So of course, when Left 4 Dead 2 was released, not even a spinal chord injury could keep me from playing.  Much to my delight I found the gameplay mostly unchanged; you’re still controlling four immune survivors through five campaigns filled with Hannibal Lecter cosplayers.  The major changes are the new campaigns and an expanded library of weapons, medicines, ammunition, and enemies.

The South is a trendy setting, and luckily it jives well with the series sense of the absurd.  You’ll be fetching snacks for hillbillies in exchange for rocket launcher cover, driving through plate-glass windows in a stock car ala the Dukes of Hazard, mowing down killer clowns with your trusty banjo, and all-in-all enjoying a game that takes itself much less seriously than the average FPS.   From a carnival of death to a rainy swamp, the new environments are–frankly put–amazing.  They’re atmospheric and diverse, and are sure to provide hours of creepy delight.

The series displayed its flair for the cinematic in the Dead Air plane crash of the first release; moments like these are sprinkled throughout all campaigns, and my first play-through dropped my jaw more than once.  I never thought I could be so excited about fetch quests, but there are great strategic mini-missions that force you out of the “shoot everything that moves” mentality.  The levels are much less linear this time around, with multiple routes to the safe-house, adding another layer to strategy.  There are even moments where you benefit by breaking the cardinal rule of the Left 4 Dead Series: NEVER split up.

Multiple new weapons and items have been introduced to aid your zombie-killing efforts.  I’m very much a barbarian when it comes to weaponry: if it kills things, I’ll use it until it breaks or runs out of ammo, then I’ll just pick up whatever is closest.  Guns still fall into three categories: things that shoot a lot but hurt a little, things that shoot a little but hurt a lot, and sniper-type rifles.  Laser sights are fun add-ons, but they’re more flair than substance.  Incendiary rounds and Boomer Bile are best saved for big enemies, but as I stated, I’m a big fan of good-old-fashioned lead.  Defibrillators are an implausible but fantastic addition to your medical arsenal, allowing you to revive even long-dead party members.  Adrenaline, which will increase your speed, is only useful in very specific situations, and I find the pain pills to be a more practical inventory item.  While the expanded choices aren’t uniformly useful, they certainly increase your strategic capabilities.

Unfortunately, with increase in tactical abilities, the intelligence of your companions seems to plummet.  I remember fondly that I could count on Zoe to snipe the roof-top Smokers while I was busy spraying friendly shotgun fire onto Louis and Francis.    Man, those were the days!  Perhaps they gain competency when playing on easier modes, but on advance they felt a bit dopey, especially in the missions that required more action than just firing guns.

Of the new special infected, we have the Spitter, the Charger, and the Jockey.  I only really loved the idea of the Jockey, which will take control of you and steer you off of cliffs and into traps; the Spitter overlaps a bit too much with the Boomer for me, but perhaps he’ll grow on me.  The Charger, however, was a waste of programming.  It’s the annoying little brother of the pants-wettingly frightening Tank, and it fills no function that the Hunter doesn’t.

Perhaps the only disappointment I feel with this release is the loss of the feeling of simplicity and lightness that came with so few options.  You had health packs, pain pills, pipe bombs, molotov cocktails, and that’s was it!  Now with defibrillators, adrenaline, Boomer bile, laser sights, axes, crowbars, baseball bats, samurai swords, three more kinds of special infected, and multiple variants on common infected, the game has lost the simplicity that made its balance so apparent and so appealing.  Since it’s such an appealing party game, I regret that my more casual gamer friends may have difficulty keeping track of all these new toys.

I also detect a small downgrade in the intuitiveness of the game’s flow.  Music cues that both helped the gamer and enhanced their excitement have suddenly become as slow as the AI.  Character movement feel less vetted, and I found myself firing often at Nick, whose silhouette I found indistinguishable from the zombie masses.  Almost invisible features, such as auto-crouching to enter low spaces, has been done away with.  You know–small things that made the game faster, easier to learn, and gave you fewer scrambling-for-the-right-button moments.  I definitely feel some of the additions were superficial: padding added to justify the release of a new game rather than additional content for the first, especially when so many of the game elements are identical.

Blast Factor: Overall, I probably would’ve been happier with additional content for the first game, or a greater amount of time and thought put into balancing the sequel as well as its predecessor.  But despite some issues, this is still a great game, and I’m sure myself and my friends will be pouring as much time into this one as we did the last.  The new campaigns are the stars of the show, and they alone make this title well worth owning.

Left 4 Dead 2 is available on the Xbox 360 and the PC, and retails for $59.99 and $49.99 respectively. A copy of this game was purchased for the purposes of reviewing.

I wasn’t kidding when I described the gameplay above. That’s the bulk of the experience. You get missions to do from job boards in towns and settlements, or from talking to certain people scattered across the expansive game world. When you finish a mission, you return to wherever you earned it and pick up a reward, in the form of items, experience and money. You can take on as many quests as you want at a time, and can complete as many as you want before you ever return to claim your prize, so you don’t need to run back and forth constantly. These missions do fall into a somewhat small set of categories though–kill this thug, kill this beast, collect these items, kill this guy and collect these items, etc. You don’t really mind though, because each kill means experience, and experience means leveling, and that is the metaphorical crack pipe upon which addiction to this game relies.

Even within the first area of the game, there are certain sections you are not going to want to visit until you have sufficiently leveled. You may find some of these places in your random travels though, and when you do, you could very well be killed, and fast. You want to be very close to your enemy’s levels when you engage them, so the missions become important so you can always stay ahead of the curve, or at least with it.

Plus, you get more stuff. There’s a never ending supply of stuff for you to pick up. Some of it is better than your current stuff, much of it is worse, but it can all be sold so you can buy even better stuff. Certain characters use certain gun types better than others, meaning that when you play multiplayer, stuff should be shared for more reasons than just fairness.

The single and multiplayer experiences are similar in many ways. You still run around completing missions, leveling up and collecting loot, but now you get to do it with a buddy (or a stranger, but that’s not as much fun, especially in a game where picking up items is so pivotal). If you play with someone over Xbox Live, whoever hosts the game is going to be the one whose story is played, meaning you can replay missions you may have already completed in order to boost your character’s levels further. You can also keep multiple characters saved to your hard drive at once, meaning you can play online with a friend using one of the four character classes while playing alone on your own time with another. All of the items, experience and money you acquire in multiplayer carries over to your single-player experience, so even if you have to replay certain sections later, at least you will be well armed.

Each class is, at the simplest level, different thanks to their special skill. The Soldier drops a shielded turret, the Hunter has a war hawk that can attack far off enemies or those behind cover, the Siren can turn invisible and invincible for short periods of time, letting out a wave of energy when the shift occurs, and the Berserker, which, as you may have guessed, excels at being a damage absorbing tank that can punish enemies with melee.

There is more to the class differences than that though, as you earn skill points that can be used to differentiate them further. There are three separate paths to take, and you don’t need to stay within a single one–you can also cash in all of your skill points and re-align yourself however you wish, for a small cash fee. Let’s use the Hunter as an example. One path has him becoming more of a pistol wielding gunslinger, while another has him becoming more of a sniper. If you take the Sniper path, you will earn bonuses through skill points for things like experience bonuses on critical kills, faster reload times on rifles, or shield penetrating bullets. If you take the gunslinger route, you can get some similar bonuses, but also some very revolver/pistol exclusive ones, like chance to fire two rounds with one press of the trigger on pistols. You can customize them into all three groups and get an all-purpose blend, or you can focus heavily on one section–each time you upgrade a skill five times, it opens up the next level of skills for that designation. Shield penetrating bullets don’t come for the Sniper until you’ve used at least 15 skill points on Sniper related skill, which means 15 levels (20, really, as you don’t earn any skill points your first few levels) in a game with 50 tops. As I said though, you can get them back for a cost, so don’t fret if you change your mind 15 hours in.

Space Invaders is the same way; I have no idea where I first played it, but it sure wasn’t in 1973, and it sure wasn’t in Space Invaders Extreme 1.  Cultural osmosis has somehow made it one of my favorite arcade-style games, and when Space Invaders Extreme 2 first booted up, it’s busy screen and lurid colors made me cringe in anticipation.  But low and behold, it turned out to be an awesome little game!

The basics are the same: you control a tiny ship at the bottom of your screen and you have to blast endless waves of alien invaders to kingdom come before they can land their ships on Earth.  In the style of Geometry Wars, the game is updated to a much faster pace and given a psychedelic paint job and thumping electronic soundtrack.  The design is a bit too gaudy for me; I found myself reaching for tissues to dab my bleeding eyes after playing this for half an hour.  But after a certain point you grow accustomed to it, and more-or-less learn to ignore it.

The gameplay is downright addictive, though I admit I had to put the game down several times because it was making me too stressed.  The incrementally increasing speed of the ships has always turned me from a cool cucumber into a nervous nelly, but the speed of this game–even in early stages–made me downright frantic.  It’s not a soothing game to be played on the train to work, as I found out when my fellow passengers backed away from my frantic button mashing.  I particularly enjoyed a Tetris-like color combo bonus.  It added an element of strategy to the game that made my inevitable death seem more avoidable and gave me a greater feeling of control over the game.

I’ll just come out and admit that I was unable to beat the game.  Not even close.  One speed-up too many had me squealing like a hamster stuck its tubing, and I cracked under the pressure.  But I learned from others that the game only has five stages, which makes it quite short for those of you who don’t experience my chase-induced emotional trauma.  But it wouldn’t do for a game like this to drag on.  It’s a fun diversionary game–something to get addicted to, conquer, and put away.

Blast Factor: This is my first experience with Space Invaders Extreme, and it was a surprisingly fun remake of the treasured classic.  As I’ve noted, it’s a game that really got my heart racing, which admittedly doesn’t happen much, even in big beautiful console games.  Minus the screen-savers-on-drugs backgrounds and graphics, this is a great little game to grow addicted to and pass around among your friends.

Space Invaders Extreme 2 is available on the Nintendo DS for $19.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a hard axiom for most developers to follow, but Majesco has done admirably little to change core gameplay.  You’re still playing catchy mini-games to cook food with Engrish-speaking Mama, and these games still have enough charm to appeal to casual gamer and veterans alike.  They’ve only been improved by streamlining the process to keep frustration at bay; there are some points where rather than starting over, you’ll be given the option to save yourself and soldier onward.  A cookbook full of new recipes will make you feel like you’re actually able to make creme brulee, but don’t let it go to your head–you can’t.  I checked.

The biggest new feature is Shopping.  You must battle your way through frustrated salarymen, women with screaming babies, overeager salespeople to capture your desired ingredients.  If you’re too slow, you’ll have to play a mini-game to escape.  It’s a very cute feature, though it isn’t well-integrated with the game as a whole, and sometimes employees are particularly difficult to escape, and repeating mini-games is not my favorite thing to do once I’ve mastered them.

Blast Factor: This game is so charming–and has such a high replay value–that I can’t help but give it an excellent review.  Mama always manages to defrost the icy leftovers of my heart, and this may in fact be my favorite installation in the series.  If you’ve ever panned this title, now is the time to reconsider.

Cooking Mama 3: Shop and Chop is available on the Nintendo DS for $29.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

That’s not to say anyone can’t play and enjoy being a virtual DJ here. The game caters to all skill levels, but to really get the most out of the mix table peripheral, you’ll need to master the higher skill settings. Regardless of which difficulty level, DJ Hero is amazingly fun.  Almost 100 mix tracks come with the game and it’s the first music game since Dance Dance Revolution to especially appeal to the techno crowd. The mixes cover the musical spectrum though—plenty of rap, hip hop, Motown, and pop from the last 30 years. But the magic is how the game mixes two tracks together to create something new.

Nowhere else could you hear Marvin Gaye crossed with the Gorillaz, the Beastie Boys and Queen, the Killers vs. Rihanna, David Bowie and 50 Cent, and an impressive and entertaining number of other great mixes. It’s not a stretch to say that this eclectic, dance-centric line-up is the best yet for a Hero game and it makes the color-coded button pressing gameplay feel more distinctive than ever.

The mix table controller is a cool new addition to any gamer’s stash. The main focus is on the turntable, which both spins and has three colored buttons. On the medium difficulty level and below, this is all you’ll really need, and the game plays just like any of the Hero/Rock Band games. Color-coded circles stream down three trails on the screen and the object is to hit the appropriate button at exactly the right time. At times, you’ll have to spin the turntable up or down based on the onscreen cues. The concept is simple, the execution is fun, and the presentation is bright, colorful, and quirky.

Once you get comfortable with the basic gameplay and switch to a higher level, the crossfader becomes a major part of the game. This slider bar is at home in the center, but at times, you’ll have to slide it right and left in time with the music trail, while keeping pace with the button presses and spins. The crossfade bar adds an interesting level of challenge in general, and adds some great variation to the music. On the downside, it can be a bit unruly. Despite have a bit of feedback, when the game is in high gear, paying attention to the current position of the bar without having to actually look at it can be frustrating.

There’s little in the way of onscreen prompts to keep track of the slider’s position as well, making the learning curve a bit steeper than it could have been. Another feature that is great in concept, but still in need of some work is the overlap with Guitar Hero. Some of the tracks allow for a guitarist, yet few of them felt particularly optimized for this feature. Usually the guitar tracks end up being painfully repetitive. Still, it’s a nice bonus feature that could use improvement in the sequel.

The overall presentation is much like other music game, with the moving gameplay tracks taking up most of the screen acreage, and stylized graphics of your on-stage DJ, the crowd, dancers—all reacting to how well you’re doing. The pumping soundtrack is especially awesome for home theater-equipped systems, but as expected, it sounds great in general.

Blast Factor: Without a doubt, DJ Hero is the most distinctive and original music game on the market. While the game is enjoyable for all skill levels, it takes on a whole new level coordination for the hardcore crowd. The packed soundtrack is phenomenal and mix table controller is responsive and fun to use. The  main problem for DJ Hero is the steep asking price. $119 is a lot to spend on one game with only a single controller. If you don’t mind the cover charge though, this is the coolest virtual rave in town.

Another Take — Bradley Ouellette

Activision’s latest Music game is an interesting new twist. They have taken the well-known style of the Guitar Hero franchise, and instead of playing a guitar, the player spins a record, and acts like a DJ mixing tunes. The Music in the game always consists of two pieces that the player has to mix together, fading between the two pieces and adding other effects including scratching, freestyling, and cross fading.

The game plays similar to any other Guitar Hero style game, moving the cross fader to select the track, scratching, or pressing the buttons to cause different effects to the music. When the player gets all of a lit up section correct the game gives a charge to the Euphoria button–this is the same as star power.

The scoring in DJ Hero feels different than the scoring in Guitar Hero also. The multipliers earned from rows of correct notes is very important since if you don’t hit 4x multiplier for a while in the game, you pretty much can’t score more than 3 stars. So hitting an extra note that isn’t there can kill your rating. Also if the player gets enough notes correct in a row, there is a rewind button that will show up in the display. This looks like the regular rewind button on a remote. When that’s on the screen, spinning the turntable back one full turn will rewind the song, and let the player replay a section to increase their score. This can be especially fun, if in Emode, when there is a bunch of cross fading back and forth, since it will allow the player to get a huge score with little effort. That being said, the rewind mode can also kill the score, since while it rewinds it’s easy to mess up a note and lose the multiplier.

Over all, I loved the game. I thought it was a neat new twist in the music genre; whereas the guitar band games haven’t had as much innovation lately, this was completely new. I found that game played smoothly, except for the cross fader. Even with the issues of the cross fader, loved the game, and will highly
recommend it if you generally like music games.

DJ Hero is available on the Wii, Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, and retails for $119.99. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Those of you who have picked up a copy of Need for Speed: Shift, you may have high hopes for NITRO. However, Shift and NITRO are two completely different experiences. Where Shift was in the vein of a racing simulator, NITRO returns to Need for Speed’s Arcade roots. You drag race through the city while trying to beat other racers and avoid the police. The more damage you do while driving, combined with your position in the race, will draw more police attention. So if you’re in first place and causing a large amount of damage to your surroundings, watch out. The challenge makes the game interesting and makes it feel like you’re racing in the Fast and the Furious (not an opinion everyone may share).

The game play is definitely designed for casual racers instead of hardcore racing fanatics, so this game will probably not appeal to racers who enjoy realistic racing. The racing itself is very cartoonish, which doesn’t take away from the game, but makes it rather endearing. You drive with acceleration and braking and also use Nitrous to speed up the car for a competitive edge. The difficulty levels are just right so that it’s not insultingly easy but not soul crushingly hard (sorry to disappoint all you masochists out there). You play in either Arcade or Career mode and use the Wii remote to drive. However, you’re not limited to using only the Wii remote – you can also use the classic controller (a personal favorite), the Wii Wheel from Mario Kart and even a Gamecube controller! That was a great relief for when I tried out multiplayer with my friends and found that all four worked on the game.

There are 30 cars that are available to use but you have the ability to customize them however you wish. The 30 cars are separated into three tiers: Supercars, Balanced Performance and Commercial vehicles. Supercars are fast racing cars while Commercial vehicles are slower but sturdier. You can paint your cars in whatever way you like in order to make it more interesting. While you can drive around, you can’t total your car. That doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences for reckless driving. If you crash too many times, you end up losing your nitro meters, which can cost you the race.

Visually, the game is very cartoonish and animated in a way which makes it interesting to look up. Unfortunately, the game’s variety limits its potential. The game has very few levels and only 30 cars. Even if you increase the difficulty of the levels, there’s little incentive to keep playing when you know what the tracks are like. This incredibly repetitive game play is a big disappointment of a fun game to kill time with. This is surprising given the fact that the game’s simplicity would have seemed like the biggest letdown.

Blast Factor: Need for Speed: NITRO is a fun arcade racer which suffers from a very repetitive set up. The cars are interesting, as are the visuals, but that doesn’t really improve the lack of courses to race through and the fact that there are only 30 cars. This isn’t a bad game, and it is perfect for fans of casual arcade racing games but it isn’t something which would appeal to hardcore racers. If you want something silly for the kids this is definitely a game for you to pick up.

Need for Speed: Nitro is available on the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS, and retails for $49.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

The first thing you will notice after popping A Crack in Time into your PS3 is the graphics–this is highly polished, very colorful, very creative stuff. During cutscenes, it looks and sounds like a cartoon, maybe even something Pixar would have made. During the actual gameplay, the physics, explosions, guns and the worlds you play on will also impress, as the game is loaded with graphical effects (heat coming off of lava, snow and rain falling from the sky, etc.) that really pop thanks to the PS3. Enemies animate wonderfully, while living and while dying, everything just flat out works. It’s one of the better looking titles on the system thanks to strong art direction and wonderful animation.

