The campaign sent me through “48 hours of hell” in Shanghai with so many story twists that I came to expect people would shoot me in the back. The whole idea is that your buddy Kane has flown in for a final job which should result in enough cash to leave his criminal past behind forever and go live with his daughter. Of course like any crime tale, things go to hell pretty quickly for an unknown reason, Lynch’s love interest Xiu gets involved, and there’s several bits of “goddamn” moments that take place. IO certainly does a great job at making you feel like you don’t know what’s going on, as well as throwing some taboo topics at you. I’m willing to bet that there are scenes in this game you haven’t seen before in the interactive medium. The squeamish should not apply.

Probably the most uninteresting part of Kane and Lynch 2 is its gameplay. You’ve been here and done it many times in the past with standard third person cover mechanics, complete with online and offline cooperative play. You’ll be able to stick to bits of cover if the game decides to let you, then you can pop up or out with the left trigger with a light touch magnetic targeting. Sometimes you’ll get knocked down and be able to crawl your way to cover while shooting at your enemies. Levels consist of narrow hallways followed by big open areas full of shoulder height bits of cover. Thankfully, at least all of the areas are interesting and cool. You’ll be able to carry two weapons at any time with the option to grab and throw some environmental explosives like fire extinguishers. Certain guns like the MAC-10 feel particularly ineffectual due to their spray and weak power, while other shotgun style weapons are far too powerful and accurate (I shouldn’t be able to take out an enemy with one shot from across a room with them). Still, there’s plenty of different implements to deal your death and it just takes some experimentation to figure out what fits your fancy.

The entire game is presented like you’re watching some sort of underground snuff film. Instead of having some omniscient, free floating camera behind the player, IO has decided to make it seem like someone is following you with a crappy camcorder the whole time. There’s bad lens flair, blood on the lens, color separation, and plenty of additional movement as the “cameraman” gives chase behind Lynch. This style is pervasive, from the menu icons to the loading screens that seem like you’re just waiting for a buffer off the internet. The coolest effect they added with throwing a mosaic pixelization on top of things that are too hot for TV. Genitals will be blurred out, as well as those times you shoot someone in the face which gives the impression that it’s way more gruesome than what you’ve seen before. If the shaky camera is a bit too much intense for your intestines to handle, you can turn it off, but the other visual effects remain on all the time.

Unfortunately, with the mess that is Shanghai there’s a bunch of annoying niggles that really detract and take you out of the experience. You’re supposed to be able to take human shields at any time but it’s restricted to enemies and often straight up just doesn’t work. Certain bits of cover aren’t usable despite them looking perfectly valid. If you die multiple times and reload to the previous checkpoint, you’ll get to hear whatever piece of dialog was just spoken repeated again and again. Sometimes you’ll lose full animations when swapping weapons, or that awesome blood splatter on the wall will have a hard edge due to a stupid texture seam. All of these detract from the immersion quite a bit.

Once the fairly short campaign is taken care of and you hit the unfortunately lame conclusion, there are three multiplayer modes waiting for your attention. They’ve even added a training mode dubbed ‘Arcade’. With Fragile Alliance, you’ll join up to seven other players and be thrown into a scenario which tasks you with doing variations on a smash and grab heist: Get in, get the loot, get away. If you get gunned down you’ll may respawn as an opposing force or just have to wait till the round is over. Biggest thing here is that friendly fire is always on and at any time a teammate can turn into a greedy prick, stealing your piece of the pie and your life away. It creates a interesting dynamic as you’re never entirely sure if you’ll all work together nicely or not, but doing it to much will alter your persistant title letting people know you’re a backstabber. Between rounds you’ll be able to jump into a purchase menu, letting you grab some upgraded firepower options with the cash you earned in previous rounds.

The other two modes are mild variations of Fragile Alliance. Undercover Cop is exactly the same as Fragile Alliance, however one of the criminals will always be chosen to play as… you guessed it, an undercover police man guy, tasked with stopping the heist in progress. Lastly, there’s a more competitive mode called Cops and Robbers which throws two teams of six against each other. While the core is completely solid and a ton of fun, the limited number of maps and complete lack of customization options feels like it may be a short lived affair. It’s obvious that we’ll see more maps in the future considering there’s three of them visible right now with a fat “You are missing required downloadable content” message. Also, some of the weapons you have the option of buying mid-round are locked out due to that pesky DLC virus.

Kane and Lynch 2 isn’t a perfect game by any stretch but I’d totally be lying if I said I didn’t have a ton of fun playing both the campaign and multiplayer modes. The camcorder approach to the in-game camera really gives it a unique look that never gets old and thankfully didn’t throw my in knots or make me dizzy. If you’re looking for a brutal, visceral experience with solid cover based shooting mechanics then this should certainly tide you over until Gears of War 3. Just be sure to put the kids to bed first.

Score: 4 out of 5

The Good
Camcorder visual presentation adds a needed and awesome layer of interest to the standard gameplay mechanics.
Brutal and unapologetic, but in a good way.
Fragile Alliance is pretty awesome.

