Sega has announced that its futuristic shooter Binary Domain won’t be making its scheduled late January release date. The game will now release on February 28 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Binary Domain takes players to the near future, where robots have become slaves to human kind, and rebel against their masters. It’s also not Terminator. Nope, definitely not Termiantor.

Sonic the Hedgehog’s gaming career sounds an awful lot like an episode of E! True Hollywood Story. When he debuted for the Sega Genesis in1991, he quickly rose to super stardom; spawning everything from TV shows to action figures and even breakfast cereals – but then it all went wrong.  After a steady stream of games, some of which changed the very appeal of the character, Sonic and his growing cast of supporting characters began to wear out their welcome with the gaming public. It wasn’t long before the once proud console mascot was reduced to making cameo appearances in his one time rivals games.

Of course, even the worst True Hollywood Stories have some sort of a happy ending – and Sonic Generations is just that for the Blue Blur. Of course Sega has gone back to the well and revisited Sonic’s heyday before – but never to this level.  Not since his original 16-bit debut almost twenty years ago has Sonic felt this fast, fun and imaginative. Be warned though, much like Sonic crashing in to a wall, Generations ends with a disappointing thud and reminds you why Sonic went away in the first place.

Sonic just can’t catch a break. While celebrating his birthday with his friends, the Time Eater, a n unfamiliar enemy appears and begins to send everyone into time holes, scattering them throughout different points in history. Sonic finds himself in a bland, colorless area known as White Space where he encounters a younger and more pudgier version of himself. The two blue blurs decide that their best option is to race throughout their shared history, restore order and rescue their friends.  Naturally.

What follows is both a love letter to the Sonic universe as well as an epitaph for it. The game is split in to two sections; classic Sonic races through 2D landscapes just as you remember, and its loads of fun. There’s no question that this more than anything is where Generations shines. You’ll race through re-imagined stages from the original Sonic, like the Greenhill Zone and it all feels so natural, and so pure that it’s almost impossible to resist – and this is coming from a guy who’s childhood was heavily dominated by Nintendo consoles.

Perhaps most impressive about the classic Sonic reimagining is the amount of detail and effort that the Sonic team put into its recreation. This isn’t just an HD cleanup of the original visuals; this is a whole new look inspired by the classic. Take classic Sonic himself for instance, inspired by the spirte-based design used for the original, the Sonic Generations features an almost clay-mation like appearance and it feels an awful lot like something straight out of our childhood should feel.  To that extent, the game does suffer from a noticeable amount of slowdown when the game gets up to its top speed, an issue for a game like this.

Then there’s the other half of the game; featuring the more modern sonic levels. While still built for speed, this half of the game channels the 3D versions of the franchise, also known  as where the series went downhill.  Now don’t get me wrong, there are moments (and there always have been these moments) where 3D Sonic games work incredibly well, but they lose a lot of the original charm in the translation. Whereas classic Sonic games were built more on pure speed, games like heroes and colors feel like they really heavily on thunderous velocity, which puts the emphasis more on being destructive than the originals. Also much like the originals, the 3D iteration doesn’t do speed quite as well as its counterpart, as even the slightest error (and even sometimes without an error at all) will cause Sonic to come to a screeching halt. Most disappointing though is that these modern Sonic levels outnumber the classic ones as if Sega is trying to force us to come to terms with what the icon has become.

Regardless, the dynamic between the two Sonics is interesting to say the least. The character has always been built on an in-your-face attitude, but it’s quite fun to watch the two spar. Though he seemed very edgy at the time, classic Sonic seems tame compared to the more modern version. New Sonic seems grizzled, and hardened. He’s less edgy than he is cynical and it’s fun to see how both react to situations, especially when that dynamic shifts about midway through the game.

As you play through Generations, you’re sure to want to go back and play through levels over again to unlock extra challenges or better your time, but those who are going to get the most out of the game are those who have stayed with the hedgehog throughout his entire career as there are tons of unlockables that are sure to make you make you feel all sorts of nostalgic. These won’t really entice any non fans of the series to jump in, but it’s great for those who are dedicated.

The Blast Factor: Though half of the game is a reminder of why an icon fell, you can’t dispute just how fun Sonic Generations truly is. It’s fast, fun and everything else a Sonic game should be. Most importantly, it’s proof that Sega still cares about its biggest star, and knows how to handle him. Those who grew up in the 16-bit era will love the throw back, but really everyone should check it out.

Sega has released a trailer for Sonic Generations Dreamcast. The game, due out in November, recreates levels from the 3D era of Sonic the Hedgehog.

The trailer shows City Escape, Seaside Hill and Speed Highway, re-imaged. The game will allow you to play those and more as both the modern and the classic Sonic.

The trailer also hints at an appearance from Shadow the Hedgehog at the end.

What do you think? Excited for a new Sonic game? Leave some comments below.

A while back I joked that I was so eager for a new Half Life that I would take “Gordon Freeman’s Kart Racing Spectacular.” Turns out someone was listening.

Sega announced that Gordon Freeman will appear as a bonus character in their top down vehicle shooter Renegade Ops.Players will be able to take control of the Half Life 2 buggy to “unleashes the Ant Lions to aid the Renegade Ops as they fight their enemies.”

Rennegade Ops will be available on Steam on October 14.

Let’s face it, Marvel’s video game offerings lately have been less than stunning. Thor, Iron Man and Captain America were all underwhelming to say the least, but the company has a major chance to redeem themselves in the form of next year’s blockbuster superhero team up flick, The Avengers. As a guy who grew up reading Avengers comics on a weekly basis, I’m going to make it real easy for Sega and Marvel, this is how you make an Avengers game, and make it not suck.

It’s got to be an old school beat-em-up:  I still remember my first time playing with the Avengers in the video game world, it was the Super Nintendo version of arcade side scroller Captain America and the Avengers. Multiple users pick members of the squad and punch, kick and use their abilities to defeat pretty much anything that came in front of them. I’m convinced that this is the only way to do an Avengers game justice. There will undoubtedly be an inkling by Sega and Marvel to put much of the emphasis on the big three of the Avengers; Captain America, Iron Man and Thor, but giving me the chance to play not only as the big names, but characters like Hawkeye, Nick Fury and Black Widow is what makes the Avengers so interesting in the first place.  How well do Hawkeye and Captain America work together? What can I do if I use Nick Fury and Thor together?

Take that formula and add the amenities that come with modern day gaming. Let me play with up to four people on the same screen or online. Give it drop in and drop out and let me bust some baddie skulls as Marvel’s biggest names.

Don’t let me play as the Hulk (at least not at first): Of course, there is another member of Marvel’s movie Avengers; the big green monster known as The Hulk (played by Mark Ruffalo). If Sega and Marvel want to have any chance in making a decent Avengers game, they’ll make the Hulk unplayable…well, at least at first. Rumors suggest that a good portion of the Avengers script is influenced by the first run of The Ultimates, the Brian Michael Bendis penned relaunch of the Avengers from a few years ago. In the arch, Bruce Banner is affiliated with S.H.I.E.L.D and the team, but becomes a problem when he Hulks out and goes on a rampage in downtown Manhattan.

Imagine how cool this would be in an Avengers video game. Now, I’m an admitted scale whore, but having a gigantic Hulk doing damage to an expansive New York City while you attempt to stop him by any means necessary. Nick Fury uses the Quinn Jet to launch The Avenger’s on to rooftops to try to latch on to the big green guy and take him down while Iron Man and Thor use their flight abilities.  In a perfect world, this section would have sections that resemble the battle with Chronos from God of War III, where your enemy is also the environment.

But what about after you take down the Hulk? In the comics Bruce Banner is imprisoned, but why not give gamers a bit of a reward for beating him?  This could be done in one of two ways, the first being making Hulk an unlockable character. The problem with this though is that making the Hulk playable all the time takes away from what makes him such a cool character; he’s not so big and strong all the time, and how boring would it be to play as wimpy old Bruce Banner? In fact, the game for the first Hulk movie with Eric Bana did that and it was all kinds of terrible. My suggestion is to use Hulk as a bit of special attack. Simmilar to that the nuke or RC car in the Call of Duty games, players would be able to call on The Hulk to do serious injury to their enemies and the environment in certain parts of the game. Imagine being over run by enemies only to call on a gigantic Hulk, who comes through and stomps and smashes your way through.

Put it on Xbox Live/PSN:  Now I’ll admit, I’m a bit torn by this one, as I want the game to have as much of a budget as it can, but I also know that I’ve been spurned by terrible Marvel games before, so I’m thinking people are going to need a bit of incentive to pick up yet another licensed game, and what better incentive than a bargain price? And plus, XBLA and PSN only titles are increasing in quality and budget incredibly lately, so there’s no reason to not do the Avengers in this way. There’s a stigma with movie tie in games, people know that odds are, they’re going to suck, and going the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network route, much like the game adaptations of Battle for L.A. and Scott Pilgrim VS the World did offers all the gaming at very low buy in risk.

Give me fan service, and lots of it: From Captain America, to Iron Man and Thor; there’s a lot of history with the characters of the Avengers, why not throw a few bones to the fans? Unlockable classic and alternate costumes, new characters, new abilities. Hell, give me alternate versions of characters like the old school version of Nick Fury (you know, the one played by David Hasselhoff in that terrible movie), a classic Iron Man costume or even red Hulk. There’s a lot of room for creativity with the Avengers characters and their lore, it’d be a shame if Sega didn’t take advantage of it like in recent games.

Well, that’s my list. What do you want in an Avengers game? Blast Magazine — Assemble!