Gameplay wise, there’s plenty to love. With Ratchet, you have multiple modes with which to play. The first of these is somewhat standard to the series, as you have different levels on different planets, each with its own distinct look and feel. These planets have a fair share of shooting along with platforming–while the platforming in these areas never gets to be too difficult, the number of enemies (and the difficulty of said enemies) increases as you go through the game enough that you don’t get bored. If you’re playing this game on Hard, you will need to be on top of your game in the later levels, or you will die fast.

The second Ratchet mode reminds me of two different Mario experiences–Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy. When you land on the moons that are scattered throughout each solar system, you have the opportunity to collect more mods for your weapons, rare items and Zoni–all of which will be explained in detail later. These moons is where you will find the platforming challenge, as they are designed to be more skill-based than the planets themselves. The Sunshine reminder comes from their increased difficulty and variation from the standard gameplay–remember the hidden stages in Super Mario Sunshine, where you no longer had the water pack and had to do things the old fashioned way? The Galaxy portion comes from the spherical levels–yes, I know Ratchet & Clank have had spherical levels before, but the design reminds me of Galaxy in many ways. While optional, these are worth your time, and not just for the rewards that they hold. Completing them is a reward on its own, given the increased challenge and lengthening of the gameplay experience.

Last, and very much least, you have space. You fly around in your ship from planet to planet (with pit stops at moons along the way), but there are side missions for you to complete that are sometimes worth it, like towing a downed ship in order to get a few thousand bolts (the game’s currency). Most of the time though, you can’t be bothered. There is very boring fighting in space, as you just hold R1 and L1 to fire beams and missiles in the hopes of hitting something and getting back to the good stuff. The enemy ships don’t do much to fight back either, and they don’t do a very good job of getting out of the way of your shots; it just wasn’t necessary. Maybe space will evolve into a worthwhile frontier in another Ratchet & Clank game, but A Crack in Time is not the one where this happens. Thankfully this is the portion of the game you will spend the least amount of time on, especially if you just quick jump from place to place.

Besides Ratchet’s ever-present Omniwrench, which is both weapon and tool, you have a massive arsenal of guns at your disposal. You’ve got your basic laser gun, grenades, a rocket launcher, a shotgun, and then you’ve got the guns that let Insomniac show off their imagination. How about the equivalent of a space pig with a trigger that burps enemies to death? Or a chargeable ball of electricity that you can roll around effectively using Six Axis controls while you run from danger? Maybe a sniper rifle with a bioscope that marks enemy weak points for you–shooting stuff in the head isn’t always the answer, you know. There are tons of guns to choose from, and also plenty of ways to improve them. You can pick up Constructo Mods, which alter the way your weapon fires, whether it explodes on impact or not, the type of damage it will cause, etc. You can also level up your weapons by using them–this increases damage, rate of fire, area of effect, ammo capacity and the like. Once a weapon reaches level five, it morphs into an even more powerful version of the previous weapon. Your grenades get schrapnel, for instance, while your rocket launcher fires three rockets per round rather than one.

The strange thing is that I would find myself moving on to another gun despite creating a super powered one, because I wanted to see what else it had to offer me through use. There’s nothing that can be pointed at as useless in Ratchet’s arsenal–you will find a place for everything, even in the weapons that may seem odd at the point of sale.

Clank’s levels may be the best portion of the game though, as they are time-bending puzzles that will require you to take off that Lombax battle armor and instead use that robotic intellect. It’s somewhat tough to visualize, but here is Clank’s gameplay in a nutshell: you have puzzles where Clank needs to be in multiple places at once in order to open the door out of the room. There could be anywhere from one to three door opening switches in the room, plus additional switches that open up pathways to reach those door switches. Each of these switches works only when Clank is standing on them though, which is why he needs to be in multiple places at once.

In order to do this, you need to use the Timepads to record Clank stepping on the switch–after recording, you can play it back, and a copy of Clank will perform the action you just recorded while Clank goes off to a different time pad to record yet another instance of platforming. Early puzzles are simple–there’s one switch and two Timepads, so make a copy to get on the switch while you run through the door. The later ones though require a lot of trial and error in order to progress, as you will need to make copies that open up pathways that lead to switches that lead to new pathways for previous copies so that they can step on a switch that clears a path, and so on. These are very satisfying to complete, and are just the right level of difficulty where you want to keep trying at it without wanting to throw your controller elsewhere. My biggest issue with them is that there were just not enough of them–Ratchet is still the star, despite Clank’s superior gameplay. That’s not a knock on Ratchet either, but it goes to show you how fun Clank’s sections are.

When you combine the multiple Ratchet elements with Clank’s puzzling, you end up with a fine Ratchet & Clank game that makes you want to play often. The game features multiple difficulties as well as a challenge mode, and with loads to collect in the form of Contructo Mods, gold bolts and the Zoni that upgrade your ship’s weaponry and abilities, there’s plenty to do outside of the standard levels. The Argonian tournaments may be my favorite part though, as they throw you into some ridiculous gladiator challenges that will require a full knowledge of your weaponry and enemy weaknesses if you want to win. The rewards–bolts, weapons and upgrades–are worth the price of admission, but you’ll find yourself here just for the challenge too. Plus, the game is just funny, no matter which character you use, so it’s worth it to you to extend the game to find all of the humor in it.

Blast Factor: While there are still some things to iron out in the form of space, and Clank could have stood to get a little more spotlight, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time holds up as the definitive Ratchet & Clank experience, one that should delight fans of the series while also converting holdouts and making them believers. It’s a quality title that should not be overlooked in this busy holiday season, and despite its cartoon appearance, it’s a game that people of all ages can enjoy.

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is available exclusively on the Playstation 3, and retails for $59.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Band Hero is Activision’s answer to LEGO: Rock Band and aims to corral and persuade the pop-loving, teen masses into grabbing a plastic instrument and rocking out with friends. The game features tunes from uber-mainstream acts such as Jesse McCartney, Taylor Swift, The Spice Girls, and loads more songs you likely never imagined you’d play in a Guitar Hero game.

There isn’t a heck of a lot about Band Hero that wasn’t covered in our hands-on preview, but now that I’ve jumped into the game for hours instead of minutes, there’s a little more to talk about.

First off, don’t expect anything different or significantly improved in the visuals department. Band Hero looks exactly like Guitar Hero 5. But this is not a detriment whatsoever. Guitar Hero 5 was the most phenomenal looking Hero title we’ve ever seen, and the minor tweaks Band Hero adds, only bring out the power of the engine that much more.

Band Hero’s menus are decorated with pink, popping, sparkly visual effects, and these adjustments clearly distinguish Band Hero from Guitar Hero 5. From a presentation standpoint, Band Hero just feels happier, if a video game could have emotions.

The game features every game-mode found in GH5, but has one significant addition- Sing Along. In this mode, Band Hero essentially morphs into a gorgeously rendered karaoke machine where up to four participants can simply sing along to any of the game’s tracks. The best part? Only one microphone is needed. Now, for me personally, this addition didn’t add anything. But, fill a room with little girls, and turn on “Love Story” by Taylor Swift, and well, it’ll be a different scenario.

The meat, however, of Band Hero, as with any music-game, is in its song list, and on this account, Band Hero excels. There are 65 on-disc tracks and all the downloadable content you’ve got on your hard drive also works in the game. For me it was rather comical seeing tunes from Metallica next to those of Dashboard Confessional, but hey, it works!

The tunes (here’s all 65), as previously noted, include radio friendly cuts from artists like Hilary Duff, Taylor Swift, The Spice Girls, Jesse McCartney and Fallout Boy. But the game also incorporates classics like “American Pie,” in all its nine-minute glory and “ABC’s” from the Jackson 5.

Personally, I feel that Band Hero is a “guilty pleasure” music game. It’s hard for me to admit I enjoy listening to Taylor Swift, but when I’m actually actively playing along to her tunes, it’s a little different. Maybe you wouldn’t openly admit to enjoying these songs per se, but when they’re wrapped into a video game, something changes, and they become very much alright.

Of note: What I’ve always found interesting when comparing the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises are the differences in note charts of the same songs in both games. For instance, Dashboard Confessional’s “Hands Down” is in both Rock Band and Band Hero. However, the song plays far more simply in Band Hero, and speaks to Activision’s determined effort of accessibility over genuine (as as much as can be expected) musicianship, a gameplay facet that Harmonix tirelessly works to effectively recreate in its game.

Additionally, if you can’t deal with censors and omitted vocal phrases, you might have a problem with Band Hero. In Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar We’re Going Down,” the line should that should read “I’m just a notch in your bedpost, but you’re just a line in a song” is sung in the game like this: “I’m just a notch…but you’re just a line in a song”

Good job Activision, you prevented some kid asking his or her parent “What’s a notch in a bedpost mean?”

Blast Factor: Band Hero is a phenomenally fun music-game. It doesn’t add a heck of a lot to the genre, but it remains cemented in excellence in gameplay, and the addition of Sing Along mode is gem hidden in the game that Activision simply did not hype enough. The 65 on-disc tunes are very surprisingly varied and altogether comprise a very wholesome attack from Activision at creating more than just a “kiddy” Guitar Hero title. In-game appearances by Taylor Swift and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine add a level of “whoa cool” to the game.

Band Hero is available for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and Playstation 2. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Case and point (at least for the video game side of things): Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Perhaps 2009’s most anticipated game, this Infinity Ward production has only gained hype as the holiday season approaches nearer and for good reason: Modern Warfare was a hit, both in the multiplayer and campaign aspects. However, fans and critics seemed to agree that Infinity Ward would be able to step up their (ahem) game with the second title in the series, even given the seemingly flawless initial release.

And, for the most part they were right. Modern Warfare 2 makes improvements in almost every way. Though covering every new feature and wizbang would be impossible, I do want to focus this review on the three main game modes: Campaign, Multiplayer and Special Ops, a new mode introduced in Modern Warfare 2.

First, lets start with campaign. Infinity Ward made the very wise choice of making Modern Warfare 2 a continuous plot and storyline from the first game, beginning five years after the conclusion of the initial events. Starting with a quick montage filled with video and sound clips from the original release, players will get a quick reminder of the events that took place earlier (though, folks who skipped playing Modern Warfare 1 may be a little lost on the outset of things).

Players take control of multiple soldiers within the campaign (the most memorable of whom is Gary “Roach” Sanderson), while also being whisked away to various exotic settings. Being trained and mentored by high profile NPCs (such as everyone’s favorite Scottish killing machine, Captain MacTavish), the characters in Modern Warfare are quite diverse and offer a wide variety of experiences that players will have to adapt to. Needless to say, Modern Warfare 2 takes care of the goal of making the game challenging and interesting very quickly.

Relative to Modern Warfare 1, the sequel has a much more intense story that goes beyond the standard themes of war, death and ultimate loss. Modern Warfare 2 puts players in the most realistic conflicts and impossible decisions that I’ve seen in a first-person shooter to date. Take, for example, the airport mission. Being enlisted as a undercover agent to befriend the most dangerous terrorist in the world, Vladimir Makarov, players must take part in the most heinous attack I’ve ever witnessed in a video game to preserve your false-identity. This part is so gruesome and powerful that Infinity Ward actually had to make sure to implement a waiver that all players must agree to in order to prevent their customers to get too offended. Given that this waiver is presented when one pops in the game for the first time, players should know right away that they are in for a wild ride.

The campaign continues from the airport mission to follow the events and repercussions that Makarov triggers, letting players contribute to the anti-terrorism actions from around the globe. Though, sadly, you never get to be quite as undercover as when you take part in the airport mission, there are plenty of tense missions, expanded gun repertoire and snow mobile chases that are sure to keep players entertained throughout the entire game. I expect some of the sequences and missions will stick in players’ minds for an unhealthy amount of time.

On the whole, the campaign defines what Modern Warfare 2 is: an intense, incredibly detailed game that is full of weapons and unique features. The story in this title is like nothing I’ve ever seen from a FPS and is clearly superior to the very well made original Modern Warfare campaign in almost every way.

Let’s move onto the bread and butter of Modern Warfare 2, the multiplayer mode. When first writing this review, I just didn’t know where to start due to the incredible amount of features included in this mode. So, instead of mentioning every single one, I’ll just do a brief review of my person favorites and least-favorites.

For the pros of multiplayer, Infinity Ward seemed to do a complete upgrade of everything graphical. From the player models to the environments, Modern Warfare 2 blows its predecessor away in the visual department. I was sure to take notice of the shading and texturing of various obstacles (an area I felt was a bit lacking in the original) and, wouldn’t you know it, the game was completely upgraded. Instead of grey, often boring colors, Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer levels are full of eye-popping colors from every part of the spectrum. Even the bullet hole that players can put in walls seem to have been revamped; that’s how completely improved the game is visually. I honestly think it is worth it to rent Modern Warfare 2 just to appreciate what was done to visually improve it.

The creators of Modern Warfare must have saw the added replay value of incorporating challenges and upgrades in multiplayer modes because this sequel is full of them. Every gun, sidearm and even perk is linked to a few challenges that players can pursue. Also, instead of having a standard amount of upgrades for every weapon, Infinity Ward was sure to differentiate each gun and weapon class more distinctly by not only adding more upgrades, such as thermal scopes and heart beat monitors, but by also encouraging players to test each upgrade out by linking challenges to them. For instance, I recently completed a challenge that involved me getting a certain amount of kills with the heart beat monitor upgrade. Without that challenge, I may never have had a chance to appreciate or even use this unique upgrade.

I won’t ask why the evil enemy’s robots are capable of being shot down by foam darts and soft balls, but we’ll just use video game logic here to say that it works and you best not question why. Regardless of what they are using for ammo, the four friends team up to take down this evil-doer, and they pick up loads of blasters along the way, blasters that they can customize to their liking. You purchase upgrades with items you find scattered around levels and hiding inside your enemies, just waiting to burst out when you blow them up. This adds to the replay value significantly–light gun games like House of the Dead and Time Crisis suffer on occasion from not having enough incentive to replay them, but when you’re given a reason (like this spring’s House of the Dead: Overkill, with its achievement and upgrade systems) then you’ve got yourself a keeper, as playing through it again isn’t painful.

To add to that, you can also play with another person, even if they don’t have their own Nerf blaster. They can just use the Wii Remote (or another peripheral like the Wii Zapper or Nyko Perfect Shot) in order to play along–some areas are only available to you if you are playing co-op, so there’s good reason for Little Timmy to invite Little Billy over to blast some robots.

Outside of blasting everything in sight, the big hook for N-Strike Elite is the Red Reveal–there’s an attachment for the Nerf blaster that you look through at certain parts of the game, in order to reveal secret codes that you can use in various places. The places where you need Red Reveal could not be anymore obvious if they had signs with fingers pointing surrounding them, but it’s hard to read the text without the Red Reveal, and it is the sort of thing that your little pre-teen adventurer will eat up due to it’s undercover, secret agent mystique.

The one knock the game has is that it’s very non-violent, but that may also be a selling point to many parents who want their kids to be able to enjoy video games, but don’t exactly want them sawing off aliens heads with a chainsaw bayonet just yet. The kids don’t die; the game just sort of stops and you get the chance to restart from your last checkpoint. Foam darts and balls will also not be mistaken for bullets anytime soon; it’s not like they go inside the robots, they just sort of bounce off, but then again, that would happen if you turned and blasted your co-op buddy with the fully functional Nerf blaster you’re playing with anyways, so it makes sense.

The Nerf blaster is a better product than the Wii Zapper, though I would put it a step below the Nyko Perfect Shot; the grip on the handle is not long enough for comfort if you’ve got big hands, but otherwise it’s well-made and works perfectly for its intended Wii related purposes. Considering you’re getting it with a game without too much of a price hike, it’s not a bad accessory to have around for other games.

Blast Factor: Nerf N-Strike Elite made a great design change from the original, going for more of a light-gun adventure than an arena-based series of challenges. It makes for gameplay that immerses the player into the experience more, and with the loads of customization options and many blasters to collect (and don’t forget co-op) there are plenty of reasons to come back to this title. It’s $60, but it comes packaged with a peripheral that works better than most similar products on the market alongside a quality game.

Nerf N-Strike Elite is available exclusively on the Wii for $59.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Of course, this was clearly an exercise of sarcasm as Grand Theft Auto IV was a perfect representation of how to develop a game.  Yet, it seems that the people at Rockstar went ahead and fulfilled my request anyway with their release of Episodes from Liberty City.

This stand-alone title, available for around $40, allows veterans and new fans of the series to play the add-ons for GTA IV, the critically acclaimed Lost and the Damned and the highly anticipated release of The Ballad of Gay Tony, without actually having to own a copy of the original game.  This set-up is perfect for those who played Grand Theft Auto IV as a rental or just never bothered to download the additional episodes, combined with the drop of The Ballad of Gay Tony and a fair price (costing as much as downloading the two separate add-ons in the Xbox Live Marketplace) make Episodes from Liberty City a very intriguing title heading into the holiday season.

First, let’s briefly go over The Lost and the Damned before we focus on The Ballad of Gay Tony and then review the complete package of Episodes of Liberty City as a whole.  (For our more in-depth review of The Lost and the Damned, check out this link). The Lost and the Damned allows players to take control of Johnny Klebitz, a member of the biker gang called The Lost.  Johnny, vice president of the club, is tasked with spending most of his time fixing the mistakes of the president, Billy, who has been in rehab for narcotics possession for a long while.  Of course, upon the release of Billy from rehab, the club is divided by those who prefer Johnny as their leader and those who prefer Billy.  Now, players must find a way to reunite the club, while also dealing with controlling Billy’s out-of-control behavior, gang wars, jail raids and other craziness.  Like The Ballad of Gay Tony, The Lost of the Damned has plenty of mini games and multiplayer modes unique to the add-on.  By itself, The Lost and the Damned is worth downloading due to its unique story and decent amount of gameplay, but how will it look when combined with another add-on?

The Ballad of Gay Tony is the newest release from the folks at Rockstar, which will be available both in downloadable and hardcopy format as found in Episodes From Liberty City, which we’ve been focusing on in this article.  This add-on has a completely different vibe than the previously described The Lost and the Damned episode, which should not really come as a surprise.  Instead of being centered around the gritty activities and conflicts of a biker gang, The Ballad of Gay Tony focuses on the not-so-glamorous life behind the velvet ropes and glitz of the Liberty City club scene.

