During my school days I was one of those kids into the whole games workshop/warhammer thing. As a result I was seriously excited when it was announced that a console version of their tabletop classic Blood Bowl was being developed. The potential was clearly there for a gaming experience that was just as addictive and exciting as the tabletop version. Did French developer Cyanide succeed? Read on to find out.

For those not in the know, Blood Bowl is a strategy game set in the games workshop universe and loosely based on American football. Teams consisting of different races (Elves, Orcs, Goblins and Humans amongst others) compete to score touchdowns by moving the ball into the opposition endzone, just like in the U.S sport.

However in this game pounding your opponents into the turf until they are dead is just as valid a tactic as a long pass. Each of the races specialises in different aspects of the game: the elves are superb passers of the ball but are very easily injured, whereas Orcs are rarely incapacitated but often struggle with even picking up the ball. Players on Goblin teams can even make use of special weapons such as chainsaws and pogo sticks.

The game features both the traditional 2 halves of 8 turns in turnbased mode, and the all new realtime ‘blitz’ mode. The realtime mode though is an absolute joke, as it’s realtime in name only. Players pause the match in order to give instructions to their team which are then played out when the game is restarted. It’s a good job then that the turn based mode has been executed much more successfully.

In turn based mode players can choose from a set of actions to be performed by each of the players on their team. The main actions revolve around moving, passing the ball or tackling opponents. The success or failure of each action is determined by a dice roll which is performed in the background in the case of all rolls with the exception of blocking (tackling) What dice roll is required to succeed is determined by the stats of the player performing it, and adjustments based upon the in game situation at the time.

If all of this sounds very complicated, that’s because it is. The turn based rules of blood bowl have been built up over the years since its release in 1987. To fully understand the rules of the game then players really need to read the ‘Living Rule Book’ which is over 60 pages long, and not included with the game. This makes the game exceedingly inaccessible to new players, many of whom will no doubt be put off by the bewildering array of things to learn. There is a tutorial included to try and ease new players into the game, but it is insufficient to say the least.

So, you may well be thinking that this game is worth avoiding. If you’re put off by having a lot to learn then that would probably be the best idea. If you’re willing to stick it out, however, then there’s a really fun gaming experience to be had here. Blood Bowl is well known amongst tabletop gamers for it’s superb balance of strategy and luck. Once you’ve learned the rules then it’s possible to appreciate this game for what it is: a high quality strategy experience. Earning star player points for actions completed during matches allows players to rank up, thereby gaining new skills and allowing managers to customise their style of play.

The single player game allows for cup competitions, one off games, tournaments, and the career mode. Be prepared for a long game should you choose career mode as it consists of a large number of tournaments each of which are made up of several matches. The beauty of this mode is that it allows for much ranking up which really can allow players massive customisation over their team.

I’m afraid that I can’t pass much judgement on the multiplayer part of the game due to the fact that on several occasions when I’ve tried to give it a go there hasn’t been a single other person online. I am able to bemoan the fact that you are not able to gain experience online and therefore a lot of the addictiveness of the game will be missing from it.

As much as I would like to be able to recommend this game to all of you, I can’t. The flaws are too many and too apparent. You just have to work too hard in order to find the fun here, which is an absolute shame. This makes my disappointment all the more profound, as I know from experience just how excellent the tabletop game is. I just wish that Cyanide had managed to translate this entertainment more capably into what should have been a quality game.

Verdict: 4.5/10. Only worth considering if you’ve got a lot of patience.

The much loved Gadget Show (as shown on Five TV) have recently reviewed the Natal, and I must say, this short review is probably one of the better, unbias pieces I’ve heard. If you’re interested in the Natal at all, I suggest viewing the link below.

 

Click here for the video.

 

Good times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first two words of Alan Wake are “Stephen King.” The next big Xbox 360 exclusive game is an interactive thriller played in the shadows of America’s Pacific Northwest. I recently played the game’s impressive first full “episode.”

Remedy Entertainment’s May-dated game comes on a disc but is divided into episodes. These chapters are sometimes narrated in the past tense and they are designed to end in cliffhangers. To describe the first one, as I’m about to, involves spoilers, though we’re talking spoilers of a pilot episode designed to set up mysteries and tone and answer just about nothing — that’s what the rest of the episodes are for. So reading this will allow you to remain as much in the dark as I was at the end of the first episode or even as was Alan himself.