Sega sent out an e-mail this morning to users of its Sega-Pass service informing them that an “unauthorized entry” had been detected in the system and as a result, was taking the service offline. The good news? According to the publisher, all payment issue is stored on a separate server, so no payment information was stolen.

“We have identified that a subset of SEGA Pass members emails addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords were obtained,” the email warns. “To stress, none of the passwords obtained were stored in plain text,”

Sadly, stories of video game companies getting hacked are all too familiar this year. Starting with the massive hack that took down Sony’s PlayStation Network, a number of high profile companies have been the victims of hacks  including Bioware and Nintendo.

In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu rose to claim the title of Shogun in Japan after leading his clan to victory in the Battle of Sekigahara. That battle was the culmination of the Sengoku period, a time when the clans of Japan grappled for supremacy and the power to rule over the entire nation. Total War: Shogun 2 recreates the Sengoku period by providing control of a single clan in an attempt to rewrite history by unifying all Japanese territories and claiming power. It succeeds resoundingly in its goal to recreate the experience of a daimyo’s rise to Shogun by delivering a fun and historically accurate war game.

What has separated the Total War series from other strategy games since the original Shogun: Total War was released almost 11 years ago is the unique blend of turn-based and real-time strategy elements. The campaigns are played out in a fashion similar to those of theCivilization series with territories and armies being managed in a turn-based system. However, in a significant departure from the detached battles of other turn-based games, Shogun 2 provides the opportunity to resolve each confrontation in real-time which functions as a game within the game.

The campaign begins by selecting one of nine different clans. Each of the clans comes with different special abilities, such as bonuses to a specific unit type, and a unique starting location that determines how difficult the early stages of the game will be. The game uses real clan names, symbols, unit art, and city locations which provide an authenticity that resonates throughout and is evidence of the attention to detail used by The Creative Assembly in development. A thoroughly encompassing in-game encyclopedia that provides information on every unit, person, and location in the game also speaks to this.

Gameplay focuses on becoming Shogun by acquiring and controlling various provinces of Japan and, ultimately, Kyoto where the Emperor keeps his home. To accomplish this task requires turn-based management of the clan, armies, and occupied territories.

Each province has a central city which is where buildings for production are constructed and military units are recruited. Capturing foreign provinces requires military force to besiege a city so the core emphasis of the game is on building an effective army. A wide variety of units are at your disposable including samurai, archers, cavalry, naval ships, and many more. Agents like the ninja and metsuke can also be recruited and used to assassinate enemy leaders or to bribe armies. Both agents and Generals gain experience which lets you tailor their skills to your preference.

There are a number of other tasks that require attention such as leveraging diplomacy, stimulating economic growth, and religious direction. Diplomacy has some particularly nice new touches beyond the usual treaties and trade agreements such as the ability to arrange marriages or provide children as hostages. More depth and noncombat victory conditions would have been welcome but the turn-based systems as they stand provide a fun, alternative strategy aspect beyond army building.

Commanding the real-time battles is a pulse-pounding experience due to the frantic action that comes from managing hundreds-to-thousands of warriors. Despite the massive quantity of soldiers taking part in each conflict, combat is manageable because of the elegant unit system and user interface. A unit of samurai warriors may contain 50-150 soldiers but are manipulated as a single entity by clicking on their banner.

Battles can get a bit hectic when managing 10-20 large units but the interface helps streamline the process. Multiple units can be grouped together with a single keystroke, hot groups can be assigned, and formations can be established that work to the strengths of the group makeup. Also, control of the game speed is thankfully provided which allows for pausing, slowing down, or speeding up the action. Pausing the game to issue orders is a great way to handle situations that have become too frantic.

One drawback to the large real-time battles is that it can sometimes be hard to accurately order melee units when more than two or three are clashing. The banners have small, similar icons that can be tough to distinguish and they also have a tendency to overlap in heated skirmishes. This can cause it to be difficult to order a unit to attack a specific enemy and often requires camera manipulation for a better view. The battle camera has been improved with WASD-style controls but these moments can still be rough.

Shogun 2 sports land, naval, and siege battles. Battlefields reflect not only the current season but also the terrain on the campaign map where the armies meet. This presents opportunities to use the land as an advantage or to surprise enemies. Naval battles make their return from Empire: Total War with slight tweaks to combat due to the different style of ships used. Most of the Japanese ships are oar-propelled making them easier to maneuver. Naval combat features new options such as laying mines but is primarily a mixture of ranged combat and boarding enemy ships and is generally a lot of fun. Sieges, which take place when either attacking or defending a city, are particularly thrilling. The greatest sense of fulfillment in the game –other than becoming Shogun, of course—comes from holding out in a siege against a force that largely outnumbers your troops.

While the conflicts in Shogun 2 are superb, the greatest strength of the campaign is the way in which it effectively portrays the balanced responsibilities a daimyo had. The game works to recreate the harrowing experience of a ruler solely responsible for all decisions affecting his clan and territories. Constructing massive cities and conquering armies is gratifying but the more subtle emotions that the game evokes make it shine. There is fear for your daimyo and his heirs as the threat of assassination from lowly ninjas is constantly present. Sadness when a General that has served long and well falls in battle. There are also moments of shock such as the appearance of pirates raiding trade lines or a tsunami striking a province; the latter is especially poignant in light of the previous week’s real world events. Political intrigue is a constant source of anxiety as allied clans may declare war at a moments notice and Generals can defect if their loyalty falls.

The Creative Assembly is able to pull off this experience with help from consistently outstanding game presentation. Nice artistic touches include the campaign map which appears hand drawn until fog of war is revealed, rice paper texturing on all interface menus, and unit cards done in the cartoonish feudal Japanese character style. The tech tree in the game is divided into bushido (warfare) and chi (growth). Even the loading menus contribute with painted Japanese scenes and quotes from classic texts such as The Five Rings and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.

Total War games have always been impressive in their ability to render thousands of units in combat and Shogun 2 ups the ante with even more unit and terrain detail. Visuals look very good even at the ‘Medium’ setting and are stunningly beautiful on a machine powerful enough to run everything maxed out. One particular graphical highlight is the water rendering which is by far the most realistic looking I’ve seen in a game. The campaign map visuals have been improved by utilizing a combination of 2D and 3D which causes the terrain and units to stand out. Less impressive are the daimyo and advisor models whose low quality makes them come off as an afterthought. Also, some texture and geometry popping is noticeable in close-up shots such as during Generals’ pre-battle speeches but the issues are not show stopping.

The sound design conveys everything in Shogun 2 as expected but is not outstanding in any one sense. However, the music is quite good with appreciable variation. Drums pound during intense phases of battle and beautiful flowing samisen pieces provide a mellow background for more peaceful times.

One of the biggest new features in Shogun 2 is the online Avatar Conquest mode which lets players create a character to take part in conquering a persistent online game world. The avatar is fully customizable and can gain experience and bonuses as online battles are completed. Avatar Conquest mode interacts with the single player campaign in two innovative ways. First, there are a large number of achievements that are shared between on and offline play. Completed achievements provide a piece of armor and when a full set of armor is acquired a new bonus that the avatar can use is unlocked. This provides a tangible asset for achievement completion beyond pride which is a welcome gaming advancement.

The other intriguing multiplayer inclusion is drop-in battles. Players choosing to take part in drop-in battles will be matched with someone starting a battle in their single player campaign and then take the place of the enemies that would normally be AI-controlled. Drop-in battles should keep single player campaigns fresh for even the most seasoned Shogun 2 players.

Multiplayer campaigns can be completed either competing against or cooperating with a second player. It would be nice if more players could be incorporated into the online campaigns but the limitation is reasonable due to the turn-based gameplay. Rounding out the online features are team battles, clan implementation, leader boards, and custom battles while a lengthy tutorial, custom AI battles, and historical battles complement the single player campaign.

With the lone campaign map of Japan, one concern is that Shogun 2 might get old sooner than games which can randomly generate new maps like Civilization. However, with a good selection of clans to experiment with, a nice set of single and multiplayer modes to keep things fresh, and the unique new Avatar Conquest, there is plenty to keep busy with for a long time.

Blast Factor: Shogun 2 delivers on its goal of providing players the chance to experience life as a daimyo in pursuit of total power. The turn-based gameplay may not be as deep as other genre stalwarts but it is quite fun and more than made up for with superior real-time battles that are a blast to play. Anyone who enjoys strategy games should give Shogun 2 a look and players that have even a passing interesting in feudal Japan or samurai culture should pick up the game immediately.

The over 20 year wait for Back to the Future fans is almost over, as TellTale’s Back to the Future videogame series kicks off for PC and Mac. The episodic content is the first real fiction in the franchise cannon since the end of the third film, released back in 1990. This will hardly be the first game in the history of Back to the Future though, as the series has spawned a series of often forgettable games, hop in the Delorean and let’s take a look back.

Back to the Future (1989, NES, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC – LJN): Perhaps fitting, the first Back to the Future game was modeled after the first movie, kind of. In the NES version, you controlled Marty Mcfly as you skateboarded through Hill Valley in an attempt to collect clocks and other power-ups to save the future (represented in a photograph at the bottom of the screen). If it looks and sounds familiar, it should — it’s Paperboy in a shiny coat of Back to the Future paint.

The most disappointing part of the game? You didn’t get to control the Delorean until the very last level of the game — it’s not too bad though, the game only took between 30 and 50 minutes to complete.

The eventual home computer versions were a bit different, presented as a side-scrolling adventure, you still control Marty, but your job is to get George McFly and Lorraine to fall in love by collecting objects like flowers, and love poems.

