Video games based on movies often times get a bad rap.  They tend to be nothing more than a cash grab that release alongside its movie counterpart and are marked at full price, making them very difficult to swallow.  There have been exceptions of course, such as Toy Story 3: the Game and Peter Jackson’s King Kong.  But what about games based on movies that are more than a decade old?  TellTale Games, creators of the Sam and Max series, challenges the negative stigma attached to movie based games with Back to the Future: the Game.

If you’ve ever played a TellTale title before, you know that they are big fans of episodic content.  What this means is that instead of buying the game and playing through it all in one go, they break it down into smaller pieces.  For example, I paid $25 for Back to the Future: the Game on Steam, and I am given access to all of the episodes as they are released.  Episode 3 is the latest instalment that you can play through, and it’s imperative that you start right from the beginning with Episode 1 to get the full enjoyment out of the game.  This review is for Episode 2: Get Tannen! specifically.

Since Back to the Future: the Game is an adventure story-based game (much like the adventure games of yesteryear, such as King’s Quest and Space Quest), it’s difficult to go into specifics without spoiling much of the story.  You take control of Marty in the year 1986 and solve puzzles to progress.  You frequently interact with other characters like Einstein the dog and Emett Brown, who aid you along the way.  If there’s one thing that I absolutely love in an adventure game, it’s a skull cracking puzzle that stumps me for days.  I love the satisfying feeling of solving something difficult, and unfortunately Back to the Future: the Game never provided me with this experience.  Not once.  In fact, I rarely ever had to consult the hint menu in Episode 2.  None of the episodes are very long in length and will take you anywhere from two to four hours to complete them.  Episode 1 took me exactly 3 hours from start to finish, which may leave some players miffed.

All of the voice acting is top notch and nothing feels out of place.  Doc Brown is voiced by Christopher Lloyd and  while they couldn’t get  Michael J. Fox to return as Marty McFly, A.J. Locascio does an amazing job.  Many familiar characters from the movies pop in throughout the story, including the obnoxious Biff Tannen who once again makes trouble for Marty.  All of the environments and characters have a bit of a cartoony feel to them, but it never feels juvenile.  On the contrary, you’re put in some life threatening situations along the way that involve explosives, guns and other nasty business.  Sadly, you can’t actually die in the game, unlike the King’s Quest series from the early 80s.  I think this is a detriment because it removes some of the challenge from the game, but I can understand the reasons behind this decision.  The game is very forgiving if you need a while to figure something out and doesn’t rush you along.

In any case, the challenge just isn’t here.  It’s a very entertaining story with nice visuals and a superb voice cast, but if you want an adventure game that you can really sink your teeth into, try Kaptain Brawe: a Brawe New World.  However, Back to the Future: the Game is definitely worth your money and time, especially if you are a fan of the movies.  TellTale Games does a terrific job of pushing the “all movie games suck” to the side and lets players just enjoy living in the past (literally) for a little while.  I eagerly anticipate the arrival of Episode 4: Double Visions and TellTale Game’s next trip down memory lane with Jurassic Park: the Game this fall.

There are actually significant improvements to the gameplay, depending on what kind of games you like to play. The combat is much more of an action style game, especially for console, where you have to button mash normal attacks. Characters never just walk up to their targets to attack. They will jump, charge, roll, or do something else equally dramatic and the end result is that the combat feels very cool and dynamic. However, it still plays like MMOs such as World of Warcraft, RIFT, or DC Universe Online, except that you can pause the combat and take control of different characters in order to get more strategic control. On PC, you can move your character using the WSAD keys, or by pointing and clicking, or by holding both mouse buttons down, which is the way I’m used to navigating in WoW. Removed from this game is the bird’s eye camera that would truly give you a strategic sense of the battlefield, but I didn’t miss it too much.

Questing was made much simpler with quest markers. People with quests will have an exclamation mark above their heads while people or things relevant to a quest in your Journal will have some arrows pointing to it. This new “feature”, so prominent in other games, is actually an unwelcome change. Sure, it’s great that the game is easier to play, and I’ve always been a big believer in making things easier to play, but I found myself just mindlessly following the markers instead of taking the time to know my environments and talk to every NPC in the city. Instead of picking the quests I felt were urgent, I would just go to the areas with the most quests to complete. It’s not that exploration isn’t rewarded, but it is to a lesser extent than the first game. The first game was more immersive simply because it forced you to figure out things on your own, and I prefer immersion in my single player RPGs.

The Tactics system, borrowed from Final Fantasy XII, remains intact. This is usually a boon and for most of the game you just let your NPCs do their thing, but there are occasionally hard battles where you must turn these off and control things on your own. There’s no easy way to disable all the Tactics, but that’s a minor complaint. I enjoy the Tactics system and how it just keeps the game flowing when you don’t need to micromanage things.

Dragon Age II keeps the Enchantment system from the last game, where you place runes that you find into weapons and armour in order to increase their effectiveness. It also introduces a crafting system, where you can find different sources of materials throughout the world and then craft potions, bombs, poisons, or runes from them. You’ll have to discover the recipes for them, too. Unlike the last game, you can’t recover the runes from your equipment, and you have to destroy them by slotting a new rune. Even though that improves the enchantment system, the crafting system feels unfinished. The crafting table just becomes another store. Discovering the materials are a way to reward you for exploring, but it’s too shallow and straightforward to be enjoyable, and not quite involved enough to be annoying. So in the end, the items are useful, but the system is like that wallflower at the high school dance: It’s just kind of there.

The skill trees are a bit more interesting this time around, with each tree being a graph of different dependencies. Once again you’ll get two specialization points to spend in two of the three specializations you can get for each class. Each of the Warrior, Rogue, and Mage classes had 6 skill trees plus 3 specializations, so you can actually get fairly diverse characters even within the same class. The spells and skills look really cool, too. Every spell is a joy to use because of the magnificent effects that happen, such as encasing someone in rock with Petrify, or spraying an arc of ice with Cone of Cold.

The Stamina and Mode systems are kept from the last game, so if you choose to turn on helpful Modes, it will reserve a portion of your Stamina or Mana that you would otherwise use on skills or spells. This is an interesting trade off and definitely affects your gear decisions and decisions about which skills to pick up.

The equipment management interface underwent an upgrade as you have the option not to show your helmet, and now things are sorted into five helpful categories: Weapons and Shields, Armour, Trinkets/Belts, Consumables, and Junk. Looting everything from a container or corpse is now bound to a hotkey, making looting a smooth experience. However, you can no longer choose what armour your party members wear. Though you have full control over your own gear, you can only choose weapons, shields, necklace, belt, and two rings for your other characters. In place of choosing what armour they wear, you are forced to find up to five upgrade slots for their armours, usually by going through their individual story quests. I don’t really understand why BioWare chose to do it this way, but it means that most of the torso armour, helmets, boots, and gloves you find are garbage to be sold as they will not be for your class. Upgrading the equipment of my party is one of the joys of playing RPGs, so in this particular aspect Dragon Age II is only a quarter of what nearly every other RPG delivers.

Perhaps the most important system of all to any BioWare game is the Friendship system. This is equivalent to the Paragon system in the Mass Effect franchise, and appeared in some form in Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, and everything significant BioWare has made dating back to Baldur’s Gate. After all, what is awesome about BioWare games are the choices you have to make and how other people will like or dislike you for them. If you become friends or rivals with different party members in Dragon Age II, they will gain an extra skill. For example, if you are friends with Aveline, the protective warrior, she will start taking a portion of your damage in your stead. Being friends or rivals will also have massive implications at certain points in the game, but I can’t discuss it too much without spoiling the story.

