (which I found out, many times). In an attempt to balance out some of the difficulty, there is now a checkpoint system built into Dark Souls that was lacking from the first game. These checkpoints are called bonfires and are scarcely spread out among different regions. Resting at a bonfire allows you to level up with any souls youve acquired from defeating enemies, fully restores your health and stamina, and even refills your Estus Flasks (health pots). Now, it would be too easy if you could rest at a bonfire at any time to refill your health and continue on. So to balance this, you better hope you really need to recover and refill because every bonfire you rest at, every enemy will respawn (aside from bosses). Its a balance of recovery vs. fighting through the horde of enemies again to hopefully find a new bonfire further ahead. Later in the game itll actually become part of your strategy to use them or not.
So what happens when you die exactly? For starters, any souls youve acquired (souls are used in currency for items and leveling up) remain where you died. To get them back you need to recovery your soul where you previously perished, but without dying again. Die again and youre out that original amount of souls on your first corpse. When you die you leave a bloodstain on the ground where you died and you may even notice bloodstains that arent yours along your path. These are from other players that have recently died nearby and clicking on it will show you a ghost of how they died, hopefully letting you learn about how to avoid an upcoming death yourself. Sometimes youll want to spend your souls right away to level up while other times you might want to hang onto them and move forward. It becomes a very delicate balancing act just like deciding to use bonfires or not.
The feeling of isolation wars on you throughout your journey, but now and then youll see a ghost of someone nearby which is actually another player in their own parallel world. While you cant interact with them, it almost brings a feeling of closeness, knowing someone else is going through what you are right at this moment as well. That is until you come across your next enemy of course. Another way to branch out and go outside of your own world is the ability to leave messages on the ground for other players to see. This means you can leave a helpful message like watch out! or advice on the upcoming situation or be devious and leave a hint that gives false information. I actually enjoyed coming across these messages as they gave me helpful tips for the most part on whats about to transpire.
Like the first game, Dark Souls does have a multiplayer component, but its not anything in the traditional sense at all. Other players are able to invade your game and try to kill you or help you and you can also do the same. Figuring out how to do so like everything else is left up to you (even the instruction book is useless) and youll quickly realize that the game isnt really played co-operatively even when you do have someone in your game world for very long. Theres no way to directly invite a friend into your game to help you out on a tough section and even though the box says multiplayer, undergo this adventure knowing youll be alone for it.
The only major gripe and disappointment I have with Dark Souls is that nothing is explained to you and you will literally have to figure out what everything is and does on your own. I understand not holding the players hand for the sake of difficulty but giving zero information about key game elements is a flaw in my opinion. Some will argue that this creates a more knitted community, but what if I dont know to go look up the wiki for the game? A perfect example of this is the Kindle option when at a bonfire. Until I tested it and tried it, I had no idea what it did. Maybe to some this is part of the charm of Dark Souls, having to figure things out on your own, which I understand. Aside from that major issue there was really only minor issues to point out such as frame rate problems in specific areas (the dragons breath the first time you see it going across the bridge for example), underwhelming voice acting (for how little spoken dialogue there is I would have expected a stellar outing), and a clumsy targeting system that will get you killed a few times because youre locked onto the wrong enemy.
You will die, a lot and in almost every way possible. Death is knowledge in Dark Souls and you learn from your mistakes and how to achieve simply surviving. Dark Souls caters to a specific audience and does so wonderfully. Players picking it up for the first time may be shocked with the games brutal difficulty and how youre left on your own without a map or what to do next. Frustration will turn into rage and at times I needed to take a lengthy break from it to prevent controller damage that was self-inflicted.
If you enjoy games to relieve stress, this isnt the game for you. If you love feeling accomplished for completing something innately difficult, then youll feel right at home. The high difficulty shouldnt be looked at as a fault as its a very humbling experience, but rather what Dark Souls does right in its own existence; if the game was simple it wouldnt be anywhere near the same game. Dark Souls doesnt care if youre having fun or not and it will punish you mercilessly, but thats where the fun begins.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
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The Sims 3: Pets
Its hard to believe that The Sims has been around for over a decade already. I remember trying it for the first time, wondering what to do before realizing that the game had no primary objective. Instead, you were to simulate a real life with all the mundane tasks you need to do, but virtually. I never understood why I enjoyed cooking, cleaning, eating, going to work in the game when doing it in real life is one of the least things Id want to do. I was never that great at the game and I was the type that would delete the toilet and bed to see what happens to my Sim rather than properly playing.
The Sims 3 Pets is upon us and the big addition that you have probably already guessed is the inclusion of pets. Now, pets have been in the Sims games before, but for the first time in the franchise, you can take complete control over them and are fully playable just like any human Sim. Sims 3 Pets is a completely stand-alone game and not an expansion like the PC counterpart. So even though you just bought Sims 3 for Xbox 360 last year, youll have to buy this one at full price as well.
At first I was skeptical at how much fun controlling a cat or dog would actually be in comparison to directing a human Sim, but alas, not having to worry about many of the mundane tasks that humans have to deal with was much more my style. That and I enjoyed peeing on the carpet to see my master get flustered. Your Sims pet has complete controls similar to their masters and you can even get jobs and be social with other people and animals as well. With support for Kinect as well, actions are easier than they were in The Sims 3 for consoles.
Well, its a Sims game, so theres no real story or campaign to really delve into, but thats ok, thats what makes a Sims game what it is. Instead of a clear path of progression there are objectives and quests to fulfill should you desire. Just like previous games, what you do is completely up to you and you can strive to be an inventor or stay at home every day and be a socialite. In lieu of a plot line there is a new feature called Mystery Journals. These are five different situations that require some dedication and time to figure out the multiple steps, oh, and youll also need your furry friend to help along the way as well. Solve these mysteries for some rewards if you want a little more guidance in your playthrough or ignore them completely and play however you wish.
Youll start Sims 3 Pets just like every other Sims game; start by creating your Sims. The creation tool for creating your Sims is very robust and it actually took the wife about an hour to get her Sim and pet exactly like herself and her old cat. Choose their appearance, clothes, voices (still Sims gibberish obviously), traits, lifetime goals, and more.
As weve all played a Sims game before, Ill focus more on the pet aspect of everything as its really what the focal point of this game is based around. Just like your human Sims, your pets will now be on equal footing in almost every way now that they can be controlled directly. When you create your Sims family at the beginning, you need to create one human (someone needs to provide and feed them after all) and then you can create up to 4 pets for a larger family should you choose. These pets will have personalities and traits just like a normal Sim would and can be very important choices when creating your pets.
There are more than one hundred default breeds available to recreate your real cat or dog or go wild and try making something completely off the wall. Just like humans, you can choose your cat or dog to start as a kitten or puppy, young adult, or adults. The babies are obviously the cutest choice but they are unable to get jobs until they grow into a young adult. Its hard work being that cute you know.
While there were large selections of breeds, there was one or two I was hoping for that werent there. Luckily the create-a-sim is very diverse and you can tweak any breed to look almost like any other kind if you have the patience. You can get creative as you want with the fur, nose, body, and ear length and even more. Youre not limited to just natural choices either, as I fully expect some people to make and share their green and orange spotted obese cats with the community. Youre able to completely customize your pets to the point of making an exact replica of your beloved companion at home. You can change fur patterns, spots, noses, and almost any other option you could think of (though tail length was only long or short). I suspect most people will recreate their childhood pets just like I did (I miss you Tigger!). Pick up the Limited Edition and you gain access to some exciting pet variants such as a Panda Dog, Skunk Cat, and even a Mabari War Hound (from Dragon Age) among a dozen others.
After your four legged friend looks exactly how you remember them you then get to assign three traits that make up their personality and mood, just like your human Sims. Are they destructive, friendly, lazy, playful, vocal or even adventurous? Theres many more that you get to mix and match to make a unique personality for your cat or dog. These traits determine if youll have a wonderful lap cat or a destructive dog that loves to destroy things. The hyper trait is hilarious by the way, though its nothing a laser pointer cant fix.
Your companions can also have careers of their own now. Dogs can be Police dogs (obviously) and cats can be ghost hunters that collect ghosts by shooting beams out of their eyes! Either pet can also serve as therapy pets should they want something a little more relaxing. Your pets can also help your social life also. Send off your pet to fetch-a-date and you never know what type of single theyll introduce you to.
You can play Sims 3 Pets just like any other Sims game and completely ignore your pets should you choose, or vice versa and only play as your animal and let the human do their own thing. As youre playing your Sim, prompts will appear allowing you to choose to accept or decline desires that your specific Sim wants at that time. They might want to call someone over, play with a friend, be pet or fed, and more. Every time you complete one of these wishes, youll earn Karma points. Karma Powers return but have a few new tricks. In essence, Karma Powers is a powerful and quick way to instantly help or harm your Sims. Some powers will help you immensely by winning the lottery or getting a promotion at work while others will make every Sim in the area fight with each other or give bad luck in everything you do.
The exchange returns where you can swap your Sims creations and even give your pet to a friend. Screenshots can be taken at any time and shared as well and a great moment for this is taking your pet outside to play with other pets and seeing them interact and play with each other.
If you have Kinect, you now also have the option to use verbal shortcuts for many actions. Turns out the voice commands are actually faster than using the controller and is simple to setup a chain of commands for a Sim. This is great for sending a command to a Sim that you arent sure where theyre at. It may be a small feature but the idea behind it works well and it does its job by saving you small amounts of time. Im actually glad they didnt try and implement a clunky hand gesture based system and kept it simple.
I did run into a few issues while playing though. When I would fast forward time at the fastest speed, my Sims would sometimes be put into a zombie-state where they wouldnt move or perform their told action until I changed the time back to normal speed. Once they started their animations, then it was fine, but I did waste a lot of time waiting for them to start their actions until I figured it out. The same went for the sound and music; sometimes I lost sound all together but eventually it came back. Im assuming its because I had an early build to play and I doubt anything that major would be in the final version.
The other issue I had throughout was dealing with the controls. Even after a few hours of playing, Id still be hitting the wrong buttons now and then. It took my wife even longer to do the smallest tasks because of these controls. Its a good stepping stone for people that havent played the PC versions yet and its a decent substitute.
Playing as the pets I found was much more enjoyable as its not been done in a Sims game before. The pets can have a life of their own and is actually an active member of your Sims family. Being able to breed with other pets also makes for some very interesting cross breeding if you decided to make that green and orange spotted obese cat.
This game would have been more entertaining if it supported split screen as my wife wanted to play the cat as I was controlling the human. Lets hope for next time since split screen has been done in a Sims game before.
I still dont get how making breakfast or taking a bath can take up half the day, but the real fun in Sims 3 Pets comes from recreating all your past and current pets over the years. Its still the same formula thats worked all these years for the franchise, surprisingly though; I enjoyed playing as my cat much more than dealing with all the humans daily tasks. Having to play, catch bugs, and sleep all day is tiring work!
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
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Gunstringer, The
When I think of a gaming studio that knows how to do humor in games in an entertaining fashion, Twisted Pixel actually comes to the top of my list because of their previous hits like Splosion Man, Comic Jumper and The Maw (all of which were fantastic). Im not really sure who else would be able to come up with a game idea about a blue skeleton marionette puppet, partial live action setting western based shooter and complete with Kinect controls. Twisted Pixel is a creative bunch of people that truly knows how to convey humor in a creative and original fashion and they know release their very first disc based game after being a success on Xbox Live Arcade for a number of years.
For those early Kinect adopters wanting something to play other than Dance Central or Kinect Sports, your new Kinect enabled title is finally here thats worthy of being in your game collection. Before I delve into the story and backdrop for the game I need to point out what happens the moment you start playing. Youll instantly see a live action video start playing that shows people gathering into a theater for a play of some sorts thats about to start. As you go behind the curtain you see people scattering, trying to get everything ready as the show is about to begin. The Gunstringer puppet is buried in dirt and as the lights go down and the curtain opens, the game finally begins.
As the game begins, you realize youre in control of this puppet and youre the one putting on the show for the whole audience (of Twisted Pixel employees no doubt). Youll be guiding the hero over the course of five decently length chapters in a story about revenge. Before I delve into the controls as well, youll feel right at home if youve played Child of Eden for Kinect as its very similar in idea. Twisted Pixel brings us an on rails (or should I say on strings?) shooter that emits charisma, charm and hilarity. I would expect nothing less from this fantastic studio.
The story isnt anything mind blowing as its simply a tale of revenge set in the Old West. The Gunstringer was buried and left for dead by his old posse. As he arises from his grave hes no longer human but a blue skeleton instead. Luckily he was buried with his hat and pistols as thats all he needs to begin his journey of revenge. As he tracks down his former fellow compadres and eliminates them, hell get closer and closer to extracting his vengeance. Youll travel from the dusty old western towns to the mountains, the swaps and even a world full of undead. He wont let anyone or anything stand in his way, even if that means cows that block his path.
While The Gunstringer may not be as elegant as the other Kinect on-rails shooter Child of Eden, it definitely has more presentation value. Because you know the whole game you play is being watched by an audience it brings almost another dimension to your gameplay. Youll have a narrator constantly describing your exploits as you play ala Bastion and youll hear cheering and booing from the audience to always make it feel like its a true theatrical experience.
Being that The Gunstringer is a Kinect only game, lets talk about the all-important motion controls. Could this game have been done on a controller instead? Sure. Would it have been as entertaining and fitting? Probably not. Being that Gunstringer is a marionette puppet, it makes complete sense to have hand based gesture controls as youll be controlling him as if you are the arm above the strings.
You are the puppet master. With your left hand you control basic movement. Moving your hand left or right will make him strafe and pulling up on the invisible strings will make him jump. Your right hand for the majority of the game will be your single pistol (these controls can be inverted for you odd lefties out there!) and is your cursor based on where your hand moves. You remember buying those cap refills for you cap-gun as a kid that had six or so shots on one of the plastic rings? Yea, thats your cursor! Completely fitting if you ask me. Just like in Child of Eden, as you hover your right hand over an enemy it will lock onto them and youre able to lock onto a total of six enemies at once for maximum carnage. How do you shoot you ask? Well once you have a single to six lock-ons, all you need to do is flick back your wrist as if you just pretended you shot a gun when you were a kid (bring your wrist to your shoulder). No you dont have to hold your right hand like its a gun, but I guarantee you will catch yourself doing it at some point without even thinking. You may even be shouting bang bang or pew pew if youre so inclined.
At first its a little confusing to control the movement and shooting at once and I guarantee youll hit a few obstacles from not jumping as youre more focused on aiming and shooting, but you eventually become accustomed any by act two youll be a great Gunstringer in no time. The movements will take some getting used to as youll most likely be over compensating to avoid obsticles, but again, youll get used to the nuances fairly quickly.
At time youll be forced to take over and you need to peek out to take your locked-on shots. You do this by moving your left hand to the left or right then doing the shooting motion with your right like normal. Again, at first this becomes a little confusing as to learn how much you need to move your hand to pop out of cover, but youll learn it quickly as well.
At times the Gunstringer will go on a shooting rampage and bring out his second pistol for more carnage. Each hand controls a gun and you simply move both hands where you want to shoot as he will be shooting constantly automatically. There are even a few sections where youll pick up a special weapon like a flame thrower, shotgun or sword that does extra damage just to change the pace a little bit. Youll even get used to fighting with your fists as some enemies youll have to punch your way through (these are usually in the side scrolling platforming sections). Theres a variety of ways that the Gunstringer extracts his revenge!
Each chapter concludes with you finally catching up to one of your former posse members and you are there to get your revenge on them for turning on you. Each boss section is the same style as each other but completely different than the rest of the game. Its played in a view as if youre in a seat in the theater watching this happen at a puppet show. Youll need to avoid specific attacks and once the opportunity arises, youre able to use your gun and shoot away. Youll see silhouettes of audience members cheering you on though none of the bosses should pose too much of a threat for your skills.
Surprisingly, youre supposed to also be able to play the game completely sitting on your couch should you desire to or become lazy. While it is supposed to be an option, it didnt work with even close to the same amount of precision and it quite often lost track of a hand or would register movements properly. Maybe Im leaning too far and its thinking my legs are part of my arms? I dont know, but its a shame it didnt really work all that well.
For the player that loves unlocking screenshots, movies, behind the scenes stuff, music and more, there is a ton of replayability here for you. Youll need to play multiple times to get enough money to unlock the entire bonus content. Speaking on bonus content, on day one there was even a free DLC add-on that was completely twisted and fitting of this game. Download the 2Gb DLC and youll be privy to playing a forty minute full length FMV that clearly took inspiration from Mad Dog McCree. Its called The Wavy Tube Man Chronicles and has some of the worst (purposely) acting you might ever seeever. Its entertaining and if you liked the humor from the game itself, youll enjoy this dumb-yet-entertaining addition. Hey, at least the price is right.
I really dont have much bad to say about The Gunstringer aside from its short length. I finished it in one sittingerstanding in about four hours start to finish. While it is short, it is very good and does have replayability, especially if you want to purchase unlockables. If thats not enough to convince you, new copies even come with a free download of Fruit Ninja Kinect as well.
I really enjoyed my (short) time with The Gunstringer and couldnt stop laughing once I saw the Duck Hunt mockery. I laughed even harder once I saw what a Gatorjack was and how it came to be. Want to know what Im talking about? Go pick up the game if you have a Kinect. Is it worth buying one for if you dont? I dont believe so, but thats what youd also pick up Dance Central and Kinect Sports (and Child of Eden) for. Its a short ride but its an entertaining one that a Kinect owner should experience.
Overall Score: 8.4 / 10
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SkyDrift
What do you get when you put Crimson Skies, Blur and a little Mario Kart in a blender? You get SkyDrift, the new power-up based racing game made by Digital Reality released on XBLA. While your focus is speed and completing the race in the best position possible, the motto goes if you can't overtake them, shoot them down!, so youll need to use all the power-ups and weaponry at your disposal should you want to win.
For a XBLA game its got a surprising amount of content included. More than 30 race events (including mirrored and separate events), 8 different planes with unlockable skins, 6 power-ups, multiple singleplayer modes, 8 players online and more. It looks great and the controls are simple enough to get used to quite quickly.
Your Left Stick moves your plane, Left Trigger is brake, Right Trigger is accelerate and Right Stick will turn your plane sideways which is called the Knife Edge position. This will help you turn tighter and make hairpin turns. One thing to remember though is that the controls dont change when your plane is sideways, so you still need to use Right on both sticks if you want to turn sharply to the right, not pulling back when the left stick like how most flying sims would have you do. X will use your power-up, Y will swap if you have two and you can even convert your power-up into some boost meter if you dont find the power-up useful enough to use at the time.
You gain boost by flying low to the ground (the flying version of Burnouts oncoming traffic lane), destroying enemies or doing stunts. There are six types of power-ups; some defensive while others to help you destroy your enemies. There are homing missiles (completely overpowered), mines, turrets, shockwaves, repairs and shield power-ups. Have two of the same power-up simultaneously though and it becomes a much more powerful version and can instantly change the course of the race. The only issue I found was that you have to be very precise when flying through the power-ups though to obtain them, there isnt much room for error.
Much like any racer, youll start out with your basic start panes and as you win competitions and progress youll gain access to the more exotic and unique planes and skins. Each plane has their own stats and some are better suited for specific situations or events. I found I did better when I played aggressive and more as a shooter than I did simply by racing, but this may be the exact opposite for yourself.
If youve tried the demo, it doesnt do the games level design justice. The later levels you unlock are so intensely fun to fly that youll enjoy having to Knife Edge to make it in between pillars and down into some hidden areas that contain power-ups. The lack of maps is made up by the level design. Surprisingly I had the most fun with the Speed Race mode where there are no power-ups and you gain a short boost as you finesse your way through the rings on the course. Survivor is also frantic that has the person in last place at set intervals knocked out of the race until only one plane survives.
While it is a flying racer, it had a very Hydro Thunder feel to the world which is fantastic. The engine ran smooth, no slowdown in races, textures looked great whizzing by and power-ups felt useful (especially being able to convert them into boost when needed). And yes, barrel rolls are included. Now go try it out! Its a simple yet fun arcade style racer that shouldnt be passed up if youve been yearning for something Mario Kart-esque or want to remember how fun Crimson Skies was in a way. At 1200 points it seems a little steep but if youre a fan of the power-up racers youll thoroughly enjoy it.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
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Rise of Nightmares
Ill admit, the last Sega Kinect enabled game I played, I was saddened by and curious at how the controls could be so broken. I actually forever shelved Sonic Free Riders for Kinect as soon as I was done the review and Ill never go back to it because of the shoddy Kinect controls. Needless to say, I wasnt holding my breath when I heard about Rise of Nightmares (RoN) as it was another Sega Kinect enabled title. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and popped in the disc with no bias or expectations, hoping that maybe theyve learned what did and didnt work in their last motion controlled outing. I guess I was hoping for too much.
Being touted as the first hardcore and mature rated title for Kinect, Ill admit I was intrigued as Ive always loved horror movies and games. What Ill tell you so you know what to expect is that you need to start the game expecting a B-Movie style of movie mixed with a House of the Dead setting. That being said, the team behind House of the Dead was actually responsible for this (Rise of) nightmare but dont expect to be scared in any way. Youll be swinging and flailing your warms wildly as you try and dismember zombies coming your way.
Ill give Sega some credit with the ideas they had in place when developing Rise of Nightmares. Most of the combat works fine and without problems. If you slice your arm either horizontally or vertically, itll react in the same manner in-game. If you want to open a door or flip a switch then do just as you would in real life. Most of these gestures work fine without flaw, which is until you try and walk in a straight line, but more on that later.
You are Josh, whos on vacation with his wife Kate taking a train to Romania. Kate is about to inform Josh about some news she has when he leans over and a flask of alcohol falls out of his jacket. Since hes promised to stop drinking, this infuriates Kate and she walks out of the carriage to get away from Josh and his alcoholism. Feeling bad about what happened and keeping it from Kate he chases after her who is further ahead in the train and this is where your journey begins.
Normally I dont like delving into too much of the story but it is so cliché that youve heard similar stories or watched a movie like it before. Josh is told by a fortune teller that something bad is going to happen very soon. Queue the train crash and Kates kidnapping from a mysterious figure. There were a handful of survivors from the train crash and eventually that wont matter since Josh will go off on his own to find his wife without anyones help for the most part. Josh eventually gets knocked unconscious and awakens to find himself strapped to a chair where youll meet your main antagonist, Viktor.
As you control all of Joshs movements, doing so with Kinect can beinteresting at times. To move the camera left or right to look in any direction, you simply need to rotate your shoulders in whatever way you want to look. No, you moved your shoulders too much now youre looking at the wall. No, you overcompensated and now youre looking where you just were. Yea, there you go, now just dont move or else youll start looking in another direction. You can change the sensitivity of the look controls but I couldnt find a happy medium that never felt precise. To actually move you simply put a foot in front of the other as if you are taking a real step. No, further out cause its no registering. No, not that far cause now youre past where you wanted to be. Now you need to turn around and walk forward to get back to where you were. The further you extend that foot the faster you walk. Yes, you can only walk; there is no running, even when you have a horde of zombies behind you. I hope youre patient because youll need to walk throughout the whole campaign. It takes a lot of getting used to moving your shoulders and adjusting your foot and even after a lengthy play; itll never feel right. Prepare to eat a lot of wall for no reason and dont even think about being able to side strafe, as there is no such option.
Frustration will set in very quickly due to the lack of precision in your movement. These movement controls are so broken that theres actually a built in auto walk feature by simply raiding your right hand above your head. Holding your arm up will move you in a line from point A to point B but youll miss any secrets or items as youll simply be on cruise control. There are many secret rooms and items to acquire but because of the manual movement controls, youll simply opt to forget about them to get to your next destination. There are times where you arent allowed to auto walk and are forced to use the horrible movement controls. Youll have to search for a switch or even avoid traps manually. Youre going to absolutely loathe these sections as youll die many times as I did in the same spots repeatedly because you didnt put your foot out far enough to walk fast past the floor traps.
On the other hand, combat is competent and interesting, at least for the first little while. As you pick up a weapon, to use it you do just as you would in real life. Swing a knife to slash in different directions, throw scalpel knives at enemies afar, and even hold a chainsaw with both hands and cut them up when theyre in front of you. Remember, you need to move your shoulders to properly face the zombies while doing this though. As you cut off limbs youll be entertained for the first little while but it does become very repetitive and really a shallow experience when you simply start flailing your arms to kill them faster.
Your weapons will break over time so once you find a weapon you like youll have to search around for another of any kinds since they break so often. Youll be mimicking many real life actions though as youre asked to open doors, flip switches, turn wheels, climb ladders and more. All of these actions are done just as how you would naturally do them in real life. Aside from a few actions that I was either doing wrong or didnt register, these are entertaining as you can open a door normally or kick forward to slam it open.
Most of the time youll come across a group of zombies in a bunch, youll also notice that theres very few types of enemies and youll even get a group of five zombies at once that are all the same model and pallet. Bosses arent much better as aside from one or two of the end guys, they are simply a regular enemy with some built in move that youll need to dodge by ducking or leaning, essentially a quick time event. As you get to the latter bosses youll need to combo your dodges before you can actually attack them. Youll feel the strain doing the same motions over and over and your biggest challenge isnt from the combat or enemies, its struggling with the controls instead.
I cant fault a game for having a bad story and trying to go for that B-Movie style, but at times it feels like its trying to be a serious attempt at being scary, which its not. The writing and voice acting are terrible and the f-word is used to often and in the wrong spots that its laughable. The pacing of the game on the other hand is almost like a roller coaster. You start off high fighting zombies and having a decent time, then you have to actually move somewhere and youre at the low point. Every so often a door will be locked and for some reason the switch you need to pull is always only a few feet away or around the corner. Dont expect to become lost as to where to go as all youll need to do it look across at the other wall for the switch to proceed.
If Rise of Nightmares didnt try and take itself seriously, maybe it would have been a little more bearable, but as soon as you get to your first floor trap you need to avoid with manual walking controls, youll see how frustrating it can be. The fact that there isnt one scare in the whole game as well doesnt help its case. Im a horror fan and dont scare easily, but my wife watched me play who cant watch those movies and didnt even flinch once.
Ill give Sega props for being ambitious with their ideas. In theory (and combat) it works to have a game in this style controlled with Kinect but instead it feels like a horrible experiment gone wrong. Rise of Nightmares suffers from the syndrome of great ideas but poor execution. The game may not be great but its definitely shown some of the potential Kinect has for certain types of games. Sadly, anything involving walking is not one of them. Three strikes and youre out; this is strike two for Kinect games Sega.
Overall Score: 3.3 / 10
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Driver: San Francisco
I cant count how many hours I played the original Driver for PS1. It had fantastic gameplay along with some of the most frustration Ive ever had playing a game. It had a relentless difficulty and most people didnt even get past the introductory tutorial in the infamous garage due to time constraints (they brought back this optional garage tutorial for San Fran as a fan service). Reflections Interactive (Now Ubisoft Reflections) made the original Driver and they return more than a decade later to bring us Driver San Francisco (DSF for short). Ive loved all the Driver games, even the ones that werent as great comparatively (Im look at you Parallel Lines) as they had great gameplay.
Ill admit, when I tried the demo for DSF I wasnt really wowed so when the full version arrived, I was quite curious to see if it was any better and could redeem itself from my first impressions. Luckily I gave it a fair shot as I really started to enjoy it after a good amount of time playing all the different types of modes and missions.
Tanner returns as the protagonist and DSF is a direct sequel to Driv3r, meaning Jericho is the villain once again. If you never beat Driv3r, the ending was left with a cliffhanger where you didnt know if Tanner or Jericho survived in a shootout. As DSF begins, it turns out both have survived and recovered and Tanner has followed Jericho to San Francisco where hes being held in prison. As Jericho is being transported in an armored vehicle, he manages to break loose from his handcuffs and ends up hijacking the vehicle. Tanner sees this all go down and pursues him, eventually ending up cornering Jericho. Jericho rams Tanners car into traffic causing both of them to be in a serious car crash. Because of the accident, Tanner is now in a coma and the majority of the game you play is whats happening in Tanners mind whilst in the coma.
Keep in mind, from here on youre almost always playing in the coma world, though youll see snippets of whats happening in real life here and there to tie everything together. Its confusing at first but is an interesting dynamic once it all starts making sense. Tanner discovers he has the ability to shift into any other persons body on the road taking them over but still himself on the inside. To any passengers in the car, they still see the original driver but Tanner is the one truly behind the wheel.
Tanner will shift to other people helping them win racers, help police catch bad guys and more. To progress the story you need to play six or so other specific missions before it will let you play the main story missions. Sometimes I wish I was able to just specifically the story missions to further along the plot. Why do I have to help cops, participate in street races and more before I can?
The biggest and most unique feature of DSF is obviously the innovative Shift mechanic. On paper, I thought it was completely ridiculous and has no place in a driving game; in practice however it really makes the game what it is and it now stands out among the competition. It shouldnt work but it does and Reflections has impressed me once again. Using shift to cover vast distances quickly or to use other cars to stop pursuers takes time to get used to but really does work effortlessly. Your Shift ability has many uses and facets. If youre in a race and need to slow down people right behind you, simply shift to an oncoming vehicle ahead of you and ram them head on before shifting back to your racing vehicle. After about an hour I become quite comfortable Shifting with ease and once you understand how you can use the mechanic to your advantage many possibilities will open for you during missions.
To get to Jericho youre going to have to do many errands scattered throughout the whole city before youre able to progress. Exotic speed runs, dirt drift races, distance jumping and more. As you progress youll unlock more of the city, more cars for purchase, new races and more. With the money you earn you can spend it on garages which is where you can buy more vehicles, missions and ability upgrades.
The most important part about a driving game is obviously the driving itself. While it feels Driver-ish, almost all the cars aside from the super exotics handle very heavy and its near impossible to take sharp turns at high speeds without hitting a building or everything in your way. Youll eventually get used to it but you really need to slow down to take corners properly if you dont want to hit anything. There are essentially two types of cars to pick: speed and heavy. Speed cars are obviously the ones youll want to use when getting away from pursuers, chasing bad guys or racing where the heavies are to be used when you need to ram into other cars or need to clear a path down a populated roadway.
There are more side missions included than youll most likely ever play which keeps the longevity of the game pretty high. To get some of them youll need to have beaten a set number or specific dares or challenges if you want to unlock specific upgrades or cars.
And yes, the infamous director mode returns in DSF to make your 70s chase scene inspired movies to record and share easily. You can record your best stunts and exciting getaways and share them with all yours friends fairly painlessly.
True online multiplayer makes its way to Driver with many modes to choose from depending on what aspects you enjoy. Simple racing, shift allowable racing, Tag modes and more are unlockable as you level up and earn xp. There are some really fun modes like Tag or Capture the Flag which allows players to use their Shift ability to either catch up if they fall behind or to cause havoc with an oncoming ram. Trailblazer was also quite entertaining which has you following a pace car and you get points for how long you can stay behind the cars trail. Stay close to the bumper and you wont share points with anyone else nearby but everyone will be trying to ram you out of the way so they can net their own points. You can even Shift to an oncoming vehicle to ram players out of the way then Shift back into a car following the pace car to get points. Its quite frantic but fun. As you level in multiplayer youll unlock more modes, icons, cars and more while rising up the ranks.
The story may be odd but its engaging enough to keep you playing. The Shift ability works great once you wrap your head around how to use it properly and it quite surprised me how well it fits this style of game. Cutscenes look fantastic and much work has been done for the polish as you can even see pours in peoples faces and individual hairs; its quite impressive actually.
My only real gripes with DSF is that rubber banding is in effect in race events making it near impossible to maintain a substantial lead as the other drivers will always catch up no matter how much of a lead you have or if they crash early on or not. Aside from that there are a few missions that will frustrate you almost to the point of giving up. Having to win a team race and come in first and second are the bane of my existence with the rubber band effect and I probably spent an hour or so on a single one of these missions to progress the story (which doesnt make sense).
Unlike previous Driver games, there is no getting out of the car and there is no shooting mechanics. DSF is all about driving and thats a good thing as its not trying to be a GTA game in any aspect. DSf does a great job at blending real driving with the absurdity of the Shift mechanic and it all comes together somehow in a great package with a long shelf life. Im glad to see a good Driver game is finally back on the market and can prove that you can teach an old driving game new tricks.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
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Call Of Juarez: The Cartel
Before Red Dead came along and standardized how a western game should be approached, there was very little choice of compelling games in the genre that were decent. The Call of Juarez series was one of the few western games that were entertaining and had its own charm. Before many shooters were trying to mimic Battlefield or Call of Duty, some had their own premise which made it unique; Call of Juarez (CoJ) was great at this (specifically Bound In Blood). While they werent blockbuster games by any right, they did have heart.
When I learned that there was going to be another Juarez game I was actually looking forward to it as I really enjoyed Bound In Blood for what it was. I then learn that the new CoJ was going to be set in a modern day time, but I remained hopeful thinking it might work with the proper setting. Like I mentioned above, it seems someone decided to turn a western based title into a modern day setting that is trying so hard to be something that resembles Call of Duty. Due to this, its completely lost all its heart and charm and is now just a bland (and broken) shooter that offers nothing unique at all. Im hoping that the wild success of Red Dead hasnt scared off the developers from the western genre because the series now has hit a serious low point. Now the only thing that Call of Juarez: The Cartel shares with the previous games in the series is the title.
The plotline for Call of Juarez: The Cartel is so absurd that its hardly worth mentioning for a few reasons. For starters its so completely ridiculous that its not even believable, its convoluted and extremely hard to follow when youre constantly struggling with the controls and lastly, you wont care about any of the characters rendering the narrative a moot point. To care about a story you need believable and interesting characters, instead we get stereotypes that swear constantly and that have no depth to their personalities.
But alas, there is a story to the game so Ill briefly go over the general idea so you can judge for yourselves on how preposterous it is. A US law enforcement agency is bombed by a group of unknown enemies (heres a hint, its in the title of the game itself) and this assault is apparently so heinous that a task force is made to find out who did this and to extract some much needed justice. The fantastic idea for this task force is a whopping three people from separate agencies. Ben McCall from the LAPD, Eddie Guerra from DEA and Kim Evans with the FBI are going to have to work together to find out whos behind the attack and why. There is more to the plot but its not very interesting and becomes a little convoluted near the end.
If you recognize Bens last name, thats because hes clearly a descendant of the McCall brothers from the previous game, I guess the McCall family has good genes though because Ben seems to look very similar to his long past family members (and decides to dress like them as well). Each of the three main characters will each have their own secret agendas they need to try and fulfill for themselves or their agency without the other members knowing. Ben will try and smuggle loot for his own reasons, Eddie need to pay off a gambling debt and Kim will nab items for evidence. Each of the characters has questionable backgrounds and seems very shady no matter their motives. Each of their personalities clash with each other which I guess was supposed to push the inner tension between them forward. Depending on whom of the three you decide to play as, thats whose side of the story youll play through, though because theyre always side by side, theres nothing too drastic aside from their motives and some phone calls that are placed that make their story unique from the others. By the end of the game, youll hate each of them because theyre all so clichéd and stereotypical.
In theory, each of the characters is supposed to be a specialist in specific weapons and their ideal distance to shoot at. Kim is the long range sniper, Eddie the medium range rifle expert and Ben the close range and shotgun master. This by no means you cant be Kim and use shotguns, and truthfully, I found no difference between the three when handling different types of weapons; making this mechanic completely untrue.
Youll answer your cell phone at predetermined times to get your secret mission. The problem with this is that while youre on the phone, you can still get shot and it almost happens at the worst opportune moments. If you succeed in completing your secret agendas in each mission without your comrades noticing youll gain some extra experience points which go towards unlocking bigger and better guns for the campaign. If youre caught and seen nabbing these items a big message pops up on the screen telling you you were caught red handed! and you wont get any bonus XP, though the reward is so small that it really doesnt matter if you do these side objectives or not. If youre playing online co-op with a friend and catch them, you actually get the bonus XP for seeing it happen. Its a neat idea on paper but it just wasnt done well enough to make it a compelling mechanic.
At the heart of a FPS is obviously the shooting mechanics and controls. The immediate problem with The Cartel is that you feel like youre constantly skating on ice with the movement and the iron sights when looking down the barrel of your guns are so large that you cant see anything other than whats directly in front of you. It feels as though you have zero peripheral vision and locating your enemies other than the muzzle flash from their guns is near impossible. Ironically, youre team mates will constantly be yelling at you to try aiming!. It almost seems unfair that there isnt a button I can press to tell them how much they suck as AI.
On top of the terrible controls you have repeated and poor level design as well. Sometimes youll get a useless car driving section (that youll always be close to dying as your partners cant seem to shoot anything from the car and you will always have to drive aside from one section) then into a large open area with a dozen or so enemies to kill that brings you to a close quarter indoor shootout. Youll get to a door that you and one of your partners will kick in and go into a slow-mo section to see how many you can shoot (though youre forced to you your pistol for some reason) before the bullet time wears out. Clear this room and a few more shoot outs and youll finally get to your boss fight (which is not really a boss fight in the traditional sense for most sections). Repeat this for all fifteen chapters and that is your flow of level design for the whole campaign.
With three main characters, The Cartel screams co-op gameplay, and while it does say that it has it on the box, getting it to work is near impossible. Cant figure out how to play co-op? Neither could I at first. As you are about to start a mission youll need to press start and open a public game for others to join. How you can just join a random game without an invite Ive still yet to figure out. The problem is that you cant join anyones game if they are further along in the story than you are. In my whole play through I only had one person join me for a single chapter. Theres no game browser to easily choose someones game to join, you need to pick the chapter you want yourself, open it as a public game and hope that someone else is doing the same thing so that youll be merged into one game (provided youre not playing the same character). Its a horrible broken system and essentially makes it so co-op doesnt exists contrary to what the box says.
If you do manage to get a co-op game going youll play the chapter as normal but youll have a slightly competitive aspect to certain sections. Sometimes youll see who has better accuracy or who can hit the Helicopter boss more times. Its an interesting mechanic if you can ever get a co-op game going.
There is also competitive multiplayer as well but its just as bland as the campaign. First you pick if you want to be police or a criminal then youll go into a hub while people join before the match starts. If youre lucky and a game actually begins (because it seems everyone wants to play criminals and it wont auto balance teams, so you might have a full team of criminals and zero police waiting for more to join) youll notice that the sloppy controls from single play carry over, making hitting a moving target near impossible. As you gain kills youll get XP which will unlock new weapons as you level up, youre able to revive downed team mates, and theres a partner system in place that gives you both a bonus if you stay near one another. If youre unlucky enough to have a bad partner or one that isnt playing, youre essentially out of luck as you can only request a new partner when youre in the lobby. Theres nothing really else to mention here, the multiplayer isnt compelling or enjoyable at all due to the controls and mechanics.
On top of all these big flaws, there are also many minor issues that stood out that need mentioning as well. Because theres so many Ill just list them off so you can get an idea of how bug ridden The Cartel is. Lines your partners say will be used over and over throughout the campaign. The Skip Movie message is always present during cutscenes) almost as if its taunting you to press it the whole time), horrible screen tearing and texturing and for how often you drive I find its odd theres no mirrors at all (rear view and side). Youll probably become disorientated at time in the corridor sections because you know where you are in relation to your partners, that is until they warp ahead of you at are waiting at the checkpoint as if youre the slow one. My biggest pet peeve though was the numerous spelling mistakes in the subtitles that just make it feel unprofessional and cheap.
The constant bickering between Ben, Kim and Eddie becomes stale quite quickly and really becomes a distraction more than anything else. While youll eventually learn about how this ties in with the previous Juarez games (aside from Ben), its not the big revelation I think it was meant to be. Its a shame the Wild West setting was swapped for what its become now. For how open the game looks, its quite linear and doesnt let you stray off the path very far. With only a handful of enemy outfits, youll be shooting the same bad guys throughout the whole campaign and not enjoying any of it. Call of Juarez has been downgraded and is disappointing in every aspect of gameplay and design. A game like this is why a series gets canned for good. I for one hope they can bounce back and bring back the series to its former glory that actually had some heart and tried to set itself apart from every other shooter rather than trying to fit into a mold. With a game like this, the treasure of Juarez will never be found.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
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Deus Ex: Human Revolution
For some reason I never really got around to playing the original Deus Ex other than a few short times here and there. Truthfully, I know exactly why; Everquest came out the year before and the next few years of my life revolved around that game rather than many others I should have played. Its hard to believe that the original came out over a decade ago and was so revolutionary for its time back in 2000. Shortly after it spawned a sequel but didnt live up to the hype as the original and thus the series went into a slumber for quite some time. Here we are years later and we finally are treated with Deus Ex Human Revolution (DXHR for short) which turns out to be a prequel and set events in motion to what you experience in Deus Ex.
With this summer being quite dead for new releases, DXHR was essentially the first big release to break the summer drought so naturally I was excited to give it a try as Im also a sucker for prequels. Ive youve never played the series before, its essence is based around stealth gameplay but theres so much more to it than that. Obviously for the stealth mechanics youd need to compare to other similar titles like Metal Gear and Splinter Cell, but what Deus Ex does so well is that stealth is not the only hook for the series. It has a big emphasis on choice, morals, social interaction, quests and more.
Ill admit, I was really turned off from the first hour of gameplay but thats because I realized I was playing it wrong. Yes you have guns and need them to take enemies out (if you decide to) but you dont want to play this like a cover based third person shooter. Play this like a stealth focused game and youll have a much better experience just like I did once I learned the mechanics and how to properly play the hacking mini-game.
DXHR is all about letting you play the game the way you want to. Many games tout that they give you this freedom but unlike most, DXHR actually rewards you for doing so. Playing through situations in different techniques will truly show you how diverse the mechanics are. You can choose to stealth (and theres even an achievement for not killing anyone aside from bosses), guns blazing or find a separate route to your objective. Its all about choice and how you want to play.
The year is 2027 and the world is much the same as it is today. The rich are rich and poor are poor. Technological cybernetic implants are becoming more commonplace. Naturals shun implants and those who use them saying they are immoral, too poor to afford it themselves or their biochemistry simply makes their body reject implants totally. Augs are approximately 1/20th of the human population and slowly becoming the new face of mankind.
You control ex-SWAT Adam Jensen, employee of Sarif Industries, which is the leading company for developing these mechanical augments for humans. On the eve of a huge announcement from Sarif, the building finds itself under attack by unknown mercenaries and Adam tries to save his former girlfriend Dr. Megan Reed. Turns out Reed is killed in the assault and Adam is critically wounded so badly that the only way he survives is by repairing his body with augments. The game fast forwards six months and now you play the new and improved Jensen that is now being used by Sarif to protect their interests and find out what happened to you six months ago. Youre essentially Robocop, being paid by the corporation and will soon unravel a conspiracy that will have you traveling the globe.
Once the story gets going and you start to suspect people it becomes really engaging and will always having you thinking about morals. The setting is done beautifully and it can feel like a true city landscape with newscasts, PDAs, eBooks and computers to learn more back story about whats going on around you. If you take the time to read every morsel you can find youll be rewarded with a deeper understanding of the current conflict and characters you come across.
Being a stealth orientated game, taking cover is how youll be spending much of your time in DXHR. The cover system is done by holding the Left Trigger and youll stick to the nearest wall, corner or behind an object. As youre in cover the camera switches to a third person view so that you can move the camera and get a better sense of your surroundings. Once youre stuck to a wall its easy to maneuver along it but things get tricky when you want to change faces of a wall or corner. To change side you hold the A Button but it doesnt feel very natural and if youre used to how Gears does its cover system, youre going to be popping out of cover quite often accidentally. Jumping from gap to gap in cover is simple but you need to make sure enemies arent looking in your direction as they can see you as you leap out of cover quickly. Most of the areas are very grid-like but sometimes youll be on an odd corner or behind an object that has an off-axis angle to it making you noticeable unintentionally. At times youll even need to use and transition cover to avoid lasers which is some of the most fun I had in the whole game.
As you explore, defeat enemies, complete missions, hack and more youll gain XP. As you fill your XP bar youll eventually level up which grants you a Praxis Point. These points can then be used to upgrade your different augmentations in any order you choose. Eventually near the end of the game youll have more than enough Praxis Points that youll eventually be upgrading your bag space as theres not much else to get.
As for the inventory system, its dealt with as your carrying bag space. At the beginning it can be quite cumbersome and frustrating always having to drop weapons, ammo and weapons in the beginning due to your small limit, though you shouldnt be relying on many weapons and ammo aside from boss fights and the occasional shootout because you got noticed.
Your hud will show your radar which makes it very easy to see where enemies are, which way theyre facing and more if youve upgraded your augmentations. Your hud will also show you where all of your quest objectives are located but how you get to them will almost always have multiple paths. These separate paths come in different ways. If youve upgraded your strength you can move a vending machine blocking a vent shaft, you can walk through gas or electricity with a specific upgrade, get places from no falling damage and more all depending on how you play and upgrade Jensen.
Youll be hacking into computers and keypads a lot, so get used to it quickly in the beginning and I suggest for those related upgrades to make your life easier. Hacking is a short mini-game that will have you capturing and defending nodes as you try and get to your target without being detected. At first its very confusing but once you get the hang of it and have the necessary augs its quite easy to do even the most difficult hacks. On a side note, apparently Adam lost the ability to crouch while hacking and you are forced to stand in plain sight when hacking, so keep this in mind and make sure there are no guards nearby when attempting to do so.
When you need to take an enemy out with hand to hand combat, you need to be behind your enemy and can choose to tap B for a knockout or hold B for a kill move depending on your preference. What becomes immediately annoying though is the cutscene you need to watch every time you want to use these moves on an enemy. The first few times were cool, but after watching 500 of the same animation it becomes quite old. It even makes less sense when there are other enemies nearby seemingly frozen, watching as you take their friend out in front of them.
Knocking enemies out can be used to your advantage of course though. Sometimes I liked to leave a body in plain sight to distract the other guards away from my real objective. If you accidentally get seen you can duck away into a nearby air duct and essentially just wait out the alerted timer. Enemies apparently arent smart enough to go into the ducts themselves. In a firefight you can use this tactic to pop out, kill a guy and repeat.
Being that the game is 95% stealth based I was excited to see what boss fights were going to be like to integrate into this mechanic. I was hoping to hack some turrets unseen to turn them onto the boss or sneaking somewhere to flip switches or something. Nope, not even close. Boss fights are simply a shootout with an enemy that more health than normal guys. Boss fights are supposed to be an example of everything you learned to that point so you can then use what youve learned. Its a shame as it seems like a glaring flaw when youre constantly supposed to be stealthy.
Like any game, there are some flaws that stand out. Firstly, the loading times are horrible; granted they arent as bad as Duke Nukem, but they are close. You better hope you dont die often of youll easy add a lot of extra time to your play through. Voice acting in general is decent but hit or miss at times. Adams got this scruffy voice like he needs a drink of water that seems really out of place at times. The AI for enemies is also pretty limited and not very hard to outsmart once youve studied their patrol patterns. Their vision is also so narrow in front of them that you can easy take out a guard beside them without being noticed (or heard somehow). The population in the open world areas also seems quite dead and patterned as youll see many of the same models repeatedly.
The level and mission design is what gets the biggest praise in my opinion. Being able to tackle a mission in a number of different ways give you freedom to play truly how you want to. Not many games can prove they give you freedom in this manner, DXHR does it wonderfully. Lasting a lot longer than I was expecting, youll easy put more than 20 30 hours into the game depending on how thorough and stealthy you want to be. While there are only a handful of stealth games in the genre, DXHR deserves to be among the top of the list with the other greats despite its flaws.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
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Bastion
The kid started playing Bastion, a new release for the yearly Summer of Arcade schedule on Xbox Live Arcade. He enjoyed the bright hand painted watercolor world so deeply that he felt he needed to write about it for everyone else to read so that they can enjoy the world of Bastion as well.
Supergiant Games first release is a charming new adventure title that has a narrator throughout the whole game that describes the Kids every notable move and action, the surroundings, your weapons, the enemies and even more. While at first you might think the narrator is a gimmick, it becomes an essential part of the way Bastions story unfolds and youll learn so much about The Kid (our protagonist) through this deep and gritty mysterious voice (which is done to perfection). As you walk forwards pathways will unfold and form in front of you, coupled with the on the fly narration, Bastion truly feels like its story is happening as you play. Once you start playing through Bastion and it starts unfolding itself to you, youll become hooked in a deep story and gorgeous world that will have you never wanting to leave.
Bastion begins with the silent hero known as The Kid waking up in a bed from a deep sleep only to find the world around him has been destroyed. As you make your first steps in Bastion the narration kicks in describing how he stands up and starts walking down the path. When you find your first weapon the old man will make comments on how youve missed your best friend (the hammer) and how sturdy it is. Turns out the world was destroyed by an event called the Calamity as you slept. It seems there are no survivors but you press on to find out what has happened. As you make your way to the Bastion, an isolated structure created by the first survivor in your path, the Old Man, he reveals that it is able to restore the world to its former glory once you find all the missing and shattered fragments needed. It also turns out that the Old Man is also the narrator of The Kids adventure.
As the story progresses it becomes vastly more interesting and I dont wish to give any of the entertaining plot points away, those will be saved for you to enjoy as it unfolds. As you find new treasures and the shards to repair the Bastion, the narrator will constantly be giving you backstory and information thats relevant to an item you just found or to progress the pace onwards. Logan Cunningham voices the Old Man / Narrator and his performance is so perfectly done that it never comes old with how much you will hear him throughout your 10+ hour journey.
The Kid will have access to two weapons at a time and a shield to defend himself. Youll eventually have access to a plethora of melee and ranged weapons that vary from hammers, machetes, pole arms, bow and arrows, dual pistols and more. Which weapons you choose to use are completely up to you to suit your play style and youll be introduced to a new weapon almost every new level, constantly keeping things fresh and interesting. Each weapon you gain access to will also have a corresponding challenge trial where you can test your skills with specific weapons. Do well enough in these trials and youll unlock components to upgrade your weapons later on in the Bastion. With such a variety of weapons, youre able to completely customize your play style meaning you can be all melee focused, ranged based or a blend of both. Some weapons are better suited for different enemies so youll constantly be playing with different load outs to find what works best for you.
Your shield will be able to block almost any attack thrown at you, but you need to make sure you block oncoming attacks from the front, as your back side is always vulnerable. A well timed block will actually counter an attack for massive damage. Youre also able to roll as well to avoid enemies and projectiles so youre never left defenseless.
As you unlock more shops in the Bastion youll have more access to various buildings that will help The Kid in restoring the Bastion. The Forge will be where you upgrade your weapons that will add new effects, damage and more that can be swapped at any time based on what you need (homing arrows with the Fang Repeater is so powerful is almost seems unfair). Youll also be able to choose one elixir per character level that adds passive perks such as more health, damage, inventory space and more. If you like a challenge you can also invoke shrines to turn up the difficulty for more rewards should you choose.
Near the end of the game youre given a choice of what you want to happen in the end of Bastion. These choices were quite difficult because they are neither a good or bad choice as its all left up to interpretation but they were both very rewarding and fulfilling. There arent many games that I instantly start a second play through once Im done the story, but this is one of those rare occasions that I instantly started the New Game+. What makes it even more enjoyable the second time through is that the narrator will even say slightly different things as if youve done this before. You already know what happens next dont you? is just an example of the amusing quims that will catch your ear the second time through.
Bastion has an incredible visual art style thats completely unique, loads of weapons that differ from one another, special abilities, perfect pacing, a worthwhile story all wrapped up in a narrative that will be remembered for quite some time. Logan Cunningham seriously has done some of the best narration Ive ever heard and Id actually put it on par with the narration that was in Alan Wake as well (which was brilliant).
Leaderboards and a New Game+ mode are not the only reasons for replay value as I tried playing with completely different weapons the second time through and it felt like a completely different game. Bastion has a very memorable soundtrack and score and is easily on par with some of the best XBLA games ever such as Limbo, Shadow Complex and Braid. Supergiant Games is forever on my radar from now on and I cannot say enough great things about how much I enjoyed my time saving the Bastion.
Suggestions: Make a sequel!
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
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UFC Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Fitness System
To get in shape you need motivation. Thats usually the missing ingredient to give someone enough focus to get out to the gym or even outside and exercise. With motivation being the biggest driving factor, be it for health, looks or anything, you need motivation to push yourself and take time out of your busy lives to really stat healthy and get in shape. Back in my time, the only way us gamers got some serious exercise and sweat stained clothes was playing Dance Dance Revolution for hours on end. These days people are much more health conscious and there are numerous fitness games across all different platforms for you to choose from. UFC Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Fitness System (UFC Personal Trainer for short from here on) may be for a clique audience of UFC and MMA fans, but even if you arent the biggest UFC fan, dont write this title off right away until youve read this whole review. Theres something here for all types of people, regardless of UFC and MMA knowledge.
Now first I need to put a disclaimer here about UFC Personal Trainer so theres no misconception of what this game does and what its trying to do. This is not a game in the traditional sense, youre here to work out and build up a sweat. UFC Personal Trainer also will not teach you how to be a UFC fighter. Yes, youll learn some striking and some moves that fighters themselves use but dont make any false pretenses that youre going to go from regular Joe to UFC champion by picking this up. UFC Personal Trainer is to get you in shape that a UFC fighter needs to be in for all their fights. You arent going to learn how to do an arm bar, omoplata, kimura, guillotine choke, rear naked choke or any other types of submissions or move sets aside from some basic striking with hands, elbows and knees. Youll effectively be learning basic move sets from MMA like jabs, crosses, uppercuts, hooks, elbows, push kicks, knees and more coupled with basic workout routine moves like sit-ups, jumping jacks, push-ups, leg wipers (I hate you so much), mountain climbs (I hate you even more) and more variants.
I could never get into my wifes other fitness games for very long due to it not being very interesting for me and generally they arent very targeting for my male demographic. This title feels almost the opposite and it seems all these exercises are built for me, you know, not including the whole being a UFC fan of course. It didnt take long for me to lose interest in Wii Fit after being called obese from the get go (which Im not, thank you very much) and punching colored blocks in Your Shape just didnt resonate with me to keep me motivated (theres that word again) in the long run. Being more focused on combat and athleticism being trained by UFC fighters easily caught my attention.
Once I knew I was going to review UFC Personal Trainer, I was excited as Ive been looking for some motivation to get into summer shape; being a huge UFC fan helps as well. I was actually on board with doing the full 30 day workout program before writing this review to show my starting and ending results. I committed fully by cutting out all take-out food, pop, ate healthy and everything when I started on day 1 and stick with it quite religiously.until I started running into issues, but more on that later on.
First things first. You will NEED (I dont mean suggest) the full eight feet of recommended space for Kinect if you want to do all of the workouts. Normal standing room works just fine for some exercises and activities and usually has no issues recognizing your moves but soon as you need to do moves on the ground thats where issues start to creep up. I didnt have the full eight feet of uninterrupted space for Kinect but I did make a work around to get it workable for my living room. I actually had to move my Kinect onto the dinner table off to the side of the TV and play that way. It meant I was facing the table and Kinect instead of the TV, but all I had to do was turn my head to see my instructions. This wasnt the reason I was running into issues as I had the full amount of space needed with this odd setup.
For some reason certain activities like Leg Wipers, Sit-ups and now that I think of it, almost all leg orientated activity never detected properly even though I was always clearly in view. Kinect does great at recognizing when it works but when it doesnt you wont know why even though youre in the correct play space and doing the activity properly. This is also one of the big flaws in this title, that when you are doing something wrong it wont tell you why. Its not like Dance Central where if your limb is out of place, it glows red so you know what to adjust; itll simply just not count that rep.
Just like other fitness games, your first objective when starting for the first time will be creating your profile (gender, age, height, weight) then immediately taken to a quick fitness test to determine your fitness level starting point. Sit-ups, Push-ups and Jumping Jacks are how theyll determine how fit you are apparently. The issue with this is what I noted above, that if youre doing it wrong its not going to tell you why. So even if you can do a hundred Push-ups in the allotted 30 seconds but it doesnt recognize them properly, itll set your fitness level to beginner (but at least youre able to change its suggestion if needed).
A big feature that UFC Personal Trainer has going for it over other fitness titles is that this is actually approved by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) which has been around for more than twenty years and is the leading authority on these types of workouts. Because of this you know the routines are safe and have actual science behind the methodology.
As you play through the game youll easily recognize a bunch of the faces of the fighters and trainers even if youre a casual UFC fan. Three of the most successful trainers in MMA are included to teach you their workout routines. You can choose between Mark Dellagrotte (Sityodtong USA), Greg Jackson (Jacksons MMA) or Javier Mendez (American Kickboxing Academy) who has trained some of the best UFC fighters in the world (and current champions) and will take you through a series of workouts you choose that actual fighters would use to get in shape. If you want to hit some pads with some of your favorite fighters you can do that as well; the Kinect version even has four extra fighters (Dan Hardy, Frank Mir, Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian) along with nine extra routines. These routines have been designed to cut weight, improve your conditioning or build your core strength while using MMA techniques.
Youll always have a fighter or trainer speaking to you or showing you how to do set moves encouraging you to push harder or do better if you dont meet the set amount of reps. If you need to do ten Push-ups and only do nine youll be given a hard time but then be told to do better next time for motivation. Now on the flip side, I was able to do well more than the preset amount of strikes, got an A+ with 140% and I was still told that I can do better next time. Definitely a little confusing and mixed messaging going on that doesnt always give the proper feedback. Get ready for some of the most repetitive audio though. Seriously, if I hear Were priming the body for a great workout ever again itll be too soon.
Upon hitting the main menu youre given a few different choices; Workouts, Quick Workouts, Activities, Programs, Player Tracker and Multiplayer. Activities have different options such as Hit the Mits (striking), Free Striking (hit the bag of your choice), Tire Flip and Speed Bag. Tire Flip is entertaining, though its difficult to put any real credit into it as theres obviously no tire and weight behind it; think of it more has a squat and spring-up simulator. The rest are self-explanatory and can be used during your off days of your program to keep your body warmed up and used to even a light sweat.
The Workouts are preset or custom made (which is a great option if you simply dont have the room for the ground exercises) routines that include a warm-up and cool-down along with the routine. Speaking of the warm-ups and cool-downs, it should be noted that for these you really only need to be standing in front of the Kinect for it to register youre there since it doesnt track your movements, score or judge you unlike the actual routines themselves. This means you can cheat during these lengthy sections (though you shouldnt) and it wouldnt be able to tell if you were standing there eating a cheeseburger instead of doing leg stretches. With the pre and post routine activities like these being so lengthy (and sometimes longer than the actual routine workout itself) it can be hard to follow it without it telling you youre not doing it. Its basically using the honor system, which isnt a great idea when someone is using this game for a reason.
The star of UFC Personal Trainer though has to be the programs, which can be a 30 or 60 day commitment. After youve chosen what type of program you want (strength, weight loss, or cardio) you can then see the month (or two month) long calendar of each days activities. One day will have you doing abs, the next legs and the day after that maybe upper body. It keeps things fresh so that it doesnt over work your muscle groups and keeps things interesting because doing the same routine everyday becomes very stale and not very motivational. Its just like in a real gym where you dont do the same exercises two days in a row. In the options you are able to set the game to tell it if youre going to use extra peripherals such as weights (then will ask how much they weigh) so that it can take that into account into your stats and calorie loss. The calendar is laid out so that you have a rest day now and then so you dont over work yourself, but you can always do a simple activity or quick workout on those days to keep your daily routine going if you wish.
Everything you do will be tracked. Itll know how many times youve thrown punches, how many calories youve burned in various activities, what medals and rewards youve unlocked and more. You can see your total play length from day one and even a breakdown of every muscle group so you know if youre over working specific areas or not enough somewhere else. As you progress you can unlock special rewards like punching bags and even link your tracker to your social networks to automatically show off your progress (not pictures though).
The biggest issue that UFC Personal Trainer has though is that it will show you the proper way to do an exercise before you begin but after that it wont show you why you are doing something wrong if the Kinect doesnt properly recognize your movements. For example, if it doesnt register your pushup its not going to tell you to get lower or push your body up higher. So when you do 20 pushups and it only recognizes 3 it can become quite frustrating. Certain activities for me never captured correctly (Leg Wipers) no matter how exaggerated I made the motions in hopes it would pick up my movements correctly. Also, if you miss your limit of ten within the time limit by even one youll get quite a stern talking to. The same goes for when you excel past your goal and get an A+, your trainer will still tell you to do better next time.
Surprisingly there is a multiplayer component that allows you to challenge a friend to certain activities or routines to see whos in better shape. You can do this side by side with someone, hot seat taking turns or over a challenge on Xbox Live. The issue with this is that its limited to your friends list though, meaning no random people challenges. Youre also able to create a specific routine if you really excel at something and then challenge your friends; or keep it simple and see whos better are Tire Flips or the Speed Bag.
As I mentioned above, I was completely one hundred percent committed to doing the 30 day program and making it work for me but then I started running into save issues with my progress. I started the program twelve days ago and on my second day it thinks I didnt complete my first days routine. This meant I had to redo the ab workouts for a second day in a row (you cant change the preset days routines). On the next day it saved so I was happy and progressed a few days of routines. Day five and it thinks I missed the previous day again even though when you finish the workout you see the checkmark on the calendar and everything. I sweated for twelve days straight and Im still yet to get my achievement for exercising seven days in a row. Every day that I missed I had to redo the previous days routine to make up for it. Ive even unlocked the same videos and awards twice. The third time this happened to me I was completely demotivated and upset that I wasnt progressing according to the game. I searched online and read other reviews to see if anyone else ran into this saving issue and sadly I think Im the only one. So to be fair, Ive not found anyone else with this issue but it did happen to me quite frequently that made me stop my 30 day program because of it.
Before being discouraged about my issues with the program I set I was quite enjoying it. Yes, the first few days are going to hurt and you will be sore but I noticed that about four or five days in everything seemed to be getting slightly easier. I was doing more reps and without as much strain or resistance from my body. Youll sweat and it wont feel like a chore some of the other fitness games make it seem like. Its very challenging; theres no doubts about that but if you commit to it you will see results. What it doesnt do though is give any education about a healthy lifestyle outside of the game. It wont teach you about eating right or normal exercise so you cant continue eating fast food and doing this program thinking youre going to get ripped. But hey, at least it doesnt call you obese like wii-fit or make you run in place like other fitness titles. This is a tool meant to be used in conjunction with your healthy lifestyle, it just doesnt tell you that.
Because Kinect sees your whole body theres no cheating here (when it works). No half doing those pushups, it sees all of your movements surprisingly even when on the ground. The menus are controlled with your hand like other Kinect games but it can be laggy at times and doesnt snap to your options like in Kinect Sports. You can also select your options with voice commands but I found they didnt work well and wasnt intuitive at times either.
After you do certain routines and exercises youll unlock videos that would have been more useful to see beforehand. These live action videos will come from your trainers and the lovely Rachelle Leah. This game might turn out to be the bane of achievement seekers as well as theres achievements for working out three, five, seven, thirty and even one hundred days in a row.
If form was emphasized more and it told you what you were doing wrong instead of simply just not registering I would have probably enjoyed it even more. Because it doesnt you have no idea what you are doing wrong or if its a Kinect issue. UFC Personal Trainer does a great job at making you feel like youre actually training in a UFC gym by some of the greats rather than looking silly in your living room. Because of my save issues I do have to knock down the score a little bit but as I mentioned again I couldnt find anyone else with the same issues as me so dont take it into account when deciding whether or not to pick this up and start your sixty day program to a better body. In the twelve days I did it before becoming too frustrated with my issues I did lose four pounds and had much more energy throughout the day. Itll be hard work but it works.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
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F.E.A.R. 3
When the first F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) released years ago it managed to differentiate itself among the plethora of the crowded shooter genre with its unique scare tactics and engaging storyline centered around a little girl named Alma. It had solid controls and mechanics like slow-motion; while not unseen before, but done very well with a story that kept you pushing forward as long as you were able to in a single sitting without getting too freaked out.
FEARs premise from the beginning was all about a compelling storyline while trying to frighten the player as much as possible. The direct sequel was somewhat of a letdown, so when FEAR 3 was announced, I was hopeful that this would play more like the first and give me those scares I loved when Alma would jump out at the screen even though this is being done by a new development studio.
Well, I hope that youve played the first two FEAR games inside and out because the information about what happened in the first two games is so scarce that a new player to the series isnt going to have any clue at whats going on, whos who and why. FEAR 3 assumes youve played the previous games and will wrap up the loose ties from the first two games rather than help new players (or people who have forgotten) up to speed on whats happened.
Its been nine months since the conclusion of FEAR 2s twisted ending showing Alma using Beckets (protagonist from FEAR 2) body to make herself pregnant. Point Man returns once again who you played in the original FEAR and is on a mission to stop Alma, his mother, from bringing her newest child into the world at all costs. Point Man was captured and put in a prison to be interrogated only to then be rescued by his brother Paxton Fettel (Almas other son and the man Point Man was trying to fight against in the first game). To escape they form an alliance that will undoubtedly be broken shortly, but they need each other to find their mother for their own reasons.
With Point Man no longer helping the F.E.A.R. squad, he is free to do as he likes however he wishes. Fettel is constantly by his side, helping him every step of the way but its unclear why until later on once you learn Alma is soon going to be giving birth. I wont delve too much into the story beyond this, but its somewhat interesting if youve followed the other games. Unfortunately though if you havent, you wont have any idea whos doing what for any reason at all. Also, being made by a new studio, the story itself doesnt seem to have the same impact that Monolith gave it so few years ago. You wont really connect with many of the characters aide from nostalgia and finally seeing the conclusion of Point Man and Fettels relationship in regards to their mother in a short five hour campaign.
Point Man was originally a secret prototype experiment that the Armacham Technology Corporation used Almas womb to give birth to him. Alma was tortured, tormented and had paranormal powers which is why shes seeking revenge from all her pain in the first game. Point Man followed any order given, even those that had him shoot his own brother in the head and set off an explosion in midst of a crowded city.
Fettel was created incase Point Man couldnt be managed or failed his missions. Fettel was under constant testing and psychotherapy which eventually granted him psychonetic powers to control soldiers. Alma had a psychic connection with Fettle though and was actually able to command him through her thoughts. Eventually Point Man shot Fettel and now he exists almost like a spirit but ever go dangerous and potent. Hes now bound to his brother with an unclear agenda. As you complete intervals (chapters) with Point Man you can then replay them as Fettel which is infinitely more fun and entertaining as Point Man plays like almost any other shooter. Fettel on the other hand can use his powers to control enemies, take their bodies, suspend them in midair and more.
If you were a fan of Becket from FEAR 2 youll be happy to know he returns, albeit very briefly and is not given the sendoff he deserved in my opinion, but this is a recurring theme once you see the final credits roll. While I enjoyed the story since Ive been a fan of the series, the story seems to rushed and is in no way as memorable as the previous games.
Point Man plays like most other shooters with access to two separate guns at any given time and a handful of grenades to help clear a path forwards. You have to think a little strategically with what weapons to carry and reserve ammo at times but I never felt like I had the wrong weapons at any time. As mentioned above, playing as Fettel though is a completely different experience, especially when playing co-op with a friend. Fettel can lift enemies in the air for Point Man to shoot or can take over their bodies for a short amount of time and use their equipped weapons. Fettel can also place a shield on Point Man in those hairy situations much like how a Medic in Team Fortress 2 works. With Fettel being completely overpowered and infinitely more enjoyable to play, its simply not as enjoyable to play as your standard Point Man.
There is a cover system ala Gear of War but it is nowhere near as smooth or intuitive. You press B to stick to a wall or cover then either use your triggers or movement stick to peek out and shoot. Sometimes youll forget youre stuck on a wall and cant figure out why you arent able to run forward to your next objective. I guess in a way its good that youre completely attacked to the object, but without pressing the B button again it isnt going to happen.
Youll constantly be gaining xp from single player or multiplayer games by fulfilling objectives and finding secrets. Youll gain xp from maybe reloading 10 times in an interval or using your slow-mo fully three times for example. Complete these mini objectives and youll gain small bonuses such as quicker health regen, more slow-mo, larger ammo count and more.
Level design is very linear and even so, youre somehow able to get lost quite easily since there are no markers or hints telling you the correct direction without trial and error. Some fans will be happy to know that the out of place Mech sections return once again (and are more powerful) though I was never a fan of these sections as they never seemed to fit the original setting.
The most disappointing change to FEAR 3 is the lack of actual fear. The original game was one of those experiences that playing with all the lights off and sound up was a challenge. It was actually scary and gave double meaning to the games title; FEAR. The scariness was toned down quite a bit in the sequel so I had hopes that they would get things back on track with the third title. Unfortunately, it seems that all forms of horror have been taken out of the series as there wasnt a single scare when compared to the first game. Granted, there are creepy bits scattered throughout the campaign but its more creepy than actually scary. Gone are the big boos that made you actually have fear about every upcoming corner and opening doors. Its a shame that FEAR 3 is the tamest of the series as it was one of the nuances that really made it stand out when the original was released.
There is a multiplayer component to FEAR 3 aside from co-op in the campaign but dont expect to find your standard Deathmatch, Team Deatchmatch or Capture the Flag. Surprisingly these standard modes are nowhere to be found and all of the new modes are limited to four players only. In the end Im kind of glad its not just another run of the mill multiplayer that has no depth to it. There are some interesting multiplayer modes but Im curious about the longevity if you dont have friends to play along with.
Soul Survivor mode is almost like a zombie infection mode. One person turn into a corrupted soul and they need to try and defeat and corrupt the other remaining players. They are able to use any of the constant onslaught of npc enemies and take control of their bodies much like Fettel does in campaign. Soul King mode is like a twisted take on Halo Reachs Headhunter mode. Players start off as ghosts that can possess any solider but they need to kill the others and players to collect their souls. Whomever has the most souls at the end of the round wins but this becomes difficult when you die since you lose half your souls.
Contractions mode has you and three friends fending off waves of enemies that seems like a mixture of Zombies from Black Ops and Horde mode from Gears of War 2. As you find supplies outside your home base youll gain access to bigger and more powerful weapons. Between rounds you can fix your barricades just like in Black Ops and rounds start to become quite difficult the further in you go as the fog gets thicker and enemies spawn more frequently.
The last multiplayer mode Ive saved for last as I found this to be the most enjoyable part of all of FEAR 3, campaign included. The mode is actually called F**cking Run and it starts your squad off with a set timer and a checkpoint you need to get to before. The catch is that you have a foggy wall of death right on your heels at all times and you have enemies in your way onto the next checkpoint. Theres no slowing down here to take delicate shots at enemies, if you stop running and someone gets swallowed by the wall of death and the whole match is over. What made this even more interesting is that its not just a simple corridor you need to navigate, its actual city streets and alleyways littered with enemies. Youll even need to go vertically sometimes to the rooftops to make the objectives time. Its a very simple concept but its scary as hell when you can hear the wall right behind you knowing you need to keep running no matter what. The issue I had with the online multiplayer though was actually finding a game; if I wasnt hosting it seemed near impossible to find any games by the time the refresh list was done if I was even able to connect at all.
There are two endings to FEAR 3 (Point Mans or Fettels) depending on who scored better during the intervals playthrough. Both endings were to me vastly underwhelming and unsatisfying that will leave you with more questions than answers; at least the credits roll to Mother by Danzig which is the perfect song to end the series.
There were some things that really bugged me and stood out though that made me really think about what to score the game as a whole. For one, the host of co-op always has to play as Point Man; the only way to play Fettel is to join someone elses game. This seems unneeded and its not explained anywhere either (since there is no instruction book in the actual case).
Lastly, I found it ironic that a game named Fear didnt scare me even once. The horror factor was a big integral part of what made FEAR so good and now it seems that part of the equation is missing unfortunately. While I enjoyed FEAR 3 because Im a fan of the series, I dont think the average person picking this up will know all the missing tidbits of knowledge the game doesnt give you to piece it all together. Honestly, I think that F**cking Run is what saved the whole experience for me (aside from playing as Fettel) and will keep me playing a little but longer. I do hope that the studio that does F.E.4.R. (If it should happen) learns that FEAR is about a story driven horror game with strong characters that shouldnt be killed off without a second thought.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
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Dungeon Siege 3
Growing up, I think I was the only one I knew that wasnt into the Diablo and Baldurs Gate style of combat RPG for whatever reason, I just never saw the enjoyment of mashing the left mouse button a billion times. Then along came Dungeon Siege and for some reason ever since that point on, Ive really enjoyed the genre. Dungeon Siege was Gas Powered Games first offering and it was simple enough for someone like me to enjoy but also had some mechanics that made their game stand out against all the others. Oh, and I loved my Pack Mule (you will be missed Muley).
Gone are Gas Powered Games and in to replace them are Obsidian who youll know for bring us Kotor 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas and more. I wanted to believe that that know what they are doing, and with the single player they do prove it, but as you start the multiplayer it seems all that credit and good faith is gonebut more on that later.
The Kingdom of Ehb is still the backdrop for Dungeon Siege IIIs story which takes place a century and a half after the events of the first games. The 10th Legion has nearly been eradicated thirty years before the game takes place at the hands of Jeyne Kassynder because of her blame for her fathers death (and also the king) placed on the Legion. Legion member Odo is one of the few survivors who knows of other remaining Legion members and calls for them to regroup at a Legion safe house that was previously attacked and wiped out by some of Kassynders army. As you progress, youll come across other Legion survivors and sympathizers to your cause (once you do errands for them of course).
Surprisingly the story is quite decent once you learn all the names and plot lines, but it does take quite some time to become more interesting than finding the next piece of loot. The whole youre our last savior plot may be worn thin by now, but its interesting enough to keep you wanting to move forward in the story over the 15 hour play through and all the choices you make during your course will reveal the outcomes once you defeat Jeyne.
In Dungeon Siege III you are given the choice of picking one of four characters but unfortunately there is no customization of their appearance in any way. Lucas Montbarron is your typical warrior style of fighter (and my choice for my first play through) that fights with both a shield and sword or with a large two handed claymore. If you know your Dungeon Siege lore you might recognize his surname, as he is a descendent of The Farmer from the first Dungeon Siege. Katarina uses ranged weapons for her attacks with a long ranged rifle for more powerful but slower attacks, or her pistol and shotgun for a more potent but up close affair. Anjali is a powerful archon who is able to fight in her human form with a spear up close or shift into a fire elemental to blast foes from afar. Lastly is Reinhart Manx who is your other magic user that more relies of debuffs up close or from afar. As you can see, every character has a heavy/long range stance or a shorter and quicker stance for when you become surrounded (which will be quite often).
Regardless of who you choose to play as, youll eventually gain the others in your party as the story progresses. Your player choice will also slightly alter some dialogue choices and in-game events that will coincide with their own lore and history relating to the people and surroundings. New to the series though is that youre only able to have one companion with you at a time during your quest as opposed to all four characters helping you (unless youre playing online). Regardless of whom you choose to be at your side during fights, they will be controls by the AI but one thing they did get right is the ability to have someone locally to grab a second controller and jump in with you seamlessly. Youre able to swap out your partner at any time for any of the characters as long as youre out of combat. You can also set your game to be open to friends or anyone across Xbox Live as well, but more on the multiplayer later.
A staple to the genre is using health and mana pots when needed, but Obsidian has done away with this mechanic and made their own which I found actually works quite well. You now have defensive abilities that will use your power orbs (that refill with combat and youll gain more after integral storyline sections) which are used to heal yourself, refill focus or other abilities you may have. Using your heal defensive ability will slowly regain your health plus give you more healing the more damage you do in combat while the buff is applied. The only issue with this system is that you dont get that huge boost to health instantly like you do regular health pots give in other games, so if you delay too long before healing it may be too late (especially if youre trying to stay out of combat as you regen). Youll need to learn to block and quite often if you wish to survive and not constantly having to heal yourself.
You have two separate combat stances (one hand sword and shield or two handed sword for Lucas for example) and in each stance youll eventually learn 3 separate abilities per stance; totaling for 9 skills including defensive / heal stance. While it may not sound like a lot, which it isnt, it feels adequate for your combat needs and nothing becomes cumbersome as each ability is always only a button press away. To use your skills youll drain some of your focus which is the equivalent to mana in every other game. Use an ability enough times and youll eventually gain access to use the empowered version of that skill which will do more damage or other effects; the catch being is that itll use one of your power orbs to balance its power.
While nine abilities may not seem like much, the real customization comes in the proficiency points youre given when you level to make the skills the way you want. You can usually choose an offensive buff for the skill which usually does more damage or slows enemies or a defensive choice that will give more hitpoints or heal your characters. Each ability can get five points spent into it in any mixture of offensive and defensive that you decide. Additionally there are also ten separate passive skills you can put points into which can improve your attack power, critical hits, healing abilities and more. So dont get too stuck on the only nine abilities downer, as there is a lot of customization elsewhere.
Instead of a health bar above every enemies head they instead have targeting circles below their feet (so you know which one youre attacking) that will change color relating to their current health (green for full health and red when theyre about to die). Finding your path to your current quest objective while slicing through enemies is never an issue as youre able to tap up on the D-pad to show you a glowing bread-crumb trail to where you need to go. Most of the time it works perfectly but there is the odd time that itll show you where youre supposed to go before hitting a specific switch.
There are many side quests for you to undertake should you wish but unfortunately none of them felt like they had much weight or gave many rewards worthwhile; which brings me to a big downfall to Dungeon Siege III. Youll constantly be gaining new loot from almost every enemy you kill which is a big reason people enjoy these types of games, the problem though comes from the quality of loot. You can go for hours before getting a upgrade or two that is worthwhile. Its definitely a quantity over quality until you get near the very end of the campaign to get those major upgrades and epic loot which was quite a downer. A couple other issues I ran into was that there was so few real big boss fights but plenty of smaller mini bosses that have no real impact once killed other than a decent piece of loot.
Now for the biggest downfall of the game that really brought down the whole experience for me; the online. A game like this and almost every in the genre can have near infinite replayability if the multiplayer aspect is done properly; unfortunately it gets none of those components right. Dungeon Siege III could have had an amazing offering if its online component was actually thought out and done properly.
For starters, you and up to three other people will share a single camera that is set slightly lower than the camera you come accustomed to in single player. This is a horrible decision for multiple reasons. When someone steps away from the controller, no one can move forward and progress. You are also unable to tell when someone is in the menus or not. Also, I enjoyed playing as Lucas, so when I join someones game and theyre also playing as him, I need to choose someone else. This means no overlapping characters, which makes sense on paper, but for someone like me that became accustomed to a specific character and abilities, it made playing as someone else very difficult. Also an odd decision; players in your game can sell all your items or buy anything they want wasting all your hard earned coin.
Now, the worst thing about the debacle of online play though is that only the host progresses their character. This means that when you join my game, youre simply playing one of the characters as a henchman of sorts making my playthrough easier. You dont progress your character even if its the same character, only the hosts game and character progresses. This makes it absolutely pointless to join someone elses game aside from helping a friend or going for specific achievements.
What has been done very correctly though is the consolization of the series. The game plays like it was meant for a controller and the controls work well once you dont have to think about specific buttons and accidently hit the weapon swap button instead of interact. Equipping items is easy and telling which loot new is hassle-free, that is unless you want to equip people that arent in your current party makeup. To equip items on someone not in your current party you first need to make sure youre out of combat, go to the menu and swap to the character you want and then swap back to your normal companion after doing so. It makes for a cumbersome experience when all that was needed was a button to swap to any teammate.
Dungeon Siege III is all about instant gratification giving you so much loot youll constantly be sorting through it all. Once you realize that theres very little for big upgrades though until the end, youll eventually even stop caring about getting treasure chests since its most likely not an upgrade unless it comes from a boss anyways.
Because of the absurd and worthless online multiplayer theres sadly much reason to continue playing once youve completely the decent storyline, but with no New Game+ mode, youll have little reason to keep playing after you do a single play through or two. If the online actually worked and wasnt completely useless I know I would have enjoyed Dungeon Siege III much more and for a much longer period of time like I did the original two games, sadly now I have a game I finished in a few days and is already on the shelf to collect dust.
Suggestions: Please don't release a multiplayer component that has no use unless you're the host.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
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Alice: Madness Returns
If you played the first Alice game by American McGee back when it released over a decade ago, then you have an idea of what to expect from a very dark twist on the girl we know Alice and her Wonderland. Dont fret though if youve not played the original, as new copies come enclosed with a download code for a full port of the PC classic. To those new to McGees take on Alices story, youll realize from the moment you see the EA logo at the beginning of the game that morphs into a demented Cheshire cat; you realize you wont be in the regular Wonderland any longer. Alice: Madness Returns is a completely dark and twisted retelling of the classic novel by Lewis Carroll that I would argue even makes Tim Burtons take on the movie adaptation look inferior.
Alice has been set loose from the insane asylum after the event of the first game and is now an orphan. She still has troubling and disturbing memories of the fire that killed her family years ago and will slip between the realities of the London streets to the Wonderland that shes created in her mind to try and keep sane. As she delves deeper into Wonderland shes slowly piecing together bits of truth of what actually happened the night of the fire which in turn slowly starts to destroy her beloved and beautiful Wonderland. Destroying Wonderland is an evil Train of unknown origins and shell run into familiar faces along the way such as The Rabbit, Caterpillar, Req Queen, Hatter and others, though they have seemed to have been changed as well during all these years. The Cheshire Cat will help you with riddles and cryptic messages along your path as you fight your way to find the truth about the night of the fire. The game is split into five separate and lengthy chapters that will always have you starting in 19th century London (reality) before delving into Alices madness that is Wonderland. During the early century London segments (much like Tim Burtons style), Alice is only able to navigate and theres nothing to do but explore the scenery as theres nothing to do or interact with until you simply come to the correct spot for the cutscene to begin. At first I was a little deterred by these short segments, but as you progress during the game its a nice change of pace as most of the time (in Wonderland) youll be frantically platforming or fighting enemies.
The game begins to shine through its amazing art design and structure once you witness Wonderland for the first time. Your first trip in Wonderland is extremely colorful and vibrant and simply gorgeous; as you delve deeper into Alices psyche though youll notice quickly how things deteriorate into grotesque and twisted surroundings. Each chapter has a completely unique look and feel and fantastic visual variety, unfortunately though every level is progressed in the same exact way other than the odd mini-game here and there to mix things up. No matter what chapter you are playing, you need to find the switch to open the door to jump platforms to fight the enemies to open a new door. Because of this there is much repetition and the surprisingly long chapters in the end hinder the experience as a whole rather than flesh out a deep plot structure.
Alice begins her journey in Wonderland with a simple knife that can slash enemies quickly. As you progress youll squire new weapons like the pepper grinder (machine gun), tea kettle (grenade launcher), a Time Bomb (that also distracts enemies) and the Horse on a stick (Sledgehammer). Every weapon has its own strengths and there are certain enemies that need to be killed with certain weapons, so youll need to become fluent in quickly changing weapons and targeting the correct enemy. Luckily there is a lock-on system that works for the most part pretty decently. Youll never really have much trouble trying to find your enemy to lock onto; the issue arises from the sometimes awkward camera angles when locked on that can obstruct your vision from seeing the enemies. Most weapons are also needed to access your next area such as using the Horse mallet to bash through weak walls or the Tea Kettle to do the same from afar. Alice can also defend herself with her umbrella to stop oncoming attacks or simply dodge out of the way almost instantly.
While combat is an integral part of Alice dealing with her madness, the majority of the game will have you platforming and jumping to progress to the next area and finding the secrets that lie within. Alice is able to triple jump to reach high ledges and use her skirt to float long distances. There will be many bouncy mushrooms to launch you into the air and air vents to float you upwards to traverse Wonderland. Many times youll need to bounce high, triple jump and then float to your next platform. My few complaints about the mechanics here is that Alice will not grab onto a ledge so if you miss your jump even slightly, youll die, though when you are locked onto an enemy youll never fall off (thankfully). The other is that when you do fall off and die youre never always guaranteed where youll be put back. Sometimes youre right where you fell and others youll be back at the beginning of the jumping sequence.
Alice also has the ability to shrink down to a fraction of her true size. This allows her to fit into very small keyholes that almost always lead to a secret area with collectables. Shrinking will also allow Alice to see hidden platforms and walkways drawn in a purple outline. Come near the second half of the game youll be using Shrink quite often to see where to land in a seemingly open pit (you dont need Shrink on to be on the platforms, though you are defenseless while tiny). Exploration is an absolute joy with how well the levels are designed and how gorgeous the art direction is.
A large portion of the Alice gameplay is also finding all the secret collectables that come in the form of memory fragments, bottles and teeth. Yes, teeth. These teeth are your currency to upgrade your weapons as you see fit (4 ranks for each weapon) and make an absolute huge difference when fighting the tougher enemies. Youll be listening for something odd as well; pig snouts snorting. Yes, find these elusive snouts floating around or on walls and use your pepper grinding on them to reveal a secret path to more collectables.
As mentioned before, the majority of the game will be the platforming and combat but there are a few sections that break up the lengthy monotony. There are a few side-scrolling sections that look like paper cutouts, some sliding sections that will make you think Mario 64, a part where youll have to roll a babys head across a racetrack, and even a brief section where Alice will actually grow ten times her regular size instead of shrinking to take out an army of card guards (which also had the funniest moment in the game).
I cannot say enough glorious things about the art style and direction McGee has brought once again. Hes outdone himself from the first game by far and I could only imagine how he would make Wonderland look on the big movie screen if it were to ever happen. The writing and voice acting is also top notch. Music and sound is creepy and eerie to fit the mood of Wonderland and the overall feel and simply hearing the enemies will make your skin crawl. An issue I had with all these praises though is the length and pacing of the chapters individually. Simply put, the levels were much too long and because of this you sometime lost motivation to keep going other than trying to find out snippets of information about the fire. Normally Id praise a game that has lengthy levels to prolong the life of it in your system tray, but when youre mostly platforming the whole time it can get a little old when each chapter is around three hours to complete.
The other small gripes I had with Alice other than the seemingly forever drawn out chapters was the poor texture pop-ins (though its more likely an issue with the Unreal engine its using than the game itself), no paper manual at all (give it a cheap feeling soon as you open the game box) and some of the animations are nonexistent. Alice turning to and from the camera for example will instantly flip her so one second youll look at her face; the next is the back of her head with no animation in between other than her hair flowing.
Like I mentioned in the beginning, the original Alice from McGee is included in new copies for those that never played or want a refresher, but, there is a catch. The original is actually flagged as DLC for the game, not a separate XBLA download. This means you need this Alice in the tray whenever you want to play the old one. Not a deal breaker, but definitely not the norm or expected. Also, make note that the original Alice is simply a port and not an HD upgrade. The game is over a decade old and looks ugly to todays standards. Youll play in 4:3 aspect ratio with stiff controls but it was free, so its hard to complain.
Once you get sucked into the beautiful world of Wonderland youll be drawn in and amazed with how unique McGees imagination is about a story we all knew growing up. This is not your friendly Disney version of Alice in Wonderland or anything even close. This is Amercian McGees twisted and amazingly complex Alice that tells a tale of a girl whos on the brink of losing her mind and what she must to do save it and Wonderland. Find the rabbit hole and visit Wonderland, hopefully youll be as drawn in as I was.
Suggestions: Not for the developers no, but someone in power please let McGee make his version of the movie!
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
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Child of Eden
I was asked the other day to describe Child of Eden to someone that hasnt played it yet and naturally the first thing I asked was if they had played Rez (or Rez HD) but they hadnt. This kind of left me stumped at how to describe the uniqueness that is Child of Eden (and Rez for that matter) as there truly is no other game like it in its own specific genre.
First off, Ill be referencing Rez quite a lot in this review as Child of Eden is its spiritual successor without actually being Rez 2. Tetsuya Mizuguchi (known as Miz for short) is the series creator and is also the mastermind behind other games like Lumines and Space Channel 5 (and Rez obviously). His games are very unique and try to blend in gameplay along with rhythm and music.
If youve not played Rez or made sense of videos for Child of Eden Ill do my best to describe it. In essence its a first person shooter (no guns, just a reticule) that is on rails (so no movement from a character is necessary) that looks like it takes place in the mind of someone tripping through a psychedelic kaleidoscope. The shooting mechanics is coupled alongside unique visuals and synthesized techno-ish music thats really more of an experience than a game. Because of the inclusion of Kinect controls your Kinect will no longer just be a Dance Central machine any longer thanks to Mizs vision and superb control schemes.
Technically there is a story to Child of Eden but its more of an interpretation more than a plot line you follow. Shortly in the future the first human born is space on the International Space Station and is named Lumi. She lives her whole life in space and desires to experience Earth and all of its surroundings and her feelings are expressed through songs and messages sent to Earth. After she passes her digital imprint (along with the complete human history and all memories) has been saved on the next evolution of the Internet now called Eden. Your task playing Child of Eden is to stop unknown viruss attacking Eden thus saving it and all of Lumi and humankinds past for the rest of the universe to find and experience. As you complete stages youre actually purifying the archives of Eden as you attempt to awaken Lumi from her slumber. Yes, on paper this makes no sense, and technically in-game it doesnt really either, but again, youre playing Child of Eden for the experience and everything is open to interpretation. Youll simply get lost in the amazing visuals and trance music.
As you purify enemies and defeat them theyll produce a melodic sound that seems to genuinely fit in seamlessly with the archives soundtrack. As soon as you begin the game youre going to be completely lost at what to do (and even why), even if youre a Rez veteran itll take some getting used to (as you now have a secondary shot as well). Just like Rez, youll need to shoot the enemies and objects on the screen which if done with proper timing, will sound like its simply part of the song.