Back to the Future II and III ( 1990, NES, LJN): Remember the part in Back to the Future II where Marty jumped over enemies in spiked shells to collect junk food and fuel so the Delorean could get back to 1985? Yeah, me either, but that’s what LJN had you doing in this pack of 2 NES games. While the Sega Master system and PC releases saw the two games separately (with slightly spruced up visuals), Marty’s second and third gaming adventures were decidedly plumber influenced.

Back to the Future 2 (Sega Master System Version)

Universal Studios: Theme Park Adventure (2001, Gamecube, Kemco)

If Marty and Doc could, they’d probably go back in time to stop their association with this stinker.  To put the game into perspective, imagine going to the Universal Studios theme parks, having mace sprayed in your eyes (the graphics were that blurry and bad) and having to partake in cruddy mini games that revolved around the parks’ attractions. Run through Hill Valley! Fight off Jaws! Get really…really bored!

Yes, there was a Back to the Future minigame in this 2002 clunker, but most people didn’t get to play it since the rest of the game was just so terrible.

Check Blast tomorrow for a review of Telltale’s first Back to the Future Episode!

Sega’s Dreamcast console hasn’t been in production for almost ten years, but that hasn’t stopped German developer RedSpot Games from announcing a brand new title currently in development for the console.

No, really.

The game, called Sturmwind is an arcade shoot ‘em up and will arrive in the Spring of next year.  Want to watch the reveal? Hope you understand German!

If you’re a gamer who was born in the late 90s, chances are you ask your older brother one question. “Why does your generation like that stupid blue hedgehog ?”.

Yes, indeed Sonic is now considered a flop, but there was once a time when Sonic was the arch nemesis of Mario, both of them were the most successful characters in the video gaming industry, Sega even created a subsidiary development team called Sonic Team, Sonic was on fire!

Nowadays though, it seems that Sonic is on life support, the shift from 2D to 3D wasn’t too kind to the hedgehog, with SEGA releazing one terrible Sonic game after another, and creating many useless characters along the way, such as Silver the hedgehog, and that dreadful Werehog in Sonic Unleashed. The quality of Sonic games have declined considerably over the years, the blue hedgehog no longer felt on par with Mario, but rather felt like some generic, mediocre mascot.

However, that was then and this is now, SEGA have decided to take Sonic back to his roots, and have released Sonic 4, the sequel to Sonic 3, and a game that fans have been waiting 16 years for. The question that many people will ask, is it good? And the answer, finally, is a “Yes”.

Sonic 4 Episode I is the best Sonic game in a very long time, it took SEGA over a decade, but they finally got it right. The gameplay in Sonic 4 feels like that of a true Sonic game.

The game starts out fairly simple, you find yourself in Splash Hill, an almost updated replica of Green Hill Zone, you play the first level in the game and pass with absolute ease, and then you are taken to the screen where you get the complete freedom to choose which zone you want to choose, and which act you want to choose from that zone.

While Sonic games usually didn’t let you choose the zone or act you wanted to be in, this feature doesn’t exactly give or take much from the game, just like past Sonic games you take on the boss of each zone after finishing all three acts.

The graphics in Sonic 4 are gorgeous, the game stays true to the Sonic 2D formula while updating it with HD graphics and a constant framerate that never drops, the great news to Wii owners is the fact that the game looks exactly like the PS3 and X360 versions, only in 480p, which isn’t a dealbreaker at all really. In fact, the game felt more at home on the Wii than the PS3 and X360, having the game next to other Sonic titles new and old in the Wii library made it feel like this is where it truly belongs.

Some fans have wondered what Sonic’s appearance is like in Sonic 4, does he resemble Sonic of yore? Or does he resemble the modern day Sonic? While playing Sonic 4, we played Sonic 3 and Super Smash Brawl alongside it, seeing how the best 2D sonic models of past and present are featured in said games. Sonic’s model resembles the modern day Sonic more than that of the old Sonic during SEGA’s golden era, with his long legs being the most distinctive feature.

The music in Sonic 4 is a step in the right direction, it surpasses the music in the majority of the 3D Sonic games, the downside is the fact that the music sometimes doesn’t feel like that of a Sonic game, the music is slow, and at times it’s too slow, it just doesn’t mesh with the sprinting hedgehog at times.

The gameplay in Sonic 4 adds nothing new to the franchise, and that is probably one of the greatest things in this game, seeing as how every time SEGA adds a new element to the game (like that God damned dreadful werehog), the game turns out to be a disaster. The new feature in the game is the homing attack, while this feature isn’t new in the Sonic 3D games, it’s new in the Sonic 2D ones, when Sonic is in mid-air and near an enemy, a lock-on appears and Sonic can attack that enemy, this feature actually fits in with the gameplay quite well, and is also crucial at times to progress through a level.

While the gameplay is solid, it does have some issues of it’s own. For instance, the only power ups available are the temporary invincibility and the ability to breath under water, features such as the fire ball and electiric ball were present in Sonic 3 almost 16 years ago, SEGA not including them now is an awkward strategy on their behalf.

Another issue that is noticed almost immediately is the speed of the game. It is obvious from the get go that Sonic 4 is slower than previous iterations in the Sonic franchise, especially in 2D sonic games, add the fact that you will be stopped from progressing in certain levels later on in the game until you perform some minuscule tedious tasks, and the sense of momentum in the game falls flat. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but it stops the game from being truly great.

The final, and perhaps most annoying aspect of the gameplay is the difficulty settings. Usually in video games the game becomes harder gradually, helping the players adjust to the gameplay and introduce new enemies and challenges at a reasonable pace. Sonic 4 throws this strategy right out the window and disorients you in a way like no other.

You spend the majority of the game unchallenged, quite literally breezing through the leves, by the time you reach the final zone, you’ll have around 20 lives and the only real challenge you’ll have faced is the boss of zone 3, during the three acts in the final zone, you will die around 6 times (assuming you get lucky and pass certain frustrating parts of the game quickly), then you will face the final boss of the game. Here you will die over and over again, in one of the longest boss fights in a Sonic game, at times the fight will be hard, and not in a modern day game hard, but in a Mega Man hate yourself kind of hard. And the most frustrating part about the final boss, is the tempo of the level. It is so slow it hardly fits a Sonic game.

The biggest downside for Sonic 4 isn’t the game itself, but it’s the price. Sonic 4 Episode I is priced at $15, the game can be finished in less than 3 hours if you’re dedicated enough to finish it in a single session. It has good replay value, and you can even unlock Super Sonic, but it’s not enough to slap a $15 price tag, especially when there are games like Castle Crashers, and Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light that offer mad replay value and multiplayer gameplay for the same price.

The Blast Factor: It’s almost hard to believe this, but this might the first time in over a decade that Sonic fans get two great Sonic games in a single year (assuming all goes well with Sonic Colors), this could be the year Sonic fans celebrate after all. If you’re a Sonic fan who’s been dying to play a great Sonic game, Sonic 4 is well worth the 15 dollars, if you’re hesitant and wondering if it’s worth the investment or not, you might wanna check Other PSN/XBLA titles first, like Castle Crashers and GoL, or Wii Ware titles like Cave Story.

The Sega Dreamcast holds a special place in the heart of many gamers. One of them apparently is Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka, who holds the system in such high regard that he hasn’t given up hope on making an successor to Sega’s fan favorite.

“Of course Dreamcast was my baby back at Sega and I want to carry on making good games for the European market and one day I’m hoping it gives me the opportunity to work on Dreamcast 2,” Naka said in a recent interview with CVG.com. “”If Ivy the Kiwi? does well in Europe then maybe I can make Dreamcast 2.”

Though Naka has formed his own production company, he is viewed by many as one the founding fathers of the Dreamcast, and views the days where he had a hand in the design of the system as one of the best of his career. “I do miss those old days when I was heavily involved in hardware making at Sega,” Naka said. “I was involved in most of the consoles and controllers that Sega came up with. If I have the opportunity in the future I want to be involved again with hardware making,” he said. “It would be ideal if I could become some sort of advisor working with the platform makers in future.”

Of course, Sega hasn’t made any sort of announcement regarding a Dreamcast 2 or any future plans to return to the console department. Does the famed creator know something we don’t?

Gamers looking for more of a core experience with Microsoft’s upcoming and highly anticipated, controller-less motion camera Kinect got some good news this week as Microsoft announced five new titles from different developers for the peripheral. The titles, all being helmed by legends in the Japanese video game industry are clearly aimed at helping Kinect and Microsoft in Japan, which has been considered a troubled region for the publisher.

The announcements were made by Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft’s games division, Phil Spencer, who proclaimed the importance of the Japanese gaming industry to the future of the Xbox 360.  ”Japanese games are the games that the world loves to play,” Spencer said, as he noted that many of the world’s favorite video games, including Donkey Kong, Mario and Pac-Man were born in Japan. “We’ve seen the industry move to a place where we’re trying to engage more and more people to play games, and that plays to the strength of what Japanese game design history is all about.”

The most interesting of the game announcements comes in the form of “Codename D” a new thriller from GrassHopper Studios, most famous for Killer7 and the No More Heroes series. Codename D places players in an eerie abandoned amusement park as they fight off fiendish creatures. The game is expected to feature real time destruction as the official press release states that “With “codename D” for Kinect for Xbox 360, you are the controller as you unleash devastating effects to destroy enemies and objects.”

Fans of the Panzer Dragoon series are sure to be pleased as Microsoft also announced “Project Draco.” The series acclaimed Director Yukio Futatsugi promises players an “epic 3D flying-shooter” that lets players get even closer to their dragon through Kinect. Xbox Live support in also confirmed.