The first episode is called Nightmare. It opens with the “Stephen King” reference and some narration by Alan, setting himself up as “a writer.” He’s a King-style writer, an author of thrillers, visiting a Twin-Peaks-style town, Bright Falls in the Pacific Northwest. Nightmare begins in the middle of things. Alan Wake is driving down a dark highway. It’s late. He drives smack into a hitchhiker. Alan has a flashlight, wielded in his left hand in this third-person game. Pulling the Xbox 360’s left trigger focuses the beam. Seconds after he is out of his car, Alan is creeping down a path that descends near the highway’s cliffs. He’s being pursued by a shadowy figure, possibly the hitchhiker, who is maybe a character from one of Alan’s books. As would be the prevailing gameplay theme of most of Nightmare’s action sequences, Alan was being pursued, hounded, by one and then by multiple shadowy axe-men.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gameplay was mostly panicked escape in this first section of Nightmare. I had to rush Alan down outdoor paths and into a house. A couple of times, a mysterious voice offered advice, pointing out a pistol that Alan could wield and a player could fire with a squeeze of the right trigger. When confronting a shadowy enemy in Alan Wake, the main mechanic requires using the L trigger to burn off the shadows covering the enemies and then shooting them with the R trigger. A well-timed press of the game’s dodge button triggers a slow-motion effect, shades of Remedy’s Max Payne games, which allows the player more time to roll Alan out of the way, turn and fire a good shot.

Alan Wake is a thriller that appears to be the exception to two gaming genre rules. Games that are scary often have two deficiencies: controls and graphics.

The former can frustrate in a Silent Hill or a Resident Evil, forcing the player to deal with clunky or muddy controls. The inability to move a character with swiftness and finesse is arguably an essential element of the games’ creators’ intent to make the player feel overpowered and afraid. Recent, more dynamic controls, such as in Resident Evil 5, seemed to help make the game more of an action movie and less of a horror flick. Better controls produce fewer scares?

Alan Wake’s scheme denies that better controls necessarily alleviate fear and tension. Alan may have controlled pleasantly, like a man and not a tank, but the need to illuminate enemies and then shoot them — and to do so while batteries swiftly drained and then needed to be recharged or be replaced in the flashlight — provided just enough enjoyable trouble to make skirmishes a fright, without being a frustration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for graphics, well, it’s hard to say if the darkness enshrouding many of the games in the genre excused less than industry-leading graphics or if it is smaller development teams, not armed with the resources to make industry-leading graphics that turned to the horror genre. Whatever the case, it is rare to see a game in the dark-and-creepy category that could be a Best Graphics candidate, but Alan Wake, like EA’s Dead Space before it, represents a pleasant exception. The Pacific Northwest is a rare and magnificent sight in video games, rendered in real and spooky detail in the episode I played. The forests were tall, dark and dense, light playing through branches. As Alan ran into a house for refuge, I noticed it was full of details, chairs and TVs and wall-hangings, meeting my newfound Uncharted 2 standard of amount of stuff I think a developer can render in a realistic indoors space. As some dark presence shook the house apart, I felt not that I was in a primitive diorama but that I was in a big-budget blockbuster. Even in the dark it felt I could see far across the valley, that this was a detailed world so well-rendered I could almost smell the sawed logs.

I’ve barely described the events of Nightmare so far. Alan’s shelter is wrecked. He is told, by that voice, to go to a lighthouse that beams in the night. Light is refuge in this game. As he runs, the shadowy figures pursue him. And just as he’s getting there, this first little bit of the episode ends.

Time turns back. It’s sunny. Alan and his wife, Alice, are driving to Bright Falls, ready to start a vacation. They park their product-placed car on a ferry, where Alan is immediately recognized by a local disc jockey. Alan takes a call from his agent. The ferry rides us into town, setting that Twin Peaks scene of a remote and quaint corner of American civilization full of folks who know each other maybe too well. There’s some sort of festival called Deerfest starting in two weeks.

The couple goes to a diner to pick up keys to the house where they’re going to stay. They want to meet a man named Carl Stuckey. Alan is recognized again in the diner by a waitress gets an earful from two old codgers, one of whom wants him to put a song on the jukebox — I don’t know if it matters if the player does it — and then heads to the back where a creepy lady in a black veil hands Alan the keys she says he’s looking for. Alan and Alice drive away. Carl Stuckey stumbles after them yelling that he needs to give them keys. That’s the first sign of trouble for Alan and Alice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cabin they drive to is nice. It’s set on a small island at the end of a dock, nestled into a cove at the foot of wooded hills. This house also is highly-detailed, with rugs and a radio (the disc jockey is blabbing that Alan is in town), paintings and furniture and an odd framed photo of what looks like someone in a diving suit. I had control of Alan on the island. I walked him around to explore and picked up the details about Alan and Alice’s struggles. Their marriage isn’t perfect. His writer’s block is a struggle. He wanted the trip to be a vacation from the stress and is not pleased when he sees the surprise Alice has set up for him: A typewriter in a room of his own. She’s even found a local doctor who she thinks can help him surmount any mental blocks. Alan’s angry.

