Starting next month, PC Skyrim players will have access to the exact same tools the team at Bethesda did to create the massive title.  I’ll let that sink in for a minute.

“We want to thank everyone reading this for playing our game and supporting all it tries to do,” according to the post on the official Bethesda Blog. “We wouldn’t have this success without you, and we want you to know we’re committed to making your Skyrim experience even better. And not just in the short term, but over the life of the game.”

Bethesda also plans to release a set of wikis and how-t0-videos along with the creation set in an effort to maximize the possibility of user mods. The creation suite will be tied to the Steam workshop, meaning that users can view and rank any creation.

Bethesda also detailed a patch that will hit PC first and then consoles.

“We all know this is a huge game, and everyone has a different experience. We’ll continue to do everything we can to make the game better and better for as many people as possible every day. We’ve also realized that with the millions upon millions of people playing Skyrim, we need to treat our updates with greater care. If we get too aggressive trying to fix a minor issue, we run a risk of breaking something larger in a game like this.”

If you were to ask me earlier this year who  the most dependable independent studio in gaming was, I’d be hard-pressed not to answer with Telltale Games. The San Rafael, Calif. based developer, famous for episodic titles like Sam and Max, Puzzle Agent and the revival of the Monkey Island franchise constantly releases quality puzzle and action games, with a distinct old school flair and top notch production values.  With their new game though – the gaming adaptation of the classic Steven Spielberg film Jurassic park, the studio is looking to blend new school mechanics with their tried and true formula.

It didn’t work.  Jurassic Park: The Game removes nearly everything from the Telltale formula that made it so endearing in the first place. Gone are the puzzles that require you to think, absent are the high quality production values that give the game that certain something – hell, it’s not even really a game as much as an interactive movie. I get it, the idea is to constantly bring new ideas to your studio’s games, but not at the expense of what made it so popular in the first place.

Jurassic Park: the Game picks up at one of the original movie’s few unanswered questions. About halfway through the movie, Nedry takes a barbasol can full of dino embryos to meet someone looking to pay high money for them, but of course he’s met with a face full of acid and the package never arrives. The game attempts to answer the question of just what happened to the employee (revealed here to be a female mercenary) sent in to retrieve the embryos. Along the way you’ll meet a dinosaur doctor and his daughter who are also stuck on the island, and it’s there that Jurassic Park: The Game begins proper.  It’s an interesting way to approach a story that pretty much everyone knows, and a can be a lot of fun for diehard fans of the franchise.

Jurassic Park isn’t as much of a game as it is an interactive movie experience.  The majority of the game follows a simple formula  — navigate the island through a series of quicktime events and point and click style sections.  Yep, it’s pretty much as boring as it sounds.  Let me walk you through a section, and this could really be any section – walk around, click on everything the game lets you and then move on. Yes, it’s that easy and more often than not there’s no real criteria for in what way you click them or in what order. It’s a far cry from the Telltale Games puzzles of the past, and in a way it’s sort of insulting.  Every now and then you’ll run into some dinosaurs (or perhaps more effectively they’ll run at you) and this is where the game should get interesting, but instead it gets even more disappointing.

So there you are, minding your own business and then BAM! A T-Rex comes out of the bushes and begins to chase you. At this point, you’d think the game would get interesting, but each of the game’s action sequences is presented via a quicktime event so you’ll simply follow the button prompts on the screen and poof – you’re done with the dino nightmare at hand. Normally I’m not as opposed to quicktime events as I was with Jurassic Park, but here if felt like a cop out, like an easy way to deal with having to take on such a menacing enemy. During the game’s development, Telltale was very vocal about how Quantic Dream’s PS3 exclusive Heavy Rain inspired a good portion of Jurassic Park’s gameplay and it shows, they just seemingly didn’t get inspired by the game’s story.

Throughout the game I had literally no attachment to any of the game’s characters, environments or actions, in fact – there were points I wished they would up end of at the wrong end of a Raptor’s claws. Each of the characters; the know-it-all doctor, the innocent little girl and tough talking mercenary chick, all feel like one dimensional stereotypes that seem to have taken all of five minutes to create. The game also seems to have an issue with switching between these characters as it’s never quite easy to be sure who you’re controlling and why. Most Telltale games make you control one character at a time – a formula the developer should have stuck with.

Jurassic Park: The Game is also missing the high quality production value that has given past Telltale Games titles such an identity. The characters models are decent enough, but the rest of the game looks and feels awkward. Characters move very stiffly, and the animation feels less than  second rate and the environments are all drab and lacking in detail. Perhaps most disappointing is just how forgettable the game’s music really is. Aside from the franchise’s trademark theme, the music is all forgettable, and even the dinosaur’s roars all seem unimpressive.

Blast Factor: With all of its classic source material, Telltale had a great game on its hands with Jurassic Park, but sadly the finished product didn’t even come near that potential.  Less of a game than an interactive movie, Jurassic Park is a dated, boring and somewhat insulting way to exploit a classic film. Congratulations Telltale, you’ve found a way to make a T-Rex boring.

Hola El Presidente…you look different. Well, not all that different, like you did something with your hair different. No? New shirt? Tropico 4  is remarkably similar to its predecessor, but somehow it also feels remarkably different. Maybe it’s the new cartoon infused visual style, or maybe the more accessible arcade style gameplay. Regardless, Tropico 4 continues the series’ long running history of being a fun and addictive city simulator that you’re sure to get lost in – even if it feels like you’ve done it all before.

As in previous iterations, you start Tropico 4 by creating your character, known as El Presidente. There’s a lot of options here and it may be daunting to those who haven’t played a Tropico game before. Do you go full Fidel? Perhaps fat cat in the pocket of the small industries? Perhaps the Caribbean version of Abraham Lincoln is more to your style. During these opening moments, you’ll make a series of distinct choices that will affect how you rule your chain of islands. If nothing else, it adds to the replay factor of the title. What would happen if you made one choice differently than the others? It may sound cliché, but the possibilities are more or less endless.

Of course, your goal as El Presidente is to manage and grow Tropico, your set of islands in the Caribbean. Just how you do this is up to you, and can be a lot of fun to play around with. On my first play through of the game, I found myself playing nice – trading with other nations, building factories and hospitals and listening to my people. It was rewarding to see my set of islands flourish and my citizens live happy lives. Then it occurred to me, I could make more profit by taking the other route, so I decided to make decisions based on money and not the good of the island – sure I had to deal with a few rebellions here and there, but I was much more financially successful this time around. Each session with Tropico 4 feels much different than the last.

Those revolts play a much larger part in this game than the rest. Now, each faction has a leader with their own unique personality and demands. It’s no longer as simple as just looking up how to stop certain factions, as each time you’ll have to make decisions that will affect your nation greatly. The environmentalists for instance will want you to stop logging as much and build a wind turbine, but doing so will anger the logging companies in your area, and you’ll risk losing jobs for your citizens. It’s these types of choices that make Tropico 4 such a compelling time.

Curiously, Tropico 4 feels much more arcade at times than its predecessors. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a simulation at heart, but several key additions make Tropico 4 feel different. Key among these additions is the new disaster system that seems to happen much more often than before. It was a bit frustrating each time I would build up a certain area, only to have it constantly wiped out by a flood or some other disaster. Yeah, I know…they’re a part of the game, but the just seemed to happen a lot more here than in previous games.

It’s amazing that after three previous installments and a huge fan community, Atlus wouldn’t put multiplayer into the Tropico series. Sure, there’s Facebook and Twitter integration, along with user created scenarios to try your hand at – but the fact that Tropico still exists without a dedicated multiplayer system is nothing short of astonishing. Why can’t I take on my friends islands, and form treaties with others? Tropico seems like the perfect fit for a dedicated multiplayer suite, but for some reason we still don’t get it.

The Blast Factor: While it is true that Tropico 4 plays much like its predecessor, the changes that are here are far too heavy to merely call this Tropico 3.5. Though the lack of new features and multiplayer are a bit daunting, Tropico 4 is a game that fans of the series and those looking for a new experience are going to want to check out.

Tropico 4 is available now on the Xbox 360 and PC. A Xbox 360 copy of the game was provided by the publisher for this review

I still remember the moment I fell in love with Batman: Arkham Asylum. No surprise, it was pretty early in the game, I entered a warehouse type room filled with the Joker’s henchmen, but rather than merely having me go rough ‘em up, I was challenged to find a new way around them, to think in essence, like The Batman. I used my surroundings, I stalked my prey, I turned their own fear against them. It was after this section that I realized that developer Rocksteady wasn’t just giving me the opportunity to play as The Batman; they were giving me a chance to feel what it would be like to be the Dark Knight.

With the sequel, Arkham City, a lot could have gone wrong. We all know most sequels suck and what are the odds of two Batman games in a row being exceptional right? Turns out pretty good. Everything you loved about Asylum returns, but only now they’re tweaked and reconfigured almost to a point of perfection.  Arkham City is a sprawling and gorgeously detailed environment, and Bat-fans are sure to enjoy the little nods to the caped crusader’s past. It may not be perfect, as some of the flaws that hindered the last game are still naggingly present, but Batman’s latest adventure is still a damn good one.

Arkham City picks up mere months after the end of the last game; the asylum’s former warden Quincy Sharp is now Gotham’s mayor and has had the wonderfully smart idea to move all of the city’s most dangerous criminals out of Arkham and into a walled off area in the center of the city. Millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne isn’t a fan of the idea and stages a press conference outside of the newly named Arkham City to oppose it, but it’s not long before he’s arrested under strange circumstances and thrown in himself.  This begins Arkham City proper – and it’s one of the most dynamic openings in recent memory.  From the moment you enter the prison, and an inmate yells “Welcome to hell,” you can’t help but be amazed by the scale of it all, and how theatrical the presentation is this go-around.

THUNK!

These superb presentation levels extend themselves throughout most of the entire game. Arkham City is a decaying mecca in the heart of downtown Gotham City; and it feels like it.  There’s plenty of back alleys and side streets to get lost down if you’re the gutsy exploring type, and the whole thing is done in striking light balance and detail. It’s almost awe-inspiring in certain moments when you’re on top of a building high above Arkham city taking in the scope and detail of the world around you. Of course, it still does suffer from occasional graphical pop-ins, and that damn camera that always seems to turn at just the wrong moment – but more on that later.

Much like the original game, Arkham City will have you ting out thugs and henchmen en-route to taking on Batman’s rouges gallery in an effort to uncover the conspiracy at hand, and that’s one area that this game does a ton better than its predecessor. Batman has perhaps the most well known villains in pop culture, and the first game had a few of them, but they pale in comparison to what Arkham City is packing. Throughout your journey you’ll take on The Joker, Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, the Riddler and a number of surprise guests from Batman’s past that are too cool to spoil here. Interestingly enough, the actual boss fights with the legendary characters aren’t that memorable and can be passed quite easily, but it’s the way Rocksteady built up these events with fantastic pacing that truly make them memorable.

Undoubtedly the game is at its best when it does what the previous one did so well, make you feel like the world’s greatest detective. It’s not uncommon to walk in to a room of ten or more thugs and still feel like you’ve got the upper hand. Though this go-round did feel a bit more linear than the previous game, just how many ways you can go about taking out your enemies is pretty impressive.  You could go in and let your fists do the talking or you could go the route I did and use your wits and gadgets to take them out strategically.  Disappointingly, it’s these large fights that also disappoint most in Arkham City as just like in before the game’s camera system can be incredibly frustrating. I remember one boss fight in particular where I kept having to run away just so I could get enough distance between myself and them to center the camera.

The level of detail throughout Arkham City is impressive.

After you’ve completed the campaign (which you can jump back in to with all of your upgrades thanks to a new game plus mode), Arkham City still offers a ton of content for your money. Challenge maps are back, and much more plentiful, as are the Riddler’s trophy challenges, but what you’re really going to want to check out is the Catwoman mission pack. A code for these missions is included in each new copy (you’ll have to buy one if you’re buying it preowned), and they add a ton of backstory to the game’s main campaign and are best experienced when played in the context of the game itself. I was also surprised at just how much I enjoyed playing as Catwoman; she’s a lot quicker than Batman and is a lot of fun to decimate baddies with.

Rocksteady also must be commended for their remarkable job in delivering fan service to the legions of Batman fans with Arkham City. Exlploring those back alleyways and side streets will prove to be a fruitful endeavor as there are plenty of references and nods to Batman’s impressive history in pop culture.  We’re still finding secrets in Arkham Asylum  to this day; meaning there’s plenty to be found in the game as well.

The Blast Factor: Any game that can make you feel like The Batman is doing something right – -and Arkham City does that very well.  Rocksteady has taken everything from Arkham Asylum and tweaked it enough to create one hell of a love letter to DC’s Dark Knight.  It’s a great licensed game, but perhaps most importantly, it’s a fantastic game in general.

Batman Arkham City is available now for the PS3 and Xbox 360 from Warner Bros Games and Rocksteady Studios. It will be available this November for the PC. A Xbox 360 copy of the game was provided by the publisher for this review.

Remember like two days ago when we told you that EA might delay Star Wars:The Old republic into next year. Just kidding — Bioware and Lucas Arts announced today at the Eurogamer expo that their highly anticipated MMO will release in the United States on December 20.

“This is an incredible moment for everyone at BioWare and our partners at LucasArts who have dedicated their lives to build this extraordinary game.,” Bioware’s Ray Muzyka said . “We appreciate the patience from the millions of fans who have been waiting for the game’s release.”

Each copy of the game will come with a 30-day free trial, after which gamers will have to join one of three subscription models:

1 Month Subscription: $14.99
3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month
6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month

Those who preorder the game will get early access.

Anyone who has ever played Warhammer 40,000 has dreamed of strapping on the Space Marine Armor and digging into a horde of Orks. To command a squad into battle, to rev up the chainsaw sword. THQ and Relic understand this and thus created Warhammer: 40,000: Space Marine; the most intimate and gritty look at the longstanding universe.  Space Marines isn’t perfect or innovative, but it is a fun and deeply satisfying new way to look at world that so many have been in for so long.

You are Captain Titus, leader of the Ultra Marines; a squad featuring the best of the best of the Space Marines. You and your small contingent are sent to eliminate an overwhelming presence or Orks from a hostile planet. It’s not the most interesting or original story, but it does feature enough twists and turns to keep even those unfamiliar with the universe interested throughout. What it does do however is give one of the most intimate and gritty looks at the franchise yet. Warhammer has always been more of a passive experience – you command your  table-top troops from a distance above, in Space Marines however, you are the Commander, and you’re right in the mix of the battle with your fellow soldiers – and it’s just as satisfying as you would imagine.