Next, NanaOn-Sha, and Microsoft Game Studios announced “Haunt,” which seems like a mystery party title similar to that of Disney’s Guilty Party for the Wii. “Gather friends and family to delve deep into a haunted house dripping with mystery – you’ll need every ounce of your wit and cunning if you hope to unravel the veil of rumors that hide its darkest secret. Dodge traps and outwit ghosts, ghouls and frights that lurk with glee around each and every corner. Take a deep breath and immerse yourself in ‘Haunt,’ spooky fun for Kinect for Xbox 360.”

Horror fans are sure to be pleased as Microsoft announced a partnership with Sega to announce Rise of Nightmares. “”Rise of Nightmares” (SEGA). “Rise of Nightmares” offers a spine-tingling horror experience that uses the innovative new controls of Kinect for Xbox 360 to give players the ultimate fright. Using their whole body, players will experience fear and tension as never before in this exclusive Kinect for Xbox 360 horror adventure.”

Capcom also confirmed the rumor that they’re reviving the long loved Steel Battalion series on Kinect with Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor.” With the support of Microsoft, Capcom and From Software join forces to bring this groundbreaking collaborative project to Xbox 360. Manhattan, 2082: In a world where computers and almost all modern technology have been lost, the greatest nations of the world continue to battle for supremacy. The American army lands in New York to begin its first big offensive of a long ground war. Soldiers fire from the trenches as
scorched bunkers belch black smoke. As comrades continually fall to the unrelenting crossfire of bullets, the Vertical Tanks make their relentless advance. Experience the battlefield as never before with Kinect for Xbox 360.”

Each game reveled during the panel is expected out sometime in 2011. Stick with Blast for more on these games and Kinect as we approach it’s November 4 deadline.

LOS ANGELES — Sega is working on a new 2D platform Sonic game in the spirit of the original series. They had a demo of it available at E3 2010, allowing people to play one of three early levels in the game. The game takes place after the Sonic and Knuckles game.

Sega promises that this is the beginning of a new series of games. The game starts with Sonic going off exploring, and Egg-Man comes after him wanting to just kill him now and get him out of the way, so Sonic won’t stop his next plan.

The game levels are built to feel like the original with a slight difference. The bosses will play like the original but with upgrades. The game then has a twist ending that will lead into Episode 2, and continuation of the new series. They are taking great pains with this title, since the last game in the series was in 1994, there is a lot of time in here, and gamers have a lot of expectations from a new sonic game.

This is evident from the fact that they have delayed the game to make it correctly. They were originally scheduled to release at the end of this summer, but are now targeting the end of the year. When I played with the game it looks like the original sonic games, just having a higher resolution. Sonic has a nice upgraded look, without changing too much to character. I was disappointed with Sonic’s acceleration in the demo. When you move Sonic he walks too long before he will start to run.

They said that was one of the issues that they have decided to rework after showing the demo off. I also had an issue that when you press down to go into a roll it would usually not start spinning rolling fast, but goes back to slowly moving. This bothered me as being very unlike the previous sonic games that were always about speed. The people at the booth said that was one of the reasons they have delayed the release of the game, to give them more time to make it more like sonic.

Sega has included the Chaos emeralds in the new Levels. Like the original games, it requires 50 rings to activate get them, though the game allows the player to replay, and jump to a level that they want. This is nice since if you miss a chaos emerald you don’t have to start the game from the beginning like the previous ones.

They included the original power-ups from the original series, plus some additions from the later Sonic Adventure games. One such addition is the ability to jump attack from one enemy to another. The invincibility and fast shoes are back though.

They made some differences between the PlayStation 3, iPhone, Xbox 360, and Wii Versions for the special stages. The PS3 and the Wii can control using the Tilt controllers. The iPhone can control any level with either tilt, or by controls on the screen for directional pad, and action button for jumping. They arranged the level, and the View point on the iPhone so that the controls on the bottom wouldn’t obstruct viewing the level.

Definitely excited to see this one come out.

Fans of SEGA’s speedy blue mascot’s old-school adventures will have to wait a few extra months to download the 1st Episode of Sonic the Hedgehog 4. SEGA announced yesterday that the game would be pushed a few months in order to make sure the qualuty is top-notch. Along with the delay, SEGA also revealed that the game is also in development for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game had already been confirmed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii. Instead of a ‘Summer’ debut for the our little blue friend, he will be appearing  in ‘late’ 2010. No specific date was mentioned

Here’s to hoping this extra dev time ensures that Sonic’s latest endeavor is a bonafide hit! I was a big Genesis kid and will always hold a special place in my heart for Sonic.

via: Gamespot

Sega Europe today confirmed the existence of High Voltage’s “The Conduit 2″ and unleashed some beautifully explosive screenshots to make us needy gamers happy.

See the rest of the screens at the Sega blog

Like the original, this Wii exclusive looks pretty (for a Wii game) but the sequel has four-player co-op, which we guess will likely drop the frame rate significantly.

Here’s what Sega promises with the sequel: massive action in large, multi-tiered levels featuring dynamic environments, cinematic battles, giant adversaries, and deep customisation features.

We won’t steal Sega’s thunder. Check out the rest of the shots at the Sega Europe blog.

Sega’s Yakuza 3, which nearly missed the North American market all together, has a new official site. Yakuza 3 is a PS3 exclusive and continues the brutal saga of Japanese gangland in Tokyo and Okinawa. This installment touts an increased level of explorational freedom, while maintaining a primarily story-driven experience.  The game is written by famed Japanese author of the first 2 Yakuza games, Masayoshi Yokoyama.  It also features a renowned cast of Japanese voice actors who won’t have their work butchered by a terrible English overdub.

I guess if you’re opposed to reading subtitles you might might want to pass on Yakuza 3, but you are likely to miss a an awesome game with beautiful renderings of 2 of Japan’s most famous cities – and some serious action. The website is a little short on content at this stage, but expect to see much more very soon as Yakuza 3 releases on March 9th. If you’re curious about the back-story from the 2 previous games, all that material is available on the new site as well.

BTW, these Yakuza guys have some pretty wicked tatoos…

After a lengthy stealth name of “Project Needlemouse,” SEGA today officially unveiled the latest Sonic The Hedgehog game.

It’s called, very blandly, Sonic The Hedgehog 4, is a direct sequel to Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles, returns to a familiar 2D presentation, and will release on the Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and WiiWare this summer.

The title is actually Sonic The Hedghehog: Episode 1, which means the game will see an episodic release schedule, meaning a little bit at a little time.

The first episode will be available this summer for somewhere around (we guess) $15 across the board.

For the game’s debut trailer and developer interview, check out the game announcement story at GameSpot.

In early January, SEGA’s Japanese studio, the team responsible for the Sonic & The Hedgehog series, played host to Andy Garcia, famous actor.

Garcia, famous for his role in Ocean’s 11 among other films, was in Japan for work, when his people called SEGA’s people, and requested to visit the studio.

Apparently, the actor’s son is a big fan of the Sonic series, and so is Mr. Garica.

The very practical vehicle

"Interesting"

"I like what I see?"

Source: ソニックチャンネル スタッフコラム:ソニックチームに驚きのお客様！！ via Kotaku

SEGA today announced that a demo for upcoming “sexy shooter,” Bayonetta, will come to Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network early, early next month.

The publisher today confirmed a Dec. 3 release date for the downloable demo, but no mention was made about just what the heck you’ll do in the trial.

The full game is due out in January, though it’s already released in Japan, and many have imported copies.

Source: IGN

Publisher SEGA today officially named January 5 as the release date for the upcoming stylish action game Bayonetta.

Mark your calendars, as January 5, 2010 in North America and thee days later on Jan. 8 in Europe, you’ll be playing the billboard sexy title.

Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu recently praised the game and gave it a perfect 40/40 score on Xbox 360 and a 38/40 for PS3, so we have great things to look forward to, right?

Source: IGN

It’s never too early to think about April Fools Day pranks right? We don’t think so, and either does publisher SEGA.

Jen Groeling took a 2-week vacation and when she came back, well, let’s just say she had lots of clean-up to do.

Her colleagues stuffed her cubicle with what looks to be thousands of pages of assorted game magazines.

Check out this video to see how it all went down and catch her priceless reaction. Oh, and someone at SEGA clearly has great taste in music.

Source: Kotaku

SEGA today confirmed rumors of an Alpha Protocol delay and officially stated that the game will indeed miss it’s 2009 deadline and instead vault into the year 2010.

The spy-type RPG was scheduled to launch later this month but is now, according to the game’s official page, arriving on the market in everyone’s favorite release frame, “Spring 2010.”

We hope SEGA and developer Obsidian have a legitimate reason for the delay, but until we hear details we’ll have to assume a swarming mass of killer-bees descended on Obsidian’s offices and prevented them from working on the title.

Source: Destructoid

The third Yakuza project, Yakuza 3, previously only available in Japan, is coming to Western markets.

According to “sources close to the project,” localization of the game is already underway, with releases planned for the North American and European markets.

1UP, the site breaking the news, also reiterated that Yakuza 2 was announced at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, and with TGS 2009 looming on the immediate horizon (next week), we may just get official word from SEGA.

TGS 2009 runs from Sept. 24-27 so be sure to stick with Blast for continued coverage.

Let’s get something straight, right up front. There are two major audiences Sega needs to cater to with each Sonic game: those who are of a younger generation that love the sidekicks and the 3D game worlds, and those of us who grew up with Sonic in the early 90s, and are used to the multiple pathways and high-speed platforming of yesteryear. Sega does plenty of both–look no further than the Sonic Advance titles, or the Sonic Rush games on the DS for proof that they still know how to make an old-school Sonic with new technology–but as far as console releases go, they have stuck more towards appeasing the younger crowd. When a game like Sonic Unleashed comes out and tries to make both fan bases happy, all it does is serve to anger the hardcore, who feel like they were tricked into playing (and paying for) a game they cared about just one-third of the time.