The next events happened fast. Alan is back outside. It’s getting dark. Alice is suddenly calling for help, as if she’s drowning. Alan dives into the water for her. And then a scene change. Alan wakes up in a crashed car. He’s outside of town. What follows are some dark and lovely scenes of chase and combat. Putting them in words wouldn’t do them justice. Alan winds up chased by shadowy figures in a logging camp. The big trucks that haul and cut tall evergreens create their own frightful shadows and set up new dangers: rolling logs, falling logs, blind corners hiding another enemy. Alan sees a service station in the distance. Its bright lights are his his goal.

The first half of the episode, which would last about an hour, was easy. The second half was tough. Enemies are numerous and relentless. On some walls my flashlight revealed arrows which pointed to hidden caches of weapons or batteries (also product-placed, Energizer brand). There are pages of a novel seemingly written by Alan scattered in the level. Collecting them tells a story. Everything, including the arrows, has a narrative explanation, if players dig for it, the developers told me. But I was busy trying to survive. I fared better with a shotgun and then with a flare gun which can flash-shock a cluster of enemies. I made it to the service station after a few more tough fights and called for the police. A sheriff showed up. She drove Alan to where he said his wife had fallen into the water, outside that house on that island in that cove. The sheriff drove him there and made him look. There was no house there. Just a dock leading to nowhere. Just a cove.

Admit it: you thought Bioshock 2 was going to suck, didn’t you? You thought that the first game was such a complete experience that it didn’t need or leave room for a sequel. Well, until I played the second installment I would have agreed with you. Thankfully 2k games have changed my mind due to their crafting of such an atmospheric and eminently playable adventure.

The game is set 8 years after the events of the first, with players taking on the role of one of the original Big Daddies. As anyone who has played the first game will know, the story in Bioshock is central to the entire experience. Because of that I will try to avoid mentioning any specifics of the narrative so as to avoid spoiling it for any of you.

Whilst I did enjoy the story that runs through Bioshock 2 it was not as involving as that of the first game. This was partly down to the fact that it felt somewhat shoehorned into the canon set up by the first. Major events from the history of Rapture are revealed during the game that were not even touched upon in the original, and this can feel rather forced at times.

I was also slightly disappointed with the characters in this game, again this was due to the high quality of the people we met in the first. There is just no-one here that compares to the sheer lunacy of Sander Cohen or the thrill of meeting Andrew Ryan for the first time. The characters in the second game are much more forgettable.

What with all the discussion of the lofty ideals discussed in Bioshock it seems that people sometimes forget that the game is at heart an FPS. I’m glad to report that this part of the game has been sharpened up nicely. It’s now possible to duel wield a weapon and a plasmid, both of which are upgradeable. This creates opportunities for even better combat experiences. You can be setting cyclone traps which launch splicers into the air and then set them on fire, or pin them to the wall with your spear gun, or use your hypnotise plasmid to set them on each other. The different ways in which you can approach each situation give a tremendous variety to the entire game.

The Vita chambers from the original make a re-appearance, only this time around they are more of an essential inclusion. In Bioshock 2 you are going to die, a lot. Thankfully the checkpoints and Vita chambers are well placed and stop any one section from becoming a chore. Having said that there is the option to turn them off, and even an achievement for completing the game without using them. Good luck to anyone attempting that!

The decision to let players take on the role of a Big Daddy in this game was something of a controversial one amongst fans. I’m happy to report that in gameplay terms it’s definitely been a good one. Smashing into splicers and cutting them to ribbons with your drill really is as fun as it sounds. Despite playing as such a powerful character there is still a constant feeling of foreboding permeating the whole experience. Hearing the stomp of another Daddy, or the screach of a Big Sister is enough to get your heart racing. Hell, even the voices of splicers around the next corner can be enough to put you on edge.

Talking of the Big Sisters, as fun as they were to fight during the game, I did feel that they were a bit of an unnecessary inclusion. Their back story is rather poorly explained and in my opinion the Big Daddies provide far more entertaining opponents. You just can’t beat setting up all of your traps and turrets and planning your route through an area before angering one of those hulking giants.

