EvAv is a volunteer run gaming website, and has been since its inception in 1998. What does that mean for people who work there? You get to talk to industry people, you get some free review copies if you’re a reviewer, but all without legitimate compensation. Not saying that I’m complaining about that part, no. Basically, my real job is taking over and I want to devote my time working on that, furthering my career. Additionally, my wife is due with our third child in June so the time spent out of work which granted me the time to do most of my work on Evil Avatar will soon subside.

The whole news thing also wears on you after a while too, as that was the website’s primary focus. We almost never created the news, we would just find interesting stuff and post it up. The part which I drew the most from was actual writing; reviews, previews, and once even a speculative piece about the future of console gaming. The podcasting was awesome too and I had a lot of fun with Ben and Adam, but we rarely talked about news itself.

So, that’s that. I’m still around. Still on Twitter and the boads, but in a much less hands-on capacity. Sure I see things that I would change but it ain’t my problem anymore mang. It was great fun while it lasted, but after two and a half years, that’s all she wrote.

It isn’t the overt fear presented in the dark, reaching depths of the Sprawl space station, nor is it the creepy, crawly Necromorphs potentially hiding around every corner or in every vent. The feeling seems to stem from a combination of elements which, while lacking in Visceral’s Dante’s Inferno, come together with expert prowess in Dead Space 2. Detail exudes from every pore and gaping wound as every wall and machine appears to have been individually hand modeled, while growling bass and muffled screams from the sound design leave you constantly unsettled.

Along with the environment and audio, you’ve got the same combat which fans of the original fell in love with. Plenty of different tools of destruction, each with a alternate fire mode to decimate and dismember your alien foes. And dismember them you will, as simply aiming for center mass won’t take them down quickly enough and chews through too much ammunition. Take the new Javelin Gun, for example. It’s normal attack flings big spikes at your enemies. It sticks into them, or the walls, or them to walls. You can then use the alternate fire to electrify your last spike, sending arcs of electricity out hitting nearby enemies. With new weapon additions I still found myself reverting to series mainstays, maxing out upgrade paths on the Line Gun and Plasma Cutter with the Pulse Rifle as backup. This isn’t a bad thing; it just goes to show how well created and fun the originals were. Be sure to let yourself be killed a few times here and there to witness some of the gruesome death animations. Some are quite disturbing.

Sadly, the actual plight of the now-voiced Isaac Clarke isn’t as great as the atmosphere in which it takes place. Set three years after the events of the first title, Isaac wakes up from a medically induced haze to find that everything around him has gone to shit. To its credit, Dead Space 2 wastes absolutely no time getting into the thick of things. If you’ve never played the first title or just forgot what happened, there’s an optional vignette available to watch before you step in to get you up to speed. I knew things weren’t going to turn out great when the first plot twist happened. But by the time the credits rolled I was left wanting from a boss fight that forced a change in difficulty and a send-off that seemed somewhat inappropriate. The story does the job with some predictable twists thrown in and some great set pieces, but ultimately just turns into a vehicle for progression instead of something quite noteworthy.

Actual progression throughout the campaign is handled with care, building nicely with callbacks to the original title where appropriate, and mixing horror with action wonderfully. You’ll be fighting off swarms of bad guys one moment, then tiptoeing your way through corridors, low on health and ammo in the next, literally holding your breath. The feeling of relief that rushes over you after finding just a small health pack is truly intense and exemplifies ‘survival horror’. Visceral also changed up the zero gravity portions of the game, adding propulsion jets to your suit so you’re not only jumping from flat surface to flat surface like in the original, but floating around engaging in semi-acrobatic combat. This change allows for a bit more freedom and even some external, space based flight, which is awesome. After completing the campaign, you’ll be able to start a new game plus mode, which carries over equipment and weapons from previous playthroughs onto higher difficulty levels. Much better than in the previous game, where you’d only get to use them on the same skill level you just completed.

While single player is a great experience, the mulitplayer is exactly what I thought it was going to be: something unnecessary, tacked on to a polished single player experience. While the premise of “Left 4 Dead IN SPACE!” sounds great, the plodding and methodical gameplay just doesn’t fit properly into a fast paced multiplayer encounter. You’ll join one of two teams playing as either the humans trying to accomplish objectives, or the Necromorphs trying to stop them. There’s persistent progression, new unlocks, and all those fancy things someone in a suit decided should be in every multiplayer game since Modern Warfare. But it all comes off as a fairly lackluster way to cram the EA Online Pass in — $10 if you buy the game used — and is a perfect example of why multiplayer isn’t important for every game. And despite never completing the final objective, the humans won every match I played. It would have served them well to have fully embraced Left 4 Dead instead of just trying to use it as a crutch to market something that didn’t need to exist in the first place. I would have been happier with a simple cooperative horde mode.

