Throughout gaming lore there have been certain games that come in and out of development and dodge deadlines to the dismay of their loyal fans. Starcraft Ghost, Half-Life 3, the mythical Duke Nukem Forever; all these titles have taken their fans heartstrings and thrown them across the room throughout development. Among these titles lies Max Payne 3. When its predecessor ended back in 2003, fans were expecting a swift turnaround for the sequel. However, problems with developer Remedy and publisher Rockstar eventually lead the two teams to split and for Max Payne 3 to be continually delayed. Thankfully, the release date was not a joke thistime around. Max Payne 3 is out and it delivers on the famed action, while providing a dark story sure to satisfy fans of the series.

The game picks up several years after the end of the last game. Max has fallen into a deep hole in his life and the only way to get out is to take on a private security job in Sao Paulo, Brazil. As one would expect, the 8-10 hour story has its share of backstabbing and vendettas, all narrated by Max himself in classic film noire fashion. While the writing is as strong as ever, the game switches between bad guys too quickly near the end of the game. By the time the person who you are really after is revealed, there isn’t that strong a connection or hatred for them considering they weren’t even important earlier in the game. Nonetheless, Max’s constant monologuing and heavy handed use of metaphors is much better penned than before, characterizing him as a much more cynical, yet likable character than in earlier games. His remarks are actually witty and longtime fans of the series are likely to chuckle when they hear Max’s comments on techno music or Facebook statuses. While the story does get needlessly complicated near the end game, Max’s reasons for mass murder are always clear and it delivers a satisfying conclusion to this new chapter in his life.

Either way, as it was in both games before hand, the meat and potatoes of the experience lies in the ridiculous gunplay. Rockstar has implemented a cover system to the game, leading to a more tactical approach than before. The patented Bullet Time system is back, allowing Max to fall into a trance where he is faster than his enemies and has the ability to dodge bullets with ease. Every bullet is individually modeled, leading to a much higher level of realism to this unrealistic mechanic. Unfortunately, the difficulty within the game cancels out some of the overpowering action many fans are used to. Enemies take cover intelligently and have deadly aim, even from long distance. Not to mention that near the end of the game most bad guys will be covering every inch of their body in body armor, turning them into frustrating bullet sponges. While bullet dodging out of cover and through a window is as awesome as it ever was, when it is over you find yourself awkwardly laying on the floor and struggling to get up with a middle aged groan as bullets smack you across the face. Throw in the fact that your health does not regenerate and you need to be in constant search for painkillers and it can seem unfair at times. It is a problem of new meets old that can hold the game back. Enemies have gotten smarter, and the reckless style of play so suited for this kind of game just does not fly anymore.

Yet, when breaking down the mechanics of the action, it is a beautifully made game. The transitions between animations are extremely smooth, such as when you are left on the ground after a bullet dodge and can rain hell on your enemies. Despite the sometimes frustrating painkiller health system, the game finds ways around it with style. If you have a painkiller on you when you are fatally shot, the game will slow down into Bullet Time and direct your aim towards the guilty goon. If you dispatch him then Max will take the painkiller and give you a second breath of health.

Max Payne 3 is powered by Rockstar’s Euphoria physics engine that mixes Havok-style physics with artificial intelligence. This makes empting a clip on someone more realistic than in any other game in recent memory. Add in the fact that bullets damage enemies without censor, making an entry wound that quickly fills with blood and stains anything it touches, and killing someone in Max Payne 3 looks alarmingly close to the real thing. While the game is not the best looking around, the small details are what sell you on the package. Painkillers will not just be littered around the level, you will have to look for them in logical places such as bathrooms and behind some depressed secretary’s desk. Even the fact that every weapon Max is carrying is shown on his person, and when you reload a side arm he will stick the two handed weapon in between his chest and arm so that it won’t fall on the ground, is enough to convince you of the attention to detail Rockstar has put into this. Cutscenes are all done on the game engine and will often lead directly into gameplay, never taking you out of the experience. Max is suffering from a heavy drug addiction and the game will use some distortion effect in the cutscenes to remind you of that. It can get old quickly, but it successfully captures just how out of whack Max’s life is.

In a first for the series, Rockstar has added a full multiplayer suite with a dozen different game modes and fully integrated character customization. Standard modes such as deathmatch and king of the hill serve their purpose but the real bones of the experience lies with the Gang Wars mode. Players are sorted into teams and dropped into scenes ripped from the single player story. The game mode is always random but it will evolve according to who won the last match, linking together each round with cutscenes and voice over. There are five rounds in each match and the variety of game modes makes this some of the most fun you can have with the game. Bullet time is integrated beautifully into the experience. When you activate it any player in your line of sight will slow down until they break that line of sight. This goes without mentioning the implementation of Bursts (read: COD perks) as little additions to your arsenal. Each burst has 3 levels that you build up the same as you would Bullet Time. If you hold off from using it, and can stay alive, long enough to reach level 3 then the payoff is more than worth the wait. Overall, the multiplayer suite is fully stocked and has just as much attention put into it as the single player story.

Blast Factor: What is probably Max Payne 3’s biggest problem is that it does not always feel like a Max Payne game. You will often be forced into cover and have to pick off enemies like in Gears of War or Uncharted. While there is nothing wrong with this, it is sure to strike a nerve for fans that have been waiting years for this sequel. Nonetheless, when it does feel and play like it should, the experience is bar none some of the best action you can find in a game this year. Throw in the fantastic multiplayer offering and the return of the high scoring arcade mode and the game comes stocked with quality features. Much like Max himself, this game can stumble out of the gate and many of its mechanics have not aged gracefully, but at the end of the night, it is one hell of a good time to hang out with.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I was a good attempt at giving players a continuation of the original Genesis titles, but its wonky physics and gimmicky stages kept it from achieving true potential. It looked like a classic 2D Sonic game, but the game lacked that special essence that made its 16-bit predecessors so much fun. Luckily, Episode II is the better of the two installments and gives fans a Sonic they’re more familiar with, even if does come with a few misses.

One of the biggest additions to Episode II is the inclusion of Tails, who now brings two-player co-op to the table. Like in the classic games, Tails can pick up and fly Sonic to places he can’t reach for a short amount of time, but players have a lot more control over him this time. By simply pressing a button, the action will pause, and Tails will teleport to where Sonic is and help him out. I found this too convenient sometimes because while it gets you out of sticky situations right away, after a while, it becomes too easy to press a button and save Sonic from a misstep. Tails and Sonic also have another combo ability that turns them into a giant ball, faster and stronger than the average spindash. The duo will always be joined by one another, so levels integrate these two abilities in unique ways that create a different experience. The game may feel like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but this is a new game, after all.

Co-op mode lets two people play together offline or online, but it does come across a few problems, one of them due to the game’s fast-paced action. If you fall behind your friend, the game will respawn you right behind him, but you’ll need to press a button to pop out of your protective “bubble” like in New Super Mario Bros. The problem here, though, is that this happens a lot when going down slopes or slides, even when you don’t intend to leave someone behind. Another thing I noticed is that the person playing as Tails will have an advantage and can easily exploit certain situations by flying; this is especially evident during boss fights. Let’s just say, playing with someone else is easier than playing solo.

Controlling Sonic and dashing through the many colorful worlds feels quite good. Episode I’s physics engine has been overhauled, and the blue hedgehog runs a bit more like he did back during his Genesis years. Sonic’s homing attack is back, but aiming feels more accurate and is easier to pull off. He is also less shiny and doesn’t look out-of-place amid his colorful backdrops, which have layered textures that often give the game a great pseudo 3D effect. Considering the game is supposed to feel like Sonic 2, it’s great that controls and graphics don’t distract you from the game’s speed, a problem that often plagued Episode I.

Stages, too, are a lot more reminiscent of the original games and are designed to keep you always in motion. While it’s a bit apparent that the themes of past stages have been recycled into “new” zones – expect to see a sky fortress and a snowy amusement park, for example – the game does have its unique charm that is complemented by its soundtrack reminiscent of Sonic’s 16-bit days. There is, however, one section of an underwater level that requires you to swim past enemies that freeze the way forward. If you’re too slow or your aiming is off, you’ll be blocked from all sides, and all you can do is wait until Sonic and Tails drown to try again. Frustrated, I tried (in vain) to find a solution, and can only wonder why the developers wouldn’t provide one that doesn’t require losing a life.

Like classic Sonic titles, Episode II is great the first time you play it, but you may question playing through it several times. To extend playtime even further, the game includes chaos emeralds and red rings to collect in each act. As expected, collecting these emeralds lets you turn into Super Sonic, but it doesn’t really affect the game’s ending that much. Also, while finding each act’s red ring is supposed to provide a challenge, they are simply in areas you’ll explore anyway, and their presence simply serves to unlock an achievement. The developers did include a score attack and time trial mode for each act, so players can at least compete with each other via the game’s leaderboards.

While I didn’t particularly enjoy Episode I that much, Episode II rewards players who played the first game and unlocks Episode I stages playable as Metal Sonic. This feels almost like an apologetic thank you to fans that played through the first game, but this expansion gives you some backstory to the character and lets you play through the first game in a whole new way. Plus, it’s great to see Sega implement a similar lock-on technology it did back when Sonic & Knuckles came out.

Episode II has some obvious gameplay issues and provides a lackluster ending, but the experience playing through each stage is very nostalgic of the fun I had playing through the Genesis games. I also appreciate the improvements the developers made to the game and that they listened to and fixed what fans disliked about the first one. At this rate, let’s hope Episode III is made and becomes something truly worth raving about.

Sniping games seem to form their own sub-genre in the crowded first person market. From the disastrous Sniper:Ghost Warrior to the original Sniper Elite, it is a genre that does not seem to have too many supporters. Nonetheless, Rebellion Software has seen it fit to revive it’s cult classic series and bring it to the next generation. Unfortunately, despite the shiny new coat of paint, the game suffers  from a major identity crisis, leading the once promising series deep into the path of mediocrity. Sniper Elite V2 acts as a sort of “revamp” for the original game.

Once again, you take control of American OSS agent Karl Fairburne who has been sent deep into war torn Berlin in 1945 to single-handedly stop the German nuclear secrets from getting into Soviet hands. Predictably, the story has you track down the most evil fictional Nazi’s ever imagined, complete with scars and ugly snarls. There are no notable secondary characters and you are literally alone during every mission. The roughly six hour story does not do enough to satisfy any narrative nerve and only drives this game deeper into the mediocrity hole. The main problem with Sniper Elite V2 is that it completely misses the point of what a sniper game should be. Instead of creating a decent stealth game with some cool sniping opportunities, the game forces you to engage all enemies in the room in order to continue.

The average level will involve some sort of artificial hallway, be it a bombed out street in Berlin or a V2 rocket facility, littered with enemies and a sniper or two perched in a building. You would think that the best approach would be  to sneak your way around the patrol, by either not being noticed or quietly picking out enemies. However, the linearity of the game prevents you from taking any other routes other than where the patrol is. You cannot traverse through broken down buildings and flank you enemy, you cannot sneak your way into a sniper’s nest, or even find any alternate routes to your objectives. Sneaking past the patrols is out of the question since the enemy snipers are guaranteed to see you  and shooting them will get the attention of every enemy in the area. There are times where background noise can be used to cover the sound of your shot, but it is few and far between. The game is built so you have to become a one man army and dispatch all of the enemies as quickly as possible.

Now, to say that a game fails at one thing does not mean that it does not succeed at another. You would think that when taking away the useless stealth, Sniper Elive V2 would be a half decent action game, but it even fails at that. Bullets are realistically impacted by gravity and wind meaning lining up a shot can be more difficult than anticipated. There is a focus system that is activated by how calm the sniper’s heartbeat is, meaning that is you were sprinting to knee high wall you are using as cover you will have to wait a minute to have a super slowdown effect. One of the few redeeming features of Sniper Elite V2 are the gruesome killcams that follow the trajectory of your bullet and show an x-ray effect as it breaks bone and  pierces internal organs. It rarely gets old and can bring about a few macabre chuckles.

Not everything in Sniper Elite V2 is horrible. There are a few cool features in place that make setting up a good shot enjoyable. If you wound an enemy they will lay on the ground screaming for help until another enemy comes by and helps them up, in which case you can finish him as well. The game encourages you to lay traps, such as using a trip mine on a door or setting a landmine on a dead body, in order to make your escape easier. However, the game will often make you escape through a different path than the one you came from, making any premeditation useless.

The amount of complaints toward this game keep stacking up. There is no Nazi swastika in the game for whatever reason, making the red and black flags in its place stand out like a sore thumb. The graphics do not fare well, with character models in the Xbox 360 version looking like Ken dolls and a horrible draw distance that makes one wonder why Rebllion used such a limited engine for a game that requires a good draw distance. To add insult to injury, the enemy AI did not graduate from kindergarten, leading them to get stuck behind walls and unable to notice you when you are right next to them. Even more annoying is the fact that they seem to have ridiculously good aim while blindly shooting a fully automatic machine gun from behind cover, hitting you in the face when you are 500 meters away in a watchtower.

To put it simply, Sniper Elite V2 is a broken game. There are cool ideas in place but the game containing them is a waste of time. The poor game design completely misses the point of a sniper game and manages to make this a painful exercise in patience.

Starhawk is one of those games where a lot could have gone wrong. The developers at Lightbox Interactive and Sony Santa Monica were quite ambitious and tried to incorporate a ton of different environments, genres and mechanics — normally a recipe for failure, but not here. Starhawk works — and it works well; even when it shouldn’t.

Dripping with style, Starhawk is an absolute joy to get and cause some chaos with. Of course, it does have its drawbacks like a short campaign and some slight graphical issues, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying one of this year’s first truly great games.

Starhawk places players in the futuristic boots of rifter, Emmet Graves. In the distant future, rifters are humans who scavenge a series of planets, known as The Frontier for a precious yet dangerous resource known as rift energy. Of course, things can’t be that easy — the rifter’s way of life is threatened by the Outcasts, a group of humans mutated by the same rift energy everyone else is searching for.

The first hour or so into Starhawk, I was trying to figure out why the game felt so familiar, then it hit me. I’m this rogue character, scrounging for resources and trying to get myself out of trouble with corporations and enemies, only to jump into my dodgy craft and try to avoid my pursuers in a dog fight — I’m practically Han Solo. I just need a wookie. Starhawk drips with style and the mix of wild west steampunk and space combat is a unique setting that’s incredibly cool and fun to explore.

One of the major reasons Starhawk works so well is just how seamlessly everything blends together. In a typical battle, you’re likely to shoot out a ton of enemies, and then jump into your mech which can instantly transform into a flying ship so you can dogfight in space. This all happens nearly seamlessly, and there’s hardly any slowdown. It becomes incredibly cool and rewarding to move so quickly in between sections of the game. It also makes a good portion of the battles a lot more epic, as you’re often chasing the same group of enemies from land into space.

Starhawk isn’t just another action game though, the game features a number of mechanics from other genres, including strategy and tower defense. The biggest example of this is the game’s structure building system, which plays an integral part in the game’s core structure. You create everything from simple walls, to gates and even entire armories. Once the game tells you how to build them, you’re free to use them practically anyway you want in battle. The best part of all this is that building these structures requires them to fall down from the sky, and it’s an incredibly cool moment when you time it just right and it falls directly onto enemies.