You and the Space Marines are armed with a few weapons at the outset of your quest, and chief among them is your chainsword. The first time you equip it and walk right into a swarm of Ork soldiers, sword swinging, the weapons feel extremely weighted and satisfying. Space Marines is a bloody and violent game, and it’s not afraid to show it; it’s a regular occurrence to be up against a ton of enemies one minute, only to be lost in a sea of blood the next.  As you progress through the game you’ll unlock new weapons and abilities to tailor the commander to your play style.

The gameplay in Space Marines isn’t anything revolutionary, but it is built on strong gameplay elements that make Warhammer entertaining throughout.  The majority of the game is a mix of melee combat and gunplay, and to be successful you’re going to have to switch between the two pretty regularly.  The game has frequent supply drop boxes where you can switch out weapons, spread throughout the game, a nice tough given the fact that you’ll often go into a battle unknowingly with the wrong weapons for the job.  These supply boxes allow you to try again – from a different route.

For all that it does right; Space Marines has a nasty habit of stopping its own momentum. The game’s story isn’t anything to write home about, but Relic seems intent on making it work via a series of incredibly intrusive cut scenes. It’s often that you’ll clear one section, trigger a cut scene and then walk five feet to trigger another one. These cut scenes take you out of the game in a major way. There’s also an issue with Relic being obsessed with its own game’s beauty, as there are a number of sections where you’ll be walking down long corridors without any enemies to fight, and it seems like it always happens when the game’s environments are at their best.

Warhammer’s campaign isn’t obtrusively long, but it’s not incredibly short either. That being said, the game’s legacy will be made through its online suite. The game modes aren’t that surprising,  but adding in real players to the game’s frantic mix does wonders for the formula. In the week since the game’s release, the servers have been very busy and with any hope a solid community will spring up around the game.

The Blast Factor: Space Marine could have been a mess of a genre transition, but Relic and THQ have done a great job in giving you a different and much more intimate look at a long established franchise. There’s nothing revolutionary here, but Warhammer is a game that’s built on solid mechanics and thought out progression. Perhaps the most important aspect, it feels like the start of a brand new franchise.

Dead Island is a classic example of art imitating life. By the very definition of the term, Dead Island can easily be considered to be a bit of a  zombie itself. Originally scheduled for release in 2008, the game was repeatedly delayed and assumed killed off until a new emotional trailer featuring a family fighting for their lives against a horde of undead invaders hit the web and instantly went viral. Back from the proverbial dead, Dead Island was set to be an emotional and gripping take on the zombie formula.

Or at least it was supposed to be.

Half a year and a ton of hype later, Dead Island’s final product isn’t what you thought it would be – and that’s not an incredibly terrible thing. With its interesting twist on the growingly stale zombie apocalypse genre, Dead Island has some great ideas, they just don’t feel as well thought out as they could be. At its best moments, it’s a thrilling horror survival game, but at its worst – it’s a dated, limited, lethargic and confusing experience.

The clear strength of Dead Island lies within its setting. The isle of Banoi is lush, tropical and offers picturesque views, an significantly different world than most games dealing with the zombie apocalypse.  The change in setting works wonders for the game’s survival horror feeling as you’re not (well, at least for most of the game) looking around the same corners as you would in most games as the tourist resort is full of small twists and turns that you’re not going to expect. Some of the best moments of the game involve walking past an area dense with hills and trees and you’re suddenly startled by the scream of the undead when you have absolutely no idea where it’s coming from.

Perhaps that’s the genius of Dead Island, rather than focusing on merely wailing on zombies at every turn, the focus is clearly on survival. You’re rarely ever going to run into a horde of undead and have to fight your way through (though, fear not, it does happen), rather the game throws a few zombies at you, but places them in all of the right places. It’s an extremely cool feeling to round a corner and see a ton of bodies, and one of them slowly gets up, looks at you and begins to charge.  It’s a frequent occurrence to hear a growling undead from somewhere and then have to quickly adapt your strategy.

It may have the walking dead featured prominently, but Dead Island feels like no zombie game before it. It’s probably easiest to describe the game as Fallout meets the zombie apocalypse. You choose your character based on skill specialty (one for example is more proficient than the other in throwing weapons, while the other’s specialty is brute weapons) and level up as you progress through the game’s sidequests and finding items. As you level up, you’ll gain access to new weapons and the ability to combine these weapons at workbenches found throughout the island.  While this may sound great, it’s also where the game begins to fall apart. The game puts absurd restrictions on the weapons you can use depending on what level you are. Like an old wrench for example.. You mean I can’t just pick up a rusty wrench from the ground and start wailing on zombies? Nope. You’ll have to unlock certain levels first. I get it, I really do; it’s a way to progress through the game, but it’s a little frustrating when you’re searching for weapons as you’re being chased down by zombies and the only thing you can find is something you’re not able to use.

In games like Dead Rising and its sequel, you were similarly asked to look throughout the environment for weapons and items to help fight off the undead horde. In those games, the question instantly became “Can I do this?” and the answer was mostly yes, but in Dead Island, it’s a frequent no. See that surf board leaning up against the lifeguard tower? Wouldn’t it be swell to take that and beat the hell out of a few zombies? Well…you can’t. That’s just a piece of the scenery, have this canoe oar instead.  Oh, that pool umbrella over there? The one with the pointed end that could impale a zombie? You can’t use that either, can I interest you in this canoe oar instead (yeah, there’s a lot of those in the game).

It all plays a part in just how dated Dead Island feels. A good majority of the weapons feels remarkably the same, and you’ll end up grinding your way through a good portion of the game.  A lot of my play time went like this: grab weapon, swing wildly, clear area, repeat. You can make the point that this is the point of a game like this, but here, it all feels so uninspired.  On the same note, the island and its sweeping vistas may look impressive, but the characters and their animations look like they’re straight out of the early days of this console generation.  The voice acting is rather well done though.

My final complaint about Dead Island may be a small one, but it’s just as important. Now, I’m the guy who when given the choice, will normally choose the “good guy” route in most games, but even though I wasn’t given the choice in Dead Island, I felt like a douche the entire time. Regardless of what character you choose, you wake up in your hotel room unsure of what’s going on, you know nothing about the undead roaming around; all you really know is that something is going on and it’s probably a good idea to get up. That doesn’t stop you from digging through people’s bags and luggage to find supplies and money, oh, and deodorant. Lots of deodorant.

The Blast Factor: Dead Island is like no other zombie game you’ve played, and that’s both a good thing and a terrible thing. At its best, it’s a zombified take on Fallout, but at its worst – it’s a dated and uninspired action title with little to offer in the end. Regardless, if you’re a fan of zombies or action games, you should at least check out Dead Island, even if it is disappointing.

Okay, stick with me here – in Driver: San Francisco, John Tanner, undercover cop and everyman has the ability to shift from one person to another and take over their body as they drive around the streets of San Francisco. For now, let’s ignore the immediate questions that spring up at this idea (Only in cars? What happens to his own body when he does this?) and the fact that it sounds like the premise for a cheesy Sci-Fi channel movie and focus one thing; somehow – the shifting mechanic works..and it works very well. The latest Driver installment is a wildly fun and over the top summer movie of a driving game that throws realism to the wind and allows you to enjoy the fun of car crashes, tight turns and yes – even shifting.

In all fairness, the story makes sense when you look at it in context. Tanner’s long time rival Jericho has broken out of jail again and sends our protagonist into a coma very early in the game. The rest of the events, shifting and all, take place in the comatose mind of Tanner, so it’s a bit more believable in that sense. Regardless, it works well within the world of Driver: San Francisco. The majority of the game’s missions require you to either chase, follow or beat someone to a location, and the shifting mechanic allows you to never really feel out of the mission until the very end. Take one of the missions where I was asked to take out another car before it gets to a meeting point on the other side of the city.  The game’s arcade controls aren’t very tight and as such, I plowed right into the wall. In most games, this would be the time to curse the game out and restart the mission, but using the shift mechanic, I was able to pull up a map that goes far above the city and pick a car close to the target vehicle and continue the mission.

Scoff if you want at how easy this all sounds, but it’s not without its fair share of issues. It takes about a second and a half to shift into any vehicle, so you’ll have to be very strategic about which vehicle you’ll choose. Is it going the right way? How close is it to the target vehicle? How fast is it? Picking the wrong vehicle can make for some frustrating moments, but it can also make for some awesomely surprising ones as well.  There were more than a few times when I chose what I thought was the right car, but it ended up just crashing into cars coming behind me, which caused the target car to wreck.  Well, that works…

Driver: San Francisco is not a racing game and it’s at its best when it clearly knows this.  The best moments are found when the game embraces its quirky nature and goes completely over the top, but when the game introduces the racing missions, things slow down tremendously.  The game also loses steam near the game’s third act, as the missions start to blend together and become very repetitive. It’s a bit disappointing to get two acts of amazing fun, and then the third is such a screaming halt.

Luckily then, Driver’s San Francisco is a large one that’s great fun to explore.  If you’ve ever been to the city, San Francisco is a spread out and bustling metropolis with a small town vibe you can’t find anywhere else, complete with landmarks and tourist attractions, even areas filled with small mom and pop shops. The city may not be recreated exactly within the game, but the key points are there, and of course, the hills make for some awesome chase moments. I often found myself ditching missions just to look around the city of San Francisco, which by the way is rendered at a beautiful 60 frames per second.

Perhaps most surprising about Driver: San Francisco is just how fun the game’s multiplayer suite is.  The shift system works amazingly well in this realm as it gives even the most novice players a chance to stay in the game for longer. The multiplayer missions also tend to get away from the typical race and wreck type of missions that multiplayer racers like this usually use in favor of some lesser used types. One game mode for example finds you having to trail behind a target car to get points while another has you playing a game of tag with an ever changing target core to earn points.

Blast Factor: It may not be the most realistic racer on the market, but Driver: San Francisco is a wonderfully fun arcade style driving game that shouldn’t be missed. The San Francisco setting makes for a virtual playground of vehicular enjoyment, and the shifting mechanic works surprisingly well. If you’re looking for a fast paced and fun action car title – you really can’t go wrong here. Welcome back Driver, we’ve missed you.

The news that Steve Jobs is leaving Apple has rocked the tech world over the past week. Beyond that, Apple’s momentous rise over the past two years has made it one of the most valuable companies (and stocks to own) in the US.

But that success hasn’t been going on forever. Sure Apple gave us the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, but here are five products that just plain failed. Rotten apples, you could say:

5. Pippin (1996)

Ah the Pippin, with its AppleJack controller, 14.4 modem, and $600 price point.

Nintendo 64 it was not.

This gaming console PC cost way too much back in the day, and it’s modem made things impossibility slow, even by 1996 WWW standards.

Considering that N64 was about $200 back then, the Pippin never stood a chance.

4. Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (1997)

There were some innovations here. The TAM was one of the first desktops to use an LCD screen. It also had a Bose speaker system that sounded amazing, and its design was futuristic and playful. For that reason, it was not a total failure.

But its $7,000 price was unheard of, even by Apple standards, even in the 90s.

When you throw in the fact that the TAM was just a Power Mac 6500 with speakers and a monitor for more than $4,000 extra … yeah …

3. QuickTake (1994)

If the QuickTake came out in the late 80s or even 1990, it would be marveled, up there with the Apple II, as something revolutionary, that helped usher in a new generation of tech toys.

But it came out in the mid 90s, when a dozen other companies were racing to put out much better products.

The QuickTake was one of the first digital cameras.

But it only took pictures in 640×480 resolution, had no focus, and only stored eight photos.

The camera was also designed to work with a Mac, instantly limiting its market share.

2. MobileMe

The technology is there. The clouds are there. There is and was nothing revolutionary or impossible or really even that difficult about what MobileMe was designed to do: allow users to access and edit their photos, files, contacts, and calendars from a remote location.

The problem was simple: It didn’t work correctly when it launched. The buggy launch of MobileMe helped usher its demise, along with a 50-cal slug from iCloud.

1. The Apple Lisa (1983)

Reportedly named after Jobs’ daughter, who was born when development started, the Local Integrated Software Architecture computer was Apple’s first try at a GUI-driven computer.

The computer was marketed at businesses, but it’s $10,000 price tag drove away even the hungriest greasy-handed IT department computer nerds.

Some would say the Lisa was a success because it helped usher in the Macintosh in 1984, but that wasn’t the case at all. Businesses and home users flocked to IBM’s cheaper personal computers in the early 80s, cementing the PC as the dominant platform. Apple would never recover.

For that reason, we name the Lisa has the biggest failure, in our minds, in Apple’s history. The company rules the tablet PC market and a good chunk of the mobile phone market. It has a monopoly on the portable music market. But it has never, and will never, dominate the desktop computer market, and part of the reason is because IT departments almost always buy the same “type” when they upgrade, partly because of software costs. Therefore, WINDOWS is still what’s in nearly every office and most homes.

Purposefully not on the list

The ROKR.

OK, so nobody likes the ROKR. They still bought it — a lot of them did.

At least 16 different Motorola ROKR cell phone models have been built since 2005, with the latest coming out in June 2009. It is a phone designed to carry your iTunes music. If that’s all you want, and some phone calls, then the phone worked fine. No reason to add any additional hate. No matter how lame the piece of crap is.

NeXT

Not an Apple product, but it was a Steve Jobs product. Apple bought it eventually. The computer didn’t sell well, and the platform it was built on was short lived, but this product is not a failure for one simple reason: In 1991 it was used to create the first web server.

Newton

Can’t call the Newton a failure. It was the first PDA ever. Apple CEO John Sculley actually coined the phrase “Personal Digital Assistant.” So what if it cost too much and the Palm Pilot would soon demolish it?

They say that football is a game of inches. That it’s won and lost in the trenches, and not by the flashy plays that make the highlight reels. The same could be said then for Madden. The long running football series is built year after year by small improvements, rather than game changing new features (I’m looking at you quarterback vision cone).  This year’s game is no different, new features like Dynamic Player Performance are a welcome addition, and it’s still a satisfying game of pigskin, but there isn’t much new here to separate it from last year’s offering. Though it may be more Kerry Collins and less Peyton Manning, Madden NFL 12 is still a great time for fans of the sport.

The biggest addition to this year’s game is unquestionably the Dynamic Player Progression system. Essentially, it helps players act more like their real life counterparts. Player’s ratings are now effected by everything from the hits they take, to the flow of the game and even how they’ve been playing in the last few games, meaning you won’t be able to constantly rely on the same plays to the same players all season long. For instance, if Green Bay Packer tight end Jermichael Finley is on a cold streak and has been dropping open passes lately, I may want to look elsewhere when driving down the field for that come from behind drive. These ratings are pretty true to life, as players like Manning, Rodgers and Brady have remarkable poise in tense situations, yet rookies and those known for being rattled easy like Jay Cutler will begin making dumb mistakes if you don’t change your game plan up quick.

