Early 2010 has become known as the Kart Racer quarter. With titles like Blur, Split/Second, Sonic & Sega All Star Racing, and others available to us simple folk, can any new comer take the championship trophy away from Mario Kart? Sony’s Modnation Racers gives the Kart Racing genre a well deserved bitch slap. Sony knows that gamers are a creative bunch; they showed the world with LittleBigPlanet. With [blippr]Modnation Racers[/blippr] our inner artist can come out and play yet again, but I’ll get more into that later.

Gameplay wise Modnation Racers is….well a Kart Racer, and a good one to boot. It gives us everything we expect from a Kart Racer and more. It’s all about timing with Modnation, when to use your boost, shield, items, is all determined with a meter that you must fill up during the race by; doing stunts, drifting, and drafting. Just like other Kart Racers, there are power ups scattered around the track. This is where timing is at its finest, you can either launch your power up right away to only effect the car in front of you, or you can collect 3 of the same type and destroy every car other car on the track. Career mode is brutal. Of course your first 4 races are as easy as an Atlantic city street walker, after that the AI will give you a run for your money. The other racers will waste no time when it comes to making your life hell. The actual career however isn’t the longest out there, nor is it the shortest. It’ll take you roughly 10-15 hours to finish.

Modnation Racers boasts an amazing online feature that’s built right into the single player experience. What I mean by that is, everything you do in the game is updated in real time. The game even alerts other players in the hub area when a track record has been broken. (I had a track record for an entire 15 minutes before it got shattered) In the online HUB players can communicate with each other, check out the hottest lap times, check out each other’s creations, and of course challenge each other to races. So far I have experienced no lag when racing online. It’s very impressive how quickly it is to download, Cars, events, tracks, and drivers while in game. The longest amount of time I had to wait for an item to get from the market place to my console was about 10 seconds. Modnation Racers online feature has raised the bar for its genre.

Now for the real reason you’ll be playing this game. The user created content. Modnation Racers brings along one of the most robust creation systems this side of Little Big Planet. Anything you could possibly think of can be created here. Do you want Mr. T driving the A-Team van? You got it foo! From day 1 there were already hundreds if not thousands of custom racers, cars, and tracks available. The best thing about everything is, IT’S ALL FREE!! The game gives you the opportunity to create what has been haunting your fragile psyche since childhood. I myself decided to create 2-D from the Gorillaz and have him roll in the Stylo car.

The Graphics are pretty to look at. It has high resolution visuals that are complimented by vibrant colors and spectacular lighting. Each track feels alive personality and atmosphere. That being said, I wish the studio would have added a crowd, sure the tracks feel alive, but it seems like the only people in the world are the racers.

Sound wise Modnation Racers doesn’t give us memorable music to race along with. The Trumpet harmonies sound like they were pulled from famous movies, but at the last minute they altered the pitch so as to not get sued. That’s not to say the voice acting is bad, far from it. The characters actually make laugh. Some of the stuff they say is tongue in cheek but it’s delivered with believability and personality. Not once did it feel like the actors were phoning it in. Although the vocal tracks tend to get repetitive after a while but they are still a joy to hear.

Controls are tight, every button is used on the PS3 controller. Modnation uses the R2 L2 acceleration and breaking system standard to most racing games. It really feels natural when you’re driving around. There is a small learning curve but once you get passed it there is fun to be had here.

Unfortunately the game isn’t perfect. A big annoyance are the load times, (not downloads) it takes a good 30-45 seconds to get from the hub to a race via load screen. With the addition of unforgiving AI later in the game holds this title back from being a perfect 10.

A couple of negatives will never prevent this game from being a must play though. The plethora of customizable vehicles, tracks, and characters gives this game longevity. A Lag free online feature complimented with an expanding community shows developers that user created is a good thing. Modnation Racers comes highly recommended in the sense that you’re not put off by cartoony racers.

With football fever hitting its highest degree with the World Cup just around the corner, Ubisoft has offered it’s first ever input in the football game arena with Pure Football. Pure Football is a five-a-side game – with some twists, with a host of famous faces gracing the field. This is a brave entry by Ubisoft in a field where FIFA and PES rule the roost, and working away from the constraints of FIFA.

Pure Football set’s itself aside from the likes of FIFA and PES by relying on the fast paced nature of five-a-side football, with most of the games emphasis going into the shooting system, and what is the most successful way to score. You can change your tactics real-time by using the d-pad directions, but being perfectly honest this does not really alter the game much, and is very unlikely to affect the matches in anyway. As expected each players stats are different and each player has its best areas of play.

With the main emphasis going into the shooting each player is capable of scoring goals. With it being five-a-side you can shoot from nearly anywhere on the pitch, but the closer the more likely the outcome will result in a goal. As you got to take a shot a power bar will appear underneath your player, this is very similar the power bars you see on the likes of golf games, using the same idea of enough power, perfect power and too much power. If you stop holding the shoot within the green area of the shooting bar the shot will go on target, and have the chance of scoring. If you stop it in the white area this activates a ‘Power Shot’ which has a higher change of successfully finding the back of the net. If you release it whilst in the red area your shot will automatically be off target. The game also rewards you for registering shots that need to be saved, after you have a number of efforts saved by the goal keeper this fills the ‘Pure Shot’ meter – once this is full your next shot it guaranteed to be a Power Shot. This system Ubisoft is the biggest part of the gameplay on Pure Football, with the rest of the games elements like passing and skill moves being some what underwhelming due to the amount the game is focusing on the shooting, and it does slightly affect the games over all appeal.