If you have the option, the PlayStation 3 version is the way to go. Not only does it come with the great light gun prequel shooter, Dead Space Extraction, but it’s on a single Blu-ray disc, as opposed to the two DVD pack you’ll find on the Xbox 360. Extraction is essentially the same game that it was on the Wii, but now in high definition and compatible with PlayStation Move. You can play with a DualShock controller, but that would be stupid.

My suggestion to anyone taking the Dead Space 2 plunge would be to turn off the lights, crank up the volume, and lose yourself in the Sprawl. Visceral has proven once again that they know how to create a highly atmospheric space horror symphony. And if you’re up for the challenge of Hardcore mode, you can even unlock a foam finger gun that goes pew-pew.

4.5 out of 5

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

What we’ve got is a fairly straight forward racing title. You go fast and you try to win through a handful of different locales like snow covered mountains, logging camps, and Mediterranean sea-side escapes. All tracks feature tons of big jumps, alternate paths, and lots of danger waiting to NAIL you at every turn. Whenever you wipe out, the screen whites out and throws the game’s logo on the screen while you magically transport back to the track itself. You don’t ever see Lakitu, but you know he’s around there somewhere.

Standard modes, both multiplayer and single player events are present, with plenty of parts to unlock for your vehicle of choice and lots of color options. In an attempt to extend the life of the maps, they’ve added some other modes and a pair of mutators. Mutators will either give you full boost through the whole race, or turn off opponent collisions. While admirable in intent, they don’t deviate from the core enough to make them much more of a distraction from the race.

Take the ‘trick mode’ for example: You’re supposed to perform different actions, like a hit a perfect touchdown, max out your speed, pass through gates, or knock other racers into the wall. Each action will earn you points — and boost — but you really just want to beat everyone as finishing in first place will cause the score of your opponents to decrease over time. Yes, you still need points, but they’re generally easy enough to get without trying too hard. I personally would have liked to see more race mutators as the potential is there for plenty of mayhem.

You’ll experience all modes and mutations through the single player and be able to define whatever kind of race you want in the up-to-twelve-man multiplayer. Through my review process though, the most I ever got in a single race was four people. I attribute this to the unfortunate release window, but was happy to see people are still playing. There’s a potential here for a lot of fun with friends, specially when we’re talking about twelve players in a single race, but the single player runs a bit long in the tooth with multiple, multi-race events to pad out the end of the Nail’d Tournament.

This brings me to the jank. While the overall package is solid, the actual track definition seems to be wildly inconsistent. Despite the entire world appearing open, without actual side-walls, there’s a very specific path that you’ll need to remain on for fear of crashing and resetting. Sometimes you’ll hit a crazy jump and graze a fallen stone column with your rear tires on the way down, NAIL’D! Lightly tap a fallen tree the game didn’t want you to? NAIL’D! Alternatively, there are moments where you’ll get buried in a tree, stop completely, and be forced to press the vehicle reset button which flashes on the screen as if the game knows that it screwed up and wants you to know it as well.

In the end, Nail’d is an entertaining yet flawed experience. You won’t find much in terms of innovation here, but you will find plenty of mud, water, and breathtaking jumps through the spinning blades of giant windmills. Plus, there’s some Slipknot on the soundtrack. If that isn’t the definition of e’treme, I don’t know what is.

3.5 out of 5

Originally posted at Evil Avatar.

The forgotten characters reside in what is known as ‘The Wasteland’: a somber society where Oswald is king and has created his own version of Disney World. If you’ve ever visited this Floridian mecca of idolatry, you’ll be very familiar with where most of the art team has drawn their inspiration. As Mickey, you’ll visit familiar yet somber locations ripped from the Magic Kingdom, with Mean Street (Main Street USA) acting as the hub location to them all. Mickey was drawn into this world by an ink blot monster of his own accidental creation, and throughout his adventure sees what kind of negative impact his carelessness has had. You know from the very beginning that the reason Wasteland is in shambles is due to Mickey playing around with something he shouldn’t have been. Unlike Disney proper, it’s a very melancholy world filled with infinite sadness, complete with this dark cloud over the protagonist’s head. One of the most emotion-inducing pieces in the world shows the iconic Walt Disney and Mickey statue that welcomes visitors to the Magic Kingdom, with Mickey replaced and Oswald holding his hand instead. So much is said about the motivations of the world by that single change.