Players take control of Luis Lopez, a juvenile delinquent turned club-owner body guard.  Luis is introduced as Gay Tony’s (AKA Tony Price) confidant, muscle and eventual business partner.  Of course, coming from a childhood of crime and mischief, Luis has plenty of profitable and questionable connections and opportunities with his life back home as well.  Throughout the game, Mr. Lopez will have to deal with the struggles of balancing business with family in order to become the biggest success he can be.  Plenty of in-game decisions will have to be made by the player, so be prepared to have to make some moral choices as you try to make it to the top.

The Ballad of Gay Tony begins with a funky intro; the term “funky” meaning filled with 70’s and 80’s style of music, complete with synthesizers and heavy bass slaps…. not strange or odorous.  Anyway, the point is that The Ballad of Gay Tony lets you know right from the start that this episode is not like any other Grand Theft Auto title that you’ve seen.  This installment will be filled with a new level of flamboyancy and classiness that players have only gotten mere tastes of in the previous games.  However, rest assured that there are plenty of drugs, swearing, murders and conflicts in this episode, which will surely keep the GTA purists satisfied to a reasonable extent.

Telltale Games, makers of the Sam and Max and Wallace and Gromit series of point and click adventure games, released the fourth installment in their own pirate franchise Tales of Monkey Island with The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood last week, but don’t lose hope: the title is bleak, but the game is wonderful.

The Tales of Monkey Island series is an episode-based saga. The stories began in July with Launch of the Screaming Narwhaland today’s installment Trial and Execution is number four in a five-part drama, culminating next month with Rise of the Pirate God due out sometime in December.

Another essential bit of preface is that Trial and Execution just like those before it, is a point-and-click action adventure game and is rooted on its magnificent storytelling and multitude of dialogue lines.

Now we’re ready.

Trial and Execution begins with a detailed yet brief cinematic introduction that will remind past players of the last chapter’s events, and will catch up newcomer’s to just what the hell is going on. I found this inclusion very helpful, because with short games like these played a month prior, it’s easy to forget what you’ve already accomplished, or, as is more likely, the mess you’ve gotten into.

In the game you play as Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate, who, for as ambitious as he is, lacks restraint and a fully operable brain. This is not to say you’re guiding an empty-headed buffoon around the game-world, because you’re not, just that the comedic value of his bumbling nature is apparent.

The basic plot synopsis for this installment is, without giving too much away, you’ve returned to the once-friendly Flotsam Islands, only to be seized and tried in a court of pirate-law for high seas crimes you’ve allegedly committed. It’s your job to defend yourself, using your dashing wit, in the court and save yourself from an untimely death. Oh, and at the same time the sinister French Marquis is plotting, and he’s plotting hard. To live through the day, a lot is asked of Guybrush, but hell, he’s escaped the belly of a Leviathan, how hard can this be!?

With four titles already under the thick belt of the Monkey Island series, there isn’t a heck of a lot to say here. The incredibly solid foundation Telltale laid in the preceding titles is applied to Trial and Execution with wonderful execution.

Voice-acting and character-recognition (through the voice acting), arguably the focal points of point and click games, are spot-on and without flaw in this latest game. With every line spoken, and there are many, many lines of dialogue, I became more attached to Guybrush and the entire supporting cast. Their lines aren’t corny; save for a few, and through this genuineness, the character’s truly come to life and become an emotional investment on you.

The story and dialogue are so good that it’s scary. The events unfold like a great storybook, and one you’ll find yourself steam-rolling through, as events transpire just like that (I snapped my fingers).

The lines of dialogue are eloquently crafted pieces of prose, and truly speak to the writing staff at Telltale. I’d really like to meet these guys and gals; they have some bona fide talent, that’s for sure.

The music element in Trial and Execution is again beautifully done. It intensifies tense moments, relieves stress at others, and is generally appropriate. I wouldn’t put it up for any soundtrack award, but it works, and it works very well.

As far as plot is concerned, I won’t give specifics, as the game lasts only about three hours, but I can say there is more going on in this tale than any of the others. Yes, the first was intriguing on account of its newness, but Trial and Execution is a rollercoaster ride of emotion that’ll keep you actively engaged right up until the stunning and unexpected conclusion. Alliances are formed, backs are stabbed, and hot peppers are licked! But best of all, this installment ends on the most slippery of cliffhangers and I am truly excited to play next month’s fifth and final episode.

What I found most compelling about the game was the fact that a main character dies. It’s a tense moment in a light-hearted franchise. It was wholly unexpected, but masterfully executed. Death was shown in previous games, but only at a comedic and light level. This tragic occurrence is just that; tragic, and for me, was a compelling reason to finish the game. I had to know what’s next!

My only gripe with the game was its return to a familiar location instead of branching out to new environments, a la the belly of a leviathan in the previous installment, because there I feel Telltale strutted their digital stuff and as a result wowed fans and I alike. Now, the game introduces some new environments; the courthouse, De Singe’s laboratory, and brings the darkness of night to the world, which elicits a second opinion of a locale you thought you knew, but still, I think Telltale could have and should have done more.

The game’s humor is also worth noting. Unlike the comedic value of another Telltale property, Sam and Max, which is more direct, the jokes in Trial and Execution are light-hearted and for lack of better term, less funny, but still funny. You won’t be laughing the way you do during your favorite comedy film, but you’ll have a giddy little smirk fixed on your face during much of the game.

Aesthetically, the title looks wonderful. I have a decent PC, a laptop no less! PC gamers go ahead and heckle me, but the game runs smoothly and looks gorgeous on my rig (if I can even call it that).

From the expansive jungle to the detailed docks to the uncivilized courtroom, Telltale’s attention to detail yet again shines through a fog of drear often associated with games of this nature. I experienced no slow-down or texture issues throughout my stay at the Flotsam Islands and at times stopped and reveled at the beauty of creation, as some of the environments really look splendiferous.

Blast Factor: Tales of Monkey Island: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood is a wonderfully thought out, executed, and enjoyable point and click adventure. Excellence in story-telling through voice acting, attention to detail in regards to the game’s environment and memorable characters combine to make this one of the best installments. Telltale Games have proven they have the chops to excel in the genre and I am both excited and saddened to know there is but one game left!

Tales of Monkey Island: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood is available today on PC. $34.95 gets you all five episodes. A copy of the game was given to us by Telltale for reviewing purposes. Arrrrrr.

There are a few new gameplay improvements that bear mentioning. For one, the animations have improved, so things look a bit more realistic now than they used to. Wrestlers react to being struck in specific areas more, and you can use things like the ropes to great effect in order to take your opponent out. Strong grapple transitions are now manually performed, which means you can switch from one grapple position to another without having to let go of the grapple first–considering that THQ wrestling games from 10 years ago made you do this, it’s about time this change came about. There are also new positions to attack from and grapple from, which gives you even more options per Superstar when it comes to your move set.

Reversals have received a makeover too–now you have to press the right trigger to reverse everything, but it is timing based, so you can’t just spam the button and hope you reverse it. The window for reversals is pretty small, but with some practice it works effectively. Of course, if you aren’t able to reverse, you’ll take a beating; the good news is that now you will be able to see that beating’s effects on you and your opponent’s body. Give someone a hard chop to the chest? You’ll see their chest redden, which is a cool damage effect that mirrors real life. There’s also a lot of blood in this year’s edition–while the cuts start out small, the blood keeps on coming if you beat them down, so things will get messy.

The bulk of the Smackdown vs. Raw experience is the same as previous editions, but there have been some cool additions that make this much more than a roster update with a fresh coat of paint. The Road to Wrestlemania mode features multiple storylines that have been developed with the mindset of replicating a WWE experience. Copyright logos show up at the same time they would during the actual Raw or Smackdown shows, you go to the backrooms to talk to other wrestlers and view cutscenes, and there’s much more going on than just fight, fight, fight. They also do a very good job of harnessing these Superstar’s personalities–Edge is the kind of guy you’re going to love or hate, just like in real life, as he tries to take over Smackdown in his scenario. He’s presented as a twisted, sick-minded (but talented) wrestler who should not be given the reins to Smackdown, and even the announcers get in on that kind of information as they call his matches. These scenarios are well done and feel very much like a WWE experience.

The Royal Rumble has had some work done to it, as there are now different minigames for eliminating opponents. These change depending on where you try to throw an opponent out (or where you’re being tossed out). These are simple, like tap X repeatedly then tap Y repeatedly until you get back in, or sometimes they are more quick-time event oriented, but they are easy to grasp and make the Royal Rumble a more frantic and fun experience.

Maybe more interesting is the Championship Scramble though, a new match type that has five wrestlers going at it at the same time. You can put the different WWE championship belts on the line in these matches, which have an intriguing concept: two wrestlers start, and the three others enter the ring at set times. Each time someone is pinned or falls via submission hold, the wrestler responsible becomes the new champion; the twist is that there is a time limit, and the last one standing holding the belt is the champion. This becomes very difficult though, as there are five of you in there at once, meaning there are three people ready to stomp on your face every time you go for the cover. The matches are loads of fun though, especially given their difficulty–you aren’t just going to throw a few strong grapple moves around here and come away victorious if there are four others in the ring that all want to hurt you.

The create-a-wrestler mode has also seen improvements, with options for creating entrance movies using highlights that you have saved; you take these highlights, splice them together, and add sound and screen effects in order to come in to a badass theme. Taking a cue from the 2009 edition of the game, custom finishers are back, but you can now also create your own aerial finishers–those of you that love the high flying Superstars are sure to be pleased by this development. The obvious thing to do is to make everyone perform a hurricanrana, but you can string together your own preferences before the final blow. There is also a paint tool that you can use to create custom tattoos and the like for your Frankenwrestler, so you aren’t limited by what comes with the game any longer.

If you don’t want to create a new wrestler, then you still get to toy around with create-a-wrestler features, as you can now customize the Superstars that come with the game more, changing their colors. For me, that meant that John Cena had to wear girly colors, but you can mock or improve whichever wrestler you choose in the way you want to (P.S., make Cena like girly things). You also have the option of downloading other player’s created wrestlers, which means that you don’t need to struggle to create the legends of the WWE hiding in the costume designs if you don’t want to, because someone else already did.

While these modes are all well and good, with either improvements or totally new features that enhance the Smackdown vs. Raw experience, the meat of the game for many is going to be the WWE Story Designer. You don’t need to even make one yourself in order to enjoy this, which is probably its greatest strength–you can simply download other people’s scenarios over Xbox Live, which means you have a limitless supply of brand new stories to play through. While the chances that all of them are memorable experiences is slim, the fact that you will have some serious hardcore fans writing their own stories–this is basically a fan fiction generator–is great news for those who love their WWE.

You may be shocked at the breadth of options you have at your disposal in this mode. You’re basically scripting a 10-year show instead of just playing General Manager of either Smackdown or Raw, so you not only set the matches, but you get to create backstage scenes, start rivalries, create alliances, or, if you’re feeling frisky, create some Diva/Superstar relationships. You write the scripts, and you use the over 100 animations you have at your disposal to emote the lines.

You not only have the entire WWE roster at your beck and call here, but you can also use your created wrestlers, meaning there’s no shortage of talent for you. This also allows you to give your created Superstars some personality that can be played out somewhere besides your noggin. This gives you a lot to do after you’ve finished the story modes included in the game, and as stated, if creativity isn’t your thing, there is always other people’s work to play through. That shared content isn’t restricted to just created-wrestlers and the Story Designer though, as you can download pretty much everything from other people that you can create yourself.

Blast Factor: There is no shortage of things to do in Smackdown vs. Raw 2010. The game that comes packaged has loads of game modes, from the traditional career stuff to a more story-oriented Road to Wrestlemania, and let’s not forget about the enhanced Royal Rumble and the brand new Championship Scramble. Outside of that though, creation is the name of the game, from characters to entrances to your own WWE storylines–and of course, if you aren’t creative or don’t have the time, you can always download other people’s work to extended your Smackdown vs. Raw experience.

Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 is available on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Wii and Nintendo DS. A copy of the Xbox 360 game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Dragon Age: Origins takes place in Ferelden, a land that is suffering at the hands of the Darkspawn. The Darkspawn were created by mages that sought to step foot in the Golden City of heaven; they became twisted, hideous creatures that stole men and women from their homes, killing and burning everywhere they went in their attempt to rid the world of all races. They were held back by the dwarves, since they made their home in the underground, but eventually the Grey Wardens, a force of knights, mages, rogues and anyone else that can wield a weapon that was made up of all races, helped push the Darkspawn back, ending the Blight. They failed to kill the Archdemon though, and now the Darkspawn and a potential Blight loom once again on Ferelden–this is where you find yourself at the start of the game.

Well, once you go through your origin story anyways. While many games, especially in the genre that Dragon Age is in, allow you to create your character, make them male or female and whatever race you would like, be it elf, dwarf, or human, none allows you the kind of backstory and full-on immersion of Dragon Age. There is a backstory for each character class–the human noble, the city elf, the forest elf, the mage, the two types of dwarf, one casteless, the other not. For the magi, you can pick either human or elf as well, and any of these characters can be male or female. The origin story gives your character a true backstory, making them a part of Ferelden and the Dragon Age universe, rather than just giving you some character you created with a stock history that never changes.

Each of these origin quests is a few hours long, and the game will treat you differently depending on what you pick. I won’t spoil anything for you, but here are some generalizations: as a human noble, you will have a score to settle later in the game that originated early on, but if you happened to pick an Elven mage, you can face the same scenario later without that emotional, personal element to it. On the other hand, you will have your own prejudices to deal with as not just a mage, but as an elf, as they are looked down upon in a racist manner in Ferelden, so it’s not like you miss out by picking one over the other. It just means that to experience all that Dragon Age has to offer, you will have to test out these different angles. Hell, if you don’t want to play through the entire game again, at worst you picked up another 12-15 hours of gameplay just so you can learn all of the different backgrounds playing through the origins, expanding on the world that BioWare has created.

It’s quite the world, too. It’s deep beyond belief, especially for an original property and the first in what may turn out to be a franchise. The characters–good, bad, and everything in between–are believable. There are no mustache twirling villains in Ferelden, tying innocent girls to railroad tracks–these are people with legitimate beliefs and ideas, and you may agree with them, you may not. Also, even those you think are pure and pious may have a hidden history that you can uncover, should you choose to do so–it’s certainly not a world focusing just on the black and white. You will pick up many documents, books and notes along the way, each of which will be added to your Codex. The Codex is a collection of those aforementioned items, plus information on enemies, friends, foes, towns, kings, history, the Wardens, the magi–you name it, it is in the codex. You could, no exaggeration, spend hours reading everything that the Codex holds. You get the impression that Dragon Age wanted to create this believable world with a full history, much like Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings novels and expanded works. They very much succeed, and in many ways that I don’t want to spoil here. Just know that if you’ve got a love for fantasy, you will adore the world created by BioWare.

My confusion stems from the feel of the story and plot, which is strictly low-quality, Saturday morning cartoon level filler.� You play as a youth who, uh, loves this card battling game that features creatures popping out of balls.� Think Pokemon, but with a bit of a technological and alien bent as opposed to animals.� Your youth is plucky, with a whole cast of stereotypes to help you out � A super cool dude who serves as a tag team partner, an obvious bully and a lackey to fight against, several girls that are cute but have no personalities of their own, and a nerdy kid who is obviously very nerdy because of his nerdy kid glasses.

Although all of the characters are definitely stock, straight from central casting, the voiceover work is done pretty well.� Likewise, the graphics are Saturday morning cartoon, but in the good way � Crisp, colorful backgrounds and good animation on the actual battlefields.� While the voiceover and graphics aren’t selling points, they do not actively take away from the experience.

If you are reading this and under the age of 18, then the above characters and presentation might appeal to you greatly.� If you are not, then you will have to rely on the gameplay, which is so-so.� While there are some fun aspects here and there, the basic gameplay is rather unrefined.

Bakugan is essentially a �monster battling� game, similar to the aforementioned Pokemon.� You create a deck of cards, compromised of three attacking monsters, three base cards and three power-up cards.� At the start of combat, you are transported to an arena, and you have to place down a base card.� You then use the Wiimote to �throw� a ball � one of your attacking monsters � on to one of the base cards placed by you or your opponent.� The control pad can be used to �steer� the ball in the air, and also after it lands.� You opponent then throws, followed by you again.

The goal is to win three gate cards.� If you can land two of your monsters on a single gate card, then you can claim it.� However, the main combat occurs when you and an enemy land on the card, which initiates a battle.� Each monster has a �power� level � think hit points � that can be amplified depending on the base card the fight takes place on.� For example, a Holy powered monster might get an extra 50 points for fighting on a Holy battlefield.

There are a few other wrinkles from here.� First, you can use power-up cards to give yourself some extra points.� And second, each battle features one of three mini-games � a rhythm timing game, a shooting game with the Wiimote pointer or a masturbatory shaking � in order to further increase the power level. Whoever has the higher number wins.� There are also power-ups your monster can collect while rolling around the arena as well, to raise or increase the power level, and to debilitate your opponents with annoying status effects.

It’s simpler than it seems, and unfortunately, you don’t need a lot of the extra options, like the movement or even doing well on the mini-games.� For the most part, I was able to accurately throw the balls on to cards with little trouble, with the computer’s success rate was about 50 percent.� I was able to win most of the game’s battles within three to five turns.

This lack of challenge and generally unoriginal gameplay creates a sense of �meh� while playing Bakugan.� It is kind of fun, but my old fogey mind kept thinking back to Pokemon, and how much better that was, even though its prevalent color was an odd sort of green and I played it on the original, chunky Game Boy that now doubles as a paperweight for me.

There are some attempts here and there to prolong the Bakugan experience.� For example, you can purchase new monsters at a store, and like every game of this type, there is an emphasis on collecting every monster, gate card and power-up card.� This will probably only appeal to the few ensnared enough by the game to continue with it though, and it’s not really a drawing point if you don’t like the basic gameplay.� Likewise, tag team, battle royal and multiplayer matches are available, but they’re all just more of the same.

Blast Factor: Bakugan has a very narrow niche in my mind � Boys who aren’t trying to get laid yet.� If you have one of these in your household, then this is a good game to forestall that hellish part of their life (also known medically as �The Rest of Their Life�) for another month or so.� If you don’t fall into this group though, Bakugan isn’t worth its price tag.� Just plow through the game in a quick renting if you think it’s your cup of tea.