Even with this as the case the action in the game is still furious, and could attract some audience. Pure Footballs biggest downfall is the fact the game does lack depth when playing. Although you can score a few goals within seconds of each other, the games enjoyment factor still suffers greatly. This is due to the game all but eliminating the challenge and thrill of pulling of a great or set piece leading up to the goal. The crossing system uses a similar style to the shooting, but makes the player have to time a few button presses to win the ball in the air, if this is successful it is 90% of the time likely to result in a goal. The passing system is one of the most annoying parts of the gameplay with it requiring the player point to the player they want to pass to with the left stick, this is also used for the direction on the player on the ball, and on a small sized pitch this can become tricky at times. When passing the rest of the players are represented by small arrows around your players feet, where this becomes an issue is the arrows can take a few seconds to become active for the player you want to pass to; and online this can become a major irritation. The slide tackle is pretty much forbidden due to the fact it is hard to get right. This is countered with the fact there is no free kicks, but badly timed tackles will start to fill up the Foul meter the game uses, and once this is full the opposition gets a penalty never mind where on the pitch the foul was committed. This does affect the tackling system, but it is still possible to put a foot in and take the ball with a well timed step in tackle.

Pure Football boasts a roster of 230 professionals and 17 football legends, from the nations the game includes. Each player is recognisable from their real-life counterpart, although the game visually seems to use some sort of chiselled communistic look for the player design. This choice of design seems to match the strange approach to football the game uses. Pure Football tries to shake up the idea of mainstream football by removing such football necessities like big stadia, commentary, crowds and even the match officials. Replacing the big stadia are locations that are influenced by their location; with the London pitch being located in a power plant setting, and the Madrid pitch being located in a bull ring setting to give a few examples. The stylized environments work well, but the choice of the environment makes the games audio a huge negative. With the removal of the crowd, referee and commentary, the game has removed what is essentially the sound track to a football game. The only thing you will hear during the match is some music, and the sound of the players on the pitch; which for some reason never mind what team you are the players speak in the same British accent.

The game includes your standard exhibition, quick match and online modes expected, but with the game odd style they introduce a campaign mode. The campaign mode begins with the creation of your own player and team. To start with you are given a standard set of unknown players. The aim is to achieve a position within the top 8 rankings, and earn a place in the final tournament. You are given a set time to achieve a placing in the rankings. During this time each location gives you a set of four challenges set by the opposition; these include a number of objectives to win from the simple win a 5 minute match to target based objectives like take a two goal lead. What keeps the campaign mode entertaining is the fact you unlock players from the nations by competing set objectives during the matches from scoring with 2 different players to passing accuracy. Once these players are unlocked you can transfer these to your squad, and build a squad you think will be best for competing in the events. Completing the matches also rewards you with Pure Points; these points are used between the challenges to upgrade your create-a-player, making him become better along with your team.

Never mind how well a football game is presented, it also needs to get the gameplay right in order to be successful. The first hour of the game will not grip you at all, but if you persevere with the flaws in the gameplay you may find the game can match your thirst for something different in a football game. The initial refusals to take of the grip full eleven side football games have on you may result in you missing out on an experience that can be healed in some cases by giving Pure Football some time. This is certainly an interesting take on a football game, and one that could be a one off chance to sample.

How the west was won

Red Dead Redemption’s single player experience is a perfect one. And it deserves an appropriate perfect score. But remember, that’s the single player- multiplayer is a whole other beast that deserves it’s own rating. The only reason why I’m compelled to give separate scores is because the multiplayer just plain sucks if you don’t have friends to play with. But we’ll get to that later.

The Good

In single player, you take on the role of an ex-gang member named John Marston. You were a Robin Hood of sorts; you stole from people that had too much and gave to people that had too little, as John puts it. But his fellow outlaws lost that ideal, and during a robbery, left him for dead. After that he changed his ways, got married, had kids and grew a farm. But John’s past comes back to haunt him as government agents force John Marston to hunt down and kill his old gang-mates. He has no choice but to comply- his family’s lives are on the line. Leave it to Rockstar to come up with a twisted plot, and a dramatic ending to boot. I have to say, this is easily one of the best story-lines I’ve ever played through.

Not to mention the graphics! Amazing graphics! Rockstar has created perhaps the best looking open world game thus far. Grass moves beneath your feet. Horses are animated with such realism that you just might forget that they were programmed! The water looks spectacular… everything in the graphics department looks spot on and really sells the old west nicely. The wild west never looked so alive! Well, maybe not since there actually was a wild west.

The audio department again, is spot on. Ambient bird songs, galloping herds in the distance, and top notch voice acting overall makes for some tasty sweet ear candy. Gun shots are pretty generic though- I can’t tell what I’m being shot at with. EVER! This is just fine with me in single player, but it takes it’s toll on multiplayer.

The gameplay is fantastisimo! Is that a word? Like in Spanish or something? Oh well. I didn’t understand most of what the Mexican people were saying in this game. But that should totally be a word! Because that’s what the gameplay is! There are a wide variety of missions, although most of them involve shootouts- a testament to Rockstar’s philosophy- shoot now, shoot then… shoot when? Every chance you get! There are shootouts involving trains, horses, treasure, Mexicans, gringos, Indians, everything you could ask for in a western. Sometimes you’ll also find strangers who will want your help. Their tasks can be a little mundane, like delivering things and picking flowers, but it helps to keep the game feel fresh throughout the experience.