The game centers primarily around space-pirate Grayson Hunt and his brother-in-arms Ishi, as they attempt to escape from the ruined paradise resort world of Stygia. After warping out of deep space and coming upon the flagship of the General that betrayed them, The Ulysses, Grayson makes a drunken kamikaze attack on the ship, essentially punching the most advanced Warbird in the galaxy in the face. While his ship is nearly destroyed and goes plummeting onto the surface of a strange alien world, the Ulysses is also wrecked, and both ships crash a few miles apart. Grayson then attempts to not only exact his revenge on the general, but get himself and Ishi off the world as well.

The gameplay consists of lots of standard shooter fare with a ton of added kicks in the form of “skillshots”. These skillshots range from something as simple as a headshot (25 points) to something zanier, like kicking someone into electric cables (50 points) or shooting them in the groin, then blowing their head off as they writhe in pain (gleefully named “Mercy” and rewarding 100 points). There are a litany of over 100 skillshots, and every new weapon added into your arsenal further increases the number of creative ways you can destroy and maim those around you. A “leash”, which you discover fairly quickly in the game, is a module that attaches to your hand and displays both skillshot information and your ammo. It ties in with the various dead-drops you discover in the game. These dead-drops are where you cash in the points you make with your kills to unlock new weapons and ammo. In the context of the story, these were left here by a previous military campaign, and (in a delightfully Darwinian twist) were designed specifically so only the good soldiers would receive more ammo or better weapons.

There are a large number of set encounters: Big, crazy scripted battles where you are up against an unusual enemy or have a super powered weapon for a short amount of time. The game plays out nicely, moving at a breakneck pace from caves to trains to cliffs to villages to cities, propelling you through an amazing number of creative, vibrant, and stunning levels. This is one of the things I enjoyed the most as this is a departure from other shooters. Each level looks beautifully detailed, from the massive vistas near a gigantic dam, to the beautiful sci-fi skyscrapers, and crazy, The Fifth Element-headbutts-Bioshock design, to many of the more civilized parts of the city. The natural flora and fauna of Stygia are just as wide ranging and vivid, from electro-flies to huge man-eating Venus fly traps, and hilarious pods called Noms that, when kicked at an enemy, latch onto their heads and start chewing headcrab-style. That’s only a taste of the enemies you encounter on this murder paradise.

The game controls are tight and easy to pick up, and they at least use the matching buttons when giving you quick time events, such as shoot when you need to shoot in the sequence. One button activates the leash, and holding it down fires a “thumper” that launches all enemies caught in the area into the air, making them easy pickings. The artificial intelligence (AI) of your allies is competent enough, and invincible to the point where you usually don’t have to worry about them. The enemy AI is akin to Left 4 Dead, in which melee enemies swarm you, and regular shooter fare by using cover to advance into a confetti of bullets raining down on them.

The game is accompanied by a suitable soundtrack of loud, action movie fanfare, and squishy, gooey, gorey sounds whenever you land a good kill. The weapons have a great, loud kick to them and the charge shots that come with each weapon sound devastating and brutal. The dialogue is ridiculous and offensive, and delightfully colourful. The visuals mix perfectly with the audio, providing graphically sound and satisfying character models, level design, and effects. Explosions in particular look bright and powerful, streaming off like fireworks from their origin.

The multiplayer and “echo” segments, both of which involves replaying single player levels or edited maps, have some enjoyable times to be had, and it’ll keep your interest for a while as you attempt to get three stars on various challenges. But aside from that, it’s a straightforward multiplayer component, with the cooperative “Horde” mode (like swarm or wave cooperative modes in other shooters) adding a more diverse element.

Bulletstorm is raw and distilled fun for a mature audience. If you love cheesy sci-fi pulp and over-the-top machismo, mixed in with a vibrant, straightforward shooter, this is a game to add to your collection.

Nevertheless, Atlus revealed today that the game will arrive in North America this summer – only a few months after its Japanese release.  No details were given, but you can check out the shell of a website, and even get your pre-orders in from Amazon.ca if you can’t wait.  The game will be available for both PS3 and Xbox 360.

Personally, I’m excited about the game, and am always eager to support Atlus in taking the risk of bringing games English speakers otherwise wouldn’t have an opportunity to enjoy.  We’ll keep you updated when Atlus reveals more.

[Source: Atlus]

This is part 1 of the interview. In transcribing the interview I realized what a mammoth this thing is, but we touch on a lot of interesting subjects including the prospects of playing through The Killing Joke, guild housing and Final Fantasy XIV so I definitely want to share all of that with our readers. In this part we talk about the general atmosphere and goals of the game, and Daubert’s experience from working on Galaxies.

GameNorth (GN): Tell us a bit about DC Universe Online.

Michael Daubert (MD):  The biggest goal is that we want you to look and feel like the hero or villain that you want to be. The nice thing is that when you’re carrying all your loot you can change the way you look every time you log in. [Daubert swaps out an item's appearance] I can swap out [the look of] my helmet and I’m still wearing my epic helmet and getting all the rewards but I can have the character look any way I want.

GN: Yeah, I really like that part.

MD: Have you gotten into Gotham and Metropolis both or?

GN: You know, I accidentally went into Gotham once. I rallied back to HQ and I had never been there so I took the wrong portal and was very confused. [laugh]

MD: That’s the nice part about it – it lets you jump back and forth between Gotham and Metropolis.

GN: Yeah, now that I understand it, it’s pretty cool.

MD: Well, that’s the nice thing too. We don’t have it like other MMOs where this is a villain held city or this is a hero held city. It’s an open environment – PvP and PvE – that lets you explored whatever city you want to be in. One thing we did too is that Gotham is always in the night time and Metropolis is always during the day, so we don’t have the day/night cycle. We did that on purpose. We wanted to capture the feel of what Gotham always is. One thing we learned early on is that Gotham during the day just isn’t fun – you want to have that at night time. A lot of times in comics too, whenever they portray Metropolis it’s always the bright golden daylight of the midmorning or mid-night type, so it always has the glamourous City of Tomorrow type feel to it.

GN: That’s interesting, actually. I hadn’t realized that, but now that you mention it – yeah, it was always day. Speaking of the day/night cycle, are there weather effects?

MD: Oh yeah, it already rains. If you go to the Mr. Freeze area it’ll snow in there. The Scarecrow area has a toxic mist through the air. It’s all about the atmosphere and the atmospheric effects.

GN: I’ve done all the tour missions -

MD: With Booster Gold?

GN: Yeah, with Booster Gold. But only in Metropolis. I wanted to play in Gotham actually, since I’ve just finished Arkham Asylum.

MD: What you said there – Batman: Arkham Asylum is an amazing game, I loved it too and played it twice through. That is Batman’s story. This is all about you creating your story. You’re the next legend of the DC Universe and [it's all about] you writing your legend into the universe itself. It’s funny you bring up Arkham Asylum because the game ended – you’re at the end and you’re like: “Oh I want more! I want more!” and that’s what we’re trying to do here, is to keep that action going and keep that progression. And you’re getting to that level of Batman but it’s no longer Batman’s story; it’s your story in the DC Universe. You start playing games like Batman and people want to see a Green Arrow game like that and so we try to combine the best of the DC Universe in one open world environment. So you almost have all these different games mashed into one. You have your Batman, your Superman plus the villain side. I’m sure when you’re playing through [Arkham Asylum], you’re thinking “how cool would it be to play as the Joker?” You’ll hit that peak at level 30 [in DCUO] and we want you to go, “oh I wonder what the villain side is,” because it’s a whole different storyline and getting to the end. Plus, “I’ve played as a flyer/ice guy – I wonder what it would be like to be the Flash with super speed and I’m going to add fire, nature, or ice to that character.” So it really comes down to living the legend – you being the next legend.