Mickey’s secret mishap has made the world lose color and structure, but armed with a magic paintbrush you can help restore or remove certain aspects of the Wasteland to overcome obstacles in your way. Paint and paint thiner are your two primary sources of ammo, and depending on which method you choose to defeat certain key villains, Mickey’s form will change. The easiest method always relies on paint thinner, though it will also cause the most damage to the world or the enemies in it and have a negative physical effect on Mickey, causing him to literally drip paint… upwards. It’s a cool effect, showing that being destructive instead of creative really isn’t what Mickey is about. The paint mechanic is somewhat disappointing though, as generally any choice made is restricted to a specific outcome and really has little impact. I spent plenty of time repainting OsTown (Toon Town), restoring it to its vibrant, Wasteland-glory. But when I returned to this location later, all of my work was nullified as the area had reverted back to the initial, predetermined state. So much for helping directly!

Combat with this paintbrush is also less than stellar, forcing you to hold your Wii-cursor over enemies while dodging and relying on a garbage camera to track properly. You can’t run away from a villain and still attack him, even though some Blots require you to do so thanks to the camera swinging behind Mickey most of the time. In fact, one of the biggest bits of frustration in Epic Mickey is its bad camera. Being an action/adventure platformer, you’ll constantly be fighting with it, particularly when you’re up against a wall, but also in normal traversal when the default camera height seems to always be just a bit lower than where it needs to be. It’s great that there’s a curving bridge here, but I didn’t see that there was a hole in it, thanks to the stupid camera. You can make minor adjustments using the d-pad, when the game feels like letting you, but the camera will always fly back to a position the game feels is appropriate. Combine this with an environment that doesn’t particularly display depth all that well, and you’ve got the makings of some seriously annoying gameplay.

Throughout the world, Oswald has erected projector screens which act as wormholes to the different zones around Wasteland. Each projector contains a mini-sidescrolling platformer level themed from one of the older Disney cartoons. These are all great and interestingly stylized, the first or maybe even the second time you go through them. There are several you’ll have to traverse multiple times late in the game, though, which becomes like tedious busywork. Don’t make the mistake of entering one if you really don’t intend to go to a specific location, or you’ll need to traverse the whole area before you can backtrack. At least they become populated with the game’s currency, E-Tickets, so you’ll get a few more of those to spend for the effort. Speaking of tedious though, how about the game’s attempt at increasing length with some bad fetch quests? You get to do a string of them right when you first get to Mean Street, then every once in a while need to do them again to gather orbs which power the main projectors in the game. Time-wasting nonsense.

E-Tickets, a callback to when Disney World first existed, can be spent at one of several stores in the game allowing you to purchase upgrades to your health, inventory space, or even quest specific items that you may have missed. Remember the concept artwork for shambling Goofy? He’s totally in the game but you have to build him by finding his parts. Here’s where you get more into the cool, yet sad story aspects of Epic Mickey. Oswald wanted to have friends like Goofy, Daisy, and Donald, but didn’t… so he built them. Unfortunately, throughout the course of the game I never built any of the animatronic friends thanks to missing some of the parts of Goofy and getting locked out of the area where they were. Sure you can buy them, but they’re just far too expensive.

Any other inventory item you’ll pick up is really of little consequence and just assists a bit with combat. They’re throwaway additions that really add nothing to the game. You’ll know basically everything you need to about the game within the first fifteen minutes of the excruciatingly long, text-heavy, hand-holding tutorial. I think it was about an hour and a half before the game actually started. Just remember, you can shake the Wii remote to perform a spin move! Strange that they chose the single most common mechanic through all Wii titles to repeat multiple times, instead of focusing on a more conceptual newcomer, the Guardians, which are basically just breadcrumbs that never seem to work when you need them the most.

With Disney Epic Mickey, you’ve got a game that’s feels like it’s teetering on the edge of awesome, yet has way too much junk weighing it down. The story, premise, and style are at the top of their game and are worth seeing for fans of the great and powerful Diz, but the mechanics you’ll need to endure can be quite frustrating, and–most importantly–boring. It’s hard to believe that in 2010 developers still ignore the importance of a properly functioning camera.

3 out of 5

Originally posted on Evil Avatar.

To kick things off, lets talk about the primary game mode: Career. In Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit you’ve got two paths, both immediately accessible from the game’s world map. You’ll become a bad boy racer, driving through this speeder’s paradise, trying to beat your fellow outlaws and not get busted by the police; or you can play as the cop trying to bust those racers. What’s great about the setup here is that you can bounce back and forth between these careers, so if you tire of just racing around you can switch over and bust some nogoodniks instead.