As well animated and voiced as it is, Starhawk’s campaign is simply a primer for the game’s intense 32-person multiplayer suite, and it’s a primer you’re going to want to take. The game’s multiplayer suite requires your knowledge of each of the game’s mechanics to be successful. It may be a bit stressful at first, but the payoff involves some of the coolest moments I’ve had with a game in a long time. There are so many ways to take out your opponents, and games end up getting personal and find you going from ground to space all in search of your rival.

The Blast Factor: There could have been a million ways to screw up Starhawk, but, thankfully, Sony Santa Monica did a great job avoiding many of these pitfalls. What they’ve created is a fun, chaotic mix of genres that’s easy to fall in love with and hard to put down. Starhawk is simply a must own for PS3 owners.

Let’s compare the Mario Tennis series to, well, a game of tennis. While the rules are the same regardless of what match you play, you won’t always be playing on the same court or against the same opponent. Mario Power Tennis, for example, introduced gimmicky features that were more harmful than helpful, but the game’s familiar controls were still there. Going back to their roots, Camelot and Nintendo have once again joined forces to give players a great tennis title, but they might have stripped it down a little too much.

Mario Tennis Open’s new control system is perhaps the best in the series. While its predecessor emphasized the Power Shot that was flashy but often distracting, the shooting seen here is much more toned down and a lot more sophisticated. The different face buttons on the 3DS each correspond to a specific shot – slices are performed with B, topspin with A, lobs require you to press A then B, and so forth – and they also correspond to a colored panel on the touchscreen. During a match, the space where a ball is heading will sometimes flash one of these colors indicating that a Chance Shot can be performed. If you hold or tap the correct button or panel, your shot will be powered up and exaggerated, making it difficult for the opponent to predict where it’s going and also stunning him if he manages to hit the ball. You don’t always have to activate a Chance Shot or match the shot with the colored space that appears on the court, so this also adds a level of strategy to the game, letting you mix up your offense to keep your opponent guessing.

Chance Shots offer a balanced addition to the traditional game of tennis, and their presence doesn’t overpower any particular character either. You still need to rely on your own skills to win matches, but each character also has his or her own unique characteristics like in past games. Balls hit by tricky characters like Boo and Bowser Jr. will have unpredictable trajectories, and Power characters like DK and Bowser have two of the strongest serves in the game.

Your own Mii characters also can partake in matches and be dressed up in various costumes and gear that you unlock playing through the game’s Tournament mode. Each item has special properties that change your Mii’s abilities and will affect how he or she moves and shoots on the court. My main complaint is that an item’s stats are shown as a pie diagram that makes it difficult to see how much an item differs from another unless that difference is pretty significant. I could definitely sense a difference giving my Mii a different racket, but I feel like this Creation mode is mostly there for players who care more about what their Miis will look like instead of how they will play.

When not busy fidgeting with their Mii’s wardrobe, players can compete in Singles and Doubles Tournaments that each consists of eight different cups with three matches apiece. The first few matches start out ridiculously easy and take mere minutes to finish, but the final cups really do test your tennis skills. Aside from a sense of accomplishment, you don’t get much for winning every cup in the game. Characters only need to beat one cup to gain the special Star status that powers up their overall abilities and grants them access to the game’s four final cups, so the only real reason you’d replay Tournament mode is to collect the over 200 pieces of equipment the game offers.

If you don’t plan on using your Mii in a match, there’s really no reason to care about these items. Also, just because you unlock an item in Tournament mode doesn’t mean you automatically own it. Rackets cost money, and the only way to earn coins is to play through the other two modes the game offers: Exhibition and Special Games mode. Exhibition mode is essentially a free play mode that lets players decide on the difficulty of their opponents and the length of their games.

Special Games mode, however, is a lot more fun than the ones seen in past Mario Tennis titles. Games like Ring Shot test your speed and aiming skills outside a traditional game of tennis, and clearing through their four different difficulty modes unlocks hidden characters like Baby Peach and Dry Bowser – so again you may ask what the point of playing through Tournament mode was. Two of my favorites include Ink Showdown that has you returning balls and globs of ink and Galaxy Rally, a game that has you keeping a rally going while avoiding disappearing platforms on the opposite side of the court. I was also very impressed with Super Mario Tennis and how it blends tennis controls with Mario’s classic side scrolling adventure.

Likewise, there is nothing like playing an intense final match and hearing orchestrated music blaring from your speakers. It’s these added touches – even the crisp 3D graphics –that truly make the game a joy to play on the 3DS. The game also offers a Dynamic View mode that lets you tilt your handheld to give you a behind-the-shoulder camera angle with gyro controls. This optional mode also makes your character automatically head towards the ball, so it’s definitely geared towards beginners and younger players. Open also has a Street Pass feature that lets you play a game of Ring Shot or a quick match against players that you run into. More characters will also be available to download via QR code scanning, further capitalizing on all the features the 3DS has to offer.

Like its predecessors, Open is also a multiplayer game. Local matches fortunately only need one game cartridge, and give up to four players the chance to play together and select from a full roster of characters. You can also play with your Friend List buddies over Wi-Fi, or search for random players too taking advantage of the same Nintendo Network that launched with Mario Kart 7, but the lack of a Community mode makes Open’s online offerings a lot less impressive. There is a monthly leaderboard that tracks your ranking, and you get medals for every opponent you defeat. I experienced next to no lag during most of my matches, and since the game pairs you up with equally skilled opponents – I assume determined by the medals they have – in your region, lag shouldn’t be a problem most of the time. Matches are short, so the game’s online experience may be fun, but it’s also rather brief.

What you get when you combine the various characters with the game’s user-friendly controls is a very polished game, but it’s a shame there’s not enough content on the actual cartridge to make the most of all these great additions. I spent almost 15 hours completing the game, unlocking all characters, and giving most of them Star status, but I started wondering what else I could do aside from collecting shirts for my Mii. Online matches are great, but are over too quickly. Don’t get me wrong – Open is a lot of fun, but I just wish there was more to the game than just increasing your Mii’s wardrobe.

Notch’s wacky world-building adventure has finally arrived on the Xbox 360, bringing sprawling open worlds, hissing anthropomorphic time bombs, and a menagerie of other beasts to a brand new audience with cooperative play, leaderboards, and a bevy of features that should delight fans, both new and old.

Bringing Minecraft to consoles was certainly a fantastic move — functions that may have seemed difficult to understand for new players before or gamers primarily enjoying console adventures, unfamiliar with PC controls, have been optimized and simplified for console play.

Both creating worlds and exploring them feels natural and much like the sandbox-adventure game hybrid was built for the console in the first place. Whereas Minecraft on PC was quite often an intimidating and confusing experience — asking friends for help, viewing YouTube tutorials, etc. was usually a given if you wanted to progress. The XBLA edition is a quicker, more streamlined beginning with tutorials, helpful toolbars, and plenty of assistance to get things rolling.

From there, it’s easy to predict the backlash: seasoned crafters will claim this port is simply a “watered-down” copy, when that couldn’t be further from the truth.

You’re still able to choose which difficulty you’d like to submit yourself to, as well as variables that will determine the type of terrain rolled for your brand new adventure. The rules are still clear — as clear as they can be, anyway: keep safe from the various beasties that roam the landscape at night, and survive. All other rules and objectives come from you. If you wish to build an industrious empire that exists solely on a diet of pork and occasional delicacies, that’s your prerogative.  If it’s your goal in the world of Minecraft to create a gigantic slot machine powered by pigs, you can do that too.

For those with less “interesting” ambitions, living to survive is the basest of options, eventually culminating (if you choose) in a battle within the Ender to rival all previous scuffles. The world is literally yours to shape as you see fit. There’s no option now for creative mode, in which there’s no pressure to stay alive, but the main mode of play can still act as such, if difficulty is set to “peaceful.” Monsters won’t populate, and you’ll still be free to roam, build, and destroy as you see fit.

The only limits to what you can create are those you set for yourself. You can chop down trees for wood, shear sheep for their wool, mine for ore, and even reshape entire islands around your own personal whims. With the Xbox Live Arcade version, you needn’t even rely on guesswork.

Say you gather plenty of wood and cobblestone but aren’t sure of what you can do with it. An entire network of submenus is available that automatically lets you know which materials are needed for, say, a sword or a pick axe, out of the items in your inventory — even a crafting table, if you haven’t built it already, and it will be crafted for you. It’s a much simpler and less tedious process than stopping to consult a Minecraft wiki on creation and allows more time to assemble shelter and some semblance of a plan for survival. All potential options of possible equipment are laid out for you.

You know what you ned and what you want to work toward, giving you more time to explore and establish your own settlement. While it does, in essence, remove some of the trial-and-error exploration and pioneering veteran players were subjected to, in an avenue like Xbox Live Arcade where the focus has been shifted to accommodate new players and multiplayer sessions, who wouldn’t want to spend less time tooling around, confused, when they could be double-teaming creepers and Endermen?

But even still, it isn’t a perfect beast — there is still a fair amount of solo exploration and tinkering required before all the puzzle pieces start falling into place. You’ll likely still need to consult one of the many online Minecraft resources for ideas on what to try next, where to go, or how to react in certain situations. With all the assistance available, there could even stand to be more, coming from personal difficulties when getting started in the PC edition. A primer on what type of shelter best suits your needs or what certain beasts are capable of would have been welcome additions.

But the built-in toolbars and tips go a long way to make any player comfortable, and so does the interface. All, barring content (villages aren’t found in-game, as well as other Minecraftian content pieces,) is as it is in the PC version, save for some unusually sluggish rendering of blocks off in the distance. In a way, this port feels a bit more comfortable, like a modern Wolfenstein or similar game in terms of visuals. Camera work is smooth, as well placing blocks (mapped to the triggers) — it feels effortless. There’s the simple pleasure of not having to turn down the graphics to accommodate your laptop or older PC. Everything just works, and swimmingly.

So too does local cooperative and online play. It’s an absolute blast to erect new civilizations, power through stubborn rock, and team up on pesky monsters with a friend, as easy as inviting another Xbox Live user to play, or hooking up an additional controller. Local couch co-op with my father was particularly intriguing — something I hadn’t yet been able to try, and an absolute hoot. The situations that arise when tossing in another player to the equation always serve to improve the experience. You may have seen all there is to see in Minecraft before, but it’s always new again with friends involved, something this port does quite well.

This enhanced port may be devoid of some of the newer patched-in features (there’s more to come, the hints on the loading screens proclaim) and is intended to satisfy both new and old players, but it’s an excellent and full-featured version of Mojang’s smash hit that deserves all the praise its big brother gets, if not more, for bringing the phenomenon to a wider audience. Hopefully this means bigger and better things for the game in the future — and more for console players as well. Long live Minecraft!

Hell is about to break loose yet again as the action RPG, Diablo 3, brings evil back  when it launches May 15. Need the lowdown on this game? We’ve got veterans and newbies covered — here’s a rundown of what’s new, what’s still the same, and why the threequel is well worth the $60  price.

What’s New

• Online Required. Yes, you need to be connected to the Internet to play the game, even for single- player campaigns. If you have a slow or intermittent connection, then it might be time to consider an upgrade before running Diablo 3.
• Five distinct classes. You can choose between the Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor or Wizard. To sum up their playstyles — the Barbarian and Monk are close combat specialists, the Demon Hunter is a marksman and trap expert, while the Witch Doctor and Wizard are squishy but devastating
  casters. Each class uses a different resource (no longer Mana for everyone), wears three class-specific equipment, and has a distinct storyline.
• More convenient loot runs. Diablo 3 is an addictive item collection game. Hundreds of hours are spent killing demons to collect rare weapons and equipment, but this time Blizzard has made hauling back loot easier and more convenient.
• Bye Deckard Cain, hello Leah. You’ve seen the trailers. Deckard Cain is presumed dead when a falling star crashes into his home. Her niece Leah takes up his mantle as your trusty lore guide. So what will happen to our unidentified items? This function has been integrated into the inventory system, so no
  need to worry on how the Last Horadrim’s exit will affect your gameplay.
• Crafting. Aside from item looting, Diablo 3 now allows full-blown item crafting. Basically, the junk items you loot can be salvaged and used to make new items via special artisan NPCs — the blacksmith for weapons, armor and accessories; and the jeweler for gem sockets and upgrades.
• Auction house. Diablo 2 players know how rampant third-party buying for gear and runes became in the game. Time-starved players simply didn’t have time to farm the best items, so they instead bought them via the shady gray market. Blizzard changes all that with a new legit auction house system
  that allows players to buy and sell loot between each other. Of course, Blizzard takes a small cut in all transactions.
• Inferno difficulty. For the truly hardcore, Inferno offers a difficulty mode like no other. It’s the ultimate challenge after Normal, Nightmare and Hell modes, with mobs and bosses set at a higher level than you.

What’s Still the Same

• Hack-and-slash grind. Diablo 3 is setting up to be the same — if not more — of a time sink than its predecessors. If you’re looking for a game that can be completed in a weekend, or something that offers a variety of gameplay, then move on because Diablo 3 is anything but those.
• Dark, mature setting. No watered down kiddy themes here. Diablo 3 continues with the twisted and often blood-spattered premise of a world besieged by demons. The situation in Sanctuary grows even more dire and desperate, with your hero only one of the few standing between humanity’s survival and its annihilation.

Why It’s Worth It

• Campaign longevity and re-play value. Diablo 3 will keep you entertained for years to come. Its content is single-player campaigns are sprawling and easily take up 100 hours per class, and that’s not even scratching the higher difficulty modes, team play and PvP arena play.
• Bigger, badder bosses. Screen-wide behemoths will appear more often, making fights feel and look more epic.
• Explore the greater Sanctuary. The first two Diablo games only showed us a sliver of Sanctuary, and restricted us to a handful of locales. Diablo 3 opens up the world to the lands only hinted at before, from the wizard homeland of Xiansai to the lost city of Ureh.
• Star-studded heaven and hell cast. Call us fanboys, but the confirmation that Archangel Imperius and Diablo will both appear in-game has us pumped. Developers also said that plenty of new characters will be introduced, obviously to address criticism that only a handful of characters really stand out in the franchise (as compared to other Blizzard titles like World of Warcraft and StarCraft).

We hope this overview gives you a rough idea of what to expect in Diablo 3. Do you have anything to add? Chime in at the comments. Our Diablo 3 review will be coming out very soon, and we won’t be pulling any punches.

Any PC gamer out there can tell you that multiplayer online battle arena games are taking the online gaming scene by storm. In just the past year, giants like League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients have seen favorable success with players eager to experience their fusion of RPG and competitive real time strategy mechanics. Console players, however, have yet to get a title that lets them experience what this hype is all about. That is, until now.

Despite being an obvious portmanteau, Awesomenauts is also a blend of different elements that lets it work effectively on consoles. Instead of teams of five, you get teams of three. Instead of an overhead map, you get a 2D scrolling arena. While at first glance it may seem the game is a watered down version of the other MOBA games out there, players need to realize Awesomenauts isn’t trying to emulate the big boys on the PC. It’s simply trying to give console players a taste of what a MOBA game feels like. And, boy is it tasty.

The game offers both online and split-screen matches and also lets up to three local players take on another team online. Matches consist of two teams of three trying to take down their enemy’s base while also defending theirs from attack. Each team has its own set of powerful turrets that also provide barriers for the other team, so once these turrets are down, the opposing team can easily waltz into an enemy base and take it down. Each team is also assisted by friendly bots that are constantly making their way to each turret, but without the help of the Awesomenauts, they will quickly get shot down.