GN: So Alerts are the dungeons, what are the Duos?

MD: The Duos will be the two-person dungeons. Two-people raids type.

GN: The success that World of Warcraft has is partly due to the endgame content of the raids to keep people playing, and arenas too. Is there a raid you can show me?

[Daubert attempts to find a raid, but he does not have them unlocked on his character]

GN: No problem. So how have you guys designed raids or raid rewards? What have you guys learned from doing Everquest to improve the endgame content?

The variety of costumes is one of the best things about DCUO

MD: That’s something I would have the Creative Director walk through. I can’t get too deep into the raiding side of it. Myself, I’ve been with Sony for three years and it was my first time on an MMO [on SW:G]. So of course the very first thing they say is “go play World of Warcraft.” And once you have a level 80 character, go learn what an MMO is all about. Being in the industry for over 17 years and working on every game console you can think of and jumping into an MMO is the biggest thing you can ever work on. This is something so epic that you can’t even wrap your head around. What we’re really trying to do here is to take the best of the MMO side and the best of the action side and merge it together. We want to get the console players who are jumping in here, who are maybe kind of gunshy when you say MMO – [the kind that goes] “Oh, I don’t have 100 hours to go through there and I don’t want to have to mine gold or knit weavings into a cape” and it’s almost like a training. It’s to teach them what the best parts of an MMO are but to keep up the action of the console side of the game. We do know from the past experiences is that the number one thing in an MMO is your endgame. There has to be an endgame when you hit level 30 there has to be something there that was worth your time getting there. Geoff Johns [Superman, Flash] and Marv Wolfman [Blade, The New Teen Titans], who are some of the most prolific comic book writers in history. I mean, they reinvented the way we look at comic books today and they wrote the back story, both the villains’ side and the heroes’ side, to make sure that it’s an epic journey and when you get there, that the end story is there for you. [There are also] the larger PvP raids [and] larger arenas. And you know, in WoW you play as a tank and the next thing you want to do is [you want to] play as a healer. We let you swap out your powers as you’re going along to let you switch those roles as you go through it. Up until level 15 where you really set your role. What we want you to do is it’s not just what role you you’re going to play, but what power you’re going to have – what movement type, what hero or villain you can create – to run those same events and how does that change affect it.

GN: Comparing the two projects [Star Wars: Galaxies and DCUO], which one did you enjoy more?

MD: SW:G still has a large fan base and it’s one of those games where Sony took on a big chunk of creating the first Star Wars MMO – with that experience, we’ve learned a lot. Moving forward, we took that into what the DC Universe was about. I think the number one thing we learned from SW:G is there is nothing more important to our game than the fans. It’s got to be the fans. We spent the first three years making the game that we wanted, and for the last two years it’s about making the game that the fans want. Let’s see how they feel and if it’s what they’re looking for. On top of that, throwing the DC license on there – these fans are die hards, and they will nitpick every single thing you put into this game. “Sorry, in Batman 215 that wouldn’t have happened.” And they’d be absolutely right. We have 70 years of comic books that we have to stay true to so what we really want to do is focus on what the fun part of an MMO action game is, and what is also fun about being a superhero. So what we tried to do when we mixed those two together is to take the best of both worlds and stay true to the license and stay true to the fans of the MMO side.

Look for the next part in the series, which contains some topics related to DC comic books.

Currently, you can choose from the regular Sackboy, a Sackboy with his tongue hanging out, or a Tron-esque neon Sackboy. Each figure comes with a pop-up lasso and stickers.

Product specifications:

• A tiny and fun way to bring LittleBigPlanet into your real life.
• Three different figures: Sackboy Regular, Sackboy Tongue (aka: Happy Sackboy), and Neon.
• Multiple points of articulation, including a ball-jointed head.
• Pop-it Lasso is bendy for grabbing fun.
• Includes: Figure, Pop-it Lasso, and sticker sheet.
• Dimensions: 4″ tall (duh).

These are cute, and perfect for the LBP lover in your life.  It’s almost a shame they don’t offer a bundle option for those who want them all, or a set of snap-on clothing to customize your little Sackboy figure.

[Source: ThinkGeek.com]

Listed below are the games that will be affected by the shutdown (* denotes a game with online achievements):

• FIFA 07
• FIFA 08 *
• FIFA 09 *
• FIFA Street 3 *
• Fight Night Round 3
• Madden NFL 09
• NBA LIVE 08
• NBA LIVE 09 *
• NCAA March Madness 08 *
• NCAA Basketball 09 *
• NCAA Football 07
• NCAA Football 08 *
• NCAA Football 09 *
• NFL Head Coach 09 *
• NHL 08 *
• NHL 09 *
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09 *
• UEFA EURO 2008 *

For those of you who are gamer score enthusiasts, this is essentially a last call for these games and their online achievements.

The figure stops and rests his hand upon the sturdy relic before drawing it out of the loop. More wings begin to beat in unison, more fangs drip with insatiable hunger. With a small flick of his wrist, a long, spiked chain hits the floor with a heavy thud, liberated from the confines of the cross. The wings all halt for a brief second, and there is naught but breathing between the horde and the strong, imposing form of Gabriel Belmont, first of the famous clan.

Then – a battle cry from both sides, the whip chittering in anticipation along the stone floor, and the slaughter begins.

This is the world of Castlevania. I have not seriously played any other Castlevania game, so I suppose I was immune to a lot of the criticism that fell upon this 3D endeavour.  Some would say that makes me unqualified to review this iteration, but I think it enables me to judge it on its independent merits alone. Lords of Shadow is one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played this year. It combines a host of themes and gameplay styles from a number of different titles, but envelops them all in a distinctive style. I have not seen such beautifully crafted landscapes in a long time, and while part of the appeal of it was its linearity (having played little but free roamers for so long), the scope and dedication to the design resonates in the execution.

Gabriel travels through the deep recesses of an ancient city, the titular Castle, bogs, marshes, ruined mountain towns, and what seems to be the dusty ends of creation itself, and it all is beautifully designed and sculpted from the same vision.

Gabriel is an enjoyable character. He is both mired by his conviction to his quest and riddled with self-doubt and agony over the death of his beloved. His quest is to not only defeat the various Lords of Shadow, but also to reincarnate his wife. They recruited convincing vocal talent, including Patrick Stewart as Zobek, a knight errant of the same order as Gabriel, who narrates every level opening, and Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, The Full Monty) as Gabriel.

I think one of the reasons I found this game so satisfying, aside from the art direction and gameplay, was after all the comparisons my friends kept making to God of War, I enjoyed this experience more than Kratos’s forays into madness. Gabriel is a human character and he hurts and emotes as you go through the game, whereas Kratos just rages all the time nonstop without end. Whereas some would say the combat is stolen from God of War, I would argue that Castlevania did everything God of War did first.

