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

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

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

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

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

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

I’ve always had this theory. In the beginning of every year, there’s that strange lull until we get new quality games, and perhaps it’s a bit unfair, but those games set the tone for what the rest of the year will be like. Terrible games are relaesed first? Get ready for a dissapointing year, but if we get good quality games within the first major release week, then that’s a different story.

If The Darkness 2, the new shooter from 2K games is any indication — we’re about to have a great year. Now, don’t get me wrong — it’s not perfect, but it’s fun, over the top and gory fun layered on top of quality writing and fine tuned mechanics. The Darkness 2 sets 2012 off to the right path.

The Darkness 2 is of course a direct sequel to the 2007 shooter based off of the Top Cow comic book series of the same name created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl. If you haven’t experienced either here’s a bit of a primer; the titular Darkness is an ancient mystical force that allows the one who posseses it access to a mysterious dimension and control over the darkling creatures that reside there.

The Darkness has currently chosen low life gangster and hitman Jackie Estacado as its host, and he’s parlayed that into a full takeover of his mob family — but of course things aren’t that easy. The Darkness 2 starts off with an attack on Jackie and the mob family, and a mysterious man trying to control the Darkness.

So what does that mean for you? Mainly lots of killing, maiming and shooting — luckily it’s all done so well. You’ll start out just as you do with any other shooter, but when The Darkness starts to beg Jackie to let it out again, that’s when the game starts to retain an identity all its own. The Darkness portrays itself mostly as two giant snake like creatures that portrude from your back, and proceed to make your enemies lives a living hell. 2K and Digital Extremes has done a great job making the actual Darkness abilities make you feel like an unstoppable force, which goes a long way in making the game feel so incredibly rewarding.

Take one of the game’s earlier levels, which finds you traveling through a subway system battling a litteral army of thugs. Not only can you use your average guns to take them out, but The Darkness adds a slew of cool abilities to your repertoire. Slash at them violently, grab them, literally rip them apart, take objects as cover — you can even summon darkling creatures to attack your enemies, and apparently they speak with an English accent.

The Darkness 2 also features an RPG style leveling system which allows you to use dark essence from your downed enemies to make your Darkness abilities even more powerful. One of the first abilities you’ll unlock is key — the ability to eat the hearts of your downed enemies to regain health, but I found that if I wasn’t led to a powerup that I absolutley needed, I never really really found myself going out of my way to level up these abilities. The Darkness 2 often felt like it could be finsished without even touching some of these abilities.

Perhaps that’s the Darkness 2′s biggest downfall — there’s just not a ton of content here. The single player game can be finished in a matter of hours, and there’s not really any reason to jump back in after you’ve finished it. Strangely, the multiplayer suite from the first game has been scrapped, but there is a respectable co-op mode, still though, it could turn a lot of online gaming focused players off from an otherwise entertaining shooter.

The visuals of The Darkness 2 though are remarkably well done. Rather than go for a phot realistic look, the folks at 2K and Digital Extremes have gone a route that makes The Darkness 2 look like the living embodiment of a comic book. The environments are all created as you’d expect, and then given a cell shading-esque top layer, which works very well for a game of this style.

Blast Factor:The Darkness 2 might not be a perfect shooter, but it’s an absolute blast and a great start to 2012. It’s violent, fun and performs well in some of the most hectic situations — we just wish there was more of it. If you like shooter, pulp and gratious violence, do yourself a favor and unleash The Darkness.

Microsoft and Lucas Arts have announced that Star Wars Kinect, along with the special edition Star Wars Xbox 360 will release on April 3.

The console, along with the game were delayed late last year after the game received majorly negative critical reception. Here’s hoping it’s tuned up from our time with it at last year’s E3.

When Alan Wake’s American Nightmare hits Xbox Live Arcade later this month as part of Microsoft’s Xbox Live House Party, you won’t be visiting the same old woodsy locations. Rather, the folks at Remedy have taken everyone’s favorite darkness fighting author and put him into a haunted desert location. Check out these new screen shots to see check out some of the game’s new locations, weapons and enemies.

The often rumored but not yet confirmed next generation Xbox is being said to be more than six times more powerful than the Xbox 360 and reportedly will finally play Blurays — but that’s not the big news. According to a report on Kotaku, the new console could prohibit used games from being played on it.

Citing an unnamed source, the site doesn’t say how the proposed technology could be implemented, but does theorize that the most probable solution would be to link each copy of a specific game with a unique code (similar to the current online pass system), though that can easily be bypassed by keeping the console offline.  Taking such a strong stance on used game sales would make publishers, who see no revenue from second hand sales, but may not sit well with retailers like GameStop or consumers.

Another rumor suggests that the next Xbox console will ship with a brand new version of the Kinect peripheral, complete with an onboard processor.

There’s been no confirmation when we’ll see the new Xbox, but rumors suggest some sort of unveiling to happen during this year’s E3 in June.

Microsoft is investigating reports that workers in a factory in China that manufactures Xbox 360 consoles have threatened mass suicide in the midst of a pay dispute. Reportedly, anywhere between 80-200 workers climbed to the top of a six story building and threatened to jump unless conditions were improved.

Though details have been scarce, FoxConn, the owner of the plant has confirmed that 150 workers were part of the protest, which started when the decision was made to transfer all employees to an alternate production line. Though talks have settled, 40 of those workers have resigned.

“Microsoft takes working conditions in the factories that manufacture its products very seriously,” read an official statement from Microsoft. “We are currently investigating the issue.”

Hey cool, the ESRB released their ratings certificate for Star Wars Kinect, let’s check it out. “In this action game set in the Star Wars Universe, players use their body movements to perform activities that include dance tournaments…”

WAIT…WAIT….WAIT… give me a second. Let me read that again….yep, that definitely says dance tournaments. Because nothing says intergalactic civil war like dance-offs.

The ESRB goes on to elaborate further on one of the worst decisions in gaming history the dance sequences by saying that in the dancing mini-game, some female characters perform suggestive moves (e.g., gyrating their hips/buttocks) and wearing revealing outfits (partially revealed cleavage/buttocks). The words ‘damn’ and ‘hell’ can be heard in the dialogue.”

So what’s worse? Knowing that the Star Wars game you’ve waited for, but keeps sounding worse and worse will now include dancing or Vader’s “NOOOOOOOO!” in the blu-ray version of Return of the Jedi?

The dashboard update that was supposed to be available this morning in North America and bring a number of new Kinect features and apps to the console has been hit with a last minute delay. At 7AM, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson tweeted that “the timing for Xbox 360 dashboard update has been slightly delayed. I’ll have a status update later today.” Later on that day, he sent out another tweet, stating that “We are still working to get the release out. Stay tuned, we’ll have an update this afternoon (PT) on when it will begin rolling out.”

No word has been given on the timeline for the update’s release, we’ll update you when we learn more.

Well that came out of nowhere. It seems that Obsidian, the folks behind Fallout: New Vegas, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II are teaming up with THQ to create an RPG based off of South Park

Okay, Okay..I hear your groans, but it the developers swear that this isn’t a cash in like the other games that featured the characters. As unveiled in this month’s Game Informer, the game will reportedly follow the show’s four main characters, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny as they defend their town from various threats.  The game gets immediate points for having Man-bear-pig on its first image.

South Park: The Game is due out in the second half of next year for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Most racing games flaunt their cars. They flaunt the insane amount of rides, how realistic they are and what it feels like to drive them. Need For Speed: The Run is different though. The cars seem like an afterthought in favor of…the ability to get out of the car.

Yeah, you can see where this is going.

In a year with two quality Need For Speed games and a slew of other high quality racing titles, Need For Speed: The Run feels like a step back, a fraud almost. The actual racing mechanics themselves feel lackluster when compared to similar games and even the Hollywood blockbuster style storyline feels boring and uninspired. The Run could have been a quality action romp, but instead it’s one of the most disappointing games of the year.

From the get-go, The Run could have been great. The game, which finds you as a contestant in a cross country race from San Francisco to New York, is basically a rehash of the 1981 Bruce Willis movie  Cannonball  Run. In truth, there’s nothing wrong with that – the game takes you on some pretty cool trips, from the hills of San Francisco to the fields of Middle America, the tunnels of Chicago and finally the bustling streets of New York City.  The game recreates these locales in pretty impressive styles and most looks just as you’d expect it to.

To the developers credit, they manage to get some pretty varied (well, at least early in the game) missions into these locales. In some stages you’ll be pitted against a clock because you’ll need to make up time against other racers, and others you’ll have to avoid cops and gangsters in Hollywood style action sequences.  They’re really well done, but odds are you won’t notice; these sequences are presented as QuickTime events, so you’ll be more focused on pounding on the button that appears in the corner of the screen to fully enjoy what the developers have done here.