There’s a decent amount of variation in the events, from straightforward races without police interference to preview rounds where you get to test drive a supercar before you’ve actually earned it. My least favorite type is the “Rapid Response” police event where you’re asked to respond to some crime scene and get time penalties for hitting walls or other cars on the road. I get what they were going for, but just didn’t care for them. Honestly, the cat and mouse gameplay is what sets this series apart from other racers. Each side has their own tools to try and either bust racers or evade cops. While it sometimes feels a bit too much like a cart racer (EMP? Really?), it’s never anything less than radical and exhilarating. Criterion once again proves they know how to make arcade driving games feel and look nearly perfect.

Progressing through the game is as easy, or difficult, as driving against the rubberband AI which at times can be absolutely ridiculous. Shortcuts become almost pointless unless you see your AI opponents take them first, due to the fact that they’ll just catch up to you no matter what. Making others crash is also completely fruitless. With just a mile left on one specific race during my career, I forced an opponent into a guardrail and received a ‘takedown’ notice. He outright crashed, but ended up passing me with ease to win the race at the last moment, even though I was nearly at top speed for the rest of the race. That’s controller throwing garbage right there. You’ll gain bounty (experience) for performing certain tasks during events and when hitting milestones, but the largest rewards come from getting gold medals, so a second place finish is far from optimal. Luckily, you’ll always be earning bounty in every event and mode, so even if you finish dead last your bad race won’t be for naught. Those points go towards unlocking enhanced equipment, new cars, and ‘leveling up’, but that’s about it. There’s no car customization to speak of, other than choosing a paint job, and the level progression really just serves as a dedication meter.

While missing the Burnout moniker, Hot Pursuit certainly borrows plenty from its two-years-older brother, making it impossible to avoid comparisons. Game engine, detailed crash slowdowns, even the way you earn boost is a carbon copy of Burnout Paradise. Things are a bit toned down this time though, grounded with reality instead of taking place in a fantastical racing world. While still an arcade-style racer, the fully licensed cars feel weightier and require more finesse than the twitchy generics of Paradise, and the game takes place in a much more realistic landscape. Cars even have drivers at the wheel, how’s that for realism?!

Environments are varied from long stretches of open road in sparse desert land and cliffside roads overlooking majestic waters, to thick redwood forests and snow covered mountain peaks. Full day night and weather systems are also in place and look great particularly during transition or a violent thunderstorm. The wide armada of vehicles all feature great reflection effects when seen up close, and certainly look like their real world counterparts. There are even nice little environmental touches every once in a while while racing, like an airplane flying overhead or fireworks going off in the distance. Everything in the game is wonderfully detailed and looks fantastic, but it comes at a price. No longer does the Paradise engine run at 60fps, locked instead to 30.

Other shortcomings of the engine also exist, like not being able to use manual transmissions on cars (I don’t think they make an automatic shifting Bugatti Veyron) and not being able to adjust video settings in-game. But at least the Paradise engine allows for some open world antics right? Kinda, but not really. Instead of granting the ability to drive around looking for events to partake in, Criterion went with a menu approach. You’ll see an overworld map, get to pick your event and go right into it in a more compartmentalized and linear approach. They still give you the option of just grabbing whatever car you’ve unlocked and drive it around the world unhindered, but it’s a completely pointless, throw-away feature. It would have been nice to have the Multiplayer based in this open world, but again, that just goes through a normal, menu based matchmaking system instead of the fully integrated approach, removing any chance of emergent gameplay. Without that true open world, exploration based aspect, there’s not much here really pushing you forward other than getting new cars and ranking up to level 20 in each career.

Instead, the newest competitive addition is the Autolog system which acts as a glorified, nagging leaderboard. Whenever a friend beats one of your times, a quick press of a button will post that achievement to their Autolog wall which is monitored by the game. If you’re in the menus, the game taunts you with a very calm, “Your friends have beaten you” vocalized message, and suggests you to pull the right trigger to attempt the event they just won over. It’s terribly effective as I spent way too much time trying to regain my top spots. The wall also acts as a place to share any quick in-game screenshots you take (click the right stick at any time), or any of your “Dream Shots” which are taken through the pause menu’s photo mode. Best of all, this Autolog information is integrated with EA’s NFSHS website, so you can check out what your friends have done while you’re at your desk at work. Overall statistics are strangely absent in-game, and the website claims they’re ‘coming soon’. Fun fact: the images in this review were taken, by me, in game on the 360.

The actual competitive multiplayer is a bit of a mixed bag at current time. You’ve only got three modes and while it’s awesome to go cops vs racers with 8 real people, 9 times out of 10, the racers win due to the cops not working together as a team, blowing their weapons arsenal too early. Also, I’ve experienced a plethora of connection related issues. I’m not entirely sure if that’s the case due to lack of connection strength indicators in the lobbies, but I’ve had spike strips appear directly in front of me with no cops or helicopters in sight, the mini map not updating to show that cops are nearby, getting t-boned when no one was around, cars blinking all over the road, and have seen cars drive right through other vehicles. Frustrating, but hopefully the issues will be resolved in the future.