The musical accompaniment is suitably haunting with riveting accelerations during tense boss battles and quiet, contemplative tracks during the many puzzles. The puzzles were especially enjoyable, shifting back and forth between obvious and devious like a pendulum. As you encounter each Lord of Shadow, you discover more and more about the order you belong to, the Guardians of Light, and the intrinsic sense of balance of the world. This follows suit all the way up to the game’s powerful conclusion and intense ending.

The gameplay is laced with an interesting magic concept revolving around light and dark magic, which is activiated by either the left or right shoulder buttons, and gives you the ability to either heal yourself by dealing damage (light side) or simply deal more damage (dark side). There’s no moral compass, it’s just more of a “you must know the dark to see the light” sort of jazz. The game takes a fervent and intense turn when you’re forced to switch back and forth on the fly during later boss battles. I found myself intensely focused on the proceedings, due to the whole split-second response time necessary. The various weapons and abilities you unlock are cool and actually appear on your body as you acquire them, which resolves something that has always bugged me about some games. By the end of the game, you’re decked out in some pretty awesome gear. The only thing I would’ve loved more is if Gabriel looked all harrowed and beat up like Batman did by the end of Arkham Asylum. However, it works within the context of the game, so I didn’t exactly hate that they didn’t do it. The animation is brilliant as well, whether it be in game, or cinematic. The boss kills are always very impressive and satisfying.

One of the best aspects I really have to admire about Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is that the game has a great sense of progression; every aspect of the game ramps up in awesomeness. You start off encountering small titans for certain Shadow of The Colossus-inspired boss battles, then each subsequent battle after that the scale is increased ten fold! The combat starts off simple, then gets steadily harder and more complex as more abilities and flourishes become available. Even the environments start off almost conservative, then as you advance, you’re shifting whole towers around and scaling massive, impossible land masses. The castle that you spend about a third of the game exploring is so massive that it seems to be a whole mountain range, ascending to scrape the sky and plunging deep into the earth.  In the various scrolls you uncover on the corpses of your fallen brothers, you read tidbits of information that help you sink further into the universe, give you bits of information about enemies or puzzles ahead, or even give nods to other great games, such as a “Great ‘Dekuh’ Tree” or “The Cake is a lie” references that litter the corners and forgotten passages of the world.

As I’ve stated before, the concept art behind this game cannot be overlooked for it is simply divine. It is some of the most beautiful and detailed work I’ve ever seen go into a game. Whether it is the simple ink illustrations in your skillbook that animate and show you different combo abilities, the gorgeous, massive, wallpaper-worthy works that are unlocked after various encounters and levels, or the awesome quick storyboards showing the progression of the final kill animation, I adore them all. I wish I could capture each one in a print book because I tend to buy those things the instant they’re offered.

Aside from minor grievances like “I shouldn’t have jumped there,” or the occasional glitch, my main complaint would be the saving bug that affected the game a few months prior, and stopped my play entirely for about a week or so, but has since been remedied by the developers. I had progressed up to the final boss battle when my console froze and abruptly restarted with all of my progress locked away. Another complaint is the locked camera. It encounters issues if you move back and forth in certain areas, or if you push yourself into a corner, which disorients it. Mostly, if you avoid those areas, you tend to be rather well off, especially considering this is one of the best implementations of fixed cameras I’ve seen in a game.

I’ve since beaten the game again and unlocked a number of things past that point, so the save complaint is moot. The length added to the frustration with losing the save game because this is not a short adventure. I was pleasantly surprised that this game took at least 40 hours or so to finish, and that was on medium difficulty. With many of the encounters already being quite a struggle, I can only imagine how difficult the two later levels would become.

Castlevania : Lords of Shadow is a stellar title, and with the hearty dose of artwork to unlock at the end of each level, I was subjected to one of the most engaging, immersive, dark, and beautiful games I’ve ever seen. I recommend this title for anyone looking for a good third-person platformer, a videogame art-nut, or really anyone looking for some good old-fashioned fun, with a new flavour. Castlevania will offer all you need to waste a week away.

Another cool thing is that you can customize your character to look any way you want despite the equipment that you’re actually wearing. “The biggest goal is that we want you to look and feel like the hero or villain that you want to be,” said Michael Daubert, Studio Art Director [Star Wars: Galaxies]. “The cool thing about that is that you can change how you look every time you log in.” How it works is that there is a Style menu, and you can customize all the different things that affect the look of your character on that screen. I rocked the military beret when I picked it up, but now I’m back to the old school spandex hood. You can pick up items that unlock different styles, so that you have more freedom as you progress.

I think this guy chose Fire.

Something I didn’t realize until Daubert brought it up was that the day/night cycles that is common in MMOs was omitted in this game, and it was a design choice: “Gotham is always at night time, [and] Metropolis is during the day. We did that on purpose because we wanted to capture the feel of what Gotham always is. And Gotham during the day just isn’t fun. You want to have it at night time. A lot of times in the comics, when they portray Metropolis, it’s always the bright golden daylight… the City of Tomorrow feel.” He added, “seeing Batman during the day – it just didn’t feel right.”

Weather effects are still intact though, and in fact there are some nice little touches. For example, Mr. Freeze’s area will start to snow instead of rain and Scarecrow’s area has a pervasive mist from the fear toxins. The Unreal Engine shines in this respect, and helps the game look great overall. Metropolis feels like Freedom Force and Gotham feels entirely different.

The character creation in the game allows you to select a movement type (Flying/Acrobatic/Super Speed), a main power type such as fire and ice (this is basically your class), and a mentor (gadgetry/super powers/magic) that determines the faction you start with and the gear you buy from the vendors, as well as your starting city. The customization of your appearance is not as in depth as some other offerings, but you can choose your body size as well as your starting costume.

As with any new MMO, getting oriented can be quite difficult. In order to help players explore and to give background on the many areas of the game, DCUO provides a chain of quests, narrated by the silly Booster Gold, that basically ask you to tour the cities, and even the headquarters. In addition, there are these neat little timed races that help you get oriented with your movement mode, and eventually master it. They are different depending on your movement type and are meant as something to do while you wait for an Alert (dungeon) or Player versus Player (PvP) battle to pop, but I enjoyed them so much that I’ve just been racing through them (pun optional) to get the Platinum rating on each one.

The variety of costumes is one of the best things about DCUO

The game is tailored to the console players, and SOE confirms that the PS3 is their primary target. Since the game only has one build that works both on the PS3 and PC, there are several design choices that are clearly influenced by the players who will be using controllers as opposed to keyboards. “We want to get the console players who are jumping in here who may be a little gun shy when they hear about an MMO… it’s almost like training. It’s teaching them what the best parts of an MMO are but still keeping that fast paced action,” explains Daubert. To that end, you won’t find any tradeskills or crafting in the game. In addition, you can only have 6 active powers on your action bar at once. This is probably due to the controller having limited buttons and is something I disliked about Guild Wars, but you can try to build your skills around it a little bit in order to avoid having too many active skills that aren’t being used.

Not all the console influence is bad, however. There are these information hotspots littered throughout the cities and if you collect all the ones in an area, you get a reward. The whole thing feels a lot more like something you’d see from Batman: Arkham Asylum than World of Warcraft.