You main weapon, called the Octo-lock is essentially the same weapon you used in Rez. It allows you to lock onto eight targets at once before firing which youll next extra points if done in sync with the background music. New is a secondary weapon that shoots tracers and is weaker than your main weapon but it shoots rapidly and can destroy incoming projectiles shot by enemies (and is needed to take down specific enemies). This means youll be switching between your two firing modes quite often to destroy objects on screen and to survive incoming attacks.
Some levels are very organic feeling with jellyfish, whales and more while others will have a distinct techno hard edge polygon feel to them. Youll face off against a boss at the end of each archive which will test your balance of offence with Octo-lock and defense with the tracers from all the incoming projectiles. Youll usually have a few moments of repeated Octo-locks to try and boost your score and to keep with the beat of the song.
Youre encouraged to play through the separate archives multiple times with many unlockables like gorgeous art pieces, videos and even separate audio and visual filters that become unlocked after saving Lumi. Youll also unlock an extremely challenging survival mode thats all based around your highest score and staying alive. Youll also unlock Hard Mode once you complete the game that makes enemies do double damage and is for those that are a glutton for punishment.
Being the Rez fan that I am, I was honestly a little skeptical at how good the Kinect controls would suit a game like this that requires quick reflexes and a good eye all while keeping a beat. After a single try I was hooked and actually preferred it to the regular controller scheme. Somehow Child of Eden is meant to be played with motion controls. Your Octo-lock is bound to your right hand and flows across the screen seamlessly, launching your eight lock-ons when you thrust your palm towards the screen. Your left hand controls your Tracer Gun which youll need more frequently the further into the archives you delve. At first it feels a little awkward but after one level you really stop thinking about it and it all becomes natural as you sway your arms around almost as if youre conducting the action happening on the screen. To use bombs you lift both hands in the air as if you are wiping the screen of any enemies and there are even other controls schemes that can have you clapping to switch weapons if you prefer, though I preferred the default scheme.
I really enjoyed Child of Eden when I started out playing with the controller but once I started playing with Kinect it was a whole new experience. The subtle gestures you make with your hand are easily recognized and gameplay feels much smoother and more like an experience that will have you tapping your foot as you play trying to go for those bonus points by releasing your missiles to the beat.
Just like in Rez HD, you are able to set any or all of your controllers to vibrate for anyone else that wants to join in. Its almost a running joke with the series as Rez had an extra peripheral that was simply to vibrate strongly to the games music for your significant other to have in their lap as you played.
While Child of Eden is a short adventure with only 5 main stages that youll complete the first time in less than two hours, the replayability comes with collecting unlockables and trying to beat your friends on the leaderboard (which I give props to Miz for separating the controller and Kinect leaderboards). Sadly when its over youll want more and I doubt there will be DLC song add-ons but one can hope. Changing the visual or audio filters sets the difficulty to a whole new level and will make the purple objects you need to shoot with Tracers near invisible for those that love a challenge.
Once you get the hang of the fluid controls it almost feels as youre orchestrating some visual sensory overload that will have anyone not familiar with the game completely glued to the screen trying to decipher what youre actually doing. If you buy Child of Eden (and I highly suggest doing so) please ensure you have a Kinect sensor to truly experience everything the game has to offer. For the first time you can actually believe the front of the game box where it says Better with Kinect.
Suggestions: Please make DLC song to further the experience!
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
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Brink
When Brink was first shown a short time ago, it quickly got some hype behind it for the visual uniqueness it brought and some of the ideas it wanted to implement; being published by Bethesda probably helped quite a bit as well. It was boasting about bringing a new experience to the shooter genre and it was even going to have a parkour element ala Mirrors Edge. Brink is also a team and class based shooter much like Team Fortress 2 (TF2) and others in the genre. In this sense, Brink will feel somewhat familiar, but its also going to feel completely new.and awkward at the same time.
Brink is brought to us by Splash Damage who is the team that brought us the Enemy Territory games from past so its made by a team that knows what they are doing; my guess is that they were almost too ambitious of an idea they wanted to create, because the outcome is a confusing mess of great individual ideas.
Brink is an odd game, and I say this because it plays much like TF2 and other class based shooters, but theres so much going on constantly that youre always going to be confused at what to do and when, even after the long and steep learning curve. When you play with friends that know the game and their roles, Brink is a great gaming experience, but if youre unable to constantly play with some friends, youre simply not going to enjoy Brink very much.
Set in the future, much of the world has flooded and severe population has made the population retreat to a floating city called The Ark. Eventually the Ark is too crowded and a civil war erupts between the two factions: Resistance or Security. Each side has their story of trying to escape or save the city and youll have to choose a side straight from the beginning.
The problem with being forced into choosing a side right away is that you arent given enough backstory or information to pick the right side for your beliefs. Youll quickly learn though that choosing really has no bearing as you can play either campaigns missions at any time, freely swapping sides to see each side of the conflict. Honestly, theres little to worry about as youre basically just picking a general look preference as your persistent character you level can change their look, class, weapons and faction whenever you want. There are cutscenes before and after each mission, but you wont care, the story is not engaging in the slightest bit and once you learn that the single player is just bots until people join you online, you simply wont care about the Ark and why youre fighting for it (or to leave it).
Technically there is a single player campaign mode but in reality its you playing a multiplayer match with bots instead of other players. Brink is trying to blur the line between single and multiplayer, but because of how shallow the campaigns experience is, you simply wont care about any of the story.
Every mission is essentially a specific map with set objectives (each faction has their own set to complete before the other team does, or has to hold the enemies off). So as you start playing solo, youll have bots to fight alongside you, but youll quickly learn which are bots, as the AI for your squad mates is abysmal. Some of the latter missions on hard difficult is virtually impossible when your bots playing a medic wont even revive you. On the other side, the AI can be punishingly tough and kill you almost instantly as soon as you start shooting them. Youll need to play online constantly to really progress in any fashion but at least you can set it to friends only or open to all. Honestly, the campaign shouldnt even exist as it doesnt even play out like a single player experience. You can imagine the frustration as well when your open game gets filled with player, but they get put on the opposite faction as yourself.
Brink boasts four separate and unique classes that almost mimic what you will see in Team Fortress 2. Medics are self-explanatory as they can revive downed player and buff health, Soldiers can refill your teams ammo, engineers are the ones with turrets and buff weapons and there are also the sneaky operatives. Each class has their own abilities and each class does feel distinct compared to the others. Youll need your team to organize whos going to be what class though as if everyone goes Soldier for example, you simply wont win, youll need a balanced team to progress in your objectives. Luckily no class is left out from wielding specific weapons, thats all based on your own personal progress and unlocks based on mission and levels.
As mentioned above, Brink has a parkour element that is what intrigued me about the game when I first heard about it a year or so ago. The system is called SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) which is done easily by holding down a single button and youll automatically traverse up or over it if its possible. Having a single button to achieve this, especially in the midst of a heavy battle, is great but its also limited at the same time and it wont always be clear until much trial and error to what can be traversed over. On the same note, youll sometimes climb something you dont want to or even going too far because you were holding the button down. I think the R for Random in SMART is accurate and the map design doesnt really call for any situations where youll flank the enemies greatly simply because you remembered to vault up and over something.
Character customization is an integral part of Brinks experience, both visually and with innate perks. As you level up you unlock more outfits to customize your character to any style you desire. Theres quite a lot of choices for head, arms, legs, faces, hair and more and itll come down to the limit of your imagination. More than just aesthetically, you will also be able to experiment and create your abilities in any way you wish as well to suit your play style. If you make a mistake you can simple repsec with a hit to XP loss or make a completely new character to level differently. Theres also weapon unlock to change and buff your loadouts but these are only acquirable through single player only missions that are tough and frustrating to play. Playing online as much as I have, I rarely see people with unique weapons for this reason (that and you really need to know where to look to find these unlockables as it is hidden in the menus).
Each level has its own objectives (for both sides) that need to be completed in a set time limit. Sometimes youll need to defend an onslaught, steal Intel and bring it back to base, blow barricades, escort VIPs and more. The opposing factions objectives will always be to prevent you from completing yours which makes for some fierce battles once your team figures out what to do. The pacing is staged and new objectives unlock as you progress past each stage, the frustration comes from simply figuring out what you need to do at a said time.
When players are downed, medics are given an objective to revive players, when enemies place an explosive on a door, engineers objectives will be to disarm it and so on. Theres always something for everyone to do other than simply killing the other team but the issues lies in the interface. For starters, you need to hold down a button to bring up the objective wheel then you can choose to highlight any objective which starts to make things cluttered very quickly. This even begins to impede on your shooting skills as you wont always instantly who is friend or foe. While theres no team damage, youll waste much ammo and grenades on your own team unknowingly in all the confusion.
At launch, Brinks lag when playing online (which is really the only way to play) was crippling to the point of being unplayable. Im not exaggerating either, as you would rubber band for the whole match even when you found a good room. When a game that is so dedicated to being played online, this is simply excusable. Now to be fair, theres been a recent patch that has mostly fixed the lag issues, but there are still some unplayable gaps when first joining a server and the odd time here and there which only stacks on top of the games mechanics frustrations. Its been made better, but its not fixed. Requiring players to constantly be communicating in a team based game also made the lag a deal breaker.
Brink visually sets itself apart from any other shooter with its very unique and odd artistic style. Characters are embellished and slightly cartoony but the facial detail is astounding and quite varied. Unfortunately Brink is riddled with issues that bring down its package as a whole though. AI is so useless that you cant play single player with any consistency; grenades are useless and pack no punch or radius and most players simply arent going to get good at the game due to the very steep learning curve (I had to have someone tell me how to revive when a medic saved me).
The loading times between missions are painfully long and I highly suggest installing the game to the hard drive if you plan on playing for a prolonged time. Brink is the epitome of a love it or hate it game. I was somewhere in the middle as I can see the potential Brink has but I didnt have a full team of friends to constantly play with as playing online with random people usually doesnt work out for the best. If you can figure out the objective wheel and have a static group of friends to compete with, Brink has much potential to be played for a long time; thats a big if though.
Brink is simply confusing and I dont think many players will give it the time needed to figure everything out. Sadly it also doesnt live up to most of the expectations it had when it was first shown either. The SMART system on paper is an amazing idea to be implemented into a shooter but poor map design where you cant even make much advantage from it makes it feel flat and pointless. Constantly progression your character and the deep customization is a big plus but this too is also much trial and error.
Brink feels large but as I went through the menus I quickly realized theres not even a dozen maps in the game, so while you play both sides of the maps, they do become old very quickly. As I previously said, technically theres a campaign mode it really isnt a streamlined story experience wed expect from any other shooters story. It feels like Brink is trying to take Team Fortress 2 to the next level and while it has many of great ideas, its the perfect example of why mashing a bunch of different ideas together doesnt always work. Id honestly wait until theres a Game of the Year edition (if there is going to be one) down the road as the amount of content included on the disc as it is now is just too bare of an experience to justify full price at this time with the issues it still contains.
Overall Score: 6.2 / 10
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Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Being the huge Transformers fan that I am Im eagerly anticipating the third movie to come out very shortly. With a huge new summer movie there of course needs to be a corresponding video game to go with it. Previously, the Transformers movie tie-in games werent terrible, but they were also very forgettable (not including War of Cybertron). Almost exactly one year ago High Moon Studios pulled off a miracle; they made a Transformers game that was absolutely fantastic and one of my favorite releases of the year. This was because they got to do their own story and seemingly have more freedom (and time) that a movie based game would allow. High Moon is once again heading this Transformers game but unfortunately its clearly had time restraints working against them as the magic created with War of Cybertron sadly does not return this time around.
The problem with movie games is that they have a strict deadline and much too short a development cycle to really flesh out a well written and paced game. With Dark of the Moon its clear that the studio was confined to the movie events and having everything happen on Earth for it to tie in with the upcoming movie. Its clear that they wanted to break the stigma of movie based games but sadly it doesnt even come close to how good War for Cybertron was a short year ago.
While the game shares its name with the upcoming movie, its not a retelling of the movies events, thus no spoilers for those like me waiting for it to release. The game is actually a prologue to the movie that ends just as the movie is about to begin, giving some back story to events we wont see in the film. The Autobots uncover the Decepticons plan to repair Megatron to his former glory and also release a dangerous foe to fight against Optimus and his Autobots.
You will start the game off as Bumblebee racing to upload a virus into the Decepticons network system to spy on their plans and locate any remaining foes on Earth. Youll then play as Ironhide trying to defend Detroit against the Decepticons oncoming attacks while Ratchet helps the humans escape from the city. Mixmaster captures Ratchet and you must eventually defeat him to save Ratchet and get your weapon upgrades. I wont go into much detail of the later levels, but as you may pick up already is that everything youre doing almost feels like its always leading up to a big event but never happens. Sure there are some boss battles (like Mixmaster) but none were very challenging (except the final sequence) or all that rewarding to push forward the plot.
Unlike how War of Cybertron divided up the plot into two halves (Autobot and Decepticon) the campaign in Dark of the Moon is one story where youll start off the first half playing the Autobot side and then later the Decepticons. I thought this would make the story flow but it actually felt more disjointed than War of Cyberton because one minute youre saving the world trying not to allow collateral damage and the next you want to blow up everything you see. I guess it could be worse, it could have been the same levels played from both perspectives, so luckily level design didnt deteriorate into that.
For me the saving grace of the story is that it will give you some details that apparently arent given in the upcoming film such as how Megatron got his new vehicle form (which honestly was a letdown and could have been a big event in the lore), why Ironhide has different weapons than before (which I mentioned about needing the upgrade to defeat Mixmaster) and more. Obvoiusly Ive seen the movie yet but if a few things like this arent explained in the film Im wondering how they will make sense for people that dont complete the game over the course of its seven (and extremely short) chapters.
One of the biggest game mechanic changes is the new Stealth Force mode; a hybrid vehicle mode that also bears their weapons to defend themselves at the same time. While in Stealth Force mode you can maneuver almost like a hovercraft with full steering control in any direction all while having access to your arsenal (though different weapons than your main robot form weaponry). Holding down the Left Trigger will make you sheath your weapons to gain more speed (boost is available as well) when you need to make a far jump off a ramp or get away quickly. While in robot form you need to reload your main weapons quite often but while in the hybrid mode your weapons have endless ammunition. Because of this, theres very little reason to traverse in robot mode unless needed for specific reasons. I honestly think I played through the game mostly in Stealth Force mode than in robot form which felt off.
The weapon system you got used to in War for Cybertron has been completely scrapped and now youre stuck with the guns that are set for each different Transformer youll play (two in vehicle mode and two for robot form). Your special abilities have a set cool down period and while powerful you really wont be using them much since youll almost always be in vehicle form. For some reason though the lock-on while in robot form is Left Trigger and while a vehicle its Left Bumper which is really confusing when trying to learn the game and you cant figure out what your shots arent locking on.
Each Transformer you play feel essentially feel the same but some of them do stand out uniquely from the others. Mirage for example has a cloaking ability and massive blades on his arms that allow for devastating melee hits. Megatrons cannon sounds and feels powerful and he can even siphon life away from nearby enemies which surely makes you feel evil like Megatron should. The Soundwave level was easily my favorite though (other than him being my favorite Transformer of all time) as he is extremely powerful as he should be and you also get to control Lazerbeak for a portion of the stage.
When you complete the very short campaign and hunt for the lingering achievements youll at least have multiplayer to keep the disc in your system for a while, but Im not sure for how long. The multiplayer from War of Cybertron returns for the most part but with this games mechanics in place obviously. Essentially its the same multiplayer from before with up to 10 players in a match in three different modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Conquest.
Just like the previous game, you are able to customize your Transformer for each of the 4 separate classes (Scout, Commander, Hunter and Warrior). Just like before as well, each class has their own vehicle modes, strengths and weaknesses. As you level up you can pick what weapons, abilities and perks you want to compliment your play style. If you have some friends and actually use some strategy in creating your classes to play off one another it can be a deep multiplayer experience but with only 3 modes and 5 maps I feel its going to get old quickly if there is no new DLC for it soon. Completing campaign will unlock some more bots for you to use and while there are kill streak rewards, these cant be changed and its the same for everyone regardless of what class you play.
The biggest issue I had with Dark of the Moon was the length of the campaign. I sat down with it after my breakfast at 10:30am and by the time the credits rolled it was just a little after 1pm. Yea thats right, I did it in one sitting in under 4 hours. Yes it has a multiplayer mode to keep you going but for a full priced game that wont last an afternoon, this has rental written all over it. The bigger issue is that nothing really feels resolved in any way. Yea you fight a final boss and obviously they are saving all the main action for the movie, but for it being so short and no real conclusion its terribly disappointing.
Some other issues I had were the mandatory driving sections that dont give you a clear direction where to go and the stealth sections with Mirage. It feels so out of place and its not all that easy to know what to do and where to go. Youll eventually figure it out but when you play a few levels and blowing everything up then all of a sudden have to sneak around with a short timed stealth, it becomes frustrating being spotted for the tenth time.
Nothing in the game was really all the memorable other than the final confrontation (which was a fun boss fight) and the standoff between the leaders. With very little to do in single player other than hunt for hidden Autobot and Decepticon symbols and the odd objective for specific achievements, its hard to justify and full priced purchase right away, even if youre a Transformers nut like myself.
Honestly, I dont blame High Moon as I know what they are capable of given the time and freedom. While Dark of the Moon may not be as terrible as most movie games out there that weve come to loathe, its not that great either and youll be done with it in a short amount of time. Sadly I have to dock some score for the length of single player and the non-conclusion regardless of my fanboyism and bias love towards the Transformers universe.
With the voice actors doing their job perfectly and hearing Peter Cullens voice once again (who will also be THE Optimus), the sound design is decent but Im really just using the game as some backstory for the movie coming out and to tide me over until they are going to release War for Cybertron 2 to get my Transformers fix.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
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DiRT 3
For a game these days to stand out apart from the crowd it usually need some new mechanic or to be a very polished and simply fun game to play. Theres only so much you can do in the racing genre to add new mechanics to keep it fresh and inviting to play. Dirt 3 has gone the polished route (over new mechanics) and its apparent how much care has gone into making Dirt 3 a very polished and fun experience to play for anyone of any skill level.
Dirt 2 was fantastic and brought some new fans to the genre; Dirt 3 looks to do the same once again all while adding new features to the series and making it almost easy enough for anyone to play and enjoy. The game expands the car list, locations, tracks and modes to make a much more rounded experience. Vets of the series can play with all assists off and youll truly appreciate how difficult the sport is, while newer players to the series can have a very hand-held experience to the point of auto braking and turn-assist that make even the most difficult courses easy enough to rank first. Be warned, having it set to easy with all the assists on is simply way too easy (you never have to let go of gas and wont ever hit a wall) and customizing it to the hardest difficulty will make it a challenge to simply keep the car straight.
Campaign will take you across four racing seasons (and an unlockable master once completed) which will take you many hours to master locations far off in Norway, Kenya, Aspen, Monaco and even closer tracks in the United States. With over a hundred different tracks (many being variants) youll be racing through snow (which is new to the series), mud, dirt, rain and more on your quest to place first in each race.
Most of your races will take place off-road (hence the titles name of course) from rally to trucks and even buggies. Rallycross was easily my favorite race mode and will have that X-Games style to it, others might enjoy the head to head races which will have two racers racing each other at the same time on side by side courses trying to beat each others time (though you wont ever meet in an intersection) and others will really enjoy the new Gymkhana style racing, but more on that later. Tracks can feel completely different with the variants of night racing and weather conditions so youll never feel bored saying oh, this course again?.
As you progress in your career youll unlock new types of racing focusing on different styles and disciplines and even a compound where you can freely train your new skills. Almost every racing game out there has the same progression system in place that has you racing to win money to buy and unlock new cars as you go. Dirt 3 does things quite differently where instead of collecting money to purchase your new rides, youre racing for reputation which will increase your driver level and attracting new sponsors, this giving you more vehicles to ride. Instead of having a garage with all your owned cars, youre given choices of what vehicle you want to race a certain event with based on your driver level and rep. Its a little odd at first wondering why you cant always use your preferred car, but I found most of the cars handled more or less the same (though they can all be tweaked to your racing style).
Youre going to need to learn the tracks intensively if you want to rise in the standings and shave time off your best runs. This will take some time with the different tracks and driving surfaces; for example, taking a hairpin turn on dirt feels completely different than on an iced over road or in mud. Youll crash many times before you learn the small intricacies of perfect speeds and angles for each track and vehicle style. Even though youve slowed down enough to take the turn, you might need to come in at a tighter angle or start drifting sooner to make that perfect slide.
This is where the difficulty changes mentioned earlier comes into play. Dirt 3 has a high learning curve if youre not a racing game enthusiast and this is where the Casual difficulty even let my wife stay competitive racing against me. Casual difficulty with all assists on will almost feel like an arcade racer and youll have to make a server mistake to knock yourself out of a race or crash. For those that are racing legit (sorry Casual setting users, its true) theres a Flashback system in place that weve seen before. This allows you to essentially rewind time and go back to before you started skidding out and lost control. You only have a limited amount of uses of Flashbacks but to promote driving better and not use them, youll get bonus rep for unused Flashbacks.
So whats new to Dirt 3? The biggest addition would have to be the Gymkhana events that are essentially a trick orientated style of driving. It has drifting in it that weve come to know and love, but this freestyle mode has you tricking together insane maneuvers to keep the crowd excited and entertained. Ken Block was really the pioneer of this style of freestyle racing (check out his youtube videos to be amazed) which is why hes also included in the game to teach these maneuvers to you. You get points for linking spins, drifts, breaking targets and more. These moves when stringed together by an expert is so entertaining to watch and its even more exciting to pull off once you master the harsh driving style.
This is where Ill warn you, the Gymkhana maneuvers are extremely difficult to pull off with precision and thats not even taking into account that you need to chain these moves together one after another. You will become frustrated and some of the moves dont feel natural to do (turning the opposite way youre travelling for example), but it is the proper way to do it (in the game and in real life apparently) and will take some time to learn to do properly. With enough dedicated time you will get the hang of it but just be warned that it does have a high learning curve to do properly.
Racing games have let you share your best replays for quite some time with some sort of in-game video editor and share but Dirt 3 will let you link your Youtube account for easy uploading. Now this is a cool feature, but it is extremely limited as youre limited to 30 second clips at a time (and only in 480p), so no full races to show off your perfect run. It will also take up to ten minutes to render and upload, which you have to sit and watch the progress bar instead of it being done in the background as you resume play. You also cant save replays of full races so if you dont upload your clip right away (or after the race is immediately over) or accidently back out, you lose that replay forever. Its a good step in the right direction but with it being so limited and taking an obscene amount of time to upload, I stop using it after a few short replays.
Dirt 3 is a gorgeous looking game. The cars have great detail, the environments (though usually always going by quickly) do look fantastic and detail in general is superb. While I would still put Forza on the top of the pile for graphics in comparison, Dirt 3 definitely can hold its own for the stylish looks. The same goes for the car sounds as itll always sound like you have a beast of a machine taking the tight corners.
Up to eight players can compete online but Split screen and System link are included as well (and are often forgotten). You can customize that style of race you wish to compete in and can even turn on or off options such as forced cockpit view and more.
Dirt 3 has some of the most unique multiplayer modes that Ive ever seen in a racing game though which should be commended. The most unique would have to be the zombie mode. Yes, you heard me right, theres a zombie mode in a racing game. One random car is the infected and needs to slam into other cars to infect others with that last survivor that hasnt been hit being the winner. The Invasion mode will have your team of racers trying to defend earth from robots which needs you run into cardboard cutouts of them while avoiding the cutouts of buildings. Transporter mode was my favorite which is essentially a capture the flag that randomly sets a flag somewhere in the area and it needs to be transported to the final check-in with the person delivering gaining the point.
If youre a Dirt fanatic and have $300 to spend on an insane collector edition, Dirt 3 has you covered. For $300 you will get Dirt 3 (obviously) and a fully assembled Ken Block Gymkhana RC Car that is huge and completely usable to do donuts, drifts and other stunts youll be performing in the game. Its modeled exactly as the car he races (and you will be in-game as well) and from all the videos shown, its an insanely fast RC car. This is no Toys R Us brand car you had as a kid, this is professional grade that can actually enter into RC Gymkhana events, if you have the cash that is.
Just like almost every other game today, youll get a onetime use VIP Pass which will enable the online multiplayer modes and unlock some exclusive cars for new game purchasers. People buying Dirt 3 used will need to shell out 800 Microsoft Points ($10) to enable online and unlock these cars.
While no game is perfect, Dirt 3 is extremely polished and clearly wasnt rushed before it was ready. The only big downfall I have to make note of is the amount and length of loading in the game. Before and after every event youll need to load the race naturally, but its obscenely long for how short some of the races are themselves. I would say its on par with the elevator loading length from Mass Effect its that noticeable; but at least you can slightly move the camera showing off your car while zooming in and out to keep you entertained for the duration.
Dirt 3 is simply a solid racing game. While it may not bring any crazy new features or mechanics, the complete and polished package it brings makes up for it in stride. The different difficulty settings makes Dirt 3 accessible to almost any experience level of gamers and the vast majority of modes will keep your interest and the disc in your tray for some time. Even if youre not a huge fan of the genre, you wont go wrong with Dirt 3 as it really will have something for almost everyones style and tastes.
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
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Thor: God of Thunder
Another one of Stan Lees characters has come to life in the movie medium and because of that we also get the tie-in video game to go along with it. The Thor character from the comics has been around for almost half a century and Thors been in many a battle on Earth and in the Nine Worlds. I just saw the movie this weekend and thought it was decent considering I was never into his lore or comics growing up with Chris Hemsworth doing an amazing job portraying the God of Thunder.
Well, thats about the entire amount of good things I have to say about Thor youre going to read in this review. Here we have once again a rushed game movie tie-in that is the exact reason that movie to game adaptations have a horrible reputation (other than the very few titles that seemed to work out; Spiderman Im looking at you).
The front of the box denotes that the game features the likeness of Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) as if thats going to be the deciding factor in your purchase. Yes they look like them from the movie and are apparently voice by them also, but the quality of voice acting in the whole game makes me question if it was rushed or even planned ahead of time.
Youll be battling to save Asgard from destruction with a new storyline created specifically for the game (but also set in the same universe as the movie), but dont let that fool you; you wont really care what happens to Thors home world after a few hours of trying to control him. Youll quickly see how rushed and unpolished the game is once your simply a few fights into the game.
You need to know first off that this isnt just a retelling of the movies plot, so I guess one upside is that there is no spoilers (though why youd buy this and not see the movie first is beyond me). The story is somewhat of a prequel to the movie though many events in the game make absolutely no sense if they were to carry over into the movie storyline. Because of this, developer Liquid Entertainment was able to have more locals and worlds that arent seen in the movie. Dont let this fool you though, many worlds are simply a pallet swap and the ice world is essentially the same thing as fire and so on with enemies that do the same things but look different.
Asgard is invaded by frost giants at the very beginning and Thor needs to repel the invaders after Sif is killed in the pandemonium. This should have been a major plot spin later in the game but because of the horrible voice acting all around, I simply didnt even care what happened. Youll travel from world to world trying to find the leaders that will pay. If youre a fan of the comics then youll at least enjoy that Surtur, Ymir and more of Thors enemies will be shown in the game; the downfall is that youll actually have to play the game to see and battle them. Because every action in the game essentially ignores and negates what happens in the movie, it almost feels as if there is no point. Having a strong story leading up to the start of the movie would have been a fantastic ploy for Thor fans to pick up the game, even if it wasnt a triple A title.
Now if the gameplay was amazing or unique, I could give the horrible story and voice acting a pass; unfortunately though I think you know the answer. Thor is essentially a hack and slash thats simply trying too hard to mimic a God of War style gameplay. Youre Thor with the mighty hammer Mjolnir but itll feel as if youre swinging around a stick with no sense of power whatsoever. Even your strongest attacks will almost always miss or feel like they do no damage at all.
Thors legendary hammer is supposed to be something of almost limitless power, yet the smallest enemies will take multiple hits to simply defeat. You will have control of the Lightning, Thunder and Wind elements to help Thor but these special powers that use their own meter that needs refilling also feels very weak also. As for regular combat, the biggest problem lies in the hit detection boxes. Many attacks will have you completely guessing if they are hitting or not, in-air moves are almost completely useless (except for larger bosses, but that is even debatable) and while you have a vast selection of moves and combos at your disposal, once you find a single one or two you like (and that actually work) youll essentially be spamming that sequence the whole game. Moves will look cool but lacks a large amount of polish (and fixing obviously).
Poor camera and glitches will also frustrate you in combat. Trying to do a specific combo such as X, X, X, X, Y for example will almost never work as it seems theres a lag on the input of button presses. Couple this with having to deal with a block that rarely works and a dodge that isnt actually fast enough to dodge and you can see why frustration levels will rise. While smaller enemies will react when hit it seems bosses will barely even flinch at anything that hits them so youll always be guessing if youre actually doing it properly or not.
Speaking of boss fights, youll be facing many large enemies in specific sections of the game that are as cheap as they come. First you need to hit them enough to break their armor off (which is guesswork at best) and once they are vulnerable you are able to grab them to start a somewhat quicktime event sequence. You are able to normally attack to get some health back or you can decide to do a massive damaging attack on the boss; this is of course if you are quick enough for the incredibly small window youre given to input a command. Youll also be able to on some bosses climb them to their shoulders to damage or destroy some of their armor. This again has a very small window open in which you need to press the specific button or youll get knocked off. Youll have to spam the grapple button on a vulnerable boss due to the small icon to show that the boss is ready to be climbed being so small that it almost blends in (providing you are able to tame the camera).
As Thor defeats enemies youll earn Valor points which can be spent to acquire new powers, weapon upgrades, health boosts and more. Yes, its exactly like every other progression system out there for this genre. When you do eventually level up and gain new abilities, things dont necessarily become easier as enemies will still interrupt you mid combo and when you need to interact with an object. While you can build Thor to suit your play style, I found very quickly that if you dont have a few key specific skills in the latter portion of the game, youre in for even more frustration.
Sometimes Thor will need to scale a wall but it needs to be done in a specific spot that has a glowing ledge. The issue is that the glowing spot is almost always impossible to see unless youre specifically looking for it, which is usually once you get stuck and cant figure out where to go. Camera issues will also make Thor plummet many times off cliffs and ledges (though you simply get back onto the ledge automatically and dont die). Whats that you say? Thor can fly? Well yes, in very specific spots in the game youll have to input a button press to make him fly to the next area or platform, but you dont actually do any flying yourself. Sometimes he flys long distances and others hes hopping a small gap. Why Thor cant fly whenever he want makes no sense, but hey, its a movie game, I shouldnt be expecting something as the lore to be correct right?
A few other nuances standout such as opening doors will require you to hold a button for 5 seconds or so which feels very unnecessary (especially when theres a door right behind the one you just opened). The boat sequences about half way through the game is terrible and completely out of nowhere. It really doesnt feel Thor worthy when he should be able to simply fly wherever he wants to go.
Sega may have gotten ahold of some of the character models and designs but the rest of the games graphics are so amateur that it brings the whole experience down (not including texture load-in issues and frame drops). The worlds could have been very unique looking and have a distinct feel to them but they all feel the same and bland level design will make you want to finish it soon as you can rather than explore the lush worlds.
To be honest, I cant tell you how the music was in the game at all, everything else and Thors hammer drowns out everything else that I dont remember any music at all. As a whole package, even to diehard Thor fans, I cant recommend God of Thunder to anyone.
You control a character that looks like Thor but you wont feel like him in any way. Youll fight generic enemies in bland levels in a game that feels like it came off a generic brawler production line without any quality inspections along the way. There is a 3D option for those earlier TV adopters out there but that wont even be a saving grace as the camera issues constantly have you struggling to figure out where you are in relation to the other enemies the whole time.
Surprisingly Thor is a lengthy twelve to fifteen hour game but its so unnecessarily stretched out that it really could have been a 4 hour game without all the useless filler. This is of course counting all the restarts from cheap bosses, falling into pits or water (yea, a God cant swim)and aimless wandering trying to figure out where you are supposed to go because you dont see that ledge with the miniscule glowing edge on it.
This really makes me wonder if Sega is going to screw up the Captain America game as well. Ill do you a favor; save the $60 from not buying the game and go see the Thor movie 5 times instead; youll get much more enjoyment out of it.
Suggestions: Sega, please stop putting this garbage out.
Overall Score: 2.0 / 10
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Shift 2 Unleashed
Ever sped down a road or highway way faster than you were supposed to or taken a corner with more speed than you should have, making the wheel squeal just a little bit? That adrenaline rush you get that comes with speed is what Shift 2 is trying to recreate with some interesting new mechanics to help convey speed.
Every game needs something a little special to stand out against the competition. Forza has the ultra-realistic simulation in its back pocket and Burnout has the true arcade experience going for them, so whats left? Well, Shift 2 Unleashed will bring you into the cockpit of the cars and actually take over through the eyes of the driver. Now, this isnt the standard in-dash view that many racing games have, this is a true Helmet View where you will actually be looking out the helmet of your driver through their eyes. This will include all the bouncing, shaking and eye movement that actually happens when you race. This view is completely disconnected with the cockpit itself and youll even look into the turns as if you were actually driving so that you look where you want to go. It sounds odd, and it is at first, but once used to it theres truly no other way to play Shift 2 as its a much more engaging experience.
Career mode is much like any other racing game; pick your first cheap car, race, win money, upgrade and buy new cars then repeat. Its a tried and true system that always has you working towards progressing but it is like almost every other racer out there in regards to the career. Youll have a large selection of cars to choose from where most are unique from each other with a plethora of makes and models youll recognize by looks alone. Racer Vaughn Gittin Jr. will be your guide through career and will constantly be giving you advice (though sometimes completely useless and obvious nuggets of wisdom). Actual footage of him will be spliced in and it sometimes just comes across as odd and out of place.
The XP system from Shift returns, but improved in the sequel; youll gain extra xp from driving well, mastering corners and courses, leading for full laps and driving clean. Leveling will net you new rides, paint and part unlocks, and new events to test your skills on. With enough experience and cash, youll be able to convert a modest road car into a racing beast.
Customization can be done through upgrades and tuning your ride. Youre able to change parts for almost every section of your car for visuals and performance. If you dont really want to get too deep into it, you can buy an ultimate upgrade package that will transform your simple car into a track worthy competitor. Doing so will also change the ranking of your car though called the performance index (categorized from D to A). The better parts you put into your car the higher your PI will raise, making races and opponents more difficult. This means you cant simply upgrade your car to an A class and think youre going to bowl over the competition; they will also be in the same category as you.
The faster the car (and higher the PI number) the better youre going to have to drive. Youll need to brake at every turn, slow down sooner and be mindful of the competition around you. One wrong move and youll be sliding into the dirt or wall. With racing lines on, youll learn very quickly that you need to ease into braking turns and while there may not be weather effects like rain and snow, the new night races will challenge even the most veteran racers.
Autolog made its debut in the previous Need For Speed game returns this time that is its own self-contained social network of all your friends. Autolog will constantly remind you that your friends have beaten your best laps and times and show you what car (and PI) they used to do it with so that you can see why your best time was halved. Just like in Hot Pursuit, youre able to share screenshots and send challenges, but it didnt feel as incorporated as a whole or as easy to access as it was previously. Multiplayer modes are par the course with up to 12 players online competing across different modes.
Just like the first Shift, youll be racing in streets, famous courses and of course drifting as well. I once again found the drifting extremely difficult to control; to the point of avoiding those events all together as youll be unable to even keep your drift car going in a straight line most of the time. Youll need many hours of practice to become proficient in the art of drifting as its very unforgiving to the inexperienced.
If youre a car enthusiast youll want to crank up the volume since every car sounds unique and you can easily tell the difference between your average car and a supped-up racing machine without the distraction of music that will most likely not be to your liking anyways. Hearing the engines wail and the wheels screeching in tight corners is always a pleasant audio experience.
While Shift 2 may not be as sim-heavy as Forza or arcade-like as Burnout, it does cut out its own groove in the genre with its amazing helmet cam and driving aids that can be toggled to suit any racers experience or play style. Helmet Cam is what sets Shift 2 apart from other racers out there as its unique and for someone like myself that usually uses the furthest back camera, even I really enjoyed this new 2 is able to hold its own as a racing experience and Autolog will have you racing courses repeatedly to try and best everyone on your friends list. Career mode will take up to a dozen hours to complete and online multiplayer modes will always be there for when you want a change of pace. Autolog and Helmet Cam is Shift 2s saving grace, because without it, it would simply feel like almost any other racer out there, luckily youll now be able to experience the track through the eyes of the driver for the first time.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
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Portal 2
Portal has come a long way over the years. Originally it was a small team that came up with the portal design and as soon as Valve saw it they hired them almost on the spot. Fast forward to 2007 and the release of The Orange Box. While the value in the package alone was amazing, Portal (albeit short) was so polished and memorable that it stood out among the long awaited Half Life 2 Episode Two and even Team Fortress 2. Portal was a puzzle game unlike any other weve seen before. It had charm, wit, character development, superb writing, an unforgettable ending song and even trained you to think about puzzles in a whole new way.
While I was excited to learn of a sequel to Portal (GLaDOS was Still Alive of course) I was more curious to see if it would be able to recapture that magic the original had and make it a llonger game without simply feeling like a map pack or add on. We saw everything that could be done with two portals right? What else could Valve possible come up with to make a full-fledged sequel and make it stand on its own two legs (or tripod!) this time? Simply: yes and quite easily with more substance as well.
Portal 2 boasts a larger cast that will personify exactly what amazing writing and astounding voice acting married into one package is all about. Yes, the core gameplay is exactly the same and what you came to love: Shoot blue portal here, put orange portal up there, leap through one and come through the other but there are many more tricks this time around which Ill get into shortly. While Portal was difficult for a number of reasons, the original forced you to have impeccable timing and almost twitch-like reflexes for a few of the puzzles. Luckily those types of puzzles are gone, but that doesnt mean anything has been dumbed down in the slightest. Youll still be dumbfounded at why you cant figure a puzzle out only to instantly feel like a genius moments later when that light bulb goes off in your head and you solve it like the great test subject you are. There isnt many puzzle games Ive played that made me feel so stupid for getting stuck then like I could solve anything once I do so often.
It seems like Chell didnt exactly escape at the end of Portal, as youll wake up in familiar surroundings only to realize youre still a prisoner testing for GLaDOS in the Aperture Science laboratories. It seems GLaDOS didnt take too kindly to being killed previously and is now going to make sure you suffer by testing you until you cant go on any longer, all while constantly demoralizing and poking fun at you in some of the most entertaining one liners that youll remember for quite some time.
Youll come across some new characters and I wont really go much more in depth into the plot as it was such a delight uncovering each step that I dont wish to ruin it for anyone, but its an absolute blast to play through learning more about GLaDOS and Aperture as a whole. Youll even meet a new friend at the beginning that wants to help you escape; Wheatley (voiced to perfection by Stephen Merchant) is a spherical AI that in a very short time will become the favorite of most with his personality and lines. Hes the comic relief and he will become just as memorable as GLaDOS herself by the time youre done the single player journey.
As much as I enjoy figuring out the constant steam of puzzles back to back, I was honestly looking forward to playing more for the constant humor and dialogue after every successful solution. Wanting to hear more from GLaDOS and Wheatley is what kept me playing just one more puzzle rather than the puzzles themselves. The pacing in Portal 2 is brilliant and youre always working towards something be it story progression, constant promises from GLaDOS or the next creative puzzle.
As I mentioned earlier, theres more new stuff to Portal 2 to make the puzzles more interesting and challenging. The most noteworthy is the new addition of blue, orange and white gel. This goo will usually be streaming out of a pipe and need to be utilized to solve puzzles in a whole new way than before. Blue gel will make any surface its on become bouncy like a trampoline (not only for you, but for objects like cubes as well), orange gel is a slick surface that when coated will propel you forward at high velocity, and finally the white gel is for use when theres no portal-able (I guess thats a word now!) surfaces and can be used as a surface once coated to place a portal onto. It takes some time to get used to how to use these new gels properly, but once you get the hand of it, it will eventually become second nature to your puzzle solving.
New to the world of Aperture Science is cooperative multiplayer finally! Now I thought this would be pretty simple with each player having one portal and having to work together, but theyve made it quite challenging with both players having their own two portals, making 4 portals at once total. Now think for a moment when you were playing Portal and got stuck trying to figure out how to do things with 2 portals.yea, now double that.
That being said, some of the co-op puzzles are simply going to need two players to figure some of these larger scale tests out. Almost every single one as well needs both players working in unison and you arent simply able to piggyback someone through. Both players will need to be pulling their own weigh when it comes to these tests. Throwing a portal underneath your friend and having him come out the other side into a pit is quite hilarious, but remember, hes able to do the same, or even take away that light bridge youre standing on at any moment. While you will kill each other quite often (usually by accident), sometimes seeing them plummet will actually help you figure out what you are supposed to do to solve the task at hand. GLaDOS will also constantly be trying to pit you against each other by complimenting one or the other and offers its own dynamic and humor along with it.
While its recommended and great to play with a friend and headsets, Valve has included simple ways for strangers to communicate even without headsets. Youre able to place a marker anywhere to indicate to the other person to put their portal here or even start a 3 second countdown for those time sensitive moments. Its very well done and the co-op design is so fantastic that you could play this for the first time with a stranger and most likely progress (provided you are good test subjects of course).
The original Portal was about a 3 to 5 hour journey and I was worried the sequel would simply be the same thing or the opposite where it would be dragged on to make it seem longer than it actually was. Luckily youre going to get your money and times worth with Portal 2. Single player will take you at least a half dozen or more hours to complete depending on your speed of solutions of course and co-op will at least double that. Id say thats a fantastic conversion from an add-in game to its own title.
Youre not going to find better writing, dialogue, and perfect voice acting anywhere else. The script is so brilliant and was the single reason I kept playing. The wit and humor is so amazing that youll be laughing out loud at some of the one liners thrown your way. Im elated that it wasnt just a longer drawn out Portal experience and has its own merits to be a game all of its own. The only mechanic or feature I thought was grossly missing was a leaderboard or ghost system so you could see and compare how you do to your friends and others. Not having it doesnt draw away from the game in any way, but it would have been awesome to see some speed run times to try and compare myself to. If you ejjoyed Portal, youre going to love Portal 2 that much more for a number of reasons. Even if you werent the biggest Portal fan, I still suggesting owning one of the better puzzle games with charm youll play all year. Ive got my plushy companion cube, now I need a plushy Wheatley!
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
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Rio
Its almost that time of year; Summer, when the weather gets gorgeous and the blockbuster movies start to come out. Before the big rush of movies hit, sometimes theres a few that sneak ahead in the Spring to beat the rush of movie overload. Rio is one of those earlier Spring movies that has just released. In the movie youll go along an adventure with Blu, a Macaw whos an endangered animal and is on his way to Rio to meet Jewel, the only other bird of his species left. Shortly after they meet they are kidnapped by some smugglers and thus the adventure begins.
Now Ill admit, I havent seen the movie yet myself, but I do plan on it as I enjoy the color animated movies that are geared towards kids but always have enough adult humor in it to make it enjoyable. I know what youre thinking as well, Oh boy, a movie game, right? Well, that was my first thought as well before playing the game, luckily THQ has taking a slightly different approach to making a movie tie-in game that never seems to please.
Rio the game is not like most movie games where its a retelling of the story for the most parts and clearly rushed to make the movies release date. Instead, THQ has brought all the movies colorful characters and locales together in a mini-game centered experience for your kids. Much like other party games, this one too will have you doing quick games of different objectives to win points and climb the leaderboards. You can play as Blu or other characters (though no character has any advantage over one another) from the movie in your journey to win first place at the Carnaval ceremony by yourself or with 3 of your friends (complete with drop in and out play). The colors are vibrant just like the movie depicts and the character and humor hasnt seemed to have been lost in the translation to video game format either. Oddly enough, I want to see the movie more now after playing the game.
Four people will be able to play together from a choice of six playable characters (Blu, Jewel, Nico, Eva, Pedro and Raphael) from the movie across 40 different mini games (Note: the 360 version has 3 exclusive mini games to set itself apart from the other versions, though it never said in game anywhere which levels were the special ones). The jump in and out option allows kids to easily join or leave games and most are quite easy to pick up and play without much button memorization at all.
Along with the 40 mini games are five different game modes to keep things going; Story, Party, Carnaval Wheel, Garland Gala, and Carnaval Dance. Oddly though, the mode names give you no hint at what mode entails what and can be confusing, especially for younger ones playing.
Story mode wont actually take you through the story of the movie (theres actually very little to do with the movie plot in the game) but instead youll play three matches in an area and if youre the top winner, youll move onto the next area with three different matches to play. You wont play every mini game in this mode in one go, but the majority of them will be seen. Youll get a quick little clip from a scene in the movie, but what impressed me was that the clip was in true HD, where some clips have artifacts and low quality; these are amazing looking here and look straight from the movie.
Party mode can be done with a vs or team based mode enabled and then also optional quiz trivia at the end of events as well. Youre able to pick 5, 10, or 20 events and the person with the highest leaderboard score wins. If you opt for +quiz, youll be given two trivia questions after each event, some will be basic and others will test your deepest knowledge of the movie itself (which is why yould likely be buying the game anyways). Some questions are about Rio and the area itself and the other are about the movie and characters. The quiz questions are simply for fun (and achievements!).
Carnaval Wheel is essentially a roulette wheel youll spin that randomly picks a mini game to play and the set value of points for winning the game. Garland Gala is essentially the first to a set number of points of random games where Carnaval Dance mode is where you play games to gain dancers for your respective line; the first player to hit the set amount of dancers wins. So while theres different styles and modes to play, the names of the modes themselves wont give any indication of what it entaisl until you start playing.
With 40 games to play, youll be doing many things from kicking soccer balls, avoiding boxes, throwing mud balls, shooting marmots and more. A good portion of games are a slight variation of each other though, so youll be doing much of the same stuff in different areas or a slight twist on the game type. There are some quite entertaining games though; my favorite being Wash Your Worries Away that has each player running around gathering mud balls to throw at other players to make them dirty. At set intervals youll need to stand on a geyser hole and hopefully pick the right one that will wash you clean. The first one to be completely clean wins, so hopefully no one throws those mud balls at you!
I was surprised that this movie title derived from the same old (and mostly failed) path of trying to recreate the movie, but instead went the mini game route. Aside from two or three games (Im looking at you memorization and music mini games), all the activities are easy to learn and younger kids should have no problems for the most part enjoying themselves and feel like their playing properly. This isnt the party game youll bring out when your friends are over, this is the game your kids will play to keep them entertained for a few hours, even more so if they have seen and enjoyed the movie itself.
What THQ has done perfectly though is offer Rio the game at a discounted price. The stores Ive seen it in were priced at $29.99 rather than the standard $50 and up. I hope this starts a trend, especially with titles like this that generally have a stigma about them. Rio is a game that parents and kids can play together and with it being offered at the discounted price its not a bad deal, but dont expect to find much tie-in with the movie aside from the characters and setting.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
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Knights Contract
Every now and then theres a game thats not on my radar but when you pick it up and play it based on reviews or recommendation and are absolutely blown away with how you didnt know of the game beforehand. My big game last year that this happened to me with was Enslaved from Namco and it turned out be to be one of my favorite games last year. Knights Contract arrived on my doorstep and I saw it was from Bandai and was hoping that lightning would strike twice in regards to playing a game I never even had on my radar turning out to be amazing. It didnt.
Knights Contract will have you hack and slashing your way through waves of enemies all while trying to keep your acquaintance alive. You are Heinrich, an immortal executioner that used to behead witches that were being brought to justice. Youll be escorting Gretchen, a witch you executed 100 years ago, which also happens to be the same witch that cursed you with immortality after that fateful day. Together, Heinrich will use his massive scythe/hammer hybrid to beat down foes while Gretchen uses her deadly magic spells to aid in battle.
Heinrich used to be a simple executioner that followed the orders of Faust, a dictator whose power hungry and wont stop for anything to rid the world of witches. Youre ordered to kill a certain witch named Gretchen for a crime that she was clearly innocent of. Because Heinrich tried to speak up against Faust, Gretchen bestowed a curse of immortality against Heinrich, knowing one day that he would aid her on her quest.
Heinrich over the past one hundred years since that day has quickly learned that he does not want the burden of being immortal. Eventually Heinrich and Gretchen cross paths by coincidence and thus begin their intertwined quest together to help her save humanity and stopping Faust. Gretchen needs help stopping other witches that have broken their oath of Witchcraft ever since Faust has turned them against all humans for what theyve done to them in the past. While the writing itself wont win any awards by a long shot, the story itself is somewhat decent once you realize whats going on. Sadly though, the voice acting will bring down the whole emotional aspect that was intended to engage the player into the plot.
You directly control Heinrich with his movement and attacks, yet you also control Gretchens attacks (but not movement unfortunately). The main four buttons control Heinrichs attacks but you can hold down the trigger to toggle Gretchens magic abilities. Youll need to eventually become quick enough to use a magic spell then use a finisher with Heinrich, but youll be spamming the attack buttons so often and quickly that its often difficult to do it on purpose when needed. Battles are often and quite quickly paced. Some battles are completely too easy while others are frustratingly difficult. Getting Gretchen to cast the spells where and when you want will take a little getting used to as every spell and will take some effort to do properly; most of the time your spell will miss and be wasted though unless youre right on top of the enemy you want to hit. Gretchens magic is powerful and absolutely crazy looking but Heinrichs attack move list is deep. Well, thats on paper, because sure theres a ton of different combos you can do, but youre going to find a combo that works best for you and just keep repeating it throughout the game for the most part as its not terribly complex. Killing enemies will yield orbs that can be used to upgrade different spells for more damage and other effects, just exactly like God of War.
Heres how every level is going to play out: Fight minions, fight a big guy or two, repeat this a few times, save your friend, mini boss, minions again, boss and then quick time event (QTE) to finish off the boss. Now the biggest aggravation youll experience in the game is going to be finishing off the boss with the QTE. Fail the QTE and the boss heals and you get to start the process all over again. This wouldnt be too terrible if it wasnt for the fact that the opening you have to input the requested button press in the QTE is so quick that most players will inevitably fail them quite a few times until learned by memory.
What makes having to redo bosses so terrible is Gretchens AI. While you dont control her movement technically, youll need to constantly carry her where you want her to go because if you dont, shell stand in lava, fire or anything else that could easily get her killed. This is made worse on boss fights where there are constantly things on the ground that needs to be avoided. Carrying her around will regain health for Gretchen and is a necessity for keeping her from killing herself against enemies. Due to this, the majority of the game comes down to an escort quest and you constantly need to manage and babysit her rather than enjoy the combat the game was built around. If she dies, the game is over; if you die you have to mash the A button an obscene amount of times to get back up.
I dont generally like to harp on a games shortcomings, but thats usually when theres more positives then negatives and isnt an 8+ hour escort mission. There is massive screen tearing, horrendous and non-believable voice acting that give characters no personality whatsoever, lip syncing that ironically isnt synced, bosses that become bugged and float mid-air, and consistently unnecessary long loading screens if you dont have the game installed.
Youll constantly get lost in levels as you sometimes need to backtrack, or there are multiple paths that lead nowhere or loop around. Theres no waypoint of where to go and sometimes if you dont pay attention to what is said, you wont have an idea where to start going. Couple this with a camera youll be fighting the whole time and youve got a formula for a frustrating experience.
The finishers and a somewhat interesting story might keep some playing, but infuriating boss battle restarts due to QTE failures will challenge the most stubborn gamers. Gretchens AI feels like she just came off the short bus and wouldnt even be able to cross a road on her own without getting hit. Enemies are all exactly the same for the most part but in a fire level you fight fire guys, in the ice level its just a variant of the same mobs.
I didnt understand Heinrichs desire to regain mortality initially, but after a few hours of having to babysit Gretchen, youll soon realize why he wants to be put out of his misery. Knights Contract has a cool premise by design but an abysmal AI completely defeats the purpose and chance at having any fun within.
Overall Score: 4.0 / 10
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Stacking
I remember going to my grandmas as a kid and always being fascinated with her collection of these wooden dolls that stacked into one another. Matryoshkas (or babushka) are a set of Russian nesting dolls that are usually cylindrical in shape, and split open horizontally half way and allow smaller ones to stack inside of it. The ones I used to play with usually had 6 to 8 or so in a set but they can be as small or large as the creators choose.
Appropriately named; Stacking, is the newest title brought to us from Double Fine Productions and Tim Schafer; who of course was the mastermind behind brilliant titles like Psychonauts, Brutal Legend and Costume Quest. If Double Fine shines at something, its most definitely bring completely unique and hilarious games.
Stacking in essence is a puzzle game that requires players to use increasingly larger dolls unique abilities to solve unique challenges. Everything is played out in the classic silent film style that has no voice acting ala the Lego titles with an overlaying orchestral score that sets the mood for each scene. Just like in the Lego titles, you wont even notice that theres no voice acting due to how well the characters are represented and emote as well as they do. Even better, the dolls have no limbs and they are still able to convey what they are trying to say to get their point across. Just like a great book, youll have voices in your head for each character you come across.
You are Charlie, the smallest and youngest in the Blackmore family. Set in the industrial age, youre father comes home telling the whole family that all their money problems have been solved with a new job he just got. Weeks pass and father never returns home and because of it the bills havent been paid. Now the whole family must pay off the debt to The Baron and is forced into slavery to repay, which is of course other than Charlie simply because hes too small to be useful. Because of Charlies lacking stature, hes got a unique ability to stack into and control other dolls while using their abilities. Now it is up to Charlie to find out where his lost family members are being held and worked so that he can save them and reunite his whole family.
You control Charlie Blackmore and its your job to solve puzzles so that you can rescue your family. If you sneak up behind a doll and its only one size bigger than the doll youre currently controlling, you are able to stack into it thus becoming a larger doll and gaining new abilities. Some abilities will allow you to unlock doors, smack people, belch, sprint and even more odd and unique specialties. These abilities will allow you to progress and solve puzzles in unique ways; you may even need to stack certain types of dolls in order to combine their skills.
You start your journey in the Royal Train Station and as you unlock new levels youll gain access to them through this hub that youll constantly be coming back to. This design allows the player to learn small areas at a time without becoming overwhelmed with a huge area all at once. Every puzzle you come across to progress will actually have multiple solutions to solve it. Some solutions are quite simple and straight forward while others are quite convoluted and very out there. So while theres no one right way to solve a puzzle, theres a solution that everyone should be able to figure out regardless of how you play. While casual players will figure out the simplest solutions, others will take dedicated players to figure out.
This is where the games challenge comes in; trying to solve each missions various puzzles in different ways. For example, say theres a guard blocking a door that you need to get into (and some dolls are block from stacking into for obvious reasons), this is where the problem solving comes into play. Do you stack into the beautiful woman and flirt with the guard to get him to move, or do you pick the large guy whose ability it is to fart, thus making the guard move in a more aggressive manner. This is just an example out of many solutions that will constantly have you thinking of new ways to solve the puzzles tasked to Charlie. If you ever get stuck you are able to unlock hints for each puzzle if you get stuck or simply cant think of any other way to solve the mission. The problem with this is that theres nothing you need to spend to unlock hints, so you can literally get the solution given to you (other than having to wait a short time between hints) whenever you wish. This does take some of the fun out of the game as its too easy to cheat and youll complete the game without any challenge unless youre certain to not use the hint system.
Other than multiple solutions, there are also Hi-jinks that can be completed for those that want to put more time into the game. These Hi-jinks can only be done with certain dolls, but will require you to do a set amount of ability actions to other dolls. For example, you might have to find the doll that does a glove slap and slap 15 other dolls to complete the Hi-jinks. While its not always the most exciting, it does add some more time into Stacking for those that love the ambiance and gameplay.
While the story and missions are set in a linear fashion, Charlie can choose how he wants to do missions. You can easy blow through the story in a few hours even without cheating, but youll add much more time if you do the puzzles with each of the different solutions. Some people will have issues with it being short, but as long as you play it as intended, by solving the puzzles in multiple ways, youll easily get your money out of Stacking.
It may be short, but what it makes up in is an absolute unique experience with an amazing art direction filled with humor that only Shafer could come up with. Clever writing, amazing story telling and unique characters will have you remembering Stacking for quite some time to come after youve saved your family. No game is even remotely like Stacking when you compare all of the elements involved in crafting such a wonderful experience, though this seems to be an ongoing trend with Double Fine games. Stacking is absolutely worth the price of admission, and just like their games beforehand, will be remembered fondly of for years to come for its unique experience.
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
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Dragon Age 2
It feels like its been a long time since Ive finished and absolutely enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins, yet its only been a little over a year. It was expected that a sequel would come out shortly after considering how well the first game did, though I wasnt expecting it this soon. Now Dragon Age 2 is here finally, though despite the 2 in the title, it feels almost like a different game.
You dont continue your quest from Origins; instead you are now a completely new protagonist that takes place in the same era and setting. Dragon Age 2 (DA2) tries to be a sleeker and more streamlined experience that emphasizes on gratification in smaller but more frequent doses.
Rather than a huge undertaking and becoming the savior of the world like in Origins, DA2 feels much more like a hometown adventurer trying to make a name for themselves in a much smaller area. Just like how the difference in the two Mass Effect games changed from slower pace and tactical to almost a quicker paced shooter, thats how it feels like in DA2. Everything is much more streamlined and faster paced, but this might alienate the fans that loved how the first game played. Tactical control is still there for those that want it, but its completely unnecessary now that DA2 is more of an action-RPG rather than a tactical one.
If you have a saved game from Origins (and Awakening) you are able to import your save when starting DA2 which will bring over any decisions and outcomes that youve completed over the course of the games. While you cant import really much else, its entertaining to see events that transpired in the first game be referenced to based on what you decided while playing.
Unlike the Origins, you play as a human named Hawke (just like how Shepard was always the name of the protagonist in Mass Effect) and choose whether to be a mage, rogue or warrior (and male or female). DA2s story begins essentially as Origins is finishing, with Hawke fleeing Lothering due to being destroyed by Darkspawn. You need to get your family to the next known safe haven city Kirkwall. As you arrive, you find that the city has been closed due to the flood of Ferelden refugees.
Hawke starts as just another citizen but will eventually become the Champion of Kirkwall; the first section of the game is explaining (with you playing and determining the choices) how Hawke got to that point. The story telling is done in an interesting manner where your friend Varric is being interrogated by a mysterious Chantry Seeker named Cassandra trying to find the whereabouts of Hawke. As Varric tells his story, sometimes hell embellish what actually happened and you get to play a sequence where youll be killing Darkspawn in one hit and making them explode before Cassandra interrupts and wants the truth of what really happened (where youll replay the section being much harder of course).
One thing youll notice instantly is that DA2 doesnt do a very good job at explaining what actually happened in Origins (and Awakening). Sure you get some of the basics, but if youve never played the first game, youre going to be confused what a Grey Warden is, where Darkspawn emanate from, what the Fade is, and simply the sheer scale of how important the champion from the first game was in relation to saving the world. My wife who was watching me play (and didnt while playing Origins) kept asking whos that or so what happened before? when certain events were referenced as if you are supposed to know (or remember).
The majority of DA2s story will take place in and around Kirkwall. This makes the story feel more community driven and that youre supposed to care for your new home town, but it also makes the sheer epicness of Hawkes story seem downplayed and nowhere near as important as it was in Origins. Youll sometimes wonder what the main overlaying plot is at times, and it does get tied together at points, but there are long gaps between plot narratives that can make some lose overall interest in the overlaying story. Instead of crossing the continent to take on the Archdemon like in Origins, youll be taking sides of different factions within the cities and doing many errands which simply didnt feel as important or encompassing.
The biggest game changes in the sequel would have to be the combat, skill trees, dialogue wheel, and the way the story is told. Lets begin with the combat as its what youll be doing for the majority of gameplay. As mentioned before, fans of the tactical style Origins excelled at can still be done on a whim whenever you please for absolute control of your characters in battle, but honestly aside from a few boss fights, I never needed to (though I played a warrior).
As a warrior, I was able to play the whole game (combat) as a button masher (though obviously toggling buffs and skills as I went) without much need for tactics. Theres a new mechanic called cross-class combos which allow party members to debuff and then exploit openings on enemies for massive damage. Each class can eventually debuff an enemy that another class can exploit easily to take down hoards of enemies quickly. Rogues can leave an opening for warriors to do massive damage, warriors can leave enemies open for mage spells which they can leave an opening for a rogue to finish them off. If you do use the tactic style of gameplay youll make use of these exploits quite often but I found I never really needed them until later on against much harder enemies and bosses.
Single you wont be crossing the world on a massive quest, youll actually be spending most of your time within the walls of Kirkwall in the slums and underground dungeons. Yes youll venture out into the mountains and marshes sometimes though not very often unless youre doing many sidequests. Youll be backtracking and visiting the same areas over and over again looking for new items for quest or whatnot. Because of this, the world in DA2 feels extremely small once you visit the same dungeon or area for the fourth time. Youll quickly learn your way around Kirkwall because of the repetition, but dungeons being constantly recycled was quite a downer. Oh, I have to go back there.again?
As you fight enemies and finally clear a batch blocking your way through, more waves will spawn either right on top of you or behind you out of thin air. This can make it hard to round around and place your team exactly where you want them, as the battlefield could change as soon as a certain wave of enemies is complete. Oh, and you see that bag of money on the ground you want to pick up? You cant until every enemy in the vicinity is cleared. Ive actually not picked up quite a bit of loot because Ill go to loot something but cant because something just spawned and I have to clear them before doing so; fair enough. I kill the wave but then another wave appears (out of nowhere) way up ahead, so I need to go kill them. After I do Ive either long forgotten about the loot in the first place or dont want to backtrack to get the coin and items. Its a good thing I never need to buy many upgrades as I always forgot to go back for loot (until the next jaunt through the same area later on). You can see where this annoyance is going.
Youre going to notice pretty early on that you also cant upgrade any of your partys armor, only weapons and accessories. While this doesnt seem like a big deal, and Im sure it was done to make things more streamlined, it feels like a downfall as I dont really have much customization outside of Hawkes armor. It took a while to actually figure out until I saw every armor piece will always say Hawke only. Youll find some upgrades for your party as in theyll get bonuses to specs, but youll unfortunately never be dressing them how you wish or giving them hand-me-downs.
Leveling this time around has also been changed (though I prefer the skill tree method now) for the better. As you level, youll have attribute points to spend into the main stats like strength, dexterity, willpower, magic, cunning and constitution much like more and Bioware has done a great job at explaining what each stat does (and your current bonus) for your character and how it will affect them. Youll also gain skill points to put into a skill-tree to build your character exactly how you want to play them. For example, my warrior uses a one handed weapon and a shield, so I dumped all my early points into that spec to make them a better tank. Eventually I branched out and learned skills (activated and passive) from other trees becoming a much better rounded character overall. You can determine what role you want to play and what skills to learn whenever you wish. By the time you max level, youll have more than enough points to learn almost every skill, but its all about how you develop your character as you go.
Obviously inspired by Mass Effect, the dialogue wheel returns with much more emphasis on choosing what you want, not just simply the good, bad and neutral choices. Amazing voiced as always, conversations can be quite entertaining themselves and sometimes youll see the good, bad, neutral choices, but many of the times youll have to actually decide on your own on how to progress the conversation without the visual aids. All your choices will affect how your teammates feel towards you which can then make them a true friend or rival (which they then receive a strong bonus either way).
All these changes make it feel like Bioware is trying to appeal to a broader and newer audience rather than quench the thirst of the original fans. I know I felt a little disappointed to be playing the majority of combat as a hack-and-slash rather than a much more tactile approach that was needed in Origins.
Aside from Hawke and Varric (which is a given because I was making the decisions), I never really emotionally connected with many of the characters like I did in Origins with Shale, Alistair, Morrigan and others. Some familiar faces will make cameos and I actually found those quick visits to give me the biggest smiles throughout Hawkes story. All the simplification felt very unnecessary and the closed in feeling I got from the story telling just didnt have the big impact on me that Origins did. Not that Dragon Age 2 is bad in any way, but it doesnt hold a candle compared to its predecessor and feels completely different.
Youre going to get what you always do with any Bioware game; amazing voice acting, dialogue and a story that will have you playing for dozens and dozens of hours while trying to complete everything before its all over. There are moments that were compelling and felt very strong but it was too far and in between to keep you hooked like Origins did. I enjoyed the game for what it was but you have to go in expecting a new experience and something different from Origins and I dont want to knock it for what was I expecting, but rather rate it for what it is instead. This may be Dragon Age 2, but it is not Dragon Age: Origins 2.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
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Two Worlds 2
Lets start this off by being honest. The first Two Worlds was terrible. So much so that even Southpeak Games themselves has made fun of it in the follow-up sequel. The first game was a last minute rushed port that had poor graphics, a cumbersome interface and some of the worst voice acting and dialogue Ive heard in a long time. You know when things are so bad they are good? It wasnt even good, it was that bad. Somehow, I plodded my way through and I actually finished the first game as I saw it as a challenge. There were some great mechanics that I really enjoyed (item stacking) and some of the characters were instantly memorable (Sordahon!).
Here we are a few years later with the sequel to a game that didnt do very well for many reasons and that few people played. My first gut reaction was nervousness, as I had already committed myself to playing through the second game since I did it with the first. I mean, it couldnt get any worse right? Delay after delay and now Two Worlds II is finally here much to my nervous anticipation.
A sequel has nothing but potential as long as it has some great mechanics under the hood. Just like the first Two Worlds, part 2 has some great ideas and mechanics that may keep you interested in it long enough even if the story itself doesnt.
Two Worlds II continues off shortly after the first game. Didnt finish the first game? Well sadly, you wont really have any idea whats going on other than youre in a prison being sprung out by some orcs, the same kind that were your enemies a few short years earlier. (As a side note, Two Worlds II also continues off the first games bad ending for some reason).
Five years have passed and you are a prisoner in Gandohars castle; youre sister Kyra is still under his control and hes attempting to gain the power of Aziraal by breaking her will. To find a way to defeat Gandohar hell need to shed light on his past to find a weakness that can be sued against him. Essentially Gandohar still needs to be destroyed and Antaloor needs saving once again.
While this is the main plot, there was no real sense of purpose or urgency once you are left free on your own. Yes you are working to find a way to save your sister (again) and defeat Gandohar (again), but aside from that you wont feel like youre making much progress until much later on. Everyone seems to need the help of a hero and before you can get what you want, youll need to prove yourself and do some errands for them before theyll tell you what you want to know. The story doesnt really get interesting until more than halfway through (though at that point I did quite enjoy it, but Im also one of the few that finished the first game and can relate to all these characters) when you start to make headway in the campaign and start to unearth information about Gandohar.
With many fantasy RPGs, youre stuck into a set role you choose at the beginning of the game. Instead, you are given freedom to spend your skill points when you level up in any fashion you choose. You can improve your combat skills, magic, stealth, crafting and more all based on how you want to play. Theres a substantial amount of flexibility and strategy that go into picking the right skills for your hero. You can focus on one set type of skills and boost those for massive damage, or have many skills for more versatility (though I suggest boosting your skills for later on). I had two characters, a melee and a magic user. Both play completely different and it almost felt like a completely different game.
If you choose to be melee, youll constantly be very active using skills and defense moves. Youll eventually get a handful of skills to use and its up to you to decide when the best time to use them in combat is. You can be an archer too if you wish in which youll also have a bunch of tricks to defeat your enemies and its just as straightforward as playing a melee based character.
Being a mage though is a completely whole different experience. This is because of the mechanic given to players to essentially create their own spells. While its difficult to explain (it even took me quite some time of playing to understand it all) Ill give the basic rundown of how the system works. Spells are created in amulets based on whatever cards you put in that amulet (which is then mapped to one of your buttons). First you have the type of spell you want (Fire, Water, Stone, etc) then what its going to do (Summon, Buff, Shoot, etc). From here you have a whole other set of cards that toggles many different aspects of the spell such as damage, time, projectile type and more.
Its incredibly complex and the in-game tutorial doesnt do a good job at teaching you, but youll eventually have the epiphany with enough time and then understand it. You can combine almost any set of cards which makes for a near endless numbers of different spells that can be created and cast. Some examples of spells I tried making: a summon of 10 pets to aid me, a fireball that shoots multiple times and ricochets off walls, a regenerating buff, stone armor that literally circles me, traps on the ground that act as a force field and vaporize anything that runs through it and a homing poison bolt. Its daunting trying to figure it all out but once you get the hang of it, you can make some incredibly powerful and unique spells.
The crafting system is almost as versatile and gives you the option to almost create and boost your own weapons and armor. The big feature in the first game was the item stacking to make them better. This new crafting system is what replaces it and is better in my opinion. Any item you pick up can be broken down to its basic ingredients such as wood and metals. With these components, you can buff up any item you have in your inventory whenever you wish. Should you find a better item, you can then break down your old item and the ingredients reused again. I never even sold anything at the stores because of this and used all my broken down items to buff up the ones I was using instead. This is a fantastic way to solve the inventory problems that many of these games face and it was quite fun to see my weak sword turn into a monster after I socketed some gems into it (which you get back when you break down your weapon afterwards!).
Just like the first game, youll eventually gain access to a horse to use during your quests, but youll also unlock teleports in areas you explore which can then be used for fast travel between any areas youve previously been to thus not ever needing a horse (that and the fact that I lost or killed mine very early on). While Antaloor is huge in scale, it never feels too daunting and is quite manageable on foot if you take advantage of the teleports.
While there will be no shortage of quests, many though are mundane and not very exciting. Sadly, youll most likely have to do some of these to level up as youll sometimes hit a brick wall of difficulty in the main story at times that tries to force you to level up beforehand. Speaking to people can be skipped completely and you can just follow the quest marker from area to area if you wish as well.
Multiplayer again returns to Two Worlds but its definitely been improved since the last time. Sadly your single and multiplayer characters are still separate though. The multiplayer side does have a campaign to it which I found interesting as its actually telling the bad side of the story where you are helping Gandohar. Just like the solo campaign, there are quests to do but now you can take these on with 7 of your friends alongside you. Make note, if you have a high level person helping you, theres no penalty and you can level extremely quickly this way.
You can continue to level up and replay missions to gain more xp and loot or you can try a deathmatch with friends or a duel. You can even do a Village Mode where you try and create and in-depth village to gain money and items. Make note though, many high level players online have found ways to cheat and get items that shouldnt be available (such as +endurance items that give millions of hitpoints) and there are a few spells that can be created to simply grief other players and kill them.
I found this game hard to judge for a few different reasons. Yes, there are many smaller bugs and hiccups, but nothing I couldnt deal with for the most part. Usually the main character in a game is the best voice actor and the others are the ones that bring everything down; its actually the opposite here. Your heros voice will make you hope you can read quickly so you can skip his lines.
It takes quite a while for the story to become interesting (if you know whats really going on) and once I figured out why I was dying so often, I corrected it and the game become quite entertaining once I stopped dying to every enemy. It so happens that to block you need to hold the Left Trigger, which I was doing, but I was still getting hit every time. Turns out I was hitting the trigger too early while doing one of my attack animations and because of that I never really turned on my block. Once I figured this out about 8 hours in, combat become a blast for me as I could take on any amount of enemies with ease.
Is the game perfect? No, not by a long shot, but after a few hours of learning how to do everything like creating my own spells and chaining my combat moves together, I really started to have fun with it. It will probably mean a little more to fans that finished the first game as it doesnt do a good job at explaining much about the characters (youre just supposed to know), but once I started to learn more about Gandohar and seeing the return of another bad guy, I had that ahhhhhhhh epiphany.
Two Worlds II has some great mechanics that I would actually love to see incorporated into some other games such as the crafting and skill selects. Its not perfect but it is fun once you figure everything out after a very steep learning curve (certain things like map markers arent even explained in game and you need to reference your instruction manual). Im really glad I stuck with it and completed it and I just hope others will have the patience to give it a chance to get to that turning point of the game. Its much better than the first Two Worlds, but that wasnt hard to do. Theres some real hidden charm lying underneath the shortcomings when you look hard enough.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
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Splatterhouse
I had awesome parents growing up because they let me watch horror movies and play mature games. I was a big fan of the classic horror movies including Friday the 13th. In the early nineties when adventure and platforming games were king, along came Splatterhouse on the TurboGrafx-16 that was unlike anything else for its time. It was bloody, gore filled and completely brutal. It instantly gained a very cult-like following and eventually spawned two sequels as well. It was definitely pushing boundaries so much that it was one of the earlier games to sport a parental advisory on the box.
Twenty years later and here we are, where M-Rated games are the norm and we have a ratings system in place as well. Splatterhouse returns after being dormant for so long and I was truly excited that Id get to play Rick again, pick up my 2x4 and smash some monsters.
I should have known better though once I saw that the development team was essentially fired by Namco due to performance issues and they would finish the game themselves. This is most likely where things started to go downhill, but at least they stayed faithful to the original game in essence.
The story is essentially the same as the classic original: You play Rick Taylor who is killed in a mysterious mansion by horrific creatures while his girlfriend Jennifer is kidnapped and taken away by the stereotypical mad-scientist Dr. West. Just as Rick is about to perish, he finds the Terror Mask and puts it on out of desperation. As he puts it on hes transformed from an eighty pound weakling to a hulking juggernaut that could rival The Hulk himself. The Terror Mask has a mind of its own and now Rick and the Mask are one on a quest to save Jennifer and stop Dr. West.
The story premise is essentially the same and true to the original, but its more of a reimagining as you get to later stages and are no longer bound to simply being in the mansion. Youll travel to other places and times scouring to save Jennifer and killing any abominations that stand in your way no matter the costor violence.
Splatterhouse is a beat-em-up at heart and to simplify, a button masher; so dont go in expecting much else. Youll be killing hoards of demons and monstrosities while painting the walls red with blood. Splatterhouse holds nothing back in the gore department and youll constantly be dismembering and beheading enemies, so this isnt for the squeamish. Most of the time youll be fighting with your bare hands and performing finishing moves, but now and then youll come across weapons that will give you a huge advantage in battle; the signature 2x4 is included but has gotten a massive overhaul as well.
While the combat is decent once you unlock some more moves, it does become repetitive especially since the level design through the game is always the same: walk into room, kill everything, go down hallway to next room and repeat. Its as linear as it gets, which isnt always a bad thing, but nothing really changes other than clearing each section and moving on to the next. While the art and visuals are stylish (even though its mostly covered in blood), each level does look unique which does give a little variety to the mix.
The gore can at times even seem a little too over the top which feels like its trying to mask the lack of substance aside from the combat mechanics. While its quite awesome to tear off enemies limbs and torsos in extreme fashion with a quick-time-event, after a dozen or so the charm wears off very quickly. These executions can be performed once you weaken enemies enough and grab ahold of them. The first few will seem awesome but eventually youll become desensitized simply because of how many times youll see the same animations over and over. It would have been much cooler to save these for bosses so that you dont grow tired of them.
To break of the monotony of things, there are even some sidescrolling levels that seem like a nod to the faithful fans of the series (the originals were all sidescrolling). The first time you play these levels its great to feel powerful and work your way left to right plowing through enemies. That is until you need to jump over gaps and pits. Rick can run by holding down the trigger, but the animations are sloppy and hell slide further or shorter than you intended almost every time.
This will result you falling into said death pit and having to reload the last checkpoint. Not a big deal.well, which is until you see how long the loading screens are between deaths. I dont want to sound like Im exaggerating, but you might be waiting up to thirty seconds to retry the last section you just died in. To make things even worse, checkpoints seem sporadic and sometimes youll have to do 5 minutes worth of play all over again just to get to where you died last. The loading times between deaths are so lengthy that youll do anything you can to not die, not for the normal reasons to progress, but so that you dont have to wait an eternity to try again should Rick perish. The gap jumping needs very precise movements but the controls dont give you that power to have great handling in the least bit. Youll learn to hate the sidescrolling levels simply for the amount of times youll die due to sloppy controls which is a shame; these levels should have been the highlight of Splatterhouse.
As Rick defeats Dr. Wests abominations, youll gain blood the more you kill. With this blood you can then purchase skill and combat upgrades however you wish to cater to your play style. I went with the more health and grab move upgrades but you can choose any skills you want to round out your arsenal.
As you bank blood, you can also use it at any time to replenish your health when you get into a bad situation. You siphon blood from nearby enemies and youll need to learn quickly how to do this quickly as the later levels are very unforgiving with very difficult enemies. If your meter is full, you can also choose to instead go into Berserker Mode that will make you even bigger and meaner. Youll grow spikes that remind me of Doomsday and you can easily kill the most difficult enemies with a few simply hits. Youll be relying on the health refills and Berserker Mode more and more as you get closer to saving Jennifer.
Keeping fans happy is no easy task, but Namco has done the simplest thing they could do: making all three original Splatterhouses unlockable in the game. Catch is youll need to play through a bulk of the game to unlock them (each is unlocked every two levels are completed). Youll also be able to find collectable pieces of torn pictures of Jen through the levels hidden away. Find all the picture pieces to see semi and fully nude pictures of your girlfriend. Its odd why all these pictures are torn and rick is finding them, but the kids that play Splatterhouse that shouldnt be will at least be happy to see some softcore pictures I guess.
Now, the major issues that I found while playing through Splatterhouse: Truth be told, I dont think theres even a dozen varieties of enemies (not including bosses obviously), meaning youll be tearing up armies of the same enemies over and over. While each enemy is unique with their attacks and how you kill them, there simply isnt very many and youre going to be killing the same things over and over in your 10 hour sit down. Once you learn the best strategy against each type, youll be on cruise control for most of the way through.
There are inconsistent framerate issues that even cause some cutscenes to skip even when I had the game installed. The obscene amount of loading time though every time you die is truly painful; I honestly cant remember a recent game with this much loading every time in-between.
The biggest problem I ran into though is that it froze my 360 on three separate occasions. Sure, no big deal right? Well yea, until the third time when it hard froze my system while saving, thus losing my game save of many hours. I wanted to find out the ending and had all intentions of finishing it, but when I lose an eight hour playthrough with a corrupt save, thats an absolute deal breaker. Im sure it was an anomaly, but Ive had to reset my Xbox a few times while playing Splatterhouse and I hope that these issues can be fixed with a future patch.
There are some things Splatterhouse does right though. The soundtrack is full of hardcore metal from real bands like Lamb of God, Mastadon, Five Finger Death Punch and more; the soundtrack fits the games mood and style perfectly.
The star of the game truly is the Terror Mask though. Voiced by Jim Cummings (who is known for voicing Darkwing Duck) completely nails the role perfectly, though I was waiting for him to say lets get dangerous just once. I dont know if I can view Darkwing the same again after all the foul language he spouted. Let's get mother ******* dangerous! Theres constantly banter between Rick and the mask that will have you laughing from time to time and was easily the highlight of the game for me.
If youre buying Splatterhouse (past or present) youre most likely getting it for the over the top gore and violence which granted; should be the main selling feature of the game. Unfortunately the rest of the game outside of combat and voice acting bring down the whole package so much that it becomes mundane and a chore. At least Splatterhouse has all the original games intact that you can play and enjoy if you were a fan of the originals; unfortunately, youll need to play through this new one to get to them.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
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Sonic Free Riders
Ive always been a big Sonic fan, I even suffered over the past years with every new Sonic game being worse than the last somehow. Sonic 4 then came out and was actually good; so here I thought that the curse had been broken and Sonic could start to regain his former and long lost glory. Well, it looks like Sonic couldnt even star in two consecutive games that were good. Im beginning to wonder if Sonic owes Sega money or something and thats why they hate him all these years.
Sonic Free Riders on paper sounds like an awesome idea for a game (and to showcase Kinect). You use a hoverboard like in Back to the Future or Reboot to race and jump against other players while collecting and using unique powerups. Yup, on paper that sounds like something Id definitely be interested to play. Free Riders features Sonic (obviously), Tails and Knuckles, but the rest of the crew that you most likely dont know the name of (or simply care) are also here such as Jet, Wave, Storm and more. Amy, Shadow, Eggman (Dr. Robotnick damnit!) are also included, but you wont care once you play the game.
The most important aspect about a racing game is obviously its steering controls. Without good steering whats the point in making a racing game right? Seems like someone forgot to tell Sega this as its somehow the most broken and awkward aspect in the whole game.
You play Free Riders as if you were on a skateboard or snowboard, standing perpendicular to your TV. To steer you lean your body forward or backwards at the waist and in theory this should make you turn how you wish. In theory this would have worked if the game knew what I was trying to do. Leaning forward will eventually make you turn but by that point youve already hit a wall or something else. Leaning backwards (even while bending your knees) is going to absolutely kill your back in a few short races as well. Your racer will also randomly sometimes brake for no reason out of the blue as well when you are trying to turn. Now Ill admit, I dont have the ideal 6-8 feet of clear play space in my living room that is suggest for all Kinect games, but every other one of my Kinect games have never had any issues even remotely close to the experience in Sonic Free Riders. Its simply broken.
The menu system is clunky and you navigate it by essentially using it like an old rotary phone (thats if it works) and voice controls are also included for those not as nimble. The issue with the voice controls is that you arent taught what the commands are (like saying select instead of the option) so essentially they are useless unless you want to try and guess what they are.
There is a training mode that will teach you the basics of the game but I wasnt actually able to pass one of the tutorials because it wouldnt recognize my actions or jumping properly. This doesnt bode well for a first impression of a new game by any means. After many retries and even moving my couch to make more room, I gave up and went right into the main modes hoping it would only get better from here.
Before every race it puts you into a quick 5 to 10 second race which I believe is to calibrate you and see your range of motion before the race, but the controls in here dont work that well either. I tried standing still, leaning as far as I could without falling and nothing seemed to help at all with the sloppy controls. And yes, youll need to do this before every single race and event.
So other than leaning, there are a few more controls that youll need to be aware of as well. You can kick dash like you would on a skateboard to speed up, but good luck if it recognizes what youre doing and actually works. Youll need to crouch and then jump to do stunts, but you cant actually pick the stunts you perform in any way. Sometimes youll get an A+ rank and others youll get a C for no apparent reason. Holding your arms out to the sides will let you catch rings as you zoom by (which is almost a saving grace for the game as more rings allow you to level up and boost skills) and to break you face forward to the screen as if you would want to stop on a snowboard.
So you finally got all those controls down in your memory? Good, now youre going to need to learn and memorize a whole new set of movements to use the items you get on the race track. There are lots of items to use against the other racers and almost every item has its own unique way of using and activating it. Again, on paper this sounds great, but in practice, youll be flailing your arms trying to figure out how to use that soda can item (you shake it like you would a real can of pop by the way, and then you ride it. Yup.). Torpedoes are used with a thrown motion, underhand for balls, and even tow hands are needed to throw basketballs over your head all while you are racing and fighting to keep your balance to try and steer. Youll even need to wipe the screen to clear gunk used on you which doesnt help when youre leaning as far back as you possibly can.
There are a decent amount of modes included in the game but I really only touched on two of the main ones due to the frustration and back pain after playing for a short time. World Grand Prix mode is essentially the story mode but its completely uninteresting due to it being just a sideshow of still screens with the character to go along with the horrible voice acting. Pick your team and compete against the others in races, time attacks, coin grabs and more. Tag Race is the other mode for two players and if you thought the controls for a single player were a mess, its more than doubled with a second player and also included very awkward motions for co-op play that dont help the matter either. You are also able to take it online and play with up to 8 people, but after one laggy race online and seeing that the majority of other racers were also wall riding due to the horrific controls, theres no need to.
Youre going to be constantly retrying events and races over and over because of the absolute abysmal controls in Sonic Free Riders. I understand launch games with a new technology arent always going to be the best, but in this game its simply broken. Other Kinect games work great and are responsive without doubt; this is definitely not one of them.
With ring collecting and extreme gear upgrades, this should have been a fun racing game for Kinect; instead, its an unresponsive mess that flat out doesnt work. Did no one test this game and see that its broken? I was taught that if I dont have anything nice to say then dont say anything at all, so Ill end this review here.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
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SBK X: Superbike World Championship
Superbike is an immensely popular sport, although more so overseas than back here at home. This is maybe why the last version of SBK; SBK 09 somehow didnt make itself over to this side of the ocean. If you ask someone what bike game theyve played their answer will most likely be the Moto GP series. Granted, they used to be the staple and standard for moto racing, over the years the series has turned away from the simulation aspect of the sport in turn for more of an arcade style instead.
The SBK series has been around for a while, but seemed to always be that other racing game when comparing the two. Seems like the developers at Milestone no longer want to be in second place and have stepped up to deliver a polished and enjoyable racing product that anyone can play. What Milestone has done excellent is no easy feat: theyve made the game accessible to almost all players that can play almost in any style they wish. You have an arcade most that is simple to control, has boost and even a wheelie button to go alongside the simulation mode that can turned all the way from casual to completely hardcore and true to life. SBK X is essentially two games in one because of these two very distinct modes and comes complete with many different modes and varieties to be played.
Controlling a two wheeler is nothing like driving a car; you need to plan your turns well ahead of when you actually want to do it. You basically need to learn to start turning before you want to actually turn. Its an odd concept but once you figure out the flow and control mechanics of the game its quite a rush to make that hairpin corner nearly completely horizontal to the ground. Winning a race in SBK isnt about making up time on the straight stretch; its about finessing your way in the corners and keeping your maximum speed throughout the race. Controls are simple and easy to get used to, but can also be completely customized any way you wish.
Lets start off with Arcade Mode shall we. Its very self-explanatory and is the simple jump in and race without much through to it. Youll have a racing line to follow that will show you the proper route to take into turns and will even change colors to show you what speed to go into them at. Green means you are going too slow, red means too fast and you want to try and keep your speedometer so that you hit the sweet spot of yellow.
Arcade Mode makes everything simple by allowing your brakes to work simultaneously and not have to worry about your riders weight distribution on the bike as well. At any time you can hold the A button to use boost (no meter to fill or worry about) though you wont be able to corner easily while boosting. If youre playing Arcade Mode, you want to just race fast and not have to worry about much; you might even want to do a wheelie or two. Luckily, holding the X button will do a wheelie whenever you wish to show off. It seems a little out of place but it works and makes it simple to do. Youre able to customize your race lengths anywhere from 1 to 22 laps along with the AI for your rival racers that can vary from Rookie to Real. Change your starting position and weather are also options that can be set so that you can compete in any kind of race you desire.
Included in Arcade Mode is Story Mode that will encompass your career as a rider as you complete race objectives such as beating a rival, lap time, or simply placing above a certain number in a given event. Whats great about Story Mode is that mode of these objectives are simple and quick to complete. You arent given a full 22 lap race for every objective, most are usually 1 or 2 laps to complete whatever you need to do. Its odd that some objectives gold ranking is to come in 18th place, but it works to teach you certain things about tracks or bikes (like how to turn when your brakes arent working).
Arguably the meat and bones of SBK X is in the realistic Simulation Mode that is exactly as the name suggests: a simulation of riding a two wheeled powerhouse taking corners are deathly speeds. Take note though, its incredibly difficult, frustrating and a huge challenge just to stay on your bike properly. You need to brake properly (individual brakes), lean well before you want to start turning, gently accelerate and even control your bodys weight on the bike. You also dont get the racing line to help you and guide you to the proper race route. This mode isnt for everyone, Simulation Mode is for the hardcore players that want to focus on realism and Im glad that Milestone didnt try and water it down to cater to everyone (which is why Arcade Mode is great for everyone else).
As mentioned above, the default controls can be changed to whatever you wish and I went with the suggested scheme of mapping acceleration to the left stick and steering to the left and right triggers. I could barely stay on the bike with these unnatural controls, but once I started to get used to them and combined with the cockpit view, it definitely felt as if I was riding the bike (even though I kept falling off).
Simulation also has other options that can be tweaked for races such as handling, damage, tire wear, rider health and weather among others. Changing the weather in SBK X doesnt just make the road slightly more slippery when raining; itll also change how the track performs against your rider. Tread will actually wear from your tires over time and youll gain better traction because of it should you hit the same lines every lap. Its apparent that the subtle weather effects have put a lot of time into it as racing in the rain in cockpit view looks like actual rain is hitting against your TV screen.
Building off the premise of Story Mode, Simulation has its own Career Mode that is much more involved that will focus more on your rider rather than the management factors that Moto GP uses. You begin in the Superstock circuit and as you sign contracts with other teams and move up the rankings, youll eventually compete in the WSS and SBK classes over the span of your eight year career.
Multiplayer can have 16 people competing over Xbox Live and Championship, Quick Race, and Time Trials are all available to be competed. Its quite entertaining to play online with a bunch of people with simulation settings toggled that have clearly only played the Arcade Mode or arent used to the simulation controls yet.
I do wish there were options to completely customize your bike with decals and paint jobs (hello Forza 3) and that there was visual damage for your bikes if you crash a few times. While crashes are present, they dont seem anywhere near as epic as they should be. Youll fall off your bike, roll for a second and then be put back on the bike. Its not really a downfall, but it did stand out as bike crashes are quite a spectacle to see.
Im not going to really complain all that much as the visuals are great and everything plays very smoothly, but the presentation is a little bare and left to be desired (especially the conversations in the Story and Career Modes). My only real complaint would have to be the amount of loading when playing the Story or Career Modes. Youll load to talk to one person and then again when you talk to someone else. Itll also reload the whole track as you play a practice, qualifier and actual race for some reason.
If I had to give one feature in the game the MVP award, Id have to go with the cockpit view as you get a real sense of how closely you come to the ground as you take those tight turns. Somehow Milestone has managed to get this first person view done correctly as well and will actually have your rider slightly look into your turn rather than simply in just a straight line so you can feel where you are going.
