Whenever I play an XLBA game, it’s always a different experience for me. I believe it has to do mostly with the way I used to view them; as cheap and quick ways to kill time. Now, I understand all videogames are time killers, but there was a key difference to me between a ‘mainstream’ game and an XLBA game. A game such as Mass Effect 3, I would plan a weekend around, whereas, a game such as Anomaly: Warzone Earth, is more or less a ‘I have 20 minutes to kill, let’s do this’ type of thing. So, you can imagine my surprise when I started playing, and one fresh 12 pack of Yoohoo later, I realized I had burned through 6 hours. Now, I will admit, with a little research, I would have known what I was getting into. This game already had a strong following on the PC, but I guess I wanted to surprise myself. I wanted to fully experience this game without giving other reviews the chance to skew my perception. But after playing this game and then reading the reviews for the PC version, I have to agree with them; this game is phenomenal.

So, an anomaly has landed in Baghdad and Tokyo, and your platoon, the prestigious 14 platoon, is assigned to be the first to investigate. Under the careful direction of General Jason Statham (Ok, so I know it’s not really Statham, but  with the picture the game gives, his voice, the wise cracking British jokes, and perhaps the Yoohoo messing with me, I came to believe the General was the street urchin we have all come to love in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels), you are to investigate and help wherever you can. You accomplish this with an armada of armored vehicles, and tactical diversions in which you can position in any strategical way you see fit. This game demands that you breathe and eat strategy, and I loved it. I believe they stand correct in their claim that they have created a genre; reverse tower defense mixes real time strategy, tactical, and RPG into one delicious cake.

This game reminded me a lot of a fast paced chess game. You must know your opponent, you must anticipate his moves, you must set yourself up for the best possible outcome, and you must do this all on a fly to anticipate any shift in the game. This game truly was a workout for my mind, I had never really thought tactically before, mostly because I am not a military strategist, and I have a strong desire to get laid (so competitive chess was out of the picture), however, if the chess board would have been filled with military vehicles, and invading aliens, then perhaps, I would have discovered sooner the immense satisfaction one gets from winning a tactical battle.

The game truly puts all the power in your hands; from the route you take through the city, to the kind of troops you have, to what distraction you are going to use at certain moments. Am I going to go damage heavy and hope my tactical sandstorms will save their low armor from enemy fire? Or am I going to go armor heavy, and hope that their low damage output will whittle away at the enemy fast enough for their armor to hold? The game gives you certain incentives to help with this choice. You are awarded medals (gold, silver, bronze respectively), for fulfilling certain objectives. If you go damage heavy, you might get a gold for speed, but you might lose out on ruthlessness, because you can only take a certain amount of enemies due to your low armor and limited tactical diversions.

It may seem that it is impossible to get all gold medals. I mean, you sacrifice in one area, to gain leverage in another, but, I think this is where the game truly shines. You have the ability to sell and buy different troops on the fly. This really opens a lot of doors if you are really good at situational awareness. I think the other best advantage the game gives you, is dynamic checkpoints, and dyeing.

Dyeing may not seem like an advantage, but I learned more from being decimated then I did just blowing through a level. By dyeing, I was able to see what upcoming fights looked like, I was able to learn what routes to take for maximum efficiency, and I was able to learn what troops I needed and what troops I didn’t, and with all the checkpoints, I did not run the risk of restarting the whole level. I know many games have done this in the past, but Warzone does it better than anyone else. This game promotes learning and rewards you handsomely for it, and I think more games need to take this cue.

The Blast Factor: This game is all around stellar. From art direction to game play, music to voice acting, this game excels in all fields and is well deserving of its 5/5 rating. A side effect I was not expecting from this game is that it sort of… awakened me. I use to find XLBA games, and indie games for that matter, to be passé, cheap timewasters, and something to be easily ignored. I was a ‘mainstream’ elitist, and I had been metaphorically slapping down the idea of an indie game for years. Little did I know that I had been slapping the wrong people the whole time. The problem with mainstream games is that we as an audience have confined them. We have certain expectations and preconceptions that we enforce, and expect delivered by mainstream companies. They can be creative, but only in the parameters we have determined. Indie games don’t have these oppressions. Most of these companies are no names, or companies that have flown under the radar. Without this constant pressure, creativity and innovation flourishes in all directions. This unique creativity is what is responsible for such gems as Anomaly, Bastion, Journey, Limbo, and on and on. With my new found enlightenment, it would seem I have a lot of catching up to do.