Dynamic Player Progression is a big part of this year’s Madden feeling much more realistic than previous editions ; as does the presentation – mostly. This year, EA has put an obvious emphasis on recreating the same camera angles and production aspects you’d see on TV and in stadiums around the league. The first few times you see these new angles, you’ll be impressed, but when they happen every single game, they get old rather quickly. The stadium specific introductions are well done, though shortened; really, teams only introduce two to three starters per game.

The biggest question though? Why stop there? Being the only licensed NFL game on the market and the only game that can use the ESPN license could be a huge deal, but the Madden series continuously throws the opportunity away. Where are the ESPN video packages? ESPN branding is almost nonexistent in this year’s game.  On top of that, why not take advantage of being the only actual NFL game on the market? Why not use the ESPN logos, tickers and graphics for games? I understand it would be hard to get the licenses for packages for each of the networks that carry NFL games, but how hard could it be to give me actual ESPN Monday Night Football presentation to make these games feel that much better. Hell, why not show me NFL network video packages?

Another disappointing aspect of the presentation of this year’s game is undoubtedly the commentary. Last year I applauded the addition of Gus Johnson, but somehow this year it just feels like it’s too much. Yes, it’s great when a remarkable, game changing play takes place and he shows true emotion, but Mr. Johnson is very excitable and makes every play, even short five yard passes seem like the best thing to ever happen to the game. Oh, and Chris Collinsworth? You may want to look into why they’re turning you into the game’s comedic value – I’ve had to listen on multiple occasions how you told me how great Greg Jennings’ arm strength is, and how he can riffle passes into tough spots. Yeah, Jennings is a receiver. I’m calling it – next year I want Joe Buck.

All of that aside, Madden’s core football gameplay is incredibly satisfying. Perhaps that’s as a result of the game’s hardest difficulty being ramped up to include smarter AI and better play recognition. The defense will pick up on tendencies and exploit them, and you better have a good adjustment plan.  New defensive animations and tackling systems makes that side of the ball a ton more satisfying to play. I honestly couldn’t get enough of wrecking guys with guys like Clay Matthews and BJ Raji.  With all of its downfalls, you can take solace in the fact that yes, Madden NFL 12 is still great fun to play.

Blast Factor: Madden NFL 12 may not be the best of the series, but it is a satisfying and fun football experience. The dynamic player performance system is an interesting addition the established formula, and should change how you at least play franchise mode. If Madden NFL 12 were an NFL team, they’d be the team that misses the playoffs, but only slightly.

We live in a society obsessed with perfecting the human image. These shoes will make you run faster, this drink gives you more stamina and this surgery will irresistible to the opposite sex. The world of Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a futuristic look at where that society is headed, and it’s a grim one.  Competing biotech corporations are augmenting people with new limbs and new senses, but a secret war for these technologies is brewing and innocent lives are being put at risk for this war.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the latest chapter in the long running, critic and cult favorite series casts players in the middle of this war and gives them the freedom to decide just how it pans out. Your choices have a tremendous amount of weight and as such, the replay factor is through the roof. Deus Ex is not just a tremendous action game, it’s a gripping and satisfying tale that hits all (well, most) of the right notes to leave you on the edge of your seat.

Human Revolution casts you in the role of Adam Jensen, chief security officer for Sarif Industries, one of the leading Biotechnology companies on the planet. Sarif is on the verge of a major breakthrough, and could unlock the full potential of the human body, but they have their detractors. Not only are their rival companies attempting to steal their information and ideas by any means necessary, they also have a number of “purists” who believe that their work is wrong. On a routine mission, Jensen is attacked and left for dead, leading him to augmented with the company’s own technology.  What results is your quest  to unravel a global conspiracy and find your attackers.

Human Revolution is so gripping because it deals with issues that though they may be a ways off, are very possible in today’s society, but just how deep you dive into the mythos of the game is completely up to you – and that’s where the game truly begins to shine.   A lot of games can claim to give you choices, but very few give you the freedom that Deus Ex offers. Each mission gives you a few basic choices, for instance if you want a weapon to take out enemies from a distance or close-up, but you never feel like the game is guiding you in a certain direction. You’re merely dropped into a mission and asked to complete it in whichever way you prefer. Go through and take out

Deus Ex allows players to take on missions anyway they want.

I often found myself going the other route; sneaking around missions and avoiding enemy contact whenever possible. This is where Deus Ex is at its most gripping, enemy AI is astoundingly good, responding to everything from noise to suspicious activity and yes, even unconscious bodies if you don’t hide them well enough. You’ll genuinely have to plan a strategy and think about how you’re going to do things before leaping right in, as getting caught often leads to having to think on the fly, and adopt a new strategy.  The way you play not only has an effect on the game’s missions, but the way the game itself plays out, as certain actions will open up new interactions and side missions that further delve deep into the world of Deus Ex.

There is something to say though for how satisfying and remarkably realistic the game’s gunplay is. Throughout the game (especially if you choose to shoot first and ask questions later), you’ll gain access to a lot of different weapons, and each feels like its weighted right and fun to shoot. It’s incredibly rewarding to take out a room of baddies with a high powered weapon, and the game’s well done cover system adds to it by leaps and bounds.

As you play through Deus Ex, you’ll earn Praxis points, the game’s currency system that you’ll use to level up and earn new abilities. These too have a profound effect on just how you’ll experience the game. I found myself investing them in the blades on my arms, as I found it incredibly rewarding to sneak up on an enemy and take them out this way, but you’re able to distribute them to literally any aspect of your character in an effort to max out your play style of choice. A tip though – no matter how you choose to play, give a significant amount of your points to hacking, as it makes the entire game easier, and opens up a lot of new choices.

For all that it does right; Deus Ex has an unfortunate habit of stopping its own momentum. While the majority of the game is choice driven, there’s a few moments where the game feels remarkably linear, and you can’t help but feel like the game is pushing you in certain directions. A good example of these moments are the game’s boss fights. In a normal game, they’d be sufficient, but when a game is as well done as Deus Ex, they seem out of place and counterproductive to what the game truly wants to do.

Though it’s marred by dated facial animations, the majority of Deus Ex: Human Revolution looks like an art-school dystopia. Heavy on blacks and grays, the game plays the troubled future motif well, and not as predictable as some other games that explore the same theme.  There were multiple times I just found myself staring out a window at the wonderfully rendered cityscape. Human Revolution is one of most unique and cool looking games of this generation.

The Blast Factor: Barring a few missteps, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a gripping and unique thrill ride that everyone should play. It’s faith in its mechanics, and play style allows the player an ultimate sense of freedom and the result is a game that you’re not going to want to just experience, but play through again and again. It may not be perfect, but Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a great action romp.

Hewlett-Packard Sr. VP of Global Marketing from wireimage.com

Hewlett-Packard will end its tablet computer and smartphone businesses, and may sell its PC business as well.

The company has been rumored to have been in talks about selling its PC business, but the smartphone announcement came as a surprise especially since HP recently paid $1.8 billion to smartphone maker Palm in 2009.

HP is the biggest maker of PCs and printers, but has been trying to expand and focus more on technology services.

You really can’t say Sega and Next Level games didn’t try. For Captain America: Super Soldier, the game loosely based on this summer’s big
budget adaptation of Marvel’s long running comic series, they took obvious inspiration from Batman: Akrham Asylum; widely regarded as
the best comic book video game of all time.  Unfortunately, they only borrowed the game’s ideas, and failed to capture what made the caped crusader’s latest adventure so memorable. That being said, it’s not all bad, and it may not be saying much, but Captain America: Super Soldier reaches heights that other Marvel games could only dream of.

Much like most video games based on comics book movies, the adventure in Captain America: Super Soldier takes place within the universe of the movie but doesn’t follow the events precisely.  This isn’t an origin story so you won’t have to take Steve Rogers from scrawny Brooklyn kid to National Hero, instead much like Arkham Asylum, the entirety of the game takes place in one location, a castle high in the Bavarian mountains.  It’s a sprawling complex, and it’s also home to scientist Armin Zola and his ruthless creations. Your job of course is to go in to the castle, stop Zola and destroy pretty much everything in the process.

What separates a game like Captain America from one like Arkham Asylum is simply how engrossing it is, and this is the game’s first misstep; as much of the game’s six hour campaign is incredibly dull and forgettable. Go into an area, punch a bunch of guys in their face, whip out the shield and move on. Of course, there are some moments that break up this monotony, but they’re few and far between.  Of course, the combat is not only responsive, but surprisingly rewarding, but even it’s not enough to break up Captain America’s monotony of bleak browns and grays.

That lack of detail also spills out into just how the game is designed. While playing the game, you feel the sprawling castle should be explored, but thanks to the tedious and dull level design it’s never quite as satisfying as it should be. It’s almost as if the developers realized this halfway through as they included a sewer system that goes underneath pretty much the entire castle to streamline travel and give you an option other than retracing your steps constantly through the castle. For what it’s worth, there’s a ton of collectibles you can find throughout Captain America, but none of them are things you’ll want. Beer steins? Whatever. Why not give me collectible comic book covers I can view, or movie art, or something other than random crap?

Captain America does its best to imitate a free-roam game, but is really a linear experience in every sense of the term. There are platforming sections that give the illusion that you’re free to explore and free to go about the game your own way, but in reality you’re still just moving from narrow corridor to narrow corridor. This has a definite effect on just how you’ll play through the game as you’re bound to get frustrated as you feel like you should get to that item, but it’s always just out of reach.

Captain America did nail one of the aspects from Batman: Arkham Asylum, the fact that you’ll never really get a quality boss fight with the one you’ve been waiting to take out for the entire game. Oh, there are some pretty frequent boss fights with some of Cap’s most famous recurring enemies like Iron Cross and Madame Viper, but you’ll never get that face with Red Skull you’ve been waiting the whole game for. You play through the entire game, slogging through tedious boss fight after tedious boss fight, waiting to get to the epic battle, but it never comes – it’s really all quite cheap.

There’s also something to be said for just how clean Captain America really is. Strangely, you’re playing as the same character who punched Adolf Hitler in the face on the cover of one the comics, but there’s absolutely no mention of Hitler, the Third Reich or the Nazi party. Instead, the soldiers with the goofy German accent are Hydra soldiers. I understand that putting such touchy topics in a game that kids will undoubtedly play, but these same topics are discussed in the movie, why hide it? Why make the game so squeaky clean?

The Blast Factor: Clocking in at just about 5-6 hours with no multiplayer, Captain America is slim on content and features, but that doesn’t mean it should be avoided at all costs. At the very least, it’s leaps and bounds ahead of Thor, Iron Man and other Marvel movie tie ins and that came before it, even if that’s not saying much. Still though, one of Marvel’s biggest names deserves better; there’s always The Avengers.

“The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.”

After reflecting on my time with Runespell: Overture, I can’t help but think back to this quote from A Bronx Tale. At the core of Runespell is an enjoyable –and often, challenging- battle system that shows plenty of promise. Unfortunately, while Runespell can be very fun at times, the experience is marred by repetitive encounters, a half-baked story with terrible writing, and a curious lack of multiplayer.

Developer Mythic Box describes Runespell: Overture as “a unique RPG that combines Poker and Collectable Card mechanics.” That may sound a bit confusing –I didn’t quite get it until I sat down to play- but it really is the best way to describe the game.

What passes for a story in Runespell goes something like this; The player character, a generic-looking cloaked figure known as the Changeling, wakes up with no memories in the middle of a massive blizzard in an alternate history England. After some existential pondering, the Changeling sets off in search of answers and eventually joins in a quest to gain entrance to a fortress, Skullgrim, which is said to contain great power. However similar the plots may sound, the Dark Tower series this is not.

There are some feeble attempts at character development but the writing in Runespell is so bad that it’s almost funny. Even after realizing how awful the dialogue was, I found myself reading every single line similar to the way that some people can’t look away from a bad car accident. Also, any player that needs their stories to be fully explained and tied up with a neat little bow will come away unhappy. A spoiler warning would normally be warranted when discussing the ending of a game but in this case there’s nothing to spoil as the credits roll before the dust has even settled on the final battle. What is actually in Skullgrim? What becomes of the Changeling and his merry band of adventurers? I presume these concerns will be addressed in a sequel but pardon me if I’m not holding my breath to wait for the answers.

While Runespell’s story is woeful, the card battle system offers gameplay that is generally quite good. Combat plays out between the Changeling and an opponent using a setup that will be immediately familiar to anyone who has played Solitaire. However, in Runespell, the player must create five-card poker hands in each available slot. Completing a poker combination allows the Changeling to attack resulting in damage that corresponds to the quality of the hand. So, playing a pair will deliver a minor scrape while unleashing a royal flush causes massive damage. The player can either move around his own cards to create combinations or steal cards from his opponent that have yet to be stacked.

In addition to creating poker hands, the player must also manage his set of special-ability-granting collectible cards. The collectible cards offer a variety of enhancements such as element-based magic attacks and protection spells, melee attack buffs, and my personal favorite, lockouts, which prevent an opponent from using an ability card for a short period of time. Using a collectible card requires Rage Points which are generated by completing melee attacks with the poker hands.

Being successful in Runespell combat requires the player to manage a cycle of generating poker hands to build Rage Points and then unleashing special abilities at the proper time for maximum effect all while attempting to undermine the efforts of each opponent. The battles are fun to play and require thinking ahead in order to successfully execute a combat strategy. Fights are often extremely close and even those against lesser opponents can prove to be a harrowing experience.

Although the combat can be very entertaining, I did note several issues with it. Encounters can become repetitive, largely due to the nature of the collectible card system. I found that there was not enough variety among the abilities, particularly the magic attacks, to warrant trying radically different strategies. The limited options also cause most opponents to have a similar card setup which further leads to a feeling of taking part in the same fight over and over. I was also bothered by the fact that the HUD does not indicate how many rounds are left on status effects and by the random ambushing –which gives the opponent the first move- that happens with greater frequency against more difficult enemies late in the game.

The last major problem I had with Runespell is the absence of multiplayer. It seems to me that this type of combat system would thrive upon the cunning between two human players. Not including multiplayer support for a competitive card game is a baffling decision.