SBK X is essentially two games in one. Arcade Mode gives you a simple way to get into a race quickly, go fast, and pop wheelies. Simulation Mode will satisfy the hardcore fans and will give you the closest thing you can get to actually getting on a bike. Both modes are very flexible and customizable so that you can play any way you want and challenge yourself however you wish. With a little more emphasis on presentation I do think the next version of SBK will have something very special on their hands; as it stands right now, SBK X is a very solid (if not the most complete) motorcycle simulation game out there right now and Im impressed with how Milestone has made Superbikes accessible for anyone to play regardless of their casual or hardcore intensions.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
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Nail'd
I have to admit, I never even had Naild on my radar this year (before going to PAX) with all the huge titles coming out so fast and furiously as of late. Whats Naild you may ask? Its an ATV/Dirtbike game which oddly enough, is developed by the team who did the Call of Juarez games. I honestly didnt know to expect when I first started playing it, as Ive picked up quite a few racers this year; would this one be any different? A is essentially the off-road equivalent to the chaotic and unrealistic racing that weve come to love from titles like Burnout, Blur, and Split Second. Its completely over the top, laughs at the laws of gravity and physics, and every race will feel much like the ups and downs of a rollercoaster.
Naild is all about going fast as you can with boost and taking huge (which is an understatement) ramps that will have you free falling for easily more than 5 seconds. Yea, youll be falling in the air for over a mile while trying to avoid windmills, planes, pillars and other object. Its insanity on 2 or four wheels and its a blast to play simply to get massive air and making that perfect landing. Extreme is really the only way I can describe this racer. Motion blur kicks in when you boost, giving everything a grey faded look as if you were focusing very diligently and the free falling after taking the jumps is simply awesome since you can nudge and maneuver yourself midair to land that crazy jump.
Surprisingly, Naild is very simple to pick up and play. Right Trigger is gas, Left is brake, Left Stick steers and A is your boost; doesnt get much easier than that. The mentality behind it is you press a button, go fast and then be awesome while trying not to die. You can easily learn the driving nuances like steering mid-air really quickly, but youll have to be at the top of your game if you want to actually win races while boosting at break-neck speeds.
Playing alone is no problem as there are tons of different modes for you to enjoy. The basic Simple Race and Time Attack is here that is standard, but theres also quite a few interesting modes included as well that make for some unique gameplay. Stunt Mode will net you points for every feat you do (such as boosting for a certain amount of time, landing perfect jumps and more) but the winner is not determined by who crosses the finish line first (though its a huge advantage) since everyones points start to decrease rapidly once that first player finishes. Having stunt in the title may be a little misleading since you dont really do stunts, but its still a fun mode never the less.
Detonator is essentially hot potato, but its actually a bomb strapped to your racers back. To pass the bomb and avoid it exploding on you, you again must land a crazy jump properly or do certain feats to pass it to the next victim.
Boost Madness was easily my favorite of all the modes and thats truly what it is: madness! All players have unlimited boost in this mode so youll constantly be going so fast that it can actually be quite challenging just to stay on track or decide what path to take.
There is a career mode of course as well that will have you doing individual races (and different types) to finish tournaments and progress. It does a good job of varying the race styles and maps enough that it doesnt become too stale with the 14 tracks on the disc (4 more with the DLC) and will become increasingly difficult.
All of the tracks feel varied and unique from each other. Some races will have you driving through the woods dodging trees, in the desert jumping dunes, and even in (and over) canyons. The maps themselves are nowhere near your standard design either. Because Naild tries to go for an exciting way to race, youll constantly be taking huge dips and climbing hills to setup for those huge jumps and airtime. Harsh angles will even have you racing almost completely sideways along a dam at times as well; theres definitely some racing here Ive never experienced before. And like any good racer, there are tons of secret pathways and branching routes to take. Do you play it safe and stay low and quick or go up that huge hill and hopefully land in front (or better yet, on top) of your rivals? Youll be making these decisions in a split second due to how quickly you go while boosting which is where much of the excitement comes.
In the Garage, you can even customize your rider and ride. While the rider doesnt have many options other than your racing suit and gender, the real customization comes in tuning your quad or dirtbike just how you want. There are multiple parts you can change for each section of your vehicle and different parts will have different stats. The parts that can be changes are Body, Engine, Wheels, Handlebars, Shocks, Exhaust, and Engine; and the features that are changed with parts are Ground Steering, Air Steering, General Acceleration, Boost Acceleration, Boost Regen, and Total Boost Capacity. Every part also has its own unique look as well (including colors), so you can build your bike to your liking in not only stats, but looks as well. Whats great about this is that theres no best bike with all the stats full, youll build your quad to suit how you play. I chose acceleration stats instead of boost just because of the way I found I was playing after a few hours; its completely up to you. As you progress through the career youll unlock more parts as you go to help you along the way.
What makes Naild so crazy is the speed youll be going when you have boost. Press A and youll get a short burst of nitro and if you want to refill it you need to land jumps properly (and perpendicular to the ground), do feats, or simply go through the flaming gates and hoops. Word of wisdom: dont lay on the boost for a long amount of time unless you need to get somewhere very quickly, I found doing small bursts (even simple presses of boost) was much more efficient as I didnt seem to go faster when laying on the nitro (though impossible to tell since theres no speedometer in Naild).
When you do crash (and you will, many times), youll get a short slow motion vignette of the crash before it puts you back in the race (usually just ahead of where you crashed since you usually need an ample amount of speed to make certain jumps) a few seconds later. Obviously you dont want to crash, but Ive had a few times where I crashed beside another racer and when I respawned, I was easily a few seconds ahead of him. Im not sure if it was a bug or just one of those spots, but it wasnt always consistent with how far ahead or behind it put me.
Youll be able to hop on Xbox Live as well and race up to 11 other players in any of the modes as well (I suggest Boost Madness for some craziness) and theres even a unique Leaderboard that Naild is using. When you start the game its going to ask where your location is (state or province), this is because youre going to be comparing yourself to other players in your same region. It definitely feels more competitive that Im trying to beat someones record thats close to me as opposed to some kid way overseas. Yes, youll also be able to compare against those kids with too much free time worldwide as well, but I really like the idea of region leaderboards and I hope it does well and catches on with other games.
Surprisingly theres a quite decent soundtrack to go along with the game. There are lots of artists Ive never heard of but there are the few greats that I do know from Rise Against, Slipknot, and even Queens of the Stone Age. The soundtrack as a whole really fits the mood and fast pace of the game and when that Slipknot kicks in mid-race, I find myself holding the boost button down even harder to try and go faster.
As mentioned before, the lack of a speedometer does seem a little odd at first, but you get used to it. You never know HOW fast you are going, you just know youre going TOO fast and are about to do some crazy jumps. This speed also makes it somewhat difficult to figure out where you sometimes need to go (even mid-air) because the moment you go out of bounds you will explode and be respawned. The same goes for landing your jumps, sometimes youll land no problem, and other times youll crash even though you look like you landed it perfectly. Some rocks can be driven on and bounced off of (when coming down a jump) while others cannot. Its not a huge issue, but it takes time to learn the rules in Naild of what you can and cannot do. Also, not really being able to do tricks when you are free falling for so long does seem like an odd omission, but youll forget it pretty quickly since that turn coming ahead is closing in quickly.
Naild is in no way a realistic representation of what off-roading is like in any way. Thats not a bad thing though because they arent trying to be a serious realistic racer. Naild is all about going balls-out and seeing how much air you can get while making your way to the finish line while avoiding oncoming trains and more. Naild could do for arcade quad games what Burnout did for arcade racers; its simple and fun to play and never takes itself too seriously while doing so. My only concern is if there is much of a shelf life and substance here after a substantial amount of gameplay (especially if you cant play online), as it is fun to jump in and slam down some quick times, but for how long with it being almost too simplistic.
I enjoyed playing Naild for quite a few hours and you just need to take Naild for what it is: a mindless awesome speed induced arcade racer that will have you doing crazy stunts and going way too fast. Turn off your brain and simply race as fast as you can while getting as much air as possible; and yes, thats me half a mile above you about to land on you and make you explode; youre about to get naild.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
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Front Mission: Evolved
Front Mission has been a title thats been around for over ten years. Its got a small cult following here in the west, but its absolutely huge overseas. Front Mission has been a turn based tactics style game and Im assuming now Square wants to broaden the mass appeal of the brand and branch out. How do they do this? They take a system thats worked for its fans for years.and then completely scratch it and break the mold to hopefully gain some popularity stateside. What makes the draw of Front Mission so appealing is the giant mecha robots piloted by humans called wanzers (from the German Wanderpanzer) that can rain a massive amount of damage upon enemies.
Double Helix Games made Front Mission Evolved (FME for short) and they are known for making Silent Hill: Homecoming and GI: Joe (the game). Both titles were generally lackluster, so you can see the trend thats about to unfold. Although the Front Mission series has a very encompassing story that spans across the entire series, Double Helix has decided to change things up with a weak story and mediocre gameplay to boot; but hey, there are tons of explosions!
FME takes place in the distant future of year 2171 (which is 50 years after the events of Front Mission 5) and humankind is now starting to race to explore space. The superpowers of the world have built orbital elevators that allow surveillance satellites to be sent to space to watch what every other nation is doing. One of the USNs (North America) orbital elevators is mysteriously destroyed and tensions from nations start to flare as accusations run wild. This starts border skirmishes whose assault is led by these wanzers and battles in the front lines ensue.
The story pivots around your character, Dylan Ramsey, who just happens to fall into this battle thats about to unfold. Truth be told, there is a story here about him trying to find his dad and a woman that dislikes him cause hes simply a civilian, but theres honestly no reason to really delve deeper into the story because its so cliché and reeks of predictable that youll see almost all the twists coming unfortunately. FME is built around controlling your wanzer, blowing stuff up, and trying to encompass it around a narrative; sadly the narrative falls flat on its face that I almost preferred to skip it all together.
What FME does do right is give you control over a completely customizable wanzer whose load-out can be any way you want. You are able to equip four weapons, one in each hand and one on each shoulder for a total of four. The trick is that your total weight cant exceed your wanzers power output, so its a fine balancing game of choosing weapons and armor that suit your style without going overboard. You can even color your wanzer and put decals on each limb to make it your own as well; my giant pink armored mech definitely stood out against all the other bland counterparts.
Most missions will have you going from checkpoint to checkpoint in a fairly linear fashion (though cleverly disguised as an open city even though you cant stray very far) blowing up enemies that get in your way. There are a few breaks from the monotonous missions that will have you shooting a turret from a plane, but these happen too infrequently.
There are a few missions where your mechs simply cant go; this means youll be on foot. These sections are the most frustrating and have the sloppiest controls in the whole game. These foot missions are slow paced and completely the opposite of the wanzer levels which throws off the pacing of the game as a whole. To make things worse, while on foot, enemies will either stand still trying to shoot you or run at you in a straight line; you also only have a limited selection of three guns and a handful of grenades. You wont enjoy the foot missions in any way and when youre buying a game based on piloting huge mechs, it may put a bad taste in your mouth about the game as a whole.
Chapters finish with your typical boss battles but the bosses in Evolved are so completely overpowered its not funny. While the enemy boss wanzer looks normal, they can somehow take a massive amount of damage before being defeated which take these fights to the point of being boring due to how long it takes. You simply need to resort to: shoot, evade, run away and repeat for most of these just to survive. Health and Ammo replenishments respawn over time and without these, you wont get very far. Youll also need to rely on your E.D.G.E. mode which is basically a meter that fills up and then can be used to slow down time to avoid attack and do more damage of your own.
If you mamage to get through the campaign and want to keep playing, there actually is a multiplayer portion of FME thats included as well. You have your standard deathmatch and team deathmatch modes along with a few others and you even have a leveling system that gives you unlocked parts and perks for your wanzer. The leveling system in place is a great idea and works well in other games, but the amount of xp you get in a decent single match is so small that youll have to devote an obscene amount of time into the online if you want to unlock any of the good items at all. Coupled with such a small community playing the game at one time, this may be near impossible to do. Also, because of this, youll regularly face people online that are very high level when youre just starting out and youll quickly become frustrated due to only having a start mech; this felt almost broken to me. If youre going to play this online, be ready to set aside very many hours just to get a few decent upgrades.
Youll notice very quickly that while the models for the wanzers looks decent, the textures for almost everything else do not. While you can customize your wanzers color and paint scheme like mentioned above, sadly the textures are very low. This goes the same for almost all the textures as the world in general youre surrounded in which can become quite noticeable at times in the slower sections.
The other biggest distraction during the campaign is the very poorly written dialogue coupled with some very mediocre voice acting. While youre on your long stint against a boss, youll also notice the same lines will be repeated over and over again which doesnt help during the absurdly long boss battles.
As I mentioned before, what FME does well is make you pilot a wanzer that feels powerful and can be customized to your liking. There are even tons of hidden collectables to find during the campaign (though they are very small and well hidden) if thats your thing as well. I have a feeling most Front Mission fans will be sorely disappointed with Evolved simply because of the deviation from what made Front Mission so great; a tactic based strategy game. Sadly, Square isnt going to gain any new fans or followers of the series with this iteration of a very mediocre third person shooter which is sad as Im sure good intentions were behind making Evolved.
Overall Score: 5.3 / 10
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Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
Need For Speed is back this year but something drastic has changed since the last few iterations. First and foremost, this NFS title is developed by Criterion team behind one of the best arcade racers out there: Burnout. This re-envisioning of NFS from Criterion really blends both games world in a racing world that is fast paced and exciting to play. Be warned, I tried to play Hot Pursuit like a Burnout title, and while you do need to drive recklessly (in oncoming traffic, drifting, etc) to gain nitro, its inherently not as fast and crazy paced that weve become used to with Burnout. I had to break myself out of old habits but once I learned the nuances of Hot Pursuits driving I was really starting to enjoy myself once I was able to drift those long corners without hitting anything.
Youll be speeding excessively, trying to shake the cops, doing takedowns on other cars and wreaking havoc for the streets of Seacrest County. Going back to its Need For Speed roots, you can once again play as racer or cop in this title. Whats even better is that you can choose what side of the law you want to be on in career mode and switch whenever you like as well if you want a change. Each career side is pretty lengthy and to reach the top rank of 20 on each side will take some serious gaming hours to obtain.
Before I get into all the gameplay mechanics, race types, and so on, I need to explain whats under the hood of the new NFS. Youll see Autolog plastered everywhere in the game; this is the new heart of NFS and quite honestly, I hope more games become this connected as time goes on.
Autolog lets you keep track of everything you do, every race, game stats, photos you take and more. What makes this unique is that its also going to track everyone on your friends list and everything they do as well and show you their progressions and times. It even goes a step further and when one of your friends eventually beat that amazing time you got, its going to tell you instantly that they beat it by X amount of seconds and give you a one button press option to go replay that course to try and beat it. I cant tell you how many hours Ive wasted simply trying to beat the Autolog recommendations to beat my friends top times. The only thing I wish that Autolog can do in the future is have a ghost of my friends run as I try and beat their freakishly low time.
This even extends to the NFS website so that when you arent on your Xbox playing Hot Pursuit, you can still always stay connected and see how many friends just beat your apparently good run on any given race. You can check side by side stat comparisons to any of your friends and even save any recommendation for when you get home and start up the game so that you dont forgive to give your friend a beating in the form on a quicker time. Its very connect, simple to use, and I honestly didnt think I would care much if my friends beat my times, but when you see it happen in real time, its hard to resist to not try and attempt to dethrone them.
Youll be driving all over Seacrest County which is known for its high speed racing culture and the cops that are known to stop them in their tracks. Youll drive along the coast, the snow covered mountain area, desert, and even forest areas that will have you reminiscing to playing Crusin USA. There is a free driving option, and I do suggest it to find those hidden shortcuts (careful though, some are long cuts!) for every advantage in your race (and against your friends).
Weather you pick racers or cops; youll constantly be working towards new ranks and unlocks. Hot Pursuit does a fantastic job at constantly rewarding you with new cars, equipment upgrades and more. You actually will get a few unlocks per level and it makes you constantly wanting to play as youre always close to something being unlocked. Youre always working towards progression of your career regardless of playing solo offline or online with friends.
Each side of the law gets different equipment to try and get a leg up on the competition. Racers can use Spike Strips, EMP blasts, Turbo (which is much faster than your standard nitro), and Jammers which will temporarily disable cops mechanical systems and lock-ons. Cops have their own bag of tricks as well though to take the racers down; EMP strikes and Spike Strips are also useable by cops, but they also get access to calling in Roadblocks that make it very difficult for racers to get through without crashing along with being able to call in Helicopter support that will travel ahead of the racers and drop spike strips hopefully infront of them.
Once you learn how the equipment works and when to properly use them, theres actually some strategy to be used and how to ration your equipment (hopefully before you get taken down). You need to constantly be driving dangerously on the wrong side of the road, barely missing cars, and drifting to keep your nitro meter refilling. Youll also need to learn to ration your nitro as well that really needs to be used for going uphill (especially with the heavier muscle cars), overtaking and correcting that guardrail rub going 300 kmh.
Hop online and you can jump into some awesome action as well. Two teams of four can do cops vs racers and I found this the most fun yet challenging mode online hands down. Things become much more difficult with an actual player controlling the opposing team when comparing it to career modes single player. You really do need to work as a team if you want to survive the cops pursuit or take down all the racers in the time allotted. Ive even had to take myself out of a race by slamming into a cop to stop him from getting my teammate near the end of a race. You can choose to do 1 vs 1 with a cop and racer if you prefer, but be warned, players with higher rankings have access to much faster and exotic cars that will leave you in the dust if you are just starting out. Straight races are also an option as well and everything is always connected to Autolog of course.
Any cars youve unlocked, you can then use in that series event. Tons of cars to choose from such as Mitsubishi Lancer X, McLaren F1, Nissan 370Z, Porches, Lambos, and more exotics youll never even see in real life, let alone drive them. Sadly the lack of Ferraris does seem like a gaping hole in the big picture though, but 100 cars is nothing to scoff at.
Im glad there was no cheesy attempt of a story mode in Hot Pursuit because lets face it; youre playing Need for Speed to race cars youll never own extremely fast. They dont try and be something else which I applaud them for and stick to the roots of NFS titles. Autolog may seem gimmicky at first and just a fancy way to show your (and friends) stats, but it will change the way you play eventually. I cant tell you how many hours Ive been distracted for just to try and beat my friends times; I cant let that stand.
I believe letting Criterion give their touch to a long running series was a great move and its definitely given the series a boost in the right direction as I lost interest in the last few titles. I once again care about Need For Speed and subsequently has also made me yearn for a new Burnout at the same time. If you loved the old school NFS, this is the next step for you. So go put on your aviators, buckle up, rev that V12 engine and give in to your need for speed.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
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Dance Central
Harmonix returns once again, but this time its not anything Rock Band related. Instead, they are taking on another take with the music genre. Dance Central is what you can probably guess from the title; its a dancing game but this is no Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) that you may know, this game will actually try to teach you some dance moves for your repertoire.
While you may have played DDR before, that game never really taught you any dance moves or anything you could probably show off in a real club. Dance Central will teach you actual moves with your feet, arms, hips, and general rhythm and movement. Theres no faking it here since this Kinect only game will see exactly how you are moving your body and legs unlike other games that let you get away with flailing around.
While the concept of a dancing game may not be new, with Kinect hardware being mandatory for the title, Dance Central feels completely new and interesting even for their first time out. Its fun, can easily be a party game for when friends come over, and like mentioned before, may actually teach you some moves you could show off in public as well.
A music genre game is only as good as its soundtrack though right? There may not be a huge selection here like Rock Band has spoiled us with, but there are some definite classics here that almost anyone can enjoy. There were actually very few songs that either I or the wife didnt really care for to be honest. Some of the more noteworthy songs that I tend to play over and over: CMon N Ride It (The Train), Crank That, Jungle Boogie, Poker Face, Poison, Pump Up The Jam, and Satisfaction; just to name a few.
Because Dance Central is a Kinect game, you actually navigate the menus from swiping your left or right hand to progress or go back and up and down to make your selections. Its natural and intuitive once you realize how to select and choose options. First time Kinect users shouldnt have a problem with the interface as its that simple and easy to use.
Instead of a step chart to learn routines, youll actually see your character on screen start to dance and do moves and youll need to mirror those moves in unison to gain points and pass. Move the wrong arm or leg and that limb will go red so you know what youre doing wrong, but more on that later.
So you find a song you like (and is grouped by difficulty just like Rock Band) and once chosen youll have a few different options: Break It Down, Perform It, and Dance Battle. Break It Down will essentially do that and show you every single move youll need to learn to pass it in Perform It mode. Choosing from Easy, Medium, and Hard will also teach you progressively harder moves as well. A flash card will appear on the screen (most with goofy names) and will give you a quick diagram of what youre supposed to do (move this arm or that leg). Pass the move three times if you dont on your first and youll move onto the next cue card with your next move lesson. If you really cant nail a certain moveset, you can slow it down even further to try and help you learn said movements. While not perfect, it does help for some of the more challenging moves with subtle nuances that seem to matter to Kinect tracking you at times.
So youve broken-it-down and now know all the awesome moves youll need to master; head on to Perform It to prove yourself! Just like learning, youll always have the flash cards on screen to show you whats coming next for moves and as long as you understand what the cards are telling you what to do next, youll be fine throughout. While some songs on easy will only have a few moves that are repeated over and over, higher difficulties will throw quite a few at you of all varying challenge. Midway through the song youll even have a small 10 second or so window to freestyle and do whatever you want as Kinect takes pictures of you and replays them quickly thats always great for a laugh. Youll also finish each song with a specialize Finishing Move to end it in style (though for some reason these arent taught in Break It Down mode) as well.
Dance Battle is where you and a friend can dance against each other in jump in and jump out play; no direct head to head though. Its quite hilarious to play this mode with people that arent particularly good dancers simply for the fact its much more entertaining to watch friends dance awkwardly. The song is split, you do a section then your friend does the next and so on. While its not perfect (like head to head versus would be), it is fun and at least has everyone in the room watching someone else other than you the whole time. Sadly you cant go online for a dance off either so youre only stuck with simple leaderboards for scoring.
Speaking of scoring, its done very similar to how Rock Band does things, with the 5 star approach for a perfect routine. All songs are unlocked from the beginning so no need to go through a bunch of songs you may not enjoy just to play something you want to. Youll unlock new dancers (preset and not customizable in any way for some reason), outfits and venues as you progress but dont look for any type of career mode unfortunately. The lack of any real progression in a career type of mode was quite a downer as was not being able to make my own dancer.
The other issue I had overall was the fact that you cant fail out of a song. You can perform poorly, but youll never fail. Like I mentioned above, your characters limbs will go red if you arent mimicking them perfectly, in attempts to show you what youre doing wrong. The problem is that it doesnt tell you what or why you are doing it wrong. Is your arm too low or high, angled weird, or your hips not rotating the right way? Youll just have to figure it out until you get it right unfortunately, but at least it narrows it down to the area you need to work on per move. Other may enjoy this and not feel too overwhelmed when not doing well, cause nothing would be more discouraging to shaking what your momma gave you, then failing cause you did it wrong, right?
While Dance Central may not be for everyone, if you have a Kinect and some friend that regularly come over, definitely pick this up and see how many people get into it. Once people get over the initial embarrassment of having to dance in front of people, everyone for the most part seems to have a good time, even the friends on the couch refusing to play but laughing.
As I said before, there are some great tools in this game that will teach you some moves you can even use for dancing in the clubs (thats right, Im going to bust out my merengue swagger next time!) and the simple fact that Ive come home to see my wife playing Dance Central on her own proves that its simple enough for anyone to jump in and play.
I do wish there was some more depth to the game as a whole, but if you need a reason to justify getting a Kinect or was curious about getting one, this is the launch title that you need with it to really show how well it works. Harmonix has done it again on their first go and just like how Rock Band got some of us to pick up a real instrument and learn how to play (or want to); Dance Central could do the same for learning some killer moves on the dance floor.
Suggestions: Online dance battles for part 2 is a must, so is telling me why I'm doing a certain move wrong.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
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Fable 3
Ah Fablethe epic tales and stories that takes place in the world of Albion. How Ive missed you; how have you been? Its been almost 2 years to the day that I played you last. Now that youre back, have you been improved and brought me a new and engaging story to get enthralled into?
Fable III takes what core mechanics worked well in Fable 2 for the most part and improved on said attributes. Because of this, the overall general feeling I got from Fable 2 has returned, which isnt necessarily a bad thing; if its broke dont fix it right? Fable 3 takes the whole play however you want assertion and rolls with it even further this time around. Do what you want, even if thats being married to 8 different people, sharing your STDs, or amassing a fortune by being a ruthless landlord.
Fable has always been known for having top notch voice acting going for it (even if other aspect may fall short) and in this title its no different. For a few name drops to get you excited about the quality of acting youll hear I give you Stephen Fry, Bernard Hill, John Cleese, Simon Pegg, and even Sir Ben Kingsley just to name a few. As you can see, theres no shortage of asounding talent here for most of the main characters, so know that the voice acting is absolute top notch throughout just like in previous Fable titles.
Its been fifty years since the events transpired in Fable 2 and the son of Fable 2s hero is now the king of Albion. The problem is that he is a tyrant for a ruler and the land is suffering because of his leadership and his stranglehold on every aspect of life. Rent is high, people are poor and starving, and even worse; all thanks to your brother, the King. Fable has always been about making moral choices (or lack thereof) and always having a consequence for your actions; Fable 3 is no different and your first real difficult choice will happen right at the start of the game. Regardless of your choice, this puts events in motion that cannot be undone and starts the hatred you have for your ruthless brother. Its not an easy decision but you vow youll have vengeance against him and his oppressing rule over Albion.
You escape the castle with your lifetime friend and mentor Sir Walter and so starts your quest of attempting to amass a sizeable army large enough to overthrow the King. As you come across other likeminded rebels, youll need to gain their trust and make promises to gain their support in your goal to become the new King (or Queen).
Fable IIIs tale does not end when you finally revolt and amass enough followers to take over the throne; not even close actually. The first 2/3 of the game is doing your standard Fable gameplay of quests, marriages, etc, but the game drastically changes in the last bit once you have the crown. I wont spoil anything as the King section is quite unique, but know early on that all the choices you made early on to gain followers will come back to haunt you. All those promises you made will have those people call upon you to uphold your world (or not). There are many reasons you may or may not keep your promises to these people, but know that youll have to make some extremely difficult decisions as Albions new King. Do the ends justify the means? Get ready to think long and hard how you want to rule and save Albion; something dark approaches and you need to be ready. Youll make real decisions that tie hand in hand with equally powerful consequences.
I mentioned before that Fable 3 has the same type of feel to it, but whats new? Well, one of the biggest knocks Fable 2 had was the overabundance of menus that were slow and generally unappealing. Long gone are the days of menus and your pause menu is now called the Sanctuary. This is an area that you can freely move your hero around to the different areas to change them or any settings. Want to change your clothes, go through that door (or quick press of the corresponding Dpad) and you can mix and match all your clothes without any menus. The same goes for the Armory for all your weapons and more.
You also have a large map in the middle of the Sanctuary that is an overlay of all of Albion that can be moved and zoomed in and out of. From here you can even choose your current quest (that the glowing trail will show you were to go) and even teleport to the nearest area for your quest. The problem with this new quick travel method is that it becomes far too easy to get into the habit of teleporting to the Sanctuary, using the map, teleporting, do a short run, then teleport to the next objective or hand in. Rinse repeat and you lose not only a lot of game time but you dont tend to explore nearly as much as you should in a beautiful world like Albion.
Theres no longer a health bar (or real HUD for the matter), no leveling up or skill tree for your attributes. All experience points are now clumped together and called Guild Seals which are acquired from killing and quests. These can then be spent on new spells, emotion packs, skill improvements and more. Youll have to do a plethora of side quests and a lot of killing enemies if you want to unlock them all, so choose wisely from the beginning and spend those seals wisely.
A problem with Fable 2 was that people generally werent all that unique because everyone wanted the same end-game weapons for the most part. They wanted the weapons with the best stats, regardless if it suited their character or not. Now as you level your weapons up with Guild Seal purchases, your Melee, Gun, or Magic will morph as you gain its levels. Identical weapons can look (and be) completely different due to many things such as moral affinity, enemy kills, and more. Certain weapons can be even further augmented with preset checklists such as killing X amount of Balverines or Hobbes, doing evil acts, completing a certain amount of quests, or even spreading STDs. As you fulfill these requirements your weapon will gain the corresponding bonus and you can make your weapon almost unique to your character based on your play style. Its an interesting system that will definitely add some more gameplay hours, but find a weapon you enjoy and you probably wont upgrade very often.
The other big change to combat is the drastic change to how magic now works in Fable. In past games if you wanted to cast your really powerful spell, you had to charge it till it go to the specific tier and then let loose, sometimes having to wait 10 or more seconds. Magic has been completely revamped and I quite enjoyed the change. The spells you can cast are based on what gauntlets you wear. So if you want to use a fireball, you need to wear that corresponding gauntlet. Eventually youll be able to wear two gauntlets and this is called Spell Weaving. You can mix and match any two spells to fit your play style (I got through most of the game with Electricity and Ice, then switch to Electricity and Blades when I unlocked it) for some devastating effects. Sadly, there are only 6 different spells (for a total of 15 combinations) so it will feel slightly more limited from the previous game. This is for good reason though; theres no more Slow-time spell as this is now designated to a potion you can use; the same goes for Summon Creatures. This will be a drastic change for some but the combat overall has been vastly simplified (almost too much in my opinion) for almost anyone to enjoy without too many problems.
The other major change I found instantly is how you interact with other characters and villagers. The famous Expression wheel has been scrapped and youre now limited to what expressions you have learned (and bought with seals). You also been to interact with an npc, then the options you have will show up that you can perform. You may know 10 different good expressions, but its random which one you get to perform, unless you want to keep doing them to cycle through. This felt like a complete step backwards in the wrong direction as you dont have the same control you used to have. Sadly, its no longer as easy to run up to someone and fart or burp in their face anymore.
Other changes that youll notice are some smaller things like potions and how they are rationed. Now youll only get the health potion option when you are low on health and can actually use it. The same goes for specialty potions, you can only use these in combat, so the inventory system is much more context sensitive. You also can no longer earn money by not playing (or exploiting the system clock); you need to be actively playing to collect your rent.
I was so excited when I found of Fable 2 was going to have online co-op..and then I experienced the mode and was more turned off than anything. The problem was that when you went to someone elses game, you were basically a sidekick and no longer your Hero and couldnt progress your own character. That and having to share one camera was absolutely terrible. This made me nervous for the co-op announcement in Fable 3; would it be just as bad and awkward? Luckily no, it has been improved (though still not as much as Id hoped). You are no longer tethered to one another when playing with someone else online and you can actually separate and do your own things (though Im not sure why you would be playing co-op then with someone) and you are your own Hero! No more henchmen and sidekicks. While it may still not be perfect yet (as you can really only gain gold from helping someone else in their game) it is a step in the right direction and its no longer a chore like it was previously.
Spend the few extra gold coins and you can pick up the Collector Edition that has a bunch of extras all encased in a gorgeous and thick box that looks like an old leather-bound book. Along with the authentic looking novel comes a specific extra quest, new area, new dog breed (which you can now change anytime you want), an outfit, and in a hidden compartment in the bottom of the case is a Guild Seal Coin that has a good and evil side to help you make those tough decisions along with some Fable 3 playing cards. For the 10 extra gold coins, its not that bad of a value for what you get.
So what else do you need to know about Fable 3 before deciding whether to get it or not? Well, there are issues, and they can be abundant at times as well. There are massive pop-in issues when scenes go from one to the next, sound bugs like characters talking over one another (not when meant to), your dog still gets lost and wont show you the proper place to dig sometimes, the gold sparkle trail will sometimes not even show up for some reason, there are times where there are very heavy frame rate issues, to the point of being frustrating, and it has even hard locked my Xbox on three separate occasions. Yes, there are a lot of bugs, most of which can hopefully be fixed with upcoming patches, but nothing was major enough to be a deal breaker for me (though the hard locks got me very close) as I was still enjoying my jaunt through Albion in my quest to become King.
The game in general is extremely easy and getting the achievement for not dying once in the main quest isnt a challenge at all. On the flip side, this shows how improved and simplistic the combat has been changed to. As the saying goes: Easy to learn, hard to master; sadly theres nothing to master as its not very difficult at all.
Stick to the main quest and teleport everywhere and youll be done the main story in about 10 or 12 hours which is standard fare, but indulge yourself in some of the very unique and interesting side quests (though many will be the standard fetch or kill X amount of enemies) and you can easily double your play time; even more when you play online. I found the ending to be decent, I just wish it was longer and I could take back some of my actions once I realized what the consequences were, but thats life.
While I thoroughly enjoyed Fable 3s imaginative and engrossing plot (and subsequent twists) along with its revised gameplay and core mechanics, as a whole package I simply didnt feel it was an epic in tale or scale that Fable 2 showed us. I wouldnt take that as too big of a knock against Fable 3, and I can safely recommend it without worry. Those that enjoy the Fable series will find a new tale here to enjoy for a few dozen hours but heres to hoping that Fable 4 will finally have an online mode that will keep the game in my system for months as opposed to weeks while keeping my interest.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
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Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
I somehow didnt really know much about Enslaved: Odyssey to the West before it came out and it wasnt even really on my radar until I saw it in stores either. Luckily, it was assigned for me to review and the more I read up on it the more I became intrigued about its lore.
Boy was I pleasantly surprised. Enslaved is developed by Ninja Theory whose last title was Heavenly Sword so I was unsure whether to expect something like their previous game or not. The team has seemed to grow since their last game and as an overall package, they easily outdid themselves.
Enslaved (for short) is actually based loosely on a classic 400 year old Chinese novel named Journey to the West. Obviously this is their take on the novel and is actually set in a post-apocalyptic world 150 years in the future. To set things straight, get your normal vision for a war ravaged world out of your head; this world looks nothing like Fallouts setting. Quite the opposite actually, since only a handful of survivors remain, the world has actually become almost serine with vegetation taking over the urban areas with lush greens almost covering all surfaces and buildings. Ironically, its robots that are left alongside the humans and they are hunting down mankind.
So what makes this classic tale so unique and interesting? For starters, its actually co-written by Alex Garland (The Beach, and 28 Days Later), so theres some real talent on board to create a tale with interesting characters and emotion. If that wasnt enough, the main character; Monkey, is voiced by Andy Serkis (best known for playing Gollum from Lord of the Rings) and does an absolute perfect performance. He also co-directed the dramatic cutscenes and the camera work is so well done that it looks on par with something straight from Hollywood.
The protagonist aptly named Monkey for his skills of combat and agility is on a mech slaver ship alongside another slave thats somehow escaped. As you break your way out of your holding pod, you see a woman running away trying to get to an escape pod before the ship goes down. Merciless mechs block your way off the ship and you eventually catch up with the mysterious woman as she blasts off from the ship in her pod; with you clinging to the outside with all your strength.
As you awake from your very hard crash landing, Monkey is about to destroy this woman but she shouts a verbal command that makes Monkey writhe in pain. While you were unconscious, she placed a hacked slave headband on you and now you under basically under her control. Oh, and shes also rigged it so that if she dies, so do you. She does this as she realizes shes going to need help to get back home and youre the brute strength shell need to survive; meet Trip, your new life-link and journey partner.
I dont want to give anything else more away as thats how the story begins, but there are twists and turns you dont see coming (and others you do) thats amazing told in an emotional narrative that will actually make you care about Monkey and Trip long after you finish the game. I know Ill care about the duo for some time to come.
So theres two main core mechanics in Enslaved; combat and platforming. Platforming is very simple and easy to do; pillars and ledges have a slight glow to them so you know what you can and cant traverse with a quick glimpse. Monkey is incredibly agile and would easily be on part with the Prince of Persia or either hero from Assassins Creed; thats how easily he can climb and maneuver. Whats great about this portion is that you cant accidently hold the wrong direction, jump, and then die because you fell too far. You can only jump to places you can reach; no more running off the edges in frustration. While some may find this a little restrictive in the exploration aspect, it streamlines the experience and keeps the narrative going as you get from point A to point B in a quick and timely fashion, all while looking good while doing it may I add.
Combat is the other half of the game; and youll be doing it more often than naught against slews of enemy mechs after you. Your staff is a powerful weapon that you can attack with, shoot plasma bolts from, and even use as a shield. Combat is deep, especially once you start using all your collected orbs to purchase upgrades of your choice (from shield skills, to combat, staff, or health), but once you find a good combo or a few great moves you get comfortable with, you wont deviate much from what works (Counter is a great example of this for me. I didnt use it much because it wasnt needed, but I know others will rely on this heavily).
Enslaved is a completely single player experience, but its masked in such a greatly crafted way with Trip being on your side, that it almost feels like its co-op at times. So what can Trip do to help you out? She can use her mechanized dragonfly camera to scout ahead, spot enemies and their weaknesses, and then relay that into the HUD of your headband. Theres also a whole mechanic built on distraction. Sometimes Monkey needs to get from one area to the next, but there are too many enemies or turrets in the way that make it impossible. This is where Trip can use a hologram to distract enemy fire for a short time as you make your way to cover or sneak up behind them. The same goes both ways, as Monkey can shout and distract enemies that may be going for Trip; remember though, if she dies, so do you.
Normally when there are escort missions, I simply dread them because the AI usually gets in the way or actually makes it more of a hindrance than anything else. While Trip may not be able to fight the mechs, if she gets too close to enemies, she can use a temporary stun on the mechs with a short amount fo time for you to come save her. Surprisingly, she was able to take care of herself outside of the few scripted moments.
Monkey later on can make use of his hoverboard-like orb aptly named his Cloud. You can speed across water and make further jumps with your Cloud activated; there are even a few sections that require you to get around on your Cloud to reach certain areas for Trip to progress as well. There are a few other sections where youll use your Cloud as well, but Ill save those awesome surprises for you to discover.
While everything has been positive so far, there were a few glitches and bugs I ran across that needed mentioning to be fair. While the vast majority of camera work is perfect and very cinematic, there are times where the camera will simply make you frustrated by looking in the wrong direction or not show you the robots beating you down at some given moment.
There were also two instances where my objectives wouldnt load, so I spent about fifteen minutes in an area trying to figure out why the enemies Trip just told me were there werent. After a quick reload everything was fine, but boy was I confused when I thought I somehow just ran across the first invisible enemies. The second was a boss fight that I had to restart due to dying, but the problem was the boss instantly killed Trip even though I still had time left before it got to her. Weird issues, but nothing deal breaking that a quick checkpoint reload didnt fix. Honestly, all of the positives completely outweigh the few negatives.
Enslaved is the epitome of emotional storytelling; youll care about the characters, their relationships, the overall goal, and even the world it takes place in. Everything feels completely unique and original and I would honestly love to see a movie adaption someday.
Pacing is wonderful and theres enough variety that it doesnt get stale for a minute. I had a hard time putting the game down due to its gripping story and constantly wanting to know what happens next to Monkey and Trip. I implore you to give enslaved a try; theres even a demo available to give you a taste of the experience. Everything other than a few small bugs make this game an absolute treat and this is easily in my top 5 for the whole year. I absolutely loved every aspect about this game from some of the best facial animations Ive ever seen in a game to the wonderful and gorgeous world (for being post- apocalyptic), to some of the best voice acting Ive ever heard.
I honestly cant say enough great things about Enslaved; its fun, its interesting, and I loved everything about it. Im already looking forward to the forthcoming DLC to bring me back into the world, even if itll only be for a short time, at least thats a few more hours Ill get to enjoy and to hopefully tide me over until a sequel is announced (please!).
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
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Alien Breed 2: Assault
Team17 may most famously be known for their Worm series of games, but they also have another title with a cult following over the years. Alien Breed is isometric shooter with a three quarters view that first debuted on the Commodore almost twenty years ago in 1991. Some time has passed since Alien Breed has first been released and Team17 is attempting to bring back the series with an overhauled graphic engine (Unreal) and some new tricks up its sleeve.
Alien Breed 2: Assault (AB2A) is the second installment of the series' reboot in a trilogy that takes all the best parts from many sci-fi influences and wraps it in a surprisingly long jaunt in an isolated ship hurling through space.
If you played Alien Breed Evolution then you will be happy to know that the story continues and stars once again Conrad the engineer aboard the spaceship Leopold. The ships engines need to be reignited and fixed if you want a chance to survive aboard the ship; but like any good sci-fi space story, youll need to survive and defeat a slew of oncoming aliens that never seem to end. The story is mostly told as a comic style panel with the odd cutscene here and there usually at the start and ending of chapters. Youll be playing the exterminator with an arsenal of weaponry and you make your way from checkpoint to checkpoint.
You control Conrad who can freely move wherever he likes (thats unlocked), shoot in every direction, and you also control the camera angle that can be snapped at 45 degree increments to your liking. Youll need to use the camera moment button quite often as sometimes its impossible to see where to go or what to shoot without doing so. Also, you may like running from the bottom of the screen upwards, but hit specific checkpoints and the camera will sometimes whip around and completely throw you off in regards to your surroundings.
Youll learn almost from the very beginning that ammo must be conserved wherever possible as theres very little downtime where you dont need to shoot a wave of oncoming bad guys out for you. Luckily with all the cash you find lying around or from corpses, you can then buy ammo and even much needed upgrades from save points.
As I mentioned earlier, Alien Breed is almost two decades old and the way things were made back then for this style of game sadly still hasnt changed very much. The majority of all levels will go like this: use computer A to use computer B to unlock door C to flip switch D to go all the way back to computer A because it didnt work or because something was stuck. Follow the checkpoints, kill the bugs, progress.
Because of this old way of design, its literally a corridor shooter for the most part and sadly other than boss battles or the odd survive for X amount of time, just isnt all that exciting. Couple this with an inane amount of backtracking (sometimes almost all the way back to the start just to flip a switch or use a computer) and you have a very linear experience that seems to be very repetitive. Its not a terrible thing, as this genre of game has almost always been built this way, but dont expect much variety in missions.
Something new to AB2A is a new Survivor Mode. Yes, this is another mode where waves and waves of enemies come at you and you need to see how long you can stay alive. No, its not anything new but it is fun when you just want to not think about anything and kill hordes of aliens in single or co-operative modes.
Theres also a c-operative play mode where you and a friend can take on multiplayer specific missions that is customized for two players over Xbox Live or split screen. The issue I found with this (and Survival) is that I left a lobby open for 30 minutes two different times and not one person joined my game (nor could I find a match to join either). Beware that theres obviously very low community numbers for the game if you want to buy this for the co-operative experience on Xbox Live. Glancing the leaderboards as well confirmed this as you can see how many people are ranked per level (not even 3000 completed the first missions and less than a hundred have on the latter and harder levels). This doesnt weigh into the games rating, but more of an advisory if you dont have a friend also picking up the game.
Oddly enough, a lack of voice acting concerns me because its usually due to bad acting or whatnot; this stays true for AB2A as well. There isnt much voiced story, but youll be glad its that way once you hear how horrendous the acting and writing are throughout the few hours of campaign.
There are leaderboards, but they arent very compelling enough to keep you interested long term; though with the few amount of players, you do have a good shot at being one of the top players in the world if thats your thing. Its unfortunate the game has a low play population as its a decent title for the 800 Microsoft Points if you want to turn off your brain and just shoot a ton of aliens and I would have loved to get some more time in on the co-operative modes. If you enjoy the demo, then youll most likely enjoy the full game just as much because its going to be that same gameplay over and over throughout the campaign.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
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Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor series has been around for quite some time and truth be told, it was one of the first very successful World War II shooters to come to the masses. Medal of Honor (MOH for short) arrived a few years before Call of Duty and really did pave the way for successful World War shooters in my eyes. Medal of Honor titles have always been about authenticity and soldier respect and because of the nature of the material, also controversial; this reboot for the series simply named Medal of Honor, is no different.
Now that MOH is about to come out of hibernation after a long slumber, its also taking new steps for the series and is going to be the first that doesnt take place in World War II era; this campaign takes place in modern day Afghanistan (queues the critics now) which has also brought with it much controversy. So lets get this out of the way first; the big uproar more than anything that Ive notices is that people are being vocal against the game because you were going to be able to play the Taliban in multiplayer. Obviously this ruffled enough feathers that Danger Close (the EA studio which has a very fitting name) decided to change the playable Taliban to simply be renamed Opposing Forces. Will a simple name change muzzle some of the opposition, hard to say, but know that because of this last minute change that no gameplay has suffered in any way; its simply a name change in l of Honor this time around focuses on a super elite group of soldiers aptly named Tier 1 Operators. There are more than two million American men and women enlisted into service, of those roughly fifty thousand falls under Special Operations Command. The elite Tier 1 Operators are a very select group even above the Spec Ops and while there is no publicly known numbers of how many exist, its said to be in the low hundreds. These soldiers are so precise and are unquestionably a living and breathing instrument of war that is called upon when a mission simply cannot fail by any means.
Meet Dusty, the badass soldier on the front of the cover with a beard that makes me even envious. He is a Tier 1 Operator (T1) if you havent guessed that by this point. While technically you dont play as Dusty, you will play alongside him as Deuce who is also another T1 for a good portion of the campaign. Why do I say that? Well, you are actually going o take control of 4 different playable characters throughout the campaign from different teams; Rabbit, Deuce, Adams and even an Apache Pilot. The story mostly focuses on the T1 team, but the stories will intertwine and youll get to see each squads side of the battles.
I dont want to give anything away about the story as I did find it quite engaging and it wasnt a simple kill everything or clear this area so that. scenario that plagues a lot of warfare shooters. The setting is in Afghanistan and while you may think that the area is only dry and barren desert, there are more locales that youll be fighting through like city slums and the snow covered mountains. You may be surprised that Afghanistan isnt what you may think. As the campaign progresses and you make your way through some bloody battles the mood, narrative and goals will change based on the events that take place. A brilliant score accompanies the mood changes alongside and perfectly fits the situations that you find yourself in.
When you finally shoot your last bullet and the mission comes to an end, youll be treated to an amazing and very heartwarming dedication before the credits roll that was actually written by soldiers in service. Danger Close made sure that it was something that they (the soldiers) could send out to their community and makes for a very emotional and fitting ending that was very powerful and climactic. From beginning to end, the story will keep you engaged and there is enough variety in levels and proper pacing that wont give you fatigue or lose interest. At the core is a great shooter experience with tight controls that make the ATV, Sniping, and Apache levels seem like great additions and variety.
So what is there to do other than multiplayer once you finish the campaign? Well, once you finish the game, Tier 1 Mode will unlock. This mode is for the hardcore and is essentially a Time Attack mode but with a twist. You replay the campaign missions but you have a very short time limit and the only way to extend your time is to play well by getting head shots and kill streaks. Everything is generally harder as well since there are tougher enemies, your health doesnt recharge and there are also no mid-level checkpoints either. If you die half way through the mission, you need to start over from the beginning; this is for the hardcore no doubt. Your par times will be uploaded to the leaderboard and you can see how you stack against your friends and others.
While Danger Close focused on the single player aspect, DICE made the multiplayer as its right up their alley. Multiplayer uses a modified version of the Bad Company 2 engine and while it does feel like a Battlefield style of gameplay it does have a MOH experience and feels a little quicker and more skill based.
If youve played the multiplayer beta that was going on over the summer then all you need to know is that there has been a vast improvement such as balancing issues, graphic updates and more which was all based on user feedback.
So what makes MOH stand out online compared to other shooters? There is a leveling system that were now used to but theyve done things a little differently. There are three classes; Rifleman, Special Ops, and Sniper. As you play a class and gain kills and scores, those points go towards leveling that class up and ultimately unlocking new weapons and perks for that class. So instead of unlocking weapons and more overall, you need to work each class to gain their unlocks. For example, a sniper wont have a zoomable scope until you gain a few levels. The more you use a class, the more youll unlock for said class.
Something else done a little differently is the scorechains (or kill streaks as were used to). So instead of needing three or more kills to gain a UAV or other advantages the system is place uses a scorechain system instead. This is done by points and not kills, so playing well and getting headshots and doing other objectives will get your scorechain up and net you the choice of an offensive or defensive action. Choose offensive and you can use mortar strikes and other rains of death, but choose defensive and you can get a UAV or even replenish ammo and give armor to your whole team. I really enjoyed this system much better than the standard killstreak mechanic as theres some more strategy in choosing the right choice for the moment.
Easily the strength of multiplayer is the audio, (just like the campaign) and there is so much detail given to everything from sound effects, voice chatter, callouts and explosions. The hindrance of multiplayer though at the moment has to be the unbalanced maps and some of the spawn points. You will be frustrated at first when you spawn near a team mate and instantly die time after time. Some maps are also heavily unbalanced with attack and defending positions; hopefully these can be fixed with a future patch. The other issue is that two teams doing different sections of the game makes each component feel very detached from each other; the controls are slightly different and theres also no lean control in multiplayer like there is in single. It can be confusing at first if you are switching back between modes but the fact that the two modes feel independent from each other feels confusing at times.
Again, the absolutely strength of MOH is the audio in all aspects; there are even some audio directors thats been aboard on every single MOH title. Everything sounds authentic and realistic, the voice acting is perfect, the voice chatter is directional, and everything as a package is simply believable.
Nothing is perfect though; there are some pop-in texture issues and things become very laggy when there are a lot of explosions going on and especially during the ATV missions when speeding down the mountain. If you can look past these issues, theres a great story and long-life multiplayer game to be experienced. There are some great nods to previous Medal of Honor titles if you know your stuff and a fan of the series. Its hard to say how MOH will stack up against the competition but if you were on the fence know that there is an interesting and emotional single player included alongside a multiplayer offering that has enough modes and unlocks to keep things interesting for some time. Its been awhile since Ive been excited to see where EA will take the Medal of Honor series next and Im glad that there is finally some competition aimed directly at Call of Duty.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
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Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
Its no secret about the controversy that surrounded the first game and some of its review scores. I wont go into details about that whole debacle, but after that whole situation I was honestly quite surprised that a sequel was announced so quickly. What I wanted to know was weather all the problems that surrounded the first game like the horrid controls, the lack of online co-op, a story that just falls half way through and more were fixed for this sequel. I wouldnt say I was excited for the sequel, more of a morbid curiosity. Did most of these problems get fix? Well, kind of.
If you havent played the first Kane and Lynch title you wont have any clue about whats going on when Dog Days starts. Theres no real recap of whats previously happened, who Kane and Lynch really are, why they are being tortured in the opening scene or anything about their past.
Kane and Lynch reconnect for that one final job so they can quit their ways for the payday of a lifetime. Nothing in this world is easy and obviously something goes awry and sets off a chain of events that have the duo trying to flee from Shanghai and seemingly every single cop and gang in the city.
I was debating whether or not to explain the plot of the game to try and make the review have some more substance and hopefully make some more sense; due to the extreme short length of the game Im just going to explain the main parts since its not some giant revelation or plot twist that happens 10 hours in (if only the game was half that long). Essentially the corrupt duo accidentally kill the daughter of a high ranking government official and from that moment on they are hunted down like dogs by every cop and mobster in the whole city.
Usually having the world against you angle leads up to some high tension and an awesome conclusion that sets things right or at least finishes off the long awaited story arc. Well, this isnt one of those times as the complete story run-up is slow, doesnt really pick up much steam and the fact that the most exciting part of the game was a little more than half way through led me to an ending that left me saying thats it?. It feels completely unfulfilling once you complete the story and may even turn you off of playing more of the game like it did for me. On the bright side to this dilemma; at least a full play through will only take you 4 or 5 hours to complete. Yup, its that short but I honestly dont know how much more lethargic and uninteresting gameplay I would have been able to endure.
Every game needs a gimmick; that something special so to speak. Kane and Lynch 2 does have that gimmick in the form of its visual representation. The game is played in third person but the camera style is done like a documentary along with the Youtube quality grain from an amateur cameraman. Because of this real style of camera footage, the view also constantly is swinging as if the camera man is holding the camera following Lynch everywhere he goes. The issue with this is that its swinging and swaying so much that itll either make you sick from the motion or completely prevent you from seeing where to go or whats shooting at you. Think of the roadie-run from Gears, but someone running behind with the camera in their hand; its that nauseating. Luckily theres an option to turn on the steady cam to get rid of this issue, but its not the default and people may not think to look for it. Unforunetly, you cant get rid of the grainy filter from the camera; thats just something youll need to deal with.
Just like videos youd see on Youtube as well, theres also censorship bars and blurred out sections such as headshots or naked body parts (Yes, you play a complete level naked). In a way, the combination of this fake censorship along with the grainy hand-cam does make it feel a little more real and somewhat violent that I probably would have thought without this style.
So lets quickly talk about what makes this sequel different from its predecessor. Lets be honest here, the first game had vastly sub-par gameplay but what made it kind of bearable was the varying locations and types of missions you were doing. Kane and Lynch 2 does away with that varying gameplay and simply sets you in a room or corridor of enemies one after another making a very monotonous gameplay experience. Yes, somehow they took a step backwards and theres no variety here at all apart from one or two very brief missions. Clear the room of enemies, move ahead, clear that room of enemies, repeat; this is the formula for your 4 hour playthrough, get used to it.
Somehow grenades no longer exist in the sequel either. Instead, you will pick up canisters of propane or fire extinguishers, hurl those at your enemies and then shoot it to make it explode. Maybe they thought this would be a little more exciting than a regular grenade, but theres so few spots where you can pick one of these improvised explosives up while behind cover that youll really only do it a few times in the whole game. If things get really bad and youre able to run up to an enemy without dying, you can take them as a human shield. It works for the most part, but dont expect it to be like a moving cover, as you can still get shot very easily.
The small selection of guns available will have you constantly trying to find something better as youll notice nine times out of ten your shot will miss or simply do nothing to the enemies. Almost all of even the basic enemies will take a full clip to put down, yet a few shots in you and youre toast. The guns dont sound impactful (even when you have the shotguns) and Lynchs accuracy is so terrible that youll constantly have to be foraging for ammo. Regardless if the enemies head was right in the middle of the crosshair, sometimes hell get shot elsewhere; this makes for a very frustrating experience throughout the game regardless of what your true aiming skill is.
Something that was added and wanted in the original though is the inclusion of online co-op. this comes two fold though; yes you can play co-op but the experience doesnt change in any way. Theres no sections like in the first game where Kane was doing one thing and Lynch was doing another. Essentially co-op in this game is just having another pair of guns that can help you when you keep missing your shots from the accuracy issues. Theres no real branched gameplay like in Gears or other games where one player has to cover the other or meet up later on.
If you played multiplayer in the first game, then youve played the Fragile Alliance mode. This is essentially a group of players in a gang robbing the loot from an area then having to make it to the getaway vehicle. What made this unique was that after the gang got the loot, players could then turn on one another to gain more loot for themselves if they wished, but theyd have to deal with the rest of the players for being branded a traitor. Anyone killed by a traitor respawns as a cop and if they kill the person who betrayed them, they get a bonus.
Fragile Alliance in Dog Days is essentially the same, but there are a few small tweaks and inclusions of some campaign elements. This means you can grab a player and use them as a shield, use canisters to make traps to betray your team, and more. What also carries over from the campaign is the horrible shooting accuracy and getting the kills you want can be a task in itself.
There are now two variants of FA mode; one being Undercover Cop mode which places one random player a secret undercover cop in the gang. Their job is to prevent the real criminals from escaping. The other variant is Cops and Robbers is essentially a basic VS mode where robbers try and get the loot and escape and the cops have to do everything they can to prevent that from happening. The team with the most money in the end wins.
There is also an Arcade Mode that is simply a single player version of Fragile Alliance. You play alongside bots and you have the same objectives as before. This is more used as training before going online or if you want to learn the layout of the maps. Rounds become increasingly difficult and you have three lvies to gain as much cash in those rounds you can.
It took me quite some time to find some lobbys and get some games going. Im assuming its more the population of people playing rather than the servers but the biggest problem playing online is that nine times out of ten there is always someone greedy enough to betray the team well before you hit the extraction point (making finishing the level that much harder). Granted, that is part of the gameplay built in, but constantly getting shot in the back when youre trying to shoot the cops to get to the extraction point with your horrible accuracy becomes incredibly frustrating.
So Ive explained the inherent flaws in design, but there are also many other bugs youre going to most likely encounter quite often as much as I did. This is not limited to warping corpses, enemies stuck in place running, and even having my system lock up one time. Couple this with enemy accuracy able to hit you from the other side of the room where you struggle to hit someone point blank; you can see where frustration starts to set in.
Hide behind a pillar or barrier, shoot the enemies, move forward once its clear; do this for 4 hours and you too can have yourself an unfulfilling ending that does nothing to really develop the relationship behind two interesting characters from the first game. I do have to give a nod to its very unique and distinct visual art style, but that swinging camera HAS to go. If it doesnt sit well with you in the first few minutes of gameplay, youll be struggling with it throughout the whole gameplay experience, but at least you wont suffer too long start to finish.
Somehow these two games are spawning a movie adaptation with the main roles being played by Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx (I knowI dont know how either) so obviously someone somewhere sees the value in the brand; I guess they havent played the games. Somehow Dog Days make the first game look good; sequels are meant to surpass the previous iterations; sadly this takes a step backwards somehow.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
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Halo: Reach
Halo has become a household name since its first introduction to gamers everywhere back on the original Xbox. Bungie has done so well with the Halo franchise that its spawned games (obviously), books, toys, costumes, and even drinks and chips (and hopefully a movie sooner than later).
I have to give Bungie some major credit; it takes some guts to do a prequel game where your fans already know the outcome of the main plot. Couple this with not using the main hero from the previous games as the protagonist and Id say youd have to have a huge pair to try and pull something like this off.
Luckily for all us Halo fans, Bungie is able to pull this off with a new engine, new characters, new settings and more. Halo 3 was finish the fight; Halo Reach is start the fight.
Before Master Chief could save Earth and the universe from the brink of extinction, mankind was having its own battle for survival; this battle took place on the planet Reach. This is a different war against the Covenant that weve come to known; they are extremely ruthless and a handful of Spartan soldiers will make their final stand as mankinds last line of defense. The battle on Reach shaped history and its darker and massive story will be told for years to come.
Its no secret that the Covenant eventually glass planet Reach, but the story that unfolds to those last fateful moments are being told in this game and unfold beautifully across the length of the campaign. If youve read the wonderfully written novel from Eric Nylund The Fall of Reach, then you have a basic idea of what happened on the planet in its last moments. This is absolutely not a retelling of the book and quite a few situations are completely different as well (The book follows Master Chiefs journey, where the game focus solely on Noble Squad).
Sure you know the ending and what happens, but much like life, its the journey to that destination that makes the great story. You dont play as Master Chief this time around; you are a member in Noble Squad. Carter, Kat, Jun, Emile, Jorge and you; Noble 6. You are replacing the previous Noble 6 that you will remember if you saw the latest live action trailer for the game when he bravely sacrificed himself in an emotional ending.
Now that you a member of the Spartan squad, there is no more of that lone-wolf thinking like when you were controlling Master Chief and it was you against the Covenant. You actually feel a part of the squad and youll connect with most of the team (though I hated Kat from the get-go) which makes for a much more emotional and impactful storyline.
There are some great tie-in moments that will have you going ahhhh once you put the puzzle pieces together. Campaigns length is on par for average compared to shooters now a days but Legendary is going to add dramatically to those hours, as its a rough go and very challenging. The story never suffers from poor or slow pacing and always keeps you engaged. The ending sequence is simply brilliant and I cant think of a better way to end Noble 6s saga that paves the way for all the other Halo titles. I do have to admit, the story in general was not what I was expecting at all (I guess I was looking for more of the novels version), but thats not a bad thing and I was completely impressed with how impactful the plot felt. I truly felt like because of me, Master Chief begins his story.
I wont give anything away about the story other than what you already know, so Ill move onto gameplay. Much criticism that Bungie has received in previous games was due to their bland corridor shooting style of level design. Luckily, this is not the case in Reach and there is much more outdoor and open space to work with.
Since the first Halo really made the shield recharging health system popular, its been used in countless games since. With Halo ODST, the more traditional health pack system was implemented (due to ODSTs not having Mjolnir armor like the Spartans) and it returns in Reach for Noble Squad because this was before the Mark V armor that had the Covenant technology of recharging shields. This means youll take a little more time to explore so you know where the medipaks are when you finish taking on a Hunter.
Adding features to a game with such a following is a very tricky situation; on one hand you want to stay true to what made Halo so great, and on the other you need to add new things to keep it fresh and attract new players as well. Its a fine line of pleasing the fan base and also making new ones (just like how at a concert, you always want to hear the classic hits to go along with the new stuff). Say hello to Reachs new gameplay addition: Armor Loadouts and Abilities.
Armor Loadouts in essence are combinations of a primary (and sometimes secondary) weapon, type of grenade, and an Armor Abilitiy to customize to suit your play style or based on what map or mode you are playing at that time. These carry over intomultiplayer and campaign as well and add a completely new strategic element to gameplay.
Armor abilities replace the equipment that you used to find on the ground in Halo 3. Instead, whatever ability you choose is now built into your armor and can be used on the fly. Every ability has its own cool down period, length of use, effectiveness and more.
Sprint will do just that; make your character have a burst of speed for a short amount of time. This is great for quickly covering a small stretch of ground or getting out of the way of an incoming enemy. Active Camouflage will give you invisibility whenever deemed fit. It works for a short amount of time and will even jam any nearby enemies radars (but that also tells them you are close by). Jet Pack is incredibly useful and allows you to reach heights or cross gaps quickly; you can even shoot or snipe while mid-air. Armor Lock allows you to momentarily become invincible against all kinds of damage for a short time; the downfall is that you cant move and your shields come down shortly after youve disengaged it. Hologram is a fun ability that will make a clone of you run in a straight line to your marker. This is great for flushing out or distracting enemies. While the hologram doesnt do anything but run in its set course, its always rewarding to see someone trying to kill the fake you. Drop Shield is a portable Bubble Shield that weve come to love since Halo 3. No more having to find the equipment on the ground, bring it with you whenever you need it. The last ability is an Elite only one called Evade. Its essentially a very quick dash and roll that makes you difficult to hit but has the same benefits as the Sprint ability. Bungie was smart enough to not include every Armor Ability on every map or mode; for example, King of the Hill mode wont include Armor Lock because it would simply be unbalancing.
The inclusion of Forge in Halo 3 was a great tool for people to create their own custom maps and variants. Forge returns in Reach but is so improved and has a plethora of options that will keep you here a very long time if youre a level creator. Forge World is the name for a giant canvas thats about the size of almost five Blood Gultch maps; yea, its that big. Theres simply an exhausting amount of options to play around with in Forge World that Im still figuring out how all of them work. There are so many small improvements as well such as being able to snap items to an invisible grid; meaning no more special tricks to get rid of those seam lines in your connected walls. The same goes for making objects float; no more tricks needed, its an option in the menus. Play around with Forge World and youll quickly notice whats actually available now to make the map that youve always wanted.
Everyone knows that Halo is only as good as its multiplayer, as that is whats going to keep it in your systems tray for months on end. Reach does definitely not disappoint and is easily the most robust offering yet from Bungie. In all previous Halo games, youve been unable to play campaign or Firefight with Matchmaking; it always had to be with friends or an invite. Finally, youll be able to do this with new and random people, and while it may not seem like a big deal, I dont always have three friends online willing to do a campaign run with me at three in the morning.
Every time you play Reach you will earn credits (even in campaign) which can then be accumulated and used to purchase new armor to customize your Spartan. Sure they are only visual and have no special abilities, but once you see how much some of the armor costs you will be very impressed when you see someone with that matching set that took months of credit hoarding to accumulate. Completing challenges set forth from Bungie will net you bonus credits and theres always something to work towards other than winning matches; the daily and weekly challenges will reflect these goals.
If you played Halo ODST, you then most likely played the new mode it introduced: Firefight. This has you fighting with your team against waves of progressively tougher enemies until you eventually lose all your lives. Firefight from ODST was a demo compared to what its like in Reach. Everything is absolutely customizable from your weapon power, which enemies spawn on what waves and almost infinitely more. Want to see how long you can survive against all Grunts with Fuel Rod cannons, go for it!
Invasion is a new 6 vs 6 objective based game mode that puts Spartans vs Elites in an attack and defend play type. The attacking Elites are trying to reach one of two areas they need to take over and if they do, phase two of the map opens up and the Elites need to capture the next section. While Spartans are trying to defend the whole time, theyll also have to deal with both sides gaining more weapons and abilities as phases open up. Invasion Slayer is an entertaining variant that has both teams focusing on trying to get the randomly placed territories around the map. Once a team captures the territory, a weapon drop happens which could be anything from to some power weapons or even some vehicles. Its a great mode that encourages both teams to constantly move as bunkering down in one area will let the other team get all the weapon drops and easily turn the tide of battle. The first team to 100 kills wins and it comes surprisingly quick.
The new mode: Headhunter, is a simple yet fun objective. When you kill someone they drop a skull, you then take these skulls to the randomly activated territories around the map. You are able to carry as many skulls at a time as you wish, but everyone can see how many skulls you have and if you carry too many, people will start coming after you. The goal is to capture 25 skulls and becomes quite frantic once you are looking for the territory to offload your earnings. Its all about risk vs reward, do you go for the big haul at once or slowly widdle away at your skull count?
Stockpile is also a new mode that kind of plays with this risk vs reward nuance. Two teams battle for four neutral flags that are scored every sixty seconds on the dot. The catch is that the flags have to be in your bases capture spot on that minute mark for the points to count; meaning, even if you are holding the flag or its just outside the zone, it wont count. Theres a constant push and pull happening as youre trying to steal their flags or simply defend your own. I like to play by hiding near their base and at the last second, throw theirs out of their scoring zone while the rest of my team tries to capture our own points. Theres a ton of different strategies Ive already seen for this mode and its always a mix up.
If you are into competition then you are going to love the new Arena. This is the new ranking system, meaning that the old way of ranking in the past is gone and ratings and divisions are in. Play 3 Arena matches in a day and youll get a rating of your best 2 matches that day, gain 10 ratings within a months time (a Season) and youll get put into a Division. Your Division placement will be viewable on your service record and is going to be a great way for competitive players to brag. All your standard modes are included in multiplayer as well, but Arena is going to be where the top players go to prove themselves.
So youre finally convinced that Halo Reach is awesome and you need to play it right? Well, when you get to the store to pick it up youre going to see 3 different boxes, all based on how much you want to spend or how much of a Halo fanatic you are like myself.
Obviously you can simply get the regular edition thats just the game, but for those of us that want some more theres two more options. The Limited Edition will net you the game (obviously), an Elite armor set for multiplayer, a book that contains Dr. Halseys personal journal and notes (among other small goodies like a patch and keycard); all of this is encased in an awesome looking ONI black box.
For those that want everything, the Legendary Edition is for you. It comes with everything in the Limited Edition (even the box it comes in) but the big ticket item is the 10 statue made by the gifted people at McFarlane Toys. Its the Noble Team (without Noble 6 for obvious player custom reasons) and looks amazing on any collectors shelf. The other cool bonus youll get is a Spartan armor effect aptly named Flaming Helmet which even carries over to campaign (though not the cut scenes).
No game is perfect and bug free, Reach included. That being said, the only thing I can really find thats noteworthy is the slowdown at certain key parts in campaign, to the point of being a hindrance, though itll only last for a few seconds. Every other aspect of Reach is so wonderfully crafted and multiplayer will have you playing for so long to save op for those expensive armor parts, which it doesnt really matter in the big scheme of things.
This is Bungies last Halo title; yup, they are moving onto something new from here on and its quite apparent that they wanted to go out with a bang. This is their biggest Halo to date, the multiplayer is leaps and bounds over previous games, and the campaign is so wonderfully crafted with an absolute perfect ending sequence that it needs to be mentioned again.
Halo Reach feels like their goodbye love letter to Halo fans and its apparent that theyve put a lot of heart and soul into making this a memorable Halo title even without the Chief. Even if you are Halod out or was turned off from ODST, get Reach; its a new take but still brings back those old Halo CE feelings from back in the day. You may not be the Master Chief, Noble 6, but Ill remember what you and your squad had to sacrifice for the rest of us on Earth living oblivious to the immanent invasion after Reach fell.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
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Mafia II
Illusion Softworks (now known as 2K Czech) returns with a follow up to their last Mafia game simply titled Mafia II. If youve never played their first in the series, its a game based on genre classics such as The Sopranos, The Godfather, and Goodfellas that deals with the Mafia in the 40s and 50s era set in Empire Bay (a fictional city mostly based on New York).
Thomas Angelo from the first game is not returning (for obvious reasons if you finished the first Mafia) and the new protagonist in Mafia II is Vito Scaletta. Vito and his buddy Joe Barbaro are slowly starting to make names for themselves by proving they can get the job done, thus moving up the family ladder as time goes on.
I need to be honest, I was a bit apprehensive reviewing Mafia II because Im generally not a fan of the whole Mafia scene nor the era it takes place in. Luckily, I was surprised with a streamlined and focused story with some exceptional voice acting by the whole cast which made the 10 to 20 hour jaunt more than just bearable; it was quite enjoyable.
Like any good gangster movie, the story is full of Italians with thick accents, nudity, swearing, killing, get-aways, hits, rounded off with an engrossing story. Vito is the son of immigrants from Sicily and begins with Joe and himself robbing a jewelry store at the age of seventeen. Vito gets caught and the only way to avoid jail time is to enlist in the army.
When Vito eventually returns home due to a medical leave from being shot he learns that his father has passed and has left quite a hefty debt that the family owns to a notorious loan shark. This sets in the motion for Vito wanting to earn some real cash instead of a lowly paying 9-5 job like everyone else. Joe has connections and eventually they are doing tasks for some higher made-men as they progressively become more and more reliable eventually becoming made-men themselves.
I dont want to give much more away, but the story itself moves along nicely and isnt too difficult to follow as each character truly is their own personality. The qualities from mafia movies are also played into the story here as well with tales of friendship, loyalty, betrayal, and revenge.
Its going to be impossible to describe parts of Mafia II without comparing it to Grand Theft Auto and other open sandbox style games. The biggest thing to know about Mafia II though is that this is strictly a single player affair with very little side stuff to do. There is an open world that you are able to drive around and do what you want, but its very limited in the sense that theres nothing to do in Empire Bay in the means of side quests and what not., so it feels very empty in substance. What I do prefer about this setup though is that the story is much more streamlined and Im not becoming distracted for hours on end doing nothing like in GTA.
The main plot takes place between 1945 and 1951 which means the firearms from that era is also intact; Tommy guns, MG 42, MP 40, Colt 1991 and more make their appearance. Unfortunately, the crosshairs for aiming are quite large and it makes the guns feel incredibly inaccurate because of it. I dont expect every weapon to have precision aiming, but when I have to use a full clip just to hit someone, thats not right.
New to Mafia II is now a full-fledged cover system rather than simply ducking behind boxes and such like in the first game. It will somewhat remind you of Gears of War of how Vito will stick to the walls, but it is nowhere near as refined or easy to maneuver (especially around corners). Its a shame that the enemy AI is usually not even bright enough to change their game-plan and will simply find a spot to hide behind and constantly poke their head in and out of cover like a whack-a-mole.
For most interactions like doors and cars, you are given two different options; standard and aggressive. Doors can be opened normally like any civilized person, or booted and smashed in for a more dramatic entrance. The same goes for stealing cars; either lock-pick them (which gives you a simply mini game to complete to succeed) for a silent heist, or save time by smashing the window and opening the door.
When you arent driving around town from one objective to the next, or in a brutal shootout, youll be fighting the old fashioned way; youll let your fists do the talking. Hand-to-hand combat is quite simple with a button for light and quick hits, another for slower heavy hits, and a block button. Once you learn how to counter punch though, combat becomes trivial to the point where you wont even get hit once for the rest of the game in a fist fight.
As the story progresses, youll essentially be doing one of three different tasks in your current mission; chauffeuring someone, fist fighting someone, or in an intense shootout against rivals. There is the odd mission that does change the variety slightly, but for the most part, get used to drivinga lot.
Since youll be in your car for the majority of the game just getting from one place to another, the pacing for the story is thrown off and some missions seems to really drag on in a simple attempt to try and add more gameplay hours into the title. This can obviously become very dull at times and you may struggle to keep your attention with your current objectives because of it. Theres a large city of Empire Bay, but you cant do anything in it which makes it feel simply empty and lifeless. The missions themselves can be entertaining, but half way through when you have to do another car mission, youre going to let out a sigh.
On the bright side of being in a vehicle for so long, there is licensed music from the 40s and 50s on the radio and I was quite surprised how many songs from the eras I recognized and knew. Theres also an optional button to toggle the automatic speed limiter on and off. This comes in handy when you are speeding along and see a cop car ahead on your radar and need to slow down in a hurry and dont want to speed past them. This toggle will set your speed to an even 40MPH and you wont get pulled over unless you run a red light or stop sign (yes, you do need to obey street laws when cops are around, though oddly they dont care if you are on the wrong side of the road).
Splurge for the Collectors Edition and you gain access to two different luxury cars and two spectacular suits (including a tuxedo), a 100-page photo album style making-of art book, Orchestral Score, Map of the Empire Bay; all enclosed in a steelbook casing. Not one of the most extravagant or interesting Collector Editions, but I am a sucker for those steelbooks.
If theres one thing Mafia II does absolutely perfect is the voice acting. Every character is completely unique and believable and if I wasnt watching the screen, I would assume someone was watching one of the classic movies. Kudos for getting this right 2K, as a great game can be extremely faltered by horrible voice acting.
The downfalls are few, but they are gaping holes in an otherwise enjoyable title. Empire Bay feels completely boxed in for being an open world sandbox game. With it being such a large city and nothing to do in it, youll become quickly bored doing mundane tasks and driving if you want to take a break from the narrative. The only other knock I need to mention is the poor excuse for an instruction manual. Sure, theres a map included, but the book is literally 2 pages of the controls and that is it. For an era that has so much history and a subject matter thats had endless movies made about it, it was a little disappointing no effort at all was included here.
I truly loved the story and the characters even though Im not the biggest fan of the era and whole mafia setting (yet Ive somehow watched all of The Sopranos). People are going to fault it for not being as diverse or truly open world as GTA, but I really enjoyed the stream lined approach to telling the narrative and the characters and voice acting has so much strength that it can hold the rest of the games faults up on its shoulders.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
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Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
The Tomb Raider series has always been a love-hate relationship with me. On one hand, the original Tomb Raider was one of my favourite games of all time on the PS1, while on the other it seems like the series started to get progressively worse as it went on (Im looking at you Angel of Darkness). Every time a new Tomb Raider came out Id buy it like a sucker and always be disappointed, making me wonder what happened to the Lara I used to know and love. To be fair, the last few games have been pretty well done and made me no longer cringe while playing them, but it still wasnt up to par as it was when it first released.
Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix are making a new start for Lara Croft after so many disappointing games. If anyone deserves another change, its certainly Lara, as she was Time Magazines first video game sex symbol; even Angelina Jolie played her in the movie adaptations, so she must have some weight behind her brand.
What makes this new title so different? Well for one, youll notice the complete lack of Tomb Raider in the title. This is also the first digital online downloadable title for the series which seems to fit this new style very well. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (GOL for short) has always switched gears and is made to be a co-operative experience both offline and online, though online will be coming in September which Ill give more details to later on.
The other major change is that its no longer the behind the back thirst person adventure game weve come to expect from a Tomb Raider title, now we are given a top-down isometric viewpoint with a fixed camera that cant be moved. At first glance, it will instantly remind you of Diablo or Dungeon Siege but there are some more mechanics that make it more than a hack-and-slash that games in in viewpoint are accustomed to.
Lara Croft is an archaeologist that hunts down relics and artifacts; the game starts with her finding the long lost Temple of Light. Shes in search for an ancients prized artifacts called the Mirror of Smoke and eventually finds it, but what would a Tomb Raider game be without someone ambushing Lara to steal it away moments later. Vasco is an evil mercenary that holds Lara up at gunpoint and steals the artifact from her which releases an evil entity named Xolotl that was trapped within the mirror itself. Xolotl kills Vasco and during all this confusion, Totec, the Guardian of Light is awakened. Totec and Lara now have to join sides to hunt down and find Xolotl before its too late for world doom. Sure, its a little cheesy for a plot, but the interaction between Lara and Totec is quite entertaining along the way.
The campaign will hurl you through 14 giant environments with many puzzles and platforming sections along the way which many Tomb Raider fans will love. The other half of the game is the equal parts shooter that will have you taking down enemies with Laras signature dual pistols (complete with her infinite ammo) or Totecs spears.
Combat is very simple and is reminiscent of many twin-stick shooters like Geometry wars and many others. You move your character with the left stick, right stick is for aiming, and the right trigger will fire your weapon. Simple to get the hang of since you dont need to worry about the camera at all due to it being fixed at all times. You can also jump and dodge-roll out of harms way and combat in a whole is very simple and satisfying.
Levels design shines through when you start to get to the puzzle aspects of GOL and even though the game as a whole is very linear, it doesnt feel like its linear which is a very challenging to accomplish. Sure you may constantly being going from point A to point B, but the way its all laid out, it give a sense of freedom with all the minor detours you can take to find the many hidden bonuss such as gems for points or upgrade items should you choose to.
There are special challenge rooms that will have you in a small section or room with a puzzle to figure out. They start out easy and eventually get to the point of controller-throwing frustration, but thats part of the charm and keeps the longevity of the title going. Completing these special challenge rooms will grant you with a special bonus or an artifact that can augment your character (almost like perks) in any way you wish. This means you can eventually customize your Lara to suit your play style, such as +speed, +damage, or other options. Some bonus findings will even grant you a permanent boost in health or ammo. Every level also has a checklist of special challenges such as beating a stage or boss in a set time, finding all the secret Red Skulls, or finishing a puzzle in a specific way. Some are quite fun to attempt and I know Ive gone back to some of the levels a few times to try these challenges multiple times. Most of the puzzles are very clever and were quite challenging that took two of us to figure out (hence the emphasis on co-op).
As mentioned before, Lara retains her signature weapons, but he also gets access to her grapple hook as well that will be used for more than just swinging from sections to sections. If youre playing co-op, you can latch onto special rings with the hook and Totec can run across gaps on it. It can even be used to save Totec from falling off the side of a cliff in those dire situations.
Totec has access to an infinite amount of throwable spears (Lara gets these as well in single player) and can be used as a weapon, but they will also stick into any wall they are thrown at. These in turn can be used as steps for Lara to use to gain higher ground, but Totec is too heavy and will crush in his own weight.
Totec also gets access to a shield than can be used normally to block incoming attacks and projectiles, but can also be held over his head so that Lara can jump on top and then reach higher ledges. You can start to see all of the co-op elements coming into play here with all these different combinations.
GOL has been touted as a co-op heavy experience; while you dont necessarily need to play with a friend, I highly recommend doing so as this is where the games structure truly shines. In multiplayer, one player is Lara and the other is Totecobviously. Whats unique about playing co-operatively though is how the level design slightly changes. Puzzles will be different based on if you are playing single or multiplayer, though the level itself structurally stays the same. This means more than just the simple pull two levers at the same time, theres actually quite a difference in some of the puzzles depending on if Totec is playing or not. When you are playing single player, only Lara is in the game (and has access to Totecs spears) because the devs didnt want players to get frustrated having to rely on AI to help them (Lego games are a great reasoning for this frustration).
Much like many co-op games, there is also some built in competition naturally. Do you grab all the health and gems for yourself or do you let your partner share in your findings? Its a fun scoring system that doesnt make you pit against each other at the same time.
The only downfall about this co-op experience? Well, you wont be able to do it over Xbox Live until September 28th, well over a month past the release. This means you are going to have to do it the old fashioned way and call a buddy over to play with you until the patch arrives next month. While I do have to dock it for not having this ready at launch, dont let it deter you from choosing the game or not as even single screen co-op can hold its own.
Crystal Dynamics has already stated that GOL will be getting 5 separate DLC packs which are expected to come out during the fall. Luckily 360 owners will be getting the first DLC pack for free (Im assuming as a sorry for the online co-op delay) and the different DLC packs will contain new maps, puzzles, and even new characters to play.
GOL might not look like a Tomb Raider title, but it keeps the feel intact with the gunplay, puzzle solving, and platforming over dangerous traps. Multiplayer isnt a necessity, but its definitely an advantage and much more rewarding and I strongly suggest getting a friend over to play it with. Surprisingly, a playthrough will take 6-10 hours depending on how much you like to hunt for all the bonus goodies, but many playthroughs exists due to all the puzzle challenges. Im going out on a limb and saying that GOL is this years Shadow Complex in terms of quality and quantity of gameplay (even with the snafu of the online co-op delay).
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light may not have the Tomb Raider brand in the title, but dont let that fool you; this reimagining of the series sets the bar very high and I hope to see more from Lara and can only imagine the possibilities of a sequel on a full disc release. Pick it up and enjoy it and when the online patch comes out late September, play it all over again with your friends.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
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Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Hyyyyyydrroooooo Thunnnnddderrrrrrrrrrrrr! Those whove played the original back in the arcade or on the consoles know exactly what those words mean. Hydro Thunder came out just over a decade ago in the arcades and was a huge hit. I know Ive probably spent way too many quarters on it back in the day among many others. If youve not had the pleasure, Hydro Thunder is a boat racing game that pits you against 15 other opponents in races and also prides itself on many secret shortcuts, huge jumps, and massive boosts of turbo.
When Hydro Thunder Hurricane for Xbox Live Arcade was announced, I honestly wasnt all too excited because I was expecting a remake like the majority of other XBLA titles that are redone. To my surprise, Hurricane is an actual full featured sequel to the arcade hit. No simple graphic updates here, everything is getting a makeover while keeping the spirit of the original true. This sequel is bigger and recreates the essence of true Hydro Thunder in its fast paced glory.
So whats new other than the obvious massive upgrade in graphics? For starters, there are eight new stages that the environments have a theme park kind of feel. Each level is completely different from each other and has their own distinct feel. Each location is very much like the original where there is a plethora of hidden pathways, huge jumps, ramps, destructible objects and other surprises that are new to the series. All the stages are completely new, so there is a whole new world of paths and secrets to start memorizing.
Fans of the original will be ecstatic to know that some of their old favorite boats have been included among the slew of new ones. The bad boys returning include Cutthroat, Razorback, and Rad Hazard with some new coats of paint and styles to them. Each boat has multiple skins to unlock as you progress through the game as well. Another cool feature added is that there are now animations that show the boost rockets folding and unfolding as you gain and use your boost from hidden compartments in the boats. Each boat has their own specific statistics that cater to handling, speed, or other attributes depending on your preferred play style.
The original Hydro Thunder was simply just racing against opponents. The long awaited sequel now includes some new modes to entice players to continue playing and learn new skills. Theres the new Ring Master mode that has you racing through rings at predetermined spots while also gaining boost while going through them. Can you keep your boost going by not missing any rings?
Gauntlet is a solo affair much like Ring Master, but instead of going through rings, the raceway is littered with explodeable barrels if you hit them. Boost is placed in specific locations to better your time, but sometimes they are very close to barrels, so do you try your luck and attempt to get the boost? You better hope you dont hit those barrels and lose precious seconds off your time. These new modes really make you hone your speedboat skills and accuracy while racing with full boost on. These skills carry over into racing and make it easier to pass opponents.
There are also now multi-event Championships that will usually have you completing a Race, Ring Master, and Gauntlet event in a row. Points are awarded for placing in each event then given to players at the end of all of the events. Championships take longer but award more points while allow you to unlock more courses, modes, and boats.
There is one other mode included called Rubber Ducky mode; this has up to eight players online competing in teams of 3 vs 3 or 4 vs 4. The premise is that one person on each team is that teams Duck and the Duck that crosses the finish line first wins. Whats so special about a race with these rules? The fun is that the other team mates are solely there to try and block and screw up the other team so that your Duck can cross that finish line first. Thats right; you are supposed to grief the other players in this mode as much as you can!
As you start the game, very few courses, modes, and boats will be chooseable at the get-go. This is where the game forces you to play across all the modes to accrue credits to unlock all the other maps, boats, and modes. Sure its nothing new, but there werent really many times I had to redo races and events to get enough credits to continue the elusive unlocking game. Playing online also counts towards your unlock points which is a perfect addition.
Enhanced water physics is a completely new addition to the series and completely changes the race mechanics. Now everything changes the water surface including your own boat. Your boat leaves behind wakes that can affect anyone behind you or even allow them to draft and gain ground on your position. Other objects will also change the water and waves such as falling debris, animals jumping out of the water, and even whirlpools. These add a new layer of racing that can allow you to jump over an opponent using a big wave, or simply drafting behind someone to gain speed and attempt to pass.
Simply calling Hydro Thunder Hurricane and HD upgrade would be doing it injustice. This is the full featured sequel with new tricks, great visuals, and new ways to race that fans have been waiting too long for and is only available on XBLA. The only thing missing I wish was included was the ability to download your friends ghosts and race against them.
With the inclusion of online and local multiplayer, the replay value is definitely here as youll always be learning new hidden paths and an unlimited amount of human opponents over Xbox Live. In the famous words of the announcer; Go! Go!! Go!!! and download Hydro Thunder Hurricane now for 1200 Microsoft Points and go make some waves.
Suggestions: Downloadable ghosts!
Overall Score: 7.9 / 10
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Singularity
What happens when you mix one part Bioshock, one part Half-Life, and one part Time Shift? You get Singularity from Raven Software. Raven Software are the people that brought us the last Wolfenstein game and after realizing this, I was a little apprehensive about Singularity as Wolfenstein simply didnt do anything for me.
Since Singularity is almost a mash-up of different games, they had the ability to pick and choose the best parts from the games they wanted to use and get the most out of. For example, you control a device that is basically the gravity gun from Hal-Life 2, there is a very Bioshock feel and development feel about it, and of course the ability to manipulate time comes from titles like Time Shift. I was hoping that with all the great reference material that they could take form, that they could basically piece together something that is a best-of of all the titles. While they may have done it with the gimmicks and abilities, I found the rest of the journey to be dull and daunting.
Singularity was a catastrophic event that changed the world as we know it and the massive cover-up needs to be blown wide open by you the player. To aid your journey youll be given many different types of weaponry and even a Time Manipulation Device (TMD) to help fight all the enemies from the past, present, and mutations between.
You are Captain Nathaniel Renko, part of an American black-ops team that crash lands on an island called Katorga-12 deep behind Russian enemy lines thats been abandoned since the 1950s. Turns out that in the 50s, Russian scientists discovered a powerful new element aptly called E99 and those that control this amazing power substance could very well change the world. E99 is almost infinitely more powerful than the atom bomb and this island is the only source in the world for this ultra rare element which is why the Russians made a stronghold here for all their experiments. This was before the events come to be known as Singularity and your team was sent to find out more.
Evil experiments caused the event to take place but it also left a wake of formers soldiers and inhabitants to turn into vicious mutants. As you make your way from one end of the island to the other, youll be using your black-ops training with your weapons, but your true weapon will be your newly founded TMD that was created over 50 years ago. As you progress, youll also time shift yourself between modern day and back in the 1950s, thus altering the worlds history.
Renkos mission soon turns into keeping historys timeline intact by having to help people along the way, which means having to trust them if you want to or not. While you will travel through time to learn more of the story, the bulk of all the information you receive is sadly through hidden audio logs and recorders throughout the island. If this sounds all too familiar, this is where youll see much of Bioshocks inspiration shine. Sadly the audio logs arent usually interesting enough to hold your attention and if you venture too far from the recorder, you cant even hear it any longer. This means youre going to miss a bulk of the back story unless you stand in place listening to every single audio log that seems to almost always end in the persons demise being recorded at their last moment. Yea, its that cliché.
Youll have access to the standard set of weapons; shotguns, machine guns, pistols, rifles and more, but there are a few specialty weapons that do stand out. What makes some of these weapons stand out? Well, they are usually infused with E99 technology which gives them a huge kick in firepower or other interesting secondary abilities. The Seeker is one of these weapons that essentially shoot exploding bullets that can be steered by the player. An explosion from one of these will cause limbs and large amounts of blood to be splattered nearby. There are other specialty weapons in the game as well, but they come far and few in between and dont come with much ammunition to keep the awesome moments continuing.
While these weapons are the standard, the TMD you get somewhat early on is what youll be using the most often in the latter half of the game. I say somewhat early because you dont know or obtain the TMD until and hour or two in which seems way too long to get one of the main devices in the game. When you first obtain it, its main use is to repair or revert objects that havent done so well against the test of time. This means that staircases that have collapsed can be repaired to their working state so you can progress or fixing a broken down power box so you can use a lever to open a door. There are some puzzles that makes use of these tricks such as placing a crushed box under a broken gate then repairing it to its full size to push the gate up so you can crawl in underneath. Sadly, many of the puzzle aspects dont get much more complicated than this aside from stopping time to get by moving fan blades. The puzzles are repeated again and again and never really become challenging or something youll have to figure out.
As you gain upgrades to your TMD you also gain new abilities and skills to help you along your way. Eventually you are able to turn enemies into skeletons instantly, shoot a close range shockwave pulse, and even shoot an orb that stops time for anything that it touches. This orb can be used to stop bullets or even enemies in their tracks leaving them free to be destroyed by you. The problem with this is that you dont really know when an enemy is dead until the orb wears off and they collapse or not. Eventually you can turn soldiers into mutants to attack other soldiers which is always entertaining to watch as you conserve ammo.