I had always been an advent South Park fan, and my main concern with Tenorman’s Revenge was its inability to capture the humor that makes South Park so unique. However, when the game opens with  future sea otters retelling the story of Eric’s awesomeness and his plight against his evil ginger half-brother Tenorman , I already knew my fears had been squelched.

The story is simple. Tenorman has stolen Cartman’s X-box hard drive, and as any X-box player will tell you, we are more than willing to time travel and battle ginger robots to get it back. The game says it the best: ‘Who really wants to watch all those L.A Noir cut scenes all over again?!’

As a platformer, I truly find this game to excel. I found myself… frustrated, more than once and while this may seem like a complaint about the game, it is indeed, quite the opposite.  Growing up, I loved Battle Toads and Megaman, but I use to curse up a storm playing them, (granted I was pretty young so my selection of words was limited and well out of the ear reach of my mother). There are many moments in Tenorman’s Revenge where I found myself using my mature selection of swear words frequently. This is the greatest compliment I think I could use for a platformer; Revenge challenged me, it forced me to think past the idea of button mashing, it retaught me the importance of patience, and when I succeeded, I felt empowered, as though it was my true skill that allowed me to win. Too many times are we faced with a platformer that is mundane, and blatantly points out some simple mechanic that allows us to pass a level, but Revenge, refuses to do that. It keeps it fresh, with challenging levels, unique bosses, and so many hidden gems that it taunts us to find them.

Speaking of which, the replay value of this game is quite high. The game gives you the choice to replay all of its levels using one of the four South Park boys we have come to love. This may seem like a nice, if unneeded feature, but Revenge, gives you incentive. Each boy has a unique power, and if you’re an achievement junkie, this game demands that you replay these levels. In order to collect all the time coins, you are faced with certain obstacles only certain characters can overcome. Only Cartman can burst through walls with his girth, and only Kyle can transform into ‘Kite’ to float around. If you don’t like the idea of replaying every level by yourself four times over, you are more than welcome to the games multiplayer function, rather it be online or locally. At the time of the review, I found the online multiplayer to be a bit slow and unpredictable, but I can say, having my brother join in locally was a tremendous help. I can see this being a great game to enjoy with friends, or an excuse to yell at each other for ‘nubness’ as my brother and I quickly found out.

The Blast Factor: This game truly captured what it means to be a platformer. Challenging levels, annoying enemies, and remembering what precise timing actually is. That being said, I still feel this game falls short of the 5 star mark. There are too many control issues I was running into consistently, and the humor aspect of the game did tend to lose its luster throughout the hours. There is a reason the episodes of South Park only run 30 minutes, and it is to avoid comedic stale meant as this game ran into. Still, this game is well worth the time to sink into it, and it is refreshing to see a game that remembers what it means to be a platformer.

This review is based off a copy of the game provided by the Publisher. South Park: Tenorman’s Revenge is available now for Xbox Live Arcade.

Moral dilemmas are in no short supply throughout Fable II.

The starting quest, involving bird crap landing on your hero’s head, sets you up for the rest of the game with a series of moral choices and dilemmas. Do you find the five prison warrants, or do you hand them to some criminal to rid of? Do you give the bottle of booze to an alcoholic, or do you hand it to his wife to stop his drinking? As a gamer, you probably don’t care, but what if you were told that, in the future, these choices may come back to haunt you?