It’s a shame then that this Hollywood style treatment isn’t found throughout the entire game; namely the plot…or lack thereof.  Everything in Need For Speed: The Run feels incredibly scripted and as a result, less than thrilling. There’s no room for error in this incredibly linear tale as you’ll always need to complete each of the game’s objectives in the right order to move on or your trying again. Cops and other NPCs all behave and speak the same way, and in some sections it doesn’t matter what you do, the game shoehorns you into quicktime event action sequences.

The most disappointing aspect of The Run is just how few of options there truly are. You can’t fine tune your car or buy new parts for it; hell – customization is completely gone here. You’ll pick up new cars along the road and in gas stations, but if you don’t like them, your only option is to wait until you find a new one. This takes a lot of the replay value out of the game when compared to other Need For Speed games, and is especially apparent in the online mode. No longer are you racing against player’s own creations, you’re just racing against pre-made cars with attributes set by the computer. Where’s the fun in that?

Of course, this would all be forgivable if The Run was a great driving game, but it’s not…it’s not even a decent one. Gone are the fine tuned machines and mechanics from previous games in favor of arcade style controls that feel tacked on. Cars often feel floaty as if they don’t have any weight to them and handling can be incredibly frustrating.  It’s often that you’ll be chased by a group of pursuers, making good time, but be screwed over by one curve and have to start the whole race over again.

The Blast Factor: Need For Speed: Shift and Hot Pursuit served as rebirths for a racing franchise that had gone stale. They introduced new mechanics and were a blast to play through. In that sense The Run can only be seen as a major step back. It’s built on shoddy mechanics, goofy premises and a horribly bland story. There are plenty of great racing games on the market and this is not one of them.

For the better part of five years, I worked as  Disney cast member. I spent day after day learning the biggest secrets of a company that protects that to no end and as a result, I lost what Disney and its fan know as “the magic.” The extraordinary became mundane,  and in a weird way, I began to step away. Who knew it would take a virtual trip back to reignite my love.

In that sense, Kinect Disneyland Adventures does its job, and it does it very well; you’re constantly reminded of just what’s right about the Disney company and its brands, especially if you play with those familiar with the park. As a game though, it’s more of a mixed bag. It’s really fun and a cool demonstration of the tech behind Kinect to interact with the characters, but basic mechanics like moving around feel incredibly complicated, and will make you practically hate the experience. Still, I can’t help but recommend Kinect Disneyland Adventures for all of its charm, especially if you’re big on the park itself.

The idea behind Disneyland Adventures is simple, guide your avatar through the Disneyland park and go on adventures and quests as given to you by Disney characters. Now, this is a very idealized version of the famous theme park, there are no lines, the cast members all speak English, it’s not crowded, and you’re able to walk directly up to any of the characters at anytime. Curiously enough — there’s always a crowd around the characters, but no one — but you, ever goes up to them.  To the game’s credit, the Disneyland in the game is pretty accurate compared to the real deal; I was able to run around, without looking at the map, and get where I needed to go just based on my memory of the parks. Of course, some changes have been made for the sake of gameplay, but those are few and far between. The permanent popcorn carts and stands are even in the right place, impressive for a game that basically serves as a commercial.

The characters are also impressive in their recreations. For instance, we found Captain Hook outside of Peter Pan’s Flight in Fantasyland, and one of the options is to extend your arms in a hug motion to interact in that way with the characters, and while everyone from Mickey and Donald to Cinderella and Buzz Lightyear was happy to give a squeeze, Captain Hook (along with the rest of the Villains for that matter) were unsure of what to do and seemed very confused when we tried. Of course, this is a Disney game and every villain has a heart of gold deep down inside, so we eventually got our hug. There’s a fair number of interactions with each character, like dancing and signing autographs. The autographs are one of the game’s coolest feature, as you’ll gain points for collecting different autograph books (there’s one for heroes, one for villains, one for Princesses and so on) and getting the right characters to sign them. I was at first a bit annoyed that I had to do so much backtracking, but it became incredibly fun to dash around the parks with different books.

Each character you find will give you a different quest to go on in the park, whether it be giving something to another character, tracking something down or going to one of the attractions. The attractions are where the Kinect capabilities really come in. The rides and shows take the form of motion themed mini games, where you’ll interact with the attraction and its story. Much like The Disneyland park itself, these are idealized versions inspired by the attractions, so instead of actually going on the Matterhorn itself, you’ll be bobsledding down a hill and trying to evade the Yeti. A lot of these worlds are pretty cool, like the Haunted Mansion inspired world, which finds you hunting ghosts with a flashlight while the famous Ghost Host narrates your adventure. The worlds are given a more cell shaded look than the rest of the game, which lends a classic animation feel to them. The best part of all of this again is just how right they got everything, with the Ghost Host in the Haunted Mansion, Captain Hook and Smee in the Peter Pan levels and even the corny jokes in the Jungle Cruise section.

Now, it can be pretty hard to walk in a Disney park because of the crowds, but even though they are pretty much non existent in the game, it’s an incredibly frustrating experience just to walk. Kudos to the developers for trying to not just making it an on-rails game like most Kinect developers, but there’s simply got to be a better way. You move around the game by holding your hand up; holding it straight causes you to move forward while moving to the left or right has you moving in that direction and putting your hands to your side to stop. When it works, it’s great, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work a lot. The slightest movement will cause your character to shoot off into another direction — just hope you don’t get into a corner, as it’s going to be hell to get out of it.

Things get worse when you start unlocking different items to use like a magic wand or a megaphone. You gain these items by lifting your hand up and selecting them from a pop up wheel. While it may sound simple, the game has a hard time registering whether you’re trying to pick an item, or run forward and it’s incredibly frustrating. At one point I had the wand equipped, and saw the same teacup animate probably 20 times because the game wouldn’t register that I was just trying to put it back. On that same note, the voice controls are pretty superb. While they weren’t perfect, the game was incredibly responsive a good portion of the time.

The Blast Factor:  It may be a pain to get around, but Kinect Disneyland Adventures does its job of reminding you just why you love the  Disney parks. You’ll interact with your favorite characters, go on your favorite rides (sort of) and even find some secrets hidden around the park. The game is at its best when its played by families and kids get excited when they see their favorite characters. At the very least, it serves as a running commercial for the Parks.

A new rumor suggests that the successor to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console will be much smaller in size, all while sporting a cheaper price tag.

The rumor, first spotted by Industry Gamers is attributed to blogger MS Nerd, who reported correct early information on past Microsoft projects. MS Nerd also reports that the new console will run an a version of Windows 9.

“With a heady mix of rumors, tips and speculation, I am now stating that Xbox codename “loop” (the erstwhile XboxTV) will indeed debut a modified Win9 core,” claims the report. “It will use a Zune HD-like hardware platform-a “main” processor with multiple dedicated assistive cores for graphics, AI, physics, sound, networking, encryption and sensors. It will be custom designed by Microsoft and two partners based on the ARM architecture,” they added.”It will be cheaper than the 360, further enabling Kinect adoption. And it will be far smaller than the 360. It will also demonstrate how Windows Phone could possible implement Win9′s dev platform on the lower end.”

Rumors heavily suggest that the next Xbox will be unveiled at this year’s E3 and pushed out for a Holiday 2013 release.

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.

A lot of people are starting to ask when we’re going to see new consoles from Sony and Microsoft, but not Ken Levine. The creator of Bioshock says that he’s “not aching for new consoles” and that the current ones still have “a lot of juice.”

“It’s clear there’s still a fair bit of juice left in these machines,” he said. “You look at Arkham City, Uncharted and Gears of War and you’re starting to see that these games don’t look old to me. They look very current. I was playing Batman the other day and he’s flying over this huge city, the snow is landing on the wings of his cape and you can see it hitting and melting… they still retain the power to visually amaze me.”

Levine is currently working on the hotly anticipated Bioshock Infinite which is set to release next year.

“From a gameplay standpoint absolutely there’s a tonne of juice left [in current consoles]. There are lots of things to explore. That doesn’t mean it’s not challenging to build on what you’ve done – obviously Infinite is a very large step up in terms of technology from BioShock 1.”

Check out the entire interview here.

Regular readers here are no stranger to my strange obsession with Disney. Of course, we’re not talking the High School Musical Shake it Up version of Disney, but the old school, classic animation, Walt variety. I’m also a huge fan of Media Molecule’s Little Big Planet series of games, so when I first saw Disney Universe, which looked like a cross between the two properties, I was instantly excited – turns out I should have reigned that in a bit.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that Disney Universe is a bad game, it’s mix of platforming and collecting is great for its intended audience, but the game’s biggest problem is that it’s just simply too much; the game often feels like it’s too many ideas going on at once, and as a result, it feels overly hectic and poorly guided. Disney Universe is good for young gamers, but older fans will get frustrated quickly.