These TMD powers are very much like Plasmids in Bioshock and the E99 vials you find throughout can be used to upgrade certain abilities also just like Bioshock as well. You are able to upgrade your powers and weapons in any order or way you wish to fit your play style and near the end of the game youll feel incredibly more powerful than when you crash landed on the island.
The issue I had with the TMD abilities is that very few objects in the game can manipulated. The lore says that only items that were infused with E99 are the only objects that can be altered by the TMD. This is great and all, but why are cinder blocks and other random items experimented on with E99? Because of this, it feels very forced and almost gimmicky since you can never use it when you really want to. Sure, decaying the cinder block the enemy is shooting from is great to make him targetable, but why cant the one that the other enemy beside him is hiding behind do the same thing? It is small things like this that eventually turn Singularity into another shooter even though you have this awesome TMD that should make you super-human.
I wasnt expecting Singularity to have a real kind of multiplayer as it seemed like a more single player narrative than anything. Sure enough, multiplayer is included, but its also nothing to write home about. Two teams take turns playing Humans and Mutants. There are other modes other than Team Deathmatch, but every single game I played seemed to eventually just turn into a frag-fest and no one cared about the objectives.
Each team has different classes that can be customized to their load-out and abilities (like perks). The mutant side is far more interesting to play as the different classes play completely uniquely from the others. You can be a ticker-like creature that is super weak but able to scale walls and ceilings to be used a scout, or a giant beast that takes a lot of firepower to take down which is great for defending areas. Playing the mutants will feel much like versus mode in Left 4 Dead since you are able to bite, scratch, and puke on other players, but it is fun for a short while. Its very imbalanced and even though every type of game just turns into a Deathmatch, it is fun for a short while, but it wont keep you playing for more than a few weeks at best.
It took me awhile to figure out why Singularity simply wasnt clicking with me and there were a few things that stood out for me. The biggest peeve I had was the audio logs. There is so much story that is placed in these logs that you need to hear or youll simply miss out. This doesnt even take into account that you need to find all of them, but you need to stand around twiddling your thumbs as you listen to them. Nine times out of ten the log will always end in a horrifying scream of the person getting killed; havent characters learned yet that recording a message always means certain death?
The second part of this gripe is that there is no option for subtitles in the game. While not everyone uses them, I usually do for those times you cant hear everything or cant have the TV turned up loud. If was I was able to read the audio logs as I wandered away, this may have helped, but I know I missed out on quite a lot of narrative because of the lack of this. I couldnt imagine someone that was deaf trying to figure out what was going on and why.
Youll get the average eight to twelve hours of single player depending on the difficulty, but it does drag on as the pacing just seems very off. Some sequences are very cool and creative like the boss fights, and then you need to traverse hallways filled with mutants for the remainder. There are some neat ideas and Im sure other people will enjoy Singularity for what it is, but it just simply didnt click for me in any way. Its not a bad game by any means, but it felt very mediocre for me that could have been something more considering they took the best part from multiple games.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
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Deathsmiles
Cave and Aksys are two game companies over here that most people most likely have never heard of. Cave is known to 2D side-scrolling shoot-em-ups (schmups for short) as what Bioware and Square are known for RPGs. Deathsmiles is one of the first times that Cave has ever released one of its classics in North America and I was quite excited to try it out as Ive always enjoyed the genre. While there are many schmups out there, Cave specializes in the bullet hell type (ala Ikaruga) that essentially fills the whole screen with hundreds of bullets that need to be dodged with extreme precision. Granted, the genre isnt for everyone, but for those of us that love these challenging games, Deathsmiles does not disappoint in that aspect. I have to give a shout out to Aksys who did the localization for the game even though you wont be playing Deathmiles for the plot.
If you arent familiar with games like Ikaruga or other crazy shmups, dont get too discouraged when you start dying over and over, as an infinite continue system is in place so that even the worst player can eventually complete the game regardless how many times you need to insert that virtual quarter.
What makes Deathsmiles different that most other schmups is that you arent a ship navigating the standard scrolling left to right or down to up of the screen shooting other ships. Instead, you are a cute anime style girl that needs to blast monsters and demons in a gothic style overtone. Because of this unusual style, this also makes for some interesting bosses as well that differ from your standard gaint-ship that has a hundred cannons. The characters are cute and the backgrounds are beautifully drawn, showing that a lot of effort has been taken to bring the arcade hit to the home console; all without having to spend your allowance in quarters at the arcade. I couldnt even imagine how many quarters I would have had to spend to complete one playthrough.The world is set in the kingdom of Gilverado and its overrun with monsters and demons. You choose from multiple angelic girls that each have a little familiar (tiny litte pet) that follows them and also fights on the behalf of their master. To fight Hells beasts, you must choose from Windia, Casper, Rosa, Follett, or Sakura (if playing in Mega Black Label mode; more on that later).
There isnt much of a story to be had here (again, you dont usually play this genre for the engrossing plot) but the basics are you run into Sakura, she tells you something has happened with her father being possessed and that hes the one responsible for whats happened to this universe. Youll eventually defeat him and be given a choice at the end for different endings (and achievements) that somewhat helps the replayability.
What distinguishes Deathmsiles from others in the genre is that instead of only having to focus on aiming and shooting in one direction, the game will have you surrounded most times and you are able to shoot to the left and right to try and stay alive. Not only does this mean that you need to be more alert, but the amount of difficulty this mechanic adds is immense.
The Left Trigger shoots left and the Right one obviously shoots right. Enemies will be coming from both sides (you are even warned when enemies comes from the opposite side youre shooting) and when you shoot them, theyll drop items that give bonus points. The more you collect, the more your counter in the bottom corner rises. When you have a high counter number, you can unleash a devastating attack that will deplete your counter meter the more you fire; the catch being that enemies will drop bigger counter gaining items when you destroy them this way. You can essentially have your super weapon going for the whole level if you continue to collect the dropped items. Its an interesting mechanic but the problem is that it took me quite a long time to figure this out (on top of everything that is going on during gameplay).
As mentioned earlier, each girls familiar is unique to that character and even has its own style of shot. They are like the powerup addons from Gradius and other schmup games but will always be with you. They also double as almost a shield, as some bullets (the cross-looking ones) can be absorbed by the pet, but will harm you. Yea, as if the game wasnt difficult enough already. The other awesome feature that stood out was that when you move your character to the top of the screen, the hud will slide away and hide while you are near it to give you that little bit more of viewing room; definitely needed and welcomed.
You are able to choose your path through the games stages which is a cool touch so its not as repetitive each time. You can also set the difficulty per level ranging from a 1 to a 3 (and even 999 on some of the different modes) so that you can cater your play depending on your skill.
Every game you play has the option of being saved so that you can watch it and review it later to learn why you died twenty times on a specific boss. You can play and fast forward which is awesome, but sadly no slow motion that I found. The best part about the replay system though is that the top 20 players in the world have their replays uploaded and can be viewed by anyone. If you want to see some ridiculous play, watch the top few players and prepare to be in awe.
There are multiple modes that are called versions. The classic true-to-the-original is called Arcade. This mode is a faithful port that even keeps the original graphics and screen ratio in tact. Most people will not appreciate this mode as the viewing plane is very small and the graphics arent the pretty, but that is why they made an Xbox 360 mode. This mode updates those graphics and makes them much easier on the eyes and no pixilation.
Deathsmiles version 1.1 is a slight variant on the arcade mode. The major change is the unique control scheme that allows you to control your pet familiar with the right stick which makes absorbing bullets incredibly easier. There are other subtle changes like how the scoring is calculated and when you get extra lives and such, but the main thing is the control scheme.
The last version is called Mega Black Label (MBL) and initially this mode was DLC over in japan for a hefty price. MBL adds a new stage (The Ice Palace) complete with new boss, a new playable character (Sakura), and yet another challenging scoring system. This brings Deathmiles to a total of 6 different variants and more than enough options to keep the replays cly, when bringing Deathmsiles to North America they opted to include a few goodies for the fans of the series and genre. The Limited Edition not only comes with the game but will also come in a large retangular box due to its inclusion of a Limited Edition Xbox 360 faceplate and a special soundtrack. The Deathsmiles Arrange Album has 16 tracks that have been hand picked by the director and is delightful to listen to.
Even with the inclusion of two player co-op (which makes the screen even more confusing), the main problem I had with the game is what plagues the genre in general for me. It doesnt feel like it justifies a full $50 purchase (excluding the Limited Edition goodies of course) and more like an awesome $10-15 XBLA title. Sure, the hardcore schmup fans will disagree and will buy this regardless, but even after completing it multiple times (each playthrough is roughly a half hour) I know it wont have the lasting appeal that Ikaruga did.
Cave knows what it does and does it well. Fans wont be disappointed and if you want a hair-pulling challenge and can actually fathom whats happening on the screen in these bullet-hell shooters, youll feel right at home. Others should take note that Deathsmiles throws out the achievement points hand over fists and even rewards you for pausing the game.
Ive actually only seen the Limited Edition and cant find any listings for a Standard Edition without all the extras for the cheaper price. Im not sure if this was intentional or not, but people that are going to pick Deathsmiles up will most likely know what they are getting themselves into. As a fan of the genre and a sucker for collectable Limited Editions, Deathmsiles was a no brainer for me; to others, you may want to borrow or rent it first to see if its your bag or not. Be prepared for bullet-hell and to diemany many times before you even start to understand whats going on.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
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Transformers: War For Cybertron
Im just going to get this out of the way; Im an absolute huge Transformers nerd; I rebought the dvd collection, read the comics, loved Beast Wars and even went to the midnight openings for the new movies (I knowI know). I was an 80s child who watched the show religiously every day, had a trunk full of the toys and even though Optimus was the greatest hero of all time. The Transformers show from the 80s (referred to as Generation 1, or G1 for short) is arguably the most popular Transformers series and is what most fans grew up with.
To be honest, when I first heard about Transformers: War For Cybertron (WFC for short) I was both extremely excited once I knew it was based on the G1 series, but also very nervous and ready to be disappointed based on the track record of previous Transformers games. Up until this point, there really hasnt been a great Transformers game that really captured the essence of G1 properly.
Youve probably never heard of the development studio called High Moon (they did the Bourne Conspiracy game) but they were give then challenge of making a Transformers game for the fans once and for all. Its very clear that the team was comprised of some true diehard Transformers fans, as theyve finally done justice for fans and this Transformers game does what Batman Arkham Asylum did for Batman fans last year; its that good.
Many of the original Transformers from the show return in the game and Peter Cullen, the only and true voice of Optimus, also reprises his role for a perfect performance to lead the Autobots. Sadly, many of the original voice actors from the show were not used for the game, but the replacements seem to try and get the same style of voice acting for their characters. Some work great like Soundwave that sounds authentic, but then there are others like Starscream that just sound very off. This is obviously the geek in me wanting it all to be perfect and doesnt really take anything away from the game itself; I actually wonder if this was done slightly on purpose to recreate that pseudo-bad voice acting from the 80s show.
As the games title implies, the story takes place during one of the wars of Cybertron. Whats exciting about this backdrop of Transformers lore is that this really hasnt been touched on all that much in the almost three decades that Transformers has been around. Its a back story (that Hasbro officially gave the nod to) thats never fully been explored or explained and takes place well before the show we all came to grow up with and love.
The journey that precedes the Transformers arrival on Earth also answers some questions that have never been answered such as how Megatron and Starscream meet and become Decepticons, how Optimus and Bumblebee meet and even how Optimus gained the Prime title. WFC is split into two campaigns; obviously being the Decepticon portion and the Autobots side of the struggle as well. The Decepticon tale takes place before the Autobot saga, but theyve done something very cool where you can start at any part you wish. So if you really want to play Autobots first, you can. You can even get half way done their story then start the Decepticon one if you wish. Obviously I suggest playing everything in order as itll make more sense, but the option is there for people that wish to do any section at any time. Each campaign will take you roughly 5-8 hours depending on the difficulty level for a total of 10-20 on single player alone.
So lets start off with the Decepticons side of the tale. Megatron wants to return Cybertron to the way it used to be and because its Megatron, will use any means necessary and not let anyone stand in his way. He discovers that Starscream is guarding something called Dark Energon that could be used to wield unbelievable power; so obviously he goes after it. He eventually takes control of this newfound power and then scales an assault against the Autobots in Iacon city looking for the Omega Key so that he can get to the core of Cybertron and directly infect it with Dark Energon. I wont ruin any other plot points, but what happens and the scale of which is something that needs to be seen and played.
As you begin the Autobot campaign, their leader Zeta Prime is reported destroyed and Optimus voluntarily takes the reigns to lead the Autobots. As Optimus recruits more Transformers to defend their home city Iacon from Megatron and his Decepticons, he receives an emergency distress call from Zeta Prime that he is being held captive. Unsure if its a trap or not, Optimus knows he has to try in the hopes that he really is alive and can give Zeta back his leadership of the Autobots. Again, I dont want to go into too much more detail about the story as I really enjoyed how it played out and the scale again of some of the forthcoming battles is simply awesome to see.
WFC is a third person shooter that uses the Unreal Engine, but unlike most third person shooters these days, does not implement a cover system. If you dont want to get shot, get away or hide behind a wall. Controls only take a few minutes to get used to and are intuitive and easy to get the hang of. You can fine aim with the Left Trigger, shoot with the Right one, click in the Right Stick to melee and clicking the Left Stick makes you transform from vehicle to machine.
All the robots are specified as different classes and each class has their own unique abilities and weapons. Using Optimus as the leader class for example makes you much more tough overall and can take out almost anything with your massive artillery. Choosing a scientist class character will give you the ability to heal yourself and teammates for example. There are four different classes in all and these archetypes also carry over to the multiplayer portion of the game.
I was honestly expecting the multiplayer to be tacked on and not be able to support itself over time but High Moon studios has completely surprised me and made the multiplayer portion truly fun and gave it longevity.
As mentioned before, the four classes (Scout, Leader, Scientist, and Soldier) are used in multiplayer as well and with some play time of each type, youll find the type of character that suits your play style. Another thing to take into account is their corresponding vehicles modes as well; Scientists are jets, Soldiers are tanks, Scouts are cars, and leaders are trucks. Each vehicle type has its own abilities and is good for different types of situations. On top of these choices of classes is also a perks-like system that unlock new abilities and bonuses as you level up the more you play online. Its a great way to add longevity to the online portions lifespan and I can see myself playing for quite sometime because of it.
Another interesting feature is the ability to create your own Transformers for online play as well. Now yes, there are limitations to this such as these customs can only be played in competitive modes and not Escalation Mode (which Ill touch on in a minute). You create your Transformer by picking its class (which determines its vehicle form) then you can customize its basic look, color scheme, abilities, and weapons. I do wish there was much more customization for the body types of the Transformers as there are only a few per class, but Im happy its there at all and was included.
Aside from the standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag variants that are a given, there are also some other interesting modes that were included as well. Escalation Mode is essentially Horde mode from Gears of War 2 where you are pit against endless waves of enemies that become increasingly more and more challenging. As you defeat enemies and collect their points, you can then spend these points on ammo, weapons, health, and even new areas of the map. The coolest part about this mode is that you get to play as the actual Transformers and not your no-name custom created ones. There are a few more modes as well such as Countdown To Extinction (which is most comparable to Assault mode in Halo), Conquest, and Code of Power.
I really only had one huge glaring issue with the game, and excuse me because I will need to geek out again for a moment. You play the game and notice right away that they look like their counterparts from the TV show for the most part; the issue with this is that those car, truck, and planes are Earth designs (and this game takes place millions of years before they crash land on Earth). I completely understand that they need to have some type of Earth commonality to them for them to be recognizable or else wed be playing with their pure robot forms (ala the Michael Bay versions) and no one wants that. When my biggest concern is something like this, you can see that the game is doing everything else very well. Sure nothing is perfect; there are pacing issues, bad pop in textures and major ammunition reserve problems, but it does its job at being truly an enjoyable Transformers G1 experience.
Playing through the game I had so much positive nostalgia that I popped in the DVDs to watch a few episodes and even dusted off my old toys. The fact that Hasbro is going to make a toy line based on this game alone has me feeling like a 8 year old kid again absolutely falling in love with Transformers once again. THIS is how you use the Transformers property and make it entertaining while still trying true to the source material while still having the spirit of what made Transformers so great and I enjoyed it from beginning to end.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
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Earthworm Jim HD
In 1994 Earthworm Jim was released and was something completely new and unique compared to anything else that had come out before. The main hero was a worm in a super suit battling evil Crows, Cats, and even odder enemies. Not only was it completely crazy and off the wall, but it had great gameplay to back it up and support itself which also spawned a few revisions and a sequel. Its been far too long since anything as odd as Earthworm Jim has been enjoyed by gamers and it may not be a true sequel, but Earthworm Jim HD is a complete remake of the original game that we grew to love. Its superbly polished graphics and new features are going to make it an easy sell to most people that loved the original as much as I did.
So lets start off with the whole story behind Earthworm Jim shall we and try to follow along. The evil Psy-Crow was in space attacking a rebel spaceship that had a stolen secret Ultra Cyber Suit that was built by Professor Monkey-For-A-Head. Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-For-A-Butt wants this suit to take over the galaxy but with Psy-Crows fight with the ship, the suit fell to Earth.
Jim used to be an ordinary earthworm doing ordinary earthworm things, but that was until the super suit fell directly on Jim collar first. This mutated Jim into a super large worm that fit in the suit and made him more intelligent (for a worm I guess), thus the hero of Earthworm Jim that weve come to love.
There are plenty more out-there characters such as Major Mucus, Evil the Cat, Bob the Killer Goldfish and Princess Whats-Her-Name among others to play out a story though its not ever really apparent why. Earthworm Jim wasnt mean to be a huge narrative story; its simply a classic platformer with a uniquely bizarre story. Jim uses his gun to shoot in almost any direction, use his head to reach and whip enemies and to also even swing on hooks. As the game progresses the difficulty ramps up quite significantly which is what an Earthworm Jim game was known for; its unrelenting difficulty.
Between levels youll play a somewhat 3D race called Andy Asteroids that has you going one and one against Psy-Crow to beat him to the finish. The more bonus orbs you pick up, the more continues or extra lives you can attain. If Psy-Crow wins though, you might fight him Crow vs Worm in a battle to progress.
Most levels will be like a classic platforming game where you have to jump from ledge to ledge while shooting everything, but there are some quite unique levels as well such as the one where you need to make sure your puppy makes it to the end of the level without getting hurt or falling in a pit. If Pete gets hurt he turns into a giant dog and will drag you back to the last checkpoint. Its a whole level of trial and error and will be very frustrating, but its still got he humor to make you enjoy it at the same time.
There are also interesting boss fights as well such as the bungie cord fight with Major Mucus in where you both keep falling and rising on your bungee (his is his snot and you just have your head stretched) and the goal is to slam him into the rocks to break his cord to make him fall into the infested waters below.
Every level is very different from the last and makes it refreshing and not so repetitive that usually happens with more platformers. The greatest thing that they kept in place though from the original (other than the much better HD graphics of course) is that the original music created by Tommy Tallarico is still in tact and will make you reminisce and remember when you used to play it a decade ago.
So whats new in Earthworm Jim HD other than its redrawn visuals? Surprisingly quite a lot; I was really only expecting the graphic update (which would have been enough for me to buy it anyways) but was pleasantly surprised when I saw all the new features.
First off is the inclusion of difficulty levels; originally Earthworm Jim had only the default setting (which was quite hard) but now difficultly can range from easy to original Earthworm Jim which will be a great feature for people new to the series.
If you bought Earthworm Jim for Sega CD or the PC back in the day, it included an additional level called Big Bruty; this level is now included in this HD remake among completely new levels to unlock as you go. These new levels are very refreshing to those like me who have played the game countless times over and completely fit with the style and humor.
Leaderboards is also a new inclusion that will track completion time, defeated enemies, and more. Its interesting to see how you score up against the rest of the community and how quickly levels can actually be finished.
Easily the greatest new addition to the game though Ive saved for last and completely did not expect it. Co-op levels; thats right, four Jims that need to work together in completely new co-op based levels. Sometimes doors need one player to hold it open as the next goes through and lets the other player in or even enemies that are much easier to defeat now with two players. Surprisingly it works very well and was quite entertaining to see two Jims helping each other.
As you can see, this isnt like most HD remakes that simply up the graphics and adds a leaderboard; quite a lot of attention and care has gone into making Earthworm Jim HD a gem for us fans that remember it in its glory days.
Though it may be just as difficult and frustrating as the original, theres more new stuff here for those of us that think weve seen it all. If youve never played Earthworm Jim, definitely open your mind and have a sense of humor and try this title out as it contains some of the better gaming memories (and I loved the cartoon!) I have from the 90s. If youre an old Earthworm Jim vet like myself, pick it up again if only to appreciate for its much sharper visuals and enjoy the nostalgia; hopefully youll find enough new features and levels to make some new memories with Jim as well.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
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After Burner Climax
Its been over 20 years since weve been introduced to the After Burner series and now After Burner Climax hits Xbox Live Arcade to bring in a new era of adrenaline seekers for some frantic and quick gameplay.
Climax is brought to us by the same Sega developers that also make the OutRun series and you may even notice some very similarities (other than a plane as opposed to a car obviously). The classic essence of what made After Burner great returns: frantic and quick gameplay, piloting the fastest fighter planes in the world, and a whole ton of bullets and rockets; all while dodging enemies and terrain and trying to stay alive.
While there is a plot to be had, its a very cliché and overdone one at best; essentially you are a member of a top secret squadron to stop the outbreak of an all-out nuclear war that is about to happen, so you must take to the sky with your incredibly fast fighter jet that is completely armed to stop them in time. Its not much, but at least it tries, though you wont care in the slightest.
As you begin your brief campaign to save the world you have your selection of three different fighter planes; the F-18 Super Hornet, F-15 Strike Eagle and the F-14 Super Tomcat. You also get the selection of four distinct paint jobs to suit your taste that vary from standard, special, camouflage, and low visibility. Your next choice is what tunes you would like to take to the skies with while saving the world; your only two choices being the After Burner Climaxs music or go old school with the original soundtrack from After Burner II which is a great nostalgia touch for veterans.
Your goal other than saving the world from nuclear holocaust is to try and clear every enemy out of the sky and off the ground. If youve never played an After Burner before, its quite a simple design by basically putting your plane going in a forward line going from point A to point B. You can slightly move laterally from side to side and even doing barrel rolls to avoid incoming missiles, but its a fairly linear experience overall. There is a couple spots in the game where you will have to select which area you want to go next by choosing left or right though, thus feigning the linearity feel at times even though its a predetermined path.
Your arsenal includes your machine gun that youll never let go of due to its infinite ammunition and your supply of missiles that can be shot once you aim over an enemy and gain a lock on. As your Climax bar gradually fills, it can be used once full to go into Climax Mode; a brief slowed down period that ends with any enemy locked on getting a missile sent up their noses. Combat is a simple process but will take some time to get used to due to the sheer amount of busyness on the screen at one time. It will take some time to learn how to focus on specific enemies and how to avoid the terrain at the same time. With the amount on play-throughs that youll complete, itll come somewhat quickly and your score will gradually become more provident.
Aside from the main mode, you can practice individual stages to practice certain sections or play Score Attack which gives you infinite lives and the goal is to get the best score you can. The Score Attack mode will most likely get the most use since this is where your scores are competitively placed on the online leaderboards.
Achieving certain goals and requirements will unlock you more EX options which are small rewards that can greatly increase or decrease many of the unlockable options. Many of these options can really make the game much more appealing such as extra continues and lives, a larger aiming reticule, automatically keep your machine gun firing without the need to hold the button down and more. There are some very tough EX options that will take some time to complete, but you can always go into the menu and check your progress of the prerequisites.
While a single run will only take 10 to 15 minutes, Climax is meant to be played over and over again, quite a few times. You need to be either a fan of the series or have a highly competitive nature and want to see your name high on those leaderboards if you want this title to have a decent amount of shelf life. If you do not fall into these categories, the long lasting appeal of Climax is going to be very short lived.
If only there was a way to recreate the arcade experience of After Burner Climax complete with the bucket seat that sways and moves to your game play this game would be a much longer lasting experience, sadly it is decent, but albeit a shallow experience that the majority of players will complete in a day and not look back.
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
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UFC Undisputed 2010
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the main event of the evening! And now, live from General Motors Place in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada; IIIIIIIIIIIIITS TIIIIIMMMMMEEEE!!!! Five rounds for the UFC Videogame Championship of the world. Introducing first; the challenger, fighting out of the blue corner. This game is a new updated version and stands about six inches tall; weighing in under one pound. Fighting out of THQ. UFC Undisputed 2010!!!
And now introducing the champion, fighting out of the red corner. This game is a favorite and stands about six inches tall; weighing in under one pound. Fighting out of THQ. Ladies and gentlemen, it is the reigning, defending UFC Videogame Champion of the World! UFC Undisputed 2009!!!!! And when the action begins, our reviewer in charge of this contest is Adam Dileva.
With yearly sports games, we have come accustomed to each revision to have a new feature or two and some slightly better graphics; this is clearly not the case with UFC Undisputed 2010. It may have only been a year since UFC 2009 arrived but THQ has been very hard at work and has clearly heard what the community wanted included for the next iteration of the ultra popular series. I was totally expecting a simple roster upgrade, some slightly better graphics and maybe a new feature or two but THQ has gone so far beyond my expectations that UFC 2010 feels like a completely new game (which is a great thing!).
So lets get onto whats new at the core of UFC 2010. The biggest chance youll notice right away with the striking is that there is now a sway system in place that allows for a whole new dimension of defensive maneuvering and a new counter-striking system that can end fights extremely quickly if done correctly. If youve played the Fight Night series, it feels somewhat like that in how you can duck, bob, and weave to avoid attacks then counter attack much like Anderson Silva did against Forrest Griffin.
Combos in 2009 were a string of preset button commands and didnt really allow for much of an exciting striking game which is why most people got in a hit or two, then backed away and jousted to repeat it. Now in 2010 the combo system is much more varied a swing in momentum can almost instantly change the outcome of a fight.
Ground game and grappling was the most difficult part for most players in 2009 and THQ has improved this greatly so that ground and clinch game is the same controls and mechanics rather than their own separate entities. This makes it less confusing and not as much thinking has to go into what you want to do or trying to remember specific controls for each specific situation. I was actually able to hold my own on the ground now and I wasnt that strong of a ground game player in 2009.
While UFC 2009 was a great inaugural title in the series, there was much missing from it to make it a more believable MMA game; one of the biggest being the use of the cage in the standing clinch. Now in 2010 the cage can be used just like in real fights to pin your opponent against for superior offensive control or even to get yourself out of a bad situation by cage walking if you are on the bottom. Its situational depending on how the fighters are positioned on or near the cage, but just like in a real fight, youll want to be using the cage to put them in a disadvantageous position.
Posturing has even undergone a redesign and every position in the game now has an Up and Down postured variant that will greatly affect your fighters offence or defense. If you are on the mount on down postured, its very difficult for the fighter on the bottom to transition out because you are able to control their movement for a trade off of offensive power. Just the opposite applies as well, you can posture up to try and finish the fight with power blows but this leaves the other fighter open to try and transition out since you arent controlling their body as proficiently.
The other major core mechanic thats undergone a vast upgrade is the submission system. In 2009 it was a very static system that essentially just showed you the animation of it being completed or not. Now in 2010 its a much more player based analog based system where you will actually see a struggle in trying to finish or defend a submission. What this means is that when you see a player trying to defend a submission, the more they rotate the stick to block or reverse it, the more youll actually see them struggle and try and get out of the move in real time; no more just watching a win or lose animation.
What good is a newly updated game without the newest (or lacking in the previous game) fighters to go along with it though? There are over 100 fighters this time but here are some of the bigger noteworthy names that are new to 2010: Shane Carwin, Todd Duffee, Kimbo Slice, Patrick Cote, Chael Sonnen, and Clay Guida just to name a few of my favorites.
In 2009, it was difficult to make your fighters clothing and tattoos look exactly how you wanted because there were only preset sizes and places you could place them on your body or shorts. Now in 2010, you are able to simply drag and drop any brand on your shorts anywhere and even tattoos can be moved and sized to almost anywhere you want very simply.
When you used to play with your created fighter in 2009, there was only 10 different options for your nickname to be called in your fights; now in 2010 there are 50 but whats really great is the inclusion of first and last names as well. So now you can pick your first and last name from a list of 100 for each on top of your nickname as well. Rogan, Goldberg, and even Bruce Buffer will even voice them throughout your intros and match.
To go along with this, you are also able to choose your own fighters voice from a set of 5 different options. This will be used in the new cutscenes and post fight interviews mostly but adds a nice little touch to the presentation of the whole thing and gives your fighter some life.
When you go to create your new fighter you will also now have the option to pick their stance and even which hand is their power hand. Stances vary from Southpaw, Switch Stance, and Orthodox and whatever main hand you choose will be the one that does more damage when striking your opponent.
When you created your fighter in 2009 you had to choose one striking base like boxing and one grapping technique such as wrestling; this limiting mechanic has been completely redone and you are no longer set down a predetermined path of what skills you can learn. There are some new techniques such as Karate, Sambo, and Greco-Roman Wrestling but whats so great about this rework is that you will basically be able to learn any move from any set you wish during your career. This will allow you to make a completely custom character with the exact move list you want or only use.
So now that youve made your new fighter, lets delve into how the whole new career mode will work. For starters, this years career mode has been boosted to 12 years which is up from last years 7; this will basically give you almost twice as many fights throughout your career. With an aging system in place, this also means that you are going to have to maintain your stats as time goes on meaning if you dont use it, you lose it just like in real life. It definitely adds some more maintenance to your characters progression but also makes it so you have to always be paying attention to what stats youre neglecting over time.
This year your fighter is going to have to work for their chance to get into the UFC as they will start off as an amateur which is somewhat like the games tutorial mode; here you can test the different difficulty levels (as you can no longer switch once youve made your choice) before turning pro. Once you do turn pro you get a chance to fight in the World Fighting Alliance (WFA) and this is a stepping stone for your character and gives you time to learn how the career mode and menus work before stepping into a grueling UFC schedule. Win a few fights and Dana will come knocking asking you if you want a shot in the UFC. Once you accept youll start out on the undercards like everyone else and have to work your way up the cards to the PPVs and hopefully a title shot eventually.
Once youve worked your way to the top and simply dominated all the competition, you are now going to be able to switch weight divisions to give yourself some new challenge and take on some other big name fighters. Youll get the opportunity to do this twice incase you dont want to switch the first time and definitely adds some refreshment once youve completely decimated the competition in your first weight class.
Something completely new in 2010 is the ability to do interviews and affect relationships with other fighters. Youll be able to do pre-fight interviews with Rachelle Leah and even post-fights with Joe Rogan in the ring after winning; youll even be deciding if you want type of comment youd like to make ranging from respectful, disrespectful, general, or even play to the fans. Depending on what choices you make youll gain or lose popularity along with other factors as well. Even at weigh-ins youll be able to choose which type of gesture to do at the stare down and ultimately affect the relationship between you and that fighter. Disrespect someone long enough and youll have a rival on your hands.
There are even more career improvements such as auto sparring (take a fraction of the progression points for instant automated sparring) and choosing a gameplan (which will allow you to boost your stats for your next fight depending on how you want to approach the fight).
Camp invites are back but of course vastly improved; in 2009 you had to sign up to join a camp then wait for that specific week to join them, now you can join any camp at any week during your career just like all the other weekly options you are given. You select where you want to train and each camp has over 40 different moves you are able to learn and this is how you go about piecing together your fighters ultimate move set. Some moves are only available at specific camps as well so sometimes youll have to broaden where you train to learn certain moves you wish to attain. Train enough with a specific camp though and youll also gain the right to use their camp logo on your clothing. The downside to this though is that there is still no progress bar of what and where youve trained if youve not acquired the move. This means if you forget what move you were trying to learn and where, youll have to basically guess where it was and hopefully make the right choice or have written it down. In 2011, I hope that there is a progress bar or a way to see this as I know Ive not acquired a move or two simply because I forgot what camp and move I was trying to learn before I took a break.
Online Camps is something new and exciting as well that essentially allows you and your fiends to make a camp of your own where you can train together and have others join as well. This is much like clans and guilds in other games and builds your team and camp stronger as your fighters do better in their career. You choose your camp name, logo and banner then start recruiting the best fighters (or friends) you can find. Whats great about the online camps is that they even have their own leaderboards which are separate from individuals and rates your camp as a whole based on your fighters performance.
The Game is Watching You mechanic is a system that watches all of your fights and learns how you like to finish them. For example, you start to knock out everyone with a head kick early on and the game is going to know that this is your preferred tactic and your next opponent might try to take you to the ground more since they know you are stronger with your striking. This forces you to become a better well rounded fighter in career mode and you and no longer be a one-trick pony as that doesnt work in the real UFC for very long.
Event Mode allows you to simply do that; setup a PPV or Fight Night event card and decide every matchup. Each event is done realistically like a true UFC event with the introductions with Goldberg and Rogan and even has the opening video you see at every PPV as well. You are able to play every match on the card multiplayer or even set them to AI vs AI if you want to watch the fight instead.
After the card is over there are recaps and even the awards for KO, Fight, and Submission of the Night are given in true UFC fashion. What I really find intriguing about Event Mode though is the ability to download real and updated PPV event cards. You can then play the card before it happens live and they can even use the uploaded information to be used on real PPVs much like how you can text who you think will win the headlining fight.
Title Mode is a great middle ground that would fall between the instant gratification of Exhibition and the full experience of Career. Think of Title Mode as a mini-career as youll have to move up the ladder (8, 10, or 12 opponents) against progressively tougher fighters. Lose a fight and you can instantly rematch them without penalty and once you complete this mode the Title Defense Mode unlocks.
Title Defense Mode is just that; defending the title against all on-comers. This is meant for the experienced player as a single loss means game over and you need to start over again. Its UFCs version of survival or hardcore mode and itll pull no punches.
If you are able to defend 12 times you complete the mode but it wont be that easy as your fighter will degrade over time like in real life. Take too many blows to the head and you are much more susceptible at getting knocked out in the next fight. So you need to finish fights quickly and decicivly if you want a real shot and surviving the grueling mode.
Tournament Mode is new and will offer hours upon hours of fun with your friends. You are able to setup 4, 8, or 16 man single elimination tournaments and if you are short on friends over at your place, you can include cpus or even set cpu vs cpu matches. With friends over, this mode got the most use as its simple to setup and with random fighters assigned, it always kept things fresh and everyone had an equal shot depending on what fighter they were assigned.
Classic Fights Mode in 2009 was popular, but this also has been revamped to be better and is now called Ultimate Fights Mode. Just like before, you will relive memorable fights in UFC history but now you are able to have this as a two player experience which is great (though you wont gain the unlocks obviously).
Fights are now even categorized into Ultimate Fights, Ultimate Classics, Ultimate Knockouts, and Ultimate Submissions to make your choices easier depending on where your strength lies. Some of the more noteworthy fights in this mode for me were GSP vs BJ 2 from UFC 94, Griffon vs Guida from UFC 72, Henderson vs Bisping from 100, and Maia vs Sonnen from UFC 95.
Some of these fights will now have multiple challenges and you are even able to play as the spoiler and try to rewrite history with an upset (which comes with its own set of challenges). Complete all the challenges to unlock a montage that will recap the actual fight. The mode is still pretty difficult but very rewarding when you finally complete the fights properly.
Hopefully now you can comprehend how much really is bigger and better over last years title. Almost every single mechanic and mode has been revamped for a better and more engaging play experience. THQ did well with UFC 2009, but with all the improvements in 2010, it was actually quite hard to find any major flaws that took away from the experience; sure there were some minor things, but nothing ever deterred me away from the game.
Its difficult to describe every single new feature but once you start playing and see all the new positions, mechanics, and modes, youll really see how THQ set the bar even higher this year. It really makes me wonder whats going to be improved for next year as this seems like a much more rounded and simpler game to pick up and play for anyone; but for now Im completely happy with this near perfect rendition of what the UFC experience truly is. The presentation value in 2010 is way higher than anything I expected and is a much more rounded game and experience that definitely wins Fight of the Night.
It is alllll over; knockout victory! And NEW, UFC videogame champion of the world; UFC Undisputed 2010!
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
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Just Cause 2
The sequel to Just Cause brings back Rico Rodriguez into the chaotic mix this time on an imaginary tropical island in South East Asia called Panau. You are given an absolutely huge open world sandbox (ala GTA) to play in and can go about doing any mission in any way you see fit (most of the time).
Just Cause 2 (JC2) is all about causing chaos, destruction, and overthrowing the evil dictator; how you do all of this is completely up to you. Of course though, being Rico, you need to do things in spectacular fashion though as you definitely need to impress the virtual on-lookers because doing it the standard way would be too boring for Rico.
Panau is a very dangerous place; gangs rule the streets and the whole mass is ruled by an evil dictator named Baby Panay. He does anything to further his wealth and power without regard for the islands inhabitants and is so corrupt that hes beyond saving.
Your mission is to find and locate your former friend and mentor; Tom Sheldon. He seemed to have stolen some top secret intelligence along with millions in Agency cash, and you being the Agencys most dangerous weapon, is set out to find him. Doing so will obviously not be easy and you will have to help others just to get bits and pieces of information on Sheldon.
Ricos other mission is to also create as much havoc and chaos as possible on Panau in order to overthrow the ruthless dictator. Doing so isnt as easy as simply blowing everything up in sight (though that greatly helps), you are also going to have to assist the rival rebel factions on the island to gain their trust while earning chaos and money along the way.
While there is a story present, after a few missions you wont really care about it due to it not being told in a very fluent way. Sometimes the amount of time you spend not doing missions, you might completely forget what your objective was in the first place anyways. Due to the open sand-box nature of JC2, the lack of story can be overlooked as I can almost guarantee most of your play time will be spent not even doing missions.
Rico has two secret tricks up his sleeve that makes him such an effective agent; aside from his lack of fear and huge guts. Rico has a grapple hook attached to his arm that is going to be the main equipment you use throughout the game. With this hook you are able to pull yourself instantly onto any idea you shoot it at within a hundred yards. You are able to traverse up buildings or cliffs with repeated use of this or can even pull yourself onto a passing vehicle quickly.
Used on an enemy will pull them off their feet and stun them for a short time. This works great on perched snipers as yanking them off from a tall height will kill them when they hit the ground; that or you can shoot them during their fall for some juggling action.
The other interesting way you can use your grapple hook is that you can use it to attach two items together in any way you can think of. You could hook an enemy then hang him from a building, or how about trying to hook him then attaching it to a car thats driving by. The possibilities are endless; but my favorite so far is tethering an enemy to an upright propane canister, shooting the tank of gas, and then watching the bad guy get shot up in the air along with the rocket-like canister. You can almost do anything you can think of but there are some slight limitations such as the wire not always being able to hold up with the tension on the line (like trying to drag a building with a car simply wont work for example). Much of the time youll try something to see if it works and a lot of the time it does which is so fun to experiment with.
The other secret weapon in Ricos repertoire is his stunt parachute. Any time you are zip lining with your hook you can open your parachute to gain some altitude. The same goes for driving a car, anytime you want to bail (not the on ground), you can instantly open the door and open your chute to float away safely.
Combine your stunt parachute and your grapple hook though and you can come up with some very interesting combinations. Walking on foot is slow and if there are no vehicles around to hijack then you can traverse very quickly by combining your parachute, then reeling yourself in by hooking to the ground; rinse and repeat and you can even climb mountains with this method.
Rico would be the ideal Hollywood stuntman because at any time you can hijack vehicles, jump from plane to plane midair, base jump off deathly cliffs, skydive, hang from helicopters, shooting up command bases and even more. Hes the ultimate action hero that can do anything and whats more important is that it really is fun to do.
The amount of vehicles in the game is quite astounding. You have everything from a tiny Vespa to a tricked out race car, speed boats, Boeing 747s, attack choppers with mounted missiles and turrets, and everything in between. Any vehicle you see can be hijacked and driven or flown and makes for a very interesting way of getting around the massive island any way you wish.
The same goes for the available weapons to Rico (though not nearly as many) and can range from pistols to machine guns all the way up to sniper rifles and rocket launchers. Eventually you will have access to the Black Market and can call in backup in the form of weapons, vehicles, or even extractions to any other previously discovered area.
If you are stuck in the desert and want to get out of there quickly simple call the Black Market dealer to drop you off the vehicle of your choosing (provided you can afford it with your accumulated wealth) and drive away. The same goes for weapons if you are out of ammo or simply need to get out of the area quickly. Most of the time though you wont even think about using the dealer as finding weapons and vehicles isnt terribly hard to do. The dealer will also upgrade weapons and vehicles for you if youve found enough of the hidden upgrade parts and can drastically increase the items in any order you wish.
Missions are unlocked based on how much Chaos youve created around the island; destroying government properly like vehicles, buildings, radio towers and more will quickly build up your Chaos which in turn will unlock more missions. Not only will you unlock more missions to complete, but youll also be working towards unlocking new weapons and vehicles you can purchase in the Black Market which will help you create chaos easier.
The Agency missions relates and pushed the main story plot along and the side missions for the factions help them grow their territories and unlock more side missions for you to do which in turn helps you gain more Chaos to unlock more Agency missions. Its a cycle that keeps repeating itself to keep you progressing towards new missions.
For the Faction missions you will meet the leaders that have the cliché Im the leader of this clan, we need your help with this, will you help us? introductions. Every side mission you decide to take on as well will almost always start with them driving up to you, telling you what you need to do, then leaving you on your own to go complete it (though they are nice enough to give you a weapon and vehicle most of the time).
While there is some variety to the missions, most of the time you will be sent to destroy or take over a certain area though it does sometime switch it up with escort missions and other fun types of missions to complete. While the hundreds of missions can be completed in any way or order you choose, the missions themselves can become quite bland and repetitive and frustrating.
For one, infantry will respawn indefinitely until the whole base or area is taken over. This means you need to get in to do what you need to do and get out or else youll be overwhelmed or simply run out of ammo. Secondly, while some missions do have checkpoints, you better hope you reach it before you die because if you dont you might be restarting the whole mission over again; this also means the 20 minute travel time to the starting area sometimes. With the island being larder than 400 square miles, sometimes simply getting back to a missions area can be daunting (provided you dont use the Black Market extractions).
If there is one thing that JC2 needs to be commended for, it is its draw distance and depth of field. Somehow the whole island is viewable from any point where you are and doesnt use that fog those other games do to keep down the draw distance. Its really impressive considering it doesnt affect any slowdown in gameplay at all either.
If you are a completionist, you are going to have your hands full for many hours trying to find all the hidden upgrades and secrets. Ive simply just traveled around for hours trying to find upgrades and trying to see how far I could travel up the mountains and it never got dull. Just Cause 2 is as fun as it looks, simple as that.
While the game is nowhere near perfect and has many bugs, youll have so much fun the rest of the time that youll simply forget about these nuances. While I suspect very few will complete the main story, many will enjoy hours upon hours of fun entertainment just fooling around doing whatever they want. Ive honestly not had this much fun doing nothing since GTA first came out, thats how enjoyable it is just to run, fly, drive, grapple and parachute around and do whatever you want.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
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Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy may be one of the most recognizable and beloved series in all of gaming and now Xbox owners get to see what all of the fuss is about. Final Fantasy has always been known to deliver an epic story, fantastic memorable characters and interesting battle systems.
This may be the thirteenth induction into the series (technically there are many more than that) but luckily you need not to even know the previous versions existed; as like almost every other Final Fantasy, it is its own self contained narrative that requires no previous knowledge of past games.
As you begin the story of Final Fantasy XIII it will have some similarities with a previous starting to a Final Fantasy game; you start on a train sequence and thrown into a story almost instantly like you are supposed to know whats going on. Ill do my best to try and explain the basics of the story, but even many hours in, its a little confusing.
Humanity lives on Cocoon which is basically a shell of a city on top of a place under the surface called Pulse. While very few people have never seen or been to Pulse, anyone that does and returns is immediately quarantined and exiled by Cocoons government called the Sanctum. PSICOM is Sanctums army and the ones that enforce all of these exiles away from the populace.
The reason for this exiling is because people that return or even have contact with people that have been near Pulse is because they return with a branding and have strange effects later on. FalCie was the original inhabitants of Pulse and is a mechanical-like being that seem to possess powers beyond anything humans can comprehend. People who are marked by the FalCie are then called LCie and receive their branding on their skin. Once you are a LCie you are outcast by the Sanctum government in fear that you will infect more people or eventually turn into a monster.
Each LCie has a focus (a goal) that the FalCie want them to complete but the problem is that the FalCie dont tell the LCie what that focus is and they must figure it out on their own. LCie are given visions and must determine what their focus is from these odd and confusing slideshow means. If a LCie doesnt complete their focus in a certain amount of time they will eventually be transformed into a monster known as a Cieth which is why the government is taking these harsh precautions towards LCie. If a LCie can determine their focus and complete it though, the outcome isnt much better either; they will transform into a crystal to be frozen in that state possibly forever. No matter what you do, this is why being a LCie is considered a curse.
If all of this sounds confusing, its because it is, but this is the basic premise of the back story to what is happening. While the main character is mostly focused on Lightning as the hero, you will be jumping back and forth between different parties at different times to tell different sides of the story. Youll also see flashbacks from different characters to show how they all relate to one another and why their paths have crossed. I quite enjoyed this layered approach to the story telling and once you are about 10 to 15 hours in, things will start to make a lot more sense as you progress on your epic jaunt.
Final Fantasy wouldnt be complete without memorable characters that are brilliantly voice acted and XIII doesnt disappoint in this department either. There are six main protagonists that each have their own reasons, back story and hardship that they must overcome. Lightning is the main heroine is a former sergeant of the Corps. She wields a gunblade much like Squall did in Final Fantasy VIII and is extremely agile and eventually becomes a strong leader for everyone.
Snow is a leader of a rebel gang called Team Nora that is fighting against Cocoons government. Where Lightning is agile, Snow is the powerhouse and incredibly strong.
Hope is a young teenage boy that due to unforeseen circumstances eventually tags along with Lightning and the others in hopes of redemption for a great loss.
Sazh is the comic relief and has a baby Chocobo that lives and hangs out inside of his oddly shaped afro. You almost end up loving Sazh more because of this adorable companion but he does eventually open up about why hes doing what hes doing and you feel for him as he always tries to do whats right.
Vanille is the cute and upbeat girl whos very everythings going to be ok kind of attitude. She seems to care a lot about people and seems to almost always been in a good mood, which can also kind of get on your nerves though.
Fang is the last person youll come across and at first very little will be known about her other than she has a mysterious connection to Vanille somehow. Shes very tough much like Snow and incredibly stubborn and headstrong.
There is definitely a lot of character growth as the story fleshes out but I really disliked Hope and Lightning at the start when all they would do was complain, but eventually they grew and changed and so did my feelings towards them as you find out their reasoning behind their actions. Something of note that has to be pointed out though is that Square actually re-synched the lips for English voices even in the cutscenes. Something of that scale is not easy or quick to do so I must commend them for taking the effort for doing a small but vital part to make the characters even more believable.
Combat is a big staple for the Final Fantasy series as its always been fresh and addictive for players to delve into. The way that things have changed though in XIII are quite drastic and while some people may find it daunting at first, I really quite enjoyed it once I got the hang of it and more options unlocked.
The first major change is that you only control your main character despite having a part of two or three at once. The other party members are AI controlled and surprisingly will do quite a good job depending on their chosen role at that time.
Active Time Battles (ATB) return which means theres no more turn based system in place and you need to stay on your toes during battle. While vets may already know how ATB systems works, XIIIs use of it is different than past iterations. You are able to chain together multiple commands in stacked slots in one turn to form a lengthy combo. As your characters develop and strengthen, so does your ATB gauges and you can queue up more commands in one go as you progress. You can wait till the ATB gauge fills completely for a long strong of powerful attacks or simply use 1 attack to essentially cancel out of a command string and switch to something else on the fly if needed.
The class system is now designated to Roles set to each character. Roles control what abilities are available and active to each character instead of having all spells and skill available at all times. This may seem like a downer, but its actually done quite well and is very reminiscent of the Job system in previous titles.
There are six different roles that are unlocked as you progress in the game, and while anyone can eventually learn any role, each character is definitely suited and designed to specifically be a specific one or two roles to play off their strengths.
Commandos are your physical attackers that get up close and personal and slow down the stagger rate (more on this later) while doing high damage. Ravagers are the casters and will use spells to offensively damage enemies while greatly boosting the stagger bar. Synergists are the ones who buff the group with Shell, Haste and more which is the opposite of Saboteur roles that debuff the enemies and hinder them to make it easier on your attackers. The last two roles are Medics which is pretty self explanatory and the last being Sentinels. Sentinel is the role that will provoke enemies and simply absorb damage while doing the occasional counter, but for the most part they have zero offensive abilities; they are simply there to take all the damage and keep the rest of the group safe. At first you are going to think Sentinels are useless but youll reach a point of the game where they will have to basically be in 99% of your Paradigms (more on this later too) or else you wont survive any attacks.
As mentioned above, a large mechanic to the battle system now is the Stagger bar that enemies have. Essentially enemies have a specific Stagger State that means when you deal enough consistent damage to them, they become staggered then can take massive damage for a limited amount of time. Some enemies are almost completely immune to normal damage and can really only be dealt with when they are staggered. This is where the specific roles come into play since some will make the Stagger Bar raise quickly and others will make it deplete slower. Combining this with the need to heal and buff, adds a lot of strategy in this whole new dynamic to battles.
Arranging roles in specific orders are called Paradigms and you are given basic combinations of roles but are encouraged to experiment with different role combinations (Paradigms) to see how it affects your battles. What makes Paradigms and Roles so unique is that you can swap on the fly as much as you want (called a Paradigm Shift). What this means is that you can have an all attacker Paradigm, then shift to healing instantly for when its needed. At the beginning of the game its quite easy to only have to deal with 2 or 3 Roles but by the end of the game youll be Paradigm Shifting at least a dozen times per battle to successfully win.
The other major change involved with this new mechanic is that there is no Magic Points (MP) that is needed for using skills or magic. Instead, skills and magic have a set cost per command; basically this means you can do one really powerful skill per turn, or numerous smaller ones. A simple Cure heal is only one ATB slot cost where a Curaja spell that heals the whole group costs 3 and takes longer for the ATB bar to charge before being able to be used. The side offset to this way of doing things is that since you cant use magic in the traditional sense, this means that after every battle your health is completely restored. This may seem a little too easy but later on battles become so challenging and frequent that youd constantly either be using MP potions or HP potions just to recover from battles. Combat becomes quite fun once you learn the intricacies but beware that there is quite a sudden spike in difficulty near the last few chapters that will require a completely different shift in play style.
Another constant in the Final Fantasy series is the ability to use summons to bring forth giant beasts to do massive damage but at a great cost (usually MP). While XIII does have summons in a sense, they are also completely different than other iterations in the series as well.
Summons are once again called Eidolons (Final Fantasy IX named them these) and each character possesses their own personal Eidolon that can be summoned with the appropriate amount of TP points (TP bar is refilled quicker the more skillfully and quickly you finish battles).
There are the classic Eidolons that are known to anyone thats played a Final Fantasy before such as Odin, Shiva and Bahamut, but there are also some new ones as well that will hopefully be as memorable. The ways that the Eidolons are used though have also drastically changed from what you may be used to from previous games. The Eidolon will fight along side its summoner in battle as the other group members disappear. They will be controlled by an AI and their health is slowly but constantly depleting; once out of HP, it will disappear. Before its HP is completely depleted though you can use a new feature called Gestalt Mode which will basically have you riding or driving your Eidolon for a set amount of time doing different button commands based on what attacks you would like to do. If this sounds confusing its because it is at first.
The only problem with this system is that youll basically have a set 3 person group and never usually ever deviate from it (once you can choose your own parties) so you may never even see the Eidolons other than your main character (which is probably going to be Lightning). Most people will probably never even see the other Eidolon battle due to this mechanic unfortunately as a lot of work has gone into their detail.
If you recall and enjoyed the Sphere Grid system from Final Fantasy X, then the Crystarium system will feel very familiar. Instead of the standard experience points for winning battles, you gain Crystogen Points (CP) which can be used to spend in the Crystarium to unlock skills and increase attributes. Every Role has its own section that can be individually increased however you wish. Its completely up to you if you want to become a super specialist and focus on one Roles advancement or spread out your CP across different Roles to learn a broader capacity of skills and be better rounded. Eventually all characters will have access to all six Roles each, but the CP required to max out a single Role is staggering and will require many hours of CP farming to simply fill one.
Equipment is another drastic change that may take some getting used to. All you equip is a main weapon and accessories; no armor or anything else to maintain or focus on. It seems very basic at first but weapons and items can be upgraded with spoils you obtain from battles to increase their levels, statistics, and hidden s have 3 tiers of upgrades that can all turn into each persons ultimate weapon (with basic stat differences) and combining weapons and accessories with the same baseline bonuses will unlock special abilities as well.
Final Fantasy XII knows what it does best; amazing visuals and cutscenes with an equally impressive musical score (though I dont think itll be as memorable as previous Final Fantasys) to go along with an engaging story and complex battle system.
While some previous Final Fantasy fans may be put off by the linearity and general easiness, I quite enjoyed the easy point A to point B approach as everything felt much more streamlined and I didnt feel like I was wasting much time in towns like in previous games. There are even some dungeons that would most likely be quite confusing and take some time to figure out the puzzle aspect of it, but the game will literally point you to each checkpoint to show you how to progress. Again, I liked this guided hand to help me along, but for those purists, you can just turn off the minimap and try and figure it out all on your own.
Towns will be another sore spot for some fans as well since there are none; everything you buy and sell and upgrade is done all in the Save Station menus. Because of this youll very rarely find yourself wandering off the main path, as the small branches will just lead you to a standard treasure sphere and then youll be back on your way to the next checkpoint.
XIII comes on 3 discs but because of the linear nature, once you get to disc 3 it wont be coming out of the tray. A single playthrough will take around 45 to 60 hours to complete just the main story line but this will also be based on how much grinding you to do level up (some parts you will have ultimately need to do this to progress at the spikes in difficulty later on) and how side tracked you get with the side missions later on. To complete all the side missions that open up in the latter half of the game, you are probably looking at another 20 to 40 hours on top of everything else; so you definitely will get your monies worth.
While XIII does bring back many Final Fantasy favorites such as Chocobos and Cid, sadly there are no Moogles and everything might be a little too much of a drastic change for some fans, but I completely enjoyed my lengthy undertaking and now have some new favorite characters in the Final Fantasy epic saga. XIII will definitely be remembered for its spectacular visuals and suiting score Ill remember it for its interesting story and wonderful characters that Square even make the lip syncing match the English voices; something that I wish all JRPGs would do for the added immersion.
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
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The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
Its not very often youll find a new company release a game that has so much charm that it makes it almost impossible to dislike. The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is a comical tale of a man simply wanting to fulfill his appetite with tasty pie pastry. To do so he will use time altering abilities and even compete against, and disrupt your past, present, and future selves.
You play as the deviant Winterbottom himself across more than 50 levels as he pursues the elusive Chronoberry pie to fill his appetite. This mysterious pie does almost anything to avoid being eaten by Winterbottom and will even distort time and space to do so.
If the premise of this tale sounds silly, thats because it is and its not afraid to do so by not taking itself too seriously. Your adventures will have you traveling all around caverns, to the town of Bakersburg, and even a burning bakery just to get more delicious pastries.
The story is played out between the short recesses between stages and is done so in the old style black and white silent films. Everything is hand drawn and the complete presentation is done so in an amusing way that even will make fun of you during the process. Because its played out like a silent film that also means Winterbottom doesnt have anything to say, yet you still find him an amusing character as the soundtrack to follow suit fits in wonderfully.
Gathering pies is no easy task, especially when they are in unreachable areas and require more than one person to reach. This is where Winterbottoms ability to make a clone of himself comes into play. You can hold the record button at any time and when you release it a cloned version of yourself will continually loop the actions that were recorded endlessly unless the set path is broken or he is smacked.
Each level has a set amount of clones allowed at one time and this is where much of the strategy comes into play. At first youll only need to make a clone then stand on its head to reach the next platform but eventually youll need your recordings to flip switches, stand on pressure plates, or even smack the real you to get those elusive pies.
As stages become more and more challenging so do the criteria to complete it. Some stages have pies that are only obtainable by your clones and others that you need to get all the pies in a set amount of time and a set order. Further on youll need to make quite a few multiples of yourself quickly as some of the puzzles become quite frustratingly difficult.
The closest counterpart to Winterbottom would have to be Braid because of its time manipulation but this is different enough that it can stand on its own two legs and doesnt feel like more of the same.
There are around 50 main levels that compile the story and as you progress you unlock another twenty five bonus levels that are essentially time trails (but unique).
Just as you think you are getting the hang of solving these puzzles out they throw in some that will completely stump you to the point of frustration. Granted, you do feel very rewarded when you finally click and get what you are supposed to do, but there is a fine line of feeling like a genius and an idiot.
The bonus levels can be quite fun as you want the quickest time with using the least amount of clones. These levels tie into the leaderboards and just when you think youve completed a stage quickly youll see how bad your time really is compared to everyone else online. Its a great to see what the great players are able to get for times but the lack of being able to watch their replays was a big downer for me. Though granted, most people would just watch the #1 persons replay and mimic it, it still would have been nice to see how its done (like in Trials HD).
I cant give enough praise to the music throughout the game; it absolutely fits the visuals and doesnt become annoying like most repetitive games do.
Again, the difficulty will vastly range from easy and done in seconds to sitting there for forty minutes staring at a puzzle unable to see how its possible to complete.
Winterbottom reminded me of Braid not only because of the same puzzle genre but because its a title that came out of nowhere (and a brand new developer) and has the quality that very few indie games ever reach. At 800 points, this game is so charming that if you even remotely enjoy puzzle solving, its worth the purchase. Dont take my word, try the demo, but be prepared to crave some delicious pie afterwords.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
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BioShock 2
The ending of the first Bioshock didnt seem like it left much room for a sequel that could hold its own weight but it seems like Rapture has a few more stories about its lore and inhabitants that need to be told. Bioshock was unlike anything weve seen before which is partly why it did so well, so having a sequel made me wonder what could be done new to avoid becoming stale.
We know from what happened in the original Bioshock that Andrew Ryan was the mastermind behind the underwater city of Rapture and how the uncovering of ADAM eventually led to its demise and the overrun of Splicers. Bioshock 2 takes place 10 years after the first game finished and you are no longer learning about Ryan or playing a simple human.
You take the role as one of the first Big Daddys codenamed Delta who suddenly awakes after ten years only to find his Little Sister has been abducted by someone named Lamb. A lot has happened in ten years since the fall of Ryan and now Dr Sophia Lamb has taken over the ruined and exploited utopia that is Rapture.
Lamb is the new antagonist and you learn of her kidnapping little girls from the Atlantic coast that are will be turned into Little Sisters because they need to replace all the ones you rescued or took care of in the first game. The story takes a much more straightforward approach this time around with less plot twists yet still keeps pace and interesting once you get past the half way mark.
Big Daddys stole the spotlight of the original Bioshock and has been the main presence and staple of the series since. Knowing this, 2K did something unexpected and put players in the boot of one of these huge beasts and plays off the encompassing theme of the whole game; the relationship between them and Little Sisters. Controlling a Big Daddy this time around is a very different experience to play when comparing it to the previous installment. We all remember how much fear we felt fighting Big Daddys in the first game and now we have that power at our disposalmost of the time.
We all know how the relationship works between the Big Daddys and Little Sisters in regards to them gathering ADAM. Even as a Big Daddy yourself, a Little Sisters guardian is not going to part with her for anything just because you have the same job. Much like the first game, you will need to dispose of these new types of Big Daddys if you wish to take their Little Sister.
Once youve taken care of their previous Daddy, the same moral choices you made in the first Bioshock come into play; do you rescue or harvest? Should you choose to rescue, she will sit on your shoulder as you go about your business. If you hold down the X button, your Little Sister will guide you towards a specific Splicers corpse that is rich with ADAM ready to be harvested by her.
Should you decide to take this route instead of taking the quicker and easier choice of harvesting her right away means you are going to have to defend your Little Sister while she uses her obscenely large needle to extract the much wanted ADAM. Every time you tell her to gather though, you will face a challenging defense sequence where youll be fighting off waves of Splicers trying to get your Little Sister.
Once youre Little Sisters have done their rounds (2 gathers), you need to boost them up to the iconic vent for them to escape (this saving them), or then kill them for even more ADAM. Its the same moral choices you faced in the first game and while it still works, I just didnt find it as hard to decide this time around. Youll most likely just save or harvest all of them, theres no reason to do both (as there is an achievement based on this).
Deal with all the Little Sisters in the level and you are going to have a show down with a Big Sister. Because of how nimble and agile they are, Id much rather deal with a Big Daddy any day as these grown up Sisters are extremely mean and can make quick work of you even in your armor.
So lets go through whats really new in this sequel; the research camera for one makes a return but with a much welcomed improvement. As you take your picture of an enemy, it will actually be a film reel and record how you attack and kill them (this giving you the bonus for it later on). The more you research the more bonuses youll gain against certain enemy types as you progress.
Hacking this time around has also been greatly improved. All hacking is a mini-game that has a needle going back and forth that needs to be stopped in the green or blue areas to succeed. If you stop in the white section youll take a small shock but if you stop the needle in the red the alarm is triggered and bots will come after you.
You even gain a weapon that is able to shoot a Hack Dart from long range and can remotely hack a device to be used as an enemy trap or if its too dangerous to go into a specific room. Do a harder hack (landing the needle in the blue) and youll get bonus items from the vending machines or even stronger bots if the enemies trip the alarms.
The weapons and plasmids have also undergone a slight overhaul but unfortunately the famous wrench will not be returning in this sequel. Because you are a Big Daddy you have no need for a wrench, instead you have your spinning drill that can take care of almost any enemy quite quickly. The only issue I had with the drill is that it takes fuel as ammo and has to be sparingly used because of it. If you are out of fuel you cant use the drill as its spinning nor do your devastating dashes with it.
All of the weapons you gain throughout the game can be upgraded up to three times each. The third and final upgrade will also unlock a special power or feature specific to that gun (such as your rivet gun gaining fire properties or your drill that will reflect projectiles back unto your enemies). Its a shame that there are very few upgrade stations throughout Rapture as youll need a do a few playthroughs to try out all the fully upgraded weapons.
Ammo is very scarce throughout Rapture and youll be wasting a lot of time looting every corpse and drawer trying to find more. Sometimes youll even be forced to use your drill simply from not having any ammo left for your weapons of choice.
There are new plasmids as well to be found and bought during your adventure. Most of the favorites return like Ignite, Freeze and Shock, but now you are able to rank these skills up three times just like the weapons and will do more damage or add new effects like area attacks. There are even some new and very interesting plasmids such as being able to summon bots whenever you like which add for some more personalization.
The biggest change to combat though is the new-found ability to deal-wield weapons and plasmids simultaneously. This makes for some interesting combinations of weapons and plasmids and making combos that work well together become very easy to pull off.
Enemies in Bioshock 1 were basically the Splicers and Big Daddys, but in part two there are of course some new resistance to stop you on your quest. There are now Brute Splicers that are basically Tanks (from Left 4 Dead), new types of Big Daddys that can even launch mini-turrets to fight you, and of course the meanest of all; the Big Sisters.
Big Sisters are the new Big Daddys; they drive that fear into you because you know you are about to get beat down and youre going to have to do everything you can to survive this single fight. Not only is she able to leap and jump all around you with ease, but she also has telekinetic powers to hurl items at you and can even use Splicer corpses to regain health of you let her. When you hear that distinct Big Sister wail, you better get yourself ready for a fight to the death.
The biggest addition to the anticipated sequel though is the addition of multiplayer which I was very unsure of when it was announced. Luckily it was developed by the talent that brought us some of the Unreal games, though to be honest I was almost ready to write it off from what was show pre-release.
Most surprisingly is the inclusion of a story behind the multiplayer. Set years before the events of Bioshock 1, all of this multiplayer battling is during the fall of Rapture when there was a civil war (which explains why Splicers are fighting each other). As you progress you unlock more story and cinematics and was not something I was expecting at all, though welcomed.
Obviously acknowledging how popular and addicting the whole online mechanic of Modern Warfare has been, Bioshock 2 uses the same leveling system which replaces XP points with ADAM. As you gain ADAM you will also gain new levels and unlock weapons, plasmids and tonics (perks). There are quite a few weapons and plasmids that are unique to multipayer and you can save up to 3 preset loadouts to coincide with whatever mode you are playing online.
Theres also an interesting mechanic in multiplayer that uses your research camera. When you stand over a dead corpse you are able to snap a picture of it which will net you a damage bonus to that person (until they kill you). It takes a few moments to snap the picture but the damage increase you gain against that player is well worth it; just remember that people will be doing the same with your corpses as well.
There is a hefty amount of modes that range from Survival of the Fittest (free for all), Last Splicer Standing (only one life and last man/team standing wins), Capture the Sister (capture the flag but the flag being a Little Sister), and other standard game types as well.
In every mode other than Capture the Sister, there will be a Big Daddy suit that spawns in random locations in the map that can be found and worn by whatever player finds it first. Doing so dawns you the power of being one and can greatly shift the outcome of a match. By wearing the suit though you give up your use of plasmids; but the trade off is well worth it as you gain an extremely powerful rivet gun, can throw proximity grenades, and even stomp to stun nearby foes.
Pay the premium and you can own the special Collector edition that comes in quite the large sized box that has a whole bunch of goodies any collector would enjoy. Inside you will find the Bioshock 2 orchestral score on CD, a 164 page hardcover art book (that was actually better quality than most books Ive seen), posters much like flyers you would see on the walls in Rapture, and the main special item being the 180g vinyl record of Bioshock 1s orchestral score.
I find the inclusion of a record nowadays an interesting choice, it does make sense in a way since one of Bioshocks greatest assets is the sound design; I just dont know many people that will be able to enjoy the record itself though. Honestly, I would have rathered a Big Sister statue to go along with my Big Daddy statue from the collector edition of the first game though.
While the visuals of Bioshock may take the front seat in most peoples mind with Rapture being shown so vividly, the sound and audio should not be overlooked. Garry Schyman returns to do the orchestral score for a perfectly fitting audio experience on your journey. The voice acting is just as great as the first game and everyone does an extremely believable job at sounding like they truly are from then war-torn Rapture.
Ive purposely left out telling much of what and why the Big Sisters are the way they are as I found that the most interesting part of the tale this time around and dont want to spoil anything. While fighting them (and in a few of the bigger fights) there was some very minor slow down that did occur though.
The length of the single player tale is your standard 8-12 hours or so depending on how much you explore and if you decide to rescue and defend all the Little Sisters. You are buying Bioshock 2 to continue the story from the first game and while it may take a few hours to start to truly get interesting and for all the pieces to fall in place; it was enjoyable to play but still left me wanting more.
Obviously its going to be impossible to recreate that sense of mystery the first time we journeyed through the hostile halls of Rapture and while this entry of the citys tale may gain a pass, Bioshock 3 is going to have to somehow figure out a way to bring back that feeling of exploring and mystery that we all loved the first game for.
Being a Big Daddy is quite the experience though at times you may forget you are one as you have free will and make your own decisions. If you enjoyed the first Bioshock, 2 will feel similar and more of the same. With the multiplayer addition now included, itll stay in your 360 for a longer amount of time due to the addictive progressive element.
Something major is going to have to be changed should players return to Rapture to avoid from becoming stale as it is good but more of the same. To me it felt like an old friend you havent seen in a few years; you take some time to catch up on whats been going on since you last saw each other but after that you still know everything else about them. Its hard to fault the game for doing what worked the first time but I definitely didnt feel the same sense of awe and wonder while slowly stumbling through Rapture this time in my encumbering suit.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
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Chime
OneBigGame is a new publisher that has a new mentality around its business; its non-profit and submits the majority of the proceeds (up to 80%) to charities and good causes such as Save the Children. Chime is an indie game developed by Zoe Mode (the people who brought us Youre In The Movies) and is very simple on concept and idea but large in gameplay and addictiveness.
Chime is an interesting take on the puzzle genre and would be the result if Tetris and Lumines had a baby together. Its a mash of puzzle piece solving and fitting ala Tetris coupled with the addictive and trance educing musical gameplay from Lumines.
First things first; when you start Chime you wont have any idea what you are doing and how. There really is no great tutorial of how to start playing properly or well; its just something that will come in time once you learn the intricacies and get past the learning curve.
When you start a level you will see a grid (usually rectangle-ish in shape) and you are given pieces that look similar to what youve come to know from Tetris (although there are many more weird and garbage pieces to throw you off). Your objective is to place these pieces together so that you make a 3x3 square on the board, which is called a quad. Your shapes cannot be place on top of one another so usually getting neat and tidy quads are quite difficult. As you make a squad and its cleared by the scrolling line (just like in Lumines) you claim that part of the board your quad was placed; the goal being to claim 50 percent of the board to unlock the next song and progress.
As you place your pieces and making quads, a beat line moves constantly across the screen left to right. When the line passes over your quads the music in the background will change and add more beats, vocals, or even other sounds that go along with the soundtrack. It may sound random at times but once you get your multipliers going and consistent, the songs sound quite entrancing. As the beat line passes your quads it will change the color on the board to signify that youve already cleared that small section of the game board. You need to move quick to keep your score multiplier up and you must complete 50 percent of the board before the song ends.
It may sound like this is all confusing, and it is at first, but its quite gratifying once you get the hang of it and can string together some big quads quite quickly. To make things even simpler to understand, heres the basics: Place blocks and make a 3x3 quad or bigger, create those quads to gain coverage, and gain that coverage to fill the grid.
The song selection is linked to the level choice and while there are only five levels (and songs), each playthrough doesnt always sound similar to the last due to the beat line and quads making different additional sounds to go along with the music. The soundtrack boasts some actual big artists as well such as Orbital, Moby, and Philip Glass (if youre into the mellow electronica). Each song has its own board layout and isnt as simple as the first square grid. With many corners to navigate and somehow fill, they become quite challenging.
While it is short on levels, it does make it up with online leaderboards that will track scores and coverage for each song. Seeing the competitions scores and coverage percents online makes it a good challenge (even though getting 100% on a board is incredibly difficult).
As mentioned before, the majority of the proceeds go to childrens charities and theres never anything wrong with that. While it wont take you long to complete the game and play al the songs, it does have some decent replayability if you are a fan of the genre. At 400 Microsoft points and the fact that its going to charity, I can easily recommend it to those looking for a new music based puzzler.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
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Mass Effect 2
Its been a long wait but the sequel to Mass Effect has finally arrived with much anticipation by its fans to delve further into Shepards tale and the surrounding universe. I was quite surprised to see how much Bioware truly did listen to the fans and critics about flaws from the first game due to the hugely improved gameplay and story telling, but I wont get ahead of myself, lets delve into the general story that surrounds Mass Effect 2.
Its been two years since the conclusion of Mass Effect left us hanging; wondering what will happen with Shepard next. Its been two years since then and Commander Shepard is still on patrol for geth on distant planets when suddenly the Normandy comes under attack by an unknown adversary without warning and some very dramatic scenes occur (as to not spoil anything) that may have you wondering whats going to happen next.
Two years pass since this attack and Shepard is forced to awake only to learn of a new threat to the galaxy that he (or she in my case) will have to face. What makes this new threat so much more dangerous than the geth were is that complete colonies of humans are being abducted without warning and no one knows why; that is until you meet someone who calls himself The Illusive Man.
The Illusive Man runs a ruthless organization called Cerberus who seems to be mankinds only hope for survival; no matter the collateral damage. Due to the fate that the original Normandy met with, Shepard gains command of a new vessel and must set out to refill the ranks with the most elite squad youll ever command. Even with all the new fire power and new allies, the mission is deemed a suicide mission; Shepard intends to prove them wrong and do whatever is needed to save the galaxy against this new threat.
Obviously I dont want to give any major plot points away so I wont say much more as I found the story to be completely engrossing and enjoyed it even more-so than the first game. All you need to know is that something life changing happens to Shepard and that he must follow his new boss orders by recruiting a new team and that anything must be done to stop the Collectors. Its up to you how much you want to trust the Illusive Man and how much you choose to do the right thing.
One of the big unique features Mass Effect 2 is boasting is the ability to import your previous character from Mass Effect 1. While this sounds like an awesome idea by just saying that, there are some catches to how this feature works. While yes you can import your max level character from the first game, the catch is that you dont actually play that character in Mass Effect 2. Depending on how high level your character was, that is the basis of how much of a bonus and head start you will gain in Mass Effect 2.
Basically, the higher your character was the more bonus xp (and levels), money, and resources you will start the game off with. A great choice to this import feature is that you arent completely stuck with your previous character if there was something you didnt like about them. This means you can completely change your class and even your appearance should you wish to. The import bonus are quite nice (an imported level 60 Shepard starts off at level 5 and bonus Paragon and Renegade points) and even play into one of the achievements as well; the Long Service achievement requires the game to be completed twice or just once with an imported Shepard.
So lets talk about whats new and improved with the sequel. Foremost, the cover mechanic has been much improved which ties in with the new health system. Now when you take damage, you must find cover and wait for it to regenerate instead of the old way of using a medi-gel to heal yourself. Medi-gel is now primarily used to revive downed teammates (though with upgrades they will simultaneously heal to full as well).
The minigames for hacking and such have also slightly changed as well. There are two different types of hacking and unlocking in Mass Effect 2; one simply matching corresponding symbols within the allotted time and the slightly more challenging one that has you scanning a moving board and you need to pick the matching code fragment without choosing the wrong one or highlighting the ones that are specifically crossed out.
Gone are the annoying Dune Buggy levels that sometimes didnt even yield much usefulness. Now when you are using the Galaxy Map and looking at various planets you simply hold the Left Trigger to start scanning the area of the planet you are aimed at and when the readings on the charts start to spike and vibrate you can press the Right Trigger and a pod will automatically land on the planet and send the corresponding resources back up to your ship. These precious resources (4 different types) are whats used to upgrade your weapons, armor, ship, and even certain skills.
As you fill your squad, there are also optional people are you choose to recruit as well. On top of these, there is also an optional side quest to help them which will gain that persons loyalty to Shepard and thus gaining an additional unique combat skill. Some characters from the first Mass Effect will also return (obviously based on your choices if you imported) and it was quite astonishing to see Wrex (I didnt kill him in Mass Effect 1) and Garrus among others. There are even some characters yould never expect to group with that will join you on your hunt against the Collectors as well which was one of the biggest wow moments in the game for me.
One of the biggest gripes with the first game was the overly long loading elevator rides going from area to area. This mechanic has been nixed for a more traditional loading screen although it is animated and will give game hints to read while loading. With the game installed on the hard drive it was on par with any other game which was quite a relief.
The popular Paragon and Renegade dialogue options return but a great new addition is an option to sometimes completely interrupt a dialogue cinematic with either choice provided you are quick enough to react (since its actually meant as an interrupt in most scenes). It adds more depth to the already exhaustive dialogue and brings you more into it instead of feeling like you are simply viewing a cinematic.
Mass Effect 2 is substantially more shooter focused than Mass Effect 1 and has a little less of the role playing elements. Due to this, it feels like it takes much longer to progress your character and you are only able to level up Shepard after a mission, not during.
Even the weapons and the system it uses have undergone a dramatic change. No longer do you have to worry about different types of ammo for multiple types of weapons; now you have a single and universal way of getting ammunition for your weapons. Technically your weapons have unlimited ammo but you are actually gathering cooling rods so that the weapons dont overheat (and become unusable without them). Its a similar mechanic many other thirst person shooters embrace and I actually prefer it quite more than the old system.
Also, in Mass Effect there were only 4 or so types of different weapons, now in Mass Effect 2 there are almost twenty. Many guns (like pistol for example) have a subset or more such (such as heavy pistol) that will favor either faster rate of fire or more damage. Heavy weapons now replace the old grenades and some of them are actually quite unique (such as the one that shoots a black hole or one that even lobs a unique miniature-like nuke. Also, characters that are able to use certain weapon sets can make full use of them and no longer been to train skills in each weapon to be proficient in them.
Skills have also undergone a slight change and have a 4 rank system in place that can be upgraded. When you upgrade to the fourth and final rank of a skill you are given a choice to choose between 2 different ways to alter the skill (such as more health or more damage). It gives it a little bit more of a personal touch to your character and squad and you can develop that perfect group even further.
Should you splurge and choose to get the Collector Edition of Mass Effect 2, Bioware will give you a bunch of bonus material for the extra cash. Other than the game itself you get an impressive hardcover art book that has some great insight and art to the world of Mass Effect, a miniature #1 issue of the Mass Effect comic book, and the standard tin case that weve come to expect from any Collector Edition.
On top of these physical items you also get some digital ones to go along with it as well. Foremost, you get a Cerberus Network card that gains you access to bonus (and free) download content such as the newly released content that gives you a new squad member should you do the quest. You also gain the Chitinious armor set that gives you some massive stat boosts starting out along with a special Assault Rifle that tends to eat through enemy shields.
No game is without its faults and while very few, the graphical glitches and clipping seemed to always happen in the most noticeable spots. Coupled along with repetitive dialogue choices and a final boss fight that wasnt what I was expecting; there is still an amazing gaming experience to be had here and its going to be quite challenging for Mass Effect 3 to top this moving experience.
Not enough praise can be given to everything audio related in the game. The sounds the ship makes, the music score that bring the perfect ambiance (especially the club music that fits the look of the club perfectly) and of course the absolute exemplary performance every voice actor pulled off.
The ending of Mass Effect was a cliffhanger for Mass Effect 2, but Im not sure how Im going to bear the wait for Mass Effect 3 with the cliff hanger were given at the end of this chapter; many questions need to be answered. Mass Effect 2 is an exemplary cinematic experience blended with refined gameplay that make for a sequel that needs to be in everyones collection. Bioware has done it again; and even better this time.
Overall Score: 9.6 / 10
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Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
When Serious Sam released back in 2001 it was met with different reactions by people for many reasons. Firstly, at the time Duke Nukem was still a big name in gaming and it took that popularity and had its own spin on things. Sam himself may resemble Duke very closely in character and cheesy one-liners, but what Serious Sam brought that really wasnt seen before was massive battles of endless hordes of enemies. Also, this was one of the first games I can remember with absolutely massive bosses (much like how Painkiller did well) that were quite the sight to simply see.
Before perks, weapon upgrades and tactical strategy there was Serious Sam that was all about blowing anything up that moved without thinking. The game was simple in principle and straight to the point; shoot and kill everything while trying to survive.
Now Serious Sam HD is here for the masses of people that may have missed or completely forgotten about this classic title. The entire game is a 1 for 1 remake of its 2001 counterpart down to every enemy and every secret; this is its strength and weakness though. For people that have played the title before, there is nothing new here for you other than some slightly polished graphics, and for the new comers they get to experience what a simple gung-ho guns-a-blazing shooter was all about almost a decade ago.
Its 2104 and aliens from across the universe has almost decimated humankind and the only hope is to send the planets greatest hero; Serious Sam Stone back in time to collect an ancient Egyptian artifact that will help defeat the aliens leader who is 20 stories tall; Mental. You arent playing Serious Sam for the story as you can see; you are playing it to zone out and kill some alien scum.
Serious Sam wont win awards for level design or innovative weapons, but thats not what its here to do. Its a humorous take on the genre at whole and just does what it can to throw everything at Sam that is possible all at once.
In single player you will plow through 13 different Egyptian levels, tombs, hallways and courtyards and nothing can be said for the level design as its nothing special; though I dont believe its really trying to be. The same can be said for the enemies youll encounter as there are less than two dozen types of enemies all of which have no real smart AI and will simply try to run at you in a straight line. Because of this type of enemy intelligence you will constantly have to circle strafe which is something that hasnt been relied upon in a shooter for quite some time. Luckily there are 5 different difficult modes and the hardest being Serious Mode that will have you dying many times.
You are eventually given up to 10 different weapons to choose from as you find them along your way and with many of the guns not needing to ever reload; you will simply be spraying and preying at anything that gets in your way.
Because there is no regenerating shields or cover system, you will have to do things the old way, by picking up health packs and shields to keep you alive. It feels very old school and its not necessarily a bad thing.
All the enemies from the original game are here including the famous headless suicide bombers (though Im still unsure how they have no head yet they scream at you while running towards Sam). Serious Sam is all about killing wave 1 of enemies, having a brief moment to get health packs and ammo then killing wave 2. Repeat this a few more times per room and courtyard and thats the simple design behind the game. Enemies are simply respawned and thrown towards Sam over and over. The charm can wear off very quickly of doing the same thing over and over again though.
Something new with the XBLA version of this remake is the heavy inclusion of auto aiming to the point of being too heavily relied upon and youll feel like youll have homing bullets sometimes.
Also, with a press of the Y button, you can autosave on the fly (though it will slightly lag your gameplay) and does come in handy while playing single player. A quick B press will bring up your help journal that has all the info you need from enemy statistics to a small (though usually useless) strategy guide built right in. Its a good inclusion if you enjoy reading all the back story and every bit of information, but chances are if you are playing Serious Sam, then you arent known for having the longest attention span and would like to just get back to killing aliens.
Multiplayer has been included with the XBLA release which was unexpected, but with a price. The PC version had 16 player co-op and deathmatch where as the XBLA release only has 4 player co-op and no deathmatch. While playing 4 players co-operatively is immensely more fun than playing solo; the game scales enemy numbers and waves based on how many are playing. This means there are a vast amount of more aliens to kill and because of this the frame rate can and will drop quite often and quite substantially. While I can understand the scale back from 16 to 4 players due to framerate issues, the complete annihilation of deathmatch mode is quite a deal breaker as you can only play the campaign mode so many times when it has no progression or story.
While the title may have HD it its name, the HD graphics boost didnt overly impress me in any way. This may be because the textures were bumped but the models themselves seem almost the same. Comparing to the original releases side by side may prove more and an improvement but there was no enhancements over the original game; even the same monotone sound bites from each enemy were reused and not improved.
With no new levels, no new weapons and no new enemies, the only people interested in this are going to be die hard Serious Sam fans and people that have never played it before; other than that this remake really seemed quite unnecessary.
Serious Sam reminds me of a great cult movie hit; the fans get it and love it and the rest dont see whats so special or understand. Dont go in expecting anything innovative, just turn off your brain, blow tons of aliens up and enjoy what a mindless shooter Serious Sam excels at being.
Suggestions: Taking out the competitive multiplayer is a huge deal breaker when the PC version had it and the slowdown in co-op is quite detrimental on the gameplay experience overall.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
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Death By Cube
Since Geometry Wars made the Twin-stick shooters (Left stick to move your ship and Right to fire in any direction) popular, there has been a slew of these types of top down shooters, though none really reaching that Geometry Wars popularity or success.
Premium Agency is the developer of this new title called Death By Cube and it is backed and published by Square Enix. Much like other games in this genre, the objective is to strategically defeat your enemies whilst staying alive, but of course every game has their own twists and adds something new to be fresh and unique.
The unique take with Death By Cube is that you are trying to destroy an army of cube shaped enemies that are filled with red oil on a collection of different maps with a numerous amount of weapons and strategies.
Surprisingly enough, there actually is a story to this game unlike many others that simply want you to progress levels or gain high scores. You are LEO; a robot that is awakened and realize that youve list your memory. The only instinct you have when awoken is that you must reboot the robot SELSIE to hopefully gather your memories back of what has happened.
This is LEOs mission and sets forth only to find that the world has been filled with a large army of aggressive enemy robots trying to destroy you. Its up to you to press on and find out what happened all while spilling each cubed robots red oil all over the place.
You control LEO just like any other Twin-stick shooter with the Left stick moving your robot and the Right shooting in whatever direction you point to. Every enemy is a cube or slight variant there of and there will be a barrage of them coming out for you. Some enemies dont pose much threat, then there are other very small ones that swarm and surround you; others will even shoot back at you. Much like Geometry Wars, each different enemy has its own style of offence and defense. The bosses are quite surprisingly large and will require some finesse to defeat as well.
Instead of simply passing a level and moving on, you are graded and rewarded coins based on your skill and play style. Do better to earn enough coins which are then used to unlock new levels and upgrades. The issue with this system is that an average play wont always gain you enough coins to be progressively moving on; so there will be some levels that you will have to replay quite a few times just to gain enough coins to move on to the new level. If you spend cash on an upgrade, itll take even longer for you to collect the required amount of coins to move to the next level. Eventually youll try and avoid upgrades so that you arent forced to replay levels over and over for a small account of coins, so you can see where the repetition and annoyance sets in trying to balance upgrades vs. progression.
Death By Cube also incorporates a couple different mechanics that do make it feel fresh and interesting. Using Left Trigger will cause LEO to dash very quickly in the direction the Left stick is pointing. Doing this will cause enemies in close vicinity to become temporarily confused and stunned for a minute and even stop shooting. Thus enemies become easier targets to shoot or you can get away and regroup away from them for a short time.
If you hold down the Right Trigger you will have a shield around you for a few seconds and when this is activated you will catch any bullets or lasers shot at you. Letting go and aiming with the Right stick will reflect and shoot these caught bullets back at your enemies. This technique is a necessity later on to simply survive, but the trick is that you cant hold the shield up for more than a few seconds at a time or else you will blow up.
As you kill more enemies with style and techniques like these, enemies will drop items that can be picked up to boost your offence (like double shot) and defense.
There are multiple upgraded robots you can purchase with your precious coins should you want more offense, defense, speed or other attributes; though I like the homing shots. It makes it a little more interesting to try and complete a level with a style of robot you wouldnt normally play.
As of this time, I was unable to get any multiplayer matches in but Square Enix has listed the game as having up to 8 players with online versus and co-op matches over Xbox Live or locally.
The difficulty starts off pretty steep early on so I wouldnt be surprised if it turns some people off, but its what weve come to expect from Square; a compelling challenge.
Its an interesting take on the Twin-stick shooter genre and while the story really isnt anything special or engrossing, at least it has one unlike the majority of others.
At 800 MS points, its completely worth it if you are a fan of Geometry Wars or anything like it and with all the unlockables and medals, youll be playing for awhile. Just remember, its not blood, its red oil!
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
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IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey
IL-2 Sturmovik has been the gold standard of World War 2 flight sims on the PC for years and now it makes its debut on the Xbox 360. While I was quite unsure how a hardcore flight sim would translate to a console (control-wise) it seems 505 Games (developer) has figured out a way to do so without dumbing down the simulation experience too much while also catering to the hardcore audience that has been faithful for so many years.
Scalable gameplay comes in the form of different control settings and assists all the way from Arcade mode for newcomers, Simulation for the absolutely hardcore, and Realistic for an in-between setting difficulty. Regardless of skill, there is a difficulty and control scheme for you to enjoy.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is based on very famous and historic World War 2 air combat and military operations. You play through five separate theaters of war such as the Battle of Britain (June 1940 May 1941), Stalingrad (June 1942 Feb 1943), Sicily (July 1943 Aug 1943), Korsun (Jan 1944 Feb 1944), Battle of the Buldge (Dec 1944 Jan 1945), and Berlin (April 1945 May 1945). Any history buff will easily know how important these battles were and what they meant to the outcome of the Second World War. For those that arent as brushed up on their history, there is much background info given on each theater and battle and is pieced together with a somewhat personal history of the pilots.
Playing through the game will have you piloting battle planes, fighters, and heavy bombers for a slew of different styles in over 50 missions. As you complete some missions you can choose to either skip on to the next mission right away or even sometimes continue on the mission you are flying which may have you doing some secondary objectives or simply land your plane on the closest runway. Its an interesting way of adding side missions for this style of game and adds some more gameplay hours which is always a good thing.
Single player is broken into two different styles of gameplay; Campaign and Single Missions. Campaign will have you beginning from the earliest battles as you progress through World War 2s separate theaters (each broken down into different missions). Campaign mode is where you will relive the famous and historic air battles from all over Europe and each mission will have different styles of play as well.
Some missions will have you taking out all the enemy forces while others may have you simply doing recon or taking out ground targets. The mission variety keeps things from getting stale and repetitive; completing the whole campaign shouldnt take more than a few hours though. Single Mission mode adds the variety and will add a few more hours onto your play-through of IL-2.
Controls will change and be based the difficulty level chosen though I suggest starting on Arcade mode just to get a feel for the game before delving into the realistic and simulation settings. As you begin, you are forced to do the training missions before even playing single player and if you want to play in the harder difficulty modes you need to complete the corresponding training missions in their respective modes.
The arcade setting may be the simplest to play with, but it is no auto-pilot and will still have you working for every kill. While in arcades setting, there will actually be a deflection icon to show you where to shoot to hit your target since you have to lead your shots. Learning how much to lead while on the higher settings will take quite the time to learn though.
Arcade mode will also give you the ability to lock onto your target with the camera and fly your plane with this interesting view. While it helps greatly to always be looking at your target, it makes it no less difficult as you still need to line up your shots to take them out. Also, while relying on this camera angle, you will surely crash a few times from not paying attention to your altimeter since you are not always looking at the ground in this view.
You are also able to click in the Right Stick to look around the plane (in 3rd person view) much like how you can do in racing titles to look at different sides of your car but holding this down while moving the stick (which also controls your rudder and throttle) is very awkward and difficult to do while flying, shooting, and evading and simply not worth doing.