But that’s not all there is to Red Dead Redemption. There are gang hideouts to clear, Poker, Blackjack and Liar’s Dice to play, and arm-wrestling, horseshoes and Five-Finger Fillet to master. Five-Finger Fillet is awesome. You take a knife and quickly stab between each of your fingers! Yeah, that thing from Aliens. Anyways, you have to press the A, B, X, and Y buttons to a certain rhythm (not too slow, not too fast) and in a certain order depending on your bet- the higher the harder. Once you have the hardest combination down, you’ll be making money like it’s nobody’s business. Very useful in the beginning of the game… although money isn’t that big a deal- I went through the whole game without buying a single gun. There are also a set of challenges you can do in your spare time. Like sharpshooting and treasure hunting.

The Bad?

The auto-aim mechanic that was in GTA 4 is back and better than ever. Now you can choose for the targeting to be Casual (fully automatic), Normal (you can aim precisely where you want after auto-targeting an enemy), and Expert (no handicaps for you, mister! You’re on your own.). I prefer Normal aiming because trying to aim by yourself is lethal- trying to aim with a tiny dot in the middle of the screen is NOT easy. It’s like trying to no-scope in Halo, but at least you have more time to aim in Red Dead Redemption thanks to more health and a Dead Eye targeting system.

There are 3 stages, all involving slow-mo. At first you can only shoot once during a slow-mo session. Then you can automatically paint targets on people by aiming at them, enabling you the ability to take out a whole gang with ease. At stage 3 you can paint targets manually. Lot’s of fun. There is an energy meter though, so use it wisely. You progress through the stages as you reach certain points in the story. One thing that really gets on my nerves is that wielding a sniper is as hard as a frozen dog terd. That’s because there’s no hip fire reticule. You have to guesstimate where the center of your screen is and then aim. This leads to a lot of needless target-correction, which makes the sniper less fun to use than it should be. Other than some aiming flaws, which Dead Eye makes up for, Red Dead Redemption’s single player is bad ass yo!

The Ugly

Now, multiplayer on the other hand… oooooh it’s terrible. And it won’t take long to tell you why. First of all, people constantly leave games, so almost every single game you get into will have one team with more players. Second, sprinting makes you appear on your enemies’ maps. LOGIC FAIL. Were they just trying to be different than Call of Duty? Or were they just trying something new? Either way, it sucks, and it inspires camping. Fuck that. Third, headshots do shit loads of damage, but are really hard to get, so random quick deaths happen a lot. Fourth, terrible spawning- I spawn next to enemies constantly. Fifth, the game does the spotting for you. Whenever someone is in your line of sight, no matter how far away, an icon will appear above their heads, allowing you to auto-aim with precise accuracy, which inspires even more camping. Whew! Free roaming isn’t that bad, if you have people to play with, which I don’t. Is that a biased review? Yes. I’m sure it’s a tad bit more fun with your friends (if they don’t get pissed off at the game like I did), but all mine are still playing Modern Warfare 2. And I don’t blame ‘em.

The Controls are a 4 button interface. Before you get all up in arms about that, hear me out. It is a 4 button interface but with a small screen and no physical control pad to play with, what did you expect? With this control scheme we get one button to punch, one button to kick, one for special and one for focus attacks. You don’t have to worry about complex button combos, for example to do a Hadouken all you have to is tap the “special” button. This simplicity adds an inadvertent awesome factor do the game, Instead of fumbling with the controls to try and get the upper hand on your opponent, you instead just have to worry about perfect timing.

The Graphics. We are talking good old fashioned Digitized goodness. Street Fighter iPhone uses sprite animation but still maintains that 3D model feel. For being sprites, the animation is seamless. The Ultra Combo mini cut scenes are still 3D which translate very well onto the small screen. As far as the back drops that you’re fighting on, they are all from the original console version. The only downer is that they are as stagnant as a green puddle of water in an empty backyard pool. Ooooo that was a bad joke and I apologize for that, It’s understandable that the iPhone has its limitations but when it comes to the environments in the game, there is no background movement what so ever. It actually feels like I’m fighting on a panoramic photoshop background. Besides the stagnant backgrounds, Street Fighter 4 on the Iphone for lack of a better word, looks great.

Street Fighter 4′s character roster is the classic 8 character line up, minus the Russian wrestler. Instead of Zangief we get Abel, We still get Ryu, Ken, Chun-li, Blanka, Dhalsim, Guile, M. Bison. For all you Sagat, Vega, E-Honda and Balrog fans, they are MIA, that’s a good thing. Yes I hate those spammer characters. I cant understand why there is no Cammy. At least give me Akuma. I do hope they add them in an update or something.

Game play is solid. iPhone Street Fighter offers the standard game modes, Tournament is the Single Player experience with a little added twist. The game actually challenges you to complete it in the fastest time possible, if you’re quick enough you get treated to an awesome cut scene from Super Street Fighter 4 where Chun-Li and the British stinger Cammy are fighting Juri. Its a real treat for anyone excited for the new game. You can practice up your skills or if you just want to get used to the control scheme you can hop in the Dojo. There is a multiplayer option but it has no online, instead we get a Bluetooth option. C’mon Capcom COD Zombies gave us online co-op, it can be done! On a positive note the Blue tooth has practically no lag. Since you pretty much are playing right next to each other it comes to be expected. Side by side Multiplayer takes me back to when I would have friends over to play Street Fighter 2, Its a trash talk fest for the nostalgic.