Beyond the fun to be had with the battle system, there are several other positives in Runespell. The game is very appealing visually, particularly for a card game. The menus and HUD are all well designed and look great. Characters are decently animated in a style that apes World of Warcraft and there is a bit of special effects flair when abilities are used. One particularly nice graphical touch is the painted world map. However, the map looks so good that it creates an awkward contrast with the lame Changeling icon that gets moved around on it. The music in Runespell, although not ample in selection, does an effective job of conveying the excitement of combat throughout the game.

Blast Factor: Runespell is a curious mix of cards and fantasy elements that will likely appeal to a very narrow audience. The battle system is creative and can be quite a lot of fun to play. However, the larger issues with the game, such as the uninspired story and lack of multiplayer, make it hard to recommend for everyone, even at the $10 price point.

Want to know a secret? I’ve never seen a single moment of a Harry Potter movie, nor have I read a page of any of the books. Nothing against the franchise, I just never did. In fact, the only real concrete memory I have of the series is the god awful first Deathly Hallows game.  Is this really what people wait in line for?

The good news is that pretty much everything has been refined from The Deathly Hallows: Part 1, the bad news? It’s still pretty bad. Though there’s been obvious effort to tweak and tune the mechanics from the last game, they still don’t work and can be incredibly frustrating. With painfully bad voiceovers and a dull, short campaign, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II is not a good gaming send off for a franchise that defined a generation.

Much like its predecessor Deathly Hallows: part II plays like Gears of War in a Harry Potter mask. If that sounds weird…well that’s because it is. You’ll take cover and use your wand as your main weapon.  Different spells have different effects and can be used to take on different tasks – when they arise. That last part is key as the majority of the game is an incredibly repetitive affair.  Walk in to an area, cast a few spells, defeat bad guys and repeat until the game is over.  From time to time you’ll get new spells that will make the game feel a bit different (especially towards the end of the game), but for the bulk of the game, it all feels the same.

The most disappointing part of the game happens when you figure out just how paint by numbers the game is. Take the cover system for example; in a game like Gears of War, there’s multiple options for cover in an effort to be strategic, but in Deathly Hallows, it’s obvious that the developers put the cover points in where you’re supposed to take cover.  It gets to the point where you’ll see cover and instinctively know that death eaters are going to pop up right in front of it. This type of handholding becomes a bit more accepting when you take into account the game’s target audience; but it’s no excuse for the lazy level design.

One of the game's many different spells

For what it’s worth though, the game is full of great ideas – they’re just not implemented well. When you learn new spells, it’s a great deal of fun to experiment with them, but that feeling goes away when you realize that they all pretty much have the same effect. There’s a cool spell towards the end of the game that allows you to teleport between cover points, but it comes so late in the game that you never get the chance to truly explore what it can do. Perhaps Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II is most disappointing because it could have been much, much better.

The voice work in the game is done by impersonators, rather than the actual actors, and a few of them, like Harry, are rather impressive, but others are laughably bad. Characters like Voldermort come off as mere cartoon caricatures of their on screen personas. Visually, the game is a mixed bag. The screen is presented sans hub, which offers a nice and clean presentation, but the environments are so diluted and animations are so stiff that it doesn’t really matter. The first game had an embarrassing number of glitches that made the title’s faults stick out that much more, though most of those glitches are now gone, the graphical issues somehow still stick out.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II will only take most gamers about 3-5 hours to complete, which is incredibly short when you take into account the game’s $50 price tag.  There’s no extra modes, no multiplayer and thus no real reason to go back through a second time. With this being the last game of the series, why not offer collectibles or hidden nods to past stories for the fans? Sadly, Deathly Hallows: Part II is as bare bones as a game can get.

The Blast Factor: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II is miles ahead of the first game, but sadly, that’s not saying much. It’s a bare bones, flawed and unimaginative title that sadly never delivers on its novel ideas. So long Mr. Potter, sorry you never got a decent gaming experience.

Every year, I have a very distinct way that I play the NCAA Football series. At any time I have no less than two different dynasties going. I always start with the Wisconsin Badgers and continue my home state’s yearly dominance over winning countless national titles, but the other is a bit more interesting. I take a random small school and through recruiting and old fashioned coaching slowly turn them into a national powerhouse; then after a few years I change schools to see if I can do it again.  This usually means giving up my numbers and record and starting over, but thanks to the coaching carousel, a new feature in this year’s game, I’m able to play in one continuous game that allows me to think and more importantly react as an actual NCAA coach.

The coaching carousel mode is just one of many additions that makes NCAA Football one of the series premiere titles. Though it has its fair share of flaws and the majority of the gameplay hasn’t been changed much, there’s still much to like here.  From a slew of new presentation improvements to a notable amount of customization options, NCAA Football  2012 finally steps out from the shadow of its big brother, the Madden NFL series and it does so by celebrating the spectacle of college football and not just the product.

The addition of the coaching carousel to the Dynasty Mode is an interesting one. You start by creating your coach from style to alma matter and of course look (admittedly though there are some curious absences here. You mean I can make my coach wear a 3 piece suit but can’t give him a 60’s era hat?) and then you pick your first coaching job. Where you go and what role you take will have a massive impact on your experience: pick an offensive or defensive coordinator and you’ll only have control over that side of the ball; but if you pick a head coach you’ll have control over the entire team. At the beginning of each season you’re given a set of goals and these are how you’re judged at the end of the season. Once your contract runs out you’ll have the option to stay with your current team (if they don’t fire you) or testing the waters otherwise.  It’s an interesting twist and a brand new way to look at a mode that had become somewhat stale in recent years.

The mode isn’t without its flaws though. Key among them is the fact that regardless of what position you choose, you’re going to be responsible for the entire team’s recruitment process, thus giving you pretty much the same responsibilities and making the feat of getting a head coaching job seem that much more trivial. What’s more, it’s entirely too easy to pull of the game’s biggest feat – landing your “dream job.” Simply create your coach and set his alma matter to whatever team you want, then make him the head coach of that school, and you’re in (interestingly enough it’s also a way to get a 30 point achievement on the Xbox 360).

Coaching carousel isn’t the only notable addition to Dynasty mode as for the first time ever you’ll be able to change around divisions and NCAA rules to your liking. The impressive customization suite was included as an answer to last year’s talk of super conferences and a dramatic realigning and is a college football fans dream. Want Norte Dame to play in the Big Ten? Go for it. Want to move a small southern team into the SEC to play with the big boys? It’s all up to you.  What’s more, you can even change bowl bids and where the bowl games happen. For instance, you can make the winner of the SEC and the winner of the Big Ten play each other in the Orange Bowl if you’d like.

Another mode that’s grown stale in recent years but given an overhaul in the 2012 game is the Road to Glory mode.  The mode, which puts you in control of one single created player now starts you back at the beginning of your senior year of high school (teams are either automatically created or you can import them using the impressive team builder). Once you choose which school you’ll be playing for, the game becomes almost more like an RPG as you’ll earn experience points to level up your player through in game play and mini games like practice performance. While you’ll start as a simple backup, you’ll eventually work your way up to becoming a trusted starter that can call his own plays and audibles at the line.

As you’d probably expect, save for a few new animations and tweaks, not much of the game’s core gameplay has been changed from last year’s installment. Unfortunately, this includes a few key elements that desperately needed tweaking. Some of the game’s physics are still a bit strange (there were several times where the ball went directly through my receiver), and the AI still has a tendency to become unbelievably good towards the end of the game especially when trailing. Come on, it’s a bit strange when you’re dominating for three and a half quarters only to have the other team suddenly become experts at interceptions and sacks.

Not all of the game’s tweaks are of the gameplay variety though, as the game features an updated presentation aspect this year.  Key among the updates is the stadium specific introductions. While not all teams have big introductions, the key ones are here like Florida State’s Chief Osceola and Renegade running on to the field and the LSU Tiger. They’re great to watch the first few times, but what about the rest of the game? If you’re going to capture the true spirit of college football, why not do something special for the end of the game?  Why does it feel the same when I beat a no name opponent as it does when I upset a top ranked team? Also notable is the fact that the game’s crowd noise has been improved dramatically and you no longer get the feeling like you’re listening to 50 fans amplified to sound like 100,000 fans; you’re actually listening to the right amount.

Much like the gameplay however, the game still suffers from some of the same visual flaws that have haunted the series for years. At random times half of players will vanish and the ball will completely go through whole objects. The new presentation aspects are great, but I almost would have rather had them wait on those until they fixed these lingering problems.

Blast Factor: Though it has its fair share of flaws, NCAA Football 2012 is easily one of the best of the franchise. With its new customization suite and revamped modes, college football fans are sure to find enough to enjoy for some time to come – or at least until next year’s game releases.

What’s better than one Batman? Try a bunch of different Bat-men. Such is the hope of Monolith Productions, who unveiled Gotham City Impostors, a new multiplayer game featuring the caped crusader set to hit PC, PSN and Xbox Live.

Players take the side of either the Batz, modeled after Gotham’s Dark Knight, or the Jokerz — guess who they’re modeled after. Since the game is multiplayer only, there’s no huge Arkham Asylum story, but there is a bit of one tying everything together; it turns out a group of concerned citizens have put on a Batman cowl because they’re sick of the Joker and his minnions.

The game is described as being somewhat like Team Fortress 2, with quick matches and easy to pick up and play controls.

No date or price has been announced for the game as of yet, but expect to see more at E3 in June.

In the last few years, comic book fans have been spoiled by games like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. So it’s logical to hope that Thor: God Of Thunder, the video game tie in for the Summer movie will follow the trend  and not be just another crummy movie tie in. You hoped wrong.  Thor: God of Thunder is less Batman: Arkham Asylum and more Iron Man, it’s just what you hoped it wouldn’t be; another subpar movie tie in that doesn’t seem interested in doing enough to stand out.  Sure, it does some things great, but even those elements can be found done even better in other games.

Much like other movie tie-ins, Thor doesn’t follow the story of its big celluloid brother, rather it features its own unique story written by comics scribe Matt Fraction (who also wrote the Iron Man 2 game).  It’s a shame then that the game’s story which finds Loki tricking Thor into causing destruction on other planets, and as a result going back to have to fix things seems so uninspired. You see, rather than really fixing things in Thor, like the game tells you you’ll be doing, you’ll constantly find yourself going through area after area just smashing anyone and anything you can get your hands on. See that crate? Smash it! See that building? Smash it! Yes, you’ve saved this planet!

Most of the game is held down by this repetitiveness as well. Much of the game finds Thor running from one room to another, getting locked in said room and then moving on and repeating. Luckily, the game’s mechanics save it from being a complete bore, at least at first. It’s easiest to compare Thor’s third person action mechanics to that of Sony’s God of War series; mashing on the attack button unleashes a fury of attacks on your opponents, and redirecting the thumbstick in any direction will cause Thor to attack in that direction. It’s a simple and intuitive formula that works well here until you start to realize that it’s the same set of moves repeating again and again.

You do get a break from the monotony of the button mashing though, in the form of the game’s surprisingly well done boss fights. The majority of these bosses are much larger than anything in the game, and as an admitted scale whore, I really enjoyed each of them. While they do of course feature the same basic mechanics, the elements of timing and strategy found in the boss fights makes it feel much different than the other areas of the game.

Playing through Thor, you’ll gain experience points, which in turn will give you tokens. These tokens can be used to upgrade Thor’s abilities, unlock new attacks or health. Exploring in certain areas will result in finding more tokens for these upgrades, but the game is so linear that there’s not really much to explore. In fact, you’ll notice that going pretty much anywhere off the beaten path will result in getting more of these tokens.

Visually, Thor: God of Thunder is a mixed bag, while environments like Asgard and several cityscapes look impressive, the majority of the game looks like it’s straight out of the last console generation. Characters look awkward and move even worse, and some of the environments and objects tend to get pixilated and blocky often. One bright spot in the game is the voiceovers, which are impressive, especially for a licensed game.

Blast Factor: Thor: God of Thunder isn’t a terrible game, it just doesn’t do much to break out of the monotony that hold so many licensed games. It’s a paint by numbers third person action game that if it didn’t have the likeness of Marvel’s Thunder God, wouldn’t even be noticeable. If you’re a huge fan of the character, you may want to check out Thor, otherwise – there’s always Captain America (fingers crossed).

The central question concerning Portal 2 is whether or not it could rise to meet the high bar that comes attached with every Valve game in addition to being the sequel of one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time. In many ways it not only meets but exceeds those expectations by blowing the scale of the first Portal out of the water and by incorporating several ingenious new gameplay mechanics that facilitate some of the most inventive 3D puzzles the industry has ever seen. While Valve’s sequel is not as perfect as the original due to a less captivating story and narrative delivery, it is still incredible in its own right.

Portal 2 begins with the player character, Chell, being woken up at some indeterminable point in the future by Wheatley, an AI core charged with managing the thousands of test subjects in stasis. Wheatley transports Chell’s stasis container through a maze of structures, crashing into other containers along the way and providing a nice opportunity to show off the geometry deformation that will be a graphical highlight throughout the game.  The entire sequence is a subtle, twisted nod to the tram opening of Valve’s first title, Half-Life.

After breaking through a final wall, Wheatley deposits Chell at her final destination which not so coincidentally happens to be the starting room of the first Portal. Only now, the Aperture Science facility has fallen into a state of disarray with dilapidated walls that have been overrun with fauna indicating that many years have passed since Chell destroyed GLaDOS. The first handful of rooms that Chell navigates serve a dual function of introducing new players to the mechanics of Portal while simultaneously playing up the nostalgia of veteran players for the original game.

For those that haven’t played the first Portal, the most basic way that the player moves through the world is by using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device which is commonly referred to as the portal gun. The portal gun fires a blue portal with one button and an orangeportal with another. Entering through the blue portal will cause the player to exit through the orange portal and vice versa. Additionally, the speed at which objects enter one portal will be the speed at which they exit the other meaning that the player can “fling” themselves over long distances by jumping down a great height into a portal on the floor and then exiting through a portal on a wall. Manipulating portalplacement to solve puzzles was the fundamental gameplay of the original game and Portal 2 covers much of the same ground in the beginning.

Wheatley helps the player move through the facility’s test rooms and back halls while an emergency broadcast system offers hilarious commentary that replaces the auto-tuned taunting of GLaDOS (my favorite: “If the laws of physics have been abandoned in the future, God help me).

Speaking of the lovable villain from the first game, it should come as no surprise that she is reintroduced in all of her sarcastic, trash-talking glory early on. In the course of attempting to leave the Aperture Science facility, Chell and Wheatley inadvertently reactivate GLaDOS which leads to a sequence of testing as experienced in the original Portal. However, since GLaDOS has been deactivated for such a long time, no test chambers are prepared so the player is treated to an impressive display of visuals as GLaDOS constructs each one on the fly. These puzzles are very similar to those of the first game with a few additional mechanics thrown in to mix things up such as flight pads that propel Chell through the air, weighted cubes that can redirect lasers, and hard light bridges that can be used to span gaps or to protect the player from turret fire. While the new puzzles are enjoyable, there is an unavoidable feeling that sets in after the first few chapters of retreading familiar ground.