A lot of the game’s charm comes from its colorful cast – the Awesomenauts themselves. While the core of the game consists of winning as many matches as you can, there isn’t much room for character development. This didn’t stop Ronimo Games from giving each Awesomenaut his own personality, clearly evident after watching the opening cutscene and listening to their witty lines of dialogue during matches. Each character even has his own unique theme song that plays when you select him, and like any MOBA title, each one has his own unique bag of tricks.

During matches, your characters can pick up in-game currency called Solar that lets them purchase power-ups and abilities. Everyone starts with the bare minimum, and as matches progress, the more Solar a character picks up, the more powerful he can become. Before a match begins, you can change the loadout of your characters, furthering creating an element of strategy to the abilities you choose to upgrade. Sheriff Lonestar, for example, has both a dynamite throw attack that does splash damage and a ramming bull attack that helps clear the area by pushing enemies away. You can choose to level up both of these to give you a well-rounded character or focus on one to prioritize your role on your team. These simple choices make each gameplay session a unique experience since players can customize their characters to their liking.

Starting a match in Awesomenauts is also a painless procedure, and the game never lets you wait to get into a match. If a match doesn’t have enough human players, the computer will control any remaining teammates and continue to search for incoming players. These bots actually do a pretty good job, and I often found myself in hot water after underestimating them. Players who start a match already in progress are given extra Solar to catch up to everyone else. While I did like the ease in starting a match, I wish there had been an option to let players wait until they had a full team of people as I often ended up in matches that were close to finishing and on teams nearing defeat.

Every match you play through, even the ones you lose, will get you experience points that levels up your Awesomenauts account and unlocks more characters and abilities to buy during matches. The game starts you off with three characters, but three more elaborate classes such as the tank and healer get unlocked later on. I found that because of this, lower leveled teams may be at a disadvantage. Maybe this is why even a loss gets you lots of experience points. Of course, your account’s level has nothing to do with your in-game level that always resets with each match, so even if you’ve maxed out your experience points, you still need to use your plethora of abilities effectively to win.

Players can jump, shoot in eight directions, and do things you normally don’t do in other MOBA titles, so Awesomenauts may look more like a 2D platformer than a game like League of Legends, but Ronimo’s approach to creating a MOBA experience on the consoles actually works. Some matches can last up to thirty minutes, and are as engaging and addicting as those in other PC titles. The success of an online game is also measured by how big its online community is, and because the game is accessible to even the most casual of console gamers out there and because Ronimo plans to release more content and characters in the future, I’d say the fun won’t be over anytime soon.

Pirates, swashbuckling, and RPGs, oh my! Aside from robots, zombies, dinosaurs, and all the other stereotypical “awesome” monsters joining forces to create the penultimate side-scrolling beat-’em-up, an open world RPG following the exploits of those who sail the high seas is one of the better ideas anyone could come up with. Enter Risen 2: Dark Waters, one of the first games of its kind since Redguard tested the waters. Piranha Bytes’ sequel to the 2009 RPG is an ambitious one, approaching a familiar genre and a road less traveled. But when you look past the tropical veneer and sea foam clouding your vision, is Risen 2: Dark Waters really the lost treasure gamers have been looking for?

There’s certainly much here to celebrate – if you picked up the first game, you’ll notice an immediate improvement in both tone and aesthetics. Right off the bat, Risen 2 is mysterious and gripping. It’s as if your secret pirate fantasies have come to life in the form of the perfect fan-servicing interactive adventure – you’ll dig where “X” marks the spot, recruit fellow pirates for your crew, Unfortunately, it’s not exactly accessible – or intuitive. There’s plenty of potential here, squandered fruitlessly on some rather bizarre design decisions that both directly and indirectly affect the player. And then thewalls come tumbling down.

A quick tutorial ensues after the scene is set at the port of Caldera. As a fellow member of the Spanish Inquisition, you’re tasked with offing a bevy of malicious sea monsters that have been threatening the safety of arriving ships. You’ve only just arrived and have been assigned a life-or-death mission to carry out. It’s too bad then, that the hero of our story is rather ill-equipped to stand up to the woes of the sea. On his search for the pirate legend Steelbeard (who may well have a way to vanquish the water-bound denizens), “Your Hero Name Here” runs into plenty of danger here and there, allies to run with, and plenty of irritating monsters that need a good felling. All good signs, and the mark of a pirate adventure that’s about to unfold in an intriguing way.

It’s after that where things slowly start to crumble. If by the first run-in with acquaintances whose painfully exaggerated gestures haven’t put you off yet (seriously, who moves around that much when speaking?), you’ll soon be puzzling over Risen 2′s core mechanics. Right off the bat you’re introduced to basic functions such as attacking, movement, and what-have-you – with more to come as you stumble along, making your way to Steelbeard and doing your best to discern what it is, exactly, you need to do in order to flesh yourself out more fully as a functioning pirate.

Earning Glory points (or experience points in pirate talk) is a bit of a process: it’s not as easy as slashing a foe to ribbons and racking up the bonuses. You need to spend it in order to up specific stats – say, you want to raise your Cunning skill. That requires strategic usage and spending of Glory points to beef up your expertise. But that’s not all. You also need gold to spend in order to attain certain skills, which isn’t always so readily available. This leads your incredibly vulnerable avatar susceptible to death by even the demonic-looking anglerfish early in the game.

It’s not that you can never level up, either, it’s just that the game makes it difficult to do. Not only do you need gold and Glory, but specific coaches (trainers) to help you attain the skills necessary to own this particular pirate quest. And when you need to choose between what’s going to make you money and what’s going to keep you safe, it’s not always easy to make the smarter decision. Therein lies a frustrating conundrum, and not one I wanted to see through to the end. When combat is mindless and repetitive as it is, you aren’t exactly compelled to press on.

It’s funny: I could do the same things in a game like Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, or The Witcher 2, and have a blast. With Risen 2, I only ever felt as if I was performing a chore. A chore that required me to kill as many humongous spiders as possible while dancing the dance macabre – letting my health refill enough to tackle my next bounty, then repeating the cycle over and over again.

Failing the conventional RPG trappings that Risen 2 relies so heavily on, the narrative keeps the rest of the game afloat long enough for you to decide whether or not you want to see this pirating adventure through to the end. You do all the piratey things that’d make a landlubber blush. There’s intrigue. There’s a “sexy pirate” companion (par for the course for these kinds of games) and plenty of great scripted dialogue that furthers the illusion that you’re playing your favorite pirate movie in a neat way.

The Blast Factor: But stilted presentation, muted visuals (I refer back to awkward character gestures), muddy textures, and over-used combat dialogue combined with a combat system that just isn’t remarkable in any way, shape or form doesn’t exactly an epic pirate adventure make. There was much that could have been accomplished here, and at times you catch a small glimpse of greatness. With a bit more polish and care, Risen 2: Dark Waters could have knocked it out of the park. Opt for other RPGs that arrrrren’t as underwhelming.

Amoebas are very simple unicellular organisms that live in water and reproduce asexually via mitosis. Knowing these scientific facts is not necessary to enjoy Amoebattle, but it will make you appreciate the little details that make Grab Games’ real time strategy title such a joy to play. While the cutesy graphics might deter some players, trust me when I say this game is no walk in the primordial park.

In fact, despite being a DSiWare game, Amoebattle has enough depth and charm to make it rival several other RTS titles out there. As you progress through its twelve missions, the game gets more difficult as each one gives you more things to master. The first few levels hold your hand as they teach you how to control your amoebas, but the later missions mercilessly test your newly acquired skills.

Your guide in game is a humorous little robot named AMI that walks you through the basics and mission objectives. The colorful graphics and soothing music do a good job of welcoming you into the world of the amoebas, though the music sounds a bit distorted and too loud at times. You’ll be doing quite a lot of exploring in each level too, so I really liked how each song made me feel like I was on a mysterious scientific discovery – a fun one.

Controlling your amoebas is just a matter of tapping your screen. The game offers different ways to select your units either by double tapping them or by lassoing them with your stylus. You can also hold down the shoulder buttons to bring up a sub-menu that gives you more grouping options, such as the ability to save a selection to make switching between groups quicker.

In your searching and probing, you’ll discover that their little world is being threatened by a menacing infection turning these adorable-looking creatures hostile. Battle controls are also simple to pick up and require you to tap enemy units or swipe your stylus over them to attack.

As you progress through the game, you’ll expand your amoeba selection and gain new units that differ in abilities and weaknesses. Categorized as omnivore, herbivore, or carnivore, each amoeba has its own way of attacking and recovering health. All amoebas have a health meter that recovers over time and a food meter that, when full, lets one split into two. You can have up to 25 amoebas at your disposal, and it’s always a good idea to max this number out if you have the available resources to do so.

Once your amoebas engage in battle, things can get a bit hectic, especially when you have groups of enemies coming in from different parts of the map. The top screen’s mini map tells you where an attack is happening, so you can also swap screens to tap the mini map and fast travel to your destination. You can just move the D-pad and find it yourself on the main map too. Some of the more difficult missions require you to split your squad and travel back and forth between several different combat sites, so looking at the map helped me out a lot.

During these missions, I often found myself getting overwhelmed by enemies, and had to reevaluate my current team and divide them accordingly. Aside from having them reproduce, you can also mutate your amoebas into other varieties. Mutation costs power points, which also refill over time, but sometimes you’ll have to decide whether mutating or replicating is your best option. Power points further add to your strategic arsenal and let you deploy probes to distract your enemies or special attacks that can freeze or poison them.

Twelve missions may not seem like a lot, but after realizing each one can take as long as 40 minutes to finish, I started wishing they were shorter. Some missions also have you fending off an endless supply of enemies while defending a specific target and attacking their base. These, my friends, are the ones that will test your resolve and skills on the battlefield. Save often too, because if you die, you’ll have to start each one from scratch.

After hours of frustration, I realized I only had myself to blame for my series of defeats. Amoebattle offers a great RTS experience in a small package, but excels at all the things that make the genre so good. I only wish the game offered a skirmish mode or even online multiplayer to really take it to the next level. Despite its flaws, Amoebattle is a great game that might also make you reconsider a eukaryote’s entertainment potential.

Bird Mania 3D is about a little blue bird named Mojo whose friends left him behind after they decided to migrate to Africa. He’s now on a mission to catch up to them and enjoy the warm weather. That’s about all you’re going to get when it comes to a story, and the game itself repeats itself each time you die. But before your dismiss this eShop title, look at its price tag and read on.

The game is all about scoring high and quick reflexes. Using the 3DS’s Circle Pad and face buttons, you need to move Mojo up and down as he flies (scrolls) continuously on the top screen and steer him clear of obstacles like treetops, bees, and evil birds. One hit from anything will cause your little bird to fall to his doom. You can further increase your score by collecting stars in his path or by ramming into enemies with the shoulder button. Each baddie you take down increases your multiplier and the points you get. I told you scores were a big deal in this game!

That being said, I do wish the game offered online leaderboards. You are basically competing against yourself each time you get a new high-score, and while that’s okay, it would have made a lot more sense if you could see how others fared or how long they lasted. I mean, isn’t scoring what this game is all about? To remedy the lack of any online implementation, the game does offer 20 difficult achievements that will test your skills dodging trees.

Don’t take me wrong, Bird Mania 3D is a joy to play. The colorful graphics and the catchy music really let you concentrate on your session, which could end in just a few seconds if you’re too distracted. While the 3D effect is good, it hurt my eyes a little the farther into the game I got and the faster the screen started scrolling. I also found the touchscreen controls to be so much better than using the D-pad or Circle Pad, which felt a bit stiff. Sliding my stylus up and down and seeing how fluidly Mojo reacted really made guiding him a lot easier this way.

The Blast Factor: Just $1.99, Bird Mania 3D is one of the cheapest games on the eShop right now – but don’t confuse cheap for bad here. While it lacks depth (and online leaderboards,) Bird Mania 3D’s simple and addicting gameplay will inform you that some migrating birds do get left behind and that some games still care about how high you score.

It would have been almost too easy for Telltale’s The Walking Dead game to be a major disappointment. The zombie genre is of course overdone, and the once-proud developer has had a string of so-so releases in the past few years (I’m looking at you Jurassic Park: The Game). Yes, it would have been easy to make The Walking Dead another shoot first and ask questions later type of game, but thankfully Telltale has captured the spirit of the franchise and given us a poignant and almost touching tale of human desperation under the veil of a zombie apocalypse. It may not be perfect — in fact, there’s some very distinct problems lying here, but Telltale’s zombie soap opera is a return to form for not only the developer, but the genre as well.The Walking Dead tells the story not of the group of survivors we’ve all come to know, but of Lee Everett, a man being carted off to jail for a murder he either did or did not commit. As luck would have it, his trip to the big house is interrupted by a pesky zombie in the middle of the road, which sends the police cruiser he’s being driven in tumbling down a hill, killing the officer and thrusting him into a different kind of world than he was in just minutes ago. In the first episode, Lee discovers the walkers, meets some new survivors and adjusts to this new way of life — at least he tries to.

There are going to be plenty of people who are going to be disappointed that they’re not jumping into the boots of Sheriff Rick Grimes and unloading rounds into hordes of the undead, but perhaps that’s for the better. The Walking Dead aims to recapture the spirit of the original property and does a damn fine job of it. You’ll find yourself actually caring about the people you meet and the decisions you make. For example, when given the choice in games, I usually take the good guy approach, but with The Walking Dead, there were several moments when I was making decisions based purely on the emotion I was feeling rather than how I wanted the game to turn out.

This is thanks in large part to the fact that your decisions are all timed, and they’ll have less impact when you take longer to make them, meaning that you’re going to go on your first instinct more often than not. Compare this to a game like Mass Effect, where you have all the time in the world to sit and think about what you’re going to say to almost telegraph the game the way you want it. The result is a game that plays much more from the heart than the brain.

That’s not to say though that The Walking Dead doesn’t have it’s fair share of the undead, they’re just used more sparingly, which gives them much more of an impact. No, this isn’t Dead Rising, where you’ll be fighting your way through thousands of zombies, each encounter will actually mean something here. There’s a very important moment where one of your recently met survivors meets their untimely end and it actually holds a lot of weight. As opposed to the developer’s more recent games, The Walking Dead does a great job portraying action using context sensitive quicktime events, and the few zombie encounters found in episode one where great fun to play.

The original Trials game was an online phenomenon, occupying any decent procrastinator’s tab at work or school. A couple of years back, Trials HD brought the much adored franchise to Xbox 360 with enhanced graphics, realistic physics and a level of difficulty rarely seen in modern games. When Trials Evolution released last week, it broke XBLA records for most units sold in a single day. The demand for the game is more than present and thankfully, the addicting gameplay that made the original so memorable is back, and it is better than ever.

Simple to pick up, impossible to master is the absolute core of the Trials series. You control a motorcycle rider on a linear path. The only thing you are allowed to do is adjust the throttle and adjust your lean forwards or backwards. The physics in play here can make or break a game, with a lucky bounce pushing you in the right angle or too much weight on one side making you slam on to the pavement. Checkpoints are gracefully placed before any obstacle on the track, letting you snap back to a safe spot instantly when you tumble off your bike.

What was arguably the only problem with Trials HD were the repetitive warehouse environments. Thankfully developer Red Lynx took that to heart and made every level in Trials Evolution stand out with unique environments. Some tracks will take place on a traditional dirt bike trail, while others will take top a mountain or into a warzone, replacing small hills with walls of explosives. This makes unlocking new levels an absolute joy. The line the rider follows will also swerve every once in a while, allowing for a new mix of challenges for new players. Throw in some sweet special levels like the 15 minute marathon that is the Gigatrack and the awesome nod to Limbo and the visual variety does not disappoint.