On the PvP side, there are two different options: Play as your own character, or play as one of the Legends, such as Batman or Harley Quinn. The one map I played on was a Team Fortress 2 style mode, where each team tries to control different points on the map in order to score points. More maps are unlocked as you level. The co-operative Player versus Environment (PvE) involves Alerts and end game Raids, which involve such iconic locations as the Batcave. I am not high enough level to access the Raids, but the Alerts that I’ve done seem a bit chaotic. Whereas World of Warcraft groups are fairly co-ordinated affairs, DCUO allows your team to split up and still do okay.

The game has been fun enough so far that I can definitely recommend a trial – especially for those curious about MMOs but are afraid that they will become highly addictive. DC Universe is very friendly to casual play and doesn’t involve farming for materials of any kind. Plus, the gameplay resembles your average action game more than World of Warcraft. PSN Plus members can download this Beta for free right now from the PSN Store, and PC players can pre-order a copy in order to get into the Beta. Have you tried DCUO? Show us your character in the comments or let us know what you think of it! Also, keep an eye out for our interview with Michael Daubert later this week.

Hard Corps: Uprising (PSN, XBLA) [Q1 2011]

The game “heavily inspired” by Contra: Hard Corps does a great job of resurrecting the look and feel of the Contra franchise, right down to the power up capsules with wings. In addition to the pleasant graphics, the revival of familiar weapon upgrades (such as the Spread), and the renowned difficulty of the old school series, Uprising promises some improvements as well.

One, there will be both online and offline co-op play. Two, there are gameplay improvements, such as the very useful dash move, as well as an air dash. The weapon power up system was upgraded and players can now upgrade their weapons three times for each power up, on top carrying TWO weapons. And three, people will actually be able to pass the game through the Uprising mode, which is a mode where you can collect points and spend those points to power up your character in order to make things a little easier. “We decided to throw gamers a bone since most people have a queue of games that they’re playing,” said a Konami rep. Fear not though, hardcore gamers! An Arcade mode is also available if you want to try to beat the game with three lives and three continues. Since we were on the topic of difficulty, I couldn’t help but ask about the famous Konami code, which was made popular by the original Contra: “You’ll find out. That’s all I’ll say,” the rep said coyly after a very long silence, “you’ll have to try it for yourself.” She might as well have just said it would work!

Another reason to be excited about this game? The development studio involved is Arc System Works, the people that were responsible for BlazBlue, the fighting game that became a cult hit, and Guilty Gear X, which… is also a fighting game that also became a cult hit. So if nothing else, we’ll be treated to great visuals and smooth gameplay.

Rush’n Attack Ex-Patriot (PSN, XBLA) [Q2/Q3 2011]

This game looks a lot like Shadow Complex, which is a good thing. This 2.5D action combat game is based on Systema, the martial art used by the badass Russian Spetsnaz commandos. I once watched an episode of Deadliest Warrior featuring a Spetsnaz, and yeah, I don’t ever want to cross one. I’m not even sure I’d ever want to meet one, on the chance that I might cross one. However, someone else did cross one by imprisoning Sid Morrow’s buddies. Now he’s going to break them out of prison, which leads him on an epic adventure to battle something involving some kind of weaponized biochemical.

Set 20 years after the Cold War, this revival contains serious cartoon violence and ninja (i.e., wall) jumping puzzles. From what I played, the action parts are fast paced if you just want to dash and slash, but you could also hide in dark rooms and wait for enemies to pass by before pouncing on them. There were night vision goggles power up and a body armour power up, both of which were lost when I died. The combat animations of the close quarters combat were neat to see.

X-Men: The Arcade Game (PSN Dec. 14, 2010, XBLA Dec. 15, 2010)

One of my all time favourite arcade titles, I can’t count the limitless number of quarters I lost to this side scrolling beat ‘em up. This 6 player online co-op adventure features red Sentinels AND green Sentinels – Green Sentinels with guns! There is also an option to play 4 players in case no one wants to play Dazzler and Cyclops. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade Game, D&D: Shadow Over Mystara, River City Ransom, Final Fight, and this game probably make up the co-op sidescrolling canon, so if you haven’t tried it, the $10 USD points equivalent is well worth it.

Dance Dance Revolution (X360) [Q1 2011]

It’s already out for the PlayStation 3, but now it’s also coming to the Xbox 360. My wife will be excited. It’s funny how I show her the Kinect stuff but she still wants DDR with a dance pad instead. I guess controllers aren’t obsolete quite yet, even for the casual crowd. Konami confirms that there will be downloadable songs and many of the old favourites from other games will be available.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (PC, PS3, X360) [already released!]

I’m not a big soccer fan, but man, the games have great visuals. This year, the game features an exclusive license with the Copa Libertadores league as well as an all new camera and passing system. “[It's] more than just add-ons and features, there’s actually a whole new gameplay element here,” Konami promises. “When you play, you’ll get that sense of authenticity and theatre of soccer.” He also stressed the amount of freedom players have over their lineup and strategy, such as putting Messi on the wing if they wanted to.

When asked about any plans to infiltrate the eSports scene in North America (where FIFA seems to reign supreme), he said that they already have a presence in Europe and Latin America but have not considered North America yet. You soccer fans out there will have to tell me how this would play as a competitive game.

Sadly, there is no headbutt to the chest button and no cover your face button, which are the only two things I know about soccer. They tell me you CAN do some “wicked back tackles” though.

Karaoke Revolution: Glee (Wii) [also already released]

Based on the first part of the first season of Glee, this game actually features about 30 minutes of exclusive footage from Fox from the show. I don’t watch this show, but I did enjoy the Karaoke Revolution games in the privacy of my own home. This comes bundled with a microphone so you’ll be ready to go out of the package. This sounds like a good Christmas gift for that extended family member who watches Glee. You know the one.

Do your friends look like this?

There are six episodes in total and each one will last anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes depending on how fast you are at solving the riddles.  Once you’ve selected your character you are then thrown into a story of murder and mystery all taking place in the same town.  One of the first things I noticed was that the voice actor did a hilarious job; it made the game feel campy, but not in a bad way.  The narrator is purposely over dramatic, spoofing earlier mystery movies and television shows. This isn’t a game you can take very seriously, but it doesn’t want to be.  I’m actually fairly certain that the same person did the voices for every character in the game – male and female – which just added to the absurdity.

The puzzles themselves range from being overly easy to stupidly hard, which is okay since you’re never forced to answer any of them to progress the story.  If you can’t finish one you can simply give up and the answer will then be explained to you.  Once you finish a puzzle you’ll be awarded either a bronze, silver or gold ribbon depending on how you do.  Time is a large factor in which ribbon you’ll receive at the end, and if you want the gold ribbon then you won’t be permitted to make any mistakes.  Get it wrong once, and it’s a silver ribbon for you!  Completing puzzles also fills the progress bar at the bottom of the screen, which affects your overall score at the end of the episode.  There are also short pop quizzes in between the puzzles that solely test your observation skills and how well you were paying attention to the dialogue. After solving a puzzle, the narrator will either cheer you on or jeer at you and this is honestly one of the few things I didn’t enjoy very much about the game. The narrator can be a real jerk and sometimes he just talks far too much.

Another thing that I wasn’t keen on was that at the end of Episode One I felt as though I wasn’t given enough clues as to who the murderer was.  I went purely on intuition, but fortunately the other episodes weren’t as vague with their clues.  The episodes also could have been a lot longer in length.  All of these issues are easily overlooked in light of the hysterical writing, and there were several moments where I found myself laughing out loud to myself. The art style of the game made me reminisce about the earlier days of Sierra Online, specifically the game Pepper’s Adventures in Time.  The characters are all very cartoony and have a very distinctive charm to them and while the graphics aren’t anything to write home about, they fit the light hearted mood very well.   Since it is a casual game, it won’t take you long to finish the game in its entirety and it doesn’t offer much replay value but its price point makes it a good buy if only to pass the time for a few minutes here and there.  The game is available on PSN, Amazon.com and Steam and would make a decent and inexpensive Christmas gift.