The Bad
Fairly weak ending to a generally exciting story.
Plenty of spots could have used another coat of paint or polish.

The Ugly
DLC based multiplayer maps are already in the menus… That angers me.

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

Deathsmiles was originally released for Japanese Arcades in 2007 and has undergone several different revisions. Instead of just picking one version and going with it, Cave was kind enough to separate each one and include them on the disc. This allows you to experience each change to the formula going back to the original Arcade version, up to the most recent Mega Black Label. Within each version of the game, you’ll also get to select a difficulty level on a per-stage basis (with the exception of the final two stages). While they certainly could have just picked one version and released it as an Xbox Live Arcade title, I’m glad they went the full package route.

At the start of your game, you’ll get to choose one of four different teenage “witches” (five if you’re playing the Mega Black Label version) each with a familiar and a different attack style. The differences between them mostly cosmetic and related to the story. You get a button that will fire to the right, a button that will fire to the left, and a bomb button that’ll unleash a screen clearing attack. Holding down both right and left attacks will create a circle around you and you’ll auto target specific enemies within that radius. While holding down any attack button, your movement speed will be slowed slightly, so it’s in your best interest to let off on the firing once in a while. Lastly, while you’re fighting baddies, you’ll collect items which eventually allow you to turn on a sustained power attack until your item count drains out.

Playing the game is simple in concept but extremely tough to master. You choose your stage and difficulty, then fly from left to right blowing away a ton of creatures who all unleash a plethora of projectiles at you to the point where if you’re fighting each stage’s end boss, the screen is almost filled with them. If any bullets hit the core of your body, you’ll lose one of your three life units while running into an enemy will make you lose a half unit. Dropping all three units will force you to continue which resets your score. So, while you can get to the end of the game while continuing over and over, your score will be terrible. To assist in avoiding projectiles your familiar can absorb them granting you safe passage, but unless you’re playing v1.1 or above you don’t have direct control over them. Despite being a bullet hell title Deathsmiles really has a great “pick up and play” feel to it.

There’s a story here as well although it’s ancillary for sure. If I understand it correctly (which is difficult to do), the girls have been drawn into this other-world dimension and have been given special powers to fight demons, of which you do for nine or ten levels depending on your path. You’ll eventually meet Sakura who informs you that her dad is the cause of all the problems and you’re off to defeat him. While you can ‘beat’ the game in about a half hour, the main draw is to constantly improve yourself and score, hopefully at one point being able to get through all the levels, on MBL 999, without continuing. Other features include score attack mode with full Xbox Live Leaderboards to show of just how terrible you are against the rest of the world and Xbox Live Player Matches (even though I could never get into a game).

Graphically, Deathsmiles is presented in the same aspect ratio as the arcade which by default is not widescreen. However, Cave has included the option to stretch the image to fit your display which doesn’t decrease the playability or quality of the graphics. There’s usually a lot of stuff happening on the screen but sometimes you’ll experience a bit of slowdown that seems to emulate what could happen on certain arcade hardware. Due to that fact when playing on MBL 999 there’s more going on and the slowdown doesn’t happen nearly as much, it appears to be intentional and is pretty awesome anyway. Once you quit out of a game you’ll even have the option to save an entire replay of your session to watch at a later time with full VCR controls.

Manic shooters really have a niche audience and generally I’m not one of the people who plays them but Deathsmiles is one hell of a game. The amount of modes included really helps make it a more accessible experience for players of all skill levels. If games like Ikaruga piqued your interest but turned out to be just too hard to get anywhere in or even if you loved something like Geometry Wars, Deathsmiles will certainly offer the stepping stone you’ll need, as well as the required difficulty for seasoned players.

Score: 4 out of 5

The Good
Fast, frantic, and most importantly, fun.
Adjustable difficulty makes it a very accessible bullet hell shooter.
Options, options, options!

The Bad
Menu interface is a bit clunky and unintuitive.
Not a large community online for multiplayer games.

The Ugly
Tyrannosatan

Originally posted on Evil Avatar

Presented as a black and white 2D platformer with many shades of grey, you control the boy in fairly typical platforming controls. You’ve got a jump button, an action button and analog movement, all of which are used to continue your journey moving left to right in a very dire world.

Along your path you’ll often encounter puzzles that vary in their difficulty, starting off simple and becoming more complex, but there was only one point where I really got stuck and had a tough time figuring out what needed to be done. I’m not saying that Limbo is an easy title, but it’s certainly not something that will give puzzle veterans much of a challenge. I’d go into some explanation of cooler puzzles, but that would be ruining the one mechanic this game has. Suffice it to say, there’s a handful of clever devices interspersed with the fairly standard and I honestly hoped for more out of them.

The biggest strength that Limbo brings to the table is its presentation. Every foreground object and character are silhouettes while the rest of the non-interactive world is contained within a misty embrace and is mildly out of focus. Character animation is handled wonderfully and the attention to detail is pretty staggering. Sliding down a slope will produce small pebbles along your feet, ropes will flop around realistically, and when you get dismembered by a saw blade, your body parts really do come apart quite well.