Multiplayer has been added in both local and online game modes. Every game mode is a variation of racing and time trials with each track being played twice in a two track “championship.” Crashes will cause you to lose points while a successful finish will earn you points depending on the position. Despite some long matchmaking times, it is a fun distraction and can be even more competitive locally.

The quirky skills circus from the last game has been expanded, this time providing ridiculous challenges such as finishing a level without letting go of the throttle and replacing your motorcycle with skis.

Another nice touch is the level editor the designers used to create the game. The basic editor lets players post tracks online for others to try, but the advanced editor lets players rewrite the script of the game, allowing for different styles of genres to be explored. Bring back Marvel Madness? Create a 3D Angry Birds? The possibilities in store are ridiculous and a strong community is sure to keep the content coming.

As far as bang for your buck, you cannot go wrong with Trials Evolution. Sixty single player levels, a fully-fledged level editor and a strong multiplayer suite are more content than some retail games offer. Trying to break gold in every level is a mad man’s task, especially when you reach the devilish “Extreme” difficulty, but the sense of progression is always present, with new gear for your bike or rider being constantly unlocked. When it comes down to it, if you ever spent time on Addictinggames.com while you were supposed to be writing a ten page paper, you owe it to yourself to get Trials Evolution.

There’s a common misconception that game reviewers love to write about terrible games, that we secretly hope for the games that you’ve put your hard earned money down on will suck so bad that we’d get to mock it viciously. To that effect, I really wanted Bloodforge, the ambitious, gory and stylish new action game for Xbox Live to be great, to set a new standard for what a downloadable title could be, but when I finally got my hands on it — it was anything but.

Bloodforge feels an awful lot like the Kim Kardashian of video games. Sure, it looks great, but once you ask it to do anything worthwhile, you realize just how disappointing it is. The camera? Terrible. The combat? Slow and clunky.  Even those visuals that should sell the game are filled with an unforgivable amount of bugs that make it Bloodforge seem like a shoddy, unfinished version of all the great third-person action games you’ve played in year’s past.

BloodForge tells the story of Crom, a once great warrior that has since thrown down his weapons in favor of a family life. When those pesky gods drag him back in, they trick him into killing his family and Crom gets all pissed off and starts cutting dudes for revenge. Your goal is to slash your way through maniacs, executioners and even the gods themselves to get your vengeance.  It’s a tale seemingly ripped directly from Sony’s God of War series; an obvious inspiration for Bloodforge, but they key difference here is that you’ll find yourself not caring about the story nearly as much as you did in the tale of Kratos. The entire time I was playing Bloodforge, I kept waiting for something to happen — anything, but it never did. The game just seems like a constant stream of enemies that spawn out of nowhere.

It’s very clear early in the game that Bloodforge takes a lot of its cues from the God of War series. Even the controls feel like they were taken from the PS3 exclusive franchise and ported over to the Xbox 360; you’ve got your strong attacks and your weak attacks, and the game even keeps track of your combos in the same manner as the game. What didn’t Climax Group and Microsoft take from Sony Santa Monica? That’s easy, the quality of the combat. I consider God of War III to be one of the most satisfying games combat wise that I’ve ever played — and Bloodforge is the exact opposite. Crom moves slow and clunky, and often gets caught in cumbersome animations that result in taking an excess amount of damage from nearby enemies. Climax Group was even bold enough to take God of War III’s Rage mode and call it Berserker mode, except here it’s just a slightly slowed down version of the game, like bullet time light.

Bloodforge’s camera system doesn’t help the game’s problems at all, as it makes the combat seem even more ineffective. Most comparable to that of Ninja Gaiden III (read the review here), the camera is set too close, so you can never get a good view of the entire battlefield. Even worse, the camera tends to swing around dramatically, and always tends to place itself in a position where you can’t even see the enemies close to you. It’s most frustrating when you’re faced with bosses that charge at your from off camera, before you can fix it, draining the majority of your life meter.

So just what does Bloodforge do right? Visually, it’s an interesting game.  The use of shadows and the inclusion of only a few colors (admittedly, there’s a lot of red for blood in the game) is reminiscent of Sin City, and adds a cool touch to the game. Even the cool visuals though are flawed, as the game is filled with bugs, like the time I was in the middle of a group of enemies and started floating to the top of the screen. I would move the stick to come down, and then I would go back up.  There’s a fair amount of screen tearing throughout the game as well.

The Blast Factor:  Bloodforge had the makings of a great Xbox Live Arcade title, but sadly it’s nothing but an unfinished mess of a game that clearly needed some more time in development. While it’s easy to compare it to games like God of War, the quality in the source material is miles ahead of what Climax Group has done here. Plain and simple — don’t play Bloodforge.

Peas may not be everyone’s favorite veggie, but the folks over at Gotta Pea hope to change that. Peakour stars a smooth-talking, pun-wielding pea named PeaG that also happens to be a parkour artist, or in this case, a “peakour” artist. Get it? Good because the puns don’t stop there. This iOS game may draw inspiration from the action-packed sport, but Peakour is actually a decent game that’s great for physics puzzle enthusiasts.

Each level requires you to place various items along PeaG’s path that will help him reach his target. After placing all your items, you then press the play button to let PeaG take over and start his parkour race. You can’t control him, so all you can do is watch and hope your item placement is correct and leads him on the right path to victory. If he fails, you can simply continue fiddling with your items until you get it right. An added challenge is to also collect three bottle caps per stage that unlock additional levels and the ability to create your own puzzles to share with friends.

I found the levels in Parkour to be somewhat difficult at first because you are essentially guessing where PeaG will go before you see him in action. Luckily, you can always check out his skills list to see what he will do when he runs into a wall or a slope, for example, and you can press play before setting any items to see where he will end up going. Do this enough times, and the game losses its difficulty and simply becomes a trial-and-error experience reinforced by the fact that you only lose points the longer you take to get to your target. Because your score only determines your leaderboard standings, you might end up just focusing on getting all the bottle caps and not care about your finish time.

Another thing I noticed is that the game’s controls actually make it difficult to drag items to where you need them to go. I had to tap an item several times to finally grab it, and even then I started thinking I wasn’t actually tapping its required area on the screen. Some items are quite small on the iPhone, so successfully grabbing them is quite a challenge in itself.* Also as you may have noticed earlier, the game is chock-full of pea puns that get annoying each time the loading screen tells you to “Peas Wait” or reminds you that PeaG is a trained peafessional. It’s a game about peas. We get it.

It may be marred by unnecessary jokes and sticky controls, but Peakour manages to give you a solid experience with over 100 levels to play through and the ability to create and share your own stages. It makes for a great pick-up-and play game that’s actually pretty inexpensive for the amount of content you get. Don’t judge Peakour by its looks and frivolous jokes – this smart little game is definitely not for peabrains.

*It’s worth noting that the game’s control issues only happen on the iPhone and that the developers plan to release an update soon. 

Xbox Live Arcade is filled with ridiculous puzzle games trying to garner your hard earned dollars. It can be difficult to sift through the hundreds of games available to try and find one that will suit you. Luckily, The Splatters is quirky and imaginative enough that anyone who picks it up is likely to enjoy their time with it.

The premise is simple. You control these little blobs of jelly that are used to explode bombs placed across a single screen level. The challenge comes from the fact that you can only launch the blobs once (almost like Angry Birds) and they will not destroy the bombs unless they are “popped” by running into something sharp or hitting a surface with enough force that they explode. Once popped they turn into uncontrollable liquid, so you need to be careful where you are aiming. The liquid physics are really impressive and the game has a quirky art style that gives every aspect of it an undeniable character.

The real fun comes from trying to link together combos by breaking the different bombs in style. Dozens of combos are at your disposal, anything from a slide to make your goo travel faster and further to a special move called the flip that changes the direction of every object in the world. As you progress through the game, you unlock more moves such as the air bomb that allows you to change the direction of the blob in mid-air. Mastering all of the different combinations and trying to link them together can be addicting, and the online leaderboards do not help with trying to put this game down.

Unfortunately there are only about 30 levels in the game, each taking less than 5 minutes to finish, so if you pick up on the controls and ability to link combos together quickly, you can earn every star in a couple of hours. Separate scoring modes such as combo multipliers and a unique one where you have to use specified combos to beat the level are available, but it does not make the game too much longer.

Nonetheless, for only ten dollars this is a really fun downloadable title that is sure to impress anyone with a penchant for stylish physics based puzzle games.

Diabolical Pitch first made an appearance back in 2010 with only a vague trailer and project name: Codename D. Despite the lack of information, one concrete fact was obvious: it was Grasshopper Manufacture’s brainchild. This was more than enough of a reason for potential players to get excited, as the developer has a particularly impressive track record when it comes to combining style, innovative concepts, and the ever-fleeting concept of “cool.” Now that the latest and zaniest release has finally been unleashed, does it hit a home run or swing and miss?

Step up to the plate as McAllister, a former championship baseball player who finds himself stranded in an abandoned amusement park. Having suggered a debilitating injury to his arm that keeps him away from the sport he loves, this freakish amusement park is just one more stop on the road trip to hell his life seems to have started on. However, a bizarre new acquaintance was offered him the deal of a lifetime: a special cybernetic arm that could very well give him back his career. The catch? McAllister must escape the amusement park with his life intact.

Easier said than done, of course. The eerie park is crawling with demented dolls and disturbing enemies that would like nothing more than to have your head. That’s where McAllister’s former glory as a pitcher comes in. His brand new pitching arm doesn’t so much send balls whooshing past enemies’ heads, it fires them like rockets. The typical laws of gravity and physics need not apply here — and that’s the beauty of it all. Grasshopper Manufacture sprints right past the limitations of reality and adds a delectable layer of polish and style that makes Diabolical Pitch a visual and aural treat. Only when you get to the specifics of playing the game do things falter.

McAllister can fire off fastballs to the left, straight, and to the right of the screen as you mimic a real windup and pitch via Kinect. Locking onto enemies is done with your free hand, in addition to a truly malicious headshot that’s quite destructive but damagingly time-consuming. All your bases are covered, so to speak, except for accuracy. No matter the amount of space in your open area or optimal lighting conditions, the Kinect fails to detect so many proper pitches and movements that defending yourself becomes a colossal disaster.

When you’ve missed an entire swarm of enemies (though a life-saving kick to clear your area is available to you as well) failure is practically guaranteed. Timing is everything, especially when faced with completely intimidating boss encounters and the occasional quicktime event that requires swift movements and impeccable precision. The Kinect fails to deliver this, and thus transforms what is otherwise a wholly entertaining premise into a frustrating slog.

When your pitches are on point, though, it’s easy to feel as though you’re on top of the world. After dispatching a bevy of baddies, McAllister is often afforded one of the game’s titular Diabolical Pitches as a special attack. It’s prudent to use these attacks when you’re being assaulted on all sides, though the moves’ prompting do tend to impair your vision as to the enemies approaching and what’s going on in your surroundings. They are, undoubtedly, one of the most entertaining portions of the game, especially the Dragon Ball Z fusion dance-esque poses that are required to unleash them.

You’ll look and feel ridiculous, but in a great way — little else beats some of the hilariously awkward poses (especially when playing with friends) and it quickly became a personal draw to continue playing. Unlocking Pitches is as simple as earning coins and subsequently purchasing baseball cards — you can also increase your stats and toss multipliers into the mix.

Multiplayer makes the game feel like much less of a struggle against the peripheral, and it’s great fun to double up on poses for special attacks and revives, but when the game itself lasts only a couple of hours, playing with a friend only makes the time go by quicker — assuming you aren’t fighting against the motion control the entire time.

Top-notch presentation, signature Suda51 craziness, and that over-the-top style you’re likely used to if you’re at all a fan of Grasshopper Manufacture’s catalogue of releases are fantastic selling points, but the spotty motion control mars the experience entirely.

The Blast Factor: While this arcade-styled shooter doesn’t necessarily knock one out of the park, it plays a fantastic ballgame, especially on the Kinect front as a frantic, over-the-top alternative to classics such as House of the Dead. A fresh, modern spin and a rather psychotic coat of paint makes a world of difference when applied to old-school mechanics, and it really shows. It’s unfortunate, then, that the very peripheral meant to give it life is also the same reason the game misfires. The exact science and precision of a real pitch is something the Kinect simply cannot, at this point, afford, despite the fantastic foundation provided to work with.

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.

By now you’ve probably heard all about Kinect Star Wars. You’ve heard about the delays, the Rancor..the dancing. You’ve probably also heard about how nearly everyone who’s played it has been worried that it’s going to disappoint anyone with a love for one of the world’s most beloved franchises. It can’t be that bad can it?

Yes. Yes it can

The sad news is that Kinect Star Wars is just as unimpressive as you feared it would be; in fact, it’s pretty bad. There are some wonderfully entertaining moments here, but they’re far outnumbered by frustrating control issues, terrible gameplay choices and uninspiring campaign moments. Star Wars and Kinect seem made for each other, but sadly it just plain doesn’t work.

I’ll admit that when I first popped in Kinect Star Wars, I was hopeful, Terminal Reality and Lucas Arts appeared to have found a comfortable place to tell a new story, while still fitting in with the franchise’s cannon. The game opens with C-3PO and R2D2 telling the player that Luke Skywalker has charged them with reorganizing the Jedi Library, and they find the lost story of a young Jedi master and her padawan trainees. For what it’s worth, the game does a fairly decent job leading you through the tutorial levels and into the main story.

The problem though is that the game does little to create an identity of its own and relies on new versions of your favorite (and not so favorite) Star Wars moments to fill its content and presents them as its own. Like the speeder bike chase from Return of the Jedi? It’s here…sort of. Same thing goes for the second death star attack and a few other key Star Wars moments.With all of this, you’d think Star Wars Kinect was aimed at Star Wars fans who grew up with the original trilogy, but the game is clearly made for the Clone Wars generation; awkward sounding CGI looking Yoda and all.

None of this matters though if Kinect Star Wars did what we all hoped it would, make us feel like a Jedi. You know, let us swing a lightsaber or two, force choke a few guys and perform a Jedi mind trick along the way. Instead, we get the frustration of feeling like Star Wars kid.  The vehicle sections perform well enough, but it’s the on foot sections that cause the majority of the problems. Your lightsaber is mapped to your right hand, while force powers are mapped to your right. Sounds simple enough right? Somehow Kinect Star Wars still manages to screw up your inputs all too often. Want to jump? Be prepared to dodge — right into that ditch. You may have wanted to swing your lightsaber at your opponent’s head, but the game knows that you really wanted to swing low…right where they’re blocking. Worse yet, none of the force powers feel even close to as rewarding as they should be.

What you’ll likely find most annoying about Kinect Star Wars is just how much it takes control away from the player. We’ve seen Kinect games like the Gunstringer handle on rails sections brilliantly, but Lucas Arts and Terminal Reality are insistent on not just showing the players how the game works — but taking their hand and almost walking them through it at every step. You’ll clear one section..then go through a mini movie..repeat ad nauseum and you have what the majority of the game feels like.

From a presentation standpoint, Kinect Star Wars feels incredibly unfinished more often than not. There are times when the game looks great…but there’s even more times when the characters animate funky, the frame rate drops and pieces of art just plain old disappear. We know that Kinect Star Wars was delayed more than once for polish..why didn’t they finish it?