All in all Street Fighter iPhone is a solid game for any fan of the franchise. It is one of those App store gems that deserves a strong following in hope that more updates can come along. A few minor complaints should not deter anyone from enjoying a Street Fighter you can play on the crapper.  Just next time Capcom give me more characters and online.

NIER is the next crack for a Japanese developer to make a game that can cut it in the western market. As it is crystal clear to most people who understands games when it comes to western parts and Japanese RPG game this part of the world gets lost in transition. It seemed before that Japanese publishers bring in significant income and able to self-sustain their industry based on eastern sales alone, but they seemed to have changed there aim by raking in a profit from the western part of the world. NIER seems to be everything that is right with attempts made to drag in the western market.

Square Enix has introduced a mix of both RPG and hack-and-slash gameplay elements on order to make the game more western. The game see’s the user follow RPG like characters, enemies, and towns on a very RPG based plot. With the action part of the gameplay being very hack-and-slash meaning users are not dragged into the less ponderous combat you would expect in an eastern game. So NIER automatically becomes a mixed style.

The combat in NIER like the game introduces a mixed style of combat. Although the game is hack-and-slash at heart, Square Enix has gone out their way to add the feel of the eastern RPG with the inclusion of magic. So the basics for your hero in NIER will have you wielding a sword using a couple of buttons to string together a different type of attack. Along side these basics you have the very useful Grimoire Weiss, who is a talking magical book that fires off your magic spells for you. Also in the game you will be introduced to the dodge button, which will become an integral part of your combat.

To go with the combat in the game Square Enix has introduced a large range of weapons, and magical elements to the game. Meaning you can switch between your weapons and the magic you will use during the game to suit best, this gives the combat some variety. On the same note, you will find a weapon you may like and keep to using that sword, but you will still find yourself switching between your magic in order to defeat set enemies.

The plot in NIER is a very complex one to follow, and throughout many parts of the game you may not believe what has happened. But, the plot does open the game to the extra gameplay elements, in which you will find yourself working through many different types of settings, having to complete puzzles, defeat enemies, and completing quests. During these tasks you find many interesting characters along the way, and face many foes, some of them being enormous, this sets up some great battle set pieces.

On the quests you will get a good feel of exploration and progression which every RPG should give the user, but the combat gives it a different feel than fans of the genre are used to. Like many other RPG’s the customization system has a lot of depth as you build up magic and abilities and upgrade your weapon as you go along. This is done through a very intriguing word editing system. Through out you battles with enemies they will drop words, you can then use these words in you inventory to customize your skills.

NIER has considerable depth to the game, and brings the RPG and hack-and-slash genre together well. But, you could say in reality parts of the game are not original along the lines of the gameplay, and characters.

Although Square Enix have introduced the elements of the RPG and hack-and-slash genres together very well, and over all have produced a game that could become a sleeper hit. Considering that when east meets west games can often lose what is so special about their approach to gaming, but in this case it could well have worked.

With Street Fighter IV bringing 2D fighters back to the forefront a few years ago, bringing with it an interesting visual style with a balanced and deep gameplay. As expected, Capcom have followed trend and the release of the Super version seen in that past with the franchise. The question being with the options of download content now being available to developers was the brand new release really needed?

There has been an introduction on a number of new characters in the Super release. Unlike Street Fighter IV you will have all the characters unlocked from the beginning, making every character instantly selectable upon loading the game the first time. Meaning Capcom has removed the need to play through the arcade a number of times. All the new characters have different styles meaning there is something to cover every players taste. Some of the new characters are stand out like Hakan the greased up Turk who seems very strong, and Juri who is very fast.

With the introduction of the 10 new characters, Capcom have also introduced two ‘ultra moves’ for all the characters new or old. You can chose which move you wish to have at your disposal before the battle, in doing this it has added a little more to the gameplay. Hakan and Juri are the only two new characters on the roster with the other 8 new characters being characters that have featured in previous version in the franchise.

It is hard at the moment to gauge who is going to become favourites in the new game, but this will become clearer once online has been player more frequently, and users get to grips with the new characters. Eventually this will lead to clever new strategies come to light among the best players on LIVE.

Along with the new characters there have been some alterations to the gameplay. Some of the changes have taken place with the character with them being tweaked. So the characters are now balanced and the moves are two. The game has also had some new online modes added, as well with some new challenges making the game offer more than Street Fighter IV.

During the Arcade mode you will find yourself coming faced with bonus stages which has brought back smashing up a car and barrels like in the previous entries in the franchise. Which many users will have fond memories of it they’ve followed the franchise. Other than this there has not been many changes made to the Arcade Mode. Once you have completed Arcade Mode the bonus stages become unlocked in Challenge Mode.

Online is where the game modes and changes are present, and the change has only improved the community for Street Fighter players. Some of the best changes are the introduction of the replay channel, which lets users record their bouts and play them back. This also keeps the best bouts from the community in a whole and lets other people watch them, and learn from them in some cases. There is also the introduction of the online Team and Endless battles, this lets a group of friends play together, and chat to everyone in the room throughout play.

Back to the original question, the answer is yes, it is clear there has been changes made that easily warrant the full release. [blippr]Super Street Fighter IV[/blippr] has once again brought 2D fighting games back to the forefront. With the introduction of new characters and the moves, the developers having chance to tweak the game and make it more balanced, and the introduction of new modes makes Super Street Fighter IV the game for fighter fans to own, if not the best fighter available right now.

With it being priced like a usual expansion pack meaning you are not coughing up top dollar for the game again (if you purchased Street Fighter IV) it is really worth its value.