Just when it seems like Portal 2 will be nothing more than a slightly tweaked rehash of the original, Valve flips the script and kicks things into overdrive

Just when it seems like Portal 2 will be nothing more than a slightly tweaked rehash of the original, Valve flips the script and kicks things into overdrive. Without giving too much away, the situation changes quickly with a twist to the story –albeit one that is a bit too obvious– that sends the player off into previously unexplored areas of the Aperture Science facility. It is at this point that Portal 2 turns a corner and becomes a fantastic game in its own right with wild new mechanics, inventive puzzles, and an awe-inspiring scale to the level design.

Progressing through new parts of the Aperture Science facility introduces additional gameplay mechanics, most prominently in the form of three experimental gels the company developed. Each one has a unique property: blue repulsion gel makes objects bounce great distances in the opposite direction, red propulsion gel causes high-speed movement, and white portal-conduction gel allows placement of portals on any surface it covers. There are pumps that output the gels into test chambers and Chell must use her portal gun in combination with the gels to tackle a nice array of new challenges. Many puzzles require a combination of gels for mind-bending solutions and these are some of the finest tests that Valve has created across both games. Things get even more creative when the excursion funnels, tubes of light that push or pull objects, are factored in allowing players to distribute the gels throughout levels in new ways. Beyond being extremely clever in their implementation and forcing players to think in new directions, the gels are simply a lot of fun to use. Splattering the bright colors across surfaces speaks to the two year old in all of us and bouncing off floors and walls is so enjoyable it will draw a smile from even the most jaded gamers.

In addition to the ingenuity of the gameplay, the latter half of Portal 2 is so impressive because of the scale of the environments that the player must navigate, particularly their verticality. The new areas are massive, cavernous spaces that in many cases are several stories in height. To navigate through these locations requires the player to span great distances with portals or, when that is not an option, by flinging at incredible speed. These are all things that have been done before in the original but the increased scale amplifies the wow factor of these actions. Using a portal to maneuver through a small test chamber is neat; crossing a chasm the length of a football field by stepping through a window in the fabric of space is downright cool. The larger spaces more effectively convey the power of the tool the player has at her disposal.

That being said, there are some issues that arise with the larger areas that are not as prevalent in the smaller test chambers. In several instances, especially in very tall levels, the “correct” solution to arrive at the exit necessitates placing a portal in a specific location very high up that can be hard to spot. One particular chamber comes to mind in which I spent roughly 15 minutes trying various solutions because I hadn’t noticed a place for a portal that was hidden at the top of the room in a dark corner.

This last point brings up another issue with Portal 2 which is that the game feels much more linear with its solutions than its predecessor did. One of the fantastic things about Portal was that there were a myriad number of solutions to each test chamber. The tests in Portal 2don’t feel like they have as much leeway for thinking outside of the box especially when navigating the wide-open areas of the game. That is not to say that there aren’t multiple solutions to the puzzles but the feeling of the game overall is that the player is searching for the path the designers intended as opposed to the organic puzzle solving of the first game.

Visually, Portal 2 is a significant improvement over the simple graphics and sterile textures of the original game. The rendering of the enormous spaces and the animation of multitudes of moving parts as tests chambers are constructed and shifted about is, in a word, impressive. Moving through the back halls of the facility’s construction area is another highlight as the player is treated to various wonders such as the piece-by-piece assembly of a turret in a beautiful, automated ballet of technology. It is admirable how far Valve has been able to push the Source engine but, as good as Portal 2 looks compared to the original, it doesn’t quite measure up to its contemporaries in the first person genre. More specifically, the texturing in the game leaves a lot to be desired when considered alongside the visuals of games like Crysis 2 and Bulletstorm. While the fidelity may not be as high as those games, graphical problems were almost non-existent with the lone issue that comes to mind being some texture popping when splashing the same space with multiple colored gels.

In many ways, Portal 2 is a massive improvement over the first game but the story and narrative delivery fall disappointingly short of the original. Unlike Portal, which presented a premise and then gradually peeled away the layers of “reality” to reveal the true nature of the situation through subtle environmental cues, the sequel is a straightforward tale of escape. The twist that is thrown in near the halfway mark can be seen coming far in advance but the reasons for its occurrence don’t make much sense and it seems to exist only out of necessity to do something interesting with the plot. As the player moves through the new areas of the facility, she is presented with a lot of background information about Aperture Science, its founder Cave Johnson, the origins of GLaDOS, and the nature and evolution of the facility itself. This knowledge provides welcome revelations but filling in the back-story feels more like a corollary to the original game. It gives off the impression that Valve made the safe play of falling back on explanations to pre-existing questions rather than forging ahead with an engaging new story.

The chief complaint lobbied against the original Portal was that the game was too short (it could be finished in less than four hours) and gamers desperately clamored for more. Portal 2 avoids that pitfall by providing plenty of gameplay, roughly double that of the first, in an experience that feels just right in length. There’s almost always a feeling of ending too soon in a game that is this fun but when the conclusion came it felt like the right time, as if all the creative angles had been explored properly. While the game’s final challenge is uninspired and too easy, the ending that follows is superb. It is one of the most memorable in recent years and nicely wraps up a fantastic journey. Many great games have finished with a whimper because of a weak ending or bad cliffhanger –several of Valve’s previous efforts included—but, thankfully, that is not the case here.

Blast Factor: Portal 2 is, simply put, an amazing game. The new gameplay mechanics make for even more incredible puzzle solving; the sense of scale is astounding; and the twisted, dark sense of humor remains hilarious. It may not come quite as close to perfection as the original title because of weaker narrative delivery but it is still a must-play for anyone that enjoys videogames. Buy it without hesitation, play it, and then share it with friends who don’t play games so they can see what they’re missing out on.

Editor’s Note: Due to PSN outages, we were unable to properly review the cooperative play mode of Portal 2 which is a significant component of the game. As soon as the service is active, we will post our review of the co-op mode as well as comparisons between the console and PC versions of the game.

Portal 2 is available now for the PS3, Xbox 360, Mac and PC from Valve, a copy of the PS3 version of the  game was purchased for this review.

If nothing else, 2011 will be marked as a great year for first person shooters. Killzone 2 and Bulletstorm have been burning virtual ammo with aplomb, but perhaps they were merely the opening act to the main attraction—Crysis 2. The original Crysis was a PC-only release known mostly for its hardware-crippling requirements. The focus of how much raw CPU and GPU power Crysis needed to run overshadowed just how great the game actually was.

Crysis never made it to console systems. So, it’s likely that most gamers who jump into Crysis 2 won’t have the experience of the first game to guide them. Thankfully, that’s not much of an issue. While the game certainly has historical ties to the original, you won’t feel like you’re missing anything substantial by not having experienced part one of what is apparently due to be a trilogy.

Going cross-platform has helped immensely to streamline the game mechanics. The original’s convoluted controls are gone, replaced with an elegant and intuitive method for using the super-human abilities of the protagonist’s nanosuit. Interface changes aside, the focus of Crysis remains on intense action in huge areas while utilizing different tactics to take on the enemy.

In the spirit of big budget action movies, Crysis 2 starts with a bang. Players take the role of Alcatraz, an otherwise-nameless grunt sent in with his squad to extract a scientist from New York City. Far from the bustling metropolis it used to be, New York is a burning husk. A rampant alien plague has wrecked havoc through the populace, killing thousands. An alien race called the ceph has invaded and entrenched themselves into the city’s underbelly. Finally, the heavily-armed internal security troops of the corporation behind the suit’s development are searching high and low for you.

This three-way fight dynamic plays a huge role through most the game. Although the environments aren’t as huge as those from Crytek’s previous games, Crysis 2’s rendition of NYC is stunning. The levels generally feel huge and offer an incredible variety of urban settings. You’ll fight on rooftops, ground levels, in buildings, and sewers. Almost every level offers a variety of ways to take on the combat.

The suit will inform you of specific tactical choices and their locations. Switching to the visor mode enables a HUD display that points out specific points you can use to approach a situation with stealth, sniping, flanking, and other tactics. Even without such promptings, the abilities of the suit enable players to utilize an incredible number of combat styles.

The main functions of the suit are armor and stealth modes. Armor mode lets you take heavy damage and high falls. Stealth mode turns on camouflage that makes you effectively invisible under most circumstances. The suit also lets you run and jump at a superhuman level, and see the world with thermal vision. All these abilities cost energy, so you have to use them strategically.

The suit recharges its energy fast, but frequently finding cover to duck behind and recharge is a necessity. This ability to use stealth or run and gun tactics at virtually anytime, in addition to the sheer mobility afforded by the suit, makes Crysis 2 feel different than any other shooter. As you progress, you’ll also earn points that can be used to modify the suit and your weapons.

The mod system is surprisingly simple to use, and allows the player to customize their abilities to accentuate stealth, power, speed, and other elements. There are a lot of guns to choose from as well, and while most are the usual fare, being able to modify them makes even a standard assault rifle seem much more original. Where the gameplay is terrific, however, certain other elements are merely stereotypical cliché.

The story is generally fine, but hardly original. Most of the side characters are two-dimensional, and the many suffering plague victims you encounter are completely non-interactive set pieces. The plot has some cool twists in it and the evolution of the suit is clever, but the writing never approaches the quality of the rest of the game. Also, the use of a hero who is just another nameless grunt taking orders from voices over the radio is really disappointing.

The single-player campaign is surprisingly long—easily 12 or more hours. When you’re done trampling through the streets of New York killing AI-controlled bad guys, there are endless more hours of killing to be done online. Adding the abilities of the nanosuit to a team game or standard deathmatch provides a fantastic alternative to standard multiplayer fare like Call of Duty or Halo.  Since there are even more suit modifications for multiplayer, the more you play, the more you can customize your gameplay experience.

Finally, it’s no surprise to say that Crysis 2 is simply gorgeous. The sharp, HD graphics are stunning and the stereoscopic-3D support is superb—adding an intense sense of depth to the visuals. The audio work is equally as impressive. The score is dramatic, the voice acting decent, and the surround mix is enthralling.

The Blast Factor: Crysis 2 is easily one of the best games of the year so far, and the best shooter on the market. The gameplay is truly distinctive, the action is intense and addicting, and the game provides a topnotch shooter experience in both single and multiplayer. Although there are certainly some disappointing holdovers of old school design, the game as a whole is absolutely worth having.

By now you’ve probably heard a lot about what Bulletstorm is supposed to be. You know, the swearing, the violence, how Fox News says it’s going to cause a rise in rape; all that stuff. Scrap ‘em. Throw out all of your preconceived ideas of just what you expect from Epic and People Can Fly’s shooter. Yes, it’s crass and ultra violent, but beneath all that lays a surprisingly solid shooter, with thrilling set pieces, awesome characterization and most importantly, one of the most fun shooter experiences in years.

It’s the 26^th Century, and you’re renegade space pirate Grayson Hunt (referred to as Gray for much of the game) , who along his with partner and soon to be cyborg warrior Ishi has been discharged from the Dead Echo; a Black Ops style group that protects The Confederation of Planets following a double cross. Flash forward ten years, and an intoxicated Gray sees an opportunity to exact revenge on his former employer. Surprise – it doesn’t go so well, and before long Gray and Ishi crash land on a Stygia, a former resort planet that’s now crawling with savages. From here you can guess what to do.

Perhaps surprisingly, it’s the strong characterization of Gray, and the world around him that make Bulletstorm so extraordinary. Hunt is basically Han Solo, if he’d taken up drinking and grown out his hair.  Famed comic book writer and artist Rick Remender (Uncanny X-Force, Punisher) has crafted a remarkably well done story that feels awfully similar to a buddy comedy (think 48 Hours, but with guns and savages). Each character is believable and fun to watch, thanks to well written and entertaining dialogue, which yes, is awfully colorful, but serves its purpose. Hey, you try keeping your words PG-13 while being chased by a ton of bloodthirsty savages.

Where Bulletstorm differs from more traditional shooters of course is with its skillshot system. Essentially, using different weapons, targeting specific boy parts and using different elements from the environment unlock cool and ultra violent stylish kills that earn you points to unlock new weapons and ammo type. Some of my favorites? The homie missile, which requires you to attach a grenade gag to an enemy, then kick him into other enemies causing a mass explosion and the Fire in the Hole, which finds you killing an enemy by shooting him directly in the rectum. Hey, it’s not Shakespeare, but it’s damn entertaining, and damn rewarding to string together moves with your different weapons, your leash and a series of “This is Sparta” style boots kicks. Though it does seem to get a bit old later in the game, it’s still a very unique and well implemented mechanic.

In the movie business, there’s a rule, show don’t tell, in gaming, it should be do, don’t show. In some modern games, developers have a tendency to show gamers the really cool moments of a game in the form of a movie sequence, but that’s not a problem with Bulletstorm; the game is filled with tons of awesome thrilling, and playable set pieces and “holy shit” moments that are sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. I may catch some flack for this, but the only game that I’d say compares to what Bulletstorm has done here would be the phenomenal Uncharted 2. Take for instance early in the game, you’re trying to outrun a bunch of the savages when you suddenly find yourself on the wrong end of a giant concrete wheel. The first time you see this thing start barreling towards you, much like the game’s later set pieces is a truly thrilling experience.

Once you finish the game’s main campaign, there’s an online co-op mode that allows other players to assist in creating skillshots, but it’s the echo mode that steals the multiplayer show. The mode, which is best played once you’ve finished, or at least gone through a good portion of the main campaign allows you to go through specific sections of the game strictly to see how many points you’re able to get via skillshots. What’s really cool is that once a friend passes your score, you’ll get a notification, and be able to jump right in and try to beat them.

In the visuals department, Bulletstorm is no slouch either, the game is filled with sweeping vistas and great views – you just don’t get to enjoy them as much on a count of the savages and all. What’s most impressive though is the astounding voice work throughout the game. Most notably, Gray, voiced by Steve Blum (most famous for his work as Wolverine in a ton of Marvel shows and games) and the voice acting for Serrano, which comes off as a character from an over-the-top Tarantino character.

The Blast Factor: It would be easy to discount Bulletstorm as just another crass shooter looking to make its mark, but doing so; you’d miss one of the year’s best shooters. Some of the mechanics may get a bit old later in the game, but you’ll hardly notice thanks to the thrilling set pieces, well written dialogue and simple, fun experience. Bulletstorm’s ending may be just a cheap way to hint at a sequel, but the promise is an exciting one.