Your completely customizable hero can be a guy or a gal, but either way, your sister is going to be with you in the beginning. Eventually, you buy a magic song box which has the power to grant wishes. You and your sister are orphan children that live in complete poverty, so you have quite the long wish list. Your sister wishes that you lived in the castle in Bowerstone, hoping that this will lead to a better life for both of you. But the box disappears and you are left to return, bewildered, to your life of poverty. You are then rudely awakened and informed that Lord Lucian, who is reeling from his family’s recent death, has requested to meet you at the castle.

As you enter his chambers, you see the lord distracted and milling over some paper work. Although he is initially warm and inviting, his manner quickly turns angry and he proceeds to shoot both you and your sister. Your sister dies immediately, but a voice tells you that death is not your destiny, and this sets the tone for the game.

Flash forward 10 years later, and you are stronger and wiser, knowing that you must find Lucian and destroy him. You already know you must save the world, however, the true beauty of Fable II is that it doesn’t hold your hand and instruct you on how to do so. Your choices matter. Are you going to sacrifice your own happiness for everyone else, or will you horde all of the riches for yourself? Every choice you make is going to have a consequence, whether it be for your benefit or for another’s.

Fable II’s combat system is truly one of its strongest points. At first I was skeptical about the idea of one button combat, but I’m now a huge fan of the fact that it allows you more options with regard to aim and technique. Seemingly minuscule decisions that wouldn’t be given a second thought in many other games will affect everything from the game’s story and play, to your character’s skills and demeanor. The system reward syour timing — in fact, you can get to the point where you can hit faster and harder just by stringing your attacks fluently

Next-gen first person shooter fans are in for a treat this holiday season. Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2 are quickly on the way, ‚ and your urge to kill locust or chimera will be swiftly re-birthed. However, for those of us with two next gen consoles on a tight budget, your choice might not be as clear yet.

GoW2 really hits multiplayer hard, which it should, given Xbox Live’s expansive online community, and the success of the original Gears online play. It would be crazy not to build upon that. Three new multiplayer modes: wingman, guardian and submission have been added to the original four.‚ 

Wingman pairs up two people to face off against four other groups of two people in a death match. Submission is like a darker capture the flag which pits two teams of five with the task of killing an AI regulated character, and then carry their dead carcass back to their home base. Guardian is exactly like Assassination, but with a twist: ‚ it allows the players to keep fighting after their leader has been killed, but takes away the ability to respawn

When it comes to story, GoW2 does not offer too much. It’s definitely bigger, with huge enemies and environments that will certainly take full advantage of your HDTV.‚ 

The story begins six months after the ending credits of the last Gears of War. Not much is known about the story, all that is known for sure is that Fenix has a love interest, people will die, and Carmine will be back. The rest ‚ is pretty much the same, locusts are taking over the cities, and Fenix and his diehard crew are the only ones to stop them, (hmm … Halo anyone?) If you are looking for an intricate story , you may be best served to look elsewhere.

It’s basically the same plot that has been rehashed since WWII, evil forces are taking over the world, and only a select few can stop them — except with this one, you got chainsaws. ‚ 

Many PlayStation 3 owners experienced arguably the best of the systems launch lineup with Resistance: Fall of Man. The game was a huge success critically and consumer wise. There was no doubt that a sequel would be made and two years later it happened.‚ 

With Resistance 2, it is all about scale. Insomniac’s latest shooter delivers on just that, with 100-foot enemies, 60 player online, and 8-person cooperative play, complete with its own storyline.

The story takes place two years after the first, starting off where the last cinematic from the original Resistance left off. ‚ Our hero, Nathan Hale, joins a powerful group of super soldiers called The Sentinels that seem to have the same immunity to the Chimeran virus as him.

This time around the narrative will be from Hale’s perspective, unlike the first games where the story had been told through Rachel Parker’s eyes.‚ 

Multiplayer has been improved considerably with up to 60 players playing at once. Insomniac knows that with 60 people in one area would just be unmitigated chaos. The solution was to split the 60 players into groups of five giving each group specific objectives to complete.‚ 

The weapons from the first game will be making a return, but with a few added tweaks. Like the Bulls-eye, which now has a sniper scope One new and interesting new weapon ‚ is the Splicer which shoots electromagnetically charged saw blades at your opponent, slicing them into ribbons.