Bakugan is available on the Wii, DS, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Playstation 2. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

The Wireless Fender Precision Bass is one of the only (Beatles Rock Band not included) video game guitars that specifically caters to the oft-ignored bassists out there. The most obvious feature will grab you right away in the split strum bar. This allows you to have a certain degree of realism in doing two-fingered bass strumming.

The elongated neck and fret buttons make for comfortable game playing. The guitar is 84 percent to scale, but it actually feels like you’re holding a bass when you hold this guitar’s shape in your arms and start to pick away at your favorite songs.

The two fingered mode is interesting, but I’m still a “thumb strummer” in Rock Band and Guitar Hero. It takes some getting used to. But the bass is well put together.

It’s a Rock Band 2 product, licensed by Harmonix/MTV Games on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for $89.99.

Quests consist of gathering items, killing monsters collecting information, shaking down shop owners for protection money, sneaking around, stealing, and general helping out. You can also see two sides of one quest depending on who you speak to. So if you help out one person instead of the other for similar goals, you will never be able to help the other person with conflicting interests.

Character interactions were also enjoyable and realistic to a point. If you robbed someone right in front of them they will likely not talk to you and will remember what you did. This sometimes leads to quests that cannot be finished. Luckily though there are spells that can be cast to force someone to forget any misdeed. Pick pocketing is an enjoyable and useful technique that allows you to recover items stolen from you.  This skill has different levels and has a bit of a learning curve; once you initiate a pickpocket attempt, you only have a certain amount of time to grab what you want. Pick pocketing is also useful if you know someone stole one of your items when you were knocked out to get them back.

Risen takes place in a setting that looks very much like South America. The lighting in the game is rather dark making monitors with high contrasts or deep blacks rather hard at times to see what you’re playing unless you turn the brightness settings way up; unfortunately this washes out some of the great graphics and cinematic lighting. Some parts of the game are intentionally left dark as you need to use torches to see where you are going inside of caves or the catacombs of the ruins. The ground in the light has a lush glow and the city looks great in the moonlight. In fact I rather enjoyed the graphical style, though I wish I could have customized my look a bit more as I look like the main character of the show Prison Break with my ultra short buzz cut look.  The water was also well rendered and the thunderstorms and rain effects at night have to be the best I have seen in a game, with the whole setting going from really dark to super bright all around me when the lighting clashes. The games NPC’s were also more detailed and much easier to tell apart than similar games I have encountered.

The game leveling up is done with experience points, but other attributes like strength, dexterity, and weapon and crafting skills are gained by talking to people and asking them to train you. This, of course, will cost you a bit of gold. There are 3 types of close combat weapons such as swords, axes and blunt objects. For attacking from a distance you can use bows, crossbows or magic. Casting spells will use up Mana that needs to be replenished with potions and the like.

The game also has a cooking system in which you can take the meat off killed creatures  and cook it to regain heath or Mana. You can also obtain special recipes and collect the ingredients to make special foods. The same principles can be applied for the alchemy for potions and smith skills for making weapons and armor.

The combat for handheld weapons is done with the left mouse button for attack and the right mouse button for shielding or blocking by turning your weapon on its side. You can also parry the attack if you press the right mouse button just before the enemy is going to attack. The system for locking on enemies is automatic and very well executed. I rarely found my back turned to one enemy while fighting another. For bow attacks you go into a 3^rd or first person view to fire. The closer you are to hitting the enemy’s head the more damage the enemy takes.  Casting spells can be very useful while fighting in hand to hand combat.

One thing I really liked about Risen was that the enemies don’t seem to fall into too many western RPG stereotypes—sure there were gnomes and ghouls but the majority of them seemed very fresh. The AI was also well done; even though you could figure out some of the enemy attack patterns it never seemed monotonous, always giving a good challenge as these patterns were never set in stone and could always be a bit random.

Blast Factor: Besides some slight graphical issues and lots of trouble with the game’s DRM (which they will hopefully have fixed by the time you read this) I really enjoyed the game and can’t wait to play through it again following a different storyline path.

Risen is available on the PC, and an upcoming Xbox 360 version. It retails for $49.99; a copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

This game is one of the best racing games I’ve played. When I opened the box, I was surprised to see not just one disc of content, but a second disc full of extra cars, racing tracks and other tidbits to expand on the already immense experience. I booted up the first disc and immediately ran a race and was surprised by how the controls were more fluid than the controls for Need for Speed: Shift and Gran Turismo. The race wasn’t too bad and as soon as it was over, I sat back and thought about how the game looked.

Need for Speed: Shift had gone all out for realism, right down to first person driving and actual effects for crashes (blurred vision in black and white, a nice touch). Forza’s realistic nature stems from the controls and the graphics. When you play in first person, it looks sharper than the graphics for NFS: Shift. All around, everything was sleeker in this game. When you go through your cars, the menu highlights them in a glamorous fashion which accentuates the beauty of the car’s design and makes you want to own it. Numerous models are included in the game, from brands ranging from Ford to Bugatti (racing in the Ferrari was always a treat).  When you race, the graphics of the layout are amazing. In first person, you feel like you’re actually driving the car in real life. In third person, you enjoy the view as you race against beautiful cars on tracks which range from stunning to borderline perfect.

The Cars are the lifeblood of this game. The sheer number available from the onset is amazing. There are a few which have to be unlocked, but the cars which are already available are pretty good. So you won’t have to worry about driving crappy cars since you can choose a good one if you’re inclined. As you win races you’ll receive credits to customize, upgrade and unlock other cars which furthers the game play and gives you goals.  Once you’ve got a garage full of your favorite cars, just tear up the expansion tracks on the second disc to fulfill your every racing desire.

The difficulty of the game is like most games, easy at first with a proportional rise in difficulty as you go on. You can also control your handicaps by going into options and choosing what controls you want to be automatic and which controls you want to be manual. For a real driver’s challenge, go with change gears manually for an added dose of a realistic driving experience. Once races start getting difficult, the amount of skill needed to win increases as well. The handicaps allow beginner players to get in the game, and there are also features like rewind which allow players rewind the race if they mess up. It’s an interesting feature, which docks you some points in performance, but allows beginners not to get too aggravated if they mess up.

Graphics are also pretty impressive. I’ve mentioned tracks and the load of the cars, but when you play the game, the amount detail put into it is clear. When I hit barriers, it sounded and looked like I was hitting barriers. Every crash takes its toll on the car. I would cry whenever I scratched my car since I could see the damage done to the sides and the paint scratched off. It’s an impressive feat which makes NFS: Shift and Gran Turismo’s crash effects look childish. That’s no easy feat.

The whole game is damn near perfection. But I still have a few issues with it. It’s got a load of content and stunning visuals, but the game doesn’t push the line. It doesn’t really delve into groundbreaking territory. The rewinding features and the handicaps are creative but they’re not pushing the envelope, something I wanted this game to do very well. You can get too dependent on the handicaps, which is ok but doesn’t allow you to experience the full potential of the game. The sheer amount of content can be a little overwhelming and you can feel like there’s too much to do, but this is definitely a game that offers so much game play in return for the amount you pay for it.

Blast Factor: This is everything a racing game should be. Realistic, practical, sleek and well designed. Overall the gameplay is magnificent and will attract gamers who are casual fans and please those who are hardcore racing fanatics. Beginners have helpful automatic driving and rewind to help them through the beginning stages until they’re ready to fly solo. Players have a highly customizable experience and also have an absurd amount of cars at their disposal. This game is everything Need for Speed Shift aspired to be and definitely buries the other entries in the Forza series. If you’re looking for a great holiday game for racing fans, this is definitely the game you’ll want to get.

How do you address gameplay in a karaoke game? You use your wireless microphone to sing songs! Lyrics appear on the screen and you need to sing. Simple? Yep. Bars appear under the lyrics and as you sing, you fill up the bars. The points you earn allow you to grow and as you go through the game. You start out as a Shower Dreamer, the starting level. As you earn awards, you can increase your level until you peak at Superstar. In addition to matching the vocals and keeping up with the lyrics, you can earn bonus points based on how you move your microphone, so be sure to watch what your avatar is doing! You can customize your avatar to look the way you want it to look, so be sure to customize it to bring out the inner Rock Star or Pop Diva in you. Not only do you have a dancing avatar, but you also have a few options about what’s playing in the background.

The background changes depending on what you choose to play. If you want the song’s music video in the background, the game lets you play it in the background while showing the lyrics in front of the video. If you decide to play some of the mini games, the background changes to reflect the conditions of the game. One of my personal favorites involved having to save the world by singing, otherwise a bomb will explode. Corny, yet somewhat thrilling.

Now, the most important part of any karaoke game is song selection. I’m not big on main stream radio, but the game developers did a good job of balancing out the song list so that there’s a little of everything available for everyone. Karaoke classics such as The Cardigan’s “Lovefool” and Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule The World” are joined with new hits like Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” and The Plain White T’s annoyingly catchy “Hey, There Delilah.” The game also includes a redemption code for a genre pack. If you want rap, love songs or rock, you’ll have a chance to download them to expand your experience. You can check out the full list here.

Now, let’s be honest here. Karaoke is can only really be fun when you’re with a group of friends (and maybe drunk). My experience will probably be very different from yours depending on who you play the game with. If your friends love letting loose and going crazy once in a while, then this is a game you will probably enjoy since it’s cheaper/easier to play from the comfort of your home with a group of close friends than it is going to a bar and singing in front of strangers.

If you’re expecting a revolutionary karaoke experience, then be forewarned. The game is fun, but there are a few weak points. The loading times can get on your nerves. To shave off a few seconds, load the game to your hard drive so the songs and menus load a bit faster. Not too fast, but bearable. When you’re in the menu section (which is now like iTunes’ album Grid layout), you see more than the 40+ songs which come with the game, which can be a little confusing. Some of the songs, which were released in Lips, can’t be played without swapping the disc (so you need to own Lips as well). These are minor drawbacks which don’t make it any less fun, just a little annoying.

Blast Factor: So here’s my summary. If you like Karaoke and Pop music, you will love this game. It’s not very challenging, and while it attempts to build up a solid single player, the game really shines when playing with friends on multi-player. It’s a solid expansion pack and has an edge on the original. If you want more songs, all you need to do is purchase them from Xbox LIVE. All in all it’s a solid investment, considering the fact that the bundle comes with a microphone and a 45 solid starter songs. Expansion improves the experience, and each person’s experience varies on conditions, so the only way to find out is to get it and bring a bunch of your friends together and sing your hearts out. BYOB.

Lips: Number One Hits is available exclusively on the Xbox 360 for $59.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

You play as Eddie Brown, the son of world-famous adventurer Gilbert Brown. You’re in search of your father, who has gone missing–the opening to the game finds you in control of Gilbert, so while Eddie isn’t aware of what has occurred, you, the gamer, are. You decide, using the same character traits that make Gilbert who he is, that you will go out on your own to find out what’s happened to dear old dad, and make a name for yourself as an advennturer while you’re at it. Your first task as an adventures involves clearing rats out of London’s sewers–the game uses real-life locales in the 19th century (with a steampunk twist)–and you meet your second party member there, Pad. From there you get your airship, find out a little more info about what happened to your father, and then spend the rest of the game exploring caves, dungeons, towers, ruins, jungles and the skies in search of your father and eventually, as the force capable of defeating an evil organization bent on world domination.

The characters are generally likable, though there are some issues. While there’s no groan-worthy character in your main party, none of them are particularly endearing either–this may have more to do with the dialogue than the characters themselves, as there isn’t that much talking in Nostalgia, or a least, not that much exposition to expand on the character’s personalities. This causes the story to have less of an impact on you, since you don’t have as much of a connection to the characters.

One thing I do enjoy is the fact that a fifth member of the party often joins, and it rotates among many of the game’s important NPCs. While you can’t control them, it’s just one more layer of strategy for your battles, as they either heal you (freeing up your healer for attacking) or are very powerful attackers, which helps you finish battles more quickly. There are stretches in the game where you will always have a fifth person, even if it’s a bunch of different people filling that role.

The story, while predictable at times given its obvious hat-tips to the genre, stands on its own two legs and succeeds, in spite of the lack of particularly interesting characters. Whether you like the characters or not, the game does push you to what to find out more about what is going on in the main story. You also get the chance to flesh out the main characters through side stories: Fiona has memories of a past life, Pad doesn’t know who his mother is, and Melody was an orphan in a village full of wizards–it’s up to you to learn more about them. These side stories open up brand new locations not available to you in the main story, and they also give you chances to take on some difficult bosses and earn loads of experience and money. What’s also nice is that you don’t have to do any of that before beating the last boss–the endgame allows you to continue with your save so you can complete Nostalgia at 100%, regardless of whether you’ve saved the world or not yet.

Setting is a strong point of Nostalgia. The use of real-world locations gives the developers more freedom than you would expect, as they can give their own steampunk version of London, St. Petersburg, or New York. While the cities themselves are not affected much by the steampunk elements, the locations near them–high-tech, secret bases, airships, magic and the like–make the surrounding areas that much cooler to explore. The developers also did a wonderful job with the music in this title. The soundtrack is great, from each city’s respective music that fits the setting–eastern-influenced tracks for Japan and India, fitting jungle tunes and desert songs for South America and Africa–to the battle, boss and dungeon music. It’s one of the highlights of the game, and one of the better RPG soundtracks I’ve heard in awhile.

Graphically, Nostalgia looks much like of Matrix Software’s other DS efforts (Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV) though sometimes it looks better or worse depending on your location. The 3D models are nice to look at though, and the art direction for the game–including enemy, dungeon and town design–works well. Some areas can be a little more boring or graphically behind than other parts of the game, but they don’t detract from the experience too much overall.

You play as Huang Lee, a member of the Triads whose father has just been killed in Hong Kong. He’s in Liberty City to deliver a sword–Yu Jian–to his Uncle Kenny, who is vying to become the new leader of the Triads. Huang is ambushed by unknown assailants along the way, and is thought to be dead. You are tasked with finding out where the sword has gone and who killed your father, and like in any Grand Theft Auto game, you will meet a cast of characters with missions for you to carry out on your way to reaching these goals.

While the story is good enough, it’s certainly one of the weaker parts of the title, especially when compared to other recent GTA games. “Weaker” is a relative term though, as almost everything else works incredibly, and there is so much to do outside of the story that you would be forgiven for ignoring your Uncle Kenny’s wishes for hours at a time. The characters you meet are also entertaining, so it’s not like this is a blight on the game or anything–there have just been better GTA yarns to spin in the past.

Despite what screens have led you to believe, this game is fully 3D, and seen from an aerial perspective. The camera rotates at 360 degrees, showing off the 3D models and interactive environment. The little things, like mail boxes, street signs and lamp posts all use realistic physics to react to your crashing and bumping into them. You will crash into a car, and that car will flip through the air just like it would on a home console–this is the moment where you realize just how powerful Chinatown Wars is graphically. It was impressive on the DS, but on the PSP, with a wider screen and higher resolution, the game’s graphics and physics stand out even more. Rockstar Leeds also went back and added some lighting effects, which are especially noticeable at night or when you’re driving around the city.

Chinatown Wars uses a semi cel-shaded style that works very well on the system, and cutscenes, though told through text and character portraits, have that trademark GTA art style down, and they work effectively. The PSP version cut down on the thick black lines that some of the DS characters had around them, and also presents the cutscenes in a much higher resolution that makes the images much, much cleaner. My one issue on the graphical side of things is that occasionally it feels like the game can’t load the road in front of you fast enough when you’re speeding–the entire road just sort of appears in front of you out of a mass of black nothingness. It doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen, and it resulted in a few crashes into cop cars I couldn’t see until I was literally on top of them. This wasn’t an issue with the DS version, so this may just be a UMD issue.

Though characters and cars may appear small at first, you shouldn’t lost track of what’s going on, and you can tell what is happening on screen. Driving, for example, is easier than you think it would be given you are using a single analog stick; your car can auto-align to center itself, and you can use the shoulder buttons as brakes to make turns more effectively. You can also set your GPS routes to appear on the city roads themselves, which is useful while learning your way around the city–I know I’m always overwhelmed the first few times I boot up a GTA game and have to find my way around.

Rockstar promised this would be the most action-intensive GTA we have seen, and they were not lying. Everything happens very fast, with more arcade influence than some of the game’s console cousins; there are tons of explosions, bullets, police officers, gang members, fires–if it’s dangerous, there’s a lot of it around Liberty City. Ridiculous weapons like the flamethrower and chainsaws are back, and they are a blast to use, especially when you start to get cornered by gang members jumping out of speedy cars. Missions will see you accomplishing a variety of tasks, but there is an emphasis on taking down entire groups of gang members before they can get you, as well as high speed car chases where guns are fired and Molotov Cocktails are tossed out windows to slow your pursuers. If it’s action you are looking for, I’m happy to report that Chinatown Wars delivers in spades. Even better, you can now replay any mission you have completed by checking out the white board in your apartment; you are able to improve your times and scores on these missions from here, which can then be uploaded, along with the rest of your stats, to the Rockstar Social Club, where Rockstar will hold contests for prizes. Those who participate in the Rockstar Social Club will also have access to some exclusive missions down the line, a nice bonus and incentive to keep playing.

What really ups the action in Chinatown Wars though is the new police evasion system. Rather than simply outrun the cops when you cause trouble, you must now actively engage them to impede their chase. When you get a single star (or are back down to one star) you can utilize the old system of laying low, but you will find yourself in far more trouble than that given the level of action in this game. In those cases, you will need to “disable” the cop cars by ramming into them, causing them to crash into buildings, walls, other cars, or just smashing them around with your vehicle while at high speeds. This kind of turns things around, making you more of the hunter than you are used to. Remember, the goal is not to blow up or destroy the cars, so don’t think you will be off the hook by tossing hand grenades out the window at oncoming cruisers. Instead, you just need to get rid of those who are chasing you by taking out their vehicles–they can’t very well catch up with you if they are on foot and you are in a sports car.

The studio released “Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space” on the Xbox Live Arcade earlier this month, and the entire package, which contains all of season 2 (five episodes), is the same series you played in 2007 and 2008 on the PC, but don’t stop reading here.

With updated high-definition graphics, Achievement support, and many, many hours of gameplay, “Beyond Time and Space” is a truly excellent adventure game, and one that fans of the series cannot miss.