Sound design is also in step with the graphical. Generally, there is no musical score except during key moments. Instead, Playdead opted to focus on the sounds that objects and beings within the world create. While a fairly quiet and subdued game, it makes things like the aforementioned saw blade that more menacing. The combination of relatively featureless characters with sparse audio cues creates a unique, albeit bleak game world.

Once you finish the game, there’s really nothing left to go back for unless you’re into getting all the achievements. In one playthrough, I was awarded with a single achievement, but if you’re a masochist there’s one in there that asks you to finish the game in one sitting, dying fewer than five times as well as several others that are fairly cryptic in their descriptions.

Limbo is a solid and atmospheric puzzle platformer that is a bit light on difficulty and replay value. Despite my adoration for the fluid character movements and minimalist design, I came away feeling like I wanted more. It’s a good way to spend an evening, but don’t go in expecting a Braid-esque experience.

Score: 3.5 out of 5

The Good
Great hopeless and somber-filled atmosphere.
Character animations are top notch.

The Bad
A very brief experience.
Puzzle veterans will have little trouble overcoming the obstacles.

The Ugly
Saw blades.

Writer’s Notes
Game Length: About 4 hours.

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

You’ll be controlling Marston as he navigates the sprawling landscape on foot, horseback, stagecoach, or even motorized buggy thing. While there’s a story present, the nature of the game doesn’t exactly force you to follow any specific path though you’ll probably want to see how the entire tale unfolds… That and there’s about half of the gigantic map that won’t be available until you do. Instead, you’ll be able to head off and hunt any number of wild animals, accept bounties, gather flowers, or partake in a fairly good number of minigames. I personally spent plenty of time throwing horseshoes, but there are also fully realized and entertaining Texas Hold’em, Blackjack, Liar’s Dice and Five Finger Filet minigames. If for whatever reason you’re angry that someone just won a huge pot in Hold’em, feel free to whip out your double barrel shotgun and dispatch his cheatin’ self.

Considering the sandbox nature of the game and the obvious comparisons to previous Rockstar titles, Red Dead Redemption made it difficult for me to really play the bad guy. Not mechanically of course, if I wanted to I still could have rolled up on some prostitute, lassoed her, and pulled her behind my horse until she expired. No, what I’m talking about is a sense of morality. You’re in the old west where it’s perfectly acceptable to blow the head off of someone who just stole your horse. While that doesn’t necessarily relate to today’s justice, it really kind of removes the need to act like a complete jackhole and still get your job done. Thus, going in and role playing as Marston felt much more satisfying than being a random psychopath. This also helped with the game’s Fame and Honor system, as well as keeping the bounty on my head non-existant.

Helping out random strangers and completing story missions will earn you points towards fame, honor, or both. The more famous you become, the more people of the world will turn a blind eye to your actions and some will even think they’re better than you, challenging you to duel. You’ll be become more feared or loved on the Honor scale in response to how you handle situations and each notch on that belt will bring specific perks. Going down the wrong path will bring about a bounty on your head and people who will look to collect on that. You’ll be able to get pardon letters to help clear your name, or you can just pay off the bounty. Money isn’t exactly falling off of trees though, so you may want to put on a bandana before you decide to go on a murderous rampage. Sometimes the game doesn’t really do a great job of explaining all the different systems at play, so it may take some getting used to. I’m still not entirely sure why I win or lose while dueling folks.

John’s mission isn’t a clean one by any means and you simply can’t get through without skinning your smoke wagon, but at least there’s an honest purpose to his actions. Marston was once an outlaw running with a gang of would be Robin Hoods until life caught up with him. Deciding to settle down with a wife and child, he left his gang only to be pulled back into the fold by Edgar Ross who serves at the primary antagonist. Ross, who is a government agent, kidnaps Marston’s family and tasks him to take out his old running mates or never see his family again. The tale is well crafted being very western in style and substance, including some very cool and deliberate pacing particularly during the climax and resolution, and I personally became very invested in many of the main characters, particularly John himself.

While performing various tasks during the story, you’ll travel through one of the coolest deserts you’ll ever see in a video game. It isn’t just a bunch of sand either, Rockstar spent plenty of time throwing brush, tumbleweed, points of interest, and small towns all over the map. The attention to detail is quite impressive and it really is one of the nicest looking environments around. You’ll even roll through canyons and gang hideouts with varying terrain on your trusty steed. Animation is handled by the Euphoria engine found in games like Backbreaker and The Force Unleashed, so you’ll get some really cool reactions. Shoot someone off a horse and there’s a chance their foot will get stuck in a stirrup while their horse gallops onward; blast at a horse’s legs and watch it crumple as its rider is jettisoned with a graceful sense of pain. There’s even a full day/night and weather cycle with impressively cool thunderstorms.