If the 60 person multiplayer doesn’t catch your interest there is an 8-player cooperative campaign for you and seven other buddies to play. Instead of just letting you play through the single player storyline, Insomniac has created a separate storyline that scales to the amount of players that are playing. Players have up to three different classes to choose from. The Tank has high health and has a shield to help take heavy damage, special ops, who deals heavy damage, but has low health and medic who is the primary support class who focuses on the group.

It is to see that with the amount of things being crammed into this one title that you would have a hard choice of purchasing a game. If the promise of a huge, deep story with 100 foot boss fight, 60 player online play, and an 8 person cooperative campaign doesn’t sell you on this game — nothing will.

Blast Magazine Correspondent‚ Juneil Cabreza also contributed to this article.

A couple of days ago, I found myself in an interesting situation. I found, that I had no desire to play my next-gen games. Hell, I didn’t even want to play my PS2. No, I wanted to play something 2D, and not the 2D with a 3D twist like Odin Sphere, but something truly classic, retro. Something … Mario.
 
I reached for my technology bin, which is cleverly hidden underneath my bed, and reached for my Super NES. After blowing the dust off and setting it up, I was pleased to find that it still worked. Initially, the hard choice came in finding a game to start with. I still have all my old SNES games, mostly for the sad fact that I can’t get more then 89 cents for them at my local Game Crazy.

After scanning, I found the one that I wanted — the one game that started my gaming carrier. My earliest memory with videogames is the first level in Super Mario World. I was 5, and I was feverishly excited by the fact that, by pressing buttons, I could jump on turtles and pop them out of their shell.

I would later find that this does not apply to real life. 

 
When I found out about Yoshi, my 5-year-old life was blown away. I remember the joy I got when I made Yoshi eat an apple, and the laughter I got when I would watch my grandmother try as hard as she could to get on Yoshi, only to fail miserably, throw down the controller, and say words my Mother would say not to use.

Super Mario World became my catalyst, and as the years past, and more and more time was consumed by games, and the greater my parents’ concern grew over that time, my videogame carrier can be traced back to Super Mario World, and the joy and reward it gave me. So, I found it rather befitting that I should pop in the game that started it all. 
 
I blew the cartridge, and flicked the switch. The simple tune of the SNES intro was enough to get me started for an epic journey into my past. I was surprised to find that I still had a save file for this game, and amazed that the SNES still retained all the information for a game I have not played in 10 years or more. I decided to start a new game though, for I desired the full experience. 
 
Everything was as I remembered. The buttons felt comfortable and familiar. Every secret tunnel or area was remembered. In high school, I had a hard time remembering math equations I’d learned the day before. It’s funny that I remembered all the secrets and button schemes from a game I have not played since I was nine. 
 
SMW is a 2D-scroller at its finest. Challenging, but certainly surmountable. Every cannon bullet fired at me and mushroom I collected was a constant reminder as to why I love games so much.

When I was little, nothing else mattered when I was playing that game, and I guess, a little bit of that thought process has stayed with me. When life is brining me down, all I have to do is pop in my Call of Duty or GTA, and nothing else matters.

Super Mario World reminded me what games use to be like. Graphics were not so much the huge focus it is today, it was about game play. I was about challenging and fun level designs, it was more about, what does the played need to do skillfully, to beat this section? Now a days, that seems to be a bit loss. Do not get me wrong, there are plenty of current games that do that, but much has been loss to the ‘graphics’ war.

I guess that is why I am a fan of the Wii. Say what you want about the Wii, – I know it is not the best console – but Nintendo did something wonderful by forcing people to think outside the box. 

Pop in your “first game” sometime. Look at the differences between old school and current generation, because this is the only way to see how far we have come, as in industry and as a daily consumer.

Our needs have changed, and the game industry has changed much to keep up with these demands. I don’t know, maybe I’m just nostalgic – I don’t even think I am old enough to be nostalgic – but it is always good to sit back, kick in an old game, and realize how simple your demands use to be.