The question of harvesting or saving little sisters also returns this time around, only with a slight twist. As the player is now a Big Daddy it’s possible to choose to adopt the little sister and use her to collect adam from dead bodies. Doing so will attract splicers in large numbers, attracted by that lovely adam, so you had better be ready to defend your little sister against their onslaught. In many of the reviews I’ve read this part of the game has been criticised for it’s repetition. I have to say that I completely disagree with that evaluation. Yes, you do go through this process many times during the course of the game but in my opinion these were some of the most enjoyable sections of gameplay. It really is exhilarating setting up a defensive position using whatever traps and plasmids you have at your disposal and then battling the onrushing splicers.

Graphically the game is a wonderful sight to behold and ratpure is every bit as beautiful a place to explore as it was before. There are plenty of interesting places to visit and marvel at. The soundtrack is also just as excellent as before and compliments the whole atmosphere perfectly.

This time around Bioshock has ventured into the overpopulated sphere of the online shooter. The competetive part of the game has actually been developed by a different studio than the single player game in the hope that they would be able to craft a better experience. As much as I wanted to love the multiplayer, it really does feel completely unnecessary. Most games I played were laggy and this was excentuated whenever someone used the incinerate plasmid. The multiplayer as a whole reminded me of the tacked on efforts we’ve seen in games such as Condemned 2 and The Darkness. You’re better off concentrating of the single player game which is far superior and leaving the multiplayer well alone.

I had plenty of doubts before playing Bioshock 2 and that’s made me all the more pleased at how well the game has turned out. It’s exceeded my expectations in pretty much every way. The only let down was the story, but this is mainly due to the unavoidable comparisons with the first game which had one of the finest narratives in gaming history. As a standalone game Bioshock 2 is an experience not to be missed.

Verdict: 8.5/10. Miss it, miss out.

Ever fancied yourself as I bit of a totalitarian dictator? If, like me, you answered yes to that question then Haemimont have got you covered with Tropico 3. The game is a port of the PC release and gives players the chance to play as ‘El Presidente’, the ruler of a tropical banana republic.

Tropico is essential an rts style dictator experience. There’s a slice of Sim City in here too as deciding on building and road placement is apparently part of the job of dictators. The game also has plenty of humour added into the mix which does help to keep things interesting.

The single player mode consists of you taking charge of several tropical islands, each with different natural resources and sets of goals attached to them. You have to keep the population happy whilst striving to meet objectives such as building X number of farms, or attracting a set number of tourists to the island. These goals must be completed within a certain time limit in order to progress to the next island.



Gameplay wise you move the camera around your island using the sticks, whilst the face buttons allow browsing of menus and issuing orders such as putting up buildings. In classic rts style you need certain buildings to allow access to others which means that forward planning of your growing metropolis is essential for success. This is the first area of the game I have to take a little issue with, as the controls really don’t feel all that natural. The game has obviously been designed with a keyboard and mouse in mind and does feel clunky on the pad.

Graphically Tropico is nice enough looking, although I did notice a few instances of screen tearing. The soundtrack is pleasant too and fits in well with the stereotypical and comical portrayal of these banana republics.

The main problem I had with the game was that it didn’t go far enough in convincing me that I was the all powerful dictator I had hoped to be. For one thing: the game has elections every now and again during which you can be voted out of power if you’ve annoyed the people enough. Unfortunately the experience also rapidly becomes repetitive, with each island not being as different as they are first made out to be. The religious faction seems to be important on every island, and failure to build a church just causes people to lose faith in the power of your presidency.

Tropico 3 is a fun enough experience and is quite different to anything else currently available. The game suffers from control and repetition issues but is nonetheless worth a play if you can find it cheap enough.

Verdict: 7/10. Buy it if you find it in the bargain bin.

22 hours and 15 minutes is how long it took me to complete Mass Effect 2’s main story line whilst completing a big helping of side quests. Judging from how much I played the game for shows you just how immersive this game is as I played it that much in just a few days. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the outset this game will just blow you away even if you are not an RPG fan, This game is more of a Gears of War 3rd person type shooter with alot of dialogue thrown in. Now if you played the first game in the series you are in for a treat because the choices you made in that game roll over into this one in a huge way. For example crew members who died in the first game will not reappear and even more subtle is you will get full blown quests from people you chose to help in the first game.

 

Knowing that every choice you make in Mass Effect 2 will effect many things in Mass Effect 3 makes the game even more immersive and you genuinely stop and think about the choices you are going to make. Everything from the great voice acting, facial animations, great graphics and all the places you visit just makes you feel that you are in that world and you must fight to save it.