Criterion Games certainly knows speed, so it made perfect sense for Electronic Arts to enlist their know-how with the slumping Need for Speed franchise. While they absolutely nailed the actual racing elements and created an extremely addictive competitive system with Autolog, the surrounding elements leave a lot to be desired and certainly could have used a bit of same streamlining that’s apparent on most of the exotic rides in the game. You won’t regret your purchase as the racing is truly fantastic, but you may get frustrated with the package as a whole.

4 out of 5

Originally posted at Evil Avatar.

We all know how the basic mechanics work. You’re a pizza missing a slice, navigating mazes, eating regular and power pellets, all the while being chased by some ghosts. If you get hit by the ghosts, you’re a goner! Simple. Championship Edition separated the game board into two fluid halves. Instead of working on clearing off a full board, you’d normally take care of either the left or right of the maze. The other half would then morph slightly, and become populated by dots in a preset pattern. This alteration alone made Pac-Man feel totally new, but the additional timer placed a sense of urgency on everything. It was brilliant.

CE DX changes the formula further, building on the success of three years ago. Survival really isn’t much of a problem anymore thanks to some new abilities. When in harm’s way, the game screen will zoom in slightly and slow down, allowing you to make a move or drop a bomb. Yep, Pac now has bombs which send ghosts back to their central home, giving you breathing room but also slowing down the speed of the game. The slow down is actually a big detriment, as this game is now all about speed and score. The higher your score, the faster the game becomes and the more points you’ll potentially be able to nab.

To really rack up that score, Namco has brought the significant addition of sleeping ghosts into the mix. Sure, there’s still a few wandering spirits which are of little consequence, but these new ghosts appear throughout the maze in fixed positions. Passing by will wake them; piss them off and they’ll give chase in the same path you take. If you play your cards right, you’ll eventually build up a full train behind you and when you eat a power pellet, it’s game over for Inky and his friends in an orgasmic spectacle of point gathering dominance, complete with pitch perfect sound effects. Every single time I chomp a huge train, a big smile forms on my face.

If there’s anything Pac-Man CE DX could have done a bit better, it would be the leaderboard integration. Like many other Xbox Live Arcade titles, the leaderboard is buried within menus and swapping between views feels like a chore. You get a quick look at your global ranking, but it doesn’t go far enough. It would have been great to include some in-game hooks to show off who on your friends list is closest behind or ahead of you, or even an immediate display when the match was over. All the score info is there, but it’s just not as fluid or interesting as what more current titles like Pinball FX 2 have done.

Along with the primary game modes that come in five or ten minute flavors, you’ll be able to take part in numerous time trials and a ghost train mode where instead of a high score, you try to get the highest ghost combo you can. Me? I’m at ninety six as I write this. There are a bunch of different boards to do all this on, as well as several visual styles of both mazes and characters, some of which are pulled from the numerous iterations of The Man we’ve seen throughout the years.

I’m just as amazed as you are that in 2010 Pac-Man can be so compelling. What makes all this even sweeter is the low price point of $10 when most other XBLA and PSN titles now release at $15. It’s a fantastic arcade blast that can be played for an hour or in quick spurts and honestly, if you missed out on CE three years ago, you NEED to play this game. Fans of CE will feel more at home with the new style, but there’s plenty here to make it worth another purchase. This is still not your daddy’s Pac-Man.

5 out of 5

Originally posted at Evil Avatar.

A few years passed and a little title by the name of Guitar Hero was released by that same small studio, capturing the attention of… well, everyone. It was a logical progression in their line of games. After they were purchased by MTV Games, Harmonix further extended the concept and brought about the band game, Rock Band. There was clear room for improvement which lead to the quick sequel, Rock Band 2, and now two years after that, we have Rock Band 3. The question now is, where does Harmonix go from here? With the exception of perhaps a band specific title or some other larger track pack, Rock Band 3 is possibly the last band music game you’ll ever need to purchase.

I’m completely serious here; they’ve gone and thrown everything possible onto a single disc, legitimately removing the need for a Rock Band 4. Where competitor Neversoft has floundered with a lack of creativity and focused on strange things like a story mode, Harmonix has had a mission from the very beginning with Rock Band: they didn’t just want to make a game, they wanted to make a platform–and they have done so. Mission accomplished!