“Beyond Time and Space” consists of five original episodes, also known as Season 2 in the Sam and Max series. You play as Sam and Max, the oddest of odd couples. Sam is a suit-wearing, upright walking, canine, and Max, he seems to be a rabbit of sorts. The two embark upon numerous and varied quests in order to save the five chapters, and as crazy and nonsensical as the objectives may seem, the quirky and odd recipe works very well.

You might think making the transition from the ease of access PC controls (mouse and keyboard), to the singular Xbox 360 controller might cause a tad distress, but no, this isn’t the case. In the game you don’t play as Sam or Max, rather you point in the direction you’d like Sam to travel, and he walks there. Apart from a few finicky happenstances, this control method works just fine. Clicking on the game’s many tiny items call for a steady hand, and after just a very short acclimation phase, you’ll be ready to solve crimes with the best of ‘em.

Without getting into specifics, as this review would morph into 4,000 words, the five episodes, dubbed Ice Station Santa, Maoi Better Blues, Night of The Raving Dead, Chariot of the Dogs, and What’s new Beezelbub?, take our vigilante crime fighters to the ends of the earth and back. You’ll tackle a automatic rifle-wielding Santa, a Tourrettes-inflicted mouse, birthday wishing Mariachi bands, and cold, dead vampires, just to name a very few.  “Beyond Time and Space” is the epitome of adventure gaming. Anything is possible, and I was surprised, scared, and emotionally-stricken on numerous occasions throughout my play-through. For as crazy and nonsensical as the stories are, their respective plot-lines are surprisingly understandable and engaging.

You can play any of the five episodes from the beginning, and although I didn’t, you could play number 5 first and work your way backwards, but I wouldn’t suggest doing so. Characters and story elements learned in the beginning episodes bear importance in the latter stages, and come on, would you read Harry Potter 5 before the first four?

However, as has always been the center of Sam and Max games, and returns in “Beyond Time and Space” is the game’s comedic value. If I wanted a serious crime show, I’d watch “CSI: Whatever city it’s now on.” This latest Sam and Max game is downright hilarious and more adult-themed than what I expected.

Max, the quirky little rabbit, is the center of hilarity in the game. When not committed to a certain action, he’ll hop around or even begin making armpit fart noises. But he isn’t limited to mannerisms, the little guy also speaks, and these were a few of my favorite lines from the game. Trust me, to explain the context would only confuse you.

“I’ve seen teenagers stuffed in lockers less emo then these guys!”

“What the hell man!” –in response to anything

Sam- “Why do they always have bottles of water at raves?” Max- “Because of all the drugs, Sam!”

The comedy however is not limited to Max alone. The world breathes funny. From Santa’s emphatic line “The snow will turn red with the blood of the naughty!,” to the general cynicism and satirical nature of the episodes, the game will keep you laughing, again, and again, and then when you’re already giggling, the game will make you laugh again!

Voice acting in “Beyond Time and Space” is really very good, it’s not great, but it works. At first, Sam’s dry tone and Max’s incessant dialogue intrusion irked me a bit, but after a short while the duo’s voices became as familiar and loveable as anything. The game’s thousands of lines of dialogue (a guess), are spoken fluently, appropriately, and in manner that makes the player interested in just what the hell’s going on! Additionally, the multitude of finely crafted lines of dialogue can be fully skipped with a simple click of the B button, but this is a worse idea than entering a room full of zombies with anything less than an automatic shotgun. Additionally, an Achievement, worth 20G, is yours, provided you listen to every last line of dialogue.

Having played, loved, and praised Telltale’s later works, it’s obvious that Sam and Max acted as a stepping off point for those later endeavors, as the dialogue in the Tales of Monkey Island and Wallace and Gromit series, are some of the best, in any genre, I’ve ever seen and make use of the solid foundation laid in this game.

Furthermore, the game’s many characters grow and become known to the player through the extensive and well-crafted lines of dialogue. The game is, of course, centered on Sam and Max, but the game’s many side characters have a lot about them Telltale makes known. For this reason, the game truly extends beyond just Sam and Max and at times, almost feels

The puzzles! What would a Sam and Max game, or any adventure game be, without this integral component? Worthless garbage, that’s what, and this game is far from that.

The puzzles in “Beyond Time and Space” strike a great balance between gamers’ need for adventure, and difficulty. I feel that a game such as this, plays differently for almost every person. Yes, the puzzles are all solved in the same manner, but, based on the perceptiveness of the gamer, the puzzles can be horridly difficult or innocuously easy. However, Telltale crafted a wonderful and detailed guide on their Web site, with images included, for each episode, and admittedly I referred to the walk-through on a few occasions. Call me a cheater, I don’t care. I did what I had to do to enjoy the game, and I still thoroughly did!

Graphically, the game is beautiful, and though I never played the original PC version, I believe Telltale’s promise of updated high-def graphics, as the game looks beautiful on my HDTV. From Santa’s cold and snowy workshop, to the pits of Hell, Telltale did an amazing job animating these varied landscapes, and their attention to subtle detail is remarkable.

Of note: the game comes with “Special Features,” but don’t get too excited. These are only brief character biographies and concept art. The concept art is intriguing, mainly because of its usual appeal to gamers looking into the history of their game, but overall, there really isn’t much here.

Blast Factor: Sam and Max: Beyond Space and Time is a thoroughly enjoyable and wholly approachable game for fans of the series and newcomers alike. A strong and varied cast complemented by engaging storytelling, makes this the game that much more exciting. With a whopping five episodes packed in, each requiring more than a hour of your time, at $20 and around 10 hours, the game feels very monetarily worth it.

Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space is available today on the Xbox Live Arcade for 1600 MS Points/$20. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Anyway, don’t let my horribly corny jokes dissuade you from checking out Van Halen’s edition of Guitar Hero.  It offers much more depth than you’d expect from an installment of Guitar Hero that is more of a side project, and it totally shames the Rock Band offering of The Beatles, at least in this humble reviewer’s opinion.  While it clearly isn’t as polished or as much of a value as Guitar Hero 5, if you love Van Halen or need more Guitar Hero fun, it is a clear “must buy” for you.

As you can imagine from the premise of the title, Guitar Hero: Van Halen focuses primarily on the band.  Almost every significant single is included, from the pure arena rock nature of “Jump” to the… uh, other arena rock songs, like “Hot For Teacher” and “Jamie’s Crying.”  Happily though, some deeper tracks are included, such as the ultimate shredding song, “Eruption,” which is as ridiculously difficult as you would expect.

A note right up front about the song selection – The game only features songs and avatars of the current  lineup of Van Halen.  Given the band’s notoriously challenged relationship with past contributors, this probably isn’t shocking to most of you reading that actually enjoy Van Halen.  Almost every David Lee Roth song of significance is included in the 25 Van Halen tracks, and the avatars are of Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and Wolfgang Van Halen.

When it comes to the other 19 tracks, they were picked out by the 18-year-old Wolfgang, the son of Eddie, and it shows.  Weezer, Foo Fighters, Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World and Fountains of Wayne are artists you would normally associate more with modern rock, but I’d argue that they have more in common with Van Halen than, say, Twisted Sister, or some other hair band from Van Halen’s era.  Case in point – While era contemporary The Clash have a song on the game, “Safe European Home” is more gritty punk than the refined, arena rock sound of Van Halen.

The difficulty of Guitar Hero: Van Halen is definitely a tick up from the most recent rhythm game releases, Guitar Hero 5 and Rock Band: The Beatles.  Then again, that is probably to be expected with the tracks featured.  The guitar and bass portions feature lots and lots of notes, especially if you’re trying to segue from The Beatles, who feature fairly simple transitions and chords.

However, while the game is incredible at its core goal – Roth-era Van Halen excellence – it doesn’t incorporate some of the features from Guitar Hero 5.  I suspect that development on this game began far before the completion of Guitar Hero 5, which might explain why some of the new tweaks weren’t incorporated.  (It might also explain why there is a Foo Fighters song present, even though Dave Grohl got pissed that his former band mate was a playable character in Guitar Hero 5.)  For example, there is no drop-in play, and while you can chose or create an avatar to play as, you can’t swap out other members of the band.  On the plus side, the crowd sings along during certain choruses.

One other sticking point is the price – $50 for the Wii edition.  Eech.  For practically the same amount, Guitar Hero 5 is a much better bargain, since it provides almost double the amount of songs: 85 to 45.  Although Guitar Hero: Van Halen was a throw-in for purchasing Guitar Hero 5 early and features half the songs, this is not reflected in the price at all.

Blast Factor: Your enjoyment of this game though, as with any of these band-specific rhythm games, hinges on your enjoyment of the track list.  I love Van Halen, so I loved this game.  If you love Van Halen, the higher price tag will probably not dissuade.  In addition, if you love modern rock and alternative, this is definitely the best track list next to Guitar Hero: Modern Hits for the Nintendo DS.

Guitar Hero: Van Halen is available on the Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 systems, at a cost of $49.99 and $59.99 respectively. This review concerns the Wii version. A copy of this game was redeemed via the Guitar Hero 5 offer for review purposes; the official retail version is not available until December 22.

By the time a formal sequel was released four years later, the KH franchise had–like its main voice actor–gone through an uncomfortable voice change.  The combat became faster, flashier, and more enjoyable, true–but the story began to distance itself from Ma Disney and Pa Square with the inclusion of strange new characters and baffling retcons.  The newest installment of the series, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for Nintendo DS, continues this journey into strange territory in a format that fans of the series can’t help but recognize.

What immediately caught my attention with this game are the graphics.  Unlike Chain of Memories, Square declined to downgrade to 2-D graphics and attempted to produce a PS2 experience in a DS game.  The results are surprisingly good: the 3D worlds look and feel very much the same as they did in KH1 and KH2.  Although camera controls can be a bit slippery, the game makes the best of the DS’s button capabilities.  Overall, this is one of the best designed DS games I’ve played, and it earns even more points for minimal use of microphone/stylus gimmicks.

Like in Chain of Memories, where your character’s progression was based off their card deck, 358/2 Days has a unique leveling control system.  You are given control of a tetris-like grid and given the option to fill it with a limited number of spells, items, and effects that will guide how your character behaves in battle.  It’s a little limiting but it’s an interesting approach, and I fully support supplemental games such as these experimenting with established mechanics.

Speaking of experimentation: you’ll notice I said that the worlds look and feel the same as they did in previous games.  This leads me to the most disappointing aspect of the game: repetition.  Yep, you’ll be going to Agrahbah again, just like you did in the last three games.  The music and sound design are the same you’ve heard in the last three games.  The menu and battle systems are identical as well.  Now, of course I believe in not-fixing that which is not-broke, but this is getting a little ridiculous.  The game has a very narrow scope–you won’t (or shouldn’t) play it if you haven’t played all the previous games and enjoyed them, so odds are high that you’ll be experiencing some serious deja vu.  Matters are only made worse by almost two hours of hand-holding tutorials that even this game’s youngest players would have to roll their eyes at.  After all the tutorials and expositional cutscenes, it feels like an eternity before you begin playing the game, and it makes the disappointment of traveling the same levels all the more acute.

There are some fun new elements, such as being able to play as any Organization XIII member.  I love playing as villains, and Square seems to know it; Sephiroth, Edea, Beatrix, and Seymour in all their overpowered glory have all been brief party members, as if to rub it in your face how strong and awesome they are before snatching them away.  I wholeheartedly admit that it’s just as fun in 358/2 Days.  It allows you to experiment with different styles of combat and helps you get through the repetitiveness of the environments.  I played this game on vacation and had no opportunity to try out the multiplayer option, but based on the game’s party mechanics I bet it’s a successful new addition.

But I confess that Organization XIII as a whole leaves me bemused and confused.  Like the characters of KH1 they are given a very finite amount of introduction and development, but those were beloved childhood figures; Ariel and Tarzan didn’t need excessive explaining.  Organization XIII and its goals seem aimless and unexplained.  As 99.9% of them are allegedly attractive males, I can’t help but feel the franchise is indulging its fantastic character designer (spokesman for the belt and zipper industry Tetsuya Nomura) while simultaneously pandering to its uncharacteristically sizable female audience.  This female gamer finds herself less moved by spiky bishonen than by good character evolution; what was so wrong with Maleficent that she needed to be supplanted by some jerk with too many x’s in his name?

Plot twists and turns include body cloning, memory cloning, and cloning in general.  The game as it stands is like a PSA against natural procreation.  While it makes great character drama to consider the duality of the human condition and the nature of individuality, I’m wary of the series devolving into a confusing mess of a soap opera for created characters and their existential angst.  The game wasn’t without some charming details and dialogue, but it just felt like a distraction.

Clearly I feel trepidation about the future of this franchise.  KH1 was the smiling five year-old girl: good-natured and charming in her simplicity.  Now she’s a surly fourteen year-old and I’m left to worry that the black lipstick is more than just a phase.  Perhaps I’m jaded by the distance we’ve traveled from that bizarrely successful premise.  The central mysteries of the original game have never been answered, and we seem to have abandoned them in favor of newer, sexier ones.  I caught myself reminiscing about the good old days when the point of the game was to travel to Disney worlds, lock them up tighter than a drum, and whistle while you worked.  And Final Fantasy characters?  Forget them–they have vanished entirely, leaving only unsatisfying moogle shopkeepers to fill the void.

Blast Factor: That said, this game is exceptionally well executed, and if you’re still invested in the story, you’ll probably enjoy traversing the same worlds to get the same story from a different perspective.  But if you’re like me and feeling a little anxious, you can probably skip this title; you’ll likely further confuse your understanding of the story, and speed the process of disenchantment before the next true sequel is released.  I think the litmus test is to ask yourself how you feel about the title itself.  It’s pronounced “Kingdom Hearts Three-Fifty-Eight Days Over Two.”  Does this represent something pleasantly intriguing or obnoxiously hard to understand?

For my money, I think there’s a marketing executive somewhere who needs to reevaluate his or her calling.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is available exclusively on the Nintendo DS, and retails for $34.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

The game is a bit light on story, but here’s the short of it: the Blob lands on Earth, and he needs help to save his planet of Blobolonia. The titular boy finds him, and they set out on a journey full of danger, puzzles, jellybeans and hugs. Yes, there’s a button specifically used to hug Blob, and it’s as adorable as it sounds. Don’t laugh, you’ll catch yourself using it.

The game is presented via beautiful handrawn artwork in a 2D style. It’s 2D, but it isn’t simple–think of Wario Land: Shake It! as this game’s closest kin, presentation wise. The game animates very well, and the real star of the show is Blob, as he morphs into loads of different shapes throughout the game, fluidly and impressively. This morphing process occurs when you feed him jellybeans–different beans give you different abilities, like the jack, for lifting objects and enemies, a trampoline, a bowling ball, a rocket–the list goes on and on.

In the original game, you had a limited number of jellybeans, and the game was a bit more open-ended. In this update, you have unlimited jellybeans, and the game is broken into levels–there are 40 of them, plus 40 bonus levels. You are given a few specific jellybeans for each level, which is basically simple platforming combined with puzzles that grow in difficulty the further you proceed in the game. There are also three treasure chests in each level–they are easy to spot and pick up at first, but this grows more difficult as time goes on as well. You will not find all of the treasures on your first playthrough unless you scour the game world for each and every one, but you can return to a level at any time to replay it as well. Picking up all three treasures in a level unlocks a challenge level for you to visit (more on that later).

These puzzles are very satisfying to complete, especially as you progress through the game. Eventually you will need quick reflexes and to do more than just toss a jellybean anywhere in order to proceed. You can throw jellybeans by holding the B button and checking the angle at which it will land and bounce, and Blob will give chase. You can call Blob back if you miss too, using the C button. This also works if Blob is stuck off screen; the Blob’s AI works most of the time, but for the odd time when he (she?) doesn’t follow you when they are supposed to, you can press the C button a few times to start an automatic return process.

Just because you have a specific set of jellybeans for each level does not mean there is just one way through many of the game’s puzzles or enemies, either. Lots of enemies charge at you from a distance–you could try to peg them with the bowling ball if it’s available, drop an anvil on their head if there’s a ledge above them, drop a hole in the ground, or jump over them as they charge with the trampoline. Oftentimes your jellybean inventory will be full or close to it, so these options are close at hand assuming the environment cooperates.

Even boss fights are puzzles, kind of like in Braid. Once you figure out what to do, it’s very simple, but until you do you may have a bit of a problem. It’s nice to combine action with the puzzle every now and then, so these are satisfying moments in the gameplay.

This slow-paced, puzzle-based gameplay is something you need to be aware of before you throw money down on this game. If you’re looking for a fast-paced platformer where you can run and jump around, then this isn’t the game you’re looking for. The boy is basically helpless without the Blob–he doesn’t run very fast, doesn’t jump very high, and needs the Blob to get around even some of the most basic looking levels. That’s not to say it isn’t a great experience, because it is, you just need to be aware that this is, first and foremost, a puzzle game with platforming elements, not the other way around. My one complaint with this setup is that the hint system–signs with painted Blob objects on them–detracts from some of the satisfaction of solving the puzzles. There are fewer of them as you play, but an option to turn off hints would have been nice.

Then again, Wayforward may have just been saving the bigger challenge for the post-game play. When you complete the initial 40 levels, which takes more time than you think it will–levels extend in length as the game goes on, and as they rise in difficulty the amount of time you spend completing them will also rise–you can play 40 challenge levels, assuming you’ve been discovering the treasures in each level along the way. If you’re unfamiliar with Wayforward games, let me tell you that they don’t kid around when they say “challenge”. These levels will require your reflexes and quick thinking in order to complete them, but once you do, you can unlock concept art and storyboards–this is a great looking game, and you get what you put into the story, so those are two fun additions outside of bragging rights. I played through some of the challenge levels for this review, and they are aptly named–I’ll be happy to pick up the rest of the treasures and complete as many challenge levels as my brain and thumbs can handle now that this review is done.

Blast Factor: Wayforward and Majesco’s A Boy and His Blob is what a remake or re-imagining should be–it keeps the core concept of the original, but improves on enough that the game feels fresh and new. The artwork is gorgeous, and shows off just what the Wii can do with inspired art direction and capable artists, and the gameplay is worthy of the excellent concept of shape-shifting puzzle solving, something the original game has a harder time claiming.

A Boy and His Blob is available exclusively on the Wii, and retails for $39.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Let’s start with the shiny and fun stuff: Uncharted 2 has the most impressive graphics I’ve ever seen on a console game. If that sounds like hyperbole, then you haven’t seen Uncharted 2 in action, so quit your whining and go find out for yourself before you contradict me. Animations are fluid and realistic. The environments, which were part of what drew people to the original game in the first place, are brighter, colorful, and just feel alive. There are parts of this game that approach photo realistic, and the cutscenes use the in-game engine (Naughty Dog Engine 2.0, an upgraded version) to tell the game’s story–the seamless transitions between cutscenes and in-game events is impressive, to say the least.