Guybush Threewpood is now Shortplank Hardwood. Yeah, you know where this is going.

Independent developer Grimmstone is readying a add-on pack for it’s X-rated Tetris title (yep, that totally exists) with the name “The Secret of Spunky Island” Essentially, you play the role of a porn director who needs to fill roles in his porn parodies by ahem, positioning …umm ..actors into roles as they fall from the screen.

If you’re really interested in the game and it’s artistic qualities, you can find out more at the developer’s official site, which features NSFW content obviously.

SOURCE

It’s dangerous to make a licensed game, but it’s even more risky to do so with a cult favorite. Look what happened when Jaws was made into a game. Yep. You got to play as the shark. How lame is that? Remember Reservoir Dogs? The Godfather? Ghostbusters?  You can imagine how I felt then when Telltale Games announced that it had acquired the rights to the Back to the Future films, my absolute favorite franchise as a child and would be making a series of episodic titles based on them.

Much to my surprise, Telltale has written an admirable, yet sometimes flawed love letter to Robert Zemekis’ time traveling trilogy.  Thanks to mostly stellar voice acting, a unique art style and some impressive writing, the latest tale of Marty and Doc fits right into the canon set forth by the original movies.

For months, Telltale’s Back to the Future game has been billed as the first proper tale to take place after the events of Doc and Marty return from the Wild West at the end of Back to the Future III.  While it does fit chronologically, the game more often feels like it’s a lost episode of the old Saturday morning cartoon series based on the films. Taking place six months after the end of the first film, Marty is having trouble adjusting to life without Doc. What’s worse is that Doc left all of his possessions behind, and the bank is looking to sell off his estate. Just when things look their worst, The Dolorean appears with a taped message from Doc – he’s in trouble. It’s up to Marty to find out where in time Doc is and save him.

Spoiler alert – he’s in the 1930s. While it may not touch the world’s created in the films, the prohibition era does fit nicely with the franchise’s tone. Much like in the movies, you’ll encounter older relatives of the story’s main characters, from the McFlys to the Browns and of course the Tannens. What’s really cool is that the game pays a lot of fan service to its community, but it never feels pandering, and rarely seems to get into the lame “oh hey, you remember this” wink, wink, nudge nudge type of humor. Fans will really appreciate the small touches thrown in by the game’s writers, who are obviously fans. Those familiar with the series, and I mean really familiar with the series will want to play through the episode multiple times, or at least explore every option in each scene for little tidbits and references to the movies.

The only drawback to all this though is that this isn’t a very taxing experience, at least not when compared to Telltale’s previous works. This is unquestionably Telltale’s biggest profile game, and as such it’s clearly target for a much wider, much more casual audience. In other words, you won’t have to be Doctor Emmitt Brown to solve many of the game’s puzzles. It’s extremely possible to play through much, if not all of the game without using any of the in-game hints – perhaps it doesn’t help that several solutions are reused throughout the game.

Visually, Back to the Future sports a hyper realistic cartoon style that though makes some of the characters seem a bit off (Doc mostly at times), fits the world quite well.  The series always had a campy (please note, this is in no way a knock to the series) feel to it, and the animations and environments feel right here. Where the game really comes alive though is with the sound. Set against a familiar yet original take on Alan Silvestri’s original score, much of the voice actors put in impressive performances as their respective characters.  The gold standard is unquestionably Christopher Lloyd, who reprises his role as Doc and AJ LoCascio who sounds eerily like Michael J. Fox in his portrayal of Marty. I was a bit disappointed when I found that Tom Wilson didn’t reprise his role as bully Biff Tannen, but San Francisco based singer and beat-boxer Kid Beyond (real name Andrew Chaikin) does a worthwhile job portraying the character.

The Blast Factor: Back to the Future: About Time is only the start of the series, as there will be four more episodes released between now and March of next year, but it’s off to a good start. With a fantastic amount of fan service, and writing that serves as a love letter to a childhood favorite, Telltale’s Back to the Future game bucks the trend of terrible games based on cult favorite films. The whole series is only $25, more than worth 88 mph of fun and nostalgia.

Southpeak Games’ new off road racer Nail’d is a definite  product of the times. Take one part ATV VS MX, add in aheaping helping of tongue-in-cheek humor and a ton of Red Bull for good measure. Recreating an incredible sense of speed superbly, Nail’d is a to the point, full throttle, little innovation arcade racer, but it’s also damn fun. It may not be the deepest, most complex racer on the market, but you can’t help but smile as you freefall off cliffs or dodge trains. Nail’d is the perfect game to kick back and share a Saturday afternoon with your buddies with.

Nail’d is an arcade racer – plain and simple, and the developers over at Techland (most well known for the Call of Juarez series) aren’t afraid to show it. While other games have you swapping out parts and modifications, Nail’d has one goal – to create an amazingly fun racer with a blistering sense of speed. You’ll be going off ramps, dodging obstacles from speeding trains to rock walls and even hot air balloons. The trick, and what makes Nail’d so damn different than the other games like it is that the developers have included the option to steer your ATV in mid-air. While it may sound like a small addition to an already established formula, it adds a ton of cool moments to the game that are sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Imagine launching yourself off of a giant ramp, as you hit the peak you notice that you’re headed right into the side of an unforgiving rock wall and you frantically attempt to steer your way to the ledge on your left.  What you do in these next few seconds could be the difference between placing first or last. This in essence is the Nail’d experience.

Complementing the frantic action quite nicely is the game’s fantastic track design. Most races start off with your typical straight away, but rest assured, it’s only to build up speed. Before you know it, you’ll be banking off intricate twists and turns and launching into gorgeous set pieces. Though you’re

Going to be whizzing past them incredibly fast, you’ll be missing a major part of the game if you don’t take a brief second (even if it’s just the pre-race movies) to admire the incredible level of detail in the environments. The same detail isn’t carried over to the entire game, as some of the player models and animations can come off a bit lacking, but you won’t see them much because the game is moving so fast.

Nail’d  is a game of decisions both big and small. Many of the tracks feature multiple pathways you can take. Do you pull up to try to get more air and tae the higher path or should you dive down to avoid getting smacked and cut to pieces by a wind turbine (no, really)? Either way proves to lead to an exciting outcome, but you can’t always judge the situation easily thanks to an unreliable camera.  All too often you’re looking like you’re going to make a jump, only to meet a fiery crash at the edge. Another issue with the camera is the game’s  camera is that it randomly seems to darken the screen. This happens more often than not in tunneled in areas, and leads to you crashing on unseen obstacles, meaning you’re bound to do it again because you can’t see exactly what caused it.

As mentioned above, Techland does a great job making Nail’d a fast and fun racer, but it doesn’t do much for the overall depth of the game. You have career mode, which of course tasks you with coming in first or restarting races, along with  time attacks and stunt modes. The odd thing about the game’s stunt modes is that there’s not really a stunt trick system in place, and in truth – you can’t really do much other than pop wheelies and land on other racers.  The day one DLC included with each new copy of the game puts a bomb and racers ATVs and tasks you with having to boost at the right time to defuse it is good fun and a decidedly different way to play Nail’d.

The Blast Factor: Nail’d would be right at home in the arcade scene of yesterday, what it lacks in innovation and depth it makes up for in blissful speed and unabashed fun. Best played with others (you’ve got to trash talk you know), Techland’s dirty racer is an unexpected favorite of the year. Go out and get Nail’d, you won’t regret it.

One of the big rumors about tomorrow night’s Spike TV Video Game Awards is that we’re going to get confirmation of Mass Effect 3. First, Sony’s Russian office confirmed the rumor over Twitter, then took it down, now it seems that EA proper is eager to spill the beans.

The picture to the right was spotted by Destructoid earlier this morning over at EA’s online store. The listing has since been taken down, but they were lucky enough to snag the shot before.

The features spot on the page also seems to give us the first details of the game’s plot. It reads: ” Earth is burning. Striking from beyond known space, a race of terrifying machines have begun their destruction of the human race. As Commander Shepard, an Alliance Marine, your only hope for saving mankind is to rally the civilizations of the galaxy and launch one final mission to take back the Earth.”

So, Mass Effect 3 returns to Earth? What do you guys think?

Here’s your first look at Atari’s upcoming downloadable Ghostbusters title Sanctum of Slime. The game will hit PSN, Xbox Live and PSN in Spring of 2011 and casts players in the role of a rookie Ghostbuster hired by the team from the original film to help prevent a paranormal tragedy. Wait, something about that feels so familiar.

Oh well, check out the never before released trailer and screens below.

The Assassin’s Creed games and I go back. When the first game launched in 2007 I took a bunch of heat for my review, calling it “dull, over complicated and boring.” While the second game was a huge step forward, my review pointed to many of the same problems.  How do you think I’m going to like Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood or Assassin’s Creed 2.5?

Surprisingly, a lot.

Brotherhood takes the formula created by Assassin’s Creed 2 and adds a few much requested features including multiplayer and adds them into the mix. No, this isn’t the next chapter,  it feels much like a director’s cut re-release of the second game, but luckily, it’s pretty meaty package. Whether or not diving back into this world so soon is worth the full price package depends soley on how much you enjoyed your time the first go-round.

Brotherhood picks up almost directly after the events of Assassin’s Creed 2, after confronting Rodrigo Borgia below the Vatican, Ezio is ready to take a break. You know what ruins a vacaton? The ticked off son of your latest victim launching an all out assault on the templars.  The villia is destroyed and our hero looses everything – yes, everything. Those who played and devoted a ton of time to building up the weapons sanctuary in Assassin’s Creed 2 will find that their progress means nothing here. Yes, you can say that it’s the nature of video games, but why not include some sort of save file feature ala Mass Effect 2? I’m not expecting to take all of my weapons with me, but it feels cheap to not reward your dedicated players.

Much of Brotherhood’s content takes place in Rome. Broken up into 12 separate districts, your job is not only to take down Borgia and get your revenge, but also restore faith and vitalty to the city. In each of the 12 districts stands a Borgia tower, which also means that soldiers patrol the city and opress the people and the merchants. Find your way to the top, take out the tower head and burn it to the ground and you’ll be able to revitalize the city, including blacksmiths, weapons makers and doctors, which of course will be vital in your play through. It’s not really a new mechanic as liberating Monteriggoni did the same thing in Assassin’s Creed 2, but it’s much more prevalent here in Brotherhood. Then again, you really don’t have to even deal with the towers at all if you don’t feel like it, but doing so opens up a ton of extra content that you’re going to want to explore to get the full experience.

At its heart, Brotherhood’s missions play nearly identical to those found in the second game – and that’s the game’s main problem. While it’s set in the same world, there’s little here to advance the story. Instead, you’ll be taking on additional contract assassin quests, looking for treasure and doing busy work. There are new weapons, items and a few new characters spread throughout the world, but none offer a ton of new variety to the game, which is a shame because with Brotherhood, Ubisoft asks for the full $59.99 price, which could prove to be too much for some.

The most disappointing aspect of Brotherhood though by far is the fact that some of the same problems that hindered the original game are still persistent. Targeting still sucks, and you’re going to have a hard time dealing with a crowd of attackers. There’s also an issue with the load times being incredibly long. Yes, there’s been an improvement, but it’s still quote lengthy more often than not.

Undoubtedly, Brotherhood’s biggest addition to Assassin’s Creed formula is the addition of multiplayer, and It’s quite fun.  Each player is given a target to kill, which of course means that at least one of the others players is hunting you. The truly remarkable aspect of Brotherhood’s online suite though is that it takes place in a fully populated world much like that of the main quest. As a result, players are going to have to take a few minutes to think about how they’re going to take out their target. It also helps that XP is handed out based on performance (stealthy kills are worth more than your normal kills.)

Blast Factor: It’s hard to say whether Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is worth your money. On the one hand, it’s got an extremely fun multiplayer suite, but the real questions is – is it worth a full $60 price tag. If you can’t get enough of the tale of the  the assassination attempts, jump right in to this director’s cut like package, if not, you may just want to wait for the eventual third game.

Perhaps more than any other intellectual property, the Harry Potter series has defined this generation. Whether you’re a fan or not, there’s no denying that the works of J.K Rowling have had a lasting effect on the culture and personality of this country much like that of the original Star Wars trilogy over thirty years ago.

It’s a bit insulting then when things like this happen. Not only is the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 the uninspired, licensed dribble you expected – it’s a downright terrible experience. From game crippling bugs and laughable mechanics, to some of the most annoying sound bites you’ve played in quite some time, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is what’s wrong with the video game industry.

The reason the Harry Potter franchise works so well is because at its heart, it’s the coming of age story of three kids as they confront life, death, love and even their own mortality under the veil of the story of a wizard. The video game? Not so much. If there were to be a message here, it would have to be that if you’re annoying enough, all of your problems are sure to run away. The game features literally none of the heart, emotion or fanfare that has made the series so popular in the first place.

Following the book and movie very, very loosely, the first chapter of the final tale of Hogwarts finds Harry, Ron and Hermione tasked with getting rid of the evil Lord Voldemort, but to do this, they’re first going to have to destroy the rest of the horcruxes, or objects imprinted with the evil spirit of Voldermort. What exactly does that mean for you? A whole lot of nothing since the game does pretty much nothing in an effort to move the plot forward in favor of cheap sequence after cheap sequence.

So just how does Deathly Hallows play? It’s easiest to think of it as adventure game, mixed with the cover system of Gears of War – just really a really terrible one. Much like everything else here, the cover system is downright terrible, and you’ll often find yourself sticking to the wrong side of your proposed cover, or not at all. As fun as casting a ton of spells on hundreds of Death Eaters seems like it should be, it grows old after about the fourth or fifth second, as Harry’s constant yells of “STUPEFY….SPTUPEFY…” are yelled every few seconds. It’s made worse by the fact that pretty much every spell you do is a variation of said attack.

Hint, this guys bad -- but still not as bad as this game.

There’s a stealth element to Deathly Hallows, via the Invisibility Cloak. Again – a great idea in theory, but it fails miserably in practice. First, you’ll occasionally run into a bug that sends Harry to the left or right by about ten feet to the left or right, which really makes it hard to accomplish the whole sneaking through without touching anyone thing. Oh, and you have to stand still to charge it – what fun. The strangest part about the invisibility cloak is the fact that it never seems to play by a single set of rules. There are literally entire sections of the game, including the final boss battle that can be passed if you just stand in the right place at the right time.