Two and a half years after the original release date [blippr]Splinter Cell: Conviction[/blippr] finally hit store shelves, and you could be forgiven for not having faith that the game would live up its potential and the games predecessors. With long and rocky development times bringing nothing but trouble in the past. But, after such a long time and multiple delays could Splinter Cell Conviction break the mold? The answer is yes.

With the game going back to the drawing board, around the time of the release of the original Assassins Creed seems to have been a risk worth taking by Ubisoft and the developers. With the current outing from Sam Fisher not only managing to keep the series fans onside, but also open the Splinter Cell franchise to new players and still create an exceptional game.

The story in Splinter Cell Conviction is great and will keep the user hooked, and make them want to keep playing to see what happens next. It also uses an interesting way of telling story. The game starts with Sam Fishers friend being question about the events of the game in the opening movie, and then the game continues to use this with his friend providing voice over to the movie sequences, if the movie is not part of him being questioned.

Splinter Cell Conviction follows on from 2006’s Splinter Cell Double Agent with Sam looking for answers and revenge for the murder of his daughter Sarah. But, unlike any other game in the franchise Sam has lost everything that made him a cool, calm and collected agent, with him now being driven and fuelled by anger and guilt. This makes the gameplay a lot faster paced. Unlike in the previous games the stealth element has been sitting patiently waiting for your chance to strike quietly, in Conviction the new pace has changed the stealth element as Sam’s moves are a lot more expeditious.

This is helped greatly by the introduction of the Execute system, this new moves allows you to mark multiple enemies and kill them by a single press of the Y button. This option is not always open to you, and to gain the Execute move you first have to perform close quarter kills or take enemies as a human shield, that is where the stealth element is still used to maximum impacted. Depending on how many close quarter kills or taking people as human shields you have carried out decides how many people you can mark and execute. This also depends on which weapon you are using, with the game allowing you to mark up to the maximum of four enemies with selected weapons. This can lead to some spectacular kill sequences.

Although Splinter Cell Conviction still offers mostly the stealth experience people expect from the game, it is made more appealing to the masses having the patience needed toned down compared to the previous games, making the game a little less challenging in doing so.

The presentation and looks of Splinter Cell Conviction are incredible. With the game offering a total feel of immersion due to the lack of loading screens through the complete game, and the mission objectives being projected onto the surroundings whilst you play. This keeps the games fluidity going, rather than like in previous games when the game was broke down by mission objectives between each mission. This helps the game move along quickly.

The game is a short experience, but this is helped out by the new co-op story. This is just as good as the single player experience, and certainly makes the game well worth the value of money. Although hardcore Splinter Cell fans may be quite surprised on the changes Sam has under gone over the few years of absence, but they have made him more lethal than ever.

Presentation

If I could explain the entirety of the story in this game, it would take five more pages. The basic idea is that there is a huge Utopian city in the sky named Cocoon, ruled by The Sanctum. Civilization is blessed by the “fal’Cie”, or god-like creature that protect and sustain the population. However they also discovered hostile fal’Cie from the outside world known as Grand Pulse. Fal’cie have the ability to choose a servant by branding them l’cie, slaves to the fal’cie’s will. Successful completion of their task turns them into an immortal crystal….unsuccessful completion turns them into an abomination…win, win right? Any contact with a Pulse le’Cie warrants a “Purge” or nice way of saying genocide to ensure the world remains in order.

That’s where the game picks up, where the latest Pulse fal’Cie has tainted a district that is being purged. Our heroes are all involved in some way, whether they are leaders of a resistance against the purge or simply victims that got on the right train with our female lead, Lightning. They all eventually head to the same place and embark together under dire circumstances. The plot is ten times more complicated that what I just summarized, offering truly deep and interesting characters that we learn are more connected than one would have previously thought. There are plenty of twists, turns, and truly emotional moments in the game that make for another solid story that drives the player forward. Though initially, you will be confused as to what is going on around you. It takes time to get used to the new vocabulary of l’cie and fal’cie, but luckily the “journal” element of the game is plenty length, summarizing key events for those thoroughly confused.

The first thing you notice as soon as the game fires up is the incredible level of detail the developers took in creating the worlds and characters. This game is seriously up there as far as being one of the best looking games of the past decade. Character models look just as good in pre rendered scenes as they do in actual gameplay. You are able to notice distinct feathers on Chocobos, shiny and sparkly textures of a city, and even great detail on facial hair and of course…Sazh’s fro.There were a multitude of moments where I stood in awe of the worlds in the game, panning the camera a full 360 around me just to take it all in. Summoning your trusty eidolon never gets old to watch as the pretty lights and colors will captivate you. This detailed look to the game makes traversing worlds and battles a sight that rarely gets old.
The cast of characters at your disposal are all unique in their own right. Even though some elements seemed borrowed from past games (Pole-arm girl = Freya from FF9?), the character’s voice work is what truly brings them to life. The developers took time in the US port to fix lip syncing not only in gameplay, but pre-rendered cutscenes as well to match English dialogue. This further enhances the experience as the relationships and interactions between characters are high points of the game. Voice acting is top notch, boasting some of the best I have heard in the series. Vanille is the only real complaint for the game, not in her dramatic scenes so much as just in game squeals. She has an incredibly bubbly personality and mainly sticks with a high pitched voice. Think Navi from Legend of Zelda…but more Australian. That being said, she still is just as interesting in her background and involvement as the rest of the cast.