That is why this interview that Gamespot did with Ken Ballough, the associate brand manager at Sega, is intriguing on a few levels. First, there are a few responses that let you know Sega is not about to stop going after the younger audience that loves those sidekicks–and why should they, given the sales numbers of the series?–but there is also a sign–a fast moving, hedgehog-shaped sign, in fact–that Sega wants to make things right with their other fans.

Sonic, back in two dimensions, and with HD graphics. Presumably this puts the game on a console rather than a handheld. Maybe some good has come out of Sonic Unleashed–the love people showed for the daytime levels may have just turned into a brand new (yet old-school) style Sonic game. It’s tough to tell now, given we have nothing to go on, but the fact that it’s 2D will at least force me to keep an eye on this project. “Project Needlemouse” (obviously a working title) has no developer, no platforms and no concrete release date, but my personal hope is that Dimps is somehow involved, given how well their handheld Sonic’s have been received.

SEGA today announced “Valkyria Chronicles II,” a sequel to the PS3-exclusive original, but this time the exclusivity lies in Sony’s portable, the PSP.

It sounds like the sequel will be as epic as the first, what with a game description like this, it clearly has deep ambitions.

“What was once a small but strong unified country is instantly plunged back onto the battlefield. But the day and age of the last war’s heros is already fading out – with families to protect and children to raise, they are the ones who must now be protected. While numbers split and tensions rise, the spotlight shines to a handful of up-and-coming students at a Gallian Military Academy.”

SEGA promises that the team behind the PS3 original is working on the “Chronicles II” for PSP and that you’ll be playing the project in the “Summer 2010″ season.

But if that’s not enough for you, follow the game on Facebook and Twitter for up to the second updates, and watch this debut trailer below.

Ten years ago today, the Sega Dreamcast was released in North America. It was the first system released in the sixth generation of consoles (the 128-bit era), and also the first to exit the market. Not only was the console well ahead of its time, and helped to innovate on the home console front in ways we may take for granted today, but it also disappeared from stores well before its time, and before it could build an even larger library of quality titles.

The Sega Saturn was not doing very well in North America, as both the Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 were overpowering it at retail. Sure, the original Playstation helped usher in an age of cheaper games with its CD-based titles, and it also sported one of the deepest libraries of any console to that point, but the Nintendo 64 was able to hold on thanks quality over quantity; this was a system with a few titles that are still, to this day, considered some of the greatest and most innovative of all-time, and that sort of thing helps you stick around even with something as powerful as the Playstation leading the pack. The Saturn, on the other hand, failed to recapture the glory Sega knew during the Genesis/Mega Drive’s heyday, and instead turned into an import machine with a large portion of the best titles releasing overseas and never in North America.That’s not to say it wasn’t a quality system, but it just couldn’t keep up with the other two.

Once you got used to the shape of the controller, it worked pretty well. It also looks to have inspired Microsoft's first console controller, as well.

The lifespan of the Saturn was short, as Sega moved in to create a system much more powerful and more unique than what was available on the market. The Dreamcast would release in 1998 in Japan, and on September 9, 1999 in North America. The system had a funky but memorable controller, memory cards that doubled as portable mini-game systems, and one thing that no other home console had to that point: a working, viable, and entertaining online infrastructure. In fact, the success of the Dreamcast’ online play was one of the reasons the rest of the consoles of that generation implemented online features, though the Dreamcast was the first to ship with a built-in modem that ran at 56 kbit/s. It didn’t seem slow at the time, okay?

The launch of the system was very successful in North America; just four days after launch, the system had sold 372,000 units. A strong launch lineup was part of the reason for this–you had Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur and Power Stone, at least two of which people still obsess over to this day, and when you look back, Sonic Adventure wasn’t so bad either, at least for a 3D Sonic title. While EA Sports did not support the system, Sega Sports titles, made by the team that would eventually become 2K Games, helped to fill that void, so the Japanese-based system was able to maintain a strong foothold overseas with the North American, sports-loving audience.

Just like the GameCube was for Nintendo, the Dreamcast was Sega’s system during some of the most creative moments in the company’s history. Titles like Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio, Samba de Amigo, House of the Dead, Phantasy Star Online, Crazy Taxi, Skies of Arcadia, Chu Chu Rocket and Space Channel 5 were all Sega published or developed, and many of them have found sequels or remakes on other consoles due to their excellent gameplay and appeal. A few of them–namely, Skies of Arcadia and Shenmue–have large cult followings that demand additional sequels in order to flesh out the universe they created way back when, or to give the series some much needed closure. Third-party support was also excellent: you had the aforementioned Power Stone and Soul Calibur, from Capcom and Namco respectively, but you also had Resident Evil, Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom from Capcom, cult-classics like MDK2 from BioWare, and niche titles like Bangai-O from Treasure. Games like Bomberman Online utilized the online features of the Dreamcast to put a new spin on an old franchise, and in some instances, such as with Quake III, online play continues to this day on the system, though not on any servers run by either id or Sega.

The creation of Space Channel 5 also meant Ulala cosplay was created, and for that, we are thankful.

These beloved series are part of the reason the gaming community holds the Dreamcast in such high esteem now. The system, despite its strengths, was killed off by the Playstation 2, which released shortly after the Dreamcast. The PS2 had plenty of original Playstation owners hungry for the next big thing from Sony, and when word got out that the console would include a DVD player–something that was very expensive 10 years ago–people went nuts, and many decided to hold off to pick up a PS2 when it released. The Dreamcast may have been able to survive if it was just facing off against the PS2, but in 2001 both the Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft’s first dip into the console market, the Xbox, were slated to release. With that uphill battle on the horizon, Sega of America announced on January 31, 2001–in a decision made by Sega of Japan, according to former Sega and current EA Sports head Peter Moore–that production of the Dreamcast hardware would stop, though the titles that were still in production would still see the light of day.

While the Dreamcast continued to see development of titles in Japan, where the Xbox was not as much of a threat, licensed production in North America ceased. While homebrew titles were and are still a big deal on the Dreamcast thanks to free development kit software, legitimate, retail support of the system ended with the last generation, and Sega called it quits on the hardware market, instead turning their attention to becoming a third-party software giant. While it at first seemed odd to see Sonic on a Nintendo console, now we have games where Sonic and Mario compete against and each, and sometimes even *gasp* work together.

Sega may have released them out of order, but no matter, as all four of the original Phantasy Star titles are now available on Wii’s Virtual Console thanks to yesterday’s update. The Master System classic is also the cheapest of the four, coming in at 500 Nintendo Points–the series as a whole will run you $29, with the other three costing you 800 Nintendo Points (or $8) a piece. Cost isn’t really what I want to get into here though; I just want to talk a little about one of my favorite RPG series, and maybe give those of you who are unfamiliar with it some background.

Phantasy Star: The Original

While Nintendo did not own Square or Enix back in the 1980s, the system of choice for those company’s RPGs was the Nintendo Entertainment System. Both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest (or Dragon Warrior, as it was known in North America at that time) got their start on the NES, and both were set in a fantasy world of swords, armor and magic. When Sega released the Master System, they had their own RPG to counter Nintendo’s two-headed RPG beast in the form of Phantasy Star. While looking at it now, you may see a visually dated game, the first title in the Phantasy Star series arrived late in 1987 and wowed people with its graphical prowess, story and very difficult gameplay. In fact, it was one of the first story-driven RPGs in North America, with its storyboard anime cutscenes, pre-named characters and loads of NPCs to talk to that worked to enhance the story. The game also used a dungeon setup that was not returned to in later games, with a first-person, 3D-looking perspective that made each level into somewhat of a maze.

Story-driven in part thanks to storyboards, the original Phantasy Star was unlike anything seen in RPGs at the time.

You play as Alis, who has just seen her brother killed by the guards of Lassic, a tyrannical king who is causing problems on Palma, one of the three planets of the Algol solar system. You eventually recruit the warrior Odin, the Musk Cat Myau, and the Esper Noah (who in the Japanese version–and subsequent releases in which he is referenced–is known as Lutz) to your cause, and seek to put an end to Lassic’s reign. Lassic is, of course, not the source of the problem in the Algol system, as that role belongs to (is it still a spoiler when the game is 22 years old and counting?) Dark Force. Dark Force is one of the unifying themes that ties the Phantasy Star series together, as this incarnation of evil appears in each title in the original series–hell, the last boss in Phantasy Star Universe’s single-player story mode wasn’t Dark Force, but stylistically, that was the basis for it.

The game itself is famous due to the cartridge used and the price–the suggested retail was $69.99, but some places sold it for as much as $80. When the Master System II hardware released and was given a price reduction relative to the original, it cost just $10 more than this one game. While it seems like nothing now, the game used 512KB of ROM, while most Sega Master System titles used 128KB. The cartridge was also capable of holding five saves at once thanks to the battery-backed RAM chip. With this Virtual Console release, you can get the same sound quality that the original Japanese release had–North American and PAL hardware lacked a sound chip found in the Japanese Master System, but the Wii can emulate that just fine with the hardware it has, giving you the option for either version.

MadWorld, the f*cking brutally mature game from SEGA is today’s Deal of the Day on Amazon bearing an altogether alluring price tag of $19.98.

If you’ve yet to play the savage beat ‘em up, at a 20 spot, you pretty much can’t go wrong. But if you require at least a little documentation before spending cash, why don’t you read Marc’s review of the game?