Disney Universe casts players in an admittedly unique story. Disney’s most famous worlds have been recreated in a virtual setting so people can experience them in real time, but as it seems happens with every “virtual world,” someone has hacked they’re way in and filled the worlds with dangerous creatures and hazards. Enter you – a weird looking non descript Sackboy-esque looking thing with a penchant for Disney cosplay. It’s your job to go in, eliminate the dangers and turn everything back to the way it was.

Disney Universe is broken up into worlds inspired by some of the company’s most well known movies and cartoons, like Pirate’s of the Caribbean, Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. The majority of these worlds require little thought and are of the, run around, break stuff and collect stuff variety, but there are a few interesting twists, like the Lion King stage which has you running from left to right escaping a fire. Regardless, pretty much all of the worlds are impressive in their design, as they don’t borrow directly from the properties but are inspired by them. For instance,  I had a lot of fun in the Monstropulous section of the Monsters Inc level, which featured a somewhat new take on the classic “door hopping” scene.

Perhaps Disney Universe’s most glaring issue then is how misguided it is. More often than not your goal isn’t easily laid out in front of you, and what’s going on in the game at any given moment is so hectic that you’re bound to give up and just start smashing things until it becomes more clear. This becomes even more of a problem when using four players – though that can also be the game’s most endearing quality, playing with three other friends can lead to some hectic and fun gameplay moments.

The most endearing lasting piece of Disney Universe is unquestionably the costumes and suits of classic characters found in the game. Similar to Sackboy from the Little Big Planet series, your character can don suits from a literal who’s-who in Disney history. Everyone from the fab-5, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto to lesser known characters like the Sushi chef from Monsters Inc (no, really) are here and are a blast to collect. My only gripe was that there’s far more costumes from newer properties than the classics, which is understandable given the target audience, but do we really need characters like Angelica from the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie? Throw me some Roger Rabbit or Chernobog instead. This an issue that can easily be fixed via DLC, and I’m hoping Disney Interactive offers it.

The Blast Factor: It’s easy to see the appeal for a game like Disney Universe, it’s platforming and collecting that everyone can easily jump in on. Unfortunately though, it’s ideas never really feel feely thought out, and as a result, Disney Universe often feels like a mix of a lot of good but unfinished ideas. Still, you can’t knock it’s easily accessible gameplay, especially for the little ones.

The first time I died I was crushed to death by an ugly club-toting prison guard demon.

The second time, death came to me as I was shoved off a cliff. The third time skeleton warriors wielding cleavers overran me. The list continues: I was burnt, impaled, frozen, pummeled, squished, eaten, poisoned, slashed open, cursed, stunned, bashed, stuck full of arrows, you name it.

And it was all a painful, aggravating but ultimately rewarding learning experience.

I was being educated.

Enter Dark Souls, From Software’s follow up to Demon Souls. And I can easily say it’s the hardest game I’ve ever played.

The third person action RPG dungeon crawler Dark Souls is a fickle beast, one that doesn’t care if you’re good or not, the epitome of hardcore and the gatekeeper of victory and happiness. Its tagline, “Prepare to die,” is no joke. Even in the tutorial, you will die.

Sounds terrible, right? Wrong.  Not only is Dark Souls the hardest game I’ve ever played, but also the most unique and rewarding.

Through death, a player learns survival. This doesn’t quite make sense, I’m sure. It can be compared to touching a hot plate. With your hand burnt from the contact, you know not to touch it again or, perhaps, to hold it with a cloth to reduce the heat. It is no different when dying in Dark Souls. When an enemy parries your attack and returns it with their own instant-kill thrust, driving a large sword through your torso, you now know you should not attempt such a route when fighting said enemy. It’s all a huge lesson on versatility and thinking outside the box, a game that will keep your mind spinning and your heart pounding with every encounter.

Dark Souls furthers the intrigue by its openness and lack of direction. Once out of the Undead Asylum tutorial, the world is open for you to explore and scavenge. Players are merely told to ring bells and “something will happen.” Pretty vague, right? The story is sparse and barely described, although the opening scenes and cut scenes are beautifully done and graphically stunning. The story is weak, however, as you find yourself wandering, sometimes aimlessly, through broken down churches, dark forests, poison swamps, tombs and underground villages. But that doesn’t matter. The story is far from important. Dark Souls is just one epic and massive adventure when it comes down to it.

The game will push you in a basic direction by the difficulty of the demons you encounter. I knew immediately that going through the poisonous Blighttown before I rang the first bell was not the smartest move, mainly because I was too weak to handle the beasts within. Then again, it’s completely arguable. Some may think one section is harder than the other merely based on the fact that their stats are distributed differently. It really is open for debate.

With its refusal to hold your hand, Dark Souls makes gamers’ hearts pump faster and sweat build on their brows. As they enter a dark unknown area with no idea what is around the corner, they’ll either march proudly and arrogantly or inch their way through with their shield up and a strong paranoia sinking in. The tutorial is brief and lacking in description, forcing players to figure it out on alone. Once brought to the Firelink Shrine, the official starting place in Dark Souls after the escape from the Undead Asylum, the world completely lacks a linear path. You are given a simple objective, how you accomplish it is up to you.

This beginning is vast and intimidating. Words like “overwhelming” don’t seem to do it justice. The start of your exploration will invoke awe due to its size. As you further your escapades and plunders, however, you’ll find small shortcuts, making each area interconnected. By the time you make it halfway through, you’ll have paths to so many areas around the Dark Souls realm, it will make travel easier. The realization of shortcuts were always a huge victory when I was playing, and I found myself rejoicing each time I found my way back to the Firelink Shrine. Being a safe haven, it was always comforting to know that the Shrine wasn’t as far away as it seemed.

Again, death is stressed to be the ultimate teacher. You’ll find through error and exploration what enemies are weak against and their attack patterns. You’ll learn that some enemies are weak against fire, while others are immune. You’ll find that divine forged weapons will halt the revival of skeleton warriors, opposed to struggling as you battle the reanimating bastards over and over again for no gain. There isn’t a moment that the game isn’t teaching you something. Players must be wise enough to take note when things happen, especially in combat and death.

In no way is Dark Souls a hack ‘n slash game. Running into a crowd of undead soldiers with your sword drawn may seem like a fun idea at first, but will lead to your inevitably quick death. The game is about patience and testing your limits. With an endurance bar acting as both your defense and your strength, players must truly come to balance with their actions. Swinging a heavy weapon could use up half your endurance bar, leaving you susceptible to an onslaught. To attack or not to attack, that is the question.

But the combat system is the heart of Dark Souls and is extremely unforgiving for beginners. I think I died far more in the beginning trying to get used to the combat than later. The learning curve is brutal, and can push players into fits of anger as they attempt to figure out their hero’s limits and the attack patterns of their enemies. But as time progresses, you’ll get stronger, level up and conquer. It’s all a matter of taking risks and knowing when to pull back from a fight.

The gamble is a huge playing point in Dark Souls. To act or not to act. Play it safe and miss out, or take a chance and risk annihilation? It’s a rush every time and players are faced with it frequently.

Scenario: There is an item on top of the roof a structure. The gap between you and the structure is quite large. Falling into said gap is a most certain death. Having no idea if the item is worth the jump, do you take a chance anyway, risking all your collected souls and progress in the area?

Let’s say you jump. You don’t make the gap and plummet to your demise. “You have died” shows up on your screen and then fades to black. You respawn at the last bonfire you rested at. This sucks, but is the norm. You can, however, try try again, which eventually will lead to success, and a swelling rush of pride.

Bonfires are a player’s saving grace, their haven, the light in the pitch black. Bonfires are scattered few and far throughout Dark Souls, acting as a checkpoint where you can level up, change your spells, replenish you spell count and safely re-arrange your inventory. You’ll recover your health and refill your estus flasks – potions that heal you out in the world. But it comes with a price, as does everything in the Dark Souls universe.

By resting at a bonfire, the enemies slain have respawned (except for some of the tougher enemies like the Dark Knights or bosses). After tirelessly clearing out an area of blood-thirsty beasts, it might not be worth the risk to rest a bonfire if you don’t need to. Then again, players will learn to expect death everywhere, so it may be worth cashing in on the souls you’ve collected.

Souls act as currency. Killing an enemy will yield a specific amount of souls. These souls can be used to level up at bonfires, where players can up their stats. They are also money, in the sense that you can use them to purchase items or services from merchants and blacksmiths. There, you can forge new weapons, repair weapons and armor or enhance your belongings with materials found throughout the world. The game is especially difficult and, at points, unfair, with it’s distribution of souls through victories.