The soundtrack for this game is pretty decent, though I do not feel it holds up with previous installments like that of Final Fantasy X. This is mainly due to the decision to add lyrics to most of the songs. I do not know if you listen to much pop music….but this is what I ended up listening to as I roam the halls filled with monsters. They even put lyrics to the chocobo theme, a theme that really needed no words at all. That is like adding lyrics to the Jaws theme, it just kills the mood. Still the battle theme and boss battle themes remain the high point of the soundtrack.

The Gameplay

The battle system for the game has been overhauled. You only control one character. While that may seem like it could be easy to do, the system adds complication pretty quickly. You gain more Active Time Bars, around 4 or 5, as you progress. You can manually stack the attacks you want, wait until they all fill and unleash them on an enemy or simply cut it off early to throw a few quick hits in. There is a handy “Auto-Attack” button that weighs enemy weaknesses and uses whatever moves are most efficient. It is much like the Staples Easy Button….except more deadly and with less office supplies. You actually find yourself using this button quite a lot, with a few exceptions in fighting groups more tactically, it will be the go-to attack method.

About 2 hours into the game you unlock the most interesting aspect of the game: Paradigm Shift. This is a way to control the party members by assigning them roles. You are given a preset of these to use for the first half of the game, but can customize them much later on. Basically a character chooses a role like a Commander that is focused on attack, Ravager that focuses on magic, or Medic for healing. If I want a balanced attack method, I will shift so each person has a different role. If the enemy is guarding attacks, I can unleash all I can by assigning a Ravager, Commander, Ravager role to shift to that will hit them hard. While this starts out pretty basic, in the latter half of the game you are constantly switching paradigms to fit the situation. This keeps you on your toes, and makes the battles incredibly fun to engage in. Boss battles in particular require quick thinking and continual shifting to adjust for devastating attacks and buffing your party for the fight.

Combat has a few other elements to vary the fighting further. There is a “combo” meter for each enemy, where if I continually lay damage into them I can “stagger” the enemy. Once staggered, every hit on the enemy deals critical damage and I can even launch them into the air for some added effect. You will also slowly unlock Eidolons. Summoning these dismisses the other party members but allows you to build up a gauge to unleash devastating attacks with an always satisfying finisher.

Fights get you items and crystarium points which you use to level up much like in Final Fantasy X’s sphere grid. You level up the roles of your party adding new moves, additional accessory slots, and upgrading general stats along the way. The weapons and accessories you gain can be upgraded with components from fights. This becomes tedious as you find new weapons and accessories every five minutes and upgrading these can be costly as they stack up. You also gain gil at certain areas, but the first half of the game leaves you so broke that you can not even afford anything you want and the things you can afford are items you already possess. You will usually only be able to buy potions or a few additional components to start. That is like giving me five bucks and telling to me to pick something out from an electronics store. So many cool things, but I will walk out with gum.

Besides combat you will be wandering the world, which is where the game may throw some fans off. The first half of this game is very..very..very linear. It sets you on a path and you go forward for a lot of it. Though the occasional branch off can be found for an item in a corner, you will always go one direction. There are no towns to trade at, no added minigame for a break in combat, no inns to rest at…just moving and fighting. While they try to mix it up by letting you gain the upperhand and sneak up on enemies, this linear feel lingered on far too long. You do not get to start “leveling up” until about 2 hours into the game. You do not get to customize weapons until about 3 hours into the game.You do not get to select your party until about a good 15 hours into the game. You do not even get the ability to use most of the fun gameplay elements until the latter half of the game. I understand the need to hold my hand to start, but I am pretty sure I already know not to attack if my health is flashing red after 2 hours. It almost has an element of repetition were it not for fight approaches; Walk down path, fight monsters, fight boss, switch parties, repeat.

This is where the game becomes a test of the long-time Final Fantasy fan. In practically all the previous games it was side missions, mini-games, and towns to explore that put a nice break in the typical path. Without that break, the game mainly appeals to the combat enthusiast and story-driven gamer. The game seemed to shift the series from a huge exploration feel to a small trail of predestined experiences. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but this new approach may leave many scratching their head as to the fate of their beloved towns. Halfway through the game you do eventually make it to the plains and are free to engage in side missions. The new approach is not really a bad thing. You never really get lost or turned around on where to head. In a sense, the first 15 hours of the game feel like one very long tutorial, slowly easing you into the workings of combat and leveling while pushing through the story….very…very slowly. A huge positive is that you regenerate health completely after each fight and if you die, you can be put outside the path and try again without reloading my save. This allows you to experiment with different techniques and tactics to find the most efficient method of combat.

Overall

Though the first half of the game can be a bit tedious to some, the latter portion and overall presentation of this game are the high points. Combat is increasingly enjoyable as you progress and offers some truly memorable boss battles. It is the look and the story of this game that is truly driving me, with epic fight sequences and surprising confrontations. If you are finding the game repetitive, I implore you to press on as the difficulty and strategy increases at much later chapters of the game. Do not let the few complaints or bothers with the new approach fool you, this is one very solid RPG title and a great addition to the series.

I couldn't find a picture of the game's start-up screen, so here is a unicorn looking super badass.

Robot Unicorn Attack is probably the greatest game that I have ever played. Now, I’m not really the person to ever praise a game, but this Flash masterpiece (Flashterpiece) deserves more than what it may already have. In reality, it’s what every game needs to be: simple, addictive and fun as hell. It reminded me of a simpler time, one of Mario and platforming, not the generic shooters we’ve been handed today. Sure, it looks gay at first, and I even resisted playing it. However, I am an idiot, don’t make my mistake.