So, let’s talk about those dancing scenes, shall we? For those who aren’t aware, the game not only features several dancing scenes, but also allows you to control some of your favorite characters, like Han Solo and Boba Fett to dance as well. Now I was ready to start out this review by completely going off about it — but you know what, they’re some of the game’s most fun moments. Yes, it’s weird to see these badass characters that I love dancing, but if you can get past that and let things go..it’s not all that bad.

The Blast Factor: It’s gotten to the point in recent years that it’s tough to take Star Wars seriously, and that actually helps Kinect Star Wars, as it’s similarly hard to take the game seriously. Yes, there are some enjoyable moments here — but they’re far outnumbered by the under-performing mechanics, shoddy presentation and missed opportunities. For all of you who have been waiting to feel like a Jedi — keep dreaming.

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.

Maybe it’s my love for Back to the Future, but I’ve always liked the idea of going back and changing things, or seeing a different side of the story. That’s what immediately drew me to Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City; the game that puts in the middle of the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3 and gives you the chance to play them from a different perspective. Early on in the playthrough though, I only wanted to go back and change one thing — the fact that I had to play this game. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is nothing but a failure. Its mechanics are broken, it’s heartless and there are almost no redeeming qualities about it. In a case of life imitating art; Operation Raccoon City often feels like the soulless, brainless horde it pits you against.

It didn’t have to be that way though — Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is built on some truly great ideas. The game takes place during the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3, but from a completely new perspective. Your job as an agent is to expose the truth about the outbreak plaguing the city, but as an employee of the Umbrella Corporation, you’re goal is to cover up the trail that leads back to your employer, by any means necessary. It’s an interesting plot, and one that reunites you with some of the series’ biggest names, and asks you to make some pretty bold choices. At least…that’s what it should have done.

ORC is void of literally any unique plot twists or feeling in general. Here’s a game that literally had its plot written for it, and all the developers had to do was write a few twists that would resonate with their already established fanbase. Playing through ORC often feels like walking through a carnival haunted house — you know deep down that you should be feeling something, but you just can’t bring yourself to care enough. Towards the end of the game, you’ll be given a few choices as to just how the game will end, and they’re endings that have dramatic effects on how the Resident Evil series would play out, but by that point in the game I was so uninterested in what was going on that I couldn’t care less if everyone suddenly died. But hey, at least the shooting is good right? Right?!

God no.

There’s no other way to describe ORC other than calling it broken. Nearly every aspect is a mess, and doesn’t work anywhere near where it should be. Take the aiming for example; it’s either way to loose or way too slow, and you’re never really sure which one it will be. There’s also no real consistency in just what it takes to down an enemy at any given time. Took out an enemy easily in the last section? Don’t count on it in the next — hell, you may have to empty an entire clip into the same enemy type — and no, it’s not a tougher version of the same enemy, it’s just that uneven of a game.

The worst part though is easily the horrid AI throughout the entire game. Enemies will literally jump in front of your squad and move around wildly, then run in a random direction. They’ll also go out of their way to get shot by your ammo for some reason. Your squadmates aren’t much better either — they’re completely unaware of their surroundings, and will do everything from run into mines, to continuously try to run into the next room..through the wall of the room you’re in now. The first rule of a squad based shooter? You damn well better be able to tolerate the squad you’re with; but ORC often feels like a Disney movie about the world’s worst soldiers, except it’s not funny, and you’re going to have to deal with them the entire time.

The game gets a bit more enjoyable when you’re playing with real live friends, since you won’t have to deal with as bad of AI, and there’s some interesting multiplayer modes that allow you to play as some of the biggest names in the franchise, but the only real enjoyment you’ll have with ORC is when you’ve ingested a ton of alcohol with your buddies, and you Mystery Science Theatre the hell out of it.

The Blast Factor: What could have been a cool offshoot story in a long established universe is nothing more than a weak attempt to wring every last dollar out of an established franchise and its fan base. As a horror game, it’s weak. As a shooter, it’s broken — and as a Resident Evil game it’s just downright embarrassing. There’s literally no reason to play this game.

Jenova Chen, co-founder of Thatgamecompany and director of Journey, thanked his fans and supporters in a PlayStation Blog post today.

His company’s third game “has officially broken PlayStation Network and PlayStation Store sales records.” It has become the fastest-selling game ever released on PlayStation Store.

“It was the players who told us how moving the game was,” says Chen, “and how it was important that we keep making these types of games so that more people in the world will realize what video games can be, and can grow to love games through our work.” To thank his fans further, he provided the following image:

If you have yet to play Journey, be prepared for the most surreal two hours of your life with a video game. Much of that is due in part to its art style and evolving soundtrack composed by Austin Wintory, which will be available on both iTunes and the PS Store on April 11. There will also be a limited CD release in the near future.

Also announced today is that the company’s co-founder Kellee Santiago has left the game’s developer. Santiago told Gamasutra that she plans to take what she learned making thatgamecompany’s three titles “and go forth and take it into new arenas.”

No news yet on where Santiago’s new “journey’ will take her.

EA Sports should take it as nothing short of divine intervention that mere hours before the release of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, the game’s much embattled cover boy won his first tournament in years; guaranteeing that  he, and thus the game will be on every news cast, sports show and gossip monger’s lips for weeks to come. Truth be told though, the game didn’t need the extra stroke of publicity luck; unlike Woods himself, his golf series has been a long standing benchmark not just in golf games (slim pickings there), but in sports games in general. Sure, if you’re an every year player, the changes may not seem that revolutionary, but the amount of detail and depth found in this year’s Tiger title makes this a must play — for most people.

The biggest addition to this year’s game is the new Total Swing Control system, which adds an incredible amount of depth to the game. You’ll still tee off with the right thumbstick, but now, speed, tempo and control are all taken into account, and actual talent comes into play. It took me quite a few times to adjust to the new control scheme, but after while, it becomes very natural and fluent. Total Swing allows for a lot of strategy, and perfecting is means dropping shots just where you want them, while struggling with it means hooking shots and bending a ton of clubs.

PGA Tour 13 also gives players freedom over just where they hit the ball, adding even more depth to an already stellar experience. Need some height? Aim your shot for the bottom of the ball. Need a line drive for distance? Aim for the middle. This combined with the Total Swing Control System makes for an incredibly deep, system that’s still fun to learn. One could make the case that it’s almost too deep, that it requires an abnormal amount of skill, that its akin to actually being skilled at the game, but PGA 13 does a great job easing you in to its more depth features in a way that it never seems like it’s too much at one time. Everything you’re doing feels like the next logical progression of what you did before it. Does that mean I was any good at it? As in my real golf game — god no.

On top of that, PGA Tour 13 does a great job taking control for players who aren’t quite catching on. Using the caddy system, you’re able have the game line up your shots, select your clubs and do just about everything from take the shot for you. The team at EA Sports has done a remarkable job taking a deep gameplay system and making it accessible for all types of gamers. Is this Hot Shots Golf accessible? No, but it’s still a big step and it will make the game playable by a lot more people.

The game also features full motion support for both platforms, and while Move support has been around for the last few years, this is the first time Kinect is fully supported by the title. It’s functional enough, and the first few times, it’s really cool to swing in real life, but it gets old, especially when you take into account how twitchy it can be. The voice control works well, I was able to change clubs on the fly and was able to ask my caddie for assistance — and it was very responsive. Just take one piece of advice for me — don’t try to use Kinect to navigate the game’s menu system. Tiger Woods always seemed like one of the most natural fits for the peripheral, and it’s good to see it implemented, even if it doesn’t always work as it should.

PGA Tour 13 is easily the best looking of the series thus far as everything looks phenomenal. As a yearly Madden player (go ahead — flame), I found myself getting jealous at how good some of the players looked in the game. How come Tiger Looks so much like Tiger, but we get an Aaron Rodgers that looks like a whacked out freak? That doesn’t compare to the courses though, which are filled with sweeping vistas and remarkable lighting effects.

Unfortunately, the new modes available in PGA tour 13 are less than stellar. There’s the Legacy Mode, which finds you recreating the career milestones of the game’s coverboy, and is very underwhelming and oddly uneven. Why am I sinking a putt on national TV before I even practice in my dad’s backyard? There aren’t any real “money moments” that are worth writing about, and my guess is that the legacy mode will be a last ditch effort for most of the game’s core players. The online suite also allows players to create their own country clubs, which will appeal to those who really enjoy the experience, but it will be lost on those who don’t. Plus, you can’t create Bushwood authentically — I tried.

The Blast Factor: Like any good golfer, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 capitalizes on its errors and accounts for them to create a complete game. It’s deep, yet accessible. It takes skill, but never loses it’s fun.  Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 is easily the best of a remarkable series. It may not be a hole in one, but its a solid birdey.

When David Lee Roth left Van Halen, it took some time for the band to hit their stride again — but we eventually warmed to Sammy Hagar. When Steve Carell left the office, it took a few episodes for the show to find the right comedic rhythm, but Dwight and Jim eventually found their place. There’s a big part of me that hopes that Team Ninja is merely trying to find their rhythm following the departure of series creator and studio frontman Tomonobu Itagaki — because as hard as this is to accept, the long awaited Ninja Gaiden 3 is nothing short of a spectacular failure.

The previous Ninja Gaiden games had a bit of a reputation — they weren’t just action games, they were action games with substance. Renown for their difficulty and depth, Team Ninja created some of the most memorable moments in recent memory — but not here. Ninja Gaiden 3 trades all of that in for cheap mechanics, and buggy, unpolished gameplay — then tops it all off with one of the worst cameras seen in a modern action game.

Ninja Gaiden 3 again places in you the shoes of the masked Ninja Ryu Hayabusa who gets a request to fight English terrorists from the Ministry of External Affairs. This leads to Ryu having to deal with an organization called The Regent of the Mask, who aims to destroy the world in seven days if every country doesn’t surrender. For what it’s worth, it’s easily the most intelligible story that the franchise has ever seen — it’s just when it goes beyond that, where we start to see the game suffer.

The problems begin early in the game, after you’ve already dispatched a ton of nameless, faceless enemies, you come across one who’s begging for his life. He’s got Kids — this is just a job! He screams at you, you back him into a semi-truck and stand there. This is where you would more than likely believe that you’d get the moral choice whether to kill the man or not — nope; you’ve got to shred him, and it’s easily one of the most uncomfortable moments I’ve played in a game.  It’s also almost a bit insulting that later on in the game, the campaign tries to tell you a moral of choice, and tells you how you’re not a murderer. Yeah, I’ve just wasted a ton of guys who were begging me to spare them — oh yeah, I’m a frickin’ saint.

It’s clear very early in the game that Team Ninja is guilty of being incredibly gluttonous with its features on as a result – -the game suffers majorly from overkill, and key among them is the inclusion of quicktime events. Now, I normally don’t mind a few quicktime events thrown into games for good measure, but it quickly becomes too much here. The main menu is a quicktime event. The main friggin’ menu! You literally have to keep hitting the buttons on the screen to advance to the game itself. In fact, there’s an almost embarrassing amount of these quicktime events within the game’s first ten minutes. Jump off that building to avoid the rockets? Quicktime! Slide down that alley? Quicktime!

By far though, the most infuriating use of these quicktime events is how often they pop up in regular. Literally every person you fight, the game will prompt a quicktime event. So yeah, it’s cool the first time to see Ryu chop off some guy’s head the first few times, but when it happens so often — it just gets in the way. There are two main attack buttons in Ninja Gaiden 3, and you’ll find yourself trying to find ways to use both of them that won’t trigger these quicktime events, but good luck. Oh, and there’s magic you can do too — but it too is the victim of overkill, as everytime..every single time that you trigger it, you’re treated to a lengthy animation that you can’t skip for any reason.

It also doesn’t help that Ninja Gaiden 3 features a remarkably broken camera that seems intent on giving you the worst possible angles in every possible situation.  Oh, you want me to slaughter those guys over there? Sure! Wait, I can’t even look at them? That’s going to be an issue. There were multiple times throughout the campaign that I kept taking damage from someone, but to find them I had to wildly swing the camera one way or another. A game’s main draw should not be this hard.

Ninja Gaiden 3 does have its moments though, like getting into a rhythm against a crowd of baddies and laying waste to them. There’s also a pretty stellar T-Rex boss battle that stands out (as long as you don’t question why it suddenly becomes mechanical halfway through the fight). None of this can save the game however, as Team Ninja has stripped the game of what made the series so fun. There’s no challenge here, and while accessibility is great — substituting challenge for a just throwing a bunch of enemies on screen at one time is not the way to go about it. Ninja Gaiden 3 lacks the personality, depth and appeal that those games that came before it did, and it’s sad.

It pains me a bit to say this, but Ninja Gaiden 3 is just short of terrible. Redeemed by a few enjoyable sections, it’s a sloppy mess of failed mechanics and additions that just plain don’t work. The game manages to strip the series of everything it’s been known for and substitutes a sub par action game in its place. Come back Itagaki..we miss you more than ever.

Sine Mora, roughly translated from Latin, means “without delay.” It’s a stark warning as to what you’re getting into, with this frenetic shoot-’em-up brought to us via Grasshopper Manufacture. It’s quite a departure from the developer’s typically raunchy style — Killer7, Flower, Sun, and Rain, and No More Heroes to name a few.

But its calm exterior and svelte presentation belie a particularly menacing bullet hell shooter that’s a delightful mixture of dieselpunk sensibilities, intriguing mechanics, and time. While you usually face off against psychopathic assassins, bloodthirsty demons, or zombie rockers as in the case of the upcoming Lollipop Chainsaw, time’s the enemy in Sine Mora. Each time the timer ticks down closer to zero, you’re closer to death.

Across a tale that unfolds via text and brief expository scenes, you investigate strange time abominations and other anomalies brought forth via the unauthorized manipulation of time. It’s your job to fly through several expansive areas using three ships and seven different pilots to safety, setting things right along the way.

You’ll excavate undersea caverns teeming with mutant worms, power through a town terrorized by a shape-shifting train rife with missiles, rocket launchers, and various arms, and gun down the opposition in the unfriendly azure skies. All of this is tied directly to each stage’s timer, which acts as your life gauge.

Sustaining damage subracts from the timer, and destroying enemies adds precious seconds. Should the timer hit zero, it’s game over, leaving you to replay the section from the previous checkpoint or beginning of the area. Luckily, an array of power-ups and shields are up for grabs to keep you afloat.

Red and blue shields are available that protect each ship (three ships with unique sub-weapons) from the seemingly unstoppable onslaught of bullets heading your direction. If you’ve played through Ikaruga, you should have an inkling as to how the respective shields offer protection from energy blasts of the same color.

Should things become too dire and skillful dodging is no longer an option, you may manipulate time by pulling the right trigger. A type of “bullet-time,” restricted via refillable meter, allows you to shift through a torrential downpour of blasts. Strategic usage may just save your life, and depending on the difficulty, is an invaluable power-up.

The action is sustained well and swells up fantastically during the game’s seven stages, spanning several challenging boss encounters and a ranking system that provides an addictive challenge. Story and Arcade modes are both viable options for an afternoon’s worth of bullet hell fun, and higher difficulties propel the game into infamously frustrating territory — a great option for fans of the genre.

But it’s clear to see where Sine Mora truly excels. Combining lush, gorgeous imagery with a palette that absolutely pops and a score from Akira Yamaoka that simultaneously disturbs and enthralls was a design decision I can certainly get behind, and surmise will quickly become one of the game’s biggest selling points.