The music in the game is wonderful in its ambient nature, rising and falling at all of the right times to increase tension and keep you focused on the game world. Sound effects are satisfying to hear–explosions, gun fire, the chatter of Nathan Drake as he rolls away from grenades or pops a guy in the head with a shot. Most wonderful is the voice acting though–the writing and acting are of such high quality that the game is almost as entertaining to watch as it is to play. Nathan is a lovable lead, but the supporting cast is just as entertaining–old favorites in Sully and Elena return, along with newbies like Harry Flynn and Chloe, two characters who have a history with Nate that are with you through various means throughout the adventure.

The story is well done (just like in the first game) so even if you begin to tire of shooting from behind cover at your enemies, you will want to keep playing to hear that next line or see the tale unfold. I won’t spoil a thing for you, but the game begins in the midst of the action, with Drake falling out of a train car that’s suspending from a snowy mountain. Flashbacks bring you into the past, and you play your way right back to the scene after a significant number of hours. It’s a neat mechanic that is not seen very often in games, and it worked to great effect here as you re-lived the events of Drake’s life leading up to his being half-dead in the snow.

Uncharted 2’s gameplay is split into three distinct sections: platforming, puzzles, and shooting. The puzzles in this sequel are improved from the first–they aren’t as painfully obvious, and you now get to flip through a few pages of your journal at a time in order to figure out just where Nate has seen this puzzle before. They are still simple though, but enjoyable to solve. The platforming is the more significant part of the gameplay, as you will spend a huge chunk of your time in Uncharted 2 climbing, jumping, and trying your best not to look down. Climbing isn’t as easy as it was in say, inFAMOUS, where you automatically latch on to everything, but that’s because there are more specific paths for Drake and company in this game than in that one starring a super powered protagonist. Climbing is satisfying, and sometimes finding the right path is a puzzle unto itself–a more challenging one than the actual puzzles at times. There’s a hint system in place if you take too long, and you can press up on the D-pad when notified one is available to see it. It’s helpful, especially your first time through the game, as it just points you in the right direction without actively telling you what needs to be done.

You’ll spend more time shooting than anything in Uncharted 2, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Luckily, the controls are tighter, and for this reason you’ll have much more fun blasting away mercenaries than you did in the original. For one, grenades are now thrown by holding L2 to create a throwing arc, and then releasing it to toss your grenade. Need a quick explosion? Naughty Dog’s got you covered there too, as you can now blind fire a grenade using your reticule as a quick and dirty guide; hold L1 and press L2 to fire your grenades this way. I use this more often than the more accurate system, just because there isn’t always time to setup a grenade lob. Plus, it’s a hand grenade, and almost counts here; you don’t need to be spot on with each one to do damage.

Here are the basics: there are various colored orbs hanging from the ceiling, and you shoot them down by blasting more of these colored balls from below. Chances are good you have played Bust-A-Move or one of its variants in the past (Snood, perhaps?) so most people should be familiar with the concept. Three of the same color orbs touching means you’ve cleared those from the puzzle–continue to do this to clear the entire puzzle in single-player, or do this as much as you can to stave off losing and outlast your opponent in multiplayer.

There are different orbs with different powers as well–the flame burns away whatever pieces it touches, while the rainbow turns into the color of the object it was touching when they are cleared–and they are simple to use, as you just shoot them like any other orb. The most useful may be the crystal, which when shot eliminates every ball of that color along with it–this is also a great piece for multiplayer, since your cleared pieces make their way over to your opponent’s screen.

There’s plenty of single-player fun to be had here. Start with one of a few puzzles (named A, B, C, and so on) which then branch off into different options, and continues that way until you reach the end of the alphabet. You can replay this mode a few times without repeating puzzles, but even repeating them is worthwhile as you can improve upon your scores and times–the game tracks this information for you, and as any puzzle addict can tell you, things like that add a lot of replay value.

Multiplayer is also great, as you can play locally with a friend or over Xbox Live. There are various game modes here–different object sets, different ways of attacking your opponent with cleared pieces (traditionally from the top, more annoyingly from the bottom)–and matches are not one off events either, so don’t be discouraged if you get wrecked online or have a bad match the first time around, as there’s another chance for you right around the corner.

The music can at times become a little annoying, though there are parts of the song that plays again and again I enjoy–these parts sound like they belong in Chrono Trigger rather than Bust-A-Move, but it’s appreciated just the same. Like the music, the graphics can be hit-or-miss; they are bright and colorful as they should be, but the menus are bland with giant, ugly font, and the inclusion of avatars in multiplayer is just a bad decision–their fat, exaggerated heads get in the way when you’re trying to make shots down in the corners. You know, in some of the most important areas for accuracy in an entire Bust-A-Move match.

Blast Factor: It’s hard not to like this game, as it is Bust-A-Move. The next-gen additions don’t add a ton to the title–as stated, avatar inclusion is more annoying than fun, and the bland presentation takes away from some of the graphical high points–but you’ve got a time-tested puzzler available for you with online and local play, and chances are good that some people out there have not experienced the addiction that is Bust-A-Move as of yet. Now’s your chance to fix that issue.

Bust-A-Move Live! is available exclusively on the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Arcade service for 800 Microsoft Points. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Meant to be played with a full living room, of the ten games represented in Deca Sports 2, none of them are any of the sports showcased in the previous Deca Sports.  Some draw similarities like figure skating to synchronized swimming, but in an attempt to make everything fresh, Hudson offers:  Darts, Petanque, Synchronized Swimming, Mogul Skiing, Road Racing, Tennis, Kendo, Speed Skating, Ice Hockey and Dodgeball.

Crossing timing mini-games with accuracy, most of the games in the collection are fun for ten minutes.  Petanque, a game very similar to bowling in Wii Sports or shuffle board, was one of the only games in the set to offer some depth.  Kendo is a random flail victory, and road racing is as exciting as it is in Mario kart minus weapons and Mario.  It’s hard to really replicate the experience of running around in gym class on a dodgeball court but that is exactly why it shouldn’t be in a mini-game compilation.

Dodgeball is an intense sport with strategy and timing, but in Deca Sports 2 it’s overly simple where one button throws to the people outside the court and another makes you catch the ball flying at your face but that’s all there is to it.  Shaking the Wii-mote sometimes has your whole team dodge the ball, which in Deca Sports 2 the whole team is controlled by one player therefore everyone moves together making the court look silly instead of like a battlefield, hurting any ability to get into the game when it’s all luck and two buttons.When you get down to your last player though, it works better, since that feeling of silliness is gone and it’s more about timing than luck.

We’ve all heard about the Wii by this point and considering the Wii is packaged with Wii Sports, we’ve all had the chance to play one of the five games on it.  While a solid game, there is always room for improvement.  Deca Sports 2 does it’s best to improve upon the one crossover Wii Sports game, tennis, by allowing the character the ability to miss-time a serve as well as run in towards the net or away.  A huge complaint in Wii Sports, the fact you can’t control where the character moves, was seen and fixed by the people at Hudson.  I’m trying not to draw many comparisons to Wii Sports but it is very hard not to, giving the natural similarities.

The game itself isn’t all bad.  The fact that you can customize your team using their  Mii-esque character creator like it does in Wii Sports is still fun.  It’s nice to play a league tournament with five characters you made yourself.  The body size of the characters you make also affect what their skills are.  If you pick a small character they may be quicker than a bigger guy, but the bigger guy packs more of a punch for games like tennis and petanque, therefore you have options for who you want to play for which sport your team is up to compete in.

Overall, there are some moments of fun here.  Also, don’t be afraid to play synchronized swimming because, surprisingly enough, the timing and motions they ask you to do are somewhat rewarding.  When I watched my hairy large white man with a beard twirls his shaved legs out of the water to music, I got a kick out of it.

Blast Factor: If you’re craving more mini-games that will keep your kids glued to the Wii or you’re in need of simple games, than this is the game for you.  Otherwise, you’re probably safe with Wii Sports, or maybe even picking up Wii Sports Resort for its Motion Plus games.

Deca Sports 2 is available exclusively on the Nintendo Wii, and retails for $29.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Here’s the plot: You’re human. Until you’re turned into a Pokémon. Your character is determined by a personality test which assigns you to one of several Pokémon who are members of a “Guild.” Now you have to explore a bunch of dungeons, battling opponents and collecting various items in the hopes that you will revert to your human form. You’re also given a partner who helps you travel through the dungeons. Sound riveting? It would be, if the execution didn’t come off so poorly.

My opinion of this game prior to playing was slightly optimistic, but I knew upon turning it on that something was off. Instead of the new sleeker graphics which come with most new DS games, I was greeted with graphics reminiscent of the Game Boy or Game Boy Advance. This wouldn’t have been a problem if I wasn’t accustomed to better graphics. Nevertheless, the “vintage” look was a minor issue compared to the gameplay.

This is nothing like the Pokémon we had growing up, since the Mystery Dungeon series is a completely different type of game. The type of gameplay involved here is a basic dungeon crawler. You travel through dungeons and fight enemies, pick up items and move on to the next dungeon. You move in a basic grid system until you get to the exit leading to the next dungeon. However, these dungeons are not structured but randomly generated. After several rounds it became clear that the simple gameplay was meant to keep the player immersed in the game, but it failed at that because the dungeons are boring as hell. It’s easy to navigate the dungeons, defeat the enemies and move on. Sometimes the random dungeon generates with the exit next to your character, which forces you to look around a waste time looking around instead of simply walking out. (Fun Tip: If this happens to you, just go to the next level).

A redeeming feature of this game is the character side-stories. In the side-stories, you learn the motivations of each of the Pokémon you’re associated with and are presented with a more branched out plot than your own story. However, this isn’t much of a consolation, since you are still required to continue playing through the dungeons in order to gain access to the side stories. The repetitive soundtrack also starts to get on your nerves after a couple of dozen dungeons. Overall, this review seems overly negative, but I should point out that while I think the game is a cheap attempt at cashing in on the Pokémon brand (I’m half sure that if this was a game about creatures it would be quite forgettable) it succeeds with the audience it is appealing to.

For this review, I decided to shake things up a bit. After I had played through Explorers of the Sky, I tossed it off to my younger brother and let him play it. As a 10 year old Pokémon lover, he couldn’t get enough of the game. He took everything the game threw at him and enjoyed every last minute of it. There was nothing wrong with it to him. The kid, who played REAL Pokémon games, had absolutely no problem with the game. Instead he’d get very excited when side stories arrived and loved the experience overall. I asked him if he felt there was anything wrong with the game, and he said no.

Blast Factor: Dungeon crawler fans, this is my disclaimer: This game probably isn’t for you. But I’m giving it a decent score based on intention, not execution. This game is designed for little children who have just started gaming. It requires no real effort, but it is entertaining to little children who just want to have a good time. This has a dual purpose: 1.) to try and attract new children into the Pokémon mythos through a different type of game and 2.) expand on the brand. 5 games in, the Mystery Dungeon still has alot of kinks. But we also have to acknowledge that the kids who play this game will be introduced to dungeon crawler games and hopefully be interested enough to expand into the real Pokémon games and legitimately challenging dungeon crawlers. So if you’re a bit older, I recommend looking elsewhere but if you’re looking for a gift, by all means pick this up for the kids.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky is available exclusively on the Nintendo DS and DSi, and retails for $34.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

This is a fantasy RPG, but you are not some kind of powered-up super soldier that swings a sword larger than they are to cleave through any foe. Nor are you some kind of dexterous, agile creature that can run and jump without tiring, avoiding the blows of the enemies around you. You’re a regular person with regular weapons and you can (and will) bleed. And you will die. You think that giant axe looks awesome? You’re probably only strong enough to swing it if you use two hands, which means you can’t use a shield. No problem, right? You’re sure to cut through anything in your path with it. Well, assuming you can swing it often anyways—which you can’t, given its heft and the energy required to swing it once. You power up as you play (more on that later) but you can’t just start off as a force to be reckoned with. You have to earn that through the lessons the game attempts to impart on you, but this learning process is part of what should draw you into the world of Demon’s Souls to begin with.

Here’s the story in non-spoiler form: you’ve come to Boletaria to either save the world from the demons or use their power for your own ends, but either way some demons are going to pay. You can pick from a variety of classes, all with their own strengths, weaknesses and strategies for playing. Want to overpower your foes? Become a knight, fully decked out in an armor suit. Maybe you want a bit more movement—become a soldier with lighter plate armor, but less strength and protection. Maybe you want to attack from a distance with a bow (Hunter) or spells—that last category has multiple options all its own. You have to approach each situation differently depending on your class, but there’s no wrong answer. You just have to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each class—they will become apparent to you soon enough—as you progress through the game, or else there will be no progression for you.

You attack with your primary weapon using R1, and utilize strong attacks with R2. You can equip a secondary weapon on the same hand if you want a sword/spear combination or something like that, and in your other hand you can carry a shield or another weapon, like a crossbow, bow or wand for magic. You run by holding down the Circle button, and you can also roll and take a quick step back using the Circle and a direction on the left stick. Items are used with the Square button, and your on-hand items are rotated using down on the directional pad. The controls are easy to use once you get used to where everything is.

Just like many of today’s RPGs, you have to deal with inventory and equip weight; too much on hand means you won’t be able to show off your agile rolling and running effectively, so be mindful of this. Unlike many of today’s RPGs, there is no pause button, so you can’t just hit pause and equip a more powerful weapon or heal yourself while a bad guy tries to lop your head off. Always be prepared is right up there with any other personal rule you can come up with for surviving Demon’s Souls.

Wii Fit Plus is an extension of Wii Fit, meant as an upgrade to replace the original. The question here is whether those who have already purchased Wii Fit can find anything worthwhile in this version, or if there is now enough included to bring in some of the skeptics from the past.

The short answer: Wii Fit Plus is a better exercise tool than the original, and a better game. There’s more emphasis on the game portion this time around, with 15 new activities–many of which are mini-games exclusive to Wii Fit Plus–and more attention paid to multiplayer and competition. Sure, they aren’t the most strenuous exercises around, but the key thing with them is that you have fun while you’re exercising–anything that keeps you from noticing you’re doing something healthy is good by me. Think of Wii Fit Plus as a Fitness Ninja that gets the job done without you ever noticing while it’s happening.

The new games are meant as a fun diversion though, and not as a replacement for strength training and aerobics–don’t expect to lose weight by replaying Rhythm Kung Fu or golf over and over again, even if they are fun and working modes. There are plenty of other enhancements to Wii Fit Plus that make it a better workout tool. It’s more family oriented now–you can weigh your pets and babies if you want, which is fun in its own way even if it isn’t necessary. There’s a calorie counter, which tracks how many calories you have burned during your workout. This is done by using METS (metabolic equivalent of task) which basically measures the amount of time you work out by the METS number for said workout to give you an idea of what you’ve accomplished. To give the calories some context, you can also compare the total to different food items within Wii Fit Plus, or pick a food item equivalent worth of calories you plan to burn each day. Have a need for a soft serve ice cream every day, but don’t want to put on extra weight? Make that your workout goal and burn those roughly 200 calories. This also serves as a wonderful reminder of how awful fast food can be for you–see how willing you are to shove two cheeseburgers from your favorite drive thru into you after you see that it will take you half a day of exercise to work it all off.

Have a certain area you want to work on? Maybe you have a schedule of workouts you want to rotate if you use Wii Fit Plus all the time? Thankfully, you can now create custom routines or use ones that the game has in mind for you, rather than just mindlessly choosing exercises and programs like in the original. This is something I enjoyed, as I don’t mind doing the aerobic exercises daily, but like to switch up yoga and strength training so I don’t overdo it. This is also good for those of us who may not want to use the mini-games very often, but prefer using this for a legitimate workout tool.

I’m not a fan of the Wii Fit Age setup. It worked well for Brain Age, but when you just do a few of these per day and at random–and I, like many others, probably do this early in the morning when their body is awake but their brain is still napping–the results are going to be negatively skewed. I already have tools to measure my brain’s age, so let’s stick with how my body is doing in the future instead of linking them up. Thankfully, you can always skip these and just get your updated weight and progress.

For those of you who do not work out everyday, you can install the Wii Fit Channel on to your Wii Menu, and check your daily weight from there. This is also nice since you don’t have to switch discs a bunch of times if you want to play a game right after your workout. With SD card support, you also have no excuse to not have room for the channel.

Another issue with Wii Fit Plus is that it uses BMI still. The weights it estimates for many users, including myself, are not always as healthy as the game thinks they are thanks to BMI. I’ve been at the weight the game suggests before, and it’s a good 5-7 pounds below my own personal comfort level. That being said, you can make the mental adjustment–like I just said, I know I should be about 5-7 pounds above what Wii Fit told me–and still appreciate the software for what it does right rather than focusing on what it doesn’t do.

If you already own Wii Fit and have a Balance Board, Nintendo has not forgotten about you. Wii Fit Plus is available in standalone form for $20, which is a great deal considering that it is the superior software and has loads more to do than the original.If you are sans Balance Board, you can pick this up for $100, $10 more than the original. I’m not pleased with that price increase, but it’s also much less expensive than workout equipment or a gym membership, as previously stated, and worth the money.

Blast Factor: Wii Fit has shown itself to be much more than a passing fad, and it now has an updated version that fixes many of the original’s issues. The calorie counter, the food comparisons, the customizable workouts, and the emphasis on making this more of a game help the Plus version of Wii Fit stay true to its name. If you already own Wii Fit, you should pick this updated version up, and if you haven’t jumped in yet but need an excuse to get off the couch, then Wii Fit Plus is the answer for you as well.

Wii Fit Plus is available exclusively for the Nintendo Wii, and retails for $19.99 by itself and for $99.99 with a Balance Board peripheral. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

Visually, this game is very impressive. The crisp details are shockingly clear. I haven’t played a racing video game on the PSP with such sleek and impressive graphics. The courses designed for the game are beautifully done and crafted to be exciting and with a varied experience. The visuals are on par with those of PS3/PS2 games which is very impressive. The visual experience definitely helps keep players addicted to the game and leaves an impression. When you see your vehicle crash, it will leave a mark. Especially if you get it to explode (props!).