Perhaps it was the developers’ way of discouraging grinding, but it is tedious and risky to attempt it. Even some of the (respawning) toughest demons only provide a few hundred souls, making it more and more difficult to level up or ascend weapons and armor as the game progresses. There are some areas of the game that seem to be made for soul farming, but they’re spread far and thin in between.

Not only that, but weapons and armor have durability stats, meaning that you can only hack away at enemies for so long before your sword breaks. Just adding to the difficulty, Dark Souls? Yeah, I’d say so.

Be prepared to die. A LOT.

Playing Dark Souls makes you feel small and insignificant. Your hero will face creatures 1,000 times their size, with a bleak chance of survival. But yet, it’s all possible. It makes the victories a million times better. I distinctively remember standing up and dancing after I defeated the Bell Gargoyles (giant stone creates with huge lances, axe tails and breathe fire) and rang the first bell. Winning has never felt so good.

But as small as you are, you are not alone. The most genius part of Dark Souls is the online world. Playing it on a PS3, I was always connected to the Internet, which made for a fantastic gaming experience. Often, players will see ghosts of other players briefly running through an area or fighting an invisible enemy, but then they will disappear. Glowing orange markings on the ground are also left by online players, which provide hints (or sometimes trolls provide fake hints) that help your hero prepare for the worst. Although the specific player who wrote the note won’t show up in your game play, their message will, creating a strong sense of unity.

Even better is the act of summoning. White writing on the ground can give players the prompt to summon spirits to aid their adventures. These spirits will be other heroes that are online, willing to provide their services to defeat difficult bosses. Together, you’ll work silently by the side of a stranger to face nightmares you’d hopelessly be crushed by if you were by yourself. Once you defeat the creature, the summon will disappear, and you’ll most often never see them again. Whenever I utilized this option, it gave me a warm feeling that I wasn’t alone as I thought I was.

It’s a strange sense of unity that the online game play brings into Dark Souls. You’re all in this together, and you’re all just trying to survive the worst.

There is also the option to become a phantom yourself, helping out fellow heroes to take down bosses you’ve already slain. By writing on the ground with a white soapstone, you can be summoned by someone and reap the benefits of victory together.

Again, this wouldn’t be Dark Souls if there was not a yang to the ying. With online game play enabled, it gives gamers the option to invade other worlds. Being completely honest, invasions are terrible. Players will invade other’s games with the one purpose of massacring the other player. At one point, I was invaded four times within an hour, hopelessly fighting off much stronger foes, and dying with each invasion. It was probably the most frustrating thing I experienced.

But this leads to the idea of covenants, a brilliant side quest-like option in Dark Souls. Players will meet NPCs throughout game play, and can be offered to join different covenants. Each have their perks and their specific purposes. One secret covenant has the single mission of invading players who invade players. Every time a person chooses to invade another’s game, they are sinning. These sins are recorded in a Book of the Guilty by Dark Souls. It was quite the cool experience.

Dark Souls is truly a massive game that gamers can pour their heart (and many, many hours) into. It’s something I’ve never quite experienced in a videogame. Some of the battles gave me a sense of Shadow of the Colossus, where the enemies were just so massive success seemed out of the question. The victories were made so much sweeter because of it.

Graphically, Dark Souls has an incredible way to pull the gamer into the mood it’s conveying. There are moments where players will have a chance to gaze at a beautiful landscape and truly appreciate the texture and time put into their surroundings. Other times, players will be begging to see grass again as they crawl through the Depths filled with giant undead rats and cursed demon frogs. The game’s environment finds a way to dig under your skin and give you a feeling of loneliness, claustrophobia, fear, or, at times, comfort. Just another genius aspect, I suppose.

Not everything about Dark Souls is innovative and wonderful though. As said before, the learning curve is outrageous. The first 10 hours or so of game play is so harsh, it could make even the most hardcore gamer quit. Leveling up is especially difficult because there isn’t a marker telling you how many souls it will take to improve your stats. It’s impossible to know when you have enough, you can only estimate. Some of the scenarios breach the intense difficulty to the “completely unfair” zone too. Many times Dark Souls was turned off from my television in a flurry of cuss words and rage. Luckily, my controller is still intact, although it did fly across the room once or twice.

It’s a give and take kind of game that really is not for everyone. Those who expect a linear, baby-steps, simple game need not apply. It takes grit, patience and time to make it anywhere in Dark Souls. Not every gamer prefers that, and that’s fine, but for those up to the challenge, it’s beyond worth it. The adventure is epic and far too hard to turn down.

BLAST FACTOR: Dark Souls is only for the select few that want to put the time into it. It’s harsh on all levels and extremely difficult in the beginning especially. Getting past the amount of times death overtakes games is where players will find solace. It’s a genius learning game, forcing you to think outside the box. It defies the new wave of gaming that is all quick time events and only 12 hours of game play. Dark Souls is visually beautiful, terrifying and will completely take over your emotions. It’s an epic journey where only the bravest and wisest succeed. It would be a shame to pass up such an experience, but with its insane difficulty level it’s completely understandable. Dark Souls has breached my favorite game titles and definitely made it into my top five. I wouldn’t pass it up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THUNK!

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

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

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

The level of detail throughout Arkham City is impressive.

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

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

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

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

As a kid I wanted nothing more than to be Hulk Hogan, in fact there are probably more pictures in the family album of me wearing a Hulkamania shirt than anything else –  and why not? He was the guy who made a room pop when he entered, he stood up against the bad guys for what was right, he showed no fear in the face of adversity. He trained, he prayed and he ate his vitamins.

Fast forward a few decades and much has changed. Hogan is arguably no longer the immortal icon he was before, he’s a failed reality star, slinging everything from energy drinks to grills and what’s worse – he seems to be clinging to fading glory. It wasn’t until this week that I felt his legend had hit rock bottom.

Enter Hulk Hogan’s Main Event, the Kinect based wrestling title (for lack of a better word) that makes you the protégé to the biggest name in the history of sport’s entertainment.  Long story short – it’s as bad as it sounds, in fact, it’s worse, much worse. Utterly broken and uninspired in every way, Main Event easily takes the championship as Kinect’s worst game, and that’s saying something.

The problems with Main Event start before you even pop the disc in. The game brands itself as a wrestling title, but it’s far from it. There’s no mat work, no ring psychology; no, this game is all about the entertainment aspect of the “sport.” You’ll create your superstar, who will oddly enough be noticed by the Hulkster at a backyard wrestling event, and from there you’ll work on showmanship, personality and eventually throw a few punches. This might be acceptable if you were allowed to show any spark of creativity when creating your wrestler – the entire creation suite is severely lacking; there’s no even an option for long hair. How the hell am I supposed to tease my hair ala Rick Rude to make the ladies in the crowd swoon?

The story mode in Main Event finds you attempting to climb up the ranks of a wrestling organization but being held down by an unfair booker, who is named….booker (no, really). This is told to you through a series of comic book panel like cut scenes, complete with speech bubbles. Why they didn’t just have Hogan record the lines is beyond me, but perhaps they realized how annoying the majority of the lines he did record can become. During any match, Hogan will randomly yell “inspirational” phrases your way like “You’ve got to believe in yourself” and “Nice finisher brother!” It’s important to note that Hogan seemed to yell that last one regardless of what move I was doing or what portion of the match I was in.  Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Homer is training to climb the giant mountain and his trainer just stands behind him and yells promotional slogans? To the Max! Push it! Yeah, it’s kind of like that, just not nearly as funny.

Yup, that's a winner.

So here’s how your typical match in Main Event goes; Your character is introduced and from there your goal is get the biggest reaction out of the crowd by posing how the Hulkster tells you to. Now don’t get too excited, this isn’t a free-for-all, you won’t be making your own poses, that’s what you have Hulk Hogan for, and you’ll be doing such thrilling maneuvers as raising your right arm (ohhh) and puffing out your chest (double ohhh!). From there, you’ll enter into a food dodging mini-game and yes, you read that right. The crowd seems insistent on pelting you with their nachos and beverages, which would make sense if you’re  a bad guy that’s getting over, but it happens every time. Every…single…time.

The game’s in-ring action finds you doing a lot of punching and kicking while throwing in a few actual wrestling maneuvers (if you count clothes lines and simple throws) for good measure. Your basic goal is to repeat your moves until your opponent is finally on the ground and ready for the pin, upon which you’ll have to do the strangest motion for a pin – moving side to side wildly. The most infuriating part of all of this is that your opponent’s health bar is constantly regenerating, so if one of your moves gets blocked, it’s back to square one.