When you first fire up Rock Band 3, you may feel like I did: a bit disoriented. Instead of having a clear, focused mode to just jump into and go, you’ve got menu items like “Play Now” and “Career”, which sound an awful lot like QuickPlay and Story Mode; but that isn’t exactly the case. Neither is unimportant or better than the other. “Play Now” houses both quick “jump in and play” modes, as well as your actual rock tour progression mode where you travel around the world playing gigs and working your way up to rock super stardom through a series of Road Tour challenges. The Career mode, however, is a bit different. Here you’ve got tracking for your Rock Band-itude with specific goals set out, helping you be as focused or as scattered as you like. When I say track, it visualizes these predetermined goals for you in a sort of achievement system, but also allows you to play songs to specifically meet the necessary criteria at the press of a button.

The goals are ever present in the background no matter what you’re doing, so you can be working towards them in whatever game mode you’re playing. They’re also interestingly adaptive depending on what you’ve imported on your system. Prior to kicking off RB3, I had not “exported” anything from previous titles, but during the course of my playtime grabbed the contents of both Green Day: Rock Band and Rock Band 2. Specific goals for each of them appeared magically in the career view, and disc specific playlists were added to the Road Tour challenges. Pretty rad. Of course, songs off of these discs were also available wherever you looked for use. The only Rock-Band-branded title you can’t bring into Rock Band 3 is The Beatles: Rock Band.

I actually started out in the career section, working on the goals for the newest instrumental addition–the Keyboard–then hopped over to form my band and hit the road when I was comfortable enough with the ebony and ivories. Well, really just the ivories as I’m not yet proficient enough for Pro Keys mode. The Normal Keys mode utilizes only 5 of the 25 keys present in a way very similar to what we’ve all become accustomed to with the standard guitar, but with zero strumming and requiring more finger strength and precision. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’d hit two keys at once because I was just a bit off. Thanks, Rock Band 3, for reminding me how difficult real music is to play! The standard Keyboard is by Mad Catz, feels quite solid, will act as a legit MIDI controller, and–most importantly–accepts a strap so you can rock it as a keytar. You’ll be able to play any instrument with it as well, just in case the initial offering of Key-infused tracks isn’t holding your interest. I haven’t gotten a chance to touch the new pro guitar or pro drums, but RB3 supports them in an effort to transcend the “game” stigma by requiring real musical proficiency.

There are two points that I need to slap Harmonix on the knuckles for. First and foremost is the dastardly inclusion of surreptitiously titled DLC within your list of songs. They’re highlighted, but instead of being labeled as “BUY ME,” they just say “RECOMMENDED.” Even if you don’t have a huge catalog, you may not know all the songs you do have, so having one recommended to you by the game sounds great. That is until you try to add it and realize they’re actually trying to sell you stuff. Second is the repetition of canned animation and intros throughout the Road Tour. I saw the same bro throwing up the horns and sticking out his tongue, outside the same bar, many times all over the world. I know it’s not super important, but it’s noticeable and annoying.

So here we are, back to the beginning. Rock Band 3 has everything you’ve ever wanted in a band game. It’s both awesome and at the same time a fairly hard, solid stop for the band genre. Track packs and band specific titles withstanding, Harmonix has effectively painted themselves into corner and will likely need to jump out a window for their next title. Maybe that’s why former Rock Band senior designer Dan Teasdale hit the road so close to the ship date, or why Viacom just announced they were selling off Harmonix? Either way, you should totally buy Rock Band 3 because it’s the quintessential band game, with or without the new hardware.

5 out of 5

Originally posted at Evil Avatar.

Undead Nightmare, like other Rockstar downloadable episodes (The Lost and Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony), is one serious chunk of content for an already established and well respected game. From the overall aesthetic and tone to the random encounters on the trail, from the bounty missions to even the interface, they’ve gone in and tweaked just about everything you can imagine here. Even the gameplay itself has undergone a change, though not mechanically. If you’ve played the original Red Dead Redemption, you’ll know that you can spend a ton of time hiding behind cover and popping out to shoot some outlaw in the face. Due to the new zombified menace though, if you enter cover, you gon’ DIE. It’s all about running away and getting headshots, many times while using the Dead Eye system.

In the original game, I honestly rarely used Dead Eye. I felt that the standard snap-to targeting was sufficient and was never in a position that really required me to slow things down. Now though, if you’re not using it? Dead. Sure you can snap off a couple skull cracking rifle shots from a distance. But when those undead start swarming and you’re on your heels, if you’re out of Dead Eye meter? Dead. Combine that with severely limited ammo and what seemed like a walk in the park before is now a very tense, and different feeling game.