Deal’s of the Day often run out before said day’s ending, so, make like a tree, and get the hell over to Amazon before they run out!

MadWorld $19.98 on Amazon.

One more huge holiday release can be knocked off the list, as Platinum Games’ and Sega’s Bayonetta is now set to release during early 2010. This may help sales of the game depending on what kind of situation it may have moved itself into, but it’s still disappointing. The game is still slated to retain its Japanese release date though, and will also be available to play at Comic-Con next week.

Blast’s official response to the news:

Sega is bringing a varied and fun looking lineup of games to San Diego with them for Comic-Con, which makes us happy because we are going to be there covering the entire event for you.

First up is Bleach: The 3rd Phantom, which is unlike the previous two Treasure developed Bleach games on the DS. This one is developed and published by Sega, and is a tactical RPG like Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics, rather than a straight up fighter. The story is brand new and written by Tite Kubo, the author of the actual Bleach manga. I’ll be interested in checking this out, given that the game has a well-developed universe to support it and is now in a genre I’m more comfortable in.

That’s not the only DS RPG I’ll be checking out though, as Sands of Destruction, a game that has been on my radar since the beginning of the year when Nintendo Power first discussed it in detail, will also be there. This is a game created by the minds behind Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, and unlike in many games where your goal is to save the world, in this one you are set on destroying it. That’s right, the world is in such awful shape that the protagonists have decided that it’s better off just not existing anymore. Love the concept, so I’ll want to see how the gameplay is.

The other of the titles that I can’t wait to try is Bayonetta, which is being made by Platinum Games. If you remember, Platinum Games (made up of former Clover and Capcom devs) also developed MadWorld, an over-the-top and ridiculously violent beat-em-up that we adore.‚  Bayonetta is also helmed by the creator of Devil May Cry, so you know this is going to be a very polished, very difficult affair. Bonus points for bringing in a live action model of Bayonetta and hosting a Bayonetta cosplay contest. I hope Sega remembers that her clothing is made out of the hair that’s attached to her head.

Sega will also be premiering Iron Man 2, and showing off Planet 51, and SEGA & Sonic All-Stars Racing. You can check out the screens we have for some of these titles below, but be on the lookout for more information on these games during and after Comic-Con, later this month.

In a way, it is of little consequence whether The Conduit is a good game, a great game, or something in between. Before it even released it helped to wake up many other third-party developers to the capabilities of the Wii, both on a graphical level and in regards to gameplay. That push forward of other developers and publishers is the game’s legacy of sorts, as, in between the time it took for The Conduit to be announced and the game to be released, Wii saw next-gen efforts like Call of Duty: World at War given a legitimate shot at succeeding on the system, rather than less successful and less refined ports like its predecessor and launch title, Call of Duty 3.

We have seen the tech demos, the gameplay videos, the sharp looking screens with graphical effects rarely seen on the Wii “" it’s clear that High Voltage Software knows how to develop for the little white console and squeeze some power out of it. Did they do enough with the gameplay to warrant a purchase of their first retail Wii title though? The answer will take some time, but that’s why we review these things.

In The Conduit, you play as Michael Ford, an agent that has been betrayed by the organization that hired him. Your goal is to get to the bottom of the conspiracy that surrounds you and the city of Washington D.C., and exact revenge on the man that put you in this tough spot before his army of drones and alien Drudge soldiers can take you out. It’s pretty standard conspiracy fare with a few twists and turns, but it’s not a bad story, and the voice acting of Kevin Sorbo and Mark Sheppard helps to move it along, even if occasionally it sounds a little over the top and campy. The story doesn’t overstay its welcome, but you could also say that it leaves abruptly, setting the game up for an obvious sequel, a la Gears of War 2.

The Conduit looks great on Wii, most of the time. It’s a little inconsistent graphically, which is a disappointment given how good it looks sometimes. As you can see in the screens, the insides of buildings, guns, aliens, and the lighting effects all look well detailed and smooth. Objects and places off in the distance do not look anywhere near as good though “" they don’t look blurry or representative of something off in the distance, they just look a little muddy. Some of the backgrounds ruin a lot of what’s going on in the foreground too. If you’re running through a corridor, do yourself a favor and don’t look out the windows, as everything looks choppy and box-like in that strange, outdoor world. Occasionally the sky also looks terrible, particularly when the clouds have an orange hue to them. Hopefully these details are polished in the sequel “" a background that stretches all around you is not exactly a minor detail “" as they take away from a lot of what was accomplished graphically in The Conduit.

Another problem for The Conduit is that the technical achievements outshine the art. Sure, the inside of the Pentagon and White House look good, but the design is somewhat boring. For the most part you’re just running through hallways and offices that could be from any building; I would have liked to see a bit more detail here, in regards to the invasion at hand, just to keep things looking interesting. There’s only one real “wow” moment in the game in regards to level design, when you first realize you have been tricked and that alien forces are invading Washington D.C. Enemies are designed well, but there are not enough different types, and you start to wish there were different challenges as you play for six to nine hours through single player.

All in all, the campaign is very standard run-and-gun, and doesn’t do anything innovative. It’s not bad, but it is bland, despite solid presentation and the graphics. There are two things that stand out from single-player that bear mentioning though, and that’s the All Seeing Eye (ASE) and the alien guns.The ASE lets you see hidden messages, unlock underground rooms with advanced weaponry in them, collect the Trust’s secret data discs, disable mines, hack into computers, and lower the shields on a specific, invisible member of the Drudge’s alien forces. It’s a shame it wasn’t used more often, but as a start of something and as an innovation, it’s welcome. High Voltage Software obviously had fun making the guns, and you will have fun using them. There are plenty of different enemy weapons, from alien assault rifles with charged beam shots, pistols with charged explosive rounds, a heat-seeking grenade launcher of sorts, de-atomizing weapons that, when charged, do exactly what their name implies to the enemies they strike, and even grenades that use radiation to take out opponents. They look good, they play well, and Ford reloading them with balls of bio mass is something you need to see in action.

The Conduit, High Voltage Software’s Wii exclusive sci-fi shooter, hits store shelves next week. While I’m still not sure how the game is going to be from a story or gameplay standpoint, I do know that High Voltage has poured their extensive technical prowess into turning out a high-quality visual experience mixed with some fantastic controls and weapons. An array of fun weapons usually keeps me going in a first-person shooter, and if the controls work–which they do, given their level of customization that makes them the closest thing to a keyboard and mouse ever seen on a console–then I’m bound to stick with it, even if the story is a letdown.

Let’s hope that isn’t the case with The Conduit, as it looks pretty promising. For now, I’ve assembled a bunch of screens and some videos for you to check out as you wait for its release next week. We’ll have a review for The Conduit up once we’ve tested and played through both the single player campaign and the multiplayer modes against live competition.

In a determined effort to capture the desired and elusive reservation, GameStop Corp. ups the ante for Wii FPS enthusiasts who haven’t yet given $5/sold their soul to the video game retail giant, with some exclusive goodies for The Conduit.

A $5 pledge to buy SEGA’s The Conduit at GameStop gets you a 24-page “making of” book, a “secret agent” skin to help waggle your enemies to death during online multiplayer, and a unique All Seeing Eye (A.S.E.) with custom detail and projected light.

If you’re picking up the title anyway, and can deal with GameStop employees, this looks like at least maybe possibly worth it.

The Conduit releases exclusively on Wii June 23 2009.

A.S.E.

The Conduit Website

Did you know how many Sonic games have been released in the last five years? Discounting re-releases of old arcade titles, and any game that also had Mario in them, there have been at least eight, and their quality has ranged from sort of okay to just plain bad.

For some reason, Sega seems content to churn out a bunch mediocre Sonic games to keep the franchise alive long enough to get its characters into Smash Brothers while it could put the same amount of time and manpower behind an actual quality endeavor you would be proud to put on the shelf next to Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess. With Sonic and the Black Knight, exclusive to the Wii, Sega continues this fairly disappointing trend, using the beloved blue speedster in titles that are, frankly, beneath him.

Thankfully, Black Knight is on the higher quality end of the spectrum, but it is a far cry from the quality gameplay and genre that made Sonic a landmark franchise. It’s mostly ‚ hack-and-slash game with a few speed-based and platforming elements at odd intervals, featuring a sword wielding Sonic in the kingdom of Camelot. For purists of the Sonic franchise (and scholars of Arthurian legend), the very idea of this might seem offensive, but when you put those details aside, and accept the fairly high level of ridiculousness as just entertaining, it makes for a pretty decent game.

The game opens with Merlina, granddaughter of Merlin, being chased by a huge scary looking King Arthur, who is the titular Black Knight. Merlina, being a wizard like her grandfather, casts a summon spell when faced with an army of dark soldiers from the underworld. A hole is torn in the sky, and out falls a blue hedgehog and two chili dogs. Sonic rescues Merlina, but can’t defeat Arthur because he is in possession of the scabbard of Excalibur, which grants the bearer the power of immortality. Sonic and Merlina go off to find the lady of the lake (who is Amy acting in that role) and Arthur dispatches his Knights (Knuckles, Shadow, and Blaze), and from there on out the very basic objective is to run fast and smash stuff with your talking sword, Caliburn. Yes, there is a talking sword.

Once you take the plunge and accept that you are playing an Arthurian legend game with a hedgehog protagonist, the game actually starts to get fun. The principle mode of gameplay is running in a mostly straight line, steered occasionally with the nunchuck, and hacking with the Wiimote to swing your sword. The combat elements are a little repetitive, but the fun comes in at fighting at as high a speed as possible. The sword swinging graphics aren’t great if you slow down and really scrutinize them, but you shouldn’t be doing that because you’re Sonic; RUN! When combat is at its height, you are charging into thick groups of enemies, sword swinging, and you can barely see anything but the crush of soldiers and demons until the dust settles and Sonic moves on to the next battle. The combination of speed and swordplay is a fairly novel one, and, I think, worth a lot more exploration, though it’s done fairly well in this game.