You have to go to Adult Swim to play it, but don’t let that deter you. After sitting through a shitty ad disguised as a game pre-loader, I found myself assaulted by pink, rainbows and delightful music which is insanely soothing. Depress your left mouse button immediately. Fucking do it. Instructions are now in your face, and you are ready to take the plunge into awesometown. Just remember, Z jumps (press again for double jump) and X makes you charge shit like a madman.

You are now running into Valhalla and that unicorn is your fucking Valkyrie. Yeah, that is one sexy unicorn. This bitch has horns and shit, and a rainbow tail. Whoever designed this character is a genius and I wish to meet him. The object of this game is simple, don’t hit anything, eat the floating fairies and make the deadly stars explode like this was some kind of Michael Bay movie, only good. If you do hit something, you die and you’re taken to a screen that tells you how many attempts your sorry ass has left (2 or 1). The gameplay is amazing, and it’s too amazing for words other than “holy shit”.

Failure, but nice score.

The only thing this game lacks is a story, which I will not give it. You play as escaped Robot Unicorn patient #822, having heard that someone that funded the project for robot unicorns has raped your unicorn sister. You want revenge, and you’re going to fucking get it. The fairies, who were the workers and technicians of this debacle of science and God are attempting to stop you, but your quest for vengeance must be completed. Of course, the overseers are also trying to stop you, and they’re aliens who look like stars. You charge through them, your heart pumping furiously. You don’t even know if you’ll get to your raped unicorn sister and have your mission accomplished, but you’re not going to give up.

There, it is now the perfect game. In fact, why aren’t you playing it after I used the word “awesometown”? I’m not really into giving scores, but if I had to judge it out of ten, I’d say it’s “fucking awesome/10”.

The shooter genre has recently been boasting some of the most cinematic games of the generation with the likes of Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4. When we last saw Mass Effect, it was still a nuts and bolts RPG  more so than it was a 3rd person shooter. This time around, Bioware has managed to tighten its space faring franchise to the point where the line between Halo and Final Fantasy is transparent. Letting no complaint from the first game go unchecked, the developer has made strives to either improve or replace everything that any fan of the first could have made quibbles of.

At the start of the game you will have the opportunity to import your old ME1 save and character. This will provide a number of bonuses like extra money and skills and will allow you to bypass the first few levels of your character’s progression. It will also give you a list of your choices and a summary of the state of affairs you left the first game in. Small things like the people you spoke to and how you treated them come into effect after this process. Some basic things are however universal. No matter what you did in the first game you will now be under the employ of Cerberus, a pro-human overlord corporation with that all but echoes the Team Rocket mantra with its Google type omnipresence. Human settlements on the outskirts of the galaxy are disappearing one by one, and no one is motivated enough to figure out why. Your exploits have been pretty much sealed by efforts by the Council and Alliance, and your two year unannounced absence isn’t particularly helping your argument of a secret Reaper plot. Abandoned by everyone but the ‘Illusive Man’ and his Cerberus employees, you’re set on the trail of eight powerful allies spread all across the galaxy.

Being a part of Cerberus has its advantages though. The upgraded Normandy SR2 is a great deal larger than the first ship. In scifi-nerd scale it’s a jump comparable to the Millennium Falcon to the Enterprise. Traversing it us seamless for the most part. Elevator load times are practically nonexistent. One instance where you wish the sprint last longer is due to the increase in size. Getting all the way from the pilot’s chair to the galaxy map will take a whole 20 seconds! Minor grumbles, but you’d think Shepard would have the stamina to run for more than fifteen feet if he’s not wearing armor.

A few things will become quickly apparent when you first start playing the game. One of those being that the game looks amazing. Running at a steady 60fps on even a mid-range graphics card, the game manages a high framerate to wow-factor ratio at each of its pivotal scenes. Not taking a backseat is the aiming and targeting reticule. Rather than being a vague circle like in the first game, you’re given a standard crosshair that your weapons stick to religiously. No hit over the range hit boxes this time. You have to aim for flesh, or at least circuit boards in some cases. You also have an ammo system that encourages you to rely more on your secondary skills rather than blast your way through like the first game. You’re bound to run out of ammo for one gun at some point in the game, so it allows you to get accustom to each one. It may be annoying at first, but to shooter fans it’s a welcome change and hardcore role-players will get used to it eventually.

In order to effective in this game you will need to have a somewhat decent background of shooters. Knowing how to pick your targets and how to position your team will pay off for you, but playing the game like a straight shooter or an RPG won’t get you anywhere. Taking cover and aiming at your targets is no longer clunky, and it supplements the Biotic and Tech powers perfectly. At the start of the game you will be wishing that you’d opted for a Soldier class as you would have access to more weapons and all around better combat skills. Towards the end you’ll be making use of every last one of your skills with ease and precision.

In the first game you merely got  a check mark indicating your status on a successful mission. Now, you are treated to a whole screen summarizing your exploits and accomplishments after success. You’ll find out what items you found, money, weapons, updates on your stats and team members, as well as what impact your actions had on the story and world. This makes it simple and reduces backtracking to get back to the Normandy at the end of each mission.

The Mako has been completely discarded in favor of a transport shuttle. The reasoning behind this is due in part to the increased size of the Normandy SR2, but the main cause is the fan complaints over the Mako missions in the first game. You aren’t capable of piloting this shuttle in any way, but using the probe and planet scanner you can find suitable areas to land and mine resources. After a while, mining a planet becomes tedious, but you have an every populated supply of resources with which to upgrade your equipment, ship and skill set.