It could be easy to forgive Hulk Hogan’s main event if the damn thing worked at all. The game is a perfect example of how not to make a motion game. Less than half of your moves are actually registered by the game, but it’s not like you really have to try, the game doesn’t really require you to do any certain moves. Oh, it tries to tell you that it does, but at certain parts I got so frustrated with the game that I began to wildly flail my arms around, and the game picked it up as whatever it wanted me to do. Air guitar? That’s a punch. Moving around like an airplane…that’s a punch too.

The Blast Factor: It’s tough to say just who Hulk Hogan’s main event is marketed to; it’s not really a wrestling game, nor is it a good Kinect game. Hell, it’s not even a good game at all. It’s broken, uninspired and cheap. They say you should never meet your heroes, apparently you should never play their games either.

There are a lot of ways you could describe Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport 4. It’s a racing game, it’s a driving simulator, but the easiest way – it’s simply pure unadulterated car porn.  Gorgeous and deep, the latest in the long running Xbox racing series feels like the genre perfected and while it may not change the way those who don’t like driving games feel about the genre, it’s impossible not to appreciate the level of detail and depth put on display.  Forza 4 is quite simply a car lover’s virtual dream.

The Forza series has always been a visual treat, but nothing that came before it compares to what Forza 4 is packing, and it’s all thanks to the game’s new image-based lighting model.  The locations you’ll be racing in come alive with picturesque scenic vistas and stunning backdrops, and they’re made all the better by the superb lighting model which causes shadows to stretch out to just the right points and interact in just the right ways.  You want a show piece for your new HDTV? Pop-in Forza 4 and show someone its visuals.

Of course, all of this works together to make the game’s main attraction; the cars look downright stunning.  Turn 10 has poured a ton of work into ensuring that each car is perfect down to the smallest detail.  Going through and inspecting the models, especially some of the more exotic and vintage car proves to be an impressive endeavor (especially if you’re able to do so with Kinect). The cars look great in motion as well, as they’re incredibly smooth and weighted just right as they roll down the game’s multitude of tracks.

For true car lovers though, Forza 4’s sweet spot has to be its audio presentation. The game features a wide variety of cars, from classics, to exotic models and each of them sounds incredibly authentic when punching the engine.  Want to get to the heart of a car junkie? Turn the volume up real loud and crank a few engines, it’s stellar, strangely rewarding and almost impossible to resist.

Of course, much like any good car, the true heart of Forza isn’t in its looks, but under its hood, and Turn 10 delivers here as well. Genetically speaking, Forza 4 shares a lot of its core with that of its predecessor Forza 3, but thanks to a generous amount of tweaks and new additions, this is now slight upgrade.  The most noticeable of these updates is how smooth the games monstrous suite of cars handle. Each of the cars handle remarkably true to their real life counterpart, now I may have never driven a Ferrari, but the ones in Forza 4 feel an awful lot like what I’ve always dreamed they would. One of the things I really found myself enjoying about Forza 4 is trying out different cars, how they feel, how they sound – and I’m not even a huge car guy.

One of the most notable features of Forza 4 is just how accessible it can be when compared to other hardcore driving simulators. Sure, the focus here is on sheer driving and skill, but Forza also features a slew of driving aids and tweaks that will allow even the worst driver to enjoy their time with the game. Perhaps that’s the mark of what makes Forza so enjoyable, it’s perfectly fine being one of the most deep racing sims on the market, but it’s also not afraid to turn things down a bit to encourage others to play.

Turn 10 has also made other changes to the Forza formula to better accommodate novice players, but they haven’t necessarily made the game easier, just easier to jump in to. At the easier settings, AI controlled drivers aren’t dumbed down so they’re worse drivers, they’re just not as confident as those found on the higher difficulties. These inexperienced drivers will brake more often and be cautious going in to turns, allowing newer users the ability to learn the finer points of the game, and not just scale by on the easier difficulties.

In previous Forza games, you would only be able to level up cars until they reach level 5, leading to a lot of replayability being lost. That’s fixed in Forza 4 as the game introduces manufacturer specific levels called affinity levels which can be attributed to any vehicle; as long as it’s in the same manufacturer family. In essence, what these levels do is allow players to continue using a car they really like no matter how fine tuned it is while still earning XP and credits you’re able to use throughout the game and adds a ton of replayability.

As robust as the single player experience is, Forza 4 also packs a rather impressive multiplayer suite. The best mode of this suite is easily the rivals mode, which allows you to play against your friends whether they’re online or not thanks to a ghost system. Perhaps most impressive about the multiplayer suite isn’t how robust it is, but how everything works together. Playing online will also give you XP and credits to use throughout the game. In short, that means ultimate bragging rights.

Forza 4 could also be the first game baring the “better with Kinect” branding that I actually believe, as Microsoft’s motion sensing camera actually adds to the experience quite a bit. Using Kinect will allow you to use the cool steering wheel controller as well as the ability to look to your left and right while driving, by simply doing so in real life.  The true allure of Kinect is when you use it to oogle the cars in the auto vista mode…hands off of course.

The Blast Factor: I may never own an Italian sports car or high performance muscle car (unless Guilfoil ups my salary), but thanks to Forza 4, I can know what it’s like. It’s the most detailed, fun and rewarding driving simulator I’ve ever played. Car junkies are going to love that Turn 10 gets it, and even those who don’t get hot under the collar at an engine will love the jaw dropping presentation values. Forza 4 is simply an accomplishment in every sense of the word.

I try not to be too pushy with my reviews and let you readers make up your own minds about which games you’re going to buy, but there’s really no other way to put this – you need to play NBA 2K11.  Played last year’s game? Doesn’t matter – this year’s game trumps everything that came before it. Don’t like sports games? You’ll appreciate the level of depth and production values that the development team put in the game.  Simply put, NBA 2K12 isn’t just a great sports game, with all it has going for it — it’s a great game in general.

For the second year in a row, 2K spotlights arguably the greatest player to ever grace the hardwood  — his airness Michael Jordan, but this time he’s not alone. 2K12 celebrates the complete history of the sport with players like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing and Scottie Pippen all unlockable and playable.  This opens up an incredibly awesome mechanic in 2K12; the ability to match up the best young stars of today with the greatest of all time. How would Jordan’s Bulls, in their prime match up with the Lakers’ dynasty? This year’s Miami Heat? Or what about a battle of the big-men, pitting an in his prime Shaq against someone like Dwight Howard? It’s here that NBA 2K12 really begins to establish its own identity; if Madden is a sports simulation, this is an all out love letter to a sport, its history and most importantly, its fans.

Of course, NBA 2K12 does not rely on the past, as its real strength, much like in previous years, is in its core mechanics. Most of last year’s game remains intact, but the developers have included little tweaks that make the game better, including addressing the faults from last year’s game. Chief among these faults; at least for most gamers was the AI, which had a reputation for being absurdly cheap, it’s been addressed this go-round, and even though it still happens, it’s much more rare. To the developers credit, they didn’t just dumb down the AI more, instead, they gave you more control; control over your players movement and your offense, but be warned, the AI is incredibly realistic and aggressive and will pounce on any weakness you show.

NBA 2K12 comes packed with a ton of depth, and each is sure to appeal to a different type of player. I for instance am a franchise player, it’s always the first mode I go to in any sports game I play, and in NBA 2K12, it’s incredibly rewarding. Unlike other franchise modes, 2K12’s Association Mode truly puts you in control of a team – through the good times and the bad. Play as a team just coming off a losing season and you’re playing to practically empty arenas, but start winning and watch the fans start to come back in.  For example, I took the Milwaukee Bucks, who had a so-so season last year, and through a series of business decisions, free agent signings and a lot of wins, I was able to turn a good profit.  The coolest addition to this year’s Association Mode is the ability to take it online and complete a whole season.

My Player also returns to this year’s game, and though much of it remains unchanged, it’s a much more streamlined endeavor than in years past.  You’ll still create your player, but instead of dropping in to a few pickup games to prove your worth, you’ll be dropped in to one game and then go into an interview to prove your mental wits and then it’s off to the draft.  Hearing NBA Commissioner David Stern call out your name (if you’ve given him a somewhat normal name), but the real payoff comes from the amount of time and depth you’ll put in to the mode. Your long term goal is to make it to the NBA Hall of Fame, and you’ll do that by reaching goals on both the per-game and season basis.  It’s not an easy task, but a rewarding one none-the-less.

Far and away though, NBA 2K12’s most remarkable feat is in its astounding production values. Of course, there are some hiccups, like some of the lesser known players still having weird alien like faces, but the big names, the Lebrons and the Kobes have all received a face lift and look much more like their real life counterparts.  Even the crowd, an aspect most sports developers have had a hard time with looks remarkably lifelike. The players, and arenas are impressively detailed and everything feels crisp. NBA 2K12 also features what could be the most lifelike commentary of any sports game, as while there is a bit of repetition, still feels remarkably fresh even after countless games.