The shooting mechanics have improved immensely since Mass Effect 1 and it rivals even stand alone 3rd person shooters. The controls feel very fluid and smooth. The added bonus of being able to use your D PAD to control your squad mates makes it feel more like a tactical shooter like Brothers in Arms which just brings the whole game together.

 

The upgrade system is a very nice feature, you assign upgrade points to various ablities and once you have maxxed out a certain ability you get 2 choices of how to make that power better. You can also upgrade your weapons, armour,Tech, prototype weapons and even your ship but to do so you must have materials, The way you gather materials is mostly by visiting unexplored planets which is alot different to Mass Effect 1. Instead of driving around a boring baron wasteland aka Mass Effect 1, You have a planet scanner and you scan the planet for materials and when you controller vibrates and the scanner shakes you launch a probe which collects materials. This can get quite tedious and boring but you will find yourself doing this just to get one more upgrade to make your crew even more powerful.

 

The Paragon and Renegade system is very good and it’s not like Fable where you are either good or bad but you can be a mixture of both. You could max out both your paragon and Renegade status to unlock all conversations topics. A nice little twist is that you can interupt conversations with a press of the left or right trigger. You can only do this when the option pops up but with that extra little option there you sometimes sit there thinking to yourself ‘’shall I or shouldn’t I”? Especially if its a bad action.

Overall I really enjoyed this game but I am still abit dismayed by EA and Bioware putting codes in the game cases to unlock extra content. It wouldn’t usually bother me but I rented this game and I couldn’t even go online to use the Dragin Armour from Dragon Age on this game as you need a code to use the online service or pay 1200 points for the service which I think is going too far.

 

Even with a few niggles this game really is a true gem and as I said before this game may even appeal to non RPG fans as in my opinion this is more of a 3rd person shooter.  The story line is second to none, sometimes you feel as if you are playing and interactive movie. Every character has a story to tell and it is done so well and with the added element of building relationships with your crew members and seeing their reactions it just brings this game out into it’s own. This is definately a game you should definately atleast try.

 

Hope you enjoyed my short review. Listen to my opinions of the game in more detail on episode 104 of 360GamerCast

You know how Darksiders is gaining all manner of praise for combining aspects from many different sources, refining them, and coming up with something even better? Well Dark Void has tried the same principle, yet failed almost completely.

Developed by Airtight games, Dark Void tells a rather hackneyed story of a plane crash in the Bermuda triangle that leads to an adventure killing bizarre robots which were apparently responsible for stirring up the nazis in the lead up to world war 2. Fan of Lost? If so then the story in Dark Void will definitely feel very familiar. Plane crash on a desert island? Check. Person killed by who knows what just after the crash? Check. Ship stranded in the middle of said island? Check. I’ll be surprised if there isn’t a lawsuit from the Lost writers!

The big hook of the game is supposedly the jet pack which the player gets to use to soar through the air, killing enemies all the while. This is teased in the prologue to the game during which you have a fully powered jetpack at your disposal which you use to take down some UFO’s. The jetpack sections are without a doubt the most enjoyable parts of the game.

So far so good then. Unfortunately though, as the game proper starts you are stripped of your jetpack and forced into a rather poor third person shooter (think Gears of War, but nowhere near as good). The cover system is poor, often leaving you still vulnerable to fire. Zooming in moves the camera just that little too close in causing you to lose track of where you are and making movement difficult. Enemies often take up to a full clip of ammo in order to die which is almost reasonable considering they are mainly cybernetic. Strangely though the player also seems to be able to take a full clip of ammo before being killed, despite only wearing a leather jacket for armour.


As you progress through the game you slowly unlock a better and better jetpack however the problem persists that you are constantly thrown back into these sub par third person action sections. Exploration of the island (think Uncharted, but nowhere near as good) is really not as enjoyable as it could have been as for the most part you have an underpowered jetpack when you are longing for far more.

Graphically the game is nothing special with below par textures permeating the poorly designed levels. The soundtrack is nothing to write home about either. The control scheme for both jetpack and third person sections is poor and inaccurate. All of these factors serve only to confirm the conclusion that this is a poor game indeed.

In conclusion, I would seriously recommend avoiding Dark Void unless you have played absolutely every other game you are even slightly interested in. Playing the game wasted several hours of my life that would have been better spent doing pretty much anything else at all.

Verdict: 4/10. Poor

I’m sure by now that you’ve all heard about the 40/40 Bayonetta received from Famitsu and the 10/10 from Edge. Scores like these don’t come along very often from such well respected publications, but does the game deserve them? Let’s find out.