The game itself is easy to understand. You’re playing as a racer in the MotorStorm Festival which is being held in the Arctic. You race around using one of 8 types of vehicles and fight to win each race. This sounds like there isn’t alot of variety, but the fact is, there is so many modes to go through, the replay value is immense! The main modes you’ll play through are Festival Mode, Time Attack and Free-Play Mode. Time Attack and Free-Play mode are like most standard racing modes. Festival Mode is the basic career mode. You race against opponents, and earn Badges as you win. The more badges you win, the more features you unlock which allows for more control over customization of your vehicles. People who love customizing their rides will love this aspect of the game.

The best way to play this game is online. When you go head to head with other players, it feels amazing. Once you’ve played through Festival Mode, Online mode is where you test your skills. If you think you can hold your own, you may be right. Or you may be dead wrong and have your ass handed to you by your opponents. This brings us to difficulty. The difficulty levels are like a standard videogame. You start out on a relatively easy level and the A.I. lets you get the hang of what’s happening. Once you’ve one a few races, the difficulty ramps up a lot. By the time you’re finishing up Festival mode, you’ll be cursing how hard the A.I. is going against you. With over 100 levels and such a difficulty range, the game doesn’t get boring anytime soon.

The levels provided are very dynamic. There are numerous routes around the track and the terrain varies quite a bit at times. The ramps and turns on each level will effectively teach you how to race with each vehicle type at your disposal. Now the eight vehicles are: Bikes, Snowmobiles, ATVs, Buggys, Rally Cars, Snowpluggers, Big Rigs and Snowplows. Each type is especially designed to tackle a certain type of terrain. When you play, you need to be ready to execute moves perfectly with your vehicle or else you’ll end up losing badly.

Two other noteworthy aspects of the game are its soundtrack and Photo Mode. Photo Mode allows you to take pictures while you drive, so that you can save it and send it out to your friends. This is a very cool feature which allows for showboating when you take down your opponents! And there’s no better way to take down your opponents than by doing it to a kick ass soundtrack. The game’s soundtrack helps get the blood flowing as you drive frantically around the track. It can wear on you a bit after 30 or so races, but Arctic Edge anticipated this: The game allows you to import your own soundtrack into the game when you need it, so if it gets annoying just rotate it out and race to your own soundtrack.

Now while this game doesn’t break new ground, it does everything right. There are a few technical problems which are apparent during races, but they are minor and do not ruin the overall experience. When racing against more than six players, the game can lag a tiny bit but it’s not a big deal. This is counteracted by the smooth visuals of open track and the tiny effects which make the game all the more impressive. So if you see a cool visual effect, be sure to have the Photo Mode ready!

Blast Factor: This game is beautifully done. It’s entertaining, it has everything you could possibly want from a racing game – cool cars, great visuals, and dynamic tracks. The replay value is fantastic but the online mode is one of the best ways to truly test your racing prowess. The game deserves to be recognized as one of the best games available on PSP today. If you’re a racing aficionado or a casual gamer looking for a road trip game, this is one you should definitely consider.

Motorstorm: Arctic Edge is available exclusively on the PSP, and retails for $39.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

… Wait, actually, that never happened.  But somewhat unfortunately, Spyborgs did.  If you lust for the days of mowing through thousands of enemies, then this game is kind of okay.  I mean, on a primal level, it is fun to just repeatedly jam on a button to beat things into a pulp of mechanical gadgetry, completely oblivious to the block and jump buttons because you don’t really need them anyway.  However, Spyborgs has several nagging features that make this seemingly simple goal harder to accomplish.

For starters, they do not believe in lights in the future.  Apparently, they live in a despotic world run by Al Gore, and all light sources have been eliminated in order to fight global warming.  This might be a slight exaggeration on my part, but only slightly so – Half the time I was playing Spyborgs, I had trouble discerning the character I was controlling from the enemies I was fighting, especially since everyone looks weird and robotic.

I could talk about the characters, but really, they’re just an excuse to hit the button to attack the other characters who are attacking you.  There is a bit of a plot in place, the type that would be enjoyable if you were still a kid and watching Saturday morning cartoons.  Basically, your female robot ninja, machine gunner and robot must fight through these creatures because, uh… Well, they’re trying to kill you.  Oh, and at some point, some evil organization double-crossed you, so of course you have to get revenge against them.  The female ninja is kind of hot, so you’ll probably want to fight with her most of the time.

Anyway – Smushing stuff talk.  The enemies come after you, wave after wave, with a typical stage having in upwards of 50.  You and a buddy, or you and a computer-controlled buddy, have to attack them, while you also bust open crates and boxes for health and power boosters scattered inexplicably throughout the stage.  The primary goal is to string together attacks to create combos – The more hits, the better the combo rating, and the more points you get at the end of the stage to upgrade your characters.

Like every game of this type released since God of War, and similar to Madworld, you can fill up a power gauge to perform super combo attacks with your buddy or the computer-controlled character.  These are kind of neat to watch, except that using them almost always kills the enemy you’re currently attacking.  For point-harvesting purposes, it’s normally better to just beat them up yourself as opposed to relying on the combos.  They are somewhat neat looking though, and their application – slashing the Wiimote, or pounding down with it and the nunchuk – are one of the few productive uses of motion controls in Spyborgs.

That doesn’t mean that the combo attacks are the only motion controls used, just that they’re the only production controls.  I would have scored this game a half-point higher if it weren’t for the frustrating method used to discover “hidden” items.

Basically, by pointing the Wiimote at the screen, a little blue circle floats around.  Certain parts of the background look transparent, and pointing the circle at them will reveal hidden crates, kind of.  You actually have to point the Wiimote at it, then press A, and then yank up with the Wiimote, in order to reveal whatever you’ve found.

This sounds kind of neat, but its actual application is a nightmare.  There is a “ping” noise each time your Wiimote comes across a hidden crate, which would be fine if it was an occasional thing.  It’s not, as there are dozens of crates hidden in every god damn stage, all of which must be “uncovered” to be broken open.  Even worse, in later stages enemies are cloaked, so you have to manage this feat while they jump around like idiots, shooting green laser blasts at you.  By the way, the “hidden” crates are also placed right next to existing crates in the majority of stages, meaning you would have to be an idiot not to find them.

Blast Factor: I constantly felt like I was about 10 years old while I was playing Spyborgs, so I guess that the hidden crates next to existing crates was the right move.  If you have a small kid, they might enjoy this game.  But if you’re no longer stuck in a Saturday morning cartoon mindset, you’re better off playing the ultra-violent Madworld, a classic like Final Fight or checking out some of the more “epic” mash games like Lord of the Rings and Dynasty Warriors.  There really isn’t anything new in terms of gameplay to recommend here, and the cloaked items and enemies detract from an otherwise average experience.

Spyborgs is available exclusively on the Wii, and retails for $39.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

Right off the bat you’re treated to a tutorial of how to use Beaterator properly. An animated Timbaland gives you a play by play on how to make music and the options available: Live Play or Studio. Live Play is an animated mixing session where you use 8 different looping tools to play during your songs. The loops and beats initially available are the preprogrammed settings on the game, but when you get better you can make your own loops and beats to replace them. You can record the songs you’re making and gradually make changes so that the song transitions itself naturally to the next one. Once you finish your song you can edit it bit by bit to tweek any problems you encounter. Live play is for easy on the freestyle song making.

The in depth song making comes with the Studio option. In the Studio option, you are presented with hundreds of loops and beats to choose from and must sample them one by one to see if it’s a loop you want to use. The loops themselves range from “inspired” to “half-assed” and can annoy someone who is casually exploring the game. You can create songs from these beats or upload your own sounds and music from your computer in order to expand the type of songs you can create. The Studio is definitely for a musician with a basic knowledge of Synthesizers and willing to put a lot of time into carefully molding songs.

The app itself is a very good tool which musicians will love. But there are numerous problems which will keep it from being embraced by the general public. While Live Play is easy and quick to use, Studio is complex, and not as well explained in the tutorial. Using the Song Crafter part of the application is difficult, since you need to change numerous things in order to get a song just right, and the PSP’s controls can be a very big hindrance. The beats and loops are for the most part great, but you can tell that too much was put into the application. Sampling beats can take a while to load, even for clips which are a few seconds long. This can be problematic to say the least, and the lag indicates just how much data is on the UMD.

Blast Factor: This is a music mixer which will take a lot of people time to fully access. The studio mode is very comprehensive but can be a little bit of a turn off because of how complex it seems. The beats and loops available are very impressive for the most part, and can be expanded upon with sounds from your computer. The tutorial doesn’t go in depth, so the mixer is not as simple to use as the casual user would like. The undertaking was ambition, and the end result is effective but not terribly efficient. It feels as if a touch screen based media player/system would be better suited for the creation of music, so I’ll probably end up checking out Beaterator on the iTouch. For the price it’s being sold at though, it’s a very affordable solution for artists who can’t afford to buy the PC software.

Beaterator is available for $39.99 on the Playstation Store and all major retailers. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

Double Fine Productions, led by creative director Tim Schafer (Psychonauts), hoped to capture the root essence of metal in their latest body of work, Brutal Legend. Did they succeed? The short answer is yes, the team struck a resounding power-chord and shook the world.

Brutal Legend tells the tale of Eddie Riggs, a proud roadie who, when we meet him, works for Kabbage Boy, a rap/pop/metal band who don’t see metal the way Eddie does. Nevertheless, according to Riggs, “a good roadie stays out of the spotlight,” and so does his job without interruption.

Brutal Legend is an M-rated game, but in this first scene you’re given the option to hear swears or have them bleeped out as well as see all the blood, or skip it entirely. I, of course, went for all swears and blood possible, and to truly experience the metal world, you should probably too. Just be wary of children/parents/gnomes, in the next room who might not enjoy the cursing and flowing insides.

After a lengthy, detailed, and eventful opening cutscene, events finally come to fruition and Eddie is knocked unconscious and sent to a fantasy world embedded with metal at every corner and plagued by death by the domineering evil ruler Doviculous.

Brutal Legend is a third-person action adventure game with enough of a real-time-strategy element and open-worldliness to be noteworthy. Sound like too many genres at once? It’s not, and it works very well.

Where some games try to incorporate multiple genres and fail, Brutal Legend succeeds.

The game has three core game-play elements; open-world, mission-based, and large scale real-time-strategy battles.

At times you’ll be tasked with traveling from one end of the land to the next, traversing its hilly, sometimes barren, but always metal environments to get from mission to mission, and can easily do so in The Deuce, your upgradable and badass vehicle.

The mission-structure of Brutal Legend plays out in a “talk to this guy…start that level” kind of way. And the variance in mission tasks is phenomenal. In one level you’ll recruit literal head-bangers in a fiery mine to join your cause, and in the next you’ll be tasked with fending off Razorfires as they attack your precious tour bus. In the world of Brutal Legend anything goes and everything works.

The third facet of game-play in Brutal Legend is its real-time-strategy element. Admittedly, my knowledge and skill at RTS games is rudimentary at best, but this didn’t matter. Throughout the game you’ll recruit different allies into your rebel group and in the large-scale battles will need to employ them effectively to succeed.

In these RTS-moments called “Stage Battles,” your goal is to destroy the opposing “stage” while protecting your own. You do so by building merch-booths, which in turn grant you more and more fans with every booth built. These fans are “spent” on bringing more allies into the world to fight for you. And once spawned, a quick and simple manipulation of the D-Pad commands your troops to go there, kill that, stay here, protect this, destroy that, etc. Having spent very little time with RTS games, going into the game I thought I’d suffer and die often, but a great tutorial level and easy controls made me feel powerful and most importantly in control. Eddie can either control the troops on foot from the ground, or in the air via magical wings he somehow has. Control from the air was my method of choice. You can see the entire battlefield, how many and where enemies are coming from, where your troops are, and what artillery you have in use at any particular moment.

Eddie can also set foot into any battle he chooses and has two primary weapons available to him; The Separator and Clementine. The Separator is a two-sided axe used to slice and dice enemies with brutal force, and Clementine is Eddie’s guitar that yields paralyzing magic. If used too much though it’ll overheat and you’ll have to wait for a short but still noticeable cool-down period.

Eddie can also perform “double team” attacks. These are more powerful assaults that involve combining Eddie’s skills with those of allies for a true knockout punch. These range from climbing the back of a fire-breathing beast to scorch enemies to calling a group of head-bangers to circle around you and mosh enemies to death. These attacks are very important for “Stage Battles,” and you’ll always want to be “double-teaming.”

Additionally, Eddie can play a number of “Solos” as a buff to Clementine’s normal abilities. These range from “Face-melter,” which does to enemies exactly what it sounds like, to “Battle Cry,” which simply increases the damage dealt by Eddie and company. These solos are performed by successfully completing a mini-game where, like Rock Band or Guitar Hero, you’ll have to press the A, X, B, or Y buttons when the strike line passes over them. Now, when in battle you’ll have to choose wisely when, where, and how often to perform these solos, as the battle rages on, whether you’re busting out nasty fretwork or not. To learn and add more solos to your repertoire you’ll have to seek out the numerous “Tab Slabs” scattered throughout the world, and you’ll want to do this because at later stages, the battles really get tough and you’ll want all the power you can have.

Graphically, Brutal Legend doesn’t push any boundaries, but it doesn’t look bad either. Double Fine created a massive world of metal and the large scale imaginative environments and for the most part these locales look great.

Sound in Brutal Legend is better than phenomenal. When EA Denmark leaked a full song-list for the game months ago, my excitement for the title shot through the roof and after playing the game and experiencing the songs in action, I love the choices that much more.

Unlike most games where a publisher will seek out some award winning composer for a game’s score, Double Fine decided to use the melodies of “Black Sabbath,” “Dethklok,” “Dark Tranquility,” “Enslaved,” and so many more to set the tone of the world.

No other genre can heighten tension the way metal can. There’s something about listening to “Cathode Ray Sunshine” by Dark Tranquility that instills power within me to set out and slay enemies forces at a breakneck clip.

If you love mainstream radio and sing along to whatever the “flavor of the week” is, this game is not for you, at least thematically. In fact, I don’t think Schafer would even want you play and subsequently taint his game and its message.

That said, if you do love the metal music scene, as I very much do, this game is almost a necessary addition to your catalogue. Activision dropped the title after their merger with Vivendi, possibly fearing negative reaction to bands like “Rotting Christ” on the list, and while EA might have felt a twinge of that grief, they went through with it, and metal-heads will love it for sure.

The characters in Brutal Legend are some of the most memorable and interesting ones I’ve ever come across. The two main characters Eddie and Ophelia, voiced by Jack Black and Jennifer Hale respectively are executed wonderfully. Black provides hilarious spots of dialogue like “Please tell me I haven’t been killing hot girls this whole time” and Hale, who’s lent her voice to numerous projects including BioWare’s MMO “The Old Republic” and “Metroid Prime Corruption” as Samus Aran, performs remarkably in the game. There’s also a love connection between the two and their in-game chemistry is extraordinary.

Double Fine unleashed a total metal assault in Brutal Legend and recruited Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead) and Lita Ford (The Runaways) to lend their voices to the game. And from Ozzy’s abuse of the F-word to Kilmister’s sedated British tone, Double Fine did a damn fine job. Additionally, Tim Curry (the man who will forever haunt my dreams from his role as Pennywise the Clown in Stephen King’s IT) provides the voice work for the game’s villain, emperor Deviculous.

Once you’ve exhausted the game’s core missions you’ve “completed” the game, earned the “beat the game” trophy/achievement, and can gloat all you’d like, but I wouldn’t. Upon “completion” of the game, you’re actually only 48% done, leaving a whopping discrepancy. That void is made up in secondary missions. These range from hunting quests to racing challenges to even more huge-scale battles.

Playing these secondary missions and just exploring the vast world is something you’ll definitely want to do. You can unlock everything from more guitar solos to new parts for The Deuce and lots more. There’s an entire world of Metal out there. Why not explore it?

There’s also a significantly large multiplayer mode in Brutal Legend. It’s of the “Stage-Battle” flavor, and all your skills learned in the campaign tie directly into the multiplayer. There’s matchmaking, custom match, and AI Practice to play around with as well as new factions Drowning Doom, Tainted Coil all with solos and units unique to them. If you loved the Stage-Battles of the campaign, you’ll assuredly be logging hours and hours in the multiplayer, it’s a lot of fun.

Brutal Legend is just as much a statement as it is a game. It’s a tale of the power of music motivating those previously uninspired to conquer the evils both out there and embedded within. It tells the account of an unlikely band of rebels who, through their alliances, are able to attain the lofty goals they sought out in the beginning. Without getting too philosophical, I feel the message “Brutal Legend” conveys is one we should heed, or at least strive for, because without a unifying power (metal, or anything else), what do we have?

Blast Factor: With its abundance of metal, fantasy, and action, Brutal Legend is a truly phenomenal game. Born out of Schafer’s love of metal and executed damn near perfectly, the game is one every metal-head-gamer needs to play.

Brutal Legend is available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 for $59.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

The game, available exclusively on PC, was built on the much-beloved Unreal 3 Engine and is episode 1 of the Adam’s Venture series, a tale of adventure, danger, and lots, and lots, of Christian themes. In the game you play as Adam Venture, an adventurer searching for the actual Garden of Eden, believed to be found in a mysterious labyrinth of caves where the four mighty rivers, Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Eurphrates meet. Adam, his girlfriend Evelyn, and a antique professor, make the journey deep underground and are the game’s only characters, if you don’t count non-tangible ones.

First and foremost, “Venture” is a third-person action-adventure, puzzle-solving game, that utilizes the keyboard exclusively, not even the mouse. The game is similar to that of Telltale’s Wallace and Gromit and Monkey Island games, only the mouse is absent in “Venture.”

Also worth nothing upfront is the game’s clear Christian agenda. The game prides itself on being non-violent, and this holds true to the very end. As Adam, you’ll never wield any sort of weapon. Rather, as you’ll have to use your mind exclusively to solve the game’s many puzzles. This pacifist approach is not a detriment to the experience whatsoever; rather, it is a point of excellence in the game. It was not until a few hours in that I realized I hadn’t victimized anyone in any way in the game. Violence, whether it be petty and comedic, or blood-soaked and heavy, is a mainstay in video games today, and Venture is refreshing in its lack of.

The game takes place primarily in an expansive set of caves and dark dwellings. For this reason, Veritgo Games decided to stick a torch in your hand at all times as your means of sight, and this works quite well plays into more than a few puzzles. Additionally, the game has some Uncharted and Tomb Raider aspects to it. Sequences of crouching, sprinting, jumping, a very intriguing first-person crawling mechanic, and hanging from ledges are everywhere in “Venture,” and all the actions are executed very well.