Certain landscapes such as the first stage’s verdant mountaintops and dazzling seas are so visually arresting you wish there were an opportunity to explore via land rather by air. It’s clear that this was a labor of love, both in terms of aesthetic and auricular appeal, and the usage of striking crimsons and sapphires against otherwise nondescript, arid environments is a bold move.

It’s a shame that this beautifully presented shooter is such a short ride, however, and its story can be less than engaging at times. But at its best, it’s perfectly capable of securing a spot at the top of your list of addictive schmups. Akira Yamaoka and Grasshopper Manufacture are a dream team, and Sine Mora is a fantastic diversion, even if it is a fleeting one.

The Blast Factor: It’s a shame that this beautifully presented shooter is such a short ride, however, and its story can be less than engaging at times. But at its best, it’s perfectly capable of securing a spot at the top of your list of addictive schmups. Akira Yamaoka and Grasshopper Manufacture are a dream team, and Sine Mora is a fantastic diversion, even if it is a fleeting one.

Developed by: That Game Company
Published by: Sony
Genre: Action Adventure
Platform: PSN
Play it if: You’re looking for something different
Skip it if: You’d rather shoot stuff
3.5 out of 4 stars

By now we’ve all heard Roger Ebert’s thoughts on how games can’t be art. We’ve heard him talk about how even in this age, games will never be able to have the emotional impact that films do.I’m not going to sit here and list all of the reasons I disagree with him, or argue in any manner because I really don’t need to.

I’m just going to put it out there — Journey makes as strong of an argument against Ebert that you could ever need. It may not be for everyone, but like the best art house movies, it tells a remarkable tale in a manner that’s sure to break down barriers and be one of those games that you’re going to remember for quite some time.

Journey is the latest project by That Game Company, the studio that brought us the similarly artistic Flower. Journey places players in the role of a nameless robed figure on a quest to get to a mountain in the distance. It may sound like a simple task, but Journey takes you through almost every environment across the globe. You’ll start in the dessert, but go everywhere you could imagine in your quest. You can gain help from other players online in your playthrough of Journey — but you won’t be able to communicate with each other, nor will you even know their names.

That’s the key to what makes Journey so special — it forces you to rethink just how you play games. You come across these other robed figures and you have no idea who they are, and you’re often times forced to play with people you’ve never met before, and will likely never see again. When you do come across someone you’ve played with before (players have identifying symbols on their robes), it’s quite the experience, as it is when you’re able to help someone without the use of words or hints.

Though it has no dialogue and no traditional character development, Journey tells its story better than most modern AAA games. Throughout Journey, you’ll cheer as your character takes flight, you’ll wince as your character stumbles and you’ll feel real emotion as you say goodbye to some of the friends you’ve made, but can’t go on with you in your journey. There’s a very large level of emotional attachment in Journey, and That Game Company does a great job in taking a minimalist approach to making you connect with it’s world and characters.

What’s most endearing about Journey is just how far the little things go in making it a great and unforgettable experience. The game is filled with fantastic vistas that rival that of the best AAA games on the system, but it’s the little touches that go the furthest. Players communicate with in Journey only through a small musical shout which always stays in tune with the background music in the game. The sheer brilliance of a game like Journey is found in the weather effects, and the simple joy you’ll get when you are doing such trivial things that end up playing a huge role in the outcome of the game.

The Blast Factor: A lot of people are going to give Journey a try, and some are going to downright hate it. They’ll find it boring and lackluster. They’ll find nothing to do, but digging deeper and staying with the title will result in one of the most moving experiences you’ll have with a game. Journey tells a story, and it tells it like no other.Journey is one of those games that challenges what the medium can do, and hopefully the world will take notice.

For over a decade, the Mario Party franchise has been delivering quintessential party games that continue its familiar twist on the traditional board game experience. Each game has given players new worlds, mini-games, and characters to choose from, but none has truly changed the way you play it – until now. Your fate might still depend on the roll of the dice, but Mario Party 9 is a refreshingly different type of party.

As always, Bowser has come up with some plan to suck up all the stars in the sky, so it’s Mario and company’s job to get them back. Instead of taking turns and individually moving across each game board, however, you and your friends will ride together on a giant vehicle along a path to the finish line. Each map has various themed challenges, spaces, and events for you to encounter. Despite traveling together, this is still a competition, and the player with the most number of mini-stars by the end of the journey wins.

This new joint travel system eliminates Mario Party’s classic items and booby traps, but it adds a new type of strategy too. Each turn lets your character be the captain of the vessel, putting him in charge of rolling the dice and letting him pick up any mini-stars scattered across the board. Of course, your turn can also lead you into danger, but various numbered dice let you sabotage your opponent’s next turn if you plan ahead and play the game wisely –that is, if you have any special dice. You can only get these items when you land on spaces randomly because, well, Mario Party still isn’t as strategic a game as it could be. As in past titles, the unpredictability and the randomness of the dice can still change the entire outcome of a game in one turn. Land on a Bowser space, and half your mini-stars can be gone in an instant. It’s not a pretty sight, but sometimes the odds won’t be in your favor.

Each game board is divided into two parts, with a mini-boss in the middle and a boss battle at the end. These battles are essentially extended mini-games, but their dramatic presentation and the classic cast of Mario bosses you’ll face add to their uniqueness. While you will always have to face a boss, actually getting to play one of the 80 new mini-games may never happen as you need to land on mini-game spaces to play them. While some of these mini-games, such as flipping cards or selecting correct fishing lines, will depend on luck, most will thankfully require skill tapping the Wii remote’s face button rather than gimmicky motion controls.

As its name suggests, Mario Party is meant to be played with a group of people, preferably, a party of four. While you can individually set your AI opponents’ difficulty and handicap, playing against a group of three computers is not as fun as playing with friends or family. In fact, if you remove other people from the experience, what you’re left with is a frustrating and seemingly unfair game that will test your patience with each roll of the dice. Plus, its lack of an online mode severely limits its replayability if you play it alone. Should you tackle Solo mode, which is essentially the game’s single player story mode, you might question your sanity every time you to don’t win.

I was pleasantly surprised Mario Party 9 does a much better job of incorporating classic Mario sounds and characters than its predecessors did. Battling Spike from Super Mario Bros. 3, for example, while listening to an arranged version of the Hammer Bros. theme song just feels good. Other nice touches involve the charming details in mini-games and in the various themed maps. Still, these graphics are mediocre at best but suit the playful nature of the series just fine. At least some of its soundtrack is catchier, albeit just as repetitive, than before.

If you do play it with a group of friends, however, Mario Party 9 is a blast. Aside from its Free Play option that lets you play any mini-game whenever you want, there is also a set of longer mini-games that are surprisingly robust. Goomba Bowling won’t put Wii Sports to shame, but it’s just as fun. The real gem, though, is an addictive two-player puzzle game that can take up to an hour to finish. Each time you finish a game board or play a mini-game, you also get special points that can be used to purchase more content such as a new map, vehicles, and music, so you have some incentive to keep at it.

The Blast Factor: You can spend a few hours playing the game by yourself and unlocking a couple of new characters, but there’s nothing else for you to do unless you have company. Another single player mode lets you play a handful of mini-games from a different camera angle, but once you finish these off, there is really no point in playing them again. Hopefully you’re buying Mario Party 9 and bringing it home to a full house. Otherwise, your fun will end when you land on a Bowser space three times in a row.

Late in 2001, DC Comics teamed up with Stan Lee, the legendary co-creator of such Marvel heroes as Spider-man, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America to do a series of comics where Lee created his own version of the famed DC heroes. The “Just Imagine..” line was supposed to be a cross between what’s great about both comic companies — it wasn’t. Superman was an alien cop who couldn’t hack it on his home planet, Wonder Woman was a hipster activist, Batman was a pro wrestler and Aquaman was a sketchy guy who mixed his DNA with that of a dolphin — no, really.

Why do I bring up a comic book from over ten years ago that I would much rather forget? Playing through Street fighter X Tekken, the new crossover fighter from Capcom — I got the same feeling. The differences may not be as striking as Lee’s creations, but it comes off as much more of a “What if Yoshihiro Ono (the man behind Street Fighter IV) created Tekken” rather than a celebration of the two long running fighting franchises — and that’s okay because of the eventual Tekken X Street Fighter that’s been announced putting the creative duties in the hands of Capcom, but one has to wonder — is it enough?

If you’ve played any of Capcom’s recent fighting games, Street Fighter X Tekken is sure to look incredibly familiar, it follows the same visual style of Street Fighter IV and the same basic mechanics as the Marvel VS Capcom series. There are a few differences here, like how you’ll play as a team of two rather than three, but the idea remains the same; play as a team of fighters from either one franchise or the other and brawl your way through a ladder of opponents. This is a development team and franchise that knows it’s bread and butter and pulls it off well. Flashy combos, intricate combo maneuvers and quick tags are the name of the Street Fighter X Tekken game, and fans are sure to gobble it up.

One of the game’s biggest strength’s lies in the sheer amount of characters that are playable from the start. Both sides of the conflict are well represented here, with Street fighter legends like Ryu, Ken, Chun Li and Guile making appearances and fighters like Kazuya, King and Kuma (Bear Fight!) appearing for Tekken. I did enjoy the amount of second tier characters that made the cut, like Kuro the cat from Tekken.

The arcade mode of Street Fighter X Tekken serves as the game’s story mode, and I use that term in the loosest of terms. There’s a mysterious object crashing to Earth and both sides want it because it’s got powers. Don’t pay much attention to that vague description, as the game does even less to develop the plot. It serves merely as a jumping off point to get you to fighting — which is what you’re here for anyways.

I’m always amazed that more fighting games haven’t stolen directly from the latest Mortal Kombat title and it’s stellar story mode. Rather, at the start of the story you’ll get a non moving, slightly animated animation, and in between the fights, you’re going to have banter between both sides, but that’s about it. I did appreciate that the majority of the fighters have a reason to be teaming together, and it’s not a random two players. But can someone please explain why Capcom made some of the non Japanese fighters speak English, but characters like Guile from America and Vega from Spain still speak Japanese?

Street Fighter X Tekken does a great job of catering to it’s core fan base, while still remaining extremely accessible for new players thanks to a great degree of customization options. There’s the new gem system that allows players to divide up skill points to their fighters to help beef up their strengths. There’s also a number of cool one touch controls that allow newer users to become more familiar with move sets.

A lot of players are going to go into Street Fighter X Tekken looking to play online — but they’re going to be severely disappointed, as though the game does feature a pretty robust and dedicated online suite, the reliability of the connection speed are less than impressive. You’ll get a ton of match requests, but you’d both better have stellar connections, or the game is most likely to be dropped. Hopefully Capcom can fix it before long.

The Blast Factor: For all that it does wrong, Street Fighter X Tekken is still a lot of fun to play with some buddies on the couch and spend an afternoon duking it out. The engine may be starting to show it’s age, but it still works well when it needs to, and it still knows just what it’s fans want. Now let’s just see what Namco can do with the Street Fighter characters later this year.

Developed by: Bioware
Published by: EA
Genre: Action/Roleplaying
Platform: Pc, Xbox 360, PS3
Play it if: You have a heartbeat
Skip it if: Don’t
4 out of 4 stars

There was a point early on in my play through of Mass Effect 3 — it couldn’t be more than an hour and a half in — that took my breath away. When it was over, I set the controller down, turned off the system and walked away. I needed time to come to grips with what just happened. That’s the first time I’ve ever been that emotionally moved by a game, and that’s when I knew that Mass Effect 3 would be even more special than I thought.

Bioware’s finale for Commander Sheppard is, in a word – -stunning. In even more words, it’s gripping, engaging, emotionally charged and painstakingly well done. The entire Mass Effect series has felt like a symphony leading up to this, the crashing crescendo that outdoes everything before it. Most importantly, Mass Effect 3 is a fitting tribute to a universe we’ve spent the last half decade caring about and will leave you thinking about it long after you’ve finished it.

Mass Effect 3 tells the final chapter in the story of Earth’s struggle for survival against the menacing Reapers — an ancient robot species that looks to eradicate all life from it’s chosen target planet. At the end of Mass Effect 2, Commander Sheppard learned of the impending invasion and thus tried to warn everyone, only to be brushed off like the town crazy. Guess what happened? ME3 opens with an amazing scene featuring the entire Alliance attempting to mobilize against the Reapers, only to fail tragically.

I’ll admit that at this point I was a bit worried — the story seems awfully familiar. The only man who warns the people of their impending doom is locked away just before it happens — it’s the plot of nearly every 50s sci-fi movie. Luckily though, Mass Effect 3’s story only gets better from there. You’re of course quickly released, and it’s off to rally any allies you can find in a frantic effort to save mankind. (note: be sure to read our interview with Mass Effect 3′s lead writer Mac Walters)

Much like earlier installments of the franchise, Mass Effect 3 is a game that believes that getting there is half the fun, and while you’ll still have the epic Buck Rodgers style planet hopping moments that the series is known for, but the real attraction here is the amount of choice you’ll have over just how you battle for the fate of the universe.  The story of ME3 is dotted with poignant, touching and sometimes even heartbreaking moments that define how strong a relationship with a series of video game characters can be. This is undoubtedly one of, if not the greatest storied ever told.

Player choice in Mass Effect 3 spreads beyond the game’s narrative, and into very structure of how the game plays, which will open up the series to a an incredibly large new audience (believe it or not, there are still people who don’t play Mass Effect). At the beginning of each game, you’ll have the choice of just what type of game you want you want, between action, which gets you straight to the robot shootin’ without any of the conversational mechanic, story; which does the exact opposite and role playing — which is a mix of the two, much like your traditional Mass Effect game.

Regardless of what you choose, Mass Effect 3 features brilliant pacing that not only pulls you through the game, but always leaves you wondering what’s going to happen next. I’ll confess that in the two previous games, there were sections, specifically some of the combat sections that seemed to go on forever, but thankfully I never felt that way throughout my time with Mass Effect 3.  The game is filled with thrilling set pieces and locations like Mars in a sandstorm that you’re going to want to explore again and again. It all culminates in a fiery conclusion that puts the entire trilogy in perspective.

What truly impressed me about these set pieces are the scale of some of the battles. I’m an admitted scale-whore, I love sections of games where I’m up against enemies that dwarf me in size, the feeling is incredibly rewarding, and it often takes a bit more strategy to bring these enemies down, and Mass Effect brings that in droves. One battle towards the later half of the game comes to mind especially, and without giving much away, it was easily one of my favorite moments in the entire series.

The truth is that the combat and AI have been greatly improved from Mass Effect 2 to 3.  Battles don’t have that ongoing feeling, and you’re going to need to have adaptable strategies to get past some of the enemies, especially at the later stages. Enemies will flank you, they’ll use grenades to get you out of cover and they’ll do pretty much anything in their power to stop you. Luckily, your squad’s AI has also been beefed up, and you rarely feel like you have to completely carry the load in a battle. In fact, there were a few times when my squadmates quickly killed off enemies I was carefully targeting with my sniper riffle.

There’s a fairly more robust strategy element to Mass Effect 3 than there were in the previous games. Leveling your character and your weapons (one of the coolest features in the game is the ability to customize every weapon in the game) up is now much more RPG-centric in a manner similar to that of the original Mass Effect. There’s also a new mode that tracks how ready you are to fight the reapers, and adds an interesting mix to just how you go about completing the game’s tasks as you’ll have to plot your course using the game’s map to see where you’re needed against the Reapers.