Along with this impressive use of graphical and animation technology comes a very potent and gripping soundtrack. For the majority of the game it’s primarily instrumental with period and location specific tone. Additionally, the voice acting for just about everyone in the game is great and Rockstar actually took the effort to ensure if an on-screen character’s got a cigar or cigarette in their mouth, they actually sound like they do. When you finally make it to Mexico, keep your ears peeled for one of the single coolest uses of music ever in a video game.

As a complement to the single player, there is a fully realized multiplayer component available called Free Roam. While taking place within the same landscape as John Marston’s tale, this is a completely separate, somewhat persistant mode where you’ll be able to assault gang hideouts, assault each other, or play a few different version of capture the flag by going after bags of gold. Completing certain tasks will gain you experience points which will eventually get you to level 50, unlocking something for you each step of the way. You get customized titles, different (and better) horses, and a ton of different character models you can use. I found the most enjoyment in joining a posse and taking down each of the game’s gang hideout locations, but was disappointed that the minigames weren’t available to play and the somewhat empty world felt a bit too soundstage instead of a real bustling arena.

It’s certainly strange coming into the summer months and having multiple contenders for game of the year, but Red Dead Redemption is squarely in the running. A huge world with a mountain of content, beautiful landscapes, tremendous soundtrack, and wonderfully crafted story, this is likely the best western game you’ll ever play.

Score: 5 out of 5

The Good
One of the best looking games around. Who thought the desert could be so captivating?
Great western story that hits all the right notes and paces itself in old cinema fashion.
Multiplayer isn’t some throwaway mode; it’s pretty awesome.
Clint Eastwood’s mexican poncho.

The Bad
Quirks of the sandbox formula still exist.
Some gameplay systems aren’t really explained well.

The Ugly
The weapon selection radial menu sucks.

Writer’s Notes
Single Player Playthrough: 19h53m
Percentage at Completion: 75.1%
Favorite weapon:: Bolt-Action Rifle
Best NPCs: Marshal Leigh Johnson, Landon Ricketts, Bonnie MacFarlane

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

The gameplay of the Rock Band series has not changed significantly in quite some time so I’ll just quickly recap how these things work. Colored notes flow from the top of the screen to the bottom along a fret board and it’s your job to “play” the notes in proper time using either a guitar (bass and lead) or drumset. Vocals are measured by the pitch of your voice. The more accurate you are at hitting these notes and tones, the higher your score and the more stars you’ll earn. GD: RB does include one newer feature that was introduced with The Beatles Rock Band, and that is the ability to perform three part harmonies. The stars are treated like a form of currency allowing you to open up venue specific challenges including marathon full album playthroughs for Dookie and American Idiot, or to unlock some Green Day specific awards.

Much like the majority of Green Day’s fanbase, the game’s soundtrack starts at the release of Dookie and ends with their latest, 21st Century Breakdown, so it’s a bit dissapointing not hearing some of their roots presented here. Still, both of their major releases, Dookie and American Idiot are present completely with 21st Century Breakdown six songs shy of entirety. Those six songs will be available via $DLC if you’d like to ensure three complete albums in this one package. There are a few other songs from different releases like Nimrod’s Good Riddance and Warning’s titular track, but the majority of the soundtrack focuses on those three albums. Needless to say, if you’re not a Green Day fan don’t bother playing this game.

Now to my biggest complaint about this game: It feels like a competent form of lazy. The songs are split among three total venues, so you’ll be playing three or more set lists in each location, looking at the period specific Billie Joe, Tre Cool, and Mike Dirnt, doing the same animations, for long stretches of time. Also, Green Day is a three man band so it would have made perfect sense to put a little extra work in and allow players to finally be able to sing and play an instrument simultaneously, but the engine still forces one profile signed in to play a guitar and a separate one to sing. This actually causes an issue later on down the line as one song from 21st Century Breakdown is vocals only, so you won’t be able to blow through the whole game with a single instrument. With the primary focus being on three of their albums, this doesn’t feel at all like a historical record of Green Day as The Beatles Rock Band was to The Beatles, but more of an embiggened track pack.

Green Day: Rock Band is exactly what you thought it would be when it was announced. Nothing more, nothing less. If you’re into Green Day and aren’t burnt out on music games yet, then this is for you. As someone who’s been wanting something new out of the music genre, this title doesn’t bring anything new to the table other than songs and some Green Day unlockables. I hope Harmonix’s Rock Band 3 work will freshen up things a bit.

Score: 3.5 out of 5

The Good
All of Dookie, All of American Idiot.
Fully exportable to Rock Band.
All the latest features from The Beatles Rock Band

The Bad
Having only three venues feels quite lazy.
Still no way to use one profile for simultaneous guitar and vocals.

The Ugly
More like Green Day: Chord Hero, amirite?