For those that don’t know, Bayonetta is a third person action game from the creator of Devil May Cry, Hideki Kamiya. To liken it to the most recent outing in the DMC series though would be like comparing Champagne to sparkling wine. Bayonetta takes the ideas and gameplay mechanisms from DMC and turns everything up to 11.

The story of the game is extremely confusing. Our titualr heroine has lost her memories and can only remember her existence since she woke up in a coffin at the bottom of a lake. She soon learns that she must fight angels to preserve her existence and this eventually leads her to find out more about her past. If you manage to understand the story of this game, then you’re a better man than I. Thankfully Bayonetta more than makes up for the confusing story in other areas.

The gameplay is where Bayonetta really shines above any action game that has come before, and I do include the God of War series in that statement. The controls are simple and revolve around combinations of kicks (B), punches (Y) and a set of weapons that are collected as you progress through the game. These weapons can be equipped to Bayonettas hands or feet, and the diferent combinations of wepon loadouts lead to different combos that are performed when pressing the kick or punch button in sequence. This is coupled with the ability to dodge enemy attacks using the left trigger and doing so at the very last second triggers Witch time. This is essentially bullet time in Bayonetta, and once it is activated enemies will move slower which enables the player to pull off some of the more outlandish combos. Extra moves can be unlocked using the in-game currency which is the halos of dead angels. As you can imagine due to the large number of different possible weapon combinations, there is a ridiculously large scope for different fighting styles. You can even change loadouts on the fly by pressing the left trigger if you find you’re not satisfied with your current set-up.

Stringing together combos will gradually charge you magic meter and once this is full you will be able to use the brutal torture moves. These include things like iron maidens, guillotines and gigantic wheels with spikes on. The torture moves are incredibly satisfying to pull off and give a little respite from the chaos of combat whilst Bayonetta mashes the enemy. That is for all of a couple of seconds until it is the player who has to mash buttons in order to max out the effect of the torture attack.


 
The most powerful weapon at your disposal is Bayonettas own hair. The skintight catsuit that she’s wearing is actually made up of her own hair, and when you unleash certain combos she will use it to summon demons to attack her enemies. Gigantic demons are summoned to apply finishing moves to the games many bosses and these are some of the most brilliant looking moments of the game.



Talking about brilliant looking moments, I have to say that the graphics of the game are no less than stunning. There are some minor issues with screen tearing but due to the beauty of the game I’ve found myself more than willing to let these slide. On occasion it is possible for the screen to become cluttered with enemies which can be confusing, but all that’s necessary to reacquaint yourself with whats going on is to quickly dodge Bayonetta back into view. The music in the game is also worthy of note, with some of the angelic sounding pieces matching perfectly with the environments in which you find yourself fighting.

The difficult thing for me in writing this review is that I know you, dear reader, have no context for what I’m saying. To help with that let me tell you that if this game had been released 2 weeks ago it would have been my game of the year 2009. It really is that good. The satisfaction of the combat is unparalleled in gaming and it’s this that makes Bayonetta such an incredible experience. At several moments during the game I’ve found myself mouthing the word ‘wow’, and I simply cannot remember the last time a game had this effect on me. It’s hard to put down, fun to play, gorgeous looking and completely sexy in every sense of the word. I hope that many of you at the very least give it a try as otherwise you really will be missing out.

Verdict: 9.4/10. Stunning.

Like the sound of that? Or just like free stuff? For details on how you can win a copy of the game click here.

I would like to begin by saying yes, I know this game isn’t a new ones, but I only recently decided it was time to give it a try. There are very few games any more which make me yelp in startled wonderment, let alone jump out of my chair. Dead Space managed both of these within the first 30 minutes of playtime. Sadly, it didn’t last very long. As a survival horror third-person shooter video game (what?), it did it’s job okay… for most people. However, being desensitized from playing so many games & watching so many horror films, the novel terror wore thin after the first chapter. Coming into the game, I noticed right away how lovely it was. The graphics are quite nice & I was intrigued as my shuttle landed in the docking bay, yet there was my first annoyance.

 

 

The movement in the game is like Mass Effect in 3rd person view… all the time. You can’t switch to a first person view & your character is always slightly to the side of the screen. I understand this is because you need to see your health & stasis energy, but really, this could have been done with a HUD or something. All right I suppose we can let that one slide a little because you sort of get used to it… I guess. I had a little trouble adjusting to the way the camera looked when I was trying to spin around, but enough of that.