Mass Effect 3 marks the first time multiplayer has been introduced into the series, and it’s a surprisingly welcome addition. Galaxy at War is a Horde-esque survival type mode where you’ll start as a human character (other races open up as you play) and attempt to get through wave after wave of enemies to improve your military readiness rating. I’ll admit that I was worried that the multiplayer modes would feel tacked on, but the compliment the main campaign very well.

The Blast Factor: When you’re in the gaming industry for a bit you realize one thing very quickly; don’t believe the hype. Mass effect 3 is the exception to that rule as it doesn’t only meet it’s expectations — it blows them away. It’s an emotionally charged, and often touching tale that doesn’t skip out on the action one bit. Most importantly, it’s a fitting ending to a world and characters we’ve spent the last five years getting attached to.

This review is based on a PS3 retail copy of Mass Effect 3 provided by the publisher.

I’m staring out the helicopter’s door, the wind is whistling and the snow blisters my face. The pilot gives me the heads up and I push off, free-falling in whirlwind. before I can even collect myself, my board hits the ground,as other racers begin to whizz past me and it’s on again.

This is the world of SSX, and it’s a fun world to be in. By passionately retooling a much loved franchise, EA Canada has been able to tow the line between arcade and sim, between deep and accessible and between fanboy fodder and new experience. It may have been originally announced as SSX: Deadly Descents, but it will come to be known as the SSX experience.

In the new game, Team SSX is uniting to try to take down the nine deadly descents,or the nine largest mountain ranges in the world. Then your ex-team member and all around douche bag Griff tells the world that he’ll be the first one to do it and thus your job — of course,  is to beat him to it.It’s a simple plot device (SSX never really needed a major story anyways), but it serves it’s purpose of getting you to the mountains, and that’s where SSX begins to shine.

In a word, your first few runs will be exhilarating. You’re hurtling down these gigantic courses and there’s so many obstacles and things to trick off of that you’re unlikely to even remember that more often than not you’re in a race. You’ll often wipeout, but half the fun is turning these failures into amazing tricks, like landing on your head after a huge jump, somersaulting down a bit of the slope and then somehow turning it into a sick grind on a downed tree-trunk. The best part? The game moves so fast that it’s tough to memorize each of the different paths on each course, so you’ll have a ton of fun replaying different sections of the game.

The trick system is undoubtedly at the heart of the new SSX, and it’s surprisingly deep. On consoles, you have the choice to use the traditional button layout controls of previous SSX games or the cool thumbstick controls reminiscent of EA’s own NHL series which finds you flicking each thumbstick in certain directions to pull of specific tricks. Your best bet is using a combination of the two as it’s the easiest way to string together long combos and get the most points. Get enough air on a jump and SSX even allows you to trick off the helicopter you jumped out of — and no, it never gets old.

If there was one complaint about the game’s trick system, it would be just how light your character feels at all times. The game does a decent job at straddling the line between sim and arcade, but when you’re mid-run, your character almost feels wieghtless and bouncy sometimes, causing you to mis-judge some of your distances and biff more than your fair share or jumps. Admittedly though, this is a problem that pops it’s head up mostly in the beginning of the game, and once you get the hang of each level’s pacing, you rarely run into it.

As you play through SSX, you’ll unlock new equipment, from the badass wingsuit that allows you to glide down big jumps ala batman to the less cool items like headlamps and different colored suits. The best items will help you in one of the franchise’s newest and coolest modes — the Survive it maps. Here, you’ll have a number of new obstacles, like the amount of breathable air around you and truly epic events like avalanches to block your path.

Though SSX features no real dedicated traditional multiplayer component, the game does feature Ridernet, a mode that will be familiar to anyone who has used the Autolog features of the latest Need for Speed games that lets you keep track of everything your friends are doing in the game at any given time. It’s also the center for events held by EA, which are open to the entire world — or you can set it up to be just you and your pals, so you’ll get the traditional experience anyways.
The Blast Factor: SSX being so well done is a testament the old school design choices, to not having to put out a game every year to keep an audience satisfy. Deceptively deep, yet incredibly accessible, this isn’t just a welcome back for the franchise — it’s a complete reboot of it. Grab your board and go, the slopes are waiting.

We’ve become a society where we rely on machines for a good portion of our daily lives. Think about it, they handle our money, our utilities, and sometimes even our medical procedures to name a few. In the long run though, no machine will ever feel as authentic as a human — as something with a heart. Interestingly enough, the same can be said for Sega’s new shooter Binary Domain, which puts you at the front lines of the robot apocalypse often feels robotic in its own right. It goes through the motions of a modern day shooter remarkably well, but fails when trying to step out on its own.

Taking place in Tokyo in the year 2080, Binary Domain tells the story of the Amada Corporation, the world leader in robotics. The Amada corporation has created the world’s most advanced humanoid robots and began assimilating them into everyday life. Of course if you’ve seen pretty much any modern action movie dealing with robots you’ll realize that this is an absolutely terrible idea, and it’s up to you; as Sergeant Dan Marshall and your interchangeable squad to make sure it doesn’t happen.

For the vast majority of the game, the plot is pretty predictable, and often feels like it gets in the way of what the developers wanted to do with the game. Admittedly, there are a few cool ideas introduced in the later chapters of the game, but getting to that point means wading through a ton of uninteresting plot points that you’re unlikely to care about. In the end, Binary Domain tries it’s best to tell us a cautionary tale, but the end result feels like a mixed bag of missed opportunities and what could have been.

Luckily, Binary Domain unquestionably works when taken strictly as a shooter. Binary Domain uses some pretty cool effects and animations that allow your robot attackers to be dismantled in pile of scraps — and it’s incredibly rewarding. There are several times throughout the game where you’re going to be facing down with a literal ton of pissed off robots, and standing among their sparking debris feels remarkably cool. In general, the combat in Binary Domain feels fun, frantic and fast paced. This isn’t one of the AAA shooters we’ve been waiting for — but the gameplay makes it feel like it should have been.

It’s when Binary Domain starts to branch out from these core mechanics, that it starts to fall apart. A good portion of the game features squad based controls, which works when it wants to, but seems tacked on when it doesn’t. Your squadmates have different specialities, and you’ll find plenty of times to use them, but the game also employs a relationship system, which changes how your team will relate to your commands. Lead them helplessly into firefights and they’re going to be less likely to listen to your orders, but be a disciplined and fair leader and you’ll have their unabashed support. The catch though is that your squad is very forgiving and you almost have to try to get them on your bad side.

Binary Domain borrows (read: steals) a lot from Epic Game’s Gears of War series, but at this point, a lot of these mechanics have become genre standards, so they’re not the first to do so. You’ll roadie run, grab cover and blind fire behind it. It mostly works like it should, and there are few surprises here, but a few of the cover items often feel flimsy, and you’ll even take some shots behind it. It’s that unreliability that keeps Binary Domain a good shooter — but not a great one.

Binary Domain also features a unique voice command functionality that allows you to use a headset to issue your commands. Xbox 360 owners note that there’s no Kinect support for some reason, so you’ll be going old school on this one. The voice commands are novel, but they’re not nearly as responsive as the traditional button press system, so you’ll be screaming stuff like “on me” countless times before you get a response.

The Blast Factor: Binary Domain begins to carve out it’s own identity early on in the game, but quickly succumbs to trying too hard to be like all of the popular shooters on the market. It’s fun to mow down robots, but there’s really not much else to it. In the end, Binary Domain is a fun and satisfying shooter, as long as you don’t look too far into it.

Perhaps it’s fitting that Alan Wake’s titular character is a writer because the original game often felt like it was lost in the exposition of the story. For the Xbox Live followup though, the folks at Remedy Games have gone a completely different route — and the result is Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, a slightly beefed up and better paced adventure title than what came before it. It may not convince those who weren’t fans of the first game, but Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is pulp adventure at it’s finest, and worth a night with the lights off.

First things first, American Nightmare is not a sequel. This is not the Alan Wake 2 you’ve all been waiting for. It’s merely a continuation of the original story — it makes sense if you don’t think about it too hard. The story picks up after the original game and after it’s two DLC chapters with Alan Wake in the middle of the Arizona dessert trying to chase his evil doppleganger Mr. Scratch, who has been causing trouble and growing even more powerful. What does that mean for you? Well, a lot of flashlights and bullets for one.

The whole thing is presented as an episode of Night Springs, a Twilight Zone esque show, complete with Rod Sterling like narrator. This new style gives American Nightmare a cool, pulp style reminiscent of shows like the Twilight Zone and Outer Limits. It becomes apparent through the narrations that the developers know that while their game is full of tension, it’s also a bit silly (early on in the game, you’re chased by a diner sign possessed by a poltergeist). Alan Wake’s American Nightmare strikes the right chord in between camp and thriller that keeps it interesting throughout most of it.

American Nightmare wastes almost no time getting you into the action, a definite change from the last go-round. It won’t be long after the intro movie that you’ll be taking part in the game’s trademark mechanic — weakening enemies with your flashlight and doing away with them with your weaponry. Mechanically speaking, American Nightmare is almost identical to its predecessor, but everything feels a lot tighter and more responsive this go-round. It feels a lot smoother to do everything from switching between weapons to running through open fields in fear of your life.

All of it comes together to form a surprisingly well paced tale. It may be silly at times, but Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is not to be taken lightly. It’s one of those games that’s at its best when played with the lights off, as there are times when you’re running for dear life through an open field as enemies form out of the darkness all around you. Wake gains health when staying in well light areas, and they’re few and far between during most of the game.

One of the new mechanics in American Nightmare is the ability to rewrite events so they’re different than the way Mr. Scratch originally planned them. In theory, it’s a cool idea, but in practice, it never fully reaches it’s potential. The mechanic gives you the illusion that you’ll have some sort of control over your destiny, but in reality, you’re just going to be following along with a scripted series of events that move the story on in the only direction it can.

There are other small nitpicks through the game, like a few continuity issues that pop up throughout certain sections of the game. Take one section for instance where you find an entire ring of keys to the diner, but apparently not all of them. So you’ll only be able to get into certain rooms. There are also smaller mechanical and visual issues, but they’re few and far between.

The Blast factor:Alan Wake’s second adventure is a much more focused and action driven experience than it’s predecessor, but that doesn’t mean everything has changed. American Nightmare is still chock full of what made the original so inventive to begin with. Alan Wake fans will love American Nightmare, but much like the first game, there will be plenty who just don’t get it.

In a way, you’ve got to feel sorry for Starbreeze Studios. With Syndicate, the shooter-centric re-imagining of the 1993 strategy game of the same name — there’s absolutely no way to please everyone. Fans of the original are going to scoff at how the new developer turned it into a shooter, but fans of shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield are unlikely to give it a shot. It’s a shame too, because when Syndicate works, it works very well, it’s an intelligent shooter that dares to break from the norm, but when it doesn’t work, it’s a mess. One of the most disappointing messes of recent memory.

In the world of Syndicate, Corporations rule the world, and are willing to kill for turf and resources. Each private citizen also has a chip implanted into their brain, which these corporations can access at will for advertising or even worse. Your protagonist, MIles Kilo works for Eurocorp, a company that has developed a chip so powerful it lets users slow down time and even access the data from other chips. Syndicate finds Miles struggling with his choices, and figuring out why he works for who he works for. As you probably already expected, throughout the events of the game, Milo uncovers a conspiracy..yadda…yadda..yadda..

It may not be the most original story, but it would have done Seabreeze well not to abandon it as early in the game as they did. The game takes obvious inspiration from titles like Deus Ex and Bioshock (going as far as to ripoff a few of those game’s best moments), which did their best to craft a compelling narrative, but in this aspect, Syndicate often comes off as lazy and forgetable. There comes a point early in the game where integral pieces of info are dumped into optional info boxes and the story is kicked into the background. Though Syndicate often hints at the importance of player choice, it’s incredibly linear, with one ending, no matter what you do.

It’s a shame that Syndicate’s campaign is so forgettable and lackluster, as generally speaking, the mechanics are sound, tight and fun. The guns, which range from the more traditional firepower to the more out there, all feel like appropriately weighted and its often compelling to switch them out to see just what each can do. What really sets Breach apart from other shooters though is the Breach system, which allows players to access an enemy’s dart chip for some pretty cool results. Using the breach system, you’re able to slow down an enemies response time, make him fall to the ground stunned, commit suicide, or even turn the gun on his own squad-mates.

Using the breach abilities quickly becomes a strategic element in a very trigger happy shooter. There are plenty of times where you’re going to come upon a room full of heavily armed shooters, and the decent enough AI combined with the game’s refusal to adhere to its own set of rules regarding cover makes it nearly impossible to go in guns blazing (at times), so you’ll have to strategically use your abilities to take them out. My personal favorite is causing one enemy to fall to ground, making the others go to check on him, then making one of them turn against the others, and making my work easier for me. It’s just a shame that midway through the game, Starbreeze took the easy way out and rids you of a majority of these powers.

If Syndicate has a saving grace it’s just how fun the game becomes when teaming up with another human user. Up to four players can join together in a series of standalone co-op missions that require actual communication and cooperation, leading to some impressively cool and chaotic moments. The mix of careful planning and satisfying kills often reminded me of the co-op missions of the Splinter Cell games, a favorite of mine for years. With how well done this portion of the game is, I often wondered why Starbreeze didn’t base more of the game on it.

If you’re going to play through Syndicate, you better be a fan of the color blue, as the game continually insists the future will be a blue society, and assaults your eyes with blue hue after blue hue. Besides the overuse, Syndicate looks impressive, and performs well even when the action get really hectic. I was incredibly impressed with just how well the game animated, especially when using the breach abilities.

The Blast Factor: There are moments where you’ll swear that Syndicate is one of the greatest first shooters in recent years — it’s beautiful, fun and mechanically sound, but playing deeper into the game will reveal it’s darker side. In short — Syndicate is a mess, a beautiful mess that somehow works. It may not be the shooter it could have been, but Syndicate is definitely worth a look.

A couple of years back, the original “Shank” came forth with some interesting ideas but poor execution. Despite its efforts to craft a “Metal Slug” type action game, its unforgiving level design and frustrating control scheme led to few fans and poor reception. Developer Klei Entertainment has heard many of the complaints, and this second time around Shank is much more enjoyable to play in his endless quest for revenge.

The biggest improvement from the original game is in the controls. As expected, there is a light attack and heavy attack button coupled with a grab and grenade input. Interestingly, this 2D side-scroller took the dodge mechanics from “God of War” (mapping it to the right thumb stick) and made it fit extremely well into a world built around precise timing and careful memorization. There is also a “pounce” move that incapacitates enemies and lets you loose on them. Thrown in a counter move akin to the newer “Batman” titles and you have yourself one of the deepest yet most intuitive control schemes this year.

Where “Shank 2” is lacking is in the story. While the first game presented some incentive for all of the bloodlust driving the main character, this time around there is very little aside from “they are bad guys, you are not.” There are some hidden items that seek to provide some backstory to the proceedings, but overall this is as shallow as a kiddie pool.

Thankfully, the art style, which was probably the only redeeming aspect of the first game, remains untouched this time around. The entire game looks and acts like a Saturday morning cartoon. The animations are fluid and the expressions on the characters are priceless. However, the cartoonish art style allows the developers to get away with incredible levels of blood and gore, with some finishing moves involving a chainsaw to the face or limb dismemberment. All this animated bloodshed helps add some much needed character to the somewhat pointless story, saving this game from being some mindless action dribble. Frankly, some of the backdrops can be jaw-dropping, easily justifying the ten dollar price tag.