If you want the true simulation experience, you better have a pilots license as something simple enough as keeping the plane level is quite a challenge. The learning curve to go from arcade so simulation will take extreme dedication as you will constantly stall and spin out of control if you do not know how to control a plane properly. With simulation enabled, there is no hud, there are no assists, and simply banking and cornering without stalling will take a huge amount of skill. It doesnt even label friendlies and enemies; its as if you really are a pilot back then and had to distinguish from visuals alone.
Even more settings can be toggled such as ammo, fuel, and aircraft to completely customize how in-depth and realistic you want to get with it.
You are even given controls of your landing gear for your take-offs and landings but for some reason there is no way to do a belly landing (if your landing gear got damaged, this was the only way to land) and you will crash instantly which seems like a weird notch to take away from this flight sim game.
As you gain controls of squads you can then issue them commands with the D-PAD; Left to cover your plane, Up to attack your target, Right to go to the current objective, and Down will make everyone listen to your next order and obey it (Pressing Down twice will make your squad regroup and follow you).
IL-2 wouldnt be an authentic simulator if it didnt follow suit with the reason people enjoy these games; the planes. There are over 40 different planes and each one will reflect damage effects now complete with bullet holes and trail lines.
I will refrain from listing every plane but some of the more noteworthy ones that stood out for me were the playable Spitfires (Mk II, Mk IX, Mk XIV), Mustang, P-51, and of course the soviet world war 2 era attack fighter and bomber that the series is labeled after; the IL-2. This plane was so well known for its defenses and ability to soak damage that it was known as the flying tank and concrete plane. Even German ground troops started labeling it the Butcher, Meatgrinder, and Black Death; it was that effective as a war plane.
Because technology back in that era is nothing like it is today, you will have to do things the old fashioned way and actually get quite close to your targets before firing on them (if you want your bullets to be effective anyways). When you start hitting an enemy a small close up window will appear in the bottom corner to show the enemy plane getting hit and focus on it until it is downed or you are no longer shooting near them.
Again, because of the era of these planes, the pilots also had a harder time dealing the the G-Forces that also came along with these planes and if you bank or do loops with WEP enabled (like a Turbo or short term boost in engine power) you will see red around the screen almost like getting shot in other games which signals you are close to blacking out from these extreme forces on the pilots body. Its a cool effect that just adds more authenticity to not only the planes but the era as a whole and what it was like to fly these birds.
Multiplayer is also supported in IL-2 and supports up to 16 players in four different online modes. You obviously have your standard Dogfight mode and Team Deathmatch but the Strike and Capture the Airfield modes are something that offer some more variety, no matter how odd they may be.
Strike has two teams trying to destroy each others ground targets while defending your own and Capture the Airfield is where you need to land on specific runways and stay on the ground a set amount of time without being destroyed to capture it (think of it as Domination). These two modes require quite a lot of coordination from team mates to be successful and is actually quite strategic and plays off your teams strengths and weaknesses. Oddly though there are no options for local multiplayer sadly.
An incredible amount of detail has clearly been given to IL-2 to make it the most authentic World War 2 air battle simulator; all the way from the actual historic missions, the planes that have incredible realistic sounds and even the new damage system that will even spatter oil on your windshield as you fly and tailgate someones trail.
One thing that stood out quite sorely though was the graphics when flying very close to the ground. From the air, everything looks great from the planes and clouds and ground units, but when you get close and see them up close you see the bane of every flight game; low polygon and textures on buildings and trees. It seems so unfitting to have this beautifully looking aircraft beside a simple block house. Add in the fact that when on the ground the scale of trees and buildings are completely off and dont reflect the actual size of the plane correctly at all. It may be a small thing, but with so many landing opportunities, it was hard to ignore this oversight.
IL-2 has taken much time into making it accessible for new players to the genre with its easy to use Arcade setting but also appeases the hardcore simulation fans at the same time though Simulation mode is truly only recommended if you want one of the most challenging modes ever.
IL-2 doesnt try and wow players with a certain gimmick or crazy stunts; it is simply the best recreation of its eras airborne warfare that you will find. If you are lucky enough to own a flight stick for your 360 it will be compatible and I would actually recommend it as while its not needed, its like playing a fighter without an arcade stick; its just not the same and one is needed to play truly properly. Since flight sticks for the 360 arent the common or easy to find, I feel that many will truly be missing out on the simulation recreation that IL-2 is meant to give by using one.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
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Assassin's Creed 2
The original Assassins Creed was a very love-hate relationship for most gamers. On one hand you absolutely loved how new and cool it was to finally be an assassin while on the other you had to do very mundane and repetitive missions just to get to those awesome 5 minutes of actually stalking your prey. Luckily Ubisoft has listened to the many complaints and suggestions and has made a sequel that makes me love the series once again.
Everything has been rethought from the ground up and in general is simply a better game overall because of it. The mission structure is completely new, you can buy new weapons and armor that have stats, you can gain money and spend it on your hometown for upgrades and this time you can even fly and swim. Everything is bigger and better and I truly wish I could replay the first game with all these improvements as I think many people would have taken to it much easier.
The story is done in two ways just like the original game had; you have Desmond in the real world trying to figure out what is happening to him and then he is reliving his ancestors memories in the Animus machine. Assassins Creed 2 starts exactly where the first one left off in the real world with Desmond still locked in the laboratory. I will refrain from spoiling anything plot wise but the action starts almost instantly as you begin as you are still trying to escape from Abstergo.
Familiar faces and new ones appear in the real world to help you and there is a slight but brief recap of what happened in the first game, though it does nowhere near a good enough job of explaining things or why which will confuse many new comers to the series. Even after watching the intro, I had to explain past events in the previous game for my wife to understand what was going on, so if you havent played the first game, at least read up on what happened; as you are trust right into this story expecting to know what has happened previously.
Desmond is no longer living Altairs memories; the new star is Ezio Auditore who is from the renaissance in Italy. Again; I will refrain from spoiling anything but you are living a whole chunk of Ezios life and not just thrust into someones story after theyve already become an assassin. Needless to say, something very dramatic happens to Ezio that is life altering and he is set out for revenge. Ezios character seems much more relatable as hes very charming and means well which seems almost contrast to the Altair character previously.
As you continue on you unlock a massive conspiracy and the story is actually quite engaging and flows very well from segment to segment, though this is also partly because of the complete mission restructure from the previous game, but more on that later.
Another big difference you will notice from the first game is that previously after almost every kill you exited the Animus to do a brief real world segment and then back in you went. It is no longer like this as your friends are able to communicate with you while you are controlling Ezio in the Animus. Some may like this more consistent flow but I do miss the odd break and real world blending of storyline.
If youve played the first Assassins Creed you will know exactly how to play this one as the button mapping is basically the same. There are some different moves to learn but for the most part it will feel natural as soon as you pick it up.
Ezios notoriety will show how incognito you may or may not be to the guards. Guards will only react to illegal actions such as looting, killing, pushing them, etc. This means that you no longer are forced to walk in front of a guard just so you dont get noticed like in the previous game.
Guards will either ignore you or recognize you on sight based on the level of your notoriety (think of wanted star levels in GTA) but there are many things you can do to lower your notoriety if you wish; such as removing posted signs (though sometimes theses make no sense since they are up high where no one would ever see them), bribing heralds to stop talking about you, or killing officials. The choice is yours of how you want to clear your name, should you even want to.
Combat also keeps the same layout and mechanics from the first game and will feel just as natural. Guards will have arrows above their head showing how soon they will start to notice and attack Ezio which is very handy to see how long you have before you have to scoot.
The minimap will show guards as red dots on the map like before, but now they will be bold and bright if they are on the same level as you (roof or ground) or lighter and faded if they are below or above you. It makes it almost too easy at times to travel around simply looking at the map, but it is a welcomed addition if it means less frustration.
When you kill your enemies in combat, dead bodies can now be picked up and moved and even thrown into hay nails to hide the evidence of what youve done. Escaping is also done much like in the first game though now much easier and quicker to do. You can find a spot to hide like previously, but now you can also simply just leave the last known position zone (large radius) and eventually theyll stop looking for you (just like leaving the polices radius area in GTA). Again, this makes it very easy to escape now, but I do like how I no longer have to run across the whole city just to restart over or fix a mistake I did.
Even blending in with crowds is back but now you are able to blend in with almost any group of crowd as long as you follow the lighted area on the floor; no more having to find just monks to follow around and blend in with.
Ezio has many more options for fighting in combat than Altair ever did; the amount of combat weapons you receive is much more than the original ever had. You have a poison blade for close range kills with a delay and even have a hidden pistol later in the game much like your blade. Of course you are also able to hire thieves and thugs to take care of guards and slow them down but now you can even hire a group of prostitutes to make some guards get out of your way easily instead of fighting. If you really need some chaos to distract some guards, you can even throw a bunch of money on the ground and see all the peasants push and shove to get the florins on the ground while the guards try and restore order.
Along with new combat moves and weapons comes new mobility as well. Your friend Leonardo Da Vinci is a master at inventing and he makes all your upgrades as you bring him hidden codex pages. Arguably one of his most famous inventions; the Flying Machine, eventually becomes one of Ezios tools to travel around and help with his assassinations. Its something new for the series and definitely shows that Ubisoft has been thinking of new ideas for the players.
Missions are no longer your standard 3 different types that had you scouting, do a quick mission or two and then ultimately killing your target only to repeat it over again. The whole structure has been reworked completely from the ground up and is probably the biggest improvement to the game as the mundane missions in the first title is what caused many people to never finish it.
Along with your main missions and assignments which are more unique you now have assassination contracts, races, beat up events and courier assignments that add many hours to the longevity of the game.
Another issue many people griped about previously was how much time is simply took to get from point A to point B, especially if it was in separate cities and you had to run the horse there. Now there are fast travel spots in cities so that you can quickly get from city to city if you wish to save time. The horses are still there for those that enjoyed that part and there are no longer guards along the path that attack you for no reason at all like previously.
Another addition Ubisoft has dedicated a great amount of time to giving more breadth to the game is the inclusion of tombs scattered and hidden throughout the cities. You need to explore these to find all the seals of past legendary assassins and gather all 6 to get the infamous Altairs outfit and to learn much more.
The great thing about these underground tombs is that it is a great change of pace and has a very Prince of Persia feel to it as it is more based on the puzzle and traversing aspects instead of combat. I only wish there were a few more of these tombs, so here is to hoping for some future DLC.
Money plays a big part in Assassins Creed 2 and is gained a few ways; looting dead bodies and pickpocketing. Looting is an easy way to get some spare cash from your fallen enemies as long as guards dont see you do it and pickpocketing is easily done by holding the A button and walking through a crowd of people. As long as you dont stick around too long for people to notice its you the one stealing, its an easy way to get some cash quickly.
Why do you need money? Well there are many options of weapons and armor to buy and upgrade but also equipment like belts that will hold more knives and medicine. Villa income is like an allowance you get so often based on how well youve renovated and kept the Auditore hometown. The more you invest, the more return overtime. As you buy and upgrade shops you get a bigger discount and newer items so its worth spending money on your hometown as the return is much bigger in the long run.
Splurge for the Collectors Edition and you will gain the standard bonus disc and soundtrack but you will also get a very interesting art book if you are into that kind of thing. 2 in-game maps are also included for even more gameplay but easily the coolest thing about the Collectors is the 8.5 Ezio statue that would look perfect on any gamers shelf.
Nothing is perfect; some scenes have very low res textures and there is still clipping here and there, though nothing to majorly take away from the experience. You will also run up walls you dont mean to and fall off ledges as well when not intended.
Ezio is able to stack his health and healing items so much that you should never really worry about dying in combat. Everything overall seems much easier but not in the sense of being simpler. It just seems like much has been done to soften the blow of player mistakes which makes the game much more approachable.
There are so many side quests and collectables that even if you want to blow quickly through the main story (which still takes some time) there is always something else for you to do if you need a change of pace.
Simply put, Assassins Creed 2 is a much more enjoyable experience front to back and much better put together. It may not feel as new as it did the first time you played the game but the game as an experience overall is simply everything the first game should have been. While many people may have been turned off from the monotony and repetitiveness of the first game, to those people I simply ask to give this sequel a chance as it really is that much better this time around.
When the worst I can say about a game is about its textures, this should speak volumes for how great everything else is. I am eagerly waiting for part 3 of the series and cant even guess what Ubisoft can improve on next time as this game is a complete package all in one. If you even remotely enjoyed the first game you will not regret diving right into this sequel that truly does deserve the 2 beside its title.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
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Forza Motorsport 3
Developer Turn 10 brings us another installment of its popular racing franchise again this year with Forza Motorsport 3. While building on the foundation of a superb racing arcade and simulation all in one, much work has been done to make the new Forza much more accessible for even non-racing fans or others that have been intimidated by the controls previously.
A lot of work has gone into Forza including new features that allow for absolute minimal frustration, every cars interior perfectly detailed to real life and so much content that it actually had to ship on two discs.
While you are able to play the game off the first disc alone, the second contains around 100 more extra cars and more track locations. You are not forced to install the second disc but you will definitely be missing out on a lot of content without it, so I suggest clearing around 2 gigs of space on your hard drive to get the most out of Forza 3.
Mentioned earlier is the inclusion of in-cockpit views of every car to perfect detail. Every interior and dashboard of every car has been mapped exactly and looks just as it does in real life, so if youve been in or own a certain car, you will recognize the interior instantly. Driving in this view does have a larger learning curve but it certainly does feel much more fluid and realistic as a racing simulation should.
Forza 3 boasts some impressive numbers such as over 400 cars (with more DLC in the future) alongside more than 100 real world tracks and courses from all over the world. More than 50 manufacturers are licensed and cars have more than 10 times the polygons than in Forza 2 meaning everything looks even better this time and cars look amazing. Some favourites from previous Forza games also return such as Sebring International Raceway, Nurburgring and more. Coupled along with many events such as Time Trials, Oval, Drag, Circuit and more; there is more than enough content to keep you consistently int with racing games you start with a junk car and have to work your way up and suffer with it until you have enough cash to buy something slightly better and slowly build your career on this slow curved path. Luckily Forza 3 does something completely different and throws this style of boring progression out the window and does something complete different.
Career mode completely conforms around your cars and styles of game you like to race. Continue you stay in a car and itll give you events to use with that car rather than forcing you to buy cars that you wont use more than once or dont like. As you switch cars and unlock more, new events will unlock specifically for those vehicles. Whats great about this system is that you arent forced to do races with cars or events you dont like (other than the seldom forced race here and there) as long as your car meets the prerequisites to race in said events.
Events will show up on your racing calendar and you commit to race in whatever events you agree to race. Over time youll eventually have more than 200 events to compete in so there is always something new to work towards as you gain and acquire more vehicles to learn.
For some events you may have the proper style of car but maybe you dont have it up to the required specifications to compete such as going up a skill level or performance level. This is where a new feature comes in handy called the Quick Upgrade. Just before an event you can choose to have your car upgraded to its peak condition or new parts so that you are able to enter the next event or just want a slight advantage over the competition. With only a few button presses you can have your clunker decked out in new parts and tuned amazingly for the next race.
Turn 10 has gone through a great deal to make Forza accessible for anyone while keeping it fun for the advanced player all the way to new gamers. There are many different assists that you can willfully turn on and off depending on your skill. Depending on the difficulty you play on and what assists you choose to have on or off will directly result in the amount of your payout after a race. The less assists you have on gains you bonuses where more wont net you as much, but at least makes it still fun for those not as skillful.
For those that arent as adept in racing sims there are some great assists for those people that just want to have fun even if they arent that great at the game. You can turn on the Auto Braking assist and all the player needs to do is hold down the trigger for gas and follow the racing line as it brakes automatically for them. It may not seems enjoyable for some but my wife who never plays racing games was happy that she was actually able to race while staying on the track.
Another new feature added to Forza 3 is the new Rewind ability. Granted that there have been rewind functions in games before such as Dirt 2 and more, but what makes it different in Forza 3 is that you arent penalized for using it. This feature is absolutely perfect for those times where you think you can make that corner just a little faster than you should; only resulting to slam into the wall or get off the course.
Whats great about this feature is that weve all been in that situation before where you are winning the race on the last lap and you blow it on a corner and close the whole thing only to be extremely frustrated at having to redo the whole course over again. This eliminates that frustration as you can rewind back just before you started to go awry, or even try something different like drifting the corner instead.
While everything about the Rewind feature seems great, there is always another side and the only downfall to this feature is that it can become quite a crutch since there is no real penalty to using it. You will use it many times and might even forget that its only usable in single player and not online obviously; so make sure to remember that and learn from your mistakes playing career mode and try not to use it as a crutch.
As you complete races and events in your career, you are rewarded with money and experience. Experience comes in the form of driver (the overall) and that specific car. So just like many other games, you can level up your character (driver) and your car. This system encourages players to find cars that they like and stick with them more and longer to level them up and gain new tuning parts as they progress and upgrade their vehicles.
Stay with a specific car long enough and you can eventually swap out parts and even engines to make the smallest normal looking car into quite a beast and competitor. Its quite gratifying to see the car you started out with that could barely break 100 k/m eventually compete with some of the heavy hitters and street racers.
In many racing titles they advertize crash physics but Forza 3 takes it to a new level and actually incorporates complete roll over crash damage; meaning you are finally able to flip your car should you crash hard enough. Doing a complete flip doesnt seem to happen too often, but at least the feature is there. On the flip side, your car will get scratches and scuffs as you rub against competitors and walls, but there doesnt seem to be too much massive damage contorting to your vehicle visually. With damage set to the realistic setting, you better to know hot shift properly, as even something as simple as not properly shifting could potentially blow your engine in the middle of a race.
The Forza series has always had a strong online element and its even more robust with this new installment. There are your obviously standard racing modes like circuit and course racing, drifting and drag but even more options have been included such as Cat and Mouse, Elimination (last person each lap is knocked out) and Tag.
Once you choose your match type, there are a huge slew of options to completely customize how you would like to race online. From here you can choose whether or not people can use Auto Brake and other assists or even force players to use manual transmission should you like. You could even make a team game and have muscle cars vs import should you wish; the possibilities are almost endless with how many customizable options are present and should keep people playing online for quite some time.
Arguably what Forza may be best known for is the extremely in-depth tuning and painting of your vehicles to have a unique and custom ride exactly how you want.
What makes Forza so great is that even if racing isnt your forte, you can still get great enjoyment and longevity from the game thanks to its painting and tuning features. Every single car in Forza 3 can be completely tuned and perfectly aligned to your drivers skills even turning a low end car into a supercar challenger.
Along with tuning, you can also completely customize how your ride looks and are able to paint anything you can imagine onto your cars canvas. Its as simple as painting with shapes and layers but there are some very impressive paintjobs out there and when you finish your masterpiece you can even use the auction house to sell your hard work.
Should you deal out the extra cash for the Forza 3 Limited Collectors Edition you will get quite a few goodies well worth the extra price if you are a Forza enthusiast. You get a special Forza keychain to attach to your real car keys, a 2GB thumb drive specially branded ofcourse, ten exclusive cars (5 specially for VIP members and the other 5 personally picked, tuned, and pained by Team 10), and a membership to be a VIP member. Having VIP membership will get you special recognition in the storefront and auction house and more. There have also been promises of VIP-only cars to be offered in the future as well.
An incredible amount of work has gone into making Forza 3 accessible and enjoyable by anyone regardless of skill or previous racing history. With the new rewind feature and a plethora of assists that can be toggled, anyone is able to make it as easy or challenging as needed and will be rewarded accordingly.
Forza 3 has amazing visuals that coincide with the authentic sounds from each car make and manufacturer. With the new in-dash view and a steering wheel, Forza 3 is the essential racing sim if you are a true enthusiast. Every car sounds different and you can tell simply by the sounds of the roaring Mustang engine or the super high-end exotics that an immense amount of work by passionate people at Turn 10 has been done to make Forza 3 a leader in the racing genre.
Forza Motorsport 3 may look like any other racing game out there, but being able to have players enjoy themselves even if they arent that skillful speaks loudly. You can be a full time tuner or painter and not even race a single event and still get a massive amount of gameplay out of Forza 3. The excellent online integration and customizable options alone will make the replability last much longer than other racing titles. Forza is back and will definitely keep me interested for quite some time and shouldnt necessarily be passed up even if you arent the biggest racing fan.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
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DJ Hero
It would be almost impossible to release another guitar and band based game right now due to the saturation in the market right now and the fact that almost everyone already has their Rock Band or Guitar Hero. I dont have many friends that dont even have a guitar for one of their games and releasing a new title and trying to get people to buy a new peripheral can be quite challenging.
Along comes DJ Hero and a whole new type of controller to purchase and to be honest, I wasnt sure what to think of DJ Hero when it was announced. Fearing the worst, I thought it was simply going to be the guitar buttons mapped onto a simple turntable; luckily Activision has done their homework and made an authentic DJ experience while making the gameplay new and challenging.
DJ Hero throws you into the seat of a real DJ and tries to recreate the experience as best as possible. The game will have you blending songs, cross fading, scratching the disc for that authentic wiki sound and even more.
Much like Guitar Hero and every other music game, the notes will flow down from the top of the screen to the bottom and you need to press the corresponding key at the appropriate time, though should you miss, the track will fade out for a for moments or until you hit a correct note again on the same track.
Ill start to explain all the features of the game and how each one incorporates with each other. There are 3 tracks and corresponding tap icons that convey each track and mix you are currently playing; the left row is the first song, the right is the second and the middle is both tracks. This will come more into play later on when you start cross fading out one track for the other back and forth, but this is the basis of the game; 2 tracks to make one harmonic sound blended together.
Possibly the most famous equipment that a DJ has is of course his turntable that makes the very distinct scratching sound when the needle is pulled against the record quickly. In DJ Hero there are two types of scratching; the first is a freestyle way where you can scratch at whatever speed sounds good to you and the other is distinct scratches that are purposely done in one direction or another to make a different style or sound or quick rewind.
As mentioned above, two tracks are playing simultaneously and its the DJs job to blend them into one sound that flows well and makes people want to dance. To change between the first and second tracks you must use the cross fader slider to select left for track one or right for track 2. If the slider is left in the middle both tracks will output simultaneously and the game tells you when you need to cross fade to which track.
This is where the bulk of the games difficulty comes in (though in beginner mode you dont use the cross fade slider) as you need to follow the tap buttons along with sliding between tracks. What makes this so difficult in the higher tier songs and difficulty is that much of the time youll be fading from one track to the other but also back to the middle. Finding where the middle is exactly on the slider can be quite challenging even though it does have a minor click to it and more often than not you will slide too far or too little. I really wish there was a more distinct feeling for when the slider is in the middle but over time you tend to learn where that sweet spot is.
If you play on Hard or Expert there are also even Fade Spikes that dont necessarily make you switch tracks and keep the fader there but you need to do very quick motions to the edge and back. Again, doing this on top of having to correctly scratch and tap keys can be very confusing and difficult.
There will be also some sections that make use of the Effects Dial to make the volumes of whatever track you are playing fade in and out. This is essentially the equivalent to the wah-wah bar on the guitar of Guitar Hero and makes somewhat the same sounds.
During certain sections in the middle (blended track of both songs) there will be freestyle sample zones that you can press the middle tap key how much or little as you like to add your own touch to the song. With the Effects Dial you can choose what quick sample youd like to repeat (such as laser noises, or Flava Flav voice tracks for example, thought here are many more to choose from).
Should you get your combo streak high enough and keep your multiplier up for a set amount of notes you may be lucky enough to gain a Rewind that can be used at any time you wish to rewind the track back about 5 to 10 seconds and replay that section again much like how some DJs do.
To use your Rewind you simply spin the turntable around 360 degrees (or more if you are good enough or want the achievement), stop it where your hand should be and continue on like you are a DJ pro. It does take quite some time to learn how fast to spin it and where to stop the record without looking at the turntable itself, but it does come in time and looks quite awesome when you pull it off on purpose.
DJ Heros version of star power is called Euphoria and it is gained the exact same way as Guitar Hero does it; you have to correctly hit, scratch, and cross fade every note within the glowing section for one bar of Euphoria. Up to 3 bars can be stored but the best thing about using your Euphoria is that fact that when its being used it will automatically do the cross fading for you, so this is best saved for those really difficult sections with lots of scratching and fading.
Multiplayer can be done on the same system or over Xbox Live and there are a few different selections such as DJ vs DJ, DJ and DJ, and DJ vs Guitar. While the DJ and Guitar songs seem cool on paper, there are very few songs that actually support this mode and it really wasnt as exciting as I though it would be.
The other complaint I have about multiplayer is that all the songs are not unlocked from the beginning, meaning that if you want to play certain songs with someone, they need to be unlocked. I really wasnt expecting DJ Hero to take a step backwards in this direction since they do it right with Guitar Hero now.
A DJs tools are only as good as the songs he has to work with and DJ Hero knows this and has licensed more than 100 songs and has had real DJs make more than 90 unique mixes with them. Genres expand from Electronica, Hip-Hop, Pop, Rock, R & B, and more. To go along with the genres are some top artists such as Beastie Boys, 50 Cent, Black Eyed Peas, Queen and more.
DJ Hero wouldnt be true to its name if it didnt have actual DJs attached to it which is why the game has actual tracks and likeness of DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ AM, DJ Shadow, Grandmaster Flash, and even Daft Punk.
As you progress through the game, all the songs you complete gain you stars (up to five per song) and the more stars you gain the more items you unlock such as characters, turn tables, venues, clothing and more.
As you go into your store to pick up DJ Hero youll notice theres the regular edition in a moderately sized box and then there is the Renegade Edition in a much heavier and larger box about the size of a Rock Band kit box. The jump in price does go up but with it you get more than your standard collector edition items weve become accustomed to.
Firstly the turn table controller you get in Renegade Edition has a black metallic-like finish to it rather than the standard grey and all the sliders and knobs are finished in a gold that looks very premium and stylistic.
You also get an exclusive JAY-Z and EMINEM 2 CD pack that has a bunch of songs along with a special case. Its a standard music CD but if you enjoy their music its quite the collectable.
The reason that the box is so huge compared to the normal edition is because everything comes in a hard shell carrying case for your turntable. What makes this unique though is that underneath where the turntable rests is 4 legs that can be screwed onto the bottom of the case that are adjustable and can be used as the DJ stand anywhere you need it. Some people may choose to simply play with the turntable on their lap, but having the travel case and instant performance stand for where you need it was worth the cost difference for me.
Graphically, everything feels much more stylish and polished than the Guitar Hero games and truly does feel more like a club or rave setting. The laser shows and bouncing cameras along with the authentic stage sets from Daft Punk surely does make the background much more engaging; though youll only get to really enjoy it when watching someone else play.
I was a little disappointed with the lack of a character creator as you can only really choose from preset people and then choose their different outfits as you unlock them by progressing through the game.
I jumped right in and started on Hard difficulty but didnt find it really too challenging other than the odd song here and there. Expert difficulty though was quite challenging (especially the cross fading and scratching) but found it much more rewarding and enjoyable.
If youve grown stale of the band games out there or simply want something new to try and love the music genre, I completely recommend DJ Hero without hesitation. Its not without its faults and I do look forward to the next iteration, but for now Im quite content being the number 1 DJ in my home for some time to come.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
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Saw
When I found out there was going to be a game based on one of my favorite horror franchises, I was excited yet nervous; as we all know the track record of video games based on movie licenses. Konami brings us SAW the videogame and its release almost coincide with the new SAW VI movie, yet they have completely different storylines.
The SAW game is its own storyline but plays into the whole story arch of the franchise to almost serve as a back story of sorts. SAW takes place after the first film and before the second. You play as Detective David Tapp (Danny Glovers character, though not voiced as him) which is interesting in itself because at the end of the first movie, you see him lying there believed to be dead.
Jigsaw has revived Tapp to life and set him in an abandoned asylum to awake with the iconic reverse bear trap strapped to his head. As he wakes the standard Jigsaw video plays telling him what he needs to do to survive and this sets in motion many other events.
When Jigsaw saved Tapps life from the shotgun wound inflicted in the movie; he also happened to sew a key inside of him which is the only way out for the other people in the asylum which forces the player to kill and defend themselves against multiple enemies that just want to escape.
Jigsaw plays more videos for Tapp and soon tells him that there is a woman trapped nearby that needs his help to survive and it must be done within a certain time limit. As you arrive you realize its Amanda Young (the woman who survived Jigsaws trap and then went on to try and be his protégé) and once you save her and get split up you are ambushed by the infamous Pighead (although we know its Amanda and shes keeping her cover) and are set in another area of the asylum to wake up for your next set of tests.
As you awake for the second time, you have the shotgun collar around your neck that was made famous in Saw III and this is not only for nostalgia, it has a sinister purpose. Some of the other inmates in the asylum also have a shotgun collar around their neck and if you come within a certain distance of them for too long, your collar will discharge. This means you want to get into range so that the collar arms on the enemies side and then keep your distance so that only theirs goes off (They need to get the key inside you to get it off).
I wont spoil any of the other characters you come across, but some will be known from the series and you will see how everyone has a dark connection to Tapp. I really enjoyed having some back story to some of the characters (even though saving Tapp from a shotgun blast is a little far fetched) and it really did make a few things make sense in the overall grand scheme of the movie plots.
As mentioned above, everyone else in the asylum is after Detective Tapp to kill him so that they can retrieve the key that is sewn inside of him for their own escape. Because of this mechanic, there are many enemies that will be after you and you need to defend yourself by killing them by any means necessary.
Almost anything can be used as a weapon such as knives, or pipes or even syringes, but every item has a different delay with the controls and was substantially quite more difficult to actually hit someone with when compared with my bare hands. You need to hold down the L Trigger to initiate the combat stance and from there you can either attack or block; problem is blocking really doesnt do anything and I guarantee on your first few enemies, you will become very frustrated trying to just get a single hit in.
There is a large delay from the button press to the actual attack and it does take quite a few enemies in to get the hang of, but eventually youll just bypass weapons all together and use your fists as its the quickest weapon. Its a shame, because there is an achievement for killing people with each type of weapon too.
The controls for fighting may be some of the worst Ive ever experienced; the only way Ive been getting by is using bare fists and swinging early to hopefully land that first hit (because when you do, you can basically spam the attack over and over again).
What made SAW so appealing were the traps and puzzles that it portrayed onto the main characters, and this is no different in the game at all. Many rooms will lock you in and have a time limit for you to figure out and complete before something very bad will happen to you. Sometimes theses puzzles are simply finding a fuse to put into the break box to unlock or disarm a door, and other times youll have to play a minigame style of puzzle (that do repeat many times in the game).
One of these minigames is a cabinet that has a moving gear (the start) and you need to get the second gear (the end) to move by placing 3 different sized of gears between them so that they fit onto specific pegs. The puzzle itself isnt too terribly challenging on its own, but when you know you have a limited amount of time and the pressure of seeing a trap about to go off, it can mess with your mind.
There are a few other types of small puzzles, but one of the others youll encounter many times is essentially a circuit board with wires and electricity that you need to match up so that all the connections are in place simultaneously. Again, on its own its not too difficult, but its the ticking time that throws you off your game.
Even doorways can be deadly as some are rigged to shoot a shotgun into the face of whoever opens the door. Luckily as you open doors, if its a trap door, youll have a single moment to press the correct button to disable the hairline trigger, though there will be times when you dont press it in time or the wrong key and thus get blasted close range.
Sometimes to save people (or yourself), youll need to figure out or disarm one of the traps that Jigsaw has laid out. At the start of the game you need to get the reverse bear trap off of your own head by rotating screws and specific button presses when prompted. Other traps will have you attempting to save others such as a blade slowly lowering about to cut someone in half, and you need to do 4 of those gear-type minigames to stop it. Some of the traps and puzzles really do take some thinking and once you realize what the solution is, you wonder how you never saw it before. It honestly had me intrigued as the movies for some of these sections; its just a shame that the remainder of the game is filled with horrible combat mechanics.
There is a constant overlying tenseness while you continue to play and the settings look exactly like they would in the movies (other than the random people trying to kill you). Tobin Bell voices himself as Jigsaw and sounds as menacing and gritty as ever. Unfortunately Danny Glover wasnt cast for his voice as Tapp, so this has been given to Earl Alexander who voiced Louis in Left 4 Dead. Amanda also doesnt voice her own character and this has been taken over by Jen Taylor who youll recognize as Cortana.
SAW isnt scary in essence, but it does a great job at being creepy and keeping you nervous. Theres nothing drastically graphic that you would find in the movies to make you possibly squirm somewhat due to the very low quality of graphics.
I was honestly expecting a little more from the title, but to be honest, for being a movie based game, its not entirely terrible. Luckily Konami is no stranger to the survival horror series and maybe thats whats keeping it held together by a thin thread.
The best thing I enjoyed was the choice you get at the end of the game; much like given a choice in the movies, Jigsaw gives Tapp a choice to make; find the Truth at a grave cost or Freedom and forget your obsession. Both endings were pretty interesting and gives you an insight to what actually did happen to Detective Tapp.
Obviously this game is meant for fans of the series, and they do cater to them as they know who the audience is going to be, its just such a shame that the majority of gameplay is a broken combat mechanic and puzzles that repeat themselves.
Unfortunately it doesnt feel like any of the traps are sophisticated enough to truly be made by Jigsaws brilliance and the combat alone is more torture than any of the traps themselves. While the spirit of the series is here, the execution simply needs to be refined from the ground up; hopefully soon we will have another SAW game that is actually in Jigsaws caliber.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
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Lucidity
LucasArts may be more known for their past titles like Monkey Island or Star Wars but now they are trying something completely different with Lucidity and getting back to the basics with a unique looking side scrolling puzzle platformer.
Sofi is a little girl that enjoys hearing bedtime stories from her grandmother and one night as she nods off to the stories, her imagination takes control and she awakes in a dream world following a firefly that will lead her into a dream landscape. As Sofi skips through the forest, it's the players' job to make sure she safely navigates to the end of the level.
As Sofi becomes more and more curious, she continues to explore more areas and more danger becomes present as she presses on trying to also find fireflies. Sofi is persistent and will keep the desire to press on and explore what is ahead in her dreams.
Lucidity is a puzzle game at heart, and like any good puzzle title, everything starts off will little difficulty and quickly ramps up to keep the challenge and players' interest. Very quickly though, levels become very complex and difficult which becomes quite frustrating early on.
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
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Wet
WET is a third person shooter that has many movie and game influences such as Max Payne, Stranglehold and Prince of Persia; all topped off with the styling of a Tarentino Grindhouse look to it. The combat has some mechanics from the shooters mentioned above and the acrobatics have a page taken out of the book of Prince of Persia. This coupled with a dirty film grain layered on top and you have your perfect B-movie style plot action game complete with over the top excitement and characters.
The characters noteworthy here are the main heroine Rubi Malone voiced by Eliza Dushku and the main antagonist Mr. Eckers talently voiced by Malcom McDowell. Rubi doesnt take crap from anyone and is your epitome of a hard ass woman that is armed and has the skills to kill you in a second. Rubi also has quite the mouth on her, but it plays into the style and vibe of the setting very fittingly; most of the time.
The story begins with Rubi overseeing an exchange going down between 2 criminal organizations and when the time is right after the first shot has been taken, she makes her over the top dramatic entrance; guns blazing of course. As you chase the man who is getting away with the package youve been hired to retrieve, you blast your way through waves and waves of enemies all in style.
Rubi is a gun for hire and retrieves the package she was hired to bring back and then is double crossed, which makes the story play out in many different levels and settings. The story itself isnt anything too Hollywood, but I almost feel it may have been like this on purpose to give that B-Movie feel and to focus more on the action of game; its supposed strong point.
WET is completely about shooting anything that moves but making sure you look completely bad ass while doing it. On paper this sounds like an awesome idea, to have the player constantly doing flips and slides and what not to keep the action going while shooting down the enemies, but I found the novelty; although stylistic, just wasnt enough to keep me motivated after a few levels.
Where this title differs from other shooters is in the genre is that you do get points for shooting and killing enemies, but your multiplier will only increase if you are doing a particular style move like a flip, or sliding on your knees, or diving. While you do any of these actions (and more as you unlock them) you enter slow motion and enemies are much easier to hit. Shooting normally without doing anything stylistic and Rubi will only use one gun, but go into slow motion and she brings out a second gun that will automatically lock onto the nearest enemy as you shoot a second one down simultaneously.
Couple this with the fact that you have a sword to slice your enemies should they make the mistake of getting in close proximity to you, and you can see where the appeal may come from in this action title. Chain together different moves and swordplay and you will have a much higher multiplier and score at the end of the level to purchase move and weapon upgrades. Its all about making it look cool rather than being functional and diving for no reason other than you are diving; simple as that.
As you begin the game Rubi only has her dual pistols, but of course she has unlimited ammo to go along with your sword. As you progress in the game you unlock different guns that can be switched on the fly with the d-pad, but these dont have infinite ammo and once I fully upgraded the pistols, I really found no real reason to switch to the other guns. As you finish certain levels and acquire these guns, you play a flashback-like level that has you do a challenge course to get used to the guns before using them on your mission.
Most of the levels are your standard kill some guys, traverse to some area and then defeat waves of enemies or a boss. At some parts there is an arena style setting where enemies will continue to repsawn unlimitedly until you can break a mechanism to lock or close the doors they are coming out of. It is completely meant for carnage and the areas usually have lots of walls or poles or anything that Rubi can make use of to get the best out of her abilities. These areas and Rage Mode (more on that later) is where you will be scoring the majority of your points and are essential if you want to upgrade some or many of her skills and weapons.
When you complete a level you are able to use the points youve accumulated to that point and spend them on upgraded moves or weapon enhancements like rate of fire and damage for each weapon. While some abilities seem cool to unlock, none are necessary at all to really get and simply just add more of that cool feel and more chances to stay in slow motion longer as you take down the gangs. As Ive said before, simply get your pistols maxed out and after that anything else is really just for extra flavor and not really necessary.
In a very Tarentino style, even the loading between levels has the signature commercials that are quite old and something you would see in an old drive in movie theater. It fits in with the style and genre completely, but gamers that arent used to this genre of movies may not understand why its there.
The game does tend to mix things up every second or third level though which I found quite refreshing other than the complete annihilation of anything that moves. The first of these other styles of levels is one where you are riding on top of a car going way too fast down the highway chasing someone as you shoot the enemies in other cars. Doing this while having to jump from car to car or over tipping tanker trucks I found to be some of the most exciting parts of the game, unfortunately there wasnt too many of these style of levels though for my liking. The other notable level like this has Rubi falling out of a blown up airplane plummeting to the ground without a parachute; and yes, you are shooting and killing enemies also in the air trying to reach that one parachute left floating away. Its completely over the top and something you would expect in a movie, but it does have a slight charm to it at times when its at its best.
Certain levels are played in what is called Rage Mode, and what this entails is Rubi usually shooting someone in the head point blank and getting blood all over her face. When this happens all she sees is literally red with enemies highlighted in a white style. During rage mode Rubi is almost invincible and her speed and strength is increased massively. The idea behind this is that Rubi is literally wet with blood and this is how she focuses when so. It has a very artistic style to it that reminds me much of the older Killer 7 game; as that would be the best way I could describe the visuals. The gameplay in this mode doesnt really differ too far from the norm, it seems like it is really just meant to offer a slight change of pace without actually changing the pace.
After you complete the campaign in a few hours, there are some more obstacle courses that do get unlocked and then can be played as time trials, but honestly; after finishing the title, I hardly see any reason to come back to it again unless you are a completionist and want every single upgrade (regardless of how useless).
The sound quality in the game also has the grainy 70s style soundtrack to go along with it and suits it perfectly for the genre. Obviously the voice acting from the Dushku and McDowell are top notch as well and I do hope that getting actors in videos games will catch on more, because nothing can ruin a great game like bad voice acting; luckily that isnt found here.
Nothing is perfect and WET is no different; the characters seem to have very low polygon counts and really seem blocky and textures when you get close up (even Rubis face at times) doesnt look sharp at all and stands out pretty badly at times. This along with quite a lot of clipping and not all moves working where they should (why some walls can be wall ran and flipped from and not others?) makes for quite a few awkward moments where youll be trying to fix the camera or wondering why you cant do a certain move somewhere.
Just like movies, games need to have low points so that the high peaks of adrenaline action can seem more exciting; but unfortunately what WET tries to do it give you the high points 100% of the time, which simply cant be sustained for long term excitement. Yes there were some exciting parts more-so than others, but it feels like it shouldnt have been the sections they happened in instead of the combat much like how Max Payne had it done very correctly. While the game grittiness does fir the genre and stylings perfectly, I cant fault it for almost purposely trying to be bad in that B-Movie way, but in the end it felt like it was simply just trying extremely too hard to be cool instead of focusing on making the good parts great.
With almost no replayability I do get the short term appeal of the game but the long term shelf life is simply not there and it will gather dust or be traded in shortly after completion.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
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Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection
The premise behind pinball is very simplistic; essentially you score points by keeping your metal ball in play inside a glass covered case. Since the first pinball machine was invented many machines have come and gone in the arcades of the past all trying to better the previous machine. First you had flippers, then bumpers, then ramps, and pinball machines of this era are extremely elaborate and some even have a mini pinball game inside its own game.
The Williams Collection brings 13 different tables than hail from different eras as well. Every machine has had every meticulous detail converted for our digital pinball loving ways and each machine that Ive played before in real life is exactly how I remember it; even down to each crackly bip and bong sound.
Games dont really have a simpler control scheme than they do with pinball machines; you have two buttons for the left and right flippers and usually a plunger to set the ball in motion. Those are essentially the same controls in the game as well. Your triggers or bumpers are your flippers, the Right stick is your plunger (which can be pulled back half way for half power), and the Left stick is to nudge the Machine when you know its about to go straight down the middle.
There are a few different modes that can be chosen from the main menu; the first being the Williams Challenge. This will have you starting at a table with a set score needed to be achieved before you are able to move onto the next.
Tournament Mode is an option that is actually the standard for actual Pinball tournaments (which I wasnt aware of). Basically the replay score value is divided by 10 and when a player reaches that set score, they receive a point. The player with the most points at the end wins the match. This mode is also playable with up to 4 people, so it makes it a little more interesting to compete with friends.
Lastly is the Practice Arcade where you will probably spend the majority of your time playing. What makes this mode different is that it sets you inside of an arcade and from there you can move the camera from machine to machine to choose what you want to play. It seems clunky and if you dont know where a machine is (upstairs, main floor, or the backroom), it can be a little frustrating to even find the pinball machine you want to start. It seems a little unnecessary to recreate the old arcade atmosphere and I wish there was a simple menu system.
What stands out like a sore thumb though is that when you are in the lobby selecting the machine you want to play; the visuals for the machines are extremely low resolution and it can make it difficult to see what is on the machines playfield just by looking (if you dont know the machine off by heart). It really doesnt make sense as once you are playing the machine, the resolution is extremely high and crisp, but in the lobby its the complete opposite.
As you play more and more you will earn tokens that can then be used to unlock more machines and you gain bonus for getting set achievements per table. Should you complete all the achievements on tables, you unlock freeplay on tables that require coins; so there is always something to work towards on every machine which keeps the variety ongoing., The best feature about this is that every table has support for 4 player multiplayer; even the old machines that did not support this! Every machine runs perfectly at a solid 60 frames a second with no slowdown even when you get multiball going furiously.
Starting from the oldest machine to new you have Jive Time from 1970, Gorgar (1979), Firepower (1980), Black Knight (1980), Space Shuttle (1984), Sorcerer (1980), Pinbot (1986 and also my favorite machine ever), Taxi (1988), Whirlwind (1990), Funhouse (1990 and one of the most famous tables), Medieval Madness (1997), Tales of the Arabian Nights (1996), and finally; No Good Gophers (1997).
You may or may not recognize these names, but Ill bet that if you ever stepped into an arcade in the 80s or 90s, youve seen or pumped many quarters into at least one of these machines. I was quite surprised how many I actually remembered playing when I was younger.
As mentioned above, each machine Ive actually player in real life looks and sounds exactly how I remember it. The sound is what surprised me the most because it still sounds as crackly and authentic as it did coming out of the speakers at the loud arcade. Each bounce of a bumper or two balls hitting each other is very realistic.
This also coincides with the absolutely realism of the physics of the game as well, as it reacts just as it would in real pinball. You can stall your ball with the flipper or even bump pass to the other should you know how in real pinball. Everything about every machine is authentic and recreated to pey, the only issue I really had was the camera at certain points. On some machines when you are near the top of the play field, it sometimes zooms in close so you can see what the ball is doing and once it comes out of that area, it zooms back out to the over view very quickly. You are able to change the camera, but it feels unnecessary. The only other issue I had was the fact that you cant pause the game and see the set list of objectives (for achievements and unlocks) for each of the machines. Basically you have to know your objectives before starting your game.
Essentially, this is pinball in digital form and its authentic as its going to get without having to find a machine in some bar. Sadly, the heyday of Pinball arcades are gone, but you are able to see what you remember or missed out on with this fantastic collection of some of the more famous machines ever made. With the cheaper price point, its hard to resist this if you are a pinball lover or want to relive some authentic pinball action.
Overall Score: 8.1 / 10
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Halo 3: ODST
Halo 3 ODST is a stand alone expansion that gives more depth to the Halo universe and story; I just wanted to get that out there first and foremost. Halo3 ODST is unlike the other Halo games you have played and having a Halo game without the Master Chief in it almost seems like it wouldnt be a Halo at all. Fortunately, Bungie knows what they are doing and manage to pull off a service to the fans and express how Halo isnt just about Master Chief, its also about the conflict between Humans and Covenant.
Halo 3 ODST gives some great back story to the events that happen on New Mombasa before the Covenant took it over for a second time. A new story and a new multiplayer mode should be just enough to tide everyone over until the next Halo game in 2010: Halo Reach.
Halo 3 ODST tells the story of the events that happen between Halo 2 and Halo 3 in New Mombasa. The year is 2552 (the same year Halo 2 takes place) and the Covenant is searching for something under the city of Kenyan in New Mombasa. Due to the takeover of the city, ODSTs are sent in to retake the city and find out what is going on. During their Helljump to Earth, something happens and the 6 man team is thrown off course and split up. You crash and emerge from your Drop Pod and are alone in a desolate empty city.
You are alone and are in search of your missing squad mates after your awakening. When you arrive in Kenyan, you emerge 6 hours later than the other ODSTs and are searching for clues to their whereabouts. As you find clues you will be thrust into a flashback video of what that character went through and you play that whole scene.
The ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) are a special branch of the United Nations Space Command (USNC) and is the equivalent to SWAT, but are called upon when needed for intense front line battles. ODSTs have been given the nickname of Helljumpers due to being sent to battles from space in Drop Pods that send them plummeting straight into the battlefield.
You are no longer the Master Chief, so the gameplay has changed in some ways to reflect your mortality. Firstly, there is no more dual wielding which can take some time to get used to if youve been playing a lot of Halo 3. Also gone is the ability to use equipment like Bubble Shields and Gravity Lifts. While this doesnt seem like a huge loss, it would have been a major asset in Firefight Mode; but more on that later.
Also, because you are an ODST soldier, you dont have the Chiefs Mjolnir Mark VI armor to shield you from weapons and falling. This means you must make use of cover much more often than in the previous Halo titles. It can take some time getting used to not being able to run in guns blazing, but you grasp it quickly that strategy prevails over sheer power. Due to the lack of Spartan armor, you also take fall damage which is a first for the series as well. You eventually train yourself to not jump off high ledges, but it feels very different from the standard Halos where this isnt an issue you even think about.
Because of this lack of superior armor, you do have some minor shields and can take a few hits, but take too many and your shields will deplete. Unlike Spartan armor, your shields dont regenerate, so when you are low on health, you must find health packs scattered throughout the level; this goes for campaign and Firefight. Again, this is a very different mechanic from any Halo game previously and does take some time getting used to the changes.
The other tool at your disposal that the iconic Chief doesnt even possess is the Visual Intelligence System Reconnaissance Class; or VISR for short. This is essence is your night vision, but in addition to just low light sight, you are given an outline of all hostiles in a Red color making them much easier to spot and defeat. At first I was thinking that it was going to be too easy with this on, but at night time, its basically essential to even find Covenant and actually works quite well when trying to find snipers from long range. In addition, your VISR will also have an overlay of the levels map (when you press the Back Button) and you can see your target and location of all your team mates.
Being the mere mortal you are; you also start with standard ODST weapons. The first being the M7S Submachine Gun that us suppressed and in essence; Halo 3 ODSTs Battle Rifle. The other gun you begin with is the M6S Magnum; which is a complete throwback to the amazing pistol from Halo 1. Both guns are a viable solution for any need, but also can be dropped for any weapon you find lying on the ground from downed Covenant.
As mentioned above, as you are playing the Rookie and searching for clues in the desolated city, when you happen upon a clue, you then play that persons story to see what happened. When you are playing as the Rookie in the main city, its a completely different game than when you are playing one of the flashback sequences. Firstly, in the main city, its more or less a hub for all the missions and as you find clues, another section opens up to find the next clue and so on. Unfortunately the hub is very unclimactic and seems much like a delay as I would have much rather play the flashback levels instead; as they were much more exciting and Halo-esque.
While your VISR does have a map and your HUD shows you your next target to get to, the hub in the city can be confusing and you will take a few wrong turns delaying the time before you find your next clue. You can set waypoints to try and help your way, but its not as easy as it should be.
As you find clues to the whereabouts of the rest of your squad, you play their section of the story and what happened to them. These levels are very Halo-like with some vehicle sections and even Scarab killing. I wont give anything away about the story but essentially the hub section felt very drab and dull where the flashbacks were exciting and made me want to find out what happened next.
The only downfall to the campaign was the very short length; it only took us around 5 hours or so to complete on Legendary and there was really only 2 or 3 very difficult sections (I hate you highway level!). The thing to keep in mind though is that this is meant to be an expansion for the Halo 3 story and its not meant to be Halo 4 in any way. At least it is playable co-operatively with up to 4 people for added entertainment.
Because of this shorter length campaign, Bungie has done something great by adding in a new Multiplayer mode called Firefight. Fightfire would be impossible to describe without comparing it to Gears of War 2s Horde Mode; which is in essence, the same idea. Up to 4 ODSTs can play co-operatively while engaging waves and waves of oncoming Covenant forces to gain points. As a team you also collectively share a set number of lives, so you need to be on top of your game, and so does the rest of your squad.
Firefight isnt just based on what level you can get to like Horde mode was, its a little more convoluted, but it makes sense when you wrap your head around it. A Wave is a squad of Covenant (a squad doesnt necessarily mean one drop ship) sent to take you out. The amount of enemies will vary depending on the amount of players and difficulty setting.
After you complete 5 Waves, you have completed a Round; and at the end of a round, health and ammo are replenished and you have a small break to get back into formation. Should you complete 3 Rounds, that means you have finished a Set (15 Waves = 3 Rounds = 1 Set) and when a Set is complete you gain a bonus round. During the Bonus Round you have a time limit to score as many points as possible, and if you beat the par score set, you can gain extra lives.
What makes Firefight interesting is the automatic activation of particular skulls that add difficulty to the waves. As you progress in Firefight, more skulls activate and stack on top of each other and can make things extremely difficult (especially when Black Skull is turned on and you can only regain stamina by meleeing enemies)
Different skulls turn on at different times, some only turn on at the start of Sets and Rounds but you will eventually learn to know whats coming next Wave with enough playtime. While Firefight is very entertaining, the issue I found is that if you are with a very good group, a single Firefight session can easily last more than 2 hours. It makes it a little difficult if you want to just play for a short period but have a really good team; though you could always just play alone and see how well you do.
Due to the very limited ammo for the SMG and Magnum, you will at some point be frantically looking for a Covenant weapon to use while you are getting swarmed. Health is also very sparse and located in the spawn areas, but once someone takes it, it is gone until the end of the Round (not Wave).
The other notable inclusion (or lack there of), is the fact that that is no Matchmaking for Firefight Mode. This means you can only play with people on your friends list or anyone youve recently played with online and invited. While this seems like a downer, I look at it in a different way; I would rather have my friends watching my back since it is co-operative and I know they are going to have a microphone attached for communication, where this isnt always the case for random people. Firefight Mode is about building that perfect group of 4 friends that work well together and can strategize and communicate. Having random people with no microphone with you while trying to play Legendary difficulty would most likely be disastrous.
When you open Halo 3 ODST, you will also notice a second disc, and this disc is the Multiplayer from Halo 3 that weve come to know and love. What makes this special is that its Halo 3 Mulitplayer but also contains every map that has ever been released for it (24 in total). 3 new maps have been included with the release of ODST and one in particular is a remake of Midship form Halo 2. This is an amazing deal for someone that hasnt bought all the map packs previously or has gotten rid of their Halo 3 disc. If you desire a more competitive online mode than Firefight, this is what this disc is for.
There is a collector edition of course and with the Collectors you get in addition to the game is a special Halo 3 ODST branded controller. The benefit to this is that the pricing of the bundle is cheaper than buying another controller separate; that and the controller wont be on sale individually. The controller itself is a green (kind of like Master Chiefs armor) and the battery is black, so there wont be any worries about not being able to find a matching green battery color.
It was disappointing that the Collector Edition had nothing else other than a controller; not even a steel case or a behind the scenes disc, but if you are in need of a new controller, you do save some cash this way and get a special looking controller.
While campaign did have a shorter length than a full bodied game, I take it for what it is meant to be; and expansion, but that in no way means quality has been compromised.
Firefight may not be new and revolutionary, but its very engaging and Im quite enjoying having a co-operative experience with Halo other than the campaign where previously all Halo multiplayer aspects were competitive. Having more coercion with friends and actually strategizing and calling out targets may be the most enjoyment Ive had with a Halo game yet online.
Although it would have been interesting to actually use and maneuver yourself while in the Drop Pods, the story is fleshed out and the flashback levels has the warming welcome from Halo that weve enjoyed many times before. With every copy gaining access to the Halo Reach Multiplayer beta sometime next year, its just another reason to pick this up. You are now a Helljumper, prepare to drop.
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
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Wolfenstein
Its widely acknowledged that Wolfenstein 3D was the title that really gave birth to the first person shooter genre, almost 2 decades ago. Ever since the series has gained more and more fans and had a bigger following, each title has had more pressure on it to succeed as well; if not more, than the previous title.
With almost 10 years since the previous Return to Castle Wolfenstein released on Xbox, we now have its successor simply titled; Wolfenstein. Activision must be banking on the name alone though, as there has been very little to no advertising at all for the game before launch. Surely fans of the series will pick it up, but its hard to say if there is enough here to sell to potential new fans.
Once again you are William B.J. Blazkowicz; the man whos defeated many Nazi plots in previous Wolfenstein games. B.J. tends to be the only man who can stop the Reich and is sent as a spy to find out whats going on. Its 1943 in the heart of the war and you are sent on a mission to find evidence of a new power that the Nazis have discovered.
As you push further and further behind enemy lines in the town of Isenstadt, you learn that Hitlers Third Reich hasnt just built a new super weapon, but instead are harnessing the power of a different dimension all together to create something even more powerful that will end the war in favor of Himmlers SS.
While the story does have an interesting concept, it really took until half way through before it started to pick up and I really wasnt caring at all what happened until that point. Unfortunately, I dont think many people will give it the few hours it takes for it to get interesting, especially if it is a rental. It can also be completed in a few hours, so the longevity isnt truly there either.
While most first person shooters are fairly linear and have you going from point A to point B, Wolfenstein tries to change this by making a central hub area that you can freely go to shops or to your next mission. The city hub makes it feel not so linear, but its really just a trick to make to make it feel that way, as you still have to pass through it every time you finish and start a mission. Also having enemies respawn every time you pass through is quite annoying added on top of the multitude of backtracking you will do in missions.
Fortunately you will never get lost due to your compass as it will always point you in the correct direction. It points you exactly where you need to go, not just the ending point; meaning if you need to enter a door or take a hallway, it will constantly update as you traverse throughout the level. While it was nice to not ever be lost, it negated the need to ever look at your map and if you needed to get to an area that is a dead end, you know that you need to use one of your Veil Powers to continue on. It simply made it almost too easy, as you never had to explore unless you are looking around for the extras like gold and Intel for unlockables and achievements.
As you start the game you are only given a simple MP40, but as you kill more and more Nazis and take their weapons youll eventually have an MP43, Kar98 sniper, Flamethrower, and a Panzerschrek rocket launcher.
As you learn more about what the SS are really planning and fight the tougher interesting enemies, you will gain their weaponry as well which includes a Telsa Cannon that shoots electric bolts and a Particle Cannon that shoots a stream of pure energy that will disintegrate any enemy it touches.
Oddly though there is a lack of shotgun for some reason, but its quickly forgotten once you start to upgrade your weapons. As you finish missions and find gold during, you can purchase upgrades to any of your weapons, but be warned; you cant afford every upgrade, so choose wisely what you want from your most used weapons. Adding an extra ammo clip, silencer, or recoil dampener is completely up to you and your play style.
The different weapons will also affect enemies differently when shot. Sometimes youll literally shoot their face off or even nick their neck so blood spurts out profusely. It seems very random though as sometimes youll get the one shot kill and other times youll load a clip into someone before they drop.
As you progress through the game you gain new abilities in a medallion that you have; called Veil Powers. Some are more useful than others, but each can be upgraded to add extra unique abilities and sometimes are the only way to progress further or kill a certain enemy.
Down on the Dpdad toggles Veil Sight which allows you to see into the Veil; like another dimension of sorts. When in the veil you will see Geists, energy pools that refill your veil meter and secrets such as walls and passageways you could not see with your own eyes. When the skill is upgraded, upgraded you can also see enemies through walls which is quite helpful. You run faster with this toggled on too making crossing large areas a little easier and quicker.
Pressing Right on the Dpad toggles Mire which is essentially slowing time around BJ. This allows BJ to get past obstacles that need to be done very quickly, or to get a tactical advantage on an ambush. If you upgrade this skill you get a small radius around you that will kill anyone that comes near.
Veil Shield is used with Up on the Dpad and is simply what it sounds like; a shield that will block bullets. When upgraded it will actually bounce bullets back and if you upgraded it fully, itll actually give you a shield around BJ that will disintegrate anyone that comes in contact with you.
The final power you unlock is Empower and it is essentially a buff that gives your bullets more damage capability and can penetrate Veil Shields on enemies. If you upgrade this skill you can shoot through stone and wood as well.
Wolfenstein does have an online component to it, and I was hoping at bare minimum; a copy of Return to Castle Wolfensteins online, as that gameplay is what sold me on Xbox Live back in the day. Unfortunately this is not the case and multiplayer is a very basic and generic affair that doesnt have anything special to it.
You pick your side of Axis or Allies, then one of three classes; Engineer who can drop ammo packs as their special ability, Soldier who has satchel charges and can use the bigger weapons such as the Panzer and Flamethrower, and the Medic who can drop health packs.
The higher tier weapons from single player are completely missing though, such as the Telsa and Particle cannons. You are able to spend your gold that you earn online to upgrade your weapon of choice though which makes an interesting dynamic should you be able to swallow the online experience long enough to get this far.
The only Veil Power that is usable online is Sight which makes it easier to find enemies and you run faster. There is really no reason to not use it, as there are many energy pools scattered through the levels to keep your energy bar always full.
There are only three different modes to play as well; Team Death Match which is the standard, Objective which is the normal attack and defend, and Stopwatch which has you doing multiple objectives as fast as possible.
I was incredibly disappointed with the online, as I was looking forward to many hours of online fragging more so than the single player portion. Its simply primitive in its offering and isnt nearly as deep as it was in the previous game that was known for its excellent online portion.
Sadly I was expecting more of a Return to Castle Wolfenstein part 2, but this is not it in any way (other than the plot). I would have been happy if they basically copy and pasted the multiplayer from the previous game, but again, its buggy and laggy and there are major balance issues.
There are many more issues such as horrendous AI that doesnt even move out of the way of grenades when they shout grenade! and see them land at their feet. This coupled with framerate issues when jumping back and forth between the Veil makes it very inconsistent. Luckily I havent run into the corrupt save data glitches that many other gamers are dealing with though.
With it being almost a decade since the last Wolfenstein game, I was truly expecting much more from iD software and Activision on one of my favorite series. If you are an absolutely huge Wolfenstein fan and want to see what happens to B.J. in the next chapter of his story, then I would recommend it, but there is little to no replay value and with an incredibly simplistic online, I would still have a hard time recommending this to anyone regardless of brand loyalty.
Overall Score: 7.1 / 10
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Batman: Arkham Asylum
Everyone knows the caped crusader Batman and his arch nemesis The Joker. Unfortunately in the past, there have been many Batman games that really havent brought the true feel and atmosphere of the DC comics Dark Knight very well. Rocksteady studios brings us a third person action-stealth game starring you as the man himself; the infamous Batman.
Even if you arent a huge Batman fan or dont know an in-depth history of the lore, this should not dissuade you in any way as the game does an ample service of giving you all the information youll ever need to get your head wrapped about the environments and characters. There is so much back-story here that it even will give you history on many of Batmans enemies that arent even in the game psychically.
The Arkham Asylum in the title comes from the famous psychiatric hospital that doubles as a jail for the most criminally insane located in Gotham. Located on a secluded island, almost all of Batmans nemeses has been caught and barred up here at some point.
Obviously Batman and Joker are the most important characters in this story, so there needed some insurance that whoever voiced them would know how to do it and do it properly. All fears were put to rest once Kevin Conroy (Batman) and Mark Hamill (Joker) were signed on for the project. These were the voice actors who played these same roles on the much loved Batman Animated Series. Even Arleen Sorkin was hired to also do her role as Harley Quinn again.
This said; the voice acting in Batman Arkham Asylum easily takes the top rank as the best feature about this game; I seriously never got tired of hearing Joker say his nuances throughout the course of the game. Harley also does an amazing job in her role throughout and should not be down played in any way. The soundtrack to the game fits perfectly with the dark ambient setting and extreme detail has been given to the smallest things such as flickering light bulbs that set the mood incredibly to match the acting.
The whole story takes place in the famous Arkham Asylum and this is where inmates were used as guinea pigs for experiments (though some doctors will argue it was treatment) and many of the secret taped recordings you find throughout give much back-story to even the buildings area itself.
The story starts off with Batman bringing the Joker in cuffs to Arkham as he was just caught; although all too easily. Batman delivers The Joker to the staff and just when the timing is right and Batman is not near, The Joker breaks free from his shackles and essentially starts a riot by releasing all the inmates from their cells.
Chaos ensues and Batman is left to chase down Joker by himself throughout the huge maze that is the Asylum. It turns out that Joker wanted to be captured and has been planning this trap for months and Batman just sprung it upon himself. Its an extremely elaborate plan that always keeps the Dark Knight two steps behind Joker as he tries to track him down. As you progress the story becomes much more in-depth and fleshed out when you find Jokers reasoning, but Ill leave the spoilers elsewhere as I really did enjoy the tale as a whole.
The story is a completely new and original and was actually written by Paul Dini who is famous for writing the stories for the Batman the Animated Series itself. Because the medium of Arkham Asylum is a video game and not a Saturday morning cartoon, the direction has been taken to a much darker place and a grittier Batman story and cast. While some of the cast from the Animated Series have reprised their roles, this is a very mature themed Batman that follows much more closely to the darker themed graphic novels.
As mentioned before, this game is an action-stealth genre with action being the emphasis. Batman will be using his fists to defeat foes the majority of the time and because this is how most of the combat is done, Rocksteady took notice of how important it is to have controls that are easy enough to pick up but something still challenging to master.
Combat is uncomplicated with X being your attack, Y being counter, and B is Batmans cape stun move. As you string together attacks, your combo meter fills and if you keep it going you earn a bigger experience bonus which will eventually net you upgrades in your choosing from new attacks, new gadgets and health upgrades.
While you can get away with button mashing, its much more rewarding to get the perfect timing and string together your combos with attacks and counters. You feel very powerful when you take down a group of henchmen surrounding you and truly do feel like Batman.
As you progress through the institution, you will happen upon small groups of enemies usually 4 to 8 at a time. As you defeat them, you traverse forward until you meet the next group and finish them off before repeating the process over again. It does feel a little mundane and basic at times, but the pacing between combat, platforming, puzzle solving, and stealth is blended in very well that will make the hours fly by; as you keep wanting to get to the next area.
One reason that many people can relate to Batman is that he has no super powers, he is simply a normal human being that has made himself extremely disciplined and always at the peak of his abilities. Because he has no super powers, Batman relies on his gadgets and detective work and Arkham Asylum gives players many of the Dark Knights gadgetry to use on his quest to stop Joker from destroying Gotham.
Batmans skills usually get overlooked when it comes to his detective abilities and these skills come into play for much of the tale. Sometimes youll scan an area for clues of where to go next, or following the trail of someones fingerprints.
The other part of the game is the stealth and detective work that is used from Batmans gadgets. As the game begins you only have access to your simple Batarang and your Zipline to grapple onto higher ledges. As you progress you will come across more of Batmans tools to make hunting Joker much easier.
As you Zipline up to higher areas (usually gargoyles) along the wall, enemies will not be able to see you unless they watched you zip to it. This is where much of the stealth gameplay comes in, as you can do an inverted takedown should someone walk underneath you and hang them upside down to take them out. One issue I had with Ziplining was that when you are caught and have enemies shooting at you, getting away was simply too easy; as you swing from one gargoyle to the next, it only took 2 or 3 swings for them to completely lose track of me which felt a little too unrealistic.
When sneaking up behind someone and doing a stealth takedown just wont work, this is where the Gadgets come into play. The first is your Batarang, but eventually you can unlock a Multi-Batarang which will eventually let you lock onto 3 targets at once and knock them all down so you can swoop in and finish them off. Youll also eventually have a remote control Batarang at your disposal that can be moved anywhere you want in a first person view once thrown; this makes hitting those far away enemies very simple when you cant normally lock on.
Explosive Gel is another gadget you will be using for a good portion of the later half that is able to be sprayed onto any surface and then remotely detonated. If this is sprayed on a weak or cracked wall, it will completely blow a hole through it. Setting traps with Gel is always good fun as you can lure in inmates into your trap and then watch them fly in the explosion.
The Caped Crusaders Batclaw will allow him to hook onto gates and yank it down so that he can then Zipline up with ease. Eventually this will be upgraded into the Ultra Batclaw and it will shoot 3 hooks and also be able to bring down structurally-weak walls as well. Using this on a group of enemies is also fun to yank them off ledges or bring them closer to you for a quick pounding.
The last major Gadget youll receive is the Line Launcher and this allows Batman to cross very distant (but horizontal) areas. As you slide across, youll also kick anyone in your way and its the fastest way to cover a long distance if useable in that area.
Easily though, the most useful tool Batman has in his repertoire is his Detective Mode; this is an X-ray mode that allows Batman to see almost like night vision, but will give much more info any anything he is looking at. Enemy locations can be seen through walls along with their heart rate and if they are carrying any weapons so that you can plan your attack ahead of time. Secrets like grates that can be pulled off or walls that can be blasted stand out in the blue-ish tint to make it much easier to sometimes figure out where you need to go next.
The only issue I had with Detective Mode is that unfortunately, there is simply no real reason you would ever want to turn it off. Having it off will make things much more difficult and you will miss a huge portion of the secrets without it; which is a shame because the environment and art is so wonderfully done that its never really admired do to always having your X-ray vision on.
Joker isnt going to make things easy for you to capture him, so of course he has an almost unlimited amount of henchmen to stand in the way of Batman and his downfall. The majority of the enemies you fight will be your standard thugs that will fight you unarmed or sometimes with a pipe. These arent even really a threat even when you are outnumbered 10 to 1. When the enemies have knives or tasers, this is where combat has to be a little more precise.
When an enemy is about to attack you, you can see a little icon above their head to show that you should press the counter button to nullify their attack; if its blue it means it is just an unarmed thug that will give you no trouble. Now if that icon is red, that means they have a weapon and you can potentially hurt yourself with a normal attack; for these guys you need to either stun them with your cape before attacking or dodge and attack them from behind.
I dont expect your low level thugs to have the smartest strategies, but sometimes the AI doesnt even pick up on me doing a Silent Takedown to his buddy 5 feet away and somehow he doesnt notice. This goes back to where I said about enemies losing track of you so easily when you swing away when there is no way they should have lost track of you.
Batman wouldnt be Batman without a plethora of super villains to constantly combat against either; and Joker has spared no expense and gathering some of Batmans greatest counterparts to stop him in his tracks.
Most notably you have Harley Quinn who seems to enjoy giving Batman an extremely hard time in everything he does, Bane who is famous for being the one that broke Batmans back years ago and Killer Croc who will have you in the sewers as he hunts you down.
There are more, such as Scarecrow; which I have to separate from the others simply because the sequences where you interact with him in the game is probably the most interesting and awesome experience Ive played in quite some time in any game. You also have Poison Ivy who tries taking over the Asylum with her plants and of course last but not least; The Joker who will stop at nothing to kill Batman and take over Gotham City. A couple of the bosses you actually dont even truly fight, as its all about the chase and getting to them, which was a little disappointing in the end.
You may notice that Ive not mentioned other famous villains of the Bat like Mr. Freeze, The Riddler, Penguin, and Two Face; this is because they arent physically in the game, but just because they arent included doesnt mean that they arent a part of the story or lore. There is quite a substantial amount of info on some characters that may not appear in the game through audio interview tapes you collect or at least a profile page in your journal.
As you progress through the story, you will come across Riddler challenges that will have you hunting all over Arkham back to front, and since there are 240 to be found, you will be looking for quite some time. Many arent even attainable until you have all of your Gadgets and are very well hidden (think of these as the Pigeons in GTA IV). There are also many interview tapes to be found along with quite a few other secrets that will have a completionist wandering around for quite a few extra hours to find it all.
If youve completed the campaign or simply want a break from your detective work, there are also 16 Challenge Rooms accessible from the main menu. Half of these are combat based and the others are stealth combat.
With the combat rooms, you are faced off against a few enemies and as you defeat them, a new wave of enemies will appear but they will be more in numbers and usually upped a difficulty (given weapons for example). Your score is based on your combos, time, and preciseness and although none of these were challenging to complete, the challenge lies in getting the high score.
The stealth challenges are slightly different, where every enemy has a gun and if you get spotted, you will not last long indeed. So you must perch up high on the gargoyles and wait for your opportune moment to strike. Scores are based on your efficiency and if you are spotted at all. The later challenges of these are quite difficult as you are not given any gargoyle perches to use (they are there, but will explode when you use them).
Every map has a leader board that can be filtered down to just your friends if you wish. The only improvement I would have made on this system is that I would have loved if I would have been able to download and watch the ghosts of the top players to see exactly how they got their impressive scores and times.
Should you be a huge Batman fan and have the spare cash, there is also a Collectors Edition available for around $30 to $40 more and comes with a few interesting extras not included with a regular edition. The first being an extra challenge map that is exclusive to the Collectors Edition. The code for the download of the Crime Alley Challenge Map actually comes on the back of the Batman logo sticker included inside. I actually had to look online how to access the extra map as it never occurred to me to look on the back of the sticker when I was unpacking everything. The challenge map itself is actually nothing special other than being set in an alley. There are no special occurrences or enemies or anything that really sets this apart which was quite disappointing.
There is a second disc that comes in the game case that is your standard making-of behind the scenes of the game. It does have some interesting info and footage, but there really wasnt too much outside of what I expected and I wish there was more real behind the scenes stuff like the voicing over sessions or game design. It was broken into 5 different segments and was entertaining to watch and get some background info on a lot of the art and sound design though.
Also inside youll find an embossed leather bound book that is supposed to be an Arkham doctors journal. In reality it is just a mini book with patient profiles and such wrapped with a leather cover; and while the leather exterior is very elegant, the book itself really didnt have much extra info that you couldnt find in-game.
The main reason someone would buy the Collectors Edition though would be the inclusion of a replica Batarang that is the same model as the one used in-game. Everything in the box comes in a 14 long Batarang shaped hard case and has a very sleek look to it. The Batarang itself is 14 long and comes attached to a stand for display in your collection. The issue myself and others have with this is that the Batarang itself is made of a hard plastic and unfortunately not metal as it was led to be believed before launch. The other issue is that the stand is hard glued into the Batarang itself so there is no playing with it as one would have hoped.
Due to the disappointment with the extras included in the Collectors Edition, unless you are a die hard Batman fan, I dont really see much of a value for the extra money unfortunately unless you absolutely want a showpiece in your collection. Its a shame as I was very excited for this Collectors Edition but was mostly met with disappointment all around; just keep in mind Im only referring to the items, not the game itself.
I cant give enough praise to the top notch quality to the voice acting from the entire main cast and the gritty soundtrack that fits the Arkham Asylum theme absolutely perfectly. Sound usually gets overlooked in many reviews but it stood out that much for me that it needed to be mentioned; the acting doesnt get any better. The only real flaw Ive seen even related to the sound was some lip-synching was off for some of the minor characters, but the entire major cast seemed perfect. From the beginning sequence of Batman bringing in Joker, you will get a feeling of how perfect the roles are played, and pay attention to the quality of the soundtrack throughout.
There is much to do with Arkham Asylum considering there is no multiplayer aspect; playing through the story multiple times on varying difficulties, searching for all the collectables which will take a considerable amount of time, or doing the Challenge Maps for a change of pace and beating the top scores. Regardless of what you spend the most of your time doing, youll truly feel like Batman while doing it.
So much detail has been given to the game; graphically, sound, and even how Batmans cape flows and becomes mangled throughout the engaging story that will take roughly around 10 hours or so to complete the first time. It should say a lot when I didnt even notice my first session with the game was around 8 hours before noticing the time, its simply that engaging with great pacing.
Fans can rejoice and take solace that this adventure is a solo affair for Batman, which means no Robin to be found. Who knows though, there is a menu option though for DLC. Batman Arkham Asylum does the exact job its supposed to do; put you in the shoes of Batman and make you feel like the Dark Knight. Rocksteady does this absolutely in every way and Batman fans should be ecstatic that there finally is a game that does the Caped Crusader justice.
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
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Trials HD
If youve played many different Flash based games in the past, youve most likely played a Trials game before or something very similar. Trials HD is a sidescrolling motorcycle race game that is physics based and is broken up between racing and unique insane stunt segments.
The games controls are as simple as they get; Right Trigger is your gas, Left Trigger is the brake. You are able to lean forward and backwards to help on slopes by using the left stick and if you need to bail out for fun or an objective, pressing Y will fling you off your bike. You will fail many many times in Trial HD and will a simple press of B you can reset back to the last checkpoint you crossed to quickly try again.
For some reason, a few cast members from the Jackass show (Unfortunately not Knoxville or Steve-O though) are the people who do the voice over in the game. Granted you dont hear very much and when you do its the odd scream or yahoo, so why famous people were chosen for this role Im very unsure of because I would not have known myself if I didnt look it up.
Race mode is half of the emphasis of the game and is more based on skill and careful control as you try to get from start to finish with the least amount of faults as possible. Your score is based on your total time and the amount of faults you incurred during that level.
Each track as a target time and maximum faults before you are forced to restart from the beginning. If you do well on a track you are given bronze, silver, or gold medals based on your performance.
There are 5 different bikes that can be used in races once unlocked and range from slower but easier to control beginner bikes all the way up to the fast and powerful advanced bikes that are much harder to control.
There are over 50 races and they are separated by difficulty levels; Beginner, easy, medium, hard, and extreme. The number of races in each bracket will also vary and scale depending on the difficulty. Medium for example has 11 tracks where Extreme only has 4.
As you progress, you will also unlock up to 8 different Tournaments which is essentially just a series of different tracks played in a row where your score is based on the start of track one to the end of the final. Its fun to see how quickly you can do a certain amount of tracks in a row, but the real challenge is balancing that with how few faults you can incur while doing so.
As you race a track you will see a small meter at the top of the screen and this will show a comparison of you against people on your friends list and how close you are to each other as an icon instead of an actual ghost.
The other main section of Trails HD is the skill games. Should you bore of the racing or just want to try something substantially different, then this is the half of the game that anyone can enjoy.
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
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Madballs in Babo: Invasion
If you grew up in the 80s, you may remember an old toy line called Madballs. These were essentially rubber bouncy balls the size of your hand, but in typical marketing fashion, they were changed to have faces and gross eyeballs and other things on them to make them like characters and collectables. There was even eventually a Saturday morning cartoon based on these characters.
While the game Madballs in Babo: Invasion (MIBI) does have the licensed name in it, it can be somewhat misleading, as there really is only 2 of the original characters from the toy line that are playable; Oculus Orbus the eyeball and Hornhead. Playbrains studio now brings an interesting new XBLA title that is a combat orientated 3rd person platforming shooter and puzzle solver.
There are 2 factions in the Babo universe; the first being the Babo and the others being the evil Scorched. Each faction has 6 playable and unlockable characters and each character has their own special abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.
Gameplay is a mix of platforming while rolling your ball throughout the level and traversing tricky areas, and another side of combat as many enemies will be doing what they can to stop you. It very much felt to me like a mix of Marble Madness and Smash TV.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
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Guitar Hero: Smash Hits
Have you ever played the previous Guitar Heroes (before World Tour) and wonder how awesome it would be to be able to play bass, drums, or even sing to those great songs long forgotten? This is what Guitar Hero: Smash Hits tries to remedy; it brings you back 48 of those classic songs from the previous Guitar Hero games but with improvements.
So what would it take to convince people to re-buy songs they might already have in older versions of the game? Well, Activision has thought of a way (or at least is attempting to) which is very simple. If you own Guitar Hero: World Tour (the bundle) then you also own the new guitar, the drum set and a microphone for the whole band experience.
Smash Hits brings back the top favorites from the previous games and now adds full band gameplay. Ever wanted to try drumming to Through the Fire and Flames to see how it compares to the guitar difficulty? How about play some awesome bass on Queens of the Stone Age? This is all possible now and you can play any instrument or sing to some classic Guitar Hero songs.
This isnt the biggest improvement to the selected songs though; if you remember playing the first few Guitar Hero titles, youll also remember how terrible some of the cover songs were due to not being able to secure the licensing for the real song track. Every song on Smash Hits is now a master track (other than 2 songs which are live versions) and that alone is worth it If theres a song you absolutely loved in the previous games but couldnt bring yourself to playing them due to the horrendous cover version.
Song selection and tastes are going to be a completely personal preference, so rather than list off every song, Im going to elaborate more on the game itself and its changes (or lack there of) from the other Guitar Hero games and not rate it on the song choices.
Ive youve not played World Tour and dont know what was new with it, then I suggest reading my review on it so that you understand the new mechanics (how bass has a 6th note) and instruments work (new drum set and slider bar for guitar specifically) as Im going to focus on the gameplay changes itself instead.
Obviously the biggest change is that the old songs can now be played with drums, microphone, or bass in addition to the standard lead guitar. This might not sound like a huge deal, but theres simply nothing like playing Free Bird with 4 players; its simply magical.
Another huge change is that the slider bar parts in the lead guitar sections are now thrown into some songs as well; the biggest notice youll see of this is the whole Through the Fire and Flames intro on expert can simply be tapped making it incredibly much simpler to accomplish. Also, the whole intro (first half of the song) of Free Bird can be completely tapped instead of strumming a single note. Its an interesting change I really wasnt expecting and it certainly makes some songs a much easier feat to complete.
On the flip side though, is that many of the songs have arbitrarily been upped in difficulty due to the slider and tapping use. While this might not sound like a huge deal if you are a veteran player, it completely threw me off my game because I knew the older note chart and what to expect. Certain songs will feel like you need to completely relearn them (Free Bird is much more difficult this time around). When youve mastered something and come back and are unable to do it because of a whole new note set, it can be misleading and cautious of what you may be able to finish easily.
Playing drums for a lot of the songs felt very gratifying and many were quite a challenge, so there is something here for everyone even if you dont play lead guitar. The same goes for playing bass, as having the 6th bass note thrown in is quite fun (especially on No One Knows) and does add some freshness to the songs youve long mastered.
While there are no Metallica songs due to their game recently just coming out, they did take one of the best features from the game; all songs are unlocked in quick play from the very start. No more having to play hours of career mode just to unlock that one song you bought it for. While this is great if you dont care about career mode, the downfall of the career mode was also included; and you do not build towards having a huge fan base following or anything, its straight up song unlock progyer is essentially the exact same thing as well with your Face-off modes, Band play, and Battle of the Bands. There is nothing new here, as you still gain money for completing songs and the same frustrations are in tact as well, like one person failing means the whole band fails.
Even some achievements are exactly the same such as making your rocker, designing an instrument and others. Its clear that this is basically a skin-job with some new tracks, as there is nothing new here (literally if you count the songs).
With no attempt the change or freshen the gameplay at all (even the menus are the same) the only thing that is going to sell you on Smash Hits is the song selection, and as mentioned before, it will be a personal preference. Guitar Hero: Smash Hits is simply a track pack of old songs that you can now use all of your instruments for, so weigh this into your decision when picking this up or not.
There is absolutely no reason this couldnt have been DLC for World Tour instead of a full priced game because not everyone is going to like every song. If I had the option to pick and choose the 10 I really enjoyed I would have done that instead without hesitation.
The way I would be able to forgive this choice of lack of DLC would be that if I could import Smash Hits into my World Tour and play them from there like how Rock Band did the AC/DC track pack disc. Alas, this is absolutely not possible and it doesnt even work the other way either, so all those songs you bought for World Tour stays in World Tour. There is no importing or exporting anything related to Smash Hits other than the lackluster user made GH Tune songs. I can not fathom any reason this is not an option to have as DLC or even export to my full World Tour game. Its extremely frustrating that Im going to have to put in this disc every time I want to play a specific song or two. Its a good thing there are some great song selections in this title, but again, that will be completely objective depending on your tastes.
Make sure to remember you will be getting absolutely nothing new game-wise in Smash Hits; you will only be able to replay the classics from Guitar Hero 1, 2, 3, and Aerosmith with all your instruments. Check the complete song list and decide if there are enough songs on it that will warrant you having to put in Smash Hits every time you want to only play those songs as it is the complete epitome of inconvenient.
Suggestions: Make any track packs importable to World Tour, simple as that, especially if it costs full price.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
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Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
The original Call of Juarez released in 2007 and was met with decent reviews and had some decent ideas to make it stand out from the crowded FPS genre (other than being a Western, which isnt done very often). The follow-up; Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is now here and has taken the general premise that made the first in the series decent and simply improves on them while trying a few new things.
The greedy fever that is known as Gold Fever is known as the Call of Juarez. Greed, lust, and lawlessness will have the McCall brothers traveling from a Civil War era Georgia all the way to the Aztec ruins in Mexico.
As you start the campaign, you are thrust into the Civil War as Confederate Soldiers that occurred in 1864. You meet the Thomas and Ray, the two McCall brothers, eventually fend off a massive attack on your own then decide to hurry back home defend your home and mother that may be under attack. The problem with this is that your commanding officer brands you as a deserter for leaving the cause of your country.
As you arrive home, you find your mother on her death bed and are introduced to your other brother who is a preacher of God. As you are being hunted down, you must leave your home and vow to come back one day, rebuild the house and live here again one day.
I dont want to give too much away about the plotline, as I found it decently compelling and engrossing me the whole way through, but youll meet a woman that comes between the brothers that will really test their brotherly bond. Youll also be in the search for the fabled cursed treasure buried somewhere in the hills in Mexico that was buried many years ago from Conquistadors. Although the main plot was generally predictable for the most part other than a small twist at the end, it was still strong enough to keep me going to want to find out more.
At the beginning of most levels you are given a choice of which McCall brother youd like to play as. Ill get into the gameplay differences between Thomas and Ray later on, but on the screen youll always see a cowboy hat icon that relates to where your brother is at all times. This is because you never really want to split up from your brother if it can be helped, and surprisingly your brothers AI was actually decent and wasnt just there for looks; he was taking down guys before me or covering me while reloading. It actually felt as if my brother had my back during the game and could hold his own for the most part.
A feature in the original Call of Juarez had a shootout mode that would have you shooting enemies in a slow motion mode with both guns out moving slowly towards the middle until it ends. The same premise is here this time, but both brothers will knock down certain doors and while you will still shoot enemies in slow motion, its been improved and just feels better overall and not as awkward. It can be very tricky the first few times since you have to aim both guns simultaneously, but eventually you get the hang of it and can take down almost a dozen guys in one go.
While I found the level designs very well done and gives an authentic Western feel, sadly the level progressions themselves were very liner and repetitive. You run to your objective area, clear all the bad guys, music chances so that you know you are done clearing this area and you run up to the next spot and repeat. Not all levels and completely this way, but its a very stop and go affair.
The whole game isnt this way though; there is some horse back riding, shooting turrets from moving stagecoaches, and even covering your brother paddling a canoe down a river that breaks up the normal monotony. There are even a few places between certain levels that allow you to take side quests for more bounty money. While they do add some more gameplay time to the overall experience, it felt out of place in a way and was generally a kill this person for $$$ reward.
Dueling in the first Juarez felt very finicky for lack of a better term; it is vastly improved with Bound in Blood and even looks cool to do. A third person side angle view shows the side of your body and when the enemy walks left or right, you have to counter that walk to try and keep him in the middle of the screen and your sights. Fail to do this and they will be off centered and out of focus. The right stick controls your whole arm, not just your hand, so you want to keep moving it to stay close to your gun so that as soon as that bell rings, you can instantly grab your piece and shoot him down. If you make a mistake and grab your gun too early, youll get a stern no no no finger wag and your arm will slowly reset, so you have to make sure to be ready, but not too ready.
When you hear the town bell ring (which doesnt make sense in some of these duels, since there is no bell nearby; especially the final duel) you reach for your gun and as soon as the aimer lines up with your enemy you have to quickly use the trigger and lay them to waste. These duels are essentially the boss fights and while they do look cool, it does feel somewhat underwhelming overall as I never really got that huge climax you get with other games when you finish a large or difficult boss. Every boss felt and wasnt that much harder than the last, I even finished the last guy on my first try.
As mentioned before, you are given the choice for most levels of which brother youd like to control. First up is the younger brother Thomas who has more agility and is more suited for long range shotting with a bow or rifle.
Thomas also has a rope that can be used to climb preset areas (though anywhere would have felt slightly more dynamic, being able to get on top of buildings and snipe) and climb smaller obsticles to help your brother up (but again, only in preset areas). The rope this time has been vastly improved over the originals game. With rope in hand youll see a small red marker of where the rope can attach, once you ready your lasso, you have to make circles with the right stick as if you are actually lassoing and going to throw it. Its an interesting touch and more involving than simply pressing the trigger itself.
Thomas is also the weaker of the two brothers, which is why he likes to stay further away and shoot from afar. Only he can use a traditional bow and arrow and throwing knives. I honestly didnt even bother to use these that often until half way through the game when I saw their real potential and potency. You may think that the bow and arrow has nothing on your rifle, but Thomas is a master at it and its just as lethal.
Once you rack up enough kills, both brothers are able to use their concentration mode skill for a short while that will easily kill any enemy in the nearby area. As you activate concentration mode, with Thomas you have to hold down the trigger then press down on the right stick rapidly as if you were pulling back the firing pin like in the movies. It does do the auto aiming for you in this mode and it does feel more involving rather than just pressing the trigger as you normally would.
There were only two issues I had with the concentration mode though; the first being the icon that shows you how full or ready you are to use it. Its the big icon at the top right of the screen that looks like the barrel for your bullets and it slowly fills up with each kill you get. For the first while I had this confused thinking it was my ammo meter or something else.
The second issue that I found frustrating was that once your concentration mode is full, you have 60 seconds to use it. You cant bank it and save it for a tough area littered with enemies; and if you dont end up using it in that allotted time, the meter empties and you have to start filling it again. There were quite a few spots I wished I had it at my disposal but on the bright side, when you activate it, it automatically switches to the proper gun for you and you kill anyone in the vicinity very quickly.
Ray McCall is the other brother and he may look familiar if you played the first Juarez title. This is because it is the same one and only Reverend Ray that was chasing down Billy and spouting gospel with his bible. In Bound in Blood though this tells Rays back story of how he became to be a man of the bible. Throughout the game he is a no nonsense bad ass that will do anything to get the woman he loves and find the treasure to rebuild his home.
Ray is much tougher than his brother, can take more damage, and even wears a metal breastplate to protect himself since he likes to get much more up close and personal with the bad guys. He is strong enough to kick down certain doors and move heavier objects that Thomas is unable to.
Rays uniqeness for weapons are that he is able to use dynamite (which is essentially grenades) and can use two revolvers at one time; although you are unable to look down your sights and aim more accurately this way)
Rays concentration mode fills up the same way as Thomas and is the same premise but the execution is played drastically different. Once you activate it, you mode your cursers around the screen to mark any enemies you want to shoot and where. Once the concentration meter ends or is stopped by the player, you automatically shoot anyone that was marked in an extremely quick shootout. Its not as fun as Thomas way, but its still entertaining to see half a dozen enemies fall to the floor all at once.
Multiplayer in Bound in Blood feels like it may actually have a shot at being quite decent, as its obvious that a lot of effort was taken to make it unique like the genre and not just be the same thing weve seen a thousand times.
You have 6 modes up to 12 players; but two really stood out for me. Shootout is essentially deathmatch but with a very interesting twist. You gain a wanted bounty for the more kills and streaks you get and winning isnt really about your kills (so no more first to X kills), its all about the bounty you get from killing people. Kill someone with a huge wanted price and you can win it in the very end even if you havent had many kills over the course of the match. Kill more people and your bounty grows which will in turn have more people will be gunning for the price on your head.