On the Xbox 360 version of the game, there’s a bit of Kinect support, but it too is thoroughly disappointing. When we first got the game in, I thought it would be a good demonstration of what the new peripheral could do in combination with a new controller. It is not. The Kinect suite of the game is a mini game acting completely independent from the main content on the disc. Acting as an on rails shooter you’ll flick your wrist to cast spells on a series of enemies. All too quickly though you’ll realize that you’re not really aiming at anything, and the feature seems even thinner. Kinect could have been a huge part of Harry: Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but much like everything else in the game, that potential is wasted.

The game’s biggest crime? The fact that EA expects you to shell out $49.99 for this game, and then again when the second game comes out. Movies can do this, as a ticket to each half will run you $10 tops, but to ask consumers to pay $100 for one single experience is just plain ludacris.

The Blast Factor: The videogame adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 fails in almost every way imaginable. It’s not fun to play, it’s buggy and worst of all, it’s full price for half of an adventure. Harry Potter fan? You’ll be disappointed. Looking for a late way into the series, check out the books or movies instead, just avoid this game at all costs.

Picking out a racing game is sort of like ordering a pizza. Do you want a high-speed realistic title heavy on the realism? How about a fun and lightweight kart racer, light on the realism? Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is sort of like the cheese pizza of racing games; it’s extremely enjoyable, but depending on your taste – you could be left craving more.

In all honesty, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is one hell of a racing title. It’s built on break neck speeds, high risk, and dangerous collisions. Regardless of which side you play on, you’re sure to enjoy your time with Criterion’s interpretation of the long running racing franchise. Be warned though, those who are looking for a deeper experience, complete with customization and story may want to look elsewhere. Though it may not be perfect, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is still one hell of a ride.

Though it bears the name of the long running franchise, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit isn’t like any other in the series. Rather, it feels much more like Criterion’s other well known franchise, Burnout. If you’ve played Burnout before, you’re sure to feel at home with Hot Pursuit, the cars control the same and there are even some of the same effects in use, but there’s more at steak here. You play as either an illegal street racer or one pissed off cop trying to bring said racers in. Regardless of which side you play as, the game is incredible fun. In true Criterion fashion, you’ll gain rewards for driving dangerously and performing specific maneuvers.

As you progress through Hot Pursuit, you’ll unlock new equipment to use against your opponents. Mapped to the d-pad, this equipment – which includes spike strips for the law and more powerful NOS tanks for the racers – are available only in limited supply, which goes a long way in making the game even throughout. Think about it, how many times have you been playing a racing game with weapons online, only to be cheesed out by an opponent who uses them persistently? What’s even cooler is that as you play through the game you’ll require bigger and more impressive upgrades to your ride, like longer spike strips and bigger barricades. This, combined with a truly remarkable and unpredictable AI system makes for game that’s different each time you play.

Let’s be honest though; you’re dodging in and out of traffic but deep inside, you’re yearning to see some kick ass crashes, and Hot Pursuit delivers in spades. When you wreck, the game slows things down (yes, like in Burnout) so you can see every detail. In truth, the entire game is full of incredible detail. Environments are strikingly realistic change depending on the action on the screen. Criterion are known for fantastic looking racing games, but they’ve outdone themselves here. There are a few quirks though, like a bit of slowdown when the online action gets too hectic and a quirky series of camera cuts that throw off your driving (which can be incredibly unnerving when you’re desperately trying to shave a few seconds off your time).

You’re unlikely to run out of things to do in Hot Pursuit thanks to a rather impressive feature set. Though it doesn’t support local multiplayer, the online modes are incredibly fun. The online races support up to eight players and don’t feature weapons, so pure racers will enjoy it, but most will spend the majority of their time in the Hot Pursuit events which breaks the eight players into four cops and four racers. the cops job is to stop the racers from crossing the finish line. It’s fast, it’s fun, it’s one of the best online games you’ll play this year.

As impressive as the features in Hot Pursuit are, they won’t please everyone. There’s no story here, and while that may please some, I did find myself questioning why I was going on at certain points. Yes, it’s cool to upgrade your car, but there’s really no real motivation to go on during the game’s second act.

The Blast Factor: Quirks aside, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is simply the best racing game this year. The gameplay is fast and fun and the crashes are incredibly wicked. Most importantly, the game features plenty of content and awesome features that are sure to keep players coming back for more. This isn’t just a reimagining of the Need for Speed franchise, this is a new series entirely.

Though its seven titles have brought in over $3 billion in sales, Call of Duty: Black Ops has a lot to prove. After a tumultuous year, which resulted in one of the messiest breakups in gaming history, Treyarch had to prove that they were no longer the series B-team, and make people forget all about a little company called Infinity Ward.

The result? Call of Duty: Black Ops is simply spectacular. Filled with thrilling set piece after thrilling set piece, and tied together with a tight perfectly paced narrative, and a thoroughly impressive multiplayer suite — Black Ops is easily one of the best games in the series. It’s not just an impressiveTreyarch Call of Duty game – it’s a great game altogether.

Black Ops isn’t your average Call of Duty game, and that’s evident right from the start. Rather than opening with a big military effort like previous games, you find yourself held hostage and being interrogated by a mysterious voice man. Turns out you’ve been on some seriously hardcore missions, and the details of this mission will help unlock a puzzle of sorts for your captors. Thus, the story of Black Ops is told mostly via flashbacks as you try to recall the information. Most of the action takes place in either the Vietnam or Cold Wars, meaning that you’ll get at least a fair share of differing missions as you try to uncover the truth. It’s not exactly the most original mechanic, but it does tend to keep you interested throughout the campaign.

Interestingly enough, the title brings actual historical figures like Fidel Castro, Robert F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon into the story. It can be a bit daunting to see these recognizable faces throughout the game, but they’re used tastefully enough that it doesn’t get in the way of the game or its story.

Call of Duty is known for its dramatic action, and Black Ops is no different. From the first mission, you’ll go from one thrilling set piece to another, and the sheer thrill of blowing stuff up and shooting is undeniable. Sure, some of the things you’re asked to do are a bit on the super hero side, but it’s extremely fun to jump out of a plane about to take off and then use a massive gattling gun to clear the area of enemy troops. The varied mission locations and structures make for some interesting memorable objectives.

One of the biggest complaints about going back to World War II for Treyarch’s last Call of Duty game, World at War after the wildly successful Modern Warfare 2 is that the guns felt awful slower, and while Black Ops doesn’t feature all of the high tech weaponry of Infinity Ward’s series for obvious reasons, there is a sufficient amount of advanced weaponry that all feels incredibly realistic, weighty and fun to use.

As fun as the campaign is, it clocks in at a mere six hours, and there’s little reason to go back for another play through.  As you could probably expect, the majority of Black Ops life is found in the game’s competitive multiplayer suite. At its core, it’s the same basic experience you’ve played in games past – do well, level up, get awesome loadouts, repeat. The key difference here is that Black Ops introduces currency, or Combat Points into the mix. Not only are you able to use the currency to upgrade your weapons, ammo and gear, but you can also bet them in online competition. It adds another level of intensity to playing the game online when you’re risking up to 10,000 combat points in the process.

The much talked about Zombie mode from World at War makes a return in Black Ops, with new maps and a new and interesting set of characters. The dark humor and co-op gameplay make for an interesting time (seriously, try not to laugh at some of the one liners), but it quickly wares thin once you realize that besides the asthetics, almost nothing has been changed since the last go-round.

Blast Factor: Call of Duty: Black Ops is a remarkably fun and inventive shooter; sure it has its share of imperfections, but they’re all minor when the game is this fun to play. Though the main campaign is a bit on the short side, it’s filled with thrilling set pieces and a compelling narrative along with the always exciting multiplayer suite. Say goodbye to your wife and kids, kiss the sun goodbye – your new Call of Duty fix has arrived.

You know what really annoys me? Those episodes of TV shows where something huge happens, that’s sure to effect the entire show’s cannon, only to reveal that it’s all a dream at the end. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 feels an awful lot like one of these cheap TV moments. Spoiler alert – Starkiller, the protagonist from the original Force Unleashed game and Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, takes his own life for the better of the rebellion. Yet, there he is as we open up The Force Unleashed 2. Yeah, apparently, Darth Vader’s got clones.

Ultimately, The Force Unleashed 2 is a similarly disappointing experience altogether. Though it starts off with a bang, and features some amazing art direction, the tale of one of Starkiller’s clone’s quest seemingly hits a brick wall before it really starts to gain any momentum. Still, you can’t deny the fun you’ll mindlessly killing fleets of storm troopers and abusing your force powers. The Force Unleashed 2 may not be The Empire Strikes Back, but it’s no Phantom Menace either.

Taking place about seven months after the events of the first game, and a full year before what we ultimately know as the first Star Wars movie; a New Hope, The Force Unleashed 2 opens up with Starkiller ( or quite possibly a Starkiller clone) escaping from captivity on Kamino. You take out the Storm Troopers guarding your cell, and set off on a quest to find out the truth about your existence and who you really are. Of course, it won’t be that easy, as you’ll not only have to take on the entire Empire, but deal with the fact that Darth Vader has hired Boba Fett to track you down.

If Force Unleashed 2 succeeds at one thing, it’s the game’s ability to make you feel like a badass Jedi master. It’s insanely fun to wind-up a huge force push and let loose on an entire squad of Storm Troopers as if they were bowling pins. That’s really just the start though; you’ll be able to let loose an entire array of awesome Jedi powers, including Force Lightning and levitation. If you’re like me though, you’ll find the most fun out of using the awesome Jedi Mind Trick ability.  Call me sadistic, but it’s just plain fun to watch an enemy Storm Trooper dive head first to his doom into an energy field. Of course, these powers are almost exactly the same as the ones from the original; they just feel a bit more powerful in the sequel.

These abilities still have their downfalls though, namely with the telekinesis ability.  Much like in the first game, you’ll often be tasked with picking up an object or enemy with this ability, but will have a  frustrating experience thanks to a shoddy targeting system. Yes, it seems easy to pick up that bin over there to tae out the control panel, but the game seems incapable of doing such pedestrian tasks.

As fun as these abilities are though, they don’t offer much in terms of gameplay, as the Force Unleashed 2’s core mechanics wear thin incredibly quickly. To boil the game down to its most basic description, you’ll find yourself laying waste to storm troopers, walkers, droids and the occasional boss fight. Repeat ad nauseum. I couldn’t help myself but be reminded of old games like Final Fight and Double Dragon as I fought off the hordes of nearly identical bad guys. It’s mostly disappointing because the original game featured everything from wookies to Jawas. Why not include them in the sequel?

Save for a few moments, The Force Unleashed 2 is a pretty linear experience, and you won’t have much variation from the path the game wants you to take. A few of the quicktime events and boss battles are a bit tricky, but nothing was incredibly taxing and there’s no upgrading abilities here, so the Starkiller you start with, is the same that you end with – luckily though many of the enemies feel exactly the same throughout the title, meaning you’re not going to have a ton of trouble clearing it.

One standout area for the game though is clearly in its production values. Save for Darth Vader ( I couldn’t help but think of the Chad Vader series of viral videos when he was on screen), the voice acting is top notch, and you’ll be treated to one gorgeous set piece after another. The best moments of these set pieces are found in the game’s quick time events, which often require you to use force push to dodge enemies and debris. These moments are easily the best of the game, and the will keep you on the edge of your seat, even if the rest of the game doesn’t.

Blast Factor: Star Wars the Force Unleashed 2 isn’t a better game than its predecessor, nor is it a worse one – it simply is. Star Wars fans looking for a true saga experience are encouraged to wait for The Old Republic next year, but if you’re just looking to feel like a badass Jedi Knight who kills nameless enemies and asks questions later – you can’t go wrong with this uninspired, but fun sequel.

2007′s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare changed the way we looked at war in the medium of video games. Infinity Ward’s acclaimed shooter brought the genre to modern day with gritty realism and an unapologetic look at what it meant to be at war in the modern age. Think of it as the video game equivalent of Apocalypse Now.

Now, EA’s Medal of Honor reboot has the potential to do it all over again. While most war titles tiptoe around the current conflicts in the Middle East, EA has chosen to dive in head first. Sure, the name may have been changed (EA changed the Taliban in the game to the “Opposing Force” in certain parts of the game amidst a sea of controversy from soldiers and activists), but the sentiment is still there. Sadly though the title never does the source material justice and what you’re left with is a paint-by-numbers first person shooter that shows only glimpses of what it could have been.

Right from the start, Medal of Honor shows immense promise; opening directly after the events of September 11, you’re a member of an elite American military squad given the task of finding – and eliminating the Taliban force. What starts off as a promising tale of modern conflict though, quickly descends into a ham fisted display of army stereotypes. There’s the cigar chompin’, grizzled sergeant issuing orders; and of course there’s the team’s wildcard that disobeys them because he knows better. Undoubtedly though, the game’s worst transgression is with how it treats the conflict it uses at its setting. Gone are any gleams of humanity that has come with this war in favor of the “kill all the bad guys” bravado we’ve come to expect from modern first person shooters. EA was traversing risky and unexplored territory with Medal of Honor, but they chose to take the safe route, and the game suffers as a result.

For what it’s worth though, Medal of Honor’s campaign is paced exceptionally well. Playing through, I never got the feeling that missions were dragging on, and straight forward first person shooter moments are often broken up at just the right time by tense and cinematic moments that will keep you on the edge of your seat. EA has done a great job creating a cinematic tale here that seems to move along at just the right pace. There are moments however where that cinematic quality gets in the way of gameplay. Medal of Honor’s mission structure is built firmly on the chatter you’ll hear between your squad mates and yourself, but sometimes you’ll find yourself unable to progress through certain points in missions until you hear the entire conversation carry out. This can be even more frustrating when you’re having a problem clearing a section and each time you load you have to listen and let dialogue you’ve already heard play out. The game itself is strikingly linear, and the AI will go to remarkable levels to get you to stay on the path laid out for you. There’s definitely a way that the developers want you to experience Medal of Honor – and they’re not afraid to show it to you.

Unless you’re playing on the highest difficulty, Medal of Honor’s roughly six hour campaign shouldn’t be much of a challenge for most familiar with the genre. Enemies seem to be proficient at shooting and taking cover, but they’ll often stick out their head from cover at the most inopportune times. Those looking for more of a challenge are encouraged to try out Tier 1 mode, which tasks players with completing missions against an always ticking clock that freezes, or gets time added to it when you perform specific tasks, like melee kills and headshots.