 

 

So the graphics, as I said, were nice. They were great in fact, with one glaring flaw to wretch your eyes out. Because it’s on a spaceship, Dead Space was very limited as to the scenery it could provide the player. It seemed that I was either in a steel grey hall with rust, a steel grey hall with rust & organic flesh everywhere, or a steel grey hall with slightly green organic rusty walls. & there were some pumpkins at one point, which I thought was very amusing, but I’m not sure why. So after the second chapter, when all the variations of organic ship structure had been offered to me, I started to find it boring to look at. Even the various graphical changes to my Rig & weapons didn’t make it any better. Here was this game which presented itself so beautiful, torn into a slightly dark & dreary living vessel.

 

 

These tiresome graphics added to the dulling down of my startles through out the game as well. After the first chapter ended I knew what to expect & so things didn’t really startle me anymore. I jumped a few times, the whispering was a bit creepy, but after a very short period of unrest, I began to expect the enhanced whispering in the loo’s & I knew that pressing a button near my objective would cause the blast doors to come down & dudes would come out of the walls to attack me. After the first chapter, the only part which did put the living fear of god into me was at the very end of the game, right before the credits roll. I won’t say what it is though.

 

 

The combat is pretty engaging, though the weapons are a little lack lustre. As soon as I got the Ripper, that’s all I used until I got the Force Gun & then it was easy street. It was really at the Ripper once you realise that anything & everything will die from either being shot in the head with the saw-blade or hacked to pieces with the chainsaw like function. I didn’t even use the other guns until the very last boss when I was forced to use the Pulse Rifle for two kills, then back to the Force Gun. I suppose if I had upgraded the other, inferior, weapons all the way & not touched my two overpowered BFG’s, then maybe they would have been some use to me.

 

 

That brings me to the upgrading system. It’s… well I don’t want to say broken as you’re not really supposed to be upgrading everything to the max on your first play-through. It got to where I was literally tripping over ammo for my two monster guns so I ended up selling everything else. I never once used an air container (& didn’t even upgrade my Rig’s air capacity until chapter 10/12 I think) so I sold all those, & I didn’t use med kits until I was being thrown Medium kits, so I ended up selling all my small ones & just keeping one or two on me. Then it got to where I would sell the Mediums as I was finding Large ones everywhere.

 

 

The whole point of this is that to upgrade your Rig, Stasis, Knesis, & various weapons, you need power nodes which are found or bought at the Store for 10k each. I upgraded completely my two guns, my rig, stasis, & knesis. I could have easily upgraded to the max a few more weapons, but I just didn’t see the point. I was also being weighed down by my own credits at this point & at the end of the game I got yet another 50k & 10 more power nodes for my next play-through.

 

 

Also, I would like to briefly comment on something I absolutely hate in games like this. Mini-games. Shit like sit in this chair & shoot fucking asteroids with this unwieldy mining gun. This was the worst of the worst here. It took me 11 tries to complete this mini-game, unskippable of course, not because it was hard so much as the gun was almost impossible to control. I’d move it a little to the side & it’d fly to the other side of the screen. We just need to do away from these things. They are not fun! I would also like to say that I hate vehicle sections in games too, especially FPS’ because I’m playing it to shoot some dudes, not ride around in a god-damn Jeep because the game wants me to get from point A to point B in record time. I’ll walk it!

 

 

Anyroad, last, but not least, the music in the game left something to be desired. It sounded like someone was trying to scratch old symphony records. I shit you not. The surrealistic classical music that always seemed to be playing was only further driven into by a screwdriver when something was going to happen when it changed from symphonies written by a five year old to people franticlly hitting their string instruments against a wall. Not to mention, all this happens about 20 seconds before you even run into something. Talk about taking the surprise out of something. Now I’m a fan of a lot of classical music, as well as other music, but this was just… chewing on tinfoil.

 

 

Despite all these flaws, I do think it was a pretty okay game. I managed 29/48 achievements on my first run through of the game, & I didn’t even try for them. I did enjoy the game for the most part. There’s very little more fun than dismembering a lot of mutants (especially mutant deformed babies) with a saw-blade. However, I don’t feel the urge to play it again, not even for the achievements. Even if I keep my upgrades, it doesn’t make the game more interesting. The characters were dull & I didn’t give a shite about them, & the voice acting was pretty emotionless. Lines spoken rather than lines delivered. I might buy the game somewhere down the line if I see it for really cheap, but I just don’t want to play it again. I beat it once, it wasn’t hard, I don’t have a desire to do it again.