 The Blast Factor: NBA 2K12 isn’t just a great basketball sim, with all of its depth and superb presentation; it’s a phenomenal game in general.  The perfect combination of accessibility and realism, NBA 2K12 tops every basketball game before it – becoming one hell of an experience in the long run. Simply put – it doesn’t get much better than this.

The apocalypse fascinates us. Tales of a grim future of desert wastelands, horrible mutations, and rampant violence have long proven to be a successful formula for movies, novels, and, especially, games. Id Software’s long-awaited Rage certainly seems to have been crafted with an exacting eye for wasteland standards. It’s a game that definitely succeeds on a technical level, but from a design and gameplay perspective might require players to lower their expectations.

Rage opens in a familiar manner. Just before a giant meteor strikes Earth, a select few are given a reprieve in the form of cryogenic status chambers in protective “Arks”. Fast forward a hundred years, and it’s clear this plan wasn’t bullet proof. The player awakes from cold storage to find themselves the only survivor of their ark, and is immediately thrust into a violent world of dusty landscapes, burned out structures, and well-armed buggies.

Comparisons between Rage and other wasteland games like Borderlands and Fallout 3 are inevitable. How Rage distinguishes itself however, is that it is undoubtedly an Id-made game. There are no role-playing elements here and no greater strategy beyond kill-or-be-killed.Anyone expecting another Fallout will be disappointed by the sheer shallowness of the gameplay.

Rage also lacks the deeper cooperative play experience of Borderlands and the sense of humor of either game. It seems to be a game that takes itself too seriously, even though players will be hard pressed to discern why. There’s no cliché left unturned and despite the initial appearance of an open world, even this is merely an illusion.

Players have no control over even the basics of character development. You can’t change the look, gender, or any physical aspect of the ark survivor, and the only real commodities in the game are money and race tickets. Both of these currencies are used to buy weapons, equipment, ammo, and vehicle parts.

Rage is divided between two distinct play styles. The standard first-person shooting elements will make veteran gamers feel right at home. The indoor levels have a distinct Doom feel to them, with tight corridors and much the same imagery and design techniques used in the developer’s past games. Even the horror elements are cribbed from so many other sci-fi horror games. Despite the apocalyptic mutant theme, the game throws in the whole growing biomass cliché that makes little sense in such an environment.
The driving portions will delight fans of arcade-style combat racing. The physics are over-the-top with an eye for fast action not realism. So, you can still steer in the air, for instance, and there’s a decided focus on making crazy jumps. There’s plenty of opportunity for extra points by destroying objects in mid-air and skillfully dispatching foes.

So long as you understand exactly what kind of game Rage is, however, there’s no denying that it’s fun to play. The whole game is just one errand run after another. Talking to the various non-combative denizens of the wasteland frequently leads to a new task (usually either a fetchin’ or killin’ mission), which you just go and do. It’s not deep, creative, or complex, but this formula provides plenty of action, which has always been Id’s design focus.

Enemies have decent AI and tactics, with excellent movement abilities. Bandits and mutants will use free-running skills to leap over things, run along walls, and be generally hard to hit—frequently too hard to hit, since the game’s auto-assist is suspect. There’s a wide array of bad things to shoot, including some impressively large boss creatures.  Bandits are divided into themed tribes. There are redneck cannibals, technologically-advanced soldiers, and British punk-rocker wannabes. Ultimately, their specific look and dialogue is irrelevant, since outside of the few “safe” towns, everyone is merely fodder for your guns.

Beyond bandits, there’s the so-called “authority” that make life in the wasteland a nightmare for anyone who crosses them. To go along with these tyrannical would-be rulers, there’s also the pre-requisite resistance for the player to join. The story is just there to service the shoot ‘em gameplay though, and it’s clear that the minimum amount of effort was put into the writing and non-shooting and driving mechanics.
Thankfully, as expected, the shooting and driving is satisfyingly entertaining. There are enough missions to occupy hours of violence and, for action lovers, that’s a fine reason to enjoy this romp through the wasteland. The other major draw is the multiplayer, which brings multiplayer car combat front and center.

Id definitely has a handle on great death matching and Rage’s vehicle-centric online play is terrific. Totally ignoring the first-person shooter elements, the competitive play is fast-paced and well-designed. There are a handful of entertaining game modes fought in superb and spacious arenas. The downside of the multiplayer is the four-player limit, which is too small given the expansive scope of the maps. There are also two-player cooperative “legend” missions, which are fun, if shallow, but not really a replacement being able to play the main single-player game with a friend.

Id Software has always been known for their technology, and the latest iteration of their graphics engine takes the core visual style of Doom 3 and expands it to vast open spaces. Despite some graphic glitches on the console versions, Rage is a beautiful game with a solid frame rate and nice variety of indoor levels. The audio is also superb, with powerful surround effects, solid voice acting, and a decent musical score.

Blast Factor: Ultimately, the best way to sum up Rage is shallow, but fun. There’s virtually nothing here that hasn’t been seen before with more depth. Even when the game threatens to evolve beyond its own shallowness, it just can’t make it. Taken as a straight-forward, mission-based shooter, there’s plenty to like. Yet, after so long in development, the game has an almost half-baked feel. The presentation, the environment, the combat… almost all the parts are in place to make Rage an epic post-apocalypse adventure, but the sum total is ultimately less than these pieces.

On paper, X-men Destiny sounds like a great idea. The game gives players the ability to take three characters brand new to the mutant universe, craft them any way they want and allow them to fight alongside (or against) famed mutants like Wolverine,  Cyclops, Gambit and Magneto. Not all ideas pan out like they should.

At times, X-men Destiny flirts with being a decent game, like when it delves deep into the X-men mythos, or lets you play mad mutant scientist by mixing powers and genes of your favorite heroes to create the mutant of your dreams – but it’s all combined with such messy, uninspired at broken mechanics that you’re unlikely to ever experience these things in full. Those who can’t get enough of the X-men should check out Destiny, if just for its fan service; just don’t expect a good game.

The stars of X-men destiny aren’t heroes like Wolverine and Cyclops, but three mutants you’ve never heard of. You take control of one of three characters created specifically for Destiny; Aimi, the mutant smuggled by her parents from Japan to escape incarceration, Grant the jock who knows nothing about the ongoing mutant VS human war and Adrian, the son of an anti-mutant to extremist.  Throughout the game you’ll interact with some of the Marvel universe’s biggest names and play an integral part in the human and mutant war that’s been raging since the death of Professor X. It’s here where X-men Destiny proves that it’s at least in tune with what makes the X-men cannon so unique. The characters origins actually have heart, and each of them (well, maybe not Grant) have a vested interest in the way the battles play out. The game may not portray this 100% of the time, but the game at least makes a valid attempt at giving us a story that fits in with those found in the X-men books on the market.

The beauty of starting with a brand new mutant is that you’ll get to craft them to your liking by finding and combining mutant genes to create a pretty cool arsenal of powers. As you play through Destiny, you’ll earn experience points by exploring, taking out identical no named thugs and even some of Marvel’s most well known mutants, you’ll use this experience to unlock genes, which in turns unlocks new abilities. Want the punishing power of Colossus combined with the speed of someone like Quicksilver? Go for it. Looking to create a badass combination of Wolverine’s berserker rage with Nightcrawler’s teleporting capabilities – you’ll just have to find the right genes. As someone who grew up creating his own X-men characters, I found this to be very intriguing and at times its incredibly rewarding; it’s just a shame that I found myself not caring about it less than halfway through the game.

For all that it has going for it, X-men Destiny falls apart when it comes to its core gameplay mechanics. Rather than fighting meaningful battles, you’ll be taking on a never-ending series of nameless thugs. The result is a boring and uninspired brawler which often feels like nothing more than a grind fest. Now, this would be alright if it were a brawler in the form of previous X-men games like Legends or the later Alliance games, but Destiny is nowhere near the quality of these titles.  Attacks have little or no weight to them and you’ll often get stuck in a sluggish combo that must be completed regardless of if your opponent is finished or not – leading to your character taking unnecessary damage. What’s worse is that these combos often cause the game itself to slowdown.  X-men destiny may present itself as a deep combat game, but it’s really nothing more than a sluggish button masher.

The game also asks you to explore quite often if you’re looking to get more of the mutant genes you’re looking for; but unfortunately, this to tends to drag the game down. Environments are often drab and uninteresting, and exploring becomes something you’ll have to do, rather than something you’ll want to do. At least the genes are hidden pretty much plain site more often than not, so you won’t have to look that hard for them.