Of course, this is still a modern first person shooter, which means that where it will earn its salt, and write its legacy is in its multiplayer suite. Playing like a mix between the multiplayer modes of the Battlefield series and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Medal of Honor online features small maps and big weapons, ensuring each game is frantic and fun. Much like other similar games, you’ll be able to earn rewards including new weapons and armor for your success in the game’s multiplayer suite. Medal of Honor’s online component is exceptional and will likely become a highlight for gamers with itchy trigger fingers.

The Blast Factor: There’s a lot to like about EA’s Medal of Honor reboot if you’re able to look past some of the more disappointing aspects of the game. Though the game never truly reaches the potential its source material allows for, you’re going to want to experience the superb pacing and visuals – not to mention the distinctly addicting multiplayer suite. Sure, it’s not everything it could have been, but given the expectations, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Bethesda confirmed earlier this morning that they have released a patch to fix some of the technical issues found in the PS3 version of Fallout: New Vegas. When this update will be available for the console edition of the game is still unclear.

” We’reworking hard to make this update available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360,” reads the official Bethesda blog.

Blast reviewed Fallout: New Vegas this week, and cited the game’s surprisingly high amount of technical errors as one of the game’s major downfalls.  Stay with Blast for more on the upcoming patch.

In the two years since its release, Bethesda has kept Fallout 3 relevant thanks to a steady stream of downloadablecontent that expanded the game universe. Now however, it seems to be hurting the franchise more than anything else.

Fallout: New Vegas is a difficult beast to review. On the one hand, it adds to the experience first seen in Fallout 3 wonderfully, but on the other, that experience is nearly three years old.  The world is as massive and creative as ever, but playing through the latest chapter in the critically acclaimed franchise grows incredibly familiar and tiring all too quickly.

As you’d expect, New Vegas takes place in the year 2281 in a post apocalyptic Las Vegas, Nevada. Much like the Washington DC setting of Fallout 3, the map of New Vegas is incredibly large and impressive. In fact, the wasteland setting in New Vegas is easily one of the game’s best features. Actual landmarks like the Hoover Dam and the Helios Solar Energy Plant dot the landscape, which is tons of fun to explore. Playing through and exploring the world New Vegas presents is incredibly rewarding and the more you play, the more you’re sure to appreciate. Case in point – when you get to the actual Vegas area and see swing entertainers and the lights of the strip – it’s a truly awesome sight when you realize that up until this point you’ve been staring at a barren wasteland.

As a living  artificial world, Fallout 3 is nothing short of fascinating, but as an interactive experience, it’s a bit more thin. What worked so well before, often feels old hat here, and rather than feeling like you have complete control, it’s not uncommon to feel like the game is limiting what you can do.  Everything you’ve come to expect from the engine is here, just in a different form – while Fallout 3 began with you choosing your traits at birth, New Vegas does so after you regain consciousness after being brutally attacked and forced to dig your own grave.

While much of New Vegas’ gameplay is showing its age, the citizens of the wasteland are a different story altogether. In previous Fallout games, the factions were easy to navigate; one was good – one was bad – and so forth. Here, many of the factions come off as neutral forces, perpetuating ideas rather than stereotypical responses. This makes the game incredibly more fun to navigate, as you’ll have to really identify and choose which faction you want to align yourself with.

Each time I would get into the action of New Vegas, a technical glitch or troubling design choice halted any interest I had in the game. Several times, I had to restart my game as it caused the entire 360 to lock up. Furthermore, when the action starts to pick up, you’re left with a chugging framerate and some embarrassing textures. The worst aspect though by far is the game’s obscenely long load times. Even those wouldn’t be much of an issue if they didn’t happen so frequently. Going into a building? Load screen. Leaving a building? Load screen. It’s obviously annoying and has a tendency to take you out of the game, especially when your quest has you going through different buildings.

Those looking for more of a challenge with Fallout: New Vegas are pushed towards the new hardcore mode which severely amps up the difficulty and realism.  In Hardcore mode, stimpaks (the  game’s health system) heal over time rather than instantly, severe injuries require additional medical assistance and players must eat, drink and sleep to avoid starvation, dehydration and exhaustion. Yes, it’s as hard as it sounds, but it’s incredibly satisfying for dedicated Fallout players.

The Blast Factor: If Fallout: New Vegas were an expansion pack or DLC, it’d be instantly worth the money, but asking gamers to put down $60 for a title that adds almost nothing new, yet is chock full of technical issues is a bit much. Still, those who love The Fallout games are sure to find much to love in the Mojave Wasteland. Fallout: New Vegas isn’t the masterpiece many thought it would be, but fans are sure to enjoy one more romp with their pipboy.

DC Universe Online MMO won’t be making its scheduled release, as Sony has announced that the game has officially been delayed until sometime in 2011.  The official canned reason is that Sony wants to use the time to “address player feedback.”

“As the game heads into external beta testing, this extra time will allow us to address community feedback in a meaningful way,” said Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley. “When we get deeper into external beta, we’ll be able to share more information regarding the new launch date.”

“DC Universe Online is the first game of its kind, and a truly massive undertaking — the first action MMO set in the DC Universe, the first MMO on the PlayStation 3, and the first time the entire DC Universe will be accessible to the millions of fans who are eagerly anticipating its release,” said Smeadley.

There is good news however. Players that have pre-ordered the game, or do so before November November 15 will have access to the beta before November 30th. Those who have a VIP invite card will get beta access as early as next week.

On my desk, I have the following: World War Z, the book about the after effects of the zombie apocalypse, The Zombie Survival Guide, a figurine of the zombie from Plants VS Zombies and even a Zombie translator. Yes, it’s safe to say that I’m a fan of zombie culture and lore. And yes, it’s safe to say that I loved the original Dead Rising. Sure, it had its issues — like a frustrating save system and a few control issues, but damn it was fun to run around a mall using whatever you can find against a never ending horde of zombies.

The game’s sequel, cleverly titled Dead Rising 2 is along the same lines, its issues are clear, but it’s easy to forgive these mistakes when you’re having this much fun. Everything you loved about the first game is back, but this time in a much larger and much more expansive universe. If you’re able to ignore the small design flaws found in the game, Dead Rising 2 is simply a must buy for action gamers, fans of zombies, and those who just enjoy a fun bloody romp.

Dead Rising 2 plays much like the original, you have 72 hours to survive a zombie outbreak, using whatever you can find as a weapon. Here though, you’re in the Las Vegas inspired Fortune City rather than the Dawn of the Dead inspired Williamette Mall and you’re playing as motocross star Chuck Greene rather than photo journalist Frank West (he’s covered wars you know). When Capcom announced Fortune City as the setting for Dead Rising 2, I wasn’t that impressed, but my fears were proven to be null once I got my hands on the title. Not only is Fortune City massive, but it’s also incredibly fun to explore. People call Vegas a "playground for adults," and that’s definitely the case here as there’s plenty to explore and do in the city and each play through of the game led to even more fun discovery.

The story of Dead Rising 2 deals with Greene and his search for Zombrex — a new wonder drug that slows down the zombiefication of victims — in order to save his daughter who was bitten by her infected mother. It’s an interesting enough tale, but Dead Rising 2 works best when you treat it like it is — 72 hours in a zombie filled playground. Call me sadistic if you want, but it’s incredibly fun and rewarding to grab a chainsaw and take it to a group of the undead. It’s even more fun to hit them with a donkey lamp or clay pot. The core experience of Dead Rising 2 is filled with "can I do this?…Yes I can" moments.

These moments are made even cooler by the new combo weapon system which lets you combine certain weapons and objects into even cooler weapons. Find a baseball bat and a box of nails? Take them to a workbench and combine them. You can make everything from makeshift Molotov cocktails ( newspaper and a bottle) and a flamethrower (gasoline and a super soaker) to some more creative weapons like the boom stick (a combination of a pitch fork and shotgun that literally blows a zombie’s limbs off one by one) and a paddlesaw, which combines a boating paddle with a chainsaw at each end. The little cinematic and rock song that play each time you combine weapons can get old quick, but it’s a minor complaint when there’s so much fun destruction to be had.

Even more so than the original, Dead Rising 2 is a game that’s meant to be played through numerous times. It may sound clich©, but there’s no way to experience all that Fortune City has to offer. From the weapons to the costume changes and all of the little things in between, the game is just too large for one playthrough. Luckily, much like the original game, you’re going to be able to bring your level and moves from your previous playthroughs into your new game. It’s a genius system really, as you’ll be able to explore much easier and therefore find much more each time you play.

New to the Dead Rising franchise is the addition of multiplayer. The heart of Dead Rising 2′s online experience is the co-op gameplay, which lets you and a buddy take on the zombie horde together. It’s not without its quirks, like the fact that you can’t stray from your teammate, but it’s still tons of fun to dress in ridiculous costumes and bat around (quite literally) a few zombies. There’s also the competitive mode which puts you in American Gladiators-esque challenges with zombies. It’s really a lackluster mode and though you’ll want to experience it once or twice, it’s unlikely that you’re going to want to go back much after.

Dead Rising 2 isn’t a perfect game though, there’s a few design quirks that are sure to irritate a few, like the horrid vehicle controls and the fact that the game still uses the timer and that it’s very easy to miss a mission that would have kept the story going. Really though, these complaints are minor, and most will be able to look past them.

The Blast Factor: There’s no doubt about it, Dead Rising 2 is not only the natural progression from the original, it’s a damn fun experience. There’s tons to explore and if you want the entire Dead Rising 2 experience, you’re sure to enjoy multiple playthroughs. If you’re looking for a fun game that you’re going to be able to invest a lot of time in, you can’t go wrong with Capcom’s zombie slashing simulator.

For the last few years, there’s been a not-so-quiet war brewing over the Civilization series. On one side; the strategy series’ purists craving the depth and formula they’ve known for years. On the other, the fans brought in by the series’ first console iteration; Civilization Revolution, which featured a much more streamlined and approachable interface for casual fans. The game’s upcoming fifth iteration would surely be the breaking point for fans on either side as developing veteran Sid Meier choose and 2K games had to choose which side to embrace. Or did they?

Civilization V takes the best parts from each version of Civilization and rolls them into one glorious ball of strategic fun. Purists, everything you love about the franchise you’ve invested so much time into is here, just with that little extra. Oh, and don’t let all of the talk of becoming more accessible scare you away — Civilization V is everything you’d expect it to be — and more, it’ just easier for everyone to enjoy.

Like all of its predecessors, Civilization 5 is all about player choice, and each of these choices has an impact on just how your game plays out. Let’s start with the most basic of choices — which civilization you’re going to play as. Each is led by a different historical leader, and offers different challenges and benefits. Play as a world power and you’re sure to have all of the latest technical advances, but you’ve also got so much more under your watch then if you were to play as a smaller nation in the process of building itself up. Offering even more depth, Civilization V offers players the ability to change the era in which they’re playing, which completely changes the experience. Playing in one era, the world powers are different, and you’re going to have a whole new set of challenges to finish.

It’s this, above all else that serves as Civilization V’s greatest asset — you’re going to want to play it, and play it…and play it.  There are a wealth of options throughout Civilization V, and you’ll find that you’re going to spend a lot of time tweaking them to ensure you’re playing the game that’s best for you. Civilization V is about creating stories, and there’s no one here to hold your hand and tell you just how things have to be. Take my play through as the Aztecs for instance, I was able to take them from nearly dying out society to a thriving futuristic empire ahead of any other. That’s where most are going to find they’ll spend the most of their time with Civilization V, crafting alternate takes on the world’s history.

The maps in Civilization V are crazy big

Even the most dedicated Civilization players would have to agree that the series was in danger of becoming a little bit too complicated. Yeah, get rid of your gamer bravado and you’ll see it too. The latest installment does a great job stripping away some of those elements, and while they’re sure to be noticeable to those who really invested their time into Civilization IV, they improve the game’s pace dramatically. First, now only one unit is allowed per hex on the battlefield, which evens the playing field dramatically. You now have a clear vision of just what you’re up against, and your opponent won’t be able to hide their units and sucker you into a battle that you have no idea in unwinnable.

Another key change is the fact that there’s a ton less micromanaging required in Civilization V. Now, some may not find this as a negative, but I found that it makes the game much more approachable and much easier to dig in to. Since you’ll spend a lot less time in the menu system, you’re going to spend a lot more of it in the game proper, and be better able to manage your entire civilization at once. Of course, some of the choices here are lessened in favor of the new system, like the lack of religious options, but when a system works this well, it’s excusable.

The Blast Factor: The Civilization series needed a revolution of its own, and say what you will about it, Revolution was it. Now, Civilization V takes the best aspects from the long running series, and combines them with a more approachable interface to create what could be the best version of the franchise to date. Though it falls short of a masterpiece, even the most hardened players are sure to fall in love with the series all over again.

The successor to the Gothic series, Arcania-Gothic 4, is going to be released on current-gen consoles for the first time, along with PC’s as well. Unfortunately, Ps3 owners are just going to have to wait a while longer to play it.

Arcania-Gothic 4, will be released for PC and Xbox 360 on October 12 2010. The Ps3 version won’t come out until the very vague “sometime in 2011″ thanks to the game’s developer, DreamCatcher Games, wanting to make sure that it passes all of their levels of quality assurance.

For mor information on Arcania-Gothic 4, go to the official website: www.arcania-game.com

EA is sending The Sims, and the gamers who love the franchise, back to the dark ages with The Sims Medieval, a new series for the PC and Mac. This permutation of the Sims allows gamers to “build up a medieval kingdom, controlling characters from all walks of life, from Kings and Queens, to Knights and Wizards, Blacksmiths and Bards.” This is all accomplished through a new addition to the series: quest driven gameplay.

As you complete quests in The Sims Medieval, you’ll be able to shape your kingdom as you see fit, and either expand it internally or through laying waste to everything and everyone else. Plus with every new game, you’ll create a hero with a variety of traits, which will no doubt switch up the experience each time.

The Sims Medieval is launching in Spring 2011.

Rap rockers/Nu-Metal artists (or whatever the hell you want to call them) Linkin Park, will top the in-game soundtrack for EA’s Medal of Honor with the lead song to their new album, A Thousand Suns, which is due out on September 14. The song, entitled “The Catalyst,” is featured in an exclusive trailer directed by the band’s DJ, Joe Hahn. Said trailer is a mix of live footage and intense modern military action from the Medal of Honor game, and can be checked out at www.medalofhonor.com/linkinpark.

“This is a unique, creative association for us and a collaboration that we are excited about,” stated Hahn. “The opportunity to help introduce ‘The Catalyst’ via the new Medal Of Honor game creates a new bond between EA, our fans, and the band’s overall vision for the new digital frontier. We are enormously proud of the music on A Thousand Suns and are excited to have created an exclusive trailer around the lead track.”

Medal of Honor launches on October 12 for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.