At its worst, which occurs in the somewhat-to-very awkward boss battles, the combat expects an aggravating amount of precision timing in your Wiimote swings: swing half a second too late, you get hit, swing half a second too early, you get hit (yes, there are instances where this Sonic game will punish you for being too fast). However, the satisfaction of leveling an entire phalanx of underworld soldiers makes the frustrating bits worth enduring, and ensures a strong replay value.

Unfortunately, the other aspects of the game do not play out as well as the combat. If you’re looking for a Sonic-style speed platformer, you will not find it with Black Knight. There are definitely platforming elements, and some of them are very cool (near the game’s end you run across the back of a beam of lightning), but they are few and far between, though the levels in which they are most prevalent are definitely the most satisfying to complete. These platform-intensive volcanoes and dragon’s caves are, unfortunately, mostly towards the end of the game, and don’t completely make up for the bland environments of the castles and villages. Sure, there’s lots of jumping from one stone structure to the next, but most of it is just progression down a line of enemies and can quickly get repetitive if that’s not why you invested in the game.

The game also has a few, very weird glitches. There was one instance in a boss battle where, as Sonic was running towards a fire-breathing dragon, he came to an abrupt halt and attacked a stone pillar on the side of the battlefield for no apparent reason; it had no bearing on defeating the boss, and Sonic’s attacks seemed to do nothing more than waste time and attract fire balls.

There was also the instance where I was somehow able to completely bypass a story-relevant cut-scene, where Sonic and his new wise-cracking sword go visit Amy, the Lady of the Lake. I know this scene exists because I saw my roommate play through it, but I somehow just played around it, and was surprised to find myself completing the mission Amy would have otherwise have set before me. It wasn’t really detrimental to the game overall, but just keep it in mind if parts of the story don’t seem to flow together the way they should.

Definitely the strangest thing about the game-yes, even stranger than Knuckles, the flying echidna in knight’s armor-is that after you defeat the knights of the round table and find a way to bypass King Arthur’s Scabbard of immortality, the credits roll. What makes this strange, and this is crucial to your gaming experience, is that the game is only half way over at this point. There is only about 3 hours of gameplay up to that point (it’s a short game), and there are at least 3 more much, much better hours afterwards, but there is also a full credit sequence dividing the two. There’s a chance I would not have caught it and gone on thinking I had just finished the shortest game ever. If your gaming experience does not sync completely with the rest of this review, check your game status: you may have only just started.

Sonic and the Black Knight gets off to a rocky and somewhat ridiculous start, and is likely not what a lot of us are looking for in a Sonic game, but give it time and it will grow on you. It definitely picks up in the later levels, and without giving too much away, there is the requisite Super Sonic level, which is one of the better boss battles. The story and the characters aren’t subtle, and the world isn’t particularly imaginative or worth exploring, but the game doesn’t take itself too seriously, and can provide several hours of good solid fun. It’s probably not worth the full $49.99 price tag, but it’s definitely worth playing if you get the chance. It’s by no stretch the corner stone game the franchise really needs to stay afloat into future generations of gaming, but it’s more fun than not, and in the end not a bad game. It just doesn’t live up to the expectations attached to the name Sonic the Hedgehog.

The Conduit looks better and better and even better with each batch of screens development studio High Voltage releases.‚  This week is no different with five high-res screenshots showcasing weaponry and open combat environments.

High Voltage is pushing the boundaries of what has been seen on the Wii to date, and from my hands-on experience at Comic Con sans Wii Motion Plus, the execution is terrific.

Furthermore, The Conduit will feature 16 player online multiplayer but no specifics have been announced as of yet.

Wii owners thirsting for that PS3/Xbox 360 type first person shooter experience should be thoroughly excited for this ambitious project, I know I am.

The Conduit is set to release June 23^rd, but a delay seems very possible.‚  Keep your fingers crossed!

Glorious new screens in the gallery.

Via Sony Blog.

In 2008, No More Heroes awed Wii gamers who were craving a hardcore, over-the-top and violent experience. Its combination of humor, satire and oceans full of blood made for a unique experience on Wii that had yet to be matched, as no other developer or publisher had come up with anything in the same vein.

Enter Platinum Games. This new company is not one lacking in experience, as it is made up of former members of Clover and Capcom, responsible for creating mainstream successes (Devil May Cry, Resident Evil) as well as cult classics that deserve a place in your games library (Okami, Viewtiful Joe, Godhand). Leave it to a studio with this kind of pedigree to try their hand at 2009′s version of No More Heroes with MadWorld, a game that is more violent, more over-the-top, and just as stylistic as last year’s gem.

MadWorld is presented in black and white, much like the Sin City comic books. It’s a wonderful style that works on the Wii; the Wii doesn’t have the horsepower for the realistic graphics output of its two console cousins, but the Wii can do stylized, and do it well. Besides the black and white, there is lots and lots of red. If the blood you spilled pooled in Varrigan City, there would be flash flood warnings for days. The violence is completely ridiculous as well, and you will catch yourself giggling like a school girl at some of the destruction you cause-it’s probably best for our mental health that this game eschews realism for a distinct art style, or else we would feel worse about what we are doing.

Varrigan City has been overrun by terrorists and made into the stage for a game show called “Death Watch”. Think of something like The Running Man, with countless thugs and warriors battling it out until just one survives as champion of the games. Your (anti) hero, Jack, has been sent to the island to compete, but he also has some motives you are not privy to until later in the game. You may be surprised considering this is a brawler, but the story is solid and adds to the game. It has a few twists and turns along the way that will keep you interested in between the nonstop bouts of vicious rampaging.

Gameplay consists of running up to the assorted baddies picking fights around town, and basically showing them that you are more of a badass than they are through the use of a variety of punches, weapons, and environmental objects. You can string together short combos of punches that can be concluded with a finisher, easily controlled with a downward or sideways swipe of the Wii Remote. Not only is this system intuitive-you don’t have to waggle for every punch, just make a quick flick for a serious uppercut or hook to stun a baddy-but it works, and works well.

There are also finishing moves that are performed by holding down the A button once the prompt appears, and then you will be shown a variety of different motion controlled actions. Grab a guy by the legs and swing him around until you find something to throw him on or at, or use him to bowl over a group of enemies-this is controlled by swinging the Wii Remote. Knock a guy to the floor and cut his face right down the middle to the floor-this is controlled with a single quick, downward thrust of the Wii Remote. Platinum Games’ choices all make sense for the Wii Remote, and are not just thrown in there because it’s on the Wii. Given the nature of the game, the finishers are actually more satisfying because of the motion controls.

If you don’t want to off the competition with a hard punch and finisher combo, you also have a chainsaw attachment on your arm, which is accessed by holding the B button. You can swipe downward or side to side, and the results for the basic enemies is instant death. This would be a boring way to go through the game though, and would make each level take forever; points for kills are based on how creative you are, so the more thought you put into stringing out someone’s death as long as you can, the more of a reward you get. Given each level has a time limit, you’re going to need to unleash some bloody artistry on those remaining in Varrigan City.

How creative can you get with your kills? Let’s take for instance one of my kills that stands out. After punching a thug a few times and stunning him with an uppercut, I grabbed a nearby tire (hold down the A button to grab and continue holding an object) and slammed it down on the dazed man with a downward motion of the Wii Remote. While he stumbled around with his arms trapped, I grabbed a signpost off the road and then slammed it through his head; again, with a single (admittedly satisfying) motion of the Wii Remote. I then picked him up, dumped him into a nearby barrel, and picked up the barrel, and slammed him repeatedly into a giant spiked wall known as a “rose bush”. Repeatedly.

There is nothing better as a gamer than a reminder of just why you are into games in the first place. Sometimes the simplest concept, with the proper loving care from a developer who knows their stuff, can flourish and grow into something much bigger, something that you can have hours of fun with no matter how much time you have already put into it.

House of the Dead: Overkill, developed by London-based Headstrong Games (formerly Kuju, the minds behind Battalion Wars) and published by Sega, is one of those reminders. As you blast your way through levels infested with mutants and abominations of science, listening to your partner spew forth obscenities like he’s paid by the curse while catchy music plays in the background, you will realize that you are having an obscene amount of fun.

Obscenity is the name of the game in Overkill, the latest entry in the House of the Dead series that was built from the ground up for the Wii. This isn’t a port, like House of the Dead 2 & 3 Returns was, as Headstrong went into this wanting to utilize the IR functions of the Wii Remote while also delivering the mature-starved Wii audience the hardcore game they had been waiting for. Overkill doesn’t break its promise either, as it’s so over-the-top in every way that you’ll find yourself glued to the television enjoying everything it has to offer for hours.

You play as Agent G in this prequel to the House of the Dead series, and your partner, who you just met as shown by the first cutscene, is Detective Isaac Washington. Agent G is out to find Papa Caesar as a member of the AMS, as he needs to be arrested for his crimes, while Isaac Washington wants to find Caesar in order to exact revenge for the murder of his father. Things get a bit tricky once they kill the brother of the voluptuous Varla Guns, who had been forced to help Caesar in his scientific experiments. The three develop an odd relationship that develops as the story unfolds, and it’s entertaining to watch and listen to the chemistry (or blatant lack of it) amongst the trio.