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

To start off the game after an optional hard drive install, you’re given a choice to create your own hero or pick a pre-made one. The character creator isn’t just a “name, rank, serial number” creation tool, but you’re able to go pixel-by-pixel and draw out however you want your hero to look. You’ll be able to tweak a set of poses and the tools provided work quite well. If your creative juices aren’t flowing, there’s a plethora of heroes already made for you including a ninja, who is just a breathing tube sticking out of the ground, and my personal favorite, a dog. Yes, my great grandfather was still a human hero, and people still talked to me like I was a normal person, but I was a dog. Every time you load the game, you’ll get to pick a new hero if you’d like to switch it up. Not only that, but you can head on over to the official website and download creations of other players to use them in Dotnia. The only attributes that really effect how your character plays in-game are the sex and class of your character. Men get bonuses to strength while the ladies get a reduction in magic consumption. This is a combat heavy game, so you may want to grab a warrior dude.

When you finally set foot in Dotnia, you’ll be exploring the vast landscape in search of six orbs hidden away in as many temples, then make your final assault on the Tower of Darkness. All of your favorite elemental based temples make an appearance, as well as the final tower which in typical old school fashion has you completing bits and pieces of the previous temples, as well as re-fighting all of the bosses. This particular location is an exercise in frustration due to the fact that if you die you get sent back to the beginning of the tower and there are limited warp points to get you back to where you need to go. In fact, all of the dungeons have this old mechanic in place, and while doing certain things will help you return to where you died quicker, repetition is never all that fun. While mostly charming, the art style is such that many times enemies and items are obscured by the now 3D architecture and the overlaid HUD, often making you lose some precious health or completely miss something you’ll need to utilize. If you actually like that old school frustration, it’s here in spades.

The world is open enough that you can get around, but there’s a certain order in which you’ll need to progress through the temples as you will need specific gear to get places. You’ll eventually pick up most of the staples like a boomerang, bow and arrow, sprint shoes and hookshot, most of which are mapped to the circle button which you can cycle through quickly with R2 and L2. If you’ve got full health, your primary sword will be roughly half the screen and extra wide, allowing you to really screw up foes. On top of that, you can pay a blacksmith to increase your length and girth as well as give you the power to properly penetrate. The problem here is that once you take any damage, your sword shrinks and you feel severely underpowered, losing all its abilities. Throughout the game, you’ll be able to collect additional swords and shields, each which have different power and attributes. Most of these are optional so if you don’t think you need to get them then don’t bother, though they’ll certainly help you out.

Aside from the main quest, there’s plenty else to do which will usually result in some new item, sword, or extra cash. One particularly entertaining aspect is the inclusion of several mini-games. You’ll come across a time trial sprinting game, an breakout clone, and even a tower defense game complete with multiple upgradable towers. All of these are an entertaining way to pass the time, but would have been nice to access directly from a menu if you just want to kill some time. At least they’ve included a fast travel system which will let you warp to the main cities you’ve visited with an expendable item. There are also plenty of references to other games if you’re paying attention, clearly there with a wink and a nod to some of the more difficult titles of days past including From Software’s own Demon’s Souls (From Software published in Japan).

There’s certainly quite a bit to do if you want to explore the land of Dotnia (including a new game plus mode), but I found that after a half dozen hours the charm had passed and the dated adventuring mechanics had turned the title into a rather short-loved trip down memory lane. If you’re really into the old school then you may want to grab 3D Dot Game Heroes, but if you’ve never touched anything from days past, you should certainly steer clear. Its main draw is nostalgia, and even that fades quickly.

Score: 3.5 out of 5

The Good
Serious nostalgia charm.
Cute retro inspired graphics.
Fairly lengthy single player with plenty of side quests and extras

The Bad
Sure, the 8-bit games this was cribbed from were somewhat broken, but this is more broken than those.
The smile you’ll have from its charm will fade quickly.

The Ugly
The Tower of Darkness.

Writer’s Notes
Playtime: 16h14m
Hero: Poochi
Charmed Until: Hour 7

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

Throughout the game you play as Alan Wake, a novelist who’s going through a bit of writer’s block. He hasn’t written a book in over two years and his wife, Alice, plans a trip to Washington state, hopefully to get the creative juices flowing. They land in the small town of Bright Falls, rent a cabin, and then the story really gets going. Talking much about that aspect of the game would really do it a bit of disservice as much of the enjoyment will come from uncovering what’s really going on in the quaint village, so I won’t do that here. What I will tell you though, is that while being somewhat cliched, it’s worth going through. Told through poorly lip-synced cutscenes, in-game dialog, and a series of mysterious manuscript pages, it does do quite a bit of creative storytelling and creates an interesting experience. Additionally, you’ll get to learn more about the town by listening to radios scattered throughout as well as be able to check out short replays of the television show “Night Springs.” Remedy has created a realistic, believable corner of the United States.