The camera system in “Venture” is one of the better approaches I’ve seen. With all the lighting predicaments, cavernous area, and expansive environments, you might even excuse a camera system for faltering from time to time, but in “Venture” I never ran into a single issue with it. Additionally, the system’s excellence coupled with the third-person perspective allows for a great overall cinematic experience.

Venture is a tad on the easy side of similar games I’ve played, but, as a matter of personal taste, I very much enjoyed it this way. Save for a few occasions, I never felt angered at a puzzle I just couldn’t figure out. The game, marketed as a “family game,” is indeed just that. The puzzles are rudimentary at best, but this fact allows the game to flow like a children’s book, from chapter to chapter, sequence to sequence.

Voice acting in the game wasn’t where I hoped it’d be. The characters are hardly memorable, and the lines of dialogue they speak are corny at best. Great dialogue and character interaction can truly cement a games excellence, but Venture just isn’t there yet. At the same time however, for a good chunk of Venture you’re on your own, fighting the spirits of darkness, and dialogue is scarce. The voice acting and characters in Venture are by no stretch of the imagination the worst I’ve seen and heard, they just need work.

Sound effects and the soundtrack of Venture also aren’t exactly great. Certain sequences do a decent job heightening the intensity of a situation, but generally, the game lacks in the sound department.

Visually, Venture looks terrific. It was built on the much-praised Unreal 3 Engine (the same one used in Gears of War games) and thus is capable of smooth running and gorgeously rendered environments. The environment artists could have lazily slapped the same texture on every cave wall and overflowing water spring, but they didn’t. The game’s many wooden bridges, caves of spider webs, flowing water streams, and much more pop with life, in a way I was not expecting. Additionally, Vertigo Games did great work creating main character Adam and the two others. Though, if you’re looking for different, Venture doesn’t have it. Adam resembles Commander Shepard from Mass Effect, Nathan Drake from Uncharted, and Desmond Miles from Assassin’s Creed, just to name a few. And Adam’s girlfriend, Evelyn, yeah, she’s the cute and concerned sidekick we’ve seen before. These aren’t detriments to the game, rather something I feel the entire community needs to break from.

Finally, and likely the make or break aspect of the game, is its clear and direct Christian roots. The story and its many elements highlight good and evil, as depicted by the Christian faith. Adam is constantly tested by dark beings telling him to “stray from the herd and become a wolf,” and a primary part of the game is solving these quick little mini-puzzles where you must correctly arrange a jumbled bible verse. Now, I grew up, and remain, a member of the Catholic Church, so I actually knew many of these verses. But for anyone that doesn’t, they’re easily discernable. The game’s final puzzle requires you to recall, or re-learn, the seven days of creation, and piece them together in the correct order, and even I had a tough time with that one.

Blast Factor: Adam’s Venture has its flaws, but is generally an above average, and most of all fun to play, adventure game. The game’s cavernous environments look beautiful running on the Unreal 3 Engine, and for any Christian-gamer out there with a decent PC, this game has your name written all over it.

Adam’s Venture is available exclusively on the PC. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

Let me first address the graphics. Shift has great graphics and the driving is very smooth. The arenas are very realistic and the colors and ads placed on the side of the track are very well designed. Overall, the graphics are first rate and definitely enhance the experience. The graphics themselves are on par with Gran Turismo, and I’m very pleased by the amount of visual detail that went into making this game.

As I mentioned before, Shift is VERY different from previous Need for Speed titles, since there is no real story. You’re just a racer going around racing. The simplicity of abandoning the premise actually elevates the game. There are still cut scenes, but they are usually before the round begins and show other racers driving around. As you play, you earn money to buy more upgrades and new cars so that you can continue racing. There are 72 cars to unlock, which means hours of repeated game play–though that is far fewer than its competitor, something to note. As you race around the track arrows mark the path you need to travel to earn precision points. As you earn precision points, you can also brutalize the other drivers by ramming into them and knocking them off the road, earning yourself some aggression points in the process. The game’s Driver Profile tracks the player’s evolution as a driver from one event to another through Career and Online Play. As you improve and unlock more and more cars and upgrades, you start to experience the Total Customization system. Shift allows you to totally customize almost every aspect of the car so that you are in full control. Choose your car and bring it to the track to see how it does against your opponents.

There are numerous modes to play in when you start the game: Driver Duel, Manufacture Races, Series, Endurance, Race, Drift, Time Attack, Hot Lap and Lap/Time Eliminator. These various modes are similar but change the game play enough so that the game doesn’t get boring. As you win more and more rounds, you collect some badges which help with your stats and highlight your achievement levels. This makes adds an arcade like aspect to the game which is one of the few places where the original Need for Speed Series shines through.

When you race, you can play from a third person perspective or play from the first person. The first person view from the car’s cockpit is one of the highlights of the game. The developers put a lot of detail into the cockpit experience and it definitely pays off. Crashing into a barrier causes the screen to go grey and blur as you, and the in game driver, breathe in sharply. The stress on remaining realistic is noticeable, especially when crashing into another car. When you crash into your opponent you leave scraps and paint on the other car, and the frame becomes proportionally more damaged as you progress. When you drive at high speeds, the car speeds up to an extremely realistic manner which, at times, can be quite the shock. Even though you’re using a controller and not a wheel, you’ll certainly think you’re really driving the car. Another strong point is the soundtrack. We’ve known the track list for a month or so, but they way it is used in the game are very effective. The soundtrack is going to keep players entertained throughout their replays.

While the game itself is almost a love letter to simulation racing, there are certain areas which stood out as somewhat underdeveloped. I was disappointed to find that there was solely an online multiplayer mode and that I would not be able to go head-to-head with my friends on the same console. While this removes split screen problems, it also means that the only way you’re going head-to-head with a friend is if you’re online. When you are speeding down the track at high speeds, the controls can become a bit insensitive, especially when used in conjunction with the direction arrows on the track. When speeding, it becomes hard to judge turns, so you need to be aware that the controller won’t respond as quickly. That, in conjunction with the Auto correct feature, can be a hassle when you’re trying to win a level but the controls lock up and you’re not going as fast as you want to because the directional arrows indicate you should slow down. That will leave you fairly frustrated when you miss first place by a hair because of it. When you’re happy, this game can be the greatest game in the world, but it can definitely sour if the controls get in your way. And after a while, the announcer gets a bit annoying since his monotonous British accent is the equivalent of Michael Sheen saying the same thing over and over again until it gets ridiculous. The emphasis on drifting can also get annoying, but overall the game is solid.

This game is easily one of the best racing games I’ve ever played but it also calls into question the future of Need for Speed. Will they continue to make arcade based Need for Speed after Nitro comes out on Wii this month? Or will they continue making simulation racers along the lines of Shift? It’s a very interesting question which will probably be answered over the next few months.

Blast Factor: This is a great racing game. There are a few flaws, but the attention to detail and the racing experience all negate the few problems you’ll have with it. As a complete about-face from previous entries, this game stands up to Gran Turismo and Forza and definitely holds its own. It doesn’t have as many cars and tracks but the gaming experience will keep you coming back for more.

This version of Need for Speed: Shift appears on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, and retails for $59.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

Able Planet, as they have always looked to do, is looking out for your ears and your future hearing, and developed the PS500MM headphones for PC gamers. As you can see in the image, these are a small pair of headphones–you don’t have to carry around or store a big, bulky pair like you find in many noise-canceling headphones–and may be a necessary expense for those of you that game on PC’s often.

The noise-canceling effects built into the headphones means that you don’t need to turn up the volume in order to hear over your environment. They work well too–I’ve tested them on my PC playing some old-school games where sound is important to the experience, I’ve used them in my Nintendo DSi, and I’ve even checked them out on a plane, flying back and forth from Seattle to the Penny Arcade Expo. In each instance, I found that you never needed to put the volume all the way up, as you could hear the sounds and music with great clarity. This is nice for someone like me that has bludgeoned their ears with years of playing guitar with their amp turned up to 11, as I can still hear things without damaging my ears any further.

If you plan on traveling with them as I did, they come with a soft-carrying pouch to stick them in. The microphone that comes with the headset is very flexible, so the headphones fold up nice without any parts sticking out when you need to put them in the bag. Additionally, if you don’t need the microphone, it easily bends out of your way.

The headphones are comfortable as well, thanks to their being very light. The adjustment band on top is thin as well, so unlike some massive headsets, you won’t feel these on your head that much when you wear them. The headphones weigh in at 2.64 ounces, and to make things even nicer, the ear cups are leather and made to fit on your ears, not completely around them. I wore them most of the way from Boston to Seattle and back, and unlike when I use ear buds, I didn’t mind keeping them on for that length of time thanks to the way the cups fit.

A pair of PS500MM ships with a USB adapter in addition to your standard headphone and microphone jacks. You can pick up a pair of PS500MM headphones from Able Planet for $99. You can find them through Able Planet’s website, along with their other audio products.

Blast Factor: Headphones can be pricey, but $100 isn’t too much to ask for when it comes to saving your hearing. If you’re an avid gamer for PC titles–or even someone like me who spends a lot of time with a DS or PSP in their hands–then the PS500MM headphones are a comfortable and worthwhile addition to your gaming accessories.

Extraction is, as EA puts it, a “guided first-person experience.” While many people scoffed at the notion, and claimed that EA was just dressing up the term on-rails shooter so that the opinion of this Wii prequel would be higher, those who have now played through Extraction will have to admit that EA was not full of it, and the game is much, much more than your standard on-rails shooter. The first-person perspective, the focus on action and atmosphere and the constant dialogue from your characters makes this game much more Aliens than Alien, but it’s still Dead Space in every way.

In order to make this feel like it belonged in the Dead Space universe, Visceral needed to accomplish a few goals. First, they needed to nail the atmosphere. The original took its cues from games like Resident Evil 4, Doom 3 and the Metroid Prime series to create a sci-fi world where you would feel isolated, helpless, and very, very scared, and these feelings permeated the entire experience. With ammunition at a premium, every battle with the Necromorphs was a struggle as you tried to dismember their limbs and push on through the halls of the Ishimura. Visually, the game was stunning, with attention to detail in things like shadows and lighting that helped you scare yourself when the game wasn’t busy doing it for you. The audio was also fantastic, and helped to keep the mood thick with tension that you couldn’t get over even when the coast appeared clear.

While Extraction is not as much of a horror game as Dead Space, it still managed to meet the expectations for atmosphere–enemies attack you in large numbers from all directions,  you need to keep an eye on your ammunition, and, despite the stop and go nature of an on-rails title, there are plenty of surprises thrown your way thanks to the developer’s control over the action. The sound is also excellent, with text logs and reloading effects coming through the Wii Remote speaker and plenty of bumps and thuds in the dark to keep you on edge. I’m also happy to report that this game is a visual stunner–there was not a single moment in my entire playtime of Extraction where I wished the game was on more powerful hardware, because Visceral Games did a fantastic job recreating the visuals. Remember–this is a game that places place in the same exact areas as the original Dead Space, so the fact that Visceral was able recreate those areas and environments without forcing the player to think negatively about them in a negative sense is a huge achievement. Seeing the same rooms also helps shed some light on how certain areas ended up covered completely in the bodies of the dead, or destroyed by blasts and so forth. For those who have played the original, it’s a very nice, subtle bit of fan service and story expansion.

Besides that, Visceral also would need a compelling narrative; while the characters themselves fall into horror movie stereotypes–the calm, collected leader figure, the veteran soldier, the helpless girl, the shady, self-important guy that won’t reveal his past–the story itself is right up there with the action as far as being compelling goes. You’ll keep playing Extraction to learn what happened to the Ishimura and its crew, as well as those people from the colony you’re in control of,  not just because blowing the limbs off of mindless creatures is exhilarating. (though that has its merits as well!)

The game is broken up into 10 chapters, and you’ll control a slew of different characters throughout depending on what needs to be done and who has been separated from who. To keep you on your toes, many characters you travel with or are controlling are killed off without warning as part of the story–you’re never quite sure what’s going to happen next, which helps build the tension. You’ve got loads of Dead Space standbys at your disposal, like the Plasma Cutter, the Flame Thrower, the Ripper–which by the way, works much more effectively in Extraction than in the original thanks to pushing and pulling on the Wii Remote to aim the spinning blades–as well as a few new weapons, like the Rivet Gun. The Rivet Gun is used for its tool purposes–you’ll seal off barricades by riveting them into place–but also as your basic “pistol” type weapon that does not run out of ammo but is clearly weaker than your other options. Secondary fire modes are enabled by twisting the Wii Remote, and the only motion you’ll deal with is intuitive: to enable the flashlight-esque Glow Worm, you’ll shake the Wii Remote–this will often need to be done while in dark hallways in the middle of battles, so keep an eye on it and feel that tension build–and in order to throw a Necromorph off of you as it tries to devour your face.

You have recharging stasis shots that come in handy for environmental puzzles as well as slowing down faster enemies or dangerous ones in your peripheral vision. You’re able to grab ammunition, weapons, health, audio and text logs from afar using Kinesis; you can also grab projectiles from enemies and explosive canisters that can be fired off with the B button. You can do all of this in single-player, or pair up with a buddy anytime with drop-in co-op–on the harder difficulty levels, some people may find co-op a necessity just so you can fire twice as often and at different targets. Even on Normal, the second half of the game is challenging. You’ll most likely live through it, probably without dying even, but it will get hairy on occasion. Given the game has four difficulty levels, you’ll be able to test for yourself just how good you are at Extraction. It’s a good thing too, because the game may run a little short. It’s long for an on-rails title, clocking in at 7-8 hours, but still short as far as a shooter goes.

Besides the difficulty modes, there are a few more extras that will help you get your money’s worth out of the title though. You’re graded on each level you complete, and you unlock additional health and weapon upgrades by achieving higher scores. Challenge modes unlock as you complete the story; the title is not misleading, as you face wave after wave of Necromorphs as they try to tear you limb from limb in order to make you like them. You can also check out some Dead Space comics in motion comic form, which is a neat extra, especially for those that are very much into the Dead Space universe and all of the non-game content.

Blast Factor: Dead Space: Extraction had a lot to live up to in order to be a worthy entry in the Dead Space series, but it succeeded in many huge ways while only failing in minor, negligible forms. It has more depth than any on-rails title you’ve ever played, a great and engaging story, and many reasons to come back; namely, more difficulties, the Challenge modes, and the motion comics. I hope this is the start of a companion series for the Wii used to flesh out details of the Dead Space universe, but even if it is not, this game stands up on its own as a great Wii title and one of the system’s better releases in 2009.

Dead Space: Extraction is available exclusively on the Nintendo Wii, and retails for $49.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

The original has been kicking around for well over a year, so you may know the basics, but for the uninitiated, here goes. Sonia, a CIA agent dressed like a dominatrix and stacked like a porn star, is looking for Rya Hayabusa, and she’s kidnapped in front of him by the Dragon Clan’s nemesis, the Black Spider Ninja Clan. You eventually catch up to Sonia and get her to spill the beans about the crisis facing the world, but not fast enough to stop them from putting the plan into motion. Because of this, you have to take down the Greater Fiends and all of the ninjas, demons and giant puppet statues they employ along the way as you attempt to stop the awakening of the Arch Fiend.

As Ryu, you are trained in the use of a variety of weapons, most of which, while different in their use, find the same result: enemy dismemberment. Dismembered enemies (excepting those missing their heads, of course) will attempt to commit explosive suicide on top of Ryu, so you need to be mindful of them. Battles, no matter which weapon you wield, are fast-paced and frantic, and you need to be on your toes and blocking in order to survive the larger onslaughts. Thankfully, the camera, which was such a massive drawback in Ninja Gaiden II, has been fixed most of the way thanks to a camera reset that puts the view in the direction Ryu is looking. It can still be trouble on occasion if you are cornered, but it’s not something you’ll notice every step of the way.

If you like difficult action games with loads of enemies, then Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is for you. The story is completely over the top at times, and it seems like it takes itself very seriously, but at the same time you know deep down that everything is very tongue-in-cheek. How else do you come to a scenario where a man with a sword is able to destroy gigantic and iconic statues that have come to life like they are made out of Play Doh? The story is actually more enjoyable because of its nonsensical nature, because you’re sitting around waiting to see what ridiculous idea the developers have come up with for your next epic battle.

There’s some new stuff for those considering diving in a second time, like new bosses, weapons and playable characters, as well as an online co-op mission mode. If you’re by your lonesome, the second character will be controlled by the computer, so you can still experience this even if you have no one to play with. The missions are also great for replay value, given you can go through them again and again with your buddies, using different characters and strategies to get by. Sigma 2 also did a great job of cutting out a lot of the excess fat from the Xbox 360 version–because of this, the pacing is better, cheap deaths are lessened and the game is an overall more satisfying experience because of it. Oh, and you can jiggle the ladies assets with motion control, but that’s not exactly a bullet-point addition, now is it?

At the same time, if you’re a Ninja Gaiden II die hard, you may be put off by some of the changes. The game is far less bloody–there are no more fountains of blood shooting out of the necks and bodies of your dismembered opponents. On the plus side, the game’s frame rate is very good, and things run smoothly the whole time. On the downside, your blood fountains are gone, and the pro-blood fountain demographic is sure to make noise about this blatant disregard for their needs. The higher difficulty levels are also different, as your enemies have more hit points and do more damage, but don’t seem to be that much more intelligent in their approach. Some of the additions also don’t make much sense–that Buddha statue that comes after you in the first level just sort of appears out of nowhere when you’re still fighting basic goons (the Fiends have not been awakened yet). There are also some annoying presentation issues–a few levels are very, very bland in their look (hello New York city) and the game does not account for your weapon of choice in cutscenes–Ryu apparently has time to sheath the weapon he was using to pull out the Dragon Sword he didn’t fight with after each and every boss encounter.

Blast Factor: Those who did not play the original because they do not own both consoles will most likely not notice or care about the omissions, because Sigma 2 is a smoother gameplay experience, just like Sigma was. Fans of the original are sure to be split down the middle–those who played it on all of the difficulties until their fingers cramped probably won’t mind giving this new version a go, but whether they enjoy it or not has a lot to do with their level of blood lust (or their love for polygonal breasts that jiggle on command). If you can deal without the blood, then you’ll be happy you picked up this more recent edition.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is available exclusively on the Playstation 3, and retails for $59.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.