 

 

I guess I would probably recommend it for a playthrough, but if you really must get all the achievements… good luck to you. My brian is going to melt if I try for them all.

Game: Assassins Creed II
Certificate: 15+ BBFC
Price: £36.99 (Tesco’s)

Ok hello everyone, this is my first review that I am going to do for the site, I hope it helps everyone who is sitting on the fence regarding this game based on the last one.
I have not written many reviews yet, however I have submitted some reviews for Eurogamer in the past. Hopefully this will help some people with their decision regarding this game.

 

 

Story (spoilers ahoy!) 8.6/10
This game is set in two different times, modern day and the 14/1500’s in Italy. Most of the game is set in Italy, however there are some parts where you play as Desmond again, which this time include action scenes and fights. The story for him picks up where the last game left off, and is a fairly good continuation of the series. The new character, the stylish Italian Ezio Audiotoire, is just a teenage member of a rich family when his father and brothers are arrested for treason and executed. Obviously, Ezio is a little bit upset about this and murders the man that set hsi family up. He then flees the city and meets his uncle Mario (no he’s not a plumber) and escapes to the families villa. From there the story continues, however I don’t want to spoil it for you here. Needless to say, the acting and emotion are well portrayed, with the characters having good Italian accents, and using some Italian words to add to the realism. However if you haven’t played the first game you might get a bit lost in the story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Design 9.2/10
This game is a lot less linear than the last game, and has more branching paths, side quests and hidden extras to find. This adds greatly to the value of the game, and makes it less tedious as the last game. You can still do the same type of missions that were required in the last game (pickpocketing, beating people up etc) but now they are optional extras to earn you money. As a result you find yourself enjoying the bits in between the big assassinations, which was not the case in the first game.
They have now added a new RPG-style system that involves your villa. By doing missions, killing targets and if you are desperate pickpocketing, you can earn money that is firstly used to buy new weapons that improve your killing power, and secondly to upgrade your villa and the town next to it. By upgrading different shops and services, you improve the economy and discounts that you receive. From the money earned by the different shops in town, you get a percentage every 20 minutes, Fable II style. This gives you an incentive to upgrade as more money means a better chance of survival due to a more deadly arsenal.

 

 

Gameplay 9.5/10
The gameplay in Assassins Creed II is as fun as ever, with free running, fighting and climbing making up the majority of the game. Free running is great, by holding A and RT you instantly scale any surface that is climbable. It feels fun and fluid, and the animation is just superb, because of this you will find yourself getting distracted just so that you can try climbing everything that you see in the city. The combat is also great, however you do find yourself relying on counters a bit too much still, however other than that the fighting feels good and counters are rewarded with gory finishers, some of which are pretty brutal. The hidden blades are back, and are as awesome as ever. Now you can get two hidden blades, which allow multiple simultaneous stealth kills. You also have a lot more options in regards to situation kills, for example you can now throw guards off ledges, jump out of some hay for a quick kill, or even drag an unwitting guard into the waters of Venice for a silent kill. These new additions really add to the game, and make it an altogether more rewarding experience.

 

 

 

 

Presentation 9.3/10
(Please note that this game was played by me with both full 1080p and standard definition on a 19 inch TV.)
The graphics in this game are great. Played in full HD they are clear, crisp and beautiful, with the stunning views of rural Tuscany spread before you. In SD, they are a bit dimmer, but still improve on the old game in every way. The new additions such as being able to dye your clothes different colors add greatly to the customization of the game, and allow everyone to make their clothes their favorite color. The sound is better than the last game too, with the accents more believable (however the Middle Eastern Altair in the last game spoke with an American accent, so its not hard to improve) and the use of the Italian language adds to the authenticity. The sound effects are excellent, with sword clashes sounding realistic and guards screams sounding suitably terrified. Overall it has an excellent presentation, which has improved over the first game.

 

 

Overall
This game is a massive improvement on the last game in almost every way. Fans of the original will certainly love this entry to the series, however even people who hated the first game will be hard pushed to find faults with this. However if you really loathed the first game, rent it first and see what you think then. Anyone who is sitting on the fence should not be unsure, and should pick this game up as soon as possible, or at least wait until it goes down in price if you are really not sure. This game is definitely one of the best games of this years Q4, and if Modern Warfare 2 is not your cup of tea then you should certainly pick this excellent game up for 20+ hours of sneaking, climbing and fighting in beautiful medieval Italy.

Overall score: 9.2/10
Buy, Rent or Miss: Buy

 

 

Review by Urban Surfer