Wild West Legends mode has two teams split into essentially the lawmen and the bandits. Its objective based such as the bandits having to break into a bank by blowing the doors with dynamite then getting away with horses. You only have a few minutes to do an objective, but if you manage to complete it, the timer resets for the next objective. Its not always the bandits having to do things, sometimes the good guys have to blow up weapon caches from the baddies. At the end of the match, sides switch and its actually quite entertaining and can see it being quite enjoyable with a solid team with some strategy involved.
The other noteworthy feature about multiplayer is that it is class based. You can choose between 5 classes from the get go and the other 8 are unlocked and bought with game earnings for a total of 13 different classes with different mixtures of guns. Since you cant pickup other peoples weapons you are stuck with what weapons you are given for the class, but are able to switch classes at any time in a round (without a respawn timer penalty of course) which is great if your team absolutely needs a sniper or a certain class at any given point.
The voice acting from all the main characters is superb and the Thomas and Ray characters really made me feel like I was playing out their story. The voice actors did an excellent job of playing of each other and it truly did feel like they had that friendly sibling rivalry going on the whole time. While the voicing was great, the repetitive one liners were not. Sure it sounded great hearing Thomas call Ray an a-hole, but not for the thirtieth time.
Everything visually looked on par overall. Thomas, Ray, other main characters and anything story related looked great, everything else seemed to have very low textures and really stood out against the better looking foreshadow of the brothers. While galloping very fast on your horse, there wasnt much flourish pop-in and the draw distance did seem vast considering how fast you can actually ride. Main characters looked and animated very well which just felt odd beside the other characters that didnt look nearly half as good and moved clunkier.
Hidden throughout the levels are secrets to pickup that unlock artwork and such, but it was mostly still frames and generally underwhelming enough to not make me even care to find the rest of them. Achievements are given out decently, with many also carrying over to online objectives. There is a tracker on the main screen menu of what achievements you have and are working on and the progress towards them. Why this wasnt something viewable during the pause menu I dont really understand though. The most unique achievement I enjoyed was the one that you needed to kill someone at high noon in real time (between 12:00pm and 12:15pm); its a courteous nod to the genre and setting.
With only a 5 hour play through on easy, I had absolutely no problems at all (hence the easy I suppose) other than one infinitely respawning area (and the only) near the end of the game. I would definitely suggest playing on medium or higher to start and also to do the side quests to add a few more hours to your campaign. It goes without saying that this game deserves to be played twice so you can see both sides of the story from each brother but surprisingly enough you would think that this was made to have 2 player co-op campaign, yet it is absent for some reason.
I honestly had this title under my radar but by the end of it all, I did quite enjoy its entertainment value; and finding a decent Western game is no real easy task with so few being released these days. I do hope the multiplayer catches on and that Ubisoft decides to push this title with some marketing dollars as it has value in its single player experience and longevity in its multiplayer. Bound in Blood actually took me by surprise and if you enjoy the classic westerns, you too should answer to the Call of Juarez.
Suggestions: This would have been even more engrossing if it was 2 player co-op and I don't get why this isn't an option to be honest.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
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Ghostbusters
If theres something strange, in your neighborhood, Who you gunna call? Ghostbusters! Upon hearing that there was going to be a new Ghostbusters game I was excited that it had potential to be a substantial hit for those that grew up with it, but also was nervous because if Terminal Reality (the development company) couldnt deliver to the fans standards, there would be many people disappointed; and people dont take their childhood nostalgia being ruined very lightly.
Knowing the track record of movie licensed games, I really set the bar low with expectations. I wanted something fun to play, something that made me laugh and smile as much as the original movies did, and to see the real Ghostbusters in action again. Thankfully all of these points were delivered on.
Being a huge fan of the original Ghostbusters as a kid myself, I was completely ecstatic once all the original characters would be voiced by their actual counterparts was announced. Bill Murray is back as Dr. Peter Venkman, Dan Aykroyd as Dr. Saymond Stantz, Harold Ramis as Dr. Egon Spengler (my personal favourite), and even Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore. Even the receptionist Janine Melnitz is voiced by Annie Pots herself. Having the real voices played an absolute huge part in making this game as authentic as could be. Ghostbusters the Video Game is essentially Ghostbusters 3, just in game form.
There are even many more hidden Easter Eggs and nods to the series. The most notable for me would be seeing the ending of the original NES Ghostbusters game on one of Egons lab computers. Small things like this among others really show that many small touches have been taken to please the fans as a whole.
The story takes place 2 years after the second movie and now the Ghostbusters are doing well and you now need to save the city from the newest paranormal plague. You play the new recruit; literally, as you never speak a line of dialogue and your real name is never revealed either. The reason for this is because as The Rookie you are the one testing out Egons new inventions and additions to the Proton Pack (youre officially the Experimental Equipment Technician) , so the Ghostbusters dont want to get attached to you since something is bound to go wrong and you will be no more. While it may seem like a shady move storyline-wise, it tends to work out well since you do eventually feel like an absolutely genuine Ghostbuster.
The story does a great job by bringing your team back to classic Ghostbuster areas like the Headquarters Firehouse and also fighting against classics like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and even the Librarian from the first scene in the original movie. There is a side love interest story that involves Venkman and new character Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn (voiced by Alyssa Milano) but it felt completely rushed and forced and didnt seem natural at all between the two.
First thing you may notice once you start playing is the lack of any HUD or much clutter on the screen. This was done on purpose and all the basic information you need actually built onto the Proton Pack status meter of your equipment to show how close to overheating your weapon is. When you switch between different beams on your pack, the look will slightly change so that you can see which weapon you are using without having to fire. At first I found having to search for your health bar and status meter was slightly annoying since it is small on the pack itself, but once you learn that the edges of the screen go blurry and red when you become more injured, there was no real need to look at the meter on the pack. Seeing these meters on a small standard definition TV might be quite a challenge though.
The iconic Proton Pack is the main equipment used by all Ghostbusters to weaken and capture ghosts. In the beginning you only have your standard Blast Stream (primary fire) and a Boson Dart (shotgun like secondary fire). As you progress through the game and earn money by busting ghosts, you can eventually purchase Proton Pack upgrades for new types of beams and even improve your PKE meter and capture trap.
Once unlocked, you will gain access to new types of beams to be used in different situations depending on what types of ghosts need to be busted. By pressing Left of the D-Pad you gain a Shock Blast (primary fire) that is like a shotgun and excellent for short range and weaker enemies, and also a Stasis Stream (secondary fire) that essentially will freeze a ghost for a short time.
Down on the D-Pad will let you use a Slime Blower (primary fire) will allow you to clear away dreaded toxic black slime and an interesting Slime Tether (secondary fire). The Slime Tether attaches two any two points and will contract and pull on whatever is on the two ends. Some awesome uses for the Tether is attaching one end to a car or something heavy and the other end to a roof or wall and seeing it move it with ease. There is even an achievement for Tethering one of to a ghost and the other to your trap, essentially sucking it directly in.
Later in the game you will also be able to press Right on the D-Pad and gain access to your Meson Collider (primary) and Overload Pulse (secondary). Whats interesting about this gun is that your Meson shot will basically mark a target or ghost with a homing-like signal and holding down your secondary fire will have all your shots automatically home in on whatever target has been marked with your primary fire. Its very useful for those quickly moving ghosts or the ones that just seem to always get away from you.
While having all these choices of different weapons is interesting, I still found myself using the trusty Blast Stream to get the job done most of the time. Through the latter half of the game, you will be forced to use the Slime Blower to clear paths away and close emergence holes, but using the other beams are purely optional.
Not all ghosts can be seen regularly, and this is when the Ghostbusters will use their Psycho-Kinetic-Energy meter (PKE meter) along with Ecto-Goggles to see sometimes invisible ghosts and also residue left by them not always seeable with the human eye. The device is mostly noted for its winged ears that raise and lower much like a hot and cold meter to track down ghosts. In the game when using your PKE meter, you are put into a first person view (the whole game is played in a third person view behind the back) and have to follow the hints your PKE meter shows you.
The meter will flash different colors depending on what is nearby. Red signals for ghosts in hiding, Green for environmental phenomena, and Blue when you are nearby a Cursed Artifact. These artifacts are basically the games secret findings and unlock bonus content and extra cash for upgrades to your Proton Pack.
Once the ghosts are found and weakened enough to be captured, it is a Ghostbusters job to get them contained as quickly as possible. This is done by throwing out your ghost trap with the X button and a small beam of light will be shown coming out so that you are aware where your trap is when you are wrangling a resistant ghost.
Once a ghost is weakened enough to be captured, you must then wrangle it into your trap. If a ghost is trying to get away by flying to the right, you must try to pull it to the left to move it where you want it; with some ghosts obviously not being as cooperative as others. Pressing the Left Trigger will literally slam the ghost against a wall or the ground to try and stun them so you can maneuver them into your trap. Once you become good enough at capturing the ghosts, you can actually Slam Dunk them directly into the trap without having to wrestle against them very much.
When you are done saving the city in the campaign, you can hop online and play as any of the Ghostbusters (even the Rookie) and play in a few different interesting modes. First off, the online menu system is very basic and its very sluggish at trying to find an appropriate game, and even when you do find a game, it may not connect since it may already be in progress (so why is it showing on the list).
Once you are in a game lobby, you choose what weapon you want to be your primary weapon specialization, regardless if youve bought and unlocked all the others in campaign. You do feel somewhat locked down into your weapon (almost everyone uses the standard Beam anyways) but there are powerups in the levels that grant you limited ammo of the other beams.
There are essentially 6 different modes (referred to as jobs) that offer some gameplay that differs greatly from the standard story play. Firstly you have Survival which is exactly what it is named. Almost like Gears of Wars 2 Horde mode, you are faced with waves of ghosts that become more and more challenging as you try and survive 10 waves. Should you all become knocked out and not revived within a certain time and you lose.
Containment has you simply catching as many ghosts as you can within the allotted time limit. You can run off away from your team to try and capture more on your own for more money, or do you help your team to capture more ghosts overall.
The Protection job has you defending PKE Disruptors as they are being automatically built. When a ghost attacks one of these, it reverses the building process and makes you have to defend it for even longer.
Thief mode has you defending 4 relic artifacts that any ghosts will be trying to steal away from you. You need to defend them and the waves of attacking ghouls will constantly be pushing towards you. There is a time limit and as long as you save one artifact and ride out the time, you will succeed.
Destruction has you destroying cursed artifacts as well as the ghosts nearby that are spawned by these relics. You have a time limit and need to destroy as many as you can within that limit.
The mode I had the most fun with online though is the unique Slime Dunk mode. Waves of Slimer ghosts come through and players need to Slam Dunk them into their trap. Whoever got the Dunk gets the cash, so its a competitive mode that allows for a lot of fun. You can try and wrangle someone elses ghost into your trap or even try to sneakily throw your trap right beside another players and hopefully get it in your trap instead of theirs. There is an interesting feature though that is completely random and Ive only come across a few times so far, but is an interesting feature none the less. Sometimes on harder difficulty waves you may come across a ghost that looks similar but has an orange glow to them; this means they are a special Agro Ghost that will do some sneaky tricks like duplicating themselves, leaving pools of deadly black slime, or even sabotage your traps.
If you have a good Ghostbusting team, you may even see a rarer Most Wanted Ghost randomly. These special ghosts are almost like mini bosses that are more difficult to take down and will net you more cash in the end and check off their portrait in the corresponding screen of these special ghosts. Its an interesting feature that keeps the monotony down and can keep you on your toes since you never really know what to expect every time you play online.
While in the menus it does say there is an online co-op campaign, this is some very tricky wording, as it actually has nothing to do with the single player game at all; its just different online job types stringed together without any actual story in between them. It was very misleading and very disappointing. There is no reason to not have 4 player co-op with the actual campaign.
There is an online ranking system, but theres no real way to see what level or rank you are other than the online career dollar amount that you gain from winning matches. It would have been awesome to create an online persona with unique tags and icons, but this online system (modes aside) is very basic and bland. It does add longevity of the title once you are finished saving the city on all the difficulty levels, but I really found myself not caring after awhile without the true online rankings to show of or work towards.
Obviously its impossible to not review this game with some nostalgia heading some of my bias love for the Ghostbusters, but Im trying to be as objective as I can with the title as a whole. As a game, it does become a little repetitive and the sections that split you up and put you all alone are nowhere near as fun as when you are traveling with the whole team, but what the game does do right, does it perfectly, and that is make you feel as if you are one of the actual Ghostusters.
While the game is completely linear without any room to explore at all, the constant one liners and perfect voice acting will have you forgetting about it and simply enjoying your 6-8 hour play through on the normal setting. While it was a very short and completely doable in one sitting especially once you figure the few puzzle segments, its a completely enjoyable ride back to your childhood memories.
Another issue I had that stood out was the autosave system. While it does work, you dont really know when. When you finish a major objective or basically get a cutscene you know it saves, but theres no icon to show that its saving, so you better hope you have the time to finish a complete level just in case. The only other issue I was let down was that you dont get to drive the Ecto-1 once; they even tease you to drive it, but alas, sadly nothing.
While the completely CG cutscenes looked brilliant and the animation was fantastic, the ingame ones just didnt have the same quality to them and especially with the off-sync lips to go with the voicing. Also, for having one of the most catchy and recognizable theme songs ever, you rarely get to hear it other than when you die and have to wait for the level to reload (these reload times are unusually long, as in Mass Effect long)
While the game itself may have its own shortcoming, its charm and nostalgia will more than make up for it. This game is an excellent example of what a movie licensed title should be and it shows with how much detail was given to please the true fans.
With a great story (albeit short) and the actual cast voicing their original characters, even if you are somewhat of a Ghostbusters fan, this game deserves to be beside your Ghostbusters I and II dvds and is big enough service to the fans to please almost anyone. Whatever you do, just remember to never ever cross the streams!
Suggestions: -Please don't label something as campaign unless it truely is that.
-Having an Ecto-1 driving stage would have broken up the monetany a little bit.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
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Prototype
The best way I could start to begin to describe Prototype is to compare it to some other games, and quite a few come to mind; Spiderman 2, Incredible Hulk, Grand Theft Auto 4, and even Crackdown. Mixing different elements from these titles and combining them with a comic book style feel and very frantic action and buckets of blood seem to be the best way to start getting an idea of what this title is about.
You arent bound by good and evil moral choices in Prototype, as Alex Mercer, you are going to get to the bottom of what happened to by any means necessary; if that means throwing tanks at choppers, cutting numerous enemies in half, shape shifting to mimic anyone in the city, or even glide across the skyscraper tops, then thats what needs to be done. Alex has vowed revenge and will do anything to get to the truth of what has happened to him and the city. You dont play the heroic good guy; you play the guy that will do what it takes to get answers. Simply put, Prototypes franticly fun gameplay truly makes you feel like your character is insanely powerful and can do almost anything.
You are Alex Mercer and you wake up in the morgue with no memory after being pronounced and assumed dead. As you wake; you learn about a strange virus that is starting to take over New York City and that you now possess some extreme new powers. This on top of not being able to remember anything and you have your main plot line. This is simply the beginning though, as Alex starts to learn more about whats happened to him and becomes more and more lethal.
As Alex does what he can to restore his memory and find out what has happened to him, youll constantly be fighting in a middle of a war between the infected and the military. To regain memories, you need to find people that are involved with what is going on and consume them, sequentially absorbing their memories as well. Piecing together different fragments of memories is done through the Web of Intrigue and this is how you generally find out about the main plot rather than getting a standard cutscene after completing a mission. Its an interesting take on revealing the plot line, but not having that instant gratification after finishing a very difficult mission can be somewhat of a downer when all you want to do is find out what happened.
The story telling is done in a very cinematic way you might see in the movies. The game starts essentially at the ending with Alex telling someone his story and what has happened. As you get to each story arc you then get to play that memory section from the story, essentially learning everything in order trying to play to the end of the game, where you begin.
Gameplay starts by instantly putting you into the heat of some major action with all your abilities unlocked and with you being a massive powerhouse that can clear anything in your path. The beginning of the game can be a little misleading as once you are done the 10 minute tutorial with all your skills intact, you then begin the actual storyline 18 days previously from the beginning and have none of your upgraded powers or skills.
Traveling around the city is so simple and sometimes fun and rewarding just to glide and jump around the city; much like it was in Crackdown. Upgrading your run speed and jump prowess makes traversing the city even easier. It doesnt take much effort to get to where you want to go, as holding the Right Trigger will have you jump over walls, hop over cars, and even run up the side of buildings; this along with jumping and gliding makes getting where you need to go simple and enjoyable.
As you defeat enemies, complete missions and evade strike teams, you will earn EP which is evolution points (experience in most other games). These points allow you to purchase upgrades and new powers to help you along your quest to find out what has happened to you.
The amount of powers alone is simply astonishing, as there are many more moves and skills that I thought would ever be possible. The downfall to this is that once you have a huge amount of new skills you can use, the repertoire of moves that you need to memorize can be quite daunting. Eventually youll have so many moves that you wont remember half of them; so youll basically be playing with the same way mostly throughout the game, possibly using some of your newer more powerful moves.
When you absorb certain military personnel you will also gain their knowledge of how to drive tanks, fly choppers, or even boost your efficiency with different weapons. While hijacking a vehicle you are left almost completely vulnerable. To get into the vehicle you need to do a small button minigame and while doing this any bullets or rockets can knock you off and deplete your health. Luckily you can easily regain health by consuming anyone nearby, but it still can become a nuisance when you need to get into a certain tank or chopper and simply cant until you clear all the small marine grunts or mutants out of the way first.
Combat is generally straight forward, as you can lock on to enemies by holding the Left Trigger and it will actually lock you onto the most perceived threat nearby. Flicking the right stick while locked on will change your target and it generally quite easy enough to choose the exact target you want (other than when you are in a massive crowd of infected)
Once locked on you then use basic melee combat with the X and Y buttons and different combinations will do different move sets. This coupled with your every expanding move list opens up many attacks that can be chained together for some very devastating moves that can even clear a whole block of enemies near you.
You wont be fighting with just your fists though, as you are able to change your arms into a giant blade, huge hammers, sharp claws, and even extending tendrils. Each style of claw has its own move sets with their own strengths and weaknesses. Each type of claw style has its own situations that they are best suited for and switching between them is almost instant.
You even gain defense skills as you progress like shields and armor. The armor boosts your defense drastically but the downside is that you are unable to run up buildings and glide away. Using your arm as a giant shield is a great way to block bullet fire but once its broken, you have to wait for it to recharge before using it again.
The sheer amount of skills and upgrades almost goes past overkill, because there are so many skills and moves that you simply wont remember them all or even how to do them without going back into the menus and looking. It really depends on how you look at it, as having a huge plethora of skills at your disposal is cool, sometimes bigger isnt always better. Luckily the new move sets do keep the somewhat repetitive missions slightly fresh.
Staying out of combat is also sometimes the smarter choice, as having multiple strike squads called on you along with Hunters chasing you throughout the city can become overwhelming very quickly. This is where Alexs shape shifting abilities come into play. A person that you consume allows you to become and use their appearance on the outside. So while jumping in from the top of a skyscraper and destroying everything in your path as Alex is an option, sometimes just walking into the military base disguised as a commander is easier and quicker.
While consuming someone in plain site will obviously arouse suspicions, you are able to stealthily do this as well and take their body when no one is looking for quicker access. Theres even a Patsy skill where you can accuse any military soldier as being you in disguise, hopefully setting the military on alert, but for the wrong person.
Getting out of combat is needed to complete missions and doing so can be done in a few different ways. You can try and simply try to bolt over tall buildings and lose your pursuers that way, you can simply destroy anyone following you before more reinforcements are sent in, or the easiest way being; switch to someone elses body once you are out of sight and they wont have any idea its you.
Even when you have completed the main missions, there are a huge amount of side missions for you to try and complete and earn medals on. These can be races that have you going through checkpoints, gliding objectives, killing as many people with a certain power or vehicle in a set time limit, or even missions that will have you fighting alongside the military to wipe out the infected.
Each mission has a certain goal and you can earn bronze, silver, or gold medals which will in turn net you higher EP rewards. Should you want to just explore around the city, there are hidden orbs all throughout the city for you to find almost identical to Crackdown. Unfortunately you are unable to see these orbs until you are standing directly beside them, so unlike Crackdown, its much harder to see them from afar and go on an orb hunting run.
Even when you want some downtime to just play around in the city, you have to always watch your back as the military is always looking for you and the mutants will try tearing you apart without question. If you destroy a military base or an enemy Horde base, it will reduce the threat area in the city and will incapacitate them for a short time and leave you alone for a short while outside of missions.
Where there are many positives to the game, there were a few glaring negatives that need to be addressed. The main issue I felt was a disassociation with Alex as a whole; yes you feel badass and hes cool cause of his powers, but as a character, I didnt feel much connection other than the typical Im going to get to the bottom of this type of revenge.
With the majority of the game being a little repetitive mission wise, it was discerning to finish a long or difficult story arc and get no real answers or even a cutscene. Unfortunately the story itself is generally pretty short if you were able to jump from point A to point B, but it feels very forced to prolong the revealing of the story itself. Instead of a steadily gratifying reveal, you basically need to get to the end for everything to happen almost all at once. Half way through I just wanted to finish the story but was forced to do a lot of errands and missions that felt designed to artificially lengthen gameplay.
As mentioned before, the other issue I had was trying to remember the plethora of moves and skills and how to perform them all; and because your move set is restricted to what your equipped weapon or power is, it just added for another layer of complexity. It all depends on how you look at it, as someone else could say this has massive depth, but again, bigger is not always better. Someone casually playing or picking it up after not playing for awhile will have a hard time remembering and grasping all the moves.
The only other issue I would really nitpick on would be the lack of bosses. You feel massively powerful and throughout the whole story, you only fight a handful of bosses. When you do face a boss, it feels almost forced, though the frantic gameplay of the rest of the whole title will almost make you forget this. Also be ready to diea whole lot, as some of the missions scaled up in difficulty almost too quick; the checkpoint save system definitely helped not having to retry missions too many times over.
What Prototype does do well is the mobility of Alex and being able to get to where you want quickly and easily with enjoyment. You will also feel like a complete badass as you throw tanks and hijack choppers and these frantic moments make you forget about the repetitive enemies and mundane missions.
The amount of chaos that will be happening on the screen at one time can be quite impressive, and with a solid and constant frame rate when the action reaches an insane level, it is simply satisfying to play. You will feel extremely powerful and once you nail the more complex controls, it is very gratifying that can be enjoyed in a short play session doing side missions and events or a longer one trying to get Alex his revenge on who did this to him. If you enjoyed Spiderman 2 or Crackdowns gameplay (especially for the free roaming) then Prototype is a must; if you want to simply destroy anything in your path and feel absurdly powerful, then get ready for some of the most frantic and gratifying combat youll experience without having to worry about all those moral choices.
Suggestions: - While having 100 different moves is awesome, tryign to remember them is not. A quicker way to remember them other than having to pause and go in the menus would be helpfull.
- Please don't insert trash quests and missions just to artificially lengthen the game, I don't want to become bored having to arbitrarily finish something just to progress the plot when it's not needed.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
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UFC Undisputed 2009
When UFC Undisputed was announced I was honestly a little worried that the title wouldnt live up to my expectations due to the lackluster previous versions of UFC games that have come out in the past. My mind was somewhat put at ease when I found out THQ and Yukes (known for the WWE wrestling games) were the ones behind this title.
The largest annoyance I had with their previous wrestling games were the terrible collision detection and frequent clipping of objects and bodies. Naturally I didnt want a UFC game with these issues and luckily neither did the developers apparently; because it shows and is vastly improved. Oddly enough though I seemed to have found almost the opposite; fighters getting hit with punches and kicks that clearly have missed, yet made contact with the hit-box like a ghost punch.
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting is a very brutal yet strategic sport and Undisputed seems to have captured the essence of all aspects of fighting in this title with a roster larger than 80 real fighters currently or former from the UFC.
The majority of all the fighters looks extremely realistic and even moves much like the real person. There were a few exceptions though such as Andrei Arlovski who looks absolutely nothing like his real counterpart. Surprisingly; Dana White also looks pitiful in video game form as well and hes the first person you see as soon as you start the game. Almost everyone else looked flawless though, even Antonio Nogueira has his signature childhood scar-indentation in his back. These realistic looking fighters along with a constant framerate that never slips or slows down adds to the realistic translation of the sport.
Not only are the fighters a replica of the UFC counterpart, so is everything else even during matches. Bruce Buffer introduces the fighters in the ring and the actual referees will also call the match. The only thing missing from an exact replica prestart of a fight is the fighters walking down to the Octagon. Between rounds youll even see the fighters in their corner getting advice from the team along with being patched up from the real cut-men and even see the Octagon Girls.
Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg also do the commentary during matches and are surprisingly very well done and true to life. Mike does most of the play by play calls and Rogan talks a lot about the fighters history and adds color commentary. They even kept in his every so often commentary mistake that really adds to the realism of the battle. He feed off each other much like on TV and Pay-Per-Views and I was impressed with it more-so than in previous wrestling games.
By default there is absolutely not HUD on the screen to show your fighters health and stamina and while I found it was more interesting to try and get visual cues from your opponent (such as limping or breathing heavy), turning on the stamina bar makes things much easier to figure out when you should go all out or for a submission. Visually I found most of the clues too subtle to figure out when to attempt something big since you are really concentrating on defending against strikes and takedowns.
While it is fun to jump straight into an exhibition mode with a friend and just start to wail on each others head for a knockout, you must absolutely do the boot camp tutorial if you want to actually have some skill in the game, as there is quite a steep learning curve to do any real moves. You will be taught every move, how to do it, and how to even counter them. At first it will feel unnatural and even awkward since different button combinations can do completely different things, but once you start to play naturally without thinking about it, it does feel much more natural. It truly is one of those games that are easy to jump in and play, but a very long time to master.
The face buttons are your main tools for delivering a brutal beating. X and Y are your two arms and punches while A and B are your legs and kicks. This can be combined with the Left Bumper to do high head attacks while the Left Trigger will modify your hits to attack low leg strikes. Every hit will also change depending on your distance to the other person, so if you are in arms length and throw a punch, you will straight punch them in the face; if you are close up or in a clinch you may elbow them instead due to the lack of room to pull back your arm and swing. Even if you are running towards your opponent, you can even pull off a flying superman punch or a flying knee to the face, it all depends on what you press and where in relation to the fighters.
It feels a little daunting at first trying to attack high and low and with the modifiers but eventually youll find combos that work well for your character and is hard for your opponent to block. Your attacks will even change fighter to fighter depending on what fighting style they use. Your well placed strikes will bring out cuts and bruises and even cause blood to spatter on the mat floor if given enough of a beating.
While anyone can pick up and mash a few punches and kicks, the real fighters will differentiate themselves with their grappling and ground game. The right analog stick is how you move and transition your fighter while in a clinch or on the ground. You are able to do minor transitions that are easy to do but give very little if any better position than you are already in. Major transitions are doable as well but are harder to execute but will give you a much better position. You can move from any position (top or bottom) to virtually any other one you would see in a real fight provided you dont get blocked or countered. Minor transitions are done with a quarter circle on the stick (much like a fireball in street fighter), where a major transition takes a half circle to complete. Depending on where you start and finish these moves on the stick will determine which angle you try to better your position.
Until you learn the small intricacies of the ground game and transitions, it will be quite frustrating at first when you are doing everything you can to try and get out from the guy on top of you and nothing seems to work. Other times you will do a counter when you dont mean to and wonder why you cant do it all the time. Once you become quite good at the ground game, you can almost take apart any opponent (human, online, or CPU) and its quite satisfying to see yourself pick apart an opponent on the ground at will.
Submissions will have the same feel in the beginning. Clicking in the right stick will grab the closest limb available (or counter grab a strike) and attempt to submit your opponent. You can brute force yourself way out of a submission attempt by spamming the face buttons as fast as you can but you will just be back in the previous position you were in. Trying to stop a submission by rotating the right stick as fast as possible will have your character reverse the submission attempt and end with you being on top in a dominant position. To successfully submit an opponent you need to gas them first (wear their stamina out) and then youll have a better, though not guaranteed, shot at making them tap. This reason alone is worth having the stamina bar viewable on the screen. Many times Ive had a person try to submit me, only to gas themselves out, I reverse the submission and win, all because I saw his stamina.
With the ability to create your own fighter from scratch, you can customize him to your exact play style to play off of your strengths, or even defend against your weaknesses. You decide what style of fighter you want for striking from Kickboxing, Boxing, and Muay Thai and then decide on what type of ground game they want to replicate from Wrestling, Judo, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Its interesting to see fighters with different mixed styles and you can virtually make your fighter to your exact liking for a move-set.
Your fighters main three stats are his strength, speed, and cardio; all of which are completely important to a fighters style and how you want to play. You then allocate points into your fighting style stats and can even further customize your fighter to any way you desire. You can put points into offence and defense of any type of striking or ground move. If you want to be amazing at submission defense and excel at punching while on the ground, you can do so in any way you want. Specializing your character exactly how to you want play is quite impressive with the depth you can get, though I find most people generally pump their stats into the general striking and submitting.
Next up in your create a fighter (CAF for short) is how he physically looks. The face customization is superb and you can almost make them look like anyone. There are even step by steps online on how to make fighters in the game that are real fighters not yet included. I myself even made a pretty decent looking Joe Rogan for laughs online. Sadly though, body customization was very lacking as most of it was skins for how hairy and how defined you wanted their abs and pecs. You are unable to have a chubby fighter or even anyone somewhat resembling an old school Tank Abbot.
With virtually unlimited slots for CAFs, you can make any style of fighter you want and progress them to see what styles fit your play best. From here you can take them through the career mode and even online and in exhibition matches.
As you start your career with your newly created CAF, like any other game, you need to prove yourself and start from the bottom. As you begin youll start being booked in undercard matches until you start making a name for yourself and gain more wins under your belt.
Your fighting career is tracked on a calendar and you can see when your next fight is or when you have camps coming to visit to help you train. During the weeks between fights, you can choose to train your main skills, spar against a computer opponent for 2 minutes to gain attribute skills, and even rest your stamina for the next weeks events. Every so often youll have events pop up for extra credits such as autograph signings or interviews that you can accept or decline depending on your schedule. Sometimes youll even get asked to fight someone last minute for a bonus if you decide to take on the fight with very short notice.
Juggling your schedule and training can be quite daunting in the beginning since youre unsure what you should focus on, but once you learn how all the timing works its a nice change of pace from the standard training and fighting over and over again. The menu system to do all of this though I found quite cumbersome and clunky and it took about half my career to really get the hang of it.
Once you become the champion of your weight class, from here on it becomes slightly dull, as youll constantly be fighting the top 5 or so guys as they want to try and take the belt away from you. You always have a decision of 3 different people to defend your title against but fighting the same guy 10 times or so does become dull and old after awhile.
Another thing that I found quite a shame was that you are unable to change your weight class even once you are completely dominant in your division. The other small irk that I noticed was that regardless of how many years in the career youve been fighting, there is no reference to your previous fights or title defends at all. It would have been awesome to hear about your last fights knockout or some other details about your career as you are fighting someone. You only ever hear about who you are fighting, not you who is the champ.
The career mode only lasts about 30-40 fights (depending on how many extra fights you accepted) and forces you to retire after your seventh year in the UFC. At the end of your career you are left with a fighter that has the stats of whoever you tuned him to be which can then be taken online or in exhibition mode.
Exhibition mode is your standard fight within the same weight class, but Classic Matches is something unique that at first I didnt think Id really care about, but eventually I found myself trying to do the objectives correctly. Classic mode will have you re-enacting one of twelve famous fights. Old footage sets up the bout as dramatic as can be and then when you are actually fighting; your goal is to replicate how the actual fight went. For example, if the real fight ended in a knockout in round one, or going all the way to a decision, your goal is to try and make that particular finish happen. If you successfully pull it off, you unlock footage from the actual fight to enjoy and watch. Its hard to do some of them properly as instinctively you just want to knock them out as soon as possible but having a specific finish to work for is a rewarding change of pace.
Going on Xbox Live, you are able to choose a player or ranked match. In Ranked you gain levels and fans for your wins and level up much like in other shooter games to show your current rank and skill. Quite a few matches online I played have suffered from some lag and because of this; your fighters timing is completely off and youll miss many opportunities because of it. Unfortunately there is no lag meter in any way when someone joins your room so you wont know how bad the lag is until the match actually starts. Also, because you are able to make ranked matches private, there are people who have already abused this to reach maximum rank and have a flawless record.
DLC fighters are already in the works since theres already an option to enable them or not in rooms, so its just a matter of time. Heres to hoping for some old school UFC hall of Fames like Gracie, Severn, Shamrock, Abbott, and many others.
My biggest wish for this would be the ability to have inter-weight class dream fights. The inability to do this was a small letdown, but it would have been very interesting to see those old school UFC rules in, even if only in exhibition, but alas, I guess well never see what would happen if Lesnar and GSP fought.
The loading times in general feel very long only because it happens so frequently. Even switching and navigating menus have a small lag that all adds up. Especially before a fight when everything is loading, its just long enough to stand out awkwardly. Fortunately installing UFC to the hard drive did speed this up dramatically which was a relief.
Undisputed has a very steep learning curve, especially if you want to become proficient in the ground game grappling. Casual players will no doubt become extremely frustrated in the beginning when they are unable to do anything when taken to the ground, but players who spend time in the tutorial and practice the controls will come away feeling very rewarded they are able to play with their opponent at will.
With the controls and fighting be so complex in the beginning is certainly gives you an appreciation the actual fighting skills of the real fighters in the sport. Luckily THQ and Yukes have put together a package that plays very well once you wrap your head around the controls and even non UFC fans will be able to enjoy and have fun with the title.
UFC Undisputed is an excellent recreation of the actual sport as you will find. If you werent watching the screen you would think an actual UFC event was on TV from the quality of the sound and announcing quality. When a huge knockout happens, its just as exhilarating as watching the real thing and playing with some friends over, I even had someone say this is a great fight! which was proof enough to me that this game did their job perfectly to replicate the action and excitement of the UFC. Undisputed is definitely a title that will KO you with its presentation quality or make you tap if you pass this one up.
Suggestions: -Inter-weight class fights
-Online that can't be abused by boosters
-More old school fighters
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
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Ninja Blade
It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; if this is true then God of War and Ninja Gaiden must be red from blushing. Ninja Blade is an action hack and slash by From Software and is a generally straight forward button masher mixed in with interactive cutscenes..lots of them. It may not have the depth or nearly the difficulty as the games its clearly taken its inspiration from, but its not trying to be serious and should be ventured knowing ahead of time that it is meant to be completely over the top.
You are Ken Ogawa, a member of an elite ninja group that have highly specialized skills like your own. You are called to Tokyo because somehow parasites have infected the city and in engulfing anyone in the area, completely taking over their body and mutating them; destroying the city and anything in its path. Its up to you and your team to save not only Tokyo from complete annihilation, but all of mankind as well by subduing the advancing infection rate. For some reason though, you will see crowded streets with moving cars even though the city was supposed to be evacuated.
The dialogue is generally cheesy and there are a few dramatic moments, but the entertainment value is sometimes unintended in some moments that will have you snickering at the wrong time.
There are a few plot twists other than the standard save the Earth that make it slightly more interesting, but its cut and dry basics that barely pass as an engrossing storyline. You are simply playing for the action and excitement; much like going to an action movie to go see the awesome explosions and action rather than the story. This is apparent from the moment you start Ninja Blade as the first enemy and boss you fight starts the action off in the high adrenaline mode youll be on for the next 10 or so hours to finish it.
Through 9 different missions, you will travel across Tokyo clearing waste to anything in your way. You will battle across rooftops, on the street, and even through buildings and tunnels. Each level seems to center around two to four giant boss sequences and getting to each one has the standard hack and slash gameplay in between when getting from point to point.
The biggest design issue with the levels is not even the repetitive nature, but instead the fact that you cannot save mid level in any way. Each level is roughly an hour long each, so make sure you have that much time before you even start or else youll lose your current progress and have to restart the mission from the start.
As you begin, you are only given a single sword to battle your foes which is your balanced weapon. Eventually you will also be given duel wield swords that are much quicker and double as grapple wire hooks, and also a very large two handed weapon that is very slow to attack with, but extremely powerful to balance it off. Each type of enemy is vulnerable to different types of attacks and different weapons, so you will be switching your arsenal quite often trying to defeat certain types of infected with the appropriate corresponding weapon.
All of the weapons can be upgraded with a set amount of orbs you gather from defeating enemies and its up to you to upgrade your weapon of choice. As you unlock higher levels in a weapon, more skills become unlocked and your move set becomes more robust; making you that much more lethal and giving you more options for game play styles.
You also have an elemental Ninjitsu disc that can be thrown to slice infected and also even clear paths in your way. Have a fire blocking your path; throw your disc with the wind skill to blow out the flames. Need something blown up from afar, and then use the fire skill Ninjitsu to achieve this. Even the lightning Ninjitsu will stun enemies in your way or electrify water. It adds a little more complexity in getting to the right path in levels but its not generally very challenging to figure out; the difficulty is in actually performing it while keeping other enemies at bay.
Its near impossible to get lost or figure out where to go next as you have an ability called Ninja Vision. This skill will detect weak spots on enemies and bosses, pointing out where you need to attack. It will also make paths and walkways glow blue which tells you exactly where you need to go next, and when activated, it will also even show you barrels and boxes that have items and secrets inside them. The downfall to using your Ninja Vision is that you take extra damage if you get hit with it activated.
Regular non-boss enemies are littered throughout the campaign while fighting your way to each boss. Unfortunately there are very few variations of the standard grunt enemies and youll be executing many of the same types of infected throughout the whole game. This coupled with the fact that they barely need any blocking from makes them simply too easy and you will rarely even have to switch to the proper weapon to defeat them.
The enemies that take center stage in Ninja Blade are the numerous and sometimes challenging Bosses. These will range from spiders that crawl up the sides of skyscrapers, crabs, snails, and even worms that can plow through buildings. The scale of the battles can be absolutely huge; which was definitely an influence from the God of War series or even Shadow of the Colossus. Comparatively it would be much like a bug trying to fight something the size of a human or even bigger, its that big. You may be wondering how a single ninja can take down a beast this large (well you shouldnt, because its a ninja). Sometimes it will require you riding a missile like a surf board into its face, or even riding a motorcycle down the side of a bus all while freefalling midair. Yes, its that over the top at times, which does bring it some charm without taking itself too seriously.
Regular combat plays much like a hack a slash much like God of War or Ninja Gaiden, but it feels more simplified and less demanding of perfection (which Ninja Gaiden brutally punished you for mistakes). You will also be taking control of turrets on a moving vehicle or plane or sometimes also fighting monsters while running down the side of a building. Defeat certain enemies in a specific way and you are given a chance to do a one hit finishing move that requires a few correct corresponding button presses. Miss the button and you just need to finish it with normal attacks though and dont get the bonus score.
When you arent in combat, you will be watching cinematics that require specific button inputs at given times to progress. This feature is a way to keep the player engrossed rather than simply watching a cutscene and it can even be funin moderation. At least a third of the whole game is based on these quick time events scattered between battles. It happens so often that it sometimes feels more like an interactive movie than an actual game at times.
They are in almost every single cinematic and you need quick reflexes to input them correctly, though a properly timed press has more rewards than just pressing it as soon as you see the correct button. One of the great design choices for this though is actually if you fail a button press. Instead of starting all over from your last checkpoint, the quick time event rewinds time and starts you back at the start of that cinematic for you to try again. They arent very challenging and there really is no penalty for failure, instead they sometimes even divert your attention away from the action because you are keeping a keen eye for what to press next instead of enjoying the video.
Once a boss health has been depleted and youve also done the quick time event (most bosses have one afterwards) you then need to do one more quick time event, but this one is your special finish move called your Todomé attack. Its the same thing as any other quick time event, but if you dont go up to the boss and initiate this finisher manually, the boss can actually regenerate and you will be forced to fight it all over again. Its usually not an issue to initiate the Todomé, but if you get knocked down or cant make it to the appropriate spot, it can be quite frustrating to restart all over.
There are a few other notable positives and negatives that stood out quite clearly while playing. Some of the positives being that if you go in expecting just to have fun and enjoy completely over the top action you wont be disappointed from the complete unpredictability that this has to offer. The camera angles during the action sequences are excellent and have that cool feel to them that youd probably see in a Hollywood action movie that highlights all the action appropriately. Also, you can unlock (and download) extra costumes for Ken to wear. Im going to have to categorize this as both a positive and negative as some of the costumes are very cool and suit the ninja style while others are completely ridiculous like bright pink with hearts or flowers.
The absolute largest frustration though had to come from a horrible design choice regarding the save system. Each mission is about an hour or so long, but if you arent completely certain that you cant set aside this much time in one sitting, there is no point to even put the disc in your system due to having no save system during missions. There are checkpoints if you die and will restart at, but if you have to turn off your system or cant finish a level, you have to begin from the start all over again regardless of how far you got in the level.
Considering the scale of some of the main battles, I was quite surprised that I didnt encounter very much slowdown, but of course it did happen to me at some odd times that did require me to restart due to the drop in framerate when trying to make specific jumps.
It feels as if the game is simply trying just too hard to be cool with all the action thrust towards the player. It does have a certain charm to it for simple mindless fun, but those looking for a deeper story or combat will be disappointed from the general clichés.
Suggestions: Over the top can be fun and interesting, but there is a fine line between awesome and absurd. Make mid-level checkpoints. There were times where I wanted to play but couldnt set aside an hour so there was no point sadly.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
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Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is actually two games in one; the very successful Escape from Butcher Bay classic that was on the original Xbox, and Assault on Dark Athena; the new expansion. Both take place in the Riddick timeline before the movie Pitch Black takes place and is a great way to see the back story of the character and plot.
The Butcher Bay game is the true star of this title, and even though either game can be played and chosen from the start, its seriously recommended to start with Butcher Bay before hand and go from there.
Though playing a remake of a game thats only about 5 years old may seem boring, I myself forgot almost everything about the game and was reminded how superb the original title truly was with its unique gameplay and mechanics and blended well together.
Keep in mind that this title is 3 different experiences in one; Butcher Bay, Dark Athena, and Online. They should also be played in this order to get the most out of the purchase.
You are Riddick (magnificently voiced by Vin Diesel himself) and you are a criminal sent to Butcher Bay (the futures substitute of a ruthless and inescapable Alcatraz-like prison) to live out your sentence. Being a survivor and knowing youll do whatever it takes to live, you manage to break out of your cell and then begin to break your way out of the maximum security prison while taking out anyone that gets in your way, whatever the cost. Riddick is always against the odds and has to face many enemies at once, this is where the darkness becomes his home and he stalks his prey one by one.
Gameplay is a delicate mixture of stealth, melee, gunplay, platforming puzzles, and learning to use the shadows as your cover. You only start off with your fists and you will be forced into some brutal fist fights, eventually handling knives and clubs and eventually guns.
On top of a great mesh of different play styles, Butcher Bay when released for the original Xbox was ahead of it time by breaking the typical movie licensed game gone horribly wrong by also adding amazing voice acting and stunning visuals.
Because Butcher Bay is essentially a remake, Ill focus more on the changes rather than going through the whole story once again as it can be read up on older reviews.
Improved controls and graphics are the most notable changes from the original release about 5 years ago. Also now having achievements is a nice addition rather than it just being a backwars compatable game.
All the textures looked to have been redone, and it does look better than its original release, but the difference was that compared to the Xbox release, it doesnt look as good for its time comparatively. On the original Xbox, the graphics for Butcher Bay were astounding at the time, while now they look adequate.
While the visuals have been slightly improved, the rest of the game is intact for the most part; flaws and all. Characters still move very stiff and faces will rarely show any kind of expression. There are also very many shadow anomalies on the characters even during cutscenes that is kind of a distraction. The original minor clipping issue is still in as well, but even being half a decade old now; it still can hold its own in the first person genre.
There was a section in the PC version of Butcher Bay that Xbox owners never got and now console players can use a mech during a part of their escape. Its not much but its nice to have a cleaner, fuller version of the title. Even if youve completed the game previously, finishing this version is more than worth it as its still a superb title that deserves the play through once again.
Dark Athena happens directly after the story of Butcher Bay ends. Its an expansion that adds about 6-8 more hours to Riddicks story, but its definitely not a sequel, simply an expansion since it basically used Butcher Bay as a template and not even to the proper degrees as its predecessor.
While you are able to directly choose to play Dark Athena first, I dont recommend it as it wont make sense at all if you dont know the basics from Butcher Bay; that and its meant to add value to the Butcher Bay story and gameplay.
There are only a fraction of the characters when compared to Butcher Bay (that was a whole prison), but one of the major pros is that the voice acting in Dark Athena is superb and some of the best Ive heard in quite some time. Unfortunately the characters that Riddick converses with are vastly underused and make it difficult to actually care about them in any deep way, even when some of them get killed.
Almost everything in Dark Athena is simply recycled and reused from Butcher Bay (mechanics, stealth, and mech sections) yet there isnt very many improvements that instantly come to mind other than your new trusty weapons; the dual Ulaks that are vicious in any circumstance. Its a great play that will last a few hours, but its the same game.
Dark Athena is also much more linear than Butcher Bay and barely had any side quests to do. In the original title pacing and play styles were very well meshed together, in Dark Athena you are forced into different styles of gameplay at different parts and the pacing is sporadic at best. At times you will be doing a long section of stealth, then a barrage of gunplay, then nothing by traversing and it almost feels like sections rather than an all-together experience.
Where Butcher Bay focused mainly on stealth and melee combat, Dark Athena is almost exactly the opposite and will have you wielding a gun for the last half of the game and simply shooting out lights to make artificial darkness. It feels like its a completely different Riddick and while hes still bad-ass, hes more menacing when hes outnumbered and has to use the darkness for cover when taking out enemies one by one.
Drones are a new type of enemy in Athena which are prisoners that are turned into mindless drones. Mindless is the description I used purposely, as the AI in Dark Athena is simply terrible. If you arent standing directly in front of an enemy, he wont have an idea where you are at. You can even shoot enemies that are beside each other and they wont do a thing even though their partner just got shot a foot away. Also, whenever a drone is taken out, you are able to stand them up and use them like a shield while using the guns attached to their arms almost like a turret. Its another example of how Athena feels completely different that its predecessor. Even the non-drone humans are just as incompetent and its quite disappointing that I can get away so easily even then they have flashlights and cant find me.
As stated before, Dark Athena is meant to compliment Butcher Bay instead of being a stand-alone title, yet it plays almost completely differently. Relying heavily on guns really disappointed me, but the amazing voice acting almost made me forget it.
Vin Diesels voicing is just as good as it was in Butcher Bay and the support cast is equally as good (especially in Dark Athena). The character models and especially facial movements in Dark Athena are also top notch and very expressive of emotions. Everything just seemed to move and sound fluid and authentic.
You will also get used to seeing a lot of blue, which means you are hidden when crouched. Riddick also has his eyeshine (equivalent to night vision) that works quite well for navigating in the dark, but it can become a pain when having to switch it on and off because a bright light completely blinds you, and then you cant see when its destroyed.
Health is a set of boxes in the top left corner and you start off with about 4 boxes worth of health. Punches for example take a few hits to completely deplete a box of health, and when a box is gone, it will not regenerate until you find a med station to refill your health completely.
A feature that any of the original fans wanted from Riddick was an online multiplayer component. Well now there is online multiplayer but its quite bland other than an original mode called Pitch Black. Pitch Black is a 5 on 1 mode that pits one person playing as Riddick that only has blades facing off against 5 other soldiers that are using any guns they can find. Riddick can see in the dark with his eyeshine ability and players have to use the flashlights on their weapons. The catch being that the higher power weapons have a lower radius light while the pistols have a might broader light. The player who ends up killing Riddick ends the round and becomes him for the next. Its very tense to play and quite entertaining trying to find a creeping Riddick in the shadows.
The other online modes are very bland and offer nothing unique at all and found them quite dull and too similar. Even though there are 15 maps to play, the only mode worth playing is the Pitch Black mode. While it may not be a robust offering, at least the one mode is more than enough to keep you entertained online.
I do wonder if well ever get a true sequel for Riddick (possibly between movies in the timeline), but having a rounded back story to the movies is a great way to get more depth on the Riddick character.
Escape from Butcher Bay is still an excellent title if youve never played it before; this package cant be beat value-wise and is a must for those that never got to experience Riddick in his original adventure. The best way to this purchase is Butcher Bay with a bonus campaign expansion and a mediocre online component.
For the price you cant go wrong for a strong single player experience as on overall package and try to think of both games as a single and longer experience even though it may not be even in quality or experiences. You arent going to find a better valued package for the price, especially during this slow time of year for newer titles.
I forgot how great Butcher Bay really was even though Ive completed it years ago. Even if youve completed it before hand as well, its worth experiencing again even if its only for the achievements. So get comfortable, turn off the lights, hide in the shadows and experience the best Vin Diesel game made to date as the voice acting will truly surprise you and prove that games can have real acting included.
Suggestions: -AI that isn't braindead
-Multiplayer that means something other than one mode
-An expansion that feels like Butch Bay, not Riddick 1.5 with guns.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
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Godfather 2
I usually become nervous when Im about to play a game based on a movie license due to almost always being disappointed from rushed development time, a simple lack of imagination, or something that doesnt even resemble its movie counterpart in anyway. Since Godfather II wasnt being rushed to coincide with the movie release (it came out in 1974 to be exact), I had some high hopes that I would get to play my part in the storyline or even see a slightly different angle to the plot weve all seen in the movie.
Godfather II follows the basic premise of the movie but with its own slight twists and turns on a few parts. You play as Dominic who is a member of the Corleone family and start the story in Cuba where all the families are gathered to discuss how Hyman Roths empire will be split up once hes retired. Due to Cuban rebels; Dominic, Michael Corleone, Fredo and Aldo Trapani are trying to escape with their lives back to the plane to get home. One of them doesnt make it and Michael decides you are ready to be a Boss and take back New York for the family. If the name Aldo sounds familiar, thats because he was who you played in the first Godfather title.
Now it is your turn to run New York and take things back to the way they used to be. Eventually youll take over the city then move on to Florida and eventually Cuba. Nothing comes easy as other families will do anything they can to prevent you from taking their territory while you attempt to make a name for yourself.
The first thing you do when you start is create and dress Dominic. The creation choices were decent, and you can get really detailed with facial and body sizing/scaling, but I found there were very little clothing options and I never could make him exactly how I wanted him, but I settled on a look I felt I could deal with for the remainder of the game.
As a Don, you need a crew that will follow and be loyal to the very end. As the game progresses you can earn more and more family members and decide on who youll make a made man. You can dress your soldiers however you like as well which I enjoyed since I had everyone in matching suits following me.
Each soldier starts with a basic skill that he is proficient in such as a Medic who will revive you if you die, Safecrackers who can crack vaults, Arsonists who will set ablaze anything you tell them to, Demolitionists who can blow up doors and walls for alternate ways into areas, or even an Engineer who can cut holes through fences for back-way ins to places and also power off of buildings to prevent backup from being called in. You can then choose who to promote to higher ranks in your family which will unlock more skills for their disposal. In addition to these skills, you can also upgrade many other options of each member such as health, weapon licenses which allow them to use bigger and better guns, or to be quicker with their main skills, on top of many others of course. All of these skill upgrades require money to purchase but if you are diligent with keeping all your rime rings intact, your money flow later in the game is not really an issue
You are only able to have 3 of your family members follow you at a time but if you need to swap one out for another because of their skills, its instant and you dont have to wait for them to get to you. Its convenient and quick, but makes absolutely no sense realistically how I can turn around and all of a sudden one of my guys is standing there with me. The same goes for driving around; you can get in a 2 door car, drive across the city and soon as you get out, your men will be there as if they were with you the whole time. Your crew wont be the smartest bunch of AI, since sometimes even getting them to go in one spot can be a challenge in its own, but when you have to wait for them to pile in the car because they are stuck on each other or spinning around not being able to get in, frustration sets in and you will just do things on your own sometimes.
As the Don, you are able to look at the city as a whole from a top down 3D view appropriately named The Dons View. From here you can see every building and who owns and runs it. This is to help you strategize of where you need to be and what to take over next in your push to own the city.
To take over a business isnt as simple as killing the owner, its more about fear and intimidation. Have someone scared of you enough and theyll pay you for protection instead of another family. This can be done in a few ways depending on the place and person. Some owners will bend to your will with a few bruises to the face while others will need some more convincing such as being strangled or hung over the edge of a building. Once you have the correct amount of intimidation you can then turn them to work or pay to you. Everyone has a breaking point too where they wont take it anymore and theyll attack you instead and you will have to wait a set time before trying again. It isnt a very difficult mechanic to accomplish and usually throwing a few punches their way will get them to do whatever you want. The closer you bring them to their breaking point though, the more money youll receive each payment.
Just because you run a place doesnt mean a rival family will let that go unnoticed; just like how you can take over areas, they will try and retaliate by bombing or setting ablaze your property as well since all property owned gains you money. Guards can be hired to stay and guard any of your properties and is a necessity if you want to keep them all at once. As you take over businesses and crime rings, you are given bonuses for your family such as body armor, increased ammo, increased income and more depending on what and how many businesses you own at one time. If you are too busy doing something else to go help defend a building under attack, you can send one of your soldiers to go help the hired guards which is quite an advantage since the soldier being sent is probably equivalent to about 7 guards.
Committing crimes, stealing cars, beating up pedestrians are not without repercussion though. Should someone nearby witness your wrong-doing, they will be an eye witness and possibly alert nearby authorities, unless of course you take care of them too. You will get into shootouts and police will respond as well causing even more of a firefight on your hands. The police in Godfather II are much more harsh and unforgiving as youll spend much longer trying to evade cops (the fact that almost every car is slow doesnt help this either) than in other games that you may be used to. I found finding a hiding spot usually worked better than simply trying to outrun them since they can be very brutal and shoot you down extremely quickly before you even know what to do.
To kill a rival Don, you need to take out his soldiers, to do that you need to find where they are and how to kill them appropriately (or they will just recover sometime later), to do this you must find random certain people on the streets and help them with whatever they need be it a hit, stealing, bombing, or a beating. This part makes absolutely no sense; why would you walk up to some random stranger (as a Don none the less) and start talking to them as they tell a random stranger (you) that they need someone killed. Its a completely illogical mechanic. Do them the favor they want and they reward you with how to find your target and how to kill him. Its absurd the mechanic behind it but doing side quests like this and many others will add quite a length of gameplay should you want to get more out of it. By taking out a Dons soldiers, they are unable to defend their crime rings as easily and allow you to take them over with much more ease.
Doing these kill quests can take some time and if you fail at executing them the proper way, you will just have to redo it again later. That being said, it is completely optional since that to kill a Don, you dont need to take out all of his soldiers, you just need to take away all of his businesses so that they have nowhere to retreat other than their hideout. Once there you blow up their hideout and that family is gone forever which defeats the purpose of finding and killing the other made-men.
It would have been more interesting to be able to ally with a certain Don, clear out everyone else then when inevitably betray him. Because you cant do this, you focus on taking over property, killing the Don and building, then repeat.
When conversing with people, you are sometimes given options of what to say, almost like a speech tree ala Mass Effect, except nowhere near as deep or interesting. Usually you have 3 or 4 choices of what to say but many are predictable and most choices simply feel like a yes or no type of answer. When talking to a person that is asking for help, instead of choosing to hear their story and why, you can simply choose yes and it just sounds ridiculous when a random person asks the Don Can you help me? and you reply a simple Yes and the quest is added to your dossier. Its very awkward sounding and after a few quests in, you wont care to hear what people say since you can instantly look on the Dons View map and see what needs to be done and where, saving yourself time and usually horrible voice acting. The main characters voicing is actually pretty decent, but random pedestrians and minor characters will have you cringing everything you hear a fake accent.
Godfather II does have a multiplayer component to it, but if you never looked for it in the menus, you would never know it was there. In multiplayer, you dont play as your Don; you play as one of your made-men in a variety of different modes on top of the standard deathmatches. Firestarter, Safecracker, and Demolition Assault have you using the obvious specific skills to gain points by doing the objective such as starting arson fires, cracking safes, and bombing areas respectively.
There is a unique option for a person on each time to play as a Don, but instead of being a character you control, you control a cameras view above the city and can relay info to your team and set waypoints along with rewarding with other bonuses should they capture specific areas. Dons are able to bet money on the outcome of the game, but its a very moot point once you have a steady cash flow in your single player game. As you earn points online you can then spend these on your soldiers to upgrade their weapon licenses so that you can use more powerful ones. Its interesting that these skills carry over to online and offline play so at least when you are playing online you are still working towards your single player experience in a way.
There were quite a few small things that added to overall frustration (not including the intended attempted takeovers/bombings of your buildings that always detour you from your original plans). The smallest but most annoying and consistent is that you normally can vault over smaller ledges, but not all of them. You are unable to tell if you can vault it until you are right up beside it and it will either work or not. Learning this while running away from police will cause great frustration when there is a wall not even waist high that you are unable to jump over. The same goes for doors and fences that can or cant be blown up or cut down even though they will look identical to ones that can.
The guards in a bank or elsewhere will completely forget your face when you come back later as if theyve never seen you. Horrendous pop-in textures and even pedestrians that will disappear unknowingly in front of your eyes for no reason are just some of the other issues that plagued the whole play through. Even shadows will jump around, appear or disappear randomly and take away from the whole experience; especially during climactic cutscenes.
Even if you can look past all these flaws, everything as a whole does become awfully repetitive (just on a larger scale). It has all the elements of a great title, but with a very convoluted Dons View and some massive illogical ideas it just feels kind of slapped together with half ideas. There are so many issues that need to be fixed or outright changed before this would be an offer you cant refuse.
Overall Score: 7.4 / 10
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Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Square Enix and tri-Ace have brought their latest RPG to the masses and to be completely honest, I was quite worried that it was going to have the same technical problems that the previous title; The Last Remnant had. Luckily about 5 years of development of this entry in the Star Ocean series has seemed to pay off from a technical standpoint, but nothing is without its flaws. Great gameplay and a crafting system mixes things up and keeps everything interesting but only if you are able to swallow some appalling voice work on top of a notably slow pace of story.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope takes place many years before the original sequel and is a prequel that gives some back-story if youre knowledgeable of the story in the series so far. You arent required to know or understand the stories from the whole franchise to undertake this adventure, but knowing the basics is interesting since there are a few moments where you suddenly realize who someone is (or related to) or will become in the future.
The timeline can be a little confusing at first, so I will explain the main events so that you can understand a little clearer of what happens and when. World War 3 occurs in 2064 A.D and the much of Earths population is decimated by nuclear devastation almost instantly. Shortly after, a cease-fire is negotiated and although the War is abruptly over, the lasting effects wreak havoc the planets environment. Normal people survive by living underground and its decided that the planets population needs a new habitat; so now its time to find a new home somewhere out in the ocean of stars.
In 2087 A.D, Space Reconnaissance Force (the SRF) is formed and due to a sudden surge of warp drive technology, the prospect of finding a new home among the stars in space comes closer to reality. This accomplishment sets the new Spacedate Calendar (S.D) in place from here on. Ten years later (10 S.D), the first SRF mission gets its official beginning.
Edge Maverick (The typical honest and good doer) and Reimi Saionji (Who follows everything by the books) who are childhood friends, are members of the SRF and given the daunting task of exploring the galaxy for a habitable new home for mankind. Apart from this great beginning to the main plot, the remainder of the overall story is quite cliché and filled with the typical JRPG plot twists, never-give-up attitudes, plethora of friends that will stick by your side no matter what, and of course the predictable entity that can destroy all life that must be stopped no matter what.
Edge will gather and make new friends along the way of course, but I needed to specially mention Lymle (Who is a friendly child that tags along early on to save her Grandpa) and instantly suggest turning off her in-battle voice as it was simply the most annoying repetitive catch phrases Ive heard in quite awhile, and this is even after 40 hours of playing The Last Remnant!
Even though youll most likely sense what is going to happen next, or even know what the next paragraph of dialogue will be, Star Ocean is built as a very traditional RPG and comes complete with battling monsters (though not enough variety overall) and searching for treasure chests in the oddest places. A Square Enix RPG wouldnt be complete either without the numerous and sometimes overly long cutscenes that are very beautiful to watch, but enjoying them can be impossible at times due to the terrible script coupled with some voice acting that may make you cringe at times.
I found the pacing of the story to flesh out was way too long and I really didnt even start to become interested in the overall plot until 6 to 8 hours in once you start to piece together everything and start to learn the Why of it all.
While running around the world, you will see monsters appear along the way and they can be avoided or fought against if you engage them (or if they attack you from getting too close). Battles are fought in real time with a party of four. You manually control one character at a time and the other members will automatically follow what directions you have given them (Attack all out, Attack without using MP, Play Defensively, etc). You can switch to any of your party members at any time should you choose to rather play a caster or ranged player instead of the standard sword wielder; you are also able to change your AIs commands whenever as well if the need arises to change your strategy.
Every character seems to play differently, so finding a play style that suits you when you have multiple party members isnt too difficult. It makes it enjoyable trying to find that perfect party that suits your style and works efficiently together, but luckily you can even swap in and out characters in battle at will as well if needed. Even a characters fighting style can be changed at any time with the BEAT (Battle Enhancement Attribute Type) system should you want the stats of a more aggressive attacker or defense of staying out of the heat of battle. Your BEAT levels increase with experience as well and you are able to even have a mixture of the offence and defense stats should you want (and keep both your BEAT styles leveled). It makes for a slightly more customized fighting style and choosing the correct BEAT that matches your style can make a huge difference in battles.
Attacking a monster constantly will most likely make them have more aggression towards you (agro for short) and this is quite a useful tool when used properly. You can keep monsters off of your hitpoint-weak caster characters by using attacks and skills to gain more agro on your beefier attacker type of character. Once a monster is focused on you, its possible to dodge out of the way completely or even perform a Blindside with the perfect timing which will have you counter an attack by running behind the monster and attacking it from behind for much more damage. Its a necessary battle tool to learn to use well as some monsters and bosses will take quite a while to defeat if not using Blindsides properly.
Rush Mode is another option you have that can land a sequence of special attacks with other party members for absolute massive damage, though this is only possible and activated once you have dealt or taken enough damage in a battle. The timing and button combination to use Rush Mode can be a little tricky to get the hang of, but once learned this is invaluable against many bosses.
The Bonus Board is another feature that can make the monotonous fighting a little more exciting if you choose it to be. There is a whole board of empty tiles on the side of the screen, and these can be filled by fulfilling certain requirements in battle (such as using certain attacks or killing multiple enemies at once etc), this in turn will give you bonus rewards after battle such as extra experience, more money, more skill points and even more. Tiles can also be taken away from getting hit or fighting poorly, but it helps to keep you somewhat more focused on battle should you want more experience rather than just pressing the attack button over and over.
In addition to a battle system that can keep you engrossed, you are also able to make your own items, food, and equipment. Skills can be increased to be very powerful, or you can choose to have many lower tier skills and spells instead, its completely up to you how you wish to develop your characters. It was a little disappointing that each character is preset to be a certain role and can only use weapons and armor specifically for them (in general), but the customization that each character can be tailored to your liking makes up for it in some ways.
Winning battles isnt the only way to gain money and experience in Star Ocean. There are many side quests to be done and are completely optional but sadly the vast majority of them are simple vendor Bring X amount of Y to me and accepting every side quest has no downfall if not completed, so grab every one that you can because you never know when youll finally have 12 Blueberries to give to that shopkeeper. Usually the rewards are a minimal amount of experience and money, but sometimes you get items or part to create a much more powerful item.
Along with these trivial side quests are the main optional quests called the Private Action system which will determine relationships between characters and give more back-story to them as well. The main reasons to doing these PAs though is that they will give you new skills and even determine the different endings that are available to see.
With all these optional quests to do alongside the main story, having a save system that is available at anytime (or even somewhat limited) would have been very useful to have. The Last Hope still has save spots at certain places and that is the only way to save your game. This isnt something new, but the issue being that the pace of the game is so poorly laid out that sometimes when you are playing just to get to the next save point so you can go to bed you can be playing for more than an hour at a time just trying to finish that dungeon and save.
Another quite frustrating aspect were two of the simplest things that youll have to deal with and fight through the whole game; the movement and camera. Moving has you either running full speed (also being able to do short running bursts) or walking so slowly that its painful just to watch. This coupled with a camera that seems to have a mind of its own in tight places or when near stairs, makes it near impossible to see whats ahead at times and you will get ambushed at times because of this. Not being able to invert the camera as well if you choose to will sure to add more frustration for some players.
The complete soundtrack was done by the same composer that did the other Star Oceans so the quality in the musical department is top notch as always. I wish I could say the same for the voice acting though. With a lackluster dialogue it might have been forgivable with voice acting that sounded believable, but even this isnt the case. Some of the characters voices and catch phrases are so annoying that I believe this is the single reason why there is an option to mute them or not (outside of cutscenes). If there was an option to have Japanese voiceovers in lieu of English, it may have been bearable, but this wasnt even included and you are forced to continue listening to the subpar voicing throughout the whole campaign.
Its also quite a shame that the design of the main characters tend to be very generic and overall. Youve got your skinny spiky haired protagonist with his childhood friend that looks like shes straight out of an anime manga book. Some of the other main characters are also your typical JRPG stereotypes without much thought behind their looks.
The Last Hope spans onto 3 discs and will give you more than 30 hours of content if you strictly keep to the main storyline; doing multiple side quests will add many more hours on top of this. Normally once you get far enough long in the story and complete a disc, you are done that disc and dont have to think of it again as you are moving on. With this title, should you want to go back to one of the earlier planets for whatever reason like dungeons, items, or quests later on, you need to manually swap the disc each time. Its not a huge hassle, but it is another one of those things that just seem to add to more frustration overall for the player.
Typically I play an RPG; especially a Square Enix title, for its engrossing and interesting story, with the gameplay mechanics being a secondary feature I look to enjoy. Oddly enough, I found that around half way through The Last Hope I was playing for the gameplay itself instead of the what and why while trying to still ignore the voice acting throughout. It can frankly be that awful at times, which was a complete shame. If there was an option to choose Japanese voices instead, I think it would have helped my experience and match the soundtrack more appropriately.
It was without a doubt the battle mechanics and being able to swap to any character at any time that helped me keep interest for the long term. I do worry that the average gamer will have a hard time swallowing the first 10 hours or so until things get more interesting, but even from that point, the pacing is just too off the mark to keep it interesting continuously.
With plenty of side quests to do, extra difficulty modes to unlock, and multiple endings to gain, there is no shortage of anything to strive for to prolong gameplay, as long as you have the patience to stick with it through the first few hours until it starts to get interesting and you learn how to play much more efficiently. Star Ocean: The Last Hope delivers tremendous gameplay and you will get out of it as much as you want to put into it. Hardcore RPG gamers might strive for more in the end but anyone starved for a decent RPG title will find an adequate title here, so strap in and head towards the endless star ocean.
Suggestions: Please, if we aren't going to get the option for non English voicing, then make sure that it's done well, especially when we have to sit through it for 40 hours or more.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
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Resident Evil 5
In 1996 Capcom released a game called Resident Evil and single handedly created a new popular genre along with it; entitled Survival Horror. Over the years there have been numerous sequels and spinoffs and even appearing on all different platforms as well. The series was built on building tension for the player and forcing them to conserve ammo and items against a zombie outbreak instead of a traditional shooter game that gives you enough ammunition to take on an everlasting army. In most of the titles you had a fixed camera per room and had to navigate awkwardly based on the characters relation to the camera angle.
When Resident Evil 4 was released a few years ago, Capcom completely changed the basic formula of the series and made it a third person view behind the character along with other transformations to all the other aspects of the game as well. Fans of the series previously seemed to either welcome to change or found it deviating too far from what theyve previously come to know and enjoy from the series. Resident Evil 5 (noted as RE5 from here on) uses the same formula and style that Resident Evil 4 gave us, but with more refinement and slight modifications. While RE5 is easily the most impressive title in the series so far, it has now also changed from being a Survival Horror game and more of an Action Adventure title; not that this is a bad thing, but its not the same Resident Evil from a decade ago.
RE5 has a very different feeling to it from the previous titles, as it wont scare you or have you scavenging for every last bullet you can find. There is now a very slow and meticulous gameplay as opposed to the frantic running away survival that weve come to learn to instinctively react with. Simply put, it now feels like a new game and not so much a conventional Resident Evil.
Chris Redfield, who is best known for being the main protagonist in the original Resident Evil which resulted in the destruction of Raccoon City, is now back with a new partner and looking for answers from his past. Chris is now a member of the B.S.A.A., who is responsible for attempting to stop the Umbrella Corporations creations all over the world. Chris is informed about an extremely deadly weapon deal that is going to take place in Africa and meets with Sheva Alomar who is also a B.S.A.A. agent from the area and become partners in an unraveling plot that eventually leads them through hoards of tainted local villagers and many other surprises along the way.
Things get very interesting once the plot opens up and you learn about something called Uroboros, that Albert Wesker (the antagonist from the original Resident Evil and Umbrella employee) is involved somehow, and a clue that Chris old partner Jill Valentine who may not be dead which is what was believed.
Even though Jill wont be at Chris side this time around, Sheva can handle her own and turns out to be a very useful asset. Not only will Sheva help you while playing alone, but now in the series, you are able to play alongside a friend splitscreen or online. In typical Capcom fashion, once you complete the game for the first time, you unlock many features and even the ability to play as Sheva during the single player campaign.
I never felt like I had to watch over Sheva (while playing single player) and she is more than capable of watching over herself, but she tends to use healing items and ammo as if it was free and easily accessible. Shes very good about not getting in the way of your shots generally and given a powerful gun, she is a very capable partner. If you want to be the hero though, you can simply use her to carry your items and pack everything around.
The basic gameplay is very similar to that of RE4 but with slight changes and refinements such as now being able to strafe finally. You still are unable to move while aiming and shooting, but this is intentional and makes you take notice of your surroundings before stopping somewhere to shoot infected villagers and animals. Context sensitive inputs still are included with some quick time events between cutscenes that are successful at keeping the player involved instead of simply watching events unfold.
If you shoot an infected that causes them to stagger, you are now able to use a melee strike that is devastating and saves ammunition. When surrounded by a large number this can work quite well when it does work as they can bowl over other enemies in the path for you as well when knocked down. I do say can because there are quite a few times that I should have been able to melee but it doesnt recognize them as being stunned which made me lose time and ammo having to shoot them again.
Cooperative play is absolutely the most important change in the series and even though the gameplay has the same mechanics as RE4, the inclusion of having a partner with you at all times changes how you play quite drastically. Knowing that someone is always watching your back is definitely welcome and two sets of eyes are much more efficient than one. You end up relying on your partner much throughout the game to save and cover you which isnt common for the series.
Co-op play wasnt just an addition to the title, much of the mechanics are built around it. Many times Chris and Sheva will be split up to reach high areas or to pull levers simultaneously for example. Its a simple equation that worked and made you feel isolated from your partner at times, but it was still simple.
Another notable change is how your inventory is kept and taken care of. Previously when accessing your inventory, the game would pause, you could take your time choosing your weapons and doing what you need to do since the game halts and waits for you until you were ready. Now your inventory will appear on screen and you have to make sure you are in a safe area before doing so, as the game will not wait for you. You are also confined to 9 items slots permanently and this cannot be increased as in previous titles.
While playing single player, you are able to access both Chris and Shevas inventory and freely swap items in-between whenever you like. While playing with a friend online though, you are unable to exchange guns at all which makes sense balance wise but not logically.
Overall pacing of gameplay is very well done with a mix of frantic action, boss battles, quick time events, and cutscenes. You always feel apprehensive when going to a new area, not ever knowing what to expect. Boss encounters vary with strategy and some are quite large in scale. Cutscenes flesh out the story quite well and keep things moving at a steady pace that makes you want to keep going to figure out what is next. These visuals are quite impressive and all the animation is some of the best Ive seen. Every action and motion is so natural and fluid that it was hard to not take notice of it. Coupled with the series somewhat cheesy lines and respectable voice acting, brings everything together in a package that makes the characters believable.
Of course not everything is without its flaws; a few times Ive had monsters trying to claw me from the other side of a wall with parts clipping right through. The same goes for some infected villagers arms going through objects trying to reach me as well, but other than the odd time of this happening, it wasnt distracting all too much or taking away from the immersion.
Music is another high note of the whole experience. The musical score does its responsibility of setting the overall tone and tension musically. Something I found distracting was that there is set music for when you are engaged with enemies. While this is great at setting a mood, you arent generally surprised of a sneak attack as the music will start playing before hand, and you also know when you are clear of anything else nearby when the music ends. It simply felt too easy to know when to have your guard up and when you are relatively safe.
Throughout the levels are many collectables and treasures to collect. Some are just worth money when sold, and others are hidden emblems that can be used to unlock extras from the main menu. You are also able to unlock and purchase unlimited ammo for your second play through if youve completely upgraded the weapon itself. This gives great replay value and gone is having to wait for the wandering merchant in RE4 since now all selling and upgrades are done before chapters.
While co-op is one of the biggest components of RE5, Capcom seemed to have made some odd choices when doing so. When playing split screen, the second player can take control over Sheva at any time by just pressing start on the second controller. The screen split is not done in your normal fashion, so instead of your normal exactly split screen in half, each player is given their own offset rectangle to play in that is slightly smaller than half the screen itself. Its an odd effect that definitely takes some getting used to but it still worked.
Online co-op takes a few more steps to join a game and isnt instant by any means. Firstly, the player wanting to join will have to wait until the host either restarts from the past checkpoint or gets to the next one. The other problem with this, as mentioned before, is how players cannot swap guns, but all other inventory items are allowed.
A great feature almost always included in every Resident Evil title is how much there is to do once you complete the main story for replayability. The first play through on Normal difficulty should last around 10 to 15 hours, depending on how vigilant one is at finding all the collectables. Once completed, a new minigame is unlocked called Mercenaries which pits you against waves of infected villagers while you wait for aid escaping. Its much more frantic and you are given a set inventory that cannot be changed. Even this entertaining change of pace is playable cooperatively and is a great distraction from just trying to beat your best times on certain chapters.
You may have noticed that Ive not once mentioned zombies, but infected instead. This is completely intentional and I am avoiding giving away anything that may spoil the plot in that regard as I quite enjoyed the plot after a few hours in once it started getting interesting. Having Chris Redfield playable again was more exciting than if it was a brand new character. Sheva seems to be a good fit as a counterpart and I hope she is not completely written off from this point on just because she was a local partner in Africa.
If you played RE4, you will have an idea of what to expect from RE5, just with more enhancements. If youve played the older games in the series and didnt get to play RE4, it is quite a dramatic change from what youve known to expect from Resident Evil. Its a shame that I no longer get that intense fear of what possibly may be lurking around the corner knowing a horde of zombies is ready to indulge on my flesh. Now with Resident Evil Im learning to expect a different type of intensity while playing, that of action instead of fear and suspense.
While the series may be a different entity now than it was over a decade ago, it has evolved and changed, yet still does superb at delivering an interesting and deep story with exceptional production value. This change is sure to frustrate some, but on the other hand it is also sure to bring in new players which are always welcomed to any title or genre.
Suggestions: Moving while aiming has been a request since RE4, and I understand it is a design decision, but can't there be a middle ground somewhere?
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
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Halo Wars
One would think that a Halo game that doesnt feature the iconic Master Chief would not have the same appeal as the previous trilogy. What if that game wasnt even a first person shooter or made by Bungie Studios? Ensemble Studios which is known for their Age of Empire series has been given the chance to put the Halo universe into a Real Time Strategy game. Its a complete change from what weve known to expect from a Halo title, but it still feels very much like it belongs in the series due to the diligence put towards making everything look and sound authentic to the universe from the environments and units.
With myself being a terrible RTS player, but a huge Halo fan, I was somewhat nervous before giving Halo Wars a chance, as I thought that I wouldnt be able to micromanage or do very well like previous titles in the genre. I was pleasantly surprised when the controls were very easy to grasp, I wasnt overwhelmed with complex trees with branching unit development, and missions that flowed well and varied with different objectives.
Set twenty years before Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo Wars sets the stage of events of things to come in the later titles. At first the story might be a little difficult to understand, but eventually it all comes together and is brought together with amazingly beautiful cutscenes before every mission that are on par with the quality of CGI that Blizzard has shown in its titles.
The campaigns story is lead by USNC Sergeant John Forge along with the Professor Anders as they are watching over the Covenant. You dont have Cortana as your aid, but you do have a similar AI named Serina, though she is nowhere near as memorable or charming.
Because the campaign is only played through on the Human side, an average play through should take 5 or 6 hours on the normal setting, but in standard Halo fashion, you can bump up the difficulty to Heroic and Legendary for more challenge. It was quite disappointing now to have any campaign playable with the Covenant or event the Flood, so here is to hoping for future download content to allow another viewpoint of the war.
Playing through the campaign with a friend is possible with the inclusion of co-operative play. Two people can now go through the story and making things much easier in some of the more difficult missions. The two players share their resources and you have direct control of any units you build, but any units can be transferred to either player at any time. This can really cater to any play style, as one player can stay at the bases and built units and upgrade while the other receives the newly built units and can go explore or battle.
Because all resources are shared, good communication is key and since there are many types of missions such as defending, escorting, and all out front line pushes, having a partner to help definitely helps, especially in the harder difficulties where enemies have much more health and harder to kill.
For all the completionists or achievement hunters, there is a decent amount of replay value with trying to find all the hidden skulls; like in Halo, which unlock modifiers and settings. Certain optional objectives must be met in each mission before the hidden skulls will appear and they are usually just killing X amount of certain unit. Black boxes which will unlock back story timeline entries are also hidden in each level to be found as well.
Before being able to build a sizable army; like any other RTS you must first gather the resources beforehand. This has you choosing whether to build more supply pads to keep resources consistently coming in or to use the small amount of building slots for other buildings such as a barracks or vehicle depot. Luckily with Halo Wars, once you have your supply pads up and going, you dont really have to worry all that much about your resources as itll continue to stream in unless destroyed. It was a relief for me to not have to micro-manage this aspect of the strategy.
While playing through the campaign, you are only able to control the USNC forces, though in multiplayer you are also able to command the Covenant. Ensemble has done a great job at giving each side an equal footing of types of units and no side is harshly more overpowered than the other. There arent many choices for actual types of units (with only a few land and airborne vehicles on each side) along with different types of ground members but the ability to upgrade different units in alternate ways that can easily change the outcome of a hard battle.
You are able to train different types of marines from your standard front of the line grunts to flamethrowers and medics (depending on what leader you control). Marines can be commanded to take cover behind bunkers and lay fire from there, the only problem with this is that if you forget to order them out of cover, they will stay there permanently even if you are ordering all units somewhere. Spartans are also researchable and have a low cap on how many you can make due to their strength and ability to hijack enemy vehicles if commanded to do so. The Spartans are much more durable in battle and even if you pretend one of them is Master Chief, seeing them using Lasers and taking over a Scarab is something to see.
Seeing your army of Scorpions, Hornets, Warthogs, Spartans and marines is impressive; that is until you need to traverse them through some narrow areas and a traffic jam ensues. Sometimes some units get so in the way that you need to specifically choose the larger tanks and vehicles and move them out of the way so that the smaller units can get by. It was a little disappointing to see some AI that would infinitely get stuck until fixed, but this really only happened to myself once or twice.
The humans arent the only ones with awesome forces though. Covenant can research and create Grunts (literally, that can then be upgraded to suicide Grunts), Jackals, Hunters, Brutes, Ghosts, Choppers, Banshees, Wraiths, and the amazing massive Scarab that will definitely put some hurt to the USNC. It will take quite some time to save up enough resources and also use a good portion of your maximum unit numbers to create your Scarab, but if the other team is not ready for you, you will have a huge grin on your face while you plow your way through their bases and army with ease.
The Covenant is quite enjoyable to play and offers a great variety of change from the normal USNC units and strategies. Its quite disappointing that there is no campaign portion for them or even the Flood for that matter. Sadly you dont even get to play as the Flood even in multiplayer, so once again here is to hoping for future DLC for added longevity. With so many units on screen at once, every now and then the frame rate may drop for a moment, but generally its not an issue or hindrance.
When playing multiplayer, each faction has a choice of one of three leaders. These leaders each have their own unique powers and units that can be created which will give an inviting change from previous strategies.
Up to 6 players can compete on Xbox Live though with odd team choices such as 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, and 3 vs 3. Oddly that is it along with Skirmish and Deathmatch; so the lack of multiplayer choices was slightly disappointing. So there are always only 2 teams, regardless how many people join. Deathmatch is an interesting change from the standard Skirmish game type and has you start with an ample amount of resources to start amassing your army right away. Regardless of the multiplayer shortcomings it is still quite enjoyable since you can help allies by sending them units or creating needed buildings while they focus on what they are doing.
What I was most surprised with in Halo Wars is the ease of use of controls. Everything you need to do is only 2 or 3 button presses away and it doesnt feel like Ensemble has tried to map a keyboard onto the controller which was a problem with other console RTS. Its a relief to know that the game was built for the controller specifically and controls appropriately. The only downfall to the controller is the amount of functionality you have with it. You are able to select all units, all on the screen, or hold down the button to highlight specific units you want. You arent able to command units into custom groups so the best bet to fight on two fronts is move the two groups of units away from each other, select all on screen and do what you need to with them while you move the screen to the second group and do the same thing. It makes it slightly difficult, but once you have a firm grasp on the controls, you learn how to work with it rather than against it.
Moving and attacking is even mapped to the same button, so with a simple press of X, so if the spot you bring the unit to is empty, they will move there, and if an enemy, they will attack. Some units also have a secondary special attack that can be used by attacking with Y and are much more devastating.
All of these controls are taught within the effortless tutorials and while it gives you just the basics, its enough to start getting by, though a few more in depth tutorials would have been favored for new players to the genre to learn the different types of units more clearly.
Because you are only able to build in specific areas some players may find it somewhat confining, but not being that experienced of an RTS player, I actually preferred it this way as I could focus more on building everything in general and knowing where all my assets were at all times. It also makes it simpler to defend as you only have to defend your bases and not random obscure buildings anywhere else. Being able to instantly return to your bases is effortlessly done by tapping the D-Pad and it will also cycle through them in the order built.
Since you usually only control between 30 and 40 units at a time maximum; along with the map sizes, the scale of battles may not look huge, but Ensemble has done an awesome job at making the battles feel like they are on a much larger scale. This is also in part due to the camera that allows you to zoom close up to any unit and see much detail, yet you are unable to pull the camera out far enough to get a birds-eye view of the whole battlefield.
Even though Halo Wars wasnt made from Bungie, everything looks and feels authentic. The menus have the halo style to it and match the symphonious soundtrack throughout the game. Warthogs sound exactly like their counterpart in the series all the way down to the individual Grunts and Hunters and weapons. The voice acting is on par and made everything feel believable throughout.
Ensemble has done an amazing job at creating a new game in the series with a completely new style yet nothing too foreign for Halo fans to shun it. What I found early on was that while it is quite fun for me as Ive never been a huge RTS player (but also a Halo fan), its going to appeal to that specific audience much more than those wanting a deep and intense strategy title. While it is very simple and easy to play once you grasp the controls which makes it very easy to pick up and start playing, it may be a little too simple for those used to having to micro-manage on the PC counterparts.
Halo Wars is attempting to be a great console RTS and succeeds in that respect and should not be completely compared to other PC strategy games as the same depth is not there. This is not a fault to the game, as its done its job by bringing in new players to the genre and appeasing the Halo fans. Even without having the iconic Master Chief fronting the heroism, Halo Wars brings a great story along with matching gameplay that even players unfamiliar with the genre can learn and enjoy easily.
Suggestions: Simple. Covenant (and Flood if we are so lucky)campaign story. More DLC with possibly unit variants.
Overall Score: 8.4 / 10
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Skate 2
When the original Skate was released, it became very popular very quickly due to it trying something new and risky for the genre. The Flick-it controls changed how we played skateboarding games and was a very welcome refresh for most. Also being able to somewhat edit your own replays an upload them for anyone to see was quite exciting. Now with Skate 2 here, many are wondering if EA Black Box has taken the same risk and added a whole new slew of reinventions and things for us gamers to play with. The short answer is yes and no.
We have been given a sequel that does add some new welcome elements such as being able to get off our skateboard and move objects around to make that perfect spot, but also new frustrations with traffic, pedestrians, and the lack of filters for replay films. EA had a lot to live up to with this release and with the original Skate being so fresh, it was almost impossible to get the same feeling this time around. Not that this is a bad thing, as skating around is still just as fun and albeit much easier and quicker should you want it to be.
After a very short while, the campaigns story really wont matter as its the same used become a pro and famous while getting on magazine covers and videos routine weve played many times before on top of taking back the city for skaters everywhere. The city has changed drastically and has now become New San Vanelona and most of it is unrecognizable for the most part, so its a fresh area with all new spots to find and trick off of.
As you begin the game, you will create your skater from the get go, and now being able to choose a female if wanted is a nice addition, but the character creator in general is pretty limited to make someone look decently unique other than choosing different clothing. From here you begin your journey for fame by entering competitions for street and vert, racing in downhill death races, try some challenges directly from pros themselves, work your way towards impressing Thrasher and other Skate mags, and try many other types of challenges along the way. A very welcome addition is the ability to take on challenges at your own leisure in a non linear way whoever you see fit. Being able to access your map at any time and directly warp to a challenge is very convenient and quick, but I found it making me not exploring the new city as much as I would have if I had to skate to every spot since it was just too easy and quick.
Since the majority of the city is open up completely from the very beginning, you can freely skate anywhere and find specific spots to own and set a high score for everyone to see. You are now even able to get points at any time for bailing hard enough to cause massive body damage and broken bones. This Thrasher Hall of Meat will reward you for the bigger and nastier bails should you not land that huge trick. Being able to slightly control your movement mid-air and doing different poses pre-bail makes it quite amusing when you start to play this mode competitively and will surely cause some cringing among friends.
Previously in the original Skate, if you found yourself at the bottom of a staircase, you had to somehow find a skate-able path up to the top and this always wasnt the easiest or quickest thing to do. Now with the ability to get off your board, this makes traversing some areas much easier and quicker with less frustrationin one way. While its great that you can now run up a flight of stairs, it seems testing of the on-foot controls werent finished. Your movement is as agile as a tank and it is almost embarrassingly awkward to use. This isnt even taking into the fact that you cant walk backwards or jump over anything waist high. It has flaws, but in the end, getting off and dealing with the horrible foot controls to quickly get up a set of stairs is something I can somewhat forgive.
Now that your skater is able to walk around freely with their board, this also means that they can move specific objects around the world freely. Dont like how that rail is aiming towards a wall, what if you moved it so you could grind it over that dumpster over there? Now you can move basic objects like rails, benches, trash cans, ramps, dumpsters and such in any fashion you want to create that ultimate spot, though you do need to grab the items at specific hold spots. Some objectives you are given are unable to be completed unless you move that ramp closer or change the angle of certain rails. Its an interesting addition that I believe many will use to create some ultimate spots; and with the ability to make your spot then set a top score, you can also then upload it and share it online for everyone to try. The only issue I had with the create-a-spot feature was that the controls for actually making the spot (not arranging the rails etc) are very clunky. You need to set the high, then width, then move it, all separately. Its a minor issue, but I find myself keep having to read the UI of how to move and change it rather than it being intuitive.
A huge annoyance with being able to move objects in this way is that since you are able to move them yourself, any skaters that bail on or around your new spot is able to push objects out of the way and ruin your whole setup in a few moments. Should you have remembered to stick the objects where you want them for easy reset should this happen, it isnt a big deal, but I guarantee itll happen eventually and you will have to restart all over making that spot exactly how you wanted it. An anchor option so objects were permanent unless you choose otherwise would have been much less frustrating.
While skaters ruining youre newly made sweet spot can be an annoyance, I found nothing was more aggravating than pedestrians being able to litter. This sounds like nit picking, but this litter isnt just for show, it will actually cause you to bail if you hit the trash with your board. Stay in one area long enough and youll see how many people in New San Vanelona dont like to use trash cans.
The replay editor returns this year and some new features are in like new camera angles and slightly more options for editing are in, but filters from the original Skate are omitted for some reason. The video editor still feels very clunky and its not very simple to use quickly but being able to do camera transitions do make the videos look very cool in the end. Sadly you are still unable to cut multiple clips and put them together into one large video, its still just the last few minutes of your footage or so that you can play with at one time.
Having to get up a large hill in the first Skate was quite tedious just holding the button to push yourself up the hill. Now if you get behind a vehicle you are able to hold the shoulder button and skitch yourself a free ride. This also works for going downhill should you want to get some massive speed for a huge trick off of something up ahead. Also like the previous game, you can set session markers anywhere you want and come back to them at any time if you want to retry from somewhere specific. This has slightly been improved and you are no longer forced to wait for it to load should you skate too far and want to restart; its much more smooth and quicker at loading in general.
The repertoire of moves itself is much more robust this time and you are able to have more control over your move set in theory. Since everything is mapped to the right stick with tweaks and grabs being done with the triggers and face buttons, it can be somewhat difficult to pull off a specific move since the variance between two different moves can be a fraction of a few degrees while flicking the stick. Once you do get the hang of the new move set list, it feels very rewarding now especially since you are now able to do footplants and handplants among many others. The new slew of moves can be confusing, so luckily you are able to pause the game and actually see a trick guide in-game of how to perform any given move and what it looks like as well.
As true to the previous game, the audio in general is quite superb. You can hear how your board sounds on different surfaces very true to life and are able to hear each wheel independently if you have the proper surround sound. The voicing is decent from the actual skaters themselves, though I found the soundtrack pretty unforgettable and just used music from my hard drive.