There are new faceoff options, such as tying up your opponent.

For one, if last year’s game had any issue it was that it played way too fast. You could sort of just glide around the ice like Bobby Orr, skate into the slot with extreme ease, and take undefended shots on the goalie all game. NHL 11 slows  things down. Not to a boring degree, but just to a pace where you really have to set up plays and work hard for your opportunities. I grew up playing EA Sports hockey games. The reason those early games work so well is that they perfectly balance realism and fun. It’s something that most sports games today struggle with mightily, but an area where NHL 11 seems to flourish. I almost feel as if the developers have a real appreciation for those old Genesis and SNES games. It’s almost as if they channel the spirit of those classic games.

I’d also say that it’s probably the most immersive sports game on the market, and likely the most immersive sports game ever made. Your skating is controlled by the left analog stick, while your hockey stick is controlled by the right. It’s been honed this year and works extremely well most of the time. One issue is that occasionally your passes and shots don’t really do what you want them to. Sometimes you just want to drop a pass back to a teammate skating behind you in the offensive zone and you wire it back to your own blueline instead.

Opening a star player can earn you a lot of pucks on the marketplace.

The game is also filled with robust features as usual. The Be A GM mode is fantastic. I think an underrated aspect of this game is just how good the management features are. The trading, signing, and coaching aspects of this game are the best I’ve ever seen in a sports game. I’m a big fan of sports management sims like Baseball Mogul and NHL Eastside Manager, and the joy I got out of building a championship calibre Leafs team in this game was completely unparalleled by any other console sports game.

The Be A Pro mode is also rather good. I’m not a huge fan of these types of modes in sports games but I found the mode to be quite enjoyable. Having to make line changes and play good two way hockey is fun and challenging. The online play is also very solid.

A new physics engine lets you really appreciate a good check.

The other big new mode this year is the Hockey Ultimate League. In this you are given a pack of hockey cards from which you build a team. You earn pucks, which you can buy new packs with, or bid for cards in the auction house. You can then take your team and play against the CPU or against another human online. You also have to worry about team chemistry while training and developing your players. This mode has been used in EA Sports games before, but this is the first time it has been included in the NHL series. It is a neat and addictive game mode.

They have also included broken sticks in the new game. It is kind of amusing and cool to see. Also added is a new faceoff system and real time physics engine. These features are kind of neat but what is most important  is just the fact that the gameplay is just so refined, and so well executed.

I can’t hate NHL 11 because it isn’t just a brilliant hockey game – it’s a brilliant videogame. It’s one of the best games of the year, and one of the best sports games ever made. If you love hockey it’s an absolute must buy.

Boutin was visibly nervous while speaking, and that may have something to do with the fact that English is not his native language (he is from Montreal), but he still explained his job and the work he performed very well.  He went on to talk about the director of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Paul Robertson, with whom he shares a good rapport.  According to Boutin, Robertson is responsible for all of the character designs in the game; he laughed while he clicked around the screen during his presentation and remarked that Robertson does all of his animation with a mouse, which is something he has trouble fathoming.

Universal Studios helped out with the project by sending lots and lots of reference pictures to Boutin’s team so they could better understand what they needed to put into the game, though Boutin took a couple of creative liberties here and there.  In addition to the pictures, he also visited Toronto one weekend and walked around the city.  He took tons of pictures and visited local hot spots such as Sneaky Dee’s, but due to licensing restraints they weren’t able to use the actual logos and names in the game.  Still, while playing the game you may notice familiar places with slightly altered logos in homage to the places Boutin visited.

Unfortunately in December of 2009, the project hit a wall and was cancelled.  The company told Boutin and his team that they wanted to make better use of their talents and reassigned them to different projects.  The team spent 6 months in Montreal trying to find someone else to pick up the game, but were unsuccessful.  Eventually the project was moved to a new Ubisoft studio in China, and Boutin and his team made the very, very long journey overseas.  The game seemed to be resurrected finally, and Boutin claimed he had never worked so hard in his entire life.

The hard worked paid off, and we were treated to a very cool visual presentation.  Boutin showed us all of the pictures he took around the city right beside the video game Toronto, and it was absolutely amazing to see.  When it came to the other levels, he says he created “puzzle pieces” out of the graphics he created, and then pieced them carefully together.  Once he was finished showing us how the levels were created he flipped to another picture in his presentation, this time of the menu select screen.  Most gamers will recognize the character selection screen in Scott Pilgrim from Super Mario Bros. 2, which Boutin says is “the coolest selection screen ever.”

Boutin could have probably talked all day about the game but he ran out of time.  There was a very short Q&A after he was finished speaking, and someone asked him what kind of program was used to create the game.  Boutin didn’t seem as though he knew how to really answer this question and said that it was a “homemade program” that Robertson used on his computer that he might’ve taken with him from another project.  Scott Pilgrim vs. the World went through many trials and tribulations, but Boutin says that they all made the best out of a bad situation.  If time wasn’t an issue, Boutin says that he would have loved to work even more on the game.  Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game is available on the PSN and Xbox Live Marketplace and features music from Anamanaguchi.

The Force Unleashed 2 is a sequel to the acclaimed The Force Unleashed, which featured some of the first tastes of Euphoria physics and Digital Molecular Matter object simulations in a game. This lent to shockingly realistic glass, wood and steel, while also providing physics-based, reactionary movement in the bodies of the enemies you would fling about the level. The original plot focused on the life of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. He was trained to hunt down the Jedi who survived Order 66. He turns to the Light side and fights against him. Eventually, due to his intervention, the Rebel Alliance is born.

This game expands on the story, taking place during the fledgling days of Rebellion, and Vader’s apparent attempts to recreate his apprentice in a Kamino cloning lab, even though no clone could be imbued with the Force thus far. The plot takes you from Kamino to hanging cities on Cato Nemoidia and even Dagobah, home of the now-exiled Yoda. The level design is apt, each area featuring a wide variety of objects and enemies to play with.

Colour keys range from the sterile bluish-grey of Kamino to the warm, royal reds and golds in Cato Nemoidia. The Apprentice also looks better than ever, with an updated and refined character model. His acting has a wider range, with him showing more rage and frustration than before. He’s become more of an animal within the cloning facility. The gameplay is succinct, with the Force powers having an even more explosive effect on Stormtroopers and the various specialty troopers and droids you face. The animations are still solid, and the combat is slightly expanded upon but feels basically like the first game, except with a second lightsaber. There’s nothing really wrong with this, aside from the frustrations I felt with the dodging mechanic and the time it took Starkiller to right himself after being knocked down.  The new Force Fury ability – a staple of most over the top third-person action/adventure games – lets you become invincible and overpowered for a brief period of time. It is actually exhilarating to perform, as each attack is a flurry of light (he begins to just throw the sabers everywhere, instead of the usual acrobatic combo) and his Force powers become a never-ending tsunami.