The story is broken up into a total of six television-like episodes and each begin with a “last time on Alan Wake” re-cap of important events that took place. While this helps remind you of key points, it feels a little odd that they’d end an episode with a static “End of Episode X” message while closing music plays, then just jump right into the next “show.” Breaking it up like this does make sense as the developers have already said that this is just the first season of Alan Wake and they’ll be releasing some more episodes at a later date. In case you want it wrapped up with a tidy bow, this first season ends with a fairly significant cliffhanger which may turn off some people. Each episode can take around two hours to play as long as you’re not powering through. Just a suggestion, but if you’re proficient with action games, you should play on Hard instead of Normal.

Much like Remedy’s previous work, the gameplay of Alan Wake relies on a single hook but this time it’s more pervasive. Alan’s primary enemy is the darkness which embodies all of his enemies. Generally, if it’s daytime, you’re safe as safe can be. At night however, the ghouls come out. In order to properly combat these foes, you’ll need to first melt away that darkness through various means, then blast away at them with your standard firearms. The primary tool to do this is a flashlight that you’re rarely without, but you’ll also get to use spotlights, shop lights, and street lights as a method to deter your enemies. Flashbangs, flares, and flare guns are also present and provide some nice crowd control for those sticky situations. While it doesn’t really evolve much, the combination of darkness melting and gunplay is entertaining enough that it holds up fairly well throughout the game. This is particularly important because you’re going to be doing a TON of it. One mild irritation that arose dealt with enemies spawning from behind and getting a cheap shot off. Yep, effectively there are some Doom 3 monster closets. Once or twice wouldn’t bother me all that much, but it basically came to the point that I’d always swing around to look behind, instead of focusing on what was in front of me.

Considering this isn’t an open world game, the design decisions surrounding the interface are curious. Knowing the history of the title’s development makes me think that they stated “Welp, we already did this work, may as well leave it in there.” Just a look at the GTA-esque health bar and waypoint “circle” makes me believe that it was at one point a mini-map, and the fact that there are collectibles at all when the levels themselves are so linear is an odd choice. Sure you can vary a bit from the main path, but the vast majority of the game is a single corridor, complete with gates that prevent you from backtracking. Remedy also included driving segments which work fine, but again, they’re just down a single path. To try and ensure multiple playthroughs, you won’t be able to collect all of the manuscript pages the first time through as some aren’t even in the world until you play on Nightmare difficulty, which is only unlocked after you complete the game.

In terms of presentation, the team at Remedy has certainly nailed the atmosphere. Light beams through treetops casting wonderful shadows everywhere during the day, while billowing fog and stormy weather help increase the tension at night. Just about every aspect is well polished, right down to the selection of songs used for the closing music on each episode. While not on par with Uncharted 2, the varied vocal cast performs a great job with all the characters and pull of mostly convincing performances through the interesting story.

While the open ended ending left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, I’m still interested to see where Remedy takes this game with the upcoming episodes. The town, atmosphere, and characters made me want to keep playing till the end, despite the somewhat repetitive combat. Let’s just hope that 1) the game is sucessful enough to warrent a proper conclusion later down the road, and 2) Remedy doesn’t take their “episode” queues from Valve. We’ve already waited long enough for Season 1.

Score: 4 out of 5

The Good
Atmospheric and beautiful. Remedy sure knows how to create a remote mountain town and its surrounding locale.
Interesting story and characters successfully drive the action.
Manuscript page mechanic turned out to be one of the more interesting aspects of the game.

The Bad
Cutscenes aren’t particularly great looking, and they could have spent more time working on lip sync.
Despite being interesting, the combat really doesn’t evolve much and becomes rote after a while.

The Ugly
No, it really is not an open world game.

Writer’s Notes
Playtime: 13 to 14 hours (no in-game timer)
Favorite Weapon: Flare Gun
Thoughts on ending: [REDACTED]

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

To start, how about we talk about the negative stuff? That new announcer is pretty weak. If you’re paying attention to him, he’s trying way too hard to be totally extreme. If you’re not trying to hear though, at least he fades into the periphery and is barely noticeable. We’ve now also got a 35 fighter roster which can make the character select screen a bit intimidating for newcomers. Oh, and Hakan is totally weird and they completely removed my favoritest song ever, Indestructible by The Next Door.

In case one of the original 25 characters wasn’t doing it for you, now they’ve added ten additional fighters and all of them are unlocked from the start. Eight of these are from past Street Fighter games, and two are completely new to the series. All of the fighters now have an additional Ultra move that can be selected prior to the start of the fight, unless you’re in arcade mode where you’ll just pick it and stick with it. These new ultras are generally quite different from the existing ones, giving the defender just a little more to worry about when looking to dodge, and some of the new ultras can be followed up with additional moves. I honestly would have liked to have seen these both available during the match instead of having to choose one ahead of time, but they do add another degree of variance to an already complex engine.

The ten characters alone would probably be enough for this to exist as an expansion, however Capcom has decided to go the extra mile and address just about every single complaint players had. The entire roster has been tweaked for balance and timing. Despite developer commentary that Seth would be even more ruthless this time around, I found him much easier with significantly reduced damage being dealt. Even on the hardest difficulty, he fell after only one continue which is nothing like what I experienced previously.