EA has seemed to have taken notice of popular features of their other games for their online modes; notably Burnout Paradise here, as now Skate 2 boasts the same cooperative play style on top of the previous modes. So with this new co-op play brings some fun and frustrating challenges such as all players needing to reach a set score before time ends, or everyone grinding a single rail at the same time. Sounds like its not too terribly difficult, but these can be quite difficult to complete, especially if you have someone in the party that isnt quite on par skill wise. What can make these challenges even harder is that some peoples scores wont count or will reset if they skate too slowly or bail. On top of all this, not every objective is clearly described on what to do or marked easily. The choices of objectives themselves is pretty limited, so here is to hoping for future DLC content to add more challenges soon.
There are many other online options such as downhill death-racing, trick events like the classic S.K.A.T.E. and others, but the most fun to be had for myself was the Hall of Meat mode where players take turns in progression to see who can bail the biggest and hardest for the most points. Players that are watching can then vote if was it anywhere from bad to awesome and does a good job of spectators paying attention.
The first skate was taking a big chance when it released with its fresh controls and new ideas. This time around it feels like Skate 2 wasnt trying to take any big chances with anything. This isnt to say Skate 2 is faulted for not trying anything revolutionary this time, but it just didnt feel as fresh overall.
There are some odd and frustrating design choices this time around such as pedestrians that just seem to know to get in your way at the worst possible time, or having them litter causing you to wipe unjustly. Also having no ability to freely edit clips together to make a true skate reel was disappointing, but for even having these faults, Skate 2 is quite the entertaining game, even for casual players that wont ever complete every objective.
With the Tony Hawk series being on hiatus this year, choosing Skate 2 will have little or no regrets. Hopefully when the next iteration releases, EA will learn from Skate 2s shortcomings and once again feel fresh and new. Skate 2 is worthy of the purchase and will keep you entertained for as long as you allow it. Creating new spots and sharing them; along with the Hall of Meat is more than enough fun to warrant the purchase alone regardless of its faults.
Suggestions: Add more features to the replay editor, not take away. Actual facial animations would be a plus, espcially now since bails are a larger part of the game.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
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Last Remnant, The
Having a new RPG on box 360 from SquareEnix is almost like Christmas and this time it just happens to also be around that time that we are given The Last Remnant. Its a shame that this offering is one of those gifts that you have to force yourself to smile and say Thank You even though it really isnt what you wanted. It feels like they have tried to go against the grain with every design choice to try and be different but its so different from what most people will be used to it might be hard to swallow.
Within minutes of starting the game you are pushed into battle to get things moving with a bang, but you will also instantly see the games biggest downfall; the technical issues. Should you be able to look past and get through the technical embarrassment, you will most likely enjoy the offering from its beautiful art and graphics (technicalities aside) to its wonderful music and somewhat engrossing story. You just need to look hard and learn to enjoy its underlying features, but for most it will probably be too hard to swallow and just bring dir name is Rush and you are chasing after your kidnapped sister. The rest of this plotline that follows suit is cliché, but when you start learning about Remnants and the Conqueror, things do start to pick up and the story becomes more engrossing. The only problem is that it does take awhile to get to the deeper plot and most people will most likely be put off by all the technical flaws that I dont see many forcing a sit through to overcome the issues just to get a decent story half way through.
Because the games battles are a much larger scale than the few person parties were accustomed to, the focus of the game seems to be the battles and more than half of your play time will be on the battlefield clearing a path to your next destination to hopefully progress the story. It feels the games length was basically doubled just due to all the combat throughout the journey.
SquareEnix has opted to use the Unreal 3 Engine for this title and it clearly shows from the first few minutes of gameplay that they did not know how to use or at least polish it. Because battlefields can have dozens of enemies on the screen at once, slowdown is not only quite frequent but sometimes to the point of the game looking like a slideshow. Having the game installed on my hard drive did improve things slightly but its still quite embarrassing and doesnt look finished in any form at all. Its not just bad, its simply broken and I dont know how this was released with this subpar of quality, especially coming from SquareEnix.
To keep you engaged in battle after giving your commands to your leaders, there is a random chance of getting a critical attack or block that is done by hitting the correct corresponding button that flashes on the screen. In idea this works great, but when the framerate dips to the point of being unable to hit the button at the proper timing, you will want to turn the critical to automatic. Interestingly enough you are still able to get the achievement for doing a certain about of perfect critical hits this way.
Battle framerate isnt the only issue that plagues this title though; cutscenes also have very poor load times and the pop in is in full effect. More so that the normal one or two seconds weve seen in other games, sometimes taking up to six seconds. Its also not only limited to the textures on characters, but even floors, walls, and other objects and just takes down the whole immersion even more.
Another issue that occurs almost every fight is problems with the camera. It will swing around in a fashion to show you up close battles between characters, but when it does it will also sometimes render your troops invisible or even have objects on the field like boulders seem invisible until the camera moves and you notice there was actually an object there. Sometimes this camera shifting also seems to make characters warp from different sides of objects or enemies and seems to make no sense and only add more confusion where its not needed.
Save points are a thing of the past in Last Remnant and one would assume this would be a good choice since you are now able to save basically anywhere you want. The issue with this change is that there are no checkpoints of any kind. So if you forget to save for quite some time and then die, youve lost all that work, so hope that you save often. I found myself saving quite often as you never knew what was going to be behind the door or if youll survive the upcoming boss battle. Ive never died nearly as much as I have while playing Last Remnant, so its made me save after every few battles just in case. It really slows down the pace and its difficult to become immersed in a story when you keep wondering when the last time you saved was.
Since you are eventually able to control around 18 party members in battle, having to do all their equipment would be quite tedious and confusing so you are only in control of Rushs equipment. All other party members (even the key plot leaders) can only be given items, equipment, and components when they ask for them after battles or on map screens. So even if you are holding onto a decent weapon that you just upgraded from, it will sit in your bag doing nothing unless someone happens to specifically ask for it. It feels as if you dont have much control over your other party leaders and you will have to settle for only customizing Rush.
You dont level up normally like in other RPGs either. Your whole party gets an overall Battle Rank and it will rise the more you fight and battle, so there still is a grind factor. Battle difficulty stays the same for enemies, but I found boss battles seemed to scale up in accordance to the Battle Rank. So if you are stuck in a dungeon or on normal enemies it means you need to level up your Battle Rank, but it also means the boss fights will scale as well and be just as difficult.
Keeping with the against the grain trend, even going from area to area in a city isnt done the normal way either. Whenever you hit a zone line, you are pushed back out to the map screen and can pick anywhere in the city or world map to go to instantly. While it is quite convenient by being able to warp anywhere you want to instantly and not having to get lost in large cities, it also made it completely useless to walk around cities (since the map screen shows you what shops are in what areas) and exploring.
Side quests are available through the pubs in cities and do offer rewards such as money, items, or even new leaders for your squads. There is no way to tell how difficult each quest is though until you get to the area and give it a try. Sometimes you will just have to give up and put it on hold until you come back later when your Battle Rank is much higher.
Guilds also offer passive quests that will reward you once you fill the prerequisites of each one such as killing a certain amount of enemies or collecting certain items. Some quests are also quite detailed and have you killing a certain type of enemy but only in one exact area. You can collect these rewards at any time once completed so you usually wont need to drop by the guild unless you need to hire some leaders for your union.
The voice acting from the main characters do an adequate job but any supporting characters or other voicing is mediocre at best and usually very cliché. Even with the decent voicing done by Rush and other main characters, its sometimes hard to not snicker at with the obvious lines and odd slang that seems forced.
When playing Last Remnant for more than 30+ hours, you will become quite sick of hearing Rush say Lets do this at the start of every battle or Sweet whenever he gained a new skill. Every member says the same thing every time and it becomes thin and annoying very quickly. Its a shame since you want to like the characters, but hearing them repeat the same catch phrases each time will have you cringing by the time you get to the second disc.
Groups or parties are called Unions and unions are consisted of up to 5 people. In a union all party members share one life bar, so in a way its almost like only having to worry about one character (as a union) from dying. So regardless of who gets hit in a union, the life bar as a whole will go down collectively even if different people are getting attacked. Having different formations for your unions will play on characters strengths and weaknesses and can definitely compliment each others unions.
As long as Rushs union doesnt die, you can continue to fight in battle, but when playing certain missions where Rush has to be alone, (thus having a very low hit points) it can be near impossible to survive even simple battles. Surviving some battles can simply come down to a lucky dodge or block and seems to happen more often than it should. It can be very discouraging early on when you are finding yourself dying quite often because you have to hope you can survive the enemies first attack so that your other unions can save you. Luckily after every single battle, all your stats and health are refreshed to full, so no needing to heal up after battles; you just need to make sure you survive.
When choosing your unions turn of commands like attack or magic (called Arts) or combat skills, you are only choosing a larger blanket of options. For example, if you choose Arts to do some magic, you dont get to pick what skill to use if you have multiple, so it can sometimes be guesswork of what skills will actually be used. You have no direct control over what exact skills or attacks are used, though Ive not found it something thats held me back from winning a battle or not; it just feels like you dont have much control over your party members. While putting in all unions commands, characters and enemies will fight each other and clash swords but its just graphical and doesnt affect any of your stats since its for show. Its a nice touch that makes these battles seem more alive when even just putting in your commands and is better than just seeing your characters standing there waiting for the battle to start.
Last Remnant is very confusing overall, but if you enjoy the combat mechanics and dont mind some grinding to level up then it is worth a try. Since half your time will be in battle; alf your time will also be trying to ignore the technical issues that come with it.
Its hard to judge Last Remnant as it does have quite the amount of flaws, but underneath all of the problems, there is an interesting story and new gameplay. The fact remains that I cant foresee the average person forcing themselves to sit through all the issues and problems just to hopefully have it get better.
Many fans have wanted more SquareEnix titles on the 360 for quite awhile, but lets hope next time its a much better experience and not shoveled out the door before its even near complete and polished.
Suggestions: Last Remnant needs polish. I don't mean would look better with it, I mean NEED. It's quite an embarassment to have framerates this poor and I hope more testing is done before launching other titles.
Overall Score: 5.8 / 10
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Tomb Raider Underworld
Lara Croft is almost a household name among gamers and she is back for yet another adventure through exotic locations, temples and many tombs. Everything in Underworld has been built on top of and attempted to make better from the previous Tomb Raider Legend title; from the combat to the traversing animations.
Environments are much larger and the foliage (especially in the Thailand level) adds a very natural and realistic visual style. Some very small things have even been added such as Lara pushing away branches and leaves out of her way when running past. It looks so smooth I was instantly reminded of Altair pushing people aside gently in Assassins Creed.
Tomb Raider Underworld lives up to its title and will have you deep inside temples, under the sea and in many exotic locations. Even Lara herself looks better overall and you will even notice that her skin is still wet with beads of water when she emerges from any form of water.
This story is a direct sequel to the previous title; Legend, and picks up where the story left off, but starting the game off has no back story to catch you up on anything that has previously happened which will leave many people confused that may have forgotten the previously storyline or newcomers that will have no idea what is going on or why. If you just happened to check the Extras menu before starting the campaign you would find a very brief cinematic that will catch you up on the very basics of whats happened previously and why you are still trying to find your mother and whats happened to Amanda in Legend.
The main story honestly wasnt very memorable; the only reason I was somewhat interested was because Ive been following the Tomb Raider series since its first iteration, so Ive already invested into Lara and her travels. I could see new comers to the series not care very much for the overlaying plot, but most will probably be wondering why one of the female characters has wings and is trapped since the lack of back story is quite the hindrance for story and character development. There is an overlaying Norse mythology aspect to the story which I found more interesting than the main plot itself. It is enjoyable to see some other main plot characters get some more face time unlike how Legend did.
The scale of the story seems to be much bigger to go along with the larger scale of the levels themselves. There are different places all around the world youll visit and explore like Thailand, Mexico, the Arctic, and even under the Ocean.
Gameplay is very similar to how Legend was played though now with many tweaks for the better. Lara has many more moves this time around to help with her exploration such as balance board walking, being able to shoot while hanging from ledges or pillars, and even the ability now able to shoot two enemies at once with her signature pistols.
Lara has also been given a new set of animations for all these new moves and they look much more fluid for the most part, but this is when the beginning of bugs starts to arise. There are many clipping issues such as legs and hands going through rocks and ledges or even sometimes getting completely stuck inside a rock. Sometimes the forced animations cause you to sometimes get stuck in objects as well and Lara wont reset until you stop and move away from whatever bugged her out in the first place. Normally I can deal with clipping to an extent, but when it happens often enough to be quite noticeable to break my immersion, thats where it needs to be mentioned.
Ive also had quite a few times where Lara would just stop and seemed stuck in her tracks and it took moving the stick in many directions before she would start moving in the proper direction again. There was also one instance where I had a bug on such a huge scale that it was game breaking and I had to reload an older save; losing around 40 minutes of work, but Ill get to the save feature issues afterwards.
One of the levels in Mexico has you solving a puzzle but the scale of it is so huge that you have to drive from each half of the area on your motorbike just to get to each side. After the puzzle is solved a large tomb entrance emerges from the ground and you have to drive there before it closes and retracts. Well I didnt quite make the jump into the tomb and my previous checkpoint save was reloaded to just before I had to drive into the tomb. As I get to the tomb entrance I notice it has not risen and the entrance is not there, so I drive back to both sides of the puzzle to try and reactivate it, but it had already been completed, so there was nothing I could do. I lost a good chunk of time having to restart the whole level again from the chapters start checkpoint and gained quite a bit of frustration due to this.
This is where the save feature problems are also apparent. For an actual save it only auto saves at the beginning of a level or chapter. There are many checkpoints as you play and if you die it just pops you back at the last checkpoint which works well, but if you get stuck or have a major issue like I did, unless you saved manually, you will have to start at the very beginning of the chapter.
There are redeeming qualities though that Underworld brings to the series. There are optional paths for the collector gamer that needs to find all the treasures and secrets to find special relics. Laras PDA that gives her basic info and inventory now has a sonar map that can be used to view a 3D model of your surroundings to look for where to go next or any grapples you happen to not see. The sonar feature is interesting though I never found myself having to use it after the first level once you know what to look for. The PDA also has a built in hint feature that will tell you a generic The switch must be used to open the gate (for example) with a press of the A button, but if you need more help, pressing Y will give you a very detailed hint of what to do such as I must move that boulder onto one switch while I stand on the other. Its a nice feature to try and keep you in the game instead of looking up walkthroughs online when you get stuck and when it works properly it has helped me solve some of the puzzles, but there were even times where it was too generic to offer any real help or even thought I was in a previous room instead of where I really was which just added frustration on top of not being able to figure out the puzzle.
For how often you are underwater, the controls are quite decent and simple to use. While not perfect, it is good enough to not be a hindrance considering how most games underwater controls are just atrocious. Its very refreshing that at least when underwater there wasnt any unnecessary frustration with the controls.
Lara's grappling hook allows you not only to swing across gaps with ease but now you are able to wall run, scale walls up and down and even use it as a tool to knock over boulders with the wire. If you are hanging from your zipline and need to change directions because you didnt quite jump and grapple on straight, I found it near impossible to do simply without just giving up and retrying to hook on at the proper angle.
There are some levels where you will be using your motorbike to jump gaps and to get from place to place. It did feel kind of just thrown in because the previous titles had it as well but a much better job has been given to a purpose of actually using the bike this time since there are some puzzles that are the size of a small city. It can feel very daunting at times and make you wonder how you will ever figure out a puzzle of this magnitude, but when you do finally figure it out the feeling of reward is much greater as well. It can feel a little too much for new players to the series when just looking at some of the scale of these chapters but every time you complete a puzzle youll do the almost obligatory oh yea!.
Quite a few of the levels have a good portion of backtracking which at times felt very unnecessary. When a level could end, there were some sections that instead of rewarding you with the next cutscene, it makes you run all the way back out. It seems like it was a simple way of just adding some unneeded length to the game since you were just going down the previous path in reverse.
The camera is still the largest issue in the series and it has not been fixed in Underworld yet either. Ideally it is supposed to give you the best view when you are climbing up walls and pillars so that you know where you need to jump to next. This would be ideal if the camera didnt always fight you when you try to move the camera yourself to search around for the next spot to leap to. Because of the camera issues, it can simply be a guess where to jump to next which will add to the frustration when you dont understand why you didnt make that jump for the tenth time. If you are properly lined up to the next jump (only certain gaps about half the time) Lara will slightly crouch and get into a leaping position so that you know you are properly lined up and arent just leaping to your death.again. With camera issues being a problem since the first Tomb Raider, I really do hope one day that this will be fixed as having a bad camera only adds player frustration.
I was quite surprised that the sound quality was the most noticeable feature that I found during my play. The music was very well done and set the moods for whatever environment you happen to be immersed in perfectly. Its a shame that the voice acting other than Lara was only mediocre at best, though the quality of the writing and cliché probably didnt help the cause.
Upon completion of the main story, Treasure Hunt mode is unlocked but unless you are achievement hunting or striving for the 100% completion, you probably wont even touch this mode once finished.
Combat has been slightly refined but has the same basics that Legend had. When loading a new level you get to choose your main guns and your outfit beforehand. Its a small feature that resembles some customization but with combat not having any real challenge, it really doesnt matter what weapons you choose in the end. You are also now given sticky grenades that are actually quite useful when locked onto an enemy and is a guaranteed kill for the smaller enemies. The ability to now shoot two enemies at once when using your pistols or two weapons is a new feature that is welcomed but not revolutionary.
While making shots in combat, your adrenaline meter fills up and when it is full you are able to pull off one shot kills while in slow motion for precision aiming. There are also certain parts while platforming around that will automatically slow things down so that you have time to jump at the right time for specific situations.
Throughout your adventure you will be faced against tigers, regular enemies with guns shooting back at you, giant spiders, panthers, and even summoned monsters and yetis. Even the enemies towards the end of the game had no real challenge and once you get the final weapon in the game, combat is a joke and even less challenging. With no bosses to fight against at all; being somewhat of a letdown, its apparent that combat wasnt as big of a focus as it was in Legend.
It is apparent that combat is quite a big weakness and with no cover system you just need to strafe in and out from behind walls to avoid being shot. Even though you could do this, its never really challenging as the AI lacks are sort of actual intelligence. Most of the time enemies or even animals will just stand there as you shoot them. There are options to alter the difficulty of the enemies but turning it up only made the bullets do more damage instead of making combat any more of a challenge. In a way its almost a good thing as it made me focus more on the puzzles and exploration than having to deal with long drawn out firefights, which isnt the sole reason most Tomb Raider fans play for.
Substantial exclusive DLC for the 360 has been promised, but with the story only being a few hours long it makes me wonder what may have been taken out in lieu of future content instead.
For every great moment and new feature, there seems to be an equal amount of frustration and bugs such as random floating body parts from down enemies. It felt like a tradeoff of sorts and just seemed to bring down the whole experience for myself, even being a huge fan of the series.
Tomb Raider is still leaping from point A to B then shimmying over to ledge C. This is the strength of the series but it feels much too linear especially since there are rarely ever secondary ways to solve puzzles or climb to heights. Its a predetermined path and feels constricting when we are now able to play open ended games like Assassins Creed.
It plays very similar as the previous Tomb Raider games and it feels like its time for a new take on Laras adventures. Obviously multiplayer is a needed feature for future iterations, but Id honestly just be happy with a properly working camera so that I know where I actually need to go to next. Its another adventure with Lara and its basically the same old gameplay that weve been playing for years with minor tweaks and additions. Lara may look better but heres to hoping that the next time we get to adventure with her its a much easier experience to swallow without as much frustration.
Suggestions: Simply fix the camera, its been an issue for WAY too long and I would be happy.
Overall Score: 7.1 / 10
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Left 4 Dead
Any zombie movie fan will surely know Romeros films and the 28 Days Later series. Having these scenarios as a playable game hasnt been done very often successfully recently other than Dead Rising. So what if Dead Rising was turned into a first person shooter and added 4 player co-op? You would have Left 4 Dead.
Left 4 Dead is built on four player cooperative play that is very simple yet effective. The great thing about the co-op is that its based around the idea of playing with others, not just a feature included afterwards. Being able to heal each other or give pain pills to friends that need it is done simply with the quick press of the D-Pad and really encourages you to watch out for your team mates rather than just looking out for yourself like most other games.
Four people have survived and the basis; like any other zombie flick is to simply find rescue while staying alive and killing as many zombies as possible. Sadly, there is no overlaying plot, but instead the game is broken up into 4 different scenarios. Each scenario is then broken up into 5 different chapters that end when you get to each safe house at the end and all 4 survivors are inside (should they still be alive). Each scenario is the same in essence with you trying to get from checkpoint to checkpoint and a final mass of zombies rushing you as you wait 10 minutes on a rescue vehicle to come get your survivors.
You dont know what happened, why, or even how you have survived and each scenario doesnt even have any smaller sub plots like trying to find other survivors or anything which was a little disappointing, though there are many redeeming qualities that make up for this oversight.
Sadly each scenario is generally pretty short, only lasting around an hour or so per, though playing on expert will add some more time, as will all your restarts when the survivors are overcome by the infected. So with 3 scenarios to do, thats roughly 4-6 hours, but Left 4 Dead has a Director mode that ensures each play through will never be the same, which Ill touch on later.
Scenarios are also presented like a Hollywood movie. Starting up the first chapter has a loading screen of a movie poster style image but with your gamertag showing who is starring as each character like a real movie poster. Finishing a scenario will also play credits with details of all the chapters gameplay such as headshots, most zombies killed, accuracy and even more. Should someone not have survived the final ambush at the end of the chapter, the credits even dedicate the movie to the memory of that player. Its a small thing, but it makes me smile every time and has that authentic movie feel to it.
With the 4 scenarios having a short gameplay from start to finish, Valve has ensured gamers will want to replay these same levels many times over and over, and this is accomplished with the ingenious Director. Instead of programming separate AI in each zombie, the Director takes into account how your survivors are playing and changes how the zombies act and spawn on the fly to compensate when needed. So if your players arent playing very well and missing lots of shots or getting hurt quite often, the Director tones down the aggressiveness of the zombies and even how many are thrown at you. On the flip side, should you be doing well with many headshots and killing well, the Director will make the zombies much more aggressive and throw more at you and possibly even more obstacles. More than just the zombies, the Director will also either give you more health packs if playing poorly and also higher powered guns if needed as well, all on the fly. This ensures that no play through will ever be the same and it makes things interesting as you may have been ambushed somewhere in one play through but not the second time. It keeps the excitement level high as you never really know what is going to happen each time you play which keeps replay factor an option without boredom.
Even though the game is built around co-op, single player is definitely an option. Bots are decent for healing you and helping kill zombies but the problem is that they arent aggressive enough and wont take the lead, they will always follow you. So it is possible to play the game solo, but it just wont compare to actual players. Each character will automatically talk such as calling out that they are reloading or shouting out the position of special zombies. Each of the infected also have their own sounds and gurgles so that you can tell which special infected are nearby before you even see them, which raises the tenseness even higher while trying to find them before they find you.
Should someone die while trying to get to a checkpoint, a player will respawns after a set amount of time, but they are locked in a room nearby until someone comes and opens the door to free them.; then they are to able join in the zombie slaying once again. If all players die or get pinned down, the whole chapter much be restarted from the beginning again. While this can be frustrating at times, especially on the harder difficulty levels, it promotes more co-operative gameplay with players having to watch each others backs and healing them when needed without running up ahead alone.
Certain checkpoints will have you pinned down in areas while waiting for an elevator or some other scenario to happen. During this wait there is always a huge rush of zombies that will come after you called the Horde. These massive groups of zombies arent much different than the normal ones but as a pack they are much more dangerous and will actually run at you as fast as they can like in 28 Days Later. They will even climb ladders and break down doors to get to you. Very loud noises will also attract the Horde such as car alarms and even if a certain zombie called a Boomer; vomits or blows up on you. The zombies have emotions on their face if they are chasing you and if you shoot one in the knee while running, they will fall down realistically. Luckily you are able to shoot off limbs and body parts to slow them down, but like any zombie movie, a headshot will always do the trick in one shot.
When you reach the end of a chapter, all players need to get inside the safe room and lock the door behind you. These rooms always have some writings on the wall from previous survivors and some of the quotes are pretty entertaining like the walls of a bathroom stall. You always will have an ammo stash and some health packs to start off the chapter. While you just start off with basic pistols, there are other weapons even though they are limited such as a Hunting Rifle, 2 different shotguns, an Assault Rifle, Grenades, and Molotovs. Should you run out of ammo on your primary weapon, your pistols will always have unlimited ammo and if you get knocked down to the ground, you have to use your pistols to defend yourself while waiting for someone to help you up.
Other than your standard zombie and Hordes, there are a few special infected that can make surviving quite a challenge as they are much more powerful or have some special abilities.
Boomers are giant overweight zombies that dont have much health, but if they get close enough to vomit on you or blow up nearby, the bile attracts the Horde directly to you and you are unable to see as if you had slime all over your face.
Hunters are zombies that will crawl on all four just waiting for the perfect moment to pounce a survivor. If you get pounced, you are unable to get him off of you until someone helps you and your health slowly goes down as they claw you over and over.
Smokers are the other common special zombie that has a very long tongue that can reel you in if you are hit with it. Should you get wrapped with the tongue, he will slowly pull you in towards him and start to claw you once in range. You do have a few moments to try and shoot him before he pulls you all the way in and before you are incapable of defending yourself.
There are two other special zombies that are much more powerful but you dont come across them as often. When you do though, you need to work together to take them down or they will make very quick work of your team.
The first of these two is called the Witch. You can hear a small girl crying from a distance but usually you cant see them because they are hidden in a dark room or corner. As you get closer the crying becomes louder and the overlaying ambient music becomes more and more intense. Should you find her, you are able to usually sneak past her without disturbing her as long as you dont get too close or have your flashlight on. Should someone make the mistake of startling the Witch, she awakes and becomes extremely angry and screams while chasing your teammates. She is able to effectively one hit kill a survivor and if you are also dealing with a Horde at the same time or some other of the special zombies, she will make quick work of you. Some rooms are so dark that you absolutely need to have your flashlight on to see where to go as its pitch black in many areas, but the problem is that you may attract more zombies this way or even startle a nearby Witch. The flashlight mechanic reminds me much of how it worked in Doom 3 where you can have an easier time with it off and not attract zombies towards you, or actually see whats in front of you if you have it on.
The last of the two more powerful zombies is called the Tank. This is basically a huge tank of a zombie in essence with huge muscles and a very bad temper. They are able to one hit you and knock you far away if they arent picking up slabs of concrete from the ground and throwing them at you first. The problem with Tanks is that they have an absolute huge amount of health and take quite a barrage of bullet to stop. They will do anything to stop you and they are able to do so with ease. When you hear a Tank coming, you better hope that all four survivors are ready for an intense fight to follow.
Should a player go idle for too long, there is a great system in place that will take care of being one man short versus the infected. After a certain amount of time of someone being idle they will automatically switch to the spectator team and the AI will take over for them until they return. The bot that takes over; just like while playing single player; is generally decent at helping and healing, but will never take the lead and just follow you. Should someone be away for too long or unhelpful for whatever reason, players are able to vote for a kick or even change chapters. Expert mode is quite a challenge with more aggressive zombies and higher health, so the vote system comes in very handy if someone isnt pulling their weight against the ambush.
Where Left 4 Dead differentiates itself from other zombie survival games is the ability to have 8 players online with 4 humans versus 4 infected. A chapter is played with the humans trying to get the safe house at the end of the chapter and the zombie team trying to prevent them from doing so. Each chapter is player twice and the teams switch when the humans reach the safe house or are all killed.
The team that is playing the infected randomly takes the role of a Boomer, Hunter, or Smoker. Each type has their special abilities as decried before, but on a timer so they need to be use when the timing is right. This makes it more important t play co-operatively and communicate even more so than while playing as Humans. Regardless of what zombie you are given to play, all are able to climb walls at predetermined spots that are marked with footprints on the walls. From here you are able to setup for an ambush or get higher ground to leap from.
Every now and then an infected will randomly be chosen and turn into a Tank to help stop the survivors. Just like fighting against one, you have all the same skills like throwing large blocks of cement at players to stop them and getting up close and punching them for massive damage. You do have much more health as a Tank, but if you try and take on all four survivors alone, you will even get killed quickly.
When you die as an infected, there is a long respawn time. You appear as a ghost where the humans are currently at and you need to get further enough away in a safe area away from them to spawn your infected. This allows you to determine where you want to setup an ambush, either in front and wait on them to come to you, or behind and try and get them when they arent looking or too busy with the random zombies and Hordes.
Infected players need to play much more co-operatively as they can be killed very easily when alone. Having a Boomer waiting behind a door or corner ready to spew bile on a player, then having a Hunter and Smoker attack when they are busy with the Horde is essential to try and stop them.
Not all of the scenarios are playable for some reason, so lets hope for an upcoming patch to add the others. Im also hoping that future DLC will add more scenarios or even maybe possible new infected to play as in Versus mode.
There are many zombies at the screen at once but nowhere near as many as Dead Rising had at times. Corpses do fade after a little while on the floor but you are usually so busy fighting the never ending slew of zombies that you dont really notice it since there isnt any backtracking.
While you are able to heal each other, it would have been nice to be able to share your ammo with each other as well. Ammo stashes usually arent too far apart but you will use a good portion of your reserves while fighting a Tank or many Hordes.
Valve has done a great job at making Left 4 Dead feel exactly like a Hollywood movie. While it does have high replayability due to the Director, it still does feel empty in substance, though playing with 4 friends online is simply just fun and makes you forget the lack of any plot.
I do hope that there will be more scenarios for download in the future to prolong the life of the game even further, but I have a feeling I shouldnt hold my breath for any overlaying plot or explanation to why or what happened. It will feel short overall but you will play through the scenarios co-operatively or on Versus mode many times without it ever feeling much like the same situation each time.
Left 4 Dead is fun, plain and simple. Playing online with friends is even a better experience and having Versus mode with the ability to play a zombie itself is a fantastic addition and killing the survivors can be entertaining as killing the Horde. If you are even remotely a zombie movie fan, this title deserves a chance as many zombies will be killed in the playing of his game; and that is always a good thing.
Suggestions: Many more scenarios for download and some more playable types of zombies in Versus mode.
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
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Mirrors Edge
It seems like for the past while weve been getting nothing to play other than sequels or remakes, so when something new comes along, its hard not to get excited about it. DICE (which is known for the Battlefield series) has brought the concept of a Free Running (Parkour for those in the know of the sport) game done completely in the first person view. Gameplay almost feels like as if you were playing Assassins Creeds climbing, swinging, and jumping mechanics since every move is mapped to an up and down button to easily decide what you want to do; but through the main characters eyes.
This seems like a very cool and new idea, and parts have been done before in other games, but not a whole game concept centralized around it completely. The idea is to make you feel like you are actually controlling the character through their eyes as opposed to playing in third person with a free swinging camera to look in any direction at anytime.
You are Faith, a runner that delivers confidential information to clients much like a courier, but instead of a bike or truck, you get to your destinations and clients with your own feet and hands the old fashioned way, but with a twist. Sometimes to get from place to place, you may need to jump over barbed wire fences, climb very high roofs, or even jump from building to building. The reason behind taking these risks is because the cops (referred to as Blues) view runners as outlaws.
Early on you meet up with your sister Kate in a high ranking person's office only to find him dead and your sister there trying to figure out what happened. Clearly with your sister setup to take the fall for a murder she didnt commit, you are about to set off on a journey to solve the problem, but not without any hardship from the Blues shooting to prevent you from doing so.
This is the general story plotline though I never found myself really caring for any of the characters along the way other than Faith herself. This wasnt due to poor character building, dialogue, or even the voice acting, its that you only get story cutscenes between each chapter and with only 9 chapters in Mirrors Edge; youll most likely finish the story in around 6 to 8 hours. In those little few hours, the majority of the time will be retrying jumps that had you plummeting to your death or trying to figure out where to go while avoiding being shot rather than straight running from point to point. A second play through is even quicker once you know where you need to go since there isnt very many branching paths to get to your destination, which feels odd in an opening looking world.
Once the story is complete you are able to do sections of each chapter in a time trail mode where you dont have to worry about the Blues chasing you. Your best times are saved and uploaded for anyone to download and race against. This means you are able to see the best runners in the world, download their ghost, and race against it to learn their tricks and the best possible lines to gain your flow. It would have been nice to have two player multiplayer in this mode where you and a friend could actually race, but being able to download anyones ghost makes sure its not a complete bust.
What makes Mirrors Edge unique in gameplay is that you play entirely in the first person view, as if seeing the world how Faith sees it. This is concept sounds like a great plan when on paper, but felt like it came short when trying to look where to go next, while also having to look forward to obstacles that are coming next. Its like not having any peripheral vision but having to look in more places than straight ahead at once; you can start to see where frustration will set in.
For people that get queasy stomachs from playing first person shooters, this will induce a far worse feeling as the camera is constantly moving as Faiths head bobs while running and the camera angles when jumping between buildings high on top of the city.
Flow is what runners live for. This is combining perfectly times vaults over low objects, rolls while landing, and slides under low hanging obstacles. All of these in succession of each other will give you more flow and cause you to run faster and build momentum which allows for further jumps as well.
A runner needs to know where to go to get in the flow and how to get to each point; this is called Runner Vision. Essentially its a hint system that will make any object that you need to get to next like the box to jump over or the plank of wood on a rooftop to vault off of, it will be a bright color of red. These objects stand out quite distinctly since most of the rest of the Faiths world is a white color while outside and some bland browns and oranges inside. When the Runner Vision works properly you know exactly where to go next without hesitating or having to look where to go, but quite a few times the object I needed to vault off of or jump to would not color red until I was inches away from it which stopped all my momentum. This has happened quite a few times and slows things down more often than I had hoped. You may be stuck looking around for the next red object when it should be colored without having to be beside it. Players who like a challenge can turn Runner Vision off at any time though, and when playing on the hardest difficulty, its turned off for you.
Should you still be stuck, holding down the B button will also give you a hint and face you in the direction on where you need to get. Again, this in theory works great when stuck, but quite a few times it will point you in the direction of your destination, not the next fence to hop over or roof to jump off of to get there. It gives you a general direction, but usually not the path needed to get there. Should you accidentally hit the button while about to line up a jump or running from Blues, you will most likely fall off a roof or become disorientated to your surroundings as it whips the camera instantly to that direction. I found it was more of a hindrance than a help most of the time which doesnt feel right considering a whole button is designated to help you, yet it usually doesnt or makes you even more confused than you were previously.
There are basically two different locations; rooftops and indoors. Rooftop levels I found seemed to be much more fluid and I didnt have to stop nearly as often to try and find where to go next. Indoors was a whole different story with it being a much slower pace and much more confusing with having to look for vents to crawl through and multi-tiered vaulting to get to the next area. Factor in being chased almost constantly and it just feels a little too frantic indoors with not much room to move, where on the rooftops you have more room to maneuver and feels like you truly are escaping from the Blues.
Faith is able to defend herself should you get into combat and get cornered, but it feels like an afterthought and if you have more than one person shooting at you close range, you will most likely die. You can disarm an opponent if close range, though you have to wait till the exact moment their weapon turns red to swipe it from them, or you will find yourself on your back from shoved down. A press of the X button will make things slow down to make it much easier to do these disarms and usually this is the only way to properly disarm as the timing to do it without bullet time is just too narrow and unforgiving. This slowdown has limited uses but gaining momentum while jumping and vaulting will refill it, though Ive never found a need to disarm anyone when I can beat them down just as quick. You are able to complete the whole game without ever firing a gun and there is even an achievement for it but there are a few times when youll be forced to take down some enemies to proceed; even though the rest of the game is built around running away from it.
You are almost always being chased by someone, so you dont get much of a chance to play around with certain jumps or explore for not so obvious paths and secret bags. The only difference changing the difficulty makes is the combat portions (other than Runner Vision being forced off on the hardest mode) more difficult where bullets will do more damage basically. It would have been interesting to try some more difficult jumps or combos to get up to other places instead.
The majority of level loading is done during the cutscenes between chapters, but there are a few mid level loads within the chapters themselves. Normally this isnt a big deal, but the reason for its mentioning here is that on almost every indoor level you will need to take elevators to go up or down floors. Logically you would think that this is when loading would be done, much like how Mass Effect did. The issue here is that nothing does load while in the elevators, but each elevator ride is at minimum 30 seconds, sometimes even longer. Theres no indication inside either that even says you are moving up or down floors. With nothing to press or do, you will be jumping around or pressing yourself up against one of the walls to see your hands just to try and pass some time. Being inside the elevators longer than you were even in Mass Effect seems almost ridiculous since you arent even loading parts of the level.
Rooftops look great with barbed wire and electric fences and debris lying around but when looking over the ledge down to the streets, you might think you are the last person alive. There is no movement or people walking around, just some parked cars usually. Even when you are down at street level and you can see some police cars parked with an officer standing beside the vehicle, they dont move. It feels very void and lifeless considering how many Blues are trying to track and find you.
With half the game being outside and on rooftops in the sun and the other half inside buildings I find a very frustrating issue with my TV. The brightness outside was way too bright almost to the point of everything blending together. No problem I thought and turned down the brightness. Then came an indoor level and I couldnt see a thing, even the bright red indicators where to go. So every time I switch from an indoor and outdoor area, I have to pause and change the preset brightness level on my TV. Ive never run into this issue this drastic before, and having a new 46 TV, I dont believe that is the issue.
There was something else that took about till half way through the game for me to notice; there really arent many shadows. This includes the shadow Faith herself should be giving off while on the rooftops as its sunny outside. I would be willing to look past this but it doesnt feel like shadows have been sacrificed for something else. Only sometimes while staring at my own feet in certain areas will my shadow appear, and other times I will see it being cast on a wall, but not the bars in front of me Im clinging onto.
Cutscenes between each chapter reveal more of the story and in most games they are done within the games engine so it looks consistent to what youve been playing, or complete realistic looking pre rendered videos. Mass Effect tries something else and has a visual style that a passerby would probably think its a higher end Flash video. It feels like a mix of cel shading and well done Flash, which is the best way I could describe it. It doesnt really feel like it fits with the rest of the game as the color palette seems different from gameplay, but it is stylish though flawed looking at times.
Id be lying if I said Mirrors Edge didnt have a lasting effect on me because the other day walking in the city I saw some red railings and instantly felt like I wanted to vault over it.
Mirrors Edge is definitely unique which isnt a bad thing, but it relies too heavily on one gimmick and seems too much like a one trick pony.
Despite its flaws, when you get into it and combo all the jumps and rolls flawlessly, it feels simply great when you get quicker and quicker momentum and dont have to think about where to go next. My suggestion is to play the free demo and if you enjoy the small section you get to play and love time trials then definitely pick this up and take this leap of Faith.
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
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Gears of War 2
When Gears of War 2 was first shown, we were boldly told that the experience was going to be Bigger, Better, and more Badass. Many fans were also wondering if this journey with Marcus and the Delta Squad would be a true sequel or more of a Gears 1.5.
By building on top of the foundation that the original Gears brought us, Epic has taken the fundamental gameplay and has improved it so that you are able to take on the masses of the Locust to save the world of Sera and you will feel like what you are doing is important to the whole cause.
Gears of War 2 starts shortly after where the original left off with Marcus and Dom deploying a Lightmass bomb in the Locusts Hollow after defeating General RAAM and must stop the Locust from creating more sink holes underneath cities all over Sera.
The campaign length has been slightly increased to about 10 hours, though playing on Insane difficulty will add more time due to checkpoint restarts from dying, a lot. If you played the original Gears, you will be able to pick up and play Gears 2 without any problems. Epic has improved on the core gameplay and mechanics vastly rather than trying to reinvent or recreate, and it works as intended. One such mechanic improvement is now the ability to cancel out of a cover rolls and turns if needed to get out of a tight situation quickly.
With new improvements also come new characters in the main story, such as Tai, Dizzy, and Carmine which are welcomed additions and act as enhancements to the other characters and story and dont take away from the Delta Squad we already know.
The Locust have also gained new recruits and ranks with small quick Tickers that will explode if you let them get too close to you, Bloodmounts that ride beasts and charge you, Priests that can revive fellow downed enemies, and to also different types of Boomers that are unable to be chainsawed due to their larger than normal size. Now with General RAAM defeated, Skorge is the one to take his place to follow the Locust Queens orders to not allow you to stop their plans of sinking every city and destroying mankind.
To take on this slew of new baddies, you are going to need more than your trusted Lancer and do more than just using your chainsaw to cut hordes of enemies in half. This is where some new weapons and mechanics come into play. Now with portable turrets called Mulchers that can mow down the biggest beasts and Morters that will level a complete area with devastation, you have more tools and ways to save humanity while leaving a large body count of Locust in your wake. These new heavy weapons are very beefy and quite entertaining to use when cutting paths clear for your squad.
Gears of War is all about the cover system and now there are some defensive weapons at your disposal as well such as a portable shield that can also be planted firmly into the ground anywhere you need cover to stay behind, retractable cover that pops up when you stand on the pressure plates beside it, and now even mobile cover comes from giant Rockworms that slither around and are impenetrable to bullets. It feels awkward and unnatural to have to hide behind something that is moving, but only having to deal with this in one chapter is a relief.
The scope of the battle on a whole is much larger and vastly more epic. You actually feel like you are fighting the war this time around and putting an actual dent into the Locusts numbers, not just a few soldiers fighting some small scale battles in the streets.
Vehicular levels and exciting boss fights break up monotonous gameplay, though repeated attempts on trying to drive precisely will be frustrating. Decimating hundreds of Locust at a time while riding a Tank, Reaver, or Brumak will simply put a smile on your face and wanting to kill even more bad guys.
Having professional writers this time makes for a much more engaging story with the Delta Squad and their own personal struggles. Doms search for his missing wife plays a large part of the whole plot and found it much more entertaining to actually care about one of the characters rather than just the normal kill anything that moves plot line. The story is full of high emotion and many plot twists but without ruining anything, you will most likely actually care about the characters on more levels other than just being badass. Being a sequel, Epic knows that the world of Sera and the main story line has been laid down and placed so now much more time has been allocated to deepening the main characters and their relationships as a whole and with each other. And yes, the Cole Train is awesome as ever with his one liners and comedic relief.
You will learn much more about the Locusts plans and will have to even go into their lairs to get some of these answers. Seeing the single Brumak in the first Gears had an awe factor, but when you see what is deep underground on their home turf ready to be unleashed on the surface you will think nothing of the Brumaks anymore. Some beasts this time are so large that to defeat them, you will have to go inside them and kill them from within and the sheer scale and size of whats to come is nothing short of amazing.
There are still sections where Delta Squad will have to split up to bypass certain traps or cover more ground. Sometimes you will be turning off turrets for your teammates or stopping some flame fields so they can walk across safely. Some sections will also just have you being a simple cover fire for the other members so they can progress and these split up parts are usually short in general but again, a nice change of pace from the normal mass slayings. At times though it will be quite obvious when a battle is going to happen (though you dont get very much down time in general) with some obviously placed barricades to be used as cover for an upcoming ambush.
Just like the first Gears of War, campaign can be played split screen or online cooperatively though now with some welcomed changes such as drop-in drop-out without having to restart the chapter or checkpoint. The biggest change has to be the ability for players to be able to choose their own difficulty levels. The enemies dont change but how much damage you take and deal are switched to be relative to your difficulty of choice. So this means while a veteran player like myself can play on Insane difficulty, I will take more damage from incoming bullets and give less output but my friend that is playing on casual will have a higher damage output and take less incoming, but we are able to play together with no problems. This is great way to add more challenge or even achievement progress for completion on Insane difficulty.
Although the ending does come very abruptly, the last leg of the game feels like you are being rewarded for what youve had to go through thus far in the story, especially the last chapter where I had a smile on my face the whole time.
Its been quite a while since Ive had a gaming experience where I havent noticed that 9 hours have gone past before realizing that I finished the campaign in a single sitting, even though it was quite a long sitting mind you.
The original Gears was widely faulted for having a very narrow pallet scope of brown and grey; and Epic has listened by adding a much broader pallet of greens, reds, and blues. Gears 1 looked great and this sequel pushes the graphical bar even further and the noticeable colors is much more varied quite noticeable, though honestly it was unexpected from myself. Seeing bright glowing plants and water while in the underground Locust Lairs, you will most likely catch yourself stopping to actually look at the environment and gorgeous water effects.
While everything in general looks absolutely stunning, there were some anomalies that are worth noting such as texture fading and the pop-in textures when starting a level that Halo 2 was criticized for. There were a few times where weird geometry collisions were quite distracting as they were that noticeable and one cutscene that I had to watch over again due from dying, but one of the platforms simply didnt appear and I was standing on thin air. There were also a few times where dead corpses on the ground would have limbs that would shake violently and awkwardly though its hard to fault these rare occurrences in the overall experience.
With how large the scope of Gears 2 is, there was only one section that had some slowdown and it was due to the massive intense battle where quite of lot was taking place. Dont worry, no spoilers here, but considering what was happening, I was still impressed.
With all these new graphical features and lighting effects, there is also destructible cover, though I would call it deformed cover since its simply for visuals and the cover you hide behind (unless it happens to be a wooden box or table) doesnt actually break away or make you more vulnerable in any way. Your tactics from the original gears wont change in any way for this part of gameplay, but lets hope this is a feature included in the next in the series.
The sound quality is also worth noting as every bullet can be heard, and slowly pushing forward while holding a Boomshield, you will hear every ricocheting bullet hitting you head on. The rain and razor hail sounds completely realistic (well, I assume that is how razor hail would sound) with dialogue being delivered very well, even if some of the lines are cheesy.
With all the new gameplay changes, nothing has been drastically revolutionized, but vastly improved. Portable shields is a great new addition and can make an oncoming rush much easier, grenades can now be stuck to a wall instead of thrown; making it a proxy grenade for an added level of strategy. Now being outnumbered wont always mean your downfall, as you can lure enemies or other players into your traps. Even picking up downed enemies and using them as meat shields is a possibility now and a great way to take out the others numbers. With these changes comes a more strategic play style rather than the previous gung-ho rushing.
Should you get taken down but not completely killed, you are no longer stuck in one spot while waiting for a revival from a teammate; you can now slowly crawl back to your squad to get you back in the game. While the AI has improved, there are still some instances where I have needed a revival from my squad and even being right beside them, they didnt revive me as I bled out. This time though they will actually push forward and not just follow you and shoot alongside you as in Gears 1.
One of the intense ways to finish a downed enemy in the original Gears was the ability to curb stomp them and finish them. This favorite (alongside the chainsawing someone in half) is still included but now with many more options and ways to maim your downed opponent. The X button will still do the curb stomp but now the Y button will flip the downed person onto their back as you punch them in the face with thunderous pounds until there is nothing left. The B button will still saw someone in half if you are holding the Lancer gun, but now every weapon has its own finisher. Using a sniper gun in this way will have you hold the gun upside down and bat the head off the person and each weapon has their own brutal style of execution.
Multiplayer in Gears 1 felt like it wasnt a focus or priority but Epic has changed this stance and the multiplayer in Gears 2 will have people playing on Xbox Live for many months and years to come now that there are much needed fixes that plagued the original experience and new modes to bring variety.
Shotgun rolling was an unintended mechanic in Gears 1 that as a problem which gave players who were rolling and diving into gunfire a slight window of invulnerability. So many people would continually roll into other players and when in range, simply shotgun them for a single shot kill. This has been fixed and now when you are shot, you stagger and no longer have invulnerability while rolling. This even prevents people that used to simply hold down the chainsaw button and running around, as it will also lower your revved chainsaw. This makes it more strategic of when to get out of cover and when to chainsaw and does require more thought and skill.
There are 10 maps that ship with the game and another 5 that are in download form that are actually remakes of popular maps from the previous game. There will without a doubt be more maps to come for DLC to purchase in the future, but this is a healthy number to start off with as I havent really grown tired of any specific map yet.
With the maximum players being upped from 8 to 10, battles are much more intense this time around. Regardless of being with a party of friends or not, players are matched according to their rank. Once in the lobby to start a game, everyone gets to votes from a choice of two game types, then maps, then you choose your character and main weapon.
A small but very useful feature in the lobby is now called the Whats Up button that replaces the simple Friends pop up screen. From here you can see your whole friends list, but it will give you details of what they are doing in Gears of War 2 with the option to join anyone if available or even have all your currently online friends receive a giant spam invite.
Having no friends (or simply none online at the time) doesnt mean you are out of luck from enjoying multiplayer. Gears of War 2 now includes bots should you want to learn the new game types or dont feel confident enough yet to try your skills online against the masses. Unfortunately this is only available through the training and not online, but it is a nice addition if needed.
With new maps also comes new multiplayer modes and the new additions are quite refreshing and simply fun to play. Even some maps such as Avalanche will change mid game. As the timer of game play counts down, eventually a large avalanche of snow will happen, making the whole screen completely white for a few seconds which is quite frantic when mid firefight with someone else. After this is finished, the whole map is completely changed from a multi level map to a flat snow covered one that allows you to reach new areas and weapons.
Guardian is a new mode that randomly chooses one person on each team to be the leader. While the leader is alive, all their teammates have infinite respawns until the leader is taken out and executed, then there is no more respawns for the rest of the team. It is an interesting balance of defending the leader and also trying to rush and kill the opposing teams leader.
Submission (aptly named Meat Flag) is a Gears of War take on Capture the Flag. This has an AI controlled character that needs to be downed then taken forcibly to your teams base. He is decent at preventing himself from being taken but the real action is when both teams are trying to capture the same Meat Flag and drag them away while being shot at. A very cool feature that needs to be added to this mode hopefully in the future is to have someone randomly chosen to be the Meat Flag that is an actual player.
The new inclusion of Horde mode easily overshadows the rest of all the new multiplayer features. Horde mode in essence is 5 players against waves of ever increasing difficult Locust. This mode is very challenging but fun and intense. If you do not work cohesively as a team in Horde, you will not make it past a few waves and it requires absolute teamwork and communication. There are 50 waves of enemies and after each wave you get a small break to see your score, kill count, and get whatever weapons and ammo may be lying on the ground. After every tenth wave, instead of adding more and more Locusts, they are simply given more health and offence power; so usually the only hard waves are the back set of 5 when the sheer numbers get larger. Its a very simple idea but extremely addictive, though the lack of Reavers and Brumaks was a slight disappointment. Here is to hoping for a patch or DLC down the road to include this in the future.
Gears of War 2 improves on everything that made the first great while also adding new features and mechanics that makes this more than just a Gears 1.5. Marcus Fenix is a strong enough character to be alongside Master Chief as the Xboxs brand spokesperson and now with Gears 2 finally here, we get to learn more about the world of Sera and Delta Squads struggles with their own issues while saving Mankind from the Locust.
There are quite a few oh my god moments and as mentioned previously, its been quite some time since Ive had to complete a campaign in one sitting due from an engaging story and wonderful art direction blended with strong gameplay.
Gears of War 2 is a perfect example of blending game and art. An engrossing plot with emotion and battles on an absolute huge scale make this simply an experience that needs to be had by any gamer.
Suggestions: Horde mode would be even better if each 10th wave was versus a Brumak; simple as that.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
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Guitar Hero: World Tour
Guitar Hero has become practically a household name and if youve not played it, you most likely at least know what it is. This years installment of the series is trying to take away a piece of the pie that Rock Band has managed to do so well with a fully fledged drum kit and microphone as well as the standard guitar that weve become accustomed to. Guitar Hero World Tour (will be referred to as GHWT for the remainder of this review) has taken notice of Rock Bands success and has released their take of what a Band game should be, but is it what the rest of us want?
Arguably the most important instrument in a band would be the guitar, and this is what the series has built itself on and has done a good job to this point. When Rock Band added the five solo buttons on the bottom of the guitar neck in their game, Activision seems to have taken notice and is attempting to one up them by adding a flat touch sensitive slider bar that is the length of the regular buttons you hold down lower on the neck. There are a few reasons for this new change and some new features that come along with it as well.
Should you wish, you can use the slider bar to do your wah-wahs on the long notes instead of using the whammy bar. While this isnt a huge feature, its nice to not have to reach away from the strum bar to pull the whammy bar and then put your hand back on the strummer. The only difference when using the slider bar for this though is that the note sound that changes is nowhere near as distinct. Most of the time I wouldnt have even known it was doing the wah-wah if the sustained note bar didnt change shape.
While playing lead guitar there is also a new set of notes that will show up that are meant to be tapped on the slider bar. These can also be played normally by using the buttons and strumming together but much like using Rock Bands solo buttons, it makes it feel slightly cooler while doing it the intended way. The notes are half see through so that you know when you are meant to tap these notes and they are strung together with a thin line between each note like a connect-the-dot to help guide you through these sections. The problem with these tap sections while using the slider bar is that since the touch sensitive bar is flat, there is no way to tell where your fingers are on the bar without much practice. Losing your proper finger position on the slider bar will be frequent when tapping the expert level solos even though with the slightest touch the column your finger is touching lights up it would have been nice to have a slight bump on each flat button on the bar so you can fix your fingering easily.
The other big addition that comes along with the new slider bar is the ability to tap the bar in lieu of strumming. This makes bassists like me very happy now that we can play some actual slap bass. Its an interesting feature and although the bar is very sensitive somehow I find using it instead of strumming usually isnt as accurate, especially on the more difficult expert levels.
Also sure to make the few bassists out there happy is the addition of another note to press, totaling it to 6 (for bassists only). This is done by having a flat bar across all notes that looks exactly like Rock Bands drum pedal note that needs to be strummed or tapped but without holding any of the colored note buttons down. At first it seemed pretty basic and a gimmick, but in the later songs having to strum and not hold a note then instantly hold a different note adds some welcomed challenge to bass players. Its worth noting that this 6th note only appears on hard and expert difficulty for bassists only.
A common problem with previous guitars in either game previously was deploying your star power. If your guitar didnt always deploy it by holding the neck straight up you could always press the back button instead, though not many people knew this. Some people prefer this method as holding the neck straight up can mess up their regular playing, so Activision has taken notice and brought a welcomed change for this lingering issue. You are still able to lift the neck straight up to deploy your star power but the change is that the back button is a long button on the guitar right where your palm rests when strumming. This makes it much easier to hit the button should you not want to potentially miss notes by holding your guitar up and it looks natural on the guitar to match the wood looking finish.
Drums are a new addition in the Guitar Hero franchise and much like the guitar; it seems theyve seen whats out there and then did their own take on it. The biggest change you will notice first off is that instead of using Rock Bands 4 circular drum heads they have made 3 larger ones on the bottom of the drum kit and now has 2 cymbals raised up above them slightly between the inner pad.
At first look they can seem pretty intimidating and being an expert drummer on Rock Band myself, this new set does come with a learning curve. The 3 circular pads are slightly larger than Rock Bands making them easier to hit and feel like they have more cushion to them. Oddly this does not make them quieter than Rock Band 2s new drum kit and with having to hit the cymbals that are stiffer frequently, this new kit is not apartment friendly in the noise department.
For some reason the drum pedal has a cord that is much longer than it needs to be, but to the point that I wrapped mine around the middle bar that holds the drum heads up. Why the reason for this Im not sure because your foot still needs to be in range so your arms can hit the drum heads. While this isnt a big issue, the fact that the pedal itself is very flimsy like the original Rock Bands one has me nervous that it will snap in time as it seems to bend to the sides very easily especially when playing furiously on expert level. One thing they did add is that the bottom of the pedal itself has rubber feet to prevent it from slipping should you be playing on hardwood or a smooth surface. They have also added a strip of velcro should you be playing on a carpet like myself. While these two small things are nice, Im finding the pedal will sometimes still get away from me since the pedal can be placed anywhere and doesnt attach to the drums base in any way.
Drums fills (those few seconds of drumming where you can hit any note you want) are few and far in between Ive found and unlike Rock Band where your highway (the area where your notices scroll down) changes color so you know this is your time to shine and fill to your hearts delight, the highway gets very feint white swirls and if you arent looking for it, its completely possible to miss your chance to do your fill completely.
Easily my favorite feature with the new drums is how you activate your star power for bonus points. In Rock Band it was quite frustrating to have to wait for a specific drum fill area then also hit the last note to use it where guitarists could use it anytime they wish. GHWT remedies this very easily and a drummer can use their star power at ANY time now by crashing both symbols at the same time. Its simple and effective and it just feels awesome much like nailing that hard solo on guitar.
Drum play also has a new note in a sense much like the basss 6th note. Certain notes will have a white outline on the note and these are meant to be hit with more than normal force on the pads. Since the drum kit is velocity sensitive and can tell how hard you hit them, hitting these specific notes with a harder force than normal gets you bonus points. Its not a game changing feature, but it definitely makes you get into the song and seems to be at the appropriate sections of the songs.
One issue that Ive run into though with the drum kit overall is that one of my pads seems to work only part of the time. Since I play on expert and decided it wasnt me just not being used to the new drums, I decided to calibrate the lag but with no luck. With some quick searching online it seems quite a few people are having the same issues as myself with random pads or cymbals not working. Ive not seen Activision announce any sort of repair procedure like EA did with their instruments yet, so heres to hoping so that drummers with faulty kits can actually enjoy this title soon.
Should the front man or Diva in you want to emerge, you can now take the microphone in GHWT and sing with the rest of your band. Gameplay is practically similar to other karaoke games out there and Rock Band. The lyrics will scroll across the screen and you must sing in key to get your score up but the presentation is different in GHWT. In Rock Band, you had an arrow in a static place to show you where you were pitch wise, this has been replaced with a small circle called the comet and it will move up and down depending on how you are singing. As lyrics scroll across you must move the comet in line of the preferred tunnel to be on key with your voice.
Spoken words have been altered in the way that instead of a different style and color of lettering and no tunnel to let you know that it only has to be spoken and not sung, the tunnel area will be red and you can say it in any tone or key you want. The only issue with this is that GHWT doesnt seem to have any vocal recognition like Rock Band does, so I was able to get perfect on the spoken parts by just humming or saying anything. This isnt a huge deal, but with certain songs like Beastie Boys No Sleep Till Brooklyn where the whole song is spoken, you can see where there is no challenge.
Instead of having tambourine tapping parts like Rock Bands vocalists must do, you have freeform sections to sing whatever you wish. This is where you get your bonus points, but the tricky thing is that you get rewarded much more if you are singing in tone of the song and along with the general beat. Ive yet to perfect this myself but it definitely makes a difference when trying to freestyle along with the beat than just random gibberish.
Much like how the drummers can use their star power at any time, so can the vocalists by either hitting a button on the controller or apparently tapping the microphone, though Ive tried many times to activate it this way and have been unsuccessful so far.
Taste in the music selection will vary from person to person but GHWT tries to cater to everyone by having a little of everything there are surely to be at least a few songs that everyone will enjoy. Jimmy Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Tool, Korn, and even Willie Nelson are there, so finding something you like shouldnt be too difficult.
Not being able to import my Guitar Hero 3 songs into GHWT was very disappointing as it seems a standard since Rock band has done it with their sequel. I do understand that the songs bought in GH3 were strictly guitar tracks but it would have been nice to possibly patch them or even have them playable only in Guitar form even.
The music download store is almost exact to how Rock Band does their in-game purchases. You can preview the songs you want to hear then buy them directly without leaving the game. Activision has also taken note of how successful buying single songs have been and you are no longer forced to buy a whole track pack just to get that one song you want.
New to the series is being able to make your own rocker instead of picking a preset one. You are able to customize everything from hair to skin tone to height and weight. Obviously clothing choices are a given and you unlock more as you go. Instead of a set amount of default faces you are given the basic face and from there you can tweak it how you want; everything from brows to nose to cheeks and eyes. It sounds like it may be better this way, but I would have rather had a choice of a few preset heads then be able to tweak it from there. From here you can even customize cheers and dances your person will do if they pass or fail a song. Its not much but its nice to have a little more customization to suit your personality and style.
After creating your perfect rocker you are then able to choose an instrument and change that to your liking as well. This section is much more in depth than Rock Bands since not only can you pick a different style of guitar, bass, or drum kit, but from there you can even further make it your own. You can pick the necks and head of the guitar, the body style, the fret board and even the design and color on each part. The same goes for drums by being able to change the main drum that faces the crowd and even the outer edges of each of the pads. You can save each instrument you create as its own name and then just use that for any character you wish, so you arent forced to make it for each character you play.
GHWTs career mode is a very flat and unrewarding experience other than unlocking new songs to play. Unlike Rock Band where you are always working towards your fan base, unlocking new areas and gathering money, GHWT just haves you go from gig to gig that compromises of a set list of a few songs with an encore at the end. It feels very flat an only getting money as a reward doesnt even feel that rewarding. Gigs are posted as posters on the wall and you just choose which you would like to do and that is basically it.
Some gigs require you to actually spend your earned cash to even play them, so if you accidently bought too many things in the Rock Shop for your rocker, you may find yourself redoing old gigs to just catch up to where you need to be in the career.
Every now and then a mini cutscene will happen and someone will join your band on stage. Musicians that have signed on for the game will actually be performing with you sometimes which is an interesting addition, even if seeing Billy Corgan sing for my band creeps me out.
Playing as a band together means that you must work together, and just like in a real band, if one member is lacking, the whole band will fail. Unfortunately, this is true for GHWT as well. Should a band member get over zealous and play a difficulty they cant do and fail out, the song instantly stops and the whole band fails the song. You can imagine how frustrating this is while playing online and seems to happen quite often in my experiences. One counter for this poor design decision is the fact that as your band all gains star power, it is not individual, it is a collective for anyone to use at any time. Additionally, if one member uses it to get themselves out of red, they only use a portion of the star power and not hogging it all for themselves for someone else that may need it (or just want to rock out more). This works great when players are paying attention, but if a very hard sequence comes up and the band mate isnt quick enough to use star power preemptively, you will quickly fail the song and be disappointed.
One of the biggest new features to distinguish itself apart from Rock Band is the inclusion of being able to make your own songs in GHWT. On paper this sounds amazing but in usability I dont foresee the average gamer to put too much time into this very convoluted section.
You are able to set your own guitar, drum, and keyboard tracks but no vocals. I can see why this wasnt included due to copy write issues due to people that would just use the microphone to make real songs and then share them, but with the lack of vocals on any homemade music, it just doesnt feel more than a glorified midi.
Load up the Guitar Hero Studio and start recording whatever you want. You can change the tempo, pause and go back to fix something, but having to hold down multiple notes to get one note can be very confusing for someone that doesnt know much about music producing. From here you can import it into Guitar Hero Mix where you can fine tune each track and manipulate it in other ways but there are so many features and buttons that as previously stated, I dont see the average person putting more than 30 minutes in it to even try and figure it out. It all feels very over complicated for a console game and the fact that you are doing all of this on your guitar or drums d-pad doesnt help the ease of use.
Its very time consuming and not user friendly in the slightest, but there is a flip side. Should you take the steep learning curve to understand how the Studio and Mixer work, there is potential to make some great tunes. Ive downloaded some of the top rated user content and there are some great pieces out there but I can only imagine how much time it must have actually taken to make something sound great, as a quick 10 minute trial will show you that it isnt easy at all.
Should you finish making your masterpiece, you are able to upload it to Guitar Hero Tunes in-game which is their equivalent of iTunes. Songs can be sorted by best, features, newest, genres and then downloaded and played. Once you play someones song you are asked to rate it; which I found a good feature since you will get feedback on people that play your tune be it good or bad.
Online or local play is possible and there are some new additions here as well. Regardless of what mode or instrument you decide to play, once you are in a game there is a random picking of who gets to pick the song to play each time which is a nice change from previous titles rather that the host always having control of the selection each time.
You have the choice of going 1 vs 1 for each instrument, or even 2 vs 2. If you want to do co-op or just get 4 people together online to form a band and play whatever set lists you want, that is possible as well. The biggest feature for online that GHWT boasts over the competition is actual band versus band with 8 players. It does take some time finding a game going especially if you are a solo player, but once you have your band going, finding another didnt seem to take too long, it was only a lengthy wait if you were trying to join the 8 person band vs band mode while playing solo.
The new features on the instruments are a welcome change and how it relates to in the game as well is generally for the best. Its not one large part that brought down the GHWT for me; it was the many small annoyances that brought on must frustration and made me just wonder why, that really seemed to pull down the experience when I had high hopes and truly wanted to enjoy this title.
While the music is great, the key feature of being able to create your own and share is simply just too confusing and uneasy to use, which is a shame. As a basis I hope that GHWT is the groundwork for the next title on the series and I hope they learned a lot from their mistakes this go.
Suggestions: Learn what people like from the competition and build ontop of it. You don't always have to reinvent the wheel to be successful.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
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Fable 2
The world of Albion has had many changes in the 500 years that have passed since the first Fable and having knowledge of the first game is rewarding when small clues and stories are told about whats happened to the previous hero and characters.
As you start the game, the mood and style are set in tone right away with the humor Fable is known for; and as soon as you pick a male or female for Albions savior, you are on your way of uncovering all the secrets and journeys ahead of you. Humor plays a large part in Fable 2 and its apparent from the very first cutscene where a bird poops on you before you even get to move around and explore anything.
After a short opening you are set free on a somewhat linear path as you are given quick tutorials of basic combat while being led along your first quest to gather 5 gold from many different characters. This is the first time that you will encounter your soon to be best friend and companion: your dog. Very early on he will start to follow you never leave your side from there on, regardless of how horrible you may treat him. You never control your dog in any manner, he will do everything on his own from finding treasure chests that you may have missed and even show you where do dig with your shovel that has been buried by someone previously. If your pet gets hurt and starts to limp slowly, he will even then still follow you regardless of how far ahead in the trail you get. Being able to name him and put different collars (that have different skills) definitely makes you warm up to your canine and as time goes on there are moments that actually make you feel for your pet want to reward him with treats. Having no control over the dog may make you forget he is there until he starts attacking a down bandit or sniffing out the nearest treasure to show you where to go, though seeing him randomly chasing his tail or playing dead while you do your own thing usually puts a smile on your face.
While your dog may lead you to treasure and riches, the glowing trail that is set to your current quest will lead you where to go next, should you choose to of course. Its a bright yellow trail that automatically readjusts itself should you wonder off the path looking for chests or simply exploring. Some will think that this is too easy and your are just given a point A to point B linear path, but there was numerous times where I actually veered off the path to go look down another trail or searching for something else, knowing that the trail will lead me back to where I want to eventually get going. If you would rather do everything on your own without any help, you can either dim how bright the trail is for a subtle clue or completely turn it off. Generally the trail updates instantly if you take a corner or a wrong turn, but there were quite a few times that Ive had to stand in one spot for up to 10 seconds while waiting for the trail to refresh.
As you go from quest to quest and travel from town to town you will be upgrading your armor and weapons as time goes on and more foes are downed. An interesting change in Fable 2 is how the armor and clothing works compared to most other RPGs. Usually armor and clothing will have stats and you are constantly trying to upgrade better stats and always searching for that best suit you can obtain. Fable 2 has done away with this system and with no stats other than attractiveness, aggressiveness, poshness and you are encouraged to wear what you think looks good on your character and how you want to dress to express your own style and personality. The only downside to this Ive found so far is that once youve completed the main quest line, youve seen basically every clothing item in Albion and it doesnt vary much from when you find your own ideal outfit midgame.
Customization not only comes in your outfit, but how you eat will also affect your weight and appearance. Use too many pies to heal instead of potions or healthy food and you will find yourself packing on quite a few more pounds than you might have hoped for. Your choices will also play a role into your appearance in the way that being pure good will give you a halo above your head and sinister choices will cause you to grow horns and look evil.
Weapons are based on a base damage and vary from swords to katanas to giant two handed hammers. You upgrade these more frequently and some rare items even have empty slots that are where you can insert an augment into your weapon adding fire damage, your attractiveness, and many other options once you find these rarities as well. The same applies for your ranged weapons that can either be pistols, rifles, crossbows and others of your choosing.
This is where combat comes into play in Fable 2. Its noted as being easy for anyone to pick up and single button smashing will work most of the time, but also being able to be much more deep and rewarding when chaining together melee with ranged and magic as well for bonus multipliers. The X button is your melee attack to swing your weapon; the Y button is your ranged weapon to shoot baddies from a distance. A press of B will control all your magic and all of these different attacks can be chained and mixed in any way you want to play. The more you melee, the more experience for this category you will receive and the same goes for any type of attack you use.
The melee category of attacks once leveled up can increase your health bar, your strength, doing chain attacks, and even flourishes for extra damage when the button is held down and released instead of rapid presses. Ranged attacks will make you do more damage, leveling will make all types of attacks faster and then also being able to freely aim at targets and shoot any body part you wish.
Magic is also mapped to one button, but is much more robust due to there being many choices of spells at your disposal. The way of overcoming this hurdle is that as you level up a specific spell and make it stronger, you can either quickly press B to cast the level one version of the spell, or hold it for a few seconds to unleash a much more powerful level 5 version. Obviously as you charge up for the higher level spells, you are left vulnerable and open to attacks so you must balance wisely and think on your feet during combat. If you are a heavy magic user and have multiple spells, you can change whatever spell you want mapped at one time very quickly and easily without having to pause the game, though this is also an option should you not want to be rushed while fighting.
Experience is gained from combat and each type of combat fighting has its own colored orb that falls to the ground once an enemy is defeated. Kill the horde of zombies with your sword and a pile of blue experience orbs will be waiting for you to soak up; the same goes for ranged attacks and yellow orbs. Green experience orbs will also drop each fight and is general experience that can be used in conjunction with each type of specific experience to purchase new skills and abilities.
Should you not be quick enough to use a potion or eat before your hit points reach 0, normally you would die and have to restart from a checkpoint of some sort. A change that was decided on for Fable 2 was that instead of having to restart and redoing something youve already done is that should you die you fall unconscious for a few moments and all your experience that youve not sucked up yet disappears. It may not seem like much of a consequence so you will also become more scarred up the more you fall unconscious. There is a fine line between too easy and too difficult, and with a non threatening form of dying one would assume that the difficulty would be turned up a little higher to make up for it. This is not the case and only having died once during my whole play through I was reminded of Bioshocks death penalty which basically was the lack of one.
The other type of experience in Fable 2 is called renown. This is basically how famous you are, regardless of how pure or evil; its your celebrity rating in all of Albion. This will affect how people in towns react and interact with you and if someone doesnt like you, you can alter their feelings with gifts and many different expressions to sway it in your favor (hopefully). These few dozen of different expressions can be done with a single press on the D-Pad or held down for a moving meter to appear that takes skill to perform a much more potent execution of your choice. Much like the real world, every person in Albion has their own personalities, likes, and dislikes that can be examined at anytime you lock onto a citizen. This is how you can see what a person enjoys and you can tailor your interactions with that person to go in your favor. This is the heart of the game, choosing and making your own decisions that will shape your heros fate and possibly change all of Albions. Since your hero has not even a single line of dialogue in the game, expressions and emotions play the large part of bringing your point across during play. Will you be the serious hero that will save anyone that needs it or laugh, fart, or run around in Albion dressed in a chicken suit to make people laugh at you? All of these are choices you can make anytime you wish and people will remember your doings whether they be noble or evil.
There is much you can do with peoples feelings one you make them completely love or hate you. Marriage is an option if you give the desired person a ring and choose a marital home for yourself. You can choose to marry a woman or a man regardless of what sex you chose in the beginning. From here you can also choose to have sex or not with your significant other and even if you want to use a sheep skin condom to prevent a pregnancy and STDs. Should multiple people favor you and follow you home, an orgy is also completely an option and is even an achievement to aspire for should you wish. Choose not to use a condom and you will find yourself with a child in the home in 9 months. This happens instantly after a cutscene even if you are playing the female in the relationship. While its not necessary to have a child, having one waiting for you at home that will praise you running to your arms is rewarding as well. Make sure to keep your spouse happy or you can also find yourself divorced very quickly should they become unhappy.
Completing quests reward you with renown, so obtaining gold can be done in two different ways. The most common that will happen as you explore is finding treasure chests and digging up spots your pet tells you to. Should you want to make some real cash, you can always take up a job in different cities as a blacksmith, woodworker, bartender, assassin and other odd jobs that people may need done. It can be redundant to do the small mini games for quite some time so you can always come back to it later if you find yourself short on cash. As you get better in the jobs, they become more difficult and require more skill, but the reward is much larger the longer you dont mess up. Its not very exciting, but then again what jobs are? Get bored of these and you can still make money being in the real-estate business. With every building being for sale, you could own very place in a town or that single home with the view for your husband or wife. Things can be very interesting should you own many buildings and businesses. You can then set prices on rent and sale prices for the businesses. If you feel like an easy laugh, buy the local tavern and have the beer prices set to zero. You gather rent from all your buildings every few minutes, so once you have a few properties its easy to have a constant cash flow. Fables renown system even comes into play into this part, since people will hate you if you are the evil landlord that raises rent that people can barely afford or the best landlord ever that has cheap rent for easy living.
When you arent in a town making a name for yourself or visiting your family, you will be out adventuring and fighting different kinds of monsters. Unfortunately there isnt much variety of types of monsters that will try and kill you with under a dozen different types coming to mind. Some are just cannon fodder (literally) and some require more than just button spamming to defeat. Trolls make a return in this sequel but once you figure out how to defeat them, the difficulty is gone from these beasts as well.
Arguably the largest newest feature to be added into Fable 2 is the co-op play offline and on Xbox Live. Taking a note at how successful and easy the drop-in drop-out co-op has worked in the Lego series of games, Lionhead has also added the ability to have a second player play with you instantly at anytime during play without having to start a specific point in the game or load it from a menu. There are some major flaws in the way co-op has been implemented though and is quite disappointing. For one, the world is played in the hosts game save and the other person playing is their henchman to aid them. The second flaw in this design is that because of this, the henchman must choose from a preset of only a few different looks instead of their character model that theyve been working on for many hours to be outfitted and dressed just right. The redeeming factor to this downer is that you do get to keep all your skills and spells and can fight just like normal, just with different weapons that you are used to since armor and weapons dont import.
Co-op is not done split screen either. You share the screen and because of this you have an invisible tether between the two players so that one person cant wonder off and get lost. This makes it quite frustrating when travelling down a corridor or down winding paths as the camera will quite often get stuck or whip around to disorientate you and become more of a nuisance than it should be.
The best feature though of co-op that I feel many other games should take notice of is that the host can decide who gets what percentage of all experience and money gained while playing easily on a slider bar just before starting to play together. All this money and experience gained will save to both characters and even the henchmans main character. The host can also decide to turn off the defaulted safety that will allow either person to attack anyone from guards to wives to children. This opens up many possibilities for peoples wives and husbands to be killed by someone else and whole towns to be exterminated in record times.
Online co-op is also available and plays the exact same way as local co-op does. As you and everyone on your friends list are playing Fable 2, your position is being uploaded and you are able to see where your friends are while you play single player. So as Im in town wondering around doing anything, if you are also in the same town while playing your game, we will see each other as these floating glowing orbs with our names above them. From here you can invite anyones orb directly and instantly into your game to help you out, converse and talk with them, or even send gifts. The default is set to see everyones orbs though I highly suggest turning this to friends only. The reason for this is that as you enter a city and if orbs are set to everyone on LIVE, since you can hear everyone talking in the vicinity around you, it becomes quite noisy very quickly and theres no easy way to see who is talking without going up to their orb, then in the menu, then muting them. Its a very cool feature the first time you see it, but entering a town with screaming people or mics that have heavy static makes it quite annoying quickly, though now that the groundwork is there, I would love to see this in other games.
Should you want to shell out $10 more for the collector edition, you will be given a few more goodies in download form. You are given access to a dungeon only for collector edition owners that once completed nets you a decent sword that would be ideal mid storyline. In your guild hall you are also given a suit of armor that may resemble a certain Spartan from a well known game called Halo, though with a renaissance twist on the look. The last in game bonus is a replica energy sword from Halo as well and although the stats are only good for a new player, its definitely a cool weapon to be wielding while strolling around town as it really sticks out from your regular choices of swords. The last item included is the standard making of DVD that shows you behind the scene footage of Fable 2s making.
Fable is all about choices and all these consequences will come into play down the road, some for the better and some for worse. Are you going to try and be the role model for all of Albion to look up to and strive to be, or will you be the demonic ruler that brings terror everywhere they go making people worship you out of fear. Take your time exploring every corner of Albion and taking your time to effect everyones lives that crosses your path or simply follow your glowing trail from objective to objective to complete a world altering plot. Again, every decision you make will change the outcome of your heroes story and the lives of everyone else as well, so who will you be?
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
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Tomb Raider: Legend
Overall: Intro:
If you ask most people what they think about the Tomb Raider series, most will vividly remember how much enjoyment they had fun years ago with usually part 1 or 2. From then on, the series continuously declined in quality, and basically fun overall. Eidos has dropped Core Design from this title all together after the huge decline in the series and went to work on the newest installment of the series, and we now have Tomb Raider Legend. It builds on what made the series great and it’s cool once again to enjoy a Tomb Raider game.
Gameplay:
As the story begins, Lara is back, and is haunted by flashbacks of her mother’s death years ago. As the story progresses, you explore many different lands on different continents with a story revolving around the power of a sword broken into fragments that seem to be scattered across the world. Throw in a plot that involves the King Arthur Legacy and you have yourself a somewhat decent story line that may not enthrall you, but will definitely make you want to see what happens next.
Cutscenes are throughout and flashbacks that unlock more pieces of the story’s puzzle keep you interested other than the basic ‘figure out puzzle, then move on to boss and beat the level’ schemes. The new team did their homework, and if you have ever played Resident Evil 4 or God Of War, you will recognize the interactive sequences that require you to press the correct direction or button at the right time to either keep her from dying, or to collect secrets in the level, which in turn will unlock bonus features, costumes, cutscenes, and more. It’s nothing new, but it is more entertaining than just sitting and listening to the story unfold on its own.
One thorn in the side that the series has always been plagued by was the controls. Not so much how sloppy it felt, but you had to always be perfect with your jumps and directions or else you would miss that critical jump and fall or miss a cliff edge. These inconveniences are a thing of the past, now that you can run around freely, swim, jump, climb on ropes and poles, scale cliff edges, and use ladders, all while looking good and even showing off with some flips and vaults in between if you wish. It is by no means perfect, especially when trying to jump off a rope in a certain direction and the camera is fighting you, but it’s a major improvement in the series.
A nice new addition is that if you are climbing a pole or rope, or shimmying across a cliffside, you can press a button in time with your movements, and it will make you move twice as fast. Though I spammed the button while always doing this, and it seemed to do the exact job, but is necessary in later levels where you only have a few seconds to hang onto a ledge before it breaks away with you on it.
Swimming was a big part of the series in the past as well, with many underwater caverns, swimming levels and puzzles that usually involved getting wet somehow. As most games, swimming in the original series was no different, and was one of the leading causes of frustration with poor controls that had you either drowning, or not being able to see where you are supposed to go in time. The mechanics now are much smoother and actually doable, but still not perfect, with you sometimes barely getting up in time for air, or not being able to see the hole you are supposed to swim through due to the underwater camera angles. Lara’s signature dive is in the game again, and taken to a new level, where in one section, you actually have to dive off a 200ft cliff which is still my most memorable section of the game.
Combat is also still in the game, and it has been given an overhaul as well. You are given many more moves than previously before and respond quicker, but it really doesn’t feel all too different at the same time. You lock onto your enemies and can start shooting away, but you are also given a manual aim as well if you wish to use it, though it wasn’t very accurate the further away you got, even with the more powerful weapons. Much like previously before as well, you must shoot, jump, and avoid all at once if you wish to avoid being target practice. While it sounds like a lot, sadly it gets really easy as you master it. You keep jumping, and when you have a moment, let some rounds off, and then return to jumping like there is something down your pants, and repeat. It is very basic, but it’s also fun to be doing flips throughout a gunfight, to run up to an enemy and then blast him like your invincible.
A similar version to the infamous bullet time is also implemented and as you become in melee range of an enemy, you can run up their chest, back flip off them into ‘bullet time’ and shoot them down easily, since it gives you a damage bonus. This works great in crowds of enemies, since when you are in slow motion; you can lock onto your next target and hopefully get 3 or 4 before you touch the ground. It does become very easy when you learn how to do it swiftly, but it definitely doesn’t loose it’s cool factor seeing it again and again.
Lara has a new gadget this time as well, which is much like a grappling hook. This will help you cross long gaps like a swing, will pull enemies towards you much like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, and pull boxes and items towards you that may be too heavy to move on your own will.
Your favored dual pistols are back as well, and like always, with the infinite ammo. Now that you are allowed to have two pairs of weapons at a time (always your pistols, then another weapon of your choice), many times you will be picking up an enemy’s gun after killing them due to it being more powerful until you run out of ammo for it. You are also given grenades this time, and while they are powerful if they hit, that’s the clincher, “if they hit”. These will bounce around like they are made of rubber, and rarely ever explode on time to do any real damage, unless they bounce back to you, then of course they go off in time.
Your D-Pad will control your tool belt of sorts. You have your PLS, which in essence is your flashlight, that is attached to you, you can use your health packs that you’ve saved up, and since almost every enemy drops health, you will basically never run out, and will also control your binoculars which help with puzzles. Using the binoculars are much like Metroid Prime, where if you ‘examine’ a switch or block, it will tell you if the item can be activated, moved, or destroyed, though there were very few times that you are so stumped on a puzzle that you needed to resort to this method. The flashlight was also basically useless as there weren’t all that many dark levels or spots that you couldn’t really see that well.
If you played the last Tomb Raider (Angel of Darkness), you still have a stealth mode of sorts, but I never used it once. There was no point when you could just run up and use your ‘bullet time’ to basically 1-hit your enemies. I still don’t understand why this is even implemented.
An exciting feature is when Lara gets to use her motorcycle; wish sadly is only used twice in the game. It’s very simple and very arcade-ish, to the point of being too easy. The first time using it is much too short, cause it’s new and cool for something different than the regular platforming, and the second feels too long, as you just want it to end so you can progress.
Lara’s own mansion makes a return, but has a different reason behind it this time. Instead of being a training ground to learn all your new moves and practice them, it is now basically a small mini level that has its own secrets and collectables. It’s mainly meant for exploration and to break up the monotony, but it’s very nostalgic with many of it’s own puzzles to solve.
With this new edition also comes new ways for puzzles to be solved. Physics help play a role in this that require you to really understand what your object is, and how you are going to do it in the environment you are surrounded by. It is by no means as advanced or in-depth as Half-Life 2’s physic puzzles, but it makes you think the same way. There were nowhere near enough puzzles in this fashion, but playing with boxes on sea-saw’s doesn’t get old quick.
Much like previously in the Tomb Raider’s, the puzzles will sometimes have you thinking of how you are going to do two or three things at once, but once you catch on to how things are done and completed each time, many of the puzzles become too simple, almost to the point of feeling like tasks, rather than puzzles. You will be moving boxes onto pressure plates, while you then much use your acrobatics to reach another portion to flip a different switch for example. There is simply not enough actually challenging puzzles, and once you do figure out how it’s done, you usually feel stupid for not realizing you didn’t notice that block that you could move the whole time.
Visual:
When comparing the different versions, the 360 version easily wins out, by having 720p enabled. You will see much more detailed textures on walls and ground, bump mapping to actually make it look more realistic, lots of foliage that the other versions miss out on, particles and dust in the air in the tomb levels, water flowing and slashing, and the whole environment in general just looks so drastically better it’s hard to even suggest the other versions when comparing (Though we all know it’s the achievements).
Lara herself looks much more realistic and not so “38-22-38” like before. She actually looks like a real woman, a very attractive one at that. A nice feature as well is that whatever guns you are equipping or carrying, will show up on your belt or around your shoulders and doesn’t magically go into your inventory bag like previous.
Cutscenes look decent, but basically only look like a prettier port of the other versions. Explosions and the environment is really what makes you enjoy the graphic features by far. Some of the levels are designed so beautifully that you actually may stop to look around and take notice.
Sound:
Lara actually sounds like Lara, and not like someone reading off of a script. Her voice is well acted and very distinct with her accent. The other characters also do a great job, though a few of them just felt bland overall, but it seemed more due to their character, not their acting. Lara will wink or be witty in dialogue, and if you weren’t watching the screen you would be able to tell what her face motions would react like. She sounds like she has emotions, and that’s very important for her character as the story progresses.
The music is very moody and fits in with each level. With the bike levels, you get an action rock-like beat and while you’re jumping platforms deep in an underground tomb, you will get moody backdrop music. It’s not too distracting, but it wasn’t memorable either.
The dialogue actually is not quite what I was expecting. I was honestly expecting lots of cheesy lines and some script that even I could have come up with, but to my surprise, it’s actually quite well written and doesn’t bore you with too much back story and bland characters. It has its humor, it has bad guys you love to hate and just sound evil. It was quite a treat to be this surprised and not feel too “Hollywood”.
Closing Comments:
The game is very short, as in 8-12 hours, and the puzzles really aren’t as challenging as they should have been. It did have a nice mix of platforning with having to jump and swing lots of places mixed in with the few puzzles here and there, but ultimately, I would have been greatly more impressed if I actually got stuck and had to look up how to finish a certain puzzle.
The combat is extremely easy and other than the odd boss fight or two, I rarely ever had to heal, especially with almost every enemy dropping health along the way. It wasn’t the lock-on that trivialized the fighting, it was that the AI was not at all aggressive, and was very predictable.
On the bright side, it does contain a decent amount of replay, since you can do any level at any time once it’s completed, and even try the time trials to unlock more goodies for Lara. Though once these are done, it really only adds a few more hours onto the overall gameplay and again, after figuring out the puzzle schemes, it’s not challenging in any way, even on the most difficult setting.
A great Tomb Raider like this has been long overdue but it is finally here and while it may be short and not have you thinking terribly hard to complete it in a weekend, it’s all about the fantastic ride to the end and the entertainment in between. Lara is back, and she is as cool as ever. You don’t have to be ashamed anymore to say you enjoyed a Tomb Raider. Legends delivers what Tomb Raider used to feel like, now lets hope for an even more improved sequel.
Overall: 7.96 Gameplay: 7.8 Visuals: 8 Sound: 8.1
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
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Table Tennis
Overall: Intro:
When Rockstar first announced their next game, it was definitely a shock to everyone, no one really expected something this drastically different from their previous titles. Table Tennis lacks guns, violence, hijacking, profanity and blood, which Rockstar has used to make their name, but in no way does it make this title un-cool.
Table Tennis has a simple objective; to deliver a very fast paced gameplay that is simple enough to pick up and play, yet be deep enough to keep you coming back for more. This is all it does, and surprisingly, better than most would expect.
Gameplay:
As you start up the game, you will be greeted with the cl@!%#*!ic “Rockstar Presents”, and even by the GTA font alone, you know this already feels like one of their games. Simplicity is one aspect that the game has strength in, but unfortunately at times, is also its weakness.
Soon as you start the game, you see a background with two players with the very slim menu choices in the upper corner. You are greeted with choices of Tournaments, Exhibition, Training, and Xbox Live.
Training is actually quite helpful and will teach you the basics of how to play, and then get into advanced techniques for later on. It’s broken down into sections from serving, returning, spins, counter spins, drop shots, slams, aiming and more which actually help later on with difficult matches. After a few goes, you’ll have the system down and want to jump right into a game, which is where the action begins.
The controls are incredibly simple, yet very precise to the touch. The left analog stick is your movement of your character, and once your about to hit the ball, your aim for where you want to hit the ball on the table. Your right stick controls the spin on the ball, and after your opponent hits the ball towards you, the longer you hold the stick in a direction, the more spin you can attain. The danger in this is that while your ‘charging’ you’re hit with a lot of spin, you are unable to move your character, so you have to think ahead where you should be to return the hit.
With four different types of spin, you can always keep your opponent guessing of not only where you are going to drop the ball, but if it’s going to have front, back, left, or right spin to help it curve as well. This is where counter hitting can also come into play. So if a shot was coming to me with immense right spin and going to go off the table, I would hit it right back with the same type of spin to essentially neutralize the spin on the ball and get things back into my favor.
A very clever yet subtle feature works very well once you even realize it’s there and in place is the use of the rumble feature of the controller. As your about to slam the ball towards your competitor and holding the direction you want for spin, once your controller starts to shake it means that you are getting dangerously close to the edge of the table. If you do not heed these warnings your shot will go out of bounds and off the table, and honestly, having not read the book before playing, it made things extremely easier once I learned this tactic. You will get a feel for how much is too much over time with more and more gameplay. Eventually become very skilled in this can net you easy points where it can nick off the edge of the table and basically become un-returnable.
So after keeping all these things in mind, there is also another aspect that will come into play and usually help you win easily against the computer (as opposed to a person). The more you charge your spins, the more your focus meter will fill up, and once full, you can use it to unleash an extremely fast return or even more powerful slam. While this works great against the computer players, against real players, it can help, but not as effectively. In single player, the camera will go into a slow motion mode, make it look all awesome even if you are just trying to reach for a save return. In multiplayer is just speeds things up to insane rates of returns and you will watch your rally numbers increase very quickly.
Camera work is flawless, and while you do only get two choices of close or far (close being the much easier to see the ball with), it never once felt like I didn’t know where I should be looking. If you are at one corner of the table, and they are at the opposite other, the camera will slightly pan enough so it just seems like the perfect angle. If you are playing multiplayer on the same system, one person is on the bottom for their serves, and then it switches so each person gets to play on both sides of the table. I did find being on the top side of the table a bit odd, and missing more shots I shouldn’t have been, you do get used to it eventually and it will feel natural.