So that’s what’s good about The Force Unleashed 2: The acting, gameplay, and level design. The bad resides in the length. Alongside some costumes to unlock, saber crystals to collect, which have different effects, and trials to complete, there are some rather amusing and well written data files about all the characters, enemies and locations. However, a friend and I picked this game up, excited to devote a few evenings to the ensuing insanity, and we were surprised and disappointed when we reached the final, climactic boss battle a mere six hours into the game. The game sets itself up for a sequel, which is a little redeeming, but at the same time, I felt let down because as thrilling as the ride was, it was pitifully short.

Certain amazing set encounters and the gameplay make this a game worth checking out, but much like a snack, it feels like a stepping stone to a bigger meal later on.

“We’re delighted the Online Co-op is ready and going live – as a thank you to the patient Xbox gamers, and for a limited time only we will be giving away our first DLC pack for free. Download it, have a go and while you’re there try the online co-op mode, it’s great fun,” encourages Darrell Gallagher, General Manager of Crystal Dynamics.

The DLC and title update will be coming soon for the PS3 and PC, but no word about whether the DLC will be free for those platforms also.

This would most likely have been a review, instead of the veritable cacophony of dismay that I’m laying down before you. I have suffered from a fairly common glitch among PS3 users when playing Lords of Shadow. Several people have experienced a game glitch where the save file corrupts itself and all progress thus far is deleted or overwritten as the game makes a new autosave.  Basically, all of your progress is deleted.  Now for some, this can happen as early as the third chapter. For me?  It happened during the final fight in the game. Like right at the end. Basically as I was delivering the killing blow.

Devastating.

Konami has released a response to the understandable outcry among players, stating:

“Fear not, Vampire Killers. A patch for the PS3 save issue affecting Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is incoming. We’ll update on availability.”

And that was all.  I don’t want to dissuade you all from buying this game, it is an excellent experience that I would recommend for anyone. I only ask that you back up your saves frequently until the patch is released, so you’re not left picking up the pieces.

If any of you have experienced this glitch, or similar save file deletions, why not share them? Let’s start a help group.

———————–
A patch has since been released via auto-download onto the PS3. A few other issues were addressed, such as making the text easier to read for smaller TV’s. Enjoy guys.

The 3D was not as well done as Call of Duty: Black Ops. I can’t adequately explain it, but it was almost like the 3D didn’t add much actual depth. The graphics were very decent though. The sequence that I played started with my squad flying along in the gunship, shooting out some targets with the turret. This worked like a shooter on rails so nothing too spectacular, but it was cinematic. Predictably though the gunship gets shot down and the squad gets stranded. The little bit of drama and voice acting I witnessed was a little painful, but that’s to be expected. It was about on par with Gears of War, except without the visceral gameplay or brilliant cover system to make up for it. There was a cover system, but it felt a bit clunky when I tried it. However, fans of the series will probably feel right at home.

In fact, the best part about the Killzone display was the employee dressed up in the full Killzone armour. I’m hoping that when this game releases on February 22nd, 2011, it will have a lot more to offer than just another generic marine-based FPS.

At the start of the game, you’re immediately thrown into the action without any explanation as to where Sonic has been all these years and what he’s been doing.  This actually required a little bit of research on my part, so I headed to the official Sonic the Hedgehog 4 website.  Here’s the situation since Sonic & Knuckles:

Sonic has destroyed Dr. Eggman’s space station, the Death Egg.  Sonic decides that after his task is finished, he’s going to split up from Knuckles and Tails and take a break somewhere on his own.  Unfortunately for him, the vacation’s over before it ever really begins because Dr. Eggman has survived the events of Sonic & Knuckles.  Sonic must then traverse through four different zones in order to defeat his latest robotic creations.

It would have been nice if this had been explained at the start of the game, but oh well – not a big deal I guess.  What is a big deal is how frustrating the game can become in such a short amount of time.  You start off in the Splash Hills Zone, which should definitely look familiar to anyone who has ever played a 2D side scrolling Sonic game.  However, it differs from the Sonic formula in that it is a 2.5D side-scrolling game.  For those who are unsure of what 2.5D means, it’s when the graphics are 2 1/2 dimensional and give the illusion that something is in 3D when it really isn’t.  The music isn’t terrible but compared to its predecessors it just doesn’t hold a candle.  After a while it even becomes mildly irritating and just isn’t nearly as catchy as it should be.  Moving Sonic with the thumb stick is leaps and bounds easier than using the D-Pad, which is a little odd but is nothing too vexing.

All of the early Sonic elements are present, and yet something feels…off.  Something is missing.  Don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination.  It isn’t broken, though the physics are not the best.  The difficulty curve is downright ruthless: It starts off nice and simple in the Splash Hills Zone and then once you hit the Casino Street Zone, you may find yourself screaming at your television.  It’s challenging, which is great considering the game’s length, but it’s far from a pleasant experience overall.

The level designs often give you the impression that the developers just don’t like you very much. The enemy placement is almost cruel, giving you very little time to react.  The special stages are all pretty cool and instead of moving Sonic around the swirly kaleidoscope maze, you move the entire level around him.  They’re well done, though I almost never got to experience them since I kept missing the giant ring at the end of each level.  I would run so fast I’d miss it completely and the game doesn’t allow you to quickly correct yourself and run backward.  Nope, you’re done.  If you missed it, that’s too bad.  Try slowing down next time.  Each of the four zones includes 3 acts and of course, a boss fight.  The boss fights range from dull and simple to obnoxiously difficult.  The level select screen is a nice new touch and is esthetically pleasing to look at it.  If you grow tired of the Casino Street Zone, you can try your hand at Lost Labyrinth instead.

The graphics are crisp but lack the usual Sonic charm and are devoid of any personality whatsoever. SEGA didn’t completely screw up, I just don’t think Episode 1 is worthy of a $15 price tag.  The game is a short albeit difficult romp that may prompt dyed-in-the-wool Sonic fans to cringe in distaste.  I felt many periods of déjà vu.  Haven’t I played the Lost Labyrinth Zone already?  I could have sworn I did in a previous Sonic game.  Those who have never played a 2D Sonic game may become easily frustrated and discouraged from making it to the final boss.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 gives me funny feelings.  This game lacks a soul, but maybe I feel this way because the game doesn’t feel like a true sequel.  It’s not bad and it’s not good but I still feel vaguely disappointed.  It feels a lot more like a remake than anything else, which is okay but just doesn’t nourish the desire for a direct and canon sequel.  After sixteen years I still don’t feel sated, but perhaps this is a strong indication that it’s time to finally let go.  Or, I could just wait for Sonic Colors to come out.

Click here to watch the video

With a wave of the Move controller I could get Gandalf to shoot fireballs at my enemies or press a button and launch a ground attack with his staff.  Aragorn used his sword to attack his foes, which usually amounted to spiders and wolves.  We ran around the landscape freely and when we would get lost or forget what our objective was, we could press a button to find the correct path.  A sparkling beam of light would pop up on the screen and illuminate the way through the trees and grassy knolls.

While the Move controls felt a little clunky and not as intuitive as they could have been, I enjoyed myself.  The hardcore Tolkien fans may not enjoy the liberties that have been taken with the lore, but for everyone else it delivers some amusement, especially when playing co-op with a friend.  Most of what we played involved seeking out other members to round out the fellowship and doing the tasks we were given.  For example, Boromir would only join the Fellowship if you were able to defeat him in a duel.