The game’s problems don’t stop there as Destiny is an overall thin and unfinished experience. Destiny is a game that shouts its decision engine from the top of mountains, but you’ll find out very soon in the game that these decisions don’t make much of a difference at all. Throughout the game you’ll be asked to choose between two paths, one that aids the X-men and the other that helps Magento’s Brotherhood of Mutants. Making these decisions is supposed to open up new pathways and different missions, but in reality they all play out mostly the same – punch guys in the face and move on. All of this can be wrapped up in as little as 6 hours.

Presentation wise, Destiny is a mixed bag, the voice acting is surprisingly well done, but the rest of the game doesn’t feel as polished. We’ve already touched on the drab environments, but the characters as well feel incredibly awkward and move strangely at times. It’s most disappointing when characters and other elements in the game show up strangely or worse, not at all. These moments don’t happen all that much, but when they do, it’s enough to take you completely out of the game.

The Blast Factor: It’s not all bad though – if there’s one thing that X-men Destiny does right, it’s fan service. Playing through Destiny gives you plenty of different costume choices inspired by your favorite X-men characters. In that sense, there’s a ton of depth to Destiny if you really know where to look for it, it’s just a shame that it couldn’t be found in the game itself. Hardcore X-men fans, who pour of every page of the comics and have a notebooks full of sketches of their own mutant creations will get a kick out of Destiny – just don’t expect it to last too long.

You can always count on Suda 51 for wierd and quirky games, and his latest is Diabolical Pitch; a horror baseball game for Kinect. Let that sink in for a bit.

Diabolical Pitch, expected to hit Xbox Live next year allows you and a friend to throw rocket baseballs and other powerups at weird mascotish creatures. Check out the first trailer below.

I’ve always felt a weird connection to the Gears of War franchise. Maybe it’s because both of the first games were released on my birthday and it became a ritual to check out Delta Squad’s latest mission as I got older – but I always felt like Gears of War 3 was somehow my game.  So please, forgive me if I gush a bit.

With Gears of War 3, Epic Games has taken the formula set by the first two games and tweaked it ever so much to create the perfect finale for their long running series. Everything you love is here, the chainsaw lancers, the grubs, the brumaks, but there’s also so much more.  The characters are deeper, the story is more engaging and the entire experience is deeply satisfying. Gears of War 3 is undoubtedly Microsoft’s biggest release of the year, and it’s also the best; one that if you own an Xbox – you simply have to experience.

It’s been eighteen months since the end of Gears of War 2, where Jacinto, the last human city was sunk in an effort to flood out the locust horde. As a result, the remaining survivors have setup camp throughout the world and must ban together to survive – food and weapons are scarce, and hope is bleak. To make matters worse, the high levels of imulsion left in the world (a luminescent, highly volatile, low-viscosity fluid) have turned some of the locust into glowing, mutating monsters.  Marcus Fenix, the leader of Delta Squad gets a message that his father is alive and being held captive. Your job is simple – return order to the world and find Adam Fenix.

The story in Gears of War 3 is easily the most well paced and thought out of the entire series. For the first time ever, Marcus and the rest of Delta Squad aren’t fighting the Locust because they’re soldiers; they’re doing it for their survival. Throughout the game, there are several emotional moments that for the first time ever, really let us see emotion from the members of Delta Squad.  One of these moments happens early in the game, where Cole returns to his former hometown, ravaged by Locust and Lambent in search of supplies and see’s statues and images of his former career as a thrashball superstar. Staring at a cardboard cutout of himself; Cole remarks to his squadmates about seeing his own death.  It’s a bit humbling for these characters, who have previously only been seen as muscle-bound brutes to show real emotion for the first time.

Of course, at its core, Gears of War 3 is built on its action – and it does not disappoint.  Sequences in the third game are incredibly large compared to those of previous games with huge badass monsters to take on, and are anything but easy. The Lambent, which sprout up from stalks from underground offer a change to the formula the franchise has setup for the last two games; as they’re mutating abilities will usually allow them to reach behind your cover to attack you, or worse – smash right through it. This of course forces you to adapt your strategy since you won’t be able to stay behind one source of cover for an entire battle.  The Lambent will explode when you defeat them, so it’s best to keep your distance less you want to take an excessive amount of damage even when succeeding. It’s these elements that make Gears of War 3 feel like a true evolution of the formula.

The lambent's explosions make for great visuals.

What surprised me most about the campaign in Gears of War 3 was just how much room it left for creativity and error. The first two Gears games were strictly linear affairs, but here, there’s a bit of user choice. Of course, you won’t be able to navigate the battlefield as you choose, but take for instance one section early on in the game where you try to sneak into a Locust stronghold without sounding the alarm. Your obvious route is to sneak around and pick off guards with the sniper rifles conveniently strewn about the battlefield (you’d think they wouldn’t want to leave them around like that), but letting one of the guards get to the alarm doesn’t necessarily mean you fail, as you’ll just have to take on the remaining horde head on. Interestingly, I also tried sounding the alarm myself, which proved to be the hard, but most fun route.It’s when you’re fighting the non-infected Locust though that the game truly feels like a Gears of War title. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the challenge of the Lambent, but you can’t do a lot of the things that make Gears unique. It’s with the Locust that you can do the game’s signature executions (there are a number of new ones here, including some really badass ones with the trusty chainsaw lancer), and it’s the Locust that feature the superb AI that the series is known for.  There are of course several new Locust types, including the Savage Grenadier and the Digger Boomer. Trust me; you’re going to hate the damn Digger Boomer.

With these new Locust types comes new weapons, and they too deliver. Killing the Digger Boomer gives you the digger gun, which sends missiles that burrow under the ground and the ground and come up rip the target to shreds. The most prominent new weapon though is the retro lancer, which replaces the chainsaw on the lancer you know with a musket like blade. At first, I hated it, but the more and more I used it, I preferred to always have one in my inventory. Rather than revving up a chainsaw to melee attack an opponent, you’ll hold down the b-button to charge and impale them. It’s deeply satisfying, perhaps even more so than the traditional lancer.

Apart from the campaign, the game features an impressive online suite. There are of course the competitive modes, which are powered by dedicated servers and features new game modes, and some awesome maps (I’m partial to the checkout map, which puts you in an abandoned grocery store and thrashball, which puts you in an old stadium –complete with falling jumbo-tron). For the first time ever, Gears of War 3 features full four player co-op throughout the entire campaign.

Horde returns in a more strategic form.

Horde mode also returns in the form of Horde 2.0, a new and more strategic way to play the survival mode. At first, I wasn’t sure about the new changes, as you and your squadmates buy barriers and bases to keep out the Locust and the Lambent, but it started to grow on me rather quickly. It forces players to work together, rather than camping out in certain areas. Also new to Gears 3 is Beast Mode, which is like Horde, but lets you play as the Locust Horde and target humans.  You start with simple tickers and soldiers, but as you progress you unlock new Locust types – it starts slow, but it’s a ton of fun, especially if you’re able to get a group of dedicated friends together to play the mode.

The Blast Factor: Gears of War 3 is easily the best game in the franchise, and it makes its case for best Xbox 360 game period. It’s a deeply satisfying and at times touching game that takes the formula set forth by the previous iterations and tweaks it in just the right places to make an incredible gaming experience. Simply put – if you own an Xbox 360, your library is not complete until it includes Gears of War 3.

Gears of War 3 releases worldwide for the Xbox 360 on September 20, 2011. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for this review.

By now you know the unspoken motion gaming mantra. Dated visuals, fluff gameplay and frustrating camera issues. Enter The Gunstringer.

With its fun gameplay and defined art style, Twisted Pixel (‘Splosion Man, The Maw, Comic Jumper) on rails Kinect shooter is like nothing you’ve ever played for Microsoft’s camera peripheral, and could be the first game that will make you forget you’re not using a controller.

The Gunstringer is really a novel idea from start to finish – you control The Gunstringer, an undead Marionette style puppet looking for revenge against his former gang. Yeah, it’s kind of like Kill Bill, but with puppets. The whole thing is done in the style of a play, with a live action audience. Of course, this is a Twisted Pixel game, and the whole thing is filled with the studio’s trademark humor and quirkiness. You can’t help but laugh when you’re shooting holes into one of those arm waving inflatable tube-men used to advertise used car sales. While most Kinect games are light on story to get you to flail you arms around, the Gunstringer brings it in classic Twisted Pixel style.

The game is an on-rails shooter, and you’ll use one hand to control the Gunstringer’s side to side movement, and the other to shoot. It’s a unique control system that given the game’s content works well. You’ll constantly be faced with a ton of enemies at one time, but the game features a “paint to shoot” feature, which allows you to move your hand like cocking a gun to select up to six targets at a time to take out. Think of it like the Kinect version of Red Dead Redemption’s Dead Eye mechanic.  That doesn’t mean things don’t get difficult, as much like previous Twisted Pixel games, things get pretty crazy, and you’ll feel awfully uncoordinated during some of the game’s most hectic sections.