The story presented is one of nonsense, and everyone seems to know it. There’s a slew of humorous tongue-in-cheek remarks, plenty of self aware dialog, and the same great voicework from John Marston you’ve come to expect. It takes place towards the end of the original game’s campaign in a sort of parallel timeline. From nearly the outset, you’ll see that Undead Nightmare clearly isn’t canon, nor does it end where all of the characters could just shrug it off like it didn’t happen. Basically it goes down like this: Something happens (you don’t know what), your wife and kid get infected as zombies, and instead of offing them you tie them up to go look for a cure. You’ll come across a bunch of familiar faces like Bonnie MacFarlane, Landon Ricketts and that crazy gravedigger Seth Briars while making your way through just about every town in the original game asking the same question: “What the hell is going on?”

Yeah, that’s one issue I had with Nightmare. Not only are you consistently asking the same question over and over, but you’re generally performing the same tasks too. Each town has been overrun by zombies and you roll in to clear them out. To do so, you’ll either approach some survivors and help them out, or just go in guns blazing till every last walker is dead–again. I never felt that the risk of running through a zombie horde just to assist some survivors was worth taking, so instead I used my limited ammo and took them all down from a distance. After suppressing the uprising, the gloomy funk over each locale will lift presenting a more “natural” and serene environment. Due to the stupid nature of zombies, each town encounter doesn’t really change much throughout with the exception of a few different kinds of undead and in different numbers. If you head out and don’t pay attention to towns enough, they’ll become overrun again, so you can never truly save them.

Pushing my complaints aside, the 7-or-so-hour campaign has some pretty interesting and thought provoking dialog in the final mission despite some weak segments during. As an overall package, there’s really quite a bit of content here. The most interesting addition are the mythical creatures, some of which you can tame and ride, and others that you hunt. There’s also a few new weapons to assist specifically against zombies, like the obliterating blunderbus which is loaded with zombie parts. Multiplayer has even been updated to allow for a new hoard mode game type, and a Land Grab mode in which you’ll be asked to protect a major town for a set amount of time.

For ten bucks, you’ve got more content added into Red Dead Redemption than you’ll find in some recently released full priced titles, and certainly more than a lot of the crap $15 XBLA titles out there. Sure, it isn’t all awesome; but Rockstar certainly knows how to handle downloadable episodes and I wish other developers would take a page from their book. Even if you’re not completely sold on the zombie motif, if you’re a fan of Red Dead at all, there’s little reason to avoid Undead Nightmare.

4 out of 5

Originally posted at Evil Avatar.

While the developer accurately captured the basic motions of being a DJ in the original game, it was really missing one of the core elements of the art: customization. While DJ Hero 2 still presents players with predefined tracks, you are now able to do a significant amount of on-the-fly music alteration while playing. While this mechanic is limited to specific ‘freestyle’ sections, you’re able to cross-fade at-will and actually mess around with the two different musical tracks for a few beats. Additionally, you’re able to use the effects button in a much more fluent way as they’ve removed the “Internet Flash soundboard” style effects, opting instead to use context-appropriate effects from the current song instead. I’m glad I don’t have to hear Flavor Flav yell “Yeah boyyyyy” over and over just because I forgot to choose some new samples at the selection screen. Both of these changes really help add to the experience and make you feel like you’re doing something meaningful.

The rewind mechanic also has minor but extremely helpful updates. You’re still able to rewind the track after hitting a string of taps and scratches to get more points, but now instead of just doing an arbitrary and unknown reverse, there are actual markers on the track where the rewind will jump back to. If for some reason those markers take place during a cross fade, you’re also given time now to adjust instead of immediately losing out on your streak. Unfortunately, the crappy rewind sound effect is still there and feels as out of place as it did in the first title. The heads up display has also been reworked and fits better with the title, instead of looking like a Guitar Hero rip-off.

While most music titles rely on your familiarity with the songs that are included as a major selling point (yeah, congrats on being so cool for knowing the words to Snow’s “Informer”), it’s not a necessity to enjoy the tracks in DJ Hero. Instead, part of the awesomeness is hearing these mixes and mashups for the first time. Hey, you may even find a new-found interest in an artist you previously didn’t like (Lady Gaga?). If you’re going through Empire (career) mode, the soundtrack starts off strong and only gets better as you progress. Most of the mixes were created in-house at FreeStyle, but other DJs did lend their skills to a few key sets and some are even featured as playable characters.

The real stars are the Megamixes. FreeStyle took this mode (which almost seemed like an afterthought in the original game) and expanded upon it quite a bit, even granting them their own main menu item. Each venue within Empire mode has a Megamix associated with it hosted by big-name DJs like Deadmau5, David Guetta, and Tiësto. They’re at least three mixes long and flow together seamlessly to create one non-stop super track. If you’re into house, club, or trance music at all, this is pretty much what you’d expect to hear all the time instead of the hard stops you’ll experience through other sets. I honestly wish all the music from DJ Hero 2 was available outside of the game because it’s really one of the best soundtracks you’ll find in the genre.