There is also a co-op survival mode that can be a riot with the right group of friends. The arcade sensibility extends to the score keeping, with completion time and number of deaths included in a final score at the end of every level. This is definitely welcome considering there are only eight levels in the whole game and they take about fifteen minutes apiece to finish, including boss fights.

Ingenuity can come in many ways. In the case of “Shank 2,” it has come in the form of fantastic gameplay that sacrifices any significant story. Once you wrap your hands around a controller and learn the ins and outs of “Shank 2’s” control scheme, you will feel like an unadulterated badass. Thrown in the comic book style violence and you have one of the best action games of the year. Few times has a game allowed you to be as awesome as the character you are portraying, and despite Shank’s Stalone level of 80’s cheese, you are sure to love every bit of it.

Blast Factor: Shank 2 is a testosterone-fueled ride helmed by one of the most gratuitous art styles in recent memory. The intense gameplay is helped by an intuitive control scheme that leaves you in complete control of a knife wielding psychopath. While it may be short lived and feature a story that makes “Commando” feel like Oscar bait, for ten dollars is a definite good time.

True story, two years ago at E3, I was seconds away from buying a PSP. I had been watching friends play Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker all week, and we even went as far as to take a trip to a Hollywood Target. When we got there though, something stopped me — the thought that someday, something better was coming.

That day is February 22, when Sony launches it’s next handheld gaming system — the PlayStation Vita. Packed with features and a stellar launch lineup, The Vita aims to challenge the world’s notion of just what portable gaming can be, but should you jump in right away, or wait and let Sony work out the kinks?

The Hardware

There’s no debating that upon first look, The Vita looks an awful lot like the PSP, but looking closer, it’s a completely different handheld all together.

Featuring a 5′ multi-touch enabled OLED screen, two thumbsticks, two cameras (you know the drill, one front facing and one rear), a touch sensitive back panel and augmented reality capabilities, the Vita is not short of bells and whistles, but at this early stage, you’re really only going to use some of them.

The true standout of The Vita is the gorgeous OLED screen. Sony’s choice of using the OLED over the LCD works incredibly well, as it causes colors to pop and shadows to look incredibly deep. We booted up Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 when we first got our Vita, and the flashy attacks work incredibly well.

With the screens impressive size though, comes one of the devices major flaws — it’s really not all that portable. Portable gaming means something very different than it did when the PSP launched; everyone has an iPhone or tablet with them at all times, which are easy to pack with you wherever You go, the Vita seems a bit too big for that. Sure, you could make the point that the Vita can easily be stuffed into a hoodie pocket or briefcase or work bag for the morning commute, but you can’t help but feel like a good portion of potential users will want something a bit more portable.

The Vita comes with two camera, one facing the front and one facing the rear and they’re a bit underwhelming. Both cameras are capable of both stills and videos, and they’re about on par with the quality of your average smart phone, but fail in comparison to more top of the line phones, and fail even worse when compared to full fledged cameras. For example, we took two identical pictures of my desk, one with the Vita and the other with an iPhone 4. the iPhone did a great job reproducing the colors and came out pretty clear, while the Vita picture had a noticeable amount of noise and blurred edges.

So what about that trackpad like back portion of the Vita? For what it’s worth, it performs well, but it often seems like the developers squeezed the functionality into their games at the last second. One of the best examples of this is how in Uncharted: Golden Abyss, the back track pad is used to climb up ropes, it just doesn’t feel as smooth and natural as using the thumb sticks and face buttons. This as opposed to a game like Modnation Racers, which allows you to use the back trackpad to level terrain in track creation, and works extremely well.

My favorite feature of the Vita though is being able to keep up to seven screens open at a time regardless of what game card is in the system. Think about it, say you’re running to catch a flight and you’re in the middle of a game in Marvel Vs Capcom, about to win right before you have to turn it off. Since you can’t save mid fight, just minimize the screen and come back to it when you’re able to. With that though, there’s a downfall — it’ll kill your battery.

So, about that battery. It’ll last mostly between 3-4 hours of continuous playtime, which isn’t all that great, but it’s not terrible either. I can see it being a problem on long flights, but other than that, you shouldn’t have much of a problem if you just remember to charge it when you get wherever you’re going. More often than not, people are going to be using the Vita on trains, busses and in cabs in the middle of their busy commute, and the battery life of the Vita feels perfect for it.

The Games
Editor’s Note: This is section is a generalization of how the Vita works as gaming device. Watch for specific reviews throughout the week

By far though, the Vita’s biggest improvement over its predecessor is that it includes two thumb sticks, rather than the one found on the PSP. It may not seem like a major thing, but most games, especially those of major franchises are built around using both of the thumb sticks, and having a system that relies only on the one requires developers to create entire control schemes that don’t fit as well as the original, as well as requiring players to relearn almost everything they know about playing games in the modern day.

The Vita does a great job doing away with all that, and even the company’s biggest franchises feel like they should — to an extent. Uncharted Golden Abyss feels an awful lot like Uncharted, just on a smaller scale, but it’s damn impressive that they made a portable game feel like Uncharted at all.

On paper, the Vita’s launch lineup of games feels like the strongest ever, but whether it is or not is debatable. The system seller will easily be Uncharted, but there’s some strong titles that you should consider when you’re picking up your new handheld. Lumines: Electronic Symphony, the puzzle game from Q Entertainment is tough to put down, and games like Modnation Racers, Touch My Katamari and Little Deviants are fun to pick up and play with little investment.

Like most launches with new tech, a lot of the games often feel like mere tech demos. Escape Plan for instance feels like a way to show off the quality of the screen, while Little Deviants feels like a how-to for the suite of new features and Uncharted feels like Sony trying to prove that this new tech can work with its established franchises. Does it? Mostly yes, but there’s are definite kinks to work out in the process.

The Verdict: Should you buy a Vita?

It’s always risky to buy anything when it first releases as there’s bound to be issues, price drops, or in the long run, new and improved models. During my two weeks with the PlayStation Vita, I can tell you this, I haven’t used my 3DS, iPad or phone for gaming, it’s been all Sony’s new machine. The screen is amazing, the additional thumbstick does wonders for the Vita’s credibility as a gaming system and though it’s not as portable as it could be, The Vita is a great way to take your games with you.

Are there issues to work out? Of course, but like any other launch, they’ll be fixed with time as developers learn how to better harness the potential of the new hardware. If you’re a commuter or at all in need of a portable gaming system, Blast highly recommends the Vita.

The PlayStation Vita is available February 22 and comes in two different models, one with Wifi for $249.99, and another that runs on AT&T’s 3G network for $299, This review was based on a 3G model, provided by the Publisher, along with the launch lineup.

I’ve got a bit of a confession — I don’t worship at the alter of Skyrim. Now, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the amount of work that went into it, and sheer craftsmanship that it must have taken to make the kingdom of Skyrim so realistic — I just find myself getting bored very quickly. Maybe it’s the combat, maybe it’s just my taste in games.

It’s interesting then that with Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning, it’s the exact opposite. Thanks to an impressive combat system that would be at home in any pure action game, I searched out combat and found myself caring about the progression of my character, but I couldn’t bring myself to care about the world around me. Is it big? Sure. Interesting? Not at all.

Kingdoms of Amalur starts off with an impressive enough premise — you’re dead. Well, you were dead, before a device called The Well of Souls ressurected you into a nameless, fateless being. The key here is that since you have no fate, you’re pretty much free to do whatever you want — be a hero, be a jerk, fight for justice, rob people..it’s all up to you. In essence, you’re rewriting the destiny of Amalur with your choices.

At least you should be. Reckoning puts a lot of stock in the idea of just how important your choices really are, but more often than not that’s all it is — an idea. Playing through a number of Amalur’s quests, I did see a bit of change depending on what I did, but it never seemed like the game changing, back of the box bullet point that the game made it out to be. To put it into perspective, with Skyrim, I always felt like I was a driving force in the outcome of the game’s events, but in Amalur, I merely felt like I was an active participant.

That’s not to say that EA and Big Huge Games didn’t try. There’s an impressive amount of dialogue and NPCs to be found in Amalur, and from time to time, it’s well written and interesting, but like a good majority of the game, more often than not it’s your typical RPG fodder. People in this kingdom love to talk, and I often found myself trying to get through their monologue’s as fast as possible.

Like most RPGs, the citizens of Amalur will often give you quests in exchange for goods, and from time to time you’ll get a truly epic one, but more often than not they’re incredibly underwhelming. Find this, kill that, rid this place of that heinous evil thing — it’s all stuff you’ve done in your 0ther RPGS, and it’s a bit disappointing that Reckoning doesn’t really try all that hard.

Reckoning does have a saving grace though — and boy does it save it. The combat engine of Amalur is fun, engaging and does a great deal to advance even some of the game’s worst moments. Much like the combat systems found in more traditional action games, you’ll find the action in Reckoning to be incredibly visceral and fast paced. You’ll perform combos and incredibly entertaining finishing manuever’s (I still can’t get enough of ramming my sword down a belligerent enemy’s throat). It’s incredibly rewarding to find a weapon, become proficient with it and begin to upgrade it to learn new skills and techniques with it.

It’s the combat itself that expands the game’s other mechanics to become remarkablky enjoyable. Looting becomes not only impoortant, but satisfying when you’re standing over an enemy thatr you proudly eviscerated. For the first time in a long time, I actually cared about how my character was levling up in an RPG, and wanted to see myself excel in different specializations. By the end of Reckoning, I was a broad sword carrying badd ass, and I was proud of it.

Visually, Reckoning is anything but what you’d expect. If you had to compare it with another title, it would be the fable series, since the two share a very distinct cartoon style, which is interesting because the rest of the game attempts to be mostly serious. My major problem with the game’s visuals though is just how terrible the game’s lip synching is — it’s as if the developers didn’t even try.

The Blast Factor: Kingdom’s of Amalur: Reckoning never seems to fully establish an identity to call its own — it just borrows from some of gaming’s top franchise’s and fine tunes the mechanics to its own liking. Saved by the remarkable combat engine, you’ll still have a great time with Reckoning. More than anything, it feels like a great start to a new franchise, and we can’t wait for the more cleaned up inevitable sequel.

When the original Twisted Metal was released in November of 1995, I was 10, and just about to enter junior high. That whole next year, a small group of friends and I spent far too much time on the couch, chasing each other down and giggling as we took one another out with missile. Now,over sixteen years later, somethings have become very evident — I’ve grown up, but Twisted Metal has not.

But perhaps, that’s not an entirely bad thing. It may seem juvenile and a bit of the mechanics seem dated, but there’s something that’s got to be said for a game that’s as fun as ever, and refuses to change — even as the industry around it demands maturity.

A bit of a primer first for those who may have missed the franchise’s previous iterations, Twisted Metal revolves around you being placed in badass vehicles, armed with bad ass weapons and tasks you with taking them out at any cost. It’s all part of one crazy man, known as Calypso, and his deadly tournament where the winner gets any one wish granted.

This tournament is a bit different though, as unlike previous games, with a huge number of playable characters, here, we’ve only got three, Sweet Tooth, Mr. Grimm, and Doll Face. While that may seem a bit limiting, each of the three characters comes with their own gang of followers, but most importantly has the ability to drive any of the game’s vehicles. So yes, Mr. Grimm can drive Sweet tooth’s trademarked ice cream truck.

The three character campaign offers a big change to the game’s single player format. Each of the three characters gets a chapter and leads up to a boss fight (not to mention some questionable live action cut scenes) that offer a wide range of difficulty. If it sounds like the single player game is short, that’s because it is, and you’ll more than likely finish it in one sitting. One has to wonder why the developers didn’t include more characters and a longer campaign.

Does it really matter though? Who’s really buying Twisted Metal for the single player? No, you’re paying for the mutliplayer, be it online or on the couch, and I’m glad to say that Twisted Metal still feels exactly like it should, and is a blast to play with freinds. The action is frantic, the weapons are fun and there are plenty of moments where you’re going to get some serious trash talking with your pals. There’s always a mad rush to get some of each of the powerups scattered throughout the maps.

But is Twisted Metal too stuck in its ways for its own good? The game drips with 90s gaming charm — so much so that it may turn some gamers off. The controls for instance are very arcade-like and save for a few different ratings and weaponry, the cars are predominately the same. Those different weapons though are a big part of what makes Twisted Metal so much fun in the first place. Special weaponry ranges from everything from sniper riffles with long lock-ons, to exploding grannies on stretchers (no, really), and are a blast to use. Most Twisted Metal matches start off incredibly hectic, but towards the end, the novelty of this starts to wear off, and the game actually starts to rely on actual skill to win matches

Visually, Twisted Metal feels like a lot more than a cleaned up version of the classic, as the game takes on a bit of a comic book look, but the most impressive part is that even with all of the weapons going off and the buildingings crumbling, Twisted Metal holds up pretty impressively and doesn’t fall victim to some of the same slowdown issues that other games like it have. You can’t deny just how cool it looks to narrowly escape a missile as it takes out a building behind you.

The Blast Factor: It may seem a little dated, and the packaging may be a bit thin (it doesn’t hurt that you’ll get a free copy of Twisted Metal Black), but it still retains the same off the wall, in your face high octane fun that the series is known for. Fans of the franchise, and fans of fun gaming in general will want to get behind the wheel of Sweet Tooth’s truck.

A series that has become unanimous with pop culture, the Simpsons continues to be the longest running animated series on television. Back in 1991, anyone visiting arcades may remember a video game based on the timeless series. This Konami classic provided perfectly themed brawling for up to 4 players in a variety of stages. Flash forward two decades and someone has been kind enough to us to bring this cabinet gem to the modern day arcade.

For those who missed the game on the first run, “The Simpsons Arcade” has the four main members of the family chasing Mr. Smithers and Burns in order to save Maggie. In perfect arcade harmony, there are only two buttons to press, attack and jump. Each of the members of the Simpsons family have different variations on these movements, leading each player to pick favorites depending on their play style. Gameplay rarely strays from the classic brawling we have come to expect from these games, sometimes mixing in a minigame for a good time.

The only negative to point out here is that you do not get much for the $10 entry price. Once you beat the main story either by yourself or with three other friends there is little else to do. You unlock the Japanese version of the game and there are harder difficulty levels, but it still consists of playing the same 6 levels over and over again. There is a cool feature in which the game will ask you how you want to deal with your deaths (free play or limited by quarters) adding a little hardcore arcade value for those looking for it, but in the end you can’t help but feel a little ripped off.

While the game presents some heavy nostalgia, in other ways it has you looking strangely back at your gaming habits. When I first played this as a kid I remember barely making it to the second level, even when my friends were playing with me. Now I managed to beat it in one sitting. I’m not sure if this shows how much I’ve grown as a gamer or exposes the internal flaws of arcade games being built to be a short term commitment. Nonetheless, the game features the original voice cast, has some well-done animations and it has been untouched from the original, which is precisely what anyone picking this up wants.

Blast Factor: Respecting its roots, “The Simpsons Arcade” is built to strike directly at your nostalgic bone and deliver on the classic arcade joy. However, expect to sink in more than a few quarters to relive these memories.

The Simpsons Arcade is available now for Xbox Live and PSN. A code for the Xbox 360 version of the game was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review