Online multiplayer is the biggest change and everything is for the better. Instead of just having the 1v1 Ranked and Player match “lobbies”, we’ve got Ranked, Endless, and Team Battle. Ranked is now a mild combination of what we found in the tournament DLC from SFIV and ranked, complete with an improved point system, double blind character select, and letter grading for competitors. You’ll be happy to know also that quick match performs as quick match should. Instead of giving you a list of three possible games to join, the system attempts to place you directly into the best match. You’ll still experience a “cannot join match” error, but it is certainly less frequent. One really subtle but awesome change is that the game will remember your previous character choice during multiplayer, making the character select go just a hair quicker.

Next up is the new ‘Player Match’ in the form of Endless Mode and Team Battle. While these won’t contribute to your overall ranking, these are the things that players were looking for previously. Endless is basically the quarter match from Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, where up to eight players may join a session and wait for their turn to fight. Winner stays, loser pays. The good thing here is that a lobby can be created with all private slots and be joined while already in progress, so if you’re waiting for some friends, you can get in a few matches. If you’re waiting, you won’t be looking at a blank screen though, you’ll be able to spectate the game that’s going on. Team Battle allows groups of two, three, or four to face off in a similar winner-stays style until one team is completely defeated. Both of these sate the desires planted by the shoddy original iteration.

If you didn’t like Street Fighter IV, there’s really nothing here that will change your mind. While it is a bit disappointing that this is a full retail item that will certainly split the userbase, if you’re an existing fan there’s just about zero reason to not buy this. Capcom has released a truly monumental update to the best fighting game in years which will certainly keep it truckin’ long into the future.

Score: 5 out of 5

The Good
Tons of thoughtful improvements to an already phenominal experience.
Overhauled online options create the experience we were all hoping for.
Still infinitely replayable.

The Bad
The announcer is new, and bad.
A split userbase may mean only the hardcore will come to the new land. Better kick up your game.

The Ugly
Yeah, T. Hawk is still an annoying prick.

Writer’s Notes
Favorite New Character: Cody
Least Favorite New Character: Hakan (I don’t like wrestlers)
Stupidest Inclusion: Bonus Stages

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

Awakening takes place about six months after the events of Origins. It’s your job to establish yourself as Warden Commander and help recruit new Grey Wardens while rebuilding your new estate, Vigils Keep. It isn’t long after setting foot in the arling of Amaranthine (northeast of Ferelden) that you find out the Darkspawn haven’t completely gone away as was expected, and some are even talking. Of course, it’s your job to determine the root cause and stop it.

Like Origins, the big star here is the way BioWare handles player relationships. Sure you’ve got your dungeons, forests, swamps, and a cities full of stuff, but the interactions NPCs have with each other as well as how their background and motivations are explored is great. While there was a certain bit of comedy to be found in Origins, it seems as though that has been ramped up a bit with a metrosexual mage named Anders who loves his little kitten and the only returning party member, Oghren. When journeying around, characters will make snide remarks about Anders carrying Ser Pounce a Lot around everywhere and much laughter is had. This brevity makes your situation feel a lot less dire than the events of the Blight, and it should because you’re just not facing that same enemy. Despite what some had stated prior to release, the new characters are not simple rehashes with new skin, but are fully realized and interesting people.

Missions included range from standard stuff to great deviations. While there were a few too many cases of ‘scavenger hunt’ including one that’s straight up called “Scavenger Hunt,” there are plenty of unique events that make your journey worthwhile. Many of the interactions that take place while in Vigil’s Keep are particularly interesting and I really enjoyed the trek through Kal’Hirol, which is the polar opposite from how I felt of the dwarven aspects in Origins. While you won’t hit too many decision points, there’s one major choice towards the end that will certainly lend itself to further expansions or possibly even Dragon Age 2.

I’ve got two primary gripes with Awakening and the biggest has to do with technical issues that run rampant. Two of my character specific quests couldn’t be completed; one due to the time where I received it in relation to the overarching quest, and the other just wouldn’t trigger despite the requirements being met. Additionally, I took part in one quest during the endgame which required clearing an area of enemies. After I had done so, there were still two animated corpses that would not take damage or attack. A reload of the quest didn’t fix this and instead I had to game the system, pulling my team away to disengage them from battle. These sadly are just a few of the problems I came across and while most are quest related, there are some quirks with the visuals as well.

My second issue is with the length and difficulty of the expansion. While doing the vast majority of available quests, the whole venture still only lasted just over 12 hours. This could be due to the difficulty being significantly less than what you found in Origins. On normal, your character starts off so powerful that it’s a breeze to get through most encounters, including Dragons. I recommend bumping up the difficulty from where you had it previously.

Despite these quibbles, Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is still a fun romp which extends the already solid framework laid by the original title. If Dragon Age is calling you, but you don’t feel like reinvesting the time in the base title, or just want to see what happens next, there’s really no reason to stay away. It may not be as completely awesome as Origins was, but it’s still Dragon Age and by that regard, it’s still awesome.