As you may have gathered from the marketing, there has been some attention to the multiplayer components, which try to address complaints levied against the franchise’s solo-centric approach to music. The addition of a friend’s list-based score marker while playing solo is welcome, but most of the actual multiplayer modes aren’t terribly different from one another or all that interesting. Much like the first DJ Hero, they’re serviceable at best. The addition of vocals is kind of dumb considering you’ll need to jump from one track to the other often. To help, words are color coded to correspond with the tracks they’re a part of, but it’s an unnecessary feature in general. I understand the attempt at bringing DJ Hero into a par-tay setting, but it’s a weak area that still needs work.

All in all, DJ Hero 2 is one awesome game. Sure the multiplayer really isn’t anything special, but the soundtrack, mechanics, and gameplay updates make this a great musical package. Now, I just wish FreeStyle would release the soundtrack outside of the game so I can throw my own raves just by pressing play.

Score: 4.5 out of 5

The Good
The best soundtrack of any music game currently available.
Thoughtful and important improvements over the previous title.
Makes you wanna be a real DJ, maybe.
MEGAMIXES!

The Bad
Multiplayer and singing still isn’t great.
That stupid, generic rewind sound is a serious sore thumb.

The Ugly
When advertising says two turntables and a microphone, you need to have Beck on the soundtrack.

Originally posted at Evil Avatar.

God of War: Ghost of Sparta takes place in-between the events of God of War 1 and God of War 2. Kratos has killed Ares, become a sort of hero to his fellow Spartans, and has ascended as the God of War. Visions of his past still haunt him, particularly of his brother Deimos, so Kratos has vowed revenge… wait no, somehow this isn’t a revenge tale! Instead Kratos’ primary motivation throughout the game is to find his brother. Sure he lays waste to just about everything in his path, but at least now he’s not just doing it because he’s got daddy issues. The story is uncharacteristically strong for the series, full of character development and meaningful exposition, ending with some real insight as to some of the reason why Kratos has lost his humanity later in the games.

You’re equipped with the Blades of Athena and run around an ancient world performing flashy combos and ripping the heads off of Gorgons with quicktime events, upgrading and getting new powers as you go. It’s generally the same this time as it has been for the past five titles. Distribution of the gear seems somewhat lopsided, as all the sudden the game seems to give you one new thing after another after having spent a large portion of the game using only a few implements. When it’s all said and done, you’ll be getting three magic attacks and one alternate weapon, the Arms of Sparta.

The Arms of Sparta is actually a really cool weapon and pulls from typical Spartan mythos being a combination of a round, bronze shield and spear. Yeah, the same things that all those naked dudes were using in the movie 300. Not only can you block environmental dangers with the shield, but the spear acts as a ranged weapon as well as a close up one. As a plus, this alternate weapon is tied into the story in multiple, meaningful ways. You’re also able to ignite your chained blades at any time to increase damage or break certain objects.

To ignite those blades, you’re supposed to hold the right bumper, but many times I found it wouldn’t pick up on my input except at specific times. It felt like a toggle that wasn’t being toggled when I wanted it to be. Additionally, the magic and weapon changes are handled on the directional pad, while movement is handled on the analog. If you want to make use of some lightning attacks, you’ve got to take your thumb off of the movement stick. It didn’t feel natural relinquishing character control to throw some angry balls of death at people. In short, the controls don’t translate perfectly to the PSP and are mildly irritating.

Just because this title is on a handheld system, it doesn’t mean lower quality visuals. From start to finish it’s a great looking, fast flowing title with plenty of sweet set pieces including a visit to Sparta itself. The only time things fell apart a bit was when the camera zoomed in a bit too close to the action, throwing some active enemies off the screen. If any of those baddies had ranged attacks, you wouldn’t know that you’re about to get attacked and just have to take the damage. Ready at Dawn didn’t have sheer horsepower to throw at Kratos, but in some ways, this game feel more epic than God of War III.

As the story was wrapping up, I stared in amazement. The conclusion here is fantastic, ties into the rest of the series wonderfully, and instead of just saying “welp that’s it!” made me want to play the God of War Collection to truly continue the narrative. Big budget titles could learn a thing or two from how God of War: Ghost of Sparta does an ending that’s not only satisfying, but meaningful as well. If you’ve got a PSP and some love for character action titles, pick this game up.

Score: 4.5 out of 5

Good
A well written, cohesive narrative extends Kratos as a character wonderfully.
Great visuals and locations throughout.
Reinvigorates a stale series.

Bad
Controls can be mildly irritating at times.

Ugly
Brotherly love.

Originally posted at Evil Avatar.