Loading times are decent, though with how little is actually on the screen, it seemed at first it should have been quicker. At least while you are waiting for it to load, you can look at what you’ve unlocked so far with each character, and even get hints on how to unlock more arena’s, clothes, and characters.
Picking and choosing the character that fits your play style is crucial as well. You are given a choice of a few choices at the starts, and as you progress through single player tournaments (note I didn’t say career mode); you unlock new players along the way along with clothes and arenas. If you are a power player and want to slam your opponent every chance you get, then Jesper is your choice, but watch his zero rating in serving. Liu Ping from China is your all around choice which most people online tend to use I found. If you want to trick your challenger with awesome spins and fakes, the Luc or Kumi are the way to go. Learning more than one character is crucial for online play, as using a defensive character against another defensive character makes easy scoring a challenge.
Each character is rated on spin, serve, power, and accuracy, and actually feels different than each other as well. While there is no rating for movement, I did find that certain players I preferred just seemed to move quicker than others. As you learn to be in the right place at the right time, you won’t rely on the footwork as much, but it can be frustrating to miss that shot because it doesn’t feel like they move quickly enough at times. While you are charging your spin, you can not move either, so it’s a lesson you tend to learn early on very quickly.
One downfall to the games simplicity is its lack of modes as well. All you get are exhibition modes for a quicker play, or tournament to unlock items and features. That’s it; there is no career mode in any shape or form. Regrettably there is also no create a player either. And for player options, you get to pick their color and style of up to a few shirts, not even wrist or headbands. While the choices are very slim mode and player wise, the gameplay does redeem it and is quite deep and involving.
There is quite the intensity that becomes apparent once you hit milestones in long rallies. Once you realize you have been going back and forth for over 50 hits, you seem to become more focused. As the rallies become much higher, and even breaking the 100 mark, you become tense and it’s exciting with the result either being you standing up cheering, or shouting new profanities because you accidentally hit the net with the wrong spin. When even playing the lower 7 point games, they can take time when you have two very good players and are scoring back and forth on each other.
When you play online for the first time, you will feel just at home since it’s identical to the single player in almost every aspect. Just as single player, you can choose Exhibition for the quicker matches, or a Timed Tournament which is 4 to 8 players all playing at the same time in a Round-Robin style of play with a set amount of time. Unfortunately the settings are very weak, and once you are done an exhibition match, it boots both players, even the host, to the main Xbox Live screen where you can hen either host again and invite your friend, or join a random game. Being able to play with my friends reputedly without having to send an invite every time would have been much enjoyed, but rather it’s a h@!%#*!le. While setting up a Timed Tournament, you can pick either 4 or 8 players, and should you choose 8 and you don’t have a full room, you can not start the game, even if 4 of you are there and waiting. It’s another simple thing that could have been avoided but just brings frustration instead.
While online, the same pace feels the same. While there isn’t many lag problems, the few times I have had them brings very weird occurrences. Sometimes I won’t be seeing my opponent move, but an invisible paddle will still hit the ball, or sometimes the ball will float there for a second as if it’s waiting to be hit by them instead of me scoring a point. Another odd bug that I’ve run into that’s only happened once so far is while I picked Juergen to play with, the person I was playing with said it was Jesper and was even his name and model instead of what I see on my own screen.
While there are certain things that I’ve noticed that shouldn’t be there, it by no means takes away from the quick action and frantic gameplay. With there being absolutely no extras, career mode, or mini-games, the single player is very bland and quick to finish. Multiplayer with a friend or on Xbox Live does feel like it compensates for what it does lack.
Graphics:
As noted before, from the moment you turn on Table Tennis, you know that it’s a Rockstar game, not only from its patented font, but just the feel and style of the product as a whole.
The players in this title look simply amazing and realistic for the most part. While in replays, you can see everything from beads of sweat on the forehead, to the fine hairs of an eyebrow. Each character looks unique and the motion capture of each is marvelous. When you need to quickly move to the side you can see them plant their foot and push fluidly rather than just strafing.
I don’t think I’ve seen better clothing in a game before this title. Shirts will droop and bend and move like they do in real life. Reach for a high slam and the shirt near your armpit actually stretches, lean and bend over to hit a drop shot and your shirt will actually sag with gravity. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s something so fluid that you have to notice it.
To add another level of realism, players will also sweat over time and the longer the rallies, the more sweaty your character gets. It makes the color of your shirt darken as well depending on where they are sweating. It’s not a necessity, but having it definitely makes it feel like a genuine 360 title.
Each player will also have their own stances and hold the paddles their own specific way. This just breathes more life into the characters and with no drops of framerate and the lighting being perfect, Table Tennis is one of the more realistic looking titles on the system thus far.
Sound:
To be cliché, you will hear every ‘ping’ and every ‘pong’ the ball makes as it bounces off the table. Even the crowd can be heard at times, and when they want someone to win, you will hear them chant their name or country without too much repetitiveness.
With Table Tennis being such a rhythmic gameplay, Rockstar has picked the perfect choice of a soft ambient techno to play in the background that just seems to fit the whole style of the game. Obviously your own soundtracks are recommended, but they have certainly combined the style of gameplay with the style of music to fuse a wonderful mix.
Closing Comments:
Rockstar has not made a mini-version of Virtua Tennis or Top Spin. While many aspects may seem the same, they have combined fluid gameplay with simple controls to make a completely new experience. While it may seem like the next-gen version of ‘Pong’, the pacing, gameplay, and addictiveness of Table Tennis is represented so well that with it’s low price tag, should not be p@!%#*!ed up.
Table Tennis is simple to pick up and play, yet very deep if you want to invest the time into it. While it does have it’s shortcomings with lack of modes and create a player, this title is completely about the gameplay. It is exciting, it is additive, and this truly is Table Tennis bought to us by Rockstar.
Gameplay: 8.8 Graphics: 8.3 Sound: 7.8 Overall: 8.3
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
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Project Gotham Racing 3
Overall: Intro:
PGR 3 may be one of the first games in quite awhile that has fooled me with the screenshots before hand that looked pre-rendered but upon playing it the first time, you realize that it’s completely in-game and much more than you expected. Not being one for many racing games, I decided to pick PGR3 up to add some more variety to my launch collection, and I was not expecting it to turn out that it would be my most played title. With so many different modes, a large selection of cars, and a plethora of extra features, PGR3 has huge replay value that doesn’t get old quickly.
Gameplay:
The Project Gotham series has always had a unique premise; to win races, not just by being the first across the finish line, but to do it all with such a style that would be fit for a Hollywood movie. This is achieved with the games Kudos system and it works simply yet effectively. You take a turn normally, no big deal, but take that turn going way too fast, power sliding by hitting your emergency brake and having the nose of your car inches away from the turn’s wall, and that is how you get the Kudos that you need to progress further and unlock more goodies. Catching air, going on 2 wheels, doing clean sections, and racing perfect lines can earn you more. Kudos is all about skill and precision, not going fast as possible into a wall and just accelerating out of it like most racers. Your score goes higher the more you string together moves and slides, so to get some of the goals you need, especially in the hardcore setting, you need to sometimes even slightly slide on a straight track to keep your combo and multiplier going. The risk being that if you have a huge combo going and then misjudge when you start sliding into a turn and hit a wall, you lose your whole point combo. Knowing when to keep stringing moves together and when to let the Kudos add to your score definitely comes in time, and will differ with everyone’s play style.
PGR 3 is much more heavily based on skill rather than “wall riding” that other games let you do without much consequence. The first rule that you learn very quickly is that you must use your brakes to take turns slowly and controlled until you learn how to do sliding E-brake turns at breakneck speeds. Braking means you will make the turn, which in turn means you keep your momentum much faster and have an overall higher speed. Sometimes the game can be a little forgiving in which you just barely touch the wall and it won’t penalize you and take your Kudos away, though it doesn’t always seem to be consistent when it chooses to do this, nor does it happen that often unfortunately.
You are placed into the game with a set amount of cash to buy your first car and then sent off to go start winning your trophies and medals. Not only do you get a decent amount of starting cash, but you quickly notice that you won’t be starting off with an ancient car that has no real hopes of winning any races; but instead, you can start off with quite the decent racer to get your racing career headed in the right direction. Quickly you start earning more than enough cash to buy yourself a much faster vehicle, and instead of selling off your old car to afford the newest ones like most racing games have you do, PGR 3 leads you more in a collective direction; where all your exotic beauties can be showcased in your numerous garages.
PGR 3 offers 5 different city locations which doesn’t sound like a lot, but there are many variants of the city, all with different turns and even feels to them. One feature I quite enjoy that Bizarre Creations has added is not just made the tracks separated by car cl@!%#*!es, but by race types. This means that while there aren’t many different city settings, there are numerous different race types for every one. These can range from drift style races, speed challenges, to cone challenges and more. So rather than giving you a set car for a certain track, you will want to pick a car that is going to be better suited for the type of race you are attempting to complete.
With of choice of 80 different vehicles ranging from the “lower” end Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, and Lotus’, all the way to the super top performance TVR, RUF, Benz, and even the coveted Ferrari F50 and McLaren F1, along with concept cars that would make you drool if you were to see them p@!%#*!ing on the street. Each car handles very differently and certain cars are best suited for different race types. You will obviously enjoy and prefer certain cars to others for their own individual handling and speed, but as soon as you play on Xbox Live, if you aren’t using the “normal” cars that the majority of players do for each cl@!%#*!, you will sadly be left in the dust; regardless if you can take turns superiorly better than the rival that can double your top speed and acceleration.
Single player career mode is divided into 23 multi-tiered championships, and each of them usually has their own “genres” or style to them to offer a play change, rather than the same monotony most racers do. So one championship may be all head to head street racing mixed with some one on one medals to win, while another championship can be all cone challenges mixed with drift and overtake objectives. While the single player is short to initially complete, there is plenty of replay with trying to get all the different medals and achievements that can only be done by choosing a harder difficulty level. Having never really played much of the previous series, I can hold my own while challenging the medium setting, but trying hard is a challenge best left to PGR veterans. For those of you that absolutely love a challenge, hardcore is just that. One mistake on this setting could mean the whole race, and usually does. While this is great news for those that are that good, it can be quite frustrating when you are about to win a long enduring race, having then having lose it on the last corner because you started to turn a split second too early or late. It leaves extremely little room for error, but it’s a great way to keep going back and trying to achieve those elusive medals.
If you want to just quickly start a race, you can do so easily, but there is much more that you can choose to do rather than your typical race. Modes differ from the standard Street Race to Eliminator in which the last driver to complete is lap is knocked out until there is only one victor. Team Street Race adds almost a Nascar feel in the sense that you and your teammates must do what it takes to win; so sometimes having the better racer up front with your partner behind you trying to block the opponents from gaining is what it takes to win this Red vs. Blue battle. Team Eliminator which is much like the normal version, but the victor wins it for their whole team. One of the more unique modes is the Capture the Track mode in which you have to “own” as much of the course as you can by having the quickest time in certain sections. So while you can be amazing at certain corners and have great speeds in sections, you need to have the majority of the track in your control by the end of the timer.
Should you grow tired of racing, there is still much PGR 3 offers for anyone. The biggest noteworthy of these features being the Route Creator, where you can make your course just the way you want, race it, and even play it with your friends over Xbox Live. You start by choosing the city and it gives you an overview of all the city roads. Picking the start line will get you going right into the good parts where you can pick any road to use, the corners to take, all exactly how you want to race. You are free to make any style of track you want, whether it is a point to point or a circuit race, or even a long straight drag race to finally prove which of your friend’s car is superior in horsepower.
Another great feature is the Photo mode, where you can walk around your garage of all your cars, and freely able to take pictures how you want. There are camera settings for zoom, tilt, height, free movement, focus, shutter speed, brightness, contrast, even sepia. It’s not completely open to take it always exactly how you want, but it certainly does the job. The real exciting part of the Photo Mode feature is that you are able to take a picture of your car whenever you like just by pausing the game. This can lead to some really amazing pictures of you overtaking someone on the inside while sliding almost along the wall, or even with all four wheels off the ground getting some air. Factor in the ability to move the camera freely, and you can turn into quite the photographer. One of the games achievements is to take a picture of your car in every city, so definitely spend the time and play with this great feature. The only complaint I have about this is that there is no ability to share or post your photo’s online somewhere, so you can only share them on your with your friends. Adding an online gallery of sorts with rankings would have been a great addition.
Bizarre clearly had Xbox Live in mind when developing PGR 3, and it clearly shows with the robust online features it contains. While playing single player offline, when you finish tracks it automatically uploads your times and scores and places it into the rankings and before you exit out, shows you where you are in the world’s ranking for your efforts. Think that you are the best in the world on a certain track with your car? Go online, download anyone’s ghost car and race against it to see how you really stack up against the best in the world. You are not limited to the top 10 or 100 people either. If your placed 300th place and the guy that’s ahead of you in ranking has somehow beat your time by a long shot, you can watch their race or choose to race his ghost to see how it was done. One key element in this feature is that you can watch the replay and learn from it, but you can watch it from any angle you choose. If you play in the 3rd person view and want to know how to take a certain turn like the best do, watch in that view. If you use the @!%#*!pit view, you can even watch the whole thing like that if you wish to learn from the best to better hone your skills.
This is where Gotham TV also comes into place. You can see who’s racing online from the leader boards, tune into Gotham TV, and watch in real time; races that they are competing in at that very moment. Of course you have the ability to change to any racer, and any camera angle you wish as well. Play online enough and your TRUESKILL ranking will go up, which is how the game determines who to pair you with, much like Halo 2’s ranking system. Get good enough and you may even appear on the Hero’s Channel on Gotham TV that showcases the best in the world. Having been on Gotham TV numerous times myself, I can tell you that it adds a pressure factor knowing that thousands of people could be watching how great or poorly you race.
To combat cheating by only racing with your friends and working your way up the leader boards that way, Bizarre has made it so you have no choice for your competitors. While not being able to race along your friends for rankings, I haven’t found it to be a huge issue. Another measure they have taken to detour people that cheat by learning one course and just raving that one over and over to improve rankings, is by picking what cl@!%#*! of cars you want to race, not the course. Each cl@!%#*! then has a random choice of a number of maps which are suited for that cl@!%#*! of car. It’s a far from perfect system, but its wonderful having a variety of random maps when earning for your online profile.
One huge difference to keep I mind when playing online, is that you are playing real people that can and usually will do what it takes to win. More often than not you will race against the kind of competitor that will side swipe you just before a turn, making you spiral out of control into a wall at 200mph, and this is to be expected, but when you do have a race where everyone is respectable of each other and won’t crash people into walls for the sake of making a turn, it makes such a memorable online experience. Feedback is there for a reason, and so are the zones that you choose to play online, so prepare for the dirty racers that will take any means necessary to win. One word to the wise is to avoid going into the first turn of a track online with everyone else, as it’s very seldom that you will come out with your clean slide and getaway.
Load times are slightly more than usual, but can get annoying and tedious when restarting races and waiting for it to load all over again. For the visuals this game puts out, I find it’s reasonable; mind you I’m not sure what they would be like without the Hard Drive.
Visuals:
The one feature that this game has that makes it stand out visually is the @!%#*!pit view. We aren’t talking your normal view where you can see the steering wheel and maybe a rear view mirror, this is much more, and shows off what the 360 is more than capable of. Instead, this is inside the @!%#*!pit where you see your steering wheel, you see your hands gripping the wheel and shifting, the rear view mirror, the speedometer, your tachometers, and anything else that is actually authentic to the car you are racing. That is until you flick the right stick which acts as if you were turning your head inside the view. So you actually have to move the right stick left or right to check your side mirrors to see if someone is trying to overtake you. It’s the next step in realism, and overtime I found myself looking at the dash for my speed rather than the overlaying HUD. With each car being an accurate depiction of what the car is actually like to sit inside, it’s difficult to not be impressed, and finding yourself learning all different kind of blind spots. For a truly unique experience, choose the McLaren F1 and race in this view. Since the bucket seat in this car is directly in the middle and not on the side, it’s as close as you will ever get to racing one.
Lights, shadows and reflections will all bend and deform around the hood and windshield of your car, and this is the most obvious when you are using the in-dash view. First time seeing this came should make you impressed with what is possible now in next-gen systems. While you corner, slide, and brake hard, your camera will shake and blur depending on your velocity and force you can going into turns. This again is most apparent when using the @!%#*!pit view. Where the game does not inherently feel as fast as a Burnout title, the speed sense you have while in-dash is quite astounding, and you don’t always see the corner come us as early as you would like.
PGR 3 showcases HDR (High Dynamic Range) lighting which gives a more realism effect. The easiest and more of the impressive examples I can give is that when you come out of a tunnel and back into sunlight, you will have a second of bright light everywhere as if your eyes were adjusting to coming out of the dark like in real life. It’s just one more step closer to realism, and while subtle, it works perfectly. My only wish is that you could choose to turn the HUD completely off so that I couldn’t see a turn coming out of the tunnel on my map, rather than trying to see it coming at me 200mph while my eyes adjust to the sun.
Overlooked aspects in PGR 3’s graphics are definitely the background and layout. Most games will save space and look great while racing, but if you ever stopped and looked at trees or the crowd while still, they were usually animated 2D cutouts. Those are long gone now this generation, with fully 3D pedestrians watching the race, and fully lush trees. They have many more animations than any other racing game I have seen will even take pictures of you as you go by with the flash of their camera’s going off. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s so much improved that it’s very noticeable.
On a bright side, there is damage modeling, but it feels as if it’s almost a cop out and just in there because. The most you can really do to your car is bend your bumpers and spoiler, and crack your mirrors and windshield; regardless that you are going over 200mph into a wall head on. It is hard to drive with no mirrors using the @!%#*!pit view, and does add that want to keep your car in pristine condition, but sadly it’s purely a cosmetic addition, it does not affect your cars performance in any way. The damage does look great, but personally I wish it had more much like Toca 2 did.
Visually, this game is easily one of my top choices for 360’s launch titles. It’s very impressive, and with an HDTV it looks even better. It’s not something that absolutely screams next-gen, but you will be very impressed when you see it for the first time.
Sound:
Not being much of a car guy, I didn’t really realize that there could be so many different sounds for a car braking at different speeds, different engines revving, tires squealing depending on your speed, and the differences of them depending on your position to the car.
Every car does sound different, and not just the engine sounds. Like said above, anything you do with the car, will sound unique for that car. If you played enough, and had your 5.1 surround sound set up, knew the cars sounds well enough, you would be able to tell if my McLaren F1 was coming up behind you on your right just by the sound of my motor pushing itself trying to overtake you. Yes, it is that impressive and distinct. Something else I wasn’t expecting was that the sound will also differ depending on if you are using the 3rd person views, or the @!%#*!pit. Inside your car, your engine will sound incredibly more mean with your sub woofer turned high up, where as the outer views you will hear the squealing of your tires as well but from a distance.
PGR 3 offers a soundtrack that will cater to almost everyone. You are given the choice of 9 different music genres that you can change on the fly. Pressing up or down on your D-Pad will change between the genres differing from Rock, Electronica, Hip Hop, Industrial, Bhangra, J-Pop, and even Cl@!%#*!ical. Once you find the style of music you want, simply hit left or right on the D-Pad to choose different songs in that genre. This is all great and there should be something in there you will enjoy, but obviously playing your own play lists and music through the 360 dashboard is much more preferred
Closing Comments:
There are so many modes and extra features that PGR 3 offers that even non racing enthusiasts will want this title. Bizarre has created an extraordinary launch title, and this is not one to be p@!%#*!ed up. Need that final reason to buy a HDTV or simply justify your 360 purchase? This is that reason.
Gameplay – 8.6
Visuals – 9.0
Sound – 10
Overall – 9.2
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
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Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The
Overall: Intro:
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is finally here after much waiting and anxious anticipation. If you have ever played any of the series, most notably Morrowind, then you understand the broad range of freedom and scope that Bethesda can deliver. A game where you can literally explore for hours finding new places, dungeons, and towns, but being able to stop on the way, look around the vast landscape around you and even look at the minute details that have gone into the world to make it immersive as possible.
From the moment you are thrown into the main storyline in a cl@!%#*!ic good vs. evil plotline, there is much more underneath the basic premise and will have you traveling all over, and if Bethesda has done their job right, hours and hours spent on side quests, advancing ranks in guild missions, exploring landscape for more dungeons and treasure, and arena battles that can easily get you sidetracked.
Gameplay:
Start Oblivion, and after the game’s first cut scene that explains briefly what is happening in the world, you instantly start to design your character with much detail and enough options that you can spend some time getting just everything perfectly. Adjusting facial features such as length of nose, hair, chin and such is just the starting. Even getting your eye color the way you want, the options are very deep, and should make you happy with how you want to exactly look. There are different races to chose from, each having their own positives and negatives for stats and certain cl@!%#*!es.
As you start off the game after creating your masterpiece of a character, the first dungeon, which is basically following the King and his guards for a prison break, you are taught some of the fundamentals of gameplay, and while you are guided along where to go, everything you do here should be thought of as the “Training Level”. As you complete this first dungeon, everything you have done up till this point will be noted and you will be given a recommendation of what type of cl@!%#*! you should play based on how you have been so far. You are more than welcome to pick one of the template character cl@!%#*!es, or even completely customize your own how you wish. At the end of this first dungeon before you leave to the outside world, you are given one final chance to change any aspect about your character including name, race, appearance and skills. Once you leave this section, there is no turning back for any character changes, so make sure you understand what skills do what, and which ones to make your primary, or you will have major headaches later on. Sadly, this is more or less learned by trial and error if you’ve never played Morrowind, any anyone who has, will understand how the leveling system is and the difference in making skills primary or secondary.
As you leave the prison’s sewers, you are now set loose in the world of Cyrodiil with your first task that starts you along with the main quest, though it does not pressure you into doing so. This being Oblivion, you can march through the main storyline if you wish and complete that portion of the game, or simply do whatever you want and travel anywhere doing anything your heart desires. When you are on a specific mission or task, your comp@!%#*! will have an arrow always pointing you in the right direction, so you are never truly lost on where you should be heading next. If you are given a red arrow, it means you are not in the correct city or zone or need to go through a door somewhere, but if it is green, the person or place you seek is nearby.
Don’t feel like walking everywhere and want to get where you need to be right now? Bring up your map and choose the icon of the place you wish to go to magically be whisked away instantly (minus the loading screen). The only trick to this is that you have to either visited the place before, or know of it through conversations with NPC’s if it’s a town or city. So as you are give a quest to go clear a certain dungeon of all the vampires or whatnot, if you have not been there before, or traveled within proximity, you have to walk (or if you’ve obtained a horse at this point) the way. Most areas needed to go are near a city, so worst case scenario; you fast travel to the closest city or town, and then do the journey from there.
Making any quest you have available from your journal your “active” quest is very easy, and will instantly give you the new arrows of where to go, and the descriptions of what is needed to do, so that coming back to old forgotten quests is not really a burden in remembering where you were before you got sidetracked.
The main quest has a very simple Good vs. Evil concept at the start, but as you learn more about the King’s @!%#*!@!%#*!ination, long lost son, why Oblivion Gates are opening up across the land, and how you are going to stop them, it becomes much more involved and more time goes by than you ever thought would in a single player game. If you were to strictly only do the main storyline and absolutely nothing else, I found it was surprisingly over quickly, though the multiple climaxes of the plot does not disappoint at all. This is nearly impossible to do though, as you will get sidetracked and venture off to do other things to advance your character and chart new areas.
There are literally so many things you can do, that a simple 20 hour main quest can at times not even be remotely close to your focus. With multiple guilds that will have you doing errands and quests escalading in difficulty to climb up the ranks, cities that are littered with people that all have problems that apparently only you are capable of solving, join the battles in an Arena to make a name for yourself, rob people blind for everything they have then sell it to make a profit, explore mysterious dungeons and be a treasure hunter, become a vampire and feed on the living, or even buy a house for yourself and do what you wish with it. With it being completely open ended, this is just a fraction of things that can sidetrack you from any certain quest or anything else you may be doing, without it being too daunting at the same time.
You can play any style you wish, so if you prefer to sneak in the shadows, pickpocket people, steal their items to see if you can get away with it, and just simply act roguish, you are given the skills to do so. If you would rather just smash your enemies with a giant hammer or sword and plow through anything that looks at you the wrong way, feel free to do so as well. Even combine different styles and play exactly how you wish, and depending on how you decided your skills, almost any character cl@!%#*! or skills are possible.
The more you use your skills, the greater you become at them. If you want to become a master archer, keep using it and you will become more powerful and unlock more skills as you progress. If you want to be a master at haggling for better store prices, that is also a viable option that if you become good enough, you can actually invest into stores and reap the benefits.
The strength of armor, spells, and weapons you obtain in the game are solely based on your characters level, which in turn is risen by your main skill attributes. This is why picking your main skills is very important, because if you pick a skill like Acrobatics for example that is naturally going to level up as you progress, you will become burdened by the level advancements, because you can now jump and run fast, but your combat and defensive skills will lack, causing you to constantly play catch-up with your other skills.
There are four guilds across the land, which you are able to join, obviously after some tests and tribulations though, to prove your worthiness and trust of course. The four guilds that you are able to join are the Fighters, Thieves, Mages, and Dark Brotherhood. They all have their own quests and rewards, and at times, interconnect and can sometimes be difficult to do one guild orders without failing another’s at the same time. Though sometimes very daunting and frustrating at times, the rewards in the end are generally worth all the trouble and time spent for it, not to mention the achievement points.
There is an Arena in the Imperial City where you can become a gladiator to rise in the ranks and compete for gold and fame. Sadly, if you are very proficient at combat, this side portion of the game can be done very quickly if you decide to finish it quickly, as in around 30 minutes start to finish. The non combat heavy characters should enjoy the challenge though trying to fend off fights in one vs. one, one vs. two, and even one vs. three. And like the guild quests, the achievement points alone should be incentive enough to complete this action filled portion of your adventures.
Radiant AI is something that Bethesda touted about for a long time, and in simple terms, this basically means that NPC’s can almost think for themselves. They will have certain tasks they need to get done, such as work, or getting to places and anything in between is almost “as it happens”. An easy example of this would be, say a certain NPC is hungry because its lunch time. They will look around the house for something to eat, but what happens if you stole all their food while they weren’t looking? They would venture out to get some, or better yet, if you happened to put a poisoned apple in their pocket without them knowing, they could take a bite of that, and then you could do what you wish with their belongings once they keel over dead.
Sometimes you need to obtain information from NPC’s on clues where to go next, but sometimes they will not like you, or trust you enough to divulge secrets to you. Depending on your skills, you can try to sweet talk them with high speech craft skills, charm them with spells to make yourself seem more attractable, or simply bribe them with money. Obviously trying to bribe guards and other characters will not always be looked upon kindly and may even lower your disposition towards that person.
With so many skills that become unlocked, and spells you may obtain throughout the course of the game, there is a hotkey system that allows up to eight items able to be changed on the fly. These can be pieces of armor that may have certain enchantments you need for certain situations (water breathing items for example), different weapons for different types of monsters (bow and arrow to pull it close, then hack away with a sword), and of course, all different types of spells you may have. Considering the scope of the game, it can feel very limited to only have 8 hotkeys especially if you are a mage heavy character, though combat driven character may not notice this burden as much. If there was a way to have different sets of 8, it might have been handier, but also being set to the D-Pad, it can sometimes be annoying to try and hit one of your diagonal arrows for a certain spell in time, but not always correctly choosing the right one.
While the game feels and plays out like it is meant to be in first person mode, there is options for playing in third person, but with making combat incredibly tougher not being able to always judge your distance, and some of the embarr@!%#*!ing animations like jumping and strafing, it feels more immersive in first person by far. Moving the camera back to third person is usually only used when traveling to get a broader scope of your surroundings, or if you are trying to find a secret lever or item on the ground.
Certain bugs are still present, such as odd sound glitches, clipping through walls, NPC’s sometimes acting “brain-dead”, and my personal favorite, breaking into someone’s house, then going in and talking to the NPC and them acting like nothing has happened. The apparent bugs can be annoying and at times frustrating when you get stuck somewhere, but overall, you learn to live with it, and it doesn’t really take away from the game so much that you notice after awhile.
Visual:
Visually, there has not been anything to this scale done before, and the distances you can see at times, especially on mountaintops, can be very breathtaking. Your environment is not flat, and with trees and gr@!%#*! swaying in the wind, or rain coming into your face, there is a huge level of detail put into the world. Day and night comes and goes, and you can even see deer run across the land in the plains. Exploring can be very enjoyable to see how high you can actually get, or how deep a lake actually goes. Waterfalls will even have mist at their base with plants needed for alchemy usually thriving near water sources.
Almost every weapon you own will look different from others, and as you obtain the higher level ones, they can be very intricately detailed and simply gorgeous to look at with glows and enchantments on them as well. Armor is the same way, with light chain or leather armor looking very distinct from heavy iron or steel sets, with them even shining differently in the light.
In dungeons you will find cobwebs in corners, dirt on the ground, dust on treasure chests and littered bones if it’s quite a dangerous place to be. Sometimes the walls can look repetitive, but with all the lighting effects and the traps laid out to look for, it’s usually not noticed.
Physics also play a role, where if you kill an animal on a downward slope, they will roll and tumble accordingly, even bouncing off rocks or down cliffs. This can be pretty entertaining itself, but when you want to loot the monster you just killed, chasing after it down a hill waiting for it to stop gets old. Hitting someone in the head hard enough with a bow can even make them back flips, sending their body one direction into a wall, and the weapon in completely the opposite direction.
For how gorgeous everything can look, there are still faults that are apparent, and sometimes even take away from being immersed. While you can see for miles at certain places, the objects far off don’t look sharp and usually have very low textures, enough to be extremely noticeable and out of place. As you travel across the land, since it’s such a huge area, it will sometimes stutter as its loading everything in the vicinity nearby. If you are on horseback, it only makes the problem worse, sometimes almost skipping if you have one of the faster horses. It’s bearable, but really shouldn’t be there. Fortunately the regular loading times of exiting or entering places are decent; it seems to just be the traveling outside for the most part.
Sound:
Sound is undoubtedly the absolute star of the game and brings in a new feeling of gameplay, due to every single NPC being voiced for all dialogue. Obviously many minor characters that have very few lines, or even just one, you sometimes think that different characters have the exact same voice. Surprisingly even with the one-liners and sometimes repetitive responses, nothing sounds too out of line or cheesy.
The star casts for two of the main characters are voiced by celebrities. Patrick Stewart plays the king that gets @!%#*!@!%#*!inated very early in the journey and you can distinctly tell that it’s him. It’s quite amusing, though I was waiting for him to tell me to “engage”, not “Close shut the gates of Oblivion”. The majority of the main quest focuses on the long-lost son of the emperor, Martin, who is perfectly voiced by Sean Bean.
The music definitely adds a special feel to certain situations as well. As you adventure and explore freely, you hear a happy cheery melody that makes you feel like you’re floating across the land and that all is good in the world. When an enemy spots you, the music will change to a tense battle sequence so that you know you’re in combat, and gently fades away once your combat is over. Dungeons will have an eerie musical score that makes you feel like you want to be creeping slowly and watching your footing.
As you pluck your bow and arrow, you will hear the string tighten and “twang”, swords will clash and make it sound like there are sparks, water drips in dungeons, footsteps of people and yourself that change according to the type of ground you are on, and even you swaying in the water. Skeleton bones crumble when you defeat them, ghosts and wraiths let out an eerie wailing gasp when they are defeated and being in an Oblivion gate is overall pure frightening with the music and enemy battle cries.
Closing Comments:
One of the major things that really stuck out for me was that there were only 2 cut scenes in the whole game; the beginning and end, which is unfortunate due to how beautifully they were done. With all the criticisms that could be held against it, it’s impossible to deny the enjoyment that will come from everything that is possible from this title. Bethesda has scored again by listening to the fans and improved upon many aspects from Morrowind. It is by no means perfect, but there is nothing else that compares to the scale and immersiveness that you will get from enjoying this game.
Simply put, Oblivion is the single best single player experience you can get that has come along in quite some time on the Xbox 360. With almost unlimited gameplay hours and never a shortage of things to do, Oblivion is an incredible experience that should be even played by non RPG fans. It’s not often a gem like this will spoil us for expectations for future gaming.
Overall: 9.46 Gameplay: 9.3 Visuals: 9.3 Sound: 9.8
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
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Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Overall: Intro:
Take the underground street car modding culture and open free roaming city from Need For Speed Underground 2, mix in the high tension and fast paced police chases from Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, add a whole lot of speed and attitude with an onslaught of more than 30 way too fast vehicles and you have yourself the newest EA addition to the long running series: Need For Speed Most Wanted; and it doesn’t disappoint.
Gameplay:
Surprisingly Most Wanted boasts quite an impressive career mode that doesn’t tire easily and has you wanting to keep moving up the ranks of the Blacklist to extract your revenge, more-so than the fame and bragging rights of just being the best street racer in the city.
You arrive in Rockport with your BMW that has been customized and tweaked way too fast for your own good. You are greeted with some street racers and leave them in your dust quite easily with your overpowering car and way too much nitrous that shouldn’t (and probably isn’t) legal. Eventually a local cop who obviously thinks he knows better pulls you over and gets ready to arrest you while explaining how he owns the streets. While you are about to hand over the keys to your prized possession, he gets an announcement on his radio of a pack of racers causing havoc and is forced to head off after them, letting you go with a stern warning to leave. Of course he keys the side of your car as he walks away, making you cringe to the sound of it, just to make you spite his evilness that much more. You then meet up with the local racers and are introduced to Mia, who seems to want to help you and warns you about the crowd here in Rockport and to be careful. The apparent leader of the group; Razor, explains that if you want to race against a Blacklist racer, you have to earn it and put the pink slip to your ride on the line, which is why no one is stupid enough to do it. You give your pink slip to Mia, so does Razor, and the race is on after a few cheesy lines about him boasting to stealing your ride, then your girl.
Things are going your way during the race and then you get a call from Mia telling you something must be wrong with your car, since you left a lot of oil back at the starting line and if the race isn’t finished quickly, you are going to lose. As fate would have it, your engine blows and you lose the race very abruptly. Razor tows away your ride, and the cops come to arrest you for your wreckless driving.
You find out that Razor had his lackeys sabotage your car before the race, and that he tipped off the cops to get your car and you in jail. To make matters even worse, he has gone from #15 on the Blacklist to the #1 spot, in your car! This is where the career mode begins as you work your way up the blacklist to challenge Razor to obtain your revenge and win your car back. Now that you have no car and very limited money, you must scrape your way up from the bottom and work your way up to the most dangerous and notorious racer in the city.
The Blacklist is a simple yet effective system of progression. For the opportunity to race a blacklist racer, you must have a prerequisite amount of challenges and a certain value of bounty on your head by the city’s police force. There are two different types of challenges; races, which include circuits, sprints, speed traps, tollbooths, and drag races, and then the more interesting portion of challenges are the milestones, which are all cop related and will have you attempting different goals such as “tagging” or scraping paint with a certain amount of cops, outrunning the police for a set amount of time, destroying enough squad cars, or even obtain a certain amount of dollar value damage to the state by crashing into poles, buildings, trees and the likes. Milestone events will earn you bounty dependant on how long you are being pursued for, the amount of damage you cause, how many infractions you rack up; which can vary from excessive speeding to hit and runs, and the heat level on your car. Obviously the longer you are being chased and the more dangerous things you do, the higher your bounty gets, but also the chances of being caught and the aggression level of the police gets turned up as well.
Your “heat” level is basically the cops’ gauge of how dangerous and wanted to them you are. The cops keep track of your heat levels for your individual cars and they will respond accordingly. The higher your heat level, the more intense and severe their techniques for attempting to stop you will be. Heat level one isn’t really a challenge, as usually it’s just normal police cars driven by simpletons that can be evaded and taken out quickly, but once you reach the higher heat levels of four or five, you will have a slew of twenty plus police chasing you, range rovers that can roll your car, helicopters that will follow your position, and even the federal cop from the beginning of the game in his extremely overpowered Corvette C6 that will use any means necessary to stop you ranging from road spikes and even rolling road blocks that are almost impossible to avoid.
Luckily you do have some tricks up your sleeve to help you when needing to take turns at way too fast speeds or gain some distance from the relentless maniacs behind you; Speed Breakers and Pursuit Breakers. In essence, a Speed Breaker feels like bullet-time for your car which will help you slide through exceptionally unyielding turns, right yourself out of a fishtail, avoiding traffic in hectic intersections, or even guide yourself under a moving 18-wheeler. Using this feature does slow you down when you stop using it, but usually it’s overall quicker than hitting the wall and having to use your nitrous to speed back up. Pursuit Breakers are markers set on a building, power line poles, towers, gas stations, or even scaffolding that when sped through, it will collapse; causing the police to either be destroyed if they are in close proximity to you, or making them stop to observe the situation and call for backup while you speed away at leisure. Nothing is more satisfying and ironic than multiple police that are constantly on your tail trying to wreck you, being crushed by a giant doughnut sign as you get away freely.
Now when you do complete the needed challenges and achieve the needed bounty, you are ready to challenge the next blacklist racer, with pink slips to both cars up for grabs of course. Most Blacklist races are usually 2 circuit or spring races, but get more diverse as you progress in the story. One thing I found was that the “boss” racers usually aren’t all that amazing until you reach the #5th racer or so. They seem to make a lot of mistakes that a player wouldn’t do, like running into all of the light posts or seemingly swerving into traffic when there was no reason to. When a blacklist racer is defeated, you are presented with 6 markers; 3 of which you can see, which are usually unique paint jobs or parts that try to tempt you away from picking from the other 3 unknown markers that can be bonus cash, get-out-of-jail-free cards that you can bank, impound cards to get your cars back from the state that have been caught, or if your very lucky, the pink slip to the adversary’s car.
Once you move yourself up the ranks a few notches, you will notice quite quickly how fast these cars can get. Of course if you win a Blacklist racer’s vehicle, you do save quite a lot of money that you would normally have to spend upgrading the stock cars that unlock as you progress. On any car though, you can get numerous different visual parts and performance upgrades which is slightly different than most games, where you really can tell the difference between various different levels in upgrades. Got way too much heat on your car but want to keep using it without having to worry about your car being spotted so easily? Upgrade your visual car parts such as body kits, spoilers, roof scoops, rims, vinyls, or even a new coat of specialty paint. Doing so reduces your heat, dependant on how drastic the visual change on your car, but for a cost. On the performance side of upgrades, there are four levels of upgrades that can exceptionally improve your ride and you will notice the change even on the lower upgrades. What EA has done though to coax you into playing longer is making the highest and best upgrades only unlockable once you achieve a certain rank yourself on the blacklist. It’s rewarding and works well to make you want to move up the list rather than deter you from hoarding obscene amounts of cash early on in the game.
Like most racers, there will always be the cars that just plain suck and you don’t want as you start out, but as you get further in the career mode, while there may not be plenty of choices of different rides, you are rewarded with awesome vehicles; almost a ‘quality over quantity’ approach. For example you can unlock the new Mustang GT, an RX-8, different Mitsubishi’s, even a Lamborghini once you reach the top few spots of the blacklist, and you quickly forget about the Chevy Cobalt you started off with.
Since you do make money every race, and with every Blacklist race, having the shot to win a free car, you not only obtain a decent amount of cash, but you will come along Impound markers If (and when) you get caught by the police, your car will get impounded, and you can either pay the fines that you have been racking up (which is an obscene amount at later levels with high heat), or if you have them saved, can use the impound markers that you may have one from winning a Blacklist race which will get your car back into your possession.
Another cool feature is that there are plenty of little shortcuts everywhere for you to shave seconds off your race time or to try and pull ahead of that rival. Sometimes they can be very helpful and give you a much needed head start against the other racers, and other times it may be harder, where you might have to come out of a secret tunnel or p@!%#*!age, but have to take a very sharp turn to get back onto the road, ultimately slowing you down. The fact that the other racers can and will use the shortcuts as well makes it feel more like you are racing a person and not just a scripted racer since they will not always go the same way every time. In pursuit modes, shortcuts are absolutely needed when trying to evade that last cruiser or two, and pulling into alleys or turns at the last second is sometimes what’s needed to fool the cops so you have those few more seconds to get away.
One great thing EA has also done is litter the streets with destructible objects like light posts, garbage cans, cardboard boxes, fruit carts, and many other items that when ran into, will either fall over and cause an obstruction for racers behind you or simply explode and makes the race feel much like a chase movie. The only problem I have with these things are that you can hit a row of trees or light posts for example, and while it does slightly slow you down, there’s hardly any consequences for driving that badly as you don’t slow down very much. Do this in a blacklist race or a pursuit and that’s a completely different story, but during regular races, it almost seems too easy at times. The catch to some of these objects, are that not all of them are destructible, and are usually placed in crucial spots around turns that will make you dead stop and make you wish you did upgrade to that next level of nitrous. It doesn’t always make sense why you can completely crash through a row of light posts, yet hit the wrong sidewalk that you aren’t ‘supposed’ to go up onto, and it simply doesn’t allow you, much like invisible walls in other games.
While there is an online mode, it feels just thrown in and nothing exceptional. With only an attention to purely racing, there are many features that could have made the online simply amazing. You and three friends can team up online and race your custom career mode cars against each other to see who the top racer is, or go into random ranked games and earn your worth online. An impressive feature that EA added to the online mode was a real life Blacklist that tracks the top 15 most dangerous racers in the world. There are many filters that you can choose to search or create games such as a ‘incomplete races’ or disconnect percentage, or even collision modes should you want to rub paint with the other racers or see who can simply get to the end first. This tends to eliminate many of the “jerks” that we’ve all come to loathe and create a much more pleasant environment. Of course if you want on the real Blacklist, you need to play ranked games, and those filters are pre-set and people will do anything it takes to win.
With an ample selection of vehicles and a terrific sense of speed, the fact that the single player mode has more than 15 hours of gameplay that doesn’t even count the hours of unplanned cop pursuits, additional races to get cash for that final upgrade you want, or even the daunting milestones needed to race people high on the Blacklist, is quite a treat and doesn’t seem to grow dull very quickly with its high replay value.
Visuals:
With 720p or 1080i enabled, the game simply looks extremely sharp and crisp with a constant 30FPS. The lighting will bend and deform on the cars curves, as will the shadows that makes it have a realistic feel to it visually as you p@!%#*! under some overlaying trees or go through a tunnel. They also seemed to have put in HDR lighting, as when you do come out of a tunnel, it gives you a moment of bright light as if your eyes were adjusting to the brightness difference like in real life. Driving into the sun directly will make it very difficult to see what’s ahead of you and even getting glimmer off the shine of the adversary ahead of you.
As mentioned above, when debris is ran into it can either tip over and fall causing distracting sparks, or explode if it’s a garbage can or boxes. Even at later levels of the Blacklist when you have literally a dozen or two police chasing you, there seems to be almost no slowdown that’s very apparent.
Obviously you can’t tell when speeding and racing, but if you look at the roads and ground when stopped, you can see that the pavement has cracks and can even appear wet when it’s not. It doesn’t just look like the typical pavement either that has the repeating cracks in the same places either.
EA has opted to present the cut-scenes to gamers in a fashionable way that hasn’t been around for awhile. While games now will rarely have the pre-made FMV movies and do everything with the in-game engine, we are treated to some cl@!%#*!ic style movies that we grew up with. Interestingly it’s not at all cheesy (the visuals, not the script) and looks quite unique. The actors were filmed and then many different filters were used to give it almost a comic book feel where you sometimes can’t tell if it’s CG or if it’s real people. It’s very incomparable to anything else, but it brings a certain charm to the plot line. The only letdown being is that there aren’t enough of the videos throughout the game. They are not needed to progress the story, but they are amusing to watch.
Sound:
Each car sounds authentic, and when you do upgrade to that bigger engine or strap on the nitrous, you can even hear the difference of the performance in your car. The Mustang GT frankly just sounds mean, and when you finally hear the Lamborghini’s take off from the start line, you can just catch the difference that the sounds of the different motors make.
Easily the most noteworthy sound feature the game has is the police. If a cop sees you, you will hear them on the radio communicating to each other the whole time they are chasing you. You overhear their plans to try and box you in, or set up roadblocks and can change your choice of direction accordingly. Once you can decode the police’ codes of the plan of action they are going to take against you, you will be able to figure out of they have laid road spikes to stop you, or if they are just calling for backup to help take you down. The police jabber sounds genuine and they constantly discuss your location and their best plan of action to arrest you.
In the movie sequences, the acting seems to sometimes be over the top, but they do play the parts very well. With some of the one-liners, it sometimes does sound very cheesy, but you forget this once you’re back into the adrenaline fueled racing. Unfortunately for me, much like the last two of the series, there was no songs that I really enjoyed at all, though fans of the previous soundtracks should enjoy it, though with the 360’s media player this isn’t really even a concern though.
Closing Comments:
It’s a shame that you can only race in the daytime and not at night like the Underground series, since when I think of illegal street racing; I don’t normally picture it mid-day in the middle of a city or freeway. The best feature that EA could have added was a pursuit mode online where players could be police or racers, but instead the online seems bland and if it wasn’t for the real online Blacklist, there wouldn’t be much point to playing online other than against your friends.
While the game’s name; Need for Speed, may fool you in the beginning when you have a slow-moving car without nitrous, once you start earning some cash, win some cars, and then upgrade them, you will not be disappointed.
The real thrills come from the police chases, the close calls, the Speed Breakers to escape past a two-row line roadblock of SUV’s, flipping a cruiser car off a ramp then speeding away to escape, and taking the huge jumps that reward you with a glorious slow-mo view of your car taking flight complete with ‘speed lines’ behind you.
Surprisingly for a racer, the game has an in-depth story mode that makes you keep wanting to move up the blacklist and prove yourself against the rivals and the cops that you are the most dangerous racer in the city.
EA has done a wonderful job creating an accelerated experience where you get to race your way-too-expensive vehicle at speeds that will have a whole police force after you in attempts to stop you. The game is challenging and has a high replay value while looking great and effortlessly being enjoyable at the same time.
Need For Speed Most Wanted does not disappoint and is a remarkable addition to the welcomed series. If you are looking for something entertaining wheather it be for long haul races to move your ranking up the Blacklist, or to simply tease the police while having them pursuing you, this game should be one of your Most Wanted.
Overall: 8.2
Gameplay: 8.3
Visual: 8.0
Sound: 8.4
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
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Marc Ecko's Getting Up
Overall: Intro:
Mark Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure takes many different game elements and combines them into one. You get the Graffiti gameplay that Jet Set Radio pioneered, similar acrobatic skills much like Prince of Persia, and you are even given some stealth moves and kills to go along with a game enriched with Hip-hop culture. Great ideas when put together on paper, but execution is much more complicated it seems to excel further than average.
Gameplay:
You are Trane, a gifted guy that wants to make a name for himself and become a legend graffiti artist. New Radius is your home, which could relate to a slightly futuristic New York City. Opposing gangs will constantly get in your path, causing you to take them out so you can freely tag your name. Tough times call for tough measures, and you will even have the Civil Conduct Keepers (CCK) doing anything they can to annihilate you for good, which are basically like police with a license to do whatever necessary to put an end to all graf writers.
Obviously the focus of the game is the graffiti tagging and the culture it has, as this is what your main goals to accomplish are. You are given different tools that will be used depending on the king of tag, how big, where it is, and what style you want it to look. Basic markers, spray-paint, stencils, and even a squeegee-like broom to glue your banners onto things is how you are going to get New Radius to recognize who you are.
Your black book is your bible; this is where graf writers practice their tags and art, and if given the opportunity to meet a legend, where they will sign their tag. Before you go into a mission, you can decide what tags you want to bring in your black book this time for variety, since you only have a certain amount of slots of choices in any given mission.
When you see a surface like a wall, window, billboard, or even side of a building, you are able to freely tag your name how ever many times you wish, in different colors and styles…almost. For some reason, there are certain walls and fixtures that simply don’t allow you to tag there, which doesn’t make much sense considering the premise of the game. Numerous times I’ve been denied of not being able to ink my name on a bench or somewhere obscure which really felt like it took away something from character, since he’s so ambitious and wants to get his name everywhere.
With the press of a button, you can active your ‘Instinct’ which will show you gold and blue vapors that point you to where you want to make your mark. With the gold ones being your primary targets for the missions, and blue for bonus missions and points. Now that you are standing in front of your marked X, a white outline of a design will show on the surface, and from your black book, you can decide what art you want to showcase. When it’s a simple just “Trane” tag, you can pick the color and design, but when it’s a bigger marker or in certain spots, you are given a choice of some pre-determined art where you don’t really get to pick the color scheme. More art becomes unlocked as you progress through the game, and in the later parts where you are literally tagging a whole banner or side of a building, the art is quite a piece to admire. Bonus missions also come in the form as simple tasks like tagging a certain wall 10 times within a set amount of time. The more missions you complete, the higher your Rep becomes.
Now that you are in position to start your tagging, you actually have to make Trane do the motions, not just a simple button press. You actually have to move his arm up, down, left and right to fill within the borders and complete your art. Much like using spray-paint in real life; if you don’t keep moving as you spray, you will get drips in your art which then take away from your total score. In time you never really get drips after you learn the form of spraying properly, although the controls for doing so on the PC were quite tiresome in the later levels with much stricter time limits.
One huge downfall of the whole graffiti aspect of the game is that you can not make your own art and tags. You are forced to layer the city in “Trane” tags and art that you may not possibly appeal to. A game about freeform and expressing yourself, yet you can only pick a few different styles and colors. This is one of the reasons that it felt almost like completely no reason to replay the game upon completion, I just had no desire to see TRANE plastered everywhere. If it could have something of my own choosing, or any kind of customization, it may have had a longer life left in it.
People generally don’t kindly take to you vandalizing their property, and in a large part of the game, you are fighting your way out of a tough predicament, or against rival gangs and the CCK. You are given your basic punch and kicks, with many combinations in between; you also can roll, block, and grapple your enemies. You can even embarr@!%#*! adversaries by using your spray paint in their face to get the needed time to rest up or start another flurry of attacks.
If you grapple with someone, you can rapidly press the punch and kick buttons to try and get the upper hand from which you can go into combos, or even throw them into oncoming traffic or trains for easy kills. If you are patient enough, you can attempt to go for stealth kills, where if you are not seen and come behind someone, you can get a one-hit kill by slamming them over the head with a can of your paint. Since usually not many enemies hang around solo, once you are uncovered, you are left to fend for yourself against the rest of the bad guys.
To reach many distant sweet spots for tagging, you are going to need to be intuitive and figure out how to get up to that billboard when there is no ladder. This has you jumping caps, climbing ledges, shimmying across balance beams, hanging over ledges and slowly crawling much like a Tomb Raider setup of controls. Much like most platformers, you will run into areas what you should be able to jump across or grab onto, but you simply wont as it was not the designed path to take to get to the area you need. Frustration can set in easily just because you didn’t see that one pipe that you needed to climb in the corner, rather than you trying to jump impossible gaps.
Perhaps the greatest example of the most enjoyable portions of the games controls would be a level where you need to graf the sides of a moving subway train, and yes, you are riding it on the roof and sides, not the comfort of the seats within. Having to switch sides, lean against the side of the subway, and duck on the roof to avoid being knocked off by the pillars screaming by you, all when you need to complete your tag within the time limit as well. It can feel very rewarding at times, and completely frustrating at others, though a Keyboard and Mouse were simply not meant to play this game, you need a console version, or joypad to get the most ease of use out of it and avoid much disappointment.
Visuals:
The graffiti in the game simply looks astonishing, and the fact that all the pieces are done by real graf artists even further enhance the fact that this is a very gritty environment. Your tags can look great, or if you drip a lot while painting can look like something you’d rather no one see.
New Radius looks gritty and downtown urban, but even more importantly, it feels like it as well. Dark filters and the graf all around you from other people really bring you into the world and truly make you think it is the slums.
The cutscenes feel very unique and tell the story while painting the picture (no pun intended) clearly for you. The art style and storytelling really makes you feel like you connect with Trane. Though the gameplay graphics may not be up to par with many of the bigger titles out there, it does it’s job and immerses you into Trane’s world filled with fear and culture.
Sound:
Easily the strong point of the game, the soundtrack and voice acting are almost unparallel by anything else out there. You have actual hip-hop talent like Talib Kweli (Who also voices Trane), Rakim, Eric B, Mobb Deep, Pharoahe Monch and some other big names as well. A notable feature as well is that not only is great music put into the experience, but they are all played at carefully selected portions of the game so you don’t hear the same song over and over wishing you had your own music playing in the background.
With an in-game iPod player, you can also pick and choose your favorite songs to hear while playing as well; the only feature missing from this is actually loading an MP3 folder on your PC, or play list from your Xbox.
The voice acting is more than your typical B grade talent saying their few lines of dialogue that you are forced to listen to throughout the game. The script is quite clever and the lines are not cheesy that usually make you roll your eyes. Talib Kweli does the honors of Trane’s voice and makes it sound authentic and MC Serch does Trane’s rival Gabe. Looking into the credits, other actual big names such as P. Ditty, Charlie Murphy, Giovanni Ribisi, and even Adam West, yes, Batman, grace the cast list as well.
Sound effects are also more than your usual “bang” and “crash” noises. As you tag walls and use your aerosol, you can hear it spraying, and as you refill and shake the can, you can even hear that as well. Using a simple marker on the wall even gives you that squeak that new markers do. Combat sounds are deep and feel very powerful because of it, and doing a combo into someone’s face makes you bite your lip from the sounds of it alone.
Should you opt for the extra $10 and purchase the Limited Edition of the game, which you should since there’s many extras, you will also get the soundtrack of the game that even has music that isn’t in the game portion, but made for the title from other famous artists as well.
Closing Comments:
With an average 12 to 15 hours of gameplay, there are many unlockables to obtain such as new tags, songs, and fight moves. Unfortunately, due to the lack of being unable to incorporate your own art into the game, there isn’t much incentive to spray TRANE all over the city again. Sure I would put probably something profane or toilet words, but something that simple as even editing the words, would have added much more.
The camera work gives a very cinematic feel and Trane is simply just an awesome character that develops and you find yourself enjoying him much more as the game progresses. The only thing that kept coming to mind was everything gameplay related was very average and didn’t stand out as a champion of its own. Very unique idea and concept to compile all these different styles into one, but just doesn’t seem to exceptionally shine in one unfortunately. .
Splurge for the Limited Edition to get a quality soundtrack, a silver sharpie to start your own graf all over your own city, and your own black book to record all your art, the big shiny looking box also is a bonus too.
Overall:7.73 Gameplay:6.5 Visual:7.5 Sound:9.2
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
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Burnout Revenge
Overall: Intro:
The substance to Burnout is easy: Drive way too fast, drive dangerously against traffic, crash into everything, and take down your opponents any way possible. Criterion has proved that you can take a current-generation game and do more than the regular 360-coat-of-paint and call it a new game.
Improvements of features, additions of new ones, incredible high definition visuals, very detailed sound effects, a lengthy single player, and a very addicting online mode proves that it’s more than just a port. For those that have had the game already on Xbox or PS2, the question is: is it still worth buying again?
Gameplay:
First: the new features that were given to the Xbox 360 version.
Previously in Crash modes at the starting line, you had a golf swing bar that you had to get perfectly if you wanted the best possible crashes, since it was what your starting boost speed was based upon. This usually led to many restarts and frustration, just to get that faster boost you need to rack up the crash values. This whole feature has been scrapped thankfully for the much easier racing start where you have max speed regardless. This allows you to focus more on your correct path to crash paradise and raking in the demolition.
After every event you finish in single player, it automatically goes into a full replay of your whole race. From here you can skip, fast-forward, and rewind to where the most action happened, and then record a 30 second clip of it. Think your explosion looked amazing, or that taken had to be seen to be believed? Xbox Live allows you to show the world your replay, which in turn can be voted and if it’s awesome enough, be showcased in the Top 20 clips for all to see. With that being one of the achievements as well, you better remember to record every awesome thing to prove it. Sadly, you don’t get much control over the camera, and sometimes the camera will change just as you want it to be facing somewhere else, missing some of the action. One interesting feature as well to this, is that when you do upload and share your clip, you can then send a message to a friend, or your whole friend list, which theoretically all of your friends would watch your clip and vote it for you. After 2 or 3 messages of “Check out my awesome Burnout Clip!” it gets old very fast, and there isn’t a simple 1-button way of viewing it either. You need to go to the main menu, then Clips, then View clips, then your friends list (which is a pain since it is done alphabetically, even if they don’t own the game), and then find it, view it, then save or recommend it.
The saving grace feature of this enhanced version of Burnout is easily the Live Revenge. It works simply and will have you up very late some nights trying to extract that sweet revenge on the player that somehow keeps taking you out every chance. Revenge is simple; you take someone out and you are then essentially a takedown up on them, take them out even more times and it keeps track of those too. In the lobby when you are waiting for the host to start the race or crash mode, it clearly shows you how many takedowns you are up or down with someone. If you are ahead on takedowns, there is a green yield-like icon with the number of times you have taken them out. If someone has taken you out, it will be red and show the embarr@!%#*!ing number instead, usually with the person har@!%#*!ing you about it, making revenge that much sweeter when you take them out.
At the start of an online race the camera will do a flyby of the points leader (World ranking or room depending on ranked or player matches), then if you have any, rivals will be pointed out as well so you know exactly who to gun for and try to take out. Red names above the cars means they have takedowns on you and you should try your best to make them crash to get your retaliation. If their name shows green, that means you have taken them out and they are going to do everything they can to make you eat wall, barriers, busses, or oncoming car hoods. Obviously, some of the achievements are based on this which vary from taking one person out 5 times in a row, all the way to making someone your arch rival by taking them out over 100 times! Needless to say, this adds a huge amount of replay since EA tracks everyone you’ve ever taken out or been taken out by; meaning that days or weeks later, someone may come into your lobby that you never got a chance to tangle with since they took you out, or vice versa.
While these features don’t look like much on their own, also include more Xbox 360 exclusive race tracks and crash junctions on top of the regular game. If you are new to the series, Burnout Revenge offers more than your regular racing game.
Rather than your standard race point A to point B, include rivals that are going to be trying to not only push you into traffic, but also slam you into walls and take you out by landing on top of your car. If you don’t drive against traffic, narrowly miss slamming head on, check same-way vehicles, drift corners at speeds more than 200mph, take jumps, and takedown your combatants, you will not get the boost required to finish in first place, making this a much more adrenaline based racer.
While there may only be half a dozen or so tracks, that does not include the small variants of each, and the forwards or reverse on them as well. Different paths and shortcuts change completely if you are doing a course forwards or reverse and feels very different from the others as shortcuts are what you need to learn if you want to stay ahead of the competition. One flaw that isn’t apparent at first until you put numerous hours into the same tracks over reputedly is that tracks have a preset traffic pattern. This means that the more you learn the bends and curves of a race; you will also learn that the same bus that you keep crashing into on that one hairpin turn is there every single time. While you don’t notice it all too much, as usually other things are on your mind, like the person rubbing your rear bumper trying to take you out, or concentrating on the upcoming corners to keep your place, it does seem like a large oversight to not have random traffic patterns.
Other racing variants include Road Rage which pits 2 teams against each other. Essentially a cat and mouse game where one team chases and tries to take them out, while the other has a set amount of distance needed to cross while not being taken out by the opposing team that usually has permanent boost to even things up. This mode can get very entertaining and white knuckled, especially when you accidentally take out a fellow teammate.
One of the new features that Burnout Revenge brought us was Traffic Checking which allows you to now hit traffic going the same way as you as long as they are not busses and large vans, and then using those like bullets to send opponents crashing or into the pileup ahead that you caused. The single player mode of this is called Traffic Attack in where you need to basically hit enough cars and do an adequate amount of damage to meet goal. Causing large pileups, getting crash combos, and even trick shots across other lanes help you reach your goal, but generally it’s somewhat boring and not challenging at all.
The crash modes are the most unique events that Criterion brings to the table in this series. You are given an overview flyby of the intersection or overp@!%#*! that you will be hurling yourself towards, usually showing just a hint of where the biggest crashes need to take place, or what jumps to hit to meet your goals. You pick your vehicle of destruction, and every car, truck and van has rating of Speed, Force, and Weight for you to decide whether you need to quickly crash into something to stop the flow of traffic, or get there slower but cause more destruction with a heavier vehicle. As mayhem occurs with automobiles piling up, your crash breaker meter slowly fills up and when it is at 100% full, you have to hit the B button as fast as possible to explode your car, which in turn sets in motion more carnage and the possibility of filling the meter again. Online crash junctions don’t give you a fly-over preview like single player, so if you don’t know the tracks by name, or can’t react quickly enough your score will be lacking compared to others. The other new crash mode that was added to Revenge was Crash Battle, that pits you and up to 5 others online all heading for the same intersection at the same time from different roads or angles for some truly huge devastation.
Usually when a racing game has the “rubber-band effect” included that makes it impossible to keep a distinct lead, its not welcomed very well, though in Burnout it would not be the same game without it. The game is designed so that you are constantly battling for your position with racers trying to take you out any chance possible. As the game progresses, the AI does become more aggressive and will infuriate you more, but they are still no match for playing on Xbox Live against real competitors.
EA has done a wonderful job of making you want to go to your favorite retailer with your memory card as well when you pick up their game. If you have an Xbox 360 memory card and the retailer has the proper demo disk in the interactive system, you can download an Xbox 360 car to race in your game as well as a theme for your dashboard. Unfortunately at this time, EA has noted that the downloaded car does not work at the moment, but Burnout Revenge will be patched shortly in the future to allow it to be unlocked.
Visual:
A high definition TV with 720p is what’s needed to really see the difference between this version and the Xbox or PS2. Much crisper colors, more sparks, and more debris on the tracks really are shown off in its glory. Surprisingly for an ample boost in the graphics, the loading time does not suffer all that much more than the Xbox version. Burnout emphasizes on great frame rate and impression of speed, but lacks neither.
Region specific damage is just another feature that has been added to immerse you in the experience. Always rub the walls on a single side of your car and only that side will look like it’s been thrashed, leaving the other perfectly fine. While by itself doesn’t seem like that much, also make note that much more detail has been given to the whole car designs, such as being able to see the treads on tires as well.
Your surroundings have also been looked into with much more detail. Much sharper textures, great effects when making contact with others vehicles and simple debris littering the track adds much more than the previous versions. As you crash, and you will, your car will deform much more and more spare parts will be flung around the track as well. When using a crash breaker, it simply just looks and feels more mean and explosive with car parts being considerably blasted apart with the screen shaking to further emphasize its m@!%#*!iveness.
While the cars may not be licensed, many of them you can tell what they are supposed to be, and the ones that aren’t, you wish were real cars simply due to how cool they appear.
Sound:
With surround sound, you will hear the slightest bumps from your opponent on all directions and the roaring engine of you shifting gears while your tires squeal from that obscenely long sliding drift you took around the bend between two busses that are honking their horns at you. As your turbo boost kicks in, it sounds very distinct, almost like a jet taking off, and with a great sub you will feel it as well.
As you use your Crash Breaker, you can hear the subtle intake hiss, like it’s charging up, before the huge rumbling explosion. As parts of cars and vans fall from the sky, you will hear them fall to the pavement as well as the other vehicles screeching their brakes to avoid the inevitable collision.
The music is along the same lines as Burnout 3’s genre of music and is quite catchy. While there isn’t much for genre variety, I didn’t find many songs that I was constantly skipping past, though loading your own play list is always preferred as usual.
Closing Comments:
With more features than other games ported to the Xbox 360, it’s refreshing to see that more content was added other than the usual graphic overhaul and addition of achievements.
Live Revenge doesn’t make Burnout a completely new game, but the enjoyment you will get from taking out ‘that annoying kid’ we all loathe on Xbox Live will be more satisfying than any achievement you could accomplish otherwise.
If you have already played Burnout Revenge on the Xbox or PS2 and are contemplating to get it for the 360, you will want it if: you never got around to completing it, now have the TV and sound system to showcase the added features, are addicted to achievements, solely buy games for their online components, or love Burnout A LOT. If you never have played Burnout, you need this version to see what a true arcade racer with exciting online action is all about.
While it’s still a hard sell to recommend the purchase if you already own it for the Xbox or PS2, with the new features, you will be up to the wee hours of the morning trying to extract your revenge or move your World Rank up even higher. Kudos to Criterion for making a truly excellent port of a current generation game to the Xbox 360 by raising the bar others may not have done.
Overall 8.9
Gameplay: 8.9
Visual: 8.3
Sound: 9.5
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
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BioShock
Overall: BioShock For Xbox 360
Opening:
It’s not very often that a game comes along that almost everyone can agree is a required play experience for any gamer that brings together all game elements so perfectly. Bioshock is more than a very attractive FPS, it also has a blend of RPG elements where you can customize your character and weapons to anything you choose.
With a very engrossing story, amazing visuals, incredible sound and enough scary moments that you care to admit, the plot has a much more emotional impact than an explosive one.
Story:
Bioshock’s primary focus is the engrossing story, and it’s done extremely well with intertwining story lines conveyed through radio messages and old audio logs that you find while searching around the city.
Its 1960, your plane crashes in the ocean, you are the lone survivor and the game begins with you swimming along your plane wreckage as you see a lighthouse off in the distance. It actually took a few moments to realize you are playing, and not watching a CG intro movie
Rapture; masterminded by Andrew Ryan, is a city set under the Atlantic Ocean, and as to progress, you discover why the idea of the city as failed and is trashed, and why there are Splicers out to kill you. You are kept on track to Bioshock’s plot with always letting you know where to go with onscreen arrows and a top down map that shows where you have and haven’t been. Audio diaries are scattered everywhere and explain Rapture’s back-story, its citizens and their personal tales. Instead of having a convoluted story with details from many citizens, it focuses more on in-depth stories from just a few, that also seem to intertwine and unfold the cities history and what went so wrong. Hearing all these stories unfold makes the city seem much more alive, which is ironic being that the majority of everyone is dead. While you are not forced to listen to all these audio diaries, doing so will unravel all the main characters back story and more details about the main plot.
Genetic tinkering is possible with a substance called ADAM which can give the user incredible powers called plasmids. This invaluable resource is only able to be harvested by Little Sisters who use an exaggerated sized needle into dead victims. These Gatherers are then in turn protected by guardians called Big Daddy’s who will fight to the death to protect the little sisters. Big Daddy’s come in two flavors: Bouncers and Rosie’s. Bouncers have a drill on their arm, are very intimidating in size and sound, and will rush at you before you can even move out of the way should you make him mad or try and get too close to the Little Sisters. Rosie’s don’t seem as menacing from their look, but they have a very large gun that can make quick work of you if you don’t take them out quickly.
This is where the games moral dilemma comes into play. Do you harvest the Little Sisters for more ADAM, or save them for less and be their hero; thus making the game a bit more challenging. Both choices have benefits and consequences and with 3 different endings, these choices will play out to the story as well.
As the plot unravels and you find out what exactly has caused Rapture into its current state, you will be surprised with moments of shock and awe as plot twists keep you guessing and thinking of why events have happened in this fashion.
Gameplay:
You start off with limited slots to customize different key traits of your character, but this increased as the story progresses and you purchase more with your ADAM collection at specified locations in the game after dealing with the Guardians of Little Sisters.
Plasmids are active powers that you genetically enhance yourself with. Electricity will shock your enemies and stun them for a short duration as you proceed to fill them with your weapons’ ammo. Incinerate will engulf your enemy in flames, slowing draining their health, but can also be used to melt ice or set oil spills ablaze that they may be standing in. Telekinesis will allow you to pick up random items like chairs and boxes and whatever isn’t bolted to the ground and let you hurl them wherever you wish much like Half Life 2’s gravity gun. Security Bull’s-eye paints target on an enemy for security cameras and bots to attack them instead of you! With the enrage plasmid, you can make Splicers fight each other as well. Insect Swarm will send a large quantity of bees to annoy, distract and slightly damage your target, as you blast away. You even can use decoys and wind traps to ruse Splicers and lay traps for them. Even making a Big Daddy your ‘pet’ to attack anything that it sees for you, which in turn you will then kill when he is low on health to get his Little Sister’s ADAM is possible.
Tonics are essentially skill slots for weapons, plasmids and skills, but give p@!%#*!ive effects such as speed boosts to running, attacking speed, and many other skills that will greatly enhance your character in any way you desire. Should use choose, you can make your wrench attacks more powerful, or you can choose to get increased health and EVE everytime you use a med kit or hack something. Static Field is also a great skill to use, which will generate an area effect zap to anyone in range when you are struck, but beware; should you get struck with a Big Daddy pet in range, he will turn on you very quickly! With more than 50 different tonics, you will have a robust character exactly how you wish.
Plasmids are great, and very handy, but this is a FPS game at heart, and you are eventually armed with a wrench and a pistol gun all the way to a Dart Gun and Chemical Thrower with other various types in between. To make things even more in depth, each weapon can also acquire three different types of ammo which all have different effects on different enemies. Due to the era the game is set in, even the weapons look vintage and not very high tech at all (until you upgrade them). During the course of the game, you will find one time use weapon upgraders where you can choose to change your guns’ performance from bigger clips, faster reloads, damage increases, and greater accuracy. Doing so also changes the visual look of your weapon, so it always seems fresh even though it’s really the same weapon, just modified to your liking.
As the game progresses, enemies who used to die in one shot to the head will now take 2 or more. The scaling is somewhat constant, and eventually you are introduced to the camera feature in Bioshock. The purpose of this camera is to research the Splicers and other enemies to learn more about them by photographing them. As you become more knowledgeable by taking more and more photos, you learn weaknesses and even will gain damage bonuses versus certain enemies. Using the camera as much as possible is definitely recommended and will make your life much easier; but it is not a necessity to completion of the game. It’s a subtle way to add more intensity to the mood of the game, where you COULD have your gun ready for an enemy charging at you with a fireball, but take a picture of the same enemy in an action shot close up for huge picture bonuses instead, at the risk of getting hurt.
Splicers come in a few varieties from thugs that try and beat you with any blunt weapon they have in hand, Leadheads that will shoot at you, Houdini’s that can teleport anywhere and shoot fireballs at you, Nitro’s who toss Molotov @!%#*!tails at you, and Spider Splicers who can crawl on any wall or ceiling throwing hooks at you and are generally hard to see as they tend to stay in the dark and obscure corners
While there aren’t really many level “bosses”, there are characters that are involved in the main plot that you do battle against, but they really are just more powerful and resilient than normal Splicers.
Setting up traps will make your life much easier and will save you much ammo when you can get an enemy to simply run into a proxy grenade or a bolt trap trip-wire instead of pumping a clip or two into them. These tactics are almost needed for fighting Big Daddy’s later on where at first they will seem almost unbeatable, though once you learn their weaknesses (and research them for bonuses!) and how they react, setting a room with proxies and bolt traps will make quick work of the meanest Bouncer or Rosie in moments.
With security cameras everywhere, flying bots that keep guard, and turrets that can mow you down in seconds, Hacking these items will become a necessity to not only help preserve precious ammo, but once hacked, will fight on your side for you against any Splicers that come into sight. If you have ever played Pipe Dream for the NES or any variant thereof, you will understand how to hack and most likely be pretty efficient with it from the get go. For those that don’t know what this game was, hacking is completed by playing a 30 second minigame where you need to connect a start and end pipe with ooze quickly flowing from the start before time is up or you fail to connect the pipes in a line. While it has its charm at first, the challenge does get pretty difficult towards the end of the game with many unusable slots for pipes and the timer going even faster. Keep in mind that there are Tonics that can help with hacking as well. It gets very tedious, and for those with not much patience or skill, you are able to simply buy-out the hack or use an auto-hack tool to avoid playing the minigame and possibly failing. To fail a hack will either send out drones to hunt you down, or it will short out which damages you in the process. Vending Machines and other helping dispensers for health and other goodies can also be hacked to give you extra items not normally purchasable and also at a reduced fee. Again, it’s not forced to be done, but will make your adventure in Bioshock much easier and saves you money in the end.
Death in Bioshock isn’t so much a consequence as it is more of a slight setback. You are reincarnated at the closest vita-chamber with your entire inventory and most of your health. The perk with this system is that any damage you have done to enemies will stay as you run back to finish them off. So as you die while bringing a Big Daddy down to half health, when you run back to finish him off, he will still be at half health. This lack of death penalty keeps things fun and moving. No boring reloads of games saves, but also too easy when you get lazy when you don’t care if you die later on. The only downside to this system I found was that skillful gameplay was not rewarded, as anyone can kill anything with enough “tries” at it, though on the bright side, it gives you many chances to experiment with different options to kill people. Even playing on hard mode, the flaw in this system becomes apparent. Sure, Splicers will have more health and take less damage and even use heath stations, but it really doesn’t require you to play anymore skillfully.
Visuals:
Because the visuals are so appealing and have so much personality to them, you are almost compelled to search places that aren’t even required to. With Rapture being an underwater city, you will find water everywhere on the floor and even leaks in the walls and ceilings which always give you a reminder of surroundings and how trapped you really are in Ryan’s envisioned city. Because most citizens have been murdered, you will see blood and ‘experiments’ on corpses in many places that has seemed to go horribly wrong. Though not as constantly gory as Doom 3, some rooms look like something out of a great horror movie with extreme detail to even blood smears.
Apparently on some systems, this visual prowess will cause some slight hitching when picking up items or while saving. Personally, my system never ran into this common issue, though watching a friend play on a different system, I have seen it take up to 5 seconds sometimes to continue on after picking up a tonic for example. It’s not a very big problem, but in a compelling story so engrossing, it’s a shame you realize you are playing a game because of these small glitches and being taken out of the immersiveness of Rapture’s tale.
Surprisingly, the only CG movie in Bioshock is the ending. Every cut scene is done in engine and keeps things flowing without having to stop and load every time. While this is common practice now, I was just surprised to see no CG when the commercials ads on TV are stunning to watch, yet nothing like that is in-game.
Sound:
The atmosphere of Rapture is always around you with eerie music that helps set the mood and uneasiness with very tense moments. Jukebox’s play music as you walk by them and is properly set to Bioshock’s era. Even vending machines will talk to you as you walk by much like carnies at an amusement park, to taunt you into using them.
The bigger weapons sound mean and appropriate while firing. Even Big Daddy footsteps as they walk by seem to thud deeply and just make you tense as they saunter by as the screen shakes to further sell them to the player.
A stunning voice cast really sells the story of Rapture and its demise and doesn’t seem like it has a weak link from any one person. Enough praise can not be given to these actors and sounds uniquely genuine from every cast member with much brilliance in their lines. The audio diaries keep the plot and back story ongoing and sound very authentic with that scratchy recording feel to it. The actors do such a good job, that you will find yourself taking sides with certain characters and starting to despise others, just from what you have been told and hear. This is all from only voices which is quite a feat and really give you that emotional impact that is very rare in today’s games that simply try to wow gamers with the biggest and best graphics.
Splicers can be heard moaning, talking to themselves, and even scavenging around. Hearing the small creaks in the floor and walls really sells that Rapture is definitely under the ocean. Not only does the water look perfectly real, the sound to flowing water and dripping is also intact.
Closing:
Quality and depth is what sets Bioshock apart from not only the flooded FPS genre, but in the whole industry as a whole.
A lot can be done with the indirect fighting methods and really makes it not feel like every other FPS on the market. Setting up intricate traps for Big Daddy’s then luring them into them feels so rewarding and will guarantee to put a smug grin on your face, as you really feel you outsmarted them. This says something for Bioshock’s AI as normally this much satisfaction is only attainable from other human players.
Bioshock is easily a contender for game of the year, which is no feat for what has and will be coming out by years end. Absolutely do not let this title p@!%#*! you by just because it may look like just another shooter; it has much more under the hood and begs to be played and discovered in everyone’s personal way. Now, “would you kindly” go play Bioshock, as this is an essential gaming experience and a must for any gamer’s collection.
9.8/10
Pros:
-Amazing visuals and sound that HAVE to be experienced due to its uniqueness.
-A compelling plot that has twists and makes you want to continue playing just that little bit further.
- Defeating Big Daddy’s feels completely rewarding, as it’s very difficult to combat them head-on and succeed.
-Voice acting sells all the characters perfectly all the way from the lowly Splicers to the main story people.
-Up to 20 hours of gameplay on a single play through which is more than double the average FPS title.
Cons:
- The death system as first seems like a blessing, but trivializes any fights and doesn’t reward skillful play.
- Minor graphical hiccups on some systems that is just enough to be interrupting.
- Final boss fight came too quick and wasn’t very challenging in any way.
- The only (ending) CG movie is very short and though you feel satisfied for beating Bioshock, it also leaves the “That’s it?” feeling lingering making you want more.
Overall Score: 9.8 / 10
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Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock
Overall: You may have never played any of the Guitar Hero games, but it's probably s sure bet that you've seen or heard of it. The game's premise is to place you into a guitar shredding rock god, complete with your own guitar to play on! It's like playing air guitar, but not looking as silly.
The series will by no means teach you how to play a real guitar in any way, but it does replicate some of the feel as you frantically use the fret buttons to win over the crowd you are playing for as they cheer for you.
Guitar Hero III (which will be referred to as GH3 from here on) is now here for us to rock on, but does it hold up against its previous installments now with a new developer behind the mix?
Harmonix, who have made the first two Guitar Heroes are now gone and making the anticipated Rock Band coming out this holiday, so with their absence; Activision (specifically the Tony Hawk guys) have taken over. Many people wondered if they could keep the franchise going as strong, or if something would be lost with the change of hands. The Guitar Hero you have come to know and love is still here and not going anywhere. It may have some new tweaks for better or worse, and some minor flaws, but the core gameplay is still there with a makeover of new graphics and audio choices.
With a new developer also comes a new guitar for users to rock out with. The major change is that it is now wireless as opposed to its wired older sibling. The fret neck is now detachable for ease of storage (though it does seem somewhat unnecessary), the guide button and start/select have been moved for ease of access and now and are also raised slightly higher to make it easier to activate your star power should you not want to raise the guitar upwards to activate it instead. The distance of the wireless capabilities are great, as I was able to go as far as I could in my apartment with no interruptions at all. The only flaw that was very disappointing was the forcing of having to use AA batteries instead of making a slot to hold your Xbox 360 rechargeable battery, though to their defense, even after many hours of use I’ve not had to change batteries yet. It is not necessary to re-buy the guitar in the bundle to enjoy GH3 should you be accustomed to your GH2 guitar, but it is a great new device to use wirelessly.
As notes appear on the screen and you match them with the color coded fret buttons and strum at the same time, you are graded on your performance, accuracy, combo of notes in a row, and how awesome you can rock out. The same formula is used for single player career that as you beating a set number of songs in a track list, then unlocking an encore song before unlocking the next set. Tried and true it does work, though it does feel a bit overused now, but this is where some of the new features kick in to help keep it fresh.
The most notable new feature would have to be the boss battles that you face in a few spots in the game instead of an encore song solely. While it is a welcomed new feature, it feels very flat in substance. You will be shredding off against Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine/Audioslave, and Slash from Guns and Roses/Velvet Revolver in songs they actually recorded for GH3 though battle rules will now apply. Instead of your regular star power, you have combos to complete, and if you hit the last note in the combo, you will be given a powerup attack that can be unleashed against the boss (or opponent when playing Battle Mode online). Attacks can vary from broken strings (where you must rapidity tap the corresponding button to ‘fix’ it), double notes that turn a single note into two and two notes into triples, difficulty up that changes your notes from medium style or hard and hard to expert, and the lefty flip which reverses all the buttons for a short time. On their own the attacks aren’t too devastating as you are able to recover from them pretty quickly, but you are able to store 3 attacks at a time and can unleash them all together or in a row for more damage. The gimmick with boss battles is that you need to defeat them by making them fail by the end of the song, not just survive it like the rest of the game. Out of the game’s eight tiers of songs, there is only 3 bosses and it feels very tacked on and only the final boss is quite difficult (to the point of major frustration). Simply they aren’t really that much fun and there aren’t nearly enough of them. On paper I can see how the idea seems a fantastic new addition, but most battles are ended very quickly to basically whoever can launch their 3 attacks all at once first.
Not really a new ‘feature’, but worth mentioning is the incredible boost to the difficulty. You will soar past the first half of the game and probably even the first two bosses, but then all of a sudden you hit a wall of difficulty that can be outright disheartening to even try and complete it after failing so many times in a row. It’s almost seems as if Activision is catering to the hardcore longtime players as newcomers may be turned off by the sudden boost of challenge. Playing on Expert will have your wrists and arms in agony after a prolonged amount of play, yet it still keeps the ‘one more song’ charm wanting you to keep trying. It seems that a fair amount of the achievements are also geared towards the better players with some making you finish the game while flipped on lefty mode, hosting ranked matches and winning 15 in a row, and even beating a certain amount of songs with a controller (not the guitar!). Even the hardest song in the game that is unlocked once beating the final boss, has its own 3 achievements that seem near impossible to ever get. Some of them just seem odd and stick out as achievements you’ll probably never get without sitting down for a good amount of time trying to learn how to play with a controller. Activision has seemed to decide that some hardcore shredding is more favorable to some slower paced memorable riffs. With some of the last songs to beat like Metallica’s ‘One’ or Slayer’s track, the difficulty is so turned up out of nowhere that non-veterans of the series will probably not even have a clue where to start to combat these songs.
To combat the upped difficulty, a saving grace is that the Hammer-ons and Pull-offs are incredibly easy to actually do properly in GH3. In the previous GH’s, you had to do the Hammer-ons with extreme precision or risk losing your combo, now with GH3 it is much more lenient and pulling off a huge chain combo with just using the buttons is quite the feeling. On top of that, the notes are much brighter and easier to see when you are able to do this, whereas before there was a small white ring around the note and not very noticeable when shredding a fast metal song. Though in quite a few songs where there should be allowances to Hammer on and pull off, it isn’t set that way unfortunately, which also factors into the difficulty. It is also much more forgiving this time around as well when you miss or mess up a note or chord and seems harder to fail songs. It seems to be quite easy to skim by finishing songs with 3 stars, but you will still have to work furiously to gain those elusive 5 star rankings.
With other new additions, there are also some flaws that come with them as well that seem to be a hindrance more than being welcomed. The most noticeable right away is the addition of ingame advertising and product placement. Normally it’s not too big of a deal to have a branded guitar that is from a sponsor or something along those lines, but GH3 turns it way up with you playing a Pontiac set, Axe billboards to even an Axe Guitar buyable from the store with Axe dancers that can accompany you on stage. One other hindrance is some slight frame rate issues. Normally something as small as this can be overlooked as long as it doesn’t stand out, but with a rhythm based game and you generally only looking at one section of the screen, there is no excuse for it in this title. When activating your start power if there is quite a few notes on the screen, you will notice some drops in frames just enough to distract you and most likely make you mess up your combo.
Single player mode hasn’t really changed, but there are some new additions that will seem to prolong the life of this iteration of the series. Being able to play Co-op career is great but the real fun and competition is when you get on Xbox LIVE and challenge friends and oncommers where one person is lead and the other is b@!%#*!. The fact that every online experience so far on GH3 has been lag free only speaks better about this new feature. For some reason Activision also decided that six or so songs would be co-op only unlockable. So this means that if you don’t have a friend to come play with you you will never get to hear or play these songs in your career mode. While you can play these co-op only songs (Sabotage by Beastie Boys being the most noteworthy) online, it still seems a very odd decision to not make these playable by yourself. Another odd choice included is that the game does not ship with a co-op quick play option, only career mode. While there has already been a patch to remedy this, the people that aren’t online with their Xbox 360 are left out until they complete the game on co-op before they can just jump in for a quick song or two.
Playing online finally is a feature many fans have been asking for now for quite some time. Online you can play Face-off, Pro Face-off, Battle, and Co-op. Again, it makes no sense why you can’t do career Co-op online, but at least your friends can join in whenever. This online component is where the Xbox 360 version really shines through. The 360 version is the easiest to navigate and with the incorporation of friend’s lists, getting a game going with a buddy is quick and painless. The Playstation 3 version has no friend’s list type of matchmaking, so this means you can only play against random people online. With the Wii version being the middle ground, you can play friends, but only with the h@!%#*!le known as friend codes per game. The Wii version is also not setup for any type of download content that the Xbox 360 and PS3 version will be receiving in the future.
There have been some subtle and dramatic visual changes since Activision has taken over. All the same meters that track your song progress are still there but with a new makeover. Some new small changes would be the note counter that you can keep track of how many in a row you’ve hit, and at certain milestones it will tell you “100 note streak!” which makes you want to concentrate even more on the upcoming notes streaming towards you. Between segments of sets there are now short little cutscenes that eventually play out the well known story of the garage band wanting to make it big. The art style looks exactly like a Gorillaz video (it may even be done by them I think, it’s that similar) and while it’s a new addition to have a ‘story’as to why you’re playing, it’s also completely unnecessary; it simply doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of GH3’s style. The other thing you will notice right away is the makeover of the characters on screen. The main male singer sticks out terribly due to the exaggerated design that look like he’s been stung by a bee in the jaw. The lip syncing in GH3 is spot on though and looks as if he is actually performing the song for you. Even small mouth mannerisms make it look realistic. The singer could have used a little less detail and given it to the backup band members, but in all, it’s a noticeable increase from GH2 and just overall a sharper image.
Obviously with GH3 the main feature is the choice in songs that are included and will obviously favoritism will vary from personal tastes in music but there seems to be a strong mix of cl@!%#*!ics and ‘awesome’ songs, to downright awful and honestly, quite forgettable ones as well. GH3’s soundtrack vary across many different genres with cl@!%#*!ic rock tunes such as “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones, Punk tunes like “Anarchy in the UK” by the Sex Pistols, 90’s rock with some Smashing Pumpkins and even some Pearl Jam, and of course the difficult metal genre being represented by Metallica’s “One”, Slayers’ “Raining Blood” and the hardest song yet to date in the series that is unlocked once you complete the campaign; “Through the Fire and Flames” by Dragonforce which this song alone will give you premature arthritis. The biggest plus to the song selections is that more than half are actual master tracks. That’s right, no more terrible covers that stick out (Well, not as many at least) as you rock out to the tune you have come to learn and love. Interestingly, a few bands even re-recorded their songs for GH3 such as the Sex Pistol’s (as a side note, their master track has actually been lost from the studio, hence the reasoning to do so) along with the Boss Battle tunes. Overall the song choices are very high quality, with everyone always having a few songs that they just need to play, it’s just a shame that the majority of the bonus songs are very unknown and simply not that great or fun to even play.
Downloadable songs are a given and will be coming in the future, but as usual, the songs are kept under wrap until launch. Though Activision has confirmed it will be the same pricing scheme forcing a pack of 3 songs for 500 points. Let’s hope the songs will be worth it, though prolonged longevity of a game you’ve invested so much time and money into is never a bad thing and very welcomed.
Normally a game’s website is hardly worth mentioning as it’s usually the same formula of reviews, pictures and videos, but GH3’s has been completely redone and is now your portal to contests, tournaments, finding nearby fellow rockers and much more. You are able to create an Online Band (much like a Guild or Clan) where you can see all your members’ progress and even see how many groupies you’ve attained. This is done by linking your gamertag (another Xbox LIVE perk!) to the websites account that should be easy. As of this writing (and even since launch still) the ability to link your gamertag has not been working. They are aware of the issue and hopefully it will be fixed, as the promise of finding local tournaments, or searching for rockers in your city or town is to promising to not sign up for.
There are some great new additions such as the song list (yes that is a debatable subject) and the amount of master tracks is too big of a deal to not mention again. Online play is what the franchise has been begging for and is also a very welcomed addition. The harder difficulty will ensure that the more experienced rockers will be enjoying it longer, but it’s a two edged sword where it will also potentially scare away newcomers with such a sudden difficulty increase out of nowhere.
Boss Battles and Battle Mode simply isn’t all that fun and don’t end up lasting long enough to really be that enjoyable since it’s really the first to get the powerups is generally the one who wins. The ingame advertising stands out very noticeably and is outright annoying to see plastered everywhere rather than being subtle. The frame rate issues are the major flaw as it has no place in a rhythm game and is more than just a small issue as it can change your outcome of a song, especially in the hard shredding metal songs. Even with these problems, GH3 keeps its charm for the same reason you bought it. You will be hooked for hours, and with endless challengers waiting online for a battle GH3 still makes you feel like a true Guitar Hero, which is what the game sets out to do.
A fantastic online mode and a great website that offers much community involvement (benefit of the doubt is being given here as once it’ll be fully functional soon) really are the high points other than the song selection of course. The major downers are the boring and out of place Boss Battles / Battle Mode, the m@!%#*!ive advertising within game and the frame rate issues being the only true hindrances, but they do carry a large weight to them due to their simultaneous importance and annoyance.
Fret not (get it?) as if you are a Guitar Hero fan this one is not to be missed, and should you be a newcomer to the series, splurge and get the wireless guitar bundle and rock out like a true Guitar Hero!
Final Ranking: 8/10.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
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Xbox 360 Titles: 817
Xbox 360 Arcade Titles: 448
Xbox Titles: 832
Registered Members: 42,521
Forum Posts: 734,305
Staff Reviews: 1,064
Member Reviews: 10,339
News Articles: 10,941
Screenshots: 24,444
Xbox 360 Achievements: 36,102
Xbox 360 Faceplates: 2,016
Cheat Codes: 1,706
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1. phuture 909 - 123,212
2. Unreal - 122,015
3. Symmetric-XBA - 89,725
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25. Soda Jones - 11,958
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