This duel could only be done by Aragorn, so I had to sit out while I watched Don smack Boromir around with his sword.  Once we made it to Rivendell we were given the task to find Merry and Pippin, two of the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Now that I think about it, we never did find them.  I wonder what happened to them? (Editor’s note: We never caught up to the orcs that had them) Don and I seemed to disagree as far as the graphics were concerned.  My opinion was that the graphics were stylized and appealing in a cartoonish-sort of way.  Don said they appeared dull and flat and were in need of some textures.  Whatever floats your boat!

I wasn’t too fond of being given mundane quests.  If I wanted to go kill x amount of y, I would play an MMORPG instead.  That kind of gameplay just doesn’t leave a great taste in my mouth.  Overall it was a pretty different and fun experience in Middle Earth, but I have a feeling it won’t have much lasting appeal to the older crowd.  This one seems great for kids, though.  Aragorn’s Quest is available now for the PlayStation 2 and 3, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, and the Nintendo Wii.

Either way, if you purchased Borderlands on Steam, check your downloadable content in order for a chance to get an early look at the long-awaited, Bruce Campbell quoting over-the-top macho man in his upcoming foray.

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 released today, October 12th, 2010 and Duke Nukem Forever releases for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 sometime in 2011.

I ran through the city streets in pursuit of this mysterious limo, and used electrical wires to my advantage.  Sliding around on the wires with Cole’s lightning powers, I felt a little bit like Spider-Man, minus the web-slinging.  I scaled a few buildings via electric wires and eventually caught up to the limo and watched a brief cut scene of Cole leaping on top of it in order to confront the man inside.  After the limo cut scene was I left to my own devices in the most literal sense.

A helicopter began to barrage Cole with its turrets, and I was instructed to run for my life.  This was easily my favourite part of the demo, because this was the part where I was finally allowed to create electric vortexes to bring down the helicopter in a large and crazy explosion.  Pandemonium understandably broke out, and people flooded the streets in a panic.  Of course the most appropriate course of action at this point would be to cause more chaos, and that’s exactly what I did.  I continued to use my electric vortex to sweep up and maim innocent bystanders and destroy everything in Cole’s path, from mailboxes to cars.

I never played the first inFamous so I wasn’t really sure what to expect here, but what I played was pretty entertaining.  Throwing around lightning vortexes was infinitely more fun than just smacking around swamp monsters with my first, but overall the demo felt very complete and showed off a lot of the combat.  We’ll be seeing Infamous 2 sometime in 2011 and it will support the PlayStation Move [editor's note: no Move functionality was available in the version we played].

Click here to watch the video

Wanted is a mode where you are given a target, which is another player in the game. Before each spawn, you can choose your loadout of two tricks. An example combination that we saw was the Morph ability and Smoke Bombs, both evasive skills that let you blend in with the crowd and create a smoke cloud ninja-style respectively. The goal of each five minute round is to gather as many points as you can by killing your target and evading the person trying to kill you. These contracts have a limited time, and if you can get your pursuer to kill the wrong target by blending in with the other pedestrians or if you can lose them in an all out chase, then you will be awarded points for evasive action.

A circular radar on the bottom of your screen helps you track your target, and the circle will fill up depending on your proximity to your target. But even when you get to your target, unless they’re alone, you need to be sure they’re which person is the one you’re looking for before making the killing blow as there can be clones walking around at the same pace.

In the round I played it, it was intense. You want to hurry up and catch your target, but you don’t want to give away that you’re a player by running. The rooftop and alleys provide nice shortcuts but you’re a sitting duck if you get caught out there, so there are very different risk and reward dynamics than your average multiplayer game. Unlike most games, you spent most of your time walking and being patient. There were a few times when my pursuer would kill me just as I finished off my target, and that was a little frustrating, but I think next time I will just use an evasive skill right after I kill someone.

See how the mode plays for yourself below. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood releases for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on November 16th, 2010, and on PC in 2011.

Click here to watch the video

First off, I’m not sure about the technological specifics, but there seems to be two kinds of 3D technology being used: one that will make me dizzy and my eyes hurt, and one that is pleasant but still feels weird. For example: Avatar, the movie, was completely okay, but the screen before the movie that asked us to put on my glasses was completely blurry. Black Ops has the pleasant kind of 3D, where the depth of field just literally adds a dimension to the visuals without being too distracting. They demonstrated two single player missions and a multiplayer mode, and everything looked really cool. Nothing actually jumped out of the screen at us, but eventually I presume games will have bullets flying by our heads and we can watch the tracer lines come out of our screens to make us feel like we’re on Omaha beach. One thing I particularly enjoyed is the red dot from the laser actually feeling like it’s on the target. It’s pretty hard to describe the experience and we can’t show any video (one of the downsides of a 3D demonstration), but I think Call of Duty fans would not be disappointed if they invested in a pair of 3D glasses – if they already own a 3D ready television or video card.

Another thing that was cool about the demo was that there was an element of Real-time Strategy type gameplay in one of the missions, where you direct the squad to take cover or hide in buildings in order to avoid patrols. Sometimes there would be an action sequence when the player would go into first person mode to deal with the opposition first hand, and then revert back to the RTS mode. It helps to break the feeling that Black Ops is just generic First Person Shooter #4324255669.

The Activision rep said that the 3D feature is available on both PS3 and Xbox 360, as well as PC for people who have a fancy Nvidia card that supports the technology. I might actually be tempted to try a Call of Duty game since the original offering. Call of Duty: Black Ops releases for the PC, PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii on November 9th, 2010, but again: Only the first three will have the 3D option.

Side note: My favourite part of the demo was at the end, when Phil Kessel and Tyler Bozak came in to look at ‘Black Ops’. From the EA NHL Rookie event, we had heard from Nazem Kadri that the Leafs were more into ‘Call of Duty’ than EA’s NHL games, so maybe the rumours are true! I did later spot Mr. Kessel playing ‘Virtua Tennis’ with the Move controller and heard him exclaiming that it was “awesome!”

The interactions with Elizabeth are exciting, along with the terrifying “HIM” that occupies the tail end of the trailer. All in all it looks like a promising title. I find the idea of the tracks that you use as zip lines from platform to platform exciting and tense. Furthermore, he has a voice! I love hearing him strain as he nearly loses his arm from dropping from one platform to the next, and the conversations with Elizabeth seem natural and fluid.

Also, “FALL…… FALL!!!” is just excellent.

Apparently the buildings in the distance are actually floating in real time and can collapse or sway due to exterior factors.

What do you guys think? Was that enough for you to gush over?

Click here to watch the video

“The custom Collector’s Edition retail box of Enslaved contains a hard-backed high quality artbook featuring concept art and exclusive images documenting the development process of the game at the studios of Ninja Theory in Cambridge, UK. Music fans will be treated to a separate CD containing the original soundtrack from the game, written and produced by internationally renowned composer and musician Nitin Sawhney.”

No news on a price yet.

Furthermore, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow has a demo on PlayStation Network plus out now.

The new game is released on October 5th in North America, Oct. 7th/8th Worldwide. The demo will be available exclusively for one week from PSN+, but will be widely available on the standard PSN service from September 29th. Konami will also be releasing an Xbox 360 demo via Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade service, with dates to be confirmed.

The collector’s edition features a 30-40 page artbook and a soundtrack that has roughly 20 tracks from the game! It will set you back $80 CDN.

]]> http://gamenorth.ca/2010/09/22/enslaved-and-castlevania-lords-of-shadow-demos-out-now-on-psn-later-on-xbl/feed/ 0