Score: 4 out of 5

The Good
Fantastic character interactions coupled with interesting personalities.
An intriguing and well spun continuation of the Origins story.
It’s still Dragon Age.

The Bad
Much shorter than expected.
Not nearly as many choice points as its predecessor.

The Ugly
C’mon BioWare, patch these damn bugs.

Writer’s Notes
Single Player Playthrough: 12h40m
Typical Party Members: Maker, Andres, Nathaniel, Justice
Difficulty: Normal
Quests Incomplete: 5

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

If you’ve played any of the God of War games previously though, there’s really not much new here. Just about all the mechanics from the previous titles remain with some minor additions. You’ll eventually get four main weapons which you can switch through on the fly as well as some magic attacks to go with each. Biggest problem here is that three of the four primary weapons are just minor variants on your primary Blades of Exile. You’ll also be given a set of items to utilize through the game which will deplete a specific regenerating meter. The most useful of which is the Bow of Apollo which can be mixed up with your primary attacks in combat. Keeping the main gameplay mechanics isn’t a bad move though. Being an action heavy game, the combat is fast, visceral, and flows wonderfully just like it did in the first game. Games like Dante’s Inferno can try to mimic what was perfected in this series, but will always feel a step behind what you can accomplish with chained blades. The addition of an attack which switches to the next weapon really helps keep up the combo variety.

Despite being rated for Mature audiences, I get the feeling that the people who will find the most enjoyment out of GoW3 are minors. Not only is the story about how much Kratos hates his dad, but it’s full of scenes that are just in there to get a rise out of the player with no redeeming qualities at all. For example, at one point you come across a topless female (“heh heh, boobs”) who clearly knows who you are and doesn’t want your help. Against her will, you spring her from a cage in what appears to be a glimmer of humanity within Kratos. Soon after though, you prop her up against a weighted wheel to hold a door open. As you walk along and she moves off camera, you hear a blood curdling scream followed by sounds of nastiness as she is completely destroyed just so you can get through a door. It’s a cruel scene that is void of remorse and honestly made me feel dirty afterwards. Oh yeah, you get a Trophy for that too, congratulating you on decimating a helpless woman.

At least God of War III looks good all around, but where it really shines is in scale. You’ll be bringing the pain to bad guys, then all of the sudden the camera will zoom all the way back to show off what’s going on around you. Don’t stop doing what you’re doing though, because while you may not be able to see the skeletons attacking you as easily, they’re still there trying to skewer you. Most of the larger boss battles are often quicktime laden encounters that make full use of this scale, so instead of feeling like you’re the one doing the damage, it just feels like you’re pressing a button to move the action along. If you miss that button press, sometimes you’ll even die outright and get to do it again. I did appreciate the new quicktime button placement however. Instead of just flashing a button on the screen, they’ve placed the button on the side of the screen corresponding to where the face button is on the controller (X on the bottom, Triangle on the top, etc). This helps you focus on the central action more than which button needs to be hit.

There were some technical issues that frustrated my gameplay. Double jumping would not register properly, often resulting in untimely and multiple deaths; Save triggers were often delayed, requiring multiple instances of running away from them and back before they’d activate; and even opening chests would glitch out half way through the animation, forcing second and third tries. These almost seemed like low-battery charge symptoms, but they continued on full charge as well as being connected directly to the PS3. On Kratos’ second trip through Aphrodite’s chamber, a complete NPC model had gone missing, but she was still making comments while I railed Aphrodite, and still knocked over her girlfriend when the mini-game was complete.

After completion, you’ll unlock a fourth difficulty level as well as several challenges similar to previous God of War titles to help with the staying power. Throughout the journey as well, you’ll pick up artifacts that you may use on subsequent playthroughs. The strange design choice here though was that you can only use these modifiers on difficulty levels you’ve already beaten, making them seem less cool. I can see disabling the ability to earn trophies while activating them, but there’s little reason to play the same difficulty level another time through.

Perhaps I’m harping on the story a bit too much when it’s a straight up action game but considering that we’ve already done this twice before, I really feel there’s got to be something new to make it worth doing again and the mechanics certainly haven’t changed. With God of War Collection already available, it’s difficult for me to recommend God of War III as anything other than an extended tech demo. Combine Santa Monica’s checkbox approach to game design with a fairly callous and meaningless angst journey of a straight up unlikable main character, and you’ve got nothing worth writing home about except the scale.

Score: 3.5 out of 5

The Good
It certainly is a pretty game with an incredible sense of scaling.
Combat system remains a hallmark for the character action genre.

The Bad
The weakly strewn together story is just a vehicle to tie boss battle to boss battle.
Not much new to see here, mostly the same game from years past.
Misogynistic behavior isn’t hilarious.

The Ugly
Whoever thought it was a good idea to add Guitar Hero to God of War should never make video games again.

Writers Notes
Playtime: 9h53m
Favorite Weapon: Neaman Cestus
Most Impressive Boss Fight: Cronos

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.