Luckily, the Kinect camera does a mostly great job keeping up with your movements, which makes the game deeply satisfying and fun to play. There are some quirks abound, like one battle that I had to hide behind a rock and then duck out from cover to take out my enemies found my character wildly moving from side to side with even the smallest motion.  There’s also a bit of the disconnect that most Kinect games get between your movements and that of the character on the screen. There’s no doubt though that The Gunstringer is one of the most well performing Kinect games we’ve played. Also, it has a sit-down mode, so don’t expect to break a sweat.

Though you could play through The Gunstringer in mere hours if you really wanted to; there’s a ton of content that you’re going to want to unlock. There’s new skins, photos and items, plus for you daring players – there’s a super challenging hardcore mode that is sure to have you cussing out the team at Twisted Pixel before long.  It’s unlikely you’re going to finish the Gunstringer fully anytime soon.

The Blast Factor: The Gunstringer joins Child of Eden as the must have experiences if you own a Kinect. Here, we finally have an experience that though it’s not perfect, feels like it’s made for motion gaming, and not shoe horned to fit the experience. In short, The Gunstringer is a fun and engaging experience, and that’s something you won’t find in many Kinect games.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Right now, Steam, Valve’s online gaming and matchmaking service is only available on PC, Mac and PS3, but the service’s online support forums feature a spot for Xbox Support, sparking rumors that the service could soon be unveiled for Microsoft’s console.

Valve has been very open about the fact that they’d love to see the service on the console, in fact Valve’s Erik Johnson told website Computer and Video Games that “We think customers would like Steam on Xbox 360. We think, anyway. We’d love to try that.” the company has also been very open about the fact that it’s not up to them as to when or if the the service hits the console, as much of the content (patches, mods) conflict with a number of Xbox Live’s policies.

It’s important to note that though the Steam service is currently unavailable on Xbox, a number of Valve’s games are, and the listing is more than likely due to that fact.

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

Or at least it was supposed to be.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If the Japanese promotional poster to the right is to be believed, the Xbox 360 version of the hotly anticipated Battlefield 3 will ship on two discs. The poster, which has been seen in gaming shops throughout the country clearly depicts the differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game.

This one seems pretty cut and dry, but without comment from EA, we’re filing it as a rumor.Battlefield 3 hits US stores on October 25.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With a name like Hole in the Wall, it’s easy to get the wrong idea. It’s probably not a phrase you’d want to Google at work, for instance. As it turns out, this downloadable Kinect title is a mostly innocent and goofy full-body motion game based off of a Japanese game show. So, expect weirdness to abound.

The basic premise is that a wall is coming toward you, with a shaped hole in it that you must fit through. Most of these shapes are poses—some standing, some sitting, kneeling, or even laying down—and a timer is running, so you have to be quick and flexible. If you don’t fill the hole within the time period, your avatar is shoved into a pool of water.

Hole in the Wall is pretty weird, but not entirely original even for American audiences. Nintendo released the far more bizarre Muscle March on the Wii’s online store a while ago, which was basically the same concept. Also, iPhone/iPad users might recognize all this wackiness from Tic Toc Body Pop, where you move a mannequin around to match the hole in the wall.

The first concern with any Kinect game is how accurately it uses the camera. From that perspective, Hole in the Wall is good with a few quirks. The game actually uses your avatar as the on-screen character, which mimics your body movements amazingly well. You’ll have to move all over the playing area to position your avatar in line with the hole, then adjust your limbs, head, and height accordingly.

There are occasions when you’d swear you were in the right place, but the game still doesn’t register success. There are more times when you’re barely in the spot and the score meter starts to rise. At first, it’s easy to assume the game only notices when you’re simply standing in the right spot, as that’s generally when the score meter starts moving. In reality, the game fills the score meter faster based on how much of the hole you’ve filled and if your various limbs are in basically the right spot.

When it all works right—which is most of the time—it’s bizarrely entertaining. This is especially true in the multiplayer mode, which dangerously supports two teams of two. While the teams do take turns, striking poses with your teammate at the same time will likely end up creating some hilarious, yet possibly tragic new Youtube videos. After all, isn’t that where all motion gameplay mishaps end up?

Packaged around a game-show theme, the main portion of Hole in the Wall contains ten different multi- stage rounds. Each round has a theme (sports, winter, etc…), but the gameplay seldom varies in the slightest. The final stage of each round throws in a quirk—the first, for instance, turns off the stage lights, while others just speed up the pace of the wall entirely. There’s also a survival mode, where the object is to pass through as many holes as possible without fail. Unfortunately, this mode rampantly reuses the same poses over and over.

The Blast Factor: Much like the show it’s based on, Hole in the Wall is entirely hinged on a single gimmick. In short doses, the game is entertaining for a cheap thrill and certain to elicit laughter from bystanders. Whether this limited amount of value is worth 800 points is a personal decision, but for what it is, Hole in the Wall is an odd, amusing diversion from the norm.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Microsoft has pledged their long term devotion to the Xbox 360, citing that the system will have a lifespan of at least ten years; but that doesn’t mean that it will always be the company’s only console on the market. European Xbox head Chris Lewis spoke recently about the console and the timing of its successor.

“We think we’re a little over halfway with the life cycle of the console, but that’s not to say there won’t be an overlap,” he told gaming site Metro. Lewis was quick to point out that he would not be confirming any details at this time. “”I’m not going to announce specifically or talk about timing,” he added. “But you could imagine there could be overlap, it depends. We’re not being specific about the next generation at this stage. We’re very fixated on what we’re doing right now and the success we’re enjoying.”

The Xbox 360 launched in November of 2005, making Lewis’ statement about being halfway through the lifespan  correct. It’s highly rumored that the next Xbox console will be unveiled at next year’s E3 in Los Angeles.

Fruit Ninja is a game that, by all reasonable standards, has no right to be so idiotically entertaining. A sensation on the mobile scene to rival Angry Birds, the game’s absurdly simple concept of just slicing fruit works brilliantly with the Xbox 360’s Kinect. In fact, it works so well, Fruit Ninja may well be the best game yet to use Microsoft’s super camera.

The big screen version of Fruit Ninja is largely identical to the one on your phone. The interface has switched from your finger to your hand (or, really, your whole body), but otherwise this is exactly the same fruit-slashing action millions have come to know and love. Also, at 800 points (or about $10), it’s certainly more expensive than the mobile version. The reward for that extra cash is a game that’s as hilarious to watch as it is to play.

For the few who haven’t experienced the wonder that is Fruit Ninja, the concept is as simple as it gets. Fruit flies up onto the screen, and you swipe at it to cut it in half. If there’s a group of fruit, you’ll get bonus points for cutting multiple fruit in half at once. In the main game, bombs will fly up as well, and slashing them will end the game. Missing too many fruit also ends the game.

There’s the zen mode as well, for those that want to leisurely cut fruit for a minute or two. The Kinect version adds a party mode that allows two players to slash fruit together, although the potential for personal injury and the slapping of each other instead of fruit looms large. Achievements and high scores unlock new blades and dojos, which essentially means different colored slash marks against different backgrounds.

While the game itself is the same, the motion controls turn Fruit Ninja into an original experience. The game helps players relate to the screen by superimposing a ninja-like shadow image on the screen. This shadow figure mimics the player’s moves exactly, and helps immensely with creating a sense of connection to the screen. Admittedly, the shadow becomes background noise and there are some spots on the screen that are consistently hard to cover.

The lower corners of the screen are especially hard to reach no matter how the Kinect is set up, so expect some fast moves and kicks to catch all the fruit. As expected, how well Fruit Ninja functions depends on how well the Kinect works. The game is definitely one of the most user-friendly and responsive Kinect games available, but don’t expect miracles if the Kinect normally has issues with its location.

Blast Factor: Fruit Ninja isn’t deep or complex, but for a shallow good time, there are few games that virtually everyone—no matter their age or gaming prowess—can just start playing and have fun. The move to the Kinect is a natural one and the game is simply one of the best uses yet for the camera. Fruit Ninja is a cheap good time, and one that will likely burn a surprising amount of calories to boot.

Oh wait, it’s okay, he’s riding a mini warthog, it’s cool.

Microsoft has announced that Kinectimals: Now with Bears (no, that’s really the title) will hit stores this fall. In addition to the full retail release, the content will be offered via DLC package for those that already own the game.

The new content will include five new bears to…do bear stuff with; Black Bear, Grizzly Bear, Cinnamon Bear, Polar Bear, and Glacier Bear. Check out the screens below.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One of the game's many different spells

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

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

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

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