If you played the original Mass Effect, then you are familiar with the hassle of items and omnigel management of equipment and weapons. Cycling to see which weapon is obsolete and which one isn’t – Phasic round IV or II, etc. Some will be pleased to know that this concept is gone completely. Armor is handled by upgrades to your standard N7 suit. This allows you the freedom to get more creative, choosing whether to focus your armor on shield regeneration, maximum health, and how much ammo you can carry. Weapons cannot be customized at all and cannot be purchased, only found. The benefit to this is that when you find one gun, every member of your team has access to it. Depending on your class you may have access to different ammo rounds (cryo, incendiary, warp, shredder, etc.) but beyond that you’ll never have to fumble around to equip your guns with specific rounds. Another improvement is that you no longer have unusable weapons equipped to your back all the time. Switching weapons is easier without a Sniper and Assault rifle equipped when you’re a Vanguard. During one mission in the game you are presented with the option of picking up a new weapon proficiency, so adding an Assault Rifle or Shotgun to your class is another prayer answered in this sequel.

Customization is most definitely encouraged. While you won’t be able to adjust the armor your team wears, you can manage the color scheme and design of your own. You also have a few choices for what you will appear like casually on your ship. There aren’t a lot of options in either, but there are enough so that it fits in with the feel of personalization additions to the game.

The majority of your time will be spent between tracking down your old crew members from the first game (who survived) and finding your new ones. You may be surprised to see just how different everyone has become and how some have managed to stay the same. Although the amount of time that’s gone by isn’t too long, you’ll see just how things have managed to change when given the chance to visit old areas from the first game. The Citadel for example has become completely streamlined. It’s divided into a series of levels that house various shops and locales. None of the aimless wandering from the first game. However, it seems more confined than anything. The only glimpse of the same areas you will have is when visiting the Presidium, which you’ll be confined to a single balcony.

At any given moment there are a dozen of people you can talk to or ways of progressing one of the hundreds of side missions Mass Effect 2 has to offer. Like the first game, your dialogue tree has a lot of diversity and ways to expand the codex and gain Paragon/Renegade points, but now there are context sensitive triggers that can be activated to end a conversation and jump start a fight, or persuade an unruly business owner to sell you items at cost. You’re as motivated to talk as your are to shoot, however at some times you can more in the mood to do one more than the other. The game seems to have a good balance of which missions you want to shoot through and which you’d rather move forward by asking for information. Although at some junctions it may be difficult to determine at first.

Loyalty is a big part of the game and integral if you’re going to succeed in your final mission. For each of the eleven characters you will amass for your team there is a story related mission tying into their objective or their past. Completing this mission encourages characters to trust you, unlocks special skills and adds an alternative costume option for them. Trust me when I say that you want your team to be loyal to you before you engage in the final mission.

I really have to make sure to stress the improvement in music and sound design. For me, the first game’s soundtrack was fitting at times, but others it really sounded like a broken fax machine. Some pieces are directly orchestral, while some bare the same style as the first. Fortunately, I hadn’t come across a tune that caused me to check the ink levels on my laserjet, but that thought was ever present in my mind. Weapons and enemy sounds are well crafted, making for believable encounters and firefights.

The A-class cast is well utilized throughout the game. With as much dialogue as there is not much of it is repeated. You rarely hear the same humans twice in one room, but some of the aliens do blend together. That’s not racism, it’s just the same voice actor. Only playing the game from both genders perspective allows you to understand the differences between the interactions. I can only imagine the word that went into keeping all the dialogue straight.

To me, the story in the first game didn’t really capture me all that much. It was the world and characters that captivated and interested me. The overarching story of the Reapers and the end of the world was a unique twist, but there wasn’t any menace to it despite how many characters reacted in fear. As Grunt pointed out in saying “You destroyed the most bad ass thing in the galaxy, now it’s just us,” it’s that feeling that always limits how dangerous the the threat is, be it Covenant, Locust or Geth. If I can take a small team and beat them to the brink of existence then I’m not afraid of them. Point being, the threat of the Collectors as personal as your rivalry with Saren from the first game, and it ultimately pans out to a loose footed confrontation with the legacy of the Prothean race. It’s not bad, but Bioware has done a much better job at making the characters and the overall world more engrossing than its main plot, which really stems to a handful of actual missions in itself. I don’t think I’ve explored much of the side missions or galaxy and I clocked in at around 25hrs my first play through.

That said the finale in the sequel was better on every level than the one in the first game. Utilizing your entire team for a win or die scenario that will keep you focused on the task at hand despite hectic and crazy shitstorm surrounding you is a feat to marvel at. Every choice leading up to the final moment made for your success or failure. At first, that notion can be daunting, but when you’re in the middle of it it becomes reassuring. Your team completely loyal to you, your ship at maximum capacity, your skills finely tuned – you really get the sense of what you’ve been doing for the past day means something – at least to the video game.

When you eventually see what ending you and your crew have to face, you’ll be motivated to delve right back into it, correcting mistakes, taking new actions, and seeing what else you can do to affect the outcome. More than anything, I feel a little awkward at the potential for Mass Effect 3. Having to replay both games just to make sure all my actions and success carries over to that. A challenge, but I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. There’s still more than enough content left in the game to keep anyone busy. Mass Effect 2 is easily Bioware’s most ambitious and spectacular game to date. It takes the best from the first and fine tunes it for the sequel. Although it may take a bit more getting used to for some, once that initial step is taken, the improvements become abundantly clear. See you in another two years Commander Shepard.