The three characters have plenty of dialogue throughout the levels and during cutscenes, and instead of being hilarious for being terrible like much of the dialogue in the past arcade titles, the one-liners and quips are funny because they are well-written and perfectly reflect and parody that grindhouse style. For those of you who aren’t aware, Headstrong was inspired by grindhouse movies (think the recently released tribute to grindhouse, Planet Terror), and their tribute perfectly captures that vibe.

Each level begins with a movie trailer that is meant to unveil more of the story and also set you up for the next area you are visiting; each of these levels also has a grindhouse style movie poster that I wish were available in a form outside of the game, because they are absolutely wall-worthy. It’s clear Headstrong had fun making this game, at least as much fun as you will have playing through it.

Visually, Overkill also captures that grindhouse aesthetic. There’s a filter running that makes the game look as if you’re watching it on grainy film with burn marks and holes in it, and it adds to the feel of the game. This is also a gory affair, with gallons of blood and puss spewing from the holes you make in the mutants with your weaponry. You will make holes in your adversaries as well, because the enemies react to where you shoot them; blow off an arm, and watch the mutant stumble back, or kneecap him and when he or she hits the ground, blow their head off with a well placed shot. You will want to string together shots like this too rather than just trying to kill everything that moves with a headshot, as the more consecutive hits you put together, the higher your combo and point totals go, until you reach “Goregasm”, a statistic that tracks how long you can go without missing a shot.

Your weapons start out weak, but by putting together higher scores, clearing levels and reaching certain achievements (finish a level without dying in the more difficult Director’s Cut mode for instance, or kill 50 mutants in a level “gangsta style”, with your gun cocked sideways as you fire) you earn cash that helps you pimp out your weapons, giving you more time and firepower to clear a level more successfully. There are plenty of weapons to choose from as well, with various forms of pistols, shotguns, machine guns, rifles and the like at your disposal, just waiting for you to purchase them.

Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection has an obvious appeal. For only 30 bucks, gamers can own a collection of 48 Sega Genesis, Mega Drive, and Arcade games to play on one disc. From every major Sonic the Hedgehog iteration to lesser known titles like Comix Zone and Beyond Oasis, Sega fans can carve out hundreds of hours of gameplay in one location.

But what isn’t obvious about this compilation is that an inherit aging problem hurts some of these games. While they are all presented in top-notch form, with perfect emulation, customizable controls, and a wide variety of unlockables, some of these games are simply not worth playing anymore. Those looking for nostalgia will no doubt find their fix here but newcomers will uncover both classics and absolute duds.

The commendable amount of attention paid to this collection is recognizable from the very start. The main menu resembles the classic Genesis system with a large black panel on the left, L-shaped with a round center, listing all games immediately playable. On the right, video previews of selected games play within the shape of the standard Genesis cartridge, even exposing the motherboard slightly on the bottom.

Each game on the main list, one that can be sorted multiple ways (Alphabetically, chronologically, or by genre and preference), is given perfect presentations with multiple display options. As a default each game will start in their original format of 4:3. Those with widescreen TVs will see a game-specific background and a border adorning the edges of the reduced gameplay screen. However, in the collection’s pop-up menu, accessed by hitting Select, the game can be stretched to fill a 16:9 format.

Under that same “Video Setup” menu, a “Smooting” option can be activated, which gives each game a waxy veneer, apparently hoping to make them look more presentable on bigger TVs. While it does help to wrinkle out some otherwise noticeable imperfections, it also hinders the original look and style which will definitely drive some away. Also, games with heavy uses of text, like the Phantasy Star saga, don’t utilize the feature that well as some of the words become harder to read. Luckily, though, it can turned off, which is highly recommended.

Also in the pop-up menu are options to change the control scheme. The compilation automatically uses an altered layout to help fit the 360 controller, assigning actions where they feel more comfortable. But an “ABC Mode” is also available, which gives the A button of the original Genesis to the X button on 360, the B button to A and the C button to B. This won’t effect most games but others, like Vectorman, will definitely feel different.

Using the ABC mode, Vectorman jumps with B and fires with with X and A on the 360 pad, but with the default controls he jumps with A and shoots with X and B which seems to fit with most platformers available on the more modern system. On the original Genesis controller, all three main buttons were aligned horizontally, making it easier to assign a jump button to C, since most gamers could place the lower half of the thumb on that button and easily reach A and B with the top. The 360 controller, however, aligns its buttons in a square, so having a platformer use the jump button on anything other than A just feels awkward.

Regardless of the choice, 360 owners using the standard controller will not be able to escape the dreaded D-pad. Unlike the PS3, which uses four distinct buttons for all four directions, Microsoft’s pad is one large concave piece that feels mushy and unresponsive. Developers have dealt with this issue in the past but it particularly hurts Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection since these retro games were designed to be played with the D-pad. The only other option is the analog stick, which works in some instances, like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Streets of Rage, but not so well in other cases, like Fatal Labyrinth and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine. The latter games require precise movement to play effectively and the analog stick just doesn’t match what a good D-pad can offer.

In 1996, Nintendo released Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for SNES and decided to have an outside company known for their success in the genre to develop it. Sega must have taken a cue from that, because they went to another popular RPG developer, BioWare, makers of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect, for Sega’s first mascot-friendly RPG. While Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is a valiant effort on BioWare’s part, it has several flaws.

The game has a few nods back to Sonic’s past, and not only his video game past. Growing up, I’m sure we all would wake up every Saturday morning to catch the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon. One of Sonic’s notable traits in his cartoon was how much of a complete and utter asshole he was. Sure, he had a friendly side when he needed it, but for the most part, he was snarky, full of himself, and “way past cool.” Bioware titles are notorious for their dialogue sections — where you pick what the protagonist says in conversations, in a return back to the old Sonic cartoon, you can once again have Sonic be an ass.

This is a nice nod back to the old cartoon. In Dreamcast titles, from Sonic Adventure onward, Sonic has become rather flat and undeveloped as a character, and it”Ëœs nice to see what BioWare does with him. Another nice nod to the old cartoon is the return of Dr. Robotnik’s SWATbots. I always thought they were much cooler than those goofy Eggman robots which littered Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog.

The music and graphics are good — nothing really special, but by no means bad.

There is a bittersweet mechanic involving special attacks where one must tap circles on the screen or follow a circle as it glides over a line in a very Elite Beat Agents sort of way. However, the biggest flaw with this mechanic is that unlike EBA, the tapping isn’t in sync with any kind of musical cue – Something that some players might find annoying, and it might take a few tries before one can successfully get the hang of initiating or dodging an attack. I guess this mechanic was added in to make the game more upbeat and “tricky” like some Sonic games are, but in many cases it becomes tedious and repetitive. This could be a turn off to more traditional RPG gamers.

Before sandbox games and deathmatches via dial-up and Wifi battles, only one thing mattered: the high score.

Gamers from arcades to living rooms would spend hours trying to best the score of those who came before them by any means necessary. Yes, it was a much simpler time.

Enter The Club, Bizarre Creations new run-and-gun action shooter harkens back to these golden days, mixing modern day shooter elements with an old school, points-first system.

But sadly, once the nostalgic rush wears off, it will become painfully evident just how thin of a package The Club is. Imagine one of those akward moments where everything suddenly just stops, and you’re left with a big, dumb grin on your face that slowly fades away.

The premise is simple. Compete in the aforementioned club, existing only as an urban legend to most, where a small group of rich contestants competes to see who can rack up the most points by killing off criminals paid to try and off them. Points are awarded based on kills, with bonuses for style, accuracy, what kind of opponent you killed and the weapons used.

It’s a simple system, but it can also be highly addictive. You’ll find yourself replaying entire contests just to see what scores would be if you approached different situations from different angles and using different methods.

The key to The Club is to not look at the game as a shooter. It can more aptly be compared to a racing game — you know, with guns instead of cars?

In all seriousness, making this comparison allows you to see just how hectic the game can be.

Your goal is to score as many points as possible by quickly going through a very linear course, while picking up power-ups and hitting special targets for bonuses. In this sense, The Club relies heavily on strategy. What’s the clearest way to clear a room while still garnering the most points?

Sadly, the single player game can be completed in roughly 3-4 hours. While The Club was never meant to have the massive scope of a title like Mass Effect or Lost Odyssey and a bit of forgiveness can be given for the replayability, that’s still a ridiculously short time. This is made all the more disappointing that the game’s advertised five different single player game modes are all quite similar and can fairly be brought down to two or three original modes that aren’t complete retreads of the others.

Something about The Club just feels so uninspired. Even the characters come off as mere stereotypes of characters from other games or action movies. There’s Finn, the hard on his luck southern gambler being chased by the mob. And there’s Adjo, the former Nigerian gangster who is looking to repent for the horrible things he’s done in the past.

While The Club’s visuals are quite solid — minus a few frame rate issues when the action becomes increasingly hectic — it still feels like a dated game. Characters move rigidly and get stuck behind invisible walls, a real issue when you take into account just how much timing plays into the core gameplay. Perhaps the developers were merely trying to level the playing field as the enemy AI is quite lacking. Sure, they’ll duck behind cover, but they don’t seem to stay there for long and you won’t have much trouble adding them to your kill count, even on the higher difficulties.

Those still obsessed with getting the highest score (I’m looking at you achievement point junkies) could find The Club to be entertaining enough for a few go-rounds, but with an amazingly short single player experience and no real story to speak of, The Club will offer little more than a diversion to most gamers.

While the original idea was executed in a passable fashion, there’s simply not enough secondary content to support it.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Sega
Developer: Bizarre Creations
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
Genre: Shooter
Players: 1-4
Launch Date: February 19, 2008

Playability: 3 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 2.5 out of 5 stars